MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE MAVERICKS - IN TIME

I know people get sick of each other in bands, and goals change and opportunities knock for some and not others.  But it just seems its almost never a good idea to break up.  Take a couple of years off, that's the answer, I think.  The Mavericks split in 2004, with lead singer Raul Malo working for a solo career that never took off.  This was a band ripe for a reunion.

And it's a super one.  Malo's solo discs were all too wimpy, as he concentrated on selling his admirable pipes.  But the key to The Mavericks, for me, was always the sharp guitar and good-time accordion sound.  They were, and are, best as a party band, with the Florida/Cuban influence up against the Tex-Mex flavours.  Malo, who's been writing all these ballads and doing Christmas songs, has caught fire again for this one, which jumps from cut to uptempo cut.

Mariachi horns meet pumping Sir Douglas Quintet organ, Los Lobos guitar raunch punctuates Malo's Roy Orbison vocals.  That's always been the beauty of The Mavericks, that they were made up of the best parts available.  And even when they were taken apart, the puzzle fit back together perfectly on this first-class new disc.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: MOTOWN THE MUSICAL - CLASSIC SONGS THAT INSPIRED THE BROADWAY SHOW

It's shocking it took this long for the Motown story to be made into a Broadway show, but it's in previews now, no doubt about to become the next smash and run for ten years.  Of course, Motown itself never passes up an opportunity to release a tie-in best-of, once again putting together a collection of perhaps the most reissued music of all time.

This two-disc set is awfully good of course, as it's a 40-track waltz through the great hits of the 60's and 70's.  And even at that, it contains only a fraction of the songs that could have been used.  It's heavy on The Supremes and Diana Ross solo, and stays mostly with the biggest stars:  Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Four Tops, Smokey with and without The Miracles.  I played a game, where I didn't look at the track list before, and had to see how fast I could name each tune.  It's pretty easy when it goes:  You've Really Got A Hold On Me, Do You Love Me, My Guy, Where Did Our Love Go, Stop! In The Name Of Love.

Really, the only question here is, do you own a good Motown collection already?  If not, this will do nicely.  Except it should include a front-cover sticker that says:  Warning!  Includes All Night Long by Lionel Ritchie.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK - THE SAPPHIRES

I remember this movie when it was called The Commitments.  Okay, I haven't seen it, it isn't out yet, but it's one of those film staples:  a group of underdogs learns about life while performing classic hits.  In this case, from what I've half-read, it's an Australian smash hit comedy, about young Aboriginal women who end up performing in Vietnam for U.S. G.I.'s during the war.  Cue the soundtrack album, filled with vintage Motown, Stax and similar soul.

I can just imagine the production meeting where they're going over material to do include.  "Nope, can't do Mustang Sally, it was in The Commitments."  "How about I Heard It Through The Grapevine?"  "No, it's been used in tons of other movies."  "How about Gladys Knight's version of Grapevine?"  "PERFECT!!!"  It's the same formula for much of the soundtrack, have the talented artists perform new versions of the old faves, in faithful but punched-up productions.  Jessica Mauboy handles the bulk of these, including Land Of A Thousand Dances by Wilson Pickett (featured so prominently in The ..umm... Commitments), The Four Tops' I Can't Help Myself, and The Staple Singers' I'll Take You There. 

The difference with this soundtrack is that it's longer (17 cuts), has some newly-written tracks, and even original covers.  There are two from Sam and Dave, the standard hits Soul Man and Hold On! I'm Comin', and Movieland's official anthem of the Vietnam war , Creedence's Run Through The Jungle.  Given the previous success of this kind of film, and of Australian pop music-based movies (Muriel's Wedding, Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert), this could be one of this larger cult favourites, which could mean lots of soundtrack sales.  Of course, I'm recommending you just buy Motown and Stax compilations.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: LEGATO VIPERS - QUICK SLUG

Playing surf music won't make you rich, that's for sure.  Ever since it's heyday back in the early 60's, surf has held on, but just with a cult following, and there's rarely more than a handful of groups around making the music full-time.  Heck, Dick Dale is still alive (75) and playing dates, so he almost corners the market.

Yet Canada, with its very limited surfing spots, still manages to have a few practitioners around, and it may be even be growing.  The Sadies still hold a candle for surf, and never fail to play some live each show, so there's been exposure that way, and of course back to Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet.  Now comes Ontario's Legato Vipers, made up of veterans from other groups with a shared love of twang and reverb and instrumentals.  The band includes guitarists Mike Brooks (Bry Webb & the Providers), and Jordan Howard (The Acorn), bassist Tyler Belluz (Del Bel) and drummer AJ Johnson (Cuff the Duke).

Legato Vipers follow the surf rules, even it it means not living up to their name, as there are far more staccato notes being played, those short, sharp runs of hot guitar.  Of course, everything is soaked in echo and reverb, and there are no vocals.  The eight song EP totals only 14 minutes and 39 seconds.  Again, that's exactly what you do in surf, find a memorable lick, the lead guitar makes it the melody, you play it, find a nice ending, and get out.  There's a good mix of rough stuff and pretty sunset music, which is just slightly slower and more dreamy.  On the faster numbers, there's menace, the guitar's single-note solos spitting out the melodies, in a dark and dangerous mood.  Surf is as close to musical film noir as there is, at least in the instrumental category.

The Vipers are pretty serious about this one.  The EP is just part of the assault, with a series of videos, a full Eastern tour that just wrapped, and a bunch of tie-in merchandise that makes the website fun.  A Legato Vipers flask?  Quick slug, get it?  I'll drink to that, plus you get the download with it.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE GRAPES OF WRATH - HIGH ROAD

It always felt like The Grapes Of Wrath left the scene too early.  Maybe bigger and better things might not have happened, but it seemed like there was more music that could come out of them.  The band had solidified into a tight unit that could put out a string of 3-minute gems, bright and shiny and sweet, 70's pop for a 90's audience.

So let's be happy that the trio of Kevin Kane, Tom Hooper and Chris Hooper have put it back together, in a natural way, for the first time since 1992.  The reunion has been developing slowly, and hype-free (it's Canada, after all), after a 2010 stage appearance, and then a serious return to writing and recording.  Make note of what's not there; this wasn't an attempt to grab some cash with live shows, and a forced album to follow.  Instead, they decided if they were a band again, they should be making solid new music.

That's the very good news here, as this is a solid, well-made and performed album full of strong new songs.  Everybody is back with their A-games, and for TGOW that means great melodies, lots of harmonies, smart chord and key changes, memorable choruses and thoughtful lyrics.  Smart stuff that fans of the old idea of three-minute hit singles will enjoy.  I'm Lost (I Miss You) comes across as a missing 10 CC gem.  Make It OK is a White Album-style rocker.  Lead single Good To See You, first issued last fall as a new addition for the group's Singles compilation, is pure jangly nostalgia, light and breezy.  There's actually a lot of sunshine pop here, albeit with a distinctive Canadian flare at times.  Mexico is the song for those with winter depression, the lyrics about leaving the snow and three months of darkness and heading to Cancun.

Beloved by their fans, especially way out in their B.C. homeland, The Grapes Of Wrath hasn't received enough acclaim in the twenty years since their last album.  Hopefully, this remind everybody that together, they make some of the best-sounding music no matter the decade.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: MADELEINE PEYROUX - THE BLUE ROOM

Peyroux's been on a roll, and becoming one of top jazz vocalists of the day, but this one kinda weirds me out.  It's designed to be an update of Ray Charles' famous genre-bending Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music, a huge hit that turned around everyone's idea of what country could be back in 1962.  Produced and designed by the noted Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, etc.), some of Ray's covers are included, as well as a new batch of covers that update the idea of adding jazz and soul and strings to country-ish material.

My biggest problem with some of the songs is that with her particular drawl, getting behind the notes, and the lusher strings Klein adds, it takes on a lounge feel.  The slower version of The Everly's Bye Bye Love sounds like a Burl Ives or Eddy Arnold version, with none of the original track's spriteliness.  All the older numbers, from Take These Chains From My Heart to You Don't Know Me, are too laid-back, even with the quality of all the voices, arrangement and players.

Better are the newer songs chosen to update the Charles idea.  They are all familiar, but these are very interesting takes on them, and since they aren't numbers that have been covered all that often, they are more fresh.  Gentle On My Mind takes on a sadder town, and she's right, it is a more serious number than the good-time Glen Campbell version.  Bird On A Wire works very well, thanks to a great string arrangement, and her best vocal on the disc.  The killer though, and the song that made me reconsider what I was hearing, is Warren Zevon's Desperadoes Under The Eaves, which closes the disc.  Her haunted take is perfect for this impeccable song, and since it's set in a sleazy bar, Peyroux's voice fits perfectly, three cocktails too many.  So I'm split down the middle on this one.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: GARY ALLAN - SET YOU FREE

I can count on one hand the number of mainstream, major label country stars our of Nashville I like these days.  Heck, it might be one finger.  But I always enjoy a new disc from Gary Allan.  True, he is marching the same path as the rest of his contemporaries, and it's modern pop music with a twang, rather than anything traditional, but he does it so darn well.  He can write great lyrics, choose equally good songs by other writers, and always manages to give his songs just enough edge and surprise to make them interesting and fulfilling.

Maybe it's because he's earned the stripes over the years to produce himself, and insists on the best quality, and won't cross the cheesy line.  Maybe he's accepted he's more modern than retro, and as much as Haggard is hip and Cash is cool, he knows he isn't them.  Whatever, he's a talented dude who doesn't pander, doesn't sing or write songs about heartland and farms and trucks, but instead sticks to bad break-ups and booze.  A quick check of the lyrics confirms that, yes, every one of the twelve cuts is about breaking up with somebody, with the exception of the last, where everything's great and she's the best thing ever for him.  But the rest of the time, either he's doing the dumping (Tough Goodbye), or he's dying from a broken heart (It Ain't The Whiskey).  And he's drinking enough to fix the provincial deficit here, with the booze flow depending on the severity of his broken heart.  Finally the two themes merge in the perfect Hungover Heart:  "Don't get strung out on a woman/'Cause comin' down is the hardest part/When she walks away and leaves you/With a hungover heart."

As for the music, Allan's a good singer, even with that aw-shucks vocal hiccup that seems to be pre-programmed into all Nashville microphones.  It has the big, brilliant sound, thanks to A-list session guys such as Dan Dugmore, Michael Rhodes and Chad Cromwell.  But there's that extra something in every track, whether it's a smart ending, or a smooth move like all the instruments dropping out for a chorus in One More Time.  He's been producing quality albums and singles since 1996, and it continues to pay off; Every Storm (Runs Out Of Rain) from this album hit #1, his first chart-topper in nine years.  Best of all, he doesn't wear a hat.  That's a good reason to like him right there.