Reviews by justcoolvinyl

What happens when a myth becomes a reality 40 years later? Are you disappointed when what you believed to be true is somehow not what you encounter it? The much beloved and bootlegged abandoned Beach Boys album - Smile - appears in a completed form by Brian Wilson and while your are somewhat familiar with several of the songs, you are stunned by how cohesive this version appears to be. But, you are also fully aware that this 2004 version is likely no where near what this record would have sounded like as a Beach Boys album in 1966. And this is no disrespect to Brian, Van Dyke Parks and the Wonderments who have produced an iteration of the album full of wonderful arrangements and magical harmonies. The album should be considered a part from its history but it cannot. If you had never heard of The Beach Boys, would this symphonic version produce the level of endearment without the mythos of its antecedent version? I can’t answer that question. Undoubtedly this is a gorgeous version of songs but having also heard the Smile Sessions released in 2011, I can say that this record is nice but also rather lifeless. The bass is buried and the digital nature of the tracks means the warmth of the original recordings is lost. Similarly, Nrian’s vocals are thicker and less energetic as befitting a man who was then in his 60s. See e.g. In Blue Hawaii. As an artifact it is interesting but I think supplanted by the Smile Sessions. P.S. Good Vibrations is still an exceptional fucking track no matter the version.

Early Kinks was some weird ass hippy shit. Victoria, which starts the album cops a Beatles riff and the album proceeds at a Beatlesque pace. I’m sure at the time this came out the Sgt. Pepper influence would have been obvious but apparently not because America was starved for more British rock n roll. Among the approximately 2000 concerts I’ve attended only Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers were more dull than this lot. Live they apparently called it you were hoping for a fight to break out on stage to add a little energy to proceeding. Ray and Dave Davies famously embattled brothers, at this point in their career have not quite discovered the Kink’s sound of You Really Got Me and are experimenting with musicianship. 7 albums into a career and stuck in this muck of a concept record. Some Mother’s Son is just whiny. The single “Drivin” is middlin’ and rather dull. Brainwashed fares better and might actually be the best song in the record. The Kinks guitar sound and three chord rock with a Hendrix like chorus keep the album from being a rather miserable rock opera. Apparently the Who’s Tommy was released in the same period and American reviewers of the time liked this record better than Tommy. Time has relegated this album to the ash heap of history as it is rather a tedious experience 55 years after it was released. Australia has a pretty decent vocal and had they kept it tight might have been a great sing. Bunch iof noodling that is distracting and somewhat overindulgent.

A note before I begin: for me In The Flat Field was a magnificent album and after listening to Mask, Bauhaus’ second LP after having heard In The Flat Field, Mask will never hold up as equal because the first album colors your opinion of what comes after. Mask was more experimental in its expansive use of keyboards but also attempting to be more popular. Do I think they achieved that successful balance? The answer is clearly yes. Whereas In The Flat Field has darker classics, namely Bela Lugosi’s Dead and the definitive cover of T.Rex’s Telegram Sam, Mask lightens the darkness just enough to accommodate dancing. Kick in the Eye, Dancing and Passion of Lovers add some goth dance moves to the previously colder palate and the atmosphere on this record evokes the mix of The Cure, Joy Division and Siouxsie & The Banshees and lead to a scene in London of bands that would come out of The Bat Cave Club in London in early 1982 including Specimen, Sex Gang Children and Alien Sex Fiend. There are some interesting tracks on this record in particular Of Lilies and Renains with its almost spoken world vocals and the motorik drums of Kevin Haskins. Sonically this was Bauhaus at their best with David J (Kevin’s brother) playing bass, forming a perfect rhythm section to complement Peter Murphy’s vocals and Daniel Ash’s inventive guitar. Interesting to me at the time was the interplay between Peter Murphy and David J as vocalists- they had a weird harmony that created tension and made already dark lyrics seem darker. The screams added to the tension. The album does have some hits. For me the standout tracks are Kick In The Eye, Mask and The Passion of Lovers. Mask is a solid album but Bauhaus had better songs e.g. Terror Couple Killed Colonel, Dark Entries, Third Uncle and Telegram Sam. Mask is a fully realized record and certainly worthy of inclusion on this list as it showcases the possibilities when a band attempts successfully to broaden their sound while still remaining credible and interesting. This record still sounds fresh today. Time is always a goth’s friend.

Start with side 2. The title track filling all of side 2 is where the genius in this record has always rested. 17 minutes of progressive rock and psychedelia with drug influenced babbling that defines for a generation what it means to “trip”. This is not to say that the track is perfect - there are easily several minutes beginning around the 4:00 minute mark and ending around the 12:50 mark that is just a drum beat. No wonder the single cuts out about 14:00 minutes. Unfortunately, side 1 is not nearly as inspiring and is rather insipid particularly the absolutely hideous piece entitled Flowers and Beads. The rest of side 1 is equally uninspiring. Generic riffing with underwhelming vocals that compel the listener to shut off the album and find something with a pulse. This is a huge miss. Only nostalgia is responsible for this record appearing on these lists. This album is a precursor to the bloat that would lead to the punk rock explosion several years later. So I guess it was good for something.

As debut records go, this one is certainly hard to beat as this amalgam of Blues, Hard Rock and psychedelia is the touchstone of pretty much every guitar exploration since this was released. Don’t believe me? Check out the guitar solo on Manic Depression, the second track on Side 1. While Purple Haze, Hey Joe and The Wind Cries Mary deservedly get the attention, it is the sonic experiments found on Love or Confusion or Stone Free that make this a masterpiece. Almost every rock fan of a certain age will recognize most of the songs on this record but more importantly, most of those fans would recognize these tunes without Jimi’s vocal. The use of fuzz, a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face and a Vox Crybaby Wah pedal took these pedals and their modifications in new directions with Jimi’s intricate and inventive playing. Fire, Foxey Lady and Are You Experienced are showcases for the diversity of Hendrix’s playing. All of this would not be possible without the contributions of Noel Redding (b) and Mitch Mitchell (d) who play in service to the song leaving space for Hendrix’s vision. Of the 3 records by the Experience- this is the gem and the only one of the three that is complete. Jimi was a rocket that burned brightly for a short period but what an incredible period it was.

The record that for me defines the post punk era. Copied by many in the post-punk revival era of the early 2000s ( I see you Franz Ferdinand!) it is Gang of Four that invented the sharp angular guitars slashing through funk rhythms to produce this instantly recognizable sound. Damaged Goods, At Home He Is A Tourist and Love Like Anthrax are unmistakable hits that still resonate today. Catchy, with sing-a-long lyrics they define the sound. But the rest of the record resonates with the punk roots. This is particularly true on a track like I Found That Essence Rare which is more 77 punk rock than 79 post punk. You would think Wilco Johnson of Dr. Feelgood was playing guitars on the track. Ether and Glass similarly are vehicles for teen angst. This was a huge hit and I was lucky enough to see them on this tour and later when they were touring with Sara Lee on bass. Andy Gill’s guitar is the glue that holds this all together but Jon Kings lyrics and vocals put the pieces together to produce what was, then, a very unique sound. Repeated listens are worth the journey as they produce new insights and new favorites. For me, the only track I had difficulty appreciating early on was Return The Gift, but now, it forms an important role in keeping the album moving forward as it leads to the excellent Guns Before Butter that closes side 1. Side 2 is similar with 5.45 the track that leads into the closer Love Like Anthrax. This is a don’t miss record. Buy a copy or five.

When this came out in 2004 it fit within the other guitar bands who were starting to make some noise as the ebb and flow of indie rock was suddenly on the uptick again. The Strokes arguably started the post-punk revival along with The White Stripes, Interpol, Maximo Park, Bloc Party, Modest Mouse etc and the Glaswegian Franz Ferdinand fit nicely along side those bands with a funky approach to post punk with razor sharp hooks and solid bass lines. Ignoring the monster hits, This Fire and perhaps Michael, this debut is interesting from beginning to End. Jacqueline with its lengthy intro and frenetic second half gets the party started and introduces the cutting clean guitar tone that is the hallmark of the album and repeated on several songs. Tell Her Tonight keeps up the interest with a catchy, albeit repetitive hook throughout. For me, the most interesting song on the LP is 40’ which is interesting lyrically, vocally and musically with a hook which sounds like an inversion of the hook in Take Me Out. The closest Franz Ferdinand gets to traditional post punk is Auf Asche with its synthesizer intro before breaking into a more traditional electronic post-punk track. It’s still kind of upbeat for a song about desire for a woman you can’t touch. There are no duds on this record and it captures a particular post-punk sound remarkably well. Alex Kapranos is a good vocalist and keeps the album from descending into just average. 4/5

Stone cold fucking classic. I’d discovered “Little Johnny Jewel” on 7” by way of the dBs. I had picked up Chris Stamey and the dBs 7” “The Summer Sun” on Ork Records, which was Terry Ork’s record label. At the time, punk rock was all 7”. The Ramones were already huge in my world in 1977 and 1978 and Television was already getting hyped by Trouser Press and Punk Magazine. When the record came out I was already ready for the sonic approach which was more art rock and Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers than Ramones and Sex Pistols. And it was good. This was a different beast. Compelling. Completely different than anything else in that scene. Verlaine’s vocals were unusual as were the lyrics. But the guitars - a tone so good you could not help but smile. Little Johnny Jewel was the entree into this unique vision. See No Evil seems like a logical continuation of the 7” and a door opener to an album that must be heard first on vinyl. Why? Because you need to flip the record - that break in the music is necessary to prepare you for side 2 after the nearly 10:00 minute Marquee Moon at the end of side 1. Marquee Moon encapsulates on a single song everything that Television was about. Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd were tremendously talented guitarists who played intertwined passages where they would alternate lead and Rhythm parts with each other in the same song. There are two solos on the song and there is literally no one who can copy them. Everyone who plays guitar learns how to play riffs and learns the solo parts. With Television the guitar parts often do not make sense but they sound amazing wrapped around Verlaine’s straight forward singing voice. Billy Ficca and Fred Smith form a rhythmic counterpoint to the two guitars with Ficca’s jazz skills as a drummer accentuating and enhancing each song. The bass is solid and allows Verlaine and Lloyd space to create. Marquee Moon pulls it altogether in a single track. For a record with only 8 songs, each is composed with a goal for the listener to experience each song as a feeling rather than a mere observer. Sure, I have favorites. They have changed over the years just as I have changed. Originally, Venus was my earliest favorite, followed by See No Evil and Torn Curtain. Now it is Elevation and Guiding Light. I’m sure that you will discover your own path into this record. And that’s what makes this record a classic. Even when you think you know every note and nuance in a record, and I have played this record hundreds of times, when I leave it for a little while and come back to it, I discover something new and intriguing that I didn’t experience before. If this is a new record for you, definitely flip the record to side 2 which I find equally fascinating as Side 1. This side solidifies Television’s genius explored on the first side. The guitar passages and the ringing tones suck you in to the heart of the song. I was lucky enough to see Television when they were touring after the release of Adventure in 1978 and the live show was better than the record. Mesmerizing and hypnotic foreshadowing shoegaze by a decade. And that’s is the genius of this record. It’s a passionate record in the most oblique sense of the word passion. Almost 50 years after the record’s release it is still vital and alive and still a remarkable listen.

I remember this record fondly as a young teen. It had been out a couple of years before I discovered it in around 1974. As a freshman in high school the older kids had already discovered this and Black Sabbath. As a freshman it was like being offered entry into a cult. The seniors had discovered pot and acid and this record and Vol. 4 were part of the soundtrack to my high school years. Dazed and Confused, Communication Breakdown and Good Times Bad Times were in an endless loop as most of us, myself included, had these tracks on endless loop as we spent summers drinking, smoking and dropping at parties by the lake about 20 miles south of Whitehorse. I bought the album and played this songs skipping over the more traditional Blues numbers. Not that they were not good songs - they certainly were but the guitar noodling particularly on tracks like I Can’t Quit You Baby and You Shook Me were too traditional for my taste. Over time I came to appreciate other tracks on this record, in particular the last track on side 2, the wonderful How Many More Times, which I discovered while higher than a kite during a show at the Planetarium in Vancouver BC while I was in college. It was crazy good watching stars with a plant and Page grooving on this marching song. As I think about how this period was so fertile for new sounds, this album is at the start of that journey and certainly influenced rock going forward. I discovered punk in 1977 and that altered the journey again. This record would never be played again by me until now. I recall it fondly and time (and a great remix) have treated this gem well.

New Order received a pass following the death of Ian Curtis as New Order formed out of the ashes of Joy Division. This record ended that pass. Who would have thought that they would end up being essentially a disco act. What music listener in 1889 wanted a Donna Summer record with a male vocal? Exactly. A true travesty as Peter Hook lost the synthesizer battle and instead of a rock record we get a synth pop record with Balearic beat club influences I.e. a mellow house record with expansive and hypnotic musical interludes. I’m not the target audience at this point. I enjoyed parts of earlier records such as Power Corruption and Lies which still had threads of Joy Division embedded in its DNA. Gillian Gilbert’s addition after Ian’s death gave me hope of a potentially powerful new direction for the band, but Bernard, as the lyricist and vocalist apparently was the dominant force. Peter Hook ended up the winner after the split but was clearly the loser on Technique. The long expansive passages in several of the songs are boring and largely uninteresting. Sings like Vanishing Point come off as whining to a disco beat. So how do you give a grade to a record where you are unlikely to listen to ever again? The record also comes off a bit dated as this definitely has that 80’s production and the drums are mixed too low to give the songs any punch. Thus is music for a dance floor filled with drug addicts zombified and floating with the music. Nothing sticks out on this record musically. It’s all vibe and no substance. (See what I did there? If you know you know.) someone wrote that Technique was one of the best records of the eighties. Hahaha. I actually replayed this record throughout the day several times interested in seeing if a song would jump out. Unfortunately, the answer in no. It really has become elevator music 35 years later. If you are really fucking high this is probably a 4/5. If you are not, it’s a solid 2 especially with the dated production. I split the difference.

You have your whole lifetime to write your first record. As debut records go it is hard to argue with just how catchy the first 6 songs in this record are they were hits for a reason. The vocal effects are pitch perfect in a key that just encourages the listener enough to believe that they can sing along. The lyrics are actually really well crafted and when an attempt is made to have rhyming lines they actually do rhyme. Later albums dispose of intelligent lyrics and words that actually rhyme. This is a good time to remind everyone that on the song Human, this was the worst possible choice to try to rhyme with the word answer: Looking for the answer/Are we human/ Or are we dancer?
Honestly, this is terrible as a lyric goes and it was still a huge fucking hit. But back to Hot Fuss. The first 6 are the show here: 1. "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" 2. "Mr. Brightside"3."Smile Like You Mean It" 4."Somebody Told Me" 5."All These Things That I've Done" and 6."Andy, You're a Star" are gems. Then there is the cliff. The rest of the album is serviceable but none of the rest rise to the quality of the first six. “Change Your Mind” is the best of the rest and “Everything Will Be Alright” easily the worst as it is both incredibly repetitive and boring. This is not to knock the Killers. It’s a terrific pop record with incredible lasting appeal. Not perfect no. But pretty darn good.

I’d written a bunch of stuff about this record but somehow that draft was lost to the ether. So, here is a shorter albeit accurate account of this record. It is not R.E.M.’s best record. It is not. Murmer is. And it is not close. Next is Fables. R.E.M. probably does not exist without Big Star, the Replacements, the dBs (Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey), Don Dixon and the whole Athens and North Carolina scene. The guitar work on Document is excellent, Peter Buck demonstrates how to expand what would become alternative rock - jangling guitar with a pop sensibility best displayed on the gems from this record: Exhuming McCarthy, Welcome to the Occupation and the Wire cover, Strange. Stipe is singing clearly, the vocals are crisp and the lyrics interesting and wide ranging. The anti-love The One I Love is a solid track as is Finest Worksong, but these become tiresome as the sugar in them is a bit sweet. So with It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine). The last couple of tracks are just not interesting, save for the closer Oddfellows Local 151 which saves the album from falling of the cliff. This really was a transitional record for R.E.M. as evidenced by the dull title: Document. They were documenting the time when they were moving from college rock heroes to commercial rock stars. Really - go listen to Murmur and discover a band crafting a beautiful record that still holds up today.

It is difficult interacting with genius when you are not and you encounter it in a genre where you admittedly have no interest. Such is the case here. I have no interest in the Canterbury scene, British Folk, or in this case a somber folk jazz which has several interesting passages but those are significantly outnumbered by many minutes of just slow weird shit. I’m good with weird - just not slow weird. I have encountered Wyatt in other contexts - a cover of The Elvis Costello track “Shipbuilding” and Tears for Fears cover of Sea Witch” from this record. Both are enjoyable, but not enough for me to take the dive to find out more. Sea Witch and the first version of Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road are the best of the lot. It took great fortitude on my part to commit to the experience. Imagine driving in Los Angeles in a convertible on Sunset and rocking this album as you sit beside a Swiftie in the next vehicle. This would truly be a WTF?? moment. What is this alien sound? That’s not singing it’s a gruff spoken word piece with some pretty dark lyrics. Apparently, this record was written before Robert fell off a building becoming a paraplegic. It was recorded after the accident. Rock Bottom should give you some hint as to what is in store. However, despite the darkness, there are ethers moments that fleetingly hopeful. There is one passage that I thought was going to lead into Rattlesnake by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, but that could just be fucking my mind fucking with me as Robert whisper talks sings to a vibey prog jazz. I do believe there is genius in these passages. I just don’t connect with genius.

KROQ killed all love anyone could have for this record. In Los Angeles for a period this disco record was all you could hear every fucking day for several years. I stopped listening to radio. The direct blame for my switching off radio is in large part to my absolute loathing of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are without a doubt the worst fucking band in the history of rock music joining the Eagles and the Journey/Styx/Nickleback tie for 3rd. Depeche Mode sits comfortably 4th. This is just a loathsome record. If you tried you couldn’t come up with a more bland album that sold millions. This is dance music for dead people. The dead don’t move and neither does this record. Really, take The Sweetest Perfection with its repetive nonsense. It is easy to see why the suckers fell for the disco beat of Enjoy The Silence and Personal Jesus. Policy of Truth is passable it not enough to redeem a fairly dull affair. Clean, apparently about getting “clean” is 5:00 minutes of whining. The biggest problem with the record, as I try to reflect how anyone could have chosen to include this record on the list, is that Depeche Mode was mining the same territory as Frankie Goes To Hollywood, without the humor. This is dour music for wannabe goths who thought the Cure weren’t poppy enough. What the fuck is Blue Dress. I guess it’s an effort to be less self—involved, or maybe not. It turns out that Depeche Mode is a group of plastic people singing about nothing, really. Someone described Depeche Mode as synth-pop with emotional depth. My ass it is. I felt violated by having to listen to this record.

This is a record of my youth. I was 14 when this came out and in 9th grade. I am unabashedly a fan of this record. Not because it’s special in the context of a number of records I can think of, but rather because I associate it with so many good times and formative experiences- school dances, being a school DJ in the Yukon, making out with L.R. (and later D.J.B) in the back seat of my buddy’s Chevy Camero and my Chevy Nova. Drinking Beers with my friends at the Yukon Inn where the drinking age was 12. School, Bloody Well Right, Dreamer, Rudy and Crime if the Century were played endlessly on the local radio station. I would not be surprised if they are all still are in the Top 10 in Whitehorse. This was a massive record in Canada. Hide In Your Shell with it’s Queen like harmonies should also have been a hit. I had an 8-Track of this which played on repeat in my car. At home I played both sides about equally because the first two tracks on each side are indisputably hits. Side 1 with School and Bloody Well Right. Side 2 with Dreamer and Rudy. Asylum is in my mind an Elton John song with Rick Davies giving a strong vocal performance. Davies and Roger Hodgsen were a formidable vocal duo on this record with Hodgsen the lead on the hits, but Davies a powerful vocalist in his own right. In my opinion, this record is near perfect for what it is - a record that soundtracked my high school experience. It is with that fondness that makes this a perfect record. It is everything that a great record has - its impact on the listener is such that you can hear a song and are instantly transported. In my case to the back seat of a Chevy Camero parked at the edge of the Yukon River making out with …

If Damon Albarn had not made it clear enough in transitioning out of Blur into Gorillaz, the Good, The Bad & The Queen is basically a combination of Blur and Gorillaz, with a Babyshambles vibe filtering throughout the record. This supergroup apparently was able to filter out Damon’s worst impulses and this is a remarkably great record with only a few minor missteps. Herculean is a great introduction and could be a Gorillaz outtake. What is striking about this very English record is how exceptional it is recorded and played. Paul Simonon demonstrates a proficiency only hinted at in the Clash where bass played a distinct role in that band’s sound. The Verve’s guitarist Simon Tong does a stellar job with guitar that serves each song and Tony Allen (Fela Kuti) is a rhythm machine on drums. It’s not what you would expect from this foursome and the record opens up and reveals some special songs with repeated listens. Nature Springs is a magnificent song and I think the heart of the record. The first 4 tracks lay the foundation for the rest of the record. History Song, 80s Life, the beautiful Northern Whale and Kingdom of Doom are as good a run of four songs to open a record as anything Blur put out. The record does tail off in parts, particularly A Soldier’s Tale which is a little dull even though the instrumentation is excellent, it just doesn’t work for me. Same with Three Changes which is a hodgepodge of lyrical nonsense. The repetitive “Not going to be a victim” becomes a bit tiresome. Closer, The Good, The Bad & The Queen is an excellent finish and the lengthiest track in the record. What makes it interesting is that it hints at something next. It’s bold and energetic with everyone involved and at least for this track seemingly connected. I enjoy this far more than Gorillaz and it was this record that, for me, redeemed Damon Albarn as an interesting songsmith after some uneven prior outings. This record too has some lyric bloat but overall a pretty well thought out and developed record. Not perfect but pretty damned good.

I truly enjoyed The Police until it became clear that Sting was a pompous ass wad. While there will be others who will say that Synchronicity is a better record. It is not. I’m going to try to lay out the reasons why that is so, but it relates back to the moment I realized Sting was a douche bag and an arrogant twat. But that was after this record. This record was good because it was at a moment in time where the arrogance had not colored my opinion of the Police as a band. Message In A Bottle was a terrific start to this record taking their now familiar power pop approach and incorporating ska elements with a catchy chorus. As the follow up to Outlandos d’Amour the album is a looser affair with the instrumental Regatta De Blanc almost a jam before the new wavey It’s Alright For You. Not memorable but a fun 3 minutes before hitting another good stretch of songs with Bring On The Night, Deathwish and Walking On the Moon. I think people might sleep on Deathwish but the instrumental break in this song highlights some of where The Police will end up on Zenyatta Mondatta a year later. Walking On The Moon with it’s dub influences bringing white reggae to the masses. (Regatta de Blanc literally translates into White Reggae). At 5:00 in length it was a little long but the chorus was an undeniable sing—a-long. I saw them play the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver BC (and a short set at the Kitsalano Community Center the day before) in May 1979. They signed a couple of records for me at A&A Records on Granville near the Vogue Theater the same day. On Any Other Day is an under appreciated track with it’s 50’s throwback sound and funny lyrics which for a band that was often rather dour is an outlier in the Police discography. Then comes the track I don’t like - the Bed’s To Big Without You is just dull. This one is a skip. In my mind it’s like putting up white wallpaper on a vibrantly colored wall. It’s a mopey Sting on this dirge. Contact and Does Everyone Star are largely forgettable and No Time This Time was the B-Side to So Lonely a single that came out in November 78. This is a throughly enjoyable record but time has not been kind. Most of this album does not hold up after 45 years. I’ve moved on. So, my 1979 rating would have been 4 out of 5. My figuring out Sting is insufferable and after…until today is 2/5. -1 for Sting and -1 for time.

Ah…the difficult second album. I’m a bit conflicted because of all of the Hendrix discography, this record is a bit of an outlier. Sure there are only four records, 3 with as the Jimi Hendrix Experience and 1 as the Band of Gypsys. There is probably little argument that Electric Ladyland is the sonic achievement of Hendrix’s far too short career. So what about Axis? I think it’s a gem with tremendous diversity and sonically perfect. The opener EXP signals that this was not going to be a rehash of Are You Experienced?, but also that the experience was going to live up to the name. The jazzy Up From the Skies is followed by the stellar Spanish Castle Magic. For me, this is where the album starts. Spanish Castle Magic, Wait Until Tomorrow, Ain’t No Tellin, Little Wing and If 6 was 9 are a pretty spectacular run of tracks showing off Hendrix increasingly better lyric proficiency with his guitar prowess evident but played in service of the song. This is where you notice the equally perfect playing of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. The album finishes pretty strong with You Got Me Floatin’ and the Noel Redding sung She’s So Fine being the standouts. Super efficient album with 13 tracks in 39 minutes. For me the only kind of misses come at the end - One Rainy Wish is kinda dull, Little Miss Lover feels unfinished with some repetitive noodling and Bold As Love is lyrically excellent but this song too feels unfinished. Maybe cut off the last minute which I think is a bit unnecessary. Perhaps the box set coming out next month will include the mono version which I’ve heard is the definitive version. We’ll see. Still a pretty awesome record by a guy with a unique vision at the height of his powers. Rock n Roll was not the same after this. How do I know. Because I was there :)

The Minutemen and Gang of Four have a child and the result is Fugazi. Ian MacKaye experience in Minor Threat had to overlap with both these bands and the econo jam is present all over this record. Brendan #1 could have fit on Double Nickels on a dime. This record, along with the compilation 13 Songs released before this LP compiling the first two EPs including the magical track Waiting Room, were a welcome addition to the end of the 80s and a great start to the 90s. In a period where Nirvana is going to get all the flowers, Fugazi got the love from a punk rock community in desperate need of something new but connected to the now lengthy history of punk rock. Repeater fit the bill and Fugazi was that band. The call/response vocals of MacKaye and Picciotto added a Beastie Boys flavor to this jammy punk rock the media called Alternative Rock in order to fit it nicely into the corporate sales program. Fugazi resisted and on this record the DIY punk rock ethos oozes from every song. From the first track Turnover through Shut The Door the album never lets up and traverses a smorgasbord of American sins that would make Jello Biafra proud. For me, favorites are Merchandise, Turnover, Blueprint and Styrofoam. No weak songs, this LP still resonates 35 years later.

Not the record I would have picked to represent Elton. I bought this when I was 14 - only a couple of years after it came out and about the same year as I started discovering Black Sabbath, T.Rex and things that were not on my mom’s radio station as she drove us to school. My mom loved a.m. radio in the 70’s. Tony Orlando and Dawn, ABBA, Captain and Tennille- my mom loved it all. I remember buying Crocodile Rock when it came out and then bought Don’t Shoot Me I’m only The Piano Player. Madman soon followed. Tiny Dancer is an undeniably great song and a great start to this record. As the third record released in 1971 (King Gizzard like work) this album I think suffers from a lack of focus. Tiny Dancer, Levon and Madman Across the Water are the most focused and best songs on this record. The prog rock touches are awful. What dooms this record are songs like Razor Face. It’s a song about a drunk drifter with a razor face who is back in town and meeting by a travel inn to get drinks. WTF was Elton thinking? And that’s the song stuck between Levon and Madman Across the Water. Madman Across the Water has a Stairway to Heaven vibe. At least it’s interesting. A little too prog inspired but at least Elton gives it a puncher’s chance with an inspired vocal. Indian Sunset is also a head scratcher. The guy is from England. Why is he spending 6:00 minutes singing about the Iroquois. Really, I’m starting to think the author who assembled this list of 1001 albums was doing it to fuck with people like me. Absolutely no self respecting critic is going to go wow- this is a stunning work unless they are absolutely fucking stunned that this record is a platinum selling record because it’s mostly shit. I remember seeing literally hundreds of copies of this record in the used bins right beside the Billy Hoel records. The rest of the record is merely a turd circling the drain. Even Elton fans are not going to be shouting out “play Holiday Inn!” I couldn’t wait until Goodbye finished. 3 songs and ditch the rest. It’s a rotten peach. See how I did that?