Cheevyjames’ Musical Roundhouse

Released: 2012
Tracks: Satellite 15; The Final Frontier; El Dorado; 2 Minutes to Midnight; The Talisman; Coming Home; Dance of Death; The Trooper; The Wicker Man; Blood Brothers; When the Wild Wind Blows; The Evil That Men Do; Fear of the Dark; Iron Maiden; The Number of the Beast; Hallowed Be Thy Name; Running Free
Best track: El Dorado
Tracks to skip: When the Wild Wind Blows, Satellite 15

Welcome to Yet Another Iron Maiden Live Album, Part VIII!  In this installment we find our heroes conquering Santiago, Chile on a perfect April evening in support of their excellent The Final Frontier album.  Yes, this is Iron Maiden’s eighth live album, their latest one since 2009’s Flight 666 Soundtrack.  I caught the early leg of the tour, before the album was released, and thus the only new song I heard was El Dorado.  I like that they played five of the new songs on this tour even though more would always be welcome.  This album starts off pretty cold with Satellite 15 used as an opening tape.  I wish they would’ve actually attempted to play this song live as it’s a really cool song.  But no, it’s just a tape…the entire thing, even Bruce’s vocal.  The first “real” song of the night is The Final Frontier and it’s an excellent version.  Right off the bat, you can tell that the band’s on fire and sounding great.  I absolutely love the transition between The Final Frontier and El Dorado, a perfect segue.  El Dorado is a scorcher and definitely the best song on the album.  My first thought when hearing it for the first time was, “wow, this rocks balls!”  So true.

2 Minutes is a good choice for third song, after the two new ones.  I’m SO THANKFUL that they didn’t play Wrathchild at this gig.  The show flows so much better without it.  I love how they can play 2 Minutes to Midnight for probably the 10,000th time and yet there’s still so much passion in them on this.  Nicko McBrain propels the band and he’s in top form.  I love his enthusiasm.  The intro to The Talisman comes across so much better than on the album.  The whole song sounds really great and I love the classic Maiden sound on this track.  Coming Home is another excellent song from the new album and my favorite parts were the Dave Murray & Adrian Smith solos.  The audience first truly makes their presence known on Dance of Death.  I enjoyed Bruce’s interesting spoken intro to the song.  While I still don’t *love* the song and it’s entirely too wordy, the fast Celtic section in the middle works so great in a live setting.  After hearing it here, and twice on the last tour, I’ll say that it’s slowly growing on me.  While The Trooper is a great wake up after Dance of Death, Wicker Man just isn’t as powerful as I’ve heard it before.  Maybe they’re getting tired at this point, who knows.  It’s only an average version.

With Blood Brothers it really hit me that this album is edited to completely remove all interaction between Bruce Dickinson and the audience.  Usually before Blood Brothers he talks to the audience a bit, but it’s all been excised for this album.  I understand why it’s removed, because you really don’t need it, but it makes listening to the CD not flow as well as it should and I feel like something is missed – that connection with the audience.  I miss the between-song banter on this whole album.  The final new track of the night is up next, the super-long When the Wild Wind Blows.  This song really doesn’t work too well live – it’s SO long and repetitive.  There are several other epics from The Final Frontier that could’ve worked better live instead of this one.  Just like Dance of Death, When the Wild Wind Blows is too wordy.  Steve needs an editor.  I was very unimpressed by this song live.  After that, we get the standard end-of-show/encore hits.  Fear of the Dark > Iron Maiden, no way!!!!!  I’ve heard all of these songs a billion times it seems and while they’re all played really well, to me I just gloss over it all.  I don’t need any more versions of Hallowed or Number of the Beast and I sure as hell couldn’t care less about hearing the song Iron Maiden live.  I give the crowd more points for their massively loud singing in Running Free, but overall it’s standard.  This second disc, starting with Blood Brothers, is such a downer compared to the first disc.  I know I’m in a very small group that loves hearing the new songs and could easily do without all of the classics that I’ve heard so much before.

Maiden puts out a ton of live albums, but I can honestly forgive them because they’re damn good.  Their energy is absolutely infectious, esp. on the first half of the set.  There’s a reason the classics are so popular and the band always plays them well.  There’s no denying how passionate they play Iron Maiden, even though it’s been the last song of the main set for every single show since probably 1979.  That’s impressive to me, how they can play this song every night, but still seem like the WANT to play it.  As for the sound of this live album, I think Kevin Shirley did a fine job.  It feels like there’s a slight layer of “fog” and it’s not as crisp as it could be (see: Live After Death, naturally).  That said, it sounds fine and only serious Maiden fans will notice that it’s not perfect.  I don’t see myself popping in disc 2 that often, but I really do think that disc 1 will get a lot of play.  El Dorado is phenomenal, as are most of the other new songs.  I’m most excited for the DVD of this show, though, because watching Maiden is always better than simply listening.

Rating: 87

Released: 1993
Tracks: Go; Animal; Daughter; Glorified G; Dissident; W.M.A.; Blood; Rearviewmirror; Rats; Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town; Leash; Indifference
Best track: Indifference
Tracks to skip: Dissident, Blood, Leash

This album came out when I was in high school and I remember that it arrived on the same day as Rush’s Counterparts.  Heading  to the record store after school that day, I was the only one who bought the Rush album while everyone else I knew bought the new Pearl Jam.  I think I ended up getting Vs. about a week or so later.   I was conflicted, that’s for sure, since I loved both bands.  Rush won out, though.  I loved this album since the first listen and I think it still holds up (mostly) pretty well.  At the time I was the only one I knew who thought this was a better album than Ten.  I couldn’t really say why it was better; I just knew that Vs. connected with me in a stronger way.

I love that there’s a lot of growth from their first album to this follow-up.  The band sounds a LOT more confident on this album.  I also dig the rawness, the outright “F-YOU” attitude in some of these tracks and I especially appreciate the depth of a handful of these songs.  Indifference stands out among the rest of their catalog and right from the beginning I was blown away at how great of a song it is.  It’s still great and I LOVE listening to it.  Indifference is one of those songs that I can put on repeat and just enjoy it over and over again.  The spaciousness, the vibe, the prominent organ, the bass harmonics…how absolutely different it sounds from the rest of their stuff…it’s one of my favorites.

The rest of the album is mostly very enjoyable with the three exceptions in Dissident, Blood and Leash.  For Dissident, the intro riff seems too obvious.  It’s a catchy song, but that lead riff is repeated way too much and overall the song sounds like a copy of songs from the first album.  In an album full of Pearl Jam expanding their sound, Dissident sounds like a retread.  For Blood, I’ve never liked it and it’s just kind of stupidly heavy without having much substance.  Leash is a decent song, but it sounds like it’s trying too hard to be anthemic, esp. with the “drop the leash, we are young!” refrain.  For W.M.A., if you take out Eddie Vedder’s dumb lyrics (he’s definitely projecting his white guilt onto the cop in the song) it’s a cool song.  There are a lot of interesting bits musically and the repeating bass line anticipates what became a cornerstone of many Radiohead songs later in the decade and after.

I love both of the acoustic songs, Daughter and Elderly Woman, and they show some nice depth to the band’s sound.  Of course, then you have Rearviewmirror which rocks and is a great driving song, not to mention the near chaos in opener Go.  Vs. isn’t a perfect album, but it’s still my favorite of Pearl Jam’s albums that I’ve actually heard.  They’ve got the hunger and fire here, and their confidence and attitude on this album really propels it.

Rating: 91

Released: 1994
Tracks: Come Talk to Me; Steam; Across the River; Slow Marimbas; Shaking the Tree; Red Rain; Blood of Eden; Kiss That Frog; Washing of the Water; Solsbury Hill; Digging in the Dirt; Sledgehammer; Secret World; Don’t Give Up; In Your Eyes
Best track: maybe Steam or Across the River
Track to skip: Kiss That Frog

The majority of these songs come from Gabriel’s So and Us albums and except for the stragglers (Across the River, Slow Marimbas & Solsbury Hill), Secret World Live is essentially a “best of” for those two albums.  Although it’s disappointing to be covering primarily two releases, it makes sense because 1983’s Plays Live (his previous live album) covers his first four albums pretty well.  Peter Gabriel had a fantastic band with him for this tour, anchored by David Rhodes on guitar, Tony Levin on bass, Paula Cole on vocals and the excellent Manu Katché on drums.  Levin is great throughout, esp. on Steam, but for me Katché is the highlight of this album.  His absolutely monstrous drumming propels songs like Come Talk to Me and Across the River.  I really love Paula Cole’s vocals on this album and she shines on Shaking the Tree, Don’t Give Up and Come Talk to Me.

As he was touring for the Us album, many of these songs deal with love and sex, and one of the more obvious ones is Kiss That Frog.  It’s upbeat, which is nice, but it’s a pretty piss-poor song and one I always dread hearing.  While the version of the hit Sledgehammer doesn’t make me jump for the fwd button, it’s a disappointment because it’s so pedestrian and lacks the fire of the studio version.  As individual songs/performances most of these songs are really good, but in listening to the album as a whole work, it’s a lot to sit through so many slow and mid-tempo songs.  The faster ones provide some nice contrast, but when you’ve got stuff like the awful Kiss That Frog and the uninspired Sledgehammer, you just feel that there’s nowhere to turn that will make it a better experience.  The solid version of Solsbury Hill does help, though.

While it may not have been as authentic of an experience, a single-disc version of this album probably would’ve been better.  I honestly don’t listen to this that much anymore.  Ever since watching the Secret World Live DVD and seeing how much of a “performance” it was, versus musicians up there playing music, it’s kind of turned me off to this album.  Watching the DVD you really get the coldness of the performances and since seeing that, I hear it now too.  That said, the work of Katché, Levin & Cole is stellar and they make this album worth listening to.  Some of the versions here are outright excellent: the “kitchen sink” version of In Your Eyes, Steam, Across the River, Come Talk to Me, Red Rain.  Those make me want to listen to this album.  Some of the others…not so much.  Ultimately it’s an interesting document and exciting to hear the first time, but it lessens over time.  Overall it’s just kind of ho-hum now for me.

Rating: 83

Released: 1969
Tracks: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes; Marrakesh Express; Guinevere; You Don’t Have to Cry; Pre-Road Downs; Wooden Ships; Lady of the Island; Helplessly Hoping; Long Time Gone; 49 Bye-Byes
Best track: either Helplessly Hoping or Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Track to skip: Marrakesh Express

I don’t know a lot about folk and Americana music, so I’m unable to approach the album from the historical perspective or of the influence from this album in the past 40+ years.  In a sense, the historical aspect doesn’t matter as much as the fact that it’s simply good music that will always be appreciated.  Before getting this album, I wasn’t too familiar with most of these songs besides Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.  It’s refreshing that it’s such an eclectic album with each song standing out on its own.  When you have three strong songwriters in Graham Nash, David Crosby and Stephen Stills you’re naturally going to get a lot of different perspectives.  Thankfully all three of their songwriting styles blend perfectly.

I can’t get past how chilling their harmonies are, especially on songs like Helplessly Hoping and Judy Blue Eyes.  The quality of their combined voices gives me a feeling that few bands can produce vocally.  If magic exists in music, Crosby, Still & Nash definitely tapped into it.  As compositions I love both of these songs and I love how different they are from each other, even though they’re both written by Stephen Stills.  In addition to contributing the best songs on this album, Stills also played the majority of the instruments except for the drums.  Guitars here and there are played by Nash and Crosby, but most of the guitar work and all of the keys and bass playing are handled by Stephen Stills.  His bass playing is excellent throughout, most noticeably on Judy and Wooden Ships.  Of course, Stills’ guitar playing is more in the forefront on songs like Wooden Ships and the perfect use of harmonics in You Don’t Have to Cry.  David Crosby gets his due as a guitarist in Guinevere…I love what he does musically on this song.  Both of Crosby’s solo compositions, Guinevere & Long Time Gone, are phenomenal songs.

Graham Nash’s songs are my least favorite on the album.  I outright don’t like Marrakesh Express.  Sonically it really doesn’t fit with the rest of the album.  I don’t think the quirky/pop aspects of this song mesh with Crosby & Stills’ songs.  The lyrics for Pre-Road Downs are pretty lame, but the song is definitely saved by Stills’ bass & guitar work. Lady of the Island is a better song, but is still a tad weaker when compared with his bandmates’ tunes.  I do appreciate the delicacy of Nash’s vocals on this one.  Marrakesh is the only song on this album that I actively skip, though.

Except for some minor quibbles, this CSN debut is a fantastic album.  I really wish that I had been around to experience it when it came out.  There’s such a high quality of songwriting and musicianship present here that I completely find missing from so much music released today.  These three guys have such a dedication to excellence and it’s so wonderful to hear that from musicians.  I think that Long Time Gone would make a better ending song than 49 Bye-Byes, but that doesn’t impact how much I love this album.  The singular misstep of Marrakesh doesn’t diminish the greatness here.

[The 2006 remaster features four bonus tracks that show off the folkier side of the trio and all four would be welcome additions to this album, if they were more fleshed out.  Of course, Teach Your Children would pop up on the CSNY album Déjà Vu]

Rating: 95

Released: 1990
Tracks: The Obvious Child; Can’t Run But; The Coast; Proof; Further to Fly; She Moves On; Born at the Right Time; Cool, Cool River; Spirit Voices; Rhythm of the Saints
Best track: Cool, Cool River
Track to skip: Rhythm of the Saints

Rhythm of the Saints is Paul Simon’s follow-up to the hugely successful Graceland.  Where Graceland was more explosive overall, Rhythm of the Saints is a much more understated album.  Repeated listening reveals so much depth to the music, especially when listening with headphones.  I absolutely love how beautifully mixed this album is.  Everything is so subdued here.  One of the things that really helps the album stand out is how percussion-heavy it is.  It feels like every song has this significant, deep layer of percussion.  There aren’t many, if any, tracks with traditional-sounding drums.  Rhythmically, there are a lot of polyrhythms on many of these songs and that’s especially clear in my two favorite songs on the album, Can’t Run But and Cool, Cool River.  Cool, Cool River is an excellent song and the high dose of polyrthythms reminds me of Talking Heads and King Crimson.  It’s such an intriguing song and I love the transition into the mellow section, not to mention the part near the end of the tune when the horns come in.  Those horns make me feel absolutely jubilant…I love it.

The first four songs are all stellar, well-sequenced and certainly well-written.  Again, this is where the headphones (or a great stereo) come into play, and it’s so much fun to listen to.  Further to Fly has some interesting bits, but I think it goes on too long, and when it continues on to She Moves On, I really lose interest.  She Moves On isn’t quite skippable, but it’s not terribly exciting either.  Those two songs are a ten-minute period of time that I end up glossing over.  Thankfully Born at the Right Time, Cool, Cool River and Spirit Voices lift everything back up.  As for the final track, that’s the only track that I actively don’t care for and it kind of ends the album on a weird note.  It doesn’t feel like a proper END to the album.

Honestly, those two complains are minor.  There’s so much great music to experience here that I only notice those “not so great” parts when I’m listening critically.  Most of the time, I just get absorbed by the timbre of this album and enjoy the hell out of it.  I certainly compare this album to Graceland because it is the follow-up, and Graceland is one of my favorite albums ever made.  While the songs themselves are better on Graceland, what I love about Rhythm of the Saints is how Paul Simon truly steps away from “pop” song structures/rhythms and presents this magnificently detailed, yet subtle, enveloping album.  It is challenging in a way, but the reward is significant.  I’m always floored by how great the music is on this album.

Rating: 94

Released: 1986
Tracks: Night Songs; Shake Me; Nobody’s Fool; Nothin’ For Nothin’; Once Around the Ride; Hell on Wheels; Somebody Save Me; In From the Outside; Push Push; Back Home Again
Best track: maybe Shake Me or Somebody Save Me…there are a lot of great songs here
Track to skip: Hell on Wheels

More 80’s metal!  I really think that if Cinderella hadn’t been marketed and “made up” as a glam metal band, they would’ve been taken as serious metal band.  You don’t get that “glam” visual while just listening to the CD (ignore that awful album cover) and I think that really helps it.  For some reason, growing up I never really saw many Cinderella videos and so for me they were always a band that I pretty much only knew from listening to them on the radio or on tapes.  I never saw them as glam metal.  Yes, they had huge hair and wore make up, but when you compare them with a band like Poison, whose debut also came out in ’86, it’s completely obvious that Cinderella has nothing to do with that kind of music.  While the band is still tight as hell, they had such a great swagger, rawness and dirtiness to them.  Cinderella reminds me of an 80’s version of the Stones or Aerosmith in their heyday.  They definitely were shortchanged by getting lumped in with the likes of Poison and Bon Jovi.

Then again, those background vocals on Nothin’ For Nothin’ certainly put a damper on all that.

OK, so they straddled the line.  Still, I consider them closer to *proper* heavy metal and not glam.

This is a pretty damn good debut album and they showed what variations to metal a band from Philly could bring.  I love that the opener, the title track, sets a mood of creepiness and you also get a reprise in the uncomfortable main single, Nobody’s Fool.  I guess in some circles Nobody’s Fool was considered a power ballad, but it’s so far removed from that both musically and lyrically.  It’s still pretty heavy and I remember being totally creeped out by it when it came out.  Tom Keifer’s got such a great growl and his screams sound like some creature is about to attack you.  There are a lot great songs on this disc – Nobody’s Fool, Shake Me, Somebody Save Me, In From the Outside…man, I love the swagger on In From the Outside.  It’s got some great guitar playing on it too.  Hell on Wheels is the only song I actively skip.  There’s not much to it – basically a dumb song about how they’re a great live band and will blow you away.  Big Whoop.  While Push Push and Once Around the Ride are weaker tracks , there are still enough moments in them that I enjoy.

Night Songs definitely set Cinderella apart from the rest of the metal bands by bringing out the stronger blues and country influences.  They’d really jump into that territory on their next two albums, though.  Right off the bat, Cinderella was a band you had to take seriously.  They had some seriously good guitar chops and Tom Keifer is a hell of a songwriter.

Rating: 84

Released: 1983
Tracks: In the Beginning; Shout at the Devil; Looks That Kill; Bastard; God Bless the Children of the Beast; Helter Skelter; Red Hot; Too Young to Fall in Love; Knock ‘Em Dead Kid; 10 Seconds to Love; Danger
Best track: Looks That Kill, maybe Shout at the Devil
Tracks to skip: Helter Skelter, Red Hot, Knock ‘Em Dead Kid, 10 Seconds to Love

It’s really easy to just say that it sucks simply because it’s Mötley Crüe and leave it at that.  I think that’s missing the point though, and failing to see this album historically.  I mean, of course, if you hate heavy metal and esp. Mötley Crüe then this review is useless.  That’s fine, but I grew up listening to Metal (and still do, obviously) so I’m approaching this with my biases…both good and bad.  The main thing I like about this album is that it’s pretty raw and for the most part it rocks.  It’s funny to me how Crüe are definitely a “glam metal” band, but this album definitely is NOT glam.  It’s certainly heavier and darker than the rest of their stuff from the 80’s.  There’s such a great attitude on this album as well.  Some good songs, definitely, but more importantly it’s about the hunger, drive and general FU attitude that they have here.  They were very focused at this stage of their career.

The high points of the album are definitely the singles Looks That Kill and Shout at the Devil, with Too Young to Fall in Love right behind them.  Those are pretty damn good songs and while they might be a bit silly lyrically, I think they work for this band and I honestly still like hearing them.  There are some really good riffs on Too Young to Fall in Love.  Even on the songs that I skip, there’s no denying the fire that these guys had.  I love hearing bands with that sneer that Mötley Crüe has here.  The only “slow” song on the album is the last track, Danger, and even though the lyrics are awful, the music’s actually pretty damn solid.

Shout at the Devil isn’t a perfect album, though.  There are plenty of moments where the band still falls on their collective face.  It’s not listed as a “skipper”, but God Bless the Children of the Beast is a hilarious instrumental and obviously done tongue in cheek.  I don’t skip it, because it amuses me.  I don’t like their cover of Helter Skelter.  I think it reinforces their attitude and heaviness, but it comes off as silly and not at all menacing.  While Red Hot rocks (and was probably a fun anthem back in 1983), it’s a really cheesy song and pretty much just gets a laugh from me.  The lyrics to 10 Seconds to Love are absolutely horrible and the kind of subject matter that they’d stick with for the rest of their career.  I honestly skip In the Beginning as well, because once you hear it, you don’t need to hear it any more.

This is a fun listen, nearly 30 years later, and while it’s not going to make your children go and worship Satan or make you go sacrifice some goats, it’s still got enough rawness and heaviness to make it interesting.  Their attitude and fire is really infectious, though.  Even with Vince Neil’s distinctive and frequent “RAH-AH-AH-AH” screams, it’s mostly a tolerable listen.

Rating: 79

Released: 1994
Tracks: Ring of Fire; Sunday Morning Coming Down [Live]; I Walk the Line; Folsom Prison Blues; Understand Your Man; Big River; I Still Miss Someone; Jackson; A Boy Named Sue [Live]; One Piece at a Time
Best track: Folsom Prison Blues
Track to skip: none

This is one of those budget compilations put out by Sony back in 90’s that serves as a very brief introduction to the performer.  As this album is only 30 minutes long there’s not much on the disc, and there are certainly MANY great Johnny Cash songs that aren’t here.  For what it is, though, it’s a fine introduction and a basic overview of Cash’s most well-known songs.  All of these songs are great and it’s an enjoyable, though short, listen.  I really love that the original studio version of Folsom Prison Blues is included here instead of the live version that tends to be on most compilations.  The version of A Boy Named Sue is the censored version, so that’s something to be aware of.  You can usually find this (or any of the “Super Hits” compilations) for dirt cheap and it’s a fine way to get some of these songs.  I would recommend getting one of the many compilations that have more songs, though.  Cash is a great songwriter and performer and I always enjoy listening to this, even though it’s so short.

Rating: 86

Released: 1990
Tracks: Best I Can; The Thin Line; Jet City Woman; Della Brown; Another Rainy Night (Without You); Empire; Resistance; Silent Lucidity; Hand On Heart; One and Only; Anybody Listening?
Best track: Empire
Tracks to skip: Jet City Woman, Della Brown, Another Rainy Night, Hand on Heart, One and Only

Over the past couple of years whenever I’d listen to this, I noticed there was something that bothered me about this album…something that made me a bit uncomfortable.  In listening to it now for this review, I get it.  I don’t really like this album much anymore.  I used to love it, but I find it annoying now.  Part of my “weirdness” in listening to it, I think, is that I feel that I’m supposed to love it.  I did love it, for a long time from the time it came out.  I think now I can finally admit that I’ve outgrown it.  Not just that, but it doesn’t hold up.  I think the band’s use of love/relationship lyrics in a few of these songs really turn me off.  Of the five songs that I outright skip, three of them are love songs with bad lyrics.  I really, really hate the whiny lyrics of Another Rainy Night. I swear that chorus sounds like it could be Def Leppard.   I think that Jet City Woman is definitely a catchy song, but ultimately the “I miss my woman” lyrics bore me.  Della Brown is a song I’ve never really liked.  I think it creates a great mood, but as a song I don’t care for it.  In the second half, both Hand on Heart and One and Only (more awful lyrics) are nothing more than filler.

The first two tracks are average, but my issue with them is the overuse of keyboards.  I actively hate the keys in the chorus and outro of The Thin Line.  Queensrÿche doesn’t need keyboards; they have two outstanding guitarists and the keyboards add no depth.  Otherwise, these tracks are fine, but nothing I really get excited about.  The title track remains my favorite song on the album and a true classic in the band’s history.  I like it when they tackle more serious issues like this one.  Although I do think it oversteps into being preachy, it’s still a great song and one that I’ll always love.  Queensrÿche’s influences in their music really come out in the second half of this album: Resistance sounds a lot like a Rush song and the hit single Silent Lucidity REALLY reminds me of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb.  It’s a good song so I’m not going to get too worked up about it.  The album ends on a great note with Anybody Listening.  It’s another excellent song that I still love hearing.

In listening to this album today I noticed that the band is incredibly confident here.  They had a lot of success with Mindcrime and that really worked in their favor for making Empire.  It was this album that really gave the band a lot of attention (temporarily, anyway) and I think it was a good thing.  While I’m not into these songs much anymore, there are definitely still a lot of progressive touches and great musicianship throughout.  I always appreciate that.  My problem is that I don’t love these songs anymore and as an album it doesn’t really hold up.  Three really good songs (Empire, Anybody Listening & Silent Lucidity) can’t sustain an album over time and that reflects in my feelings on it now.

Rating: 75

Released: 2002
Tracks: Things That Scare Me; Deep Red Bells; Outro With Bees; Lady Pilot; Tightly; Look for Me (I’ll Be Around); Stinging Velvet; Pretty Girls; I Missed the Point; Blacklisted; I Wish I Was the Moon; Runnin’ Out of Fools; Ghost Writing; Outro With Bees (Reprise)
Best track: Lady Pilot or Deep Red Bells
Track to skip: Outro with Bees (Reprise)

I’ve been listening to Neko Case for a few years now so it’s fun to finally dive into her albums on this website.  While she’s usually lumped in with “alt-country”, in my mind her music tends to be more country than alternative rock.  I heard her music described as Country-Noir and I think that fits.  It’s often dark and mysterious and her voice is absolutely haunting.  The particular touches, esp. in the lead guitars and pedal steel, give Neko Case’s music a distinct quality.  There are a lot of spaces in the guitar notes and within the drumming that I love.  The music breathes so well.  I appreciate in such a huge way that her songs aren’t conventional, either in the lyrical sense or in their structures.  It’s so refreshing to hear a songwriter really step outside of the usual boundaries and still make compelling music.

Things That Scare Me is a great, upbeat opener, but after that you totally get sucked in with Deep Red Bells.  Case’s hypnotic vocals and the great chorus make this one of her best and most famous songs.  Her voice here has this quality of being simultaneously commanding and yet vulnerable.  There’s a slight breather in Outro with Bees before hitting the chilling Lady Pilot.  I love this song and how unsettling it is.  It’s a short song, but manages to say so much in that time.  It was Lady Pilot that really first grabbed me about her music.

I like the songs individually throughout the middle of the album, but they do tend to put me in a bit of a lull.  The last four proper songs are all tremendous, though.  I Wish I was the Moon is more of a traditional country song with a great guitar solo.  It’s got a great peacefulness to it.  Case does a fantastic version of Aretha Franklin’s Runnin’ Out of Fools before heading into the trippy Ghost Writing.  After this one, there’s a minute of silence before we get a reprise of Outro With Bees.  It’s pretty useless and I usually skip it.

Neko Case brings such a spooky, cinematic quality to her music and I love being submerged in this world.  She’s an unconventional songwriter who still writes high quality songs.  Above all, it’s her voice that pulls me in.  It’s so great to hear a real singer these days.  Her albums are all pretty consistent and Blacklisted is definitely a great place to start.

Rating: 91

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