1001 Albums Summary

Great album. One of my coworkers said that not only does it work with The Wizard of Oz, but also Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.

Now I finally know what Rolling Stones tune Neil Young took for “Borrowed Tune,” so that’s cool. Neil did it better, of course. This one really isn’t it.

Can you imagine if Moe Tucker had ever hit a cymbal hard? The world might be a totally different place.

A little piece of H. Land trivia: Black Hole Sun is my least favorite song, beating out Cotton Eyes Joe because it’s a full two minutes longer. When I saw the run time of this album, I slumped. But I made it through, and even turned it up real loud. There were about 2 minutes of this that I really liked, on My Wave and I think Head Down. Ranking this album is hard, because I’m just not into the sonic palette of grunge. Ultimately, it gets a two, because it’s definitely not worse than Aftermath, but I wouldn’t listen to either again.

I enjoyed this album throughout. Great rhythm section and guitar work.

I was able to listen to this one a few times today, mostly while shoveling out the driveway and hitting Walmart. The music’s just so evocative of feelings, moods, places, weather, seasons. It works well as background music and also rewards close listening. It’s a music of movement and movements. On the first listen, the front half of the album sticks out. The first track’s cinematic, 19th-century bombast trading bars with some strutting saxophone leads to a somber, snowy piano solo into another warm saxophone bop in “Strange Meadow Lark.” “Take Five” sounds like the stream of thought in a flow state. The last four songs kind of blended together to me on the first couple listens (it took forever to shovel this driveway), but while I was putzing around Walmart I put on the second half and was surprised at how much is going on. It’s far more subtle, but there’s as many shifts in tone and tempo and the continued movement keeps it interesting. Was initially gonna rate it a four, but this one won me over.