HINDU LOVE GODS
1990 – GIANT / REPRISE / WARNER BROS
Produced By NIKO BOLAS & ANDREW SLATER
1. Walkin’ Blues
2. Travelin’ Riverside Blues
3. Raspberry Beret
4. Crosscut Saw
5. Junko Pardner
6. Mannish Boy
7. Wang Dang Doodle
8. Battleship Chains
9. I’m A One-Woman Man
10. Vigilante Man
Back in 1987, Warren Zevon recorded his Sentimental Hygiene album. The main band was ¾ of R.E.M.: Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry. During that time, the four of them had a drunken jam in the studio, which was not intended for release. But recorded it was, and three years later, the Hindu Love Gods album was unleashed on the public. The band was actually an R.E.M. side project started in 1984 with some live shows that included Zevon and Michael Stipe.
The recordings are all covers, mostly of blues classics. It became popular because one of the songs was an unexpected cover of the Prince hit “Raspberry Beret”, which became one of the strangest tracks of the decade.
Also of note is a take on the Georgia Satellites song “Battleship Chains”, along with the Woody Guthrie penned “Vigilante Man”. Everything else is pure drunken blues, which R.E.M. handles well enough. And Zevon howls and snarls his way through each track like he hadn’t done since “Werewolves Of London”, which is great to hear. Fact is, though, that this wasn’t intended to be an album, so it wasn’t recorded as such. It’s a fun and interesting romp that breaks no new ground and doesn’t really hold up to repeated listens. But it does stand as a strange piece of rock history, and having a record where Zevon is having this much fun is truly cool. It’s okay, just don’t expect too much from this one off album.
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ERIC CLAPTON
ONE MORE CAR, ONE MORE RIDER
2002 – DUCK / REPRISE
Produced By ERIC CLAPTON & SIMON CLIMIE
1. Key To The Highway
2. Reptile
3. Got You On My Own
4. Tears In Heaven
5. Bell Bottom Blues
6. Change The World
7. My Father’s Eyes
8. River Of Tears
9. Going Down Slow
10. She’s Gone
1. I Want A Little Girl
2. Badge
3. Hoochie Coochie Man
4. Have You Ever Loved A Woman
5. Cocaine
6. Wonderful Tonight
7. Layla
8. Sunshine Of Your Love
9. Over The Rainbow
This live album by Eric Clapton was recorded over two nights at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in 2001. The disappointment with this long double disc starts with the setlist. With few exceptions, especially in the second half, this sounds more like a greatest hits festival show than anything else. It sold a ton of copies, given that Clapton said it was his last world tour (it wasn’t, it turned out). What we have here is Clapton playing it safe, giving the people what they wanted, and damn near putting us all to sleep in the process. He sounds tentative, somewhat bored, and overly tired throughout.
The playing here is fine. The problem is that it should have been better than fine, the song selection is lame, and outside of a cool piano solo by David Sancious on “Have You Ever Loved A Woman”, this is really uninspired. He opens with six acoustic numbers, including the woeful “Tears In Heaven”, then goes electric and starts churning out the usual hits. This is fine if you just want the hits, but if you want his better songs, you’re sure to be disappointed. If your idea of a good time is paying for a double album so you can hear “Cocaine”, “Wonderful Tonight” and “Layla” played in succession, more power to you. Otherwise, you can really skip this one. Below average and non-essential.
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LEADBELLY
KING OF THE 12-STRING GUITAR
1991 – COLUMBIA LEGACY
Produced By LAWRENCE COHN
1. Packin’ Trunk
2. Becky Deem, She Was A Gamblin’ Girl
3. Honey, I’m All Out And Down
4. Four Day Worry Blues
5. Roberta Part I
6. Roberta Part II
7. Death Letter Blues Part I
8. Death Letter Blues Part II
9. Kansas City Papa
10. Fort Worth And Dallas Blues
11. You Don’t Know My Mind
12. Ox Drivin’ Blues
13. Daddy I’m Coming Back To You
14. Shorty George
15. Yellow Jacket
16. T.B. Woman Blues
17. Pig Meat Papa
18. My Baby Quit Me
Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly) died 74 years ago. And his legend still lives on today. Not bad for a guy who took 30 years to be discovered, who spent much of the time between 1915 and 1940 in prison, and who died of Lou Gehrig’s Disease at the age of 61. His instrument of choice was the 12 string guitar, although he played others as well. This compilation was recorded in 1935 at four different dates between January and March. Lead Belly is the only musician present on the album, playing guitar and singing. The results of these sessions are fantastic, and show why Lead Belly’s legacy has remained so strong over the years.
His better known songs (“Where Did You Sleep Last Night”, “Black Betty”), which were made more famous by being covered by Nirvana and Ram Jam, are not here. That’s okay. He didn’t record them at these sessions. There’s enough great music here that you don’t need those songs. His performances are perfect, his voice haunting and strong. His playing is sturdy and strong. That the quality of these recordings isn’t perfect makes it even that much better. This is 18 tracks of one of the greatest of all time showcasing his strengths. You even get some excellent liner notes with photos. A must have.
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LADY GAGA
BORN THIS WAY
2011 – INTERSCOPE
Produced By LADY GAGA, FERNANDO GARIBAY, DJ WHITE SHADOW, REDONE, JEPPE LAURSEN & ROBERT JOHN “MUTT” LANGE
1. Marry The Night
2. Born This Way
3. Government Hooker
4. Judas
5. Americano
6. Hair
7. Scheibe
8. Bloody Mary
9. Bad Kids
10. Highway Unicorn (Road To Love)
11. Heavy Metal Lover
12. Electric Chapel
13. You And I
14. The Edge Of Glory
We’ll start by acknowledging that this is one of the most awful album covers in history…for someone as image conscious as Lady Gaga, it’s baffling that she chose a picture of herself as half woman and half motorcycle to grace the cover of her second album. Fortunately, that’s the worst part of Born This Way, a synth pop album that has as it’s greatest strength an artist who never shies away from…anything. She wears her influences on her sleeve, and she works with any great musician she can get into the same room with her. And she knows how to write hit songs, something many of her pop contemporaries don’t have.
Nearly half of the songs on Born This Way were hits. The title track was the biggest of them all, reaching number one in almost every country in the world. This is dance pop, but the songs aren’t all the same. She uses many different styles and crosses genres at will. And she does so with massive confidence. Her multiple personalities are always entertaining, and her music is never boring. Gaga was still growing at this point in her career…hard to believe she would continue to get better. But she has. Gaga is always worth watching and is doing a good job of keeping music from ever becoming dull.
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MANIC STREET PREACHERS
SEND AWAY THE TIGERS
2007 – COLUMBIA
Produced By DAVE ERINGA, GREG HAVER & LOZ WILLIAMS
1. Send Away The Tigers
2. Underdogs
3. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (Feat. Nina Persson)
4. Indian Summer
5. The Second Great Depression
6. Rendition
7. Autumnsong
8. I’m Just A Patsy
9. Imperial Bodybags
10. Winterlovers
One of my favorite British bands that American audiences have completely missed out on. Manic Street Preachers were great throughout the nineties before hitting a rut with their sixth album, Know Your Enemy (2001). But in 2007, they came back to life with their eight record, Send Away The Tigers. Back and big as they were in the nineties, with massive guitars and vocals, as well as smart and well crafted songs, this is a joy of an album. The Manics have been a trio since the 1995 disappearance of Richey Edwards, but they sound so much bigger than that. To hear this band rock this hard and be so back on top of their songwriting is truly a joy. The same core three members have been here since the very beginning…something not a lot of bands can boast about.
“Underdogs” is a great song. “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough” includes co-lead vocals by Nina Persson of The Cardigans. “Indian Summer” and “Autumnsong” are also highlights. Send Away The Tigers is not quite at the same level as their nineties classics The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go, but it has moments where the songs would be right at home on those discs. There’s also a hidden cover of John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero”. Truth be told…even a less than perfect, but very good, Manics album is worthwhile. America has truly missed out on this terrific band, who keep right on rolling. They’ve released fourteen albums to date, and they continue to tour with hopefully more new music on the way. At least, one can hope.
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THE NATIONAL
BOXER
2007 – BEGGARS BANQUET
Produced By PETER KATIS & THE NATIONAL
1. Fake Empire
2. Mistaken For Strangers
3. Brainy
4. Squalor Victoria
5. Green Gloves
6. Slow Show
7. Apartment Story
8. Start A War
9. Guest Room
10. Racing Like A Pro
11. Ada
12. Gospel
The career of The National has been pretty incredible…especially for a band that is as not so high on the popularity scale as they are. This band from Cincinnati makes great music, and had an incredible run of five nearly perfect albums between 2005’s Alligator and Sleep Well Beast from 2017. The second of these five albums is Boxer, which is where the band began to find their audience…they were becoming pretty tough to ignore. Boxer is a thing of beauty. It’s almost perfect, loaded with well written material that is played by the band to perfection. The band is made up of twin brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner, brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf, and vocalist Matt Berninger, who sings lower than most, and who at times seems to be almost whispering. It works quite well.
Boxer is home to some of The National’s best songs. “Fake Empire”, “Mistaken For Strangers”, and “Apartment Story” are worth the price of the album alone, but don’t sleep on the rest. “Slow Show” is great as well, and there’s also a guest appearance from Sufjan Stevens on “Racing Like A Pro” and “Ada”. Fans and critics began to really take notice of the band at this point, and for good reason. This was a band at the beginning of an incredible string of fine albums that all deserve to be heard. Since Boxer, The National has released another six albums, including Laugh Track from 2023. They show no signs of slowing down, and that’s a good thing for all of us. The National should be heard, and they very rarely disappoint. Boxer is a true winner.
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EDDIE MONEY
CAN’T HOLD BACK
1986 – COLUMBIA
Produced By EDDIE MONEY, RICHIE ZITO & DAVID KERSHENBAUM
1. Take Me Home Tonight
2. One Love
3. I Wanna Go Back
4. Endless Nights
5. One Chance
6. We Should Be Sleeping
7. Bring On The Rain
8. I Can’t Hold Back
9. Stranger In A Strange Land
10. Calm Before The Storm
Eddie Money’s sixth album, Can’t Hold Back, exists today for only one reason: his duet with Ronnie Spector on “Take Me Home Tonight”. It was a grand comeback for Spector, and for Money, it became his first top ten single since “Baby Hold On” in 1978. The song was everywhere in 1986, and propelled Can’t Hold Back to platinum status. Money had been slowly fading away since the dawn of the eighties when his short string of early hits dried up. This is the more mature and adult contemporary version of Money, despite the rocking of “Take Me Home Tonight”…the record soon starts drifting into a sea of eighties synthesizers and mellow love songs with just a dash of electric guitars to remind us all that Eddie Money did, indeed, once rock.
On the back of “Take Me Home Tonight”, there were three more singles released from the album. But “We Should Be Sleeping”, “I Wanna Go Back”, and “Endless Nights” lacked the punch of the opening track, and they lacked, well, Ronnie Spector. Ultimately, Can’t Hold Back is an almost average album with one fine track, lost in a sea of mid eighties records by artists whose better days (the seventies) were behind them. Money soldiered on for a while, releasing four unknown albums in the nineties before all but hanging it up. There was a disc in 2007, and that was that for Eddie Money. He passed away in 2019, leaving behind a bunch of rocking tracks from the seventies and one big hit from this album. Seek out a hits package if you want the song…the rest is not so satisfying.
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BAD RELIGION
STRANGER THAN FICTION
1994 – ATLANTIC
Produced By ANDY WALLACE & BAD RELIGION
1. Incomplete
2. Leave Mine To Me
3. Stranger Than Fiction
4. Tiny Voices
5. The Handshake
6. Better Off Dead
7. Infected
8. Television
9. Individual
10. Hooray For Me…
11. Slumber
12. Marked
13. Inner Logic
14. What It Is
15. 21st Century (Digital Boy)
Punk should be thankful to Bad Religion every single day. This American band has been cranking out their own brand of fast and furious music since 1982, doing their part to keep the spirit of the Sex Pistols and The Clash alive. Stranger Than Fiction (their eighth album) is an important part of the band’s discography. It was the beginning of their still current streak of albums that have charted in the US, was the start of a worldwide audience for them, and, after twelve years, actual success in terms of sales and exposure. The good thing is that Bad Religion didn’t compromise their music for this entrance of Atlantic Records into their lives. They are still just as loud, fast, angry and political as they had ever been. That’s the way we like Bad Religion to be.
“21st Century (Digital Boy)” was actually a re-recording from their 1990 album Against The Grain. Here, it became the group’s biggest hit. “Infected” and “Stranger Than Fiction” were minor hits…hits were something they had never had before. Most of the rest of the album is pretty great, but it could have been even better had they left off the opener “Incomplete” and the strange “Television” (co-written by Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano). But overall, Stranger Than Fiction is a solid work, a fan favorite, and marked the beginning of bigger and better things for Bad Religion, a band that most certainly deserves that. They’ve made nine more albums since this one, the last in 2019…so hopefully, there will be new music from this great punk band fairly soon.
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TRANSLLUSION
THE OPENING OF THE CEREBRAL GATE
2001 – SUPERMAT
Produced By JAMES STINSON
1. Transmission Of Life
2. Negative Flash
3. Walking With Clouds
4. Cerebral Cortex Malfunction
5. Cluben In Guyana
6. Look Within
7. Unordinary Realities
8. Dimensional Glide
9. War Of The Clones
10. Crossing Into The Mental Astroplane
11. Do You Want To Get Down?
12. Do You Want To Get Down? (Vocal De Void)
Transllusion was electronic artist James Stinson from Detroit. He released one album and a pair of EP’s in 2001 and 2002 under that name before dying of heart complications in 2002 at the age of 33. He also recorded under the names Drexciya and Shifted Phases, among others. The first of the two Transllusion albums was The Opening Of The Cerebral Gate. It’s as electronic as a record can be, with Stinson playing what sounds simply like a room full of machines. From start to finish, this sounds like it was created from a computer, which it was. But somehow, it doesn’t sound as cold and soulless as it should. Every song here grooves unexpectedly, and there’s just enough humanity in these songs to make it work. He does deserve a lot of credit for that.
The only song here with a trace of a vocal is “Do You Want To Get Down?”, which was a track added on later editions. It’s also included without vocals. The original album is eight tracks…I have the 2014 reissue that includes the two versions of “Do You Want To Get Down?”, along with “Look Within” and “Unordinary Realities”. Stinson shows here that he had a knack for making cold music actually warm, and that he could make interesting melodies and phrases with even the coldest of machines. Unfortunately, Stinson died less than a year later (the second Transllusion album was released posthumously), so where he could have travelled from this album will never be known. If you have any interest in electronic music, this is an album that you would most likely enjoy.
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