Don't cry, don't raise your eye - it's only teenage wasteland

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

#79 : Blond - Frank Ocean (2016)

Frank Ocean turned the release of Blond into a daring aesthetic stunt in itself. After years of high expectations after Channel Orange [see No. 148], he fulfilled his Def Jam contract with the visual project Endless, but then — within hours — he released his own Blond. It’s a boldly personal statement full of layered harmonies, as Ocean mutates his voice to match every mood. The songs were so nakedly intimate, it felt like a post-hip-hop Pet Sounds in the spirit of Beyoncé (who sings on “Pink + White”) and Elliott Smith (whose voice appears on “Seigfried”). “Ivy” is his most deeply melancholic confession — Ocean mourns a lost love over a distorted guitar, lamenting, “We’ll never be those kids again.”

Our second (and last) visit with Mr Ocean on this list - last time I was somewhat perplexed and, although I'd not heard this album, I was expecting similar perplexities.  Having listened to it, I'd say it's more accessible than Channel Orange but that just left me scratching my head as to whether it was actually any good - there were times I was a bit "well, this is just like Drake" (which is not a recommendation in my book).  I didn't hate it and there were some bits I actively liked, but they tended to be short snippets of tracks - the rest of it was more "hmmm - what's the point to this then?"  I realise this could well be heresy and a few more listens may well have me laughing hysterically at my ignorance - but that's where I am at the minute and it feels unlikely my position is going to be given the opportunity to change.

Wikipedia has quite a lot of text on the album, but very little content - other than suggesting it's eclectic and the critics and the public loved it.  It also notes that "Its physical release was accompanied by a magazine entitled Boys Don't Cry" - errr, OK - and it's also very unclear as to whether the album is actually called Blond or Blonde.  There's very little of interest around the album on his Wikipedia entry, but the stuff on Endless, the album (sorry, "visual project") released at the same time is distinctly odd - "By August 1, 2016, at approximately 3 am, an endless live stream shot in negative lighting in what is allegedly a Brooklyn warehouse, sponsored by Apple Music began to surface on boysdontcry.co which appeared to show Ocean woodworking and sporadically playing instrumentals on loop. It later became clear that these instrumentals were from his upcoming visual album Endless; the full version is estimated to be 140 hours long".  That definitely falls into the "errr, OK" category as well.

"Customers also listened to" SZA (who we met 393 albums ago!), BROCKHAMPTON and Daniel Caesar (neither of whom I've ever even heard of).  Unfortunately, it appears I'm leaving Mr Ocean on this list in the same place I found him - a suspicion of greatness, much reported by others, but unfortunately eluding my comprehension. 

#78 : The Sun Sessions - Elvis Presley (1978)

On July 5th, 1954, at Sun Studios in Memphis, Elvis Presley, guitarist Scotty Moore, and bassist Bill Black were horsing around with “That’s All Right,” a tune by bluesman Arthur Crudup, when producer Sam Phillips stopped them and asked, “What are you doing?” “We don’t know,” they said. Phillips told them to “back up and do it again.” Bridging black and white, country and blues, Presley’s sound was playful and revolutionary, charged by a spontaneity and freedom that changed the world. He released four more singles on Sun — including definitive reinventions of Wynonie Harris’ “Good Rockin’ Tonight” and Junior Parker’s “Mystery Train” — before moving on to immortality at RCA. They’re all here on a collection that serves as well as anything out there as a definitive chronicle of the birth of rock & roll.

Our third (and last) trip with Mr Presley and this is an album released in 1978 chronicling something that happened in 1954, of which most of the tracks are very well known, if not necessarily hits.  It's not quite a greatest hits album, but I'm not entirely sure I can consider it suitable for consideration either.  Yes, the music may be of historical significance but considering they didn't release it for 24 years, I'm not sure I can be convinced it's entirely essential.  

I'm not a huge fan of early Elvis (I'm totally Vegas jumpsuit era) but was interested to listen to it - and I found it surprisingly enjoyable.  It's quite free-flowing and it feels like he's really enjoying himself - and I don't get the impression that was always the case throughout his career.  "That's All Right" was probably the highlight for me - but it was the first track and one of the few I actually knew, so there has to be some bias there.

Wikipedia tells me it is mostly a collection of singles though, even if didn't recognise most of them.  It doesn't have an awful lot else to say about the album - it didn't even chart particularly highly in the US, although got to #16 in the UK the following year.  Elvis' entry is still incredibly long and not worth me trying to extract highlights from - I'm guessing you might be vaguely aware of who he was though.

"Customers also listened to" a load of names from back in the day, many of whom we've met on this list and many of whom I've not found myself able to appreciate.  But I liked this surprisingly more than I was expecting - however, I think it really has to count as a greatest hits album, so can't be considered as valid for this list (although it's a close call).

#77 : Who's Next - The Who (1971)

Pete Townshend suffered a nervous breakdown when his planned follow-up to the rock opera Tommy [see No. 190], the ambitious, theatrical Lifehouse, fell apart. But he was left with an extraordinary cache of songs that the Who honed for what became their best studio album, Who’s Next. “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Bargain,” and “Baba O’Riley” (named in tribute to avant-garde composer Terry Riley) all beam with epic majesty, often spiked with synthesizers. “I like synthesizers,” Townshend said, “because they bring into my hands things that aren’t in my hands: the sound of the orchestra, French horns, strings.… You press a switch and it plays it back at double speed.”

Our fourth (and last) visit with The Who on this list, and so far they've ranged from mildly to incredibly disappointing - but I had hopes for this one because I'd listened to it before and remembered it being not disappointing.  And yeah, this is a much better album for me - "Baba O'Riley" (the opening track) and "Won't Get Fooled Again" (the closing track) work best in my opinion, but it's much more consistent than any of the previous offerings.  I actually really like "Baba O'Riley" - I think it has a really fresh sound to it for a track that's very nearly 50 years old.  I did think the album was too long, but that was thanks to Amazon playing me the 80 minute first disc of the 2003 deluxe edition (luckily I didn't start the 75 minute second disc) - the 40 minute original version seems like a much more sensible option.  I can't say I'll be rushing back to it, but I think it's a vast improvement on any of the others on the list.

The album's Wikipedia entry talks mostly about the Lifehouse project, which, given that I didn't like Tommy, sounds like I was fortunate it was never recorded for me to have to endure.  The section on the cover art is interesting - the sky is fake but the rest of it is real, being a slag heap at a Co Durham colliery.  It also sounds like we had another lucky escape given that "other suggestions for the cover included the group urinating against a Marshall Stack and an overweight nude woman with the Who's faces in place of her genitalia" - if I have nightmares tonight, I'll know why.  We've covered the band's Wikipedia entry in some detail over the previous entries (probably most than most others) so I'll spare you too much apart from giving you this excerpt about the album tour - "The tour was slightly disrupted at the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on 12 December when Keith Moon passed out over his kit after overdosing on brandy and barbiturates. He recovered and completed the gig, playing to his usual strengths".

"Customers also listened to" all them early 70s groups - most of whom I don't have a lot of time for, but I like this album more than most of them and certainly more than any of the other Who albums I've had to endure.

An easy winner for me this time around so no faffing around with ties (for a change!) - and well done to The Who.

#82-80 - Make a decision, man!
#76-74 - Curtis, Curtis, Curtis