No Snappy Titile This Month

10 CC – Deceptive Bends

This is one of those “bands in transition” albums as Godley and Crème, two of the founding members left the band before this album so this is really Stewart and Gouldman…I remember at the time critics were calling it 5 CC…either way, for me, it was pleasant pop with some humorous lyrics and a “hit single”, not too far a field from the previous 10 CC stuff at that time. Their cleverness catches up with them sometimes, as you tend to overlook how much quality musicianship – great lead guitar on some of these songs – there is here. I’m also a sucker for melody and harmony, so I enjoyed that aspect as well. They do go overboard with that Beatlesque 11 minute “epic”, but all in all it’s an enjoyable listen that brings a smile to my face. 3


Okkervil River - I Am Very Far (2011)

My only other experience with listening to this band has been in “concept album” form, so it’s nice to hear an album of their songs, unrelated to each other, each sounding different, and to my ear, more intense musically than previous CD’s of theirs. For me, it’s also kind of an “up-down-up” with the songs at the beginning and end more interesting than those in the middle (like White Shadow Waltz and Show Yourself), but there was more good than bad, and I’ll move some of these to my I-Tunes library. 3 ½

Bad Brains – Rock For Light (1983)

This is a band I missed the first time around, probably because by 1980 or so I was more interested in New Wave than punk and reggae. Listening to them now vs. when they were groundbreaking takes some of the vitality out of it, but I was pleasantly surprised at how they moved between speed metal and reggae so easily. The singing is a little screamy for me, and as I was listening I had to think that if they were THAT good, I would have been heard about them "back in the day." 2 1/2.


Notes and Scratches – Uh Oh (2005)

Had not heard of these guys before, learned a bit from their website, but sadly, I mostly learned that they’re not making any new music, since this was my pick of the month. It actually dovetails nicely with the new Okkervil River CD…I enjoyed their sound, vocals, dynamics, mix of a zillion different instruments and I can see where parts of this, if not all of it will get repeated listens from me...Thanks, Ken! 4

Hoodoo Gurus GH - Loved it. Thanks, D'Arcy.

Topic - I'm supposed to remember what I liked in the '90's? I can barely remember what day it is. All I know is that I listened to a lot of Matthew Sweet and I still do, so not much has changed, I guess.