Reader suggestions: Dawn of Victory, The American in Me, '77 Live, The Yearling

You may recall that last week my computer crashed and I had to reformat my hard drive. I lost everything – all my writing, all my music, and most importantly the Excel spreadsheet that contained all of the albums I was planning to review, ordered by artist, year, genre, year/all time ranking, and whether or not it was actually good. All gone. Blech. This week, rather than reliving the nightmare that is spreadsheet making, I thought I'd take some suggestions from people on Facebook. I received tips from friends, co-workers, my wife's cousin, his mom, and even a real, live professional writer. I'll be reviewing three of their suggestions and one album that I just plain like. Sounds like a compromise! Also, in lieu of handing out letter grades, I'm just going to post pictures from Natalie Dee Dot Com.



Rhapsody – Dawn of Victory
Suggested by Christian Petersen

When I asked for suggestions, my wife's cousin Christian was kind enough to suggest this glorious turd of a record. He described it as “Power metal to accompany a D&D tournament.” First of all, there's no such thing as competitive D&D. It's a game of the IMAGINATION! You can't just win a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Sheeeeeeeesh. You sound like my mom.

Anyhow, for a genre that is supposed to be mean and badass, most of the songs on this album lend themselves quite nicely to fanciful prancing – despite having titles like “Dargor, Shadowlord of the Black Mountain” and “The Bloody Rage of the Titans” and “Triumph for my Magic Steel.”

Yeah it's acclaimed (by one person), but is it good?

Nope! As somebody who once heard the Tori Amos cover of Slayer's “Raining Blood,” I am an expert on metal. I can safely say that this squeedly-meedly-deedle-fest fails to do what all good metal ought to – freak out normals like me. At no point during this album did I want to run for the hills like a bat out of Hell, or enter any kind of sandman. I just kind of wanted to be listening to something good.

Worth listening to for: Un(?)intentional comedy. I can't tell if it was bad on purpose or not.

Overall grade:





Steve Forbert – The American in Me
Suggested by Zina Petersen

Zina is Christian's mom, and my wife's aunt. Crazy how that works. Anyhow, she suggested Steve Forbert's The American in Me, which, if I didn't know about Zina's politics – left of Howard Zinn – I would assume was an album of Glenn Beck-inspired spoken-word pieces about starting your own independent, cabin-based nation in Plentywood, Montana. Luckily, it's just kinda folky rock-type music.

It seems that Steve Forbert can't decide whether he wants to be John Mellencamp or Bob Dylan, so he stays somewhere in the unsatisfying middle. This was a particularly tough listen for me because while I love Bob Dylan, I really, really hate John Mellencamp. Forbert seems to borrow from Dylan's musical style, simple arrangements, each verse punctuated by a short harmonica solo. Sadly, he channels John Mellencamp's midwestern malaise lyrical style. Each song seems to be about struggling to get by, trying to figure out what you want in your small town, something about being your daddy's son, wheat, little pink houses, two American kids doing the best they can, and so on.

Yeah it's acclaimed (by one person), but is it good?

Tough to say. I didn't particularly care for it because – and feel free to accuse me of being an elitist musical snob, because that's what I am – it was too safe. Very easy to listen to with a few really good songs, but ultimately it feels unrewarding.

Worth listening to for: “Hurts So Good” and “Wild Night.” Wait, I mean “Born Too Late” and “New Working Day.”

Overall grade:





Les Rallizes Dénudés – '77 Live
Suggested by Blaine Capatch

Blaine Capatch, the only person to suggest an album this week who ever hosted a game show on Comedy Central, sold me on Les Rallizes Dénudés with the following description: “Late-sixties Japanese psychedelic lords of feedback. The bass player hijacked an airliner INTO North Korea. What are you waiting for?” He makes a compelling point.

Finding this album was no easy task. You can't buy any of their stuff on iTunes, they don't have a bin at Amoeba, and the sites from which one could illegally download music – if that was something that people did – provided me with nothing. I finally tracked down a copy about six minutes before I started writing this essay, and I've been listening the whole time. It's screechy.

Yeah it's acclaimed (by one person), but is it good?

I certainly think so, but I feel so far removed from what is actually good music that I can never tell if something is great or if I'm just a pretentious asshole. I read an article today about assholes who like “challenging music” and the weird nerdy superiority complex it breeds. Well guess what – guilty as fucking charged. I love music that dares you to like it. It may sound like incomprehensible screeches to you, but to me it sounds like me being smarter than you. This is especially weird considering how much I hated Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz. I'm a horrible monster and I pray for death.

Worth listening to for: “The Last One” and “Ice Fire.”

Overall grade:





Piney Gir – The Yearling
Suggested by me

I'm not going to pretend to write an objective review of this album. I'm just going to tell all of you to listen to it. As I'm sure many of the people reading this know, I was contacted by Piney about a month ago asking to help her set up some gigs and maybe shoot a music video when the band comes to Los Angeles at the end of April. I'm also sure that you're all sick of me constantly talking about how great her music is. Do all of us a favor – you, me and Piney – just go download her albums on iTunes. The Yearling is her most recent effort, and it's pretty fantastic.

Yeah it's acclaimed (by me), but is it good?

I'd like to think that I have really good taste, and that everything I enjoy is something that everyone else should enjoy. In most cases I know this isn't true – if it were, everyone would own every Frank Zappa album. In this case, however, I know for a fact that Piney's music is actually, factually, scientifically, mathematically good, and if you don't like it, you're broken on the inside and cannot be fixed. There, I said it.

Worth listening to for: “For the Love of Others” and “Not Your Anything”

Overall grade:

Recently, at stately Grimmer Manor...

The single worst feeling in the world is when you take a look at your present situation, and realize the only solution is to reformat your hard drive.

That happened to me the other day. I had already prepared this week's albums, and as I was putting them on my iPod so that I could listen to them on my way to sleep, or as I call it, "The Land of Sugar and Whales," my computer crashed. I tried the better part of the next twelve hours attempting to repair it, and nothing worked. I tried resetting the computer's settings to a previous state, I tried backing up my files on an external drive - I even tried crying and pounding my head against a wall. Nothing worked.

What I'm saying is this week's post will end up being (sssssssshocking) late. Probably by a day or two, but let's not rule out a week or indefinitely. But it'll probably just take a week. I need to go back through the Acclaimed Music archives, figuring out what I want to review for each year, getting the music and then, of course, listening to it and reviewing it for you, my beloved reader. I use the singular form of reader because judging by the comments section, my wife is the only person who reads this, and it's more for spelling and grammar than for actual content. I feel like I should missspell a word or something, just to make things interesting for her.

What will likely happen this week will be three reviews of albums that aren't on Acclaimed Music. Stuff that's either too weird or outside the mainstream or indie or whatever. Maybe a really, really bad album by an artist I like. Who knows? Not me. I'm exhausted. I couldn't have picked a better week to not write - I've been going to zoos and theme parks and shit all week, and I'm plumb tuckered out. See you soon.

Love always,
Yours in Christ,
Applauding your patriotism,

Grosses bises,

Josh Grimmer

PS - Within moments of posting this, my wife informed me that the word "plumb," as in "plumb tuckered out" has a "b" at the end. I told you.

New Sounds in Country and Western Music, Howlin' Wolf and Bob Dylan

Ich bin ein Berliner. 1962 saw a great many social changes in both America and the rest of the world. First, and most importantly, the Beatles recorded their first song. Other significant events include the invention of the interrobang, the publishing of A Clockwork Orange and the introduction of the introductory paragraph into my blog. Truly a watershed year. Also of note were releases from Ray Charles, Howlin' Wolf and the debut album from Bob Dylan.



Ray Charles - New Sounds in Country and Western Music
Year Rank: 1
Overall Rank: 236

I'm beginning to think that music criticism, on the whole, isn't actually good. Maybe Frank Zappa was right when he said “Most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read.” Some of these albums that have been so highly acclaimed are boring and bland, and this is no different. Each song is very pleasant, well-orchestrated, and sung very nicely by Mr. Charles and his chorus. The biggest problem I have is that every song ends the same way. Ray sings the last line, and the chorus repeats it slower. This gets really old, really fast. The album gets better at the end, but I was sad to find that the copy that I got my hands on was a special edition with three extra songs, all of which were better than the original album. I've been had.

Yeah it's acclaimed, but is it good?

My issues begin here. I suppose that the songs themselves, individually, are all good. They're all B- songs. Certainly nothing to scoff at, but there's nothing really... exciting going on. I had this same problem last week when I reviewed Bobby Bland's Two Steps from the Blues album. All good songs, but I feel like I just listened to the same song twelve times in a row.

Worth listening to for: “Hey, Good Lookin'” and “That Lucky Old Sun” (It's a bonus track, but I'm sure you're not going to go out and buy the vinyl. It's on every CD version I've seen.)

Overall Grade: C. It's so fair-to-middling that I'm almost offended, considering how good I know Ray Charles actually is. I've been betrayed by rock journalism, who'da-thunkit?



Howlin' Wolf - Howlin' Wolf (AKA The Rockin' Chair Album)
Year Rank: 2
Overall Rank: 423

In stark contrast to the last album - polished, produced, sweet - Howlin' Wolf's self-titled album is rough, raw and bloody. The piano sounds like it was strung with barbed wire, Howlin' Wolf's voice sounds like it's on fire. It makes quite an impression. I'm certainly not the first to point out the incredible similarity between Howlin' Wolf's vocal style and that of Tom Waits. Neither has the dulcet, honey-sweet voice of that lousy hack Bobby Bland, rather, their voices convey a sense of aching and real pain.

This album sort of acts as a “Best Of” for Howlin' Wolf. At least, it certainly feels that way to me. Having listened to the actual “Best of Howlin' Wolf” album, I knew most of these songs before listening. Do yourself a favor and get this, rather than the official “Best Of.” It's a lot more cohesive.

Yeah it's acclaimed, but is it good?

Yes. Raw, screeching, pounding, stripped down. And good. There's an underlying tone of slinking sexuality permeating through the whole album. It feels sort of dangerous.

Worth listening to for: “Wang-Dang-Doodle” and “Going Down Slow”

Overall grade: A-. The first two tracks, “Shake For Me” and “The Red Rooster” aren't that great, but after that it picks up and really gets it done.



Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan
Year Rank: 14
Overall Rank: 1902

I love Bob Dylan. I think he's the greatest living musical genius. I especially love his early folk stuff. I had never listened to this album before yesterday. And it was... pretty good? Certainly uneven. Peaks and valleys. Also, I have to leave for work in about 13 minutes. Could you tell?

Yeah it's acclaimed, but is it good?

Pretty much, yeah. Some of the songs sound like Bob Dylan doing his Woody Guthrie impression, but that's what young artists do. I'd like to think my writing reads like a cut-rate Bill Simmons impression, but I'm sure that's too high praise for this.

Worth listening to for: “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” and “House of the Rising Sun”

Overall grade: B? Sure. Sounds good. Off to work!