Music Notes on Paste Sampler 38

I've been digging Paste magazine since I first picked it up a couple of years back. It's from Georgia, and comes with a sampler CD. Generally, I like the selection of songs on the CDs, and this month's collection is a good one. Let me give you an idea of what's on it.

It opens with 100 Days, 100 Nights by Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, and that has a soaring vocal, almost gospel like. The sort of thing you might expect to hear from Shirley Bassey.

Track two is by Londoner Kate Nash. Foundations is a song about a bad relationship done in a sing/speak style that is very charming with Nash's British accent and good pop music. I'd like to hear more of her.

Third up is Homer Hiccolm and The Rocketboys with Do I Wake or Sleep? It's a song where the tempo varies: it starts strong and then slows down for the first verses, and speeds up again for the chorus. Repeat as necessary.

The fourth track is I'll Follow You Tonight, which is a quiet song riding on the strong voice of Anna Ternheim.

Milton & The Devils Party's Have to Have Everything is an uptempo pop song that I quite like. It reminds me of the kind of college rock I heard on WPGU in Chambana back in the late 80s and early 90s. You know, a guitar band with melodic vocals. Who doesn't like that?

On track six, The Opposite of Hallelujah, Jens Lekman has a very airy vocal - like Morrisey perhaps? But it's a musically happy song despite have a negative sounding - yet so true, chorus of "You don't know what I'm going through."

Die Alone by Ingrid Michaelson is track 7. It starts quietly and then soars off. It's a good song about the fear that you might die alone, and I can relate to that.

Is that a banjo that I hear on the beginning of track 8: Front Row at The Fashion Show by Jonathan Rundman? This is a nice narrative number about, well, being in the front row of a fashion show. It's a slow song, but the lyrics are strong, so it works for me. I'd be happy to hear more of Rundman.

Mother Sun Star by Mar is track 9, and it's another slow, soaring song that's fine in its own way.

Track 10 is a great uptempo number that was the sort of thing that I wanted to hear from Me'Shell Ndegocello when I saw her in Paris a few years back. But she didn't play things like The Sloganeer: Paradise, which is too bad, 'cause this is great.

Track 11 is by Liam Finn, who is the son of Neil Finn (Crowded House). Second Chance is a poppy number that's fine, but not really weighty enough for me.

The Cornflakes Song is track 12, and it rides the vocal of singer/songwriter Dick Prall.

The Sadies' The Trial is next up for track 13. It's a nice song with a rolling country feel.

It sounds like there's more banjo kicking off Days by She Is So Beautiful / She Is So Blonde, which is track 14. But this song doesn't make a big impression with me.

Track 15 is more to my liking. It's I Call On You by The Trolleyvox, who use a guitars and a nice female vocal to propel this uptempo pop/rock number.

To me Wedding Crows by The Josh Davis Band on Track 16 has a Nickelback-ish feel to it; not that there's anything wrong with that. Well, OK, maybe there is. I make this analogy, because the singing is sometimes that forced soaring kind of vocal that NB would use. Also, there is a quiet/loud repeat as necessary structure to this song.

The second Canadian artist (The Sadies were the first) on this sampler appears at track 17: Serena Ryder with Brand New Love. I'm not quite digging this number, which is a slow one with acoustic guitar, after a few listens. So it goes.

The sampler ends with three Christmas songs, as it's that time of year. There's Love Came Down at Christmas by Jars of Clay and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas done well by Bebo Norman. But the strongest track is It really Is (A Wonderful Life) by Mindy Smith.

What a great voice Smith has! The track on the sampler is from a Christmas album (entitled My Holiday) she's put out that Paste rates as 4 stars. Not having many (any?) Christmas records, I'm thinking hers would be a good one to pick up for this, or any, holiday season.

Of course, you really need to go out and pick up the current issue of Paste and have a listen to all these songs for yourself.

Let me know if you do.