Apr 03 2022
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Faith
George Michael
You know, this album was amazing in the context of the time. I watched a Behind the Music special about it, in fact. The two music videos that went into high rotation were pretty groundbreaking at the time.
But I can't say that any of the music stuck with me.
3
Apr 05 2022
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The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
David Bowie
Is this the first appearance of Kanye West? Albeit just as a street sign?
This is a transformational album. Astonishing. And a star that was willing to be different from the dozens of stars that were climbing the charts at the time. That was great.
5
Apr 06 2022
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Little Earthquakes
Tori Amos
An excellent artifact from the time before digitally editing every track on every song on an album. You could add tracks, and that was done here (adding the better piano), but you couldn't autotune yet, so Tori's voice and performance are real. I miss that a little.
Singer songwriter stuff always speaks to me more anyway.
3
Apr 07 2022
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Close To The Edge
Yes
Yes is the sort of band that I always assumed you had to be stoned to enjoy. Since I never was, I have never enjoyed them. They are also prog rock, which, like Rush, I am not smart enough to enjoy. I have a friend who is a musician and bass player and he *loves* Rush. Maybe he loves Yes, too. It is very similar to noise for me.
1
Apr 08 2022
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Abbey Road
Beatles
I don't know what to say about the Beatles. There's very little of their music that I think, "Oh, I'd like to go listen to that song again..." They were teenagers when they wrote a bunch of their big hits and the content is what you would expect from a teenager (sorry, Taylor). At this point their lives were about being famous, which wasn't something that generated a lot of interesting songs.
There are friends who are nuts about the Beatles. They have every bootleg you can find. I'll try to listen to this album tomorrow flying from Little Rock to Ft. Worth.
2
Apr 09 2022
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Celebrity Skin
Hole
I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I was going to. As noted previously, I am not a fan of grunge. At the time, Hole seemed like such an out-there band, but now they barely feel like more than a step away from The Pretenders.
2
Apr 11 2022
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White Blood Cells
The White Stripes
He just got married (third time's the charm!), so I'm excited to hear this.
It's fine. I enjoy his take on this stuff. Nell and I talked (and then Caleb and I talked about it again) about how music is cyclical. So Jack White has "discovered" this stuff and brings it to the radio today, cool. But the original stuff *is* better. Not as slick, harder to hear sometimes, but closer to the source and better.
Also, the whole list is flawed. But it's a project.
2
Apr 12 2022
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Van Halen
Van Halen
ROCK! WHITE GUYS!
(I loved it.)
4
Apr 13 2022
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Inspiration Information
Shuggie Otis
So strange that all the things they learned about producing music in the 1960's seemed lost at times. Why is this so muddy? Still, if you are going to get stoned and look out at the schoolyard from the back of your Chevy van, this is a really good album for it. (I have now learned that he produced it himself. Don't do that.)
I'm not going to do any of those things. But it was a fine groove for being inside on a grey day in Cambridge.
2
Apr 15 2022
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Greetings From L.A.
Tim Buckley
That is a sad image of Los Angeles, but accurate for the mid-1970s. It's not *all* smog, some of it is dirt in the air from the Owens Valley, blowing down over the city.
Tim Buckley feels like a poser. Maybe that's wrong, maybe he's the real deal. Dead at 28. His song Jeff, who I should appreciate for popularizing the Leonard Cohen song, made it another two years to die at 30. He never met his dad.
Okay, I take it back. Not a poser, seems real close to the real deal. Pretty good. Glad I heard it before I died.
3
Apr 16 2022
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Step In The Arena
Gang Starr
Guru was astonishing.
Frowning cuz I'm down in the dumps
The other night I took her out
So she could shake her rump
Exactly.
3
Apr 19 2022
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Achtung Baby
U2
Oh man, I wore this CD out. I think this was just past their peak of popularity and I am not sure they ever thought of anything interesting to do after this.
4
Apr 21 2022
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Gorillaz
Gorillaz
The kind of deep funk tracks I needed for the day. These were some good songs when they hit the radio. They should have made the advisory sticker HUGE and part of the cover art design, because screw those people.
3
Apr 22 2022
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Want Two
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus is a tough one for me. So much talent. So much history to draw from, but in the end I feel like he has so little to say.
2
Apr 26 2022
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The Cars
The Cars
Apparently the bass player (deceased) was not the sharpest tool in the shed, but they sure had a great sound together. I wish they had just kept cranking out the albums.
This is the sound of the early eighties and the beginning of MTv. Iconic.
I only really enjoy the first three songs on the first side. Ah, the days of albums when you could bury the crap on the second side. The bigger your hits off the first side, the smaller the chance that anyone would ever bother to play the second side.
The Cars used to rehearse and record in a storefront in Boston.
3
Apr 28 2022
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White Ladder
David Gray
I didn't mind this at all. I remember when he was on the radio a bit. He's a little vanilla, but sometimes he finds something to lean into, which is good.
2