Stone Temple Pilots - Purple

A rising tide lifts all boats.  I can’t help but think of that quote when I think of Stone Temple Pilots.  They’re a totally fine band.  This is a totally fine album.  It feels like they were the beneficiaries of being part of the grunge scene. 

In fact, my opening quote is based on the assumption that they were just another Seattle band.  But I learned (today!) that they were from San Diego.  I’m not sure what that says?  They feel like they should be a grunge band, but maybe they’re just a standard California Rock band that managed to get some attention through good marketing?  Either way, is this album any good?  Interstate Love Song is the standout song on this album.  And, as I said above, it is a totally fine album.  But it’s not nothing to do with grunge.

Pink Floyd - The Division Bell

Pink Floyd were given such a hard time by punk. Johnny Rotten famously wore a t-shirt that said “I hate Pink Floyd” – basically just to be provocative.  So they didn’t really have a good reputation in the 80s.  They were considered old hat, a bit naff and dinosaurs.  But their catalogue is filled with a number of classic albums (Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall for starters…) and they’re actually really great. 

This album, however, is a David Gilmour solo album in everything but name.  There’s no doubt the glory years of Pink Floyd are long in the past.  Key band members left years ago.  The ones remaining are playing only bit parts and the rest of the band is filled with session musicians.  The Division Bell is not their finest hour.

Pantera - Far Beyond Driven

Groove metal.  Thrash Metal.  Heavy Metal.  I’m not sure exactly what you call it, but it’s definitely hard music.  It’s not a million miles from Metallica if you’re looking for a comparison, probably with a few more “Cookie Monster” vocals than James Hetfield uses. 

Having never listened to Pantera before, I listened to a couple of the albums preceding this one (Cowboys from Hell and Vulgar Display of Power) and I enjoyed them both more than I enjoyed this one.  It feels like they were slowly getting harder in their sound, and less melodic, as their career progressed.  I think they are going for a full-on assault on Far Beyond Driven and they were certainly successful.

Mariah Carey - Music Box

Mariah Carey is a self-confessed diva.  In her very entertaining autobiography, she says that she’s always been a diva – she just never used to have the money to get away with it!  Well, she certainly does now! 

I have to admit, that while this album isn’t to my usual taste, I was expecting more from it.  It ruled the charts in 1994 – spending 18 weeks at number 1 – although I can only really remember one song (Hero).  I figured that the album was worth a bit more investigation, so you can so you can imagine the disappointment I felt when it was just a really bland album filled with R&B ballads.

Michael Bolton - The One Thing

I was previously surprised by Michael Bolton.  His album Soul Provider was actually very good.  This is, however, the Michael Bolton you know and remember.  A soul album without soul.  I’ve always hated lead single Said I Loved You, But I Lied.  Listening to it again didn’t change my mind.  The cover of Lean On Me is surely best forgotten.  Much like the rest of the album.

Soundgarden - Superunknown

I’m pretty sure I fell asleep to Soundgarden at the Big Day Out in the 90s.  It wasn’t to do with the band though.  Let’s just say that I’d had a very big day out myself.  It’s actually remarkable that I did fall asleep to them, because they are a super loud and engaging band. 

To lump all the Seattle bands under the Grunge banner was doing them quite a disservice.  This album is as different to Pearl Jam and Nirvana as those bands are to Def Leppard and Guns N Roses. 

Superunknown is a mix of hard rock with a dash of psychedelic and a little bit of Led Zeppelin influence thrown in.  They take some of the core elements of rock and put their own spin on them, making something truly unique.  There are some really great singles on this album - Spoon Man, My Wave, Fell on Black Days and the incomparable Black Hole Sun. 

Overall, this album is one of the pillars of the grunge era.  No wait.  It should be considered one of the pillars of music, no matter what the genre.  

1993

Whitney Houston - Bodyguard Soundtrack

Eric Clapton - Unplugged 

Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way 

Kenny G - Breathless

Spin Doctors - Pocketfull of Kryptonite 

Janet Jackson - Janet

Led Zeppelin - Remasters 

U2 - Zooropa

UB40 - Promises and Lies 

Diesel - The Lobbyist

Billy Joel - River of Dreams 

 Meatloaf - Bat out of Hell 2

Michael Crawford - A Touch of Music in the Night

 Pearl Jam - Vs

John Farnham - Then Again 

 Bryan Adams - So Far So Good

Guns N Roses - The Spagetti Incident 

 

 

 

 

 

Guns N Roses - The Spagetti Incident

The covers album.  It’s a bit of a staple in a band's catalogue.  I generally feel that it’s the sign of an artist who has run out of their own material.  That’s not entirely fair of course.  A good cover version can throw new light on a song.  An artist can do a version of song that makes you listen to it in a new way.

The other thing you can do is just do the pub band version of a song (plug in, play the chords, sing the lyrics).  It doesn’t show much imagination and can be a bit dull. 

You’ll never guess which way GNR went with this…

This album sounds exactly as you’d expect a GNR album that covers (mostly) punk songs would.  Neither musically proficient to lift the songs nor with enough punk attitude to really make them the definitive versions.  At this stage everything with GNR on the cover was selling like hotcakes.  But I doubt it gets many plays today.

Bryan Adams - So Far, So Good

It almost feels like the answer to a trivia question.   Who wrote the song “Kids Wanna Rock?”  AC/DC?  No.  Def Leppard?  No.  It was Bryan Adams. It is the least likely answer of the three, but yet in many ways that sums up this album.  It gives the kids exactly what they want.  A series of reliable, but unexciting, rockers, ballads and mid-tempo songs.  Songs that you can put on if you want to feel something a little something, but not think too much. 

It’s so easy to stick the boot into Bryan Adams.  In fact, I’ve already done it myself in a previous review.  But this “greatest hits” album is probably the perfect way to listen to him.  The problem with streaming music is that you have endless choice.  The beauty of this CD is that someone has curated a selection of tracks that are his biggest hits.  It gives you all the songs of his that you’d ever want to listen to

John Farnham - Then Again ...

Not Again...

Pearl Jam - Vs

A rare follow up that’s as good as the classic debut. 

Some might say it’s even better. 

I wouldn’t argue. 

Pearl Jam were really on a roll in the early 90s and it feels like they knew this was their shot and didn’t want to waste it.  Vs feels a little more earthy and organic than the debut album (Ten), it hits a bit harder.  There’s an attitude to the songs that feels like they’re going to take no prisoners.  I think the original title was going to be Five Against One, although Vs sums up the mentality just as well. 

The album comes hard straight out of the blocks and doesn’t really let up.  Pearl Jam are a perfect balance of classic rock with a punk attitude on this album.  It’s also a perfect balance of rockers with ballads.  Daughter takes on the subject of child abuse, Elderly Woman… is a character study. Rocker Glorified G is about gun control, WMA is years ahead of its time talking about racial inequality (sadly still current in 2021).  There are so many good songs on this album, and I haven’t even mentioned my favourites (Rearviewmirror, Animal). 

A classic

Michael Crawford - A Touch of Music in the Night

Come on people, I know it’s Mother’s Day, but try a bit harder with the gift next time…

Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell 2

Is being over the top a crime?  I mean, turning things up to 11 is pretty much the foundation stone that rock music is built on. 

Meat Loaf was always about being overblown and over the top.  It’s in his DNA.  

This album is the sequel to one of the biggest selling albums of all time.  Like most sequels, it repeats the tricks of the original, but is of lower quality and is really unnecessary.  In its defence, at least it was written by Jim Steinman (who wrote the original), unlike the next sequel (Bat out of Hell 3) which was written by a series of jobbing songwriters and held together by a very loose concept (i.e. to sell as many copies as they could). 

In a sign that no one ever listens to rock lyrics, apparently the question Meat Loaf is asked the most is “what’s that? you won’t do” (from the Song I Would Do Anything For Love, But I Won’t Do That).  it is literally in the lyrics. 

And I would do anything for love,
I'd run right into hell and back
I would do anything for love,
I'll never lie to you and that's a fact

…
And I would do anything for love,
But I won't do that

The song lists a whole bunch of things that he won’t do.  Anyway, the song, much like the album, does what you expect.  It is overblown, over long, and over the top.  But what else were you expecting from Meat Loaf?

Billy Joel - River of Dreams

After this album Billy Joel gave up writing pop songs (he did write some classical music after this album) and decided just to play live.  Without being mean, I can actually see why.  Through the late 70s and 80s he released album after album of hits.  Maybe he realised that he’d achieved all he wanted to, and the audiences just wanted to hear his old songs (he’s right).  This is more of the same from Billy Joel.

Diesel - The Lobbyist

I'm not sure how this is really an album.  3 new songs and a bunch of acoustic and live tracks.  It feels a lot like the record company ripping off Diesel’s fans.

UB40 - Promises and Lies

I’m not sure if this is my memory playing tricks on me, but I seem to remember that Michael Hutchence was asked who would INXS rather take on in a fight – Guns N Roses or UB40. In a flash he said that INXS could easily beat GNR, but UB40… there was no chance they’d take them on.  They were proper hardmen.  Not just a bunch of LA posers wearing leather. 

I gather that when starting the band, the members of UB40 stole their instruments because they couldn’t afford them.  They come from the legitimate mean streets of Birmingham and are generally, properly tough. 

How does a band with such a hard reputation make albums of Reggae lite?  I mean, they must be the second most successful reggae artist of all time, but they’re not exactly Bob Marley or Peter Tosh. 

The big single from this album is a cover of an Elvis track, but their biggest tracks have always been covers.  Their cover of Red Red Wine from the Labour of Love album will probably be their legacy and this album will find an audience in the UB40 faithful, but maybe not reggae purists. 

U2 - Zooropa

God, what a weird album to make it to number 1.  I don’t mean this as an insult.  As previously discussed, U2 is my favourite band, so it’s hard to have a completely objective opinion.  But it’s weird.  Good weird.   

It has a rap spoken word song (Numb), a dance song (Lemon), Johnny Cash appears in Sci-Fi western type song (The Wanderer), and there’s a bit of industrial noise (Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car).  They even take the most traditional song on the album (Stay) and inject it with a European sheen that twists what would normally be a standard song into something special.  No wonder the fans who liked With or Without You checked out at this point.

While it is weird, I always found it to be exciting and fearless. This album won best Grammy for Alternative album which, at the time, was met with a few raised eyebrows.  I mean, U2.  Alternative?  But if you listen to the music on the album and also what else was in the musical landscape at the time (I can just point to the Spin Doctors and Kenny G as examples) this really was an alternative. 

Frankly, they were never the same after the 90s for me.  They second guessed themselves too many times and wanted to be “popular” rather than “good”. And, unfortunately, not weird.

Led Zeppelin - Remasters

New bands hear Whole Lotta Love or Kashmir and think all they need to do is write a big riff and then they’re done. Led Zeppelin are definitely one of the fathers of the hard rock scene, but there’s much more to the band than just loud guitars. What really sets them apart from their imitators is they have more than one element to their sound. 

Yes, they play heavy metal, but they bring in folk elements, they’re a very blues based band and they have a groove to them that many lesser bands forget. 

This compilation is excellent.  It provides a thorough overview of their career.  There’s really nothing to say about this album, other than it is great.  Yes, big fans will say you need to listen to all of their albums, but this album has just about all the Led Zeppelin you’ll need in your life.  A classic “All killer, no filler” compilation.

Janet Jackson - Janet

How do you judge an album?  Do you judge it against your own body of work?  Or against the musical environment of its time?  Or against the impossibly high standards of your brother’s work?  I didn’t want to bring up MJ again – it must be so frustrating being his sister and having all your work judged against something that you had no part in creating – but he will always be the elephant in the room for any review about his siblings’ work. 

So, let’s start from the beginning.  How does this stand up against her own work?  It’s good.  It’s a progression from her previous album.  It feels a bit groovier than the last album.  Yes, it’s a bit too long and in the 90s there was a trend to put in little “skits” between tracks - thank god we don’t have to deal with that anymore – but it doesn’t overstay its welcome. 

How does it rate against the musical environment of the 90s?  It’s a good pop/R&B album.  Is it one of the better ones?  I’m not sure I’m the person to judge that, as it was never my favourite musical genre.  But it’s a pretty good album.

And, finally, how does it rate against her famous brother?  It feels like she finds her own musical territory on this album.  In any other family, she’d be far and away the most successful musician – I don’t mean financially, or in terms of sales – I mean in terms of music.  This is an assured album that expresses what the artist wants.  You can’t ask for much more than that.

Spin Doctors - Pocket Full of Kyrptonite

Don’t Americans just love Jam Bands?  From the Grateful Dead to the Dave Matthews Band (and I would even include the Counting Crows here) it seems like quite an American phenomenon. 

I think the idea is that every performance is unique.  So, you never know what you’re going to get. I guess, in some ways, it’s a bit like jazz.  Taking a song and stretching it into new and interesting directions.  Of course, your mileage may vary with that.  For me, jam bands (much like jazz) has never really done anything for me.  It just feels like endless noodling. 

I did own this album back in the day.  It has two great songs on it (Two Princes and Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong).  The rest of the album is overlong, bloated, noodly and impenetrable.  I’m pretty sure you need to be stoned to appreciate this.