Essential Studio Albums

[liebzz]

The Jeff Healey Band - See the Light

Irrespective of the fact that Jeff Healey was blind, he was an unbelievable guitarist. No qualifiers applying, the scorches through this album with a blues rock sound that recalls a Stevie Ray Vaughan or Eric Clapton when his mind is set on the blues. His band too packs a solid punch to admirably back him. The trouble with this album is that, other really than the title track, Confidence Man, and the instrumental Hideaway, these songs are largely not memorable - middle of the road numbers that are solely elevated by the excitement of when it’s Healey’s turn to bang out a killer solo jam. As a player though, this guy takes a back seat to no one.

The Essential Track: See the Light

Up Next: Lucinda Williams

[liebzz]

Lucinda Williams

So with this one, we are sort of faced with the opposing problem, making me feel like just a negative listener. Williams has excellent songs here, she has a great voice, and seems like this is the start of an entire subgenre from which folks like Sheryl Crow owe her a beer or three. On the bluesier tracks, I was really happy with the output and would cite Changed the Locks and I Asked For Water (He Gave Me Gasoline) as the best stuff here and songs I would happily take with me from this. Yet much of this seems to operate on some middle ground sonically, and the band sits so for in the background that you are left with just Lucinda Williams and not much else. It works okay, but the music suffers into bland territory. But I have nothing bad to say whatsoever about Lucinda Williams. The band just needs a bit more teeth.

The Essential Track: Changed the Locks

Up Next: Roxette - Look Sharp!

[liebzz]

Roxette - Look Sharp!

Man, this one seemed like a few hit songs and a whole lot of filler. Of the hits, The Look is the clear winner here, as I can recall loathing Listen to Your Heart from the back seat of my mother’s car. Dangerous isn’t bad though. That leaves the rest. I feel like I can vaguely remember View From A Hill because it had so many layers of synthetic sounds that it bothered me, but then got pretty good in the second half of the song, and the rest I barely, if at all, remember. For those keeping score, I put it one below Rick Astley.

The Essential Track: The Look

Up Next: Happy Mondays - Bummed

[liebzz]

Happy Mondays - Bummed

This album, and maybe it’s the vocals but I think it’s the approach, makes me think this is what the Rolling Stones would sound like if Mick Jagger totally got his way on songwriting over Keith. It’s danceable, it’s rock, it’s also pretty addictive in its rhythms. It also feels slightly on the edge of something, the kind of danger that defined the Stones of the early and late 70s, and maybe that’s the connection. Either way, I think that comparison, even if the songs are completely different from what the Stones did, is a compliment. As for the tracks that really drew me in, Country Song, Mad Cyril, Wrote for Luck, Do It Better, and Lazyitis are all great examples of my point here.

The Essential Track: Wrote For Luck

Up Next: Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians - Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars

[Birds in Hell]

Another for ‘89:

Lounge Lizards - Voice of Chunk

(There’s some inconsistency about whether it’s ’88 or ‘89, but I think more likely to be ‘89.)

[liebzz]

Another for ‘89:

Lounge Lizards - Voice of Chunk

(There’s some inconsistency about whether it’s ’88 or ‘89, but I think more likely to be ‘89.)

We’ll try to put it right after Miles so the androgyny of its year of release isn’t as controversial.

[liebzz]

Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians - Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars

I am not sure what happened here with the order of things. This probably should have immediately followed Lucinda Williams precisely because it makes the point I was trying to make commenting on that album - the band matters! Here, the band sounds great, be it the hippier vibes of What I Am or the more rock focused vibes of Keep Coming Back. The rest of the album falls in between those boundaries for the most part and save for a song or two, this album is really quite good throughout, with an excellent singer working with a band that keeps things interesting and pushes things along rather than just existing to provide rudimentary background for the singer, my exact complaint of the Lucinda Williams album. The. Band. Matters.

The Essential Track: Keep Coming Back

Up Next: Skinny Pupppy - VIVIsectVI

[wease]

Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians - Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars

I am not sure what happened here with the order of things. This probably should have immediately followed Lucinda Williams precisely because it makes the point I was trying to make commenting on that album - the band matters! Here, the band sounds great, be it the hippier vibes of What I Am or the more rock focused vibes of Keep Coming Back. The rest of the album falls in between those boundaries for the most part and save for a song or two, this album is really quite good throughout, with an excellent singer working with a band that keeps things interesting and pushes things along rather than just existing to provide rudimentary background for the singer, my exact complaint of the Lucinda Williams album. The. Band. Matters.

The Essential Track: Keep Coming Back

Up Next: Skinny Pupppy - VIVIsectVI

My cousin and I listened to this so many times. Such a great album. What I Am gets my pick, tho.

[liebzz]

Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians - Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars

I am not sure what happened here with the order of things. This probably should have immediately followed Lucinda Williams precisely because it makes the point I was trying to make commenting on that album - the band matters! Here, the band sounds great, be it the hippier vibes of What I Am or the more rock focused vibes of Keep Coming Back. The rest of the album falls in between those boundaries for the most part and save for a song or two, this album is really quite good throughout, with an excellent singer working with a band that keeps things interesting and pushes things along rather than just existing to provide rudimentary background for the singer, my exact complaint of the Lucinda Williams album. The. Band. Matters.

The Essential Track: Keep Coming Back

Up Next: Skinny Pupppy - VIVIsectVI

My cousin and I listened to this so many times. Such a great album. What I Am gets my pick, tho.

I could have gone with either. It was basically a tie.

[liebzz]

Skinny Puppy - VIVISectVI

So it wasn’t just Ministry. This industrial rock stuff is still a really hard swallow for me. For whatever reason, the approach just comes across to abrasively for my taste, which is only odd because I have certainly enjoyed abrasive sounds, some limited thrash, etc. I wonder if the ultimate test will be Nine Inch Nails since it seems they are the most palatable version of all this, but I really couldn’t find anything to connect to on this. Dogshit kind of takes a while to build and that’s kind of cool so I will go with that one, but it’s just not my preferred flavor.

The Essential Track: Dogshit (Censor)

Up Next: Prince - Lovesexy

[liebzz]

Prince - Lovesexy

As compared to other albums of the time from Prince, the sense of ingenuity and excitement is not as immediate here. It feels, quite frankly, like a Prince album - maybe blowing minds and expectations for a decade does that. This still presents as a very good and at times inventive album, particularly in the last third where it really seems to click. Lovesexy, I Wish U Heaven, and Positivity close this album out strong, but all the same all of the album is really good. Alphabet St., Eye No, Anna Stesia, and Dance On are all excellent tracks in their own right. While I am not fully sold on everything Prince has touched, he does seem to be the most remarkable pop star of his era, more creative and daring than his contemporaries.

The Essential Track: Positivity

Up Next: Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock - It Takes Two

[liebzz]

Rob Base & DJ EZ-Rock - It Takes Two

On to a short run of hip hop classics. On this one, we have one song still inhabiting sports arenas to this day: It Takes Two - and add another that seems like a caricature of old school hip hop: Joy and Pain. Both are solid tracks and for the most part, this is a pretty enjoyable album though lacking the edge that some of their peers had. Don’t Sleep On It, Get On the Dance Floor and Keep It Going Now are all solid tracks. Worth checking out.

The Essential Track: It Takes Two

Up Next: Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

[liebzz]

Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

This album is really what cements Public Enemy as one of the great hip hop groups. This was the edge I was referring to when discussing the last album, a duo whose approach feels abrasive, but in a way that makes its point across the album. It’s also an album that never feels like its bridging divides across genres to feel more attuned to mainstream senses - it just powers through a set of songs throwing haymakers at societal ills and inustice. It never feels catchy or poppy and in that it is changing the face of rap and hip hop like busting through a glass window. I’ll drop Don’t Believe the Hype here, but all of this is essential, and it warrants a full album listen pretty much every time.

The Essential Track: Don’t Believe the Hype

Up Next: N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton

[oasisfan35]

Another few for '89:

Bonnie Raitt Nick of Time
Phish Junta

[liebzz]

N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton

We discussed glimmers of the start of gansta rap as a sub-genre here and there, but this feels like its true moment. With samples and beats that rival Public Enemy and feel just as fresh in their hands, N.W.A. quickly becomes the GNR of the rap scene, glorifying guns, sex, drugs and money - and creates a whole new landscape for folks to either connect with or imagine themselves in this place. Young suburban kids in no time turned these rhymes into modern urban cowboys, and hip hop wouldn’t just become more mainstream, but it changes the face and reputation of the genre in short order.

The Essential Track: Express Yourself

Up Next: Miles Davis - The New Sounds

[liebzz]

Miles Davis - The New Sounds

Rewind back 38 years, where a young up and coming Miles Davis steps out to lead his first band and album (it’s listed as an EP and runs 23 mins). The first half is a controlled vibe, a canvass largely for Miles to paint on himself, with a little bit of assistance but not much. My Old Flame is really a beautiful piece where you can hear Miles’ singularity shining in his playing. The band in the second half has more to say and really cuts loose from there. Dig?, an original Davis tune, sparkles in its youthful pace and energy, and they all combine to continue to wow on It’s Only a Paper Moon, the kind of playing that just blows your mind how these folks are just speaking an untouchable language and bringing you with them. I gotta say I missed this stuff, and glad we’ll take a nice little jazz siesta with Miles for a bit. I probably only caught a third of what I needed to hear the first time through, and we’ll take a second third here.

The Essential Track: Dig?

Up Next: Miles Davis - Cookin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet

[liebzz]

Miles Davis - Cookin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet

So reviewing my selections for this third of Miles’ albums I at least plan to cover over this thread, it will focus on the Quintet and the Second Great Quintet. Here, we settle in on May 11 and October 26, 1956, where two sessions produced four albums of material, all of which we’ll take in a row. Cookin’ starts relatively slow compared to the rest of the album, but is a good start to things. For me, it’s the second track, Blues By Five, that provides the greatest spark, a blues through jazz number that shows everyone’s strengths without compromising feel for the moment. Really, all of this is really great and demonstrative of the natural chemistry this band had considering this comes out of ultimately two days work (with 3 other albums in those sessions) - that they could get down to business and produce music this good is astonishing to my uneducated brain.

The Essential Track: Blues By Five

Up Next: Miles Davis - Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet

[liebzz]

Miles Davis - Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet

On this second album from the aforementioned sessions, I am not positive it’s all relaxing, but the groove does seem a tad more deliberate. Miles and Coltrane are still operating in moments of frenetic soloing on top of that groove, and everyone is still on top of their game (it is, after all, from the same sessions). Here, for me, the tracks that really sucked me in were the opening If I Were a Bell, Oleo, and the closing Woody ‘n’ You. Miles and Coltrane don’t interweave with their solos, but each turn seems like a clinic. They do join forces at the end - an exciting finish to a strong album.

The Essential Track: Oleo

Up Next: Workin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet

[liebzz]

Miles Davis - Workin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet

This one starts as the most deliberate of the 3 albums from this session thus far, and there is some stunning music coming from this - my favorite of the three with one more to go. It Never Entered My Mind is a show stopper- particularly how the piano’s structure interacts with Miles. Four continues the impressive work, as does In Your Own Sweet Way. 2 of the 3 compositions here are written by Miles’ contemporaries, but they are all great in his hands. Trane’s Blues and particularly Ahmad’s Blues loosen things up a bit for the more free flowing Half Nelson, but this all is just incredible stuff to my ears.

The Essential Track: It Never Entered My Mind

Up Next: Miles Davis - Steamin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet

[doug rr]

what a great run of albums...played regularly around here