The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

I swear that each year I have less and less time to spend listening to new music.  It seems like a losing battle anymore to keep up with all the new albums coming out, but I have to keep trying.  So rather than pontificate on the albums of the past year – as I’ve been known to do – I’m going for brevity in an attempt to get more done.  And I’m adding one new feature to this year’s year-end music wrapup (and future releases as well), by introducing a grading system.  Here’s the rundown:

• Dig It – You can safely part with your hard-earned money for this and not feel like a sucker.
• Download It – Still worth a listen, but you’ll probably want to just download it and cherry-pick the best tracks.
• Ditch It – If you can find something of lasting value, you’re a better person than I.

Got it?  Good!  Let’s begin…

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Before I unleash my awe-inspiring year-end album wrapup, I thought I’d share with you a mixtape featuring ten of my favorite songs from 2009.  The only restriction I’m placing on myself here is that I won’t be double-dipping from any artists, although some could have easily taken up half this list.  And away we go!

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Man, I take a short break from updating the site and, just like that, I’m buried under a pile of new music releases.  Not to mention, of course, the Beatles remasters.  So with no big preamble, let’s get right into it…

Ace Frehley – Anomaly (Brooklyn Born Records)

Peter Criss couldn’t do it, Paul Stanley almost did it, and who the hell knows what Gene Simmons was trying to do.  I’m speaking, of course, about original Kiss members putting out a solo album this decade that even approached their best work from previous decades.  So how does the Spaceman fare on his first release since George Bush Sr. was president?  Pretty decently, by and large.  Sure the album art is…well, it sucks.  It’s just bad.  But who even notices such things anymore?

The music’s the thing, and Ace acquits himself rather nicely over the course of a dozen tracks.  “Foxy & Free” kicks things off, and it’s as intense a slab of hard rock as you’re likely to hear this year.  Frehley intimated in interviews promoting Anomaly that he purposely was trying for the vibe of his outstanding 1978 solo record.  I can hear that in places, but mostly this album is another serving of the tuneful, meat and potatoes hard rock Frehley churned out in the ’80s with Frehley’s Comet.  That’s not a bad thing, mind you, but what surprised me was how Ace managed to stretch his formula out a bit – witness the Middle Eastern (OK, Led Zep Middle Eastern) flavor of “Genghis Khan”, the starkly confessional and heartfelt lyrics on “A Little Below the Angels”, and the laid back philosophizing and relaxed arrangement of “It’s a Great Life.”

Ace is indeed back, and I told you so.

Muse – The Resistance (Warner Bros.)

Depeche Muse anyone?  Now look, I’m all about bands trying out new sounds and taking their music in new directions.  The problem with this album is that for the most part Matthew Bellamy and friends don’t sound like they’re sure what direction they want to go, and as a result it has twice the indulgence of Black Holes and Revelations with half the impact.  Kicking the album off with “Uprising”, an electronica Gary Glitter anthem for the 21st century, was a bold move and I can dig it even with Bellamy’s cockamamie populist conspiracy lyrics weighing it down.

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As sure as I’m sitting here, I never thought I’d see the day that I would write about a new Kiss album that isn’t a total rehash of old songs.  But it’s real and it’s coming – the unfortunately titled Sonic Boom is only a month and a half away.  Not only that, the band has released its first new single – “Modern Day Delilah” – since 1999.  There’s nothing official on YouTube yet (and I won’t bother linking to an unofficial version since it’d probably be gone in minutes), but interested parties can hear the song in its entirety on Kissonline.com (a word of warning – the stream is very loud and there is no volume control).

I have to say, while this is not groundbreaking music by any stretch, it’s a lot better than I expected from a group that for the most part hasn’t been musically relevant since I was a teenager.  Paul Stanley’s voice is showing signs of wear, but he’s still giving it his all.  Eric Singer’s drumming is solid and locked into a good groove, while Tommy Thayer turns in a respectable (if a little derivative) guitar solo.

The musical rebirth of Kiss?  Probably not.  But based on this one tune I at least hope the nasty aftertaste of Psycho Circus will be washed away at long last.

There’s not much room for expounding on this week’s entry, 1969’s Beck-Ola, the second and final album from the first incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group.  It’s a giant apple in a room.  Very simple, very cool-looking.

The album art is a reproduction the second version of The Listening Room (1958) by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte.  The first (1952) has the apple in a wooden room.  Magritte’s work enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the ’60s and ’70s thanks to its inclusion on other album covers, as well as by album covers inspired by his work.

Perhaps of even more interest is the note included on the orignal album’s back cover – “Today, with all the hard competition in the music business, it’s almost impossible to come up with anything totally original. So we haven’t. However, this disc was made with the accent on heavy music. So sit back and listen and try and decide if you can find a small place in your heads for it.”

There’s something to be said for a little honesty in advertising.

I’d wager that if you ask most casual Who fans what their favorite albums by the group are, and they’d probably say Tommy, Who’s Next and maybe Live at Leeds.  All fine choices, of course, but before any of those were even released there was my favorite – 1967’s The Who Sell Out.  It was Pete Townshend’s first crack at a concept album, although this is more of a theme album actually.  The premise is that the entire album (complete with radio jingles) is actually a broadcast from the pirate station Radio London.

It’s the commercials, not the songs, from which the design for The Who Sell Out is inspired.  And it is inspired.

That’s Townshend and Roger Daltrey on the front, pitching Odorono and Heinz Baked Beans respectively.  Honestly the image of Daltrey sitting in a tub of beans creeps me out a little bit.  And on the back cover that’s the late Keith Moon (pitching Medac) and John Entwistle (for Charles Atlas).  I looked for the name of the woman with Entwistle but couldn’t find it.

Graphic design for the album was handled by David King and Roger Law, and photography was by David Montgomery.  King and Law handled the design for another classic album released the same month as this one:  The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Axis: Bold As Love.   Of note is that this was one of the first pop albums (Moby Grape’s debut LP earlier in ‘67 being the first) to not list the song titles anywhere on the cover.

As legend has it, John Entwistle was originally supposed to sit in the tub of beans but heard about it in advance and was conveniently late to the photo shoot.  Daltrey was drafted to take his place, and for being a good sport got a mild case of pneumonia (the beans were refrigerated).

There are multiple versions of this album cover depending on the country of origin.  Notably, the Australian release substitutes Medac for Clearasil on Keith Moon’s photo.  This was probably confusing to Aussie listeners since one of the jingles on the album is for Medac, and as far as I know they didn’t record a Clearasil spot.

Since time immemorial, mankind has approached the future with a mixture of wonder and fear.  From primitive days to Biblical times, and even in our modern, sophisticated age we have imagined ourselves either ascending to the pinnacle of enlightenment and peace or descending into a living hell on earth.

Somewhere in between those two extremes lie the visions of the future shown in music videos.  These glimpses into our possible futures show us what most likely lies in store for us – a world that is bleak and hopeless, but still has a pretty kickass soundtrack.

Kiss – “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose”

The scenario: This is pretty much your stock “post-apocalyptic rock world” video as you’ll soon see.  Dirty streets, lots of fire, and desperate women in tattered clothes are all in abundance here.  Kiss (freshly unmasked at this point in their careers) looks a bit out of place in this setting, what with their spandex and frilled leather jackets, but they somehow land a gig as the bar band in a place that appears to have neither a bar nor very much liquor.  Actually it looks more like an abandoned warehouse.

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