As I noted before, I've been working through the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, as presented though the 1001 album generator web site. My goal is to present a week (or so) of reviews, once every week (or so).
So here's the next few albums I listened to:
# - Year - Album - Artist - Rating - Global
49 - 1968 - Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix - 4 - 3.96
50 - 1977 - Aja Steely Dan - 4 - 3.43
51 - 1993 - Whatever - Aimee Mann - 3 - 2.78
52 - 1968 - At Folsom Prison - Johnny Cash - 4 - 3.97
53 - 1962 - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music - Ray Charles - 5 - 3.46
54 - 1970 - The Madcap Laughs - Syd Barrett - 2 - 2.7
55 - 1964 - Olympia 64 - Jacques Brel - 3 - 2.79
56 - 2000 - Punishing Kiss - Ute Lemper - 1 - 2.41
57 - 2003 - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below - OutKast - 2 - 3.47
49 - Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix - 4
Jimi Hendrix is an iconic figure, one of the royals of rock. An innovator of electric guitar. Blah, blah, blah. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with those pronouncements, and have great respect for Hendrix. And in his short career (3 studio albums), he released some brilliant music. Probably 8-10 brilliant songs across those 18 months. But back to blah, blah, blah, and my point. For every brilliant Hendrix song, there’s a couple that are fine and the occasional one that I don’t like. The highs are VERY high, but there’s a lot of misses and lows. Electric Ladyland is a double album, 74 minutes run time. About 1/4 of it is as-good-as-it-gets, easy 5+ stars. But about 1/3 is below good. In my iTunes library, this album averages out to 3 stars. But here, the result is greater than the sum of the parts, and the album that closes with “All Along The Watchtower” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” can’t rate below 4. 4/5
50 - Aja - Steely Dan - 4
Aja came out my senior year of high school, and was pretty much inescapable for the 2 years. The overexposure turned me off at the time, and I wasn’t a fan. Steely Dan had always seemed like a band that took themselves a little seriously, and they really ramped that up on Aja. I saw a quote on Wikipedia that perfectly sums it up: “the conceptual framework of [Steely Dan’s] music has shifted from the pretext of rock & roll toward a smoother, awesomely clean and calculated mutation of various rock, pop and jazz idioms” (credited to Michael Duffy of Rolling Stone). That quote even captures the pretentiousness that I associate with later Steely Dan. That was 46 years ago, and as I’ve mellowed, I’ve come to appreciate this album. All that other stuff is still true, but that doesn’t change the fact this is a very good album. Yes, it is “clean and calculated”, but it’s also nearly perfect. It is heavily jazz influenced, the sound is really (really, really) great. The instrumentation is detailed and varied, it features the best takes from the best players they could find. The individual songs are all great. That said, it is almost too perfect, clinical. Perhaps a little lacking in soul or depth. The lyrics are sometimes too clever, and faux “deep”. But that’s just a Steely Dan thing. At 18, I would’ve rated this album a lower, but my tastes have broadened. I married into this on vinyl and eventually picked it up on digital. I’ll give this a solid 4. I’ve complained a lot about the flaws, but that’s just because they bring it down from a 5. 4/5
51 - 1993 - Whatever - Aimee Mann - 3
I had never heard of Aimee Mann, but given that it is early 90’s pop, that ‘s not shocking. I pretty much quit listening to the radio in the early 90’s. And it peaked at 127 on the Billboard 200. All that, combined with a score here of 2.78, didn’t have me too optimistic going in. but guess what. I rather like this. Very catchy songs, the vocal style reminds me a little of Sheryl Crow…. Maybe? It has a good clean sound, not overproduced. The right mix of instrumentation. “ Hooky” melodies. Nothing to deep, just solid and pleasant indie-ish pop. There’s a couple of songs that could’ve been trimmed, though. And it lacks anything truly memorable. 3/5
52 - 1968 - At Folsom Prison - Johnny Cash - 4
This is the Johnny Cash I expected, when my first album here was his At San Quenton. I was rather disappointed in that one. This one is the real deal. First off, at 45 minutes, it is 10 minutes longer than San Quenton. It's a better song selection, and better performances. And a better atmosphere. It is better in every measure than San Quenton, which came out a year later. This is the "man In Black" at his best, in a prison singing mostly songs of prison, and people on the fringes. A little tough to rate, I respect this album, and it's a watershed recording. But it's not an album I've owned, nor do I expect to buy it now. But I expect to listen to it again. I need to stick w/ my rating system. It's somewhere between 4 and 5, but I think this one rounds down. So 4/5
53 - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music - Ray Charles - 5
This is a really fascinating album. Love Ray Charles’ singing and piano, and the concept of reworking C&W could’ve been a risk. But he really pulls it off. The whole album works, and there’s several standout songs. My only gripe is the early 60’s sound, there’s a bit more orchestra than I’d prefer. But that’s minor. I’ll certainly listen to this again, it may well end up purchased. 4.5, I’ll round this one to 5/5
54 12/12/2023 1970 The Madcap Laughs Syd Barrett 2 2.7 Some albums are obvious inclusions, even if I don't really prefer the genre. Some are hard scratchers, and this is one of those. I know who Syd Barrett was, but had never heard any music from his post Pink Floyd days.... I didn't even know there was any. After listening to this, I'm still not sure why it is on this list. It's not necessarily "bad", but it's surely not good. Parts of it sound like a guy playing to a handheld tape recorder, The best moments are generic hippy trippy late turn of the decade stuff, kind of a poor man's version of Strawberry Alarm Clock (the deep cuts, not the hit). Or Strawberry Alarm Clock meets Velvet Underground, all get high and record the resulting jam. The album was recorded over 16 months, starting shortly after he was dismissed from Pink Floyd for his "increasingly erratic and unpredictable" behavior. And it features 5 different producers, over 13 songs filling 37 minutes... Again, it's not bad, but neither good. It's rather disjunct, unfocused. The sound quality varies from cut to cut, and occasional songs seem to just stop (as opposed to a fade out or finish). And often feels sloppy, as if these were 3 years' of demos slapped onto a record. Frankly, it is a mess. Still I'll give it 2 stars, for the effort, and small props for being different.
55 - Olympia 64 - Jacques Brel - 3
Hmm…. Another odd one. This is a 1964 (released in 1967) live album from a French performer (born in Belgium), who I’d never heard of. Recorded in French, and sounding stereotypically French. I looked around Wikipedia, and there’s very little information on this album. But there’s more on Jacques Brel: he was active musically through the 50’s and 60’s, and into the 70’s, releasing 14 studio albums and 2 live albums between ‘54 and ‘77. Also appeared in 10 films between ‘67 and ‘73. Apparently, his songs were covered by several folk as diverse as a David Bowie and John Denver. And Scott Walker…. His Scott Walker II album includes 3x Jacques Brel songs, and is on the 1001 list, and I rated it 2/5 a couple of weeks ago. So, what of the album? This sounds like a French version of a mid 60’s Vegas crooner, maybe one of the Rat Pack. All nice enough, seeming rather polite. Perhaps even quaint at the same time worldwide Beatlemania was in full swing. It’s also remarkably short, just over 28 minutes. Being a French version of mid-60’s crooner is not bad, mind you, but I surely don’t think it rises to the level of Sinatra. I like this better than that Scott Walker II album (that included 3x S.Brel written songs). Give it low 3 stars, an interesting period piece. 3/5
56 - Punishing Kiss Ute Lemper - 1
Punishing Kiss? This can’t be good. And the cover art? Not a promising sign. How did it chart? #104 on the UK albums chart, nothing elsewhere. But maybe the music will be a pleasant surprise. Nope. At best this comes off as the score to an off broadway drama. Or perhaps the soundtrack to a 2nd wave animated full length movie…. But not up to Disney’s level. Something deep and dark, exploring the depths of the dark human spirit…. But animated. You know, the dark dichotomy of a “Punishing Kiss”. I guess there are people who like this stuff, but I’m not one of them. The vocals are “overacted”, as the singers seem to try and REALLY stress the seriousness of the lyrics. And the lyrics are pedestrian, at best. Musically, it’s well recorded, clean, lots of instrumentation. But the overall impression is as overblown as the vocal stylings. It all takes itself so very, VERY seriously. I like the MNE reviewer who called this “madly irritating, written-to-order art-school digression.” I don’t know, maybe it’s just all too deep for me, but this just leaves me cold. I don’t give many 1’s, but this gets one. I didn’t hate it, but the whole thing irritated me, and by the time the last 10+ minute song started, irritation was approaching “pissed off”. So I bailed. 1/5
57 - 2003 Speakerboxxx/The Love Below - OutKast - 2
2 hrs and 15 min of hip hop. Oh yay (sarcasm). But the whole point of this thing is to get exposed to new (to me) music. So, let’s dig in…. Looking at Wikipedia, this is basically 2 solo albums from the 2 members of OutKast. I guess that’s why it’s so long? Breaking it down: Speaker box: starting w/ hip-hop isn’t my thing…. In that context, this album isn’t 1/2 bad. There’s a lot of 70’s funk feel in a lot of it, only moderately diminished but the synthetic rhythm section, this works pretty well. Too much of the vocals are still the “how many words can you jam into a phrase”, but they’re not every song is seething anger, which I appreciate. Still, there’s some songs that I don’t like, and there’s a lot more “n-word” posturing. I expected to hate this but don’t mind a lot of it. Still, at 56+ minutes, it’s just WAY too much. I had to take a break at 45 minutes, only about 1/3 through the whole set. A couple of these songs would fit fine on a playlist, but sheesh. 2.5/5.0 The Love Below: this one sounds a little more “organic”, at least a little. And perhaps more pop, than pure funk. But on the whole, not as interesting. I’ll rate this 2/5…. At best. When I started listening to this, I was thinking sold 3. But as it went on and on (and on), the rating went down and down (and down). Especially the second album. We’ll settle in at 2/5 though, because there were 3-4 songs towards the beginning that were pretty good.
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