tcoffin42

[tcoffin42]

FINAL POST!!                                          Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True

It’s graduation week.  Four years of sharing album-of-the-week are over.  It’s important to wrap this up with a special album.  I’ve decided to go with one of the best debut albums ever, by one of my favorite musicians, for whom I have the utmost respect.  With this last album, I want to affirm that this effort was to support my daughter’s personal and professional interests in music (my aim was true).  Also, I wanted the graduation album to welcome her to the grown-up world of working for a living (”Welcome To The Working Week”).  And finally, since I’ve tied politics to so many of these albums, it feels appropriate - as President Trump continues to bring the country and perhaps the world to ruin (this week, by backing out of the Paris Climate Accord) - to close this project with the track, “Waiting For The End Of The World.”

1    "Welcome to the Working Week" 2    "Miracle Man" 3    "No Dancing" 4    "Blame It on Cain" 5    "Alison" 6    "Sneaky Feelings" 7    "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" 8    "Less Than Zero" 9    "Mystery Dance" 10  "Pay It Back" 11  "I'm Not Angry" 12  "Waiting for the End of the World"

Last week, T Bone Burnett’s name was one of those in the collaboration, and I mentioned his Academy Award winning work on the “Cold Mountain” soundtrack.  Well, Elvis Costello collaborated with T Bone to write the track “Scarlett Tide” for that soundtrack.  The collaborations Elvis has been a part of are numerous and, I’m sure, will go on and on.  He has made so much music in genres outside his punk-pop, new-wave origins that it defies categorization.  I recommend a Wikipedia search to keep track of it all.  Of late, what I have been most impressed with from Elvis is the musically collaborative TV show he did called “Spectacle: Elvis Costello with...”  I only saw a few episodes, but they were brilliant.  Check it out if you're so inclined.  It’s all available on DVD or BluRay.

In closing, I’d like to thank everyone who read my foolish posts (with especially large portions of thanks to those of you who occasionally corrected me) and everyone who listened along with us.  As a postscript, here is the entire list of 194 albums we listened to over this four-year project, and the date we started listening.  We started a little late, so we did two albums per week through the first summer session to try to catch up on the total count.  With occasional exceptions, the albums were pre-1999 (the year my daughter was born).  We followed some themes here and there, but mostly we just rocked out!

Rumours - Fleetwood Mac  10/20/2013

Deja Vu - Crosby Stills Nash & Young  10/27/2013

Best of the Doobies - The Doobie Brothers  11/3/2013

Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 - The Eagles  11/10/2013

Greatest Hits 1974-1978 - Steve Miller Band  11/17/2013

American Beauty - Grateful Dead  11/24/2013

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground  12/1/2013

Loaded - The Velvet Underground  12/8/2013

The Monkees - The Monkees  12/15/2013

Jackson 5 Christmas Album - Jackson 5  12/22/2013

The #1's - Elvis Presley  12/29/2013

Legend from the Master Tapes - Buddy Holly  1/5/2014

The #1's - Diana Ross & The Supremes  1/12/2014

Singles 1969-1981 - The Carpenters  1/19/2014

16 Greatest Hits - The Mamas & Papas  1/26/2014

Greatest Hits - The Byrds  2/2/2014

Greatest Hits - Bob Dylan  2/9/2014

Greatest Hits - Simon & Garfunkel  2/16/2014

Greatest Hits - James Taylor  2/23/2014

Greatest Hits - Linda Ronstadt  3/2/2014

Greatest Hits - Janis Joplin  3/9/2014

Greatest Hits - The Doors  3/16/2014

Smash Hits - Jimi Hendrix  3/23/2014

Greatest Hits - Queen  3/30/2014

Legend - Bob Marley & The Wailers  4/6/2014

Mania - The Ramones  4/13/2014

Lennon Legend: The Very Best Of John Lennon - John Lennon  4/20/2014

The Hits - Johnny Cash  4/27/2014

A Quiet Normal Life: The Best Of Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon  5/4/2014

Gold - ABBA  5/11/2014

Greatest Hits - Cat Stevens  5/18/2014

The Best Of - Steely Dan  5/25/2014

Greatest Hits - Bruce Springsteen  6/1/2014

Greatest Hits - Elton John  6/8/2014

Endless Summer - The Beach Boys  6/15/2014

Hot Rocks - The Rolling Stones  6/22/2014

Led Zeppelin III - Led Zeppelin  6/29/2014

Rubber Soul - The Beatles  7/6/2014

Revolver - The Beatles  7/6/2014

Who's Next - The Who  7/13/2014

The Who By Numbers - The Who  7/13/2014

Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd  7/20/2014

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd  7/20/2014

One For The Road - The Kinks  7/27/2014

Pretenders - Pretenders  8/3/2014

Learning To Crawl - Pretenders  8/3/2014

Nevermind The Bollocks - The Sex Pistols  8/10/2014

Sound Affects - The Jam  8/17/2014

London Calling - The Clash  8/24/2014

Changesonebowie - David Bowie  8/31/2014

Ghost In The Machine - The Police  9/7/2014

I Just Can't Stop It - The English Beat  9/14/2014

Absolutely - Madness  9/21/2014

Talk Talk Talk - The Psychedelic Furs  9/28/2014

Hits - Joni Mitchell  10/5/2014

Rickie Lee Jones - Rickie Lee Jones  10/12/2014

Eyes Open - Snow Patrol  10/19/2014

The Best Of Joan Armatrading - Joan Armatrading  10/26/2014

Upstairs At Eric's - Yaz  11/2/2014

Blue Bell Knoll - Cocteau Twins  11/9/2014

Life's Too Good - The Sugarcubes  11/16/2014

The B-52's - The B-52's  11/23/2014 

Out Of Time - R.E.M.  11/30/2014

In My Tribe - 10,000 Maniacs  12/7/2014

Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet  12/14/2014

Joy: A Holiday Collection - Jewel  12/21/2014

Fumbling Toward Ecstacy - Sarah McLachlan  12/28/2014

Reading, Writing And Arithmetic - The Sundays  1/4/2015

Meat Is Murder - The Smiths  1/11/2015

Tragic Kingdom - No Doubt  1/18/2015

Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette  1/25/2015

Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers  2/1/2015

Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins  2/8/2015

Ten - Pearl Jam  2/15/2015

Nevermind - Nirvana  2/22/2015

Live Through This - Hole  3/1/2015

Exile In Guyville - Liz Phair  3/8/2015

After - Lady Lamb the Beekeeper  3/15/2015

Garbage - Garbage  3/22/2015

Eight Arms To Hold You - Veruca Salt  3/29/2015

Rid Of Me - PJ Harvey  4/5/2015

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got - Sinead O'Connor  4/12/2015

Moondance - Van Morrison  4/19/2015

Joshua Tree - U2  4/26/2015

Fisherman's Blues - The Waterboys  5/3/2015

The Fine Art Of Surfacing - The Boomtown Rats  5/10/2015

To The Faithfully Departed - The Cranberries  5/17/2015

Sunshine On Leith - The Proclaimers  5/24/2015

Barricades and Brickwalls - Kasey Chambers  5/31/2015

Mars Needs Guitars - Hoodoo Gurus  6/7/2015

Kick - INXS  6/14/2015

Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit - Courtney Barnett  6/21/2015

The Iron Man - Pete Townshend  6/28/2015

The Wall - Pink Floyd  7/5/2015

Hair - Original Broadway Musical  7/12/2015

Quadrophenia - The Who  7/19/2015

American Idiot - Green Day  7/26/2015

Jesus Christ Superstar - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack  8/2/2015

Grease - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack  8/9/2015

Rocky Horror Picture Show - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack  8/16/2015

Joe's Garage - Frank Zappa  8/23/2015

Graceland - Paul Simon  8/30/2015

So - Peter Gabriel  9/6/2015

Speaking In Tongues - Talking Heads  9/13/2015

The Cars - The Cars  9/20/2015

Boston Boston9/27/2015

Bachelor #2 or The Last Remains Of The Dodo - Aimee Mann  10/4/2015

Become What You Are - The Juliana Hatfield Three  10/11/2015

Verve Jazz Masters 51 - Blossom Dearie  10/18/2015

Come On Feel The Lemonheads - The Lemonheads  10/25/2015

Dizzy Up The Girl - Goo Goo Dolls  11/1/2015

Tiny Days - Scruffy The Cat  11/8/2015

Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches - Happy Mondays  11/15/2015

The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses  11/22/2015

Electric Honey - Luscious Jackson  11/29/2015

Becoming X - Sneaker Pimps  12/6/2015

Let Go - Avril Lavigne  12/13/2015

Personal Christmas Collection - Doris Day  12/20/2015

The Grey Album - DJ Dangermouse  12/27/2015

St. Elsewhere - Gnarls Barkley  1/3/2016

El Camino - The Black Keys  1/10/2016

The Good, The Bad, & The Queen - The Good, The Bad, & The Queen  1/17/2016

Little Broken Hearts - Norah Jones  1/24/2016

Avalanche - Thea Gilmore  1/31/2016

Born In The UK - Badly Drawn Boy  2/7/2016

Echo and the Bunnymen - Echo and the Bunnymen  2/14/2016

Central Reservation - Beth Orton  2/21/2016

Love Songs: Best of the Verve Song Books - Ella Fitzgerald  2/28/2016

The Sensual World - Kate Bush  3/6/2016

Arular - M.I.A.  3/13/2016

No Angel - Dido  3/20/2016

The Marshall Mathers LP - Eminem  3/27/2016

White Blood Cells - The White Stripes  4/3/2016

Motown 40 Forever - Various Artists  4/10/2016

Running On Empty - Jackson Browne  4/17/2016

Purple Rain - Prince and the Revolution  4/24/2016

Raw Power - Iggy & The Stooges  5/1/2016

461 Ocean Boulevard - Eric Clapton  5/8/2016

Nick Of Time - Bonnie Raitt  5/15/2016

Damn The Torpedoes - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers  5/22/2016

Low Budget - The Kinks  5/29/2016

Making Movies - Dire Straits  6/5/2016

Look Sharp - Joe Jackson  6/12/2016

Live Killers - Queen  6/19/2016

Living In Clip - Ani DiFranco  6/26/2016

Live At Luther College - Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds  7/3/2016

Carnegie Hall Live 1938 - Benny Goodman  7/10/2016

Bring On The Night - Sting  7/17/2016

The Secret Policeman's Other Ball - Various Artists  7/24/2016

Disraeli Gears - Cream  7/31/2016

Vol. 1 - Traveling Wilburys  8/7/2016

Down By The Old Mainstream - Golden Smog  8/14/2016

Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk  8/21/2016

Underachievers, Please Try Harder - Camera Obscura  8/28/2016

Horses - Patti Smith  9/4/2016

Under The Pink - Tori Amos  9/11/2016

Gordon - Barenaked Ladies  9/18/2016

#1 Record - Big Star  9/25/2016

Hello Starling - Josh Ritter  10/2/2016

Doolittle - Pixies  10/9/2016

Last Splash - The Breeders  10/16/2016

Star - Belly  10/23/2016

The Bends - Radiohead  10/30/2016

Medusa - Annie Lennox  11/6/2016

XO - Elliott Smith  11/13/2016

Meat Puppets II - Meat Puppets  11/20/2016

violent femmes - violent femmes  11/27/2016

Tidal - Fiona Apple  12/4/2016

Concrete Blonde - Concrete Blonde  12/11/2016

We Three Kings - The Roches  12/18/2016

Holiday Songs and Lullabies - Shawn Colvin  12/25/2016

Marquee Moon - Television  1/1/2017

English Settlement - XTC  1/8/2017

Pelican West - Haircut One Hundred  1/15/2017

Weezer - Weezer  1/22/2017

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel  1/29/2017

Car Wheels On A Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams 2/5/2017

Indigo Girls - Indigo Girls  2/12/2017

The Very Best Of Aretha Franklin - Aretha Franklin  2/19/2017

All For You - Diana Krall  2/26/2017

Collective Soul - Collective Soul  3/5/2017

The Trinity Session - Cowboy Junkies  3/12/2017

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement  3/19/2017

Tuesday Night Music Club - Sheryl Crow  3/26/2017

The Darklands - The Jesus and Mary Chain  4/2/2017

Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman  4/9/2017

You're Living All Over Me - Dinosaur Jr.  4/16/2017

Sea Change - Beck  4/23/2017

Auf der Maur - Melissa Auf der Maur  4/30/2017

The Ballad of the Broken Seas - Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan  5/7/2017

Contraband - Velvet Revolver  5/14/2017

Mermaid Avenue - Billy Bragg and Wilco  5/21/2017

Raising Sand - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss  5/28/2017

My Aim Is True - Elvis Costello  6/4/2017

You read all the way to the end!  Thank you very much for your attention to my father/daughter project.  Much love to you, and keep on listening.....

[tcoffin42]

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand

This week’s collaboration is, perhaps, a little too contemporary for our album-of-the-week project. But, like lots of Seniors at the end of four years, I’ve got a hankerin’ to break the rules before I finish.  Besides, its relevance to my daughter’s interests helps it pass muster.  

No./Title/Writer(s)/Length 1. "Rich Woman" Dorothy LaBostrie, McKinley Millet 4:04 2. "Killing the Blues" Roly Jon Salley 4:16 3. "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" Sam Phillips 3:26 4. "Polly Come Home" Gene Clark 5:36 5. "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" The Everly Brothers 3:33 6. "Through the Morning, Through the Night" Gene Clark 4:01 7. "Please Read the Letter" Charlie Jones, Michael Lee, Page, & Plant 5:53 8. "Trampled Rose" Kathleen Brennan, Tom Waits 5:34 9. "Fortune Teller" Allen Toussaint 4:30 10. "Stick With Me Baby" Mel Tillis 2:50 11. "Nothin'" Townes Van Zandt 5:33 12. "Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson" Milton Campbell 4:02 13. "Your Long Journey" Doc Watson, Rosa Lee Watson 3:55

T Bone Burnett’s name isn’t on the marquee for this piece, but it is printed in ALL-CAPS on the liner notes.  Like Woody Guthrie was to last week’s album, T Bone is the backbone of this project.  He plays on it and, as the producer, his signature sound drips from each song.  The man has cemented his brand through a career that began in Bob Dylan’s touring band from 1975-76.  Since then he has produced a wide array of artists’ albums (and a few of his own).  He has won Grammy and Academy Awards for his efforts on movie soundtracks (for “Oh, Brother! Where Art Thou?” and “Crazy Heart” respectively). And he has founded his own record label (DMZ).  From my perspective as a drummer, sometimes I wish he liked percussion more.  It’s very minimal in much of his work, but that’s okay.  It works well for what he does.  Also, as it has for many others, the collaboration between two extremes works here. Alison’s bluegrass and Robert’s rock influences make them an unlikely duo, and yet, they sound perfect together.  The songs cover a vast span of time and an eclectic group of artists.  The acoustic instruments make the album sound like a blast from the past.  Although every song is great, “Killing The Blues,” “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On),” “Please Read The Letter,” and “Stick With Me” would have to be my favorites.  What are yours?  We hope you will listen to this album with us this week, and join us next week for the final, graduation album-of-the-week.

[tcoffin42]

Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue

I was just beginning to become a Wilco fan when this album came out to seal the deal.  This album has also had an influence on why I can be so obsessed with musical collaborations.  I was a big old fan of Billy Bragg, beginning a fascination with Wilco, who knew little about Woodie Guthrie beyond “This Land Is Your Land,” when this album came along, stirred all of them into a melting pot of traditional music (with a dash of Natalie Merchant for taste), and gave me some of my favorite songs of all time.

1    "Walt Whitman's Niece" (Billy Bragg) – 3:53 2    "California Stars" (Jay Bennett, Jeff Tweedy)– 4:57 3    "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key" (Bragg) – 4:06 4    "Birds and Ships" with Natalie Merchant (Bragg) – 2:13 5    "Hoodoo Voodoo" (Tweedy, Bragg, Bennett, Stirratt, Coomer, Harris) – 3:12 6    "She Came Along to Me" (Bragg, Tweedy, Bennett) – 3:26 7    "At My Window Sad and Lonely" (Tweedy) – 3:27 8    "Ingrid Bergman" (Bragg) – 1:50 9    "Christ for President" (Tweedy, Bennett) – 2:39 10  "I Guess I Planted" (Bragg) – 3:32 11  "One by One" (Tweedy) – 3:22 12  "Eisler on the Go" (Bragg) – 2:56 13  "Hesitating Beauty" (Tweedy) – 3:04 14  "Another Man's Done Gone" (Bragg) – 1:34 15  "The Unwelcome Guest" (Bragg) – 5:09

This album came out after Wilco’s double-album, “Being There.”  I thought the tracks, “At My Window Sad and Lonely,” and “One by One,” could’ve been leftovers from the “Being There” sessions.  Billy Bragg was best known to me for his “Worker’s Playtime” album, and for his left-leaning politics.  Along those lines, “Ingrid Bergman,” and “I Guess I Planted,” fit right into his body of work.  Whenever I hear “She Came Along To Me,” I have to remember that Woody probably wrote the lyrics sometime in the 1940′s.  I like the Feminism, but it seems a little like a backhanded compliment until you put it into that historical context.  That song along with “Christ For President” would’ve sounded great at the Women’s March on Washington earlier this year. There’s a great picture of Woody on the back of this album with a guitar on which he wrote, “This Machine Kills Fascists.”  That goes back to my idealism about music saving the world. Perhaps that’s something all these players agreed upon: the power of music. Here they’ve made the epitome of a timeless classic: traditional music, politically relevant.  What’s not to love?  We hope you’re listening with us this week to “Mermaid Avenue.” And join us next week for one more collaboration before graduation and the final album-of-the-week.

[tcoffin42]

Velvet Revolver - Contraband

This collaboration merged two great but troubled bands - Guns and Roses, and Stone Temple Pilots.  Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum (Guns and Roses’ guitarist, bassist, and drummer, respectively) got together with guitarist David Kushner (from Suicidal Tendencies, and Wasted Youth) to audition vocalists for their new band.  In the end, former Stone Temple Pilots vocalist, Scott Weiland filled the role.  I would’ve thought the guys from GnR would have nothing to do with Scott Weiland, as he looked, to me, to have the same problems Axel Rose had.  Regardless of what I thought, Velvet Revolver put out a couple albums in roughly five years together before Scott left to reunite with STP in 2008.

1. "Sucker Train Blues" 4:27 2. "Do It for the Kids" 3:55 3. "Big Machine" 4:25 4. "Illegal I Song" 4:17 5. "Spectacle" 3:41 6. "Fall to Pieces" 4:30 7. "Headspace" 3:42 8. "Superhuman" 4:15 9. "Set Me Free" 4:07 10. "You Got No Right" 5:35 11. "Slither" 4:08 12. "Dirty Little Thing" 3:57 13. "Loving the Alien" 5:48

I have intentionally stayed away from bands like this over the course of the album-of-the-week project.  I didn’t think Van Halen, Rush or their ilk would be relevant to my daughter.  It’s not the kind of music she listens to, and I preferred she not be exposed to the blatant sexism and misogyny therein.  But, as the end approaches, checking-in has revealed that she expected more hard rock.  I can accommodate that.  Along with collaborations, we’ve been focused on extremes and polar opposites.  There are some of those here as well.  We have Scott singing, “We’re all in need of a superhuman woman now,”  in the same song with the line “so rodeo, throw the rope around her neck and get the show on the road.”  He seems a little conflicted over whether women deserve his respect or his contempt.  Same with the drug references.  Will doing drugs make you happy or miserable?  Don’t ask Scott.  They make him feel both.  Regardless of the lyrics, the guitars here are pure rock ‘n’ roll brilliance.  We’re finishing the final month of the four-year, album-of-the-week project.  Please join us this week in listening to “Contraband” by Velvet Revolver, and join us again next week.

[tcoffin42]

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas

Growing up in Maine, and going to summer camps as a kid, I became familiar with traditional sea shanties.  Folk artists like Dave Mallett and Gordon Bok frequently graced my turntable.  It was the latter’s deep voice that reminds me of Mark Lanegan on this album.  But the real draw for me was the post-Belle & Sebastian work of Isobel Campbell.

1    "Deus Ibi Est" – 2:51 2    "Black Mountain" – 3:10 3    "The False Husband" – 3:53 4    "Ballad of the Broken Seas" – 2:42 5    "Revolver" – 2:40  6    "Ramblin' Man" – 3:29 7    "(Do You Wanna) Come Walk with Me?" – 3:27 8    "Saturday's Gone" – 4:37 9    "It's Hard to Kill a Bad Thing" – 2:53  10  "Honey Child What Can I Do?" – 3:44  11  "Dusty Wreath" – 3:44 12  "The Circus Is Leaving Town" – 5:35

This was the first album by this unlikely duo.  They released their third in 2010, called “Hawk.”  Often compared to Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, such disparate duos as these don’t come around too often.  As you may have noticed in the last few weeks, I like hard music and soft music, so, of course, I’ll like a project like this.  I used to theorize, when I was my daughter’s age, that music would save the world.  It was because of musical projects like this that I thought that.  When musicians from such diverse backgrounds come together to create something beautiful they are modeling the best type of relationship.  It’s based on strengths, not weaknesses.  It’s building something instead of tearing something down.  Let’s all take a cue from Isobel and Mark, and build something with someone different from ourselves rather than chip away at the differences in an effort to homogenize.  And let’s all come back next week for another album-of-the-week collaboration.

[tcoffin42]

Melissa Auf der Maur - Auf der Maur

Continuing with some of my favorite collaborations, this week we’ll be listening to Melissa Auf der Maur’s first solo album.  After gigs playing bass with Hole, and Smashing Pumpkins ended, Melissa found herself with enough old material to branch out on her own.  With the support of former bandmates James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), and Eric Erlandson (Hole) as well as friends like Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), and Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees), this album is filled with collaborations.

1. "Lightning Is My Girl" 4:09 2. "Followed the Waves" 4:48 3. "Real a Lie" 4:22 4. "Head Unbound" 3:58 5. "Taste You" 4:39 6. "Beast of Honor" 3:27 7. "I'll Be Anything You Want" 2:57 8. "My Foggy Notion" 4:48 9. "Would If I Could" 3:40 10. "Overpower Thee" 2:35 11. "Skin Receiver" 3:35 12. "I Need I Want I Will" 7:32

I had the pleasure of seeing MAdM a couple times, as she has supported a Smashing Pumpkins tour and this album with record store appearances in Maine.  Making connections, pounding the pavement, promoting yourself, working to your strengths and talents, following your dreams; that’s what Melissa has done with her career, and is a good formula for any artist.  After taking some time to be a mom, she has re-entered the world this spring with some 12-24 hour Drones and Satellite Drones (which you can read about here: http://basilicahudson.org/24-hour-drone-experiments-sound-music/  and here:  https://jadedandelated.com/melissa-auf-der-maurs-satellites-of-drone/ ).  Not surprisingly, they are collaborative artistic events. They began in a converted 1880′s factory in Hudson, NY, (dubbed ‘Basilica Hudson’) and have now had “Satellites” crop up at Winnipeg’s New Music Festival last February.  It looks like she had a Drone just last night (Apr 30, 2017, @ Basilica Hudson). Welcome back, Melissa.  Wish we had been there.  And hope you will listen with us this week to “Auf der Maur.”

[tcoffin42]

Beck - Sea Change

Shakespeare coined the phrase “Sea Change” in “The Tempest.”  It represents a fundamental shift or a profound transformation.  That’s what we’re approaching at our house.  High School graduation is when society recognizes the end of being a child and the beginning of being a grown-up.  Of course, it was a break-up that precipitated Beck’s “Sea Change,” not a graduation.  Regardless, there’s something to learn this week from what has come to be thought of as one of Beck’s best albums.

1. "The Golden Age" 4:35 2. "Paper Tiger" 4:36 3. "Guess I'm Doing Fine" 4:49 4. "Lonesome Tears" 5:38 5. "Lost Cause" 3:47 6. "End of the Day" 5:03 7. "It's All in Your Mind" 3:06 8. "Round the Bend" 5:15 9. "Already Dead" 2:59 10. "Sunday Sun" 4:44 11. "Little One" 4:27 12. "Side of the Road" 3:23

Beck surprised a lot of people with this acoustic album filled with loneliness and heartbreak.  It is a far cry from his previous album, “Midnight Vultures” (which also left fans and critics scratching their heads, wondering why that album didn’t sound like the last one).  We’re listening to Beck because he strikes me as a true artiste.  He takes chances, he tries new things, and it doesn’t seem to matter what people want or expect him to do.  Besides that, he worked with his dad on this one.  If there’s a focus to these last few albums, it would have something to do with collaborating.  I think the world could use more of that “coming together” spirit right now, and working with musicians in some capacity is something to which my daughter aspires.  As this album suggests, it’s sad to be alone.  It’s happier to be a part of something, especially art.  So find someone to join you before listening to this sad, lonely album this week, and come back next week for more album-of-the-week.

[tcoffin42]

Dinosaur Jr. - You’re Living All Over Me

This album was highly influential on me and on the alternative rock scene.  Released at the end of 1987, I first heard “The Lung” over WBOR FM from Bowdoin College and I was hooked on those big, distorted guitar power chords. 

1. "Little Fury Things" 3:06 2. "Kracked" 2:50 3. "Sludgefeast" 5:17 4. "The Lung" 3:51 5. "Raisans" 3:50 6. "Tarpit" 4:36 7. "In a Jar" 3:28 8. "Lose" 3:11 9. "Poledo" 5:43

The opening of this album has more distortion and “Wah” pedal then I had ever heard.  And the lo-fi closing track, “Poledo,” is a nice primer for bassist Lou Barlow’s other band, Sebadoh.  I saw Dinosaur Jr. in a little venue called Zootz in Portland, Maine.  It was the loudest show I’ve ever been to in my life.  Something about Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr. rings my guitar-lovin’ bell.  I have and love all their albums.  A lot has been said (and written) about this album and its influence on, maybe Kurt Cobain, maybe all of lo-fi indy rockdom.  For certain, it opened my musical mind to the grunge rock that was on the horizon in ‘87.  We hope you’ll open your mind to the possibilities and listen to, “You’re Living All Over Me” with us this week.

[tcoffin42]

Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman

Last week we listened to some brothers from the UK for what they had to offer.  This week, it’s back to America, from just about this time 29 years ago (released April 5, 1988), for a protest album that sold over 20 million copies worldwide and articulated a lot of liberal attitudes.  It’s Tracy Chapman’s classic first album.

1. "Talkin' Bout a Revolution" 2:40 2. "Fast Car" 4:57 3. "Across the Lines" 3:25 4. "Behind the Wall" 1:50 5. "Baby Can I Hold You" 3:14 6. "Mountains o' Things" 4:39 7. "She's Got Her Ticket" 3:57 8. "Why?" 2:06 9. "For My Lover" 3:12 10. "If Not Now..." 3:01 11. "For You" 3:10

This album was a huge hit at the end of the 80′s when hair bands ruled the airwaves.  It has been said that, by bringing the production value up to speed from the 60′s and 70′s, this album rejuvenated interest in (or the marketability of) singer/songwriters, folk music, and protest albums.  It still seems relevant today.  With lyrics about racial division and income inequality, this album is ripe for a re-issuing.  It’s also got some great love songs on it.  It’s a simple album with some timeless depth, thus its mass appeal.  I think my daughter will like it and we hope you will listen to it with us this week.  

[tcoffin42]

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Darklands

You know, we listen to a lot more than album-of-the-week at our house.  We are currently enjoying Spoon’s new album, “Hot Thoughts” and have tickets to see them this summer.   We also love The Shins, whose new album, “Heartworms” has a track that name drops “The Jesus and Mary Chain” as being influential. They were to me too, so since we are now under “April Skies,” here they are.

1    Darklands – 5:29 2    Deep One Perfect Morning – 2:43 3    Happy When It Rains – 3:36 4    Down on Me – 2:36 5    Nine Million Rainy Days – 4:29 6    April Skies – 4:00 7    Fall – 2:28 8    Cherry Came Too – 3:06 9    On the Wall – 5:05 10  About You – 2:33

Last week’s collaborative solo album, “Tuesday Night Music Club” was quintessential American rock.  This week, in contrast, we’ll listen to this as representative of a UK New Wave that took my musical world by storm in the 80′s. This second album, released in 1987, was entirely written and performed by the Reid brothers (Jim and William); a very different kind of collaboration than last week’s.  As their former drummer, Bobby Gillespie, left them to front his own band, Primal Scream, they used drum machines.  It’s a little ironic, then, that I loved “On The Wall” as a drummer, keeping the beat “like a clock on the wall” marking time. The band had a reputation for violent gigs, maybe because it enraged their fans that they only ever played for about 20 minutes.  They became hugely popular before they even had enough songs in their repertoire to play a set of decent length.  Now, since everything old is new again, they have a new album out just last week and will be touring through the summer.  The Pixies covered The Jesus And Mary Chain song “Head On,” and, more recently have a new album and are out on tour.  I imagine the Reid brothers deciding, “we’ll be damned if those rotten Pixies are gonna go around the world playing our song again.  The time is now! Let’s get our own wild selves back out there!”  It used to bug me when an old band got back together to “cash-in.”  Now I figure, what the heck?  It’s fun.  Go ahead.  More power to you if you can come back in any way for any number of fans.  We hope you’ll come back too, next week when, believe it or not, we will begin the final 10 album-of-the-weeks.

[tcoffin42]

Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club

After last week with indie-rock gods, Pavement, we will be listening to a real pop star’s first album, from 1993 it’s Sheryl Crow’s “Tuesday Night Music Club.”  In her career, she has sold over 50 million records and won 9 Grammy Awards.

1. "Run Baby Run"  4:53 2. "Leaving Las Vegas"  5:10 3. "Strong Enough"  3:10 4. "Can't Cry Anymore"  3:41 5. "Solidify"  4:08 6. "The Na-Na Song"  3:12 7. "No One Said It Would Be Easy"  5:29 8. "What I Can Do for You"  4:15 9. "All I Wanna Do"  4:32 10. "We Do What We Can"  5:38 11. "I Shall Believe"  5:34

This album has a great bunch of radio-friendly hits that tap the veins of folk, blues, and rock.  But if we are learning from these albums, then this one’s lesson regards the dangers of collaboration.  The Tuesday Music Club was real and the musicians, to varying degrees, wrote this album together.  By all indications, it was pleasant enough to create, but once it became a smash hit animosity of all kinds developed.  A lot of groups crumble under the weight of success, and this one may have never been a “group” in the first place.  I wasn’t there.  I have no way to know if any members of the Tuesday Music Club were treated poorly or not, nor by whom.  There seems to be no doubt that Sheryl joined the group to work on her solo album.  Still, the stories of bad blood that are associated with the creation of this record are familiar in the world of rock ‘n’ roll.  The Eagles, The Police, The Clash, and Smashing Pumpkins are some of the bands that had pretty ugly breakups among the ones we’ve listened to here at album-of-the-week. There’s something sad about musicians making your favorite songs and then not being able to play them together.  So, while working well with others helps to make great music, beware the collaboration gone bad.  And join us next week for another great record.

[tcoffin42]

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Wondering how far away from Cowboy Junkies I can swing this musical pendulum, it came to me.  We’ve been playing a lot of Scrabble around the house.  My son is on a board-game kick and Scrabble is one of my (only) favorite board games.  It was widely rumored to be a serious obsession for Stephen Malkmus and Pavement, too - wasting precious recording studio time and challenging other bands on tour. I’ve had some weird rock ‘n’ roll fantasies over the years.  Playing Scrabble with Pavement is right up there.

1    Silence Kid – 3:01 2    Elevate Me Later – 2:51 3    Stop Breathin' – 4:28 4    Cut Your Hair – 3:07 5    Newark Wilder – 3:53 6    Unfair – 2:33 7    Gold Soundz – 2:41 8    5-4=Unity – 2:09 9    Range Life – 4:54 10  Heaven Is a Truck – 2:30 11  Hit the Plane Down – 3:36 12  Fillmore Jive – 6:38

I loved Pavement because I felt like I shared the influences from American classic rock and British post-punk bands that I heard in their songs. I also loved them because they never signed a major label deal.  They went a long way to cementing their reputation as indie-rock underdogs when they dissed the mainstream, alternative rock kingpins, Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots in the song “Range Life.”  They became the band that nearly destroyed the Lollapalooza tour in ‘95 (just google “pavement lollapalooza” if you don’t know that story).  I think on this album Stephen Malkmus has encouraged a small bandwagon of misfits (of which I wished to be a part) to rise up as they grow up and be as snarky and sarcastic as they can be toward their parents, their neighbors, and those damn 1%ers.  I see the seeds of the sentiments that built the Occupy Wall St movement in these lyrics from 13 years ago (in “Elevate Me Later” and “Unfair”). I can alternate between talking too much or not at all, so sometimes I felt like the “Silent Kid” and loved the focus on drums and drummers in that song and “Cut Your Hair” (which was a cover song suggestion I brought to my own band).  I think this album was essential in defining for me what can be a blurry line between indie and alternative rock.  Does it mean anything to you?  Let us know if you listen with us this week.

[tcoffin42]

Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session

From last week’s guitar-heavy, rock, to this week’s quiet, understated masterpiece, we are trying to cover all the bases as this four-year project winds down.  This album was recorded in The Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by a family band around one microphone onto a DAT recorder.  Nothing was mixed, overdubbed, or edited.  It has many characteristics of a live album, but without an audience, it also sounds like a studio recording.  The best of both worlds.

1. "Mining for Gold" trad. arr. James Gordon 1:32 2. "Misguided Angel" Margo Timmins, Michael Timmins 4:52 3. "I Don't Get It" Margo Timmins, Michael Timmins 4:34 4. "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" Hank Williams 5:25 5. "To Love is to Bury" Margo Timmins, Michael Timmins 5:16 6. "200 More Miles" Michael Timmins 5:29 7. "Dreaming My Dreams with You" Allen Reynolds 4:31 8. "Sweet Jane" Lou Reed 3:34 9. "Postcard Blues" Michael Timmins 3:22 10. "Walkin' After Midnight" Don Hecht, Alan Block 6:00

My daughter is a more sophisticated listener than I was when I first listened to this album.  The way it was recorded didn’t mean that much to me.  I just liked it because I like the blues, and cover songs, and sad songs, and acoustic bands, and female vocalists, and all those other great things this album has.  She will be more interested in this because of the way the musicians interact around the mic.  In my opinion, they do an impeccable job probably because, as a family, they’re so used to playing together.  My one problem is with “Postcard Blues,” or as I like to call it, “Shrill Harmonica Solo.”  I’ve often imagined how much more I would enjoy that song if the harmonica was the one thing on this album played from up in the balcony, echoing hauntingly.  Imagine for yourself as you join us in listening to this classic this week.

[tcoffin42]

Collective Soul - Collective Soul

This week’s album is definitely one of my “desert island” picks. Full of great rock songs sung with passionate feelings, what’s not to love about this classic from 1995?

1. "Simple"  3:45 2. "Untitled" 4:01 3. "The World I Know"  4:16 4. "Smashing Young Man" 3:45 5. "December" 4:45 6. "Where the River Flows" 3:35 7. "Gel" 3:00 8. "She Gathers Rain" 4:31 9. "When the Water Falls" 3:40 10. "Collection of Goods" 4:14 11. "Bleed" 4:03 12. "Reunion" 2:35

I’ll admit it.  I’m one of those sentimental dads that tears up a little more frequently than I’d like (for example, during Steve Hartman’s segment at the end of the CBS Evening News on Friday nights, or “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” or Disney movies, or touching personal moments, you get the picture).  Nine times out of ten, under such circumstances, I think of “The World I Know,” because the fact that my emotions have got the better of me and caused me to cry makes me “laugh at myself while the tears roll down.” I love that rare feeling being captured so well in that song.  I also will admit to loving the shunning of all beliefs except for belief in the loved one - “you” - in “Untitled.”  I love the interplay of the guitars on that one and “Simple,” and the guitar solos in every song.  They’re perfect.

It seems, in the years since this album went triple platinum, that it has become the object of no small amount of scorn.  Haters are gonna hate, but I won’t change my mind.  This album has been a staple of our musical diet so I’m sharing it proudly.  We hope you’ll listen with us this week.

[tcoffin42]

Diana Krall - All For You

I’m killing two birds with one stone this week. I’m jumping the (genre) tracks to maximize exposure as the end is nigh for this four-year, album-of-the-week project.  This week we’ll be listening to the amazing Diana Krall singing and playing the songs of the incomparable Nat King Cole Trio.

1    "I'm an Errand Girl for Rhythm"  – 2:55 2    "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" – 4:07 3    "You Call It Madness"  – 4:37 4    "Frim Fram Sauce" – 5:01 5    "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" – 6:27 6    "Baby Baby All the Time"  – 3:36 7    "Hit That Jive Jack"  – 4:16 8    "You're Looking at Me" – 5:33 9    "I'm Thru with Love"  – 4:26 10  "Deed I Do"  – 3:32 11  "A Blossom Fell"  – 5:13 12  "If I Had You" – 4:55

One of the objectives of this project is to learn from the music of the past in order to make music in the present.  It seems to me that’s what Diana did with this third album of hers from 1996.  For the most part, these songs were composed at least 50 years before she recorded them.  I find it endlessly fascinating when artists cover another artist’s work.  If you are going to cover someone else’s work, you’re going to be making a bold statement about your own style.  Diana’s is smooth, slow, and sultry unless she’s jamming on the few songs like the opener and “Hit That Jive Jack,” (maybe “’Deed I Do”) which, I’m sorry, could really use drums. I know, trio.

When-y-who...I have consulted with the recipient of all these albums of mine and her responses to my queries have set the course for the last dozen or so weeks. We will be going back and forth. There will be boys and girls, fast and slow, loud and soft, folk and rock all before graduation which will be here before you know it.  We hope you’ll listen with us.

[tcoffin42]

Aretha Franklin - The Very Best of Aretha Franklin: The 60′s

I got a lot of Rhino collections in the 90’s. They assemble an artist’s catalog the way I would if I had the resources. This is a crash course in not only Aretha Franklin’s, but also some of soul music’s greatest hits. She is the Queen of Soul after all.

1    Respect (Redding) - 2:25 2    Baby I Love You   (Shannon) - 2:44 3    I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) (Shannon) - 2:52 4    Chain of Fools (Covay) - 2:49 5    Do Right Woman, Do Right Man  ( Moman/Penn) - 3:15 6    (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman  (Goffin/King/Wexler) - 2:45 7    (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone  (A. Franklin/White) - 2:26 8    Ain’t No Way  (C. Franklin) - 4:14 9    Think   (A. Franklin/White) - 2:19 10  See Saw  (Covay/Cropper) - 2:46 11  The House That Jack Built (Lance/Robbins) - 2:23 12  I Say a Little Prayer  (Bacharach/David) - 3:36 13  The Weight  (Robertson) - 2:55 14  Eleanor Rigby  (Lennon/McCartney) - 2:38 15  Share Your Love With Me  (Braggs/Malone) - 3:21 16  Call Me  (A. Franklin) - 3:56

Aretha packs all the feelings into her vocal performances. When she sings, “I love you,” you know she loves you. And when she sings, “think about what you’re trying to do to me,” you better start thinking about it. Aretha's love songs strike me as more descriptive than most. If she loves you, she'll let you know why ("you make me feel like a natural woman"), or if she's not happy, she'll let you know where you are falling short ("you gotta be a do right, all-night man"). There is an abundance of girl-power emanating from these songs. I want my daughter to feel empowered in her relationships by this music. Besides that, I know she is going to dig the horn section on top of the regular rock band. Some choices in the mix will seem dated and fascinate her (I believe it's the whole drumset in the left channel on one of these tracks, opposite Aretha’s vocal in the right - weird).  Her interpretation of songs by The Beatles and The Band are some interesting and excellent covers. You can't go wrong listening to Aretha Franklin. And something I keep telling my daughter is, "Alabama Shakes wouldn’t be Alabama Shakes without Aretha first." We hope you will join us this week and listen to these classic songs from the Queen of Soul.

[tcoffin42]

Indigo Girls - Indigo Girls

Clearly, they were far from the first, but I still think of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers as the matriarchs of the “chicks with picks” genre.  They burst onto the scene with this album in 1989 after R.E.M. and 10,000 Maniacs made my musical sensibilities ready for them.  With Michael Stipe singing backing vocals on “Kid Fears,” and instrumental support from the other members of R.E.M. on “Tried to Be True,” and with the Irish band, Hothouse Flowers backing the girls on “Closer to Fine,” (and others?) this album has lots of what we have loved during the album of the week project; acoustic instruments, killer harmonies, and the support of talented guest musicians, .

1    "Closer to Fine" (Emily Saliers) – 4:02 2    "Secure Yourself" (Amy Ray) – 3:35 3    "Kid Fears" (Ray) – 4:34 4    "Prince of Darkness" (Saliers) – 5:21 5    "Blood and Fire" (Ray) – 4:38 6    "Tried to Be True" (Ray) – 2:59 7    "Love's Recovery" (Saliers) – 4:23 8    "Land of Canaan" (Ray) – 3:57 9    "Center Stage" (Ray) – 4:46 10  "History of Us" (Saliers) – 5:27

I like the way the Indigo Girls’ songs make me feel included in something like a movement.  They aren’t so much telling stories or relating from a character’s point of view.  It’s more like they espouse a philosophy to which I subscribe.  We try to be true to ourselves, we strive to improve as human beings, and we eschew the things that we perceive as contrary to our own beliefs. Of particular interest to me, after all the politicizing I’ve been doing since the election, is the sentiment of “Closer to Fine.”  “The less I seek my source for some definitive, the closer I am to fine,” to me means that things aren’t so easily categorized into black and white.  A lot of life occurs in the grey area, and moderation trumps extremism.  Judgment upon individual circumstances is preferred over blind adherence to blanket rules.  What do you think it means?  How do you feel about the Indigo Girls and their music?  We’re hoping you’ll listen with us this week and let us know.