Shuffle Sunday [The Beatles - Roll Over Beethoven (Live at the BBC)]

This weeks shuffle session brought us to the song "Roll Over Beethoven" performed by none other than good ol' John, Paul, George and Ringo. This track is a little different than the classic found on The Beatles' second studio album With the Beatles in that it was actually recorded live in the BBC studios. The track was later released on The Beatles' BBC studio compilation Live at the BBC in 1994. Live at the BBC is a large collection of songs recorded at the BBC by the band between 1963 and 1965. The album is an excellent collection of songs that are fully unedited and presented in their original recorded forms. Listening to this album through gives the listener a great understanding for who The Beatles were as a band during their down-to-earth pop days before they became mainstream and experimental.

But this review isn't about the album the song is found on, so let's go on and talk about this recording of "Roll Over Beethoven." Although it is probably best known as being played by The Beatles, the song was actually originally written by Chuck Berry in 1956. The song has gone down in history as the definition of rock 'n' roll. Although on the surface it seems like just another catchy rock tune, the songs lyrics hold many meaningful references to the rise of the rock 'n' roll scene throughout the 40s and 50s.

The song's lyrics reference many rock legends that were inspiration to Chuck Berry. The verse "Well, early in the mornin' I'm a-givin' you a warnin' / Don't you step on my blue suede shoes" is a direct reference to both Louis Jordan's "Early in the Mornin'" and Carl Perkins's rockabilly hit "Blue Suede Shoes." Outside it's excellent musical references, the song is filled with great lyrics that really show the impact rock 'n' roll had on the music scene through the 50s.

Since its release by Berry, the song has been a popular rock cover song, recorded by many bands such as The Rolling Stones, Electric Light Orchestra, The Byrds and even Iron Maiden. Each band makes their own tweaks to the original song and makes it their own which has made the song age well and keep with the times. It isn't a surprise that Rolling Stone magazine rated it as one of the top 500 songs of all time.

The Beatles performance of the song on Live at the BBC is pretty comparable to its LP counterpart, but is slightly better in my opinion because it holds that genuine quality. It's similar to the difference between seeing a band live as opposed to just listening to their album at home. You really get a sense of the song being performed on the spot, in the studio, with little preparation time, which in and of itself is excellent. It represents a true performance of one of the band's favorite songs and the love that they had playing it.

Every song on the compilation holds that same power and meaning and listening to it makes for a great experience. I definitely recommend the album Live at the BBC to any Beatles fans, but if you just sort of like the band and aren't exactly into them for their history and impact, than you could definitely get away with leaving this one alone.

I couldn't find the mp3 anywhere for free, but you can hear the recording from the album in this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADlAj-p5VZ4

Ben Folds - Way to Normal

Being one of the first artists I ever saw perform live, I’ve always had a special liking for Ben Folds. The songs he wrote were clever, fun and instrumentally inclined, yet at the same time he would compose songs that could both warm the soul and pull at the listener’s heartstrings. Keep in mind that I am purposely speaking in past tense because I truly believe that Ben Folds has lost his edge.

Anyone who has listened to Ben Folds knows that he’s never afraid to mix a little humor into his lyrics. Whether it’s by adding an awkward swear word amidst calming verses or simply singing of narcolepsy and shut out hippies, Folds had developed a whole new way of writing music. This formula worked great throughout his early albums, but as the years go by, the Ben Folds element has become waterlogged.

Way to Normal is an album that follows the same few concepts as all of Folds’s previous works: humor and failed romances. Unfortunately, this time around, the humor is incredibly over done and the romance is dry and impersonal. Many of the songs on the album have great potential but were stained by Folds poor lyrical commitment. Songs about free coffee, an enraged basketball slicing girlfriend and a pun worthy city in Illinois, leave you wondering what drugs Folds was on when coming up with this stuff.

As far as the romance is concerned, you can only write so many songs about the same failed relationships before the listeners begin to see it as whiny deserved bullshit, worthy of going in one ear and out the other. Although I do have to give Folds credit for the songs “You Don’t Know Me” and “Errant Dog” in which he sings of himself as being no more than an errant bitch in every relationship he’s been through. It had to of been tough putting himself down after all those songs that left the girl in the dust.

I can’t say that the entire album is terrible because it does have its strong points. “Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head)” is an excellent introduction to the album and an experiment in instrumental minimalism. Also, the albums lone single “You Don’t Know Me” is hands down Way to Normal’s best track but this is undeniably because of the Regina Specktor feature. “Cologne” is a mark of musical genius, yet was unfortunately ruined by Folds ridiculous lyrical input about astronauts wearing diapers. “Bitch Went Nutz” is also an instrumental gem plagued by impersonal storytelling and the same lyrical follies found throughout the album. The entire albums piano compositions are pretty damn good but unfortunately you just can’t listen to the album and overlook words that are on top of it all. Way to Normal definitely shows that Folds has not lost his piano rock roots, but merely a few screws from his head.

As the years go by and Ben Folds continues to write music all we can hope is that he somehow finds it in himself to reject all this non-sensical writing and compose another Whatever and Ever Amen.

You can check out the album for free here:

http://free.napster.com/view/album/index.html?id=12945238

Shuffle...Tuesday? [Ben Folds - Learn To Live With What You Are]

Firstly, let me apologize for being behind in my posting of the inaugural Shuffle Sunday, but as most of you know it was Memorial Day weekend. I was away from Internet access and spending my weekend with my wonderful girlfriend and her parents at their cottage in northern Wisconsin. But now that I am done with my excellent vacation weekend and heading closer to reality again, on with the reviews!

I was very surprised by what happened when I hit my shuffle button for this first shuffle review, but at the same time I totally saw it coming. The song that popped up, just so happens to be by the same artist that I plan to review come Wednesday. The song is "Learn To Live With What You Are" by Ben Folds.

This song comes from what I believe to be the pinnacle of Ben Folds career so far. The album Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The LP, is a compilation of songs from strictly Internet released EPs. The twelve songs that make up the album work incredibly well together, both illuminating Folds's musical ability and cleverly backing it up with his cleverly placed immaturity that Folds fans love so much.

"Learn To Live With What You Are" is a well constructed piano rock ballad using simple chord progressions backed by a beautiful string section (not included in the original sunny 16 EP recording) and led by some of Folds's best love folly lyrical guidance to date such as "And I'm not saying that the effort is a waste of time, but I/Just love you for the things you couldn't change, though you've tried."

In the end, the song is definitely one of my favorite piano ballads by Folds and the LP it comes from gets my recommendation as being one Ben Folds's best. On Wednesday I'll open up discussion for another of Ben Folds albums which may need to be looked at in a different light.

Check out the song (Track 5) here:
http://free.napster.com/view/album/index.html?id=12285406


Also, here is a link to the album I reviewed last week, The Head on the Door by The Cure:
http://free.napster.com/view/album/index.html?id=12856474

The Cure - The Head on the Door

It took me a while to decide what kind of review I wanted to do for this first post. I mean, it’s sort of a landmark, isn’t it? Anyways, I came to the conclusion that I should make this review one with some sort of meaning to me. So I decided to review an album that I consistently refer to as one of my “top ten favorite albums of all time.”

The Cure has always held a special place in my heart, and the reasons for that are endless, but there is one reason that tops them all. Many bands of the varying alt-rock genre write most of their songs in a similar fashion, but one runs into a problem when trying to classify The Cure’s musical style. From experimental industrial type songs like “One Hundred Years” to bubblegum pop songs like “Mint Car,” The Cure does it all.

The Cure has a tendency of experimenting with styles from album to album, such as Disintegration, which revolves around an overall deep gothic rock sound, and Faith, which revolves around a more ambient experience. With that said, I’d like to bring attention to this week’s album, The Head on the Door, because this album is not necessarily an experiment in any specific type of sound, but more of a cluster of stylistic ingenuity.

The album starts off with “In Between Days.” This simple up-beat pop chart does an excellent job at pulling you into the rest of the album. The next track however makes a drastic change in styles. “Kyoto Song” pulls you in further with its ambient oriental sound. This song is also where Robert Smith begins escalating his emotions with many slow vocal builds and declines. “The Blood” hits you up with another drastic change in styles, now experimenting with a Latin/Indian make-up fronted by a powerful yet beautifully driven acoustic chord progression.

The album sinks back into a pop sound with “Six Different Ways” but instead twists the sound slightly by adding a hint of ambience and electronic elements. I really adore how bubbly Smith sings this song, and with the slightly seducing sound to his voice it really comes together well.

The next four songs experiment with the variations of instrumental to vocal intensities. “Push” keeps the same type of style as “In Between Days” yet brings the tempo down slightly and relies more on the instrumentals to build and push the vocals. “The Baby Screams” inverses the concept of “Push” and has Smith’s vocals lead the instrumentals. “Close To Me” is an instrumental minimalism experiment, using nothing more than a basic drum beat, hand claps, a quiet bass line and a small array of simple synth riffs. This group of four songs ends with “A Night Like This” where the vocals and instrumentation rely on each other, constantly switching intensities for the sole purpose of driving the song to the next level.

“Screw” is a heavily bass driven song that has three instrumental parts behind the drums and vocals, each emphasizing different beats of the drums, yet not emphasizing each other. The three sounds come together forming an excellent industrial sort of sound. The album closes beautifully with the track “Sinking,” in which Smith’s vocals slowly become more intense throughout the first three quarters of the song until he finally lets it all out in the last refrain and falling out as the rest of the band slowly sinks away to nothing.

If I had to pick a few key tracks off the album I would probably suggest “In Between Days,” “Six Different Ways,” “Close To Me” and “A Night Like This,” but in all actuality, the album is not best in small quantities. The album presents itself best in its entirety, but if you are one who loves listening to single tracks as opposed to whole albums, these selected tracks are indeed excellent.

It’s very hard to find an album in the alt-rock category whose tracks do such an amazing job complimenting each other, but this one definitely does it, and does it with style.