Perry R. Cook, Recent Listening

Recent Listening

The last few recordings to which I've been listening with some frequency.

Reviews are my own opinions, but they're right. Remember, as with T.V. and reading at times, I often use music to get me into a rhythm, or take my mind off other things. (I very often listen to CDs, watch T.V., and program at the same time). So sometimes I tend towards throbbing dance music, like our hacker forefathers used to, to help me forget how long I've been working.
Apocalyptica Plays Metallica by Four Cellos
That's right. These Finnish studs all play cellos, and they play heavy metal. This album of Metallica covers is the first I've heard of them. The first two cuts are awful, but it gets much better thereafter, and by the end you can pretty much buy into it. The non- linear crunch of the bow attacks is really pretty close to a pick on a distorted guitar string, and the big-bottom end of the cello body starts to sound like drums and bass after some acclamation. Mostly just the whole idea of it is pretty funny.

Emancipation, by Prince*, or "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince," or "The Artist"
as he now wants to be called. (*I refuse to follow him along to the illogical conclusion of this naming thing. He'll eventually want to copyright and use the NULL character as his name). Anyway, this three CD set is great. Lots of wonderful things, my two current favorites are his covers of "Betcha by golly wow," and "One of Us" (see my covert parody page for more references to the latter).

Joshua, Judges, Ruth, by Lyle Lovett
This album is really, really nice. Some funny things, lots of pretty depressing things. Sound is so nice I don't mind being bummed out after listening to the whole thing.

Earthling, by David Bowie
What can I say, I love David Bowie. He did more to warp me in my youth than any other single source of youthful warpage, and he still affects me today. After the frighteningly twisted and depressing 1.Outside, This CD is a wonderful and generally upbeat dance recording. The drum-and-bass beats throughout, like on "Little Wonder," makes everything quite fun to listen to.

Different Perspectives, by Robin Eubanks
I still listen to this fairly often. It's a very nice New York style jazz CD, with lots of good trombone playing on it.

Primus, various titles
I own them all, and listen to them when I want something to thump my head and get me in a fairly manic mood to hack.

Oh Yes, the Female Singer Collection

If you can say I collect anything, except for everything, then it would be vocal music, and I seem to buy more female vocalists than male (although I do have Mel Torme, Al Jarreau, etc.). Some of the female vocalists in the collection:

K.D. Lang, Leann Rimes, Reba McIntyre, Lisa Loeb, Spice Girls, Julia Fordham, Alanis Morrisette, Shiela Chandra, Ursula Dudziak, Flora Purim, ... and of course

A Shrine Dedicated to Cecilia Bartoli

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