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Do What You Want, Be What You Are:The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates
$49.98
too much filler for this set to rate higher than 3 stars. and nothing from "Beauty on a Back Street".

A Mouthful
$24.49
I first found "A Mouthful" floating around the web somewhere, and though at first it didn't capture my attention, I was soon scouring the web for an actual physical disk. I had to stretch my horizons to France.

So I don't think it's an exaggeration to call The D��� a deeply underrated band who haven't yet gotten the attention they deserve. And that's a shame, because the Finnish/French duo's debut album "A Mouthful" is one of the more lovable ones of the past year -- a gloriously colourful patchwork quilt of different pop melodies, as if The D��� is determined to try out as many kinds of music as they humanly can.

It opens with a sprightly recorder tune, and the sound of childlike voices shouting, "We -- are -- not -- cra-- zy!/We are not afraid of your grown-ups/We'll go ask the queen of this kingdom/If you won't let us play with screws and hammers!" Olivia Bouyssou Merilahti follows it up with an indulgent little song about, "Now boys play with pink girls at the break/See they're not blindly stuck up with colours/And girls like to run with boys/In the muddy school garden... girls and boys, gigglin' and sharing..."

Then unexpectedly the band switches styles completely, to the laid-back guitars of "At Last" ("Oh girls I found what you're still craving for") and the catchy lament of "On My Shoulders." The absolute peak of the album is the string-laden "Song For Lovers," where Merilahti croons wistfully, "Here's a song for lovers/Who don't care if they don't sleep/If dragonflies with heavy hearts/Cut the air like darts... You were far too young dear/To get so close to the clouds/No one told you to stay awake/For pleasures of that kind."

But though that ballad is the loveliest, it's not the end by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, they start getting more creative after that -- stomping guitarpop, sprightly pop melodies ("Stay just a little bit more/don't let my heart turn sore!"), Finnish dance rendered with acoustic instruments, electronic experimental stretches, low eerie thumping melodies, gentle pianopop. It even finishes up with the wild triple-threat of lo-fi indierock in the grimy "Travel Light," organ-saturated electropop in "Aha," and the clattery stomp of "In My Box." They even have a hallucinatory hip-hop/electronica song ("Ever heard of a crowned fighter dressed all in white/Ever heard of the mighty lady queen dot kong?").

As you can tell, The D��� can't be pinned down to one individual sound. In fact, after a certain point, they don't seem to care about anything except the joy of creating really brilliant music.

And after the first few songs of solid guitar-driven indiepop, they seem determined to experiment with as many kinds of pop music as they can, and the selection grows wilder and more diverse as they go on. By the end they're stringing vastly different kinds of pop music like colourful beads on a string, and the total lack of cohesion is the only thing that keeps this from being a perfect album. And by the next collection they put out, I suspect that won't be a problem anymore.

And they interweave some truly brilliant instrumentation -- a grimy guitar forms the backbone of most of these songs, bouncing nimbly through "Stay (Just A Little Bit More)" and then lurching heavily through the catchy "Tammie." Then it's wrapped in a heavy dose of thumping drums, piano, banjo, violins, and some shimmering sparkling keyboard and richly colourful organ. Then they slap a few MORE musical flourishes on it -- harmonica, xylophone, tambourine -- to keep the dense, nimble melodies fully-rounded.

Even more striking is The D���'s ability to meld different genres without even breaking a sweat. Thumping indie-rock suddenly blossoms into bright electronic pop, and a grimy rock'n'roll tune is suddenly swamped in a plaintive violin melody.

Merilahti has a very lovely voice -- a little rough around the edges, but very clear, sweet and pure. She can belt it out like an indie-rocker ("I thought no one could track me down/Til I got shot in the back") but she's at her best when she sings the kookier or quieter songs. And she sings some really striking songs -- sometimes clever ("He was a bore, a true chore and I still wonder why I ever wanted to see him more...") as well as quietly evocative ones ("if I find bones along my way/I might feel a little less alone...").

"A Mouthful" apparently aspires to include as many kinds of pop as The D��� can cram into one album, and it's a charming, fun little ride speckled with darker, more bittersweet moments. Definitely one of the year's must-hears.

Do it Yourself (1-year)
$19.97
This is my favorite magazine and the only one that I will subscribe to again and again. It has wonderful projects that are reasonably inexpensive. The pictures are colorful and beautiful. In one section, they'll take something (for instance, a plain coffee table) and do it three different ways to give you some options on how you would like to do it to fit into your decor. I haven't found a project yet that I wouldn't want to do in this magazine.

The downside is that it only comes bi-monthly. I would sure love to see it in my mailbox every month, or even every other week for that matter!

Browse through it in the magazine section..........you will love it!

Do I
$0.99