Buddy Freaking Miles, who knew?

Jamey Johnson – It’s a fine line between traditional country and the big cowboy hat schlock Nashville churns out these days. Johnson tries to walk that line, and on some tracks succeeds. “High Cost of Living” and “In Color” are authentic enough to give him credence when he says he should be filed “Between Jennings and Jones”. They also have enough radio-friendly gloss that allows for heavy airplay on “modern country” stations. Unfortunately, there are too many songs like “Women”, where Johnson sounds like the yuk-yuk who wrote “Honky-Tonk Bodonkadonk” (which he is). A handful of good tracks, a few dreadful ones, and a bunch of mediocre ones. 3 stars

Killers – The Killers spent their first two discs trying to be Bono Springsteen & the U2 St. Band. This disc is a calculated move away from the anthems of “Sam’s Town” and “Hot Fuss”, which in theory is a good move. The thing is, there were moments on those two discs like “When You Were Young” and “Mr. Brightside”, where they absolutely hit the mark. Those songs have an exuberance that although derivative, is nonetheless inspired. This disc doesn’t have any moments that soar. It settles for overpowering synthesizers on most cuts, and for the most part, it’s passionless. 2 stars

Buddy Miles – I was sucked in about 10 seconds into this thing when the Steve Cropper-ish guitar licks started bouncing off the horn section. What a gem this one is. Every single track has its own distinctive charms, be it the wall of horns on the title track or Miles’ sweet vocals and subtle organ fills on “I Still Love You”. Highlight for me is the Allman Brothers cover. Short of the Stax box set, the finest soul record I’ve ever heard. 4.5 stars

Mofro – Decent but not particularly memorable swamp funk. The disc suffers from a lack of originality; there really isn’t anything here that hasn’t been done better by someone else (Meters, Neville Brothers). Mix bugged me a little too, the electric piano generally mixed too high and the guitars too low. It wasn’t bad, just wasn’t very good either. 2.5 stars

Shellac – Albini the recording producer is more talented than Albini the recording artist. I get how as a producer, the sound and feel of the songs is the top priority. As a songwriter though, composition should be the main concern, and it just isn’t on these songs. The abrasive, low-fi, let me tell you in two minutes how much I effing hate society format just doesn’t hold water for me anymore. I understand why some might dig it, but its nothing I would ever listen to again. Thanks to the Mongster for keeping it relatively short.

Group Discussion

1) First three albums I replaced with CDs. Frightening that I cant remember my kids’ birthday, but 24 years later I remember buying these from the infamous Crazy Eddie’s when I bought my CD player:

Tom Petty – Hard Promises
Pete Townshend – Empty Glass
Dire Straits – Making Movies

2) First 3 digital downloads. I’m late to the party on this one, but probably half of my 2008 purchases were done this way:

Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
Ravonettes – Lust Lust Lust
James McMurtry – Just Us Kids