Real Short Reviews

Ukelele Songs-Eddie Vedder- I love Eddie. But Ukelele Songs is like reggae to me. 3 songs in and I realize I'm not really high sitting around some beach campfire letting the tide or lack thereof control my emotions.  I'm sleepy, I smell like firewood and I just want a sandwich.

Circuital-My Morning Jacket- Perennial "grow-er not show-er" from perennial best live band on the planet if you care to stand next to 30 thousand others at any and every festival on the planet and smell their sweat funk and get dirty looks from stepping on their blankets. If you're on the bus, bike, or in the car you'll wanna dance in place to "Outta My System" or "First Light". You'll notice Jim James' voice for the very first time as he has put the reverb in storage and laid back a bit. Can anyone name anyone else in this band?

Move Like This-The Cars- Ric Ocasek finally got pissed enough to leave the mixing board when the New cars ventured out to the Live Nation tents a few years back with Tod Rundgren on the mic. So what do we get after decades of nothing?  This album covers NO new ground. It sounds like THE CARS. Robotic new wave riffs, warm keyboard runs, hand claps..it's all there YESSSS!!! I mean...the single "Sad Song" has the exact same Elliot Easton intro and tone as "Best Friend's Girl" and I don't care...in a GOOD way. It's kind of like running into an old girlfriend on the street after 20 years and noticing she hasn't hit the wall. It puts a spring in creaky knees.  I could have used much more of Easton's short blasts of solo brilliance in certain cuts, like "Free" and "Keep on Knocking", which both could be extra tracks from Candy-O and you would never know. There are a few ballads, sung by Ric, which made me long for long gone Ben Orr, but overall its a glorious surprise from The Cars, one of the most unsung influential bands of all time.

That's all I have today. Gotta get back to tweeting about Gaga's butterface.