Duke Ellington & Ray Brown- This One's For Blanton (1975)- ***1/2
The Ventures- Play The Country Classics (1963)- ***1/2
Dennis Alcapone feat. Lizzy- Ba-Ba-Ri-Ba-Skank (1992)- ****
(Solid collection of toasting and early ska, recorded between 1971-1973 with Tommy McCook and The Supersonics backing. Get it HERE, if you so desire.)
Sugar Minott- Wicked Ago Feel It (1984)-****
(An all-timer!)
Todd Rundgren- State (2013)- ***1/2
(Not a fave of mine, but I enjoyed a lot of it today.)
The Midnight Callers- Red Letter Glow (2020)- ***1/2
Brian Dunne- Clams Casino (2025)- ***
(Nice record, if a bit samey. I quite liked the one below.)
Davey Lane- Finally, A Party Album (2025)- ****
(Fun spin. At times, like 80's Utopia/Cheap Trick. A bit of Jason Falkner. I think this is a grower. Looking forward to the second spin.)
Todd Rundgren- Todd: Stems (1973)- ***1/2
David Byrne w/The Ghost Train Orchestra- Who Is The Sky? (2025)- **
(I hated this. Really. It made me angry. Is this a children's record? A cast recording to an off-off-off-Broadway musical? It's not cute at all. Not being in on the joke is always a dealbreaker.)
David Bowie- Aladdin Sane (1973)- ****
(First Bowie record I bought upon release, using allowance money. Sugar Mountain Records on Sheepshead Bay Road in Brooklyn. I will never play this one and NOT have the visual of that store. All that aside, this record still works 52 years later.)
The Dukes Of Stratosphear- 25 O'Clock (1985)- ****
X- Smoke & Fiction (2024)- ****
6 comments:
Looking forward to the Dennis Alcapone for the Tommy McCook aspect.
Tried the new Cha Wa and got thru half. Seemed full of cliches. Disappointed.
- Paul in DK
I wasn't expecting much from the Cha Wa after hearing the first two singles. I'll give it a chance anyway.
Bowie's "Aladdin Sane" had a lot of high expectations to live up to following the previous epic release "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars". It more than delivered and cemented Bowie's rise to fame.
The David Byrne is not good. But I enjoyed hearing his voice and think the opener "Everybody Laughs" is solid. And "She Explains Things To Me" was interesting as a song from someone on the spectrum who is not good at picking up social cues. But way too whimsical and jokey, with "The Avant Garde" almost embarrassing in its silly putdown of the very stuff Byrne has drawn upon over the years. Maybe it's ironic or whatever, but it's not earned and just dumb. I wouldn't play the album twice.
This is not the first time he's donee this. "True Stories." "The Knee Plays." I think he's finally got more crap than solid work.
Oh I think you're right about Byrne. But it's like Woody Allen: he makes movies, whether he should or not. Happily, it's easy to know most of Talking Heads and just a handful of solo albums give you everything you need to know about Byrne. Plus his record label was (is?) great. So good for him.
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