Some Recent-Ish All Pearls, No Swine, For Your Delectation

All Pearls, No Swine might be slowing down, but this series is far from over, checking in with the third volumededicated to relatively recent music, meaning the last fifteen years and change. 

To get listeners' attention I put the hardest rocin' trak up front, with Dead Sara's bad-ass ass-kicker "Weatherman". If the lead singer's voice sounds vaguely familiar, that's because Emily Armstrong got a more high-profile gig recently, relacing deceased lead singer Chester Bennington in the reforùed Linkin Park. Dead Sara, the power trio with female guitar gunslinger Siouxsie Medley isn't dead, per se, but in a holding pattern since then. Funnily, there's a second track called "Weather Man" by German slow-pop outfit Someday Jacob, that reminds you a bit of The Czars. 

All Pearls, No Swine 42 consists for the most parts of tracks that I picked up here and there because I liked them, ranging fom r'n'b from Candian artist P. "Don't Call Me Philip" Bailey to brass-driven soul-rock from Cole Gallagher with "Sugarland" - yes, the Bruce Springsteen rarity that finally got its official release last year on Tracks II. There's slightly-artier-than-you-remember Counting Crows with comeback single "The Tal Grass" and crunchy power pop verging on punk rock from The Cry! with "Toys In The Attic" (not the Aeromsith song). There's reliable vets Wilso and the also ever-reliable Jason Isbell with the demo version of one of his greatest songs, "Elephant", and Kacey Musgraves with a cover of "Can't Help Galling In Love", done for that weird Baz Luhrmann Elvis movie a ouple of years ago. 

You will realize that there are a number of very short songs - Lucero's rootsy "Take Me Away", Jason Faklner's rock instrumental "The Perfect Crime" and the also instruenta little jazz excursion "Swan Dreams" by the Colin Steele Quartet. There are here for a purpose, since I knew that the closing track would run long. Really long. It's the "Terrapin Station (Suite)" track that Daniel Rossen and The National (among others) did for the massive Grateful Dead tribute Day Of The Dead compilation, and that didn't feature on my two-disc distillation. A perfect run-out groove that necessitated the inclusion of some short songs to fit under the - yes, still existing - 80 minute time limit. 

As you can see fro this write-up, there's aain a good number of different styles and genres on this compilation, as it should be. Something for everyone, hopefully. Also as usual: enjoy!