Location: Loveland, CO.
Preoccupations: God, words and tunes.
For the REALLY morbidly curious, see the links below. :)
Todd77 on Making the Dream ...
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timbyrnes on Making the Dream ...
burninglight on Making the Dream ...
aristorano on Making the Dream ...
burninglight on 13er #1(or #2, ...
Anonymous on 13er #1(or #2, ...
About me
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Various and Sundry, Bloody Sundry
Yo again,
After this entry I’m gonna go to radio silence for a little while. I’ll check here for anything important, but it’s apparently time again for the annual August power-down and/or musical/foodical fast. I didn’t go looking for it, but it found me, so I’m a’gonna be honoring it.
As always, lots of changes afoot. And as always, some are church-related, but at least this time (finally) these ones weren’t my idea, although I’m the figurehead to move things forward, as it were (and if it makes sense to do so). And this year, it also involves changes at my work that I still don’t have my head around (and neither does anyone else above me, as far as I can tell), although I know it’ll involve inhering a chunk of the product line I was separated from during the last re-org a couple years back. Both issues are, in one way or another, related to the small-group and privately-produced curriculum that’s been much ballyhooed on these virtual pages.
And then there’s the opportunity –- again, another one that tracked me down –- to be on the board of what we’ll just call for now a local civic organization trying to grow. It’s a good cause, and in a field I used to be involved in once upon a time; just a matter of whether I’m the right person for it.
Anyway, we’ll see on all counts. But I’m looking for God’s perspective in all of it. So there you are.
**********
And speaking of “so there you are,” here’s the review this time around:
Sam Phillips – Don’t Do Anything. The former Mrs. T Bone Burnett has had quite the interesting career of her own, from mainline CCM artist who didn’t entirely suck to full-blown rebel against said genre (resulting in the brilliant The Turning, and the rather odd name change from Leslie to Sam), to super-quirky pop iconoclast whose Martinis & Bikinis (and its Beatle-esque single “I Need Love,” which you’ve heard even if you didn’t realize it: “I need love, not some sentimental prison / I need God, not the political church….”) actually earned a Grammy nomination. And like many musicians I appreciate, promptly alienated her new audience and got herself kicked off her label with the love-it-or-hate-it Omnipop (of course, my favorite album of hers).
And rather than the trouble-on-the-farm album I perversely hoped for, the last two albums, Fan Dance and A Boot and a Shoe, were…. well, not only a lot more subdued but kinda disconnected and boring. So there was some trepidation approaching Don’t Do Anything.
So let’s start there: Musically, it’s often closer to the last two than expected or possibly hoped. That said, this time it actually works, and there’s enough moments that sound like the quirky old Sam we’d come to know and love prior to that. It’s not on the level of said Martini & Bikinis or Omnipop, but it’s arguably her best Sam album outside of that. (Which is also to imply: It ain't The Turning either.) It's probably at least as good as Cruel Inventions, either way. And it’s the closest thing she's done to a trouble-on-the-farm album, but she doesn’t linger there.
“No Explanations” makes for a promising opener, as right off the bat it’s the most compelling song since Omnipop – the dour yet crunchy arrangement nicely backs up the opening statement, “I thought if he understood he wouldn't treat me this way," and goes from there. “Can’t Come Down” echoes the tone of the last couple albums, except again it’s more appealing. “Another Song,” in barely more than two minutes, goes from an odd music-box guitar opener to a forlorn piano riff, “Everything you used to do used to make me smile / Then you went away / Did you ever love me? / Did you ever you me?” The title song notches the piano and the tone up a notch, as it declares, “I -- love you – when you don’t – when you don’t do anything / When you’re useless, I love you more.”
“Little Plastic Life” is the sweetly catchy and obvious single, hearkening back to the Martinis & Bikinis days, even as it declares, “Burn it all to the ground…. I’ve lost my power of explanation.” “My Career in Chemistry” throws yet more musical and lyrical dissonance into the mix: “"I'd rather be alone than with someone who doesn't know."
And so on. Again, it’s a Sam Phillips album, and for the first time in more than a decade it’s a good one. That should be enough to tell you your next move.
**********
Oh yeah, and I’m taking the day off tomorrow to hike this….
Yes, both of them. (There’s only about a half-mile between them once you’re up there, actually.) And yes, that shot’s probably taken from near the spot I’d be starting from. 12,700+ feet up, 3,200+ foot ascent. Probably the toughest hike I’ve ever taken, but the views obviously oughta be worth it. And I’ll finally be fulfilling a three-year-long dream to actually stand on the Continental Divide.
Talk to you when I talk to you. I shan't be too long this time.
