#593 George Michael - Faith

In June 1987 George Michael released the song "I Want Your Sex" and turn the music world on it's head. Parents were outraged by the song and called for it's ban, radio stations would only play it after a certain time at night. Of course, for a teenager, that kind of controversy made me want to hear the song more. The song on it's own is a great song but the album "Faith" is amazing. It is a great 80's Pop/Funk/R&B album. Lots of different elements and even when it slows down for a couple love songs you don't lose interest. Great album from start to finish!




The Album spawned 7 hit singles:

"I want Your Sex"

"Faith"

"Hard Day"

"Father Figure"

"One More Try"

"Monkey"

"Kissing a Fool"

Tomorrow's Album #390 The Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music From the Penguin Cafe

#796 Leftfield - Leftism

I think I have established my feelings on electronica music from previous albums that I have listened to. This album pretty much re-enforces my view on the genre. It is fun to listen to but becomes repetitive after a few songs. The saving grace for this album was that there is singing on many of the songs, which helps to make the album more interesting and easier to listen to than song after song of electronic music.







"Open Up"

 Tomorrow's Album #George Michael - Faith

#1011 Christina Aguilera - Back to Basics

Christina Aguilera has an amazing voice. Probably the best of the 90's pop singers that became famous. Her range is amazing. Even though it really isn't my style of music I still enjoyed the album and thought it was really good. It was very unique in the way that she took the sounds and style of music from the 20's - 40's and incorporated it into current pop music hits.








"Ain't No Other Man"

"Candyman"

 Tomorrow's Album #796 Leftfield - Leftism

#1049 White Denim - d

White Denim is a band out of Austin Texas, that got their start playing a yearly music festival in Austin called South by South-west (SXSW). Every year the festival goes for 10 days and features film and music. The Music portion lasts for 7 of the 10 days and over 2000 bands play at various locations through-out the city. One day I would like to attend the festival, especially since Blue October, also from the Austin area, often perform.

As for this band and the album I thought it was pretty good. The band seems to be more of the Southern rock style, incorporating some great instrumentation.



"Drug"

Tomorrow's Album #1011 Christina Aguilera - Back to Basics

#994 The Beta Band - Heroes to Zeros

The Beta Band are a "Folktronic" band from Scotland. There was a couple of good songs on the album, which ended up being their last. Despite their success and growing popularity they were only able to keep it together for 3 albums.










"Lion Thief"

Tomorrow's Album #1049 White Denim - d

#979 Cee-Lo Green - Cee-Lo Green... Is the Soul Machine

For a rap album it was alright, but only because it had a lot of R&B elements and wasn't a straight up rap album.

CeeLo is a great example of a person who was able to market themselves and diversify into a lot of different areas of the entertainment industry. After he hit success with the song "Crazy" with Gnarls Barkley, he landed a job on the voice, recorded more music and other acting jobs.






Tomorrow's Album #994 The Beta Band - Heroes to Zeros

#522 Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II

So apparently Meat Puppets are a Country-Punk band. Which, I know this will surprise everyone, is two genres that do not go together, and for me is just only slightly better than maybe Country-rap. Boy I hope that doesn't actually exist.









"Lake of Fire" - best song on the album. I was surprised to find out that it is a Meat Puppets song, since I have heard Nirvana perform it before and assumed it was theirs.

 Tomorrow's Album #979 Cee-Lo Green - Cee-Lo Green... Is the Soul Machine

#520 Hanoi Rocks - Back to the Mystery City

An 80's glam rock hair band from Finland, what could be better? Well in the case of Hanoi Rocks, pretty much anything. I like a lot of 80's hair bands; Whitesnake, Poison, Ratt, Motley Crue, Guns N Roses, Skid Row and others but these guys are just terrible. I'm pretty sure it was a joke that they included the album on the list of 1001.








"Malibu Beach Nightmare"

Tomorrow's Album #522 Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II

#551 Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

This album was huge when it came out in '85. It sold almost 20 million albums and spawned 4 huge hit singles. Overall it was a really good 80's rock album. What is always surprising to me is when bands achieve this kind of  success, things often fall apart for them. In the case of Dire Straits, it would be 6 years before they recorded another album, and even though it sold almost 15 million copies, it would end up being the bands last.







"So Far Away"

"Money For Nothing"

"Brothers in Arms"

"Walk of Life"

Tomorrow's Album #529 Hanoi Rocks - Back to the Mystery City

#1028 Portishead - Third

I remember listening to Portishead's Dummy album years ago when I first started this blog. I had never heard the band before then and I was blown away by the album, it ended up in music library and I have listened to it many time since.

This album comes 11 years after they released Dummy, and is now been out for 10 years. The band is obviously not worried about releasing large quantities of music. It is all about the quality and it shows on this album.

The style is very different than Dummy, much more mellow, and when I listened to it I got the impression that the band took the 11 years making sure each song is perfect. The songs are full of little subtleties, the lyrics are engaging and vocals still have a very ethereal quality that just pulls you in. It is definitely an album that you have to actively listen to, and it is so worth it. This album will be joining Dummy in my music library for sure!

"Machine Gun"

"Plastic"

Tomorrow's Album #551 Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

#1046 The Black Keys - Brothers

This is a really good album by a great band. Their music is really stripped down rock, with just two members playing guitar and drums. A style The White Stripes made popular about 4 years earlier. The music is very upbeat, catchy basic rock. A pleasure to listen to from start to finish.









"Tighten Up"

"Sinister Kid"

Tomorrow's Album #1028 Portishead - Third

#777 Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

The band only ever had marginal success with one song, that happens to be on this album. Overall the album was pretty good but nothing amazing, I have heard better alt-rock bands for sure.











"Cut Your Hair"

Tomorrow's Album #1046 The Black Keys - Brothers

#603 REM - Document

A long time ago, when I was a kid, 7-11 had a promotion when you bought a Slurpee. At the time Slurpees came in a paper cup, and underneath the cup, you removed a cardboard holder, and there was a collectible shiny plastic disc with a band on it. I remember trying to collect them all, and one of the bands was R.E.M.  

At the time I had no idea who R.E.M were but would eventually come to love their music. The album that introduced me to the band was Green, with their huge hits Stand and Orange Crush. I never did go back and listen to any of their older albums, including this one. Document is a pretty good album, and a great example of R.E.M.

"It's The End of The World (As We Know It)"

"The One I Love"

Tomorrow's Album #777 Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

New Music: Barenaked Ladies - Fake Nudes & Morrissey - Low in High School

I have liked the Barenaked Ladies for a long time now. I don't think that the band is as good as it once was, or since fellow lead singer Steven Page left the band a number of years ago. This album starts out pretty strong. The first 5 songs, minus "Invisible Fences", are really good. The rest of the album is just average. The big problem that I have with it is since Steven Page left the band, more and more songs on each album are being written and sung by Kevin Hearn or Jim Creeggan. On this album there are 7 of the 14 songs by them and they just aren't very good. The lyrics are not as good as what Ed Robertson writes and they just can't sing very well. In my opinion the band just needs to have Ed write and sing the songs.


"Canada Dry" - love the Canada references

"Bringing it Home"

"Lookin' Up"

A couple months ago I listened to my first full Morrissey album, and I really liked it. I then started to listening to his other albums and to some Smith's albums. I kind of feel like his music is an acquired taste and today's new album is more of the same. I really like it but the songs are a little bit odd and I'm not sure what the subject matter in a few of them, but oh well they are still good. Anyone who hasn't listened to him before I say give this album a shot, and then go back and listen to his older stuff, it's quite good.





"My Love, I'd Do Anything For You"

"Spent the Day in Bed"

"I Wish You Lonely"

#1037 The XX - XX

A couple months ago I found a band on Apple Music called Oh Wonder. I gave their album a listen and really liked the first couple songs. It was pretty up beat and catchy. The singing was different than conventional however. The band consists of a male and a female singer and instead of singing different parts of the song or one of them backing up the other they both sing the entire song, at the same time. At first it was interesting way of constructing a song but after a few songs it got kind of annoying. Now I'm not sure which band, Oh Wonder or The XX formed first but The XX follows the same song style, and once again the first couple songs were really pretty good, but then I just got tired of it.


"VCR" - This is one of the songs where they sing different parts of the song

 Tomorrow's Album #603 REM - Document

#523 Minor Threat - Out of Step

So this was a pretty good punk album. Once again the songs are short and sweet. The band only lasted 3 years and they only released one full album but one of their songs, "Straight Edge" started the Straight Edge Movement. Essentially the movement encourages people that follow it to avoid using anything that might "mess up" your body. So people that follow the movement avoid alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. Many will also avoid caffeine, prescription drugs and many are vegan.






"It Follows"

Tomorrow's Album #1037 The XX - XX

#677 Pixies - Bossanova

I've like the Pixies since I first heard the song "Wave of Mutilation" in the movie Pump Up The Volume. It is just such a great song, and it really motivated me to check out more of their music. Now I won't say that I love their albums but it is good enough have in my music library. The thing that I like most about the band is that their music is very unique. It is like a combination of surfer and punk music with great lyrics.







"Velouria"

"Is She Weird"

Tomorrow's Album #523 Minor Threat - Out of Step

#366 Billy Joel - The Stranger

Billy Joel is one of the most accomplished artists in the music business, ever. He has had 33 Top 40 hits, been nominate for 23 Grammy awards and won 6 times. He is the 6th best selling artist of all time and the 3rd best selling solo artist of all time selling more than 150 million albums during his career.

This album was Joel's 5th album released,  and it reached #2 in the US. It also was the start of 8 straight albums in the top 10 in the US, including 4 #1 albums. This guys knows how to write great songs and he is one heck of a piano player. Never having listened to the album I was surprised at how good it was and that 5 of the 8 songs were hits that I had heard previously. Really worth the listen.

"Moving Out"

"Just the Way You Are"

"Only the Good Die Young"

"She's Always A Women"

Tomorrow's Album #677 Pixies - Bossanova

#667 Digital Underground - Sex Packets

Although Rap/Hip-Hop is not even close to the top of my favorite music genres, some of it I can tolerate. This is one of those albums I can tolerate. I have heard the album in the past and like a couple of the songs, three to be exact. The reason that I like the album and could listen to it all the way through, is because it is what I would call "mellow" rap. It is just kind of fun, nothing vulgar or offensive. It sounds like the artists are just enjoying making the album. It was easy listening instead of being an assault like most rap albums.





"Doowutchyalike"

Tomorrow's Album #366 Billy Joel - The Stranger

#411 Muddy Waters - Hard Again

Muddy Waters, the name of a blues guitar player, not the name of the band, like I had originally thought, made some pretty good blues. I really like the album. It is filled with some great blues and Rock and Roll crossover.










"Mannish Boy"

Tomorrow's Album #667 Digital Underground - Sex Packets