50albumsfor50years

This album comes from the suggestion of my friend Alex Johnson who tweeted his love for the band. Like so much music from the 70s, this was a band I knew of but knew nothing about and so, on to the list they went. Badfinger Straight Up 1971 Let's do a mini-review on this one first. I dig the album, the music, and the band in general. I was jamming along to the songs as they played and was enjoying it. I especially loved the alternating lead singers. Is there a modern band that does this with any regularity or is this truly an artifact of a bygone age? Send me your counter-factuals. Anyway, it was all good and enjoyable and I was writing the review in my head when track 9 started, Day After Day . Hmmm, I know this song, I thought. It is very familiar. That intro is unmistakable. And then the singing. And then, wait...this is...surely it's not...this can't be...Badfinger? Oh dear readers, I must confess, and I swear as god as my witness, I thought this was a Beatles...

One of the joys of doing this exercise is that I have opened myself up to a lot of musical possibilities I might never have discovered otherwise. My basic philosophy is if someone mentions music I am not familiar with, I check out the year in which it happened and if I have an opening, I snag it (or something else by the same artist in an empty year.) This can be suggestions from friends, twitter follows, or even family. Which leads to this week. My son approached me a few weeks ago and said, "Do you want to hear what I have been listening to lately?" Um, "YES!" And so he played me the music of Skylar Spencer and I said thanks, I now have 2015 covered. Skylar Spence Prom King 2015 Skylar Spence seems to have started his career as an artist named "Saint Pepsi" which one imagines he was forced to abandon after a "cease and desist" letter or two from some megacorp. Rebranding as Skylar Spence he released an album called Prom King. At least I...

I was asked the other day to create a playlist for a wedding celebration for two amazing friends, Karen and Alice. I was both completely flattered and utterly anxious since, despite being friends, I did feel like I might lack the deep knowledge of some of their other friends of their tastes and loves. I did my best to find songs that both expressed love, commitment, and what I believed to be their musical interests. It's a really good playlist with everything from Lauryn Hill to Darlingside to the Muppets. But since Alice was a long time contributor to Discography over at Scudder's blog , I knew I also had to find some specific pieces from there. That lead me to this week's review: Lake Street Dive Free Yourself Up 2018 Some of my fellow discography bloggers over at Scudder's place have chosen tracks from this album to discuss over the years but that is really the only familiarity I have with this band. Still, I did have some idea what I was in for and I was not...

So this one is embarrassing. A few weeks ago on Twitter, Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) posted about perfect albums by decade . It caught my eye as his 1980s pick was Avalon. I agree that Roxy Music's Avalon is a perfect album. Note for note, it is sublime. His 90's choice was by A Tribe Called Quest which I couldn't fault. 2000s was a Beck album. I have mixed feelings about Beck. He is certainly talented but just seems to me a bit too cheekily derivative of other styles. I'm probably wrong about this. Anyway, the point of this whole story was to get to the 70s and his pick which was "Still Bill". This was not an album I was aware of. And I said so on the twitters, as one does. And then I pulled it up in the music store and realized what a complete idiot I was. Not the first time. Bill Whithers Still Bill 1972 So, um, yes this is an amazing album. And it contains one of the most iconic songs of all time, Lean On Me. And I had no idea this was a song by Bi...

The Ditty Bops The Ditty Bops 2004 As is my wont, I have fallen behind my one album a week planned pace but since my mission was to review 50(+1) albums in a year, this is not really a problem. I just have to work faster. And I actually have a bunch of albums in my queue while I consider what I want to say about them. Things might work out. The next selection is from good friend Kerry and is from the early aughts. I had literally never heard of them before. A perfect fit for my stated goals. So, we have the Ditty Bops. I think if you are a band, the worst thing you ever want to be called as a compliment is "whimsical". It's the equivalent of describing someone's looks as "cute". Nobody really wants to be cute. Beautiful, exotic, even fetching are way better than cute. On the other hand, if you are going to name your band the Ditty Bops, I feel like you have to know you will always be described as whimsical and just be okay with it. And this album ...

Hey Siri, what is the musical polar opposite of last week's post : The Spinners? The Jesus Lizard Goat 1991 This one will come as a bit of a surprise to a subsection of my friends. In the late 80s and early 90s I was fortunate enough to work at the best radio station in the world, WRUV . It was a fun time to be in college radio. The first guard of alternative was going mainstream and an explosion of venues, record labels, and 'zines lead to way more experimentation in genres and music. Making their appearance on the scene was techno, rap (in an expanding buffet of sub-genres), industrial, and, of course, grunge. So here is the true confession time: I never much cared for grunge. At that time of my life I was neither particularly angry nor disaffected with life and I still loved melody, harmony, and clean production values. So while my fellow DJs were enjoying Nirvana, Melvins, Killdozer, I was happily ensconced in ok alt rock (think any band inspired by REM.) When I di...

I have good friend Alice Neiley to thank for this week's choice. In a back and forth conversation, she wondered if I had much experience with Motown. I informed her I did not. So she recommended the 1973 self-titled album from the Spinners. The Spinners 1973 What a great choice. My music library is woefully underrepresented with Motown. I have no real excuse for this. I love the music. I guess I just never felt any urgency to own any of it. Growing up in a white middle class suburb of Baltimore probably didn't help. I definitely grew up with the idea that the music that appeared on Soul Train was not meant for me. (And to be fair, it wasn't! But that is no excuse for not appreciating it.) This was not a conscious thought but just sort of an acceptance of my place in the world. I suspect there were many factors that finally got me to snap out of this mindset and see beyond the limits of my experience, at least musically, but certainly falling in love with a woman how...