Don't Stop Now, new from Crowded House (playing now). Click the  button to hear their Transit Lounge. Click it again for Take Out the Trash, new from They Might Be Giants. And once more for Climbing the Walls, also from TMBG. |
I already feel sorry for her.
She continues: “I was hoping for something a bit more personal. But after 20 years of marriage, you take what you can get. Here’s the thing — I'm 45, a stay-at-home mom and I’m totally stuck in the ’80s. My iPod contains Billy Idol, Pat Benatar, old Madonna, The Police — you get the picture. Any suggestions for updating my iPod with new music that I would enjoy?”
Let me get this right. This guy is married for 20 years, and he doesn’t know his wife’s musical taste? He gives her a gift card? Dude, you gotta put in more effort here. No wonder this woman is writing to strange DJs.
Actually, this isn’t such a tough question. Had your brain been frozen (a lá Ted Williams) back in 1987, you would be happy to hear, upon awakening in 2007, that some of your favorite bands are still making significant music.
Two such bands with new releases are Crowded House and They Might Be Giants.
Crowded House, the innovative rock band from New Zealand, is back with a new release, Time On Earth. Founder Neil Finn’s time on Earth includes membership in Split Enz, which earns him a spot on my most influential musicians of the ’80s list.
For Crowded House, success was immediate and short-lived. Hits Don’t Dream It’s Over and Something So Strong came on their 1986 debut self-titled album. Nothing since has garnered the commercial or critical success.
Time On Earth is an ambitious and much anticipated attempt to find that old magic again. Don’t Stop Now and Nobody Wants To are getting decent radio play. But Crowded House has cut an album before with two hits, only to fall into obscurity. The difference here is that this is the first Crowded House album that has more meat than filler. I recommend you look deeply into this album for some great non-singles, such as my favorite, Transit Lounge.
They Might Be Giants (TMBG) might as well be called They Might Have Attention Deficit Disorder. An incomplete list of genres they have recorded includes Rock, Alternative, Indie, Adult-Alternative, Children’s and Holiday music. By the way, I love all of it!
TMBG are the kings of whimsical lyrics — so much so that you might be tempted to consider them a novelty act. That is, until you find the melodies so infectious that they never quite leave you. Early TMBG hit Birdhouse in Your Soul fits that description for me.
Their 2007 release, The Else, is more proof by TMBG that good music does not need to have a message, and I mean no message at all. In the case of The Else, no guilt plus no angst plus no preaching equals a really good album. Notable cuts Take Out the Trash and Climbing the Walls sound to me as if The Romantics or The Knack grew up and made it to 2007.
But they didn’t.
However, with ’80s stalwarts such as Crowded House and They Might Be Giants remaining relevant, I think our desperatehousewife can achieve the iPod update she desires.
