No 90’s music this time even I really debated what I should write about so this time around I went a little further back in time to 1981. the year before I was born. I’ve always seen this album around in record shops and Classic Rock radio stations but I never cared to look at it.
Nothing against the Stones, I just figured that any worth listening to, I had already heard on the radio. But I’ve recently taken a deeper look at their catalog after seeing The Darjeeling Limitedand hearing the song “Play with Fire” playing during the movie and I am shocked at how much material of the stones people don’t even know.
After some searching, I found this album with great songs that I can blow out the speakers to, while driving down the road at 100 MPH. Most of the people who hear me blasting this album out of the car ask me “who is that? I really like that”. To their surprise I tell them it’s The Rolling Stones.
“Start Me Up” is a good song that I’ve heard a million and half times, so I didn’t really feel too strong for this song when I was heard it on this album almost thought it was a greatest hits(Partly because it was in all those Windows commercials back in the 90’s). “Little T&A” really got me with the Sexy lyrics and the beat kept me going for a while after listening to it 5 times in a row (I don’t care if the song isn’t P.C., but frankly I don’t give a shit it’s a good song). “Tops” has a great chorus that I don’t care if anyone sees or hears me sing in the car, good stuff and I don’t care if you like it or not. “No Use Crying” made me think of some old Cholo jams, with that bass line and harmonizing at the beginning of the song almost like James Brown’s “Please, Please, Please” there’s allot of soul in this song.
This album ends well with “Waiting on a Friend”. Almost like this is the point where everything changes for them, and that the style of this song is similar to what will happen in the 80’s to rock music, great stuff anyways.
Ok this is the second entry here and it looks like it’s just 90's music. But this is an album that I had as a kid, which was destroyed by constant playing over and over again. (CD’s were an inferior format that begged to be replaced by something cheap and reliable)
This is a great album that always set me at ease, even though it didn’t really make an impression on anyone else, but me. It’s sad that somewhere around a year later that they were calling it quits after 13 years. I remember reading about in Rolling Stone magazine that the bands, back when print was actually important.
People complained that the album wasn’t as good as “Superunknown”. But you can’t always do the same thing twice and for a band that had been around for a while doing something different wasn’t a bad idea. In this album I could hear allot of the bands influences and it really opened my ear to music that before my generation and in genres that I didn’t grow up with. There are elements that I can hear of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath in the songs “No Attention” mad “Unkind”. Not all the songs were meant for mainstream radio like for example “Ty Cobb” and “Boot Camp”.
It starts kind of slow for some and artsy, but I think it ends well almost like it was fitting for the bands end (at the time). Looking back at it now, it makes me think if the band still has life in it to do something like this again. Let’s hope threes still something in the tank for a new album. And its not a rehashing of old material or another live album.
When I first listened to this album, the first song "Girls&Boys" just brought back annoying memories of Mtv's the Grind. But that's the thing about albums; you may not like every song on the album, but there are gems to be had. The next track "Tracy Jacks" was good, as was "End Of A Century" and "ParkLife". The album really didn't start for me till "London Loves" came on. I play that song over and over again when I’m on the road, I love the Harmonizing they do when singing the line in the chorus ”London Loves, the mystery of a speeding car, London loves the mystery of a speeding heart".
Honestly in the 90's I didn't give much attention to Blur because the first song on this album and the constant bombardment of "Song 2" on the self titled album. It seems that I really missed out, or it maybe that I am finally mature enough to enjoy music that isn't just a bunch of guys screaming and trying to get louder than the band before, but with less talent.
All in All I really dig this album, even though two songs stick out the most "Girls&Boys" and "London Loves". It maybe obscure for allot of people but that's the point of this Blog to find stuff From The Mess
