Record Reviews
📝 2096 reviews| Artist | Title | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Sting | Brand New Day Tour | <p>Reason number 872 why I hate REM: their arrogance. Back in 1995 as the band geared up for their "Monster" tour, bassist Mike Mills spoke to "Rolling Stone" magazine about the upcoming trek, the band's first in five years. He commented upon how important it is for bands to play live. To paraphrase, he related how the Police were a tight little post-punk act in their early days, but once they became an "art project" and stopped touring, they became useless and irrelevant.<p><p>Even after five years, I still find Mills' hypocrisy to be stunning. First of all, though "Monster" marked a return to harder-edged guitar rock, over the couple of albums prior to that release, REM had largely indulged in the kind of "artsy" experimentation for which he condemned the Police. During that period, REM did not tour; before 1994's "Monster", their last outing occurred in support of 1988's "Green", though that trek didn't happen until 1990.<p><p>Not only was Mills a hypocrite, but he was wrong. Despite his allegations to the contrary, the Police never became a "studio-only" outfit. Yes, their albums became more and more complex, but they still supported each one with extensive tours, through and including their hugely-successful swansong, 1983's "Synchronicity".<p><p>Even after the band split and Sting went off on his own, the consistent touring continued. As a matter of fact, Sting has played in support of each of his six solo albums, beginning with 1985's "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" up through 1999's "Brand New Day". REM can't even tour behind two albums in a row, much less the eleven straight backed by Sting (with and without the Police)!<p><p>Unfortunately, not all is positive in relation to Sting's live performances. I've seen him on each tour since the 1981/1982 outing behind "Ghost in the Machine" and I'm afraid his live shows have definitely declined over the years. I can't offer many comments about the January 1982 Police gig I saw because I was too inexperienced; it was only the third show I'd ever seen. I had a few more under my belt by the August 1983 concert, which I found to be pretty solid, and was much more experienced by the occasion of the August 1985 solo performance I witnessed.<p><p>In my opinion, Sting's first solo tour remains the pinnacle for his career on his own. It all seemed fresh and exciting, and he was backed with a tremendously solid band. Branford Marsalis provided a fine onstage foil for the boss, and entire ensemble created an energy that made the shows sizzle.<p><p>For the most part, a similar power inhabited Sting's 1988 shows in support of 1987's ".Nothing Like the Sun", though they weren't quite as strong as the 1985 gigs. Marsalis and some other musicians carried over from the earlier band, but a fair number of changes occurred. Nonetheless, the energy level remained high and the concerts were quite solid.<p><p>Unfortunately, Sting's shows in the Nineties weren't as entertaining. His 1991 tour found him with a completely-revamped band and a much more bland presentation. Instead of Marsalis, Sting's main partner on stage now became guitarist Dominic Miller. (Sting played guitar on his two prior solo tours and returned to the bass on this outing.) Miller's technically proficient and an able musician, but he has absolutely no personality whatsoever, and none of the other band members did anything to spark the proceedings either.<p><p>As such, the 1991 shows were musically-competent but generally somewhat lifeless affairs, and the three tours Sting has mounted since - 1993/94, 1996, and 1999/2000 - have all been virtual clones of that presentation. Miller continues as his guitarist - he's the only carryover from the 1991 band - and the shows remain listenable but fairly dull.<p><p>In a way, Sting's albums have followed the same pattern. While with the Police, each of their five albums seemed different; their sound slowly evolved from record to record, and though they all feel like the work of the same band, there are few songs that could easily be transplanted from one album to another. That trend continued during his first two solo records, though the differences seemed more subtle.<p><p>And then - bam! Sting hit a wall. If you examine his four albums from the Nineties, they're virtually interchangeable. He latched onto a fairly gentle VH1-ready sound he liked and has done little to deviate from that tone since then. Yes, he presents a fair number of stylistic changes within each work, from pop to country to jazz, but the results all still seem fairly even, and one could easily take pretty much any song off of, say, "Brand New Day" and drop it on one of the others and no one would notice the difference.<p><p>Don't get me wrong - I still enjoy Sting's work. However, I fail to generate much enthusiasm for it. His music has become too generic for my liking, and it lacks many distinctive qualities. The workmanship seems solid but the inspiration fails to appear.<p><p>On the DVD of Sting: The Brand New Day Tour Live at the Universal Ampitheatre, we find an October 1999 representation of his current act. I saw him live in June 2000, and I thought the DVD portrayed what I witnessed fairly effectively, though Sting seemed more lively during the Universal show. No, he doesn't do a whole lot, but he showed a little spark and energy that he lacked when I saw him locally.<p><p>This still doesn't make the concert rival the shows he put on in the Eighties, and I doubt he'll ever go anywhere with drowsy Miller in his band. To be fair, there's not a lot of energy coming from any part of Sting's group; they all seem like competent but disinterested participants. Actually, I can't recall the last time I saw a group of musicians who appeared so completely uninvolved with each other. Usually different folks interact, but that rarely occurs here; it's as though each of them resided in their own little sound booth and they can't have any active dealings with the others.<p><p>Actually, this tendency makes the show more entertaining as home video viewing than as a live performance. Frankly, I found much of the concert to be boring when I took it in live last summer. Granted, it didn't help that I'd just seen three Springsteen shows and two Bowie performances the week prior to Sting's concert; since Bowie and Bruce are easily the two best live performers I've even seen, it was hard for me to adjust to anyone less talented.<p><p>Even without that factor, however, I still wouldn't have thought much of Sting's show just because I like to have some sort of visual stimulation when I watch a concert. The stage is a very simply affair, and the lighting tends toward light reds, blues and yellows. The biggest flash we see happens during "Desert Rose"; some fake fire effects that use paper and wind appear. It's a very conservative stage.<p><p>No, I don't require dancers, lasers and explosions; neither Bruce nor Bowie indulge in such antics and their shows are as good as it gets. I just want something interesting to watch; otherwise I might as well stay home and listen to the CD.<p><p>Or watch the DVD, as in this case. Actually, this program perfectly complements Sting's live show: it's a well-executed but bland presentation. The concert was filmed and edited in a most conservative manner, with no flashy camera moves or any kind of quick cuts. It's a fairly unexciting way to show the concert, but it works pretty well, especially since more daring techniques would have seemed so inappropriate here. I've seen concert videos that try to use effects and editing to "spice up" a performance; McCartney's Paul Is Live becomes almost unwatchable due to such antics.<p><p>As such, Sting Live is a moderately entertaining but fairly unexceptional concert video. It represents the show itself pretty well, which isn't a terrific compliment. I like Sting, and I'll continue to see him live, but I do so with somewhat low expectations. When you witness a Sting concert, you'll get a musically competent but drab performance that will likely leave your memory as soon as he departs the stage.<p><p>Note that although the DVD presents 18 songs, which is a fairly substantial roster, it doesn't include the entire setlist. The following tunes were performed at the October 29, 1999 concert but can't be found on this DVD: "Roxanne", "Mad About You", "Fields of Gold", "Bring On the Night/When the World Is Falling Down You Make the Best of What's Still Around", and "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You". Why'd they cut these songs? I have no clue. Since the DVD only runs about 88 minutes, I can see no reason to omit so many songs, especially since all of them are popular numbers; their absence would only hurt sales.<p><p>Also, although some publicity materials for the DVD claim that it contains all of the songs from "Brand New Day", this isn't true. The concert omits "Big Lie Small World", so only eight of that album's nine songs appear. Actually, the set features a pretty solid mix of elements from Sting's career, though the Police side seems underrepresented; only three of those tunes - "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", "Every Breath You Take" and "Message In a Bottle" - make the cut.<p><p>"The Dream of the Blue Turtles", Sting's first solo album, is represented by "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" and "Moon Over Bourbon Street", while follow-up ".Nothing Like the Sun" shows up via "We'll Be Together", "Englishman In New York" and "Fragile". "Seven Days" comes from "Ten Summoner's Tales", while "Lithium Sunset" represents "Mercury Falling". Albums completely neglected? Police titles "Outlandos D'Amour" and "Zenyatta Mondatta" plus Sting's "The Soul Cages". Note that if the six deleted tunes appeared on this DVD, those three absent albums would then be represented; "Outlandos D'Amour" featured "Roxanne", "When the World." came from "Zenyatta Mondatta", and "Mad About You" was on "The Soul Cages". Too bad the omission keep this DVD from offering a better career overview.<p><p>The DVD:<p><p>Sting: The Brand New Day Tour Live From the Universal Ampitheatre appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.33:1 on this single-sided, single-layered DVD; due to those dimensions, the image has not been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Overall, this show looked pretty solid, though the original videotaped material betrayed a few limitations that kept it from becoming great.<p><p>Sharpness appeared largely crisp and accurate throughout the concert. At times, many wider shots looked a bit soft and fuzzy, though this tendency seemed minor and wasn't a huge concern. Moiré effects were absent, but jagged edges cropped up with regularity; guitar strings and curves of instruments often cause such problems, and Sting was no exception. In regard to the source material, almost no flaws were discerned. I saw a blip or two, but no more significant problems, though the general blandness that comes from videotaped programs meant that the show lacked sparkle.<p><p>Almost all of the colors seen during the concert came from the lights; Sting and the band wear black or other dark tones. The lighting tended to feature warm, pastel hues, and violets, oranges, light reds, and blues dominated the proceedings. The videotapes nature of the program occasionally made the colors seem a little heavy, but for the most part they looked accurate and clear. Black levels appeared slightly pale at times, but they usually seemed deep and rich, and for low-light shots from the stage, shadow detail was appropriately dark but not excessively thick. Crowd views generally seemed much harder to discern, but I don't fault the production for that, since no lighting would be offered for those bits. All in all, the concert looked quite clean and watchable.<p><p>Also fine but unexceptional was the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of the concert. Actually, Sting is perhaps the biggest star who supports 5.1 recordings; in addition to this DVD, you can buy DTS CDs of the Police's "Greatest Hits" plus Sting's ".Nothing Like the Sun", "Ten Summoner's Tales" , and "Brand New Day".<p><p>The soundfield heard on the DVD seemed pretty conservative. From the forward channels I detected decent stereo separation for the music but the mix didn't appear especially broad or well-defined. The instruments were placed in distinct locations to a degree, but they seemed to blend together in too mushy a manner; rarely did particular elements stand out very clearly. The surrounds were used simply to provide light reinforcement of the music and also to transmit occasional crowd noise. For all intents and purposes, this is a stereo soundtrack with a mild surround presence.<p><p>Audio quality seemed fairly strong. Sting's voice occasionally appeared too bright within the mix, and his vocals sometimes came across as slightly rough, but for the most part, his singing sounded clear and natural. The rest of the music seemed clean and relatively crisp throughout the proceedings. Dynamic range was good, though I thought the mix could have used strong low end. One oddity: at the start of "Desert Rose", the volume level escalates noticeably but returns to normal at the end of the song. Why does this happen? I have no idea, but keep the remote to your receiver handy; you'll likely want to knock down the volume a notch or two before the tune starts.<p><p>One thing I definitely liked about the soundtrack is that it seemed clear that no overdubs were performed to fix mistakes. The music sounded natural and real, and appears to come completely from an actual performance. These tendencies are best noted through some of Sting's vocals; you can easily hear him strain at times, and I'm pretty sure he messes up the first line to "Every Breath You Take": maybe I'm wrong, but I think he warbles, "Every breath you make". Hey, it may not sound like much, but a lot of performers would have fixed this error, and I appreciate the appropriate rawness that comes across through the audio.<p><p>Most music DVDs include literally no extras, so it's a pleasant surprise to find a minor addition to this disc. We get 15 minutes and 15 seconds of "backstage footage". This consists of a variety of semi-candid shots of Sting and others involved in the concert as they wait for the show to begin. It also includes a mix of interview snippets, most of which feature Sting's reflections on performing live and touring, but we hear a few lines from other band members and various production personnel as well. It's not exactly revelatory material, but it's a moderately interesting glimpse behind the scenes and it merits a look.<p><p>Ultimately, I recommend Sting: The Brand New Day Tour Live at the Universal Ampitheater just because I remain fond of his work and no other DVD representations of his music appear, but it's not a great program. The concert itself balanced different sides of his career fairly well, but the performance seemed somewhat drab and lifeless. The DVD offers solid though unexceptional picture and sound plus a nice extra. Sting fans will want to own this, but others may be less interested; I don't think it's the kind of video that will make any new devotees to his music.<p>— <b>Colin Jacobson</b> |
| Sting | Brand New Day Tour | Soundtrack from the DVD movie. |
| Sting | All This Time (DVD) | |
| Sting | All This Time | |
| Sting | Inside The Songs Of Sacred Love | |
| Sting | The Songs Of Sacred Love | |
| Sting | Inside The Songs Of Sacred Love (DVD) | |
| Liz Story | Solid Colors | |
| Strange Creek Singers | Strange Creek Singers | <p>This recording of country/folk three-part harmonies will seem a bit accessible to someone familiar with the smooth sound of Alison Krauss. One might also find these recordings spanning 1968 through 1970 full of charm and honesty. Four city kids are unsatisfied with the pop vocal groups and become enamored with the folk revival of the time. This is their worthy attempt to add to that honored body of work. Several bluegrass vocal favorites are treated here. Among them are "Sunny Side of Life" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." While the Strange Creek Singers sometimes outdo themselves technically, their passion and love for their craft makes this album a classic.</p> |
| Igor Stravinsky | Nine Masterpieces | |
| Joe Sun | I Aint Honky Tonkin' No More | |
| Keith Sykes | The Way I Feel | |
| Talking Heads | The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads | <p>Up until 2004, Stop Making Sense was the only easily available live Talking Heads album on compact disc, but it caught the band in the second phase of its career, presenting a polished stage show after having arrived squarely in the mainstream with the success of Speaking in Tongues (their fifth album) and "Burning Down the House" in particular. It was a distinct change. Speaking in Tongues was their first new music in three years and was noticeably upbeat and danceable compared to the dark paranoia of Remain in Light and Fear of Music and the undistilled art-school geekiness of their first two albums. Stop Making Sense captured Talking Heads at the height of their popularity, but not at the height of their power. After all, it was those first four albums that established the band among critics and a fervent semiunderground following. And that's where The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads comes in. It was the perfect summary to the first phase of their career, presenting an LP of material performed by the original quartet (1977-1979) and an LP of material from the Remain in Light tours of 1980 and 1981 (featuring a greatly expanded band lineup). But alas, it languished in the strictly analog domain for more than two decades. In 2004, finally, The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads was made available on compact disc, and it may well have been worth the wait. Each version of the band is still given a disc of its own, but the longer running time of compact discs versus LPs means you're treated to almost double the original number of tracks.</p><p>The first disc, which features the original quartet, is brilliantly expanded with the original LP sequencing completely intact and all the bonus tracks coming between the LP sides (except for "Heaven," the perfect album closer). The sound is crisp and clear, with tight drumming, a great punchy bass sound, and clearly separated guitars that allow you to really hear what complementary (and fine) players David Byrne and Jerry Harrison were. Byrne is the über-geek with a totally unique delivery (especially on tracks like "Who Is It?," "Artists Only," and "Stay Hungry," not to mention his nervous stage announcements), but they all play with the raw energy of a young band on the way up. The bonus tracks are all excellent. There is no sense whatsoever that they were simply padding things for a longer running time, and it's just great hearing live versions of songs like "Mind" (with extended guitar solo), "The Big Country," and "The Book I Read" that have never been readily available in live form. As fantastic as the first disc is, the second one is perhaps even more exciting. The expanded band (ten musicians and two backup singers) is amazing, not only adding power and punch to the Remain in Light material, but in most cases surpassing the studio versions (no mean feat). These live versions of "The Great Curve," "Houses in Motion," and "Crosseyed and Painless (all prominently featuring Adrian Belew) are nearly worth the price of admission alone, but the bonus tracks here are just as exciting. The original release had no overlapping songs on the two LPs, with the large version of the band sticking solely to tunes from Remain in Light and Fear of Music. Now you're treated to arrangements of "Psycho Killer," "Stay Hungry," and "Warning Sign" as performed by the expanded lineup, not to mention live versions of "Animals," "Cities," and "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)."</p><p>The band is on fire throughout the performances, and fans of Belew's guitar playing will practically be giddy with ecstasy. These are some of his finest performances strictly as a guitarist, and although Remain in Light was the only studio album he played on, he beautifully adds his own touches to "Stay Hungry" and especially "Psycho Killer." Byrne also contributes some cool guitar, sometimes using a great delay sound, and again, the clear separation of instruments lets you really hear the details. The producers chose to depart from the album sequencing on this disc, opting to reproduce the entire set list in order instead. It works up until the end, where they move "The Great Curve" from its position at the beginning of side four and make it the album closer. It might be a more exciting song to finish the set, but folks who already know this album expect "Take Me to the River" to be the end, and it's a bit jarring to have the music continue after that (understanding this, the liner notes actually explain how to program the original album sequencing). However, that's a very minor quibble about a re-release that actually manages to vastly improve on an already excellent album. The liner notes also include a number of reviews of T-Heads live shows, and they wisely chose to reproduce all the band photos that originally decorated the inner sleeves as well.The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is not only a vital document of an important, groundbreaking band on its way up, it's one of Talking Heads' best albums, easily surpassing Stop Making Sense. They were a young and hungry band making a name for themselves, pushing the boundaries of pop music and performing with palpable energy. Highly recommended.</p><p>— <strong>Sean Westergaard</strong></p><hr/><p>The liner notes to the long-awaited CD debut of Talking Heads' 1982 live release, The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads, recommends other albums by the New York four-piece. The list includes each of the band's studio albums, plus Rhino's four-disc box set Once in a Lifetime; perhaps conspicuous in its absence is that other live Talking Heads album, the far more popular and legendary Stop Making Sense.</p><p>It may not have been a confrontational omission, but the soundtrack to Jonathan Demme's Talking Heads concert film has long overshadowed The Name of This Band—so much so that fans have long doubted that this earlier (and superior) live album would ever make it to compact disc. Thankfully, however, Rhino has now not only reissued The Name of This Band, but has also taken a cue from the recent "Special Edition" of Stop Making Sense by adding 13 tracks which weren't on the original version.</p><p>Part of the charm and power of Stop Making Sense the film is that it almost purely translates the live experience of a rock show audience rather than the experience of a touring band. There is no backstage fly-on-the-wall stuff, no dressing room preparations, on-the-bus interviews, caterers, hotel clerks or road managers. Rather, it's the snapshot of one live document with the camera playing the role of a punter, trained completely on the band in an attempt to recreate the experience of attending the show. It works so well that it's almost jarring when the camera finally closes in on audience members dancing in the aisles during the show's finale.</p><p>Musically, this approach is a bit limiting. As powerful as Talking Heads were at the time, Stop Making Sense still functions as a live document of one band at one moment in time (well, not technically—the film was actually recorded over three nights). For a group such as this, who paid attention to the musical world around them, deftly and quickly folding outside influences as seemingly disparate as disco, afrobeat, funk and new wave into their already unique sound, The Name of This Band's approach—collecting various live performances over a four-year period—is more revelatory and rewarding. It functions as both a timeline in which a listener can trace the band's development and definitive proof that some of their supposed great departures—particularly an accomplished and complex rhythm section—were there from the onset.</p><p>The result is both the best career-spanning snapshot of and single-purchase introduction to Talking Heads—odd accolades for a live record—and a treat for longtime fans. The record's title refers to band leader David Byrne's dry, cheeky, no-nonsense stage patter in the band's early days, the years documented on the set's first disc. "This song is called 'New Feeling' and that's what it's about," Byrne begins, leading the four-piece group with both his animated, acrobatic vocal tics and affectations and the band's nervous, twitchy music.</p><p>All bugged eyes and neurosis, Byrne spits and churns his way through the best tracks from the band's first three albums. His oft-criticized, stream-of-consciousness language (best illustrated by the "Busy Doin' Nothin'"-like driving directions and matter-of-fact descriptions of the benefits of his apartment building and favorite federal laws in "Don't Worry About the Government") ground the band's more aggressive, robust playing music. At times, Byrne gets a little punchy as well, injecting anger and bemusement into "I'm Not in Love" and adding a bitter tone to "The Big Country", transforming it from the hazy thoughts of an airplane traveler to a more combative rumination on the urban/rural divide. It would be a candidate for the official anthem of the mythical Blue States if the so-called culture wars and other right-wing chicanery continue to drive their regrettable wedge into the country.</p><p>When required, however, Byrne can craft an expressive lyrics, as indicated by the literate detail of tracks such as "Psycho Killer", "Life During Wartime" and "Found a Job". And on an early version of "Electricity (Drugs)"—one of three tracks first released on a rare Warner promo release—the band is sleepy and drony, countering the lyrical claims that "I'm charged up." That track is also one of only three that is repeated on both discs, although on Disc 2, it's in as the more familiar "Drugs (Electricity)".</p><p>The second disc borrows a page from Stop Making Sense's playbook and recreates the entire set from stops along the band's Remain in Light tour, including a handful of tracks from the much-bootlegged February 1981 performance at Tokyo's Nakano Sun Palace. Expanded to a 10-piece band that included Adrian Belew on guitar and Bernie Worrell on keyboards, the bulk of Disc 2's material gives its studio versions a run for the money. Belew's nuanced guitar work, more confident contributions from the core members, and the added rhythmic dimension and heft are frequently jawdropping, but the loose beats and a playful Byrne keep claims of muso nonsense at arm's length.</p><p>The set itself is ordered nearly chronologically, which neatly and accidentally conforms to the logic of the album's running order. Within the set, the band builds the rhythmic density of their tracks, kicking off with a quartet of songs from their first two albums (including second appearances by "Psycho Killer" and "Stay Hungry"), before the funk-influenced "Cities" and African rhythms of "I Zimbra". Those two fractured, beat-heavy and offbeat tracks guide the audience into the final two-thirds of the set, which is mostly built from the polyrhythmic Remain in Light. Along the way, a melodic "Animals"—perhaps the set's weakest track in its studio version—easily surpasses the original, led by a gorgeous harmonic middle section.</p><p>Last week, Rhino also released an 18-track Best of Talking Heads set. Spanning the band's entire 11-year career, it's well-selected considering its considerable limitations and is arguably more inclusive than The Name of This Band, but it is also unnecessary as anything other than a grab bag of familiar radio hits. This live album, on the other hand, is not simply a fans-only document or a curio or a means of padding the discography or exploiting fans. In many ways, it's the best one-stop document of what made Talking Heads one of the post-punk era's most dynamic and urgent bands, and a succinct argument for the merits of synthesizing rock with emerging, potentially oppositional sounds. The latter is a lesson that will hopefully be learned by today's rock artists.</p><p>— <strong>Scott Plagenhoef, Pitchfork</strong></p> |
| Talking Heads | Stop Making Sense | |
| Talking Heads | Little Creatures | |
| Talking Heads | True Stories | |
| Ian Tamblyn | Ian Tamblyn | |
| Tangerene Dream | Phaedra | <p>Phaedra is one of the most important, artistic, and exciting works in the history of electronic music, a brilliant and compelling summation of Tangerine Dream's early avant-space direction balanced with the synthesizer/sequencer technology just beginning to gain a foothold in nonacademic circles. The result is best heard on the 15-minute title track, unparalleled before or since for its depth of sound and vision. Given focus by the arpeggiated trance that drifts in and out of the mix, the track progresses through several passages including a few surprisingly melodic keyboard lines and an assortment of eerie Moog and Mellotron effects, gaseous explosions, and windy sirens. Despite the impending chaos, the track sounds more like a carefully composed classical work than an unrestrained piece of noise. While the title track takes the cake, there are three other excellent tracks on Phaedra. "Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares" is a solo Edgar Froese song that uses some surprisingly emotive and affecting synthesizer washes, and "Movements of a Visionary" is a more experimental piece, using treated voices and whispers to drive its hypnotic arpeggios. Perhaps even more powerful as a musical landmark now than when it was first recorded, Phaedra has proven the test of time.</p><p>—John Bush</p> |
| Bernie Taupin | Taupin | |
| James Taylor | Tailor Made |
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