Great recommendation. I really like this record. Beautiful and imaginative and original.
Not my favorite Lou Reed record, but it’s still a Lou Reed record! And for my money, he's still one of the best writers ever to turn his attention to rock and roll. I like Transformer, but the songs are a little underfed for me and I miss his distinctive, occasionally corrosive guitar tone. Too much Bowie/Ronson for me. I prefer underdog albums like Coney Island Baby and New York, but I won't turn the volume down if you put this one on.
Right on the heels of Lou Reed! I literally just bought this for the first time on vinyl. I know people have complained about John Simon's production over the years, but I don't think it gets in the way of the songs - some of which I first discovered in the snowy landscape of Robert Altman's film McCabe and Mrs. Miller. I can never hear "Winter Lady" and "The Stranger Song" without feeling that melancholy chill. But I must admit that I did not learn to fully love this record until I was older and realized that Cohen actually had a sense of humor that was akin to Reed's and musical sensibility that was akin to John Cale's.
You guys are totally singing my song (s). I bought this when I was ten and just beginning to suspect that Buffalo Springfield was just a little too LA Cowboy for my tastes. As soon as I heard the guitar tone for "Cinnamon Girl," I was along for the full ride. Especially since it has one of the great one-note solos of all-time - right up there with "I Can See For Miles." "Losing End" and the title track are very good and pretty close to Springfield. So it's "Down By The River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand" that really make this proto-grunge classic.
I like these guys and it's probably the best album I've heard by them. I vastly prefer the side one songs that sound less like normal U2 over the side two ones, which are much more what you expect. The production and songwriting are welcome departures, and the song "One" is as good as they're ever going to be. But I still have this thing about U2 where I don't go back and listen to their records that often. They give you everything the first time, and there's not that much mystery to uncover afterwards.
I just recently listened to Paranoid all the way through for the first time and thought it was great. This one isn’t quite as focused. But still quite good. Much jazzier and jammier than expected. Maybe a little much in places but impressive.
Weird, perverse, and singular. Really I can’t think of many records that sound like it. Their first record didn’t indicate this was where they would go at all, and I’m not aware that they ever did anything comparable. I remember listening to this on an 8 track driving the back roads of a wrecked factory town in 1980 they would soon become the site of a major casino. No wonder it made perfect sense.
I missed these guys the first time. Still not quite getting what’s special about them. Maybe it’s me.
Not my favorite Stooges album. Fun House is where it's all happening for me. That's where Iggy and the boys really hit their psycho-primitive stride. James Williamson's guitar-playing is probably better than Ron Ashton's, technically, but overall sound is more generically "rock" than on the two previous albums. Also, the lyrics don't have the debauched deadpan irony of the later ones Iggy wrote with Bowie. Still...it's the Stooges! It's like a hamburger; you have to really work to screw it up.
Pop music isn't religion. But this is canonical. In Judaism, there is a Passover song called "Dayenu," meaning it would been enough if God just parted the waters to save the Hebrews from the Pharaoh. If Aretha had only recorded "Chain of Fools," dayenu, it would have been enough. "If she had only cut "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, dayenu...
Now I'm worried I'm getting too much in my comfort zone. Two albums composed by Lou Reed in the first ten selections. Not necessarily the best Velvets album, but they only made four and they're all great - and groundbreaking. This allegedly had some of those "pretty" songs that caused dissension with John Cale - but Cale himself wrote a bunch of pretty songs that sound a lot like these on Vintage Violence and Paris 1919, not so long after. Anyway, this is a wonderful record with very restrained performances of some of Lou's best songs, including "Pale Blue Eyes" and "Candy Says." I must admit I did not realize until recently that Leonard Cohen's first record must have made a huge impression, because you can hear his influence in "Jesus" and "Story of My Life." And of course, Mo gently singing "Afterhours" immediately after the fractious experimentation of Murder Mystery seals the deal.
Now we’re traveling into unknown territory (for me). Obviously, a very layered, serious work by an accomplished artist. Lots of new and old sounds, Asian and English, acoustic and electronic, blended into a heady international mix. I see this album is listed as a 1999 release but it could be from last year. All that keeps this from being a five-star for me is a certain New Agey-ness that seeps in occasionally and the fact that my ears are too damn old. But my rating may actually go up at some later date.
Looking forward to this. For some reason, I only know their late album Oceans Apart, but I think it's one of my favorite albums of the last 25 years. Full of hard earned wisdom and rueful humor, and a perfect balance of the two songwriters’ bittersweet and darkly ironic sensibilities…
Well, now I listened it’s good. Quite good in places. But not quite up the high water mark of that last record. Except for “Streets of Your Town” which really sparkles.
I wasn’t familiar with this before, but it was pure musical pleasure.
A singular seminal work; a time capsule of certain artistic era in New York City; the artistic peak of "punk” (which actually meant something different then); a once-in-a-lifetime rock and roll achievement. I saw Television open for Peter Gabriel in New York, right after this album came out. The Genesis lovers in their Hobbit beards and peasant blouses booed like hell as soon as the band was introduced. The prog rock fans had heard about this "punk" stuff and wanted nothing to do with it. Television played the first side of this record as their set.
The fans booed through "See No Evil," the opening number, because it sounded a little edgy and raw. Then they quieted down a little when Verlaine played the delicate solo on "Venus," because they sounded like something Genesis might tolerate. Then they were booing again for "Friction," which sounded kind of rocking. But then the band started weaving their way through the mysterious asymmetries of Marquee Moon and a hush fell over the section where I was sitting. The guitar journey began and you could feel some people were letting go and coming along. By the crescendo, the people around me were on their feet, stomping and cheering. But Verlaine and the others were already gone from the stage.
I generally don't like this kind of music or attitude, but these guys were really good. Especially on their first few albums, before the dreaded Hagarness set in and drained the humor and light away. They had a nice combination of heaviness, melody, musical dexterity and occasional vaudeville goofiness. This one has some of their biggest hits. "Panama" is great, "Jump" is fun, "I'll Wait" okay, and "Hot for Teacher" is kind of dumb. I prefer Diver Down.
Charming, off-kilter, just the right amount of wackiness. "Race for the Prize" still makes me smile after all these years. "Waiting for Superman" moves me every time I hear it. Overall, a really memorable record, though at times, even if a little too twee and brittle to make it one of my all-time favorite albums.
One of my all-time favorite singers backed by my all-time favorite drummer (Al Jackson, Jr., also Otis Redding's drummer). I was prepared to dock this one a star because I didn't know every track before I listened - though the title track was the first song we had the band play at our wedding. Anyway, the rest of it's great. Including his cover of "How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?" That band found its groove and stuck to it beautifully. And he pushes his voice in a subtle ways that I hadn't noticed before. I also love his album "Call Me." Wonder if that's on the list as well.
