An Ear For An Era: 2016

Remember 2016? Sure you do. It was so recent. Yet so long ago.

A tense time, a sad time, a time with a few breaks from the sad tension...

We did go to Universal Studios and the Simpsons area they have there. That was great. And we went to Germany, which was legendarily great. In January, we took a short vacation to Florida and an even shorter two-night cruise to the Bahamas. It was on that cruise ship when we found out that David Bowie had died.

And that just kind of kicked off the year that would be 2016.

Blackstar by Bowie is about as great a swan song as any artist has delivered. It has the sounds of a restless artist putting everything out there in a final purge of energy. A scream, not a sigh. Jazz and industrial and rock and whatever words you use when you describe Bowie's career in full. It's all there. And yet, there was probably more in there lost to the afterlife. The last song is called "I Can't Give Everything Away." Even so, he gave more than most any artist in our lives. I can't say enough even though I've said nothing. Bowie.

David Bowie "I Can't Give Everything Away"

Iggy Pop recorded an album with Josh Homme called Post Pop Depression. It was great and inventive and I spent much of the year worrying he would join his compatriots in the afterlife. Especially since last time I saw him live (I can't believe I have seen him three times!) he talked a bit about probably not being much longer for this world. But he continues. And Post Pop Depression is an awesome album. But even that album title!

Savages are a kind of direct descendent of Iggy Pop's post punk innovations, and their second album Adore Life is super engaging and makes me want to go to 1979 in Germany or something.

I feel like people didn't freak out enough about Emily's D+Evolution by Esperanza Spalding. I know it got some rave reviews, which was why I decided to give it a shot when it eventually hit the $5 bin. But I just finally listened to it now and wow. This is so much. It's funky, it's post punk, it's so much in addition to the "jazz" label. Not that jazz has limitations. But as much as I heard she was branching out or whatever, I did not expect this. I need to listen to it more times.

Freetown Sound by Blood Orange was another great singular vision of high creativity. Usually something with as many guests as this would feel a bit scattered, but this was a clear statement and so of the times in 2016 (and today, it's only 2 years later after all, things don't change that fast...).

Another respite from the challenges of living in 2016 was Welcome the Worms by Bleached. Pop punk in the true sense of the word is the catchiest music to me. And no song was in my head in 2016 as much as "Wednesday Night Melody."

Bleached "Wednesday Night Melody"

And back to sadness of losing great artists. Do I write about Charles Bradley here? He lived until 2017 which puts him outside the class of 2016, but he put out his final album Changes that year and it was really something. Screaming eagle indeed, his voice was unrivaled in its passion.

Perhaps my favorite album of 2016 (there were two frontrunners and I'm going to go ahead and exercise my right to not pick a #1) was created by someone who is fortunately still around, but an exploration of loss in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy. I'm speaking of Skeleton Tree by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Every song on the album gives me deep feelings of love, loss, dread, and a little bit of hope. It is a masterwork. If Cave were someone besides Nick Cave, it would be a career defining album. But his catalog is so vast and incredible that I can't even attempt to quantify that. But in a year like 2016, this was (potentially tied for) the greatest thing an artist could release.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Girl in Amber"

Leonard Cohen had already teased the idea of dying when he was promoting You Want It Darker, but it was still a shock when he departed shortly after its release. But he went in the way of Johnny Cash, with a string of late career masterpieces on the way out (only Cohen stuck with original compositions the whole way through). You Want It Darker was everything you want from the master. Funny, reflective, intelligent, and yes, darker.

Hip hop in 2016 was kind of amazing. To briefly shift gears from the people we lost in 2016, there were great hip hop albums by Chance the Rapper, Aesop Rock, and De La Soul. Particularly De La Soul. ...And The Anonymous Nobody was a great comeback/re-introduction/modernization of a classic crew.

And then there was Danny Brown. Atrocity Exhibition is an album that I hesitate to call a hip hop album because to my ears the only thing that makes it hip hop is the rapping. The music itself is a combination of post punk and industrial and electronic and all sorts of influences.

And Run The Jewels, that's always good. RTJ3 came out on Christmas or something like that, so it basically counts as 2016.

But of course the other best album of 2016 was a reunion and a farewell and a wake for a fallen artist. Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest left this world but not before recording We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service. Furious but hopeful, pushing boundaries in a way that evokes their classic 90s output while still sounding fresh, it's almost like a debut album in how much energy and purpose it has. This is not the album 2016 deserves, but it's the album we need after a year like 2016.

A Tribe Called Quest "We The People"

And I also have to mention...
Prince. Technically no 2016 music so all I can say is thank you for your service.
Sharon Jones. (She had a posthumous 2017 album though, so we'll talk about her next time)

Other Things:

• The Falcon - Gather Up The Chaps. The kind of sort of maturity of the latest Lawrence Arms album kind of sort of reflects onto this album but also not. I like The Falcon.
• Open Mike Eagle - Hella Personal Film Festival. Continuing to evolve and be great.
• ANOHNI sang a lot about drones and death and destruction on Hopelessness. A beautiful and sad album reminding us that Obama was still deeply flawed, which can be a hard thing to fathom now in 2018.
• Midwest Farmer's Daughter by Margo Price is beautiful, yes it is. Artists like this are why I can never write off "modern country music." 
• Kendrick Lamar's untitled throwaways are gold!
• Santigold's album 99 Cents was kind of a stark contrast to the general bummer of 2016 with some positivity and fun. It was good to have a break.
• case/lang/veirs was a great reminder of this Neko Case fan of how great K.D. Lang is.
• Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop put out a collaborative album and I liked it like I like both of them. Great complementary voices!
• Frank Ocean doesn't belong down here but I don't have time to write about Blonde enough. I really need to listen to it a bunch more times anyway.
• Kool Keith had a pretty great comeback in 2016 with Feature Magnetic.
• I quite liked Hypercaffium Spazzinate by The Descendents. 
• Dan P's music is really good for playing for my son.
• Avalanches returned! It was lots of fun! Danny Brown works well for their style.
• Bon Iver went off the deep end (in a great way) with 22, A Million.
• This:

Mac McCaughan "Happy New Year (Prince Can't Die Again)"

Next Time:
2017 shall be the last one of these, it would appear. Not soon enough, as it's near impossible to find time to write this and update playlists with a newborn around. 2017 was the year of...stuff. I think it broke the '7 narrative I've been building in this thing. I think 2016 was better. I still need to work out what the highlights actually were though.

An Ear For An Era: 1983

All right, here it is. I'm going to see how this music of my birth year defines me as a person. From the timeless to the cheesy to the timelessly cheesy. Okay.

I was born in April of 1983. One album listed on Wikipedia as being released in "April 1983" was Minor Threat's only actual album Out of Step. I have a lot of love for this album. It exemplifies the greatness of Ian MacKaye's lyrics from the clarification of the title track (insisting that he doesn't care if you drink/smoke/etc he just doesn't happen to care for it) to the satire of the closing track "Cashing In." There's a bit more complexity to the music on this album, they started turning into something more. But still with the energy level that I love about them.

Minutemen sure doubled down on Double Nickels On The Dime. (DAMNIT I just saw it was released in 1984, not 1983. Someone needs to go through my music and correct all the dates! I'll still write about it here though because I listened to it in a slightly-incorrect context). This is all I have from them at the moment but I'd like to hear more. I kind of liken this album to a more stripped-down version of Gang of Four. The same rhythm attack is there in the bass and drums, but they were not trying to make you dance. It's thinking music. And it's 43 tracks long, so it's a commitment. It's got punk rock rage without being dumbed down and it's not afraid to slow it down. There's way too much going on for someone like me without more time to devote to it to give it justice, but just listen to "West Germany." I think it covers what I've said here. Unfortunately, people that put stuff on youtube are strange so I can't find just this track. Here's apparently the full album in youtube format. "West Germany" is probably around the 45 minute mark (or just listen to the whole thing, why not??).

Minutemen Double Nickels on the Dime

Latter era Ramones are a strange beast. Oddly enough, Subterranean Jungle is the first Ramones album I got because I gave vague instructions one year that I wanted Ramones albums for Christmas and this is what I got. Of course I knew the classic early hits so this wasn't my first exposure to them as a whole, but this album wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I listened to it quite a bit anyway though, and then didn't, so this album still takes me back to those days. It's more of a classic rock/pop album, not really trying to be punk amongst an era of great artists running with what they had kickstarted only 7 or so years earlier. But it really just feels out of touch, like a band of grandpas trying to fit in. Or dads I guess. At least on tracks like "Time Bomb" about how "I'm gonna break every rule" and "I'm not gonna stay in school." Fake rebellion that is not sold by the music or the vocal delivery. But I do enjoy the songs that play to their pop strengths, like this one.

Ramones, "My-My Kind of a Girl"

Kind of a timeless song on an otherwise cheesy/dated album. Now let's flip it.

Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones is crazy. And timeless. And one of the greatest albums ever recorded, really. It starts off with Waits screaming over a circus, includes allusions to everything he's done in the past (some spoken word content, some beautiful ballads, etc), but it's all so different. The music particularly. This is where he turns "unclassifiable" in my genre labels. Because what is this, aside from amazing? It's heartbreaking all over the place, but it's a rough-and-tumble ride through rage and such a high level of "cool" that only a few people in music have ever accomplished. Basically he could have farted into the microphone and it would have been amazing. This was ten years into an already incredible career, in the midst of an incredible string of albums, in a way that just makes everything he would do from now on "credible." And he ran with it, producing it himself, throwing everything at the wall, and all of it managed to stick.

Tom Waits "16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six"

The only full Daniel Johnston album I have is Yip/Jump Music. Super lo-fi bedroom recordings, simple songs with outrageously simple arrangements, but it's all just straight from the heart and it hits you in the heart in the most direct way that music can. He is such a great writer in the way he manages to distill it down to a few simple words.

Now we'll begin our drift from the timeless back to the dated, but this one is still timeless in a way that it doesn't matter that it sounds exactly like it's from the early 80s. I'm speaking of course about Talking Heads' Speaking in Tongues. Past their original era, past their work with Eno, they were now well-seasoned veterans of great composition. And I guess this is their most popular album because of "Burning Down The House." Which is a great house-burning track for sure. But I think "Girlfriend is Better" is a better single.

David Bowie also was getting very popular with Let's Dance, the title track of which was the #1 song in the UK on the day I was born. I used to like that track, but it's been overplayed which makes me realize that there's just not that much to the song. There are a couple other good songs on the album, but it's just not up there. And looking through what I have coming up, there's barely any Bowie I have from 1983 to 2001. I'm sure there's some good stuff I'm missing, but I think this marked the end of his great era of art rock dominance before some great comeback material he would later come back with.

New Order. "Blue Monday." One of the great house burners of the 80s and 80s revival nights and so 80s but so good. I've heard this song tons of times without getting sick of it. It comes from Power, Corruption & Lies, the only New Order album I actually own aside from their 2005 return. "Age of Consent" is a good opener, "Your Silent Face" is a good deep cut that you should listen to if you haven't, but "Blue Monday" is just one of those songs.

And now for the timelessly cheesy.

Whenever anyone tries to ask me my guilty pleasures, I have a hard time with that question. I don't think musical pleasures should be guilty. No matter what. But then I say something along the lines of "people might consider "Weird Al" Yankovic a guilty pleasure, but there's so much talent and intelligence there, and so many of my peers grew up on him that he's pretty universally loved." I don't know why that's in quotes, that's the first time I've expressed it exactly like that. But he's just great and his self-titled debut already has so much going on. It was my brother that had his self-titled tape on cassette, and the reason I got into Weird Al. We would listen to it a lot and laugh about the moaning/grunting guy that randomly popped up in "Another One Rides The Bus." And the wordplay of "Gotta Boogie." And playing "Happy Birthday" on people's birthdays. And thinking that "Stop Draggin' My Car Around" was an original and someone should reverse-parody it with "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (turned out that already did exist as a song that was being parodied by Al, of course). And this music video, oh this music video:

"Weird Al" Yankovic "I Love Rocky Road"

Rocky Road is one of my favorite ice cream flavors and now I'm not sure if that is because of this song or not. I just can't remember if it was the reason I first tried it, if it's the reason I repeatedly asked for it afterwards, or what. I'm sure it had some influence though. But marshmallow in chocolate ice cream is a brilliant idea.

Now the guy that probably could be considered a guilty pleasure if I'm being honest. 80s Billy Joel holds a significant place in my heart even though in my heart I know his 70s output has to be better. I think my parents probably just listened to An Innocent Man a lot and because it's so catchy it caught on with me as well. Once I was talking to Neil of The Lawrence Arms about Billy Joel, insisting this was his great achievement, but now I'm kind of embarrassed for saying that because his 70s stuff probably was his great achievement. Even from the perspective of accepting that everything he did was cheesy. But An Innocent Man is all songs I know from my childhood, and I know it's silly but "Uptown Girl!" (particularly thanks to the hippie episode of The Simpsons) and the a capella "For The Longest Time!" Even in college this was one of the albums I would put on before going out, listening to this song to get me excited about hanging out with a girl I had a crush on (nothing ever happened because I didn't "Tell Her About It").

Billy Joel "This Night"

So let's see what defines me based on my birth year. Creative, punk rock, artistic but simple, and not afraid to be silly and downright cheesy. Sounds about right.

Other commentary:

• Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" came up. It's a good rocker.
• Madonna's first single "Holiday" is a pretty good one there.
• I quite enjoyed "Radio Lover" by George Jones. A good story, gets country sad of course.
• "Every Sperm is Sacred," of course. Monty Python and whatnot.
• I don't have Sports, a purportedly great Huey Lewis & The News album according to some media (American Psycho). But according to Bender on Futurama, it didn't age well. All I had was "I Want a New Drug" which is entertaining enough and reminds me of more incoming Weird Al.
• Just a couple Prince singles for 1983, but both are great jams. "Delirious" and a dance remix of "Little Red Corvette."
• Berlin is a very dated sounding band but since Alkaline Trio and others covered them I developed an interest. I have the full album on vinyl, but all I've bothered with obtaining digitally are "The Metro" and "Sex (I'm A)," the latter of which is a pretty good entry into that whole clever sexy dance thing that got so popular in the revival of the early 2000s.
• Into to Pulp! So weird that Pulp was already up and going way back in 1983. They had a ways to go before they got to some of their later era genius though.
• For the moment Elvis Costello & The Attractions are pushed to this category. Punch the Clock is one of his lesser albums in my opinion. It's mostly all bombastic horn driven stuff and some more of that dated 80s sound. Of course there are some absolute classic greats on there. I quite enjoy "Charm School" and "Shipbuilding" is still one of his greatest ballads.
• Rick James' "Cold Blooded," later to be covered by ODB, is a great jam.
• What? They Might Be Giants AND Weird Al got going in 1983? The year I was born? No wonder I'm such a nerd! I never got as much into TMBG as I would have liked to (and I still hope to even though I'm now in my 30s) but some demos here are pretty good...
• Violent Femmes had some singles, "Ugly" and the brilliant "Gimme the Car." Wikipedia says the album I gushed about for 1982 was also actually from 1983 (April even!). Oops. I wonder how many of my dates are inaccurate, screwing this whole project up?
• I only had one hip hop jam for 1983! But it's yet another classic: "Renegades of Funk" by Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force.
• R.E.M. had their debut with Murmur. I need to give it more spins before I say much about it. But it probably signals some big step in alt rock that should be noted.

Next Time:

Big Brother is after you! Well I'm sure my 3-year-old big brother was super sweet on 1-year-old me, but watch out! 1984! Bruce Springsteen is back to being cheesy/bombastic, hip hop starts expanding with Fat Boys and Run-D.M.C., Husker Du is the classic punk rock band, a return of Leonard Cohen, The Pogues arrive, Purple Rain falls, Scratch Acid, The Smiths, and another Weird Al classic (I might have this at the end of every "Next Time" for a while since I look in alphabetical order and they were all classics in my eyes).

2013 in Music: An Outsider's Opinion

Is that title ok? Is it pretentious? I'd like to think not. I'm not saying I was above it all, I was just outside of it all. Doing this thing I've been doing on this blog I was much less invested in the music of this year than I have in years past. It will be funny when I finally reach 2013 in that other project, because the memory will be that I was focusing on older music at the time.

Not that I can consider myself a huge outsider. While I was less invested than usual, I still got a lot of music and tried to listen to it when it made sense to. In between years and whatnot. There was a lot of music I was looking forward to this year, and I couldn't just leave it alone. I just only have a few listens through of each of the albums I took seriously. And have less than the last few.

But yeah, anticipation. That has to be the theme of this year. Highly anticipated releases in some ways or others. Strange that many favorites were surprises.

I'm going to take a cue from last year and not try to rank anything. I'm just going to write about whatever I feel like sharing an opinion about. And the top top releases, I'll put stars in front of them showing my enthusiasm. But there were some overrated things I also want to write about. And other things I'm sure. Enjoy!

In Alphabetical Order Because I Am Serious About Not Ranking Things:

• ***Arcade Fire starts with an A! Early hype was "Arcade Fire is recording with James Murphy!!" Then there was the whole shrouded in mystery thing. And then a TV blitz. And it was just too much. Funny thing about this record. I love it in spite of all of that. I need to hear it more but I quite enjoy it. And I've complained in the past about them showing too much ambition, trying to make big statements and such (particularly on Neon Bible) when they were so young, and I so appreciated The Suburbs because they were taking a step back in that department. But here, they shot for the stars. And the results are fantastic. It takes a couple listens (honestly I didn't really like any of the songs the first time I heard any of them on their various TV appearances), but now songs like "Joan of Arc" and "Here Comes The Night Time" have pulled me in, and I discover more joy in this each time I put it on.
• ***Crooks On Tape just snuck up on me with their debut album Fingerprint. I've been a John Schmersal fan for a while now. After I discovered Brainiac in my early college years I was obsessed with his very own blend of delightful weirdness and undeniable catchiness. Enon became one of my "top 3" bands for the longest time past that, and they kind of mysteriously stopped doing things, and I tried to watch for any new Schmersal projects but didn't hear about anything. Until a week before this album dropped. It is almost everything I love about Enon! A wide variety, a respectable amount of experimentation and weirdness, and the catchiness. Oh, the catchiness. I have a new band to try to get my friends to love as much as I do!
• **David Bowie managed to make a giant comeback without much hype about it. I need to give it even more time than I did, but I do quite like all of the material from the original album, bonus tracks, and bonus EP. That James Murphy remix for "Love is Lost" on the bonus EP is epic and I don't take that word lightly. But it's everything you would want from a combination of Bowie and Murphy.
• *Deltron 3030 put out Event 2. Now there's a release with a buildup. The first album came out in 2000 and I first started hearing about the sequel being worked on in 2006. That means the time it was hyped for for me personally (I know the artists didn't spend all this time building it up, I just got very excited when I heard about it and kept trying to find more information) was longer than the time between the original release and the start of the hype. As the release date approached and I didn't hear much from Koala or Automator and I got less and less interested in Del's solo material, I started dreading this. I worried it would suck, my expectations dropped considerably, but I still knew I had to get it. And I was just relieved that it was good! I guess the critics didn't care enough about it when it came time to make year end lists, but damnit if Automator didn't create some more catchy beats here! And the David Cross/Amber Tamblyn skits are mildly entertaining even after quite a few listens. And all the guests bring it and Del brings it and nothing will ever meet that original Deltron album but this is a very worthy successor.
• *Elvis Costello working with The Roots? Do You Want More??! Get Happy! This one was an odd one, this Wise Up Ghost. Again, highly anticipated for me, as Elvis Costello is my #1 all time #1. And The Roots are The Roots! And for as restless as the chameleon Mr Costello is musically, it felt like he was treading water on the last couple albums. So ?uestlove was just the one to shake things up. Things never live up to expectations but still, this is a good shake up of some old Costello lyrics and new context and yet another dynamite ballad from the master, "Tripwire."
• ***Janelle Monae is The Electric Lady. She got considerably more popular this year, didn't she? That "alternative reality pop music" I spoke of a couple years ago may be coming to fruition. I don't know if this album quite measures up to The Archandroid in consistency, but its bangers are as hot as the bangers of its predecessor. It's just so damned front loaded. Hook 'em with the hook, hold 'em with the heartbreak and love ballads. She makes it work but I just preferred the ballads of old a little more. Might be the lack of commitment on my part though.
• Ok, everybody putting Yeezus on the top of their list makes me feel like this year was subpar or something. I was so excited for this after seeing him on Saturday Night Live, because it was (one of?) the biggest stars in pop music doing something abrasive and angry and anti-commercial and using his talent for good. But then I got the album and it just fell short for me. And the more I listened to it the more I wanted to just listen to Saul Willams' Trent Reznor produced album from a few years ago. Something with an actual message and not just bitching. Something with anger instead of hate. Something with the passion I thought I heard when I first heard those first couple songs.
• ****My Bloody Valentine killed it with their first album in forever (making it highly anticipated) and its surprise release (undercutting any building anticipation that would have formed). This cuts to my soul, man! Like Radiohead. And it beats "chillwave" at its own game by bringing a rock-oriented version of that atmosphere (that mbv had been integral in creating in the first place all those years ago). I don't know how to write about this but this might be #1 if I were keeping track.
• ***Not only do The National grow on me when I listen to an album over and over, but they grow on me with every album they release. The odd time signatures on this one, the chorus about being the television version of someone with a broken heart, I keep liking every album of theirs a bit more than its predecessor. Not sure if that's just me...
• ***And Okkervil River continues to be underrated forever as they just up and put out another masterpiece this year and nobody seems to remember it come year-end time. I mean, it's fine, I appreciate that I can see them at places like The Marquis instead of having to pay for The Fillmore.
• Another highly anticipated one was Talib Kweli's Prisoner of Conscious. When I first heard about it it seemed like it was going to be a very personal album for him, a grand statement that would push him to a new level. There were even a couple albums that came out before that, so I figured he was saving something for PoC. But then it just came out without fanfare and something about it just isn't what I hoped for.
• **Weird, this Yo La Tengo album doesn't have any songs over 10 minutes! Not even over 7 minutes! What we get is the usual YLT catchiness and diversity and they even sneak some of that feel-goodness that only they ever really accomplish for me, usually over the course of an epic long track. In this case it's over some short pop songs, but it still works.

I have less to say about these but still something:

• !!! THR!!!ER They have some good beats here, and this album served as the soundtrack to many runs this year very effectively. Highly energetic, singing about sweating, other catchiness. Pitchfork complained about the lack of huge builds and drops a la "Intensified" from their first album, and sure, those would have pushed this over the top, but this album shows a maturity and songwriting craft that was very conspicuously absent from their older material.
• Aceyalone's Leanin' On Slick was kind of a sequel to The Lonely Ones, one of my favorite random hip hop experiments. But this one felt like it should have come before The Lonely Ones, because it was less of a stretch from his "normal" material.
• Bilal. I wanted to love A Love Surreal but instead I merely like it. There's plenty to like on this record and he continues to be quite underrated.
• I like the idea of the Daft Punk album and it took me longer than it should have to get over "Get Lucky."
• Danny Brown...yeah I got it because it was cheap and I think I like it but I didn't have time to listen to it enough to form a strong opinion of it. Maybe it will be spoken of highly when the ol' EfaE catches up to 2013...
• Death Grips put out another free album in case people forgot about a true bombastic/abrasive/angry hip hop artist in the wake of Yeezus...
• The Ex & Brass Unbound. Enormous Door. What else can The Ex do these days? Bring in a brass band! It's a killer combination.
• How about that Justin Timberlake? Fun guy.
• Man or Astro-Man made a triumphant return as well this year! Defcon 5...4...3...2...1 is that same old band that's been consistently awesome with every release.
• Hey everyone! Neko Case is still amazing! Bonus points for the cover of the "other" Nico!
• of Montreal in a song format must leave less of an impression on me than their wild and crazy concepts, but I still like that they did what they did with this one.
• I dug that Phosphorescent one, it reminded me of what I like about Fleet Foxes.
• The Pixies have to have their name on something from this century, and something without Kim. I kind of dig that "Indie Cindy" song but for the most part this new EP sounds just like a Frank Black solo album. But what else are they supposed to sound like at this point? 
• Run The Jewels. El-P and Killer Mike just having a good time. Yes please.
• I feel like She & Him have reached a new level of confidence and swagger with Volume 3. I like it.

I admit I missed the boat on...

• Savages. That was on my list all year and I never did get it. I know, it was the best.
• Vampire Weekend. I'm ok with Pitchfork calling it album of the year if only because I'm sick of seeing Kanye top every list. I used to have something against them but I think I'd actually like their new material now.
• Where CHVRCHES as great as people have been saying?
• Disclosure?
• Who are all these young whippersnappers?

I'll be back in a bit with something older than me.

An Ear For An Era: 1979

That is going to do it for the 70s. That wasn't so bad, now was it?

Punk went postal, funk got poppier, pop got funkier, and I'm pretty sure a dance party with all 1979 music would be amazing.

Oh yeah, and something else has emerged. Something...else.

But we'll get to that in a minute. Let's talk about punk rock. I didn't realize how quickly things escalated here. I was aware that post punk was pretty much on the heels of the pop punk established by Ramones, but I didn't realize that hardcore punk was also champing at the bit at the same time. But here it was, the Dead Kennedys' early recordings. West Coast punk rock is here to burn everything up. To make The Ramones and Buzzcocks sound quaint. "California Uber Alles" was a single in 1979 and I also have some early live performances from the Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death compilation.  Here, a template is established that defines much of my high school music attention span and countless punk rock bands of the next 30 or so years.

The Dead Kennedys "Short Songs" (live)

The Cramps were also getting dirty and doing the horror-surf-punk thing so much better than The Misfits in my opinion. They epitomized this era of punk to me, just not caring about sounding polished, just banging their instruments together to create such energy...their cover of kindred spirits The Trashmen really stood out for me from their 1979 debut EP Gravest Hits.

The Cramps "Surfin' Bird"

So that was one side of punk rock that is really going to expand greatly as we get into the 80s. The other side was pushed forward by The Clash. Expansion, incorporation of ska, and oh yeah, the Most Important Album Of All Time. Right? London Calling was their masterpiece and I don't even know what to say here. I'm gonna blow it. It's all 3-5 star songs (I think the highest average rating for any album in my collection despite sprawling over 19 tracks). The ska part of this managed to make it more revolutionary than anything else, incorporating the Jamaican history of music and revolution into the revolutionary nature of punk in the late 70s, it just changed everything. This is what would be imitated for decades, get popular in the 90s in time for me to discover the ska punk genre at the peak time in my life (high school, feeling like an outcast) to show me what it means to rebel, to have something that drives that state of mind. When I finally discovered this album in particular it was a revelation. Everything else became irrelevant. Music follows an evolutionary path but this is such a high point that nothing has managed to effectively evolve from it (but I am looking forward to dissecting its kin on this very blog regardless). The energy, the words, the world it opened up, I know I've used this word a lot in this paragraph but it's what it is in the truest sense of the word (musically at least): Revolution.

The Clash "Revolution Rock"

Another band that did something very similar to The Clash but in its own unique was was Gang of Four. Their debut album Entertainment! establishes some other rhythmic identities that would be similarly imitated decades later. The main difference is the sparse arrangements. The funky rhythms though! There's actual skill and musicianship on the part of the drummer and bassist that was not particularly valued in punk rock at the time and it's pretty refreshing to have the energy, highly politicized lyrics and revolutionary spirit presented in such a groove.

Post-punk-but-soon-to-be-new-wave band The Cure made their debut with Boys Don't Cry in 1979 as well. It fits well with Gang of Four in that it's highly rhythmic (but much poppier) and has spare arrangements, particularly when contrasted with what the band would become in the 80s. Of course the title track was/is a giant hit among new wave fans, but the rest is pure post punk deconstruction.

David Bowie was back in 1979 to finish his "Berlin Trilogy" with Brian Eno with The Lodger. This album was very dark and very appropriate to listen to around Halloween time. I keep waiting for when Bowie becomes "difficult" but I'm not sure it's going to happen. Here he's dark but it's still easy to listen to.

David Bowie "Repetition"

Another artist with a fruitful relationship with Brian Eno was of course Talking Heads. Fear Of Music was their 1979 release. I have this one on vinyl and it's got a super cool texture on the sleeve. I missed out on More Songs About Buildings And Food (for which I apologize, I'm not sure how I neglected to pick it up every time I've been to record stores) so this is a giant leap from their debut. It's no longer just white people funk, it's got lots of different textures and rhythms and experiments. It retains the high level of energy and rhythm and benefits a lot from Eno's influence.

One more quick new wave hit! This is one that dominated my personal charts in the early aughts, mostly because they played it at all the cool dance clubs as a throwback smash. And I have memories of crazy nights centered on this particular jam.

B-52s "Rock Lobster"

I'm pretty sure that's the extent of the B-52s that will EVER appear on this blog. So I hope you enjoyed it.

Hey you know how I talked about The Clash and ska and such? I finally have some official Two Tone era ska! Just a couple songs from Madness. "My Girl" is a favorite mostly because Mike Park has a cover of it that I quite enjoy. I sang it in karaoke once on my birthday. And then this one, it's honest-to-goodness ska!

Madness "(They Call It) Madness"

Lots more ska coming your way soon!

Now let's talk about Elvis Costello & The Attractions, shall we? I'm pretty sure I'll have something to say about him in most years as we get through the 80s, into the 90s, etc. Armed Forces was his best album at the time of release. I know lots of fans consider it his best overall, but I have some others I prefer later down the line. But it establishes The Attractions as more than just a rockin' band to back up Elvis' great lyrics and singing. They are a force here, incorporating more intimately with Mr. Costello as a functional unit. And his writing hits a high point, showing a fearlessness, his vocals have that sneer that I always associate with him. Listen to this song, the "she'll be the one" part toward the end is one of my favorite sections of any Elvis Costello song, an early climax on the album, putting it on a high that carries through the album before exploding onto the closing track "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love & Understanding." You know that song is amazing but here's the song I tried to tell you to listen to in the last sentence but got off track. Here:

Elvis Costello & The Attractions "Big Boys"

Okay now's a good time as any to transition over to pop music. Now I'm not sure how it happened but I started warming up more and more to disco as this went on. I think a lot of it is due to the fact that I minimized how much is in my collection so I can't get sick of it. But some of these artists really stepped it up artistically as the decade wore on, and I also like this track because Feist did a cover of it and I really love her version. But here's the original:

Bee Gees "Love You Inside Out"

Okay now that's out of the way. Let's move on to the king of pop, who really asserted himself in 1979 with Off The Wall. Considered by many critics and snobs to be Michael Jackson's best album, I think I have to agree. Incorporating elements of disco and funk, along with some ballads, into a new signature sound that can be described simply as pop, this album is pure fire, front to back. The pop of the 80s, the one existing outside the world of new wave, is in full force from the opening track "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough." Of course that is the most well known song on that album and for a good reason. But there is absolutely no filler in this fire, it's a hot burning flame that is completely solid. My metaphors are starting to get confused. But Quincy & Michael struck gold...flaming gold...with this one. Of course all these fire metaphors mean I have to share this song.

Michael Jackson "Burn This Disco Out"

Of course where there's a king, there is also a Prince! The other king of pop in the same exact era! His  self-titled album was apparently his second one so it ain't no debut. But it's our debut here so that counts for something. Lots of similar sounds to Off The Wall but more diverse. I do like when he whips out the guitar for some rock & roll incorporated soul-funk-pop like on the song "Bambi." But I also think his best is yet to come at this point. Did you know that when you wikipedia "Prince" it returns some stupid entry about royalty? I say we petition wikipedia to make him the default entry for the word prince!

According to wikipedia, Prince opened for Rick James on tour around this time. Rick James was super awesome in 1979 pushing the funk train forward with songs like this.

Rick James "High On Your Love Suite: One Mo Hit (Of Your Love)"

You know what genre Rick James really influenced and continues to influence to this day? It was funny, it actually came up early in the shuffle but I had to end this entry on it. That's right, The Sugarhill Gang had a certain song that exploded in popularity and taught the masses about a brand new genre of music. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. I didn't realize how dirty this song was considering how relatively clean hip hop seemed to be in its early days. But yeah. Game changer. That means the framework for everything I have coming up for the rest of this journey has now been established. It's all just a matter of evolution from here.

The Sugarhill Gang, "Rapper's Delight"

Other blah blah worth something

• Sun Ra's Strange Celestial Road was interesting, a good moody driving record.
• I wasn't sure where to put Pink Floyd's The Wall so it's delegated to here. Sorry. I know it's epic and deserves many paragraphs.
• Delta 5's "Mind Your Own Business" was yet another post punk funky gem.
• Just a couple years after changing the world, the only Ramones track I have from 1979 is "Rock 'N' Roll High School," a nice novelty song to go with the novelty movie they were in.
• I didn't realize I was missing a crucial Devo album from my digital collection! "Secret Agent Man" is the only evidence I have that Duty Now For The Future exists. Big omission there.
• In high school I picked up the album I Am by Earth Wind & Fire because we played a couple of their songs in marching band (my marching band was better than your marching band). We played "In The Stone" from this album and it was super fun. The album itself reminds me of Off The Wall but without the benefit of Michael Jackson. "Boogie Wonderland" would go well on that theoretical 1979 dance party though.
• Joy Division was quickly evolving from raw punk rock to smoothed out post punk dance suites like "Transmission."

Next Time...

Like, totally, you know? Whatever! The 80s means new wave and hardcore punk and early hip hop and stuff. 1980 specifically means Afrika Bambaataa & Kurtis Blow, Bad Manners, English Beat, and The Specials, Exclamation marked albums like Sandinista! and Get Happy!!, more Cramps, more Dead Kennedys, Devo, Talking Heads, Joy Division, and the end of John Lennon. And more!!

An Ear For An Era: 1977

Now that's a turning point. For 1967 I got excited that that "element" would now be present, that I'd have something from the fringe/art/punk/whatever to look forward to with each year I'd listen to. Now in 1977 it is officially the focus. Those '7 years, huh? They seem to be significant. Like, if each decade were a story the '7 would be the climax leading to the denouement of the last couple years. Maybe each decade has a movement in music that reaches its creative prowess at 7 before it becomes commercialized and a bastardized "pop" version of itself (particularly in the early years of the next decade). Just think about '67, and then 1970. Now 1977. The start of new wave before it became lame. Does this make any sense?

I just don't want to screw this entry up. Punk rock turned my life around when I was in high school, it got me started on this journey, it gave me the necessary mindset of rebellion and fighting back and questioning everything, and it "began" here. I know I've been talking about a bunch of different bands in this blog that show the beginning of punk. I know there was already a Ramones album in 1976. But those were the spark and the fuse. This is the ignition. Everything else is going to the "also worth mentioning" section in this post.

Of course, the stuff I include as part of the punk movement will include new wave, post-punk, and whatever other associated styles I feel like including. Such as David Bowie.

Two Bowie albums in one year? You bet! And he's part of this. He worked with Iggy Pop, after all. He's an enigma really. Or just complicated. The first album in his "Berlin trilogy" with Brian Eno was Low, whose first half was full of short, fast songs. Just listen to this. It fits perfectly into 1977.

David Bowie "What In The World"

The second side of the album is a little more of what I would have expected from a Bowie/Eno collaboration with longer, slower, more instrumental songs. The next album in the Berlin Trilogy was "Heroes," one of the few times it is correct to put the name of an album in quotation marks. I think more artists should do that when an album shares its name with one of the songs. Or does he mean the other use of quotation marks, implying the "heroes" that we can be are not real heroes? "Heroes" is a great album though, everyone knows that song is one of his best. The rest of the album is quite great as well. It has a similar layout to Low in that the more song-oriented songs were at the front half with some experimental/instrumental/more-Eno-influenced tracks on the back end. "Sense of Doubt" is a very creepy track that would do well in a suspense movie.

So I feel like I am using the word "punk" way too much here but I don't know how else to go through this. But I'd just like to apologize for that. The godfather of punk Iggy Pop should have been right at home in 1977, because what his band had created was now exploding, but while The Stooges could have had a big payday (I'm sure they did when they finally did reunite recently) if they'd stuck together or got back together for this and played CBGB, instead he went solo, working with David Bowie, and exploring new territory. I think the only way the term "post punk" is valid is because it was what Iggy Pop did post punk. Because besides that, it really came up at the same exact time as punk. 1977 was the landmark year for both genres. But ok, Iggy Pop put out two solo albums in 1977. The Idiot was what I theoretically should like more because it's darker and more artsy. And I do quite like it. But I actually prefer Lust For Life, despite some misgivings about the title track. It's a fun song, it's good to dance to, but it's been played on too many commercials and is too repetitive and long for me to enjoy. But once you're past that song it's post-punk brilliance. His vocals have the same urgency as they did in the Stooges but the bed they ride on is all over the map, from ballads to rhythmic exercises.

Iggy Pop "Some Weird Sin"

And there was Elvis Costello's debut! My Aim Is True! And what a wonderful debut. Not much related to punk in sound, but in attitude and everywhere that matters it is pure and true. "Alison" remains one of my favorite songs of all time. Who can't relate to that one? But what I really love are the bonus tracks that came with the Rhino reissue. A bunch of old demos. I don't know of any other versions of some of these songs, such an early display of absolute brilliance from one of rock's best songwriters. Just him and a guitar. And poetry. Here is one of my favorites but before I "play it for you," let me also mention that when Elvis Costello was on Colbert a while back he was having voice issues and Colbert said he'd sing a song with him. Elvis challenged him with this song, such a rare deep cut, and Colbert knew all the words and nailed it. I didn't know there would be a way for me to like Colbert more, but then he pulled that off.

Elvis Costello "Cheap Reward"

Just remember you'll only be the boss so long as you pay my wage...

Another highly prolific artist is David Byrne and of course he got his start in a little band called the Talking Heads. Their debut, aptly titled Talking Heads: 77 is a very impressive debut. They are already so well established in their sound of African rhythms, funk, and yet something still very caucasian. I think I'll have more on them as we get into their catalog with Eno, but the first album already had the brilliant hit song (still persisting today) "Psycho Killer." But the song that closes the album is one of my favorites, as it keeps some of the funk rhythm but incorporates more of the CBGB rock influence and energy, perhaps as a preview of what the band would go on to accomplish.

Talking Heads "Pulled Up"

Does anyone else think Television singer Tom Verlaine sounds a lot like Gordon Gano? What? There are other amazing things about their debut album Marquee Moon? Such as EVERYTHING ABOUT IT? The sense of rhythm, the technical prowess of the entire band, it really is a direct influence of what would one day become math rock. The way the guitars interweave into an odd combination of driving the rhythm and disrupting it with noise, it also reminds me a lot of Joey Santiago's work in the Pixies. Here is a song that emphasizes that as well as the Gordon Gano-ness of the vocals (yes I do realize that Gano sounds like Verlaine and not the other way around).

Television "Friction"

When I picked up the Joy Division collection Substance 1977-1980 it was because I was a fan of their post-punk-ish/new-wave-ish songs like "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "Transmission." Stuff that was good to dance to. Because at the time I was big on stuff I could dance to. Don't judge. So even though I had my fully developed love of punk rock, I somehow wrote off and did not appreciate the early tracks included in the collection when they were really pretty much just a punk band. Listening again in the context of this project, I was shocked that I had given all these 1977 tracks two star ratings in itunes. Just kind of goes to show you that 1) context is huge and 2) itunes ratings are dangerous because they last until you hear the song again and change your mind, and a low rating may prevent you from hearing the song again for quite some time. So let me say that while this is rhythmic (so therefore post-punk?) it is raw as hell, punk as hell, and I gave this track a revised four star rating.

Joy Division "No Love Lost"

That's a good transition into the "real punk rock" as opposed to all the post-punk stuff. The Buzzcocks showed up briefly here with their single "Orgasm Addict." Maybe the fastest song yet encountered here. Or maybe it was Johnny Thunders' "Get Off The Phone."

And immediately after that came The Sex Pistols' Nevermind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols. I got this in high school, of course, and loved it for a while, but in the years since have come to regard it as overrated. Hugely important record, one of the most important ones leading up to another certain other record with "Nevermind" in its title (ahem), but not that great within the context of all this other stuff I've been talking about. Johnny Rotten was willing to sing in a, uh, rotten way, and they were revolutionary in the way they went out of their way to offend people, cashing in on the anger and frustrations of the lower class at the time (and they certainly lived the lifestyle as well, I'm not going to doubt that stories of their final American tour are any less shocking and mindblowing as they are made out to be). There was just better British punk rock at the time.

Yep, The Clash. The Only Band That Matters. One thing that annoys me is American versions of British albums. Particularly with this project. I was ready to talk about their self-titled album's "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" but that song didn't actually come out until 1978. I was all excited that ska-punk was as old as punk itself! But instead it's just nearly as old. Stupid American version of the album, being put out after their second album! Still, "London's Burning" could be considered a ska-punk song so still valid. Once I saw some punk band at a tiny bar and they covered "White Riot." Something was wrong with everyone else and they didn't seem to know the song. But I went crazy over it and got the mic in my face a few times for that one. Great memory. It's hard to believe this isn't the greatest Clash album, because it's one of the greatest albums and probably the best of all these 1977 albums I'm talking about. Not that I've heard the original British version...

And I'll close it out with the same band I closed it out with last time: The Ramones! Two 1977 albums. Leave Home is the first, and I'm a little less familiar with that one. I just got it actually. It all kind of blurs together. They were very true to their sound, to say the least.

Ramones "Pinhead"

Gabba Gabba 

We accept you 

We accept you 

One of us! 

They certainly were inclusive as well. A trait of punk rock that persisted and helped me feel accepted by something at last when I discovered it in high school. And then of course Rocket To Russia, the monster of a punk rock classic that includes so many anthems, goes over so easy, ends so fast, that you gotta just turn it up while it lasts. "Cretin Hop." "Rockaway Beach." "I Don't Care." "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker." "Teenage Lobotomy." To name a few.

ONE TWO THREE FOUR!

(you fill in the rest.)

Other Highlights Worth Mentioning Because Apparently Other Stuff Came Out Too:

• Dennis Wilson's only (official) solo album Pacific Ocean Blue was quite nice, a very different beast that I can't even try to associate with the punk movement. I think it kind of sounds like Bon Iver. Gorgeous.
• In contrast to most R&B of this time, Curtis Mayfield was still quite great on the album Short Eyes. 
• Kraftwerk! I can't say too much about Kraftwerk but Trans Europe Express is pretty great and is officially the first electronic album I've encountered here.
• My only actual Bob Marley album is Exodus. I can see that it is very good but the association with annoying people is too strong for me to want to listen to much.
• I have most of Billy Joel's The Stranger. Kind of a guilty pleasure but not as bad as his 80s work.
• The Bee Gees in full effect! "Stayin' Alive," one of the biggest hits in all of disco, both exemplifies everything that was wrong with popular music at the time and is one of the greatest dance songs of all time. I can hate disco and still love one of the biggest disco hits, right?
• I got a collection of Hall & Oates songs because it was cheap for a lot of songs. And then I realized I kind of hated most of them. But I still can enjoy "Rich Girl."
• There was a VERY brief overlap of the two Elvises! My last Elvis Presley song (except a 2002 remix) was "Way Down." Rest in Peace, king!
• And Queen...well I have some more from them coming up. But all I had for 1977 are their two biggest hits and two of my least favorite Queen songs. Of course, those are "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions."
• Speaking of Queen, The Queens Of Noise had THREE albums in 1977! I'm talking about The Runaways. It got a little tired to me after a while. They are best in smaller doses I think. But their level of rebellion, while a bit quaint next to the punk rock superheroes, was enjoyable and I can see it stirring the kids up.

On The Next Installment...

Punk/post-punk/etc: Blondie, lots more Buzzcocks, more The Clash, more Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe debuts (solo-ly), more Ramones, The 80s arrive early (The Cars! Devo!), a lost Dennis Wilson album, Marvin Gaye returns with an uncomfortably personal album, more of my favorite Queen songs, my last Rolling Stones album, Tom Waits is still great, Warren Zevon, and Willie Nelson does a standards album. Cool!

An Ear For An Era: 1976

Well that one just breezed by. Also I just noticed this is my 176th post on this blog. So ever since my last non-AEFAE post they have all matched like that, 175th was 1975, etc...

So 1976. It's punk or who cares, right? Kind of. Obviously there was other worthwhile stuff so I'll talk about that first.

How about the other 'unk? Funk? The first full album to come up was Mothership Connection by Parliament. One very problematic song aside ("Handcuffs," a pretty creepy song about wanting to handcuff one's woman so she doesn't leave), it is a funk party that just keeps going. Get on the Mothership, baby, and let's groove all night.

The other big soul/funk/whatever album I had from 1976 was the masterwork, the apex of the entire discography of Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life. This is something else entirely from everything else I've had to say about Stevie Wonder thus far (even though it seems I didn't really have much to say before this). It's free, it's less cheesy, it's catchy, it looks at the past, present, and future of black music. The jazz influences on here are great, particularly in the fact that he brought in Herbie Hancock for a song. It's got some disco, some funk, some soul. It has a very famously sampled beat in "Pastime Paradise" which also makes me think of 90s hip hop. I also used this as a way to get excited about my between-AEFAE-listens catchup on new music because I got the new Janelle Monae album and I feel like they share a lineage. There's love songs, there's political songs, and there is this great instrumental.

Stevie Wonder "Contusion"

Where there is funk there is disco. Well maybe not the same exact place. But funk's brother, the overachiever (commercially) of the two children of soul, the polished one that got good grades and etc, established itself alongside the punk kid named funk. Jr Walker seemed to take another turn to the disco side of things with the singles from 1976 ("You Ain't No Ordinary Woman," "I'm So Glad") and the Bee Gees were officially in full disco mode with "You Should Be Dancing." None of these songs caused much derision to me, but I know what was lurking on the charts.

David Bowie was still pretty poppy on Station to Station despite long track times (only one under 5 minutes!). Sources say that this was a transitional album from his disco/soul stuff to his more experimental phase (Berlin trilogy with Brian Eno). So it's gonna be the last "easy" one here.

I wonder if Small Change isn't Tom Waits' greatest album from this early period. Kind of his Rubber Soul, if you will. Meaning it's the one that showed the first real hints at the greatness lying ahead. All his early stuff had shades of it, but this is the album with "The Piano Has Been Drinking." And "Tom Thaubert's Blues." And "I Wish I Was In New Orleans." That last one is the reason I sought this album out. I saw a live performance of that song and it made me miss New Orleans, so I knew I wanted that song. It took me a while to track down the album at a decent price...and now it turns out to be one of his best. Still jazzy, impossibly cool, but showing flaws and maybe a little less calculated.

Tom Waits "The Piano Has Been Drinking"

The Runaways can probably be considered at least a little bit punk. Pop punk. Power pop. Something. Rock & roll. You know. Hard rock? Of 1976. They did cover a Velvet Underground song and the Blondie bassist played on this album (thanks wikipedia!) so they have their creds. I like their fire, I think of them as somewhat a rocked out/updated version of the Shangri-Las. I think mostly because the final track "Dead End Justice" is a story song with talkin' that reminds me of some of the Shangri-Las' cautionary tales. There's something more modern, more liberated (ironic I know since it's about them being in prison) about it though.

Was the first Modern Lovers album considered punk? It's at least in that school of Velvet Underground inspired, rough-and-rumbly, energized rock music. Wikipedia tells me it was actually recorded back in the early 70s but just not released until 1976. How about that. I feel like everyone should already know all these songs. Should I post one? It's one of those albums that has so many great songs that serious music people already know. So maybe I'll leave at that?

Blondie officially let me know that the CBGB scene was in full operational mode at this time. Which makes me very happy. There is something about Blondie. They were part of this scene, one of the first bands in it, and they fit in quite well...but they also played pop music. Anger about them doing a disco song seems silly because while the Velvet Underground influence is apparent and there are some moments of real punk rock (absolutely check out "Kung Fu Girls") they really were a pop band.

Blondie "In The Sun"

Patti Smith's second album Radio Ethiopia did seem to push toward a more punk rock sound, at least in some cases. Particularly the first track "Ask The Angels." But I feel like it looks forward more toward The Clash than any other punk act. It's that diverse in genre exploration while keeping the punk attitude.

So of course this is all to build up to the self-titled debut album by a band called The Ramones. The officially credited "first punk band," I am reasonably confident in saying they are the first band that the word "punk" was used to describe and while they didn't create the sound they created an identity around the sound that I don't believe I heard in this project before them. 2 minute songs, power chords, simple lyrics and simple songs. Played fast. The revolution starts here. Draw the line in the concrete. With a jackhammer. I can't really describe what I felt when it came on in my car. "HEY! HO! LET'S GO!" Turned up the volume, yelled along, and it was just a rush of excitement. We are past the boring 70s rock, time for something with real energy.

Ramones "Beat On The Brat"

Other stuff worth a word or two:

• (My) Tom Petty debut! "Breakdown."
• I may have been missing the full album, but the the hits that Queen released in 1976 were very awesome. Particularly "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" and "Somebody To Love."
• Nilsson's ...That's The Way It Is is (currently) the last work I have of his in my collection. He will be missed. Greatly. Appropriate that the first song on the album is called "That Is All" in addition to the album ending with a reprise of that. It's not his finest work and I'm sorely lacking in his latter era stuff but I could stand to spend a lot more time with his latter discography.
• It's for the suits man! Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. It came up after The Ramones had already refreshed me, so I was mostly bored/disinterested. They have some catchy songs (particularly album opener "Second Hand News") but even though this is a mammoth of a popular album and probably pretty critically acclaimed, the only reason I own this album is because I feel like I'm "supposed to." But in the context of this, it just reinforced that I'm a punk rock kid.

On The Next Installment...

It's hard to think that anything besides punk rock would be important in 1977. It's the year of punk! So Plastic Letters, Buzzcocks, The Clash, My Aim Is True (Elvis Costello may be my favorite artist of all time), TWO Iggy Pop solo albums, Joy Division, Rocket To Russia, Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, and Television. Whew!! But besides that, it was also the year of Saturday Night Fever, Billy Joel's The Stranger, Exodus, the first two chapters of Bowie's Berlin Trilogy, Dennis Wilson, and Kraftwerk.

An Ear For An Era: 1972

It started out bold, got boring for awhile, then got better. Or something like that. 1972 was not a great year for soul in my opinion despite a few landmark albums released. The highlights were in the glam/power pop/whatever genre it's considered. I think they go together. And singer/songwriters had a great year as well. Stuff was music back then, you know? You don't?

Stevie Wonder's Talking Book is kind of maybe the first in his famous great-70s-albums series, but most of it seemed to be ballads and kind of bored me (although I did appreciate the many layers of orchestration). Still, "Superstition" was on the album so that was an obvious highlight. I think I like his later stuff a bit more though, it gets deeper and more complex soon.

Then a string of R&B popped up and it was all kind of continually weightless. Bill Withers, Allen Toussaint, Roberta Flack with Donny Hathaway, Jr. Walker, Smokey Robinson...all artists I do quite like, but this all seemed too slight, flighty. Too many ballads, not enough funk.

Then Can came back on. And oddly was the funkiest thing I'd heard yet. Yes, the album Ege Bamyasi is quite a bit more grounded and accessible than Tago Mago, mostly because of shorter song lengths, lots of funky rhythms, and the song "Vitamin C," which was kind of a hit I believe. But my mind was completely blown when "Vitamin C" ended and "Soup" came on. The longest song on the album, it was advanced post punk before punk was even a thing. Crazy rhythms, blasts of guitar, screaming vocals, shifting time signatures and tempos, a drawn out version of loud (and fast) - quiet (and slow) - loud (and fast and slow) dynamics.

Can "Soup"

I don't have a good transition out of Can because there's really nothing else like them in this era in my library. How about back to soul, but the more positive stuff I have to say?

Maybe I just don't have any of the possibly great possibly popular funk of the day. But the best I got was from compilations of obscure stuff, like The Funky 16 Corners (Ernie And The Top Notes Inc. had a great song called "Dap Walk.") and Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label (Chip Willis & Double Exposure!).

The main, kind-of-funky, cinematic and great soul album (ok obviously it's cinematic, but I'm just saying he did a great job with it) was Curtis Mayfield's Superfly, the soundtrack to the movie. It's tough not to compare it to Isaac Hayes' Shaft, but it really is a different beast. Lots of very apt commentary in the lyrics (and lots more songs with lyrics!), Mayfield's completely different style of arrangements, it does really feel more like an album to listen through in a sitting without needing any context of the movie to go along with it.

And that's it for soul. Awkward transition to singer songwriter types?

Lou Reed solo. The album is called Transformer. It has his gigantic hit "Walk On The Wild Side." It has more of those sentimental songs in the style that I liked so much in the later Velvet Underground material, such as "Perfect Day." That may be my favorite. Or maybe "Hangin' Round" is my favorite. The line from the chorus, "You're still doing things that I gave up years ago" seems pretty apt considering the history of the Velvet Underground and how influential they were. Not that that seems to be what this is about.

Now the last we'll hear from Rodriguez (unless he decides to put something new out one of these days), some bonus stuff recorded after his last album that can be found as bonus tracks on the reissue as well as the Searching For Sugarman soundtrack. I just wanted an excuse to post this song, as he was slipping away from the music biz.

Rodriguez "I'll Slip Away"

We're also hearing our last of Nick Drake (other than a posthumous album that will be waaaay later). Such a tragic loss. Such a beautiful album Pink Moon was, appropriately sparse in a time when more and more music was getting overproduced. All short simple folk songs, mostly just a guitar and vocals.

Harry Nilsson followed up on the great Nilsson Schmilsson with Son of Schmilsson. I have a long standing opinion of this album as kind of a big laugh, not too memorable or really much of a successor to his probably-greatest achievement, but this time I realized that amongst all the joke lyrics ("I sang my balls off for you baby..." "Let me be your Joy boy," "You're breakin' my heart, tearin' it apart so f*** you," "I'd rather be dead than wet my bed...") there is a lot of Nilsson's impeccable vocals and plenty of heartbreak and authenticity. "You're Breakin' My Heart" is kind of the spiritual grandfather of Shellac's "Prayer To God," which is an id-driven, raw expression of heartbreak that can make you laugh through your own pain (at least both of those songs worked for me when I went through heartbreak). Still a silly follow up to Schmilsson, but far from something to be dismissed.

Neil Young's Harvest is yet another brilliant album, a very worthy successor to After The Gold Rush. I don't feel the need to say much aside from the fact that it's the album with "Old Man," "The Needle & The Damage Done," and "Alabama." What else do you need, man?

A couple words about Kris Kristofferson. He started sounding just slightly more 70s country on Jesus Was A Capricorn, but at this point it was pretty subtle and he still had some brilliant songs. It's not quite on the level of his first two albums but still quite enjoyable.

Rock & Roll! The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street may be my favorite Stones album. Mostly because the double album is usually something bands will use to indulge in more experimental material because hey, everything fits, but the Stones just kind of made their rockin' more loose and fun and wild. Then the slower songs are all winners. Particularly "Sweet Virginia." Yep.

Rolling Stones "Sweet Virginia"

Big Star popped up. I was definitely in the 70s based on the fact that the song "In The Street" came on. The one that was covered as the theme for That 70s Show! So there's that. But seriously, #1 Record is damned amazing. Of course the song "Thirteen" is one of the best throwback nostalgia tunes that will remind anyone of grade school crushes. Something very authentic in the songwriting considering this was basically pop music.

Big Star "Thirteen"

I like to think Big Star alongside the glam heroes of this time. T-Rex came on shortly afterwards with their album The Slider and I found a lot of parallels in the atmosphere developed. More authentic, lovely songs but with a bit more edge...

And it ended of course with the ultimate 1972 album, the ultimate in the world of glam rock, and possibly the ultimate David Bowie album:  The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Front to back, just a great album of space travel, song structure experimentation, protopunk, and glam party music.

Where I Stand: 4537 of 37161

Other Highlights Worth Mentioning:

• It actually started with Alice Cooper. "School's Out." Yeah!
• A couple Johnny Cash cuts...I'm not sure when he totally fell off the radar, but "Jacob Green" was from this year so maybe he was still doing all right.
• Chuck Berry had some sort of comeback as he had the live hit "My Ding-A-Ling." I have the full 9 minute version and some sort of edited short version. Maybe not a song that needs to be 9 minutes.
• Michael Jackson's version of "Rockin' Robin." That goes out to my sister.
• We say goodbye to Ricky Nelson here with "Garden Party." A nice sentimental song about an earlier era of rock & roll.
• Aretha Franklin's Young, Gifted and Black kind of toed all the different lines of the different directions soul was heading, from the overproduced lightweight stuff, a bit of funk, and a bit of disco. 
• Elvis! "Burning Love."
• Some more post-Morrison Doors, the song "The Mosquito" is quite the curiosity.

On The Next Installment...

Soul is Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Barry White, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder is definitely in his stride, and others. More Bowie (I think pretty much every year will have some sort of Bowie for the 70s). Iggy & The Stooges have a finale. The return of James Brown. Band on the Run. Quadrophenia. And these guys all make their AEFAE debut: New York Dolls! Pink Floyd! Queen! Roxy Music! Tom Waits! Willie Nelson!