February is Music Writer Exercise Month #MWE • Page 32

I can definitely appreciate the influence this album has had, but I don't think it's for me.

 

I actually just listened to the album in full for the first time a month or so ago as well. I feel the same way, I totally get it, but I don't quite enjoy it

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd - (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)

I've now run through all of the bands albums and honestly, the debut might be the overall best. A few strange clunkers but the highs are the best. When I was listening to their last album, I got down a really deep rabbit hole about the end of the band, the plane crash, I found and watched their Behind the Music, it was wild. Anyway, there's more to this band than I initially thought, much more musically interesting than I expected and I feel like this mid-point of rock and slight country doesn't really exist much anymore, like what Southern Rock style bands even exist?

 

The Steel Woods, A Thousand Horses, and Whiskey Myers are some of my favorite more contemporary southern rock bands.

 

Drive-By Truckers? American Aquarium?

 

literally never heard of ANY of them, lol. Have any song recs for checking out?

 

Second Helping is their best album by a comfortable margin btw.

But I prefer .38 Special and Outlaws, personally.

 

I don't know American Aquarium and didn't realize Drive By Truckers are even a band still

 

other than Hold On Loosely and Caught Up In You, I haven't heard much 38 Special, their discography is quite daunting. I don't know Outlaws

 

The last couple Drive-By Truckers albums have been really good.

 

The last 3 American Aquarium albums have been excellent. Great writing. And DBT put out two albums in 2020.

Their albums always have a degree of filler, but their peak run from Rockin' Into the Night through Strength in Numbers (basically any album before Don Barnes or Jeff Carlisi left) are shiny, melodic, and incredibly accomplished. They're a favorite of mine.

Tour de Force is definitely their best, but Flashback is one of the best greatest hits comps ever assembled if that seems more your speed. Adds in some soundtrack songs and live versions of album tracks that really cook.

Outlaws s/t is a contender for the best southern rock album ever. Three excellent guitarists and writers. "Green Grass and High Tides" is the grown-up version of "Freebird"

 

Alright, you have me interested!!

 

I was thinking of American Band and The New OK. I just totally forgot about The Unraveling (which I also really liked when it came out) - the pandemic fully erased it from brain and I didn't even revisit it when I was making my end of the year list.

 

They just seem like Steve Earle or Willie Nelson, destined to keep putting out strong records with good songwriting until the heat death of the sun.

 

listened to The Beach Boys Holland today, a pretty solid mid-career album overall that kinda breezes by. Not their best, but far better than much that came after

 

I really dig both the Beach Boys albums with Blondie Chapman and Ricky Fataar. A weird little moment where they were kind of a working band for a minute.

Shame that the sales of a compilation stopped that momentum cold.

 

so Carl and the Passions is a worthwhile listen?

 

Day 19 was Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (plus the new Mogwai album, which I've listened to twice today).

Wilco have been a band that have been on my radar for a while, I've heard a fair bit of Jeff Tweedy stuff in some form, via Uncle Tupelo records, and that great Mavis Staples record If All I Was Was Black from a few years ago. I even might have heard this album before, but it certainly won't have been for a while.

It reminds me a lot more of early National or Elliott Smith than I was expecting it to, there's definitely something in his vocal delivery that reminds me of Berninger or Smith at times, and there are lyrics in here that remind me at times of both of the above two.

There were some excellent songs here that stood out on first listen, with Reservations, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart and Jesus Etc being the ones that landed on first listen. A subdued and confident album, trusting in the excellent songwriting to elevate it. Definitely one I'll be returning to.

Reading up on the release it's interesting how this was one of the first albums to be "released" online before physically, put up on the band's website because of label squabbles, months before it would come out in stores.

 

Have a pinched nerve and am on some medication that's taking a bit out of me so I don't think I'll be particularly verbose for the next few days but I really loved this. Think @Craig Manning and @Matt Chylak in particular will like this as well!

 

I've been getting more into Paul Simon's solo discography lately and it's pretty rewarding. Listened to There Goes Rhymin Simon today which is pretty solid throughout, "Loves Me Like A Rock" being my standout. Graceland obviously being the career peak, I think The Rhythm of the Saints is highly underrated due to it directly following that album. Still Crazy After All These Years has some obvious high points as well, staying consistently good throughout. his self titled from 1972 is the only one that I haven't listened to in full, but from the tracks I do know on that album, I expect it to be pretty great

 

Liked but didn't love this Supremes record. Gets about 60 percent of the way to masterpiece status, then drops he ball a bit on the back half.

 

one of my faves ever

 

Honestly that’s a lot of Motown records, particularly theirs. Though Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland (aka Sing Motown) is an exception. Love Child, too.