I do like the Four Tops though, don't get me wrong.
And I love the Temptations and the Supremes. To be honest, I probably can't argue with you when it comes to the post-1960s music. Talking about the Four Tops, I really was mostly talking about the 60s golden age.
I agree some of the music of the Temptations was more cleanly produced, but I think the raw production on the Four Tops' tracks is one of their strengths (and I usually prefer more sophisticated production). I'll take Stubbs' voice over Ruffin's any day. But I also thought I'd try to be a bit more precise about it.
I ranked the 1397 songs Motown released as singles between 1959 and 1970. Excluding duplicate songs (e.g. stereo and mono versions of the same songs), looking at my top 25 singles from that group, here's how the artists break down:
Diana Ross & The Supremes - 8
Four Tops - 6
Temptations - 3
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - 3
Martha & The Vandellas - 2
Stevie Wonder - 2
Jackson 5 - 1
So I'd be much more open to an argument for the Supremes over the Four Tops in terms of quality singles. Thanks for making me reconsider this. I'll still take the Tops over the Temptations, though, at least in the 1960s.
I just think the Four Tops were more comfortable as a singles act. I can listen to entire LPs by The Supremes and The Temptations all day. I mean when it comes down to it the sixties were home to the best of soul songwriting before soul got ambitious and experimental (new jack swing, funk, disco, psychedelic soul, alternative r&b, neo-soul, etc) so I wouldn't be mad at anybody giving soul more attention since it really does deserve it. Not enough 60s charts represent soul music and its always bothered me.
CameronMB wrote:
As for Pixies, I'd love to love them, I've just yet to run into any music by them that moved me in any way. I'm open to thoughts about why they are worth the time.
For me speaking about Doolittle is really difficult because I’ve never listened to a record that has resonated like it has on my very first listen and refused to wear down. So what is it about the record that continues to hold me after a few years of listening to it and its companions in the Pixies’ discography? It really is a question that I’m not sure I really can answer, but then again I am certainly not the only one drawn to the frantic guitar-driven rock that plays around with a sound of desperation and emotion that blows their contemporaries out of the water. The Pixies have long since cemented themselves as my second favorite band after six or seven years of excessive listening and the weird part is as I mentioned is that there is absolute zero point zero percent of exhaustion as I could sit in the middle of nowhere for an entire year with just this record as a partner. Revered as alternative rock’s staple pioneers and prophets, there is something so profoundly special about what they do on this record. I don’t know if it’s the frantic vocal melodies, the noisy guitars, the pop hooks, or what it is really.
The first time I heard Wave of Mutilation was like a tidal wave of raw unadulterated pop-noise that for some reason took me with it completely unaware. Why this was strange as I felt at the time as pretty knowledgeable on music so something clicked that I wasn’t expecting at all as if it was fate, a fate that was adoration for dissonance in a rock soundscape, was this my calling as a listener?
Favorite Track – “Wave of Mutilation”
I wrote this awhile back, I probably (maybe) would be able to talk about it in more length.
Thanks Gowienczyk, I appreciate your serious replies. I've only heard Doolittle twice and Indie Cindy once, so clearly I have a lot more Pixies listening to do. And I haven't listened to many Supremes/Temptations LPs cover to cover, I'm moving that up in priority because I do love 60s soul of all kinds and agree in general that it's underrepresented on most album lists. _________________ Here's my 2014 chart
Interesting, and my first exposure to this artist. I'm listening to a lot of groups this year for the first time who had some popularity from earlier albums - it's kind of fascinating going into these things without preconceptions, when I know a lot of people had expectations one way or the other for an album. I will definitely check out their debut disc.
It warms my heart to know that honest-to-goodness, semi-grandiose prog rock is still being made in this day and age, complete with synth sounds out of the 70s, obligatory odd time signatures, and a style that clearly owes a lot to Genesis. I'm not being sarcastic, I think it's great that there's still music like this being made. Still, hearing it makes me want to go back to the source, the great prog rock of the 1970s.
I tend to prefer studio recordings to live ones, but I do find that live albums are a great way to find out of a band's musicianship is really as good as it sounds on record. This album proves that Supertramp were a great, tight, talented band, and it serves as a great mid-career retrospective of some of their best music, from "Dreamer" and "Bloody Well Right" through the (then) more recent hits of their best album, Breakfast in America.
A classic, not my all-time favorite Glass but very strong chamber music. Glass writes some of the best and some of the worst contemporary classical music, and this is definitely on the good side.
This is a funky, fun, groovy, catchy, yet totally spaced-out, ambient, and psychedelic masterpiece. It's not one of their few most popular albums, but it was the first album in this style that I ever fell in love with.
Just a quick note, I did listening today but won't have time to update until later (probably tomorrow). If anyone cares... 😜 _________________ Here's my 2014 chart
Interesting, and my first exposure to this artist. I'm listening to a lot of groups this year for the first time who had some popularity from earlier albums - it's kind of fascinating going into these things without preconceptions, when I know a lot of people had expectations one way or the other for an album. I will definitely check out their debut disc.
I didn’t like this as much as the debut but I don’t understand why it’s getting its collective ass kicked by critics and bloggers. I liked it well enough but on RYM it’s gotten down to almost to the negative reception numbers (it’s a 3.09 last I checked which is a resounding “meh” and it continues to drop). I felt the textures and emotional/musical depth were plenty fine.
It warms my heart to know that honest-to-goodness, semi-grandiose prog rock is still being made in this day and age, complete with synth sounds out of the 70s, obligatory odd time signatures, and a style that clearly owes a lot to Genesis. I'm not being sarcastic, I think it's great that there's still music like this being made. Still, hearing it makes me want to go back to the source, the great prog rock of the 1970s.
Symphonic Prog didn’t die with Asia’s “Heat of the Moment” which is something a lot of people didn’t get the memo on. Marillion, IQ, and countless others have been putting out great progressive rock in the vein of their ‘heroes’ for the last two-to-three decades. But yeah, I liked this one a lot. IQ’s best since Dark Matter.
This is a funky, fun, groovy, catchy, yet totally spaced-out, ambient, and psychedelic masterpiece. It's not one of their few most popular albums, but it was the first album in this style that I ever fell in love with.
You know that song from Portlandia, "The Dream of the 90s is Alive in Portland!" Well, the dream of the 80s is alive on the BEA Top 100 for 2014. This being my first year really diving into new releases, I am very surprised by the dominance of (what sounds to me like) retro, 80s-influenced synth pop, from lighter fare like Ronika and La Roux through slightly darker material like this album (not that this is a "dark" album but it's less insistently upbeat than some of the other neo-80s albums I've heard from 2014). Am I right in perceiving this as a trend or has it just been a coincidence that I've run into so many albums like that this year?
I'm very sympathetic to electronic music, but this felt pretty hollow to me; a couple thrilling moments mixed with long stretches of almost dead space.
I tend to listen to complete albums in search of great individual tracks. That is to say, I'd rather have an album with a couple tracks I love than one that works as a concept but doesn't have any stone-cold classic tracks. But occasionally an album breaks that chain for me; I don't know if I loved any of the songs on this album, but it works great as an entirety and definitely demands multiple listenings. It's a sort of kaleidoscopic mix of hip hop beats, r&b, sound collage, experimental dance... sort of like a cool musical stained glass window, sometimes moving dizzyingly quickly. Fascinating.
Other Music
I've been enjoying diving into the George Harrison "Apple Years" boxed set, listening to his early albums in chronological order. I started off with
The best one-word description I can come up with is "surprising" - there are some truly out-there, experimental moments. "Dream Scene," for example, sounds to my ears as avant-garde and experimental as music I've heard by groups like Can or Gong. Give it a listen:
The incorporation of Indian musical elements is not surprising, but the way he fuses them, along with other musical material, certainly was unexpected to me. Not all of the album is as weird, or as good - it's wildly inconsistent and I can imagine it frustrating a lot of Beatle fans. But it's absolutely worth hearing.
A fascinating bit of history if not a totally compelling listen from beginning to end. Reviews for it are all over the place; MusicHound gives it 1 out of 5 stars, Rolling Stone Album Guide gives it 2.5 out of 5, and AllMusic gives it 4 out of 5, saying of one of the two tracks, No Time or Space, that it is "Dramatically structured, unearthly in its pitchless writhing, flamboyantly manipulating pink and white noise from the opening electronic gun battle onward... an entertaining listening experience." I think I'd fall in the middle in terms of my reaction; I admired it and found it occasionally fascinating, but far from the most interesting electronic music from that era that I've heard.
My classical listening of the day was a disc of piano concerti by the 20th-century (but retro) British composer Malcolm Arnold.
Finally, I'll take this opportunity to plug another album:
I have to be upfront: a friend of mine is the lead singer, and I don't normally go for metal. But this is extremely well-played, virtuosic technical death metal and even a casual like me found plenty to enjoy.
The Orb have many good albums. 😄 The one our wonderful Prime Minster mentions is perhaps the best. Has something very charming which I could imagine driving a car around to.
Hi all. I know I haven't posted lately... the last few days have been busier than normal, meaning both less listening and less time to write about it. The pattern stayed the same, though... I still focused on 2014 recordings. In fact, my Top 100 list is almost filled out now! Once that gets maxed out, I'm going to start trying to listen to lots of records from last year, but still pop in the occasional unheard 2014 album. It feels really great to have finally put in some time listening to current music. I know I have a chart, but I'll use this space to share some of my favorite 2014 discoveries - specifically, artists that were new to me:
Also, I know most of you know about RateYourMusic but I want to throw in a word for it. It has a lot more albums listed for BEA and a useful genre search feature. I used it, for example, to discover a list of chiptune albums released in 2014. It can be a great way to supplement music discovery (both older and newer stuff).
Thanks to the new Apple Years box set. All I can say is that his solo career is filled with interesting moments and great songs (and not just the famous ones). Any Beatles fan who has neglected it is missing out.
One of my favorite bands (in close competition with Steely Dan), Earth Wind & Fire really should get more love on websites like this - unfortunately, classic soul, funk, disco, and r&b records tend to be underappreciated by the - I'll say it - largely white audience for classic album aggregation websites.
Hardly obscure, in fact a very well-known album of its era, but I still think it's an album that demands to be heard. Herbie Hancock's solo on "Dance Cadaverous" is my favorite jazz piano solo of all time (it starts a bit after 1:40).
Since we're on the subject of keyboard solos, I'll also share my favorite synth solo of all time (Billy Currie), from this live Gary Numan rendition of "On Broadway" (stars at 1:57).
Anyway, I know this project fizzled a bit towards the end, but I enjoyed filling you all in on my listening for the week. I definitely suggest checking out the earlier ULLs if you haven't done so yet, many of them are filled with interesting music and insights.
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