Author: Michael Durr
Lady Gaga – Harlequin CD Review
Rating – 2 1/2 stars out of 5
Lady Gaga has always went against the norm and performed the unexpected. She’s had the benefit of a string of #1 albums including even on records such as Joanne or her collaboration with Tony Bennett. It’s even extended to her acting career. The remake of A Star is Born soundtrack has reached number one too. The superstar is a hit making machine regards of genre, regardless of tune. It is very little surprise that when the soundtrack album for the second Joker movie came out that the megastar wanted her own version. So, that’s what Lady Gaga did, she went out and released Harlequin, a collection of songs from Joker: Folie a Deux and then additional songs influenced by the movie. Let’s take a listen.
Site News November 2024
Jackie Chan’s First Strike and Lady Gaga’s New Album
Well, I am still here, settling into a new project and realizing I have a little time to write about what I am working on. It’s not a crazy amount of time obviously, but with the holidays coming up, people are starting to disappear quite frequently. Which will leave me some “free” time. Anyway, let’s take a look at what I have received recently and plan on writing up a review on in the next few weeks.
Beth Hart – You Still Got Me CD Review
Rating – 3 3/4 stars out of 5
I know most people who have read my music reviews would not necessarily expect a review of Beth Hart’s latest album. Well, I’m full of surprises and actually pretty broad in my music taste despite what seems to be the norm of my reviews. Truth is, Beth Hart was another artist I discovered in my musical renaissance that happened shortly after my second divorce. For years, I had enjoyed Taylor Dayne and her extremely impressive “husky” voice. While Taylor hasn’t done much of note in a while unfortunately, I was looking for someone to fill that ultra strong voice void. Then I found Beth and started to listen. All it really took was listening to her albums: Leave the Light On and My California and I was hooked. Let’s take a look at You Still Got Me.
Kylie Minogue – Tension II CD Review
Rating – 4 stars out of 5
For those who might have missed it, Kylie Minogue’s Tension was probably my favorite album of 2023. It had a generational hit in Padam Padam and had so many wonderful songs such as 10 out of 10, Hands, One More Time, and of course the title track which I’m still jamming out to. It was with a lot of surprise that while looking up new albums for the rest of the calendar year, I was quite taken aback by Tension II coming out a mere calendar year after the previous album. While I was expecting some kind of release since Disco had an extended edition, live edition, etc, I thought it would be along those lines not brand new music. Furthermore, I really did not expect that Tension II would be almost as good as its predecessor. Let’s take a listen.
Nelly Furtado – 7 CD Review
Rating – 3 1/2 stars out of 5
Well, I am back finally with another review. Sorry for the long absence, this last project was extremely difficult and I literally had no time to eat and sleep, never mind anything of an extracurricular nature. I should be off of it in a week or two, but a little sliver of time has opened up for me to crank out a review.
Apparently the second half of 2024 is the time for new music as I’m seeing quite a few things I’m interested in including some new Kylie, Tears for Fears, and even Beth Hart will have CDs out in the next couple of months. However, this particular review marks the return of someone I greatly appreciate in the world of music, Nelly Furtado. She has not been seen since her last record, The Ride which was produced in 2017. So it’s only fitting that seven years later for her seventh album, Nelly has decided to name this album, 7. Let’s take a listen.
Site News August 2024
This column is a cross between some somber feelings and hopeful ones. I don’t need to tell you, but most people jumping onto this site will notice that nothing has been written on here for about a month and a half. There are obvious reasons for that and I will go into them shortly. But the major thing here is I’m not giving up on this site, things might change and until events especially in my work life settle down, you might not hear from me for a while. Trust me, I much rather be writing than pretty much anything on the planet (except for time with my wife and son). Everything else and everyone can seriously screw off. However, in order to have money, some of those activities must continue. Maybe someday my writing will actually produce money (for me) instead of just taking it. This will all become hopefully clear in the next few paragraphs.
The Perfect Weapon (Blu-Ray) Review
For those of us who love movies, we tend to have films that have a deep place in our heart that many other people do not. Pictures that many movie goers (especially those under a certain age) have even heard of, never mind enjoy. We explored one of those movies earlier this year in Red Corner which holds a special place solely for the fact that I was able to bond with my then college roommate who was something of a stranger up to that point. Another such film is the one we are looking at today, The Perfect Weapon. I first saw this movie during my teenage years and probably have watched it about a dozen times by this point. It came down to something as simple as I was looking for a martial arts film (at that point I was mostly unaware of foreign films) that wasn’t Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme that I could sink my teeth into. Enter Jeff Speakman. Let’s take a look.
Lenny Kravitz – Blue Electric Light CD Review
Rating – 3 3/4 stars out of 5
As I have mentioned before, my music renaissance started about a decade ago where I turned away from being strictly glam rock with some eighties thrown in to artists and bands that funk and soul were more on the plate than a hard hitting headbanging tune were. There are two artists in particular that have become a gateway for that transformation. One was of course, the icon and legend known as Prince. The other is an artist who has often been compared to him, Lenny Kravitz. Ever since I read his biography back in May of last year, I have been craving some new music. Looks like I finally got my wish in Blue Electric Light. Let’s take a listen.
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Garfield (2024) Film Review
My favorite food has always been lasagna. All those special noodles, layers of cheese and ricotta, beef, sausage, sauce, and more cheese into an absolutely perfect dish. Furthermore, if you let the dish sit overnight in the refrigerator, it was somehow even better than the day before. Unfortunately, lack of true gluten free options for lasagna noodles (Barilla makes one but they are hard to find) and nobody to really make it for beside myself (my wife and son are lactose intolerant) have created a situation where I haven’t had a true lasagna in years. But perhaps with today’s film review of Garfield, I can find the inspiration to recreate my favorite dish. Let’s take a look at the movie.
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Red Corner (Blu-Ray) (Umbrella) Review
Late October, 1997. My Chinese roommate has handed me a movie ticket for a new film called Red Corner with Richard Gere. Himself along with his friends and classmates are attending an advance screening of the picture and wanted to invite me to share the experience with them. The film would last two hours but the moment would last in my memories forever as one of my best film experiences ever. I learned a lot about China (since most of the group were born there) and truly saw the film through eyes other than my own. While the DVD did get a pretty quick release, it has been twenty plus years to get a blu-ray copy, this one from Australian distributor, Umbrella Entertainment. Let’s take a look.
