Free Week # 5

Michael Stanley:

Shadowland

In a year already filled up with muti-week number one cd's,I am thankful for yet another free week to explore uncharted(or low charting:-) albums.

This week it is Michael Stanley's latest effort,'Shadowland'.

First off,I like the cover...a sort of new born held in the arm of a tattooed arm.Symbolically,it fits the cd.Someone that is so defined in style and form that it is written all over him,holding(nay..passing)the next,still unwritten generation .

The album lives up to the flag of it's cover.

Of course,like most good music,the more you hear it,the better it sounds.

On first listen,the music and production values seem a tad too tightly & evenly wound.But,after multiple listens,you end up wundering why you initially thought so.

On 'Shadowland',the Michael Stanley band doesn't seem to be going through the motions,or playing because they have too,so much as playing because it is what they love to do.

There is wistfulness to 'Shadowland',though,not so much as if they quite don't know why they have never hit it big beyond the borderline of fame,but that the fame game no longer matters.They'd be making music if no one was listening.

It must have been a freeing experience.This music,basically expresses the fact that they are just tired of the past....

...perhaps,that is not quite correct.Michael seems to not so much to have come to terms with the past,as to realize that the past is what it was...and elegant mess.

The epiphany shows in the very last song,'Nice While It Lasted',wailing about the old days of lp records,being raised on radio,phonographic memory,etc...but then after the song fades to black,it goes into a coda of,'Come On Down',(an earlier song on the cd)an almost religious song about the sunshine of entertaining via performing his music.

'Come On Down' isn't about playing for the glory of the good 'ol days,but playing for the glory of just entertaining(Yes,I know this second sentence is kinda redundant,but I really am trying to make my point).

Other good songs on the cd include the title track('Shadowland');'It's All About Tonight'(a nice rocker);'A Good Idea At The Time'.

In fact,I (of course)like this whole album.

I like most of Michael Stanley's post MSB days stuff.In fact,I think it would be a great idea for him to come out with a second act greatest hits album..you know,just stuff from The 'Ghost Poets' on.And then go out on tour selling it...

...even if it fails..it seems like a good idea at the time.

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