BILLY IDOL
1982 – CHRYSALIS
Produced By KEITH FORSEY
1. Come On, Come On
2. White Wedding (Part 1)
3. Hot In The City
4. Dead On Arrival
5. Nobody’s Business
6. Love Calling
7. Hole In The Wall
8. Shooting Stars
9. It’s So Cruel
10. Dancing With Myself
Billy Idol’s career began as a punk rocker, but he didn’t stay that way for long. After their first album, his band Generation X (one of the first wave of British punk bands) began moving towards a more new wave sound. When the band broke up in 1981, Idol moved to New York and began his solo career. Two things were notable about him at that time: he kept his original punk image, and he began his partnership with guitarist Steve Stevens. The Idol brand was built on these two things, which made him visually cool in the eighties, along with a glam metal guitar sound that blurred the line between new wave and heavy rock. His first album, this self-titled disc from 1982, put him squarely in the middle of pop music for the rest of the decade.
“Hot In The City” was the lead single, but it was “White Wedding (Part 2)” that really made him a star. He became an instant mainstay on MTV, and, together with the EP Don’t Stop (which contained “Mony Mony”), Idol was on his way. “Dancing With Myself”, a Generation X leftover, was not on the original album, but replaced “Congo Man” on later releases, helping later sales. The rest of the album is a bit flat, however…all of his solo records are bogged down with filler. But this is really where Idol became who he was in the eighties, which was one of the decade’s biggest stars. He was injured in a motorcycle accident in 1990, and became something of a recluse. He’s back to making music. But nothing like he did during this time period.
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INDIGO GIRLS
BECOME YOU
2002 – EPIC
Produced By PETER COLLINS
1. Moment Of Forgiveness
2. Deconstruction
3. Become You
4. You’ve Got To Show
5. Yield
6. Collecting You
7. Hope Alone
8. Bitterroot
9. Our Deliverance
10. Starkville
11. She’s Saving Me
12. Nuevas Senoritas
As the twentieth century slipped away, so did the popularity of Indigo Girls. The hits were drying up, even though they were still a much appreciated live act. Become You was their eight album, and their first to not be certified Gold. It was also odd in that four singles were released…none of which were hits. As a result, Become You went mostly unnoticed by those outside of their rabid fanbase. The album is about as average as an Indigo Girls album can be. The songs are all solid but unspectacular, and the mood is actually a bit more subdued that their previous records. As usual, the songwriting is split between Amy Ray and Emily Saliers straight down the middle, with each contributing six songs.
The best songs here are the title track and “Moment Of Forgiveness”, which were written by Ray, while the second half is boosted by “Our Deliverance” and “Hope Alone by Saliers. Ray’s “Bitterroot” is fine as well. But while these are good tracks, there’s just nothing really outstanding here. Not that this is a bad record…this duo doesn’t seem to know how to make one of those. It’s been going on six years since their last studio album (2020’s Look Long), but they continue to tour, they continue to work tirelessly as political activists, and they remain heroes in the LGBTQ community, and for everyone who ever banged on an acoustic guitar and dreamed of being a star.
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IRON MAIDEN
THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST
1982 – EMI
Produced By MARTIN BIRCH
1. Invaders
2. Children Of The Damned
3. The Prisoner
4. 22 Acacia Avenue
5. The Number Of The Beast
6. Run To The Hills
7. Gangland
8. Total Eclipse
9. Hallowed Be Thy Name
Aw…you thought I was ignoring Iron Maiden, didn’t you? Truthfully, in a world of random albums, they just hadn’t come up yet. Until now. So, what better place to start with one of metal’s finest bands than with the album that broke everything wide open for them? The Number Of The Beast, their third album, made them stars. It’s the first album with singer Bruce Dickinson, and the last with drummer Clive Burr. It contains some of the band’s most memorable songs,
and it set the standard for excellence that this band has upheld for what is now 44 years. This is not only Iron Maiden’s best record…it’s also one of the greatest metal albums of all time. And that’s no small feat.
The only issue with this album is how it starts. “Invaders” is a surprisingly weak opener. Aside from that, look out. This record is loaded. “Children Of The Damned” is exceptional. “Run To The Hills” may have the best vocal hook of any metal song ever. The title track and “22 Acacia Avenue” are stunning, and the closer, “Hallowed Be Thy Name” simply rules. My copy is the 1998 remastered edition, which adds “Total Eclipse” plus enhanced content that includes a pair of music videos and a collection of photos and band history. Iron Maiden released at least four other classic albums in the eighties (Powerslave, Seventh Son, Piece Of Mind & Iron Maiden) that could be considered their best, but for me, this is the one.
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DEAD CAN DANCE
1984 – 4AD
Produced By DEAD CAN DANCE
1. The Fatal Impact
2. The Trial
3. Frontier
4. Fortune
5. Ocean
6. East Of Eden
7. Threshold
8. A Passage In Time
9. Wild In The Woods
10. Musica Eternal
11. Garden Of The Arcane Light: Carnival Of Light
12. Garden Of The Arcane Light: In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated
13. Garden Of The Arcane Light: The Arcane
14. Garden Of The Arcane Light: Flowers Of The Sea
Dead Can Dance is the domain of British singer and guitarist Brendan Perry and Australian singer Lisa Gerrard. Before reducing themselves to a duo, they released their self-titled debut album in 1984. Having more in common with bands like Cocteau Twins and The Cure, this was labelled as gothic rock, but that’s really not what they were about, even early on. This early incarnation of Dead Can Dance was guitar, bass and drum based, made unique by the percussion and yangquin (a Chinese dulcimer) played by Gerrard. Both Perry and Gerrard are also interesting vocalists, further separating them from the New Wave bands of the time. It didn’t translate to a lot of success, but it is interesting.
The best track here is “Frontier”, but it’s all worth hearing. The world music beats and strange vocals are what carries this through. After this album, they forged ahead as a duo, releasing another eight albums despite taking most of the decade of the 2000’s off to work on solo projects. You will want to grab a later release of this album, which adds on to the end (tracks 11 though 14) their entire 1984 EP Garden Of Arcane Delights, which shows the beginning of their move away from the sound of the first album. Their next three albums would be the peak for Dead Can Dance, but this one is worthwhile to catch a glimpse of what they were like at the beginning of their career.
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JESUS JONES
LIQUIDIZER
1989 – FOOD
Produced By CRAIG LEON
1. Move Mountains
2. Never Enough
3. The Real World
4. All The Answers
5. What’s Going On
6. Song 13
7. Info Freako
8. Bring It On Down
9. Too Much To Learn
10. What Would You Know?
11. One For The Money
12. Someone To Blame
13. Broken Bones
14. I Don’t Want That Kind Of Love
The truth about the English band Jesus Jones is this: had it not been for the hit “Right Here, Right Now” from their second album, Doubt, no one would have ever known who these guy are. Even their follow up single, “International Bright Young Thing”, was known only because of its relationship to the first hit. But somehow, this band has survived for nearly forty years. Their debut album, Liquidizer, came out in 1989. The thing that made Jesus Jones stand out was their use of sampling, a technology that was still in its infancy. Songwriter Mike Edwards wrote songs that were somewhat catchy and that were overall average fare, and the band came across as nothing special.
Liquidizer is an average at best debut, and in the Jesus Jones catalog it’s surpassed only by Doubt. The best track here is the very minor hit “Info Freako”, with “Bring It On Down” and “Never Enough” not far behind. But because nothing really stands out, the album as a whole becomes something of a blur. And after Doubt, something of a blur is what their career became. There have been no notable hits, and despite never having broken up, they once went seventeen years (between 2001 and 2018) without releasing an album, and there’s been nothing since 2018. So there’s not a whole lot to choose from. Even compilations from this band are light, so the best way to go with Jesus Jones is to get Doubt, and maybe take a chance with Liquidizer.
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ROBERT JOHNSON
KING OF THE DELTA BLUES SINGERS
1961 – COLUMBIA
Produced By DON LAW & FRANK DRIGGS
1. Cross Road Blues
2. Terraplane Blues
3. Come On In My Kitchen
4. Walkin’ Blues
5. Last Fair Deal Gone Down
6. 32-20 Blues
7. Kind hearted Woman Blues
8. If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day
9. Preachin’ Blues
10. When You Got A Good Friend
11. Ramblin’ On My Mind
12. Stones In My Passway
13. Traveling Riverside Blues
14. Milkcow’s Calf Blues
15. Me And The Devil Blues
16. Hellhound On My Trail
17. Traveling Riverside Blues (Alternate Take)
Robert Johnson’s entire recording career lasted just six days. He had two recording sessions, one of which took place in a hotel room. His entire recorded legacy consists of 41 songs, many of which were alternate takes. He died in 1938, the charter member of the 27 Club. There are only two known images of him in existence. You will not find a single video of him. And yet, Robert Johnson is one of the single most important musicians in history. These tracks are the blueprint not only for blues, but also for the entirety of rock and roll. His first session was 90 years ago, and yet they remain as important as anything ever done in music. He was the very first rock star, and even though little is known about him, he is a true legend.
When King Of The Delta Blues Singers was released in 1961, not many people knew who Johnson was. No one knew what he looked like. This compilation album consists of eight singles released in the 1930’s, and eight previously unreleased takes. This is one of the most important albums of the sixties, and maybe the most influential albums in all of rock. Yes, the quality of the recordings is eternally bad…and that doesn’t matter one bit. The quality of the songs, and of Johnson’s performances, transcends everything. In 1990, a box set (The Complete Recordings) replaced this as the most complete Johnson document, but this will always be the place where so many were introduced to this unique legend and talent. Perfect, magical, and endlessly essential.
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Of dying history
ROBERT JOHNSON
KING OF THE DELTA BLUES SINGERS
1961 – COLUMBIA
Produced By DON LAW & FRANK DRIGGS
1. Cross Road Blues
2. Terraplane Blues
3. Come On In My Kitchen
4. Walkin’ Blues
5. Last Fair Deal Gone Down
6. 32-20 Blues
7. Kind hearted Woman Blues
8. If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day
9. Preachin’ Blues
10. When You Got A Good Friend
11. Ramblin’ On My Mind
12. Stones In My Passway
13. Traveling Riverside Blues
14. Milkcow’s Calf Blues
15. Me And The Devil Blues
16. Hellhound On My Trail
17. Traveling Riverside Blues (Alternate Take)
Robert Johnson’s entire recording career lasted just six days. He had two recording sessions, one of which took place in a hotel room. His entire recorded legacy consists of 41 songs, many of which were alternate takes. He died in 1938, the charter member of the 27 Club. There are only two known images of him in existence. You will not find a single video of him. And yet, Robert Johnson is one of the single most important musicians in history. These tracks are the blueprint not only for blues, but also for the entirety of rock and roll. His first session was 90 years ago, and yet they remain as important as anything ever done in music. He was the very first rock star, and even though little is known about him, he is a true legend.
When King Of The Delta Blues Singers was released in 1961, not many people knew who Johnson was. No one knew what he looked like. This compilation album consists of eight singles released in the 1930’s, and eight previously unreleased takes. This is one of the most important albums of the sixties, and maybe the most influential albums in all of rock. Yes, the quality of the recordings is eternally bad…and that doesn’t matter one bit. The quality of the songs, and of Johnson’s performances, transcends everything. In 1990, a box set (The Complete Recordings) replaced this as the most complete Johnson document, but this will always be the place where so many were introduced to this unique legend and talent. Perfect, magical, and endlessly essential.
This may well be the album that taught me that the music is more important than the sound quality. Helped open the door to my appreciation for all manner of early blues, jazz, and classical.
BRIGHT EYES
LIFTED OR THE STORY IS IN THE SOIL, KEEP YOUR EAR TO THE GROUND
2002 – SADDLE CREEK
Produced By MIK MOGIS
1. The Big Picture
2. Method Acting
3. False Advertising
4. You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.
5. Lover I Don’t Have To Love
6. Bowl Of Oranges
7. Don’t Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come
8. Nothing Gets Crossed Out
9. Make War
10. Waste Of Paint
11. From A Balance Beam
12. Laura Laurent
13. Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (To Love And To Be Loved)
Conor Oberst has been a part of a dizzying number of bands, as well as managing a solo career. But most of his output has been as the main man in Bright Eyes, a band from Nebraska that he formed in 1995. Bright Eyes has released a pair of great albums over the years, and they came back to back. Their biggest and best work was I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, which was released in 2005. It remains their best work. Before that, (with a Christmas album in between), came their fourth album, Lifted. This is the one that got people’s attention, and the one that brought them their first real success. Not a big commercial success, mind you…but this is where the band started becoming known and where folks started paying attention.
“Lover I Don’t Have To Love” was the single here, and it was a minor hit in the UK. This is the album where Oberst comes into his own lyrically, and that’s the real strength of this record. Musically, the sound is more adventurous and interesting than the earlier albums. This is Bright Eyes just about to hit their peak, and along with Wide Awake (which really is a better release), this is one to definitely hear. It’s not perfect, and it has moments that could have been better (like the first two spoken minutes), but there are also plenty of rewards here. Bright Eyes took the 2010’s off with a hiatus, coming back with new material in 2020, but they haven’t been able to reach the level they peaked at early in the millennium.
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THE WAR ON DRUGS
A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING
2017 – ATLANTIC
Produced By ADAM GRANDUCIEL
1. Up All Night
2. Pain
3. Holding On
4. Strangest Thing
5. Knocked Down
6. Nothing To Find
7. Thinking Of A Place
8. In Chains
9. Clean Living
10. You Don’t Have To Go
In 2014, The War On Drugs got it all right on their third album, Lost In The Dream. It was a perfect record, one of the greatest albums of all time. So, the question then becomes, how do you follow something like that up? To their credit, Adam Granduciel and company came pretty close to repeating the excellence of that disc. A Deeper Understanding came out in 2017, and while it’s not as fine as its predecessor, it got closer than one might expect. The War On Drugs is a throwback to sounds of rock music’s past, but the sounds they throw back to are the ones that are worth remembering. That they do so with songs that have an air of newness to them is both welcome and refreshing.
A Deeper Understanding works as a fine companion to Lost In The Dream, even though it’s a slightly lesser album. The songs here are allowed to stretch out nicely…only one track clocks in at under five minutes. The best is the eleven minute “Thinking Of A Place”, and the album starts off with a blast of the first four songs being excellent. These songs are all atmosphere pieces, haunting and beautiful. Granduciel proves that his songwriting is no fluke, and while the more uptempo songs are less compelling, the album as a whole will win you over. Even though this was not as good as the one that came before it, A Deeper Understanding still won the Grammy for Best Rock Album in 2018. Well worth the time and at least a few listens.
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