Colin Hay “Are You Looking At Me”

 

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#502 in the Series) is Colin Hay, Are You Looking At Me?

One of the cool things about being a music fan is having good friends with whom you can play the “Trust me on this one” game. You know it; you probably played it and never even realized it.  A good friend comes up to you and either hands you a CD, or a cassette or even good ol’ vinyl and says “Check this out” I think you’ll like it.  You look at the title and try and hide your surprise when he or she hands you a title that you would never listen to on your own. In fact, you might not even have wanted to be seen walking through an old record store with it under your arm. Heck, if you had two more albums you’d stick this one in the middle.

Well, one day a friend of mine that I used to work alongside handed Colin Hay, Are You Looking at Me? “Oh, Lucky Me” was my initial reaction.  You see, I always prided myself on the lack of Men at Work albums in my collection. None, cool.  I tried to hide my surprise but I don’t think he bought it. “Trust me on this one” he said.  Yes, there are some friends that know music enough, that whatever they recommend, I’ll at least give it a couple spins.  They have enough “cred” banked with me that I’ll always give them the benefit.

I was quite thankful that he told me about this one. Let me tell you, he was absolutely correct. This is one fine record. I got it in ’07 or so and I still play it. It really is a very, very strong release. 12 tracks of some great “singer/songwriter-ish” style music.  I’ve included three songs on the video playlist below that I think are the strongest tracks. You can find a few more on YouTube if you look. Some live ones are there as well, but I didn’t include them since they were not pro-shot.

The first song on the playlist is a fun bouncy number called ‘What Would Bob Do?” Who’s Bob? I don’t know, you tell me your theory.

The second song is actually the album closer. I moved it up front to help make sure that people do indeed listen to it. It’s titled “I Wish I Was Still Drinking.” I guess this takes the Aussie back to his Scottish roots.  Hee Hee.

I also included the title cut, “Are You Looking At Me?”

In closing, let me just say one thing before you laugh me off….”Trust me on this one.”

— Larry Carta

 Track listing

1. “Are You Lookin’ at Me?” (C. Hay) – 4:14
2. “Lose to Win” (C. Hay) – 4:00
3. “Here in My Hometown” (C. Hay) – 5:26
4. “Up in Smoke” (C. Hay) – 3:39
5. “No One Knows” (C. Hay) – 4:01
6. “This Time I Got You” (C. Hay) – 4:10
7. “Lonely Without You” (C. Hay) – 3:56
8. “What Would Bob Do?” (C. Hay) – 4:49
9. “Pure Love” (C. Hay) – 3:27
10. “Me and My Imaginary Friend” (C. Hay) – 3:05
11. “Land of the Midnight Sun” (C. Hay) – 4:30
12. “I Wish I Was Still Drinking” (C. Hay) 4:14

Personnel

• Alan Deremo – Bass
• Jeff Babko – Organ, Piano, Trombone
• Lenny Castro – Percussion
• Rob Clores – Hammond B3, Piano
• Danny O’Donoghue – Vocals (Background)
• Alan Deremo – Bass
• Kiki Ebsen – Keyboards
• Chad Fischer – Drums, Percussion
• Larry Goldings – Organ, Piano
• Colin Hay – Bass, Concertina, Drums, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals, Vox Organ
• Paul Inder – Bass, Drum Programming, Guitar, Slide Guitar, Vocals (Background)
• Eric Jorgensen – Trombone
• Cecilia Noël – Choir, Chorus, Kazoo, Piano, Vocal Harmony, Vocals (Background)
• Charlie Paxson – Drums, Percussion
• Carlitos Del Puerto – Bass
• Kaveh Rastegar – Bass
• Lee Thornburg – Flugelhorn, Trumpet

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