MY MUSIC LISTENING JOURNAL: DAY 321: FRIDAY JANUARY 4, 2019

· by · in Album Covers, Albums, Entertainment, Folk Music, Music, Pop Music, Radio, Rock Music. ·

ALBUMS

TheKinksVillageGreenPreservationSociety.jpg

  • THE KINKS: THE KINKS ARE THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY: 1968: 5 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: My favorite Kinks album without question and an album I think so much of I ranked it at #3 on my best albums of 1968 list and 1968 was a pretty darn good year for rock music and albums. I wonder if the recent expanded edition box set is worth the purchase?

A train trestle covered in thick kudzu with "R.E.M. / MURMUR" written in blue

  • R.E.M. MURMUR:  1983: 5 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: I listened to this again a week or so ago but that was before I decided to go through the R.E.M. catalog. Radio Free Europe on a college radio station turned me on to the band- I’d rank them along with U2 as the best bands of the 80’s with apologies to The Replacements, Husker Du and The Smiths.

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  • DIRE STRAITS: BROTHERS IN ARMS: 1985: 5 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: This album sold like crazy- one of the first big releases on CD. It took me by surprise how popular it was. I liked them from the start and they were a successful band with a good following but I never saw them going to #1 all over the world, selling 30 million albums worldwide of a single album and briefly becoming superstars. In one of the odd decisions/ mistakes in rock history- they didn’t release their follow up album until six years later in 1991. By that time the iron was no longer hot. Their best album and it holds a wide variety of music. Remembered best for the hit Money For Nothing and the video that went with it. There were 5 singles- So Far Away, Money For Nothing, Brothers In Arms, Walk Of Life and Your Latest Trick. As good as it was popular.

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  • GRETA VAN FLEET: ANTHEM OF THE PEACEFUL ARMY: 2018: 2 1/2 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: I had heard a song or two from these guys- and had read the hype machine on them- and the Led Zeppelin comparisons . Thought I’d better listen to the album and see what they were all about. I am left overwhelmed. Don’t believe the hype. I will give it more listens but while I welcome an actual rock group getting all this attention the album itself just isn’t moving me. The album is 49 minutes but it seemed like 2 hours. Will it ever end? If I want to listen to Led Zeppelin I will listen to Led Zeppelin. A friend of mine is big time into these guys. I will listen to this more maybe it will kick in. Right now I don’t get it. A disappointment.

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  • DONNA SUMMER: THE WANDERER: 1980: 5 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: My favorite Donna Summer album. I wish she had continued on this path. She was more than just a singer of disco. This is a great rock record- one of my favorite singles from the 80’s- Cold Love.

Cover of Plainly Mistaken

  • NATHAN BOWLES: PLAINLY MISTAKEN: 2018: 4 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: I read a review of this in one of the British music mags I buy every month. It sounded like something new that I may like and I do. Mostly instrumentals. Appalachian sounds from Bowles who plays banjo and his three piece band [double bass and drums} Highlights the ten minute instrumental title track and a reworking of the old classic Ruby. This is his 4th album- I am going to have to dig into his past works. Very nice.

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  • PAUL SIMON: IN THE BLUE LIGHT: 2018: 4 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: When I heard Paul Simon was going to release a new album- I was excited but when I heard it would be a rehashing of old material my enthusiasm sunk. I am pleasantly surprised though- the ten songs he chose to rework- are not Paul Simon chestnuts but great album tracks that have for the most part been overlooked in the big picture. The songs feel a lot looser and in some cases better than the original studio versions.

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  • THE BAND: THE BAND: 1969: 5 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: One of those albums that although I have listened to it hundreds of times over the past forty years- I get something new out of it every time and it just never seems to get old to my ears. Listening to the first two albums from The Band- it’s doesn’t feel like they could have been made in the 20th century or that these fellas singing could even be from modern times. The photos of The Band around this period only enforce that feeling. They only hit this type feeling in spots after this album. I love every song on the album. A pretty sure bet to be in my 1969 Top 10 at the end of this year.

11 responses to “MY MUSIC LISTENING JOURNAL: DAY 321: FRIDAY JANUARY 4, 2019”

  3. Another day of great listening. I’ve got that Dire Straits and the Love Over Gold, both awesome. Want to get that REM but I think Eponymous covers at least some of what’s on Murmur. I need The Band One. Listening to “Stage Fright” this morning…

    • I met a girl from Georgia in summer 1983 who was crazy on ‘We Walk’ from Murmur and I bought the album on her (constant) recommendation.
      Oh, the version of Radio Free Europe differs from the Eponymous one.

    • Radio Free Europe, Talk About the Passion and We Walk are 4½/5* in Chris’ inconsistent rating system …. the rest are 3* (‘ok’). I think I have every REM album and a few ‘best of’s, mostly because they are cheap in charity shops, but rarely play them. I’ll give them another go – but I have a few thousand classical pieces to listen to and witter on vacuously about first.

  4. Radio Free Europe was also the same song that turned me onto REM. We had s local TV station that played videos all the time like a tiny version of MTV. They played the non-hib-tone version & I went looking for that band’s music.

    The hib-tone version was recorded in Winston-Salem & the newer recording that I prefer was recorded in Charlotte. Love their music.

    • I am enjoying the run through their catalog again.. need to really give attention to the second half of their career- albums.

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