Tag Archives: The Daily Vault

Dec 10 2008
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Album Reviews, Meanderings

John Lennon – Mind Games

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John Lennon
Mind Games
Apple Records, 1973
Grade: B
by Kenny S. McGuane

Whether you favor McCartney, Harrison, or Starr’s post-Beatles solo work, there’s no getting around the fact that John Lennon’s solo career was certainly the most remarkable, even if at times it’s the messiest. Though Lennon’s work was often tainted with the angering — and phenomenally unpleasant — addition of Yoko Ono’s “creative” input, his post-Beatles output still stands out among the others. This might have mostly to do with his persona, which often infected the recordings both musically and lyrically, but one could also argue that Lennon was simply the most talented of the bunch.

The jury’s still out on that one. READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

Written for THE DAILY VAULT

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May 27 2008
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DVD Reviews, Meanderings

What’s Going On: The Life & Death of Marvin Gaye/Greatest Hits: Live in ’76

41WdV5aL5QL._SL500_AA240_ Popumentaries have really gained momentum in the last ten years. It seems like there’s a new documentary about pop and/or rock icons released every week, though most of them skip the theater and come straight to DVD.

That’s because the overwhelming majority of them aren’t very good.

We’re still waiting for a great Marvin Gaye documentary. Even a decent one would be nice. I mean, he’s just as deserving of a high-budget Hollywood treatment as Ray Charles and Johnny Cash, perhaps more; after all, Charles and Cash don’t have albums that regularly show up in the Top 10 of “greatest albums of all time” listings. READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

 

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May 10 2008
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DVD Reviews, Meanderings

Classic Album Series: John Lennon’s “Plastic Ono Band”

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“Mother, you had me, but I never had you” is the first line of the first track off of John Lennon’s groundbreaking first post-Beatles record. The lyric would set the tone for what was arguably Lennon’s most potent and powerful artistic statement: 1970’s Plastic Ono Band. An album loaded to the brim with personal and expressive content, this was the record Lennon had been longing to make for over a decade. Having felt artistically constrained by the Beatles, Lennon used this release as the vehicle to deliver some of the most meaningful and personal music of his career. It was back to basics for Plastic Ono Band: just vocal, guitar, piano, bass and drums – no more Beatles studio wizardry, no more spending months and months to record songs. Lennon wanted this record to be as naked, sparse and spacious as possible; the only thing that mattered was the message. READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

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Apr 29 2008
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Live Reviews, Meanderings

Elton John: Live @The Honda Center, Anaheim CA, 04.19.08

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Disclaimer: I adore Elton John. I mean, really love him. Growing up,
the music of Elton John was shoved down my throat the same way some
children are force-fed the Bible. One of my earliest childhood memories
is being in my bed, supposed to be napping, while my mother played Blue Moves and Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player
brain-scramblingly loud on the record player. It always seemed to me,
and still does, that Elton John’s music was unusually and distinctively
sophisticated for pop; there’s really nothing else like it out there.
Between Elton’s gift for composition, Bernie Taupin’s timeless lyrics,
the strength of the Elton John Band and Paul Buckmaster’s highly
intricate orchestration, the records made between 1970 and 1976 are
some of the best of the era. Indeed, the music of Elton John defined
seventies rock music and dominated a good portion of the charts for
most of the decade. READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

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Apr 14 2008
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Album Reviews, Meanderings

Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul

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Aretha Franklin is an alien. There’s not one single human being on
planet earth who can sing like her, not one. Actually, let’s take that
one step further: there’s not one single human being—or alien—in the
history of popular music who has come before or after Aretha Franklin
who can sing as well, as powerfully or as soulfully as she can.
The Queen of Soul is irrefutably in a class of her own. The impact and
influence of her work seems to extend forever. All female pop singers
take cues from Aretha Franklin: she’s the foundation. For pop singers, not studying Aretha Franklin would be as irresponsible and criminally insane as a pianist not studying Beethoven…READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE.

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Apr 09 2008
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Album Reviews, Meanderings

The O’Jays: Backstabbers

51uidqpnbhl_sl500_aa240__4 Motown dominated sixties soul, there’s no denying that. Some contend that the greatest of soul music died with the end of that incredible decade of music. Backstabbers, released only a year after Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On (1971), begs to differ. By the early seventies, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff were at the center of a dream-team of writers and producers located in America’s first capital: Philadelphia. Together, Gamble and Huff were two of the most prolific and active members of Philadelphia International Records—the label that would come to represent the explosion of the Philly Soul phenomenon—and are responsible for having written and/or produced over 170 gold and platinum records…READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

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Apr 07 2008
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Album Reviews, Meanderings

Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On (Deluxe Edition)

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Marvin Gaye was a genius. But despite the consistently good quality of
his artistic output, listening to his catalog can often be puzzling. He
was lyrically schizophrenic: the over-sexed content of records like Let’s Get It On and I Want You are an unfavorable contrast to the messages contained in his powerful record, 1971’s What’s Going On.
Soulful or not, anyone singing the line “Let’s get it on” runs the risk
of sounding pretty silly, even idiotic. Truthfully, Marvin Gaye might
have been the only artist ever who could have gotten away with a lyric
like that – had anyone else been singing, it’s doubtful the song would
have been as popular as it was and still is…READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE.

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Mar 18 2008
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Album Reviews, Meanderings

Beach House: Devotion

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Baltimore, Maryland is the 12th most dangerous city in America; also, they had a real serious syphilis problem a few years back. Just when you’re convinced that Baltimore is really just the red-headed stepchild of Philadelphia, which is really just the red-headed stepchild of New York City, a charming Baltimorean indie duo called Beach House quietly delivers one of the most deliciously mysterious records of the year. This is more good news for a city that appears to be in the early stages of a cultural and artistic boom. READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE


 

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Mar 18 2008
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Album Reviews, Meanderings

Richard Ashcroft: Keys to the World

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For those not closely attuned to the British pop scene, Richard
Ashcroft may just be a name that makes some say, “Ashcroft? Wasn’t he,
like, some government dude or something?” Well yes, yes he was. His
first name was John though. Most casual American listeners who are now
in their early twenties do in fact know who Richard Ashcroft is – they
just don’t realize it. He was the lead singer and chief songwriter of
The Verve, who came around at the height of the Brit-Pop explosion in
the mid-nineties. The Verve were over before they even started, and all
they really managed to squeeze out in the states was “Bittersweet
Symphony,” which is still a radio favorite on both sides of the
Atlantic. So it may come as a surprise to most stateside record
consumers that Keys To The World is Richard Ashcroft’s third solo record since The Verve’s disband…READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

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Mar 18 2008
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Album Reviews, Meanderings

Prince: 3121

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Since his 1978 debut, Prince has been known for his eccentric and
synthetic music production, layered R&B grooves, taboo lyrics, and
his irresistible and instantly recognizable falsetto (see “Kiss”). 3121
finds the bad-boy pop-prodigy in regular form, although the edgy,
sexualized words have subsided some since his more recent conversion to
Jehovah’s Witness. Don’t let this frighten you; the absence of such
content is hardly noticeable because the alternate lyrical quality, and
of course, the music, are so damn good…READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

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