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Monthly Archives: September 2013

September 30, 2013 · 12:18 pm

Album Review: “Four” by Andrea Perry

Damn! I got suckered by another musician telling me how “Beatle-y” their songs are and that I should listen to their album. This time, the request came from a musician/producer in Austin, TX named Andrea Perry and her album “Four“.

Hi, I’m a Beatles freak with a new album with several very Beatles influenced songs. I’d love if you’d check it out. <snip> Tracks 4, 5, 13 and 14 are the most Beatle-y. Track 1 maybe too.

Okay Andrea, I’ll be the judge of that!

There is no doubt that there is a ‘Beatle-y’ sound to many of the songs on this album…some listed in Andre’s note to me and some are not. But, I wonder how many musicians realize that going around proclaiming their music is heavily influenced by the greatest band in the world opens them up to having the entire album put under the microscope by none other than the very neurotic, anally retentive, OCD Beatles fans? And do you really want to open yourself up to that? I guess so…

The violins and cellos on the first song ‘My Lover Said’ are what trigger the Beatles-effect right from the get go and this song sets the tone for the album and I think it’s a more Beatles-esques song than – ‘Back Before There Was You’ or ‘While Spinning’.

Now, how does this album stand on its own away from it’s Fab Four fan influence? Not bad…but there was a song or two where I would have liked to have heard more layered vocals or harmonies because the lyrics seemed to become background noise to the instrumentals. And though Andrea says that track 5 – ‘While Spinning’ is Beatle-y, it sounds a lot like track 6 – ‘Where Have You Been’. There was also a part of me waiting for this album to climax and I didn’t feel like it quite did that until about track 13 -‘Welcome Home’.

But don’t take my word for it, head over to Andrea Perry‘s website and listen to it for free. If you like what you hear, the album is only $7 to download!

I’m not going to rate this album because I just don’t think it would be fair. Yes…heavy Beatles influence. Yes…the album can stand alone, but has it’s issues. How would you rate it?

Book Review: ‘Rubber Soul’ by Greg Kihn

Well boys and girls, it’s time once again for a couple disclaimers before I break into my review of this book:

1. This was the first full length book that I read entirely on a Kindle. I like real books with paper pages and page numbers, so this alone was a challenge when all the Kindle would tell me was a percentage of what I had already read. Is this going to be a factor in my review? I dunno!

2. I’ve said it before…I don’t like fan fiction. BUT…I had to catch myself because I realized that I do read fan fiction about Edgar Alan Poe. In fact, I’m kinda obsessed with it! So let me correct myself, I don’t like Beatles fan fiction. I like my Fab Four the way I like my soap and men…99 44/100% pure!

On to the review:

Rubber Soul is the latest in a series of novels by Greg Kihn. Yeah…THAT Greg Kihn…the man behind ‘The Breakup Song’ and ‘Jeopardy’. Apparently, he’s been keeping himself busy these past several years with a radio show and authoring books. Who’d a thunk it? This latest installment is a murder mystery featuring …you guessed it…The Beatles!

I must say that I love Greg’s writing style! What an easy and peaceful read this book was even as I struggled to get used to reading it on my Kindle (or KIHNdle). No flashbacks and not overloaded with too many characters. But I will admit, I almost didn’t make it past the 2nd or 3rd chapter when the main character becomes, what I consider, a little too involved with The Beatles. I understand that Mr. Kihn stayed true to the Beatles story during their early years, but there was a moment where I felt he crossed the line a bit with mixing his fiction with his fact.

*Note: I have it from a good source that Greg Kihn had never heard of ‘fan fiction’ up until 2 months ago even though he’s been writing it for years. Go figure…

I finally picked the book back up after a couple days of questioning why I had decided to read another Beatles fan fiction book (because he’s Greg ‘fu-kihn’ KIHN…that’s why!), I marched on through the digital pages and can say that it became a much better read with the Beatles taking a back seat to the main character up until the end when the plot thickens and draws our boys back into the story. At this point, I could no longer put the book down until finding out ‘Who done it?’

I must say, Greg did his homework on the Beatles for this book. I do believe there is one obvious error when he writes that Stu and Astrid were married…they never got that far before Stu passed away.

I rate this book: 3 out of 4 Beetles