Chicago Experiment- few good songs but kinda dull

Ch-ch-changes

Wow, January flew by. Tomorrow's already February 1st, and the changes are a-coming.

Biggest change: Sarah landed a FT job at Common Ground in their Compliance department. I am happy for her, and happy that I can still continue on part-time at Brookdale. I was looking down the barrel of being a stay-at-home dad, and I'm not sure I'm well-suited for that role. Now, I work three days and spend the other two with the kids (Levi, of course, has school all week, so it'll be mostly afternoons).

It's a change that I feel it's time for. Sarah hasn't worked full-time for five years, and I don't want the kids in full-time child care. I can spend my three days a week working in peace and then the other two figuring out stuff to do, which will be fun. Who knows what we'll get up to, but should be interesting.

Levi's had trouble sleeping alone lately, and I'm not happy that Sarah chooses to just stay up there with him and read. It's not that hard to see when he's sleeping and come downstairs. It's something that we'll have to discuss soon.

1-27-22

 

1. What If I
2. Higher Love
3. Cut A Tooth
4. Gee, Officer Krupke
5. Right Back Round Again
6. Mama Werewolf
7. Misunderstanding
8. She's The One
9. Stress Dreams
10. I Did It
11. Avenal
12. Last Man Standing
13. Love on the Weekend

    New Stuff:

    #1 Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

    #3, #9 Greengrass Bluesky

    #4- West Side Story Soundtrack

    #5- McBride, Mehldau et al

Overall feeling: C to C+. Misunderstanding totally doesn't fit here. I normally don't start out with a new song, and four of the first five were new. I like the new Greengrass album. These playlists need to get a bit longer too.

1.21.22

 

1. Once In A Lifetime
2. Madness
3. Wild
4. Warehouse
5. Revival
6. Midnight Rider
7. Walking on Broken Glass
8. Bye Bye Love
9. Lanes
10. Succession Theme*
11. Midnight Train To Memphis 
12. Tomorrow is a Long Time
13. First and Last Waltz
14. Lavender
15. Wordless Chorus

*Since we finished the show this week

New Stuff:

#2- Lucius

#3- Spoon

#5- Allman Brothers

#9- Dave Stryker

File These Under "Not Really My Thing"

 

I liked a few songs on Flesh on Flesh, but ADM seemed to jumpy for the most part. Just couldn't get into Good Grief after the first song. Good to keep trying new things, though. Street of Dreams was mostly good background noise.

Aerosmith (Aerosmith)

After hearing Dream On at the Y this morning, I decided to listen to their debut album. Turns out there wasn't anything for me to really sink my teeth into.

1.17.22

 

1. Wrapped Around Your Finger
2. I Have The Touch
3. Illegal Smile
4. Feelin' Blue
5. Power Down
6. Babylon
7. Outlier
8. Scandinavian Skies
9. Ode To A Butterly
10. Destination
11. Be My Baby*
12. Heaven On A Sunday
13. Some Guys Have All The Luck
14. Little Birdie**
15. Charlie Brown

*For Ronnie Spector, who passed away

**for my brother and Deric, who visited this weekend. This song was brought up.

1.14.22

1. Wrapped Around Your Finger
2. Angel From Montgomery (John Prine)
3. Feelin' Blue (CCR)
4. Should Have Known Better
5. Panorama
6. Ode to a Butterfly
7. Looking for Clues 

Lindsey Buckingham (Lindsey Buckingham)/ The Bridge (Sting)

 

I think this is a solid album. Not a great album, but a few really good songs. "Scream" and "I Don't Mind" are very catchy. After that, there aren't any skippable songs until the last one. Much more enjoyable than Sting's album, which is all over the place in terms of tone. "Rushing Water" is a great opening song, but then the whistle-centric "If It's Love" seems to be so clearly written for a movie that it's obnoxious. The rest of the album is a chore in spots. 

Tears for Fears New Stuff

The Tipping Point- like this one

No Small Thing- too meandering

Break The Man- not my taste

John Prine- John Prine

 1 Like this one- wry

2 OK

3 Wow, sad but poignant

4 Another sad one

5 OK

6 OK

7 +

8 OK

9 +

10 +

11 OK

12 OK

13 OK

John Prine- John Prine- wow, music to die to? A couple of sad, sad songs

1.7.22

1. Watchtower

2. Fortunate Son

3. Games Without Frontiers

4. Pay Your Way in Pain

5. Whiskey, Whiskey, Whiskey

6. I'll Call You Mine

7. Starting Over

8. It Came Out Of The Sky

9. Melting Through Midtown

10. Stay*

11. Headlock

12. Steam**

13. Are We Ourselves

14. Dance In The Moonlight

15. Give A Little Bit

16. Raven

17. Riptide

18. Didn't Mean To Turn You On

*Shakespears Sister

**Leon Bridges

New Stuff:

#4- St Vincent

#6- girl in red

#8- CCR

#9- Physics House Band

Daddy's Home (St Vincent)

 

St Vincent, 'Daddy's Home'

1  Kinda Prince-like, as RS says. Kinda like it.

2  Ok, no strong feelings owoa

3  Kind of irritating

4 Uh, stealing from Pink Floyd a little? Has a little "Us and Them". Reminiscent of a Beatlesque mashup with PF

5 OK

6 Short Interlude

7 Bleak

8 Like this one, funky

9 Short Interlude

10 No strong feelings owoa

11 Eh

12 No strong feeling

13

14 Short Interlude

Overall, I just didn't have much connection to this album. It's like a book that was well-written but didn't speak to me.

Willy and The Poor Boys (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

 

Overall reaction: Solid album.

Details:

Down On The Corner: Heard it so much; doesn't really move me one way or another

It Came Out Of The Sky: + kind of funky little song

Cotton Fields: 0 doesn't really stand out

Poorboy Shuffle: 0 

Feelin' Blue:  + nice groove

Fortunate Son: + like of course. Classic

Don't Look Now:  + kind of an Elvis groove

The Midnight Special:  0 never been a big fan of this one

Side Of The Road + snappy instrumental

Effigy: + Ok

Incident on 3rd (Physics House Band)

 

10 songs, 3 liked

What I liked:  

A couple of songs turned into nice jams.

What I didn't like:

Too many songs had nothing to say. The words "repetitive" or "not that interesting" kept coming up.