#280: John Lennon - Imagine (1971)

Emily: In terms of Beatle preferences, I'm more of a McCartney fan than a Lennon fan. I just tend to prefer McCartney's simpler, poppier style over Lennon's world-weariness and experimentation. Lennon is a legend in his own right, and on his own he really gets to explore different styles and ambition. Though the give-peace-a-chance title track is the best-known song on this album - and perhaps the best-known solo Lennon song period - Imagine really gets its fire when Lennon gets angry and brings out the rock & roll. Nowhere is this more evident than on the McCartney-attacking How Do You Sleep?, a fiery rock track brimming with rage and guitars. McCartney still may be my favorite Beatle, but I'm not exactly rushing to defend him after spending a bit more time with Lennon on his own.
Favorite Tracks: How Do You Sleep?; I Don't Want to be a Soldier; Imagine

Zack: I’ve made it no secret that I’m not that into the Beatles, but maybe I should be more specific. I think John Lennon is wildly overrated. Is that clear enough? Don’t want there to be any confusion over where I’m coming from. That said, Imagine is a pretty good album. Not fantastic, not mind-meltingly fantastic. Maybe you could persuade me to go as far as really good, but certainly no further. But, hey, maybe I’m missing something here. Maybe I just don’t see the beauty underneath the bubblegum. I’m open to persuasion, but look convincing me otherwise.

Favorite Tracks: Jealous Guy; Imagine; How Do You Sleep?

#279: Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988)

Zack: Much to most people’s surprise, I’ve never really liked Public Enemy. Some of that stems from the fact that the first Public Enemy song I ever heard was Fight the Power, and I disagree with Chuck D’s assessment of Elvis Presley. I’m not really an Elvis fan, and Flavor Flav’s 1000% right about John Wayne, and I get that his larger point is that Elvis benefited from the advancements made by black musicians in a way that none of the people who influenced him ever did. But I just always found that one line to so aggressively discard contextual facts in the pursuit of an incendiary claim that I never really got over the frustration. Plus, the song was made for a Spike Lee movie, and I’ve seen enough of his bullshit antics at Knicks games to dislike him. I know that it’s stupid of me to focus so intensely on a single line in an entire sea of lyrical production and it’s completely unfair of me to have made up my mind about a band without really diving too far into their catalogue. In my defense, the rest of my disdain comes from thinking that Flavor Flav is annoying. Anyway, I promised myself that I would be more open minded when it came to their three albums on the list, and I’m trying. For instance, I intentionally made sure that the first album we listened to wasn’t Fear of a Black Planet (the album that song is actually on). I promise you’ll get the unabridged complaint about Fight the Power in that review (“Oh God there’s more?!” you all exclaimed with terror). In the meantime, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was definitely a step in the right direction. I’ve never denied Chuck D’s talent when it comes to actually rapping, and he is definitely a smart dude. His songs back a huge punch, especially once you get over Flavor Flav buzzing around like a goddamn mosquito in the backing vocals. There isn’t much flashy about the production, but there doesn’t really need to be. The point is to emphasize Chuck D, and that goal is certainly achieved.
Favorite Tracks: Party for Your Right to Fight; Black Steel in the First World; Don’t Believe the Hype

Emily: Perhaps not surprisingly, my only exposure to Public Enemy is through the ongoing legacy of Flavor Flav and his seemingly dozens of reality shows. I don't even think I watched any of them (or perhaps one - I think he was on Couples Therapy with some lady who was not a Flavor of Love girl), but the clips were ubiquitous on various pop culture clip shows of the early and mid-2000s that were a regular part of my teenage TV viewing. So my impression of Flav is that he's a ridiculous person wearing Viking horns and a giant clock who yells and gets a lot of bitches. On a Public Enemy album, he's pretty much just doing the yelling part. Luckily, he's not the focus of things. Flavor Flav essentially acts as part of the beat, making way for Chuck D's angry, issue-driven raps. The words really drive this album, and combined with the sparse, erratic beats and samples, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is an album that really makes you sit up and take notice.
Favorite Tracks: Party for Your Right to Fight; Caught, Can We Get a Witness?; She Watch Channel Zero?!

#278: The Residents - Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen (1978)

Emily: No ducks were stabbed in the making of this album. Well, at least I hope not. The Residents' innocuous band name belies the sheer absurdity, discord, and creepiness of their "art collective" interpretation of music. Duck Stab! could be the soundtrack of a high-concept fun house that has a lot of weird distorting mirrors and scary clowns behind every turn. Or it could be surrealistic children's music, since the lyrics are nonsensical, the tonality ominous and creepy, and the singers/speakers articulating in high-pitched voices that could easily belong to cartoon characters or Pee-Wee Herman. I thought of that episode of Rugrats where one of the babies has a dream and Stu turns into a creepy clown-like monster person. Seriously, this shit would give kids and many grown adults nightmares for weeks. I may or may not be keeping my lights on tonight to ward off dreams of ducks being stabbed...
Favorite Tracks: The Electrocutioner; Krafty Cheese; Weight-Lifting Lulu

Zack: I had no idea what to expect from this album. Apparently, what I should have foreseen the output of a mockumentary band. I didn’t check Wikipedia until I sat down to write my review, but the first things that caught my eye were two pieces of trivia that made total sense after listening to the album: The Residents are less a band and more of an “art collective” and they have produced more than 60 albums as well as numerous multimedia projects. Apparently, they also wear eyeball masks with top hats when they perform. Because duh. Duck Stab!/Buster Glen is precisely as weird as all those parts add up to, and I ended up listening to it while typing up notes on various shortcuts for political preference taking. It was quite a feeling. I don’t know what was more confusing: the random noises coming through my headphones or the methodology that Chong, Citrin, and Conley employed. I don’t really have much more to say about the album. I didn’t like it. Not at all. But the absolute absurdity was sort of endearing. That’s all I have to say about that.

Favorite Tracks: Blue Rosebud; The Electrocutioner; Constantinople