I always knew about this album, my students in San Francisco introduced to it, and its two big hits were perennially on radio when radio mattered. But I never really gave it a seriously listen... until now.
It's a fantastic album, a signature watermark of the 90s Birtpop scene that was overrunning America at the time. From the opening track "Hello" with its balance of volatility and a great hook to the final magisterial song on the collection, (What's the Story) Morning Glory really holds together well. Most of the tracks bear a Beatles' influence in their melodic compositions and Noel Gallagher's nasally singing that evokes Lennon, but I also feel some of the Psychedelic Furs in there, along with late-period Paul Weller. "Wonderwall", of course is a classic, great lyrics, great tight musicianship. I feel the drum track is key in this entire song. In "Roll With It" the open chord strumming of the guitar gives a song a looseness that runs rampant over the track, and along with "Hey Now", feels like a track built for the live shows, where they really rock out. "Don't Look Back In Anger" hearkens to the good old English rage in Osborne's play, and also contains the best lyric:
"Please don't put your life
In the hands of a rock'n'roll band
Who'll throw it all away."
Damn, it's like yes, Sally, you can screw us, but don't get attached cause we're already leaving, groupie!
The beauty of "Cast No Shadow" is accented with orchestration and wanting background vocals and also come with this kicker: "As he faced the sun/He cast no shadow." The hollowness of daily life was never more succinctly put. There's grunge on this album, but also straight-up beautiful balladry.
And then there's a final crowning track. "Champagne Supernova" is a supremely special song. It starts out slow and measured and then gradually crescendoes to this epic psychedelic peak that strains to keep the hot emotions in check. The lyrics are eminently quotable, and I hear people of ages singing along whenever this track plays. 30 years later, it still resonates with such power and confidence.
A rockin' album. I'm not hot for the Doors, but a transformation happened in this LP and LA Woman that appealed to me. The music is muscular and heavy and there is a sense that the band wants to evolve into something bigger than their previous incarnations. Of course, Roadhouse Blue perfectly epitomizes this desire and it surely has earned its place as a classic rockin' standard. But so do You Make Me Real and Peace Frog/Blue Sunday. The Blue Sunday section bears a mysterious ease that tells me Jim is fully in love.
The album definitely leans more toward the blues in tracks like You Make Me Real and The Spy, which Morrison clearly based on Anais Nin's novel. I wish there were more guitar solos like the one in You Make me Real.
By the time we get to Indian Summer, we are in an acid-fueled blissed out dream of love. I think Morrison's singing is the best on this track. His voice vines with Robbie's guitar strains so beautifully. Best song, too short.
Maggie McGill returns us to the blues and makes Jim snarl so convincingly.
I always thought I'd heard this album in the past, but I was so wrong. Man, this album is sharp. Embedded in the SF psychedelic blues scene, Cheap Thrills fairly smolders. I hear some live tracks and some recorded in the studio. They all have the feel and looseness of a live show.
The opening track, Combination of the Two, starts the whole thing really high and hot, with a searing guitar solo that feels utterly contemporary. The whole album feels like a road movie, or at least a soundtrack for a long road trip.
R. Crumb cover is legendary.
Janis is at the top of her form. Her rendition of Summertime is absolutely killer. In fact, this arrangement of Gerschwin's aria from Porgy and Bess is the best and most original I've ever heard. Those point-counterpoint guitars are effectively wrapping up the song in love.
Piece of My Heart is outrageous. I'm too familiar with it by now to feel its urgency anew. But she sings the hell out of it.
No doubt this Texas girl heard a lot of blues radio in her early years. Her command of Turtle Blues and Ball and Chain are drenched in that slow dangerous country blues grind. The roadhouse piano played by John Simon (producer) in Turtle Blues rings so true.
Oh Sweet Mary is a track rock so propulsive, so fast it feels like it's there simply to tee up the next track....
Ball and Chain, which is almost 10 minutes of live blistering bluesy rock and roll. So soulful. So volcanic. Janis eviscerates herself all over the crowd. This track makes the album an instant classic. The guitar work is stupendous too; in fact, it's here that the whole band is as tight as a bud.
I'm discounting the four tracks that were added to the Apple Music version of the album. I heard them, and they're fine, but really, I'm going to stay true to the original release and only rank those songs that debuted in 1968.
A definite win here.
Louvre is an incredible number. Just crackles.
Liability is such a naked song. "You're a little much for me" Lorde is a lotta much for the world.
Hard Feelings/Loveless. So well produced. Like the rest of the album. Which is what I think makes me pull back some. It's because I'm old. I remind myself that "Dark Side of the Moon:" was also super produced, as was all of Steely Dan. I hear her sing "Bet you wanna rip my heart out", then I let this girl's talent wash over me. She's the real deal.
Sober II (Melodrama). The centerpiece of the album. The afterparty, the afterglow, the dirty sheets, the toxic cleanup. And what I sense is the loneliness of this generation.
The album cover is gorgeous. A post-modernist take on the post-coital moment. She's looking at us as we hold out shoes in our hands and tip-toe out the door... Her looks says it all: "Leaving so soon, bitch?"
Writer in the Dark. What a complex track. The layering of voices, tones, meanings. The vocal is louder than on other songs, saying listen. You don't want to miss this. "I love you till my breathing stops, I love you till you call the cops on me." Desperation like I've never heard it before, raw emotion given a cold gloss. Best track on the LP.
Perfect Place is too oriented for radioplay. I wasn't enamored.
But overall a fine album. I think she's a serious artist.
Nothing like Joni has ever happened in music. She channels just about every love poem ever written and still sounds as original as ever. For her, love is a mythic act, and that's what she's after on this album.
Court and Spark is a brighter album than Blue, yet no less a classic. Her melodies meander along like a roller coaster through bliss. "Help me" is a sweet ride, lilting and sweet. She's in good company here, with a consummately tight outfit who really get her. And her voice soars so high with crystal clarity, almost angelic. But she's not after heaven. She's after the grit and grace of love. Her evocation of the disenchanted man in "Free Man in Paris" captures his feelings so well, but it also sounds like a gentle mockery.
She also has her jollies making like the Andrew Sisters with the boogie boogie number "Raised on Robbery". (I remember when saxophone solos like the one here was a staple on most 70s songs.) She has just as much fun on her cover of "Twisted" which features Cheech and Chong. (For you kids, they were a comic duo who released a slew of hilarious albums in the 70s.) I thought she'd penned this one for a long time, she performs it with such authority. And what a comical way to end the album, clearly indicating that she means business but she's got a sense of humor too.
Nevertheless, it is her beautiful personal ballads which bathe us in her folk soul. I belong to "People's Parties", "The Same Situation", "Down to You", and "Just Like This Train", which are resonantly Joni. Just let me light one up and sway along. I still have my original vinyl and I've played it often, but not so often that the record gets worn down. This is a treasure I intend to... well... treasure.
Not a big fan of ABBA. But I know the music is good, nay, even outstanding. It just isn’t my cuppa.
One of the greatest performances ever. A man unleashed. He sings his guts out before the company of sinners.
Title song definitely declares a new sound for the Temptations who were already too eager to follow the sound that Sly and the Family Stone had established. Soulful but psychedelic, multi-vocal, layered beats, taking on the proud Black sound without apology.
I Heard It Through The Grapevine is almost as good as Marvin Gaye's but the arrangement is still very very cool.
Oh mama! This next track Runaway Child Running Wild is on fire. Expansive, epic, all the singers dialoguing with each other. Otis is growling his rage through every note! The band is jamming so good. The album is practically done after this urgent track. Goes scary with the shrieking "I want my mamma!"
This music takes me back to my multi-colored wide-flared bell-bottoms! An almost forgotten sound of the late-60s soul and funk.
Then things slow down for the luscious love ballad, Love is a Hurtin' Thing." I used to slow-dance to this with girls too young to know what I didn't know... which is that we were on the threshold of something new. That what the Temptations ushered us through... they started with My Girl and all those amazing happy 60s soul songs... but now they were taking us into new territory, a more complicated territory.
But hold on... we're not entirely done with the old Temptations. There's still Hey Girl... which pairs really well with My Girl. Carole King/Gerry Goffin penned this track, and producer Norman Whitfield knew what he was doing passing this to the Temptations. It captures the perfect Motown sound, which isn't giving up its original vibe without a proper tribute.
And Eddie Kendricks is warbling that beautiful distinctive falsetto of his on I Need Your Lovin'. Gotta rate that high as high as he sings it.
And the three final tracks are made for dancing, so be prepared to have everyone at your party bounce around the floor with verve and abandon. The fine gents etched a classic here, no doubt.
A stunning debut by an artist who had been recording and performing for years in Iceland. Only this time, it's the adult Bjork announcing herself. And this album really made it auspicious. Such a unique voice, a unique style, a one of a kind artist. She picks up where David Bowie left off with pop experimentation, only it's simultaneously more personal and danceable.
I have never heard this one before. But I do own CDs of Post and Vespertine, which I think are superior. But there's no denying that for a first album, Debut set the pace for all musicians of her stripe to come forth, from Lorde to Lady Gaga.
1993 was a good year, after all.
Food and Liquor.
But Fiasco's Quicker.
Such a great album. I remember this one too. Had some great lyrics, great rhymes and word play.
From Just Might Be Ok:
"Then he leaves the house that love built, that HUD renovated, that Section 8 pays for
Well, let's pray for him, let the beat play for him.."
And this one from the same track:
"I ain't nicest MC, I ain't Cornel West
I am Cornel Westside, Chi-Town Guevara
Malcolm eXorcise the demons, gangsta leaning
He traded in his kufi for a New Era..."
He's got a political cap on during most of the these songs, but he's passionate and super nimble on the mic, confident and poised. "Real" feels like his opening shot over the bow of the ship of fools; he is not playing the corporate game, he's going for Real.
"Kick, Push" has a nice smooth vibe, but Lupe Fiasco continues to be pointed in his rapping. "Just a rebel looking for a place to be."
I don't usually gravitate to HipHop, but I can see why this album is on the list. So innovative, so playful, even as he is serious about his social stances. He's always pushed the envelope of his chosen genre and that signifies that he needs a larger canvas to make his statements, which he is eloquent with.
it's no wonder the album opened up with Ayesha Jaco, the fine spoken word artist and his sister. He is himself a poet of Rap.
This is Creedence Clearwater Revival at its summit. All the tracks are absolutely outstanding. Each one of the musicians understood their role and executed with heart and sharpness.
So many hits on this that took over AM radio in their day (my day), and yet all the singles covered a wide swath of genres and feelings. Lookin' Out My Back Door (goofy surrealism), Run Through the Jungle (dark imagery evoking the worst of Vietnam), Who'll Stop The Rain (folky Americana with political undertones), Up Around the Bend (consummately joyful), Long As I Can See The Light (saddest track on the album), and Travelin' Band (pure sizzling rocknroll). And still, you always knew it was CCR.
Even the other tracks bristle with energy and drive. Ramble Tamble starts as traditional rock n roll, but then goes off into this long psychedelic instrumental section that seems perfect for the San Francisco scene, but it tightens up as the tempo quickens... and then we're right back to the rock n roll.
One of the reason this album (and their other classic LPs, frankly) work so well is that the music is rooted in the swampy blues, and that comes through best in Before You Accuse Me, a great Bo Diddley number that they cover so beautifully. They amp that beat up for Travelin' Band, one of the craziest 50s style rockers that would make the Eddie Cochran proud. My Baby Left me, an Arthur Crudup original that Elvis made famous gets a nice treatment too.
John Fogarty has such a unique voice, instantly identifiable, especially when it's laced in all that reverb. And his playing is masterful. What they do to Gladys Knight and the Pips' I Heard Through The Grapevine is astounding. They essentially took an established soul number and gave it that swamp boogie feel and stretched it out like gum across 11 glorious minutes with extended guitar solos that feel earned. All Fogarty.
An instant classic.
Peter Gabriel takes it to another zone with So.
One of the quintessential albums that define the 80s. Gleaming production, polyrhythms, excellent melodies made not much radio but for MTV. His voice singing Red Rain, Sledgehammer, Mercy Street, Big Time, and In Your Eyes was everywhere. So many other artists of the 60s and 70s had reinvented themselves for this new generation, Steve Winwood, Sting, Kate Bush, Phil Collins, Tina Turner. But none went deeper or had a bigger influence on the sound of the era than Peter Gabriel.
He knew he had gold with Sledgehammer, a radio-friendly rocker that raised the stakes with the remarkable stop-motion photography of the video. And it's a lively track. But his quieter numbers like Mercy Street and Don't Give Up really gave this album traction. They are simply beautiful odes to redemption and solace. These are modern psalms in a definitively secular time. They feel so personal.
But he is still in an adventurous mood, creating atmospheres and vocal soundscapes that betray his avant garde soul. This comes through in We Do What We're Told and in This Is The Picture (Excellent Birds) -- where he collaborates with Laurie Anderson. She was just coming off her superb Mr. Heartbreak and the quirky Excellent Birds was refashioned by Gabriel for this album. They make a great pair; a pity they didn't make an album together.
But I really dig his duet with Kate Bush, who was also riding high on the success of Hounds of Love, another stirring 80s masterpiece which I've no doubt I'll come across here. She is the angel's voice to Peter's despair, offering the counterpoint balm to a horrid world out there. It is my favorite track.
In Your Eyes is so gorgeous, it's romantic, ecstatic, anthemic, and incredibly infectious. The perfect song to close a perfect album. It's no wonder the LP is on this list, there's not a weak track in it.
Okay. Not as good as other 80s bands.
