The progenitor of smooth as the top of his game: this particular record is often referred to as Brazil's equivalent to Kind Of Blue. Lavish praise? Yes. Hyperbole? Not at all.
Welcome to the antithesis of stress, weariness and the endless drama that assaults you every day of your mundane lives.
Ireland's one and only classic prog. rock band, and this here debut was quite the doozy in retrospect: think early King Crimson with a more harmonic vocalist, thicker basslines and at times an edgier pop sensibility of sorts: your imagination will serve you well long before thee ears behold the glory.
For many people, this stands atop the cocaine mountain of 80's pop albums (beaten out perhaps only by Tears For Fears's Songs From The Big Chair), and it's not hard to hear why: the subject matter here hits hard more often than not, the beats are catchy, and Madonna's classic vocals are appealing even if you despise pop-anything from the bottom of your core.
All this being said....my birthday was yesterday. Huzzah?
A classic R&B/New Jack Swing debut from the early 90's that bridged the music of top rate acts like Bobby Brown and Guy to the burgeoning neo-soul era beget by brothas like Seal, D'Angelo and Maxwell...and in my opinion this is the absolute cream of that particular crop of early nineties releases. B.M. himself is in fine form as far as vocals go, but unlike the majority of his contemporaries he's a multi-instrumentalist with a warm, jazzy sense of melodic songwriting (hear classic cuts like 'The Way Love Goes' 'Is The Feeling Gone' and a wicked hot cover of a certain famous Hall & Oates single for more details) that accentuates the talents that had led him to outlast everyone else in his scene (he's still going strong as of 2011).
Along with featuring the prominently overplayed yet fairly unique jazzy late 90's hit college-rock single "I'll Be", this jangle-laden little record is surprisingly powerful and interesting all the way through, not unlike classic Dave Matthews Band or Vertical Horizon as far as musical potency goes. Underrated and highly recommended by yours truly! Listen Here -"See The Sky Again"
Black and brooding prog. rock from ye old Italia, but executed via a wonderful modern sensibility in tow with darksome occultic leanings. Come all ye faithful and indulge thineselves...
More classic thrash/doom metal courtesy of Satan and his demonic cohorts. Features a mindbogglingly great cover of Black Widow's classic dark prog. suite 'In Ancient Days'.
Now here's something nice and cozy for a cold day. To sum up this underrated/independent folk singer-songwriter, think larger-than-life Biblical imagery a-la early 70's America and Dan Fogelberg and mix it in with some wicked smooth jazz-pop/late 80's Westcoast production and instrumentation and you have one hell of a monstrously listenable pop-folk record. The comparisons to Kenny Loggins are probably inevitable, but they sound nothing like one another despite having complementary backgrounds.
Most of you are probably tired of my rare Westcoast posts at this point, but this is one of those times I'm going to tell you to shut up and give this a spin. You know that really positive (and awesome sounding) aspect of the 80's that often got buried deep beneath the endless dance beats and synthesizers? Here's a slice of that, courtesy of moi.
A TFF without the duo aspect really (C. Smith had left by this point due to disagreements), this 1993 release sees pop maestro Roland Orzabel trying his hand at early 90's Adult Contemporary. And when I mean try, I mean fuck around with a normally generic formula and cut some damn nice tunes in studio, bringing in everything from ambient to alternative to prog. rock into a radio-amiable context without missing a beat.
Although its not quite the quality monster as the band's mid-to-late 80's records are, fans of progressive pop along the lines of Kevin Gilbert and the less insipid output of Mike & The Mechanics will find themselves salivating uncontrollably...but I also believe the rest of you will thoroughly have fun with this too.
Japanese piano/beat oriented techno with a tendency towards the cinematic and picturesque. Probably too smooth for clubs, but it sets a fine mood if you just want to kick back for awhile. As the title infers, there's a lot of piano here, so be prepared for that going in.
I've been awaiting this sophomore effort with bated breath the last couple of years, and goddamn was it worth the wait! WoA are easily the best 80's AOR-inspired band to emerge on scene since that long-gone decade (they proved their legitimacy on 2008's debut), and its everything you could want in a melodic rock album: killer choruses, shitloads of shred guitar, keyboard lines that dazzle the ears, and best of all an immaculate production topped wonderfully with a blazing enthusiasm for life and love long lost.
2011 has been one hell of a year for a variety of genres, and AOR is no exception folks. Dig it!
Although they'd later become one of the more prominent acid jazz innovators of the 90's, this fiery debut serves as both a wicked good early 80's funk record and a phenomenal ahead-of-it's-time indicator of how the jazzier side of funk & soul music would evolve over the next two decades. The musically mindful of you who are looking for something warm and timeless in the vast wasteland of post-disco will recognize JazzFunk as the oasis that it is and drink deep for many years to come.
Iron Maiden meets L.A. glam with some good old fashioned sword n' sorcery pulp to fill in the gaps. The fact you can actually hear those monstrous baselines roar through your speakers (unlike a lot of heavy metal from yonder) make this late 80's masterpiece an even sweeter deal than you'd believe possible. Don't waste my kindness here!
More damning than a demon's curse indeed, and a cult classic in multiple senses. It's also the only one of its kind in all of folk music canon: evil and propulsive and utterly uncanny in its grasp of both beauty and ugliness.
I'd be pretty surprised all in all if you guys haven't at least heard of this, but assuming the former I hope you enjoy this record. Includes three bonus tracks from the original recording sessions along with remastered audio for everything.
