Thank you for the music: Memorable Albums
Ten Summoner's Tales
(1993) Sting
Where The Soul Cages was dark and introspective, Ten Summoner's Tales shows Sting returning to a lighter mood, with plenty of wry humor and jazz musical touches. It is an amazing compilation of 11 songs that really push boundaries with his musicianship while staying true to his excellent songwriting (Sting wrote most of the songs; his real name is Gordon Sumner, hence the album's title). The songs included on this album are expansive, serious and funny, packed with melodies. While its message isn't as deep as his past albums, it shines in its authenticity, surely the best material he's ever played. To draw you in, the first song is the well-known If I Ever Lose My Faith in You. It has an addictive groove and multiple layers of sounds and melodies.
In that same vein is Fields of Gold. Surely this song, in its sombre mood and loving lyrics, is more than just a pop song but wistfully recalled memory of love that even the music video captured. Sting's strong sense of storytelling is evident in Something the Boy Said, about seafarers (a favorite subject of Sting's) and their upcoming doom on the high seas. Again, the music carries its subject flawlessly. This album feels like a whole composition while the songs themselves have the feel of a greatest hits collection. Sting's mastery of musicianship and ironic, direct lyrics can not be denied as he safely samples all perspectives and blends them into this superb volume of romantic, freshly synthesized songs. Not going too deep in message, this album is truly the pinnacle of Sting's work.
Summertime Dream
(Reprise/1976) Gordon Lightfoot
With Summertime Dream, Gordon Lightfoot produced one of his finest albums, and wrapped up a six-year period of popularity that he would not recapture. Propelled by his second biggest hit, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Summertime Dream summed up the sound that had served Lightfoot so well in his post-If You Could Read My Mind days.
For those who decide to go the album route rather than purchase a greatest hits compilation or live recording when buying your first Lightfoot album, this is the one to get. There's no filler here, every song is a gem, classic Lightfoot says it all. From the opening cut Race Among the Ruins to the legendary, haunting Edmund Fitzgerald, every tune is a classic. My favourite is a toss-up between The House You Live In - Lightfoot's home-grown philosophy on life - and I'm Not Supposed To Care, a poignant song about love past but not forgotten.
The jangly 12 string flat top, fluid lead Gretsch guitar lines, and haunting vocals combined with classic lyrics that have become Lightfoot's trademark are all there; the only thing missing is the intimancy of earlier albums like Dox Quixote and Old Dan's Records, the recording of which were free of technical enhancements. Whereas those albums sounded like the artists where right there playing live in your living room, here, some songs - Race Among the Ruins is perhaps the worst offender - are grossly overproduced, and sound more like the musicians were playing and singing in a bathroom a few blocks away. The 'echo-like' effect works well on Edmund Fitzgerald, but detracts from the rest. Apart from that, it's the perfect album.
Personnel: Gordon Lightfoot (vocals, guitars), Terry Clements (lead acoustic and electric guitars), Rick Haynes (bass), Pee Wee Charles (steel guitar) and Barry Keane (drums, percussion).
Night Flight To Venus
(Atlantic, 1978) Boney M
I never was one for disco - I don't like dancing, the fashions were way over the top for conservative me and the music left me cold; with one exception - Boney M. Named after a 1970s Australian TV detective, the group was an odd combination of semi-plagaurised songs performed by West Indians living in Germany, all sung to a mix of calypso and disco beats with tight, close harmonies. It worked amazingly well.
Night Flight to Venus was their third album, and without doubt their best - from it Boney M had three No.1 hit singles. These, all with borrowed themes, were Rasputin (features elements of both a Serbian and Turkish traditional song), Rivers of Babylon (based on the Biblical hymn Psalm 137. The song also has words from Psalm 19:14.) and Brown Girl In The Ring (a traditional Caribbean nursery rhyme that uses an arrangement from Malcolm's Locks "Brown Girl". The album also included a particularly good version of Neil Young's classic Heart Of Gold. In spite of all the 'borrowing' (stage performers, songs and arrangements) that went on, it all came together perfectly as a highly polished glamour act with a distinctive sound. I See A Boat On The River and Ribbons of Blue, my favourite Boney M songs, were never released on studio albums but as singles and on compilation albums only.
My Heart
(Decca/2004) Sissel
From the first time I heard the haunting background vocals in the movie Titanic, I knew that whoever this singer might be, I had to hear more. By searching the internet, I discovered that the voice belonged to Norwegian-born siren, Sissel, which led me to add this, her second album in English, to my collection. Dynamic and expressive, mixing classical melodies, operatic arias and pop songs, this crossover artist has a vocal clarity that is reminiscent of Sarah Brightman; she sings effortlessly with a pureness in her soprano renditions.
Her gracefulness is evident throughout this album, which demonstrates her extensive vocal range in the various genres. Her interpretations of Pie Jesu, Ave Maria and Mon coeur s'ouvre ta voix evoke a sensitivity of style with her floating and exquisite melodies. She is equally at ease with pop tunes, comfortably resonating in You Raise Me Up, Someone Like You and Beyond Imagination. Sissel is accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ettore Stratta.
Bankrupt
(Axis/1975) Dr Hook & The Medicine Show
Thus named because the band at a time were struggling to stay afloat financially, Dr. Hook's album Bankrupt is chock-full of idiotic, contrived lyrics that would make any sane person vomit; pointless slide guitar and country-rock posturing, ill-conceived genre exercises, absurdly obvious drug references, ridiculously ironic cover art, and even an inane version of a Sam Cooke song.
If this was 1975, we might dismiss it as a terrible waste of good vinyl - a completely useless addition to rock history. However, as much as we might wish it were 1975, it's not, and with the benefit of hindsight, we can see Dr. Hook for what they really were - fantastic entertainers.
Listening to this album is like attending a party in a seedy bar, complete with country-rock pumping from the jukebox, a slack-jawed drunk talking over every song (even the good ones), round after round after round of cheap beer until last call, the jukebox lights go dim and the party continues in the car park with beer-fueled sing-alongs.
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this album were recorded and mixed in exactly 45 minutes - it's so full of energy, and every track sounds so spontaneous, they just had to be the first take. The lyrics, though often insipid, are sung with such pure emotion that every simple line sounds like a message from above.
The album starts with Levitate, a faux-funk piece that demands the crowd try a new dance. The lyrics' simplicity belies their true impact, paying homage/poking fun at the myriad 50s/60s dance-craze songs.
Only Sixteen (the Sam Cooke song, referenced earlier) is played verbatim, and I suppose it's up to every individual to determine if it's a genuine sweet love song or a sick venture into forbidden lust. Either way, it became the big hit single they so desparately needed, rescuing the band from a slide into pop oblivion, never to be heard of again.
I Got Stoned And I Missed It is the first Shel Silverstein song on the album. Yes, the Shel Silverstein. Unbeknownst to many of the Nintendo Generation, the famous Shel was a writer for Playboy and Rolling Stone long before he was churning out volumes of poems and short stories for children. The song lists a variety of scenarios in which the protagonist suffers short-term memory loss, due to the negative effects of marijuana use.
The rest of side one continues in the same irreverent fashion, followed by track one, side two: The Millionaire. Despite the 'I'll sing this verse, you sing the next' aesthetic and an ad-libbed introductory 'thank you', presumably for either buying the album or managing to get all the way through the first side of the LP and venturing into the second side, the song succeeds. Even the painful chorus is made sweet by the studio-magic harmonies that emerge from the mix. Everybody's Making It Big But Me is one of the other Silverstein-penned songs, and the last outstanding composition on the album. The instrumentation is not the least bit inspiring - a simple two-note bass line, and rudimentary guitar, but that's not the point. And the lyrics are nothing a high-school kid couldn't write, but they work on several levels. From the 1975 perspective, they provide some cunning social commentary. The verses are hilarious for not only the pop-cultural references (still valid!) but also the nostalgia.
Dr. Hook's Bankrupt may well be hopelessly dated by today's standards, but for anyone who lived through 1975, these songs are timeless. Bankrupt is without question one of the best (if not the best) country/novelty/party-rock albums of its era.
Call Of The Search
(Dramatico/2003) Katie Melua
Any notions of Katie Melua being a calculated Norah Jones knock-off fly out the window within seconds of listening to the jazzy chanteuse's wispy, sultry voice on her debut Call of the Search. Like her idol, the late Eva Cassidy, in tribute to whom Melua penned the fetching Faraway Voice, the young Georgian-born British jazz and blues singer is clearly one of those fortunate souls who feels music in every fibre of their being.
It's somewhat surprising to note that the songs, which have the feel of Gramophone antiquity, were actually written by the singer herself or her mentor Mike Batt. Mixed in with the originals are some truly lovely covers including a heart-wrenching rendition of Randy Newman's I Think It`s Going to Rain Today and a soulful version of John Mayall's Crawling Up a Hill. Melua's otherworldly and appealing voice makes Call of the Search an intriguing first outing.
Personnel: Katie Melua (vocals, guitar); Chris Spedding, Jim Cregan (guitar); Mike Batt (piano, organ); Tim Harries (bass instrument); Henry Spinetti, Michael Kruk (drums).
Don't Ask
(Columbia/1994) Tina Arena
Don't Ask is the second album by Australian singer Tina Arena. She co-wrote all of the songs on the original release of the album which was produced by David Tyson. The album bears the fruits of her journey of discovery as she struggled to climb out from under the shadow of Young Talent Time (the album's title is the stock answer she used to give when asked about her YTT days - Now I Can Dance, on her next album, So Deep, documents that journey).
A remarkable record by a still-maturing talent, Don't Ask became Arena's highest selling album to date selling in excess of 1.3 million copies worldwide and was certified ten times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The album spawned the successful singles Chains, Sorrento Moon (I Remember), Heaven Help My Heart, Wasn't It Good, That's the Way a Women Feels and the cover version of Maria McKee's song Show Me Heaven. Don't Ask brought Arena her first of ten ARIA Award nominations throughout 1995 and 1996.
Heart Like A Wheel
(Capitol, 1974) Linda Ronstadt
Heart Like A Wheel was Linda Ronstadt's breakthrough album, and her most perfectly realized. She had her first hit, Different Drum, in 1967, fronting the Stone Poneys. Though long acknowledged to be one of the best woman singers in pop, it wasn't until Heart like a Wheel that she received the acclaim she so richly deserved.
One of the reasons Heart like a Wheel is so impressive is its expansion of repertoire beyond country and folk-rock. It also joined Ronstadt to her ideal producer, Peter Asher (the Peter of the 1960s singing duo, Peter & Gordon), who, with Andrew Gold, provided ten well-chosen songs with full, distinctive sound settings, notable for the variety and imagination of their instrumentation.
The opening cut, Clint Ballad Jr.'s You're No Good, displays Ronstadt's enormous potential as a white blues singer. Backed by Clydie King and Shirley Matthews, Ronstadt lets go with a soulful wail that comes as an exciting surprise. Back in the country vein, Ronstadt faithfully resurrects Hank Williams' I Can't Help It if I'm Still in Love with You, singing harmony with Emmy Lou Harris against steel guitar and fiddle accompaniment by Sneaky Pete and David Lindley. The cut is a triumph of understanding and taste. Another highlight is J.D. Souther's Faithless Love, perhaps the strongest ballad he's written. Its striking arrangement features Souther singing smooth octave-lower sevenths against Ronstadt's lead vocals - not an easy harmony to pull off gracefully.
The title song is a masterpiece of writing and arrangement, set by David Campbell as a formal chamber piece with piano, double bass, cello, viola and fiddle counterpointing dual vocals by Ronstadt and Maria Muldaur. My favourite track is It Doesn't Matter Anymore, a slowed-down, deliciously heart-rending version of the Buddy Holly classic that expresses like few other ballads have the heart-rending feeling of love lost.