I Told You So

Roxette World

I am finally at the point in exploring music from which I started some 12 years ago when ordered a copy of Roxette audio tape from some shop. It was the first piece of music that was my own, not parents’ old LPs, half-scratched and lacking LP player. Now I’ve got it all on CDs, the whole (or almost whole) Roxette music.

Pearls of Passion (1986, extended reissue 1997), Look Sharp (1988), Joyride (1991), Tourism (1992), Crash! Boom! Bang (1994), Have a Nice Day (1999), Room Service (2001), A Collection of Roxette Hits. Their 20 Greatest Hits (CD+DVD, there is also a CD only edition, 2006), All Videos Ever Made and More. The Complete Collection 1987-2001 (2001, DVD with 40 videos and 2 hour-long documentaries).

There are more CDs that generally contain tracks from the above CDs: The Pop Hits, The Ballad Hits, Baladas en Espanol, Greatest Hits – Don’t Bore Us – Get to the Chorus!, Rarities, The Roxbox 1986-2006 (a 6-CD collection of all music and videos).

Gay Dance Music

Already in my collection:

Ultimate Queer As Folk – The Best Of and More (CD 1 – soundtrack to the British TV series Queer As Folk; CD 2 – additional 26 tracks from Almighty Club)

 

Gay Happening Vol. 14 (double CD with 32 tracks, 2006, Dance Street Records, Germany). My favourite is Only You, by Sugar Kingz, Reach Out, I’ll Be There, by Gloria Gaynor and Rock the Boat, by Sugarcube Inc. Dance Street has been releasing such compilations for years, though some tracks keep appearing on several CDs.

Expecting from Amazon:

Best of Gay Pride & Csd Anthems – double CD with 36 tracks.

 

Gay Happening Vol. 15

Funky Music from Maroon5

My new musical discovery is Maroon5, a Californian group that has already released 4 albums (Songs About Jane, Friday the 13th, 1.22.03 Acoustic: Live, It Won’t Be Long Before Soon).

I bought the latter from the book market thinking it will be a loud funky thing that I’d listen to once or twice. After the fourth time I went online and ordered Songs About Jane (European repackaged edition with additional tracks), It Won’t Be Long Before Soon (European edition with two bonus tracks), and Friday the 13th Live CD+DVD package.

The music is sometimes loud, sometimes sentimental, sometimes romantic, sometimes weird. But it is practically never a “skip the track” type. Apart from their megahits “This Love” and “She Will Be Loved” (from “Songs About Jane”) other songs are great too.

Fields of Gold

I’ve only recently opened Eva Cassidy for myself by browsing Amazon. I liked the clips they have for pre-listening and ordered 4 CDs: Eva by Heart, Time After Time, Imagine, Live at Blues Alley. The latter contains the real gem, “Fields of Gold”. It is a Sting song, but how much better it sounds in Eva’s version. It is just her clear voice and a storm of emotions filling your heart.

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Because of you.

I am listening to Kelly Clarkson singing “Because of You” on KOIT radio station from San Francisco (via Internet, freeware Internet Radio Tuner). This is a great song, so inspiring in melody, my type of “go get me goose bumps”-tune. I think I should put Kelly’s album into my next Amazon shopping cart. There is a slightly more expensive Asian version of that album there which is a 2CD pack with videos and radio mixes on the second CD. I guess it is worth additional five bucks.

But it’s going to be a problem with Amazon.com as they stopped quality service to Russia. I mean they ship but the shipments paid through Standard International Delivery don’t get through. It takes long waiting until all estimated delivery dates end, then complaining, then getting a refund or a delivery which Amazon proceeds through its Expedited Delivery option (though you don’t have to pay any extra). It’s a lot of hassle and loss of time/nerves. At the same time deliveries from Amazon.co.uk get to me within less then two weeks and without any problems.

Do I have to stop listening to good music (it’s no good listening to Internet radio with my dialup connection) and watching good films (our TV is no good in showing them especially with their version of translation) because of either Amazon or how our customs/postal service treats deliveries from Amazon.com?

New Dixie Chicks Album

I’ve finally got a new Dixie Chicks album from Amazon.com. Taking the Long Way sets a new stage for the Texan girls. Moreover, it sets them quite apart from the mainstream country music scene.

The album is less “Dixie Chicks country” than Home, less boyish country than Fly and less ballad country than Wide Open Spaces. It is a step forward towards more metal sounding rock-country music, with more steel guitars, rock sounds and rock-ish presentation. Also, if with the previous albums you could easily hear all three girls: Natalie’s voice, Martie’s fiddle, Emily’s banjo and dobro, on the new album it’s just Natalie’s voice and lots of steel guitar sounds by other musicians. If Martie and Emily play something and sing along with Natalie, then they are lost anyway for my average ear.

I am glad that the girls have kept their authentic voices and manner of presentation is also recognisable, their messages are still those from the agenda. What they’ve done here doesn’t take them away from the hit-list and doesn’t deprive them of the status of one of the best groups in contemporary music. What they’ve done opened new horizons for the Chicks and will surely broaden their fanbase.

But the question remains whether what they’ve come up with can hold their current country fans with them, and fully satisfied. Only die hard lovers of Dixie Chicks won’t ask any questions. Many more may need some extra time of listening to decide. I am still questioning. Not my love for them, but if I appreciate their new album in comparison with the previous ones. And on each listening to a new DC creation I discover new songs that I come to like. So maybe after a few more times I will like most of the songs.

On third listening it sounds better than on the first two. Still, only the first five songs and two more along the way out of 14 tracks were instantly classed as “I like these songs”. This is quite a low appreciation ratio and is on par with Fly, only a few songs from which are among my favourites (they are incidentally hits, anyway). Wide Open Spaces was better in providing more ballad-type content, while Home was rich with both ballads and dynamic tunes making it their best and well-rounded album in my opinion. Still, when I realise that I actually like half of the songs this seems not such a bad yield.

Quite little of country instruments and music is left and sticks to the memory, notably in “Everybody Knows” and “Bitter End”, “Silent House”. “Not Ready to Make Nice” is surely a verbal manifest of Natalie Maines as of her position in relation to already not-quite-recent abusive anti-Chicks things.

I am re-listening to Taking the Long Way now and am quite surprised that I now like every song, except the one which is too metal-rock-harsh-screamy (“Lubbock or Leave It”). The thing is that if I decide to put this CD into my stereo and listen to it sitting on the sofa, I wouldn’t listen to the end and quickly opt for someone like Martina McBride or Jo Dee Messina (if I am on a female tune), or Tim McGraw/Kenny Chesney (pre-Caribbean)/Keith Urban. But when this music plays on my computer (I listen through stereo headphones) and I am doing something else here (like getting to know what blogging is and how on earth pics could be inserted into the post body), Taking the Long Way is just as good as anything from my collection. Also, when I listen to Home I want to pick up a CD booklet (thank heavens, Chicks still publish their lyrics in the booklet, unlike Chesney and Messina) and sing along with them practically every song (and I remember quite a lot by heart). I don’t think I’d want to sing more than a couple-three songs from Taking the Long Way.

Well, Chicks keep growing and so is their music. We, fans, can grow with them. For lovers of more-mainstream sound there are plenty of other artists, for those who believe in crossovers there is one more piece of evidence that crossovers keep happening and keep music vibrant and developing, for those who don’t like more traditional country there is a sample of how country can sound heavier, for those who just like good music from good girls with voices, sense and mastery there is one more album to enjoy.