A Lost Bet (part four)

After the horror the preceding three CDs, I felt a sort of warm comfort when I put "Women and Songs" into my CD drive. (By the way, this is the first of these CDs. It has grown like some sort of noxious weed into a multi disc franchise).

My warm feelings were shattered by the self-important whining of Jewel. I fear I am going to offend legions of Jewel fans here, but let's be serious. She reminds me of Tori Amos, someone I have always characterized as a poor man's Kate Bush. In fact, I felt that Tori was some sort of novelty act after hearing her awesomely hilarious rendition of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. Only later did I realize that people admired that perverse performance. And I was left waiting for her to do a breathy piano version of Stairway to Heaven. But, back to Jewel. The lyrics of Foolish Game are silly and embarrassing.

The good news is that there are some songs that I like on this CD. For instance, I like Suzanne Vega and the Pretenders. That might be it. Did you know that Tom's Diner refers to Monk's Cafe, the cafe used in Seinfeld? But, my overwhelming feeling about this disc is one of sleepiness. I could just drift off. And, that may be a good thing. There must be something redeeming about music that I can sleep to.

Here's a random fact about me. I once won tickets (thanks to K.) to see Moxy Fruvous. The opening act was Jann Arden. I didn't like her then and I don't like her now. Boy, anyone reading these recent posts might think that I hate all music. That's not really true. I tend to dislike popular music, but there are exceptions.

I should mention that I am not opposed to women singers. I like, for example, Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush, Bjork, The Breeders, Lush, Cocteau Twins, the Cranberries, P.J. Harvey, Linda Thompson, Lucinda Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, etc.

An acceptable description of this disc has to include the term "adult contemporary." That's what it is after all: a middling collection of fairly uninspired tunes. On the other hand, I may have stumbled upon the perfect xmas gift for my father.

Technorati tags: music, Jewel, Tori Amos, Women and Songs