More musical quick hits...

More and more quick hits about cd's that I've heard of late...most of them borrowed from PLCH...

Up first is Kanye West's College Dropout. Picked this up on the basis of snippets heard in the previews of Jarhead - looking for the song "Jesus Walk With Me". That song does have a great beat and rhythm, though the bulk of the album isn't my thing. I liked the first half dozen songs but eventually found the anti-education and pro-drug/drug dealer tone not to be to my likings. Reviews are strong, however, so I'm guessing that if the genre is more to your liking, you'll like this example.

Next up is Prairie Wind by Neil Young. Every review seems to feel the need to mention that Neil nearly died before/during the recording of this album. Thanks for sharing. Maybe it'll make me more charitable toward this album which seems to continue Neil's slide into late career irrelevance that's been going on since either Weld or Harvest Moon. At this point, his albums are reviewed in reference to his past albums. This one keeps being referred to as the third in a trilogy with Harvest Moon. Where that album, however, was composed of original, quality songs throughout, this newest Neil album finds him borrowing phrases and tunes from his old, great songs - something that has begun happening with more frequency of late. Weirdly, I find myself pining for the 80s Neil that got sued for making non-Neil albums. His late 90's 'til now output has been decidely uninteresting and boring. Neil's moved off of my must-buy list.

Borrowd dwightyokamacoustic.net from mom because I enjoy the CD. It's nothign revalatory from Dwight, but it's a nice acoustic reworking of some of Dwight's greatest hits. He's got a nice twange and callback to the rockabilly/outlaw country artists of the past. Sort of a similar album to John Mellencamp's Rough Harvest which I also recommend - in that an artist takes a look back at his catalog - also makes me think of John Prine's Souvenirs album, which I haven't yet checked out.