Allan Rich - "Glass Heart" (1976)

Another candidate for most obscure album I own (no allmusic.com review!), and honestly, I can see why. This certainly isn't the worst album I've ever heard and Allan Rich, whoever he may be, has some modicum of musical talent, with a voice reminiscent of James Taylor and apparently, the ability to play the piano as well. But  as I was able to immediately ascertain from his decision to lead off his record with a Bruce Springsteen cover, Rich fails on Glass Heart to establish any personality, or really anything memorable about him. His sound is most reminiscent of Boz Scaggs - well-produced, soulful, mid 70s pop-rock. But even compared to the incredibly bland soul of Scaggs, Rich's music drifts in and out, any positive impressions fated to wither and perish. Blue bin!

Jimmy Buffett - "Living and Dying in 3/4 Time" (1974)

The best Jimmy Buffett song ever written is "Bananas and Blow." The second best is "Margaritaville." And the third best is "Come Monday," taken from Living and Dying in 3/4 Time. The rest of the record, though, I didn't really care for, even though I listened to it shortly before departing for New Orleans and Mardi Gras to try and get myself in the mood for some casual debauchery. Oh well. I feel that Buffett is occasionally capable of writing a nice melody, but most of his songs rely solely on his persona to sell themselves. And what does it say that his best song wasn't even written or performed by him? Blue bin!

Bread - "Lost Without Your Love" (1977)

I hear no appreciable difference between Lost Without Your Love and Manna, so I really can't explain why allmusic.com gave Manna 4.5 stars, making me wonder if there was something I had missed, and why they gave Lost just 2 stars. What I hear is a band that is quite consistent in their adherence to formula, production value, and gentle melody. Indeed, like Manna, it all sounds perfectly fine, but even after consuming two cups of coffee with breakfast, my reaction to this music is not to cry a lonely tear, but rather, to fall asleep. Blue bin!

Joan Baez - "Gulf Winds" (1976)

By 1976's Gulf Winds, Joan Baez basically sounded like a poor woman's Joni Mitchell. This is something of a shame, since Baez was of course, one of the pioneering, if not the pioneering female singer/songwriter of the folk/rock era of the early 1960s. I know Baez by reputation primarily, so I will assume that she was a lot better in the 60s than what she shows on this album, which has all the hallmarks of bad singer/songwriter music. Little melody, lots of acoustic guitar, 'meaningful' lyrics, and boring singing. I suppose nearly every musical artist produces a bad album if they keep recording long enough, so I won't scrutinize Baez too much for this one. Blue bin!

Bread - "Manna" (1971)

What's in a band name? Is a band named Bread doomed to be bland? Or perhaps most good bands have uninspiring names, and they only sound like good names because they're associated with great music. Indeed, the greatest band of the rock music era has a name derived from a pun that was almost instantly dated. Still, I find there to be something almost onamatopoeic about a band called Bread whose musical specialty is bland soft-rock. 

I will readily confess that I was prepared to be biased against Manna, as the critical reputation of Bread is a poor one, 4.5 star reviews from allmusic.com notwithstanding (I certainly have the impression that any band from the 60s and 70s gets a 4.5 star review for their best album on that site as long as they weren't totally obscure). I was prepared to be grievously offended by the sounds emanating from my speakers, but of course, a band called Bread could never make offensive music. Instead, their music sounds perfectly pleasant and nice, with gentle harmonies and lilting melodies. Perhaps also unsurprising to someone who has diagrammed his musical taste buds as carefully as I have, I simply couldn't find a way to enjoy music this smooth, this calculated. Presented differently, I suspect these songs might have some substance, but as is, it's much more like eating bread than it is like receiving manna. Blue bin!

Kendrew Lascelles - "Earth Fungus and the Stuff of Stars" (1973)

I could find almost no information about this album prior to listening to it (not even on allmusic.com) and so had absolutely no idea what it would sound like when I turned it on. As it turns out, it's a spoken word album. I admit that due to this turn of events, I violated my standard precept of this blog, which is to at least listen to the entire side of the first record (and it indeed only rarely that I don't even bother to flip over the second side). I made it through a track and a half, not because it particularly offended me, but because I was cleaning, so it took me that long to realize that there probably wasn't going to be any music. My philosophy for this blog (and in general) is that lyrics are secondary to the music, something that can enhance or detract from the overall sound, but aren't going to shift a rating more than a half star in either direction (except on rare occasions). So strip out the music, and there's simply nothing I'm really interested in, unless it's a truly renowned poet or Bob Dylan. I can't say that the poetry here was particularly terrible (though as you can probably guess by the album title, it's certainly dated), nor Lascelles' speaking voice undistinguished. But I'm just not interested.

Traffic - "When the Eagle Flies" (1974)

Is it wrong that I am keeping my Steve Winwood solo albums but blue-binning one of his albums with Traffic? Probably not, as When the Eagle Flies was not met with critical acclaim, so should hardly be taken to be representative of the band's peak. Still, the main element that drew me to his much cheesier-sounding solo records was his gift for pop melody, and that is largely absent here. This album consists of largely mid-tempo jazz/blues jamming and sounds cool enough, but subsists at level of pleasant mediocrity. The only song that really caught my ear was "Dream Gerrard," with a cool piano riff, but that one also happens to be 11 minutes long and repeats that riff over and over again. I admit that it is harder for me to judge this kind of music (mostly instrumental) on one listen, so the critical derision this one met with makes me have fewer reservations about dumping this record. But on a basic level, my main criterion for rating is whether something stood out about an album. A lot of albums sound fine, but don't actively engage me either. This one is in that category.

Whitney Houston - "Whitney Houston" (1985)

Even I'm not so crass as to blue bin a Whitney Houston album the day after her death, though indeed her death is what prompted me to review this LP. I have mixed feelings about this album, as the vocals are consistently stellar ("How Will I Know," "Saving All My Love for You") but the production and arrangements are very dated, with a lot of electronic rhythm tracks for the up-tempo cuts and the ballads inevitably arranged in the "I Will Always Love You" mold ("Greatest Love of All"). Ultimately, we will remember Houston more for her voice than for her songs, and though she doesn't show it off nearly as much as I would like, when she does, I am left with no doubt that she was one of the two greatest commercial pop singers of the era, along with Mariah Carey. For me personally, I will always wonder what she could have done with better songs and a less commercial approach, but maybe that's beside the point.

Dan Fogelberg - "Phoenix" (1980)

Despite my frequent disparaging of Mr. Dan Fogelberg, here I am holding on to another one of his records. This album is rather inconsistent in terms of song quality, with a fair amount of the kind of boring soft rock that I most readily associate with him ("Gypsy Wind," "The Last to Know"). But on the other hand, he pulls off some decent, 'harder' rock songs like "Phoenix" and "Face the Fire" (though both are overlong). I think I like the more rocking tracks because really, my main problem with Fogelberg is his wishy-washy 70s singer/songwriter vocal tone that makes his slower songs induce narcolepsy. He is capable of writing a decent melody, but then often loses the emotional pull of the melody with his bland singing. So on a song by song basis, I'm still not entirely sure if this album is worth keeping, but I found myself impressed by the obvious care put into the arrangements of each song as well as the overall flow and presentation of the album as a whole. I guess that's why I always like to give records a chance.

Barbra Streisand - "Stoney End" (1971)

I can't say I didn't try, but perhaps my instinctive bias against Barbra Streisand was too much to overcome, 4.5 star review from allmusic.com aside. Stoney End finds Streisand in a pop-rock, singer-songwriter vein, covering songs by artists like Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, and Randy Newman. She performs ably enough, as does her backing band, I suppose. Yet I find that her instinct for theatrical schmaltz is a poor fit for the kind of songs she is singing, and I have professed over and over again my suspicion of the singer-songwriter era begat by Dylan. So although it all sounded pleasant, and I wouldn't call it awful, I didn't find anything to grab onto either. Blue bin.

Vivaldi Ensemble, Tokyo - "Vivaldi Concerto and Beatles Medley" (1977)

I have a hard time applying my typical keeper/blue bin dichotomy to this particular record. On one side, the functionally-named Vivaldi Ensemble, Tokyo plays what they presumably know best - Vivaldi. I have admitted in past posts on this blog that my understanding of how to critique and compare jazz albums is minimal, at least compared to my knowledge of rock. And if anything, my understanding of how to critique and compare classical music is even weaker, especially with regards to differentiating between two performances of the same piece. So while I do find this particular concerto to be an excellent one, I have no real sense of how much credit to assign this particular Vivaldi Ensemble for the performance without closely listening to other performances of the same work.

The second side I certainly can critique as the ensemble takes on a medley of Beatles songs - "Yesterday," "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" and "Michelle." I don't find classical takes on these songs to be particularly revelatory, unfortunately. I'd like to say that McCartney's more sophisticated harmonic palate would lend itself well to classical, and his songs do make more sense in a classical environment than Lennon's. But somehow "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," easily the worst of the three songs when performed by the Beatles, sounds the best here. The cover of "Yesterday" is in particular a disappointment, plodding along at a turgid pace and losing the yearning of the original. Considering the original "Yesterday" is well known for having string accompaniment, I have to think that the failure here to bring it into a classical music context has to be placed squarely on the shoulders of this Vivaldi Ensemble of Tokyo. 

So is this a record I keep or throw away? On a pure level of artistic merit, I would say blue bin. But I don't have any other recordings of this particular Vivaldi concerto, and for that reason, I do imagine I'll return to this record. Keeper!

John Mellencamp - "The Lonesome Jubilee" (1987)

Way back on November 16, 2011, I promised I would give Mellencamp another chance after blue-binning his album American Fool. That time is now, and indeed as promised by allmusic.com, The Lonesome Jubilee is a marked improvement. I still think that he is a poor man's Springsteen, so I don't love this album. But I can admit that although his range is limited, this is probably the perfect Mellencamp experience. The songs are anthemic without being pretentious, the production is excellent (the album was produced by Don Gehman, who also produced one of R.E.M.'s best records the same year in Lifes Rich Pageant), and there is little filler. There is a lot more instrumental texture on this record, which not only attests to the increased influence of country and blues, but also is what gives the best songs their hooks. I dig this album for the accordion riff of "Cherry Bomb" and the guitar intro to "We Are the People," because really, the choruses aren't that memorable. Okay, I will stop taking potshots at the man formerly known as Cougar because this is a good record. Keeper.

Dan Fogelberg & Tim Weisberg - "Twin Sons of Different Mothers" (1978)

Well, I enjoyed this record much more than I thought I would. I have previously blue-binned records by each of these mustachioed gentlemen, so I didn't think there was any reason to expect better results when the two of them joined forces. Indeed, Weisberg's High Risk may well be one of the most laughable albums I've ever heard (think jazz flute solos over drum machines and synthesizers circa 1985), so I really didn't expect much from this record. 

Okay, it's no masterpiece. But it does do a nice job playing up the duo's relative strengths and staying away from their weaknesses. It's not that I thought Weisberg was necessarily a bad flautist (not that I have any idea what a good flautist would sound like), but that the premise of jazz flute solos in a very 80s context was just such a terrible one. So without the corny electronics, his flute parts immediately sound much, much better. As for Fogelberg, I'm not really a fan of his mushy soft-rock singer-songwriter approach, but most of these songs are instrumental compositions, and the few vocal numbers at least have hooks, which were lacking on the other record I've heard by him (Home Free). Overall, I would say that this record is more pleasant than thrilling, but there is a nice diversity of style, nothing too offensive, and it's rarely boring. So apparently two mediocre musicians is indeed better than one.

Return to Forever - "Romantic Warrior" (1976)

I have enough jazz records on my shelves to know, that despite the album cover, which at first indicated to me that this would be some terrible mid-70s medieval prog record, Return to Forever is in fact a jazz-fusion supergroup consisting of Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, and Lenny White. I'd heard of three of the four, so that makes it perhaps the most super of jazz supergroups. Anyways, I don't know if I have much meaningful to say about this record, besides that there's a lot of blistering, but not uninteresting playing from all parties. There are some progressive and medieval tinges, but really, this is just jazz fusion from some of the finest players around of the era.

ELO - "Face the Music" (1975)

ELO is one of those 1970s bands that divides critics thanks to their heavy reliance on orchestration and progressive pop sensibilities. Much like with similarly divisive Steely Dan, I am firmly in the pro-ELO camp, proving that I am a lover of pop schlock once and for all (okay, my positive review of Paul McCartney's Tug of War already gave that one away). But really, I don't get it. Sure, ELO is following in the footsteps of the Beatles, particularly the Sgt. Pepper's era, albeit updated for a mid-70s classic rock sound. But they write captivating hooks, use their strings in a creative way (check out those runs on "Evil Woman"!), and if it is all overblown, so be it. The one potential misfire for me is the all-instrumental opening track "Fire on High," which reminds me way too much of the Moody Blues' similar failed efforts to open each album with a string instrumental (though the Moodies made it even worse by adding a spoken-word poem). But after that, this is all impeccable pop music that makes me yearn and swoon. Thumbs up!

Jim Croce - "Photographs and Memories: His Greatest Hits" (1974)

It's always easy to look back at musicians who died young and wonder what could have been. Jim Croce may not have been an artist with the stature of a Hendrix or Joplin, but I think he was at least better than James Taylor. So there. Photographs and Memories, his posthumous greatest hits collection, gathers all the key tracks from his short discography, almost half of them coming from his most famous record, You Don't Mess Around with Jim (which I also own). Probably having both of these records is somewhat redundant, but I will refrain from discarding one and keeping the other, at least for the time being. Croce basically has two personas: funny man ("Bad Bad Leroy Brown" and "You Don't Mess Around with Jim" as the prime examples) and sensitive balladeer ("Time in a Bottle"). He was a good enough songwriter to do well at both, and I commend him for that. These are not great songs, but they are by and large good songs, and I can always make room in my collection for solid, well-performed music. Keeper.

Linda Ronstadt - "Mad Love" (1980)

Once again, Linda Ronstadt defies my expectations. The opening line odds of this one making the blue bin at -191/+181 but I have to say, this is a keeper. It's hard for me to exactly explain why. These are all covers of new wave songs (three by Elvis Costello!), a genre in which Ronstadt didn't exactly make her name. She is a pleasant, but not outstanding singer, so I'm rarely riveted by her vocal performances. Her backing band is professional, but they never tear the listener a new asshole (bad analogy?). But what she does have is an unerring sense of tastefulness, both in choice of songs to cover, and then in performing them. The songs aren't flashy, but they aren't generic either. It would be easy to fall back upon commercial tropes, but even if her band doesn't rip it up, they still play with spirit. So I found the first side enjoyable all the way through, and if the second side drops off a bit, so be it.

Jeff Lorber - "Step by Step" (1984)

For whatever reason, I own three records by Jeff Lorber, pioneer in the 'contemporary' jazz scene of the 1980s. Although he has faded into obscurity today, I do find Lorber to be at least an interesting figure. To my surprise, Step by Step is no doubt a 'black' music record, with the song "Pacific Coast Highway" even winning a Grammy for best R&B instrumental. It's a mixture of mid-80s R&B and jazz, with lots of synthesizers and drum machines. I don't think that this particular mixture was ever a good idea, so it would probably take a lot for this record to escape the blue bin. And indeed it won't. 

There are a few interesting tracks here, although they are mostly when he goes completely instrumental. "On the Wild Side" is the only song where the synthesizers and drum machines are used in a unique way, generating intense rhythmic drive, and for that reason, it is the clear highlight. But even the better songs are marred by the robotic sound, and I don't find that these 'smooth' jazz instrumentals sit well with the more R&B-tinged vocal numbers, most of which are fairly generic and dated. There's even a song written by the infamous Diane Warren  and true to her oeuvre, it is trite and well, awful ("Every Woman Needs It"). Really, I don't even like "Pacific Coast Highway" that much, so this isn't that close to being a keeper for me. But it's an interesting blue bin record. If you have any interest in Lorber's brand of jazz, try the Jeff Lorber Fusion. I own Water Sign and that one I can actually recommend.

Squeeze - "Squeeze" (1978)

Despite the awful album art (the back cover showcases the band all wearing nothing but black briefs in some sort of dated effort to raise shock value, but much like similar Prince covers, it just seems ridiculous today), I call this a successful debut for new wave/power-pop band Squeeze. I own a handful of Squeeze records, and rather enjoy their third album Argybargy. Although they fail to reach the pop bliss of singles like "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)" here, they show their potential and signs of what was to come later. Squeeze has a nervous energy unique to early new wave and combine a gift for pop hooks with almost-punk sensibilities. One odd thing about this album was that it was produced by John Cale of the Velvet Underground, who at least according to allmusic.com, pushed the band in an uncomfortable direction, resulting in an inauspicious debut. But while I wouldn't argue that they got better (and more diverse), I find that their debut is still a worthy chapter in the Squeeze story.