For My Sunday Song #64, I chose a classical pop track called “Shatter Me” by Lindsey Stirling. If you don’t know Lindsey, shame on you, she is an American violinist who performs what is called classical crossover. It is classical music with a Pop twist to it is how would describe it. The song “Shatter Me” was off her second album of the same name. It was actually Lindsey’s first attempt at writing lyrics and normally the songs are instrumentals only. I have loved this song since I first heard it and was reminded of it when I saw Lindsey on Dancing With the Stars…and she is pretty good.
The song features the powerhouse vocals of Halestorm’s lead singer Lzzy Hale. The combination of Lindsey’s musical stylings and Lzzy’s rock vocals delivers one of the best songs of 2014. The song would go on to reach #39 on the Billboard Adult Pop songs and was her first charting song.
The song has a positive message about breaking free or shattering the image of what you think people want you to be to being what you want to be. It is about being strong and having the courage to push the limits of who you can be and what you can do. The rock edge to the song and that violin together prove to be a powerful force in delivering this strong message.
Can you believe we are in November already. Christmas is just around the corner and with all the new releases today, what might be on your Christmas list? I don’t really have anything from these releases that I am dying to have, but there are a couple I will give a listen to. Not much in the rock world for me, it is all Pop. The ones I am interested in at least listening to are highlighted in Blue as always.
If you want to buy any of the albums, I have tried to make it easy for you. Click on the link after each album and it will take you to iTunes and you can download the release with just a few clicks.
Maroon 5 – Red Pill Blues – (222 Records/Interscope): Maroon 5 brings us another record, but with the over saturation of Adam Levine on TV with the Voice and the lack of greatness from the singles so far I am not overly excited. However, I have been a huge fan since the beginning so it will get listened to. I hope there are songs that only feature the band. I am sick and DAMN!!! Tired of the releases for this album so far that feature another artist. Why do songs today on Pop Radio have to be with someone else. I don’t get and this is a topic for another time. I do like “Cold” though.
Sam Smith – The Thrill of It All – (Capitol Records): Finally the voice of Sam Smith is back with some new music. I know my oldest loves him and I have to admit he has a nice voice. I will give it a spin and see what he has to offer. The first two promotional songs have been good.
It has been a few months since I have done a post in my Turntable & Vinyl series and a lot has gone on since the last one. Mainly, the growing obsession with getting my favorite albums in vinyl. Everywhere I go, I am looking for a record store or thinking of an excuse to go to a store and just “look” around. It has become a growing obsession that isn’t getting any better, in fact, it is getting worse.
And thanks to a fellow blogger, I now have my collection in Discogs. I can’t remember who it was as it has been several months and I have a terrible memory…now what was I talking about…oh yeah…Discogs. I spent quite some time cataloging my newly started collection. The good news, now when I am out at a record store and I can’t remember if I have that album or not, I only need to pull it up on the phone and BOOM!!, I will know if it is in my collection or not. No more buying duplicates (I told you my memory is bad). I actually had to use it a few weeks back so I know it was well worth the time adding everything in. Plus, it tells me what my collection is worth (ain’t much which is sad!), but it is a great tool if the collection should get stolen or burned down, I have a record of my albums for insurance purposes. Nice!
One thing I have been wanting to do for quite a while is upgrade my shitty little stereo system I have been using. It was an old system with some shitty little speakers. Did I mention it was shitty? Well, I finally replaced it and gave the older system to my oldest daughter for her room. She loves it because that shitty system replaced her even shittier system. One man’s junk is another man’s (or teenager girl’s) treasure. I didn’t get anything real fancy, I did keep it very reasonable. I only bought a Yamaha Receiver and a couple of Polk floor speakers plus a sub-woofer (I like that bass a little). I could have gone with a surround sound system, but I really love this set up. it was the way I listened to the albums back in the day, plus the vinyl isn’t mastered in Surround Sound!!
It is hard to believe this is the 10th “My First Time” selection. That means there only two more to go in the series before I call it quits. My intention was one a month for a full year. For the 10th selection, I have chosen the album that was ‘My First Time’ with Ozzy Osbourne. That album was ‘The Ultimate Sin’. It took up to his fourth solo release before I actually bought anything Ozzy Osbourne.
The album came out on February 22, 1986 and at the time was Ozzy’s most successful album. It would go on to sell over 2 million copies and cemented me as a fan. I had never been into Ozzy’s music prior (with the exception of “Crazy Train”), but there was something about this album I liked. It felt more accessible to me. The tunes were more melodic and not as hard as I imagined an Ozzy album to be. It helped that the first single “Shot in the Dark” received massive airplay on MTV.
Ozzy is always known for having outstanding musicians on an album and this one was no different. The guitarist at the time was none other than Jake E. Lee. This would end up being his last album with Ozzy. He would do some solo stuff and founded Badlands, but he would then disappear for years until his recent return with Red Dragon Cartel. Most of the music on the album was written by Jake, but since he had been screwed out of writing credits on previous albums, he wouldn’t contribute anything else until he was assured credit. Once a contract was in place, BOOM, we have a new Ozzy album.
My Sunday Song #63 is from The White Stripes. The song is “Seven Nation Army” and is one of their most popular songs. It is off their fourth album, ‘Elephant’, and went on to hit #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks back in 2003.
What I love about The White Stripes is the quirkiness of the songs and the band itself. The band only consists of two people, Jack and Meg White. They were husband and wife at one time, but have since divorced. The band is no more, but thankfully, their music lives one.
The song that resonated most with me from them was “Seven Nation Army”. The song was a standout because of that bass line riff that starts off the song and plays throughout. Imagine my surprise to learn that was not a bass. The band doesn’t ever use a bass in their music. They only use a drum and guitar. According to Wikipedia, to get that effect, Jack White’s semi-acoustic, 1950s-style Kay Hollow body guitar was run through a DigiTech Whammy pedal which was set down an octave. It is a really cool sound.
Welcome to the last Friday of October and the last set of new releases for the month. Halloween is coming up in a few days and maybe there is something on here that will be a treat for you…or maybe you buy it, it sucks and then it is a trick…either way I hope there is something for you. The ones I am interested in are highlight in Blue.
Stereophonics – Scream Above the Sounds – (Stereophonics / Parlophone): These Welsh boys are back with another new album. After 20 years together, they haven’t missed a beat. They are on a steady diet of one new album every two years and without fail, he were are with their latest. If you don’t know them, check them out and see why they are top of my list this week.
Red – Gone – (Provident Label Group): This Christian metal band is straying from their Christian roots with this album and delivering a mainstream rock record. They even do a Sia cover on the album. This could be interesting. I will definitely cue this one up as well,
Back in 2013, Richie Sambora met Orianthi and sparks flew, apparently. The two are an item and now they are putting out music for the masses and it is about time. I had heard back last year, I believe, that they were working together and going to put out an album. Well, we finally got one; however, it is only an E.P. with only 5 songs. Now, I am not greedy, but I would have preferred a whole album.
Now when I heard we were getting music from the two, I was excited. I love Richie’s vocals and his bluesy, rock style plus he can play the guitar (have you heard of Bon Jovi). Orianthi is also one helluva a guitar player herself and she can sing with the best of them. She has played for Michael Jackson and for Alice Cooper as well as her own solo work. The two together, I was expecting a bluesy rock album with some amazing guitar work.
What I was expecting and what we actually have are not quite the same thing. Apparently, the two of them wanted to deliver an album that was not what people expected. They wanted to give something that shows that they can do something more than play guitar. Message received loud and clear.
After 15 years since her last studio album, Shania Twain is finally back with a brand new album called ‘Now’. My love for Shania dates back to the 90’s with her smash hit album, ‘The Woman in Me’. From there on, I was hooked. The deathly good looks and that amazing voice was a combination I couldn’t resist.
She has been through a lot since her last album…a divorce from her partner in music crime, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, to vocal problems resulting from Lyme Disease and dysphonia. She has persevered and is now back on to the music scene.
Two years ago she embarked on a comeback tour even though she didn’t have an album. My wife and I were able to see her on that tour and her show was spectacular. My wife and I are such big fans, we even had the song “From this Moment” played at our wedding. So, a new album from her is more than welcomed in my family.
Well, that was until we heard the first single, “Life’s About to Get Good”. To say this song is bad, would be mean. To say this song was good, would be lying. It lies somewhere in between. As much as I dislike this song, sadly, it is one of the better songs on the album. If you like old Shania and don’t want her to change, then you might like this song. For me, it was boring and lyrically awful. The song has a real CHESSE factor to it. I will give her this song and I won’t delete it only because it is better than most and she did release it as a single. The song hasn’t been performing very well since its release proving a little of how I feel might be what other people think as well.
There are a couple good songs on the album, the next one being her latest release and the opening track “Swingin’ With My Eyes Closed”. This is classic Shania, yet in a good way. This one is definitely Country tinged and is everything you love about her. It is not my favorite song on the album, but it is pretty darn close.
My favorite song on the album is “Roll Me On the River”. What I like about this song is its difference from everything else on the album. It is the most original and takes Shania in a different path which is the approach this album should have taken for the whole thing as we are 15 years later and she is basically trying to do the same thing she did then “now”. The album is titled “NOW”, shouldn’t the songs feel like they are now in the present day. There is a heavy drum beat and takes on a darker tone musically. She delivers the lyrics slower and more deliberately. This song is what the album title reflects. It is a modern song. It isn’t country, it is a little more rock.
One thing this album was going to show me was if the myth about Mutt being the puppet master, pulling her strings on her albums as he produced and help write her three biggest albums, was true. After spending a little time with the album, I feel that myth was warranted. The songs on this album lack any lyrical development and good production. Mutt was a master at developing lyrical phrasing. Go back and listen to her earlier albums and even go back and listen to Def Leppard interview about Mutt. He felt the way the words sounded were more important than the words themselves. They definitely don’t take this approach with the lyrics on this album.
One prime example is the song “Poor Me”. The song is a play on the words of her life being so hard and she went through so much…oh poor me! And then Pour Me a drink. In theory, this song is brilliant play on those two sayings. Execution is completely different. Lyrically the song is a complete miss. What could have been turned into a big hit with Mutt just kinda whimpers out into forgettable and boring.
Since I was listening to the deluxe edition and there are 16 songs, I won’t go through all of them. I have highlighted the ones I like above and I don’t feel there is any need to go through each individual song as they all fall under the same category as boring, cheesy and lyrically lacking. The songs aren’t overly varied as they will hint mostly towards country and pop. You get some upbeat tunes and some slower ballads, but they are all missing that pop, that right production and memorable & clever lyrics.
My wife and I even listened to the album together and when the album, she turned to me and went…ehh! Which spoke volumes to me. That is when I went and went through the album several more times on my own to see if it gets better with each listen, but it didn’t. I because more difficult with the exception a few songs I already mentioned. Here is where I stand on whether a song is a Keeper or needs to be deleted.
Track Listing:
“Swingin’ With My Eyes Closed” – Keeper
“Home Now” – Delete
“Light of My Life” – Delete
“Poor Me” – Delete
“Who’s Gonna Be Your Girl” – Delete
“More Fun” – Delete
“I’m Alright” – Delete
“Let’s Kiss and Make Up” – Delete
“Where Do You Think You’re Going” – Delete
“Roll Me On the River” – Keeper
“We Got Something They Don’t” – Delete
“Because of You” – Delete
“You Can’t Buy Love” – Delete
“Life’s About to Get Good” – Keeper
“Soldier” – Delete
“All in All” – Delete
3 keepers out 16 songs – 19% (1 out 5 stars) As much as I have loved Shania, this was hard for me to listen to and to write about. I was so hoping for a grand return. I believe what I realized about the album is it is missing the FUN of her previous albums. It is like your crazyass best friend in college went and grew up and became a boring adult.
Go listen for yourself and you judge. My expectations might have been too high and so anything would be a let down…but I don’t think that is the case. Let me know what you think. Thanks.
My Sunday Song #62 is the song “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins. The song is off the album, Face Value, and was released as a single on January 8th, 1981. The song is one of Phil’s most recognizable and most popular songs and it reached #2 in the UK and #19 in the US on Billboards Hot 100.
What makes it so recognizable is the drum work throughout. The slow build up to that drum beat that comes screaming in and there throughout the rest of the song. Who hasn’t been in their car and when that part comes up, you air drum and everyone around you looks at you like you are a nut…and also wondering why you aren’t holding on to your steering wheel.
The song’s popularity even increased when it was used in the pilot episode of Miami Vice in 1984. That helped it remain a part of pop culture forever. The creepiness of the song and the dark overtones worked nicely in the episode and showed how well music and TV could work together.
October is flying by and there are a bunch of new ones available this week…even Christmas albums if you are so inclined. There are some brand new bands, some old favorites and some fabulous reissues/deluxe editions. My choices are highlighted in Blue. Let me know which ones you are interested in with a comment below. Thanks and have a great weekend.
Sons of Apollo – Pyschotic Symphony – (Inside Out Music): Another supergroup and another one featuring Billy Sheehan and Mike Portnoy. If you liked in The Winery Dogs, this is not the Winery Dogs. This is a much heavier band with Jeff Scott Soto on lead vocals rather than Richie Kotzen. Also on the record is Bumblefoot on guitar and Derek Sherinian that make this a massive group with a massive sound. Can’t wait to dive into this one.
Europe – Walk the Earth – (Silver Lining Music): Europe is still putting out quality albums after 35+ years in the business. The took most of the 90’s off, but came roar back in the 2000’s and have been non-stop ever since. I have held off from listening to anything on this one yet as I want to take it in all at once.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 