Old voices, new statements
We've got a couple of new albums going on the speakers this week. One is by Robbie Robertson, and the other is by the Cars. Great stuff, both.
The Robertson album is partly a collaboration with Eric Clapton, and it has appearances on a couple of numbers apiece by Steve Winwood and Robert Randolph. The lyrics are unabashedly autobiographical for a change, and the other players' influences add quite a bit to an otherwise familiar instrumental landscape from the former Band man.
The Cars' recording tells us that it can still be 1979 if we want it to be. And surprisingly, there's not a thing wrong with that. After decades on the shelf, the group (minus the late Ben Orr) has reunited behind Ric Ocasek's usual quirky ditties, and the 10 new tunes fly by without producing a single urge to hit the stop button. It's not like we want another CD from these guys in six months, but we have to admit from listening to their latest that we've kind of missed them.
| Posted at 4:09 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (2)
Check out The Modern Lovers. That's the band David Robinson drummed for before he joined The Cars.
Modern Lovers also had pre-Talking Heads keyboard player Jerry Harrison and of course the immortal Jonathan Richman, who is playing a show at The Alladin this week.
(if you look into them, this lineup made only one record so make sure you look for the right one. Other Modern Lovers albums were made by Jonathan Richman and various musicians and they are very good also.)
Posted by reader | September 18, 2011 7:32 PM
I had the first two Cars albums until they got too many scratches from me playing them so much. They were great - and then I was disappointed with their work after that.
But on your recommendation, I'll check out their latest work.
Posted by Gordon | September 18, 2011 8:04 PM