#309: Culture Club - Colour By Numbers (1983)

Zack: You might be surprised to know that we intentionally paired Wu-Tang and Culture Club together on our listening odyssey since RZA was so inspired by Boy George. We would also be surprised to know that, since it is not even remotely true. It’s interesting going straight from an album crafted to sound like swords clashing to one that seems to have been crafted to sound like androgynous lollipops. Overall, Colour By Numbers sounded to me like the songs I like the least by The Cure. It has some really popular radio hits, but I just found it sort of silly. It was better than a lot of the New Wave we’ve come across before, but that’s about all I have to say about it.

Favorite Tracks: Miss Me Blind; Karma Chameleon; Stormkeeper

Emily: Culture Club put me back into more familiar territory than Wu-Tang, namely the territory of artists who showed up on I Love the '80s. Boy George had his day back when he was in Culture Club, then got into drugs and got arrested a few times and then showed up with his head painted like this on various Vh1 nostalgia shows. I think he's gotten his shit back together now, but no one really cares about that. What they do care about is Boy George circa 1983, singing and shimmying to Karma Chameleon. Songs like that, and really all of Colour By Numbers, seem to made for singing along in the car by yourself. They're kind of embarrassing to have blasting out of your speakers, but you can't help but sing and bounce along as you're driving home from work and it comes up on your local 80s-90s-and-today radio station. It's not  that many people outside of 1983 would queue up by choice - most likely, anyone who listened to it in 1983 has all but forgotten about Culture Club by now - but it's a fun, welcome distraction when heard by chance.

Favorite Tracks: Karma Chameleon; Miss Me Blind; That's The Way (I'm Only Trying to Help You)

#308: Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)

Emily: Zack has been hyping Wu-Tang Clan to me for a really long time. Multiple conversations/explanations about the group, its members, and their various group and individual efforts. Various Wu-Tang related messages of things he found on Reddit like this. And a lot of time passing between the previous album and this one because he wanted to make sure he spent sufficient time documenting his thoughts and feelings about Enter the Wu-Tang so that he could sufficiently convey his love and respect for it. Through all this hype, however, Zack has steadfastly maintained that he didn't think I would like Wu-Tang at all. So when it came time to listen to this album, I decided to not read Zack's review, talk to Zack, or even listen to the album with Zack until I listened and wrote my review. So I listened the other day, after returning home from a Christmas visit with Zack's family, and after the hour I had no idea what I wanted to say. I listened to it again today, and still don't have much of an idea. I didn't hate this album as much as Zack primed me to think I would, but I didn't love it either. The idea of combining soul-based beats with both hardcore rap and samples from kung-fu movies seems insane on its face, but actually made sense when listening to it. I know now that Cash Rules Everything Around Me (dolla dolla billz y'all) and that you should protect ya goddamn neck. But do I really appreciate Wu-Tang, in a way that at least approaches Zack's appreciation? Not yet, but maybe that'll change once I see what he has to say about it.
Favorite Tracks: Da Mystery of Chessboxin; Bring Da Ruckus; C.R.E.A.M.

Zack: This album turned 20 a year ago, so there’s not really much of a point saturating the internet further with a reflection piece about what 36 Chambers means to rap music or anything like that. I can’t talk about how it changed my life or anything dramatic like that since I was 2 when it came out. I don’t even remember the first time I listened to it. What I can say that it is one of the few hip-hop albums that I play in its entirety ALL THE TIME. From start to finish, this is an absolute masterpiece. It sounds like an entire Tarantino movie turned into rap. It’s grittier than a pile of grit. And it has an incredibly ability to bring people together. A few years ago, I moved into an apartment with a kid I’d never met before. The first night, he and I got to talking about hip-hop and it came out that he’d never listened to any Wu-Tang anything. I got my laptop, he got his stereo, and we blasted this and organized the kitchen. Wu-Tang is for the roommates. Wu-Tang is for the kids. Wu-Tang for president. Wu-Tang for everyone. Well, maybe not everyone. I have no idea if Emily will like this at all. My guess is no. It has literally 0 of the elements she is usually drawn to in hip-hop music. At a certain point, you start to think that maybe an album is sooooo good that it’s undeniable. But the two other times I thought that might apply (Illmatic and Me Against the World), the music was greeted with a resounding “meh,” and this album is a lot rougher than either of those. I really hope this one is different. I can’t speak for anyone, but the second I hear Ghostface on Bring da Ruckus, I change. I. Get. Fucking. Amped. Happens every time, without fail. Maybe the same thing will happen for her. Maybe she will be terrified for an hour. No one knows for sure, with the possible exception of GZA. He is a genius after all. I should mention that I’ve listened to enough Wu-Tang and affiliates to legally be considered a Wu Tang expert. Raise your hand if you’ve listened to an entire album by Inspectah Deck. How about Masta Killa? Hell, anyone here check out anything by Killah Priest, the notable Killer Bee and almost-main-clan stoner-religious zealot guy? Just me? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Because of these excellent credentials, I’ve spent a lot of time contemplating what sets this album aside from anything else, other Wu Tang albums included, and I’ve come up with two distinct traits. First, pretty much every clan member, Ghostface just barely exempted, has a bit of a penchant for burying 45 minutes of great music into 70 minutes of an album. They’re hardly alone in rap music for that little predilection. But that’s exactly what makes this album so incredible. It is an hour of just nasty beats and razor-sharp lyrics. You can feel a certain desperation in the way everything is done. It’s 9 guys who are willing to do whatever it takes to be on top of the rap game, and there isn’t any track where that isn’t palpable. Second, what they made is so impossible to copy that no one could ever hope to imitate it at all. Seriously, other artists are able to capture 80% of what makes other classic rap albums what they are. There are those out there who can imitate that street scholar swag of Illmatic or the ferocity of Straight Outta Compton. Who has ever managed to capture any semblance of the vaguely unhinged, just plain rough-ness of 36 Chambers? No one. So maybe we shouldn’t be too upset that the Wu hasn’t exactly been able to replicate it either. Anyway, hopefully Emily will like this album, because it’s easily one of my top-5 favorite rap albums of all time. We have another four Wu-tang albums to go through for the blog (one each by Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, and Genius/GZA), and I’m with the listmakers in the ones they choose (although I could easily be talked into Iron Man or maybe even Supreme Clientele over Fishscale and the oversight of Method Man and Redman’s incredible Blackout! is certainly acknowledged here). I’ll have plenty more to say then, but for now perhaps it’s best that I wrap up this manifesto with the impossible task of picking 3 favorite tracks from an album where I gave 10 or 12 songs 5-star ratings.

Favorite Tracks: C.R.E.A.M.; Wu-Tang: 7^th Chamber – Part II; Bring Da Ruckus

#307: Buzzcocks - Another Music in a Different Kitchen (1978)

Zack: I honestly can’t imagine a less punk rock cover for an album than what the Buzzcocks got going on above. They’re getting dangerously close to boy band with those poses. Punk from the 70s has easily been my favorite variation so far, and Buzzcocks kept that going. Honestly, I was listening to it while I coded a dataset about US newspapers, which led me to only giving it a cursory first listen. From that first listen, I’ve easily deduced that it’s worth relistening to again and again. But I can’t say where it stacks up against the other titans of that era or update the running tally of which region produced the punk I like the best (it’s probably London in first and NYC as a close second, but I’ll have to get back to you on that).

Favorite Tracks: Sixteen; No Reply; Autonomy

Emily: We've once again had to take a break as our semesters got increasingly hectic and listening to music fell to the back burner. Well, I finished my last final yesterday and Zack will be done in a few days, so back to blogging we go (at least for a few weeks). After a rough few days consisting of studying, exams, and some family stuff going on back home, Buzzcocks ended up being a great way to tune out everything that's been going on around me. Another Music in a Different Kitchen is a straight-up punk album - no serious themes, nothing slow, nothing experimental or even truly novel - just a bunch of short, fast, guitar-and-drums-driven songs jammed into 45 minutes or so. It's the kind of music you (or at least I) would want to jump up and down and thrash dance and yell along to in a basement or small club in high school. Not that I was that cool in high school, but you get the idea. Punk is music to ignore your stress to, at least for me, and Buzzcocks definitely delivered on that. But even beyond that, I would definitely listen to this album at less-stressful times. It's fun no matter what, even if you look like a fool jumping up and down in your living room.

Favorite Tracks: I Don't Mind; Sixteen; Love Battery

#306: Faust - Faust IV (1973)

Zack: Faust IV, Faust’s 6^th album (not really, although that would be funny) is I think the third example of krautrock we’ve come across. I know there are a few more that we’ll be listening to, and I’m still waiting to be wowed by the genre. I saw on Wikipedia that what really differentiates it is a lack of roots in American blues music, which is definitely an apt description. Most of the rock and roll stuff we listen to stems from the same fertile grounds of the Mississippi delta up through Chicago and the Midwest, but krautrock spawned from something very different. It can be kind of jarring to listen to for someone like me who grew up on a bunch of different people all working from the same musical language, essentially. Faust does blend in some more traditional elements in songs like Jennifer, but a lot of what they do is based on incorporating noise and its weird teeter-totter style of improvisation is very different from the types we’ve come across before in the jazz albums. In general, this entire album just is very noticeably different than everything else. The genre might grow on me as we keep on keeping on, but I can’t see myself relistening to this to try and get it any time soon.

Favorite Tracks: Krautrock; Laüft...Heisst Das Es Laüft Oder Es Kommt Bald...Laüft; Jennifer

Emily: Krautrock is an unusual genre. It doesn't really fall into the traditional categories that define American and British popular music. It's a little bit rock, a little bit electronic, a little bit experimental, a little bit spoken word, and a whole lotta Germany. I agree with Zack that it's a little bit disarming to hear something so divorced from our common musical traditions without anything to bridge the gap between them (like in Bowie's "Heroes"). With Faust, I found it most reminiscent of a score to a foreign art-house film. It's mostly instrumental with a few sound-effect-type flourishes here and there, and it hits a few different moods along the way. However, listening to Faust IV was like watching the film with no subtitles. I had a general idea of what was going on, but I walked out of the theater more confused than when I began, without much desire to see the director's next movie and wanting to stick with something a little more familiar next time.
Favorite Tracks: Giggy Smile; Läuft...Heißt Das Es Läuft Oder Es Kommt Bald...Läuft; Jennifer

#305: B.B. King - Live at the Regal (1965)

Zack: Wow wow wow wow wow! I was excited to listen to B.B. King, but I was not aware of just how amazing my morning was about to become. My only real exposure to B.B. King before this was his work with Clapton on Riding with the King, which I listened to once like 5 years ago. I don’t remember it too well, but it definitely doesn’t hold a candle to Live at the Regal. If I’m being honest, Regal blew away pretty much all of the blues I’ve listened to before (a list that includes Robert Johnson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Muddy Waters, so I’m at least marginally credible in this assessment). From start to finish it was just a masterpiece. I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to be in the crowd that day, listening to him blast through all the other delicately arranged sounds with both his voice and guitar. I'm just glad something this good was immortalized so we could all appreciate it. We have another 95 albums to listen to before the next time I need to really think about this, but I can already say I’ve filled in a slot for my favorite album.

Favorite Tracks: Please Love Me; You Upset Me Baby; You Done Lost Your Good Thing

Emily: Live at the Regal was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. That means someday, when all vinyl has lost its grooves, when all CDs are scratched up beyond repair, when that new wave of cassettes comes crashing into a pile of plastic and blob of recording type, when your hard drive explodes and Spotify goes bankrupt and Pandora retreats into her box, we'll still have Live at the Regal. This is an album that has been deemed worth saving above so many others, and honestly, now that I've listened to it I agree with that assessment 100%. Live at the Regal embodies blues in a way that few other albums do because it captures a live show by a master of the genre. Blues music that is recorded in the studio just doesn't have the same feel of the musicians interacting with the audience, feeding off of their energy in tune with their own emotions and musicianship. That's the feeling you get from Live at the Regal, like you were in that club with a drink in your hand and your toes tapping along with B.B. King. Only a few people actually got to be there that day, but the feeling that you were lives on forever in the recording.

Favorite Tracks: How Blue Can You Get?; Worry, Worry; Please Love Me

#304: John Martyn - One World (1977)

Zack: I’ll just go ahead and cut to the chase by saying that I enjoyed One World. It was certainly a pleasant listening experience. Throughout the album, I kept trying to figure out which adjective, what single word really captured the essence of what I was hearing. I eventually settled on “understated.” And I mean that in a good way, not like how some albums we’ve come across were unassuming and faded too easily into the background. If you’re looking for a clear explanation of what I mean, the entirely instrumental ending track Small Hours can say it better than I can. There was just something elegant and beautiful about the way One World gained your attention but never overwhelmed you. In a way, it’s sort of the natural antithesis to the album that immediately precedes it in our review archive. Several days separated my listening to Van Halen from the day I listened to John Martyn, but I couldn’t help but be drawn to the stark difference in the way the songs (which I liked on both albums) were presented. Van Halen was anything but understated. It’s the sort of hyper-weird factoid that only gets picked up when you basically put the 1001 “most important” albums on shuffle. I found it interesting that two albums that packaged themselves so differently could both be appreciated in their own separate ways. Anyway, before I jump into some tortured metaphor of Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, I should probably mention that One World also reminded me of Stardust by Willie Nelson, so if you liked that, I would definitely recommend checking this out.

Favorite Tracks: One World; Small Hours; Couldn’t Love You More

Emily: John Martyn really takes the "One World" concept to heart on this album. It draws on global, diverse influences, including jazz, folk, rock, and reggae, but blends them into one by dialing each one down to its elements. Those elements come together into beautifully simple songs, songs that make you want to listen more closely to catch the nuance of each beat. While it's not the most exciting album, sometimes you need to trade in excitement for sweet simplicity and uniqueness. And on those fronts, One World succeeds.

Favorite Tracks: One World; Small Hours; Big Muff

#303: Van Halen - Van Halen (1978)

Zack: I didn’t realize I’d ever listened to this album, but I can pretty clearly remember my Dad playing it while we drove back from the dentist when I was a little kid, and me really like Jamie’s Cryin'. Then, if my memory serves, he popped the CD into his ridiculous surround sound stereo system so I could be fully immersed in guitar solos. I have no idea how old I was, but I was pretty little. Maybe it’s nostalgia, but Van Halen was way better than I expected. It’s a tight and compact album of just hard rock. The corniness quotient is kept at a pretty respectable low. Plus it has a fair number of their most classic hits. It’s not an album I plan on blasting through a stereo at any point soon, but it’s certainly a decent way to spend 35 minutes.

Favorite Tracks: Jamie’s Cryin’; Running with the Devil; You Really Got Me 

Emily: Thirty-five minutes is usually pretty short from an album, but for hard rock it's probably the perfect length. I can only get my ears blasted at for so long until I've just had enough. Luckily, on Van Halen's debut, they keep the ear-blasting to a respectable level. It's thoroughly a hard rock album with guitar solos galore, but the band also adds in some doo-wop and blues quirks here and there. These additions are interesting, but probably not necessary. For thirty-five minutes, a few blasts of rock is all you really need.

Favorite Tracks: Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love; I'm the One; Little Dreamer