The Record Lounge: Reviews 11/19/2010 – Bruce Springsteen, Stereolab, The Ocean
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Bruce Springsteen – The Promise
So Tuesday night I got a call from our friend with Birth School Metal Death. “Do you want to meet up at Dutch’s for a burger and maybe a drink or two? I think I need some help being talked out of buying the new Springsteen set.”
“See you in 20, sir” I replied.
Both of us have a weakness for product, being old retailers. I love a massive box set, with all the accoutrements included. One day I WILL get a copy of The 13th Floor Elevators Sign of The 3-Eyed Men box. I promise. If you don’t know what BSMD is referring to, there was a new box set released yesterday for Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 album, Darkness On The Edge of Town. Also, there was a double disc collection of just the unreleased material called The Promise. The Promise is also included in the box set for the remastered reissue of Darkness... Therein lays the conflict: get the double CD, or the enormo-box of 3 CD’s and 3 DVD’s.
This is an, and I hate this term now, “epic” reissue from one of my “Big Eight”. Yet I just can’t write anything new about this release, so I won’t try. Everyone knows about Darkness On The Edge Of Town, and if not, there’s an entire Wikipedia page here. Therefore, I will just stick with The Promise.
21 gems unearthed from the vaults of Springsteen for all to take in. It’s essentially 21 classic tracks from the Boss finally presented to us, the fan. I hadn’t heard him do, with the exception of live takes, “Fire” or one of my absolute favorite songs ever written, “Because The Night” (made famous by the incomparable Patti Smith). The majority of this set recalls mid-60’s Motown balladry, old time rock-n-roll, and signature Bruce-style anthems. But again, what can I say about this collection that hasn’t been said before. It’s a wonderful archive of songs from that period, and every Boss fan out there should be thrilled to have them, whether it’s the enormo-box or just the double disc set. I know I am.
As BSMD and I talked on about different box sets, and the ones we liked and owned, I don’t think I did my job of talking him down from buying it.
I might’ve just thrown gas on the fire.
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Stereolab – Not Music
Recorded during the sessions for 2008’s Chemical Chords, Not Music comes out during the band’s self imposed indefinite hiatus. There is possibility this might be the final hurrah for everyone’s favorite French singing socialists, or so “experts” have speculated. If so, Stereolab has left fans and music lovers on a high note with a sprawling catalog of Moog-drenched Burt Bacharach meets Esquivel “Space Age Bachelor Pad Music” that could stretch far into the reaches of the Space Age (if we ever get there).
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The Ocean – Anthropocentric
The 9 piece German collective known simply as The Ocean have a bit of a penchant for the grandeur. With 5 albums under their belts, there have been 2 sets of companion pieces, a double album, and their 2010 output is no different. 2004-05 saw the release of Aeolian and Fluxion, a pair of wildly differing records, the former being a more atmospheric ride, and the latter displaying sheer brutality. 2007 offered up the grandiose double album of Precambrian, and in 2010 we have received yet another pairing.
Earlier this year we were treated to Heliocentric, and now we have received its companion and sixth full-length release, Anthropocentric. The post rock, post metal, progressive metal act (yes, all those descriptors have been used) is one of the more interesting acts in modern metal today, not out of class with Mastodon, or Kylesa. You can predict some of their turns, but not even all of them.
The Synaptic Empire 