Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 18, 2024 12:10:41 GMT -5
I did hate that album cover though. Yeah, "Confederacy chic" hasn't worn well, has it?
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 17, 2024 19:20:27 GMT -5
#10 – Ian Tyson – Eighteen Inches of Rain
I only know Ian Tyson from his early '60s Ian & Sylvia folk recordings. These two tracks are OK, but they sound a bit slick and "safe" production and performance-wise. The songs aren't bad at all, but I think I'd have liked them more if they had a bit more grit to them.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 17, 2024 18:56:55 GMT -5
OK, Top 10 albums of 1994 then. This was a really strong year for albums in my view; several records that I really like didn't make the top 10 because there was just so much competition. Anyway, here we go... #10 - Give Out but Don't Give Up by Primal ScreamOne of the things I love about Primal Scream is that no two albums of theirs sound the same. That's certainly true about this album, which followed the band's 1991 ecstasy-drenched, dance music masterpiece Screamadelica. For Give Out but Don't Give Up, the band travelled to Ardent Studios in Memphis to record with legendary producer Tom Dowd (and later George Drakoulias) and came back with something that recalled the classic rock swagger of early '70s Rolling Stones or the Faces. Though there had been signposts to this change in musical direction on 1992's Dixie-Narco EP, for most fans it came as a total shock. And the critics hated the album! Still, it reached #2 in the UK charts and hits like "Rocks" and "Jailbird" became '90s classics (at least here in the UK). Myself, I like the album every bit as much as Screamadelica. "Jailbird" is a great, hip-shakin' opener, while the album's other big hit, "Rocks", is an energetic, Stonesy stomper. Other stand out tracks include "Big Jet Plane", which brings to mind prime Allman Brothers Band, and "(I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind", a gentle ballad that wouldn't have sounded out of place on the Faces' early '70s albums. Special mention as well to "Sad and Blue", for being a simply gorgeous slide guitar, harmonica and gospel choir adorned gem, with the Primals at their most down-home, stoned and fatigued. The band hadn't completely abandoned their dance club leanings though: the descriptively named "Funky Jam" invokes the spirit of the Parliament-Funkadelic collective (George Clinton guests on vocals) and was always an "indie disco floor filler" back in the day. The languid, groove-based title track also features Clinton. I'm gonna pick the single "Jailbird" to showcase the album. This is just a kick-ass song – a slinky-sounding, whisky-swiggin' rocker, with a killer guitar riff and a great sing-along chorus featuring totally inappropriate lyrics ("Gimme more of that Jailbird pie").
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 17, 2024 14:48:06 GMT -5
Here's the front, let me know if you think I'm a madwoman, or if it's so crazy it just might work Very cool. I have to say, if it were me, I wouldn't give two sh*ts about the stain on the back, but your mileage obviously varies, which is fair enough. Hope it cleans up well for you.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 17, 2024 14:14:55 GMT -5
Yes I know that song now I hear it again, not sure I ever knew the title or the name of the band. Great tune. Is the rest of their stuff as good as the hit single? Oh yeah, if you like that song you will definitely enjoy the rest of The Sundays stuff. It's very representative of their music generally.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 17, 2024 12:33:01 GMT -5
McLaren released Carmen as a single? Didn't know that. What an error in judgement (says I with my vast experience as a record company executive) - any one of the others would have been better. I think I've heard a few individual tracks from Ducks but no the whole album. I'll have to give it a listen to see for sure, it's been so long. I like MBV a lot, though Loveless was the only album I actually heard at the time it came out. I've managed to find several of their other cds since then over the years, though I see fro their discography I'm missing their 2013 comeback album. I don't think I've heard anything of Slowdive or the Sundays, but I like this kind of thing so I'll be keeping an eye out for their stuff now. Yeah, "Carmen" was a single (at least here in the UK), but you're verdict of that being "an error in judgement" is probably a good one since it missed the charts completely (Wikipedia tells me that it actually got to #79). The My Bloody Valentine comeback album from 2013 is pretty good, though not as good as Loveless, predictably, or even Isn't Anything for that matter. But if you're already "on the bus" with the band, which you are, you'll find plenty to enjoy there. As for The Sundays, I'm sure you'll have heard "Here's Where the Story Ends", which is a fantastic song and was a bit of an "indie disco hit" in 1991 (Wikipedia tells me it was a number 1 on the U.S. Alternative Chart). I'd be surprised if you'd not heard this.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 17, 2024 12:04:16 GMT -5
Hey, Slam_Bradley , berkley , and EdoBosnar , I'm just drawing up my 1994 list and I'm wondering if it's OK to include live albums in our yearly lists? Or is it best we limit it to studio albums only? I'm not generally a fan of live albums, but there are a few exceptions (one of which came out in '94). But by their very nature, live albums almost always feature songs from across a band's whole career, so they aren't representative of a set period in that artist's history like a studio album is. Thoughts? I'm fine with live albums and have included a few. If I were to go back in the the 60s (which I might at some point) "At Folsom Prison," "At San Quentin" and "Okie From Muskogee" would almost certainly make my lists for their respective years. Jerry Jeff Walker's "Viva Terlingua" which was on my list for 1973 is technically a live album, though it doesn't quite feel like one. I suppose the thing this, any live album chosen should probably be a contemporary release though, in terms of it having been recorded at a recent gig, rather than an archival release of an old gig. Like, David Bowie's Santa Monica '72 came out in 1994, but it captures a gig from 22 years earlier, so that shouldn't be eligable as a 1994 album for the purposes of our lists. But Bob Marley's Live! is fine (if you choose it for 1975) because it was recorded at a gig 4 months before it was released.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 17, 2024 11:43:13 GMT -5
Hey, Slam_Bradley, berkley, and EdoBosnar, I'm just drawing up my 1994 list and I'm wondering if it's OK to include live albums in our yearly lists? Or is it best we limit it to studio albums only? I'm not generally a fan of live albums, but there are a few exceptions (one of which came out in '94). But by their very nature, live albums almost always feature songs from across a band's whole career, so they aren't representative of a set period in that artist's history like a studio album is. Thoughts?
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 17, 2024 10:27:00 GMT -5
Fantastic choice! I'm so glad to see somebody else choose this album because it only narrowly mised my Top 10. The track "Madame Butterfly" is worth the price of admission alone, it's just a stunning piece of work. But there are plenty of other enjoyable opera/dance pop fusions to enjoy too ("Boys Chorus" and "Death of Butterfly" are other stand out tracks for me). I know what you mean about "Carmen"; I'm not sure I'd go as far as you and call it an out-and-out "dud", but it was certainly a disappointing follow-up single to the sublime "Madame Butterfly". Do you know McLaren's previous album Duck Rock? That's much more hip-hop flavoured, though combined with lots of World Music elements, such as South African Township Jive and Colombian dance bands. It's a really interesting listen; "Buffalo Gals" and "Double Dutch" were the two big hits from it over here in the UK, but I don't know if they did much in the U.S.? Treasure - the Cocteau Twins I'm not massively knowledgeable about the Cocteau Twins, but there's the odd song of theirs that I know, such as "Heaven or Las Vegas" and "Bluebeard". Really, for me I know them more as a band that influenced a lot of the shoegaze and jangly indie bands that I love, such as My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and the Sundays. 1984.4 A Pagan Place - the WaterboysLike you, I got into the Waterboys via the Fisherman's Blues album in 1988 and I only went back and started investigating their earlier stuff in the 2000s. To be honest, my investigation of their earlier stuff is limited to the compilation album The Best of The Waterboys '81–'90, so I don't the A Pagan Place album in its entirety. The songs from that album that I do know are "The Big Music" and "All The Things She Gave Me". I really like the song you posted, "A Pagan Place", on first listen. Reckoning - R.E.M Confessor already posted So. Central Rain so I'll go with Don't Go Back to Rockville, which has more of a country swing to it than most of their material: Reckoning is a cracking good album. I love "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" too. Broadcasting from Home - the Penguin Café Orchestra I know this! This is the music from the end of the film Napolean Dynamite, though it's not the same version. Can't say I've heard of the Penguin Café Orchestra, is this similar to their other stuff?
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 17, 2024 8:49:14 GMT -5
#11 – The Brian Setzer Orchestra – The Brian Setzer Orchestra
I don't know this album, but Brian Setzer is a dude, so I'm sure it'd be worth a listen. I know the Stray Cats 80s stuff reasonably well, due in large part to a teenage friend having been a fairly big fan. Given the retro roots of his Stray Cats stuff, I guess having Setzer do a swing album with a big band must've seemed like a bit of a no-brainer.
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Post by Confessor on Apr 17, 2024 8:29:43 GMT -5
And my all-time favourite album from 1984 is... #1 - Hatful of Hollow by The SmithsI like all The Smiths most popular songs but have never gotten into their albums, for no particular reason. Sounds like this might be the best one for me to start with and I'll be having a look for it soon.
Oh man, Hatful of Hollow is just one of those "bury me with this album" type of records for me. A real "soundtrack of my life" kind of album. You really can't go wrong with it...though, as I mentioned, many fans don't consider it a bona fide Smiths album, due to its contents coming from different sources -- radio sessions, recent non-album singles, new studio recordings etc. But all of its contents (except one song) were committed to tape within a 14 month period, and there are plenty of albums by other acts with recordings spread out over a similar period or even longer. So, if that's the criteria we use to define an album by, then Let It Be ain't a proper Beatles album either! I had taped singles like "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now", "William, It Was Really Nothing" and "How Soon is Now?" off the radio in 1984, but I didn't actually buy Hatful of Hollow until 1987, when I picked it up on cassette. Once I heard it in its entirety it was instantly my new favourite album at that time. It was a hugely influential album for me in terms of my songwriting too (if I may flatter myself to mention my own songs in the same sentence as Morrissey and Marr ). I actually own three copies of this album these days: a pristine first UK vinyl pressing from 1984, a CD reissue from 1993, and my original old, battered, well-loved cassette. Definitely find yourself a copy, you won't be sorry you did.
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Post by Confessor on Apr 17, 2024 8:03:45 GMT -5
I never had any Prince albums but I liked the 1999 album, which I heard at a friend's house. I would probably like this one too, since all the hits were good. Maybe I got a little tired of it on the radio. He was a huge talent, undoubtedly. I have a bad impression of him as a person because of some story I heard about him involving Sinead O'Connor. I think he was certainly a very complex person. And not a little strange too, to be brutally honest. I'm not sure what story you are referring to regarding Sinead O'Connor, but I know in the 2000s he developed a bit of a dislike of other artists covering his material, regardless of the songwriting royalties it brought him. That always struck me as a bit weird insofar as he was being financially compensated for those covers and also because he was an artist who regularly gave songs away to other acts -- and, in fact, "Nothing Compares 2 U" was given to The Family years before O'Connor recorded it (if that is the gist of the story that you're referring to?). Myself, I loved Prince back in the '80s and still do...but only up to a point. I enjoy and own all of his albums (and several bootlegs) from his debut in 1978 up to the point in 1993 where he changed his name to "symbol" or The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. His last couple of albums prior to that -- Love Symbol and Come -- were patchy as hell, but I drew the line when he released the God-awful "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" single. That song was a piece of cheesy sh*t unbefitting of an artist of Prince's magnitude and I never bought another album by him. Still, there was a golden period from between, say, 1980's Dirty Mind album and Diamonds and Pearls in 1991 where his output was incredibly good and incredibly prolific.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 16, 2024 12:50:43 GMT -5
5. Sade – Diamond LifeSade’s debut album, which immediately put her and her band on the map. It has a number of their more popular songs and still stands as one of the all-time great smooth jazz albums (together with 1985’s Promise – which, if I’m being honest, I like a bit better). I only know the two hit singles from this: "Your Love is King" and "Smooth Operator". This kind of smooth "sophisti-pop" isn't really my cup of tea, but those two singles are excellent examples of the sub-genre and Sade herself certainly has a fantastic voice. I know the album is very well regarded among audiophiles too because it's a beautifuly produced and engineered album. 4. Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Welcome to the Pleasuredome3. U2 – The Unforgettable Fire2. Prince – Purple Rain Clearly I'm not gonna argue with any of those three choices. Three great albums which provide a glimpse at just how diverse sounding mid-80s pop/rock could actually be.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 15, 2024 22:23:41 GMT -5
And my all-time favourite album from 1984 is... #1 - Hatful of Hollow by The SmithsManchester band The Smiths are simply one of the most important and influential British bands of the last 50 years and I will die on that hill. Their impact on UK indie guitar bands and alternative rock in general is hard to overstate. They are also easily one of my Top 10 all-time favourite musical acts ever. Hatful of Hollow was the band's second album, but it's a bit of a weird one and very often not really considered a "proper" Smiths album. Though in my book it is absolutely a legitimate album by the group. What happened was that the band (along with some fans and critics) were disappointed with the slightly sterile, "polished" sound of their debut album. The band's radio sessions from this era had presented a lot of the same material in far more lively and passionate renditions. The idea was hatched to issue some of these radio sessions, as a way of addressing the criticism that the production on the Smith's debut album was receiving from some quarters. These radio tracks were accompanied by some newly recorded material, recent non-album singles that the band had issued since their debut album, a few B-sides, and the original single version of "Hand in Glove" (which was again far superior to the weaker version found on their debut LP). The result was Hatful of Hollow, a brilliant, sixteen track summation of what it was that made the Smiths so special in their earliest period. Classic UK hits like the wistful, but venomous "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" – a song that lyrically straddles the blurred line between loneliness and misanthropy – and "William, It Was Really Nothing", sit beside all-time classic Smiths tracks like "How Soon Is Now?" (the song that even people who don't like the Smiths like!) and "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want". Other stand out tracks – and this is an album consisting entirely of stand-out tracks, in my opinion – would be "This Night Has Opened My Eyes", "Still Ill", and "Back to the Old House". The band's debut single "Hand in Glove" is a contender for 'Greatest love song ever written', as far as I'm concerned, with a rollicking musical backing and beautifully honest lyrics, which capture the intense, self-involved rush of romantic infatuation – " Hand in glove, the sun shines out of our behinds/No, it's not like any other love/This one is different, because it's us." Since it contains vastly superior renditions of key songs from the band's debut album, I have always thought that a good case could be made for treating Hatful of Hollow as the Smiths' debut proper, while bypassing the first album altogether. Like, this is the band's debut 2.0. Anyway, here's the single edit of the majestic and hypnotic "How Soon Is Now?", which I guess is probably the most famous song from the album…
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 15, 2024 21:22:09 GMT -5
#1 – Los Lobos – How Will the Wolf Survive
I don't know a ton of Los Lobos' stuff, but you can't really go too far wrong with their late '80s output. Like the majority of folks, I suspect, my first exposure to them was via their 1987 smash hit cover of "La Bamba" from the Ritchie Valens biopic of the same name. They had another hit with a Valens cover here in the UK with "Come On, Let's Go", taken from the same film soundtrack, of course. I remember hearing the band's '87 album By the Light of the Moon several times back in the day, but I'm not sure much of it really sticks in my head all these years later, though it was always a fun album to listen to.
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