First album selected is a re-listen, but one I haven’t heard in two decades, so I was due another look. Never a personal favorite band, but at their peak, they were undeniably capable of delivering transcendental moments of operatic hard rock excess, which this album achieves often.
Standout moment: the unexpected gentle pastoral folk of ‘39. Not a mode I associate with Queen, but it comes at the right point in the album as a breather between the more bombastic tracks.
An album I’ve listened to countless times, but always happy for an excuse to listen again. Over the years since first listen, this has become my favorite Blur album. A vital, crackling, and necessary swerve that propelled the band out of its Britpop containment.
Standout moment: I always love the way Essex Dogs revs up in its opening moments.
A true favorite of mine. I remember first getting into the band with Slave Ambient, anticipating this release, and being stunned at the leap forward the band took. The way tracks are stretched out here really did wonders for their sound; every song feels like a journey, never staying in one place for long. A perfect album for a long drive through empty landscapes.
Standout moment: The gentle rocker “Eyes to the Wind”, particularly the extended wistful outro when the horns come in.
Hendrix is never someone I’ve fully clicked with. But similar to Queen at the start of this project, I can’t deny the highlights of this album, even if I tend to find myself drifting off with some of the more noodly deep cuts. I did realize on this listen though that I do kind of fuck with the entire back half.
Standout moment: The Wind Cries Mary. My favorite Hendrix song by some distance.
Another re-listen, but it’s been so long and I think I’d only listened to it once before so I went into this listen with little memory of it. And I think the reason I haven’t given this more of a chance over the year is I find Buckley’s vocals overdramatic for my taste. I feel a little disrespectful admitting that, and I wonder if repeated listens would reveal more and more for me to appreciate.
Standout moment: Lover, You Should’ve Come Over. I love the gradual build and the use of harmonium/organ.
The first blind spot! Won’t pretend I could write anything intelligently about the cultural importance of this without diving deeper into the history. I’ll just say that I love the way it sounds, the production so jazzy and smooth and sensual even in the album’s darkest corners.
Standout moment: The back-to-back sequencing of the joyous Juicy to the despairing Everyday Struggle.
I always associate this album with the Covid pandemic. Stuck at home and trying to find productive ways to spend time, this album’s wild and homespun charm struck s chord. Listening today for the first time in a few years, it still holds its power.
Standout moment: The cascading piano notes on the raucous Shemeika Says.
Another first-time listen! I was inadvertently familiar with this artist from his contribution on Peter Gabriel’s score for The Last Temptation of Christ. Frankly, I’m mostly unfamiliar with this type of music in general, so it honestly took a bit to warm up to this album, with some tracks fading into the background. I think by the second half though, I locked in more to the steady build of the tracks and the increasingly ecstatic vocals and instrumentation. Not sure if I’ll ever fully lock in to this genre of music, but I appreciate this project introducing me to one of the highlights.
Standout moment: The second track, Yeh Jo Halka Saroor Hae, felt the most immediate and appealing to me on first listen.
Could have used a bit more time between Queen albums on this project, to be honest. But I’m also not sure if I would have gelled with this even in the best mindset. It feels like the pieces of this band haven’t quite locked together yet, so it ends up sounding closer to other, more generic hard rock albums from the time.
Standout moment: For good reasons, Killer Queen is the one song here that’s lingered in the culture and it still holds up.
Another first listen! I’ve really only been familiar with this band through their singles. This album has one of their best ones (Pretty in Pink) but I was nicely surprised to find some other gems deeper into the track list. I’m not sure if this would rank highly for me among the similar albums of the era, but I found it solid.
Standout moment: Into You Like a Train is the deeper album cut that hit for me. Great chorus and melody that gels well with Richard Butler’s inimitable voice.
