Lady Gaga on Repeat

Lady Gaga’s latest collection dropped this week following a slow rollout of individual songs and videos. The initial songs struck me much like previous songs of hers, I was not immediately blown away, but they grew on me the more I heard them. After listening to ARTPOP straight through a few times, I felt the same way. The songs grew on me.

Now that the album is fully released, I look forward to seeing how it is performed in the coming months through videos, television appearances, and in concert. Lady Gaga’s music can stand alone, but it is not fully complete without the performance pieces included. She is a performance artist like we have not seen in a generation. Each performance (essentially every time she is seen in public) for the next months will be completing the story of ARTPOP.

Better than any of her previous albums, ARTPOP tells a story. The songs stand alone, but they also stand together. So far I have not heard any individual songs that strike me as a “Poker Face,” “Bad Romance,” or “Edge of Glory,” which are songs I could put on repeat just for themselves. Then again, I did not pick any of them initially when listening to The Fame or Born This Way.

Despite not finding a go-to song on the initial listen, I am certain I will find songs that will grow on me and that I will return to from time to time just as I did with the previous albums. Much of that connection will come in the following months as the ARTPOP performance plays itself out. The first week has not made me fall in love with the album, but I am at the same place I was with Gaga’s previous releases and they are still among my most played collections even after a few years. As happy as I am that she has released a new cd, I am even happier that there will be another year of Lady Gaga in performance.

Skyfall - the Song

Barely two days after it was released, when one searches for Adele’s “Skyfall” the first searches to come up are already comparing it to the list of James Bond theme songs over the last 50 years. Everyone has an opinion. Mine is that I love it so far.

It has been years since I remember the release of a Bond movie theme song being its own event. I have looked forward to the release since Adele mentioned in late spring that she had a song coming out in the fall. With no album in the works but the new Bond film scheduled for November speculation immediately suggested that she was singing the theme. This time the speculation proved accurate in dramatic fashion.

The opening horn blast lets one know from the onset that this is Bond. The opening lyric, “This is the end. Hold your breath and count to ten,” shows such a Bondian nature. He is always one wrong step away from death. Later in the song the requisite romance rears its head – or at least its lap. At the 1:50 mark, the horn riff takes off on a variation of the Bond theme. Anyone not knowing a Bond movie was set for near release knows then that the song is part of the franchise. The soaring melody and Adele’s smooth vocals have prepared me for the opening credits with dramatic moves pitting James Bond against his enemy of the episode. It takes me back to the days of the Playhouse Theater in Victoria where I saw Moonraker with its theme song in the opening scene and credits.

This is a song I want to hear with my earphones on. Take away everything else. Let me immerse myself in the drama.

How does it measure up against other James Bond theme songs? I have no idea and am somewhat annoyed at those who would rank it before the movie has been seen. I like what it does in setting up the movie. It makes me want to see the movie which I would otherwise likely wait for some kind of online streaming to see – if then. The Bond franchise, over 50 years, has offered some musical gems: “Goldfinger,” “Live and Let Die,” “Diamond are Forever,” “Moonraker,” “Nobody Does It Better,” “For Your Eyes Only” to name a few.

Ok, I was kidding about the last one. The Adele song certainly surpasses that pop drivel. Ultimately “Skyfall” will be judged by how it fits the movie as a whole. At least until the movie is released, I am going to enjoy the theatrical thrill its orchestration lets me have.

Music Review: Noise Cancelling Headphones

Another music review and I’m not talking about music. This weekend I finally bought a pair of noise cancelling headphones. I have been thinking of getting some for the times when I’m traveling on planes or staying in a hotel and find myself surrounded by unfamiliar sounds. The basic concept behind noise cancelling headphones, is that they create a counter-sound wave to whatever sound is coming in from the atmosphere that essentially leaves one hearing no sound, so whatever sound, if any, you have coming from the computer or device is all you hear.

I was prepared to have a white noise creator, so I purchased a mid-level headphone set. I am amazed at how well they work. The music I listen to, the podcasts I like to keep up with, all sound worlds better without any interference coming from without. I am normally sitting in my recliner next to my aquarium. It always has sounds coming from the air pump, the water, and the fish splashing around. The first time I turned on the headphones, the aquarium disappeared as background noise.

When the headphones are turned on, there is clarity to the sound that I’m not familiar with and I’m finding that it works really well with all kinds of music and talk. Because I so enjoy my music, I am seriously considering purchasing a higher end set for home use. With a little longer cord, I could plug into the home theatre system and listen to everything that way.

One side effect I noticed is that I have to have my cell phone sitting on my chest while I’m working on the computer with the headphones on; the phone ringing is drowned out by the noise cancelling feature. I think that may become my new excuse – “I’m sorry, the headphones hid the sound.” I may not have to ever hear a salesman knock at the door, a phone ring, or my dogs fight again.

Music Review: Hard Candy

Ok. It’s a Madonna cd. I’m gay. I’m obligated to like it.

And I do.

I have to confess that one of the reasons I like Hard Candy is that it reminds me of “Early Madonna.” Only now, it is contemporary Early Madonna. All the beats I loved in high school and college are there with a techo twist I want to dance to (while fantasizing about Justin Timberlake). It sounds like now and reminds me of then.

Too bad I’m old and dance like a white man.

Despite liking this cd, it has taken some time to grow on me. The first time I listened to it, I did not fall in love and I’ve only listened to it since its release when I made a conscious effort to do so. I’m challenged to come up with a reason not to like the cd and cannot say that there is one reason I don’t. I like it, just not as much as I want to.

Every single on the cd is pure Madonna. She stamps each one with her personality and style and each one is well produced, but after listening to the entire cd, I find myself still wanting more. Kind of like hard candy, each piece contains tremendous flavor but only makes one crave more; I find myself stuffing one after the other in my mouth. On the cd, each single has its burst of flavor, and I listen intently from one to the next, but at the end, the cd as a whole does not leave anything satisfying or memorable.

The songs on Hard Candy will be ones that have a place on play lists and mix cds for years to come, but I don’t expect to listen to the cd all the way through many times. It belongs in the music library of anyone who enjoys Madonna or even contemporary music, but it won’t be at the top of the stack.

Music Review: Sound Opinions

My alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m. every day. I don’t normally crawl out of bed then, but that is when Morning edition begins on my local National Public Radio station and I want to hear the news. I do not change the setting for the weekends because after years of waking at 5:00 a.m., my body is going to do it whether I se the alarm or not – still my paranoia keeps me worried that I won’t remember to change the setting for Monday and work.

I never said I was always logical.

On weekends, though, I do normally turn the radio off for the first cycle.

That was until recently.

On Sunday mornings, KUT (my local station) has started carrying a syndicated show from Chicago Public Radio called “Sound Opinions.” The first few weeks, I rolled over as usual and turned it off.

But I kept hearing music I liked an had not heard before.

So I started listening and each week I have discovered something new about music. I do not always like the music or agree with the opinions, but more often than not, I learn something. The co-hosts are of my generation and have a musical background more that of my friends when it comes to contemporary music. The iTunes library on my newest laptop is beginning to reflect the music I’ve been hearing on the show.

Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot are music critics for the major Chicago newspapers. They have varied tastes when it comes to music, but I have not found myself siding with one more than the other. Their interviews always catch my attention as they interview some of the legends of the music business. I always discover connections that I never knew existed before listening to the show. Some of the interviews are with people I have admired for years, but never had a name to connect to the accomplishments. Some of the interviews are with completely new people.

That comes back to the reason I enjoy them so much – I learn something new each week. I am a better music fan because of them.

The show is available in podcast at: http://www.soundopinions.org/audio.html

I encourage you to give them a shot. I have yet to listen to a show without coming across some new tidbit that fascinated me.

Music for 18 Musicians

Last Sunday while preparing for church, I listened to NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday as is my habit. Each week, just about the time I walk out the door, there is a final extended piece about an artist or a performance. This time it featured a generally unknown university music group, Grand Valley State University’s New Music Ensemble. Shortly after being formed the director announced they would be tackling Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians.

Before I sound too scholarly on modern classical music, I have to admit I’d never heard of Reich or the piece Music for 18 Musicians until that story on NPR. On the whole, I know more than many about 18th, 19th, and 20th century composers up until the 1950’s, but I’m certainly not a scholar in the genre. I know very little and listen to very little music from the latter half of the 20th century.

Nevertheless, there was something that transfixed me about the music clips from the feature. It was certainly not Beethoven or even Saint Saens. This is Donnie Darko on speed. I could run to this music.

Tonight I downloaded it from iTunes and am sitting here listening to it. Modern composition generally does not move me. I find so much of it to be an academic experiment in tonal collision or atonality. Precisely for those reasons, I’m not largely a fan.

I’m writing this review as I listen to the music for the very first time. Normally I memorize a song or CD before I write about it. I could not wait that long. Ten minutes into the piece, I found that tears were streaming down my face and yet I had a pleasant, joyful smile across that same face. I was happy to overflowing and was totally enthralled by the piece.

My mind at this moment is focused on every percussive note in the forefront while stringed melodies slide in from the background.

I paused the music almost immediately after I started listening to it because my computer speakers clearly could not handle it, so I grabbed my favorite headphones so I could listen closely. One reason I like headphones for the best music is that when I’m listening, both ears are occupied, but the bulk of the tune fills my head. I can sit here with my eyes closed and “watch” the musicians play. Throughout Music, there are many instances when two of the same instrument are playing slightly different music and those occupy the ear while the other sixteen instruments/voices are crammed into my skull.

Sometimes I’m really glad Miss Davis didn’t let us look at our fingers when we learned to type. I can be absorbed in this piece and not worry about what is going on to my laptop screen.

Reich created a tune in which instrumental voices rise and fall throughout the piece and different instruments take the lead at various times. Sometimes the new instruments rush the stage and other times they are skulking about behind the scenes for a bit before one realizes they are even there. These melodies range from lullaby to frenzied metal. Something about the xylophone keeps even the most frenzied piece from inspiring anxiety in the listener. The cello contrasting violins in the background almost forces a sense of calm over the hammering xylophone.

I guess what strikes me most about it is the actual chant-like repetition of music. The repeated bars create a meditative, spiritual quality that rises above the sometimes chaotic sound. While in some cases the chaos comes from the two percussive, stringed, or woodwind instruments building into the same piece, the bars are the same and are repeated equally. Much like religious chant, the music draws one in a bit deeper with every repetition but does not allow one to sleep.

The first impression that I could run to this music has been replaced by the depth of meditation I feel with it. It has the tempo for running, but with the spirituality, I would become so engrossed I would fall off the trail. Music does not allow for quiet meditation, rather it inspires a meditative workout.

The piece just ended and I found myself letting out an extended sigh as though I had held my breath for entire hour of the performance. I want more but am resisting the urge to start over again. Honestly, I don’t know if I can take it.

You may be surprised at the idea that I have not decided if I like it or not. I do not have the frame of reference to really judge if it is a good piece or not so the decision will be purely emotional rather than scholarly. Since I mentioned earlier that the piece moved me to joyful tears as I sat enthralled, I guess I’ll have to go with an “I love it” on the emotional scale. Seriously – it is not often I can sit for an hour completely transfixed by anything, much less a classical piece I could be listening to through the stereo.

Music Review: Josh Groban - Awake

What can I say? I'm a Grobanite and have been since the term was coined on his early website bulletin board and in the AOL chat room. For the second time, I purchased a Josh Groban CD on the day it was released. Unlike with the release of Closer when I was waiting for the store to open before going to work, I waited until the evening to purchase Awake, but I started playing it in the car before leaving the parking lot. From the first lyric to the last, the trademark Josh Groban voice remains in fine form. If there is a finer male voice in music today, I've not heard it. Certainly some performers have a gimic and some have a greater range, but if I was told I could only listen to one male singer for the rest of my life, I would choose Josh without having to think.

With that said, Awake, is a disappointment in that there is no standout song. The cd contains all original songs (to the best of my knowledge though some of the foreign language tracks may have been recorded by previous artists), but none of them reach out and grab me. I don't hit repeat on my iPod when any one song plays. I can listen to the entire cd repeatedly and be perfectly content, however, almost two months later, I have never caught myself singing along to one of the songs.

The biggest disappointment, though, is that two "bonus" tracks are only available if the cd is bought at a certain store or in a certain format (Target and iTunes for example). More artists and production companies use this practice and I find it highly offensive and discriminatory to consumers. After making my purchase at a store, I came home and purchased two "bonus" tracks from iTunes, one of which is the TITLE SONG. Who thinks this is a good idea? Josh should be ashamed that his production company pulled this stunt and should offer to replace the cd of everyone who purchased an incomplete version with the full fifteen track cd.

Josh continues to grow with his Italian lyrics. Each cd has shown an improvement in his fluency in the language. I do not know how much study of the language he has undertaken since his first cd, but it sounds now like he could converse comfortably. Many singers sing phonetically and do a good job, but they don't show a natural fluency in the language [I don't know Italian at all, but the songs on Awake sound more fluid to my raw ear] which Josh seems to be grasping with each new cd.

Josh's songwriting improves as well on Awake. He wrote the music, lyrics, or both on four songs. One to which he contributed music and lyrics, "February Song" anchors the English songs on the cd. Josh covers his full range on the song. His other music/lyric contributions include: "Now or Never", "Lullaby", and "Machine." Sadly, "Machine," with Herbie Hancock is probably the weakest song on the cd: it simply does not fit him.

As he has on his previous cd's, Josh manages to get some talented guests to perform with him. In addition to Herbie Hancock mentioned above, Josh has Ladysmith Black Mambazo perform on two songs. He harmonized beautifully with them and if I were to put a song on repeat, it would be "Weeping." The lyrics to "Weeping" tell a story that while African sounding, contains lessons for us too.

Despite the fact that I'm disappointed at the lack of any blow-my-socks-off songs, Awake on the whole remains a solid piece of work. I strongly recommend the purchase of the cd, but be certain to purchase it at a store or in the format that contains all fifteen songs, not the thirteen available in some locations - at least until Josh remedies the horror of the short cd.

Music Review: P!nk - I'm Not Dead

I have been a fan of P!nk since "Get This Party Started" but I never explored much of her music. She appealed to me as a fun and energetic performer, but I didn't attribute much more to her than than.

Aside: One of the nice features to iTunes is that one can sample parts of each song before purchasing. I enjoy and often use the feature to decide whether to purchase individual songs or an entire cd. Most often, I purchase the individual songs rather than the entire CD. Artists rarely put together 10-13 songs I really want to hear.

I went to iTunes to purchase "U + Ur Hand" the first single from I'm Not Dead. While there, I started listening to other songs from the cd. After about the fifth song, I realized I was into a remarkable collection. Every song was unique P!nk, but they varied in style from hip-hop ("Stupid Girls") to acoustic-folk ("Dear Mr. President" feat. Indigo Girls). The fourteen tracks on the cd each stand alone, but together have a nice mix and flow.

"U + Ur Hand" is a typical P!nk, rockin', attitude-filled song. If I were straight, I would be terrified to find this woman as my girlfriend - something I fear I would find out much too late. On days when it is good, it would be awesome, but on those certain days, I would seek residence in another city (an idea strongly supported by the video). The suggestiveness of the title is made clear in the song through the lyric, "Keep your drink, just give me the money. It's just you and your hand tonight." Despite the aggressiveness of some of the lyrics, I can't help but come away from the song smiling. It's just fun.

"Dear Mr. President" which features the amazing Indigo Girls is just what it's title suggests, an open letter to President Bush that asks some direct questions covering issues his administration appears blind. With a Dixie Chicks set of balls, P!nk and the Girls directly go to the compassionate heart of the country. The acoustic nature of the song is not what one would normally expect of P!nk, but allows her voice to be heard.

The hidden track on the cd is a duet P!nk sings with her father. She offers a nice introduction to the track and it is a pleasure to hear the kind of harmony that only comes with family.

Across the cd, P!nk's voice servers as the most powerful and consistent intstrument. Her voice has matured since her earlier cd's and she utilizes it for full effect in each song. She presents it as a clearly tuned instrument as mentioned regarding "Dear Mr. President," and then transforms it to the rhaspy, emotion-filled blues horn in "Nobody Knows" and "The One That Got Away."

Songs from across the cd are already making it into my various playlists -ranging from workout playlists to cooking, housework and reading/studying playlists. It has such a variety that one can find a song for so many different situations. I'm looking forward to getting to know the cd better in the months to come as I'm sure I will.

Music Review: Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah

Saturday I bought the new Scissor Sisters cd after only hearing the first release, "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" which is one of the most misleading titles in music history. One song was enough for me as I had fallen for the group with their first big song, "Filthy Gorgeous."

Ta-Dah proves to be a successful sophomore outing for the group. The thirteen songs on the (iTunes) album span a range of influences from early Elton John to the Statler Brothers. In between I hear bits of Blondie, The Bee Gees and some Queen.

The first release, "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" makes one sway, tap one's feet,or just stand up and really move. I'm anticipating some of the club releases to hit the stands soon. Contrary to it's negative title, the song is upbeat and positive. Despite all the reasons not to dance, the rhythm dictates otherwise.

"Land of a Thousand Words" and "Lights" are the two songs I just like listening to. "Lights," especially, has an upbeat rhythm that makes me want to dance, but both songs have layers to the lyrics that come clean with each listen.

My favorite song on the cd is "I Can't Decide" because I'm in a good mood after hearing it. It has a definite Statler Brothers feel to it with a saloon-piano/organ in the background. And while the singer trys to decide whether the antagonist should live or die, I keep envisioning a Keystone Cops scenario playing in the background. With lines like "flys were cats you'd be a litter," and "It's a bitch convincing people to like you" the song can't be taken as too serious a threat.

I've listened to the cd steadily for three days now and continue to enjoy it. The more closely I listen to it, the more I discover in the clever writing. Cleverness and energy are the greatest strenghts to the Scissor Sisters. I would like to see a live show to see if the energy translates into the live performance or if the energy comes from production.

All in all the entire cd is enjoyable. It has not been around long enough to make it to my top ten list and I doubt it will, but for the fun the songs provide, it is definitely worth adding to your collection.