Amph What Album Did You Just Hear?

That is indeed an awesome album.

 

Iron Maiden “The Final Frontier”, I love Iron Maiden for their albums from 80-90, but most of their output from 1992-2011 was average at best.

 

Humpty Dumpty's 40 Favorite Nursery Rhymes.


Remember when I was cool? Yeah...

 

H.E.R. (2017) – H.E.R.

H.E.R. is the pseudonym of young R&B artist Gabi Wilson. Prior to the release of this, her first full length album, she had released two EPs. On this album, she includes all of the songs from those EPs along with a duet with Daniel Caesar that had been previously released on one of Caesar’s albums and then six new songs. Technically, this makes this a compilation album, I reckon, but it had enough new material for the Grammys, I guess, who nominated it for Album of the Year. Regardless, if you’re guessing that two EPs, a duet from another artist and six new songs seems like it would be a lot of songs, you’re right. It’s twenty-two actually and the album clocks in at an epic 72 minutes. But darned if this isn’t the best R&B album I’ve heard in ages and ages and ages. With twenty-two songs, there’s not a dud in the bunch and there’s not a one that I wouldn’t have been pleased to listen to longer; with that long of a list, the tracks clock in at around three minutes a piece, with a few exceptions, and every time a song faded out I was really in the groove and not ready for it to end. The hooks are solid without being dumb and the lyrics are understated and simple. Wilson sings with a pretty unadorned style, spending a fair amount of time in her lower registers, the better to create the sultry, sexy vibe that pervades this album. She has range when she chooses to use it, but her vocals are quiet and heartfelt most often. The production is gorgeous, a lush kind of hip-hop inflected R&B that provides the perfect bed for Wilson’s voice. Her melodies are good and she’s able to evoke a whole range of emotions without any of them ringing false. From the melancholy and bereft, like the album opener Losing, to the swooning romantic, like the gorgeous, acoustic duet with Caesar, Best Part, to the dark, menacing rage of the thundering, bass heavy 2, she nails everything perfectly. Even for a debut full-length, this is pretty astonishing. I suppose it might be a case of her building up this amazing catalog of songs over the years before she was recording, but even at that, twenty-two songs without a single miss is incredibly rare. And she’s all of twenty-two years old, so consider it pretty preternatural and also color me very excited to see where she goes in the years (hopefully decades) to come. Ignore that opening. Wilson seems to be worried about losing; let me tell you, the girl is winning. 4 stars.

tl;dr – at over seventy minutes, there’s not a dud among the 22 songs here; heartfelt emotion, beautiful production and charismatic vocals make this the best R&B album in years. 4 stars.

 

*sighs*
Yep, late to this party too.



I love it.

 

First to the Moon - a soundtrack for a documentary about Apollo 8

 

Invasion of Privacy (2018) – Cardi B

I said we gon’ win
Knock me down nine times but I get up ten
Look at myself in the mirror, say we gon’ win
Knock me down nine times, I get up ten

Cardi B dropped her album into a market ready for her to be the next big thing. She’d had enough successful singles for her major label debut (she’d put out a couple of mixtapes already) to hit like a ton of bricks and it did exactly that. I’m basically okay with that because, even though the album is flawed and somewhat inconsistent, it’s still a startling debut and boasts enough genuine greatness to satisfy me that she’ll be more than a flash in the pan. Cardi B is front and center the star of this album, though she gets some great guest spots from, most notably, Kehlani, Bad Bunny, J Balvin & SZA, all of whom do stellar work. But it’s Cardi’s unstoppable attitude that gives this album the bite it needs to overcome its weaker moments. I like her voice and I mean the physical attributes of it, like the raspy tone and the solid, if sometimes not particularly remarkable, flow. But I also mean the ineffable qualities, the aggressiveness and arrogance and confidence. The strut, I suppose, I mean. I was surprised really at the amount of menace Cardi is able to muster here; I was most familiar prior to listening to this record with I Like It, the Cuban flavored banger anthem, and so I was expecting a lot of party music on this album. But really I Like It, which smartly comes at the half-point of the album and thus varies the tone at just the right time, is the outlier here; there’s a lot of darkly threatening trap music here and even when she’s being vulnerable, as on the quieter ballad Thru Your Phone or the excellent Be Careful, she’s still manages to be scary. But really I would say the first five tracks are the best and they get the album off to a riveting, compelling start. There are highlights after that, like the two R&B duets Ring with Kehlani and the boastful I Do with a masterful guest spot from SZA. But the album has a fair amount of weak material on it. Best Life is maybe the first bad Chance the Rapper track I’ve ever had and She Bad is incredibly annoying. Bartier Cardi was a huge hit, but I didn’t really care for it either. I quite like 21 Savage’s voice; it’s got a nice fry to it and he has a laid back style. But why is he perpetually spitting the worst lyrics ever? But, even if a third of the songs here range from pretty bad to forgettable, the album as a whole is under fifteen minutes, so it breezes by quickly. And when the album is good, it’s great. This isn’t the masterpiece some people have been calling it, but it’s a sharp, often brilliant calling card and here’s hoping Cardi B stays around and continues to improve as she does. 3 stars.

tl;dr – with several great songs and charisma to burn, Cardi B lays down a sharp, impressive calling card for her debut album; a few missteps aside, this album almost lives up to the swagger. 3 stars.

 

RR7349 by Survive

 

Carry On Rockin’ (1955) – Fats Domino

This is the debut album from Fats Domino, a major architect of rock & roll with a particular emphasis on its New Orleans branch. Just to clear up a bit of confusion, Carry On Rockin’ is the title of the original UK release. When it was released in the United States, it was under the title Rock & Rollin’ with Fats Domino. I prefer to call this one Carry On Rockin’, however, because when Domino released his second album the following year, in 1956, it was titled Fats Domino Rock & Rollin’, which lead to inevitable confusion that persists until today. When I was tracking down this album, I found an angry review that posited that this wasn’t the “real” Rock & Rollin’ album; the reviewer had apparently purchased Rock & Rollin’ with Fats Domino while looking for Fats Domino Rock & Rollin’. If this seems calibrated to cause confusion, well, maybe it was a prank of sorts; Fats Domino would later release back to back albums titled This is Fats & This is Fats Domino, so I’m starting to see a pattern.

Well, enough about that, I guess; on to the music itself, which is great, of course. When this album came out, Domino had been releasing singles for five years, so this is really just a compilation of his singles. This is kind of the mode of albums back in the early days. It starts with his first big hit, The Fat Man, and it’s an odd number; it doesn’t really sound quite like the Domino we’ve all heard before. The first two or three tracks here really aren’t particularly great; it’s obvious that he didn’t arrive fully-formed. His rollicking, charming New Orleans style sounds so natural that it’s easy to believe that it is, in fact, fully natural, but, like most artists, Domino had to find his groove. But after those first couple of tracks, things get going and the remaining tracks are great. There are twelve tracks and the album clocks in at just shy of thirty minutes (yeah, albums used to be super-short), so it’s a breezy, fun listen. Domino’s vocals are warm, conversational and upbeat as is his signature piano style. Even when he’s singing a song about going to the river to throw himself overboard and drown (can one actually throw oneself “overboard” at a river or is that actually just a boat thing?) he has energy and a bouncy kind of happiness. The most famous track here is Ain’t That a Shame, soon to be covered by Pat Boone, but I found all of the tracks to work. This is just enjoyable, consistently happy and energizing music. It’s hard for me to imagine the person who just wouldn’t like Fats Domino’s music, whether they’re two or a hundred-and-two. A couple of sketchy tracks at the beginning doesn’t hurt this album at all really. 4 stars.

tl;dr – Fats Domino’s debut album is a compilation of previously released singles; the first couple show an artist still searching for his sound, but the vast majority of the record is absolutely brilliant. 4 stars.

 

easily thom's best solo album. and arguably better than anything produced by radiohead since in rainbows. the trifecta of last i heard (...he was circling the drain), twist, and dawn chorus is really sublime. love.

 

Yes, in case you're wondering, I'm on one of my patented "artist based marathons," focusing this time on Fats Domino. This one is going better than the one I did on Frank Zappa. I'm on tap for nine albums, all within his first decade of recording.

Fats Domino Rock & Rollin’ (1956) – Fats Domino

This was Domino’s second album and it’s an improvement on his first in basically every way. I loved his first record, but on this second one, they’ve worked out the production issues to create a smoother sound, selected all around better songs and his vocal work has improved as well. None of this is to make this sound like it’s some kind of easy listening or anything. This is still fun, straight-ahead rock and roll, just like the label says, but the musicians are all on point and the remastering is really great. The album starts with My Blue Heaven, one of his best recordings of a standard. Other standouts are the frenzied When My Dreamboat Comes Home and My Heart is In Your Hands, a ballad that finds Domino reaching an emotional place he hadn’t really gone before. It’s not a heartbreaker or anything, but there’s a melancholy sweetness that really works. This album also features something that I didn’t know existed: the Fats Domino instrumental. And let me tell you, the Fats Domino instrumental is just as delightful as it sounds like it would be. Of the three instrumental tracks here, Swanee River Hop, which features an astoundingly great piano performance, and Second Line Jump, which has an easy groove, are the standouts. And, once again, the album clocks in at right around twenty-eight minutes; with twelve songs, it moves like lightning and leaves you wanting more. I often approach the icons with some trepidation; what if they don’t live up to the hype? With Fats Domino, that ain’t the case. 4 stars.

tl;dr – icon’s second album is an improvement on his first in every way: production values, vocal range, instrumental prowess; two albums in, he’s basically already earned his genius label. 4 stars.

 

This is Fats Domino (1957) – Fats Domino

Back when Fats Domino passed away, I went on record with my opinion that his recording of Blueberry Hill was one of the most perfect pop music recordings in history. I stand by that opinion; it’s kind of the ne plus ultra of everything that made him who he was and as great as he was. His simple, unadorned singing style; his affable charisma; an inspired song choice; a pitch perfect piano part; and memorable support from the band. All that is just to say that this album opens with Blueberry Hill and that’s really unfair to the rest of the album, which just doesn’t really have a chance at living up to that opening song. But still it takes a good shot at it and it’s impossible to dislike most of the rest of this album, just because it falls a bit short of, you know, actual perfection. Stand-outs from the rest of the album include Blue Monday, La-La, The Fat Man’s Hop & Poor, Poor Me. The rest of the tracks all deliver exactly what you expect, which is a darn good time. Reelin’ & Rockin’ is the rare exception to the rule created by Domino’s first three albums; it’s a song that just doesn’t work at all, mainly because it’s played at a painfully slow tempo. Speeding it up probably would have sold it; it’s a fairly typical rock’n’roll number, but imagine Rock Around the Clock played half as fast. Right? Still, it’s a super-fun album, often downright inspired. And, as usual, it’s twelve songs clocking in at under thirty minutes. It’s going to be hard to transition back to modern albums with their sixty to seventy minute lengths after this is over, I’ll tell you that. Brevity is the soul of a lot of things and it’s just kind of hard to dislike anything that goes by as quickly and joyfully as a Fats Domino record. Am I going to rate any of these less than four stars? Not today, I’m not. 4 stars.

tl;dr – opening with perhaps Domino’s most famous song sets the stage for a great time and the album delivers. 4 stars.

 

Underworld are essentially the Steely Dan or Tool of electronica. Densely sonic, constantly amorphous while true to their essence with less emphasis on song-by-song and more toward a sonic progression suite while still applying a songwriter's approach to their craft.

 

Speaking of Tool...



Undertow was really the only Tool album I ever got into, but it's great. I got it when it first came out, but I hadn't listened to it for quite a while until iTunes added the Tool catalog recently.

 

I'm definitely making time for them this year.

I don't have an album of theirs (yet) but Fear Inoculum will be my first once it's released. Loved the first single, the early reviews of the album are promising - cannot wait.

For me:

 

I’d recommend Undertow now while you wait for the new one. The others have good songs, but none of them is as consistently strong, IMO.

 

Yeeaaah but lyk....don't you lyk have to listen to a Toooool album lyk at least 50-100 timezzz to understaaaaand it?

I can't do that in seven days.

 

This is Fats (1958) – Fats Domino

Yes, just for maximum confusion, Fats Domino released an album called “This is Fats” immediately after releasing an album called “This is Fats Domino.” After the debut-sophomore album kerfuffle of Rock & Rollin’ with Fats Domino vs. Fats Domino Rock & Rollin’, I think it’s safe to say that someone at the record company was up to some hijinks. Regardless, this is a really great album, which shouldn’t be a surprise at this point. This album doesn’t have a song that I tend to think of as a big hit, but it’s still a really consistent, very strong album. Domino stretches on a couple of the tunes and he manages to hit some new emotional beats while also not losing his iconic persona. My Happiness is a sweet, contented love song that breaks some new ground and Valley of Tears is both somehow witty and sad and Fats nails both aspects. On other tracks, like The Rooster Song & Hey La Bas, he’s at his raucous, high-energy best. At a certain point, there’s just not much new to say about this. This is another thirty-minute burst of musical perfection. 4 stars.

tl;dr – great song selection, great performance level; a confusing title situation is the worst thing about this brilliant album. 4 stars.

 

Here Stands Fats Domino (1958) – Fats Domino

My experience of this album was pretty problematic and so I’m kind of struggling with how to give it a fair rating. For some reason, the sound quality on this album was not very good. I’d go so far as to say it was really bad by comparison with the other Domino records I’ve listened to recently. You have to weigh this kind of thing carefully. Remasters used to be pretty rare really and any time you listened to a CD release of an older album, you just had to kind of brace for really poor sound quality because the CD release would typically just take the cheapest route possible to get the music. This has changed quite a bit though in recent years; all of the other Domino albums I’ve listened to have boasted exceptional quality for their advanced age. Still, is the fact that the CD makers here did not do a full remaster the fault of the original artists? Well, no, so it seems weird to reduce the qualitative ranking of the album as a work of art because of something that the artists have nothing to do with, but all I can say is that it did negatively impact my experience of this album. I also think that the song selection isn’t as good here as on some of his other albums; but maybe that has something to do with the fact that I was hearing bad versions of these songs. It feels like all of these songs are pretty standard issue blues-tunes and that this album has less variation than some of his other records; or maybe they just all sound alike because they’re all pretty tinny and soupy. Maybe if I was listening to really crisp versions of these songs I’d hear the differences between them and the nuances Domino brought to them. Hard to say. Regardless, this album is still fun. Domino plays like a man possessed on the first two tracks especially, Detroit City Blues & Hide Away Blues, and his piano solos in those songs are absolutely brilliant. A lush, slow (for Fats Domino) rendition of I’m In the Mood for Love is a standout as is the one big hit here, I’m Walkin’.

Mentioning that brings up a couple of oddities. The first is that the sound quality actually varies from track to track in really startling ways. I imagine that the CD makers just snatched up what they could find in terms of digital versions of these tracks because I’m Walkin’, one of Domino’s biggest hits, is presented here in a version that has very obviously been really well remastered. It’s loud and crisp and so you go from a tinny track that sounds like Domino is singing into a bucket with a backing track so muddy you can hardly distinguish the drum beats to I’m Walkin’ where the beat just bursts out of the stereo and Domino is right up front with his vocals. Probably the most annoying thing though . . . is that this CD actually CLAIMS to be remastered! Given that the master for I’m Walkin’ apparently sounds really good, it seems hard to believe that the masters for all the other songs on the album actually sound this bad. I’m pretty darn sure this wasn’t remastered at all and it just so happened that a remastered version of I’m Walkin’ was readily available because of its popularity, so they included along with the other unremastered tracks. Well, at least this whole thing gave me more to say about this album than the previous ones; maybe just saying how great everything is was getting a little old. Still, it’s fast-paced and fun and short, like all the other albums, so I’m not going to subtract too much from this one. 3 ½ stars.

tl;dr – disappointing sound quality can’t help but detract a bit from this one & the song selection is a bit off, but this is still a fun album. 3 ½ stars.

 

My literal Monday morning music...

 

IT'S. HERE.

 

^Just listened to it.

God damn I missed Tool.