Fleetwood Mac is back in the studio – it must be the end times after all! Sadly, they’re back in the studio as a quartet, minus the divinely classy Christine McVie, and it’s just not the same.

One of my biggest frustrations with Say You Will concerns a saddening realization about my favorite musician in the whole band. Well, maybe realization isn’t the word for it – to a certain extent, now that I look back at it, I was complaining about some lack of originality with Lindsey Buckingham’s last solo effort, and sadly, that’s also my chief complaint here. His guitar work is so similar from song to song that it’s unnerving to listen to the whole album in one sitting. I shouldn’t be liking the Stevie Nicks tunes better than Buckingham’s, as I quite honestly tend to skip her entries in the Fleetwood Mac catalogue. But Buckingham seems to be writing the same few songs over and over here, I look forward to Nicks’ tunes as a breath of fresh air on Say You Will. The guitar-heavy album also makes me realize that perhaps Fleetwood Mac lost more when Christine McVie left than they did when Buckingham left previously. It really hits me here how much her voice, her keyboards and songwriting style balanced things out. Parts of Say You Will come across as an uninspired, unfinished Buckingham solo effort in a lot of places.

Highlights include the Buckingham/Nicks two-hander “Peacekeeper” (already getting a bit too much saturation exposure on radio), Nicks’ “Illume” (which bears the simple subtitle of “9/11″), and Buckingham’s best track this time around, “Miranda”. “Silver Girl”, “Thrown Down” and the title track are also worth a listen.

An interesting conceit, this Fleetwood Mac reunion in the studio, but sadly I’m just not sure it worked. I’ll admit that it’s grown on me since the first listen, and it may continue to do so, but almost a month of listening to it hasn’t quite sold me on the merits.

1. What’s The World Coming To (4:07)
2. Murrow Turning Over In His Grave (4:13)
3. Illume (9/11) (4:14)
4. Thrown Down (4:29)
5. Miranda (4:17)
6. Red Rover (3:25)
7. Say You Will (3:57)
8. Peacekeeper (5:02)
9. Come (5:28)
10. Smile At You (3:13)
11. Running Through The Garden (3:53)
12. Silver Girl (3:21)
13. Steal Your Heart Away (3:53)
14. Bleed To Love Her (3:57)
15. Everybody Finds Out (3:53)
16. Destiny Rules (3:53)
17. Say Goodbye (3:28)
18. Goodbye Baby (3:50)

Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 2003
Total running time: 62:11

Hmmmmm.

I don’t even know if I’ve got room to talk about this one. When the first reports rolled in that The Matrix Revolutions soundtrack release was going to consist almost entirely of Don Davis’ score for the third and final Matrix movie, I was really happy – I enjoyed the second disc of the soundtrack from The Matrix Reloaded tremendously, much more than I did the techno-metal brew of the first disc. So surely it goes to follow that I’d be eating this CD up, right?

Hmmmmmm.

Again, this is a case where I have yet to see the movie, so I have no visual context for the music here. (For those of you wondering about why I keep doing things in that order, just consider – anymore, the cost of a movie ticket has almost caught up with the cost of a CD, and I get to keep the CD.) But listened to all in one sitting, a lot of The Matrix Revolutions soundtrack sounds…well…all alike. Now, I remember in 1999, everyone was going on about how Don Davis had ushered truly modern neoclassicicsm into the movie theater. And that’s a good point – the first movie’s music, and a good chunk of the second film’s music, had a similar, unified sound. But it wasn’t dull. And as much as I hate to say it…as a purely musical experience, dull is how I’d describe The Matrix Revolutions. One wonders if Don Davis shouldn’t have escorted truly modern neoclassicism right back out of the movie theater a bit sooner – it’s just possible that by the third 2+ hour film in the series, that choice had him in a creative straitjacket.

And he almost does break that mold in places – there are two or three instances in The Matrix Revolutions where I could swear Davis was building up to…Ben Kenobi’s theme! A coincidence, I’m sure, but one that made me chuckle. Even the collaborations with Juno Reactor, the techno group who helped Davis kick prodigious quantities of ass with such Matrix Reloaded tracks as “Burly Brawl”, fall short of the second movie, let alone the first.

And yet there are tracks that make me hungry to see the movie and find out what’s going on – “Spirit Of The Universe”’s triumphant ending being one of those. Perhaps within the context of the accompanying visuals, all of this would have more meaning to me, but listening to it cold without that context, The Matrix Revolutions is a bit of a surprising disappointment. I had already detected a bit of sameness guiding Don Davis’ music for the trilogy, but it didn’t actually bore me – if you can imagine rapid-fire runs of trumpet blasts screaming desperation in minor keys boring someone – until now. Maybe this wasn’t a good time to ditch the half-song, half-score rule of thumb for the previous Matrix soundtracks.

1. The Matrix Revolutions Main Title (1:23)
2. The Trainman Cometh with Juno Reactor (2:45)
3. Tetsujin with Juno Reactor (3:23)
4. In My Head performed by Pale 3 (3:48)
5. The Road To Sourceville (1:27)
6. Men In Metal (2:20)
7. Niobe’s Run (2:50)
8. Woman Can Drive (2:43)
9. Moribund Mifune (3:49)
10. Kidfried (4:51)
11. Saw Bitch Workhorse (4:01)
12. Trinity Definitely (4:17)
13. Neodammerung (6:01)
14. Why, Mr. Anderson? (6:12)
15. Spirit Of The Universe (4:53)
16. Navras with Juno Reactor (9:08)

Released by: Warner / Maverick
Release date: 2003
Total running time: 63:51

This is one of those things that just sounds so unlikely the first time someone mentions it to you – oh, it’s a lounge/dance music outfit from Norway, you’ll love it. Sure, whatever, you think, and a couple of months after hearing it, you’ve got a copy of the bloody thing sitting on your CD shelf. Royksopp is actually a duo, though in this case it’s a duo of musical hermit crabs, both adept enough in studio trickery to make themselves sound like a full band, and sometimes more.

The hook that really drew me into this CD was “Royksopp’s Night Out”, a quirky mock-orchestral instrumental which sounds like maybe it’s trying to be something grand and epic…and then sounds like maybe it’s just been pulling your leg from the word go. There’s something here that reminds me of Alan Parsons’ best instrumental pieces, both in terms of execution/style and song length, and it always grabs me. In a good way.

Running a close second on my favorites list for this album is the light vocal dance number “Remind Me”, a less elaborate tune which is still catchy, and sounds like it’s been sent forward in time from the early 80s new wave/new romantic movement. Musically, it’s exceedingly simple – a verse of the vocal, followed by a keyboard echoing the same melody note for note, and nothing ever really resolves into something you could definitively call a chorus. But it’s hooky enough to reel me in for repeated listens.

Other highlights include the smoky, jazzy female vocal of “Sparks”, and the trippy rhythms of “So Easy” and “Epie”. Aside from the Alan Parsons instrumentals, Melody A.M. also reminds me of Art Of Noise’s adventurous Seduction Of Claude Debussy, an album I’ve grown to appreciate much more since I initially reviewed it.

Melody A.M. is an album that just about anyone could find enjoyable, even if only one or two songs grab them immediately, and Royksopp is just one fortuitous inclusion in the soundtrack of a movie, TV show or commercial away from getting some massive exposure. But you can beat the rush and check them out early – this is some good stuff.

1. So Easy (4:10)
2. Epie (6:14)
3. Sparks (5:27)
4. In Space (3:33)
5. Poor Leno (4:00)
6. Higher Place (4:33)
7. Royksopp’s Night Out (7:33)
8. Remind Me (3:41)
9. She’s So (5:24)
10. 40 Years Back \ Come (4:45)

Released by: Wall Of Sound
Release date: 2002
Total running time: 49:22

Not really a soundtrack in the strictest sense, this is – like Namco Classics Collection before it – a collection of remixes of background music as heard in Namco’s 3-D update of the classic Xevious arcade game. In many cases, you won’t hear any correlation whatsoever to the music that’s heard in the game – it’s been reworked that much.

Sometimes, as in the mesmerizing “Area 1: MLO Deep Pan Mix”, this is just fine. There are quite a few tracks on here which have an almost hypnotic effect – overall, pretty good standard-issue trance. But the lead track, “Area 7: Happy-Go-Lucky Mix”, is worthy of skipping every time – it sounds like it’s trying to find a whimsical tone, and it winds up being more annoying than anything.

It may have precious little to do with Xevious, but it’s not a bad listen in and of itself.

1. Area 7: Happy-Go Lucky Mix mixed by SPAG (6:04)
2. Area 4: Liquid Groove Mix mixed by SPAG (6:15)
3. Boss 4: NP Mix mixed by SPAG (4:35)
4. Area 1: MLO Deep Pan Mix remixed by MLO (8:43)
5. Boss 7: Berserker’s Fat Beat Mix remixed by Berserker (6:38)
6. Ending Movie: The Wax Head Mix remixed by The Hypnotist (7:57)
7. Opening Movie: Dub Struck remixed by The Hypnotist (8:37)
8. Area 5: Overhead Noise Mix remixed by Overhead Noise (17:20)
9. Untitled Hidden Track #1 (6:14)
10. Untitled Hidden Track #2 (4:27)

Released by: Pony Canyon
Release date: 1999
Total running time: 76:52

Originally devised as a band that would “pick up where the ‘Beatles’ I Am The Walrus’ left off,” the Electric Light Orchestra was well on its way to carving out its own admittedly unconventional niche when the band’s leadership was split down the middle. Stunned by the sudden defection of founding member Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and company regrouped, brought in a few more players, and kept the band’s original mandate – a rock group with its own live string section – intact. The result, in 1972, was two vinyl sides of beauty running the gamut from heavy metal to near-classical rock to ballads. Now, some 31 years later, the result is two full-length CDs of that same beauty and then some.

The original album – only five songs in all, but some of them epic-length – is a wonder to hear in this newly remastered edition, and the early takes of songs like “Ma-Ma-Ma Belle” and “Dreaming Of 4000″ (intended for the group’s third album) are revealing looks at those tunes’ evolution. But the real treat here is a handful of songs we’d never heard before, with the jewel in that particular crown being “Everybody’s Born To Die”, a very surprisingly Dylan-esque number that makes one think that Jeff Lynne listened to “Like A Rolling Stone” for inspiration (both musical and lyrical) and then concocted his own uniquely ELO-ified electric folk song. The quality of the recording is such that it sounds like it could’ve been recorded yesterday, and despite it being a Dylan pastiche, it’s at least a good Dylan pastiche. It’s also a marvel to hear in a raw, un-adorned form; had it progressed far enough to be included on ELO II or On The Third Day, chances are the vocals would’ve been echoed, double-tracked, or otherwise messed with. Here we get to hear the raw power of Jeff Lynne belting this song out with no electronic trickery.

I was less enthralled with the three numbers featuring former Move lead singer Carl Wayne on vocals. With the ELO rhythm section of Lynne, Bev Bevan, Mike de Albuquerque and Richard Tandy backing him, Wayne croons three Lynne originals (including a string-free cover of “Mama”). Conflicting with earlier news that Lynne had attempted to recruit Wayne to replace Roy Wood in ELO, the liner notes explain that manager Don Arden hooked Wayne up with Lynne in an attempt to break Wayne’s “cabaret crooning” image to relaunch his stalled rock career. Even if that’s the case, it wasn’t much of a mold-breaker – it really comes across in the style of early 70s Christian rock more than anything. If Carl Wayne needed a direction, I much preferred the hard-psychedelic-rock re-interpretations of several standards on the latter half of the Move’s Shazam, but it’s still interesting to hear what else the members of ELO (and the Move) were doing on the side.

I also have to admit to enjoying the wealth of material in the two liner notes booklets: we finally have printed lyrics for this album, and the press reviews from the time of the album’s release are insightful and hilarious. John Peel’s review of the “Roll Over Beethoven” single in particular cracks me up for two passages: “The strings, rocking like bitches, play sort of ghost-train evil” and “If it is not a number one, I shall come among you with a whip.” Now that’s a music review! I’ll make sure to use the latter of these two memorable phrases in a future review, and perhaps the first if the opportunity should present itself.

Sadly, this is probably the last of the ELO remastered albums, due to budget constraints and copyright issues still persisting from the band’s early switches from one label to another, but even so, what a way to go out.

I don’t suppose walking among the Sony Music brass with a whip would help to resurrect the reissues, would it?

Disc one:
1. In Old England Town (Boogie No. 2) (6:57)
2. Momma… (7:00)
3. Roll Over Beethoven (7:04)
4. From The Sun To The World (Boogie No. 1) (8:18)
5. Kuiama (11:21)
6. Showdown (4:11)
7. In Old England Town (Instrumental) (2:44)
8. Baby I Apologise (3:43)
9. Auntie (Ma Ma Ma Belle, take 1) (1:19)
10. Auntie (Ma Ma Ma Belle, take 2) (4:03)
11. Mambo (Dreaming Of 4000, take 1) (3:03)
12. Everyone’s Born To Die (4:40)
13. Roll Over Beethoven (take 1) (8:16)

Disc two:
1. Brian Matthew introduces ELO (0:22)
2. From The Sun To The World (Boogie No. 1 – BBC Sessions) (7:26)
3. Momma (BBC Sessions) (6:57)
4. Roll Over Beethoven (single version) (4:36)
5. Showdown (take 1) (4:18)
6. Your World (with Carl Wayne – take 2) (4:55)
7. Get A Hold Of Myself (with Carl Wayne – take 2) (4:43)
8. Mama (with Carl Wayne – take 1) (4:59)
9. Wilf’s Solo (instrumental) (3:40)
10. Roll Over Beethoven (BBC Sessions) (7:40)

Released by: EMI/Harvest
Release date: 2003
Disc one total running time: 74:41
Disc two total running time: 49:38