Right. I’m taking bookings for NEXT winter now…
j
I’m not really into any of those other artists but I have been a fan of Lizzo since 2015. Her albums are well worth checking out because they are in fact musically tight. But if you’re not in to celebrating your blackness, fatness, woman-ness or dancing around the room you might not be as thoroughly into it as I am.
I’d suggest giving the album “Cuz I Love You” a try, at least.
Erm, hip-hop is 50 years old this year. People are indeed playing “rap classics” right now. Did you see the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show? That was “rap classics” and it wasn’t even from the earliest years.
There’s a ton of rap right now that is worthy to be forgotten but the same goes for every genre in every decade.
Very true, of course. How often are Schoenberg’s or Webern’s 12-tone pieces played nowadays other than in rather academic situations…?
Not many people dance to those at weddings, I think?
There are obviously endless artists that would fit, so I’ll pick two that I’d consider seminal artists for anyone’s musical knowledge - one old, one new(ish).
In the old category, The Cure. I became a fan in the mid-80s but mostly stuck to Seventeen Seconds and Faith, and various hits off other albums. I finally went through their complete discography in order, and it was really cool to see the progression.
And as counter-programming to Taylor Swift (an excellent plan), I plan to go through all of Beyoncé. I started liking some of Taylor’s music by accident in the 1989 era, became an actual fan with Folklore, and finally went through all her albums last year. Her first two aren’t my thing, but everything since then has been excellent.
So now I feel like I should do the same with Beyoncé. I like some of her stuff, and I think I’ll like more if I dedicate the time.
Thanks for the guidance. I’m currently in the process of sampling some of Lizzo’s offerings and, to my surprise, I am familiar with at least one of her songs - the catchy “Juice”.
mmm
I’m not sure if we’re supposed to be making recommendations, but other essential albums for me would include Television’s Marquee Moon, the first two Pretenders albums, Gang of Four Entertainment to cover some post-punk ground of the late 70s/early 80s. I would also give that Olivia Rodrigo Guts a spin. Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation also comes to mind. Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Whatever you think of him as a person, he can put together some sick beats. Nikki Minaj’s lines on “Monster” are particularly killer, but I take it hip-hop is not a favorite style of yours, so you may not like it.
Surprised you didn’t like that Stone Roses album. Definitely a late 80s classic. Oh, and around that time My Bloody Valentin’s Loveless, my #1 or #2 record of all time (along with Pet Sounds), but it might be a slow- or no-burn as it’s pretty much a wall of soud.
Recommendations are great; but I was also interested in the idea of persuading people to try this themselves - I have a long list of things I really should get around to listening to (longer than I realized, it turns out - thanks, guys!); and I assume others are in a similar position. It looks like @Mean_Mr.Mustard had already started, and it’s kind of interesting to hear what he’s been up to.
j
Ok, I get it. Yeah, I go through spurts like that when I try to “catch up” on stuff. Over the summer I listened to all the Taylor Swift albums in about three days. A year before I went through a Kanye spurt of all the albums. I don’t really have anything on deck, though, so I’ll be looking through this thread for recs. Oh, I did promise a friend to listen to a couple of Elvis Costello and the Attractions albums, Get Happy and Trust.
A few Canadian bands:
The Tragically Hip - Up To Here
Lighthouse
April Wine
A representative song from each:
Ahh, now we’re talking my language.
“Trust” is not Elvis at his best. It is fine, but not one that I would recommend to a newbie.
I would direct you to “Armed Forces”, “Imperial Bedroom” (this one will take a couple of listens but is so worth it), or his wonderful collaboration with Burt Bacharach, “Painted From Memory”.
Did I mention “King of America”? No? Oh, then, “King of America” as well.
mmm
Elvis Costello is one of those artists who (like Bowie, for another example) adopted different sounds/styles on different albums, so you can’t really judge him based on any one album.
My introduction to Elvis was Punch the Clock, which I still really like and consider one of his more underrated albums, though I don’t say it’s as good as Armed Forces or Imperial Bedroom. King of America never really grabbed me though, for some reason.
That’s interesting. My friend who is the biggest Costello nerd says of Trust : “As for pop perfection, the follow-up album “Trust” is as good as it gets”
I’ll try it all and see what resonates with me.
You know what? I got my Elvis albums mixed up. When I responded, I was thinking of “Goodbye Cruel World” for some reason (maybe cuz they both have blue-ish covers).
“Trust” is indeed outstanding. “Goodbye Cruel World” is…fine.
mmm
Back in 2021 I came to the realization that, because all the music I listen to now is streamed, I had basically stopped listening to complete albums entirely. So I found a listing of NME’s 500 greatest albums of all time. And, silly though it is, I liked the look of it more than the Rolling Stone list. I loaded it into Excel, randomized it and began listening to an album a day (roughly). Very interesting experience - I found plenty of really good stuff that I had never really listened to before. Several bands whose popular songs I didn’t like had albums that I did. And I got back to listening to albums, just as I did when I first fell under the lure of music.
There were 5 Elvis Costello albums on the list This Year’s Model, My Aim is True, Imperial Bedroom*,Punch the Clock* and Blood and Chocolate.
Cat Power is a name I’d heard numerous times but never looked for an album or heard a song played (that I knew of) so, inspired by the thread, I looked up a list of albums and saw Moon Pix as highly rated. It was a limited success: I don’t necessarily mind a noodly and loosely constructed song without much traditional rhyme structure (for example, much of Mazzy Star) but I found a lot of the album hard to keep focused on. It would be fine for playing in the background but I drifted regularly while listening. “Cross Bones Style” was the most attractive, probably because it had the most energy, and I liked “Say” and “Back of Your Head” enough to flip my phone screen on and see what the song was called. I don’t see me slotting it into my collection but at least now I know.
Since I see some prog-ish stuff on here, I recommend Jethro Tull for many solid whole-album listens. They had a great high quality run. Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, Stand Up, Minstrel in the Gallery, Songs from the Wood are all great listens.
On the metal-ish side of things, the Van Halen albums of David Lee Roth era are also tight solid listens with almost no filler.
That … is so far from my experience, that I have to wonder if you actually listened to a bad female-led Stone Roses tribute act or something. The Mamas and the Papas? I don’t see how that comparison even exists, especially for The Stone Roses album.
I finally listened to Rush last week - I thought I’d start with Tom Sawyer, as it seemed to be considered definitive, and then pick an album. I did not get to picking an album. I did not finish the song. I did not get halfway through the song. I feel like I lost some of my musical taste just for lasting that long. Gods, that was just unmitigated shit.
I know enough Steely Dan to know I won’t last an album. They did give a name to Deacon Blue, though, so not a total loss. Saw them (Deacon Blue) last night, in fact, awesome concert.
Now I have some albums to check out. Thanks everyone.
For Steely Dan people, Donald Fagen has four solo albums with the same style of Steely Dan. Two of them are in the 2000’s. I listen to all four plus all the Steely Dan albums on a regular basis.
As a long time Rush fan, I have to say that “Tom Sawyer” is not representative of most of their work. At least give the rest of the “Moving Pictures” album a listen. If you still think it’s crap, then at least you’ve done your due diligence. But please don’t base an opinion of “Rush is crap” on half a song.