Blogging the Rolling Stone Top 500: 494-500

Blogging the Rolling Stone Top 500: #494 – “She’s So Unusual” by Cyndi Lauper

I wasn’t sure I wanted to listen to this one. I remember the brief world of Cyndi Lauper hysteria, the Cyndi Lauper jokes, the frenetic videos on MTV. I was sure it would seem really dated, really cheesy, and well, it did but that didn’t matter.

It was still a lot of fun. Cyndi Lauper comes across on the entire album as over the top, exuberant, excited, and silly. Near the end of the album she seems to be chanelling Betty Boop even. It’s strange, but it works.

Is this a great album? Hard to say. It captures a person very well, it’s vastly entertaining, but is it a great album? I can’t say yes to that.

It’s a fun album. It’s a goofy album. It’s great nostalgia for people who like the 80′s (I suppose… I’m not one of ‘em). I feel like putting this in the great album category would be kinda like putting Weird Al’s “In 3-D” album in… I don’t regret listening to it, but I wouldn’t keep it or listen to it regularly.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Blogging the Rolling Stone Top 500: #495 – “New Day Rising” by Husker Du

Being a Minneapolis indie music geek myself, it is shameful that I have never heard this album. However, the shame will continue as I cannot find this or any other Husker Du on Napster. So, I will circle back to this one…

Blogging the Rolling Stone Top 500: #496 – “Destroyer” by KISS

RS claims that this album is just a great rock-n-roll party album that gets better with age.

I respectfully disagree.

I’ve never been a KISS listener and now I know why. This music is funny, yes, extremely over the top, but one of the best albums of all time? Hardly. I think it’s basically pointless. I can understand the appeal of a KISS live show, the explosions, the theatrics, but to listen to this music on purpose is pointless to me.

No. I’m glad to be done with this one. I hope no more KISS albums are on the list…

Blogging the Rolling Stone Top 500: #497 – “Yo! Bum Rush the Show” by Public Enemy

I’d love to blog this one, but unfortunately it’s not available via Napster or iTunes or my local public library… What I’m sayin’ is that I’ll have to come back to it when I can get a copy to listen to.

Blogging the Rolling Stone Top 500: #498 – “Tres Hombres” by ZZ Top

I admit it. I have a soft spot in my heart for ZZ Top. I wouldn’t normally think of them as great artistic innovators or anything, but I was just the right age when their Eliminator album came out in the early 80′s to think that the crazy guys with the red car and wacky beards were damn cool. Oh yeah, they got chicks too.

All that said, when I was a kid I had a lot less musical exposure and today I have a much lower interest in novelty. I’m looking for good music.

On that score, happily, “Tres Hombres” doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it’s more musically complex and moving than I expected. I have previously own this album, but it’s probably been at least 15 years since then. The music was familiar, as would be expected, but still quite surprising. The guitar, bass and drums are all played expertly in songwriting that is sometimes in the same league as some of the more hallowed early-70′s rockers (think Derek and the Dominos or The Band). “La Grange”, “Waiting For the Bus”, “Hot, Blue and Righteous”, are all great songs. ZZ Top may have been a gimmick in 1983, but in 1973 they were just a kick ass rock band.

Blogging the Rolling Stone Top 500: #499 – “Born Under a Bad Sign” by Albert King

You don’t listen to the blues to hear songwriting novelty. They chords are standard, the lyrical content is generally predictable… it’s all about the soul, all about the performance. On this album, Albert King does not disappoint.

I know nothing about Albert King, have never heard this album before, but I found myself smiling through most of it from the opening title track to the silky smooth “The Very Thought of You” that rounds out the set. The band plays loose and growly, just like Albert sings. The guitar work is crisp, impassioned. These guys sound like this is what they were born to play.

It doesn’t surprise me that this made the top 500, considering the impact on future blues rock musicians like Clapton. It’s timeless music, played perfectly.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Blogging the Rolling Stone Top 500: #500 – “Touch” by The Eurythmics

Rolling Stone magazine put out a list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, which is available here. This is not news.

I came up with the brilliant idea to expand my musical horizons by attempting to listen to the entire list via Napster’s all-you-can-eat music service and write down my thoughts. Since the albums at the top of the list are all fairly familiar to me, I’ve decided to start at the bottom, with #500, “Touch” by The Eurythmics.

Having listened to Touch twice in a row now, I have to say I’m less than impressed. The vocals are definitely the strongest point here, with Annie Lennox singing out powerfully and with an impressive amount of range, and the songwriting has it’s moments too such as on “Here Comes the Rain Again” or “Who’s That Girl”, but those strengths aren’t enough entirely overcome the albums glaring weakness which is that many of the songs are simply boring. “Regrets”, “Cool Blue”, “Paint a Rumour”, all of ‘em are simply too long, too repetitive and not interesting enough despite Annie’s attempts to liven them up.

I understand that this was groundbreaking music for it’s time, and I tried hard not to hold the 1984 synth vibe against the album since, hey, it wasn’t cliche yet when they did it, but I think that this album just doesn’t wear well over time. The music simply isn’t very interesting or moving. It wears a little better 22 years after the fact than a lot of the 1980′s synth pop does, but it’s definitely not an album I’d want to own or listen to with any regularity. I know those Eurythmics fans out there exist, but on the strength of “Touch”, I’m not one of them.

I’m fairly certain that RS included this one more because of it’s cultural impact than it’s musical content, but who knows?

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