Tracks 1. Reuters 2. Field Day For The Sundays 3. Three Girl Rhumba 4. Ex Lion Tamer 5. Lowdown 6. Start To Move 7. Brazil 8. It's So Obvious 9. Surgeon's Girl 10. Pink Flag 11. Commercial 12. Straight Line 13. 106 Beats That 14. Mr Suit 15. Strange 16. Fragile 17. Mannequin 18. Different To Me 19. Champs 20. Feeling Called Love 21. 12XU I knew we would hit a snag eventually in this string of great albums. This album legitimately gave me a headache. There was absolutely no talent behind the vocals and the music was incredibly loud and obnoxious. I don't have too much to say about this album, except that after such a great patch, this was extremely disappointing. The songs were sometimes only thirty seconds long, but I could have had sworn it was just one long, drawn out track. I seriously considered taking a break since my head was pounding so much. I stuck it out, though, and was counting down the seconds. A sucky suck fest that essentially broke my brain. Hence the term, sucky suck fest. RATING: 1/5
Tracks 1. Black Cow 2. Aja 3. Deacon Blues 4. Peg 5. Home At Last 6. I Got The News 7. Josie I returned to this project again today but I am afraid that I might be gone for about a week, since I have roughly a zillion movie posts to write. I am actually a bit annoyed about that since we are going through such a great string of albums right now. Self-imposed rules are the worst. Anyway, I remember enjoying Steely Dan in the past, but I couldn't really recall any particular song that really stuck with me. But I really don't think that will be the case here. I absolutely adored "Black Cow" and "Home at Last". I didn't really have a lot of faith that a jazz rock album would have great lyrics, but I was proven wrong here. It was also refreshing; we have to deal with a lot of pretentiousness on this List but it didn't seem like Steely Dan was putting on airs here. They were simply making great, accessible music. So another great album. Keep it up, please. RATING: 4/5
Tracks 1. Speed of Life 2. Breaking Glass 3. What in the World 4. Sound and Vision 5. Always Crashing in the Same Car 6. Be My Wife 7. New Career in a New Town 8. Warszawa 9. Art Decade 10. Weeping Wall 11. Subterraneans I apologize for not posting in awhile, but I have been feeling quite Low. I also apologize for saying that. Without this blog, I haven't had an outlet for my terrible puns. I had surgery in early February which the doctor said would have a weekend recovery time. Translation: huge fucking nightmare and never-ending pain. It is my fault for not being fluent in doctor-speak. You would think I would have a lot of time to listen to albums and write but I have been too busy complaining and taking medication. Anyway, I finally listened to this album yesterday and it certainly reignited my interest in this project. I am not exactly sure how many albums in The Book that Brian Eno has been involved in, but it has to be at least a hundred; his name is always cropping up everywhere. Apparently, the first half of this album is very "Bowie" while the second half has "Eno" written all over it. In my typical plebeian fashion, I really preferred Bowie's side. The song "What in the World" really struck a chord with me (more music humor; well, calling it humor might be a stretch). I probably felt connected to the song since I am stuck in bed all the time and Bowie is describing someone who never leaves their room. A little on the nose. Anyway, the second side was a bit more...avant-garde and dare I say, offensive? One of the tracks sounded like they were trying to do something tribal, which was a little uncomfortable. Did anyone else feel that way? Anyway, this album definitely deserves all of the attention it gets. Bowie continues to impress. RATING: 4/5
Tracks 1. Janie Jones 2. Remote Control 3. I'm So Bored With The USA 4. White Riot 5. Hate And War 6. What's My Name 7. Deny 8. London's Burning 9. Career Opportunities 10. Cheat 11. Protex Blue 12. Police And Thieves 13. 48 Hours 14. Garage Land I expected a lot of these songs to sound familiar, since The Clash is such a well known band. However, I only recognized "White Riot". It was an exciting moment, since for the first time I could actually understand what they said: white riot! I wanna riot. White riot! Something...something...you get the point. I have really been enjoying our punk kick lately. It is always fun to have punk music blaring while you do manual labor (which for me means taking out the trash). Still, this album was a bit more special to me than the usual punk music. Maybe it is because this album actually thoughtful content and was more than just catchy screaming. I would recommend listening to "Police and Thieves" if you want to listen to a song with meaning. Definitely worth its place on The List. RATING: 4/5
Tracks 1. Sometimes 2. Goodbye Toulouse 3. London Lady 4. Princess Of The Streets 5. Hangin' Around 6. Peaches 7. Get A Grip (On Yourself) 8. Ugly 9. Down In The Sewer The first line of this album is "someday I am going to smack your face" and actually succeeded in making me do one of those overdone sitcom surprised faces. The album only got better from there which leads me to believe that this is one of the most underrated bands of all time. Pre album blog Amanda believed that punk bands were just a bunch of screaming idiots with make up (now I know that those are actually just middle school girls). However, this album was pretty brilliant. "Peaches" was one of the catchiest songs I have heard in awhile. I mean, how can you not like a song that has the lyrics "I can think of a lot worse places to be, like down in the streets, or down in a sewer, or even on the end of a skewer"? Actually, don't answer that. That sounds pretty easy to hate. Overall, one of the best punk albums I have ever heard and it definitely deserves its place on The List. RATING: 4/5
Tracks 1. Mannish Boy 2. Bus Driver 3. I Want to Be Loved 4. Jealous Hearted Man 5. I Can't Be Satisfied 6. Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock & Roll 7. Deep Down in Florida 8. Crosseyed Cat 9. Little Girl Once again, we come across the original cliche. All right, maybe I don't have the musical history knowledge to make this claim, but this album is a pretty early example of the whole "nah nah nah nah nah" craze. Is it not clear what I am talking about? How about an example from television:
That's the best example I could find since I don't want to torture anyone with a Full House reference. Haven't we suffered enough on this blog (see BeeGees and bongo bands)? The problem with revisiting early music is that by the time you listen to it, you have heard it done so many times that it can just be extremely dull to sit through. However, I was pleasantly surprised with this album. It wasn't particularly exciting, but it was pure gritty blues and a fun listen. RATING: 4/5
Tracks 1. Birdland 2. Remark You Made 3. Teen Town 4. Harlequin 5. Rumba Mama 6. Palladium 7. Juggler 8. Havona Getting back here to write has not exactly been easy and when you have an album like this, it makes everything harder. This is a jazz fusion album. Should we all just puke now or wait until I am done with the review? I expected a bit of a pretentious mess when I first played this album. At least that would have been halfway interesting. This was just an incredibly dull that would have had me pushing on the door open button in the elevator, if I was listening to the song in its presumably natural habitat. Just plain boring and I have no idea why this would be in The Book. Thankfully, I can bash it quite hard, since no one has heard of it. Hear that Weather Report? You are completely alone....too much? RATING: 1/5
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