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binnall reviews the After Dark CD

2.6.5

Recently, as some of my more avid fans may know, was my birthday. Several lovely folks asked me, "binnall, what did you get for your birthday ?" Well, I often find myself making ridiculous purchases around my birthday for things I truly don't need but want and, somehow, someway, I ordered the C2C After Dark CD.

Yes, the infamous CD touted and plugged by George Noory ad nauseum for the last few months and probably years to come. You know, the one promising bumper music, short stories, and cuts from the show. How could I resist ? My only fear was that it would end up like its namesake, the After Dark newsletter. Now, that is another can of worms altogether and, suffice it to say, the A.D. CD lived up to my mild expectations.

And now, sit back while I take you through the CD ...

Disc I

We begin with ... yes, an introduction from The Noor. If you like his plugs for the CD, you'll be happy to have essentially the same thing on the CD as an introduction. Sorta reminds you of why you bought it in the first place.

Following the intro, we get 8 music tracks purported to be chosen by Noory himself. Will we ever know if Noory really chose them himself ? Probably not. With songs like "Son of a Preacher Man", "Operator", and "Cat's in the Cradle", I was perplexed as I wouldn't consider many of these songs as "Bumper Music from C2C". With the exception of "Beautiful Girl" and maybe "Dream Weaver", I didn't recall hearing these tunes very often as bumper music. I will give huge props to them for including "Beautiful Girl", though it sounds different on the CD.

Where's the Giorgio Moroder "C2C Theme Song" ? How about "Eve of Destruction", "Let's Hang On", or "Everyone's Gone to the Moon" ? Someone should be fired over the missing Brother Iz version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", which gets played at least once a week on the show. And lastly, no Cusco or the delightful "Sukiyaki", sadly. These are Noory-era C2C staples and worthy of CD inclusion.

After the music winds down, we get ... Cuts from the Show.

I was anticipating a craptacular assortment of cuts from C2C episodes, but was pleasantly surprised. Firstly, I was surprised by the sheer length of cuts total, approx. 40 minutes. That's a pretty good mixer of C2C calls and guest snippets. That said, I would have liked to have seen different guests featured instead of Joshua Warren and the Roswell Investigation Team of Don Schmitt and Tom Carey. Do I really need to ask where the Hoagland was ? I would have enjoyed some of those "If you missed last week's Coast to Coast" bumpers they use and I have a feeling that the person choosing these cuts is not the same guy who makes those bumpers.

The first cut is an extremely creepy story from a caller that is summed up best by Noory as "chilling". Noory's horrified chortle at the end of the story is worth the price of the CD alone.

Cut #2 is a humorous story from a lady who, in the first few moments of the call, includes this gem "the psychiatrist told them I was eccentric, but not crazy". She goes on to detail the life story of her imaginary friend who has been with her for her whole life. Noory manages to ask some pretty good questions of the lady. Noory borders on "enabling" as he practically encourages this woman to talk to her imaginary friend.

Josh Warren then discusses ghosts with Noory. I care less about this than when he was on a few weeks ago.

"Deacon" from South Carolina has an awesome "Bermuda Triangle" story in the next cut. I remembered this call when it came in it was so good and kudos go out to whoever put this one on here. A truly bizarre story from a "survivor" of the infamous Triangle. Noory seems legitimately amazed by this story. And it is a great story and one of the best I've heard on C2C in a long time.

Roswell talk with Don Schmitt and Tom Carey. A fairly large clip, clocking in at almost 7 minutes.

Reptilian boy. Yes, some lady who claims to be a teacher says she has a kid in her class who says that he is from "reptilia". She seems serious. She makes this kid out to be one creepy little bastard. Noory tries to tie down the story of this kid. Really strange stuff here. This lady sounds like a David Icke follower and Noory is just going along with her, but she can't seem to provide any solid details. "He has shown no violence ?" Noory asks, causing me to laugh. Noory's really trying to solve this problem, suggesting hypnotizing this kid. Classic. "This kid may have the secrets of the universe wrapped up in his head" ... George Noory, Poet Laureaute of Coast.

We end with the historic interview from C2C where Noory talked with the two guys living in the spacestation. Noory's voice check is hilarious on so many levels. Poor Noory only gets to interview the astronaut for like 2 minutes. No UFO talk, of course.

Disc II

As if all that wasn't enough, ol' Noory decided to read some of his favorite short stories for us. I'm not a huge fan of stories on tape (or CD) so this wasn't really my bag. That said, I could see why many would like it if they enjoy Noory as well as classic literature.

Extras

I must say that there is the most amusing "Noory in the Studio" picture on the inside of the liner notes that rivals the best of Hot Newz. I pray that C2C puts that pic on their site sometime soon.

Analysis

The purchase began on a lark. I'd originally planned on just mocking Noory for making a CD in the first place. Who did he think he was, Tom Jones ? However, I was pleasantly surprised with the CD. The show cuts were, for the most part, lengthy and worthwhile calls that I otherwise would have forgotten. I highly enjoyed each caller. The guest segments were also informative and probably enjoyable to the layperson. The bumper music, while questionable at times, did have that C2C feel to it. The stories were George Noory's attempts to win a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album, let's be honest.

The bottom line is "would I recommend you part with 15 bucks for this ?" Drumroll please ... Yes. What?! Yes. Why ? Well, if C2C rolled out a boatload of products, everything from toothpaste to breakfast cereal, I'd say "no way on the CD". But, thankfully, C2C doesn't. Their "outside" projects are few and far between and deserve to be supported in the hopes that they will evolve into something truly outstanding. There is also the novelty factor of actually owning the After Dark CD and smiling with pride as Noory shills it every night.

I didn't leave feeling like I got ripped off, because the price was reasonable. I've wasted far more money on stuff even more useless. My only real complaint is that the CD seems like it is really searching for an identity or it's trying to do too much. Is it a music album ? A "best of C2C " album ? Or a short stories album ? Pick a theme and stick with it next time, please.

And by that point I mean that C2C could finally get the CD idea right with a sequel after finding out what the people want. I, for one, vote for classic clips mixed with more frequent bumper music, instead of halving the disc with songs on one end and clips on the other. While George Noory may claim he will never do another CD again, I have a feeling when he gets shafted at the Grammys, he'll be penning some poems for Disc II of the After Dark CD 2.


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