Review: Jonathan Coulton’s “Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow”
If you haven’t heard Jonathan Coulton’s “Baby Got Back” cover, stop reading this review right now. Go to his site, download it, and play it. If that doesn’t convince you that you want to know more about what he’s done, I’m probably not going to do much better in this review.
I’ve heard Coulton’s work described as “geek rock”. That might be the best description. It’s a soft, melodic, rock sound with great vocals. The songs on this album are about “geeky” topics like mad scientists and Mandelbrot sets. While music about these topics might sound like something that will never rise above the level of a “curiosity”, Coulton’s songwriting, instrumentals, and vocals combine to create a sound that is just plain catchy. You’ll find yourself wanting to sing them not long after you stop listening. At least, that’s what happens to me and at least a couple of other people I know.
Jonathan Coulton’s album “Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow” is available online through CDBaby.com for the low, low price of $7.00 plus shipping. Given that there are 5 songs on the album, that works out to a slightly-worse-than-iTunes price of about $1.40 a track. The nice thing about CDBaby.com’s site is that you can listen to a pretty lengthy clip of each song on the album before you shell out that “buck forty”. The disc you’ll get back from CDBaby is real, commercially-pressed disc with silk-screened artwork on it that is shipped inside a full-color cardboard sleeve. (You expected a jewel case for $7?! I didn’t.)