What are you listening to?

[garbon]

Paula Cole - Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?
Drake - God's Plan

[Savonarola]

The Who - The Who Sell Out (1967)

Pete was the master of half-baked concept albums.  This is supposed to be a sort of gentle mockery of London's pirate radio scene; complete with corny commercials and jingles.  The whole album seems to wander away from that in the middle of the second side and it ends with this incomplete story-song about the Red Chinese invading Israel .  The CD release contains a number of additional tracks The Who had recorded at the time, as well as commercials they actually sang in the era.  I think that is what makes "The Who Sell Out" clever; they really were shilling for Coca-Cola and Jaguar (and probably would have for Heinz Baked Beans if they had been offered enough.)

I read that the failure of "I Can See For Miles" led Pete to abandon the singles market and instead pursue rock operas.  "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia" have a lot of great songs (and made The Who fiscally solvent) but (even by the standards of opera) the stories don't make sense; and a lot of songs are there simply to advance that story.  Personally, I think "The Who Sell Out" and "Who's Next" are their masterpieces.

[garbon]

Thao - Cool Yourself

[Liep]

Kira Skov - Lilac Sky

[garbon]

Kelly Rowland - Work

[Eddie Teach]

K Flay- Everywhere is Somewhere. I asked for Blood in the Cut but Skynet, err Alexa knew better and played the whole album. 

[Josephus]

Nightwish. Decades

[PDH]

The Who - Baba O'Riley

[PDH]

The Clash - The Right Profile

[frunk]

Janice Whaley - The Smiths Project.  Every Smiths song a capella by one woman, with her recording each vocal layer to represent instrumentation/sounds.  Judging from listening to The Queen is Dead some work quite well, others don't.  Eager to listen to the rest of the albums though.

[frunk]

Personally, I think "The Who Sell Out" and "Who's Next" are their masterpieces.

I'd agree.  I still probably call Quadrophenia my favorite, but some of the tracks aren't up to their best.

[frunk]

Still on The Smiths Project, Strangeways, Here We Come.  The Smiths' lusher arrangements on this album fit Whaley's style better.

[Savonarola]

Bob Dylan and the Band - The Basement Tapes (Released 1975; recorded 1967)

Recording when Bob Dylan was recovering from his motorcycle accident; and with the band from his world tour ("The Hawks", but they would become "The Band.")  This marks the beginning of a new phase in Dylan's career.  Dylan returns to folk music, of sorts, but instead of the urban early 60s "Folk Revival" style it's a broader Americana music.  The Hawks were not at all folkies, and Dylan had to convince them that the previous generations' ballads, blues and country songs were good.  Obviously he succeeded, and you can hear both "John Wesley Harding" and "Music from Big Pink" emerge (in fact the album was recorded at Big Pink.)  The real surprise here is that this is recorded at a time when almost every major rock act was making their big, candy colored, psychedelic masterpiece; Dylan, being Dylan, is writing songs about the apple suckling tree.  While these are demos recorded in someone's basement; John Wesley Harding is almost as far removed from Sgt. Pepper's as can be imagined.

[Savonarola]

Personally, I think "The Who Sell Out" and "Who's Next" are their masterpieces.

I'd agree.  I still probably call Quadrophenia my favorite, but some of the tracks aren't up to their best.

It's been a long time since I've listened to Quadrophenia, but from what I remember there's a bunch of songs right in a row that I just don't care for.  The thing that I think is really clever, though, is that the drugs have their own leitmotif.   

[garbon]

HAIM - Want You Back
Robyn - Dancing On My Own