I need projects to do, things to report on. Since AI isn't on right now, I'm not even sure I'll watch when it is, and I don't have a TV, shows are out. Movies...eh, that wouldn't be any good, either. I'd go too in-depth dissecting and analyzing the story and characters, and either bore my audience to tears, or tell them everything there is in the movie, and thus there wouldn't be any point in watching it. Books? Oh, no....see above comment on movies, only seven times more so. Restaurants? Way too expensive, and I wouldn't know a good one from a bad one, anyway. Sports? I know those the best, but it's a little depressing just to give recaps on here, and there isn't much shelf life. So I guess I'll give reviews of CDs, since I already have a few, and I'd be listening to them anyway. I guess I'll start with Brad Paisley's first album, "Who Needs Pictures", released by Arista Nashville in 1999.
Track One - Long Sermon - This guy is a genius songwriter. An etremely common everyday experience, but who would actually write a song about it? The basic story of it is the narrator is bored listening to a sermon that's dry as dust on a beautiful summer Sunday after a week of nothing but rain(Bleah!) and he wants to be out on the lake with his wife or girlfriend on her brother's boat. This link isn't that great vocal quality, just found it on YouTube, but nobody sounds good at concerts. Besides, it also shows off what a fantastic guitarist he is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCpg5z48MG0
Track Two - Me Neither - A guy untalented at flirting is getting rejected by a lady...and then by another one....and again....and yet again....hysterical. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbeaLb4KvEE (Not much a fan of concert-footage videos, if anyone's wondering.)
Track Three - Who Needs Pictures - Coming across an old Kodak camera brings back a flood of memories from a relationship that he thought he'd put in his past...it happens often. Why is it those random phrases or objects bring back such memories, good and bad? And then why won't they go away like we wish they would, why must we wrestle with things again? (Interesting psychologic rabbit trail opens up here...part of why I love country music. It's life - The good, the awful, the smart and the dumb, the feelings, the actions, the history. And for all those reasons, it's the genre of stories. And a well-made story should make you think.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbeaLb4KvEE (Great video.)
Track Four - Don't Breathe - A guy is trying to figure out what to do next after a breakup, having some trouble doing that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLVvhyTqRU
Track Five - He Didn't Have To Be - In a hospital while his wife is in labor, a husband thinks back over how the man who raised him accomplished that, and resolves to be as good a father to his children as his dad was to him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjO1F6oCab8 (Terrific video.)
Track Six- It Never Woulda Worked Out Anyway - A jealous guy invents outlandish tales to keep other guys away from the woman he loves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjO1F6oCab8
Track Seven - Holdin' On To You - Sometimes you just can't let go, have trouble moving on. Captures that heartbreaking sentiment well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yH9tKQh0ro
Track Eight - I've Been Better - "Dear, I've gotten that job that I was chasing, making a ton of money, have an incredible amount of prestige, everyone's saying I'm at the top of the world...but you were right, I was going after that too hard, and my life really is as empty as you said it would be. You probably will never read this, but I just wanted to say....that you were right, and I was wrong. And now I'm kicking myself for my stupidity." That's a paraphrased version of this song, which is actually written as a letter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3qU1nke8_w
Track Nine - We Danced - One of the two greatest love story songs, start to finish, ever writen, and in my top ten of favorite country songs of all time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6lTU_bhISI
Track Ten - Sleepin' On The Foldout - Switching gears back to reality, this song accurately pictures us guys' ability to do stupid things and stick our feet in our mouths. Funny, because it's easy to relate to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2jGMgCBvFc
Track Eleven - Cloud Of Dust - "Life's hard. I'm tryin' as best I can to get through it, but it kinda looks hopeless right now." This is a pathetic tale similar to Jason Aldean's "Amarillo Sky", which came out later, but more emotional and gripping. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MGanRgGNJY
Track Twelve - The Nervous Breakdown - An instrumental, it blows your mind to listen to, and even more so to watch, much less comprehend how to actually play. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y-Ipi1dnng
Track Thirteen - In The Garden - The old semi-known hymn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM_nEZbIISc
My criteria for a good story, whether book, TV show, photograph, magazine article, movie, song, or whatever; was summed up by a talking cucumber, and echoed by a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer. Larry said after watching Dave and the Giant Pickle: "Oh my, what a show! I laughed, I cried, it moved me, Bob."
A while after I (sort of, you never completely) moved on from VeggieTales I found this quote by Ansel Adams: "If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it makes you think; that's a good picture."
This CD does that.
My rankings of the songs on this album:
13 - I've Been Better
12 - In the Garden
11 - It Never Woulda Worked Out Anyway
10 - Holdin' On to You
9 - Don't Breathe
8 - Cloud of Dust
7 - The Nervous Breakdown
6 - He Didn't Have to Be
5 - Sleepin' on the Foldout
4 - Me Neither
3 - Who Needs Pictures
2 - Long Sermon
1 - We Danced.
No comments:
Post a Comment