Challenged to Post, "Without Comment"

[It's been a minute since I wrote something here, but I thought I'd put this out there so I could easily reference it later should it become needed.]

Someone has challenged you over the next X days to post on some media platform pictures of:

 - Your favorite albums of all time.

 - The movies that were most influential on you.

 - The books could you read over and over.

 - The [some way of pretending to get random things] photo(s) on your phone. [1]

 - The food you blah blah blah . . . 

 - The place(s) you would yadda yadda yadda . . .

 - etc, etc, etc.

Let's be clear, I'm not opposed to these sorts of things.  I most likely am interested in what you might have to share.  After all, the reason we are ostensibly friends on whatever social media platform this is occurring on is because we both chose to be.  Thus, I probably care some amount about you and am interested at least on some level about who you are, what you care about, and other parts of you life.

But here's the supposed kicker, you have to post them, "without comment".  

Though I'm probably reading more dramatic emphasis into it than is really there, I always imagine it more like:

"I was challenged to post this, WITHOUT COMMENT!"  [Dum, dum, dummmmmmm!] [2]

But the question is, why?

Why wouldn't you comment?  What point is there to the whole thing if you don't comment?

Oh, here's some photo that seems important . . .

 . . .but I've no idea why.

Hey look, they like a movie that 90% of people like . . . 

 . . .  what a non-surprise.

They've read that famous book . . . 

. . . that millions of other people have read too.  

Complete non-shocker, and honestly, I don't care.

Of course if you were to comment then suddenly I do care.  Because now I know that the reason you picked that photo was because of [something meaningful and/or interesting].

Or maybe it wasn't.  Maybe you just like the way you look in that photo.  Or you just want to show the world your cute kid(s).

Maybe you just like that movie because of that one fight scene.  Or that one line.  Or because of that hot actor/actress is in it.  

And I suspect that's one of the real reasons people are so pleased to post "without comment".  Because they have nothing to say beyond, "I liked this."  Because their 10 things are completely banal and in truth uninteresting. 

A second reason is probably that after posting and commenting on 1 picture of their kid/dog/self/whatever that fulfills the requirement of this supposed challenge, they would really have nothing left to say on days 2 through 10.

A third reason, and most likely to most applicable is that people are lazy.

So, before I wrap this up.  Let me actually challenge you.

The next time someone "challenges" you to post pictures of whatever "without comment", I challenge you to completely ignore the lets 'o', 'u' and 't' in the word "without" and to post them WITH comments.

Because let's be honest.  One of the main reasons you accepted this "challenge" is that you were hoping people will think the things you picked are cool/interesting/say something about you, and/or that you want people to talk with you about it.  

There's nothing wrong with that, so skip the hoping someone will take the lame bait of a pic with no comments and start the conversation yourself.  

I for one will be way more likely to: 

 - pay attention

 - think about what you've posted for more than half a second

 - post a comment

And if the person who challenged you complains about your changing the rules, just reply to them with a link to this post.

Challenged to Post "Without Comment": D-

[1] - This is "Pretending to be random" because: A) if the randomly selected picture isn't something you want others to see; or B) isn't cool enough; or C) you really want to pick some other picture, we all know your just going to pick whatever you want.

[2] - That's a bad attempt at dramatic sounding music.

Zooey vs Darius

A Very She & Him Christmas (2011) vs Darius Rucker: Home For The Holidays [1] (2014):

I acquired both of these albums very recently [2] and I guess in the interest of full disclosure I should reveal that I haven't actually finished listening to the Darius Rucker CD yet. [3]

A Very She & Him Christmas is what some might call minimalist.  There's Zooey Deschanel and there's Matt Ward and there are the smallest number of instruments possible on every song.  The instruments are played softly, the songs are sung low and the whole thing proceeds at a pace that would make a turtle say, "Dude, that's kind of slow." [4]

Nevertheless the CD is very enjoyable.  Again, if you are looking for something to sing or dance to at your Christmas get together this is not the disc for you.  However if you want something to play in the background while you're wrapping presents or having a romantic date during the holiday season you need look no further.

Some of the reviews I read online said that they found Zooey's singing flat, emotionless or just plain bad.  But I suspect those people were missing the point.  She isn't trying to set new holiday cheer world records, nor is she trying to out sing previous performers or the instruments.  The entire thing is meant to be slow, low and dreamy.

One song of note is their version of Baby It's Cold Outside.  In an interesting twist, they switched the roles and she sings part usually sung by the guy.  It worked well for me.  The Pook said she liked it better than most other versions of the song. [5]

A Very Hootie Christmas is exactly what you expect it to be.  It's Hootie.  He's singing your favorite Christmas songs [6] in a way that sounds exactly like Hootie singing Christmas songs.  He's got that resonant deep voice.  The music is grand and full.  This is exactly the CD you want playing in the background at a Christmas party.  It's great.

A Very She & Him Christmas (2011):  B+

Darius Rucker: Home For the Holidays [1] (2014): A


[1] - A.K.A. - A Very Hootie Christmas
[2] - "Acquired" meaning bought on Amazon and "recently" meaning yesterday.
[3] - Of course that isn't going to stop me from grading it.
[4] - What?  Everyone knows turtles are kind of hip in an old school way and say things like "dude" all the time.
[5] - But then again the Pook hates that song.  She calls it the "date rape song".
[6] - Including Baby It's Cold Outside.  Sorry Pook.

Led Zeppelin IV and Taylor Swift Red

Led Zeppelin IV and Taylor Swift Red:

I wandered into my local Disc-Go-Round [1] looking for a David Bowie CD [2].  I was unable to find the Bowie disc, so I began browsing looking to see if something else caught my eye. [3]  It was then I remembered that my music collection was sadly lacking in that I actually didn't own any Zeppelin. [4]  So I picked up Zeppelin IV and then Taylor Swift's Red CD caught my eye.  I also didn't own any of her CD's, but in one of those weird serendipitous cosmic sets of coincidences, she and her music had come up a lot in several recent unconnected conversations and programs. [5]  So I took it as a sign that I should get both.

Before I actually gave either a listen it seemed obvious that this would be a perfect opportunity to compare the two.  If not necessarily a fair two things to compare.

Granted that while as I previously mentioned I didn't own and had never owned any Zeppelin CD's before,  [6] I have heard plenty of their songs.  As for Taylor Swift, I think I could count the number of her songs I'd previously heard on one hand and I probably couldn't name the title of a single one, save Blank Space. [7]

So without further ado, after having twice listened to both CD's completely, a comparison of Led Zeppelin IV and Taylor Swift's Red.

1) Length:

Zeppelin IV has eight tracks on it.  Red has sixteen.  Personally if I get a CD and it only has eight songs I usually feel kind of ripped off.  [8]  There are exceptions to the rule, Donald Fagan's Nightfly for example.  Of course there are also CD's that have plenty more songs, but it's clear that the artist was scraping things off the sides of barrel to fill up the disc.  So, I'd rather have a shorter disc of awesome songs, than a longer one of crap.  Sixteen songs is on the other side of the spectrum.  Too many songs and I've quit paying attention by the end.  Surely not all sixteen of these are quality?

In these instances both are exceptions to the rule.  Zeppelin IV is eight songs and there is nothing you regret hearing.  They could have put more, but the CD is enough.  Red goes on for sixteen, but there is nothing you want taken out of the list.

The Winner: A tie.

2) Catchy-ness of songs:  

There is no denying that the Zeppelin songs have staying power.  Of the eight songs, I already knew five of them by heart and I was at least familiar with one of the others (Battle of Evermore).  Thus only two of them were relatively unfamiliar to me (Four Sticks, When the Levee Breaks).

I don't think I'd ever heard a single song off of Red before.[9]  Of course I don't typically listen to any radio station that would be playing Taylor Swift songs, so it's possible they are all played non-stop somewhere else on the dial. [10]  There were several of the songs that I caught myself singing later (22, Stay Stay Stay, and Red at the minimum.)  But that was immediately after listening to the disc and I haven't done it again since.

The Winner: Zeppelin

3) Replayability:

Granted this is a lot like the previous topic, but it is not the same.  Uncatchy songs would lead to low replayability, but catchy songs that don't go together, go on too long, or are too much the of the same [11] make CD's non-replayable as well.

Zeppelin IV has decent replayability.  Again since five of the eight songs are legitimate hits, even if you don't particularly like the other three, you need only wait a few minutes and you're back to a hit.  However, the songs do all have a very similar feel to them.  The same guitar sound that pretty much defines Zeppelin dominates all of the songs and let's face it Robert Plant pretty much sounds the same every time as well. [12]

Red also has decent replayability.  The CD is sixteen songs, but there is quite a range of styles and sounds. For instance, some of the CD sounds downright country.  Others are clearly rock, pop or a kind of bluesy romantic.  Swift also sings in a variety of styles.  The result is a lot of variety that keeps the CD fresh sounding.

The Winner: Swift [13]

4) Topics of songs

As previously stated my exposure to Taylor Swift is limited to these sixteen songs and a handful of others.  So, perhaps this next statement isn't true, but it sure seems it to me.

Here is a story line:

A) Girl desires boy [14]
B) Girl and boy start seeing each other
C) It gets serious
D) Everything is wonderful
E) Conflict and tension arrises
F) Things aren't going so good
G)They either resolve things (go back to "D") or things fall apart (go on to "H")
H) They break up
I) Girl thinks back on relationship
J) Go back to "A" [15]

Every single Taylor Swift song follows this story line.  EVERY SINGLE ONE.  Granted some of them do not go through the entire story and may only focus on one, two or three parts of it.  But they are all there.  I know this is true for her Red album because I realized this halfway through the first listening and so on the second listening I identified where in the story line each song was.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, [16] and I'm sure there are people who really, really, really like focusing on that topic, but for me it gets kind of worn out.

Zeppelin IV does not have this problem.  Sure there are some songs here about girls.  There is also a song that just about walking around the city and stuff happens (Misty Mountain Hop), a song about rock and roll  and girls (Rock and Roll), a song about trying to buy your way into the afterlife (Stairway to Heaven) and a song about the battle between good and evil [17] (Battle of Evermore).  If I have a complaint about the CD it's that there are times when the songs seem to lose their continuity.  Honestly there are times when I think Plant no longer knows what he's talking about and is just filling space with lines that rhyme.

The Winner: Zeppelin IV by a long shot.

5) Cuteness of Artist

Have you looked at recent pictures of Plant?  Even at their best the guys from Zeppelin are kind of shaggy, and unkempt.  And I don't know why, but I suspect that they didn't necessarily smell so good either.

Taylor Swift is gorgeous.  There are sometimes where she has this slight oddness and angularity to her look that I can't quite put my finger on, but whatever.  She's a hottie.

The Winner: Taylor Swift by a really really long shot.

Doing a quick tally the verdict is 2.5 for Zeppelin IV and 2.5 for Taylor Swift's Red.  Thus a tie and a need for a tie breaker category.

Here it is:

Tie Breaker: If I was out of space on my iPhone which would I delete first to make space?

Taylor Swift's good looks notwithstanding, Red would get deleted without a second thought.

The Final Winner: Led Zeppelin IV


Led Zeppelin IV: A-
Taylor Swifts- Red: A-

[1] - Except I've already lied to you as it is now a CD Warehouse and hasn't been Disc-Go-Round in years. I evidently have issues with change.
[2] - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars to be specific.  Perhaps I have a problem with letting go of the past instead.
[3] - This was one of those rare moments when I'm child free and suddenly find that I am free to browse and not focused on just keeping the Bean from destroying the universe.
[4] - I know.  I know.  Please don't tell anyone.  I've gotten past it now.
[5] - Mostly stuff on the radio (NPR ftw), but also on other media types
[6] - Unless the Encomium tribute album counts and it shouldn't.
[7] - But only because it was the topic of one of the coincidental Taylor Swift occurrences that had occurred in the previous couple days.
[8] - Counting Crows don't think I didn't note that your newest 11 track offering includes two demo versions of two of the songs, so really only has nine songs.  You aren't fooling anyone.
[9] - It's possible I heard 22 before, but I don't think I actually had.  More likely is that I heard someone else singing snippets of it.
[10] - But I doubt that.
[11] - Any Boston CD for example.
[12] - Changing volume level or speed doesn't count.
[13] - But just barely.
[14] - Typically one if not both of them are of the "bad girl" or "bad boy" variety
[15] - Usually with a new boy
[16] - Especially if you are a teenage high school or college girl who's life is surrounded by that kind of drama.
[17] - And maybe a little Tolkein

Paramore - Paramore

Paramore (by Paramore):

I previously talked about Paramore's first album Riot! some time ago.  If you are interested in that post it's here: Paramore: Riot!. [1]  Somewhere between now and then I got one of Paramore's other albums  [2] but wasn't nearly so struck with it as their first.  And lo time did pass.

This year for my birthday, I happened to get their latest album, which is self-titled.

Riot! was an album that grabbed you with it's punk/emo hands and shook you about [3] and didn't let up until it was good and ready.  It made no promise to be anything other than that and it came through on that promise beautifully.

Well, this Paramore is not that Paramore.

But wait!  That is a good thing.

The new album has already made it completely through twice during my daily driving and when I leave home in about an hour, it will begin its third. [4]

The music on the CD is as varied as . . . something that's really varied. [5]  There are still plenty of good punk/emo songs that you hear and can instantly see the connection back to Riot! [6]  But there are a lot of other great songs that come from places so very very different.

To give you two examples:

"Ain't It Fun" is the sixth song on the album and it sounds like it came directly off an early Michael Jackson CD.

The thirteenth song is "Hate To See Your Heart Break" and it sounds so much like a Fleetwood Mac song, that when I got home today I actually checked the CD's liner notes to see if the names Nicks, Buckingham, McVie or Fleetwood appeared anywhere. [7]

Just in case I haven't been clear enough, all of this is a very good thing.  The album has quirky interludes and a general theme that bring it all together and tie it all up in a very neat bow and in the end it is all still so very punk and so very Paramore.

Paramore: A-

[1] - Though I have to say having just reread the post, it doesn't really thrill me (the post, not the CD).
[2] - For the record it was Brand New Eyes
[3] - In a good way
[4] - Which is a good sign and usually doesn't happen.
[5] - Yes, I realize that is exceedingly weak sauce.
[6] - I know that they have a CD from before Riot!, but I don't have it, so I can't really comment on it.
[7] - They don't.

Les Miserables

Les Miserables: I suspect I might step on some toes here, but let me officially go on record as saying, 'meh'.

Having heard about this musical for years, I was expecting more.  Granted I have never seen the Broadway version [1] but I was moderately intrigued.  I had heard snippets of songs and such from various outlets. [2]  So, I had a small amount of preset expectations.

They weren't really met.

I'm led to believe that the movie version tried to make the singing more like acting and less like singing, [3] but whatever it it they were shooting for, it didn't thrill me.

For instance, I always imagined the "I'm Jean Valjean" song as being very emphatic at the end.  Sort of an "I'M JEAN VALJEAN!!!!!!!!!!!! and if the rest of the world doesn't like it, they can bite me!" vibe.  But when I saw it in the movie it was more like, "Say, does anyone know my name?  Oh yeah, that's right.  I'm [mumbles]."

Also sorry Russell, but stick to Roman warriors and crazy scientist.

In truth, at one point I thought to myself, "You know, I could fall asleep right now if they would just stop singing."   Okay it wasn't that bad, but I did find myself a bit bored at times.

I think part of the problem was that the scope of time covered caused them to go a pretty quick pace through the plot.  Thus everything felt way too full of emotions that were not yet warranted.  I'll see if I can capture the idea in a quick scene:

Bob and Carl walk down the street. [4]  They see someone on the other side of the road.

Bob: Who is that over there?  I don't think I have ever seen that person before in my entire life.
Carl: Me neither.  But I love her forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bob: I think it's a dude.
Carl: I hate him forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, that kind of captures it.

With out really giving away anything that might happen in a musical entitled, "The Miserable", one of the characters commits suicide.  When that was happening, I was a bit perplexed.  From what I could tell the character seemed to have a pretty good life, except that every few years he would bump into one of the other characters.  Suicide seemed a trifle bit of an over-reaction.

I understand that I've completely misinterpreted the relationship between the two, but that's sort of my point.  It wasn't really developed.  Everything in the musical happened so fast, with no real build up.

You have a job.
You're fired.
You're a prostitute with no teeth or hair.

Say what?

Also, now that I'm thinking about it, in that scene I made up, I should have actually called Carl by the name Marius.  I don't think there has ever been a more mercurial character in a movie.

I'm ready to die for the revolution.
Ooh! A pretty girl.  Forget that, I'm in love.
Wait, give me a gun, let's fight!
My love is true forever!
To the barricade!

He was like an otter spying a succession of shiny objects.  I don't envy Cosette trying to keep him faithful. [5]

I could write more about this and that, but I'll let it go.  Let me just finish by saying that I hope Russel and Hugh hit puberty soon.

Les Miserables: C-

[1] - Neither live or otherwise.
[2] - The radio, the Internet, the Pook.
[3] - Or some sort of nonsense like that.
[4] - I swear I picked those names at random.  Any relevance to janitors, sci-fi or otherwise, is purely coincidental.
[5] - Or alive.

Into the Great Wide Open

Into the Great Wide Open: I've always been a big Tom Petty fan.  At the end of the 80's and in the beginning of the 90's he changed his style from his previous heavier, more metal sound [1] to a cleaner, poppier sound.

The first album to come out this way was the solo effort, Full Moon Fever in 1989.  The most notable song from that one is Free Falling.

Two years later he reunited with the Heartbreakers to continue the sound on Into the Great Wide Open. [2]

There's nothing about this album that I don't like.  Every song is a keeper from the opening track (Learning to Fly) to the last (Built to Last).

I would try and tell you about a few favorites, but then I'd just have to go track by track through the whole album, because I literally like every single one of them.

Just do me a favor and give it a listen.

Into the Great Wide Open: A+

[1] - Note I did not say he was metal.  I said the sound was more metal.
[2] - Wildflowers finished up the trio of albums in '94.  His first greatest hits also came out during this stint.  It included the new song, Mary Jane's Last Dance which has the same general sound.

 

Prolonging the Magic

Prolonging the Magic: This is an album by the band Cake.  You remember Cake, they had a big hit with The Distance [1] off of their Fashion Nugget album.  Except that wasn't Cake.  I mean it was Cake that put out the album and sang the song, but it wasn't really Cake.  For that album they got a new producer or somesuch that totally "redesigned" the band to make them more marketable.  The result was The Distance and while it did well on the charts and all that, it made Cake into not Cake.[2] Prolonging the Magic is the album after that where Cake said 'forget that nonsense we're going to be Cake and not not Cake.'[3]

This is a great album.  They've really hit the stride they were trying to find in their first album and were forced to partially move away from in their second.  It's got all of the goodness you expect from Cake: sarcastic lyrics delivered in a serious voice, obscure references scattered throughout, trumpets scattered throughout and the band using everything that they can think of as a musical instrument.[4]

Some of my favorite songs off of the album are Sheep Go to Heaven, Cool Blue Reason, When You Sleep and even Satan is Motor.  If you want to give yourself a chuckle surf around the various 'lyrics meanings'   websites and see what people say this song is about.  On one sight there were about twenty different explanations, each one containing a section in which the erstwhile explainer politely apologizes to all of the previous posts about correcting them for how wrong the previous explanations were and how right theirs is.[5]

Also there's a pig on the CD cover.  That's got to be worth some positive points.

Prolonging the Magic: A






[1] - He's going the distance.  He's going for speed.  He's all alone (all alone) in his time of need.
[2] - What?  Are you confused?
[3] - Except that they didn't literally say that, but it would have been cool if they had.
[4] - I sometimes think the band tried to be a part of Stomp but got rejected for using things for instruments that were just too weird.
[5] - fwiw I am not 100% sure what it means but I do know that McCrea (the song writer) has emphatically stated that it is not a satanic song.  Personally I think it's just saying that we can dress ourselves up in shiny clothes and look nice, but were all base impulses on the inside.

Riot! (By Paramore)

Riot!: I first heard of Paramore when one of my friends gave another of my friends this CD as a gift.[1]  And then at another gift giving event, another copy was given.  However, my friends musical taste tend to be a bit scattered, so I didn't really give it much attention.

The first time I actually heard a Paramore song was on Rock Band 2.  The song was "That's What You Get."  That was probably enough to get me to buy the CD right there, but before that could happen we downloaded the additional track Crushcrushcrush.  I'm pretty sure I bought the CD the next day.

The other big song from the CD is Misery Business and all are excellent and pretty typical of the whole CD.  Fast beat.  Generally peppy at a minimum.  Good lyrics.  Etc. Etc.[2]

Anway, the more important bit about Paramore is the lead singer.  Actually, I have no idea what her name is or anything about her other than the fact that she was pretty young at the time the CD came out.

Fine, I'll go do some research.  Hold please . . . .

. . . okay, I'm back.

The lead singer is Hayley Williams and at the time Riot! was released she was 18.  But that's not really the point.  Or rather it's tangential to the point.  The point is that when the CD came out the lead singer was 18 and I was more than twice that.

I love music and have a lot of CD's, my iPhone currently has 6100 songs on it, etc. etc.  But generally, up until this point, the singers had always been older, the same age or at most marginally younger than me.[3]  But this band was made up of teenagers.

That of course got me to thinking if that actually mattered.  Does the age of the band members matter when compared to the age of the listener?

To state it more clearly, did an eighteen year old have anything to say that was relevant to me or was I fooling myself?  Was it possible to age yourself out of "new" music?

The answer is, of course, no.

Why is it any more strange that someone older than a band likes their music than when someone significantly younger than a band does?  I hadn't given a thought to buying a new Paul McCartney album and he's 28 years older than me.

Granted you won't find me in the crowd, body-surfing or in the mosh pit at a Paramore concert[4], but then again you won't find me at McCartney concert either.  Concerts usually continue until way after my bed time.

Riot!: A

[1] - Christmas or Birthday I forget which.  And yes, I do too have friends.
[2] - The Interweb calls it "Emo, Pop-Punk"
[3] - I realize that isn't actually true, but that's how it felt anyway.
[4] - Or whatever it is those crazy kids do at concerts these days.

California 37 (By Train)

California 37: I didn't think it would be possible for Train to follow up Save Me San Francisco with an equally great album.  Well they didn't.  If anything this one is better.

Granted I don't think there is a single hit on the album that will be able to touch the success of Hey, Soul Sister, but on the other hand this album doesn't really have any low points.  I like every song on the CD and upon first listening to the CD when it finished I promptly listened to it again and again.*

It's got the usual Train mixture of different musical styles and great lyrics.  My personal faves off the album are 50 Ways to Say Goodbye, Bruises, Drive By, This'll Be My Year and well really the whole CD.

If I have any problem with the CD it's that it does have a kind of darker undertone.  Several of the songs talk about heaven, dying and such.  It was enough to make me go search the Interweb to see if his wife was sick or something.  But evidently not.**

Anyway, to sum it up great album.  Go buy it.

Calilfornia 37: A

* - Trust me, three plays in a row is a rare occurrence.
** - Which is a good thing.

Maroon (by Barenaked Ladies)

In looking over the various posts I've had so far, I noticed there was not a lot of music, which is really odd because generally I listen to music much more than I read books and watch movies or TV.  I know in part it is because generally when I listen to music, I listen to my iPhone on shuffle or on a playlist of random songs and that doesn't really lend itself to grading (and therefore to posts).  So, I decided to make a conscious effort to listen to whole CD's.*

Maroon: This was the fifth album of the Barenaked Ladies and (in my opinion) anyway is the last of what was their best several CD's.  They really started to hit their stride with Born on a Pirate Ship.  Then came Stunt and then Maroon.

Now I'm not saying that they didn't have any good stuff after that, **  but as a whole the albums don't really measure up.  Which brings me (finally) to the first of two things I wanted to say in this post.

I don't understand why people are often so keen to not let themselves be identified by their success.  To explain, as I understand it, the guys in BNL felt like people were looking at them like they were the "Clowns of Rock and Roll"*** and so after Maroon they decided to try and make "more serious" music.

Why?

In the space of three albums**** they went from not quite completely obscure Canadian band to impossibly huge***** super popular band.  What's wrong with that, even if it is because people know you for writing quirky songs?  I love the BNL albums from that time and anyone who really likes the band enough to listen to whole albums (and not just the top radio songs) will see that you aren't just about clowning around.  And the people who don't listen to the albums now aren't going to start if you suddenly make them serious.

And it isn't just musicians who do this.  Actors will also suddenly quit off a popular hit show because they don't want people to think they are just that one character or because they think people love them so much they will flock to second or third tier movies they get cast in.******

My point is why kill the goose that's laying golden eggs?  Okay yes in this metaphor you are a goose pooping, but it is gold poop!


The second thing this album brings up is me making fun of people who review albums.*******  I remember when Maroon came out and I was either reading or listening to a review and they said something along the lines of, "BNL once again shows that they are able to take disparate images and weave them together."  To cite proof of that the reviewer brought up this series of lines.

Got a big chip.
You want a fat lip?
How 'bout a mouth full of Chiclets

Seriously?  Those are lines that have nothing to do with each other?  Did you bother to think at all before you wrote this review?  I don't think you did.

If I have somehow offended the person who wrote the review let me just say that I do not apologize.  If you'd like, I'll knock the chip off of your shoulder and punch you in the mouth.  If I did you might lose some teeth and gosh loose teeth are small white rectangles.  A lot like Chiclets, wouldn't you say?********

Anyway, the album is great.  I recommend Humour of the Situation as a song you probably haven't heard before but is classic BNL goodness.  If there is any song that I don't like 100% it is the bonus track "Hidden Sun".  It's kind of slow and depressing, but it is a fitting cool down after the activity of the rest of the album.

Maroon: A

* - Hopefully that doesn't make you sad.
** - I like BNL a lot and I own every album. (Hang on, let me check to make sure that isn't a lie.)  Okay, except for a rarities CD I'm telling the truth.  (btw, this confirmation accomplished with the power of Amazon.com)
*** - I may be misremembering the exact phrase I heard in one of their interviews, but that was the gist of it.
**** - Really in the space of two albums (Born on a Pirate Ship and Stunt).
***** - In a cultural consciousness sense and not necessarily a monetary one.
****** - Shelley Long, Anthony Edwards and Eric La Salle to name three off of the top of my head.  (Of course, George Clooney is laughing at me right now.)  And I bet most of the cast of Friends is thinking that a new TV show called "Still Friends" or "Friends Again" is sounding pretty good right now.
******* - Say Mr. B isn't that you just now?  (Hush.)
******** - Apparently I've been carrying around a bit of hostility for twelve years or so.

 

Underwater Sunshine (Counting Crows)

Underwater Sunshine (or what we did on our summer vacation) (Counting Crows)  It used to be commonplace for bands to record and release cover versions of other people's songs* and I think most people enjoy hearing their favorite bands singing good songs by other bands.  So when I found out that this album by Counting Crows was actually all cover versions I was pretty excited.  Upon reading the liner notes, I found out that it "was an unintentional theme . . . that a lot of the songs on this record aren't well known."**  Which made me less excited. Of the fifteen songs on the CD, I was actually familiar with five of them.  However, all of the songs have that distinctive Counting Crows sound.  So even if you haven't heard of any of these songs and assuming you like Counting Crows*** then the CD sounds like a bunch of Counting Crows songs.  Personally, I found the first half of the CD to be the weaker half.  Things picked up more at the end, but then again most of the songs I already knew were on the back half, so that may have had something to do with it.  In the end, this is not one of my favorite Counting Crows albums**** but it's definitely something that I will play again.*****

Underwater Sunshine: B



* - The Beatles first album is full of cover versions.
** - From the liner notes
*** - And if you don't, why did you buy the album?
**** - In no particular order those would be: Hard Candy, August and Everything After and Recovering the Satellites.
***** - If only so that I can get Amie stuck in my head again.