Cubicle Tunes - Week of October 8, 2007

Here are the sounds wafting from my cubicle for the week of October 8, 2007.

1. Colbie Caillat – Coco (2007)

I am a little tardy on this one (it was released in July), but better late than never. I really like this album. I compare her to Mindy Smith – a soft and pretty voice, good lyrics, and a pop-folk sound. I am transfixed by “Battle”, and I love the lament of “Midnight Bottle”.

2. Minnie Driver – Seastories (2007)

I assure you that this album is not the pointless over-produced drivel of another movie star actress. Driver is the real deal and delivers a stellar folk-pop record. The opening track, “Stars & Satellites”, is the standout here, and features one of my favorite lyrics of the year so far: “If love is the answer you seek, you’re asking the wrong kinds of questions.” Great stuff.

3. Kathleen Edwards – Failer (2003)

I stumbled across this album one day while digging through the used CD’s at Elderly Instruments here in Lansing. I didn’t know anything about her then, but I am a huge fan now. The songs span a range of folk, pop, alt-country, and rock, and there is some really innovative sound experimentation as well. The droning feedback strings at the end of “Sweet Little Duck” are very cool.

4. Kings of Convenience – Riot on an Empty Street (2004)

Kings of Convenience are the Simon & Garfunkel for the 21st century. It’s an album of melancholic acoustic pop. The opener, “Homesick” is gorgeous. “I’d Rather Dance With You” features a brutally honest statement (“I’d rather dance with you than talk with you”), but the standout here is the album closing “The Build Up”, a duet with Canadian pop star Feist, who is now well-known for her song “1,2,3,4” that is featured in the current ad campaign for the video iPod Nano.

5. Leonard Cohen – The Essential Leonard Cohen (2002)

This is a collection that spans the range of his entire career (1967 to 2001), and while the style may have changed over those 30+ years, he remains a poet and prophet who takes the most difficult subjects and breaks them down into the simplest and most miserable form. An icon for folk and pop music alike, and no collection is complete without it.

I'm out-
KWass