Farewell To Apple’s iPod - Why I'm Sad To See You Go - Part 2

 

The Music Lives On (Apple Photo Link) 

In my previous post, I talked about iPods — past and present. In this post, I will talk about storage issues I've experienced with iPhone compared to iPod, plus my wrap-up.

When you have a mobile device that’s portable, one that “does it all” like smartphones and tablets, that’s great! However, there’s one thing people forget — storage shared between apps. Your music library has to share storage space with a Photo library, various saved/downloaded Documents, a Calendar, Reminders, Emails, iMessages or SMS messages, Web browsing data and History. It all adds up, along with the system data that those apps may need or create. On a laptop or desktop computer, this made sense as they were designed with a lot of storage and, until the last decade depending who makes your computer, are mostly upgrade-able.

If you're an iTunes/Apple Music user and you store your music in iCloud Music Library and you don’t download, even if you stream via Spotify, those songs you listen to are still most likely being downloaded in the background as you’re listening to them. Otherwise you’d probably get a lot of buffering - stopping and starting. When you finish listening, you’d hope that the system would clear out those temporary files from your device.

In iOS 15, Apple renamed in the iOS/iPadOS storage area's Other as System Data - system caches, logs and other things currently needed. I’m fine with that but, how can that be taking up almost half the device storage which it was doing on my iPhone 8 Plus? I now have a 256GB iPhone 12 Pro that I’ve had for a year and I hope I don’t see the Storage Full message for another four or five years at least because I use my iPod for listening to music.

At the moment, the only thing I know that can clear that clutter is a Factory Restore.  Who wants to go through that every time they run out of storage? I certainly don’t fancy it. That's also a temporary solution as it starts building up all over again and quite quickly. A way for the user to clear out unnecessary caches, logs and other things would save a lot of headaches.

That is why I feel Apple should bring back a dedicated hardware audio/video player, so that those of us who want to keep our music & video collections separate from our multi-purpose mobile devices can do so. I'm not saying they should take music/video playback from their other products as they're still good for people who don't constantly utilise music or video libraries.

The Musis Lives On (Apple Photo Link)

I think Apple could do the following, if they launched an iPod replacement audio/video player: 

• Re-program the iPod nano 7th Gen’s operating system for today’s usage and rename it musicOS or mediaOS or any other name they fancy (the 7th Generation iPod nano was the only dedicated music/video player that had a multi-touch touchscreen like iPod touch).
• Incorporate Siri (for music, TV, Podcasts search only), Apple Music and Apple TV+ while still keeping the flow and design of that system.
• Keeping Photos support like the old iPod would be okay,
  
• Add Wi-Fi and hotspot capabilities so you could add music in the vicinity of Wi-Fi networks. Cellular would need a plan so that wouldn't be ideal - why pay out for a plan when you can use Wi-Fi or hotspot to your phone/tablet?
  
• Make the screen over 5” and give it 256GB or 512GB storage.
  
• At least bring it up to the CPU power of iPhone 11 or 12 - the current and outgoing iPod touch has the power of iPhone 7 and feels very sluggish and under-powered.
  

That’d be great! The benefit of that, over iOS, is you wouldn't need a security login as the only data that should be on the device would be your music, videos or chosen photos. There'd be no need for cards or passes. I guess the only private thing you'd really have a passcode on an iPod nano based OS is your Apple ID and password, which would be in Settings. This would be so the built-in apps could access iCloud and purchases. However, I realise that Apple of the past and current decade focuses heavily on the App Store, so I think that even if they could just:

• Slim down iOS to just audio/video apps — maybe rename it as mentioned above.
  
• Filter the App Store to just focus music and/or video apps (this would also appease those who enjoy 3rd party music apps like Spotify, Tidal or other players),
• If the device just contains downloaded/purchased content and streaming content, you shouldn't have to worry about security or privacy as there wouldn't really be anything to protect other than music or other content.
  

I think it'd be just as good because they'd also be able to keep all the accessibility features, which mostly weren't in the iPod nano operating system (you had a few, but not as much as iOS). I do think that people like me would be a niche market and Apple want to get their popular devices into as many hands as possible. I can keep dreaming but I doubt that product will ever exist — unless Apple don't mind at least one niche product.

The way I look at it, iPhone and iPad are both great communication and productivity devices. It's great that they — along with Apple's other products — also play music and video but, why not just have a device similar to iPod for today’s world? Why not call it something like Apple Media Player or Apple Music Player? At least it’d give Apple something to compete against Spotify’s hardware players they appear to be coming out with.

Other Apple products I love to use for music are HomePod (original 2018 version), my iMac and Airpods Pro. I will miss my iPod when it eventually stops. My only other thing when that day comes would be to buy the current cheapest 256GB iPhone and just use that for music only. I doubt Apple would have wanted people to do that. That's why I feel there's a need for a dedicated iPod replacement from Apple. 

Farewell iPod brand. I'm sure there'll be people who are sad like me but I know there are also people who are glad to see it end which also makes me sad. Those people tend to be the ones who have given up on iPod the day the iPhone was launched. It's not about nostalgia to me — it's a device I use and love.

Sorry for yet another multi-part post. Hopefully next one will be short. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Take care. 

Farewell To Apple’s iPod - Why I'm Sad To See You Go - Part 1

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great week. I had a nice week. Some days were spent working on some music while other days just doing various computer things. 

Speaking of music

Apple officially announced on May 11 that their iPod touch - the last of their great iPod music player range - will only be available while supplies last. This means they’re discontinuing their iPod brand after it changed the way a lot of people listened to music back in 2001 when the first iPod was released. In a lot of ways, iPod and iTunes both changed how music was enjoyed and in a legal way and to stop piracy.

When the iPod touch sells out, there will be no more dedicated music player from Apple.  No doubt with this news, there will be people who will buy up as many as they can and sell them at higher prices when the iPod touch is no longer sold by Apple. I think it’s ridiculous that there’s people out there would do such a thing, but that’s the way it is.

I sadly wasn’t an early iPod adopter at all as I was still very much into my beloved CD collection. If I had been, maybe I wouldn’t find the transition to digital so sad and hard now. After all, I still love reading the booklets and sleeves of CDs and vinyl albums, even using a magnifying glass to do so.  One of my Uncles introduced me to the click wheel iPod probably around 2007. He showed me how it worked — how to go back and forth between songs and how to use the click wheel to navigate the menus. It even had photos stored on it. I was hooked from then on and couldn’t wait to get one of my very own.

I bought my first iPod, an 80GB iPod Classic in 2009, which I put my own music on using iTunes. I didn’t even start buying music from the iTunes Store until 2012. Early 2012 was when that iPod stopped working. I’ve had a few iPods over the years since then, some were even with smaller storage right up to a 160GB iPod Classic. It lasted until early 2020. 

  My iPod Touch on the left and my iPod Classic on the right

When Apple released the iPod touch in 2007, that was the beginning of the music player’s decline in sales and popularity as too many people - Steve Jobs included - wanted a device that did more than just play music. They were minimalists and wanted to cut down on dedicated tools. That was the idea behind the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad later on. The iPod touch was the first and only iPod that connected to Wi-Fi networks. It allowed music and other things to be transferred to and from the device wirelessly. You could also download directly from iTunes Store and iCloud Music Library.

I have to admit, as much as I love my iPhone and iPad, I’m a fan of the dedicated single use device. If you love to read, you probably have a dedicated ebook reader like Amazon’s Kindle. I’m not talking about the Kindle Fire, as that’s basically a multi-purpose tablet. With any of the other Kindle devices, you can read and read and have that storage dedicated to your book collection. Not only that, you can read without getting pesky notifications every 5 or more minutes.  Photographers probably prefer a dedicated camera too.

This is why I’m a fan of the iPod and use my 256GB iPod touch that I purchased in 2020 as a music and audio only device — sometimes even music videos via Apple Music. Apart from the native Music app, other apps I use are Shazam, Signia app (for my hearing aids) and the Boom app for UE (Ultimate Ears) MegaBoom portable speaker. With my 256GB iPod touch, I have notifications for other apps, except those ones I've disabled.

Two other apps that I’d use if I had the iPod nano 7th Gen would be Podcasts and Audiobooks — because the screen is ridiculously too small to read print.

The thing that makes my iPhone and iPad more superior and better than my iPod touch is they both support Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio.

The reason I got my iPod touch is because I kept running out of storage space on my iPhone 8 Plus. Even when I didn’t have much on it, it felt like storage was always an issue. It is a 64GB iPhone. When I go into the iPhone’s storage section, the part of the graph that says Other would be quite large, but yet I couldn’t find a way to shrink it.

More on that in part 2 which I will post this Friday.

Fears Of A Deafblind Musician - Part 3

Hi everyone! I hope you've all had a great week and looking forward to the weekend as I am! Shall we continue with Part 3 of my fears?

Obviously if I do lose my remaining hearing and vision, whether together or separate, I guess my days of creating music could possibly be over. A lot of DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations - complicated words to describe a music making/producing program) such as Ableton Live — my personal favourite — are currently not very screen reader friendly (this is going by what I’ve read, not personal experience). They are also very graphical, although I’ve heard that Apple’s Logic Pro X is a lot more screenreader friendly, especially with their own VoiceOver screenreader. Still, this wouldn’t matter if I lost both senses together rapidly. As for listening to music, I fear that I’d end up falling into a well of depression - I just wouldn’t be able to enjoy music as much as I do now. Are there ways around this??

I know that Deaf people can still enjoy music by feeling the rhythmic vibrations, and I’m very happy for them. However, that way of enjoying music means having the volume cranked to the max and would probably annoy housemates and neighbours alike. There are 2 movies that I watched last year, Amazon’s movie Sound Of Metal and Apple TV+’s award-winning movie CODA! 

The first one, Sound Of Metal scared me. I won’t go into the movie here in case anyone watches it, but Ruben a drummer loses his hearing and wants to hear. He goes to a place that helps with coping with Deafness, hears about Cochlear Implants, eventually goes through surgery to get the implant. When he gets it, he doesn’t like what he hears, and everything is just too loud and he ends up not using the implant in the end. I think I can relate a lot to this movie as it’s dealing with my fears of hearing loss later in life. 

 

Below, is a trailer for Sound of Metal. If the embedded video doesn't work, you can check it out HERE.

About 10 years ago, I had an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist appointment at Mater Hospital. At that time, I was suffering with constant high-pitched Tinnitus in my right ear which had become unbearable. I also saw the Occupational Therapist at the Mater to help deal with it. The ENT specialist suggested that I’d probably be a candidate for a Cochlear Implant. Check this page if you want to know more about Cochlear Implants. He said that he had a lot of positive feedback that Tinnitus became less of a problem for people who had the implants. It sounded really promising and I was starting to get excited at the prospect of ridding myself of a high pitched Tinnitus sound in that ear.

My big question was would I still be able to enjoy music? He pretty much said that I could still listen to music through my left ear because that ear wouldn’t get the implant. In other words, music I enjoy through headphones would be mono. My Apple devices have an option that allows music to be listened to in mono, but I noticed that rather than playing the stereo channels, it favoured one channel over the other. 

For example, with Joe South’s “Walk A Mile In My Shoes”, I was frustrated that I couldn’t hear the vocals of the verses, only the chorus. When I play the song through my big Apple HomePod, it was the same effect, proving that the HomePod is a mono, not stereo speaker unless you pair two together. You can only hear the voice very faintly, so I gave up on Mono mode on iOS. Since that appointment, Mum and I have done research on Cochlear Implants and I haven’t been happy with what we found.

Because Cochlear Implants are designed to bypass the hairs in the auditory canal (as they’d all be damaged anyway), they have to to do the job of those hairs, and there’s currently not enough electrodes in the implant that can fit the range I’d want to enjoy music. As it is, speech sounds very robotic from what I’ve heard, and music sounds terrible. I’ve heard that some hearing professionals are working with musicians to make music that is specifically in the Cochlear Implants’ range, and that is great... for those who don’t want to share the love of music with their friends and loved ones.

The video above shows how Cochlear Implants work. All Cochlear Implants generally work like this.

If I end up needing the implant (whether or not I’ll ever need the left ear done too for whatever reason I don't know), I want to enjoy the music that the rest of my family love. I want to be able to say to people “Have you heard the new Ed Sheeran album”, or “I love the song that is playing in this movie, I wonder who it is?”. It currently seems that if you use Cochlear Implants, you can only enjoy music if it has a strong, rhythmic beat (Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”) or classical music. I’m someone who loves a vast array of music, and Classical is low on that list. I suppose if I was born totally deaf and needed Cochlear Implants, I wouldn’t know what I’m missing out on, and I’d adapt. That’s a lot harder to do when you lose your hearing after 30+ years, even with my hearing being impaired. Kudos to the people who invented the implants because they definitely work great for speech. I know it’s a lot to ask, but hopefully in 30 years, people with Cochlear Implants will be able to enjoy music almost as good as their music loving peers.

The other movie I haven’t talked about yet is CODA. If you have an Apple TV+ subscription, I highly recommend you check it out! CODA is short for Child (or Children) Of Deaf Adults, meaning the child can hear, but the parents are Deaf. In this movie, Ruby Rossi (played by Emilia Jones) wants to pursue a career in music, but her parents want her to help with their family business of selling fish, translating what customers say to the parents into sign language and also be on board the boat for critical operations. Her parents get frustrated with her for wanting to do music. In one part, you see the family going to see Ruby’s school performance. They realised by the audience’s reaction that Ruby is great! After that, you see her family change toward her, being more supportive. I won’t say any more than that.

Below is a trailer of the CODA movie. If the embedded video doesn't work, you can check it out HERE.

 

While CODA is a beautiful movie and I’ll always love it, I think I can relate more to Ruben’s situation in Sound Of Metal. That movie leaves me feeling like there’s no hope after hearing loss. However, I’d like to think that Ruben will eventually get used to being Deaf and still find ways to enjoy music. That is the hope that CODA gives to me. As for my future, should I lose both sight and sound, a lot of people who are deafblind merge the tools of the Deaf alongside the tools of the Blind anyway, so I don’t think that’ll change. I’ll just need to learn Braille and tactile sign language when that time comes.

When that time comes, I will most definitely have to give up my love of creating music, but I think I’d prefer to enjoy music the way most deaf people do. If you are deaf, blind, deafblind and have your fears, I’d love to hear from you. I think if I do lose hearing, I’ll grieve what I lose, but I’ve seen proof that there’s hope, even if you don’t rely on Cochlear implants. I just feel, why put yourself through the surgery process when you may end up not using it in the end anyway? I’d like to believe I’d get over losing my vision easier than I would with my hearing. Personally, I want to enjoy my world of choice of Stereo music, as well as the new Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio options that are out for as long as I possibly can! Also, it’s great that there’s Audio Described movies out there too and I want to enjoy them too! 

Well, there you have it! A multi-part post on my feelings about my future fears.

Farewell 2016... Hello 2017!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my fellow bloggers and readers!

May 2017 be a better year for all! May you all have a happy, positive and peaceful year, no matter what happens.

Remember how I said I had big plans for 2016? Well, sadly, that kind of fell through because I had several distractions throughout the year. For one thing, I'm a terribly slow reader. I've got multiple books on the go, that includes novels, music, musician biographies, etc. I think 2017 will be the year I start reading one book at a time and I might have a better chance at getting them all finished. With multiple books on the go, I tend to forget certain things I've read, mainly in the music education books, so those particular books I'll have to re-read to take them in. 

For me, 2017 will be the year I throw myself into things I want to do.  This will include more practice on the guitar as I still feel like a beginner.  I was given the guitar close to one year ago by my brother, Beau. It wasn't a gift but rather, he passed on to me as he no longer wanted it.  I LOVE it but I do need to be more disciplined at playing it on a regular basis.

I purchased a couple of MIDI controllers made by Novation throughout 2016. With them came Ableton Live 9 Lite, a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), which pretty much turns your computer into a home recording studio.  It can create MIDI music and audio music also. I'll tell you more about those products in a future post.  I will be learning more about all these products as I put them through their paces this year. I want to be able to actually finish music that I've created and know that it's worth it.

On top of that, I look forward to singing again with the Mater Hospital's Sing For Health Choir and also hopefully joining a local choir earlier in the year.

I also want to lose more weight as I've still got a fair bit to go before I get down to my goal weight of 71kg. I'll talk more about what's given me the push in a future post.

Well, that's it from me, I hope to keep you up-to-date each week with what I'm up to, voice my opinions on any music related issues and other things that I care about. You can expect some reviews of albums too by artists I enjoy listening to.

Take care all, and may you have a happy, peaceful, prosperous 2017!

Love and peace to you all!

Big Plans Are Coming For Me In 2016

Hi everyone!

WOW! 2016 is here and do I have a lot I want to get done this year. For those who brought in the New Year, I hope you all had a wonderful time, however you spent it. I'm the type of person who loves to party when it comes to New Year's Eve or birthday parties, etc. Even if everyone is just sitting around and no one intends to dance, if music is playing and a great, upbeat song comes over the speakers, I'll either be moving in my seat or (if it's OK with everyone there) up dancing. If the song is good, I just can't help myself! I brought in the New Year with Mum and Aaron (my brother). Mum and I played Yahtzee that evening before putting on party music and dancing until the Countdown. Aaron came and joined us for the Countdown. I was having radio problems, so thankfully Mum was able to save the day by getting a clock app for her phone that showed the seconds! We cheered in the New Year and then played Yahtzee again, one of our favourite games. As Mum and I intended on staying up to greet the dawn (I usually do that each year, it's a bit of a tradition to me), we even watched a DVD. I think it was after 6am that I went to bed for a few hours.

All my life, I've always been drawn to music, whether upbeat or slow, it just draws me. Even now, if I go to a gathering and music is playing, if I find it hard to jump into a conversation, I'll often just sit and focus on the music for a little bit. I'm usually quiet when people converse, however, I'll listen and try to involve myself when I can. If I can't join the conversation, I will let the music take over. I view music as my saviour when those situations happen.

While my last post of 2015 was reflecting on the year gone by, I'd like to focus now on what I hope lies ahead for 2016. My plans for this year have me motivated and excited for what is to come! I mentioned in my last post about the Mater Hospital Sing For Health Choir that Mum and I are a part of. We'll be looking forward to reconvening with that great group of people mid-year.  On top of that, I feel I want to get other things happening and, no surprise, it's all music-based. I'm actually quite excited about it!

I'm breaking away from doing web design as I'm done with trying to build one. Around 2003, when I got into web design, I was into MIDI music, which is basically music made by a keyboard/synth stored in .mid files as Note On/Note Off signals, and those are played back either through the computer sound card's built-in Soft-Synthesiser or a keyboard attached to the computer. I wanted to make a MIDI website featuring MIDI files to download. Some time later, I'd created a website that I thought was ready to publish, then my computer of that time failed, so I lost everything. I've been trying since then to still make websites, having even paid for a HTML editor, but never had the same spark, I can't even think of what to make a website about anymore. The enthusiasm is totally gone, not to mention the ever-changing web technologies I'd have to re-learn. I learned HTML 4, then there was XHTML, now HTML 5, and trying to make websites suitable for screens of all sizes. When I got into web-design, the only things you could view a website on was a desktop computer or a laptop. My website developing days are over and I'm about to start on a new venture...

Songwriting and music creation!

Yes, I'm finally trying my hand at something I wish I'd tried to do back in 2002.  I wish I'd shown more of an interest in music creation and songwriting back then but maybe I wasn't meant to at the time. I feel nowadays, technology is giving me the resources at my fingertips to help me out. Back then, there were probably only a few books about songwriting, but nowadays, there's probably more books and e-books on the subject, not to mention websites dedicated to songwriting tips, and podcasts to listen to on the subject and dedicated computer programs/mobile apps specifically designed for songwriting.  As far as the music creation is concerned, there's books, websites and podcasts dedicated to it. Also, YouTube is a great help if you want to learn quickly on how to use your recently purchased music composing/creating software.

I feel quite motivated to do it and I can't wait! I may let you all know each week how I'm progressing. Depending on how things go, I may share something with you of the progress, depending on how I feel I'm doing at the time. When I go on outings with Mum, while she's sketching, I'll be trying to find inspiration and writing thoughts down or using Garageband on my iPad to capture any music that comes to mind. I feel I'd much rather make use of that time doing things like that rather than reading or playing games on the iPad. I'll share with you all whatever books I may read, either novels or on the subject. I recently purchased a book called The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Art of Songwriting.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what advice it may give!

I'd like to get myself into a local choir that runs in the evenings if I can too. I love being part of a choir for the singing and also the happy feeling I get, along with the health benefits.  So as you can see, I have a big year ahead! As long as I practice the art of songwriting every day, along with practicing on the guitar and bongos, I know I'll get much better. So stay tuned for next week and see what I have to say then! Until then, I hope you all have a great week.

New Updated And Expanded ABBA Book In The Works By Carl Magnus Palm: ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions (Revised & Expanded)

Hi everyone!

As this is my first post for 2015, I just want to wish you all a Happy New Year! I hope the year goes well for you all!  I just want to try and keep this brief this time around because there's something I want to share with you all, especially if you're a big fan of ABBA, or even interested in music details.

Do you want to know the story behind ABBA's recordings, and how they came about, including recording secrets, unreleased songs and other things? Carl Magnus Palm, a notable ABBA historian, is planning to re-write his book "ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions"! Those fans and anyone else who know about the original book will know it was released back in 1994 and has sadly been out of print for several years. The new book will be called "ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions (Revised & Expanded)". As the  title says, the book is going to contain so much more information than what was featured in the original book. I've read a lot of high praises for the 1994 edition of the book by ABBA fans who have it and enjoy it!

If you would like to see this book come to fruition, please click here to go to the Kickstarter page and find out more about the book.  Anyone who has any of ABBA's CD/DVD releases over the past 20 years will know that Carl Magnus Palm has been quite active at providing very informative liner notes, even getting interviews with the ABBA members and providing interesting facts about each ABBA album. I'm pretty sure this book will be totally worth the money he is asking for, especially for quite detailed info that I'm sure any ABBA fan/music historian will want to read about! This will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to own this book, as far as I know, it's limited edition and is only available through the Kickstarter page above. If the funds aren't raised, the book will not be written.  Carl Magnus Palm is doing this because he is passionate and wants to do it for us fans alike!

If you want to know about Carl Magnus Palm and everything he has done over the years, mainly ABBA-related, you can go to his official website. Trust me, I go there regularly and always find it a joy to go through all ABBA related stuff he has!

I'm sorry I've left this so late, I only just discovered it myself.

I'll be back soon with another post.  Until then, I wish you all the best for the upcoming week, and take care, whatever you do and wherever you live. Stay safe and well!

A New Item Added To My Music Collection!

Hi everyone, 

I thought I'd share with you all my most recent purchase, which arrived in the post last week. For people who don't know, Elton John, my most favourite singer, released a brand new studio album in September.  The album is called "The Diving Board" and I bought the 15 track Standard Edition of the album on release day.  However, I had to wait a while to get what I'm going to show you now.....are you ready for it?! 

"The Diving Board - Super Deluxe Edition"! 

I'm very excited!

"The Diving Board - Super Deluxe Edition" comes in a nice size box that feels like it was done on canvas. 

It is a Limited Edition, only 5000 (I'm unsure if that's per country or all up), it even shows you on the back what number it is. I have 2653/5000! 

When you open the box, there's a black ribbon there to help lift the box contents out. The box contains the 15-track double vinyl LP in a gatefold sleeve, a print of the picture used for the album cover and a nice hard-cover book, which has the 19-track extended CD and bonus DVD, featuring Elton live at Capitol Studios in the back.

I feel it is nicely packaged together, I actually thought that the CD and DVD would be in the digipack version you see at the stores labelled as the Deluxe Edition but I was proven wrong. Had they done what I thought, the CD/DVD case would have been sliding loosely around the inside of the box.  

If you're an Elton fan and you don't have the album yet, I suggest you get this as soon as you can. 

Stay tuned for my review of "The Diving Board".

John Farnham - The Acoustic Chapel Sessions Review

CD cover of The Acoustic Chapel Sessions
Courtesy of JB Hi-Fi

Yes! I bought it on Friday and have been listening to it repeatedly ever since!  The CD is by Australian artist, John Farnham, and I've loved his music ever since 1996 (the year after I discovered Elton John's music), and each successive album is just as good as the last.  The new CD is called "The Acoustic Chapel Sessions" and it is great!  This CD features 11 great hits from John's music career from 1984 to 1996, and is redone with acoustic, not electric, instruments!  This CD has been released in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of "Whispering Jack", John's comeback album of 1986.

I was worried that the acoustic songs would not be up to par but I was wrong. John Farnham and his great band really did pull it off!  Not only that, the CD was released as a combo CD/DVD set with the DVD featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with John and the band, along with 8 video recordings of songs on the CD!  Great stuff!

The first highlight off the CD for me is "Pressure Down", which I think is even better than the original version!  "Playing To Win", which John originally recorded with Little River Band in 1984, sounds strange without its synth and electric guitar sound but it really does sound great as an acoustic song too!  I also love "Two Strong Hearts"...the backing vocals go so well with John's voice!  The acoustic version of "A Simple Life" also sounds terrific!  "Hearts On Fire" was my least favourite song on the CD but then it grew on me the more I listened to it.  "You're The Voice" was also great but I do feel the original version had more power!

Over all, I think the CD/DVD set is fantastic and well worth buying. It gets a 5 out of 5 star rating from me.  For anyone who wants to know more about this great Aussie singer, I've included some links to sites I'd recommend!  Back in his heyday, John Farnham decided against going to the US to seek his fame and fortune and opted to stay in Australia and tour here instead.  That said, he has had Number One hits and Top 10 hits in other countries.  When I listen to John Farnham sing, it makes me proud to be Australian!  His great sense of humour gives his fans many, many laughs during concerts and he is so well loved by us all!

If you've never heard of John Farnham and you have iTunes, I'd recommend you check him out.  If you don't have iTunes, try checking out the John Farnham links in the sidebar!  Hopefully, next time he tours I just might get the chance to see my 2nd favourite singer LIVE in concert!

MY LATEST DISCOVERY

Allison’s 6th album released in 2008 – picture courtesy of AllisonCrowe.com.

You may all be wondering what the widget at the top of this screen under my blog heading is. Sometime in January, I was looking through the Jamendo website to see what it was all about and, while browsing the site, I came across a page by a Canadian singer called Allison Crowe! I’d never heard of Allison Crowe before and I was curious as to the type of music she does so I previewed some of her songs on Jamendo.

When I heard her sing, I liked her music instantly to the point where I wanted to get her music! Thanks to Jamendo being a free service, I was able to download some of Allison’s albums! On Jamendo, I noticed that some of the album covers have the word Originals on them. I was wondering what that meant until I went onto Allison Crowe's official website. On Allison’s website, I noticed that the albums had a few more songs (in the case of the double live album Live At Wood Hall, a lot more songs). I found out that the reason it was like this is because on Jamendo, you’re only meant to upload music that has a free license such as Creative Commons and some of the songs on Allison’s CDs are cover versions of songs by well-known people (such as Leonard Cohen, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Counting Crows just to name a few) and those songs are under non-free licenses like ASCAP or BMI, which means that they can’t be freely shared, copied, remixed, etc., by other people or free services like Jamendo.

All of Allison’s original songs that she wrote are all under a Creative Commons license and that’s why they’re available as free downloads through Jamendo, which I think is great! You too can go to Allison Crowe’s official website, click on an album cover, scroll down until you find the track list, click on a song title and scroll down to the bottom of the page that comes up. If it says “All rights reserved” beside a copyright symbol, that means that it isn’t a Creative Commons licensed song, but if it says “Some rights reserved” beside 3 symbols, that means that it is a Creative Commons licensed song. If you click on those symbols or “Some rights reserved””, it’ll take you to a page that defines what the license covers and what you’re allowed to do with the songs. I like the Creative Commons way of doing things, it’s just a pity none of the big named singers/groups will transfer their music to Creative Commons instead of the other companies.

Allison’s 5th album released in 2006 – picture courtesy of AllisonCrowe.com.

Anyway, enough talk about licenses, now on to the real reason I wanted to write this post!

I thought that rather than doing a review on one of Allison’s albums (I don’t have any of them yet anyway, but I hope to get them sometime, I’m just going by some of Allison’s original songs on Jamendo), I’d review Allison’s music in general! Allison has such a great, strong voice and she uses it well! My favourite songs by Allison Crowe have to be “There Is” (that song makes me think of Joni Mitchell in a way), “Whether I’m Wrong”, “Sea Of A Million Faces” and “Secrets (That Aren’t My Own)”. I also like Allison’s versions of the traditional Christmas songs “Silent Night”, “O Holy Night”, “The First Noel” and the a cappella version of “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”, which are available on Allison’s seasonal album “Tidings”! The song “How Long” is also a great song from the album “Secrets”! I also love the song “Effortless”, which is on Allison’s “This Little Bird” album, which is a great mixture of lyrics, voice and music! I could go on about other great songs I’ve heard as there are too many that I like!

The music of Allison Crowe can not really be placed into a single music genre as she covers a vast range like Rock, Pop, some Jazz and blues, soul and other types of genres, which is a pretty good diversity! Because I like a vast majority of musical genres, I get drawn to singers like Allison! Allison also plays piano for her songs which I think is great to hear as the piano is my favourite musical instrument. I soak in as much of the piano playing as I can when I listen to singers who play piano like Elton John, Billy Joel and now, Allison. I do wish I could play piano like they can! Allison is a pretty good guitar player also and that is proof on songs like “Northern Lights”, “Hold Back”, “Wedding Song”(these 3 are from Allison’s “Little Light” album), “Now”, “Silence” and other great songs! Allison also has an EP out called “Lisa’s Song + 6 Songs”, which is actually her debut album released in 2003, I like the title song “Lisa’s Song” and “Midnight”!

Allison’s 4th album released in 2005 – picture courtesy of AllisonCrowe.com.

The name of Allison’s next album will be called “Spiral” and includes the song, “Going Home Tonight”. There is a preview for this song on Jamendo. "Going Home Tonight" starts off with nice piano playing from Allison and, while she is singing, you hear strings added nicely to the piano. Allison’s voice and the lyrics to the song are lovely to hear! I feel the piano, strings, Allison’s voice and everything else on the track all blend in perfectly! I honestly can’t wait for “Spiral” to come out and to hear “Going Home Tonight” among the other album tracks, which I’m sure will be just as good! If I had to rate “Going Home Tonight” out of 5 stars, I’d give it 5 stars!

As Allison Crowe is an independent artist with her own record company called Rubenesque Records, she is slowly becoming known around the world! I'm hoping that a lot more Australians discover Allison's music because then, she may one day tour Australia. I'm sure her concerts would be a real treat to see! At this current time, from what I understand, the only place Australians can buy Allison’s albums is through Fishpond, a New Zealand based online store but, if you want, you can go straight to Allison’s website and check out the Shop link where you will be given options on how to buy the CDs and/or a poster! I don’t know the availability of Allison’s album in Europe, but I’m sure the rest of the world can probably order Allison’s albums through Amazon!

I totally recommend Allison Crowe’s music to anyone. If you don’t know who Allison Crowe is, I strongly recommend you use the widget at the top of this blog (click on an album cover in the widget if you want to see that album track-by-track) and use it as a preview. You can listen to the whole songs too. If I have to rate Allison’s music (well, what I’ve heard so far anyway) over all, I give it 5 stars and I'm looking forward to buying some of her CDs.

Allison’s 4th album released in 2004 – picture courtesy of AllisonCrowe.com.

UPDATE: I just thought I'd also mention that the News page on Allison Crowe's official website says Allison's next album "Spiral" was completed on February 14, it also states that the CD will be released on March 17, 2010! I'm sure many people who are Allison Crowe fans will be eagerly awaiting its release!

Why are European Elton John fans so lucky?

Picture courtesy of Concert Live.  Click image to go to their web site.

Not only did they have Elton John tour there for some of the 2009 year (that includes Red Piano concerts, normal band concerts and concerts where he is solo with percussionist Ray Cooper), but they also got to take the concert home with them on CD straight after the concert thanks to Concert Live!  I was just browsing through their Elton John lists (3 of them; The Red Piano, Elton John With His Band and Elton John featuring Ray Cooper lists) and counted 23 CDs in total!

The great thing about these CDs from Concert Live is that you get them pretty much instantly after the concert is finished!  They are 3 disc sets; Elton John and His Band is 2 CDs containing the full concert (whatever one you choose) and a DVD containing photos of the performance and back stage images, whereas, the Elton John Featuring Ray Cooper and The Red Piano CDs are full 3 CD sets (CD3 with the Elton John Featuring Ray Cooper ones contain encores and I think The Red Piano  Disc 3 is a continuation of the concert along with the encores); the first 2 discs you can get straight from the concert, but you get an “Encore” disc with 2 songs that can be downloaded, but only if you have a code that you get from the concert (well, the ones with Ray Cooper anyway, not too sure about The Red Piano).  However, when you order the CDs over the Internet through Concert Live themselves rather than getting the discs straight after the concert, the 3rd disc is included, meaning you don’t need to download it.

Picture courtesy of Concert Live.  Click image to go to their web site.

I really hope that when Elton comes to Australia again, he’ll have something like this at his Australian concerts.  If not by Concert Live, hopefully a similar Australian company!  If I wanted to, I could order these CDs through Concert Live myself as from what I’ve read on forums, you could be living anywhere in the world and buy them.....but I think it would be more fun if I got to experience the concert too.   I applaud Concert Live for doing this for Elton fans, especially for those who want to get the CDs straight after the concerts!  It is pretty cool!  When you go to the Concert Live website, you’ll find all 3 Elton CDs on their Home page; the Ray Cooper and Red Piano CDs are under New In and Elton John With His Band is under Recent Recordings!  The cool thing is at the moment, Concert Live is offering 3 CDs for £35 (AUD$63.35), which is a great deal!  If you’re an Elton fan like I am, or you want to hear what an Elton concert sounds like with no edits and cuts, just head over to the Concert Live website!  You’ll even find other singers and groups as well!

Picture courtesy of Concert Live.  Click image to go to their web site.

May You Rest In Peace, Michael

This picture is courtesy of Fishpond.com.au.

Mum woke me up on Friday morning with the very sad news that singer Michael Jackson died of a heart attack.  I could not believe what I was hearing.

I still feel shocked with the sad, sad news and yet part of me doesn’t want to believe he is actually dead.  Michael Jackson has been one of my favourite singers for many years, it is just a shame he had do die so young and just days before his final concerts in London as well.  Michael Jackson will be missed by many people the world over.  I feel sorry for Michael’s family, especially even more for his 3 kids; Prince Michael, Paris and Prince Michael II, just imagine how devastated they would be to know their dad will never be there for them again.

I remember when I was much younger, my brothers and my sister watched a video of Michael Jackson’s Bucharest concert back in 1992 and I remember Michelle, Beau and Reece would learn Michael’s dance routines while watching that concert!  Aaahhhh, the good ol’ days!  My first ever Michael Jackson CD was his single “You Are Not Alone”, but my first ever full CD of songs was his HIStory double CD set.  Since then I started getting some more CDs of him, but I’ve still got more to get (the CD pictured above, Visionary: The Video Singles is just one of them)!  Right now while I’m writing this, I’ve got my iPod Classic 80GB shuffling through Michael’s albums and compilations I have put on it.  I don't have one favourite song.....instead I have many and all his hits are among them.  Michael’s video clips are all pretty good too, especially the Thriller one.  Michael didn’t like to call them video clips, he called them films.

I've watching the news reports and tributes for most of the day. It is still very hard to believe, especially when Michael had a lot more years ahead of him.  Michael was and always be a great legend!  From what I read earlier on in the year, Michael Jackson was working on an album, but time will tell if that album was completed or not, because if it was completed, we can expect it to be released, otherwise if it isn’t, Invincible will be Michael’s final studio album.  I really enjoyed Michael’s dancing, especially in concert (even though I’ve only seen him on TV).  Michael’s music will forever be an inspiration and he had a great talent that no one can beat.

MICHAEL, WE WILL MISS YOU GREATLY, BUT YOUR MUSIC WILL LIVE ON FOREVER!

Digital Radio Excitement!

First of all, I just want to express my excitement about Australia becoming the latest country to get Digital Radio!  I’m not talking about the DAB format that other countries are using, which uses the MPEG2 audio codec, nor the format the US is using (I can’t think offhand what that one is), but we are using the DAB+ format, which uses the AAC+ audio codec, similar to the one used in iTunes!  I am hoping to get my very first digital radio sometime either this week or next week!  I’m really looking forward to it, mainly because I’m sick and tired of having AM stations go all distorted on me when I’m trying to listen to a good song on my clock radio.

Right now while I’m writing this, I’m listening to my favourite AM radio station called 4KQ and they’re playing Eric Clapton’s MTV Unplugged version of Layla!  I love that version of Layla better than the rockier version, but I can’t enjoy it at the moment because of the distortion, and the only place I can sit my old clock radio is under my bed for the best sound, and even that isn’t good enough.

For me, Digital Radio has come at a great time!  I’m looking forward to enjoying tuning by station name instead of frequency and being able to find out the name of a song I like instead of having to ring a number or SMS a word to a number I can’t even access, not to mention the crystal clear sound compared to analogue radio distortion!  For anyone who wants to know more about digital radio and the technology it is using, just go to the Digital Radio Plus website.  That website even has a list of digital radios to check out!  Brisbane got Digital Radio switched on Monday, May 25 while Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide got it a week or two before!

Sydney was supposed to have Digital Radio on May 30th, but thanks to the weather situation, will now be delayed until June 10th, unless there are further delays again.  Once Sydney has Digital Radio switched on, then all the major capital cities of Australia will have it.  From what I’ve read on the Digital Radio Plus website, they could be getting rural parts of Australia to go digital as well!  The good thing is no one is being forced to hurry up and get a digital radio yet as normal analogue AM and FM will still be around for some years yet!  That is a good thing because as Digital Radio is still new in Australia, the cheapest radio you can get is at least $130 in Australian Dollars, which in a way is annoying, but then considering the technology going into them, I kind of think it is worth it!

Stay tuned for a review of my Digital Radio experience some time in the coming weeks!