I climbed on to the Duran Duran wagon late.
In fact, I climbed on to the Duran Duran wagon late in life.

I grew up in the 80's - the 80's of MTV, Michael Jackson videos, Huey Lewis and The News videos, Madonna videos, Cars videos, Wham! videos, Culture Club videos and of course, Duran Duran videos.

I lived through all of that and put up with the constant stream of Duran Duran videos of Wild Boys, Union of the Snake, The Reflex, Rio, Is There Something I Should Know? and of course, Hungry Like The Wolf. I got burnt out on those videos and those songs because the songs were on the radio just as much as the videos were on MTV, Friday Night Videos and Night Trax (WTBS, anyone?). 

I also didn't give Duran Duran a second look because I thought mostly girls liked them and I also thought I was just too cool to like them. I'd just stay with my Hall and Oates, thank you (ahem).

Fast forward (remember when you actually had to push a button on your car's cassette player to do that) about fifteen years and I really got turned on to Duran Duran after hearing Rio in my car one day. Suddenly I had to catch up on all of the music I had let escape me during the 80's. I looked for all of the classic Duran Duran I could find.

Fast forward to 2011, and the band releases the album, All You Need Is Now.

I'm not a complete, immersed Duran Duran fan, but this album is fantastic.
The album sounds like the gang just kept making music straight from the MTV days and have never let up (in fact, they haven't - this is their 14th album and their 11th since Seven And The Ragged Tiger that included The Reflex, New Moon On Monday and Union Of The Snake).

All You Need Is Now is not a retro album - it is pure Duran Duran.
The album sounds and feels as though it could fit in the album slot right after Seven And The Ragged Tiger.

Current favorite tracks are: Being Followed, Leave A Light On and The Man Who Stole A Lepoard.

The album is refreshing, innovative and well-crafted.
You will want to listen to it straight through when you crank it up.
The songs are varied and catchy. Some are downright clever.
All are spot on and do not miss a beat.

Toss this album on to your iPod or your Anti-iPod and let it take its place right next to Rio in your playlist. You'll be glad the guys are laying it down like they always have been.

Duran Duran homepage.

So this is a new one on me -

I have had this album in my iPod for about three months.
I listened through it once right after I picked it up and didn't think much of it at all.

Why?

Too over-produced. Too heavy on the heavy chords. Too loud. Too heavy on the beats. Too cliche' in the lyric department. Too much of a flat blast of sound. Too congested. Too overdone. Too much.

On my way home from work tonight, I flipped my iPod from the King of Fools album by Delirious to this album entitled, Awake by Skillet....

WHAM!

The first track, Hero, blew through my speakers and knuckle-punched me in the chest and kick-started my heart.
Suddenly I was rooting, shouting, yelling, screaming along with the song and my soul woke up.

That's right, all the way home this album woke me up.

This album is all I originally thought it was:
Over-produced. Heavy on the heavy chords. Loud. Heavy on the beats. Cliche' in the lyric department  A flat blast of sound. Congested.  Overdone. Much.

But oh, it is done so right and is so much what you need when you feel like this - when you are wide awake or need to be woken up.

This is all about your need for God in the midst of your inborn, undeniable and unavoidable failings.
This is all about longing and searching.
And trying.
This is all about striving, falling short because you just cannot help yourself but to, and finding redemption despite yourself outside yourself by the only One who can redeem you.
This is all about trying to fill you heart and finding the only One who can.
Ever.

That's right - 
An album entitled, Awake, woke me slap up.

Skillet homepage.

Oh, my.

I should call this review, "Pop Power Chords In Overdrive".
There, I did it.

I just read Venus In Overdrive was recorded in 32 days.
That may explain some of it.

I like Rick.
I have been a fan since Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet.
I really liked his previous album, Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance (it poked me in the chest, tried to rip my face off and was the best album I bought between 2004-2005).

I have listened to this album six times in the past three days.
I can't say a lot too nice about it, and I keep trying to find something nice to say.
And Rick is nice, seems to be...

All of the songs are in the same key, played with the same three or four power chords and use totally cheesy choruses and weak verses like he is trying to make some pop songs but they end up being bad pop songs. I don't think he's a pop artist - he has never tried to be since Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet.

There is guitar-driven music in here - but the title song is so guitar-driven, it sounds like Jesse's Girl 2010. The rest of the upbeat songs could all be the same song with the same four chords used in different sequences. He sounds like one of the zillion pop-rock teen post teen bands all over the radio these days.

I like Rick.

The song Saint Sahara is wonderful.

I just don't like the rest of this album. At all.
And the hurts to say.
Because I like Rick.
...I don't like this album.

Rick Springfield homepage.

It's been forever since the original group of four musicians that formed the true progressive/rock/super group Asia have made a record.

I was skeptical when I heard about this project and even more skeptical when I picked it up and gave it a listen.

I had to grind through listening to this album from start to finish without skipping ahead, skipping through songs or turning it off all together. This was some sad malaise of slowdown ballads and lukewarm songs I really didn't want to listen to and really didn't like.

I originally wanted to title my review of this album as, "MalAsia", if that gives you any indication of what I thought of it.

Curiously, the next day I had snippets of songs floating around my head and bits of melodies and lyrics I couldn't shake - and I could not figure out right away where all of these musical pieces-parts came from. 

Oddly, it dawned on me this music swimming around my brain were from this Asia album, Phoenix.

To appease the mental tickling in my head, I played Phoenix through again in it's entirety.

To my surprise - I liked it.
I liked it a lot.

The trite melodies and lyrics suddenly made sense to me within the scope of the album. The slow, lumbering songs suddenly captured me and I enjoyed the travel through them. The upbeat, rocking songs still sounded solid.

All in all, the group of these four men was tight and they certainly had their bits together and had put together something quite good.

What a surprise.

If you are an Asia fan at all, try this.
If you like Steve Howe, Carl Palmer, Geoff Downes or John Wetton, try this. 
Don't give up on it quickly, it my grow on you.

I now remember why I liked Asia in the past - they do what they do really well and no one else does what they do.

Asia homepage.

This album was released on my birthday during my first year in high school.
My Mom took me to the mall record store to get it for me for my birthday.
It was on sale, too.

There must have been thirty copies of this record in the bin when we walked into the store.
The next time I went to the same record store in the mall (in those years of my life I probably made that trip the next weekend) there were still about the same number of copies of this album in the bin.

There was good reason for that-
Alpha was a good album, but it was not as good as Asia's first album that had come out the year before and motivated me to chase down their second album when it was released; add to that the fact that pop music was beginning to jet into a completely opposite direction that progressive/rock super groups thanks to Duran Duran, Adam Ant, The Police, etc.
This album fell off the side of the musical and cultural road.

Asia's first album worked for me because it rocked with a big, broad, full, full, layered force.

This second album of theirs was also big, broad, full and layered but just didn't rock as much.
It also felt a bit more over-produced. Maybe this album was too pretty, too glossy, so much so all of the big, broad layers failed to punch you in the gut.

Alpha is a collection of completely fine songs that are well-crafted, well constructed and well played. It's a lot like a guy who has shined up his old-school Trans Am so it looks great but when you take a ride in it, it feels like you are cruising around in a Chevette.


Alpha is a good ride in a gleaming car with only a little bit of rumble, not a full growling turbo.

Asia homepage.

In my cultural stumblings, I came across a later Van Morrison CD at our local library and liked it enough I wanted to listen to his music from the ground floor onward.

I was familiar with, Brown-Eyed Girl (who isn't?), so I skipped over that first album of his and went on to his second solo work, "Astral Weeks".

Astral Weeks absolutely was crammed full of 5-star reviews on i-Tunes and similar loud reviews on Amazon.com and other music websites I search for reviews when I get curious. I thought I couldn't go wrong by giving it a listen even though I was not familiar at all with Mr. Morrison's music beyond that one memorable, classic song.

What I ran into was an absolutely marvelous album that was nothing like expected, nothing I had ever heard before and a piece of work that has leapt into my all-time favorite/great albums.

The songs are all free-flowing and to me paint a picture of a moment that stretches out to last hours and even days.
....and you don't want the journey they take you on to end.

The album always makes me feel like I am on a long walk through a very green place near the rocky shores of a churning sea while the breeze blows around me and rustles the leaves in the trees.

It makes you feel alive without prodding you.
It reminds you that life can be this good and this simple.

There are no stand-out tracks, all of them could even be one single song.
All of the songs are wonderful.

Again, I have never heard anything like this and I can't tell you what to expect.
I didn't like it the first time I listened to it all the way through, but now it is always playing on my iPod (and is currently playing in my headphones right now).

I urge you to try it.
Then try it again and then again.
I will bet that it will eventually lead you on that journey, wherever it is you will end up.

Van Morrison homepage.

My wife and I just got ahold of this CD last night.
I've listened to it in bits and pieces but not straight through yet - because I keep going back to songs and listening to them again.

I'm not in a position to give out a full-blown review just yet.
I am still immersed in the music.
And amazed by what I'm hearing.

I will hold off describing these tunes and direct you right here:

The Loomis Fargo Gang Homepage

You can download this entire CD in MP3 format for free.
Right. 
For free.

This music is too good to give away for free.

Go get it.
That's my review - 
Go get it.

I do know Bob Dylan's music is reportedly, and has been since the 1960's, the most bootlegged music around - so much so that there is a series of officially released collections of bootlegged Dylan music.

These releases include songs that had no been previously released on Dylan albums, second and third versions of previously released songs and live versions and different live constructions and performances of songs previously released on studio albums. In other words, these releases are full of Dylan's music. Hurrah for that.

Tell Tale Signs is the eighth installment in the bootleg series and included material from 1989-2006.

This is a special collection of songs for me because of this:
I bought my first Bob Dylan album in 2004 or 2005 because I had seen a Rollingstone.com article that listed their 100 Albums of All-Time (I guess, up until 2002, right?).
Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited was ranked as their Number 1 album, ever. It was a homer of a choice because the song, Like A Rolling Stone is the very first song on the album, but who is paying attention...

At that time in my life, I was searching for good music and was tired of falling into the drizzle and fluff and weak music that was on the radio and ringing in from to pop culture icons.
I figured I would try this guy, Dylan. My dad was a big fan of his and he even had given me a Dylan cassette when I was seventeen, but I never listened to it (I think it was Dylan's Saved album).

So after I bought and loved Highway 61 Revisited, I wandered into a used CD store (and where have they gone?) soon after and scooped up the only Dylan CD's they had in stock.

I got Time Out of Mind (1997) and Love and Theft (2001).

I got home and played them and was very distraught because not knowing what I know now about Mr. Dylan's music or his career, I was shocked and hurt that neither of these albums sounded anything at all like Highway 61 Revisited. I summarily closed up those CDs and put them in the bottom of my CD rack.

I think the CDs stayed there for three or four years.

Did I mention that Time Out of Mind won a Grammy for Album of the Year in 1998?

So, fast forward to earlier this year, 2010.
I had just introduced my wife to the greatness that is Time Out of Mind and how it sinks you in it's low, moaning bluesy groaning.

I find Dylan's Modern Times for a steal at a local music shop.

I play it in my car a few days later and exclaim to my wife, "You know how great the music is on Time Out of Mind? Well, Modern Times has the same of kind of great music on it, but it's full of happier songs." My wife then sequestered Modern Times in her car for the next month.....

Love and Theft is a middle mixture of the two albums.

Tell Tale Signs contains different versions of songs found on both of these albums, and more.
Rejoice.

I love the version of Mississippi. I love the original album version, as well.
I get a kick out of this version of Someday Baby, but I understand why the more upbeat version was included on Modern Times.

I Can't Wait is a great song, but is way too cheerful here to have been included this way on Time Out of Mind.

Born In Time comes from Dylan's 1989 album Oh, Mercy - and I had heard it before and I it must have been from Eric Clapton.

So, listen to Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft, Modern Times and Tell Tale Signs.
It will taste like a hot fudge sundae with your favorite topping right on - yep - right on top.

And you may never turn on your radio again - 

Bob Dylan homepage.