A Pistol Hot Cup Of Rhyme: Favorite Albums: 84

Hot damn. Staying on schedule.

84. Hi, How Are You Today? by Ashley MacIsaac (1995)

Went to see a Crash Test Dummies concert back in the day, and the opening act was Ashley MacIsaac. My girlfriend at the time and I were both like, "Who is this chick?" Yeah, it's a dude, and he was outright awesome. He's from Eastern Canada (Nova Scotia, I believe) and plays Celtic folk songs in a more updated rock type way, as well as some original songs. He was also one of the violin players during the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics in the sweet ass segment they did.
Anyway.
So, yeah, this album is the only one of his that I own, and I absolutely love it. It has a great mix of updated traditional songs and contemporary songs, plus some humor thrown in for good measure. It starts off with "Beaton's Delight", a rocked out traditional song. Super high energy, super fun. "Sleepy Maggie" is another traditional song, and the woman singing on it (Mary Jane Lamond) has an outstanding voice. She also sings in Gaelic, which just rules. Slower tempo, but a very cool song. "Rusty-D-Con-Struck-Tion" takes three traditional songs and mashes them together, and has some of the best violins on the album. "The Devil In the Kitchen" has the best violins on the album, hands down. Extremely fast paced, energetic, and outstanding. Great song. "MacDougall's Pride" is a very slow song, very beautiful. We had it played during dinner at our wedding reception, along with a couple others from this album. "Spoonboy" is a cool tune, basically the violin, someone playing spoons, a little piano and a simple beat tapped out on the floor with a foot. Not fancy, but very well executed. "What An Idiot He Is" is the only song where Ashley MacIsaac actually sings. (Most of the songs are instrumentals.) It's a really funny song about how big of an asshole some guy is. "Sophia's Pipes" is another frantic song, also one of the best on the album. very cool. "Sad Wedding Day" was another one played at our reception, a very slow, very moving number with Mary Jane Lamond singing again also in Gaelic. "Wing-Stock" is another slow song, mostly piano, also pretty. "Hills Of Glenorchy" is a slower paced yet driving song. Kicks ass. The final song is "Brenda Stubbert", a brilliant song where the violin almost sounds like bagpipes. This album may not be for everybody. Some may find it boring, some may find it annoying. I love it, though. It's a great album to relax to, even with how chaotic and frantic some of the songs are. Just a wonderful album.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Beaton's Delight"

4. "Sad Wedding Day"

3. "Sleepy Maggie"

2. "MacDougall's Pride"

1. "Sophia's Pipes"

83. Pop!: The First 20 Hits by Erasure (1992)

This serves as both a singles collection and Greatest Hits album. It covers every single from the first album to the ABBA-Esque tribute EP, also from '92. It also serves as a Greatest Hits, though, because almost all of the songs here made it into the Top 40 in the U.K., and over half of them were Top 10. Kind of funny, really. They were wildly successful in Britain, yet over here, few people know anything by them other than "Chains Of Love" and "A Little Respect". The songs are here chronologically, making it a nice way to see how Erasure evolved over their first five albums. "Who Needs Love (Like That)" starts it off with an extremely high falsetto vocal before settling into a more natural voice for the rest of the song. Not a great song, but okay. "Heavenly Action" is a bit better, and the video is hilarious, with Andy Bell singing a poppy love song to a puppy. "Oh l'Amour" is the first really good song on the album. It starts off with a beautiful slow intro before blowing up into a fast pop song. Very cool. "Sometimes" and "It Doesn't Have To Be" are the next two, and they are kind of similar both in style and theme. Both are decent, though. "Victim Of Love" is an upbeat song about not wanting to get your heart broken. "The Circus" is a decent song, but kind of annoying. "Ship Of Fools" is the first slow song on the album, but it's also probably the worst. Never really been a fan of this song. "Chains Of Love" is next, followed by "A Little Respect". These were their two biggest hits in the U.S., by far, but they were never really able to capitalize on that success. Damned shame. "Stop!" was the first of five singles off the next album, and honestly I like all five of them better than "A Little Respect" or "Chains Of Love". "Stop!" is an insanely addictive and catchy song. Absolutely love it. "Drama" is another bad ass song, basically saying "I don't need your drama, take it elsewhere." "You Surround Me" is another slow song, amazingly beautiful. "Blue Savannah" is the song that pretty much made me fall in love with Erasure. Just an outstanding song, I think. "Star" is the fifth and final single from Wild!, and even though it's the weakest of the five, it's still pretty good. "Chorus" is another of my favorite Erasure songs, off my second favorite album by them, also named Chorus. Great tune. "Love To Hate You" is kind of blah, probably my second least favorite song here. Just never really cared for this one, either. "Am I Right?" is, without question, my favorite Erasure song. Just so damned sad, yet trying to be hopeful. Tons of emotion in this song. "Breath Of Life" is a definite dance song, not great, but not bad. "Take a Chance On Me" from the ABBA-Esque EP is the final song, a great cover of the Abba classic. That whole EP, actually, was pretty great, but this was the only song of the four that was a single, so it's the only one here. Basically... If you like electronic dance pop, but aren't sure if you'd like a whole Erasure album, get this. It's a great collection, and even the few songs I don't like are, to a lot of people, quite enjoyable, and some of their more popular songs. Great compilation.
5 Best Songs: (I'll take one from each album represented on this disc. Just going chronologically, not by preference.)
5. "Oh l'Amour" (From Wonderland)