When I was young, I absolutely hated nostalgia. I saw it as the enemy of creativity. Time, and particularly age, has softened that approach; I now understand nostalgia and even sometimes like it despite myself. But the thing is, when I do like nostalgia, it’s nostalgia for something I experienced. So I can understand why …
Tag: Music
Parcel of Rogues (1973) by Steeleye Span
This is the first Steeleye Span record I’ve ever heard, after hearing about them for years and years. As with any band like that, my impressions were fixed without ever having listened to this, so on first listen I didn’t know what to do with it.
Diamond Girl (1973) by Seals and Crofts
I am fascinated, on some level, by bands that want to combine “soft rock” and pop with roots music because fundamentally they are two very different things. The whole point of roots music was to return to the pre-rock professionalism, which necessarily embraces the rough edges. But the essence of soft rock, and much if …
Call Me (1973) by Al Green
The more I listen to Al Green the most I appreciate the records that deviate from the formula a little bit, or the ones that have stronger songs. That’s because Al Green put out a hell of a lot of albums in the 1970s and they do sort of blend together after a while; he …
Catch a Fire [Jamaican Version] (1973) by Bob Marley and the Wailers
I generally rag on Marley for his lyrics. I find most reggae lyricist to be not that great, but I find Marley in particular to have been over-hyped. Once you listen to Peter Tosh (who only wrote two of the songs here) it’s hard to take Marley this seriously as a lyricist. So I thought. …
Dance to the Music (1968) by Sly and the Family Stone
It’s easy to understand why this band captured everyone’s attention; though the music is undeniably funky for the era, and soulful, there’s also enough of other elements that it’s accessible to people who would not have listened to James Brown or Stax or what have you.It’s significantly less psychedelic than I assumed it was, but …
Another Music in a Different Kitchen (1978) by Buzzcocks
Full disclosure: I don’t like the Buzzcocks. Until hearing this debut, I’d only ever heard A Different Kind of Tension and that record likely biased me towards this one and its importance.
Easter (1978) by Patti Smith Group
I struggle with Patti Smith; she’s one of those artists I think I should like, not just because of received opinion but because the things she does are things I supposedly like. But for some reason I have this barrier. I think it comes from how I first heard her.
Betty Davis (1973)
Now this is my kind of funk music.
A Wizard A True Star (1973) by Todd Rundgren
If you’re like me, you wished that Something/Anything?could have been, well, weirder. Or, if not weirder, at least more varied. I personally find that the record doesn’t quite live up to its reputation for weirdness and variety. Well, be careful what you wish for.
Safe at Home (1968) by International Submarine Band
This record invented country rock. As such, it’s one of the milestone records of the 1960s. (Country infected popular music in the 1970s and the country rock phenomenon of the late 1960s and early 1970s and Safe at Home is a big reason why.) But with the benefit of hindsight I am tempted to criticize the …
Eli and the 13th Confession (1968) by Laura Nyro
I was barely aware of Nyro when I listened to this record – I had heard her name, likely from seeing it listed in credits and mentioned here and there I guess, but I didn’t know what I was in for.
Surfin’ USA (1963) by The Beach Boys
I know this record is supposed to be the Beach Boys’ best album of their early years – hell, at least one writer is on record claiming it as the best record by an American rock band released before the British invasion, which is one tall order – but I prefer their debut album. I’m …
Memorial Album (1953) by Hank Williams
I try not to listen to compilations unless I have a really good reason. The reason I try not to listen to them is simply because, especially with “Greatest Hits” compilations, someone other than the artist has decided what is on the record.
Ray of Light (1998) by Madonna
This may or may not be the first Madonna album I’ve ever listened to – not 100% sure – but it is definitely the first one I’ve given my three requisite listens to. Given that fact, it should be no surprise that I can’t fully grasp what a drastic left-turn this record probably was for …
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998) by Neutral Milk Hotel
Does knowing the supposed concept make this record more problematic? I think so.
Fuzzy (1993) by Grant Lee Buffalo
I decided to talk about this record, rather than any number of other records from 1988 and 1993, in part because Michael Stipe once claimed it was the best album of 1993. Now, I don’t necessarily share musical states with the lead singer of REM, but I do feel like he had an important role, …
On the Mouth (1993) by Superchunk
By reputation, I always thought No Pocky for Kitty was the Superchunk album to listen to. Then I listened to it and, though I appreciated why people like it, I didn’t love. I see the RYM rating is higher for this one. I think I know why. I mean, maybe I know why.
Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version (1993)
What do you do with a record that invented an entire genre of music but which you don’t really want to sit through over and over? I don’t know.
I’m Your Man (1988) by Leonard Cohen
So many of these songs have made it into the broader culture – either through covers or through the songs actually getting played places I would hear them – that I actually thought I had heard this record before. I can’t find any record of that, but I sure got a sense of musical deja …
Quick Step and Side Kick (1983) by Thompson Twins
Now this is more like it.
Porcupine (1983) by Echo and the Bunnymen
I really enjoyed Heaven Up Here and I perhaps had too-high expectations when I first listened to this record. The first time I heard it, I wasn’t feeling it. A lot of that had to do with listening to War for the first time in ages at the same time, as both records were released …
The Kick Inside (1978) by Kate Bush
The problem with starting mid-career with an artist is that you kind of assume what they sound like in their maturity or prime is how they’ve always sounded. I started with The Dreaming, a record that knocked me out. It was pretty damn unlikely that Bush’s debut would stand up to it. And I certainly …
Crossing the red Sea With the Adverts (1978)
I think the thing that so many people find really appealing about this band is that they manage to combine punk attitude with a pretty strong sense of melody, a sense of melody lacking in other punk bands of the sort of second wave of British punk bands, who got record deals in 1977 but …
Van Halen (1978)
The first time I ever heard “Eruption” my mind was blown. I had never heard anyone play guitar like that (though that was because I hadn’t heard so many guitarists). It was my gold standard in virtuoso (masturbatory?) guitar showmanship until I heard “Spanish Fly,” which seemed so much more impressive for being played on …
Stained Class (1978) by Judas Priest
I do not like Judas Priest, at least as they compare to the other New Wave of British Heavy Metal (henceforth abbreviated NWOBHM) bands. I sort of assumed that was due to the fact that they predated those bands by years and that they jumped on the bandwagon. I am only familiar with their early …
Neu! 2 (1973)
Though I really enjoy reading about music and musicians, and how music was made, sometimes knowing how something was made while you’re forming your initial impressions towards it is a problem. It’s definitely a problem for me with this record.
Solid Air (1973) by John Martyn
I had never even heard of John Martyn before listening to this. Just an album that came out in February 1973 so it was on my list of 45tth anniversaries. So this is, um, a giant surprise.
Lifemask (1973) by Roy Harper
Lifemask finds Harper pulled in two different directions after Stormcock, which I assume is his best album; on the one hand retreating from its ambitious format on side A but doubling down on side B. The arrangements are also more elaborate, on the whole, than on that previous record.
Tyranny and Mutation (1973) by Blue Oyster Cult
I didn’t quite grow up with early British metal but when I started listening to music other than oldies in my late teens, Zeppelin, Purple and Sabbath played a pretty big part of my listening. On my second Blue Oyster Cult record I find myself thinking that it was all those years of worshiping those …