ACCEPT
STAYING A LIFE
1990-EPIC
Produced By STEFAN KAUFMANN
1. Metal Heart
2. Breaker
3. Screaming For A Love Bite
4. Up To The Limit
5. Living For Tonight
6. Princess Of the Dawn
7. Guitar Solo Wolf
8. Restless And Wild
9. Son Of A Bitch
10. London Leatherboys
11. Love Child
12. Flash Rockin' Man
13. Dogs On Leads
14. Fast As A Shark
15. Balls To The Wall
Ronnie James Dio may be the king of all rock & roll little guys...but don't sleep on Accept's former lead singer, Udo Dirkschneider. He's a tiny guy with a big metal voice. And Accept is one of those rarities from the 80's...a metal band without a single power ballad in sight! Glory BE!
Staying A Life is a live album recorded in Japan in 1985. It's heavy, it's fast, it's all rock & roll. The band strangely recorded all of their songs in English, even though it's evident that it's not their native language. But the power of this German band shines through here...even through an encore performance of 10 minutes worth of "Balls To The Wall". This may be the best way to experience one of the best and heaviest bands of the 80's. A truly heavy rock document. It does run a bit too long, but it's mostly worth it.
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The Soup Dragons were an unheard band in the mid 80's, until the Manchester bands Happy Mondays, Jesus Jones and The Stone Roses came around and made everyone relevant for a moment. The Soup Dragon's moment in the sun came on Love God, the album before this one. Hotwired is an inconsistent effort, but it's worthwhile for the great track "Divine Thing".
The Dragons eventually drifted back to Scotland, and their lead singer Sean Dickson tried to carry on the group without the rest of the band. It didn't work. But back in the early 90's, this band's mix of loud guitars and jangly songs worked pretty well. Nothing great here, but not too bad, either.
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DOUG SAHM
JUKE BOX MUSIC
1988-TMG
Produced by GEORGE RAINS
1. I Won't Cry
2. Money Over Love
3. Crazy Baby
4. You're Mine Tonight
5. Hey Little Girl
6. It Hurts To Love Somebody
7. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz
8. My Dearest Darling
9. She Put The Hurt On Me
10. What's Your Name
11. I Don't Believe
12. Golly Gee
13. The Chicken And The Bop
14. Talk To me
15. Goodnigh My Love
Doug Sahm may be best known for his time in the Sir Douglas Quintet from the late 60's. Juke Box Music is a set of great Texas soul tunes (mostly covers) that is inches away from indespensible. This band tears through several classic tunes with enough swagger to melt butter. "Talk To Me" is the highlight, but Sahm is all over every song here.
The album is available as an excellent twofer with The Last Real Texas Blues Band. Both are worthwhile, especially for the price.
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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
TUNNEL OF LOVE
1987-COLUMBIA
Produced By BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, JON LANDAU & CHUCK PLOTKIN
1. Ain't Got You
2. Tougher Than The Rest
3. All That Heaven Will Allow
4. Spare Parts
5. Cautious Man
6. Walk Like A Man
7. Tunnel Of Love
8. Two Faces
9. Brilliant Disguise
10. One Step Up
11. When You're Alone
12. Valentine's Day
Tunnel Of Love is easily the most underappreciated of Bruce Springsteen's albums. Maybe because it wasn't Born In The USA 2. Maybe because it was at a time of big change for Springsteen. Maybe because it's a bare, almost mellow album. For whatever reason, it's slipped under the radar for years. The truth is, it's a great album, and a big change from the E Street Band records of the 70's and 80's. It's a sparse, emotional album. "Spare Parts" and "Brilliant Disguise" rock, but in an understated way. Lyrically, Bruce is dead on...still.
After Tunnel Of Love, Bruce got a divorce, moved to LA, and dropped out of sight for 5 years. And Tunnel was written off as a disappointment. Check again. This is a terrific album, and deserves to be revisited. A much better work than people seem to remember it as.
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FUNKADELIC
THE ELECTRIC SPANKING OF WAR BABIES
1980-PRIORITY
Produced By GEORGE CLINTON & WALTER MORRISON
1. Electric Spanking Of War Babies
2. Electro-Cuties
3. Funk Gets Stronger (Part 1)
4. Brettino's Bounce
5. Funk Gets Stronger- She Loves You
6. Shockwaves
7. Oh, I
8. Icka Prick
George Clinton is the man, the bomb, and the shit. All rolled into one. Except for here. Something bad must have happened to George Clinton, the funkiest man on the planet, in 1980. Because The Electric Spanking Of War Babies is easily the most unfunky Funkadelic album ever made. It's clunky, it's jamless, it's not even funny. It's still better than a lot of bad 70's funk, but for Funkadelic, it's a bona fide clunker.
"Funk Gets Stronger" with Sly Stone is worthwhile, but the rest shows why the Funkadelic name was put to rest after this. There are literally dozens of better albums from Clinton out there. This is one to avoid.
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PAUL SIMON
THE RHYTHM OF THE SAINTS
1990-WARNER BROTHERS
Produced By PAUL SIMON
1. The Obvious Child
2. Can't Run But
3. The Coast
4. Proof
5. Further To Fl;y
6. She Moves On
7. Born At The Right Time
8. The Cool, Cool River
9. Spirit Voices
10. The Rhythm Of The Saints
This is the follow up to the Paul Simon masterpiece, Graceland. It's also a good indication as to why Simon stopped recording albums for the next decade (the really bad Songs From The Capeman aside). Saints is a great songwriter running out of songs and ideas. Very quickly. There are some good moments here..."Can't Run But", "Spirit Voices", and "The Obvious Child" are all good, but there's something that you can hear going out of Simon...his intensity, and his muse. The focus here shifts from Afican to South American music.
For a Paul Simon album, this is bad. For anyone else, it would be a minor triumph. Stick with his earlier material.
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1. Satisfied
2. Crying In My Sleep
3. Letting Go
4. The Day I Get Home
5. The Truth
6. House Of Love
7. Cupid's Toy
8. Gone To The Dogs
9. Walk A Straight Line
10. Sunday Street
11. Wicked And Cruel
12. There Is A Voice
There comes a time when all great bands run out of gas. Yes, Rolling Stones, I'm talking to you. Case in point: Squeeze. One of the more tuneful and songwriting wealthy bands of its time. If you want to hear what they sound like with the well of songwriting having dried up, pick up a copy of Play.
Difford & Tillbrook, one of rocks' better songwriting teams, show that there was not a whole lot left on the bands ninth album. Keyboardist Jools Holland was gone, but it's the writing that really shows...or doesn't. Outside of "Wicked And Cruel", there is absolutely nothing that will stick in your head. Sad for two guys who made a career out of sticking in your head. Play is pleasant enough...you won't be screaming for it to stop. You just won't really remember having just listened to it, either.
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THE BAND
GREATEST HITS
2000-CAPITOL
Produced By CHERYL PAWELSKI
1. The Weight
2. Tears Of Rage
3. Chest Fever
4. I Shall Be Released
5. Up On Cripple Creek
6. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
7. Rag Mama Rag
8. King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
9. The Shape I'm In
10. Stage Fright
11. Time To Kill
12. Life Is A Carnival
13. When I Paint My Masterpiece
14. Ain't Got No Home
15. It Makes No Difference
16. Ophelia
17. Adadian Driftwood
18. The Saga Of Pepote Rouge
If you were to reccommend a good starting point to someone who wanted to check out The Band, you'd probably start with their first two albums and just leave it at that. However, it's easy to forget that they were more than just the 2 classic albums that made them legendary. Greatest Hits (a much better option than the much earlier and spotty Best Of The Band), includes not only great selections from early on, but also later songs that were just as good, but that were lost on lesser albums. So while it's great to have Music From Big Pink and The Band, you might also want tracks like "Stage Fright", "Life Is A Carnival", and "When I Paint My Masterpice" on the same disc.
And, of course, you'll definitely want the classic "Acadian Driftwood", their best late period song. Plus great liner notes and track info...Greatest Hits is one that's worth owning. Bottom line...it's a damn fine listen.
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THE DAMBUILDERS
RUBY RED
1995-EAST/WEST
Produced By DON GEHMAN
1. Smooth Control
2. Special Ed
3. Teenage Loser Anthem
4. Drive By Kiss
5. Lazy Eye
6. Bending Machine
7. Velocidad
8. Rocket To The Moon
9. Cosmonaut
10. St. Tamarindo
11. Down
12. I Forget Myself
The Dambuilders were formed out of the ashes of the new wave band The Exactones. Coming from, of all places, Hawaii, The Dambuilders began evolving into something more than new wave. This is a terrfific sounding band with a stinging sound puctuated by the violin of Joan Wasser, who uses it less to the effect of ELO and more as a dangerous sounding weapon. In all, this was a great band that had just begun to fully realize their sound when the split in 1997.
That said, I'm going to recommend that you pass on Ruby Red, unless you are already a fan. Why? To put it simply, The Dambuilders sounds fully arrives on this record, leaving most of the songs sounding way too far behind. The songwriting would catch up...but here, it's not at a comfortable enough level. There are some great sparks..."Smooth Control" is a great song, and "Rocket To The Moon" is about as good as it gets. But there's just too much searching for the right mix here to make it all work. It sounds great, but the songs are just not there yet.
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LLOYD COLE & THE COMMOTIONS
1984-1989
1989-cAPITOL
VARIOUS PRODUCERS
1. Perfect Skin
2. Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?
3. Forest Fire
4. You Will Never Be No Good
5. Rattlesnakes
6. Perfect Blue
7. Brand New Friend
8. Cut Me Down
9. Lost Weekend
10. Her Last Fling
11. Mr. Malcontent
12. My Bag
13. Jennifer She Said
14. From The Hip
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions burst onto the college radio scene in 1984 and became stars in the UK...and went completely unnoticed in the US. Too bad for us. The band's debut album, Rattlesnakes, was a terrific piece of music. Cole, a very literate writer, threw out some of the best lyrics of the decade, and songs like "Perfect Skin" should have made them a massive hit in America. T'was not to be. 1984-89 covers the bands three albums up to their 1989 breakup. And while it does get a little thin in spots, particularly the Rattlesnakes era songs give a good indication of what we were missing out on.
Cole split the band and has been going at it solo ever since...and has still not cracked America. The Commotions were a great and obscure piece of the 80's. And no one else but Lloyd Cole could pull off "She's got cheeks like geometry and eyes like sin". Nice.
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