scaryblog

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 04/04/71 : Tumbleweed Connection - Elton John Our sixth visit with Elton but we've met a few of his from around this time which were pretty decent, so I have reasonable hopes for this. Yeah - there's nothing wrong with this in the slightest. It's decent songs from Elton and Bernie, which are all played well and showing enough variety across the album to keep you engaged. It doesn't have any of his generally recognised top tunes on it, but it exudes a similar level of quality and feels like multiple listens wouldn't get dull. We're at #13 in the charts this week on his thirteenth week of an eighteen week run, with it having peaked at #2 for its seventh to ninth weeks. The top five this week were Andy Williams (his second of two weeks at the top, but that's not enough to tempt me to investigate it),  Jimi Hendrix ,  Simon & Garfunkel , and Jethro Tull  and a Burt Bacharach compilation with the highest ...

One I have no clue about at all... No Place Like Home (1991) I believe this features yet another stylistic swerve, but have absolutely no idea which direction it takes. 1. We're Not In Kansas Hmmm. There's a germ of a song (or several) in there but it's not really full formed - it features weird lyrics and tempo changes for no obvious reason. It's also not very well produced with the guitars distractingly high in the mix. Overall - would not recommend. 2. Republican Party Reptile Whereas this has a weird ZZ Top feel to it - were they actively trying to drive their fans away? 3. Dynamite Lady At least this has hints of Big Country to it, but it's definitely lacking the passion of their earlier work - it's very much done by the numbers. 4. Keep On Dreaming Well, at least we continue to head in the right direction - but we ain't there yet! 5. Beautiful People This is weirdly stompy almost country with some dreadful lyrics. Under any other circumstances, I would...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 11/04/71 : Death Walks Behind You - Atomic Rooster So who expected us to see two albums from Atomic Rooster this year? Last time I was pleasantly surprised - here's hoping for more of the same. Yeah, I quite liked this despite it not really being my sort of thing. It's "heavy prog" with some serious guitar and Hammond organ riffs, with some proper skills on display. It acts as a nice bridge between prog and rock and it makes me somewhat surprised that Atomic Rooster aren't really talked about these days - maybe it's a longevity thing? In this guise anyway, because the band are still going, but all the people who played on this album are no longer with us - if you like a bit of Deep Purple or Led Zep and aren't aware of this, then maybe check it out. We're at #12 in the charts this week on their third week of a seven week run with this being as high as it got. The top five this week were Motown Cha...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 18/04/71 : If Only I Could Remember My Name - David Crosby So we've had Stills (decent enough) and Nash (better) earlier this year, so it's only fair we give Crosby a listen - and yes, we've obviously already met Young  (surprisingly decent) because Rolling Stone LOVE him. So let's see how Dave does... Oh dear - it starts with a very wishy-washy number and then follows it up with an 8:11 track which goes on far too loooong. And, yeah, I think "unstructured" is probably a reasonable description for everything here - it just sounds like he wandered into the studio and went "today I'm gonna strum along and sing "doo doo doo" and see what happens". I wouldn't say it's dreadful (and there are some very interesting, almost choral harmonics in places) but it does feel like it could have been a helluva lot better if he'd just put some thought into it. I also have to say that...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 25/04/71 : Elegy - The Nice OK, OK - we've had plenty of albums of covers this year, so let's break the rules again and have a live album. In my defence, this is our first visit with The Nice and it seems like we're not going to meet them on a non-live album, so I'm intrigued as to what we're going to get here. Well, yes - that was certainly intriguing. One thing I can say without a shadow of a doubt is that Keith Emerson was no slouch on the keyboards - there's some absolutely amazing playing going on here. He also plays for a very long time - there may only be four tracks on the album, but the shortest is over seven minutes long. And what a strange mix of tracks they are - a Tim Hardin cover, a Bob Dylan cover, a Tchaikovsky movement and Bernstein's "America", with the latter closing the album with a good couple of minutes of Hammond Organ feedback. I can't say I loved this (it definitely...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 02/05/71 : Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old) - Elvis Presley It may be the '70s but the UK was very much still under the spell of Elvis, so we welcome him back for a twentieth visit, extending his lead at the top over Frank (who's still very much around this year but I've been able to get away with ignoring him). I do have to admit to being slightly intrigued by this one though because apparently it's his country album - which I feel could go either way. Hmmm - I'm not entirely sure I'd quite describe it as his country album because to me it sounds like a pretty normal Elvis album but just with some additional banjo, fiddle or something similar shoehorned into the tracks. I do have to say that none of the tracks are dreadful though (which is pretty good going for Elvis albums of this period) and his voice sounds good on it too - so I'd argue it's a pretty decent normal Elvis album (which is mu...