Attention Seekers - An album game for overwhelmed people

[Rob]

The truth is that there is too much music out there. Even too much acclaimed music. I want to listen to it all, but that is never going to happen. Over the years I’ve tried several ways, both on and off this forum, of dealing with the massive amount of music out there, be it songs or albums. All of them stranded because life is just too busy and I tend to make an effort in each format to write about it. I like writing about music, but the truth is I don’t have the time to do it as much, especially if I want to do it every week on a set day or so. A week from now I start a new job as the lead programmer of an arthouse film theatre. I love everything about that, but it will no doubt make any kind of systematic music listening project harder.

Still, I want to hear the albums, so I have though of this silly little game that requires little commitment, except listening (there’ll be short write-ups because I can’t help myself, but they will be short). For this I have compiled a lot of albums I still intend to hear. This includes every single album on AM (including the bubblers), the 187 top albums from the years not on AM (that number is based on the average amount of albums on AM of the last few years), every album that got a vote during our recent album poll and the albums currently on MegaCritic for 2023. I wanted to include every “bolded” album on RateYourMusic, including EP’s, live albums, soundtracks, archival releases and mixtapes, but there is no way to get an Excel of that so I’m slowly adding stuff like that by hand – without much method or haste. I also add compilations from time to time. Not things like 1 by The Beatles or Legend by Bob Marley, but collections of stuff that would otherwise never appear, such as compilations of artists from before the 60’s or research-based compilations of overlooked countries, areas or styles. At the time of writing there are 12.758 albums on my Excel sheet and there should be many, many more as I plunder RYM as well as other sources. It’s basically an endless task, but oddly relaxing and good for clearing the mind, especially because there is no possible end point. It’s just learning about the existence of music.

Of course the list is so long that there is no way of hearing it all without quitting my job and cancelling all social contacts, which I’m not ready for yet. Instead the list is for this game called Attention Seekers. It starts with randomly picking two albums from the list, with help of my trusted website Random.org. I listen to both albums closely to each other when I have the time, at least on the same day. Then I pick the album I want to hear again and ditch the other. The winning album will go up against a newly selected random pick and so we go on. The winner is not necessarily the one I like the most, but the one I want to hear again. The difference is that for example Bringing It All Back Home could come up, which is my favorite album of all time, but I wouldn’t need to hear it over and over again for this game just because it is the best. Rather I’d give something new a chance for repeated listen. So perhaps I’ll listen to some albums for a few weeks without much challenge, but there is always time to move on. I do not delete select albums from my list, so they can always come up again for revanche. I’ll listen to each picked album once for certain, even is it’s something unholy like Depeche Mode. There is no time set for when I’ll listen to the next round. Could be a few days, could be weeks. My own life and the time I have set the dates.

I could have made this an actual forum game, but I do really want to play this on my own tempo and base it on my own choices instead of consensus. Still, I post here because some people might want to start their own version or play along. If you play along you might for example in the first round pick #2 where I pick #1, so you have #2 go up against #3 and so on. I’ll post the Excell of my current list here so others can potentially use it, but I don’t want to make it that others can edit it. The list may not really be curated in a strict sense, but I also don’t want people to add their nonsense to it. However, anyone who has some suggestions to add to the list is more than welcome.

Here's the hall of fame of all winners, with the amount of wins.

1. Joe Lovano - From the Soul (3 wins)
2. Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate (3 wins)
3. Ain't No Grave: The Life and Legacy of Brother Claude Ely (1 win)
4. Christina Rosenvinge - Tu labio superior (1 win)
5. Nat "King" Cole - Unforgettable (1 win)
6. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (3 wins)
7. Bobbie Gentry - The Delta Sweete (6 wins)
8. Sun-Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra - Atlantis (3 wins)
9. The Pentangle - The Pentangle (3 wins)
10. The Modern Jazz Quartet - Django (2 wins)
11. Estatic Fear - A Sombre Dance (6 wins)
12. Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins (3 wins)
13. Daniel Carter, William Parker & Matthew Shipp – Seraphic Light: Live at Tufts University (1 win)
14. Ray Charles – The Genius of Ray Charles (1 win)
15. Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel (2 wins)
16. Mary Margaret O'Hara - Miss America (3 wins)
17. Nubya Garcia - Odyssey (2 wins)

So, what are my first two picks?

[Rob]

Joe Lovano – From the Soul (1992) / Post-Bop

Vs.


Skid Row – Skid Row (1989) / Glam Metal, Hard Rock

Yes, I listened to them already, today. These are two artists I’m not familiar with, though at least Skid Row seems to have been popular in some countries, especially the USA. These two albums are big in contrast, but have one thing in common: they are both not very inventive in their genres, but compensate for this in consistency and quality. So we have a very good Post-Bop and a very good Glam Metal album.

It's easy to appreciate From the Soul more, as it is a deeper work. Lovano combines 5 original compositions with 5 “covers” (do you use that word in jazz?), where it is notable that for the oldies he seemed to have gone for mellow, soulful pieces, while his own work is slightly more wild. There is little about this 1992 album that doesn’t sound like it could also have been made 30 years earlier, but it is surprisingly moving and one of the warmer jazz albums I have heard (although I’m no genre expert). There is beautiful support work by Michel Petrucciani on piano and Ed Blackwell on drums. A nice discovery of the overlooked side of AM’s bubbling under selection.

In contrast, Skid Row is probably silly to everyone above 18, but that is not a bad thing if you can still tap into that youthful energy. It is essentially cock rock, but without any truly bad lyrics (don’t expect Leonard Cohen, though). The main strength is that this is all killer no filler. On every song you feel this band giving it their all. At the time the album seems to have been criticized as commercial and I understand that, but discovering it in a time when the genre is a dead as any genre can be it is easier to appreciate the gusto and fun that the band clearly has. It also doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t. It is blasting rock for young people and it is a blast. I had low expectations of this, but I enjoyed it.

I could imagine matches with Skid Row winning and it is closer than is perhaps reasonable for some, but I do end up giving the win to From the Soul, because I want to dig a little deeper into it. Still, if in the future I’m in the mood for some energizing rock, I won’t forget Skid Row.

Winner: Joe Lovano – From the Soul


Up next:
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – Ellington Uptown/Hi-Fi Ellington Uptown (1953) / Big Band

So yeah, it is already jazz vs jazz in the second round!

[FrankLotion]

Congrats on the new job!

[Rob]

Congrats on the new job!

Thanks!

So, I'm already done with the second matchup!


Joe Lovano – From the Soul (1992) / Post-Bop

Vs.


Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – Ellington Uptown/Hi-Fi Ellington Uptown (1953) / Big Band

So, this Ellington album exists in two versions, as the double titling at AM already shows. First the 1953 original and then the Hi-Fi version of 1956. It's not just a sonic upgrade, as the centerpiece of the 1953 version, the 13-minute A Tone Parallel to Harlem (Harlem Suite) was replaced by the two-part 11-minute Controversial Suite. Why this was done isn't clear to me, but on Spotify you can find the album with the original tracklist, followed immediately by the Controversial Suite, so I listened to all of it.

The Harlem Suite is actually the best thing here, making the change all the more weird. This is not a knock against the Controversial Suite, which is great in it's own right, as is every track. My knowledge of Ellington isn't that deep, but I'm tempted to say he is at his best here, as each song is distinct, compelling and just swinging. But that Harlem Suite is something else. It really feels like a walk through a lively city.

Once again I'm being confronted with a difficult choice, because both Ellington and Lovano deserve another listen. Still, although a deeper dive in Ellington Uptown is tempting, From the Soul proved today for the second time it possess a unique warmth. I'm sure I'll get back to Ellington in the future, but for now I give the vote for the second time to:

Joe Lovano – From the Soul

Next up:

Doc & Merle Watson - Down South (1984) / Contemporary Folk, American Folk Music, Appalachian Folk Music
A relatively obscure album (few plays on Spotify and little ratings on Rate Your Music). Seems to come from someone's list on our album poll.

[IllumiThottie]

I think Ellington Uptown is one of Ellington's better albums. In particular I love this rendition of Take the A Train, and The Mooche is well done as well. I don't know if you listened to it, but the expanded edition of the album includes songs from his Liberian Suite which was originally on a different EP, and is rather nice. Overall it's not an album of his that I own and thus listen to on occasion, but I still find it good enough. Seeing you mention it got me listen to it a bit, and I agree that it is compelling.

[Rob]

I think Ellington Uptown is one of Ellington's better albums. In particular I love this rendition of Take the A Train, and The Mooche is well done as well. I don't know if you listened to it, but the expanded edition of the album includes songs from his Liberian Suite which was originally on a different EP, and is rather nice. Overall it's not an album of his that I own and thus listen to on occasion, but I still find it good enough. Seeing you mention it got me listen to it a bit, and I agree that it is compelling.

Yeah, the Liberian Suite was on the version I listened to, but I stopped after The Controversial Suite. I think I'll treat the Liberian Suite as it's own record and put it on the list as such.

[Rob]

I originally wanted to do this matchup on Saturday, but the death of Shane MacGowan made that a Pogues day instead.
So let's get back to it.


Joe Lovano – From the Soul (1992) / Post-Bop

vs.


Doc & Merle Watson - Down South (1984)/ Contemporary Folk, American Folk Music, Appalachian Folk Music

Doc Watson made a lot of albums, including a lot with his song Merle, who would die a year after recording this one, at the age of only 36. I've heard a Doc song here and there of the year, but never seriously checked his work out. So it is hard for me to guess how this one stacks up to his many other recordings.

In many ways it is a traditional folk record, full of short folk tunes that are so old that nobody remembers who wrote them (except a few). Regardless, with the exception of Cotton Eyed Joe, these are not songs I'm familiar with, but they have a sound that makes you feel like you've heard them hundreds of times before. It is folk only in the sense that blues, country and bluegrass all blend together so seamlessly that you wouldn't know what to call it anymore. The reason you'd want to hear the Watsons perform this over others, I presume, is that Doc's fingerpicking playing is so incredible, so ecstatic at times that it becomes a marvel in itself. It should be said that although there isn't a badly performed track on here, not all are equal either and only on a few songs I felt as if Doc was tapping into something transcendental in his playing. Curiously for a man first and foremost known for his specific guitar style there is also the song What a Friend We Have in Jesus, which outside of a harmonica intro is completely a-capella. That song alone introduces gospel into the mix, even if Doc's voice is too country to fully commit to that genre.

It's a nice album to have been introduced to and I sure wouldn't mind to hear more of father and son Watson. Still, I don't feel a strong need to revisit this particular album any time soon, which I still do for From the Soul, so for the third time the winner is:

Joe Lovano – From the Soul

It's next competitor is:
Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate (2016) / Soul, Singer-Songwriter, Psychedelic Soul

That's the first album here that actually ranks on AM (at #2290) and the first I've heard before, albeit only once when it came out.

[Rob]

Joe Lovano – From the Soul (1992) / Post-Bop

vs.



Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate (2016) / Soul, Singer-Songwriter, Psychedelic Soul

The reason I put on Love & Hate in 2016 was because I had heard Cold Little Heart and hoped the whole album was like that. I was disappointed it wasn’t and ignored the album from then on, though Cold Little Heart remained a favorite (that it hardly has any status among critics is baffling).

Hearing the album again now I wondered why I was so disappointed. The unexpected Pink Floyd-like grandness of the opener is perhaps not completely replicated, but the remained of the album keeps it slightly psychedelic tone. Michael Kiwanuka makes shamelessly old-time soul, but his spiritual father is not Marving Gaye, Otis Redding or Stevie Wonder, but Curtis Mayfield. The thing is, out of all these soul artists I like Mayfield the most, so it shouldn’t be strange that I connect with Kiwanuka. Also, this is no simple imitation of an old style, but the work of an artist who goes deep to create the best songs from the form he can. The lyrics are perhaps a bit familiar, but they are not bad or clichéd. It is the music and the vocals that count and Kiwanuka proves himself a master.

So yeah, I’m still enjoying Joe Lovano, but this time my vote goes to Michael Kiwanuka, because I really want to hear this again. It helps that this sounds like a cold winter album to me.


Winner: Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate

I make a hall of fame at the bottom of my first post of all winners and how many matchups they won.

Anyway, next up is:
Amber Mark – Three Dimensions Deep (2022) / Contemporary R&B, Neo-Soul

So the finally the first female artist and an album that’s only from last year. This is a match-up between two relatively young R&B artists, but one represents old-time soul, while the other is neo-soul.

[Rob]

Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate (2016) / Soul, Singer-Songwriter, Psychedelic Soul

Vs.



Amber Mark – Three Dimensions Deep (2022) / Contemporary R&B, Neo-Soul

Frankly, despite the title, this is probably the least three dimensional album I’ve come across yet. That’s a bit harsh perhaps, but most of the album is just beats and Amber Mark’s vocals. Some strings appear in On & On and there is a piano in the final song, but that’s probably it. The thing is, as I’ve said before at several places in this forum, I struggle with “getting” beats. To hear the beauty or coolness of them. I hear them, but it feels like my brain fails to connect with them. And in these beat heavy times that can be an obstacle.

As such, I rarely connect with much contemporary R&B or neo-soul, the two genres this album is categorized at. It doesn’t help that this is very much an album of these times, sound-wise. Mark doesn’t reinvent the wheel in the slightest and is happy working in an already existing idiom. That’s not something I hold against her; I find the obsession with some music lovers that every artist should constantly innovate a bit annoying, as if nothing is to be said in favor of good genre execution. The problem here is simply that this genre is mostly not for me.

If there is one thing I hold against Amber Mark it is that she lacks a bit of personality that makes her stand out. It’s fine if you want to make music in a familiar form, but you have to stand out in some way and I miss that here. On her Spotify biography a lot is made that she grew up all over Asia and Europe and so mixes various cultural influences. Maybe that was true on her previous EP’s and singles, I don’t know, but I definitely don’t hear it on this debut album. It’s pretty much American R&B sounds of 2022.

Having said all that I don’t particularly dislike this album and certainly don’t think it is objectively bad. Certainly not. The problem is mostly me. A slight saving grace for me is that in the second half she starts playing with her voice more and the songs become more enjoyable. The earlier mentioned strings and piano also appear in that second half, as does Darkside, a song in which she mashes a very dark sound with a pop chorus. These aren’t big touches, but I’d like to hear more of that if I ever check out a future release of hers. I might start to like her music, yet.

Of course, the winner is easily chosen.

Winner: Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate

Next up:
Amália Rodrigues - À l'Olympia (1957) / Fado

So, it's back to the fifties for the first album not in English. Portugal gets the honor. It's also the first live record.

[Rob]

Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate (2016) / Soul, Singer-Songwriter, Psychedelic Soul

Vs.


Amália Rodrigues – A l’Olympia (1957) / Fado

This was my first time consciously listening to something in the fado genre, although the music style sounds familiar, probably because it has appeared in films and other media. It’s an old genre, older than recorded music, but apparently at the time this album came out it was at something of a peak internationally. What exactly that means I don’t know. International where? And how popular was it? Popular enough for Amália Rodrigues to perform in the non-Portuguese Olympia theatre in Paris, with people having confidence enough to record it. So we have this album for me to listen to.

It's a little hard for me to judge as any previous experience of listening to fado, if at all, was really as background music. I also don’t understand Portuguese, so the lyrics, which I suspect to be at least somewhat important, are lost to me. The reason I think that is because the description of the genre on RateYourMusic states that melancholy and longing are key elements here, which I suspect hints to a lyrical angle. I can feel it musically, but what we are longing for I’m not sure. I also prefer not to have a lyric sheet, let alone a translated one, being part of my first listen.

What I do get from this concert is an appreciation for how subtle and even fragile this music can sound at times. It’s not something I expect from a genre that seems to be about big emotions. But those big emotions seem to come from the singer foremost. This is really a showcase for Rodrigues’ singing powers and the band doesn’t run away with the show, but enhances her. As such, I found the interplay between singing and playing the most interesting.

Still, I have to admit that during the last few songs my mind started to wander. It’s probably thanks to my ears not being trained on fado, but it al became much the same for me after a while. I couldn’t mention one song over the other after this one listen. Partly, that is one reason I almost want to give it a vote; to delve a little deeper in this. At the same time, I also enjoy my time with Love and Hate too much.

Winner: Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate

And next up is:

Ain't No Grave: The Life and Legacy of Brother Claude Ely (2011) / Gospel

Well this is about as obscure a pick as I'm likely ever to get. How it got on my list I'll explain in my mini review. It's also the first of the compilations I allowed on my ever-evolving list, as it contains music not appearing on a "proper" album. Do not be fooled by the year 2011. That's just the compilation. The recordings are from the 1950's (again, a curiously popular decade in this game so far).

[Rob]

Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate (2016) / Soul, Singer-Songwriter, Psychedelic Soul

Vs.



Ain't No Grave: The Life and Legacy of Brother Claude Ely (2011) / Gospel

Well, eh… This is different than my usual music diet.

So, when I first started working on the absurdly long list of albums eligible for this game I stumbled on the name of a company that distributes compilations of music you are probably not going to find anywhere. The company is called Dust-to-Digital. How exactly I got to them I don’t remember. Their catalogue consists of a variety of music from Africa and Asia, but also American stuff that mostly focuses on the least urban areas of the USA and contains a lot of religious material. This isn’t the first time I heard of such a distributor; I’m a little familiar with Sublime Frequencies as well, which has a similar mission. It feels worth it to include such compilations on this project just to get off the beaten path.

And off the beaten path I got with Brother Claude Ely. Perhaps the biggest surprise I learned is that this man apparently had a recording company backing him. Hearing this I completely assumed that these were sort of amateur recordings made at a church and which somehow Dust-to-Digital dug up. Outside of the opening and closing versions of Ain’t No Grave, which do not feature Brother Ely and which I suspect where recorded much later, nothing here sounds like it was recorded in a studio. I’m sure it isn’t. I’m a little frustrated in this case I don’t know more about the context of these performances. The Dust-to-Digital website doesn’t say much, but you can buy a version of this album with a 360 page book written by Ely’s great-nephew. I did actually have to buy the album digitally, because it is not available otherwise, but buying it digitally without the book saved me a lot of money. Any other information on the internet is scarce or, as far as I can tell, plain absent.

So what exactly brought Dust-to-Digital to release this in the 2011, some 50 to 60 years after the recording where done, will remain a mystery to me. Frankly, this might be the most niche thing I have ever listened to and I actually own a Sublime Frequency compilation of Japanese music from the 1910’s. The music itself isn’t so much the issue here. The two Ain’t No Grave recordings that bookend the album are fantastic. The other six songs are gospel spirituals, pretty much all about waiting for Jesus or going to Heaven. It’s uplifting stuff, especially if you are Christian I presume, but this atheist also got something out of it. The songs are communal and sung with great spirit, making it easy to get caught up in it. The curious thing is that none of these songs are credited to Brother Claude Ely as a performer. The album credits Rev. Jim Ewing, Rev. Windell D. Ely and the Free Pentecostal Church of God as the performing “musicians”. Maybe Ely was part of the Free Pentecostal Church of God and Reverend Windell shares his surname, but it is strange that only one track is credited to the man whose name is on the box and who gets an accompanying book.

It gets stranger, because that one track is not a song at all. It is a sermon titled Lingering Could Be Your Doom. It last 39 minutes. 39! I was not prepared. It is track 9 out of 10 and up until then it was breezing past, with songs lasting three minutes at the very most and suddenly my eyes noticed the length of this sermon. It’s not completely without precedent. Track 3 was already a non-musical confession of sorts called Daniel Ely Testifying. Yes, it’s Claude’s brother Daniel confessing, urged on by aa passionate church audience. That was odd enough, but after all these songs on Heaven I was not prepared for the fire and brimstone sermon of Brother Ely himself; a sermon on the danger of lingering. It starts with the biblical tale of Lot, but Ely goes off on many tangents including, mostly very personal, to make his point. His delivery is passionate, always out of breath, but oddly rhythmical, making it as musical as a non-singing, shouting man can get. I’ve seen this type of American sermons before in films, but listening to such a thing for 39 minutes is something else. My background is Catholic and I did go to church every once in a while as a kid, but Dutch Catholicism is the most reserved thing you’ve ever seen. Brother Claude Ely has no reservations in him.

Well, at least it was an experience. Here’s the thing though, if you take Daniel Ely’s confession and Brother’s Claude’s sermon together you have 45 minutes of running time, while the songs I think take up about 20 minutes. It’s really put together as a church service in a way, or at least what I think an American Free Pentecostal church service is. It’s extremely specific for it’s time and place and will never appeal to anyone. But I didn’t mind hearing it for once, just as an experience. It didn’t bring me closer to God, but I like such an insight of a certain culture at a certain time.

In fact, because I like the music so much I’m actually declaring it the winner of this round! No, I don’t think this is as good as Love & Hate, but as said before the winner is what I would want to hear again, not necessarily the best album. One thing though, I’ll probably only listen to the music tracks next time. The sins of lingering will have to wait. I doubt this will last as long as Michael Kiwanuka and Joe Lovano did, but not everything has to.

Winner: Brother Claude Ely – Ain’t No Grave: The Life and Legacy of Brother Claude Ely

Next up:
Christina Rosenvinge - Tu labio superior (2008) / Singer-Songwriter, Indie Pop, Slowcore

So only two days ago I wrote about a Portugese artist and now parent country Spain is already here. This time it doesn't seem to be specifically local music. This album is bubbling under on AM, as is one of its songs.

[Rob]

Ain't No Grave: The Life and Legacy of Brother Claude Ely (2011) / Gospel

Vs.



Christina Rosenvinge - Tu labio superior (2008) / Singer-Songwriter, Indie Pop, Slowcore

A singer-songwriter album in a language you don’t speak is always going to lack something in full experience. This is true even with a translation at your side, as the best singers in the genre can hit the words just right with their voice. Just as with Amália Rodrigues recently I did not translate Christina Rosenvinge’s Spanish words, but this time it might hurt the album more. No idea what she is singing about or how good a writer she is.

What I do know is that this is a rather mellow and pleasant indie album that doesn’t really make a deep impression the first time around. I have a soft spot for husky female vocals like the one Rosenvinge uses here, but otherwise nothing jumps out. This review is short, because I don’t have much to say.

And still Rosenvinge wins this round. This is mostly because I found that the charm of Brother Claude Ely’s lo-fi gospel recordings wears of quickly the second time around, outside of the Ain’t No Grave bookends and a nice performance of Amazing Grace. There isn’t much to it outside the novelty of listening to such a thing and I feel Rosenvinge at least has potential to grow in my esteem.

Winner:
Christina Rosenvinge - Tu labio superior

Next up:
Nat "King" Cole - Unforgettable (1952) / Traditional Pop, Vocal Jazz
It seems Random.org really wants to send me back to the fifties with regularity, because there is no escaping that decade. Also another album that is at least partially jazz. Also also, this already the second album that appears here to have a version of A Portrait of Jenny in the tracklist, after From the Soul. According to RYM it is a compilation album, albeit one of those more questionable cases were an album collects a few singles from previous years that happened to be in the pre-album era.

[Rob]

Christina Rosenvinge - Tu labio superior (2008) / Singer-Songwriter, Indie Pop, Slowcore

Vs.


Nat "King" Cole - Unforgettable (1952) / Traditional Pop, Vocal Jazz

Distinguished. That’s the word. Nat “King” Cole made distinguished music. I’ve barely ever listen to him for his own sake, but I’ve heard his songs being played in a lot of movies. Mostly movies made well after his death. The reason is obvious, especially if you do listen to them on their own. Everything seems classy when you play him. My living room suddenly had a touch of class when this came through the speakers and so did all those movies smart enough to put him on the soundtrack. The songs are timeless, not because they aren’t dated, but because they evoke a time of natural grace, no matter the ugly stuff that really happened when these recordings were made. There is no ugliness in the songs of Nat “King” Cole.

I was surprised to learn just now that Cole is the 103rd most listened to artist on Spotify, which I’d never expect from someone of his time period, save perhaps Sinatra. Maybe it’s just because I never paid him much mind myself. I guess there is some sense in it though, as this goes down so easily without ever seeming easy listening or dull. Nelson Riddle is of course frequently mentioned as an important collaborator, but I don’t know much about that yet. What I do know is that he and Cole created music that sounds simple yet sophisticated. Earworms that don’t get annoying. Romantic and sweet songs that are not overly sentimental or cloying and even not quite cheesy. As if they found the formula for making music that appeals to softies and hard ones alike.

The only downside to all this is that it is music that rarely truly moves me. You can have too much class; the music can be too refined. It’s all gorgeous to listen to and to bath in. There’s no fault to be had here. Still I’m the person who loves when things feel a little off at times, who want things to get weird, raw or uncontrolled. You’re not going to find it here. It’s unfair to blame the album, though. It does its job and it does it better than anyone else. For 36 minutes all seems very right in the world and sometimes that’s a nice illusion to have.

Winner:
Nat “King” Cole – Unforgettable

Next up:
The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema (2005) / Power Pop, Indie Pop
The second album to rank on AM, at #1241. I don't think I ever listened to it before, but I'm not sure. Was it on Moderately Acclaimed once? I'm sure Electric Version was, but this? Anyway, it is the second time Nat "King" Cole with have to go up against 2000's indie music, but this could be of stronger stock than Rosenvinge.

[Rob]

Nat "King" Cole - Unforgettable (1952) / Traditional Pop, Vocal Jazz

Vs.



The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema (2005) / Power Pop, Indie Pop

There’s at least a little irony that Nat “King” Cole’s music is so easily ready for cinema, while it’s competitor which actually has “Cinema” in the title, is not. What kind of movie could hold a song by The New Pornographers? Some American indie flick from the 2000’s? It surely can be done, but you need a director perfectly in control of the flow and feel of their scene, whereas Nat “King” Cole is already setting the scene for you.

Of course this game is not a matchup based on suitability for films, so let’s hear what the Pornographers have to offer themselves. Not much pornography actually, although perhaps it speaks to other people’s fetishes. With little sex and cinema little is given that is promised on the tin. You might forgive me for giving up on the band entirely based on that alone.

Luckily, that’s not how I roll. What we do get is a Canadian “supergroup” with on and off members, consisting of names I know (Neko Case, Dan Bejar) and names I don’t (frankly, all the others). Curiously, RateYourMusic puts them in pop categories, while I’d argue that their dependency on strong electric guitars and surprisingly heavy drumming puts them squarely into rock. They are definitely indie tough, with their penchant for lyrics that hide their unease behind quirkiness, as well as the fact that it is frequently hard to pinpoint what exactly they are about. The strongest element is definitely the musicianship. The interplay between instruments is dynamic and you can feel everyone, singers included, gives it their all, while also seeming to have fun.

It is one of those albums that begs to be listened to more than once, to let those dynamics truly settle in the mind and allow the songs to become earworms that might get to be part of your daily life. They are not pop songs in the sense that they don’t make it easy for you to immediately grasp them, but they have an on-repeat appeal. I’d love to hang out with Nat “King” Cole for a while longer, but I feel that Twin Cinema needs the whole “listen-again” thing more.

Winner: The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema

Next up:
Os Mutantes – Os Mutantes (1968) / Tropicália, Psychedelic Rock, Psychedelic Pop
Ah, an even bigger classic. Ranked at #855. I’m sure I’ve never heard it before, although I did hear some of the more famous songs.

[IllumiThottie]

I was surprised to learn just now that Cole is the 103rd most listened to artist on Spotify, which I’d never expect from someone of his time period, save perhaps Sinatra. Maybe it’s just because I never paid him much mind myself. I guess there is some sense in it though, as this goes down so easily without ever seeming easy listening or dull.

I think this might have something to do with the fact that his Christmas music is very popular. And indeed looking at his top ten most played songs on Spotify, eight of the ten are Christmas songs. But I think this makes sense given the type of singer that he is. He plays absolute mind to the aesthetics of singing, and as you mentioned while that is beautiful, it's not particularly moving. Therefore Christmas music, which doesn't really elicit emotion so much as perhaps evoke memory and tradition, fits his vocal style pretty well. I think this why I prefer Cole Español a bit more, as I think the rhythmic variety helps spice up his stately singing style. Still I think Unforgettable and Pretend are nice songs.

[Rob]

I was surprised to learn just now that Cole is the 103rd most listened to artist on Spotify, which I’d never expect from someone of his time period, save perhaps Sinatra. Maybe it’s just because I never paid him much mind myself. I guess there is some sense in it though, as this goes down so easily without ever seeming easy listening or dull.

I think this might have something to do with the fact that his Christmas music is very popular. And indeed looking at his top ten most played songs on Spotify, eight of the ten are Christmas songs. But I think this makes sense given the type of singer that he is. He plays absolute mind to the aesthetics of singing, and as you mentioned while that is beautiful, it's not particularly moving. Therefore Christmas music, which doesn't really elicit emotion so much as perhaps evoke memory and tradition, fits his vocal style pretty well. I think this why I prefer Cole Español a bit more, as I think the rhythmic variety helps spice up his stately singing style. Still I think Unforgettable and Pretend are nice songs.

You are right of course in assessing the importance of Christmas music for Cole, but I kind of underestimated how strong that effect was. Hardly two weeks on and Cole is "only" ##363 in the world on Spotify, a very sharp drop. Out of season indeed. Though several of his songs, like Unforgettable, do really well regardless. And that's a song I have on repeat a lot. I guess Cole works best for me at romantic songs, but I should try his more rhythmic songs.

[Rob]

The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema (2005) / Power Pop, Indie Pop

Vs.



Os Mutantes – Os Mutantes (1968) / Tropicália, Psychedelic Rock, Psychedelic Pop

Last post I claimed that I did hear some of the more famous songs. Maybe I’ve been hallucinating them, because outside of the lesser-known Baby I didn’t recognize any of it. Of course, if you had to hallucinate some songs it would probably be these, because they earn the moniker “psychedelic” in their genre description. Still, I wasn’t quite prepared for what I got, especially not the amount of psychedelics. I should have known. No amount of Portuguese language or even the many hints of tropicália could hide the prime influence on this album: psychedelic rock from Britain. The album cover is a dead give-away, with in the front Brazilian Mick Jagger, followed by Brazilian Marianne Faithful and finally Brazilian John Lennon dressed as a vampire.

For better or worse this a band who listened intently to the many sonic adventures of Sgt. Peppers Broken Heart Club (I didn’t check if they actually did, but come on now) and decided to push those further. So what you get are songs that somewhere in their base form are fairly regular pop or rock songs, but are recorded with unusual settings and smeared over with a lot of sound effects that don’t really have much to do with anything. It’s not unlike Animal Collective in many ways, including the frequent tropical aesthetics.

I need to be in the mood for stuff like this. I need to be prepared. I’m never in the mood for Animal Collective actually, but luckily Os Mutantes despite the breath of their sound collages never use water sloshing or dripping (I can’t like music that does that, I just can’t), nor do they have the most grating sound on earth – Avey Tare’s singing voice – on their line-up. No matter, I still wasn’t prepared in the slightest. The first two songs, Panis et circenses and A minha menina, I liked the least perhaps because I still had to settle in and accept that we were going to get a lot of unnecessary sound effects. Look, sonic experiments like these were a natural part of the development of music, but I accept them more if the whole album is avant-garde. If you add these effects over otherwise fine pop songs my ear strains to hear the song beneath the racket. I find it more than a little exhausting, which may well be the point.

I liked it more as it went on, even if I wasn’t quite ready to turn off the scepsis that the first two songs brought to me. The third song O réligio helped smooth things over a little, because I was fascinated how much it sounded like Fallin’/ Theme from Twin Peaks, complete with Rita Lee as a Brazilian Julee Cruise (this is my second comparison of Lee with a foreign singer for some reason). It still had a lot of bells and whistles and I mean that literally, as the song actually contains both bells and whistles. In the end I think I was only truly invested in the B-side, which I don’t think is a common response.

Maybe I’ll like it more if I listen to it again, now fully prepared. On the other hand, maybe their fun-with-sound-effects approach will never work for me. It would be a good reason to give this a win to find out, but no, I’m kind of invested in Twin Cinema and at this point in time that’s where I want to get deeper into.

Winner: The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema

Next up:
Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (2010) / Southern Hip Hop
The first hip hop album to appear, the second one I have heard completely before and the third pick in a row to rank in the top half of Acclaimed Music, in this case at #1464. Where’s all my obscure picks at?

[Rob]

The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema (2005) / Power Pop, Indie Pop

Vs.



Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (2010) / Southern Hip Hop

Of all the albums that have appeared here until now this is the one I suspect most people on this forum have heard. It was of course highly anticipated as it was the first solo album by a former member of the OutKast duo, with Big Boi defeating André 3000 by a slight margin of 13 years. It wasn’t without precedence that the OutKast guys did solo work, as Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below was basically a double solo album sold as an OutKast one, but it was still remarkable as an official solo album.

Sir Lucious Left Foot is not as crazily inventive as the best of OutKast, but it flows as well as any rap album out there and you can hear that Big Boi took great care of each song. To some it stands in the shadow of OutKast’s output because it isn’t as strikingly original, but I’m not one to complain if a record is so clearly a passion project and so full of soul, humor and just straight-up good songs. It is the sound of Big Boi truly cutting loose from his old partner, happy to do his own thing and especially during the best songs that feeling is infectious. Not that the album is ever an attack on Big Boi’s original outfit.

The only problem I have with it is a personal one I frequently have with hip-hop albums: I find it hard to care about what they rap about. I already don’t understand half of it, with all the slang, references and fashion statements that derive from somewhere clearly out of my personal bubble. Beyond that you have to have a soft spot for self-aggrandizement, which was not absent on OutKast, but stronger here. You also have to care about how great women feel when they go to bed with Big Boi (or any of his many guest rappers) or the words he uses to women below his stature (not as obnoxiously present as with some rappers, but still there). You have to care about products and brands and stature and all that. There is little real life echoing through these words; it’s more about status, wanting to be seen in a certain way and striking the correct poses. It’s not something I have any interest in and I even find it unattractive. I like this music more when I don’t understand the words and can just appreciate their flow and rhyme, because outside of a few tracks the actual content of the lyrics strikes me as empty, which is a shame for what at heart is solid feel-good hip-hop.

I don’t want to sound to harsh on it’s lyrics, as I know it is mostly a mis-match between me and the artist. I still enjoy the album a lot and almost gave it the vote. Yet at the moment I’m get more out of Twin Cinema.

Winner: The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema

Next up:
Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (1968) / Country Soul
Not included on Acclaimed Music, but an album you might have heard of, as it now has something of a status as a hidden gem. However, I’ll be the judge of if the album deserves that!

[Rob]

The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema (2005) / Power Pop, Indie Pop

Vs.



Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (1968) / Country Soul

As I said in my last post The Delta Sweete is known as something of a hidden gem. In the public eye Bobbie Gentry is almost exclusively known for the hit song Ode to Billie Joe and as a sometime duet partner of Glenn Campbell. Indeed, after her early success with Ode to Billie Joe she struggled to remain in the picture and she didn’t record an album after 1971, despite still being alive to this day. The Campbell collaborations not withstanding nothing after her first success paid off commercially, becoming something of a one-hit wonder. So The Delta Sweete wasn’t a big album at the time and the songs didn’t become hits. You won’t find it or any of its tracks on the Acclaimed Music list. It is fairly highly regarded on RateYourMusic, but even there doesn’t have that big an amount of votes. I’m not sure if I had heard of it before Mercury Rev released their complete cover album Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete Revisited in 2019 (which I also haven’t listened to yet), where each track is sung by another female singer (and it’s one hell of a line-up they got for it, but let’s put that aside for now).

Starting this game has made it all worth it just alone for making me discover this album, because yes, it deserves to be named as a hidden gem. The big question is why it is so hidden. Sure, it wasn’t a hit, but there are many acclaimed albums that never got the attention of the general public (anything by Mercury Rev for example). Surely, everybody with an ear could hear that this is something special?

The Delta Sweete is a unique mix in genres. It’s main mentioned genre on RYM is country soul, which is about right for the general approach: country, but sung with a soul voice. There is more to it then that though. I hear slight influences of psychedelic and baroque pop. At times there is a sexy jazz/ torch song atmosphere going on. Above all, it feels like swamp pop. I knew about swamp rock, but not swamp pop, but RYM claims it exists and well, this is it. Some songs here feel like you could smell the swamp, even more so than anything by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

That gives a hint of the primary strength of The Delta Sweete: it has a very strong sense of space. I consider this to be a concept album. There isn’t a storyline here, but the tracks flow directly into one another. Moreover, during listening I felt consistently that I was in one very specific place. A small town in Mississippi or somewhere else in the Deep South. I haven’t read into it much yet (going into these albums “blind” is half the point of this exercise), but I have already quickly learned that my feelings where correct and that this was meant to be something of a Deep South album. Gentry is even from Mississippi originally. That all of that was clear to me without prior knowledge or too obvious naming in the lyrics speaks to it’s evocative power. I really felt like I was there, in that place at that time. Even though the album can get slightly eerie and unreal at times, in a way that makes it seem like a Southern soundtrack of Twin Peaks (a series that takes place near the Canadian border), recorded over twenty years in advance.

It is just a very strong album, full of wonderful songs. Gentry’s voice is beautiful and not what you expect from country. There is a mix of original material and a couple of well-chosen covers here. It makes for a beguiling mix that I would recommend everyone to try out. I suspect there are many here on this forum who might love it. It is my clear favorite album in this series so far.

Winner: Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (I mean, obviously)

Next up:
Method Man – Tical (1994) / East Coast Hip Hop, Boom Bap, Hardcore Hip Hop
Another hip-hop album, this time from a member of the Wu Tang Clan. It bubbles under on AM.

[Rob]

Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (1968) / Country Soul

Vs.


Method Man – Tical (1994) / East Coast Hip Hop, Boom Bap, Hardcore Hip Hop

Over the years I’ve heard quite a few Wu-Tang related records and they tended to be among my favorite hip-hop albums. I never heard Tical before and it seems to be among the least popular releases of the first wave of Wu-Tang, but still seems to be respected. Sounds about right with me. That great feeling of creativity isn’t quite here and it isn’t the most varied of their albums either, but it can’t be denied that Method Man’s songs still end up feeling forceful. Not only does it have that cool-strutting feeling of much of the best hip-hop of the nineties, but Tical achieves that with some lean songs. I sometimes feel like rap can be a bit bloated, with songs that go on just a bit too long and definitely albums that have a lot of filler and skits. Tical remains under 45 minutes and the longest track lasts 4:15 minutes. Every songs feels like a punch and it’s almost a let-down that I don’t quite know any other rap album that ends up feeling that way, because the genre is very suitable for punches.

The most surprising thing otherwise are connections to two other songs. Release Yo’ Delf sounds to me like it is vaguely based around the melody of I Will Survive, but changed around in a rather cool way. Then there is All I Need, which forms the basis of a remix/ reinvention released a year later under the name I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By, featuring Mary J. Blige. That song ended up feeling like a real love song, but the original floats between love and menace and coming from it the other way around it seems quite striking and original.

Outside of all this it is hard to call this a deep album or a real masterpiece, but I doubt that anyone who likes Wu-Tang or nineties hip-hop in general will seriously dislike it. Of course, it can’t beat the very, very different The Delta Sweete for me, but few things can.

Winner: Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (still obviously)

Next up:
Arthur Russell – World of Echo (1986) / Avant-Folk, Ambient Pop, Experimental, Neo-Psychedelia
That’s quite the genre line-up there. As far as I know I’m unfamiliar with this artist and album, but Spotify marks three songs from it as appearing on a playlist I made. Now I have literally hundreds of playlists, not all made specifically for me or within my tastes, but I wish I could find where I put these three songs, if only to know if I indeed heard them before. We’ll find out soon enough, but for now it is of note that this album ranks on AM at #1806.

[Rob]

Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (1968) / Country Soul

Vs.



Arthur Russell – World of Echo (1986) / Avant-Folk, Ambient Pop, Experimental, Neo-Psychedelia

By now I’m pretty sure I have not heard this before. This album is almost too singular to be removed from memory easily. Whatever else you think of World of Echo – and I think it is inevitably an acquired taste – it’s hard to deny that it has a unique vision.

Basically Arthur Russell sounds like he is in a big church or other large open hall that echoes his voice and cello from wall to wall. In reality this is all studio production, using technology to create echoes and reverbs, but the effect stands. Russell definitely used words, but they are hard to make out. His cello is also not played in a regular way, but in lose, frequently unconnected strokes. He also seems fond of the cello as a percussion instrument. Almost the whole album contains the same repeated woosh-sounds coming from who knows what, almost as an early experiment in drone music. Russell’s voice itself seems to be a mixture between Nick Drake and Robin Pecknold, the latter of whom might have gotten some inspiration from this music. The result is an ambient type of album in the sense that it is mostly about space. I played it loud, letting it fill up the room completely, turning it into another place, in a matter of speaking.

For a while I found it very captivating, almost magical. It really does work as a unique piece of atmosphere setting. However, I can’t deny that somewhere past the halfway point I thought it overstayed its welcome. The album doesn’t change much. In fact, the rhythm, if you can call it that, remains the same from song to song. In most cases you can’t even particularly notice when it goes to the next track. It becomes a trick played to often. Three times there is a bit of change: Being It is actual rock, Lucky Cloud ends up a feelgood song and Let’s Go Swimming is bombastic in a curious way. Even these songs are very much part of the whole deal, but they feel individualistic in a way most of the album in the end doesn’t. Maybe, it is the type of album that needs to be played over and over, letting the subtle differences from song to song take root in the mind. Sadly, it is up against The Delta Sweete.

Winner: Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (nice try though)

Next up:
Baths – Cerulean (2010) / Glitch Pop, Glitch Hop
Looks like next time we have a hygienic album that’s fittingly bubbling on AM.

[Rob]

Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (1968) / Country Soul

Vs.



Baths – Cerulean (2010) / Glitch Pop, Glitch Hop

Don't you just want to take a bath when you see that cover?

This is basically an ambient album, not called ambient because it’s beats are so prominent. To be fair, when I started this album this Sunday morning I wasn’t actually in the mood for such a prominent bass. The album cover showing a bath bomb, as well as the title and of course the artist’s name itself all promised a soothing sound for a stress-free morning. I clearly forgot all about the genre descriptions.

In all fairness, this is a soothing album and as said in most ways it is very ambient in nature. Most of the music exists out of calm piano and other clear sounds that are easy on the ears. However, they are encased in beats, as well as glitches. Those glitches here aren’t really about the distortion effect, like in for example the work of Holly Herndon, but are really an alternative beat, a way of creating another rhythm. Once I settled in to the grooves of the tracks I could accept the album for what it was: a sort of good-natured electronic mood piece. Tranquil, but with a goal to keep you awake.

It’s hardly my favorite thing in the world, but I can see the quality here, even if I’m the type of person who isn’t so much interested in the beats, but instead for the way Will Wiesenfeld (the one man behind Baths) combines spring-time bird song with rain and piano on something like Rain Smells. I could see this album working well for me in a specific mood or context. Still, I doubt it will become a staple in my regular listening.

Winner: Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (a new record!)

Next up:
Bob Marley & The Wailers – Uprising (1980) / Roots Reggae
It seems that Random.org has decided to bring the big guns to end the reign of The Delta Sweete. The album ranks on #2198 on AM and features one of the most iconic music artists ever. Will it be enough for the win?

[Rob]

Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (1968) / Country Soul

Vs.



Bob Marley & The Wailers – Uprising (1980) / Roots Reggae

So first, look at that album cover! The sun rising along with the raised hands and the enormous amount of dreadlocks becoming mountains on their own; it doesn’t just evoke the uprising, but also something more eternal. An inner strength or myth. I’m not the only one to note how profound it is that Bob Marley’s last album would end with the prophetic yet introspective statement of Redemption Song, but I feel that the album cover of Uprising has a similar power. No art has captured him better, which is an achievement, because such an image could easily be cheesy. Perhaps it works because Marley always came across as sincere and seemed to live the life he preached as best as he could. Just don’t take too long a look at the face on the cover. It doesn’t quite work.

How about the album itself? Is it the ultimate send-off? Well, it certainly doesn’t stand next to David Bowie’s Darkstar or Cohen’s You Want It Darker, but those were self-conscious final statements. Uprising was released almost a full year before Marley’s death and I doubt he planned it as his final album. Overall I would say it is another solid album, but definitely not his best. What is notable is that the two most famous songs do really stand out here, because they so seem so different. Redemption Song because it doesn’t have The Wailers supporting and is instead a rare acoustic recording. Could You Be Loved has a very rapid bass rhythm, a louder Marley lead vocal and female backing vocals that are turned lose. In contrast, the other songs are reggae as usual, although the religious Always Loving Jah is of some note.

That’s not to say these other songs aren’t good, but I feel there are more complete Marley’s albums out there. Songs like Coming In From the Cold, Real Situation and Pimper’s Paradise are nice to have for sure and even lesser songs like Bad Card and Work are far from embarrassment. Still, there are stronger Marley efforts out there. I feel that the time was coming for The Delta Sweete to give way and thought this might be it, but in the end I already know the two big ones by heart and don’t feel a strong need to return to the other songs soon. So…

Winner:
Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete

Up next:
Willie Colón – El malo (1967) / Boogaloo, Salsa dura, Salsa
The debut album of the American salsa artist. Coincidentally, it just got a remaster this very year.

[Rob]

Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (1968) / Country Soul

Vs.



Willie Colón – El malo (1967) / Boogaloo, Salsa dura, Salsa

At only 17 year old Willie Colón recorded this album, his debut. His parents were from Puerto Rico, but he himself was born in New York. That the USA is basically is his home base meant little for his music, which is proudly based in Latin American roots. As such he collaborated with many of the great names of South-America, but got little traction in his own country, a few albums aside.

His debut immediately makes his mission statement clear. The title may refer to evil or bad times and perhaps some of the lyrics do as well, I don’t know, yet the music is very upbeat and danceable. With Colón’s own trombone, a strong rhythm section and frequent pianos this sounds like ideal party music to me. Even on this new remaster the recording sometimes sounds rough, but that hardly diminishes the clear energy of the performance. At only 30 minutes the album holds a brisk pace with no moments to rest.

A few songs are in English and Willie Baby (one of two songs named after the singer) even sounds like a Latinified version of a fifties rock & roll song, but mostly it is proudly Spanish. It’s hard for me to rate this in it’s genre, of which I know too little. Other Colón records seem more popular, though even to me the title track sounds familiar. Whatever the case, if you want some salsa this is a good record to put on. But no, it doesn’t quite dethrone The Delta Sweete for me.

Winner:
Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete

Up next:
Sun Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra – Atlantis (1969) / Free Jazz
It’s been a while, but it is time to return to jazz. This one ranks on AM at #2972, but does that mean I’ll like it or will it sink like the titular city for me?

[Rob]

Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (1968) / Country Soul

Vs.



Sun-Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra – Atlantis (1969) / Free Jazz

I don’t think I have ever heard a jazz record that sounds this lo-fi. In the long history of jazz there must be more examples, but generally speaking I feel that the genre prefers very clear recordings that highlight every member equally. Much of the production of Atlantis doesn’t highlight anyone. It sounds rough and unpolished, as if Sun Ra’s prime inspiration was garage rock. This mostly goes for the first four tracks (five if like me you listen to the album on Spotify and you get two versions of Yucatan). I kind of enjoyed the scrappiness and the way it contrasts with the histrionics of the musicianship. It is not quite funk, but sounds pretty funky nonetheless.

The final twenty minute track is another matter. It is named after Atlantis and I suspect the idea is that it is supposed to sound like a drowning city’s death cry, but I propose another theory: this is the song that made Atlantis sink. If you’ve ever heard certain music or sounds being described as an ‘infernal racket’ and you don’t know what was meant by it, put on this track for a good example. Otherwise I’m not even going to attempt to describe it. One listen just isn’t enough to give that a shot. It is the type of song you need to be in a very particular mood for and for most people that mood will never come. Personally, I don’t feel like I can pass judgment on it, not in the least because this clearly is a song that takes offence in being judged.

So how does it stack up against The Delta Sweete? That album I loved immediately and has proven itself over many listens since. Atlantis, in contrast, baffles me. However, that makes it an ideal album to finally take over the torch from Bobbie Gentry, because as I explained initially it isn’t so much the best album that wins as the one I at the time feel I want to listen to again. Atlantis demands a second listen, for better or worse.

Winner: Sun-Ra and His Atro Infinity Arkestra – Atlantis

Up next:
David Thomas & The Pedestrians - The Sound of the Sand and Other Songs of The Pedestrian (1981) / Art Rock, Experimental Rock
Seems like two experimental albums will go toe to toe next time! This is the first album to appear here not to be available on Spotify (it is on YouTube) and the first entry that made it to my list because I'm slowly adding all Pierro Scaruffi’s 8+ albums to the list (I’ve not finished that yet, there are a lot of them and many of them obscure).

[Rob]

A change of plans. Turns out that David Thomas & The Pedestrians’ The Sound of Sand and Other Songs of the Pedestrian is only available on YouTube in The Netherlands with most songs missing. I’ve tried looking elsewhere online, but no luck. The are a few websites in The Netherlands that do have the vinyl for sale for a low price and maybe I’ll buy one after verifying if these websites are legit. In that case I will review the album here as well. But for today, that only left me with the option to pick another album, so:



Sun-Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra – Atlantis (1969) / Free Jazz

Vs.



Russian Red – I Love Your Glasses (2008) / Singer-Songwriter, Folk Pop

The Sun Ra versus David Thomas (from Pere Ubu, for those who don’t recognize his name) seemed like such a deliciously insane matchup that chances were slim that a new challenger would be as exciting, but Russian Red still really underperforms in this regard. Frankly, there is nothing particularly of interest about it.

Russian Red is the moniker of Spanish singer-songwriter Lourdes Hernández. She sings in English with a strange accent. Not Spanish as far as I can tell, but perhaps a foreigner’s attempt at a Southern drawl. The effect is that I had a hard time understanding her. Eventually I did start using the song texts to help me along and I think I misheard about a third of her words. Not that her words are all that remarkable. Like everything about this album nothing is particularly bad, but nothing is interesting either. There are a thousand singer-songwriters the world over at any given time doing the exact same thing and among those I find no reason to specifically listen to Russian Red again. After 11 of her own songs she ends with a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, that she turns into a sad ballad for some reason. By the way, along with today’s Biggest Fan song this is the second Cyndi Lauper cover Random.org made me listen to today. This is not the first time I feel Random.org has some private jokes going on.

How did this even get on the list? It’s bubblin’ under on AM, all based on Spain-only lists. The last one came from the year 2009. Seems like everyone moved on since. One of my previously unmentioned pet peeves about Acclaimed Music is that from the year 2006 on the Bubblin’ Under section suddenly becomes extremely long, with near the bottom a lot of albums that don’t have much support. It’s probably the result an increased thoroughness in list-seeking from 2006 on, plus that the internet has given us more (Year-End) lists than ever before, but such a long bubblin’ under section deludes the effect of it. And it made sure that I Love Your Glasses is now on AM and The Delta Sweete is not.

I Love Your Glasses is probably my least favorite album to appear here until now. David Thomas might have called it pedestrian.

Winner:
Sun Ra – Atlantis (This is actually more enjoyable on second and third listen; the infernal racket has already opened up to me)

Up next:
Kelley Stoltz - Below the Branches (2006) / Indie Pop, Piano Rock
Look, I'm giving this a fair shot, but this is a very ironic pick after my rant above on extremely extended Bubblin' under lists on AM from 2006 on. This is a 2006 bubblin' under album with even far less support than Russian Red had. Only three Year-End lists in total, none higher than #24 and nothing since. It might be a hidden gem, but I have to question the reasoning of even having this on AM.

[Rob]

Sun-Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra – Atlantis (1969) / Free Jazz

Vs.



Kelley Stoltz - Below the Branches (2006) / Indie Pop, Piano Rock

My response on picking this album may have been a bit harsh, probably fed by having just heard the identity-less Russian Red. Below the Branches certainly hasn’t staid in either public or the critical conscience, but it turns out it is not a bad album. No, it is not a hidden gem. No, I don’t think you should hurry to listen to it. No, it really has no business on Acclaimed Music. No, it doesn’t come close in defeating Sun Ra’s Atlantis. Yet as long as it is playing it is rather enjoyable.

The strength and weaknesses of Below the Branches have the same origin. Kelley Stoltz sounds like he has been studying the music of The Beatles. He does a close approximation of the sound. Songs like Memory Collector and The Sun Comes Through are so heavily indebted to specifically late-era Beatles songs penned by John Lennon that you might have been able to sell them as newly discovered tracks. There is a small and a big difference between Stoltz and The Beatles though. The small one is that Stoltz at least on this album seems to prefer the piano over the guitar (side-note: Stoltz has been a touring guitar player for Echo & the Bunnymen, another band he seems to have a long history of admiration for, but that’s not apparent on this album). Of course The Beatles are no stranger to the piano, but they never made a complete album with that instrument in the lead.

The biggest and most crucial difference between Stoltz and The Beatles is that Stoltz actively tries to sound like them, while The Beatles rarely if ever wanted to sound like The Beatles (their later solo careers are another matter). What kept The Fab Four so fresh among so many albums and singles is their willingness to develop and expand their sound, whereas Stoltz tries to distill a core sound out of their collected works. It just misses the excitement. What’s more, Stoltz doesn’t quite try to reach for the beauty or emotion of his inspiration. Like a lot of acts that hark back to the past he uses a previous era as merely a place of comfort, which means that his lyrics do not contain the wonder, fear, sadness, curiosity, anger or even real joys of the time, let alone his own time. Below the Branches is comfort food for the nostalgic. It’s well done, but it doesn’t really add anything to the more exciting 1960’s catalogue and even less to the year 2006, when it came out.

Winner: Sun Ra – Atlantis

Up next:
The Pentangle – The Pentangle (1968) / Progressive Folk, British Folk Rock
Sun Ra hasn’t exactly been seriously challenged yet, but this sounds a like worthy adversary: a well-respected band that works in genres I love. British Folk rarely goes wrong with me. This is not one of The Pentangle’s albums on Acclaimed Music though, so we’ll see how good it ends up being.

[Rob]

Sun-Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra – Atlantis (1969) / Free Jazz

Vs.



The Pentangle – The Pentangle (1968) / Progressive Folk, British Folk Rock

This didn’t end up sounding quite like I expected it to do. I heard Basket of Light before and expected some more traditional British folk mixed with rock. There’s barely any rock influences here, but all the more jazz. Purists may scoff at the notion, but I almost felt there was more jazz here than folk. Now Jacqui McShee’s vocals are very much in the folk tradition, so that might count for a lot. But you’d be hard pressed to find a folk album less about vocals, let alone lyrics than this one. This is no slight against McShee, but this is a real musicians’ record, with more than a fair share of solos. In a unique twist for folk it is the bass that is the most notable instrument and it is this that makes me think of jazz almost near constantly. If you told me Danny Thomson was part of the Kind of Blue sessions of Miles Davis I might just believe you.

So if you are like me and listen to folk for atmosphere, for emotion, for the singing and for the lyrics than I’d argue this isn’t quite going to be your album. It really requires a love for instrumental skills, because outside of Thomson’s bass, the two guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn seem to try to one-up each other and even drummer Terry Cox gets to go wild here and there. No wonder McShee seems to be separated slightly from the group on the cover. The Pentangles genre contemporaries Fairport Convention where no stranger to complex musicianship, but that was always in service of the flow of the words and part of the storytelling. I can’t quite think of a traditional folk album where the lyrics seemed less important than on The Pentagle; strictly instrumental folk albums aside of course.

That doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I can appreciate the musicianship, which is stellar. Maybe it is because it caught me off-guard that I have a hard time appreciating it as a form of storytelling or to hear how it fits in the British folk tradition. Maybe it needs another listen and I’m quite up for it. Atlantis has really won me over after five listens and though I wouldn’t mind another go at it through this game, I’m sure Pentangle needs another listen more, if only to make up my mind of it.

Winner: The Pentagle – The Pentangle

Next up: Miley Cyrus – Plastic Hearts (2020) / Pop Rock
I guess it was a matter of time before poptimism strikes here as well. Of course I know Miley Cyrus, but I never heard of this specific album, but it is easily the most the most streamed one to appear here on Attention Seekers. The only Miley Cyrus album I heard, Bangerz, is in my mind one of the 10 worst albums I’ve listened to from start to finish and that is with even liking Wrecking Ball. I’m not exactly jumping at the opportunity to listen to more Miley records, but at least this is by far her highest rated one on Rate Your Music, but at 3,12 that doesn’t mean much; plus Rate Your Music is at it’s worst when it’s about popular contemporary pop stars, which get low ratings almost by default.

[Rob]

The Pentangle – The Pentangle (1968) / Progressive Folk, British Folk Rock

Vs.



Miley Cyrus – Plastic Hearts (2020) / Pop Rock

Well, that wasn’t so hard. This is absolutely a very different album than Bangerz, with the whole mindless partying theme thankfully missing. Miley Cyrus voice has itself developed in a mature way, sounding a smoky and adult. The lyrics remain very much in the pop mold – love, break-up and stuff – but as a singer she sounds like she put real effort in them. I was very happy to learn that the “rock” in “pop rock” was really present, as many songs contain real guitars and drums. Especially the opening few tracks are pretty good in that way. Miley Cyrus doesn’t reinvent the rock rule book in any way, but that’s fine as long as the result is genuine. She earns the right to have Billy Idol and Joan Jett as guest artists, even if the latter is on a disappointing song. There is even an honest-to-goodness revival of the type of rock ballad The Scorpions or Aerosmith might have released in the 1980’s or ‘90’s, in Angels Like You. You’d think it would be unfashionable, but it became the album’s biggest hit.

Sadly the strength of the start of the album dissipates after a while. If the opening few tracks seem to promise a true album, a lot of the second half actually feels more like a hodgepodge of single leftovers. Hate Me is even a song that at least sonically feels like it would have been a filler track on Bangerz, yet somehow became filler all these years later on an album it doesn’t fit on. We even suddenly get a country pop ballad in Never Be Me, which is also not particularly strong. Closer Golden G String lifts things up a little, but otherwise this album is extremely front-loaded.

But wait, Golden G String is not the actual closer. There are three bonus tracks, which according to RYM were on every version and are for them not “bonus tracks”. First is another version of the album track Midnight Sky, which now gets remixed with Stevie Nicks’ classic The Edge of Seventeen, as The Edge of Midnight. The result of this remix is actually the album highlight, as these two songs seamlessly blend. Then there is a very driving, rocky live version of Miley doing Blondie’s Heart of Glass and it is an enormous energy booster. The last track, another live cover, this time of the Cranberries’ Zombie, is more straightforward, but still a good take. In these three songs as well as in the best tracks of Plastic Hearts as a whole there is a hint that Miley Cyrus might be capable of more than she usually shows. Of course she worked with the Flaming Lips before, so there is a strong hint there is more to her than meets the eye, but whether she will ever fully commit to this remains to be seen.

Winner: The Pentangle – The Pentangle (this one hasn’t completely won me over yet, but is more consistent and interesting than Plastic Hearts)

Next up:
The Moody Blues – The Other Side of Life (1986) / Pop Rock
Huh, I didn’t even know The Moody Blues lasted until 1986. They disbanded only in 2018 apparently, and recorded until 2003. Must be from someone’s album list here in AM. You’d think that going from Miley Cyrus to Moody Blues would be a shock, but they actually have the same genre designation for the two respective records that appear here.

[Rob]

The Pentangle – The Pentangle (1968) / Progressive Folk, British Folk Rock

Vs.



The Moody Blues – The Other Side of Life (1986) / Pop Rock

There was a time when The Moody Blues were a band that was easily mocked. Their initial baroque leanings and penchant for concept albums combined with wide-eyed romanticism and mysticism where precursors for the excess of progressive rock of the 1970’s. I don’t find it hard to think of bands as Yes, Camel or Genesis as spiritual successors of The Moody Blues, even if the Moodies were still making music at that time. Progressive rock of that ilk has a large group of fans, but also a very vocal group of haters, who dislike the lack of down-to-Earth mentality, flowery poetry and bizarre and extensive use of whatever instruments these people laid their hands on. I myself have a soft spot for such music, but for a lot of “serious” critics this is exactly the music that made it so that “punk had to happen”.

All this to say that The Other Side of Life is not such an album (though it definitely isn’t punk either). It isn’t a weird album by any stretch, but it is curious to look at it in The Moody Blues career (of which I admittedly don’t have the full view and this isn’t the series for it). Much of it sounds very eighties, but as performed by a group with a mindset from the sixties and a little bit of the seventies. We have the synths, the hyper-clean production and even some of drum machines all from the pop culture of 1986. Yet the vocal harmonies are very, very British invasion and at times there is still that naïve romanticism that died with the hippie movement. There is also seventies bombast (more reminiscent in execution of ELO than what I know of The Moody Blues) for good measure. It’s an album that I expect to have little appeal to the pop kids of the eighties, despite it trying to speak to them in some regards (in I Just Don’t Care the singer even claims to be a schoolboy; this was a band 20 years in its lifespan). I also think the production and poppiness of the album would not sit well with sixties purists. Yet its strange mixture of typical elements from different musical eras does make it somewhat unique and would give it a certain charm.

I say “would”, because the album itself isn’t good enough to really capitalize on such an interesting mixture. The good thing I can say about The Other Side of Life is that it doesn’t sound as tired as too many albums from the eighties performed by heroes of the sixties that I’ve heard. There is nothing here that gives away that the musicians heart wasn’t in it. Creativity is another matter, though. At it’s best it feels like a watered down Moody Blues, made to appeal to a generation that never heard of them. It is frequently tacky and overproduced, with just some nice touches here and there that keep it from going off the rails. You get curious songs like Rock ‘n Roll Over You with incredibly bad lyrics of the type you expect from a b-grade hair metal band, but also with an enormous drive that is kind of cool. Talkin’ Talkin’ has a wall of sound that suitably overwhelms, but is diminished by poor vocals. Album closer It May Be a Fire aims at the romantic poetry of the band’s old days, but is let down by a sub-par musical composition. Indeed, with the exception of the extremely bland title track (which at six minutes and with grand lyrics clearly means to be the epic centerpiece) and the laughably bad Slings and Arrows there is almost always something to recommend these songs. The problem is that there is also something to not recommend them.

But what do I know, the opening song and lead single of the album, Your Wildest Dreams, put them back on the charts for the first time since the early seventies and is still their second most streamed song on Spotify (way behind Nights in White Satin, but well before Tuesday Afternoon). So there was some appeal in this sixties and eighties mix, even if doesn’t completely convince me.

Winner: The Pentangle – The Pentangle

Next up:
The Modern Jazz Quartet – Django (1956) / Cool Jazz, Third Stream
Jazz again! Also the first one to rank on AM – at #1587 – since Atlantis. Finally, I noticed that this one was on my list twice, once for 1956 and once for 1957 (the release year seems to be disputed), doubling it’s chances to appear here. Some would say that a 2 out of 13844 chance to win isn’t big, but the results speak for themselves.

[Rob]

The Pentangle – The Pentangle (1968) / Progressive Folk, British Folk Rock

Vs.



The Modern Jazz Quartet – Django (1956) / Cool Jazz, Third Stream
I was always under the wrong assumption that the jazz standard Django was actually a composition by Django Reinhardt himself. Instead it was written by John Lewis, pianist of The Modern Jazz Quartet, right after Reinhardt died. Lewis was a friend and admirer of Rienhardt and the tribute is heartfelt. It opens this album and sets an elegiac mood that the record itself actually doesn’t continue on. The remainder is much brighter.

The last jazz album I listened to in this series was Atlantis by Sun Ra, a tumultuous and inaccessible affair that might drive people insane (though I came to love it and regret booting it out in favor of The Pentangle, which didn’t turn out to be a grower). Django by the Modern Jazz Quartet is on the far other end of the jazz spectrum than Atlantis. This is light music; I’d even say much of it sounds quite happy. This is achieved not in the least because of Milt Jackson’s vibraphone. I don’t think I’ve heard that instrument all that much over the years and I'm pretty sure this is the first jazz album I heard in full that features that instrument prominently. Hearing it on Django it seems impossible to imagine it being used in dark or heavy music, as it so naturally clear and bright in tone. It is not just Jackson though, as the whole quartet just mostly plays in a low-key and relaxed kind of mode. Of course it is a deceptive lightness, as we are talking about skilled musicianship, but this is jazz you could play almost anywhere without offending anyone.

It's always hard to say if music this unassuming, outside of the title track, will leave a deep impression and whether it can grow in esteem. Regardless, I find it easy to like and would be happy to hear it again.

Winner: The Modern Jazz Quaret – Django

Next up:
Young Jeezy – The Recession (2008) / Southern Hip Hop, Trap, Gangsta Rap
Trap and gangsta rap? Oh no. I… will keep an open mind and open ear, but I very much doubt this is going to be my thing. 75 minutes?! Jeezy Christ! It’s bubblin’ under on AM, so at least that’s one of those scratched from my list.

[Rob]

The Modern Jazz Quartet – Django (1956) / Cool Jazz, Third Stream

Vs.



Young Jeezy – The Recession (2008) / Southern Hip Hop, Trap, Gangsta Rap

The good news is that this wasn’t too bad. The slightly bad news is that it isn’t particularly good either. I was expecting worse, as I heard gangster trap music that was actually obnoxious and this isn’t. The lyrics are hardly insightful and Jeezy isn’t exactly into wordplay and flow like the great rappers are. He is really superficial, even when he connects the then-current recession (hence the title) to poverty in Afro-American communities. Not that a lot of the running time is spent on that. It’s mostly him boasting about this thing or that. But I’ve heard worse.

The biggest drawback here is how monotonous it is. Every song is so similar that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that except for one song they all just use the same backing music. Without fail and without rest every song has the same pumped-up sound, as if Jeezy is in a 75 minute long training montage. Surprisingly it doesn’t get all that tiring, but I assume it will if I’d listen to this again. Only Circulate breaks the mold by being centered around a funky sample and it comes as a welcome relief. Maybe that’s why it immediately became my favorite track. Kanye West also shows up somewhere near the end, but mostly to add some horrible auto-tune to the mix.

I don’t think this is much fun and based on Spotify streams it doesn’t seem to have remained it’s grip on popular culture which it seems to have had at one time. I don’t dislike it as much as the Russian Red album, but if there was ever an album that makes relistening seem pointless it’s this one, so guess the winner.

Winner: The Modern Jazz Quartet – Django

Next up:
Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance (1999) / Doom Metal, Symphonic Metal
No idea what to expect here, but it sounds like a nice change of pace.

[Rob]

The Modern Jazz Quartet – Django (1956) / Cool Jazz, Third Stream

Vs.



Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance (1999) / Doom Metal, Symphonic Metal

Those RYM genre tags can be misleading, or at least they don’t tell the whole story. This is only partly a metal album. If it needs to be described I would say this is an alchemical concoction of everything that could make music sound medieval. That would include acoustic folk, cinematic piano music as well as metal (which was obviously not played in medieval times, but the genre has frequently leaned into the period for inspiration). The acoustic guitar and the piano are perhaps as much and maybe even more used as the heavy electric guitar and drums. Even the singing exists in three modes: a typical metal Orc-like male grunt, a ghostly male scream and a more traditional female folk voice. There are also three languages: English, Latin and German (the band is from Austria, though that only explains the German). Besides the already mentioned instruments there are also repeated appearances by violins and flutes, plus one time synths. No bass though.

It certainly isn’t unusual for metal of this kind to include influences of either folk or classical/ cinematic music, but it is still remarkable how well Estatic Fear weaves this all together. It shifts genres constantly yet in a way that feels fluent. The genres strengthen each other. No more is that strength better showcased than in the song called Chapter III. At 3:33 minutes this is one of the shortest tracks. It starts out as an acoustic guitar instrumental, then moves into a piano symphony. The female singers starts singing in German. During her performance the metal guitars and drums burst through the relative peace with fury. The singing subsides and suddenly the metal instruments are accompanied by a flute. Somehow it all fits together. After this we get Chapter IV, the inevitable 10 minute track which has equally much going on, but I think Chapter III is the most satisfying example, perhaps because of its short length.

As you may have noticed the song titles are chapters (plus Intro). This suggests to me there is a story, but I definitely couldn’t make one out. The lyrics are mostly typical metal musings on dread, weariness and darkness in the most unrelatable way possible. There seems to be some pagan worship in there too, but it is so vague that I’m not sure. This is definitely not about the lyrics for me, but about the atmosphere and the skillful musicianship that merges different forms into something frequently awe-inspiring. I could even accept both the grunting and screamo singing, which only some metal manages to do for me, which means I really liked this album. It is the last this band made and only their second effort (the first one, Somnium Obmutum, ranks quite well on RYM, although it has far less votes than A Sombre Dance; though neither is swimming in listeners). Maybe I’m not deep enough into this genre to be able to rate it against other works, but as for now I’m happily impressed. Quality-wise it is a toss-up between this and Django, but I give the win to the newcomer.

Winner:
Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance

Up next:
Angie Stone – Black Diamond (1999) / Contemporary R&B, Neo-Soul
Looks like A Sombre Dance will face a record from the same year, although otherwise I expect them to have little in common.

[Rob]

Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance (1999) / Doom Metal, Symphonic Metal

Vs.



Angie Stone – Black Diamond (1999) / Contemporary R&B, Neo-Soul

Neo-soul like this, well, I tend to have trouble connecting with it and Black Diamond for the most part is no exception. I’m talking specifically of a trend of the genre were the music follows a certain repetition, akin to funk or hip hop beats (you can find both of those on this record), where the main voice kind of floats above it all, not being part of the rhythm nor interacting with it. Also, the voice doesn’t really have a melody line of its own, or at least not one I can understand. The lyrics tend to be repetitive as well and seem to associate on a theme, without much actual poetry, let alone story-telling. Black Diamond has all that, plus backing vocals that do have a rhythm, but also repeat words seemingly endlessly. There was a song on this album where I was convinced that it had been repeating itself for over five minutes and I wondered when it finally would end, only to look at the timer and see it cross the 2 minute mark. That’s not an exaggeration.

I don’t know what it is, but my brain utterly fails to grab onto music like this. I think it is the disconnect between music and lead vocals that somehow confuses me, as if I want to pay attention to the vocals but they float away, out of my grasp. It’s why I can’t appreciate some other neo-soul artists like Solange and D’Angelo. D’Angelo’s influence is strong here by the way and he even co-wrote one of the songs and provides some backing music. He may be returning the favor, as Angie Stone was a collaborator on his breakthrough Black Sugar album.

There are a couple of times, when the songs take on the structure of more traditional soul that I can connect to the album, especially on Life Story, which apparently charted in The Netherlands, though I don’t recall hearing it before. The other two songs I enjoyed were Trouble Man and Heaven Help, but they are covers of Marvin Gaye and Lenny Kravitz respectively and are not neo-soul. Kravitz is also a sometime contributor to this album by the way. It’s certainly not the case that Angie Stone has no talent, but this just isn’t for me.

Winner: Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance

Next up:
Art Pepper – Art Pepper + Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics (1959) / Cool Jazz, Big Band
Well, we can’t go too long without jazz, can we? This one is bubblin’ under on AM.

[Rob]

Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance (1999) / Doom Metal, Symphonic Metal

Vs.



Art Pepper – Art Pepper + Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics (1959) / Cool Jazz, Big Band

+ Eleven it says on the title. + Eleven what? There are twelve songs on here, written by more than 11 people. Art Pepper’s band has far more than 11 players. If you only count the players that appear on every song you get only 10 and that is including Art Pepper and conductor/ arranger Marty Paich. Internet search doesn’t yield any article talking about this most mysterious of titles. Surely it could simply have been titled Modern Jazz Classics? But no, they had to add + Eleven. Sometimes this world gets too much to bear.

What isn’t too much to bear is the music, which is actually very joyful and very approachable even for those not into jazz. This could be an ideal party album for the jazz era, it just has that much swing. ‘Round Midnight offers some respite, relatively speaking, but otherwise this is a real celebration. There are no Art Pepper originals as this was really meant as a tribute to some of the best jazz-tracks of then-recent years, including compositions by Sonny Rollins, Jim Giuffre, Thelonious Monk and Dizzie Gillespie. The music itself is also a real team effort, with really only Walkin’ giving some spotlight moments to individual players. At the same time, it is Pepper’s sax that clearly leads. Personal highlight for me is Four Brothers, a fairly short piece that sounds like it could have been the James Bond theme, if James Bond happened to be specifically a dancing spy. Maybe the title predates Spinal Tap in that the music here goes to eleven?

An album that is hard to resist, as it is just too upbeat and full of life. Hard to chose between this and A Sombre Dance, but I still go with the latter for now because it feels like the fresher discovery; as if I’m trying to sound like I would have gotten around this one eventually.

Winner: Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance

Next up:
Randy Weston's African Rhythms – African Cookbook (1969) / Afro-Jazz
Give me more jazz, why don’t you? It seems to be rather obscure and probably comes from someone’s AM poll list, probably mileswide. On Spotify the album called African Cookbook actually has a completely different track list outside of the title track. An album called African Rhythms has the right line-up, although you only need the first 6 songs.

[Rob]

Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance (1999) / Doom Metal, Symphonic Metal

Vs.



Randy Weston's African Rhythms – African Cookbook (1969) / Afro-Jazz

African Rhythms, African Cookbook, Afro-Jazz. That’s three times Africa. Don’t take the references to this continent lightly, because although Randy Weston was born in the United States, his passion for Africa was deep. He lived in at least Nigeria and Morocco for extended times and although he seemed to have started his career as a prodigy to Thelonious Monk he eventually seems to have fixed his interest in mixing American jazz with music from various African cultures. Randy Weston was a piano player and that is an instrument not part of the traditional African music setup, but he fixes that partly by emphasizing strongly the percussion, which on this album comes from his son Azzedin Niles Weston and the Ghanian Reebop Kwaku Baah. Although there is also a bass player in Henry Texier and a drummer in Art Taylor they are purely there to keep the rhythm. They don’t get solos. Most of the tracks here are about the interplay between piano and percussion.

The 14 minute title track is the most interesting piece. For a long time it is rather subdued, seemingly content with a funky African rhythm. However, listen closely and you’ll notice it is working up to a frenzy. Around the hallway point the composition basically erupts (except the bass and drum keeping it steady) and Weston goes nuts on the piano. Although this wild ecstasy isn’t maintained it never goes back to it’s lazy beginnings. The track itself was apparently inspired by the music of saxophone player Booker Evans, who previously collaborated with Weston, but is not on this album; nor is there any sax to be found here. I’m not sure how that influence played out as I’m not familiar with Booker Evans, but I imagined African Cookbook to be inspired by the African ceremonial dances, slowly working towards a sort of spiritual ecstasy.

It would be in line with most tracks here. At first it might seems strange that A Night in Medina is named after a city in Saudi-Arabia, as it starts as a romantic tune from a more Western tradition, but eventually it becomes trance-liking and positively sweltering (it is the only track where the percussionists play no main role). Jajouka is named after the small Moroccan village famous for The Master Musicians known in the west thanks to the album Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, which I never heard so I can’t state how alike their music is to Randy Weston and his player’s here. Marrakech Blues is perhaps the most obvious in it’s African inspiration, both in sound and name. Con Alma is a Dizzy Gillespie composition reinvented for African percussion. Afro Black finally is a 3 minute celebration with a ribald sense of joy that makes you believe the whole continent is having a party.

It's a good time. Not my favorite jazz record to appear here yet, but another strong one. However, it feels wrong to let this win against Estatic Fear when Django and Modern Jazz Classics didn’t, even if it doesn’t quite work that way. I feel that A Sombre Dance has another week in it, but I hope it doesn’t stay around to waste more spotlights for good jazz.

Winner: Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance

Next up:
Mary J. Blige – No More Drama (2001) / Contemporary R&B
An automatic win for A Sombre Dance? That sounds as a harsh statement, but I’ve never connected with Mary J. Blige on even a single song and 72 minutes of that isn’t really inviting, but we’ll see. This one is bubblin’ under on AM.

[Rob]

Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance (1999) / Doom Metal, Symphonic Metal

Vs.



Mary J. Blige – No More Drama (2001) / Contemporary R&B

Like Young Yeezy a while a back, my first reaction to this is that in contradiction to expectations this wasn’t all that bad. In fact, I go further and say that it is quite good. Not so good that it threatens A Sombre Dance for the win, but there is stuff to enjoy. Especially the first half is almost free of filler. Family Affair, easily the most famous track here, seems to have grown on me, but even before that Blige starts with a bang on Love. The title track is also worth a special mention.

Sadly, this is still an R&B album made between 1990 and 2010, which like hip-hop albums means it is almost guaranteed to be too long; a trend I never understood. Surely I know quite a few great albums of 72 minutes or even longer, but precisely because it is a trend for R&B you know the length is not likely caused by artistic reasons. There comes a point where Blige’s songs blend in to one another. Her vocal performances don’t lessen, but there isn’t anything left to say. For someone as me, who isn’t really beat-focused in music, the samey beats that go on incessantly become grating after a while. By the time we reach the end I’m ready for it to be over already. That really spoils the good mood that the first half set.

I actually wonder if this album would have been a stone cold classic if it was 45 minutes, with just the best songs on it. In fact, many beloved R&B and hip hop stars of the period lack an album in the top AM 1000. Maybe the bloat makes them hard to revisit except for the biggest of fans?

Winner: Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance

Next up:
Within Temptation & The Metropole Orchestra – Black Symphony / Symphonic Metal
In an attempt to finally remove Estatic Fear from this series Random.org decided to fight it with an album in the same genre. And from Dutch soil even! My complaints about the length of No More Drama are also openly mocked, as this album is 122 minutes long! However, as it is a live album it probably works harder for those two hours.

[IllumiThottie]

Sadly, this is still an R&B album made between 1990 and 2010, which like hip-hop albums means it is almost guaranteed to be too long; a trend I never understood. Surely I know quite a few great albums of 72 minutes or even longer, but precisely because it is a trend for R&B you know the length is not likely caused by artistic reasons.

I agree this a trend I noticed too, except I think it starts more in the late 80s, and I'd say it actually applies a bit to other genres. Before then, you could expect most albums under 40 mins, and even double albums could be less than 70. But I guess with the introduction of the cassette tape artists felt less constrained and then started adding bonus tracks cassette versions of albums. And the adoption of the CD just exacerbated those effects. Rap is definitely the genre worst affected, and it's particularly egregious in 1997 when both Biggie and Wu-Tang decided to release ridiculously overlong double albums, a trend I fully blame on Tupac. Digital releases seemed to bring a much-needed correction, but now streaming has already ended that.

With Mary J Blige in particular I feel like her being signed to Bad Boy and spending time with Puffy let her pick up some of those tendencies, but My Life I think is still a solid album. In that vein I feel that if Dangerously in Love were like ten tracks instead of 15 it'd actually be really good. But the filler just weighs things down too much.

[Rob]

Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance (1999) / Doom Metal, Symphonic Metal

Vs.



Within Temptation & The Metropole Orchestra (2008) – Black Symphony / Symphonic Metal

It starts with an Ouverture, because of course it does. As lead singer Sharon den Adel exclaims near the end of the set this is the highpoint of Within Temptation’s 12 year (at the time) existence and everything needs to be as big as possible. Considering that this is symphonic metal and everything sounds already massive in regular form it means that this concert needed to pull out all the stops. There is The Metropole Orchestra and a big choir, all in one of the biggest stadiums in The Netherlands: Ahoy in Rotterdam. Here the two hour running time is warranted, as this concert was meant to be a celebration of everything this popular band achieved at the time; a celebration for band and fans equally. So yes, the Ouverture is the least you can expect and yes, it does have Gregorian chants in it, because of course it does.

However, the Ouverture starts also as bit of a warning to me. I found it a little bit too typical, like an amalgamation of every overture for movies and games every made. Isn’t the band trying a little too hard to be epic, without being creative? Cynics might say that this is true for everything Within Temptation does, which is fair to some extend, but I suspect few could really resist the powerful metal chords and sweeping melodies when Sharon den Adel matches it with her voice. Not many singers can sound so large and so sweet at the same time. The lyrics are standard fantasy nonsense, but as is usual even minor lyrics can seem important if sung right and den Adel has a beguiling sense of earnestness that elevates the material. There are far more creative or deep metal bands out there, symphonic or not, but Within Temptation has Sharon den Adel as a singer and that counts for a lot. So quickly after the Ouverture I found my doubts erased as the concert starts in earnest.

I’m a rather casual enjoyer of the band. I never went beyond the singles, but I like those a lot. I wondered how a full-length record would fare, let alone one of two hours, because they only make songs that sound large and that could get tiresome after a while. They do have ballads, but even those aren’t exactly Bill Callahan. The contrast with Estatic Fear’s A Sombre Dance is interesting, as they are a lot more varied in sound and know when to turn things down. Still, I was surprised to find myself on board for the whole ride of Black Symphony. There’s a real drive here and you get the sense that everyone is having a good time. As much as I want to let go of A Sombre Dance by now, I can’t give the win to Black Symphony. For anyone but the biggest of fans this album is really a one-time only deal and I’d rather revisit them on their studio albums, if only for the length. For once though I’d enjoyed being there in Ahoy – from the comfort of my living room – as the band where experiencing their career highpoint. I might even have secretly cheered along with the fans at times.

Winner: Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance

Next up:
Grizzly Bear – Painted Ruins (2017) / Neo-Psychedelia, Art Rock
An album bubblin’ under on Acclaimed Music. Some call it the band’s swan song, but officially the group is on hiatus. Anyway, this is a band I still only have a passing familiarity with and wanted to get into, so it’s nice to get it here.

[Rob]

Estatic Fear – A Sombre Dance (1999) / Doom Metal, Symphonic Metal

Vs.



Grizzly Bear – Painted Ruins (2017) / Neo-Psychedelia, Art Rock

Painted Ruins came out in 2017, when I did my first of the A Taste of MegaCritic highlights playlists. I remember that I thought this album’s Three Rings was a stand-out of that playlist, but somehow I never went on to listen to the album as a whole and I don’t think I even listened to Three Rings since.

Three Rings is still the highlight for me, though Glass Hillside comes close. More importantly, the album lives up to that one song. Like I said before I only have a very passing familiarity with Grizzly Bear – basically only Two Weeks and a stray song here and there – so I didn’t completely know what they are all about. Basically they are a band with folk leanings, but with a more studio bound sound than that implies. The warmth, fullness and clarity of their music reminds me of Fleet Foxes (and Grizzly Bear’s Chris Bear worked with that group on their 2020 effort Shore), but instead of the pastoral and mystical feel of that band Grizzly Bear leans more towards a sixties type of psychedelia.

Painted Ruins is not an album to take in fully in just one sitting. I barely took note of the lyrics yet for example. The sound is very rich and layered and requires multiple listens to reveal itself fully, I expect. Still, it is immediately noticeable how consistent this record is. It never lulls or feels like there is any filler. Ideal for this game, where I can now finally let go of A Sombre Dance (which is great and you should check it out) and see if I get much time in in the ruins of the grizzly bear.

Winner: Grizzly Bear – Painted Ruins

Next up:
First Fragment – Gloire éternelle (2021) / Technical Death Metal, Neoclassical Metal
This might as well happen now that I’ve abandoned Estatic Fear: forsaking symphonic doom metal for neoclassical technical death metal. One day I’ll get to an album that has all the metals, which is a lot indeed. This one is from Canada, just so you know.

[Rob]

Grizzly Bear – Painted Ruins (2017) / Neo-Psychedelia, Art Rock

Vs.



First Fragment – Gloire éternelle (2021) / Technical Death Metal, Neoclassical Metal

Metal can be made everywhere of course, but when I think of the genre I think of the UK, any Scandinavian country yet especially Sweden or Japan for the more out-there stuff. I don’t think of Canada, which may well be my fault. As far as I know, First Fragment is the first Canadian metal band I listened to. What do they bring to the genre? The flamenco! No, seriously, there is a surprising amount of flamenco on this album. Sure, the majority of the runtime is still the speedy guitar solos and grunting vocals that genre fans know and love, but every now and then it is time to honor Spanish folklore music.

This plays out in a more straightforward manner than you might guess. If you’ve dabbled even a little in metal you might have come across some songs that start very quiet, with just an acoustic guitar or something, before starting the all-out instrumental assault that has been the bane of parents and neighbors for decades. That’s basically how the flamenco works on Gloire éternelle: an attractive and captivating calm before the raging storm. It works, even if it feels a little like a gimmick of the band to distinguish themselves. Perhaps there are flamenco influences in the metal parts too, but frankly the brutal instrumental onslaught and wailing vocals obscure this to my untrained (on flamenco) ears. Having said that, there is one 5 minute track here called Sonata en Mi Mineur that’s all flamenco plus a coda with nature sounds. It’s good flamenco and a nice quiet spot in the middle of the album. Directly after it Ataraxie immediately delivers metal at it’s most hardcore so beware.

Overall this is the kind of album I can definitely appreciate, without particularly feeling a strong connection to it. The metal is played very well and there is a rush in the fastest parts, of which there are many. Still, I prefer the genre when it’s more symphonic, atmospheric or unabashedly fist-bumping than this. Here I think the appreciation rests for a large part on the technical brilliance of the performance and at least to me less on the expression. Grunting will also never be my thing. It’s a fine album overall and if you are fond of the genre than you should give it a listen, but for now I’m happy to call this a one and done.

Next up:
Evan Parker – 50th Birthday Concert (1994) / European Free Jazz
We can’t go five albums without jazz of course. I also seem to be getting a lot of long stuff lately, as this runs 83 minutes. It is not on Spotify, but I can find a playlist of it on YouTube – in the wrong order, so I have to pay attention to that. It’s bubblin’ under on AM.

[Rob]

Grizzly Bear – Painted Ruins (2017) / Neo-Psychedelia, Art Rock

Vs.



Evan Parker – 50th Birthday Concert (1994) / European Free Jazz

Happy birthday, Evan Parker! His actual birthday is April 5th, but Random.org isn’t good at timing, or else we would be in time for Parker’s 80th birthday and this concert’s 30th! It was not to be.

50 tends to be seen as a milestone age and as such various cultures have varying customs to celebrate this. As far as I’m aware of none of these traditions include subjecting your loved ones to free improvisation jazz. Evan Parker clearly follows his own plan, as actually releasing the results of your 50th anniversary on an album is unusual too. Are there more artists who did this? The closest I’m aware of is the 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration for and including Bob Dylan, where the 30 refers to the years Dylan was releasing music and not his age.

For his own party Parker gathered some musicians he has played with frequently. The first two songs, good for 45 minutes of music, are done with Alexander von Schlippenbach on piano and Paul Lovens on percussion, while the last three songs (about 40 minutes in total) are with bass player Barry Guy and percussionist Paul Lytton. Parker himself is on sax. That this isn’t going to be a dance party is clear from minute one: this is real improvisational jazz, so fans of melody or easily discernible structures beware.

I was beware myself as it took a while to set my mind to this. There are times when I’m certainly in for very free jazz, but hot summer days with long working hours are generally not among them. This is very much autumn/ winter material for me, especially with a length of 83 minutes. I’m saying this to basically explain that my heart and mind where not fully into this, yet I didn’t want to pause this project any further either. I struggled quite a bit in accepting the Schlippenbach/ Lovens collaborations, but strangely found myself appreciating (if not quite enjoying) the Guy/ Lytton set. It’s hard to explain why, because these are not particularly easy on the ear. I guess that even with tough improvisational music there are forms I relate to stronger than other forms. The most I can say about it is that the last three songs felt more richly textured to me, more raw. I’m afraid that’s the maximum extent of my free jazz description talents go.

I’m not in any hurry to hear this again, though, even if it is probably a grower (which Painted Ruins hasn’t particularly proven to be). There is a time for 83 minute free improvisation, but it just isn’t this time.

Winner: Grizzly Bear – Painted Ruins

Next up:
Daniel Carter, William Parker & Matthew Shipp – Seraphic Light: Live at Tufts University (2018) / Avant-Garde Jazz
… Is this a joke? Another live, improvised jazz album just after I said that my mind is elsewhere at the moment? The last name of one of these guys is even Parker… At least this is about half an hour shorter.

[Rob]

Grizzly Bear – Painted Ruins (2017) / Neo-Psychedelia, Art Rock

Vs.



Daniel Carter, William Parker & Matthew Shipp – Seraphic Light: Live at Tufts University (2018) / Avant-Garde Jazz

I don’t know who decides to call certain types of jazz avant-garde, nor why, but I do expect an album under that description to be inaccessible and maybe even a little unpleasant. Seraphic Light is not that. In fact, among the jazz albums I have heard so far this one seems rather approachable. It’s even relatively melodic. There are moments of turmoil and high drama in the music, but even that is easy to relate to.

Above all I found this a very soulful concert. Maybe I’m in a better mood than I was when listening to the previous entry, but I was along for the whole ride with this one. There are three compositions here, simply named Seraphic Light part 1, 2 and 3. Interestingly, the first two are basically one 42 minute piece, without a break. Part 3 is separate, despite sharing a title. It’s also far more mellow and at 13 minutes the shortest track. It sounds like a coda to me, with the epic first two parts as the main course.

Since the group does not have a formal name and the credit goes to all three equally you’d expect that there is no clear leader in the group. Maybe not, but bass player William Parker seems to get less of a limelight than pianist Matthew Shipp and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter (on clarinet, flute, trumpet and various types of sax), who do not really solo much, but together seem to weave the complex melodies. It’s a good listen, with variety and emotional depth and perhaps a more wholesome affair than the other thing Tufts University is most known for: a yearly naked run.

Winner: Daniel Carter, William Parker & Matthew Shipp – Seraphic Light: Live at Tufts University

Next up:
Ray Charles – The Genius of Ray Charles (1959) / Vocal Jazz, Soul
Jazz again, technically, but clearly something else than the previous two entries. I never really thought about it before, but I don’t think I actually heard all that much Ray Charles music and even then only his biggest songs; certainly no albums. According to Acclaimed Music this is a big one: with a ranking at #1135 it is his second highest rated album.

[Rob]

This topic definitely isn't dead, but besides the Biggest Fan Top 100 I am very busy relistening to a lot of songs for the All-Time Poll. This will resume after I finished my list.

[Rob]

Daniel Carter, William Parker & Matthew Shipp – Seraphic Light: Live at Tufts University (2018) / Avant-Garde Jazz

Vs.



Ray Charles – The Genius of Ray Charles (1959) / Vocal Jazz, Soul

Ray Charles started his career with an album named The Great Ray Charles. That’s immediately a boast in the title. It would prove tame, because quickly he (or his marketing team) started to use the word Genius frequently. In total, Charles has released seven studio albums with the word “genius” in the title (I count the obscure Genio del Blues; it’s just him letting know what’s what in a foreign language). There are also several archival releases, compilations and EP’s to use the word. I never could stand how full Kanye West was of himself, but as far as album titles go he only called one of them Yeezus and didn’t push it further. Ray Charles may not have been as awful as Kanye, but he sure has him beat in ego on the title front. Also, doesn’t calling your album Genius & Friends feel like a back-handed compliment to the friends?

So when starting an album called The Genius of Ray Charles either your expectations or your skepticism will be sky high, depending on your character. As for me, the very second opening track Let the Good Times Roll started I knew I was in good hands. I mean “the very second” literally, because from the very first note this album is firing on all cylinders. Sure, Let the Good Times Roll is a energetic track by it’s very nature, but Charles seems dedicated in creating the ultimate version and he may very well have succeeded. The first half of the record also keeps this up, with even the ballads having a lot of fire. The second half is another matter. Whereas on the A-side Charles was accompanied by a horn section, the B-side has a string section, as well as a choir that mostly goes “Ooooh” in the background. It’s a lot slower and I’m glad Charles didn’t mix both sides.

My tastes are far more aligned with the first half. It’s just so full of energy that I couldn’t keep sitting still. When It Had to Be You finished, the transition to Alexander’s Ragtime Band was so seamless that I thought for a few seconds he was just kicking up the previous song a notch. His singing and piano work are incredible. In contrast, the B-side is more tame. These are all still good renditions of standards (there are no Charles originals on this record), but as I already noticed from his singles I prefer party Charles over ballad Charles. Regardless, whether you call this genius or not, this is an excellent album, that’s easy to recommend to anyone who likes vocal jazz or soul.
Winner: Ray Charles – The Genius of Ray Charles

Next up:
Gram Parsons – Grievous Angel (1974) / Country Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Country
Yet another AM approved album, this time one with a very high placement on the All-Time Album List, at #224! I know I’ve heard it at least once before, but am not overly familiar with it. I love some of these songs, so it will be nice to revisit.

[Rob]

Ray Charles – The Genius of Ray Charles (1959) / Vocal Jazz, Soul

Vs.



Gram Parsons – Grievous Angel (1974) / Country Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Country

So hear we are, with the album that has the highest ranking on Acclaimed Music to appear here yet, beating out Os Mutantes. With a placement at #224, it may be a clear critical favorite, but it has never really reached the audiences at large. It wasn’t a seller in its time and on Spotify its streams are far below what is expected for a classic. For the record, Os Mutantes did even worse on that front, but that’s a very strange, inaccessible album in a language that has the same reach as English. Grievous Angel though sounds like something almost anyone could enjoy, thanks to its warm and gentle nature.

As I said earlier I’m sure that I have heard this one at least one time before, but the only two songs I’m deeply familiar with are Love Hurts and In My Hour of Darkness, the latter of which upon hearing it again today I now regret not placing in my top 1000 songs (Love Hurts is in). What strikes me most about Parsons is how pure his fusion of rock, country and folk is. You can basically pinpoint these genres in any of these songs, yet none of those genres feel watered down. Parsons is mostly thought of as a country artist, but none of the country music of the early seventies that I know sounds like this. This isn’t George Jones and neither is it outlaw country. Apparently Parsons is sometimes being credited for inventing or at least reinventing the vague genre of alt-country. It is impossible to imagine a band like Wilco without this, even if I have never heard anything by Wilco that matches the naked emotionality of Parsons here.

That’s not to say that this is an album awash in upsetting emotions. This is no primal scream or announcement of his coming death and it is unsentimental. Parsons just sounds like a gentle soul, opening up through melodious music and understated poetry. Apparently he was in a bad state recording this album (and he would die four months before its release) and deeply unprepared, which is why it has several covers (including his own Hickory Wind, which he did with The Byrds) and a live medley that isn’t really a medley and wasn’t recorded live. Yet despite this all it doesn’t sound even remotely unhinged. Emmylou Harris, who arranged some of the songs, was an important support to get this done and she provides backing vocals on all but one track (she was supposed to be credited along Parsons on the album cover, but Parsons’ widow vetoed against this). I could imagine this album being sad and lonely without Harris. With her friendly voice on the album it ends up sounding resilient, even if it didn’t matter in the long run… Or the short one, for that matter.

I’d love to have spend more time with Ray Charles’ fun album, but he is really outclassed here. Being a genius only gets you so far.

Winner: Gram Parsons – Grievous Angel

Up next:
The Band – The Band (1969) / Roots Rock, Folk Rock, Country Rock
Records don’t last long here, as The Band immediately replaces Grievous Angels as the highest AM ranked album to appear here. That’s right, a top 100 album, found at #57! This is one I’m quite familiar with, but I am not sure in advance whether I like it more than Grievous Angel. Only one way to find out.

[Rob]

On a only tangentially related note: yesterday I saw the new thriller Strange Darling which prominently features the song Love Hurts. One character ominously tells another something like: "Whenever in the future you hear this song you will always think of me." Now, the version used in the film is a new recording by the film's composer Z Berg in a duet with Keith Carradine, but they staid very close to the Parsons/ Harris rendition (and definitely not Nazareth or even The Everly Brothers). The movie's character was right: I did very much think of the film when Love Hurts came on during Grievous Angel.

[Rob]

Gram Parsons – Grievous Angel (1974) / Country Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Country

Vs.



The Band – The Band (1969) / Roots Rock, Folk Rock, Country Rock

Don’t you just love it if an album sounds like it’s cover art? That is if you like said cover art of course; otherwise its better off sounding like something else. The Band, from here on out named Self-titled in this review, sounds exactly like what it looks like: sepia-tinted with a brown-red finish. You can smell the wood on this record. It belongs to old times, despite being very much a rock album. It’s one of the most American things of all time, regardless of being made mostly by Canadians. It is nostalgic, warm and wise, yet too lived-in and experienced to be nostalgic. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that the cover art is a masterpiece, but the album it contains is.

I frequently feel that the appreciation of The Band is on the way out. They’ll be respected for a long time to come for sure, but as we move away from the sixties and seventies and more of it’s artists have to make way for newer entries to the canon there seems to be less room for The Band. Their albums seem to make increasingly fewer appearances on All-Time lists and I think the top 100 spot for the Self-titled will not hold. In a way it makes sense, as this album isn’t very 2024. At the same time, Americana still has a strong audience and many records in that style are still released and Self-titled may be the quintessential outing of the form. It’s certainly old-fashioned, but in a timeless way. It feels more relevant to these times to me than a lot of the psychedelic pop and rock that people think about first when they think of the period.

Self-titled is still here though, so we can enjoy it’s special charms. It’s kind of interesting that Music from Big Pink divided song writing duties from track to track, while Self-titled is completely written by Robbie Robertson, although assisted on a couple tracks by others, but this doesn’t mean it feels any less like a collaborative effort. There is something about the way this group plays together that exudes a warmth and a closeness that is unique. It’s a rare rock record where I’m very aware of each instrument at all times, as if each has it’s own personality and character. The group may afterwards only have been able to replicate this sound somewhat on the underrated Northern Cross – Southern Lights and The Last Waltz, but we should be appreciative of the little we got. A special shout-out needs to be made to Up On Cripple Creek, a top 50 song for me since I first heard it and one of the great love songs. Few woman would probably like to be called “a drunkards dream if I ever did see one”, but leave it to Levon Helm to make it sound like one of the greatest compliments ever given.

This album is a good demonstration on how this game really works for me. It gave me an excuse to revisit an old favorite, which is always nice. At the same time, despite preferring it over Grievous Angel by some margin, I will give the win to the latter, as in the end it is about which album I want to dive deeper into, which here is the one I’m not as familiar with.

Winner: Gram Parsons – Grievous Angel

Up next:
Mary Margaret O’Hara – Miss America (1988) / Singer-Songwriter
We remain with AM approved picks, as this on ranks at #1412; which is lower than the previous three, but still impressive. I’m excited by this pick, as this is one I’ve been meaning to check out for some time now.

[Rob]

Gram Parsons – Grievous Angel (1974) / Country Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Country

Vs.



Mary Margaret O’Hara – Miss America (1988) / Singer-Songwriter

If you ever heard of Miss America by Mary Margaret O’Hara you may have heard that it is an anomaly of sorts: a genre-defying debut by an artist who would never record a studio album again. The story is made all the more curious because this isn’t one of those cases where an artist makes one or two albums and then gives up and leaves the business. O’Hara did go on to release a Christmas EP in 1991 and a film soundtrack in 2002, for the obscure indie film Apartment Hunting, in which she plays a role. She recorded songs for various tribute albums, did backing vocals for a lot of artists (including Morrissey, Neko Case and This Mortal Coil) and appeared on stage with the likes of R.E.M. and Tom Waits. She seems to have done everything in music except make another studio album.

That is what makes this record all the stranger, since there is no follow-up. It was made on and off from 1983 until 1988, with delays caused by the studio and the producers assigned to the recording against O’Hara’s will. When you listen to it you’ll notice quickly that none of the music has anything to do with 1983, 1988 or the eighties in totality. It is a curious amalgamation between older genres like folk, the blues and especially a curious marriage between country and jazz. The spacious atmosphere is sometimes reminiscent of The Trinity Sessions by Cowboy Junkies, but the music is far more complex and the singing by O’Hara is something else entirely. The choice by RateYourMusic to file this under Singer-Songwriter may just be a way of throwing in the genre-towel and just saying that “yes, she sings and writes her own songs”.

As great as the atmosphere here is (and the guitar work by eventual co-producer Michael Brook needs a mention as well) the thing that most stands out is the voice. Quite a lot may remind you of traditional vocal jazz artists, but with a more earthy twang. At other times she suddenly goes into a manic sort of rap. When she does this for the first time on second track Year in Song it feels like the whole album shakes up. All bets are off by then and there emerges a sense that this is a singer who really feels her way through the songs, deciding on emotions and delivery in the moment. Whether this is how it worked is doubtable, but that is what it feels like. As such, this is an album that even in its many quiet moments has a certain intensity, like it breathes at the same time as you are listening to it.

A remarkable work that demands more listens. Grievous Angel is a grower and I don’t like seeing it go, but Miss America is really seeking that attention.

Winner: Mary Margaret O’Hara – Miss America

Next up:
Nico – Chelsea Girl (1967) / Chamber Folk
Looks like things are not going to be any more normal next time. It’s also yet another acclaimed album with a ranking at #1609. I’ve heard this one before, but am not as deeply familiar with it as for example The Band recently.

[Rob]

Mary Margaret O’Hara – Miss America (1988) / Singer-Songwriter

Vs.



Nico – Chelsea Girl (1967) / Chamber Folk

There was a proliferation of female folk singers in the sixties, one of the few genres of the era that women had a high presence in. Many of the more famous names of the era had sweet and clear voices, like Joan Baez, Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention or Shirley Collins. There was also today’s album, Chelsea Girl, starring Nico, a singer whose voice will never be confused with those of Baez, Denny, Collins or anyone in the genre I can think of in that period. It’s a cold voice, in a lower register, with a heavy German accent. She sings almost entirely in a flat and deadpan way. It’s a voice unsuited for folk; or at least folk in the sixties mold. Chelsea Girl is also one of the best folk albums of the sixties and of all time.

That voice shouldn’t work in this context. One of the songs here, These Days, ranks safely in my top 1000 of all time. It was written by a then very young Jackson Browne, before his own recording career. Nico was the first to record it, but since then many artists have covered it. Nico’s was certainly not the first I heard and I liked several versions. Yet why is her version so clearly the best for me? Certainly the instrumentation and production are beautiful here, but it is also a very emotional song, so how come I fall for the version with the most deadpan delivery? I think the key to Nico here is that the emotion is there, but very subtle. On the whole album she sounds monotonous if you don’t pay attention, but once you really listen closely you’ll notice the melancholy of These Days, a warmth on The Fairest of the Seasons, love on I’ll Keep It With Mine and even a certain playfulness on Chelsea Girls. Yet all of these are on the lowest register possible. The great music may carry you through, but the attentive ear will find the depths. Perhaps the most surprising moment is on It Was a Pleasure Then, when for a while Nico has to sing in a wordless, ethereal way, evoking a sort of spiritual world. You’d think it be beyond her strengths as a singer, but she pulls it off.

There would be more to Nico, as the future would teach us. Chelsea Girl, like her famous contribution to The Velvet Underground & Nico album, is really an album made by men, with most of the songs here written by Jackson Browne, John Cale and/ or Lou Reed, with also a song by Dylan and one by Tim Hardin. The whole thing was produced by Tom Wilson. Her next few albums would be more personal, while also moving into the avant-garde and the altogether weird. Because those album are truly Nico’s own it would be possible to regard Chelsea Girl as less personal and therefor less good. At the same time, if these men would have chosen any other singer of the era it wouldn’t have been the same. There is something too singular, too unusual to Nico’s delivery. I can imagine it being an acquired taste, but open up to it and it is a thing of beauty.

Miss America vs. Chelsea Girl is cruelty at its finest. I’ll go with new discovery Miss America, but will regret not getting to spend more time with Chelsea Girl for sure.

Winner: Mary Margaret O’Hara – Miss America

Next up:
Public Image Ltd. – Public Image (1978) / Post-Punk, Art-Punk
Yet another ranked album, this one at #2124. An influential early post-punk album of a band I’ve only a passing familiarity with.