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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 16, 2024 12:10:32 GMT -5
O.k., here's part 2 (the top 5!) of 1984, in which there are few surprises because except for one they've all been seen before: 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). 4. Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Welcome to the PleasuredomeAlready chosen by Confessor with the same ranking, and he explained quite well why this album was so insanely cool to many of us teens back then, and why its synth-heavy rhythms and beats are still a kick to listen to (and dance to when no one’s watching...). And here’s another track awesome track to sample: 3. U2 – The Unforgettable FireLike many people these days, I have to make the obligatory caveat that I don’t like U2 anywhere near as much as I used to (e.g. if you had asked me any time in the late ‘80s and into the early ‘90s to list my favorite bands, they definitely would have been in the top five), but I have to acknowledge that even now I think this is a still a very good album – probably their best (with Joshua Tree and War tied for second place). Back in 1984, of course, I was absolutely spellbound. Anyway, since Confessor (again!) already mentioned it, and I agree with most of his assessments, I won’t drone on about it here. 2. Prince – Purple RainYet again, Confessor beat me to it. But I'm not surprised that at least one other person had this on their list. Does it really need explaining? I remember that it seemed like an explosion when it was first released – and was even accompanied by an eponymous feature-length music video that pretended to be a movie (with a few bonus guest tracks by Morris Day & the Time). Yeah, part of the reason I picked this is just the memory of enjoying it so much back in the day, as well as its pop cultural impact back then, but the individual tracks still hold up quite well. This is just a really good album. 1. Bob Marley & the Wailers – LegendI’m glad Slam_Bradley paved the way for allowing this one, even though it’s a compilation. However, given that it’s my no. 1 pick, I think I would have included it anyway. I’ll just add that a high school chum of mine turned me on to this – he loaned me his cassette, and after I played it through about one and half times, I went out and bought my own copy, and then listened to it endlessly.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 16, 2024 11:44:03 GMT -5
Primal Magic is great, I love Stringweave too. I don't think they've ever made a bad album though. Jorge Strunz also had his solo album Neotropical Nocturnes in a similar musical style. Speaking of Jorge, not sure if you've ever listened to his prior work in the 70's with Caldera. Different animal overall, more of a fusion outfit kind of in the spirit of Return to Forever with the use of electric instruments, but you can still hear some basic roots of what he would evolve into with Strunz & Farah. Their second album Sky Islands I find particularly enjoyable. Back on Strunz & Farah, their In Performance DVD is well worth checking out if you haven't already seen it. I really need to find the time to listen to some of their newer material (which I'm sure is quite good); the last album of theirs that I had and am familiar with is Americas. Haven't seen the performance DVD, either, but I was lucky enough to see them live back in the early 1990s (can't remember if it was '91 or '92) - it was a great outdoor concert, by the way, in an amphitheater at a winery in the foothills east of San Jose, CA.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 16, 2024 4:57:34 GMT -5
(...)
Strunz and Farah - totally new to me, but I like that track. For all its virtuosity there also something primal about it. I'd like to hear more.
Interesting that you used the word 'primal.' As I said in my post, my first - and by far still favorite - album of theirs is Primal Magic. Every individual track is outstanding, and together they're, well, magic.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 15, 2024 7:32:26 GMT -5
Worked out the top of my list, so decided to post my picks in two intallments this time. So here's 1984 (6-10).
I should note that as with 1974, I found it a bit hard to come up with a list, which is a bit surprising, as by this time I was in my mid-teens and more actively listening to, thinking about and purchasing music. However, it seems that not many individual albums came out this year captured my fancy (meanwhile, going either backward to 1983 or forward to 1985 I think I could easily compile pretty big lists). However, there are a few here that I *really* loved back then and still enjoy now.
10. King Crimson – Three of a Perfect Pair This is very much an honorable mention entry, as I wanted to give a shout-out to the band’s re-formed, Adrian Belew phase – my favorite era of King Crimson is still the first phase and esp. with that mid-‘70s line-up (as evidenced by two of their albums appearing on my 1974 list), but I am fond of this period as well, although mainly 1981’s Discipline, which is pretty damned awesome. The follow-up, Beat, was not quite as good, and this one, I think, is in turn a bit of a step down from that one. Still, it’s a solid release – while many tracks seem to lack that spark that made Discipline in particular so good, the raw talent of veteran members Fripp and Bruford, plus the ‘new guys,’ bassist Tony Levin and, of course, Belew, is still evident here.
9. Honeydrippers – Volume 1 Yeah, it’s not a full album, and yeah, all of the tracks are covers, but crap, they are done so well. Who would have thought that Led Zeppelin’s lead singer would excel at belting out old rock standards from the ‘50s/‘60s? Back when it was first released, I couldn’t get enough of it, especially “Rockin’ at Midnight”:
8. Don Henley – Building the Perfect Beast This one surprised me as a 1984 release, because I so associate it with my senior year of high school, 1985/86, when several songs from it were played extensively on most top 40 and AOR radio stations (it was in fact released late in ’84). Anyway, I really liked this album back then, and even now, I enjoy listening to many of the individual tracks – partly because I think they’re just good, but admittedly also due to nostalgia. So many of them put me back in that place in the mid-1980s, esp. my favorite track from it, then and now, “Sunset Grill”:
7. Branford Marsalis – Scenes in the City I first became aware of Branford Marsalis after Sting released his first solo album (The Dream of the Blue Turtles), when his band included a number of mainly jazz musicians (which, besides Marsalis, most notably included keyboardist Kenny Kirkland and drummer Omar Hakim). Not long after that, I ended up getting his (Branford’s) then newly-released album, Royal Garden Blues, and a few subsequent ones, and also sampled his earlier stuff, like this one, his first solo album, which is pretty damn good (and I have to say, I like it better than his kid brother Wynton’s release from the same year, Hot House Flowers – consider this an honorable mention – even though the latter got more critical acclaim and even picked up some awards; I’ve always liked Branford’s music better, partly due to the fact that I prefer sax to trumpet, but also because Branford’s music just seems, I don’t know, warmer to me).
6. Strunz & Farah – Frontera This is another one that surprised me as a 1984 release (thanks to @kal – I think? Can’t seem to find the post now – for pointing it out), as its year of release never registered with me; I discovered Strunz & Farah some time in late 1990 or 1991, when a co-worker recommended their then pretty new release Primal Magic. I was instantly hooked, and to this day I think that’s by far their best album. However, I did go back and get some of their earlier stuff and of that, I think Frontera is probably one of their stronger releases.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 14, 2024 11:52:39 GMT -5
^^ What happens when you bring a knife to a gunfight.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 14, 2024 10:04:26 GMT -5
My login in never holds on this site. To even look at a thread I have to log in every time I come here. Not a big problem, since my PC remembers my login ID. But it is curious. This does not happen on my tablet. Does this happen to anyone else? Yes, and just for my notebook - which I use at home and is my main device. When I go into the office once about once a week, my pc there does not require me to log in again. No idea why and not really sure how to fix it.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 14, 2024 3:05:35 GMT -5
Oh, geez. Gonna take a cue from Slam_Bradley in another thread. Not worth the aggravation...
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 14, 2024 2:53:09 GMT -5
Catching up with this thread after just glancing at it over the past few days; on the topic of 1984 albums, I'll just say that Legend and Unforgettable Fire will reappear when I get around to drawing up my own list (and I strongly suspect that at least one of my other picks will also appear before I get around to posting). Otherwise, I know I've heard some of James Cotton's material before, the guy's voice and the songs are really familiar, but I never connected a name to the music, so thanks for that, Slam_Bradley. And I never liked the Scorpions, not back then, nor now ("The Zoo" is the only song of theirs that I like).
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 12, 2024 12:15:37 GMT -5
Once a publisher recolors a comic for collection, don't they generally use that recoloring for all subsequent collections? IIRC, Simonson's entire run wasn't collected before they put out the omnibus. Is the entire run available with original coloring, in collected editions? (...) His entire run was first collected in five 'Thor Visionaries' tpbs, starting in 2000 - which indeed have the original coloring. The omnibus was only published in 2010 or 2011. However, I don't think those tpbs are in print anymore. All of mine are either used or remaindered copies.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 12, 2024 11:48:44 GMT -5
Yeah, that's a pretty hefty book. Since you mentioned the Simonson Thor omnibus, I have to say that the latter's size was one of one two reasons I decided against it (the other was the recoloring, which I really didn't like) and went for the tpbs instead. I think my limit for an omnibus is about 700 pages - like the Simonson (again!) Orion book. Otherwise, on the topic of Astro City reprint collections, I'm more interested in the Metrobooks, esp. the first, second and third volumes.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 12, 2024 4:29:14 GMT -5
(...) I'm going with my PS Artbook facsimile edition of one of the earliest graphic novels, with gorgeous art by the inestimable Matt Baker... It Rhymes with Lust
This week it's my turn to express pleasure at seeing a book here that I also own. It's a wonderfully done reprint, with - obviously - beautiful art and a pretty good story as well. So this week, I'll pick something similar: another rather recent, and nicely done, reprint of a book that until then had been pretty hard to find at anything resembling a reasonable price. I'm talking about Alien: The Illustrated Story by Archie Goodwin and the incomparable Walt Simonson that was originally published by Heavy Metal Magazine...
I've gushed about this adaptation at length before, both on this forum and on other comics-related sites, so I'll just say here that this is a book I'm so pleased to own. I think it really sets the standard for how movies should be adapted to comics.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 11, 2024 7:10:54 GMT -5
Indigo
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 11, 2024 1:55:19 GMT -5
What sad news to wake up to. Truly a great loss.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 10, 2024 12:01:03 GMT -5
Incredible Hulk & the Thing: The Big Change (Marvel Graphic Novel vol. 29, 1987)
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 10, 2024 4:16:47 GMT -5
They aren't like, well, slow? Electric ones have a top speed of about 8 mph, but diesel ones can reach up to 18 mph. That will outrun most people. As someone who used to be certified to drive a gas-powered (LPG) forklift, I can confirm that those can also hit speeds of about 20 mph.
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