Essential Studio Albums

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David Lee Roth - Eat ‘Em and Smile

Rather than reinvention, DLR instead chose to double down on the sound that made him famous, grabbing instead the next best guitarist in Steve Vai. The results are actually quite entertaining and enjoyable. Goin’ Crazy is the best known track here but everything is quite solid and quite Diamond Dave. I’m Easy and That’s Life even play on the covers that made his debut EP and fun Van Halen tracks like Ice Cream Man. Score this one for Diamond Dave.

The Essential Track: Goin’ Crazy

Up Next: Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time

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Van Halen - 5150

We’ve made it to Van Hagar! Actually, I don’t know that I ever gave this album a proper listen straight through. I may have mostly written it off given that much of their singles from this were ballads and ballad adjacent - the kind of stuff that tried to mark a clean break from the non-stop party of the David Lee Roth years. The actual product is not as cleanly broken. Good Enough, Get Up, and Summer Nights seem like they could have been recorded with DLR (and that he might have done more with those), but Best of Both Worlds, 5150, and Inside are a real interesting change that does much to redeem this album. The aforementioned singles are not my cup of tea. A mixed bag to start a new era, but better than what I expected.

The Essential Track: 5150

Up Next: David Lee Roth - Eat ‘Em and Smile

Summer Nights is the only track that is known to have been worked on while Dave was still in the band.

[wease]

David Lee Roth - Eat ‘Em and Smile

Rather than reinvention, DLR instead chose to double down on the sound that made him famous, grabbing instead the next best guitarist in Steve Vai. The results are actually quite entertaining and enjoyable. Goin’ Crazy is the best known track here but everything is quite solid and quite Diamond Dave. I’m Easy and That’s Life even play on the covers that made his debut EP and fun Van Halen tracks like Ice Cream Man. Score this one for Diamond Dave.

The Essential Track: Goin’ Crazy

Up Next: Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time

I think Yankee Rose is better known. It was a decent hit for him. And a good tune. Best tune on the album tho, is his cover of Tobacco Road.

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David Lee Roth - Eat ‘Em and Smile

Rather than reinvention, DLR instead chose to double down on the sound that made him famous, grabbing instead the next best guitarist in Steve Vai. The results are actually quite entertaining and enjoyable. Goin’ Crazy is the best known track here but everything is quite solid and quite Diamond Dave. I’m Easy and That’s Life even play on the covers that made his debut EP and fun Van Halen tracks like Ice Cream Man. Score this one for Diamond Dave.

The Essential Track: Goin’ Crazy

Up Next: Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time

I think Yankee Rose is better known. It was a decent hit for him. And a good tune. Best tune on the album tho, is his cover of Tobacco Road.

Well, then I knew Goin’ Crazy. It’s actually quite shocking for me, growing up a Van Halen fan by sibling osmosis and then in actively listening to the DLR years that I never really undertook any of these albums in full.

[wease]

David Lee Roth - Eat ‘Em and Smile

Rather than reinvention, DLR instead chose to double down on the sound that made him famous, grabbing instead the next best guitarist in Steve Vai. The results are actually quite entertaining and enjoyable. Goin’ Crazy is the best known track here but everything is quite solid and quite Diamond Dave. I’m Easy and That’s Life even play on the covers that made his debut EP and fun Van Halen tracks like Ice Cream Man. Score this one for Diamond Dave.

The Essential Track: Goin’ Crazy

Up Next: Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time

I think Yankee Rose is better known. It was a decent hit for him. And a good tune. Best tune on the album tho, is his cover of Tobacco Road.

Well, then I knew Goin’ Crazy. It’s actually quite shocking for me, growing up a Van Halen fan by sibling osmosis and then in actively listening to the DLR years that I never really undertook any of these albums in full.

This one is a good album. The next is ok but nowhere near as good.

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Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time

We’re up to album #6 with this band, and I haven’t lost the thrill of hearing this band yet. There are a number of excellent tracks on this one that continue in their tradition - Caught Somewhere in Time, Wasted Years, Heaven Can Wait, and Alexander the Great (356-323). The band doesnt quite capture as much magic as those first 5 albums, and will be overshadowed by a few other metal albums in ‘86 forthcoming, but this is still a strong release to me.

The Essential Track: Caught Somewhere in Time

Up Next: Metallica - Master of Puppets

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Metallica - Master of Puppets

Going into this, I knew this was going to be one of those albums - I mean I grew up with this album both with my older brothers playing it nonstop, but weirdly as a 9/10 year old as well. Obviously, I was too young to put into words what it was all about, but it sounded awesome and that was good enough for me then. I put this album away circa 1993 swept up in the whole Pearl Jam-Nirvana thing coupled with more interest in bands like Led Zeppelin and The Who at 15 years old, and then didn’t come back to this album until a couple of years ago.

As for the album itself, it’s an outright masterpiece in the genre, an album that could nearly be mistaken for a classical album in its breadth and extent of composition, but also an album that’s incredibly and cathartically loud. It scratches the itch in the right brain equally to the left brain. Precision, creativity, drama, and swagger - a near perfect album.

The song of the album is unmistakably the title track, but Battery, The Thing That Should Not Be, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), and Disposable Heroes are serious contenders. Truly one of the greats.

The Essential Track: Master of Puppets

Up Next: Megadeth - Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying

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Megadeth - Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?

This is the first of this band’s albums we are covering here, a curiosity since Dave Mustaine’s origins in Metallica create a sort of natural comparison given each band’s spin on thrash metal. Metallica may have moved more operatic with each successive release to this point, and Megadeth is closer in execution to Kill ‘Em All - unrelenting energy and speed, though there are still moments of strong composition that give the songs more than a one trick pony pigeonhole, most notably I Ain’t Superstitious, which has an almost classic rock feel to it. This does though seem like an effort to push the boundaries of the thrash genre into more speed.

The Essential Track: I Ain’t Superstitious

Up Next: Slayer - Reign in Blood

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Is that a cover of the Howlin’ Wolf tune or an original composition?

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Is that a cover of the Howlin’ Wolf tune or an original composition?

Cover. Written by Willie Dixon.

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I bet that’s quite a translation.

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I bet that’s quite a translation.

There’s only one way to find out!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hp9CIWgoq ... Rpb3VzoAcB

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I bet that’s quite a translation.

There’s only one way to find out!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hp9CIWgoq ... Rpb3VzoAcB

More faithful than I would’ve thought, actually. Borrows from the Jeff Beck Group version a bit, too.

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Slayer - Reign in Blood

Of the three thrash metal albums we hit here in a row, this is the heaviest and loudest. It is also the one that plays most in your head as to what thrash metal is - unrelenting assault of guitars, dark subject matter, and everything taken to its logical extreme. It’s the sort of album that not only defines a genre, but foreshadows the caricature to come of the genre as well. This is another of those albums that won’t ever be one of my personal favorites but I hold a strong appreciation for the risks it takes and the fresh take on the genre.

The Essential Track: Angel of Death

Up Next: Cinderella - Night Songs

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Cinderella - Night Songs

Coming a bit down the mountaintop of heavy music, we arrive at Cinderella’s Night Songs. I was expecting something akin to Ratt or Poison with this, but I think they sound more akin to a descendent of AC/DC, especially in vocal delivery and in their heavier sound. Granted, the cheap thrills associated with hair metal are certainly evident, but as hair metal goes, this isn’t the worst of the bunch and goes right into a category above that. Granted, that’s not saying too much, but it’s something. Shake Me, Nobody’s Fool, Somebody Save Me, and Back Home Again are actually pretty decent here. But for now, this serves as a good off ramp for putting heavy music aside for moment.

The Essential Track: Somebody Save Me

Up Next: RUN-DMC - Raising Hell

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Run-DMC - Raising Hell

There’s very little hyperbole behind the statement that this album changed everything. Yes, even Run-DMC themselves had some serious rock rap albums we’ve covered, but this is the one that brings it fully to the mainstream whilst also resurrecting the career of Aerosmith in the process. We talked about Permanent Vacation, but that came off the heels of this - a blazing cover of Walk This Way and an iconic video to match. Add to that It’s Tricky, My Adidas, You Be Illin’, and Hit It Run and you have one helluva record to bring hip hop to the forefront. The next one will also give a significant push…

The Essential Track: Walk This Way

Up Next: Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill

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Run-DMC - Raising Hell

There’s very little hyperbole behind the statement that this album changed everything. Yes, even Run-DMC themselves had some serious rock rap albums we’ve covered, but this is the one that brings it fully to the mainstream whilst also resurrecting the career of Aerosmith in the process. We talked about Permanent Vacation, but that came off the heels of this - a blazing cover of Walk This Way and an iconic video to match. Add to that It’s Tricky, My Adidas, You Be Illin’, and Hit It Run and you have one helluva record to bring hip hop to the forefront. The next one will also give a significant push…

The Essential Track: Walk This Way

Up Next: Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill

We wore these two albums OUT back in the day.

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Beastie Boys - License to Ill

The debut album from the Beastie Boys is one of the most purely fun albums in a decade of fun albums. Half the album is Beastie Boys classics, including iconic hits Fight For Your Right and No Sleep Till Brooklyn. Girls, Paul Revere, Hold It Now Hit It, and Brass Monkey are must hears. Rhymin’ & Stealin’, The New Style, Slow Ride, Slow and Low, and Time to Get Ill are good highlights, and the group manage to mash up Led Zeppelin and Credence Clearwater Revival hooks without effort. I know they get better, but this youthful moment in time seems like pure 80s good times.

The Essential Track: No Sleep Till Brooklyn

Up Next: Prince - Parade: Music From the Motion Picture Under a Cherry Moon

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Prince - Parade: Music From the Film Under the Cherry Moon

Part of the appeal for me when it comes to Prince is his chameleon like ability to transform into whatever he wanted musically - pop star, rock god, jazz aficionado…he could do it all and it rarely felt forced or awkward. This album is nearly all psychedelic pop, but with a more laid back vibe, and certainly not the energy or excitement of a 1999 or the rock pop vibe of Purple Rain. This, in Prince’s hands, is no problem, as there’s plenty here to chew on and re-listen to to get into his vision for this one.

The Essential Track: Kiss

Up Next: Ornette Coleman & Pat Metheny - Song X

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Ornette Coleman & Pat Metheny - Song X

It takes a moment to calibrate yourself with Ornette Coleman’s free jazz. In Song X, this album wastes no time in hitting you with a barrage of notes design to disorient you a bit, and then maybe 45 seconds to a minute in, your brain finally catches up with them. It’s that sort of approach that keeps you on the edge of your seat for this entire album, a collection of mind bending playing where somehow everyone is meeting in the right place rather than descending into chaos. Sometimes it’s a razor’s edge between the two, but it manages to never cross over - a kind of brilliance that is singularly Coleman - like an Eddie Van Halen of the sax, and never losing track of the point. Video Games as a great moment at the end where it seems like Coleman sparks an idea, starts playing it, and the band immediately responds in kind. Kathelin Gray is a ballad of sorts at least compared with the rest of the album, and Long Time No See is free jazz and its best. The best movement here, though, is Endangered Species, an absolutely mind blowing blend of Coleman and Metheny’s guitar synthesizer that stretches even this genre to its max in both playing and creativity. What an album…

The Essential Track: Endangered Species

Up Next: Sonic Youth - EVOL