#345: Minor Threat - Out of Step (1983)

Emily: I was actually really excited to listen to this album. I'm a big Foo Fighters fan, and Ian MacKaye, Minor Threat, and the DC hardcore/punk scene that they helped to form were a big part of a biography about Dave Grohl I read last year. Grohl was a few years younger than those guys and lived in the DC area, so that scene was where he really started out. Ian MacKaye was also instrumental in running a label for the scene that released the EPs and albums of tons of DC artists in the '80s, including Grohl's first bands. Before that, though, came Minor Threat. The band was only around for two years before MacKaye moved on to other projects (like the label and his subsequent band Fugazi), but in that short time they had a big impact on hardcore music. Out of Step shows why. It's an 18-minute long album of 8 fast-paced, hard-driving songs that embody the '80s hardcore punk sound. It's over almost as soon as it started, but in that short time it packs a wallop of sound and fury.
Favorite Tracks: Look Back and Laugh; Betray; Little Friend

Zack: Minor Threat had a lot of things working against them in terms of getting me to appreciate this album. For one, they were one of the progenitors of the hardcore punk movement, which is probably my least favorite flavor of punk, perhaps only trailing cowpunk. I kid, cowpunk is awesome. Besides that, they are also essentially for popularizing the straight edge movement, which means they also created a whole army of people in high school who really annoyed me. But Minor Threat avoided garnering a third strike by turning out a really solid album. Out of Step is everything you want from punk album: fast, loud, political, and really, really fast. It blasts out of the gate and sprints for 18 minutes. It is exactly as advertised, which I really appreciate. In general, I would still rather listen to punk rock from the 70s or punk rock revival from the 90s/00s than just about any hardcore album from the 80s, but if this is your thing then you can’t do much better than Out of Step.

Favorite Tracks: Look Back and Laugh; It Follows; Little Friend

#344: Basement Jaxx - Remedy (1999)

Zack: Basement Jaxx are essentially British Daft Punk, which makes Remedy the British Homework. With that in mind, I think Remedy was clearly the superior of the two. Both are (mostly) highly danceable and fluctuate significantly in the sorts of musical styles that songs place their roots in. But whereas Remedy has weird digressions every few tracks, these interludes are always less than a minute, as opposed to the 7-and-a-half minute horror that is Rollin’ and Scratchin’. The other thing I really appreciate about Remedy was the same reason I included the word “mostly” before danceable above. Whereas a great deal of this album was clearly designed to be played loudly at a club where the ecstasy runs freely as well as the water, there are still a number of less bouncy, more moody and atmospheric tracks that really balance out the vibe. There’s a certain complexity that really comes across in Remedy, which was more than enough to make it one of the electronic albums that I would be willing to recommend.

Favorite Tracks: Stop 4 Love; Red Alert; Being With U

Emily: When Zack and I went to the Firefly Music Festival last year, there were a whole bunch of electronic artists (that we largely skipped) and a "silent disco" in the woods (that we also skipped) where you put on headphones that presumably played EDM music and danced in the woods while everyone around you was listening to the same music on their individual headphones and dancing along. A friend of mine tried it the year before and she said it was a super weird experience - there were two different music streams you could listen to, so the crowd was divided into 2 groups dancing to totally different things. Kinda makes me wish I had tried it, but I don't think I could take bass drops so close to my ears. Now, if this was happening in 1999 and Basement Jaxx was on the silent disco headphones, I think I would've been willing to give it a shot. Unlike today's rise-and-fall, crazy loud bass EDM, Basement Jaxx's late-'90s house stylings are a much smoother auditory ride. Though I'm still not big on songs that are just random sounds (I'm looking at you, Daft Punk), most of Remedy is a cool blend of upbeat and melodic electronic music that's well suited for a club, chilling, or even a silent disco with 300 of your closest headphone-clad friends.

Favorite Tracks: Jump 'N Shout; Red Alert; Always Be There

#343: Deep Purple - Deep Purple in Rock (1970)

Zack: Deep Purple is a band best known for the song Smoke on the Water. Of the 3 albums they have on this list, this is the one album that does not have a version of that song on it. That confuses me, because if I were in Deep Purple I would lead and close every album with Smoke on the Water. Or at least I would start every song with that riff. But I’m willing to let that slide here, considering this album came out 2 years before that song was written. Anyway, apparently Deep Purple is considered one of the 3 foundational players of British hard rock, along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Which makes some sense, since In Rock sort of sounded like Led Zeppelin if you were submerged in a particularly viscous fluid, perhaps syrup, and were trying not to think about it too much. In general, I thought In Rock was okay, but unimpressive. It was loud, but it didn’t have the same sort of excitement that makes the loudness of Zeppelin so appealing. It also made me realize how crucial the whole mysticism element is to what Zeppelin and Sabbath do. Without it, everything becomes sort of boring. In Rock doesn’t have any of that going on, at least as far as I could tell, and the product really suffered. Overall, I’d much rather listen to Deep Purple’s contemporaries than blast In Rock. But maybe things will improve once Smoke on the Water starts on the other 2 albums.

Favorite Tracks: Bloodsucker; Hard Lovin’ Man; Living Wreck

Emily: My knowledge of Deep Purple before today extended to Smoke on the Water, the simple guitar riff that everyone who either plays guitar, played Guitar Hero, or just listens to rock music knows by heart. I fit into the latter two categories, and after listening to Deep Purple in Rock I think I prefer the band's easy-level Guitar Hero song to the more expert-level hard rock guitar on display here. I agree with Zack that they kind of just sound like the poor man's Led Zeppelin, but significantly less interesting. But hey, maybe Smoke on the Water will liven their remaining albums up a bit.

Favorite Tracks: Speed King; Flight of the Rat; Into the Fire

#342: Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story (1971)

Zack: I’m not sure why I’m writing this review. My brother already nailed it in a text a few days before I listened to this album. “I mean rod stewart would make ur panties wet if you were 60.” That’s it. Wrap it up. We’re not doing any better than that. But since I have to at least try, if only to make that above sentence seem even better by comparison, then let me just say that this album was like a cornier Tom Petty. It was generally inoffensive, if bland, but that’s about all that I would be willing to say. Some songs seemed okay. Some seemed less okay. That’s really about it. Unless you’re 60, that is.

Favorite Tracks: (I Know) I’m Losing You; Maggie May; Every Picture Tells a Story

Emily: The extent of my knowledge of Rod Stewart is that he sings Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?, the favorite karaoke song of lounge lizards everywhere. So you can imagine my surprise when Every Picture Tells A Story was essentially a blues-rock album. I was expecting old-guy pop, and I got the singer for Jeff Beck. This was early in Stewart's career, though, so I guess he made a few changes to his style further down the line. That's kind of a shame though, because Stewart's raspy voice is really well-suited to the blues-folk-psychedelic-rock styles of the late '60s and early '70s. This wasn't the best incarnation of those genres that we've listened to by a long shot, but it was interesting to spend 45 minutes with young Rod Stewart before he became the sleazy-listening kind of guy we (or at least I) think of today.

Favorite Tracks: (I Know) I'm Losing You; That's All Right; Maggie May

#341: Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes (1983)

Emily: I was super pumped to listen to Violent Femmes because I love Blister in the Sun. It comes up once in a while on Radio 104.5, and I always proceed to boogie in my chair/car/in public and sing along to the da-dum da-dum part that isn't actually words (and the actual words too). So of course I then did the same when I listened to it as the opening track on the Violent Femmes self-titled debut. The rest of the album was upbeat and interesting, but didn't quite reach another high point as good as Blister in the Sun. And then I got to Gone Daddy Gone and my joy came right back. I loved Gnarls Barkley's version of the song, but I had no idea that it was a cover of an even-better version by the Violent Femmes. Even though I'll probably just keep dancing to to Blister in the Sun on repeat, I'll definitely be skipping ahead to Gone Daddy Gone a lot - and even running through the whole album a few times too.

Favorite Tracks: Blister in the Sun; Gone Daddy Gone; Ugly

Zack: Violent Femmes is probably in my top 10 favorite band names of all time. It’s really just perfect. What is not perfect, but still very good, is their debut album. It sounds way too good to have been released in 1983. I probably would have guessed early 90s if I didn’t know better. The whole album sort of sounds like what Nirvana would have been in Kurt Cobain had just chilled out a bit. At its best, it’s Blister in the Sun; a bouncy blend that just worms its way into your ear. At its worst, Violent Femmes trades in that bounciness for a slower pace and it just gets a tad boring. Even the worst is still pretty good, though. All in all, this was a fun album worth throwing on from time to time. If only to put Blister in the Sun on repeat.

Favorite Tracks: Blister in the Sun; Gone Daddy Gone; Ugly 

#340: PJ Harvey - Dry (1992)

Zack: The makers of the list have a bit of a PJ Harvey obsession. Dry is one of three albums on the version that we work off of, and the revisions since then have added a fourth. I’ve actually listened to the one that was added (Let England Shake) and was sort of underwhelmed. It was okay, but certainly nothing special. Dry is much better. Each song stands out as its own entity. Some are packed with a ferocity that’s hard to match. Others are a bit more understated. I tended to prefer the former. At its best, Dry sort of served as a halfway point between Patti Smith and Sleater-Kinney. Seeing as I loved both of those albums, that’s certainly a good place to be.

Favorite Tracks: Dress; Water; Oh My Lover

Emily: I had never heard of PJ Harvey before the other day, but apparently she's a big enough deal in the UK to have a royally-deemed title that's a few steps below knight. I don't know how exclusive such a title is, but it sounds pretty important to me. And based on Dry, the recognition is warranted too. It's a grunge-era album but predates the riot-grrl wave by a few years. The influence of both movements is apparent throughout the album. There's a certain urgency and anger in Harvey's voice that reminded me at once of Nirvana and Sleater-Kinney. That's some pretty good company to stand with in my book, and I hope her next two albums live up to them too.

Favorite Tracks: Oh My Lover; Hair; Sheela-Na-Gig

#339: Curtis Mayfield - Super Fly (1972)

Emily: I've written before about my love for Jimmy Cliff's The Harder They Come. It's one of those rare soundtracks that's better than the movie even when the movie itself is quite good, and it also was one of the first compilations to introduce reggae to the world a few years before Bob Marley took it all the way mainstream. Even though I haven't seen Super Fly the movie, I'm pretty sure Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack falls into the same category as Cliff's. Even though it didn't introduce a whole genre of music to the world, Super Fly was one of the first Blaxsploitation soundtracks to make an impact AND was one of the first soul albums to adopt the classic rock standby of the concept album, using the music to fuel messages of social change. That alone would earn it a spot on this list, but Super Fly is also just a great '70s soul album, full of funky grooves to create songs that make you both dance and think. While it may not replace The Harder They Come (and Saturday Night Fever, for that matter) as my favorite '70s soundtrack, Super Fly is definitely up there on my list.
Favorite Tracks: Super Fly; Pusherman; Little Child Runnin' Wild

Zack: Finally! An album that gives me a chance to talk about D’Angelo’s Black Messiah. Seriously, about halfway through listening to Super Fly, that was the thought that hit me the hardest. But once I finished listening to those last 3 tracks, I actually felt a little guilty that I had been so preoccupied drawing parallels with a modern R&B/Soul/Funk classic when I should have been enjoying Super Fly for what it was: a superb album. Seriously, it blew Isaac Hayes’s Shaft (Shaft!) out of the water in terms of best Blaxploitation soundtrack. Mayfield grabbed on to something special with his grooves and socially conscious lyrics. And even though D’Angelo did the same on Black Messiah (which everyone should listen to, especially The Charade), for now I think I’ll show Super Fly the respect it deserves and just say listen to this.

Favorite Tracks: Super Fly; Pusherman; Think (Instrumental)