She don't believe in shooting stars but she believe in shoes & cars

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

#206 : Low - David Bowie (1977)

David Bowie fled to Berlin to kick cocaine — not to mention his other drug of choice, stardom. He moved into a flat above a hardware store and restarted his music from scratch, teaming up with Brian Eno and producer Tony Visconti. Low was split between electronic instrumentals and quirky funk like “Sound and Vision.” It began his famous “Berlin trilogy” — though it was cut mostly in France — topped off by Heroes and Lodger. In 1977, Bowie also produced Iggy Pop’s two finest solo albums, The Idiot and Lust for Life.

I had tried Low before and struggled to get into it.  And it's an odd one - as is often the case with Bowie albums for me, I know the singles (or single, in the case of this album) so well that I struggle to pay attention to the rest.  But in this case, a lot of "the rest" are weird electronic instrumentals that would struggle to hold my attention at any time.  I appreciate that if I spent the time really getting into them, then I may grow to love them but I'm afraid it's a case of "so much Bowie, so little time".

The extremely detailed Wikipedia entry for the album tells me I'm wrong and it's a masterpiece, which was to be expected.  I can see the argument it's ahead of its time - I can definitely believe that Eno was heavily involved, despite Tony Visconti's strong protestations to the contrary (but he would say that, wouldn't he?).  It's interesting that critical opinion was mixed - one of the critics stated "For 12 minutes, this is Bowie's most striking and satisfying album since Ziggy", which doesn't strike me as massively satisfying.  Everyone has, of course, re-evaluated it since though and declares me to be wrong.  Bowie's Wikipedia entry is, of course, lengthy and fascinating - concentrating on this period, you just have to wonder what his life was like at this time recovering from a severe cocaine addiction, sharing an apartment in Berlin with Iggy Pop (which doesn't strike me as the ideal recovery scenario, but it seemed to work for him).

"Customers also listened to" other Bowie (unsurprisingly!), Roxy Music, T Rex and the 20 Feet From Stardom soundtrack, which wasn't entirely what I was expecting but is a fine film to watch if you like music of all varieties and features an interesting take on the business with some fantastic voices.  But, whilst I can admire the inventiveness and originality on display at the time here, it sounds dated now to me and there is little for me to warm to.  Sorry, Dave!

#205 : Tea For The Tillerman - Cat Stevens (1970)

With its chamber-pop arrangements, Tea for the Tillerman is one of the British folkie’s most ambitious albums (to take one example of Cat Stevens’ thinking at the time, the LP’s gentle, advice-dispensing “Father and Son” began as a song for a musical he wanted to write about the Russian Revolution). It soothed countless living rooms in the Seventies, but the album is deceptively angst-y. Both the hit single “Wild World” and the bleak ballad “Hard-Headed Woman” find him condemning his ex Patti D’Arbanville — who later shacked up with Mick Jagger.

I'm aware of and like "Father and Son" and "Wild World", but suspected I might find a whole album's worth a bit twee.  And I don't think things quite got as bad as "the t word", but I would say whilst it was perfectly pleasant, it struggled to keep my interest.  I mean, it's all fine and I can indeed imagine it "soothing countless living rooms in the Seventies" but it all feels a bit tame - I'm not getting the angst in slightest - unlike, say this.  Part of me also hates myself for even thinking about whether I prefer the Boyzone version of "Father And Son" and I definitely prefer Ronan & Yusuf's version - it's definitely a song that works well as a duet, although I've no idea where that Yusuf guy came from. Calm down - it's a JOKE, goddamitt!

The Wikipedia entry for the album is pretty brief and content-free - bizarrely, it doesn't even draw attention to the fact that it sold 3 million copies in the US (compared with 100,000 over here).  It does however, point out that he "re-imagined" the album last year as part of the 50th anniversary - that version of "Father And Son" is quite interesting because he duets with the younger version of himself, although I personally didn't particularly like the arrangement.  And the reimagined album as a whole manages to somehow combine twee with gravelly, which isn't necessarily anything that anyone needs.  His Wikipedia entry is extremely lengthy and quite interesting - he's done a few things in his time.  But very few of them appear to be amusing - he seems quite a serious fellow and hence I have no further interest in him!  

"Customers also listened to" Don Maclean, Simon & Garfunkel, CSN&Y, James Taylor and Lou Reed.  In the very wise words of Sesame Street, "one of these things is not like the others".  And whilst I generally admire a man who is a fine songwriter and most definitely has the courage of his convictions to plough his own furrow, this album doesn't quite push the required buttons for me. 

#204 : Graduation - Kanye West (1970)

“I’m doin’ pretty good as far as geniuses go,” Kanye West rapped on Graduation’s “Barry Bonds.” At the time, no one could argue with that. For his third album, West pared down the ornate production for a new kind of sleek stadium rap, deftly expanding his sampling palette to include Steely Dan, Daft Punk, and even Krautrockers Can, while giving his fame-sucks brags and gripes an introspect that points toward emo rap.

Oh look - we haven't had a Kanye album for a whole 40 albums - not since the abomination at #244.  This is another of his albums I'd not previously heard but, given that I've previously stated I don't mind a bit of Kanye, then surely we must hit a listenable album at some point.  Maybe this will be it - fingers crossed, eh?!?  And yeah, I'm pleased to say I didn't mind this at all - it's not as one dimensional as his previous entries on the list with some decent tracks on it with "Stronger" and "Flashing Lights" standing out for me.  Also, for someone who can tend to ramble somewhat, it's a nice short album - a tight 50 minutes.

The Wikipedia entry for the album goes on and on and on - for example, it's 4 times the size of the entry for "Let It Be" and nearly twice the size of that for "Thriller".  So obviously, I skimmed through it looking for bits where Kanye was unhappy and found that he REALLY wasn't happy it didn't win the Grammy for Album of the Year, so I was intrigued as to what it lost to.  Not Amy's Back To Black which would have been a perfectly acceptable loss, but Herbie Hancock's Joni Mitchell covers album, which I'd have to say he might have a point about.  We covered some of the nonsense from Kanye's Wikipedia entry last time, so we'll skip it until the next time (we're only halfway through his albums, after all).

"Customers also listened to" Jay Z, Kendrick, Kid Cudi, Outkast, etc etc.  But whilst I can take or leave most of these (mostly leave), I didn't mind this album at all and would even go as far as saying I like it.

Oh dear.  You know what's coming don't you?  And you're not going to be happy about it, are you Dave? (and others).  Yup - Kanye for the win for me.

#209-207 - Hip-hop.  Hip-hop.  Not hip-hop.
#203-201 - Don't worry, there's still some hip-hop