From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V4 #312 Reply-To: support-system@smoe.org Sender: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk support-system-digest Sunday, December 9 2001 Volume 04 : Number 312 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Top Ten [YuriG2@aol.com] 2001 Top Four Director's Edition (with full-length author's commentary) [] BRMC & possible Liz album titles ["Chris DeLisle" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 09:48:56 EST From: YuriG2@aol.com Subject: Top Ten I've been enjoying everyone's top ten lists so I thought I'd share my list. Like some of you have said It's difficult when there's still a lot of records that I've not got around to checking out but here goes... 1. Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World 2. Sparklehorse - It's A Wonderful Life 3. The Strokes - Is This It? 4, Stephen Malkmus - Stephen Malkmus 5. Bjork - Vespertine 6. Mercury Rev - All Is Dreaming 7. Radiohead - Amnesiac 8. cLOUDDEAD - cLOUDDEAD 9. Low - The Things We Lost In The Fire 10. Roots Manuva - Run Come Save Me Honourable mentions got to... Snow Patrol - When It's All Clear We Still Have To Clear Up The Avalanches - Since I left You Air - 10,000 Hz Legend Bonnie Prince Billy - Ease Down The Road The White Stripes - White Blood Cells Gorillaz - Gorillaz ~ Mark ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 11:58:55 -0500 From: "Michael Worrell" Subject: 2001 Top Four Director's Edition (with full-length author's commentary) OK, so like, this was a bad year for 2001 CDs in my collection. I bought 52 CDs this year so far, but only about 12 were modern ones. The Good: 01. "The Well", Jennifer Warnes 02. More Music from the Motion Picture "Gladiator" 03. "God Bless the Go-Go's", Go-Go's 04. "Aliens" Deluxe Edition, James Horner The Bad - Stinkers, Neutrals, or Otherwise: 01. "Enemy at the Gates" OST, James Horner 02. "The Look of Love", Diana Krall 03. "Trouble in Shangri-La", Stevie Nicks 04. "Positively Somewhere", Jennifer Paige If greatest hits, remixes, or remasters count, then toss in: 01. "Magic: The Very Best of Olivia Newton-John", ONJ 02. "Greatest Hits Volume 2", Madonna Ritchie 03. "All Things Must Pass", George Harrison 04. "Remixed", Sarah McLachlan The Good: It's really nice to see Warnes back in the studio and on the shelves with a new release. Wow, whatta voice. It's good rainy-day music, and we like it. Splendid album! Moving on, I don't generally like the "voice-over" tracks that emerged with that one song from "Jerry McGuire", 'cause they interrupt the flow of the song. Eh...not so here. "The Gladiator Waltz" is worth the purchase price of this album alone. Wow. More Lisa Gerrard is always good. Her new piece for the "Ali" soundtrack is good, too. Carlisle & Company's release was just a fun summer album. I haven't listened to it too much since then, but I did enjoy the heck out of it at the time. The re-release of the "Aliens" soundtrack was a splendid disc, despite being from Varese Sarabande. From the liner notes to the actual content of the disc, only one complaint can be had, and that is that the disc swings too much from "eh, what's that, line noise or actual music" to shaking the speakers loose by blaring martial notes, all in the space of a few seconds. The Bad: James Horner recycles his work. We know this. At the same time, using the four-note theme previously hammered into our consciousness as the musical signature for Ricardo Montalban's Khan Noonien Singh for another movie is bad. In the case of Ed Harris' Major Koenig, it almost works, though. But---using it almost _continuously_ throughout the film is unforgivable. Not only that, but this soundtrack flat stinks. No more new Horner will be bought by me unless it's previously tested and approved. Note to Jim: You're in a rut. Diana Krall is usually a great performer. She still is, but this latest album seemed to have something missing. Whoever did the liner notes on this one ought to be shot for artistic corruption and bankruptcy---good grief, she's already quite attractive, no need to flash that much flesh to get us to buy the CD. I don't know what went wrong with this album, but it definitely needed more 'funsy' stuff, and more Diana Krall on 88 keys. Less orchestra, thankyou! "TISL" was a marginal purchase for me, and I'm not that great a fan of Stevie Nicks. Nonetheless, I liked several songs on the album as single plays, but in totality, it's very hard for me to notice when one song ends and the next one begins. Maybe that's just me, but I wasn't crazy about it. Jennifer Paige's debut album was a good one; it pushed me towards buying her new one, but I'm not sure that I'm enthralled by this latest one. Slightly modifying a phrase P. J. O'Rourke used to enjoy saying, "News of this release was overtaken by recent events", (gee, I wonder why--airline travel got anything to do with it?) but nonetheless, I'm not crazy about this album, either. I can't put my finger on it, but this wasn't a stellar release. Almost two years ago, (a post of mine on this was dated 27 January 2000) we were trying to figure out how in the world CDnow could say that, "Other people who bought whitechocolatespaceegg also bought stuff by Olivia Newton-John and Frank Zappa." Well, I guess I'm your answer; I saw this disc at Wal-Mart and figured I'd buy a copy, for nostalgic reasons. "Physical" is probably the first music video I saw, period---on the local NBC News, nonetheless. I hadn't heard it in years, though. Picture this, if you will: I'm driving home listening to the disc, and me, a jaded listener of Liz Phair, actually dropped my jaw when I heard "There's nothing left to talk about, unless it's horizontally..." Eh! The nerve of that girl, in the early 1980s nonetheless. "Magic" is a good song, for some reason. Wouldn't mind having Liz Phair circa 1994 or so (back when she had the Beavis and Butt-head voice of "South Dakota" and "California", mind you) cover this song some time, just to see what she'd do with it. "GHV2" wound up being bought 'cause I read the stories about Mrs. Ritchie enjoying a good pheasant hunt at hubby's estate. The longer you go, lady...the more we like you. "Remixed" was simply a fan's purchase. It's not too bad, but that kind of stuff isn't my cup of tea, particularly. Do I really need to explain why I bought a George Harrison album? He's still the only Beatle I'd cross the road to see, but now we won't be doing that any time soon. If only "Cloud Nine" would be re-released... Heather Nova's "South" and Catatonia's "Paper Scissors Stone" are two albums I haven't heard yet (or seen in the import racks around here), so I can't really name them to the lists, but suffice it to say that if I had them, they'd be on the first list by virtue of artist identity. Anyways. Michael "You think you know what I'm doing, so obviously you don't."---Aeon Flux FuSS/>J exsr97 a Isrf/fte lus L21+ rd ps+ bs++ so t-- C++ w p! gl? !LF! N cd263+/>++ fm++ pr--- g--- ?m b! fc! E+/>+++ rl--- !d s CFS-056 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 13:34:04 -0500 From: "Chris DeLisle" Subject: BRMC & possible Liz album titles i forgot the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club album. that album is friggin' brilliant. i'd rank it right up there with the Tenacious D record for the best album of the year. possible Liz Phair new album titles: 1) "possiblyrelevant" 2) "sexy and awkward in my new position in the world of rock and roll" 3) "exiled from the radar" 4) "i'm still the best songwriter out there (get the fuck out of my way)" 5) "an evening i spent with chris deLisle" (sorry, just a little wish fulfillment going on) chris deLisle ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V4 #312 ************************************