Tag: rock

119. Fleetwood Mac

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(April 2017) I have completed episode 119 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: FLEETWOOD MAC. Remember that they put out eight albums before becoming the Gods of Soft Rock after Buckingham and Nicks joined, first as a pure blues band, then blues-rock, then early-70s pop rock.  The Rumours album is remarkable: 9 of the 11 tracks got radio play from what my ears tell me.

Favourite album: Rumours

Favourite song: Oh Well

Worst album: Time

Special sauce: Christine McVie

Compared to expectations: same

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118. Boston

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(April 2017) I have completed episode 118 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: BOSTON. Simultaneously everything that people love about classic rock and everything that people hate about classic rock. A future historian of 20th century music couldn’t provide a better singular example of a Classic Rock Album than their debut LP.

Favorite album: Boston

Favorite song: Foreplay/Long Time

Worst album: everything else

Compared to expectations: same

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115. Electric Light Orchestra

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(March 2017) I have completed episode 116 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA (along with two JEFF LYNNE solo albums). With its combination of Beatlesque melodies and prog-rock orchestration, you would think I would have been more into ELO than I was. Would the songs sound better with the layers stripped off ? Lynne’s later work suggests yes. ELO was the soundtrack of the portion of my youth spent in roller and ice rinks (and as a parent, the Astrophere.)

Favourite album: Eldorado

Favourite song: Fire on High

Worst album: Balance of Power

Compared to expectations: same

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114. Foreigner

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(March 2017) I have completed episode 114 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: FOREIGNER. A higher concentration of rock lyric cliches per song than any other band. If you came of age in the late 70s or early 80s, their hits of are high nostalgic value. If not, and with the non-hits, don’t bother.

Favorite album: Foreigner

Favorite song: Hot Blooded

Worst album: Mr. Moonlight

Compared to expectations: same

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113. T. Rex

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(March 2017) I have completed episode 113 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: T. REX. Marc Bolan started out with bongo-infused psychedelic folk and helped define glam rock with the fabulous Electric Warrior, but then kinda just repeated himself after that.

Favourite album: Electric Warrior

Favourite song: 20th Century Boy

Compared to expectations: ↓

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111. Blondie

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(February 2017) I have completed episode 111 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: BLONDIE. A good ride on the new wave, but mostly meh.

Favorite album: Parallel Lines

Favorite song: Heart of Glass

Best late-period album: The Curse of Blondie

Compared to expectations: ↓

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110. The Move / The Idle Race

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(February 2017) I have completed episode 110 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: THE MOVE and THE IDLE RACE. I put these two together as they both involved Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne, who went on to found Electric Light Orchestra. Each helped define the sound of late ’60s psychedelic pop, of the whimsical British kind. “The Move” might be the quintessential album of this sub-genre.

Favorite album: The Move

Favorite The Move song: Fire Brigade

Favorite The Idle Race song: Impostors of Life’s Magazine

Compared to expectations: ↑

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109. Small Faces / Faces

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(February 2017) I have completed episode 109 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: the SMALL FACES and FACES. Part of the mid-60s British R&B explosion, the mod-styled Small Faces, led by the soulful voice of Steve Marriott, soon followed contemporaries into the psychedelic age, recording one of its masterpieces (Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake). They disbanded and re-emerged as Faces, a blues/boogie band fronted by Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood. In the late 1970s SF reformed for two forgettable albums.

Favorite album: Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake

Favorite Small Faces song: Afterglow

Favorite Faces song: Stay With Me

Favourite character: Happiness Stan

Compared to expectations: ↓

 

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105. Supertramp

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(January 2017) I have completed episode 105 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: SUPERTRAMP. Hodgson and Davies are talented songwriters, and some of their tunes still have legs, but too much of their stuff is mere Lite Fare.

Favorite album: Supertramp (1970, in the prog rock mold of early Yes and Genesis, unlike anything they did later)

Sentimental favorite : Breakfast in America (one of the first albums I owned)

Favorite song: Give a Little Bit

Compared to expectations: same

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104. The Pretty Things

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(January 2017) I have completed episode 104 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to an band’s full discography. This edition: THE PRETTY THINGS. An underrated British Invasion-era band, they started out an R&B outfit a la the Yardbirds and Rolling Stones. Like those, they transitioned into psychedelic; S.F. Sorrow is one of the finest of that genre (and Parachute’s very good too). Much after that is rather pedestrian.

Favorite album: S.F. Sorrow

Favorite song: Walking Through My Dreams

Compared to expectations: same

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