This Week's Music Rotation Playlist

I've been sifting through my records and CDs lately, revisiting oldies, but I've also discovered some interesting newer stuff courtesy of YouTube. There's a mix of genres but I haven't been disappointed by anything yet. 

Early in the week, I got hooked on the second advance single, Firepower, off Judas Priest's upcoming album of the same name. It's a beefy double-bass throwback, in the vein of some of Priest's 80's barn-burners. That solo! Is that Tipton? As I write this, I again feel a wave of sadness that Glenn Tipton is no longer in the line-up due to Parkinsons. I'll really feel his absence at next month's concert... not to mention the lack of K.K. Downing, who departed several years ago. All these years, and now my first Priest show, and I'll miss the famed guitar duo that put them (and metal) on the map. Sigh.

Lightning Strike was the first advance single from Firepower, and though it lacks the oomph of Firepower, it's still an energetic song lit up by nice guitar flourishes. I play this one again and again, hoping it'll click more with me. Getting there.

A co-worker turned me on to Elliott Smith, the singer-songwriter-musician. I heard the song Pretty Mary K and was immediately struck by the Beatles influence. A pretty song that while bearing a Fab Four feel, is a unique piece in its own right. I explored the entire album from which the song came, Figure 8, and really enjoyed it. While the album is largely an electric band experience, some of Smith's tunes are unplugged acoustic accompanying his smooth George Harrison-like vocals. All very cool.

As I turned to the first page of Highway to Hell, one of the 33 1/3 book series, I decided I needed some musical backdrop for my reading session. So I popped on an AC/DC compilation CD I made many years ago. Great book, by the way... an incisive examination of the making of the legendary album. But back to the music: my "best of" disc kicked off with classic oldies TNT, Dirty Deeds, Jailbreak, High Voltage, and Let There Be Rock. While my little sampler had just about all of my favourite AC/DC songs on it, there are some omissions that I'd like to correct someday. Tracks like The Jack, It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock'n'Roll), and Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be. 

Since the Aussie rockers have yet to release an official greatest hits album (in over 40 years!), I may have to resort to getting two movie soundtracks full of the band's best-known tunes. First, there's the well-known Who Made Who soundtrack, a small representation of that era of their music. The better choice (or in tandem with WMW) is the Iron Man 2 soundtrack, sporting a larger selection from across the band's career. 

Anyway, getting back to Highway to Hell, I played that whole album a few times one evening. The perfect album. It is by far my favourite AC/DC effort, warm and groovin', unlike the cold metallic chunk of the studio follow-up (minus Bon Scott on the mic), Back In Black. Don't get me wrong, BiB is an excellent disc... its music simply hasn't weathered the decades for me as well as Highway. Scott on vocals made all the difference. And the Young brothers stuck to more basic rock'n'roll, or hard rock, if you will. 

A friend suggested I check out a song called Canary King, by Huntsmen. It's a really different sort of thing... big, sprawling guitar and drum sound with full vocals (actually sung, not growled or yelled). There's a hint of Alice in Chains here, and I can appreciate that. A bit doomy and weird, but intriguing to my ears. As I scanned YouTube for other Huntsmen tracks, I found a variety of vocal treatments on top of their massive looming guitar structures. It was never unlistenable, but some songs were more appealing than others. But the Sabbath-y influence was unmistakable... and I can get behind that, too.