First Quarter Report

Here are five bite-sized portions from the first quarter of 2004:

31. Loveless - Gift To The World

This debut effort from Boston-based veterans of the '90s rock scene (including Jen Trynin on guitar and back-up vocals) has a lot of power pop pleasure in it. Male-female harmonies, great melodies, and buzzing guitar hooks dominate. But there's an overwraught angst in the lyrics that doesn't jibe with the joyfulness of the music. I can't decide how to feel when I'm listening.

Rating: B
Fave Song: Beautiful

32. Air - Talkie Walkie

I've always felt I should like this French electronic duo, but it took three albums for that to happen. This is wonderful chillout music: spacy, interesting, inoffensive. Despite those adjectives the music avoids emotional detachment. It's perfect for going to sleep and waking up.

Rating: B+
Fave Song: Cherry Blossom Girl

33. Get-Up Kids - Guilt Show

Check out PopMatters.com for a well-written, insightful review (I hate getting trumped!). If you ever liked this band, don't believe the glib, mediocre reviews. It's right up there with their best (the Red Letter Day EP in my opinion). They took the lyrical maturity of On A Wire and married it to the songcraft of Something To Write Home About and came up with my favorite album of the year so far.

Rating: A
Fave Song: Sympathy

34. N*E*R*D - Fly Or Die

I have to say first that I wish they'd used Spymob for the recording sessions because it would have most likely made the results funkier and more powerful. But even considering that, this is a weirdly satisfying and addictive record. Mostly uncategorizable, it features little rapping and even fewer beats. There are rock guitar hooks and soaring pop vocal sections and R & B come-ons. And that's just the first song. Get rid of the Good Charlotte collabo and it's a classic (it still may be anyway).

Rating: B+
Fave Song: Maybe

35. They Might Be Giants - Indestructible Object EP

This 5 song warm up for TMBG's next full-length (The Spine, due this summer) features two Linnell songs (the new-wavey Am I Awake? and the name-dropping Au Contraire), two Flansburgh songs (the Monkees-quoting Memo To Human Resources and the dusted-off B-side Ant), and a very faithful Beach Boys cover (Caroline, No). Nothing here is ground-breaking, but it's good to hear the Johns rediscover how to be naturally quirky (it felt a bit forced on their last album, Mink Car). Maybe the title refers to the band itself.

Rating: B
Fave Song: Am I Awake?

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Stuck, or Obsession Cessastion

You may have noticed that things have slowed down around here. I had the summer off from teaching, and I spent it with my 7 month-old son. I gave myself permission to make this blog less of a priority. Well, "less of a priority" is putting it lightly. Initially, I considered an abrupt retirement. But then I reconsidered. Maybe the proximity to Brett Favre is causing this. If you're a long time reader, this is probably not all that surprising to you. Since 2007, it has become an annual ritual for me to soul-search about my waning interest in music. First I blamed an inability to express myself and a lack of quality music . Then in 2008 I cited new technology and the death of the album . Last year I wrote about how my changing life priorities hindered my ability to seek out new music. I've done a lot of thinking about it this summer and in truth I believe this was all just dancing around the issue, a slow realization of something I didn't want to admit to myse...

REO Speedwagon: R.E.O. Speedwagon (1971)

REO Speedwagon got its start in the late 1960s on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. The band grew out of a friendship between a students Neal Doughty (piano/keyboard) and Alan Gratzer (drums). Joining up with a couple of other musicians, they took the name R.E.O. Speedwagon. It wasn't long before they started getting gigs at parties and bars, doing covers of the hits of the day. The band cycled through several players in its first three years, with Gratzer and Doughty as the only constants. One-by-one they added the members that would form the first "official" lineup: singer Terry Luttrell in early 1968, bassist Gregg Philbin later that summer, and guitarist Gary Richrath at the end of 1970. Richrath was a native of Peoria, 90 miles northwest of Champaign, and had essentially stalked the band until they let him join. It was a good move, as he not only an accomplished guitarist, but also a songwriter. With Richrath the band ascended to the n...

Billy Joel: Greatest Hits, Volumes I and II (1985)

As you may know, I'm something of a connoisseur of compilations. I have three guidelines that I like my greatest hits to follow, though I am open to these rules being disregarded in certain cases. It's not an exact science. Billy Joel's 1985 Greatest Hits Volumes I and II (an odd title for a set that was never sold separately) is proof of that. It mostly follows the rules. The songs are in chronological order. There are no remixes, just a couple of single edits; there are two live songs, but those were actually were the versions that charted. And there are two new songs - we'll get to them eventually - but both ended up in the Top 40, so in retrospect that was a good decision. My mom bought the double LP when it came out and then dubbed it to a tape that lived in her car for at least three years. It and An Innocent Man were part of the soundtrack of the second half of my first decade of life. So I have a hard time criticizing something so ingrained in my consciousne...

3 Minutes, 49 Seconds

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