Recently I've been quietly building my music library. I'm not getting lazy towards this blog, rather I'm busy trying to get myself towards that next step in my life. I'm at the final stretch for my first college degree, so I need to invest my time in a more constructive manner (for now). However, I still want to reel off a handful of recent discoveries and then I'll be out. I'm planning on laying down at least one more post this month.
The Kinks "The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society" (1968)
If Tom Moon, the author of "1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die", had enough interest to include this in his book I thought it would be worth a listen. So I took a chance on this album and it turned out to be great. It's possibly one of the perfect examples of British Pop. Some of the songs appear a little corny, but they still hold their value; i.e. "Phenomenal Cat" and "Sitting by the Riverside". It's the first six songs where the album shines the most with the satirical "The Village Green Preservation Society", followed by my personal favorite "Do You Remember Walter", the always catchy "Picture Book" (once used for those HP Photo Printer commercials in the mid 2000's), the proto punk-ish story of "Johnny Thunder", and the hard working "The Last of the Steam-Powered Trains".
Neil Young "On the Beach" (1974)
I found this one checking out a torrent labeled something like "Pitchfork Media's best albums of the 1970s". I looked through the list for anything interesting, taking notes, and this seemed to stick out the most. I thought I had a great cross section of Mr. Young's catalog and it turns out I was wrong. This album comes at you solid from start to finish with Neil's truthful and searingly sarcastic brand of folk rock. Great tracks in the album include, "Walk On" (an excellent song about the measure of a person in the toughest moments), the sad wilting sound of "See the Sky About to Rain", the 'blues trilogy' (Revolution Blues, Vampire Blues, and Ambulance Blues) each an excellent song. Truth be told, they're all good.
Peter Gabriel "Peter Gabriel [1]" (1977)
Somehow...somehow this album just hovered around me. I was aware of it and the other two self titled Gabriel albums. Almost everybody is aware of the hit, "Solsbury Hill" (about the departure as his role of lead singer in the progressive rock band Genesis). I've had the album sitting in my library for almost half a year, and yet I never took a chance on it. Well, a few days ago I decided to listen to the track "Down the Dolce Vita" on a whim and it turned out to be one of the most riveting songs I've ever had the pleasure of listening to, so I backed up and gave it a full treatment. It sounds like the evolution of the sound displayed in the Genesis album, "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (1974). This time instead of creating an album with the democratic style that Genesis attempted during most recording sessions, Peter Gabriel had full creative control to display his flamboyant style.
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