ECHOBELLY
ON
1995-550/EPIC
Produced By SEAN SLADE & PAUL KOLDERIE
1. Car Fiction
2. King Of The Kerb
3. Great Things
4. Natural Animal
5. Go Away
6. Pantyhose And Roses
7. Something Hot In A Cold Country
8. Four Letter Word
9. Nobody Like You
10. In The Year
11. Dark Therapy
12. Worms And Angels
For a minute, Echobelly was a shining star in England's rock scene. Their second album, On, was a smash with the hit "King Of The Kerb", and Sonya Madan seemed well on her way to the big time. It didn't last, but on this album, it looked like it would. Speeding things up and rocking heavily, the band flows through this set of very good songs. Madan's voice is a good contrast...she sounds kind of sweet next to the roaring guitars. A good piece of mid 90's rock that doesn't get its due...Echobelly was, briefly, a very good band.
They broke up after the poorly received (but not as bad as the critics made it out to be) album Lustra. Both are worthwhile.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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1. Across The Great Divide
2. Rag Mama Rag
3. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
4. When You Awake
5. Up On Cripple Creek
6. Whispering Pines
7. Jemima Surrender
8. Rockin' Chair
9. Look Out Cleveland
10. Jawbone
11. The Unfaithful Servant
12. King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
Bonus Tracks
13. Get Up Jake (Outtake-Stereo Mix)
14. Rag Mama Rag (Alternate vocal take-rough mix)
15. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Alternate mix)
16. Up On Cripple Creek (Alternate take)
17. Whispering Pines (Alternate take)
18. Jemima Surrender (Alternate take)
19. King Harvest (Has Surely Come) (Alternate performance)
Having gone from being The Hawks (Ronnie Hawkins backing band) to Bob Dylan's road band, this unlikely group of four Canadiens and one Arkansas farm boy released Music From Big Pink, which came from nowhere and defined Americana music. They were unable to tour because of a car accident involving Rick Danko, so when their second album, The Band, came out, they were still relatively unknown. The most amazing thing was, this was even better than their debut. Every song here is a true classic. "Across The Great Divide", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "Up On Cripple Creek", "King Harvest"...and on and on. Richard Manuel, whose stunning vocal on "I Shall Be Released" on the debut was a high point, gets two amazing songs, "The Unfaithful Servant" and the beautiful "Whispering Pines".
The Band were on top of the world here. A no brainer 5 star album. As far as the bonus tracks, pay no attention...they are all inferior versions of the original releases. But The Band should be in every record collection. It should be the law.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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Of dying history
THE DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR
CHIPS FROM THE CHOCOLATE FIREBALL
1987-CAROLINE
Produced By JOHN LECKIE & THE DUKES
1. 25 O'Clock
2. Bike Ride To The Moon
3. My Love Explodes
4. What In The World??..
5. Your Gold Dress
6. The Mole From The Ministry
7. Vanishing Girl
8. Have You Seen Jackie?
9. Little Lighthouse
10. You're A Good Man Albert Brown
11. Collideascope
12. You're My Drug
13. Shiny Cage
14. Brainiac's Daughter
15. The Affiliated
16. Pale And Precious
In between the recording of their 1986 album Skylarking, XTC took to the studio under the psychedelic alter-ego name The Dukes Of Stratosphear. They released an EP, 25 O'Clock in 1985 and the album Psonic Psunspot in 1987. Chips From The Chocolate Fireball is both of these efforts combined on one disc, and it's quite good. XTC became a late 60's psychedelic band quite easily, and the resulting recordings are trippy, musical, and clever. The highlights are "25 O'Clock", "Have You Seen Jackie", the very British "You're A Good Man Albert Brown", and the excellent "My Love Explodes". Usually, experiments like this don't work very well, but XTC pulls it off very well.
There are spots when they sound like XTC, including "The Mole From The Ministry" and especially "Brainiac's Daughter". Which is not a bad thing. Chips is a trip back to the psychedelic...80's. Kudos, XTC. You did well.
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CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL
CHRONICLE
1976-FANTASY
Produced By JOHN FOGERTY
1. Susie Q
2. I Put A Spell On You
3. Proud Mary
4. Bad Moon Rising
5. Lodi
6. Green River
7. Commotion
8. Down On The Corner
9. Fortunate Son
10. Travelin' Band
11. Who'll Stop The Rain
12. Up Around The Bend
13. Run Through The Jungle
14. Lookin' Out My Back Door
15. Long As I Can See The Light
16. I Heard It Through The Grapevine
17. Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
18. Hey Tonight
19. Sweet Hitch-Hiker
20. Someday Never Comes
It's always been fashionable to bash Creedence, but there's no denying that in the short span between 1968 and 1970, they were at the very top of rock & roll. This collection is proof of that. How many bands could put together a 20 song best of this powerful pulled from just 3 years of work? The hits are all here...and while they were dismissed by many at the time as a top 40 band, they were also a really good band. Nobody came close to them during this time. They were that good.
There are many compilations out there...Chronicle remains the best of them all. But you may want to dig deeper and get the individual albums...all of which are deep with hits and other tracks. Just stay away from Mardi Gras, their final album...maybe the worst album ever made. If not, it's one of them. But Chronicle is a gem.
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THE CLASH
LONDON CALLING
1979-EPIC
Produced By GUY STEVENS
1. London Calling
2. Brand New Cadillac
3. Jimmy Jazz
4. Hateful
5. Rudie Can't Fail
6. Spanish Bombs
7. The Right Profile
8. Lost In The Supermarket
9. Clampdown
10. The Guns Of Brixton
11. Wrong 'Em Boyo
12. Death Or Glory
13. Koka Kola
14. The Card Cheat
15. Lover's Rock
16. Four Horsemen
17. I'm Not Down
18. Revolution Rock
19. Train In Vain
The Clash were one of the leading lights of punk, thanks to their self titled debut album. What they had on the others (The Sex Pistols, The Ramones) was a keen political sense. And, it turned out, much more talent than their contemporaries. London Calling is a masterpiece. Diving head first into not only punk, but reggae, rock, and blues, The Clash makes this set of exceptional songs an album that still sounds great today, and that earned them (for a short time) the label of the Best Rock Band In The World. Punk would never be the same, as The Clash expanded the sound and made smart music. The title track remains a hit today, as does "Train In Vain"...a song the band disliked enough to not list on the album credits.
After this, the decline was slow, but they never reached this height again. But London Calling is their masterwork, a true classic album, and maybe the best punk album of all time.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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Of dying history
R.E.M.
MONSTER
1994-WARNER BROTHERS
Produced By SCOTT LITT & R.E.M.
1. What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
2. Crush With Eyeliner
3. King Of Comedy
4. I Don't Sleep, I Dream
5. Star 69
6. Strange Currencies
7. Tongue
8. Bang And Blame
9. I Took Your Name
10. Let Me In
11. Circus Envy
12. You
After their third masterpiece album Automatic For The People, R.E.M. switched gears and went all out heavy guitars and an almost glam sound for Monster. The album starts out great. "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" is a great single, followed by "Crush With Eyeliner" featuring Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. From there, it gets spotty...although there are great moments scattered around "Circus Envy" and the great "Bang And Blame". It's a good, solid album, but not what we've come to expect from R.E.M.. Peter Buck gets to play with distortion throughout, and Michael Stipe shows his versatility. But there are a few less than stellar songs.
There isn't really much you can go wrong with when it comes to this band. Monster is good, but nowhere near the bar they set with albums like Murmer, Document and Automatic For The People. But the highlights make it worthwhile. And you can find this album in discount bins very easily, which makes it all the better.
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DEF LEPPARD
ADRENALIZE
1992-MERCURY
Produced By MIKE SHIPLEY & DEF LEPPARD
1. Let's Get Rocked
2. Heaven Is
3. Make Love Like A Man
4. Tonight
5. White Lightning
6. Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)
7. Personal Property
8. Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
9. I Wanna Touch U
10. Tear It Down
So, if a bear drops a turd in the woods and no one is around to smell it, does it stink? A lot happened to Def Leppard between the release of Hysteria in 1987 and Adrenalize in 1992. Drummer Rick Allen lost an arm, guitarist Stephen Clark died, and Nirvana made hair metal obsolete. And that turd in the woods that no one smelled? "Let's Get Rocked", where the band decided that substituting the word "rock" for other things was a good idea ("let's get the rock out of here!" and the classic "I suppose a rock's out of the question"). Just wow.
As for the rest of Adrenalize, it's typical Def Leppard...it sounds great because they took so much damn time making it. The songs are typical 80's metal fare, power ballads and mindless rockers. Great sound with no substance. If it didn't sound so good, it would be instant trash...but it's still better than a lot of the genre's output.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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Of dying history
RADIOHEAD
KID A
2000-CAPITOL
Produced By NIGEL GODRICH & RADIOHEAD
1. Everything In It's Right Place
2. Kid A
3. The National Anthem
4. How To Disappear Completely
5. Treefingers
6. Optimistic
7. In Limbo
8. Idioteque
9. Morning Bell
10. Motion Picture Soundtrack
Wait...wasn't Radiohead supposed to have disappeared off the face of the earth as a one hit wonder with "Creep"? Never happened. They just got better...then they got great. How do you follow up a masterwork like OK Computer? Radiohead's answer was to go all Pink Floyd on our asses with Kid A. And it's brilliant. This album is nothing but strange...the best kind. Think of it as a soundtrack to a weird dream where you wake up feeling really cool. How else to describe it? Everything melts into one, and the result is a stunning, beautiful work.
The concept of Kid A continued to their next album, Amnesiac. This is a band that can do no wrong. Don't just buy this one...buy them all. _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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STEVE VAI
PASSION AND WARFARE
1992-EPIC
Produced By STEVE VAI
1. Liberty
2. Erotic Nightmares
3. The Animal
4. Answers
5. The Riddle
6. Ballerina 12/24
7. For The Love Of God
8. The Audience Is Listening
9. I Would Love To
10. Blue Powder
11. Greasy Kid's Stuff
12. Alien Water Kiss
13. Sisters
14. Love Secrets
Maybe the biggest crime committed by Eddie Van Halen was in opening the door for the new age of instrumental guitar music. Steve Vai, whose resume includes stints with Frank Zappa, Whitesnake and David Lee Roth, saved his most pompous moments for his own solo recordings. Passion And Warfare is a great album...if by great, you mean 14 tracks of non stop guitar squealing and 100 mile per hour shredding over backing tracks that sound as if they were recorded as an afterthought. This is ego at its largest. There are no lyrics, but Vai thought it important to write little snippets of nonsense to describe what these steroid infested tracks are supposed to be about. The CD booklet unfolds to reveal a large poster of himself, and it's surprising that he even bothered to mention his backing band.
Vai can play, and he plays very well...but this is pure overkill. If you love this kind of stuff, then this is the album for you. Otherwise, take some mind numbing sleep medication before listening...you're going to need it.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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Of dying history
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