#216: Don McLean - American Pie (1971)

Zack: I first tried to listen to this album like four months ago, but got bored and just sort of game up halfway through. American Pie – the song – is epic enough in its storytelling to hold your attention with its twists and turns and good ol’ boys drinking whiskey and rye (trick statement: Rye is a type of whiskey. Almost had me, Don McLean!). But some songs, even though they’re all much shorter, just sort of don’t have that pizazz. As has been the case with several of the folk albums we’ve listened to, you really have to focus in on the lyrics to appreciate the music, because everything else is just so no frills. I liked Vincent and The Grave a lot for that reason. But other songs just sort of blended together if they didn’t have something lyrically to stand out.

Favorite Tracks: American Pie; The Grave; Vincent

Emily: Every time I hear American Pie, I automatically start singing the Weird Al version about Star Wars Episode 1. As Zack will begrudgingly admit, I haven’t even seen a single Star Wars movie, but that version was played on Radio Disney all the time during my childhood so I know it way better than the real song. And who can deny the awesomeness of a song that starts, “A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away”? Regardless, Don McLean’s original American Pie is an American folk classic commemorating the untimely death of Buddy Holly. The rest of the album doesn’t quite fit the rambling storytelling style of the title track, but focuses on a more quiet style of folk. Unfortunately, that style just isn’t as engaging as the album goes on. A few tracks stood out for their lyrics, but otherwise the album seemed long and a bit sleepy. I’d rather listen to American Pie a few more times…or perhaps just The Saga Begins.

Favorite Tracks: American Pie; The Grave; Crossroads

#215: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (1977)

Emily: It's been quite a while since I've written one of these, so forgive me if my usual eloquence (or semblance thereof) is lacking. I thoroughly enjoyed Rumours. Of course I knew Go Your Own Way, and a few other tracks sounded familiar, but as a whole the album was unfamiliar to me. It's beautifully crafted from the melodies to the harmonies to the lyrics, with honesty and emotion that runs throughout. It's tough to believe the infighting and tension that stemmed from the creation of Rumours, though perhaps the album's beauty stems from these problems as well. Each member of the band has their own style that shows through in the tracks they each wrote, from the upbeat harmonies of Go Your Own Way (by Lindsay Buckingham) to the more simple and soulful Dreams from the mind of Stevie Nicks. Each member could be a solo artist in their own right, but together they shine brightest - even in the midst of that shine burning out.
Favorite Tracks: Dreams; Oh Daddy; Don't Stop

Zack: Literally minutes before I started listening to this album, a buddy of mine put on a song and remarked “I think I like Fleetwood Mac more than a 20-year-old boy should.” He then started to sing along with Stevie Nicks and there might have been one or two tears. And while there certainly is some cliché to go with that (something about truer words, I suspect), I can commiserate. Because I am a 22-year-old boy and I like Fleetwood Mac. I’d never listened to all of Rumours, but now I have and it is a damn fine album. Dreams is my favorite song by them, and that’s right there. Tremendous. Then there are plenty of other goodies. They vary the song styles from track to track, no doubt a consequence of the multi-writer approach, and I can certainly appreciate that. This is, frankly, just a great album and I’m so glad I finally had occasion to listen to it all the way through.

Favorite Tracks: Dreams; The Chain; You Make Loving Fun

#214: Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996)

Zack: This was certainly quite a change of pace for us. It was completely instrumental, and they did a lot of pretty weird stuff. I really liked some parts, but wasn’t too into others. But those parts definitely couldn’t have been cut out. What I perceived as weak tracks led perfectly into the songs I like. Overall, this is more of a cohesive musical output than a song with separate tracks. With that in mind, I can’t really register a complaint about the whole 65 minute long thing. Yeah, it seemed like an excessive duration, but I can’t really imagine it being any shorter and having the same brilliant peaks.

Favorite Tracks: The Taut Tame; Glass Museum; Along the Banks of Rivers

Emily: Instrumental "post-rock" is not something that I've ever heard of before, let alone wanted to spend an hour listening to. It's a unique experience to say the least. I saw it as kind of a blend of experimental, electronic, alternative, and rock. Sounds weird, but it's quite calming and pleasant. I had it on in the background as I finished up some reading and checked emails, and it blended in quite nicely but I never ignored it. Although the album for the most part seamlessly blended together, the song Glass Museum particularly resonated with me. Not because of the song itself, but because I work at an actual glass museum. Synergy!

Favorite Tracks: The Taut Tame; Glass Museum; Along the Banks of Rivers

#213: Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club (1997)

Zack: I have been subconsciously trying to get Emily to pick a World album that doesn’t have some Latin flair for a while now. As you’ve probably guessed from the title of this entry, I’ve failed miserably. I’m sorry, but I’m getting tired of every 20 albums or so listening to something that’s supposed to be way different than what we’ve been doing, except it ends up being the same thing every time. Luckily, this is not one of those albums. Cuban music clearly is very distinct from any salsa or tango influences, and I really appreciated that. This album was inspired by a Cuban music club that ruled the land in the '40s and '50s, which I thought really showed. This album kind of reminded me a little bit of the Sinatra and Jobim album, which is sort of racist since Antonio Jobim was Brazilian and that album came out in 1967. But I know what I heard, and you can’t take that away from me. Anyway, this album was a nice change of pace thing to relax to. I wish it wasn’t the full hour because I thought it really died down in the middle but it certainly wasn’t a repeat of Tito Puente like I feared.

Favorite Tracks: Chan Chan; Candela; Buena Vista Social Club

Emily: I originally selected this album because I thought it was the album with the Macarena, and I was all prepared to tell a childhood story about doing the Macarena with my family in the living room to a cassette tape that we probably still have somewhere. Alas, my one-hit wonder knowledge escaped me at the time, and it turns out that this album does not possess the Macarena (that's Los Del Rio, as I now remember) nor anything even close. Buena Vista Social Club is a compilation of multiple Cuban musicians bringing back a style of music that was popular in Cuban clubs of the '40s and '50s. The sound is kind of a combo of Latin and jazz, but it wasn't Latin jazz. My roommate summed it up best when she popped her head into my room and said the music sounded like what you'd hear while relaxing on a Caribbean beach with a tropical drink in hand. Well, perhaps we can't go to Cuba, but we definitely can turn up Buena Vista Social Club and pretend.

Favorite Tracks: El Carretero; Candela; El Cuarto de Tula

#212: The Doors - LA Woman (1971)

Zack: I’ve been meaning to get into The Doors forever, but never really had enough motivation. That feels weird to say, being such a huge Hendrix and Pink Floyd fan, as well as a moderate Joplin and Jefferson Airplane enthusiast. I feel like this should have happened a lot sooner, but here we are. L.A. Woman is the first Doors album I’ve ever listened to, and I was really impressed. It had that bluesy feel that I love so much but was also just pretty heavy and psychedelic. I was enamored by this album and can already guarantee multiple listens. What I’m also pretty excited for is to delve into the rest of their discography. That’s been a minor subplot to this whole adventure. If I like a band from listening to a list-worthy album, I’m usually quick to obtain and devour the rest of their discography, or at least what’s not on the list. I went right through The Flaming Lips (except Soft Bulletin, which I’ve heard almost every song off of because of Pandora at this point) and Joy Division from way back when and have dipped my toes into extra Bowie, Neil Young and Pixies. I’m now an avid Johnny Cash fan and can’t wait to listen to San Quentin. It’s always a gamble because the albums that didn’t make the list usually fell short for a reason, but I have a good feeling about Strange Days, Soft Parade and Waiting for the Sun. So when either Morrison Hotel or The Doors rolls around, you can bet I’ll be a much more informed Doors fan.

Favorite Tracks: Changeling; Crawling King Snake; Cars Hiss by My Window

Emily: The Doors are a legendary classic rock band, but if you had asked me what I thought of them before about an hour ago, I would probably hum in a perplexed fashion and ultimately admit that all I really knew about them was that when America's Next Top Model was in Paris two of the girls went to visit Jim Morrison's grave and dramz ensued because the other two girls wanted to go shopping or something. Luckily, I am substantially more informed now that I have listened to LA Woman. This is the last album that Morrison recorded with the band before his death and consequent membership in the "27 Club." So I'm working backwards here, but as a later album I'll conjecture that LA Woman showcases the developed Doors sound. It's bluesy and rock and psychedelic, but put together in a unique way with Morrison's vocal prowess. As we continue through the list and come across The Doors again, I hope we continue to move backwards in the band's discography. I'm curious to see how this evolution of heavy blues psychedelia came to be.

Favorite Tracks: L'America; LA Woman; Been Down So Long

#211: The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray (1992)

Emily: Last week's episode of Girls aired early on HBO Go, so Zack and I watched it on Thursday night instead of the typical Sunday. The episode, oddly enough, was titled "It's a Shame About Ray." It's fitting, considering we found out that Ray (a recurring character, and now Shoshanna's boyfriend) is essentially homeless. A shame, indeed. The very next day, Zack emailed me a list of prospective albums for our next blog excursions. The very first one listed was The Lemonheads' It's a Shame About Ray. I immediately made the connection between the album and the episode title and selected it to be #211 precisely for that reason. The band name seemed vaguely familiar, but I wasn't exactly sure why. Were they featured in a Girls episode? Probs not, but even if they were that wouldn't explain the name recognition. As I listened to the album, I didn't recognize a single song, but I could tell that this was my kind of music. I'm always drawn to early-'90s alternative, college-radio kind of stuff, and this album fits the bill exactly. There's some pop, some guitar, some angry drums, and a good helping of early-adulthood angst. I was a fan all the way through, and upon hearing the last track I finally realized where I knew The Lemonheads from. The last track (actually a bonus not included on the original pressing) is a cover of Mrs. Robinson that plays relatively frequently on Radio 104.5. Aha! Mystery solved, and another awesome album has been added to my personal listening library.

Favorite Tracks: Alison's Starting to Happen; Rudderless; It's a Shame About Ray

Zack: Listening to various pieces of foundational alternative rock is kind of fascinating. You can see where certain bands branch off of and all the various influences. If you blur in punk and grunge and a few other notable subgenres, the web becomes almost infinitely expanding. There wouldn’t be a Coldplay without a U2. TV on the Radio, with all of their looping, wouldn’t have existed if not for Radiohead. Pixies and R.E.M. single-handedly created like a billion bands. Weezer made emo music. The list goes on. Now I don’t know the entirety of early '90s rock, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Lemonheads spawned Fountains of Wayne, Death Cab for Cutie, Franz Ferdinand and a hell of a lot more than that. Internet capabilities are down across campus currently, so I can’t fact check that. Hell, I probably wouldn’t even if I could. But you listen to this album and you just hear that semi-poppy, still a bit melancholy tone. They switch up that formula by incorporating other genres into it – there’s even a country-esque jam – but the overall idea stays the same. And that idea would later be remodeled by like several boatloads of bands. So here’s to Lemonheads, one of the most influential alternative bands I’d never heard of.

Favorite Tracks: Rudderless; Alison’s Starting to Happen; It’s a Shame About Ray

#210: The Grateful Dead - American Beauty (1970)

Emily: I have been exposed to the Grateful Dead since I was a very small child. My aunt was and is a major Deadhead. She was too young to be a fan their first time around, during their Woodstock heyday and also when this album came out, but she was a neo-hippie in college during the early '80s. She loves tie-dye and folk festivals, has posters in her house of old concerts and dancing bear bumper stickers on her car, followed the Grateful Dead around for a few summers back in the day, and will still go see the (no-longer-Grateful) Dead with her college friends when they come through the area. She even danced onstage with Jerry Garcia, and told me that she has other stories from that time that she wouldn't tell me in front of my mom and grandma - can't wait to hear those. Yep, she's definitely the cool aunt. Her kids have absolutely rejected the Grateful Dead, after having it infused throughout all of their early childhoods - framed dancing bear pictures in their bedrooms and all. However, I have never really listened to them until today. I knew Truckin, but only because that was their family's candlelighting song at my bat mitzvah (and the only Grateful Dead song my mom could think of). So, I was glad to finally be exposed to the band my aunt has absolutely loved for more than half of her life. American Beauty is hippie music incarnate. It's folky, but also a little country and definitely made for epically long, drug-induced on-stage jams. This is the kind of music that inspires summers spent following a tour bus throughout the country, and now I (kinda) get why my aunt did it.
Favorite Tracks: Friend of the Devil; Truckin; Ripple

Zack: My first Grateful Dead exposure was due to two of my cross country teammates who were huge Dead Heads. I distinctly remember them going to a Grateful Dead tribute band concert, if that’s any indication. They caught my interest, so I snatched my dad’s copy of Terrapin Station one day and gave it a listen. Unimpressed. I like jam bands and all – HUGE Allman Brothers fan – but it just seemed to drone on and on. Perhaps that will happen with Live/Dead, but this studio album had that signature Dead sound while also being really tight sonically. The songs are all about standard length, but they compressed a lot into those few short minutes. You can see how it would work if certain sections were expanded into freestyling solos, especially the guitar work because Jerry Garcia seems to have kept it quite understated here. Overall, I thought this album was a great example of a band understanding that sometimes trying to capture the live experience in the studio isn’t the best way to go about it, and instead seeking to record the best studio album they could. The Dead hit the nail on the head with that goal and the product is one amazing album here. Sidenote: I’ve always thought the Grateful Dead was the greatest band name ever. That has to count for something.

Favorite Tracks: Candyman; Box of Rain; Truckin’