Music

10: Come On Come On (Mary-Chapin Carpenter)

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Album: Come On Come On
Artist: Mary-Chapin Carpenter
Year: 1992

1. The Hard Way
2. He Thinks He’ll Keep Her
3. Rhythm of the Blues
4. I Feel Lucky
5. The Bug
6. Not Too Much to Ask (with Joe Diffie)
7. Passionate Kisses
8. Only a Dream
9. I Am a Town
10. Walking Through Fire
11. I Take My Chances
12. Come On Come On

It was really hard not to view this album through a wave of nostalgia. It was the first CD I ever owned and is one of the few I still have. Three songs turned me onto country music.  Boot Scootin’ Boogie by Brooks & Dunn, Runnin’ Behind by Tracy Lawrence, and I Feel Lucky by Mary-Chapin Carpenter.  But this album is more than nostalgia.  It’s truly an exceptional collection of songs. Not that the radio is the best barometer for quality, but Come On Come On had seven singles and all seven were Top 20. Even more amazingly, the best two charting singles were the sixth and seventh.

Carpenter is a smoker and there’s a bit of gravel in her voice that works for me, especially on her ballads. Combine that with mature songwriting (she wrote every song except Passionate Kisses) and you get some really moving songs. He Thinks He’ll Keep Her is a refreshing and honest look at divorce from a women’s perspective.  Rhythm of the Blues is as soulful as one will get from contemporary country. Then we get I Feel Lucky, a very fun fantasy about winning the lottery. What would Mary-Chapin do with 11 million dollars? First things first: buy a pack of Camel’s, a burrito, and a Barq’s. She also entertains fighting off Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakam’s sexual advances.  Great stuff.

The Bug and Not Too Much to Ask are okay filler and Joe Diffie was definitely not needed for the duet. The flip side of the album is where its at. Passionate Kisses is about a basic need of Carpenter’s that Maslow forgot to add to his hierarchy. Only a Dream is an amazing introspective ballad. I Am a Town is pretty good poetry to music. I Take My Chances is a better written version of the “Don’t follow the crowd” trope in country music. The title track is the perfect ending to the album, a powerful lullaby.

Music

11: I Got a Name (Jim Croce)

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Album: I Got a Name
Artist: Jim Croce
Year: 1973

1. I Got a Name
2. Lover’s Cross
3. Five Short Minutes
4. Age
5. Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues
6. I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song
7. Salon and Saloon
8. Thursday
9. Top Hat Bar and Grille
10. Recently
11. The Hard Way Every Time

Released three months after his death, I Got a Name helped Croce achieve way more success than he ever did while alive. I Got a Name and I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song were both top ten hits and very deserving of such. The song that really does it for me is Lover’s Cross. Not to beat a dead horse, but it’s a song about leaving an abusive relationship and it really hits home for me. My favorite Croce line: “Still I hope that you can find another who can take what I could not. He’ll have to be a super guy or maybe a super god.”  Age is another classic Croce song about living a long-hard life. Again, he was thirty. Ugh.

The rest of the album is very solid. Five Short Minutes is reminiscent of Gary Puckett’s Young Girl and is kind of creepy, despite its intent to be humorous. It sounds nice, but is probably the weakest song here. Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues and Top Hat Bar and Grille are a couple of generic up-tempo country songs but are pleasant enough. The remaining four songs are great, especially the ballad The Hard Way Every Time, a fitting and somber end to this album and his career.

Music

12: In Pieces (Garth Brooks)

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Album: In Pieces
Artist: Garth Brooks
Year: 1993

1. Standing Outside the Fire
2. The Night I Called the Old Man Out
3. American Honky-Tonk Bar Association
4. One Night a Day
5. Kickin’ and Screamin’
6. Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til the Sun Comes Up)
7. The Red Strokes
8. Callin’ Baton Rouge
9. The Night Will Only Know
10. The Cowboy Song

Let me start out by saying that this is some of the best cover art I’ve seen for a country music album.

Garth was already the most popular country artist ever before In Pieces and this album turned him into a freaking legend. Ain’t Goin’ Down was liked across genres and in one live show he was suspended from wires, flying through the stadium while a ring of pyrotechnics exploded all around him. There’s a reason he won Entertainer of the Year more than once.

What’s so impressive about this album is the wide range of emotionally resonating subjects he sings about. The Night I Called the Old Man Out is about the singer and his brothers getting pissed at their dad and getting into physical brawls with him.  The Night Will Only Know is about a couple witnessing a murder but not going to the police about it to hide their affair. Standing Outside the Fire is a fairly generic song about standing up for what you believe in, but the music video places it in the context of Down’s Syndrome and it makes the song all the more powerful.

The ballads are universally powerful. One Night a Day is a showcase for Garth’s voice with only a piano in the background. The Red Strokes was very popular and also had a pretty awesome music video. The Cowboy Song is a simple campfire song but a very pretty lullaby.

The only reason this album isn’t in the top five is American Honky-Tonk Bar Association. It exploded up the charts, and it has a pretty catchy tune. But it’s the only song of Garth’s that offends me as it takes multiple shots at welfare recipients. Garth is one of the more liberal country singers ever, so it’s sad that this unnecessary drudge stains his discography.

Music

13: Yourself or Someone Like You (Matchbox 20)

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Album: Yourself or Someone Like You
Artist: Matchbox 20
Year: 1996

1. Real World
2. Long Day
3. 3 A.M.
4. Push
5. Girl Like That
6. Back 2 Good
7. Damn
8. Argue
9. Kody
10. Busted
11. Shame
12. Hang

This album was released on my sixteenth birthday. I was in an abusive relationship when that person bought me this album. Push resonated with me more than any song ever had before. It still means a lot to me, as does this album, as it helped me through the hardest time in my life. In addition to Push, Argue also resonated with me. “We get along so we shouldn’t argue,” rolled through my head a lot.

There is so much genuine anger pulsating through these songs. It’s obvious that Rob Thomas was in a dark place while recording this. Long Day and 3 A.M. struck a chord with my teenage angst. He wrote 3 A.M. as a teenager as a coping mechanism while his mother was struggling with cancer.  Girl Like That is repetitive but continues the emotional impact from Push quite nicely.

I’m not a huge fan of the singles Real World or Back 2 Good.  Damn is pretty banal, and Busted is really painful to listen to. All reasons the album falls out of my top ten despite what it means to me.

Kody, Shame, and Hang are all considerably more low key, but also considerably depressing. I think Thomas blew his wad with this album. While his music skills improved as he went along, his writing became more pop-friendly and less inspired.  But I have little doubt that Yourself or Someone Like You will still resonate with me in thirty years.

 

Music

14: Creedence Clearwater Revival (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

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Album: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Year: 1968

1. I Put a Spell on You
2. The Working Man
3. Suzie Q
4. Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)
5. Get Down Woman
6. Porterville
7. Gloomy
8. Walk on the Water

CCR’s debut album is often under-looked when their short career is evaluated, no doubt because it lacked easily digestable hits. The only two songs that charted were Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell on You (which they certainly improved but wasn’t that great of a song to begin with) and Suzie Q, which was cut in half for the radio as the last half is some of CCR’s worst guitar work in addition to adding nothing to the song. The rest of the album is bloody fantastic and needs to be listened to by any CCR fan that hasn’t had a chance to.

The Working Man is a simple ode that has a catchy rhythm and showcases Fogerty’s impressive ability to hit the high note. Ninety-Nine and a Half and Get Down Woman are decent rockers. And then things really heat up. Porterville was recorded in the Golliwog days and was easily their best song under the band’s previous name. It’s one of CCRs most energetic songs, up there with Travelin’ Band. Gloomy doesn’t sound like much at first, but the guitar riff at the end is unworldly.

Walk on the Water is a perfect ending, a visceral and haunting tune that ends a short story about a run-in with Death with three minutes of crying guitar that leaves a chill in the bones.

Music

15: Poison (Bel Biv Devoe)

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Album: Poison
Artist: Bel Biv Devoe
Year: 1990

1. Dope!
2. B.B.D. (I Thought It Was Me)?
3. Let Me Know Something
4. Do Me!
5. Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, Mike, Ralph and Johnny (Word to the Mutha)!
6. Poison
7. Ain’t Nut’in’ Changed
8. When Will I See You Smile Again?
9. I Do Need You
10. Poison [Extended Club Version]

In case you can’t read it, the album cover advertised that BBD’s “music is mentally hip-hop, smoothed out on the R&B tip with a pop feel appeal to it.” They forgot, “and also with lots of punctuation!”   Seriously, that list of song titles is not pretty.

Thankfully, here at Death By Troggles we don’t judge music by its cover. I never listened to much New Edition, and I’m lukewarm about the solo careers of Ralph Tresvant, Bobby Brown, and Johnny Gill. BBD impressed the hell out of me when I was ten and this album still does twenty-two years later. They cover only three topics in nine songs: sex, relationships, and reminding everyone that their name is BBD.  Many songs cover all three, and they do it with infectious energy, stylish rhymes, above-average harmonies, and pretty good enunciation.

Poison is their most popular song and I don’t feel it’s aged a bit, other than perhaps some slang like “knockin’ boots.” Ricky Bell’s voice is outstanding, which he shows off most on Dope!  B.B.D. is a hilarious song. “She’s sticking closer to you than the bread on the meat of my sandwich,” is so ridiculous but they pull it off. I remember singing Do Me! really loud as an 11-year old, even when my mom was home, and she’d just roll her eyes. Even to this day when someone says, “It’s six o’clock” I immediately think “on this Swatch Watch!”  The group’s strength is definitely with their up-tempo numbers. They finish things off with two decent ballads. They don’t do them near as well as their protege, Boyz II Men, but they more than make up for it with everything else.

The whole gang from New Edition shows up on Word to the Mutha, probably the worst song on the album, as it’s pretty self-aggrandizing. The extended club mix of Poison also does nothing for me and is unnecessary, especially just four songs after the original version. But I don’t count it against the album when ranking it.

Music

16: Hard Workin’ Man (Brooks & Dunn)

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Album: Hard Workin’ Man
Artist: Brooks & Dunn
Year: 1993

1. Hard Workin’ Man (D)
2. We’ll Burn That Bridge (D)
3. Mexican Minutes (B)
4. Heartbroke Out of My Mind (D)
5. She Used to Be Mine (D)
6. Rock My World (Little Country Girl) (B)
7. That Ain’t No Way To Go (D)
8. Texas Women (Don’t Stay Lonely Long) (B)
9. Our Time Is Coming (D)
10. I Can’t Put Out This Fire (B)
11. Boot Scootin’ Boogie (Dance Mix) (D)

Brooks and Dunn’s first album was Brand New Man, so it was hilarious that they decided they were a Hard Workin’ Man for their second album. It was hard to make jokes about it, though, after just two minutes as the title song is just about the perfect country song. Loud, energetic, great guitar work. Definitely a top five song of all time for me, and my favorite driving song despite clocking in at less than three minutes.

The album doesn’t let up there as We’ll Burn That Bridge is a perfect follow-up song. Lyrically it’s nothing all that special, but the chorus has an insane crescendo that keeps the blood pumping.  The pace slows down for Mexican Minutes, appropriately. It’s pretty solid, showing off Brooks’s then good voice. Then what was a perfect album flies off the rail thanks to a terrible song by Dunn. Heartbroke Out of My Mind sounds lame and and it is. Awkward rhythm, blah piano, insipid lyrics.

Dunn makes up for it with She Used to Be Mine, which is as simple as you can get from a ballad but it showcases his powerful voice. Rock My World is an overrated country line dance number that actually ends with the studio crowd singing along. That Ain’t No Way To Go was another huge hit for Dunn, and in addition to showing off his amazing voice again, has a fantastic guitar intro. Texas Women approaches country swing and is fine filler.

Unfortunately, Dunn regurgitates another awful ballad in Our Time Is Coming. It’s a sad song that inspires no emotion. It’s not near as bad as Heartbroke, but I usually skip it all the same.  The album saves itself with a rare great ballad by Brooks. I Can’t Put Out This Fire has a solid chorus and Dunn sings a good harmony.

It feels weird to include a dance remix of a song in this review, but Boot Scootin’ Boogie (off their first album) is actually improved in this version as it adds a motorcycle, more harmonica, more piano, and a few more choruses. It’s one of the most popular line-dance songs ever and how to make it better other than doubling everything that was awesome?

Hard Workin’ Man is easily a top 5 album if not for two missteps by Dunn, but it leaves a really impressive nine-song album to listen to anyway.

Music

17: More Adventurous (Rilo Kiley)

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Album: More Adventurous
Artist: Rilo Kiley
Year: 2004

1. It’s a Hit
2. Does He Love You?
3. Portions for Foxes
4. Ripchord
5. I Never
6. The Absence of God
7. Accidntel Deth
8. More Adventurous
9. Love and War
10. A Man/Me/Then Jim
11. It Just Is

Rilo Kiley gained some popularity after this album though it was several years before I noticed. It received critical acclaim as well, with one publication naming this the fifth best album of 2004 and another naming It’s a Hit the best song of the decade. As you can see, I love It’s a Hit, but for me it’s not even the best song on the album, though perhaps I would place it second. It’s some of Lewis’s best writing, a great take on criticizing authority figures and the music industry.

Does He Love You? took me a while to warm up to, but I’m more impressed with it upon each listen. While fairly straightforward about adultery, the desperation in Lewis’s voice is palpable and the music fits the mood perfectly. Then we get their biggest hit probably ever, Portions for Foxes. I could sing “Baby I’m bad news!” over and over again.

Ripchord is sung by Blake Sennett. It’s fine, but I’ve never cared for Blake’s voice though he obviously knows how to make good music. I Never is the only true dud for me. While I don’t mind Lewis singing “I Never” 20 times in a row once, hearing the chorus three times really overwhelms me.

The Absence of God is my third favorite song by the band; Lewis has an amazing ability to go from low to high near effortlessly. Accidntel Deth, in addition to having an obnoxious title, is pretty underwhelming musically.

The album then turns it on again with the title track.  Love and War is okay, then we have one of the saddest songs ever in A Man/Me/Then Jim, about a suicide and told in what I think is in reverse order from three different people.  It Just Is is a pretty decent ending, a short song with not much meat but a really pleasant melody.

Music

18: Stunt (Barenaked Ladies)

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Album: Stunt
Artist: Barenaked Ladies
Year: 1998

1, One Week
2. It’s All Been Done
3. Light Up My Room
4. I’ll Be That Girl
5. Leave
6. Alcohol
7. Call and Answer
8. In the Car
9. Never Is Enough
10. Who Needs Sleep?
11. Told You So
12. Some Fantastic
13. When You Dream

Stunt was BNL’s American breakthrough, as One Week hit number one for, naturally, one week on the pop charts. It’s their most frenetic song and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I still enjoy it from time to time. Their other American hit from the album was It’s All Been Done, which is definitely an easier listen. The album continues with Light Up My Room, a mesmerizing dance of rhyme I think synthesizer, but there are several instruments on this album that I’ve never heard of, including the clavinet, the melodica, and the wah wah guitar. I’ll Be That Girl is an exceptionally written song about relationship anger and severe depression cloaked in BNL’s usual light-hearted whimsy.

The album slows down just slightly from here. Leave is a really simple and bitter break-up song. And while Alcohol is probably my favorite song about alcohol, I just don’t care that much about songs about alcohol. I will say though that the lyrics mirror my life a bit, with the singer discussing his previous snobbish condescension to those who drank before realizing that it can be quite enjoyable, though I never used it as an antidepressant like Steven Page did.

Call and Answer might be BNL’s best ballad, about a painful reconciliation that is highlighted by some excellent harmony. Then we get to four songs that have the trademark clever lyric but musically are nothing special. Never is Enough is an oversimplification of college being a useless degree factory. Who Needs Sleep?, about insomnia, has a catchy rhythm but like One Week I can only listen to it every so often.

Some Fantastic is my favorite song here. It’s just so damn easy on the ears. I can also identify with desperately wanting an old love back and fantasizing about all the ways I could convince them to come back. Either way, if you like BNL and haven’t heard this one, give it a shot.

Unfortunately, they end yet another album with another really slow, boring song. It gives props to Del Shannon”s Runaway, one of my favorite songs from the 60’s, but it’s not enough to overcome how boring the melody is.

Looking through the rest of BNL’s discography, there are almost enough songs to make up an album of songs in my top 500, but they’ve really slowed down in quality over the past ten years. For the record, those five songs are Straw Hat and Dirty Old Hank, Shoebox, Conventioneers, The Wizard of Magicland, and Bank Job.

Personal

Top 50 Reasons Why I Love My Father

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1. Mets 3, Astros 0

2. When I was twelve, I wanted a place to store all my stuff so he built me a full-wall shelving unit.

3. His help every time I moved.

4. And every time I locked myself out of my car or my home.

5. He made me join an extracurricular activity in 10th grade and suggested the debate team. I can point back to the debate team for a lot of the great things in my life.

6. Teaching me in the absolute quickest way how to ride a bicycle.

7. Saving my life when the garage door attacked me.

8. Being with me in the whirlpool at the hospital while I screamed my bloody head off.

9. Being my den leader as long as he could take it, and allowing me to quit Cub Scouts.

10. Allowing me to quit Babe Ruth because of an awful coach but making me call the coach myself to do so.

11. Playing hours of R.B.I. Baseball and Baseball Simulator 1.000 with me despite losing most of the time.

12. He never allowed me to win at ping-pong or much of anything unless I earned it. It forced me to get better and make the victories all more enjoyable.

13. Giving us a chance to go to Disney World and allowing us to go fishing instead.

14. Spending many a weekend morning playing Police Quest 3 with me.

15. Teaching me how to play cribbage.

16. Paying me $500 to not watch television for a year.

17. I once gambled with money I didn’t have. It was only about ten or fifteen dollars, but he paid off my debt and made me work it off quickly. It was all part of a lesson to not spend money I don’t have, and to this day I have never once had an interest payment on a credit card.

18. Helping me get through college.

19. When I finally gathered the nerve to break up with an abusive girlfriend, he didn’t say “I told you so,” and solaced me even though I’m sure on the inside he was doing jumping jacks.

20. Coaching my house basketball team to an overtime playoff victory over a bunch of ringers despite not knowing anything about basketball except how many fouls our star player really had.

21. He never pushed me into any career.

22. Giving me many chances to be with his mother in the last years of her life.

23. Being fucking hilarious.

24. He tells amazing stories, even though they get more grandiose with each telling.

25. He spent a long time finishing the basement, telling us that he didn’t know exactly what he was going to turn it into. One day, he had us get haircuts, and we may have gone to play some miniature golf as well. When we got back home, a pool table was waiting for us.

26. He would “take us out to dinner” in Minneapolis only to find out we were going to a Twins game.

27. Sunday morning bowling.

28. He kept me calm during my first charlie horse, which is scary as hell if you’ve never had one.

29. Finding out where every hidden door was in The Legend of Zelda, one blue candle at a time.

30. Having a grown-up conversation with me about the divorce.

31. He made all my friends feel welcome in my home, made them laugh, took them out to dinner, took them bowling, etc.

32. Scolding me when I bragged to all my friends how rich he was (he wasn’t, and isn’t), teaching me a bit about humility and politeness.

33. Being honest about all the times he fucked up as an adult in order to help me make some well-informed decisions.

34. Getting us out of the house during the fire

35. Allowing me to keep my one-thousand dollars on a silly teenage bet he knew I’d never win.

36. Playing doubles tennis with us on a regular basis, and allowing us to chase him all over the court with corner shots.

37. Always being there when I needed someone to talk to.

38. Placing time limits on video games so we’d go outside.

39. Putting a basketball hoop on the garage and being okay with us constantly denting the garage (and his truck).

40. Hiring me for a summer for work he really didn’t need to hire anyone for.

41. Flirting with waitresses when I was a kid so I’d get extra whipped cream in my vanilla malts.

42. Forgiving me for forging his signature (to avoid detention) after finding out twenty years later.

43. And while we’re at it, forgiving me for selling the lawn mower he supposedly loaned me rather than gave to me.

44. Getting along with my step-dad.

45. Taking me on one of the most memorable nights from my childhood, being part of a group of six that caught over 120 ten-inch bluegill in just a couple hours.  And then letting me eat them.

46. Lots o’ golf.

47. Being openly affectionate with Mom while I was growing up.

48. Raising me with a sense of right and wrong that is mostly about respect for all people. I can remember more than once I showed disrespect to another kid, and even when he agreed they were jackasses, still made me apologize and encouraged me not to stoop to their level.

49. For not only not giving up after his heart attack, but working his ass off for himself and his family.

50. And finally, for being an awesome grandfather, during bath time and otherwise.