Tal Bachman
Much was made of Tal Bachman’s lineage about the time “She’s So High”, his debut single, hit it big. Tal is the son of Randy Bachman, late of Bachman-Turner Overdrive and the Guess Who. And lest there be any doubt, Tal Bachman’s tunes prove that he’s fully capable of making dad proud.
“She’s So High”, the aforementioned (and somewhat over-played) 1999 single, is just the tip of the iceberg on Bachman’s self-titled freshman set. The closest he came to duplicating that success was with the grungy power ballad “If You Sleep”, which owes some of its exposure to its inclusion on the Dawson’s Creek soundtrack. But perhaps Bachman’s true hidden strength is in his Beatlesque ballads which eschew power chords for strings and other more traditional elements. “Like Nobody Loves Me” and especially “Beside You” are two gorgeous specimens of pure pop music.
Bachman’s harder-edged compositions are a joy to behold as well. “Romanticide” and “Strong Enough” mix catchy hooks with literate lyrics, increasingly a rarity among the younger generation of performers. And 
other numbers such as “You Don’t Know What It’s Like” demonstrate that the junior Bachman has most definitely been listening to harmony-heavy bands such as Queen and ELO.
My only question now is: where’s the follow-up?
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- Darker Side Of Blue (3:20)
- She’s So High (3:43)
- If You Sleep (4:45)
- (You Love) Like Nobody Loves Me (3:55)
- Strong Enough (4:18)
- You Don’t Know What It’s Like (3:08)
- I Wonder (4:39)
- Beside You (3:15)
- Romanticide (3:23)
- Looks Like Rain (3:30)
- You’re My Everything (3:16)
- I Am Free (5:24)
Released by: Columbia
Release date: 1999
Total running time: 47:34
Now discontinued by Eagle Records, a small label which has unleashed a small slew of ELO live albums in recent years, this two-disc set is a compilation of live cuts as originally broadcast on BBC Radio’s In Concert series.
BBC helps one gain a greater appreciation for drummer Bev Bevan and the three-part string section that represented ELO’s orchestral ambitions on stage, both before and after the orchestra became a literal one on the group’s albums. But more casual listeners, and even some fans, may be appalled by the string section’s misfires in the earlier material. Perhaps this one could have been pared down to the second disc by itself. 
This incongruously titled new collection from Man…Or Astroman? is also an incongruous entry in the band’s surf-rock-on-acid catalogue, but it’s not bad. Imagine, if you will, Dick Dale having a head-on collision with the Art of Noise. That’s kind of what this sounds like. Samples and electronic percussion work their way into the MOAM mix for the first time, and the result is very strange but still listenable. The theme seems to be a retro vision of the future, when everyone expected the world to be run by huge, room-filling 
gospel choir backing that the Eurythmics briefly experimented with in the late 1980s. “I Saved The World Today” is also relaxing, if a little bit Pollyanna in its subject matter.
Well, I guess this is proof that I’m a sucker for nearly anything with the Electric Light Orchestra’s name on the cover. This latest release from Eagle Records, the people who brought us rather nice CD pressings of concert recordings from ELO’s 1975 and 1978 tours, is a collection of studio numbers from the band’s appearances on BBC Radio’s Bob Harris Sessions show between 1972 and 1974. If it sounds like I’m a little bit skeptical, it’s because in places the songs on this CD sound exactly like the studio versions that eventually saw light on their respective albums. “Kuiama” especially raised my suspicions – are we sure that this isn’t the same cut that wound up on ELO II? Either that, or ELO really was the best live band in the world, managing to duplicate the entirety of a song, right down to its production nuances, in a live performance!
For years, I’ve been addicted to music from New Zealand’s royal family of pop music, the Finns (of Split Enz and Crowded House fame). Not so long ago, however, I saw a CNN piece on a new Kiwi project which not only sounded interesting, but drew heavily from New Zealand’s Maori heritage (another subject with which I’m fascinated). This new musical entry was called Oceania, and it took me forever to find a copy. But the search was well worth it (and now, as you can see from the ubiquitous purchase link on this page, it’s suddenly easy to find!).
Jimmy Darren is back, baby! Inspired by his two-season stint as swingin’ holographic lounge singer Vic Fontaine on 
Another musical outing for a former member of the Babylon 5 cast, In The Current is Bill Mumy’s second album on Renaissance Records, and it demonstrates his incredible versatility. From the folky alternative rock style of Angel’s Observation to the gentle, well-harmonized balled “The Climb” (evoking memories of some of the best Crosby Stills & Nash tunes), Mumy covers a lot of ground. Able to go acoustic or electric from song to song, Mumy kicks off the album with the Dylanesque “Lost In Babylon” – a B5 reference in title only. (For overt Babylon 5 references, check out “Stronger Than Gravity”, which is subtitled in the lyric booklet as “To Delenn from Lennier.”) There’s even a slightly suggestive love song in “We Could Use A Little Something”. Mumy skips around different genres like he’d walk from one room to another – and yet most of the time (though not always) he manages to evade many of the clichès we’ve come to associate with the various styles.
Jon Brion recently grasped a long-overdue foothold in the eyes of the mainstream music-buying public with his instrumental score for Magnolia, but that is far from this artist’s first good effort.