GRANDADDY
UNDER THE WESTERN FREEWAY
1997 – WILL
Produced By JASON LYTLE
1. Nonphenomenal Lineage
2. A.M. 180
3. Collective Dreamwish Of Upperclass Elegance
4. Summer Here Kids
5. Laughing Stock
6. Under The Western Freeway
7. Everything Beautiful Is Far Away
8. Poisoned At Hartsy Thai Food
9. Go Progress Chrome
10. Why Took Your Advice
11. Lawn & So On
Grandaddy has always been the mostly solo project of Jason Lytle. At least on record…it is more of a band on stage. Lytle is an odd duck, a guy who doesn’t seem to want a band but always ends up in one. Grandaddy formed in California in the early nineties, and made EP’s and mini albums until they were signed to Will Records. Under The Western Freeway is their first full length record, and it looked like Grandaddy had a bright future. Will didn’t have much clout, so there weren’t a lot of sales…but the critics had nothing but praise for it. And for good reason. This is music that takes chances and succeeds nearly all of the time. Imagine maybe Radiohead fronted by Neil Young, and that’s what Grandaddy is almost like. Their career has been woefully interrupted multiple times, but there was nothing but promise in the beginning.
Under The Western Freeway is weird and almost perfect. It’s loaded with musical wonders, led by the quirky and tasty “A.M. 180”. “Everything Beautiful Is Far Away”, “Summer Here Kids” and especially “Laughing Stock” are more than worthwhile. And “Collective Dreamwish Of Upperclass Elegance”, despite its odd title, is a thing of beauty. Between this album and the even better follow up, The Sophtware Slump, the future for Grandaddy looked bright. But the band couldn’t stay together for long enough to gain traction, ending up as an extension of Lytle’s solo career. He still brings out the Grandaddy name for albums, with 2024’s Blu Wave being the most recent. But it’s the first three releases you will want the most. A great project that never quite reached what it was capable of.
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THE DEARS
GANG OF LOSERS
2006 – MAPLE MUSIC RECORDINGS
Produced By 6333699 CANADA INC.
1. Sinthtro
2. Ticket To Immortality
3. Death Or Life We Want You
4. Hate Then Love
5. There Goes My Outfit
6. Bandwagoneers
7. Fear Made The World Go ‘Round
8. You And I Are A Gang Of Losers
9. Whites Only Party
10. Ballad Of Humankindness
11. I Fell Deep
12. Find Our Way To Freedom
13. The Highest
14. Whites Only Party (Home Demo)
15. There Goes My Outfit (Acoustic Version)
The Dears are a Canadian band that has really been a revolving door of supporting musicians around the husband and wife duo of Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak. They formed in 1995, and went through two full lineup changes before releasing their debut album in 2000. Gang Of Losers is their third effort, coming out in 2006. It’s the follow up to what is probably their best work, 2003’s No Cities Left. This became their highest charting album to date, and is their only album to gain any kind of success outside of Canada by flashing on the UK charts. The Dears feature interesting arrangements, and while Lightburn and Yanchak sing well together, His voice is clearly the dominant of the two…she either doesn’t have a strong voice or she’s never high enough in the mix.
The best tracks on Gang Of Losers are “Ticket To Immortality” and “Whites Only Party”’ plus the very rocking “Death Or Life We Want You”. It becomes clear pretty quickly that this is Lightburn’s band, and everyone else is along for the ride. He is the sole original member left, he writes all of the songs, sings them, and can play any instrument. This is their strength…but The Dears have never been able to gain much momentum, having to replace the entire band every few years (they all left angry after the next album, 2008’s Missiles). Their best albums are this one and No Cities left. Lightburn was at the top of his writing, and the playing is all top notch. It’s too bad they haven’t been able to reach much beyond Canada. A fine band that could use a bit more stability.
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BELLY
MOON
1993 – SIRE
Produced By PAUL Q KOLDERIE, SEAN SLADE, BELLY, LOU GIORDANO & TRACY CHISOLM
1. Are You Experienced?
2. It’s Not Unusual (Ivo’s Version)
3. It’s Not Unusual (The Usual Mix)
4. It’s Not Unusual (Unusual Mix)
5. Full Moon, Empty Heart (The Album Version)
6. Full Moon, Empty Heart (Lunar Mix)
7. Full Moon, Empty Heart (Bloody Mary Mix)
One of the sad things about music in the nineties was that we got so little music from Belly. Led by former member of Throwing Muses and The Breeders Tanya Donelly, their first album, 1993’s Star, was a thing of beauty. But the reaction to their second album, King (1995) was unfairly less than lukewarm, and so Belly broke up and Donelly went solo. Yeah, they got back together in 2016, but it’s never the same after so much time. So what we’re left with from the nineties are the two albums, a bunch of singles and a handful of EP’s. Including this one. Moon may contain just three different songs, but take this band where you can get them. And if you can find Moon, it’s well worth picking up.
This was released just one time, as a CD in what was known as a FLP case. It opens with the Jimi Hendrix penned “Are You Experienced?”, which they recorded for a tribute album called Stone Free. “It’s Not Unusual” is the Tom Jones classic, which the band remade for the soundtrack for the film With Honors. And finally, “Full Moon, Empty Heart” is a track from Star, and one of that album’s best songs. Having three different versions of the last two songs may seem redundant, but those versions are different enough to keep it interesting. You should definitely have Star, and King is much better than we were told it was, but Moon has its merits as well. Worth at least checking out.
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THE KINKS
SOMETHING ELSE BY THE KINKS
1967 – PYE
Produced By SHEL TALMY
1. David Watts
2. Death Of A Clown
3. Two Sisters
4. No Return
5. Harry Rag
6. Tin Soldier Man
7. Situation Vacant
8. Love Me Till The Sun Shines
9. Lazy Old Sun
10. Afternoon Tea
11. Funny Face
12. End Of The Season
13. Waterloo Sunset
Something Else is the fifth album by The Kinks. It’s also the one where they stepped out of their hard rock style and began really expanding their sound. Ray Davies took over production during the recording after letting Shel Talmy go, a role that Davies would hold for the rest of their career. The album was somewhat overlooked at the time, as it came out at about the same time as some greatest hits packages were charting. But the strengths of this album cannot be denied. Davies came into his own as a writer and producer, and his brother Dave contributes heavily as well. The fact that it contains one of their greatest songs in “Waterloo Sunset” doesn’t hurt its cause, either.
In addition to “Waterloo Sunset”, Something Else is also home to the excellent “David Watts” and the Dave Davies song “Death Of A Clown” (which was sold as a solo track). This album was something of a commercial failure at the time, but it’s viewed today as one of the band’s better efforts. Could it have been better? There were a stunning seven non-album singles released before and after Something Else…making the recorded output of The Kinks during that period of about a year pretty impressive. As it stands, though, Something Else is quite an accomplishment, and it became an exceptional blueprint for what they would do for years to come. An underrated gem of a record by one of the very best.
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FischmanRockMonster, JazzMeister, Bluesboy,ClassicalMasterProfile Land of Enchantment
THE KINKS
SOMETHING ELSE BY THE KINKS
1967 – PYE
Produced By SHEL TALMY
1. David Watts
2. Death Of A Clown
3. Two Sisters
4. No Return
5. Harry Rag
6. Tin Soldier Man
7. Situation Vacant
8. Love Me Till The Sun Shines
9. Lazy Old Sun
10. Afternoon Tea
11. Funny Face
12. End Of The Season
13. Waterloo Sunset
Something Else is the fifth album by The Kinks. It’s also the one where they stepped out of their hard rock style and began really expanding their sound. Ray Davies took over production during the recording after letting Shel Talmy go, a role that Davies would hold for the rest of their career. The album was somewhat overlooked at the time, as it came out at about the same time as some greatest hits packages were charting. But the strengths of this album cannot be denied. Davies came into his own as a writer and producer, and his brother Dave contributes heavily as well. The fact that it contains one of their greatest songs in “Waterloo Sunset” doesn’t hurt its cause, either.
In addition to “Waterloo Sunset”, Something Else is also home to the excellent “David Watts” and the Dave Davies song “Death Of A Clown” (which was sold as a solo track). This album was something of a commercial failure at the time, but it’s viewed today as one of the band’s better efforts. Could it have been better? There were a stunning seven non-album singles released before and after Something Else…making the recorded output of The Kinks during that period of about a year pretty impressive. As it stands, though, Something Else is quite an accomplishment, and it became an exceptional blueprint for what they would do for years to come. An underrated gem of a record by one of the very best.
THE FLAMING LIPS
AT WAR WITH THE MYSTICS
2006 – WARNER BROS
Produced By THE FLAMING LIPS, DAVE FRIDMANN & SCOTT BOOKER
1. The Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)
2. Free Radicals (A Hallucination Of The Christmas Skeleton Pleading With A Suicide Bomber)
3. The Sound Of Failure / It’s Dark…Is It Always This Dark??
4. My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (The Inner Life As Blazing Shield Of Defiance And Optimism As Celestial Spear Of Action)
5. Vein Of Stars
6. The Wizard Turns On…The Giant Silver Flashlight And Puts On His Werewolf Moccasins
7. It Overtakes Me / The Stars Are So Big…I Am So Small…Do I Stand A Chance?
8. Mr. Ambulance Driver
9. Haven’t Got A Clue
10. The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)
11. Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung
12. Goin’ On
What. You thought that for their eleventh album, The Flaming Lips would finally do something not completely out of left field? That notion is quickly dispelled with a quick glance at the song titles. After having established themselves as a truly great and creative band with their previous two albums (The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots), Wayne Coyne and company brought out the big guitars and the political lyrics for At War With The Mystics. Sometimes overlooked in their catalog, this album is a force. Sure, it’s not as pop friendly as their previous works, but one shouldn’t be too surprised that a band like this would change directions…the only surprise is that they didn’t do it sooner.
The best songs here are classic Lips. “The Yeah Yeah Song” is a powerful opener. “It Overtakes Me” was also the lead single on a later EP. And while “The W.A.N.D” wasn’t actually a hit, it has made its presence known on game soundtracks, commercials and film. And despite having no real hit singles, At War With The Mystics still managed to climb to #11 on the US Billboard charts. Such is the life of a Flaming Lips album. After this, with the exception of 2009’s Embryonic, The Flaming Lips have kind of faded from view. But make no mistake…this band was still at the top of their game on this record. Powerful and underrated, At War With The Mystics belongs in the same breath as their better known classics.
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BEACH HOUSE
TEEN DREAM
2010 – SUB POP
Produced By CHRIS COADY & BEACH HOUSE
1. Zebra
2. Silver Soul
3. Norway
4. Walk In The Park
5. Used To Be
6. Lover Of Mine
7. Better Times
8. 10 Mile Stereo
9. Real Love
10. Take Care
At the dawn of the 2010’s, you would have been hard pressed to find a band with more promise than Beach House. This dream pop duo from Baltimore opened the decade by going all out with their third album, Teen Dream. Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally are not going to blow your doors off, which is fine. That’s not what this kind of music is for. What you get is layers of guitars, keyboards, and vocals woven into beautiful hypnotic songs that is quite stunning. Teen Dream was maybe the best album of 2010…it’s one of the finest albums of all time. Well, why haven’t I heard about it? Probably because dream pop isn’t music that tops the charts or gets massive attention. Too bad. Because this is gorgeous.
“Zebra” and “Used To Be” might be Beach House’s best songs. Also quite notable are “Norway”, “10 Mile Stereo”, and “Lover Of Mine”. Legrand’s echoing vocals are a perfect fit, and instrumentally, this college educated duo knocks it out of the park. Teen Dream is lush and full, sounding both delicate and massive at the same time. Their next album, 2012’s Bloom, was almost as amazing: a truly powerful one-two punch. This is as good as this kind of music can be: Beach House deserves much more praise than they get. They are still at it, having released eight albums to date. Definitely an album to take a chance on: the rewards here are most plentiful.
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VINCE GILL
POCKET FULL OF GOLD
1991 – MCA NASHVILLE
Produced By TONY BROWN
1. I Quit
2. Look At Us
3. Take Your Memory With You
4. Pocket Full Of Gold
5. The Strings That Tie You Down
6. Liza Jane
7. If I Didn’t Have You In My World
8. A Little Left Over
9. What’s A Man To Do
10. Sparkle
The more than blessed career of Vince Gill spreads from the late seventies, when he was the lead singer for Pure Prairie League for four albums, to his present day tenure as the replacement for Glenn Frey in the Eagles. Oh, and sandwiched in the middle is one hell of a successful solo career. 18 studio albums since 1985, 14 of those reaching the top ten. Pretty sweet resume, if you ask me. His fourth album was 1991’s Pocket Full Of Gold, which became his second of many platinum records. What this album lacks in quantity (it’s barely 32 minutes long) it more than makes up for in quality. This is where Gill really proved he was here to stay, and that it was a good thing. There is much to love about this one.
Gill is blessed not only with a golden voice and some nifty guitar skills, but also with serious songwriting chops. He wrote or co-wrote eight of the ten songs here, and half of those are absolute shining winners. “Liza Jane”, “Look At Us”, and “Pocket Full Of Gold” are Gill at his very best. Even better is the fine “Take Your Memory With You”. Gill is following up his first real solo success (1989’s When I Call Your Name), and he does not disappoint. This record sets the stage for the rest of his brilliant career, in which he has proved time and again that he can do no wrong. Vince Gill is an artist who rarely, if ever, disappoints. Pocket Full Of Gold is no exception to that. A nearly perfect offering from one of the very best.
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VINCE GILL
POCKET FULL OF GOLD
1991 – MCA NASHVILLE
Produced By TONY BROWN
1. I Quit
2. Look At Us
3. Take Your Memory With You
4. Pocket Full Of Gold
5. The Strings That Tie You Down
6. Liza Jane
7. If I Didn’t Have You In My World
8. A Little Left Over
9. What’s A Man To Do
10. Sparkle
The more than blessed career of Vince Gill spreads from the late seventies, when he was the lead singer for Pure Prairie League for four albums, to his present day tenure as the replacement for Glenn Frey in the Eagles. Oh, and sandwiched in the middle is one hell of a successful solo career. 18 studio albums since 1985, 14 of those reaching the top ten. Pretty sweet resume, if you ask me. His fourth album was 1991’s Pocket Full Of Gold, which became his second of many platinum records. What this album lacks in quantity (it’s barely 32 minutes long) it more than makes up for in quality. This is where Gill really proved he was here to stay, and that it was a good thing. There is much to love about this one.
Gill is blessed not only with a golden voice and some nifty guitar skills, but also with serious songwriting chops. He wrote or co-wrote eight of the ten songs here, and half of those are absolute shining winners. “Liza Jane”, “Look At Us”, and “Pocket Full Of Gold” are Gill at his very best. Even better is the fine “Take Your Memory With You”. Gill is following up his first real solo success (1989’s When I Call Your Name), and he does not disappoint. This record sets the stage for the rest of his brilliant career, in which he has proved time and again that he can do no wrong. Vince Gill is an artist who rarely, if ever, disappoints. Pocket Full Of Gold is no exception to that. A nearly perfect offering from one of the very best.
EMINEM
THE SLIM SHADY LP
1999 – AFTERMATH / WEB / INTERSCOPE
Produced By EMINEM, DR. DRE, BASS BROTHERS & MEL-MAN
1. Public Service Announcement
2. My Name Is
3. Guilty Conscience (Feat. Dr. Dre)
4. Brain Damage
5. Paul (Skit)
6. If I Had
7. 97 Bonnie & Clyde
8. Bitch (Skit)
9. Role Model
10. Lounge (Skit)
11. My Fault
12. Ken Kaniff (Skit)
13. Cum On Everybody (Feat. Dina Rae)
14. Rock Bottom
15. Just Don’t Give A Fuck
16. Soap (Skit)
17. As The World Turns
18. I’m Shady
19. Bad Meets Evil (Feat. Royce Da 5’9”)
20. Still Don’t Give A Fuck
“I'm not a role model, and I don't claim to be." After the album that put Eminem on the map, 1999’s The Slim Shady LP, came out, that was his response to critics who said that his music was not suitable for young audiences. If you don’t like what he has to say, don’t listen to it. And these days, kids aren’t seeking out Eminem albums. This was his second album…the first one that really mattered. This was the one that made him a megastar, and the one that showed the world that a white man really COULD seriously rap. Slim Shady was an alter ego who told stories about being poor and living a less than ideal life. He also told exaggerated stories about violence that were intended to be nothing more than entertaining. And that is exactly what they are.
He's had quite a career, but the two album power of this and its follow up, The Marshall Mathers LP, are what made him. The next album had the bigger hits, but this one gave notice that Eminem was here, and to stay. “My Name Is” put him on the map, and “Just Don’t Give A Fuck”, “Role Model” and “Guilty Conscience” make this album a keeper. He shows what a gifted writer and performer he is, and having Dr. Dre as a producer did not hurt. “My Name Is” won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance, and this record won for Best Rap Album. And it was all deserved. You may not like what Eminem has to say, or the way that he says it, but there’s no denying that he’s one of the greats. It all started right here. An absolute must hear.
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