February is Music Writer Exercise Month #MWE • Page 63

Let's do this. Tried to pick famous albums I haven't heard / haven't listened to in years and years.

1. Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope
2. Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
3. The Breeders - Last Splash
4. Sade - Love Deluxe
5. Spiritualised - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
6. Le Tigre - Le Tigre
7. Slowdive - Souvlaki
8. Primal Scream - Screamadelica
9. Air - Moon Safari
10. Digable Planets - Blowout Comb
11. Swans - To Be Kind
12. Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising
13. King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity
14. Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
15. Pharoah Sanders - Karma
16. Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
17. Charles Mingus - Blues and Roots
18. King Crimson - Red
19. Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges - Clube Da Esquina
20. Novos Baianos - Acabou Chorare
21. This Heat - Deceit
22. The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
23. Tears for Fears - Songs From the Big Chair
24. Have a Nice Life - Deathconscious
25. Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
26. Tool - Lateralus
27. JPEGMAFIA - LP!
28. Alvvays - Blue Rev
29. Clipping - Visions of Bodies Being Burned

If anyone has a different suggestion for any choices here / an entirely different recommendation for me, open to hear it!

 

Hell yeah Talk Talk! If you like that, check out Spirit of Eden and the Mark Hollis S/T

 

last minute recommendation to all

 

not the Kris i would have chose but hell yeah

 

1. Pharoah Sanders - Tauhid
2. Ice Choir - Afar
3. Labradford - Mi Media Naranja
4. Oval - 94 Diskont
5. Peter Murphy - Deep
6. Poor Righteous Teachers - Holy Intellect
7. Rodan - Rusty
8. Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You
9. Hood - The Cycle of Days & Seasons
10. Jane Siberry - The Walking
11. Jim O'Rourke - Eureka
12. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
13. Lil Ugly Mane - Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern
14. Lyle Lovett - Pontiac
15. Mariah - Utakata No Hibi
16. Mikel Rouse & Mikel Rouse Broken Consort - Rouse: Jade Tiger
17. Motohiko Hamase - Reminiscence
18. Neil Young - Homegrown
19. Robert Wyatt - Last Straw
20. Sad Lovers & Giants - Epic Garden Music
21. Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider
22. Stereolab - Dots and Loops
23. Terry Callier - The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier
24. Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything?
25. Yamasuki - Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki
26. Woo - Which Ever Way
27. Reinbert de Leeuw - Satie: The Early Piano Works
28. Yasuaki Shimizu - Kakashi
29. The Spinners - Mighty Love

Order/Albums subject to change.

 

That Nascimiento album is absolutely incredible.

Love that you’re listening to Pharoah. I like Karma a lot but I’ll say if you dig him I strongly recommend giving Thembi a listen eventually too. One of my favorite jazz albums

 

That Rundgren album is special, man. And Mighty Love is killer. Like Pick of the Litter and the s/t feel like a very complete, well-thought-out record

 

Alright, here we go.

1. Gorillaz – Demon Days
2. Waxahatchee – Cerulean Salt
3. The Ataris – Welcome the Night
4. Joss Stone – The Soul Sessions
5. Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy
6. Pat Benatar – Crimes of Passion
7. Cat Stevens – Tea for the Tillerman
8. Gang of Youths – The Positions
9. Pistol Annies – Hell on Heels
10. The Antlers – Burst Apart
11. Jack Johnson – From Here to Now to You
12. Graham Colton – Here Right Now
13. The Breeders – Last Splash
14. Commodores – Midnight Magic
15. Britney Spears – Blackout
16. Built to Spill – Perfect from Now On
17. Aqualung – Memory Man
18. Beastie Boys – Check Your Head
19. Billie Holiday – Lady Sings the Blues
20. The Blue Nile – Hats
21. Soloman Burke – Rock ‘N Soul
22. Panic at the Disco – Pretty Odd
23. Sam & Dave – Hold On, I’m Coming
24. The Dismemberment Plan – Emergency & I
25. Pixies – Doolittle
26. Songs: Ohia – The Magnolia Electric Co.
27. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
28. INXS – Kick
29. KT Tunstall – Eye to the Telescope

 

magnolia electric co. perfect record

 

Fuck yeah.

I definitely have a preference for Precious Time by Benatar, but I'm an outlier on that generally.

 

Who’s the better Kris?

 

i just meant not the record i would have picked hah. i prefer his debut.

 

Listened to Janet Jackson's The Velvet Rope. I didn't realise it was a double album going in, but I did basically zero research on any of these albums!

My first thought was that this reminded me of Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, particularly how the skits / non musical tracks connect the songs together, and the general blending of soul music and hip-hop. However, Miseducation came out a year later, so the influence is probably going the other way. There's a lot more dance and electronica stuff on this as well.

I do wish it was a bit shorter (which is my boring, standard response to my first listen to double albums), as I found myself flagging a little towards the end, but I was really into it at parts, and despite it's length, it does work very well as a cohesive album.

 

Yeah, that was a “go with the consensus pick” choice, but good to know!

 

Pharoah Sanders - Tauhid
An album like this absolutely needs more listens, but on first impression I like "Aum/Venus/Capricorn Rising" the most out of the tracks. I am going to jump into Coltrane's Ascension, and then either circle back to Tauhid or do Deaf Dumb Blind.

 

The Beach Boys - Surf's Up

Outside of the songs that everyone knows, I've never listened to much music from The Beach Boys. The only other album I'd ever heard in full prior to this one was Pet Sounds. I chose this album based solely on the cover which is at odds with everything I've ever associated with the band (and it's also an image that my father had no less than 3 copies of in our house growing up), so I figured this should be the one I listened to.

I guess I should have guessed that it wouldn't be the sunny pop music I was expecting from them. I did like a fair amount of what I heard, especially on the first half, but I'm not sure how often I'll come back to any of it. Heavy themes aren't what I'm looking for if I'm reaching for a Beach Boys album. Much of it sounds like The Beach Boys filtered through a dystopian night rather than a sun soaked beach and, in the end, I think I'd rather have the sun from these guys.

Surprisingly, "Disney Girls (1957)" was the song that resonated with me the most. As someone who often escapes into older media when I'm feeling depressed (VHS tapes/old baseball games I watched as a kid, etc.), it really is a very comforting song for me. I was listening to it again as I wrote this and started to hear a little bit of "Grow Old With You" from The Wedding Singer in the verses, though, so that's an interesting development as well.

Oh, and "Take a Load Off Your Feet" is so hilariously out of place on this album and made me laugh every time I heard it.

 

Doesn’t get much better than Surf’s Up fer me, but if you want something sunnier in the post Smile era that’s still kinda odd, you might dig Wild Honey and Friends.

they’re like 25 mins too, easy listens

 

Here's where I'm at! I always try to have at least 50% non white males to balance out the canon.

1. Robbie Robertson - Robbie Robertson
2. Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow
3. The Breeders - Last Splash
4. Toto - Toto IV
5. Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy
6. Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
7. Jim Croce - Photographs & Memories
8. Linda Rondstadt - Heart Like a Wheel
9. Don Henley - The Age of Innocence
10. PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
11. Donna Summer - Bad Girls
12. Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
13. Donald ***an - Kamkiriad
14. Minnie Riperton - Come To My Garden
15. The Cure - Disintegration
16. Sam Cooke - One Night Stand in Harlem
17. Liz Phair - Liz Phair
18. Son Volt - Trace
19. Judee Sill - Judee Sill
20. The Sundays - Reading Writing Arithmetic
21. Nemo Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Floor
22. Savage - Tonight
23. Bob Dylan - Street Legal
24. Au Pairs - Playing With A Different Sex
25. Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter - Leather and Lace
26. Songs: Ohia – The Magnolia Electric Co.
27. The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
28. The Staples Singers - Be Altitude
29. Supertramp - Crime of the Century

 

Will definitely check those out. I ended up listening to All Summer Long, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), and Sunflower as well. I actually really enjoyed Sunflower and was kinda shocked to find that it was their worst selling album to that point

 

Yeah Wild Honey is my pick. The Beach Boys Love You is also very, very good for a late(ish) album from them.

 

Wild Honey is the one I listen to by far the most i love it so much

 

"Wild Mountain Honey" is one of my favorite Steve Miller Band songs, so, to be fair, if the cover of Surf's Up hadn't caught my eye, I probably would've picked that one based on the title lol. Will listen to it later today