This is another album falling pretty far outside my comfort zone. Notwithstanding that, this albums seems very familiar - probably because much of this has been sampled down the line by other artists. The opener here, I Need Love, actually seems the most familiar and I am sure someone other than I can relay what’s been sampled where. While I wouldn’t label this among my favorites, it does benefit from feeling like a huge upgrade from the New Edition album.
This Candy Pop group of kids sort of fashioned themselves after the Jackson 5. And I don’t generally see myself as the smug type that needs to feel vindicated by talking about music as pure art, but this was a pretty miserable listen. All of it is synthetic, leaving it feeling almost like a joke in its plasticity. It all feels like a prelude to the boy bands that exploded cyclically in the late 80s/early 90s and then again in the late 90s that were the first signs my own music taste was out of step with the masses. But hey, the title track is kinda fun!
The Essential Track: Candy Girl
Up Next: Kano - Another Life
It IS the prelude to it!! Quite literally. The group found their management was cheating them out of money so they fired management. Said management thought, what if we get another group together, but make them white this time? And New Kids on the Block was born.
Let me tell you, Homer Simpson is cock of nothing!
- C. Montgomery Burns
The B-52s seemed to alter their direction here - still that candy pop that was on the prior releases, but add an element of psychedelia here, and I was much more impressed with this album. Song for a Future Generation is where it really started connecting for me, and it seemed to keep getting better from there. Butterbean, Trism, Moon 83, and Work That Skirt were all highlights for me. They were often goofy and fun, but their campiness feels grounded by the layers of sound kicking around here - enjoyable album for me.
This is actually a compilation album bringing together I am guessing the most marketable of their first few albums - my understanding being with the intent of getting them going with US audiences. Our House opens it and is the most instantly recognizable song here - another of those songs I grew up with but never knew the artist. My impression of this was that it just kept getting better as it progressed. It Must Be Love is excellent but then Primrose Hill is even better. Blue Skinned Beast, Grey Day, and Madness (It’s All in the Mind) also really stuck out for me, but this had no weak tracks. Definitely exceeded any expectations I may have had.
The Essential Track: Primrose Hill
Up Next: Billy Bragg - Life’s a Riot With Spy vs. Spy
I have heard singles longer than the entirety of this album. So what gets packed into less than 17 minutes with just Bragg and his guitar - the album of tunes that feel like they came off a street corner - is surprisingly complete. The songs all feel the right length and unrushed, but with a sense of immediacy nevertheless. A New England nearly feels like a pop song even in its busking form.
It’s interesting reading a bit about the contemporaneous reviews of this album directly comparing them to Joy Division. Makes perfect sense, a doomed vibe amidst modern pop. Weirdly, I get more a vibe of a more pop oriented Pink Floyd, perhaps with its focus on psychological breakdowns - as if the spacial and psychedelic atmospheres created by Pink Floyd were made into more easily digestible nuggets - but even then Tears For Fears has some sophisticated layers hiding in here. I likely preferred the first half of this album but all of it is solid.
I have heard singles longer than the entirety of this album. So what gets packed into less than 17 minutes with just Bragg and his guitar - the album of tunes that feel like they came off a street corner - is surprisingly complete. The songs all feel the right length and unrushed, but with a sense of immediacy nevertheless. A New England nearly feels like a pop song even in its busking form.
The Essential Track: A New England
Up Next: Tears For Fears - The Hurting
Big Billy Bragg fan here. Glad you enjoyed this one.
When I looked this up, it’s weirdly shocking that this is his 15th album. Crazy. Despite that many albums in, he seems right in line with the sounds of the time, which probably makes sense on how much he likely influenced many of the bands covered here. This might be the most immediate album yet, not one that would require repeat listens to fully ingest. Modern Love might be his most accessible track, and one of my favorites from him thus far. Let’s Dance and Without You are also standouts. Same with Criminal World. It might be a little weird to have Stevie Ray Vaughan ripping guitar solos amidst Bowie tunes, but somehow it just works naturally.
When I looked this up, it’s weirdly shocking that this is his 15th album. Crazy. Despite that many albums in, he seems right in line with the sounds of the time, which probably makes sense on how much he likely influenced many of the bands covered here. This might be the most immediate album yet, not one that would require repeat listens to fully ingest. Modern Love might be his most accessible track, and one of my favorites from him thus far. Let’s Dance and Without You are also standouts. Same with Criminal World. It might be a little weird to have Stevie Ray Vaughan ripping guitar solos amidst Bowie tunes, but somehow it just works naturally.
The Essential Track: Modern Love
Up Next: Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside
This is at least a top 3 Bowie record and I'd listen to anyone arguing it's #1. Front to back, there are no misses. It's so glorious.
There aren’t many bands that can make dark and foreboding sound so damn good. With really nice layers of sounds happening here (I feel like I have been using that term more and more), this features a great amount of range. Antonin Artaud, King Volcano, Who Killed Mr. Moonlight, Kingdom’s Coming, and the title track all feel pretty essential to this. Granted, the 9 minute title track takes the cake for me as it just feels like this sonic exploration with little hooks to keep you going throughout. Great band.
We hit album #850 there, so time for a favorites update:
100. Iron Maiden
99. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
98. Muddy Waters - Hard Again
97. Tom Waits - Heartattack & Vine
96. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Exodus
95. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
94. The Doors
93. Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool
92. Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners
91. Dr. John - Gris Gris
90. Cannonball Adderly - Somethin’ Else
89. Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove
88. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
87. Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
86. Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
85. Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
84. Peter Gabriel 3: Melt
83. Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz
82. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Skynyrd’s First: the Complete Muscle Shoals Album
81. Rolling Stones - Some Girls
80. Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters
79. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
78. Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
77. Led Zeppelin II
76. Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold As Love
75. Led Zeppelin III
74. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
73. Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come
72. Charles Mingus - Pithecanthropus Erectus
71. Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson
70. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
69. Dr. John - Dr. John’s Gumbo
68. Dr. John - In the Right Place
67. Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
66. Jerry Garcia - Garcia
65. U2 - War
64. Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
63. Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk
62. Television - Adventure
61. Thelonious Monk - The Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1
60. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
59. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
58. R.E.M. - Murmur
57. Bruce Springsteen - The River
56. Pink Floyd - The Wall
55. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd
54. Derek and the Dominos - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
53. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Helping
52. Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
51. The Who - Who’s Next
50. The Kinks - Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround
49. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
48. Van Halen
47. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
46. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
45. Allman Brothers Band
44. Allman Brothers Band - Idlewild South
43. Allman Brothers Band - Eat a Peach
42. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps
41. Credence Clearwater Revivial - Cosmo’s Factory
40. Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
39. The Kinks - Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire
38. Tom Waits - Closing Time
37. Neil Young - After the Goldrush
36. Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
35. Mission of Burma - Vs.
34. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
33. Television - Marquee Moon
32. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
31. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
30. Grateful Dead - American Beauty
29. Neil Young - Harvest
28. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes
27. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
26. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
25. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
24. Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde
23. Led Zeppelin IV
22. The Who - Quadrophenia
21. Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner
20. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle
19. Thelonious Monk - The Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 2
18. Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
17. John Coltrane - Blue Train
16. The Clash - London Calling
15. The Beatles - Abbey Road
14. Pink Floyd - Animals
13. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
12. The Beatles - Revolver
11. The Beatles
10. Neil Young - On the Beach
9. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
8. Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
7. Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?
6. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
5. Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
4. Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
3. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
2. Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
1. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
epilogue wrote:Nighthawks over Heartattack & Vine is dubious. Nighthawks over Swordfishtrombones is lunacy!
Kind of Blue in the 70s is banworthy
To be fair, other Miles Davis albums kind of put that album there.
On Nighthawks, it’s hard to explain other than it caught me and I was blown away. And it’s one I explained can’t be broken down to any individual track but the characters that occupied that space.
Movie scores were always a tricky thing for me because they always seemed like they require some sense of context - the movie itself. Granted, if the score is good, you can at least get a sense of mood and setting on what you hear, but it’s meant to be heard in the context of the moment on the screen. Without the benefit of the movie itself, Knopfler here provides some really nice background and playing that’s unquestionably him. To me, Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero) is the one that jumps out of the pack.
The Essential Track: Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero)
I definitely have not done any sort of exhaustive listen to Herbie Hancock in this thread or in life, but it does seem to me that if there’s an emerging musical movement, he seems to be there with his keys, ready to fuse that movement with jazz, and I mean that as a serious compliment. Collaborating with Bill Laswell and others, this album pushes both jazz, funk, and hip hop in new directions that are still ever present. It’s hard to overstate the composition that is Rockit. It’s 80s hip hop all wrapped into one moment without even saying a word. Autodrive on here is phenomenal, and working all this into a fusion with funk music on the title track and Rough is all collaborative genius. This was a really good suggestion.
I definitely have not done any sort of exhaustive listen to Herbie Hancock in this thread or in life, but it does seem to me that if there’s an emerging musical movement, he seems to be there with his keys, ready to fuse that movement with jazz, and I mean that as a serious compliment. Collaborating with Bill Laswell and others, this album pushes both jazz, funk, and hip hop in new directions that are still ever present. It’s hard to overstate the composition that is Rockit. It’s 80s hip hop all wrapped into one moment without even saying a word. Autodrive on here is phenomenal, and working all this into a fusion with funk music on the title track and Rough is all collaborative genius. This was a really good suggestion.
Using the word timeless has a bit of baggage to it, but there is a sense if that here. If you told me this album came out mid-to-late 60s, I wouldn’t question you. 1983? I can certainly hear that. In the 2025 albums thread? I’d believe that too. To that end, this debut album defies its moment in time by producing laid back rock music that’s just frankly easy to listen to. It’s never overtly goofy, but never takes itself too seriously. It’s not a band of virtuosos, but they certainly know what they’re doing. It exists in the happy middle ground, always compelling, never offending. The song here that really caught my attention ultimately was Hanging Shed, but I don’t think you really go wrong here - a very solid album.
