Time for Tunes: Notes & Thoughts on whatever comes

Tori Amos, "Silent All These Years," "Leather," from Little Earthquakes, and "A Sorta Fairytale" from Scarlet's Walk. Piano-pop songstress Amos's work focuses on her voice and piano, with restrained, almost minimalist production otherwise. It's certainly not dance music. But it'd go well by candlelight with a glass of wine. At times, though, her piano style makes me wonder if she has a left hand? Doesn't seem to be much going on down in the lower octaves.
Megadeath, "Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good." The title track from the metal group's 1985 debut captures both their hostile attitude and their emphasis on speed, speed, speed. The (quick) 2/4 time signature allows everything to be played in eighth notes, while the song's refrain consists of the title phrase repeated four times. And it runs only 3:05, tailor-made for radio airplay. It's easy to see how the group rose to prominence: in a sense, this stuff is very accessible. But composition-wise, it is a bit more advanced and interesting than a 3-chord groove. Metal fans I know respect these guys, but still prefer Metallica.
Steeleye Span, "Hard Times Of Olde England," from Below The Salt. A rollicking track from a very unusual group that focuses on extremely traditional folk music as rendered by a modern-rock combo, drums and electric guitars. One of my favorite groups, though little known outside folk-music circles. Still, here's some stuff that everybody can dance to, and the musicianship an albums like this and the follow-up Parcel Of Rogues was enough to attract Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson to produce their 6th album, and David Bowie to play saxophone on it. Fairly elite company for fokies. If you ever get bored with radio stations that just play the same stuff over & over, check out some Steeleye Span.
Antigone Rising, "Pretty Girl," from Say It! an-TIG-uh-nee. An awful lot of people got turned on to this all-fem pop/rock group thanks to their featured play in Starbuck's. Here though they come across much more true to their basic format, acoustic rock, rather than the country crossover that they became widely known for. Antigone Rising was and remains more of a touring/performing band, though, so their ealier albums like this are hard to come by. And that's a shame, because their stuff is pretty good.
Iron Maiden, "Powerslave." I'm not a big metal fan for starters, and I usually shy away from groups whose albums feature cover art that looks like something out of EC Comics' Tales From The Crypt, so that's two strikes. But I like Iron Maiden. This, the title track from the 1984 album, demonstrates why. These guys made modern heavy metal, even with all its shrieking, tonsil-wagging vocals and how-cast-can-you-shred lead guitar, seem like a natural outgrowth of the 'classic rock' era I grew up in. And their compositions and arrangements can be almost progressive-rock at times -- more familiar territory for an aging son of earlier times like myself. I dig 'em.