Everyone knows someone who knows someone who thinks they're cooler than everybody else

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

#270 : Golden Hour - Kacey Musgraves (2018)  

On this album, Kacey Musgraves became Nashville’s most compelling crossover star since Taylor Swift, where she sings about acid trips, homesickness, and falling wildly in love with the witty precision of her earlier small-town polemics, but on a much bigger scale. Golden Hour’s lush yacht-country production re-envisioned what millennial pop might sound like: “I’ve always loved Sade, but I also love Dolly Parton,” Musgraves said. “I thought, ‘There’s got to be a world where all these things can live together.’”

I've previously written about Kacey here (extremely briefly it appears when I look at it again) but I didn't mention this album, because although I think it's fine I just prefer her previous efforts.  But Rolling Stone doesn't agree with me, so I get to listen to it again (although I revisited the other two as well for good measure).  It's a fine collection of songs -  highlights for me would be "Happy & Sad", "High Horse" & "Rainbow" - I just don't think it really shows her range off.  But if you like yacht-country produced millennial pop (and let's face it, who doesn't?) then I recommend you check this out.  And when you've listened to it, you can then check out Same Trailer, Different Park and Pageant Material and see if you agree with me (I must admit I've not tried out A Very Kacey Christmas, but given that it features a track called "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas", I'm obviously tempted now).

Wikipedia tells me surprisingly little about the album other than it only went and won the Album Of The Year Grammy - I'm super pleased for her.  Her Wikipedia entry is longer, but doesn't really say all that much about her other than that she's a super-nice person who's very "live and let live".  Unfortunately, it also points out that a lot of the hazy loveliness on Golden Hour was due to her having just gotten married - and they filed for divorce last year "saying in a joint statement, "it just simply didn't work."".  Full marks for honesty, I guess.  "Customers also listened to" a load of country girls who have the same hair as Ms Musgraves - I've listened to a couple of them in the past but couldn't get into their stuff, but I do have a soft spot for Kacey.  I like this album - I personally don't think it's her best but if you like a bit of country with some intelligent lyrics then I thoroughly recommend her.

#269 : Yeezus - Kanye West (2013)

“No one’s near doing what he’s doing,” said Lou Reed. “It’s not even on the same planet.” When the guy who made White Light/White Heat [see No. 272] is complimenting your hate-caked noise assaults, you’re doing something right. Kanye West channeled his ever-darkening megalomania into the violent minimalism of “On Sight” and the pummeling pestilence of “I Am a God.” He goes out with the maximalism of “Blood on the Leaves,” flipping a sample of Nina Simone’s version of “Strange Fruit” into an engulfing vision of asshole-rock-star hell.

Kanye is undoubtedly super-annoying, but there's also no denying the man has ideas.  Some of these ideas are good, whilst I think it's fair to say some of these ideas are less good (although there would be no danger of him admitting that).  I have heard a few Kanye albums and generally I quite enjoy the experience, if not necessarily the while album - but I seem to recall starting this album but not getting very far with it.  However, I gave it another go for the purposes of this list - and my opinion pretty much remained the same.  

I don't think it's quite as challenging as the description above would have you believe, but it's certainly not an easy-listening experience and some of the sexual imagery is downright unpleasant (I can live with merely unnecessary details - but no-one needs that much information, thank you Kanye).  The best Kanye stuff is shout-out-alongable (it's not really singing now, is it?) and, at first listen, I think most of this falls some way short of his best for me - and it's not feeling very likely I'm going to give it another opportunity to change my mind.

Wikipedia tells me the album was mostly inspired by a Le Corbusier lamp and I think we can all agree that shines through with every track, particularly resonating with the fans who got him where he is today.  Seriously, there's a load of nonsense written here - I really can't be bothered to wade through it.  The critics loved the album because, let's face it, he can take a shit and they'll rhapsodise over it.  The public were less convinced - but I was most amused by the comments from two musicians - Liam Gallagher (renowned for his well thought-out and justified views) said "He's a fucking idiot" and Hopsin (a US rapper I am unaware of) declared it "some straight-up bullshit".  We'll come on to Kanye's Wikipedia entry at a later time - we've got a few albums to cover it, I see.  

"Customers also listened to" Jay-Z (another cultural blindspot for me) and A$AP Rocky (who I'm completely unaware of) - which means I don't have anything more to say here!  Overall, I have more time for Kanye than people (including myself) might expect, but this album doesn't do anything for me I'm afraid.  One further comment - given how much they must have spent packaging and marketing the thing, you do think they could have come up with a better album cover.

#269 : Sail Away - Randy Newman (1972)

Producer Lenny Waronker called him the “King of the Suburban Blues Singers.” Randy Newman went on to a long career scoring Hollywood movies, but on Sail Away, he was still L.A.’s weirdest singer-songwriter, a piano man singing sardonic tales of sleazy grifters in tunes full of New Orleans R&B and Tin Pan Alley showbiz. Sail Away is his meanest and funniest American portrait, with the cold-blooded “Political Science,” the blasphemous “God’s Song,” and the romantic “You Can Leave Your Hat On.”

I am aware of Randy Newman through "You've Got A Friend In Me" and very little else - I didn't even know he'd been around as long as he had.  So I was intrigued to listen to this, with no real expectations - particularly after having read the above.  And I still don't really know what suburban blues is - it's not really clear who would have liked this kind of stuff back in the day (or who likes it now).  It's not horrible, it's just kinda pointless to me - some pleasant enough burbling to have on in the background.  Only two tracks jumped out at me, both of which I already knew - "You Can Leave Your Hat On" which Tom Jones likes to sing it at every goddamn possible opportunity he's given (often accompanied by Jools and his incredibly annoying grin) and "Simon Smith And The Amazing Dancing Bear" which is just a load of old nonsense, although interestingly was written by Randy but had already been recorded by a couple of other artists (firstly in 1967).

Wikipedia basically notes that the album exists and that's about it.  His entry is more informative, firstly telling me that he's a little bit younger than my parent - so he's obviously still very young indeed.  For some particularly bizarre reason, it also informs me that he was never in a band called The Tikis - and I feel now that I need a Wikipedia entry stating the same thing about me (it's true, after all!).  It does, however, make it clear that songwriting has worked out OK for the lad, particularly in association with Pixar - he's had 22 Oscar nominations, winning twice (but not for "You've Got A Friend In Me" which lost to "Colors Of The Wind" from Pocahontas - it's safe to say they got that one wrong).  All in all, he comes across as a nice guy who thinks about things and writes about them but also realises it's all just songs after all - and there's a nice smiley picture of him up there as well.  

"Customers also listened to" a bizarre mix of people with no obvious connecting influences - I guess that just backs up my "who exactly listens to this?" theory.  All in all, it's an odd album which I wouldn't turn off if I found myself listening to it again, but I can't imagine a single set of circumstances under which that would happen.

An easy win for Kacey - I'm just sad we're not going to see her again.

#273-271 - Mary J will make it all OK
#267-265 - An unexpected winner