We passed upon the stair - we spoke of was and when

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

#279 : MTV Unplugged In New York - Nirvana (1994)

Nirvana shine brightly on this live set because the volume is just low enough to let Kurt Cobain’s tortured tenderness glow. The powerful, reverent covers of Lead Belly, David Bowie, the Vaselines, and Meat Puppets songs sum up Nirvana as a haunted, theatrical, and, ultimately, truly raw band. Though Cobain was going through heroin withdrawal the morning of the taping, it remains one of three Unplugged performances to be recorded without having to pause for any retakes.

Obviously the description above just makes me go "what were the other two?" and the internet annoyingly isn't keen to tell me.  So, moving on to more important things...

...like questioning conventional wisdom.  Obviously, this is Kurt we're talking about, so this is a sacred cow to be accepted without question - and then it's the first album to be released after his untimely death, so it's obviously genius, right?  But when I listened to this album back in the day, I thought it was "OK" - an interesting presentation of some good Nirvana songs, one good Bowie cover and some other less impressive songs from Nirvana and others.  So, was my opinion going to change on another listen after quite a few years.  No, not really - it's still OK, but I wouldn't cross the street for most of it.

Wikipedia, of course, tells me I'm wrong - I'd expect nothing less!  It also amused me imagining how unhappy MTV must have been at the setlist, no encore and the choice of The Meat Puppets as special guests - "They wanted to hear the 'right' names - Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos or God knows who.".  Oh well, I'm guessing they were happy enough with how it all worked out in the end though.  Nirvana's Wikipedia entry isn't as big as I was expecting - but I guess that's partially because they only made a couple of albums you can actually listen to for more than a few songs.  The Wikipedia entries for Kurt, Dave and Ken are somewhat lengthier though - I'll take some time to wade through them next time we meet up with the band.  "Customers also listened to" Pearl Jam (another cultural blindspot for me that I suspect I'll be forced to address), RHCP and Radiohead (who don't seem an obvious choice).  Don't get me wrong, I very much like some of this album - but I'm not convinced it's quite the genius set that it's held up to be by many.

#278 : Houses Of The Holy - Led Zeppelin (1973)

Led Zeppelin stuck close to their core sound on earlier albums — supercharged blues, celestial folk — but here they got into a groove. “D’yer Mak’er” (rhymes with “Jamaica”) is their version of reggae, and “The Crunge” is a tribute to James Brown. The band also indulged its cosmic side with “The Rain Song” (featuring one of Robert Plant’s most amazing vocals), “The Song Remains the Same,” and the Viking death chant “No Quarter.”

Oh dear, the sacred cows are all out today, aren't they?  Yes, Led Zeppelin are obviously talented - but does that talent include actually writing good songs?  Sorry, actually writing good songs, other that "Stairway To Heaven"?  Well, let's listen to this album and find out shall we?  Ah - no, it doesn't.  Maybe I'm just not a fan of supercharged blues or celestial folk - oh well.  I did laugh at the lyrics at end of "The Crunge" ("Where is that confounded bridge?") but I'm not sure that convinces me it's a great album.  Because it isn't.  But let's see if Wikipedia agrees with me...

...oh look, "Gordon Fletcher from Rolling Stone called the album "one of the dullest and most confusing albums I've heard this year".  Not the same Rolling Stone that now declares this to be the 278th greatest album of all time, surely?!?  Apparently the release of the album was delayed because of issues taking the picture for the cover - the shoot took 10 days because nobody thought to tell them that it sometimes rains in Northern Ireland.  Doh.  The Wikipedia pages for the band and their members are encyclopaedic - and I again suspect I'm going to get a chance to come back to them later.  "Customers also listened to" - wait for it, you're gonna like this one - Heart.  What?!?  I had literally no idea where that came from, so Detective Google was put on the case - and it's all down to this cover version, which is actually surprisingly good.  So thank you, Detective Google!  And I will watch that on repeat rather than having to listen to this album again, I'm afraid.

#277 : The Diary of Alicia Keys - Alicia Keys (2003)

Alicia Keys’ debut, Songs in A Minor, released when she was just 20, fused her classical piano chops with a love of old soul and New York hip-hop for a bold, ambitious R&B sound. Her second LP built on that promise with songs that owed a debt to Aretha and Nina Simone, and still felt wholly her own — particularly on the sweeping “Harlem’s Nocturne” and the lovelorn hit “You Don’t Know My Name.”

Well, I guess at least I don't have to worry about slaughtering another sacred cow here - I'm vaguely aware of Alicia and don't mind her stuff, but my expectations were pretty low going in, if I'm honest.  But I actually quite like it - it's a pretty generic R&B sound, enlivening through her love of piano and her decent voice.  There's definite a debt to Aretha in there, but I heard some Michael Jackson coming through in places as well - I can't say I'll be rushing back to it, but it's certainly a bearable listen.  Random aside here - when searching for "The Diary of Alicia Keys" in Amazon Music, it suggests maybe I'm looking for "The Diary Of Anne Frank".  Impressively rubbish, I'd suggest...

WIkipedia has remarkably little to say of note about the album other than there was a lot of pressure on her to match the success of her debut and well, yeah she did OK!  Her Wikipedia entry is somewhat lengthier - the woman has literally done everything it appears, and also comes across as a thoroughly nice person.  Let's try and be more Alicia, people!  "Customers also listened to" Beyonce, Christina, Lauryn, Mary - a list of strong (and scary) women if ever I saw one.  It's not an instant grab - I suspect I could grow to like this album, but it would take more time than I currently have to give it, which is a bit of a shame.  It'll be interesting to see if we get any more Alicia on the list.

Of the three albums, Alicia is the one I'm most likely to listen to again in full but it feels like it would be a bit contrary (even for me!) to give this round to her given my previous comments, so I'm going to go with the sacred cow I slaughtered the least - which would have to be Nirvana.

#282-280 : Three albums spanning 47 years featuring men in VERY different outfits on the covers
#276-274 : Yes, yes and NO!