Posted in Album Reviews

America – The Complete Greatest Hits (2001)

Posted on by Michael

There’s not shortage of compilation albums of British-American trio, America. Formed in England while their fathers were stationed there as part of the US Army, the band would eventually relocate to Los Angeles and further soak up the soft folk rock sounds of the early 70s.  A success right out of the gate, their first three singles went top ten in the US including their most well known song – “A Horse With No Name”.  With vocals of Dewey Bunnell sounding not unlike Neil Young and terrific backing vocals of Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek; the guitar strumming song went to #1 on the back of the song’s memorable “la la la la” as it comes out of the chorus.

Fans of 2000s Saturday Night Live will smile at the Spanish guitar sounds of “Ventura Highway”, a track that was surely the inspiration for the theme to The Californians skit. “Tin Man” and “Lonely People” are nice sounding tracks that glide by, ones that if they appeared on a random playlist would have the listener ask, “who is this?”. The band would then hit #1 again with the great strumming guitar riff of “Sister Golden Hair”.  The crisp drumbeat helps pick up the pace of the chorus. Less successful is the band’s polarizing single, “Muskrat Love”, a song that Captain and Tennille would have great success with a few years later.

The Complete Greatest Hits ends with a slick 80s sound on songs such as “You Can Magic” that was a top ten hit in the US. Replacing the “la la la” with “doo doo doo”, it’s their first single without Dan Peek who left a few years prior.  The album then finishes with two new songs that follows in their familiar pattern of pleasant and catchy sound. And that is what sums up this collection – a handful of great songs and a slew of pleasing ones that can easily soundtrack a summer evening of watching the sunset while enjoying a glass of California white wine.

8/10

Posted in Album Reviews

Lucinda Williams – World’s Gone Wrong (2026)

Posted on by Michael

Lucinda Williams’ sixteenth studio album is a politically charged bluesy, roots rocker released into a chaotic world early in 2026. Williams’ aging and raspy singing voice adds a gravitas to the recordings including the title track about a couple trying to make both ends meat and sense of the world.  Like a lot of us, they are both “looking for comfort in a song”. “Something’s Gotta Give” ponders that “there’s darkness to these days.. as the light fades away”.

Mavis Staples joins for the Bob Marley cover of “So Much Trouble in the World”, a bit more atmospheric in a honky-tonk bar.  A sleek guitar in the chorus adds some punch to the very good sounding “Punchline” while the album closes with a hymn like gospel sounds of “We’ve Come Too Far to Turn Around”. Like lots of people, the characters in the songs are trying to come to grips with how the world is turning these days – talk of ballrooms amongst rising gas prices.  Williams does a very good job of articulating these feelings in a tuneful way.

7/10

Posted in Album Reviews

Black Sabbath – Paranoid (1970)

Posted on by Michael

Recorded quickly on the heels of their debut, Black Sabbath’s second album Paranoid was unleashed to the public in the fall of 1970.  The album is a masterclass of Tony Iommi’s heavy metal guitar riffs that start right away, along with the air raid sirens of “War Pigs”.  The music cuts away in the first verse so Ozzy Osborne can sing about the evils of warmongering bankers and politicians, “generals gathered in their masses/Just like witches at black masses”.

Not to be outdone, “Iron Man” contains one of the rock music’s great guitar sounds on a track about a time traveller who goes into the future to see the apocalypse.  When he comes back, no one listens to his warnings. The title track was the band’s biggest hit, peaking at #4 on the UK singles chart.  A great vocal from Ozzy as he pleads, “Can you help me?” and closes with the kiss off, “I tell you to enjoy life/I wish I could, but it’s too late” The song about depression and mental illness is one of the great rock songs of any era.

Those three tracks are some of the band’s most well known songs, but great moments abound elsewhere.  The liquid vocals of “Planet Caravan”, Bill Ward’s pounding drums on “Hand of Doom”, and the bass groove of Geezer Butler on closer “Fairies Wear Boots” are all exceptional tracks. On the UK #1 album Paranoid, the four band members all have their moments to shine and standout on one of the classic albums of what would become known as heavy metal.

10/10

Posted in Paper Chase

Johnny Marr – Set The Boy Free

Posted on by Michael

There’s been plenty of terrific books written about The Smiths over the years.  Books by Tony Fletcher, Simon Goddard, and Johnny Rogan are all excellent and worth investigating.  In 2016, guitarist Johnny Marr added writer to his name when his autobiography Set The Boy Free was published. The early stories will be familiar to fans of The Smiths – born to Irish parents living in Manchester, Marr became fascinated by music and the guitar at a young age. Later, while recording songs in the room he was renting and working in clothing shops, the music world changed when out of the blue he knocked on the door of singer Morrissey and asked to form a band together. In a short period of time, The Smiths became one of the most important indie rock bands in the history of music.

Where Marr’s autobiography really shines is when exploring his personal and professional life after The Smiths. The list of artists he’s played with is staggering – The Pretenders, The Talking Heads, The The, Kirsty MacColl, Electronic, Pet Shop Boys, Beck, Noel Gallagher, etc.  Not to mention stints in Modest Mouse, The Cribs, working on soundtracks, and his own successful solo career.  His love of music, his family and eventually healthy living make for a success story both in and out of the music business.  Set The Boy Free is light on some of the drama covered by the other books about his life, but instead this is a breezy joy to read about the music side of Johnny Marr’s extraordinary life.

9/10

Posted in Paper Chase

Franz Kafka – The Trial

Posted on by Michael

The Trial is Franz Kafa’s novel originally published posthumously in 1925.  The book tells of Josef K who is accused of a crime by two government men who appear in his rooming house one morning, the crime is never revealed. Josef then meets several people who appear in his life to help but he never gets anywhere, never fully understands what he’s been accused of or how to clear his name.

The Kafka world in The Trial is a dream like fog. It always seems dark, everything happens in the shadows. Confusing scenes of going to court located in an apartment, being let in by a woman who is not part of the court. Towards the end of the novel, he visits a church and is lectured by the priest who knows all about him and his case.  The man who he was supposed meet there never appears. The surreal story illustrates the red tape of bureaucracy, the facelessness of the system, not knowing who to talk to.  A century later, The Trial is still an intriguing read, one where very little is ever truly revealed.

8/10