February is Music Writer Exercise Month #MWE • Page 13

“High Flying Bird” is his most unheralded classic song.

I also am a total sucker for “Have Mercy on the Criminal”

He was an album artist until he fired his band. The run from the s/t through Captain Fantastic is all excellent

 

High Flying Bird is playing right now! Yeah this thing is fucking great. I didn't actually know about him firing his band, but that's kinda amazing that Captain Fantastic is the last album of his I consider any good, so I knew it without knowing it

 

Dee Murray, Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnston were such a big part of his signature sound. All those backing vocals are them with no input from Elton. He'd go off and relax and leave them in the studio to arrange and record them.

 

There's a shaggy charm to those first two Bruce albums that is completely unique from anything else he ever recorded. He revisited that sound a bit on his latest, by digging up some songs from that era, and I loved the flashback. The Wild, The Innocent is even better, as @cshadows2887 will tell you.

Piano Player was on my initial list, but I bumped it last minute. I should listen to it anyway, ha.

 

Wow, never knew that but it explains so much.

 

Excellent, I'll post in here when I get to The Wild, The Innocent for sure

 

The Colour and the Shape is the essential Foo Fighters listen. It's not my personal favorite, but it's stacked with incredible singles and sets the template for them.

Sufjan Stevens, I'd go Carrie & Lowell. I think some people like Illinois or even Age of Adz more, but that's his most emotionally direct album and is, imo, the must-hear.

Bowie, I'll let someone else comment, but my favorite is Ziggy Stardust.

Also, can I please give you a country-leaning artist to try to change your mind on that front? Haha

 

Ziggy is definitely a great starting point.

Also LISTEN TO PURPLE RAIN!!!

 

Everyone needs to hear Purple Rain. It's just one of those essential classics.

 

Great! I’ll make sure to give these a listen!

And yes you absolutely can, being from the U.K. it isn’t something I am exposed to much!

 

Oh and I’ll add Purple Rain

 

You ever tried a Jason Isbell record?

 

Yeah Purple Rain is a must. The last two minutes of The Beautiful Ones...

 

Would recommend either closing your eyes and listening super close or reading along the second time. Man tells stories so much better than everyone else. "Christmas In Prison" and "The Accident" are awing.

 

The two albums I recommend to everyone are Destroyer's Kaputt and The Blue Nile's Hats.

 

If you're really open, I'm always on a crusade to make sure people have heard What Love Has...Joined Together by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and Drawn to Revolving Doors by Averi.

 

Super super taken with the Sen Morimoto record. Just a really stunning, exciting work.

 

I have not, where would I start?

okay I’ll add these :)

 

What would you compare it to?

 

Finally did the ODB deep dive and I was not surprised that it was both brilliant and sloppy.

 

I'm awful at RIYLs for the most part, but I've seen jazz rap used a ton when describing the album. I'm sure someone else who's heard the album can give you a better answer than that. Not that p4k is a be all end all, but on the debut album they mention Digable Planets and GoGo Penguin.

 

Southeastern is his masterpiece, IMO. And a record I recommend to just about everyone.

 

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
Arthur Russel - World of Echo
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
The Cure - Head on the Door
The Blue Nile - Hats

 

The new Jason Isbell record RULES

 

This was a delightful listen EXCEPT for "The Accident (Things Could Be Worse)," just because of the lyrical content in the chorus. I realize that 1973 was a different time than 2021 is now, but YIKES.