We are now officially in the fourth quarter sales market. Department stores have begun to roll out the Christmas decorations, big summer movies are winding their way to the DVD department and some major releases in music are on the horizon for the all-important time in the retail year. It seemed appropriate, then, for me to discuss some of the most recent new releases in my headphones, one of which comes with a lot of expectation and another that exploded unbidden from out of the blue. Intrigued?

Ben Folds, Way to Normal (Epic)

I’ve been a fan of Folds’s work for a long time but find his solo efforts incredibly uneven. His last release, Songs for Silverman, was a leaden, ballad-heavy affair with very few tracks to really grab hold of. The latest, Way to Normal, should have been a return to form but only half succeeds. Sure, he regains a bit of his bounce and more than a bit of his bite, but the songs come from a sticky place: the dissolution of his third marriage, a relationship that informed most of his previous two albums. What you end up with is a lot of songs that make you feel like a friend has borrowed your ear for a while, relating to you how horrible that witch he used to be with has been. All the while, you have a sneaking suspicion that this friend is hardly as innocent as he claims.

I have no idea about the details of Folds’s personal life or how his marriage came apart. With semi-scathing tunes like “Bitch Went Nuts”, “Errant Dog,” and “You Don’t Know Me,” I frankly don’t want to know. Kiss-off and piss-off songs are common fodder in pop music, but they’re easier to take in smaller doses. They’re also easier on the ears when the production isn’t as abrasive as Dennis Herring’s. Tweedly-sounding synths, canned beat construction, occasional distortions that could be mistaken for blown speakers all attempt to frame the tunes in the most modern way, but become tiresome after a while. Worse, “You Don’t Know Me” employs the wonderful Regina Spektor and gives her nothing to really work with. Spektor, like Folds, has harnessed the power of solo voice and piano to great effect, so it’s really disappointing to find that anyone could have contributed her part on this song. (more…)

Mind if I freak you out here? Yes? Too bad; I have nothing else to write about. Well, that’s not entirely true. I have a lot to write about, judging by all the files I’ve put up on the handy-dandy Popdose FTP.

1) No, you cannot have access to the Popdose FTP.

2) I mean it, NO, you cannot have access to the Popdose FTP.

See, when you write for a forum such as this, you can overload yourself fairly early, clogging the works with all those notions you’d like to tackle, restraint be damned. Then life gets in the way and you find yourself getting all topical and current and, very quickly, your digital cabinets runneth over. So I think it is time to do a little spring cleaning, with an added bonus of providing outlet for democracy.

(Get to the point, damn it!)

There are a few candidates on my list that I’m just not going to get to. As much as I love the music from these artists, it just seems more and more unlikely that they’re going to get their day. That’s where you come in. Your petty little vote may not mean much when compared to a mighty Superdelegate, but it means something to me. I swear, and not just because I’m trying to get to second base with you. I’ve decided to give you a choice for whom I next tackle. Simply drop a comment with your choice from the following artists and the act with the largest popular vote gets an expanded column. It’s that simple, and you’ll respect yourself the morning after. And yes, you have lovely eyes.

(more…)

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’m a big fan of the band Marillion, although I came to be one in a roundabout way: finding a cassette tape of their concept album from 1985, Misplaced Childhood, in a cutout bin. By the time I had it, the synths had already dated the recording somewhat, but I listened obsessively anyway. In 1989, original lead singer and lyricist Fish struck out for solo territory and was replaced by Steve Hogarth. Hogarth’s voice added a new dimension to the band — he was suited for just about any material the band presented, and was able to give those songs a great pop feel.

While that would have made “H” the new guy, the position was once assumed by drummer Ian Mosley, who joined in 1984 for the band’s second album Fugazi. Now the band — Steve Rothery on guitar, Mark Kelly on keyboards, Pete Trewavas on bass, “H” at the microphone and Mosley behind the kit — is in full write/record mode for their fifteenth studio album. It is projected to be a double CD, lavishly packaged in a hardcover book in slipjacket, as was their 2004 entry Marbles, and funded primarily by pre-orders from ravenous fans. While the band may be only a blip on the radar in the US, their fans have been known to migrate to the UK from to attend the band’s convention/festival Marillion Weekend.

Popdose recently contacted the band via e-mail, and Ian Mosley took a moment away from the rigors of the creative process to answer a few questions about what’s happening with the group, with music in general, and with the state of the music professional in the up-for-grabs world of illegal downloading. (A side note: You will notice we have posted some MP3s from the band — in the interest of full disclosure, these examples are just that, examples, and have been cleared by the band through their communications manager Lucy Jordache. It is the intention of Popdose to expose new listeners to the music and, hopefully, compel them to buy the full albums.)

Now, on to the interview with drummer Ian Mosley! (more…)