There's a quiet storm and it never felt this hot before

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

#200 : Diamond Life - Sade (1984)

Nigerian-born fashion designer Sade Adu and her London band defined elegantly cool Eighties soul with their smash debut, Diamond Life. Torch ballads like “Smooth Operator” and “Your Love Is King” had a New Romantic opulence under the bittersweet pang of Adu’s voice. She wrote her first song, “When Am I Going to Make a Living,” on the back of a bill, while walking home in the rain from a bus stop after work. As she said, “All the songs I’ve ever loved — even jazz stuff — are things that tell a story.”

Our second visit with Sade on this list and it's got me wondering how is it possible to know an album so well that you've never actually owned?  Easy these days, I guess (although as my eldest explained to me "what even is an album?  no-one listens to them these days") - but it was tricky back then.  I don't think I even owned a home-taped version ("it's killing music" after all, kids) but somehow, I grew to love this album pretty quickly.  And, to be honest, there's a lot to love about it.  "Smooth Operator", "Hang On To Your Love" and "Sally" are my favourite tracks, but I don't think there's really a low point on the album.  I suspect most people already know if they like Sade or not, and if they do, then they know and love this album - but, if you're not aware of it, then give it a go.

Wikipedia tells me the album was super-super-successful - top 10 in all countries except for Norway (#20) and Sweden (#18).  Obviously them Scandi-countries are so angsty they can't go for some sweet Sade-soul.  Globally, it sold 10 million copies - which is A LOT for a UK album.  It was probably the best global selling UK based album of the year (Make It Big and Colour By Numbers ran it close but, for example, The Unforgettable Fire sold ONLY 4 million), but it did come up against some slightly more successful US albums that year - Thriller, Born In The USA, Purple Rain, Like A Virgin, Reckless and errr, Sports,  Thanks Huey - where would we be without you?!?

The band's Wikipedia entry is quite interesting in its mysteriousness - they're not the most publicity hungry or prolific group of people and we covered the only interesting story last time, so that's your lot!  "Customers also listened to" a very varied group of people - it feels like Sade kinda live in their own little niche and lots of people like them.  And I certainly include myself amongst them and I think this is my favourite album of theirs, although I also like Promise.

#199 : Slanted And Enchanted - Pavement (1993)

Pavement were the quintessential American independent rock band, and this is the quintessential indie-rock album. The playing is loose-limbed, the production laid-back and primitive, the lyrics quirky and playful, the melodies sweet and seductive. But the sound is as intense as the white noise of the Velvet Underground, even as songs like “Summer Babe” reflect singer-guitarist Stephen Malkmus’ love of Seventies AM pop. Slanted and Enchanted is one of the most influential rock albums of the 1990s; its fuzzy recording style can be heard in the music of Nirvana, Liz Phair, Beck, the Strokes, and the White Stripes.

Our third visit with Pavement on this list and history would suggest I'm not going to like it.  However, I hated their 3rd album way more than their 2nd, so hopefully their debut album would invoke even less hate - there's nothing like going in with high expectations, is there?  And I'm pleased to say they were squarely met - this is easily the least loathsome of the three.  I still don't like it though.

Yet again, Wikipedia tells me I'm wrong and, yet again, I don't care.  And I'm not going to mention your man getting sacked for handing out cabbages again, because I've spent far too much time on this band as it is.  "Customers also listened to" a load of people who I've never heard of and have no intention of investigating.  Thankfully, I'm done with Pavement on this list now - and hopefully in my life as well.

#198 : The B-52's - The B-52's (1979)

The debut by the B-52’s sounds like a bunch of high school friends cramming all their running jokes, goofy sounds, and private nicknames into a New Wave record. “We never thought it would get past our circle of friends in Athens [Georgia],” vocalist Fred Schneider told Rolling Stone. It turned out that nobody could resist the band’s campy, arty funk, or the eccentric squeals and bouffant hairdos of Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson. (Playing organ, Pierson also defined the band’s sound.) They played toy instruments, and their thrift-store image was as inventive and colorful as their music — which, with “Rock Lobster,” was pretty inventive and colorful.

I quite like The B-52s in small doses - I find about half way through "Rock Lobster" I've had enough though, so I was interested to see how I'd deal with a whole album of the stuff.  And yeah, it does grate towards the end, particularly with the "Downtown" cover which is interesting, but ultimately not good (it also has really annoying low-level chatter in the background, which completely confused me as to where it was coming from!).  I did quite like "52 Girls" - it features good squealing from Kate and Cindy (although not as Kate's warbling on their fellow Athenians "Shiny Happy People").  It feels unlikely I'll be revisiting this album though.

There is remarkably little about the album on Wikipedia, although I did learn that "Downtown" was written by Tony Hatch, who has done many great musical things in his life, but all I remember about him is that he wrote the theme tune to Neighbours, which probably took him all of 5 minutes.  The band's entry is slightly longer, but not as expansive as you might expect from a group who've been going for 45 years - they're all mid-sixties or over and looking pretty good for it!  The main thing I learned from the entry is that the singy/talky noise they make is called sprechgesang ("spoken singing" in German!) - you learn something new every day.

"Customers also listened to" Devo (which makes perfect sense from the album I had to suffer for this list) and Siouxsie (which I don't see at all).  Yes, it's a fun album and interesting in places/small doses but I'm not sure I'd call it great.

Only one winner for me here - Sade.

Pause - 60% of the way there
#197-195 - Old dudes vs feisty newcomer