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'Cause I Sez So (Album of the Day)
Thursday, September 10, 2015
During their initial run – which ended on this day in 1974 – the New York Dolls' glammy gender-bending and street-tough rock earned the respect of legions of future punks. Fast forward some 35 years and surviving Dolls David Johansen and Syl Sylvain still have all the sass and swagger of their prime on CAUSE I SEZ SO. Todd Rundgren had helmed the band's debut and returns in the same capacity for this 2009 Atco album, helping the quintet push its sonic envelope a bit beyond the Stonesy racket of yore. A reggae-tinged reworking of their '70s classic “Trash” may be the most striking example of this, but the beautiful pop melody of “Lonely So Long” and the propulsive R&B of “Nobody Got No Bizness” show the Dolls can wear any style and make it look great. The New York Dolls still reign supreme – if only CAUSE I SEZ SO.
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Michael Bublé (Album of the Day)
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Canadian performer Michael Bublé played countless forgettable gigs during his rise to stardom, but his stint as a wedding singer in 2000 for the former Prime Minister's daughter would change his life. Among the high-powered guests at the ceremony was hitmaker David Foster, who was sufficiently impressed to produce Bublé's next album. A platinum seller in several countries around the globe, MICHAEL BUBLE glistens with Foster's customary studio sheen, but what makes the collection so enjoyable is Bublé's ability to look at old songs in new ways. Standards like “The Way You Look Tonight” and “Come Fly With Me” lend themselves naturally to Sinatra-esque crooning, but a swingin' big band approach to songs like Van Morrison's “Moondance” or Queen's “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” is surprising and equally effective. Michael Buble turns 40 today, and we'll wish him a happy birthday with his major label debut.
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Triangle (Album of the Day)
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
As the title and cover art of TRIANGLE suggest, by 1967 The Beau Brummels were down to a trio: guitarist Ron Elliott, vocalist Sal Valentino and bassist Ron Meagher; despite their diminished numbers, the three managed to create one of their finest albums. To do that, the group put touring aside and focused their efforts on the studio. It also helped that session aces like guitarist James Burton, drummer Jim Gordon and keyboardist Van Dyke Parks lent a hand during recording. But perhaps most crucially, producer Lenny Waronker was receptive to original material (the Brummels' previous Warner Bros. set was predominantly covers), and as writers, Elliott and Valentino rose to the occasion. Songs like “Magic Hollow,” “The Wolf Of Velvet Fortune” and “Only Dreaming Now” effectively blend the folk-rock of the band's earlier hits with the artier psychedelia then in the air to make TRIANGLE one of the Summer of Love's most unheralded gems.
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Warren Zevon (Album of the Day)
Monday, September 7, 2015
Warren Zevon may have written songs for The Turtles and led a band for The Everly Brothers, but upbeat pop-rock was just his day job. To judge from 1976's WARREN ZEVON, the singer-songwriter's real passion was for richly detailed, somewhat acerbic character sketches. His singular talent along those lines wasn't lost on the Southern California music community; Jackson Browne produced Zevon's Asylum debut, recruiting members of Fleetwood Mac, The Beach Boys and Eagles to lend a hand. The arrangements provide bright frames to dark portraits of “Frank And Jesse James,” “Desperados Under The Eaves” and others (though not so dark as to scare Linda Ronstadt off; she covered “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” and “Hasten Down The Wind” to great success). Warren Zevon passed away on this day in 2003, and this outstanding album makes a fitting epitaph – smart, memorable and not the least bit sentimental.
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Mythology (Album of the Day)
Friday, September 4, 2015
When siblings sing together, the harmony is often so close that individual voices are hard to distinguish; one of the most illuminating aspects of the Bee Gees' MYTHOLOGY is that each of the Gibbs gets his own share of the spotlight. The 4-volume set devotes a disc to each brother; Barry and Robin selected their personal favorites for the 2010 collection, and the families of Maurice and Andy picked theirs. The 81 tracks range from such early pop classics as “To Love Somebody,” “Massachusetts” and “I've Gotta Get A Message To You” (which reached No.1 in the U.K. on this day in 1968) to such '70s dancefloor smashes as “Jive Talkin',” “Stayin' Alive” and “More Than a Woman.” Along with the hits, MYTHOLOGY unearths the previously unreleased "Angel of Mercy," "The Bridge" and "Arrow Through the Heart." From the crest on its cover art, this lovingly compiled boxed set has the feel of a family album, and is an ideal survey of one of the greatest brother acts in musical history.
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Back To School (Album of the Day)
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Time to grab your backpack and head back to school! Get the essential Back To School compilation featuring some of your favorite tracks including The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Hypnotize," Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop, "Deee-Lite's "Groove is in the Heart" and more on Apple Music now for $6.99 until 9/7.
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My Feeling For The Blues (Album of the Day)
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Freddie King, beloved by blues aficionados as “The Texas Cannonball, was born on this day in 1934. While the performer had his biggest hits on the fabled King Records label during the 1960s, fans are quick to point out that King's end-of-the-decade stint on Atlantic produced work that was just as memorable. Case in point: MY FEELING FOR THE BLUES. The 1970 set, helmed by sax great King Curtis and featuring horn arrangements by Donny Hathaway, frames King's amazing axework perfectly, but the real revelation on these 11 tracks is how soulful Freddie was as a singer. From the opening “Yonder Wall” to the closing title track, the underrated MY FEELING FOR THE BLUES will have you feeling them, too.
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Just One Look: Classic Linda Ronstadt (2015 Remastered) (Album of the Day)
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
From the moment Linda Ronstadt arrived on the Los Angeles folk-rock scene in 1964, her talent was obvious. This woman could sing the phone book and make it sound like poetry; fortunately she had better source material (Warren Zevon and Eagles were among the up-and-coming acts who supplied her with hits, and Ronstadt's ear for oldies ready to be rediscovered was second to none). The new JUST ONE LOOK: CLASSIC LINDA RONSTADT spotlights the singer's peerless interpretive skills and versatility on 30 newly remastered tracks. The two-disc set spans a quarter-century of music from her 1967 commercial breakthrough (“Different Drum”) to the title track of her 1993 album WINTER LIGHT. Among the Top 10 hits in-between are “You're No Good,” “Blue Bayou,” “How Do I Make You” and her duet with Aaron Neville, “Don't Know Much.” An ideal overview of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's glory days, JUST ONE LOOK merits many listens.
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A Rush of Blood To The Head (Album of the Day)
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Their successful debut had marked British quartet Coldplay as a band to watch, a fact not lost upon them when they entered a London studio with producer Ken Nelson to make their second album. Those sessions struck the group as too similar to PARACHUTES, so they headed to Liverpool and worked up an album that sounded a bit more urgent – and turned out to be even more successful than its predecessor. A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD rushed to the No.1 slot on the U.K. chart on this day in 2002, and went on to earn more than 15 million in worldwide sales along with a pair of Grammy Awards. “In My Place,” “The Scientist,” “Clocks” and “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face” are among the tracks that took off as singles, helping earn this outstanding collection a spot on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of “The Definitive 200 Albums of All Time.”
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Moondance (Deluxe) (Album of the Day)
Monday, August 31, 2015
From his earliest recordings with Them, it was clear that Van Morrison was one of rock's greatest vocalists, and ASTRAL WEEKS confirmed that he was an equally brilliant writer. But that beautiful song cycle wasn't a hit; it was the follow-up, 1970's MOONDANCE, that put Morrison into the Top 40, selling steadily over the years to go triple platinum. An accessible fusion of blue-eyed soul, jazz and the music of Morrison's native Ireland, the collection has been hailed by the likes of Time and Rolling Stone as one of the greatest ever made. The Deluxe Edition of MOONDANCE offers a rare look at Morrison's creative process; along with a meticulously remastered version of the original album, the set includes some 50 previously unreleased recordings from the sessions, including multiple takes of such favorites as “Caravan,” “Into The Mystic” and the title track, as well as “I Shall Sing,” a song which didn't make the album but later became a hit for Art Garfunkel. Van the Man turns 70 today; we'll wish him a happy birthday with this definitive look at one of his summit achievements.
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