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     The thing about Holly Whitmar isn't that she has bad musical taste. Quite the contrary. The trouble is that the recordings-- yes, even many of the very good ones-- often smell plain awful. I'm not suggesting that the physical tape or plastic or metal or whatever smells bad, I'm talking about the sound itself. You see, Holly Whitmar claims to possess the ability to actually SMELL the sound imbedded in recordings, a quality which passes unguessed and undetected to you and I. Hard to believe, I know, but Holly is a sincere woman with an honest heart, so as ridiculous as the premise sounds, I am inclined to believe her.

     Last week, I emailed Holly a short list of albums I enjoy, and asked her to review the smells which are imbedded within them. I tried to select well-known albums which I assume most of you already have an opinion about. Here's what she shot back...

Giant Steps by John Coltrane
"
Truly awful. The wind passing out of Coltrane's sax on the title track hits me on the first note like the strench of a decaying mouse soaked in liquid underpants and doesn't let up until the album ends. Christ, what a travesty! Did breathmints even exist when this was recorded? I would have to say that of all the albums I've ever smelled, only the Beatles' Abbey Road stinks worse than this one. Holy hell, that Beatles album is sick-making! I'd rather smell a homeless man's rank poop hole than listen to Abbey Road ever again. The saving grace of Giant Steps, however, is that drummer Art Taylor's shirt smells of boiled spinach."

Violator by Depeche Mode
"Passable. Dave Gahan has a pepperoni & mushroom pizza with him in the booth while he lays down the vocals for 'Policy of Truth.' 'Halo' and 'Waiting for the Night' have an odd mixture of French cigarettes and an ammonia-based cleaning product. I've listened to worse smelling albums. Someone is drinking Tang during 'Personal Jesus.' My guess is that it's Andrew Fletcher. I seem to recall reading in an issue of Spin that he was really into novelty foods like instant beverages and freeze-dried ice cream."

Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd
"Yuck! Roger Waters' pants smell like a wet dirty poodle throughout most of this album. Even though they're burning jasmine incense during the sessions, the dog smell is totally giving me a headache. No, thank you. Next?"

Frontiers by Journey
"This record smells fantastic! Very highly recommended! The studio smells like vanilla candles during the recording of 'Separate Ways (Worlds Apart).' Steve Perry has red liquorice on his breath while he's singing 'Rubicon.' His vocals on this album really showcase the pride he takes in good oral hygiene in a big way. I'd love to know the name of the cologne which keyboardist Jonathan Cain is wearing. It's like inhaling raw masculine sexuality. Me-e-e-e-ow!"

Songs from the Big Chair by Tears For Fears
"Freshly cut grass and spicy hair gel dominate most tracks here. Clearly, Roland Orzabal had been eating fish and chips with plenty of vinegar between takes with the vocals for 'The Working Hour.' This is an especially greasy-smelling track. Elsewhere, particularly on 'Head Over Heals,' I can smell liquor on his breath. Johnny Walker black label, perhaps? If you like those kinds of smells, I suppose you'd like this album."

Music from the Motion Picture Purple Rain by Prince and the Revolution
"What you hear is what you smell. As you would expect, many tracks feature a mixture of stale sex and heavy, flowery perfume. On 'Computer Blue,' Lisa Coleman's hair has a girls' locker room smell, a kind of sour mélange of mildewed concrete and powdery deodorant. The odd thing here is that the recording on the compact disk smells noticeably different than the music on the DVD of the film. The music on the DVD has a lingering odor of Fruit Loops."

Pretenders by The Pretenders
"Most of this album smells pretty good, especially the track 'Kid'-- bassist Pete Farndon has a big wad of clove chewing gum packed into his mouth. Where it all falls apart for me is thirteen seconds into the last track, 'Mystery Achievement.' Everything's cool, drummer Martin Chambers is doing his thing, the studio smells like styrofoam packing peanuts and vinyl upholstery with a hint of gasoline, but then Chrissie Hynde does that little exhale, just before the bass kicks in, and floats a sneaky rude one. This happens a lot more often during the recording process than you might imagine, especially on folk albums. Unfortunately, lighting a match doesn't affect the smell from a recording the why it would with a live source. A bit of advice to Chrissie Hynde: lay off the tofu."



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