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These two highly enjoyable singles give Neil Finn some common ground with Tori Amos. Both of them have released non-album B-sides that are, in some cases, better than material that actually made it onto their albums. On the first Australian CD single, supporting the single “Sinner” (still possibly my favorite song on Neil’s debut solo album), there’s also the album cut “Astro” and two wonderful, gorgeous ballads, “808 Song” (co-written with Try Whistling This collaborator and Midnight Oil alumnus Jim Moginie) and “Identical Twin”, both of which more than deserved slots on the album. To give one example, I would rather have heard “808 Song” and “Identical Twin” on the album than the exceedingly long and slow final track, “Addicted”. To fill out the “She Will Have Her Way” single (also an Aussie import), there are two bouncy, somewhat more upbeat songs - “Tokyo” and “She Comes Scattered” - and an incredible live version of “Sinner” recorded in Studio B at Abbey Road. “Tokyo” is a somewhat silly song, while “She Comes Scattered”, with its heavy helping of fuzz bass, reminds me a lot of “Kiss The Road Of Rarotonga” on the Finn Brothers album.

I’ve gotten out of the habit of touching on CD singles unless they’re something really unique - which this third offering by Neil Finn happens to be. One of Finn’s more unabashedly commercial tunes, “Can You Hear Us?” serves two purposes: providing a sort of anthem for the New Zealand All Blacks football team, and also donating part of the single’s proceeds to a charity benefitting women who have been victims of domestic violence. All in all, a couple of very worthy causes - and not a bad song either. Also included is the song’s video in MPEG format (with guest appearances by Tim Finn and one of New Zealand’s other internationally recognized celebrities, Xena: Warrior Princess herself, Lucy Lawless. (Around the same time as this single was released down under, fans aboard may have also noticed Ms. Lawless appearing out-of-character in some anti-domestic violence PSAs placed in Xena and Hercules episodes.) A Maori haka, performed by the All Blacks before the big game presumably, is included, as well as a rap version of “Can You Hear Us?” performed by Urban Pacifika; truthfully, Urban Pacifika doesn’t use any of Finn’s music - not even samples - and precious few of his lyrics, so I wonder if it was really necessary to say they were the same song (which also means Neil gets a cut from publishing rights). But overall, a nice package put together as a treat for the fans, and as a means of raising awareness for a worthy cause.

Released by: Parlophone / EMI
Release date: 1998 (”Sinner” & “She Will Have Her Way”) / 2002 (”Can You Hear Us”)

Originally issued at the time of the show’s anniversary as a legendary square CD (now highly prized and priced by collectors), Variations On A Theme is exactly what the title suggests: a collection of four different takes on the main title music from Doctor Who. The low-key, new-age-esque “Mood Version”, arranged by Mark Ayres (who, at the time, had only just begun scoring episodes of the show), kicks things off nicely, but the real gem is Dominic Glynn’s “Terror Version”, which lends an appropriately creepy atmoshphere to the proceedings - just as it should be. Keff McCulloch, who scored most of the episodes in the 24th and 25th seasons of the series, brings us the amusingly sunny “Latin Version”, which some fans will recognize as the version of the theme used to open the “Years” documentary videos. Ayres closes out the four-track disc with the “Panopticon Eight Regeneration Mix”, which strikes the balance between doom and gloom and dance music nicely.

Is this disc worth the search? Absolutely, in my opinion. I’ve always enjoyed this collection, brief though it is, and a reissue is long overdue, perhaps with some other artists’ interpretations of the Doctor Who theme (Orbital and all-string ensemble Fourplay come to mind immediately) in tow.

1. Doctor Who: Mood Version (3:12)
2. Doctor Who: Terror Version (4:15)
3. Doctor Who: Latin Version (6:38)
4. Doctor Who: Panopticon 8 Regeneration Mix (5:37)

Released by: Silva Screen
Release date: 1989
Total running time: 19:42

Alas, poor Andromeda. I really do feel bad about this show. I was among the first to pan it upon its premiere in 2000, but at the same time, I realize that it could’ve turned out better. Based on an unused outline by the late Gene Roddenberry, the show centers around Dylan Hunt (played by Kevin Sorbo, and inheritor of a character name that Roddenberry bestowed upon the lead characters of his Genesis II and Planet Earth pilots), the captain of the High Guard starship Andromeda Ascendant. The ship barely survives a huge uprising by a race which was thought to be among the High Guard’s allies, and flies too close to a black hole, changing the laws of time around the ship and leaving it in limbo for hundreds of years. A salvage ship’s crew retrieves the Andromeda Ascendant and awakens Captain Hunt in an age when the High Guard is no more and chaos reigns in the universe.

At least, that’s the idea. Despite the late Roddenberry’s sketchy outline being fleshed out by Robert Hewitt Wolfe, one of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s guiding lights, and the show being steered by producers and other personnel who had gained a lot of experience working on Earth: Final Conflict, things just never gelled for Andromeda. Perhaps it was the show’s retooling to serve as a vehicle for Kevin Sorbo, or perhaps it was the lack of Earth: Final Conflict’s detailed story arc notes that helped to guide that show’s first four seasons. In any event, Andromeda is now seriously off course - and plummeting downward through the syndicated ratings.

But when you peel all of that away, there is at least one good thing left: Matt McCauley’s subtle and sensitive music score, which has now been released by GNP Crescendo Records, the makers of virtually every Star Trek soundtrack for the past 15 years and the saviors of many a semi-obscure genre show’s soundtrack.

McCauley uses synths and samples to create what may be the best orchestra-free orchestral score I’ve yet heard, but what really makes the Andromeda soundtrack stand out from the crowd is its unconventional use of other samples to spice things up. The closest the show has to a signature sound texture is a frequently-used sample of electric guitar feedback (minus the original note that created the feedback in the first place). That unearthly wail laid over the orchestra creates a truly unique sound. Truly electronic sounds aren’t used all that much, though they become more noticeable in the tracks that feature cues from later episodes.

The CD itself is arranged into a series of short suites drawn from several episodes, selected by the composer to illustrate specific running themes, characters or concepts. Sometimes I don’t care for this method of dividing things up, but in this case it works.

Also featured is the season one theme by Rush’s Alex Lifeson (a manic, bombastic, drum-heavy number which seems to be trying to bend electric guitars into a bagpipe sound, a la Big Country’s “In A Big Country”), and McCauley’s somewhat less interesting theme from season two. This is definitely a case where the actual incidental music outshines either of the show’s main themes. Lifeson’s is far more distinctive, but probably falls too far outside of either rock or traditional soundtrack parameters to catch on for most listeners as a piece of music sans visual accompaniment.

1. March Of The High Guard: Season 1 Main Title (0:59)
2. The High Guard Theme: Season 2 Main Title (0:54)
3. Andromeda Ascendant (1:36)
4. Dylan Hunt (1:21)
5. Cyber World (2:42)
6. Earthly Emotions (4:36)
7. Man And Machine (2:57)
8. Beka Valentine (1:32)
9. The Rev Bem Wayist Theme (3:03)
10. Slipstream / Tyr Anasazi (2:39)
11. Nietzschean Attack (2:38)
12. Deepest Space (4:07)
13. Dangerous Maneuvers (3:56)
14. The Magog (1:45)
15. Epitaph (2:19)
16. Strange Beauty (2:21)
17. Trance Gemini (2:39)
18. Exotic Worlds (3:41)
19. Sara (1:56)
20. Mad Pursuit (3:02)
21. Villains (2:33)
22. Battle Stations (3:42)
23. Rommie’s Love (1:56)
24. Rhade’s Lament (4:48)
25. Season 2 Main Title reprise (0:55)

Released by: GNP Crescendo
Release date: 2002
Total running time: 64:49

Butterfly Jones is a new band that might sound familiar to fans of early-90s alternative rock - the group’s core is guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Michael Gurley and drummer/songwriter Phil Leavitt, two-thirds of the band dada. They bring their guitar-driven alt-rock sound to Butterfly Jones, with up-tempo songs that charge forward with great enthusiasm and thoughtful ballads that don’t go overboard on the emotion.

Standout songs on the album include “Suicide Bridge”, which has some excellent work on violin, viola and cello. Like many of the songs on the album, Bridge tiptoes on the line dividing hope and despair, with the narrator daring to lean toward hope - the bridge says, “In an instance everything can turn around / In an instance everything is lost / And all is found.”

“The Systematic Dumbing Down Of Terry Constance Jones” is a little bit odd, as Gurley gives a first-person perspective of the title character changing her ambitions to fit society’s expectations - it’s a very smart song, and I like it a lot, but I don’t know if people will find it presumptuous that Gurley would assume to speak for women in this way. I hope not.

“Are We In Love Again” ought to be the theme song for every on-again/off-again relationship, and is darned catchy besides. I particularly like the chorus, in which the title phrase alternates with quick yes-or-no questions that bounce between the yes-I-love-you-no-I-can’t-stand-you extremes that have the narrator so confused. Gurley’s vocals, solid throughout the album, really shine here.

These three songs are probably my favorites on the disc, but there’s not a bad song on the album. Definitely worth a listen or five.

1. Napalm Springs (4:19)
2. Suicide Bridge (4:25)
3. Anywhere But Now (3:44)
4. Sophie (3:05)
5. Alright (6:01)
6. Are We In Love Again (3:28)
7. Wonder (3:13)
8. Sunshine And Ecstacy (2:43)
9. Blue Roses (4:06)
10. The Systematic Dumbing Down Of Terry Constance Jones (3:43)
11. When People Are Mean (2:44)
12. It’s Cool Dude (4:15)
13. Dreamtime (3:12)
14. Please (3:05)

Released by: Vanguard
Release date: 2001
Total running time: 47:12