I believe this album is a conspiracy by Big Healthcare - ENT Division to give everybody tinnitus.

OK Boomer.
Sadly, like so many other aging rockstars desperate to remain "hip with the kids", Bruce Springsteen has become that senile old grandma who keeps falling for the latest Nigerian Prince scam. This track sounds like someone asked AI to read this week's Lysenkoist media headlines and regurgitate it into a protest song. Mindless, pathetic tripe with no nuance or original thought at all. Here's an idea Bruce: Go back to writing songs about cars and girls, as ... read more

I have no idea what he's yammering on about in the spoken vocal sections (tarot cards, I guess), but this is an amazingly good hour and a half of mind-melting, and mostly instrumental, kraut-psych.

The Christian music market is notorious for it's desperate mimicry of whatever secular genre or style is popular at the time, usually with unintentionally hilarious results. So let's see who was the most popular rock star in the world in 1986...

Turns out it was Bruce Springsteen, riding high on the mega-platinum success of Born in the U.S.A. and it's string of hit singles. Like most Xian rockers, Randy Stonehill had already dabbled in other secular rock styles in his craven ... read more

Sorry, I'm just not feelin it. This sounds like a collection of forgettable leftovers that weren't good enough to make Disintegration. And it's kinda off-putting to hear a guy who is literally a senior citizen now still singing as if he were a mopey overwrought teenager. That vocal approach is fine if you're actually in your "youthful alienation" phase. But when you're grandpa age, it comes across as immature and emotionally stunted. If you're looking for ... read more

This is surprisingly good and rewards repeat listenings. I've always dismissed Mangione as the corny "Feels so Good" guy, kind of the 70's version of Kenny G. But this double album soundtrack is fantastic. It's not difficult or avant-garde. But it's a very soulful, meditative, and uniquely interesting experience, that largely avoids the cliched sounds of "smooth jazz".

Fun video. Bland song. Sounds like something the Corrs would have done 20 years ago.

Holy Christ, this is good! It's like a one-man "Exile on Main Street" a year before "Exile on Main Street"!
If you like that swampy gritty rootsy voodoo blues/country/soul, it don't get any better than this. Fans of Zeppelin's earthier material (III and IV) will definitely dig this. A couple of the songs sound like the blueprint for that stompin' barroom piano vibe the White Stripes were shooting for on "Get Behind Me Satan". Many of the songs ... read more

If you're a Laura Nyro fan (and what kind of scoundrel wouldn't be?), you'll probably like this. It's basically a Nyro album in Japanese. Yoshida doesn't quite reach Nyro's highs, both vocally and melodically, but she comes close enough. A very enjoyable listen.

Probably the catchiest of the Timcast singles so far. A fun listen that would probably be better appreciated if the anti-Tim bias from the new Lysenkoist brigade were removed from the equation.

Two great singles ("Sail On" and "Still") and a third single that was decent ("Wonderland"). But the rest of this album is the very definition of filler. Mediocre, generic, cliche-riddled lite disco/soul. The album was a multi-platinum smash in 1979 (and the only Commodores album to score three Top 40 pop hits), but it has not stood the test of time very well.

This is one of my top three favorite Marvin Gaye songs, so it utterly confounds me that it sat in the vault for over two decades before finally surfacing as an unreleased track on disc 3 of 'The Master 1961-1984' in 1995. What the hell were they thinking??? Marvin almost never sounded as poignant and soulful as he does here on this beautiful tune.

The other R&B double-album masterpiece of 1976. And Norman Whitfield's last great production. Get it for the hits. Keep it for all those sweet, funky album tracks.

A little-known masterpiece of hazy hippie burnout music kinda like David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name but even better. Unlike Crosby's album, it transcends it's era and achieves a timeless quality. There are songs here that sound like Elliott Smith. Others sound like they could have come off Nirvana's "Unplugged". And this is 1973! Amazing stuff.

No joke: I am in awe of how great this song is. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, the songwriting ingenuity on display here is almost godlike. The melodic complexity in this "mere pop song" rivals Gershwin or Carmichael. While most modern pop songs have 3, maybe 4, melodic motifs repeated over and over, this one has at least 8. And the fact that they flow together so seamlessly and accessibly enough to make this a #1 pop hit is stunning. Quite an admirable feat.
And it's great soul ... read more

Vinnie Barbarino proves he can't sing. Scores a Top 10 hit anyway. Personally, I'd rather hear Horshack's version.

In the last couple of years I've begun to appreciate this song much more than my pre-adolescent self did when it was topping US charts in 1980. I keep playing it over and over, as if against my own will, blissfully enveloped in it's warm, hypnotic glow. Hmm, this is what must be playing while floating on a cloud in some heavenly afterlife. Or perhaps this was the mythical siren song that lured all those hapless sailors to their deaths. (and oddly, the lyrics work in either context)

Credit for ... read more

Why have I never heard of Ethel Ennis before??? If you're a fan of 50's vocal jazz, this album is a must-hear. Her voice is perfect, sultry at times, longing at others, always hitting just the right tone. The arrangements are subtle and sophisticated (with Hank Jones on piano). The production is atmospheric and timeless. And every song is a beauty. These traits combine to make this easily one of the best releases of 1955.

After this album blew me away, I set out to binge-listen to the rest of ... read more

Who knew Blues Rock and New Wave could blend this well?
J. Geils, that's who.

Includes the singles,
Come Back - US #32
Love Stinks - US #38
Just Can't Wait - US #78

Like Jack Johnson, only much better. Where Johnson's songs all sound like the same old boring tune over and over again, Schneider actually mixes it up with some creativity and sonic experimentation. "Big Blue Sea" is the highlight.