NEIL YOUNG
UNPLUGGED
1993 – REPRISE
Produced By DAVID BRIGGS
1. The Old Laughing Lady
2. Mr. Soul
3. World On A String
4. Pocahontas
5. Stringman
6. Like A Hurricane
7. The Needle And The Damage Done
8. Helpless
9. Harvest Moon
10. Transformer Man
11. Unknown Legend
12. Look Out For My Love
13. Long May You Run
14. From Hank To Hendrix
A big part of what was great about MTV’s Unplugged series was that it showcased electric artists in an unfamiliar and intimate acoustic setting. Neil Young, however, has spent a large portion of his life unplugged. So, this wasn’t really a new and different thing for him. Or for us. On the positive side, Neil did not simply mail in a greatest hits show for the MTV audience. Yes, there are hits here. But except for a four song run in the middle, these are surprisingly deep cuts. The first half is Neil solo, and he’s joined by an acoustic band (led by Nils Lofgren) for the second half. The stage is set for a great show and a great album, but unfortunately, that’s not what happened here. Instead, this album comes off sounding stiff and uninspired.
A big reason for the tension was that Young was unhappy with the performance of his band. Too bad, because there are some great song choices here: “Pocahontas”, “Long May You Run” and “Look Out For My Love” could have been fine live choices. “Stringman” was a previously unreleased song from his Chrome Dreams project. But the second half is Harvest Moon heavy, with a trio of songs from that album, and a strange choice with “Transformer Man”, from his weird 1982 electronic album Trans. What we learn here is that Crazy Horse exists in the Neil Young world for good reason, and that not everyone got a positive benefit from the MTV Unplugged treatment. This is an overrated and strange Neil Young release. Pick pretty much any of his other live albums over this one.
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EARTH, WIND & FIRE
GREATEST HITS
1998 – COLUMBIA / LEGACY
Produced By MAURICE WHITE, AL MCKAY, CHARLES STEPNET & JOSEPH WISSERT
1. Shining Star
2. That’s The Way Of The World
3. September
4. Can’t Hide Love
5. Got To Get You Into My Life
6. Sing A Song
7. Gratitude
8. Serpentine Fire
9. Fantasy
10. Kalimba Story
11. Mighty Mighty
12. Reasons
13. Saturday Nite
14. Let’s Groove
15. Boogie Wonderland
16. After The Love Is Gone
17. Getaway
The value of this collection depends on how much Earth, Wind & Fire you want to own. Between 1973 and 1981, this R&B band was a highly successful hit machine. Their hitmaking prowess ended at the dawn of the eighties, a period which included a four year hiatus. Since coming back, the hits have been absent. But for eight years, they were on top. So…how much do you need? The definitive EWF collection has always been the 1978 monster The Best Of Vol. 1. It’s got ten tracks, all of them essential. It’s a lean and perfect collection, without a single weaker track. Since then, it seems as though there’s a new EWF compilation every couple of years. Some are single discs, some have two. But there’s only so much here that’s truly important.
So, why this one? Greatest Hits came out in 1998, and it contains seventeen tracks…seven more than Best Of Vol. 1. All but one of the songs is on the earlier collection (“Love Music”). And there’s nothing released after 1981, because, well, the quality of the songs dipped after that. The important songs are on both: “Shining Star”, “Sing A Song”, “Got To Get You Into My Life”. The one song here that isn’t on Best Of that’s at that same level is 1979’s “Boogie Wonderland”, a collaboration with The Emotions. Greatest Hits does give you a glimpse at their lesser singles, but not at much between the two decades after the release of Best Of. If you’re a fan, this may be a better option, but realistically, there hasn’t been a better compilation for EWF than Best Of. Stick with that one.
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ELTON JOHN
BREAKING HEARTS
1984 – ROCKET
Produced By CHRIS THOMAS
1. Restless
2. Slow Down Georgie (She’s Poison)
3. Who Wears These Shoes?
4. Breaking Hearts (Ain’t What It Used To Be)
5. Li’l Frigerator
6. Passengers
7. In Neon
8. Burning Buildings
9. Did He Shoot Her?
10. Sad Songs (Say So Much)
Elton John has soldiered on through increasingly lean times, remaining a huge star based on his mostly excellent output from the seventies. His run of big hits had begun to thin out as the eighties progressed, as did the overall quality of his albums. That’s understandable…unless your name is Bob Dylan, it’s not easy to maintain an upper level of songwriting excellence. Breaking Hearts is Elton’s eighteenth album, and it marks a new low for him. The star performers are here: Bernie Taupin provides the lyrics, and his classic band from the seventies are all present and accounted for. But this was not the same Elton John from just a decade earlier. This version sounds tired, the songs lack that creative and emotional punch, and as a result, this record falls flat.
The exception is the closer. “Sad Songs (Say So Much)” is one of his biggest hits, and has an energy that is woefully missing on the rest of the album. Which is disappointing, especially given that his previous release (1983’s Too Low For Zero) had shown so much promise. Outside of the excellent “Sad Songs”, “Passengers” shows signs of life, while “In Neon” and the wonderfully titled “Breaking Hearts (Ain’t What It Used To Be)” are pretty good. The rest of Breaking Hearts sounds like a superstar and his great band going through the motions on material that is far below par. As proof…outside of “Sad Songs”, Elton has never played another song from this album live since the Breaking Hearts tour. This one is sadly a flat tire of an album. You can find the hit in better places than this. I’d skip this one.
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ELBOW
BUILD A ROCKET BOYS!
2011 – FICTION / POLYDOR
Produced By CRAIG POTTER & ELBOW
1. The Birds
2. Lippy Kids
3. With Love
4. Neat Little Rows
5. Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl
6. The Night Will Always Win
7. High Ideals
8. The River
9. Open Arms
10. The Birds (Reprise)
11. Dear Friends
Elbow is yet another fine English band that never caught on in America. Their successes have been on the album front: this is, with very few exceptions, not a singles band. Elbow peaked in 2008, with the release of their fourth album, the exceptional The Seldom Seen Kid. Build A Rocket Boys! Is the follow up to that record, and it’s easily Elbow’s second best effort. This is rock with an introverted and sad turn, and the nostalgic themes of this record are satisfying. There’s nothing as immediate and attention grabbing as their biggest hit (from The Seldom Seen Kid) “One Day Like This”, but that’s okay. Again…hit singles are not Elbow’s forte. The centerpiece of this album is “Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl”, a spacious and minimal track that sets the mood for the rest of the record.
Singer and songwriter Guy Garvey has had his lyrics been compared to Peter Gabriel, who Garvey spent time consulting with during the making of this album. The better songs here…”Dear Friends”, the first single “Neat Little Rows”, “Open Arms”, and especially “Lippy Kids”, will win you over. “The Birds” opens the album at eight minutes, but it’s not a long eight minutes. The best thing about Elbow, and Build A Rocket Boys!, is that they are always interesting. Six of the eleven tracks feature a youth chorus, and many also feature strings. Since this album, their sales have slipped, but they have remained popular in England and have done okay in the rest of Europe. It’s too bad they have never caught on in America, though. This is a good album, well worth the time.
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THE ELECTRIC PRUNES
MASS IN F MINOR
1967 – REPRISE
Produced By DAVID HASSINGER
1. Kyrie Eleison
2. Gloria
3. Credo
4. Sanctus
5. Benedictus
6. Agnus Dei
7. Hey Mr. President
8. Flowing Smoothly
We’ll just file this one under Bad Ideas In Rock Music. The Electric Prunes were a struggling American psychedelic band that had one successful single (“I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)”), and was struggling to find real commercial success. The band’s management decided it would be a good idea to bring in David Axelrod to write a psychedelic rock religious mass to be sung in Greek and Latin for them to record as their third album. Problem was, this was a garage band that couldn’t even read music, much less pull off something of this scale. The result? The band played on only three of the six tracks, with studio musicians having to be brought in to finish it. The Prunes themselves broke up during the recording, and Mass In F Minor became a rock and roll curiosity, and not much more.
A new version of the band was formed (which briefly included Kenny Loggins), but a follow up album that was a psychedelic rock Jewish prayer (also by Axelrod) was a failure, and the Prunes made one more normal record (which also failed) before breaking up again in 1970. As for Mass In F Minor, this is just weird, and thankfully short at just 26 minutes. It has endured as a strange Psychedelic relic, and not much more than that. Axelrod had an interesting career as a solo artist, fusing rock, jazz & R&B with strange literary concepts. The Prunes reformed in 1999, and continue today, although there are no remaining original members. The CD bonus tracks here are both sides of a 1969 single that failed to chart. A strange album, and one that isn’t really essential at all.
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Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
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