I usually don't critique or comment on music produced for a cause (benefit albums). Not that I don't think they are a wonderful idea which help many causes, but they are usually a conglomerate of artists with a hodgepodge of music which either isn't particularly noteworthy, or which has been hurriedly patched together resulting in a less than desirable product.
That in no way means I might not buy it to support the cause, but I would not usually urge others to do so by my comments. This review is about the music.
I am, and have been, in the past, a supporter of the Human Rights Campaign but was slightly disillusioned shortly before the election when I disagreed not with their message, but with their tactics. I didn't find them professional and
thought they did damage to the causes they propound.
However, the CD Love Rocks is a star studded compilation of quite GOOD music which has been contributed by such artists as Carole King, Emmylou Harris, Melissa Etheridge, The Dixie Chicks, Dido, Oleta Adams, Cyndi Lauper and others, and is well worth the bucks for the bang.
It is a 2-CD set which is packed with songs of love and committment between two people, gender notwithstanding. Many of the tracks will be familiar to the listener such as Mandy Moore's "I Feel the Earth Move", Christina Aquilera's "Beautiful", and Dolly Parton's "Sugar Hill". The complete track list can be found at the Human Rights Campaign store site where the record is available.
The songs celebrate love. The tracks slide along from one excellent artist to another, each with a different style, but the project is kept cohesive because the music celebrates love.
This review isn't meant to be a commercial for marriage equality, but a celebration of some good music, which happens to help a cause. Producers and causes are no strangers. The music on LOVE ROCKS is just better than most of the quickly put together cd's to raise money for a cause.
The project is a joint venture of Centaur Entertainment and the HRC. A classy effort, good artists, and worth a listen.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
thanks Claire, great to see you back - missed you
2 - Claire
Thank you, Eric! I have missed being here...and now that I have about recovered from election 2004, I will be around more...rabble rousing with the best :)
Claire
3 - boomcrashbaby
I'm curious as to what tactics of the HRC, right before the election, that you disagreed with.
Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving.
4 - Claire
Boom, I did, indeed, have a happy T'giving and hope you did too. The well thought out and considered arguments proposed by the HRC were embraced by me. when they went to cartoon and the plebian internet animation bashing a candidate turned me completely off. I am a debate girl, bashing is beneath those of intlligence, and diminishes their cause. Cartoons and animations which deride the other side are not worthy of the cause which is expounded.....thats what I meant.
Claire
5 - Temple Stark
Claire.
This did make it up on Advance.net on Dec. 6. I've merely neglected to tell you. Sorry.
Congratulations and thank you for the review.
-- Temple
6 - Claire
Thank you Temple for letting me know! I am so pleased and gratified to have had my comments on this excellent CD picked up. The more I listen to it, the more I love it. Love, in whatever form, is a universal message which has universal appeal. When you get right down to it, its all about the love, between the people who sing about it, and live it.
Thank you again!
Claire