Once upon a time, a few mistakes ago

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

#100 : Music From Big Pink - The Band (1968) 

“Big Pink” was a pink house in Woodstock, New York, where the Band — Bob Dylan’s 1965-66 backup band on tour — moved to be near Dylan after his motorcycle accident. While he recuperated, the Band backed him on the demos later known as The Basement Tapes and made their own debut. Dylan offered to play on the album; the Band said no thanks. “We didn’t want to just ride his shirttail,” drummer Levon Helm said. Dylan contributed “I Shall Be Released” and co-wrote two other tunes. But it was the rustic beauty of the Band’s music and the incisive drama of their own reflections on family and obligations, such as “The Weight,” that made Big Pink an instant homespun classic.

This album is 4 days older than me - the closer one to my age I've found so far!  But, my expectations were not high - I was hoping for "not annoying" since Dylan wasn't involved, but struggled to see it reaching far above those heady heights.  And having listened to it, to be fair, I'd say that it generally gets over this bar and in places I'd go as far as to describe is as "almost satisfactory".  The playing and singing is of an acceptable, if not obviously exemplary standard and the songs are fine.  However, I imagine there were countless other albums at the time which sounded remarkably similar - quite what elevates this album to the realm of greatness somewhat eludes me.  I'm sure the legions of Dylan fans will tell me I'm wrong, but they're going to have to come up with better evidence than this, I'm afraid.

Wikipedia tells me the album is loved by the critics and (especially) other musicians - Clapton, Harrison and Waters all rhapsodize over it.  In true critical nonsense, Robert Christgau initially declared the album morose and boring, but when he realised which way the wind was blowing he "later explained that the music's lack of energy reinforced the "metaphorical impenetrability" of the lyrics and that he "always admired that album" but "from a distance"".  Hmmm - what's that smell?!?  It also tells us that Dylan himself painted the album artwork - I'd never realised there was literally no start to the man's artistic ability.  The band's Wikipedia entry tell me I'm totally wrong about them - everyone loves them.  Unsurprisingly, I remain unconvinced but I would say it has tempted me to watch The Last Waltz - it sounds a fascinating slice of 70s musical history.

"Customers also listened to" Crosby, Stills, Nash and Dylan - no major surprises there.  Overall, I found it fine (and better than I was fearing) but I couldn't quite see why it was so well loved.

#99 : Red - Taylor Swift (2012) 

Taylor Swift shocked the world with her fourth album, breaking away from country music to make a record that recalled classics by the Beatles and Prince in the way it pulled from across the pop and rock landscape and transformed every sound it touched. The lead single, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” was stomping, swaying electro-twang. “I Know You Were Trouble” rode a dubstep groove, and the title track was a swirl of banjos, dusty guitars, and talk-box elation. Tabloid types tied themselves in knots trying to figure out which song was about which ex, but the real news was Swift’s songwriting on high points like the astonishing “All Too Well,” as vivid a post-breakup remembrance as any artist has ever produced.

I'd not listened to the album, but I was aware of the singles and thought them to be perfectly fine - even good.  But possibly not "recalling classics by the Beatles and Prince" - so I was intrigued to see what the album had that the singles didn't.  Well, you can guess what's coming, can't you?  I would say it's a good album - well crafted and presented songs with obvious thought gone into the lyrics (even if the thought tends to be "he was SUCH a bastard, I can tell you").  And I liked it - but I wasn't shocked by it in the slightest.  Maybe I might have been if all her previous stuff was shite and she'd suddenly come out with this, but we've already seen she can craft a perfectly acceptable tune, so I struggle to understand the furore.  I'd also say the album felt too long at 16 tracks spanning 65 minutes (thankfully, Amazon didn't give me the extra 6 bonus tracks covering another 25 minutes).

Wikipedia tells us "Red was positively received for Swift's lyrical prowess, but divided critics on its genre-spanning sound: praise directed at Swift's versatility, and criticism targeted the inconsistency."  - damned if you, damned if you don't, basically.  But let's be honest people, she's not attempting Scandi death metal here - some of it is slower pop, and some of it is quicker pop.  Whatever it is, I think it's fair to say it was popular (although not so much in Finland, only reaching #49) and sold over 8 million copies globally.  I had to chuckle at one critics comment on "All Too Well" though - "No other song does such a stellar job of showing off her ability to blow up a trivial little detail into a legendary heartache".  It's certainly hard to imagine she'd have had quite so much success with this if she'd met Mr Right a couple of years earlier (yes, yes - or Miss Right.  I apologise for my heterosexual normalisation).

Her Wikipedia entry is huge - she comes across as nice enough but somewhat earnest.  Having said that, I guess you don't get to be quite that huge without controlling things down to the nth degree - hopefully she manages to grab the odd hour here and there to just chill out and be happy.  It also tell us she won Album Of The Year at this year's Grammys for Folklore, which was the one I listened to here and declared it to be "better than expected" which, if we're being honest, was probably the reason it won.  In doing so, she became the first woman to win the award three times (her other two winners being 1989 and Fearless) - Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder have also done so (interestingly, Stevie is much better represented on this list than Frank - a 4-1 split)

"Customers also listened to" other female vocalists who have done quite well for themselves, but not quite as well as Taylor.  I liked this album, but would struggle to describe it as earth-shattering or essential, which appears to put me in the minority.  Oh well, never mind, eh?

#98 : Car Wheels On A Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams (1998) 

It took three torturous years to finish, but it was worth it; there are no bad songs on this alt-country masterwork. The title track is one of Williams’ best: Over guitars that owe more to the Stones than to the Opry, she tells a story about the rootlessness of American life. Williams, who was born in Louisiana, describes the South in a loving, fearful tone (“Broken down shacks, engine parts” in one song, “Busted-down doors and borrowed cash” in another) and mourns pals who fell prey to hard liquor, drugs, or dreams of stardom. With production help from Roy Bittan of the E Street Band and a lot of twangy power chords, Williams rocks hard enough to give these troubled songs both dignity and a feeling of release.

Our second visit with Ms Williams and last time I liked it (and she stormed away with the round in the face of quite poor competition) so I was looking forward to listening to her tortured masterpiece.  And currently, I'm under the impression it's OK - it's certainly not as immediate as the previous album, but I like her voice and the songs are nicely atmospheric (and the album cover does a good job of adding to the atmosphere).  I get the impression I could get into it if I gave it a few more listens, but I'm not sure it's towards the top of the list of albums I'll be bothering to do that to.  It feels more likely I'll check out her greatest hits and see if any tracks jump out and then I'll take a look at the corresponding albums.

WIkipedia has remarkably little to say about the album that isn't covered above - she had troubles recording it but when it arrived it was well received.  It doesn't even give us any idea how many it sold, which is very unlike Wikipedia - it generally loves its sales numbers.  Her Wikipedia entry is hardly much more informative - it appears to be a collection of statements which they know to be true that in some way relate to Lucinda, but they give you very little idea about her.  So she will have to remain a figure of mystery - but it does tell us that she's a figure of mystery that's still recording.

"Customers also listened to" Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and various other country(ish) singers.  I feel I could like this, but there wasn't quite enough on a first listen to make a second listen compulsory - which feels like a shame and hopefully I'll get round to addressing it some day.

So, a collection of "good enough, I guess" albums - I feel the round has to go to Taylor or Lucinda, both of whom have already won one round and aren't going to get another chance.  And after, oooh at least 10 seconds consideration, I've given up and declared them to be joint winners - Taylor can't be allowed to take it just because of her blanket coverage but Lucinda doesn't show enough on a single listen to be allowed to take it either.  So well done ladies!

Pause - Only 100 to go!
#97-95 - A one horse race for the one word artists