Tag: Album Reviews

Hello

Artist: Poe
Listenability Scale: 70%
Released by: Atlantic Records
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

The dudette’s name is Poe. Nope, her parents weren’t psycho Edgar Allen Poe fans, it turns out she was a psycho Edgar Allen Poe fan, and through her own trials and tribulations ended up with a CD called Hello. She enlists thousands and thousands of musicians and producer types, alright, just a dozen or two, and came up with an alternative, kinda pop, kinda jazzy sometimes, kinda rock, kinda a whole bunch of influences on a CD packed with music showing scary times on the street and scary times with boyfriends/guys and a touch of hope.

Personally, I think its hard to classify Poe, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You could sit and enjoy a little cappuccino listening to “Fingertips,” but if your shuffle-play puts “Trigger Happy Jack” next, your heart might hit over-drive. The CD never really hits a style, not really ever a rocker, not really ever an alternativer, not really ever a jazzer, but sometimes it is scary. There’s a lot of dark messages in her lyrics: “there’s nothing more sadistic than an infant waving his pistol in my face” from “Trigger Happy Jack,” love messages: “Let it be me, let me be your love” from “Fingertips, and psychotic messages: “I wanna kill you, I wanna blow you away” from “Angry Johnny.” I’m scared, but I keep listening.

You know, as musically pleasing this CD is, you really need to listen to it to hear lyrics that at first seem thrown together, but in the end there is a meaning, a deep one, in each of them.

Poe’s Hello gets 70% on the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale.

That’s it for this time. I’m The Dude on the Right. L8R!

Blowing Goats

Artist: Piranha Man
Listenability Scale: 100%
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

They are songs you know and love. They are songs you think you pretty much know all of the words to. They are songs that are standing up to the test of time. They are songs, sung, like you have never heard before. The CD is called “Blowing Goats,” yea, that’s right, “Blowing Goats,” and it’s from Piranha Man.

Who the hell is Piranha Man you may ask? Well, radio listeners in Chicago and some in Los Angeles may have heard him as the Pakistani on Jonathon Brandmeier’s Radio Showgram. Most others probably have never heard of him. But if you get “Blowing Goats” you will never forget him and more importantly, the classics he sings will never be the same.

On “Blowing Goats” we find that Piranha Man has a sense of rhythm yet none of it matches the songs he sings. On “Blowing Goats” we find that Piranha Man has a marvelous vocal range yet most of the notes he sings don’t match the music. And on “Blowing Goats” we find that Piranha Man knows most of the words, just sometimes he doesn’t sing them where they belong. And yet, with all of this, I can’t stop listening. Why? For me it is just that the CD is so over the top that you wonder where the next wrong note will be, you wonder if Piranha Man will be able to get at least close to that high note in “I Will Always Love You,” you wonder when the lyrics in “My Way” changed just a little, and you wonder if you sound that way when you sing. Sadly, you probably do, except without the Pakistani accent.

I won’t go much more into “Blowing Goats” except to ask some questions. Can one man give new meaning to Van Halen’s “Jump” yet still exhibit the vocal range needed for “I Will Always Love You?” Can one man have the musical rhythm to let a Tom Jones’ “Delilah” flow yet still give Rocky inspiration covering “Eye of the Tiger?” Can one man relate the touching tale of “Cat’s In The Cradle” yet still exhibit the excitement of a “Viva Las Vegas?” Is that one man Piranha Man? No. But do I highly recommend the CD “Blowing Goats? Definitely, most definitely.

Now as much as I loved “Blowing Goats” (Boy, does that sentence start out wrong!), I do have one complaint – some of the songs are just snippets. Take “What’s New, Pussycat?” which clocks in at fifteen seconds. Music aficionados may find this rendition fifteen seconds too long, but not me. I was so looking forward to Piranha Man continuing into “Pussycat, Pussycat, I love you. Yes, I do?” as only Piranha Man could sing it, but sadly the song faded quickly. Not to worry, though, an imperfect cover of “Love Will Keep Us Together” will have you quickly getting over the “Pussycat” disappointment. You will never forget the lyric “Jump,” you will sing “Viva Las Vegas” just a little bit faster than Elvis, and the next time you sing “Margaritaville” it probably won’t sound anything like Jimmy Buffett, but you know what, it probably never did anyway – it probably sounded a little bit more like Piranha Man than you’d like to admit.

I give “Blowing Goats” from Piranha Man a 100% on the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale. It is like nothing you will probably ever hear on CD unless you try to cover the songs yourself.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

A Dude note: You might read this review and be dying to find the CD, but sadly it’s out of print. I hope you can find it somewhere because it’s nothing like you have ever heard before! DOTR

I Robot

Artist: The Alan Parsons Project
Listenability Scale: 90%
Released by: Arista Records
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

This was a thrill to listen to again, and another one of those CD’s best played at a little louder volume. Why, well, kinda like classical music, The Alan Parsons Project likes to have a wide range from soft music to loud, and to appreciate the nuances of the softer sounds, it’s better to have the stereo up, and let yourself get blown away when they hit a crescendo. A simple case in point for this CD is the opening instrumental, “I Robot.” Personally my favorite on the CD is “Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)”, but as a whole “I Robot” is one of those CD’s that doesn’t disappoint me no matter how many times I listen to it.

Let yourself drift away in some of the dreamy instrumentals, and realize that one day the robots will figure out they are smarter than us, even if we program them not to kill us. Hopefully that will be our ancestor’s problem. It’s 90% on the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale.

That’s it for this quick review! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Spiritual Machines

Artist: Our Lady Peace
Listenability Scale: 75%
Released by: Columbia Records
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

I forgot I had this CD until I started this project, but I’m so glad I found it. Written around the concept that one day computers will be smarter than we are, “Spiritual Machines” really shows Our Lady Peace are their creative best. “Life” is just one of those fun songs to sing along to, and if you are an Our Lady Peace fan, I’m pretty sure this CD is right up there as some of their better and more ambitious works.

I could have done without the Ray Kurzweil’s (he’s the dude who wrote “The Age of Spiritual Machines – When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence” which the concept of the CD comes from) spoken word passages, although I do understand its use far as the concept of the album goes. Still, the music really leads you through the story Raine Maida and the rest of the band wants to tell.

Dumping out the Kurzweil tracks, that leaves “Spiritual Machines” at about a 75% on the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale.

That’s it for this quick review! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

You Gotta Love That

Artist: Neal McCoy
Listenability Scale: 95%
Released by: Atlantic Records
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

One of the best live country acts I’ve seen is Neal McCoy, and the reason I went to see him in the first place is because of this CD. The title track “You Gotta Love That” was the song that got me hooked, but pretty much every song on this CD gets my country groove going. Like a lot of country, you get some depressing songs, but he’s got enough upbeat things on here to quit crying in your glass of whiskey and get up and dance a little. It’s a 95% on the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale for “You Gotta Love That”

That’s it for this quick review! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Far From Over

Artist: Edwin McCain
Listenability Scale: 60%
Released by: Atlantic Records
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Most people know “Edwin McCain” for the hit song “I’ll Be,” but over the years he and his band have built a large and loyal fan base, so good for them. As far as “Far From Over,” for me it was okay, nothing special, but I suppose if you’re an Edwin McCain fan you might disagree. It’s got some standard sounding adult contemporary songs, some standard sounding love songs, and an ode to mom.

For me it’s a 60% on the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale. Good background music.

That’s it for this quick review! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Exile on Mainstream

Artist: Matchbox Twenty
Listenability Scale: 95%
Released by: Atlantic Records
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Having been a big Matchbox Twenty fan since the early days when they were matchbox 20, I was always sort of surprised that I didn’t follow the solo career of Rob Thomas. It’s not that I didn’t like his solo stuff because I did, but in any case, when I heard a rumor that the boys, less one Adam Gaynor, were going to release a Greatest Hits CD, my initial reaction what a less than whole-hearty “Whoop-De-Doo.” I said to myself, “Self, it would have been nice for them to get the gang back together and put out an album rather than a CD of stuff I already own.” Then I saw the real press release for “Exile on Mainstream,” and I had a little more hope because it was announced that in addition to the eleven “greatest hits” songs, the boys actually went back into the studio coming out with six new songs (and a seventh cover tune if you did the iTunes download/presale), for what I have a feeling has to be one of the highest ratios of “new songs” to “greatest hit songs” ever, at a whopping 35-39% depending on the version you bought.

And you know what? Chicken-butt. Oh wait, I mean, the six songs were a refreshing beginning to a slightly different sound yet still reminiscent of the matchbox 20 music I really liked. From the rollicking and kick-ass work-out song “How Far We’ve Come,” to the bouncier “I’ll Believe You When,” you can already see the new songs fitting right into a concert. “All Your Reasons” sounded like it was just a blast of fun to record and has a super-easy sing-along for the crowd to get going, and “If I Fall” keeps the up-tempo attitude. But the new songs aren’t all about rockin’, there’s a slow-down with the reflection on “These Hard Times” and a bluesier feel with “Can’t Let You Go.” The iTunes bonus track of a cover of The Kinks “Come Dancing” shows that it’s true, Rob Thomas is no Ray Davies, but it’s still a fun take on a classic.

As far as the greatest hits tunes they are all of the Top 40 hits for the Matchbox Twenty, sans “Long Day” which wasn’t a huge radio hit but did get them noticed enough until “Push” launched them out of playing a place like the 200 capacity Schubas in Chicago and on to major arenas. The songs span the Matchbox Twenty CD collection, from the aforementioned “Long Day” to “Bright Lights,” with the emphasis on their first CD, “Yourself or Someone Like You” getting five songs, and three each from “Mad Season” and “More Than You Think You Are.”

Whereas most other Greatest Hits collections will make you technically re-purchase nine songs just to get the one new song (which many times isn’t really new, just a song that wasn’t released before), I have got to give the boys of Matchbox Twenty a lot of credit for tossing in six solid new songs, various packaging options depending on the level of fan you might be, and also give fans new hope for a tour. Of the songs on the CDs the only one I don’t really care for, and I never really did care for it, is “Disease.” Just a personal preference issue I guess, and so, with that, “Exile on Mainstream” gets 95% on the Entertainment Ave! Listenability Scale, and thanks to the legal download nation, if you don’t want the old stuff you already own, and you’re a Matchbox Twenty fan, do yourself a favor and at least spend the $5.94 or so to get the new songs you don’t own yet.

It’s good to hear the boys (at least most of them) back together, I’d like to do an interview now and ask them “What do you like most about the last car you bought?”, and I wonder if Rob Thomas has used a highway off-ramp to write a song lately. Since the new music was written by the four of them, maybe they could all hit an off-ramp! Me, I’m still just hoping they can write something to get David Hasslehoff back on the charts. How F-d up would that be?

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Let Go

Artist: Avril Lavigne
Listenability Scale: 95%
Released by: Arista Records
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

I’m a fan of teen girl pop music. There. I said it. I’m secure enough in my manhood to say it. I’m a fan of teen girl pop music. There. I said it again. It should be of no surprise, then, that Avril Lavigne’s “Let Go” is part of my music library, and that, yes, I can actually listen to it again and again and no the words to the songs. I still remember the first time I popped the CD in my player, already familiar with “Complicated,” but then enjoying the “Sk8er Boi” story, the “I’m With You” ballad, and almost being shocked and/or astounded at the innuendo of the lines “I’d say I want to blow you (pause) away” and “I want to see you go down (pause) on one knee” during “Things I’ll never say.” I learned she grew up in a 5000 population town called Napanee in the poppy “My World” and am pretty sure that if I were 18 I wouldn’t choose weed over her like in “Too Much to Ask.”

“Let Go” is one of those CD’s that if you are fan of teen girl pop music, well, you’d probably like it. For me it’s 95% on the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale.

That’s it for this quick review! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

The Best Damn Thing

Artist: Avril Lavigne
Listenability Scale: 92%
Released by: Arista Records
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

When I got Avril Lavigne’s latest CD, um, download, um, I don’t even know what to really call things anymore, but in any case I downloaded all of the songs off of “The Best Damn Thing” from iTunes, and for whatever reason, the songs were what I found myself listening to when I would take my weekend walks. “Girlfriend” was the quick pop tune to filter into the airwaves, and I found myself singing along. I had planned on doing a review of the CD soon after I got it, but I got too wrapped up in getting the web site redesigned so, well, I didn’t. But as her next single, “When You’re Gone,” is now being released, and The Rubinoos are claiming she ripped off their single “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” I figured now might as well be as good a time as any to review the CD. Here we go…

First I have to admit to the fact that I am a fan of teen, girl, pop music, and always have been, and yes, because I’m older now, I will also admit I even own some Debbie Gibson CD’s (look her up if you don’t know who she is). There is usually just something bouncing about the music, sometimes sad about love lost, sometimes happy about being in love, and as I was listening to “The Best Damn Thing” I couldn’t help but wonder where all of Avril’s anger and sadness was coming from, her being a newlywed and all. There she is during “Girlfriend” looking to have a dude break up with his then girlfriend and become Avril’s; she hates someone now and wants them gone in “I Can Do Better”; “Runaway” sounds like sort of sort of sad song because it starts as one of those kind of days, where the blue skies are there but the sun isn’t coming out, but Avril feels so alive, so maybe I don’t know how she feels (such are women sometimes). “The Best Damn Thing” comes around, and she’s not happy because here dude isn’t paying the tab, doesn’t understand that time of the month, and doesn’t open up the door for her, and as the CD was pumping along for the first few tracks, here comes the ballad, “When You’re Gone” where strings punctuate the music and I can’t figure out if the dude left her and she’s sad, or if she’s just sad because her man had to go away for a while, even knowing he’s coming back soon.

So much sadness, so much angst, and it’s pure Avril, and I’m liking every song so far.

But then asshole guys come back in the rollicking “Everything Back But You.” The song simply starts “Today was the worst day, I went through hell. I wish I could remove it from my mind.” It seems her man went away, sent her a postcard, which would have been a nice note if it said, “I wish you were here.” Sadly the dumb-shit, as Avril puts it, left off the “e.” (I nominate this for the third single because this song has every bit of anger any jilted girlfriend could feel, with the musical, rocking influence of her husband, Deryck Whibley from Sum 41).

Happily, though, things seem to got better for the girl during “Hot,” slow back down for another ballad, “Innocence,” that had it been released in early spring could have been a nice Prom song for the girls to drag their boyfriends on to the dance floor.

But Avril is a sassy girl, as we have also found out from some tabloid stories, and in “I Don’t Have to Try” we find out she’s the one who wears the pants and to get ready because she’s happenin’.

Alright, I’ve been simply tracking through the CD, and I think why I have liked the CD so much is, as I have been doing my self-prescribed walking, because it is a great mix of rocking, dudette pop, mixed with a decent ballad just about when I need a catch my breath a bit. The music is sassy, sad, with the part of pop music that I like because usually there seems to be a light at the end of tunnel for the girl to fall in love again.

Of “The Best Damn Thing” about the only song I really don’t care for is “Contagious,” and I guess I can’t give a great reason for my dislike of the song other than the rest of the CD is so strong in balancing girl, teen pop, with the ballads it needs, that I tend to fast forward through it to get to “Keep Holding On.” Maybe I’m just a sucker for the ballad.

I’m a fan of Avril’s, have been since her first release of “Let Go,” and since “The Best Damn Thing” has twelve songs, of which I never skip past eleven of them, the CD simply gets a 92% on the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale. As far as that lawsuit from “The Rubinoos,” hell, I don’t know. Sure, the lines “I wanna be your boyfriend” and “I can be your girlfriend” are close, even with the “Hey Hey Hey’s,” I just wonder where in the hell Avril would have ever heard that song to lift it. I guess some judge will decide, but I don’t care because I like “Girlfriend” a lot more than that boyfriend song anyway.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Nihil

Artist: KMFDM
Listenability Scale: 90%
Released by: Metropolis Records
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

As my music collection has grown, and turning them into mp3’s so my computer has become a jukebox, a lot of times you miss music you used to like to listen to. Such was I delighted when “Nihil” from KMFDM came up in my review rotation.

KMFDM is sometimes classified as industrial rock, or maybe anarchy rock, but I tend to put “Nihil” in the “this is great exercise music” category. “Juke Joint Jezebel” would be the song most people will remember from them, but pretty much take driving bass, lots of electronic keyboards, pounding guitars, and lyrics that sound angry, and you get the idea. What does separate KMFDM from some of the counterparts is pretty much you can understand the lyrics, which makes riding my exercise bike to them that much more enjoyable.

This one is a 90% on the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale. A CD that will always keep you blood pumping.

That’s it for this quick review. I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!