#254: Blondie - Parallel Lines (1978)

Emily: When I was around 7 or 8, my gymnastics class did our recital routine to One Way or Another, probably the most well-known single from Parallel Lines. Granted, it was approximately 1998 and we were in the second grade, so we didn't actually use the Blondie version. Instead, it was a cover from The Rugrats Movie that I'm pretty sure was sung by Angelica Pickles. Of course, I thought it was awesome. I realized later, though, that the original version was even more awesome. However, I didn't like Parallel Lines as a whole as much as I liked the song. I really like Blondie when they take new wave and pop and add something totally different - a rock edge in Call Me or One Way or Another, disco in Heart of Glass, and even hip-hop in Rapture. Otherwise, however, the music was catchy but just not that exciting. A few tracks show their potential for pop-crossover greatness, but it seems that it took them a few years to really develop their sound. This is Blondie's only album featured on the list, so I'll have to take some time to check out their later albums.
Favorite Tracks: One Way or Another; Heart of Glass; 11:59

Zack: I didn’t really know what to expect form Blondie other than One Way or Another, perhaps the most montage-able song of all time. What I got was a pop rock masterpiece, sort of like a Sister Sisters ancestor. From start to finish, Parallel Lines was unstoppably catchy, yet never really bordered on corny like so many other New Wave bands of the era. Blondie clearly managed to avoid many of the pitfalls of their contemporaries while putting together an album with the exact same spirit.

Favorite Tracks: Will Anything Happen; One Way or Another; Fade Away and Radiate

#253: Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Shaka Zulu (1987)

Emily: The only I (and probably most people) have heard of Ladysmith Black Mambazo is from Mean Girls. Cady is supposed to go to Madison with her parents for a concert and decides to throw her party instead and her mom gets mad and says, "But you love Ladysmith Black Mambazo!" And thus, when we came to this album I had to choose it. However, it seems that Cady made the right choice to skip the concert. Shaka Zulu can best be described as a cappella African folk music. It's certainly an acquired taste. I liked a couple songs, especially the hand-clap love song Hello My Baby, but overall I wasn't really a fan. The songs all kind of sound the same, but their simplicity could perhaps lead to interesting live interpretations and improvisation.
Favorite Tracks: Hello My Baby; Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain; King of Kings

Zack: Every time we’re due to cover a world music album, I try to send Emily three albums representing vastly different cultures and musical influences. She almost always chooses the salsa one, to varying degrees of success. So this time I forced her hand. I picked almost all African-oriented albums, and it seems to have blown up in my face. I really disliked this album. It was just so stripped down that I found it boring. I probably should have been prepared for that, given my aggressive apathy towards Graceland. But there was just no preparing for how simplistic each song was going to be. Maybe I’m just uncultured, but I just couldn’t wait to be done and move on.

Favorite Tracks: King of Kings; Hello My Baby; Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain 

#252: Dexys Midnight Runners - Too-Rye-Ay (1982)

Emily: As a big fan of any and all Vh1 shows featuring the '80s, one-hit wonders, and countdowns, I am exceedingly familiar with Dexys Midnight Runners in the context of their one and only American hit, Come On Eileen. Their impossibly catchy song and ridiculous hillbilly-farmer-meets-the-city-and-plays-the-fiddle video have popped up on I Love the '80s, the 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders, the 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s, the Greatest '80s One-Hit Wonders, and I Love the One-Hit Wonders of the '80s (okay, I made that last one up, but you can't argue that it doesn't fit perfectly with the others). This one song has brought the band so much recognition even to this day, but why didn't they take off more than that? Honestly, after listening to Too-Rye-Ay, I really don't know. Dexys Midnight Runners make great pop music; here, it's infused with a bit of country-rock fiddling and a bit of new-wavey vibes. Sounds weird, but it totally works. Come On Eileen is certainly the best song on the album, but a few others could have been singles. I guess America just wasn't ready for Dexy in 1982 - or not until Vh1 started making '80s nostalgia shows.

Favorite Tracks: Come On Eileen; All in All (This One Last Wild Waltz); Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)

Zack: The jury is still out on why, exactly, Dexys Midnight Runners have three albums on the list when only one of said albums contains Come on Eileen. But this is the one with Come on Eileen and it is a lot better than expected. On a scale of 1 to 10, I put my interest in this album at a 3 before listening. But I was proven wrong, because Too-Rye-Ay is sort of a masterpiece of pop music that blended a lot of styles into a really cohesive album. It sort of reminded me of Madness, but a lot better (not to be interpreted as a knock on Madness). Obviously, the big takeaway is the best single and final song on the album, Come on Eileen. But there were one or two other songs that I had no clue were by DMR as well as a few songs that I hadn’t heard before but really enjoyed anyway. Too-Rye-Ay was a really great album by a band that should probably be known for more than just one song.

Favorite Tracks: Come On Eileen; The Celtic Soul Brothers; Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile

#251: X - Wild Gift (1981)

Zack: This album didn’t make me feel as many emotions as I expected. I read beforehand that most of the lyrics are just straight poetry and that comparisons were drawn to the likes of Charles Bukowski, which persuaded me to think that I was going to feel things somewhere deep down. But, on a first listen anyway, I didn’t really feel much at all. It just came off as pretty good, which certainly isn’t what Rolling Stone, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Village Voice had in mind when they named it the best album of the year, I’m sure. I definitely want to relisten to it soon (I have a long bus ride coming up in a few days that will likely provide the perfect context) in hopes that maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention. One little thing that did catch me off guard was how the album seemed to be such a mash-up of punk and early alternative. Some songs would be those prototypical minute and a half rushes, but others were slowed down and more…deliberate I guess. I initially chalked that up to band progression, but apparently X actually became more punk on their sophomore album. What other band pulls that off?

Favorite Tracks: It’s Who You Know; Adult Books; In This House That I Call Home

Emily: It took me a bit to come up with what I wanted to write about Wild Gift. I enjoyed it, but I didn't take away much from it upon one listen. The sound bridged the gap a bit between punk and more mainstream rock, adding more guitar and subtracting the standard thrashing around. I thought the best tracks on the album were the ones that really strayed from the short, 3-chord, scream-sung expectations of punk music - not that I don't like that sound; as previous reviews indicate, I'm quite a punk fan. The longer songs, however, seemed fuller and more developed, with strong musicianship and even stronger vocals that often dueled between male and female. It seems, though, that the real creativity lies in the poetic lyrics. I couldn't pick up on that through just one listen, so I'll definitely have to give it at least one more chance.

Favorite Tracks: Adult Books; It's Who You Know; In This House That I Call Home

A Quarter of the Way There

Now that we’re one whole quarter of the way through, we decided to take a second to examine how this voyage (nearly 3-years-worth!) has affected the top 5 lists we each made at the very start. The results were, well, see for yourself

Zack: I looked back at what I had picked as my Top 5 favorite bands/artists when this began and what I wrote, and well, lol. Hendrix still reigns supreme, but the rest of my Top 5 has been completely shaken up. I’m relistening to Harvest Moon as I write this, so Neil Young has earned his place. Kanye has dropped two incredible solo albums and helped make this happen, while Lupe has produced 2 subpar albums and 1 good mixtape in that time, leading to a major switch. Hilariously, I made it a point to say that “Country pretty much sucks,” which now seems to have come back and bitten me since I have to include Johnny Cash here. Oh, and I finally opened my horizons and listened to the Clash (minus their debut and Cut the Crap). What happened after that was practically destiny.

Top 5 Bands (as of 8/25/13)

1. The Jimi Hendrix Experience

2. Neil Young

3. Kanye West

4. Johnny Cash

5. The Clash

Emily: Revisiting this Top 5 bands/artists list was more difficult than I expected. It was pretty easy when I did it the first time when we started the blog since my musical tastes were fairly narrow. However, after exploring 250 albums that were mostly unknown and hearing new music all the time as it has been released (and from Zack, of course), I barely knew where to start with this list. Two bands came to mind quickly; one my favorite since middle school that I could never give up, and the other a newer favorite that was cemented by seeing them live and from 15 feet away. After that, I didn't know how to continue. Should I pick the best live bands? The ones whose albums I keep coming back to? What about the ones I've just started to explore? To try to sort this all out, I decided to sit down with my breakfast and a mug of green tea to sort through old blog posts and iTunes and hopefully come to a conclusion. The results were even more inconclusive. I thought of how much I love Jeff Buckley and the Dead Kennedys, but does listening to one album qualify as a favorite? What about my evolving fandom of Kanye West? I've listened to way more of his stuff than those other two, but I can count that as a favorite. And then there are the concerts - I've seen the Killers, Muse, fun., and a slew of other artists in the past few years. Does that count as a favorite? I think my ultimate conclusion is that I don't really have favorite artists anymore. I now listen to music on an album-by-album basis, and those albums - not a discography, not an artist - are what have become my favorites. Regardless, the task was 5 artists, and that is the list I will provide - though it doesn't really give my music favorites justice.

Top 5 Bands (as of 8/25/13)

1. Green Day

2. Foo Fighters

3. fun.

4. Kanye West

5. The Killers

#250: Bjork - Vespertine (2001)

Emily: My general impression of Bjork can be summed up by her infamous swan dress, which she actually wore around the same time Vespertine was released. She even had an egg-shaped purse! So avant garde! Or, more likely, batshit crazy. Luckily for us, there was a significant lack of swan involved in this album - as well as a significant lack of crazy reflected by said swans. What I expected would be filled with earsplitting experimentation was actually a beautiful collection of ambient music, punctuated by Bjork's ethereal singing. The album has a dreamlike quality that softens background noise into fantasy, fitting quite well with the Harry Potter book I've been re-reading. I imagine it would work well as an antidote to studying as well - perhaps I'll try it out in the coming semester. I guess Bjork really was going for avant garde with the swans after all.
Favorite Tracks: It's Not Up to You; Sun in My Mouth; Heirloom

Zack: Bjork is pretty much known for being Icelandic and a little crazy (I’m not sure if the two can be mutually exclusive, and I have no idea if that joke was funny), so I didn’t really know what to expect here. What she delivered was an album of lush soundscapes that envelop you. There’s almost a certain mystical quality to it. Like each song may have come from a really dynamic scene in Spirited Away. Her singing can be hard to understand some time, but it fits in with the music perfectly. Overall, Vespertine was a very unique album that seemed to whirl and whisk across the room while it was playing.

Favorite Tracks: Pagan Poetry; It’s Not Up to You; An Echo, a Stain

#249: Elvis Costello and the Attractions - This Year's Model (1978)

Zack: It’s been a while since we listened to My Aim Is True, but I’ve relistened to it a couple dozen times at this point. I think I mentioned back then how impressed I was with the genre versatility, and that’s definitely why I still appreciate it. Costello flies between styles from track to track, creating a diversity that most musicians (let alone musicians in their debut album) would be afraid to tackle. This Year’s Model, his second album, doesn’t vary as much, but it does have several really good songs. And, as we should all expect, the lyrics to those songs are extremely clever and even a bit cryptic. For example, Pump it Up – which used to be played all the time at the large retail establishment that I worked for – is about masturbating. Anyway, I liked My Aim Is True Better, but This Year’s Model was still a solid album.

Favorite Tracks: (I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea; Lipstick Vogue; Pump it Up

Emily: For many of the artists that have multiple albums on this list (especially those with 4 or more), we've tried to intermingle them with other albums in order to spread them out more or less evenly (and not to end up with, say, 4 Byrds albums in the last 100). The next step is to listen to each in chronological order. We could listen to them out of order just because, but this way we can really see how these artists evolve in terms of musicianship, lyrics, genre, and connection with the audience. Since these artists tend to be those included in the pantheon of popular music, it also allows us to see why and how they became so highly regarded in the first place. Elvis Costello happens to be one of those artists, and he's one that I initially knew next to nothing about. I really enjoyed My Aim is True and have relistened to it since we reviewed it way back when, and This Year's Model built on the successes of that debut. Costello knows how to create great pop music. The album is upbeat with hints of pop, punk, and new wave, and the lyrics are creative enough to keep you listening closely even while you're dancing along. Though this was a great album, I'm still trying to figure out why Elvis Costello has been placed on the level of the other artists with multiple albums on the list. The evidence is building, and I guess I'll find out more in a couple hundred albums or so.

Favorite Tracks: (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea; The Beat; Lipstick Vogue