QUEEN
A DAY AT THE RACES
1976 – ELEKTRA
Produced By QUEEN
1. Tie Your Mother Down
2. You Take My Breath Away
3. Long Away
4. The Millionaire Waltz
5. You And I
6. Somebody To Love
7. White Man
8. Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy
9. Drowse
10. Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)
11. Tie Your Mother Down (1991 Bonus Remix By Matt Wallace)
12. Somebody To Love (1991 Bonus Remix By Randy Badazz)
How do you follow up the album that had “Bohemian Rhapsody” on it? Name it after another Marx Brothers film and take just as many chances as you did before. A Day At The Races is Queen in full creative mid-70’s peak, and it’s almost as good as A Night At The Opera. Almost. There are a couple of missteps, but there are also a few of the band’s greatest moments ever…and that’s saying a lot. The songwriting on this album is pretty even…four songs each by Freddie Mercury and Brian May, and one each by Roger Taylor and John Deacon. In a few years, they would collaborate on everything…and the songs would begin to sound bland. But individually, these guys were, for the most part, (except for Deacon, really) creative and strong writers. It’s tough to find another band capable of what Queen did during this period in which they made the most adventurous music of the 70’s.
There are two songs that don’t fit and that are weaker than anything Queen was doing at the time. “You And I” (by Deacon) is simply an inferior song. And May’s “White Man”, while heavy, just does not work. But the victories here are powerful. “Tie Your Mother Down”, “Somebody To Love” (a brilliant take on gospel), and “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy” are exceptional. May’s “Long Away” features his most beautiful guitar work, and “You Take My Breath Away” is Mercury at his most haunting. These songs stand up well against anything else the band ever did…but the real gem here is the criminally unknown “The Millionaire Waltz”, arguably their best recording ever. It’s classic Mercury, playing a 19th century dancer with incredible guitar work from May. Never a hit, this song should be played often and as loudly as possible…you’ll be amazed at how good it really is. In all, an almost perfect, highly underrated album.
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SHELBY LYNNE
I AM SHELBY LYNNE
1999 – ISLAND
Produced By BILL BOTTRELL
1. Your Lies
2. Leavin’
3. Life Is Bad
4. Thought It Would Be Easier
5. Gotta Get Back
6. Why Can’t You Be?
7. Lookin’ Up
8. Dream Some
9. Where I’m From
10. Black Light Blue
Sometimes it takes an artist some time to find out who they really are. This is most surely the case with Shelby Lynne, a different kind of country artist who had struggled through five unremarkable albums before hooking up with producer Bill Bottrell and finally finding her true calling. The album worked so well that Lynne won a Grammy award for the album as Best New Artist…for her sixth album. The album is different from anything Lynne has done, before or since, and is different than most everything about country music…which is what makes it so appealing. Bottrell’s somehow lush yet understated production leaves Lynne’s voice as a raw, open and beautiful wound. She seems to not sing nearly enough on this album, but it’s actually just enough. The strange combination of her voice and an array of strings and winds over unconventional country songs is highly appealing.
The best tracks on this album are the ones designed for Lynne’s voice to really shine. “Your Lies”, “Leavin’”, and “Black Light Blue” are the best of the lot, and are more than worth hearing. “Gotta Get Back” and “Life Is Bad” aren’t far behind. In a career that has been mostly frustration for Lynne, this album truly is an anomaly: it’s consistent, tuneful, and suits her talent very well. It’s not perfect, but it seemed to be her long overdue coming out party. But success was not to be. On the followup, Love, Shelby, she teams with Glen Ballard on a bunch of songs designed to be mainstream country hits, and it fails miserably. She’s been trying to reignite the spark that happened with I Am Shelby Lynne ever since. Unfortunately, this is the only Lynne album you will ever need, unless the stars somehow align and she finds lightning in a bottle a second time. At this stage of her career, that’s not very likely.
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LED ZEPPELIN
EARLY DAYS: THE BEST OF LED ZEPPELIN VOLUME ONE
1999 – ATLANTIC
Produced By JIMMY PAGE
1. Good Times, Bad Times
2. Babe I’m Gonna Leave You
3. Dazed And Confused
4. Communication Breakdown
5. Whole Lotta Love
6. What Is And What Should Never Be
7. Immigrant Song
8. Since I’ve Been Loving You
9. Black Dog
10. Rock And Roll
11. The Battle Of Evermore
12. When The Levee Breaks
13. Stairway To Heaven
For me, you can tell the true greatness of a band by the usefulness of their greatest hits compilations. By this measure, Led Zeppelin may truly be the greatest band of all time. In 1999, the first of two Best Of’s (Latter Days was released a year later) was released. Early Days features 4 songs from the band’s debut album, followed by two each from Led Zeppelin II and III, and finishing with four from Led Zeppelin IV. Don’t get me wrong…there is nothing at all wrong with any of the song choices, and the material is all first rate. The question is…why would you need this? If you are a fan of Led Zeppelin, you should have the first four albums in your collection. If you are a casual listener, why would you want to have “When The Levee Breaks” and “Since I’ve Been Loving You” on a greatest hits album? There’s only one answer that makes any sense. Someone needed some cash, and this was a quick way to cash in easy on some great songs.
The band did it again in 2007…this album was discontinued with the release of Mothership, on which the first two discs are identical to this collection (a DVD is added). You can probably find this one floating around used somewhere, but, as mentioned before, why would you when it’s a much better value and experience to have the band’s studio albums…particularly the first four. I would rate this low based on that, not on the quality of the material, which is exceptional. The booklet includes some cool concert photos from the “early years”, but unfortunately, there are no liner notes to be found…nothing to really set the collection apart from the original albums. Stick with the original discography. For just a few dollars more, you can have it all instead of just a select few.
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HOWARD JONES
CROSS THAT LINE
1989 – ELEKTRA
Produced By HOWARD JONES, CHRIS HUGHES, ROSS COLLUM & IAN STANLEY
1. The Prisoner
2. Everlasting Love
3. Powerhouse
4. Last Supper
5. Cross That Line
6. Out Of Thin Air
7. Guardians Of The Breath
8. Fresh Air Waltz
9. Wanders To You
10. Those Who Move Clouds
Every once in a while, an album comes along that is so good, it’s difficult to describe. Cross That Line is not one of those albums. Howard Jones gained fame with an impressive string of ten top 40 hits in the UK between 1983 and 1986, and for a moment looked to be unstoppable. His first two albums were #1 and 2 in England, and he was a major force in the gaining popularity of New Wave music in the US. But then, just as suddenly as his star rose, the hits dried up, and Jones was already in the category of “hey…anyone remember that guy?” by the end of the decade. Cross That Line is his fourth album, and not only had the hits dried up, it seems his ability to write even a decent song was fading as well. The two best songs from the album, “The Prisoner” and “Everlasting Love”, while not terrible, couldn’t even be saved by expensive and state of the art music videos.
You have to acknowledge the effort given here by Jones, but the truth is he was simply out of gas as a songwriter. His attempts to spice up some of the synth laden music (notably on “Guardians Of The Breath” and “Those Who Move Clouds”) with guitar solos don’t click, as the songs meander and flail without going anywhere at all. Maybe the best song is the piano instrumental “Out Of Thin Air”. Jones even tried utilizing the old production team from Tears For Fears…nothing was working for him by this time. As a result, you might see this album and say, “hey…I remember that guy” and pick it up. Do yourself a favor…if you need some Howard Jones in your life, stick with his first two albums, Human’s Lib and Dream Into Action. Not much after those are really worth much of anything…even if you’re a fan of Jones.
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INTERPOL
TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS
2002 – MATADOR
Produced By PETER KATIS & GARETH JONES
1. Untitled
2. Obstacle 1
3. NYC
4. PDA
5. Say Hello To The Angels
6. Hands Away
7. Obstacle 2
8. Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down
9. Roland
10. The New
11. Leif Erikson
One of the best albums of its decade. It’s always great to see a band hit it out of the park on their first try. Interpol’s debut album, Turn On The Bright Lights, is a truly beautiful work. Picking up where Joy Division had left off with the death of Ian Curtis, the band, led by guitarist/singer Paul Banks, released a debut album that set the tone for guitar rock for the rest of the decade of the 2000’s. The songs are impressive, the mood is dark and moody, and the sound is surprisingly full and mature for a band that was just starting out. They sound very British, but they hail from New York City. The lyrics are sometimes undecipherable, but everything else makes that okay. And even though pretty much everything is gloomy, you still end the album wishing there was more. Not many bands could pull all of this off, but Interpol makes it actually sound easy.
“Untitled” sets the standard, and the band never wavers. In fact, the first four tracks on Turn On The Bright Lights are as good as you will find anywhere. The run of “Untitled”, “Obstacle 1”, “NYC” and “PDA” makes this worth having alone. That the rest of the album is as excellent as it is makes it indispensible. Interpol manages to connect the dots from Joy Division and The Cure and Bauhaus to create a dark document that never gets old. The band has made four albums since, and while each has sold more than Turn On The Bright Lights, Interpol is still trying to recreate the excellence of their debut album. At this point it’s doubtful that they will, but the rest of their discography is worthwhile, and there will always be Turn On The Bright Lights. One of the first great albums of the 2000’s, and always a great listen.
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BJORK
VESPERTINE
2001 – ONE LITTLE INDIAN
Produced By BJORK, THOMAS KNAK, MARTIN GRETSCHMANN & MARIUS DE VRIES
1. Hidden Place
2. Cocoon
3. It’s Not Up To You
4. Undo
5. Pagan Poetry
6. Frosti
7. Aurora
8. An Echo, A Stain
9. Sun In My Mouth
10. Heirloom
11. Harm Of Will
12. Unison
Everyone’s favorite little Icelandic pixie. Vespertine is Bjork’s fifth album, and it’s by far her most settled and mature work. Unlike other Bjork albms, where she seems to be fighting to make a lot of different sounds and styles work together, this one is very unified. It’s a spacious, very sweet work, with a very fragile sound that’s almost like gently breaking glass. That Bjork is able to do all of these things without falling into the new age trappings of, say, Enya, is maybe the most impressive thing of all. The instrumentation is unique: she utilizes harp, celesta, clavichord, and a wide array of unconventional homemade beats created with things as different to music as cards being shuffled and cracking ice. The subject matter is mainly about sex and love, and it all makes for a listening experience that is unlike anything else you’ve probably ever heard.
“Cocoon”, “Pagan Poetry”, and “Hidden Place” are the highest points of Vespertine, but you would be hard pressed to find anything that could be considered a weakness here. Bjork has made four albums that qualify as masterpieces: Debut, Post, Homogenic and Vespertine are all exceptional works, and have cemented Bjork’s legacy as a truly great artist. Vespertine could be her best…it’s completely engaging, perfectly written, and Bjork’s voice is utilized as the beautiful instrument it is more than ever before…or since. The album contains no bass playing, no drums, and no guitars of any kind. Many of the vocals are almost whispered, and the instrumentation and singing on the album were all designed to not lose sound quality when downloaded from the internet…a pretty smart move on her part. A beautiful album.
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MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
Awesome review of vespertine. I generally see eye to eye with you in many musical areas and I think our tastes align pretty often. I haven’t heard this in awhile, but remember being disappointed mostly cuz I didn’t “get it”. I know it’s a masterpiece. Or at least so many people I respect adore it. So I think your review is another nudge for me to give it another go.
Anyway, as always I enjoy your diary. This is solid solid stuff _________________ -Ryan
Awesome review of vespertine. I generally see eye to eye with you in many musical areas and I think our tastes align pretty often. I haven’t heard this in awhile, but remember being disappointed mostly cuz I didn’t “get it”. I know it’s a masterpiece. Or at least so many people I respect adore it. So I think your review is another nudge for me to give it another go.
Anyway, as always I enjoy your diary. This is solid solid stuff
Thank you so much, Ryan. It means a lot to me that this isn't an exercise in futility. I'm happy you're digging this thing! _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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MICHAEL JACKSON
THRILLER
1982 – EPIC
Produced By QUINCY JONES & MICHAEL JACKSON
1. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
2. Baby Be Mine
3. The Girl Is Mine
4. Thriller (Feat. Vincent Price)
5. Beat It (Feat. Eddie Van Halen)
6. Billie Jean
7. Human Nature
8. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
9. The Lady In My Life
The legacy of Thriller goes far beyond the myths and strangeness of the life of Michael Jackson. The gloved one had closed out the 70’s with Off The Wall, an album that would have been the crowning achievement for most people. Michael was able to take the sound and mixture of different genres from that album and actually improve on it. The success of Thriller is staggering to this day, but not nearly as amazing as how criminally underrated the album has become over the years. Even after his death in 2009, when this suddenly jumped to be the 14th best selling album of that year, Thriller remains an afterthought to many, and is rarely mentioned among the greatest albums of all time. Of its nine tracks, seven were released as singles, and the album reached number one in 10 different countries…and was the US Billboard year end album for 1983. AND 1984. Staggering.
Thriller has some of everything. It’s nearly all danceable, and charged the transition from disco to the 80’s. It’s pop. It’s R&B. Funk. Rock. Jackson blurred every line he could find with Thriller, and made a perfect album. It’s impossible to deny the power of tracks like “Billie Jean”, “Beat It”, “Thriller”…any of them. His videos made him even bigger, and his use of rock musicians (Paul McCartney and Eddie Van Halen) made him accessible to everyone. Jackson’s groove is flawless, as is the production by Quincy Jones. The fact that the nine songs were absolute perfect choices doesn’t hurt, either. The legacy of Thriller gets lost sometimes in the circus that Jackson himself would become shortly after this…but there are great reasons why this is one of the top selling albums of all time. It’s just flat out perfect. One of the best records ever made, by a genius before he started falling to pieces.
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WILCO
SUMMERTEETH
1999 – REPRISE
Produced By WILCO
1. Can’t Stand It
2. She’s A Jar
3. A Shot In The Arm
4. We’re Just Friends
5. I’m Always In Love
6. Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway(again)
7. Pieholden Suite
8. How To Fight Loneliness
9. Via Chicago
10. ELT
11. My Darling
12. When You Wake Up Feeling Old
13. Summer Teeth
14. In A Future Age
15. Candyfloss
16. A Shot In The Arm (Alternate Version)
In 1999, with the release of their third album Summerteeth, Wilco was on the verge of greatness. They were moving steadily away from the alt-country roots of Uncle Tupelo and closer to the experimental excellence of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but what was really making Wilco a special band was the growing presence of Jay Bennett. Bennett had joined Wilco in 1994, and his abilities on a wide array of instruments were making Wilco into a very special band. Summerteeth has not only him as a strength, but also the continuing improvement of Jeff Tweedy as a songwriter. They weren’t quite there yet (that would be on their next album), but Summerteeth is definitely close to as good as Wilco would get. The sound is crisp and immediate, and the songs are very, very good. A definite step up from the second album, Being There.
“Can’t Stand It” was released as a single, and it fared poorly. But there are a bunch of songs that are big improvements for Tweedy lyrically (he was having marital problems and was reading a lot of American literature, both of which are clear in the songs), including “A Shot In The Arm” and “Via Chicago”. The real highlight, though, is the work of Bennett, whose instrumental prowess gives the band a depth they would otherwise never have. The partnership between Tweedy and Bennett would sour during the recording of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, with Bennett being fired as soon as that album was released (he then release a slew of solo albums before dying in his sleep in 2009). Summerteeth is the album where Wilco really grew up, a huge step from where they had been,, and a great foreshadow of where they were going. Not perfect, but more than worthwhile.
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Mercury
