A good cry or two...

I bought Everything Changed seven years ago and it still gets me to every single time I listen. Where is Abra Moore these days? Her voice and her music are too good to not be heard on a regular basis!!!


"Every once in awhile, something's got to break to give," Abra Moore forewarns in the opening track amid a heavenly, uplifting, gorgeously melodic declaration of love. The line foreshadows what awaits on Everything Changed, the most emotionally arresting account of a relationship's rise and fall since Matthew Sweet's 1991 masterwork Girlfriend. Along the way are several irresistibly buoyant should-be pop smashes--"I Do," "Big Sky," and "Shining Star" could all scale the charts--balanced against the more measured melodic grace of "If You Want Me To" and "Taking Chances." The deepest cuts, though, are the straight-shooting piano ballads including the title track and "Family Affair," in which Moore cries out, "Don't take away the one love that matters," her voice quaking with unmistakable heartbreak. --Peter Blackstock


Also unbelievably heart-breaking and quite wonderful is Glen Campbell's brand new album Canvas of a Ghost. It just came out today so I'm still soaking it in and will hopefully be able to capture how good it is tomorrow...

Nostalgia doesn't pay well, but it sure can sound good:)

It doesn't pay to be both an insomniac and next to a computer with an open iTunes account. Last night, for some odd reason, I could not stop thinking about Scoundrel Days, an a-ha album I absolutely loved way back in 1986. I remember everything about it...buying it at my local Sam Goody back when record stores were all over malls, listening to it over and over on my Sony walkman late at night, finding an odd appeal in the forlorn and soulful sounds of songs like "Maybe, Maybe" and "October."

I'm not sorry I bought it. My iPod is slowly becoming a representation of not only current songs I adore, but all of the ones from my past, too. Some of the things I once liked are too dated now to really find fascinating (Miami Sound Machine's "Conga" just doesn't do it for me anymore), but some still sound as relevant as ever (Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Joy Division...)


When I listened to it for the first time in at least ten years, I felt chills...Scoundrel still does it for me!

This review from allmusic.com's website is the best thing I've seen written about Scoundrel Days:

Review

by Ned Raggett

While not quite as strong as the band's debut, Scoundrel Days is still a-ha succeeding as a marketed "pretty boy" band which can connect musically and lyrically as much as any musical sacred cow. The opening two songs alone make for one of the best one-two opening punches around: the tense edge of the title track, featuring one of Morten Harket's soaring vocals during the chorus and a crisp, pristine punch in the music, and "The Swing of Things," a moody, elegant number with a beautiful synth/guitar arrangement (plus some fine drumming courtesy of studio pro Michael Sturgis) and utterly lovelorn lyrical sentiments that balance on the edge of being overheated without quite going over.

Although the rest of the disc never quite hits as high as the opening, it comes close more often than not. A definite downturn is the band's occasional attempts to try and prove themselves as a "real" band by rocking out, as on "I've Been Losing You" -- there's really no need for it, and as a result they sound much more "fake," ironically enough. Other songs can perhaps only be explained by the need to translate lyrics -- "We're Looking for the Whales" isn't an environmental anthem, and neither is "Cry Wolf," but both also don't really succeed in using nature as romantic metaphor.

When a-ha are on, though, they're on -- "October" snakes along on a cool bass/keyboard arrangement and a whispery vocal from Harket; "Maybe Maybe" is a quirky little pop number that's engagingly goofy; while "Soft Rains of April" captures the band at its most dramatic, with the string synths giving Harket a perfect bed to launch into a lovely vocal, concluding with a sudden, hushed whisper. The '80s may be long gone, but Scoundrel Days makes clear that not everything was bad back then.

Delayed gratification and my Snow Patrol problem:)

These are two Snow Patrol albums I had not been aware of until recently (how I missed them is a mystery!!). And I'm trying so very hard (really, I am!) to be patient and not download them off iTunes onto my iPod Touch. I have to practice self-restraint and delayed gratification even though every single cell inside my body is yearning for them. I haven't been this big a follower of a band's music since the late 80s and very early 90s when I went to at least half a dozen Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine concerts all within a three year period.

I guess the difference this time, though, is that I care a lot less about the people behind the product and more about the gorgeous music they make. I mean no offense to Gloria and her wonderful MSM, but looking back now I realize it was (for me) all about the show and (often, but not always) their lavish productions. Gloria is a very talented performer and emerged as a true survivor shortly after a devastating bus crash almost left her paralyzed, but her music doesn't speak to my heart the way Snow Patrol's does.

"Chasing Cars" (made so famous during the second season finale of Grey's Anatomy) "Cartwheels,"  "Just Say Yes" and "You Could Be Happy" are all songs that have this unbelievably deep and sincere emotional appeal.  For those who like their music happy and upbeat (something you can dance to) Snow Patrol probably is a no no...but for those nights when you feel just a little lonely and need to drown your sorrows just a little bit...

I read about The One AM Radio in the Washington Post on Friday and though I bought it because the writer compared the group to Snow Patrol (I don't hear it, but maybe it's just my ears) I have ended up liking the album (Heaven Is Attached By A Slender Thread) because it's a terrific album in its own right.


The One AM Radio has a soft, chill sound. The Washington Post succinctly puts it best when they refer to the music as having "sweet melodies and sour lyrics." The contradiction (almost adorably catchy grooves with a rather cynical take on love and life) is just amazing!!

The July 25th cover of The New Yorker (called "Wedding Season") is one that truly caught my eye and touched my heart...I only found out about it after reading this:


August 15, 2011

I wept when I saw Barry Blitt’s cover of two brides walking hand in hand across the Brooklyn Bridge (“Wedding Season,” July 25th). The image reminded me of my parents, who were closeted gay women in the nineteen-fifties. They were both teachers, and bravely raised me, their daughter, in our happy but very secretive household. Wedding vows were beyond their realm of possibility or even imagination, but these many years later I still have the intimately inscribed copies of Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet,” which they exchanged in lieu of vows.

Patricia Lambert

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/letters/2011/08/15/110815mama_mail1#ixzz1VhJ4npit