Ben Harper - Diamons on the Inside

It's retro album review time again!  This time I'm listening to Ben Harper's 2003 offering, Diamonds on the Inside.

This is a really, really good album.  Just the right mix of blues and funk, each song has the feeling and emotion to evoke something inside of each of us.  The album starts out stronger than it finishes, in my opinion, but that last track makes my heart hurt, it's so sweet and sad.

The title track is just so, so good.  I feel like the past week or so, I just can't get enough of it.  I've always loved this song, and it's what made me pick up the album in the first place so many years ago, but I feel like I'm only just now rediscovering how great the whole album is.  There's something a little gospel-soul-revival about the album at times, and it's great.  But this song!  You just want to crank it up on a sunny day, and smile and sing along.  And maybe sway a little.  Reading Keith Richards' book has had a profound effect on my music tastes and the way that I listen to music lately, and in my hunt for more blues and R&B in my iPod, I put this album on the other day.  Lately, I find that I'm focusing more on the roll and less on the rock (Thanks, Keef).  Some standout songs:

With My Own Two Hands - I've somehow gotten more familiar and comfortable with the Ben Harper/Jack Johnson slow, lullaby-esque duet version of this track, and allowed myself to forget how cool this album version is.  A little reggae rhythm, a little bluesy guitar - it strikes just the right chord.  This totally makes me want to dance, while the slowed down version is such a sweet lullaby.  A good tune overall.

When It's Good - I feel like this is a classic old blues song rather than a BH original, but maybe that just goes to say how good Mr. Harper is.  He's an old soul, I reckon.  Or maybe it is an old song.  I'm not entirely sure.  I just feel like I can hear an older, rougher version of this playing in my head whenever I listen to this song.  The version in my head is playing on vinyl, and was recorded on 8-track or something.  Maybe at Muscle Shoals.  I don't even know - I feel that way about 1/2 of this album, I think.  This is tied with the title track for my favorite on the album.

Brown Eyed Blues - It's killing me that I can't currently think if the classic mo-town song that this reminds me of.  But I can't think of the damn song.  Either way, this song has a great, funky feel to it, and there are some cool riffs in here.  It really does have sort of a cool mo-town feel to it.  

Touch From Your Lust and Temporaty Remedy - Since Keef has me paying more attention to guitar sounds lately, it's worth pointing out how cool the fuzzy guitars on these two tracks sound.  These songs are both a little more rock and have a slightly more modern feel than most of the rest of the album, too.

Bring the Funk -   Ummm, duh - I love the funk. This feels a little like Bushwalla's funk to me.  I guess maybe that's a function of the whole modern funk thing, but I'll just throw it out there again - if you haven't checked out Bushwalla yet, you don't know what you're missing.  If you like Ben Harper, BW will totally do it for you.  Check him out.

So High So Low - I feel like the Black Keys are screaming out of this song at the beginning.  It's just got a really cool, down and dirty sort of feeling to it.  It's a great song, and another one that's a little more rockin than some of the rest of the album.
 

Amen Omen and Blessed to be a Witness - These are nice little tunes, and this is sort of what I mean about the church-y feeling, I guess, is these few soul tracks the album has got going on.  But church-y lyrics or no, get down to the music, and these are pretty cool tunes.  There's a lot going on with Blessed to be a Witness (more than you pick up at first listen, but give it a few trys), and it all comes together really nice.

She's Only Happy in the Sun - So sweet, but also SO sad.  Like I said at the outset, this song makes my heart hurt.  Pay attention to this one, and it'll really rope you in.  Might be my new favorite lullaby.

I like Ben Harper a lot; new and old, and whoever he's playing with, I seem to always be drawn into his stuff.  I've seen him live with DMB once or twice too, and he puts on a great show live.  Either way, this album has been on heavy rotation this past week or so, so I thought I'd throw something out there in support of it.  If you don't have it, check it out.

Tommy Lee Album Review

It's time for nostalgic album review day again!
I sometimes enjoy reviewing random albums I like that have been around for a while, but never get old. 

Today it's Tommy Lee's 2005 solo venture, Tommyland: The Ride.

Blame today's nostalgic review on the fact that this morning I woke prematurely from a dream involving Tommy Lee and later found that the song "Makin' Me Crazy" from this album was stuck in my head.  For that reason, I have been listening to this album and Motley Crue all morning.  The reality is that I bought this album the week it was released, in August of 2005, and I've been listening to it in fairly heavy rotation since then, and it doesn't get old.  The only track I ever hit skip on is a skit called "The Butler," which is just a little dialogue from some British dude.  It's funny enough, and shows a little of Tommy's sense of humor, but it's really just unnecessary.  Other than a less-than-desirable skit, though, the album is well-written, well-performed, and well-produced.  I love it.  Tommy is working on a new Methods of Mayhem album right now over on ThePublic Record.com.  It's a fascinating venture to me, and I urge you to clicky the linky and go check it out.  My curiosity is totally piqued, and I'm excited for the album to drop.  I love the other Methods album - yes that's right, I love it.

Back to Tommyland - I'm the first to admit that Tommy's singing voice isn't amazing by traditional lead-singer standards - that's why he's a drummer, not a lead singer - but the man can sing, and for what it's worth, I love his singing voice.  Honestly, I've had a celebrity crush on Tommy Lee for years; I could listen to him sing or talk all day long, so maybe you should take this review with a grain of salt, but I swear I know what I'm talking about here.  All of that aside, he has a lot of vocal help on this album, from bigger names like Joel Madden (Good Charlotte) and Chad Kroeger (Nickleback) to lesser-knowns like Andrew McMahon (Jack’s Manequin) and Dirty Harry (it's a chick, and I had never heard of her, either), and it all just works so well. The whole thing, beginning to end, is great.  In fact, my biggest criticism is probably that the two versions of "Hello Again" (original album version, and acoustic bonus track) are too close together when you listen to it on repeat, with only the lead track "Good Times" in between.

THE HIGHLIGHTS:

Good Times - This song reminds me of chillin outside with a beer, bare feet and jeans on a breezy summer afternoon.  Or driving to the beach barefoot with the windows open in the summer.  It's just that kind of song, and one of the best on the album.

Tryin' to Be Me - I agree with Good Charlotte on this one: if celebrities want to bitch about being famous, I will gladly take care of their houses and money and cars for them, and they don’t have to be famous anymore. You asked for it, buddy. That aside, I do sometimes think the paparazzi go too far with celebs who don’t thrust themselves into it and honestly just try to live a normal life. I digress . . . this song is fun and catchy, despite the mild whiny bitch feeling of the lyrics.  Chad Kroeger handles the vocals, and it's a perfect fit and a great complement to Nickleback's "Rock Star."

Tired – Another best of on this all around great album. Joel Madden was a great choice to sing the chorus of this angsty, upbeat tune. It totally reminds me of GC, actually – think Anthem or Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous – sort of angsty and angry, but upbeat and catchy at the same time.

Hello Again (especially the acoustic bonus track), Make Believe, and I Need You are all just beautiful songs.

Makin Me Crazy - I think it's the almost frantic chorus of this song that gets me, I'm not sure.  There's just something about this song though.  I wouldn't say it's one of the best on the album, but I think it's my personal favorite.  Maybe it's Tommy's background vocal on the chorus, because that kind of gives me chills a little bit, but so does the ethereal music in the intro and opening verse.  Sometimes on other songs, Tommy's singing voice almost sounds strained, like he's trying too hard, but this background vocal sounds so comfortable, and I love the way it complements Dirty Harry's rough-but-feminine lead vocal.  I don't know, but this song gets stuck in my head for days at a time.

This is a go-to album for me, and has been since the day I got it. 

If you like good rock n roll, it should be for you too.

David Cook review

No, this is not a new David Cook album - this is the one that came out in November 2008.  First, I can't believe it was that long ago.  Second, I don't do a lot of album reviews, so why pick this one, right?  The answer is that it's a good album, I'm listening to it today, and in honor of the new season of American Idol starting last night.  This is very much not the kind of album I'd generally pick to review, but it's on my mind.

When David Cook was on AI, it was one of those few seasons that I actually watched all the way through.  Usually, I watch some of the silly audition stuff right at the beginning, more because I'm excited that it's back on than because I really want to see it, though.  That excitement always dwindles before Hollywood week even rolls around, usually, and I get tired of the joke singers that they put on the auditions just to make America laugh.  (I've come to think that many of them are actors that Fox is paying to sing badly on national television just to boost ratings that first week and spur YouTube sensations, but maybe that's just the conspiracy theorist in me.)  Anyhoo - My interest usually sparks again when there's between 7 and 4 people left on the show, because then at least I know they can sing.  But there have been 2 or 3 seasons that I've actually watched beginning to end, and have felt some stake in the outcome (though I've never voted).  Cook's season was one of them, and I had my money on him from day one.  Say what you will, but the kid can sing, and I've always liked that he wasn't a fit-the-mold pop star.

I was understandably excited and interested when his solo album dropped, and I wasn't disappointed.  I've liked the album, every song, beginning to end, since the day I downloaded it.  It wasn't until this past October, almost a full year after first hearing it, that I realized exactly why I like this album so much.  I'm an aspiring writer, and every November I participate in an online writing challenge called NaNoWriMo.  Which means that I spend much of October getting ready for that challenge.  "Getting ready to write" for me includes not only the standard plot outlining and character development exercises, but also picking the playlist that is going to score my hours and hours of banging away at a keyboard.  As I was doing that, and I listened to this album with my 2009 NaNoWriMo novel in mind, it hit me just how emotional the album is.  Damn.  Kid can sing?  Kid can sing in a way that can make you feel it, make you sit up and pay attention, even though a lot of the music on the album comes across at first glance as little more than good radio background.

Cook had a lot of help writing the songs on the album, from a lot of great songwriters, and it shows, but he didn't have any help in belting them out.  On every track on this album, the lyrics, the music, and Cook's voice come together with such emotion, you can't help but be impressed.  From love to loss to sadness to joy to hope, the range of emotions is seemingly endless, as is Cook's capacity to represent them with his voice.  This is very much a pop-rock album, don't get me wrong.  It's very mainstream and very accessible, and very radio-ready.  No kidding, every single track could be on the radio tomorrow, and most of them would immediately be played to death by most top-40 stations.  Like I said, at first listen it's a decent album, but the music doesn't stand out as anything more than radio background.  Doesn't mean it's not a valuable album.  In that way, I question what Cook could've done without the "AI Winner" badge hanging over his head.  I think any album that comes out of an AI winner is to some extent a dilution of what they might truly be capable of in order to appeal to the masses.  I think of some of the people I know who watch AI religiously, and then imagine how the powers that be try to package the winner in a way that will make each and every one of those people want to buy the winner's albums, and to me that's representative of everything that's wrong with the record industry and the major labels on the whole.  But I digress . . .

Specifics: "Bar-ba-sol" and "Declaration" are my favorite tracks on the album because they rock just a little more than the rest.  "Bar-ba-sol" has an almost funky feeling to it, and I think that's what draws me to it over some other tracks.  "Light On" was the first big single, and I like it almost as much.  The AI winner song, "Time of My Life," doesn't fit, IMO.  I don't think it's really him, and I don't think it's an accurate reflection of his style or what he's capable of.  That said, it's not a bad song, except for that garbage lyric about rainbows.  "Permanent" is a beautiful, beautiful ballad about the temporary nature of life and love, and another of my favorites on the album.  Overall, the album is so accessible, I think there's something for everyone, but more importantly, since this is my blog after all, I like it, and I recommend it.