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...