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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Rickie Lee Jones - "Rickie Lee Jones" (1979)

The second of three RLJ albums that I own, I found this one easier to get into than I did Pirates. I don't know if that means it's more accessible or I am just becoming more accustomed to Jones' style regardless, but generally I found this to be a good one all the way through. I definitely underestimated Jones, as there is now no doubt in my mind that she has a unique style and vision. Admittedly, that style and vision is somewhat removed from my own intuition as to what great music should sound like. Her enigmatic vocal delivery and intelligent working-class oriented lyrics make her an inscrutable Springsteen or perhaps more accurately, a less approachable Joni Mitchell. But whatever the appropriate comparison, I found myself stirred by several songs here, and "The Last Chance Texaco" is flat-out great from an atmospheric perspective. I also found myself annoyed at times, so I can't give a glowing recommendation. But a good one, definitely.

Pat Martino - "Starbright" (1976)

Furthering my excursions into obscure 1970s jazz records, Pat Martino's Starbright is more proof that jazz wasn't completely dead in the 70s. I tried to listen to this as background music while getting ready for work this morning, but by the end of the record, I was still unsure if I liked it or not. Fortunately, I decided that I probably just hadn't been listening closely enough, and indeed the second listen proved that to be the case.

This is a jazz-fusion record featuring Martino on guitar and keyboards, but is largely a solo jazz guitar affair. The reason it didn't work for me as background music is because Martino's playing is largely slow and subtle and often stays well away from the rock guitar style to which I am accustomed. But when listening more closely, I found that his quiet pieces conjured up a nice atmosphere and the funky pieces which did catch my ear on first listen had more going on than I realized. Best of all, Martino has a diverse approach, being comfortable in classical guitar pieces as well as funk-jazz fusion. So in the end, this record is another keeper in my collection, but definitely an odd one for me to get used to.

Gary Burton and Chick Corea - "Duet" (1978)

I don't consider myself very knowledgeable regarding jazz, although I did take a History of Jazz course my freshman year of college, so perhaps I am underselling myself. But at least relative to my rock and pop tastes, where I basically know what I like, and have basic aesthetic criteria that I use to evaluate it, my jazz tastes are much less well-defined. I know that I consider Kind of Blue to be a masterpiece, but that's about it. I say all this because Gary Burton and Chick Corea's 1978 Duet is a hard-core jazz record, consisting of 50 minutes of piano/vibraphone improvisation.

Yet although I was skeptical about the use of vibraphone, especially as one of only two instruments, I enjoyed this record quite a bit. Corea is a name I know from my freshman year class, and I found his piano-playing to be exciting and rarely boring, continuously exploring new themes and motifs, and I found Burton's vibraphone to be a great accompaniment. So in the end, if I am less certain about whether this is a 3 star or a 4 star record then I would be if it were a rock album, I am certain that this is good music, and as such, it easily makes the cut to stay in my collection.

Elton John - "11-17-70"

Well, I'm not exactly making good on my promise to review a record a day. Such is life. But I'll keep trying! As for Elton John's live album, appropriately titled "11/17/70," it is no doubt a keeper. I admit, I am not as keen on live albums in general as some, though I do appreciate most of the undisputed classics of the genre (i.e., The Who's Live at Leeds or Deep Purple's Made in Japan). So I found John's sparse lineup of piano, bass and drums to be more solid than outstanding. All that said, the three players are impressive (especially Dee Murray on bass) and this record is a reminder of a time not so long ago when Elton was not a musical has-been but a vibrant and sometimes thrilling performer.

Howard Jones - "Dream Into Action" (1985)

A lot of the fun of this project for me is the idea of listening to random records, setting aside my biases for 40 minutes, and letting my ears do the judgment. I had never heard of Howard Jones before acquiring this album, and I admit I do tend to be biased towards artists whom I've never heard of, based on my optimistic theory that over time, good albums will always be remembered (by music critics at the minimum) and that the best artists will stand the test of time. So by this theory, the fact that I'd never heard of Howard Jones (keeping in mind that I read A LOT of music and album reviews and can expound on the traits and most highly-regarded albums of plenty of artists I have never actually listened to) is a red flag that that there was something lacking in his discography.

Yet much as I'd like to make a lot of corny jokes about how this album is a turkey in honor of Thanksgiving, I actually found "Dream Into Action" to be a very impressive record. Although the sound is very dated to 1985, with plenty of automated rhythm tracks, synthesizers, and a singing voice which is hardly distinguishable from other 80s British New Wave artists from the same time period, I found the songs to be consistently creative, interesting, and diverse. The singles that lead off each side - "Things Can Only Get Better" and "Look Mama," are both top-tier mid 80s singles and the surrounding tracks are not much worse.

My major criticism of the album lies with the fact that the sound is so dated - although the individual songs are fairly creative, I have to suspect that the major reason Jones has largely been forgotten is that the album is so locked into its time period, and worse yet, does not really have a personality that sets it apart from other artists working in the same genre. It's a good record, but there are better albums with a similar sound, making it all too easy for Jones to have fallen out of favor when recalling the best records of the 80s. But setting that aside, I enjoyed this album quite a bit, and would definitely recommend it.

Steve Winwood - "Back in the High Life" (1986)

Perhaps I am losing my gift for condescension and withering criticism, but here is yet another quintessential 'bargain bin' album that will remain in my collection rather than traverse to that great blue bin in the sky. Most notable for the radio staple "Higher Love," this solo outing by former Traffic and Spencer Davis Group singer Steve Winwood is much better than I was anticipating, even if I have never quite been able to make myself change the station when "Higher Love" comes on.

If you've heard "Higher Love" or clicked the friendly Youtube link I have provided, you will probably be able to ascertain whether you, too, would like this record. Maybe it's just because this kind of music was subtly imprinted on my brain while I was in the womb, but I do have a predilection for the overproduced, horn-driven sound that Winwood favors. More importantly, a solid majority of the songs have hooks and melodies that caught my ear on first listen - simplistic pop, but not necessarily trivial. I certainly found the album to be of much higher quality than Phil Collins' similar-sounding LPs of the same era, so there must be something to the songwriting. It's hardly a great album, as every song is too long, and the second side is boring, but it is good enough to nestle back onto my shelf in between The Who and Wonder, Stevie. Or perhaps between Steve Miller and Steve Perry, depending on your alphabetical predisposition.

The Roches - "The Roches" (1979)

The Roches are a band I had never heard of until tonight. Although the front cover did not appear particularly promising, I definitely liked this record. It is basically an acoustic folk album, with a strong emphasis on the harmonies of Maggie, Terry, and Suzzy Roche. When I heard the first ten or fifteen seconds of the opening track "We," with three high-pitched voices singing "We are Maggie and Terre and Suzzy," I cringed a bit, thinking I had stumbled across some sort of drugged-out children's album. But although very twee (not that that term existed in 1979), the song is actually a tongue-in-cheek introduction to the group, featuring dissonant harmonies and odd, but clever lyrics ("We don't give out our ages/And we don't give out our phone numbers/Sometimes our voices give out/but not our ages and our phone numbers").

Throughout the record, the Roches play precious, almost child-like music that nonetheless has a definite arty bent (the album is produced by Robert Fripp of prog-rock giant King Crimson and features his electric guitar as well as King Crimson staple Tony Levin on bass). Although the music is very sparse, the harmonies and melodies are weird enough to keep things interesting, and overall, the album is not quite like anything else I have ever heard. My main criticism is that the songs tend to run for four or five minutes in length, which feels a bit long for what are fairly simplistic (at least texturally simplistic) songs. But setting that aside, The Roches is definitely a very good album and another pleasant surprise in my collection.