#354: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Will the Circle be Unbroken (1972)

Zack: When I went to listen to this album and saw how long it was, I’m pretty sure I made a noise like I was a victim in a Saw movie. It’s no secret that the country music we’ve listened to has been hit-or-miss with me. And while my palette has expanded in recent years so that there are more hits than there used to be, there are still a fuck ton of misses. So a double album of country seemed to provide twice as many reasons to fear. After listening to the first half, though, I started to calm down. It wasn’t all bad. In fact, in many places, it was all good. I kind of liked that they were trying to bang everything out in only one take. It all felt so natural. Like I was sitting on a porch drinking wine from a jug while people cavorted around me. Some of the songs I even knew! But then disc 2 started. And all of a sudden I was submerged in a sea of fiddling. And that sea was quite tumultuous. Even though I was sitting in a crappy chair at the FEC coding fundraising data, what was going into my ears was the most uncomfortable part of my day. Eventually, things turned around somewhat. But I was struck by a lesson I really feel more artists should have learned by now: If you think you have enough material for a double album, shut up no you don’t. They could have easily pared this down to a single, 1-hour disc and I would have loved it. But Will the Circle be Unbroken had to push their luck on that double album, and they lost me there.

Favorite Tracks: Nashville Blues; Dark as a Dungeon; Black Mountain Rag

Emily: Will the Circle be Unbroken clocks in at about 105 minutes, nearly two hours of Nashville country music. Listening to it took me five separate walks throughout D.C. - from my house to work, from work to the gym, from the gym to my house, and again from my house to work and work to my house. That's a lot of steps logged for one measly album. And on every leg of the journey, I wanted to be listening to something else. Heard some Kanye West in spin class? Should've listened to Yeezus on the way home. Saw a clip about the Bad Blood video on Instagram? Should've put on T. Swift while walking to work. These are actual thoughts I had over the past two days, but each time I kept on plugging through the fiddles, twang, and lonely hearts of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. And when I stepped into my apartment this evening, the last few bars of the thirty-eighth track playing through my headphones, I breathed a sigh of relief. The unending Circle of country music was finally (Un)broken.

Favorite Tracks: I'm Thinkin' Tonight of My Blue Eyes; Nine Pound Hammer; Tennessee Stud

#353: The Pretenders - Pretenders (1980)

Emily: Chrissie Hynde should rank up there with Joan Jett on the list of badass old-school punk chicks. Hynde may not be as well-known or perform as often as Jett still does, but both have been playing classic punk rock for decades and are way cooler wearing a guitar and a black tank top than you or I could ever hope to be. Another similarity between them is that they're both still fronting their longtime bands: Jett with the Blackhearts, and Hynde with the Pretenders. Though both have gone through lineup changes over the years, their main constants have been the persistence of their frontwomen and the badassery of their music. And much as Jett still mostly plays her early stuff, I'm sure Hynde throws a few tracks off of her band's self-titled debut into every setlist. And for good reason: this album had the spirit of punk tied into the emerging sounds of new wave and alternative. Plus Brass in Pocket is catchy as all hell. That alone should be enough for Chrissy Hynde and the Pretenders to be included in the same category as Joan Jett.
Favorite Tracks: Brass in Pocket; Precious; Private Life

Zack: I originally had this album classified as new wave, which ended up being awesome because it meant we listened to one more punk album and one less new wave album. I can think of exactly 0 scenarios where that is a bad thing. The Pretenders had some new wave/pop flair to it, but the nuts and bolts of the album were pretty much pure punk. I loved that about it. It didn’t necessarily have the speed, but everything else was there. But, most importantly, synths were barely there. I can’t stress enough how much that meant to me. Overall, then, The Pretenders was a good album that serves as a precursor for the pop-punk movement we saw a few decades later.

Favorite Tracks: Stop Your Sobbing; Private Life; Tattooed Love Boys

#352: Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)

Zack: When we first started writing this blog, nearly five years ago (holy shit!), I named Pink Floyd as my second favorite band/artist. At the time, that was totally true. When it came time to revise the list, nearly two years ago (once again, holy shit!), they had been bumped from the top 5. At that time, that was totally true. And as of today, they have not reclaimed their original place, although they do threaten to break back in. Why have they fallen? Mostly, it’s because I discovered new (but mostly very, very old) artists that totally blew me away. But part of it is that the Pink Floyd that used to deconstruct my entire consciousness simply stopped doing that for me. I used to put on Animals on my shitty MP3 player my freshman year of college, gaze at the ceiling, and let the music wash over me while I tried to fall asleep before 4 a.m. (college, amirite?) Now, I listen to Pink Floyd and appreciate how cool it is without feeling overwhelmed by its awesomeness. But Piper presented an opportunity to reawaken my love for the Floyd for a simple reason: I’d never listened to it before. My four staples used to be (in order): Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall. I’d listened to other stuff, but never got around to Piper. When we started the blog, I intentionally avoided listening to it so that I could document my first time here, for your pleasure. And, having waited so long, my reaction is…meh. I liked it, but the biggest takeaway for me was that I really prefer spacey psychedelic music over fantasy psychedelic music. Most of Pink Floyd’s music falls in the former camp, but Piper didn’t. And, seemingly as a result, I didn’t like it as much. It’s a shame because I was really looking forward to this album. But, ultimately, it just couldn’t capture the magic of the first time I heard the other Pink Floyd albums.

Favorite Tracks: Interstellar Overdrive; Matilda Mother; Astronomy Domine

Emily: I decided to pick up my listening-to-music-while-walking-to-work thing again after a few weeks of totally failing at it, so I started The Piper at the Gates of Dawn without much knowledge besides that it was next on the list and that it was early Pink Floyd. I've listened to only a bit of Pink Floyd over the years (though I did go to an outdoor showing of The Wizard of Oz synced up to Dark Side of the Moon last summer), so I knew to expect psychedelic and trippy musical stylings with perhaps some sort of interwoven story or theme running through. That's kind of what it was, but I could definitely tell that it was early in the band's career. They hadn't quite fleshed out the sound that made them so unique and timeless a few years and albums down the line, so a lot of the album sounded like things we've come across before on this blog. I also thought it kinda sounded like a trippy '60s James Bond soundtrack, which at least held my interest throughout the album. Maybe The Piper at the Gates of Dawn syncs up to Goldfinger? Only one way to find out...

Favorite Tracks: Interstellar Overdrive; Astronomy Domine; Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk