Music update

It's been two months of awaited record releases, and I've been listening avidly. Here's a summary of the albums I've been listening to in the last few weeks, descending chronological order of release, roughly. Given the anticipation, it’s been pretty dismal.


1. Big & Rich - Between Hell and Amazing Grace.

I got into Big & Rich on the release of their second album, "Comin' to Your City." It was endearing to a girl raised on alternative. There's wit, there's humor, little outros that remind me of They Might Be Giants' Flood, it rocks, and there's the occasional well-meaning ballad thrown in for balance. For the third release, I was hoping that Big & Rich would continue to build upon this rather unique and quite interesting approach to country music. Perhaps that's unfair since in essence I was looking for more of the same, I don't know. But this new release is definitely a step in the earnestness direction.

"Lost in this Moment" is the first single off the album, and if you happen to pay any attention to GAC or country radio, this future wedding song is rapidly climbing the charts. It's fine, but a little safe considering a group that had a reputation for "music without prejudice" and was known for rollicking tunes, crossing boundaries between country and rap, and fairly risky political statements. The rest of the album addresses these points, but ineffectively.

On "Radio" - which is the first "rocking" track on the album - features such lyrics as "1-2-3-4 hey hey here we go." John Rich is arguably the best writer in the business right now. His songwriting litters the country charts - most, but not all of it, is damn good. You figure with so much quality that he'll save his best work for himself. THIS is the best he could come up with?

You have hope for an album that's featuring John Legend and Wyclef Jean. However, the track with Wyclef degenerates into country sing-song at its worst. And the lyrics of "please man, don't call the policeman." Ugh.

"Loud" is the only track that's tolerable. But even this track pales to its equivalents on previous albums.

Painful. Disappointing. This pup is getting deleted off my iPod, and precious little gets deleted.

Rating: 2 out of 10.


2. The Bravery - The Sun and the Moon

The Bravery gives us more to see. Except a bit less so. What made the debut release from the Bravery work was its rawness. It was self-recorded. And something about it, whether it was the songwriting or the recording process I don't know, it had an energy, an intensity, a hunger.

The Sun and the Moon has its moments to be sure. Tracks like "Believe" are very much at home with the Bravery sound.

But with the more polished production values in the second album release, something is lost. "Time Won't Let Me Go" sounds too deliberate, too careful. In "This is Not the End," even Sam Endicott sounds bored with the hook.

At worst, it sounds like its ripping of riffs from the first album. "Every Word is a Knife in My Ear" sounds exactly like "Fearless."

This isn't a terrible album, but let's put it this way: When we saw them at the 9:30 Club in 2005, they seemed like they were headed for greatness. They came around again about 2 months ago. Based on the clips we had heard from this album and what we knew from last time we didn't feel compelled to see them again.

Rating: 5 out of 10.


3. Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long

I'm still digesting this album. After a couple of listens, my take on it is it's shaping up much like conventional pop albums: a couple of really good tracks that will undoubtedly be singles, and then the rest is filler. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - it's a pop album through and through, so what matters is singles and radio airplay. It'll get that.

The production is immaculate - the overdubbing on "Little of Your Time" is everything you expect from a Britney Spears single. They know they have a weak vocalist, so they amp up the background so he simply blends in, and that's probably for the best. Maroon 5 is smart to keep an ear to the trends and they've created an album that is very much of its time - inspired by Justin Timberlake with an ear to retro VH1. It works with 30-somethings like me, but I have no doubt its R&B sensibilities will make it work with the yungins too.

"If I Never See Your Face Again" is retro disco - I predict remixes in the dance clubs. "Makes Me Wonder" takes me back to sophisti-pop a la Johnny Hates Jazz and Curiosity Killed the Cat; it's a subgenre I've always liked, and this track stands shoulder-to-shoulder with any of those classics from the mid-80s.

Total fluff, and that's totally okay.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

4. Miranda Lambert - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

When we saw Miranda Lambert opening for Dierks Bentley about 3 months ago, she closed with "Kerosene." The glee in her face as the crowd sang along with every word was a slight to see. Great moment, but "Kerosene" was an uneven album, punctuated by a brilliant title track and some sappy ballads.

Miranda's growing. Her follow-up release is everything that was good and nothing that was bad about the first album. Lambert goes to some dark places, and I love her for it, even though I am a tad uncomfortable with her stance on gun control. "Gunpowder and Lead" is a rocking anthem about a gal taking revenge on her abusive boyfriend with some amazing imagery. "Slapped my face and shook me like a rag doll, don't that sound like a real man? I'm gonna show him what little girls are made of, gunpowder and lead." Similar revenge themes in standout tracks "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" (stalking) and "Down" (rebound heart-breaking).

Not a weak track in the bunch. Love it.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

5. Blake Shelton - Pure BS

I find this one hit or miss.

The hits are great. "This Can't Be Good," a tale of a guy getting caught making out with the Sheriff's daughter by the river banks, has that trademark good ol' boy self-deprecating humor that I've come to expect from Blake Shelton. "She's too dumb to run, I'm too drunk to swim."

"The More I Drink" is just a brilliantly written track of an alcoholic describing his relationship with alcohol. It takes me to the Leo McGarry's description of alcoholism in the West Wing.

"Don't Make Me" has a simply spectacular vocal. Shelton makes this song soar.

The rest of it is simply there.

Rating: 7 out of 10.


6. Michael Buble - Call Me Irresponsible

Good fun. This is simply a solid album of standards – with Buble’s impeccable vocals and just a hint of cheekiness. Buble has clearly become our generation’s torch carrier for the American music songbook. I’m particularly fond of “It Had Better Be Tonight” and “The Best Is Yet To Come.” His attempts to update the songbook, namely through covers of “Always on My Mind” and “Me and Mrs. Jones,” don’t work as well, but, you know, I forgive him. Paul Anka did it better, and fellow does need to practice if he’s going to get better.

Rating: 8 out of 10.


7. Jason Aldean - Relentless

Well, I'll say this much: the album title sums it up pretty well.

I cannot think of an artist whose star has fallen in my mind as quickly as it has for Jason Aldean. This is the other artist we saw with Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert. I was such a fan - his first album is great, and I love his voice. But I hated him live - he came off as full of himself, a guy who has gotten caught up in his own hype, utterly lacking in humility (and honestly, artist humility is one of the things that makes country music appealing). His note-for-note cover of "Sweet Child of Mine" didn't help either.

Aldean doesn't write his own material but the songwriters on Relentless read as a who's who of the best writers in Nashville. He's returned to those who wrote his first hits: "Hicktown," "Amarillo Sky," and "Why," however, he's expanded and is using material from people who have written singles for Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, Chris Young, etc. Clearly, he's targeting the best talent, but at the same time, the quality isn't there. It feels like he's taking seconds from people who done better material for others, like a 2nd tier law firm that must go to Harvard to hire but doesn't have the standing to hire the best students from Harvard, and consequently hires only mediocre students from Harvard.

The album doesn't do what Aldean does best - rip-rocking anthems. Instead it's a lot of ballads and rock songs at adagio tempo. Relentless indeed.

His second album has exactly one good tune, and it's the first single: "Johnny Cash" (note: co-written by John Rich and company). And even this song has its problems. 1) a title that has nothing to do with the theme of the song "blasting out the Johnny Cash, headed for the highway, baby we ain't ever comin' back.) 2) a lyrical conceit already used by Big & Rich:
Johnny Cash: "Whaddya say we go get married by a preacher man who looks like Elvis".
Caught Up in the Moment: "Got married by a preacher man that looked just like the King".

You know, when Peter Murphy started doing this, it was a sign the creative end was near. Though, obviously, that' s more an omen for the writers.

Rating: 3 out of 10.

8. Editors – An End Has a Start (Preview)

I won’t go into the upcoming Editors release very much because Chris has done it good service below. As Chris notes we've heard 6 of the 10 tracks. I will say that what I’ve heard gives me a small ray of hope, but then at the same time I really want it to be good. It does it come closer to the quality of its first album than many of the sophomore efforts of its contemporaries (The Bravery, Franz, Kaiser Chiefs, etc.) However, I will also note that the Franz Ferdinand album was regarded as a good album, and at the end of the day it hasn’t really had the shelf life.

Regarding the Editors’ new album, so far, so good. I’m a fan of the title track “An End Has a Start.” “Bones” also sounds great – a standout. However, it isn’t as good as The Back Room, full stop. But it’s hard to follow an album that has no weaknesses. (I know there are lots of Interpol naysayers out there, but I beg to differ. Editors do it better). At the same time, they’re my absolute favorite of their contemporaries, so even Editors at 85% will outshine the rest.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Dierks Bentley Concert

Jen and I saw Dierks Bentley with Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA last night. I made the mistake of not bringing earplugs, and right now my ears are ringing so bad I had trouble sleeping. This oughta remind me to plug up for the Kaiser Chiefs show we're going to in April.

Miranda Lambert was the first act out. She's a very charismatic performer. Ridiculously pretty, too, which should've meant that she sounded silly singing songs like "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." Not true. She was traumatically convincing singing "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." Compare this to Carrie Underwood singing "Before He Cheats."

Her set was uptempo throughout, and she played three songs from her next album. She closed with "Kerosene," which brought the house down. She was clearly delighted by the reaction, with a grin you could see in the rafters. She also did two covers, which seemed a bit too many for what was about a 40-minute set. But she did them well, so it's hard to complain.

But I will complain about Jason Aldean's two covers. Well, one and a quarter. He did a few bars of "Paradise City" that lead into a full-blown version of "Sweet Child O'Mine." It was rough. The crowd ate it up, though. I may be a bit biased because I really friggin' hate Guns 'N Roses.

I will also complain about the three-to-five minute speech he gave near the end of his set while his band jammed on "Hicktown." It was a list of his accomplishments, essentially. He's got a hit album, plus a new one coming out soon, so those three-to-five minutes would have been better served, you know, promoting his new album or playing his old songs.

Still, he was in great voice, the band sounded great, and once "Hicktown" kicked into gear, it rocked hard.

After Aldean's set, Jen and I were both a bit down, but Dierks was fantastic from the get-go. Of course, I am just giddy because he did "Domestic, Light and Cold." Considering the bulk of his repertoire is road songs and aching, heartfelt love paeans, this wasn't a number I was expecting him to do. Yay!

The man knows how to work a crowd, I tell you. During "So So Long," he ran off the stage, up the stairs to one of the sections on the side, and sang to some random girl in the audience. He picked one that wouldn't burst out into tears like that kid during Sanjaya's number on American Idol the other night.

During "Come a Little Closer," he came over to where we were standing. Jen put her hand out. He grabbed it and sang right to her for a good 30 seconds. He's ridiculously pretty, too, actually. Really blue eyes.

Near the end of the show, the band set up on a little stage jutting out from the main stage to perform a couple of bluegrass songs. One of them was his single "My Last Name," which worked particularly well in a stripped down arrangement.

During his encore, Dierks did "Folsom Prison Blues" and brought Jason Aldean out to sing along. I would've liked to hear Miranda's take on it because, as we've established, she could cut you. She could cut you for real.

We were able to snag a set list from one of the techies breaking down the set. This was for guitarist Rod Janzen:

The keys of all the songs are listed, as well as when to break out the mandolin. I don't know what the other notes are, but they may mean which guitar to use when. Or maybe when to use the capo, since "Come a Little Closer" and "What Was I Thinkin'" blended into each other.

Anyway, I've posted our pictures from the show in our Flickr account. Also, Miranda Lambert's keyboardist Chris Kline has posted a couple of shots from tonight's show in his Picasa account. In the last photo (at the time I'm writing this), you can almost see where Jen and I were standing, which was about three people away from the last person up front on the right hand side.