Category: Album Reviews

Posted in Album Reviews

Bob Dylan and The Band – The Basement Tapes (1975)

Posted on by Michael

The Basement Tapes is a batch of songs/demos recorded by Bob Dylan and The Band in 1967-1968. These recordings were later cleaned up by Engineer Rob Frabonie and compiled by Robbie Robertson along with additional tracks that The Band had recorded. After years of bootlegs circulating through the music industry, the official release finally happened in 1975.

The original double album is loose in nature with lots of shorter tracks including a few that would also appear on The Band’s debut album. Dylan handles the vocals on two-thirds of the tracks while various members of The Band handle the rest. There is plenty of great playing here including the organ of Garth Hudson on “Million Dollar Bash” and the funky drumming and bass work on “Yazoo Street Scandal”.

The loose nature of the recordings come out in songs like “Apple Sucking Tree”, the drinking song of “Please, Mrs. Henry” and nonsensical lyrics of “Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread”. The first track, “Odds and Ends” is a really catchy 60s rocker. These are evened out with heavier tracks like the excellent “Tears of Rage” with the lyrics, “Come to me now, you know we’re so alone/And life is brief”. This gets followed by “Too Much Nothing” where “Too much of nothing/It just makes a fella mean”.

The sprawling album does have a few clunkers and a few of the tracks by The Band feel tacked on. Still, other highlights abound like the blue eyed soul of the Richard Manuel sung “Orange Juice Blues (Blues for Breakfast)” and highlight “Katie’s Been Gone”. There is a drug deal gone wrong on “Nothing Was Delivered”, a date with Blues legend “Bessie Smith” and a great closer “This Wheel’s On Fire”. Much speculation about other tracks followed for the next 40 years, while others were frustrated by the inclusion of so many tracks by The Band. Finally in 2014 fans got the holy grail in the six disc deluxe edition of “The Basement Tapes Complete”, Volume 11 in Dylan’s celebrated ongoing Bootleg Series.  Even after all these years, the legend of The Basement Tapes continues.

8/10

Posted in Album Reviews

David Bowie – Lodger (1979)

Posted on by Michael

The last in David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy was 1979’s Lodger album.  Here he continues to work with producer Tony Visconti and Brian Eno. Leaving behind the soundscapes of the previous two albums, Lodger is more accessible and listening back, fits in well with new wave and the Avant Garde rock coming out of New York around that time. Several of the tracks sing of travel and different parts of the world – Bowie is a traveller, a lodger of the world.

A softer sound, the smooth album opener “Fantastic Voyage” shares the same chord sequence of later track, “Boys Keep Swinging”. With a tongue in cheek, the latter celebrates the youthful exuberance of being male.  As evidence of his influence, 20 years later blur would record the similar sounding single, “M.O.R”. “African Night Flight” is quirkier with a scat like vocal on a track written after Bowie visited Kenya, a few songs later “Yassassin” has a middle eastern feel, where the people “came from the farmlands/to live in the city”.

Leaving behind the esoteric sounds of previous records – several tracks are more rock. Drummer Dennis Davis shines on several of these tracks like the melodic “Move On” and the frantic sounds of “Look Back In Anger”. The bass of George Murray locks down the funky “D.J.” that also sees longtime right hand man Carlos Alomar gets a co-writing credit here. “Repetition” takes a different approach, deadpan vocals with sterile playing, Bowie sings about an abusive husband who feels he deserves better.

Following the experimental sounds of Low and “Heroes”, Lodger is often seen as the lesser of the three Berlin albums. The album reportedly received mixed reviews when initially released, going to #4 on the UK album charts but it lacks any true classic David Bowie track for casual fans. Later reviews have rightly placed Lodger in a more positive light. Filled with several solid rock tracks, it brings some funk and offers several truly great performances from his band. Bowie says goodbye to his incredibly successful run of 70s albums with this fine entry into his cannon.

9/10

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Wednesday – Bleeds (2025)

Posted on by Michael

Led by singer-songwriter Karly Hartzman, Wednesday had a breakthrough with 2023’s album Rat Saw Good. Several months later, guitarist MJ Lenderman had an underground hit with his solo album Manning Fireworks.  As he divides his time, Lenderman appears on Wednesday’s sixth album Bleeds but will not be touring with the band. On their newest album, Wednesday continues to mix a modern take on 90s indie rock with country, tied to a slacker vibe.

The stories that Hartzman sings on Bleeds are like ones taken from a podcast.  A homeless woman with the sweetest voice wearing Juggalo make-up, the Murdaugh murders from the perspective of a neighbour, and her old landlord telling the craziest Appalachian stories. Around crashing guitars, “Wound Up Here (By Holdin’ On)” tells the story of a body being pulled out of a lake.  Mixed into the serious and absurd is a re-recording of “Phish Pepsi” with the laugh out loud line – “We watched a Phish concert and Human Centipede/Two things I now wish I had never seen”.  “Townies” looks back at the more hurtful rumours that spread about high school sex scandals.

A key aspect to the Wednesday sound is the steel/lap guitar played by Xandy Chelmis that adds a country dimension to the band’s sound, this is done to great effect on the excellent “Elderberry Wine”. The band does a fine job of telling the stories of the colourful people around them and amplifies their stories to a wider audience. Capturing the murkiness of the backwoods of North Carolina along the way.

7.5/10

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Big Thief – Double Infinity (2025)

Posted on by Michael

Since forming in 2015, Big Thief have been busy with their latest, Double Infinity being their sixth studio album. This also follows up singer Adrianne Lenker’s excellent solo album from last year, Bright Future. Songs such lead track “Incomprehensible” and the meandering “No Fear” layer on effects on top of very good indie rock songs. “Los Angeles” keeps driving but in a laidback way, singing about the city where “the ocean is bright and blue”, “Words” adds fuzzy guitar to the sound.

The ten verses of the title track rollout easily before the album closes with three very good tracks including “Grandmother” that features the vocalizing of Larraji and the repeated lines of “Happy With You”. The band’s first without original bassist Max Oleartchik is an easy album to listen to, drifts along while also pulling up some weeds in its crystal waters.

8/10

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Grizzly Bear – Shields (2012)

Posted on by Michael

After extensively touring the Veckatimest album, Grizzly Bear took time off before regrouping to work on their fifth studio album, Shields. The band reconvened in Marfa, Texas before scrapping those sessions and starting again at singer Ed Droste’s family’s house in Cape Cod with bassist Chris Taylor once again producing. The foursome created an album that was a bit more raw and in your face than previous efforts.  First track and single, “Sleeping Ute” is dramatic with crashing guitars and drums and “Half Gate” gets darker, more sinister as it wears on.

On several tracks, it’s the drumming of Christopher Bear that really stands out.  His work on “Speak in Rounds” stands out amongst in the intricate guitar work, and the rhythm section really lock in during the excellent “A Simple Answer”. Both Ed Droste and fellow singer Daniel Rossen both have their moments among the album’s 10 tracks. A true collaborative effort, Shields was the band’s highest charting album in the US (#7) and is another excellent piece of work.

8.5/10