Puttering in the Study

Everyone Is Here - Finn Brothers

I have been interested in the Finns ever since I got Tim Finn's self-titled CD in 1989 by mistake.  I was looking for a song that said something about "been there, done that, what's next" and thought this was it.  It wasn't, but it's been one of my favorite CDs ever since.  Tim later rejoined his brother Neil's band Crowded House (they were previously together as Split Enz), and I really liked their 1991 album Woodface (I actually saw them live in Deep Ellum one night).

Unfortunately, I haven't been too interested in the Finns' later albums either individually, as Crowded House, or as the Finn Brothers and this album is no exception.  It's not bad at all - it's just a lot of singing in harmony with songs where the vocals sounds more like chanting than melodies.  Singing for the sake of singing, and not because the songs go anywhere, which is what my taste seems to require.  They're just remarkably homogenous, and I get borde of the harmony and of Neil's voice.  And while this is generalization, it seems to me that their very best best work is together as Crowded House, then Tim individually (can't opine on Neil individually - haven't gotten any) and at bottom, as the Finn Brothers.  I wonder if working together they just reinforce each others' ruts.  I think they need a producer that can challenge them to do something different.  But if you really like their style, you'd probably really like it.  It just didn't do a lot for me - I was glad to finally make it all the way through a second time so I could write this post and get it out of the changer.

Airborn - Mike Oldfield

Got a craving recently to listen to this old album, and pulled out the cassette (#17), which indicates in recorded it from the album March 10, 1983, which was my freshman year at ETSU.  I went through my tapes a couplf of weeks ago, and it appears I was doing a lot of dubbing around that time, which makes sense - marching band season and KKPsi pledgeship was over.  Although I didn't have a car or a Walkman (until spring of 1984) apparently I felt the need to have tapes of my favorite albums.

Airborn is an album written and mostly performed by Mike Oldfield, best known for his 1973 album "Tubular Bells", which was used as the theme for "The Exorcist". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Oldfield  Released in the UK as "Platinum", it was his fifth new album and the first to feature "regular" songs and cover material. Airborn is a slightly different version of the UK original ("Woodhenge" was replaced by "Guilty") released in 1980, and is the one I have.  As best I can recall, it was a Christmas present from Mother & Daddy in 1981 or possibly 1982.  I really can't remember why I wanted it - although I had some interest in prog rock at the time (Jeff Wayne's musical version of The War of the Worlds, Alan Parsons Project, etc.) I still can't figure out the connection - odds are that a friend in band - possibly Shannon Lynn - had it.  Or that I got interested in Tubular Bells, and this album had it, which may be more likely.  The album contains a "bonus" live album which is a live version of Tubular Bells recorded live on Oldfield's  European tour in March/April 1979, and  a studio and live version of Incantations recorded at Througham December 1977-September 1978 and on the EU tour March/April 1979.  (The live versions are supposedly different from the live versions on Exposed, but I'll find out when I get that in - along with Platinum and Incantations - next week.  Oldfield's discography is decidedly confused.

Platinum - particularly the first section - is my favorite on this album, although there are some good sections in the live parts of sides 3 and 4.  The cassette has held up remarkably well - listening in the car (admittedly not the best sound environment) the recording is as crisp as any DVD, and the occasional pops from the album are not annoying at all.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds - SACD Collector's Edition (update #1)

I remember the first time I heard Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds.  It was Halloween night, 1978, and I was listening to the radio reading a book.  This bizarre art-rock piece with Richard Burton narrating was playing on some station, and I was hooked.  Two weeks later, November 18, 1978 to be exact, I bought the double album at Magic Mart.  I know the precise date and place not because I'm compulsive retentive (surprisingly) but because the checkout lady tore open the wrapper and scribbled the place and date on the cover of the album. I listened to the album quite a bit over the next four years or so, before I copied it to cassette, and started listening to that, and then later when I bought the double CD when that came out.

This was intended to be the 25th anniversary version of the album, but it was delayed a couple of years - probably to coincide with the Spielberg movie - but it was well worth the wait.  The album itself is remastered in SACD format, which I can play in the study, and which sounds pretty good.  While Burton's narration is muddy (to me) when the music is playing, you hear many, many things that you've never heard before, and the treatment, a 12 x 12 hardback book with separate pockets for each of the seven discs and a 80 page color booklet inside on the history of the album, is fantastic.  If any album deserved such treatment, this one does.  It was, and is, an extraordinary concept.

Other pluses, which I've read the liner notes to, but haven't played yet (I'll post on those when I do), is a DVD with a 90 minute documentary on the album, a disc of dance music "dubs" of cuts from the album, and three discs of outtakes from the recording of the album, including prior and alternate versions of songs, and the entire Richard Burton narration (what was on the album was a fraction of what he recorded.  That didn't make a lot of sense till I read the liner notes while listening to the album last night, and now I realize that for fans of the album (like me) these will really be something to listen to.

Looking at this yesterday, I realized how lucky I am - in the past year or two we've seen high quality releases of a lot of the movies, TV shows and albums that I've always liked, just like this one.  From the DVDs of the original Battlestar Galactica, to a too-good-to-be-true new Battlestar series, to a Horatio Hornblower series that's slowly covering each of Forester's books and doing a very good job with each, to a Lord of the Rings trilogy that was beyond anyone's expectations (with extended DVDS that even exceeded that), to a rereleased widescreen (finally) with extras Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, to rereleased Star Wars trilogy(ies) to a terrific new Spiderman movie series, to a reedited Star Trek: The Motion Picture... It's good to be me right now.  Okay, Pearl Harbor was a bit of a misfire, but at least the music and aerial combat scenes were good.  I'm still waiting on a remake of Midway that'll accurately portray the carriers Enterprise, Hornet and Yorktown, but in the meantime, I have to be pretty happy with what I've got.

Update #1:  Finished disc #3, the DVD containing the documentary on the making of the album.  Wayne goes through the inspiration for the work, and deconstructs the music itself, sounding very much like the composer he is.  The CGI accompanying it is crude, but it gets the point across, and gives you a good idea what visuals he thinks the story should have.  Was also my first glimpse of what the real Primrose Hill and Horsell Common looked like. 

The twins (at least) seem to like listening to the album (pretty loud) - their favorite part is the sound effect for the unscrewing of the cylinder.  Here they are mugging for the camera (making the face I make to get them to smile) listening to "Horsell Common and the Heat Ray".

The Sea - Rod McKuen/Anita Kerr

Now this is  blast from the past.  This is a 1967 recording by the San Sebastian Strings of music, composed by Anita Kerr, to accompany prose reflections by Rod McKuen (the first of several such collaborations).  I first heard it in 1974 when Daddy got the 8-track (which I still have) and we listened to it over and over on a summer trip.  I then took it with me to Irving when I went to school at Cistercian in 1974-75, and listened to it a fair amount there.  Interesting, some of the reviewers on Amazon had the same introduction to it.  It's a theme album written around McKuen's musings on the sea.  According to the liner notes (also available at http://www.mckuen.com/discography/wb1670.htm ) McKuen threw out what he had written for the album when he heard the music Kerr had written for it, and he was enthusiastic about writing songs with her for a long time to come (which they did).  "I cross streets more carefully now" he ends, in a comment that I particularly liked. 

Of course the music and comments are a bit dated (and the audio of the speaker is at times simply terrible) but it holds up surprisingly well.  Probably not many albums from 1967 could say that.  I only listened to it quickly this weekend, and most of the time with at least two kids running around the study raising hell, but it was nice to hear it again.

Falling Home - Jude Cole

I got this and the new Tears for Fears and Finn Brothers albums, and this one has squeezed the rest out.  I listen to it in the car and then take it out and carry it inside (which I have never done) in the evenings to listen to in the study.  I liked Jude Cole's "Start the Car" when I got it years ago, but hadn't followed up on what he'd done since.  This album is dated 2000, but I just ran across it - he released "I Don't Know Why I Act This Way" since "Start the Car" and had two before that.

Man, this album is good.  It is smoother and more consistent than "Start the Car", and while it doesn't seem to have a rocker like that track, the slightly more mellow ballads are more enjoyable to listen to over and over.  The lyrics are opaque enough that you can probably listen to them over and over and put your own meanings on them, which to me helps an album stand up to repeated listening.  I highly, highly recommend this album.

You can find out more about Jude's work at http://www.judecole.com/

A Valid Path - Alan Parsons

Just listened to the new Alan Parsons album "A Valid Path" this afternoon, and was - for the first time I can remember with an AP album - surprised.  I had read reviews indicating that it was different and (in general) a disappointment, but I have to disagree.  It is very, very different in that it's very electronic, and it's hard to tell what sounds the songs are made up of, but what's even more different is that for the first time the entire album has a heartbeat.  Generally Parsons albums are so organized and predictable that they are frankly really very boring, albeit very well done.  Not here - instead of being a mid-size four door sedan, this thing is a convertible - with an engine that won't quit.

This one sounds a lot - and I mean a lot - like someone intercepted the album and got someone else to do a cover of it for a dance floor mix.  Seriously - there are two songs that are essentially remakes of previous AP, "Mammagamma 04" and "A Recurring Dream Within a Dream" and in my humble opinion, both are improvements over the originals - or at least remakes that I like listening to.  They're witty and original - they may sound like a dance mix, but the comparison is inexact, because they vary constantly - they aren't simply songs set to a dance beat.  They vary constantly, so you're constantly surprised by small changes - when was the last time you thought that of AP albums?

The album is heavy on instrumentals, but that's good - they just flat rock. And you won't have any trouble keeping them separate from prior AP  instrumentals - they sound like dance floor mixes.  The vocal pieces aren't classics, by any means, but they bounce along and are actually fun to listen to.  And, above all else, they aren't formulaic.  I had read several reviews that thought the lyrics were pretty lame, but I didn't have any problem with them.  The songs were a lot looser than usual, but I didn't find the lyrics banal, as I'd been told.

All in all, a very surprising album that I'm looking forward to doing a lot of listening to.