Perhaps even more disappointing than an outright bad album is one that fails to live up to your expectations... here are a few CD releases that let me down in 2005...
8. Merle Haggard: Chicago Wind His voice sounds great... the band is solid... but it's just too soft around the edges and the songwriting is too weak... Yes, Merle throws in a few mild political slogans here and there ("Let's get out of Iraq and get back on track, let's rebuild America first.") But it sounds so produced and slick that it has no... edge... especially after remembering Hag's live show opening for (and overshadowing, in my opinion) Bob Dylan in Chicago (ironically) a while ago. Something just seems to be missing in the studio. This is still a cut above the anemic Unforgettable but nowhere near the promise of his "comeback" albums If I Could Only Fly and Roots Vol. 1 (hey, where's Vol. 2?) Personally, I think a live album would be a good next move for Hag... please?
7. The Residents: Animal Lover Ahh, the wonderfully weird Residents. First of all, I couldn't be happier that this group continues to anonymously weave their tangled web of sonic strangeness... but let's be honest, most of their material from the past 10 years is awfully unmemorable... Take the lavishly packaged Animal Lover — lots of odd, bleak synthesizers and strange voices... a pointless "remix disc" (I guess?) with more of the same... very disturbing (and not in a good way) computer generated artwork in the booklet... It's sadly starting to seem like God in Three Persons from 1988 will stand as the last Residents masterwork... I sincerely hope not, though... maybe they should lose the computers and samplers and try an acoustic album next for a change of pace... I'd love to re-Meet The Residents I once knew and loved so long ago...
6. Steve Reich: You Are (Variations) Another in a long string of handsomely packaged Nonesuch releases of entirely adequate, workmanlike recent compositions by Steve Reich that leave me completely cold. You Are mainly sounds like a re-hash of ideas from Tehillim and Sextet, while Cello Counterpoint saws away with aimless dissonance just like Triple Quartet did. I always have such high hopes for a new Steve Reich release, remembering the excitement of discovering modern masterpieces such as Music for 18 Musicians, Octet, and Different Trains. I really hope he wows us all again one of these days... meanwhile, like The Cave, City Life, and Three Tales, this CD will just collect dust on the shelf... bah...
Article comments
1 - George Dionne
Don't you hate it when things get reissued over and over again with paltry little extras? What erks me the most is when they reissue an album that came out a year earlier.
2 - Sean
Dead right about the Sinatra. Of all the stuff that could have been released, they had to reheat and reserve that crap
3 - Vern Halen
How about reissuing high quality yet reasonably priced copies of Sinatra's Capitol output?
4 - godoggo
Regarding the divas, I just wanted to plug
Terence Blanchard's "Let's Get Lost: The Songs Of Jimmy McHugh" which features appearances by Diana Krall, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson in more swinging setings than they normally get on their own releases (excepting Reeves, who incidentally blows away the competition, as expected).
I was pleasantly surprised by Monheit when I saw her a few years ago. Despite the sometimes slightly corny settings, she showed herself to be a beautifully melodic improviser, especially on the bossa tunes.