#6-
Dizzee Rascal, Boy In Da Corner
1. Have I heard of the artist? No
2. Have I heard of the album? No
I don’t know how to classify
this. The first track had a cool beat
but there was an underlying…dread?... to it.
Stop Dat is a frenzy over the top of bass so low and deep and distorted
with an underlying result of a chaotic assault on your ears. Chaos is the right descriptor for this; I
feel like I should be blazing down the interstate doing 110 at 2:30AM with a
Marlboro Red in between my fingers and three more burning down to the butts in
the ashtray with this blaring as loud as I can possibly make it go. There’s frenetic energy.
I wonder what listening to all of
this is going to do to my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify.
5 tracks in now. Every song is different, different layers,
different backing vocals, different beats.
But they all have that rapid fire delivery that doesn’t seem to want to
let you take a breath.
2
Far blended in a guy with a Chipmunk voice.
It worked!
It is getting a little redundant
now. Jus’ A Rascal almost got skipped,
but I am being strong.
Yeah the second half of the album
lost a lot of steam unfortunately.
WOULD I LISTEN TO IT
AGAIN? Yes, the first 6 songs at least
AM I SURPRISED THAT I
WOULD? I mean this is the first artist
on the list that I’d never heard of, so I really had no opinion going into the
whole thing.
#7-
John Lennon, Imagine
1. Have I heard of the artist? Yes
2. Have I heard of the album? Yes
Just looking at the track list, I'm surprised that Imagine is the only song that is immediately recognizable.
Crippled Inside is a four chord blues track
featuring what I believe is a steel guitar; it is as big of a 180 from Imagine
as you could possibly get. I recognize
Jealous Guy.
Heh heh, he just said, “Tricky
Dicky”. Far out man. Gimme Some Truth was probably pretty radical
back in 1971. I am surprised that
Imagine was released in 1971 now that I think about it. I would have guessed late 70s if asked.
Oh Yoko! is pretty
schmaltzy. I’m glad he decided to put it
last at least.
WOULD I LISTEN TO IT
AGAIN? No. It is nothing against the album, it was fine
to listen to but my life is no different than it was before I did.
AM I SURPRISED THAT I
WOULDN’T? I’m not terribly surprised,
no.
#8- The Stone Roses, self-titled
1. Have I heard of the artist? Yes
2. Have I heard of the album? No
It starts with I Wanna Be Adored,
which in turn starts out with a lengthy instrumental- simple bass beat, drums,
guitar. The lyrics kick in at about
1:45, and I wasn’t sure until they did if my headphones were only playing half
the track or something. Cause with these
Air Pods, it is entirely possible.
Pretty chill, ethereal track; I thought it might be heavier than this
but couldn’t say why I had that impression- maybe I was thinking of I Wanna Be
Your Dog. This ain’t that.
The other reason may be that I
know these guys for Love Spreads, which is an extremely redundant grungieish
song from the mid-90’s- they repeat the chorus 17 times and make a track that
should have clocked in at 3 minutes close to 7.
This ain’t that.
She Bangs the Drums is really
catchy- poppy, dancey, and has a real 60’s vibe to it. Waterfall is a little trippy, the next couple
after that are more of the same.
Elizabeth My Dear is a 50 second
interlude, an ode to Scarborough Fair.
Back to more of the same. It isn’t a bad thing at all. It has an upbeat vibe and it channels the
sixties without being ironic about it. I
can see myself skipping through a meadow filled with daisies with this as the
background track. Not literally, but you
know what I’m talking about.
When exactly was the last time I
skipped? I’m not going to try now; I’ll
break an ankle or tear my Achilles.
There’s not really a standout
track here. But it is a nice background
track to skipping in meadows or working at your desk. The last two are long jams, clocking in at
over 8 and almost 10 minutes respectively.
Not sure why that was necessary.
At least they aren’t repeating the chorus 17 times.
WOULD I LISTEN TO IT
AGAIN? Yes. I don’t see myself going out of my way to
spin it up or anything, but I liked the homages and the general sound of it.
AM I SURPRISED THAT I
WOULD? Yeah, cause Love Spreads was not a good indicator of what this band was about.
#9 Madonna, The Immaculate Collection
1. Have I heard of the artist? Please.
It’s Madonna, bitch.
2. Have I heard of the album? See above
This is the first album so far
that going into it I knew that it was good.
This is an album that I am not ashamed to admit I play at least once a
year. It is a great retrospective and I
have always appreciated that the tracks flow so well from one to the other-
starts fast with Holiday and winds down with Rescue Me.
I will say that I love it when I
listen to songs I have heard hundreds of times before and hear something that I
have never heard before. In this case,
there are so many layers of beats behind some of these tunes it is almost
impossible to hear them all individually unless you close your eyes and just
listen awhile.
Material Girl was the favorite
song of a kid at the end of my street growing up named Christopher. His second favorite song was Girls Just Wanna
Have Fun. I wonder what happened to
Christopher?
There’s a funky bubbly bass track
on Like A Prayer I’ve never paid attention to before.
I dig it.
I also am noticing the backing
vocals/doubled up vocals (is that a thing?
What is it called when the singer sings two tracks and you record them
over each other? I think it’s called
doubled up vocals.)
With a song like
Express Yourself, it really adds a richness to the song that wouldn’t be there
otherwise.
This was released in 1990. Think about that for a few minutes. Then go get a beer.
WOULD I LISTEN TO IT
AGAIN? Yep
AM I SURPRISED THAT I
WOULD? Nope
#10 Ed Sheeran, +
1. Have I heard of the artist? Yes
2. Have I heard of the album? No
I’ve heard of this guy before,
but couldn’t name a single song. He’s
one of those people that you think, “oh, that guy is a douchebag” or, “oh
Ronald Weasley grew up” when you see him.
The A Team sounds a bit like John
Mayer. It is catchy though, found myself
tapping my foot a second ago. But I
don’t think it is actually a happy song, so maybe I should stop tapping?
The song evidently changed to the
next one and I didn’t really notice ‘cause it sounds almost identical to the
first one. Is this song a happy
song? I can’t tell, it’s called Drunk
and the chorus is “I’ll be drunk again”, but he doesn’t sound happy about it.
U.N.I. starts with finding a
hairband on the floor but she’s not there anymore, and then he gets drunk. I am sensing a theme here. Oh, U.N.I. is a play on “you and I”. Neat.
I’m happy that these songs are
considered “pop” and therefore clock in about 3:00 apiece.
Small Bump is just
ridiculous. And I feel like a total
asshole for typing that sentence, but I stand by it. It is 4:19 long and it feels like an
eternity.
I’ve been informed that Ed
“…seems like a nice guy” and …”is fairly down to earth…” I’m sure he is a very nice fella and totally
not a douchebag.
I just missed a song called Lego
House evidently. I’ll not be going back
to pay closer attention.
You need me, I don’t need you is
a Shaggy style rap. “You say I’m up and
coming like I’m fucking in an elevator”.
Neat, you’re Hardcore, Ed.
The version I spun up on Spotify
has 16 tracks on it, but the last four say “deluxe edition” after them. I just checked, the original album just has
12 tracks. I’m on track 12 now so I’m
almost out of this seventh circle of hell, but this is 9:00 long,
galdurnit. 5 of those minutes appear to
be dedicated to this:
My, my, my, my, oh give
me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My my, my, my, oh give me love
M-my my, m-my my, m-my
my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my
my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (love me, love me, love me)
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (love me, love me, love me)
M-my my, m-my my, m-my
my, give me love, lover (give me love)
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (give me love)
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (give me love, love me)
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (give me love)
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (give me love)
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (give me love, love me)
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (give me love)
My, my, my, my, oh give
me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
What happened here? Warner Bros was like, “Ed, your album is
spectacular, but it’s a little short.
How about two more songs to round it out?” “But I’ve only got the one, and it’s about
four minutes long”. “Still too short,
Ed.” “Wait a tick. I’ve a brilliant idea!”.
Ed is British and I’m sure the
phrase, “wait a tick” is a regular part of his vocabulary.
#Deep
WOULD I LISTEN TO IT
AGAIN? I’d rather listen to that Tim
McGraw album on repeat for 24 hours than listen to this again.
AM I SURPRISED THAT I
WOULDN’T? Nope
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