My hmphs

Maria McKee is best known for being the lead singer of Lone Justice, an alt-country band of the 1980s that had a small hit with “Shelter.” McKee herself had a No. 1 single in the UK with “Show Me Heaven” from the Days of Thunder soundtrack.

Her first two solo albums continued the cowpunk style of the “Little Diva,” as she was called. But with Life is Sweet, everything changed. It was loud, it was quiet; it was angry and soothing; it was cacophonous and musical. The contradictions made the album hard to digest for many fans, but I fell in love with it.

“Scarlover” opens with a warbling, fuzzy riff from an electric guitar, and for most of the song, McKee’s voice is tinged with intensity, grief, and anger. But in the chorus, she reverts to her cooing falsetto, and then it’s back to the races. The music is straight out of early 1970s “Ziggy Stardust” Bowie - orchestral and glitzy, almost campy at times, but always serious.

The next few songs continue the Jeckyll-and-Hyde roller coaster. “Absolutely Barking Stars” is beautiful and theatrical, while the strings in “I’m Not Listening” could cut glass as McKee’s voice screams above them. “I’m Awake” is mostly in a minor key, slow and calculating, until the end, when strings quietly alternate between a major and minor key, instantly changing the tone of the song, until they drift off to sleep.

But there’s nothing bizarre about the title track and its coda, “Afterlife.” It’s a simple, affirming ballad that swells in production until “Afterlife” introduces beautiful strings set to booming tom-toms that mimic a heart beating at rapid pace. And after the music fades away, your heart may be beating this quickly.

Such a change in direction for McKee was equivalent to career suicide; after the release of Life Is Sweet she parted ways with her record label, who was not pleased with the sound of the album. But as she sings in the title track. But the album is exactly what she wanted. “This one is for the girl who says those voices in her head/ Never leave her alone/ Don’t listen to your teacher, you’re not crazy/ Just smarter than the rest of them.”

I think she is smarter than the rest of them. And she created a masterpiece with Life Is Sweet.

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Every so often, in a state of anxiety, I’ll wonder if, like oil, melodies are a finite resource and that we’ll soon run out of them. And judging from the lawsuits arising from hip-hop’s unauthorized uses of riffs and snippets of other songs, you wonder if that day is quickly looming

Then you hear Calling Distance Stations from the Nines, and all is well with the world. In fact, it’s so well that you wonder if lead vocalist Steve Eggers has cornered the market on the best melodies, discovering some secret formula for creating tunes that elicit such joy and euphoria.

I’ve mentioned The Nines previously on this blog, and this won’t be the last time, either. In their 10-year career, the band has released four albums, the latest being last year’s Gran Jukle’s Field. But Calling Distance Stations is a masterpiece.

From the opening chords of the fast-paced “Drama Queen,” Eggers channels Ben Folds, but without the attitude. “Take What You Want” has multiple hooks - so many, in fact, that you wonder (back again to a finite supply of melodies) if he shouldn’t conserve and just use a couple. The fact that he doesn’t take this advice and instead crams them all into one song is a wonderful experiment in melodic excess.

The production is fairly simple. “Mary Jane” seems straight out of a Wings album, sounding sad and beautiful at the same time. It begins with a simple piano, and builds slowly with a horns section. There’s something about adding horns that makes a song sound important, and that feeling is not lost with this song.

Other times, Eggers uses the simplicity to perfection, with only a keyboard and his voice to express his thoughts. “Marigold” has a turn-of-the-century, Americana feel, touched slightly with strings. And “Goodnight My Love,” a lullaby for his daughter, can bring tears to your eyes.

As I’ve said before, Steve Eggers has so many ideas he’s uploading snippets under pseudonyms on MySpace, at times using nonsensical syllables in place of words just so he can get the melodies down. He is an unknown master composer, and it’s a shame his music is not better known. So go buy his records. It will help him pay the bills, and it will bring a smile to your face.

• Buy “Calling Distance Stations” at CD Baby
• The Nines’ MySpace Page
• The Nines’ Second MySpace Page
• Lewiston Smithe’s MySpace Page - Lewiston Smithe is Steve Eggers’ alter ego. This page is a place for him to post little demos of songs - Tin Pan Alley, barbershop, old-time piano ditties that are fantastic. (And this is his throwaway stuff?)

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By 1986, the early 80s world of pop icons such as Duran Duran, Journey and Wham! were falling out of favor, and the new breed - Mr. Mister, Bon Jovi and Whitney Houston - already sounded tired and uninteresting. I had already begun searching for new material, having discovered U2, and as I entered college that year, I was ready to jump out of the pop music world and into the underground.

My first exposure to R.E.M. and Lifes Rich Pageant came in a record review that appeared in my college’s student newspaper. The review heaped praises on the album, even calling the song “Fall on Me” one of the greatest songs ever written. I laughed at this hyperbole; R.E.M.? Weren’t they drug-addicted punk rockers who never bathed?

Things changed, though, when my friend Robby bought the cassette and commanded me to get in his car and listen to the new R.E.M. album. Immediately. I was unsure, feeling like those kids in the after-school special who are faced with smoking a joint for the first time: Should I really listen? It seems like everyone else is doing it… But given that Robby had perfect taste in music, I put myself in his hands - and his car.

Lifes Rich Pageant hit me on the head with a 2×4 from the opening song. “Begin the Begin” - um, began with a guitar riff from Peter Buck and slammed into a minor key with a heavy drum beat. In fact, five of the 12 songs were in minor keys, which gave the entire album a dark, brooding feeling. Lead vocalist Michael Stipe’s rough growl fit perfectly with the somber mood.

Although most of the album breathed fire and flew at 70 mph. I would discover later that this was a break from R.E.M.’s Byrds-like sound of the early 80s. But I liked it. It was not scary. It was musical and surprisingly accessible.

The great songs continued. “The Flowers of Guatemala” - well, I’m still not sure what that song is about, but I enjoyed the slow pace of this ballad - yes, ballad! I saw “I Believe” as a creed, even though Stipe’s beliefs were unusual (”I believe in coyotes and time as an abstract…I believe my throat hurts”). And just when you thought the album was getting too deep and introspective, they end the album with “Superman”, a tongue-in-cheek romp through the world of bubblegum music.  “I am, I am Superman, and I know what’s happening!” Stipe cried, with Mike Mills singing in perfect harmony.

I had to grudgingly admit that the record review was right, not only with the album, but with “Fall on Me.” It was not a fast-paced punk rock song, but a folk anthem, with a soaring chorus and a hint of a political theme (Nuclear war? Acid rain?). It was the finest moment of the album, and is still one of my favorite R.E.M. songs.

My friends and I grew to hold this album in the highest regard, and it became a cult classic; such lyrics as “Miles Standish proud” and “Tiger run around the tree” (”Begin the Begin”), “What noisy cats are we” and “Hey captain don’t you want to buy some bone chains and toothpicks?” (”Swan Swan H”) entered our vernacular. (These lyrics were bizarre, but at least you could understand them. I quickly learned from earlier albums that Michael Stipe’s singing used to be unintelligible.)

Looking back now, my reluctance to listen to R.E.M. seems comical, especially given their worldwide following and multiplatinum albums. (They even appeared on “The Muppet Show,” for goodness’ sake.) This group was harmless, and I bought their back catalogue and discovered the joyous folk-tinged Murmur and the murky Fables of the Reconstruction. Green and Out of Time still lay fallow, waiting a few more years to be released.

As their popularity grew to include a Top 10 single (”The One I Love”) and a Grammy award, I could scoff at the “newcomers” and tell of the days of Lifes Rich Pageant. I was not on the floor of the 40 Watt Club in 1980, but I was just ahead of the wave - a position I grew to enjoy.

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