"Happiness is a good cigar and a good woman...or, a good cigar and a bad woman - it all depends on how much happiness you can handle." - George Burns
...and, ultimately, what makes you happy. Like iron levels in the blood, a little of some things is necessary but too much or none at all can be fatal. With music, it's all about what quantity of any one element makes you happy.
Mike Luno Band's latest CD "Get Inside" was recently reviewed in the Georgia Straight pop culture & current events magazine of Vancouver (Vol 46, No. 2310 - March 29-April 6). To make it clear straight off (pardon the expression), this blog is not to refute, trash, praise or endorse the review - but I do aim to draw attention to one or two of the yardsticks the critic used to evaluate what he heard.
The journalist, Alexander Varty, drew attention to a 'perplexing mix of ambition and lack of focus' for the cd as a whole. A fair cop? Quite possibly. There's a mix of acoustic and electric tunes; elements of rock, funk, reggae, pop, latin, fusion and things difficult to characterize; rockers and ballads; complex and simple. Is there unity to hold it all together, or does it seem like a collection of tunes dressed up to go to completely different and disparate parties? Perhaps that's the rub here...'cause I could also have just described Houses of the Holy.
Certainly with "Get Inside", it's the same drummer throughout, same guitarist playing essentially the same style (or at least in different moods from one common personality), same vocalist and unified approach to bass. The lyrical content is definitely coming from the same wry, mildly ironic, hopelessly hopeful reprobate throughout. Is that enough for a unified collection of songs, and...does it matter?
First, I should provide a disclaimer: call me a dinosaur, but I still believe in the album format. I find it much more interesting to hear an artist produce a dozen songs for one presentation rather than one isolated song at a time. For that reason, I believe in the power of collections of songs that are covered in the same set of fingerprints and carry themes in a common direction. I don't see 'eclectic' as a badge of honour by any means. Still, I dislike even more an album of songs that are too similar. The 'middle ground' might be an album of songs that might vary widely in terms of compositional elements (tempo, chord progressions, melodic style, time signatures) but have commonalities at the core: primarily the sound of each instrument, the lyrical content, the genre (e.g.: don't follow the prog-jazz with a folktune on bagpipe). This may be the crux of disagreement between me and the Straight's critic: my tolerance for diversity might be a little higher than his, for better or worse.
Taking a perennially acknowledged classic album for example like Led Zeppelin's 1971 fourth album (usually referred to unofficially as 'IV', but in fact titled with four runic symbols). This collection of tunes is definitely varied - from grunge-prog to boogie-woogie, California folk to sludgy blues, epic celtic ballads to barnstorming classic rock. The lyrical content goes from the perspective of stoned hippie to wronged lover to medieval storyteller to blues wailer. Sound unified to you? Probably not - and yet it is...at least in my view. Even more varied might be a couple of Beatles classics such as the White Album or Sergent Pepper. Perhaps there's an x-factor involved in maintaining an album's vibe, or maybe that's just the amount of variation I like. Frankly, I'd take any of the albums mentioned above over Rolling Stones' 'Exile on Main Street' any day for the sheer variety - yet I can hear plenty of readers calling me a heretic for suggesting such a thing. I don't respect an extreme amount of variation, but I do need a certain amount - while there are plenty of music lovers, I'm sure, who prefer less variety per album than I do.
In fairness to the critic, he'll have far more objectivity about this than I would, and I have to admit, the tunes on 'Get Inside' have wildly diverse backgrounds. 'Panacea' is twenty years old now, written on a beach in Sooke. 'Heart Beat Up' is less than half that age, musically inspired by Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. 'Everything's For Sale', meanwhile, was inspired by a Curtis Leippi drum groove - and it was very nearly on the Devil You Don't CD of 2003. Admittedly, it's quite a scattered lineage, and perhaps the disunity shows more than I can perceive. Whatever your own tolerance for variety, I can assure you that the next CD in waiting (if we release it as is), 'Come On Come On Come On' , was written in a much narrower time-frame - and the collection of tunes to follow that should all be from within one year. I'd imagine this can't help but tighten up the focus factor for listeners and our gentle critic, but you be the judge...and speaking of which - can you think of any albums that you thought were especially unified - or alternately, too eclectic? Please feel free to sound off. We'd love to hear from you. Meanwhile, I'm off to write a blues dirge in 7/8 time for bagpipe, theremin and comb...One album-long piece. Focused it shall be! Stay tuned! ;)
...and, ultimately, what makes you happy. Like iron levels in the blood, a little of some things is necessary but too much or none at all can be fatal. With music, it's all about what quantity of any one element makes you happy.
Mike Luno Band's latest CD "Get Inside" was recently reviewed in the Georgia Straight pop culture & current events magazine of Vancouver (Vol 46, No. 2310 - March 29-April 6). To make it clear straight off (pardon the expression), this blog is not to refute, trash, praise or endorse the review - but I do aim to draw attention to one or two of the yardsticks the critic used to evaluate what he heard.
The journalist, Alexander Varty, drew attention to a 'perplexing mix of ambition and lack of focus' for the cd as a whole. A fair cop? Quite possibly. There's a mix of acoustic and electric tunes; elements of rock, funk, reggae, pop, latin, fusion and things difficult to characterize; rockers and ballads; complex and simple. Is there unity to hold it all together, or does it seem like a collection of tunes dressed up to go to completely different and disparate parties? Perhaps that's the rub here...'cause I could also have just described Houses of the Holy.
Certainly with "Get Inside", it's the same drummer throughout, same guitarist playing essentially the same style (or at least in different moods from one common personality), same vocalist and unified approach to bass. The lyrical content is definitely coming from the same wry, mildly ironic, hopelessly hopeful reprobate throughout. Is that enough for a unified collection of songs, and...does it matter?
First, I should provide a disclaimer: call me a dinosaur, but I still believe in the album format. I find it much more interesting to hear an artist produce a dozen songs for one presentation rather than one isolated song at a time. For that reason, I believe in the power of collections of songs that are covered in the same set of fingerprints and carry themes in a common direction. I don't see 'eclectic' as a badge of honour by any means. Still, I dislike even more an album of songs that are too similar. The 'middle ground' might be an album of songs that might vary widely in terms of compositional elements (tempo, chord progressions, melodic style, time signatures) but have commonalities at the core: primarily the sound of each instrument, the lyrical content, the genre (e.g.: don't follow the prog-jazz with a folktune on bagpipe). This may be the crux of disagreement between me and the Straight's critic: my tolerance for diversity might be a little higher than his, for better or worse.
Taking a perennially acknowledged classic album for example like Led Zeppelin's 1971 fourth album (usually referred to unofficially as 'IV', but in fact titled with four runic symbols). This collection of tunes is definitely varied - from grunge-prog to boogie-woogie, California folk to sludgy blues, epic celtic ballads to barnstorming classic rock. The lyrical content goes from the perspective of stoned hippie to wronged lover to medieval storyteller to blues wailer. Sound unified to you? Probably not - and yet it is...at least in my view. Even more varied might be a couple of Beatles classics such as the White Album or Sergent Pepper. Perhaps there's an x-factor involved in maintaining an album's vibe, or maybe that's just the amount of variation I like. Frankly, I'd take any of the albums mentioned above over Rolling Stones' 'Exile on Main Street' any day for the sheer variety - yet I can hear plenty of readers calling me a heretic for suggesting such a thing. I don't respect an extreme amount of variation, but I do need a certain amount - while there are plenty of music lovers, I'm sure, who prefer less variety per album than I do.
In fairness to the critic, he'll have far more objectivity about this than I would, and I have to admit, the tunes on 'Get Inside' have wildly diverse backgrounds. 'Panacea' is twenty years old now, written on a beach in Sooke. 'Heart Beat Up' is less than half that age, musically inspired by Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. 'Everything's For Sale', meanwhile, was inspired by a Curtis Leippi drum groove - and it was very nearly on the Devil You Don't CD of 2003. Admittedly, it's quite a scattered lineage, and perhaps the disunity shows more than I can perceive. Whatever your own tolerance for variety, I can assure you that the next CD in waiting (if we release it as is), 'Come On Come On Come On' , was written in a much narrower time-frame - and the collection of tunes to follow that should all be from within one year. I'd imagine this can't help but tighten up the focus factor for listeners and our gentle critic, but you be the judge...and speaking of which - can you think of any albums that you thought were especially unified - or alternately, too eclectic? Please feel free to sound off. We'd love to hear from you. Meanwhile, I'm off to write a blues dirge in 7/8 time for bagpipe, theremin and comb...One album-long piece. Focused it shall be! Stay tuned! ;)