Inside a broken clock, splashing the wine

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

#358 : Goo - Sonic Youth (1990)

With their sixth full album, the New York art-of-noise band made the leap from indie to major label, but few sold out so beautifully. From Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo’s frazzled guitar freakouts to Kim Gordon’s ghostly ode to Karen Carpenter, Goo retained all of Sonic Youth’s quirks and hallmarks. The sessions were technologically fraught, but they used those added production dollars to amp up their sonic assault. On tracks like “Kool Thing” and “Disappearer” they’d never sounded burlier — and yet more true to their alt-nation selves.

Sonic Youth are one of those groups that I really want to like (particularly since Kim Gordon is a very cool individual) - and I almost do, but I've never quite make it as far as actually liking them yet.  Maybe this was the album to convert me?!?

Nope.  Oh well.  

I like some of it and I can see it will have its fans, but it doesn't do enough to convert me.  I like the guitars in some places (but not in others) but generally the vocal delivery just annoys me.  "Kool Thing" is quite interesting in that it features Chuck D - but it still just sounds like a Sonic Youth track but featuring a bizarre middle section interviewing a generic rapper-type.  The fact of the matter is that if you're not aware of Sonic Youth, then you're not going to like them, so I wouldn't bother trying to convert yourself!

Additionally, Wikipedia tells me this is Sonic Youth's most approachable album which means I might just have to give up on them - but plenty of people haven't over the years.  "Customers also listened to" The Breeders and PJ Harvey, who I find stay on the right side of the "challenging but likeable" line, but obviously it's all very subjective.  But there's no chance of me revisiting this, I'm afraid.

#357 : Rain Dogs - Tom Waits (1985)

“I like weird, ludicrous things,” Tom Waits once said. That understatement plays out most clearly on Rain Dogs, his finest portrait of the tragic kingdom of the streets. Self-producing his music for the first time and recording in his native Los Angeles, he went for a sound he described as “kind of an interaction between Appalachia and Nigeria.” Waits abandoned his signature grungy minimalism on the gorgeous “Downtown Train” (later a hit for Rod Stewart) and gets backing by Keith Richards on “Big Black Mariah."

By all usual standards, Tom Waits is exactly the sort of thing I hate - he possesses the most annoying vocal style and he takes himself far too seriously.  However, I don't mind Swordfishtrombones - it's mostly down to the track "Frank's Wild Years" (which, obviously, isn't on the album of the same name!) but there are a couple of other tracks that I quite like.  I'd not heard Rain Dogs though, so was interested to see if it had enough high spots to keep it on the right side of "WTF is this?"

And, whilst I'm not sure they quite count as high spots, there's enough points of interest to just about prevent me from writing it off - "Downtown Train" is particularly interesting when you know the Rod Stewart cover, especially given that it doesn't jump out as an obvious choice for him to cover.  Unfortunately, there are far too many annoying bits scattered throughout the album for me to avoid it in future though.

Wikipedia's page on the album includes the following quote, which is probably all you need to know "if we couldn't get the right sound out of the drum set we'd get a chest of drawers in the bathroom and bang it real hard with a two-by-four".  Interestingly, it also tells me that the guy on the album cover isn't Tom - I'd always just assumed it was.  "Customers also listened to" Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and John Cale - sounds about right.  But not for me, I'm afraid - I'll stick with Swordfishtrombones.

#356 : Gris-Gris - Dr John (1968)

Mac Rebennack was a New Orleans piano player on songs for Professor Longhair and Frankie Ford who moved to L.A. in the Sixties, where he played on Phil Spector sessions and encountered California psychedelia. Rechristening himself Dr. John Creaux the Night Tripper, he made this swamp-funk classic. Gris-Gris blends New Orleans R&B, voodoo chants, and chemical inspiration. The groovy Afro-Caribbean percussion and creaky sound effects aren’t just otherworldly — they seem to come from several other worlds all at once.

Another album from the year of my birth - and not one I was looking forward to since I've generally found Dr John to be a slightly more annoying version of Tom Waits.  But, in this case, I'd say his voice was slightly less annoying I found Tom on Rain Dogs - but the tracks were considerably more annoying.  "Swamp-funk classic" my arse.  The only track of interest to me was "Walk On Guilded Splinters" because I know and like the Paul Weller version (without being aware it was a cover) - and well done to Paul for not making his version over 7 minutes long.  Unlike the original.

Wikipedia has the following amusing section which I wholeheartedly agree with - Atlantic records president Ahmet Ertegun was reluctant to release the record at first, exclaiming "How can we market this boogaloo crap?".  "Customers also listened to" Professor Longhair, who I suspect outranks Dr John in the medical profession, but I can't be sure.  Either way, they're both welcome to this album because I don't want it.

In the words of Roger Waters, my least hated favourite album is Tom Waits.  I really don't like it, but it's way better than the other two.

#361-359 - Not a lot in common with this selection
#355-353 - A surprise winner