Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened Thursday September 2

There are some earworms on The Life Pursuit (Funny Little Frog, For The Price Of A Cup Of Tea) but B&S’s heyday has passed, I think. Nice melodies and the occasional odd lyric show up here, but the spark is gone.

Listened: Thursday September 2

Supergrass is in a rare category for the more modern bands in my collection: I don’t own all their albums in chronological order. I own I Should Coco and I own Life on Other Planets. I skipped In It For The Money and Supergrass.

The change from I Should Coco to Life on Other Planets is astounding. The ‘grarse are no longer bratty and precocious, but what one might call glam. It feels like they’ve become Bowie or T-Rex. Not that it’s a bad thing, merely jarring. Perhaps that’s the natural evolution of things – pop punk to something more grand. Ask Green Day.

Listened: Thursday September 2

I get the impression that all those people who fell in love with White Ladder didn’t buy any of Mr. Gray’s later albums. They’re missing out.

The later records have more “real” instrumentation instead of the drum machines (all those copies of White Ladder he sold allow him to hire real musicians he couldn’t afford before, presumably). So the music sounds less ghetto, but is also not quite as endearing, since it loses some of its uniqueness in the process.

I love the sad undertone to all the songs on Life In Slow Motion; poignant, but never depressing. Also, I enjoy how he writes songs that could be addressing a lover, friend, parent, or child (see Ain’t No Love); one can hear the message in any number of ways upon repeated listens.

Listened: Thursday September 2

In some ways, Let It Be is pioneering album in the “skits” style (a style, as I noted before, of which I am not generally a fan). No matter, the Beatles can get away with it. Two of Us is an underrated song, and one of my favorites.

I haven’t heard the “naked” version, so I don’t know any better than to like all the Phil Spector production layered on these recordings. Once I get used to how something sounds, it’s hard to get me to think it sounds better some other unfamiliar way, but I guess I should check it out for the sake of comparison. In general I like the Wall of Sound style, though.

Listened: Wednesday September 1

I think I’ve found my antidote to Belle & Sebastian not being as up to snuff as they used to be. Thy name is Camera Obscura.

Let’s Get Out Of This Country is a new acquisition, so I haven’t absorbed it much yet, but the good ingredients are all here: beautiful instrumentation, Scots, clever lyrics, cooing female vocals.

Listened: Wednesday September 1

John Lennon was a major part of the soundtrack of my high school and college years. Basically the time when I thought I was a hippie (though I really wasn’t, if you get right down to it). I own all of his solo albums on vinyl, but Lennon Legend captures the “best of” pretty well.

I love the way his solo catalog so perfectly encompasses the Seventies. Still kind of Beatles-esque at the beginning, but very disco flavored at the end. My favorite song of John’s solo period is Instant Karma, though I hate the quality of the vocals. They’re so badly recorded. A close second is Jealous Guy – the piano is great and I really believe it: he didn’t mean to hurt you.

Listened: Wednesday September 1

When Lemonjelly released their first album, I remember it seeming kind of cool and groundbreaking. It’s loungy-samply chill-out music and it was released at a time when such was beginning to be in vogue.

I’m not so sure I like it anymore, since that style has been done to death by now. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it, but it’s no longer that interesting.

Listened: Wednesday September 1

B&S veer far into their 60s fetishism with the Legal Man single, and even do an instrumental, which is rare.

This was the first single to come out after a 2 year drought, and it was the first single I hotly anticipated after becoming a fan. Even for them it is a quite weird single, as Stuart doesn’t sing on any of the songs.

Listened: Wednesday September 1

LZ make a good recovery from the wankiness of III on IV. Stairway to Heaven is a little overrated, though. I prefer most of the songs on this album to that one.

Definite headbang moments on Black Dog, Rock and Roll (though it reminds me of Cadillacs), Misty Mountain Hop, and When The Levee Breaks.

The cover art makes me think of Wayne’s World – back in middle school I owned this silly book. In it is a list of albums Garth and Wayne think are cool. They describe this one as “That Led Zeppelin album with that guy with the sticks on his back.” Not knowing anything about this album at the time I thought that sounded incredibly bizarre. Well, actually now that I do know about this album it still is kind of a weird image.

Listened: Wednesday September 1

While I have to give Immigrant Song and Out On The Tiles some props, LZIII is a little too vocally and instrumentally wanky for my taste. It’s not as cohesive as I or II.