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: Ramones

Posted on 2012/12/272012/12/31 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.

Have you ever been told to drink water or eat salad to cleanse your palate between dishes? Ramones is my palate cleanser. After weeks of albums that have been so-so for me, the Ramones offer me refreshment with their debut album. In fact, I’d rather just have it for a full meal.

While a lot of the artists reviewed in this project have presented great examples of expanding what an artist can do with pop/rock music, the three-chords-and-the-truth of the Ramones is more appealing to me than making an artistic statement. Okay, okay, sure, they were making a statement when they chose this route. I’ll admit that. And I’ll admit that I prefer it over seven-minute Dylan songs, no matter how great the poetry is in his lyrics. I’d rather slam-dance than sit around in a circle discussing the ins-and-outs of a line.

Usually, I’m not that way. I often prefer debates and great talks deep into the evening about literature. So, what is it about Ramones that makes me prefer it over much of what we’ve reviewed from the late 1960s and earlys 1970s? It’s possible that I’ve become bored with what we’ve been listening to for this project. The Ramones offer a change of pace, something that gets my dopamine flowing. That’s exactly why this album is on the Rolling Stone list, because it shook people out of their serious stupor.

I wish more albums of this caliber were on the Rolling Stone top 40 list, because I think it would have given it variety and added some excitement to the mix. Even if the magazine doesn’t list this as a top 10 all-time album, I’m tempted to do that. Question is, do I place it above other artists’ albums that I think are better, but have been influenced by it (anyone else notice the stoner-rock rifts that come in during “Now I Wanna to Sniff Glue”?), or do I put the original influence first? It’s a question that I will think about as I get closer to the end of the list and contemplate my own rearrangement of it.

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

Betty Livin

Musicqwest

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Best Songs I Heard in 2012

Posted on 2012/12/262012/12/31 by Jason Hensel

Here are the songs I discovered in 2012 that I either listened to the most, forced others to listen to, danced around alone to in my room, or wished I had written.

Some, like Rihanna or Kendrick Lamar, are artists I’d not normally listen to on a regular basis. Rihanna’s performance, though, of “Diamonds” on Saturday Night Live, complete with a green screen from the 1980s, caused me to listen to the song in a whole new way. Kendrick’s Lamar’s “Backstreet Freestyle” reminds me a lot of late 1980’s rap, a la 2 Live Crew.

Of course, I’m a sucker for power pop, and Ben Kweller is a master of that style. But this past year has been more of a rediscovery of my love of shoegaze. I’ve fallen in love with almost anything that the label Captured Tracks puts out, and DIIV‘s “Doused” is the best song I’ve heard all year.

DIIV was also one of the best concerts I saw this past year. They played at Club Dada with Frankie Rose and Lonesome Ghost, a Dallas band that I look forward to seeing more of in the next year. For the record, the other concerts that topped my list were New Order, Die Antwoord, and The Faint.

I hope you enjoy this playlist, and please let me know of any songs you loved this past year. I’m sure I missed many other great songs.

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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: Who’s Next

Posted on 2012/11/012012/11/06 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 Who is one of those bands that a lot of my friends go apeshit over, but one that I’ve never latched on to. When I hear “My Generation” or “Baba O’Riley” on the radio, I probably won’t turn them off. But I’ve never purposely listened to one of their records until now.

And I’m going to have to say that Who’s Next is, well, okay. Maybe it’s because I’ve heard songs such as “Behind Blue Eyes,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and the aforementioned “Baba O’Riley” so many times that they’re nothing new to me. In fact, my favorite song from this album’s recording session wasn’t even on the proper release. “Pure and Easy” is a bonus track on a 1995 release of Who’s Next.

Just naming those songs puts them in my head as ear worms, which can be considered a success if one doesn’t want to be forgettable. However, I don’t care what album those songs are on, because they’re from The Who and not a certain product. Does that mean the album is a failure if they wanted to create something well packaged and whole? Maybe. Maybe not. And much like my wishy-washy answer, this album is a take-it-or-leave-it one for me.

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: The Joshua Tree

Posted on 2012/10/252012/10/29 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.

Much like their two-syllable name, there are two sides to U2. On one side is the bombastic rock stars who crave the applause from hundreds of thousands of people on their feet in an arena. On the other side is an Irish band happy to sing songs of the people and be rewarded with nothing more than free drinks for the night.

It’s with The Joshua Tree that U2 finally managed to integrate these two sides into a fully formed artistic achievement. The album on a whole is very representative of their goal to capture the spirit of America, primarily its open lands. On the album’s first side (and I encourage you to listen to it on vinyl), U2 belts the listener with brashness and bravado. But it’s the album’s second side that interests me the most, because it sounds more tame, more introspective. When one goes to the desert, thoughts of chest puffing don’t come to mind. The thoughts are more inward, philosophical and based in survival.

I haven’t listened to this album in years before reviewing it for this project. I’m happy to say that I still feel the same way I did in 1987, that the album’s second side has more cohesion and captures the album’s goal better than the first side. That said, I will never turn off “With or Without You” when it plays on the radio, and I will always recite alongside Bono when he says “One hundred, two hundred…” from “Bullet the Blue Sky.” But give me “Red Hill Mining Town” over “Where the Streets Have No Name” any day.

I’m looking forward to the end of this project when I can rearrange the top 40 list to my liking. The Joshua Tree will definitively be in the top 15, maybe even the top 10.

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: Innervisions

Posted on 2012/10/042012/10/05 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.

For this entry, I’m going to write down my initial thoughts about each song as I listen to the album, which I’ve never heard before tonight.

“Too High”: I like the funkiness. The breakdown solo in the middle is jammin’. The lyrics are kind of shallow. But this song is not about the lyrics. It’s about the groove, and it sure is groovy.

“Visions”: I like the guitar. This is definitely a smooth song, a close my eyes and sway my head back and forth tune. Yeah, I’m really digging the guitar playing in this one. Oh, that step down in the melody was cool. Stevie Wonder has a good voice. He holds a note and keeps it steady, not like most of those dramatic hacks on American Idol who think they have to throw as many notes and pitches in a vocal line just to try to prove they have talent. Nice pregnant pause there, Stevie.

“Living for the City”: Hey, I’ve heard this song before! Have you listened to this one with headphones on? If not, do it. That synthesizer can’t decide which ear it wants to get with and make sexy time. Oh yeah, Stevie, sing it. Handclaps! Backing singers! I’m nodding my head to this one, even making my douche-duck face. Wait a minute, this song isn’t over. It’s like Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Whoa, I just heard the “n” word. I think the song is about over. Wait for it. Wait for it. Ah, there it is.

“Golden Lady”: Good segue from the last song. I like when songs merge together. There are a lot of instruments in this song, making it sound busy. I’m not feeling it with this one. Those first three songs were killers, and this one is like the rest period in the corner for a boxer. I wonder if this where I take my pee break.

“Higher Ground”: I’m so glad Stevie put a cover song on his album. It really helps him connect with contemporary society. I kid. The Red Hot Chili Peppers haven’t been relevant in decades. See, the boxer had his rest with that last song, and now he’s back out there in the ring landing another body blow.

“Jesus Children of America”: I like the way the snare drum sounds on this one. And all those synthesizers overlapping, that’s nice. There’s a warm feeling I get from this song. It’s not as good as the last one, but it’s holding its on. It’s like the kid brother of the rest of the songs (well, except for “Golden Lady,” which is the runt of the litter), who trying really hard to prove it’s got the skills to hang with the older crowd. Yep, it’s definitely holding its on.

“All in Love is Fair”: Jarring transition from the last song. Good melody, but I immediately think of a soft-focused video of a lady dressed in all white looking forlornly while thinking of a past love. If I was to produce a soap opera, this song would play during the opening credits.

“Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”: Great intro! This may be my favorite song so far on the album. It’s another track with a lot of instrumentation, but this time they all seem to fit perfectly. I’m not the only one who imagines this is Stevie’s go-to tropical island number, right? As the second-to-last song, I suspect he’s setting us up for a big finish. Don’t disappoint me, Stevie.

“He’s Misstra Know-It-All”: Another jarring transition from the last song. I sense a bit of the Charlie Brown theme song in the piano in this one. Okay, this tune isn’t really the closer I was hoping for, though I like Stevie’s growling halfway through the song. I feel like this is the tired encore to an already energetic concert. I should have left after the last song of the original set.

Overall, I liked this album. After listening to it once for this review, I’d definitely listen to it again. I knew Stevie Wonder was talented, but I never appreciated how great that talent was until I heard Innervisions. My hat off to you, Stevie.

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: Born to Run

Posted on 2012/07/23 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).

I’m a week behind in contributing to this review project. Not keeping up with it makes me a little anxious. I hate getting behind.

Behind is how I feel about Springsteen (do we even need to say his first name anymore?). It appears that “real music” lovers place him in the hall of gods. I’ve never felt that way, and that’s because I never really listen to his albums.

I remember when Born in the U.S.A. came out and it was cool to love America again. “Dancing in the Dark,” “Glory Days,” and “I’m On Fire” were instant classics. After that album, though, I never looked into hearing more Springsteen songs.

Now I’m listening to Born to Run (Springsteen really likes the word “born.”). It’s bombastic, swelling, and energetic. It makes me want to pump my fist in the air. I can hear why people gravitate to Springsteen’s songs. For most of them, they make you feel alive. You can hear the fun Springsteen is having in playing the songs. He’s not just singing to entertain you. He’s doing it because he knows no other way to live.

My favorite songs on the album are the title track and “Thunder Road.” In fact, I’ve listened to “Thunder Road” the most off this album, because I love its melody.

But does Born to Run make me want to listen to other albums by Springsteen? No. Even with its energizing properties, I’m happy to listen to just it, and at that, just a couple of songs. And that’s plenty enough to satisfy me.

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: Blood on the Tracks

Posted on 2012/07/05 by Jason Hensel

I’m sick of Dylan. Specifically, I’m sick of Blood on the Tracks. It’s the first album of this project that I couldn’t wait for it to finish so I could listen to something more agreeable with me.

After multiple listens, I still find it tedious and plodding. It doesn’t move me, and I feel no connection to it. Perhaps it’s one of those albums that I’m not ready for in my life. That’s happened before. Ten years from now I may declare this the best album humankind has produced. I’m allowed to change. But for now, I’m going to switch this one off and listen to something else, something that inspires a creative impulse in me. Blood on the Tracks makes me want to shut down and shut out the world.

Maybe that’s what it’s meant to do.

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
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