My 1001 Albums Journey

It's always bugged me that Amy Winehouse received more plaudits than Sharon Jones. It stank of bigotry to me that the culture at large embraced Winehouse while they generally ignored Jones, even though the latter had a stronger voice and stronger songs. Because of this I ignored Back to Black for years. It is a good album, even though I think it's another attempt by the music industry to put a white face on music that had already been innovated by black faces. But that's really more on the industry that pushed Winehouse, not the singer herself. And she and her producers do good and interesting stuff on that album. This bullshit, though? Weak mimicry. Winehouse doesn't have the control over her voice she exhibits in Black, sounding like a copy of the girl groups she idolized. The backing tracks sound like beats that were rejected from 90s R&B and Neo-Soul albums. In My Bed has a good beat, but too bad it had already been used for Made You Look by Nas. And naming the album after Frank Sinatra when it owes a larger debt to the black singers that came in between them? Get the fuck out of here. It's the Starbucks version of Jill Scott and Erykah Badu.

I want to go back in time and tell the Beatles and Rolling Stones that one of the downsides of them covering Black American music is that it will lead to several of their countrymen releasing ridiculously neutered versions of Black American music.

Take away the makeup, stage show, and merch and Kiss is really just a mediocre band. I get that it's all part of the package, but artists like Alice Cooper, Gwar, and Slipknot are similarly dependent on theatrics and have a lot of songs that stand on their own. Kiss really doesn't. On this album, Detroit Rock City is a banger, but the rest of the album could have been made by any old rock band (yes, even Beth).

I imagine this is what a barbecue in Tremont sounds like

It's wild to listen to this album and hear the 50+ years of alternative music it inspired.