1)Jefferson Airplane, Bark: Well, the Airplane did an “acid trip” mess (Baxter’s), an “apocalyptic” mess (Crown Of Creation), a “political protest” mess (Volunteers), and now here’s their “experimental arty” mess, a bunch of new post-psychedelic early-70s-friendly substyles that they hadn’t tried before, like heavy roots-rock solofests with Papa John Creach playing violin (“Wild Turkey”) or, say, Grace Slick singing in German (“Neve Argue With A German If You’re Tired Or European Song,” yikes”), or a really weird vocal song that sounds like The Band got a lobotomy (“Thunk”) or…or…huh. Almost none of these ideas work worth a shit. Look, I don’t know how much of this is caused by Marty Balin leaving (since there were already too many songwriters in the band), but I do know that Bark vies with Baxter’s for the worst of the classic Airplane albums. It’s just a fuckin’ mess. I like the rather anthemically beautiful singalong “War Movie” (most of what few reviews I could find hated it, for whatever reason), but that song musters an actual memorable hook. There’s also “Pretty As You Feel,” which was written by a new member of the band, and which I guess is okay. The rest, just…no. Christ, do I like this band at ALL?

2)Talking Heads, True Stories: I knew about the movie, and I knew Byrne directed it, but I’ve never watched it, and since I was never wild about this album, I probably won’t, unless someone here wants to talk me into it. What I didn’t know was that the accompanying album wasn’t supposed to be Talking Heads, but actors from the movie singing these songs. Is that better? Because this is silly stuck-in-the-80s pop verging on “deuhrrr” by this band’s standards. I always liked “City Of Dreams” and “Wild Wild Life” and still do, even though the latter sounds like it belongs in a dumb college hotpants comedy from 1985. “People Like Us” was a nice rediscovery, a Talking Heads slidey country number, don’t know how I missed that the first time around. Oh, and the song Radiohead named themselves after. I missed that one completely too, but the “sound of a brave new world” bit is actually a hook! The other five…eghn. Goofy worldbeat stuff like “Papa Legba” and dumb dumb pop like “Hey Now” and…yeah. Not a shit album but likely the dorkiest thing the Heads ever put out…I’ve only got two albums by them left to hear, though.

3)David Crosby, If I Could Only Remember My Name: It coasts on vibe, and Crosby was definitely third place amongst CSNY songwriters, so it kind of has to…but GOD that vibe is so sweet. If you like “Guinnevere,” “Wooden Ships,” “Renaissance Fair,” “Deja Vu,” anything with that dark dreamy sunrisey languid California vibe that David always toyed with on his good stuff, and God knows I love all that stuff, ignore the critics on this one and dive right the fuck in. I admit that I kind of have to stiff “Cowboy Movie” because it’s far too close to Neil’s “Down By The River” but there’s no mistaking “Tamalpais High (At About 3),” “Orleans,”“ “Laughing,” “Song With No Words,” “What Are Their Names,” “Traction In The Rain,” “I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here”…oh sure, druggy, dumb, whatever you want to call it, but WHAT A VIBE. Shit, I was really expecting that my opinion of this one would have gone down the shitter but it’s still really good, if you ask me! And you didn’t! (Note: to this date, I haven’t bothered with any other CSN solo material, including Stephen Stills’ Manassas, and the only reason I ever heard this was because I found a CD copy sitting around in a public library. Anyone want to vouch for any of that stuff?)

4)Wilco, A Ghost Is Born: Wilco are one of the best and most consistent bands to be relied on in the last three decades, and I don’t think they ever released a weak album, but this one, released near their commercial peak, has dropped a notch in my view. It’s nothing in particular that the band does wrong (I’m sort of tempted to just not count “Less Than You Think,”” the song that ends with about 11 minutes of electronic drone to symbolize Tweedy’s migraines), it’s just that looking over the highlights of this album, I can almost always think of a better example on another album of what they’re doing. “Hell Is Chrome” is a pretty good sad spare piano thing, but “An Empty Corner” is better. “Handshake Drugs” is a pretty good relaxed jam, but “Impossible Germany” is better (I guess Nels Cline really did make a difference, eh?) “Theologians” is pretty good 60s-pop, but I prefer “I Might.” “Muzzle Of Bees” descends into this guitar noise thing and I guess I can’t think of an obvious better example of that, and “The Late Greats” is a good “cute” closer, so there’s that. I suppose “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” is a strong outlier in their oeuvre because I cannot think of another time they did 10 minutes of cool Krautrock motorik, but I also never quite liked that the song was so long. Those are all the ones I really cared for–if I listened to this for 10 more years I might come around to the Beatlesy “Hummingbirds,” the speed rocker “I’m A Wheel,” or whatever the hell “Company In My Back” is…but I only now consider this a decent, passable album that marked (unfairly) the end of the public really, really paying attention to Wilco. Aside from maybe digging one or two of these songs out every once in a blue moon, I might never listen to it ever again.

5)Queen, Sheer Heart Attack: This is a decent early effort, but just decent, because it lapses obnoxiously between brilliance and cheesy filler. I know everyone cites “Symptom Of The Universe” by Black Sabbath as Song Zero for thrash metal but “Stone Cold Crazy” and “Brighton Rock” come stunningly close one year earlier, and I can’t beliiiieve I forgot about the latter. “Killer Queen” was nice to revisit too, one of their better music hall hits, though I haven’t revisited it primarily due to it still popping up in public from time to time. The one song I’ve repeatedly revisited from the album is actually “Flick Of The Wrist” which rolls along wonderfully like a little glammy speed-opera and which betrays their energy nicely. Of the cheesier, filler-ier stuff that I’d forgotten, I guess “Now I’m Here” starts out nice enough, “In The Lap Of The Gods” has a pleasant sleepiness to its title being chanted, and “Misfire,” a short filler song written by John Deacon, is a pleasant rediscovery due to brisky harmonized guitars from the then hepatitis-ridden Brian May. That’s enough to push the album past the mark, but crud like “Tenement Funster” and “Bring Back That Leroy Brown” does it no favors, and frankly it’s a miracle that it was good at all due to the band obviously having to rush the songwriting, which was kind of always a problem with them, and why I never think they really came up with a beginning to end wonderful album (certainly the big hit they did the next year is not that album, no sir, not in my book.)

FROM 2004:

6)Massive Attack, Mezzanine: In terms of production and style and sonics, this thing hasn’t aged a fucking day. It doesn’t sound like it was preserved in amber, either–I mean it sounds like it could have just as easily come out in 2024 as 1998. I guess trip-hop might be the most well-aged of 90s genres, even if it seemed like it just ended up informing other acts’ music more than being a big hit with the public in and of itself (am I wrong about that?) Every song here transports you to some rainy futuristic dark dystopian fantasy city. And yet, there’s a part of me that wonders how good the songs actually are under all that stunning production work…and I think I only really like about five of them, out of a 64 minute album. “Angel,” well, we all know how wonderful that one was, right? That’s the obvious opener that I’ve revisited the most, easily. I bet it’s that way for some of you, too–that metal break is just riveting, and that bassline still fucks my ear. I also remembered really liking “Exchange,” a trip through the clouds if there ever was one, and “Black Milk,” which flows so smoothly that I forget that it probably drags on too long. Of the stuff I forgot, I liked the dark “Risingson” and “Intertia Creeps” the best. Maybe if you put a gun to my head, I’d throw “Man Next Door” on there. I mean, it samples (and distorts) a classic Cure song! Uhm…then…errr…I dunno. I don’t feel like being picky, noting that I’m not sure that Elisabeth Fraser actually brought that much to the table with her guest vocals, or that one of the male vocalists sounds like a Mike Patton impersonator, or that I get slightly tired of the whole industrial trick of having a quiet part suddenly interrupted by big booming drums going “bunk, thock, PLONNKK thock, bunk, thock, PLONNKKK, thock”…or that it’s just hard for me to listen to an album full of six-minute long songs, regardless of genre. I’m embarrassed I don’t like the album more–like I said, it’s aged probably better than anything from that whole decade. You?