1001 Albums Update: HALF WAY THERE! 500 Down, 500 To Go

So I've actually been sitting on this total for a while now (since the end of April) but had to stop because of exams, but now they're over so it's high time I gave you a rundown of what got me to the half way point!

• Tom Waits - Raindogs, Nighthawks At The Diner: Waits' voice is an acquired taste, but Raindogs is probably his most melodic and varied work, "Time" in particular is sublime. Nighthawks At The Diner, meanwhile, is a live album and showcases Waits at the top of his game as a beatnick - very loose and merry listen.

• Kiss - Destroyer: First time listening to a Kiss album, perhaps my expectations were too high. "Detroit Rock City" aside this was disappointing.

• Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

This has been on a Spotify playlist of mine for what feels like forever, and I could never remember if I'd heard it the whole way through before now. There's delightful gems here like "Two Weeks" - I think the album could do with more songs of that ilk, a lot seemed pretty anonymous.

• Portishead - Third: Well this was a mighty disappointment next to Dummy. They made us wait an awful long time for this record too. Shows it doesn't always pay to be perfectionists I guess.

• Radiohead - In Rainbows

I've already mentioned my previous prejudices against Radiohead, and to be honest lots of it stemmed from this record. I couldn't stand their little "pay what you want" download launch for this album, just struck me as a massive publicity stunt and put me off bothering with this from the start.
But now I'm older and slightly less fussy I adore this record. I think it's the best of their career and succeeds much better than OK Computer did in marrying their older rockier work (see "Bodysnatchers") with a more experimental direction ("Weird Fishes") along with moments of starkness ("Videotape") and tenderness (the stand-out track "House Of Cards").
So now I'm the proud owner of two Radiohead albums, something I never thought I'd say at age 17.

• A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory/Q-Tip - The Renaissance

The Low End Theory is often heralded as a high point in sophisticated hip-hop, and certainly all the MCs in Tribe have brilliant flow and mesmerising wordplay, but nothing really stuck with me as much as I felt it should.
Tribe's breakout star, Q-Tip, is still pretty awesome though and The Renaissance blew me away. I remember hearing "Gettin' Up" in the days when I still religiously listened to Zane Lowe's show and getting really into it - yet somehow I never tracked this album down until now. Listening to it makes me wish I'd bought it all those years ago. A real high point in modern hip-hop.

• The White Stripes - Elephant: Another band that annoyed the heck out of my when I was younger. Couldn't stand "Seven Nation Army" and something about it still irritates me to this day, sorry. There's flashes of brilliance and flashes of trash here - no better illustrated than the dire "Ball And Biscuit" being followed up by the terrific "The Hardest Button To Button".

• My Bloody Valentine - Loveless: This veered from brilliant to ear-piercingly unbearable a few times too many for my liking. Although this album has basically made shoegaze cool, which I guess I should be thankful for seeing as so many of the artists I like are going down that road.

• Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Blonde On Blonde, Blood On The Tracks, Time Out Of Mind

OK, Time Out Of Mind aside (it was very late in his career and his voice was too shot to do what I think he wanted with that album) you've got four of the greatest albums ever here. It's amazing how many artists Dylan's work inspired - I mean listening to these made me think "Why doesn't everyone just give up? There's no way this isn't the pinnacle of songwriting surely?"

Take The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The first three tracks are "Blowin' In The Wind", "Girl From The North Country" and "Masters Of War". Three absolute stone cold classics that would sound relevant and pertinent hundreds of years from now. But does he stop there? Of course not, it's Bob fucking Dylan, he goes and adds "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "Corinna, Corinna" to proceedings, just in case there was any doubt who the boss around here.

Bringing It All Back Home sees him start to expand beyond simply him and his guitar with the furious  "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Maggie's Farm", "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue".

He doesn't even stop there either - ever the pioneer, Dylan realised a single album couldn't contain the ideas in his head, and hence came Blonde On Blonde, the world's first double LP, with yet more classics like "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", "Visions Of Johanna", "Just Like A Woman" ans "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)".

Then, not content with dominating the 60s, Dylan decides he's got another Magnum Opus in him in the 70s in the form of Blood On The Tracks featuring "Tangled Up In Blue", "Simple Twist Of Fate" and "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go".

THIS is music you have to hear before you die alright!

• PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea: Another artist I'd horribly misjudged in my teens, I thought all Polly's record were chinstroking bullshit, but these two here are both pretty rocking!

• The XX - The XX

I wasn't as head over heels in love with this as everyone said I should be. When they won the Mercury I was a little harsh and joked "Wow, maybe if I mumbled over a base guitar I could win a Mercury too!", but there's a bit more substance here than I found when listening the first time around. Not much though.

• Chic - C'est Chic, Risque

Hey, you know how Daft Punk's new single is so awesome you can't avoid it wherever you go? You know WHY it's awesome? It's because of Nile Rodgers, co-founder of Chic and creator of disco classics. These two album are full of them. Go listen and enjoy!

• Dexy's Midnight Runners - Too Rye Ay, Searching For The Young Soul Rebels

There's more to Dexy's than "Come On Eileen", which features on Too Rye Ay - an album with great strings and horns and other songs like "The Celtic Soul Brothers" that refuse to be ignored. Their debut Searching For The Young Soul Rebels goes from punchy and raging to soulful at the drop of a hat and is pretty darn good too.

• The Coral - The Coral: So breezy, "Dreaming Of You" is one of my favourite songs of last decade. Lots of cool tuneful stuff to go with it here too.

• Tito Puente & His Orchestra - Dance Mania Vol. 1: Is it bad that I still prefer the song he did on The Simpsons to the stuff here?

• Billy Joel - The Stranger: I came into this expecting "Uptown Girl" level cheese, I got classics like "Just The Way You Are" and "She's Always A Woman" instead. Well, that worked out well.

• Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story/ The Faces - A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse

Before he released a seemingly endless stream of albums entitled "The Great American Songbook", Rod Stewart put those impressive pipes to use on his breakthrough solo album Every Picture Tells A Story - the title track and "Maggie May" being the real treats. He also did great as frontman of The Faces, with the likes of "Stay With Me" on A Nod... proving very enjoyable.

• Queen Latifah - All Hail The Queen: I had no idea Latifah was such a talented MC, I thought she was just an actress!

• The Fugees - The Score/ Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill: Was a bit disappointed to find so much filler on The Score, but I found Lauryn's solo album much more consistent and enjoyable.

• TLC - Crazy Sexy Cool

TLC were very ahead of their time, I couldn't believe stuff like "Waterfalls" dates all the way back to 1994! They also showed a surprising sense of humour in one of the interludes - a much welcome put down of all of those awkward sex interludes on lots of hip-hop records at the time - where a girl fools a guy into thinking she's having phone sex with him when really she's taking a dump. I know, my sense of humour can be puerile at times!

• Mariah Carey - Butterfly: OK while I'm surprisingly knowledgeable about cheesy 90s & noughties music, I still have my limits. This was it. Go away Mariah.

• Dee-Lite - World Clique: This album is very 90s. Famous as one hit wonders with "Groove Is In The Heart" (which is still irresistible), the rest of the album is very much a relic of its time.

• ZZ Top - Tre Hombres, Eliminator: While Tre Hombres didn't do particularly much for me, Eliminator was an absolute blinder with "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs" being standouts.

• The Kinks - Face To Face: How on Earth did I end up disappointed by an album that featured "Sunny Afternoon"?

Other albums which were to my liking were

• Elliot Smith - Figure 8
• Nick Drake - Pink Moon
• Aerosmith - Rocks, Toys In The Attic
• Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca 
• Echo & The Bunnymen - Porcupine
• Madness - The Rise And Fall
• Haircut 100 - Pelican West
• Kate Bush - The Dreaming
• Little Richard - Here's Little Richard
• The Crickets - The Chirpin' Crickets 
• Orange Juice - Rip It Up (that riff on the title track is just too funky!)

While the following left a fair bit t0 be desired

• 808 State - 90
• Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children (clever title, shame the music didn't live up to it.)
• Nightmares On Wax - Smoker's Delight
• Jungle Brothers - Done By The Forces Of Nature
• Sabu - Palo Congo
• Machito - Kenya
• KLF - The White Room

Right, so only 500 more to go! I can finally get back to finishing this bucket list of bucket list now. Hopefully you'll hear from me again soon. I'm contemplating doing a post about Mad Men next time, especially after this happened






Ta-ra for now.

1001 Albums Update: 443 and counting

So, another fortnight of great progress. There was absolutely tonnes of amazing stuff this time around, I can't remember liking so much of what I heard in one of these updates since I started this challenge.

The albums feature in the book haven't been the only albums I've been enjoying since I last brought you an update.
Thanks to a rather glowing review in The Fly I stumbled across the debut album by California X and found an absolutely brilliant balls out scuzzy rock and roll record. I can't remember the last time an album was really as air-punchingly good on first listen as this was.
I thoroughly recommend you check it out, especially since you can download it from Amazon at an absolute bargain price of £3.49. What are you waiting for? Go get it.

Oh hang on, that's right, wait come back! I've got to let you know about what else I've been listening to first!
So, in no particular order, here's the latest set of albums I can check off my list...

• Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet

Cheesy as hell but you've got to love "You Give Love A Bad Name", "Livin' On A Prayer" and "Wanted Dead Or Alive".
Going off on a tangent slightly, we had someone giving a seminar the other day about fluid droplets and he used the term "wettable". Seriously, is that actually a word? It sounds like one of those quasi-words that mathematicians would invent without realising how ridiculous it sounds, like "texify".

• Meatloaf - Bat Out Of Hell

Taking The Who's rock-opera concept into overdrive, Bat Out Of Hell gave Meatloaf some of his greatest moments. As a Springsteen fan I was pleasantly surprised to see Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan played on the title track, "You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)" and "Paradise By The Dashboard Light".

• Ian Dury - New Boots And Panties!

I bloody love Ian Dury. Ever since I saw him and The Blockheads performing "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" on Top Of The Pops 2 when I was pretty young (like 7 or 8) he really made an impression on me. His lyrics combined with his vocal style made him a truly unique artist - the kind that you'd only find in Britain. "My Old Man" was a particular highlight.

• Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Schmilsson: I never expected this guy would be the person behind "Without You" ("I caaaan't liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive..."). It was a much livelier affair besides that track though, with lots of perky, quirky pop like "Let The Good Times Roll".

• Derek & The Dominos - Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs: More Clapton-based goodness. As the title suggests though, "Layla" is really the dominant song on this record and leaves the rest of the material here in its wake.

• Sade - Diamond Life: I've been hearing "Smooth Operator" for years without realising that it was Sade's big hit. Can't say much else really stuck with me beyond that revelation.

• Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information: Really enjoyed this, such a smooth record. The title track and "XL-30" (which sounded really familiar) were really great.

• Blur - Parklife, Blur, Modern Life Is Rubbish 

 I'd always seen Blur as more of a singles band, but these three held up really well from start to finish. Blur was a lot more mellow and experimental (though it featured the quickfire "Song 2"), while Modern Life Is Rubbish and Parklife came at the peak of Britpop and were much jauntier with the likes of "Chemical World", "Advert" and "Girls And Boys".

• Brian Eno - Another Green World: Every Eno album I hear on this list gets progressively better, only to then fizzle out & frustrate me when it should really deliver a knock out blow that sends me head over heels in love. Grrr. 

• Isaac Hayes - Shaft OST: "Hello there, children."

• KD Lang - Ingenue: I literally spent years trying to figure out if KD Lang was a man or a woman. Turns out she's a woman. Pretty good singer too, to say the least.

• Nirvana - In Utero

I know the vast majority of the songs on here from their MTV Unplugged session, so it's slightly odd hearing the likes of "Dumb", "All Apologies" and "Pennyroyal Tea" in these arrangements. Fantastic record though, and the heavier moments like "Serve The Servants" stood out strongly for me too.

• Run DMC - Raising Hell: This was a riot, featuring the likes of "Walk This Way" (the version with Aerosmith) and "It's Tricky", an absolute genius reworking of "My Sharona" by The Knack.

• The Jam - All Mod Cons/Paul Weller - Wild Wood

A couple of delights from the mind of Paul Weller here. I expected  All Mod Cons to have one or two more "hits" (i.e. more of The Jam's most famous tracks) than it had but that didn't stop me enjoying the likes of "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" and a great version of "David Watts" by The Kinks.
Wild Wood is another case where I shouldn't have judged a book by its cover - its title and title track had me expecting a largely acoustic affair. While it was still pretty folky, I enjoyed the richer arrangements on show.

• The Sex Pistols - Nevermind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols

I've mentioned in passing before how I'm not John Lydon's biggest fan, but this record is near as dammit perfect. You can see why this album, in effect, started a revolution.
Lydon's sneering "anti-singing" as Noel Gallagher put it, sounds immense on the likes of "God Save The Queen" and "Anarchy In The UK" ("I-yyyyyyyy am annnnn anti-CHRIST-AH!") while the guitar riffs on "Holiday In The Sun" and "Pretty Vacant" are just to die for. This album isn't just some historical artifact, thsi is the real deal.

• Buzzcocks - Another Music In A Different Kitchen: Anyone who comes up with a title like that automatically wins points from me, but I don't think this quite held up against the other albums from punk's prime I was listening to this time around.

• Wilco - Being There: Much like Yankee Foxtrot Hotel, this was another instant purchase for me upon listening. The likes of "Monday" and "Outtasite (Outta Mind)" were unexpected delights and much heavier tracks than I thought the band were capable of.

• The Undertones - The Undertones: Surprisingly enough this album didn't originally contain "Teenage Kicks", their most famous hit, but boy could it hold up on its own without it with the likes of "Here Comes The Summer" and "Jimmy Jimmy".

• The The - Soul Mining: Only knew them as one of the subjects of a pretty crap Michael McIntyre about the north, but I was left pretty impressed with this album, "This Is The Day" in particular was fantastic.

• Donovan - Sunshine Superman: Turns out the title track's on of those songs I've heard for years (almost certainly on some advert) and not been able to put a name too (I've found lots of these whilst doing this challenge).

• The Mothers Of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money 

Oh Christ, not more Frank Zappa! The frustrating think about this album is that it's quite catchy but it's in fits and starts, so you'd just be getting into one of the tracks when suddenly Zappa comes along with one of his druggie oddball interlude things. So infuriating!

• The Clash - London Calling: An undisputed classic. The title track, "Spanish Bombs", "Lost In The Supermarket" and "Rudie Can't Fail" were all arguable The Clash at their best. The Elvis-referencing sleeve design is iconic too.

• Michael Jackson - Bad

Ch'mon! The production may have dated a little poorly, but Jacko clearly still had a lot left in the tank after Thriller. "Dirty Diana" and "Smooth Criminal" are personal favourites of mine.

• The Zombies - Odessey & Oracle

Another song I can finally put a name to: "Time Of The Season". Great song, the rest of the album is almost just as good - lots of bright jangley guitar pop, a lot more full of life than the band's name suggests.

• Tom Waits - Heartattack And Vine: I wasn't sure this would be my cup of tea since Waits' vocals can be a bit strange, but I really enjoyed this record, "Jersey Girl" and "Mr Siegal" especially were on the money.

• Rufus Wainwright - Want Two: A great illustration of how brilliant Rufus' voice is. "The Art Teacher" is sublime, even if hearing Rufus sing a song from a schoolgirl's perspective is a bit surreal.

Also quenching my thirst for good music were...

• Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen
• XTC - Skylarking
• Blondie - Parallel Lines
• The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues
• Bob Marley & The Wailers - Catch A Fire, Exodus, Natty Drea
• The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & The Lash, If I Should Fall From Grace With God
• King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

While the following left me slightly disappointed:

• Alice In Chains - Dirt
• Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
• Japan - Quiet Life
• The United States Of America - The United States Of America

1001 Albums Update: 400 and counting!

I've managed to tear myself away from the stream of Bowie's new album (which I'm pleased to say is excellent) and reading Peter Ames Carlin's pretty ace Springsteen biography to let you all know how I'm getting on with this albums challenge. So let's get cracking! These past few weeks I have mostly been listening to...

• Norah Jones - Come Away With Me: Ravi Shankar's daughter! Who'd have thunk it? This didn't send me to sleep quite as soon as I thought it would and had a mice rendition of Hank Williams' "Cold Cold Heart".

• Joni Mitchell - Blue, Court And Spark: I think these two albums illustrate Joni at her best. Court And Spark was my favourite, although I've heard a rumour she hates it! Which I can't fathom at all, the likes of "Free Man In Paris" are classics.

• Rush - 2112 

I was rather excited to hear this. Over Christmas I read "Ready Player One", the brilliant debut novel by Ernest Cline, the premise is like Willy Wonka meets The Matrix. Anyway, one of the featured characters in that book had a big obsession with Rush and this album in particular with it's futuristic concept. In the end it proved to be a good listen, but I have to say I preferred Moving Pictures more. I'd definitely recommend the book though.

• Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!: Just as quirky as you'd expect, "Uncontrollable Urge" and "Mongoloid" were the highlights of a pretty patchy album.

• The Band - The Band: A really sure-footed follow up to Music From The Big Pink, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Up On Cripple Creek" being amongst the highlights.

• The Stooges - Funhouse: I can't quite put my finger on it, but just like their debut this didn't click with me anywhere nearly as much as Iggy's solo stuff. Must be the drugs or something.

• N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton: Everyone you hear sampling "Express Yourself" by Charles Wright has to live with the fact that what they do with the track will never hold a candle to what N.W.A. did with it, and that's a fact.

• Simply Red - Picture Book: Surprising bearable album considering it came from the mind of Mick Hucknall. I'm sorry every time I say his name in my head I can't help but think of Bo' Selecta Mick Hucknall.

• Otis Redding - Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul: Oh my stars, this has to be one of the most perfect soul records I've ever heard. Every track is just a show-stopper, especially his takes on Sam Cooke's "Change Gonna Come" and "Shake" and Smokey Robinson's "My Girl".

 

• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell: This takes me back to playing the original Rock Band game with a bunch of friends from school, and "Maps" would always be our go-to song because it was relatively easy to play for all of us. Those were the days...

• Peter Tosh - Legalize It: This is a bit of a curio. The title track is about as subtle as a sledgehammer about wanting marijuana to be made legal tender. Yet there are also some nice little reggae ballads like "Why Must I Cry?" in amongst the druggie stuff.

• Tangerine Dream - Phaedra: Yet another album where I've found myself wondering if I've missed the point entirely when it comes to Krautrock.

• Echo And The Bunnymen - Ocean Rain: "The Killing Moon"! Excellent.

• Sly And The Family Stone - Stand!: I found this a much more enjoyable listen than There's A Riot Goin' On. I couldn't help but think of the Canadians in South Park upon hearing "Don't Call Me N*gger, Whitey" though. (I'm not your buddy, guy!)

• Pentangle - Basket Of Light: My first taste of Bert Jansch's work on this list, and I was very impressed. Equally impressive were the vocals of Jacqui McShee.

• Goldie - Timeless: Hard to think the bloke who's been on every kind of reality show you can think of in the noughties actually popularised jungle and drum & bass.

• Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Love And Hate: Another great Cohen album, "Avalanche" and "Sing Another Song, Boys" were my favourites.

• MC5 - Kick Out The Jams 

This album simultaneously made and set back MC5's career. With songs like the title track and "Motor City Is Burning" the band helped established their reputation as one of the most primal and livewire rock acts of the next decade. However, their introduction of the title track ("right now it's time to... kick out the jams, Motherfucker!") stirred up a whirlwind of controversy that ended up with their label Elektra dropping the band. It was worth it though.

• Curtis Mayfield - Superfly: So so funky. So good it made more money than the film it was soundtracking!

"He's got a plaaaaan, to stick it to the maaaaaan!"

• The Rolling Stones - Aftermath: Another key stepping stone (oh God I  swear I didn't mean to make that pun) for the group as their first album made entirely of Jagger-Richards written songs, "Mother's Little Helper", "Lady Jane" and "Under My Thumb" being the most famous examples.

• Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim - Francis Albert Sinatra And Antonio Carlos Jobim: Frank may have been getting a little long in the tooth by this time, but there's no resisting his crooning over "The Girl From Ipanema".

• Sparks - Kimono My House: Most famous for "This Town Isn't Big Enough For The Both Of Us", which should give you an idea of how creative this album is (whilst having its tongue firmly in its cheek).

• Slade - Slayed?: Proving that Slade are for life, not just for Christmas. Lots of fantastic rock licks on here like "How D'You Ride?" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now".

• Beck - Sea Change: Another album buried amongst my Spotify lists I can't recall getting the whole way through until now. This is about as laid back and tender as Beck ever got, with great cuts like "Paper Tiger". This album is an obvious forefather to the likes of "Chemtrails" from Modern Guilt.

• U2 - War, All That You Can't Leave Behind

This was like a tale of two U2's. War was an absolute revelation, as I had at last found a U2 I could enjoy without any pretensions or bullshit, just pure, direct, great rock and roll like "Sunday Bloody Sunday".
On the other end of the stick, All That You Can't Leave Behind finds the band realising that the excesses of the Zooropa and Pop eras were just a bit much and thus they returned to playing to their strengths with the likes of "Beautiful Day" and "Elevation". It's a very good record, but I can't help but think it lacks the bombast of their earlier work.

• Incubus - Make Yourself

I thought at the point in their careers where they made this album Incubus were a more traditional style metal act. I had no idea that 1) they were making such perfect pop as "Drive" already and 2) they were making experimental, semi-comedic tunes like Battlestar Scralatchtica.

• Genesis - Selling England By The Pound: There's no escaping it now, I'm a full on convert to Peter Gabriel's work. This was another really interesting listen especially opener "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight".

• Portishead - Dummy: Fantastic album. The tones was set from the off with the spooky "Mysterons" promptly followed by the chilling "Sour Times". An atmospheric masterpiece.

• Kraftwerk - Autobahn: Far more enticing and absorbing than any concept album designed to replicate the sensation of driving on the motorway has any right to be.

• The Replacements - Let It Be: It takes balls to give an album THAT title, but it more than delivered. A pop-punk masterpiece, the likes of "Unsatisfied" are especially brilliant.

• Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads, Henry's Dream

Seeing as I'm going to see the band in October, I thought I ought to further delve in their back-catalogue. Murder Ballads sees Cave put his own spin on traditional tales of crimes of passion (plus some of his own), including a blistering re-invention of "Stagger Lee" and a terrific cover of Bob Dylan's "Death Is Not The End" featuring a whole heap of guest stars including PJ Harvey, Kylie Minogue (both of whom feature on earlier tracks from the album) and Shane McGowan.
Henry's Dream is just classic Bad Seeds and the likes of "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry" and "Jack The Ripper" saw the band in riotous form.

• The Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter: This was a bit of a weird one. Imagine if The Mamas And The Papas took more drugs & moved to Scotland and you'd pretty much be able to picture what this album sounds like.

• Common - Like Water For Chocolate: This is my new favourite Common album. It starts off unassuming enough but then really kicks to life with the excellent "Dooinit" and "The Light". There's some great guestspots too, from Jill Scott, Macy Gray and Cee-Lo.

• Massive Attack - Protection, Blue Lines 

Two terrific genre-defining cuts from Massive Attack here. Blue Lines appropriately enough was the blueprint that set the standard for the trip-hop movement, with the classic "Unfinished Sympathy" and my personal favourite "Hymn Of The Big Wheel".
Protection meanwhile is an appropriately less intense affair, given the state of flux the band were in at the time without Tricky or Shara Nelson. But the likes of "Heat Miser" and the title track are sublime.

Other albums that were like music to my ears were

• The Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday
• Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night
• Gene Clark - No Other, White Light
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced "Leh-nerd Skin-nerd"
• Love - Da Capo
• The Cars - The Cars 
• Manu Chao - Clandestino
• Joan Baez - Joan Baez
• Moby Grape - Moby Grape
• The 13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators

While the following weren't quite to my taste

• Country Joe And The Fish - Electric Music For The Mind And Body
• King Crimson - Larks' Tongue In Aspic
• Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
• Soft Machine - Third 
• Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus 
• Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun

And with that I shall bid you adieu for now.

30 Rock: My 30 Favourite Memories

30 Rock is one of my favourite sitcoms ever. I've loved it ever since I picked up the first season on DVD for a mere £5 in the Christmas sales when I was at college. The show about the making of fictional show "TGS with Tracy Jordan" has made a star of creator Tina Fey and re-affirmed what a fantastic actor Alec Baldwin is.

But alas, after seven great seasons, 30 Rock was brought to a close and its final show aired a few weeks ago. Having now finally caught up with their final season, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to reflect on what I loved most about the show.

So, here are (mostly from the top of my head and in no particular order) thirty of my favourite quotes, plots, running jokes and characters. Most are just Youtube clips since I don't want this to be too long a read. I hope you enjoy.

1. Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

2. "Aw, blerg!" 

Just beat out "What the WHAT?" and "I want to go to there" for my favourite Lemon-ism.

3. Jenna lying about her age

4. "Dr." Leo Spacemen

There have been some great recurring characters on the show (Will Arnett's Devon Banks, Steve Buscemi as Jack's private investigator, Sherri Shepard as Tracy's wife Angie), but my favourite without a doubt was Dr. Spacemen, played by SNL veteran Chris Parnell. To call him a moron would be putting it lightly. He's had many great quotes, perhaps my favourite being "...we have no way of knowing where the heart is. See, every human is different."

5. "You take a hot dog, stuff it with some jack cheese, fold it in a pizza..."

*air guitar* "...you got Cheesy Blasters!"

6. "Where's my MAC AND CHEESE!?!"

Word of advice: don't take Liz's food.

7. Guest stars

So many great names have guest starred in the show, many have been as love interests for Liz (Jason Sudeikis, Michael Sheen, Matt freakin' Damon) and Jack (Edie Falco, Selma Hayek, Elizabeth Banks). A surprising amount of those who guest starred as themselves worked really well too, from all the musicians featured in "Kidney Now!" to Kelsey Grammer and Buzz Aldrin. A heck of a lot of star power passed through the doors at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

8. "I love this cornbread so much..."

"... I wanna take it behind a middle school and get it pregnant."

9. Tracy's films

Not only is Tracy batshit crazy and the star of TGS, he's also the star of those low-rent comedies even Eddie Murphy would turn down, such as "Who Dat Ninja?", "Black Cop White Cop" and "Honky Grandma Be Trippin' ". You can find most of the posters for these films here.
In fact, two of my favourite storylines involving Tracy in the series involved him trying to get films off the ground.
In Season 1, Tracy discovered he was a distant relative of Thomas Jefferson, which led him to pitching a biopic with him as the start entitled "Jefferson" (see the hilarious trailer below). Then in Season 5, Tracy sought the one award he had yet to earn, an Oscar, and so came up with the academy-baiting "Hard To Watch", a film loosely based on his upbringing.

10. Liz & the Co-op board

We've all been there, too much alcohol and a phone in your hand can be a dangerous mix, as Liz illustrates here: from "You know what? I'm fine." to "I AM GOING TO THE HOSPITAL! AND I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY!" to singing Alanis Morissette to "I bought a black apartment". Fantastic.

11. Season 2, Episode 13: "Succession"

If you put a gun to my head and forced me to pick my favourite episode, I'd probably pick this one - although to be honest all of the final three episodes of Season 2 are gold. Jack finds out that Don Geiss has chosen him as his successor as head of G.E. This leads to the rise of "corporate" Liz Lemon ("Hey nerds! Guess who's got 2 thumbs, speaks limited French, and hasn't cried once today? This moi!"). Also, Tracy sets out to make a porn video game. Genius.

12. Homonym/God Cop

Some of the funniest moments have come from the shows within the show itself. These two both came from Season 7 opener "Tank It!". While God Cop was hilarious ("Why is he learning ANYTHING, he's supposed to be God?"), Homonym might have been even better, the most impossible game show ever ("It's always the other one!").

13. "Shut it down!"

From the top of my head, Jack first uttered this line when it was clear Ken's game show "Gold Case" (15 models hold cases, one contains gold) was a liability. This then became a running turn of phrase many characters would use when a venture wasn't turning out right.

14. Jenna-Mickey Rourke history

I don't know what on Earth Mickey Rourke ever did to anyone on the 30 Rock team, but for some reason it was decided Jenna should create this bizarre sexual history between the two of them when they supposedly went out. The kind people at Vulture have put some of her best tall tales into pictorial form.

15. Frank's hats

At least once an episode, Frank - one of the writers for TGS - would be wearing a new hat with a message on it in felt letters. You can view every single hat he wore at this gallery MTV have painstakingly compiled.

16. "Queen of Jordan"

Another excellent parody, this time of reality television. "Queen of Jordan" saw Tracy's wife Angie star in her own reality TV series after negotiations with Jack to keep Tracy at TGS. A spot on put down of shows like "Keeping Up With The Kardashians", two whole episodes of 30 Rock were broadcast as episodes of "Queen of Jordan". Angie's entourage (particularly D'Fwan) were all fantastic. 

My favourite plot threads over the two episodes were Jack being made out to be a clumsy gay guy who farts all the time because of the show's editing, and Liz's "feud" with Tracy's two-year-old daughter Virginia.

17. Live shows

This was such a fantastic idea. Play off the fact that the show is about making a live TV show by doing live versions of the show, and performing it inside the SNL studios in 30 Rock Plaza. They did a great job of recreating the vibe of the traditional shows by having a group of live musicians performing the score, and even managed to keep the flashbacks by having Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Amy Poehler play Liz, Donald Glover play Tracy and Jimmy Fallon play Jack.
I personally prefer Season 5's "Live Show" to "Live from Studio 6H" from Season 6, although the latter did include many spot on parodies of US TV, including this amazing "how the hell did they allow that on the air?" Afro-American sitcom featuring Jon Hamm in black face.

18. Kenneth the Page

Jack McBrayer is a fantastic comedic actor who cut his teeth on the Chicago improv circuit just like Tina Fey did. Over the course of 30 Rock's seven seasons he really made the role of Ken Parcell, a naive NBC page in love with television, his own. Hearing him remember the golden days of television through rose-tinted glasses never got old. His tales of his old life in Georgia and the running gag about his age were also frequently hilarious.
My favourite quote of his though is "I don't drink hot liquids of any kind. That's the devil's temperature."

19. MILF Island

Yet another genius parody TV show, this one a mix of "Survivor" and "America's Next Top Model".

20."Workin' on my night cheese"

21. Jenna Maroney

Or to be more specific, the things Jenna Maroney would say. This sample of quotes from Season 2 barely scratches the surface.

22. "I am a stabbing robot..."/ Season 1 Episode 7: "Tracy Does Conan"

Another of my favourite episodes, playing off Tracy Morgan's real life breakdowns on talk shows. Liz and Pete have to help Tracy successfully promote the show during his appearance on Conan O'Brien's talk show.  Only problem is Tracy is "buggin' out" after taking the meds Dr Spacemen (in his first appearance on the show) prescribed him, including seeing footless blue men ("Blue Man! Where your feet at?").
The flashback to his first appearance on Conan's show is just as funny.

23. Liz's Barbara Bush outfit

One of my favourite running visual gags. Ever since the pilot episode, if Liz needed a formal business outfit - whether she's meeting Tracy for the first time or negotiating with a network from Germany or pretending to be Jack's wife - she'd dig out this little number from the wardrobe department, which was apparently from a sketch about Barbara Bush.

24. 1-900-OK-FACE

Oh the things poor Liz Lemon did for money in Chicago...

25. Season 3, Episode 10: "Generalisimo"

The first half of Season 3 holds a dear place in my heart, as I'd watch the show in my flat at the time on Comedy Central (before our hall stopped showing non- Sky Sports Sky channels). This was possibly my favourite episode.

Jack finds himself the subject of disapproval from the grandmother of his girlfriend (Selma Hayek, whose "boobs were amazing" to quote Tina) because he resembles the villain in a Spanish language soap opera (who is also played by Baldwin, another example of his great comedic range). Hence he tries to use his political stroke to get said villain killed off.

This is also the first episode Jon Hamm guests in, as Liz's new neighbour and love interest, whom she accidentally roofies on their first date!

26. The Rural Juror ("The rher jerr")

Tracy's not the only one with a substandard acting career outside of the show. In Season 1, Jenna gets a major role in made-for-TV-movie "The Rural Juror". Only trouble is her pronunciation of the title leaves the rest of the team without any idea of what it's called.
This running joke then led to a great episode that season of the same title, where Liz & Jenna fall out because Liz hate the film and Tracy invents a George Foreman grill knock off to replace the bread in sandwiches with more meat.

27. Jack roleplays Tracy's family

Just like the Jon Hamm black face sketch, this was another "How did they get away with this?" moment. Sublime.

28. "There ain't no party like a Liz Lemon party..."

"...because a Liz Lemon party's mandatory!"

29. Liz's "assistant"

30. Jack Donaghy

Last but by no means least we have Jack, played by Alec Baldwin. Super analytical and never without a scathing put down to hand, Jack has a very warped sense of the world having spent so long in corporate America.
Nothing illustrates this better than Tina's favourite quote from the show (and to be honest it could well be mine too). If you had to pick one moment that sums up Jack's character this would be it:

Liz: Why are you wearing a tux?
Jack: ...It's after six, what am I, a farmer?

Now, repeat after me...

"Good God, Lemon!"

1001 Albums Update: 346 and counting...

Before I run down what I've been listening to this past week (and a bit), I thought I'd mention the excellent series of programmes the BBC have been broadcasting this past week all about "The Golden Age Of The Album".
You can find a run down of the shows in the series here. The BBC Four shows "When Albums Ruled The World" and "Danny Baker's Great Album Showdown" were real treats in particular.

The former was a pretty good documentary about how the change in the physical format of the record helped shape the concept of albums (with 22 and a half minutes a side, you could do more than just the typical three minute pop record) and appropriately enough led to the idea of concept albums.

While Danny Baker's show could get a little bit nerdy about records ("The smell! The weight! The sleevenotes!"... alright guys, get a room.) the three episodes were a really great debate about what goes in to making a great album.

Both shows naturally brought up a lot of the albums I've been listening to thanks to the book. Speaking of which, this week I have mostly been listening to...

• Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables: Fantastic bit of punk. "California Uber Alles" brings back happy memories of playing the Tony Hawk's skating games.

• Megadeth - Rust In Peace, Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?: I know I've found mixed results when I've listened to the metal albums on this list, but these were really enjoyable, lived up to their tongue-in-cheek titles definitely.

• Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway: I found this a patchier listen than Peter Gabriel's solo albums (which have really surprised me) but there's flashes of brilliance here. I know Genesis are almost the very definition of dad rock but when Gabriel was on board there was just no resisting moments like "Carpet Crawlers"

• Slayer - Reign In Blood: And now we come to the flip-side of the metal coin. This just felt like substandard Metallica. Play your instruments real fast to hide the fact you're not playing anything interesting, add some vocals that go "RAAAAWUUUUUGH" in between, wash, rinse, repeat.

• Fela Kuti & Afrika 70 - Zombie, Live (w/ Ginger Baker)

My first encounter with some real African music. Appropriately enough, I found Zombie to be very infectious (I know, I know, I'll get my coat...), and the live album with Ginger Baker (of Cream fame) was also a great listen with cracking rhythms, as you'd imagine.

• Frank Sinatra - In The Wee Small Hours, Songs For Swingin' Lovers!

Fun fact: In The Wee Small Hours was the first album issues on 12 inch vinyl, which probably makes it the record that kicked off the album era. Being one of the first records that wasn't a soundtrack or classical piece whose songs had a thematic link probably helped too - and arguably made it the first concept album. Songs For Swingin' Lovers  is also excellent and influential in equal measure, including the simply perfect "I've Got You Under My Skin".

• Louis Prima - The Wildest: Apparently this guy gets a bit of flack for just being a Louis Armstrong knock-off, but I really enjoyed this record. The bloke who played King Louis in The Jungle Book can't be bad can he?

• The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs: As the title suggests this is literally a (triple) album of 69 love songs. Nearly three hours long, this was a project of extraordinary breadth that stylistically veered from Leonard Cohen sorrow to Brian Wilson sugar. Extraordinary.

• Suicide - Suicide: This was just plain weird. The weirdness peaked with the unsettling "Frankie Teardrop" which basically was the musical equivalent of being a pre-teen girl and having Jimmy Saville chasing after you.

• Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies, Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space 

I bought Songs In A&E not long after it came out and was rather disappointed by it, so I wasn't holding my breathe about liking these albums. However, they certainly had their moments, Ladies And Gentlemen... especially: the on-two punch of "Come Together" and "I Think I'm In Love" after the introductory track, and "Broken Heart" were fantastic.

• Siouxsie Sioux & The Banshees - The Scream: Best cover version of "Helter Skelter" ever!

• Ray Charles - Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music: Ray doing country music raised a few eyebrows at the time, but he most certainly pulled it off, his renditions of "Born To Lose" and "You Win Again" were especially sublime.

• 2pac - Me Against The World: While I wasn't surprised that I found myself enjoying this album, I was surprised by the album's highlight: the unexpectedly touching "Dear Mama".

• Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers): Well this was rather disappointing. There are a whole bunch of great MCs in Wu-Tang, but this album was pretty much just everyone shouting their verses over barely audible and substandard beats. What a let down.

• The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones: Their first album is predominantly a covers album, but try listening to this and then telling me they don't make the likes of Bo Diddley's "I Need You Baby (Mona)" and Chuck Berry's "Carol" their own. You can't can you?

• Billie Holiday - Lady In Satin: Her voice was shot after years of heroin abuse, but boy Billie was as captivating as ever here. "I'm A Fool To Want You" is simply iconic (and was the real star of Channel's recent ad campaign featuring Audrey Tatou).

• The Who - Tommy

Sublime. When I talked about how the LP drove the idea of concept albums earlier, this was a prime example. The only traditional whole song on here is "Pinball Wizard". Everything else is comprised of running pieces and overtures fading in and out of each other, a couple of which would later be fused together into the single "See Me, Feel Me".

• The Cure - Pornography: Another gloom masterpiece from The Cure, this one an important precursor to Disintegration. The likes of "One Hundred Years" and "The Hanging Garden" stand up their with their best work.

• The Black Crowes - Shake Your Money Maker: Great bit of post-AC/DC rock here. This was released in 1990 - I had no idea this band had been going for so long! I only knew them for "Before the Frost... Until the Freeze" before this.

• Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman: "Father And Son", "Wild World", the title track (used as the theme tune for Extras). Need I say more?

• T-Rex - The Slider: Marc Bolan's often seen as more of a singles artist than an albums man, but this was still a great listen. "Metal Guru" is a classic.

• Pink Floyd - The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn 

Pink Floyd are another band I'd assumed I'd hate but found myself enjoying. This was in their relative early days, when Syd Barrett was part of the band. Barrett wrote the majority of the songs himself and so much like the man himself this album's a bit inconsistent, but the much more focused side one is brilliant.

• Stevie Wonder - Innervisions: 

Sublime stuff from Stevie here, made right in the middle of his early-mid 70s run where, post-Marvin Gaye Tamla Motwon realised how important albums were and Stevie had the creative juices to give them what they needed. "Living For The City" and "Higher Ground" (later slaughtered by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers for the Power Rangers movie soundtrack) are particular highlights.

• Dr Dre - The Chronic: Good stuff, but what is it with early to mid 90s rap albums and those awkward interludes where we're supposed to believe they're having sex? Biggie & Snoop had these skits on their albums too. Some people's egos, eh?

 Others I heard which I enjoyed were

• Miles Davis - Birth Of The Cool
• Faith No More - The Real Thing
• Van Halen - Van Halen
• Ride - Nowhere
• Fats Domino - This Is Fats
• The Roots - Pherenology (Now I love Questlove for his music as well as just being awesome on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon)

while the following didn't make much impression:

• Black Flag - Damaged
• The Gun Club - Fire Of Love
• Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
• Duke Ellington - Ellington At Newport
• Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners 

So that wraps up another chunk of great (and not so great) music. I'm sure I'll power through another bunch soon! Catch you later.

1001 Albums Update: 307 and counting!

Long long looooong time since I've given an update on this. I figured having made so much progress since last time I should be more economical with this update, so I'll split the album's I've heard into three categories: yay (stuff I liked), nay (stuff I didn't) and meh (stuff that didn't make much impression).

Yay

• Madonna - Ray Of Light, Music 

Yeah I think it's acceptable to listen to Madonna sometimes, sue me! Well, except for that ill-advised cover of "American Pie" on Music: What were you thinking Madge?

• Biggie Smalls - Ready To Die

Song #1 I've always heard but never put a name to til now: turns out the student bar I lived above at Dalton Ellis played "Juicy" every other week. "Big Poppa" is irresistibly catchy as well.

• Hole - Live Through This, Celebrity Skin 

Sounds like Kurt Cobain had his fingerprints all over Live Through This, but Celebrity Skin proved Courtney Love could write a good record on her own too.

• System of a Down - System of a Down (SoaD tow the line between flat out ace metal and flat out crazy so perfectly)

• Television - Marquee Moon (This was a really good listen, an obvious influence on The Strokes)

• Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

Song #2 I've always kept hearing without putting a name to: "Blister In The Sun". Terrific, as is the rest of the album, a great ode to teenage frustration.

 

• Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River, Bayou Country ("Bad Moon Rising"! "Proud Mary!" "Good Golly Miss Molly"! This is the good stuff right here.)

• Randy Newman - Sail Away (Well it's not the Toy Story soundtrack, but it's great nonetheless)

• Eminem - The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP

Oh man this takes me right back to my childhood here, I remember when I used to visit my cousin and we'd play his copy of Marshall Mathers and laugh our arses off at the swearing. We were 10 at the time and tracks like "Kill You", "Criminal" and "The Real Slim Shady" just sounded incredible. Eminem never topped that record.

• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu/ Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Ragged Glory/ David Crosby - If Only I Could Remember My Name

I've found myself seriously getting into more of Neil Young's work and that of his collaborators after reading his book Waging Heavy Peace, which is excellent.

Unsurprisingly I enjoyed Neil's contributions to Deja Vu ("Helpless" and "Country Girl"), but I also found myself surprisingly familiar with Graham Nash's "Teach Your Children Well" and "Our House" (and yes it IS that song used on some advert recently, can't think which off the top of my head.)

Crosby's If Only I Could Remember My Name is also great, "Music Is Love" (featuring Young on backing vocals) and "Song With No Words" being my favourites. David was also formerly a member of The Byrds and features on the excellent Fifth Dimension amongst others.

But the undisputed best of the bunch was Ragged Glory, Young & Crazy Horse at their heavy rocking best. Filled with riffs and solos to die for, "F*!#in' Up" and "Love To Burn" being particular highlights.

• De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising ("How high's the water mama?" Anybody who samples Johnny Cash intelligently is alright by me)

• Travis - The Man Who ("Why does it aaaalways raaaaain on meeeeeeee?")

• The Who - The Who Sell Out, Who's Next?

I had the pleasure of listening to my Dad's vinyl of these records while I was home at Christmas. Who's Next? was my favourite, but The Who Sell Out was also excellent - with all the skits between songs ("Radio Lon-doooooon") it felt more like a time capsule than a record.

• The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico (Well I knew I'd love this what with practically half the album being on the Velevet Underground Best Of I have.)

• Pink Floyd - The Wall (Am I getting old? Just like the other Floyd albums on the list I loved this.)

• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz

Another one I've had on Spotify for years and couldn't remember if I'd hear the whole way through. Worth it for "Zero" and "Heads Will Roll" alone. Plus, I only just realised the album cover is of someone breaking an egg in their hand!

• Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul

This was Aretha at her peak right here. "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Chain Of Fools" ("Chain chain chaaaaaaain", so effortlessly cool), plus her take on Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" (which Springsteen also liberally borrows from these days). Fantastic.

• Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything? (For some reason I had low expectations for this, despite Rundgren having produced several other albums in the book, but I really enjoyed it, the first disc especially)

• Fleetwood Mac - Tusk (A worthy follow up to Rumours, whose colossal success is probably why this album gets overlooked. "Over And Over" is one of my favourites.)

• The Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands (Considering that my ears were met with pure, unendurable feedback when I gave a Jesus and Mary Chain best of a listen a few years ago, this album is surprisingly melodic.)

• Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle (G-Funk at it's best, an absolute classic)

I also enjoyed (deep breath...)

• Ice Cube - AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
• Nas - Illmatic
• Jay Z - The Blueprint 
• Common - Be 
• Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley 
• The Clash -The Clash 
• Motorhead - Ace Of Spades
• Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club 
• Booker T & The M.G's - Green Onions 
• Rush - Moving Pictures 
• Janis Joplin - Pearl  (More music I heard from adverts first! "Mercedes Benz" is a classic)

• Sonic Youth - Sister 
• Wire - Pink Flag 
• The Sonics - Here Are The Sonics 
• Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
• The Doors - LA Woman
• Depeche Mode - Violator, Music For The Masses
• The Police - Regatta De Blanc
• Carole King - Tapestry
• The Mama's & Papas - If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
• The Byrds - Fifth Dimension, The Notorious Byrd Brothers
• The Mekons - Fear and Whiskey 

Nay 

• Captain Beefheart & His Magical Band - Safe As Milk, Trout Mask Replica (Oh good lord these albums just made me ears hurt. The opposite of SoaD - the weirdness of this music really hurt my enjoyment of it.)

• Can - Future Days, Tago Mago/ Neu! - Neu (This is krautrock? How disappointing. My first impressions were "...well where's the rock?")

• Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene

And here's one last example of a song I've heard for years but never been able to name! (skip to 1:43 in the video below). Rather like Tubular Bells this just left me a bit cold.

• Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die (I can't believe a band called Tortoise would disappoint me so much.)

• Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
• Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician
• Slipknot - Slipknot, All Hope Is Gone

 

Meh

• Van Morrison - Moondance (In fairness this was much more my cup of tea than Astral Weeks)

• Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida: 

Turns out The Simpsons were right, the title track was supposed to be called "In The Garden Of Eden", but lead singer Doug Ingle was so drunk when he wrote it, his bandmates couldn't understand him and wrote the title down phonetically. Shame the album is the very definition of a one track album.

• Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age (Why do QOTSA keep disappointing me? I've heard people effuse with praise for them yet I've only liked a handful of their songs.)

• Tim Buckley - Goodbye and Hello (Jeff's Dad! Who sadly was taken from us before he was 30 too. I think my expectations of this album were too high.) 

• Iron Maiden - Number Of The Beast (Well at least it had "Run To The Hills") 

• Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets, Ambient 1: Music For Airports, Before and After Science (OK, Before and After Science is more "yay" than "meh" really, the thematic split halfway through the album worked really well. But the point is on the whole I've found Eno's work a bit of a let down)

Also not quite doing enough to gain my affections were...

• Sly & The Family Stone - There's A Riot Goin' On
• The Jeff Beck Group - Trust
• Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
• The Grateful Dead - American Beauty
• James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
• Magazine - Real Life
• Gang Of Four - Entertainment
• Killing Joke - Killing Joke
• War - The World is a Ghetto
• Dr. John - Gris Gris
• A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels Through the Paths of Rhythm
• G Love & Special Sauce -  G Love & Special Sauce
• The Bee Gees - Odessa 

Whew, I'll try not to leave it so long between updates next time. See you soon!