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.