419. Dire Straits - Dire Straits (1978)

















Track Listing

1. Down To The Waterline
2. Water Of Love
3. Setting Me Up
4. Six Blade Knife
5. Southbound Again
6. Sultans Of Swing
7. In The Gallery
8. Wild West End
9. Lions

Review

This is the most uncool of uncool bands, and I know it is wrong to like Dire Straits... but I do. But I have an excuse at least, I grew up with them, particularly Brothers In Arms which will be here eventually. My first live concert was Dire Straits at the age of 12 or something. And they remind me of a pretty happy childhood.

That said there are plenty of wrong things with it, it is rock for young conservative yuppies. It is one of the gutsier albums of the late 70's for all the wrong reasons, it is gutsy because the whole scene was leaning towards edgy and political stuff and here cove this bunch of guys making of the least confrontational albums ever. But hey Knopfler is still an amazing guitarist and he makes some pretty catchy songs.

So it is brainless, but it is coming from the same place as The Stranglers for example, the whole pub-rock scene in the UK. Just that they were probably at very distinct pubs. But still, today you go to the south of Spain or the Algarve in Portugal and if you are in a pub with a live band, chances are Sultans Of Swing will come on at some point to satisfy the British punters who were young professionals in the 80's. And hey it is a great track... but just soooo square.

Track Highlights

1. Sultans Of Swing
2. Down To The Waterline
3. Water Of Love
4. Six Blade Knife

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

he album was noted for the single "Sultans of Swing", which at first broke a US Top Five early 1979 (being a hit full five months after the album was released there) and then raised up at #8 in the British charts. It was remastered and released with the rest of the Dire Straits catalogue in 1996 for most of the world outside the U.S. and on September 19, 2000 in the United States. The cover image is taken from a painting by Chuck Loyola.

Sultan Of Swing:

418. Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978)

















Track Listing

1. Uncontrollable Urge
2. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
3. Praying Hands
4. Space Junk
5. Mongoloid
6. Jocko Homo
7. Too Much Paranoias
8. Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy
9. Come Back Jonee
10. Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin')
11. Shrivel Up


Review

Yesterday we had a taste of things to come with the new wave with The Cars, now we have something different, a taste of what could have been. Devo were a great band, and their style of new wave was probably the best thing to come out of the whole New Wave movement, the socially conscious, funny and surreal lyrics of Devo combined with a flair for experimentalism. We would all have been much richer if the mainstream had followed this template.

But they didn't, but we can all still listen to this whenever we feel like it. And we should. Again I need to give a nod to Brian Eno who produced this brilliant work. All tracks are masterworks and ever if the synth isn't being as used as it would be in their later albums, when it is used it is for great effect.

This, my friends is music, this is fun, fast, smart and damn entertaining... and also slightly offensive. Mongoloid anyone? But it is all part of the thing, of the whole conceptual existence of Devo, of a band which can take one of the most famous Stones song in Satisfaction and make it something completely of their own, it is not every band which can do that. But Devo can.

Track Highlights

1. Mongoloid
2. Jocko Homo
3. Satisfaction (I Can't Get No)
4. Shrivel-Up

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album was produced by Brian Eno, working in Conny Plank's studio in Cologne, Germany. Eno actually paid for the recordings himself, as the band had yet to conclude legal wranglings and sign contracts with Warner Brothers and Virgin Records. The band had come into contact with Eno when they managed to hand a demo tape to David Bowie when he played a show in Cleveland.

Bowie and Iggy Pop became fans of the band and Bowie went to see them perform at Max's Kansas City in New York City after Mark Mothersbaugh stated in an interview that he would like either him or Brian Eno to produce their first record. Bowie announced to the crowd during the interval that he would be producing them that winter in Tokyo. The next day Bowie told them that he would have to postpone producing the album until the following Spring due to filming commitments. That evening the band visited Brian Eno and Robert Fripp at the latter's home, where Eno expressed a wish to produce the band in Berlin, taking care of travel and accommodation for the band, who were without money to stay anywhere at the time.

Eno is on record as describing one of Devo's New York shows in 1979 as "the most exciting live performance I have ever seen". However, the studio sessions did not proceed on such a positive note, with the band seemingly intent on replicating specific effects and arrangements from their demo recordings stretching back to 1974. Eno found this an obstacle to his famously intuitive and spontaneous way of working in the studio, and described the band as "anal". In Eno's 1995 diary, A Year with Swollen Appendices, he states that he has never been paid by Virgin for producing the sessions.

Jocko Homo:

417. The Cars - The Cars (1978)

















Track Listing

1. Good Times Roll
2. My Best Friend's Girl
3. Just What I Needed
4. I'm In Touch With Your World
5. Don't Cha Stop
6. You're All I've Got Tonight
7. Bye Bye Love
8. Moving In Stereo
9. All Mixed Up

Review

The Cars do something new here, until this album there were two worlds, the world of adult oriented rock, like Boston of Chicago and the world of punk and New Wave and all those people who used to hang around CBGB's like Blondie and The Ramones. Ric Ocasek actually quite successfully merges both into something which is pretty great.

If all you know of the cars is their greatest hit Drive, then you should really burn that album and put this in its place. Of course this album opens the door to many, many crimes of the 80's, but it is also pretty good in itself.

It is pretty rare to find an album which manages to define the whole following decade in its tracks, but this is it. Developing this leads to most of the synth-pop and rock of the decade to come, and I was brought up on that.

And then near the end of the album there is that track, Moving In Stereo...a track that evokes Phoebe Cates' breasts in Fast Times At Ridgemont High each and every single time I hear it... and how can that not be a good thing?

Track Highlights

1. Moving In Stereo
2. My Best Friend's Girl
3. Bye Bye Love
4. All Mixed Up

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Covers


* You're All I've Got Tonight" by The Smashing Pumpkins on their box set The Aeroplane Flies High.

* "All Mixed Up" by Red House Painters on their album Songs for a Blue Guitar.

* "Just What I Needed" by Replicants, a self titled one-off cover album, which features Paul D'Amour formerly of Tool.

* Nirvana are known to have covered "Moving in Stereo" and "My Best Friend's Girl" at their final show in Germany in 1994. "My Best Friend's Girl" was a regular part of their setlist during the In Utero tour.

* Powerman 5000 featured a cover of "Good Times Roll" on their album Tonight the Stars Revolt!.

* Alkaline Trio featured "Bye Bye Love" on a limited edition vinyl split-LP with The Blue Meanies.


* On MTV New Years Eve 2006, The All-American Rejects and Fall Out Boy teamed up to perform "Good Times Roll".

* Steel Pole Bath Tub did unusual covers of "Just What I Needed," "Good Times Roll," and "My Best Friend's Girl" on their final album Unlistenable. They called the songs "What I Need," "The Good Times Rule," and "My Best Friend's a Girl," respectively.


Moving In Stereo / All Mixed Up:

416. Wllie Colón And Rubén Blades - Siembra (1978)

















Track Listing

1. Plastico
2. Buscando Guayaba
3. Pedro Navaja
4. Maria Lionza
5. Ojos
6. Dime
7. Siembra

Review

I've never been very knowledgeable about salsa except for recognising it when I hear it. Also I must apologize for the tacky cover of the album, where some kind of helium filled children float above some garish plants. Sorry.

That is actually one of the only things I can complain about this album, the cover. This means it is a pretty good thing, firstly it starts with a supreme act of misdirection with a Disco beat going for about one minute before it explodes in some of the best Salsa you can get. The musicians are amazing, particularly the brass section, the arrangements are also pretty amazing, and finally and most importantly the lyrics are great.

I really loved the lyrics of this thing, it is all in Spanish of course so if you don't get Spanish you won't get it. If there was one use for living near the Spanish border for most of my life it would be to know enough Spanish to understand this album. Great stuff. Particular kudos go to Pedro Navaja, a Latin version of Mack the Knife and Plástico a song about the superficiality of modern life.

The whole album is quite politically and socially active while at the same time being fun to listen to, depending on your mood you can be caring about the poetry or just waving your ass to the Salsa. Two thumbs up.

Track Highlights

1. Pedro Navaja
2. Plástico
3. Siembra
4. Buscando Guayaba

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Pedro Navaja is a salsa song written and performed by Rubén Blades, about a criminal of the same name. "Navaja" means knife or razor (hence an analogy to Blades' surname) in Spanish. Inspired by the song Mack the Knife, it tells the story of a panderer's life and death. The song is recognized throughout Hispanic America as it picture scenes and stories common to all these countries, even though the story takes place in New York city. The song deals with life, death and the unexpected with dark humor. There is a movie titled Pedro Navaja, which is based on this song, and a musical, La verdadera historia de Pedro Navaja, based in the Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht's play Die Dreigroschenoper, staged in Lima, Peru, starring, among other, Camila Mac Lennan.

Pedro Navaja, I hadn't realised until now that I know Ruben Blades as an actor:

415. Van Halen - Van Halen (1978)
















Track Listing

1. Runnin' With The Devil
2. Eruption
3. You Really Got Me
4. Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love
5. I'm The One
6. Jamie's Cryin'
7. Atomic Punk
8. Feel Your Love Tonight
9. Little Dreamer
10. Ice Cream Man
11. On Fire

Review

Well, we had Thin Lizzy a couple of day ago that I said was a direct ancestor to all those terrible 80's hair bands, now we have the even more direct ancestor, which actually became one of the biggest bands of the 80... unfortunately.

Van Halen, what can I say? Well they can play guitar, that's one thing, but they are using their gifts for evil, most definitely. A good example of this is the track Eruption which is at the same time quite impressive in it's technical skill but also quite embarrassing in its masturbatory content. It's just some guy wanking his guitar off.

I think that the fact that the best track in the whole album is a Kinks cover is definitely a sign of something. It is a sign that they can actually play music but have the taste of a 1 star UK hotel pattern coordinator (i.e. crap).

This is just more onanistic guitar rock which can be fun in a post-modern way, but really has little merit by itself if you have actually expanded your horizons beyond your trailer park.

Track Highlights

1. You Really Got Me
2. Eruption
3. Runnin' With The Devil
4. Ain't Talkin 'bout Love

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

From a technical perspective, Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo, "Eruption", was hugely influential on many guitarists. The cadenza near the end is generally regarded as seminal in the development of fretboard tapping, a virtuosic style of solo guitar playing which became popular in the 1980s. The solo's "dive-bomb" pitches also led to the wide-spread use of bridge tremolo bars. The album has sold over ten million copies in the United States alone and is considered to be one of the most successful debuts by a hard rock band. Along with 1984, it gives Van Halen two original (not a greatest hits) albums with Diamond status in sales -- a feat achieved by only four other rock bands: The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Def Leppard.

You Really Got Me: