Cheevyjames’ Musical Roundhouse

Released: 1990
Tracks: We Die Young; Man in the Box; Sea of Sorrow; Bleed the Freak; I Can’t Remember; Love, Hate, Love; It Ain’t Like That; Sunshine; Put You Down; Confusion; I Know Somethin (Bout You); Real Thing
Best track: We Die Young
Track to skip: the last few tracks head downhill, and get kinda goofy, but they’re all good in their own way

A great debut album. It’s too bad these guys had such a short career, they were a great band. I don’t think you could really tell what they were capable of from this album, but it’s still good to listen to. We Die Young is just the ultimate opener. Such a great song. I’m still kinda sick of Man in the Box, and it’s really not that awesome of a song. I don’t like the ‘chunkiness’ of the riff; it gets old after a while. It’s an average track. Many others are a lot better.

This album is pretty solid all the way through. Yeah, they do get goofy near the end, but I really can’t pinpoint a ‘low’ track on this one. Good, solid, heavy album. A great start for a great band. Go grab it, and the next 3…they’re all classics.

Rating: 86

Released: 2000
Tracks: Samba da Benção; August Day Song; Tanto Tempo; Sem Contenção; Mais Feliz; Alguém; So Nice (Summer Samba); Lonely; Bananeira; Samba e Amor; Close Your Eyes
Best track: tracks 1-11. Or, the whole thing. I can’t choose just one; every one is just perfect
Track to skip: absolutely none

Come back and read the rest after you’ve got it.

Got it? Great! I absolutely love LOVE LOVE this album (innit obvious?). This is the debut album of the beautiful-voiced Bebel, who is the daughter of talented Brazilian musicians Joao Gilberto and Miúcha. Bebel has been singing her whole life, but this was her first attempt at a record by herself. How about perfection on your first try? She did it.

Bebel has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard…her voice totally melts me. And even if her voice didn’t have the immense melting quality it does, the music on here is stunning. We all like some good samba and bossa nova, right? Then this is what you’re looking for.

Most of the songs are in Portuguese, but some are in English (check the titles for a clue on that one). On a few songs (August Day Song) Bebel weaves between the two languages perfectly. And while I’m on the subject, Portuguese is such a beautiful language, esp. when sung by a female. Did I mention she has a beautiful voice? Don’t worry, I’ll remind you again later. Every song has something great to offer. Some are traditional samba/bossa nova stuff and some present traditional foundations with modern trance and techno percussion tracks. They make a perfect combo.

Sem Contenção has a great groove, So Nice is so just happy and beautiful, Mais Feliz is like the wind on a perfect day, Close Your Eyes jams, the music on Tanto Tempo just flows throughout your whole body like a ghost or something, her singing is gorgeous, Bananeira jams even harder…there simply isn’t a bad SECOND on this album. Damn, why are you still reading this? Go buy it!

Rating: 98

Released: 1987
Tracks: Overture; Think of Me; Angel of Music; The Mirror (Angel of Music); The Phantom of the Opera; The Music of the Night; Prima Donna; All I Ask of You/Reprise; Entr’acte; Masquerade; Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again; The Point of No Return; Down Once More…/Track Down This Murderer
Best track: Overture, barely
Tracks to skip: if you even bother pushing ‘play’, stop it after Overture!

Even if you haven’t see this (like me), you’ll be familiar with the songs Overture, Phantom of the Opera and Music of the Night. That doesn’t mean it’s actually good. I’m sorry, but this is the cheesiest stuff I’ve ever heard. Jeez, N*Sync has more soul in their singing than these people! Hearing this I just want to choke these two (Crawford and Brightman). Pure cheese. The background music is a bad product of the 80’s with frequent bad synth sounds and horrible drum-machine tracks. When you put the annoying singing and the 80’s sounds together, along with the faux emotional music, you get some pretty bad stuff. Seriously, the music is really trying to be ‘emotional’, but it actually comes across as SO forced and fake. Like, “oooh, here’s an instrumental passage with strings! You’re supposed to be feeling impressed with the beauty of it!” This is too much; it’s comical how cheesy this is. I can’t believe this is a real Broadway play! This totally sounds like a joke on Broadway.

This is really everything I despise in music. Everything is so forced and so unbelievably cheesy. Yeah, I’m using that word a lot; I don’t care. I can’t think of any synonyms that themselves wouldn’t resemble this music. Anyway, I am very aware that millions of people around the world like this kind of stuff, but I think it’s horrible. And I bet you a lot of the same people that love this stuff think prog rock is pompous and overblown and self-indulgent and cheesy. I really hate how the music is trying so hard to make the listener feel a certain emotion at a certain moment. Lloyd Webber just beats you over the head with this stuff. Thank goodness I don’t have to listen to this three times, I’d go get a razor for my wrists if I had to listen to this even twice.

Can I say that there are absolutely NO redeeming qualities of any of this music, or lyrics, or story or singing? It’s true. I’ll give this the lowest possible rating I can give, but not a zero since at least the musicians know how to play their instruments. Don’t get sucked into this idea that Phantom is a good thing. It’s not. Stay away.

Rating: 5

(yes, that’s *5* out of 100…imagine if you got a 5 on a final exam in high school; that’s how bad this is)

Released: 1993
Tracks: The Hellion; Electric Eye; Victim of Changes; Painkiller; Eat Me Alive; Devil’s Child; Dissident Aggressor; Delivering the Goods; Exciter; Breaking the Law; Hell Bent for Leather; Blood Red Skies; Metal Gods; Before the Dawn; Turbo Lover; Ram it Down; Metal Meltdown; Screaming for Vengeance; You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’; Beyond the Realms of Death; Solar Angels; Bloodstone; Desert Plains; Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days; Heading Out to the Highway; Living After Midnight; A Touch of Evil; The Rage; Night Comes Down; Sinner; Freewheel Burning; Night Crawler
Best track: Painkiller or Hell Bent for Leather
Tracks to skip: I honestly skip lots of tracks; I could condense this down to a single CD.

(FYI, when I do lots of reviews in a day, check the chronology for 2/28/02 for today’s, I most always do them all in a row. So, for today I just got through listening to the OCR of Phantom of the Opera. That was hell getting through that. I luckily had Priest set up after that one. Not that Judas Priest isn’t plenty cheesy, they are, but at least I can get into this stuff, and The Hellion > Electric Eye is pretty cool.)

I LOVE Painkiller!!! This track rocks so hard. Scott Travis (drums) is the Man on this! Hellion and Electric Eye are cool, and classics, but then comes Victim… and I just don’t get into that one. And then, the MONSTROSITY of Painkiller comes on and destroys the entire world. Man, I love this track. I really love Hell Bent for Leather too, but this might be my favorite. This was the first Priest song I ever heard and it’s always been a big one for me. This is just brutal, awesome, intense, so totally kick ass. Wow. Man, I’m exhausted after that one, and we’re only on track 4 of the first disc!

Some Judas Priest stuff I absolutely love (above paragraph), some I get really bored with. It’s about half and half for this compilation. I rarely listen to all of both discs in a row like I’m doing right now; I usually skip a lot of tracks. If you get this, you’ll get a very good idea of what Priest is about. I always found their albums inconsistent, like Kiss in a lot of ways. You’ll have the 3 or 4 incredible tracks and the rest will be filler. So you can approach starting into Priest one of 2 ways: you can get a single disc compilation which will have only the most famous tracks (and of course misses a lot of good less-famous tracks like The Sentinel and Some Heads Are Gonna Roll) or you can get this double CD and get most of the great Priest tracks (missing the previous two mentioned) with some filler. Yeah, even though they put out this 2-disc retrospective, there are still great tracks that didn’t make it on here.

I don’t listen to this as often as I did when I was younger, but it’s some good stuff to put in on occasion and crank up. If you’re not cheap it’s a good place to start, and in some cases it might be all you need.

Rating: 87

Released: 1995
Tracks: Used Car Blue; Mexico; Free Yourself; Magnetized; (Interlude); Don’t Really Mind; No Rainy Day; Steam Train; Ride With Me; (Appendix)
Best track: No Rainy Day
Track to skip: if you have to, skip Free Yourself

There are some nice grooves on here and the songs are great. Well, as for a definition of the sound of the group, I’d go for “groovy-poppy-jazzy-doublegroovy”. All 5 are great players and they each had such distinctive characteristics when playing live. CL was one of the best live bands I saw while living in Austin.

Citizen Lane is the brainchild of Lane Eubank, a talented guy who not only writes all (most?) the material, he also plays some guitar, trombone and sings. After dropping out of the music school at Univ. of North Texas (he went back in a few years and finished), he moved to Austin and started playing on the street. Lotsa people liked his songs, so he decided to get some of the best jazz and groove musicians in town for his group. He did. Soon they were playing gigs and destroying every audient in the room, including yours truly. After toiling around Austin for a few years, Lane relocated to Dallas, finished school and formed a new lineup with UNT jazz and groove guys. I think now they’ve moved up to Portland.

Anyway, nuff of the history, you want to know if you should buy this CD. Yeah, you should. Just keep in mind that the live shows blow this thing out of the water. And that is exactly why it’s hard, actually impossible, to review this CD without comparing it to a live show. Impossible. Like I said, the songs are mostly really good, and the playing is really good, it’s just the studio atmosphere isn’t the most comfortable place for the group (they fix that little problem by the 3rd album).

I’m not that big of a fan of the studio versions of Free Yourself or Steam Train, but the live versions of both are (of course) jaw dropping. During Steam Train the band would go into a fun and grooving version of Ozzy’s Crazy Train. Great stuff. It’s hard to choose the ‘best’ track on here, since most of the tracks are great songs. I’d go with No Rainy Day, it’s just got that something. Actually, it grooves like a mother and has a great chorus.

The two unnamed tracks, Interlude and Appendix are just short versions of Used Car Blue. The former is a trad jazz version and the latter a punk version. Interesting stuff, but they don’t add much and make this only an 8 song CD. They probably couldn’t afford more, so I can totally understand that. Anyway, if you can find this lurking around some Texas CD stores pick it up. Otherwise get from the band at a live show or from their website.

Rating: 81 (live versions of the songs would make this 14 pts. higher)

Released: 1985
Tracks: A.I.R.; Lone Justice; Madhouse; S.S.C./Stand or Fall; The Enemy; Aftershock; Armed and Dangerous; Medusa; Gung-Ho
Best track: probably Madhouse, A.I.R. is good too
Tracks to skip: The Enemy, Aftershock, Medusa, Gung-Ho

This was Anthrax’s major label debut and it’s not that special. Especially considering what fellow thrashers Metallica put out a year before (Ride the Lightning) and what Metallica and Megadeth would do in ’86. The guys were just really young back then and very inexperienced. They eventually became a GREAT band, but this attempt (first full-length with Joey Belladonna on vocals) isn’t so hot. It doesn’t bother me to own this, but it’s one I rarely listen to. The bad songs on here are pretty awful, esp. Medusa. Ugh, gimme a break. This should be one of your last Anthrax purchases if you’re becoming a big fan. If you’re a casual fan avoid it.

Rating: 74

Released: 1976
Tracks: More Than a Feeling; Peace of Mind; Foreplay/Long Time; Rock & Roll Band; Smokin’; Hitch a Ride; Something About You; Let Me Take You Home Tonight
Best track: all of side 1
Track to skip: you can skip Let Me Take You Home Tonight, it’s not that great

There really isn’t a lot to say about this album, the first half is pretty much perfect. The songs do kinda head downhill a bit near the end of the album, but nothing too bad. This album is highly recommended if you like well-played rock and roll with very catchy choruses. Good stuff.

Rating: 91

Released: 1991
Tracks: Slowly But Surely; Tell Me Why; My Sweetheart is the Sun; Captured; Am I; I’m Only Human; Open Again (Communication); Money; Joan of Arc; Butterflies; Just Say Love Stay Close to Me
Best track: Butterflies
Track to skip: Money is kinda stupid, so if you skip it the world won’t end

Comparing this stuff to the previous Twang stuff, it is a bit different. I think he really was trying shed that goofy persona that Twang had and present himself as a more serious songwriter. I think in general most people preferred him to stay with what he was doing. And that’s really how his ‘fans’ have reacted to his music for his entire career. Whether this is better or worse than Twang is irrelevant. The whole point of this album, and band, was that he was branching out and not staying in the same place.

Even though he was only like 19 when he recorded this album, it still sounds amazingly mature. The songs are mostly very good with only a few question marks in the bunch. Man, I wish I could’ve written songs like Butterflies when I was in my late teens! I don’t know exactly how the public reacted to this album, but I think if people would’ve just listened to all the good stuff on here this would be regarded as a classic in Austin music circles. I think this album is pretty much forgotten by now except for the hardcore ‘Veed fans. That’s too bad, this is a good album. It’s by no means his best, and honestly, it’s at the lower end of his post-twang material. But, it’s still good.

The great songwriting is here, the eclecticism is here, and the musicianship is here…a great beginning to his ‘solo’ career. He only got better after this, but this is still worth getting if you can find someone who’ll dub you a copy. This thing was out of print by 1992, and only 500-1000 copies were probably pressed (on cassette no less!), so good luck in finding an original.

Rating: 84

Released: 1997
Tracks: Groovin’ High; All the Things You Are; Dizzy Atmosphere; Salt Peanuts; Shaw ‘Nuff; Hot House; Now’s the Time; Ko Ko; Moose the Mooche; Yardbird Suite; Ornithology; Cool Blues; Relaxin’ At Camarillo; Donna Lee; Chasing the Bird; Dewey Square; Bird of Paradise; The Hymn; Embraceable You; Klactoveedsedstene; Scrapple From the Apple; Out of Nowhere; Don’t Blame Me; Quasimado; Klaunstance; Parker’s Mood; Bloomdido; Star Eyes; She Rote; My Little Suede Shoes; Confirmation; Blue ‘N’ Boogie; ‘Round Midnight; Night in Tunisia; Just Friends; What is This Thing Called Love?; East of the Sun; Laura
Best track: Salt Peanuts
Track to skip: don’t, it’s all good

From early stuff with Dizzy, which is especially excellent, to the beginnings of Miles Davis (before he went out on his own), to Parker’s later music before his death in 1955, this collection really hits on all the good stuff. All the songs are good in their own right, so it’s hard to pick favorites. There’s just something about Salt Peanuts that really gets me going; I absolutely love it. As expected, the playing by Bird and Dizzy (and everyone else, but especially those two) are excellent. And when I say ‘excellent’, I truly mean top-notch playing. This is a whole collection of music that changed jazz for the better. Bird and Dizzy pretty much invented Be-Bop, one of the more exciting styles of jazz.

I don’t have that many jazz albums, and I’m still learning what it’s all about, but this collection is pretty easy to grasp if you’re not already well-versed in jazz. Everything is very melodic and the songs these guys wrote are all great. Highly recommended.

Rating: 94

Released: 1989
Tracks: The House is Rockin’; Crossfire; Tightrope; Let Me Love You Baby; Leave My Girl Alone; Travis Walk; Wall of Denial; Scratch-N-Sniff; Love Me Darlin’; Riviera Paradise
Best track: Riviera Paradise
Track to skip: not really necessary, all have something to offer

All the songs are good or great and the album flows very nicely. The absolute highlight on this album is the last track, Riviera Paradise. It’s a very chilled out, clean instrumental. One of the most beautiful and perfect pieces of music ever written. Every second of it is perfect. Especially Stevie’s playing. Wow. It’s just amazing. Regardless of the rest of his excellent output, for the creation of this track alone Stevie Ray Vaughan deserves to be one of the greatest ever. I love this song. The album’s good too, go grab it.

Rating: 93

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