Hi, B'stone. Once again I disagree with you--amazing, considering how much I respect your knowledge, enjoy your posts and wouldn't mind meeting you and shooting the breeze! Oh, well...chacun a son gout, de gustibus non disputandum est, sobre gustos no hay nada escrito...
If there's a "cinch",it's Summertime Dream. SSOL, which I certainly like, pales in comparison to the two albums around it--IYCRMM and DQ. It has some fine songs (the title track, Cotton Jenny, Miguel, Same Old Loverman Ten Degrees and Getting Colder--am I the only one that thinks that this song sounds like "The Gambler" but in a different tempo?), some pretty good ones (Talking in Your Sleep, Love and Maple Syrup), and some fairly weak ones (Go My Way, Cabaret, Redwood Hill). Summertime Dream, beyond the big hit (which I like, of course, but wouldn't rate in my top 20 favorites), has a depth and maturity that isn't there in SSOL. The title track has the same "small -town feel" as Cotton Jenny, but is just a much bigger song. Spanish Moss is as beautiful a tune as he has written, Race Among the Ruins is both catchy and upbeat, while being philosophical, and The House You Live In is a song some people have said is what they use for their life's philosophy; while I wouldn't go that far, it's an excellent song. I'm Not Supposed to Care, I'd put up against Talking in Your Sleep for a breakup song, and the instrumentation is just all so tight and much more sophisticated than on SSOL. The album does have a few weaker songs (never cared much for I'd Do It Again, but it's not awful); the antiwar message of Protocol is a bit dated (why is that, I wonder?), but it's still a pretty good song, and Too Many Clues I can take or leave. Still, all in all a much better album, and I say this noting that my prejudices usually run toward the older stuff.
Cheers,
DQ (not "Quixote", by the way!)
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