Abraxas Santana

Next up is the album Abraxas by Santana, which, outside of the song "Tequila" which I heard countless times while watching The Sandlot, was my first real introduction to Latin and Afro-Cuban music.  Abraxas is another album that has an awesome flow from the opening track, "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts," through to the last track, "El Nicoya."  The album is all over the musical spectrum, pulling in rock, blues, jazz, salsa, and African influences to create an incredible collage of sound.  Half the songs on the album are instrumentals and they showcase the band's stylistic versatility and its ability to incorporate Latin and Afro-Cuban themes over traditional rock and blues music.  The two biggest hits off the album are "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" and "Oye Como Va."  "Black Magic Woman" was originally written by Peter Green, formerly of Fleetwood Mac (the 1960s incarnation of the band), and the Santana cover reached #4 on the U.S. Singles chart in 1970.  "Oye Como Va" is another cover song, sung entirely in Spanish.  Both these songs and the album as a whole were well-received by critics when it was first released and it continues to be regarded as one of the best albums of its time.  In my opinion, Abraxas is an excellent and timeless album.  I'm having trouble singling out just a few songs to list from the album, but I'll try and leave a good mix.

Standout songs:

"Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaKnRUfh_5I

"Oye Como Va"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3XSXvas7wY&feature=fvw

"Incident at Neshabur" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUIdealFFds  

Abbey Road The Beatles

Lucky for me that the next album I get to write about has been and will always be one of my favorite albums ever, Abbey Road, by the Beatles.  Enough has been written and said about this album by music critics far more established to myself so I'll try not to gush over the album too much.  But, it is, in my opinion, a very good album that flows together incredibly well.  What makes Abbey Road even more incredible how well the music comes together in spite of how far apart the Beatles were growing as individuals.  After the aborted Let It Be sessions and film, the Beatles had grown pretty tired of one another and seemed on the verge of breaking up.  A combination of bad personal decisions and terrible financial management had the band in disarray.  At this point, Paul was the one keeping the group together, and he suggested to longtime producer George Martin, that the next album should be made "the way we used to" make records.  Martin agreed and said that he wanted to record the album his way.  The last full Beatles album, The White Album, was recorded in a very disjointed matter and both Paul and Martin wanted the new album to be a collective effort on each song.  It was later revealed in the Beatles Anthology book that the band knew at the time that this would be their last studio album together.  It's hard to think that this didn't factor into the effort everyone put in while recording the album.  Abbey Road can be divided into two parts:  the first half of the album consists of single songs, beginning with "Come Together" through to "Because;" the second half of the album is a medley starting with "You Never Give Me Your Money" and ending with "The End."

The first half of Abbey Road showcases all four Beatles and in the case of George and Ringo, continued improvement in their songwriting abilities.  George scored his first A-side single with "Something," which John called his favorite song on the album and Paul called the best song George wrote while in the Beatles.  Ringo's only song on the first side is "Octopus' Garden," which was one of my favorite Beatles songs when I was much younger (I guess the whole concept of the underwater world appealed to my 5 year old self).  Even though the lyrics are fairly immature, the song structure is at a much higher level than previous Ringo efforts.  "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" shows John pulling in some prog-rock influences and throughout the album there is extensive use of the Moog synthesizer, a new musical toy for the group.

The second half of the album is the collective effort of all four and as a medley should, it flows together smoothly and effortlessly.  "The End" is the final song of the medley and appropriately enough, it features Ringo's only drum solo in the entire Beatles catalog as well as guitar solos from John, Paul, and George.  The last line of the medley is one that remains with Beatles fans forever: "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make."  A fitting way for the Beatles to be remembered.

It's tough for me to single out just a few tracks from the album that are standouts when each song is great to listen to and unique in its own write, but hear are my choices.

Standout tracks:
"Something" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzkhOmKVW08

"Come Together" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_-FjO7U9_k&feature=fvsr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axb2sHpGwHQ

"Because" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWlLPJG9Cvg

"Medley"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfHO6-tDDqU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i6kGO9ZnqQ&feature=related

And here are some photo outtakes from the cover shoot:

    

Wilco A.M.

I didn't think I'd get through my first album twice as quickly as I did today, but here I am sitting on the last track of A.M. about to type up my first review post.  I'd have to say it was an enjoyable afternoon and evening listening to Wilco's first album.  A.M. was released in March 1995, just a few months after the break-up of Uncle Tupelo.  For those that don't know, Uncle Tupelo was an alternative country (alt-country from now on) band that started in the late 1980s.  All of the members came out of Uncle Tupelo and after the split, Jeff Tweedy took over as front man of the new band, renamed Wilco.  The album follows in the tradition of Uncle Tupelo's music and is best defined as alt-country, but there are the beginnings of musical styles and influences that would evolve Wilco's sound over their next few albums.  The album has pretty solid flow to it and at 44 1/2 minutes long, it is pretty easy to find yourself at the end of the record wondering how you got there so quickly.  At the time it was released, music critics had mixed reviews of the album and it did not sell well.  It also didn't help that Tweedy's counterpart from Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar had started his own new band, Son Volt, who released their first album around the same time as A.M. to much better reviews and sales. 

From my own perspective, I think A.M. is an interesting album because it definitely is an album that highlights Wilco's roots in alt-country music.  You can hear the influences of musicians such as Neil Young, Gram Parsons, and the Byrds circa 1968 all over the album.  It's also interesting hearing and critiquing this album now in 2011, given the subsequent albums that Wilco made and how their musical sound evolved and moved away from their alt-country roots.  I enjoyed re-listening to the record and for any semi-Wilco fan that hasn't heard it yet, I'd say definitely check it out.  I would also recommend it to any alt-country fan that hasn't heard it yet.

Thank you to Wikipedia for always having awesome info available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.M._%28album%29 

Standout tracks:
"I Must Be High"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw730Mvz8o8

"Box Full of Letters"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gyZw5tvAhI&feature=channel

"Casino Queen"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXWb88SRFN4

The Inaugural Album

Ok, so here goes the first post of my new blog.  Maybe this project is a little self-indulgent, but I figured with the time I had this was a useful (possibly?) and enjoyable way of killing time and doing something productive (at least for me).  Feel free to just browse the posts here, definitely leave comments and suggestions for new good music to listen to.  I'm always interested in finding out and hearing new artists and bands and my music tastes are all over the spectrum.  Without much further adieu, I give you the first album up for review.  I'm looking at my iPod albums list and it looks like A.M. by Wilco is up first.  I'm pretty excited to listen to this album; I'm pretty sure I haven't heard this from start to finish in a few years.  Fitting that Wilco's first album will be my first entry to the new blog.  Hope everyone enjoys what I write in this space and definitely feel free to disagree with me as well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

And as always:  What I'm listening to:  "For You Blue" by the Beatles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWMrsnAHpr4