Every word seemed to date her

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

#349 : Kick Out The Jams - MC5 (1969)

It’s the ultimate rock salute: “Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!” Recorded live in Detroit by Rob Tyner and his anarchist crew, Kick Out the Jams writhes and screams with the belief that rock & roll is a necessary act of civil disobedience. The proof: It was banned by a Michigan department store. The MC5 proved their lefty credentials the summer before the album was recorded when they were the only band that showed up to play for the Yippies protesting the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

I had no idea about this at all, but had a strong suspicion I wasn't going to like it.  But seriously, what is this shite?!?  I mean, seriously!  My wife walked in whilst I was playing it and immediately said "Is this for your list then?".

Wikipedia gives me absolutely no clue why this album is on the list, but amusingly the band's entry states "MC5 were nominated for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2002, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020."  I'm guessing they have one very persistent fan and everyone else just rolls their eyes when he (and it will be a he) nominates them AGAIN!  "Customers also listened to" The Stooges and The New York Dolls - which does not surprise me at all.  Next!

#348 : Time (The Revelator) - Gillian Welch (2001)

Gillian Welch had a breakout moment when she appeared in the Coen brothers’ folk-music-themed movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?. She followed it with this striking modern-roots album, collaborating with guitarist David Rawlings on songs about love, sex, nostalgia, and the music of Elvis Presley. It ends with the 15-minute meditation “I Dream a Highway,” which the pair had never played before they recorded it, one example of the spontaneous power of an LP that made Depression-era music feel time-warped into the present.

I like Gillian Welch who remains resolutely under the radar over here except for when she was once mentioned in the news because David Cameron went to one of her concerts (lucky her, eh?!?).  I think I prefer Soul Journey which is the album after this one, but there are some fine tracks on here - "Revelator" and "April The 14th Part 1" are my favourites.  Both tracks feature strong lyrics over pared-back accompaniment - with the latter being particularly depressing (in a good way!).  So time for some uplifting lyrics, methinks

Ruination day and the sky was red 
I went back to work - and back to bed 
And the iceberg broke and the Okies fled 
And the Great Emancipator took a bullet in the back of the head

"April The 14th Part 1" is also interesting because it fades out too early - apparently this was a mistake and they didn't have enough money to re-record it.  Wikipedia doesn't have a lot to say about the album - there seems to be more on her page about the album than there is on the album's page itself.  "Customers also listened to" Lucinda Williams who we've already met here but apparently there is a better album of hers to come, so I'm looking forward to that.  But if you like bluegrass/Americana music, then I think you can do far worse than check out Gillian.

#347 : Liquid Swords - GZA (1995)

The “Wu”-est of all of the Wu-Tang solo masterpieces, full of grimily cinematic production, winding crime narratives, mysticism, and mystery, not to mention copious kung fu-movie references and contributions from every Wu member. GZA delivers rhymes that are economical but devastating in their wisdom and narrative detail; “Bloodbaths in elevator shafts/Like these murderous rhymes tight from genuine craft,” he raps, summing up his style. Whatever strange alchemy the Staten Island guys came up with, Liquid Swords has it in utterly potent form.

Who, in their right mind, could resist "the Wu-est of all the Wu-Tang solo masterpieces"?  Apart from me that is, up until this point in time anyway?!?  And now I've listened to it?!?  Well - I guess it's "fine".  It ticks along nicely enough and has some interesting enough samples in it, but I can't say it really grabbed me.  Don't what else to say really!

Wikipedia's entry for the album makes it clear that most people liked it (although it surprisingly doesn't describe it as "the Wu-est") but has little else to say about it.  The entry for GZA makes the interesting claim that he has the fourth largest vocabulary in modern hip-hop, but when you follow the links referenced, they actually claim he's second only to Aesop Rock (nope, me neither!) - either way that must have been some fun (but completely pointless) analysis to do.  "Customers also listened to" slightly less Wu-ey members of the clan - there are a million of them out there after all.  Part of me is tempted to revisit for a deeper listen, but it doesn't feel top of the list of things I'm likely to do any time soon, I'm afraid.

Which leaves Gillian the clear winner of this round!

#352-350 - Woah - heavy, man!
#346-344 - All good, but that doesn't mean I actually liked them