Album Review: Bad For Good by Jim Steinman

You may not know songwriter Jim Steinman’s name, but you know his music. "I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)," "Paradise By The Dashboard Lights," "Total Eclipse Of The Heart." Bat Out Of Hell is the number two selling album of all time and the only top ten album written completely by one person. His most successful collaboration has been with Meat Loaf, but he has also worked with Bonnie Tyler, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many more.

After the success of Bat Out Of Hell, Meat Loaf and Steinman were working together on a follow-up. Meat Loaf lost his voice, and Steinman himself recorded the album. Many of the tracks on this album would be rerecorded later by Meat Loaf and other artists.

I love Jim Steinman’s work. His Wagnerian rock sound is so powerful, and his lyrics spellbounding. But while he’s a great songwriter, he isn't a great singer. I don’t really fault him. He doesn’t have a bad voice. Softer songs, like "Surf’s Up,” demonstrate this. It is just that his voice doesn’t match his songs. Steinman’s powerful songs require powerful voices, like Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler’s. His music needs the Wagnerian operatic vocals to convey the power of his songs. Bad For Good delivers the rock, but not the Wagner. At least, not vocally.

This album has grown on me the more I listen to it. Not all songs have been rerecorded, so this is the only place to find them. "Dance In My Pants" recalls the "duet of the sexes" of "Paradise By The Dashboard Lights" and is a fun, and funny, song. The title track is my favorite. "Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through" is a testament to the power of music

I'd recommend the Meat Loaf versions of the songs on this album, but if you like Steinman’s music, check this one out.

Album Review: The Best! ~Updated Morning Musume~

Remixes and cover versions of classic songs can be a double-edged sword. It’s exciting to hear a new take and compare it to the original. On the other hand, why bother changing a classic? It was with this mindset that I was a little hesitant about Morning Musume’s latest album The Best! ~Updated Morning Musume~.

Morning Musume has an ever-changing line-up, constantly adding and losing members. Two and half years is the longest the group has had a steady streak. This approach means there is always fresh blood coming to the group. It is exciting to meet the new members (Ikuta Erina, Suzuki Kanon), but it also sad when you lose your favorite members (Kamei Eri, Ishikawa Rika). The point of the updated album was to redo their classic songs in the modern style, a dance/electronica mix, with the most current generation of Morning Musume. 

Upon a first listen, I wasn’t impressed with the album. But the more I listened, the more I liked the new versions. Classics like Love Machine and The Peace!have gotten make-overs without really losing the energy that makes them such great songs. The slower songs Aruiteru and I Wish, don’t quite fit the new sound but are interesting. That Tsunku can take his songs, some almost 15 years old, and make them fresh and exciting is a testament to his music prowess. It is nice hearing the new members singing the old songs and seeing what they bring to the table. 

My biggest disappointment with the album is not the updated songs themselves but the song selection. The album consists of 13 updated songs, one new single, and one album-only song. The majority of the newest incarnation of Morning Musume debuted with the single Maji Desu Ka Ska. Six of the thirteen songs came after that single and featured the majority of the newest members. I would have liked to have seen all the updated song be ones that didn’t feature the newest members when it first debuted. There are quite a few they could have chosen; I would have loved to have heard new versions ofFurusato (another slow song that would have balanced the other songs’s faster pace), Resonant Blue, and even a new version of Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari. That song is a ‘members introduction’ song, telling about everyone in the group. With so many new members, an updated version would have been great. There are still so many others like As For One Day and Shabondama. The six songs after Maji Desu Ka Ska are already so similar in style to the updated classics that I really wondered why they were chosen.

This is not their best (no pun intended) album but it does grow on you. While I would have preferred more old classics son choices, they did pick some good ones and the new sound is interesting. I recommend it.

Thanks for reading.

Book Review: Cassidy Jones And The Secret Formula

Cassidy Jones And The Secret Formula is a young adult novel, the first in a series, written by Elise Stokes. I usually don't read young adult (aka YA) fiction but this one seemed promising and had lots of positive reviews.

The premise is simple and predictably comic booky: during her dad's interview with a famed geneticist, fourteen-year old Cassidy suffers an accident that enhances her strength and senses. Shortly after that the scientist is kidnapped. When the scientist's son Emry comes to live with Cassidy's family, the two join together to find Emry's mom.

I'm a little on the fence about this one but hear me out. First the bad. It's written in first-person POV, which I've stated before that I don't like. Next is the dialogue; which, while not horrible, isn't very good, especially for a teen novel. However, I do know that writing dialogue, especially good dialogue, is one of the most difficult things for a writer to do. I know I have atrocious dialogue and I can forgive Elise on this. Some writers are just naturally good at it. The dialogue in the novel serves the purpose of conveying information and moving the plot forward. But the characters just don't seem to have a unique voice.

Each character has their own personality but I found Emry the hardest to wrap my mind around. He is supposed to be mature beyond his years, because of his genius intelligence, but something about him just seems...off. While trying to make him mature but a teenager at the same time, it seems Stokes hasn't quite got a handle on how to write him.

These quibbles aside, I liked the book. I liked it for what was not in it. Angst and romance were in short supply, which I was thankful for. Cassidy loves her family and she isn't bitter or angry towards them. Her and her brother have the regular sibling rivalry but I love the fact Cassidy is smitten with her five-year old brother. Rather than being annoyed by him, she likes it when he smears cookies on his face and just generally likes him, a nice break from the "I hate my family" angst. The family seem a little too clean-cut but they are nice.

Cassidy is well-written and likeable and the main villain is a hoot. The action sequences are fairly well thought out and portrayed well, although a few fights were cut too short, in my opinion, and I would have liked to have seen more feats of strength from Cassidy.

The pacing is fast and the story is enjoyable with likeable characters. I don't know how long the series will go on, and while I may not read every story in the Cassidy chronicles, I'll definitely pick up the sequel. All in all, a nicely executed enjoyable book.

The Book Versus The Movie: True Grit

A while ago I watched True Grit by the Cohen brothers. I use to watch Rooster Cogburn and the Lady with John Wayne quite a bit as a kid, so I decided to give the new version a try. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about Jeff Bridges taking over from The Duke, but I heard the movie was more faithful to the book. Several months later I decided to give the novel a read, since I was trying to read books I normally wouldn't and True Grit was considered a classic.

The novel is told in first person from Mattie's POV, the fourteen years old girl who hires Marshal Cogburn, because he has 'true grit,' to find her father's killer. The character is well-written in the book and well-portrayed in the novel. However, in the book, since we only get her thoughts and perspective, she is annoying as all get out. She's bratty, arrogant, pushy, and demanding. She doesn't really go through a character arc and come out a better person. When we learn about her eighty-years old self, she's pretty much the same. She is the same in the novel, but since we get her interior monologues and character perspectives in the book, her bad qualities seemed amplified.

If you don't compare Jeff Bridges to John Wayne, he does an admirable job in the movie. Wayne's Cogburn seemed more tough-guy than Bridges's portrayal. His Cogburn is more of a wash-up, a tired old marshal seeking something in helping a little girl, even if he (and the audience) don't really know what it is. His Cogburn matched closely with the novel's.

LaBoeuf, the Texas Ranger played by Matt Damon in the movie, is the most changed character. He has very little page time in the novel and his role was expanded in the movie. In the book we only get Mattie's perspective on him, a person she doesn't like and basically considers an idiot. In the movie he comes across as an arrogant and naive young man trying to prove himself, a little unsure what he's getting into. He's the most likable of the three.

The movie follows the book quite faithfully (I was surprised how short the book was) while adding quite a few character building moments and nuances that are missing from the book because the story is told by Mattie. They say the book is comic, but maybe the humor is too subtle for me. While I sometimes chuckled at how pigheaded Mattie was, she was more annoying than anything.

I do admit that the book is well-written. In this case, I recommend the movie over the book. The story is told almost exactly and the viewer gets more characterization of Cogburn and LaBoeuf. Bridges gives a fine performance and we get to enjoy the characters more.

Book Review: Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Lost Era: The Buried Age

I'll be reviewing Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Lost Era: The Buried Age by Christopher L. Bennett. (What is it with him getting stuck with these unwieldy titles? Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock and Star Trek: Enterprise - Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures are two that spring to mind).

The book is part of an umbrella title called the Lost Years, various Star Trek novels that serve as prequels, covering parts of history not shown or talked about on-screen. Bennett's focuses on Captain Jean-Luc Picard, covering about eight years of time, starting with the destruction of his ship the Stargazer, and ending just before he takes command of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

The book deals with an event that affects the galaxy, with literally trillions of lives at stake. The main alien race, the Manraloths, have technology thousands of years ahead of the Federation's, and it borders on super science. An example is using the event horizon of a black hole to store information for virtually all eternity. The technology could have been used as deus ex machina, but Bennett presents it with hard science and in the end, the technology doesn't sound so far-fetched.

Most of the TNG regulars make an appearance in the book, the big exceptions being Crusher, Wesley, and Riker. When Data is recruited for Picard's mission, I was taken aback, thinking the author just wanted a way to bring the characters together; I'd always imagined that the main bridge crew hadn't met before the events of the pilot episode Encounter at Farpoint. However, Bennett points out that most starship captains can pick their command crew, so it makes sense Picard wouldn't just pick his officers from reading their file. Trio and Data have significant parts later on the story, and there are appearances by Yar and Worf. While they seem just thrown into the story at first, their reasons for meeting Picard before serving together on the Enterpise come together nicely and doesn't feel forced. Many characters from various episodes make appearances or are name-dropped, but if you don't know them or forgot about them it's okay, a working knowledge of TNG isn't needed to enjoy this book.

The focus is on Picard and his feelings over losing the Stargazer and his reluctance to rejoin Starfleet. The book tries to cover the journey from Picard the fun explorer to the stern Picard we meet at the beginning of TNG. Bennett does an adequate job and most of the time I could hear Patrick Stewart's voice as I read Picard's lines. Data's lines were spot on, in my opinion, as were Guinan's. Bennett does a little more telling than showing when it comes to characterization but I think he did an adequate job of Picard's journey as a character.

All in all, this a good book and one worth looking into if you're a Picard fan. It gives us another view of his character and an epic, cosmic mission to save the galaxy.

The Book Versus The Movie: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

A few weeks ago I saw the movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It was interesting and I knew the book had been somewhat popular, so I decided to read it. After finishing it yesterday, I decided to give my view on the two.

The book is told like a biography, using the author's narration, but the majority of it is told through Abe's notebooks; selected journal entries detailing his life. Along with these entries are few photographs. The fact that the book is set up like that, as a "real" account from "lost" sources is fun and seems like a good idea. But the very thing that seems to be fun is its greatest weakness.

It reads like a biography, a dry one at that, and constantly flips viewpoints, as we go from Seth Grahame-Smith's third-person narration to Abe's first-person point-of-view and back again. While the majority of the book is from Abe, the constant back and forth is distracting. It would have been better to stay with one POV. I've never been a fan of first-person and feel that if the book had been told more traditionally, in a third-person POV, it would have benefited greatly. It would have been more of a story, a narrative, than a hodgepodge of notes.

The biography approach creates a series of vignettes, since it covers Abe's life from age nine to his death. This creates a disjointed narrative, entire moths are lost between chapter breaks, characters are mentioned once or twice. It reads more like a summary of his life.

The mash up is interesting, however, and the author gets kudos for weaving fact and fiction well together. The problem with the book isn't its story but its approach...

...Which was not a problem in the movie version. Adapted by Seth Grahame-Smith from his own novel, it is interesting to see the differences between the two, even though they were written by the same person. Grahame-Smith obviously knew what would work for the screen and what wouldn't: instead of trying to cram in as much of his original novel verbatim as he could, he crafted a slightly different story and stuck with a single narrative approach.

While many of the scenes and plot points from the novel are present, many have been truncated, characters eliminated, and in the case of Rufus Sewell's character Adam, newly created for the movie. And most of this benefits the movie. The thing the book was lacking the most was a villain. While Abe was fighting vampire's, there was no one to direct his anger to, only to vampires in general. Without a villain, there was nobody for the reader to root against. Abe's struggles seemed somewhat meaningless.

The movie, while jumping through time somewhat disjointedly, benefits from a continuous narrative and a villain. Adam is a constant throughout the film and a focal point for Abe. The story, and Abe's fights, now of a focus, a goal, something the book severely lacked.

Style-wise the movie is very nice, from the Russian director of the Nightwatch series and Wanted. He knows how to stage action sequences (where else are you going to see a vampire pick up a horse during a stampede and throw it at another person?) and has visual style. All of the actors did a good job with their parts.

 This is a case where I feel the movie is better than the book. The book was unique, but dry and flat. The movie benefits from a straightforward narrative and loads of visual style.

Book Review: Only Superhuman

I've never posted a book review before, but since I had made some posts on Facebook saying "I'm looking forward to this," I thought I should.

Only Superhuman is written by Christopher L. Bennett and is a hard-science take on superheroes, in a science fiction setting. Without giving too many details away, the main plot is about Emerald Blair, a member of the Troubleshooters Corps, a group of modified humans who maintain law and order in the colonies established in the asteroid belt region beyond Earth. When a conspiracy is discovered to enslave all of mankind, Blair's loyalties are questioned when all is not what it seems to be.

This is Bennett's first original novel, a project he has been working on for twenty-plus years, and I'm happy to see him have his pet project come to fruition. Until now, Bennett's novels have all been media tie-ins, mostly for Star Trek. His stories always have a hard-science slant to them.

First the good. Blair is a likable character, fun and funny. She sometimes uses puns, both amusing and groan-inducing, but it isn't Bennett being funny. It's Blair corny sense of humor and she knows her jokes are bad. It's all part of the fun. The characters are distinct, and while they may not have the over-the-top powers of their comic book counterparts, each Troubleshooter has their own unique power or ability. You do get some of the archetypes: the super strong one, the hyper intelligent one, etc., but I never felt these were copies or rip-offs of existing characters. The science in the book is plausible without bogging down the story in explanations or too many scientific terms (a pitfall of some of his earlier works). The pacing is fast, which is good for an action story and their are plenty of nods to superhero characters, especially in some of the names. Bennett is very good at world building and he knows Blair's universe and how it works.

Now the bad. For my personal taste, there was too much sex and nudity. Bennett has spent most of his time writing Star Trek novels, which seems to have strict rules about nudity and sex, as in, there is almost none at all. While it gets hinted at and talked about in the two Department of Temporal Investigations novels by Bennett, nothing really happens or is shown. With Only Superhuman, Bennett seems to be making up for those restrictions. While I have no problem with Blair being sexual or sexually aggressive, I do feel it was too much, shown too many times. After several intrudes in the book, I was thinking "Okay, I get it! She likes sex! Let's move on." It didn't have to to with Bennett's writing ability, it just seemed sometimes unnecessary. And while I have no problem with Blair as a character being comfortable being naked, there were a few times when I felt it was, again, not necessary for the story. Sort of like in horror movies, where the first victim takes off her clothes with her back to us, hears a sound, turns around so we cane see her nude, then gets in the shower. Really? Was that shot necessary? Nine times out of ten, no. Like I said before, it seems to me Bennett was making up for all the sex he couldn't put into the Star Trek books. The sex scenes and nudity aren't graphic, just too many of those kinds of scenes.

Another thing I didn't like was not knowing how strong Blair was. They always said she was strong, enhanced beyond the norm, but we never learn how much. It is implied she can bench press a ton, but we never see that. I know Bennett wants to keep things realistic, but this was half comic book as well as SF, and the former half wasn't really shown. Descriptions of lifting things, bending things, showcasing Cowboy's gun skills, are never showcased. That's part of the appeal of a good comic book novel but was sadly never written in this one. But, this is also part of Bennett's pitfalls, he is not good at physical description. He mentions plasma guns and other weapons but never what they look like.

However, I do recommend this book. The good points outweigh the bad. The characters are funny, well-written, Blair's history is thought out and detailed, and the world building spot on. I'm hoping for a sequel.