Juego mal hasta el parqués

Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...

#497 : The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto - Various (1985)

The greatest album ever to be marketed under the heading “world music,” this 1985 compilation of South African pop was a huge influence on Paul Simon’s Graceland that still sounds jarringly fresh today. Full of funky, loping beats and gruff, Howling Wolf-style vocals (most prominently from “goat voiced” star Mahlathini). With a sweet track by Graceland collaborators Ladysmith Black Mambazo (“Nansi Imali”), its badass joy needed no translation.

Again, not an album I was aware of and whilst I'm not a huge fan of "African music" (and yes, I'm aware this is a completely unreasonable generalisation and I'd never talk about "European music"), I do like Graceland so the description suggested I'd like at least some of this.  And indeed I did - the Graceland parallels are very obvious (and REALLY make you wonder exactly how much work Paul Simon did on that album).  Most of the tracks are very listenable - "Qhude Manikiniki", "Thul'ulalale" and "Nansi Imali" jumped out to me on first listen (just don't ask me to pronounce them).  Some of it is maybe a bit samey to my uncultured ear but I can particularly imagine the music working well under a hot sun with a cool beer - a dark, wet UK November afternoon somehow didn't strike me as its natural habitat, but I can only work with what I'm given!

According to Amazon, "customers also listen to" a particularly bizarre mix which I believe is caused by this album being by "various artists" which suggests a rather unfortunate shortcoming of their algorithm.  Amusingly, the Suicide album I previously mentioned also came up which suggests I'm not the only person working their way through the list - because they've certainly got nothing else in common!  Overall, this is a joyous album which proved to be a pleasant surprise - one I'm unlikely to revisit, but I'm glad I went there all the same.

#496 : Shakira - Dónde Están los Ladrones? (1998)

Long before she went blond and took her never-lying hips to the top of the American pop charts, Shakira was a raven-haired guitar rocker who’d hit peak superstardom in the Spanish-speaking world with her 1995 LP, Pies Descalzos. To keep up the momentum, Shakira enlisted Emilio Estefan to help produce her next LP, this stellar globetrotting dance-rock set, which blends sounds from Colombia, Mexico, and her father’s native Lebanon.

"How about a Shakira album?"  

"Too obvious!" 
"Errr - I meant one of her Spanish language ones."  

"What - Pies Descalzos?!?  Everyone knows that!"

"No - the follow up!"

"Perfect - that makes us look like proper musos!"

It won't surprise you to hear that I wasn't aware of this album beforehand - my expectations were there would be a load of random Latino warbling which would wash over me without particularly making an impression.  However having listened to it, I'd have to say I quite liked it - it's not a musical style I'm at all familiar with so I've no idea how authentic any of it is and I didn't understand a word of it but I'd have to say that didn't matter to me in the slightest.  Some of it was a bit Eurovision, but her voice is always listenable and the slower tracks "Moscas en la Casa" and "Inevitable" were particularly fine.  According to Wikipedia, on "Inevitable", Shakira confesses that she does not know how to prepare coffee, does not understand football, that she must have been unfaithful at some point and that she never wears watch - so there's some valuable personality insight for you.

"Customers also listened to" Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias apparently - who'd have guessed that, eh?!?.  However, I won't hold that against her - this is an enjoyable album even if I am suspicious of the reasons for its inclusion in the list and I never did find out dónde están los ladrones (but that might be because of the language barrier).  I even checked out Pies Descalzos (which everyone knows was her breakthrough album) which is similarly listenable - and similarly unintelligible to those of us that lacking in the lingo.

#495 : II - Boyz II Men (1991)

With their innocent romanticism and meticulous vocal arrangements, Boyz II Men became the most commercially successful R&B vocal group of all time. II includes two mammoth hits, courtesy of Babyface: “I’ll Make Love to You” and the audaciously baroque “Water Runs Dry.” But the group’s own Nathan Morris and Shawn Stockman composed II‘s most poignant moment, “Khalil’s Interlude,” a soft onslaught that’ll leave you sobbing in the fetal position: “I need shelter from the rain/To ease the pain of changing from boys to men.”

Hmmm.  Well.  OK, I guess.  I can't say I was totally expecting to see this here.  I mean, I knew they were popular (although having read up on them, I can't say I was aware of exactly how popular - this album sold 12m copies in the US) but I can't say I ever considered them to be contenders for greatness.  Again, it probably won't surprise you to know that I've never listened to this album - my expectations were for a load of harmless cheese.

And whilst it wasn't quite as cheesy as I was expecting, it is still pretty cheesy.  Yeah, it's well done cheese (I can imagine it resulting in a lot of singing into hairbrushes) but personally, I'd struggle to describe it as great.  However, I have a suspicion (which I can neither confirm nor deny) that it has suffered over time from having been endlessly replicated by less capable groups, so maybe it does count as a great album - either way, I'm guessing they can live without me as one of their biggest fans, but if I find out they're responsible for Westlife forming there is going to be trouble.  No particular highlights for me, but re-listening to "I'll Make Love To You" reminded me how much I hated it at the time.  I would have to say though that I really wanted to hate the cover version of "Yesterday" but I quite liked it!

"Customers also listened to" a load of similar looking groups most of whom I've never even heard of - I'm guessing this is another musical niche I am destined to remain blissfully in ignorance of and I suspect everyone will be happy enough with that.  I'm guessing if you loved this album at the time then you still love it, but I found little to draw me in.

So, all in all a peculiar selection of albums and, somewhat surprisingly, I'd declare Shakira to be my favourite of the three.  TIBOS was a good album, but personally I'd just relisten to Graceland rather than revisit that (yes, I realise this makes me the bad person) and I'm afraid Boyz II Men will just have to console themselves with their massive piles of money rather than basking in my adoration...

#500-498 - An eclectic mix

#494-492 - So, won't you...