JEFF BUCKLEY
SKETCHES FOR MY SWEETHEART THE DRUNK
1998 – COLUMBIA
Produced By NICHOLAS HILL & TOM VERLAINE
1. The Sky Is A Landfill
2. Everybody Here Wants You
3. Opened Once
4. Nightmares By The Sea
5. Yard Of Blonde Girls
6. Witches’ Rave
7. New Year’s Prayer
8. Morning Theft
9. Vancouver
10. You & I
1. Nightmares By The Sea (Original Mix)
2. New Year’s Prayer (Original Mix)
3. Haven’t You Heard
4. I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted To Be)
5. Murder Suicide Meteor Slave
6. Back In N.Y.C.
7. Demon John
8. Your Flesh Is So Nice
9. Jewel Box
10. Satisfied Mind
Jeff Buckley released one studio album (Grace in 1994). Since his death in 1998, there have been ten compilation albums to date. To say that the depths of every scrap he ever recorded has been put out there is probably not an understatement. This is the first of those compilations. In 1997, Buckley was working on his second album with producer Tom Verlaine with the working title My Sweetheart The Drunk. Buckley was unhappy with the recordings, and was putting a new band together to start over. While waiting, he drowned in the Mississippi River at the age of 30. His mother signed off on the recordings, even though Buckley had not been happy with them. The result is a two disc set of tracks that, had Buckley not died, would have probably never seen the light of day.
The first disc is the imagined Sweetheart The Drunk album, much of it remixed for the release. The second disc consists of demo recordings, which Buckley’s mother refused to allow Sony to make any changes to. Of course, Buckley had become a star after his death, thanks to the chart success of “Hallelujah” from Grace. Which meant that this, the first posthumous release, was going to be a big hit. And it was. Sketches sold more than 2 million copies. Is it a good album? Well…it is an interesting album. The demo recordings are what they are…low quality and unfinished. Expect no more than that. The imagined album is okay, but it also shows that Buckley wasn’t quite the superstar he has been made out to be. We’ll never know what a finished and polished follow up to Grace would have sounded like. What this is ultimately is an overly long, overrated and intriguing look at an artist who never fully developed. Don’t expect too much from it.
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BELLE AND SEBASTIAN
WRITE ABOUT LOVE
2010 – ROUGH TRADE
Produced By TONY HOFFER
1. I Didn’t See It Coming
2. Come On Sister
3. Calculating Bimbo
4. I Want The World To Stop
5. Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John (Feat. Norah Jones)
6. Write About Love (Feat. Carey Mulligan)
7. I’m Not Living In The Real World
8. The Ghost Of Rockschool
9. Read The Blessed Pages
10. I Can See Your Future
11. Sunday’s Pretty Icons
Write About Love is the eighth album by Belle And Sebastian, an indie pop band from Scotland. Although the band has been critically hailed throughout their career, commercial success has been elusive for them. That doesn’t seem to bother this group at all. Their brand of wistful pop is their own little niche, one where they seem to be quite comfortable. Write About Love is very polished and sounds absolutely gorgeous coming out of your speakers. The songs are more straightforward than what they had done in the past, but here, it’s a good thing. Write About Love is their most successful record to date, and it is their highest carting album in the US, reaching number 15. This will make you wish people paid more attention to this band, for sure.
There are plenty of highlights here. “I Want The World To Stop” is a great single that went nowhere. “Come On Sister” and the title track (which includes Carey Mulligan) are fine as well. Norah Jones adds a beautiful vocal on “Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John”. And the two songs sung by Sarah Martin (“I Didn’t See It Coming” and “I Can See Your Future”) are nice. The overall bouncy feel of this album is cool, with their trademark sound being refreshing as always. A few of the back end songs drop off a bit, but for the most part, this stands as one of the better Belle And Sebastian albums. They’re still at it, having released an even dozen records, including Late Developers in 2023. This is a very good and solid album from one of the better pop bands out there.
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JEWEL
JOY: A HOLIDAY COLLECTION
1999 – ATLANTIC
Produced By ARIF MARDIN & JOE MARDIN
1. Joy To The World
2. O Holy Night
3. Silent Night
4. Winter Wonderland
5. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
6. Ave Maria
7. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
8. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
9. Face Of Love
10. Go Tell It On The Mountain / Life Uncommon / From A Distance
11. I Wonder As I Wander
12. Gloria
13. Hands (Christmas Version)
Have I bumped my head? Listening to Christmas music in September? For me, this is the absolute best time to listen to the handful of songs that are forced down our throats relentlessly every December. Jewel delivers a safe and lush collection of the most obvious and overdone holiday classics, complete with choirs, strings, and a little bit of pedal steel guitar. The best thing about this album is that Jewel sounds like she’s under no pressure at all. She shouldn’t be…she was recording an album that was going to sell a gazillion copies regardless of how well she performed. She sings as well here as you will ever hear her, with her sweet soprano rising above the mostly stale and overused arrangements of those same old songs. And hey…it really DOES sound better in September.
Things do get a little more interesting after the first eight songs. Those first eight are not interesting at all. Unless you like hearing her break into the occasional “bedoit doit”. Of the final five tracks, three are Jewel originals. “Face Of Love” is pretty, and that face belongs to God. ‘Gloria’ is not bad. And “Hands” is an updated Christmas version of her hit from the year before from her album Spirit. Jewel released a second Christmas album in 2013 that was less successful than this one. After this record, she went right back to making top ten albums through the end of the 2000’s, and she’s still out there wondering who’s going to save her soul. This album is safe and pretty pedestrian holiday fare, for the most part. Interchangeable with just about every other album of its kind. So, yeah. Merry September.
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AEROSMITH
DRAW THE LINE
1977 – COLUMBIA
Produced By JACK DOUGLAS & AEROSMITH
1. Draw The Line
2. I Wanna Know Why
3. Critical Mass
4. Get It Up
5. Bright Light Fright
6. Kings And Queens
7. The Hand That Feeds
8. Sight For Sore Eyes
9. Milk Cow Blues
This is the beginning of what was nearly the end of Aerosmith. Their upward trajectory into stardom had been nothing short of amazing, with the band showing great improvement on each of their first four albums. And then there was Draw The Line. Aerosmith was exhausted from touring, and were out of their minds from excessive use of pretty much anything they could get their hands on. Because the album was much anticipated based on past performance, Draw The Line quickly shot up the charts…then stalled and fell. There were many problems here: Steven Tyler and Joe Perry wrote only three songs together. Both were frequently not available for recording, and the attention to detail they had put forth on previous records was now gone.
The best track here by far is the title track, which is the only thing here that sounds like Aerosmith of just a year before. “Kings And Queens” was a minor hit, and “The Hand That Feeds” has a pretty great guitar solo by Brad Whitford. Everything else sounds rushed and out of focus, including “Bright Light Fright”, a song written and sung by Perry that the rest of the band openly hated. Perry left two years later, and Aerosmith was MIA for almost the next decade until 1987’s Permanent Vacation. Draw The Line is an unfortunate and unfocused mess of a record by a mess of a band. You can get “Draw The Line” and “Kings And Queens” on compilations…there’s really nothing else here that’s vital.
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A TRIBE CALLED QUEST
BEATS, RHYMES AND LIFE
1996 – JIVE
Produced By THE UMMAH & RASHAD SMITH
1. Phony Rappers
2. Get A Hold
3. Motivators
4. Jam
5. Crew
6. The Pressure
7. 1nce Again (Feat. Tammy Lucas)
8. Mind Power
9. The Hop
10. Keeping It Moving
11. Baby Phife’s Return
12. Separate / Together
13. What Really Goes On
14. Word Play
15. Stressed Out (Feat. Faith Evans)
A Tribe Called Quest had always been seen as putting out nothing but positive and upbeat hip hop. That changed on their fourth album, Beats, Rhymes And Life. It’s not as dark as a lot of what was happening at the time…but it was definitely late dusk. Q-Tip had converted to Islam, which he admitted changed his outlook, and adding new members to the group and their production team (most notably The Ummah) made things more intense. And in some ways, better. While the Tribe had gained some lyrical ground, they were also a bit tentative with their darker sides. And while the sound here is lean and sharp, there is also not a whole lot of growth from their debut in 1990 to here. This is not uncommon in hip hop…and thus, careers tend to be somewhat short because of it.
And they didn’t last long after this. A Tribe Called Quest called it quits for the first time just two years later. On this album, the highlights are “1nce Again” and “Stressed Out”, both of which feature female vocals. The rest…it sounds good, but the lyrics have devolved into talking about gangsters and bitches and dissing other rappers. That’s not what made this group stand out, and it doesn’t make them any more endearing. Beyond lyrically, it sounds pretty great, but you can’t ignore them setting aside their lyrical strengths. Despite that, this was their only album before breaking up for the first time to reach number one. Their next effort, The Love Movement, was even weaker. A Tribe Called Quest ended in 2016 with the unfortunate death of Phife Dawg. This is a kind of last gasp at greatness for the original run that falls just a little bit short.
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TOBY KEITH
UNLEASHED
2002 – DREAMWORKS
Produced By JAMES STROUD & TOBY KEITH
1. Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)
2. Who’s Your Daddy?
3. Good To Go To Mexico
4. It’s All Good
5. Beer For My Horses (Feat. Willie Nelson)
6. Losing My Touch
7. Huckleberry
8. It Works For Me
9. Ain’t It Just Like You
10. Rock You Baby
11. Rodeo Moon
12. That’s Not How It Is
13. Live Intro
Time to give Toby Keith his due. Yes, he wrote “Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue”, which has been viewed as quite the right wing anthem. Yes, it is one angry song. And yes, it’s part of the whole very unfortunate feud he carried on with Natalie Maines of The Chicks that included his flying a doctored picture of her being chummy with Sadam Hussein. And all of that ties to this album. But in fairness to Toby Keith: the song was written response to his father’s death and the 9/11 attacks, which happened within 6 months of each other. Yes, he supported President Bush, who Maines verbally attacked onstage. But Keith was also a centrist Democrat who supported President Obama as well. It’s really easy these days to judge people without knowing all the facts. He was a patriot. But he was also not a nutjob. His judgement wasn’t 100% in how he handled his anger, but really. Whose is these days?
That said. Unleashed is Keith’s seventh album. “Courtesy” came with controversy for sure, but the rest of this album is pretty standard fare for Toby Keith. There are some fine moments (“Beer For My Horses” with Willie Nelson, “Who’s Your Daddy”, and “Rock You Baby”) which are pretty great, and there are some forgettable lesser tracks as well. It’s a pretty average album, but it was a massive hit, and “Courtesy” didn’t hurt his overall popularity. This was the second album of a fifteen year run of big hits for Keith, who passed away this last February from stomach cancer. He has better records out there, but the highlights are worth having this for. You won’t be blown away, but it’s decent mainstream country from a guy who never could have been accused of not giving it his all.
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GENERATION X
1978 – CHRYSALIS
Produced By MARTIN RUSHENT
1. Gimme Some Truth
2. Wild Youth
3. From The Heart
4. Ready Steady Go
5. Kleenex
6. Promises Promises
7. Day By Day
8. One Hundred Punks
9. Your Generation
10. Kiss Me Deadly
11. Wild Dub
12. Youth Youth Youth
World, meet Billy Idol. He was the lead singer of the British punk band Generation X, and he of course went on to become a huge star. Generation X made three albums, and were done by 1981, with Idol beginning his solo career while Tony James formed Sigue Sigue Sputnik. The first album was the most punk of the three, and established the band as early stars of the seventies punk movement. There were two different versions released…the one I have is the American, which contains a different track list and opens with a cover of John Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth”, a pretty appropriate song for a punk group. The band careens through some pretty terrific tracks, and Idol leads the band through the early days of punk with his trademark sneer that has never gone away.
The real highlight here is “Ready Steady Go”, which may be the best Generation X song. Re-recordings of early singles from the year before are also included: “Wild Youth” and “Your Generation” showcase the energy of the early group. Despite the album being recorded in just one week, with some songs being done in a single take, Generation X sounds more polished than the debuts of their contemporaries The Clash and Sex Pistols. The album shows much promise, but the problem with Generation X was that they couldn’t help but break up…they would do so twice in the next three years. This is the best of their three releases…it’s the most punk, and it has the best songs. It’s not perfect by any means…but then, that’s something punk was never meant to be.
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LOUIS ARMSTRONG
THE ESSENTIAL LOUIS ARMSTRONG
2004 – COLUMBIA / LEGACY
Produced By MICHAEL BROOKS
1. Sugar Foot Stomp
2. Cake Walking Babies (From Home)
3. Pickin’ On Your Baby
4. Heebie Jeebies
5. Willie The Weeper
6. Potato Head Blues
7. West End Blues
8. Basin Street Blues
9. Beau Koo Jack
10. St. James’ Infirmary
11. Tight Like This
12. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
13. Ain’t Misbehavin’
14. Black And Blue
15. That Rhythm Man
16. St. Louis Blues
17. Bessie Couldn’t Help It
18. I’m Confessin’
1. Memories Of You
2. Shine
3. Walkin’ My Baby Back Home
4. Blue Again
5. You Rascal You
6. When It’s Sleepytime Down South
7. Lazy River
8. Star Dust
9. Georgia On My Mind
10. Shadrack
11. On The Sunny Side Of The Street
12. When The Saints Go Marching In
13. Rockin’ Chair
14. Blueberry Hill
15. Mack The Knife
16. Aunt Hagar’s Blues
17. Honeysuckle Rose
18. A Fine Romance
19. What A Wonderful World
Without question, Louis Armstrong was one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century. His career is defined by two roles: early on, he was one of the greatest instrumentalists in jazz, on both cornet and trumpet. He played a big part in the formation of jazz as a major American genre, and he helped to revolutionize American music. In later years, as he had increasing difficulty with his lips playing trumpet, he became known more for his singing, which was also quite important. He popularized scat singing, and his unique treatment, especially in later years, of classic popular songs made him a household name. The Essential is an important album because it gives nods to not just his popular vocal tracks, but to all phases of his great career.
Beginning in the 1950’s there have been close to 2000 compilation albums with Armstrong’s music on them. There are nearly twenty albums with this same title, so if you want this one, the most important thing to remember is the year of release, which is 2004. There are single disc compilations, double discs (like this one), all the way up to full box sets. His body of work was staggering, with so much material to choose from. I would advise that for the sake of quality of recordings and packaging, stick with labels that you recognize as major players like Columbia and Verve. This particular set is desirable because it is generous enough at 37 tracks, and the sound is great. It is hard to go wrong with Louis, one of the best to have played music of any kind ever.
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LOUIS ARMSTRONG
THE ESSENTIAL LOUIS ARMSTRONG
2004 – COLUMBIA / LEGACY
Produced By MICHAEL BROOKS
1. Sugar Foot Stomp
2. Cake Walking Babies (From Home)
3. Pickin’ On Your Baby
4. Heebie Jeebies
5. Willie The Weeper
6. Potato Head Blues
7. West End Blues
8. Basin Street Blues
9. Beau Koo Jack
10. St. James’ Infirmary
11. Tight Like This
12. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
13. Ain’t Misbehavin’
14. Black And Blue
15. That Rhythm Man
16. St. Louis Blues
17. Bessie Couldn’t Help It
18. I’m Confessin’
1. Memories Of You
2. Shine
3. Walkin’ My Baby Back Home
4. Blue Again
5. You Rascal You
6. When It’s Sleepytime Down South
7. Lazy River
8. Star Dust
9. Georgia On My Mind
10. Shadrack
11. On The Sunny Side Of The Street
12. When The Saints Go Marching In
13. Rockin’ Chair
14. Blueberry Hill
15. Mack The Knife
16. Aunt Hagar’s Blues
17. Honeysuckle Rose
18. A Fine Romance
19. What A Wonderful World
Without question, Louis Armstrong was one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century. His career is defined by two roles: early on, he was one of the greatest instrumentalists in jazz, on both cornet and trumpet. He played a big part in the formation of jazz as a major American genre, and he helped to revolutionize American music. In later years, as he had increasing difficulty with his lips playing trumpet, he became known more for his singing, which was also quite important. He popularized scat singing, and his unique treatment, especially in later years, of classic popular songs made him a household name. The Essential is an important album because it gives nods to not just his popular vocal tracks, but to all phases of his great career.
Beginning in the 1950’s there have been close to 2000 compilation albums with Armstrong’s music on them. There are nearly twenty albums with this same title, so if you want this one, the most important thing to remember is the year of release, which is 2004. There are single disc compilations, double discs (like this one), all the way up to full box sets. His body of work was staggering, with so much material to choose from. I would advise that for the sake of quality of recordings and packaging, stick with labels that you recognize as major players like Columbia and Verve. This particular set is desirable because it is generous enough at 37 tracks, and the sound is great. It is hard to go wrong with Louis, one of the best to have played music of any kind ever.
EVERCLEAR
SO MUCH FOR THE AFTERGLOW
1997 – CAPITOL
Produced By ART ALEXAKIS, NEAL AVRON & LARS FOX
1. So Much For The Afterglow
2. Everything To Everyone
3. Ataraxia (Media Intro)
4. Normal Like You
5. I Will Buy You A New Life
6. Father Of Mine
7. One Hit Wonder
8. El Distrort De Melodica
9. Amphetamine
10. White Men In Black Suits
11. Sunflowers
12. Why I Don’t Believe In God
13. Like A California King
This is Everclear (like the alcohol). Not to be confused with Everlast (like the battery). So Much For The Afterglow (which does sound like a Sarah McLachlan title) was their third album, and it seemed to be a conscious grab for mainstream success. It remains their best selling album, their best known, and it’s as good an album as the one that came before it (Sparkle And Fade). For this record, the band tried a more pop approach to their music, relying less on the punk and grunge mix that had gotten them to where they were. It was a chance that paid off, for sure. They were still quite heavy here, but the songs (at least the hits) are far more accessible. Making Everclear, at least for the time, a major player among alternative bands.
The biggest moment for this album, and for the band in general, is “I Will Buy You A New Life”. “Everything To Everyone” and “Father Of Mine” were also hits for them. The title track and “One Hit Wonder” are also pretty great. But Everclear stacked this record…the second half is much weaker than the first, and it’s not even close. It’s not that the songs in the second half are bad…they’re just bland. So if you want to hang this one up after the first seven songs, no one will blame you. Everclear soldiers on despite this album being where they peaked. You can still catch them live, where I’m sure they’ll happily play “I Will Buy You A New Life” for you. This is Everclear’s most memorable album, and their moment in the sun.
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