Brian Eno- On Land

On Land- Ambient 4

Imagine sitting on a beachside deck some warm evening smoking a joint with a microphone capturing all the noise of the environment: waves washing up, crickets chirping, gulls singing, the neighbors' barbecue maybe becoming audible when their talking gets loud enough. Maybe some kid is driving down the next block with his stereo rattling the pavement. Maybe somebody's dog is barking far enough away that if you weren't listening closely you wouldn't even notice it. On Land is an exploration of this kind of idea in sound, but intended to re-create places far away or only imagined. Sound strange? In the world of Brian Eno I'd expect nothing less.

 

Basically it's an album exploring the idea of music or sound that gives a feeling of a certain place. It also perfectly accomplishes his objective with ambient music, which is that it should be "as ignorable as it is interesting." Turn it up and it can bring all kinds of alien landscapes to life in your mind; turn it down and it colors the room subliminally, barely noticeably. Where the previous three in the Ambient series were subdued and trancelike through repetition, this one is evolving all the time and never repeats itself.

 

And with that, On Land is probably the hardest of all Eno discs to describe. It would be one thing if it was simply made with treated notes or tape loops, as with Discreet Music or the previous Ambient albums. It would be one thing if he was using minimal melodies meant to be ignored. On Land is all and none of those. It uses musical elements but isn't music; it's minimalist but not simple or repetitive. It's pure atmosphere. Forms don't exist. If you're wondering what moods you may find here, just look at the titles. "Tal Coat" is somehow electronic-sounding but purely organic. "Shadow" is a vague lurking moment of doubt. "A Clearing" is a four-minute synth haze radiating pure tranquility. It's not all soothing, but if it's left at a low audible level the dark moments won't really be disturbing.

 

Comparing this disc to any other ambient music is always an apples/oranges prospect, but I think the difference makes this the most pure and timeless Eno album out there. At the very least it sounds like nothing else I've ever heard, except maybe the sounds of nature itself

Black Sabbath - Dehumanizer

Dehumanizer

One of the coolest Album Covers ever!, A great heavy metal album for Beer drinking

 

 

 

I remember when this Black Sabbath come back album came out in 1992 or so. Ronnie James Dio was back at the helm and a very cool music video for "T.V. Crimes" (with a junky, obsolete television playing nothing but Sabbath is constantly being stolen) was playing on MTV's Headbanger's Ball. I liked the single, but only later did I purchase Dehumanizer. I was stunned at how solid this album is. It is right up there with Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules. In fact, I like it better than Mob Rules. The first track "Computer God" just rocks! The vocals are awesome (as they usually are for Dio, but especially on this track). "T.V. Crimes" is a fast-paced rocker. "After all (The Dead)" and "Letters from Earth" are dark and haunting. "Sins of the Father" is a track I think Ozzy would have sounded great on as it sounds like his style. "Too Late" is one of my favorites. It is a very powerful song, quiet at the beginning and then launches into a blistering metal track with killer lyrics: "It's too late too late for tears, too late and no one hears you, welcome to forever, it's too late." "Time Machine" is the most mainstream of the tracks with two versions on this album (one from Wayne's World which I cannot tell apart from the original). The anthem here, though, is "I." It is amazing musically and lyrically: "I am virgin, I'm a whore, Giving nothing the taker the maker of war, I'll smash your face in, but with a smile." There is nothing weak on this album. It rocks from beginning to end. If you are missing this album in your Black Sabbath/Dio collection, Buy It! You will not be disappointed



The Clash - London Calling

London Calling

This is definatly a COCAINE fun album

This is one of the few rock albums ever released that is almost impossible to over praise. One can heap on the superlatives, pile on a few more, and still have room for even more laurels. It is probably by any standard one of the five greatest albums released in the rock era, unquestionably the greatest album released by a band with its roots in punk, the greatest explicitly political album ever released by someone who was not Bob Dylan, and one of those rare albums that doesn't seem to age at all. There isn't a weak cut on the album. In fact, the songs are not merely good but great.
Although The Clash started off as a punk band, they were never adequately defined by that phenomenon. Although rooted in the attitudes and political sympathies of the punk movement (and above all else, English Punk, as opposed to the earlier American Punk, was highly political; originator Malcolm McLaren was deeply influenced by Guy Debord and the Situationist International, and included many political ideas in promoting the Sex Pistols and his punk fashions), The Clash quickly outgrew the punk aesthetic. While most of the original punks were merely two-chords-and-a-cloud-of-dust bands, the Clash almost immediately began effortlessly and seamlessly assimilating a host of musical influenced. They were the first rock band, for instance, to use reggae rhythms and not make them sound like a gimmick (compare The Clash's extraordinary "The Guns of Brixton" with Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Maker," which while good sounds a bit like a novelty song, while The Clash sound like they ripped the song off some Jamaicans). The songs are remarkably sophisticated and polished, even when they sound casually. For instance, check out the almost haphazard way "Jimmy Jazz" starts, as if the band can't decide whether to allow the opening riff develop into a full fledged song. Even when it gets fully underway, there is an effortless looseness to the song that persists throughout the impeccably orchestrated song. It is a masterpiece of nonchalant virtuosity.

Most of the songs are so brilliantly original to seem almost impossible. It isn't just that the songs are original; nothing else even remotely like many of them had ever been done before. Where is the predecessor of "Hateful"? Who cooked up "Lost in the Supermarket," with its amazing conglomeration of political and social ideas? Before hearing "The Right Profile," could anyone have imagined it possible to write a classic about Montgomery Cliff's car wreck? Even songs that remind one vaguely of previous songs manage to sound underivative. For instance, there is more than a little Phil Spector's wall of sound in "The Card Cheat," but where do those horns come from?

A mark of the genius of this album can be seen in the fact that although it is one of the great leftist albums of all time, the most reactionary rock fan could still love every song. It is unquestionably great political rock, but more than that it is just flat out awesome rock. It is almost as if The Clash recreated on this album all the rebelliousness contained in the first rockers of the 1950s.

These days, when every other album seems to be getting special expanded versions, this one truly could benefit from such treatment. The liner notes on the current U.S. edition are nonexistent. Hopefully this will be corrected at some point in the relatively near future. 

Brian Eno- Music for Airports

Music for Airports

Brian Eno's seminal masterpiece is quite simply beyond being among the best ambient albums of all time. It is among the best albums ever, period. Recorded in a time of musical turmoil (think punk) and after his glam stint alongside Roxy Music and helping bring in "enossification" and some other of his recording techniques into the life of numerous bands in the UK in the mid-to-late seventies, "Ambient 1: Music for Airports" became a timeless piece without much effort.

Eno captured the essence of the instruments he recorded, looping them and interweaving them to accomplish an exquisite minimalist sound in all four songs. From the first track (over 17 minutes in duration), which features pianos and synthesizer, the album captures you. In the second track, the haunting sampled voices that walk the aisles of a multitude of sound layers bring a dimension to the music that was unheard of until then. Track 1/2 combines the instruments from the first two tracks (voices and piano) in a new fashion, due to the phasing of the tape loops, which makes them "explore" new musical spaces as they evolve through the track's 12+ minutes of duration. The last track only reconfirms the exquisite character of the album, bringing it all back home.

The fact that this album was recorded in 1978 is very impressive, since it became a landmark of the ambient movement to follow in future decades. But the fact that it was recorded at all and it reaches such levels of (almost) painful beauty would suffice to place Eno in the level of the best artists and producers alive. Other musicians influenced by Eno that are highly recommendable would be Mark Isham (OST for "Crash") and Cliff Martinez (OST for "Traffic").



Grateful Dead- Blues for Allah

Blues for Allah

This is, far and away, my favorite Grateful Dead studio album. NEVER had the band sounded this focused, cohesive and energetic in the studio. From the songwriting to the arrangements to the performances, the band in 1975 had found a creative high point, and it's evident in every tune on this album.

It's also clear that every band member enjoyed contributing. Rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, who was nearly booted from the band early on in part because it was felt he wasn't keeping up with the others improvisationally, plays his tail off here, and the mix allows the listener to hear him, whereas he was sometimes drowned out on previous Dead discs. Mickey Hart had returned to the Dead fold for this album after a hiatus related to his embarrassment over his father, a businessman who had, it was discovered, ripped off the band instead of enriching it. Easing his way back into the group, Hart didn't bring a full kit to the sessions, preferring instead to augment Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann with percussion accents (check out the sleigh bells on "Help on the Way"!). Vocalist Donna Godchaux is in great voice here, even though she has no lead vocal parts, except for a few lines on "The Music Never Stopped"; she supports the other singers throughout, though. Bassist Phil Lesh is at his creative best, interacting with the two drummers but also playing melodic figures in reaction to lead guitarist Jerry Garcia.

And that leaves Garcia and keyboardist Keith Godchaux, who never sounded better together than they did on "Blues for Allah." In later years, Godchaux developed an aggravating musical tic, imitating phrases Garcia was playing instead of offering parts that complemented him. Here, though, their musical interplay is a true partnership -- just listen to how supple they sound on "Franklin's Tower."

The Grateful Dead was always best when it had strong material, and the songs here -- even instrumentals like "King Solomon's Marbles" and "Sage and Spirit" -- absolutely burble and bubble with energy. The title track is probably the least accessible, with a decidedly Eastern modality and odd melodic line.

I have listened to this album well over a hundred times in the last three or four years alone, and always find pleasure going back to it. Note on the expanded version: The additional six tracks are pretty much throwaways, with five of them being instrumentals labeled "grooves" and "jams." The exception is "Hollywood Cantata," a pleasant enough number sung by Weir -- but, given the quality of the other songs the band was writing at the time, it's clear why it was left off the original release.

Even if you don't normally like the Dead, give "Blues for Allah" a try. 

Velvet Underground - Loaded

 

Loaded

 

 

Revered or dispised by fans, I'm one of those who finds "Loaded" to be one of the masterpieces of its generation. Granted, Lou Reed abandoned all the things that made the old Velvet Underground what it was, but this is a good straightahead rock record, full of fantastic songwriting, sarcasm, and brilliance.

So what makes "Loaded" so good? Stunning songwriting ably supported by sympathetic musicians. Reed, at the height of his powers as a rock and roll composer pulled off at least two classic songs that have worked their way into the collective unconsciousness in "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll". These two pieces have been imitated so heavily and fiercely that they sound familiar the first time you hear them, and both of them have a little something, quite undefinable (Reed claims in the case of "Sweet Jane" that it's the extra chord that quickly sweeps by in the progression, I think it's an unnerving amount of passion in the vocal presonally) that makes them perfect.

The rest of the album doesn't quite live up to them, but it's full of superb songs, from the Beatlesque "Who Loves the Sun" to the sarcastic "New Age" and "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" to the the explosive "Held Held High" and the churning "Train Round the Bend". There are no real low points on the record, it's in fact all quite good. Highly recommended. 



Tusk-Fleetwood Mac

Tusk

Tusk" stands as the peak, shining moment in Fleetwood Mac's entire career, a truly special album that transcended commercial expectation and still demands close attention. With all three songwriters in full bloom, Lindsey Buckingham was able to fashion stunning arrangements for their creations which made them work as both catchy pop tunes and avant-garde experiments. Stevie Nicks would never sound better, as she expanded her witch-poet persona into full blown explorations of the heart and mind; "Sara", with its airy harmonies and lacey, intricate overdubs, manages to evoke the flavor of its lyric with disarming grace. An instant classic, it appears in edited form here, which is of course the one frustrating gripe with the CD. "Storms" and "Beautiful Child" quietly build their moods with a mystical subtlety and craftsmanlike precision, while "Sisters Of The Moon" is kind of a Rhiannon Part Two. Buckingham responds with songs that take on a nervous, almost manic tone ("The Ledge", "Not That Funny", "What Makes You Think You're The One"), and then he cuts back with intimate torch moments that will tear you to pieces ("Save Me A Place"--which has the finest harmonies on any Fleetwood Mac record--and "Walk A Thin Line"). McVie ocassionally treads water, offering up middle-of-the-road pop like "Think About Me" and "Never Forget", although she too contributes the exquisite ballad "Never Make Me Cry", the glorious harmony exercise "Honey Hi" and the atmospheric "Brown Eyes".

Mention must also be made to the unique percussion sounds achieved for the album: Mick Fleetwood attains new heights of drum god status on "Brown Eyes", "What Makes You Think You're The One" and the title track; there is a tribal feel to his playing that is tempered by modern recording ideas. The famous "bathroom tile" echo shimmers on "That's All For Everyone" and "Walk A Thin Line", which saw Buckingham on his knees in front of a toilet, Brian Wilson-style, to achieve his aims. It is a credit to his production techniques that the arrangements are incredibly elaborate and yet at no point do they overwhelm the songs--indeed, their strength often lies in what is hidden. Many of the songs are not as immediately appealing as those on "Fleetwood Mac" or "Rumours", but they end up far more satisfying in the long run (indeed, after hearing "Go Your Own Way" a zillion times on classic rock radio, a gem like "Save Me A Place" can sound especially fresh). The group's creativity was so intense at this period, actually, that several A-quality Nicks songs, including "Watchdevil", "Lady From The Mountain" and "Beauty And The Beast" were left as outtakes and survive only on bootlegs. In sum, "Tusk" found Fleetwood Mac in a unique position, still reeling from the runaway commercial success of "Rumours" but intent on creating sound paintings that expressed the aftermath of the relationship turmoil that created that moment. What is needed now is a deluxe double CD-issue of Tusk, remastered with bonus tracks of outtakes from the sessions, since it is clear that many of these songs underwent interesting drafts before they made the final product.

 





Beatles-Revolver

Revolver

Quite simply the greatest album by the greatest band of all-time. A mind boggling collage of perfect songcraft and sheer sonic joy, Revolver, like its predecessor Rubber Soul, stunned the pop world when released in 1966. In terms of Beatle evolution, Revolver catches the Fabs in the midst of their most perfect phase -- more sophisticated than the Mop-Top years of 1963-64, yet more restrained than the experimental Later Years. Lush psychedelic tones flourish throughout, enhancing, yet never overwhelming the colorful song textures. Witness George's painstaking backward guitar solo on "I'm Only Sleeping" for a textbook example of innovation with restraint. Mesmerizing rhythmic structures, which pop-up all over, may well be the most inventive of the band's career. Ringo's percussive tom rolls transform John's single-chord mind-bender "Tomorrow Never Knows" into the most hypnotic three-minutes of acid-drenched pleasure ever recorded. Never have Beatle guitars sounded so bright, trebly and as bitingly distorted as they do on "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "She Said, She Said". On the gentle flipside are the baroque sophistication of "For No One" and the epic neo-classicism of "Eleanor Rigby". Gently washed in the mournful hues of George Martin's perfectly scored string arrangement, "Eleanor" emerges as Paul's most mature and, quite possibly, most beautiful song. Sing-a-long classics "Good Day Sunshine" and "Yellow Submarine" prove that fun was indeed still fashionable in the Swingin' Summer of '66. Every aspect of Revolver--from the biting social commentary of "Taxman" to the childish joyride of "Yellow Submarine"-- clicks so perfectly. A 1996 Mojo Reader's Poll ranked Revolver as the greatest album ever recorded. But Revolver, like the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, is more than merely a great rock album-- it is unquestionably one of the 20th Century's greatest works of art.



Black Sabbath- Master of Reality

Master of Reality

That is how Master of Reality begins, with the famous repetitive cough of "Sweet Leaf". On this 1971 release, Sabbath's third album, the band has become "masters" of their own sound. Calling Black Sabbath influential is an understatement. Listen to any of their first 4 albums and you can hear where several "metal" bands got their riffs, style, and "dark" image. Actually, the silliest idea about Black Sabbath is that they are all satan worshippers obsessed with death and think that everyone should commit suicide. Anyone who ever thought these things about this group should try reading the words that Ozzy Osbourne is singing. Their not evil words and a prime example is on Master of Reality. For example, in "After Forever" is clearly about finding God - "They should realize that God is the only way to love." and "Children of the Grave" (No it's not about little kids rising from their graves and killing people) is about a generation of young people who are tired of the hate filled world they live in and want to change it at any cost - "They'll fight the world until they've won and love comes flowing through." Tony Iommi has stated that much of the dark and demonic image associated with Sabbath can be chalked up to record company ploys to make money by making the band seem "evil" (For example, the inner sleeve of the debut LP, Black Sabbath (1970), contains an upside down cross which was not the band's idea at all). If you look at all 8 of the original line up's album covers, there is not an evil or disturbing image in the bunch, with the minor exception of the hooded figure on the debut cover which could be considered creepy by some. I grew up thinking negative things about Black Sabbath but I'm so glad I grew up and gave this pioneering band a chance because they created some very important music and if anything was ever called "heavy metal" it should be Black Sabbath even though they were creating these sounds before that term existed. Master of Reality is perhaps the statement that solidified the Black Sabbath sound, it is essential. One last question to those who think Ozzy Osbourne is "evil" - What hand gesture does he always give, particularly on the cover of Black Sabbath, Vol. 4? - The peace sign. Yes, maybe he is pure evil. 

David Bowie- Station to Station

Station to Station

The mid-1970's were a stressful time for David Bowie. His marriage to the obnoxious Angela Bowie was disintegrating, he had become a top-notch coke freak, and was convinced that practitioners of black magic were out to get him. He had laid his Ziggy Stardust persona to rest, in favor of a white-boy soul man character, which was not as well-received as he had hoped. While his "Young Americans" album was a bold step in a new direction, it did not receive the kind of adoration that Bowie had become accustomed to. Somehow, while fighting with dictatorial manager Tony Defries, sorcerers, and the homosexual image he had created for himself, David managed to come up with an absolutely brilliant album that retains the disco-funk of "Americans", but pushes it into a whole new direction. The persona that dominates this album is that of the Thin White Duke, an aristocratic European fellow who likes to cruise around in limos, binged out on cocaine, his head swimming in fascist paranoid fantasies (someone once told me that "Station To Station"-era Bowie was one of the people Pink Floyd based "The Wall" on. I cannot verify this but it seems plausible). So self-absorbed was David during this era that he actually made his band play behind a backdrop during concerts, so that he could be the one and only center of the audience's attention. One look at the photos inside the CD booklet (David, looking like a famished hairdresser in sore need of a dental hygienist, scribbling kabbalistic desings on an asylum floor) will clue the listener in to Bowie's frame of mind at the time. The songs themselves are the antithesis of the shallow yet groovy preceding album; the hooks are there, but not as contrived sounding. The title track starts off slow and menacing, then builds to a disco crescendo that could take the Bee Gees on anyday. "Stay" is fast and funky, "Word On A Wing" is very heartfelt and seeminly religious, "Golden Years" (the closest thing to a hit here) is a doo-woppy dance tune that Dave supposedly wrote about Angela (who was also the inspiration behind the Rolling Stones' "Angie"). "TVC 15" seems to be the favorite of most, dealing as it does with a carnivorous television. And finally, "Wild Is The Wind", while not written by Bowie, has to be one of his most heart-felt performances. This album was the transition into a more experimental phase of Bowie's career, and I strongly recommend it.

 



Jimi Hendrix- Axis Bold as love

Axis Bold as Love

This is, without any question, late-1960s production values. In this day and age, there was none of the multi-tracking that Queen later applied to Bohemian Rhapsody--instead of having 96 tracks to work with, people of this day had only recently been blessed with more than one. So on tracks such as "You Got Me Floating," the "mind-blowing studio effects" can seem gloriously like canned goods. And the auditory and lyrical fashion of the times ring out as garishly as Hendrix's clothing fashions did. But God, is it pure. I mean, this is a pure communication, from the artists to the audiences they were trying to reach.
Every artist is calculating, because they're all trying to affect people. But Hendrix was never calculating in a careless, phoned-in sort of way. He wanted to go deep. Here, he does. "If Six Was Nine" is the best example of this, I suppose. It recalls the Doors' "The End," or "When the Music's Over," in the way it draws you in for a think, and illustrates it with all these musical flourishes. The guitar can't be critiqued, because it's all been said; the incredible, wiry Mitch Mitchell gives the same sort of staccato, strobe-effect snare blasts that the Doors' John Densmore did; and Noel Redding's bass cannonballs marvelously into the pool, like Hurley from Lost belly-flopping from a high-dive. The songs bridge the gap between the first album's 2:50 pop, and Electric Ladyland's experiments. If you only get one Hendrix album, this should be it!

 



Yes-The Yes Album

The Yes Album

The Yes Album was the breakthrough third recording that established the band. The Yes album marks the introduction of the extended works that characterized the Yes sound through the seventies and eighties and also highlights the coming and going of key band members who contributed to that sound. The Yes Album marked the arrival of guitarist Steve Howe and the departure of keyboardist Tony Kaye (to be replaced by the more synthesiser oriented Rick Wakeman during their most successful period).
"Yours Is No Disgrace" kicks off the set with a classic chopping riff from Steve Howe and a stirring organ from Kaye, reminiscent of western movie soundtracks. Bass player Chris Squire and drummer Bill Bruford (later of King Crimson and others) add energy and pace to keep the piece moving through its interesting twists and turns allowing keyboards and guitar to interplay with vocals.
The lyric, sung by Jon Anderson, is most definitely a hang over from the sixties ("Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face. Caesars Palace, morning glory, silly human race. On a sailing ship to nowhere leaving any place. If the summer change to winter, yours is no disgrace."). 40 years later, I still love that imagery, although to be honest, I have little idea what it is all about. You love or hate the ethereal, sometimes choirboy, quality of Jon Andersons voice, and if you love it, he could be singing a shopping list for all that matters.
A live version of "Clap" is a fun interlude. It is a ragtime like piece - popular in the UK folk circuit at the time - allowing Steve Howe to demonstrate his guitar virtuosity. Although this may seem to be a filler, it sets up the next track beautifully with a similar acoustic guitar section to bridge "Life seeker" and "Disillusion".
"Starship Trooper" is composed of three pieces. Andersons "Life Seeker" again features Kayes stirring organ, Squires "Disillusion", with aforementioned guitar, and Howes "Wurm" which is basically a riff building up to a crescendo which works wonderfully at full volume. Budding guitarists can work the "Wurm" riff out by sliding a C chord up and down the fretboard - you are on your own as far as the stratospheric guitar solo goes.
"I've Seen All Good People" opens up what was originally side two of the vinyl recording. Made up of separate parts by Anderson and Squire, the second part "All good People" works as an introduction to "Your Move". This will be my last dig at Yes lyrics, but "Your Move" appears to be a treatise on love and chess ... "don't surround your self with yourself, move on back two squares. Send an instant karma to me, initial it with loving care, yourself..." opines Anderson. A beautiful song nonetheless - with a recorder and organ adding depth to what would have otherwise been just pleasant. "All Good People" crashes in with the powerful rhythm section, augmented by the organ, driving the vocal and guitar lines.
"A Venture" once again provides an interlude between the longer tracks, this time allowing the bass and guitar to work together in what would become a signature sound of Yes - Chris Squires percussive bass snap and Steve Howes squealing guitar. A jazzy piano solo ends the track.
"Perpetual Change" again features the characteristic guitar/bass sound in this Anderson/Squire composition, that partnership also to become a central feature of future recordings. As a single piece rather than an amalgam of separately composed tunes, "Perpetual Change" flows more smoothly and is a more satisfying piece - presaging the longer works of future recordings, not least "Tales From Topographic Oceans".
Clocking in at about 45 minutes, this was the standard length of a recording made for vinyl. There are other re-issues and remasters that include two singles ("Life Seeker" and "Your Move") excerpted from extended tracks and a studio version of "(The) Clap" but you are really not getting much more than this original.