Funeral to Finish

  I'm taking a week off.  Next week, specifically.  Not only am I going on vacation - my first real vacation since the Neo-Plague - I need a chance to listen to some new stuff instead of the #6 album from 1973 or whatever.   As always, thanks for reading and please do come back when I return.  We only have 182 more albums!

  Since I came to D'Angelo late (2014's Black Messiah , an album I absolutely love ), I was unfortunately unaware of this album when it came out and although I don't like it as much as Messiah , I can certainly appreciate the bomb it set off when it landed out of nowhere in 1995. When he started recording this album, D'Angelo had already had some modest success, writing one song that landed in the top 5 of the R&B charts, but I don't think anyone expected what came next.  Unusual for the time, this album is almost entirely a D'Angelo creation, in that he wrote the songs, played almost all the instruments, and sang all the vocals.   Recorded largely in New York City, this album just feels  city.  It's a mix of jazz and R&B and soul - in fact, it pretty much kicked off what came to be known as "neo-soul" - and maybe even trip-hop?  The title track, a not-very-veiled ode to smoking weed, has jazzy piano and quiet organ and that snappy snare th...

  If you were of a certain age in the 80s, and I was certainly of that age, the songs on this album are as indelibly etched into your brain as reruns of "The Brady Bunch" or being a latchkey kid (only if you were one of the lucky neglected kids with plenty of time to pursue your own artistic interests like reruns of "The Brady Bunch").  As bright and splashy as the color scheme of the era, Lauper's voice was like no other and these insanely catchy songs sold millions and millions of albums and absolutely dominated radio play, the way most people received music. They were also a natural fit for MTV, which was just becoming a force.  The video for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," featuring wrestling manager Captain Lou Albano, Lauper's own mother, and a bunch of label employees moonlighting.  It's pretty great: Just a stellar pop song.  Originally written and recorded by Robert Hazard, who I'm sure enjoyed the royalties he got until his death in ...

  Drop the needle on this record and the very first thing you hear are drums - Charlie Watts playing a jazz/Latin kind of thing, and then congas - and piano and Bill Wyman's bass and then "Please allow me to introduce myself," the intro to one of the most iconic rock songs ever written, "Sympathy for the Devil."  And that's just the beginning of this set, one of the greatest rock albums ever made. The Rolling Stones had spent much of 1967 embroiled in various drug scandals and split from their producer Andrew Oldham.  In early 1968, they started working with Jimmy Miller on a new album and recorded a little number called "Jumpin' Jack Flash," which was released as a single.  By this point, guitarist Brian Jones was barely there at all, dropping by the studio when he wasn't too fucked up and contributing whatever he felt like (in fact, he plays an acoustic on "Sympathy," but it's so low in the mix you can barely hear it).  Desp...

  The Red Hot Chili Peppers can be a divisive band to write about because I'm sure there are a lot of people who love them but they're pretty terrible and that makes it hard.  You know that famous Nick Cave quote, right?  “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the fuck is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” NEVERTHELESS, I must say that if you have to listen to an RHCP album this is probably the one, as I guess it shows some thought and range beyond their usual Flea slap-bass/Anthony Kiedis rap-singing/funk-punk thing.  Hell, I've been trying to figure out what's going on in "Give It Away" for almost 30 years: What I got, you got to give it to your mama What I got, you've got to give it to your papa What I got, you got to give it to your daughter You do a little dance and then you drink a little water What I got, you gotta get it put it in you What I got, you gotta get it put it in you What I got, you gotta get it put it i...

  A sobering reminder that before he was an affable joker in movies like Are We Done Yet? , Ice Cube was a dangerous fucking individual.  On this album, which is great, incidentally, he is not just angry, but violently angry, and rightfully so.  The injustices that he carefully catalogs are many and profound, and Cube does a great job bringing them to light.  This is as much a manifesto and a call to arms - quite literally, in fact - as a banging fucking album. Quite apart from the lyrics - more on which soon - this album is musically brilliant.  Produced by the Bomb Squad, Public Enemy's production team, the beats ripple with life and are stuffed with expertly chosen samples.   "Endangered Species (Tales From the Darkside)" shows off both elements - the dense, thickly layered production, and Cube's angry, unforgiving delivery (Trigger Warning: basically everything): Not for the faint of heart lyrically, and Cube isn't pulling any punches.  It's h...

  "Bang a Gong (Get It On)," the sixth track on this album, is correctly regarded as one of the best songs in the history of rock.  Not only does it just fucking rock, it also has some of the most inspired and brilliant lyrics you'll ever come across.  The song contains, not in sequential order, the following lines: Well, you're slim and you're weak You've got the teeth of the hydra upon you Well, you're built like a car You've got a hubcap diamond star halo That's the truth with your cloak full of eagles Well, you're windy and wild You've got the blues in your shoes and your stockings You don't get enough references to the hydra in today's music, that's for sure.  I bring this up not just to praise these lyrics, praiseworthy as they may be, but to make a point.  Although this album has all the swagger and arrogance that a former male model like Marc Bolan, who showed up at a producer's front door with his guitar and said he...

  I was wrong. Somehow, years and years ago, I decided that Sleater-Kinney was not my thing and were overrated and I decided not to like them.  I'm not sure whether this was just a knee-jerk reaction to hearing a few songs and not giving them a chance or just being the kind of oppositional asshole I can be sometimes, but I am here today to say I was wrong, I'm sorry, and I hope Sleater-Kinney can forgive me because this album absolutely fucking rocks . This is S-K's second record and their first with drummer Janet Weiss, who I already knew from Quasi (a great and largely forgotten band that is worth a listen , but I digress), and whose drumming is absolutely essential to the sound of this album.  (This is not to diminsh the roles played by Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, more on which later.)  Just check out "Things You Say," for example - it's not like it's super-flashy (although it is super-flashy sometimes on this album) - it's more like she kno...

  There are really two different kinds of "concept albums:" one that's generally built around a theme and explores ideas within that theme, like Sgt. Pepper's and Pet Sounds (two albums about which I have thoughts, and are, I'm sure, in the top 20, so check back in a year or so), and one that actually tells a cohesive story with a plot and characters, like this one, maybe the most famous of the latter type in history. The story, which wasn't included in narrative written form anywhere with the album, goes something like this: a boy's father kills his mother's lover, after which the mother hypnotizes him, causing him to lost his sight, hearing, and speech; he retreats to an inner world and is tortured and molested by relatives; he then becomes a pinball prodigy, then regains his senses, starts a cult, which eventually fails, and again retreates to some kind of inner world.  This album came out in 1969, can you tell? Leaving the story, such as it was, ...

  Would I willingly select this album to put on to listen to?  Probably not.  Was it enjoyable on its own terms nevertheless?  Yes, it was.  Released in 1960, this early soul/R&B album featured a number of jazz and pop standards, along with some straight blues (like Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You") sprinkled in. This album brought two thoughts to mind for me: (1) music that plays under establishing shots in movies set in the early 60's; and (2) music that has been the first dance at an infinite number of weddings.  Here's an example of James's music in a movie set in the 50's (which I guess would have been impossible? But hey, so is time travel): As far as wedding dances go, there is, of course, the title track, which you've probably actually seen used at a wedding (it's #1 on this list , and is so ubiquitous that those contrarians at the New York Times did a piece called " 36 First Dance Songs That Aren't 'At Last...

  Sometimes there is a great confluence of album and day of the week and it is fucking FRIDAY and the album is this, a blast of snarling New York whiteboy rap.  It is not a "smart" or "sophisticated" or "very good" album but it certainly made a statement.  Rick Rubin deserves a lot of credit for taking a hardcore band from Brooklyn and turning it into this.  This note from Wikipedia cracked me up: "It is the only album by a Jewish hip-hop act to receive 5 mics from The Source ."  Yes I suppose so! As the Beastie Boys got older and matured and turned into activists and whatnot, God bless 'em, they felt the need to repeatedly apologize for this album, which they originally wanted to title Don't Be a Faggot .  You can see why!  It's crass and crude and gleefully misogynistic.   Coolin' by the lockers getting kind of funky Me and the crew we're drinking Brass Monkey This girl walked by she gave me the eye I reached in the locker g...

  In a two-year burst from 1969 to 1970 that has rarely or never been equalled in modern-day music, Creedence Clearwater Revival put out five albums, all of which yielded multiple hit songs, some of which became so elemental to the canon that they are now part of the American fabric.  This album fell about in the middle of that stretch.  Released in November 1969, three months after Green River and eight months before Cosmo's Factory , it has iconic songs like "Down on the Corner" (from whence the title comes), "Midnight Special" (by that old favorite, "Trad.," arranged by John Fogerty here) and "Fortunate Son."   "Son" is, of course, an antiwar anthem that went to #3 in December 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War, and is IMO one of the greatest songs in rock history.  Fogerty's lyrics still resonate today: Yeah, some folks inherit star-spangled eyes They send you down to war And when you ask 'em, "How much should ...

  After yesterday's somnambulant stroll through the morose stylings of Leonard Cohen, at least it was a breath of fresh air to get this blast of high energy dance-pop.  If you are a human who existed in the world between 1987 and, say, 1998, you are familiar with at least three to five songs on this album, which, as the follow-up to Thriller , one of the biggest albums in the history of music, was as highly anticipated as Halley's Comet.  It sold something like 25 million copies.  Not bad, Michael! As you would expect from a Jackson/Quincy Jones album, it is as slickly and tightly produced as it gets.  There is not a single breath or beat or synth bump out of place.  Right off the bat, the title track lets you know you are not in Thriller territory any more - Jackson's going for something harder-edged, to the extent that was possible for him.  Quick digression - since 1987 I have wondered why Jackson sings what sounds like "chum on" instead of "come o...

  You know why older white male music critics absolutely love Leonard Cohen?  Because they think "I could do that!  I could write some stream-of-consciousness lyrics and then croak them out without really singing to a barely-audible guitar track!"  Leonard Cohen is a dreamcatcher for old white dudes. As you may have divined, I have never understood Cohen's appeal.  I mean, I can appreciate a song like "Suzanne," the album's opener, for what it is.  It has a pleasant enough melody, if a little monotonous, and a good, sad vibe.  I also could learn to like "So Long, Marianne," which has some momentum and some verve.  Both of these songs feature female backing vocals, which might be part of why I like them because, for whatever Cohen is, a gifted and magnetic singer he is not.  Just listen to "The Stranger Song," in which he's not really singing at all, but more just like intoning. I know I'm an outlier here and Cohen is now revered a...

  I was gonna indignantly say "Why didn't anyone tell me about this album???" but all kinds of people have been talking about this album for years and I just wasn't listening.  I think I had this idea that Robyn was some kind of EDM thing but this is (for the most part) a blast of straight pop goodness from Sweden, where they definitely know how to write pop bangers.  This album fucking goes so hard, I love it. Robyn had a couple of hits as a teen-pop sensation so she wasn't an unknown quality when she started recording this album, which was released in 2010.  Of course Max Martin was involved; he's basically the Rosetta Stone of modern pop music.  My prior contact with it was when Pitchfork listed it as one of the top 10 albums of the 2010s, but I think I only got a few tracks into it before I moved on.  Pity, because there is a bunch of great shit on here. Let's take "Time Machine," the fifth track.  Like the other songs, I guess you'd call...

  Get your head around this: I am a late-middle-aged white guy who considers himself a moderate Beatles fan and I learned yesterday there are Beatles songs I have never heard .  Not obscure B-sides that only came out in England or weird solo stuff, but actual Lennon/McCartney Beatles songs that are on an album from 1964!  Songs that grandparents and great-grandparents much, much older than me know by heart.  It is wild!  I attribute this to a couple of factors: (1) I never owned this album, duh; my Beatles interest is much more focused on the later stuff, like starting from Sgt. Pepper's ; (2) In the era of my life when I would sit down with someone and listen to an entire album all the way through, it would have been comically uncool to listen to this album all the way through; and (3) once streaming started and you could listen to anything you wanted any time, it just never occurred to me.  So, new Beatles songs!  (I've never watched "The Wire" eithe...

  Another one for the "know almost every song but never owned the album" pile, but that's probably true of almost every Gen X kid because these songs were so ubiquitous and frequently played.  If you went to a party between 1985 and 1995, you almost certainly heard one of the songs on this album (or, possibly, another B-52s album) at that party.  I can't hear "Rock Lobster" without the aftertaste of keg beer in my mouth. The amazing thing (to me, anyway) about the B-52s is how one of a kind their sound is.  If someone puts on a B-52s song, you can pretty much tell it's a B-52s song even before Fred Schneider's totally unique nasally voice comes in.  They're a little surf rock and a little new wave and a lot arch and ironic.  It's an interesting contrast with Athens, Georgia's other product of the time, R.E.M. (who we will surely see on this list at some point).  R.E.M. is painfully earnest and grounded in the sound of bands like the Byrds...

  In the early 90's, I was a regular at this bar in San Francisco (looking back on it now, it's weird for a guy who was barely past 21 to be a regular at a bar, but it was a different time?) and one of the bartenders was a beautiful woman named Deborah.  She was a platinum blonde and way too glamorous for a dive like this place.  She also worked at the Blue Light on Union Street, an uber-bro bar and had great stories about the incredible assholes she encountered there.  She also had a boyfriend named Scott who was just like your regular slacker early 90's guy, maybe a few years older than me, really nice guy, super into music.  One night we were all at the bar, probably in 1993, and Scoot handed me a CD and told me I had to check this out.  Of course, it was this album. I would love to say that I instantly fell in love with this album and this band but that's not how it happened.  I wouldn't truly fall in love with Pavement until Crooked Rain, Crooked ...

  When last we saw Sade, I was less than impressed.  In fact, I didn't like Love Deluxe at all .  My sister texted me after that, "You dissed Sade? Tsk."  Rough, I know!  Well the good news is that I liked this album quite a bit more than that one.  In fact, I liked this album a lot!  I know, I was surprised too. My first point of contact with this album, like a lot of people, I'm sure, was "Smooth Operator," a sultry, sexy, incredibly catchy song about, yes, a smooth operator.  I have one specific complaint, however, I've held onto for more than 30 years and now it can some out: one repeated refrain in the song is "Coast to coast/LA to Chicago" and LA to Chicago is not coast to coast .  Ok whew thank GOD I finally got to release that, it's been bothering me since the Reagan administration. I was surprised to learn that the first single was actually the second song, "Your Love Is King," which is also a midtempo soulful ballad pun...