Positives: The harmonies are eargasm material. Freddie Mercury sounds amazing as always. John Deacon is a very unique and inspired bassist who I always love hearing in the mix. The trademark Queen guitar sound is enjoyable. There are a couple very standout songs on the album (especially that one).
Negatives: Overly theatrical for my taste. I won't ever understand why the other band members got so much space to sing on their records when Freddie Mercury(!!) is in their band. Also way too many jokey or music hall-ish songs for a band that, at their core, sound best when they go heavier.
Overall an enjoyable and fun listening experience that doesn't suit my personal ideas for what an album should be, but definitely has merit, especially in some individual songs.
Best songs: You're My Best Friend, Bohemian Rhapsody
Worst songs: I'm in Love With My Car, The Prophet's Song
I've known about Harry Nilsson for a long time, but I hadn't actually listened to him until now. This might, partially, be because I unfairly categorized him as a Beach Boys copy, a band that I'm not generally too fond of. On 'Nilsson Schmilsson', the singer definitely has a voice of his own, somewhere between the late 60's Pop Rock acts and the refined Yacht Rockers of the 70's. Based on his last name I assumed he was of Swedish decent and apparently his great-grandfather was from here originally. Nice!
Positives: Nice, smooth voice. Reminds me a bit of Donald Fagen. I'm not usually too into Baroque Pop but the horns are mixed very nicely, I like a drier and closer mix for horns in Pop/Rock rather than bigger, heavy-reverb sounds. The production overall is fantastic, right up my alley and very well suited for this style of music. The album is uplifting and happy without being annoying or trying too hard. Any record gets bonus points from me for having a mellotron, the best instrument ever invented. The late Beatles/Beach Boys style harmonies are done beautifully, though not as well as by those bands. Great piano playing!
Negatives: The very slow songs like 'The Moonbeam Song' are quite boring to me. 'Coconut' sounds like Harry Nilsson is trying to imitate one of Paul McCartney's many joke songs. Who in their right mind would want to do that?
Best songs: Driving Along, Without You, Jump Into the Fire, I'll Never Leave You
Worst songs: The Moonbeam Song, Coconut
Damn I love the blues! I've always wanted to listen to Muddy Waters, just hadn't gotten around to it fully. I've loved what I've heard though, and this record is certainly no exception.
Having been playing and recording the blues for decades at this point, Waters exudes comfort and absolute confidence in what he's doing. His presence is highly charismatic; the music itself feels almost more like a backdrop to him than anything else. That's not dismissing the other musicians on here, especially the absolutely fantastic James Cotton on harmonica, who even steals the show from Muddy Waters in a few stunning showcases of skill. Overall there's a good mix of more laid back storytelling and driving, raffish, blues mastery.
Led Zeppelin is one of my favorite bands of all time. While I love most of their output, I have conflicting thoughts on 'III' in particular.
The content of this album sounds very inspired and forward-thinking for 1970. Innovative and enjoyable are two very different concepts, however. For example, 'Friends', and 'Celebration Day', the second and third tracks respectively, sound very fresh and quite unique. But they also don't really make me feel anything, which is unlike what I generally want from music.
There are exceptions of course, 'Immigrant Song' is just awesome and I love the Norse mythology-themed lyrics. 'Since I've Been Loving You' has a reputation that precedes it, and it is almost as good as people say. Or is it as good as people say? I don't know, it rocks! 'Tangerine' is so damn beautiful.
A few diamonds in the rough are sadly not enough to keep 'Led Zeppelin III' from being the worst of the best Led Zeppelin material. At least it's better than 'In Through the Out Door'?
Best songs: Immigrant song, Since I've Been Loving You, Tangerine, Gallows Pole
Worst songs: Friends, Celebration Day, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Abysmal: Hats Off to (Roy) Harper
My words could not do Stevie Wonder's astonishing skill in every area of music-making justice.
This album is for all the keyboard enthusiasts. Hohner Clavinet rules!
My words could not do Stevie Wonder's astonishing skill in every area of music-making justice.
This album is for all the keyboard enthusiasts. Hohner Clavinet rules!
It's hard to overstate the legendary status this double live album has.
The first disc is composed of perfectly adequate – but not superior – acoustic renditions of some of his best songs released that year and the year before. I don't think any of these reach quite the same heights that the original studio recordings do; nonetheless it is still some of the best music ever composed, enjoyable to listen to in any format.
Listening to the second disc, you realize that the first half was nothing more than a distraction, a wall built up only to be torn down. Theatrics. And it works. Tell Me, Momma (a song exclusively performed live in 1966 and never recorded in a studio) lights the stage up in Dylan's unique bluesy folksy punk-esque cacophonous electric sound, killing any hope the folk puritans in the audience had that the amped up Judas would return to his senses. What then follows is essentially a 47 minute victory lap. Perfected renditions of some of Dylan's most driving songs. I would describe the playing as being fine tuned over time, but there's more of a looseness and casual confidence throughout the backing band (proto-The Band 'The Hawks') than a sense of preciseness or by-the-books playing.
Obviously, the victory lap ends with an 8-minute rendition of 'Like a Rolling Stone'. Obviously, it's the best thing you've ever heard. Obviously, Bob Dylan crashes his motorcycle a few months later, killing Judas, while Dylan carries on. Music changed forever.
