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8.8.2004 - Egads. I'm still slacking ... but with a purpose: For the past
few weeks I've been enjoying a remarkable little gadget: the
, which Diane and our friend Luanne bestowed
upon me for my 39th birthday last month. It's a 256mb flash-memory device
that holds about 40 songs when they're encoded at 192kps (more, obviously,
if you encode at lower rates).
The big plus, for me, is that I can record with it - both through a microphone and from the stereo. Thus far, I've encoded two wondrous Natalie Merchant shows from 1988 and '98; a 1983 Stephen Stills gig; and, for Diane, a Lou Ann Barton concert from 1985 and a Nanci Griffith show from 1992. (Up next: a few vintage 10,000 Maniac gigs.) In between, I've been feasting on Bob Seger's songbook ... one of my favorite artists of all time who I've returned to w/a vengeance of late. Now playing: "Understanding," a gem from the Teachers soundtrack that's on his . About the only downside? My download site of choice, MusicMatch, doesn't support the device. So, if I want to take my downloads with me, I have to burn the WMAs onto a CD and then rip 'em back as MP3s ... a cumbersome process that has me on the lookout for a new download service. (I blame MusicMatch - and the RIAA - for the lack of compatibility, not iRiver. It's amazing how mind-numbingly dumb they are with the many restrictions they place on the tracks. But that's a post for another day.)
"Forget Joanie and Chachi. The Erin Moran we care about is A Girl Called Eddy, a Neptune, NJ native who crafts sweet and poignant melodies and troubled lyrics that she sings like a haunted angel with a great jukebox. While the Dusty Springfield influence is acknowledged, there are shadows of Dionne doing Burt Bacharach, Everything but the Girl's Tracy Thorn--and even the good songs by Carpenters ("Rainy Days and Mondays," "Superstar"). Despite these influences, Eddy is her own girl, a siren who lures us with her tender voice, a hypnotic production and songs as compelling as Circe herself. Highlights include the single, "Somebody Hurt You," a track so timeless my husband swore he heard it before, the soulful "People Used to Dream About the Future" (which you can download for free from her ), and "Tears All Over Town," a mid-tempo pop gem. But there's not a bad track on the CD." One more recommendation. No, not Maria's (the obvious choice, I suppose). Instead, I'm checking in with what might be called my "Retro Album of the Month" ... Bob Seger's . Not his best album by any means, but still one of my all-time favorites. "You'll Accompany Me," "Her Strut," "No Man's Land," the title tune and "Shinin' Brightly" are, to my ears, as good as songs come. "No Man's Land" especially - "sanctuary never comes without some kind of risk." Truer words never spoken, ya know?
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Anyway, onward to the
Album of the Month ... and, for the second month in a row, Diane does the
honors for the very seductive
's self-titled album.