For much of 2017, there was an ongoing public conversation about “cultural appropriation.” It’s a concept and charge that I have a complicated relationship with because, on the one hand, I believe everyone should be freely able to access and to make use of any cultural artifacts but, on the other, I recognize that there …
Category: Music
Pyromania (1983) by Def Leppard
I struggled with just giving Hysteria my usual three listens and so I was not looking forward to this record. The good news is that it is better than Hysteria. The bad news is that claiming anything is better than Hysteria is damning with faint praise.
Cuts Like a Knife (1983) by Bryan Adams
I’m Canadian, so like every Canadian under a certain age, I know Adams’ hit singles rather well, whether or not I wanted to know them at all. But this is the first record of his I’ve ever heard. It sounds very much like I would expect Bryan Adams to sound (and I’ve heard the title …
Trouble in Paradise (1983) by Randy Newman
Most people who are not fans of Randy Newman seem to be put off by his voice. (Though given his prominence lately, and given the sheer proliferation of unique voices, I think that he sounds a lot less weird than he did when he first starting releasing music.)
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (1993) by Eurythmics
I heard my first Eurythmics album after listening to Annie Lennox’s debut and I guess that distorted my expectations for their later work. I also read a lot about how their later work was “weirder” but, well, it isn’t weird… “weird compared to what?” is a question that occurred to me.
The Modern Dance (1978) by Pere Ubu
Imagine New Wave at its absolute quirkiest (i.e. Devo) and then add a dose of avant rock from the late 1960s and you get some vague idea of what Pere Ubu sounds like on their debut. All the herky jerky New Wave stuff is here but so are piercing noises, samples of who knows what, …
Bootsy Player of the Year (1978) by Booty’s Rubber Band
If you’re like me, you sometimes find yourself reading the liner notes for a Parliament or Frunkadelic release and wondering “What exactly is it that George Clinton actually does?” He’s credited as a co-writer on all or most tracks, but he’s usually only one of numerous singers and is rarely credited with playing an instrument. …
City to City (1978) by Gerry Rafferty
I listened to this because it was a big record, for my podcast. That’s the only reason I listened to it. If it hadn’t sold so damn much there’s no way I would have listened to this shit three times.
Excitable Boy (1978) by Warren Zevon
My only previous experience with Warren Zevon is Sentimental Hygiene. An idiosyncratic songwriter backed by REM – I thought it was going to be really up my alley. But, alas, I really don’t love that record. It was enough to put me off listening to him again. So I find myself listening to this record …
Tanx (1973) by T Rex
There are bands that are good at doing many things and bands that are good at doing one or two things. I think if you only listened to T. Rex and not Tyrannosaurus Rex, you’d probably think that T. Rex was one of these latter bands and Bolan was one of these songwriters – pretty …
Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World (2017, Barry Avrich)
This is an engaging, thought-provoking documentary about the state of the art world in the 21st century (especially post Great Recession) that is perhaps a little too hyper-stylized for its own good.
Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (1973) by Elton John
I have no idea how this is the Elton John record I ended up first giving three full listens to. Sometimes these things happen, I guess, but after listening to it I’m pretty sure it was the wrong one for me. For some reason I listened to Honky Chateau once last May and then decided …
The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1973) by Rick Wakeman
I can’t say I like programmatic music a lot of time as I often find the concept completely unhelpful in appreciating the music. (The exception to this is a really great tone poem, wherein the program sometimes helps locate the experience.) So frankly I am unconcerned with whether or not this record does anything with …
Approximately Infinite Universe (1973) by Yoko Ono
My first encounter with Yoko Ono as the dominant performer (as opposed to Lennon) was with her Plastic Ono Band. I guess I wasn’t in the right mood for it, as it felt just way too directionless and faux avant garde to my ears at the time. (Some of the stuff they do on that …
Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973) by Bruce Springsteen
I have a complicated relationship with Springsteen, mostly caused by watching too much Much More Music (basically Canada’s VH1) when I was an impressionable teenager. So, to evaluate Springsteen’s debut album fairly, If eel like I have to try to pretend I’ve never heard Springsteen before nor have I heard of him. That’s impossible, but …
Taj Mahal (1968)
It’s interesting and illuminating listening to a a blues musician who came of age in the rock era, as opposed to the older ones making music at the same time. (Mahal was 25 at the time of this record.Albert King and BB King were in their 40s, for comparison.)
Did She Mention My Name? (1968) by Gordon Lightfoot
This is my first experience of Lightfoot outside of hearing 5 or so songs of his ad nauseum on Oldies Radio when I was a kid. I guess I associated those songs with my childhood and so I’ve never had an urge to explore his oeuvre. Reading about this record, I was shocked to find …
Lady Soul (1968) by Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin’s fourteenth studio album could have almost tricked me into believing it was a Greatest Hits/Best Of album focused on a particular era of her career, except for the fact it is missing “Respect” and a few other songs.
Gris-Gris (1968) by Dr. John, The Night Tripper
This is my first Dr. John record for some reason.
Sing Me Back Home (1968) by Merle Haggard and the Strangers
The way I think about music is dominated by the idea of artistic progression: did this artist improve or change from the last album. But country music poses a challenge to this outlook (just like soul does) because, for much of the genre’s history if not all of it, stasis or consistency has been deemed …
Have Twangy Guitar, Will Travel (1958) by Duane Eddy
There’s a stereotype that, before The Beatles, rock and roll LPs were just a collection of previously released singles and their b-sides plus a bunch of filler; just enough filler to pad out the LP to make releasing a full LP justified, and filler that was usually just remakes of the hits. Now, that’s not …
Come Fly With me (1958) by Frank Sinatra
For most of my life I’ve heard about how great Sinatra was as a singer and yet this is the first album I’ve ever heard. instead, I’ve mostly experienced him as an actor. (I generally think he’s underrated.)
Black Inscription (2018) by Rabbit Rabbit
One of the things I love about this band is that I never know what their next record is going to sound like. They normally release one track a month but I always wait until the full album comes out, making the whole thing more of a surprise.
Aerie Faerie Nonsense (1977) by The Enid
Someone forgot to tell these guys they’re supposed to be a rock band.
Inside (1973) by Eloy
A band I wanted to listen to a lot when I was much younger; finally got around to it.
Introducing The Eleventh House With Larry Coryell (1974)
This is fusion very much in the Mahavishnu Orchestra mode. In fact, listening to the opening of “Birdfingers,” you wouldn’t be faulted for thinking this was the Mahavishnu Orchestra itself, or perhaps Jeff Beck and the Jan Hammer Group, or something like that. As jazz fusion goes, a lot of it is very much on …
The Element Choir at Rosedale United (2010)
It must be hard to be in the art music field these days. Sure, you’ve got a world of genres to play with – most of them unknown or nonexistent in the recent past – but sometimes having too much choice is worse than having little choice. (Actually, that’s true a lot of the time.) …
8 Eyed Spy (1981)
This is my first experience of Lydia Lunch. My understanding is that it is a record she made with the band she formed to tour her debut solo album, released the year before. (A few of the recordings are from the tour itself, it seems.)
Motherscratcher (1993) by Ed Hall
This is the kind of music I really like: sloppy, noisy music played by a band that could be more professional if they wanted to, but they don’t want to. There is one song in particular that hints at their chops in a really exciting way and I wish there was more of that particular …
As the World (1995) by Echolyn
When I was in my very late teens and early 20s, I absolutely loved prog rock. And I think that, had I heard Echolyn then, I probably would have loved them; I probably wouldn’t have cared about the things that now cause me to be concerned about this kind of music. Because this record satisfies …