An introduction to Alice Cooper for me and a very nice surprise. Musically intriguing while living up to the "Shock Rock" moniker he's known for in songs such as Raped and Freezin', I Love The Dead, and Elected. Overall an enjoyable listen and evocative of The Rolling Stones in ways. Perhaps not as intense as modern stuff but makes me question if I like Alice Cooper now.
Ragged Glory is full of the "what's that song again?" type of songs you pick up over the din of a gritty dive and all of your friends just shrug their shoulders and passively remark how awful the singing is. Young's attempt at a garage rock style album falls flat with many of the songs merely coming across as ideas that never developed beyond the demo phase. It's a shame becuase "Mansion On the Hill" and "Love and Only Love" prove that there was potential, and if they had combined the occasional Neil Young guitar brilliance with less drunk sounding vocals, it could have been great. "Farmer John" was a particularly low low-point that you could absolutely convince me was partially sung by that guy we can all remember in a bar audience who should have been cut off two beers ago. Zero polish, disappointingly lacklustre.
"Talking Book" is a classic album that contains what is arguably Stevie Wonder's most famous song, "Superstition". This was his second album after being given full creative liberty from Motown and, in his 15th album overall, you can sense he was really starting to hit his stride even amidst a divorce and the still raging Vietnam War. Musically genius and wonderfully experimental for 1972, I'm surprised this is the first time I've listened to the full album from beginning to end. But, it definitely will not be the last. I've always thought that you need to have a certain empathy and proclivity towards humanity's more tender emotions to relate to Wonder's catalog, but this album has something for everyone.