The Choice Four - "The Finger Pointers" (1974)

This is apparently one of the more obscure records that I own, with only 3 ratings on rateyourmusic.com and only a tracklisting on allmusic.com. The Choice Four were a short-lived soul/funk quartet who failed to find any great commercial success with this record and thus faded into obscurity. Although this is hardly a bad record, with good singing and tasteful production, I can see why it didn't make any impact as well. Simply put, the songs are generic and largely lacking in hooks. So although I don't have any ill will towards this album, I also don't see myself wanting to listen to it again in the future. And that means blue bin.

Sade - "Diamond Life" (1984)

After hearing Sade's Promise first, there are no surprises in hearing Diamond Life. But as advertised, this is definitely the superior record. The style is the same but the songs are much more consistently hooky. This is adult contemporary at its most classy, and maybe the only time it was classy. In the end, I can't get enough of Sade's voice. The closest comparison I can think of is Nico from the Velvet Underground, with her harsh Germanic tones. Sade is smoother (of course) but has the same regal delivery that conveys no emotion but nonetheless inspires it. Just try getting "Smooth Operator" or "Hang On To Your Love" out of your head!

The Pretenders - "Learning to Crawl" (1984)

The Pretenders were both critically acclaimed (this album received 5 stars at allmusic.com) and commercially successful, but they have no doubt faded in terms of recognition today, at least compared to some of their contemporaries. My feeling is that this is a good, but not great record. The opening set of songs is great, though. "Middle of the Road" combines jangly guitars in the verses with harder riffage in the choruses, simultaneously casting them as a harder rocking, more bluesy R.E.M., yet the "oooh oooh oooh"s prove they have a pop sense as well. Single "Back on the Chain Gang" is the highlight of the record, with a romantic, almost Spanish lead guitar part, and simple, but brilliant call-and-response pop hooks ("I found a picture of you - oh oh oh oh"). "Time the Avenger" is much more taut, almost punk in its driving, bass-led riff, and really works just as well. After that, the record doesn't exactly lose focus, but most of the remaining material is decent rather than excellent.

Although the group no doubt can play in a lot of different styles, most of the tracks are all produced the same way, and as such, they sometimes fail to develop their own personality. Furthermore, especially on the second side, a lot of the songs just seem like pastiches rather than fully developed compositions. "My City Was Gone" has a nice bluesy bass riff, but I would have preferred it at half the length). "Thin Line Between Love and Hate" is the only song here not penned by Chrissie Hynde, and although pleasant, it is basically a generic Motown soul ballad. What I didn't know about this record while listening to it is that it was made after the deaths of the band's guitarist and bassist. So I am impressed that they kept on, especially as the guitar and bass playing on this record is overall very good, and perhaps if I had been more familiar with the Pretenders and their history, I would get more of an emotional charge out of this record given the circumstances. But then again, perhaps it's better to stay objective. At any rate, an easy one to recommend, if not quite a must-own.

Elton John - "21 at 33" (1980)

I have a surprisingly large number of Elton John albums in my collection. Unfortunately, nearly all of them fall between the years 1978-1985, a treacherous period for most classic rock artists, and the beginning of the end for Elton in particular. There's no real science in what determines whether an album from this period is a keeper or not, so in the end, I have to go with my gut. In the case of 21 at 33, my gut says blue bin. 

It's definitely a major comeback from his legendarily awful disco experiment Victim of Love (which I also own and blue-binned long ago, but not before one listen to satisfy my morbid curiosity), as he (mostly) leaves the disco behind and returns to pop/rock balladeering. The first side, though it has some lingering disco beats, comes out generally okay, as "Chasing the Crown" and "Two Rooms at the End of the World" are much better efforts in the Victim of Love style, probably because they aren't actual disco songs, but disco-tinged rock songs. "Sartorial Eloquence" is a generic ballad, but catchy enough. The highlight of the first side, though (and the entire record) is single "Little Jeannie," which although it has a somewhat corny vibraphone arrangement, has more hooks than the rest of the album put together and the closest thing to prime Elton we have here.

Then we have the second side, which though it covers a decent stylistic range, fails to develop any personality and guarantees this record's entry in the blue bin. And really, apart from "Little Jeannie," the songs on the first side were only minor highlights at best. So I can't say I'm too broken up about giving away this one. But hey, it's a lot better than Victim of Love!

Herbie Hancock - "Future Shock" (1983)

I can't say that I had ever listened to any Herbie Hancock albums before this one. But I still find it remarkable that a) a jazz musician in his mid-40s who had been recording for 20 years released an album this modern and fresh and b) he got an MTV hit in the process. I had seen the video for "Rockit" on some greatest video countdown show, which is why I knew a little bit about Hancock's background, and how odd it was to see his music on MTV. Although its synthesizer riff is indeed mighty catchy, the clattering rhythms and turntables would make it an impossible hit if it wasn't the era where music videos were still novel. After all, this is a seasoned jazz musician making futuristic electronic music that blends in elements of jazz, R&B and industrial and is largely instrumental to boot.

I don't know how many MTV viewers then went on to buy Future Shock, but I would like to imagine that the slurred, dreamy title track and the spacey, shrieking Moog sounds of "Earth Beat" would have come as quite a shock indeed. As for me, my one listen to this record left me very impressed. The heavy use of electronics and focus on rhythm over melody no doubt would make this cold and largely inaccessible music for some. But on nearly every track, Hancock conjures a certain drugged, outer space ambience. It doesn't hurt that nearly ever song has a simple, but effective hook that ties the listener to Earth. I was particularly fascinated by the title track, which is basically an 8 minute dance song that no one would ever dance to. The production intentionally muddles the feminine-sounding vocals (sung by a man) into a gruff bass-driven rhythm, while the singer sings the same hook over and over again, before silencing for several minutes of frantic guitar soloing. Overall, an easy keeper, and perhaps an underrated album as well.

Three Dog Night - "American Pastime" (1976)

I was hoping this album might be one where I could finally put my feelings about Three Dog Night on paper one way or the other. This band has been with me since my childhood, thanks to their cover of "Joy to the World" and its infamous (for me, anyways) refrain of "Jeremiah was a bullfrog!" I have long suspected that they were a mediocre group, but I am always reluctant to pronounce final judgment on a band unless I have heard at least one of their albums. 

Well, now I've heard American Pastime and I can confidently say that it is pretty terrible. Consisting of all cover songs, this record finds Three Dog Night exploring a variety of styles, such as rock, funk, and disco, and sounding bad in all of them. The vocal performances are decent, but the hooks are lacking and the instrumentation weak. Bland mid-70s soft rock at its blandest, and I don't have a lot interesting to say about it.

But to be fair, my obligatory allmusic.com and rateyourmusic.com research has uncovered that this particular album is considered by even fans of the band to be one of their weakest, as it came late in their career, and after one of the three main members had already left the group. So I still can't pronounce a final judgment on Three Dog Night as a whole. But I can on this album, and my judgment is that it is going to the blue bin.

The Temptations - "House Party" (1975)

I have a theory that the Temptations and other prime Motown acts of the 1960s are the most immune to criticism of any popular music acts. Not only do pop critics shy away from discussing them in terms of their best and worst material, and how they rank historically, they're not even really part of the conversation. My suspicion is that it's because of how they were presented. No one thinks of the Temptations in terms of albums, but rather in terms of their hit singles, which, like the best of the Motown era, are all immaculate, if by necessity formulaic. It is taken for granted that these were not album-oriented artists (with the exception of artists like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, who to release great albums, had to break free from the Motown yoke). As a result, bands like the Temptations are largely unassailable, even though their artistic achievements as a whole pale compared to the colorful discographies of a Gaye or a Wonder.

This is all my lead-in to defending my decision to consign a Temptations album to the blue bin. Fortunately, I don't have to defend this one too much because even band member Otis Williams referred to House Party as "a mismatched collection of, pardon my French, shit" (thanks Wikipedia!). The year was 1975, the Temptations' classic style of balladry was no longer in vogue, and the album was a collection of outtakes and leftovers to keep product moving. So perhaps it's not surprising that this particular record didn't turn out very well. Still, I did feel a rare twinge of guilt when I realized that I was not enjoying the music of the Temptations. 

There are a lot of problems here, but the main one is that the Temptations present themselves as a funk band, which just isn't their forte. Although the album starts off reasonably well, I found the instrumentation to be robotic on even the best songs, the production to be muddled, and the vocal performances generally weak and uninspired. There are some decent cuts to be found like "You Can't Stop a Man in Love" and the album closes relatively strongly with a return to their ballad style for the last two tracks. But even on these songs, pretty much the only ones with noticeable hooks and melodies, the performances fail to hold my interest. So although this record is professional enough to avoid being a total disaster, it's still a mediocre album.

Loverboy - "Loverboy" (1980)

I admit that it's a bit hard to take a band called Loverboy very seriously, especially when their most notable single is "Workin' for the Weekend" and their trademark is poppy hard rock. Still, I have no problem calling this a good mediocre album. Though I'm not sure it was much of an accomplishment, this album foreshadowed bands like Def Leppard and Bon Jovi with its combination of glossy production and hard rock guitars. Indeed, producer Bruce Fairbairn was later known for his work with exactly those kinds of bands (and producing Aerosmith's 'holy trinity' of terrible albums in the late 80s/early 90s. 

Although this style later paved the way for hair metal and lurid videos with Steven Tyler and Alicia Silverstone, there is nothing inherently wrong with it. The first side of this record consists of pretty much all winners, showcasing catchy and exciting pop choruses, histrionic but not unendearing singing, and a lot of verve and energy in the playing. The instrumentation is energetic enough throughout the record that the cheesiness can be forgiven, and their hard rock influences not forgotten, thus ensuring that this record is a lot better than much of the dreck that it spawned. I can't give a resounding endorsement because even the best songs here are still cheesy and the second side really adds nothing to the first, repeating in the same style with weaker hooks. But it's definitely a keeper.

Terje Rypdal - "Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away" (1974)

Continuing in my fine tradition of reviewing random jazz records, tonight I found myself grappling with what I would label as progressive jazz-classical-fusion, spearheaded by Norwegian electric guitarist Terje Rypdal. Although I am still not entirely sure what to make of this kind of music, I largely found Rypdal's guitar playing compelling. He has a unique guitar tone; soaring and high-pitched like a David Gilmour, but at the same time, gruff and far more technically proficient. I liked it personally, but I would be remiss not to mention the fact that my girlfriend couldn't abide by the dissonant squeals that Rypdal wrenches from his instrument at times. In short, this kind of music could work as background music, but only if you are weird like me.

For me, although I found the first side to be rather good (especially the one 'short' track "The Hunt"), the side-long title track came off to me as boring, despite being perhaps the only song I have ever heard to fuse jazz, rock and classical all at the same time (indeed it was arranged for electric guitar, strings, and oboe). The result of all this fusion is rather slow to develop, but once I thought of it as basically an ambient piece, I did find it more enjoyable. Ultimately, this is no doubt an interesting record and tonally not far from the deep blue sky depicted on the album cover.

Elton John - "Rock of the Westies" (1975)

Embarrassing cover photography aside, Elton John was still on the tail end of his prime in 1975. Rock of the Westies is something of a throwaway record, and for the most part, it lacks the epic balladry that he is most known for (exception being the pretty good "I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)"). But that said, his songwriting skills hadn't yet slipped, so although this album has no grander ambitions than to be a collection of mildly enjoyable rock songs, it succeeds in that regard. There is more of an emphasis on guitars than piano, and although it's hardly a hard rock album, this record is ample proof that there was a time when Elton had some rock credentials. I considered a lower rating for all the pictures of the band members on the album sleeve with their long hair and bare chests, but I had to be honest with myself and admit that I too would totally have gone for that look in the mid-70s.

10cc - "Deceptive Bends" (1977)

I haven't listened to a ton of 10cc, and the reputation of Deceptive Bends is that it is not one of their peak albums. Still, I found this to be a largely enjoyable record, if not a great one. At their best, 10cc combined immaculate pop hooks with a thirst for the unexpected - their songs often shift and mutate throughout the course of three and four minutes. In following this formula, if you can call it a formula, they were working the tradition of the best 1960s pop bands, although perhaps only because they came later on, their stylistic moves can feel forced and studied compared to the natural thrills of bands like the Beatles.

There is really nothing to gripe about with a beautiful pop single like "The Things We Do for Love," though, and there are several interesting and inventive highlights here. My main criticism is that this album is inconsistent, and although they get away with a softer number with the aforementioned "Things," they try their hand at one again with "People in Love" and just come off like a slightly more melodic Seals and Crofts. Apparently this sort of thing foreshadowed the rest of their career, which was not one to write home about. But they hadn't jumped into that abyss yet, and Definite Bends is still a good album. 

The Who - "Face Dances" (1981)

I should start this review by saying that I think The Who are either the third or fourth best musical act of the rock era, period. Quadrophenia is in my top ten albums of all time and Live at Leeds is by far, the best live rock album that I know of. But good things don't last forever, and by 1981, Keith Moon was no longer alive and the Who were largely washed up. Still, with expectations appropriately set, I (mostly) enjoyed Face Dances. There are a lot of flaws with the album, undoubtedly. The production fails to distinguish the instruments, so the guitar, bass and drums all blend together, a travesty for a band like the Who. Even worse, Roger Daltrey's singing is horrible throughout, lacking the raw power that he was known for in the 70s.

Still, I will keep this album in my collection because although they could have been performed and arranged better, most of the songs here are good, at least in an embryonic state. Pete Townshend's songwriting abilities had declined, but he hadn't completely lost his mastery of hooks. Plus, there is one Who classic in opening track "You Better You Bet," which although somewhat dorky, can't help but bring a smile to my face. I definitely wouldn't blame someone for giving this record a thumbs down rating, but for me, the positives ever so slightly outweigh the negatives. That said, this one sure doesn't make me excited to listen to It's Hard, their last studio album, and by all accounts, an even weaker effort.

Kenny Loggins - "High Adventure" (1982)

This is one of two Kenny Loggins albums that I own (the other being Nightwatch), and my general reaction to each was about the same. Loggins has a powerful, if histrionic tenor voice and aims for a middle of the road rock sound. His lyrics are shallow, motivational tripe and his songs are simplistic with overwrought guitar solos. Still, on his best singles ("Danger Zone"), he does manage to achieve a certain cheesy appeal. On both albums, I enjoyed three or four songs, but ultimately had to conclude that the bad outweighed the good.

For what it's worth, this is probably the slightly better of the two records with at least four songs, that although dumb, are still enjoyably hooky (for the sake of posterity, these are the leading two tracks on each side in this case). On Nightwatch, Loggins tried his hand at a longer, prog-influenced song, which failed miserably, and on this album, he keeps everything short and sweet. Unfortunately, he ends each side of the album with a string-backed ballad and although the consistent level of cheese is somewhat tolerable when Loggins is rocking, it is unbearable when he tries his hand at ballads. So in the end, this is a blue bin record, and I have to say that Loggins is one of those artists for whom a greatest hits compilation would be more than sufficient.

Jethro Tull - "M.U.: The Best of Jethro Tull" (1976)

I am not really a fan of greatest hits compilations, much like how I am not really a fan of soundtracks. Obviously, it depends on how the compilation was put together, but for the large part, I find that greatest hits albums actually work better for mediocre artists. For example, I'm not sure you really need more Madonna than her Immaculate Collection. But for a band with grander ambitions like Jethro Tull, an 11-song greatest hits compilation doesn't fully do them justice. After all, if you're into Tull, you really need to pick up Thick as a Brick, their 'one-song' conceptual masterpiece, or Aqualung. And if an early 70s progressive/hard rock album with lots of flute solos sounds abysmal to you, you probably don't need their greatest hits collection.

Still, I would be hard-pressed to deny that there is a lot of good music on this album. Tull's mix of gruff hard rock riffs, progressive song structures, flute, and the kindly old hermit voice of Ian Anderson are nothing if not unique. Undoubtedly, the mixture sounds a bit dated today, if only because progressive rock was deemed uncool, so not a lot of modern bands have attempted to follow in Tull's footsteps. But though I wouldn't go so far as to worship Jethro Tull, and they indeed have some horrid misfires in their discography (I unfortunately own their truly awful mid 80s monster Under Wraps), their best albums feature excellent songwriting from Anderson and guitar from Martin Barre while providing a sound that is rather unique to Tull. So until I pick up Aqualung and Stand Up on LP, I will keep this record. But really, you should get the albums.

The Guess Who - "The Best of the Guess Who"

Songwriting is important. That may be trite, but I am a firm believer in the theory that mediocre songwriters don't just wake up one morning and write "Yesterday." Great songs (and great albums) rarely just come out of nowhere. Part of the fun of listening to all the random LPs I own is listening to the albums where there are multiple songwriters on one record, and hearing how the song quality shifts accordingly. For example, before starting this blog (but following the same precepts), I listened to Huey Lewis and the News' Picture This, which I pretty much hated, except that it contained one of the most infectious pop singles of the 80s in "Do You Believe in Love?" I was baffled, because this one song was on a completely different level from literally every other song on both that album and the other Huey Lewis album I own. Then I read the songwriting credits and discovered that it was also the only song on either album that was written by producer Mutt Lange and not by Lewis or one of the other regular band members. In the end, all was right with the world, and I made a mental note to check out other music Lange had made on his own.

I had one of those 'aha' moments with this compilation of Canadian rock band The Guess Who, as nearly every song on the first side was written or co-written by guitarist Randy Bachman, whereas he wasn't credited at all on the second side. And indeed the first side is phenomenal, which made me wonder if The Guess Who were a seriously underrated band, but the second side is just not as good, despite possessing superficially similar elements. 

I call this a controlled musical science experiment, and my conclusion is that Bachman was a damn good songwriter, at least in the late 60s. The group's most famous singles are "American Woman" and "These Eyes" and those are definitely good, but really everything on the first side is great, and surprisingly diverse, as they draw on elements of soul (thanks to lead singer Burton Cummings' quavering tenor), jazz, and rock. What is odd to me in this case is that Bachman later went on to form Bachman-Turner Overdrive, which I know only for the execrable single "Takin' Care of Business." So maybe it's time to reassess the work of BTO, but regardless, Bachman was on his game in the late 60s.

Weather Report - "Tale Spinnin" (1975)

Well, my random number generator pulled up another Weather Report album for the second time in five nights. In case anyone was dying to know the method behind my madness of how I choose records, I typed up all the LPs I haven't listened to in a spreadsheet, then use OpenOffice's random number generator to choose them. I have to say, it makes me feel pretty awesome. But given my limited jazz vocabulary, I don't know that I have a lot new to say about this Weather Report record that I didn't say about the other one that I reviewed. So it goes sometimes. This is more jazz-fusion in a similar vein to Mysterious Traveller, with more orchestration and ambience and less of a late-night KWUR feel. But even if I don't have a lot to say about it, if you have any interest in this kind of music at all, this is another solid one to pick up. I like music that has ambition and travels to unexpected places, and like its predecessor, this one does that too. In conclusion, I am all for this Weather Report business. Thumbs up and all that jazz.

John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band - "Original Soundtrack (Eddie and the Cruisers)" (1983)

As someone who prefers to listen to albums rather than individual songs, and someone who likes to delve deep into the unsavory depths of many a mediocre band's discography, I have something of an aversion to soundtrack albums. Even when they're good, I find myself wondering what the point really is. Fortunately, the soundtrack to the now-forgotten 1983 film Eddie and the Cruisers is essentially just an album, one recorded by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. So at least for my reviewing purposes, that makes it the good kind of soundtrack. Unfortunately, it's not that good of a record.

Perhaps not surprisingly for a film titled "Eddie and the Cruisers" and a record cover featuring a young tough with slicked-back hair, Cafferty and his band adopt a sound that is indeed an ode to late 50s rock. Especially in the early 80s, this could have turned out terribly, but they relatively do justice to the sound, and show at least some sense of innovation by attempting to unify 50s rock with Bruce Springsteen. That said, the band's Springsteenisms are so overt that you can barely tell the difference between tracks like "On the Dark Side" and "Tender Years" vs. "Thunder Road." This is impressive in a sense, but I think "Thunder Road" is kind of overrated anyways, so "Tender Years" doesn't exactly get me excited. Weirdly, the band actually fares better with slower 50s-style material like "These Oldies But Goodies (Remind Me of You)" but come off rather flaccid when they go up-tempo. Overall, this is not an uninteresting record, and there a couple songs that I like, but ultimately too much that I dislike. Blue bin!

Judy Collins - "Living" (1971)

Sometimes it's just hard to get excited about yet another 70s singer-songwriter whose music is perfectly adequate but at the same time not exciting or rousing in any way. So I'll keep this one brief. Judy Collins' Living is actually a live recording of her performing 10 songs, mostly covers by songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. My girlfriend hated her vocal style but after listening to enough Joni Mitchell and Rickie Lee Jones records, I have at least gotten acclimated to that sort of thing. What I can't get acclimated to is the fact that most of the arrangements here are very quiet, forcing the listener to rely solely on Collins' singing as the means of enjoyment. Well, I find her singing okay but not great, and most of the songs are slow and not particularly memorable. I wouldn't say there is anything bad here, so it probably could be recommended at some level. Collins definitely has some artsy leanings and a number of the songs she covers are definitely good songs (examples: Cohen's "Joan of Arc," Mitchell's "Chelsea Morning" and Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"). But for me, the original versions are better, and I don't see myself wanting to return to this record again. 

Sade - "Promise" (1985)

Sade's Promise is proof that any genre has decent music floating around somewhere. From my vast musical readings, I infer that this eponymous singer is the mother of adult contemporary. And indeed, Promise has that familiar sound of late nights with Delilah on the radio down pat. Smooth saxophones, quiet arrangements with quiet drums, this is all music designed for a certain audience which I normally can't identify with. 

Still, I can't deny that this record has Phil Collins beat any way you look at it. The music is classy and professional rather than sappy and generic. Sade is one of those singers like Nico from the Velvet Underground who is intentionally rather non-emotive - in this context, smooth (operator); but to my ears, that gives the whole project much more street cred. She lets the natural timbres of her voice stand out. The saxophone playing of Stuart Matthewman is actually good and there are some fine bass lines to be found as well. Plus, opening track "Isn't It a Crime" is downright great, perhaps because it makes so much use of dynamics and hooks that it can hardly be called adult contemporary. 

The downside of this record is that although it all sounds good and consistently conjures up that late-night smoky atmosphere, most of the songs are lacking in vocal hooks and go on for five minutes or more even though all the musical themes are established in the first three. So really, it is probably better served as background listening than anything else. For that reason, I might rate it lower if I had heard the purportedly superior Diamond Life first (although I own that one too!), but maybe it's better to have started with the weaker album so I can be that much more impressed by the real thing. At any rate, a definite keeper.

Weather Report - "Mysterious Traveller" (1974)

Weather Report's 1974 release Mysterious Traveller is some serious rock-jazz fusion. I know when I hear the term 'fusion', I think of something more rock-oriented than what this music is, so let me dispel the myth. I would label this music 'rock-jazz' rather than 'jazz-rock', as it is much more ambient and free-flowing than rocking. But there are keyboards, funky electric bass, and rocking guitar licks, so rock and funk elements are definitely there - this just happens to be jazz music with rock elements added in, as opposed to the other way around. What all this is to say is that if you don't like or don't know jazz, I wouldn't recommend trying to get into Weather Report just because they have rock elements. What Weather Report is commendable for is their dark, psychedelic soundscapes and atmospheric keyboard playing by Joe Zawinul. This is definitely exploratory, late night music that made me think of sitting in my college radio station listening to random music at 3 in the morning. Overall, I found it compelling and definitely different, so if you are a jazz or fusion fan and haven't heard Weather Report, I would recommend this record.