ShayLaB's 101 best albums (101 - 1).

[NothingFails]

I've never actually heard the whole album (in general I usually hate live albums) but I think the SMS version of Once In A Lifetime is better than the original.

[ShayLaB]

Almost without exception the songs are better than their studio versions. 'Heaven', for example, is transformed into one of my favourite songs. It was the tour to support the Speaking in Tongues album so many of the songs from that album are featured.

I do agree that it's rare that a live album enhances an artists catalogue but this is a real exception

[ShayLaB]

Even at this short remove I doubt I would have the same albums included if I did the chart again. So what I thought was an occasional additional entry if and when I came across something that could be worthy of inclusion.




Artist: Japan
Title: Gentlemen Take Polaroids
Year: 1980
Genre/Style: Pop/Rock, Art Rock, Punk/New Wave

Gentlemen Take Polaroids was released in 1981 and is the fourth album by Japan. They ended up being associated with Duran Duran and the New Romantic movement but their output is too usual for that to be a valid comparison.

Clips:
Gentlemen Take Polaroids
Taking Island in Africa

From Allmusic:

The last album with Rob Dean, Gentlemen Take Polaroids was also unquestionably the album in which Japan truly found its own unique voice and aesthetic approach. The glam influences still hung heavy, particularly from Roxy Music, but now the band found itself starting to affect others in turn. Even the back cover photo says as much — looking cool in glossy, elegant nightwear, the quintet had a clear impact on Duran Duran, to the point where Nick Rhodes obviously was trying to be Sylvian in appearance.

Musically, meanwhile, the swooning, hyper elegant Euro-disco sheen of Quiet Life was polished to an even finer edge throughout, the title track and the obvious descendant of "Quiet Life" itself, "Methods of Dance," in particular sheer standouts. Sylvian's sighing, luscious croon is in full effect on both, and the arrangements are astonishing, Karn's fretless purring between Jansen's crisp, inventive, and varied drumming, Barbieri's icy keyboards filling out the corners. What makes Gentlemen Take Polaroids even more of a success is how the group, having reached such a polished peak, kept driving behind it, transforming their exquisite pop into something even more artistic and unique. "Swing," in particular, is an astounding showcase for the Karn/Jansen team; snaky funk at once dramatic and precisely chilled, brass section blasts adding just enough wry, precise sleaze, Sylvian delivering with focus and intensity while not raising his voice at all. "Nightporter," meanwhile, is a hyper ballad and then some; a slow-paced semi-waltz with Barbieri's piano taking the lead throughout with wonderful results. Further hints of the future come with the album closing "Taking Islands In Africa," which Sylvian co-wrote with future regular collaborator Ryuchi Sakamato, and which wraps up the whole experience with a gliding, supple grace.

[ShayLaB]

Artist: Ike and Tina Turner
Title: Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter
Year: 2002 (but really 1969-1972)

I have been playing this non-stop for a little while now...probably even better than the (Phil Spector produced) River Deep Mountain High album.

From Allmusic:

Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter is a 21-track collection culled from one of Ike & Tina's most prolific and creative periods. It is also a largely forgotten period because they had no hits.

Ike & Tina had been many things in their long career: R&B pioneers, blues belters, stars of a soul revue, and pop stars. After coming off a tour with the Rolling Stones in 1969, Ike decided that the band needed to rock. He set about creating a hard-rocking brand of funk overloaded with proto-punk attitude perfect for the post-Woodstock and Altamont comedown. Ike's guitar playing is meaner than ever; he really attacks the strings on songs like "I Wanna Jump" and "The Chopper." Tina is at her snarling best throughout, cutting a wide path with her withering sneer and screaming emotion. It is especially fun on the title track to hear her reading the riot act to some jerk who is doing her dirt.

The whole disc lives up to its title. It is no doubt funkier than a mosquito's tweeter and heavier than a mosquito's woofer too. If you are a fan of Ike & Tina, you need this disc. If you are a fan of raw and nasty funk-rock, you need this disc. If you are a fan of music, you need this disc.

[ShayLaB]

Artist: Elvis Presley
Title: The '68 Comeback Special
Year: 1968


I am not a big Elvis fan. I have most of the albums that are regarded as classics (Elvis Presley, Elvis, Elvis is Black) but I never really connected with these. Perhaps time and subsequent musical trends have made them seem tame compared to more recent recordings.

This is different - a fantastic live document of one of the greatest cultural icons of the modern era. If you are looking for a introduction to Elvis I would thoroughly recommend this ahead of any studio albums.



I have pinched the following review from a chap Amazon but it sums it up exactly:

This album is the soundtrack to the '68 Comeback Special TV programme that relaunched Elvis Presley into a world that had largely forgotten why he was so famous in the first place.

After years or increasingly formulaic and forgettable films, Elvis went back to his roots in style and really knocked the opposition for six.

CD1 is the soundtrack of the show that was broadcast. It opens with a raucous version of Trouble/Guitar Man and from the opening verse, you know the man is going to deliver. CD1 includes many of the early hits, delivered live and spectacularly, but it also includes other hits plus a couple of medleys. The gospel medley gives Elvis the chance to go back to his original musical inspiration whilst the road medley lets him rock.

Although CD1 is excellent, CD2 is a real revelation. It contains other recordings from the concerts NBC recorded to make up the broadcast programme. Listening to it is like sitting in the audience listening to Elvis and his musicians jam. The mess about, they joke and interact with each other. In fact it's like they are sitting in Graceland jamming together for fun. There are mistakes and there are times when Elvis forgets the words but it all adds to the magic.

The whole album shows a raw, raucous, raunchy and rocking Elvis. Just the way he should always be remembered. Brilliant.

From Wikipedia:

Elvis, starring Elvis Presley, was the title of a 1968 United States television special. Sponsored by The Singer Sewing Machine Company, it aired on December 3, 1968 on the NBC television network. The special is commonly referred to as the '68 Comeback Special, because of subsequent developments in Presley's career, but the soundtrack album was released simply as NBC-TV Special.

Presley's informal jamming in front of a small audience in the '68 Comeback Special is regarded as a forerunner of the so-called 'Unplugged' concept, later popularized by MTV. It was directed by Steve Binder and produced by Binder and Bones Howe.

Despite huge success in both his music and acting careers following his release from the army in 1960, Presley's career had declined steadily in the years leading up to 1968. The music scene had changed dramatically since his last U.S. #1 single in 1962, and Presley was in no doubt that bands such as the Beatles were leading "the swinging sixties".



Partly due to the repetitive scripts and laughable song choices, as well as the general feeling that he was "uncool", Presley's films had been making less money with each release and he was tiring of Hollywood. Colonel Parker, Presley's manager, had found it increasingly difficult to secure the usual $1,000,000 fee for a Presley film, and had no alternative than to take a different approach. Parker negotiated a deal with NBC for $1,250,000 to finance both a television special and a film (1969's Change of Habit).

Parker wanted the show, which was scheduled as a Christmas season broadcast, to be little more than Presley singing Christmas carols. He believed the special could simply be a TV-version of the Christmas radio show Presley had contributed to the year before. Binder argued that the special was an opportunity to re-establish the singer's reputation after years of formulaic movies and recordings of variable quality. He and Howe hired writers to script a show with specific themes: they envisaged large set designs, dance sequences and big productions of Presley's hits. However, Binder was open to any variations on this that would showcase the singer's talent, and Presley was apparently very happy to go along with this flexible approach.

It was after rehearsals at Western Recorders that Binder took special note of how Presley and the other musicians would spontaneously unwind by improvising old blues and rock 'n' roll numbers. Binder commented: "...and that's when I really got the idea: Wouldn't it be great if I had a camera in here and they didn't know I was here?"

Presley is said to have been very apprehensive about the idea of performing live. His last live concert had been at the Bloch Arena in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on March 25, 1961. Binder offered a lot of support and reassurance to stop the singer from rejecting the idea of any live segments. He realized some songs already re-recorded or scheduled would need to be cut (The special was only an hour long). He quickly arranged for rehearsals to take place to capture the feel of Presley's informal studio jamming, drafting in the surviving members of Presley's original backing band - Scotty Moore and D. J. Fontana.

The edited broadcast of December 3 - combining the big, choreographed numbers, lavish sets and some of the informal live sessions - was an enormous success. The show was the highest-rated television special of the year. According to Binder, it was probably the first one-man TV special to appear on commercial American television. Previously, TV specials tended to be packed with guest stars, like Frank Sinatra's Timex Special of 1960, in which Presley himself appeared with other celebrities.

At the beginning of the '68 Special project, a nervous Presley had said to the executive producer Bob Finkel: "I want everyone to know what I can really do." Critics generally agree that the broadcast did show what Elvis Presley really could do - in addition to making profitable, if generally uninspired movies and soundtracks. The '68 Special is widely credited with revitalizing his career: chart statistics for the summer of 1968 suggest that Presley's recording career was becoming all but non-existent. After the special, he began his stint in Las Vegas and toured, achieving a string of record-breaking sell-out performances across America. Chart successes returned, including a U.S. number one in 1969 ("Suspicious Minds") and a U.K. number one ("The Wonder of You", (1970)) - his first since 1965.

The live segments of the '68 Comeback Special in particular gave the audience more than a glimpse of Presley's charismatic and emotionally charged performing style that won him his first fans in the 1950s.