Funeral to Finish

  There are some albums that are so perfectly conceived and rendered that they stand alone, a monument to their creator and to music in general. This is not one of those albums. I know that this record is beloved by millions and critically adored.  But ask yourself this: if it wasn't by John Lennon, what would you think of it?  I mean, "Imagine," the song, is kind of treacly and wan.  (It was also mortally wounded by getting the celeb treatment at the beginning of the pandemmy  [Sample YouTube comment: "I played this to my dying grandmother who was on life support. She woke up and pulled the plug herself."].)  "Crippled Inside" has a nice folky feel but isn't all that much.  "It's So Hard" is a freak-blues number that has potential but never really takes off.  "How?" is a snooze, a would-be soft rock jam that fails to launch. Not that there aren't some moments!  I really like "Oh Yoko!" because, unlike some of

  The Dixie Chicks (now just the Chicks, tyvm) were already successful.  In 1998, they released their first album with Natalie Maines, their new lead singer, called Wide Open Spaces, and it was a huge hit.  This album followed in 1999, debuting at #1 and spawning an incredible eight country radio singles.  Basically every song on the album charted.  Then it sold 10 million copies, which sounds like a lot and actually is a lot but Wide Open Spaces  sold 13 mil so I guess it was kind of a letdown. The album varies from very, very country - "Hello Mr. Heartache" could be a Hank Williams song with a few tweaks - to more pop-country, like "Ready to Run" and lots of the other songs.  The thing that really jumps out at you is the harmonies between Maines and Emily Robison and Martie Seidel; they have a great rapport and their voices really sound great together.  I also liked "Sin Wagon," a great Texas 2-step-ish song about a woman who's tired of her man havin

  I have, I'm sorry to say, an intense and personal relationship with this record, so you'll have to bear with me on this one; it won't be very objective.  Although this record was initially released in 2001 (just a week after 9/11, as a matter of fact), I am certain that, at some point and maybe even today, if you asked me to list my 20 favorite albums of all time, this would be on the list.  Not that I would ever do such a thing!  Of course I have done such a thing, repeatedly and obsessively, and will post whatever my current list is at the end of this project. So, back to 2001, when I was a sometimes Wilco fan but for some reason didn't pay a lot of attention to this when it came out.  Pre-Wilco, band leader Jeff Tweedy had been in a band called Uncle Tupelo that I liked quite a bit, but never got to see live.  Wilco, the successor band, put out a few albums before this one, some I liked, some I wasn't really into.  I didn't start really getting into this al

  Every time a paunchy, 50-something white man straps on a Guitar Center Fender Strat... every time a Dad gets into his midlife crisis Ford Mustang and inserts a CD and heads out on the open road (or I-580, whichever is closer)... every time a man with a salt and pepper beard and a KQED sticker on a Volvo nods meaningfully at his Harman Kardons and says "Why doesn't anyone make real rock and roll any more?"... They will be thinking of this album, the Rosetta Stone of Baby Boomers who think they've discovered blues, you know, like the real shit .   Eric Clapton, as you may know, is a huge piece of shit.  Not only did he pine for his best friend George Harrison's wife (English model Pattie Boyd), descending into heroin addiction when he couldn't pry her away initially, but then, when he finally managed to ensnare her, he promptly started drinking heavily, cheating on her, and abusing her.  He's a famous racist who once said - ON STAGE - "This is England

  You can actually hear rock 'n roll being formed on this album.  Like, here's Little Richard taking blues and R&B and gospel and smashing it all together into what we would eventually recognize as rock.  If this list were Most Formative Albums, this album would be in the Top 10.  And just because I love these historical comparisons: this album came out in 1957, meaning that it is as old now as Brahms' Opus 117 was when this album was released. Little Richard only died a few years ago, in 2020, but man, what a life.  His first hit, and the first song on this album, "Tutti Frutti," came out in 1955, when he was 23 years old.  That song, which of course you know, if not the original then maybe the Elvis version, has quite a backstory.  It's been common lore for years that the original lyrics were quite a bit more, um, risque than the final version.  According to Little Richard's drummer, they were something like: "Tutti Frutti, good booty/If it'

  Even with my limited knowledge of hip-hop, I know this much: De La Soul is untouchable.  After releasing one of the most important and groundbreaking albums - not hip-hop albums, but albums - of all time, 3 Feet High and Rising (which we will certainly see in this space one of these days), De La was faced with that same dilemma familiar to every artist whose debut is a stupefying success: what next?  Sadly, many or most acts fold under the pressure.  For every Sound of Silver , there are a thousand Room on Fires . De La Soul did not fold. This album is filled with just as much production inventiveness and lyrical flow and just fun beats as the first album, but there's a turn towards decidedly darker content.  "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa," for example, is a tale of sexual assault and revenge: Macy's department store, the scene for Santa's kisses And all the little brats demandin' all of their wishes Time passes by as I wait for my younger brother He as

  The greatest hits (or, in this case, "ultimate collection") debate arrives before us again with this lovely, exhaustive compilation of Patsy Cline songs. Before we get into that issue, let's all agree that Patsy Cline is one of the greatest and most influential female singers in country and pop and 20th century music in general.  She had a voice like no other and this collection is a testament to that.  More on that later. So here's my beef with including greatest hits albums on this list.  An album is a particular vision, a cohesive idea formed by a group of songs.  Some of the songs will land, some will not, some will be better than others, but the whole package is a snapshot of an artist at a particular place and time.  Part of the interesting thing about an album is how different the same artist can sound over time.  Take Meet the Beatles and Abbey Road , for example - clearly the same band, but way, way different sounds.  If you put "I Wanna Hold Your Han