What's that on the player?

[Robbo]

Hello there,

This thread deals with what music members of the forum are listening to at the moment!

Thought I would start off this thread with one mellow album and another that is... not so mellow!


Steely Dan - Gaucho



Sophisticated jazzy rock and pop albums became uncool in the aftermath of the 1980's but Gaucho (1980) stands out due to the sheer quality of the songs and the relatively unintrusive but beautifully realised production. The musicianship is first rate - "Glamour Profession" is a highlight IMHO. The album took several years to record and led to the break-up of the band but IMHO it is their finest album. Steely Dan were well known for making good sounding albums and this album has very good sound quality for the era in which it was recorded. The year 2000 remastered CD edition that I use has a warm rich sound. Oddly enough on most Dan releases there is quite a lot of sibilance on lead vocals. On this album some songs (e.g. Babylon Sisters) also have quite a lot of sibilance and occasionally so do the backing vocals but on most of the tracks this doesn't detract too much from the sound quality.


Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Doc at the Radar Station



From experience it seems some people find Captain Beefheart an acquired taste! Of the albums I have heard “Doc at the Radar Station” (1980) is a personal favourite. It is his second last album before he retired from the music business. The album has a very dry atonal sound that may be difficult for listeners to appreciate initially but for myself that changed with time. I suspect many people would need to invest some time to appreciate it if they are not already familiar with his style. The album has many excellent tracks including Ashtray Heart, Sue Egypt, Best Batch Yet, and Sheriff of Hong Kong. BTW “The Best of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band” (2002) isn’t an ideal compilation as it skips the important 1969 to 1972 period but it is still a reasonably good way of getting a sense of his stuff.

[John Traynor]

I've just started to listen to the Best of Joy Division after watching the film 'Control' based on the tragic Life of Ian Curtis, their front man. I never really understood why they were so popular untill I heard the soundtrack and I have to say they are really growing on me. Well worth checking out. I picked up a bargain copy in Golden discs

In general my tastes are all over the place Pixies, Depeche Mode, Snow Patrol, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire even the Pet Shop Boys at some stage!!!  I don't know much about Steely Dan and defenitely don't know Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band but I'll check them out.

[Robbo]

Joy Division



The Best of Joy Division is a good overview of their output and the bonus disc of the Peel Sessions is excellent. It seems to have been carefully remastered as the sound quality on the tracks taken from the two studio albums and singles (disc one) are surprisingly good. An earlier compilation (also selected from their entire studio output) is “Permanent: 1995”. It is a bit longer then the single disc version of The Best of Joy Division but it doesn’t sound as good. I suspect The Best of Joy Division was taken from the 2007 remasters of the studio albums. I haven’t heard them but for anyone getting into the band I would recommend this:



Their debut Unknown Pleasures (1979) is a good album but Closer (1980) is pretty much a classic. It was very influential on 1980s alternative music such as in its use of synthesizers (the analogue variety). Tracks like "A Means to an End" and especially "Decades" are excellent. The 2007 remaster is supposed to have a lot of bonus tracks on a second disc.


Steely Dan



If you are looking for an introduction to Steely Dan I recommend a two CD compilation released in 2000 called “Showbiz Kids: The Steely Dan Story, 1972–1980”. It goes from their early years when they had more of a 70s rock band sound (e.g. Reeling in the Years - used to the detriment of the song by RTE) to arguably their better stuff in the latter part of the 70s which they are most famous for.

[Robbo]

I have been listening to some of Tom Wait’s 70s albums recently - I'm generally less keen on his stuff after 1980 (except Bone Machine and The Black Rider). Here are some opinions of two albums that might be of interest to listeners of Tom Waits especially.

Tom Waits – Small Change



Many regard the album “Small Change” (1976) as his best of the 70s era if not of his entire career. It seems to be his most popular and certainly is a good album with three stand-out tracks: “Tom Traubert's Blues”, “Step Right Up” and “Invitation to the Blues”. The rest of it varies from the good (e.g. “Jitterbug Boy”) to the rather less impressive (e.g. “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart”). The overall impression I get is that Tom was still trying on a new hat with much of this material where his style was still changing even after the fairly transitional album "Nighthawks at the Diner" (1975). He was always something of a skilful actor IMHO and here he is doing a good impression of a drunken down-and-out black-Irish man. This may be pretty controversial with some Waits fans since it is regarded as a classic but I get the impression he didn’t connect with most of the material (with the exception of the best tracks) and in a sense it was more of an effort to recreate an era of the past. Still it is one of his most important albums and much better than the predecessor "Nighthawks at the Diner" or "Blue Valentine" (the follow-up to Foreign Affairs).


Tom Waits - Foreign Affairs



This is my favourite album of his. It was his follow-up to “Small Change” released the following year. Strangely enough it is regarded as one of his weakest albums by his fans but in fairness they must have cloth ears! He basically continues with the style of the previous album but takes it further. The songs generally seem a lot more personal as if making the role he was playing more his own – if it’s fair to say such a thing. There aren’t epics like “Tom Traubert's Blues” and “Invitation to the Blues” but overall it is a better more consistent album than the predecessor IMHO. The songs have a greater subtlety and at times are brilliantly produced such as “Potter's Field” which has fantastic instrumental interludes which create a drama that evokes a film noir atmosphere to such an extent that is almost visual (at least on a good system)! There aren’t any weaknesses on the album but some stand-out tracks are the rather tragic “Burma-Shave”, “Barber Shop” and the title track. The sound quality on the CD version I have is also excellent. It sounds considerably better than the version of Small Change I have (the latter has no release details but bought about 10 years ago) even though I think both albums were recorded in the same studio on two track tape recorders. Foreign Affairs has a richer more detailed sound and the sound quality on the vocals is truly excellent - it's almost as if old ribbon valve vocal mics were used!

[Robbo]

Led Zeppelin's late 70s albums

I like Led Zeppelin although I wouldn’t describe myself as a huge fan, perhaps it’s partly to do with Robert Plant’s singing style. I have been listening to their album “Presence” a lot recently. As far as I know it is one of their least popular albums critically and commercially. After this album they only managed to make one more album “In Through the Out Door” (1979) before they broke up due to John Bonham’s death in 1980. It’s fair to say that they were past their prime as a band on both these albums. Most people found these albums disappointing after their previous work. However, there are a few gems on both. I guess their very best albums are “III” (1970), “IV” (1971) and Physical Graffiti (1974).


Led Zeppelin – In Through the Out Door (1979)



In my own opinion “In Through the Out Door” isn’t a bad album. However, many of the songs lack substance and the production is far too light with excessive synthesiser use. Synthesisers dominate the sound so much more than guitar that many regard it as a sell out but that’s not really fair since their previous heavier albums were huge sellers and a change of style was quite likely to alienate their massive audience. Reputedly guitarist Jimmy Page was largely absent during recording. Of the tracks featured “In the Evening” is one of the best songs they have ever done, and the lengthy track “Carouselambra” has an unusually dark driving sound, vaguely similar in spirit to “Achilles Last Stand” on their previous album. These tracks have a more intense deeper feel to them and have a better balance of guitar and synthesiser than most of the tracks on the album. Of the lighter tracks “Fool in the Rain” stands out (in part for its good use of South American rhythms), as does the closing track “I'm Gonna Crawl”, which revisits in a more mature (resigned) way the common Battle of the Sexes theme Led Zeppelin had often addressed before! This album would have probably been a further influence for rock bands on the switch to synthesisers in the 80s. Unfortunately they didn’t integrate this sort of instrument into their sound as well as The Who – check out “Who Are You” (1978) for comparison.


Led Zeppelin – Presence (1976)



Stylistically “Presence” is a real contrast with “In Through the Out Door”, and arguably the better of the two albums. It is probably the heaviest of their albums - the playing is as aggressive as the heaviest tracks on “Physical Graffiti” but unlike that album there are not any melodic tracks, which is unusual for Led Zeppelin. Perhaps the greatest failing of this album is the lack of developed lyrics. Much of the time Robert Plant sounds like he is just hanging on for the ride, while sounding much more involved on the following album. To an extent most of the songs feel as if they are somewhat undeveloped and the album was reputedly completed in just 17 days! However, this is compensated for because the sheer performance of the songs is exceptional – if some inspiration was lacking the band still sounds like it was at a peak technically. These songs are dynamic in the extreme and tracks like “For Your Life” and “Nobody's Fault but Mine” develop in intensity with a brutal almost mechanical efficiency. For example, an unusual feature is the start-stop rhythms on most or all of the songs which really intensifies the drive of the tracks. The guitar and drums lead the songs so the album really needs to be heard on a full range system with fairly tight bass. Jimmy Page’s guitar work is quite economical and a lot of it is exceptional. John Bonham’s drums are unusually well recorded – tracks like “Hots on for Nowhere” and “For Your Life” really demonstrate the quality of his drumming. From a hi-fi perspective this is clearly the best sounding album Led Zeppelin has made and something of a standard bearer for 70s rock recordings. Notably the album completely lacks the warm hippy vibe that characterises a lot of their work. Songs about love are sacrificed for efficient unaffected rockers and where there is lyrical substance the subject matter is pretty dark and not at all happy. The standout song here is “Achilles Last Stand”, a grim ten minute epic which is perhaps their greatest musical achievement. Other songs that stand out for more than performance quality are “Nobody's Fault but Mine” and the bleak “Tea for One”. Conclusion: a very flawed but rather exceptional hard rock album.

[Robbo]

The Who – The Who Sell Out (1967)



This is an interesting album and probably one of the most unusual concept albums ever made. It is arranged as a radio show with advertising interludes between songs. Some of the advertisements are songs The Who wrote that refer to real brands as also found on the album cover, while others are “found” material advertising radio stations, clubs etc. The use of genuine brands and material by other sources reputedly attracted a lot of legal cases.

This is The Who’s third album release. Their second was “A Quick One” (1966) which is seen as their least impressive 1960s album. It isn’t a bad album. The tracks have a quirky appeal but many are a little lacklustre overall. Standout tracks are “Run, Run, Run” written from the perspective of a stalker - it must be the first heavy rock song; John Entwistle’s “Whiskey Man” which has to be one of the first rock songs about insanity; and “So Sad About Us” which is regarded as one of their best pop songs. The album has an experimental feel with a few novelty-ish songs like “Boris the Spider” and “Cobwebs and Strange” which could be considered one of the first drum solo tracks since it features several very high energy drum solos by Keith Moon. Unlike a lot of tiresome songs based around drum solos (e.g. Cream – Toad, Led Zeppelin – Moby Dick), it doesn’t neglect the music and the solos are brief.



The Who Sell Out builds a lot on the experimentalism of A Quick One. It is a lot more psychedelic. Perhaps the greatest difference is the significant improvement in song quality. Pete Townshend’s song writing was far more sensitive and reflective – his mature style of songwriting took shape with this album. It is also evident that some tracks were more produced than previously, showing The Who’s attempts to come to grips with getting the best out of being in recording studios. They continued to develop in this respect with Tommy (1969) and especially Who’s Next (1971). It probably is an exaggeration to say this is one of the greatest albums of the 60s but it is still an overlooked classic that comes close to that standard at times. The best songs are “Armenia City in the Sky” which is a psychedelic hard rock classic with some amazing instrumental work; “Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand” – a Spanish flavoured acoustic version of the track (a better electric psychedelic version is on “Who’s Missing”); “Tattoo” a brilliant track which demonstrates the changes in Townshend’s writing; “I Can See for Miles” which is the showpiece of the album – an excellent song but perhaps a little overrated by Who fans; and John Entwistle’s “Silas Stingy” which makes great use of classical phrasing and mocking childlike rhyming.

The bonus tracks on the 1995 reissue almost double the length of the original album and for once are very worthwhile. The two best tracks are “Melancholia” which could have been The Who’s “Paint It Black” (!) if it was developed a step further and released; and “Early Morning Cold Taxi” which captures some of the commonplace themes of the album well. Their follow-up album, the classic “Tommy” which finally turned the band into superstars doesn’t really better it in terms of quality. In fact the opposite can be said because in some respects Tommy isn’t quite as original as this album, some of the material especially on the second disc (or last half of the CD) isn’t very strong, and it has a weaker production that lacks power. Even a lot of the key musical motifs of Tommy appeared originally on this album first, e.g. the musical interlude of “Rael”. Concept albums deservedly got a bad reputation in the 1970s. Perhaps the best thing about The Who Sell Out is that it focuses on ordinary everyday consumerism, materialism and youth with humour and intelligence. It is devoid of the indulgence and pomposity that plagued other concept albums (e.g. The Wall) and occasionally even afflicted The Who’s later albums (e.g. Quadrophenia).