Wildy's World Top 60 Albums of 2010: #5

The final five...  we'll be revealing one per hour until 1:00 PM EST today.

5. Mark Knopfler – Get Lucky
What do you say about Mark Knopfler?  He's among the greatest guitarist of his own or any generation.  Get Lucky is among Knopfler's most subtle and intriguing work to date.  The fact that it doesn't place higher on this list is a tribute to some of the great music that's crossed this desk in 2010.

Review: Mark Knopfler - Get Lucky/US Tour

Mark Knopfler - Get Lucky
2009, Reprise Records

The first time I really became acquainted with Mark Knopfler as a guitar player was listening to his album of duets with Chet Atkins, Neck And Neck. I was certainly familiar with Knopfler’s work with Dire Straits, including the all-world effort Brothers In Arms, but Neck and Neck opened my eyes to Knopfler’s ability to play ridiculously difficult passages on guitar and make them look and sound like the easiest thing in the world. Knopfler, if possible, raises his game another notch on his latest album, Get Lucky; by eschewing any sort of market thinking and writing straight from the heart. The eleven songs on Get Lucky are a series of short stories and vignettes about people, places and times that may or may not be from Knopfler’s own personal history, but sound thoroughly authentic as if Knopfler is writing about people and places he’s known intimately. Knopfler will be touring the US between April 8, 2010 and May 9, 2010 in support of Get Lucky

Get Lucky opens with “Border Reiver”, a sonically gorgeous Scot/Celtic tune that holds within it a surprisingly driven tune. The reference to the land-based pirates of the Scotch/English border is an interesting one that will give you much to ponder if you’re so motivated. “Hard Shoulder” is a song of heartbreak delivered in truck driving terms. The poetry here is surprisingly subtle and is accompanied by a melancholy melody and a hopeful outlook; a truly amazing piece of songwriting. “You Can’t Beat The House” is an instant classic; a live-in-studio take that just serves to remind how amazing well-rounded and talented Knopfler is with a guitar in his hands. The musicianship of Knopfler’s entire band is off the charts here. “Before Gas And TV” returns to the Celtic themes of “Border Reiver”; mournful, reminiscent and darkly beautiful.

Knopfler pays tribute to guitar maker John Monteleone on “Monteleone”; a tune so beautiful you can’t but calling it a love ballad. Knopfler’s folk aria about a man who pours the love of his craft into every instrument he makes is a thing of beauty; the song not just an ode but a testament. “Cleaning My Gun” shows the instincts of a survivor, a veteran who has seen the wars and still feels most comfortable with a gun around. The song puts a very human face on gun owners and their motivations, miles apart from the archetypical assault rifle owner wanna-be. Knopfler brings the character in “Cleaning My Gun” fully alive without overstatement or caricature. Knopfler pays tribute to independent race car driver Bobby Brown (or at the very least his car) on “The Car Was The One”, an amazing story song that will leave you shaking your head. Knopfler’s creation has a cinematic feel, like the theme from a biopic.

On “Remembrance Day”, Knopfler looks back on the days of youth, remembering all the people who meant the world back then and the things they did together. The song opens over a game of cricket, but it could as easily be baseball here in the US. “Remembrance Day” is ripe for triteness and yet manages to miss it all together. Gorgeously arranged, Knopfler manages to be sentimental without over-playing his hand. “Get Lucky” is written from the pragmatic perspective of a blue collar worker who gives it his all every single day and keeps his eyes open for the small victories that make it seem worthwhile. The perspective is a generational one that seem to fade a bit more with each passing year, but those of you with depression or WWII era parents may recognize it in some of your older relatives. Knopfler’s character is wonderfully drawn in song. “So Far From The Clyde” is about the death of a ship and what happens to it after the fact, but is really a commentary on the fragility of life and how quickly the world moves on. Knopfler’s story-telling takes on deep undertones here and is wrapped in an amazing one-man arrangement. The song isn’t so much angst-filled as matter of fact, but it is a stark take on mortality written from the perspective of one who stares it in the face. The epilogue of the album is “Piper To The End”, which returns to the Celtic roots of the album while preparing for the final journey in life. Knopfler’s main character looks beyond this world to the next, and lays down his own terms (“When I leave this world behind me/to another I will go/If there are no pipes in heaven/I’ll be goin’ down below”). It’s a deeply personal account of one person’s reckoning about their final days upon the earth, a goose-bump inducing thing of beauty that ranks among Knopfler’s finest compositions.

To put it in simple terms, Get Lucky is brilliant. If this were the last thing Mark Knopfler ever wrote or released it would be acknowledged that he went out at the height of his powers, but it’s clear that Knopfler, like a fine wine, keeps getting better with age. Get Lucky is pleasing from the perspective of songwriting and musicianship, but it’s the subtlety and grace of Knopfler’s story-telling that raise this from being just another good Mark Knopfler album to a crown jewel in a storied career that finds Knopfler continuing to grow and perfect his craft at an age when many recording artists are mailing it in with their umpteenth reunion tour. Get Lucky can be nothing short of a Wildy’s World Certified Desert Island Disc. Knopfler will be touring the US in support of Get Lucky between April 8th and May 9th of 2010 before returning for dates in Europe. Don’t miss this opportunity see a master craftsman at work.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Mark Knopfler at http://www.markknopfler.com/. Get Lucky is available as either a CD or Download from Amazon.com. Check Knopfler's tour page to see if he's coming to a town near you. The tickets are a bit pricey at most venues, but it's worth it to see a master craftsman at the height of his art.

Review: Teak – Teak 0801

Teak – Teak 0801
2008, Teak

Melbourne, Australia's Teak is a veteran 4-piece rock outfit with a penchant for well-honed, pleasant sounding music that carries a fair amount of emotional weight and turmoil beneath the surface. With comparisons ranging from Something For Kate and Hunters & Collectors to Powderfinger and The Church, Teak has a low-key approach with the potential for mass appeal. After listening to their debut EP, Teak 0801, I'd place them somewhere between R.E.M. and Dire Straits stylistically.

Teak 0801 opens with Where Have You Been?, confronting a wayward lover in no uncertain terms. The sparse arrangement reflects the raw emotional state that underlies the song; while the vocal line perhaps doesn't reflect the intensity one might expect in such a song, the dark nature of the song carries a lot of weight, like someone trying hard not to explode. Looking For You is a reserved, up-tempo song that will definitely catch hold of you as a listener. Think the Gin Blossoms but a little darker. Can't Understand revels a while longer in deep-seated emotional turmoil wrapped up in a catchy, dark rocker that's very catchy. Teak closes with Loaded, a mildly catchy, mildly bland rocker that's a pleasant listen but perhaps not quite to the level of the other three songs presented here.

Teak sounds like a career bar band with serious aspirations. The smooth sound of a group that's played together for a while is there, but there's also a creative spark in the band that makes them more than just a Saturday Night cover band. Teak has real potential to catch on with fans of Americana and Classic Rock. While Teak has great energy inside the songs presented on their Teak 0801 EP, some modulation on the surface would keep things more lively and drawn in more listeners. Barring that, they're still a very good listen.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Teak at www.myspace.com/teakmusic. You can download Teak 0801 from Amazon.com.

Review: 8 Ball Aitken - Rebel With A Cause

8 Ball Aitken - Rebel With A Cause
2009, Phoenix Movement Records

Sometimes the music we grew up with (individually or as a culture) is harder to hear, so wave of international artists finding success with American Roots music is no surprise. Along comes Queensland, Australia's 8 Ball Aitken, a banana picker turned guitar picker who appears to be channeling the very soul of Country, Blues and Roots music as it grew out of the Southern United States. 8 Ball Aitken's debut album, Rebel With A Cause has generated two top-10 Country singles in his native Australia and won him a 2008 EMI Music Blues & Roots Song Of The Year Award for Yellow Moon. Aitken has played dates in the UK, Singapore and North America, recently putting in a stellar performance at Canadian Music Week. It's only a matter of time before North American audiences catch on to 8 Ball Aitken.

Rebel With A Cause opens with Cyclone Country, a bluesy Southern Rocker with some serious honky-tonk in its lineage. Aitken has a wonderfully smooth and lyric rock voice that contrasts nicely with the heavily country-influenced Rock N Roll. Cyclone Country is built on a killer lick that would make ZZ Top beam with pride and a chorus you can't help but sing/hum along to. Cowboy Movie is all about taking a stand for what you know to be right regardless of the consequences. The allegory is poetic if unexpected and the melody is pure honey. The Party has a vague Dire Straits-does-Country feel to it; this is a tune that's sure to be a favorite live and will get your hips swaying even if you're not inclined to dance.

Hands On Top Of The Wheel is a straight-forward Country Rocker ala The Eagles, (complete with a sound-alike vocal). This is probably the song on the disc with the biggest commercial potential, particularly for licensing. Aitken incorporates some deliciously dirty slide guitar work on Black Swamp Creek, although lyrically the song is a bit cliché. Outback Booty Call is an amusing Southern Rock tune with clear intentions and a bit of a twist at the end. This should be another concert favorite and I could picture this ending up on a movie soundtrack somewhere. Yellow Moon features a driving bass line and great Southern Rock n Blues sound, Texas style. The track is memorable and will keep you moving. Guitar Man sounds like it should be a classic Rock staple, but it's an Aitken original. There's a feel here that's very similar to John Fogerty, and the song itself will have you scratching your head wondering where you've heard it before. Rocky Road is an upbeat, catchy southern Rocker that leads into The Other Side, which goes back a few decades for a classic sound that is refreshing.

Rebel With A Cause is one of those albums you simply can't ignore. Even with the occasional flaw it has to be in the discussion of top Roots Music efforts for the year thus far. Aitken's voice is so fluid and his delivery so down-home that he puts you immediately at ease. The musicianship on Rebel With A Cause is world class, and the songwriting is more legitimate and more original than much of the roots material you're likely to hear. 8 Ball Aitken has a real winner on his hands here.

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about 8 Ball Aitken at http://www.8ballaitken.com/ or www.myspace.com/8ballaitken. You can purchase a copy of Rebel With A Cause at CDBaby.com.

Review: Sound Of The Blue Heart - Wind Of Change

Sound Of The Blue Heart - Wind Of Change
2009, Sound Of The Blue Heart

Human Drama was a major staple of the Los Angeles and Southern California Rock scenes in the 1980's and early 1990's. Its front man, Johnny Indovina went on to a successful Indie solo career before debuting Sound Of The Blue Heart in 2006 with ...Beauty? Sound Of The Blue Heart returns on July 14, 2009 with Wind Of Change, a well of deep musical emotions for your consideration.

Indovina has serious street cred in the Indie world; spending most of his 20+ year career without label support he has nonetheless inspired a generation of musicians with unflinchingly honest and occasionally provocative songwriting in the spirit of Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and even Charles Bukowski. Wind Of Change opens with The Spell, a song about falling in love in spite of oneself. The arrangement isn't particularly powerful, but the lyrics are highly personal and honest. The Poisoning takes a layered, quasi-ambient path through lyrics about the passing of time and lost opportunities for both individuals and for mankind. Indovina laments the apparent loss of God to a society in decay. Run For Cover is a mellow and economically lush that seems to be about the human capacity to turn tail and run when things get hard. The guitar work here is exquisite, and Run For Cover is likely to become essential listening.

Wind Of Change features some guitar work that would feel right at home on a Dire Straits album and digs into the essence of renewal. The arrangement here is lush enough to draw listeners in and strong enough to note let them go. Violet's Wish is a biographical song about squandered moments and opportunities, which seems to be a theme for Sound Of The Blue Heart. The Arms Of Yesterday sounds like it could cross over from the Rock realm to Country quite easily. Indovina has a slight tendency toward lyrical excessiveness but this doesn't overpower anything presented on Wind Of Change. Life Is Beautiful, Life Is Cruel is classic singer/songwriter Rock N Roll with a powerful (if subtle) message. I'll leave it to readers to puzzle out as they will. Sound Of The Blue Heart closes out with It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, a touching song about coming to terms with loss. The song is touching and filled with dark hues and darker meanings. The Country Music accents here want to be more than just accents, It's All Over Now, Baby Blue would make a great country tune.

Wind Of Change as a title suggests the beginning of something new; I don't know that we can call Wind Of Change new, but there is significant originality running through the music of Sound Of The Blue Heart. Johnny Indovina is perhaps not the most creative arranger/composer in the rock world, but he writes intensely honest and soul-baring songs, set deep in arrangements that are more like scenes that songs. The lush nature of the material here makes for great listening. Be sure to check out Sound Of The Blue Heart and Wind Of Change.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Sound Of The Blue Heart at http://www.soundoftheblueheart.com/ or www.myspace.com/soundoftheblueheart. You can purchase a copy of Wind Of Change from Amazon.com.

Review: Last Charge Of The Light Horse - Fractures

Last Charge Of The Light Horse - Fractures
2008, Curlock & Jalaise Records

Last Charge Of The Light Horse is no stranger to praise. The New York trio's debut CD, 2005's Getaway Car was named Independent Album of the Year for 2005 by The Daily Vault. Their song The Second Time Around was even featured on the PBS show Roadtrip Nation. Not afraid of the sophomore slump, Last Charge Of The Light Horse barreled into 2008 with Fractures, a Folk/Americana celebration of life's trials and tribulations. Vocalist/guitarist Jean-Paul Vest, Bassist AJ Riegger and drummer Jimmy Romanelli have captured lightning in a bottle the second time around.

Vest is a true wordsmith, creating aural oil paintings in music and lyric. The depth and movement of the music is surprising given that we're talking about a bare-bones trio. Fractures opens with The New Year, a wonderfully dark celebration of the turning of time with highly melodic and ethereal effects. This song is very catchy but in a quiet way that will surprise you. Face To Face has a Dire Straits feel to it. Vest has a similar vocal sound to Knopfler at times, and his guitar style goes there at times, although he never quite captures the level of subtlety Knopfler is capable of (who does?). Something Out Of Nothing is a poignant vignette that sounds like it might have been born of jam session between Dire Straits and Toad The Wet Sprocket.

One of my favorite tracks here, sprinkled with wry humor, is A New Expression. This is a song about being in the doghouse that will hit home for those in the know. Even if you're not it's a great song. The Switch Is On is a great rhythmic rock song, expressing change both in the lyrics and in the movement evident in the musical arrangement. Time is a great Americana/Rock song. Fans of The Cash Brothers or Skydiggers will love this tune. The last three songs on the CD are perhaps the best songwriting of the bunch. These aren't flashy songs in any fashion, just good, solid songwriting with a touch of magic. A Song Like Yours couldn't be any plainer but in its ordinariness finds a subtle beauty that shines out of its plaintive arrangement. Spring Ahead is aural painting, perfectly framed; a vignette on a relationship forever captured in song. 100,001 is story song about the day-to-day details of life that can bog people down, but turns the tables to find magic in the mundane.

Last Charge Of The Light Horse keeps it simple, and in simplicity finds magic and a complexity that is amazing. Fractures is a thing of beauty, a musical aesthetic that is destined to be under appreciated in a music business with an attention span shorter than that of Tom from 50 First Dates. The overall dynamic here will be too mellow for some, but there is an incredibly vibrant energy that runs through even the coolest of moments on Fractures, but it’s a disc that really requires your full attention. You'll get out of it what you put into it. Fractures is a Wildy's World Certified Desert Island Disc; A classic.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Last Charge Of The Light Horse at www.myspace.com/lastcharge. You can purchase a copy of Fractures at www.cdbaby.com/cd/lcotlh2.

Review: Chain Reaction - Electric Playground

Chain Reaction – Electric Playground
2004, Rathoboz Music

Chain Reaction hails from Detroit, Michigan, and pumps out original classic rock songs with a fierce intensity. Chain Reaction is headed by Eric Harabadian (lead vox, guitar) who is also a writer for publications such as Downbeat, Jazz Times, the Detroit Free Press and Goldmine Magazine. Joined by guitarist Bobby D., drummer Jeff and bass guitar man Larry, Harabadian struts his stuff through 6 original tunes and two covers on Chain Reaction’s sixth album, Electric Playground.

Electric Playground opens with Shallow Valor, a treatise on the downside of fame. The song has a great driving guitar part. The very open sound of the CD gives the impression of a live performance or even dropping by a friend’s house to check out his garage band. This adds an enjoyable twist. Up next is a very reverent cover of Cream's White Room. There’s nothing new here, but if you like the original you’ll have no complaints with the Chain Reaction cover. Burnin’ Midnight Oil has some interesting guitar work to it. It’s a good song but I couldn’t get too excited about it. The Party Principle is an update of Chain Reaction’s own original song. Once again, the guitar work is interesting (quite excellent, really). The vocals are competent, but I just had a hard time getting interested in the song itself.

If You Only Knew is a sweet song of longing. This one sounds just right. I suspect that if the right band were to pick this up and cover it we could be talking big hit. It almost has a Mark Knopfler feel to it. Honey Child is a great party tune. This is the sort of song that will keep your feet moving on a Friday or Saturday night. It’s inspired by the blending of blues and rock that Eric Clapton built his career on. Where’s The Beauty is the most modern sounding track on the album. I could hear this having some minor commercial potential. The disc closes out with a Hendrix-inspired version of the Star Spangled Banner, done as a tribute to US Troops.

Chain Reaction is a sharp Rock N Roll outfit. I suspect their live shows are quite fun and lively affairs. Electric Playground I am very mixed on. There is some good to great material here, but the production seems to stifle the band/songs. The production values here sound very 1960’s/1970’s – the sound is repressed and held at bay. Shallow Valor is the only track that sounds at all raw, but raw Rock N Roll seems to be what Chain Reaction is about. The disc is misleading because it makes Chain Reaction sound less energetic and alive than they undoubtedly are. It’s a shame. Electric Playground is a decent listen when it should be, at least, a Very Good listen.

Rating: 2.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Chain Reaction at http://www.chainreactionband.com/. You can purchase a copy of Electric Playground at www.cdbaby.com/cd/chain2.