Reviews of Albums.

Richard Thompson-Dream Attic (Shout Factory) The world's best unknown guitarist returns once again but this time out plays new songs in front of an audience that is probably going to the bathroom or getting more beer. The major difference between this and his last album Sweet Warrior is that Dream Attic's songs make great instrumentals. Although there are some good numbers (Money Shuffle, Demons In Her Dancing Shoes, Haul Me Up) the majority of the songs sound unfinished and in the case of Crimescene that song may be the worst thing he's ever penned. Plus the 73 minutes totat time of album gets too much to listen all in one setting. His least interesting since the Mitchell Froom overproduced Mirror Blue. C+

Goo Goo Dolls-Something For The Rest Of Us (Warner Bros) As if Let Love In never happened, the Goos give us a return to Boy Named Goo days with the bouncy and catchy Sweetest Lie and then as if their record label reminded them they need a couple hits to stay onboard return to the days of Let Love In with those sappy ballads. Used to be Robby sang the majority of songs up till Boy Named Goo, now Robby is allowed his two songs and one does rock pretty hard. I like them better when they come up with a Sweetest Lie and though it starts out promising, all the Iris rewrites tend to bog this album down in a big way. The girls that grew up listening to Dizzy Up The Girl and Gutterflower I'm sure are not listening to the Goo Goos anymore, they're now grown up and having families of their own. Unlike John Rzeznik still, living in 1997 and still looking for that epic followup to Iris. Improves over Let Love In but not by much. C+

Bob Wiseman Sing Wrench Tuttle-In Her Dream (Atlantic 1990) In Blue Rodeo, Wiseman was the eccentric secret weapon and shaping their early albums up to a cool degree. On his own it's easy to see why Wiseman was kept in check. Inspired by poems sent to him by the elusive Wrench Tuttle (and helped out by some Blue Rodeo players, namely the bass player and drummer and Ben Mink figures in this too) Wiseman adds interesting arrangements and brings in plenty of help from Mary Margaret O'Hara who channels Yoko Ono on Travel Agent. Another problem is the album goes on for 58 minutes and tends to grate on nerves. There's a reason why Wiseman was allowed a couple songs on Blue Rodeo albums, he doesn't sing very well. That's usually a problem for the eccentric artist who tends to make his original band's music sound classic but left to their own devices tend to really go over the edge. This is a classic case in point. C

Music thoughts

It's good to see From Good Homes reuniting and playing around their area although I don't believe that they will record anything new. It's beyond me why they never broke big, their RCA albums were just as good as anything Dave Matthews put out, maybe even better. For a good starting point, find Open Up The Sky and play that.

So Buffalo Springfield is once again returning to the stage although Dewey Martin and Bruce Palmer won't be there since they're both dead. But they'll be a part of Young's Bridge concert series and although I don't hold my breath of anything new it all goes to show that as long as you're still alive there will always be a chance for reunions. Even Young sang about Buffalo Springfield Again. The question remains if Steven Stills can sing it better then he did on the CSNY deja vu live album.