Hype is a terrible thing. So, no, I did not love Dunkirk. SPOILERS (if there can be spoilers for a movie based on a historical event).
Diesel and Dust (1987) by Midnight Oil
My whole life I’ve sort of wondered why “Beds are Burning” was a hit. (It topped our chart when I was 6.) I never liked the song but I never listened to lyrics.
Darklands (1987) by The Jesus and Mary Chain
The UK has a long, weird tradition of hilariously opinionated and antagonistic rock front men who bash other musicians and other people and then make wussy music; the Reids, Morrissey, the Gallaghers. (I’m sure there are many more.) That shouldn’t matter, really, but I find it harder to accept pop music (and poppier rock) on …
Bad (1987) by Michael Jackson
I grew up with “Fat” and have a hard time separating the real song, the title track of this record, from its parody. But I haven’t listened to “Fat” in so long. Listening to Bad for the first time (and to the remaster, no less), I can’t help but wonder, “does “Fat” sound this terrible …
Hysteria (1987) by Def Leppard
I have had a hard time finding this album online; Google Play doesn’t have a license for the early Def Leppard stuff (just their later, better stuff!!) and YouTube is missing a bunch of songs. So I probably shouldn’t review it. But I can and I will.
Music for a New Society (1982) by John Cale
I have read a lot (perhaps too much) about the way this album was made, and the rather drastic change in Cale’s method that was part of the process. Maybe reading about that created an image in my mind that this album does not live up to. If that’s so, it makes me sad.
Upstairs at Eric’s (1982) by Yazoo aka Yaz
As someone is absolutely not a fan of synthpop, this works better, as expected.
The 2017 Wolfe Island Music Festival
After a year’s hiatus, the Wolfe Island Music Festival returned and I resumed my annual pilgrimage to the one and only music festival I go to. I think that, with one major exception, there was a general feeling among our group that this edition was better than the 2015 edition.
A Natural History of Human Morality (2016) by Michael Tomasello
For the vast majority of recorded human history, we humans have believed that morality comes from somewhere outside of us; from “above,” from the ether, from some kind of benevolent creator, etc. Even as we have learned more and more about how humans evolved from apes who evolved from “lower” animals who evolved from “lower” …
My Own Prison (1997) by Creed
I thought this was their big record until I listened to it. It was still (sadly) a pretty big record, but the big hits I was expecting are not here. That means I don’t know these songs. But that doesn’t make it any better.
Be Here Now (1997) by Oasis
The first time I heard this was like a revelation. Who was this band? Even though it’s the same producer, this album sounds so much more “rock” than Morning Glory. I thought I might have finally figured out what everyone else has.
Backstreet Boys (1997, 1998 Re-Issue)
I am listening to this for my podcast. (Well, not exactly this album, but close. I’ll get into that.) But I don’t know what to do with it for a number of reasons. I don’t like pop music like this and I don’t spend time listening to it. Here are some reasons why:
Pacific Ocean Blue (1977) by Dennis Wilson
Full disclosure: I did not want to listen to this. I don’t love The Beach Boys and have generally been annoyed by the Brian Wilson-worship that has bubbled to the surface over the last few decades. Of all the likely listeners of this record, one would expect me to be among the least fair.
Irrlicht (1972) by Klaus Schulze
Learning that this man is the former drummer of Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel sort of puts your expectations in a certain place and, at least for me, that turns out to the wrong place.
Back Stabbers (1972) by O’Jays
What do you do with an album named after a track called “Back Stabbers” when much of the album is about making the world a better place? I don’t know.
Vanilla Fudge (1967)
This is an excellent covers album featuring mostly (but not entirely) fairly radical interpretations of two Beatles songs, a Zombies song, an Impressions song, a Supremes song, a Cher song (made famous by Nancy Sinatra) and a song by artists I’ve never heard of. You must admire these guys for the breadth of these covers, …
United (1967) by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
It’s hard to know what to do with this weird pseudo “duet” album which, in many ways, set standards for duet albums going forward.
The Monuments Men (2014, George Clooney)
This is a reasonably entertaining, but oddly paced and very traditional film that dramatizes the efforts the US went to in order to rescue the art that the Nazis stole in World War II. As far as I can tell, it is very, very, very loosely based on the true story.
Let’s Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste (2007, 2013 Expanded Edition)
Note: I am reviewing the reissue. This is an engaging, thought-provoking and highly readable discussion about taste, what it is, and the philosophical and practical issues inherent in taste.
Confederation Part II: Canadian Pacific Scandal and The Saskatchewan Rebellion (part of The History of the Village of Small Huts) Live at Soulpepper Thursday July 27
We liked Part I of this section of The History of the Village of Small Huts so much that we went back for more.
Fabulosos Calavera (1997) by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
In 1997, I fell in love with Grosse Pointe Blank, the only romantic comedy that was violent enough for my 15 year old soul to feel okay about liking. I liked it so much I went out and bought the soundtrack. (Well, the first soundtrack as there’s a Volume 2 I never purchased.) It was …
The Fat of the Land (1997) by Prodigy
Like everyone on the planet I have heard the three singles more times than I can count. The only reason those tracks don’t sound so dated is because I’ve heard them so much; they were so much a part of my late ’90s high school life even though I didn’t even understand what electronic music …
Danzig III: How the Gods Kill (1992)
I have never heard Danzig before and, to the best of my knowledge, never heard Glenn Danzig before. (Except maybe on some Misfits song, but I think the only version of the band I’ve heard is one without him in it.) And there’s something I am having a hard time shaking, which will likely infuriate …
Scum (1987) by Napalm Death*
Full disclosure: my favourite Grindcore band is Anal Cunt, because they are a joke. Grindcore has always struck me as a joke, or at least something easily turned into a joke, because of the brevity of the songs and the over-the-top nature of the music. But there are and have been tons of grindcore bands …
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016, Edward Zwick)
After watching this sequel, I feel like I should go back and up my rating on the original because, for all its flaws – some seemingly inherent in the source material – the original movie was entertaining as these things go. This one is not. SPOILERS (for this film and the original)
OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 – 2017 by Radiohead
I don’t normally review reissue editions of albums, whether or not I like them. And I wouldn’t review this either only I am going to record a podcast episode about OK Computer shortly and I was advised to listen to the rarities disk. So here goes…
Rogue One (2016, Gareth Edwards)
The problem with science fiction prequels, as I’m always saying, is that they are made with better technology then the ostensible sequels, making them incoherent in terms of technology.
The Existence of God
To the best of our knowledge, the universe is 13,799,000,000 years old, plus or minus 21,000,000 years and, at the very least, 154,000,0000,000 light years wide (though many believe it to be much larger) and, to the best of our knowledge, it took this long to get this big. To the best of our knowledge, …
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016, Bryan Singer)
The stakes got upped a bit in the previous entry and so I must say I was worried about the endless stake-upping occurring in this series, like it does with the Avengers movies. And, to an extent, the stakes are indeed upped passed the point of sanity. The bad guy is a different kind of …
RIP George A. Romero
Apparently Romero died. I was once a pretty big fan of his work. Romero, as I’m sure you know, pretty much invented the “zombie plague” movie. (This is as opposed to the old fashioned zombie movie, where there would be, like, one zombie chasing our heroes.)