Fed up with life and the way things are going, he decides to rob a liquor store

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

#352 : The Slim Shady LP - Eminem (1999)

On which Eminem introduced himself as a crazy white geek, the “class-clown freshman/Dressed like Les Nessman.” Hip-hop had never heard anything like Em’s brain-damaged rhymes on this Dr. Dre-produced album, which earned Em respect, fortune, fame, and a lawsuit from his mom. Yet, while he claimed that God sent him here to piss off the world, his most endearing quality was that he saved his most unsparing rhymes for the worst villain in his messed-up life — not mom or his ex-wife, but himself.

I like early period Eminem - I remember hearing "My Name Is" on Radio 1 and liking it, whilst being slightly annoyed that they were only playing every other word.  I have listened to this album quite a lot over the years, but remembered it tailing off in quality (from an admittedly very high quality opening - "My Name Is", "Guilty Conscience" and "Brain Damage") so was interested to relisten to the whole thing to see if I still got that impression.

And not really is the answer - the tracks towards the end of the album are still pretty good, although maybe I feel like I don't like them so much because they're a bit slower. All in all, I think this is a fine album with accessible lyrics, much humour and skill involved.  However, we have to ask the question as to whether I should like Eminem at all - a lot of this album's content is morally dubious (at best).  It's very easy to write it all off as misogynistic, homophobic trash but it's also easy to counter with the "he's describing what his alter-ego thinks and pointing out the ridiculousness of it all" argument - but there's no way to know exactly what's going on inside his head (and I'm not sure I'd want to know, even if I could).

Diving into it a bit more, I guess "Guilty Conscience" is probably the best track to consider - the first verse is "merely" advocating armed robbery, the second encouraging underage date-rape whilst the third positively endorsing multiple homicide using a humorous aside mentioning an actual assault charge.  What could possibly be wrong with any of that?  But, you have to admit it's all done very well with obvious intelligence and lyrical skill.  My personal take is that it doesn't really matter whether either Eminem or Slim Shady really believes any of it, "they" know that an album about kittens and puppies isn't going to sell, so funnily enough they've not done that.  I do believe that the skill with which it's done makes such thoughts more accessible and hence acceptable to people that either already have said viewpoint or are in the process of forming their views on the world - but I struggle to see that's really his fault.  I do accept his "I'm not a role model" argument - mainly because, quite patently, he isn't.

Woah, that all get a bit heavy and serious didn't it?  Quick, Wikipedia - lighten the mood!  Hopefully this will this do - Some urged Dr. Dre not to take a chance on Eminem because he was white. Dr. Dre responded, "I don't give a fuck if you're purple. If you can kick it, I'm working with you."  It's quite interesting that this album sold 4 million copies in the US and 1.1 million in the UK (more than in all of the rest of Europe put together) - usually we're much further behind them for the sales of any albums, let alone for a US rapper.  Funnily enough, the Wikipedia entry for the man himself is quite lengthy - and a lot of it is complete nonsense, but it's an interesting read nonetheless.  "Customers also listened to" Dr Dre and D12 - apples not falling far from the tree there.  So, I am going to lay my own guilty conscience to rest and continue to enjoy this album - and also try to remember that I should listen to the end of the album.

#351 : For Your Pleasure - Roxy Music (1973)

Keyboardist Brian Eno’s last album with Roxy Music is the pop equivalent of Ultrasuede: highly stylish, abstract-leaning art rock. The collision of Eno’s and singer Bryan Ferry’s clashing visions gives Pleasure a wild, tense charm — especially on the driving “Editions of You” and “Do the Strand.” The album’s deeply weird centerpiece is “In Every Dream Home a Heartache”: Ferry sings a seductive ballad to an inflatable doll (“I blew up your body, but you blew my mind”), one of the creepiest love songs of all time.

Ah, Mr Eno - we meet again! (Eno is a great name for a Bond villian - Brian, less so)  I own "Street Life" (one of their many best ofs) which I initially bought for the later Roxy Music tracks, but found myself enjoying the early stuff more - so I was intrigued to listen to this.  And it opens with "Do The Strand" (which I was surprised to learn wasn't released as a single in the UK until 1978) so that was a good sign.  But after that, it was a long slow slide downhill - not a steep downhill slope (with one exception), but a downhill slope nonetheless.

So what was the exception?  The Rolling Stone description above might give you a little clue and here are some lyrics to fully creep you out

Inflatable doll, my role is to serve you
Disposable darling, can't throw you away now
Immortal and life size - my breath is inside you
I'll dress you up daily and keep you till death sighs

It's just weird and delivered in a very creepy vocal style - would not recommend.

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot to say about the album apart from how influential it is (of course!), although amusingly it points out that it got to #4 in the UK and #193 in the US - I'm guessing they just didn't go for that Roxy Music sound at that time.  "Customers also listened to" Bryan Ferry, Malcolm McLaren and The Stranglers - one of these makes a lot more sense to me than the other two.  Overall, a bit of a disappointment - it might grow on me, but I think it more likely I've been scared off.

#350 : Music Of My Mind - Stevie Wonder (1972)

Recording after his onerous contract with Motown had expired, a newly empowered Stevie Wonder flexed his artistic control on Music of My Mind, making a relaxed, love-smitten warmup for blockbusters — like Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life — to come, and playing nearly every funky note on classics such as “Love Having You Around” and “Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You).” Elsewhere, Wonder jammed on a Clavinet during the the tight boogie “Keep on Running” and on “Evil,” an openhearted intimacy with political overtones.

Another artist I've somewhat surprisingly seen live (and he was very impressive) - but I was expecting to like rather than love this, particularly given the description above.  And I'd say that is a fair description - it's all very relaxed and low-key, giving the overall impression he wasn't really trying very hard.  None of it is offensive, but equally I don't remember any of it in the slightest - I suspect it's not going to be my last opportunity to listen to some Stevie though, so let's just move on.

Wikipedia has very little to say about the album other than to describe it as mature, which I find can often be a synonym for boring but that's not really fair here, it's just all a bit samey to me.  The Wikipedia page for him points out he won the Grammy for Record of the Year in 1973, 1974 and 1976 - so it really does look like this was just a warm-up for him!  "Customers also listened to" all the expected names - it's not really my area of expertise, but there were some fine tunes that came out of that era.  It's just a shame that none of them are on this album

Slim Shady for the win here, despite his general levels of obnoxiousness.

#355-353 - A surprise winner
#349-347 - An easy winner