Hem's Solemn Good-bye: Departure And Farewell

The Good: Amazing vocals, Engaging sound for most of the tracks, Decent lyrics
The Bad: SHORT, Largely forgettable and familiar
The Basics: Hem's (apparent) final full album, Departure And Farewell delivers a true, masterful gem for one track, but little else for the rest.


As 2018 picks up, I find myself catching up on many things that have slipped by the wayside the last few weeks, months . . . and in the case of music, years. I went looking last night for an album that was supposed to be released in late 2016, only to discover it remains unreleased even now. That put me on a search for music from some of my favorite musical artists and it was then that I discovered Hem's Departure And Farewell. The album's name instantly got me down, figuring that it meant that Hem had dissolved and, despite the release of a single subsequent EP, that appears to be true. Hem was a group I discovered for myself during the end of my first marriage and the time I spent afterward putting my life back together. The idea that the band had fallen apart made me sad, but I eagerly picked up Departure And Farewell and put it into high rotation.

In some ways, Departure And Farewell is a fitting conclusion to the Hem discography in that the bulk of the album is familiar, melancholy and disturbingly indistinct. The thirteen song, 37:05 long album, is very much a Hem album, but - despite a decent start - it hits its high ridiculously fast and never quite comes back from it. In fact, that made it hard for me to want to write much about Departure And Farewell; Hem fans might enjoy the album simply for a few new songs with Sally Ellyson's amazing voice and the quality of the lyrics. But, the truth is, Departure And Farewell is very much a one-hit wonder album.

Departure And Farewell features songs about endings, delivered in Sally Ellyson's amazing soprano voice. Ellyson sings clearly and the album continues to present better-than-average lyrics written by the band.

But, like a one-hit wonder who hits with a great single, but can't land a second track on the radio, Departure And Farewell fumbles after the second track. "Walking Past The Graveyard, Not Breathing" is an absolutely amazing song. The song progresses through life stages with the child's game of holding one's breath near a cemetery as a metaphor. The progression from childhood to loss to mourning is a slice of true, agonizing, musical genius. The song is simple and smart, the backing instrumentation is more complicated than most of Hem's music and it hints at all of the potential Hem had and (more often than not) successfully executed. "Walking Past The Graveyard, Not Breathing" is a clever, adult song that is expertly delivered and has a strange inability to be marketed today on the radio.

Within the context of Departure And Farewell, "Walking Past The Graveyard, Not Breathing" shines so brightly that the eleven songs that follow it seem simplistic and unmemorable by contrast. The result is a mellow and low good-bye from Hem, which is in some ways fitting for the band that never found its mainstream audience.

For other Hem works, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Rabbit Songs
Eveningland
Birds And Beasts And Flowers (EP with Autumn Defense)
No Word From Tom
Funnel Cloud
Twelfth Night Soundtrack

5.5/10

Check out how this album stacks up against other music I have reviewed by visiting my Music Review Index Page where the albums are organized from best to worst!

© 2018 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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An Impressive "Debut" Without Enough Substantive Hook: Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition)

The Good: Amazing vocals and musical abilities, Many good lyrics
The Bad: Some predictable lines, Very few hooks for the songs outside the novelty of how the music is created
The Basics: Predictably amazing on the vocal and vocal music front, Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) is a tough sell in that most of the songs are unfortunately forgettable after the album is done playing.


I am not, historically, a fan of reality television or competition style television shows. It's just not my thing. In fact, I have absolutely no idea how my wife and I ended up watching most of the third season of The Sing-Off on NBC. I can't even think of what might have been on NBC before or after it that we were watching, but somehow, I became aware, interested and impressed by Pentatonix from that. Pentatonix is an a capella quintet that impressively performed cover songs on The Sing-Off (and for much of their musical career since) with a powerful and distinctive style. Using only their voices - no musical instruments - Pentatonix has done an awesome job of reinventing songs previously created by other people.

But, for my first Pentatonix album I decided to listen to and review, I went with Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition), which is the group's fourth studio album and their first to be dominated by original tunes. With seventeen songs, clocking out at 54:07, Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) is largely the creative work of the quintet Pentatonix. The members of Pentatonix arranged all seventeen songs and they are credited as writers or co-writers on thirteen of the seventeen songs. The quintet performs all of the vocals and use their voices to create what often sounds like instrumental accompaniment. Pentatonix is also credited as a co-producer on Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition), so it does seem like this is exactly the creative vision the band had for the album.

What is perhaps most surprising for me, as someone who listened to the early works of Pentatonix on The Sing-Off is that the lead vocals on Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) are delivered most frequently by Kirstin Maldonado. Maldonado was distinctive on The Sing-Off for bringing an amazing soprano voice to songs that had been previously performed by men. For the bulk of Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition), Maldonado delivers supporting vocals instead of presenting most of the album's compelling lines.

Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) is a powerful a capella pop album that is reminiscent of Boys II Men for the harmonies and . . . someone far more techno-dance-pop for the rest. Most of the album is made up of danceable pop numbers with up-tempo beats and the deeper vocalists creating basslines and melodies that compliment the smooth singing. In many ways, Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) is a celebration of the predictably great. "Rose Gold," for example, features vocal accompaniments that sound like bells. And it would be absolutely amazing for anyone . . . but we expect this level from Pentatonix. That does not diminish what they are doing on Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition), but the truth is that the band has been so successful by pushing the envelope of what vocalists and harmonies can create. The quality of the music on Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) endures because the sounds like the bell-like harmonies and reverb sound on "Rose Gold" quickly lose their novelty and the listener gets lost in the actual music they are hearing. In other words, by the time "Misbehavin'" comes up on the album, the listener is lost in the music instead of just thinking, "That can't really just be their voices!"

The lead vocals on Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) are homogeneously good. In fact, only "Rose Gold" features lines that are not quite articulated clearly enough to make every word perfectly heard. The rest of the album tells a decent series of musical stories poetically and clearly.

Many of the songs on Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) have the members of the band exploring the nature of celebrity. While that is not uncommon as a subject for young musical artists, Pentatonix manages to make the conflicts and questions raised by competing for celebrity sound fresh and new. With lines like "Sing, sing, sing, sing / Sing it out as hard as you can / Make 'em hear ya from LA to Japan / Don't let 'em bring you down / This is how we do it now" ("Sing"), Pentatonix explores their own journey into celebrity with a very original quality.

Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) also allows the members of the band to explore singing about relationships. From the strangely upbeat musical exploration of a badly ended relationship ("Cracked") to the paranoia that can come surrounding fidelity issues ("Misbehaving"), the members of Pentatonix have a lot to sing about about relationships! When Mitch Grassi and Scott Hoying sing "Everyone around me is just kissin' on somebody / But I'm just dancing by myself around the lobby / I'm having a good time, oh, oh / And I've had two too many / But I'm just doing this to pass the time" ("Misbehavin'"), Pentatonix makes musical the awkwardness of avoiding any form of temptation when away from the one the musical protagonist loves.

Kirstin Maldonado breaks out on "Water." Sounding at moments like Amy Lee and Imogen Heap, Maldonado explodes vocally with poetics that sound incredibly authentic (she was only one of three writers on the song). Maldonado sings longing incredibly well when she articulates "If I showed you all I really want to / Would you stay, dare to push me away / I just can't return anymore / Timid heart, hide my scars / Make me stronger / I can't take this any longer / I need, I need you like water" ("Water").

Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) is an impressive creative debut for Pentatonix. In fact, most of the cover songs that are presented on the Deluxe Edition stand out for being less of a good fit with the band's original works. But the more I listened to Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition), the more I kept thinking of what I would come back to the album for. Outside "Misbehavin'" and "Take Me Home," none of the songs got stuck in my head the days after I listened to Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) on heavy replay. As a result, it is hard not to think of Pentatonix (Deluxe Edition) as a masterwork of technical greatness that just has not quite found their own musical and lyrical statement to make that hooks the listener as much as the novelty of how they create their music.

The best song is "Misbehavin'," the low point is "New Year's Day."

For other albums that are vocally-driven, please check out my reviews of:
Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell
Live: Working Without A Net - Janis Ian
Jagged Little Pill Acoustic - Alanis Morissette

6.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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New Cats, Same Disdain: Selmasongs [Review This Again]

The Good: Vocals illustrate some skill
The Bad: SHORT!, Cacophonic musical accompaniment, Unmemorable/creepy lyrics, Musically messy, Indecipherable lyrics/vocal performances
The Basics: Bjork's soundtrack album Selmasongs has not aged well.


[There is a big meme in the art community going around now called "Draw This Again." In the meme, artists illustrate how they have grown in their chosen medium by putting side-by-side pictures of art they created in the past and now. My wife had the great idea that I should do something similar with my reviewing. So, for 2017, I will be posting occasional "Review This Again" reviews, where I revisit subjects I had previously reviewed and review them again, through a lens of increased age, more experience, and - for some - greater familiarity with the subject. This review is one such review, where I am re-experiencing Selmasongs: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack 'Dancer In The Dark' after many years and with more experience as both a reviewer and one who has heard much of the Bjork library. The album was originally reviewed here!]

A good title often works as a decent hook for reviews. It's true and sometimes, the truth is, I try to sensationalize to get people into the meat of my reviews by a hook-laden title. So, I figured when I was looking for a Review This Again subject for Bjork that I would use Selmasongs and do some objective testing with my new cats. After all, when I originally reviewed Selmasongs, I had entirely different cats in my home (life, time and tragedy being what they are). I asserted in my original review of Selmasongs that the album was not cat-friendly and, indeed, all I recall about the album was that it drove both my cats from the room for the duration of my listenings to it. So, before I put on Selmasongs, I brought my three cats into the room, played with them, wore them out and let them settle down.

The verdict from my cats on Selmasongs was incredibly clear. The moment "Cvalda" began, Evie fled the room. For sure, she is a scaredy cat; at one and a half years old, she gets spooked. She has not re-emerged. Elim, my very clingy cat, the one who chose me and who took the longest to settle down, left the room before the end of "Cvalda" and has come back into the room a few times since I put on Selmasongs, meowed noisily, then left the room again. Timber, my laziest cat, has remained perched on his cat tower near the couch where I am writing this review, but periodically, he had lifted his head and glared at me, especially each time "Scatterheart" has come on. My wife, who is not a cat but has been suffering a bout of insomnia lately, managed to fall asleep about two hours ago, but came out during my third replay of Selmasongs to sleepily glare at me and as "What the hell are you listening to?!"

So, two out of three cats will leave the room when Selmasongs is on, one will be agitated but too lazy to flee and this Bjork album is enough to get a sleep-deprived wife out of bed to question its musical validity. Selmasongs is not a crowd pleaser.

What Selmasongs is is a dreadfully short soundtrack to the film Dancer In The Dark. In the interest of full disclosure, I've not seen Dancer In The Dark and have no context for the music on Selmasongs. This is a pure review of the album as it stacks up musically on its own.

Selmasongs is a seven-song album clocking out at 32:12 and is very much the work of Icelandic artist Bjork. Bjork wrote or co-wrote all seven songs and produced or co-produced them all as well. Bjork provides all of the lead vocals, though "I've Seen It All" is a duet with Thom Yorke. Given that the album has (I've recently learned) been reworked from the music that appears in the film, it seems like Selmasongs is the album Bjork intended to make.

Vocally, Selmasongs features Bjork singing and what that means this time around is that the listener hears an angsty voice performing in the alto and soprano registers. Bjork goes a little lower on "In The Musicals" and when she does, her voice becomes hypnotic and nauseating as she repeats the line "You were always there to catch me." Between that line and the numbers she sings in "107 Steps" there are very few memorable or clearly performed lyrics on Selmasongs.

Musically, Selmasongs is largely a mess. Between "Overture" and the end of "New World," which ultilizes some of the same musical themes as "Overture" there are a series of messy, noisy songs that are amelodic nightmares. "107 Steps" meanders outside the strings, "Cvalda" ought to be called "cacophony," and the opening to "In The Musicals" is unsettling. The instrumental accompaniment on Selmasongs is often percussion-driven and it creates a mood that is lonely, unsettling and unfortunately noisy.

Usually, I take some time to discuss lyrics on an album, but with Selmasongs, I'm going to pass. Listeners aren't likely to be able to understand most of the lines Bjork sings and Thom Yorke is saddled with unfortunately unimpressive lines to sing on "I've Seen It All," so I just don't see the point in going into the poetry of Bjork for Selmasongs. Selmasongs is largely unlistenable.

The best track is "Overture," the worst song is "Cvalda."

For other Bjork works, please visit my reviews of:
Debut
Telegram
Homogenic
Vespertine
Vulnicura

2/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Latest Unmemorable Bjork Album Is Vulnicura!

The Good: Impressive vocal range, A few interesting musical experiments, One or two lines
The Bad: Incongruent music/lyrics, Often indecipherable, Vague melodies
The Basics: Bjork continues her experimental career on Vulnicura, an artistic and utterly forgettable album.


Recently, I went on a short (for me) car trip and over the ten hours one way and eight hours the other, I had a chance to listen to a fraction of my musical library. I realized just how much I have been missing music in my life. Returning home, that was lessened some by the fact that my wife has had the Hamilton Soundtrack playing almost daily, but I figured it was time for me to make time for listening to and reviewing music again. Today, that takes the form of trying once again to get into the music of Bjork. For that, I went to her latest album, Vulnicura.

Vulnicura is yet another album by Icelandic artist Bjork and it follows in her long history of creating ambient electronic and string-driven music that is paired with her lilting vocals . . . and creates an entirely forgettable final product. Indeed, in my many travels and musical discussions, I've never actually heard anyone say "You really need to listen to this Bjork album!" At best, there are songs by Bjork some fans might want others to hear, but Vulnicura does not really have a single and I suspect its overwhelmingly somnambulant quality is enough to make even the most loyal Bjork fan into a narcoleptic.

With only nine songs, clocking out at 58:36, Vulnicura is short, but features well-developed musical pieces. The entire album is the creative vision of Bjork. Bjork wrote or co-wrote all nine songs, provides all of the lead vocals, was responsible for programming and produced or co-produced each track on the album. While Bjork arranged the strings, she is not credited with playing any instruments on Vulnicura, though she is credited as a co-producer for the album. As with most of Bjork's works, it is hard to deny that this is the musical vision the artist intended.

Unfortunately, Vulnicura is musically light to the point of being insubstantial. The songs have very little in the way of memorable melodies or harmonies. Instead, the string instruments back up electronic elements. After listening to the album on heavy replay for a day, I am thoroughly convinced that one could play any of these songs for me again and I would not recognize it by the tune. The songs on Vulnicura do not capture the ear or the imagination; they are vague backings to the usual murky vocals of Bjork.

Bjork has an impressive voice on Vulnicura. Bjork has a great soprano voice, which she utilizes well on Vulnicura, at least as an intellectual exercise. As with many Bjork albums, Bjork's vocals are aesthetically-pleasing, but often inarticulate. Bjork mumbles and produces musical elements to match her vocals in such a way that they blend and overwhelm her words. As a result, about one in every five works Bjork sings on Vulnicura are comprehensible.

Lyrically, Vulnicura is mostly about relationships, both romantic and familial. Bjork does have something to say with her lines "I wake you up / In the middle of the night / To express my love for you / Stroke your skin and feel you / Naked I can feel all of you / At the same moment" ("History Of Touches"). If only the music and the lyrics were remotely congruent, "History Of Touches" could have been one of Bjork's best songs!

Bjork uses her voice to resonate a sense of loss on "Quicksand." When Bjork sings "When I'm broken I am whole / And when I'm whole I'm broken / Our mother's philosophy / It feels like quicksand / And if she sinks / I'm going down with her / Locate her black lake / The steam from this pit" ("Quicksand"), it is hard not to feel like one is spinning out of control.

Not all of Bjork's lines - whether they can be understood or not - are winners, though. "Notget" becomes unfortunately fluffy and cliche. Even Bjork cannot make credible the long-overused sentiments like "You doubted the light / And the shelter it can give / For in love we are immortal / Eternal and safe from death / If I regret us / I'm denying my soul to grow / Don't remove my pain / It is my chance to heal" ("Notget").

Ultimately, Vulnicura is not the worst of Bjork, but it is not an album one is likely to want to sit down and get immersed in. It is an interesting-enough creative exercise, but a forgettable musical work. The best song is "History Of Touches" (though the album opens interestingly enough with "Stonemilker"); the rest of the songs are pretty unremarkable.

For other Bjork works, please visit my reviews of:
Debut
Telegram
Homogenic
Selmasongs
Vespertine

5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Average Out Of Context, The Destiny Original Soundtrack Is Interesting!

The Good: Some inspired, action-themed orchestral tunes, Good duration, Musical completion of pieces
The Bad: Some of the shorter pieces are not nearly as evocative or engaging, Somewhat musically fractured as an album.
The Basics: The Destiny Original Soundtrack is an interesting musical experience that holds up well on its own, but is still limited some by the source material.


Over the last year, I have gotten into video games much more than I ever thought I would. I never thought of myself as a gamer, but it turns out I truly enjoy gaming, even if I am not much good at it. I spent last year playing Star Wars: Battlefront (reviewed here!) before my wife encouraged me to try something different by picking me up Destiny: The Complete Collection. I've spent the past two months immersed in Destiny and, generally, enjoying it. One of the most distinctive aspects of Destiny is the music that plays throughout the story modes and raids and that made me check out the Destiny Original Soundtrack.

The Destiny Original Soundtrack is a collection of 44 tracks, clocking out at more than two hours worth of music, most of which is dominated by Michael Salvatori's work. Michael Salvatori is not Howard Shore, but for those who like the soundtrack themes of Howard Shore, they are likely to find quite a bit of enjoyment in Salvatori's work on the Destiny Original Soundtrack. The Destiny Original Soundtrack is essentially a new Classical music work with decently-developed musical pieces that stand on their own outside the context of the Destiny video game.

Most of the songs on the Destiny Original Soundtrack are keyboard and string-dominated classical sounding pieces. The works alternate between mood, contemplative, pieces and action-oriented, active pieces that are infused with extra percussion. Tracks like "The Last Array" have a sense of musical completion to them that take the listener on a journey into the imagination as effectively as any classical music. Michael Salvatori is an incredibly adept and proficient musical storyteller and there is a lot on Destiny Original Soundtrack that stands effectively apart from the Destiny video game to please the ear and excite the listener's imagination.

While most of the works on the Destiny Original Soundtrack work well as individual musical pieces that manage to emote and tell their own musical story, the soundtrack is hampered by a few pieces that feel more like ambient music for another work. Chief among these is "Prey" which is bassy and oppressive, but short and feels unresolved as a result. Lighter, more developed musical tunes like "Tranquility," which follows "Prey" manage to hold up better on their own and feel like complete musical works that are utterly independent of any other work for their sense of musical expression.

Michael Salvatori's compositions on the Destiny Original Soundtrack are mostly good, mood-evoking classical style music pieces, but the contradictions between the action themes and the more cerebral mood pieces next to one another on the album makes for a somewhat less cohesive musical experience. The listener is not put into a musical story that continues to evolve, they listen to fragments - mini-immersions - of a tale that changes radically, sometimes unsettlingly, from track to track. The music is well-made and (unlike most soundtracks) features rather complete musical experiences for the most part, but the Destiny Original Soundtrack is still very dependent upon its source material, as opposed to being a truly satisfying, self-contained musical experience.

For other soundtrack reviews, please visit my takes on:
Firefly The Original Television Soundtrack
"The Best Of Both Worlds" Star Trek: The Next Generation Soundtrack
The Little Mermaid Soundtrack

5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Review This Again: The Ghost Of Tom Joad By Bruce Springsteen!

The Good: Moments of vocals, A handful of lyrics
The Bad: Murky instrumental accompaniment, Mumbling vocals, Produced to obscure lyrics.
The Basics: The Ghost Of Tom Joad stands as an album where Bruce Springsteen struggles to make his words comprehensible opposite indistinct instrumental accompaniment.


[There is a big meme in the art community going around now called "Draw This Again." In the meme, artists illustrate how they have grown in their chosen medium by putting side-by-side pictures of art they created in the past and now. My wife had the great idea that I should do something similar with my reviewing. So, for 2017, I will be posting occasional "Review This Again" reviews, where I revisit subjects I had previously reviewed and review them again, through a lens of increased age, more experience, and - for some - greater familiarity with the subject. This review is one such review, where I am re-experiencing The Ghost Of Tom Joad after many years and with more experience as both a reviewer and one who has heard much of the Bruce Springsteen library. The album was originally reviewed here!]

Many years ago, when I was still writing for a now-extinct website, there were very few reviews of mine in the music category that garnered a lot of readers and many comments. The lone exception that I can easily recall is the Bruce Springsteen album The Ghost Of Tom Joad. When I first reviewed The Ghost Of Tom Joad, the album was more than a decade old and I received dozens of comments on my review, which was not an overly favorable one, which surprised me. Now, The Ghost Of Tom Joad is more than twenty years old and I popped it in for my Review This Again project because so far in my Review This Again project, I had not re-listened to an album I had originally panned.

Now on my third listen through The Ghost Of Tom Joad after not hearing the album for around a decade - and without re-reading my original review - I am wondering how many Bruce Springsteen fans would actually rally to the defense of the album now. If asked to describe The Ghost Of Tom Joad, the word that comes instantly to mind is "murky." And I am not certain there is an actual tune on any of the songs that could be hummed if one tries; The Ghost Of Tom Joad is one long chord with occasional strumming and even more infrequent harmonica parts held together by Bruce Springsteen quietly mumbling his way through his own lines.

With only 12 songs, occupying 50:16 on c.d., The Ghost Of Tom Joad is short and unmemorable, though it is very much the work of Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen wrote all of the songs and he provides the lead vocals on every track. Springsteen plays instruments - guitar, harmonica, and keyboards - on each song and he is credited as a co-producer on the album. The Ghost Of Tom Joad is very much his musical vision.

Instrumentally, The Ghost Of Tom Joad is quiet and subtle, with no strong tunes. The keyboard and light guitars are consistent slow and quiet ballads from track to track, making for very little distinction on the album's songs. The Ghost Of Tom Joad is an album that is exceptionally easy to fall asleep to because it never quite breaks out with a sound that is distinct or interesting. Instead, the songs blend together in the musical equivalent of anonymity.

Similarly, Bruce Springsteen's smooth and gravely vocals are presented in the same way, track to track. Springsteen mumbles and sings his way through his songs, with the instrumentals being produced to easily compete with his more whispery voice. The result is that listeners have to strain to try to hear why Springsteen is singing and even his longer-held notes never hit a crescendo. Instead, even Springsteen's harmonica outshines his voice.

On the lyric front, The Ghost Of Tom Joad is lacking in anthemic lines that stand out while Springsteen is singing. Instead, The Ghost Of Tom Joad is a mix of musical storysongs that work to create characters and settings to present his themes. While lines like "I got my discharge from Fort Irwin / Took a place on the San Diego county line / Felt funny bein' a civilian again . . . I was still tryin' to find my way back whole / Went to work for the INS on the line / With the California border patrol" ("The Line") work, they are hardly universal sentiments.

Springsteen manages to make one superlative song about relationships on The Ghost Of Tom Joad. "My Best Was Never Good Enough" is sad and poetic as it explores insecurity in relationships through the use of popular cliches. When Springsteen sings "'Now don't try for a home run baby / If you can get the job done with a hit / Remember a quitter never wins / And a winner never quits / The sun don't shine on a sleepin' dog's ass.' / And all the rest of that stuff / But for you my best was never good enough" ("My Best Was Never Good Enough"), it is hard not to feel for his musical protagonist.

But not all of Springsteen's musical storysongs are exceptional on The Ghost Of Tom Joad. Springsteen does not wow his listeners with the rhymes "Well my daddy worked the furnaces / Kept 'em hotter than hell / I come home from 'Nam worked my way to scarfer / A job that'd suit the devil as well / Taconite coke and limestone / Fed my children and make my pay / Them smokestacks reachin' like the arms of God / Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay" ("Youngstown"), even if they are not the worst sentiments ever sung!

The Ghost Of Tom Joad is much more indistinct than it is bad, but most of the album is thoroughly unmemorable, which makes it much tougher sell than even a Bruce Springsteen fan might hope. The best track is "My Best Was Never Good Enough," the low point is probably the thoroughly unmemorable "Straight Time."

For other Review This Again reviews, please check out:
Falling Into You - Celine Dion
The Times They Are A-Changin' - Bob Dylan
Minutes To Midnight - Linkin Park

2.5/10

For an organized listing of all the albums and singles I have reviewed, please check out my Music Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Yet Another Bruce Springsteen Compilation: Chapter And Verse Is An Odd Mix.

The Good: Good lyrics, Moments of voice and music, Duration
The Bad: Repetitive sound, Oddly overproduced at key musical moments
The Basics: An odd compilation of the entirely obscure and the overly familiar, Bruce Springsteen's Chapter And Verse is more average than exceptional.


I generally like the works of Bruce Springsteen. I like compilation albums from Bruce Springsteen because there are a number of his albums where the two or three known hit songs on them are the superlative songs and some of the other tracks are just filler (it seems). So, as I peeked back in on Bruce Springsteen and his newer works, I was somewhat surprised to discover that 2015 and 2016 seemed to be the Years Of The Springsteen Compilations! One of the pure compilations - as opposed to newly-released live show albums that dominated Springsteen's 2015 released - was Chapter And Verse.

Chapter And Verse is a career-retrospective album that is sold on the early recordings Bruce Springsteen was involved with - songs from The Castiles and Steel Mill - that were previously unreleased. The "new, fresh" content is paired with exactly the songs one might expect a Bruce Springsteen compilation album to contain - "Born To Run," "Born In The U.S.A.," "Brilliant Disguise," etc. The result is a compilation that stars out noisy and unsophisticated and develops into the coldly familiar, with little left that truly intrigues the ear or mind.

With eighteen songs, clocking out at 77:51, Chapter And Verse makes good use of the c.d. medium. All of the songs on Chapter And Verse were written or co-written by Bruce Springsteen and he provides the lead vocals on all of the songs. As well, Springsteen plays guitar on almost all of the tracks and he is credited with producing Chapter And Verse. Chapter And Verse is very much the compilation album Bruce Springsteen intended to release.

Musically, the songs on Chapter And Verse are very much what one expects of Bruce Springsteen. The songs vary widely only between rock ballads and straight out rock and roll songs. The early songs - the previously unreleased ones from before Bruce Springsteen launched his solo career - are up-tempo, guitar-driven rock songs that are much more noisy than they are melodic or memorable. They are balanced by the familiar ("Born In The U.S.A.") and the contemplative - ballads like "The River" and "The Ghost Of Tom Joad." But, songs like "Baby!," "He's Guilty (The Judge Song)" and "Henry Boy" have a predictably less-sophisticated quality to the instrumentation, indicative of the young artist and performer.

Vocally, Chapter And Verse is mostly a compilation that makes the implicit argument that Bruce Springsteen has an amazing voice and a register he performs in. Springsteen growls sexy and smooth through songs like "Brilliant Disguise" and while "Born To Run" may be more melodic and energetic, it is still clearly Springsteen's voice. Springsteen does not present any of his falsetto songs in this compilation, so Chapter And Verse is a celebration of Springsteen's distinct and wonderful voice.

While the compilation might not be the most exceptional one, Chapter And Verse does a good job of showcasing Bruce Springsteen's exceptional writing style. It is very easy to see how Springsteen rose to popularity and prominence with lines like "In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream / At night we ride through the mansions of glory in suicide machines . . . It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap / We gotta get out while we're young / 'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run " ("Born To Run").

The thing is, on many of Springsteen's newer works, he clearly still has something to say. When Springsteen sings ". . .we know that come tomorrow, none of this will be here / So hold tight to your anger / Hold tight to your anger / Hold tight to your anger, and don't fall to your fears" ("Wrecking Ball"), he makes a cry out for relevance in a world that might have forgotten him and he succeeds with all who hear him. Springsteen has a number of timeless messages in his works.

Sadly, it is not all great on the writing front. Early works like "Baby I" illustrate a very youthful lack of sophistication with the writing, as one might expect. While with The Castiles, Springsteen wrote "Baby I don't need your tender kiss / Baby I you'll never miss . . . 'Cause I got someone new / Somebody better than you / Somebody who'll be true / Somebody better than you" ("Baby I") and it is hardly his most memorable poetry!

Despite the weird mix, Chapter And Verse is a decent compilation worth listening to, at least for those who have not yet picked up any of Springsteen's other compilation albums.

The best songs are "Ballad Of Jesse James" and "The River," the low points are "Baby I" and the less memorable "Badlands."

For other works by Bruce Springsteen, please check out my reviews of:
Born To Run
Born In The U.S.A.
Tunnel Of Love
Greatest Hits
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Live In New York
The Rising
Devils & Dust
We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions
Magic
Working On A Dream
High Hopes

5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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It's A Good Thing Ingrid Michaelson Said It Doesn't Have To Make Sense!

The Good: Voice, Moments of musical accompaniment
The Bad: SHORT, Unsettling album arrangement, Less clever lyrics than prior albums
The Basics: It Doesn't Have To Make Sense sounds more like Ingrid Michaelson is chasing the next ad campaign, as opposed to making a cool, cohesive, album!


Right before the winter holidays, my wife and I were out at a big store looking for gifts for one another, when she approached me gleefully with It Doesn't Have To Make Sense in her hand. I like the works of Ingrid Michaelson and she is one of the few female musical artists my wife actually enjoys. At that point, my wife was pretty desperate to find gifts for me (there are very few things I want anymore; the few things I truly do covet are exceptionally expensive and rare - or not for sale!), so I suspended my usual "three singles before I'll buy an album" rule and smiled and said, "yes please," to my wife. She bought the c.d. on the spot, but it took until today for us to actually get around to opening and listening to It Doesn't Have To Make Sense.

We ended up split on It Doesn't Have To Make Sense; I did not enjoy it, my wife did. When we completed our first listen to the album, my wife enthusiastically said "I liked it!" I was more neutral to it and after multiple listens to the album, I find I enjoyed a few of the tracks more as tracks, but still found the album to be comparatively poorly assembled. My wife, on the other hand, was singing along to even the tracks she admitted she did not like, though she did say that after multiple listens to the album, it was sadder than most music she likes to have on.

It Doesn't Have To Make Sense is a very short Ingrid Michaelson album. With only ten songs, adding up to only 35:45, It Doesn't Have To Make Sense is an odd collection of new songs all of which were cowritten by Michaelson (only two were written by the artist solo). Michaelson provides all of the lead vocals on It Doesn't Have To Make Sense and she plays piano on the songs. Ingrid Michaelson is also credited as a coproducer on It Doesn't Have To Make Sense.

There are few albums that leave me truly unsettled the way It Doesn't Have To Make Sense did. It Doesn't Have To Make Sense is an odd mix of up-tempo, danceable songs, heavily-produced anthems and stark, sad, ballads. The album is listenable, but it lacks a cohesiveness that many of Michaelson's other albums possess. As well, it is unfortunately derivative of other Ingrid Michaelson works. That element begins right away on It Doesn't Have To Make Sense. I am a big fan of Michaelson's song "Afterlife" on her prior album, Lights Out (reviewed here!); it is one of the few songs I ever crank up when I am alone listening to music. So, as I lay listening to my first listen of It Doesn't Have To Make Sense and the first track "Light Me Up" included Michaelson repeating the words "we are" the exact same way as she sang the words "we all" on "Afterlife," I actually cringed.

It Doesn't Have To Make Sense is beleaguered by writing that is unfortunately packed with cliches. Michaelson seems to have given up on trying to find a new way to express her thoughts on "Whole Lot Of Heart." Despite remaining catchy with the backing vocals, it is hard to get enthusiastic about the lines "You said there's something about the moon / It rose too soon / And we're doing what we should / You said it's life that moves too much / We're losing touch / But I'm not losing you / There's a whole lot of heart in me / I feel it under my skin" ("Whole Lot Of Heart").

On It Doesn't Have To Make Sense, Ingrid Michaelson sounds like she is chasing a single more than making an album that is intended to hold together as a solid musical work. "Miss America," for example, sounds very much like Michaelson trying to write a jingle for an alternate beauty company ad. Michaelson broke out when The Gap used "The Way I Am" and "Miss America" has so many musical moments that could be reduced for twenty second clips for an ad campaign for beauty products catering to non-Hollywood ideals of beauty, though my wife says it's a great anthem for getting ready for girl's night out!

In a similar way, "Drink You Gone" sounds like exactly the type of song one might use near the end of a romantic comedy. The song is the exact sound and lyrics some director will eventually use for the montage scene in a romance film where the protagonist realizes that they would rather be in the relationship they have abandoned than be alone. Sigh.

It Doesn't Have To Make Sense is plagued by odd transitions and an unfortunate track order. After the sad and somber "Drink You Gone," which is not a bad song musing about the sadness of a failed relationship, It Doesn't Have To Make Sense abruptly goes hard pop with "Hell No!" The celebration of tossing a bad relationship is a weird choice to follow a song that laments a lost relationship. As well, there is something infantile about the way "Still The One" - which is a very traditional pop song that sounds fun and wonderful - precedes "Celebrate," which is explicitly a throwback song intended to harken back to pop songs of the 1990s.

What helps sell It Doesn't Have To Make Sense are the vocals of Ingrid Michealson. Michaelson has a beautiful voice and when she goes into the soprano range on "Another Life," she does so with a lilting quality that is distinctive and wonderful. Michaelson is a wonderful singer and while some of the tracks have a more anthemic sound that is produced to sublimate her voice, most of her vocals are are fresh and clear.

But even Michaelson's voice is not enough to truly land the short, simplistic writing of songs that might have worked better on three different concept albums. It Doesn't Have To Make Sense is more average than exceptional.

The superlative track is "I Remember Her," the low point is "Celebrate."

For other works by Ingrid Michaelson, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Girls And Boys
Be OK
Everybody
Human Again

4/10

For other album and singles reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Review This Again: Falling Into You By Celine Dion!

The Good: Good vocals, Generally good sound, Good use of c.d. capacity
The Bad: Some cheesy lyrics, Repetitive musical accompaniment, All the best songs are available on compilation albums.
The Basics: Falling Into You ages surprisingly poorly, with its best tracks easily being found on Dion's many compilation albums.


[There is a big meme in the art community going around now called "Draw This Again." In the meme, artists illustrate how they have grown in their chosen medium by putting side-by-side pictures of art they created in the past and now. My wife had the great idea that I should do something similar with my reviewing. So, for 2017, I will be posting occasional "Review This Again" reviews, where I revisit subjects I had previously reviewed and review them again, through a lens of increased age, more experience, and - for some - greater familiarity with the subject. This review is one such review, where I am re-experiencing Falling Into You after many years and with more experience as both a reviewer and one who has heard much of the Celine Dion library. The album was originally reviewed here!]

When it comes to Celine Dion's works, there are few albums less worth reviewing than Falling Into You. Falling Into You sold more than 11 million copies in the United States and over thirty-two million copies worldwide. It is one of the undisputed best-selling albums of all time. I decided to listen to the album for my Review It Again project because I had the fundamental question: Is Falling Into You any good? Falling Into You is popular, but popularity is not always indicative of enduring quality. To answer that question, I picked up the European Deluxe edition of Falling Into You, which has two more tracks than the standard U.S. release.

Falling Into You is good, but it is heavily frontloaded. Celine Dion is good on Falling Into You, but all of the best songs can be found with other superlative songs by her on compilation albums - the listener is not missing out on any truly great Celine Dion tracks by getting the highlights on one of her many compilation albums. If one picked up a compilation album, would they truly be missing anything by not getting the up-tempo, overproduced dance track "Make You Happy?" I think not. Falling Into You has some wonderful tracks, but the rest are utterly forgettable (I would love to poll a random sample of the thirty-two million album buyers and ask them to either quote or hum a few bars from "Seduces Me" and my assumption now would be most would not be able to).

With sixteen songs, clocking out at 75:54, Falling Into You does an excellent job of using the whole capacity of a compact disc. Falling Into You is a collaborative effort on many fronts but it is dominated creatively by writers/producers Jim Steinman, Jean-Jacques Goldman, and David Foster (producer only). Steinman was still riding high on the success of Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell (reviewed here!), which he was the main writer and producer behind and his works for Celine Dion help to frame and define the operatic sound on Falling Into You. Celine Dion, for her part, is a performer on Falling Into You; she sings the songs that others wrote, produced and engineered/played instruments on.

Falling Into You is a much more erratic album than many people seem to want to admit. Opening with two big ballads, the album suddenly goes poppy and then into a dance-pop number. There are very few organic transitions in the track to track development of Falling Into You. Some of the musical transitions are actually disturbing; the lonely, heartwrenchingly-delivered ballad "All By Myself" is followed "Declaration Of Love," which has a pop-Country/rockabilly sound to it. At least on the bonus album, that is followed by Dion's cover of the Carole King classic "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." The bulk of Falling Into You is loaded with keyboard and percussion-driven pop tracks that are produced to highlight Celine Dion's vocals.

Celine Dion's vocals are exceptional on Falling Into You. What surprised me listening to Falling Into You all of these years later was how much the album relies upon backing vocals on many songs. "Dreamin' Of You," for example, stops using Celine Dion's vocals to carry the song and ends with a final third that is essentially just background singers carrying the song out. "I Love You" begins the same way and even Dion's popular tracks like "Because You Loved Me" include fairly excessive backing vocals. When she is allowed to present herself, Celine Dion performs in an exceptional soprano voice and is able to hold notes for an impressive amount of time. "I Love You" actually allows Dion to present a sugary quality to her voice that is very endearing and sells the lines in the song quite well!

What struck me about truly listening to Falling Into You this time was that Celine Dion picks some songs to perform that have particularly lame rhymes. Dion is known for schmaltzy love songs, but some of the lines are just worthy of wincing when one hears them. Even in 1997 when Falling Into You was released, the rhymes "I'm falling into you / This dream could come true / And it feels so good falling into you / Falling like a leaf, falling like a star / Finding a belief, falling where you are / Catch me, don't let me drop! / Love me, don't ever stop" ("Falling Into You") were hardly fresh!

That is not to say that Dion is unable to sing phrases that she makes resonate (even today!). The resilience Dion sings of in "I Don't Know" is compelling and universal. And the power of love exhibited when Dion sings "You were my strength when I was weak / You were my voice when I couldn't speak / You were my eyes when I couldn't see / You saw the best there was in me / Lifted me up when I couldn't reach / You gave me faith 'cause you believed / I'm everything I am / Because you loved me" ("Because You Loved Me") makes that hit a truly worthwhile song. Not all things that are popular are bad!

But even lyrically, Falling Into You is terribly frontloaded. Almost all of the best lines on the album are on the first few songs, while later songs get saddled with lines like "Call the man / Who deals in love beyond repair / He can heal the world / Of hearts in need of care / Shine a light ahead / When the next step is unclear" ("Call The Man"). This helps to create the perception that Falling Into You has a few good songs, but is not a particularly cohesive or strong album.

Falling Into You is a fairly average album; it peaks incredibly early and has several unmemorable tracks in its second half (after "I Love You," it pretty much falls apart). For those looking for Celine Dion works now, Falling Into You is hardly essential; its best tracks are all on compilations, making the rest of the album somewhat superfluous filler.

The best track is "It's All Coming Back To Me Now," the low point is probably the incongruent "Declaration Of Love."

For other Review This Again reviews, please check out:
The Times They Are A-Changin' - Bob Dylan
Little Earthquakes - Tori Amos
Minutes To Midnight - Linkin Park

4.5/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Not The Celine Dion We Once Knew, Loved Me Back To Life Is An Overproduced Event Album!

The Good: Moments the vocals break through the production elements, I can't complain about including a Janis Ian cover!
The Bad: Overproduced, Not a cohesive album
The Basics: Loved Me Back To Life is an album that seems to be Celine Dion desperately chasing a hit song, more than a cohesive musical experience.


Every musical artist who has massive success has a peak from which they invariably fall. Every empire falls and for the truly enduring musical artists, that empire falls slowly and the artist or performer seldom goes quietly. As the world changes, artists like Celine Dion continue to try to find their place in it and even in 2013 when Loved Me Back To Life came on, most radio stations (at least in the United States) were not playing music like the songs that had made Celine Dion a worldwide musical phenomenon. While Celine Dion had ebbs and flows within her career before her Las Vegas residency, none of her albums had sounded so . . . desperate before Loved Me Back To Life.

Allow me to explain. Loved Me Back To Life is not a cohesive album, it is a collection of singles designed to try to sell one that will land the album. The album does not have a producer; like collaborative hip-hop albums, Loved Me Back To Life features various producers for each track as each producer attempts to make a hit and the album is pretty much thrown together and the hope Sony had was that one would stick with listeners. The result is an album that features songs like "Water And A Flame," which sounds like it could have been a James Bond theme and "Save Your Soul," which sounds like Rhiannon! And while technically accurate, Celine Dion's cover of Janis Ian's "At Seventeen" is hard to take seriously as Dion's personal history makes the lyrics feel entirely inauthentic from her.

With thirteen songs, clocking out at 60:58, Loved Me Back To Life is very much a collaborative effort which Celine Dion had very limited apparent control over. Dion did not write any of the songs on Loved Me Back To Life and she plays no instruments on it as well. Celine Dion does provide all of the lead vocals, but she is not credited even as a co-producer on the album, so it is questionable how much creative control she actually had over the venture.

Opening with the poppy, overproduced "Loved Me Back To Life," Loved Me Back To Life sounds right away more like a dance-pop album than anything else. Ironically, from "Thank You" (track 8) on, Loved Me Back To Life presents more familiar-sounding pop ballads that actually showcase more of Celine Dion's voice than the front-half of the album. Instead, percussion, engineering elements and auditory majesty seem to be the priority of Loved Me Back To Life; the album desperately tries to create something that sounds big and full. But with elements like an electric guitar solo at the end of the first track, listeners are far more likely to be asking "what the hell?!" as opposed to thinking they actually bought a Celine Dion album. The Gotye-like "Somebody Loves Somebody" finds Celine Dion fighting massive basslines to get her vocals out and the backing music is far more compelling than the lines Dion sings.

Vocally, Loved Me Back To Life is an unfortunate departure for Celine Dion. On the songs on Loved Me Back To Life, Dion does not try to hit the truly high notes that were once her staple. For sure, she goes whispy and high on "At Seventeen" and she holds notes a decent amount of time on "Somebody Loves Somebody," but far more often than not, Dion's vocals are altered by production elements or she stays in the lower registers, making an unimpressive auditory Celine Dion experience. Added to that, Loved Me Back To Life is notable in that it includes two guest vocalists - Ne-Yo on "Incredible" (Ne-Yo also produced "Thank You") and Stevie Wonder on his song "Overjoyed." I suppose Wonder and Dion might have wanted to work with one another, but the Ne-Yo song with its overproduced backing and odd vocal accompaniment just sound like Dion is desperately chasing a younger audience. Hell, on "Thank You," Celine Dion sounds like virtually identical to Michael Jackson (on "You Are Not Alone") for a disturbing amount of time on the track!

Lyrically, Loved Me Back To Life is all over the map. While the album starts with songs about love, the album moves into gratitude and then into completely inauthentic songs about youthful awkwardness. All of the songs are covers, so presumably she wanted to sing things like "I can't believe in every word you're saying / Wrapped up in every kiss you've poisoned / I could swear I've never tasted sin / But If I just knew / I'll forget what you've done / But I can't save your soul ("Save Your Soul"), which creates a fairly jumbled narrative. The musical protagnist knows their partner is lying, but seems to be okay with it as long as the subject does not want her to save his soul?!

The lack of consistent writing on Loved Me Back To Life leads to some of Celine Dion's least-compelling lyrics. There is no smash hit on Loved Me Back To Life arguably because of rhymes like "I'm pickin' up all the pieces / When I put 'em back together I'm like new / 'Cause my greatest wish has already come true . . . I'll be holdin' the wrap if you tumble and fall / There's love after love after all" ("Always Be Your Girl"). None of the songs have lines that pop in a new, fresh way for Dion.

But Loved Me Back To Life becomes very hard to take seriously when Celine Dion covers "At Seventeen." The song is wonderful with lines like "I learned the truth at seventeen / That love was meant for beauty queens / And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles / Who married young and then retired" ("At Seventeen"), but they are entirely outside Dion's experience. Celine Dion was a massive pop star in Canada by seventeen. She is hardly the one to credibly sing "And those of us with ravaged faces / Lacking in the social graces / Desperately remained at home / Inventing lovers on the phone" ("At Seventeen").

Artists absolutely should evolve, but on Loved Me Back To Life, Dion is only a performer. Celine Dion is performing, with incredibly minimal creativity to her work (the song I knew best on Loved Me Back To Life was "At Seventeen" and Dion stripped it back to a sound very similar to Janis Ian's "one woman and a guitar" sound, unlike anything else on the album) and the choices Dion and Sony make on this album make it sound more like a desperate attempt for a hit than anything truly creative or thematically unified. Instead, Loved Me Back To Life is a remarkably ineffective attempt to swing for a very different sound and because Dion does not settle on a sound or message, Loved Me Back To Life comes across as more messy and desperate than divine.

The best songs are "Thank You," "Water And A Flame," and "At Seventeen;" the others are not worth listening to.

For other works by Celine Dion, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Celine Dion
The Power Of Love (single)
The Colour Of My Love
Falling Into You
Let's Talk About Love
The Collector's Series, Volume 1
A New Day Has Come
One Heart
These Are Special Times
Miracle: A Celebration Of New Life
Taking Chances
I Drove All Night (single)
My Love: Essential Collection
My Love: Ultimate Essential Collection

3.5/10

See how this album stacks up against every other musical work I have reviewed by checking out my Music Review Index Page for a listing where albums are organized best to worst!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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