I traded fame for love without a second thought

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

#224 : Fly - The Dixie Chicks (1999)

Before their criticism of George W. Bush made them Nashville exiles and before they established their legacy as country’s most righteous troublemakers, the Chicks were effortlessly ruffling feathers on their infectious, poppy fifth album, Fly. “Cowboy Take Me Away,” “Ready to Run,” and “Goodbye Earl” became defining country hits of the late Nineties, but the rest of the record was hardly filler, from the intense balladry of “Cold Day in July” to the thrash-metal-with-fiddles freakout of “Sin Wagon.”

The Dixie Chicks (or The Chicks, as they're now known for a reason I understand, but I can't say I find the outcome a massive improvement) are a group I've heard of because of all the kerfuffle they caused for suggesting that George W was somehow less than perfect.  Their music, on the other hand, I have somehow managed to completely avoid - I assumed it was like early Taylor Swift.  However, when I think about it, I think I just assumed early Taylor Swift sounded like The Dixie Chicks, so it's all getting a bit self-referential and maybe I should just shut up and listen to the album...

Ah - so that's what early Taylor Swift sounds like!  I guess it's OK, but a bit annoying in a yee-ha kinda way - although I did actually like "Without You", so much so that I made a note of it because I knew there would be no way I'd remember it otherwise.  I can see that, like Bonnie Raitt at #492 if you were driving down the highway in a convertible in brilliant sunshine, it would sound a lot better than on a rainy February in St Albans, but that's all I've got to work with, people!

Wikipedia has remarkably little to say about the album other than noting "it did OK".  Like, 11 million copies sold in the US kind of OK (slightly fewer were sold in the UK - 60k!).  The only point of interest is track 13 "Ain't No Thang But A Chicken Wang" which is 1 second long and features no audio - for some reason, it's not included in the digital versions of the album.   The Wikipedia entry for the group makes it clear exactly how much trouble they got into for not supporting the Iraq war - basically, it was A LOT!  They've hung in there though and it seems like at least some people have forgiven the dreadful crime of having opinions.  "Customers also listened to" a lot of women with BIG hair - I suspect the sound is similar.  Overall, fine in small doses but not one I consider myself likely to be revisiting.

#223 : Imagine - John Lennon (1971)

After the primal-scream therapy of Plastic Ono Band [see No. 85], Lennon softened up on his second solo album. There is still the stinging “Gimme Some Truth” and his evisceration of Paul McCartney, “How Do You Sleep?” — both featuring George Harrison on guitar. But there is also the aching soul of “Jealous Guy” and the irresistible “Oh Yoko!” Imagine is self-consciously luminescent, pointedly embraceable. Lennon said of the title track: “Now I understand what you have to do. Put your political message across with a little honey.”

Well, I'm certainly looking forward to #85, I can tell you.  But in the meantime, I'll have to make do with this which at least has a couple of songs on it I know and like - "Jealous Guy" and the title track.  I was expecting the rest of the album to be like them but not as good - but actually, they hold up pretty well.  If anything, those two tracks don't stand up to the versions I had in my head - they're both obviously top songs (particularly "Jealous Guy" in my opinion, I think it's very well written) but the delivery isn't quite as smooth as I remembered.  For the former, I suspect my mind is conflating it with the Bryan Ferry version, which is a little too smooth - a version somewhere between the two would be perfect.  But, whilst I'm unlikely to rush back to the album, I found it pleasant enough (although he doesn't exactly come across as the happiest of people).

The Wikipedia entry for the album is lengthy but dull, although "How Do You Sleep" took me down an interesting diversion around various pages to do with the break-up of The Beatles, which sounds somewhat acrimonious to say the least.  Apparently Paul & Linda, the nicest people involved (except for George, of course!) took out full page adverts in the national press dressed up as clowns to take the piss out of John and Yoko - and the argument continued through the courts and then on to the letters page of Melody Maker, who must have absolutely loved it.  Ah, the music press - I used to like Melody Maker, back in the day.  But not that far back in the day, obviously, given that I was 3 - although it's weird because I'm sure I remember John & Yoko doing their bed-ins, and I was 1 at the time!  All I can imagine is that the press mentioned them every time they had to write about John and/or Yoko in the early 70s and at some point I said "Mum, why are those people in bed?".  That's enough John facts for the time - we'll save the rest for #85 (because I don't think I'm going to have much to say about the music)

"Customers also listened to" Elton John (which somewhat surprised me but not when I thought about it), Don Maclean (I assume we'll be seeing him at some point?) and Lou Reed (sigh, we're going to get a load more of him, aren't we?).  Overall, I feel this probably counts as a great album but I was a bit disappointed by the tracks I was expecting to really like, so I came away feeling a bit let down.

#222 : Ray Of Light - Madonna (1998)

For her first post-motherhood disc, Madonna and producer William Orbit showed the world that electronica didn’t have to be cold. Songs like the title track and “Nothing Really Matters” are beat-driven but restrained — filled with warmth and wonder. Ray also features Madonna’s best singing ever. “A ray of light to me is hope,” she said, describing her inspiration in making the album. “We are zooming forward, but that doesn’t mean you can lose touch with the spiritual side of things.”

I really liked this album at the time - I've always had a soft spot for Madge, was pleased to see her do something a bit calmer after a period in which she'd really done a load of nonsense and also I like this kind of electronic beepy stuff.  However, I re-listened to it a couple of years and found I wasn't as impressed as I remembered, so I was interested to come back to it.  And, to be honest, I'm not sure what my problem was - maybe I was just grumpy that day (me?  grumpy?!?  never!).  The album holds together pretty well, her voice works well and the high points are particularly fine - "Drowned World", "Ray Of Light" and "Frozen" for me.  She's looking pretty foxy on the cover too (am I allowed to say that?!?).  Music, the follow-up album is also pretty good (provided we ignore American Pie), but it's all downhill after that, I'm afraid.

Wikipedia's entry for the album is lengthy but surprisingly content free - but people really liked the album.  It's actually quite interesting because the album was much more of a trailblazer in the US than it was in the UK because a lot of people didn't really listen to that kind of ambient/dance/bleepy sound over there at the time - although I'd have to say there's a load of rubbish written about how much of a trailblazer it was.  I'm still not sure what to include from her Wikipedia encyclopaedia, but it's fair to say this one of her more critically admired phases.  "Customers also listened to" (and you're gonna struggle to believe this) Ace Of Base, Right Said Fred and Annie Lennox - wtf is going on there?!?  I'll stick with Ray Of Light, thank you.

So, obviously John has the greatest album out of the three, doesn't he?   Well, not for me he doesn't - Madge for the win.

#227-225 - The lads let me down somewhat
#221-219 - The lads let me down somewhat (again)