1)David Bowie, Lodger: Is it wrong for faulting an album for the "crime" of "not being very cohesive"? I never really got this album, and forgot pretty much all of it except for "D. J." and the super-weird world music track "African Night Flight," and after giving it about nine or ten more relistens, I still don't. Reviews for it (both in 1979 and in more recent years) score it all over the place, and aside from possibly "D. J.," it doesn't seem to have left any big Bowie hit behind, nor, as Pitchfork was proud to point out, is it associated with any act or Bowie persona (it's part of the "Berlin trilogy," but wasn't even recorded in Berlin.) Nobody seems to agree on what the best songs are, aside from maybe "D. J.," "Look Back In Anger" and "Boys Keep Swinging." And the music is...well, it's just a bunch of mostly midtempo-driving Bowie songs--if that makes sense, by which I mean the dominant feature seems the "crack-a crack-a crack-a crack-a" 4/4 "Bowie beat" getting beaten to death. The backing music, aside from the world-music "African Night Flight" and "Yassassin," is a bunch of repetitive shimmering semi-experimental soundscapes that I often can't tell apart from each other (most of those all-over the place reviews proudly point out that "Fantastic Voyage" and "Boys Keep Swinging" have the same chord sequence.) I do like "D. J.," and I like "Boys Keep Swinging" more, but that's because I know part of it was ripped off for Blur's "M. O. R.," which Bowie and Eno apparently successfully sued over! "Repetition" has ugly misogynistic lyrics and a gruesome bass note thingy, which kind of got my attention, and I suppose the "waiiiiting so long" bit in "Look Back In Anger" is not bad. But really, I just don't get this one much, and apparently Eno himself didn't care for it, and I never see it talked about here. Do you like it? It doesn't even seem like you can pin it down to a certain era--obviously it's not from the early 70s or the plastic 80s, but it seems to have very little to do with 1979.
The Replacements, All Shook Down: Sigh. I like this one. I shouldn't. I like it a lot better than I used to; back when I was getting into the rest of this band's catalogue (and constantly having to defend them on this board) I wrote All Shook Down off for being derivative. That's true--Westerberg broke absolutely no new ground with this disc, whereas all three of the 1985-89 Replacements albums changed direction in terms of production, this time he dropped any pretense to trying to make the charts and just made another Replacements album, which is hilarious because the main thing anyone finds out about this album is that it was supposed to be a Paul Westerberg solo album, and it IS pretty much that, with session musicians playing most Replacements parts (none of the surviving bandmembers seem to know what songs they played on), not that it really matters who's playing when you make an album that breaks no ground. Whatever--I really love the super-somber acoustic title track, the jaunty, short, trebly ringer "Torture," and the stadium rocker "My Little Problem" featuring Johnette Napolitano (who?), which is basically the same song as the leadoff single "Merry Go Round," and both of which are pretty much the same song as the previous album's "Talent Show." And "Attitude" and "Happy Town" are similar and I like all five f***ing songs, this band is just too easy for me to like no matter how much slop gets poured on them. Hell, I didn't dislike any of this. Four stars out of five for an album that doesn't really deserve it on paper, means I'm basically a fanboy. Get out the Mod Lang jokes, I really don't care. There are some great demos as bonus tracks too, like the demo of "Happy Town," or the lost track "Tiny Paper Plane."
Sparks, Propaganda: Fruity patootie. I don't like this any more than I did the first time around, which is to say that I'd rate it about a 9 out of 15, tops, meaning that I didn't really get into any Sparks album until 1976, unless my upcoming Indiscreet relisten proves me wrong. "B. C.," "Something For The Girl With Everything," and "Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth" are the best songs, and even those are just ones that I can remember, this thing all seems to blur into one fruity squeaky song to me. Well, I sort of liked "Reinforcements" a little more. But y'know. NOTE: FOR GOD'S SAKE WILL PEOPLE STOP COMPARING THIS BAND TO QUEEN. AN OPERATIC VOCALIST IS THE ONLY THING THE TWO BANDS HAVE IN COMMON (ASIDE FROM NEITHER BAND HAVING A TRUE "MASTERPIECE" ALBUM), AND EVEN THEN, FREDDIE MERCURY AND RUSSELL MAEL DO NOT SOUND ANYTHING ALIKE. FREDDIE DOES NOT SING LIKE A CARTOON CHARACTER AND QUEEN DID NOT DO SILLY SONGS ABOUT WEIRDO SUBJECT MATTER FOR THE MOST PART LIKE SPARKS DO.
Billy Joel, The Nylon Curtain: When I first reviewed this I claimed that it was the rock music equivalent of The Big Chill, with its Reagan era commentary on the legacy of the 1960s and the boomer generation hitting its 30s, but all critics want to do with it is talk about Billy's "Beatles influences," which are the Lennon soundalike "Laura" (which is great) and that one song that sounds like "She's A Woman" (which isn't), and not his Springsteen influences, which is what I thought he was going for with the bombast of "She's Right On Time" (great), the factory subject matter of "Allentown" (great), and the big drama of "Goodnight Saigon" (terrible overblown slop). I really only liked, and still only like, the three songs I've already called great; "Pressure" blows and always has, terrible synth garbage, and all I got out of the album this time that I didn't notice before was Billy trying an atmospheric intro with "Scandinavian Skies" and the cutesy, totally 80s, Spielberg nighty-night moment when someone plays the melody from "Allentown" on a flute, or a synth flute, at the end of the last song. Unlike other Billy albums, which have either gotten better or maintained their reputation, this one's just not much for me.
5)Roxy Music, Siren: Yeah, not a fan of this one--Country Music's reputation has gone up, I still don't get Stranded very well, but this one has dropped quite a ways. All I find terribly strong here is "Both Ends Burning," and even that one I'm not super-attached to. "Love Is The Drug" starts out sounding all proto-disco-y and nice, and I like "loooove is the druuuug" at the end, but the verses are nothing special!! "Whirlwind" has some okay-ish energy to it, and "Nightingale" and "Just Another High" start off acceptably enough...but honestly, that's about it, folks. People talk about the few moments of proto-disco on this disc as if the band totally reinvented its sound with each successive platter, but I've never thought they really did, most songs here sound like they could have just as easily come from the previous two albums, and once again, I'm only marginally impressed by the backing music, which is played with talent but just always seemed to take a backseat to Bryan Ferry and his neverending romantic fantasies, virtually all of which cover the same ground as far as I can tell, which makes reading reviews a chore. They sure do love to dissect Ferry's lyrics--god, was he that deep? Also I think Jerry Hall looks like Madonna, which is to say I don't think she was any sort of a striking beauty.
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