It was a raygun - it was 1981

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

#449 : Elephant - The White Stripes (2003)

The Stripes exploded out of Detroit with a minimalist garage-blues attack: just Jack White on guitar and Meg White on drums, taking on the world. These kids insisted they were a brother and sister, even after people learned they were secretly a divorced couple. But against all odds, the low-budget duo became a global sensation for their sheer rock power. Elephant seethes with raw desperation and lust in “Seven Nation Army,” “Hypnotize,” and “The Hardest Button to Button.” Jack plays guitar hero in the seven-minute jam “Ball and Biscuit.”

Now, we've covered my confusion between The Isley and The Everly Brothers - I obviously also get confused between Jack Black and Jack White as well.  You'd think I'd know Jack White is the one in The White Stripes - and of course I do, but that doesn't stop me thinking "Hold on..." from time to time.  Anyway, back to the business in hand - this is another album I own but I can't claim it's been on constant play since I bought it.  I seemed to recall it had some interesting noises on it and some noisy noises - and the noisy noises scared me off because I'm such a sensitive flower.

And having re-listened to it, it seemed to have more interest and less noise than I remembered, but I'm still not convinced I actually like it.  You can't fault "Seven Nation Army", "The Hardest Button To Button" (which is a great title) and the interesting cover of "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" (which was first recorded by?  Ten points if you said Chuck Jackson, five points for Tommy Hunt and minus a million points for Dusty Springfield or Dionne Warwick).  But it didn't really feel to me like I needed the rest of the album, despite a plethora of interesting sounds - I also don't particularly like the overall style.  It's fair to say that most critics disagree with me though and consider this album to be one of the most essential of the 2000's.  Oh well!  

"Customers also listened to" The Raconteurs (who I'd completely forgotten even existed) and MIA - which seems an odd choice to me (I like MIA, just don't see the overlap with The White Stripes).  The White Stripes Wikipedia page is always worth a read for the brother/sister nonsense - for something they allegedly did to detract from the nature of their relationship, it didn't really seem to work, did it?  All in all, I was pleased to revisit this but it feels unlikely to receive much further playing by me - but I have added "The Hardest Button..." to my general playlist.

#448 : Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul - Otis Redding (1966)

Otis Redding’s last album before his tragic death in a plane crash, Dictionary of Soul, was just what the title promises: a definitive summary of an entire musical world. “Try a Little Tenderness” was a forgotten Bing Crosby oldie from the Thirties until Redding claimed it and turned it into pure Memphis soul. He does the same with “Tennessee Waltz” and the Beatles’ “Day Tripper,” as well as his own ballads “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)” and “My Lover’s Prayer.”

I can't claim to be aware of anything Otis Redding has done apart from "The Dock Of The Bay" and "Try A Little Tenderness" - so I was expecting more of the same, but it could have been anything and I wouldn't have been surprised!  And it's mostly similar, but slightly rockier - an enjoyable sound, but I can't say it really gelled with me.  It felt like it would be a different proposition live, but I'm guessing that's unlikely to happen given that he's been dead for 53 years now.  "Try A Little Tenderness" is the highpoint of the album for me (written in the 30s apparently - it's also been covered by Aretha and Sam Cooke, so I think we can consider it a soul staple!  The Commitments version isn't bad either, although I'm sure soul purists hate it) but the cover of "Daytripper" is interesting.

Otis' Wikipedia page is quite interesting because, unlike some of the entries I've previously commented on, it conspicuously points out that he was (and I'm sorry if this is a shock to you) a nice guy!  He died in a plane crash at the age of 26 and has left quite a legacy - I get the impression there's a lot of love for Otis out there.  "Customers also listened to" Solomon Burke and various other soul artists I know nothing about - I guess if you got soul, you got soul.  But unfortunately I can't claim I do (and this will surprise approximately no-one). 

#447 : X100 pre - Bad Bunny (2018)

Heralded by a subtly symbolic Christmas Eve release, Bad Bunny’s 2018 debut, X 100pre, was the Puerto Rican artist’s bid to court listeners new to Latin sounds, running through trap, reggaeton, dembow, synth-pop, and even pop punk, with help from Anglophonic ambassadors like Diplo and Drake. Bad Bunny could be shamelessly crude and totally vulnerable, with his slow-burning baritone opening the floor for Latin pop that’s not afraid to get uncomfortable.

OK - never heard of Bad Bunny and the description of the above didn't exactly set the scene.  The inclusion of Drake didn't exactly get my pulse racing since I completely miss the point on his stuff (and I suspect I'm going to be given the opportunity to write more about this later).  Wikipedia tells me Bad Bunny is particularly known for Latin trap and reggaeton and my attempt at getting into reggaeton (#473) didn't exactly end well, so here's hoping for a positive experience with the Latin trap components.

And well.  It was OK, I guess but it just sounded like generic R&B rubbish to me.  He suffers from a nasty case of the "yah woahs" in several places on the album where using actual words just seems like too much work - which annoyed me amusingly given that most of the album is in Spanish, so it's not like I can understand what he's saying anyway.  

I almost didn't bother checking out what "customers also listened to" because I knew what would happen - and yup, I don't know any of them.  I'm happy to give this album the benefit of the doubt because of my unfamiliarity with the genre, but that doesn't mean I'll be bothering with it again.  I'm pretty certain the one thing I'm going to take away from this is the nagging thought "exactly how bad is a bad bunny going to be?" and I'm not sure that's the comment he's looking for here.

Tricky decision to come up with a winner for this round - Elephant was probably my favourite album, but "Try A Little Tenderness" was far and away the best track.  So in a completely non-musical tiebreaker, I'm giving it to Elephant for the cover design - I've always loved that (and The White Stripes visual identity in general).

#452-450 - Put down the guitar, Paul
#446-444 - Jazz harp, anyone?