Break The Silence

I'm sorry it's been so darn quiet around here lately ... I didn't really intend for it to happen. I do have a good excuse and a not-so-good excuse. The good excuse is that I came down with what I think was the H1N1 (a.k.a. "swine") flu a few weeks ago -- I'm almost fully recovered already, thank goodness -- but the not-so-good excuse is that I've otherwise been essentially unmotivated to write about music. I have no idea why ... I still enjoy listening to music like I always have ... could it be a weird side-effect of my illness...? As much as I hate to admit it, I'm starting to wonder if this blog will still be around much beyond the first of the year. Believe me, I'd hate to see it come to an end, but if the inspiration and motivation have stopped flowing, what can I do?

But it ain't over till the fat lady sings, and she hasn't made a peep yet. It's still possible that this is just a temporary "dry spell", and I'm hoping it is. And I can all but guarantee you that things will pick up here, at least a little, in about a month. Not only will I be doing my annual Top Ten Favorite Albums podcast in December, but as you may or may not know, we're coming up on the end of the decade, and as such I'm feeing the overwhelming urge to get started on assembling a ranking of my favorite albums of the last ten years, which I expect to post in January. I'm so excited about that little venture, in fact, that I whipped up a preliminary list about 70 items long last night in less than half an hour! I don't know if it'll end up being a list of 50 titles or a list of 100 (or, heck, even a number somewhere in between, for that matter), but I do know that it'll be an incredibly fun and challenging task ... and, with any luck, maybe it'll even reinvigorate my passion for this blog in the process.

So, watch this web-space ... you won't regret it!

Sam & Ruby

SAM & RUBY
"THE HERE AND THE NOW"
(Rykodisc, 2009)


I wasn't going to bother posting an entry this evening, but that was before I totally on a whim put this CD on. I had never heard of this act before I saw the CD on a listening station at the store a few weeks ago. The cover image was nice and pastoral and cozy and all, so I put the headphones on and hit the play button. With every second that went by, I was pulled, little by little, into this album's subtle charms. Singer/guitarist Sam Brooker looks kind-of like James Morrison, and co-vocalist Ruby Amanfu bears a bit of a resemblance to Corinne Bailey Rae ... and if you took all the rasp out of Morrison's voice, and slightly raised the timbre of Bailey Rae's, that's more-or-less what they sound like. Possibly an unlikely pairing, but these two voices go blissfully beautifully together.

As the cover image might suggest, a fair share of this album falls firmly in the acoustic-folk category, but there's also a liberal dollop of classic Al Green-style soul ("Too Much"), a serving of gospel ("Heaven's My Home"), and even a radio-ready summertime pop number ("Chillin'") tossed in. Sam and Ruby essentially split the vocal duties 50/50 -- sometimes it's a he-sings/she-sings duet, sometimes she takes the spotlight with him singing backup, and sometimes vice-versa -- and that's one of the things I love most about this album, not the least of which is because both voices are totally appealing.

Not only does it seem like a twist of fate that I'd by sheer chance happen upon an album I'd end up loving so much (all the more interesting because folk music -- in which this disc could easily be classified, but shouldn't necessarily be pigeonholed -- is a genre that usually bores me to no end), but it's also kind-of serendipitous that I'd be listening to it on a Sunday evening ... it's just the kind of stuff that gives you that extra little breath of fresh air right before you have to go back to work for another week ... and makes the thought of doing so bearable. Thanks, Sam & Ruby ... I needed that.

This I Know (Album Version) - Sam & Ruby

Stephen Gately: 1976 - 2009

Rarely do I ever audibly gasp and/or feel my heart jump when I find out about the death of a celebrity, even one that I really like. But this one came as a particular shock -- our sweet little Stephen Gately, gone before his 34th birthday? I never follow the gossip on actors, singers, etc., so I don't know how much he indulged in alcohol (do we ever really know?), but he was the last of the group that I would ever have expected to see get cut down so abruptly in the prime of his life.

I've always dearly loved Stephen Gately ever since I first happened upon Boyzone. Not only was he the most adorable one of the group, but there was that gorgeous voice of his -- nothing less than a silky smooth slice of heaven. You can only imagine how thrilled I was when I found out that he was releasing his very own solo album ... I snapped it up as soon as I could (which took a bit longer back then, since I wasn't nearly as CD-cyber-shopping-savvy as I am now) and loved it. Maybe Ronan had the more successful solo album -- a fact I've always been a bit resentful of -- but to me, "New Beginning" was leaps and bounds above.

Strictly by measure of his contribution to music, Gately's death may not merit the same notoriety as other recent celebrity passings -- Boyzone were quite big in Ireland and the UK but hardly noticed beyond their shores, and his lone solo album sold decently but not nearly as well as the debut that launched bandmate Keating's ongoing solo career -- but it was something he did, unrelated to music, that made him remarkable ... something that nowadays is nothing special, but ten years ago was more of a statement than even Gately himself was probably aware.

It was ten years ago that Stephen Gately made history by becoming the first teen-pop singer to come out as gay while at the height of his career; boybands in general were more popular than ever, and so were Boyzone in particular. But perhaps most remarkable of all was how it disproved the homophobic way of thinking that until then permeated the music industry; Gately's teenage female fans screamed their devotion to him as loudly as they ever had, instead of abandoning him and the band as the record executives feared would happen. (His coming-out happened after the group's final studio album was released, but it wasn't a contributing factor to their breakup.) So to many people, myself included, Gately was as much a symbol as a singer.

No, he wasn't the first celebrity ever to come out, but he was the first one that targeted the key demographic of teenagers, arguably the biggest spenders of entertainment dollars. But the impact went beyond the business side of things. It's hard to tell for certain how directly Gately's coming-out inspired other young-ish celebrities to follow suit (Mark Feehily and Lance Bass, amongst others), but it's a pretty safe bet that it did. And then there were the countless young male boyband fans ... they'd always been in the audience, but until Stephen Gately came along, the objects of their affections had always been imaginary or hypothetical. Young gay male pop music fans finally had a voice -- and in this case it was a voice as sweet as honey.

One has to remember that the Internet, while firmly in place, wasn't quite as much a part of social interaction in 1999 as it is now, so gay and lesbian youth felt more isolated back then, even though their voices were quickly becoming heard. It's tragically ironic that Gately's death would occur on the eve of National Coming Out Day. At the risk of getting all socio-political on this blog, I'm a firm believer in the fact that no one should have to feel like any less of a person for being who they are (especially when all it amounts to is loving people of the same gender), nor should people who think otherwise get away with perpetuating such self-loathing. Stephen Gately played a pivotal role in helping to change that, even if he was reluctant to or unaware of doing so.

Lots of love, Steo ... I'll miss you.

Mika

I am so behind on listening to new and recent CDs that it's almost not funny. But I have a good excuse, one that I'll probably share with you (either directly or indirectly) next month. I also have a not-so-good excuse -- basically, the simple fact that I've been having quite a bit more fun blogging about this kind of stuff than music lately. But anyway, now that the forementioned good excuse is no longer occupying nearly as much of my time as it was, I should be able to get caught up on recent arrivals in the next few weeks. Here's to me not calling myself a liar...!

MIKA
"THE BOY WHO KNEW TOO MUCH"
(Universal Republic, 2009)


It seems that, quite often, I end up liking an artist's sophomore release more than their debut, and Mika is the latest example. For this album he seems to have toned his overall sound down a notch or two, mostly forsaking the high flamboyance of tracks like "Grace Kelly" in favor of the comparatively mild tones of tracks like "My Interpretation". But then, I could be wrong and I might be hearing just as campy a set of songs as on "Life In Cartoon Motion", since I already knew what to expect from him based on that album (as well as the cover of this new one carrying on the busy technicolor theme started by it).

The more obvious sign of change is that there are more quiet moments on the album -- the lush "I See You" is almost like Scissor Sisters doing a OneRepublic ballad, and the delicate "By The Time" kind-of sounds like a lost track off an Imogen Heap album. The rest of the disc is lively like its predecessor, but somehow without being obnoxious (not that his debut was) -- "Touches You" reminds me of George Michael's "Father Figure" as if it were written for a High School Musical group number; "Blame It On The Girls" is good, fun, classic Mika; and I totally love the festive Latin beat of "Blue Eyes", probably my favorite track on the album. The '80s synth-pop groove of "Rain" and the torchy sway of closing track "Pick Up Off The Floor" do nicely to round out the variety of sounds on the set.

It's not that I necessarily like his new album more than his first specifically because he's mellowed out a bit -- heck, I never would have bought this one in the first place if I didn't like his debut as much as I did. It's just that artists who regularly pile on such aural embellishments can come off (to me, at least) as being pretentious and gimmicky, and would wear out their welcome if they carried the act on to a second album. But Mika seems to walk the tightrope between his previous antics and a more mature approach well enough to make it seem like a natural transition ... or at least, a step toward it.

Dr. John - MIKA

Ballas Hough Band

BALLAS HOUGH BAND
"BHB"
(Hollywood, 2009)


I've never watched "Dancing With The Stars", so the names Mark Ballas and Derek Hough have never had any significance to me. In that respect, I didn't have any emotional investment in this album before hearing it. Nonetheless I was a bit disappointed at first, but only because, with the word "Band" in their name, I was expecting something a bit more rock and a little less pop out of them. That's not to say that I dislike the album; it just took me a bit longer to warm up to it. Funny how your expectations can alter your perception, isn't it?

The Ballas Hough Band (Shouldn't there be a hyphen or slash in between those, since it's two last names and not one person's full name? Anyway....) demonstrate pretty well on this album that they're not just a couple of pretty faces who parlayed their proverbial 15 minutes on a dancing show into a recording contract they wouldn't otherwise have gotten. Arguably they might not have landed a major-label imprint like Hollywood Records without their "DWTS" notoriety, but that's beside the point. I'm having a bit of trouble telling Mr. Ballas' and Mr. Hough's voices apart, assuming they share lead vocal duties, but that's not a major complaint since I find the vocals enjoyable.

Once I got past the realization that this "Band" isn't quite so much The Script or Maroon 5 as much as they are a high-gloss, more-pop-than-power take on The Click Five, I was able to appreciate the fact that they actually make some enjoyable tunes. And I grant you, it's not all pop ... yes, "Do It For You" sits firmly in the contemporary-R&B category, and "She Was The One" is equally unlikely to win over fans of Bon Jovi or Bruce Springsteen ... but alternatively, "Fall" is a blast of crunchy guitar that sounds like The All-American Rejects with a dash of Black-Eyed Peas, and "Devastated" also brings on a bit of the rock ... "Underwater" is a surprisingly atmospheric closing song, and the female backing vocals add a nice touch to the harmony on songs like the nice ballad "Longing For". Bottom line: don't expect anything groundbreaking or otherwise worthy of Grammy consideration, but if you like ear-candy that's a blend of rock and pop, you can expect to be entertained.

Together Faraway - Ballas Hough Band

Breaking News: Here Comes Da Judge!

As if I needed any more reason to watch "American Idol" next season -- Ellen DeGeneres announces on her show today (and officially broke the news just hours ago) that she is being brought on board as the fourth regular judge on the "Idol" panel, to fill the vacancy left by Paula Abdul when she announced her departure last month. With the passion she has shown for "Idol" on her daytime talk show -- talking about the week's performance round at nearly every opportunity, and bringing almost every departing finalist onto her show as a guest -- as well as her passion for music in general, I have a hard time thinking of a more suitable person to sit on the judges' panel.

Notice I said "suitable", and not "qualified". That's the only problem I have with Ellen becoming an "Idol" judge: she'd be the only one on the panel who doesn't have a professional background in the music business. All of the other three judges have worked as producers, with Kara also having extensive experience as a songwriter and a singer, and Randy as a studio and touring musician with countless music acts. Don't get me wrong ... I'm otherwise totally jazzed about Ellen being on "Idol" ... I'm just worried about how everyone else will accept her, particularly because of this notable lack of actual experience in the music industry.

Will she be funny? Of course. Will she know what she's talking about? As long as she sticks to what she knows and doesn't pretend to know more than she does (in other words, if she speaks from the perspective of a passionate music fan, and also provides feedback from her experience as a performer trying to entertain an audience), and I don't think we'll have to worry about Ellen coming off as fake. So ... bring on the new season of "Idol"!

Tyrone Wells

TYRONE WELLS
"REMAIN"
(Universal Republic, 2009)


I can only assume that Tyrone Wells is one of those artists that I was destined to get turned onto. I had picked up his 2007 major label debut, "Hold On", a year or so ago, but for some reason didn't cotton to it at first. Fast-forward to early this year, when I happened upon a promo CD of his "More" single in the freebies box at the local record shop. I found the song enjoyable, and around the same time, blogger Entirely Random (a terrible shame that you post so sporadically, Random!) posted a YouTube video of him performing the song. Obviously, Fate was trying to tell me something, so I picked up his sophomore CD, "Remain", shortly thereafter. Fate must have known what it was doing, 'cause it turns out I like this guy a lot more now than I ever thought I would.

Tyrone Wells doesn't stray much here from the singer-songwriter-folk-pop-rock sound he established on his debut, and far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing. The lyrics may be more introspective or soul-searching than on his first album, but you can't help but come away from the album feeling uplifted, since the songs are mostly still dressed in appealingly tuneful hooks -- be they strong (the radio-worthy upbeat cuts "In Between The Lines" and "Along The Way") or subtle (the spiritually-minded ballad "All Broken Hearts" and the fragile closer "Together").

His rich, somewhat husky voice might sound a bit too much like Chris Martin in some places (especially when his songs take on a bit of a Coldplay feel, like in "Losing Ground" or "Drifting"), but the similarity is entirely coincidental. Tyrone Wells is an original, talented, and enjoyable artist in his own right, and I just hope this album gets him noticed, like he deserves to be.

Before It Started - Tyrone Wells

Econoline Crush

You've probably noticed that I've started using the imeem player to embed songs. Why, you ask? Well, Google/Blogger have been cracking down on TOS violations lately (and I'm wondering if that's why I had at least one post of mine disappear inexplicably one day), so to cover my ass in that regard, I had been looking around for streaming players that have a well-stocked catalog of songs. As soon as I realized that imeem has nearly all the artists I've featured on my blog lately (including the relatively obscure one I'm featuring today), and that they even provide iTunes and Amazon search buttons right alongside the player, I decided it was the one for me. Sure, you can't actually download the songs (at least not easily), but since it's free you can't really complain -- plus, you can go right to the artist's catalog on imeem and hear more of their songs! Sounds like a pretty sweet compromise to me.

ECONOLINE CRUSH
"BRAND NEW HISTORY"
(EMI Canada, 2001)


If any of you out there are just starting to read this blog, then in a way it's pretty good timing: this post juxtaposed with the last one do well to illustrate the wide variety of things I listen to. I was going to start this post by saying that Econoline Crush was an "anomaly" in my music collection, but I honestly have a little bit of everything in my library, so I probably have so many "anomalies" that the ordinary stuff looks like the out-of-the-ordinary. But anyway, this is yet another artist whose CD I stupidly traded in years ago, only to find it on the used rack for five dollars and buy it back in a pang of nostalgia. (Yes, I've said that about two other artists I've featured on here before ... pathetic, I know.) As with the others, I don't know how or why I let myself get rid of it, but I won't make that mistake again.

Econoline Crush is one of Canada's best-kept secrets, having yielded only one marginally popular single in the U.S. They're the only group I listen to that's classified in the "industrial rock" subgenre; basically, they play hard rock with some electronica overtones. Of course, for their two major-label outings the band did tone down their sound and make it more accessible to mainstream listeners, but it makes for a bit of an adventurous listen nonetheless. The opening track, "Make It Right", and the closer "You Don't Know What It's Like", provide the aggressive punch characteristic of Econoline Crush (thanks in part to production by veteran Metallica producer Bob Rock), along with the near-thrash of "Trash" and "Go Off". "Tomorrow Starts Today" and "By The Riverside" show a more mellow side of the band, but still keep the guitars turned up to a decent level, thank you. And just in case the rest of the album is too loud, the band takes a breezy sidestep into Sugar Ray-like territory with the cool "May I Go".

Oddly, just when the band seemed to be hitting their stride, with two solid albums (this one preceded by the more successful 1998 set "The Devil You Know") solidifying their popularity in their native Canada, Econoline Crush seemed to drop off the face of the earth. It would be seven years before they re-emerged with a new album, 2008's "Ignite". I haven't bought it yet, but the sound clips on Amazon have me interested, so I'll probably end up getting it. Like I said, I don't know what it is about Econoline Crush that I like ... the sporadic bursts of guitar ... Trevor Hurst's distinctive raspy howl in the vocals ... the electronic flourishes? Who knows ... and why question it?

Make It Right - Econoline Crush

Basia

BASIA
"IT'S THAT GIRL AGAIN"
(Koch, 2009)


For not having a drop of Latin blood in her, Polish chanteuse Basia sure has a way with a Latin groove, especially in the Brazilian stylings of Samba and Bossa Nova. Basia Trzetrzelewska (no wonder she only goes by her first name as a recording artist) hit the peak of her popularity back in the late '80s and early '90s, and before that was a member of jazz group Matt Bianco. She reunited with Matt Bianco for their 2004 album "Matt's Mood", but other than that, this -- the tongue-in-cheekly titled "It's That Girl Again" -- is Basia's first album of new material in 15 years.

I'm delighted to say that neither she nor her music seem to have aged a day. Her voice is as robust and enchanting as it ever was, and this batch of songs is as much a breath of fresh air now as her early albums were a decade and a half ago. I'd have to go back and listen to them again to be sure, but I think this album may have a wider variety of sounds than any of her previous discs. It's tough to lull Basia into a true ballad on this album, but "A Gift" and the idyllic "Two Islands" come close. The frantic chorus of the appropriately urgently titled "I Must" is as energetic as the album (and Basia in general) gets; and "Love Lies Bleeding" is more laid back and -- I guess "whimsical" would fit as well as any other word -- than its title would suggest. Throw in the Polish-language song "Amelki Smiech" (with its swaying verses contrasting against a militaristic chorus), and you've got as eclectic a Basia album as you might ever see.

Basia's three early studio albums (and the EP nestled amongst them) have never left my collection since I bought them as new releases, and though I haven't listened to them quite as often as I probably should have been during the last 15 years, I was nonetheless looking forward to this album as soon as I heard it was coming, nearly a year before it dropped. I only hope this signals the beginning of a new, ongoing phase of Basia's solo career, because her beautiful, airy voice, with its appealing lilt of what I can only assume is a Polish accent, brings back so many warm memories of the beginnings of my obsession with music.

Blame It On The Summer - Basia

Paula Abdul Leaves "American Idol"!

Wow ... how are we possibly going to get the same joy out of "American Idol" now that we know Paula Abdul isn't going to be a part of it next season? It might be tough for me to express my feelings at a time like this, but let me try....

You have been truly wonderful, and ... the light you shine is ... it's what you do, and ... you do it so well, that ... it's hard to express the ... the joy and energy and goodness that you create is ... it's beyond description ... I am so happy that ... this world has had a chance to experience ... your beautiful ... talent and presence and ... I can't wait until ... the next step in your life ... becomes a reality and illuminates the world because ... you deserve the world ... you truly do, and that's ... I just can't put it any more clearly than that.