The Rewind Button: Seven Album Wrap-up

Posted on 2013/01/122013/01/12 by Jason Hensel

The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them.

I tried for many months to avoid writing a multi-album post. I wanted to focus each entry on an individual artist or band. However, I’ve learned a lot about myself and music during this project. Primarily, I don’t enjoy writing about music that much. I mentioned that in a previous Rewind Button entry, and here at the end, upon reflection, my feeling still holds true. That means for a lot of these albums, I struggled to write about them. Perhaps I tried to make the reviews harder than they needed to be. The reviews I enjoyed writing the most were the ones that I let the words tumble out of my head, unconscious of where my thoughts were going.

Maybe I do, then, enjoy writing about music if I can do it the same way I listen to albums. That is, totally immersed in feeling. In the end, I’m happy that I took part in this project, and I’m grateful for the invitation to do so. I’ve discovered other blogs and writers that are now saved in my bookmarks, and I’ve listened to some albums that I had never heard before that I now love (Stevie Wonder) and ones that I can’t stand (Joni Mitchell). It’s been a fun project, and I’m finishing it with these final seven albums.

The Band — Music From Big Pink

The song “The Weight” is a staple at karaoke spots in these parts. It’s an okay song, and it’s the only original song on this album that I liked. The other song, “Long Black Veil” is a cover song, and The Band does a good version of it. Overall, though, I found this album uninspiring. It’s not one that I will listen to again.

David Bowie — The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

Bowie rarely fails me. I appreciate that he pushes himself and the art of music, and Ziggy Stardust is a winner for me. In our current age of singles and quick hits, it’s refreshing to go back in time and listen to an album that told a story, that provided a narrative to the music, that tried to show there was more you could do with rock music. This a top 20 album for me.

Carole King — Tapestry

Carole King is one of the world’s greatest songwriters. Tapestry, though, was just an okay album for me. I had never heard it before, and I kept seeing it on best-albums-of-all-time lists, so I was curious about what made it so great. And as with several albums on this list, I found it not that great. Perhaps at the time it was groundbreaking or inspiring or something. Now, however, I find it pedestrian.

The Eagles — Hotel California

The Eagles are my dad’s favorite band, so I grew up listening to their albums. Hearing this one again took me back to the late 1970s, sitting in my dad’s apartment patiently waiting for this album to finish so I could listen to KISS. Today, I notice The Eagles’ influence in my music, and that’s a good thing, because the band were solid songwriters in both lyrics and hooks. That’s something I work on emulating in my writing.

Muddy Waters — The Anthology

Muddy Waters is a great blues artist, and I found myself liking this album more than I imagined I would. For those who write or edit for a living, The Anthology is great background music for working. The blues’ rhythm and repeating of lines lulls one into a calm state where focus and imagination reside side by side.

The Beatles — Please Please Me

It’s no secret that I love The Beatles. Please Please Me, while not my favorite, still stands far and above many of the other albums on this list. Please please let me listen to it over anything that Van Morrison or Joni Mitchell ever puts out. How this album arrived at No. 39 and not higher is a mystery to me. It deserves higher, and in my personal list, it is.

Love — Forever Changes

This is a great, strong finish for the top 40 list. I had forgotten how much I enjoy this album. You can definitely hear the late 1960s vibe, but I also detect elements of punk, post-punk, and balls-out rock. I’ll have to remember to listen to this album more often, because it’s inspiring and a good-time experience, which is exactly what music should be.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Musicqwest

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The Rewind Button: Let It Bleed

Posted on 2012/12/202012/12/20 by Jason Hensel

The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them.

Let It Bleed Pie

Preparation time: 1 year
Cooking time: 1 month

Ingredients:

1 oz. of vanilla
3 tbsp of clove
4 cups of sugar
1 dash of cayenne pepper
5 eggs (include the yolks)
6 cups of flour
3 cups of water
2 cups of blackberries
Salt and black pepper to taste

Put the flour and eggs in a large bowl and stir it until the mixture becomes solid. Slowly, like you’re recovering from a hangover, add one cup of water and the clove to the mixture as you continue stirring. Set aside for at least 12 months. After enough time, add the other two cups of water to the mixture, along with the sugar, cayenne, vanilla, and blackberries. Mix it fast with angst and the feeling of impending old age until solid as a rock. Take the harden piece out of the bowl and place in a large pie pan like you would crawl into bed with a beautiful man or woman and put it in the oven for one month at a temperature of 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Be careful when removing it from the oven, as the pie will be hot to the touch and will burn your mouth if eaten directly from the pan. Wise cooks take the pie from the pan and leave it on a plate near an open window where the scent of blackberries and clove whoosh throughout the neighborhood, causing men and women to stop what they’re doing and follow the scent to your door like a band of merry men traversing across a great land sampling every thing they sense . Once enough people are in your house wanting a taste of the pie, slice it proportionality and serve with red wine, or if you’re in a festive mood, Champagne, because surely all this time spent making this pie warrants more than a common libation. Raise your slices and glasses to the Moon Goddess and thank her for the bountiful nourishment, and remember your belly will always fill as full as it needs to be. There should be no leftovers.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

Musicqwest
Be a River With Me

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The Rewind Button: Bringing It All Back Home

Posted on 2012/12/132012/12/14 by Jason Hensel

The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them.

I believe this is the fourth Bob Dylan album I’ve reviewed for this project. I’ve never listened to so much Dylan as I have now. And I’m going to declare that Bringing It All Back Home is my favorite of the one’s reviewed.

The album is feisty, punchy, and rollicking. I also like that most of the songs are short (for Dylan, that is). More times than not, I found myself dancing in my seat at work while listening to the songs.

By the way, when “On the Road Again” came on, it reminded me of the Georgia Satellites’ classic “Keep Your Hands to Yourself.”

Bringing It All Back Home is an album I would be proud to have in my disc changer, at home and work.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

Musicqwest
Be a River With Me

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The Rewind Button: Led Zeppelin

Posted on 2012/11/082012/11/09 by Jason Hensel

The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them.

I listen to the album first before reading anything about it. Often, I don’t even read anything about the album, because I want to experience listening to the music as someone did before the Internet made infinite knowledge available. Led Zeppelin is another album in which I don’t care to know about its production, writing, or reception. I slip on my headphones, turn the volume up 100 percent, and let the songs soak through me.

“Good Times Bad Times” and “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” are killer opening songs, with “Babe…” being one of my all-time favorite Zeppelin songs. I could listen to it on repeat forever. It’s sluggy with a streak of classical clarity guiding its melody.

Then we get to “Dazed and Confused,” and I’m reminded of Everything is a Remix, Part 1. It was through this video that I learned how much Zeppelin ripped off other artists for some of their biggest hits. Remixing other artists, appropriating their work and making it your own is a practice I’m on the fence about. Part of me wants to believe that creativity stems from true originality. The other part of me knows that nothing is really new, even if you think it is. With a song like “Dazed and Confused,” I’m in the camp of not approving its downright thievery. Go ahead and quote Eliot to me. It’s still theft. Zeppelin just didn’t remix it enough to make it their own. (By the way, “Babe…” is a cover and properly attributed as such, unlike “Dazed…”)

Moving on. “Communication Breakdown” is another all-time, original, Zeppelin favorite of mine. If I could just listen to “Good Times Bad Times,” “Babe I’m Gonna to Leave You”, and “Communication Breakdown,” I’d be totally happy with this album and rank it much higher on Rolling Stone‘s list. Adding the other songs on there weighs it down, placing it exactly where it should be on the list.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

Musicqwest
Be a River With Me

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The Rewind Button: Live at the Apollo

Posted on 2012/10/112012/10/14 by Jason Hensel

The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them.

I hesitated in reviewing this album. It’s not that I don’t enjoy James Brown or live recordings. But neither one of them woo me that much. I could carry on life just fine without having ever heard Brown or a live performance set on vinyl.

I feel this way because I prefer to see an artist live than hear a recording of any show. And for James Brown, nothing could capture the experience of seeing him perform in person. Or so I’ve been told. I listen to this album, and I can tell that, yes, he was the über showman. Still, it doesn’t get under my feet and make me want to dance. It doesn’t get in my shoulders and make them want to sway. It doesn’t get into my mind and make me want to check out more of Brown’s material.

“Night Train” is the closest I get to moving to any of the music. I do find myself tapping my right foot and enjoying the upbeat bluesy melody.

Live at the Apollo is an okay album. It’s one that I won’t purposely listen to again, but it’s fine background music for a party.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

Musicqwest
Be a River With Me

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The Rewind Button: Astral Weeks

Posted on 2012/08/02 by Jason Hensel

The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them.

The air conditioning in my house is not working properly at the time of this review. It’s 105 degrees Fahrenheit outside and 90 degrees inside. This causes me great irritation.

Listening to Astral Weeks does not help. I think, and I’ll have to go back through these reviews, it may be the worse album I’ve listened to so far. Van Morrison’s vocals grate my ear drums. The music is better suited for wakes. Listening to the whole album is an exercise is patience. Saying that, I believe if “Beside You” would have been an instrumental, it would have saved this album from my personal trash heap.

As with anything that I don’t enjoy, I like to figure out why. Perhaps it’s the song lengths. I’m more pop, get in and get out. Maybe it’s the vocals. Actually, I’m sure it’s the vocals. Van Morrison’s vocal style reminds me of Eddie Vedder’s years later. I never cared for Vedder’s vocals either.

Astral Weeks may grow on me with age. That would mean, though, that I’d have to listen to it. Right now, I can barely stand to look at it.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

Musicqwest
Be a River With Me

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The Rewind Button: Are You Experienced

Posted on 2012/06/222012/06/25 by Jason Hensel

The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them. There will be a new album and review each Thursday (or there about).

Are You Experienced is another album in this series of reviews that I’ve heard so much that it’s become second nature to me. Without blinking, I can tell you where the guitar solos start, sing along to the lyrics, and play air drums like a pro. I guess I should thank my family for having such great music around as I grew up.

Still, there are some songs on Jimi Hendrix’s album that aren’t as memorable to me as such classics as “Hey Joe,” “Purple Haze,” or “Foxy Lady.” It’s not that these songs aren’t any good. I just haven’t given them the proper respect as others. I like the way “Love or Confusion” is balanced in its chaos by the mellow and soulful “May This be Love.” “Third Stone From the Sun” is the seductive lead-up to the carnality of “Foxy Lady.” Finally, “Red House” is the perfect closer to an album that makes you sweat and see visions over and over again. It holds you and says you’re back home, that all these songs come from the same root.

It’s a grod (halfway between great and good) album for me. I don’t normally reach for it to listen to for pleasure, but I don’t turn off the songs when they come on the radio, either. And most of the time, I’d rather hear The Cure’s cover of “Foxy Lady” if given the chance.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

Musicqwest
Zachary Stevenson
1throne: King of the Internets
Be a River With Me

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The Rewind Button: Abbey Road

Posted on 2012/06/182012/06/18 by Jason Hensel

Listen, I love The Beatles. It makes me happy to see so many of their albums in the top 20 of Rolling Stone’s Top 40 albums of all time list. But being a fan of a band has its consequences. When I start to write about them, I struggle with what to say.

Because I’ve listened to their music for so long, I’ve become numb to it. No, this isn’t saying their songs don’t affect me. What I’m saying is that they’ve become so much a part of my life that I rarely give a second thought as to why I like them. It would be like me trying to go into detail why I like my right arm. I just do. It’s always been there for me. It helps me through life. Sure, I could survive without it, but having it is so much better. The end.

Stopping to consider why you like or dislike something can contribute to personal growth. But I wish you’d had asked me 20 years ago why I like Abbey Road. Then, it was more fresh on my mind. I could have told you that “You Never Give Me Your Money” is perfect until it speeds up, that by doing so it becomes a cluttered mess. I would also tell you that George Harrison pretty much owns this album with his two tracks, “Here Comes The Sun” and “Something.” I agree with Frank Sinatra’s assessment of it as “the greatest love song ever written.”

Twenty years ago I’d have more solid opinions about the rest of the album. But it’s ingrained in me now. It’s so clumped together with my being that it would be impossible to run it through a criticism sieve without destroying myself in the process.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

Musicqwest
Zachary Stevenson
1throne: King of the Internets
Be a River With Me

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The Rewind Button: The Velvet Underground and Nico

Posted on 2012/06/092013/03/02 by Jason Hensel

My first band, Kilted Yak*, ended a lot of our shows with a cover of “Sister Ray.” We chose that song because Joy Division used to cover it, and we were obsessed with White Light/White Heat, the Velvet Underground’s second album.

I didn’t bother listening much to the band’s first, self-titled album. I wanted the chaos and noise of their second album, not the prettiness of Nico’s voice glossing over Lou Reed’s tales of dirty streets and deeds. Over time, though, The Velvet Underground and Nico has become a regular rotation in my personal playlist.

The songs sound familiar, and they never get old. They don’t sound dated. I suspect this album will sound as relevant 500 years from now as it is today, because there is no expiration date on humanity’s obsession with sex and life’s underbelly. As long as we have rebels, we’ll have people influenced by this album, wanting to emulate it, wanting it for the soundtrack of their lives.

Dave Lefebvre, over on MusicQwest, says he feels cool listening to this album. I do, too. Great albums have swagger that jumps from the songs into the listener, giving him a feeling of invincibility. Let me listen to some Velvet Underground, and I won’t take shit from anyone.

On my recent vacation, I found myself in a Copenhagen bar called Floss. It’s a small, narrow bar upstairs, with a young, party-worn clientele. But make your way to the back and down the spiral staircase. There you will find a huge room housing pool tables and sofas beneath a haze of cigarette smoke. This is the place for an album like The Velvet Underground and Nico. Put it on repeat, grab a two-dollar Tuborg beer and chalk your cue stick. You’ll feel like the world’s coolest person, no matter who you really are.

*Who can guess where our band name came from?

BONUS: Check out this bootleg, Live at End Cole Ave., a 1969 Velvet Underground show from my city, Dallas.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

Musicqwest
Zachary Stevenson
1throne: King of the Internets
Be a River With Me

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The Rewind Button: The Beatles

Posted on 2012/05/172012/05/22 by Jason Hensel

The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them. There will be a new album and review each Thursday.

Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House explores the notion of individuality, namely the process of figuring out who you are so that you can become that person completely. Considered controversial at the time of its premier and publication, today the play is a dramatic classic.

The Beatles (a.k.a. “The White Album”) was slated to be named A Doll’s House after the Ibsen play. It’s a fitting title, because it too is representative of a group trying to figure out who they are and who they will become. (I wish they would have stayed with that title, because I love seeing works tethered to each other across genres and ages.)

Based on previous Rewind Button reviews, it’s no secret that I love The Beatles. To paraphrase the character Bob Slydell from the movie Office Space: I’ll be honest with you, I love their music. I do. I’m a Beatles fan. For my money, I don’t know if it gets any better than when they sing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Because of its eclecticism, it’s the perfect primer for someone who has never heard The Beatles’ music. Put this album on at a party, and you’ll have at least one song that will appeal to individual listeners.

We’re back at that word: individual. This is the album that starts the group’s third act, the one that leads to their denouement. They’ve figured out that they don’t need each other to write great songs, they have the strength to be on their own without carrying the weight of a group name so entrenched in the collective mind of society, which can appear quite rigid and unforgiving.

Maybe not naming the album was for the best. A lack of artwork and proper name lends to the notion of new beginnings, a clean slate, a slam of the door on the past and the white light at the end of a tunnel.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

Musicqwest
Zachary Stevenson
1throne: King of the Internets
Be a River With Me

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The Rewind Button: Blonde on Blonde

Posted on 2012/05/102012/05/16 by Jason Hensel

I’ll admit that I had every intention on writing this review earlier in the day. Life happened, though, and I found myself relaxing on the couch and reading a book at the end of the night. Pausing to rest my eyes, the song “I Want You” popped into my head. And then it hit me–I forgot to write the review.

But maybe I didn’t forget. Maybe I procrastinated because Blonde on Blonde is another album in this series that, while good, just doesn’t inspire me to rush out and exclaim its virtues. I do like it better than Highway 61 Revisited, primarily because of its pop qualities. “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” reminds me of the opening music to a big-top circus performance. (Cue obvious note of the song influencing how The Beatles opened Sgt. Pepper’s.)

All the other songs on the album are good, yes, but as I write this review, they don’t come to mind as easily as “I Want You” or “Rainy Day Women.” I readily admit that I’m a sucker for a good pop hook, and perhaps that is what is throwing me off with this album. I may be focusing too heavily on those songs that are obvious singles for radio play. There’s nothing wrong with loving singles, but this is supposed to be a review of an entire album, a critique of how the individual parts work toward a superb achievement.

Tonight is not that night, though. Tonight is about pouring a big glass of Sangiovese wine, sliding on some headphones, and locking a song on repeat. I don’t think Dylan would mind. He wanted to be the voice of the common man, and for every individual, that voice comes through one song. Tonight, that song for me is “I Want You.”

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Grad Student By Day

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

La Belle Vie
Musicqwest
Zachary Stevenson
1throne: King of the Internets
Be a River With Me

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