Joan Osborne: Trouble and Strife Album Review

Take It Any Way I Can Get It:  Good message of female independence and chasing your goals despite haters and opposition.

What’s that You Say:  Retro and funky.

Hands Off:  Guitar is the best thing about this song.  But also I like the sentiment.

Never Get Tired (of Loving You):  How is this guitar sound made?  It’s what gives the throw-back 1980s funk vibe and the string/keyboard interlude contributes to the feeling of that era.  And the baseline is what I suppose the 1970s sounded like.

Trouble and Strife: Immediately liked the tempo of the song.  And it reminds me of a Jonny Cash song–she talks through it, but it tells a specific story.  The guitar breakdown is fun, but it would be better if it was more complex and faster.  And i liked how the guitar stepped down to end the song.

Whole Wide World:  meh.

Meat and Potatoes:  I can see what she was trying to go for here.  But it’s a lot of food metaphors for a small pay off line, “on the side” for me.  I do like the instrumentals here, very much.  In fact, even though I don’t care for the song’s lyrical content, the guitar saves the day.

Boy Dontcha Know:  A song about sexism.  It’s not quite as catchy as, “The Man” but I can appreciate Osborn’s take.  And lyrically, it goes harder than Taylor Swift.  It’s good that more and more female singers are broaching the topic of misogyny.  

That Was a Lie:  As a continuation of the last song, Osborn addresses expectations.  A winning line is, “This is how you know you finally earned your place, when there aint no difference between a mask and your face.”  Guitar sounds awesome at the end.  

Panama:  Oooh–that piano.  The hummm.  One of my favorites on the album, despite the repetitive lyrics.

The Flaming Lips: American Head Album Review

Alice fell asleep in Wonderland.  That’s how I would describe the album.  It’s experimental, but down-tempo, low-key.  Background music, with distortion.  

Mother Please Don’t Be Sad:  Is my favorite so far.  There is cello and piano and instrumentally, it’s a beautiful, interesting piece.  I could take or leave the words–mostly leave, but the concerto makes up for it.

When We Die When We’re Highs:  Very marching band.  Snare and xylophone.  There is just not enough xylophone in mainstream music today!

Assassins of Youth:  Video game sounds.  Playing with tempo, and maybe some subtle moag.  Digital beeping with a steady beat.  It caught my attention.

My Religion is You:  I love that moag, deep and vibrational.

These last 3 songs, finally woke me up.  I nearly didn’t finish listening to the whole album, because I thought I could tell where it was headed.  I’m glad I didn’t abandon it before it got better.  I wish Flaming Lips had released an EP with the latter-part of the album.