Please, please, please don't go away

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

#152 : Pretenders - The Pretenders (1980)

After years of knocking around Ohio and England, writing record reviews and hanging with the Sex Pistols, Chrissie Hynde put together a band as tough as her attitude. The Pretenders’ debut is filled with no-nonsense New Wave rock such as “Mystery Achievement” — plus a cover of “Stop Your Sobbing,” by the Kinks’ Ray Davies (three years later, the father of Hynde’s child). The biggest hit was “Brass in Pocket,” a song of ambition and seduction. Hynde, however, wasn’t so sure about the song’s success. “I was embarrassed by it,” she said. “I hated it so much that if I was in Woolworth’s and they started playing it, I’d have to run out of the store.”

I'd not heard this album, but was aware of "Brass In Pocket", "Stop Your Sobbing" and "Kid" (from the EBTG cover) so was expecting more of that.  And it's along those lines, but generally a bit more spiky than I was expecting.  At first listen, it feels more like a good debut album than the pinnacle of their achievements - I certainly prefer her vocals on slightly later stuff like "Back On The Chain Gang" or "Don't Get Me Wrong", but that's probably a bit too commercial for the likes of Rolling Stone.  I do think "Brass In Pocket" is a fine track though - and I certainly got a chuckle out of imagining Chrissie wandering around Woolworths though, getting her pick and mix in for the weekend.

Wikipedia has very little to say about the album although I was somewhat astonished to see it got to #1 in the UK - I don't remember them being that popular around the time.  Follow-up research shows it came straight in at #1 and stayed there for 4 weeks - which seems somewhat surprising for a debut album.  The 80s were a strange time and no mistake.  The group's Wikipedia entry is somewhat more informative - they've certainly had more than their fair share of drama and tragedy, losing 2 of the 4 founding members to overdoses but they're still hanging in there, and Chrissie can still be relied upon to offer up an opinion, whether you want it or not.  She'll be 70 later this year and there's no sign of her slowing down - and you'd have to say she's looking pretty good for it.

"Customers also listened to" a very bizarre mix. Crowded House, Heart, Kim Carnes, Hall & Oates (again!) and Blondie (one that actually makes sense!) - it seems like the 80s music random cross-genre fans are out in force.  All in all, I liked this but, if forced, would struggle to justify its position on the list - it's fine, but hardly earth-shattering and I'm not at all convinced it can play the "massively influential" card either.

#151 : Faith - George Michael (1987)

As the main singer and writer in the 1980s British pop band Wham!, George Michael paraded around in sleeveless mesh shirts and Fila short-shorts. Wham! songs were smarter than they appeared, and when Michael went solo to prove what he could do, he nailed it on the first try, integrating R&B in his songwriting, from soul ballads (“Father Figure,” “One More Try”) to horny Prince-inspired funk (“I Want Your Sex,” “Hard Day”). The album sold 25 million copies worldwide, and four singles went to Number One in the U.S. “You either see pop music as a contemporary art form, or you don’t. I do, very strongly,” Michael said.

George who?  Not sure I've ever heard of him.  It's funny when you think back to those days, because there was a view that going solo was a bit of a risk for him - why risk breaking up the band?  Well, it turns out he did OK out of it - this is a fine album which I enjoyed relistening to.  I also enjoyed remembering all the kerfuffle around "I Want Your Sex" (the BBC didn't ban it outright, but only played it after 9pm because of fears it was promoting promiscuity) with amusement at how different the times we live in now are.  I think "Faith" and "Father Figure" are probably my favourite tracks, but the album has a good tracks throughout and more musical variety than I remembered.

Wikipedia taught this old dog something he never knew (and had never even considered) - the organ music at the start of "Faith" is the Wham track "Freedom", which pleased me greatly.  The album did OK globally, I guess, with sales exceeding 25 million - and it was also the first album by a white solo artist to top the US Black Album chart (it's not entirely clear what makes an album black, but apparently Faith had enough of it).  George's Wikipedia entry is a lengthy and interesting read - the man achieved a lot in his life.  And, unusually, when he died, a load of people came forward to tell previously unknown stories about what an all-round lovely guy he was.  

"Customers also listened to" Wham (that seems to make sense!), Madonna, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Eurythmics, Paul Young - so much hairspray involved!  Overall, this is a fine album that I am pleased to see on the list - unfortunately, this is his only entry on the list but there are very good arguments for inclusion for both "Older" and "Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1".  And whilst his greatest hits album obviously can't be included, it has a cracking tracklist and I often play it.

#150 : Nebraska - Bruce Springsteen (1982)

Recorded on a four-track in Springsteen’s bedroom, Nebraska’s songs were stark, spooky acoustic demos that he decided to release “bare,” packed with hard-luck tales of underdogs. “I wanted black bedtime stories,” he said in his memoir, and he wrote the LP under the influence of John Lee Hooker and Robert Johnson, but also Flannery O’Connor and James M. Cain, creating a cross between the blues and pulp-noir novels. “Down here it’s just winners and losers,” he sings in “Atlantic City,” and these 10 songs live on the wrong side of that line. Yet, Springsteen ends the album with “Reason to Believe,” one of those songs where his search for faith inspires faith itself.

Bruce has done a surprisingly wide range of stuff over the years but the stuff I like tends to be fairly stripped back - but not too stripped back, which he can be guilty of at times.  So, reading the description above I was both hopeful and fearful for what lay ahead.  And, having listened to it, my verdict is that he mostly got the balance right!  I wouldn't exactly call the songs uplifting, but they're good atmospheric, story-telling drawls - it feels like it would be a great late-night album. I'd say "Nebraska", "Atlantic City" and "Highway Patrolman" were my favourites, but I enjoyed most of them.

The Wikipedia entry for the album is lengthy but uninformative - it basically says "he wrote some songs and didn't use the E Street Band to record them."  His entry is unsurprisingly quite long - he has done a lot since he started putting records out in 1973.  I have a lot of time for the man - he's managed to maintain some semblance of normality despite a long period of success (and some periods of not-so-much success).  He also obviously cares passionately about the things he cares about.  Wikipedia also gives us a fine pub quiz question - "What's the only Bruce Springsteen song to reach #1 in the US?".  Obviously, it's "Blinded By The Light" by Manfred Mann - I'm not sure I even knew he wrote it.  It seems mad that Born In The USA (which I suspect we might be seeing later) had 7 top 10 hits, but none of them got to #1.

"Customers also listened to" Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Ryan Adams (none of which surprise me in the slightest).  But I liked this album and I was pleased I liked it - it wouldn't have taken much for it to tip over into Tom Joad territory, which I find to be just too much like hard work.

George for the win here - Bruce was unlucky to lose last time and he gets pipped again, but he's still got another three chances (and looking at some of the neighbouring albums, he's in with a very good chance of a hat trick)

#155-153 - One not so scary man vs two properly scary ladies
#149-146 - John, Frank, Jeff & Debbie