1001 Albums Summary

This jazz latin album is not my cup of tea, however if i liked this type of music it would be right up my alley. With raging horns and lively spanish ballads it's exciting through and through, although it isn't always pleasant to the ears. At times the horns sound shrill and the vocal performance can come off a bit one dimensional, but other than those critiques it's a must listen for anyone who likes latin jazz music. The biggest stand out moment from the record for me would be Cuando Te Vea (Guaguanco), a beautiful love song about a woman who makes his happiness complete, from the beginning of the song to the end, it's impossible not to dance with the almost hypnotic rhythms.

while this album had a few good selections near the tail end, the beginning was tragic to say the least and made it hard to even think about finishing it. between the horrendous vocal performance, where they were pitchy more than they were on top of the notes, and the random points where they would just talk in a mildly sensual way for no apparent reason, it wasn’t a great showing either lyrically or vocally for the band. it seemed to stay topically focused on sex or sexual themes, only deviating a few times. the good selections mentioned above were bar italia, a song that was sonically pleasing, even if the lyrics were repetitive and one dimensional, a story about wanting to go to a bar, where other broken people stay. the other good song was Common People, although i mightve only liked it because of its refreshing theme of wanting to be like “Common People” opposed to wanting to live like a rockstar. It also had a very catchy melody, one vaguely similar to the vocals of “kids in the USA”. if you like pitchy brit pop, you might like this.. this was certainly not for me though…

While there were some classic songs on this album, the pacing was all off. It went from slow sweet singing from Stevie Nicks, to fast paced shouting from Lindsey Buckingham, it does this multiple times, leaving the listener confused and rattled. The album also had quite a bit of filler, i feel that it wouldve been better as a single album with 10 songs and a 37 minute run time than 20 songs and a 74 minute runtime. A double album simply isn’t ideal to listen all in one setting. Not to say double albums are all bad, one of the best albums of all time is a double album: Songs In The Key Of Life, by Stevie Wonder. I wouldve liked this much more if it had been more sonically consistent.

This album top to bottom is legendary to say the least. From the bone chilling cheering and clapping from the prisoners to the down to earth moments that Johnny Cash has with the audience. The singing is magnificent and the song writing is perfect. Ive always loved this song, ever since i first listened to it on my record player. This album is truly one of a kind, not only because it was played in folsom prison for the prisoners, but also because of how incredible his singing is despite it being live recorded. You feel like you can just reach out and touch him. The album has so many slow sad songs, faster paced light hearted songs, and an underlying theme of being imprisoned in some way shape or form. I cannot say enough good things about this album.