What albums did you listen to today?...continued

Bjork - Gling-Glo: Bjork does jazz in Icelandic. There's an exuberance going on here, and that plus the language (though the last couple are in English) make this a pleasant listen.

Traffic | Last Exit — some good singles like Withering Tree and Medicated Goo. Otherwise a half-assed closet cleaning on the label’s part, after the original band broke up.

Ut Gret | Recent Fossils (disc 1) — Keeping Kentucky weird. Disc 1 of a 3 disc set of (respectively) Gamelan-based instrumentals, group improvisations, and a cover of Terry Riley’s “In C” (all 60 minutes of it). Challenging but rewarding and a treat for RIO/Avant fans.

Ultimate Spinach | Behold and See — wonderful proto-prog psych album. Still love it as much as the first time I heard it.

Amen Dunes | Freedom — most recent album from introspective psych pop guy. I think my best description is that it sounds like what an American version of Marc Bolan might sound like if he were recording today and focused on melancholic songs.

Crazy World of Arthur Brown | Strangelands — better than I remember. A “lost 2nd album” that didn’t get released until much later. It’s a bridge between the 1st album and his Kingdom Come band. All it really lacks is a bit more production and structure (its supposed structure as a four-part “suite” is not that convincing), and it would be a pretty dang good album. Strangely, there’s about 35 minutes of bonus tracks by a related band called Rustic Hinge that doesn’t even have Arthur Brown in it. They sound a lot like Beefheart circa “Trout Mask” sans vocals. One song sounds like a near copy of “Hair Pie”. Cool albeit derivative.

Crazy World of Arthur Brown | s/t — the legendary album with Fire on it. Never understood the fervor over that song, though I guess I can imagine it sounding pretty wild on Top of the Pops in 1968.

Ghost | In Stormy Nights — what an album. Wow. I think this is their last, and they seem to pull all their strengths together here. Boldly enough, they jump right into a 28 minute freeform freakout on track 2, and it’s evocative and dynamic.

Ghost | Turn On, Tune In, Free Tibet — not quite as good but close. Has a 30 minute track which upon close examination is just a string of edited jams stitched together. Still good and even great in spots. And the shorter songs, quiet and loud, are uniformly good.

MX-80 Sound | Hard Attack — Indiana band of gnarly instrumentalists fronted by a charming smartass on sax and spoken vocals. If you focus on the music you can be impressed by tricky rhythms and expert guitar work, and if you focus on the words you’ll laugh at the topics and how they’re handled and delivered. Fun.

Plastic Bertrand | Greatest Hits — Belgian new wave star whose biggest hit was a punk parody with nonsense lyrics in French (Ca Plane Pour Moi). The rest of these hits are so corny but I can’t help but love them.

AC/DC | Highway to Hell — Beating Around the Bush! Oh Well!

The Guess Who | #10 — superb album from a superb band. I posted this on FB last night in a music group and got in a long conversation with Dave Willey (Thinking Plague, Hamster Theatre) who says its one of his favorite albums. We geeked out over all the early 70s Guess Who albums for a while, and he even mentioned he remembered me from having reviewed Hamster Theatre’s first album and having written a feature on Thinking Plague some 20-odd years ago. Wow.

John Cale | Fear — One of John’s finest outings, though there are many I still haven’t heard.

Edited by HolyMoly - May 11 2019 at 11:25

Alessandro Alessandroni - Prisma Sonoro
Jefferson Starship - The Very Best of JS
Doris Day - Day by Day

HolyMoly wrote: The Smiths | Hatful of Hollow — reliving hs memories. these feel like the definitive versions to me

Edited by Prog Sothoth - May 14 2019 at 17:27

Alice Cooper - From the Inside: Some of Elton John's crew are involved, and it shows. Lots of piano. It makes the lyrical tales of life in a sanitarium sort of a bizarre clash of styles, including Alice's vocals which are often in sneer mode.

Edited by Finnforest - May 18 2019 at 07:17