Essential Studio Albums

[Birds in Hell]

It’s highly impressive to pull it off - call it minimalism but there’s a ton going on there.

I haven't had the pleasure to see it in person, but seeing it performed live even on video is pretty astonishing:

[liebzz]

The B-52s

Tucked somewhere between the new wave sounds emerging, late 50s pop, and a campy Halloween party come the B-52s. Nothing quite encapsulates this eccentric sound like the class Rock Lobster, which manages to be campy and thrilling at the same time. That they could keep up this energy for the full album is pretty impressive. Nothing like being a throwback and simultaneously moving the ball forward in the realm of pop rock. This goofy, silly, and pure ear candy. Enjoy.

The Essential Track: Rock Lobster

Up Next: Kenny Loggins - Keep the Fire

[liebzz]

It’s highly impressive to pull it off - call it minimalism but there’s a ton going on there.

I haven't had the pleasure to see it in person, but seeing it performed live even on video is pretty astonishing:

I thought about watching that instead of the studio album and then decided to go with the studio track - but I should come back to that!

[liebzz]

Kenny Loggins - Keep the Fire

We’re taking a brief detour into Lite FM territory. At first, I had some decent hopes for this. Love Has Come of Age had a kind of plastic but almost palpable pop rock thing happening, and Mr. Night is kind of a fun song that belongs on an 80s movie soundtrack. It kind of all falls apart from there - a mix of hard to swallow ballads and half assed pop rock. But hey, I tried.

The Essential Track: Mr. Night

Up Next: Rupert Holmes - Partner in Crime

[Kevin Davis]

It’s highly impressive to pull it off - call it minimalism but there’s a ton going on there.

I haven't had the pleasure to see it in person, but seeing it performed live even on video is pretty astonishing:

This is awesome.

I pretty much love everything I have heard by Reich. Highly recommend doing “Octet/Music For a Large Ensemble/Violin Phase” when you get to 1980!

[liebzz]

Rupert Holmes - Partners in Crime

Before I started this album, I asked myself who in the hell is Rupert Holmes, and you may have the very same question. But if you like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain…you might have a clue. This is really a bizarre yacht rock album whose subject matter (see Lunch Hour) is I think meant to be laid back while at the same time mundane. It’s like the Seinfeld of yacht rock albums - an album about nothing. Whether that works is up to the listener and for me it was largely mixed - some good, some bad.

The Essential Track: Escape (the Pina Colada Song)

Up Next: Kool & the Gang - Ladies’ Night

[LoathedVermin72]

Well now I want to listen to that album

[VinylGuy]

that cover is an art piece itself.

[wease]

God, I hate that song, tho.

[liebzz]

Lunch Hour is probably the most goofy lyrics of any song on this journey thus far.

She gets an hour for lunch
but if it comes to the crunch
She can stretch it if
you know what I mean
She meets him at a hotel where
they're not known very well
'Cause they never stay beyond 2:15
She does her make-up with care
and runs a brush through her hair
Then grabs a cab back up to Third Avenue
And at a quarter to three,
her friends say "Oh-my-oh-me,
Whatever you just had for
lunch agrees with you"

Lunch hour, lunch hour,
lunch hour, lunch hour
How do you find time to eat?
Well, there are so many
people on the street
All of them are hungry, hungry,
hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry

Lunch hour, lunch hour,
lunch hour, lunch hour
Gimme a sandwich to go
Well, as long as I can see you, I know
I'll never go hungry


He takes a drive every day
From Brooklyn to JFK
Because he meets a flight
at noon from Montreal
And every day he'll await
Outside Air Canada's gate
'Cause she's a stewardess
connecting with St. Paul
And when his lady arrives
They run for both of their lives
Out to the Piper Cub
Motel that they call home
Then back to Terminal 2
She meets her husband anew
He is the navigator
of a flight from Rome

And it's lunch hour, lunch
hour, lunch hour, lunch hour
How do you find time to eat?
Well, there are so many
people on the street
And all of them are hungry, hungry,
hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry

Lunch hour, lunch hour,
lunch hour, lunch hour
Gimme a sandwich to go
Well, as long as I can see you, I know
I'll never go hungry


No lunch, no brunch
I'll munch something on the run, dear
East side, west side
Fast ride, lunch hour's begun here


I'm on a diet
(No lunch, no brunch)
You might try it
(I'll munch something on the run,
dear)
Fast food and hot love
(East side, west side)

You can do it
Long as you got love
(Fast ride, lunch hour's begun here)

We live on a nine-hour day
(No lunch, no brunch)
We sleep 8 hours away
(I'll munch something on the run, dear)
Work from 9 to 5 with 60 minutes off
(East side, west side)
So when lunch hour's begun
We're really ready to run
(Fast ride, lunch hour's begun here)
It's on your mark, it's
down and set, it's off
(No lunch, no brunch)
Off to a table for two
Off to a room with a view
(I'll munch something on the run, dear)
With someone new who
you just barely know
(East side, west side)
You're really up for the date
And you don't want to be late
But still you swear your
watch is 60 minutes slow


Is it lunch hour, lunch hour,
lunch hour, lunch hour?
How do you find time to eat?
Well, there are so many
people on the street
And all of them are hungry, hungry,
hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry
Lunch hour, lunch hour,
lunch hour, lunch hour
Gimme a sandwich to go
Well, as long as I can see you, I know

I'll never go hungry

[liebzz]

Kool & the Gang - Ladies’ Night

This album is quite different than the near jazz funk of their prior releases and goes straight for the dance pop jugular. The title track is quite well known, as is album closer Too Hot. It’s a short album, though the songs tend to push longer track times than typical pop music, but it’s certainly not the instrumental powerhouse of the albums of yore. This one was made the sophisticated mama - the disco lady.

The Essential Track: Ladies’ Night

Up Next: Michael Jackson - Off the Wall

[liebzz]

Michael Jackson - Off the Wall

I am not sure any pop star has been as good as riding the momentum of pure funk/soul/pop energy like Michael Jackson. The first half of Off the Wall is like a boulder tumbling down a mountain. There ain’t no stopping this. Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough, Rock With You, Workin’ Day and Night, Get on the Floor, and Off the Wall is one helluva string. The albums seems to lose a lot of focus on the second half, though it catches its fire back on Burn This Disco Down. This is the first of I think 3 albums that made him the king of pop, and for good reason.

The Essential Track: Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough

Up Next - Van Halen II

[liebzz]

Van Halen II

We just covered their incredible debut that perfectly mixed Diamond Dave’s entertaining over the top personality with EVH’s crazy guitar histrionics. The follow up coming the next year is maybe not quite as strong song-wise, but it’s got plenty of tracks that can compete with the debut. Beautiful Girls, Light Up the Sky, D.O.A., Bottoms Up!, and Outta Love Again are as uncompromising as anything in the debut, Women in Love… is a great track, and their cover of Dance the Night Away is just the right of tongue in cheek that makes their covers so entertaining. The solo here, Spanish Fly, seems like a concerted effort to prove the fireworks of Eruption could just as easily be recreated on acoustic, and is just about as impressive. Not the debut, but not really all that far off.

The Essential Track: Light Up the Sky

Up Next: KISS - Dynasty

[wease]

Women In Love is top 5 Van Halen for me. Love that riff and the harmonies in the chorus.

[liebzz]

Women In Love is top 5 Van Halen for me. Love that riff and the harmonies in the chorus.

Brings up a really good point here because while DLR is an incredible entertainer, he does not, on his own, have a great singing voice and relies heavily on Michael Anthony’s harmonies to carry the songs, especially in the choruses.

[wease]

Women In Love is top 5 Van Halen for me. Love that riff and the harmonies in the chorus.

Brings up a really good point here because while DLR is an incredible entertainer, he does not, on his own, have a great singing voice and relies heavily on Michael Anthony’s harmonies to carry the songs, especially in the choruses.

And Ed

[liebzz]

KISS - Dynasty

If perhaps the kids thought in 1979 that KISS was the antidote to disco, like in Detroit Rock City the late 90/ comedy, then this album blows that up pretty quick. If you want to call it experimenting with a dance sound that very well is influenced by disco’s song structures, along with what feels like leftovers that didn’t make other KISS albums, that’s kind of the feel of this one. Dirty Lovin’ and Sure Know Something are pretty good but I really wasn’t into the rest.

The Essential Track: Dirty Lovin’

Up Next: Rainbow - Down to Earth

[liebzz]

Rainbow - Down to Earth

Having lost most of the band going into this one, including James Ronnie Dio, I couldn’t imagine expectations would have been high for this. The rock softens up a bit but I would still probably call this hard rock, Since You Been Gone is a bona fide hit on the closest Rainbow gets to pop, and there some pretty good spots on this one. Eyes of the World is pretty fantastic, and All Night Long and Lost in Hollywood have a sound not so dissimilar to KISS when they were at their best. The new guy can’t do what Dio could, but it was a good effort at it.

The Essential Track: Eyes of the World

Up Next: ZZ Top - Deguello

[liebzz]

ZZ Top - Deguello

We get to another short run of southern rock albums, and this one largely was off my radar, but it’s pretty good. There’s their signature boogie rock throughout this, but it also gets pretty interesting at points, with small experiments, like running the guitar and vocals through the voice alteration machine in Manic Mechanic, or the straighter blues of their version of Dust My Broom. Cheap Sunglasses was my favorite here and seems to foreshadow things to come.

The Essential Track: Cheap Sunglasses

Up Next: The Allman Brothers Band - Enlightened Rogues

[liebzz]

The Allman Brothers Band - Enlightened Rogues

It’s not easy, post-Brothers and Sisters and before the 1990s, to find a decent string of songs, let alone an album, from these guys. It was just a dead zone period spawning mostly tired albums and even what I would consider the worst album I ever heard on that albums with Gregg Allman and Cher. This, however, is the exception. The opening string of Crazy Love, Can’t Take It With You, and Pegasus will have you thinking of the old days, and Just Ain’t Easy adds another highlight. Maybe not among my favorites, but redemptive compared to its contemporaries.

The Essential Track: Pegasus

Up Next: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes