SPIRITUALIZED

SPIRITUALIZED
SONGS IN A & E (2008)
320 KBPS

Who would have thought that Jason Pierce's Spiritualized would have had any life in them after the rather uninspiring Amazing Grace in 2003? In the intervening five years, Pierce nearly died from double pneumonia. Near death experiences by their very nature are life-changing events. The music on Songs in A&E were recorded in that aftermath, but most of the album was written two years before he got sick; with so much of it about near death and survival, it feels like life imitating art. From the first notes of "Sweet Talk," it's obvious that a very different Spiritualized is up and about; an acoustic guitar, a sparse drum kit, the voice quartet, a few horns, and a minimal bassline fuel it. Pierce sweetly croons to a loved one in waltz time; his words are simultaneously appeasing and accusatory. The gospel chorus isn't as overblown as it was on Amazing Grace or Let It Come Down. They are in a support role, offering Pierce's reedy voice a fullness and authority it wouldn't have otherwise. The arrangement is lilting but powerful. How strange, then, the sounds of a ventilator that usher in the next track "Death Take Your Fiddle": "I think I'll drink myself into a coma/And I'll take every way out I can find/But morphine, codeine, Whisky, they won't alter/The way I feel/Now death is not around..."Death take your fiddle"/And play a song for me." Minor-key acoustic guitar and ghostly bass frame Pierce singing a mutant folk-blues that evokes Gary Davis' "Death Don't Have No Mercy." The backing vocals float wordlessly like death angels, hovering around the vocalist and giving the tune an otherworldly quality. But this isn't a song about dying; it's a song about coming close and cheating it; it's eerie. The proof? The next two tracks: "I Gotta Fire," and "Soul on Fire." The former is a taut, "Gimme Shelter"-esque rocker, the latter, a lush, uptempo love song. "Sitting on Fire" is a beautifully orchestrated love song: it's an admission of weakness and codependency but celebrates both of them at the same time: "Baby, I'm sitting on fire/but the flames put a hole in my heart/when we're together we stand so tall/But a part of me falls to the floor/Sets me free /I do believe it'll burn up in me for the rest of my life." Strings, vibes, marimbas, and drums crash in to the center of the mix carrying the protagonist into oblivion. "Yeah, Yeah" is a scorching rocker that feels like the Bad Seeds meeting the old Spacemen 3. "You Lie You Cheat," crashes in Velvets style with acoustic guitar and screeching feedback. The chorus sings atop a flailing drum kit, distorted strings, and wailing electric guitar. The marimbas and strings that power "Baby, I'm Just a Fool," sweetly underscore a very dark pop song, complete with "da-do-da-do-dat det-det-do's". It descends into beautifully textured chaos led by a loopy violin solo over seven minutes. Songs in A&E is the most consistent recording Spiritualized has issued since 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. It contains the best elements of the band's signature sound, and paradoxically hedonistic yet utterly spiritual lyric themes. That said, newly focused energy, willfully restrained arrangements, and taut compositions give the set a sheer emotional power that no Spiritualized recording has ever displayed before, making it, quite possibly, their finest outing yet.

1. Harmony 1 (Mellotron)
2. Sweet Talk
3. Death Take Your Fiddle
4. I Got a Fire
5. Soul on Fire
6.. Harmony 2 (Piano)
7. Sitting on Fire
8. Yeah Yeah
9. You Lie You Cheat
10. Harmony 3 (Voice)
11. Baby I'm Just a Fool
12. Don't Hold Me Close
13. Harmony 4 (The Old Man...)
14. The Waves Crash In
15. Harmony 5 (Accordion)
16. Borrowed Your Gun
17. Harmony 6 (Glockenspiel)
18. Goodnight Goodnight

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J. (1973)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

Bruce Springsteen's debut album found him squarely in the tradition of Bob Dylan: folk-based tunes arranged for an electric band featuring piano and organ (plus, in Springsteen's case, 1950s-style rock & roll tenor saxophone breaks), topped by acoustic guitar and a husky voice singing lyrics full of elaborate, even exaggerated imagery. But where Dylan had taken a world-weary, cynical tone, Springsteen was exuberant. His street scenes could be haunted and tragic, as they were in "Lost in the Flood," but they were still imbued with romanticism and a youthful energy. Asbury Park painted a portrait of teenagers cocksure of themselves, yet bowled over by their discovery of the world. It was saved from pretentiousness (if not preciousness) by its sense of humor and by the careful eye for detail that kept even the most high-flown language rooted. Like the lyrics, the arrangements were busy, but the melodies were well developed and the rhythms, pushed by drummer Vincent Lopez, were breakneck.

1 Blinded By the Light
2 Growin' Up
3 Mary Queen of Arkansas
4 Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?
5 Lost in the Flood
6 The Angel
7 For You
8 Spirit in the Night
9 It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City

BOB DYLAN

BOB DYLAN
JOHN WESLEY HARDING (1967)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

Bob Dylan returned from exile with John Wesley Harding, a quiet, country-tinged album that split dramatically from his previous three. A calm, reflective album, John Wesley Harding strips away all of the wilder tendencies of Dylan's rock albums -- even the then-unreleased Basement Tapes he made the previous year -- but it isn't a return to his folk roots. If anything, the album is his first serious foray into country, but only a handful of songs, such as "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," are straight country songs. Instead, John Wesley Harding is informed by the rustic sound of country, as well as many rural myths, with seemingly simple songs like "All Along the Watchtower," "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine," and "The Wicked Messenger" revealing several layers of meaning with repeated plays. Although the lyrics are somewhat enigmatic, the music is simple, direct, and melodic, providing a touchstone for the country-rock revolution that swept through rock in the late '60s.

1. John Wesley Harding
2. As I Went Out One Morning
3. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
4. All Along the Watchtower
5. The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
6. Drifter's Escape
7. Dear Landlord
8. I Am a Lonesome Hobo
9. I Pity the Poor Immigrant
10. The Wicked Messenger
11. Down Along the Cove
12. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

THE DUBLINERS

THE DUBLINERS
THE DUBLINERS (2003)
256 KBPS

Nearly three decades since they first came together during informal sessions at O'Donoghue's Pub in Dublin, the Dubliners remain one of the most influential of Ireland's traditional folk bands. Unlike their counterparts the Clancy Brothers, the Dubliners have never strayed from the raw looseness of the pub scene. Whereas the Clancys were well-scrubbed returned Yanks from rural Tipperary, decked out in matching white Arab sweaters, the Dubliners were hard-drinking backstreet Dublin scrappers with unkempt hair and bushy beards, whose gigs seemed to happen by accident in between fist fights.
Get a taste of the real celtic music with this 4 CDs set featuring 80 songs that smell like Guiness and make you want to drink, dance, yell, fight and love.

Cd1
1. The Molly Maguires
2. Champion at Keeping Them Rolling
3. The Lark in the Morning
4. The Lowlands of Holland
5. Lord Inchiquin
6. The Newry Highwayman
7. Springhill Mining Disaster
8. Boulavogue
9. Joe Hill
10. My Darling Asleep/Paddy in London/an T-Athair Jack Walsh
11. Smith of Bristol
12. The Town I Loved So Well
13. Fiddlers Green
14. Killieburn Brae
15. The Rare Old Time
16. The Musical Priest/the Blackthorn Stick
17. Biddy Mulligan
18. Spancil Hill
19. The Saxon Shilling
20. The Parting Glass

Cd2
1. Free the People
2. The Greenland Whale Fisheries
03. The Lord of the Dance
4. Skibbereen
5. The Thirty Foot Trailer
6. The Downfall of Paris
7. The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
8. Alabama'58
9. The Louse House of Kilkenny
10. Avondale
11. The Prodigal Son
12. Scorn Not His Simplicity
13. The Spanish Lady
14. The Old Triangle
15. Ojos Negros
16. Drops of Brandy/Lady Carbbery
17. Cunla
18. The Unquiet Grave
19. Sam Hall
20. Molly Malone

Cd3
1. Building Up and Tearing England Down
2. Song for Ireland
3. Matt Hyland
4. Doherty's Reel/Down the Broom
5. The Captains and the Kings
6. The Night Visiting Song
7. The Waterford Boys/the Humours of Scariff/the Flannel Jacket
8. The Jail of Cluain Meala
9. Down by the Glenside
10. Farewell to Carlingford
11. Donegal Danny
12. The Hen's March to the Midden
13. The Gartan Mother's Lullaby
14. The Bonny Boy
15. High Germany
16. The Ploughboy Lads
17. Last Night's Fun/the Congress Reel
18. Johnston's Motor Car
19. A Gentleman Soldier
20. God Save Ireland

Cd4
1. The Fermoy Lassies/Sporting Paddy
2. The Black Velvet Band
3. Mcalpine's Fusiliers
4. Dirty Old Town
5. Belfast Hornpipe/Tim Maloney
6. Kelly the Boy From Killane
7. Take it Down From the Mast
8. Finnegan's Wake
9. The Comical Genius
10. The Four Poster Bed/Colonel Rodney
11. Hand Me Down Me Bible
12. All for Me Grog
13. The Wild Rover
14. Blue Mountain Rag
15. Whiskey in the Jar
16. Seven Drunken Nights
17. Home Boys Home
18. Three Lovely Lassies From Kimmage
19. The Holy Ground
20. Monto

NEIL YOUNG

NEIL YOUNG
AMERICAN STARS 'N BARS (1977)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

OK, "Like A Hurricane" and "Star Of Bethlehem" have been available on CD for years ("Decade"), and "American Stars & Bars" is sort of a Frankenstein effort, combining material from the aborted "Homegrown" album and featuring a mish-mash of Crazy Horse & Stray Gators with Emmylou, Linda and Nicolette thrown in. However, forget all that. The three essential "Lost CD Tracks" are: 1). "Hey Babe"...Nice easygoing Neil that would have sounded perfectly at home on the "Comes A Time" album, 2). "Bite The Bullet"...He must have been channeling BB King when he recorded the solo on this, because it is atypical of his "spray the air with random notes and feedback for ten minutes" style: brief (30 seconds or so), precise, and it stings like a big ol' mother bee. Plenty of bad attitude whammy bar vibrato being squeezed out of his beloved "Old Black" on this one, folks. Nicolette (and particularly Linda) shout / chant "Bite The Bullet" like a crazed mantra as Neil and the band slash and burn through three and a half minutes of the toughest, loudest, cleanest music he's ever recorded. EVER. Listen to it and you'll know why some people use the words "Neil Young" and "Lou Reed" in the same sentence. Finally, 3). "Hold Back The Tears"...which backs off a bit in intensity from "Bullet" but still features many of the dynamics that make that track great (Linda and Nicolette, and a memorable chorus). Legendary stuff that still smolders 26 years later.

1. Old Country Waltz
2. Saddle Up the Palomino
3. Hey Babe
4. Hold Back the Tears
5. Bite the Bullet
6. Star of Bethlehem
7. Will to Love
8. Like a Hurricane
9. Homegrown

COCOROSIE

COCOROSIE
NOAH'S ARK (2005)
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A unicorn, a rainbow spitting zebra and what looks to be a horse sprouting a third eye are engaged in group sex on the illustrated cover of CocoRosie's second album. If that leads you to expect something playful and magical but also starkly screwed-up from the recording inside, you are on the right path. With assistance from Antony and Devendra, Ark is easily one of the most rewarding releases of 2005. The core of the music is made by singers/multi-instrumentalists Sierra and Bianca Cassidy, formerly estranged sisters who bonded over music and made their magical debut in a Paris flat. Their music has a lunatic music box feel that ought to appeal to fans of Bjork and Joanna Newsom, while the lyrics mine transgressive territory more often found in a book by JT LeRoy than a pop song. The true stars of the album are the singers' lovely, ethereal voices, which refract a '30s jazz-blues idiom through a strangely deadened, forever-sad delivery. It's the vocal equivalent of the toymaker's creations from Blade Runner and it is simply beautiful!

1. K-hole
2. Beautiful Boyz
3. South 2nd
4. Bear Hides and Buffalo
5. Tekno Love Song
6. The Sea is Calm
7. Noah's Ark
8. Milk
9. Armageddon
10. Brazilian Sun
11. Bisonours
12. Honey or Tar

BOB DYLAN

BOB DYLAN
DESIRE (1976)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

If Blood on the Tracks was an unapologetically intimate affair, Desire is unwieldy and messy, the deliberate work of a collective. And while Bob Dylan directly addresses his crumbling relationship with his wife, Sara, on the final track, Desire is hardly as personal as its predecessor, finding Dylan returning to topical songwriting and folk tales for the core of the record. It's all over the map, as far as songwriting goes, and so is it musically, capturing Dylan at the beginning of the Rolling Thunder Revue era, which was more notable for its chaos than its music. And, so it's only fitting that Desire fits that description as well, as it careens between surging folk-rock, Mideastern dirges, skipping pop, and epic narratives. It's little surprise that Desire doesn't quite gel, yet it retains its own character — really, there's no other place where Dylan tried as many different styles, as many weird detours, as he does here. And, there's something to be said for its rambling, sprawling character, which has a charm of its own. Even so, the record would have been assisted by a more consistent set of songs; there are some masterpieces here, though: "Hurricane" is the best-known, but the effervescent "Mozambique" is Dylan at his breeziest, "Sara" at his most nakedly emotional, and "Isis" is one of his very best songs of the '70s, a hypnotic, contemporized spin on a classic fable. This may not add up to a masterpiece, but it does result in one of his most fascinating records of the '70s and '80s — more intriguing, lyrically and musically, than most of his latter-day affairs.

1. Hurricane
2. Isis
3. Mozambique
4. One More Cup Of Coffee
5. Oh, Sister
6. Joey
7. Romance In Durango
8. Black Diamond Bay
9. Sara

[RE-UP] CENTENAIRE

CENTENAIRE
CENTENAIRE (2007)
320 KBPS

Quite different from other Chief Inspector releases (Rigolus, Besson Rifflet, Camisetas, Collectif Slang, etc.) which are more jazz oriented, Centenaire debut album is a goldly surprise. Musicians included are, usually, to be found in either electronic, experimental or pop formations: Damien Mingus (My Jazzy Child), Axel Monnaud (Orval Carlos Sibelius), Stéphane Laporte (Domotic) and Aurélien Potier (Section Amour, Concertmate).
Centenaire appeared following the Orval project that already included Sibelius, Mingus, Monnaud and Potier, nethertheless, it's a real new step in those eductated musicians’ career. Here, they all gather in a rather different universe made of English folk, psychedelic pop and progressive rock.
With guitars, a cello, a clarinet, an organ, a drum set and a mini-guitar (the "charango"), they’ve build their music from many improvisation sessions. With influences such as Robert Wyatt, Pentangle and other Brittish musicians from the 70’s there was no doubt they will come out with something that could have been released 30 years ago yet still possesses the "air" of today’s expression (you can sometimes think of Espers or Animal Collective).
The four musicians have deliberately kept things simple, nourrishing their old-fashioned psychedelic folk as seminal and beautiful as can be. The result is quite easy to the ear yet possesses hidden treasures to those who will take the time to discover it. A very good album.

1. Norway
2. Le Retour
3. Castle
4. Take me Home
5. Swan
6. The Day Before
7. Bugatti
8. Heavy for everyone
9. The Dress
10. Masquerade
11. Riverside
12. Ending Fast
13. You
14. Strong

MICHELLE BRANCH

MICHELLE BRANCH
HOTEL PAPER (2003)
320 KBPS

Part of the appeal of Michelle Branch on her 2001 debut, The Spirit Room, was that she came across as a spirited normal girl with an enthusiasm for music. She wasn't teasingly sexy like Britney Spears, nor was she a brat like the then-unknown Avril Lavigne; she felt like a real teenager, something that was enhanced by her direct songs and earnest vocals, which were the furthest thing from flashy. Sure, The Spirit Room could be a little too polished at times, but it was tempered by her eagerness to make a record, so it turned out quite endearing. But like many second albums, her sophomore affair, Hotel Paper, finds Branch two years older and a whole lot more "mature," in the sense that any remnants of that adolescent passion have been removed as she positions herself as a serious singer/songwriter in the adult alternative vein. Branch remains appealing — her blend of pop and mild roots rock sounds good and she has a nice, plainspoken charm and straight-ahead voice — but she's buried beneath the slick veneer of Hotel Paper's production (largely by John Shanks) and does not help herself with her compositions, which are vaguely ingratiating, but rarely rise above the generic level. All of it is too self-consciously serious, too preoccupied with turning Branch into a younger but more somber Sheryl Crow (who duets with Branch on the record's best track, "Love Me Like That"). Taken on the surface, Hotel Paper is fine — it's big and shiny and it glides as easy as tunes on an adult alternative radio station on a summer's day — but without that infectious spirit she displayed on The Spirit Room or songs as catchy as "Everywhere," the album doesn't have the detail of character that made Michelle Branch so appealing the first time out. In its place is a professional, polished album that's nice to listen to, but doesn't resonate for much longer than its playing time.

1. Intro
2. Are You Happy Now?
3. Find My Way Back
4. Empty Handed
5. Tuesday Morning
6. One Of These Days
7. Love Me Like That
8. Desperatly
9. Breathe
10. Where are You Now?
11. Hotel Paper
12. Til I Get Over You
13. Everywhere*
14. The Game of Love*
15. It's You
* bonus tracks

RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON

RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON
THE END OF THE RAINBOW, AN INTRODUCTION TO (2000)
320 KBPS

Richard Thompson earned the respect of fans for his guitar playing with Fairport Convention in the late 1960s. But it was the albums he made with his then-wife Linda in the early 1970s that gained him the reputation as one the premier songwriters to emerge from the British folk-rock scene. The songs on this 16-song collection are taken from the couple's first four albums together: Henry the Human Fly (actually a Richard Thompson solo record with Linda's background vocals), the classic I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, Hokey Pokey, and Pour Down Like Silver. Linda's slightly husky alto inspired some of Richard's sweetest melodies, such as "Dimming of the Day," "For Shame of Doing Wrong," and "Down Where the Drunkards Roll," even as their sometimes rocky relationship caused him to write some of his gloomiest lyrics. The words may sometimes paint a bleak view of human relations, but the beauty of Linda's voice and the perfection of Richard's guitar lines do an excellent job of lightening the heavy mood.

1. Roll Over Vaughn Williams
2. Poor Ditching Boy
3. When I Get To The Border
4. Withered And Died
5. I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
6. Down Where The Drunkards Roll
7. The End Of The Rainbow
8. The Great Valerio
9. Hokey Pokey
10. Never Again
11. A Heart Needs A Home
12. For Shame Of Doing Wrong
13. Night Comes In
14. Beat The Retreat
15. Dimming Of The Day/Dargai
16. Calvary Cross

BOB DYLAN SPECIAL

BOB DYLAN SPECIAL

BOB DYLAN (1962)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

Bob Dylan's first album is a lot like the debut albums by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones — a sterling effort, outclassing most, if not all, of what came before it in the genre, but similarly eclipsed by the artist's own subsequent efforts. The difference was that not very many people heard Bob Dylan on its original release (originals on the early-'60s Columbia label are choice collectibles) because it was recorded with a much smaller audience and musical arena in mind. At the time of Bob Dylan's release, the folk revival was rolling, and interpretation was considered more important than original composition by most of that audience. A significant portion of the record is possessed by the style and spirit of Woody Guthrie, whose influence as a singer and guitarist hovers over "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "Pretty Peggy-O," as well as the two originals here, the savagely witty "Talkin' New York" and the poignant "Song to Woody"; and it's also hard to believe that he wasn't aware of Jimmie Rodgers and Roy Acuff when he cut "Freight Train Blues." But on other songs, one can also hear the influences of Bukka White, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, and Furry Lewis, in the playing and singing, and this is where Dylan departed significantly from most of his contemporaries. Other white folksingers of the era, including his older contemporaries Eric Von Schmidt and Dave Van Ronk, had incorporated blues in their work, but Dylan's presentation was more in your face, resembling in some respects (albeit in a more self-conscious way) the work of John Hammond, Jr., the son of the man who signed Dylan to Columbia Records and produced this album, who was just starting out in his own career at the time this record was made. There's a punk-like aggressiveness to the singing and playing here. His raspy-voiced delivery and guitar style were modeled largely on Guthrie's classic '40s and early-'50s recordings, but the assertiveness of the bluesmen he admires also comes out, making this one of the most powerful records to come out of the folk revival of which it was a part. Within a year of its release, Dylan, initially in tandem with young folk/protest singers like Peter, Paul & Mary and Phil Ochs, would alter the boundaries of that revival beyond recognition, but this album marked the pinnacle of that earlier phase, before it was overshadowed by this artist's more ambitious subsequent work. In that regard, the two original songs here serve as the bridge between Dylan's stylistic roots, as delineated on this album, and the more powerful and daringly original work that followed. One myth surrounding this album should also be dispelled here — his version of "House of the Rising Sun" here is worthwhile, but the version that was the inspiration for the Animals' recording was the one by Josh White.

1. You're No Good
2. Talkin' New York
3. In My Time of Dyin'
4. Man of Constant Sorrow
5. Fixin' to Die
6. Pretty Peggy-O
7. Highway 51 Blues
8. Gospel Plow
9. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
10. House of the Risin' Sun
11. Freight Train Blues
12. Song to Woody
13. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

THE FREEWHEELIN' BOB DYLAN (1963)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

It's hard to overestimate the importance of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, the record that firmly established Dylan as an unparalleled songwriter, one of considerable skill, imagination, and vision. At the time, folk had been quite popular on college campuses and bohemian circles, making headway onto the pop charts in diluted form, and while there certainly were a number of gifted songwriters, nobody had transcended the scene as Dylan did with this record. There are a couple (very good) covers, with "Corrina Corrina" and "Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance," but they pale with the originals here. At the time, the social protests received the most attention, and deservedly so, since "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" weren't just specific in their targets; they were gracefully executed and even melodic. Although they've proven resilient throughout the years, if that's all Freewheelin' had to offer, it wouldn't have had its seismic impact, but this also revealed a songwriter who could turn out whimsy ("Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"), gorgeous love songs ("Girl From the North Country"), and cheerfully absurdist humor ("Bob Dylan's Blues," "Bob Dylan's Dream") with equal skill. This is rich, imaginative music, capturing the sound and spirit of America as much as that of Louis Armstrong, Hank Williams, or Elvis Presley. Dylan, in many ways, recorded music that equaled this, but he never topped it.

1. Blowin' in the Wind
2. Girl from the North Country
3. Masters of War
4. Down the Highway
5. Bob Dylan's Blues
6. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
7. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
8. Bob Dylan's Dream
9. Oxford Town
10. Talking World War III Blues
11. Corrina, Corrina
12. Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
13. I Shall Be Free

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' (1964)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

If The Times They Are a-Changin' isn't a marked step forward from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, even if it is his first collection of all originals, it's nevertheless a fine collection all the same. It isn't as rich as Freewheelin', and Dylan has tempered his sense of humor considerably, choosing to concentrate on social protests in the style of "Blowin' in the Wind." With the title track, he wrote an anthem that nearly equaled that song, and "With God on Our Side" and "Only a Pawn in Their Game" are nearly as good, while "Ballad of Hollis Brown" and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" are remarkably skilled re-castings of contemporary tales of injustice. His absurdity is missed, but he makes up for it with the wonderful "One Too Many Mornings" and "Boots of Spanish Leather," two lovely classics. If there are a couple of songs that don't achieve the level of the aforementioned songs, that speaks more to the quality of those songs than the weakness of the remainder of the record. And that's also true of the album itself — yes, it pales next to its predecessor, but it's terrific by any other standard.

1. The Times They Are A-Changin'
2. Ballad of Hollis Brown
3. With God on Our Side
4. One Too Many Mornings
5. North Country Blues
6. Only a Pawn in Their Game
7. Boots of Spanish Leather
8. When the Ship Comes In
9. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
10. Restless Farewell

ANOTHER SIDE OF BOB DYLAN (1964)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

The other side of Bob Dylan referred to in the title is presumably his romantic, absurdist, and whimsical one — anything that wasn't featured on the staunchly folky, protest-heavy Times They Are a-Changin', really. Because of this, Another Side of Bob Dylan is a more varied record and it's more successful, too, since it captures Dylan expanding his music, turning in imaginative, poetic performances on love songs and protest tunes alike. This has an equal number of classics to its predecessor, actually, with "All I Really Want to Do," "Chimes of Freedom," "My Back Pages," "I Don't' Believe You," and "It Ain't Me Babe" standing among his standards, but the key to the record's success is the album tracks, which are graceful, poetic, and layered. Both the lyrics and music have gotten deeper and Dylan's trying more things — this, in its construction and attitude, is hardly strictly folk, as it encompasses far more than that. The result is one of his very best records, a lovely intimate affair.

1. All I Really Want to Do
2. Black Crow Blues
3. Spanish Harlem Incident
4. Chimes of Freedom
5. I Shall Be Free, No. 10
6. To Ramona
7. Motorpsycho Nitemare
8. My Back Pages
9. I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
10. Ballad in Plain D
11. It Ain't Me Babe

HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED (1965)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

Taking the first, electric side of Bringing It All Back Home to its logical conclusion, Bob Dylan hired a full rock & roll band, featuring guitarist Michael Bloomfield, for Highway 61 Revisited. Opening with the epic "Like a Rolling Stone," Highway 61 Revisited careens through nine songs that range from reflective folk-rock ("Desolation Row") and blues ("It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry") to flat-out garage rock ("Tombstone Blues," "From a Buick 6," "Highway 61 Revisited"). Dylan had not only changed his sound, but his persona, trading the folk troubadour for a streetwise, cynical hipster. Throughout the album, he embraces druggy, surreal imagery, which can either have a sense of menace or beauty, and the music reflects that, jumping between soothing melodies to hard, bluesy rock. And that is the most revolutionary thing about Highway 61 Revisited — it proved that rock & roll needn't be collegiate and tame in order to be literate, poetic, and complex.

1. Like a Rolling Stone
2. Tombstone Blues
3. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
4. From a Buick 6
5. Ballad of a Thin Man
6. Queen Jane Approximately
7. Highway 61 Revisited
8. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
9. Desolation Row

EMILIANA TORRINI

EMILIANA TORRINI
FISHERMAN'S WOMAN (2004)
320 KBPS

Emiliana Torrini's 2000 debut Love in the Time of Science showcased the singer's Icelandic/Italian voice in a swirl of trip-hop beats and glossy electronica skitters, sounding precisely like Björk filtered through Roland Orzabal's refined pop eardrums. Following the sonic overload that her debuted offered, Torrini's follow-up Fisherman's Woman feels like a sigh of relief. Accompanied almost exclusively by gently strummed acoustic guitars and the soft creaking of boats on a river, her cool whispers bring to mind the charming work of Nick Drake or an impossibly sunny Mazzy Star. Warmly intimate, it almost seems as though the engineers stumbled across a wood nymph with a six-string guitar sighing gently on the banks of a tumbling brook, set up their recording equipment, and then came back an hour later to hear what they had captured. Of course it takes a lot of work to sound this effortless, and producer/multi-instrumentalist Dan Carey (alias "Mr. Dan") took great pains to capture the acoustic setting, augmenting occasionally with a quiet piano or light percussion, but primarily allowing Torrini's breathy voice to meander through her straightforward melodies and childlike sentiments. Needless to say, the music is unquestionably beautiful in its simplicity and honesty; summery and warm, and casually intimate but with a real lasting quality. These are the songs that sneak into the listener's subconscious, lying in wait until the perfect spring day to surface in the form of a quiet hum or low whistle, sounding for all the world like a lullaby long forgotten or a folk song never written down.

1. Nothing Brings Me Down
2. Sunny Road
3. Snow
4. Life Saver
5. Honeymoon Child
6. Today Has Been OK
7. Next Time Around
8. Heartstopper
9. At Least It Was
10. Fisherman's Woman
11. Thinking Out Loud
12. Serenade

AMOS LEE

AMOS LEE
AMOS LEE (2005)
320 KBPS

With a dusky soul voice and a knack for literate, thoughtful lyrics, singer/songwriter Amos Lee is a throwback to a more organic-sounding pop time period. Calling to mind a mix of Bill Withers, Arthur Lee, and James Taylor, Lee croons through his mellow eponymous debut with a singular sense of his time and place that adds weight to his already heartfelt songs. Much like Taylor's Sweet Baby James and Withers' Still Bill, Amos Lee is an album about an artist's life and loves in a world that often seems at odds with his desires. On "Arms of a Woman," Lee sings "I am at ease in the arms of a woman/Although now most of my days are spent alone/A thousand miles from the place I was born/But when she wakes she takes me back home." Similarly, the darkly evocative "Black River" has Lee in a gospel mood, drawing comparisons between a swift-moving river, God, and whiskey, while the brisk country-rock-inflected "Love in the Lies" finds him proclaiming that "The world ain't no harder than it's ever been/Lookin' for love in the lies of a lonely friend." For all intents and purposes with Lee, Blue Note has found the male Norah Jones. In fact, Jones guests here and, interestingly, on "Colors," Lee sings about getting "lost in the circus" — one wonders if Blue Note hopes that Jones' "house of fun" is close by. Joining in are other members of the Blue Note extended family, including Jones' longtime bassist Lee Alexander, guitarist Kevin Breit, and others. The result is an album not dissimilar to Jones' multiple Grammy-winning Come Away With Me, as Wurlitzer and Hammond organs pipe softly next to acoustic guitars, allowing Lee to glide on top of a wave of tasteful coffeehouse soul. While the comparison is mostly positive, it does pose one rub in that even Come Away With Me, while unfailingly intimate and classy, was somewhat calculated to be beautifully crafted, deeply emotional wallpaper, and Amos Lee holds to that template. Which basically means that, despite Lee's stellar melodic abilities, the arrangements are often too low-key for their own good. That said, Lee has a phenomenal voice matched by a journeyman's sense of songcraft that is just too good to go unnoticed.

1. Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight
2. Seen It All Before
3. Arms of a Woman
4. Give It Up
5. Dreamin'
6. Soul Suckers
7. Colors
8. Bottom of the Barrel
9. Black River
10. Love in the Lies
11. All My Friends

THE CHIEFTAINS FEATURING RY COODER

THE CHIEFTAINS
FEATURING RY COODER
SAN PATRICIO (2010)
256 KBPS

To delve into history is to reach into mystery. Music is a time-honored method for investigating both. The Chieftains' Paddy Moloney has been obsessed with the historical account of the San Patricios, a band of immigrant Irish soldiers who deserted the American Army during the Mexican-American War in 1846 to fight for the other side, against the Manifest Destiny ideology of James Polk's America. Moloney’s Chieftains and co-producer Ry Cooder decided to try to tell it musically. The result brings this fascinatingly complex tale to life in the modern world and examines issues of discrimination, conscience, and empire.
The knowledge of Argentinian radio programmer Guadalupe Jolicouer pointed Moloney to traditional Mexican sources — canciones, sons, norteños, rancheras, boleros, and polkas from the period. Moloney sorted them. He then selected, arranged, and added music he knew from the period that echoed the Mexican sources. He and Cooder rounded up the numerous players, instruments, and locales necessary. Mexican performers such as los Tigres del Norte, Lila Downs, Chavela Vargas, los Folkloristas, los Camperos de Valles, Paddy Moloney, and many others are featured alongside the Chieftains, Cooder, Linda Ronstadt, Galician piper Carlos Nunez, Liam Neeson, and Van Dyke Parks. Sessions were taped in Mexico, Spain, Los Angeles, New York, and Dublin. Sung in Spanish and English, the collection illumines the San Patricios’ chapter in Irish history, which was considered shameful until recently — though in Mexico they’ve always been regarded as heroes. Through utterly compelling and ingenious musical preservation and invention, the album asks questions about commonalities between cultures; it offers evidence that history, when told personally enough, reflects shared experiences across territorial and chronological lines, and stands outside any “official” narrative, mirroring back to listeners what they can feel empathy for and sympathize with.
While this album sounds like the Chieftains playing in fusion mode, it is so much more ambitious than anything they’ve attempted before. Some of the music here is contemporary, though much of it is over a century old; yet it reaches past its settings into the present day, telling of the indelibly rich meeting of two cultures oppressed by a third. It’s full of gorgeous songs of heroism, love, tragedy, and loss. San Patricio's songs are sung passionately, without artifice, they're played expertly. The album may jar some listeners initially, but spending a little time with it will remedy that. San Patricio, more than merely satisfying Moloney’s obsession, raises more questions about what stories lay hidden under the floorboards of history than it answers, thank goodness. Music this beautifully articulated allows cultures to talk to one another across time, space, language, and other divides.

1 La Iguana
2 La Golondrina
3 A La Orilla de un Palmar
4 Danza de Concheros
5 El Chivo
6 San Campio
7 The Sands of Mexico
8 Sailing to Mexico
9 El Caballo
10 March to Battle (Across the Rio Grande)
11 Lullaby for the Dead
12 Luz de Luna
13 Persecución de Villa
14 Canción Mixteca (Intro)
15 Canción Mixteca
16 Ojitos Negros
17 El Relampago
18 El Pájaro Cu
19 Finale

COCOON

COCOON
MY FRIENDS ALL DIED IN A PLANE CRASH (2007)
320 KBPS

Cocoon are an English-language folk-pop duo from France whose full-length album debut in 2007 garnered critical acclaim and commercial success internationally. Formed in 2006 in Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, France, the band is primarily comprised of Mark Daumail (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, ukulele, banjo; born December 6, 1984) and Morgane Imbeaud (harmony vocals, keyboards; April 14, 1987). Their influences include classic folk-rock bands such as Pentangle and Fairport Convention as well as contemporary folk-pop acts such as Devendra Banhart and Sufjan Stevens. Cocoon made their recording debut in 2006 with an independently released EP, I Hate Birds, which was picked up for release on the well-regarded French indie label Sober & Gentle. The duo subsequently began working on its full-length debut album, My Friends All Died in a Plane Crash (2007), which was preceded by the release of an EP, From Panda Mountains (2007), featuring three new versions of songs previously released on I Hate Birds ("On My Way," "Tell Me," "I Don't Give a Shit"), one of which would become the lead single from My Friends All Died in a Plane Crash ("On My Way"). Not only was My Friends All Died in a Plane Crash critically acclaimed upon its release, it was also commercially successful, breaking into the Top 40 of the French albums chart and the Top 100 of the Belgian and Swiss albums charts. Fans of Elliott Smith and quality folk/pop, try this.

1. Take Off
2. Vultures
3. On My Way
4. Seesaw
5. Christmas Song
6. Tell Me
7. Owls
8. Paper Boat
9. Cliffhanger
10. Chupee
11. Hummingbird
12. Microwave

SUZANNE VEGA

SUZANNE VEGA
NINE OBJECTS OF DESIRE (1996)
320 KBPS

Under the guidance of producer Mitchell Froom, who produced 99.9 F° and married her shortly after that album was completed, Suzanne Vega continues to explore more textured and vaguely experimental musical territory on Nine Objects of Desire. While it is less bold on the surface than its predecessor — most notably, there are no pseudo-industrial rhythms — Nine Objects of Desire still bears all the trademarks of a Mitchell Froom production. There is cheap, garage-yard percussion scattered throughout the record, layered keyboards, and overly mannered, arty arrangements. It's not as extreme as Froom's work for Los Lobos, for instance, but it is still more self-consciously pretentious than any of Vega's albums, besides 99.9 F°. Vega's songs manage to cut through the murky production more often than not, and while the album doesn't boast her most consistent set of songs, they are on the whole stronger than the ones on her previous record. The songs on Nine Objects of Desire are more classically structured and inviting than the ones on its predecessor — it is only the production that keeps the listener at a distance. And that's ironic, since half of these songs rank among Vega's most personal work.

1. Birth-Day (Love Made Real)
2. Headshots
3. Caramel
4. Stockings
5. Casual Match
6. Thin Man
7. No Cheap Thrill
8. World Before Columbus
9. Lolita
10. Honeymoon Suite
11. Tombstone
12. My Favorite Plum

ANI DIFRANCO

ANI DIFRANCO
RED LETTER YEAR (2008)
320 KBPS

Ani DiFranco's Red Letter Year is, upon first listen, a shock to the ears. It's easily the most lush and elegantly recorded album of the 18 studio offerings she's created thus far. There are precedents in her catalog for music that resembles this: songs with full arrangements and more complex textures and melodies to be sure, but as an album, Red Letter Year stands out clearly in the same way Dilate and Little Plastic Castles did when they were released. Part of the reason for these new musical directions is perhaps her relocation to New Orleans from Buffalo and the building of her own studio there with producer and life partner Mike Napolitano. Another undeniable dimension here is motherhood. DiFranco is not given to giddy sentiment, but the presence of new life is obvious here. Her guests are wildly varied: a string quartet that boasts violinist Jenny Scheinman, guitarist C.C. Adcock, and the Rebirth Brass Band. DiFranco's now trademark style of rhythmic acoustic fingerpicking is largely absent, but it's not missed. It appears selectively on "Present/Infant," "Star Matter," and "The Atom." The album-opening title track is a beautiful hint of what's to come, its slippery horns, Todd Sickafoose's sparse but percussive bassline, and Mike Dillon's marimba pointing the various directions the tune takes from angular pop song to elegiac requiem. The song, in typical DiFranco fashion, wraps up personal reminiscences with political thought, from New Year's Eve dropping mushrooms to a man with a monkey for a face representing the white race while flying over in a helicopter. "Alla This" is a melodically complex anthemic statement of resistance and purpose; the strings are particularly effective playing repetitive phrases, heightening tension and dynamics until Ani defuses them with her electric guitar. The tune is a squall but a deeply musical one, with a hint of a metal riff in the vamp at the beginning.
"Present/Infant" reclaims familiar ground with her acoustic, her plaintive-voiced narrative, and some gorgeous percussion work from Dillon's vibraphone and Allison Miller's killer breaks on the drum kit. The hand percussion on "Smiling Underneath" is a beautifully unsentimental way to execute a love song. In essence, the set feels more like a very sophisticated song cycle, and very much an album. The sophisticated arrangements treat DiFranco's voice as another instrument in the mix, but her lyrics come through with perhaps even more force and power as a result. Other notable cuts are the electronic New Orleans funk clash in "Emancipated Minor," the angular "Good Luck," and the jazzy trio on "Round a Pole," featuring DiFranco on Wurlitzer and a skeletal synth, Sickafoose on upright bass, and Miller's painterly brushwork. Ultimately, Red Letter Year is simply more proof that this prolific artist is no less creative and innovative for being so. On the one hand, she is a long way from the folkie in punk's clothing who recorded her self-titled debut and Not So Soft armed with only her acoustic guitar. On the other, this album contains the sum total of the persona that she has consistently and stubbornly given expression to all the while. Red Letter Year will immediately resonate with fans, but it's time for those who either got off the boat or never got it to take another listen. It is among DiFranco's best records, and along with Sam Phillips' Don't Do Anything, one of the only singer/songwriter albums to really push the envelope in new directions in 2008.

1. Red Letter Year
2. All This
3. Present Infant
4. Smiling Underneath
5. Way Tight
6. Emancipated Minor
7. Good Luck
8. Atom
9. Round a Pole
10. Landing Gear
11. Star Matter
12. Red Letter Year Reprise

BRIGHT EYES

BRIGHT EYES
LIFTED OR THE STORY IN THE SOIL,
KEEP YOUR EAR TO THE GROUND (2002)
320 KBPS

When Bright Eyes brainchild Conor Oberst issued Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground in August 2002, he was 22 years old. Critics were already calling him the "indie Bob Dylan," but the new millennium had seen a lot of those introverted, intelligent types (Ryan Adams, Beck). Bright Eyes, though, delivered a solid, intricately produced album without the majors' monotony. Immediately, one can sense Oberst's literate approach. His vocal curdle is abrasive yet warm. It's similar to the cooing of Robert Smith, but lush in heartache like Paul Westerberg, leaving the storybook of Lifted or The Story to earn massive praise. "Waste of Paint" is rough-cut with edgy acoustics, while "From a Balance Beam" glows with pop-like optimism. Chimes and simple drumming keep the story of personal insecurity and the fear of the unknown coming alive in a dreamy sort of way. Even when he's aching his way through the pop rumble of "Method Acting," Bright Eyes convincingly lures one into his eclectic musical world. Oberst obviously has the talent to support the hype. "Lover I Don't Have to Love" is a dark number with its Radiohead-like doom and gloom; however, the piano swirl of "A Bowl of Oranges" offers a brighter reflection. On Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground, Bright Eyes has mixed badness with beauty for a sonic storybook that relates to everyone. It's slightly overwhelming at first, but one must allow a grace period to fully absorb the abstract desire behind this album.

1. The Big Picture
2. Method Acting
3. False Advertising
4. You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.
5. Lover I Don't Have to Love
6. Bowl of Oranges
7. Don't Know When But a Day Is Gonna Come
8. Nothing Gets Crossed Out
9. Make War
10. Waste of Paint
11. From a Balance Beam
12. Laura Laurent
13. Let's Not Shit Ourselves (to Love and to Be Loved)

COCOROSIE

COCOROSIE
THE ADVENTURES OF GHOSTHORSE & STILLBORN (2007)
320 KBPS

It would be very easy for CocoRosie to make merely ornamental music and focus only on the pretty, ethereal sound that was so charming on La Maison de Mon Rêve. Fortunately, Sierra and Bianca Casady have more ambition than that, and they've managed to craft very different identities for each of their albums — no small feat, especially since their approach is so distinctive. On The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, they combine the cleanest, most polished-sounding production to appear on a CocoRosie album with a stark hip-hop influence, making this the duo's most focused, and strangest, album yet. The sisters explore this polarity throughout The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, opening the album with the bold, jaunty beats of "Rainbow Warriors" and following it with the much more delicate trip-hop of "Promise." Switching back and forth between mischievous, endearingly awkward moments and one of breathtaking beauty like day and night, or waking and dreaming, it's almost as if the album posits each of the Casadys' talents as opposing viewpoints. The tracks Bianca takes the lead on are bright and outrageous, like "Japan," which bounces along like the Mad Hatter's tea party as she sings, "Everybody wants to go to Iraq/But once you go there, you don't come back." The song's topsy-turvy feel only deepens when Sierra's eerie background vocals turn into a cheery trumpet melody. Meanwhile, "Black Poppies" and the other songs Sierra dominates delve even deeper into the narcotic chansons of La Maison de Mon Rêve and Noah's Ark. Her singing on The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn is her finest yet, especially on the middle-of-the-day lullaby "Sunshine" and "Miracle," where she has much more power and range than some of her previous kitten-ish Billie Holiday impersonations would suggest. The playful arrangements that are so vital to CocoRosie's sound come into sharper focus on this album, too, with a toy box's worth of sound effects adding poignancy and whimsy to "Animals" and harp and trumpet deepening "Raphael"'s mournful beauty. The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn's densely packed sounds and ideas are a lot to process, but they're what makes this album rewarding on repeated listens — and what makes CocoRosie's yin-yang, fractured fairy tale sound still surprising three albums into their career.

1. Rainbowarriors
2. Promise
3. Bloody Twins
4. Japan
5. Sunshine
6. Black Poppies
7. Werewolf
8. Animals
9. Houses
10. Raphael
11. Girl and The Geese
12. Miracle

CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG

CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG
DEJA VU (1970)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

One of the most hotly awaited second albums in history — right up there with those by the Beatles and the Band — Déjà Vu lived up to its expectations and rose to number one on the charts. Those achievements are all the more astonishing given the fact that the group barely held together through the estimated 800 hours it took to record Déjà Vu and scarcely functioned as a group for most of that time. Déjà Vu worked as an album, a product of four potent musical talents who were all ascending to the top of their game coupled with some very skilled production, engineering, and editing. There were also some obvious virtues in evidence — the addition of Neil Young to the Crosby, Stills & Nash lineup added to the level of virtuosity, with Young and Stephen Stills rising to new levels of complexity and volume on their guitars. Young's presence also ratcheted up the range of available voices one notch and added a uniquely idiosyncratic songwriter to the fold, though most of Young's contributions in this area were confined to the second side of the LP. Most of the music, apart from the quartet's version of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock," was done as individual sessions by each of the members when they turned up (which was seldom together), contributing whatever was needed that could be agreed upon. "Carry On" worked as the album's opener when Stills "sacrificed" another copyright, "Questions," which comprised the second half of the track and made it more substantial. "Woodstock" and "Carry On" represented the group as a whole, while the rest of the record was a showcase for the individual members. David Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair" was a piece of high-energy hippie-era paranoia not too far removed in subject from the Byrds' "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man," only angrier in mood and texture (especially amid the pumping organ and slashing guitars); the title track, also by Crosby, took 100 hours to work out and was a better-received successor to such experimental works as "Mind Gardens," out of his earlier career with the Byrds, showing his occasional abandonment of a rock beat, or any fixed rhythm at all, in favor of washing over the listener with tones and moods. "Teach Your Children," the major hit off the album, was a reflection of the hippie-era idealism that still filled Graham Nash's life, while "Our House" was his stylistic paean to the late-era Beatles and "4+20" was a gorgeous Stephen Stills blues excursion that was a precursor to the material he would explore on the solo album that followed. And then there were Neil Young's pieces, the exquisitely harmonized "Helpless" (which took many hours to get to the slow version finally used) and the roaring country-ish rockers that ended side two, which underwent a lot of tinkering by Young — even his seeming throwaway finale, "Everybody I Love You," was a bone thrown to longtime fans as perhaps the greatest Buffalo Springfield song that they didn't record. All of this variety made Déjà Vu a rich musical banquet for the most serious and personal listeners, while mass audiences reveled in the glorious harmonies and the thundering electric guitars, which were presented in even more dramatic and expansive fashion on the tour that followed.

1. Carry On
2. Teach Your Children
3. Almost In My Hair
4. Helpless
5. Woodstock
6. Deja Vu
7. Our House
8. 4 + 20
9. Country Girl:
a-Whiskey Boot Hill
b-Down Down Down
c-Country Girl
10. Everybody I Love You