Safe From Harm
It's on Blue Lines

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...pW5B1qqGBSpLSA
Title: Trout mask replica
Artiste: Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Year: 1969
Chronological position: Third album
Previous experience of this artiste?: "Ice cream for crow". That's it.
Why is this considered a classic? Laid the foundations for most experimental music that was to come, including art-rock and post-punk. No, I'm not reading from Wiki.
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I am reading from Wiki!

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Bad
One track in --- Bad
Halfway through --- Bad
Finished --- Bad

Comments: This may test me. I see the words "free jazz" and I NO LIKE! But I've said I'd listen to it and --- dear god! It's a double album! Well, let's see what it's made of then. Oh come on! Spotify doesn't have it! Isn't that like not having "The wall" or "Hotel California" or "Born to run"? Damn it damn it! Right then Grooveshark: don't let me down... Oh-kay! They have it. Holy crap! This sounds like Tom Waits on a bad day! First track is weird; like the band are playing a different tune to the one the vocalist is singing, while on the second there IS no band, just an acapella rendition of what sounds like an old western ballad.

But it settles with Dachau blues and I'm struck by how much Waits must have been influenced by this guy because I hear so much of his style here, even in the singing. Well, having cut my teeth on the likes of "Frank's wild years" and "Swordfishtrombones" I'm not as unfamiliar with this sort of music as many might think, and in fact I really relate this to the more eclectic Waits material; seen a lot of this surface later on "Mule variations" and "Reel gone". Not, so far though, an album I'd intend to listen to again for pleasure.

Yeah, I have to admit I'm just getting bored now. I know this is an original classic and all, but it just seems like a lot of messing around to me. I want to hear something with some melody, some direction, something to hold my attention. This ain't it. I'm gonna struggle on through it though just to be sure. I'm at nearly the end of side two and the rest of the tracks seem to be mostly short, so may not be so bad. But this is becoming an exercise in endurance definitely. Side four and it hasn't got any better. Okay, chalk this up as a fail for me.

Favourite track(s): Dachau blues. Yeah, just the one. I'm surprised there even was one I liked!
Least favourite track(s): Hair pie: Bake 1, Hair pie: Bake 2, Pena, Hobo chang ba, The blimp (These are just the tracks I really hate: I dislike virtually all of this album. It's just not worth writing all the tracks down, but there's very little if anything I like on this).

Final impression --- Absolutely not for me. I understand some people revere this guy but I don't see it. Give me Waits any day. That was probably one of the most excruciating albums I have ever had to suffer my way through, and I've yet to experience Slayer!

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?

B, without a question.

That's pretty similar to my own first reactions on the album, and as you can tell by my namesake, it's one of my all time favourite albums. Trout Mask Replica is the definition of the grower album, and because of this I'd recommend listening to it again in the future. If it turned you off to such an extent that you don't want to look at it that's fine, but most people come to like the album through repeated listens.

I don't know all that you've listened to, and I'm sure it's quite a prolific list, but here are some suggestions of albums you might want to add to your list.

Cabaret Voltaire - Red Mecca
Silver Apples - Contact
Sun Ra - Space Is the Place

Thanks Frownland for the reply and comments. I know it may indeed be a grower, it's just that a) it's a double album, so if I hate it still then I have a long way to go through it a second time and b) I heard very very little that I even thought well you know maybe I would get into that, as I often do with albums. It just really annoyed me. Mind you, I do recall hearing my first ever Tom Waits song. It was "Tango till they're sore" and I thought it was awful! A while later my brother, who was in Boston at the time, sent me a tape of his favourite Waits material and I pretty quickly became a fan. But the thing about Captain Beefheart is I just hear no real melody, nothing to hang my interest on. It's all like just noise and confusion to me, and with so much to listen to I doubt I'd be making the time to give him another chance. I just don't see it.

It's like with "Loveless". I didn't really like that on the whole, but there were some good moments and I could end up getting into that. Nothing of that nature on "Trout" I'm afraid. I do like how he sounds like Tom Waits (I know, other way round) and thought my experience with Waits would stand me in good stead to weather the eclectic nature of the album, but for me Waits wins out every time. At least he plays melodies, which I just don't hear in Beefheart's music.

I'll check those albums out, add them to the list. Thanks!

Until you can appreciate that melody is not always a vital ingredient in creating music, you'll constantly going to struggle with albums like this.

I'm a melodic music person in general, but I still love that album.

I applaud Trollheart's brave decision to give a thumbs down to Trout Mask Replica which is a sacred cow album among hipsters. It's taboo to make negative remarks about a sacred cow album and doing so results in your immediate banishment from the ranks of hipsterhood.

I love Captain Beefheat's music, but I think Trout Mask Replica is a mediocre album. The entire album is Captain Beefheart's bombastic recital of his contrived Dadaist, stream-of-consciousness poetry backed by the amateurish imitations of delta blues musicians by the Magic Band. I challenge all of those Trout Mask hipsters to sit down and suffer through the 78 minute run length of the album and still pretend like it's a brilliant landmark album. You'd have to be a masochist to enjoy this sort of punishment.

Over the past four decades, Trout Mask Replica has become a fetish object for hipsters because of it's musical inaccessibility and the obscurantist themes of the album. These are the same hipsters who hailed Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music as a brilliant avant garde masterpiece. Lou Reed bitch slapped the hipster types who attempted to deify Metal Machine Music with the self effacing but hilarious one-liner: "Anyone who liked Metal Machine Music is dumber than I am."

Safe As Milk, Captain Beefheart's first album is a far more inspired effort. It's probably the best psychedelic garage band album of the era. Safe as Milk features the slide guitar playing of Ry Cooder, who could really play authentic delta blues. Most of the players on Safe As Milk were selected by Ry Cooder and were far more accomplished players than the members of the Magic Band.

My favorite Beefheart album is Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (1978). In the decade following the release of Trout Mask Replica, Captain Beefheart fired every member of the original Magic Band. It was apparent that the original band members lacked the musical chops play the sort of ambitiously experimental music that Captain Beefheart was writing.

Shiny Beast came along in the wake of the two worst albums Captain Beefheart ever recorded: Bluejeans and Moonbeams and Unconditionally Guaranteed. Both albums seemed like make-work projects in which Beefheart accommodated himself to the musical limitations of the remaining members of the original Magic Band line up. Captain Beefheart didn't release a single album over the next for years, having dissolved the original Magic Band. The players on Shiny Beast were all hand selected by Captain Beefheart as the new lineup of the Magic Band.

The Magic Band line up on Shiny Beast is the most accomplished group of musicians who ever backed Beefheart among the members were: Art Tripp (Mothers of Invention), jazz trombonist Bruce Fowler, and Eric Drew Feldman (future keyboardist for Frank Black & PJ Harvey). Those three musicians were multiple instrumentalists and Captain Beefheart used their versatile talents to augment the sound of the band by adding several layers of overdubbed parts to the final mix of the album.

The two youngest members of the reorganized Magic Band, Richard Redus and Jeff Morris Tepper, were selected as guitarists by Beefheart. Redus and Morris stayed with the Magic Band until Captain Beefheart retired from the music business to become a highly successful artist under his birth name of Don Van Vliet.

In the last 10 years of his life Don Van Vliet earned far more money as a painter than he ever did during his 30 plus years as a musician. At the time of his death in 2010, Van Vliet's oil paintings were selling at prices between $30,000 and $350,000.

Didn't know that. Consider me interested :).

Oh, you're in for a treat there. Can't wait. :thumb:

I agree with Unknown Soldier about not holding the album to the very standards it's trying to break. Maybe save the album for a time when you're feeling adventurous, but I wouldn't force it, that can lead you to disliking the album even more. The albums Safe As Milk and Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) are very good and far more accessible, so if you want to find more of that Waits-iness that you enjoy, I would go there. I still prefer TMR, but I'm just a hipster trying to preserve my indie cred, right Gavin B?

I forgot that he hadn't listened to Reign In Blood. Not having listened to RIB to me is like not having listened to the sound of the bubbles from the child you're holding under the water coming up to the surface.

Very elegantly put there Batty.

Guys thanks for the comments on Capt Beefheart. It's never going to be for me. I doubt I'm ever going to understand that some music doesn't need melody. I've always wanted to enjoy what I hear. Some people can listen to the sound of photocopiers running or buildings falling and call it music, I can't. I can certainly listen to nature sounds but other than that I need a melody in my music.

As for Slayer, don't be under any illusions: I know I'm going to hate it, but I'm determined to give it a fair listen. Probably have to knock the volume down, but I will listen to it. Don't expect any miraculous conversions though, there or anywhere else. I'm pretty much set in my musical tastes, and as I already said, I haven't put this up as a genre-crossing exercise, despite the efforts --- well-meaning of course --- of some of you.

A fan of Tyler the Creator? Aesop Rocky? Slayer? Daft Punk? Don't hold yer breath!

Fun though, innit? ;)

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Title: Hounds of love
Artiste: Kate Bush
Year: 1985
Chronological position: Fifth album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Just "The whole story" and of course her singles. Oh, and "Fifty words for snow". Forgot that one.
Why is this considered a classic? I think it was seen as her comeback album and yielded her some of her biggest hit singles, also reawakening her profile in the US of A.

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Great
One track in --- Great
Halfway through --- Great
Finished --- Great

Comments: Yeah, well of course I know much of this album, but have never listened to it --- or indeed, to my shame, any Kate Bush album other than her latest --- all the way through. So I know what to expect for about three or four tracks, basically the first side of the album. I don't think I've heard a single of hers I didn't like, so naturally I'm happy right up to Mother stands for comfort (what a typically Kate Bush song title!) which is kind of what I'd expect: very ethereal, laidback and gentle with some lovely bass. Just the thing after the unbridled energy of The big sky and then of course everyone knows Cloudbusting.

This takes us into the second part, or side, of the album, which is apparently a mini-concept album on its own, based upon a person drifting in the sea and trying to stay alive till morning. I like the atmospherics of this side, between the gentle piano on the first track and the more dramatic strings on the second, and the return of the motif from Running up that hill just hinted at on the piano during Waking the witch is a nice touch. Mind you, it goes a bit wild then, a bit disjointed with some dark vocals that really belong more on a death metal album than here, but I get the idea.

Jig of life should be embarrassing and twee but manages not to be, with masters like Liam O'Flynn and Donal Lunny in charge, and Hello Earth is pretty much the standout, after the singles. Class album.

Favourite track(s): All of it
Least favourite track(s): None of it

Final impression --- Well-crafted and special album, glad I got a chance to hear it at last. So much more than just the singles, great as they are.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?

Another A for me.

I thought I remember you listening some random black metal band on your meat grinder thing and giving it a decent review.

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Title: Elephant
Artiste: The White Stripes
Year: 2003
Chronological position: Fourth album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Nothing at all.
Why is this considered a classic? I don't know anything about the White Stripes so that's really not a question I can answer.

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Good
One track in --- Good
Halfway through --- Great
Finished --- Great

Comments: Everybody raves about the White Stripes, but I've never heard anything by them, so this is all new to me. Pretty impressed so far considering this is just a two-piece. I really like the acoustic You've got her in your pocket and the blues grinder Ball and biscuit and what's this? I think I've heard The air near my fingers before, though I didn't know it was them. Not seeing this elephant on the cover though. Well, sort of, but not really.

Favourite track(s): I just don't know what to do with myself, You've got her in your pocket, There's no home for you here, Ball and biscuit, The air near my fingers.
Least favourite track(s): Little acorns (that story is just so twee) Girl, you have no faith in medicine, It's true that we love one another

Final impression --- Good album, will probably get into it. Not so sure about all the high praise for them though, but as I say, pretty damn good for just two people.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?
E really. Maybe F.

Would you recommend this album? I'm thinking about it.

One of the gems from her golden period, despite the silly "Jig of Life":D

I think I would. I definitely didn't hate it and given a few more listens I really think it could rise in my estimation. I don't think it'll ever be an "A" but it could very well get to "C".

A ringing endorsement if I've ever heard one.

Just being honest. No point pretending I loved the album. I thought it was pretty damn good, on first listen, but don't get the mania that surrounds these two. Maybe after some more listens, but I doubt it'll ever be a case of "why why why oh why did I waste my life instead of listening to this?" ;)

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Title: Pronounced "Leh-nerd Skin-nerd"
Artiste: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Year: 1973
Chronological position: Debut album
Previous experience of this artiste?: "Freebird", "Sweet home Alabama", "Wishing well" and "Last of a dyin' breed"
Why is this considered a classic? If I leave ya tamarra, would you still remember me?

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Good
One track in --- Good
Halfway through --- Great
Finished --- Great

Comments: Yep. Another classic band of whom I have to hear a full album, other than the latest one, which I loved. Of course I know Freebird, but after that everything here is new to me. Not terribly impressed with the opener but then we get Tuesday's gone, a big blues ballad and everything just gets so much better. Great organ work and of course smouldering guitar solo. Always sad to hear Ronnie and think of such a talent snatched away far too soon. Gimme three steps is hilarious boogie fun, while Simple man is a hard-edged ballad with real teeth.

There's mandolin, harmonica AND slide guitar on Mississippi Kid, real acoustic sort of thing that Rory Gallagher would later make popular on his solo albums and of course we close on the famous classic which everyone knows. Could there be a better final track on a debut album? I doubt it.



Favourite track(s): Tuesday's gone, Gimme three steps, Simple man ... everything after the opener. Oh, and Freebird, but I didn't need to tell you that, did I?
Least favourite track(s): I ain't the one

Final impression --- A great album, and I need to listen to more Skynyrd.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?
A, boy! A!

Gimme three steps, gimme three steps, mister
Gimme three steps toward the door?

:D

So, you're saying I should buy this? I'm kinda interested.

Aw yeah man! It's Skynyrd! It has "Free bird" on it. It's a classic! What more do you need? ;)

I have been going through your thread and read the Beefheart review. Try some of his very early stuff like the cover of "Diddy Wah Diddy" and the Safe as Milk album. I'm sure you will at least find something to hear and kind of like - more Blues involved. I liked the "Garage" era before all of the free form stuff.

Free Bird was Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1973 tribute to the recently deceased guitarist Duane Allman, whom the group idolized.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's first two albums were rock and roll masterpieces. They began showing signs of wear on their third album. The players in Skynyrd lacked the musical skills to play imaginative jazzy improvisational jams, like the Allman Brothers or the Grateful Dead. The three guitarists in Skynyrd mostly played standard 12 bar blues jams which began to sound repetitive after about 5 minutes.

The Dead could jam for 30 minutes on the theme of Dark Star and every live performance of Dark Star was a completely unique version of the song. The Allman Brothers did a similar transformation of Mountain Jam, every time they played it live. By contrast, every live performance of Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd was an exact replica of the 5 minute triple guitar "jam" on the original studio album, which led me to believe that Synyrd's guitar players weren't improvising but playing the guitar parts on Free Bird by rote memorization.

The biggest strength of Skynyrd was the songwriting of vocalist Ronnie Van Zandt, who died in 1977. Without Van Zandt, Lynyrd Skynyrd became just another redneck band playing generic southern rock.

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Title: Introducing the hardline according to Terence Trent D'Arby
Artiste: Terence Trent D'Arby
Year: 1987
Chronological position: Debut album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Singles off this album
Why is this considered a classic? I really don't know. TTD appeared out of nowhere and suddenly had hit single after hit single, then after this launched to massive fanfare and did really well, his next album bombed and he disappeared from sight. I heard he changed his name.

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Good
One track in --- Good
Halfway through --- Great
Finished --- Great

Comments: I do know some of these tracks: the singles of course, but I now remember my boss bought this when it came out and I got a loan of it, though I only gave it one listen and that was twenty-six years ago so remember little about it, though the opener rekindles a memory. I remember I liked this. A lot. I still do. Pretty much like everything here. So much better than some of the generic soul/disco-that-transfigured-itself- into-what-now-passes-for-r&B-these-days rubbish. The acapella "As yet untitled" is superlative. The only thing that could possibly follow that is his cover of Smokey Robinson's "Who's loving you"? Class.

Favourite track(s): If you all get to Heaven, Sign your name, Seven more days, As yet untitled but I like everything here really.
Least favourite track(s): None.

Final impression --- A very special album. Perhaps not a true classic, but something that stands out among the dross that made up so much of this troubled year.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?

A, for shoo-war!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ey_of_life.jpg
Title: Songs in the key of life
Artiste: Stevie Wonder
Year: 1976
Chronological position: Eighteenth album (Note: how amazing to think that a man still going today had 18 albums in the can by the mid-seventies, when many bands and artistes were just releasing their debuts!)
Previous experience of this artiste?: No albums, just the hit singles (who doesn't know "I just called to say I love you", "Superstitous" or "Isn't she lovely?")
Why is this considered a classic? Well from what I read, Stevie Wonder was thinking of quitting the music biz and this is the album he came back with, deciding to work against the injustices he saw in the world through the medium of his music. It's also one of only three albums to ever debut at number one in the Billboard charts, and kept both Zep's "The song remains the same" and Rod Stewart's "A night on the town" off the top spot, only finally being toppled by another classic, "Hotel California" by the Eagles.

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Great
One track in --- Great
Halfway through --- Great
Finished --- Great

Comments: For a so-called classic I'm rather surprised to see there's only one hit single on this, but it is a blockbuster. Even so, the album starts off like smooth soul silk on glass and I must say I'm hooked as I did not expect to be, not this soon. It's a double album though, and I wonder will this high quality remain throughout? Like the orchestration in "Village ghetto land", and he pulls no punches with the lyric. Hmm, not crazy about the funky instrumental "Contusion" though. Ah wait a minute! I know "Sir Duke", but I thought it was called "You can feel it all over". Silly me. Well, so much for my opening comment: I see "Isn't she lovely" was never released as a single. D'oh!

And I realise I also know "I wish", and here comes the original of Coolio's "Gangsta paradise"! Man, how much of this album do I know without realising it? I must admit I'm finding it hard to find anything I don't like on this album, as the favourite tracks list expands. And as soon as I say that I come across "Ordinary pain", which is a great song BUT I don't like the way it ends then starts up again almost as another track, and "Isn't she lovely" has always made me puke so I skipped it and hit "Joy inside my tears", a beautiful ballad. Ah yes, back on track now! Meh though, it does drag on for far longer than it should. as does "Black man", to the point it really gets on my nerves. I see pluses and minuses with this album, though considerably more of the former than the latter to be fair.

Favourite track(s): Love's in need of love today, Village ghetto land, Sir Duke, I wish, Pastime Paradise and a whole bunch more.
Least favourite track(s): Contusion, Isn't she lovely? (shut up! I just always hated that song!), Black man

Final impression --- Not the sort of album I would have envisaged ever listening to, never mind enjoying, but despite a few flaws it was pretty excellent. (If I end up saying that about Slayer make peace with your gods, cos it'll be the end of the world!) I found I knew a lot more of the tracks on it than I thought, even if I didn't know their titles before listening to this. Education and entertainment? Can't beat it.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?

I'd certainly have to say A.

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Title: The lexicon of love
Artiste: ABC
Year: 1982
Chronological position: Debut album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Just the singles off this album
Why is this considered a classic? I think it just had so many hit singles, introduced the band to the world and also was produced by Trevor Horn, who would later work with Yes, The Buggles and the Art of Noise.

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Good
One track in --- Good
Halfway through --- Meh
Finished --- Meh

Comments: Of course I know the singles, so it's the other tracks I'm concentrating on here. ABC to me in my youth always seemed the epitome of what I despised in music: suave, suited guys singing suave, suited music. No soul, y'see? Which is kind of ironic as ABC did purvey a kind of watered-down soul to those who had unbiased ears to hear. Not me: oh no; these guys were boring pop and I didn't like them. Safe. Clinical. Sanitised. Yeah, you know the deal. So what about now, as Bon Jovi would say? I suppose if you listen to the opener you'd have to almost put them in the progressive pop stable, with a nice orchestral intro but then it's more Duran Duran than Dream Theater as the album gets going.

The colossus that bestrides this album is the sweet soul vocal of Martin Fry, and considering he was originally a synth player he really has discovered his talent here. That said, there's nothing that's really impressing me overly here. I know the quality of ABC's work but it has never managed to move me, or make me take a step back. So far, that attitude is not changing. There's really nothing on this album that's blowing my skirt up .... oh hold on a mo! "4 ever 2 gether" is almost Simple Minds and breaks out of the generic pop into a nearly-rock track. I like this. Finally, something to get excited about. Yeah, but that's about where it ends for me.

Favourite track(s): (Other than the singles I know) 4 ever 2 gether
Least favourite track(s): Nothing I hated, but as above, very little I really liked.

Final impression --- I often thought with ABC that I liked their singles, but never quite wondered what their album might be like. Now that I've heard it, I think I was better off with the singles, as without them this album is, almost completely, generic and empty with little to recommend it.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?

Gonna have to go for a B here.

I don't really get all the hype over The Lexicon Of Love, like you said the singles are great but there's not much else on there.
Pelican West by Haircut 100 was released around the same time & I think it's a much better album but it doesn't get anywhere near the attention Lexicon gets.

Yeah it's like some bands I think were just better off releasing singles. Compare this to "Dare!" Even though I loved the singles and they were really successful, it's a great album in its own right. "Lexicon" seems built around the singles rather than the other way around, and by and large, the surrounding material isn't anywhere near strong enough to support those pillars. I wouldn't say epic fail but I really am struggling to see what anyone could see on this album were you to remove the singles from it.

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Title: Rhythm nation 1814
Artiste: Janet Jackson
Year: 1989
Chronological position: Fourth album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Very little; the odd single really
Why is this considered a classic? I really don't know

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Meh
One track in --- Meh
Halfway through --- Good
Finished --- Good

Comments: It's hard not to write this off as generic r&B mores until you realise that Jackson actually started all this, probably alongside Paula Abdul and a few others, and that the music that it today called r&b is copying her. Even so, it's not my kind of music (shock!) and I may find this hard to get through. We'll see.

Yeah, it's kind of as I expected: drifting by in an unremarkable stream of songs that to me all sound pretty similar. "Miss you much" is okay, but about the first one I've really even noticed enough to zero in on. The little interludes are all rather annoying and contrived, and as an album that basically sets out to do what Stevie Wonder did in the recently-reviewed "Songs in the key of life", it's a pale shadow of that classic. "Livin in a world (they didn't make)" is a nice decent ballad with some nice ideas, but "Escapade" just sounds like "What have you done for me lately" with a bit of Prince thrown in (which bit? You decide!). "Lonely" and "Come back to me" are cool little ballads but smack a little too much of her big brother's work.

Favourite track(s): Miss you much, Livin' in a world (they didn't make), Come back to me, Someday is tonight
Least favourite track(s): Pretty much the rest of it.

Final impression --- Sort of as I expected. I don't like Michael's work in general and I didn't think I'd like Janet's. I have more or less been proven correct in my own impression of this album. Not for me.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?

I won't say B, but probably mostly E.

I never saw your Songs In the Key of Life reveiw till now.
I think that was a fair assessment of it.

I don't think it's a patch on Innervisions. Now that's a great album.

Okay I'm a bit tired of listening to laidback pop albums and I'm ready for a bit of a kick up the arse, but I'm not yet ready to tackle Slayer. Working up to that. In the meantime, let's try this one...
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Title: British Steel
Artiste: Judas Priest
Year: 1980
Chronological position: Sixth album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Not much; few singles, hits, that sort of thing.
Why is this considered a classic? Over to you, Unknown Soldier! ;)

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Great!
One track in --- Great
Halfway through --- Great
Finished --- Great

Comments: I was never a Judas Priest fan. Know why? Cos Rob Halford didn't have long hair. "A metal singer with short hair?" scoffed 16-year old Trollheart, shortly after throwing "Low" down on the floor with rolled eyes and just before snapping "ABBA? Load of crap!" --- man I was an idiot, wasn't I? --- "Not in THIS house you don't!" How stupidly biased can you get and what a ridiculous premise to base your like or dislike of a band upon! But anyway, thirty-four years later and I've been sufficiently impressed by the praise and regard of others far more versed in metal than I to give this a go.

Oooh I love those geetars! Very Motorhead me feels! And Halford can of course sing. Sorry man; my bad for about three decades or more. Consider me told. Hey! Hold on a minute: all songs written by Glen Tipton, Rob Halford and J.K. Rowling? Didn't know she could rock --- oh wait: it's K.K. Downing! Phew! Nearly made a fool of myself there! ;) Of course I know Breaking the law and love it, but United always did and still does sound like a dirge to me: a heavy metal dirge, granted, but still a dirge. Slow, plodding, boring and somewhat depressing.

Favourite track(s): (Again, of those I didn't already know) Grinder, Rapid fire, The rage, Steeler (Does this sound like Maiden's "Aces high" a bit, or is it just me? I know: Judas Priest came first...)
Least favourite track(s): United

Final impression --- Damn fine metal album, quite in the mould Maiden were going for. Great guitar work and an excellent vocalist.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
Well, what do YOU think?
A of course.

I can't believe that you've never listened to this before, I think you have but just forgotten:)

Well since you asked me why it's a classic. Basically there's not too much to it. The strength of the album was its ability to blend metal muscle to melodic hooks, it had been done before but never as well and polished as Judas Priest did it here and the album effectively created the 'pop metal' term. It's largely thanks to this album that metal became a huge commercial draw in the 1980s and opened the door so much for the genre. It's not the band's best album but certainly their most important and a classic in every way.

Since we're discussing Stevie..I've heard songs from him, but never a whole album. Which album is a better starting point for him?

Thanks for that man! :thumb: No, as I said, to my shame, I never listened to Judas Priest simply because Halford's hair was short. Didn't fit in with my image of heavy metal singers. I know, I know! :banghead: Still, glad I did at last get to listen to this.

Give this album a try :)

I think his short hair had more to do with him cultivating a gay macho leather man look than a metal one.

I downloaded this one. Thanks for the rec


Is there any reason why you'd recommend this one, instead of, say Songs in the Key of Life? Is this one more accessible?

I would strongly recommend you do this Trollheart. I saw this post and having already owned it but not listened to it in a while I went to give it a quick listen...aaaaand subsequently breezed through the whole thing without realizing it. :D