Five more albums that I'm sure I haven't listened to in at least ten years.
Procol Harum
I think I picked this one up from a used bin on the persuasion of a friend who was a serious Robin Trower fan. (Not that the guitarist has many casual fans, from what I've observed. Hey, dude hasn't gotten a lot of love from classic rock radio, so his fans are the ones who had to make the effort to get their hands on his music.) And I must say, Trower's guitar solos really stand out on this record. The album takes a little time to build up some steam; the first few songs seem to stick to a well-mannered flow. Everything sounds genuinely good here, though, from Gary Brooker's voice & piano to Matthew Fisher's organ playing to Trower's guitar to the rhythm section. It's just that the musicians don't start to rock until Side A is almost over, with "Cerdes (Outside the Gates Of)." Things continue to build up on Side B, with "A Christmas Camel" and especially "Kaleidoscope" — tracks that not only benefit from Trower's leads but from the way everything seems to rev up as the songs build. Overall, I can't say the album inspires me to seek out more of Procol Harum's material, but I'm certainly not unloading it. I can see myself giving a listen or two to more of Robin Trower's recordings, too.
The Producers – Run for Your Life
The sticker on the plastic sleeve states that this LP was added to the used bin (wherever that bin was) on August 2nd ... and categorizes it as "New Wave." (Thanks, that helped.) I was already familiar with the first two albums by this Atlanta band. Apparently, though, not enough record buyers shared that familiarity with me, because the guys released this third album on a small Atlanta-based label. They're sticking to much the same sound — unmistakably Eighties, but not egregiously so. The drums tend to boom a lot, and the keyboard player likes to add those big whooshy effects, but at least the production gives the instruments plenty of space to boom and whoosh in. And the singer is pretty good. The problem with
Run for Your Life is that it's full of second-rate songs. The Producers apparently put all the inspiration they had into those first two albums; nothing here stands out like "What's He Got" or "She Sheila." Yeah, this one isn't sticking around.
Public Enemy – Yo! Bum Rush the Show
I picked this up new, back when it was a hot new release, probably on the recommendation of a favorable review. Public Enemy wasn't yet the politically charged, controversy-generating group that they would become with their next album — not with songs like "Sophisticated Bitch," "You're Gonna Get Yours" and "Miuzi Weighs a Ton." But they definitely had a confrontational sound. Unlike De La Soul's debut album, this album establishes a groove right up front; it had my foot tapping and my leg twitching with the Bomb Squad's heavily layered grooves from the get-go. Chuck D's raps are strong and solid, although mixed just a bit low. Flavor Flav's blurts, on the other hand, seemed to be mixed higher than they ought to be. (He's always been called Chuck D's foil, but to me, he seems more like an irritating tag-along. All his "Yo Chuck, know what I'm sayin'?" talk just sounds like he's butting in, even though he's got nothing to add.) And the album seems to limp to the finish line, with "Terminator X Speaks with His Hands." Still too good to take to the used bin, though.
Suzi Quatro – Your Mama Won't Like Me
I suspect most Americans of a certain age would remember Suzi Quatro from her role on
Happy Days. And I suspect most Brits in that same age range (or a bit older) would think that us Yanks didn't even scratch the surface of Suzi's talent. I guess this LP represents her record company's effort to break her to an audience that would extend beyond just her glam fans in the UK. This effort was enacted through stripping away the rock 'n' roll aspects of Quatro's sound and replacing it with some semi-funky grooves, making her sound like a more amateurish, less believable Bonnie Raitt. A couple of songs narrowly escape this fate ("Paralyzed," "You Can Make Me Want You") but on most tracks, the overused keyboards weigh down the arrangements, and the guitarist plays like he got a new wah-wah pedal for Christmas. And the arrangements serve to make the flaws in Quatro's voice more noticeable. I'm sure my mom wouldn't care much for her singing ... although I think, generally, they'd get along fine.
The Rads – Scream of the Real
My wife brought the Rads album
Life's a Gamble into the marriage ... and believe me, that fun, energetic album has never come anywhere close to being considered for a culling. This four-song EP is the only other item by this band that either of us ever has found for sale. (They're called The Radiators in their native Australia; that probably has something to do with it.) The songs on this one measure up to the expectations that
Life's a Gamble set for us: great playing, a cool rockin' sound that's very Eighties (in a good way), and good songs with a wiseass edge. A keeper ... not to mention an incentive to search out more of The Radiators' music. (This one gets docked a point, though, for the ass-ugly cover.)
