ITT: /mu/ in 1973
>>131094227and so ends the era of LSD and protesting and begins the era of Quaaludes and polyester suits
With its barstool-macho equation of gunslinger and guitarschlonger, its on-the-road misogyny, its playing-card metaphors, and its paucity of decent songs, this soundtrack to an imaginary Sam Peckinpah movie is "concept" at its most mindless. I don't know, fellas, how do ya "tell the dancer from the dance"? Have to get people off their asses first. C
>>131094350I fuckin' hate the Eagles, man.
He kinda fell off ngl
>>131094381This had another, different singer who wasn't Kevin Cronin (he came back for the next album)
>>131094227Biggest Band in the Landhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1S-GT4jhNcThank God for Dickey
At least half the white kids who grow up in Manhattan are well off and moderately arty, like Carly Simon and John Paul Hammond. It takes brats from the outer boroughs to capture the oppressive excitement Manhattan holds for a half-formed human being the way these guys do. The careening screech of their music was first heard in the Cooper Union station of the Lexington IRT, and they don't stop there. Mixing early-'60s popsong savvy with late-'60s fast-metal anarchy, they seek love l-u-v from trash and bad girls. They go looking for a kiss among the personality crises. And they wonder whether you could make it with Frankenstein. A+
An obvious one here.
This one opens with "Gimme Your Money, Please", about a mugging rather than the group's artistic ambitions. Pretty soon I started noticing all the usual metal moves but found myself enjoying the rest of the side, anyway--it may have been simple-minded but it was fast. Wonder if they take checks? B
>>131094227IMPEACH NIXON
Welcome back, Kotter?
This is no desperate throwaway or quickie live album. Loud and dense but never heavy, singing with riffs concocted from the simplest harmonic components, it's squarely country, yet it never hints at nouveau-rockabilly good times. The opener, "Don't Be Denied," is an anthem of encouragement to young hopefuls everywhere that doesn't shrink from laying open fame and its discontents. And the finale, "Last Dance," evokes the day-job hassles that pay for Neil Young tickets, suggests alternatively that "you can live your own life," and then climaxes in a coda comprising dozens of "no"s wailed over a repetitive back-riff. It must have been strange to watch fans boogieing slowly to this mournful epiphany. But with the Stray Gators (driven by ex-Turtle Johnny Barbata instead of ex-Dylanite Kenny Buttrey) doing as much for Young's brooding, wacked-out originality as Crazy Horse ever did, it sure is exciting to hear. A
Still on an indie label at this point.
>>131094443ugh, so overrated by critics
If you call this living. Harrison sings as if he's doing sitar impressions, and four different people, including a little man in my head who I never noticed before, have expressed intense gratitude when I turned the damned thing off during "Be Here Now." Inspirational sentiment: "the leaders of nations/They're acting like big girls." C
>>131094615https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IdDXD0GebIThis Kris Kristofferson tune produced her last Billboard pop charts appearance, by this point she was only really on country radio.
>>131094727No one cares about 60s AJ McLean and his Indian mysticism bullshit.
>>131094689That's my buddy JC on the right. Taught me to play guitar.No, I'm not joking.
It was okay. Nothing as good as Echoes on it though.
Name a more English album. You can't.
Having decided rock-and-roll was fun, a good enough idea within reason, he then determined that fun consisted not so much of energy and sex and high spirits as it did aimless whimsy and here he finally achieves disaster with that idea. The worst album yet made by a rock-and-roller of the first rank, unless David Crosby counts. D+
I paid $50 to see this band called KISS and they were only on for 30 minutes. They could barely play. I want my money back.
>>131094835also no one cares about 60s Zayn's solo projects
Is this supposed to be a rebound? Because Pete Sinfield wrote the lyrics? Because certified classical composer Alberto Ginastera (who after all gets royalties) attests to their sensitivity on the jacket? Because the production is so crystalline you can hear the gism dripping from the microphone? C-
This is clearly a Pigpen tribute album, although the Dead would never be so mundane as to put it that way. Recorded live at the Fillmore February 1970 and you had to be there. I know because I was. C+
Christ Almighty, the amount of cocksucking the music press has given Bruce Springsteen is ridiculous.
What's this? New band I think. Some wannabe Stones or something. Nobody's gonna listen to this.
>>131094507>get rec-ed some "black people react to Black Sabbath" videoNottu dissu shittu again.jpg
F
I admit that this _sounds_ real good--it's engineered clear and bright as a redwood mountain stream--but to overlook what's doing the sounding is formalism as deliberate stupidity. That is, the actual music and words are murky and dim. I suppose that in time their tongue-tied travelogue of Big Sur may seem no more escapist than "Fun Fun Fun," but who'll ever believe it's equally simple, direct, or innocent? C
>the first good piece of music outside classical and medieval peasant strumming has yet to be created
>>131095178Nobody but Europeans still cares about BB by now.
It's only 16 years until Taylor Swift is born. Enjoy it while it lasts.
In the classic folk-schlock manner, female contributors to this album (predictable exception: Bobbye Hall, here designated Miss rather than Ms) are listed by first name. Only these women aren't groupies--they're wives, and the album is dedicated to them. Well, I'm sure it sounds better on a pedestal than on a turntable. C-
>>131094369>makes a shitty covers album right afterJesus /mu/ would have killed him
>>131095405About time someone posted an album that wasn't just yteboi rockslop.
>son of the beatlesjohn lennon himself called the move's spin off THAT. insane
Offensive as I find the notion of a "girl singer" in this year of our enlightenment, something about this thirty-four-year-old woman demands the term, because her genius is to make me believe, down beneath my rational self, that she needs me. Simultaneously gushy and ladylike, she sings like the beautiful maidservant of men's vainest and most shameful fantasies--always the supplicant, always in love. Yet at the same time she manages to elicit sisterly sympathy from other women. Lambert and Potter have mixed the orchestra way too high on this record, but for these guys, who usually write banal melodies that stick so stubbornly you hate them for it, the tunes are complex and likable. Maybe that's because L&P adjusted them for a tough human being who convinced them mid-session that she wasn't just some backup chick doing a solo spot. Recommended: "Of All the Things," "The Other Side of Life." B
Those of you who forgot just why you hated S&G ought to hear what this castrati manqué does to Randy Newman's "Old Man." Is all that sweetness intended ironically? I bet Randy doesn't think so. C
>>131095491>Randy Newman mentioned yet again XD
I hear people asking when Bonnie is going to do something new, but conveying songs from Calypso Rose and Martha Reeves Vandella into the women's music of the '70s is new enough for me. I must admit, though, that neither statement is enhanced by association with the folkies whose ballads she favors--too pretty, too ordinary. A-
>>131095657oh god
In which whatever was raunchy and country about her is laundered in David Geffen's homogenizing machine, manned this time by John David Souther, who must have told her that "Sail Away" was just another pretty song. You think she's gotten so used to playing the dumb chick that she's turned into one? C+
>>131095699oh boy another Randy Newman mention
In case you're interested, this band is mucho hot among Eastern rock cognoscenti (read, know-it-alls). Very pleasant, too, although John Hall doesn't sing as tasty as he plays. The only impressive song is "Half Moon." Anything Janis Joplin used to sing is impressive, so that may not mean much. C+
Joel's Cold Spring Harbor was recorded in the vicinity of 38-rpm to fit all the material on--he's one of these eternal teenagers who doesn't know how to shut up. Stubborn little bastard, too--after his bid stiffed, he worked a Los Angeles cocktail lounge soaking up Experience. Here he poses as the Irving Berlin of narcissistic alienation, puffing up and condescending to the fantasies of fans who spend their lives by the stereo feeling sensitive. And just to remind them who's boss, he hits them with a ballad after the manner of Aaron Copland. C
Thank, well, Whomever, the "maladroited message of doom" inside the doublefold comes not from Brother Malachi but from Sir Lleb, and Whomever has rewarded the band with two definitively scary takes on sex and life in the future present--"Cosmic Slop" and "No Compute," both of which combine humor, pessimism, incantation, and baloney in convincing and unprecedented amalgams. Unfortunately, most of the rest is "interesting," including one profundo Vietnam monologue and many parodies of harmony-group usage. B
>>131095657Nadir: Remake #15 of the title song, all of them progressively worse than the original 1950 version
>>131095776>he's one of these eternal teenagers who doesn't know how to shut up>Here he poses as the Irving Berlin of narcissistic alienation, puffing up and condescending to the fantasies of fans who spend their lives by the stereo feeling sensitiveso much projection
>>131095699Another bad Geffen album.
>>131094593t. Hunter Thompson
You know how Willie Mays was the greatest baseball player ever but just can't cut it anymore? He reminds me more and more of Chuck Berry each time out. D+
>>131095079>According to Joe Perry, "The [first album] was a complete dud. It got no sales, no airplay, no reviews, nothing." This lack of any attention has been blamed on CBS's decision to expend most of their promotional budget on Bruce Springsteen instead.[3]
>>131095657https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TAA3bZbTpIThis bit of middle-aged mom ennui is alright I guess. One of the few adult/self-aware songs she ever did.
They went out on the road long enough to pick up their share of chrome (well, this sure ain't platinum), but though it must pain them to realize it, they're not machines. Or maybe it just pains them to realize that machines break down. C
>>131096080track 1 has a sick riff
Here's what those of us who once kind of liked the Guess Who always hoped they'd become, and if that sounds dumb to the rest of you, you're missing something. This may be crude as a ploughboy, but Randy Bachman has always had a way with the catchy riff, and Turner, I suppose, provides the overdrive. B+
>>131096080surprised no props at least for Big Apple Dreamin' because NYC amirite?
>>131096141>the birth of buttrock
>>131096300Retirement got boring LOL.
At least the strings on this soundtrack are mostly plucked and strummed, rather than bowed en masse, but it's still a soundtrack: two middling-to-excellent new Dylan songs, four good original Bobby voices, and a lot of Schmylan music. C+
>>131096391fuck off, Pat
>>131095970oh god, this is so bad. his singing and guitar tone are the worst they've ever been. grade 100% deserved.
Funny you should put it that way, Dave, because for me it's like I was never here in the first place. C
>>131096492Another brilliant, cutting piece of music journalism, Bob.
>>131096080I'm listening to this to figure out exactly what he's talking about and thought "oh hey they have some cool riffs here makes no sense" and then I realized he just didn't like it because it didn't have enough up-front, catchy songs like "School's Out."
>#29 on the Billboard Hot 100I swear this is gonna be the last time he charts, honest.
White's hustle is to unite Isaac Hayes's power with Al Green's niceness, and in his way, he does. He is as humorless as Hayes, but with none of Hayes's grandeur, which is 90 per cent phony anyway. And he is as mendacious as Green, but with none of Green's sexy charm, which at least keeps its promise for a night or two. It so happens that I love the single--the man puts down powerful tracks--but the single isn't eight minutes long. C-
>>131094893>>131094769how much longer are you gonna keep doing this?
Hard to believe Brenda's not 30 years old yet since it seems like she's been around for 30 years.
Elton must have made her the first signing on his new label because she made him sound positively demented by comparison. Promising, but so clean and wholesome she'll take some getting used to. C+
Don't believe the title, believe the artist listing. The difference is between a group, committed however fractiously to a coherent collective identity, and a bunch of stars fabricating a paper reconciliation. Maybe if Gary Usher had produced, as promised, this would be more than the country-rock supersession David Crosby has granted us--because maybe Usher would have persuaded the boys to let go of the songs they're saving for their solo albums. C
>>131095776Billy Joel fucking sucks, man.
A step in the right direction, but only a step. It sounds like outtakes from Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, which may not seem so bad but means that Lennon is falling back on ideas that have lost their freshness for him. Still, the single works and I hope he keeps on stepping. Favorite Plastic Ono Band outtake: "One Day (at a Time)." Favorite Imagine outtake: "You Are Here." C+
>>131097032Horrible cover art.
>>131097032Nobody cares about 60s Nick Carter's solo projects.
Olivia's first international release. Cute pop country album.
Any horn band that resorts to copping from Motown and America as well as writing songs about critics is, how shall we say eet?--running out of good charts. C-
The title's as perfect as the band's latest symbol--a $, its "S" transformed into a two-headed snake. No outrage Alice has concocted equals the frank, sweaty greed of his current success. Oddly, though, this blatant profit mechanism is his most consistent album--even the song about (mercy me) necrophilia is tolerable, just like the song about tooth decay. But without a "School's Out" or an "I'm Eighteen"--neither "No More Mr. Nice Guy" nor "Elected" quite makes the grade--there's nothing to tempt anyone back to the new improved filler. B
The Man rigged it against McGovern. It's been really harshing my mellow.
>>131095174>Why isn't this already stickied! Jannies fucking up yet again...
these steely dan cats are mixing jazz with rock. its been blowing my mind
Lacking both hippie roots and virtuosos, post-Allmanites like ZZ Top, Marshall Tucker, and Wet Willie become transcendently boring except when they get off a good song. But in this staunchly untranscendent band, lack of virtuosos is a virtue, because it inspires good songs, songs that often debunk good-old-boy shibboleths. Examples: "Poison Whiskey," "Mississippi Kid," and "Gimme Three Steps," whee Ronnie Van Zant, instead of outwitting the dumb redneck the way onetime Dylan sideman Charlie Daniels does in "Uneasy Rider," just hightails it out of there. Savvy production from onetime Dylan sideman Al Kooper. A
In which she rejects the producers who made her career for Quincy Jones and drifts off into the hey now hey with rudder trailing. "So Swell When You're Well" and "Sister From Texas" might sneak onto Spirit in the Dark with a little more funk, and "Just Right Tonight" busies itself nicely, but too much of this is pretentious baloney, and "Somewhere" and "Mister Spain" are horrid. B-
>>131094227Man, I’m trying to enjoy the new Deep Purple record, but I just heard about this thing called the holocost. It’s really sad but also really weird that I’m just starting to hear about it now.
>>131097419this is her first bad album, it seems she's also fallen victim to the turning 30 jinx
>>131094227the best year for rock ever!!!!!
>there's finally no Steve and Eydie albums this yearThank you, oh merciful God.
For a sideman-turned-sortastar, Daniels kicks out genuine jams and takes genuine chances--the raveup on "Revelations," for instance, would sound plumb weird on an Allmans LP. Not a bad songwriter, either. But hardly a remarkable one, and he's a lousy singer--only on "Uneasy Rider," a talking blues as dry as any of Dylan's and a lot more yarnlike, does his voice serve his vision, such as it is. B-
In which David Bowie remembers "the world's forgotten boy" long enough to sponsor an album--and mixes it down till it's thin as an epicure's wrist. The side-openers, "Search and Destroy" and "Raw Power," voice the Iggy Pop ethos more insanely (and aggressively) than "I Wanna Be Your Dog." But despite James Williamson's guitar, the rest disperses in their wake. B+
>>131096141As usual their pop rock songs aren't as good as the heavy ones.
I could do without "No Quarter," a death march for a select troop of messenger-warriors, perhaps the band's road crew, that you can tell is serious because of the snow (when they're working up to big statements it only rains) and scary sound effects. But side two begins with two amazing, well, dance tracks--the transmogrified shuffle is actually called "Dancing Days," while "D'Yer Mak'er" is a reggae, or "reggae"--that go nicely with the James Brown tribute/parody/ripoff at the close of side one. Which is solid led, lurching in sprung rhythm through four tracks that might have been on II, III, or IV, or might not have been, as the case may be. A-
>>131095475spared from the boyband poster
These guys make no secret of having a strange idea of a good time, but this isn't decadent, it's ridiculous. Side one surrounds two pained, strained torch jobs with two classic neo-rockers and finishes with a song about an inflatable sex doll that's almost not stupid (title: "In Every Dream Home a Heartache"). Side two surrounds a fast fast one with two long mostly instrumental slow ones that are almost not boring. Verdict: almost not not bad. B
>>131094531>leaf rockNo.
Because more is often more with JB, a studio double comprising eight long songs isn't necessarily a gyp. Especially when all the songs have new titles. Not only does most of this work as dance music, but two slow ones are actually sung. "Time Is Running Out Fast," however, is a spectacularly inaccurate title for a horn-and-voice excursion that shambles on for 12:37. B+
RIP Bobby. Gone too soon.
You listen to Brown for music, not songs, but that's no reason to expect good soundtrack albums from him. He should never be allowed near a vibraphone again. D+
As a country singer, Reed sustains three identities: crazy, picker, soap idol. He's a great crazy, as the title song demonstrates. And he's an all right picker, if you like pickers. But he couldn't sell soap to a hippie's mother. RCA should ban the ballad. I can imagine an A record called The Crazy Jerry Reed, but this one is docked a notch for time: 27.35. C-
Unlike Tommy, this one really is a kind of opera--first you get to know the music, then you sit down with the libretto and concentrate for eighty minutes. Even with the synopsis (as brilliant a piece of writing as Townshend's ever done) and lyrics, its account of a young Mod's "double schizophrenia" can be pretty confusing, partly because confusion is his subject. The music is cluttered with horns and unnecessarily shrill, so that--despite its considerable melodic (and motivic, as they say) pizzazz--you don't play it for fun. But if Townshend's great virtue is compassion, this is his triumph--Everykid as heroic fuckup, smart enough to have a good idea of what's being done to him and so sensitive he gets pushed right out to the edge anyway. A-
Except for the spavined "Dancing With Mr. D," and the oxymoronic "Can You Hear the Music," these are good songs. But the execution is slovenly. I don't mean sloppy, which can be exciting--I mean arrogant and enervated all at once. Mick's phrasing is always indolent, but usually it's calculated down to the last minibeat as well; here the words sometimes catch him yawning. Without trying to be "tight" the band usually grooves into a reckless, sweaty coherence; here they hope the licks will stand on their own. Only on "Starfucker," the most outrageous Chuck Berry throwaway of the band's career, does this record really take off. B
>>131097985>>131097924Jesus, took that long to get to these?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV3AziKTBUoAs a spacey rock prophet he's terrible (who isn't?). As a blues singer he's incompetent (I wouldn't come on in his kitchen for a glass of water). But as a purveyor of spacey pop-rock blues, he has his virtues. Question: what the hell is "the pompitous of love"? The Medallions wouldn't tell me. B-
>>131094421Simplicity can be a virtue--the nice thing about the Allmans is that when they put two five-year-olds on an album cover, you know it's not some "decadent" joke. Gregg Allman is a predictable singer who seldom has an unpredictable lyric to work with and the jams do roll on, but at their best, on "Ramblin' Man", a miraculous revitalization of rock's earliest conceit, they prove refreshing and Dickey Betts's playing contributes musical and spiritual renewal. A-
Two LPs ago, Bernie Taupin passed on his way from obscure banality to clean, well-lighted banality to write a batch of imaginative lyrics, and set to those lyrics John's music sounded eclectic but not confused. Too often now it seems to chatter on anonymously. The title cut is good, "Bennie and the Jets" is great, side four is good-to-great, and a few other songs here would probably benefit from more exclusive company, but this is one more double album that would make a nifty single. B
Reddit: The Band begins
With its technological mastery and its conventional wisdom once-removed, this is a kitsch masterpiece--taken too seriously by definition, but not without charm. It may sell on sheer aural sensationalism, but the studio effects do transmute David Gilmour's guitar solos into something more than they were when he played them. Its taped speech fragments may be old hat, but for once they cohere musically. And if its pessimism is received, that doesn't make the ideas untrue--there are even times, especially when Dick Parry's saxophone undercuts the electronic pomp, when this record brings its cliches to life, which is what pop is supposed to do, even the kind with delusions of grandeur. B
Says S. Pearlman: "We want to be disgusting, not trans-repulsive." Says R. Meltzer: "This is _really_ hard rock comedy." Musically, Long Island's only underground band impales the entire heavy ethos on a finely-honed guitar neck, often at high speed, which is the punch line. And the lyrics aren't inaudible, just unbelievable--a parody-surreal refraction of the abysmal "poetry" of heavy, with its evil women and gods of hellfire. Which is not to suggest that it doesn't become what it takes off from. But is that bad or good? B+
With the replacement of lead singer David Palmer (who fit in like a cheerleader at a crap game) by composer-pianist-conversationalist Donald Fagen (who looks like he just got dressed to go out for the paper), they achieve a deceptively agreeable studio slickness--perfect licks that crackle and buzz when you listen hard, Grass Roots harmonies applied to words that are usually twisted. Not only does "Bodhisattva" come on like a jazzed-up "Rock Around the Clock"--it shines like China and sparkles like Japan. But somehow I don't think Fagen really intends to hold hands with an Enlightened One, not even out of base curiosity. A
>>131094615that show's still two years away though
>>131094927ELP really do suck cock though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjC7j8cNQ2k
Nice "passages" here, as they say, but what flatulent quasisymphonies--the whole is definitely less than the sum of its parts, and some of the parts are pretty negligible. I mean, howcum they didn't choose to echo Graeco-Roman, Hebrew, and African culture as well as the lost Indian, Chinese, Central American, and Atlantean ones? Typical hyperromantic exoticism is one answer, and everybody would know they're full of shit is the other. C
Before this was considered scary.
Those who complain about the remake of "(I'm a) Road Runner," with Mick Fleetwood smashing past the cymbals while Dave Walker shouts, probably think these studio craftspeople were slumming when they jammed with Otis Spann. I love it. I also like all of Christine McVie's husky laments. But could rilly do without Bob Welch's ever-mellower musings. B
>>131097456The dominant sound in rock this year is hard boogie riffs.
fortunately Faggau stopped reviewing JT after Thick as Brick so we're spared whatever moronic thoughts he had on their later albums
>>131101717the Bee Gees at their lowest point
>>131098461RCA dutifully kept the Elvis product machine humming along during this period with his 2-3 albums a year and all his singles got airplay, they saw to that, even if the discs didn't always sell.
Yellow Jell-O, or: didn't you always know he'd go bananas? C-
>>131102181>still caring about Donovan in 1973...
>>131102181Donovan sucks
>>131102260At this point of his career, yes he does.
This attempt to turn Nelson into a star runs into trouble when it induces him to outshout Memphis horns or Western swing, and his unaccompanied-acoustic version of "A Song for You" takes some getting used to. After a while, though, you notice that you're noticing every song. And then you realize that the two you notice most--the slyly vengeful "Sad Songs and Waltzes" and the cuckold's tragedy "She's Not for You"--are also the two oldest. A star, eh? B+
As movie scores go, this ripoff is only medium-sized. At least it apes Oliver Nelson rather than Henry Mancini, and sometimes it even breaks away from the atmosphere into something earthier. Worth hearing: "Sexy, Sexy, Sexy." C
>>131097527That's not what an epicurean is.
The pubeless is-he-naked? illustration inside the doublefold suggests not bisexuality but asexuality--the affliction of a romantic for whom love turns nasty, awkward, and exploitative when touched by lust. So maybe the bleak future Bowie likes to scare his fans with is a metaphor for his own present, the American phase of which is reflected by these hardrocking mechanisms. But the cover, "Let's Spend the Night Together," opens other possibilities: its lyric suggests an alternative to the brutality of "Cracked Actor" and its music can help you through the bitterest realities. As a result, this is more interesting thematically than Ziggy Stardust, and it's also better rock and roll. B+
Hey Johnny, been a while since we seen you on the Billboard. Seven years in fact.
I originally underrated what many consider McCartney's definitive post-Beatles statement, but not as much as its admirers overrate it. Pop masterpiece? This? Sure it's a relief after the vagaries of Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, and most of side one passes tunefully enough--"Let Me Roll It" might be an answer to "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Jet" is indeed more "fun" than "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey." But beyond those two the high points are the title track, about the oppression of rock musicians by cannabis-crazed bureaucrats, and the Afro-soul intro to "Mamunia," appropriate from relatives of the Nigerian children who posed for the inner sleeve with Sah and helpmates. C+
>>131103963Nobody cares that 60s Zayn decided to whine about being arrested for weed possession.
>>131103963It was about when Paul was busted in Sweden in '72 for trying to bring weed into the airport. He was later banned from entering Japan in '76 due to that so Wings went and did their tour there without him. Still later, Paul was busted _in_ Japan for weed possession.
This is not a Beatles album but a Ringo album--a likable curiosity. Ringo's droll sincerity was always good for a change of pace; his songs were wonderful in context. Here that context is provided by an occasional harmony (especially John's on "I'm the Greatest") that makes me long for much, much more. It might be different if the songs were all as good as "Photograph," but without a real singer to work with, Richard Perry cannot transmute questionable material into magic. And don't kid yourself--the Beatles could. B-
are these threads just an excuse for some loser to spam cuckgau's reviews? no discussion going on here at all, just mindless spam
>>131104275calm your tits, troon. there's plenty of discussion in here
>>131097010>Billy Joel fucking sucks, man.Step into Long Island and say that, fucko.
>>131097289Chicago weren't any good after 71-72 anyway.
>>131095776>aghh someone more insufferable than me has finally arrived
>no Randy Newman album this yearThis must have been really hard for Cuckgau.
The Stevie Wonder-composed title track isn't blues or even soul--it's one of those slow, funky grooves that smolders along for minutes before you notice you're dripping from the heat, and it almost justifies the lame idea of sending King into Sigma Sound with Dave Crawford. Elsewhere King sings indifferent songs sincerely, recites a poem he wrote, and plays his guitar when he gets the chance. B-
>>131096696wow, even doing Don McLean now
"The Angel" and "Mary Queen of Arkansas" are turgid unaccompanied-acoustic horrors that could scare anybody off this particular Dylan hype. But the jokey lingo and absurdist energy of everything else are exactly the excesses that made Dylan a genius instead of a talent--it takes real conviction to save "But did not heed my urgency" with "Your life was one long emergency." Even urban-mythos rambles like "Lost in the Flood" are not without charm. And in songs like "Growin' Up" and "Blinded by the Light" there's an unguarded teen-underclass poetry that has Springsteen's name on it. B+
>>131104881Took that long to get to this one?
>>131105041ZZ Top really honestly kind of suck.>>131104881Springsteen turbo sucks.
>>131105129they're just a meme band
>>131105129Not fair, they were a tasty little blues rock band in the 70s before they became Auto Zone sound system music.
Guess bongs liked her more than Americans for whatever reason.
>>131105129>ZZ Top really honestly kind of suck.>Plebtakeno fucking way. The wit, the humor, the groove and crafted with a vision in mind that is uniquely and instantly recognizable as theirs. They're 70s output is truly some of the most underrated 70s rock there is. BFG is a genius and national treasure. If you're filtered by this you have pleb tasteshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCnz3qRgDQQ
>>131105235We liked Leather Tuscadero better.
Not joking btw, I've literally heard "Sharp Dressed Man" when I was in an Auto Zone.
>>131105235she eventually moved there and married a British dude anyway
>>131104881Surprised he only gave it a B+, but I guess he wasn’t in the pocket of Springsteen’s manager like Rolling Stone was,
>>131105341to be fair Cuckgau didn't blanket worship ever single BS album ever unlike his paid marketer Dave Marsh
>>131105281SHE MIGHT GET OUT HER NIGHTSTICK...AND HURT ME REAL REAL BAD....BY THE ROADSIDE IN THE DITCH....
>>131105302WHEN I STEP OUT IM GONNA DO YOU IN
>>131105373Marsh didn't super-love the early Springsteen albums either, it was only after he married Bruce's PR agent that the faggot love affair started.
>>131105293this is over the head of the zoomers here
>>131096807Despite being younger than the Beatles by date of birth, Brenda Lee represented kind of the tail end of that original Southern-based R&R scene from the 50s and like most everyone from that scene couldn't adapt to the counterculture and crossed over to country later on.
Side two does seven great songs with umpteen instruments in just over fifteen minutes, a perfectly amazing miracle of concision. But side one is less than hot. Two (why two?) just-wrong Johnny Mercer songs lead into a properly excessive intro to Ann Peebles's "Breaking Up Somebody's Home" that is destroyed inside of two minutes by an improperly excessive, funkless production. Bette's overstatement works on "Surabaya Johnny" and "I Shall Be Released," but I've heard better. Most important, why isn't there one song by a contemporary composer here? Dylan doesn't count--I'm talking about Randy Newman, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Joni Mitchell, maybe James Taylor or Cat Stevens, she's always made me believe in miracles. As it stands, this record is perilously close to the ostrich nostalgia of her dumbest fans. B+
>>131105700I know. Her schtick was always "edgier Streisand" and she was a born in the wrong generation-er who wanted to sing in the Artie Shaw Orchestra but was born a bit too late for that.
>>131095657https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loog6VuDLjAThis is pretty damn hot funk, I'm surprised her and Bob Thiele had it in them. Yeah even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.
Folkie trappings behind him, Springsteen has created a funky, vivacious rock and roll that's too eager and zany ever to be labeled tight, suggesting jazz heard through an open window with one r&b saxophone, or Latin music out in the street with zero conga drums. He celebrates youth in all its irresponsible compassion and doomed arrogance, but he's also old enough to know better--for him, the pleasures of the city are bigger and more exquisite than the defiance and escape that define most hard rock. "New York City Serenade" is as bathetic as you might fear, but "Rosalita" is more lyrical and ironic than you could have dreamed. This guy may not be God yet, but he has his sleeveless undershirt in the ring. A-
>>131105914the first two albums before he became Jon Landau's hand puppet were the best ones
>>131105884they wouldn't have risked a Chuck Berry cover back in the 50s, that's for sure
>no James Taylor album this yearoh well good, he sucks anyway
>>131105884>>131096068Any goodwill/brownie points gotten from these are going to be erased in a hurry once you see what she does next year. It's not going to be pretty.
>>131100849>>131097564Still my least favorite LZ album.
The Christgau spammer ruined these threads. I wish I could smack him in the face like Christgau's bvll did to him.
Never mind howcum a loose-as-a-goose circa-1959 Texas bar band is releasing LPs for the Hip Young People's Market in 1973--this raises a more specific question. In "Everybody's Doin' It," howcum everybody who's "truckin'" and "fuckin'" isn't also "suckin'"? Don't tell me about the good old days. B-
>>131105129this album is actually kind of good. i would still rather listen to real blues though
There's more art, as it is called, in this sixty-three-year-old man's large intestine than is likely to pass through Sunset Sound in a month. Can you imagine Steve Stills or one of those guys coming up with a title as bold as "Coon on the Moon," much less turning it into a fierce, ominous cry of ironic pride. The Wolf hasn't been in such good bellow for years. Suggestion: get rid of the electric piano player. A-
Harry had a problem. He wanted to write a song about a DJ, kind of a follow-up to "Taxi," just to prove it wasn't a fluke. Harry doesn't meet many real people, so cabbies and DJs provide that touch of social realism. He wanted to set the song in Boise, Idaho, not because he had anything to say about Boise, but because "Idaho" rhymed with "late night talk show." Unfortunately, call letters that far west start with K rather than W, which messed up his rhythm. Akron, Ohio? Wrong rhythm again. Denver, Colorado? Nope. So he called it "WOLD" and hoped no one would notice. Note: this analysis is nowhere near as longwinded as Harry's stories. D+
Not only isn't this good Motown, it isn't good Motown psychedelic--except for some sharp strumming on the title track (a half-assed indictment of/tribute to America) it never takes off rhythmically or vocally. C-
>>131107330Harry Chapin fucking sucked.
>>131106203>Any goodwill/brownie points gotten from these are going to be erased in a hurry once you see what she does next year. It's not going to be pretty.I know the album you're talking about, it was technically released in 73 but not in the US until next year.
would have preferred the first album posted here wasn't the Eagles but oh well
Q: Why is Roberta Flack like Jesse Colin Young? A: Because she always makes you wonder whether she's going to fall asleep before you do. C
Styx Part II
Thanks, Mary Frances. You're a peach.
>>131095776That is the creepiest cover ever.
The good thing about covering Billie Holiday is that you get to sing Billie Holiday songs. The other is that you get to sing like Billie Holiday. C
Still hasn't released as many albums as George Jones, but getting close.
"I was walking in the rain with my shoes untied," a line from newcomer Rabbit Bundrick, sums them up--I don't know myself whether it's a cleverly modified cliché or an overgrown one. But I do know that if Free at Last was simply listless this is actively deficient in formal acuteness. Andy Fraser has been replaced by both Bundrick's generally unnecessary keyboards (check out his organ on the otherwise engaging "Travellin in Style") and Tetsu Yamauchi's more stolid bass. Paul Kossoff, replaced by other guitarists on half the tracks, sounds like he's pursuing a solo career when he's on. And Paul Rodgers sounds more full of himself than his songs or his guitar warrant. C+
Dickie Goodman if you didn't know was a comedy music guy who went all the way back to the 50s when he and his then partner Bill Buchanan had a hit in 1956 with an early use of sampling on "Flying Saucer" that provoked a copyright lawsuit. He was still around in the 70s with this minor '73 hit, which reached #42 on the Billboard.
If it took me a couple of months to decide if this was a listenable hard rock record or not, just how listenable can it be? Well, Todd Rundgren's production is a big improvement for one--the drums have real punch now, Craig Frost's organ fills nicely, and Don Brewer's singing comes as a relief. Great single, too. B-
>>131101646>>131096696>>131096300Old soldiers never die, as they say.
>>131107948took a needlessly long time to get to this album
Ban all year threads pre-1967 so the cuckgau spammer can't devour them.
>>131107978Sometimes, though, they do. RIP Cuckgau's earliest musical nemesis (also he literally had a song called "Old Soldiers Never Die" lol)
>>131105281>Precious and GraceI met their sisters, Hope and Faith in Reno one night
This comes down to a nice equation of folk duo and soul falsetto group, brought together with the best vocal and production pyrotechnics a studio can afford. The music rocks with a smooth sophistication, although it can get sententious as well as popsy cute; the lyrics diagnose romantic malaise with clinical expertise and occasional acuity--"Everybody's high on consolation," perfect. If not too perfect. B-
>>131095776Joel did a docu where he reviews all of his own albums and he said Piano Man didn't have the sound he was going for as CBS made him put all this slick AC production on there instead of his much more rocking road band. He said they were good musicians, it just wasn't how he wanted it to sound.
>>131094829The best rock jolts folk-art virtues--directness, utility, natural audience--into the present with shots of modern technology and modernist dissociation; the typical "progressive" project attempts to raise the music to classical grandeur or avant-garde status. Since "raise" is usually code for "delegitimize," I'm impressed that on half of this Peter Gabriel makes the idea work: his mock-mythologized gangland epic and menacing ocean pastorale have a complexity of tone that's pretty rare in any kind of art. Even more amazing, given past performances, organist Tony Banks defines music to match, schlocky and graceful and dignified all at once--when he's got it going, which is nowhere near often enough. As for the rest, it sounds as snooty as usual. B
Six albums in four years is really pushing it, guys.
>>131098499accurate. Yes sucks.
>>131094227Robert Plant sounds like a fucking chipmunk
