Friday, September 30, 2022

Record of the Month

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there!  

It has been a long while since I did a music post - well, a record post. 2022 has not been stellar for music purchases. But lately, I've bought a few items and can safely review until the end of the year.  Like it or not. 

The Smithereens have a "new" disk out.......the Lost Album.  It's exactly what it sounds like.  The band, in between record labels still found a way to record an album - not just demos - that never got released. 

710 and I were in central Florida back in December 2017 to see a SpaceX launch when I heard of guitarist and lead singer, Pat DiNizio's death. It was a bummer, as I really liked them and DiNizio's voice. 

I purchased most of their original material. For a while they got into covers - though they did an excellent song-by-song cover of Meet the Beatles and called it Meet the Smithereens.  They also covered the Who's Tommy - though I did not buy that. 

Actually, their last original disk was back in 2011. So, while this 1993 recording isn't an out of the park collection, it's nice to hear and nice to have. 

They start strong with "Out of this World", had the band had a label in '93, it could have easily been pushed as a "single". 

"Stop Bringing Me Down" starts with a rougher, grittier guitar sound very very similar to "Iron Man". "I'm Sexy" is tongue-in-cheek, but I like it a lot. Ditto with "Pretty Little Lies". 

There are duds. "Dear Abby" isn't great and unfortunately, it's the second song on the disk. It should have been buried further. 

Some of the songs measure up to some of their better known work, it's unfortunate with 'radio' the way it is, most will never hear these songs. Most don't remember the band anyways, so it will make it that more difficult to find success or even exposure. 

I was happy to shell out the $11 for the digital copy. The CD on amazon?  $24 !!    What actual Ford 150!

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