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Sun Jan 14 2024
L.A. Woman
The Doors
4
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Mon Jan 15 2024
Van Halen
Van Halen
5
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Tue Jan 16 2024
Eliminator
ZZ Top
2
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Wed Jan 17 2024
War
U2
5
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Thu Jan 18 2024
Joan Armatrading
Joan Armatrading
5
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Fri Jan 19 2024
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
5
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Sat Jan 20 2024
C'est Chic
CHIC
5
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Sun Jan 21 2024
Marquee Moon
Television
3
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Mon Jan 22 2024
There's No Place Like America Today
Curtis Mayfield
5
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Tue Jan 23 2024
Africa Brasil
Jorge Ben Jor
4
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Wed Jan 24 2024
Orbital 2
Orbital
3
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Thu Jan 25 2024
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
Sinead O'Connor
5
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Fri Jan 26 2024
Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
4
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Sat Jan 27 2024
Music From Big Pink
The Band
4
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Sun Jan 28 2024
Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
4
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Mon Jan 29 2024
Fever Ray
Fever Ray
3
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Tue Jan 30 2024
In The Court Of The Crimson King
King Crimson
4
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Wed Jan 31 2024
For Your Pleasure
Roxy Music
5
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Thu Feb 01 2024
Armed Forces
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4
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Fri Feb 02 2024
Document
R.E.M.
3
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Sat Feb 03 2024
One Nation Under A Groove
Funkadelic
5
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Sun Feb 04 2024
I See A Darkness
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
4
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Mon Feb 05 2024
A Girl Called Dusty
Dusty Springfield
A classic, of course! It was interesting to get additional songs on the remastered (reissued?) album version that I eventually found via YouTube (the YouTube Music album link was broken), but I'm not sure whether the extra songs should count in this project (but nice to hear them nonetheless).
5
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Tue Feb 06 2024
White Blood Cells
The White Stripes
Doesn't seem like their best work, I'm afraid, although a few good songs here and there. I would hope that there's another White Stripes album in this collection, but I suspect there isn't, and that's a shame, as this isn't the album I'd choose to represent them. A bit too nasally (even for Jack White) and monochromatic to earn more than 3 stars, sadly.
3
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Wed Feb 07 2024
The Low End Theory
A Tribe Called Quest
Very reminiscent of De La Soul to me, even though they had pretty different sounds in some ways. I enjoyed this album, but was hoping for a bit more variety tune/rhythm-wise (it got a bit more varied in the later tracks, though). Once again, I kind of wonder if this is the best album to showcase Tribe.... (I never listened to them back in the days, aside from whatever might have been on the radio.) A solid 4, I'd say.
4
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Thu Feb 08 2024
At Fillmore East
The Allman Brothers Band
Quite the jam album! I'm not as familiar with the Allman Brothers Band as I'd like to be, but I imagine that was a great show. I kind of expected more lyrics/singing, but then, what do I know?
4
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Fri Feb 09 2024
Roxy Music
Roxy Music
I'm impressed some of us have now gotten *two* Roxy Music albums! It's hard not compare this self-titled album to "For Your Pleasure", and I feel like the comparison leaves their earlier album a bit wanting (in part because the production quality is a bit uneven, but mainly because it feels like they were just starting to get a feel for their style/sound). But, still, Brian Eno is everywhere!
3
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Sat Feb 10 2024
Tidal
Fiona Apple
Listening to this album makes me think of when I was interning with the Minnesota Historical Society (probably summer 1999?) while the exhibits team was developing an exhibit "Sounds Good to Me: Music in Minnesota", and while Fiona Apple has nothing to do with Minnesota (as far as I know), one of my projects was to create a sort of mix tape that would play constantly in a high school-style locker with headphones for visitors to listen in on. I'm nearly certain that one of the songs was "Criminal", and I enjoyed hearing it as I worked on the tape (which was DAT, naturally), which also had songs by other Lillith Fair luminaries, plus I'm sure some other equally forgettable pop/alt music.
That said, I enjoyed listening to this album, and I'd probably listen to another Fiona Apple album some day (the current favs seem to be "Fetch the Bolt Cutters" (2020) or "When the Pawn..." (1999)). Once again, though, since none of the fans out there consider this her best album, I wonder why this project seems to favor debut albums so much? (But maybe I should stop wondering this and just accept it...)
3
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Sun Feb 11 2024
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles
A nice collection of mainly familiar early Beatles songs, and a surprisingly quick listen. It makes me a bit interested in finding out more about the movie. A solid 3, given that the Beatles have much better albums.
3
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Mon Feb 12 2024
Fragile
Yes
I've never been able to really get into any band's prog-rock phase (and some bands never had any other phase, I know), so it's hard for me to enjoy this album as much as I should/could. That said, I enjoy Yes' prog-rock sound about as much as (maybe more than?) Genesis or ELP. This album is kind of a weird one, though, with the way it only had half of the songs as true band collaborations, so it's hard to call it much of a complete album (I did like the story behind "5 percent of nothing", though). I'm not sure it's fair to rank it a 2, but my 3-star rating seems a bit generous, I'll admit.
3
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Tue Feb 13 2024
2112
Rush
I know Rush isn't many (most?) people's favorites, but if we're talking about a band's great albums, it's hard to ignore 2112, or at least Side A. I first listened to this somewhere around 6th-8th grade, and it never occurred to me that this was corny or might be somewhat painful to listen to decades later (besides, I was and am a big sci-fi fan). And as much as the other side of this record has pretty much *nothing* to do with the 2112 story, I've always enjoyed those songs too. Music-wise, I think I'd rank "Permanent Waves" and "Moving Pictures" as my favorite Rush albums, but it's fun to re-listen to Rush's more prog-rock-oriented stuff too (and cringe at some of those photos from that era). A solid 4!
(And for those who can't really enjoy (too) much of Rush, just remember Dave Grohl's great homage to Neil Peart after his untimely death: "I still vividly remember my first listen of 2112 when I was young. It was the first time I really listened to a drummer. And since that day, music has never been the same. His power, precision, and composition was incomparable. He was called ‘The Professor’ for a reason: We all learned from him.")
4
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Wed Feb 14 2024
Slayed?
Slade
Hm...I'll admit that I have perhaps never knowingly heard Slade before this. The first few tracks makes me wonder if they were influential on later bands, as there's a sort of AC/DC vibe to something like "How D'You Ride?" and a general southern rock vibe to some of their songs, plus plenty of echoes from later mediocre glam bands like Quiet Riot and Twisted Slayer.
But I guess it doesn't seem all that distinctive or memorable, and the quality of the lyrics *really* leaves something to be desired (along with the embarrassing song titles); it probably says more about the "Classic Rock" magazine/site than the band that it considers this album an "essential classic." It also didn't sound horrible, thankfully, and I won't hold it against them that the YouTube Music link provided extra (painful) songs that weren't on the original release. (Hence the wishy-washy 3 stars.)
I *did* think it was funny that the album cover screamed to me that this was a British (English) band, despite almost none of them showing their teeth. And one guess which of them is the drummer, right?
3
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Thu Feb 15 2024
Frank
Amy Winehouse
I haven't heard that many songs from Amy Winehouse (and I don't think any of them featured on this album), so this is a nice expansion in my Winehouse-literacy. I like her sound, and I can only hope that when she was recording and performing all of the other issues in her life took a back seat, because she seems like she was a great performer and artist. A solid 4!
4
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Fri Feb 16 2024
Honky Tonk Heroes
Waylon Jennings
I haven't (actively) listened to Waylon Jennings all that much, so I'm not sure how this compares to other albums by him, but the backstory of how most of the songs were written by Billy Joe Shaver is pretty interesting. I'll also freely admit that I had no idea what the "outlaw sub-genre in country music" was or what it sounds like (until I let Wikipedia educate me), but it's fascinating that getting to choose your producers and musicians made you an outlaw at one point.
This seems like a nice enough album, albeit without a whole lot of memorable/distinctive songs (I think my favorite was probably "Black Rose"). The start of "Honky Tonk Heroes" (the song) reminded me a lot of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Wheel", and other songs had elements of Johnny Cash and even Elvis to them. A solid 3 (largely because I'm ignorant of its context).
3
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Sat Feb 17 2024
All Directions
The Temptations
A nice change of pace from what we've been getting recently! Some of the songs I've definitely heard before, but others are new to me, which is always nice; some of the songs, though, didn't do much for me (looking at you, "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"). I don't really think of the Temptations as being particularly political (which may be more ignorance on my part than reality), but "Run, Charlie, Run" was a great contradiction to that impression--made me think of something like Parliament's "Chocolate City". And nice to have a pure Temptations album! Could have been a 3 for somewhat uneven song choices, but I enjoy their sound more than a 3....
4
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Sun Feb 18 2024
Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus
Spirit
Well, based on the album cover alone, I can safely say this is nothing like Slade or MIA or Amy Winehouse (or the Temptations, for that matter). A bit more like Yes, I guess, but not really my kind of thing overall. I like the album title, but I'm not sure exactly how the songs relate to the title, and I certainly can't say I have any impression of who Dr. Sardonicus might be...except he must be some crazy nature-loving, zoo-hating, skin-fetishistic space child who sometimes touches the worm!
3
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Mon Feb 19 2024
I Am a Bird Now
Antony and the Johnsons
I was really excited to hear this album given all the big names as guest artists, but I found it hard to get past Anohni's voice and style, I think, sadly. Even though it sounds quite a bit different, I was reminded of that Moby album that incorporated vintage recordings, which was an interesting idea but ended up flattening out everything. I can see why this album got dropped in later editions of the 1001 Albums project.
3
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Tue Feb 20 2024
Back At The Chicken Shack
Jimmy Smith
Although I didn't really know what Jimmy Smith sounded like, or what this album might be like, I really enjoyed it (despite not even knowing that there was a term for a jazz organist). I *had* expected some lyrics and singing, but it's a fun instrumental album, and I'm sure the lack of a song structure allowed them to have those nice long tracks, with every musician getting a chance to show their chops. I'm also shocked at how many albums The Incredible Jimmy Smith churned out in his career, but will have to just trust the book's authors/editors that this is his greatest accomplishment.
4
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Wed Feb 21 2024
Picture Book
Simply Red
I think I've heard of Simply Red before, and certainly have heard their big hits, "Holding Back the Years" and the cover of "Money's Too Tight (to Mention)", but I doubt I knew those were by Simply Red, and I also seriously doubt I've ever heard the rest of the album. I also really enjoyed the experience of listening to and watching the album through the CD+G Museum's decoding of the enhanced CD, in all its 4-bit glory (and lots of trivia and factoids alongside great pixellated photos and not-so-great pixellated graphics).
I'm sort of surprised to find out this won the Grammy for best new artist, as it wasn't a particularly compelling album to me. But certainly enjoyable, and I would never have guessed they were British, which speaks to their tight sound and a well-produced soul-inspired album.
3
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Thu Feb 22 2024
Wild Is The Wind
Nina Simone
I haven't listened to all that much of Nina Simone's music beyond the few staples, and all of the sampled music that relies heavily on her voice and style, so it's really nice to get a full album of hers that shows more range than I've previously heard. It *is* weird that this album appears to have been cobbled together from session recordings for other albums, but since the album seems to have gotten a lot of traction both at the time and later on as one her finest, I'm glad to have this as the selection for her music.
Her voice is so distinctive that it's often hard for me to hear several songs by her without them all blending together, but "Four Women" stood out for me (partly because of it's semi-censored status), as did "Break Down and Let it all Out". I was also happy to discover that the really spare style of songs like "Lilac Wine" and this album's version of the iconic "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair" isn't her only style (although it's clearly a preferred one).
4
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Fri Feb 23 2024
Pictures At An Exhibition
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Well, this was *not* what I was expecting when I saw that the selection was ELP (which I confusedly thought was yet another Yes album, since Bruford/Wakeman/Howe is more less the same words as Emerson/Lake/Palmer in my mind). I'm guessing there will be more ELP in our future, as this sort of gimmicky album can't possibly be their only album to make the list, right?
I'm sure this is a very creative take on Modest Mussorgsky's composition, but it's fallen on deaf ears, sadly. Kudos to them, though, for adding a few new "pictures" all of their own to the exhibition ("The Sage," "Blues Variation" and "The Curse of Baba Yaga," I think, plus of course the excruciating "Nutrocker" encore), and for Emerson dragging a Hammond organ across the stage to get feedback. The whole thing reminded me a bit of the more noodly aspects of Jethro Tull's music, plus (oddly) some sort of bastardized prog-rock version of Sting's truly impossible-to-enjoy "Songs of the Labyrinth" (which came out much much later, I know).
I wish I could say I enjoyed this, or even appreciated it beyond a very abstract respect for a full album-length adaptation of a classical suite, but this didn't really resonate with me (beyond the Promenade theme becoming an annoying ear-worm). A rare 2-ranking for me. :(
2
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Sat Feb 24 2024
Aja
Steely Dan
I'm guessing this is likely to be our only Steely Dan album, which is great, although I do wish we'd gotten whatever album has Boddhisatva on it (but I appreciated the few radio songs that were on this album too). I've always enjoyed listening to Steely Dan, but I also feel like one album is more than enough to give us a sense of the style and flavor; his music is largely interchangeable, so getting another selection later on would be a bit disappointing. I'm glad we got this though!
4
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Sun Feb 25 2024
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground
Since I hadn't first listened to this album until fairly recently, it's hard to imagine how this was a bit of a flop, both critically and commercially, given how influential the band and this album became. (The Brian Eno quote in the Wikipedia entry is hilarious, and probably not as exaggerated as it seems.) (Brian Eno is everywhere!)
I suspect we'll get other Velvet Underground albums eventually in the 1001-albums collection, since this one doesn't have too many radio-friendly tunes, but I'm glad to have this as the first Velvet Underground/Lou Reed selection. I'll admit, though, that I find this a weird album to listen to, as it's all over the place and seems uneven song- and music-wise, especially with Nico's singing/style often seeming to clash with the Velvet Undergound's sound and style. And that's probably one of the points, I'm sure. I can only imagine how weird and jarring Warhol's "Exploding Plastic Inevitable" tour must have been...
4
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Mon Feb 26 2024
Whatever
Aimee Mann
I imagine this was a fun album for 'Til Tuesday fans when it came out, and it seems like a solid album, although I don't have any real familiarity with 'Til Tuesday or Aimee Mann. It's kind of like a completely different version of Bob Mould going solo after Husker Du, I guess?
It's a tight and poppy album, I suppose, but nothing very exciting to me, since I didn't have any history with her.
3
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Tue Feb 27 2024
Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
Listening to this album finally helped me realize that I'm not really that much of a fan of punk--I mean, if I can't love *this* album, then there's not much hope for me, sadly. (Further irony is that this is a much more produced and mastered album than most punk albums (and I guess their only studio album), and yet they also did a fantastic job sounding like these were near-live one-take cuts.)
Reading the Wikipedia entry for this album is a fun experience; I'm sure there are even longer and more minutely detailed entries on the site, but I feel like the "Bollocks" entry is what Wikipedia was made for. I particularly liked the anecdotes about Sid Vicious' and Johnny Rotten's interactions with Queen in the studio, and I was (perhaps foolishly) surprised to learn that Sid Vicious was an atrocious bass player.
Regardless of my own personal reaction to it, it's pretty undeniable that this album was an instant and massive touchstone for music fans and bands alike.
3
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Wed Feb 28 2024
Debut
Björk
I actually own a different (and much later) Bjork album, and I'm impressed at how distinctive and consistent her style and sound has been, as well as those *wild* outfits. I always feel like she took The Sugarcubes to her logical conclusion, and then just started an infinite number of variations of that theme. For me, her sound has always been a bit more background music than I'm sure she'd prefer, but I *will* say that the few videos I've seen of some of her more recent songs are amazing productions in themselves. With this album, though, there weren't too many songs that really hooked me, and a few that I found pretty grating ("Like Someone in Love" an exemplar).
3
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Thu Feb 29 2024
Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd
It almost felt like cheating to listen to this album (for what must be the umpteenth time). Despite my undying fandom, I've never read any liner notes or anything about this album, so I was surprised to read that Roy Harper was responsible for the lead vocals on "Have a Cigar" (although since I never quite could reconcile Roger Waters' voice to that song, I guess I just implicitly assumed it was another band member singing it?).
I think what's always stuck with me most with this album is David Gilmour's distinctive guitar style, which feels as perfected on this album as it could probably be. I'm sorry that contemporary critics didn't feel all that enthusiastic about this album, but I have the feeling that the (to me, at least) unique sound and composition of the album must have seemed out of left field, even for Pink Floyd.
When I was a kid, I would play my favorite records continuously while reading books. As a result, It's almost impossible for me to separate "Wish you were here" from a couple of fantasy book series, mainly "The Once and Future King" series (T.H. White), and I think also the "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" series (Stephen Donaldson). Probably not what Waters and crew had in mind, I know....
5
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Fri Mar 01 2024
Chelsea Girl
Nico
I find it hard to get past Nico's voice, unfortunately, so it's hard to appreciate and/or enjoy this as much as I probably should. That aside, this seems a lot more saccharine than the Velvet Underground/Nico collaboration (despite a bunch of Velvet Underground participation in the album), so maybe it's not just her voice that's putting me off this album. The songs *do* get better as the album goes along, particularly those with more Velvet Underground participation and songwriting (I think I enjoyed "It Was a Pleasure Then" the most), but it's still a pretty challenging album to listen to.
To be fair to her, the Wikipedia entry makes it pretty clear the flute/string additions were not only *not* her choice, but ruined it for her too (along with the absence of drums or bass). Sorry, Nico--you got robbed! And us too. It seems a shame to include this in the greatest albums collection, given how she was treated and how different this was from what she'd hoped for. A testament to how dictatorial producers and studios were back then. :(
2
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Sat Mar 02 2024
Live At The Harlem Square Club
Sam Cooke
A fun album, and the recording captures their live performance really well (which is always impressive, but particularly for a 1963 recording). I really like the energy of Sam Cooke and the band, but I'll admit there's not as much variety among the songs as I'd like, despite different lyrics and sensibilities among the songs. Maybe that's a casualty of the live recording? What a shame that RCA prevented this from being distributed for nearly 20 years!
3
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Sun Mar 03 2024
Blackstar
David Bowie
I'd always meant to listen to this album, given how wide-ranging David Bowie has been over his music career, so I'm glad to have an excuse to listen to it. It's interesting enough, I suppose, but I wonder if this is really even one of his better albums? (It appears that music critics would beg to differ with me on that point, so I guess I'll just have to accept its greatness.)
It *is* interesting to (literally) see how much music videos are an integral part of a few of the songs on this album, and "Blackstar" (the song) seems like a weird compendium of his style and sound over the decades (sort of). I think I enjoyed "Lazarus" the most. But overall it didn't really engage me. And sad knowing this was his last album, as he clearly had plenty more to contribute into the 21st century.
3
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Mon Mar 04 2024
Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club
What an interesting choice and a fun change of pace. (I also love it that YouTube Music decided to play all of its (many many) ads in Spanish--I'm curious to see if this language preference sticks to the next listen, since I'm not logged in...)
I'm not at all a connoisseur of Cuban music, so I can't comment on whether they've done a good job of reviving trova and filin, but I enjoyed listening to the album. I think my favorite song was "El Carretero". (I suspect it's just me (and a very gringo me), but "El Cuarto de Tuya" totally reminded me of Los Lobos' version of "I wanna be like you (Monkey Song)", although "El Cuarto" has *much* more adult lyrics (apparently).)
My only quibble with this selection is that this is clearly a superband/all-star/semi-one-off band/album, which I thought were generally not included in the 1001 albums project? (Maybe it's only soundtracks and compilation albums, though?)
3
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Tue Mar 05 2024
Blonde On Blonde
Bob Dylan
Ah, a classic among the many Dylan albums in this collection! (And a double album no less.) I'm not very fluent in Dylanology, but even I can recognize this album captured his post-folk/electric/rock period really nicely, and it has a nice balance of more popular songs and very philosophical ones. And I see why "Visions of Johanna" and "Just Like a Woman" are considered some of his greatest creations. (I'll also admit that "I want you" is one of the harder songs for me to align with what I (probably unfairly) associate with Dylan's seeming lifelong asexuality....)
5
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Wed Mar 06 2024
S.F. Sorrow
The Pretty Things
I don't know that I've heard much from Pretty Things, but I kind of enjoyed the album, despite a certain Beatlesesque-ness to their style and songs (at least on the first half or so of this album). ("Bracelets of Fingers" was probably the most egregious example of this, I'd say, but a lot of the better parts of the album is sadly reminiscent of Sgt. Peppers and seems pretty derivative. Other parts are just a bit painful to listen to.) I think my favorite song was "The Loneliest Person", and not just because it was one of the shorter and more cohesive songs on the album. :)
If I hadn't read the Wikipedia entry, I'm not sure I would have ever realized that this was a rock opera, nor do I have any real sense for poor Sebastian and his life's journey. I find it also bizarre that most of the contemporary and later critics focused on similarities to Pink Floyd, The Who's "Tommy" and blues styles, so maybe I just missed the boat entirely on any Beatles imitation. It's pretty awesome that the band couldn't really perform this album live (and not just because they took LSD before a 1969 TV "performance" of the album).
3
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Thu Mar 07 2024
Funeral
Arcade Fire
I feel like I should know Arcade Fire a lot more than I do, but the nice part of that confusion is that I'm pretty sure this is my first listen to an entire Arcade Fire album. I enjoyed it, but didn't fall in love with them or their sound, and wonder whether this is their best album to include (without bothering to follow through on whether there are multiple Arcade Fire selections or to figure out which of their albums is considered their all-time best)?
I'm impressed at the band's longevity so far, though not so impressed by recent (and likely justified) "sexual misconduct" allegations that sound a lot like Ryan Adams (but without as much fallout so far).
Overall, a strangely forgettable album, especially for one that won a Grammy and has been ranked as the 2nd best album of the 2000s....
3
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Fri Mar 08 2024
A Date With The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
I have always made the unfortunate (and obviously grossly) mistaken mashup in my mind with the Everly and Smothers Brothers, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this album. Not really my style or sensibility (although I've always enjoyed the various covers for "Love Hurts"), but a fine album for a sound that's not only *not* like the Smothers Brothers, but also a different era. Given that the Wikipedia entry for this album notes that "It's Everly Time" is a superior album, I wonder why we got this instead? (Presumably more Everly Brothers in our future, I guess)
3
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Sat Mar 09 2024
Smash
The Offspring
I suppose it was inevitable that one of these selections might be something like Offspring, so I have to acknowledge that they could have chosen far worse examples. I guess this was Offspring's equivalent to Nirvana's "Nevermind", although I really don't understand how this could be labeled punk rock in any way ("pop punk rock" seems so lame and offensive to both pop *and* punk rock).
That said, I definitely enjoyed hearing "Come Out and Play" on the radio, and maybe somewhat the same for "Self Esteem" (despite its super-derivative-Nirvana sound), and it definitely struck me that these songs seemed fairly edgy for radio rock (but again, I would have laughed if someone had told me that this was some form of punk rock). I also like it that it was produced on an independent label, and did so well commercially.
I didn't really enjoy most of the other songs on the album, even as background music, and the super-annoying voiceover/narrator occasionally interjecting almost makes me want to rank this a 2-star album. But that's not fair to the few genuine hits on the album.
3
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Sun Mar 10 2024
Siamese Dream
The Smashing Pumpkins
Well, I wondered when Smashing Pumpkins would appear, although it's a bit disappointing to get them right after another 1990s phenom (Offspring), as they share some of the same general wall-of-sound 90s thing. (To be fair to Offspring, though, their lyrics are *much* easier to distinguish than Smashing Pumpkins. And to be fair to Smashing Pumpkins, they're so much less annoying/offensive than Offspring.)
I own this album (apparently one of 6 million others), and at one point enjoyed listening to them more than I do now. Listening to this album again makes me think more of a time and place (1990s, DC) than it does of whether this is a "greatest" album or not. And I think even when I bought the CD I felt like they kind of had one song in them that they found several variations of to put together a full-length album. (I suspect if I ever took the time to decipher the lyrics, or ever watch their videos, I might be slightly disabused of this monochromatic image. And hits "Cherub Rock" and "Today" *are* somewhat different, I'll admit. "Rocket" not so much, and "Disarm" maybe the most distinctive, but I never really liked that hit.)
Fine, but nothing special (despite the Wikipedia entry describing the album as "widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 1990s and of all time"), and a nice blast from the past. That said, I wish I knew then about what went into making this album (thanks, Wikipedia people), as it would have made the context of the album a lot more interesting. Talk about stressful and harrowing! And shades of the film "Whiplash" with the suicidal lead singer making the junkie drummer perform "Cherub Rock" until his hands bled....
3
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Mon Mar 11 2024
Histoire De Melody Nelson
Serge Gainsbourg
I've never heard of him/them before, but I enjoyed the whole French-narrated chill-rock-style. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if I understood the lyrics/narration storyline, as the Wikipedia plot summary makes it sound a bit creepy (at least for listening in the 21st century), and a little bizarre/pretentious, but thankfully my spoken-French comprehension is pretty abysmal.
I didn't really want to hunt down "Melody, the musical", but I *did* listen to this album via YouTube Music, which very bizarrely showed a completely wrong-seeming video while playing "Ballade de Melody" (something involving some white guy trying to save a non-white kid (male) in what appeared to be riots/protests/terrorist attacks). A bit more surreal than I suspect even Serge Gainsbourg was hoping for.... (A little more digging on this video reveals that it was made in 2021 by Christopher Honore as a tribute to Gainsbourg but "updated to reflect the times", whatever that means; most of the comments seem to find it an inappropriate appropriation. You can see it here: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o165uRDuYU>) (And I found a YouTube playlist with the various original videos collated together: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AznHU0cWvz0&list=PLEB4AA81A5D349F09>)
I loved seeing (on Wikipedia) all the artists and bands that have been influenced by this album, and I can totally see this influence now that I've heard this album. For that alone, I'd give it 5 stars (especially since I enjoyed listening to the album), except I still think this is all a bit creepy.
4
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Tue Mar 12 2024
The Number Of The Beast
Iron Maiden
Ah, a classic from my high school years! I actually still really like a few songs from this album--mainly "The Prisoner", "Number of the Beast" (naturally), and perhaps most of all "Run to the Hills"--which kind of surprises me, because I knew even at the time that this was never a particularly complex band. But they nailed the whole metal power chord thing well, I liked Bruce Dickinson's story, and as an aspiring rhythm guitar guy in high school, I was always challenged by the interesting pairing of Adrian Smith's and Paul Murray's guitar licks.
I never realized until now (after reading the Wikipedia entry) that this was the only album containing both Bruce Dickinson and Clive Burr; it almost makes me want to listen to pre-Bruce Iron Maiden (almost). And the (likely apocryphal) story about the producer's accident with a bus of nuns and a repair bill of £666 is hilarious.
4
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Wed Mar 13 2024
Birth Of The Cool
Miles Davis
It's always a good day if you get to listen to Miles Davis, even if you're (like me) not all that well-versed in his huge arsenal of songs and albums. It's a little weird that we got a compilation album (mainly because I thought that wasn't part of the criteria for including in the 1001 Greatest Albums collection), but I'm not complaining at getting to hear a variety of tunes from a shifting band composition, and apparently getting to listen to the birth of a new style of jazz (or as the critic Sargent apparently described it, "not really jazz"). Not bad at all!
4
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Thu Mar 14 2024
Siembra
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
Well, you can't argue with "the best selling salsa album in the history of salsa music and Latin music", I guess! Not really my usual genre to listen to, so I can't say much about whether this deserves the title, but a fine album, I suppose.
I did find "Buscando Güayaba" a weird and somewhat jarring song, and while I kind of liked the seamless transition between tracks (interrupted only by YouTube's annoying ads), it made it really hard to follow much of anything, in large part because my sung-Spanish comprehension is as abysmal as my sung-French comprehension. And while the reference completely went over my head, it's interesting to know that "Pedro Navaja" is an homage to Bertolt Brecht's "Threepenny Opera."
"I like to live in America!" (3)
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Fri Mar 15 2024
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
David Bowie
It's nice to hear this album in its entirety, as I think I've only heard a few of the more radio-friendly hits. It's hard to imagine how this must have sounded when it first sold, but it's still an impressively unique and distinct mostly-concept album. (It's funny how almost all concept albums seem to have a few odd-man-out tunes; in this case the cover of "It Ain't Easy" is the most obvious.)
This is a *much* better selection for the 1001 albums project than "Blackstar"!
4
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Sat Mar 16 2024
Brilliant Corners
Thelonious Monk
I can't say I've listened to all that much of Thelonious Monk's repertoire, so it's both fun to get an album by him and at the same time hard to know if this is outstanding or typical for him. Either way, I enjoyed listening to it.
It's a bit of a bummer to read (the Wikpedia entry) about how challenging this album was to make, and how it ended up being more of a compilation album thanks to the complete dysfunction involved in recording the title track, especially given how each track *sounds* as if it's a bunch of friends having a good time riffing off each other. (But also pretty funny to find out that in one of the apparently 25 takes of "Brilliant Corners," the bassist was pantomiming playing in protest (or maybe just annoyance).)
Tensions and egos aside, this is a fun album of clearly talented musicians.
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Sun Mar 17 2024
Countdown To Ecstasy
Steely Dan
Although I'm a bit surprised to get another Steely Dan album, I guess it makes sense, since I was surprised the other album didn't have "Boddhisattva", and here it is!
I always enjoy listening to Steely Dan, so this was a nice listen, but I'm still a bit puzzled why there are (at least) two Steely Dan albums in this collection, as they're not all that different from each other. In some ways I liked more of this album's songs than on "Aja", and I *do* like this album's cover more, and it's kind of fun to hear a less polished version and a little more rocking version of the band (plus an album that could actually be played live). I also enjoyed a few songs I'd never heard from them, like "The Boston Rag".
4
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Mon Mar 18 2024
Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black
Public Enemy
Since first hearing them in "Do the Right Thing", I've enjoyed most of what I've heard from Public Enemy (although it's mainly been Chuck D's voice and lyrics, and I've never really enjoyed Flavor Flav nearly as much).
Since this album *isn't* "Fear of a Black Planet", I'm happy to think that there are likely two PE albums in the 1001 collection, or at least I hope so, since this is a good album but not as good or classic as "Fear of a Black Planet" (or "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" for that matter).
That said, I enjoyed a fair number of songs on this album, and was surprised I'd heard several of them before (long ago). And of course it had that (to me) instant classic mash-up "Bring tha Noize (with Anthrax)", which blew my mind when I first heard it (apparently a few years before this album, although my conviction that I'd heard it on a school bus in high school must have been the original and not the co-Anthrax version).
A lot of good stuff on this album, and fun to hear a familiar-sounding band playing tunes I haven't heard. And impressive to know that they cranked out this album after losing all their tracks/"data" from the past 5 years.
4
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Tue Mar 19 2024
3 + 3
The Isley Brothers
A fun listen, although I have no idea if this is one of their greats, or just another solid album? It's certainly quite a progression from their days of "Shout" or even "Testify", and I particularly enjoyed this album's version of "Listen to the Music", as well as the great opening bass (and track) on "Sunshine". And nice that they added a few more brothers to the Isley clan with this album!
3
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Wed Mar 20 2024
Le Tigre
Le Tigre
I actually own a Le Tigre album (not this one, rather "This Island"), somewhat accidentally when I found it left on the street--I'm not sure I even listened to it for months, and had no idea what the band was like. I'm impressed to discover that this debut album shares a lot of similarities with their 3rd and last album (but not in a repetitive way), and I enjoyed this album as much as "The Island". Not exactly my favorite music style, but they have good lyrics and a well-produced sound (for what they're trying to achieve).
"Deceptacon" reminds me (perhaps oddly) of a later version of the classic Ministry "Jesus Built My Hotrod", perhaps simply because they both have references to "ding a ding a dang a dong dong ding dong " (more or less). And it's pretty funny to see/hear how "My my metrocard" is strangely re-relevant with its critique of good old Giuliani. My favorite song on the album, though, is probably "Slideshow at Free University," which reminds me of the exhibit/film "Manifesto" (probably because the song is also an excerpt of a manifesto), as well as the band "LCD Soundsystem".
3
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Thu Mar 21 2024
The Nightfly
Donald Fagen
It's hard not to hear this as a Steely Dan album, given how distinctive Fagen's voice is, and the music is fairly similar too. A sly way to get more Steely Dan into the 1001 albums project!
That said, I'm sorry he decided to go solo in the early 1980s, as this was *not* a very fertile time for distinctive sounding tunes amongst all the backup choruses, poppy synth sounds and the ubiquitous sax solos and drum-machine-sounding beats (even when they're actually drums). I'm kind of reminded of Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" (although I enjoy that album a lot more). It's kind of hard to agree with the critic who called this "one of pop music's sneakiest masterpieces," as I wish it was more distinctive and interesting.
3
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Fri Mar 22 2024
Dookie
Green Day
Ugh. I figured we would get this since we also got Offspring, but still...just not very interesting or entertaining, I'm afraid (and somewhat surprisingly, not as interesting as The Offspring) .
2
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Sat Mar 23 2024
Paul Simon
Paul Simon
I feel like I have two very opposite impressions of Paul Simon, and this plays out with this album. On the one hand, I often enjoy his sound and style (perhaps not as much as his work with Garfunkel), especially on his earlier solo stuff, but I also find his whole world music thing kind of annoying and pretentious (more so than, say, Peter Gabriel or David Byrne's (obviously much later) world music explorations). Thankfully, this album has less of the global sound (except of course his ubiquitous pan pipes), and while I miss the Garfunkel/Simon harmonies, most of the songs are pretty solid, although not particularly distinctive. I also enjoyed how much this album reminded me of some of Leo Kottke's stuff.
3
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Sun Mar 24 2024
Out Of The Blue
Electric Light Orchestra
A classic, I know, but I don't think I've actually listened to the whole album before, or really heard most of the non-radio-hits. It's impressive how much the vocoder makes this sound a bit like time travel music-wise, with synthesizer-like sounds showing up in an analog context (the live string and horn sections contrast nicely with the sci-fi vocoder, or whatever synthesizer process gives the synth sounds and vocal manipulation).
A fun listen, although not really my favorite sound, and it's sometimes hard for me to distinguish ELP, ELO, and Yes. And of course a few great radio hits like "Sweet Talkin' Woman" and "Mr. Blue Sky" make it a better experience (that helps you forget some of the weaker songs on the somewhat tediously long double-album).
3
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Mon Mar 25 2024
Django Django
Django Django
I'm initially impressed by two things with this album: (1) it's a 21st-century selection, which seems to be a rarity for this project; and (2) Wikipedia has almost nothing on this album or the band, making it hard to get a feel for why this might have been included in the 1001-album collection (unless it was because a few songs were featured in ads and video games?).
My initial impression is of a not-particularly distinctive sound or band, with not very interesting lyrics or beats, but playable enough as background music. Some tracks minded me of a mashup of Blue Man Group, Beta Band and Meat Puppets (especially "Default" and "Firewater"), and the "WOR" video definitely caught the can't-look-away effect of the wall-of-death attraction.
I enjoyed listening to the album, but have a hard time understanding why this made the cut instead of one of their other albums, or some other band altogether...
3
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Tue Mar 26 2024
Moon Safari
Air
I actually own two different Air albums ("Talkie-Walkie" and "Pocket Symphony"), so it's hard for me *not* to enjoy listening to their debut album (although it makes me wonder all over again why debut albums get so much attention in this collection, since they're rarely the best for each band/artist).
I'll admit that what appeals to me about Air's style is that it's great background music, which I'm sure makes any artist cringe, and certainly isn't fair to them (or anyone). But I still enjoy listening to them in all sorts of environments, and I enjoyed this album too, knowing that I was missing out on whatever the lyrics meant, at least when they were in French. I also thought this album was actually more in the foreground than the other two are, which is an interesting aspect. (A little annoying that the YouTube Music version of the album had a few substitutions on the versions of some songs, but that's not Air's fault.)
A solid album, although nothing exciting in the context of this 1001 albums project.
3
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Wed Mar 27 2024
Justified
Justin Timberlake
I don't think I've ever listened to a whole album featuring Justin Timberlake (either solo or in a band), so there's a bit of novelty here. I do wish this 1001 albums project didn't have such a fixation on debut albums, because there's no way this is his best album (or at least I certainly hope not). But that's not Justin Timberlake's fault, I suppose.
This isn't really my cup of tea, so I'm not sure how to rate it. I feel like he's got a style going on here, and it seems like a pretty well produced album, with an impressive number of collaborators and guest artists and the Neptunes' involvement, but I can't really say I enjoyed listening to it, and it doesn't sound all that distinctive. It's pretty funny that this seems to have been widely considered as Michael Jackson's album to take or leave (or he apparently left it).
I'm also bummed that we didn't get songs like "All These Things That I've Done" which he lip-synched in the "Southland Tales" movie (and Justin did a solid job as a bit character in that movie too, I would say); but since that's actually by The Killers, and not by Justin, and is in no way R&B, I guess that would have been asking too much.... (2)
2
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Thu Mar 28 2024
Elephant Mountain
The Youngbloods
I'm not familiar with The Youngbloods, so this seemed like a good introduction to them. It also seemed like an interesting mix of other late 1960s bands and their own style, although I didn't find it all that distinctive. I was disappointed to read that the instrumental "On Sir Francis Drake" was not in fact some sort of historical reference, but much more mundanely about a road near where they moved to California. I guess that was expecting a bit too much from the Youngbloods, but I still enjoyed listening to their album (mostly).
3
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Fri Mar 29 2024
Scum
Napalm Death
Hm. Not exactly my first choice for something to listen to, but it's nice to know that the band drew a regular crowd in Birmingham's The Mermaid, so that European punk/hardcore bands could play there too (not so cool that the Mermaid owner never paid Napalm Death for their appearances). And it's always inspiring to read about how one of the band members (and apparently the only one to play on both sides of this album) had a driving goal as a musician, although "extremely fast drumming" seems a bit limited as far as goals go...but I think he largely achieved that goal, at least on this album.
It's hard to imagine listening to the CD reissue of this album, as it apparently contained *54* songs on it, few of which were as blissfully short as that "Silicon Valley"-featured song "You Suffer", but still, 54 is about 50 songs too many. However, I'll give credit to the concept that "Scum" was "the conclusion of a ten-year competition for the fastest and hardest sound, marking the point from which neither speed nor intensity could increase" (from the Wikipedia article). We can only hope that this means no more of this kind of album in the 1001 Greatest Albums collection....
2
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Sat Mar 30 2024
Jagged Little Pill
Alanis Morissette
Although I never sought out an album by her, I never minded when her many songs made it onto the radio (many from this album, too). However, it never felt like there was much there beyond her weird voice/intonation, even though the songs were more catchy than I'd have guessed.
I was also a bit mystified by the incredibly negative reaction she seemed to create in some people. I remember hanging out with some people not long after this album came out, and this one guy started arguing with *everyone* about how horrible she was and untalented and psychotic and disgusting, etc., and then just started screaming the lyrics from "You Oughta Know" (or maybe "Ironic") in this truly freaky falsetto that actually made Alanis Morisette sound like an opera singer by comparison. Apparently he was more drunk than usual, and the next day apologized to everyone, but I'll never forget the depths of hatred he was spewing.
I haven't heard any of the songs on this album beyond the radio hits, so it was interesting to hear a little more variety from Alanis Morisette, although I find it hard to heard beyond her voice/style, so the non-radio songs weren't all that distinctive to me. ("Perfect" is a great example this, a very 90s Lilith Fair-style emo song that just sounds a bit off thanks to her voice/style.) It's pretty cool to read that all of the vocals on this album were recorded in 1-2 demo takes, and also cool to know that Dave Navarro and Flea were involved in "You Oughta Know" (especially given how young she was when she was making the album); it's be interesting to hear how the original version of that song was like. It's also hilarious that there's been a whole thread on whether "Ironic" actually contains any ironic situations (which seems like the real irony, I suppose?).
3
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Sun Mar 31 2024
Back to Basics
Christina Aguilera
For all that I've seen her name in the news and on the screen, I had no idea what her music was like, or for that mater even heard any of her songs (at least knowingly). Based on the Wikipedia article, this seems like a good selection for Christina Aguilera (somewhat surprisingly for this project), but I can't say it really stood out in any particular way, except (unfortunately) for how *long* the double-CD album is. Aside from Aguilera ("Baby Jane"?) fans, there's really no need for so many songs, and while the two discs are somewhat distinct from each other, there just aren't that many good songs in this album. I enjoyed at least parts of a few of the first disc's songs, likes "Makes me Wanna Pray" and "Ain't no Other Man", and "Candyman" is pretty catchy, so there's that. And I appreciated it that she was so involved in the production and songwriting and styling.
3
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Mon Apr 01 2024
Nick Of Time
Bonnie Raitt
Although I've never been a huge fan of hers, I was sorry to read (in the Wikipedia entry) that this album has been sliding down in Rolling Stone's best 500 albums (and likely is gone by now), as it's a solid album for its time and was--and to some degree still is--enormously popular.
I had no idea about all the struggles she endured before this album came out, and I'm glad it rescued her career, as she seems like a great artist and person. And she and Lyle Lovett put on a great show at the 2002 MN State Fair, so it's hard not to hear some of these songs and think about that performance.
3
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Tue Apr 02 2024
The Bends
Radiohead
I haven't listened to much of Radiohead, so I'm not sure whether this album is typical or not for them (or at least typical for them in the mid-90s), but it's an interesting combination of very familiar-sounding mid-90s indie/alt-rock sort of stuff, yet without being at all distinctive beyond a song or two that might have made some air-time (like "High and Dry" or "My Iron Lung", I think, but then again it might just be very similar to some *other* mid-90s indie/alt-rock tune). I *was* a bit surprised that some of the songs were a little harder-edged (and a teensy bit less falsetto) than I expected of Radiohead.
It kind of feels like this isn't really a great Radiohead album to include in the 1001 album collection, frankly, but maybe it was more influential than I appreciate, and certainly the "Influence" and "Legacy" sections of the Wikipedia article suggest I'm just ignorant of this album's majesty. Either way, entertaining enough, in a somewhat disappointingly generic way.
3
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Wed Apr 03 2024
Hysteria
Def Leppard
It wouldn't feel right to have *no* Def Leppard in this collection, I suppose, but this seems like a completely arbitrary choice for an album, especially since it's not what I think of as their defining album, "Pyromania". Most of this album seems like lighter-rock variations on that previous album's songs, although "Pour Some Sugar on Me" is one of their singles that seemed more like vintage Def Leppard. Overall, though, this album seems so much more anodyne than "Pyromania", and much more of a trend towards Journey-style rock than what they were playing before, which I guess was the point (according to the Wikipedia article) but still disappointing. And such a *long* album too, for what you get.
Maybe it was the sympathy vote for the poor drummer? I've always been impressed that they didn't ditch him after the gruesome accident (and that he didn't decide to bow out), and although he definitely had to adopt a different drumming style afterwards, it's more or less worked for all of them (although it would have been nice if he had been able to stick with physical drums, as the drum pads just don't have the same sound).
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Thu Apr 04 2024
Vanishing Point
Primal Scream
I actually got this album previously, but it got lost in the shuffle as I transitioned over to the group listening arrangement, so it's here again (but would have been anyway, I suppose). As I noted the last time around, it feels like a somewhat forgettable collection of semi-lush semi-trip-rock-like songs (with a little light-industrial thrown in).
It's also likely an album that was probably a lot more enjoyable when it came out than listening to it over 25 years later, but I do sort of wonder why this particular Primal Scream album made it into the collection, as they were more of a distinctive new sound in the early 90s (with their second album "Screamadelica"), but since I always ding this collection for so many early/debut albums, maybe I shouldn't complain.
I'll say this, though: it kind of makes me want to find and watch the 1971 "Vanishing Point", and I also imagine that this album makes for a better soundtrack to that movie than the original. (But "Kowalski" has got to be one of the worst music videos I've seen, so maybe not....)
3
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Fri Apr 05 2024
The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Joni Mitchell
Well, I'm not a huge connoisseur or particular fan of Joni Mitchell, so my response isn't all that informed. OK album, I guess, but (at least based on what I read in Wikipedia) it seems like "Court and Spark" might have been a better choice for this period of Joni Mitchell's career?
It's interesting that she was experimenting with Moog and ARP synthesizers, and it's conceptually intriguing that "The Jungle Line" features one of the first musical samples, but I found so many songs (and especially "The Jungle Line") kind of cringe-worthy, especially the more world-music oriented songs (in much the same way I find Paul Simon's world music approach kind of painful).
I guess I empathize more with the early reviews of the album than the later ones that seem to feel it's both timeless and a masterpiece.
3
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Sat Apr 06 2024
Electric Warrior
T. Rex
The only song I've heard from them before is their great "Bang a Gong/Get it On", so I wasn't sure what to expect (and very glad that that was on this album, their sixth(!)). Although they don't have much else that stands out on this album, it's an interesting album overall, with a lot more variety (and interesting experimentation) on the B side. It's also funny how out of place "Get it On" seems, as it's so familiar and the rest of the album doesn't seem all that similar style-wise (except the near-copycat "The Motivator"). There's something kind of haunting (and memorable) about "Cosmic Dancer", too, and I enjoyed "Planet Queen".
I know many of the associations I made with some of the songs aren't really related to "glam rock", but for me there were a lot of echoes of bands both before and after in this album--David Bowie, Beatles, Iggy Pop, Velvet Underground, and so on. Or so it seems to me. :) I'm just really glad we didn't have to listen to their earlier fairy-tale folk music, as that sounds really annoying.
3
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Sun Apr 07 2024
The Man Who
Travis
Hm. It's always fun to get a band and album that I've never heard of, but I'm not sure there's a lot to this one, at least for me. The band sounds a lot like a whole lot of other alt/indie bands from the later 1990s, and while there's nothing wrong with that, it's a bit hard to know why this album (and band) made the cut to be in this project. (I also made the mistake of trying to watch the video of the first song, "Writing to Reach You," and was both baffled at whatever storyline the video was trying to tell, and which didn't seem to relate to the lyrics. Kind of annoying. "Turn" and "Why does it always rain on me" weren't much better.)
I almost wonder if we should have gotten their debut album instead (ironic given the project's tendency to over-favor debut albums)? I feel a bit badly giving this only 2 stars, but it just feels like such a bland and forgettable album, with almost no sort of backstory or drama to make it more interesting.
2
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Mon Apr 08 2024
Lam Toro
Baaba Maal
It's a shame that there's no Wikipedia entry for this album, only a profile of Baaba Maal, as it's hard to know why this particular album was selected from his apparently extensive discography. And his story is fascinating, with a lot of interesting connections to Western artists (Brian Eno is everywhere!) and his work on soundtracks (like "Black Panther") or collaborations with other big names like Taj Mahal (for a Fela Kuti tribute album).
But this album doesn't have any of that, and I don't really even feel like I can appreciate whether his music on this album is more traditional or more innovative in Pulaar/Fula culture (although the non-lyrics music seems largely modern, and sadly in a horrible 80s/90s synth- and drum-track mire). I guess it's fine? I liked "Yela" and "Daniibe", more from the sound than whatever the lyrics meant; everything else is kind of lost on me. I was often reminded of Babatunde Alotunji's "Drums of Passion", even though they're different generations and cultures and countries, of course.
Looking at the entry for this album from the 2005 edition of "1001 albums you must hear before you die", it appears that the draw for this album was the collaboration between Simon Booth and Baaba Maal (and the editor particularly (perhaps solely?) liked the track "Daande Lenol", which ironically is named after Maal's band, but mixes in all the usual world-music suspects), and how this was a sort of launchpad for Simon Booth to explore world music and later form Afro Celt Sound System (without Maal involved at all). So I guess this album was included more for Simon Booth than Maal, although the editor notes that "Maal continued his pop fusion with varying degrees of success"?
3
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Tue Apr 09 2024
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
"Just like Cream! But worse" (Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone) What a perfect, and fairly accurate, description of a great classic album. To be honest, I would have liked to have had "Paranoid" instead of their debut album, but it's fun to listen to the roots of both Black Sabbath's style and heavy metal more generally, and the Wikipedia article is a good read. (I had no idea that Tony Iommi had lost his right-hand fingertips in a sheet metal factory accident, or that Geezer Butler was originally a guitarist, and how much both of those facts made the band both distinctive, and worse than Cream with all the power chords and simplified bass.)
Definitely not their best album, and I'm impressed at how much less "heavy" this album was than later ones, but I loved finding out that they recorded it essentially live, in one day, and before closing time at the pub. And for that alone, it's really impressive.
3
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Wed Apr 10 2024
The College Dropout
Kanye West
I'm not really a Kanye West aficionado (or particularly a fan), so this is probably my first time hearing a whole album by him (and perhaps the only time, depending on whether there are other Kanye West albums in this project). It's hard to believe that his debut album is the best of (pre-unstable) Kanye West, but regardless there's not a lot of particularly memorable stuff on a surprisingly long album, and it's hard to believe that most of what he produced on this album was all that ground-breaking either (aside perhaps from avoiding the gangster-rap mode), although apparently a lot of critics would beg to differ.
The songs with featured artists are probably the high points on the album (for me, at least), but even these aren't really to my taste, I'm afraid; I guess "chipmunk soul" is an acquired taste. I did enjoy "Jesus Walks (Version 2)", though, and also somewhat for "Two Words" and "Never let me down", and the backstory of "Through the wire" and West's horrible car accident is kind of (morbidly) fascinating. But it's hard to ignore the hot mess he became over the years, which means he has a higher bar to meet for being both entertaining and interesting even in his earlier work. I was really tempted to give this only 2 stars (mainly for how long and indulgent the whole thing felt), but that didn't seem fair given that he produced and wrote the whole album.
3
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Thu Apr 11 2024
Brutal Youth
Elvis Costello
Much like Steely Dan, I generally enjoy listening to Elvis Costello, and have one or two of his albums, so it's always nice to get him in the collection's rotation. But this particular album is a bit of a mystery, as there's nothing particularly distinctive about it; the Wikipedia entry for the album is remarkably scanty (and provides no context for why this might have been included); and, more damning, the Wikipedia entry notes that there are six(!) Elvis-Costello-related albums in the 1001 Albums project, which seems about 4 (or 5?) too many. But who knows? Maybe some of the other ones are truly distinctive or totally different genres.
"Brutal Youth", though, seems pretty classic Elvis Costello, and while that's perfectly fine, it's also neither super exciting (at least to me) nor does it have any classics or radio hits.
3
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Fri Apr 12 2024
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
The Smashing Pumpkins
*Another* Smashing Pumpkins album?!!! I'm not sure why they'd really warrant two (or more?) entries in the 1001 album collection, and it always seems like a perverse form of torture to inflict a double album on any but true fans anyway. (Worse, the YouTube music link went to some 5-hour version of the album with 92 songs, which was fortunately so long that I knew it wasn't the version I should have gotten.)
I've always wanted to like them more than I do. And this album didn't help, with it's annoying Belle-Epoque-style cover and title (although in some ways they occasionally *do* have a Hugo-like aesthetic, so maybe it's fitting?). However, at least there's more range on this album than on "Siamese Dream"...
3
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Sat Apr 13 2024
1984
Van Halen
I'm really surprised there are (at least) two Van Halen albums in this collection, but I always enjoy vintage Van Halen (pre-Hagar), so no complaints here. This definitely isn't as good as their debut album, or some earlier ones, but I'm pretty sure this is the first truly commercially successful album (or at least the only album with a #1 single), so it makes sense to have it here. Even when this came out I was a bit surprised at how synth-heavy some of the songs were, and that hasn't aged all that well (in my opinion); it's a bit like how we got "Hysteria" instead of "Paranoia" for Def Leppard. (I didn't know until reading the Wikipedia entry that the synth/keyboard was Eddie's brainchild; a still mystifying preference given his guitar virtuoso/diva side.)
But I've always loved "Panama" (and never could play it very well in my brief-lived guitar years), and "Hot for Teacher" is also definitely in the classic Van Halen vein (as is "Top Jimmy" and "Drop Dead Legs"). It's too bad that David and Eddie struggled to share the spotlight, as they had a great sound.
4
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Sun Apr 14 2024
Youth And Young Manhood
Kings of Leon
I feel like I've heard of Kings of Leon for a long time now, but have no idea what they sound like or even what genre they fit into. So it's nice to have an excuse to listen to an album by them (even if it is their debut album and likely *not* their best). I wasn't expecting a sort of retro-infused punk-lite/southern rock style (with a few other styles thrown in), but it's not bad, and certainly different than a lot of what was getting produced back then. It's amazing how *young* they were when this album got released, and how utterly homegrown their band and early albums were. It's also intriguing how much more popular the band has been outside the US (at least sales- and chart-wise ).
Although the overall sound is generally not like him or his band, the lead singer's voice occasionally strongly reminds me of Jonathan Richman, which probably isn't the Kings of Leon's intention, I suspect....
3
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Mon Apr 15 2024
American Pie
Don McLean
Despite having heard the song "American Pie" a zillion times, I'm not sure I've ever heard the rest of the album, so this is great. It's of course hard *not* to think of Don McLean as a one-hit wonder, given the well-deserved immortality of "American Pie", but his other hits on this album don't really compare, at least to me. But then again, I've never really warmed to most of the folk/ballad-style/easy-listening hits that seem to permeate 70s albums. (I did enjoy the sort of Dylanesque "Everybody loves me, baby," though, and I also enjoyed "The Grave".)
It's fun to read a little bit about the recording of "American Pie" (the song), and it makes me appreciate the backing band style and execution. And very cool that he (likely) got Pete Seeger, James Taylor, Carly Simon and others for the backup refrain towards the end of the song.
It's hard to know the best rating for this album. It's so much like "Alice's Restaurant", where there's just one (great) song that's stood the test of time, and the rest of the album kind of drags that song down in some ways. (Although "American Pie" is *so* much better than "Alice's Restaurant," I know.) So I'll settle for a wishy-washy 3 rating.
3
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Tue Apr 16 2024
Hot Buttered Soul
Isaac Hayes
A great selection for this project! Given how long the tracks are on this album, I doubt I've ever heard any of these songs before, at least in their original format, so it's really nice to hear an early release of an iconic artist. (Sadly, the YouTube Music link for this album includes the much shorter single/radio-friendly version of "Walk on By". The 12-minute version is so much more interesting, I'd say.)
It's fascinating to read that if not for Atlantic splitting with Stax, he probably wouldn't have even made this album, which would have been a shame for everyone. And not just Henry Rollins. :)
4
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Wed Apr 17 2024
Henry's Dream
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
I'm a long-time Nick Cave fan, so a nice selection for today. And this is a solid album for him, thankfully, so a double-bonus! (Although probably not one of his best, oddly, so I'm not sure why this one was chosen.) A bummer, though, that making this album was such a painful and unhappy process; thankfully the conflicts with the producer don't show too badly (although I guess I'll have to listen to "Live Seeds" to get many of these songs the way Nick Cave was envisioning).
It's kind of hard to imagine that Nick Cave sang a variant of "Papa won't leave you, Henry" to his young son (and then admitted that it's a "kind of a nasty fucked-up lullaby").... "Brother, my cup is empty" is a great classic-Cave-sounding song (to me, at least).
4
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Thu Apr 18 2024
Truth And Soul
Fishbone
I listened to this album so many times when it first came out, and loved it every time. I can't really tell if it's aged well or not, but it's very fun to listen to it again. It's probably easier to list the songs that weren't my favorites--"Freddie's Dead", "Deep Inside", and "Change"--as the rest all competed for favorite song (although the political/racial aspect of "Slow Bus Movin'" and "One Day" might rank them just a bit higher than the others).
It's kind of a bummer that their subsequent albums, at least the ones I bought, weren't as compelling (with the exception of "The Reality of My Surroundings"), but that's maybe to be expected, since I probably wanted them to just churn out more albums just like "Truth and Soul", and to their credit they clearly wanted to experiment with other styles and sounds. And the show I saw them at in LA--Primus and Fishbone--was a lot of fun, even with their newer material. I don't think I've ever seen so much energy from a surprisingly large band. (And what a bizarre combination of bands, although I loved them both. And I think it was at the Hollywood Palladium, an odd venue too.)
5
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Fri Apr 19 2024
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
The Kinks
While I'd heard some of this album's songs (thanks to "Chronicles"), I haven't heard this album as an album before, and it sounds like it's really meant to be a whole album/concept experience. I'll admit that without reading the Wikipedia entry for this album, I would never have realized this was either a musical or that there's a whole storyline involved (although knowing it now makes the whole Shangri-La/Australia thing a lot more understandable). It's odd that it got a fairly tepid reception in the UK, but a glowing one in the US, and in some ways probably doesn't belong as one of their best albums (despite favorable comparisons to "Tommy" at the time). But a fun listen nonetheless.
3
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Sat Apr 20 2024
Elephant
The White Stripes
Now *this* is the White Stripes album that should be in this collection--so much better than "White Blood Cells", and so much better than a lot of albums out there, frankly. I own this album, and I enjoy it every time I hear it, even if Jack White's voice can sometimes be a bit grating.
I feel like they achieved a really nice balance in this album, and nearly every song is both fun and (fairly) distinctive. I'm not sure it deserves a full five stars, but they're getting it nonetheless. :)
5
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Sun Apr 21 2024
Are You Experienced
Jimi Hendrix
I'm embarrassed to admit that while I've heard many songs from this album, this is the first time I've listened to the album outright. So, *now* I can say I'm experienced, I suppose. And what a great experience! Not every song can be as contagious or definitive as "Purple Haze" or "Foxey Lady", but even today it's not all that hard to understand how revolutionary the whole album was (or why it was so immediately popular).
The Wikipedia entry for the album is a great read too (even if it's a little too long in the tooth at times). And now I know why Jimi Hendrix's sound is so distinctive on the album, given that he was literally blasting everyone out in the studio (and even causing computers above one of the studios to mess up). I'm really glad to know that Chas Chandler played a significant role in helping Jimi Hendrix bring his genius to the world.
Finally listening to this album in its entirety only makes me even more baffled that the high school in Seattle I went to, and where he (briefly) attended much earlier than I did, had only a small, unlabeled bronze bust of Hendrix buried deep in the high school library, and nothing else to celebrate a brilliant musical artist.
5
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Mon Apr 22 2024
Behaviour
Pet Shop Boys
Well, I guess the string of great albums in this collection had to come to an end, and Pet Shop Boys seems like an appropriate way to move from great to meh-ness. And I would challenge their first track assertion that they were never being boring, as this is kind of a snooze-fest of an album, even for them. (Speaking of that, why Pet Shop Boys at all, and not Depeche Mode or Tears for Fears?)
As with so many albums in this collection, it's a bit of a mystery why this particular Pet Shop Boys album made the cut, as this doesn't seem like their best stuff, nor a particularly notable new direction for them. Ah well; it doesn't really suck, so I give it the wishy-washy award of three stars, although it's hard not to downgrade to two stars simply because I (irrationally) *really* don't like this band.
3
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Tue Apr 23 2024
Music in Exile
Songhoy Blues
I've never heard of them before, but it's really nice to hear a band in this collection that's (a) not from North America or Europe and (b) doesn't sound like a sort of genericized world-music band (at least for much of the album). And they've got a great (and also tough) backstory both for the title of the album and their journey from the Timbuktu region to the capital of Mali (and beyond). (A bit of a bummer that so many Malians (and apparently many West Africans) have the same last name Touré, as it's hard to know what sort of connections the band members had to each other, although interesting to know that Garba Touré is "the son of Ali Farka Touré's long-time percussionist".)
I'm not sure I've ever heard "[Sahara] desert blues" before, but I like their version of it, and most of the songs have great guitar and rhythm work to them; it's also amazing to read that Malian blues long (long long) predates American blues. Admittedly, I have no idea what the song titles or lyrics mean, so I can't really judge whether their songs are more formulaic or story-driven, but I like the energy and sound nonetheless.
3
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Wed Apr 24 2024
Pelican West
Haircut 100
It's always seemed like too many 1980s albums and bands suffered from...something...maybe a sort of musical malaise? Too many songs and albums just seem to blend together into a sort of synthy, poppy, sax-heavy generic-sounding music-light. And this is a perfect example of this. I'm not sure if they're all just missing some sort of soul, or distinctiveness, or message, or what, but it's painfully insipid and watery, certainly listening to it in 2024 (but I wasn't much of a fan of much of this kind of music even when it first came out). However, it's not poorly produced or anything, and they definitely tried to be a little more funky than some others, so it seems like a 3-star rating is fair.
3
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Thu Apr 25 2024
Crocodiles
Echo And The Bunnymen
It's nice to see Echo & The Bunnymen in this collection, but then I cheated and looked to see just how many albums we'd be getting, and was disappointed that there are three (3!) Echo & The Bunnymen albums, which seems like one (or maybe two?) too many. And while "Crocodiles" is a fun debut album for a band, with a decent range of styles on it, it's definitely not their best, so kind of a bummer that this is the selection of the day.
Although I suspect true fans of either band would be annoyed to hear me compare them, but I've always felt that Echo & The Bunnymen and The Cure (and somewhat The Smiths, and by extension Morrissey's solo work) are kindred spirit bands in many ways. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a Cure fan (nor much of a fan of The Smiths and particularly Morrissey), so that's not the biggest compliment, but it's an in interesting overlap to me.
3
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Fri Apr 26 2024
Tigermilk
Belle & Sebastian
I've never heard of the band, or this album, or even the lone single from the album ("The State I Am In"), so that's always a nice surprise. And it's a fine album, with a much stronger/together band-sound than apparently they were when they recorded nearly all the album in three days. The album also has the great backstory of getting created as part of a music business course (and getting noticed by John Peel and Mark Radcliffe).
I enjoyed listening to it, but as much as I always have a soft spot for Scottish bands, it wasn't particularly distinctive or engaging (for me).
3
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Sat Apr 27 2024
OK Computer
Radiohead
I *still* want to like Radiohead more than I do, sadly. This is probably one of their better if not their best album, I know, but I still have a hard time enjoying the songs, even though they're well done and have interesting arrangements and odd lyrics in a good way. I'm not sure why they don't do it for me (although I think part of it is Thom Yorke's voice/style, sadly), but I likely won't listen to this album again. Sorry Radiohead!
I *will* say that the music video for "Paranoid Android" is truly bizarre, and I couldn't stop watching the entire 6+ minute video (although I'll admit that I probably wouldn't have done so if they'd left it at the original 14-minute runtime). And I also have *zero* idea what I just saw, or what the song is about (and I don't think the animation really had anything to do with the song, oddly (correction: apparently the animator based the video on how the song felt, and wasn't provided the lyrics ahead of time)), but I love it that the song's title is inspired by "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
And a few other things that I liked from the Wikipedia article on the album: Brian Eno is once again everywhere; apparently they took a break from this album by touring and opening for Alanis Morisette (not the most logical pairing, I would think); and I can definitely see why Yorke credits Philip K. Dick's VALIS as an influence (although I now realize I was thinking of Dick's "Ubik" when I read "VALIS").
3
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Sun Apr 28 2024
Remedy
Basement Jaxx
I'm not sure if I be embarrassed to admit it, but I have three Basement Jaxx albums (including this one), and I'm always impressed with how fun and positive (optimistic?) their music is, sort of a guilty pleasure I guess? I'm not sure I'd rank this as their best album, but for a debut album I can see how it took the music (dance) scene by storm, and it has a number of very solid songs on it.
I've never seen their music videos before, and all of the videos for their singles on this album are fun to watch, and uniformly odd. (Most of the videos remind me of a much more recent Brazilian movie, "Bacarau") I also love it that they did the soundtrack to the best pothead aliens movie you'll likely see, "Attack the Block", and while I didn't know it at the time, it totally makes sense.
4
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Mon Apr 29 2024
Faith
George Michael
Ugh. Too bad this isn't Michael Cera's George Michael (Bluth, that is)... :) It's hard to not just pass by this album, having heard too many of the songs on the radio back in the day, but I guess even this album is worth listening to, and hearing songs that didn't make it on the radio. (I guess.)
I hadn't realized until now that he actually wrote and produced nearly all of the album, nor that he actually *did* play multiple instruments on most of the songs (although his guitar "work" in the "Faith" video is supremely annoying, as he's not even trying to pretend that he's strumming anything like what the music is playing). That said, the music is so...blah...and was even then (to me), and some of the songs are just painful to listen to ("I want your sex" is a prime example, as it always seemed like he tried so hard to be manly in a very hetero way). But given its massive popularity, then and even now, that's a very minority opinion.
I feel a little guilty giving this a 2-star rating, as it's not really fair to George Michael's legacy, but I really didn't enjoy listening to this album. And I really enjoyed reading somewhat recently that he and Andrew Ridgeley were avid Scrabble players, but it still doesn't make this album easier to listen to. Sorry, George Michael!
2
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Tue Apr 30 2024
On The Beach
Neil Young
I'll admit that I've never really found my groove with Neil Young, so it's harder to embrace an album like this, which seems pretty obscure even for Neil Young fans. (As for my ambivalence, I think Robert Christgau's quote (in the Wikipedia page for this album) puts it far better than I ever could: "Something in [Young's] obsessive self-examination is easy to dislike and something in his whiny thinness hard to enjoy.")
As with every Neil Young album (and song), though, there's some interesting stuff going on, and it's funny that the "primitive" production/recording of this album seems to be a theme he keeps revisiting (I think one of his most recent albums he recorded solo at Jack White's house in an ancient disc-recording booth). And the stories behind "Revolution Blues" (and Charles Manson) and "Ambulance Blues" make them far more intriguing to listen to than I initially gave them credit for. I'm also incredibly impressed that they were able to produce anything after subsisting on the "Honey Slides" concoction, a truly foul-sounding substance.
3
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Wed May 01 2024
Hunting High And Low
a-ha
I'm not sure you could get more synthy-pop than this album, to be honest. But I'm also not sure you'd want to. I enjoyed the video for "Take me on" a lot more than the song, and am really impressed at the pseudo-animation style given when the video was made. (And I now discovered through the Wikipedia entry for this album that the animation was done by a couple who also worked on "Altered States", which makes total sense.)
I never really listened to a-ha beyond whatever the radio imposed, but I'll admit I'm totally baffled to learn that this was a Norwegian band--I would have bet anything they were British (and English to be specific). Shows how much I know. Still doesn't do it for me, though, but it's hard to give it lower than three stars given it's legacy and influence.
3
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Thu May 02 2024
Urban Hymns
The Verve
I didn't think I'd heard The Verve before, but then as soon as "Bitter Sweet Symphony" started playing, I realized I *had* heard them (at least that song, many many many times), and I always enjoyed hearing it on the radio. The video is weirdly misanthropic, though, and makes me like the song less, sadly. (Likewise, the Wikipedia article for this album only seems to reinforce that Richard Ashcroft is a selfish, arrogant jerk, sadly.)
I'm pretty sure I haven't ever heard most of the rest of the album, and for all of the hook to "Bitter Sweet Symphony", the rest of the album doesn't really deliver on that promise. The album seems just sort of average overall. Nothing great, nothing horrible (except maybe that video...). It's a bit shocking that "Urban Hymns" is #19 on the list of best-selling albums in UK chart history, as I feel like I could list a lot more than 19 UK albums that are much better than this (and yes, I know that's not the same thing).
I'm also *super* bummed that the track "Velvet Morning" wasn't a cover or adaptation of that bizarre Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra song.
3