Day 51 - Ups and Downs

Quite a big update today from recent listenings, as I noticed that I have five albums to review on here since the last time I put something up. Ups and downs refers to the fact that some of these I found utterly terrible, others very good.

Mary J Blige - Share my World
Keep an open mind .... keep an open mind. It's "R&B" again. It's getting to the point that I know exactly what I am going to get when kicking off an album labelled R&B. Plenty of R, absolutely no B. In fact, I am not even sure why they call this R&B unless the acronym implies something other than rhythm and blues. Anyway, for the genre it isn't bad - samples galore, lots of hip hop and rappers erm... rapping. Blige's voice is pretty sweet, but the music is the same as every other bloody R&B record I have listened to, is obssessed with love, self, love of self, and quite frankly, boring. Presumably it'll be over soon, although as I type this, a nice little guitar solo in "Seven Days" catches my attention, bright spot in an otherwise dark hour.
Standout Tracks: Round and Round, Seven Days

Blue Ash - No more, no less
I'm not going to be able to listen to this in its entirety - the only album Google Play has is a "greatest hits" sort of affair, 1972-1979, but I can get most of the tunes that were on this LP off that album. Jangly guitars and harmonised vocals abound, more reminiscent of 1960s pop fare than 1970s stuff. I have managed to listen to most of the tracks, and they are all 60s pop, not much in the way of variety from track to track, so I don't think I need the whole thing to get the idea. It's fairly pleasant stuff, just a little uninteresting and dull.
Standout Tracks: Meh

Blue Magic - The Best Of
I wish, I truly do, that I hadn't made a promise to myself to listen to each of these albums in their entirety. This is utter, utter tripe. I can put up with most types of music, but this schmoozing, falsetto laced, symphonic rubbish is really poisoning my ears. How anyone can listen to this and enjoy it is quite beyond me. Personal taste, I know, but honestly. The only tracks I didn't hate are listed in the standouts, they had a decent disco vibe to them, and aren't in truth bad efforts when stacked up next to the rest of the album. There's a decent bit of slap bass in the final track, but nowhere near enough to redeem this drivel, thank heavens this is nearly over.
Standout Tracks: Welcome to the club, Freak-N-Stein

The Blue Nile - A Walk across the rooftops
80s pop, but I will admit to rather enjoying this album. A Scottish band, they follow the footsteps of Simple Minds and the like with that 1980s vibe, but not quite so ... massive. The songs are very well crafted, melancholy in places, and very uplifting in others. In contrast to a lot of synthesiser based 1980s stuff, it sounds genuine and real. Enjoyable album, but not one that I would go back to in a great hurry, as there are plenty of bands out there that did this sort of thing (the one The Blue Nile remind me of the most is Deacon Blue, and I certainly had enough of that in my teenage years!). Overall though, good effort, and a good listen.
Standout Tracks: Easter Parade

Blur - Parklife
Admittedly not one I have been looking forward to, but here goes. A friend and I once went to a festival where Blur were playing on the mainstage, so we turned up to watch, stayed as long as we could stand it. Almost an entire song! Went off and watched Hundred Reasons instead. I am going to have to grudgingly admit that this album is really very good - highly inventive, musically diverse and interesting. Albarn's irritating Essex boy thing is still as grating as ever, but I'm willing to forgive that in favour of the music. Perhaps I am in a more mature place now than 20 years ago (like to think so!) and able to appreciate the album for what it is - a pleasant journey through 1990s southern Britain. Certain tunes are reminiscent of British psychedelia (Kevin Ayers, early Floyd for example), such as Magic America. All in all, enjoyable, 20 years on.
Standout Tracks: End of the Century, Parklife, To the End,

Day 50 - Catching up, and carrying on

So it's been a few months since I listened to some albums on my list, so this first post is just to catch up with a couple of albums and reviews that I listened to back then, but never got around to posting. Then it's back on the trail, with a brand new Google Play subscription that opens up the whole list to me (more or less!). No more dodgy downloads....

Art Blakey - A Night at Birdland
Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Art Blakey, does it get any better! Live at Birdland in 1954, with the bebop scene in full swing (pun intended!) this is an example of improvisational jazz at its very best. The double bass and drums drives the piano comping, while some utterly brilliant trumpet and sax blows over the top. An album of jazz tunes that I don't really know that well, the exception being Night in Tunisia, but it's an opportunity to hear how the music should be played. Really good album, but on a side note when the audience applauds there sounds like there is only about ten people in the joint!
Standout Tracks: Night in Tunisia

Carla Bley - Escalator Over the Hill
More wierd shizzle. This is a strange concoction of jazz, noise, people blowing the living daylights out of saxophones in an attempt to make screaming noises instead of notes. Reminds me of Albert Ayler and his bunch of tosh way back in the early days of this journey. This album doesn't know what it wants to be, lots of chromaticism, out of tune instruments, wailing and warbling. Arty farty stuff - not very good at all. Years ahead of its time the blurb said about it - perhaps so many years ahead that we haven't actually arrived at "it's time" yet. I'm a fan of odd music, but it's safe to say I won't be going back to this mixture of tuneless drivel for a while.

Standout Tracks: Why (It's not good, it just stands out as having a melody).

I suppose some sort of minor celebration is in order, as this is my 50th post on the blog (or alternatively, and more accurately, the 50th day I have spent listening to all manner of music from the wierd to the wonderful, the sublime to the shi....). Been a good journey all told so far, here's to the next 50 posts!

Day 49 - Blackstreets back, ok? No!

Blackstreet - Blackstreet
I feel like bashing my head on the desk repeatedly. This album has started with one of those soft porn beats, synths, some bloke going on about sex and sounding like he's smoking a joint (which he probably is). It hasn't started well. It hasn't continued well either. This week is one of those weeks where I just can't find much to like in the music I am forcing myself to listen to - another album where I wish I hadn't made that promise to myself to listen to each one in its entirety and skip nothing. Utter tripe.
Standout Tracks: Having a laugh right..

Day 48 - Black Wednesday

Cilla Black - The Abbey Road Decade
Someone is having a laugh here surely. Cilla? I know she's one of our own but really ... one of the top 1000 albums of all time? Oh well, we'll give it a go, all 24 tracks! Well, I'm on track 3, and already want this pain to end - Cilla can belt it out for sure, and some of the musicianship in the background is good, but the songs are truly, truly awful. I guess you had to be there to appreciate it. Please, make it stop. Why did I ever agree to listen to every album in its entirety, when albums like this come along and I just want them to end? Back in an hour .... (Edit: Some time later ... she's still going ... only 1 more song after this. The suffering is nearly at an end)
Standout Tracks: None, all crap.

Black Uhuru - Red
Wonderful, more reggae. Reggae seems to be featuring quite prominently on this list of 1000 albums, but maybe that's just my perception as I don't enjoy it very much. This album seems to be all at one pace, like their metronome got stuck on 70bpm and never moved. One thing I do like is it's written in a very minor key, so the music is a little darker than your average reggae album, and it's loaded with almost jazz like chord progressions, but like most reggae the constant skanking and Jamaican vocals really do start to grate on my nerves after a while. For reggae, it's quite good, for me, it's dull.
Standout Tracks: Rockstone, Carbine

Day 47 - A fine debut

Bjork - Debut
When I first met my wife this was one of the CDs that she had on her CD shelf. I didnt take much notice as at that stage I wasn't really in a place to appreciate any music other than rock and metal. Things are different these days, and the oddity of Bjork is something that appeals a to me a little more now. This is a really interesting album, I know its pop music (which I ordinarily hate) but its very creative, and Bjork herself weaves an odd path through familiar chord progressions. Wierd, truly, but cool and inventive.
Standout Tracks: Human Behaviour

Day 46 - Meh! Meh! Meh!

Big Youth - Screaming Target
I was expecting reggae when reading the description of this album, and sure enough reggae is provided. Much Jamaican accented wailing, skanking, and deep bass lines grooving their way through each track. The record is not bad, but reggae is not my thing, as I have probably stated before. It has a certain purity to it though, a feeling that the music is not commercial, nor written for a large audience, but is a genuine outpouring of the songwriters feelings and experiences. Vaguely enjoyable, as many of the tracks are of the laid back, Malibu drinking type, rather than the upbeat protest and political stuff that reggae sometimes churns out. I don't particularly like it, but I do respect it.
Standout Tracks: They all sound pretty much the same, nothing standing out.

The Birthday Party - Prayers on Fire
Weird shizzle. This album has to be listened to in order to appreciate how odd it is. It's always interesting I will grant you that. It's creepy in places, but always inventive, and Nick Cave (who I am familiar with) has that haunting vocal style that demands to be listened to. Dissonance plays a big part in this album, but unlike other tunes that dissonance never quite resolves itself, leaving you on edge throughout the album (Resolve! Resolve, dammit!). It's not bad, it's just plain weird. On a completely side note, the production is either terrible on this album, or Google Play has a particularly bad version!
Standout Tracks: Ho Ho, Yard (for pure oddness)

Day 45: One of those "save meee!" moments

Betty Boo - Boomania
The name is familiar, and the music is vaguely familiar, I guess she was all over the radio back in the day when I was at University - but I can guarantee to you that I would have turned off said radio as soon as this rubbish came on. Betty Boo is from London but likes to rap like she is from New York, loads of synths stab away in the background while she drones on and on. This really is not my thing, but I'll push on like a true soldier and try to find at least one track that stands out above the rest of this mediocre pop rubbish. Absolute drivel, the standout tracks only stand out because they are not as bad as all the others. Different tastes I guess. There's a couple of remixes at the end of the record .. don't mind if I give those a miss do you?
Standout Tracks: Valentines Day was vaguely ok.. Don't Know What to Do.

Big Brother and the Holding Company - Cheap Thrills
I should take these albums in isolation, but I have to say after the last load of tripe (Betty Boo) this is a breath of 60s infused fresh air. Funky blues, rasping Joplin, and just a little bit on the unhinged side. It's incredible how abrasive Janis Joplin's voice is, yet still remains great to listen to - and the guitars that complement her are in the style of that warm 60s fuzz/twang combination, the solos in Summertime being a wonderful example. Some tracks are akin to rock and roll, some are more traditional blues, with a little jazz thrown in there on occasion. A splendid mixture of cool 60s style.
Standout Tracks: I need a man to Love, Summertime, Turtle Blues, and of course Piece of my Heart

Big Star - Radio City
Well, it's nice. Hard to classify, as it's not quite rock - perhaps soft rock would be appropriate. Melodic and laden with jangling guitars and major chords, the record has plenty of melody and tune but is not doing anything for me at all. It's nice enough, but that's just it, perhaps too nice and cute. There are moments on the album that are very good, but the whole thing is just ... well, in the words of my ranking system on these albums ... meh! Wikipedia describes them as "power pop" which I suppose is an apt description, with the addition of jangling guitars (not a sound I particularly enjoy - think "The Byrds"). Overall, a disappointing experience given the accolades poured onto this band.
Standout Tracks: You get what you deserve, Morpha Too, I'm in love with a girl