My first album in this project and unfortunately I don't have a whole lot to say about it. I'd only been familiar with Santana from his later pop career (mostly the overplayed "Smooth") and didn't know him as a prog rock guitarist. His guitar playing is instantly recognizable and impressive.
I'm really unfamiliar with prog rock so I have a hard time picking out details about this album. Oddly enough, my favorite track was probably the atmospheric opener "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts" and it led me to think I was going to enjoy the album a lot more than I did. This may be because it's an instrumental track and I enjoyed the instrumentation more than the bland vocals from Gregg Rolie (sorry, I'm not a Journey fan either).
I think this album might grow on me over time. This is probably an album best enjoyed when put on a turntable in the background with a glass of wine (or something much stronger) rather than focused listening through headphones. It's great at contributing to a hazy and psychedelic mood even when the individuals songs don't particularly impress.
A more fascinating historical document than it is an album. I accidentally listened to the recent re-release that includes both of Cash's performances at Folsom prison, so I'm not sure I got the original experience which supposedly has the best moments of each performance spliced into one. My favorite moment of that re-release, which was the American tall-tale storytelling of "The Legend of John Henry's Hammer" on side 1, apparently didn't make the original release (the performance of the same song on side 2 didn't go as well). It tells a story (relevant once again) of workers trying to resist being replaced by machines.
The stunt of recording a live album at a prison with these songs, which often have lyrics about outlaw characters who end up in prison, is very successful, and the audience reactions add a lot to the atmosphere.
On a first time listen, it struck me how much of this album diffused into future rock albums from different bands; this may be why this album is catching accusations of sounding generic.
One example of this is the harmonized vocals on "Head Down" sounding very similar to what System of a Down was doing on their Hypnotize/Mezmerize album. (Also, did anyone else notice how the melody of "Black Hole Sun" sounds REALLY similar to "Wicked Little Town" from Hedwig? I'd always thought that musical was purely inspired by Bowie but clearly there is Soundgarden influence as well!)
They're also doing interesting things with time signatures in these songs, which could go unnoticed since it's more subdued that the flamboyant time signature switch-ups of bands like Tool or SOAD.
Impressive vocal range from Chris Cornell. I love the falsetto on "She Likes Surprises" right before the breakdown.
Great guitar riffs throughout. I love the creepy descending riff on "The Day I Tried to Live".
"Spoonman" is the song I'd heard before and I still like it just as much. It hits a happy medium of being heavy and interestingly structured while still being a perfect candidate for radio play.
I do feel like the album is too long and a bit exhausting for a single session. I started running out of energy at "Kickstand", and the back half of the album started to feel lethargic (other than "Half" coming out of left-field with its Bollywood sound). Breaking the album up into multiple sessions would probably allow you to appreciate the later songs more.
Adding a star because of how incredibly influential this album was, but I can't say I find this album especially pleasant to listen to outside of a specific mood. The singles "C.R.E.A.M." and the ensemble piece "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta F'Wit" are the standouts here. It's really incredible that a production with so many limitations still turned out this serviceable. While the backing samples are interesting and were unique for the time (the kung-fu film samples are especially fun) they still become too repetitious for such a lengthy hip hop album.
Having worked retail jobs for some years, Christmas music has mostly been ruined for me, and it's a rare day when I choose to put it on of my own free will. That said, it's the holiday season and I'm feeling generous; this is probably the best Christmas music can aspire to be. Having the album be a compilation of various artists really helps cut down on the repetition that a full Christmas album would typically involve.
The production is unusually good for this kind of music. In general, many Christmas songs have wimpy, music-box instrumentation with the vocals way in the front of the production, and there's none of that here. The instruments and vocals are balanced to the point where you feel we're all in the room together (I guess this is Phil Specter's "Wall of Sound" concept). I particularly like the trumpet solo on "Here Comes Santa Clause".
Darlene Love's "Christmas", which originated with this album and is probably one of the best Christmas songs out there, is the standout here.
At the end of the day, though, these are still Christmas standards we've all heard a million times, and I felt my attention wandering on some tracks. I think this is ideally just thrown on in the background to contribute to a holiday mood; just a slightly elevated version of what we do already with Christmas music, but I'd rather hear this than a Spotify playlist that might subject me to something too saccharine and annoying (although I'd put "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" off this album in that category).
To me, this is the platonic ideal of swing/big band music. Since this is a purely instrumental album, I don't have enough musical training to coherently write about the details, but I sure enjoyed it.
The propulsive opening of "The Kid from Red Bank" flows right into the groovy "Duet"; this song sounds like the soundtrack for strolling down a trendy city street on your way to a jazz club. "After Supper" is a more staid affair but the energy picks up again and doesn't much let up after that.
I LOVE the brash brassiness of "Double-O"; the horns and saxophone just sound so good here. It's very 'noisy' and goes just to the edge of playing with dissonance, but also sounds warm and pleasant, which seems like such a difficult balance to achieve.
"Teddy the Toad" is kind of a rhyming callback to "Duet". Next is the charming swagger of "Whirly-Bird" which will definitely wake up you with its relentless energy if you're feeling tired by this point. Then "Midnite Blue", which starts out slow and moody but eventually erupts. I really like the satisfying horn motif on "Splanky". And "Lil Darlin" gently closes out the album.
Overall, there's not a dull song in the bunch! Albums like this are the reason I want to do this project, and The Atomic Mr Basie is definitely going into my regular rotation.
I'd listened to the opening of this album a number of times over the years, but strangely enough I never continued listening to the rest. "The Suburbs" (title song) is still great in how it captures a certain wistfulness and nostalgic melancholy. It exemplifies something this album does very well, which is to have the instrumentation work in tandem with the lyrics to illustrate them. I do think though, that since this is partly an album about midlife disenchantment, that this CAN manifest as boredom in the production itself.
I have to admit that I found it a little too easy to zone out during this album, and there are definitely moments of tedium; weirdly enough, the tedium seems more pronounced during the more ostensibly upbeat songs ("Month of May" being a particular low point, for me, and an introduction to a weaker, more meandering section of the album). The album picks back up, though, with "We Used to Wait" and finishes strong with the two-part suite "Sprawl". Part II is the climax of the album when all the plodding angst suddenly unfurls into something euphoric, like waking up to a beautiful sunset after a night of despair.
"Ready to Start" is also particularly great. I really like that moment when the vocals get a half-step out of sync with the backing instruments on the lyric 'if I was pure, you know I would'; to me it adds authenticity as it signals the character's hesitancy, almost as if he's questioning whether he really means what he's saying.
