295. Band On The Run

Band On The Run
Paul McCartney & Wings
1973

Tracks
1. Band On The Run
2. Jet
3. Bluebird
4. Mrs Vanderbilt
5. Let Me Roll It
6. Mamunia
7. No Words
8. Picasso's Last Words
9. Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)
10. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five

The high brow blogs that I read that review the 1001 albums always call albums like this "pedestrian" and praise any progressive rock that we come across.

But either I am a lot less pretentious or I am just as pedestrian as these albums, because I happen to love pop.  It is cute, light, and fun and just stop your hating already.  We get it, you are smarter than us!

Paul McCartney's solo work has become a bit of joke.  Maybe he is not as deep (i.e. whiny) as John Lennon but he is just having fun.  That is all this album is; accept it for what it is!  Personally, I think it is a nice break from ridiculously pretentious albums (ahem…Bongo Rock).

RATING: 5/5

294. Tres Hombres

Tres Hombres
ZZ Top
1973

Tracks
1. Waitin' For The Bus 
2. Jesus Just Left Chicago 
3. Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers
4. Master Of Sparks 
5. Hot, Blue And Righteous
6. Move Me On Down The Line 
7. Precious and Grace
8. La Grange 
9. Sheik 
10. Have You Heard?

Everyone else seems to have preconceived notions of ZZ Top except me.  I didn't even know if it was a band or a person.  Much like the Led Zeppelin confusion I had at the beginning of this journey.

To my surprise, I actually loved this album.  I say that it surprised me because the quote in the book by Dusty Hill was "Everybody everywhere goes to whores, drinks beer, and drives fast."  That is not exactly something I can relate to, at least on weekdays.

Anyway, this album is actually really short; only about thirty minutes.  They had this really cool blues rock thing going on that was pretty unusual and fun.  And they quit before the album became tedious which is also a plus.  Check it out.

RATING: 4/5

293. Innervisions

Innervisions
Stevie Wonder
1973

Tracks
1. Too High 
2. Visions 
3. Living For The City 
4. Golden Lady 
5. Higher Ground 
6. Jesus Children Of America 
7. All In Love Is Fair 
8. Don't You Worry About A Thing 
9. He's Misstra Know It All

First of all, I actually have "Living For The City" on my iPod already.  This is, embarrassingly, a big deal for me.  Yay, The Book is validating my taste!  Now if I can just get them to add Taylor Swift….did I say that out loud?

Anyway, unfortunately for me, the album doesn't get much better than "Living For The City".  That is not to say it is a bad album, it just peaks with a track I was already familiar with.  After listening to so much politically progressive crap that people categorize as music, it is always refreshing to listen to a song that is actually catchy and contains a message.  "Golden Lady" is another good song, but nothing beats the epic second track.

Overall this is a fun album that makes you think.  Who could ask for anything more, who could ask for anything more?  Sorry, I watched American in Paris recently.

RATING: 4/5

292. The Dark Side of Moon

The Dark Side of Moon
Pink Floyd
1973

Tracks
1. Speak To Me
2. Breathe
3. On The Run
4. Time
5. Great Gig In The Sky
6. Money
7. Us And Them
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Brain Damage
10. Eclipse

This is probably one of the most famous albums of all time.  Needless to say, the pressure is on to like it.  I read some blog posts other people have written about this album.  People that don't like it get absolutely destroyed in the comments section.  Thankfully (?), no one leaves comments on my blog so I don't have to worry about intellectual destruction.

I like Pink Floyd and with all the hype associated with this album, I expected to be blown away.  This album starts with a lot of different sound effects.  It kind of reminded me of that scene is Tarzan where random noises actually become beautiful music:

My juvenile comparisons aside, it actually gets pretty awesome.  It probably would have been ten times more awesome if I had weed but you do what you can with the tools you have.  

RATING: 4/5

291. Honky Tonk Heroes

Honky Tonk Heroes
Waylon Jennings
1973

Tracks
1. Honky Tonk Heroes 
2. Old Five And Dimers (Like Me) 
3. Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me 
4. Low Down Freedom 
5. Omaha 
6. You Ask Me To 
7. Ride Me Down Easy 
8. Ain't No God In Mexico 
9. Black Rose 
10. We Had It All

Oh dear.  What a scary title.  This title kept me from listening to albums for a week.  I can handle a little bit of country but once people start using the "h word" I run screaming.

Was this album as bad as I thought it was going to be? Yes.  You can probably just look at the title tracks and realize why I would hate it.  If you can't figure it out, there is no reasoning with you.  Click here for a helpful link!

RATING: 1/5

290. Countdown to Ecstasy

Countdown to Exstasy
Steely Dan
1973

Tracks
1. Bodhisattva 
2. Razor Boy 
3. The Boston Rag 
4. Your Gold Teeth 
5. Show Biz Kids 
6. My Old School 
7. Pearl Of The Quarter 
8. King Of The World

Man, I have really been slugging through the last of the 200s.  I will blame it on recent events in my life (we are talking about psychics, stalkers, and unrequited love here people). Trying to get back on the album wagon.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Anyway, this album certainly was enough to make me want to get back to music again.  The whole album kind of sounded like a mix of The Beatles and something more South American.  It also sounded very coherent even though the way I am describing it, it kind of sounds like a mess.

Overall, this one was a lot of fun.  I was making pasta while listening to it and kind of resembled Cate Blanchett from Bandits.

RATING: 5/5

289. Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road

Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road
Elton John
1973

Tracks
1. Funeral For A Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)
2. Candle In The Wind
3. Benny And The Jets
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5. This Song Has No Title 
6. Grey Seal 
7. Jamaica Jerk Off 
8. I've Seen That Movie Too
9. Sweet Painted Lady 
10. Ballad Of Danny Bailey
11. Dirty Little Girl 
12. All The Girls Love Alice 
13. Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n' Roll)
14. Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)
15. Roy Rogers 
16. Social Disease
17. Harmony

Yes, I am still alive.  I have been spending a lot more time with my movies than albums.  Yes, if these blogs were my children, the movie one would be the star football athlete and this one would be the neglected weird child in the corner.

Anyway, I love Elton; "Your Song" is one of the greatest love songs out there.  For that reason, I will stick with this guy through the thick and thin.  There are some golden classics here.  For instance, "Benny and The Jets" which I only became familiar with from this movie:

Yes, I just posted a video from a Katherine Heigl.  But we can't look back people.

Overall, Elton is always a good time.  Most of all, he is not pretentious and that is enormously refreshing after what we have been seeing lately.

RATING: 4/5