MUSIC I

This is my first day of blogging, so forgive the unstructured nature of things - I'm not yet sure where I want to go with this.

However, if I'm going to put in the time on this I wouldn't mind making a bit of cash. With that, I've decided to include the occasional music, book or DVD review. Eventually these will include links to Amazon or another site where I can get a commission.

I picked up five CDs this month, reviews for all of them will follow in the coming days. Here's the first:

Diana Krall: The Girl in the Other Room

I've been a fan of Diana since her first album – and a fan of her new husband Elvis for even longer – so its great to have an album that features both of then. Moreover, it's great to see her return to form. While her previous studio album - the Look of Love - was generally hailed by the critics and sold well, the music was overly orchestrated and left me flat. Here, Diana is back with a slimmed down band and gets to show off her skills as a pianist.

Outstanding tracks include:
'Temptation': Diana's rendition of this Tom Waits song, is particularly good – bettering an earlier rendition by fellow Canadian jazz singer Holly Cole.

'Love Me Like a Man': a rousing rhythm number that could have easily fit on any of her early recordings. It's more likely to conjure images of a smoky bar than a crowded concert hall - and if you know me, then its pretty obvious which locale I prefer.

'Departure Bay': for me, this one had traces of Joni Mitchell's best songs - 'River' and 'Case of You' - both of which are standards around the house at Christmas (helping to conjure images of snowy Canada at the one time of year I kind of wish it wasn't 30 degrees Celsius all of the time here). This one brought me home more than other tracks on the disc.

In coming days reviews for Jet, Joe Strummer, the Dropkick Murphys and Badi Assad.