scaryblog

Continuing my trip up   Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time... #467  : BLACKSummers'night - Maxwell (2009) Maxwell was a successful Nineties neo-soul crooner who went on an eight-year hiatus between 2001’s Now and this 2009 release. BLACKSummers’night betrays no anxiety about the time off; in fact, it ranks among the great comeback records. Maxwell sang about post-breakup desperation as he navigated plush, complicated grooves with jazz players like Keyon Harrold and Derrick Hodge giving his arrangements extra zip. The album’s ecstatic triumph is “Pretty Wings,” a keening, chiming lullaby. I was vaguely aware of Maxwell from some of his stuff in the Nineties, but I wasn't aware that he'd gone away, let alone come back.  Wherever he was, I was expecting this album to be some kind of generic croonfest that would wash over me and leave no lasting impression.  But, whilst it's true that there is indeed a fair amount of crooning on there, I found I

Continuing my trip up   Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time... #470  : 400 Degreez - Juvenile (1998) From the moment Juvenile asked, “That’s you with that bad ass benz?” and punctuated the bar with a cocky, dismissive “Ha,” rap’s axis tilted. The New Orleans rapper’s third album reorientated hip-hop toward a new Southern sound, driven by producer Mannie Fresh’s intergalactic beats. “Ha” and “Back That Azz Up” were earthshaking singles, and Juvenile’s young-but-old growl brought out the blues in “Ghetto Children” and Dickensian horror in “Gone Ride With Me.” 400 Degreez added new sonic textures that pop music is still mining. I'd never heard of Juvenile, so can't say I had any expectations for this record.  And having listened to it, I'd have to say I'm unsure as to what my verdict should be.  The singles are OK (not sure I agree with Rolling Stone's description of "earthshaking") but to my unknowledgeable ear the album mostly so

Continuing my trip up   Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time... #473  : Barrio Fino - Daddy Yankee (2004) Just when Latin pop radio was hitting a ballad-heavy plateau, Puerto Rican MC Daddy Yankee set the industry aflame with his 2004 reggaeton opus, Barrio Fino. Crowned by the hydraulic bounce of Yankee’s first international hit, “Gasolina,” the record marked a colossal breakthrough, not just for the rapper himself, but for the entire genre known as reggaeton: a raw blend of hip-hop and reggae, born in the mean streets of San Juan. Ah yes - Barrio Fino, Daddy Yankee's breakthrough reggaeton album.  I don't need to describe this one to you, surely?!?  OK, I'll give it a go anyway - just on the off chance you've not heard it.  Being the world's greatest reggaeton fan, I obviously knew exactly what I was expecting from this album - some bleepy noises and some dude rattling on in Spanish.  And boy, did it deliver!   I did listen to it, but th

Continuing my trip up   Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time... #476  : Kimono My House - Sparks (1974) The duo of singer Russell Mael and songwriter-keyboardist Ron Mael coined a unique, influential sound that mixed glam and prog-rock, the Beach Boys and Frank Zappa. Russell adopts a florid falsetto to sing Ron’s lyrics about clumsy sex (“Amateur Hour”), Albert Einstein’s doting parents (the pun-filled “Talent Is an Asset”), and a broken suicide pact (“Here in Heaven”). The overwhelming sensation from Sparks’ third album is a sense that you’ve arrived at a party where you know no one and hear things you can’t comprehend but still have a great time. I am, of course, aware of "This Town Ain't Big Enough..." and in all the years since I first heard it, I've been unable to decide if I actually like it.  I was expecting most of this album to be the same - although I suspected that I'd probably be able to decide I hated most of it pretty quic

Continuing my trip down Empire’s top 100 films of the century so far… #79 Little Miss Sunshine 100% indie quirkiness which I don't remember a lot about, but I remember I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, that's all the films I have to talk about this time around so that means I had to move along and watch another *##^£!@&^£ Richard Linklater film.  In case you missed it last time  around , I didn't particular enjoy Before Sunset - so you can imagine how much I was looking forward to yet another sequel featuring two people I didn't like, after another 9 years of their lives, to hear them discuss yet more things I didn't care about.  At length.  Hoorah for Before Midnight! Well, the good news is that there are more other people involved this time around so some of the conversations are a little less self-centred and I also found the central characters a little less annoying and a little more grounded in reality.  So the film managed to hold my attention better, but that

Continuing my trip up   Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time... #479  : Amor Prohibido - Selena (1994) Tejana star Selena Quintanilla-Pérez may not have been long for this world (she died when she was just 23), but she remains one of America’s most beloved singer-songwriters. At the heart of her regional Mexican masterwork, Amor Prohibido, is a universal, glittering pop core. The techno-cumbia title track tells the real-life story of her grandparents, who fell in love across class lines. It’s a Latina fairy tale, if ever there was one. Amor Prohibido, meaning “forbidden love,” became one of the bestselling Latin albums of all time. I'd never even heard of Selena or Tejana music, so I think it's safe to say I had no real idea what to expect.  And having now lost my Tejana virginity, I think it's probably safest if I just say I don't really get it.  I quite liked some of the tracks - "Si Una Vez" and "Ya No" in particular jum

Continuing my trip up   Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time... #482 : Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde - The Pharcyde (1992) These high school friends from L.A. were a little like a West Coast answer to De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, offering their own spin on alternative hip-hop in the Nineties and showing there was something going on in Southern California beyond G-funk. They rapped about innocent topics, like having a crush on a teacher in “Passin’ Me By,” which was a small hit, but also about dating a cute girl who turns out “to be a John Doe” and run-ins with the cops (the Public Enemy-homage “Officer”). It all came out as bright and refreshing as sorbet. I was, at best, vaguely aware of The Pharcyde - I think my expectations ran as far as "hip hop" which is a genre on which my feelings run from really, really liking to really, really hating, without me necessarily understanding what makes me like or hate any particular individual track.  Ha