The Cinematic Scope of Mariusz Duda's Lunatic Soul 2

Music Review: Mariusz Duda - Lunatic Soul 2

One of the first things that strikes you about Lunatic Soul 2 — the second solo album from Mariusz Duda, frontman for progressive rock cult favorites Riverside — is that it has such a big cinematic feel to it.

But this is not so much in the same way as your everyday, garden variety ambient film soundtrack (although there are plenty of those same type of prerequisite atmospherics here). Instead, this is an album where the words and music conjure actual, visual images of a somewhat weary traveler as he makes his way through, what in this case appears to be, a journey into the different shades and stages of the afterlife.

The album is in fact a continuation of Duda's first Lunatic Soul album, released in 2008. The cover art is even a reversed image in white of the black sleeve of the original, prompting some fans to call it "White Lunatic Soul."

But rather than just explore the lighter shades the white cover might suggest, Duda instead takes you through a series of songs which also offer glimpses into the darker side of what lies just beyond the veil. The common thread with all the songs is the journey itself. These are songs where you are literally put into the shoes of the traveler, as he makes his way through the musical purgatory conveyed so effectively through Duda's often quite stunning words and music.

Musically, the album draws from a broad range of genres and even geographic locales. You can hear bits and pieces of oriental, middle eastern, and Indian influences in songs like "Escape From ParadIce" and the instrumental "In Between Kingdom" which opens the record.

The prog influences are also there. Both "Otherwhere" and "Suspended In Whiteness" recall Steven Wilson's recent, more headier sounding work with Porcupine Tree on albums like The Incident, and on his own solo album Insurgentes. You even get a bit of the grand sweep of early Peter Gabriel-era Genesis on "Transition" (which reminded me a lot of some of the middle parts of that group's twenty plus minute opus "Suppers Ready").

But mostly, the music conveys a sense of drama throughout that is oddly, but pleasingly quite compelling. The music ebbs and rises in direct proportion to Duda's lyrics about a man making his way through the darkness and light associated with the afterworld of his loosely told story. Like I said, it plays almost like a movie, and often within a single song.

On "Suspended In Whiteness" for example, the first half of the song (sub-titled "This Heaven") features dreamy sounding chimes, keyboards and flutes floating lightly in and out of the mix, before they are overcome by the huge drums and deep, doomy bass tones of the darker second part ("Don't Feel Alive"), as our traveler asks himself "where the heaven am I now?" (clever play on words there).

On the album's best track, "Asoulum" (which is apparently Duda's way of spelling "Soul Asylum"), acoustic guitars and lush vocal harmonies seem to rise to heaven itself, before finally crashing down in a wave of darkness as the spoken word lyrics forebodingly warn "I watch as this place starts to change."

This is just a beautifully haunting track.



Although much of what is heard on Lunatic Soul 2 might be described as trippy, dreamy or even a bit New-Agey — think of a slightly more rhythmic Daniel Lanois or a harder sounding Dead Can Dance and you'd be in the general ballpark here — the album also has its share of more rocking moments. The heaviest of these is "Escape From ParadIce," where despite the absence of electric guitars (there are none to be found on the entire album), the mid-eastern sounds and big tribal drums make plenty enough noise on their own.

This is also a solo album in the truest sense of the word. From the percussion to the voices, Duda plays and sings virtually every note here, save for the occasional flute part or keyboard loop.

But the most impressive thing about Lunatic Soul 2 is the way it weds music to drama without the aid of pictures. Rarely does music achieve the feat of transporting you to another place in the same way as a good film can. This album, most remarkably, does exactly that. In that sense, it's about as close to a cinematic musical experience as it gets.



This article was first published as Music Review: Mariusz Duda - Lunatic Soul 2 at Blogcritics Magazine.

Rod The Bod And Glen The Boyd

Thanks to Annette Deymonaz for reminding me that I once hung out with rock stars, that I once actually looked that good...and most of all, for making me ask once again what the fuck happened, and where it did it all go so terribly wrong? LOL...

Yeah, right, thanks Annette.... (just kidding...seriously though,  this brought a smile to my face after a stressy week).

Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band: Songs From The Promise Performed Live



"Songs From The Promise" Setlist:

"Racing in the Street ('78)
"Gotta Get That Feeling"
"Ain't Good Enough For You"
"The Promise"
"Blue Christmas"

Finding Lost: Can You Go Home Again?



Book Review: Finding Lost - Season Six: The Unofficial Guide by Nikki Stafford

For those of us who have deeply and sorely missed our weekly Lost fix ever since the often perplexing, but undeniably groundbreaking ABC series faded to black for good this past spring, Nikki Stafford's Finding Lost - Season Six: The Unofficial Guide makes for the same kind of bittersweet experience as attending your thirty year high school reunion.

Reading through Stafford's intricately detailed recaps of every episode of Lost's sixth and final season, you become intimately reacquainted with the already foggy memories associated with its most unforgettable characters (Jack, Locke, Hurley, Linus, Sawyer) and even its biblical deities (Jacob and Smokey).

With the added benefit of rear view hindsight, you might also even be able to finally make sense of the island's deepest mysteries (or, much like that high school reunion, maybe not).

Mostly though, Stafford's book will leave those Losties who became the most emotionally invested in it, with the same feelings of longing, regret and finally resignation as the series finale itself did.



For those who "got" Lost — which was admittedly, not always the easiest task — it was an epic story of good vs. evil. The great, if not always easily deciphered writing, wove together elements pitting the basic arguments of religion and faith against those of science and free will. But it was also a story where the lines were always ambiguously drawn enough to never clearly favor one school of thought over the other.

For those who didn't ("get it," that is) — or perhaps just want to take a fresh new stab at getting Lost all over again on the DVDs — Stafford's definitive guide also goes a long way towards peeling away many of these same layers of mystery.

It is for this latter group, that Finding Lost - Season Six: The Unoffical Guide may hold the greatest overall value. As something of a Lost scholar — Nikki Stafford's deep knowledge of this series isn't at all unlike Blogcritics' own Barbara Barnett's expertise on all things House. The author gives a detailed, chronological run-down of each of the season six episodes that also provides just enough backstory to get the newbies mostly caught up to speed.



The fact that she also does this without revealing any future spoilers along the way, makes this book a great resource for any unanswered questions that may linger following the viewing of each episode (for those who choose to do so).

Of course, there is also plenty enough new Lost trivia to satisfy the hunger of even the most insatiable, more seasoned Lost nerds. The revelations here range from fairly common knowledge like the Springsteen references to "Spanish Johnny" and "Rosalita" in the "Everybody Loves Hugo" episode, to the lesser known fact that the mysteriously anonymous "Man In Black" (a.k.a. the Smoke Monster) was in fact, at one point scripted with a biblical name (which Stafford reveals).

In between the episode recaps, Stafford also goes into considerable detail on the cultural and literary influences woven into the storylines of Lost by primary writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. These range from Star Wars (prompting a complimentary letter from George Lucas) to Milton's Paradise Lost and Stephen King's epic apocalyptic novel The Stand.



Stafford also attempts — and mostly convincingly — to solve most of the many lingering mysteries and questions left unanswered by the series finale, as relates to the Dharma Initiative, "The Others," the Smoke Monster, Hurley's lottery numbers, and — well everything else.

Whether or not Lost follows other sci-fi television classics like Star Trek and The X-Files onto the big screen remains to be seen. But I'd bet a six pack of Dharma generic beer that ten years or so down the line it will.

If and when that happens, the most obvious challenge will be in topping the unprecedented scope of the original six seasons of this series, and condensing them down to a mere two, or even three hours. To that I say, good luck and Namaste.

Perhaps the more daunting task however, will be rekindling the original magic of this amazing series, and finding new ways to expand upon it. For those of us who loved and still miss Lost, Nikki Staford has mostly done that with this book.

Ten years down the line, on the other hand? Well, much like that thirty year reunion, you can never go home again...but then again, maybe you can.

Nikki Stafford's Finding Lost - Season Six: The Unofficial Guide is the final installment in her series of Finding Lost books. She continues to write about the series — even now — on her blog Nik At Nite.

This article was first published as Book Review: Finding Lost - Season Six: The Unofficial Guide by Nikki Stafford at Blogcritics Magazine.

The Rockologist: The Night John Lennon Died

This past week, a lot of us who grew up with the music of the Beatles and John Lennon have been looking back and remembering just where we were on that night some thirty years ago when we first heard the news that forever changed history and our lives.

Like JFK and Elvis before him, John Lennon's death was a snapshot in time we will never forget.

Okay, so here we go.

On the night of December 8, 1980 — which I want to say was a Monday — I was attending the annual Christmas party hosted every year by and for the Seattle retail music business community, in celebration of a job mostly well done. Business overall was still mostly down at the time, but hey, party on, right?

Since the local retail music community in Seattle (and indeed nationwide) had experienced something of a downturn in recent years back then — this particular party took place during the post-disco, pre-MTV netherworld of diminished record sales that was 1980 after all — most of the local music retail hacks (including yours truly) in attendance that night were simply grateful the beer and grub were once again flowing freely, and that the locale that year was the fairly upscale Butcher Atrium.

The years immediately previous to this had seen the annual music industry Christmas soiree go from full-on five course meals at Andy's Diner, to pizza and beer (requiring a drink ticket) at the lowly Ballard Firehouse. Talk about your buzzkills.

Needless to say, it was certainly a long way from the glory days of the mid-seventies — when the mega-hits of folks like Fleetwood Mac, the Bee Gees and Journey (much as us hardcore record store geeks loved to bitch about them) — had afforded us underpaid counter jockeys a fleeting glimpse at such true rock star opulence.

The fact that for the first time in a few years, we didn't have to pimp the local record label reps for drink tickets on this particular night was certainly a sign that good times were indeed upon us once again.

Whatever the case, spirits were once again flying high that night when Ed Richter — the Seattle record distributor who dutifully did his best to keep this local music industry tradition going in both good times and bad (thanks, Ed) — dutifully put on his Santa outfit and proceeded to dole out all of the "gifts" supposedly determined by the raffle tickets all of us retail record geeks had received at the door. Yeah, right.

Was the rock buyer at Tower going to get the lions share of the loot — boxed sets and such — as opposed to me, the lowly manager of a record store known more for its expansive selection of a still then underground phenomenon called "rap" (Penny Lane in Lakewood)?

Well, sure he was. But no matter.

That was mostly okay too. As long as the beer was once again flowing freely for the rest of us minimum wage type record store employees, and as long as optimism for a better future ahead for music retail was in the air once again, who really gave a rats ass, right?

It was at right about the same time that Ed Richter-Claus started to read off that first winning number — I think Tower dude scored a Windham Hill Boxed set or something — that the dark rumors started to sweep the room.

John Lennon had just been shot. ABC's Monday Night Football announcer Howard Cossell had just broke the story at half time during some NFL game between the Broncos and the Raiders, the Giants and the Dolphins or whoever.

Whatever the case, since the game didn't involve our hapless Seattle Seahawks, and since most of us record geeks were busy celebrating the holidays in Georgetown with free beer, free grub and (for a few of us, anyway) free backroom coke, what did the big game matter, and who was paying attention anyway?

Santa Richter was giving out his presents, dammit!

At this point, and for some odd reason, it fell upon me to confirm the rumors which were by then sweeping the room at the party.

So I borrowed a quarter from someone, went to the pay phone in the lobby, and called the Seattle Post Intelligencer (once, in a pre-internet "Journalism" time, known as one of Seattle's two great daily newspapers, but now known online as the casualty of that era called Seattle P-I.com).

I was quoted in the front page story on John Lennon's murder published the very next morning.

By the time I made it back to the bigger room confirming the story, word was already spreading and the room was emptying fast. I'm not even sure if Santa Richter had a chance to hand out all the booty in his Bag O' Gifts. It's entirely possible that Tower guy went home a stocking shy of a three disc Alligator Records blues anthology that night.

Meanwhile, the evenings guests of honor — Seattle's then reigning royal twin princesses of rock, the Wilson sisters of Heart - were just arriving to make to make their grand surprise entrance.

I can still distinctly remember the perplexed look on Ann and Nancy's faces as they strode into the Butcher Atrium in Seattle's Georgetown district — just a stones throw away from General Record Service (one of the bigger one-stop distributors for Seattle music retail at the time).

It was this really odd "what the fuck?" sort of look. Apparently, they hadn't heard the news.

The next morning, still nursing the monster sort of hangover I could still handle back then as a twenty-something year old record geek, I loaded up the car with all of the Beatles and Lennon albums I could carry from the warehouse at General Record Service In Georgetown (at least the ones that were still left), and made the forty mile drive to my record store, Penny Lane in Tacoma.

I also remember listening to the radio on the way up — with all of the endless Lennon tributes — and having to pull over on the side Of I-5 when they played "Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out" to have a much needed cry. Don't ask me why, but that one really got to me for some reason.

By the time, I arrived at Penny Lane, there was already a line in wait.

Good times for music retail had apparently indeed come once again. Too bad the circumstances sucked the way that they did.

This article was first published as The Night John Lennon Died at Blogcritics Magazine.

Random Bloggings From The Edge: Sometimes You Just Gotta' Write

November has been an interesting month. On the one hand, it's been the best month I've had in two years -- I finally got a job after two years of unemployment and the worst streak of absolute poverty I've ever experienced (thank you, Jesus!).

On the other, this good fortune has not come without some unfortunate side effects. Up until thirty days ago, I was making slow, but steady and methodical progress on the book about Neil Young I am committed to deliver to Backbeat Books next April.

Since I got the full-time day job, this progress has slowed to an absolute crawl.

You know what I really miss? I'll tell ya' what. The good old old days when I worked my day job at the record store, the record company or whatever -- and then came home, cooked my TV dinner, or whatever -- and then wrote my shit for the Rocket or whoever till 1 AM or so, smoke in one hand, beer in the other till I just plain dropped.

Those were the days.

The past two years of being completely stressed out about whether I was going to use my unemployment check for gas, food or rent were another matter altogether. Even so, somehow, I got through them -- and I thank the lord in heaven that those days are over (knock wood, and praise the lord). Unfortunately, the book I'm writing about Neil Young has proven to be the biggest casualty of this good fortune.

See, here's the thing.

In the past six months of staying up all night till the sun comes up (since I've had the luxury of being able to do so), I've knocked out roughly half the book.  However, since getting a "real job" again (which absolutely needed to happen), I've had to re-adjust my body clock. No more all-nighters writing, In fact, just getting used to a "normal" schedule of getting up early to go to work has taken about a month to get used to. When I get home at night, all I want to do is eat first, and then crash -- which I usually do on the couch most nights.

Again, I have to ask whatever happened to those days of working a nine-to-five, coming home and writing for a few hours with a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other? Gone forever I reckon...and so be it.

What this means, unfortunately, is that I've written barely a word about Neil Young for the book in about a month. Getting off of that horse was easy, and also absolutely necessary. Getting back on, is unfortunately going to be much tougher -- especially after establishing the vampiric lifestyle of all-night writing sessions I had so gotten used to. I haven't written a word about Neil in nearly a month, and the publisher expects 150,000 of them by April.

The good news is I'm adjusting to working a day job pretty well, and I'm slowly exorcising myself of my other writing commitments. Earlier this week, I finished off my present review commitments for Blogcritics, and also bowed out of doing their weekly newsletter (Wednesdays had become a real bitch for me when I came home so tired each night).

I'm not sure what my future at BC is anyway -- but my instincts tell me things are pretty close to running their natural course there. Things haven't been right there for a long time -- the way they totally dropped the ball on my Michael Jackson story still holds a particular sting -- and new management aside, I don't anticipate things getting much better anytime soon.

That said, I owe a lot to BC -- my involvement in the site has led to many great things, not the least of which has been the Neil Young book deal. Even so, I can't escape the feeling that my days there are numbered.

Anyway, I write this looking to rejuvenate my writing juices on the Neil book in particular. That is one horse I really need to climb back aboard. And I will.

I guess the thing I have to keep telling myself, is the same thing I keep saying to another extremely gifted BC writer who notoriously slaves over every word he writes -- and that is don't fight it, just write it.

At the end of the day, it's a conversation.

Sometimes, you just gotta write.

Macca Gets Back To The Classic Band On The Run

Music Review: Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run (2CD/1DVD Special Edition - Original Recording Remastered)

Although Band On The Run is widely recognized as among the very best of Paul McCartney's post-Beatles albums, I have to admit to being somewhat less than enthralled by it when it first came out back in 1973.

It's not that it was a bad album or anything. But the way that radio played the albums best tracks like "Jet," "Let Me Roll It" and the song "Band On The Run" itself to death back then, had the net result of the album becoming prematurely played out for me. It's the same reason I haven't pulled out my copy of Led Zeppelin IV in years. I also thought the followup album Venus And Mars rocked a bit harder, with tracks on that record like "Letting Go" and "Medicine Jar."

That said, with this newly remastered and expanded edition, it's easy to see why Band On The Run was such a commercial and critical success. The album holds together as a completely realized whole like none of McCartney's other post Beatles work had up until that point (the less said about Wings albums like Wild Life the better). The fact that it was made under such trying conditions (Wings members Henry McCullough and Denny Seiwell had just quit, and the sessions in Lagos, Africa were by most accounts miserable) only makes the overall consistency of the record that much more impressive now.

Band On The Run is also a record that recreates much of the same conceptual feel that made the latter day Beatles recordings seem so special. Less frequently played, but still instantly recognizable (in an "I remember that" way) songs from the album like "Mrs. Vanderbilt" have a familiar feel that recalls both the Beatles' White Album and McCartney's own Ram. The reprises of songs like "Mrs. Vanderbilt" and "Jet" during "Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)" are also a nice touch.

The remastered recording here — overseen by McCartney and much of the same crew responsible for last year's Beatles remasters — is also very clear and bright sounding. On songs like "Band On The Run," the high-end is emphasized in much the same way as on the Beatles remasters, without over-shadowing McCartney's nimble bass work.

On "Let Me Roll It," Macca's vocal is also given a nice echo treatment that gives the song the feel of a vintage Elvis or rockabilly recording. The promising jam near the end of "No Words" still fades out way too soon, just as it did on the original. It was frustrating then, and it remains so now. But this is still a largely minor gaffe on an otherwise very satisfying album.

The remastered version of Band On The Run also contains a second disc of recordings from the same period — some of which are rare, and others not so much. You get alternate takes of most of the songs from the album, all recorded live in the studio for a television special called One Hand Clapping, as well as singles like "Helen Wheels."

The One Hand Clapping special is also captured on a bonus DVD, along with music videos for "Band On The Run" and "Helen Wheels," a lengthy video promo for the album, footage from Lagos and of the photo-shoot for the iconic Band On The Run album cover.

Seeing the video for the song "Band On The Run" all these years later is a little strange, as it seems almost like more of a Beatles music film. The animated effects and numerous shots of the Beatles themselves, bring to mind Beatles flicks like Yellow Submarine if nothing else. The other weird part about it, is the fact that if my memory serves me correct, the Beatles themselves were still feuding at the time.



The Lagos footage is notable mainly for the inclusion of an alternate version of "Band On The Run" that has the sort of oddly eastern feel to it that one would more likely expect from a George Harrison project. There's also a few random shots of a very grizzled looking Ginger Baker, and actors like Jason Robbards and Christopher Lee, who were so famously featured on the cover.

The complete One Hand Clapping special is the real find on the bonus DVD though. In addition to live in the studio takes on most of the songs from Band On The Run, rarities like "C Moon" and the blazing rocker "Soily" make their way into the mix, as well as other McCartney hits like "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Live And Let Die." The video quality here is occasionally a bit grainy, but the audio is surprisingly good given its age. There is also an essay from critic Paul Gambaccini.

The remastered version of Band On The Run is also available in a four disc deluxe version that includes a hard bound book of photographs from Linda McCartney, a bonus audio documentary, and high-resolution downloads of songs from the album.

All in all, this is a very well put together package that does the classic Band On The Run album the justice it rightly deserves. I'd forgotten how good this album really is. Thanks, Paul.

This article was first published as Music Review: Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run (2CD/1DVD Special Edition - Original Recording Remastered) at Blogcritics Magazine.

Black Friday With The Beatles At The Bookstore

Black Friday — the semi-official name given to the kickoff of the retail holiday shopping season in recent years — has become one of the stranger (and more curiously named) ways that Americans have come to celebrate our annual religious holiday traditions, by indulging our equally rabid lusts for rampant consumerism.

Whoever actually came up with the name "Black Friday" — a moniker which conjures images of occult ritual more than anything having to do with Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Jesus, or even Santa Claus — is anyone's guess.

You've also gotta' feel at least a little sorry for the illegitimate bastard son of a holiday that Thanksgiving has become — what with the trees and lights already up, and the door-busting TV ads already in place. All that turkey on your dinner table asks in return for allowing himself into your gut today, is a little love in return.

More than anything though, the whole "Black Friday" concept serves as a reminder of just how stressful the holiday season can be. Fears of being trampled to death by that angry mob when Walmart opens at 4 AM on Friday aside though, what is perhaps most daunting is deciding which bargain to choose once those gates have been appropriately crashed.

When it comes time to play the real life version of "Let's Make A Deal" does one opt for Doorbuster #1 or Doorbuster #2?

Fortunately, when it comes to buying the perfect gift, there is one thing that nearly everyone can agree on, and that is the Beatles. I mean, who doesn't have a person on their list this year who wouldn't be delighted to find the Fab Four in their stocking or underneath the tree?

The only problem there of course (at least when it comes to the music), is the likelihood that the Beatlemaniac on your list may already have it all — particularly with the music now only a click away on iTunes.

Which is what makes a Beatles book the perfect solution. One of the greatest things about having left behind a legacy as rich as the Beatles did, is the fact that even after all these years, writers keep finding fresh new things to say about the Fabs year after year. The books just keep on coming, and this year is no exception. Here are a few recommendations on making the most of your Black Friday with the Beatles at the bookstore this holiday season.

Released just in time for the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's murder, Keith Elliot Greenburg's December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died is a riveting account of the events leading up to Lennon's assassination in front of his New York home at the Dakota thirty years ago. Written as a series of briefs that read almost like one of those news-tickers you see at the bottom of your screen on CNN, Greenburg's narrative takes you as close to actually getting inside the heads of the key players in this tragedy as it gets, without the benefit of actually having been there as an eyewitness to the crime.

We follow the chronology of John Lennon's day as he shuffles to and from the recording studio, does the famous Annie Leibowitz Rolling Stone photo shoot with Yoko, and makes plans to promote the Double Fantasy album — plans which included serious talk of his first concert tour since the Beatles. We also follow the dark and twisted journey of Mark David Chapman that fateful day — including a chilling account of Chapman shaking the hand of John & Yoko's young son Sean Lennon earlier that afternoon.

In the aftermath of Lennon's murder, Greenburg also provides a stunning variety of perspectives to the tragedy, ranging from those of Lennon's fellow Beatles, to sportscaster Howard Cossell (who broke the story on ABC's Monday Night Football), to fellow musicians Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen (who were both performing onstage in different cities when Lennon was shot and killed).

We also get the reaction of Lennon's New York neighbors, including a local bartender and WWF wrestlers Rick Martel and The Wild Samoans — who were wrestling a match just a few blocks away at Madison Square Garden. There have been many books about John Lennon's murder, but few put you right there with the same "newscast from a time machine" style that Greenburg's book does.

New York Times best selling author Howard Sounes' Fab: An Intimate Life Of Paul McCartney is another must-read for the Beatles or McCartney fan who thinks he has read it all. Billed as the first complete biography of Paul McCartney's life, Sounes' exhaustively researched book more than lives up to that lofty claim.

Fab tells McCartney's story from his birth in England, through the Beatles and his solo years (with and without Wings), his family life with Linda, and finally right up through the present day with albums like Memory Almost Full, his record deal with Starbucks' Hear Music imprint, and of course his disastrous second marriage to Heather Mills.

Through it all, Sounes is both thorough and unflinching in his appraisal of both McCartney's music, and of the man himself. In conducting his research, Sounes interviewed some 200 people — including nearly everyone close to Macca himself — to come up with a portrait of a man who is musically brilliant, financially shrewd and professionally driven, but also more privately flawed as a human being than the public picture has ever previously revealed.

In addition to being the genius behind the concept for Sgt. Pepper, we also learn details of Macca's fondness for both drink and especially for smoking pot, as well as past womanizing and indiscretions. The insecurities driving his sibling rivalry with John Lennon is also given closer examination. But nowhere are these details more revealing than in Sounes' account of McCartney's second marriage and bitter divorce from Heather Mills that takes up the latter chapters of the book.

At 600 plus pages, Fab: An Intimate Life Of Paul McCartney can seem like a daunting read. But once you pick this one up, you'll have as difficult a time tearing yourself away as I did — at least if you fancy yourself a Beatles or McCartney fan.

Other noteworthy Beatles titles to consider at the bookstore this Black Friday include Robert Rodriguez and Stuart Shea's excellent Fab Four FAQ (everything you ever wanted to know about The Beatles) and Fab Four FAQ 2.0 (which covers the post breakup solo careers of the Fabs).

For the Beatles fan who also happens to be a musician or gearhead, Andy Babiuk's Beatles Gear is also an excellent choice.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's clobbering time. Tis' the season for Beatles fans. See ya' at the mall.

This article was first published as Black Friday With The Beatles At The Bookstore at Blogcritics Magazine.

Bruce Springsteen Keeps His Promise By Embracing The Darkness

They simply couldn't have hit this amazing story any better.

But for anyone who hasn't yet seen, heard and otherwise fully experienced Bruce Springsteen's long awaited, just released deluxe The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story boxed set, there are a few bumps along the road to what is otherwise quite possibly the most lovingly crafted and executed repackage of what was already a damn near-perfect record ever.

So, I thought it best we get these out of the way early on.

For many fans, the biggest pull of this set is going be the DVD of the complete performance from the Houston stop on what is now considered the mythical 1978 Darkness tour, and the performance included here does not even remotely disappoint.

For those same fans, the fact that the Houston show has had nowhere near the widely bootlegged exposure of stops in Passaic, NJ (Bruce's "birthday show"), and at venues like San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom is a definite plus.

Captured on a particularly hot night in Texas, Springsteen and the E Street band are nothing short of electrifying here. The extended piano and guitar intros on "Prove It All Night" — long the stuff of legend, and now finally out there for wider public consumption on an official release — are worth the price of admission alone.

The video footage is likewise better than anything that has been gathering dust in a warehouse God knows where all these decades has any right to be. However, the occasional drop-offs in sound quality — especially for those of us who already have soundboard bootleg recordings of those 1978 Darkness shows — are, admittedly, a little frustrating.

When stacked up against the Houston performance — as well as the extra Darkness tour footage from Phoenix — Bruce and the ESB's 2009 run-through of the complete Darkness album before an empty house at Asbury Park's Paramount Theatre also comes up a little flat, at least comparatively speaking.

Don't get me wrong here.

Even now, there is no band in all of rock and roll that holds a candle to the collective tightness of the E Street Band. They remain a well oiled machine that is simply unmatched in terms of tightness and musical chops.

But without the rapturous crowd and communal sing-along party atmosphere of their present-day arena and stadium shows, they also look a lot like what they actually are — which is a bunch of old guys playing the hits. Again, make no mistake here. I have nothing but respect for these guys, and I would pay the big bucks and book the plane tickets to see Bruce and the E Streeters run through Darkness in a New York heartbeat.

But here, it comes off as kind of anti-climactic — especially after viewing the three-plus hours of a young, hungry vintage ESB hitting on all cylinders in Houston seen here on the Darkness tour. Bruce in particular, seems to really be straining on some of the vocals — although in all fairness, he totally nails "Something In The Night."

Which is one of the many unexpected surprises of The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story. Most of the other high points occur on the real centerpiece of this set — an undeniably manufactured, but nonetheless amazing sounding "lost album" of Darkness outtakes called The Promise.

But we'll get to all that soon enough.

What mostly separates this set from similar digital revisions of both historically significant and otherwise classic rock albums though, is the way it so completely tells the story of what actually went down at the time. Coming off of the success of Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen was at a pivotal career crossroads in the three years between the time he was anointed as the savior of rock and roll on the covers of Time and Newsweek and the 1978 release of his followup album, Darkness On The Edge Of Town.

During this time, Bruce didn't so much carry the world on his shoulder, as he did in a notebook of lyrics and half-scrawled ideas, which is reproduced here in one of this sets nicest touches. Rather than the usual essay from some critic or (dare I say it) would-be "Rockologist," this is that all-too-rare boxed set annotation that provides a unique look inside the mindset of the actual artist at the time.

Taken together with the DVD documentary film on the making of the Darkness album here, what emerges is a portrait of a future legend with everything on the line at the time in a true make-or-break moment.

Faced with lawsuits that kept him from recording at the time, Springsteen refused to either compromise or, more importantly, to fold. Some of the best moments of this entire boxed set in fact come on the rare glimpses of Springsteen performing covers like the Animals' "It's My Life" on the road, while he was in a purgatory state of legal limbo that kept him from recording.

In that respect, this is exactly why The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story is so much more than just another digital remaster of an iconic rock classic. This one tells a story, and a very riveting one at that.

But there are lighter, and more humorous moments on the video portions of this set as well.

Seeing a shirtless 1977-era Springsteen sporting what comes close to a full blown Afro, and rare footage of Steve Van Zandt's actual hair are absolutely priceless, as is the way Bruce pokes fun at engineer Jimmy Iovine in the lyrics to "Aint' Good Enough For You."

Mostly though, Thom Zimmy's documentary on the making of the Darkness album is a rare look into Springsteen's legendarily painstaking recording process at the time.

And then of course there is the real meat of this set — the two-disc set of Darkness outtakes, assembled here into a manufactured "lost album" called The Promise.

Many of these tracks will be already familiar to hardcore Bruce fans with healthy bootleg collections, including songs like "Spanish Eyes," "Outside Looking In" and "The Way" (which shows up here as a hidden, uncredited track on the end of the second disc). And of course, there is also the first appearance on an official release of the full E Street Band version of "The Promise" itself — a track long regarded by Springsteen fans as one of his greatest officially unreleased recordings.

More interesting however, is the way these songs reveal the very possibly different path Springsteen's career might have taken had they been released on an official recording at the time they were first recorded.

In the Making Of Darkness documentary on this box, Van Zandt (and other E Streeters) repeatedly bemoan the songs that got away. Hearing them here now, it's hard to disagree.

In addition to songs which became hits for other artists like "Because The Night" (Patti Smith), "Rendezvous" (Greg Kihn Band), "Fire" (Robert Gordon, The Pointer Sisters) and "Talk To Me" (Southside Johnny), a convincing case can also be made that with songs like the lesser known "Save My Love," "The Brokenhearted" and "Someday (We'll Be Together)," Springsteen could have easily made his mark as one of the all-time best writers of the great three-minute romantic pop song.

The evidence offered up on The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story makes it hard to disagree. If the "lost album" they are calling The Promise here actually did come out in say, 1977, I'd rank it right next to Born To Run, The River and Darkness itself in my all-time top five Springsteen albums.

For hardcore Bruce fans, the songs on The Promise also offer a rare look into Springsteen's songwriting process. As the documentary DVD reveals, Springsteen often pieced bits of lyrics floating around in that notebook of his, to eventually form more fully realized songs. Evidence of this on The Promise can be heard in songs like "Come On, Let's Go Tonight" ("Factory" meets "Out In The Street") and "Breakaway" ("The Price You Pay").

Whether you are already a dedicated Springsteen fan, or have just always wondered what the fuss about this guy is all about, here lies your answer. Oh, and by the way, they did a bang-up job on remastering the original Darkness album too.

As these digitally remastered versions of music history go, it simply doesn't get any better than this.

This article was first published as Bruce Springsteen Keeps His Promise By Embracing The Darkness at Blogcritics Magazine

Neil Young And Bruce Springsteen Perform Whip My Hair On NBC's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon



Yes, that really is Bruce. No, that isn't really Neil.

The Rockologist: Dylan's Witmark Demos: Bootleg Series Vol. 9

Like so many of the archival albums issued as part of Bob Dylan's ongoing Bootleg Series, The Witmark Demos 1962 - 1964 isn't something that's going to appeal to everybody. Indeed, for those casual, or even semi-devoted Dylan fans with that dog-eared copy of Blood On The Tracks or Highway 61 gathering dust in the closet, this may warrant just a single listen (if even that) at best.

On the other hand, for those looking to delve ever deeper into the early development and legend of the man who in just a few short years went from being simply another in a long line of Woody Guthrie wannabes, to the iconic "voice of a generation" back in those formative early sixties years, this is truly essential stuff.

Once again, be forewarned though. This is a collection that truly separates the men from the boys when it comes to being any sort of serious, would-be Dylanologist.

Even if your own Bob collection draws from such disparate eras as Dylan's early folkie days, his shocking jump from folk to rock in the mid-sixties, the late seventies "born again" years, or even his more recent, latter-day artistic rejuvenation with albums like Love & Theft and Modern Times — this still may not be for you.

Although the pristine quality of these restored recordings is pretty remarkable when both their age and somewhat dusty vintage are taken into account, listening to them in a single sitting often requires nothing less than the patience of Job. But after all, one Dylan fans joy is another ones pain, right?

Repeated listens are likewise going to be unlikely — at least, unless you count yourself among the sort of fanatics who pour over each line of Dylan's songs as though you were deciphering Shakespeare. The good news here is that for those who fall into that latter category, this is definitely your kind of album. So, by all means, jump in with both feet. You'll be diving overboard before you know it.

As with all of the other collections in Dylan's Bootleg Series, the loving care taken in restoring these rare recordings and bringing them to market for mass consumption, appears to have been both painstaking and meticulous.

The 47 songs included here — demos a young and naked Dylan recorded for his earliest music publishers accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, harmonica and occasional piano — reveal an artist who, although certainly raw at the time, was clearly something special even then.

The stops and starts occasionally heard during these recordings — which are more like auditions never meant for public consumption anyway — clearly show that Dylan was a diamond in the rough not even halfway into his twenties. Dylan's rapid and remarkable development as a songwriter is clearly evident in the embryonic two year period covered here, as is his uncanny gift for turning a vocal phrase.

On early versions of songs we all know and love like "Masters Of War," "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "The Times They Are A Changin'," you can hear some of the earliest examples of why Bob Dylan — all popular notions aside — is such a great singer. Yes, you heard me right. Because nobody, but nobody matches lyric to vocal delivery and bites off phrases for the sake of emphasis quite like Dylan does.

I could devote an entire article to this subject alone, and perhaps one day I will. In the meantime, the recordings on The Witmark Demos display this uncanny talent in its earliest stages to often quite stunning effect. Say, what you will about Dylan's vocal range — and many have. But nobody outside of maybe Sinatra puts an exclamation point on a song lyric quite like him, and The Witmark Demos 1962 - 1964 offers convincing evidence it's a gift that he had very early on.

In addition to early demos of familiar Dylan songs ("A Hard Rain's A-Gonna'-Fall") and those which have become such a part of the American fabric that even non-fans will recognize them ("Blowin' In The Wind"), The Witmark Demos also includes a number of previously unreleased (officially speaking, anyway) songs that display his amazing depth as a songwriter, even at such an early stage. These range from the righteous indignation shown in early protest songs like "The Death Of Emmett Till" to the more down-to-earth emotional sentiments of "Ballad For A Friend."

One of the things that has made Dylan's Bootleg Series such an excellent archival sampling of his work, has been the way the albums have criss-crossed their way through the various periods of his legendary career. These have ranged from such truly iconic snapshots in time as Dylan's 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, to the soundtrack of Martin Scorsese's No Direction Home documentary to 2008's Tell Tale Signs — a collection which in documenting Dylan's artistic renaissance in the past decade or so, almost functions as an entirely new album.

The common thread with all these albums is that there really isn't one, at least not in a chronological sense. Unlike Neil Young's Archives series for example, the albums jump around from period-to-period with all of the same sort of wild abandon as Dylan's music and career itself does.

What unites the entries in The Bootleg Series however, is the reverence and loving care involved in each. The Witmark Demos 1962 - 1964 is no exception. The deluxe booklet accompanying The Witmark Demos 1962 - 1964 features rare photos from the period covered and an essay by music historian Colin Escott (the more expansive and likewise just released Original Mono Recordings boxed set features a more expansive piece by noted music critic Griel Marcus).

Again, for casual fans this collection is not something you'll likely be returning to the same way you would that worn and weathered old copy of Blonde On Blonde. The fact is, even the most devoted will find it something more appropriate for study and research then in humming a tune or even reliving a moment in time.

But for serious students of the bard, prepare yourselves to spend hours, if not days pouring over every word.

This article was first published as The Rockologist: Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series Vol. 9 - The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 at Blogcritics Magazine.

Badfinger's Straight Up Album Remastered: Pure Power Pop Bliss

Music Review: Badfinger - Straight Up (2010 Apple Records Original Remasters)

Although some folks will argue that Badfinger's "No Matter What" was the first and perhaps the finest power-pop song (post-Beatles anyway), you'll still find little argument from those same fans that their third album Straight Up was/is their greatest achievement as a band.

As part of EMI/Capitol's ongoing remastering project of the original Apple Records catalog, Straight Up — along with the rest of Badfinger's first four albums — has just been released in a newly remastered edition.

For their few critics, the knock on Badfinger has always been their close ties to the Beatles, as well as the often striking similarities to the Fab's in their own sound. While it is true that you can hear distinct echoes of the Beatles in their best work, including Straight Up's two hit singles "Baby Blue" and "Day After Day," there are lots of other influences there as well.

You can hear plenty of the sixties California folk-pop of people like the Byrds and CSN&Y in Badfinger's spot-on harmonies for one thing (and hearing them again after all these years serves as a reminder of just how underrated Badfinger really was in that department). On the other hand, the lush elegance of songs like "Name Of The Game" and "It's Over" is cut straight from the early Elton John school of stately Brit-pop.

Still, there's no getting around the Beatles influence here. The unmistakable sound of George Harrison's "Hawaiian" guitar is all over "Day After Day" for one thing (Harrison's solo is actually double tracked with Badfinger guitarist Pete Ham here). And no, you are not imagining the resemblance to "Lady Madonna" on "Suitcase" (although you can also hear a little of Traffic's latter-day song "Light Up Or Leave Me Alone" here as well). "Sometimes" likewise is close enough to "She's A Woman," both in the killer guitar riff and the Macca-esque vocals, to warrant an arrest for suspicion of theft.



But ya' know what, who cares? There are certainly worse things than sounding a little like the greatest band of all time. After all, it certainly hasn't hurt bands like the Raspberries and Cheap Trick, right? The fact is, with Straight Up, Badfinger delivered one of the first power pop records of the post-Beatles era, and perhaps one of the best of all time.

Picking out all the Beatles references is just one of the things that makes Straight Up such a great album. Mostly though, Straight Up is sixty minutes (when you count the extras included here) of pure power pop bliss. Most of the original twelve songs clock in at three minutes or less. And while there are bright shimmering guitars and pop hooks aplenty here, equal attention is given over to lush sounding Brit-pop.

The longest track on the album, "Name Of The Game" is a perfect example of this. The five minute track is a gorgeous ballad, complimented by the sort of soaring vocal harmonies that wouldn't be a bit out of place on an album like Abbey Road. An alternate version of the song, originally intended for American single release, is occasionally bogged down by the addition of strings and horns that threaten to overwhelm the song (especially during the chorus). Even so, the added syrup mostly goes down pretty sweet.

Grammy winning engineer Geoff Emerick's remastering of the original tracks produced by George Harrison and Todd Rundgren (who was something like the Rick Rubin of his day) is also noteworthy. The separation is magnificent. On tracks like "Take It All" you can hear every crack of the snare drum with the same clarity as every strum of the guitar. If you liked Emerick's work on last years Beatles remasters, you'll love this.

The extras here are also notable, including alternate versions of "Baby Blue" (the U.S. single release, which sounds like it might have been mixed in mono) and "Name Of The Game" (with the aforementioned strings and horns). There are also three previously unreleased songs. The best of these, "No Good At All" is a ferocious sounding little rocker, powered by a killer guitar riff that sounds like a cross between T. Rex's "Bang A Gong" and Dave Edmunds "I Hear You Knocking." Although its a scant two minutes long, I can't imagine how this one ever got left on the cutting room floor.



Sadly, in between felonious mismanagement and the eventual suicides of original members Pete Ham and Tom Evans, Badfinger was never able to fully live up to their full potential as one of the best post-Beatles exports of great Brit-Pop.

What they leave behind is a string of great singles, and at least one criminally underrated album in Straight Up. Their lasting, if mostly unheralded influence on a generation of younger power-pop artists is unfortunately thought of as more of a footnote than anything else today.

If you haven't yet discovered them, or maybe you just always wondered who did all those great Beatles sounding songs in the early seventies like "Baby Blue" and "Day After Day," this newly remastered version of their finest album is a great place to start.

This article was first published as Music Review: Badfinger - Straight Up (2010 Apple Records Original Remasters) at Blogcritics Magazine.

Days In The Trees

Its Been A Long Time Comin'

Hell has officially frozen over. No, I don't mean the Eagles have made another album.

After two long years of endless applications, job interviews, and let's not forget those employment scams I've come to love so much, I have finally received an actual job offer. The formal offer is currently set to be made on Tuesday, and I could actually start work at my new job on Wednesday. Imagine that. A frickin' job. Guess I'll have to put off that order for a custom cardboard box.

After two years of being unable to sleep most nights -- staying up all night and sleeping through much of the day -- resuming the sort of schedule most people would call normal is going to be a major adjustment. It will also probably be hard to break the habit of checking the daily job boards (not that nearly everything there that isn't a scam,  is still not worth a crap in most cases anyway). In some ways, I'll miss that. I'm also going to need to pick up the pace a bit on my Neil Young book, since I very soon may not have the luxury of endless hours of spare time to write that I do now.

But I'll tell you what I won't miss. Number one would be the groundhog day sort of life I've lead the past two years. Sleeping late, making sure I get to Taco Del Mar in time for happy hour everyday (two tacos for two bucks!), and staying up till the sun comes up on some nights, and sleeping until its damn near gone down again. That type of stuff, like the vampire hours, I won't miss a bit. I also won't miss having to make decisions like do I buy food or put gas in the car today, or feeling just crazy worthless and depressed all the time (which also plays into the whole vampire thing).

And I definitely won't miss job interviews -- where the questioning has taken on a very invasive level of intrusion into one's private life and occasionally even a gestapo type atmosphere as though you were on trial for some unspecified crime (like showing up I suppose). Or even worse, when the interviewer takes one look at you, and already has their minds made up (I've even had one interviewer feign sickness so she didn't have to talk to me -- seriously!). I won't miss going to job fairs where nobody's hiring, but everyone has something to sell. I also won't miss dodging my landlord till the unemployment check arrives (and I suspect he won't miss that either).

Nope. Won't miss those interviews one bit.

The self-esteem is probably gonna' take awhile to come back -- two years of unemployment and poverty can be a real ass-kicker. But I'll tell ya' what? I haven't felt this good in, well, two years now. And as my boy Bruce would say, its been a long time comin'.

Can't wait till' I can also quote Elvis Costello by happily humming "Welcome To The Working Week."

I Got Id: Neil Young and Pearl Jam

As many of you already know, I'm writing a book about Neil Young.

I'm also dreadfully behind schedule on the April 2011 delivery date promised by contract to my publisher on it.

The good news is I'm closing on in it being half-done, with about five months to go. The bad news is, yep! you guessed it, I'm not quite half-done with only those damn five months till' deadline. As hard as breaking up is to do, catching up is even harder. Trust me on that.

That aside -- and trust me, it'll get done -- one of the great joys of writing this book has been going back through Neil's catalog, and especially rediscovering those albums I'd mostly forgotten.



Tonight was just such a case.

Right now, I'm working on a chapter about Neil's most underrated albums. Albums like Trans and Sleeps With Angels will certainly rank right up there of course. But for me, the whole 1995 period with Pearl Jam and Mirror Ball is a particular standout. Honestly, why in God's name doesn't anybody remember this? Because it was some amazingly great stuff.

Not only was this a case of the punks meeting the Godfather -- it also stands out as the point where Neil Young -- albeit briefly -- may have met his most perfect backup band ever. Don't get me wrong here, because I love Crazy Horse as much as anyone.

But where Crazy Horse is a band whose greatest function has always been to lay down a solid, if slightly sloppy and funky groove for Neil to soar over -- Pearl Jam are as tight as a bag of nails on Mirror Ball, and their own accompanying E.P. Merkin Ball.

On songs like "Peace And Love" and "Throw Your Hatred Down," Neil's lead guitar snarls and screeches over the deep, bass heavy rhythmic din created by PJ's then monster drummer Jack Irons and bassist Jeff Ament. Guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready likewise lay down a positively audacious and ferocious groove, inspiring Neil Young to new heights of hallucinogenic flight.

Seriously, I'd forgotten just how great this record is.



Although this is a rare case of Neil's lyrics taking a backseat -- as if they could cut through the din made by Pearl Jam here anyway -- there is also an undeniably nostalgic look back towards the sixties hippie era here. In songs like "Peace And Love," "Downtown" and "Throw Your Hatred Down," references to musical icons of the sixties period like John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix (and their peacenik political sentiments) are abundant.

In the song, "Big Green Country," Neil even sneaks in some of his trademark Indian lyrics ("With folded arms the chief stood watching/painted braves slipped down the hill").



Amazingly, this mostly goes unnoticed -- much as this album has in the greater scheme of Neil Young's overall catalog. There's not a chance in hell you will ever hear "Big Green Country" Or "Peace And Love" played on classic rock radio, and for my money at least, that sucks. This is why I place Mirror Ball clearly in the category of Neil Young's most underrated albums ever.

Who knew that Seattle grunge-sters could have been Neil Young’s best backing band ever? Well okay, maybe anyone who has ever heard the way that PJ backed Neil Young doing “Rockin’ In The Free World” on Saturday Night Live.

That aside, Neil and Pearl Jam pretty much tear the whole damn house down on Mirror Ball and then some. It's easily Neil Young's most rocking album of the nineties, and a decent argument could even be made that the album stands out as some of the most cacophonously beautiful noise of his entire career.

On a final note, Pearl Jam's companion E.P. Merkin Ball also features one of Neil's best guitar solos ever on the song "I Got Id." Eddie V's got the vocal covered here, but there is no mistaking the menacing snarl of Neil and Old Black.

When Neil and Pearl Jam played a "secret" club gig in Seattle back then, I thought I had an "in" with my then drinking buddy Kim Thayil from Soundgarden. No such luck.

I admit I've never forgiven him for that. But Kim, if you're listening, if you can get me a line to Eddie to write me an intro for my book on Neil, I'm all ears. And I'll even pick up the bar tab. Promise.



This article was first published as The Rockologist:: Neil Young And Pearl Jam Have "Got Id" at Blogcritics Magazine.

Best Music Writing 2010: Bring On The Music Snobs

Book Review: Best Music Writing 2010 Edited by Ann Powers and Daphne Carr

I have to admit that the annual installment of Da Capo Books' ongoing Best Music Writing series is something I look very forward to reading each year.

As a music writer myself, and on a purely informative and instructive level, it's a great way to keep tabs on what the competition out there in music critic land is up to. But more than that, the writing is indeed mostly top-notch, making Best Music Writing a series that more often than not lives up to its lofty name.

The 2010 edition, which arrives in book stores on November 9, is no exception. The biggest difference between this year's model and previous volumes of the series however, is that the entries this year represent the broadest, most diverse collection of music criticism offered up to date. There really is something here for just about everybody — whether your tastes run towards indie-rock, country and hip-hop or to more obscure corners of the music spectrum like regional Mexican music, the Louisiana gumbo of BeauSoleil, or even classical and opera.

This year's entries also reflect the year in music news, with multiple entries on Michael Jackson and the Rihanna/Chris Brown dustup, and stories on such 2010 phenoms as Lady GaGa and this year's fastest rising hip-hop star, Canadian rapper Drake.

Speaking of hip-hop, Best Music Writing 2010 includes more music articles dedicated to that genre than ever before. Kanye West's infamous interruption of Taylor Swift at last year's MTV Video Music Awards, is examined in pro-wrestling vernacular (was Kanye's tirade a "work" or a "shoot"?) in a very entertaining piece by Idolator's Maura Johnston. In another great read here, Hip Hop Connection's Phillip Mlynar looks at how fallen hip-hop kingpin 50 Cent might reclaim his once undisputed throne.

There are also articles by such respected music scribes as former Best Music Writing editor and "dean of rock critics" Robert Christgau (a profile of country superstar Brad Paisley) and the Village Voice's Greg Tate (who contributes one of the pieces on Michael Jackson).

Elsewhere, you'll find great writing about everyone from Adam Lambert to Merle Haggard, and every subject from how to read the contents of a royalty statement from Warner Bros. to the relationship between what we listen to and what we do in the bedroom. Like I said, a little something for everybody.

But for my money, the strongest writing found in Best Music Writing 2010 comes down to three entries.

For anyone who either has aspirations of becoming a music critic themselves, or has spent decades of starving while toiling away at it mostly for free as I have, Christopher R. Weingarten's piece on "Twitter And The Death of Rock Criticism" is an absolute must-read.

What is most amazing about this entry is that it originally wasn't even a written article at all, but rather an address given to the 140 Characters Conference in New York City. Either way, Weingarten's insights into the devolution of the art of music criticism in the digital age are uncannily incisive and for the most part spot-on.

Hua Hsu's "The End Of White America?" is another great read, which examines the changing racial landscape of America from a musical and cultural perspective. As is the case with Weingarten's piece, Hsu's observations are likewise right on the money and make for a very enlightening read.

And who better to provide a detailed analysis on "The Decade In Indie" than a Pitchfork writer like Nitsuh Abebe?

What I found most refreshing about Abebe's breakdown of the so-called indie genre, was the way he examines the many different musical factions gathered under the indie umbrella, and correctly calls out the snobs on all sides. Coming from a publication that can be as musically elitist as Pitchfork, it's a rare show of honesty that reads like a breath of fresh air. Another must-read, especially for all you indie-snobs.

With Best Music Writing 2010, editor Ann Powers (Los Angeles Times) and executive editor Daphne Carr have once again compiled a great collection of music journalism that really does represent the cream of the crop. Here's hoping they'll take a closer look at my own entries for next year's book.

This article was first published as Book Review: Best Music Writing 2010 Edited by Ann Powers and Daphne Carr at Blogcritics Magazine.