What's so amazing about really deep thoughts?

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

#233 : Little Earthquakes - Tori Amos (1992)

Here Tori Amos established herself as the poet laureate for a generation of battle-worn young women no longer satisfied with silence. From behind a piano that she wields like a machete aside her sharp, poignant reflections, Little Earthquakes is an incisive reflection on sexual assault, abuse, PTSD, and coming of age under the heavy veil of it all. At times thorny and confrontational, Amos’ voice still remains a warm invitation to people, like her, learning how to diffuse their trauma and move forward as best they can.

I know and like "Silent All These Years" and "Crucify" but hadn't heard the whole album before.  I was pretty much expecting the same from the album - a combination of delicate vocals, exquisite piano playing and lyrics that need careful study in order to really get to the bottom of them (at which point, you don't expect too much chuckling to be in order).  And yeah, that's pretty much what we've got.  It feels like I should give it several listens in order to be able to really comment on it - but the fact that I'm planning on doing that is probably enough of a compliment for the time being.  Of the tracks I didn't know "Me And A Gun" stood out for me - the first impression is a comfortable, intimate listen but the lyrics give the impression that something unpleasant has occurred - when you check out the Wikipedia entry for the song it makes it clear exactly how unpleasant things got.  I'm not saying it's a challenging listen but "This song did not take off very well as a single; in fact, the track was not the A-side to its own single".  She also makes a particularly weird noise on "Precious Things" which has been sampled by various people, so get ready for that to ring a few bells!

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot to say about the album, except for noting that her record company relocated her to London "because of English appreciation for eccentric performers" - I guess it worked, both given her success and the fact that she married an English guy and spends a reasonable amount of time over here.  Her Wikipedia entry is interesting - firstly by surprising me with the fact that she's 5 years older than me (I think it's safe to say one of us has aged better than the other).  So, given that she's 5 years older than me - what do you think she was up to in 1968, when I was born?  Yes, obviously "she became the youngest student ever admitted to the preparatory division of the Peabody Conservatory Of Music".  But ha - just as I started school she got thrown out "because of her interest in rock and popular music, coupled with her dislike for reading from sheet music".  What a rebel!  She's an interesting character though - it's well worth a read.

"Customers also listened to" Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlen and Ani DiFranco - I know and like the first two, so might have to check out the last one.  This is a fine album though, if not exactly a barrel of laughs.  Fine album cover too - both visually interesting and thematically relevant.

 #232 : Giant Steps - John Coltrane (1960)

With characteristic humility, John Coltrane said the title of this album referred to the loping instrumental gait of his bassist Paul Chambers. On his Atlantic debut, Coltrane played with a heated melodic enthusiasm — flying clusters of notes — that declared new possibilities for jazz improvisation and predicted the ferocious, harmonically open lyricism that would come with his mid-Sixties records on Impulse. “Mr. P.C.,” “Cousin Mary,” and “Spiral” became Coltrane’s first classics.

Me and jazz albums don't have the greatest time getting along, with appreciation rather than enjoyment often being as good as it gets - so expectations weren't exactly sky high for this album.  And listening to it, I'd say we might have bordered on enjoyment from time to time, but mostly it was a case of "Lordy, he really can play a lot of notes quickly, can't he?".  I imagine he would have been hugely impressive live, but I do worry my brain just isn't wired correctly to enjoy a jazz album.

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot to say about the album other than noting its success (both at the time and afterwards) and "Man, some of this shit is hard to play - the dude has skillz" (I might be paraphrasing here).  Reading his Wikipedia entry features a load of names that even I recognise as jazz greats, so I suspect it's a joyous read if you know who the rest of the people are.  Pleasingly, he comes across as quite a nice guy, although obviously the heroin addiction and alcoholism aren't ideal character traits and probably contributed to his untimely death from liver cancer at the age of 40.  "Customers also listened to" a load of people I've heard of, but can't tell you anything more about them than that.  Overall, I was impressed by this album rather than enjoying it, but that feels like a step up from most of my interactions with jazz so far.

#231 : Damn The Torpedoes - Tom Petty (1979)

With hair like Jagger’s and a voice like Dylan’s in tune, Tom Petty and his bar band defrilled classic rock: In 1979, he filed for bankruptcy; then Torpedoes took off, mostly because “Here Comes My Girl” seemed to keep the promises those like Jagger et al., forgot they’d made. Perfectly produced by future music-industry megamogul Jimmy Iovine, Torpedoes gave bright jangling Sixties rock a sheen that made pretty much everything else on AOR radio seem lumpy and stiff, while Petty’s obvious authenticity kept the music from ever seeming calculated or overly polished.

Our previous visit with Tom Petty at #298 included all of his tracks I previously knew, so I was interested to hear what this album (from 10 years earlier) sounded like - the description above didn't really give me any clues (oooh oooh oooh oooh - he's got the hair like Jagger!  Very useful info indeed).  And having listened to it, I'm not entirely sure how I'd describe it - kinda "jangly" maybe.  Not unpleasant (and I quite liked some of it) but I'm not entirely convinced it's even required, let alone great.  An interesting musical diversion, but little else for me, I'm afraid.

The Wikipedia entry for the album suggests it went down well enough in the US and Canada, but barely registered over here.  One of the critics suggests it's "one of the great records of the album rock era" - which just goes to show how much I know because I wasn't even aware there was an "album rock era".  As I mentioned in my previous review, there's not much of interest on his Wikipedia page but he comes across as a nice enough guy and he's got a nice smiley photo up there as well - and if I previously thought the photo looked nothing like classic Tom Petty, it looks even less like the Tom Petty on this album cover.  "Customers also listened to" lots of other Tom Petty, The Cars and Lonesome Jubilee by John Cougar Mellancamp, which is waaaay better than this album (and hence, of course, is nowhere to be seen on the list).  Sorry, it's fine but I just don't see the point in its inclusion.

Tori takes this round without even breaking a sweat - although John gets a special mention for the level of skill involved and hanging out with some very cool dudes.

#236-234 - I only work in black.  And sometimes very very dark grey.
#230-228 - Two sisters blazing a trail and some brothers stuck in limbo