I rock a house party at the drop of a hat

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

#127 : Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music - Ray Charles (1962) 

Country and soul were deeply entangled Southern traditions and had been cross-pollinating for years. But Modern Sounds was still the audacious boundary smasher its title promised, with Ray Charles applying his gospel grit and luscious soul-pop strings to standards by Hank Williams (“Half as Much,” “You Win Again,” “Hey, Good Lookin’”) and Eddy Arnold, whose lover’s lament “You Don’t Know Me” is recast as a parable about race relations in light of the civil rights struggle. Modern Sounds became the most popular album of Charles’ career and includes the hits “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and “Born to Lose.” 

I had no idea what to expect from this - both the title and description above suggest several different directions it might go.  And having listened to it, I'm not entirely sure how I'd describe it - he's basically taken old songs and recorded them using "modern sounds", but of course the modern sounds don't sound particularly modern though.  I'd say they all sound particularly "lush" though - lots of strings and the like and his voice is exceptionally smooth.  I did find it a bit same-y and thought it was way too long, but it turns out that Amazon played me volumes 1 and 2 and I reckon I wouldn't have had either of those complaints if I'd spent half the time on it.  The other thing I have to say is that Ray didn't have a lot of luck with the ladies on any of the songs - he got dumped and moped about on most of them.

Wikipedia has a lot to say about the album - basically it seems like, for what seems relatively trivial now, everyone thought this was a really unusual concept and absolutely loved it.  It opened up country music to fans of soul & pop (and vice versa) and it also had an important role to play in breaking down racial barriers, initially amongst Charles' fans but then had a wider social impact, contributing to the Civil Rights Movement.  It's a fascinating and unexpected read which shows the importance of context in understanding what makes some albums "great".  We covered Ray and his various addictions in some detail last time, so we'll just let the album take the spotlight this time.

"Customers also listened to" a load of people I've never heard of - I'd guess they made country, western or modern music.  An interesting enough listen, but ultimately a more interesting read - it had a far greater impact than you'd guess from listening to it being so far removed from the social context it was produced in.

#126 : My Life - Mary J Blige (1994) 

The crucial development on Mary J. Blige’s second album is her emergence as a songwriter; in lyrics and interviews, she began to describe the traumas she’d had, both as a child growing up in the projects and as an adult. For fans, that intimacy turned her from a beloved singer to a member of the family. “Down and out, crying every day,” she sings on the title song. There’s plenty of thematic contrast — the playful bedroom come-on “Mary Jane (All Night Long),” a smashing cover of the 1970s funk ballad “I’m Going Down” — but the strongest impression from the album is that Blige had been through it, and her hopefulness was hard-won.

Our second visit with Mary on the list and last time she produced an album of songs that I didn't mind but didn't care about either (but she managed to win the round anyway because she came up against Gang Of Four and Velvet Underground).  So I was pretty much expecting the same - and yeah, that's what we got.  I didn't mind any of the songs, but the only one I remember is "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" because it added absolutely nothing to the original, so I couldn't see why she bothered.  I just didn't see what this had to make it stand out in a very crowded field.

And Wikipedia tells us, that over here, it didn't - it peaked at #59 in the album charts.  But I'm not sure she cared with sales of over 3 million in the US.  Critical reviews were generally positive, although Robert Christgau came up with this particularly useless phrase - "an enjoyable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well treasure" - which I would phrase as "if you like this sort of thing, you'll probably like this".  Which is why he's a music critic and I'm - well, whatever I am.  Wikipedia also tells us that she wasn't having the best time in her life at this time, but she's come through it well to become one of those sickening multi-hyphenates with a very lengthy personal entry.

"Customers also listened to" a load of people I've never heard of, so can tell you nothing about them - if pushed, I'd guess they sound like Mary J. Blige.  And I suspect I'd bracket them in that big "OK, I guess" bucket most of such music ends up in for me - including this album.

#125 : Paul's Boutique - Beastie Boys (1989) 

“I went to this party in Los Angeles,” recalled Adam Horovitz, “and they were playing this music, like … four breakbeat records playing at the same time.” The party soundtrack consisted of tracks by the Dust Brothers, who ended up co-producing this entire second record from the Beasties, providing the rap trio with some of the best samples ever put on wax, including the Ramones, Mountain, and the Funky 4 Plus 1. Paul’s Boutique is also an extended goof on Abbey Road [see No. 5], which was Paul McCartney’s boutique — and like that record, it ambitiously stitches together song fragments in a way rarely heard before or since.

Our third visit with them Beasties on this list, and so far I've found it all a bit same-y.  So I was interested to see what I thought of their generally accepted masterpiece - but can't say my expectations were massively high.  But, I do think I enjoyed it more than either of the previous two - although I'd have to do a full relisten to them all to make sure, and let me assure you that's not going to happen.  But I do like good use of samples and the range used here is impressive - the rapping isn't quite to my taste, but it's less juvenile than on Licensed To Ill and easier to follow than on Check Your Head, so maybe it hits the Beastie sweet spot for me.  "Shadrach" also deserves a mention because there really can't be too many tracks out there based around the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - three men thrown into the furnace by Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible.

For what is now regarded by many as an essential hip-hop album, the Wikipedia entry is surprisingly short.  It notes that not much was expected from them after Licensed To Ill, so they retreated and set about making something deeper and more complex.  And this is what they came up with, which is definitely more complex - sampling 105 other tracks across the album.  And, at the time, the critics didn't particularly like it and very few people bought it - which I'm not sure is exactly what they wanted.  But, of course, everyone loves it now (and claims they always loved it).  Wikipedia also makes the point that this type of album was only possible before Grand Upright Music, Ltd v. Warner Bros. Records Inc., which basically meant that anyone wanting to sample other tracks had to a) get it agreed up front and b) pay loads of cash.  Apparently, most of the samples on this album had been agreed, but the amounts of cash were merely sizeable as opposed to astronomic.  There was talk of The Beatles suing over their inclusion, to which Mike D responded "What's cooler than getting sued by the Beatles?" - which I don't think was the expected reaction.

"Customers also listened to" Run DMC and Public Enemy, who definitely make similar kinds of sounds, if maybe not quite so Beastie-ish.  I was pleased to almost enjoy this though - and I suspect I could get into it deeper with a few more listens.

Three very different albums - although I have a suspicion the later two owe a huge debt to Ray breaking down musical and societal barriers, so part of me thinks we should give it to him for what certainly sounds like the album most worthy of the label "great".  But, to be honest, I'm never going to listen to it again and the Beastie Boys have waited very patiently for their chance (despite some rude comments) and they've produced something I suspect I could like, so I'm giving this round to them.  So well done to Ad-Rock, Mike D and MCA!

#130-128 - three big albums from three big bands
#124-122 - noise, more noise and a lot more noise