Album Review: Passenger- Songs for the Drunk and Broken Hearted

One of my favorite artists of the new century is Michael Rosenberg doing business as Passenger.

Rosenberg will always be overshadowed by his 2012 smash hit “Let it Go” as much as his friendship with Ed Sheehan.

Making the radio a slightly better place in the 201xs with artists like Vance Joy and George Ezra that made soft rock that played into the Mumford/Lumineers/Ray LeMontagne folk tinged pop trend of the day and drew off a tradition of everyone from Jack Johnson to Jamie Cullum to David Gray

Which is to say, Passenger isn’t very “hip”. But he is talented and for me the truest heir to the 70s songwriting of Cat Stevens and Paul Simon. All the Little Lights besides containing his hit is a complete album- sometimes funny as the closer “I Hate” and as poignant as “Let Her Go”.

I fell in love with that single early, when it looked to be an Adult Alternative hit and watched it bloom to a best seller. I’ve followed him closely since.

I thought 2014’s follow up Whispers was a strong statement -pretty much in the same vein- surely would have made him a hero in the coffee house genre.

Passenger has been prolific since and his quality has suffered with that output (in my eyes, there’s nothing on par with the two previously mentioned albums). With proper albums, streaming and fan-directed output, he’s put out at least one album’s worth of songs each year.

Perhaps the album title Songs for the Drunk and Broken Hearted gives it away. It is also probably cliche but it’s a post break up record, not to mention a ‘Covid’ record. In any case, it’s holds together quite well.

With an ear for melody, the songs are perfect for (some probably nonexistent) alternate Top 40 radio station. For fans, it is probably the best song by song statement he’s ever made.

Album Review- Alice Cooper- Detroit Stories

It might not be obvious, but I’m a big Alice Cooper fan. In fact, I am always interested when he releases a new album.

Cooper isn’t Bowie, but like peers like Iggy Pop, he has navigated a path that veers between his passions and possible chart success. I’m serious when I say I do look forward to all he does. I’m probably more disappointed than not, but especially the early oughts were fruitful for Cooper. Whether inspired by the garage rock revival or something else, he was returning to creative highs, particularly on ‘05s Dirty Diamonds. Which is to be expected for anyone in the business as long as he has been (say Prince, Lou Reed), in place of solid albums, you could find patches of good songs. 2011’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare was one of the better albums with some good songs done in by the expected size of albums that arrived with Compact Discs.

Which brings me to Detroit Stories- an album that has probably generated the most buzz of a Cooper album in 25 years.

It’s hard not to like just on principle. It’s a love letter to Alice Cooper’s hometown and he does it right. The main band here is a Detroit supergroup - Wayne Kramer of the MC5, Johnny Bedjanek who played on the classic Mitch Ryder hits and bass hero Paul Randolph.

Detroit is everywhere. The choice of covers by Outrageous Cherry, Bob Seger & the Last Herd and MC5 (as well as a cover Velvet Underground’s “Rock N Roll” - a big hit for Mitch Ryder in 1972) The lyrics of “Detroit City” which is a history of the city (from Iggy, Nugent and Suzi Quatro to Kid Rock and Insane Clown Posse).

Of course, Cooper is as much of that city’s history as well- so it’s noted that Bob Ezrin is producing and the living members of the classic Alice Cooper Band (Bruce, Dunaway, Smith) appear for two songs. Other guests include Steve Hunter (who played on so many classic Cooper singles, not to mention Ryder’s “Rock N Roll”, which Lou Reed liked so much, he took him for his band) Grand Funk Railroad’s Mark Farner (and not as far as I know Detroit related) Joe Bonnamassa Sister Sledge, and U2’s Larry Mullen Jr.

Buoyed by generally glowing reviews, I have to say I’m extremely happy to see Alice back in the news.

But the album? I don’t really love it. Ezrin does what he has always done for Alice which is make catchy songs. I will undoubtedly play it constantly for the next month and sing the songs in the shower. But I don’t love it.

Go Man Go is a big dumb rock song that Iggy could have recorded. Independence Dave is more formulaic Cooper. Neither quite hits the mark it should.

Cooper is the showman on $1000 HighHeel Shoes and the Faustian strut of Wonderful World. They’re fine but they really don’t have enough menace. Lead single Our Love Will Change the World does a bit better. As unlikely as it is, the psychedelic pop is a pretty good fit for Cooper. As is album closer, East Side Story. One of Seger’s early hits, this garage rock stomper pretty much needs to be delivered as written. The narrator a bit of a Cooper antihero to begin with. It’s as if Seger predicted the Cooper script in 1966.

For me, my other favorite song is the most unlikely- the Anti-suicide PSA “Hanging on a Thread.” Coincidentally, this is Steve Hunter’s biggest moment on the album. It is totally 80s Glam (it would probably fit easily on 91s Vai and Satriani augmented Hey Stoopid). Those are really the only songs on the album that really gel completely for me. Not a bad album then but like his last couple, falling just a bit short.

Overall, no disappointment from me that Alice is getting attention. Still, I’m already waiting for the next one.

Album Review- The Alarm- WAR

The Alarm came up in discussion on a vinyl group and I felt I was being clever when I said they occupied the space metaphorically and literally between London Calling and The Joshua Tree. This will sound like feint praise, but every band (particularly those with a political bent) falls under the shadows of those titans. To the Alarm’s credit, they had a strong run of singles, and it’s quite possible that songs like “The Stand” sound even better today. The heyday of The Alarm ended with one of their most accessible singles “Sold Me Down The River”. In the days where college rock was dominated by a certain Joshua Tree-era U2/REM influenced anthemic Americana rock, this new Alarm sound likely should have taken over the airwaves, but only lent bands like the Alarm, the Call, and the Smithereens a dedicated cult following. The Alarm never really went away as Mike Peters seemingly took a break in the mid -90s but hasn’t rested much since. As someone who writes criticism of music, WAR is hard to hate. It is quite obvious intended as an album for the fans. For those who preordered, the Alarm mailed out blank CDRs so people could download the songs as soon as they were completed The album was started in January 7 and released on February 25. So it’s a very quick, very topical record. Personally, I think that is quite risky. Even with a talented artist such as Neil Young dropping his “Living With War”- you have those risks. So, it’s really hard to criticize this album, which is dedicated for the diehards. Pitchfork isn’t going to spend much time on a 40 year old band and it’s not like I’m not going to drop “Rain in the Summertime” on the occasional playlist. I will just stick with saying this one isn’t going to be an album I am likely to revisit. The lyrics already sound a bit dated (“2020 problems”) and the bands shout out loud anthems seem closer to Bon Jovi than anything that was played on 120 Minutes. Still, albums like this are always nice to see musical talent still kicking and another classic Alarm single could still show up around the corner.