Number 150: Darkness on the Edge of Town (Draft)

Album: Darkness on the Edge of Town

Artist: Bruce Springsteen

Year: 1978

Information: Finally after entering the recording studio after a long bout of legal troubles, Springsteen had become incredibly prolific in his songwriting. It was normal to write a song while in the studio, then record it immediately after with a full band.Perhaps disillusioned by his new found fame, Springsteen made a darker, less inviting record in Darkness. It appears he did the best he could do make this a more gritty affair, often eschewing hits to maintain the feel and flow of the record. He even went as far as to start each side of the record with a song of hope, but finish each side with a song of despair.

High Points: "Racing in the Street" is a fantastic song. I'm not even exactly sure what's great about it, but when I listen to the words and Bruce's saddened delivery, it all seems to fit and work extremely well.

Low Points: I really find the screaming (moaning?) at the beginning of "Something in the Night" to be truly awful. I'm not sure why he thought it was a good. I'm not feeling this right now.

Is it Great?

Sorry for the delay

                   Sorry for the delay, everyone. I just seem to have lost the passion that had once driven me to do this task. It's not necessarily that I dislike doing it, but whatever fire burned to get me started has slowly died out. I'll even upload a draft of mine that I literally gave up on half-way through. This slowing is a bit ironic to me as well; I have many records that I can review. For instance, More Songs About Buildings and Food has become a fast favorite of mine. I can talk about how I feel conflicted on Darkness on the Edge of Town. I can write about Sticky Fingers, The Basement Tapes, Led Zeppelin, Odessey and Oracle...
                   I'm not stopping for lack of something to write about. In fact, the records I listed above are a small fraction of all the records that I do own, I apologize if that came off as braggadocio. I just feel like what I'm doing isn't exactly accomplishing anything, at least not for me. And lest we forget that I'm doing this blog for me, no matter how self-centered that sounds. Maybe this tapering is an effect of my waning desire for new music. I really feel comfortable with my musical collection now. The only artist I feel that I'm really missing is Brian Eno, and I'll most likely end up gradually buying those records as well.
                   Another reason that I feel this way is that, looking back upon what I wrote, what I did is ridiculous and redundant. I looked back on the Rolling Stone list, an amalgam of opinions, and decided that they were wrong. I was putting up my one, slightly musically uneducated opinion against all of theirs. Honestly, I was replicating the act I thought was foolhardy and to an even greater extent.
                   Let us all remember that music is subjective. I'm tired off people calling something "real" music, as if that actually means anything. The "real" tag is arbitrary, it holds zero value. Everybody has their own view of music, they're own set of values. One can go to YouTube and look up an E.D.M. artist like Diplo or Deadmau5 and be washed with "Now this is real music!" Or, one could go to "Blowin'  in the Wind" and repeatedly see the comment "I'm listening to this and I'm [insert teenage age]" and "This by far blows any music today away, this is real music!" If everybody thinks that what they listen to is "real," then how can we honestly distinguish between what is "real" and what is "fake?"
                   I do believe that there is an argument to be had that the current music situation is a bit "fake," due to the fact that everything is cold, there's not a lot of feeling to be had in "California Girls" (Do radio stations still play this song? I'm out of the loop.) Most of the music today is processed through a computer, and that's exactly how some people want it. They call it "real" music.
                   Don't ever let anybody tell you what you listen to is "crap" or "fake." Every band is someone's favorite and someone's least favorite. It's really up to you to decide. Music isn't made to be dissected and torn apart, but there will always be a Dylanologist, someone who is completely and utterly devoted to divulging the secret meaning behind Bob Dylan's songs. Most of their efforts are completely futile, music can mean anything to anybody. Music should be enjoyed, not demeaned and thrown to the wayside. Everybody likes different things.
                   Everybody, please, if you do anything today, listen to your favorite song.

Number 129: Remain in Light

Album: Remain in Light

Artist: Talking Heads

Year: 1980

Information: After finishing touring for Fear of Music, the band settled down and people pursued their personal interests. Jerry Harrison produced an album, Byrne made another album with Brian Eno, and Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth went on vacation to the Caribbean, where they discovered native percussion, to think about the state of their marriage and the future of their band. After coming to a conclusion of continuing both fronts, they bought an aparment above the studio where they recorded More Songs About Buildings and Food. Byrne and Harrison joined both of them at the studio and they began to record. Looking to dispel the rumor of David Byrne leading a backing band (instead of them being one, cohesive unit,) they began to perform long instrumental jams, using "I Zimbra" as a jumping-off point. After they had laid down basic tracks, Byrne would write the lyrics, a process that was new for him. Brian Eno arrived, reluctant to work with the band, but changed his mind when he heard their new songs and said "I absolutely love the direction you're going in." They then decided to start using African polyrhythms to mesh multiple instruments into one sound. 

High Points: Although it is a bit of a tough choice, I will have to go with the expected. "Once in a Lifetime" is a fantastic song. From the opening synthesizer that attempts to recreate the sound of water (and it does a great job of it, as well) and onto the complex, intricate rhythms that are the staple of this album, the song is impeccable. The structure of the lyrics is also different than the average song, it has spoken verses about midlife crises and large, sung choruses about not having a care in the world and the days just passing right along without a second thought. Until, the person "wakes up" and realizes that they let the life fly by without ever stopping to realize what's happening around him.

Low Points: In all honesty, there is no bad songs on this record, which may be attributed to the fact that there is only eight songs on this album.

Is it Great? Indeed.

From the start of the album, you realize that you're listening to something different. It's very odd upon first listen, it seems to be a very dark album, filled with impenetrable instrumentation and lyrics. The back beat is filled with what sound to be large arrangements, heavily inspired by African music.

In fact, every track is filled with a wall of tight music. When you listen closely, it's hard to discern how many instruments are happening at the same time. If you try to focus on one instrument, it's a very difficult task to isolate one sound from the rest of the music that is pulsating and breathing behind the disjointed, paranoid lyrical delivery of Byrne.

As the album progresses, it seems to slowly get deeper and darker. The more you listen, the further you go down into the rabbit hole, down far into the brooding and stirring tones and sounds that emanate from this record.

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"Born Under Punches" is great and wonderfully weird. The song starts immediately with very strong, repeating instrumentation. The band seems to play the same bar for a while until Byrne decides to finally jump into the mix with his request of "Look at these hands." From then on, Byrne repeatedly asks you to inspect his hands, watching them pass between you. Then, a haunting chorus pleading "Won't you breathe with me?" kicks in adds another element to this song, one that seems to be of sadness. I do have one tiny complaint about this song, though. Every once in a while, the bass sounds decidedly 80's. Other than that, I love this song.

I also really enjoy the point in "Crosseyed and Painless" where it devolves down to Byrne reciting his interpretation of what rap music is, which is still gleefully anxious and paranoid. He begins to recite his "rap" on facts and does manage to provide an excellent point during its reading.

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The last four songs is where the album really breaks down into moody darkness. To me, these last four songs almost seem to create a suite, where each song runs into the next. One moment I do remember distinctly from this 18-minute run is when Byrne recites his eerie poetry on "Seen and Not Seen."

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This album truly sounds like it had been made by a band of art nerds and it has also become one of my favorites. Also, the Talking Heads have given me a new band to delve into and discover their music. So, one of my goals of finding new, enjoyable music has been reached, but I have no intention of stopping here.

Number 32: Let it Bleed

Album: Let it Bleed

Artist: The Rolling Stone

Year: 1969

Information: This album doesn't exactly have any notable history recorded, or at least of what I've been able to find. However, one interesting snippet is that "You Can't Always Get What You Want" predates the sessions for this album and even predates Beggars Banquet's release.

High Points: One of the greatest rock recordings ever made, "Gimme Shelter" is the Mt. Everest in an album with other large, daunting mountains. Every time I hear this song, I get goose bumps, which is one of the greatest compliments I can give to a song. The parts that really gets me is when Merry Clayton is singing. Specifically the point where her voice cracks when practically screaming "Rape, murder" and you can hear Mick Jagger in the background yelling "Whoo" in response to how emotional she was being. Even in the beginning, the song is great. The building guitar solo, percussion, and Mick's nearly impossible to understand lyrics bring about an air of the coming apocalypse. A truly great song.

Low Points: The forgettable song, to me, on this album is "Live with Me." I cannot remember this song at all, and that's usually a fair indicator of how I feel about a song.

Is it Great? I really love this album.

The song has two other great songs, "Midnight Rambler" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want." 

"Midnight Rambler" is a very bluesy song, recounting the escapades of an ubiquitous murderer. It builds up to great peaks and crumbles down to deep valleys, practically getting down to just a harmonica. The song ends in the middle of a large arch, getting bigger and bigger to the point where the murdered finally catches you and he'll "stick my knife right down your throat, baby, and it hurts!" I have one complaint with the song, however. The harmonica is very prominent on this song and bubbles under the surface practically throughout the entire song. This song could have reached new heights if the harmonica were to break out from behind the rest of the music and deliver a very strong, bluesy attack.

The other is "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Now, I understand that the phrase has become cliche, but you can't blame the song for that happening. In fact, I would say that it is quoted so often because the song is so impressive. It starts off quiet and tender, with very high-pitched singing, provided by a choir. Then it goes silent for a moment, and then starts off again with Mick singing with maraca and acoustic strumming accompaniment. It goes on like this for a bit until the rest of the band kicks in and the song just becomes really fun to listen to.

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"Love in Vain" is another great song, a heart breaking tale originally written by Robert Johnson, credited under his pseudonym Woody Payne. It's a very slow, blues song and exceptionally written about the sadness of a recently lost lover. 

"You Got the Silver" is similar to "Love in Vain." It's another touching song, this time it's sung by Keith Richards, who I feel did this song great justice. It also features Brian Jones on autoharp, which is the last recording of Jones to be released. The song also ends on a peak, with Keith eschewing the chorus for a very passionate, near-screaming vocal delivery.

"Country Honk" and "Let it Bleed" are two country-rock songs. Contrary to popular feeling, I actually quite enjoy "Country Honk." It's how the song was originally written and I like it, especially the line "But I just can't seem to drink you off my mind." However, the song is weirdly muddled and it can be hard to make out. "Let it Bleed" is an okay song, but I wouldn't say it's great.

"Monkey Man" is an interesting song. It has good parts and bad parts. The vocal delivery and music on this song is really entertaining and powerful. However, some of the lyrics can be stupid "I'm a cold Italian pizza, I could a lemon squeezer." But, it does get a little weird at the end when Mick sings "I'm a monkey!"

Number 17: Nevermind

Album: Nevermind

Artist: Nirvana

Year: 1991

Information: Some guys got a recording contract and made an unsuccessful first album with a few drummers. Then, they got a stable drummer named Dave Grohl and blah blah blah.

High Points: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is considered one of the best songs ever made, so I'll choose it as the high point of this album.

Low Points: Pretty much all of it.

Is it Great? No.

When I listen to this, it's sounds like heaping piles of garbage on fire. Just tons of garbage burning.

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I am supremely thankful for what this album did, it killed hair metal. Hair metal had been going on for far too long and this album came out and basically put it out of its misery. Thank you.

However, this just doesn't sound good. I don't understand why people are so in love with Nirvana. My friend's mother cried when Kurt died and refused to go to school. People were very devoted to this band, but I really can't comprehend why.

This album honestly sounds bad to me, it's a ton of murky riffs under some shoddy lyrics. I really just don't get this album. I will assume that this album was a product of its time. Perhaps if I had been alive and it was able to make an impact on me, I would have different feelings about this album. However, that is not the case and this album sounds like a lot of poor music.

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I feel like I've repeated myself enough on this review. As you can probably tell, I'm having trouble finding words to exactly describe my feelings on why this album isn't very good. I feel like the first two sentences perfectly encapsulate how I feel, and to try to write more would just be redundant.

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With all that said, I do like the song "Polly."

Number 185: The Stooges

Album: The Stooges

Artist: The Stooges

Year: 1969

Information: A talent scout came down to an MC5 show to check out the band and had hopes of signing them to Elektra. During this show, The Stooges also played and caught the attention of the same talent scout. Subsequently, both acts were signed.When it came time to record for them, The Stooges had a total of five songs, all of which were staples for their live sets. They handed in their five songs and were promptly rejected, to which Iggy said "That's okay, we've got lot more songs." They didn't. They went to their hotel room and wrote three songs overnight. The new album was accepted.

High Points: "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is the highlight, of course, and what a highlight it is. The song is very high energy and has a repeating guitar and piano riff throughout the song. The lyrics also tell of angst and self-loathing, someone reducing themselves down to someone else's pet. That's all the person longs to be, something that sleeps at the foot of your bed.

Low Points: Pretty much the rest of this record.

Is it Great? Kinda.

I will say that this album has two other good songs, which are "No Fun" and "1969." The other songs are monotonous. They absolutely sound like the same song over and over again, other than the awful "We Will Fall." I will give them some slack, due to the fact that three of their songs were all written in the same night, most likely in a rushed manner.

As I have said before, I like weird. I love avant-garde because originality is built into the genre. Usually weird experiments in sound are exciting and captivating. Nothing could be further from this description than "We Will Fall." It's practically the same bar over and over again, nothing actually happening. The whole song would seem to be building towards something, with the ominous backing track aided by John Cale's viola, but it never does anything. It maintains its boring format for ten minutes and leads you to wonder why John Cale thought this was okay. 

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This record is more important than it is good. It's important for the aesthetic it made, which went on to help create punk music. The elements of distorted guitars, screaming the lyrics, and the very simplistic arrangements are the ground floor of a genre.

However, it's just not a great record, which is a bit disappointing.

Number 246:Freak Out!

Album: Freak Out!

Artist: The Mothers of Invention

Year: 1966

Information: The Soul Giants were a bar band that commonly played doo-wop music. They were doing so when Frank Zappa discovered them and eventually joined the band by filling in for the recently defunct guitar player. Frank renamed them The Mothers and eased them off of playing covers to playing his written, original material. They were soons discovered by Tom Wilson, formerly Bob Dylan's porducer, who was under the impression that The Mothers were a white blues band. Once recruited, they then had been forced to rename their band, for fear that it had a negative connotation. During the recording sessions, Tom Wilson became increasingly enthusiastic about the record so far and, in Frank's own words, "he was so impressed he got on the phone and called New York, and as a result I got a more or less unlimited budget to do this monstrosity."

High Points: "Trouble Every Day" is a very wordy, blues song. It covers a few different people's views on the Watts Riots, all of whom find fault with the police and it has the signature, wheezy harmonica that accompanies the usual blues song. However, as with all the songs on this album, no matter the genre that the songs occupy, they don't exactly fit. One of the things that makes this song good is the fact that it never gets preachy, it hardly states an overt opinion. Throughout the song, he usually just states what's happening and why he perceives it's happening, he never tells us all to get along.
Low Points: "How Could I Be Such a Fool," is, for the most part, a bit formulaic, something that these songs rarely are, and it's a tad boring.

Is it Great? Yes, it's a very good album.

I was never really a Frank Zappa fan, he kind of annoyed me. Maybe it was the fact that Zappa has a fan base that is a tad cult-like. I'd also read about the infamous animosity between Frank Zappa and The Velvet Underground and, naturally, I sided with The Velvet Underground. Or maybe it had to do with his facial hair becoming iconic. For whatever reason, I wasn't completely on the Zappa train.

In fact, the first time I heard this album, it was playing in the background and I eventually took it off the player because I thought it was awful. None of it sounded good to me. I even switched it over to "Wowie Zowie" because apparently everyone loved the song. When I heard it, I couldn't understand why people were so in love with the song and, quite honestly, I still don't.

However, I decided to give this album a second chance about half a dozen months later. That brings us to second impressions.

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My musical appreciation has been growing very rapidly and it all started with The Beatles. Originally, I wasn't a very avid musical fan. I  would listen to some stuff, but when I look back on it now, most of it wasn't very good. It was all just the average alternative rock music. Funny thing is that I originally detested The Beatles. I thought they were a pop group that churned out cheesy singles that everyone was somehow entranced by. Then I actually heard their music and I fell in love with it. I listened to them exclusively for about four months. Then I discovered the likes of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Band, The Velvet Underground, Neil Young, and The Beach Boys. I also began to develop a taste for the avant-garde and found weird music to be attractive and alluring. 

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When I listened to the album again, I actually started to enjoy it. The album swept across countless genres and managed to stay original and interesting. The songs start to get weirder and weirder the further you listen,  like going down an elevator to increasingly bizarre floors. However, all the songs manage to fit together and paint an image of Zappa's version of materialistic America. Even when Zappa was being critical, a lot of the songs still manage to maintain funny elements. Such as the song "Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder" and even the title of a song, "Help, I'm a Rock," which is a very weird tribute to Elvis.

Don't get me wrong, most casual music fans probably won't like this, but there are things to be appreciated here. Zappa's guitar work really shines through many of these songs, as does him humor and intellect. If you're the more dedicated music fan that can appreciate music on a deeper level than what it appears to be on the surface, then I recommend this album to you. If you are not that kind of music fan, then I recommend looking elsewhere.