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

Posted in Album Reviews

Siouxsie and the Banshees – A Kiss In The Dreamhouse (1982)

Posted on by Michael

Recording of Siouxsie and the Banshees fifth album started in May, 1982. Long hours in the studio fueled by a flurry of love, drugs and alcohol sees the band record the experimental A Kiss In The Dreamhouse. The dark and foreboding sound of “Cascade” opens the album with various sound effects swirling in the background, Siouxsie singing “Echoing the revolver/Emptying into my mouth”. “Obsession” is more stripped down but no less dark – a spooky atmosphere surrounds it, this contrasts with the recorder opening and shimmering guitar sound of “Green Fingers”.

Serious topics are explored on “Circle” – the circle of abuse and pain spins around and around. Based on the book, the pounding drums of “Painted Bird” drive home the story of bizarre animal abuse. The band even manages to sing about S+M, dominance and death on the single “Melt!” The dark sounds do provide brighter moments. The percussive sound of “She’s A Carnival”, complete with organ outro, and the (maybe) gothic dance craze described on “Slowdive” add a dash of fun. A Kiss In The Dreamhouse is a rollicking bit of dark theatre that still entices 40+ years later.

8/10