Album Review - The Swell Season - Strict Joy

Overview

Artist – The Swell Season
Album – Strict Joy
Release Date - October 27, 2009



I got a hold of this album through a Christmas White Elephant game in January this year. I was excited when I unwrapped it and surprised that I retained it without anyone swiping it until the end. I knew of the Swell Season, but never actually heard any of their material under that band name. I am a huge fan of the movie and the soundtrack “Once” which features Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova which happen to also make up the lead components of The Swell Season.

Review

On first listen of the Strict Joy disc, I have to admit that I was greatly disappointed. I was looking for and expecting the sequel album to the Once Soundtrack. It lacked the emotional screaming by Glen. It seems he took a chill pill and dialed it down to the mellow level of Marketa who counterbalanced him in Once. Her songs on Strict Joy are more fitting of the work she did on the Once Soundtrack, and she almost steals the show on this album with the few songs she leads.

I gave it another chance and every time I went from front to back of the album I liked it more and more each time. I started looking at it as a Swell Season album instead of a Once part 2 album and I quickly appreciated it more and more on each listen.

Breakdown Review of Tracks

1. Low Rising – Medium tempo blues song by Glen
2. Feeling the Pull - Up tempo acoustic Irish Jig by Glen
3. In These Arms - Slow acoustic by Glen. Mostly in his low whisper voice.
4. The Rain - Acoustic Rock by Glen similar to the Once style
5. Fantasy Man - Acoustic Ballad by Marketa. Has unique timing and lyric structure.
6. Paper Cup - Slow acoustic by Glen in low whisper voice
7. High Horses - Acoustic Rock by Glen in low whisper voice
8. The Verb - Acoustic Rock by Glen similar to Once style with elements borrowed from Sufjan
9. I Have Loved You Wrong - Slow Acoustic Piano by Marketa ending in acapella harmony bridge
10. Love That Conquers - Swingy Acoustic by Glen and Marketa in Harmony
11. Two Tongues - Slow Acoustic Rock by Glen in low whisper voice
12. Back Broke - Slow Acoustic by Glen in low whisper voice

My top 3 favorite songs on the album

1. I Have Loved You Wrong
2. The Verb
3. The Rain

Conclusion

I would recommend this album to people who have an interest in Indie music, but I would caution them against expecting the sequel to the Once Soundtrack. It will definitely be staying in my rotation for awhile.

Bottom Line – This album is Swell

Books I'm Reading

I am currently reading 3 new books all at the same time. I never really read a book for fun until after I graduated college. In school I rarely read the books I was supposed to in class and I always managed to avoid reading textbooks. I never even knew that reading could be fun until I started reading after college. The Left Behind series and the Narnia series got me going and turned me into a reading machine. I feel smarter when I read. My vocabulary is better, my writing is better, my thinking is clearer. I'm not sure what it is, but I just feel better when I am reading. I often go through periods of time where I'm not reading and I quickly realize that my eyes and mind have to be re-trained in reading. Starting is the hardest part, but once I start, there is no stopping me.

I am currently reading the following.

Bury My Heart in Wounded Knee - Dee Brown



Its no secret that I am obsessed with Indians as noted in this previous post. Unlike when I was in school, I am now fascinated with history, at least the parts of history that I am interested in. Marcus Mumford recommended this book to me. This is the book that I read on my lunch break.



Green - Ted Dekker




I'm a huge Dekker fan. He is getting a little crazy with tying all characters from all books together all the time, but I still love it. This is supposed to be the Pr equal/Sequel to the Circle Series. This is the book I read at night at home.


A Paddling of Ducks - Marjorie Blain Parker / Illustrated by Joseph Kelly




I first found out about this book when Lydia brought it home from the Library. The illustrations are top notch. I love the idea of the book. Sure enough I got it as a gift at Christmas. Now I read it every couple days to Lydia or even by myself.


Bottom Line - Having fun isn't hard, when you have a library card

Top 3 (By Lydia) - Songs

On this edition of Top 3 I will be sharing Lydia's current favorite and most requested songs.

3. Old Mcdonald Had a Farm - Ella Fitzgerald



This is a super swingin version of the song. Lydia has always liked this song, but when I showed her this version from the cd "Jazz for Kids" that we got from the library, she dances and giggles to the fast pace. It is fun to watch her listen to this song. I should video tape it.

2. Liza Jane - The Wood Brothers

She first heard this song from the youtube video that I had been watching, then I got it in my head and was singing "Oh little Liza, little Liza Jane" all around the house. She picked up on it and also started singing it and started asking me to play the video and song for her.



1. The Muffin Man - Ella Fitzgerald

Another selection from Ella form the "Jazz for Kids" album. Ella is so great. This song was recorded in 1941 and my 2.5 old daughter not only loves the song, but sings along with it and asks me to play it all the time. It is hard to believe that this song was recorded when Lydia was negative 69 years old.

Bottom Line - I'm a good parent

Knowing is half the battle

My medium sized group is reading the book "The Prodigal God" and it is pretty much messing everything up. Pretty much everything I thought I knew was wrong, and pretty much everything I thought I wasn't I was and am. It revealed that one way is wrong and the other way is wrong and all pretty much all ways are wrong. Sounds like a good book right? There is one right way, and before that way can be understood, the wrong ways have to be broken down and dealt with or something like that.

It all comes down to the motive of the heart. Makes me think of the GI Joe cartoons where at the end they would do a public service announcement type thing on safety subjects. They would end it with the line. "Now you know, and knowing is half the battle." Action is the other half of the battle which is a lot harder than knowing. The next problem is that you really don't know, or that you keep knowing more and more and will never know everything.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to go back into time and replay life, now that you know more than you knew back then? I have regrets as everyone does, but I don't think that I would want to erase and replay anything in my life, but it would be fun to go back.

Bottom Line - Just when you think you know, you find out that you really know nothing at all.

Coupons

My Wife has recently taken the plunge of couponing. We now purchase two copies of the Sunday paper every week. I was supportive at first, but slightly skeptical, until I witnessed the madness in person. I accompanied her to a store where she had $28 worth of items. Not a huge shopping stop, but big enough to catch my attention. Then she started pulling out the coupons. Seconds later the total was $6. I was amazed. Even the guy in line with us was shocked. His quote was this. "Wow, you almost got all of that for free". That was the moment I became a believer.

Tonight, a funny incident occurred in the realm of coupons. I had a gift certificate to Skyline, and my wife also had several coupons, so we ate there. We proceeded to finish our meal and we ended up with several coupons left that were to expire in the next couple of days. Being the nice person that my wife is, she offered the coupons to a table of people for their use. The coupons were save $1 on a $7 purchase and a free cheese coney with any purchase. All of the people at the table had meals greater than $7 and all had coneys.

I was baffled at their response. They replied "No thanks". She explained to them after they said no that by the looks of their meals, that money could be save with the use of the coupons. They said, "No thats okay, thanks anyways". Wow, did I miss something? She were offering free money savings, and was turned down. I think I did a literal LOL in front of them. I had to console my wife in the parking lot telling her that as hard as it is to believe, not everyone likes saving money.

Bottom Line - Coupons are cool

15 Albums

I've seen the 15 Album thing floating around blogs and facebook. My list is not my top 15 albums of all time, but instead the 15 albums that shaped my music life in order of appearance as well as I can remember. These are the tops of the family trees, that spawned interest to dive deeper into the artists in the same genres and so on. Some of these have 20 or so artists below them, but these were the core beginnings that got me started. #'s 2,3, & 4 were simultaneous so they were worth their own individual recognition although they may be in the same tree line and time period.

1. The Beatles - 1962 - 1966
2. Stone Temple Pilots - Core
3. Nirvana - In Utero
4. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
5. Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience
6. Jars of Clay - Jars of Clay
7. Led Zeppelin - Boxed Set
8. Sublime - Sublime
9. Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
10. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
11. Jeff Buckley - Live at Sine
12. Mohenjo Daro - Baksheesh
13. Incubus - Make Yourself
14. Ray's Music Exchange - Alivexchange
15. Vineyard Music - Dwell

If there was a 16 it would be Sufjan Steven - Come feel the Illinoise

Bottom Line - Life without music would be lame.