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Paul Simon – Graceland |
| June 26th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1986
Tracks: The Boy in the Bubble; Graceland; I Know What I Know; Gumboots; Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes; You Can Call Me Al; Under African Skies; Homeless; Crazy Love, Vol. II; That Was Your Mother; All Around the World or The Myth of Fingerprints
Best track: You Can Call Me Al
Track to skip: none!
Somehow I picked this and Peter Gabriel’s So for review back to back. I talked about the whole “world music” thing on the So review, so I won’t go into it here as much. Didn’t this win the Grammy for Album of the Year in ’86? I think it did. Yup, it totally deserves it. While for my ears it’s not the best thing to come out in 1986 (my all time favorite album came out the same year) I’d say it’s second best. And since this was popular and Somewhere in Time wasn’t noticed by the mainstream, I’ll happily accept Graceland’s Album of the Year win.
This is another of those albums, like Bob Marley’s Legend and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, that I think everyone should own. Eclecticism obviously has something to do with it, but it goes past that. The songs and performances and bounce and overall feeling really make Graceland essential. All the songs on here are great and this is a fantastic album. It’s really hard to pick a best track as they’re all excellent, but I chose You Can Call Me Al probably because of the cool half forwards/half backwards bass solo. That’s cool as hell. Just go buy this thing and smile.
Rating: 97
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Peter Gabriel – So |
| June 26th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1986
Tracks: Red Rain; Sledgehammer; Don’t Give Up; That Voice Again; In Your Eyes; Mercy Street; Big Time; We Do What We’re Told; This is the Picture
Best track: In Your Eyes
Track to skip: none
Hi there! It’s a total coincidence that I chose to review both So and Paul Simon’s Graceland back to back. Both albums were not only huge sellers and probably the 2 most popular albums of 1986, but both really put “world music” into the mainstream like never before. I’m not saying it was the first time, but I think you can’t get any bigger world/rock fusions than these two. This album in itself spawned 5 hit singles. More than half of the album! And regardless of how much radio play Sledgehammer and Big Time got, I am still not remotely sick of them. How could you ever get sick of hearing the birth of Tony Levin’s Funk Fingers on that break in Big Time? Fantastic.
I love all the songs on here and some specific sections (like the Funk Fingers part) just stand out so wonderfully. The keyboard break in That Voice Again…the intro to Red Rain…Gabriel’s voice on the chorus of Mercy Street…the whole of In Your Eyes. Oh man, that is such an amazingly perfect song. It just blends so well the pop side with the world music side. Regardless of all the other excellence on here, I still say it’s the best song on So. Right now I only own two Peter Gabriel albums, but I know I’ll be buying more down the road. This is probably the best place to start for Gabriel’s music and a worthwhile purchase anyway.
Rating: 93
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Frank Zappa – One Size Fits All |
| June 26th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1975
Tracks: Inca Roads; Can’t Afford No Shoes; Sofa No. 1; Po-jama People; Florentine Pogen; Evelyn, A Modified Dog; San Ber’dino; Andy; Sofa No. 2
Best track: impossible for me to choose between Inca Roads, Sofa and Andy
Track to skip: none
This is all the proof in the world that good albums were indeed released in 1975. I’ve listened to this one a billion times it seems and it never gets remotely boring. I cannot get tired of listening to Sofa. I prefer the instrumental version (#1), but I’ll still listen to the vocal version (in German!) of #2 all the time as well. This album is yet another example of something I like to talk about when it comes to Frank Zappa’s compositional abilities: melodies. Zappa is absolutely one of the best melody writers in the history of rock music. There are many examples on every album, but this one has some truly great ones. Sofa is by far the best of the lot. I LOVE that on this album Zappa is purposely telling us to LISTEN TO THE MELODIES on this song. The same song is repeated twice on the album, only difference is that one is vocal and one is instrumental. And it’s no accident that the instrumental one comes first. However, by placing the song again as the album closer his point can’t be any more obvious: he was very proud of this song and thought it very important that we hear it. Twice. Who cares if they’re singing about freakin’ sofas in German? The music on Sofa is very, very moving for me and it’s always one of those songs that makes me so happy that Zappa existed and wrote music.
Inca Roads has some great melodies, as does Andy, but I also have to give big points to Evelyn, A Modified Dog. It’s a minute long, but the vocal melody is exceptional. Man, never mind the lyrics (which are interesting) just listen that melody! I absolutely love it. While I’m on the subject of lyrics, this album, which is right in the middle of a decade in which Zappa’s lyrics were VERY R-rated (sometimes X-rated), is possibly the most unoffensive lyrical album Zappa ever made. The only possible thing that might offend anyone is the reference to a “trailer park” in San Ber’dino or maybe the thong in Andy. But besides those, nothing. There’s only one instrumental on here, but the emphasis all over this album is the music. The lyrics aren’t all dumb or anything, but there’s not much to get in the way of the music here. Musically, Inca Roads is possibly one of the best things Zappa ever wrote. How Ruth Underwood manages to play those runs on here is beyond my brain capacity. I’ve heard the song 10,000 times and my jaw never fails from dropping during Inca Roads. It’s a fantastic song.
Besides Ruth’s perfection on the percussion, the rest of the band is completely in top form. And of course, this album is probably *the* classic Zappa lineup: George Duke on keys, Napoleon Murphy Brock on sax & flute, Tom Fowler on bass, Chester Thompson on drums and Zappa himself on guitar. We get some nice guest spots by Captain Beefheart (listed as Bloodshot Rollin’ Red) and Johnny “Guitar” Watson as well. Everyone on this album is exceptional. I like this album more than Roxy and Elsewhere and more than most of Zappa’s albums (which I love, as you can tell). This is absolutely essential for the Zappa fan and a fantastic place to start. I love this thing.
Rating: 96
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Soundgarden – Superunknown |
| June 9th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1994
Tracks: Let Me Drown; My Wave; Fell on Black Days; Mailman; Superunknown; Head Down; Black Hole Sun; Spoonman; Limo Wreck; The Day I Tried to Live; Kickstand; Fresh Tendrils; 4th of July; Half; Like Suicide
Best track: either My Wave or Spoonman
Tracks to skip: Mailman, Superunknown, Head Down, Fresh Tendrils, Half, Like Suicide
5 pretty big singles on this album, those being My Wave, Fell on Black Days, Black Hole Sun, Spoonman and The Day I Tried to Live. I think all 5 of these are great songs. The bad thing is, the rest of this album doesn’t hold up very well. OK, Let Me Drown, 4th of July and Limo Wreck are all pretty good, but they don’t sustain this whole album. Of the ‘tracks I skip’, Head Down has some cool bits, but it just really doesn’t go anywhere. Half is a strange mixture of grunge and Indian music, but for all it’s good points it just doesn’t hold up as a composition. It’s kinda like, hey it’s an interesting idea, but…
Obviously when 6 of the 15 songs are skipped, then it’s not going to be a cohesive album. And without the 5 hit singles, this album is really forgettable. Besides a lot of boring songs that drag it down (and there’s nothing worse than heavy boring songs) there isn’t any sort of flow from one song to the next. Soundgarden could write some great songs (OK, Chris Cornell wrote the best ones) and they were a great live band, but a lot of these songs are indistinguishable from each other. And it makes sitting through this album in one sitting rather difficult.
Rating: 69
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King Crimson – Live in Central Park – 1974 (KCCC #10) |
| June 6th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Recorded: 1974, Released: 2000
Tracks: Walk On…No Pussyfooting; 21st Century Schizoid Man; Lament; Exiles; Improv: Cerberus; Easy Money; Fracture; Starless; The Talking Drum; Larks’ Tongues in Aspic: Pt. 2
Best track: Starless? I’m not sure.
Track to skip: none
Another one from the Collector’s Club here. Robert Fripp reckons this to be one of the best shows Crimson ever did, and probably his favorite since the early days of the ‘69 Crimson. I don’t share his full view on this. I of course like this, but I think Crimson played better the night before in Providence (Great Deceiver, Disc 1 & 2) and also a few days earlier in Asbury Park, NJ (as heard on the USA album). Fripp, however, did play at all these gigs and I’m just a guy in Texas in 2003 listening to these shows on a piece of plastic. It’s often different experiences for the audience and band. All that said, I still LOVE that we get to hear most of the shows this band did in their last week together (4 of them, I think) and also this was the last gig King Crimson did until 1981.
Yeah, all the songs you’ve heard before and if you have USA and Great Deceiver (the places to start, in that order) then you’ll know this material pretty well. I think this show especially is for hardcore Crimson fans. The sound quality isn’t the greatest on here; it was recorded by a member of the audience. It’s interesting to listen to this on headphones and hear all the conversation that goes on between audience members close to the person who was recording. I think this might even be a combination of a few different tapes, as the sound changes during the show occasionally.
I’m happy to have another previously unreleased song, the improv Cerberus. True it’s not the best this band could do, but it’s always nice to hear. I really like the solo section in Schizoid Man and the 2nd half of Starless. Those are just excellent. But otherwise, honestly the other stuff I mentioned is better. This CD is only for collectors and even then there are a lot more from the Collector’s Club that should be purchased ahead of this.
Rating: 83
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Ozzy Osbourne – Blizzard of Ozz |
| June 6th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1981
Tracks: I Don’t Know; Crazy Train; Goodbye to Romance; Dee; Suicide Solution; Mr. Crowley; No Bone Movies; Revelation (Mother Earth); Steal Away (The Night)
Best track: Steal Away
Track to skip: none!
I’d say this is still the best studio album Ozzy’s ever done. It’s a classic. I think Ozzy’s great (well, not so much anymore…), but for me this is really a Randy Rhoads album and Ozzy just happens to be singing on it. I’m not so dorky as to file it in the R’s or anything, but this album is great because of Randy Rhoads. Actually, I really like all of the music on here. And Ozzy’s lyrics are mostly good too (No Bone Movies is supposed to be silly, so I’ll let him slide for that one).
All of these songs are really, really good too. I mean, just look at the tracklist! One great song after another. I’ve never understood why Steal Away doesn’t get more radio/concert play. It’s the best thing on here. It just seriously kicks ass, there’s no other way to describe it. It’s also probably the best performance from Bob Daisley, the bass player. Really reminds me of how Steve Harris plays, except it’s probably the reverse since this came out in ‘81. That’s another thing about this album, it was such a huge event in heavy metal that right after it came out you could hear the influence in other metal bands. It’s just one of “those” albums.
Back to the guitar player. How beautiful of a song is Dee? Ah, I love it; it’s perfect. Also Randy’s solos in Mr. Crowley and Revelation…incredible. And in addition to all that, like every riff on every song is just so cool. Crazy Train? Excellent riff. Suicide SOLUTION (listen to the lyrics people, it’s ANTI suicide)? Another excellent riff. Steal Away? Huh, bad ass. Blizzard of Ozz has all rights to be called a classic. It has the best lyrics Ozzy’s written and the best music anyone’s written on any of his CDs. I love it.
Rating: 96
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