AGENT ORANGE
LIVING IN DARKNESS
1981 – POSH BOY
Produced By DANIEL VANPATTEN
1. Too Young To Die
2. Everything Turns Grey
3. Miserlou
4. The Last Goodbye
5. No Such Thing
6. A Cry For Help In A World Gone Mad
7. Bloodstains
8. Living In Darkness
Don’t blink, or you might miss this one. The debut release by Agent Orange was more like an EP, but I have never seen it classified as anything but a full LP release. If it was not sold as an EP, then there would have been, I would think, some unhappy buyers back in 1981. Because Living In Darkness clocks in at under 20 minutes. There was a 1992 CD re-release that has 16 tracks instead of just the original 8…but this version, which came out in 2012, has just 8. What a ripoff! However…the music here is really very good. Agent Orange had just been signed to Posh Boy Records, and they instantly became big on the American punk scene. They had more material…the songs “America”, “El Dorado” and “Bored Of You” had gotten them signed, but weren’t on the album. It would have been much better with those tracks included.
Even so, Living In Darkness is pretty great. “Bloodstains” was their best early track. They were very into surf rock as well, and recorded three instrumental covers (only “Miserlou” made it here). These songs are fast and fun, leading this to be named one of the best skate punk albums of all time. It then became kind of legendary, as Agent Orange waited a full five years before releasing the follow up, This Is The Voice. This album is great from start to finish, almost perfect in every way…and woefully way too short. Making this one of the few times that I will recommend a version with bonus tracks over the original. That 1992 release (also on Posh Boy) has the full album plus all of their important tracks from their earliest days. Get that version: this one is simply too skimpy.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
AGENT ORANGE
LIVING IN DARKNESS
1981 – POSH BOY
Produced By DANIEL VANPATTEN
1. Too Young To Die
2. Everything Turns Grey
3. Miserlou
4. The Last Goodbye
5. No Such Thing
6. A Cry For Help In A World Gone Mad
7. Bloodstains
8. Living In Darkness
Don’t blink, or you might miss this one. The debut release by Agent Orange was more like an EP, but I have never seen it classified as anything but a full LP release. If it was not sold as an EP, then there would have been, I would think, some unhappy buyers back in 1981. Because Living In Darkness clocks in at under 20 minutes. There was a 1992 CD re-release that has 16 tracks instead of just the original 8…but this version, which came out in 2012, has just 8. What a ripoff! However…the music here is really very good. Agent Orange had just been signed to Posh Boy Records, and they instantly became big on the American punk scene. They had more material…the songs “America”, “El Dorado” and “Bored Of You” had gotten them signed, but weren’t on the album. It would have been much better with those tracks included.
Even so, Living In Darkness is pretty great. “Bloodstains” was their best early track. They were very into surf rock as well, and recorded three instrumental covers (only “Miserlou” made it here). These songs are fast and fun, leading this to be named one of the best skate punk albums of all time. It then became kind of legendary, as Agent Orange waited a full five years before releasing the follow up, This Is The Voice. This album is great from start to finish, almost perfect in every way…and woefully way too short. Making this one of the few times that I will recommend a version with bonus tracks over the original. That 1992 release (also on Posh Boy) has the full album plus all of their important tracks from their earliest days. Get that version: this one is simply too skimpy.
RIHANNA
LOUD
2010 – DEF JAM
Produced By ALEX DA KID, C. “TRICKY” STEWART, ESTER DEAN, MEL& MUS, POLOW DA DON, THE RUNNERS, SANDY VEE, SHAM, SOUNDZ & STARGATE
1. S&M
2. What’s My Name? (Feat. Drake)
3. Cheers (Drink To That)
4. Fading
5. Only Girl (In The World)
6. California King Bed
7. Man Down
8. Raining Men (Feat. Nicki Minaj)
9. Complicated
10. Skin
11. Love The Way You Lie (Part II) (Feat. Eminem)
Rihanna is an artist who lives outside of my comfort zone. Meaning that taking the genre of dance pop seriously is still relatively new to me. Loud is her fifth album. It’s gone many times Platinum, with over 8 million sold worldwide as of 2011. It won a ton of awards, and has been critically acclaimed. Seven singles were released from the album. So, is it that good? Well, it’s a lot better than the ten years ago me ever thought it would be. There’s a lot going on here, and to Rihanna’s credit, she is not a one trick pony. Maybe the biggest downside to Loud is that there seem to be too many hands in the production process, which keeps the songs from sounding united and like they all belong on the same album together. But ultimately, that doesn’t kill the record.
She keeps the features to a minimum, and the three she does use are excellent. Drake fits perfectly on “What’s My Name”, and Nicki Minaj on “Raining Men” is great. The best is Eminem, who steals the show on “Love The Way You Lie (Part II) with an awesome psycho performance. There are big guitars (“California King Bed” and “Skin”), and solid and confident vocals from Rihanna throughout. She was on a roll at this time, in the midst of dropping 7 albums in 8 years. Over the last decade, she’s been doing more acting than singing, although she did perform at halftime during Super Bowl LVII. Just one single in the last 7 years, though. Loud, while not perfect, is a good showcase for Rihanna’s talents as a singer. It’s worth listening to…you may be surprised at how good a lot of this is.
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KILLING JOKE
NIGHT TIME
1985 – E.G.
Produced By KILLING JOKE & CHRIS KIMSEY
1. Night Time
2. Darkness Before Dawn
3. Love Like Blood
4. Kings And Queens
5. Tabazan
6. Multitudes
7. Europe
8. Eighties
I still have a hard time with the fact that so much of what Killing Joke accomplished was in the eighties. Because, to me, they sound so much more like a nineties band. Night Time was their big breakthrough, and yes, it sounds more like 1995 than 1985. Their first record came out in 1980, and by the release of Night Time, they were really, really good. Three songs make this album stand out. “Love Like Blood” turned people’s heads and got them noticed in countries outside of their native UK. Even better? “Kings And Queens”, which wasn’t as big, but it sure is terrific. It’s a relentless and powerful song, heavy to the core and endlessly catchy. Even better? “Eighties” was the lead single, a nonstop dancefloor monster with a highly political music video. Quite the trifecta.
Nothing else on Night Time reaches the heights of those three songs, but that’s okay. Killing Joke was rocking as hard as anyone in 1985. Unfortunately, this is another UK band that Americans missed the boat on, but it’s never too late, right? Night Time gained more traction in 1992, when the very similar to “Eighties” Nirvana song “Come As You Are” became a hit. Killing Joke has always been a fine band, even though their sound has evolved a lot over the years. They’ve released fifteen albums, although none since 2015. The best two remain their self titled debut and Night Time. Those three songs are as good as anything the eighties had to offer…and that’s saying quite a lot. Killing Joke deserve to be better known here in America, for sure.
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TALK TALK
IT’S MY LIFE
1984 – EMI AMERICA
Produced By TIM FRIESE-GREENE
1. Dum Dum Girl
2. Such A Shame
3. Renee
4. It’s My Life
5. Tomorrow Started
6. The Last Time
7. Call In The Night Boy
8. Does Caroline Know?
9. It’s You
Before disbanding in 1991, Talk Talk made three stunning and beautiful art rock masterpieces that are still important and vital to this day. But before that, Talk Talk began life as a British New Wave synth pop band. They came out of the gates with the hit “Talk Talk” in 1982 (from The Party’s Over), and again in 1984 with the title track from It’s My Life. There were a few minor UK hits, but in America, those two songs were all we really got from this band. It’s My Life hung in the middle of the pack that year, with the song getting plenty of airplay on both radio and MTV. After that, they became a different band altogether, gaining a good following in the UK, and falling completely out of the public eye in America (which happens a lot, I am learning).
That title track is hard to ignore. The swirling melodies of both the synthesizers and the vocals of Mark Hollis are pretty irresistible, making it one of the more likeable New Wave hits from the first half of the eighties. The rest of It’s My Life falls off quite a bit, though “Dum Dum Girl” and “Such A Shame” are not bad. It’s also interesting in that the seeds of their musical change of direction are definitely here…the idea just isn’t fully realized yet. But just two years later, The Colour Of Spring became an experimental gem with almost no synthesizers and the beginnings of a more improvisational style. It’s My Life is what it is. It’s a somewhat bland New Wave record with one really great hit by a band that wanted to do more than just be MTV darlings. And, if just for a short time, they did succeed. Good for them.
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JACKSON BROWNE
HOLD OUT
1980- ASYLUM
Produced By JACKSON BROWNE & GREG LADANYI
1. Disco Apocalypse
2. Hold Out
3. That Girl Could Sing
4. Boulevard
5. Of Missing Persons
6. Call It A Loan
7. Hold On Hold Out
Jackson Browne owned the decade of the seventies. Pure and simple. His five albums from 1972-1979 were among the best of their time. His songwriting was mature and smart, and he sang for all of us. That all began to change at the dawn of the eighties, a decade which Browne did not own at all. Hold Out, his sixth album, was the highly anticipated follow up to the massively successful and slyly crafted live album Running On Empty. And initially, it looked like Browne was going to just keep rolling right along. Hold Out leaped out and became his only album to reach number one on the Billboard charts, and it contained a pair of radio ready rocking singles in “That Girl Could Sing” and “Boulevard”. Jackson appeared ready to celebrate yet another triumphant album.
But that was not the case. Because outside of the pair of hits, Hold Out was uncharacteristically lacking in the things that had made Browne such a winning artist in the seventies. These songs seemed emotionally…empty. It appeared that he was losing touch with that emotional wave he had been riding. It looked like Jackson’s muse was beginning to fade. The best song here, outside of the 2 hits, is “Of Missing Persons”, written about his late friend Lowell George of Little Feat. The rest of the songs here, from the unfortunate “Disco Apocalypse” to the puzzling and dull eight minute closer “Hold On Hold Out” simply do not work. Browne would have a couple of hits on his next album, then he would fade into writing politically charged rants that alienated just about his entire fan base. Hold Out is a disappointing end of a great run.
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CHRIS KNIGHT
THE TRAILER TAPES
2007 – THIRTY TIGERS
Produced By FRANK LIDDELL & JOE HAYDEN
1. Backwater Blues
2. Something Changed
3. Rita’s Only Fault
4. Spike Drivin’ Blues
5. Move On
6. Hard Edges
7. Here Comes The Rain
8. Leaving Souvenirs
9. House And 90 Acres
10. If I Were You
11. My Only Prayer
Chris Knight is a country gem. A songwriter who really gets what the music means, and a throwback to when the music of the south was much more pure. He was almost 40 years old when his self titled debut album was released, and his star has continued to grow. But before making it, he had recorded a series of demo tapes that he self released in small quantities, and which were later bootlegged. Those demo tapes were assembled in 2007 and officially released as The Trailer Tapes. The title comes from where the tapes originated…he lived in a trailer on a remote plot of land in his home town of Slaughters, Kentucky when he made the recordings. When this was released, Knight had four albums out, but this was a new experience. The Trailer Tapes is as interesting an album as you will ever find. It’s pretty much the country music Nebraska. Just a man and his voice and one guitar and a tape machine. That’s it.
In order for an album like this to work, just like the Springsteen album mentioned above, it has to have songs. Worry not, because that’s what Chris Knight is made of. Two of these were reworked for his debut album: “Something Changed” and the excellent “House And 90 Acres”. Also of note are “Rita’s Only Fault”, “Hard Edges”, and “Here Comes The Rain”. These may be simple demo recordings, but you can hear what a complete writer and performer Knight was at this point. You can understand why there was always a demand for these tracks. It’s because Knight is just that good. His other albums are fleshed out with full band arrangements, but the intimate and simplified recordings of The Trailer Tapes are indeed something special. Definitely worth seeking this one out.
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EUROPE
THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
1986 – EPIC
Produced By KEVIN ELSON
1. The Final Countdown
2. Rock The Night
3. Carrie
4. Danger On The Track
5. Ninja
6. Cherokee
7. Time Has Come
8. Heart Of Stone
9. On The Loose
10. Love Chaser
11. The Final Countdown (Live)
12. Danger On The Track (Live)
13. Carrie (Live)
It used to be a theory that the bigger the continent a band named themselves after, the worse they were. America had a lot of hits, but even more forgettable music. Asia was bigger, and more bombastic. But consider that the continent of Europe includes the massive land mass of the former Soviet Union. I am not familiar with ten of this Swedish band’s eleven studio albums, except that they remain to this day huge stars in their native country. What I am familiar with is their most famous album, their third. The Final Countdown made them worldwide stars (for the moment) with their brand of over-bloated rock, the kind which had killed off many a seventies band. That Europe’s star faded throughout most of the world after this record is a good thing.
The Final Countdown is loaded with the worst of eighties keyboards, especially on the moronic title track. From there, of course, we’re gonna “Rock The Night”. Til when? Til the morning light, of course. Which leads directly to the required power ballad with zero substance but lots of trying to sound sincere, “Carrie”. It never gets better, including their laughable take on Native American history (?????), “Cherokee”, which came with a really bad video of the Swedish metal band in full 80’s glam wear (and all their instruments) hanging out with a native tribe in the middle of the desert, presumably sometime in the 1800’s. Marching on the Trail Of Tears, you know. And, as a bonus, this particular version includes three live bonus tracks. Trite, predictable, and honestly not very good. I suggest passing on and avoiding this at all costs.
Love your assessment of The Final Countdown!
One nit to pick though.... the majority of the former Soviet Union (and today's Russia along with some former Soviet republics, namely all the 'stans) is considered to be on the Asian continent (the Ural Mountains generally considered to be the dividing line). Asia is much larger than Europe.
Sorry, I'm a hopeless geography nerd.
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
I will give you that. I just always remembered the Soviet Union being referred to as Eastern Europe. My bad for not looking closer!
BTW...are you familiar with the book Terrible Maps? It's comedy perfection for geography nerds!
Never heard of it. Sounds like fun though. I'll scare up a copy. Thanks for the rec.
PETER, PAUL & MARY
1962 – WARNER BROS.
Produced By ALBERT GROSSMAN
1. Early In The Morning
2. 500 Miles
3. Sorrow
4. This Train
5. Bamboo
6. It’s Raining
7. If I Had My Way
8. Cruel War
9. Lemon Tree
10. If I Had A Hammer
11. Autumn To May
12. Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
Before Bob Dylan became the biggest thing in American music, the Greenwich Village folk scene was very much up and coming. In 1961, Albert Grossman assembled Peter, Paul & Mary, a likeable and talented trio that helped shape the landscape of American popular music throughout the decade of the sixties. Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers released their self titled debut album in 1962, two months after Dylan released his. This was easily the bigger hit. Much of the record features upbeat arrangements, great 3 part harmonies, and a nice stockpile of folk standards. There are a trio of Stookey-Yarrow originals, as well as songs by Pete Seeger, Dave Van Ronk and The Rev. Gary Davis. No Dylan. Not yet. That came later.
Their breakthrough hit was “Lemon Tree”, which sounds horribly dated today. But “500 Miles” is beautifully done, and the two Seeger songs, “If I Had A Hammer” and “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” suit the trio perfectly. They were a great fit vocally, and the sparse acoustic guitar arrangements work well. And while this trio sang songs that were important, they also came across as just pop enough to sell a boatload of records. Not all of this has aged well, but enough of it has to keep it as a still important record. American folk music of the early sixties was kept relevant by folks like Dylan and Van Ronk and Phil Ochs…and by Peter, Paul And Mary. Enjoy these songs, and enjoy the vocal gifts that these three brought to the table.
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SANTANA
ABRAXAS
1970 – COLUMBIA
Produced By FRED CATERO & CARLOS SANTANA
1. Singing Words, Crying Beasts
2. Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen
3. Oye Como Va
4. Incident At Neshabur
5. Se A Cabo
6. Mother’s Daughter
7. Samba Pa Ti
8. Hope You’re Feeling Better
9. El Nicoya
Santana had quite the career launching. They played Woodstock without even having released an album. Their self titled effort was a big hit, and so the pressure was on to follow it up in 1970. Santana did not disappoint. Abraxas, their second album, would be their biggest seller for almost three decades until their 1999 release Supernatural. Abraxas proved that their mix of Latin flavored jams and an ability to create hits was no fluke, and Carlos Santana’s reputation as a guitar hero continued to grow. But it was the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Black Magic Woman” that put them completely over the top. And pairing the Peter Green song with the blazing Gabor Szabo instrumental “Gypsy Queen” proved to be a genius move. The track is still a staple of rock radio to this day, and is the best known song by both Green and Santana.
But that’s not all that this record boasts. Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va” was also a sizable hit…pretty good for not being in English. Greg Rolie’s “Hope You’re Feeling Better” and Santana’s perfect “Samba Pa Ti” (one of four instrumentals here) all make this a perfect record. They would make one more album in this vein (Santana III, which was the debut of Neil Schon) before moving into the world of jazz fusion. Schon and Rolie would go on to form Journey, while Santana has never stopped making music. But those first three records from that original lineup remain stunning to this day. All three are highly recommended must haves, showcasing not just what a great band it was, but also how powerful a guitarist Santana was right out of the gate.
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