Essential Studio Albums

[Birds in Hell]

Man, what a blunder!

I forgot to nominate one of my favourite albums ever for '89:

The Necks - Sex

[Birds in Hell]

1990:

Ride - Nowhere
Pale Saints - The Comforts of Madness
My Bloody Valentine - Glider EP
Slowdive - Slowdive EP
The Sundays - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic
Mazzy Star - She Hangs Brightly
Happy Mondays - Pills n' Thrills and Bellyaches
The Jesus Lizard - Head
The KLF - Chill Out

It's a TV soundtrack, and there's a few other qualifiers, but I think it's essential enough to include:

Angelo Badalamenti - Soundtrack from Twin Peaks

[oasisfan35]

Mark Lanegan The Winding Sheet
World Party Goodbye Jumbo

[liebzz]

Weddings Parties Anything - The Big Don’t Argue

I am not sure what happened with this band, but I found myself being into the first two songs, Street of Forbes and The Ballad of Peggy and Col, and then I suddenly turned. I don’t know if it was a suddenly annoyance at the unending accordion, or something else, but I just snapped in that “enough with the half Scottish half Lord of the Rings soundtrack vibe already!” - I am not sure what got into me since I liked all their prior albums. Either way, I found myself largely shut off for this, and maybe it recovers for their next one, but this sort of went too long in that one direction.

The Essential Track: Street of Forbes

Up Next: John Lee Hooker - The Healer

[liebzz]

John Lee Hooker - The Healer

In case you ever wondered where Carlos Santana got the idea for Smooth feat. Rob Thomas, come see The Healer, an album chock full of John Lee Hooker’s friends and guests, including Carlos Santana, Canned Heat, Charlie Musselwhite, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, George Thorogood, and Los Lobos. Granted, this exceeded my expectations when I saw the plethora of guests, and John Lee Hooker stays at the center of this, his weathered voice lends the grounding this album really needs. That’s Alright and the last section are the purest blues tracks and ultimately my favorite here. The Healer and I’m in the Mood are pretty great though.

The Essential Track: I’m Alright

Up Next: Eric Clapton - Journeyman

[liebzz]

Eric Clapton - Journeyman

Back in 2001 or 2002, I got to see Eric Clapton live, and it was a great mix of songs from all the bands and different points in his career. An excellent show where he sort of perfected the formula of a blues rock player by the numbers: a bunch of hits peppered with a few blues numbers, big guitar solos over a competent rhythm guy, all the works. Journeyman feels like the studio version of the formula, but it doesn’t quite resonate the same. It just seems like a rich guy banging away at the blues with his plethora of hired hands. Granted, even then there are a few gems here, like Before You Accuse Me, and Running On Faith. Otherwise it’s a professional collection of solid tracks that don’t really move the needle.

The Essential Track: Before You Accuse Me

Up Next: The Jesus and Mary Chain - Automatic

[liebzz]

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Automatic

To be clear, the songs on this album are really top notch and so I have no problems here as it pertains to songwriting. The guitars sound great here too. But there is a human element lost when the drums and bass are synthetic. UV Ray is a perfect example of a perfectly interesting and solid tune ruined by there being no bottom present and it sounding synthetic. A punch of bass and drums would have put this album into some pretty great territory. Head On, Coast to Coast, Blues From a Gun, and Gimme Hell all favorites that would have been even bigger favorites if not for an exact choice that takes some soul and sound from these tunes. Re-record this with an appreciable drums and bass and this is maybe my favorite of theirs so far.

The Essential Track: Head On

Up Next: Julee Cruise - Floating Into the Night

[oasisfan35]

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Automatic

To be clear, the songs on this album are really top notch and so I have no problems here as it pertains to songwriting. The guitars sound great here too. But there is a human element lost when the drums and bass are synthetic. UV Ray is a perfect example of a perfectly interesting and solid tune ruined by there being no bottom present and it sounding synthetic. A punch of bass and drums would have put this album into some pretty great territory. Head On, Coast to Coast, Blues From a Gun, and Gimme Hell all favorites that would have been even bigger favorites if not for an exact choice that takes some soul and sound from these tunes. Re-record this with an appreciable drums and bass and this is maybe my favorite of theirs so far.

The Essential Track: Head On

Up Next: Julee Cruise - Floating Into the Night

But then they'd have to call it Manual.

[liebzz]

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Automatic

To be clear, the songs on this album are really top notch and so I have no problems here as it pertains to songwriting. The guitars sound great here too. But there is a human element lost when the drums and bass are synthetic. UV Ray is a perfect example of a perfectly interesting and solid tune ruined by there being no bottom present and it sounding synthetic. A punch of bass and drums would have put this album into some pretty great territory. Head On, Coast to Coast, Blues From a Gun, and Gimme Hell all favorites that would have been even bigger favorites if not for an exact choice that takes some soul and sound from these tunes. Re-record this with an appreciable drums and bass and this is maybe my favorite of theirs so far.

The Essential Track: Head On

Up Next: Julee Cruise - Floating Into the Night

But then they'd have to call it Manual.

A+

[liebzz]

Julee Cruise - Floating Into the Night

I went through some sort of emotional adventure listening to this one. Or at least an arc. At first I was in eye roll mode at the prospect of listening to 45 minutes of distant vocals over ambient adjacent tracks. Then maybe two minutes in, I was really sort of enjoying it in an accepting my fate and let’s see how good this gets. By the end of Falling I was pretty well enveloped, and that held quite nicely through Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart, which I really liked. After that it did kind of start to fall off for me, a sense that maybe I just had enough…but the peak of that arc was something special. The mood shifts they happen.

The Essential Teack: Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart

Up Next: Slint - Tweez

[Higgs]

I was listening to a podcast that mentioned Julee Cruise the other night. Turns out after Falling she recorded a few things but never got anywhere near that level of "hit" again and ended up touring with the B52s for a number of years as one of the main girls sat out for that time. Julee then got very sick and sadly decided to go the assisted dying route. As she passed her husband sat beside her and played her "Roam" by the B52s.

I was really touched by that little story.

[Knabetnuom]

Pixies - Doolittle

With all due respect to Surfer Rosa, I think that’s the album you have to go back to, the prequel if you will, to find the seeds germinating for the ultimate genius that finds THIS album. While Gigantic from Surfer Rosa in particular is indeed another level of genius, this is a whole album full of compelling tracks that indeed perfect the quiet-loud-quiet dynamic. Debaser, Wave of Mutilation, Here Comes Your Man, Monkey Gone to Heaven, Mr. Grieves, and Hey are all first listen perfection and the rest are songs that have the space to grow and bring more life to an already lively album that finds its groove in not having to be chaotic or loud, but set with perfect timing to feel the release of its energy. Loved this one quite a bit.

The Essential Track: Monkey Gone to Heaven

Up Next: Bob Mould - Workbook

I think Doolittle is considered THE Pixies album though I much prefer Surfer & Trompe. I agree with VinylGuy when he was excited for the musical journey you were embarking on. Phenomenal music and I recommend their B-Sides collection if you haven't already included it on your list.

"...to an already lively album that finds its groove in not having to be chaotic or loud, but set with perfect timing to feel the release of its energy."

That's a good description and I think No. 13 Baby, particularly its outro fits this description perfectly.

[liebzz]

Pixies - Doolittle

With all due respect to Surfer Rosa, I think that’s the album you have to go back to, the prequel if you will, to find the seeds germinating for the ultimate genius that finds THIS album. While Gigantic from Surfer Rosa in particular is indeed another level of genius, this is a whole album full of compelling tracks that indeed perfect the quiet-loud-quiet dynamic. Debaser, Wave of Mutilation, Here Comes Your Man, Monkey Gone to Heaven, Mr. Grieves, and Hey are all first listen perfection and the rest are songs that have the space to grow and bring more life to an already lively album that finds its groove in not having to be chaotic or loud, but set with perfect timing to feel the release of its energy. Loved this one quite a bit.

The Essential Track: Monkey Gone to Heaven

Up Next: Bob Mould - Workbook

I think Doolittle is considered THE Pixies album though I much prefer Surfer & Trompe. I agree with VinylGuy when he was excited for the musical journey you were embarking on. Phenomenal music and I recommend their B-Sides collection if you haven't already included it on your list.

"...to an already lively album that finds its groove in not having to be chaotic or loud, but set with perfect timing to feel the release of its energy."

That's a good description and I think No. 13 Baby, particularly its outro fits this description perfectly.

I can’t remember if I threw the b sides on to my initial list, but I thought I put all their full length albums on it. Suggest when we get to that year. Ha.

[VinylGuy]

Doolittle is a masterpiece and pretty much one of the best 10 from the 90s for sure. It kinda set the map in a way as Janes's Ritual for what it was about to happen

[liebzz]

Slint - Tweez

For this one, I had the opposite reaction to The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Automatic. Bass and drums sound great here, as do the guitars. Really a fantastic job of creating atmosphere and instrumentally keeping the songs heavy but constantly moving and interesting. I chose to keep this as my focus and it really benefited my listening experience since the vocals are about as awful as you are gonna get between the talking that almost feels like a conversation you are eavesdropping in on and a few random screaming fits. But take this for the value of its composition musically, and you’ve got yourself a very good album.

The Essential Track: Charlotte

Up Next: Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Panaiotis - Deep Listening

[liebzz]

Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Panaiotis - Deep Listening

This is an ambient album, well placed given my comments on the atmospheric nature of the prior album. The whole thing seems to build into the album closing Nike, which sounds like a rolling train by the time you get the full hour in. Admittedly, this was a little much for me since I am not really drawn to ambient, but it gets plenty of credit for very slowly building tension from its opening until it’s dramatic finish.

The Essential Track: Nike

Up Next: Bonnie Raitt - Nick of Time

[oasisfan35]

Another suggestion for '90

John Hiatt Stolen Moments

Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s contains 3800 reviews, curious how long we'll be stringing liebzz along with inclusions.
The rating system brought a chuckle:

A-plus: "a record of sustained beauty, power, insight, groove, and/or googlefritz that has invited and repaid repeated listenings in the daily life of someone with 500 other CDs to get to."

A: "a record that rarely flags for more than two or three tracks. Not every listener will feel what it's trying to do, but anyone with ears will agree that it's doing it."

A-minus: "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction. Anyone open to its aesthetic will enjoy more than half its tracks."

B-plus: "remarkable one way or another, yet also flirts with the humdrum or the half-assed."

*** Honorable Mention: "an enjoyable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well treasure."

** Honorable Mention: "an [sic] likable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well enjoy."

* Honorable Mention: "a worthy effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well like."

(neither) Neither: "may impress once or twice with consistent craft or an arresting track or two. Then it won't."

Choice Cut (indicated by a cartoon meat slice): "a good song on an album that isn't worth your time or money – sometimes a Neither, more often a Dud."

Dud (indicated by a lit wick bomb): "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought. At the upper level it may merely be overrated,
disappointing, or dull. Down below it may be contemptible."

Turkey (indicated by a cartoon turkey): "a bad record of some general import", distinguished from a "dud" by a review and accompanying letter grade generally from B to D.

[liebzz]

Bonnie Raitt - Nick of Time

This is something like Raitt’s 10th album or so, and this feels like someone who has a wealth of studio experience. Focused on a little more rock and blues than pure country music, Raitt delivers one good song after another, though none of them are really raising the bar, but certainly keeping the pace. The reggae influenced Have a Heart was a nice change of pace here, but this one goes by pretty quickly on consistently enjoyable rock music. Also helps that Bonnie Raitt has a great voice.

The Essential Track: Thing Called Love

Up Next: Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels

[liebzz]

Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels

We exit the 80s in similar fashion to how we entered: with The Rolling Stones. Both they and we have been through a lot since Emotional Rescue, but we have arrived at this place. For the Stones, this was hailed at the time as a return to form, though it is more the first album in a new stadium sized era for the band. The songs fit that bill as well, seemingly created with a stadium resolution in mind, particularly Sad Sad Sad, Rock and a Hard Place, and Hold On To Your Hat. Mixed Emotions fits the not quite ballad mid tempo Stones check box. Slipping Away and Can’t Be Seen the Keef tracks. It has all the trimmings of a Stones album at a larger scale. Whether that results in some sort of “The Stones are Back!” proclamations is up to the listener. I did indeed enjoy the nice and unburdened kick in the pants.

The Essential Track: Slipping Away

Up Next: Traveling Wilburys - Vol. 3

[liebzz]

First making it through the 80s celebration: my favorite album by year for the 80s:

1980 - Talking Heads - Remain in Light
1981 - Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk
1982 - Mission of Burma - Vs.
1983 - R.E.M. - Murmur
1984 - Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
1985 - Kate Bush - The Hounds of Love
1986 - Metallica - Master of Puppets
1987 - Guns N’ Roses - Appetite for Deatruction
1988 - Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
1989 - Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever