I have no memory of Definition, probably because I was not even 8 when it ended its run. But I certainly felt the reverberations because the moment “My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style” came on, I knew it. I’m not sure I had ever connected it and the theme to Austin Powers before, as …
Category: Music
Blue Lines (1991) by Massive Attack
Is this the first ever trip hop album? My limited research suggests that yes, it absolutely is. There may have been some “Bristol sound” singles that presaged this record but nobody seems to have produced an LP. So, whatever you think of this album, and whatever you think of the term “trip hop,” there’s this …
Mama Said (1991) by Lenny Kravitz
I get why people like Lenny Kravitz. I think there was probably a time in my life when I could have quite liked Lenny Kravitz. (And maybe, for a while, I sort of did.) And maybe, had I not become the music history obsessive that I am, I would like him to this day. But …
Victorialand (1986) by Cocteau Twins
Though they’re missing a member, this almost feels like the Cocteau Twins at their purest or most essential.
The Electric Spanking of War Babies (7/10) by Funkadelic
This feels to me a little bit like Funkadelic re-imagined for the ’80s – many of the tropes of ’70s Funkadelic are here in full, but there are signs that musical technology is slowly changing.
Don’t say No (1981) by Billy Squier
I’m pretty sure the first time I heard “The Stroke” was in an arena. I had no idea what it was and I couldn’t figure out why half the audience (at least) seemed to know the song. Too recent to be “classic rock” when I was growing up and too “rock” (I guess) for those …
Street Songs (1981) by Rick James
What I know about Rick James can basically be summed up in two things: “Super Freak” and Chappelle Show. And I really know “U Can’t Touch This” much better than Super Freak. Oh, I know a third thing: he was once in a band with Neil Young. (That’s actually true.) So I had no idea …
Rastaman Vibration (1976) by Bob Marley and the Wailers
Hot take alert: Is this the best Wailers studio album after the departure of Tosh and Bunny? I think it might be.
The Soul Album (1966) by Otis Redding
As the kids say, I’m an Otis stan. (Oh science, I almost wrote “stan” like an old person, with quotes.) So I’m pretty much going to like everything he did.
Musicforthemorningafter (2001) by Pete Yorn
It sure is a good thing I didn’t know anything about Pete Yorn and didn’t read any of the reviews about this album before I started listening to it. Because reading some of the breathless critical acclaim this received would have just about guaranteed that I wouldn’t have liked it. Fortunately, I listened first.
Drops of Jupiter (2001) by Train
I know very little about the mainstream rock music of the aughts. For the first four years, I was sequestered in rural Quebec, with very little exposure to radio and access to music video channels only sporadically (and English-language for only one year). After returning to the world for two years, I then spent the …
Acoustic Soul (2001) by india arie
I knew only one thing about india.arie before I listened to this record, her idiosyncratic stylization of her name. I thought she was older for some reason, and I didn’t know anything else. So this came as a pleasant surprise.
Gorillaz (2001)
I just read a brief review I wrote of Demon Days that I don’t even recognize, not just because I have no memory of that album but because the person who wrote it has changed so much in the interim. I wrote it 10 years ago almost to the day and it’s safe to say …
Blackwater Pater (2001) by Opeth
I’ve been struggling with Opeth for years now, trying to reconcile their reputation with what I hear on record. My biggest issue on earlier records has been the categorization of them as “progressive metal” when I’ve felt like I’ve been hearing “melodic death metal.” Now, that might seem like I’m picking nits but, as a …
Discovery (2001) by Daft Punk
I wasn’t going to review this album because the critical reviews really aren’t as good as you would think and, even more surprising, it did far less well than you think it did, commercially speaking. But I realized, what 2001 album is more relevant in 2021? Sure, they may be a couple, but this album …
When It’s All Over We Still Have to Clear Up (2001) by Snow Patrol
I know so little of Snow Patrol who are now a bit of an institution. So what I’m going to say is probably going to piss some people off. So I’m sorry.
Falling Into You (1996) by Celine Dion
As a Canadian, I’m proud to say this is the first Celine album I’ve ever listened to enough to review. I did try to review the soundtrack to Titanic before I realized it was mostly a score. And my stepfather, or someone had Unison, which I may have listed to at some point. And, of …
Joyride (1991) by Roxette
Full disclosure: there is absolutely no way I’d be reviewing this if it wasn’t a massive hit. This is not my type of music in any way, shape or form and it seems to be a pseudo example of Chris Molanphy’s AC/DC rule, namely the previous record is the one with the hits you remember. …
Candy Apple Grey (1986) by Husker Du
This is the last of the classic (i.e. everything but their debut) Husker Du albums I’ve listened to. And, not coincidentally, it seems to be the least well regarded. (I regularly start with bands’ best regarded albums.)
Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond (1986) by The Go-Betweens
Oh yay, another Australian jangle pop record from 1986.
Parade: Music From the Motion Picture Under the Cherry Moon (1986) by Prince
I have never seen Under the Cherry Moon, just like I haven’t seen his other movies. But everything I read says that this is a lot better than the movie, so I should be okay.
Born Sandy Devotional (1986) by The Triffids
There’s this weird thing which happens with what we might call “colonial bands,” specifically bands from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, places like that. If these bands produce decent music, British and American critics sometimes lose their shit, as if they cannot imagine such small, quaint countries producing decent music. I understand why we Canadians lose …
Please (1986) by Pet Shop Boys
As I have said many, many times, I don’t like synthpop. And one thing I can say about the Pet Shop Boys is that they love synthpop. They lean into it perhaps more than any other synthpop band that came along later in the history of the genre. (I am speaking from ignorance here so …
Black Celebration (1986) by Depeche Mode
The theoretical appeal to me about Depeche Mode was always that they were moodier and “darker” than other synthpop bands. But I must admit it took me some time to get there, both because it’s synthpop (a genre I don’t particularly like) and because their distinctness from other synthpop bands has always been somewhat overblown. …
Penis Envy (1981) by Crass
I can be a little skeptical of records from certain genres released past the genre’s “moment.” So I’m often skeptical of “classic” punk records that were released after 1978 just as I’m skeptical of “classic” new wave records released in the ’80s.
Takin’ It to the Streets (1976) by The Doobie Brothers
A little while ago I wrote about a 1976 Boz Scaggs album where I wondered publicly if it was the birth of Yacht Rock. And then I thought, “no obviously that would have to be the Doobie Brothers, they were likely first.” Though I have not heard Stampede the first Michael McDonald Doobies album does …
Jailbreak (1976) by Thin Lizzy
I was raised on the idea that Jailbreak was Thin Lizzy’s magnum opus. I don’t know where this came from exactly – my classic rock station? VH1 programs on Much More Music? – but it seeped into my consciousness. And then it took me two decades to listen to it. So, what can I say? …
This Is Madness (1971) by The Last Poets
I don’t have the context for this record: I’ve never heard their debut album and the only other contemporary spoken word I’ve heard is Gil-Scott Heron, and I’ve only heard records that came out a little bit later. So I really, really don’t know how to judge this.
Al Green Gets Next to You (1971)
It took me a little big to “get” Al Green. Years ago, I knew “Let’s Stay Together” and maybe nothing else. And the first album of his I heard struck me as “slick” (though, admittedly, only in relation to like Otis or someone like that). Since that time I’ve basically flipped on him, and now …
Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971) by Serge Gainsbourg
I first encountered Serge Gainsbourg through the Great Jewish Music series. (I was probably more aware of his daughter, who I was barely aware of, than I was him.) I liked the Gainsbourg album the least of those records – and I still wish they had made way more – but it did give me …