4 comments about Little Red Songbook.

1. Momus is a classic musician. A great wit pervades almost all of his songs, and penetrating lyrics are in everything else. I highly recommend his music to anyone who has not heard it, but be warned it is deemed quite offensive to most.
   
   HOWEVER, the reason for this review is that I purchased the item viewed on this page and it does NOT come with the tracks promised. Unfortunately only the first fifteen tracks are included with kareoke versions of nine of the others. This is NOT what I paid $22.50 for, and I don't want anyone else fooled.



2. I had been a Momus fan for quite some time when this album came out. Although Momus had used electronica in his work for many years, this was the first of his analog baroque recordings. I must say that I know several people who couldn't take this out of their car CD players for months after getting the record. And some of the same people (myself included) found themselves humming or singing the tunes throughout the day.

   There are many stand-outs on the disc. "Everyone I Have Every Slept With" is a simple, hummable tune that tells all. "Born to be Adored" doesn't seem to fit very well with the rest of the album, but it's smooth arrangement is one of the album's highlights. "What are you Wearing?" is an extremely cute cut that should always be sung by a young Japanese girl (and it was on tour).

   The only unfortunate part of this album is the removal of of the song "Walter Carlos", due to a lawsuit by Wendy Carlos. Fortunately, the lawsuit brought the very entertaining Stars Forever album into existence.




3. Perverted Scotsman Momus (Nick Currie) is here with 15 new songs for you in his style of "Analog Baroque." I can't go into the depth of this style like I can with Folktronic, but I can tell you that the style kind of originates with Walter Carlos, the man who did the film score for A Clockwork Orange. He made a record called Switched On Bach which remade a bunch of old Bach music with Moog synthesizers. It's a juxtaposition of Rococo ideas with the technology of today. Momus is the newest in a line of artists to create music in this style, although he goes about it differently. The music is hardly what I'd call baroque. It's Casio pop played on synthesized harpsicords. It ends up more like a tribute to the real analog baroque artists, trying to make something that harks back to Walter Carlos and Jean-Michel Jarre.

   The lyrics are obviously going to be pure Momus. As always, he aims to make you think and laugh at what you're actually thinking about. The best example of that is track 9, soon to be classic...On a less dirty part of the cd, Momus wonders what would happen if MC Escher became a rapper because he already had the name going for him. It's an extremely catchy hip hop song that more than wanders from the Analog Baroque theme. According to Momus, every MC loves rapping about how he's the best MC around, but if that were true, then each would be better than the next, and it would be like one of those MC Escher drawings of the neverending staircase.

   Unfortunately, with this album more than any other, Momus puts brain way ahead of body. He has the ability to branch out musically and a lot of different interesting things, as shown with Ping Pong and Stars Forever, but on this one he kind of pigeonholes himself with the Analog Baroque idea. It only gets him so far, and it gets tiresome after a few songs. Luckily, this album contains Momus' downright sexy "Born To Be Adored." Having nothing to do with analog baroque, it samples an old soul song throughout it, has a slow beat and a plainitive piano melody. Momus sings over in a quiet voice about all the reasons he's so adorable. In terms of lyrics this might be my favorite Momus song. There's lots of creative rhyming. "My favorite color is the emerald green / Chuck the football king goes when his beauty queen / comes to me when she's chucked him in / I was born to be adored by women."

   Unluckily, because of legal complications, you cannot buy the version of this album with "Walter Carlos" on it anymore. It's a great song about gender misidentification.




4. Momus, born Nick Currie, uses antedotes from his own life to create three minute, synth/low-fi/circus fueled pop songs. On this album Momus created much controversy. Check out "Harvey K-Tel", a great homage to Harvey Keitel. Many of the songs, as in standard Momus form are paradoys of people he knows or admires. However, apparently not everyone appreciates the joke....thus the lawsuits ensue. One song, "Beethoven's Nineth" is about the transgender artist who composed the soundtrack for Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange." After a settlement totaling more than $30,000 and several lawsuits later this album is hard to come by. Whether you find yourself laughing sardonically at "I Was Born to Be Adored" or getting lost in the Warholesque-mentality of classics like "Coming In a Girl's Mouth," make sure that you pick this up while you still have the chance.

No comments about I'm Your Toy.

No comments about Touch Me with Your Love.

No comments about My Wife and My Dead Wife.

5 comments about Everything I Long for.

1. "Criminally" and "under appreciated" are three words that occur repeatedly in talking about some of the finer unknown musicians active today, but they fit Hayden Desser better than most. Objectively, I think that ELK-LAKE SERENADE may be his best album, but subjectively I value it and this one about equally. While the songs on ELK-LAKE SERENADE are a bit more polished, all rough edges smoothed away, the lyrics are so spectacular that I have to give the nod to that one. Lyrically EVERYTHING I LONG FOR isn't quite as good, but I must confess that I love the rough-hewn quality of the songs. His music can be alternatively described as lo-fi or folk-rock (though it is really more like rock-folk), but mainly what it is, is good.
   
   This is an album filled with one gem of a song after another. I especially love the way that he will go from soft and melodic to rough, raw, and loud. The technique was, of course, first perfected by the Pixies, but Hayden exploits it better than almost anyone since. No song uses this technique better than "When This is Over," a nightmarish song about being strapped in a car with his younger brother because his mother is apparently off with a boyfriend, a song that I hope to god is purely fictional. The verses are soft and almost whispered, but the chorus raucous and despairing and very, very loud. (The song also illustrates what I was talking about before, that this album is stunning musically, but the lyrics are not as strong as what you would see on ELK-LAKE SERENADE, where each song's lyrics read like great poetry.) Another great song that blends softer segments with rough, gruff bits is "Skates." Likewise, the musically marvelous "Bad As They Seem" that starts off the album is gorgeous to listen to, but the lyrics are simply not as strong as almost any song on ELK-LAKE SERENADE. That being said, I have to say that I musically enjoy almost all of the songs on EVERYTHING I LONG FOR more than almost all of the songs on ELK-LAKE SERENADE. The other side of the coin, however, is that the lyrics of many of the songs on the album aren't up to the quality of the music, whereas on ELK-LAKE have the enjoyment of the album are the brilliant lyrics. Still, "We Don't Mind," "Stem," and all of the aforementioned songs are all marvelous to hear.
   
   One reviewer predicts that Hayden Desser will be the new Bruce Springsteen. I'm less sanguine. I suspect that he will always fall into the category of the brilliant but neglected artist. I think he will continue to produce wonderful albums, be ignored by most, and appreciated by a few. But I would strongly recommend anyone reading this becoming one of the few. Hayden is a truly wonderful performer who deserves as much of an audience as he can get. If you don't know his music, this is definitely one of the two albums you should try first, the other being ELK-LAKE SERENADE. If you like both of those and feel you need more, try the wonderful live album LIVE AT CONVOCATION HALL and the studio album SKYSCRAPER NATIONAL PARK.



2. From start to finish, this entire album is amazing. The lyrics are honest and funny and his voice is one of a kind.
   
   If you only buy one Hayden album, this has got to be it. But you won't. Once you buy this one, you're gonna go out and buy them all. I know it.



3. "Story-songs" are the hardest to create and pull off. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's "Nebraska" album is most highly acclaimed due to his amazing ability to tell a moving story in each song on the album. Years from now, Hayden's album "Everything I long for" will be highly acclaimed by musicians and songwriters worldwide (Hayden will be the next BOSS). Hayden has the miraculous ability to make you laugh and cry in each song. He captures a universe of mood and feeling from beginning to end. The pace of his music is magical!!! If you are going to buy one Hayden album, this is the one that i would recommend! (If i were to be stranded on an island with 3 Cds, this would be one of them.) Buy it, shut your eyes, listen, and you will cry and laugh.



4. This album is depressing, melancholy, and almost criplingly sad. It will make you ache, it will make you miss times of your life you can never go back to, it will accent your lonelinesses and remind you of your sorrows.
   IT'S GREAT!
   This album is the epitomy of where I was hoping modern-day folk music would head toward: this album is as sincere and as truly folk as the mournful songs of Mississippi John Hurt or the Carter Family. Back then, people sang about what was really happening to them, to their world, to where they lived. If they'd had microwaves and pizza and cable TV and coffee shops, they would have sung about them, too.
   That's what a lot of modern day folk musicians don't get. They treat folk as if it was stuck in a bubble. They imitate something real, and what comes out is something phony, because what they're singing about isn't really their world.
   Not so with Hayden.
   Not so with "Everything I Long For."
   This album recognizes its time and its place. It draws as much from indie rock and grunge as it does from folk, and the result is something completely original. Low-fi folk grunge? Grunge-folk?
   It's Hayden.
   Like Daniel Johnston, Hayden is never afraid to be painfully honest, even if it makes him look cowardly or pathetic, and it pays off by mostly just making him incredibly sympathetic. He sings about liking a girl he sees in a coffee shop, and having his friend give the girl his number while he himself hides in the bathroom. He sings about a weekend spent with a girl at his parents' house and how he wishes she would got there with him again, now that they're all grown up. He sings about lying to ditch out on a crappy job, and about working in a sporting goods store. His songs are depressing, yet songs like "My Parents' House" and "We Don't Mind" also have hope and private happinesses hidden deep inside them, and warm the sad and chilling soul of this album.
   The songs are quiet, for the most part, and haunting, but on occassion it feels as if too much quiet suffering is being left unexpressed, and Hayden has to scream out, and let it out, and let you know. Those are some of the BEST parts. He sings one song from the perspective of child-murderer Susan Smith's little son, as the car he's strapped in rolls into a pond--the child wonders what he did wrong, tries to help his brother, and screams and screams and screams and screams as the water fills the car.
   My gosh, it's good stuff.
   If you're the sort who occasionally feels better after listening to depressing music, then this is the album for you. If you like the blues not for their mind-numbing repetition but for the idea that singing out one's pain is cathartic and healing, then buy this CD. If you like albums that feel like a friend you love confiding his deepest secrets because you're his closest pal and he's at the end of his rope, then buy this album. If you like music, if you like music that makes you feel something, if you like music that makes you feel something meaningful, then you really do need to buy this album.
   And Hayden's "Moving Careful" e.p. is great as well.



5. I bought this CD soon after it was released based on his single "Bad As They Seem" which was frequently played on MTV in the 90's (back when they played videos). To be honest, after getting it, I didn't listen to it that often. I put it back on my shelf.
   
   A few years later, I saw Hayden as the opening act at a concert I went to. I remembered his single and was looking forward to hearing him. Unfortunately, the drunk and rather obnoxious crowd didn't seem to care for his music (or any music for that matter) and he seemed to cut his set short. He didn't even play "Bad As They Seem", concentrating on his faster songs.
   
   But it was months after seeing him in concert that I finally gave the CD another listen. And this time, it blew me away.
   
   "Bad As They Seem" is still a great song, but there are others on the CD that are even stronger.
   
   "In September" is just a fantastic song. Angry, loud, yet incredibly catchy that you will find yourself singing to yourself for weeks after hearing it.
   
   "My Parent's House" is the total opposite end of the spectrum, musicwise. Just vocals and a piano and it is beautifully done.
   
   Then you have "When It's Over". How to describe this one? The song is about the Susan Smith tragedy, where the mother put her kids in a car and drowned them in a lake. The song is written from the perspective of the kids as the car is rolling into the water. I don't know what is more shocking, the subject matter, or the fact that it is just an incredible song. Alternately sad, with the child begging forgiveness from the mother, saying they will change, to the explosive chorus. Very tough stuff. Change the lyrics, and this would have been a hit song. But, it is worth picking up the CD to hear.
   
   While not all the tracks on the CD are great, these four alone make this a must buy CD.

3 comments about Live at Sin-é.

1. For anyone who was left wanting more after Grace, this is a decent follow-up album.
   
   Here is Jeff as he really is. You can see how much of the magic of the Grace album was due to a back up band and studio processing and how much was really just Jeff. By this I mean that 90% of the magic in the studio was maintained by a single man's voice and guitar in a live setting. I was quite impressed. His playing, energy, vocal abilities, improvisational skill were not diminished at all. Not too many people can keep up with their studio releases (Rolling Stones' Steel Wheel tour, for example. Ugh!) but Jeff absolutely can.
   
   Also, Jeff talks a lot in between songs giving us an idea of who he was. And he adds a fair number of covers. So this album gives us a lot more than diminished version of Grace



2. I don't have the import version, but as far as I can tell, it is the same as the US version. This is a great album that really shows off some of Jeff's ability and versatile style. This album was recorded right before he recorded 'Grace.' It has many covers, his version of course. It also has several songs from the Grace album, some of which are quite different than the album version. Also, since these are recordings of Jeff up close without the band, the quality of his guitar playing is heard clearly. This is definately a 5 star album!



3. I don't care how good his music was - at this point, anything that is released is just a regurgitated, repackaged money trap designed by people looking to capitalize on Jeff's cult hero status. The man had ONE ALBUM, people. ONE! It was an excellent album, yes. He had an amazing, ethereal voice, true. But how can anyone plunk down major money for filler, in good concience? The Grace EPs (which I have, admittedly)! The Ultimate Grace Collector's Edition! Jeff on Tour at Your Local Coffee Shop in 1989 When He Was Filling In For The Headliner, Who Cancelled At The Last Minute! Jeff Singing in the Shower!
   
   I know it's not fair that I'm reviewing this item based on a personal opinion of something that has nothing to do with the actual music - but come ON! "Grace" was as Jeff wanted it to be. None of the rest of this is. Live albums and "Best of", for live artists, are (usually) reserved for that "lull" in the career when the artist is no longer at the top of their form. This is REALLY scraping the bottom of the barrel. Shame!

No comments about Marlene On The Wall - Autographed!!.

No comments about Mighty Like A Rose.

2 comments about 2 Become 1/Sweet Temptation.

1. I just don't get the lack of promotion for Jewel! 0304 had so much potential but the promoters ignored it in the beginning stages of promoting Stand.
   
   As for the third single 2 Become 1- It's one of the weakest on the album! I don't get why they'd choose it as a single.
   
   SWEET TEMPTATION should have been the third single and they make it out to be a B side which makes no sense. This rocking song could of had an awesome video and been a huge hit. It disappoints me so much when I see an album like 0304 overlooked so much.
   
   Here's to hoping her next album, slated for release early next year, gets the promotion it deserves!



2. I don't get who's in charge of the promotion team of ATLANTIC RECORDS, but the surely understimate the power of Jewel's album 0304, that album was crowded with HIT singles, that with the right promotion would have taken off. 2 BECOME 1 is a nice melancolic song, but, shockin enough, I agree it wasn't the best choice as a thrid single, sure it was close to the old sounding Jewel, but if 0304 was praised about something it was Jewel's boldness to don't be affraid and try something new, SWEET TEMPTAION included here was a far better choice as a single, but not the one, I have chose, listen to HAUNTED on 0304, it's really something different, although is Jewel goin' Amos route, but it's deep, dark and strong, a nice tune. Either way the video for 2 become 1 was simple, the song was nice, but close to fall into average Adult top 40 tracks, Jewel had much more to offer from her brilliant 0304 album, sure to be one of my favorite albums of all time. This is what artist are truly made of, confidence, eclectic and evolution, nic egoin' Jewel.

5 comments about Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars.

1. I used to love this album...at the time, everyone did. I worked at a Tower Records when it came out and everyone in the store played this on their "register shift"...over and over and over and over. Yes, it got old. About 5 years later, when I was doing my student teaching with high school kids, they were playing it too...Ok, so 5 years or so forward, and still holding its own.
   
   However, just the other day, I decided to play this album as I hadn't listened to it as a whole in years. The surprise for me? I couldn't make it past three songs. I found it grating and sophmoric. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated it at a time, and at the time, it was fun, refreshing and unique. However, 20 years have passed and I have discovered so much more musically over the years...so much more has happened musically.
   
   It may have been interesting to see how Edie progressed as a solo artist (however, I have seen her on a few late shows over the past few years, and...not so much). What did Edie do? Edie married Paul at her supposed "peak". I think that her creativity and potential may have matured and progressed over the years, but we all make choices in life. Unfortunately, I can now only give this album 3 stars for sentimentality. It served a purpose once, but it's no long standing masterpiece.



2. This is an excellent album, with thoughtful and intelligent lyrics, incredibly catchy tunes, Edie's voice hip, tough and sensitive at the same time - a kind of sexy wistfulness that's as frank as it is meloncholic. The Amazon review underrates it. Edie Brickell's first album is great through and through. It's no wonder that it was the success that it was. One of the gems of the late 80s, with a spiritual tone more akin to the 90s.



3. I had bought the album back in the early nineties, before the cd era. I loved every little second of this entire album. It s the simplicity and the shoeless free spirit feeling this album inspires. I absolutely enjoy listening to Edie Breckel s little voice.



4. The CD is to scratched to upload onto my ipod. I contacted the seller and he offered a full refund of .01 if I sent it back to him. I guess he made a couple of bucks on postage from me, but duhhh, I'm not going to pay another buck to send it back to him and get .01 back and then he could send it out to another unsuspecting person. I think he should have offered to send me another CD since he had to know the CD was bad.



5. edie brickell and the new bohemians are an excellent band that came out quite some time ago and this was the first (at the time casset tape) cd then came ghost of a dog but I digress... this is my favorite cd by edie because it is truly a relaxing and mellow collection of folk type songs with a bit of a modern flavor to them. and her voice is almost mystical on some of the songs like "air of december and Circle" both of which are my fav's. buy this cd if you are looking for relaxing hippie style folk music that will sooth both the nerves and the soul.
   
   and relax! you can buy it here from this link!
   Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars
   **Compact Disc**