Nothing wrong when a song ends in a minor key

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

#215 : American Beauty - Grateful Dead (1970)

The Dead never sounded better in the studio than in the down-home stoner country of American Beauty. Released just five months after the folkie classic Workingmans Dead, American Beauty has some of their most beloved songs in “Ripple,” “Brokedown Palace,” and “Truckin’.” Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter were on a hot streak, writing the ultimate outlaw credo in “Friend of the Devil.” “Box of Rain” has the Dead’s most emotional harmony vocals, especially in the haunting final lines: “Such a long, long time to be gone/And a short time to be there.”

Our second visit with The Dead - last time my verdict was "absolutely fine" combined with continued bemusement as to their incredible popularity over the pond.  And not a lot has changed here, although some of the songs stray into "actually quite good" territory.  It is, obviously, a load of old hippy shit but sometimes I'm in the mood for that and this feels like an album which delivers a better dose than most, with some fine vocals and guitar work in particular.  Quite how this inspired legions of loyal fans is still slightly beyond me though, I'm afraid.

The Wikipedia entry for the album mentions how they were influenced by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - and I'd have to say a lot of this reminded me of Déjà Vu which was released earlier in the same year.  There's an awful lot of text about the album, but very little of interest - except for this "Around the rose, the album title is scripted as a text ambigram that can also be read "American Reality"" - which pointed out something that I'm missed but had been staring me in the face and also lead me off down one of my Wikipedia diversions on ambigrams, which I thoroughly enjoyed (the ambigram of the word "ambigram" is great!).  

The band's Wikipedia entry is too long to contemplate, I'm afraid - but there are no sections on feuds, legal difficulties or any other such nonsense.  There is however a section entitled "Sponsorship of 1992 Lithuanian Olympic Basketball Team" - I'll leave you to guess why, but it resulted in a whole load of new Deadheads based in a small European country.  "Customers also listen to" - yeah, that lot from back in the day.  I have to say, the more I hear about the band, the more I'm warming to them - but I can't see I'll ever really understand exactly what's so great about their music.

#214 : Wildflowers - Tom Petty (1994)

Petty struggled for two years to make the Rick Rubin-produced follow-up to 1989’s hit Full Moon Fever. He left tons of songs in the can, and the final product stretched to 70 minutes but didn’t have any filler. Petty hit a new songwriting peak, going from intimate, soul-bearing songs like the title track and “Crawling Back to You” to rockers like “You Wreck Me” and “House in the Woods.” “I think it’s maybe my favorite LP that I’ve ever done,” Petty said.

Our third visit with Mr P and he's done OK so far in producing tolerable but hardly earth-shattering albums - so would he continue in this vein?  Yeah - pretty much.  If you like Full Moon Fever then I imagine you'll like this one as well - I wasn't aware of any of the tracks on this album beforehand, but I'd say some of it is just as good as "Free Fallin'" - if you happen to think that sort of thing (Wikipedia describes it as "heartland rock" which I guess is as good a name as end) is good.

Wikipedia notes 3 million sales but has remarkably little else of note to say - although I was pleased Amazon didn't present me with the 5 disc Wildflowers And All The Rest version.  And we've covered Tom's smiley picture on his page twice already, so I don't feel the need to mention it (ah - failed again).  "Customers also listened to" John Mellancamp (which makes perfect sense) and REM (which doesn't).  I think it's OK - I wouldn't hate to listen to it again, but I also wouldn't go out of my way to make that happen.

#213 : The Idler Wheel - Fiona Apple (2012)

The Idler Wheel continued Fiona Apple’s run as one of modern pop’s most thrilling eccentrics. There’s a single-minded intensity to songs like “Every Single Night” and “Hot Knife,” where she puts an almost shocking amount of feeling into each syllable. Apple can sound like a cabaret singer in one song and a blueswoman in the next, her voice full of sandpaper edges and bestial roars. “I may need a chaperone,” she wonders on “Daredevil,” but this album proves she’s at her very best when left to her own devices.

Our second visit with Fiona on this list - last time I liked the album and she won the round (in the face of incredibly weak competition).  Could she repeat both feats with this album? (you'd have to say the competition is better, but doesn't seem like it's going to overly stand in her way).  Firstly, the album needs to be good or, to be more accurate, liked by me.  And yeah, it's pretty much in the same vein as before although I think I probably preferred this one.  Having said that, there is more evidence of the annoying quirkiness that came to an unpleasant (in my opinion, if not the critics) conclusion on last year's Fetch The Bolt Cutters, which I talk about here.  The high points on this album are impressive though - "Hot Knife" was the stand-out track for me with some impressively complex vocals, but I'll also mention "Werewolf" as having grabbed my attention.

Obviously, the place we need to start with Wikipedia is the album's full title - The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do.  Because, why wouldn't you?!?  And I'm not saying there's further evidence of contrariness but "Executives at Epic found out that Apple had recorded an album in early 2012, when she presented it to them".  It also mentions how much the critics LOVED the album - they wouldn't shut up about it.

Her Wikipedia entry mainly notes that she's made a few other albums and the critics have loved them all - she certainly seems to have a hold over them, as can be evidenced by this list.  She has 3 entries on it, whereas other female singer songwriters haven't fared so well (with the notable exception of Joni Mitchell, who they also LOVE!).  Kate Bush manages just the one entry and there's no Suzanne Vega, Natalie Merchant or Aimee Mann at all.  I appreciate that there's no way to keep everyone happy, but it does feel like they didn't try to hard to make more people happy.

"Customers also listened to" Tori Amos and PJ Harvey - definitely hailing from the same part of town (and both of them do make the list, so maybe I'm being unfair).  But I liked this album and would listen to it again through choice - and there's not been so many of them recently.

So yes, she manages to repeat the trick (and she's going to get a chance to go for the hat trick later!)

#218-216 - Three albums from a three year period
#212-210 - They're oldies, but are they goodies?