David Archuleta

DAVID ARCHULETA
"THE OTHER SIDE OF DOWN"
(Jive, 2010)


"I've always been your token nice guy," sings David Archuleta on the track "Stomping The Roses", from his sophomore studio album "The Other Side of Down". That's not any great revelation to those of us who have followed the terminally adorable kid during and since his rise to runner-up of "American Idol" season 7. So it also shouldn't surprise us that there isn't any bitter heartache or sullen melancholy to drag down the mood of his latest release; instead, as with his debut, it's mostly either lightly wistful tunes about young love or optimistic anthems about the good things in life. But thankfully, none of the tracks are as off-puttingly adolescent as his first post-"Idol" single, "Crush".

He is still just nineteen years old, though, and with his boy-next-door demeanor and the sweetly husky voice we all fell in love with two years ago both still intact, it would seem wrong to expect any bitter heartache or sullen melancholy out of him quite yet. David has, however, jumped with both feet into the songwriting process, having co-written all but two of this album's songs, and just like he wowed us with his vocals, these first writing efforts show just as much potential. Some of my favorite tracks here are the lighter-than-air toe-tapper "Elevator", the soaring ballad "Parachutes And Airplanes", the soul-searching "Who I Am", and the rocking "Stomping The Roses" (co-written by Bryce Avary, better known by his artist name The Rocket Summer). The only thing I don't care for is the overuse of wordless refrains in the choruses of most of the songs on the first half of this album ... a trend whose popularity I trace back to (or, more to the point, blame on) Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.

Most "Idol" artists follow a pattern in their album progression -- the first album is heavily commercial, professionally written and produced; the second is a comfortable step away, with a good amount of the singer's own input, but still very similar to their debut; and usually by the third album, the artist is able to deliver a sound that is fully of their own choosing, cutting the "Idol" strings once and for all. What do I hope to see David Archuleta do on his third album? By then he should be ready to move away from the white-boy-R&B that this album is peppered with, and more toward a pop or pop-rock style. Seeing as how he plays piano, he could easily take after Daniel Powter or Gavin deGraw.

Buy it digitally on iTunes
Buy it on CD from Amazon

Babies Got Back ... Covers!

I've probably touched before on why I enjoy CDs more than MP3s. Mostly what it comes down to is the tangibility, the "realness", of them. A digital music file isn't something I can hold in my hands and appreciate, or become sentimentally attached to and pull off the shelf to look at fondly several years later, or (not that I necessarily have this in mind when I shop) trade in for a little store credit should I lose interest in it at some point. Even better, my CDs won't vanish into thin air if my computer's hard drive ever crashes or my iPod gets lost or stolen. Not to mention the thrill of the hunt, the rush of the catch, and the pride of owning a hard-to-find title that often come with anything of a collectible nature -- and I do consider my CD library a "collection".

Another reason I like CDs is for their sometimes beautiful, sometimes provocative, sometimes amusing front cover art -- and their often underappreciated or flat-out unappreciated back covers. I just recently was reminded of this while I was consolidating some of my home-burned discs from separate, single-disc jewelcases into the space-saving double-disc cases -- a chore which, more than coincidentally, went hand-in-hand with re-designing said covers, which is just as fun a part of the mix-making process for me as assembling the track lists and burning the discs. I was about to consolidate one particular series of homemade compilations (now numbering eight volumes, so it'd save a fair little chunk of real-estate), but looking at the back covers I joyously toiled over so many moons ago, I couldn't bring myself to get rid of them.

Which brings me to the reason for this post: an ode of sorts to the rear cover art of compact discs. While their main purpose is of course to provide the track listing for the CD, perhaps in an attractive font and with a picture of some sort for a backdrop, the more imaginative designs take it to the next level by giving the track listing an interesting visual twist, or maybe even going so far as to make it a work of art in itself. A few of the more appealing designs I've come across in recent years include:

• NSYNC's "No Strings Attached", which carries over the carnival-like motif from the front cover by displaying each song's name in a variety of whimsically ornate typefaces ...

• Duran Duran's "Wedding Album", which stylized the title of each track to look like labels or clipped-out newspaper headlines ...

• Landon Pigg's debut album, "LP", in which the artist laid out a grid and gave each song title the "Pictionary" treatment ...

• Johnny Mathis' latest release, "Let It Be Me: Mathis In Nashville", featuring a beautifully nostalgic design of textured block letters in various heights, weights, and colors ...

• and (if I may be permitted to toot my own horn) the back cover design of my own that I'm perhaps most proud of, Volume 2 in my "I Love Music" series, made to look like the selection board on an old-fashioned jukebox, complete with a charmingly imperfect manual-typewriter look to the font.
  

Obviously, when I compact two or more discs into one jewelcase, it means twice as many songs to list, so I have to make far more efficient use of space in the layout, usually requiring me to eliminate my unique, "panoramic" designs in favor of the simplified, columnar listings that are my more practical fallback scheme. That's not to say that less artistic designs are any less appealing; sometimes the old saying "less is more" is totally true. Track listings can be laid out in neatly arranged columns or in the more flexible method of paragraphs, and they can be written in a minimalist sans-serif, a formal serif, or a casual script font.

But anything, in my opinion, is better than the cold, unartistic, bland and lifeless "system" font in which the track listings appear for each and every album in each and every user's iTunes library ... all of them exactly the same. Sure, iTunes gives us a JPG image of the album's front cover art (or we have to go hunt for it on the web ourselves), but that's only half the artwork. The back covers are oftentimes just as fun to look at as the front covers, because they're part of the graphic designer's vision ... and they're one of the things I'd miss most in a world without CDs.

Teddy Geiger

TEDDY GEIGER
"UNDERAGE THINKING"
(Columbia, 2006)


As big a Teddy Geiger fan as I am, I didn't bother checking out the 2008 movie he starred in, "The Rocker", until last night. Turns out it's a pretty decent movie, and Teddy a pretty decent actor ... and, of course, that is what prompted me to spotlight his major-label debut album today. I still remember being instantly impressed with this album back when it was released, and hoping that enough people would see beyond his "pretty-boy" exterior and his tender age to recognize the genuine talent he possessed.

From the dynamic debut single "For You I Will" and the earthy ballad "Thinking Underage", through the energetic "Air Dry" and soaring "Seven Days Without You", to the blue-eyed-soul bounce of "Possibilities" and the subdued anthem "Gentlemen", Teddy Geiger's softly raspy voice -- a pleasing blend of John Mayer and Ryan Cabrera -- and his all-American musical style -- which can at times sound as big-city as Billy Joel or as small-town as John Mellencamp -- never cease to charm and endear the listener. The beauty of Teddy Geiger is that he can be sweet without being saccharine, and he can be earnest without being naive ... which is tough for a boy of 17 to pull off.

The initial, March 2006, release of "Underage Thinking" was apparently enough of a success that Columbia issued a deluxe edition, with bonus tracks and an accompanying DVD, in October of the same year. I don't know if it was disappointing sales of the deluxe version (When will they learn that only the most die-hard fans will be willing to buy an album twice?!?) that caused Columbia to drop him from their roster, or if lackluster performance of the "Rocker" soundtrack (I was disappointed in it myself ... though the songs were sung by Teddy, they weren't written by him, and as such they lacked any real charm.) was to blame, but I've been left hanging ever since, hoping to see another album from him. Maybe I will ... eventually.

Buy it digitally on iTunes
Buy it on CD from Amazon

The La's

THE LA'S
"THE LA'S (DELUXE EDITION)"
(Universal, 2008)


I was about to write a review that slathered on the superlatives and waxed snobbish about how anybody who didn't recognize how great this album is just can't truly call themselves a music fan ... but then I realized I'd be a bit of a hypocrite if I did. I'm actually a relative newcomer to The La's, at least as a serious listener. I'd had the cassette of this album back in the day, but didn't listen to it very much, and I might have picked up the CD once since then as an afterthought (so much of an afterthought that I still can't be sure I did) ... but when I found the recently released, 2-disc deluxe edition of the album at Rhino Records a few weeks ago, I finally decided I had to give them my full attention. I could now kick myself repeatedly for taking two whole decades to do so.

Few things in this world break my heart more than when an artist releases a truly brilliant album that could justifiably and without hyperbole be called a "masterpiece" -- and then abruptly ceases to exist as a recording artist. In the case of British jangle-power-pop band The La's, it was (according to the liner notes in this package by Ian Harrison) the intense perfectionism and arguable eccentricity of frontman Lee Mavers that all but doomed their discography to only one album, which itself was almost never released at all. This deluxe package contains both the original release of the album, produced by Steve Lillywhite; and an earlier, nearly-lost version, produced by Mike Hedges but aborted by Mavers.

Everyone has heard "There She Goes", one of the biggest singles of the early '90s, but that's hardly all this album has going for it. The irresistibly infectious and utterly hummable nature of each and every track make it little wonder that dozens of current bands cite The La's as an influence. There are so many heavenly songs on this damn-near-perfect album that I can't hope to single out any. In any sane world, this album would have been enough to keep this band from being consigned to the one-hit-wonder status that they now seem to forever be entombed in. Sigh ... so much for not slathering on the superlatives ... but once you hear this album, you'll understand.

Buy the deluxe edition digitally on iTunes
Buy the standard edition digitally on iTunes
Buy the deluxe edition on CD from Amazon
Buy the standard edition on CD from Amazon