Friday, June 01, 2007

Music by professional musicians, one rapper, and three Canadians

Rap

Hip Hop is Dead by Nas. I don't know anything about this guy but he is popular.

Folk

Celtic Woman: A New Journey by various artists. Fourteen songs by six Irish women vocalists. A couple tunes are in Gaelic. These "Celtic" discs are popular. So popular that some jerk seems to have stolen our other one. Here is the review from Allmusic.com, "Celtic Woman, a Riverdance-inspired PBS phenomena that boasts the talents of several female leads and a whole lot of orchestra and genre instruments like pipes, bodhrans, and fiddles, gives contemporary Celtic the Il Divo treatment on New Journey, a lovely and occasionally over the top collection of familiar melodies and grandiose sentiments that should please both the Celtic new age and the adult alternative crowds."

Ce by Caetano Veloso. Brazilian musician Veloso is a Big Deal. His first album came out in 1967 and "Caetano Veloso has managed to sustain a remarkable consistency, year after year composing beautiful, inventive, and very often simply ingenious music." Read the rest of the review at, of course, allmusic.com.

Rock

Snakes & Arrows by Rush. Rush's eighteenth studio album with lots of guitar and drums.

Stand Still - Look Pretty by The Wreckers. The Wreckers is a duo made by Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp. This album came out a few months ago but I figured it will still go out.

West by Lucinda Williams. A roots-rock and alternative-country styled music. Williams moved to Los Angeles after living in Austin, TX for a thirty years or so and the album, according to Allmusic.com (who else?), reflects that change with Williams confessional songwriting.

Because of the Times by Kings Of Leon. Kings of Leon are huge in England. I don't know why; I really liked a previous album, Youth & Young Manhood. Kings play a kind of Southern garage rock.

Mute Math by Mute Math. Quartet from New Orleans with an experiemental, but very listenable and enjoyable, debut album. Modern rock with electronic equipment.

Country

Nashville by Solomon Burke. Famed rhythm and blues singer Burke recorded these country tunes in Nashville with several country stars and musicians. What a voice! What style! What girth!

Jazz

Not too Late by Norah Jones. Eh. People like her.

Classical

Angel Dances by The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic. Instrumentals by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla and some gospel tunes sung by various guests.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Look Out!

DVD

Pan's Labyrinth starring [a bunch of Spanish actors you never heard of]. Winner of three Academy awards (and loser of three, too). An adult fairy tale with young Ofelia enduring the cruelty of her fascistic military step-father in Spain. Escaping to a nearby garden Ofelia discovers a the fantastical creature living within it.

CDs

Music from the Motion Picture Black Snake Moan featuring S0n House, John Doe, R.L. Burnside, North Mississippi Allstars, Samuel L. Jackson, Bobby Rush. Blues soundtrack from Black Snake Moan.

Large Print

The River Knows by Amanda Quick. "Dashing Anthony Stalbridge had in common with Louisa was a passionate interest in the private affairs of Hastings, a prominent member of Society whom they both suspect of hiding terrible secrets."

Fiction

Good Guy by Dean Koontz. Tim likes to converse with the weird barflies at his friend's tavern. But, one night, one of those local eccentrics passes him in envelope. Inside is $10,000 cash and a woman's photo. Tim has has been mistaken as a hired killer. When the real hired killer sits next to him, Tim fakes it and says, "I've had a change of heart." After Tim discovers the real killer is a cop, he works to stop the intended killing.

Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. An alternate history where the Israeli state collapsed in 1948. Surviving refugees started an autonomous region in Alaska. That autonomy is due to end and policeman Meyer Landsman is investigating a recent murder.

Freak Show by James St. James. Teenage drag queen matriculates at ultra-rich, ultra-conservative Dwight D. Eisenhower Academy.

Mystery

Dead Madonna by Victoria Houston. "A Loon Lake Mystery." Wisconsin author Houston was here in Lake Mills on May 19th. This is her eighth Loon Lake mystery with rural Wisconsin Police Chief Lew Ferris investigating two murders.

Science Fiction

The Alton Gift by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross. Geez, science fiction authors collaborate more than rappers. The sequel to Traitor's Sun. I'm not going to bother figuring out the labyrinthine plot to this one.