Tim Brough's Black Leather Bookshelf

Oh So Toto
3 Out of 5 Stars

Toto is one of those bands only the late 70's could have produced. Studio cats one and all (they made their bones backing Steely Dan and Boz Scaggs, among others), they were slick, skilled and polished professionals. They made music that was slick, polished, and just as professional. They meshed hooky rock with R'n'B styles, and when they finally hooked up with CBS Records, "Hold The Line" shot to the top five almost instantly. Over the course of seven albums for Columbia and a few since for the CBS Legacy subsidiary, they've made a bevy of hits and walked off with a few Grammys.

The Band's prime was the first four albums, culminating in "Toto IV." Apart from "Hold The Line," it was this album that made the band radio favorites. The singles "Africa" and "Rosanna" are the calling cards from that period, with the songs "Make Believe" and "I Won't Hold You Back" also scoring. By then, though, the band was beginning to splinter. There was a new vocalist for the album "Isolation," and the two singles from that album ("Stranger In Town" and "Holyanna") are left off this compilation. Toto then recruited Joe Williams, the son of John Williams, and scored another pair of hits with "I Won't Hold You Back" and "Pamela." (From the albums "Fahrenheit" and "The Seventh One," respectively.) If a song called "Pamela" would make you think of "Rosanna" (or even "Holyanna), you're right. It's little more than a re-write of the band's biggest hit.

There are three other songs from the albums after; you probably don't need them. Given that the albums "Turn Back" and "Isolation" are ignored for this set, the three later-day songs could have been replaced with selections from two earlier albums, or even an extra selection from "Hydra," the band's most progressive sounding album. ("99" is here, though.) I have also never been fond of "Georgy Porgy," which sounds like a song Boz Scaggs laughed off from "Silk Degrees." These omissions drag this "Essential" collection down to a C Grade/3 Star rating.

My Brain Hurts 
3 Out of 5 Stars  

 

"Hemispheres" was the final album in Rush's epic period, which comprised "2112," "A Farewell To Kings" and then this album. Made up of a mere four songs, one of which is the tremendous virtuoso instrumental "La Villa Strangito, the band was still playing their convincing hard rock/prog rock hybrid, but the themes were beginning to wear thin. Neal Peart's allegorical lyrics had begun to repeat themselves to a point where accepting something like "The Trees" was getting to be a difficult proposition.  

In fact, the album's main premise almost felt like an inside joke. Rush? Aren't they the Canadian band that has all those intellectual songs? Why, yes, and they just titled their new album after the two halves of the brain! And that astronaut who gut sucked into the black hole on "A Farewell to Kings?" He's back and he's found the secret to bring eternal peace to all those Greek Gods hanging out on the top of Mount Olympus. When I was a college freshman in 1978, this was pretty heavy stuff. Some thirty plus years later, it just sounds dippy.  

What you still get from "Hemispheres" is just how incredible Rush is as a band. Between Neal Peart's one-of-a-kind drumming, Alex Lifeson's blindingly sharp guitar and Geddy Lee's keening voice, these guys played their rock like no other band. Both "The Trees" and "Circumstances" worked the traditional verse-chorus writing (well, almost) structure as a near preview of what would appear on their next album, the superior "Permanent Waves" and explode into brilliance on "Moving Pictures." 

 

 

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Nice, Nice, Very Nice
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Ambrosia started life as a prog-rock band with classical leanings, and art-intellectual enough to make a chorus of one of their better songs a lift from a Kurt Vonnegut novel. Then they even gave the author a composer's credit on said song ("Nice Nice Very Nice"), for which Vonnegut sends the band a delightful thank you note, which is reproduced in the CD booklet. Their second album, "Somewhere I've Never Traveled," was produced by legend Alan Parsons and was nominated for an engineering Grammy. The album cover was even designed to fold into an elaborate pyramid. By their third album, "Life Beyond LA," Ambrosia had jettisoned the overtly prog-arty portion of their sound, tightened up their sound considerably, lost founding member Chris North, and hit on the formula for massive mainstream success.

"Life Beyond LA" also found singer David Pack breaking ranks with the band's old style and writing the pop ballad "How Much I Feel." It was totally unlike anything the group had recorded to that date and pushed pack to the front of the band. What is most interesting is how the tightened sound on "Life Beyond LA" seemed to be edging Ambrosia more towards the enigmatic feel of Steely Dan, with both the title track and "Angola" from this collection highlighting this move. Still, a number three pop ballad will tend to make a band feel cornered, which is what happened next.

When the album "One Eighty" appeared, Ambrosia appeared on the cover in a very stylized group photo, and the first single was yet another soft-pop ballad. "The Biggest Part of Me" hit number two on Billboard and the follow-up, "Your The Only Woman" reached the top twenty. Chris North had returned to the band, but Ambrosia was now firmly entrenched in the kind of soulful pop The Doobie Brothers were making. It's not by accident that Michael McDonald and David Pack had become friends in this time (and the two bands toured together); Pack and McDonald sing together on "I Just Can't Let Go," a bonus track on this anthology.

Back to their original four-man line up, Ambrosia tried to break out of this box by recording the harder rocking "Road Island." Along with a cover by the always demented Ralph Steadman (of "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas" fame), and is a significant move back toward rocking. "Still Not Satisfied" is the sole song from that album included and this time bassist Joe Puerta sings the lead. (It should be noted that Joe often took lead on Ambrosia songs and the band has always had excellent harmonies). However, by now the public that had pegged the band as pop-stars found something as solid as "Kid No More" (my favorite song from "Road Island" and not included here) too heavy for their interests. "Road Island" flopped and Ambrosia parted ways soon after.

There are three bonus tracks here, the newly recorded "Mama Don't Understand" and "Sky Is Falling" along with the remixed and somewhat re-recorded "I Just Can't Let Go," which originally appeared on David Pack's lone solo album. The band again sounds like they've taken league with latter day Doobie Brothers on these, and they are good tracks. Pack has distinguished himself as both vocalist and producer, while Joe Puerta became the bassist for Bruce Hornsby and The Range. And while they may never create anything as cinematicaly ambitious as "Cowboy Star" or as soulful as "How Much I Feel" again, this collection of songs shows Ambrosia to be a great band that didn't get the creative credit they deserved in their prime.

Nice Roger Dean Cover
3 Out Of 5 Stars

One of the more oddball shotgun marriages in musical history was Asia, a "supergroup" comprised of one ELP member (drummer Carl Palmer), one Crimson King (vocalist/bass John Wetton), a YesMan (guitarist Steve Howe) and a Buggle (keyboardist Geoff Downes). With that kind of pedigree, you would expect long, self-indulgent soloing and piles of classically inspired virtuosity. Surprisingly, none of that appeared on their Geffen debut in 1982.

Instead, you got straight ahead arena rock with strong melodies and eager to please hooks on about half of the album. Yes, the album was stunningly well produced and played with verve, but these men were most certainly no pop-musicians. Downes might have been, considering the meager output of The Buggles, however it seems the man who wrote "Video Killed The Radio Star" really longed to write "Starship Trooper." He and Wetton co-wrote the bulk of the songs here, and while there's plenty of soloing going on, it's economical. (Which was the alleged reason Howe left after two albums, he wanted more.)

Again, though, these men are not pop writers. Which means that half the songs on "Asia" are utterly awful, long forgotten in the ongiong classic rock play for "Heat Of The Moment," "Only Time Will Tell" and "Wildest Dreams." Palmer gets to wail away on the drums during "Wildest Dreams," while it is Downes' keyboards that make the album sound like the band didn't just drop in from the seventies. That didn't stop "Asia" from hitting number one and getting a lot of pretentious "serious music" snobs to cream themselves over what they considered a rabbit punch to new wave. (Or critics from mocking the band for sounding like throwbacks IN the peak of new wave.)

Either way, Asia had the last laugh. Some 40 years later, the good stuff on the disc sounds cool, but that means you're probably just as well off with Asia Gold - which at least has a more up-to-date track mastering - than just buying this one.

That is, unfortunately, the highlight. "Stop for a Minute" is one of two featuring rapper K'Naan, and it's an average song. It sounds like a leftover from "Perfect Symmetry." The other K'Nann contribution is "Looking Back," which rips off the theme from "Rocky." I kid you not. Dreadful. There's a third experiment with Tigarah, "You've Got to Help Yourself," which is the best of the collaborative efforts. She sings in Japanese, and the song itself is an inspired cover choice from the Yellow Magic Orchestra. For that, I give the band serious props.

One more song here merits purchase, the closing "My Shadow." It's the kind of dreamy piano pop that made fans fall in love with Keane in the first place. There's a part of me that wishes that Keane would go back to that "Under The Iron Sea" sound, but this EP and "Perfect Symmetry" have seen the band move more towards mainstream pop. I have posited a few times that, as new bands go, if Muse is the new century equivalent of Queen as Police power trio, Keane is Hall and Oates as filtered through Coldplay. Nice influences, but Muse seems to have transcended their, while Keane is still trying to figure out how. "Night Train" offers a half-hour holding pattern from a band that may still achieve brilliance.

They had absorbed the current influences of the times and become even stronger for it. It's hard not to discern the influence of The Police on "New World Man," for instance. While following albums each have their moments (and they're all here, especially "Subdivisions" and "Time Stand Still"), Rush never hit that level again. They remain one of rock's virtuoso bands and still make superb albums, however this best of stops in 1987. It's a good sampler; those who want more could do better with Gold.

Rapping and Ranting with Rundgren
3 Out of 5 Stars

In the early 90's, the ever inventive Todd Rundgren took a stab at a new technology, the Interactive Musical CD. Rechristening himself TR-I, the unique "No World Order" appeared. While the original CD-I's were playable in a now obsolete format/technology, the CD's themselves are still available - and cheap, too - for play on a standard CD player.

This is one of Todd's oddest recordings. Comprised of 10 songs that are fractured into snippets across "No World Order's" duration, the album is all Todd playing all the music. He cross-cuts bridges, lyrics and choruses from each song (plus a quick drop-in from "The Twilight Zone" and a sample pulled over from his own "A Capella"), bouncing from one theme to another. Instead of the lyrical exercise of writing lyrics, cutting them apart and reassembling them at random, Todd did the same to his musical fragments. It makes for a very interesting cycle.

There are some superb individual songs here, with Todd singing (or more often, rapping) over the synthesized beats. This also perhaps Todd's angriest album, with the scathing "Fascist Christ" mincing no words when it comes to religious fundamentalists and "World Wide Epiphany" encouraging his listeners to "send a message to the government, pack it in cement." But it wouldn't be a complete Todd album without that one soul searching ballad, and on "NWO," it's "Time Stood Still."

That is the odd song out here, with rapid-fire rants like "Day Job" setting the primary tone of the CD. Todd kept the TR-I moniker for two more releases, "The Individualist" and a remixed soft-sounding version of this album called "No World Order Lite." This original "No World Order" remains as a testament to Todd's ongoing fascination with new technologies and his constant ability to leap from style to style at will.

Sublimely Live
4 out of 5 Stars

There are two variants of Roxy Music. There was the original band, beautifully chaotic and artful. Then there was the second Roxy, silky and sublimely arty. "Heart Still Beating" captures the second version of Roxy Music, recorded on the tour supporting their masterpiece, "Avalon."

By now, it could be argued that Roxy Music had just become a vehicle for Brian Ferry and friends to recreate the elaborate and dreamy sounds that had evolved from the albums "Manifesto" on, and you'd have a valid argument. Even more so that Ferry pulled the plug on Roxy as a band and went solo after this tour was done.

What you'd miss is just how beautifully performed this version of Roxy was on stage. Sure, there's nothing here as giddy as "Virginia Plain," but that Roxy wasn't writing something as gorgeous as "While My Heart Is Still Beating." A pair of non-Roxy/Ferry songs are included; the band's cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" (a major hit in Europe) and Bob Dylan's "Like A Hurricane." I have always marveled at how Ferry could sink his teeth into a great song and ultimately Roxify it, and these two exemplify that trait. A few old favorites do show up, including "Love Is The Drug" and "Song For Europe," which made me happy. Also noteworthy, the sound is immaculate. But if you are still in need of the wild Roxy, that's OK. The brilliant "Viva! Roxy Music" is still available.

4.5 on the Californication Fault Lines
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Starting off with squalling guitars and Anthony Keidis letting loose a banshee wail, he soon launches into the first verse. Belting out "Romping and stomping 'cause I'm in my prime" with the band in full bore behind him, you can tell that, this time, they mean it. "Californiacation" was the sound of a band that was now mature but not mellowed.

John Frusciante, who'd left the band for the "One Hot Minute" album, had cleaned up and returned to the fold, and his presence is immediately felt. RHCP are in lock-step with their punk-funk rock and roll heyday, and Frusciante is the guitar gasoline to Flea and Chad Smith's bass and drum spark-plugs. "Around The World," "Get On Top" and "I Like Dirt" pound like the band's best, while "Otherside," "Emit Remmus" and the title track boast mature songwriting.

The apex of the band's new growth comes at the end of the album. Comprised mostly of Frusciante's acoustic guitar and an unusually soulful vocal by Keidis, "Road Trippin'" is smooth and clean, a statement that not only applied to the music, but to the players themselves. Like "Knock Me Down," "Under The Bridge" and Californication's "Scar Tissue," "Road Trippin'" contemplates the RHCP past while making good on a future of creativity.

I played this song over and over at the end of 1999, because it made me think that the path to the new century might be a bright one. For the Peppers, it was a way to say goodbye to a decade with one of their best albums.

And again, like "Kid A," "Amnesia" struggles to maintain the level of quality before ultimately puttering out. "Hunting Bears" is the biggest offender here, although it seemed to be included just to give guitarist Johnny Greenwood a chance to finally play. All is forgiven by the delirious brass band that closes out "Life In A Glass House." The horns that careened drunkenly on "Kid A's" "National Anthem" have sobered up enough to deliver an emotional wallop as Radiohead's dual-album experiment draws to a conclusion. In another two years, Yorke would return the guitars to the front of the band with "Hail To The Thief," and return Radiohead to rock and roll.