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.