625. Metallica - ...And Justice For All (1988)
















Track Listing

1. Blackened
2. ...And Justice For All
3. Eye Of The Beholder
4. One
5. The Shortest Straw
6. Harvester Of Sorrow
7. The Frayed Ends Of Sanity
8. To Live Is To Die
9. Dyers Eve

Review

There is one thing I want from my metal, I want it to be dirty, heavy, powerful and punchy... I suppose those are 4 things. And some bands do it, Motorhead, Black Sabbath even Iron Maiden and Slayer to some extent. Metallica do not do it, and I think it is a testament to the poor taste of teenagers that they have sold so much.

...And Justice For All marks a move to a more mainstream and less thrashy sound for Metallica, but it also mark a bit of a compromise. It is easier to listen to, and to ignore, but it is also adding the opposite of what makes Metal good, a certain prog-rock influence.

If nothing else, if you are able to take all of that you should at least take issue with what is a very bad production work indeed. The bass guitar is completely gone due to the mixing, the bass pedal on the drums sounds like a click more than a thump, and the guitars buzz their way through the album.

Track Highlights

1. One
2. To Live Is To Die (Gotta love the inane title and the 'beautiful' acoustic guitar)
3. ...And Justice For All
4. Harvester Of Sorrow

Final Grade

5/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

[...]in one of the more famous of Hetfield and Ulrich's controversies with bassist Jason Newsted, the album's production almost completely lacks identifiable bass in most songs. This has been attributed to various reasons, such as Newsted's doubling of Hetfield's guitar parts, his absence from the mixing sessions (where he might have asserted his opinion) and the lingering issue of his "newness" within the band following the tragic death of Cliff Burton in September 1986. As said by the band in their magazine SO WHAT!, they wish that they could re-mix the entire album because the drums and guitar overpower the bass completely. The album was released on two LPs at the usual single-LP price, since the band thought that putting the album on a single record would have diminished its fidelity.

One, Live:

624. Pixies - Surfer Rosa (1988)
















Track Listing

1. Bone Machine
2. Break My Body
3. Something Against You
4. Broken Face Listen Listen
5. Gigantic Listen Listen
6. River Euphrates
7. Where Is My Mind?
8. Cactus
9. Tony's Theme
10. Oh My Golly!
11. Vamos
12. I'm Amazed
13. Brick Is Red

Review

Ah, the first Pixies album (Come on Pilgrim is really an EP), and probably the best, Steve Albini's production just gives it that extra little menace that puts this album a little notch above Doolittle. There isn't a bad song in the bunch, all of them are great and then for different little reasons. Sometimes they are powerful, sometimes charming, but always great.

Few albums have been as successful in creating an original sound and also being extremely influential. There is very much an identity to the Pixies which is fully formed here, be it the Latin influences, the surf music influence or the way it is all peppered with the right amount of noise to make it accessible enough with just the right amount of challenging.

The fact that Kim Deal probably has her most marked presence of any Pixies album also explains the attraction of this. She just has a great voice, and as you can see from Gigantic, and the Breeders later, she can also write songs pretty well. Really an amazing album.

Track Highlights

1. Where is My Mind?
2. Gigantic
3. Vamos
4. Cactus

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Surfer Rosa's lyrical content includes examinations of mutilation in "Break My Body" and "Broken Face", while references to superheroes appear on "Tony's Theme". Voyeurism appears in "Gigantic", and surrealistic lyrics are featured on "Bone Machine" and "Where Is My Mind?". Puerto Rico references and Spanish lyrics are found on the tracks "Oh My Golly!" and "Vamos." The latter track was previously featured on Come on Pilgrim, and appears on Surfer Rosa as a rerecorded version of the original song. Many of the themes explored on previous recordings are revisited on Surfer Rosa; however, unlike on the band's later albums, the songs in Surfer Rosa are not preoccupied with one overarching topic.

Where Is My Mind?:

623. My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything (1988)


















Track Listing

1. Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside)
2. Lose My Breath
3. Cupid Come
4. When You Wake You're Still In A Dream
5. No More Sorry
6. All I Need
7. Feed Me With Your Kiss
8. Sueisfine
9. Several Girls Galore
10. You Never Should
11. Nothing Much To Lose
12. I Can See It (But I Can't Feel It)

Review

This album is mostly famous for being one of the first shoegazer albums, and being the album that they made before Loveless, and I have to admit that the first time I listened to this it left me a bit cold. But I soon warmed up to it.

The reason why it is kind of hard to warm up to the thing is the fact that there is a lot of variety here, they sound like a band trying to find their musical place, there is obviously a love of guitar effects almost everywhere, but the feel of the songs is very different from track to track. As you listen to it repeatedly they do start to coalesce and make a cohesive album.

They sound like Dinosaur Jr. with less pop and more dope and a bit of Cocteau Twins and Jesus And Mary Chain thrown in for good measure. This is a good thing, and I am eagerly awaiting their next album, that will come in due time. We are going through a nice patch, and there is still another great album tomorrow, until we have a not so good one the day after. So, stay tuned!

Track Highlights

1. Nothing Much To Lose
2. Lose My Breath
3. No More Sorry
4. Sueisnice

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

When the band's original vocalist Dave Conway left, to be replaced by Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields returned to their avant-garde roots, and began to explore the possibilities offered by the studio facilities available after signing to Creation Records. The first fruits of this experimentation was the single/EP "You Made Me Realise", released in July 1988. Isn't Anything was eagerly awaited, and didn't disappoint, with UNCUT's David Stubbs calling it "one of the most important, influential British rock albums of the Eighties". While recording the album, the band got by on about two hours sleep a night, something which has been suggested is reflected in the vocals. "Several Girls Galore" has been described as "a cubist take on the Jesus and Mary Chain".

All the live videos of this song are crap so here goes just the song, Nothing Much To Lose:

622. Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman (1988)



















Track Listing

1. Talkin' 'bout A Revolution
2. Fast Car
3. Across The Lines
4. Behind The Wall
5. Baby Can I Hold You
6. Mountain O' Things
7. She's Got Her Ticket
8. Why
9. For My Lover
10. If Not Now...
11. For You

Review

This is another one of those albums that I have been aware of since it came out and my father got in on vinyl. And it is one that although it has dated a bit, it is still thoroughly enjoyable. Not just that, but an album that opened doors for the huge number of female singer/songwriters to come in the 90s.

Where the album is most dated is on the tracks that use some kind of synth, fortunately, the best and most successful track, Fast Car, is free of it and in fact the whole album would have benefited from a little less production. A guitar and her voice is really all that is needed here, and certainly not synths. This is, however, the 80s.

The lyrics take little vignettes for most of the songs, most of them are really good, although Tracy seems to offer not solutions for most of the problems she deals with, but sometimes raising awareness is better than nothing, and in a time of mass-manufactured pop wide appeal singers with a message were indeed rare.


Track Highlights

1. Fast Car
2. For My Lover
3. Talkin' Bout a Revolution
4. Behind The Wall

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Tracy Chapman was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and "Fast Car" gained Chapman an award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 31st Grammy Awards in early 1989.

In 1989, the album was rated number 10 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the the "100 Greatest Albums of the 80's." In 2003, the album was ranked number 261 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. According to Media Traffic Tracy Chapman is the 74th most successful album of all time.



Fast Car:

621. Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Session (1988)

















Track Listing

1. Mining for Gold
2. Misguided Angel
3. Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)
4. I Don't Get It
5. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
6. To Love Is to Bury
7. 200 More Miles
8. Dreaming My Dreams With You
9. Working on a Building
10. Sweet Jane
11. Postcard Blues
12. Walkin' After Midnight

Review

It's all in the band's name really. Think of Country music, now think of it played by some extremely narcotised people who see the world at a snail's pace. What you end up getting is a really great album, that would make the most ardent Country music hater into a lover.

The Trinity Session was recorded on a budget that would make a shoestring look like diamond encrusted platinum, and still it manages to be an extremely effective and affecting album. The influences are all quite patent here, Hank Williams and Velvet Underground, such a strange mix that ends up sounding like the most sweltering night in summer.

The singing is perfect, sometimes so languid that you can't understand the words, it fits the mood perfectly, and there is a live feeling to the whole thing without any of the distracting clapping and stuff, they are playing just to one microphone though, which makes it all the more amazing that it sounds so good. I love this.

Track Highlights

1. Sweet Jane
2. 200 Miles
3. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
4. Blue Moon Revisited (Song For Elvis)

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The band was unable to rehearse with most of the guest musicians before the day of the session. Considering the method of recording and time constraints, this could have been disastrous for the numbers which required seven or more musicians, but after paying a security guard twenty five dollars for an extra two hours, the band was able to finish, and even recorded the final song of the session, "Misguided Angel", in a single take.

Contrary to popular myth, the album was not entirely recorded in one day. In the hustle of the first recording session, the band forgot to record "Mining for Gold". Margo and Moore recorded the song a few days later during the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's lunch break.

Sweet Jane: