what was the last 'classic album' you got and were knocked out by?

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0127880947_5.jpg

Yeah I know, this was a blank spot in my Sun Ra until I picked up the new definitive edition. Holy shit I love this.

yes lanquidity rules!!!! the disco kid on guitar! \m/

do you know / like the other acclaimed albums (disco 3000, sleeping beauty, on jupiter, etc.) from around the time? lanquidity is the best, but they're all the best honestly.

I really like Omniverse from 1979

Mobb Deep - The Infamous.

holy shit

yeah. in my house, that’s the best album of the 90s in any genre

i finally took the max b plunge and have been listening to “coke wave” over and over in the frozen wasteland of nyc isolation and it’s playing a major role in my staying sane. free max b

New Order's "Power, Corruption & Lies". I've had it on vinyl for almost 17 years (oh, to be able to buy records like that for $5.99 now), but it's never really spoken to me before. The other night - the sound, the synthesizers, hooks everywhere, the propulsion and yearning - it created a powerful regret I didn't go to clubs to dance to that stuff when I was younger.

Springsteen’s Nebraska is really clicking with me atm. Loved “state trooper” but thought the rest was a bit dull and didn’t think much of it. Been playing it this weekend and it has finally revealed itself to me as a masterpiece.

I think it’s 4 stars out of 5 for me. I know part of the appeal is how it’s pretty much it’s just Springsteen recording on a 4-track but some songs would benefit of a backing band doing simple things like on “I’m on fire” which is still my favorite song of his.

That said yeah I can see why Nebraska is considered by some to be his best work.

New Order's "Power, Corruption & Lies". I've had it on vinyl for almost 17 years (oh, to be able to buy records like that for $5.99 now)

Lemme tell ya about my nice US press of PCL I got for $1 US at a flea market in the mid-'00s...

Actually, that's the whole story.

Springsteen’s Nebraska is really clicking with me atm. Loved “state trooper” but thought the rest was a bit dull and didn’t think much of it. Been playing it this weekend and it has finally revealed itself to me as a masterpiece.

This happened to me the other day; I was inspired to re-listen based on the "best music made on really cheap equipment" thread and it really struck me as a pretty astonishing work, particularly the extra touches - the haunted-sounding background vocals, the very few additional instruments on one or two songs - and the super atmospheric reverb and hiss, which is a result of the crappy source but when heard as a conscious choice is fucking brilliant. I am very much a non-fan of Springsteen's but if I had to have one album of his in my house it would absolutely be that one.

Yes completely agree. I’d say that even though I think some songs could benefit from a backing band I have the opposite problem with “born in the usa”… that one would really benefit from a stripped down approach.

I think “I’m on fire” is the one I like the best from his work because it’s a good middleground between both albums: soft yet a little bit haunting.

The canniest choice with Nebraska was making side 1 much longer than side 2. After the break, the record is relatively less intense. "My Father's House" is an incredibly boring song, though.

"My Father's House" is much better in the Christic performance. I think he just hadn't gotten it quite right when he recorded it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v9tzRSSPPM

I agree about "I'm on Fire" being a middle ground. It has such a sense of atmosphere, a sense of being more than what it is, which is everywhere in Nebraska and very hard to find in Bruce's work with the band. I hate to be all "x song is a vibe," but one of the distinctive things about Bruce + E. Street imo is that their songs are never vibes - except for "I'm on Fire," where he managed to get a sense of raw and nuanced and indefinable feeling out of the band and make it look easy.

Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (1954)

^^^ That's an amazing album. Check out Satch Plays Fats if you haven't already heard it.

Thanks, I'll check that one too. For a second I thought that "Fats" meant Fats Domino.

Aerial Ballet. Such a brilliant record that i somehiw ignored because i mistakingly thought it sounds outdated

http://cdn-s3.allmusic.com/release-covers/500/0000/352/0000352704.jpg

On white vinyl. Amazing.

'the lexicon of love'.
― cºzen (Cozen), Wednesday, July 28, 2004 2:05 PM (seventeen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Finally caught up to this one.

Grupo Irakere and a bunch of other Salsa related stuff from the 70s. PLus several mande related things.

Rediscovering my Club Baobab set by Orchestra baobab which si pretty stunning. Guitar especially great.

listened to it a few times in the past, but yeah, violator has the goods

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCBOTLZABkk

Finally got a copy of the Andy Irvine & Paul Brady lp cos it finally got a decent remaster.
Lovely mid 70s traditional Irish based lp.
Quite beautiful. It is something that I have meant to get hold of for years, I had ome money come my way for something unexpected so got i.
So nice way to commemorate an event I nearly boycotted. But turned out nice.
& it is a sublime record.

Technically not an album, but I remember ignoring Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense (the film) for ages, because I assumed it was one of those concert shows where the band smiles at each other and everybody jams and it's slick and it's all precisely-recorded etc. And I'm not keen on Talking Heads.

But! Well, actually it is all of those things, but it's better than I expected and I found myself warming to the songs. Even the versions of the groove songs from Remain in Light are good. Perhaps I'm getting old. I mean, it didn't knock me out, but I remember wondering how a man could sweat so much without getting dehydrated, and how many calories they all burned, and how it was possible for people to do shows like that night after night - it's because they were young, and professional musicians with many years' experience - and those thoughts didn't go through my mind when I first heard Dark Side of the Moon (for example).

Conversely I remember being slightly disappointed with Propaganda's A Secret Wish. It's like a really good 10". The decision to have two versions of "Duel" next to each other wasn't a good one.

Miles Davis "Kind of Blue", because somebody hit me with a baseball bat with the cassette glued to the end of it

really?

i mean i hope it's just a goof, but hey: free copy of kind of blue!

"hey man, you gotta hear these wire demos. they're gonna..."

*stares intensely*

"knock you out."

damaged, but the reels will probably be intact. also a free baseball bat, since it was glued to the tape, presume they must have left that behind too.

Not an album, but I just got the DVD of the Who live in Houston, 1975. It's been a while since I've seen Keith Moon in anything, and after staring at his drumming for about two or three numbers, it really sank in like "holy shit, how can someone play like that?" On first glance it's complete anarchy the way his arms are flailing about, and somehow it not only works but lands in all the right spots.

Ashley Pomeroy, pretty sure the answer to most of the things you were wondering is cocaine

1) What's Going On. head in the clouds the whole time. it's great in such an effortless sounding way. very much a world you wanna live inside.

2) Revolver!! decided to give it my first full listen (of course, I knew more than half the songs already) while very high and in that state I was able to imagine what it might have been like to discover this in 1966. fucking astounding, of course.

some things I've been enjoying from 1952

Stan Kenton - New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm - I know Kenton is considered pretty square but in the slightly drab context of 1952 this is wildly exciting and just rammed with BIG ideas.

Dinu Lippati - Chopin: Waltzes Apparently from '49, just astonishingly inventive riffing off these waltzes, sounds like 20th century compositions then you keep picking out the familiar tunes. (I know this wasn't recorded in '52 as Dinu was already dead by then, but anyway)

Singin' In The Rain OST a four-disc remaster with original 20s / 30s versions of the songs, outtakes, etc. but the stereo remastering is the thing here, I cannot for the life of me work out if this was originally stereo mixed, but in any case it sounds just fantastic.

1952 is a weirdly fallow year for both be bop and r&b, so no really decent LPs, if you have a counterexample then please share.

I'd add Monk's final recordings with Blue Note and Gerry Mulligan's first great recordings with Chet Baker. LP's were an emerging format so anything I listen to from 1952 is usually on a compilation.

Also in country music, Hank Williams was making his final (great) records in 1952.

Yeah agreed on both, just listing LPs, which were still a novelty at this point.

I've been enjoying He Touched Me by Elvis Presley, which was mentioned on the Elvis thread. I wouldn't have guessed a post-1970 Elvis Gospel album could be this good.

The Song Remains The Same was leaving Criterion Channel and I haven't seen it since I was a kid on a crappy VHS transfer. Goddamn it knocked me out!

I was wondering the other day if there are any equivalents to Stop Making Sense in terms of combining a high quality theatrical concept, spectacular band show, and very cool music. The first time I saw it, my father who is not very curious musically and probably never listened to Talking Heads after that, sat next to me and watched the entire show with me.

I'm listening to my first Steely Dan album, their first too. It's ok, I'm still standing.

Finally got a copy of the Andy Irvine & Paul Brady lp cos it finally got a decent remaster.

great album^^^ didn't know about about the new remaster

also very worth hearing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_Lines_(Dick_Gaughan_%26_Andy_Irvine_album)

The reissue of The Bridge by Robert Rental and Thomas Leer. Lovely stuff

Andy Irvine & Paul Brady new version is pretty new. I was seeing reviews of the vinyl version 3 or 4 months ago and hoping that it was going to come out on cd too. So it appeared on cd and I couldn't afford to buy it then I got a little windfall last weekend so got it.

The pair are touring in November, apparently rescheduled from January.

JUst seen this too so thought I'd add it. Then read it
https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-40782783.html

I was wondering the other day if there are any equivalents to Stop Making Sense in terms of combining a high quality theatrical concept, spectacular band show, and very cool music. The first time I saw it, my father who is not very curious musically and probably never listened to Talking Heads after that, sat next to me and watched the entire show with me.

It's really the gold standard. You rarely have a concert film that manages to have a great artist and be a truly great film and feature truly great music. The only other one that comes to mind is Monterey Pop, and that's not even one artist or one setlist.

I'd check out Prince's Sign 'O' the Times which may be on the Criterion Channel. It's more of a serviceable film than a great film (the scripted dramatic elements alone are a bit clunky) but musically it's pretty f-ing great, every bit the equal if not better than Stop Making Sense in that department.

I should add The Last Waltz. Plenty of people like myself have reservations about it, but there are people who have argued that it's better than Stop Making Sense. (FWIW, if Stop Making Sense is an A+ film, I'd call The Last Waltz an A- at best, more likely a B+.)

On a more modest level, perhaps Laurie Anderson's 'Home of the Brave'?

I still haven't seen it, but since so much of her work was conceived with a visual or theatrical component in mind, it's probably essential viewing.

United States Live is my holy grail - I know Christgau loves the soundtrack, but I would love to see a complete film of her legendary BAM production.

me too! fgti has mentioned it before - i think the original full recordings/ films are gone?

massive :(

is it heretical to say Strange Angels is her best? Some of my favorite synth sounds on a Poppy Bush Interzone album.

I would sell a lung for a blu ray of the United States Live footage.