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ok heres my 2c worth
For electronic music and unbeatable production try ""Goldfrapp"" Black cherry.. disco beats and lyrics excellent
for a timeless classic off the beaten track try
""Murray Head""... say it aint so.... great songs from a vinyl released in 70's |
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Nov 11, 2007 | 1:18 pm |
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Hard Rock - West, Bruce & Laing's "Why Dontcha". Some of the best playing and singing by Mountain's Leslie West and Cream's Jack Bruce. And the first appearance of the great Jack Bruce song "Out Into The Fields".
Electronica - Solarus's "Crystallized". I am mesmerized by the bass on this. The vocal samples from giallo movies is a bit jarring. Very intense dark ambient/dub.
Singer/songwriter Rock - Reindeer Section's "Son of Evil Reindeer". Each song is better than the other. Also, this album led me to investigate Arab Strap (the band, not the device!).
Dance/Funk - Material's "One Down". A strangely commercial and relatively obscure album by Bill Laswell with Nile Rodgers (Chic), Nona Hendryx (Labelle), Bernard Fowler (various, incl. Rolling Stones and Tackhead) and IMHO, the finest performance by Whitney Houston on record, "Memories" with Archie Shepp on sax. What makes this more amazing is that Whitney was a teenager when she did this.
BTW, I just looked up Nile's entry in Wikipedia . It seems he started out as a teen in the Sesame Street band. 
Jazz - Miles Davis's "Aura". The only great album Miles did after coming out of his 1970's retirement. Invokes Sketches of Spain-era Miles. With John McLaughlin.
I wanted to include a Mogwai album, but it was hard to pick just one. |
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Nov 11, 2007 | 7:46 pm |
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Moderator
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I love Temple of the Dog! That is one awesome album!
I have another sleeper:
Me'Shell Ndegeocello's brilliant Peace Beyond Passion
I can't praise this album enough. Actually I can't praise her enough. Me'Shell is one of the most intense singer/songwriter/musicians out there today.
This is simply one heck of an album. Me'Shell's not afraid of her sexuality and her openness with being a lesbian. The album also contains strong language and controversial titles (that will be censored here). But that's not the only interesting thing about the album. Her sultry voice and the way she utilizes bass and a clean, superb mix are the winners here. This recording is a gem and it'll take you places without any drug.
I am bass lover. And Me'Shell truly loves that instrument.
It was a well needed return to super-intelligent R&B based music.
It's also a strong socio-political statement on the treatment of homosexuals in America,and also the treatment and expectations of the woman in society. It's heavy... and funky.
"Deuteronomy: N***** Man" is a song about black awareness and the love of oneself- not in a sexual way, but to appreciate the beauty of being African.
"One night on a love high we metamorphasized into gigantic black butterflies
And for the first time I saw the god inside
I realized my n**** redefined was the black man divine and he could take me higher
And the divine woman was what the black man desired'
The song "Leviticus: F****t" is a really powerful song. The story of a young man realizing he's gay and getting spurned by his parents and kicked out on the streets at 16 is an attention grabber. He pines for his mother's love but she spurns him with the haunting chorus:
"His mother would pray
Save him, save him, save him from this life"
It's a sad but all too true take on the life of a gay man in a straight world.
It's a powerful tune. And her bass and the overall funkiness of this track is amazing.
In "Mary Magdalene" she expresses he unrequited love for the woman she secretly desires.
"In a harlot's dress you wear the smile of a child with the faith of
Mary Magdalene
Yet you wash the feet of unworthy men
Come and I'll set you free into an endless valley of fruits both sweet and sour
And whatever displeases your palate my kisses will wash away
Stay. If you must dance, dance for me
Blessed are the pure at heart for they shall see god so close your eyes and dream
For the world will blind you and I'll judge not so that I may not be judged
Please give me what I want"
It's heavy, but really great.
Another great tune is her cover of Bill Wither's classic "Who Is He and What Is He to You". As she approaches her lover about her cavorting with another man- you hear her anger and her seriousness as a jilted lover. The anger and and tension is almost tangible.
And the closer, the awesome "Makes Me Wanner Holler" utilizes some of the late Marvin Gaye's lyrics, but it's a lot more than that, as she reflects on her life and the life of her parents and how she will approach her child. It's an intense and honest evaluation of her life.
"my child will one day ask me
what will i be?
as a child i promised myself
i'd never be
like my mother or my father
i would ask myself,
"did he feel so much pain
that it would make him wanna hurt another?"
but there was no excuse
there was no excuse to make up for the pain
that i knew my mother felt
but somewhere my destiny came
that i too became a slave, to my heart
wanting Love so badly
that i'd do anything
no matter the shame"
Pretty powerful huh?
Check out the entire album. You'll not be disappointed. Every tune here is a winner.
What an album cover too! Awesome design! |
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Nov 29, 2007 | 3:47 pm |
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Moderator
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I've got three albums by an amazing artist.
All very different. All excellent.
His name is Doyle Bramhall II
Here are the albums:
Doyle II is the son of a pretty famous and highly regarded bluesman, Doyle Bramhall.
This Doyle not only knows blues and has an incredible voice like his father, but he's one hell of a guitarist and songwriter too. So good in fact, that Eric Clapton heard some tunes from him off his second album, the excellent "Jellycream" and immediately got his permission to cover them on Eric's duet album with B.B. King, "Riding With the King" which Doyle plays on also. Then Doyle became a member of Eric's band and his been on all his tours and albums since then. Doyle's also played with Roger Waters and some other great artists, like Susan Tedeschi and Sheryl Crow and was also Jimmy Vaughn's (brother of Stevie Ray) replacement in The Fabulous Thunderbirds.
Doyle was also a member of the ill-fated Archangels with friend and fellow-musician Charlie Sexton, and former Double Trouble bandmates Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon. But drugs and alcohol abuse quickly brought that potential supergroup to a quick standstill.
I first came across his debut album dbII one day while perusing the isles at the now defunct Tower Records in Manhattan. I saw this album and I thought, "Hmmm... great album design." Then I saw that it was produced by Wendy & Lisa. Ihad to buy it!
Never heard of them? Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman? Perhaps you should watch Purple Rain again. They were the two women in the Revolution. You know, as in Prince and the... They're amazing artists. Incredible songwriters (and I'll mention an album of theirs soon! ) They do amazing stuff too. Well they're awesome producers! And dbII displays that these women are incredible.
Turns out that Doyle II is married to Wendy's identical twin sister Susannah Melvoin, who was at one point Prince's girlfriend and co lead vocalist, songwriter and keyboardist for an R&B/Funk group that was on Prince's Paisley Park label back in the Warner Days, called The Family. Susannah is also Doyle's song-writing partner.
Well they kept it in the family after that, because they're all on here, with Wendy playing some great bass and rhythm guitars on here. And Me'Shell Ndegeocello is on it too! So you know this has got to be a great one. And it is.
From the opening track "Song From the Grave" with the lyrics:
"I hit the road to fame again
But songs weren´t coming out of me
I knew I had to get back
I was in way too big of a hole"
You know he'd been through some heavy stuff and was on the rebound. The entire album is about coming back-- better than ever. It's about life and the ultimate triumph over the lows. It's great, and highly recommended.
Jellycream is a more lo-fi effort. Not nearly as polished as dbII but in many ways better because of it. Charlie Sexton is his rhythm guitarist on several tracks, and it has some awesome songs like "Marry You" and "I Wanna Be", both songs covered by Clapton on the aforementioned "Riding With the King". But my favorite tracks are the angry and bitter "Snakecharmer" and the beautiful "Chariot".
I read in an interview where Doyle was really excited about his band, Smokestack (great name isn't it) and their album Welcome. I can understand why. It's very good. To me it's not as memorable as the previous efforts, and the songs weren't as instantly catchy, but it is a VERY VERY good album. It's a band album, and as such, the other members are contributing to the songs more than session members would (I assume). It's more of an overt rocker, with songs like "Green Light Girl", the most excellent "Soulshaker", and the powerhouse "Smokestack". But the real winner here is the fantastic "So You Want It To Rain".
They're three to definitely own (if you can get your hands on them). |
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Nov 30, 2007 | 4:06 pm |
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