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Album Reviews
Album Reviews

Album Reviews

Big Star-Radio City (via @OneWeekOneBand)

oneweekoneband:

To all intents and purposes, Radio City is a pretty strange album too. As with the later Third (which I spent enough time rattling on about yesterday), it wasn’t quite the work of a band at all. Members come and went, the sessions were irregular and erratic – a couple of the songs were even recorded by a scratch band in Chilton was the only member of Big Star actually present. They, incidentally, called themselves the Dolby Fuckers – the name allegedly stemming from Chilton’s cluelessness about certain studio gizmos (ie: “What the hell are these Dolby fuckers?”)

Yet, for all the haphazardness of its construction, it’s a damn tight bunch of performances – albeit veering far from the glistening power pop of #1 Record. Sure, Chris Bell’s fingerprints are smudged across a couple of the tracks here, like ‘Back of a Car’ – one of the only things that rocks in the same determined way as its predecessor. Otherwise, Chilton’s material – although expertly played – is surprisingly slack; ‘Mod Lang’ and ‘Life Is White’ are hazy stoned paeans to not much at all, while ‘She’s a Mover’ may be the only Big Star song that choogles.

It’s an incredible record in its own terms, and you couldn’t really pick a stand-out if you tried…save, of course, for one song in particular. You can probably guess which one I’m talking about.

[pictured above – alternate cover for Radio City. Photo by William Eggleston. L-R: Jody Stephens, Andy Hummel, Alex Chilton]

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Album Review: Pure Swamp-Pop Gold Vol. 10

The pre-Beatles South was an interesting place where a number of regional musical genres were spawned by the intersection of African-American rhythm and blues and white teenagers. The music that British musicologists ultimately dubbed “Swamp Pop” resulted from Cajun kids discovering Fats Domino and Little Richard, much like Beach Music elsewhere in the South sprang from R & B groups like the Tams and the Drifters. But swamp pop had little of the gaiety and joie-de-vivre of Beach Music. Indeed, there was something far darker, primal, even heart-breaking about it, for swamp pop was rooted as much in Cajun country music as rhythm-and-blues. With the release of Pure Swamp Pop Gold Vol. 10, Van Broussard’s CSP label gives old fans and newbies alike a 21-song journey through the world of contemporary swamp pop, which, like Beach Music, is a world where the 1950’s largely never ended. The heartbreak is there, of course, in songs like “Lord, I Need Somebody Bad Tonight”, but there are also love songs like Wayne Foret’s “That’s What I’ll Do”, covers of swamp pop standards, like Kenny Cornett’s take on Johnnie Allan’s “Promised Land”, and the odd oldie, like Van Broussard’s “Hold My Hand”. Of course the best place to check out swamp pop music is in a Louisiana dance hall, but for those unable to make the trip, Pure Swamp Pop Gold 10 will serve as a swamp pop fix until you can get down there. 

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Album Review: Colt Ford’s “Chicken and Biscuits” @coltford

The marriage of rap and country is not as contrived as one might first imagine. For one thing, if hip-hop was born in New York, that doesn’t change the fact that many of its originators were the children of African-Americans who had recently migrated from the South. Furthermore, there is a fairly long tradition of “talking records” in country, a tradition that might have been influenced by “talking blues” from Black rural communities. So what Colt Ford is doing with his sophomore album Chicken and Biscuits is not a divorce from the grand tradition of country music, but a contribution to it. Songs like “Cricket on a Line”, “Nothing in Particular” and “We Like to Hunt” celebrate the classic pastimes of the traditional South, but from a younger perspective. The title track portrays the ideal woman, comparing her to the goodness of a plate of chicken and biscuits. “Ride On, Ride Out” is a collaboration with DMC of Run-DMC, and “Hip-Hop in a Honky Tonk” deals with some of the ambiguities of country’s attitude toward rap. “Convoy” is a remake of the classic 70’s trucker anthem, which was itself a sort of rap. Ultimately, while Chicken and Biscuits may not be every country fan’s cup of tea, it is great fun, and masterfully conceived. 

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Album Review: Mississippi Fred McDowell “Come And Found You Gone”

Mississippi Fred McDowell, of course, is a legend. He was one of the first country bluesmen to be rediscovered and recorded by scholars, and toward the end of his life toured across the country and overseas. Although he would claim “I don’t play no rock-and-roll music”, songs he performed like “Get Right Church” were covered by the Rolling Stones, and he guest appeared on an album with Don Nix. So for the fan of Mississippi traditional blues, the first commercial issue of these field recordings made by the eminent blues scholar Bill Ferris is a welcome discovery. McDowell’s home community of Como is stuck just where the hill country meets the Delta, and likewise, McDowell’s blues style seems to cross-breed the hill country and Delta styles. There are familiar standards here, of course, like “John Henry” and “Little Red Rooster”, but also unusual original compositions like “Dream I Went to the U.N.” where the lyrics say he went to “set the nation right.” There are also gospel tunes, including “Get Right Church”, “I Got Religion”, “You Gonna Meet King Jesus” and McDowell’s take on “Where Could I Go?” a tune that springs from the white country gospel tradition. On various tunes, McDowell is joined by his wife Annie Mae, and his friend Napoleon Strickland on harmonica. On the final track is an excerpt of an interview with Bill Ferris regarding these recordings. Extensive liner notes and photos increase the value of this lovingly-conceived issue of recordings that resurrect a voice from the grave. To listen to “Come and Found You Gone” is almost like spending an afternoon with Mississippi Fred McDowell on his front porch.

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Mixtape Review: OG Boo Dirty “The Story of OG”

I’ll admit that I had never heard of OG Boo Dirty until the now-infamous confrontation that apparently occurred between him and some of Yo Gotti’s people at the Level II. And I honestly wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary when I downloaded this mixtape. And besides that, I am, and have always been, a fan of Yo Gotti. But I have to admit that this mixtape surprised me for its consistent quality. For one thing, the production quality is stellar, with first-rate beats throughout. And, even more to my surprise, OG Boo Dirty is a better-than-average rapper, and while street rap usually seems tired and redundant to me these days, he does it well. Obviously, the high points of the mixtape are the two songs that are starting to be heard everywhere in Memphis these days, “She’s A Freak”, and “South Memphis Stand Up” another anthem for those on the Southside alongside Gangsta Blac’s legendary “South Parkway.” Altogether not a bad mixtape. Click on the cover to download and enjoy. 

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