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XTC - Skylarking |
| November 9th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1986
Tracks: Summer’s Cauldron; Grass; The Meeting Place; That’s Really Super, Supergirl; Ballet for a Rainy Day; 1000 Umbrellas; Season Cycle; Earn Enough for Us; Big Day; Another Satellite; Mermaid Smiled; The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul; Dying; Sacrificial Bonfire; Dear God
Best track: the entire first side (through Season Cycle) is perfection in songwriting
Track to skip: Big Day sometimes gets on my nerves
It’s rarer these days where I just stumble across a band I’ve never heard and my whole world is subsequently blown open. Even when you think that you’ve somehow discovered all the ‘good’ music in the world, something will come in front of you and wake you up. Yes, XTC was one of those bands. I first heard of XTC through a friend in college named Dave, but I never actually heard the music of these guys, just saw their name around on his wall and all that. A couple of years ago I was listening to my launch station and this song by XTC popped up: Grass. Contrary to popular belief, I not only like to discover new music, I also like to give new stuff a chance when I hear it. Grass comes on and it surprises me how damn good it is. Geez, why didn’t I hear these guys sooner? After hearing a few more tracks and getting a glowing recommendation from my friend Bryan, I purchased Skylarking. Wow.
Wow!
Man, if I was ever down on pop music, this totally redeemed what I thought pop music was capable of. This album contains some of the most intelligent and fun pop music I’ve ever heard. I have no idea how to convey how this album is amazing, other than to say it woke me up. There are just so many sections in these songs that bring the biggest smile to my face. It is seriously impossible to pick a best song on here as any of the 12 best of them could be it. Like I said above, the entire first side is just perfect. It’s wonderfully thematic, the songs flow in and out of each other and the sound coloration achieved by the band and producer Todd Rundgren is outstanding. I love the transition from Summer’s Cauldron into Grass; the imitation-Fripp solo in Supergirl is fantastic; the orchestration in 1000 Umbrellas is excellent; I think all of Ballet for a Rainy Day and Season Cycle keep a permanent smile on my face. And that’s just the first side!
In truth, the second half isn’t ‘as good’ as the first but, feh, who cares! It’s still excellence. Big Day is the only song on the album where I sometimes am tempted to skip, but that’s only half the time. I really like the lyrics on it, but the annoying part is the chorus. I don’t know why it is that way, but it is. The rest of side 2 is just great though. I love The Man who Sailed Around His Soul. The verses have this goofy 60’s spy-music/coffeehouse quality, but they’re in 7/8 and that makes it many times cooler in my book. And then with the total jazz choruses…oh it’s great. The album ends on the deadly serious Dear God, an atheist anthem if there ever was one. Whether I agree or not is irrelevant; I’ve never heard this subject presented in such an eloquent and intelligent manner. It’s a fantastic song and somehow the perfect ending to this awesome album. Skylarking gets better every time I put it on. If you’re into intelligent pop music, then there’s no reason in the world why you wouldn’t love this album. I sure do.
Rating: 97
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Anthrax - Persistence of Time |
| November 9th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1990
Tracks: Time; Blood; Keep it in the Family; In My World; Gridlock; Into to Reality; Belly of the Beast; Got the Time; H8 Red; One Man Stands; Discharge
Best tracks: Time & Got the Time
Track to skip: none
This was the first ‘new’ Anthrax album for me, so I guess it’s always had a special place in my heart. One thing that I always noticed about this album was how serious it is. Traditionally, Anthrax would throw in some goofiness for each album. This is really the first album where there isn’t any sort of silliness or inside jokes or the “Not Man” or any of that stuff. PoT is clearly their heaviest album so far and definitely the most serious. They’ve gotten quite good at tackling the topic of hatred/prejudice with 3 on here outspokenly about that: Keep it in the Family, Belly of the Beast and H8 Red (uh, ‘hatred’). As always, that’s something I really admire about Anthrax, how they sing about more serious and important stuff. What I keep coming back to, though, is just the overall seriousness of this whole album. Even the instrumental, Intro to Reality, is more on the serious side. I think this is the first instrumental the guys have done and it’s a nice one. It’s basically a 12-bar blues, but done Anthrax style. It reminds me in a way of Ace Frehley’s Fractured Mirror (from his solo Kiss album)…kind of builds on itself during the course of the song.
The track that really got my attention was the cover of Joe Jackson’s Got the Time. I still haven’t heard the original so I can’t compare, but I still love this song. It’s a quick 2-minute almost punk rock tune with a cool bass solo and a nice relief from all the heavy, sludgy stuff. In a way, that ties into my main complaint on this album. While they are good songs (not really so much Discharge, it’s average), the last 3 tracks really drag this album down. It’s like this unrelenting heaviness, and then…the album just ends. Discharge is a really bad choice for the closing track. Average tune, but as a closer it shouldn’t be there. Minor complaint, though. Nearly all of these songs are great with Time, Keep it in the Family, In My World & Got the Time being the best. If I had to choose the best of those it’d either be Time or Got the Time, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Even though it starts to drag at the end, it’s still a good album and probably Anthrax’s best up to this point. Most people are going to say Among the Living is the best, but who knows how many of them heard this one or Sound of White Noise. Solid album.
Rating: 92
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Rush - Permanent Waves |
| November 9th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1980
Tracks: The Spirit of Radio; Freewill; Jacob’s Ladder; Entre Nous; Different Strings; Natural Science
Best track: Freewill, barely edging out Spirit of Radio
Track to skip: none
The theory usually goes that Rush ‘changed sounds’ after every live album (following 4 studio ones) and the 4 in the middle there are all the same. Well, Permanent Waves really proves that untrue. In this particular batch of 4 (Kings, Hemispheres, this & Moving Pictures) the change comes half way. Which, if you’re keeping score, is 1980. I think this album was actually released on January 1, 1980 of all days. Is it the foreshadowing of all 80’s music? Nope, not even Rush’s. The point is, for their first album of the new decade they altered their sound…again. Of course this is still considered “progressive” rock music, but the change comes in the lyrical topics and songwriting in general. Permanent Waves is really a wonderful blend of Progressive and Pop. There are 2 longer tracks at the end of side 1 & 2, but the rest are all around 4 to 5 minutes, thus making them attractive to radio.
This is the first Rush album where there are no skippable tracks. I think that from this point forward they may not have any filler material until the late 90’s maybe? Eh, I’ll get to all that soon enough. 6 solid songs with 4 being excellent. Spirit of Radio is still the obvious radio hit combining catchiness and intelligence. Actually, Freewill is a better example of this prog/pop tag. Freewill is the best song on this album and if I had to point to one song that best identified ‘Rush’, I’d choose Freewill (har). Lots of odd time signatures, a fantastic guitar solo section (from all 3 members) catchy riffs and chorus and extremely intelligent lyrics. I’m very happy they dropped the whole sci-fi side to their lyrics and went with more of a ‘real-life’ direction. So, that big change is not just musical, but lyrical too.
This album is mostly known for Radio & Freewill, but it doesn’t mean the other 4 are clunkers. Entre Nous (French for Between Us) & Different Strings are both in the traditional positions where filler material would occur, but they’re thankfully not. True that they are the ‘least best’ of the lot, but I still love hearing them, especially Different Strings. Rush doesn’t do ballads very often so it’s nice when they pull one out. Different Strings is a gorgeous song and kind of predates Losing It from Signals. The only problem I have with this track is how the ending is so uncertain. The guitar solo (that really shouldn’t be there) comes in at the end and they just strangely end it. Still, however, it is a great song. The longer ones, Jacob’s Ladder & Natural Science are the type of long tracks that Rush fans love but this time the band have managed to tighten them up and make every note important. So, overall this is clearly Rush’s best album up to this point. Like I said, the band really got going on Farewell to Kings and pretty much just kept getting better and better. Permanent Waves is an excellent album, any way you look at it.
Rating: 94
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Phish - A Live One |
| November 9th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1995
Tracks: Bouncing Around the Room; Stash; Gumbo; Montana; You Enjoy Myself; Chalkdust Torture; Slave to the Traffic Light; Wilson; Tweezer; Simple; Harry Hood; The Squirming Coil
Best track: You Enjoy Myself
Track to skip: absolutely none
After 5 studio albums it makes sense that Phish would release ‘a live one’. Especially since Phish is known more as a live band than a studio one. I think the rumor that gets spread around is that the studio albums are awful, but the live experience is where it’s at. Well, that’s half right. I love the studio albums, but it’s true: Phish is better in a live setting. Of course, seeing the band live is preferable, but cranking up this is the next best thing. A Live One is not from a single concert, but recorded at various venues in 1994/95. I guess it’d be considered an ‘ultimate’ live Phish show. Minus the encore, however, which is a bit odd since they definitely had room on disc 2. Maybe we weren’t cheering loud enough? Who knows.
This was the first Phish album I ended up buying and while I was familiar with Stash, Chalkdust & Tweezer from Picture of Nectar, the other 9 were all new to me. 3 of the 5 studio albums get touched on (nothing from Rift or Hoist, the previous two), but the coolest thing is that 6 of these songs (half of ‘em) were previously unreleased. OK, so you could make the case that Montana is just a part of a Tweezer jam, but still. Also, the live versions of these songs are very different from the studio versions. The only thing close is Bouncing Around the Room, a song that hasn’t ever changed too much. However, this version is light years better than the studio version. Actually, all of these are. Stash, You Enjoy Myself, Tweezer & Squirming Coil all go into serious jams that show the potential of each of them. YEM in particular is staggering how much of an improvement the live version is over the studio. Don’t forget that I think the studio version is one of the best things they’ve done anyway. But man, the live YEM goes into so many different places and has intense energy. I am still in awe of the audacity of these guys to do a Vocal Jam at the end of You Enjoy Myself. Yes, just A Capella, no instruments. It’s that type of stuff that makes me love Phish. Well, part of it. This whole album is a BIG example of why I love this band. It’s true that Tweezer goes on for a bit (30 minutes!), but it never gets too boring. Really, that’s the only thing on here that’s excessive. The funk of YEM, the gorgeous piano solo at the end of Squirming Coil, the tension/release of Stash…all of these song extensions are excellent. As is the entire album; this is overall the best release Phish has put out so far.
Rating: 98
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Miles Davis - Kind of Blue |
| November 9th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1959
Tracks: So What; Freddie Freeloader; Blue in Green; All Blues; Flamenco Sketches
Best track: impossible…all of them
Track to skip: not a second
This is truly a classic album, and one of the absolute best pieces of vinyl/plastic ever made. By ANYONE. I frequently listen to this album over and over and over and over…and I’ve done the whole successive listening thing many times for this. I think I might have listened to this album more than any other in the past 10 years. When I listen to Kind of Blue (which is a lot), it’s rare that it only gets one spin. I never get tired of a single second of this album. All 5 of the tracks are strong and classics in their own right. This is considered to be under the umbrella of the first great quartet that Miles Davis led, but even within that distinction there are differences in players. For one, this album is actually a sextet with Davis on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor sax, Cannonball Adderly on alto sax, Paul Chambers on bass, Jimmy Cobb on drums and Bill Evans on piano. The contributions of all these guys on this album are amazing. All of the solos are perfect and it’s almost like every single note played on Kind of Blue is divine. This is truly one of the rare albums that most anyone could enjoy, for any number of reasons. Overall it’s very mellow and spacious and the piano playing in particular is breathtaking. Seriously, you can listen to any of these guys and after hearing this you’ll want to check out all they’ve done. The grade for this one is obvious. Kind of Blue is one of the 5 best albums ever made. I tend to give a lot of 97’s and 98’s on these reviews so it might seem that this particular 98 is the same as some other 98’s like Phish’s A Live One or Bebel Gilberto’s Tanto Tempo, but in truth this particular 98 is light years ahead of those. I guess within all the albums I give a 98 to, there’s a span of probably 10 levels in there. I guess that’s the flaw of my review system: it’s hard to determine specific degrees of excellence. Well, Kind of Blue is one of the best ever and a perfect album. There ya go.
Rating: 98
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