Bob Wood - national program director of the chum group

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

#331 : Like A Prayer - Madonna (1989)

“I like the challenge of merging art and commerce,” Madonna told Rolling Stone. After dominating Eighties pop without always getting the critical respect she deserved, Madonna finally won artistic recognition with her most personal set of songs, including “Till Death Do Us Part” and “Oh Father.” And she nailed the commerce side with “Express Yourself” and the title track, the video of which had the Vatican talking about blasphemy. “I pray when I’m in trouble or when I’m happy,” she said. “When I feel any sort of extreme.” Like a Prayer fused all of her extremes brilliantly.

I have a lot of time for 80s Madge - it's difficult to remember these days how much of a trailblazer she was back then (and also difficult to square with the slightly awkward "not quite as cool as she thinks she is" grandma figure she's become).  Yes, she did somewhat invite unnecessary controversy, but at the same time everyone queued up to take a pop at her for the most trivial of reasons ("oooh - look at her, showing her funny bra off") and she just didn't care.  I like the first three singles from the album ("Like A Prayer", "Express Yourself" and "Cherish") and pretty much consider them as peak Madge (along with the singles from True Blue) - we'll just politely skate over "Dear Jessie" though.  But I'd never heard the album - overally, I think my suspicion was that there was a good reason she's mostly known as a singles artist.

And, at first listen at least, my fears were confirmed.  The singles are the high points (although it's not a great version of "Express Yourself" - the version on The Immaculate Collection is much better) with the rest of it being mostly OK, but "Spanish Eyes" is a bit dodgy and "Act Of Contrition" is actively terrible (and was just left off the 30th anniversary edition).

Wikipedia has a lot to say about the album - mostly telling me how everyone disagrees with me and thinks it's a great album with global sales of 15 million, which ain't bad I guess.  Some of the critics' comments are utter nonsense though!  It also points out that the video to "Express Yourself" was, at the time, the most expensive ever made - which I found curious because unlike "Like A Prayer" (church-bothering nonsense) and "Cherish" (oooh look - waves!) I didn't remember it at all (and having checked it out on YouTube, I'm still drawing a blank).  This also jumped out at me "The packaging on the first pressings of the CD, cassette, and LP were scented with patchouli oils to simulate church incense" - I imagine there were quite a few quizzical looks when these were first opened up!

Madonna's entry on Wikipedia is not inconsiderable - to be honest I just couldn't face it.  I'll be interested to see whether I get an opportunity to come back to it - personally I prefer Ray Of Light, but since when did what I like come into it?  "Customers also listened to" Cyndi Lauper and Tina Turner - yes, they're all women but that feels to be about as far as the link goes to me.  All in all, an interesting listen to take me back to olden times but not a great album imho.

#330 : Aftermath - The Rolling Stones (1966)

The Stones sound mean and jaded on Aftermath, writing bad-boy songs about Swinging London’s overnight stars, groupies, hustlers, and parasites. This is the first Stones album completely written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, a collection of tough riffs (“It’s Not Easy”) and tougher acoustic blues (“High and Dry”); of girls seeking kicks (“Under My Thumb”) or just escape (“Think”), of zooming psychedelia (“Paint It, Black”), baroque-folk gallantry (“I Am Waiting”), and an epic groove (the 11-minute “Going Home”).

With pretty minimal exposure, my view is I quite like early Rolling Stones stuff (particularly "Paint It Black") and it feels like their overly posturing attitude is more appropriate for younger ages than their current geriatric attempts (especially since Mick seems to spend more time at the cricket these days than anywhere else - which is renowned for its anti-establishment credentials).  However, I can't say I've listened to any albums from that period and I'm not sure I'd even heard of this one, so I was looking forward to it.

And yeah, it was OK - feels like it would need a few more listens to really get into it but there was enough there to warrant a revisit.  I didn't even hate the 11 minutes of "Going Home" - there was enough variation in there to keep me going (although I was pleased to get to the end of it!).  Across the album there was also more variation than I expected - I particularly enjoyed the weirdness of "Lady Jane".  Somewhat surprisingly, Wikipedia tells me that there also variation between the UK and US versions of the album - with (amongst other things) "Paint It Black" not being on the UK version and "Mother's Little Helper" (which I also know and like) not being on the US version.  Which just seems weird - Wikipedia suggests it was to do with being able to churn more, shorter albums out in US, but I can't claim to entirely understand the explanation.

Wikipedia also tells me the album was originally planned to be called Could You Walk On The Water? - and it seems this upset the record label a lot (particularly in the US).  Different times, I guess.  Wikipedia actually has quite a lot to say about the album and it's quite a well written entry - there's a lot of interesting stuff in there, giving you a good feel for the time.  I didn't even start reading The Stones' entry - there will be time for that later, methinks.  "Customers also listened to" Keith Richards albums apparently - I struggle to imagine I'll be joining them, but I liked this well enough and am looking forward to a few more from this era.

#329 : Endtroducing..... - DJ Shadow (1996)

Northern California beat junkie Josh Davis (a.k.a. DJ Shadow) spent a year and a half chasing his dream of “the ultimate sample record,” and nailed it with his debut LP. Endtroducing….. is the height of the mid-Nineties trend of the hip-hop DJ as an experimental sound painter, a mix of head-trip beats, absurdist samples, and old-school block-party showmanship that touched listeners way beyond the turntablist underground. “Endtroducing was a big influence on OK Computer,” Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead recalled.

I have, at times, been slightly rude about previous bleepy, pointless albums.  But, I have to put my hands up and say this is one of my all-time favourite bleepy, pointless albums.  Why?  No idea, but I've always liked it - I just lose myself in it.  Would I like it coming to it fresh on this list? I suspect it would be an "interesting in places, but no" - but we'll never know!  I think "Stem/Long Stem" is probably my favourite track, but tbh if you don't think you're going to like something Wikipedia describes at "instrumental hip/hop" then you probably just aren't going to - but if you think you might and haven't heard this album, I recommend you check it out.

Wikipedia amazed me by telling me it got to #17 on the UK album chart - that seems pretty high for what I'd always assumed was an "influential but not for normal people" album.  I'd also have to say that although I like this album, I'm embarrassed by some of the utter shit that the critics wrote about it, but I guess they aren't going to earn their money by going "errr - yeah.  it's good".  DJ Shadow's page tells me he's released 6 albums to date and I have, of course, not listened to any of the other ones, which I might have to rectify.  "Customers also listened to" Nightmares on Wax, The Orb, Lemon Jelly, Tricky, David Holmes - I could go on listing albums I love, but that's probably enough for the time being.  But this album is definitely a classic in the bleepy-pointless genre (and very influential, of course!).  I also love the album cover - it takes me back to what feels like several lifetimes ago.  Going in to record shops!  Buying records!  Just leaving the house!  Ah, those were the days.

So, whilst I enjoyed the Stones more than I was expecting, I awarded the winner of the last round based on history, so this one is going to be won on familiarity - well done Mr Shadow.

#334-332 - And the award for most historic winner goes to...
#328-326 - Three "maybes"