The Lonely Goatherd Blog And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats - Matthew 25:32
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November 25, 2008
New CD Album Releases, 11-25-2008: Guns N Roses Chinese Democracy review, Paul McCartney - Fireman, Ludacris, Kanye West, Trace Adkins This Thanksgiving week we can give thanks that Axl Rose somehow sobered up long enough to get the damn Chinese Democracy album out after 17 years of dinking around with it. Axl should probably be giving thanks to the blogger who leaked a big chunk of the album onto the net over the summer, thus putting a boot in his drunk ass to get thing finished and in the stores.
Frankly, I wasn't expecting much. In the first place, it's not really Guns N Roses, with only Axl and sidemen. The group was a lot more than just him. Plus, any album that you've fooled with for a couple of decades probably ain't going to be much. I take that as mostly indicating a lack of anything to say. Plus, Axl's white trash nonsense LONG since became tiresome.
Still, partly perhaps because my expectations were low, I'm fairly pleased with the album that he's finally managed to put out. It started out a little slow with me, but a half dozen listens have reasonably much impressed me. I have to give due credit for his artistic ambition and serious effort.
Now, there's no way this is going to make anyone forget classic GnR. The main reason is in songwriting. Chinese Democracy has some fairly outstanding songs, but Axl was not the only or even particularly the main songwriter. There's just no making up for there for the songwriting input of Izzy Stradlin in particular. There's no song on Chinese Democracy equal to "Welcome to the Jungle" or "Dust n Bones."
But the author of "November Rain" and "One in a Million" actually has some creative juice left. I don't know that he has any particularly intriguing new vision, but it sounds pretty good. As a vocalist, Axl is surprisngly (to me, at least) as effective as ever. Plus, the arrangements and orchestrations are largely excellent and make the most of the songs. He's basically followed the progressive orchestral approach of the Illusion albums, which is a very good thing. It gives him a broad sonic palette. His ambitions toward Queen and Elton John have served him well.
So far on this album, I most favor "IRS." Partly, that's because it's plain old fashioned catchy. I also dig "Madagascar," though singing about cocaine in the bar, for example, is kinda played out. I haven't particularly picked up on most of the text of the lyrics - I'm only going to care about them once I'm sold on melody and beats and other musical elements - but Axl talking about drinking or drugs is the kind of thing that will tend to make me not particularly motivated to actually look up the words to see what exactly he's saying. Most of the saying of an album comes from the music anyway.
Still and all, I recommend this Chinese Democracy album fairly strongly to anyone who digs classic GnR.
Paul McCartney has a new album out - a point which seems to have gotten fairly little attention. That seems to be partly by purposeful intent on his part, though, recording under The Fireman pseudonym. This is nominally a duo album with producer and Killing Joke bassist Martin Glover aka Youth, but all the songs are credited to McCartney. This is their third Fireman album (along with Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest from 1993 and Rushes from 1998), but apparently the first one which McCartney has publicly acknowledged. Indeed, he's flown so far under the radar with these that even I had not been aware of the existence of these earlier albums. These earlier albums have been described as electronica. He also collaborated with Glover on the McCartney named Liverpool Sound Collage record, so he seems to be McCartney's idea of a go-to guy for experimental or avant garde stuff.
Generally, the idea on this album seems to be to make something lightly, with no commercial expectations - less pressure and more freedom to experiment. They don't sound all that exotic. The strategy here apparently was to write and record a song in a single day. That's thirteen days scattered across the last year.
On a couple of listens, this seems pretty listenable. "Dance Till We're High" would probably be my pick at this point. There's no big classic here, which he's achieved as recently "Riding to Vanity Fair." But it's better than the average Macca album of the last 20ish years. It's worth a listen for big Paul McCartney fans.
My beloved sister in law is all about Trace Adkins, so I figured on giving his new X album a listen. Sis is a good ol' gal, but what she sees in this guy escapes me - at least based on this album. They could have put this out with a stock photo image of a cowboy hat on the cover and released it generically as Country Album. Like almost all modern commercial country radio music, this sounds like watetered down and de-racinated 70s Southern rock (generic .38 Special - which was already pretty generic) mixed with dumbed down 70s singer-songwriter ballads of the most wholesome and least interesting kind. I guess he's kind of cute in a Brokeback Mountain kinda way, though.
Perhaps in some pangs of white guilt for not voting for Obama, I have listened to the new Ludicrus Theater of the Mind album. This is an hour of my life that I can't get back. I'm considering suing Ludicrus for fraudulently pretending to have made "music." I'm afraid I'd make it sound vaguely interesting if I fully expressed my contempt for this nonsense, and it's just not interesting. There's just nothing here but low end bass sounds engineered to sound scary and menacing being boomed out of cars, but there's nothing vaguely interesting about even the beats. Beyond being bad and utterly tuneless, it's just contemptible on the basis of the ridiculously tired and cliched lyrics. We're hearing "history" because Ludacris has some even less talented moron guesting on his track. He makes more money than all the hatas cause he's sold 12 million albums. Well, 12 million Ludicrus fans CAN in fact be wrong. Plus, he's going to screw all the whores, has the finest drugs, and he will bust a cap in a nigga's ass. Yada, yada, yada.
More interesting musically and artistically was Adam Samberg's Blizzard Man sketch on SNL when Ludicrus was on last week, specifically parodying his partner T-Pain's cheesy robot rap shtick. The Ludicrus album is in fact ludicrous. It would be an SNL sketch mocking rap cliches, except that it's not funny. Chris Parnell is a MUCH more talented rapper than these guys.
Here's the listing of this week's new album releases, courtesy AMG:
The Fireman Electric Arguments ATO Neo-Psychedelia, Pop/Rock
Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy Geffen Album Rock, Heavy Metal, Hard Rock
The Killers Day & Age Island New Wave/Post-Punk Revival, Alternative Pop/Rock
Scott Weiland Happy in Galoshes Soft Drive Alternative Pop/Rock, Hard Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Post-Grunge
Kanye West 808s & Heartbreak Roc-A-Fella Midwest Rap, Urban, Pop-Rap, Pop
Trace Adkins X Capitol/EMI New Traditionalist, Contemporary Country
Arild Andersen Live at Belleville ECM Avant-Garde Jazz, Post-Bop
Arion Maria, Madre di Dio Early-Music.com Baroque Solo Cantatas & Sacred Music
Jeff Beck Performing This Week: Live at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club Eagle Guitar Virtuoso, Hard Rock, Blues-Rock
David Byrne/Brian Eno Everything That Happens Will Happen Today Todomundo Adult Alternative Pop/Rock
Los Campesinos! We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed Arts & Crafts Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Coldplay Prospekt's March Capitol Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
Rivers Cuomo Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo Geffen Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
The Datsuns Smoke & Mirrors Hell Squad/Cooking Vinyl Garage Punk, Hard Rock
Death Cab for Cutie Something About Airplanes [Deluxe Edition] Barsuk Indie Rock, Twee Pop, Alternative Pop/Rock
E-40 The Ball Street Journal Reprise/BME West Coast Rap, Hip-Hop, Gangsta Rap
Feist The Reminder [Deluxe Edition] Cherry Tree/Interscope Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Electronic, Indie Rock
Angela Gheorghiu My Puccini [CD+DVD] EMI Classics Romantic Opera
Goldfrapp Seventh Tree [Bonus DVD] Mute Alternative Pop/Rock, Electronica
Good Charlotte The Greatest Remixes Epic Punk-Pop, Punk Revival
Hall & Oates Live at the Troubadour Shout! Factory Blue-Eyed Soul, Pop/Rock, Soft Rock, Adult Contemporary
Hollyridge Strings The Beach Boys Song Book, Vols. 1-2 Collectors' Choice Music/EMI Mood Music, Orchestral Pop
My beloved sister in law is all about Trace Adkins, so I figured on giving his new X album a listen. Sis is a good ol' gal, but what she sees in this guy escapes me - at least based on this album. They could have put this out with a stock photo image of a cowboy hat on the cover and released it generically as Country Album. Like almost all modern commercial country radio music, this sounds like watetered down and de-racinated 70s Southern rock (generic .38 Special - which was already pretty generic) mixed with dumbed down 70s singer-songwriter ballads of the most wholesome and least interesting kind. I guess he's kind of cute in a Brokeback Mountain kinda way, though.
