Alternative Rock Compilations music reviews

"Lounge" is a term often over-used in compilations these days. Some people wil slap that label on anything with a beat (that's not hard trance) or anything remotely soft (New Age/meditative or World music is NOT necessarily 'lounge' or 'chill.')

But in the case of this collection - they actually have labeled and named it correctly!

As for the "Erotic" portion, these CD's will definitely help with the right person(s) in the room ... just like listening to Barry White by yourself - in a blizzard - inside a Greyhound bus station in Fairbank, Alaska may not help you much, these CD's deliver on the promise of great 'lounge' music - the rest is up to you :-)

There are four in the series so far. They are all excellent with only a few tracks not up to par on each set so you can't really go wrong but there are differences.

EROTIC LOUNGE: The first is the softest of them all with lots of minimalist lounge. A perfect CD to end your evening or the first CD in the morning.

EROTIC LOUNGE - DELUXE EDITION: It's exactly what a 'lounge' CD should be - full of chill beats backed by light jazz beats or bossa nova-like beats. If anyone wants to know what 'lounge' should sound like - this CD pretty much encapsulates what it should be.

EROTIC LOUNGE - SENSUAL PASSION: Along with great 'lounge' tracks, they pick up a beat a bit with tracks that go into trance chill or trip hop - again, all tasteful, fun and aptly cool. On the slightly exotica tracks, they veer from bossa nova to light samba.

EROTIC LOUNGE - BARE JEWELS: This is the least lounge of the collection with most tracks really more trip hop, light trance or melodic acid jazz - nothing wrong with - still a great collection of tracks - just so you know exactly what you're getting.

So whatever the mood you want to set - from 'lounge' where you can easily converse over the instrumental tracks to tracks that will get you in the mood for a fun samba or tracks to lead to you to the bedroom - they're all here. Pick and choose or get them all - you can't go wrong with this series, so far, they're all great.

And hey, the CD cover alone is worth a star :-)

I purchased this CD while on vacation in Europe and was blown away. It made every hotel my wife and I stayed in very enjoyable. It is a great CD to listen to from foreplay to finish. It is also a great CD just to throw on and enjoy while inebriated. It also has some great pictures on the inside booklet. I will be purhasing the other CD's in "the art of loungin'" set as well.

Other than the song by Bruce, nothing on this album is remotely reminiscent of Warren. I would rate this lower if I could.

Overall, this is a fantastic tribute album, with a couple performances that surpass Zevon's original recordings.

Top Picks:
Springsteen's "My Ride's Here," recorded live a few days after Zevon's passing, takes what was an upbeat, playful jab at mortality and turns it into a sparse, haunting statement of defiance.

Henley's "Searching for a Heart" adds a reggae flavor that adds texture to what was to me one of Zevon's less interesting pop efforts.

Jordan Zevon's "Studebaker," the story of a poor bloke with car trouble, is one of two previously unreleased tracks on the album and clearly the better of the two. Jordan does an admirable job, and Dylan (Jakob, that is) provides his rich, unusual voice for backing vocals, to great effect. And, plus, nobody who has ever been to the Central Valley can help but feel for the protagonist, (all he wants in life is to get to FRESNO, for goodness sake.) This could be a silly song, but it is much more than that. That was the true brilliance of Warren's songwriting, I guess.

Admirable Efforts:
Sandler's "Werewolves"--A fairly by-the-book reading, but the comedian doesn't embarass himself, nor Zevon, and I'm thankful to him for that.

The Wallflowers' "Lawyers Guns and Money"--Slightly harder rocking than the original, but we really miss Zevon's brilliant vocalizations. "Huh!"

Yorn's "Splendid Isolation" and Earle's "Reconsider Me"--Both are very talented artists, but I would have liked to see something more creative on these tracks, which sound like copies of Z's versions.

Sobule's "Don't Let Us Get Sick"--Sobule can't help that she doesn't have Zevon's raspy voice working for her, but this takes a very sentimental song and turns it into something that is almost too saccharine to listen to. And the instrumentation is questionable. She should have just stuck with the acoustic guitar.

Bob Dylan's "Mutineer"--Yes, you might be surprised to see this in this category. People tend to get overly excited when they see Dylan try his hand at interpretive singing, but there aren't any revelatory changes here, just the slight changes in phrasing that you would expect. This track is most interesting because the fact that Dylan was performing Zevon's songs shows the level of respect Zevon had among other musicians.

Weird:
Lindley and Cooder pull off one of Zevon's most unusual songs with "Monkey Wash."

The Pixies really seem out of place on this album at first, but after a few listenings their reinvention of "Ain't that Pretty at All" grows on you, although the fact that the intro is loud and unnecessarily distorted coming after Sobule will undoubtedly cause people to program a skip here.

Misunderstood:
Jackson Browne's "Poor Poor Pitiful Me"--The reviewer who thought that Browne didn't understand the sarcasm in the song was in fact the one who completely missed the point. The song--if not a personal playful jab at Z's old friend and producer-- was certainly written about super-sensitive introspective pretty boy types like him, and Browne is playing the straight-man here to Zevon's joke. The result is admittedly not as funny as Zevon's original (possibly one of the greatest rock vocal performances of all time), but it is creative, and Raitt's slide guitar rocks.

We could have done without:
Thorton's "The Wind"--He's not a musician, admitedly, but he's on here because of his friendship with Zevon, not because of the quality of this track. I'm also sure that there must be better songs in Zevon's unreleased catalog.

Jorge Calder�n's "Keep Me in Your Heart"--This is Zevon's goodbye song, and I can see why Calder�n would have felt sentimentally motivated to pick this, but this song was originally released just a year and a half before this album and in anybody's voice but Zevon's it sounds innappropriate. Calder�n clearly meant this to be a final tribute to a man whom he loved very deeply, but a more fitting tribute would have been one of the great, vibrant songs from the early part of Zevon's career, rather than trying to duplicate the emotion of the final album.

WOW! Mildly weird in the tradition of Zevon and his devotees. Drink some wine, draw your friends close, cry a little, and enjoy this to the max. Too beautiful and tender for words. Wonderful.