1001 Albums: 0401 - 0410: I Don't Have A Clever Title

Another ten are done blah blah blah. It was kind of unexceptional despite some nice surprises. So lets have a gander and I'll point out the faves in the recap!


0401 Elvis Costello – This Year’s Model - Not to be outdone by Pere Ubu, Elvis Costello decides to crank out a quick second album too! This one though, is much better then Pere Ubu's terrible one. In fact, it's better then his own first album. The songs are a bit more raw, but really work to make this a tight one. Good stuff!


0402 The Jam – All Mod Cons - I was fully intending to all out hate this and I didn't. For reasons unknown, I've had a long standing irrational dislike for The Jam. Having listened to this, they're not all that bad. I didn't recognize any of it, so hopefully if they show up again, it wont be with that unknown song I heard and hated. If it was even the Jam....


0403 Joe Ely – Honky Tonk Masquerade - I've heard of Joe Ely, but I never actually listened to him. At least I didn't recognize any of this. It's not bad, but the country on this is starting to lean to that horrible over produced 80's country that I don't like. It's right on the line so I could still tolerate the sound of this. The songwriting though, is pretty great.


0404 The Adverts – Crossing the Red Sea with the…This one started with some solid punk with a song called "One Chord Wonders". Now there was actually more then one chord played in that song, so this band is a bunch of liars. It's OK though since they are actually pretty damned solid. Basic no frills punk from a band better then they claim to be.


0405 Big Star – Third (aka Sister Lovers) - This one was really good. A much more laid back affair then their previous one on this list. It also sounded more live and raw with a stark sound. It totally fit for an overall mood. There's a couple of covers on here, including a Velvet Underground one which also fit the mood since this reminded me of their 3rd album. Anyways, yeah, this is good, I might actually listen to this again!


0406 The Residents – Duck Stab/Buster & Glen - All through this list I've been bitching about improv sounding music and electronic noise. I am now going to contradict all of that by saying that I really liked this album. I am human, and I am capable of growing in tastes! This is electronic-y and kind of noisy, but it seemed to also have a point and there was absolutely a sense of melody and ideas to the songs. So there you go, The Residents are pretty great on this record!


0407 Public Image Ltd – Public Image - Uh oh. The Sex Pistols have fizzled out, and Johnny Rotten is now John Lydon and leading a new wave band. This was pretty terrible, aside from the title song. Around that title song you have pompous social commentary and it all sounds like shit.


0408 Magazine – Real Life - This one was really forgettable. As in I listened to it a couple days ago and I don't remember a thing about it.


0409 Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town - Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I actually really liked this Springsteen album! I think you can get kicked out of Canada for that. The songs sounded more honest then Bruce typically does, and it was much more interesting then the "Born In The USA" stuff.


0410 Funkadelic – One Nation Under a Groove - At first I was disappointed with this since it was more of a guitar heavy, rock type vibe then a shake your booty funk vibe. It really won me over though, the guitar playing on this is superb. I think Eddie Hazel is the man responsible for the amazing playing, and it really is worth checking out.

So there it is! A rather eclectic collection of music. Highlights were Funkadelic, Big Star and The Residents. The Residents were a true and proper surprise for me too, I hope they show up again in the future.

Until then, I don't know just do something!

1001 Albums: 0391 - 0400: 400 Albums Heard! Hooray For Me!

What a great day! Mere hours after Osamam Bin Laden is declared dead, I have listened to the four hundredth album of the 1001 Albums! Too bad it wasn't a better album. They should of cheated and flipped out 400 with 401. Anyways, it is truley a great day to celebrate since I now have 601 albums to go with this project! Hooray!


0391 Elvis Costello – My Aim is True - Real solid debut by Costello. I always ignored him since compared to punk bands at the time that I liked, he wasn't even a part of. Now that I'm old, I really like the honesty and smarts in the songs. And it rocks. And it has the song that John Cusack plays on the ghetto blaster in "Say Anything". So this one is good!


0392 Iggy Pop – Lust for Life - Iggy manages an even stupider album cover on this one. Thanks to "Trainspotting" the title track will be a big hit in the 90's. The whole album is solid though, and a step up sonically from the morose "The Idiot". So another one is good!


0393 Ian Dury – New Boots & Panties!! - Based on the title you already know this album has a cheeky sense of humour. It's also super annoying. I don't know why, but it is. I guess it's just the sound and the thick "I'm a British football fan brum brum!" accent Ian sings in. So this is a no good!


0394 Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the… - People tend not to like this one anymore and hate the band for continuing on into there sixties, but I still love it (and the band). I've loved it since first hearing it in Grade 7 where it closed the door on my 80's metal love of all things Twisted Sister. I still love Twisted Sister, don't get me wrong, but now there was room in my heart for more then one type of music. It was like I grew as a person or something! Anyways, this is good. It's not as piss poor musically as people let on, and John Lydon was born for this type of music. Not only all that, but bands today still come out sounding like they want to be the Sex Pistols (they fail, stupid kids these days!). So it's a good one!


0395 Pere Ubu – Modern Dance - All these years since hearing the name of this band, I thought them reggae. Huh! They are punk, and it started off ok but then it turned into noisy shit. So no good!


0396 Kraftwerk – Man Machine - Ugh Kraftwork, I already said I was done with you! Autobahn was good, but this is not good! It's just boring. BORING!


0397 Blondie – Parallel Lines - I recently saw Blondie in concert, so it was interesting to hear their biggest record and realize she was never a great singer. Not that this is a bad album, it's pretty awesome really! Great songs that play around with genre while still sounding like a whole. This is a good one!


0398 Elis Regina – Vento de Maio - This was in another language so I didn't like it. I already explained my reasons, so no accusations of bigotry please and thank you! It's Latin tinged, sounds really old fashioned despite having a bit of a disco feel on some tracks. So yeah, it's a skip.


0399 Pere Ubu – Dub Housing - Pere Ubu continues to not be a reggae band, and this one was noisier then the last one FOUR ALBUMS AGO! Seriously 1001 Albums, I know that in the future you're skipping two of my favorite bands, yet you have two shiter pieces from one band in a 10 pack? Come on!


0400 Only Ones – Only Ones (1st Album) - Here it is,the landmark 40oth album on the 1001 Albums list! It was better then Pere Ubu. It was also pleasant rock with a new wave kind of feel. It didn't leave much of an impression so it's neither good or bad.

There it is, four hundred down! Phew! No real stand outs since my favourites on the list are old favourites by Iggy and The Sex Pistols... man, Iggy and the Sex Pistols would be pretty great! Some one make this happen! NOW! They're nearly dead and we're celebrating!

1001 Albums: 0380 - 0390 - Fixed!

That's right my tens of readers and ones of subscribers, I fixed the numbering on my blog! I also added the album art links so you can click your little fingers about, listening to music samples! FEEL THE LOVE! FEEL IT! Mrs F. Wall was kind enough to figure out where I screwed up, so she gets the prize! It shall be sent out as soon as I get a decent box! What's that? You didn't know there was a prize offered? Listen, I never said I was a great writer, sometimes I might forget to post all the information fully necessary to enjoy this mess. I'm not getting paid to suffer through this you know? Why do you think this blog looks like a 1995 geocities page eh?

Right, on to the music! This is a 1001 Album blog today after all, not a "Broken Record" or a "Lets discuss how crap Russ is with the whole blogging thing" blog. This pack of music was better then bad in that it was good. Re-reading the list, it wasn't super great, but there were some strong albums in here to balance out Suicide. So let's round 'em up!


0380 Wire – Pink Flag - This is actually a great punk album. It's not obnoxious like most punk, but it is cheeky and clever without being annoying. If you look at the wiki page, there is apparently a lot of stuff going on in this and it's refereed to as a 21 song punk suite. I have no idea what any of that means. I simply liked it for what it is- a great punk album.


0381 John Martyn – One World - Starts off as pedestrian folk, then gets peppy and jazzy and still not all that interesting. Yup, even the reggae sounding song failed to please this listener.


0382 Talking Heads – 77 - This one pleased me. I've always be partial to Byrne's weirdo whinny voice, and it fits perfectly with these early tracks. The songs sound mostly peppy new wave instead of punk, but also sinister at the same time. "Psycho Killer" is probably the best known track, but the whole album works. A great debut!


0383 Fleetwood Mac – Rumours - The album that Fleetwood Mac is best known for is pretty damned good. It's another one of those albums that I like, but never think of playing. Anyways, nothing bad to say about this one other then the chick who isn't Stevie Nicks is kind of terrible on the songs she fronts. Sadly, this album does not include the songs "Landslide" or "Rhiannon" so it's not the only Fleetwood Mac record you would need to own.


0384 David Bowie – ‘Heroes’ - After "Low" this one had to win me back. It didn't. Oh it starts out good, and the song "Heroes" is arguably one of Bowies very best songs. There too much of the annoying "Low" style instrumentals that rear their head to annoy me and diminish my liking this. So not a total loss, but it's not great either.


0385 Dennis Wilson – Pacific Ocean Blue - The Beach Boys drummer steps out from behind the kit to grab the limelight with this solo outing. It's not terrible, in fact it's better then any thing the Beach Boys were doing at the time. Granted, silence was more inspired then the Beach Boys by the late seventies, perhaps I'm not saying much. Anyways, Wilsons voice is pretty much shot by this point due to coke and booze, and that roughness adds to the songs in a way the overly sweet Beach Boys sounds couldn't. In the end, it still adds up to a rather dull album. The bottom line is, The Beach Boys and the band members peaked at about 1968, and everything past that pales in comparison.


0386 Suicide – Suicide (1st Album) - The first time I listened to this was for the "Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums" project I did. I hated it then. Revisiting it, I still don't like it, but I don't all out hate it. I don't have any urge to revisit it soon, and I still think most of it is laughably awful. I do however appreciate the innovation of drum machines and keyboard loops more then I did the first time. So I get and understand it's influence, I just don't want to listen to it.


0387 Iggy Pop – The Idiot - After seeing the success that Dennis Wilson had by ditching the Beach Boys, Iggy steps away from the Stooges for this solo pop effort. Sporting cover art to accurately reflect the title, and heavily influenced by Bowie, it's actually not that bad, even seen through my Stooge coloured glasses. The Stooges are one of my all time favourites you see. Anyways, it's a solid album. Iggy debuts a strong baritone vocal style that fits the rather down beat songs. "China Girl" will prove to be a modest hit, and Bowie will cover it later on I think? I might have that backwards.


0388 Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel - Not to be outdone by those ego maniacs Dennis Wilson and Iggy Pop, Peter Gabriel ditches Genesis and also strikes out on his own! Longtime readers (bless their hearts) might recall me being pleasantly surprised by old Genesis, so you shouldn't be surprised that I liked this too since it's already been established that I find Peter Gabriel enjoyable. The album is rich in different song styles, from straight ahead rock to Randy Newman style music hall. It all works and made me pleased.


0389 Television – Marquee Moon - No one leaves any bands on this one! Instead, a band that was part of some punk movement (I think New York? I could probably wiki this...) recorded this for the sake of spreading their music instead of competing with Dennis Wilson. It's a solid album. Not all that punk sounding compared to the Clash or the Sex Pistols, but definitely raw compared to Peter Gabriel and Dennis Wilson. It's a win I guess?


0390 Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell - I think everyone on the planet has probably heard "Paradise By the Dashboard Light", and if you haven't then you lose points. The whole album sounds like this song, and that's fine by me. It's all basically a big goof, but Meat Loaf sings these songs so beautifully and heartfelt, that it really is great and deserves the classic status it has.

So there it is, Wire, Meat Loaf, Talking Heads, they all showed up and made this a good pack! Old favorites David Bowie and Iggy didn't let us down, and Dennis Wilson didn't destroy the music industry by leaving The Beach Boys. That all adds up to a pretty decent pack if I don't say so myself!