Focus: 'Moving Waves'
What is Focus? The album is called Moving Waves. On the cover beneath some (still?) water are four long-haired hippie dudes in a cloud, named Cyriel, Jan, Thijs, and Pierre. Side 2 consists of one...
View ArticleThe Kings: 'The Kings are Here' (1980)
Canada’s the Kings wrote one transcendent power-pop song. It’s called “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide,” (the “/” is there because it’s actually two songs on the LP), and it’s on the album The...
View ArticleElliot Easton: 'Change No Change' (1985)
Can sidemen make good records when they strike out on their own? The question returned to the front of my mind when I found Elliot Easton’s sole solo album, 1985’s Change No Change, earlier this summer.
View ArticleHilly Michaels: 'Calling All Girls' (1980)
Rock ’n’ roll has never been particularly silly, and grunge made things worse. Hilly Michaels, whose 1980 album Calling All Girls I found at the Broadway Salvation Army, is the anti-Cobain. The album...
View ArticleMarcus Joseph: 'Things I Meant to Say'
“Soft rock” is much maligned, viewed by the intelligentsia as fluff cynically foisted on the listening public while America burned. I have a much more positive view; as an unpretentious reaction to a...
View ArticleSpirit: '12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus' (1970)
So why do I keep buying records? Because I listen to them and I enjoy having them around. Sometimes the latter is more important than the former.
View ArticleRam Jam: 'Ram Jam' (1977)
One way to avoid the pitfalls of enduring rock stardom is to not endure. The ephemeral Ram Jam—comprising a group of guys who were thrown together by record executives and thus hardly merit the moniker...
View ArticleMC5: 'High Time' (1971)
When I found the album I thought to myself, “What kind of jackass would stuff this classic album in the Goodwill bin?” Upon reflection, however, I realized that I was the one engaging in jackassery.
View ArticleNeil Young's 'Time Fades Away' (1973)
Every time one is tempted to dismiss Neil Young as irrelevant, he roars back with a Harvest Moon or a Prairie Wind.
View ArticleThe Bee Gees: 'Saturday Night Fever' (1977)
Has any group in history as undeniably talented band as the Bee Gees been subject to as much derision as they have?
View ArticleAmerican Flyer: 'Spirit of a Woman' (1977)
Music trivia is like a great Pacific Ocean garbage island in my brain—it takes up a lot of space, has a half-life of 5,000 years, and will never allow anything else to sprout up in its place. Yet...
View ArticleAmbrosia: 'Life Beyond L.A.' (1978)
I’ve written previously about my affection for soft rock. To date, I have exactly zero converts to my basic view of soft rock, which is nothing more complicated than that it sometimes is enjoyable to...
View ArticleThe Zombies: 'Odessey and Oracle' (1968)
Odessey and Oracle (the lads couldn’t spell) is one of my best ever thrift-store finds. In summary, it is a blockbuster.
View ArticleCheap Trick: 'Heaven Tonight' (1978)
Cheap Trick is one of America’s greatest bands. They are criminally underappreciated. As proof, consider that Cheap Trick can’t sniff the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, even though it has inducted the...
View ArticleVanilla Fudge: 'Vanilla Fudge' (1967)
So how does this idea sound: Let’s take bona fide pop-rock classics such as “Ticket to Ride,” “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” and “She’s Not There,” and play them at half-speed. This will make the songs...
View ArticleThe Buckinghams’ 'Greatest Hits' (1969)
Collecting thrift-store musical jetsam has allowed me to learn a great deal about life in the 1960s.
View ArticleSly and the Family Stone's 'Greatest Hits' (1970)
Sly and the Family Stone are not generally mentioned with the giants of American rock ’n’ roll, but they should be. They presaged so many things that their history alone, quite apart from their music,...
View ArticleAutomatic Man: 'Automatic Man' (1976)
The career of guitarist Pat Thrall illustrates, among other things, that the music business is foremost a business.
View ArticleThe Buggles: 'The Age of Plastic' (1980)
Few one-hit wonders are as pathetic as VH1 led us to believe. Many, in fact, lead musically impressive post-hit lives while avoiding death and/or illegal activity and succeeding despite millions of...
View ArticleStevie Wonder: 'Songs in the Key of Life' (1976)
Music fans were subjected to a number of indignities during the 1970s. The Beatles and the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones, all chart-toppers in the 1960s, were replaced by the likes of Bo Donaldson...
View Article
