(I think I managed to dig it all back out of my memory, but if this review seems at all disjointed or rushed, forgive me because some evil site where I was looking something up managed to crash Safari when I was almost done, grr)

(regarding the subject of this entry: I don’t know if he’s dropped the idea, but I’m sure I read that Michael had so much material that a ‘Part Two’ could follow fairly rapidly, compared to the large break between this record and the last, “MP4: Days since a Lost Time Accident”)

You can now stream the whole of Michael Penn’s new album, “Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947,” way ahead of time, here. And it’s pretty gorgeous I’d actually say my first impression of this one is way more positive than my first impression of his wife Aimee Mann’s latest album (“The Forgotten Arm”). This could be because, as I realised recently, I’ve been waiting for some new Michael Penn for nearly 5 years now, compared to Mann’s fairly annual rate of releases. Whether this is impatience on my part, or simply the benefit of more concentrated creativity, I don’t know.

“Walter Reed,” the first track on the album, is the most catchy, very Beatles-like, very sing-along-loudly. The tone and style varies wildly throughout the duration of the songs, and there are even a couple of semi-instrumentals. There’s not a single dull moment. It all apparently ties in neatly to events that occurred in the year in the album’s title, so repeat listens accompanied by Wikipedia should prove rewarding.

One thing – I’m sure it won’t be, but I hope the still image accompanying the Quicktime stream isn’t going to be the cover of the album. I like the background picture, and imagine it’ll be used at least, but the font isn’t exactly great. I don’t know, stupid thing to complain about, I realise, but I guess I’m comparing this free web stream to the brilliantly designed ones that have accompanied Aimee Mann’s last couple of albums. She should lend him her design team, lol. It’s the least a wife can do

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