Much Music
Now for random thoughts about the only thing I'm willing to talk about on a public website these days (don't worry people...life is good, treating me well, and I'm finding myself smiling a lot these days. A sad bastard, I am not!). Christmas saw me picking up a total of 23 new and used cds. Needless to say, I need professional help. But since I have all of this new music, I should at least mention some of the good and bad of it. Here goes.
The Killers. I saw them in concert last fall, and I must say, even though the lead singer was acting like a snot, they put on a really good show. Their album, however, is a little less stellar. They seem to have front loaded the disc and left the latter half lacking in quality, catchy, pop songs that you can bop around to (with the notable exception of "Midnight Show." That song is fantastic). However, the only reason I wanted to mention them was to say that "Mr. Brightside" is easily the catchiest song of the last year. I can't get enough of it.
Hold Steady. This is a bar band. Their music is meant to be listened to when you are surrounded by smoke, loud conversation, and bad lighting. The reason being is that their music is perfectly engineered for that environment. The guitars chug and charge over all of that loud conversation. The lead singer sort of talks/yells all of his lyrics, which, while off putting at first, becomes tolerable and even likable rather quickly (or my standards are dropping rapidly). His lyrics, while sometimes repetitive, are pretty funny and witty. This is my surprise find of the holidays. They are never going to have mass appeal, but if I ever open a dingy bar, I'll want them there every Friday and Saturday night.
Colin Hay. The former lead singer of the quirky, lovable, Australian group, Men At Work, has created quite a good solo career for himself. He had the good fortune to gain the admiration of Zach Braff, star of "Scrubs" and creator of "Garden State," who gave Hay's career a shot in the arm by including his music on both "Scrubs" and "Garden State." I ended up getting Hay's "Man @ Work" cd, which had a mixture of songs from his solo career, with solo covers of Men At Work songs along with them.
Overall, the disc has some hits and some duds. The first track, "Beautiful World," while lyrically simplistic, has a wonderful hook. I immediately liked it. But many of the songs on the disc, have an over produced, adult contemporary feel to them. Some people might like that, but it turned me off a bit. I'm going to investigate more of his solo work, though. I haven't given up on him just yet.
I have a lot of other discs I could write about, and maybe I will when I get a moment. The highlight pickup of the holiday was the Otis Redding box set that my mom got me. I doubt I even need to describe how simply amazing and wonderful it is. So I won't. Later, folks!
Posted by Mr. Eff on 01/06/2005 || link
