DEVO – Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology

Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology

DEVO – Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology Rhino R2 75967 (2000)

Well, Pioneers Who Got Scalped is a real mixed bag.  Disc one starts out great, but listening to disc two is a real chore.  In their early days, DEVO had sharp songwriting skills and a clever, absurdist sense of humor.  People call them a punk band, but I see them more as a disco band strongly influenced by punk rock–not that those genre distinctions really matter.  The band’s earliest recordings that open disc one satirize popular culture, often by way of clever new arrangements of well-known pop songs that frequently deploy mechanized, angular rhythms.  However, all that didn’t last.  By disc two, though it is apparent towards the end of disc one as well, the band just ran out of ideas.  Their recordings were still well-crafted but their songwriting became confined to unremarkably generic 1980s synth-pop, their sense of humor common.  I suppose it becomes difficult to skewer pop culture the more you become a part of mainstream pop culture.  And looking back it is hard to see DEVO as anything but a part of mainstream pop culture, from “Whip It” onward at least.

The Blind Boys of Alabama – Atom Bomb

Atom Bomb

The Blind Boys of Alabama – Atom Bomb Real World 6 19225 2 (2005)

A really fine album from a group that had existed more than 65 years (!) when this was released.  Breaking it down mathematically, you’ll be hard pressed to find many veteran groups that have made an album half this good after being around a mere one-sixth as long.  I watched the Boys perform on The Tonight Show promoting this album, and Jimmy Carter did a little showman’s trick and held a note for about a full minute (using circular breathing), wowing the crowd.

Blind Boys of Alabama – Take the High Road

Take the High Road

Blind Boys of Alabama – Take the High Road Saguaro Road 26393-D (2011)

So, The Blind Boys (of Alabama) have been offering a pretty steady number of new albums, despite members being quite advanced in age.  It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to note that these recent albums have made liberal use of marketing gimmicks.  An album of pop covers–check!  Christmas album with guest spots–check!  An album recorded in New Orleans with brass bands–check!  So, here they’re at it again, this time it’s all about guest spots.  Those kinds of albums are usually quite dull, and this one is too.

Pharrell Williams – G I R L

G I R L

Pharrell Williams – G I R L Columbia 88843 05507 2 (2014)

Renowned music producer Pharrell Williams has been one of the most identifiable voices of American pop music in the preceding decade or so.  Recording as a solo artist, though, something is lacking most of the time.  The hit single “Happy” is here, and it is about 100 times better than anything else on G I R L.  It takes the positive energy of OutKast‘s “Hey Ya!” and applies a more laid-back vibe.  The thing is that happiness is for idiots.  The way Pharrell sings about it, the concept is nothing more than jouissance, that is, a death drive for excess enjoyment beyond simple plaisir (pleasure), which in the end leads to pain.  Or at least, so says psychoanalysis.  The rest of the songs have lame lyrics, and a tentative delivery that lacks music commitment from Pharrell.  The backing music is fine.  It isn’t innovative.  This guy has been doing this stuff for a decade.  But most feel like only sketches of songs not fully developed.  All together, it hardly gets beyond the hit single.  Pass on this, and stick just with “Happy.”

David Bowie – David Bowie [Space Oddity]

David Bowie

David Bowie – David Bowie Philips SBL 7912 (1969)

David Bowie’s career underwent something of a sea change between his debut and his sophomore album — curiously, both self-titled.  On the debut, he charted a path firmly in line with prim and proper British folk pop, albeit with an intelligent wit and alacrity.  For this, his second album, he switches sides and turns toward the counter-culture (just look at the changes in hairstyles on the album covers!), with a far more modern sound rooted in the folk-rock of Donovan and the like.  Yet this album is listenable only about once, with lots of stilted, half-formed songs and rather under-developed performances.  The hints of pure rock on “Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed” and elsewhere proved to be the way forward for Bowie.  He would go further in that direction with his next effort, The Man Who Sold the World.

David Bowie – David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie – David Bowie Deram SML 1007 (1967)

A period piece, for sure.  But with its naïve, playful, tame approach to poppy British (very British) folk, it has a certain amount of charm.  These days, most listeners are Bowie fanatics wanting to puzzle at how his sophisticated sensibility can just barely peek out from behind this seemly impenetrable shell of conformist pop music.

Brandi Carlile – Bear Creek

Bear Creek

Brandi Carlile – Bear Creek Columbia 88691 96122 2 (2012)

This album is all over the place.  At least she got through the checklist of styles drawn up before recording this…  A good part of it resides in the same indie/alt-country territory as the likes of Neko Case and Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins. But it also swings over to the realm of synthetic indie pop a bit like Metric.  Oh, and more than that.  Her vocals have the same white girl singing like a black gospel/soul singer vibe that Amy Winehouse, Adele (whatever her last name is), Elton John and others have used.  “That Wasn’t Me” is the minor hit, and it’s good.  “Save Part of Yourself” works well too.  But much of this seems unable to offer anything on its own, instead burdened with having to cover as much territory as possible.  The biggest liability is how this was recorded, in a way that takes the edges out and remains non-committal.  Carlile might have some potential if a great producer took her in and guided her to stronger material and a sound of her own.

The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger (2013)

Walt Disney Pictures

Director: Gore Verbinski

Main Cast: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, William Fichtner

The Lone Ranger is a bit like taking every western movie you can think of and throwing it in a blender.  All the little tried and true formulae are called up.  The Searchers, Man of the West, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and especially Rango…  Even when this film is trying to steal from the best, it is done in the most ham-fisted way possible.  Granted, the costumes and such are great.  Still, the less said about this terrible film the better.