U2
HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB
2004 – ISLAND
Produced By STEVE LILLYWHITE
1. Vertigo
2. Miracle Drug
3. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
4. Love And Peace Or Else
5. City Of Blinding Lights
6. All Because Of You
7. A Man And A Woman
8. Crumbs From Your Table
9. One Step Closer
10. Original Of The Species
11. Yahweh
The hate that U2 receives from listeners has always made me laugh. Since the dawn of the eighties, they have set the standard for what a good rock album should sound like. Sure, Bono may seem a bit on the pompous side at time, but that doesn’t mean his band makes bad albums. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is their eleventh album, following the huge success of 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind and it’s huge hit “Beautiful Day”. For this album, U2 decided they wanted to return to the sounds they were originally inspired by and that they were making when they first got together…a harder and more raw straight ahead rock sound. They had a completed album with producer Chris Thomas, but they decided that while they could have released it and had a decent enough record, they could do better. So they brought in producer Steve Lillywhite, and made the record they really wanted to make.
Good for them. This album is led by the unstoppable hit “Vertigo”, but there’s more here than just a single. “City Of Blinding Lights, “All Because Of You”, and “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” are all excellent, as are “Miracle Drug” and “Love And Peace Or Else”. Like most U2 albums, this one is front loaded, but the second half is not bad by any means. The album as a whole is good, but falls short of great…even Bono said that the songs are strong, but as a whole, the album falls short of their expectations. As for how the album was received? It hit number one in a whopping 34 countries, and swept all eight Grammy awards it was nominated for. It also sold more than 10 million copies. Can 10 million U2 fans be wrong? Doubtful. Not their best album, but a fine work. Thank goodness U2 cares enough to get their work right.
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UNDEROATH
LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION
2008 – SOLID STATE / TOOTH & NAIL
Produced By ADAM DUTKIEWICZ, MATT GOLDEN & UNDEROATH
1. Breathing In A New Mentality
2. Anyone Can Dig A Hole But It Takes A Real Man To Call It Home
3. A Fault Line, A Fault Of Mine
4. Emergency Broadcast :: The End Is Near
5. The Only Survivor Was Miraculously Unharmed
6. We Are The Involuntary
7. The Created Void
8. Coming Down Is Calming Down
9. Desperate Times Desperate Measures
10. Too Bright To See Too Loud To Hear
11. Desolate Earth :: The End Is Here
The American metalcore / screamo band Underoath used to be a Christian band…kind of. The members were all Christian, but they didn’t really sing Christian lyrics. After they broke up in 2013, they reformed two years later with the announcement that they were most definitely no longer a Christian band. So there you go. Lost In The Sound Of Separation is their sixth album, and sits firmly in the middle of their late 2000’s peak. And to find what’s Christian about this, you’d have to dig deeper than I’m willing to do. Underoath’s biggest influences are At The Drive In and Refused, so you know this is going to be loud and heavy. But that’s not all this is. There are elements of many genres included here, making this easily the most experimental of the band’s ten albums. Making it also a great place to start with this band.
Underoath has never really had hits, although a couple of songs from their 2018 album Erase Me came close. Here, the best tracks are “Too Bright To See Too Loud To Hear”, which builds well and showcases both clean vocalist Aaron Gillespie and lead vocalist Spencer Chamberlain, and “Desperate Times Desperate Measures”, the story of a man screaming for help in a place where no one can hear him. Also of note is “Breathing In A New Mentality”, which is about Chamberlain’s issues with drugs, and “Emergency Broadcast :: The End Is Near”, influenced by a drive while listening to the first Led Zeppelin album. If metalcore and screamo are your thing, this is a fascinating and well done album, with plenty of rewards. Underoath continues to this day…a somewhat overlooked metal gem.
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STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN & DOUBLE TROUBLE
THE SKY IS CRYING
1991 – EPIC
Produced By CHRIS LAYTON, JIM CAPFER, JIM GAINES, REESE WYNANS, RICHARD MULLEN, TOMMY SHANNON, JIMMIE VAUGHAN & STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN & DOUBLE TROUBLE
1. Boot Hill
2. The Sky Is Crying
3. Empty Arms
4. Little Wing
5. Wham
6. May I Have A Talk With You
7. Close To You
8. Chitlins Con Carne
9. So Excited
10. Life By The Drop
Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash in 1990. Fourteen months later, his final studio album, The Sky Is Crying, was released. The album was assembled by Vaughan’s older brother, Jimmie, and contains previously unreleased material (except for “Empty Arms”) recorded between 1984 and 1989. Eight of the ten tracks are covers, with only “Empty Arms” and “So Excited” being Vaughan originals. It’s also notable that four of the ten tracks are instrumentals. This album is not perfect…these songs were, after all, left off of the band’s four previous albums, and though it’s not stated, they are most likely outtakes. But regardless of that, this album shows what an amazing player Vaughan truly was. And that’s the important thing…Stevie Ray Vaughan didn’t always have the greatest songs, but his playing was always a magical thing.
This album covers a wide variety of the blues genres that Vaughan was proficient in. Texas, Chicago, Delta, blues rock…Stevie Ray could play it all. The instrumental cover of Hendrix’ “Little Wing” is great, as is Kenny Burrell’s jazz blues “Chitlins Con Carne” and Elmore James’ title track. Perhaps the best song here, though, is Doyle Bramhall’s “Life By The Drop”, which Vaughan plays on an acoustic twelve-string. This was the first of many posthumous albums of Vaughan’s material (although the album he did with his brother, Family Style, did come out a month after he died), and it remains one of the best, as it’s not a rehash of previously released tracks. Stevie Ray was the last great hope of the eighties revival of the blues, which unfortunately died along with him. He’s always worth hearing, and this album is no exception.
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U2
HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB
2004 – ISLAND
Produced By STEVE LILLYWHITE
1. Vertigo
2. Miracle Drug
3. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
4. Love And Peace Or Else
5. City Of Blinding Lights
6. All Because Of You
7. A Man And A Woman
8. Crumbs From Your Table
9. One Step Closer
10. Original Of The Species
11. Yahweh
The hate that U2 receives from listeners has always made me laugh. Since the dawn of the eighties, they have set the standard for what a good rock album should sound like. Sure, Bono may seem a bit on the pompous side at time, but that doesn’t mean his band makes bad albums. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is their eleventh album, following the huge success of 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind and it’s huge hit “Beautiful Day”. For this album, U2 decided they wanted to return to the sounds they were originally inspired by and that they were making when they first got together…a harder and more raw straight ahead rock sound. They had a completed album with producer Chris Thomas, but they decided that while they could have released it and had a decent enough record, they could do better. So they brought in producer Steve Lillywhite, and made the record they really wanted to make.
Good for them. This album is led by the unstoppable hit “Vertigo”, but there’s more here than just a single. “City Of Blinding Lights, “All Because Of You”, and “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” are all excellent, as are “Miracle Drug” and “Love And Peace Or Else”. Like most U2 albums, this one is front loaded, but the second half is not bad by any means. The album as a whole is good, but falls short of great…even Bono said that the songs are strong, but as a whole, the album falls short of their expectations. As for how the album was received? It hit number one in a whopping 34 countries, and swept all eight Grammy awards it was nominated for. It also sold more than 10 million copies. Can 10 million U2 fans be wrong? Doubtful. Not their best album, but a fine work. Thank goodness U2 cares enough to get their work right.
I've said many times on this site that I don't understand the hate for U2 so completely agree with your thoughts above. Bono can come across as a bit of a T**T sometimes but that's got nothing to do with the music which, on the whole I've loved for more than the last 40 years
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
FORGIVENESS ROCK RECORD
2010 – ARTS & CRAFTS
Produced By JOHN MCENTIRE
1. World Sick
2. Chase Scene
3. Texico Bitches
4. Forced To Love
5. All To All
6. Art House Director
7. Highway Slipper Jam
8. Ungrateful Little Father
9. Meet Me In The Basement
10. Sentimental X’s
11. Sweetest Kill
12. Romance To The Grave
13. Water In Hell
14. Me And My Hand
More of a collective than a band, Broken Social Scene from Canada has been releasing occasional great albums since 2001. They began as a duo of Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew, with a core of six members and accommodating up to nineteen collaborators. Their best album was 2002’s You Forgot It In People, but don’t sleep on their underrated 2010 fourth album, Forgiveness Rock Record. It reached number one in their native country, and contains their two most successful singles. Broken Social Scene has released just six studio albums over twenty five years, but they do tend to make them count when they do drop one. This was produced by John McEntire (Tortoise & The Sea And Cake), and balances their cool blend of baroque pop and indie rock. Like all of their albums, this is worth checking out.
This is a top heavy offering, but that’s mostly okay. The best tracks all reside in the first half, led by “World Sick”, Texico Blues” “Forced To Love” and “All Is All”. Guests include Sam Prekop (The Sea And Cake), Scott Kannberg (Pavement), and Sebastien Grainger (Death From Above 1979). The second half is not bad, by any means. Broken Social Scene is a band that’s always good, their albums are always worthwhile. If you want more than their six studio discs, there are also a trio of B-sides albums, a pair of solo records from Drew and Canning, and a bunch of film scores. And they recently released Remember The Humans, their first album in nine years. Hopefully, there will be more to come from this group. Forgiveness Rock Record is not perfect, but it’s a pretty fine effort. Give this one a try!
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KAMASI WASHINGTON
THE EPIC
2015 – BRAINFEEDER
Produced By KAMASI WASHINGTON
1. Change Of The Guard
2. Askim
3. Isabelle
4. Final Thought
5. The Next Step
6. The Rhythm Changes
1. Miss Understanding
2. Leroy And Lanisha
3. Re Run
4. Seven Prayers
5. Henrietta Our Hero
6. The Magnificent 7
1. Re Run Home
2. Cherokee
3. Clair De Lune
4. Malcolm’s Theme
5. The Message
It’s a pretty easy statement to make that Kamasi Washington is the current king of the saxophone. And that, because he’s mainly a jazz musician, he’s very much underrated. And then, there’s The Epic. In 2015, just a couple of months after his sax work was heard on Kendrick Lamar’s album To Pimp A Butterfly, Washington released this stunning album. This is big in every way, starting with the title. It’s three CD’s long. It runs nearly three hours in total. It includes nearly forty musicians. And it stands as maybe the greatest jazz album of the century so far. It’s Washington’s fourth studio album, but it’s his first to be released on a label. You may want to listen to it in segments…three hours is a lot to take in at once…but the rewards are almost endless. It’s as spiritual, challenging, and beautiful as it is long. A stunning release.
The three discs are given different titles. Disc one is The Plan, featuring four tracks over twelve minutes in length. Disc two is The Glorious Tale, led by the excellent “Miss Understanding”. The final disc is The Historic Repetition, headed by “Re Run Home”. All of the music is composed by Washington except for three of the five tracks on the final disc. There are no guitars present, and five of the songs feature vocals. The facts: this is maybe the most ambitious jazz record you will ever hear. This is perhaps the greatest jazz album in the last twenty plus years. And Kamasi Washington may be the greatest current jazz musician on the planet. As huge and expansive as The Epic is, it’s still worth every minute you spend with it. And just because it may be more than most people can handle in one sitting, it’s still an amazing and great piece of work.
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KANYE WEST
THE LIFE OF PABLO
2016 – GOOD / DEF JAM
Produced By BOI-1DA, CASHMERE CAT, CHANCE THE RAPPER, CHARLIE HEAT, DJDS, HAVOC, KANYE WEST, KARRIEM RIGGINS, MADLIB, MENACE, METRO BOOMIN’, MIKE DEAN, MITUS, RICK RUBIN, SINJIN HAWKE, SOUTHSIDE & SWISS BEATZ
1. Ultralight Beam
2. Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1
3. Pt. 2
4. Famous
5. Feedback
6. Low Lights
7. Highlights
8. Freestyle 4
9. I Love Kanye
10. Waves
11. FML
12. Real Friends
13. Wolves
14. Frank’s Track
15. Siiiiiiiiilver Surffffeeeeer Intermission
16. 30 Hours
17. No More Parties In LA
18. Facts (Charlie Heat Version)
19. Fade
20. Saint Pablo
Is Kanye West insane? Probably. Is it possible to separate his insanity from his recorded output? Until The Life Of Pablo, yes. But here, Kanye the person unfortunately bleeds a bit too much into his work. I have this album on CD…it’s the only album I have that’s a bootleg version. Why? Because Kanye refused to release it in this format. It was initially promised to be a Tidal only release, but he later put it out on other sites. As the follow up album to 2013’s Yeezus, a lot was expected here, especially considering that it took three years to make. But unfortunately, The Life Of Pablo may be his least effective album, and his most overrated. Even as it was being released, Kanye kept changing it. It sounds like he never really did finish it. It has a few great moments, sure. But it’s also very inconsistent and feels eternally incomplete.
Kanye described this as “the gospel according to Ye”, an unfortunate statement given the absolute terrible quality of the album’s lyrics. There are many who overlook this flaw, but I cannot. The best moments are in the music, but the lyrics, the auto tune, and the inclusion of far too many weak tracks makes this more a mess than a worthwhile excursion. The Life Of Pablo is not a terrible album, by any means. But it is a pretty overrated work, carried more by the artist’s name and reputation than by the quality of the music. When this is good, it’s very good. But it’s only good for about half of the record, and that should not be discounted. Maybe Kanye ran out of words. Maybe having seventeen different producers was more than a dozen too many. And maybe Kanye the person was allowed to seep a little too deeply into the music. Above average at best. But not an all time great.
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WIDESPREAD PANIC
EVERYDAY
1993 – CAPRICORN / WARNER BROS.
Produced By JOHN KEANE & JOHNNY SANDLIN
1. Pleas
2. Hatfield
3. Wondering
4. Papa’s Home
5. Diner
6. Better Off
7. Pickin’ Up The Pieces
8. Henry Parsons Died
9. Pilgrims
10. Postcard
11. Dream Song
Widespread Panic formed in the mid eighties, and has gained an ever growing reputation as a live band. They are seen as the heirs to the jam band throne left open by the Grateful Dead, and hold records for most sold out shows at more than one major venue. Forty years into their career, they appear to be an unstoppable force. They also do release albums…but it’s pretty clear that albums are not where this band concentrates their energies. In forty years, Panic has released just thirteen studio records, none of which has ever been a big seller, and none of which are considered to be great. Everyday is their third album, and is basically interchangeable with the rest of their recorded output. Their records are not bad, but it’s pretty clear that they are not the main focus of the band. Despite not having a great recorded legacy, this band does just fine.
Really, the thing that stands out the most on Everyday is the cover photo, which features a not yet famous Angelina Jolie. The band plays very well, but the songs themselves are average at best. Nothing here will grab your attention: also, nothing will make you jump up and skip to the next track. Widespread Panic and their many fans are okay with this…after all, it’s their live shows that set them apart from everyone else. Everyday does feature original lead guitarist Michael Houser, who passed away in 2002, and drummer Todd Nance, who also died in 2020. Their Southern jam rock style is on full display here, and Everyday is a fan favorite, but the truth is that if you want to experience what Widespread Panic is really all about, you should buy a ticket and go see them live. Albums like Everyday are okay, but they are also pretty much an afterthought.
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ROBIN & LINDA WILLIAMS
IN THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS
2000 – SUGAR HILL
Produced By KEVIN MCNOLDY
1. The Hard Country
2. So It Go
3. Rumble
4. Sometime Tomorrow
5. So Long, See You Tomorrow
6. Bar Band In Hillbilly Heaven
7. Allow It
8. This Is The Real Thing
9. The Perfect Country Song
10. Some Peculiar Beast
11. Cold, Cold Heart
12. In The Company Of Strangers
Robin & Linda Williams may not be household names by any means, but they have put together a pretty nice career and life together. This married couple released their first album together in 1975, and they’ve been going strong ever since. Although they haven’t released an album since 2021, they have a new one coming out soon. They are also still playing live, mostly on the east coast. In The Company Of Strangers is the Williams’ fourteenth album, and their second to last on Sugar Hill Records. There aren’t any hits here…there never are. What you get is solid country folk music played and sung by people who truly love what they do…and that’s worth quite a bit. This album did make the top ten on Gavin’s Americana chart, and includes a few interesting guest musicians, including Mary Chapin Carpenter and Tim O’Brien.
This is salt of the earth, real Americana music, without the trappings or expectations of fame. Robin and Linda never made it big, and because of that, no one would have blamed them if they had packed it in a long time ago. Thankfully, they chose not to. The message here is do what you love, and do it for as long as you love it. Let fine songs like “Allow It” find a bit of space in your life…these records by this pair are filled with nice little surprise gems of songs that will make you smile. And while you listen to albums like In The Company Of Strangers, remember that for every famous artist you love, there are thousands more who are just as good and maybe better, who never got that one big break and made it big. This album isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t have all the shiny accessories that major label disc are adorned with, but it’s satisfying just the same.
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DWIGHT YOAKAM
TOMORROW’S SOUNDS TODAY
2000 – REPRISE
Produced By PETE ANDERSON
1. Love Caught Up To Me
2. What Do You Know About Love
3. Time Spent Missing You
4. Free To Go
5. A Promise You Can’t Keep
6. A Place To Cry
7. The Sad Side Of Town
8. Dreams Of Clay
9. For Love’s Sake
10. The Heartaches Are Free
11. A World Of Blue
12. I Want You To Want Me
13. Alright, I’m Wrong
14. I Was There
In 2000, Dwight Yoakam had slipped into a place where his acting career was taking priority over his music career. So while he was concentrating on minor film roles, his music took a temporary back seat. At the center of this time for Yoakam was his final album for Reprise, Tomorrow’s Sounds Today. It’s not nearly as futuristic as the title of his eleventh album suggests…if anything, this was Yoakam treading some water. There are some definite high points here, but it seems to be missing that level of energy and songwriting that had made Yoakam one of the brightest lights in country music. These problems were fortunately temporary, but they are evident here. This is Yoakam at a time when his commercial appeal was at a low point, a snapshot of an artist distracted and not at his very best.
The album is an odd one. Yoakam wrote the first twelve songs, but none of the last three. “What Do You Know About Love” is the best song here. A minor hit was the surprising Cheap Trick cover of “I Want You To Want Me”, coming on the heels of the more successful Queen cover of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. And the last two tracks are duets with the great Buck Owens. Long time producer Pete Anderson plays some mean guitar on the album, and guests like Chris Hillman, Flaco Jimenez and Jim Lauderdale are definite pluses. Yoakam’s writing brings to mind Hank Williams Sr., with plenty of songs about broken hearts and bad choices. This isn’t a bad album, but Yoakam has done so much better than this, both before and after. If you’re going to skip one of his records, this might just be the one.
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