Musings From the Back 9: Music Edition V

As I was busy working on my major project last week, there a couple of albums worth reviewing that were released last we, here are a quick review of those:

Indiana - Jon McLaughlin
Aw, Indiana, the great state that has given us John Mellencamp, David Letterman and, un, certainly there has to be more, oh yeah, and Dan Quayle. The latest export from the Land of the Indians is singer-songwriter Jon McLaughlin who named his debut album after his home state. Unlike his fellow Hoosier, McLaughlin’s music in not distinctively Midwestern instead focuses on more uplifting fair of love in a small town. And instead of a guitar as his instrument of choice, he instead goes with the piano listing Billy Joel and Ben Folds as influences. But McLaughlin lacks the wit of Folds and the emotion of Joel leading to songs best fit to play over the speakers in your local supermarket with songs that won’t make you run for the exit but won’t make you stop and wonder who that was. Of course with Mother’s Day this weekend, Indiana would make the perfect gift if your mother doesn’t already have the latest Norah Jones album.

Indiana gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.


The Reminder - Feist
Speaking of exports, Canada doesn’t really have the best track record. It seems for every great artist like Sarah McLachlan or Neil Young we get, they send us artists like Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, Sum 41, and Nickelback. The latest artist to come stateside from the Great White North is Feist (Leslie Fiest to her friends and family) and quickly became an indie queen. Her latest album, The Reminder, got some early buzz thanks to a really cool video (featured here not to long ago). On the album, Feist somehow is able to sound subdued yet have a big song, thanks to multi-instrument tracks, at the same time. When listing to The Reminder, it can seem longer than its fifty minutes which can be a good or bad thing depending on your mood. So thanks Canada for finally sending down some good music again, but not all is forgiven for Celine Dion yet.

The Reminder gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.


Spider-Man 3 Soundtrack
During the nineties and before, record companies would con fans into buying movie soundtracks even though they may have only featured on artist they wanted to listen to much Ghostbusters II did so I could get the Bobby Brown song (hey I was young). But with the advent of downloading, which enables fans to pick and choosing their favorites without actually buying the whole album, has pretty much killed the movie soundtrack business. This hasn’t stopped Spider-Man from releasing a soundtrack for each of its movies full of songs that haven’t actually appeared in the movies sans the end credits. The beginning of the album is top heavy with songs from Snow Patrol, The Killers, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with songs not as good as anything on their most recent albums. The rest of the album is filled with modern rock bands most people have never heard of except stuck in the middle of the trainwreck is Chubby Checker’s version of The Twist. The most interesting song here (keep in mind interesting is not synonymous with the best) is The Flaming Lips’ The Supreme Being Teaches Spider-Man How to Be in Love, a song that follows a bout between the web slinger and Muhammad Ali of all people.

Spider-Man 3 Soundtrack gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.