5/5 - One of those all killer, no filler debut albums (the worst song is probably I'm In Touch With Your World, which is still a cool sounding song).
File It Under: Massachusetts Weirdo Dork Rock Bands
Van the Man has been Van the Crank for about as long as he was great at this point, but his first Warner Bros. album is one of his all time best. It is etherial and hypnotic and hazy and clear all at the same time. "Sweet Thing" is probably the best Van Morrison song and that is with some tough competition. For better or worse (and I think most likely for better), this album was of the "calm down in case of panic" albums in constant rotation on my ipod during my first year of college.
Another that I listened to a bunch in college. This was more of a workout album (incline bike, along with the 2006 Dylan album. It was a weird time for me). If I was older than 3 in 1990, this probably would have been what I listened to every day. I still need to do the real deep dive on Sonic Youth (from what I remember, and hopefully will be reminded more of during this list, is that Goo was my favorite, Daydream Nation and Dirty are pretty great too, and Rather Ripped was the current one that I listened to a lot), and I think I'm far enough away from their breakup to not feel too bad that I only saw them live once (at Lollapalooza!, but in 2006). Kool Thing goes so hard, I'm glad millions of people got to hear it in a Guitar Hero game. I don't think I've listened to Mote or other Leo Renaldo stuff since I found out he was a Deadhead and I became more of one too, and realizing the noise jam here could have been on side 4 of Live/Dead. Probably a 4.5 on the AllMusic rating scale, but I know if I was a teen when this came out and listened to it a million times over and over, it would be a 5, so it gets a 5 here.
This might be one of the first times that I'm really "Listening" to Exile, which I know sounds crazy when you know the rest of the stuff I love (which includes most Rolling Stones material from about The Last Time through literally right up to this album, and listening to Exile in Guyville a hundred times or so, since I bought that and OK Computer at the same Capital Records bargin sticker special display at the Woodfield Mall Sam Goody...in 2003 or so and I might have already have bought Hail to The Thief), or at least really sat down with it. I've obviously cherry picked the hits from it before. I think those are all still the highlights, but the runs on the full b-sides of each LP are so in line with the stuff I love that I picked up some new favorites like Sweet Virginia, Torn and Frayed, and a new appreciation for All Down The Line (where I hadn't picked up the Be My Baby vocal riff towards the end beofre) that all have that cosmic country vibe that I keep trying to lock in on the definition of (which usually does come back to "trying to sound like the bands Gram Parsons played with or the groups he wanted to be." The whole thing flows so good. I don't think I appreciated that until listening to it on this Vinyl Fetish app I found the other day that gives you a visual (and side based) vinyl experience. I've never really cared that much about vinyl and I'm not going to start buying real records for myself probably ever, but it is a fun little way to listen to high res streaming classics the way they were originally. Side 3, other than a real outlier in Happy, is just the heaviest feeling Stones stuff (or maybe junk), there is a weight to the sound that they're dragging around. It's a party that should have already ended, but the remaining members still think they're having a good time. Even the gospel songs that start still sound haunted. Stop Breaking Down is a little too white boy blues band for me, but the rest is so good, that it is easy to forgive, especially with the two resilient concluding songs. Giving this a good listen tonight makes me want to do a track by track comparison with Exile in Guyville.
Decent listen. The first couple songs with Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt sound a bit phoned in, but I'm glad this album made John Lee Hooker enough money to be comfortable. The rest of the album picks up a bit, but Concert at Newport is the more essential album.
I always enjoy when I come across these Desert Blues albums from Africa when listening to the various album lists. Definitely a world I want to hear more from. There is something really cool about hearing Western blues and rock influences being integrated back with the African music that forms a lot of the black music tradition in the states (obviously a big over simplification there, but hopefully you know what I mean).
This might be my first time listening to a full Sparks album (at least the first one since seeing the Edgar Wright documentary). I think what the doc made click in for me is that (70's era at least) Sparks are like a slightly artier version of poppier Queen. This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us is a highlight. Listening to the whole album, I think it reinforces my idea after the documentary that I appreciate Sparks more than I like them (and that is probably because I was hearing all the artists they influenced long before I listened to the originals). Other than Bowie and some T. Rex, for glam adjacent stuff I'm usually more of a song/hit person, and that's kinda seems to be the case here too. Still a good album, and if I do a deeper dive on Sparks, this is probably the right starting point.
I wish I could go back in time to when dance music sounded like this.
I don't think I'm ever going to be a gigantic Tori Amos fan (probably because I was a contemporary fan of a lot of the performers of the next generation that were influenced by her), but this a very good album. Part of why the college rock into alternative rock transition era is so interesting to me is because an album like this was heard as an "alternative" album, but also in the brief window that "alternative" rock culture was being made most accessible to the general public (which the Deluxe Edition's bonus track of her B-side cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit really illustrates). I'm still coming up with my grand theory of the era, but no matter what I think it is really cool that this was a time period where Tori Amos was an "Important Artist" (with capital I and A) in the music culture. This album is a heavy listen, but it is still real powerful. The transition between the last two tracks, Me and a Gun into the title tracker, is an incredible way to end an album.
My interest in Eminem basically evaporates with most everything he put out after this album and 8 Mile. The shock value stuff plays more absurd today, but probably works better as humor now then it did in 2000. Maybe the 1-2 punch of Kill You and then Stan does enough to deflate the Slim Shady character as just that, a character. Or maybe it is because Eminem's sense of humor never really was successful on the albums following this becoming just way to cartoony. The three gigantic singles on the album are still the highlights and I think this album is the highpoint of Dr. Dre's second act as a producer. He's got a couple more years with some big pop hits, but after In Da Club, even the Eminem singles he produces are pretty lame. Who Knew is my favorite album track and lays out the Eminem/Marshall Mathers/Slim Shady ethos pretty clearly (along with having a chorus that I get stuck in my head at least once a month even though I don't think I've heard this album at least in 15 years), which maybe is the magician revealing enough of his trick. Amityville with Bizarre and Under The Influence with D12 are the most over the top ridiculous songs that it is also hilarious to think of anyone taking anything on this album seriously at all. And Bitch Please II is a pretty great west coast (+Detroit) posse cut. Eminem as a producer doesn't have many tricks in his bag but here they're fresh at least (which combined with his interest in fancy MC skills instead of actually having something to say probably explain why I haven't really cared about any Eminem album or even really songs after this specific era). Listening to this album again, in a time where I've adopted the "all public life is performed and therefore there is kayfabe outside of just wrestling" mindset. Kim is interesting as a theatrical piece, but other than that is just gross not only because it uses real names. But maybe he needed to remove all audience empathy from the character in '97 Bonnie & Clyde.
That all said, I couldn't stand the hate slurs used back in 2000 as a 13-year-old and they're still awful in 2022. That is something that dates this album more than anything else (including the very 2000 pop culture references). It would be just as good if not better without them. Eminem is creative enough to do that. This might be a classic hip-hop album, but unlike some of the other all-timer LPs, it is always going to be locked in the year it came out.
MSP have been a britpop era blindspot for me for a while. I think I've heard a couple of their last 2000s albums and love the single Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, although that has a lot to do with the involvement of Nina Persson from the Cardigans and is much more of a pop song. So I think this is my first Richey Edwards era album. The songs are graphic and have as just as a violent attitude toward the world as they do directed inward. This album is heavier than I was expecting in sound and it is a really cool mix of post punk and heavy rock. This album is one of my favorite discoveries in this project so far. And I'm always on board with good ol' anti-fascist music. The US mix included on the deluxe releases is actually a bit more dynamic and could have been a hit here if the 1995 release happened, and everything else that happened didn't.
The Carpenters rule. This album has a lot more weird moments than you'd expect, and two of the greatest pop songs of all time.
This is a good and interesting jazz album. But for my tastes, personally, if I'm listening to a Hammond B3, there also better be an R&B band like the M.G.'s there too.
Side 1 is an all-all-timer, and why Lauper remains a legend nearly 40 years after this album. Even if the biggest hits are 80s cliches at this point, they're still fun and exciting every time I hear them. I feel like she gets way underrated mostly because Madonna also existed (who I love too, no shade here). When You Were Mine is Prince's greatest new wave song, so it's great to hear it here to and keeping some of the gender fun with the pronouns. Side 2 leads off with She Bop, one of the all time great masturbation songs, and is a cool mix of sounds (next is a ballad, a reggae/dub track, a Gary Numan new wave freak out about kissing, a novelty song that was co-written by a non-grandpa Al Lewis, and a glammed out party song, in that order)
