The past month saw the release of quite a few new albums that I was interested in. I bought a few of them, but can't seem to keep up with all the things of interest. Still to investigate is the new Rush album Clockwork Angels, which is getting some pretty positive reviews.
The ones I did get are [note: my ratings are: *** = solid; **** = very good and memorable; ***** amazing]:
First off, I have to admit that I'm quite fond of the past music of both Joe Bonamassa and John Mayer. In fact I'm sitting here in a Joe Bonamassa T-shirt... though that's primarily because his website has some of the best designs of Guitar-themed T-shirts I've come across anywhere... I bought the first one figuring nobody would actually notice the little Joe Bonamassa name on it, as the guitar picture was very cool.
Bonamassa's Driving Towards the Daylight has been a bit of a disappointment for me. Overall, it's a solid rockin' blues album... it really is quite good. However, something about the way it was recorded makes it less appealing than his last few albums. Joe's singing voice is very very good these days, which has helped to differentiate him from all the other blues players out there. Sure, he plays the ass off his guitars, but he can really sing well, with subtle expression and emotion that you hear rarely. Unfortunately, few of the songs on this album show off his voice well, and the voice tone is thin... I don't know if it was a different approach to mic'ing or what, since the producer Kevin Shirley is unchanged from his past few albums.
My favorite tracks on the album are the title track Driving Towards the Daylight, A Place in My Heart, and Too Much Ain't Enough Love (with Jimmy Barnes). This latter track doesn't feature Joe's singing at all. I found Jimmy Barnes' voice almost too much, but I think the effect is very good in the end... it's a great song.
I have to admit that I [and a few of my friends] find that Joe's slower songs are always the highlight. I think he really enjoys playing the rockin' tunes, but the slow blues stuff is just amazing. This album was just rather short of that flavour.
BTW, I also just received Joe's concert DVD recorded at the Beacon Theater in New York in 2011 on the Dust Bowl tour, and it is very very good. I saw two of his shows on that tour in December, and a good portion of the show was the same. The DVD has guests on it, including Beth Hart, who is really great, and I previously rated the Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa a solid ****.
John Mayer's Born and Raised is kind of in a similar boat for me as Bonamassa's new album. I have really enjoyed Mayer's previous albums, and my view is that this one is just not quite as good, after a handful of listens. In the case of this album, it's not the production that I'm unhappy with, but just that the material doesn't appeal to me as much. Much of the album has something of a country flavour to it, and I'll openly admit that Country music is one of the few genres that I find unappealing [along with Opera and musicals].
I'm mostly influenced by music rather than lyrics in the majority of my music consumption. Oddly, Mayer is one of only a very few where I do tend to listen to the words, and I've always really enjoyed the (apparent) sincerity of his writing. These songs mostly failed to touch me, and I found most of them less interesting than most of his past material musically as well. Lyrically, I do find the song Something Like Olivia to be quite interesting.
The one song that sticks out for me as very very good is If I Ever Get Around To Living, and my wife feels the same way about it... if you're thinking you might skip the album, try this track out at least. The final track on the album is Fool to Love You, and it's pretty good, and definitely catchy.
Before I leave John Mayer, I will say that I recently got his live album Where The Light Is. I've seen the concert footage from this show on HDNet. I have to say that it's a very very good album. If you don't have any John Mayer music, and are interested in checking him out, this is a really great place to start. The show is done in three parts, with an acoustic set, a blues set with the John Mayer Trio, and then a full band playing more of his material. All the parts are very good, and there is very little on the recording that I didn't enjoy immensely.
Steve Lawson is a UK-based bass guitarist, who specializes in solo electric bass performance. To me, his music is much along the lines of what I find in various acoustic solo guitar performers, though his expert use of looping and various effects ensures an interesting musical palate. I actually bought a few individual tracks of Steve's at the same time as this album (via iTunes), and in particular I really liked the tunes Blue Planet, Scott Peck, and Grace and Gratitude.
Overall, I'm finding the 11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything album to be solid, but not consistently engaging for me. There are a few songs that stick out for me, but overall it's going to be dinner music, rather than something I go out of my way to listen to directly. The tapestry that Steve weaves with his bass is generally enjoyable, and occasionally quite intoxicating. The highlight tracks for me on this album are A Year Afloat and Take Your Time, Choose Your Route, Pick Your Tunes.
BTW, Steve Lawson is an active and engaging fellow on Twitter... check him out.
Finally, I somehow stumbled across this band Bees Deluxe a few months back. I think I mistook their name for Blues Deluxe, which is a great Joe Bonamassa tune. Anyway, at the time they were offering up a free download of a tune called Blues for the Decline of Western Civilization. This instrumental blues tune is nothing short of brilliant in my view. Go find it! The tasteful guitar playing and really great Hammond organ tones are just delicious. The band are an active live group in the Boston area.
Anyway, I saw that they had an album coming soon, which has now arrived. It's... interesting. As expected, the band is really solid, and the guitar and organ tones don't disappoint. None of the material is quite as brilliant as the above-mentioned single, but there's a lot of very good music here, and a few really great moments. However, the singer in the band put me off... his voice is just not at the same level as the rest of the playing, and takes away from the effect of the album. Although, I have to admit that I suspect this voice will grow on me... perhaps 6 months from now I'll love the voice as much as the rest of the album. Strange...
My current impression is that my favourite track on the Space Age Bachelor Pad Blues album is the opening number, 3454 Miles. It's another instrumental.
This is a band that intruiges me, and if I lived on the East coast, I would go out of my way to try to catch them in one of their frequent live shows. My guess is that they would be very good.
Reviewing a Few New Releases
The past month saw the release of quite a few new albums that I was interested in. I bought a few of them, but can't seem to keep up with all the things of interest. Still to investigate is the new Rush album Clockwork Angels, which is getting some pretty positive reviews.
The ones I did get are [note: my ratings are: *** = solid; **** = very good and memorable; ***** amazing]:
Joe Bonamassa - Driving Towards the Daylight ***
John Mayer - Born and Raised ***
Steve Lawson - 11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything ***1/2
Bees Deluxe - Space Age Bachelor Pad Blues ***1/2
First off, I have to admit that I'm quite fond of the past music of both Joe Bonamassa and John Mayer. In fact I'm sitting here in a Joe Bonamassa T-shirt... though that's primarily because his website has some of the best designs of Guitar-themed T-shirts I've come across anywhere... I bought the first one figuring nobody would actually notice the little Joe Bonamassa name on it, as the guitar picture was very cool.
Bonamassa's Driving Towards the Daylight has been a bit of a disappointment for me. Overall, it's a solid rockin' blues album... it really is quite good. However, something about the way it was recorded makes it less appealing than his last few albums. Joe's singing voice is very very good these days, which has helped to differentiate him from all the other blues players out there. Sure, he plays the ass off his guitars, but he can really sing well, with subtle expression and emotion that you hear rarely. Unfortunately, few of the songs on this album show off his voice well, and the voice tone is thin... I don't know if it was a different approach to mic'ing or what, since the producer Kevin Shirley is unchanged from his past few albums.
My favorite tracks on the album are the title track Driving Towards the Daylight, A Place in My Heart, and Too Much Ain't Enough Love (with Jimmy Barnes). This latter track doesn't feature Joe's singing at all. I found Jimmy Barnes' voice almost too much, but I think the effect is very good in the end... it's a great song.
I have to admit that I [and a few of my friends] find that Joe's slower songs are always the highlight. I think he really enjoys playing the rockin' tunes, but the slow blues stuff is just amazing. This album was just rather short of that flavour.
BTW, I also just received Joe's concert DVD recorded at the Beacon Theater in New York in 2011 on the Dust Bowl tour, and it is very very good. I saw two of his shows on that tour in December, and a good portion of the show was the same. The DVD has guests on it, including Beth Hart, who is really great, and I previously rated the Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa a solid ****.
John Mayer's Born and Raised is kind of in a similar boat for me as Bonamassa's new album. I have really enjoyed Mayer's previous albums, and my view is that this one is just not quite as good, after a handful of listens. In the case of this album, it's not the production that I'm unhappy with, but just that the material doesn't appeal to me as much. Much of the album has something of a country flavour to it, and I'll openly admit that Country music is one of the few genres that I find unappealing [along with Opera and musicals].
I'm mostly influenced by music rather than lyrics in the majority of my music consumption. Oddly, Mayer is one of only a very few where I do tend to listen to the words, and I've always really enjoyed the (apparent) sincerity of his writing. These songs mostly failed to touch me, and I found most of them less interesting than most of his past material musically as well. Lyrically, I do find the song Something Like Olivia to be quite interesting.
The one song that sticks out for me as very very good is If I Ever Get Around To Living, and my wife feels the same way about it... if you're thinking you might skip the album, try this track out at least. The final track on the album is Fool to Love You, and it's pretty good, and definitely catchy.
Before I leave John Mayer, I will say that I recently got his live album Where The Light Is. I've seen the concert footage from this show on HDNet. I have to say that it's a very very good album. If you don't have any John Mayer music, and are interested in checking him out, this is a really great place to start. The show is done in three parts, with an acoustic set, a blues set with the John Mayer Trio, and then a full band playing more of his material. All the parts are very good, and there is very little on the recording that I didn't enjoy immensely.
Steve Lawson is a UK-based bass guitarist, who specializes in solo electric bass performance. To me, his music is much along the lines of what I find in various acoustic solo guitar performers, though his expert use of looping and various effects ensures an interesting musical palate. I actually bought a few individual tracks of Steve's at the same time as this album (via iTunes), and in particular I really liked the tunes Blue Planet, Scott Peck, and Grace and Gratitude.
Overall, I'm finding the 11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything album to be solid, but not consistently engaging for me. There are a few songs that stick out for me, but overall it's going to be dinner music, rather than something I go out of my way to listen to directly. The tapestry that Steve weaves with his bass is generally enjoyable, and occasionally quite intoxicating. The highlight tracks for me on this album are A Year Afloat and Take Your Time, Choose Your Route, Pick Your Tunes.
BTW, Steve Lawson is an active and engaging fellow on Twitter... check him out.
Finally, I somehow stumbled across this band Bees Deluxe a few months back. I think I mistook their name for Blues Deluxe, which is a great Joe Bonamassa tune. Anyway, at the time they were offering up a free download of a tune called Blues for the Decline of Western Civilization. This instrumental blues tune is nothing short of brilliant in my view. Go find it! The tasteful guitar playing and really great Hammond organ tones are just delicious. The band are an active live group in the Boston area.
Anyway, I saw that they had an album coming soon, which has now arrived. It's... interesting. As expected, the band is really solid, and the guitar and organ tones don't disappoint. None of the material is quite as brilliant as the above-mentioned single, but there's a lot of very good music here, and a few really great moments. However, the singer in the band put me off... his voice is just not at the same level as the rest of the playing, and takes away from the effect of the album. Although, I have to admit that I suspect this voice will grow on me... perhaps 6 months from now I'll love the voice as much as the rest of the album. Strange...
My current impression is that my favourite track on the Space Age Bachelor Pad Blues album is the opening number, 3454 Miles. It's another instrumental.
This is a band that intruiges me, and if I lived on the East coast, I would go out of my way to try to catch them in one of their frequent live shows. My guess is that they would be very good.