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.