Lennon, Merchant, Maniacs

Thanks to my sister, who bought these wonderful CDs for me. Very cool pasalubongs.

The double CD Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur gathers artists like U2, Regina Spektor, Jack Johnson, Jakob Dylan, Avril Lavigne, Aerosmith, REM, and many others. They sing 23 John Lennon songs. I didn’t know that the ballad in “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” the sweet “Beautiful Boy,” was written by the music visionary until I heard it here. It’s a beautiful compilation that means to draw attention to the strife and human rights violations in Darfur, Sudan.

Good ol’ Ms. Merchant’s “Retrospective” compiles 13 songs from her solo work. “Jealousy” here is a single version; that, and the singer-songwriter’s notes on these chosen song-stories are good reasons to get it if you have album versions of them already. In the booklet, she writes, “I think that we all have the need and desire to make order out of the chaos of our lives. With memories that would otherwise be random, we draw timelines and divide them into little epochs… I’m grateful for this period of retrospection.”

Mary Ramsey’s second outing as 10,000 Maniacs’ vocalist, meanwhile, sounds more relaxed and playful in this 1999 recording. The songs have a more gleeful quality to them as well, solidifying a more distinct lightness to most of the material. Like the 1997 album “Love Among the Ruins,” this release is mostly devoid of thought-provoking messages and occasional lyrical grimness (which made the Maniacs such a special, edgy band). The feelgood and mellower vibe works, though; it’s not the Maniacs you remember, but “The Earth Pressed Flat” still has infectious, ear-pleasing stuff.

Prior to getting these, I bought OneRepublic’s “Dreaming Out Loud” album and Nancy Castiglione’s debut dance CD “Nancy Jane.” OneRepublic’s really good; the first few spins easily remind me of talented bands like The Fray and Keane, but they definitely have their own ingratiating alt-rock sound. And Nancy Jane, what a cool CD! I knew some songs were co-written by pals Benjamin Gabitan and DJ Brian Cua. But I didn't know how they sounded. When I heard a radio ad that played short parts of the songs, I just had to get it. Lovely!