Essential Studio Albums

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[Happy Trees]

I can’t even hang with this one

Poo Poo Duh

[liebzz]

The Essential Track: liebzz stabbing himself in the earhole

Best part is this track is on and I am driving my kid home from soccer and he’s not saying a word. At what point does he run to his mother and say “mah! I think dad lost it…”

[Ello Sailor]

Wait a minute. You make other people listen to this shit? Amazing. I love this series even more now.

[liebzz]

In Trag’s defense, I made it all the way to that last song.

[liebzz]

ZZ Top - ZZ Top’s First Album

On their first album, a bit not yet fully defined, ZZ Top’s agenda is to make the blues and rock music fun. This album is full of innuendo and blues boogie, the kind of stuff they’d soon mold into a distinct sound even before the beards became their calling card. Truth is none of the schtick would work if they weren’t also a kick ass band, and in good time they would make their sound as big as Texas. There’s some genuine highlights in here, like (Somebody Else Been) Shakin’ Your Tree, Brown Sugar, Goin’ Down to Mexico, Certified Blues, Bedroom Thang, and Just Got Back From Baby’s. All in good fun.

The Essential Track: (Somebody Else Been) Shakin’ Your Tree

Up Next: Traffic - The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

[liebzz]

Traffic - The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys

At the start of this record, I could feel my eyes rolling. Soft intro, flute heavy, here we go again. Things very quickly turn around on this album though, and the end result is more than just a net positive - some of Traffic’s strongest songs sit here, though John Barleycorn Must Die I think is the far superior album. The title track morphs into an epic track that has a killer piano based hook and keeps getting better as the song progresses, Rock N’ Roll Stew is essentially as the song title advertises, Many A Mile to Freedom sinks its hooks into you eventually, and it closes with Rainmaker, which is the equivalent of the remedy to the first song’s slog. If you’re into the whole folk flute thing, you might not want to skip that first one, but the rest of the record is pretty damn good.

The Essential Track: The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys

Up Next: Chicago III

[VinylGuy]

The Essential Track: liebzz stabbing himself in the earhole

Best part is this track is on and I am driving my kid home from soccer and he’s not saying a word. At what point does he run to his mother and say “mah! I think dad lost it…”

¨Dad we love you but you spend a lot of time in that forum and we are worried¨

[liebzz]

Chicago III

Another double album from Chicago. This was sports a tremendous amount of range, from rock to folk to instrumental pieces and soul. Overall, it’s a solid album that as a double really has some great moments and some that weren’t all that enticing. The highlights were the epic opening jam of Sing a Mean Tune Kid, 9 minutes of multiple genres fused together. What Else Can I Say and I Don’t Want Your Money were also pretty solid. Free is the Chicago you think you know and it’s welcome here. Lowdown is the top track here, melding rock and soul in a powerful punch. Happy Cause I’m Going Home is the best instrumental this album has to offer. The Hour in the Shower suite is fun and goofy, but enjoyable nonetheless. The Eulogy suite is disjointed and not so great. So this has some ups and downs but worth the time.

The Essential Track: Lowdown

Up Next: The Beach Boys - Surf’s Up

[liebzz]

The Beach Boys - Surf’s Up

There’s a certain set of assumptions one might have about a Beach Boys record named Surf’s Up. If I were say a young twenty-something in 1971 looking at it, I might take that as a return to the 60s pop form that made them famous for, well, 60s surfer dude music. That is not at all what you get here, which is frankly so enriching that it rivals moments in the albums we covered here - Smiley Smile, Pet Sounds, and Wild Honey. Long Promised Road, Take A Load Off Your Feet, the deliberate punchiness of Student Demonstration Time, Feel Flows, A Day In the Life of a Tree, and ‘Til I Die are all fantastic - I also enjoyed Surf’s Up though maybe not to the same degree. There’s a lot of tinkering going on like the albums I mentioned, but the charm here is this isn’t a polished or perfect sounding record. It has an authenticity to it that belies the title.

The Essential Track: Long Promised Road

Up Next: Paul McCartney - RAM

[Happy Trees]

The Beach Boys - Surf’s Up

There’s a certain set of assumptions one might have about a Beach Boys record named Surf’s Up. If I were say a young twenty-something in 1971 looking at it, I might take that as a return to the 60s pop form that made them famous for, well, 60s surfer dude music. That is not at all what you get here, which is frankly so enriching that it rivals moments in the albums we covered here - Smiley Smile, Pet Sounds, and Wild Honey. Long Promised Road, Take A Load Off Your Feet, the deliberate punchiness of Student Demonstration Time, Feel Flows, A Day In the Life of a Tree, and ‘Til I Die are all fantastic - I also enjoyed Surf’s Up though maybe not to the same degree. There’s a lot of tinkering going on like the albums I mentioned, but the charm here is this isn’t a polished or perfect sounding record. It has an authenticity to it that belies the title.

You're off base with this one, I think.

"Surf's Up" was the original finale of SMiLE and the song many consider one of Brian's masterpieces. It was recorded in 1966.

"Till I Die" was Brian's sad swan song.

The two Carl songs are great.

The rest is shit.

"Student Demonstration Time" is an example of Mike Love at his most embarrassing.

Dennis left his songs off deliberately because he was pissed off about something.

They had much better stuff in the can, but again, too many fingers in the pie.

[liebzz]

Paul McCartney - RAM

The prior album we covered from McCartney was a mixed bag, and this one is a lot more consistent and in the vein of what you’d expect from him. This is especially the case with Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, the kind of big pop magic McCartney thrives in. But really nearly all of this is very good, with only a couple of rough spots.

The Essential Track: Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey

Up Next: Elton John - Madman Across the Water

[tragabigzanda]

[Happy Trees]

2. Apropos of nothing, I’m not sure any of the Beatles save John Lennon have made a solo record that I’d call indispensable.

Ram and Band On The Run without question.
Plastic Ono Band maybe.
McCartney II is a treat, but arguable without a doubt.

That's it for me.

[liebzz]

All Things Must Pass might be the best solo album of any of them.

[liebzz]

Elton John - Madman Across the Water

A thing keeps happening every time I listen to Elton John. It starts off well and good and I ask myself why I am not into his music more. About 4-5 songs in, I run out of steam and I start thinking about what I would rather be listening to. Same thing happened here, I was loving this album from Tiny Dancer, Levon, the title track…this was epic stuff. Then we hit the second half and I just got bored. I wish I had more stamina for his music but I am just not sure I do.

The Essential Track: Tiny Dancer

Up Next: Cat Stevens - Teaser and the Fire Cat

[liebzz]

Cat Stevens - The Teaser and the Fire Cat

This is another really good album from Cat Stevens. Juxtaposed to the Elton John album, this is not one that exhausted me, even when there were tracks I preferred above others. Of these, I was really into Changes IV, Tuesday’s Dead, and Bitterblue, though I guess that’s a predictable outcome for me. Either way this is another artist I am glad I dug even a tiny bit since I only knew a handful of songs coming in,

The Essential Track: Changes IV

Up Next: Carole King - Tapestry

[tragabigzanda]

[liebzz]

Carole King - Tapestry

Part of this whole exercise was to work with music I would just never have listened to otherwise. Carole King’s most classic album seems to cover that base, a sparse sounding but fully developed pop record. And it is a wonderful album - the first three tracks alone are very much huge classic songs I grew up hearing on the radio in the backseat of the car. You’ve Got A Friend and Will You Love Me Tomorrow are similarly classics. That’s a lot for one album..: it my favorite song here has to be Smackwater Jack, which treads into a folk rock quite nicely.

The Essential Track: I Feel the Earth Move

Up Next: Loretta Lynn - Coal Miner’s Daughter

[liebzz]

Loretta Lynn - Coal Miner’s Daughter

Talk about stepping out of my comfort zone, and into fully twanged out country. This is full on self-deprecating country at its least self-conscious and at varying times hilarious. Coal Miner’s Daughter is an opening track that seems earnest in its delivery, and it’s mixed in with humorous songs like The Man of the House, What Makes Me Tick, and It’ll Be Open Season on You. Snowbird was actually a quite nice way to finish this. I don’t know that I will put this back on, but it certainly entertained me for 30 minutes.

The Essential Track: It’ll Be Open Season on You

Up Next: The Band - Cahoots