MAZZY STAR
SO TONIGHT THAT I MIGHT SEE
1993-CAPITOL
Produced By DAVID ROBACK
1. Fade Into You
2. Bells Ring
3. Mary Of Silence
4. Five String Serenade
5. Blue Light
6. She’s My Baby
7. Unreflected
8. Wasted
9. Into Dust
10. So Tonight That I Might See
Mazzy Star is a duo consisting of David Roback and Hope Sandoval that has been active off and on since 1988. They have made only four albums over the years, which may actually be a good thing: the biggest knock on this band is that their songs tend to sound the same. Kind of hard to not sound the same when you play lazy, shoegazing dream pop like Mazzy Star. So Tonight That I Might See is their second album, by far their most successful (their only hit, “Fade Into You”, is here), and their best set of songs. In fact, this album somehow slipped past the masses who were busy discovering Seattle and grunge. And spooky, lazy dream pop is hardly music for the masses. But, this album happens to be very, very good. And it’s worth rediscovering a part of the 90’s that has been missing for quite some time now. Mazzy Star deserves a better fate.
The music evolved from LA’s Paisley Underground, but it’s ultimately the voice of Hope Sandoval that carries this. “Fade Into You” is one of the bright spots of the 90’s. It’s a slow burning, serious mood piece that never fails to impress with it’s beauty. The rest of the album follows suit. The album is instrumentally sound, lyrically solid, and sonically sweet. This is the album you want to play on a rainy day spend laying on your couch, or on a serene drive through a scenic landscape. The only downside to So Tonight That I Might See is that there isn’t a lot of variation in the sound…if you can get past that, you’ll find that it’s a beautiful album that has held up remarkably well over the last twenty years. A shame that they were never able to build on this.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
MAZZY STAR
SO TONIGHT THAT I MIGHT SEE
1993-CAPITOL
Produced By DAVID ROBACK
1. Fade Into You
2. Bells Ring
3. Mary Of Silence
4. Five String Serenade
5. Blue Light
6. She’s My Baby
7. Unreflected
8. Wasted
9. Into Dust
10. So Tonight That I Might See
Mazzy Star is a duo consisting of David Roback and Hope Sandoval that has been active off and on since 1988. They have made only four albums over the years, which may actually be a good thing: the biggest knock on this band is that their songs tend to sound the same. Kind of hard to not sound the same when you play lazy, shoegazing dream pop like Mazzy Star. So Tonight That I Might See is their second album, by far their most successful (their only hit, “Fade Into You”, is here), and their best set of songs. In fact, this album somehow slipped past the masses who were busy discovering Seattle and grunge. And spooky, lazy dream pop is hardly music for the masses. But, this album happens to be very, very good. And it’s worth rediscovering a part of the 90’s that has been missing for quite some time now. Mazzy Star deserves a better fate.
The music evolved from LA’s Paisley Underground, but it’s ultimately the voice of Hope Sandoval that carries this. “Fade Into You” is one of the bright spots of the 90’s. It’s a slow burning, serious mood piece that never fails to impress with it’s beauty. The rest of the album follows suit. The album is instrumentally sound, lyrically solid, and sonically sweet. This is the album you want to play on a rainy day spend laying on your couch, or on a serene drive through a scenic landscape. The only downside to So Tonight That I Might See is that there isn’t a lot of variation in the sound…if you can get past that, you’ll find that it’s a beautiful album that has held up remarkably well over the last twenty years. A shame that they were never able to build on this.
Gonna heartily recommend their 2013 comeback (of sorts), Seasons of Your Day, which follows a very similar formula as laid out on earlier albums, but brings a crisper, more spacious, slightly bluesier sound to their production, and which features a handful of their very strongest songs. Worth checking out if you haven't already (and revisiting if you have). _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
Gonna heartily recommend their 2013 comeback (of sorts), Seasons of Your Day, which follows a very similar formula as laid out on earlier albums, but brings a crisper, more spacious, slightly bluesier sound to their production, and which features a handful of their very strongest songs. Worth checking out if you haven't already (and revisiting if you have).
Thanks, Skinny. I have not, but I will check it out for sure. _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD
1966-ATCO
Produced By CHARLES GREENE & BRIAN STONE
1. For What It’s Worth
2. Go And Say Goodbye
3. Sit Down I Think I Love You
4. Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing
5. Hot Dusty Roads
6. Everybody’s Wrong
7. Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
8. Burned
9. Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It
10. Leave
11. Out Of My Mind
12. Pay The Price
What turned out to be a stepping stone band on a par only with The Yardbirds, Buffalo Springfield existed for only two years. But the band launched the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina, making future acts Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Poco, Manassas and Loggins & Messina possible. The history of the band was tumultuous, and they burned out by 1968 in the midst of multiple drug busts. But they also made three albums, including this one, their first. Messina wasn’t there yet, but the front line of Stills, Young and Furay was pretty potent. Here, they had been together just a few months, and they were ultimately unhappy that the hurried nature of the recordings resulted in not capturing the live sound they were after. There is an uncomfortable and rushed feeling to the album, for sure.
This version of Buffalo Springfield is a re-release from 1967 that was done after “For What It’s Worth” (not on the original version) became a hit. It replaces the track “Baby Don’t Scold Me”, and puts the songs in different order. Other highlights include Young’s “Burned” and “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing”, and Stills’ “Sit Down I Think I Love You”. The next album, Buffalo Springfield Again, was much better, but this is still an important part of the American rock resurgence of the late 60’s, and an important start to the recording legacy of the band and its individual members. It’s interesting to hear the genesis of everything that came afterwards here, while the members were still young and not yet famous. All of which makes this somewhat flawed album very worthwhile.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
EAGLES
ONE OF THESE NIGHTS
1975-ASYLUM
Produced By BILL SZYMCZYK
1. One Of These Nights
2. Too Many Hands
3. Hollywood Waltz
4. Journey Of The Sorcerer
5. Lyin’ Eyes
6. Take It To The Limit
7. Visions
8. After The Thrill Is Gone
9. I Wish You Peace
Everyone remembers Hotel California…but not a lot of people remember the album that came just before it. That album would be 1975’s One Of These Nights. It was hardly a flop: in fact, three of their biggest hits are here : Glenn Frey’s seemingly endlessly long and tedious “Lyin’ Eyes”, Randy Meisner’s lovely “Take It To The Limit”, and Don Henley’s almost disco title track. It’s no surprise that an Eagles album would have two or three big hits. The question about their recording was always this: what do they have surrounding them? The band made only one change in personnel before Hotel California: trading out Bernie Leadon for Joe Walsh, a move that took them in a much less country direction. The sound is similar to that of Hotel, but with a bit less edge to it. The question has always been, do you bother with their early albums, or do you just spring for Their Greatest Hits (1971-75)?
Well, the filler is the thing. And actually, of all of the pre-Hotel California albums, this may be the strongest. The most obvious high point is “After The Thrill Is Gone”, which has to rank as one of the band’s greatest songs. Meisner’s other contribution, “Too Many Hands”, is a fine song, and “Visions” is interesting as it’s the only time you’ll hear Don Felder sing lead on an Eagles album. Leadon’s two contributions, “I Wish You Peace” and the dull instrumental “Journey Of The Sorcerer” add nothing, and “Hollywood Waltz” is a throwaway. So, how does the album do? It’s not great, but the positives do outweigh the negatives, Especially if you’re a fan, One Of These Nights is a solid addition, and a good prequel to Hotel California. _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
EDDIE VEDDER
INTO THE WILD
2007-J
Produced By ADAM KASPER & EDDIE VEDDER
1. Setting Forth
2. No Ceiling
3. Far Behind
4. Rise
5. Long Nights
6. Tuolumne
7. Hard Sun
8. Society
9. The Wolf
10. End Of The Road
11. Guaranteed
Into The Wild is a film by Sean Penn. He handpicked Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam to do the music for the movie, even though Vedder had never recorded very much outside of his band. Turns out that not only did he have a wealth of material, he was also quite capable of playing all of it. Bass, drums, guitars…all of it. Penn would feed Vedder scenes, then Vedder would write and record the song pretty much on the spot. He has since likened the experience to working in a factory: he just cranked out song after song on demand until the project was done. All of the songs were written by Vedder except for two: “Hard Sun” was a top 10 hit for Indio in 1989 (it was also the single from this album), and “Society” by Jerry Hannan. Hannan’s guitar on the track is the only instrument on the album not played by Vedder.
The biggest issue here is brevity. Of the eleven tracks, seven don’t reach 3 minutes in length. The result is that a lot of ideas never reach a fruitful conclusion, and the songs sound incomplete. The best songs are the longer ones, showing that when Vedder expands the thought, he gets a much better result. The high points are the two covers listed above, but also “Guaranteed”, “End Of The Road”, and the best of the short tracks, “Rise”. As a soundtrack, Into The Wild works well, complimenting Penn’s vision nicely. As an album, it has a great sound but also has its flaws. It’s interesting, and it’s a good way to hear for the first time what Vedder can do on his own.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
PIZZA DELIVERANCE
1999-SOULDUMP
Produced By EARL HICKS & DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
1. Bulldozers And Dirt
2. Nine Bullets
3. Uncle Frank
4. Too Much Sex (Too Little Jesus)
5. Box Of Spiders
6. One Of These Days
7. Margo And Harold
8. The Company I Keep
9. The President’s Penis Is Missing
10. Tales Facing Up
11. Love Like This
12. Mrs. Dubose
13. Zoloft
14. The Night G.G. Allin Came To Town
The second album from Drive-By Truckers was released in 1999, then got a wider distribution from a re-release on the larger New West Records in 2005. The album contains songs that continue in the vein of their raucous debut, Gangstabilly, but also shows that the band has the ability to turn out ballads like the solid opener, “Bulldozers And Dirt”. The album also features guitarist Mike Cooley stretching out as a songwriter, contributing three songs to the album along with bass player Rob Malone ‘s “Mrs. Dubose”, a change from having all but one of Gangstabilly’s songs written by Patterson Hood…and a change that would continue to grow from album to album. But the main writer here is still Hood, and some of his more memorable songs are on this album. Less country than Gangstabilly, this is also not much like the next album, the much more solid Southern Rock Opera.
Tracks like “Bulldozers And Dirt”, “Nine Bullets” and Cooley’s “Uncle Frank” are rock solid…but Pizza Deliverance ultimately suffers from a bit too much padding. At 14 tracks and well over an hour, there’s a lot to get through, particularly in the middle, which is broken up only by the strange “The President’s Penis Is Missing”. But if you’re a fan of the Truckers, and a fan of Southern Rock, then Pizza Deliverance should be just fine for you. Ultimately, this album is a lot of fun, and contains enough songs you’ll want to own to make it worthwhile. At this point, the band was not perfect, but was growing very quickly. This is an important part of the evolution of one of the more interesting and fun bands we have today. Recommended!
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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Of dying history
RADIOHEAD
PABLO HONEY
1993-CAPITOL
Produced By SEAN SLADE & PAUL Q KOLDERIE
1. You
2. Creep
3. How Do You?
4. Stop Whispering
5. Thinking About You
6. Anyone Can Play Guitar
7. Ripcord
8. Vegetable
9. Prove Yourself
10. I Can’t
11. Lurgee
12. Blow Out
Radiohead may be one of the biggest bands in the world with no fewer than five albums that could be considered masterpieces, including what may be the greatest album of all time, but in the beginning there were no indications that they had anything worth holding onto. Pablo Honey is their debut album, and, more than anything else, it seems to contain all of the ingredients of a one hit wonder. The album was almost completely ignored in England, but the song “Creep” became a big hit in America. Subsequent singles didn’t do well, and the band hit an almost breaking point while touring almost endlessly in support of the album. When they returned to the studio, nothing was the same…from The Bends on, Radiohead never resembled the band that recorded Pablo Honey. The album has since been panned as inferior to the rest of their catalog, and while people may have a point with that, it’s also important to remember that Pablo Honey is not, by any means, a terrible album.
Actually, while the British music scene was trying to force bands like Suede and The Verve onto everyone, Radiohead and Pablo Honey had a sound more in tune with American listeners. Part of why the album has such a bad reputation is that they were being called the British Nirvana. Of course “Creep” is a monster of a song, but don’t overlook tracks like “Anyone Can Play Guitar”, Stop Whispering”, and “You”, which are also very strong. The low point is “How Do You?”, Again…nobody will argue that Pablo Honey is on a par with OK Computer or Kid A or The Bends or In Rainbows…but on its own, it’s a strong and promising debut album, good to listen to, and interesting in that the seeds of what was to come are all right here. Don’t believe the negative hype about Pablo Honey. Listen for yourself…and you’ll find that it’s a lot better than what we’ve been told for so many years.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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THE KINKS
THE KINKS ARE THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY
1968-REPRISE
Produced By RAY DAVIES
1. The Village Green Preservation Society
2. Do You Remember Walter?
3. Picture Book
4. Johnny Thunder
5. Last Of The Steam Powered Trains
6. Big Sky
7. Sitting By The Riverside
8. Animal Farm
9. Village Green
10. Starstruck
11. Phenomenal Cat
12. All Of My Friends Were There
13. Wicked Annabella
14. Monica
15. People Take Pictures Of Each Other
Not all great albums sell a gazillion copies and become popular. A perfect example of that statement is this album, the sixth by The Kinks and the last to feature the original lineup. Despite the band’s previous success, Village Green sold only about 100,000 copies and contains no hit singles. But it has, over the years, become recognized as one of the great albums in rock history. A concept album about, of all things, the passing of old English traditional ways, the album began two years earlier with the recording of the song “Village Green”, and blossomed from there. It was planned to be a double album, but the record company said no, so Ray Davies pared it down to 15 tracks. It was released the same day as the first real successful two record set, the White Album by The Beatles. Despite no hit singles, the album was praised critically, and is now the band’s best selling studio album.
There are plenty of highlights, but the real winner has to be “Picture Book”…how this was not a big hit is puzzling. Davies always had a very British sounding writing style, so the concept of Village Green suits him well. More acoustic than anything before it, the album shows a new side of The Kinks, and is in every way their most beautiful collection. The strength of songs like “Big Sky”, Starstruck”, “Animal Farm” and “People Taking Pictures Of Each Other” is powerful, and everything altogether is what makes this album a true classic. It’s a shame that this was so ignored in its time, but it has, thankfully, been recognized as the classic it really is. You may not recognize any of the songs here, but you will love each and every one of them.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
FischmanRockMonster, JazzMeister, Bluesboy,ClassicalMasterProfile Land of Enchantment
THE KINKS
THE KINKS ARE THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY
1968-REPRISE
Produced By RAY DAVIES
1. The Village Green Preservation Society
2. Do You Remember Walter?
3. Picture Book
4. Johnny Thunder
5. Last Of The Steam Powered Trains
6. Big Sky
7. Sitting By The Riverside
8. Animal Farm
9. Village Green
10. Starstruck
11. Phenomenal Cat
12. All Of My Friends Were There
13. Wicked Annabella
14. Monica
15. People Take Pictures Of Each Other
Not all great albums sell a gazillion copies and become popular. A perfect example of that statement is this album, the sixth by The Kinks and the last to feature the original lineup. Despite the band’s previous success, Village Green sold only about 100,000 copies and contains no hit singles. But it has, over the years, become recognized as one of the great albums in rock history. A concept album about, of all things, the passing of old English traditional ways, the album began two years earlier with the recording of the song “Village Green”, and blossomed from there. It was planned to be a double album, but the record company said no, so Ray Davies pared it down to 15 tracks. It was released the same day as the first real successful two record set, the White Album by The Beatles. Despite no hit singles, the album was praised critically, and is now the band’s best selling studio album.
There are plenty of highlights, but the real winner has to be “Picture Book”…how this was not a big hit is puzzling. Davies always had a very British sounding writing style, so the concept of Village Green suits him well. More acoustic than anything before it, the album shows a new side of The Kinks, and is in every way their most beautiful collection. The strength of songs like “Big Sky”, Starstruck”, “Animal Farm” and “People Taking Pictures Of Each Other” is powerful, and everything altogether is what makes this album a true classic. It’s a shame that this was so ignored in its time, but it has, thankfully, been recognized as the classic it really is. You may not recognize any of the songs here, but you will love each and every one of them.
It didn't really grab me when I first picked up a used copy at age 19, but id grew on me over time and is now my favorite Kinks album (and I'm a huge Kinks fan who even loves their arena rock period).
With 15 tracks that could be considered all over the place style and attitude-wise, it's hard to imagine the album could be so consistently good, but it is. While I love all the tracks, I agree that 'Picture Book' is a real highlight, full of that trademark Davies wit. I also really love the opener and The Last of the Steam Powered Trains.
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