If Kinks Rhymes With Stinks, What Does Ices Rhyme With?

Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More

This CD got a lot of hype and the single is nearing the point of burnout if you listen to adult rock radio, but all that said, every song on this CD is a good song. The dynamics keep it interesting as does the instrumentation, though my favorite moments on this CD are “Avett-like” solo singer, solo instrument ones, with lyrics like, “I wish I had a greater enemy than my apathy”...all in all, when you factor in that this is a debut album, it pushes it up for me to a 4.


Lia Ices – Grown Unknown

Laura Nyro or Joni Mitchell with fully produced arrangements instead of just acoustic guitar? Or maybe it’s Cat Power on Quaaludes…May as well be. The whole vocal sound is as if she’s out in the middle of a vast field, on out at sea…very weird to me… “Daphne” certainly is pretty to listen to, but this is just too downbeat for me to get interested in, though the songs do evolve and grow in many directions, which did at least keep me somewhat interested. There are no sing-alongs here, and by the fourth track, I was more interested in where the songs were going instrumentally and harmonically than in her vocals. It’s just a 2 for me.


Francis Dunnery – Tall Blonde Helicopter

This is my first listen to him…don’t know where I was in the mid ’90’s but I missed this.
It must have been in the same pile as the Greenberry Woods since they are both lost gems to me from 1995. Right out of the box, I really like the pop sensibilities mixed with some excellent guitar playing. There’s good humor in some of the lyrics (Too Much Saturn) sometimes he’s quirky, (Johnny Podell Song and I Don’t Want to Be Alternative) but it works, and to me, he sounds a bit like Matthew Sweet – and that’s a good thing. Add in a good cover of my favorite Cat Stevens song and for me, this is a really pleasant surprise, and it gets a 4.5.

The Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks…

This was - and still is – the godfather of all punk rock albums…if you were fortunate enough to have listened to it when it first came out, you know just how revolutionary it was. God Save the Queen and Anarchy in the U.K. are top 100 songs ever (hey, there’s a topic for another meeting) and this gets a 5 only because that’s the highest rating we give.

Ray Davies – See My Friends

There are 2 kinds of people in the world…those who get The Kinks and those who don’t. If you do get them, you’ll probably find this CD charming in spots, interesting in a good way in spots, but ultimately uneven, though for the most part, very listenable. I fall into that camp, and so it gets a 3 from me. If you’re not a Kinks fan, you’ll be much less generous, but if you didn’t like Paloma Faith and her treatment of “Lola”, then whatever…because it was up to the original, if not better.

GH – Thanks, Ken…now I can get my P Funk on anytime I want. Nice selection of George Clinton funky stuff.

Topic – Who should go into the R&R Hall of Fame?

Nirvana. They have the “dead guy” thing going for them, a body of work that includes one of the great songs in rock, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and were in great part responsible for starting a style, grunge, that lives on in music today.