What are you listening to?

[Savonarola]

And for a different take on the state of Louisiana:

Labelle - Nightbirds (1974)

I had a coworker who told me she would sing "Lady Marmalade," all the time when she was about six or seven.  Unfortunately (well, maybe fortunately) for her, her mother spoke French and made her quit.  (I read that Patti Labelle claims she didn't know what she was singing about.)

Another Allen Toussaint produced masterpiece and Labelle's finest album; the only real problem with it is that the rest of the album can't live up to the first two tracks ("Lady Marmalade" and "Somebody Somewhere")  It's still good throughout.  The rumor is that the Meters filled in as session men; it certainly sounds like it could have been them.

[Savonarola]

Supertramp - Crime of the Century (1974)

Two hits ("Dreamer", "Bloody Well Right") and a lot of art rock.  What caught me by surprise is how Supertramp mixes up the volume with both bombast and moments of quiet, like a symphony.  That makes it really annoying to listen to at the gym ( ).  The art rock varies in quality, but "School" is great throughout.

[mongers]

For the first time listened to a track by Taylor Swift. :gasp:

[Josephus]

Supertramp - Crime of the Century (1974)

Two hits ("Dreamer", "Bloody Well Right") and a lot of art rock.  What caught me by surprise is how Supertramp mixes up the volume with both bombast and moments of quiet, like a symphony.  That makes it really annoying to listen to at the gym ( ).  The art rock varies in quality, but "School" is great throughout.

School was also a hit. As the prog guy here, I actually the better songs on it are Hide in Your Shell, Rudy and the title track. I haven't listened to it in years, and might do so soon.

[crazy canuck]

Pyromania was my high school anthem album

[Josephus]

Pyromania was my high school anthem album

Yeah, everyone had a copy of that when I was in Grade 11.
I remember just before that came out, a guy who sat next to me in accounting class, named Rich McCormack -- who had a beautiful young sister, then in Grade 8, but i digress-- wanted to convert me into being a metal head, and played me their earlier album High and Dry. Didn't work.

[Savonarola]

POiSON GiRL FRiEND - Melting Moment (1992)

This is another one I got from Pitchfork's retrospectives.  It's an interesting concept; taking the then contemporary techno sound, and singing Chanson.  It works out surprisingly well for the most part.  Noriko Sekiguchi is Japanese, but had lived all over the world before releasing it (and sings in French, English and Japanese.)  The album didn't catch on in Japan or beyond, so the person who chose that for the review must really be into the obscure.

[Savonarola]

School was also a hit. As the prog guy here, I actually the better songs on it are Hide in Your Shell, Rudy and the title track. I haven't listened to it in years, and might do so soon.

I thought you might prefer those tracks.   

I'm not a big enough of a prog fan to appreciate the deep cuts, but I thought the album was good throughout (if a bit heavy on the art tracks.)

[Savonarola]

Joe Pass - Virtuoso (1974)

Perhaps not the most humbly names album (although nowhere near as bad as Ravi Shankar's "Portrait of a Genius"), but it's hard to argue that it's not aptly names.  Pass plays standards on an acoustic guitar with a bunch of solos and improvisation.  It's remarkable how much this could easily be classical guitar if you didn't recognize the tunes.

[Valmy]

My son's set list for his show today 

[Savonarola]

Toots and the Maytals - In the Dark (1974) 

I was surprised upon listening to this as a lot of the songs (Got to Be There, Time Tough, 54-46 was my Number and Take me Home Country Roads) were on the previous year's Funky Kingston.  Reading further the version of Funky Kingston that I'm familiar with was the 1975 re-release.  Since the original Funky Kingston was remakes of their previous singles, it sort of makes sense to turn it into a more complete greatest hits.

The album is good throughout, but the singles are the real show-stoppers.  The more I listen to their version of Take Me Home Country Roads the more I like it.  It's sort of like Otis Redding's take on "Satisfaction," in that Toots, like Otis, obviously doesn't know the lyrics; but that in no way impacts his performance or the quality of the song.

[Savonarola]

Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night (1974)

Shiver me timbers, this is still a great album.  He might be trying a little too hard to be Jack Keroauc at this point (notably on Diamonds on my Windshield; and, in fact, the album's title was taken from Keroauc), but that's a minor complaint.  I didn't realize the album was that old, as nothing else from the era sounds like this.  San Diego Serenade is probably the best known song off it, but the album is good throughout.

[Savonarola]

King Crimson - Red (1974)

The first final King Crimson album 

This adopts a much heavier sound than their previous work.  It also has a much more dense and layered sound due to the many overdubs.  It's different, drawing inspiration from both classical music and jazz; but it's also unmistakably King Crimson.  It also has some unusual instrumentation, including an oboe.  I don't think  it's as good as their previous two albums ("Starless and Bible Black" and "Lark's Tongue in Aspic"), I don't know if it's just too heavy or too eccentric for me.  It is certainly interesting and remarkable that they could put together something this good when the band was falling apart.

[Josephus]

Not to be THAT guy...but...well...their first final album was Islands, released in 1971.
They broke up after this, and two years later Fripp re-invented them for that trilogy, of which Red was the last one.

Red is their heaviest work, for sure, but I prefer the two others in the trilogy, Larks Tongues and Starless and Bible Black.

[mongers]

Not to be THAT guy...but...well...their first final album was Islands, released in 1971.
They broke up after this, and two years later Fripp re-invented them for that trilogy, of which Red was the last one.

Red is their heaviest work, for sure, but I prefer the two others in the trilogy, Larks Tongues and Starless and Bible Black.

You and Sav could well be 'right' on this, but I think Red has the Wow factor licked, first time my mates and I first heard the vinyl, that was our actual reaction.