Best Ever Albums

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 20:12:21 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/23/2021 00:12

Last album from the A section, and out of order because I had Au after Av for some reason. Not much to say here; a legendary album, maybe a little front loaded, but it's a great front. Also I can't listen to this song without reliving the 2002 Letterman debut. Worth a watch, for sure.

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Audioslave by Audioslave

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Discogs link

Link

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 23:20:48 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/20/2021 03:20

Getting close to the end of the A section now. This album kind of transcends the alphabet in that it's one of a kind in my collection. Since I Left You, and more specifically the big single Frontier Psychologist were a portal to a new world when I was 17. Maybe if I would have been a couple of years older that would have led me to a music store and I'd have explored the genre more, but that never happened and this album exists solely to take my cares away... transporting me to a world that's something like paradise, where sometimes a parrot talks.

Is Endtroducing..... by DJ Shadow the logical next step if I want to hear something else from this realm?

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Since I Left You by The Avalanches

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Discogs link

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 20:48:01 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/19/2021 00:48

Sometimes I feel like I'm saying hello to an old friend while going through these records, and sometimes I feel like I'm putting the record on the spot and making it justify its position on my shelf. The latter is the case with Chet Atkins. The albums always have appealing cover art, and they're always well priced, and Chet was an influential guitar player. However, I've never once finished a hard day at work and said "man, I need to pour myself a beer and hear Chet's take on "A Summer's Place" one more time." That hasn't happened, and while listening to Chet's Workshop right now I believe I'm ready to open up two slots on my record shelf for new material. So this will be the last time I hear these albums, instead passing them on to their next hopefully more enthusiastic owner.

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Workshop by Chet Atkins

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A Session With Chet Atkins by Chet Atkins

Here's a Nipper label, which is always gorgeous.

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Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 15:48:24 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/18/2021 19:48

Next on my vinyl tour is one of my favorite hard rock/prog albums, Atomic Rooster's 1970 release Death Walks Behind You. America got a raw deal with a cover featuring a steampunk chicken. I bought it, but I knew there were other versions out there.

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The UK version, and the much rarer Singapore/Malaysia/Hong Kong version that I recently obtained look like this:

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Death Walks Behind You by Atomic Rooster

A great album deserves tracking down the best copy you can find, and this is about cool as it gets. Here's the label:

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Discogs link

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 16:51:09 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/10/2021 21:51

Neon 'Burbs

1. Month of May 3:50
2. No Cars Go 5:43
3. The Suburbs 5:15
4. We Used To Wait 5:01
5. Ocean of Noise 4:53
6. Modern Man 4:40
7. Ready to Start 4:16
8. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) 5:26
9. Keep The Car Running 3:29

There, that's 42 tight minutes; an LP that would get a lot of play for me. This was a completely unnecessary thought experiment that likely ruins two albums that a lot of people like, but now I feel better letting The Suburbs go to someone that will enjoy it more than I do.

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 14:43:59 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/10/2021 19:43

With the third of my three Arcade Fire albums I'm going to try listening to it before passing judgement instead of relying on hazy memories. A wild idea, I know. I will say that the "emperor wears new clothes" lyric in Ready to Start has always irritated me and I don't know why.

Edit: I'm ready to declare Modern Man the best song in their first three albums simply because it's catchy as hell without sound like any of their other songs.

Edit: I'd say this is a 3.5/5. Quite a bit better than NB, but at a whopping 65 minutes there's just too much going on. I think between the two albums I could make a solid 45 minute spotify playlist called Neon 'Burbs that would be plenty for me. Maybe I'll work on that this afternoon.

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The Suburbs by Arcade Fire

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Discogs link

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 13:41:48 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/10/2021 18:41

Arcade Fire avoids the sophomore slump on Neon Bible by putting out some real solid songwriting. I don't think of this as a concept album the way I do Funeral, but even without that thematic structure this album has a lot of high points. Keep The Car Running might be my most listened to AF song.

Edit: It'd been a while since I'd listened to the whole thing, and to be honest the middle of the album doesn't really do a lot for me. I enjoy Ocean of Noise, but Well and Antichrist are almost filler for me. Disappointing. I think it's still a keeper, but it's closer than I would have thought 12 hours ago.

Edit again: What am I doing here? I gave this a 3/5 compared to a 4.5/5 for Funeral. I'm making the tough call and moving on from this one.

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Neon Bible by Arcade Fire

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Discogs link

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Tue, 9 Mar 2021 20:19:31 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/10/2021 01:19

Next we have Arcade Fire's debut, one of the absolutely masterpieces from my college years that still holds up. I'm singing along (loudly) with Neighborhood #1 as I'm typing this. I have the 2009 reissue and it appears to be available and affordable. You should pick up a copy.

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Arcade Fire by Arcade Fire

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Discogs link

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Tue, 9 Mar 2021 19:36:17 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/10/2021 00:36

One more Gene Ammons before I switch artists, genres, and advance several decades. I think this is Gene's best known album. My particular copy is an Analogue Productions pressing from early 2016. Gene's in fine form here with one of my favorites Tommy Flanagan on the piano backing him up.

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Boss Tenor by Gene Ammons

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Discogs link

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Sat, 6 Mar 2021 13:42:49 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/06/2021 18:42

The other Ammons/Stitt collaboration in my collection was recorded in late 1973, about six months before Gene died. Even though I own the album I didn't have it in my discogs collection, nor did I have it marked as owned in RYM. It also doesn't seem to be available on Spotify or Tidal. Seems sad, as this music deserves to be acknowledged. Looks like you can get copies of this for less than $10 on discogs right now, actually. Maybe give it a shot, it's fun music with Junior Mance, Sam Jones and Duke Person also involved.

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Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt - Together Again for the Last Time

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Discogs link

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Sat, 6 Mar 2021 12:56:08 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/06/2021 17:56

Continuing with Gene Ammons today. Today, it's one of his more famous albums, Boss Tenors. It pairs him up with Sonny Stitt and they plow their way through some standards. Makes for good breakfast music. This is a mid-70s Japanese pressing of a 1962 album, and I highly recommend going that route with jazz albums whenever you can. They're usually pretty affordable, sound good, and I've yet to find one that wasn't in great condition. No idea why; my guess is that by the mid-70s jazz fans had figured out that they should take care of their records. Or maybe they just didn't get played as often as rock albums did.

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Boss Tenors by Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt

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Discogs link

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Thu, 4 Mar 2021 19:26:19 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/05/2021 00:26

I really love some Mal Waldron, so I decided to open it up and give it a listen. That era of Prestige was pretty much just blowing session after blowing session, but this leans more toward the bluesy laidback style, which is a nice change of pace. It's a keeper.

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Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Thu, 4 Mar 2021 14:57:26 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 03/04/2021 19:57

A good reason to listen to all of your albums in alphabetical order is that you come across sealed items in your possession that, by definition, you've never listened to before! In this case, I have a sealed audiophile 45rpm pressing of a Gene Ammons album that I'm not at all familiar with. So now I get to think about if I want to open this album and play it and reduce its value from $150 to $60-$70. That seems like a large loss of equity when I can buy an OJC in VG+ condition for $13 and probably get the same amount of enjoyment out of it. BUT selling a record online means dealing with another human (in this case, a buyer) and then making a trip to the Post Office (a location outside of my apartment). It's all a lot to consider, so I'm going to give it a think and I'll get back to you later with what I decided.

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Gene Ammons - Blue Gene

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 21:22:45 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 02/26/2021 02:22

I've got one more silver dollar, so I'm going down to Macon, GA for the next band in my collection. Not much to say about these, I kind of just want to curl up in a ball and have the music carry me into Friday. Hope you're having a good night, wherever you may be.

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Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 20:00:19 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 02/26/2021 01:00

Got a little out of order here, but I'm stepping back a few letters to get some Air. One of my favorite 90s albums, and one of the few downtempo/ambient/electronic albums in my collection. It's just a chill album for a chill evening.

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Moon Safari by Air (FR)

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Discogs link

Link

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 19:36:51 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 02/21/2021 00:36

Speaking of the blues, next up is one of my favorites of the genre. I haven't taken the time to sit down and learn about Luther, but I can tell you that this is simply a masterpiece. Check the title track below to erase all memory of Steven Tyler from your mind.

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Bad News Is Coming by Luther Allison

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Discogs link

Link

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 19:24:02 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 02/21/2021 00:24

Fischman wrote:

Yeah, the story behind thst one is silly, but there's no mistaking the excellence of the music and the verve in the delivery. Those cats were killing it for sure. Wish I Couldn't been there myself.

I got to sit in on a couple of pretty good jazz concerts in college about 20 years ago and I saw the touring Duke Ellington band in Seattle a couple of years back, but yeah, sadly, the days of going to a legitimate jazz show outside of New York or maybe Chicago are gone. It's nice that they're still uncovering tapes, though, like the excellent Palo Alto by Thelonious Monk that was released last year. Any glimpse we can get of that era is welcome.

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 19:14:39 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 02/21/2021 00:14

Going to cheat a little bit and post one that I'm not listening to, simply because I just bought it a couple of months ago. It's an Aerosmith album from 2004 and is notable simply because they weren't putting out much vinyl in 2004, therefore it's incredibly rare. I'll be honest, it's not great. The goal was to get back to their roots by doing a bunch of blues covers, but it comes off as cheesy and the results are all over the place. I'll link to maybe the best track from the whole experiment below.

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Honkin' On Bobo by Aerosmith

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Discogs link

Warning, this is full-on scarf-mode Steven Tyler. It wouldn't hurt to shotgun a couple of beers before clicking.

Link

Re: Grogg listens to music

Fischman — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 19:06:51 GMT

Author: Fischman

Posted: 02/21/2021 00:06

grogg wrote:

Tonight's entry is Cannonball's Mercy Mercy Mercy. This is one of those live albums where the jacket flat out lies to you, here suggesting that the show was played at a Chicago club (whose owner was a friend of Adderley's) but was actually played in studio with some folks pretending to be an audience. That part is a bit weird, but it really becomes secondary about halfway through "Games" when you're totally enveloped by the playing. This is top tier bop and perhaps a little underappreciated.

This is a first pressing from 1967 on Capitol with the iconic rainbow label you've likely seen on Beatles albums.

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Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! - Live At "The Club" by The Cannonball Adderley Quintet

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Discogs link

This is the go-to track:

Link

And it was turned into a top 11 hit by The Buckinghams about a month later:

Link

Yeah, the story behind thst one is silly, but there's no mistaking the excellence of the music and the verve in the delivery. Those cats were killing it for sure. Wish I Couldn't been there myself.

Re: Grogg listens to music

grogg — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 19:01:55 GMT

Author: grogg

Posted: 02/21/2021 00:01

This one is from a couple of years earlier and doesn't quite have the same polish as Rocks, but Train Kept a Rollin' is simply a monster. Oh, the guy I bought this from took good care of his records and kept the original hype sticker and department store sticker. Always fun to have that kind of stuff.

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Get Your Wings by Aerosmith

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Discogs link

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