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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 16, 2021 14:00:34 GMT
Tommy Keene - Places That Are Gone (1984) EP...........8.5-9.0/10
Power-Pop classic that gets overlooked because it's not a full length and also because like The dB's and Marshall Crenshaw it was an outcast in a sea of great (and loud) Rock and Roll........but it's a kindred spirit.
One of the few records in Power-Pop that is indisputably great precisely because the "Power" part is muted at the expense of the Pop.....do this wrong.......it's wimpy........do this right, like this and well.......it's a kind of magic.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 17, 2021 11:27:11 GMT
The Muffs - Hamburger (1991-1999) / released in 2000 - 8++ / 10
The late/great Kim Shattuck wrote more good songs in the 90s than just about anyone - I always joke "far more than Courtney Love & Liz Phair did in their entire careers .........combined".
Don't believe that?
Well just listen to this ace 30 track compilation of some singles, B-sides, outtakes, throwaways and covers - this isn't even her best stuff and much of it absolutely rules anyway.....the covers alone are stupendous in their knowledge of music history and in performance.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 18, 2021 17:20:29 GMT
Poptopia! Power Pop Classics of the 70s (1997) - 8/10As an idea Power Pop sort of starts officially with A Hard Day's Night - though Buddy Holly fans would argue that - but it's the 1970s where that idea crystallizes and goes through mutations. This collection attempts to be a introduction and a history of ALL of that and like any such thing it's both marvelous (Shake Some Action) and doomed to fail.....mixing (too much) sugary sweetness that actually charted with better less saccharin ones that didn't as much. But most of the heavy hitters are here and as a record that will lead you down a rabbit hole that you'll never find your way out of in all its nerdy wonderfulness, well mission accomplished, and good luck.
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Post by urbanpatrician on Jan 19, 2021 2:23:46 GMT
I'm in love with Kacey Musgraves.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 19, 2021 10:40:21 GMT
The Kinks - The Kink Kronikles (1966-1970) released 1972........10/10
All 4 of the great British bands of the 1960s have an essential, in period compilation not just a "greatest hits" - The Who Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy, The Rolling Stones Hot Rocks, The Beatles Past Masters (2 separate releases bundled on CD)........and this.
Taking singles, B-sides, deep cuts and marginalia and making it seem jump and down awesome this was what a marvelous compilation looked like before Spotify playlists ........except you're not as skilled at compiling it.
This benefits greatly by being ruthless - plenty is missing but nothing included here deserves to be missing - it tells a specific, and in total overwhelming story of one of the great runs in Rock.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 20, 2021 10:49:58 GMT
Ramones - Road To Ruin (1978) ~8.5 / 10
The original Ramones made just 3 studio albums - all 10's - but here on album #4 some cracks start to show up and not just the drummer - who was not replaceable.
For the first time ever there's a generic rocker (Bad Brain) - and an admirable but stretching themselves too far ballad (Questioningly). That second song is a big deal because they didn't do many ballads before but they tried THREE here (one a cover) - and they also had a far better original - maybe their best ballad ever - that they didn't use .....(I Want You Around).
Still, what's good is REALLY good and not many (or maybe any?) better records from American bands in '78 ....
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 21, 2021 11:08:19 GMT
Shame - Drunk Tank Pink (2021) - 7 / 10 A couple of years ago I posted a song I liked by Shame ........a couple of days ago I posted a new song by Shame.......... and jokingly hinted this may be the record of the year (so far) and that it sounded like Talking Heads and maybe rivaled Sleaford Mods (as record of January) and maybe Fontaines DC (in general) ..... ........now, I like it less...... think it reminds me of Protomartyr or something like that, seems more confused (or spastic) than Sleaford Mods and (far) less artistically controlled than Fontaines DC........and far more like invigorating noise and harsh than the Talking Heads (or Parquet Courts for that matter) ever did and who had corny stuff like melodies. Sleaford Mods new one may be politically tiresome and Fontaines DC's 2nd album may be poetically pretentious but I had more pissed off fun with the former and am more in awe of the artistry of the latter........and I remember the hooks in more of those songs than I do here .......but some people are going to love this like I did 2 days ago - and not change their mind for one second.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 22, 2021 10:45:00 GMT
Cheap Trick - In Color (1977) - ~ around an 8 / 10
The most maddening band - they wrote a few genuine classics on their first 3 commercially flop albums - at first anyway (He's a Whore, Surrender etc.) and a bunch of crap on them too. So of course Cheap Trick eventually became the most famous band ever associated with Power Pop - mostly for those first 3 records. Which seems wrong ........and exactly right.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famers (um) - who took all their weaknesses (daft lyrics, a non-distinct (but heartthrob starry) singer) and put them towards candy coated, syrupy pop on album #2 - even the band thought the production wimped them out (kinda right, permanently) - and the result is their best and most playable/consistent album.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 23, 2021 10:58:54 GMT
The Cars - The Cars (1978) - 8/10
Before the American indie Rock explosion of the early 80s which made this a meaningless point - you could argue that much of the best and most popular AND coolest music of the late 70s - on the radio at least - was on singles by artists like Blondie, The Police, The Cars
They all made albums that played more like singles/compilations and the even "better" artists - The Clash, Talking Heads, Joy Division - all less commercially successful - played at a level where they couldn't be comprehended just by their singles ....... even if their singles were terrific.
That however doesn't really apply to The Cars first album as much which obliterates this distinction by making every song (there's just 9) conceivably a hit single by being triumphs of New Wave minimalism - no song hits 5 minutes without any showing off AND across the 9 songs it is even better than any one individual song:
Chilly, perfect (too perfect) robotic in precision and almost without a wasted note ....... in total far darker than they sounded in just the radio ready singles alone.
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Deceit
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Post by Deceit on Jan 24, 2021 0:54:21 GMT
just going to list the albums I've listened to since I've last posted:
Grim - Great Magi (6/10) Diamanda Galas - Diamanda Galas (8/10) Organum - Horii (7/10) Herbie Hancock - Sextant (8/10) H.N.A.S. - Die Versuchung des Metzgers (7/10) H.N.A.S. - Lottoglück Unt (8.5/10) H.N.A.S. - Puppe oder Girl? (8/10) Current 93 - Ekki er allt gull, sem gloir... Skamt er öfganna á milli (7.5/10) Hiroaki Iizuka - High_Mid_Low (7/10) Dogbowl - Cyclops Nuclear Submarine Captain (7.5/10) Nurse With Wound - Drunk With the Old Man of the Mountains (8.5/10) Bernard Parmegiani - De natura sonorum (9.5/10) Rhys Chatham - Two Gongs (1971) (7.5/10) Steve Roden - Flower & Water (6.5/10) Michel Redolfi - Desert Tracks (8/10)
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 24, 2021 11:06:40 GMT
Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Destiny Street Complete (2021) - 7/ 10
Richard Hell is one of the pivotal yet also somewhat overrated figures in Rock - cool and influential but not at the artistic level he holds himself at or is held at by some. He can really write at times but doesn't have enough work and he's a negligible bass player and singer. To me, he wrote maybe 7-10 spectacular songs (and made a slight contribution to Chinese Rocks).
Hell was in the original Television and The Heartbreakers - but recorded with neither and they both got better when he left (um)...... he made one "classic" album himself but it's a lower tier one imo with obvious high spots.
Which gets us to Destiny Street (1982) his good/not great 2nd (and more or less before "quitting" music, last) album which here is in TWO remastered versions (wtf) AND an entirely new remix (!) which all sound quite similar and when they don't they sound only sometimes improved across all 3 versions.
Then another disc of demos including "Don't Die" - one of those "7-10 spectacular songs" he wrote (but couldn't really sing) which has some of the best lyrics ever written........ by anyone. I've posted it before in the lyrics thread and it's STILL better in the demo than in the new remix.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 25, 2021 11:07:47 GMT
The Pretenders - The Pretenders (1979) ..........9/10Released in the US in the last few days of '79 but usually considered an '80 album (like London Calling) - this is not merely "great" it's great in several ways all at once. Top to bottom with striking songs, mixing ballads and rockers and the band was aces on both ..........a beguiling front-woman, an almost ridiculously well-played record with a killer rhythm section and a flashy, a hot shot but never a show off guitarist. Chrissie Hynde wrote complicated, ambiguous AND direct lyrics, often touching on sex and its detours the way a man would have - tough, frank, unsentimental.....and they were weird too: This song, NOT a single, without a hook or a chorus (!), talked, purred, declared/stated but magnificently SUNG and with a video just because they wanted one for this song....... the most sexually uncomfortable Rock song since maybe Stray Cat Blues......the lyrics, uncompromising and the camera on her when she says a shocking line but not played up for a turn on either. To SEE the band was to get what a force they were here - the only time I ever posted a video in this thread rather than "just" the song. By mid-1983, half the band - with just 2 albums and an EP - was dead ....
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Deceit
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Post by Deceit on Jan 25, 2021 21:27:08 GMT
David Tudor - Rainforest (10/10) Keith Rowe, Oren Ambarchi, Sachiko M, Otomo Yoshihide & Robbie Avenaim - Thumb (9/10) Fennesz - Endless Summer (7/10) Grouper - Water People/Moving Machines (7.5/10) Skullflower - Rift/Avalanche (8/10)
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 26, 2021 11:11:27 GMT
Frank Portman - Show Business Is My Life (1999) - ~ 7.5 / 10
A tough album to rate but if you love him - (you should) - it rewards your sticking with it just like he does in general.
Portman aka "Dr. Frank" and his band, The Mr. T. Experience - made (at least) 2 and 1/2 minor punky classics in a row in the mid-90s - .....the 7 song EP "....And The Women Who Love Them", followed by 2 knockout albums - "Love Is Dead" and "Revenge Is Sweet and So Are You". This has much of their same lovable charm - but is not as visceral or consistent.
Short, very funny songs with most of the punkiness removed - and sure it's maybe 3 jokes/songs too long but still exceptionally clever and very catchy - you'll hum these songs a lot - and he is as winning and self-deprecating as ever.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 27, 2021 11:43:32 GMT
Graham Parker - Squeezing Out Sparks (1979)...........9/10Elvis Costello made 4 better records than this in 4 years straight (76-80) and this sounds a lot like Elvis Costello .......But with the exception of King of America he didn't make any better after 1980 at all. Includes a gut-wrenching and devastating ballad - an "anti-abortion" song in a way - "You Can't Be Too Strong" and if you don't think so because of your politics - that an "anti-abortion" song can ever BE great - well your politics are the same as Parker's actually - but he's just smarter and more honest about it .........and he's able to separate his specific Art from his specific politics to make his great Art. Rock and roll (and the movies) used to daringly do that a lot .....which is why both used to be much better things than they are now.....
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 28, 2021 12:22:01 GMT
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps (1979) - 10/10
A perfect record with a perfect opening lyric too. Thematically connected and integrated without stumbling once.
Starts acoustic, ends raucous and electric......more stunning moments than you can count ...........not my favorite Neil record (that's Tonight's The Night, thanx) .....but it's hard to argue with perfect, yanno?
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 28, 2021 15:22:33 GMT
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps (1979) - 10/10A perfect record with a perfect opening lyric too. Thematically connected and integrated without stumbling once. Starts acoustic, ends raucous and electric......more stunning moments than you can count ...........not my favorite Neil record (that's Tonight's The Night, thanx) .....but it's hard to argue with perfect, yanno? Btw: Weeks after the release of the 10-disc set Archives Volume II 1972-1976 and the live album and film Return to Greendale; Young has announced that Way Down in the Rust Bucket - a 1990 Crazy Horse gig - will come out on February 26th as a film and double album. The show took place November 13th, 1990 in front of 800 fans at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, California. The gig occurred two months after the release of Ragged Glory and just prior to his long arena tour with Sonic Youth and Social Distortion www.hotpress.com/music/neil-young-releasing-crazy-horse-live-album-and-film-in-february-22838649
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 29, 2021 7:42:20 GMT
The Hives - Live At Third Man Records (2020) - ~ 8/10 The laziest recording band BUT the hardest working live band The Hives have cut just 5 full studio albums in 20+ years (gulp) and no studio album at all in EIGHT......that should change soon but their albums are an excuse to add a few concert barn burners anyway - they are a LIVE band. The problem here is this is just 7 songs - which is the format of these things for Third Man - but it smokes for those 7 songs and it's funny and entertaining as sh it too. Lead singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist is in typically hilarious and stylish form telling the crowd his ego is too big for the small stage........and complementing his skin, which is "like a fncking baby"
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 31, 2021 12:45:06 GMT
Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon (1976) - 8 / 10
For an album with this level of writing it should be higher than an 8......but the sterile production and piano up my ass arrangements often gut this whole thing. This needed Jim Dickinson and Jimmy Miller - it got Jackson Browne - who is producing his own record here not really Zevon's.
It says in the liner notes there are "strings" on just 3 songs but it feels like way more than that and the dense, over-elaborate backing vocals don't help. On the other hand some songs avoid this 70s schlock entirely (!?!) - spare and perfect and that put Zevon upfront........ like this one, one of his best
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 1, 2021 9:31:11 GMT
Arctic Monkeys - AM (2013) - just under an 8 / 10
Sometimes a band who's already big makes an album that builds on how big they are - it's not their best but it's better in many ways as a production and a type of record...........Van Halen's 1984 was a record like that for example. Their fans liked it and so did people who never cared about them prior.
So, is this - not quite the equal of their essential first 2 - and eliminating all jagged edges but increasing the directness - this is a beast of a record. Their 3rd "greatish" one and this time everybody's invited to the party. The ballads swoon more, the rockers punch more crisply, the sex appeal is felt throughout - this is a genuinely sexy record.
.......and the closer, a cover, unexpected and perfectly chosen shows that they're not just showing off........which they kind of are.
Bastards.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 2, 2021 11:59:11 GMT
Townes Van Zandt - Delta Momma Blues (1971) - 8+/10
The best way to hear his music is on a compilation because he scattered his great songs or even better in the live setting with all the strings and muck removed. No one really got him recorded right in the studio setting and Live at The Old Quarter is the obvious classic record of his but......this one is better recorded than his other studio albums and has two of his greatest songs, which means 2 of anybody's greatest songs, ever:
Rake and Nothin'......... The rest is never bad and sometimes inspired - Where I Lead Me especially .....and only a half hour long across 10 tracks total.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 3, 2021 11:56:15 GMT
Stiv Bators - Disconnected (1980) - 7.5/10
Strange and fascinating record by a guy who in general is overrated and yet not overrated at all - Bators sings on some great songs - maybe the greatest Punk song ever (a cover, that matters, see below) - all on spotty hit or miss albums - with The Dead Boys or The Lords of the New Church.
This was Bators doing Power Pop in-between those bands and the results seem unusually - "disconnectedly" - to fit his persona more than any other persona - a lot of this is like 60s pop played dangerously. That sounds, of course totally awesome but the material itself is thin - Bators writes very little of this - he could never write that well anyway, so it's more cool as songs than "great" overall.
I play it all the time though - more than anything else he did - lower high points, but no songs to skip and he never pulled that off on any record he sang on.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 4, 2021 11:50:52 GMT
The Rolling Stones - Some Girls (1978) - 9/10The Stones were supposedly shot prior to this record with a few iffy releases after their GOAT 68-72 run - and Jagger/Richards were on the cusp of turning 35 in 1978 which in Rock was ancient then. If you think about it, NO rock band at this age had made a record at this level - the idea of a careerist band didn't even exist. Here, they invent this idea of you can do it 'til you die (stolen from the Blues, again), turn to Punk Rock (which they you know, also invented - Respectable, When The Whip Comes Down) - sounded blacker than 5 pasty skinned Brits ever had before ( Shattered, Just My Imagination), sound more offensive than they ever had before too (REALLY saying something there, Some Girls). Undoubtedly one of '78's best records and maybe - you could make the case anyway - THE best by a band and '78 had records by The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Only Ones, The Clash, The Saints, The Jam so it wasn't like there wasn't stiff competition.........and this blockbuster outsold all of them, maybe combined.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 5, 2021 11:42:05 GMT
Joy Division - Les Bains Douches 18 December 1979 (2001)........8.5+ / 10 The singular band at the famous French venue - for the first 9 songs at least - the rest are from 2 different shows in the Netherlands a few weeks later. Those first 9 songs are thrilling and a coherent whole, frightening in their intensity and control and abandon - this reminds you that the reason they have no peer at this stuff - (looking at you The Cure ) is that they were first and foremost a ferocious ROCK band who loved corny shit like guitars, bass and drums - not just dweeby aesthetes - this music pulsates, sweats and lives. The last 7 songs can't quite match that, and are recorded less crisply ....but THIS occurs in the later half - an astonishing take on "Atrocity Exhibition" months before it was unleashed on their 2nd record - like their first a "10" (duh)..........and here much more wild, threatening ............and threatening to spin out of control and as such......even more nerve rattling. The screams/howls at 5:30
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Post by DaleCooper on Feb 7, 2021 11:10:43 GMT
The latest EP from Swedish post/sludge-metal band Cult of Luna is just as good as most of the other things they have released. It definitely sounds like a follow up to 2019's A Dawn To Fear which was an absolutely fantastic album as well. Only listened to it once as of yet, but feels like it will get even better with time. 8/10
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