I remember the old Spin Alternative Record Guide quickly summarizing Trust as something to the effect of "more high end work from an artist at the top of his game, no more no less" - which is both hilariously dismissive and bang on. It's not necessarily a thematic jump as it is the picture of an artist in his flow state. That might be Get Happy too, but Trust's relative brevity makes for an easier listen. People take hot streaks for granted - especially in the middle of the run - but once they're gone (and it leaves Costello mid-Imperial Bedroom), it's impossibly to get it back.
I think This Year's Model works as the big album for a time, but not forever. It was my favorite when I was younger and punker. Now I think Costello is playing pretend on it, like him pulling his "Radio Radio" stunt on SNL was ACTUALLY some kind of revolutionary act (I still love the performance, but now find it charmingly contrived). The later classics don't have the edge of This Year's Model, but Costello never really needed to sneer to get his point across anyway. I have it in the No. 3 slot, behind, what I feel, are his two 10s - Armed Forces and Trust.
I enjoy a lot of the debut as well, but it still, to me, catches Costello as a songwriter in search of an identity. I don't think he totally finds his identity until Armed Forces. The Attractions do the heavy lifting on This Year's Model, which sees Costello playing the punk, but everything clicks by album three. My Aim Is True has neither the sparkling performances of the Attractions nor the sharp songwriting that EC would grow into.
Pretty decent list. You got the right No. 1 and relegating My Aim Is True and Imperial Bedroom to the Nos. 6 and 7 slot is the correct move, but I'm calling justice for Trust. Just wall to wall great songs.
A couple years ago I had one of those inklings that I ought to check out Whitney Houston's albums because they might be actually great. I get these inklings from time to time - just trying to catch a wave before the zeitgeist jumps on (I was a bit ahead of the Steely Dan resurgence). So I checked out the Whitney album and...you would not believe the disparity in quality between the up-tempo numbers and the ballads. Without exception, the pop tracks are wonderful, transporting experiences. Obviously this song is the gem of gems (a 10, no doubt), but "So Emotional," "Love Is A Contact Sport" and "Love Will Save The Day" are all absolutely magnificent. Peak 80s pop delivered joy and personality (and incredible vocal performances). The ballads, on the other hand, are complete trash. Like, unbearable. Pure schmaltz, but without any of the taste and sophistication of, say, Anita Baker (whose Rapture is basically the peak of this era). It's basically split down the middle and it kills me that the same kind of care and craft that defined Houston's pop tracks (both here and on the even lesser debut) couldn't have spread to her ballads.
My story is eerily similar to Tom's. I had a friend who picked up the album based solely on the cover art, which pretty hilariously dated today, but in 01 felt SO COOL (we were also slowly maturing 18-year-old punks - pictures of records or microphones were the signs of "true artistes"). My buddy played the album for me and my first thought was "What is this, the blues?" It just sounded so perfect and foreign. I didn't know anything else that sounded remotely like it. It really did feel like an aural transference of cool, the way Odelay had been for me five years earlier (different sounding albums obvs, but the same sense of refinement one felt when owning it). Just the middle section with "Lines In A Suit" and "Fitted Shirt" felt like the most regal shit I had ever heard at the time - with the soulful shuffle of "Anything You Want" waiting in the wings! Even if it hardly sounds foreign to me today, it still feels like a wash of cinematic cool. I'm not as wild on later-era Spoon as some (they seem like the kind of band where the first album you hear will be your favorite), but albums 2-4 still feel like coolest shit indie rock ever produced.
Have to agree re: Gimme Fiction. After the twin 10s of Girls Can Tell and Kill The Moonlight (and damn near Series of Sneaks), Gimme Fiction just felt...flat. I just couldn't hook into it and I tried and tried. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was a nice return, but by then the shine was off for me. A whole younger crew had adopted the band and it felt like those early records were kind of glossed over. But even if I no longer have much interest in the band's modern incarnation, those early records were a revelation.
OK, this is not a ranking, but a Spin Alternative Record Guide rating system for Weezer:
Blue - 10
Pinkerton - 10
Green - 5
Maladroit - 6
Make Believe - 2
Red - 4
Raditude - 3
Hurley - 5
Death To False Metal - 3
Everything Will Be Alright In The End - 8
White - 7
Pacific Daydream - 4
Teal - 3
Black - 4
OK Human - 5/6 (not totally sure yet)
Just popping in to say that Heart Food is a hard 10. Most of those "commercial flop that's resurrected in the reissue era" albums can't quite live up to the hype, but Heart Food is the one. A brilliant, brilliant album.
Benny got the top spot in 2019, but the new one is only fine. I loved Conway's LULU EP, but SUNSHINE just crushes. I'm still kind of annoyed people kind of shrugged it off.
I know critics didn't bite, but WHO MADE THE SUNSHINE keeps delivering for me. The Slick Rick spots add such a great element and "All Praises" shows that Westside can rock a hook as well as Anderson .Paak did on "Wrestlemania 20."
I want to like that Frances Quinlan album so much, especially because Bark Your Head Off, Dog is an actual masterpiece. But Likewise is what Hop Along would sound like if the songs never ever really came together. There are pieces there, but I wish the songs would build to those big moments.
How did Ian Mackaye become overlooked?
And yeah, I was expecting to hate that Elder record (especially after hearing some "meh" on it on this very site), but it is incredibly good. Like a heavy metal ECM record.
Comments