In a review of the new Aerosmith album on Popmatters.com, writer Brice Ezell theorizes that "The question of this album is the closest thing the music world has to the moral dilemma of euthanasia". Aside from his brilliantly creative sentence making me feel like a complete hack as a writer, the line stuck with me as I read the news yesterday that INXS were finally packing it in. Kind of. The cryptic and poorly formatted statement on their official website says they plan to "bring down the curtain as a live touring band", but doesn't mention anything else about future plans to record. Let's hope the once-great Australian group has indeed finally called it a day, because if ever there was a band in need of "musical euthanasia", it's been this one. And I say that as someone who has been a big fan of theirs since the mid 80s. The years since the 1997 suicide of lead vocalist and frontman Michael Hutchence have not been kind to INXS. They performed with a series of forgettable guest vocalists for a couple of years after regrouping from the loss of Hutchence, including Terence Trent D'Arby, Russell Hitchcock, and Jimmy Barnes. Then someone named Jon Stevens was officially announced as their new lead singer in 2002, but an album with him never materialized and he departed the band. Next came the cheesy Rock Star: INXS TV show in 2005, which saw the band subject themselves to an American Idol-style lead singer search that was won by Toronto singer J.D. Fortune, who had been living out of his car when he applied to be on the show. Just a little over two months after Fortune won the very public audition, his lead vocals appeared on INXS' new Switch album. I thought the release was pretty awful, but the rest of Canada sure responded favourably to it, pushing it to sales of 170,000 (platinum certifications here are given at the 100,000 sold mark) and turning up in strong numbers for the band's live dates. Switch's total worldwide album sales (all figures taken from the album's Wikipedia page) are apparently a little less than one million - that's not a terrible number for a band trying to fill Hutchence's large shoes, but it's a scant shadow of what they used to sell in the late 80s and early 90s (then again, album sales in general were admittedly well on their way to cratering by 2005). Fortune had a rocky and rather bizarre tenure with the band, telling a Canadian TV show in 2009 that he'd been fired from the group because of his heavy drug use. That was news to INXS, however, who later continued touring with Fortune. Following yet another dreadful album release in 2010 with Original Sin, which featured guest vocalists singing on old INXS hits (the writing should have been pretty plainly written on the wall for the band at that point), INXS and Fortune mutually announced they were parting ways. Fortune then later claimed that "I had no idea I had left INXS the second time, to be honest with you". Oy vey. Irish singer Ciarran Gribbin joined the band for tour dates over the past year, culminating with what appears to now have been their last live performance on November 11th in Perth as an opening act for Matchbox Twenty. It's been downright painful watching this band flail away for the past 15 years as they tried to find their footing and place in the music world after losing Hutchence. The day he hung himself (or died after an autoerotic asphyxiation escapade gone wrong, if you believe the other theory surrounding his passing) is the day the rest of INXS should have had the good sense to retire their name, because replacing the dynamic Hutchence was an impossible task, as has been proven. I'm totally sympathetic to the lousy hand the band got dealt and even cut them some slack for a few years after Hutchence died as they spun their wheels, knowing that this was a close-knit group of guys (including three brothers) that had played together since forming in 1977 and just didn't know anything else. But they should have carried on under a different name, because now here it is, years later, and they've done nothing but tarnish that name with career misstep after career misstep. Hopefully, they've finally come to terms with the fact that INXS just needs to be put down.
I hate Twitter, never more so than on this past Tuesday evening as I watched the CBC's coverage of the American presidential election. As the coverage carried into the early morning, I found myself becoming more and more irritated at the network's confounding decision to display Tweet after useless Tweet from viewers prominently on the screen, right above important information like, you know, the actualelection results. I don't recall the CBC's Twitter component being so emphasized earlier on in the night, but it was certainly right in viewer's faces as we waited past midnight EST for Mitt Romney to concede defeat, straight through to the end of Barack Obama's victory speech at around 2 a.m. I wondered what anchor Peter Mansbridge, who I consider as good a newsman as there is today, thought about the front-and-centre Twitter presence on his program. At one point, I was literally even holding my hand up in front of my face to obscure that offending portion of the screen from view...if you ever want to feel truly ridiculous, then catch yourself doing that while lying on your couch at about 1:30 in the morning. My annoyance was such that I even sent the CBC a complaint email the next day and I haven't sent one of those to anyone in a good couple of decades. And yes, I could have just changed the channel to one of the American networks, which I did do once in a while, but I live in Canada and preferred to have a Canadian take on the proceedings. Here's a paraphrased sampling of some of the received Tweets that CBC felt were deserving of airtime: "That guy over Obama's left shoulder looks very tired", "What's with the flag in the woman's hair in the background?", "What a great speaker", "Mitt Romney looks pretty defeated", and more than one wishing Obama would break into a "Gangnam Style" dance routine (can the 15 minutes of that thing please arrive a little quicker?). There were also a steady stream of Tweets from people offering congratulations to Obama and proclaiming how happy they were with the election results. Great. Thanks so much, CBC and you device-addicted viewers. My viewing experience has been so much more enriched by all of these valuable contributions. Even if there was anything of merit being said from this segment of the audience (and I didn't count a single one that qualified), I just don't understand what place any of it has on a serious journalistic production covering a historic political event. Obviously, broadcasting of social media feedback has been part of news productions for a while now, especially since Twitter has became so popular in the past few years. But just because something like Twitter exists and is popular doesn't justify the baffling level of prominence that the media as a whole has elevated it to. It smacks of desperation on their part, as a means of engaging a younger demographic in an effort to stem the tide of ever-eroding viewership numbers. As far as I'm concerned, the only impact it's had is that the already-diminished credibility and integrity of the mainstream media sinks that much lower. I read, watch, or listen to the news for information delivered by professionals, as well as for informed opinions and commentary, not for the public's opinion on a topic. This recent shift where the public's viewpoint has increasingly stuck its nose into the narrative and framework of news programs, even if only on a minor level in some cases, is troubling. I've also noticed an increasing Twitter presence on other TV programs, where graphics with the show's Twitter address or a hashtagged word are now cropping up more frequently. While watching a recent episode of Comedy Central's excellent Key & Peele show, I noticed that "#keyandpeele" and the Twitter addresses of the show's two principal actors were on screen for about 75% of the half hour program's running time. I shudder to think about how much more clutter will be on our television screens just 2-3 years from now, as smart TVs and their seamless integration with other technologies becomes more and more popular. I can completely foresee, say, a show's Facebook "Like" request popping up as viewers watch the program. God help us. Speaking of God help us, I was amazed and rather sickened to find out earlier this year that the Toronto Blue Jays, who I'm a diehard fan of, were selling t-shirts that feature the Twitter handles of some of their players on the back. Listen, I love technology as much as the next person - my iMac, iPad, iPod, PS3, PVR, and HD TV are all an integral part of the fabric of my day-to-day life (you'll notice I excluded a cell phone...I have one, but can't really stand them either). And I grasp the inherent benefit of something like Twitter, that it allows for a more immediate conveyance of information and, in some cases, is the first media platform on which some stories break (frankly, though, I'm fine with waiting a few minutes more for my news so I can get the actual details that a 140 character-max Tweet can't deliver). But based on everything I've observed over the years since this social media service has risen in popularity, for every legitimate news story that breaks on Twitter, or impactful effect that Twitter has on something like the Arab Spring, or Tweet that has any semblance of thoughtful discourse (however brief it may be), there seems to be about a million others from people with absolutely nothing to say. And don't even get me started on the idiot celebrities, politicians, or athletes who get themselves into hot water on Twitter. It's just one more platform, along with texting and Facebook, to enable the transfer of mostly inane, meaningless chatter and its popularity just makes me feel old, as I'm sure has been conveyed in the grumpy old man "get off my lawn!" tone of this posting.
Released in September It's partly a by-product of my age (42), but to my ears and eyes, most pop music today is vacuous and completely forgettable. Admittedly, that's hardly an original statement. One of the genre's few artists of merit is P!nk, who recently released studio album number six, The Truth About Love (and I'll refrain from using the cutesy "!" in her name from this point on, as typing it makes me feel like an utter tool). I was surprised when I read that this release marked her first #1 debut on the Billboard 200 album chart, considering the massive success she's experienced in her career. To link to this review, I went back to find the post I put up a couple of years ago featuring a video of one of the singer's daring performances in a wire rigging setup. Watching it and the other incredible Grammy performance I mentioned in the post impressed upon me once again me just how dynamic a performer Pink is. Aside from her visual flair, she also consistently brings the vocal goods in a live setting. That and a well-crafted power pop sound are traits she shares with one of the few other pop singers whose work I admire, Kelly Clarkson. Here's a breakdown of The Truth About Love's strengths and weaknesses... The good: It's juvenile, but I so wanted to hate the track "Just Give Me A Reason" that Pink duets on with Nate Ruess of the group fun., purely based on the participation of Ruess. fun. (and that is the way it's spelled) is a perfect representation of the kind of indie music I can't stomach, with my dislike of these acts' exacerbated by the band members' wardrobe choices that scream "hipster douchebag" (I told you I was juvenile). However, within a minute of hearing this song for the first time, I had goosebumps, as the singers' back and forth exchanges of lovers with radically different reads on the state of their relationship plays out over a piano, synth bass line, and drums musical arrangement that sounds positively Queen-like. It's rather phenomenal. First single "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" is far better than the puerile title that Pinks occasionally blemishes her songs with. A Cyndi Lauper-ish bubblegum pop intro gets steamrolled in the chorus by the heavy guitars that are another big reason of why I'm a Pink fan. One of the other main reasons is the highly infectious nature of her songs - Pink's material has more hooks than a tackle box. Said catchiness also dominates the self-empowerment anthem "All We Are We Are", "True Love" (featuring Brit singer Lily Rose Cooper, formerly known as Lily Allen), the excellent "Try", and the playful "Walk Of Shame". If the high gloss production sheen on Pink's upbeat pop material isn't your cup of tea, she really lays her musical talent bare on the ballads that are mostly stripped of the studio bells and whistles: "Beam Me Up" features just an acoustic guitar and a tasteful string arrangement, while "The Great Escape" showcases more strings and a lone piano. The bad: "How Come You're Not Here" has no shortage of those heavy guitars in the chorus, but this track just never grabbed me. "Slut Like You" is another non-starter that features bratty tongue-in-cheek (I think) lyrics about using men purely as playthings, set over a chorus that nicks the "woo hoo" from Blur's "Song 2", with snippets of intended humour that tend to grate. Speaking of grating, the album's worst track is the plodding "Here Comes The Weekend"; the fact that Eminem has a guest appearance on it only makes a crap song that much worse. Finally, the generic "Where Did The Beat Go?" sounds like a Destiny's Child leftover that Pink would have been advised to shelve in favour of any of the four songs that were relegated to The Truth About Love's deluxe edition ("My Signature Move", "Is This Thing On?", "Run", and "Good Old Days"). Oh, and I could do without the badass posturing that Pink seems to think is necessary with her gratuitous usage of f-bombs throughout the album. The curious: One thing I've never fully understood and always been rubbed a little wrong by in the pop world (country too, for that matter) is the practice of using tons of producers and songwriters on an album. The Truth About Love has 11 different producers and aside from Pink, a full 20 different songwriters credited. I guess the end result is what matters, though, and in this case, it's a fairly solid one. Back in June when I railed in a post about the visual over-skankification so many of today's female pop artists seem to present, I refrained from mentioning Pink, although the provocative singer truthfully wouldn't be too out of place within that group. Acts like Katy Perry and Kesha need to parade around half-naked to distract an audience from the fact they're musical hacks. Pink, however, actually possesses loads of talent and shouldn't need to resort to such cheap tactics. There's a disappointing inconsistency to the material, but when the songs on The Truth About Love work, they work big-time. Rating:B-
Released in May Not unlike Emm Gryner, whose praises I've sung on this blog more than once in the past several months, Holly McNarland is another frustratingly underrated Canadian artist (in fact, I discovered Gryner opening at one of McNarland's shows in 2003). Following the independently released EP Sour Pie in 1995, McNarland enjoyed some breakout success with the tracks "Numb" and "Elmo" off her first full-length album, 1997's alt rock-leaning Stuff, eventually going on to win the 1998 Juno Award for Best New Solo Artist (the Juno is like the Canadian Grammy). Further success came in 2002 with "Beautiful Blue", the lead single from her album Home Is Where My Feet Are, which is one of my favourite songs and music videos of the past decade. Since then, McNarland has made her family her first priority and left the major label system to return to her roots as an indie artist, releasing the overlooked Chin Up Buttercup in 2007 and now Run Body Run, which was an iTunes Store-only release back in May that eventually had CDs pressed for retail distribution. If you're paying attention, you'll notice that's only been one LP every five years (with a couple of EPs mixed in along the way), contributing to McNarland's relative lack of profile these days. And that's a shame, because not enough people will likely get to hear Run Body Run, arguably her best album yet. The Manitoba-born, Toronto-based McNarland has mellowed somewhat since her edgier, more angst-filled earlier days, although Run Body Run still packs an ornery punch in quite a number of places. "Fish" conveys the dark, brooding vibe that McNarland can be so adept at conjuring up and it's also evident on the back half of the slow-building title track, where the singer really lets loose with her exceptional voice. "Run Body Run" is a tad on the repetitive side, essentially only consisting of three different chords, but the instrumental layers and emotion that emerge as the song unfolds are mighty powerful and make it a fitting album closer (check out her impressive solo acoustic performance of it here). Slow, melancholy songs are another specialty of the musician and there's four strong ones here, all demonstrating a distinct country influence: "Widow's Pane" (featuring some lovely twangy guitars), "After I'm Gone", "Darlin'", and "You'll Forget About Me". That last song is one of my favourite tracks on the album, but every time I listen to it I'm thrown off by the brief sound of some off-putting feedback right when the solo section begins at 2:47. It weirdly sounds exactly like the pitch of my microwave oven timer and the first time I listened to the track, I literally got up from my chair and went to check the appliance. Somewhere in the middle ground between McNarland's heartaching ballads and her more aggressive material lie songs like album opener "Alone's Just Fine" (a perfect example of less-is-more guitar craftsmanship with its bright and open ringing chords), the energetic "Only Money", "Dig A Little", and "Whisper". McNarland has always been adept at mixing a number of musical styles and there's no better example of that than Run Body Run, as pop, country, folk, and rock rub shoulders within the musician's highly melodic songs that favour the usage of quiet-loud dynamics. There's virtually no letdown throughout the album's 41 minute/10 track span, making Run Body Run one of the finest albums I've heard this year and an under the radar release you'd be well advised to seek out. Rating:A
Released theatrically in North America in July and August; available on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on December 21st I can't imagine a corporation being more horrified at their product appearing in a movie than KFC must have been when a bucket of their chicken appeared in a scene from Killer Joe, considering what happens with a drumstick from that bucket. Feminists probably won't be too enamoured with this movie, either. Killer Joe was adapted by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tracy Letts from his own 1993 play of the same name, with William Friedkin (best known for The French Connection and The Exorcist) directing the crime drama. The premise: Chris (played by Emile Hirsch) is a drug dealer who owes money to his boss, so he decides to kill his mother for her insurance money. Backed in his cockamamie plan by dim-witted father Ansel (played by Thomas Haden Church), skanky stepmother Sharla (played by Gina Gershon), and spaced-out sister Dottie (played by Juno Temple), Chris hires the services of Killer Joe Cooper (played by Matthew McConaughey), a local detective who moonlights as a contract killer. Chris is one of those movie characters with "hard-luck loser" written on him almost immediately, so it's hardly a surprise when things don't go quite as planned. Killer Joe is an exceptionally lurid piece of work that shows its colours early - in the opening scene, Sharla answers her trailer home door to her stepson and is naked from the waist down. All five main characters in this film are highly damaged individuals who no one in their right mind would want to spend any amount of time with in real life, with all but Killer Joe representing the trashiest of white trash. Only Dottie's virgin/whore character inspires any measure of sympathy, as her actions seem to be the result of simply not knowing any better. The bleak material of Killer Joe is quite well-acted by its cast; I was especially surprised at how engaged I became with McConaughey's and Hirsch's performances, since they're two actors I've never much cared for in the past. With the film being set in Texas, McConaughey's soft-spoken drawl feels right at home and his character commands the screen whenever he appears - this is clearly not a man to be screwed with. And yes, ladies, McConaughey doffs his shirt again in this movie...even more than that, in fact (certainly, he's looking a lot healthier here than he has recently after dropping a ton of weight for his latest film project). McConaughey may have the juiciest role, but Church has some of the best lines and the funniest scene, which involves a wardrobe malfunction (it's so good that I'm literally laughing out loud as I remember it now, even a few weeks after seeing this film). Gershon acquits herself well with some of the difficult material she has to tackle, notably that aforementioned scene involving the chicken, which I won't spoil the details of. That extremely uncomfortable-to-watch scene earned Killer Joe a dreaded NC-17 rating in the U.S. (18A in Canada), significantly limiting how many screens it could play on. The rating and the film's generally unsavoury tone probably explain why it came and went from theatres so quickly and quietly this past summer, earning less than $4 million worldwide at the box office. The not-for-everyone Killer Joe is far from a unique film-watching experience with its liberal usage of Tarantino-esque archetypes, but the impressive performances make it well worth a viewing. A strong stomach might benefit you, too. Rating:B-
Released in August One of the latest products in KISS' long line of cash grabs from diehard fans (and I used to be one for almost three decades) involves the latest reissue of their best album, 1976's Destroyer. Initially teased as a lavish deluxe edition featuring plenty of previously unreleased material, Destroyer (Resurrected) delivers next to nothing of value in the way of special extras. All that paying fans/suckers will get is one of the original album's tracks with a different guitar solo on it, a brief essay from Destroyer producer Bob Ezrin (who remixed the album to minimally noticeable effect), a few previously unseen photos, and the original album cover artwork. Artist Ken Kelley's originally intended piece was deemed to be too grim by the band's label, Casablanca Records, so Kelly added more colour and changed the band's outfits for the iconic replacement painting that ended up on the front of KISS' first platinum album. With virtually no worthwhile extras in the package to speak of, the main draw towards this reissue for fans will be Ezrin's remixes. A posting on the band's official website prior to Resurrected's release promised Ezrin had "fleshed out the drums and guitars, bringing out the bottom end to the bass, making his mixes tight and tough". Because I clearly don't have enough of a life, I conducted an experiment: through a good set of headphones, I went back and forth between listening to a song from the 1997 remastered Destroyer CD reissue and then following it with a listen to the same song on Resurrected. I'd like to think I have a pretty good ear and all I could hear on the supposed upgrade is an unnecessarily fiddled-with recording with some very minor differences, and perhaps some other subtle improvements that will stand out if you're one of the miniscule percentage of the population who earn their livings as audio engineers. I'm simply not hearing the advertised "punching up" of the original recording and only one enhancement was immediately obvious to me - the sound of some acoustic guitars that were previously buried in the mix on "Beth". Hearing them now supplement the orchestral foundation of the song is slightly interesting, but do I like the ballad any more after their unearthing? Nope...loved it before, love it just the same now. There are supposedly also some extra vocal tracks on the track, but I can't discern where they are. Other questionable vocal tinkering takes place on "Detroit Rock City", where an extra "Get up, get down" line is added during a chorus, as well as one word in the third verse being changed ("Movin' fast down 95" has been changed to "Movin' fast, doin' 95"...earth shattering, huh?). I've heard the original version of this song many hundreds of times and neither change was apparent to me upon my first three listens of the Resurrected version, until I read about them in another review and then went back and could make them out. The "extra track" is nothing more than the song "Sweet Pain" with the brief original solo from then-lead guitarist Ace Frehley edited in. His solo was shelved for Destroyer's release and replaced by a superior one from Dick Wagner, who Ezrin had worked with as a producer for Alice Cooper. And get this regarding the song "Flaming Youth": one of the digital versions of the track (the one I have and the one most likely to be purchased) and initial CD versions of it have a jarring flaw at the five second mark, where a half beat section from the song is missing (apparently the higher quality and pricier digital track on the iTunes store is okay). How on earth does something like that make it past the band or record company's quality control? I had a long history with this band until reaching the end of my rope with the levels to which KISS founding members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley will whore themselves out for a merchandising buck, along with other misguided career moves that tarnished a name that meant so much to me for the majority of my life. In a shameless KISS marketing universe that offers up crap like a KISS coffin, KISS footed pajamas, KISS/Hello Kitty toilet paper, and a new KISS book with a price tag of $4,250 (!), Destroyer (Resurrected) is a relatively less embarrassing example of the latest product to roll off the band's merchandising assembly line. Unfortunately, it does little to enhance an ambitious, truly classic rock album that has sounded just fine for the past 36 years. And for the record, I'll readily admit to reviewing this release from an illegally downloaded copy of the album (JPGs and some online research informed me as to what the album artwork and packaging consisted of). For some of you, that may totally negate the credibility of this review. All I'll say to that is I've already purchased Destroyer four times over the years: on vinyl, cassette, its first CD pressing, and the subsequent CD remaster in 1997. Considering how much I've soured on the band in recent years, there for damn sure was not going to be a fifth. Original Destroyer Rating:A Destroyer (Resurrected) Rating: D
Related posts: my October 2009 review of KISS' Sonic Boom album and my January 2010 review of Ace Frehley's Anomaly album
Released in May
After the disjointed guest vocalist approach Slash took on his last self-titled solo release (which I reviewed in 2010), Apocalyptic Love sees the musician sticking with the lead singer and touring band he used to support that album: a Canadian rhythm section consisting of drummer Brent Fitz (Union, Theory Of A Deadman, Alice Cooper) and bassist Todd Kerns (Age Of Electric), plus lead vocalist Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge), who contributed vocals to a couple of the Slash album songs. Collectively, the outfit is known as Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators - not very succinct, is it? The band name may be a little weak, but Apocalyptic Love is anything but, especially in comparison to the highly disappointing results from Slash's last outing. Had some guy named Eddie Van Halen not put out an album earlier this year, Apocalyptic Love would easily be my guitar album of the year.
Slash sticks to his strength with an album mostly consisting of the sleazy hard rock sound that turned him into a six-stringed icon with Guns N' Roses. The musician really airs it out over the course of the album's 13 tracks, with riff after wah-wah pedal-drenched riff that would assuredly flummox 99% of the guitarists in any band with an album currently on the Billboard 200 album chart, were they forced to recreate his licks. The acrobatic and greasy rhythm lead line he plays in the opening title track sets the tone for the album, with other standout solo turns on "Standing In The Sun", "You're A Lie", and "Shots Fired". The highlight of the album in terms of dynamic fretboard displays, though, is "Anastasia", where a classical acoustic guitar intro gives way to a neo-classical-influenced main electric riff, before eventually working its way towards the song's coda that recalls the epic Slash-led instrumental interplay on tracks like "Coma" and "Double Talkin' Jive" from GNR's Use Your Illusion I album. Slash's Chuck Berry influence is evident on solid tracks like "Hard & Fast" and "One Last Thrill", and there's also a couple of requisite power ballads with the bluesy "Far And Away" and the heavier, less memorable "Not For Me". Rounding out the other notable tracks are "Bad Rain", "We Will Roam", and "No More Heroes".
Slash was wise to rein in his collaborative process, which included leaving Kennedy to compose all of the lyrics (even if his words aren't terribly original) and co-write all but one of Apocalyptic Love's songs with him, resulting in an album that sounds remarkably more focussed than its predecessor and the best thing the guitarist has put out since the Use Your Illusion albums over two decades ago. I'd have thought Slash's former Velvet Revolver bandmate Scott Weiland would have been the guy that could get the guitarist to live up to his potential in his post-GNR years. Turns out that nod actually goes to the talented Kennedy, who, it should be noted, also sounds remarkably like Axl Rose at times, particularly when he pushes his voice into the higher octaves. Rating:A- Related post: my February review of Van Halen's A Different Kind Of Truth album
Released on Tuesday I won't go on about how Canadian artist Emm Gryner is a woefully underappreciated talent...I already did so in my probably gushing "Get to know Emm Gryner" post back in June. The Best Of nicely summarizes her career since the musician's 1995 debut album release of And Distrust It, with 18 songs that range from aching ballads to highly infectious pop. The first 1000 CD copies of The Best Of come with a bonus disc comprised of 19 more career-spanning tracks. As usual, anyone who put in an early pre-order for the album on her website received their CD signed and a heartfelt note from the musician, an always appreciated personal touch from Gryner. The album booklet also features brief, but illuminating recollections of all of the main disc's songs. I'm more partial to the mid-to-present-day portion of Gryner's career, so there's a few omissions from her more recent work that are missed, such as her memorable duet with Sass Jordan on "Sunrise Sometimes", "Leftover Love", and "Black-Eyed Blue Sky". Most head-scratching, however, is the absence of "Sweet Destroyer". I'd listened to each of The Best Of discs once before I realized the song was nowhere to be found on either, which completely shocked me. Frankly, it'd be in a dead heat with "North" as my favourite Gryner song. Out of curiosity, I went and looked up the 15 songs I picked a few months back for a Gryner best-of playlist compiled for some friends and family and found it interesting that only five of my picks matched up with those assembled on The Best Of's main disc. But listen, the last thing I want to do is turn this into a petty bitch session when it involves an artist I admire so much. These types of compilation releases will never please everybody, especially if your aim is to provide a representation of your entire body of work, as Gryner has done here (she also sought tracklisting feedback from fans on Facebook). That some of my favourite tracks might not appear and The Best Of remains a fantastic collection of songs is a testament to the bounty of first-rate music that Gryner has produced over the years. Again, just sticking to what's on the main disc, it's difficult to argue with the inclusion of earlier tracks like "Summerlong", "Your Sort Of Human Being", "Stereochrome", and her haunting piano-driven covers of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" and Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me". The Summer Of High Hopes album is deservingly well-represented with four essential tracks: "Girls Are Murder", Blackwinged Bird", "Almighty Love", and "All-Time Low", so that might explain the omission of "Sweet Destroyer", which also appeared on that release. Her uplifting duet with Nova Scotia's Joel Plaskett on "Gold Soul Of Rock N Roll", "Ciao Monday", and "North" round out the tracks representing Gryner's last couple of years of work. The two funked-up new songs (one on each disc), "Trans Am" and "Live Like Legends", are worthy additions to Gryner's catalogue, while additional one-per-disc bonus tracks "The Winter" and "Safety In Solitude" offer a welcome taste of the musician's earliest professional work for those of us fans who have never been able to track down the long-unavailable And Distrust It. "Safety In Solitude" is particularly impressive, with a bigger orchestral sound than I would have expected from Gryner's first outing. Coming up for Gryner is the November 6th release of her next project as part of the trio Trent Severn, with Dayna Manning and Laura C. Bates. Sweet harmony vocals and a celebration of Canadiana is promised. After that, Gryner teases in the note she included in The Best Of that her next solo release "might be a rock record", which is certainly interest-piquing as someone who shares her love of 80s hard rock. Rating:A Sample Gryner's music at her SoundCloud page and purchase it at iTunes. Below is a video of her performance of "North" from the CBC studios...yes, I already included the video with my June review of Gryner's Northern Gospel album, but it's so damn good that I thought it merited another posting.
Released earlier this month The Tragically Hip are a group that I've always found enigmatic. Probably only second to Rush as Canada's most beloved rock band (apologies to The Guess Who), the Kingston, Ontario outfit has a history of eliciting either very hot or very cold responses to their albums from me. Back when I actually listened to the radio, I'd immediately reach for the tuner when anything off their first three releases was played (and tracks like "Blow At High Dough", "New Orleans Is Sinking", "Last American Exit", and "Little Bones" were played ad nauseum on Toronto-area rock stations back then). Then 1992's Fully Completely came out and I was transformed from a hater into a lover, albeit on a selective level - I still can't stand their earliest material. To this day, Fully Completely remains one of the best albums in my music collection. Its follow-up (Day For Night) was good, but far less memorable, and the next album (Trouble At The Henhouse) had the outstanding "Ahead By A Century" and little else that left a lasting impression. "Bobcaygeon" from 1998 was the last good Hip song I'd hear for the next decade, as their output during that time either flew underneath my radar, or the singles I did hear failed to stir any interest. Fast forward to 2009, where I find myself emphatically hopping back on board the Hip bandwagon after sampling their We Are The Same album on a whim and being knocked on my ass at how good it was. Which brings us to their 13th studio release, Now For Plan A, promoted by the band with a series of live performances at a Now For Plan A store they opened for four days in Toronto's Kensington market area the week of the album's release. Now For Plan A is a worthy successor to We Are The Same, similarly delivering a high level of quality throughout nearly all of the album's eleven tracks ("Streets Ahead" is a bit of a dud), including what I think are a couple of candidates for some of the strongest work the group has ever created in the title track and "We Want To Be It". "Now For Plan A" opens with a 75 second instrumental section constructed of shimmering guitars and light percussive touches that lend the laid-back track a dreamy quality, with guest vocalist Sarah Harmer contributing some beautiful harmony vocals that nicely compliment those of vocalist Gord Downie (Harmer also sings on "The Lookahead"). "We Want To Be It" and its insanely catchy verses and choruses just may be the best Hip song I've ever heard, as Downie's idiosyncratic vocal style is on full display via his oddball "drip, drip, drip" refrain (listen below). Downie's weirdness can be alienating (witness the batty extended live version of "New Orleans Is Sinking" where Downie goes off on a monologue that has him having a conversation with a killer whale), but on Now For Plan A, I find it adds an extra measure of attraction to the material. Certainly, "We Want To Be It" would be a less interesting piece of work without that quality, which also manifests itself in the track's unorthodox lyrical structure. The first few lines of "About This Map" also stand out with some unconventional wordplay: About this map/Here we are here/See, this is us/The exit is here. On paper, those lines shouldn't work, but Downie somehow makes it come together effectively. Now For Plan A is fairly evenly split between poppier material and songs that rock a little more, such as the dark album opener "At Transformation", "Man Machine Poem", and "Take Forever". Further standout tracks: the captivating ballad "Done And Done" and album closer "Goodnight Attawapiskat", referencing the Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario that made headlines last year during a housing crisis in their community. The Tragically Hip are a perfect example of one of those groups whose bar band sound shouldn't sound unique, but somehow does - you know who it is after only hearing a few seconds of music, before Downie even injects his eccentricities into the mix. I listened to a few of Now For Plan A's songs specifically trying to figure out what gives them that identifiable sound - is it a particular method of mixing/production, or signature styles from drummer Johnny Fay, bassist Gord Sinclair, and guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois? I'm just not hearing anything unique. Whatever method they employ to generate that standalone instrumental identity, it and Downie's signature quirkiness has definitely been working for them to great effect lately. Based on my track record with this band, I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to how much I'll like what the Hip are coming up with ten years from now, though. Rating:B
Released in September Sadly, Dokken is not so rockin' any more. It's a step up from their last album, 2008's forgettable Lightning Strikes Again, but the hard rock band's latest release sounds like the product of an outfit that is both going through the motions and whose songwriting skills have deteriorated dramatically since their 80s heyday. So it's probably for the best, then, that this looks like it'll be the last Dokken album, as frontman Don Dokken recently told Classic Rock magazine. Studio album number eleven, Broken Bones, finds yet another new configuration of musicians in a band that's had a perpetually increasing number of lineups over their career. The only constants have been founding members Dokken (who by now has lost a ton of his high end vocal range) and drummer Mick Brown, who made news this past summer by getting arrested for a drunken golf cart-stealing escapade after a gig he played with Ted Nugent (click the link for the amusing details and Brown's even more amusing mug shot). Newest addition Sean McNabb, a hard rock journeyman bassist, joins guitarist Jon Levin, who has been with the group for almost a decade and interestingly also pulls double duty as their lawyer. Levin's playing is probably the best thing about Broken Bones, which is steeped in cliched lyrics and song titles that point to the album's mostly uninspired vibe. Granted, Dokken have never been singled out for their lyrical depth or originality, but one look at titles like "Best Of Me", "The Victim Of The Crime", "Burning Tears", "Today", "For The Last Time", "Fade Away", and "Tonight" gives you an idea of what you're in for before a note is heard. Mostly sticking with the Dokken topical staple of relationships gone sour, a lot of the lyrics are no better: Still these broken bones within my soul remain/Even as your shadow slowly slips away ("Broken Bones"); Sweet little sister, what have you done?/Sweet little sister, are you still on the run? (and some other such nonsense involving tears tasting like bitter rain in the song "Fade Away"). You get the idea. Dokken's musical ideas are, for the most part, only slightly better than Broken Bones' trite prose, with album highlights "For The Last Time" and "Fade Away" injecting a bit of life into things following a sleepy mid-album stretch. The former's effective quiet/loud and slow/fast dynamic stands out on an album overloaded with mid-tempo material and features some George Lynch-worthy guitar soloing from the impressive Levin. Following a burning album opener in "Empire" that demonstrates Dokken's knack of usually producing memorable results when they ratchet up the pace and heaviness level, someone inexplicably decided to bunch three of those mid-tempo songs together (the title track, "Best Of Me", and "Blind"), killing Broken Bones' out-of-the-gate momentum with material that feels completely interchangeable. Broken Bones has a small handful of quite fine moments, but is mostly saddled with the kind of filler-heavy material the band has been padding their albums with for their entire career. Look elsewhere for your melodic hard rock fix. Rating:C-
Related post: my 2009 blog entry featuring the hilarious "Dokken vs. Chicken" commercial the band did for software company Norton
