All Time Top 1100 Albums (Aerosmith - Big Ones) P265

[Mancitydoogle]

Not my favourite Dylan album or period
its a 6 from me

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

Dylan albums can generally be batched together in 3s and 4s (Freewheelin/Times/Another Side - Bringing/Highway/Blonde) and are more of a snapshot of what he was doing across the period (exception being Blonde on Blonde which is just an exceptional body of work by anyones standards). Beyond this period we get JWH/Nashville/New Morning, then Planet Waves/Blood/Desire/Street Legal).
So this album stands at the transition between the folk-fun of Another Side of Bob Dylan and the folk-rock of Highway 61. On the first side he is putting his largely whimsically poetic or amusing stuff, that could easily have gone on Another Side, to electric backing (exception Subterranean Homesick Blues which point towards Highway 61) whilst on side 2 he gives an absolute tour-de-force of his acoustic songwriting ability culminating in Its Alright Ma. The last song - It's All Over Now Baby Blue is a goodbye to the folkies. This was further emphasised at the Newport Folk Festival when he got booed off for playing electric and cheered to the rafters when he returned on stage with his acoustic guitar. He sang It's All Over and didn't return for 30 odd years.
I don't think this is a perfect album and clearly marks a transition. Highway 61 is better in some ways, Blonde on Blonde is just out and out one of the best albums ever.
I give it a 9/10

Good write up.........

 

[BlueHammer85]

Cheers Blues, some excellent wide ranging views and scores - unfortunately for me, Mr Dylan doesn't take the top spot.

Bob Dylan / Bringing It All Back Home
16 votes
Average Score = 7.00

new album review tomorrow.
Updated table on Page 1

 

[BimboBob]

Thank fuck.

 

[BlueHammer85]

8/1000




Aretha Now is the thirteenth studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, released on June 14, 1968, by Atlantic Records. The album is gold-certified. It reached No. 3 on Billboard's album chart. In 1993, it was reissued on CD through Rhino Records. The album was rated the 133rd best album of the 1960s by Pitchfork.

1. Think
2. I Say A Little Prayer
3. See Saw
4. Night Time Is The Right Time
5. You Send Me
6. You're A Sweet Sweet Man
7. I Take What I Want
8. Hello Sunshine
9. A Change
10. I Can't See Myself Leaving You


Here we go! Review No 8 - From the King of Folk to the Queen of Soul! It's Aretha at her best - this album hits you straight away with the opener 'Think' and her biggest ever hit 'I Say A Little Prayer' and then settles down nicely for mainly comprised classic covers - but this was Aretha at a dominating period where she was smashing hit after hit with her powerful unique voice , so many pop classics on here, buoyant and enjoyable through out - what a voice. what a star.

Give this a score out of 10 by the end of next week

This placed 558 out of the Top 1000

7/10


Have a good weekend Blues and c'mon England!

 

[BimboBob]

If you like your r&b and soul then this is a doozy...not her best album but guaranteed to make you at least smile and toe tap.

My pick is I Take What I Want which is a dancefloor classic, written by Isaac Hayes, who wrote Soul Man, but to be fair her voice carries all of the songs on this album. Think, used in the Blues Brothers, is the only one she actually wrote but hey...with this voice, who cares?

A short but very sweet album.

8/10

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

Not my thing ... again. (There must be an Outer Mongolian Throat Warbling album due soon).

Anyway, great voice of course but gives me a headache after a while. Wouldn't have minded something different to break it up and give my ears a rest. Individually the tunes are good, mostly 6s, 7s and 8s but together it seems worse.

5 / 10

 

[PragueBlue]

Not my thing ... again. (There must be an Outer Mongolian Throat Warbling album due soon).

Anyway, great voice of course but gives me a headache after a while. Wouldn't have minded something different to break it up and give my ears a rest. Individually the tunes are good, mostly 6s, 7s and 8s but together it seems worse.

5 / 10

Same here (except Mongolian throat warbling).

5/10

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

She really was pretty great, and I’m no enormous fan of soul or R&B, nor that knowledgeable about them. But in that context, she’s like watching Messi – you don’t need to know much about the game to instantly recognize the best player in it. “Think” is an utter stone cold classic. “I Say A Little Prayer” is a song I’ve never cared for because Burt Bacharach wrote it, and it’s the weakest thing here. “See Saw” almost seems beneath her at first but, man, does it sound good (Steve Cropper of the Blues Brothers and “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” fame co-wrote it). “Night Time Is The Right Time” she just takes by its neck and strangles to within an inch of its life – wow! But as legendary as “You Send Me” is, it’s hard to beat Sam Cooke’s original version. On the flip side she’s cruising at 34,000 feet and the tunes are little less solid – though Isaac Hayes’ “I Take What I Want” and “A Change” are a lot of fun. The tempo changes tune-to-tune are absolutely on the money across the board, and her band (a dizzying collection of session musicians) rolls around with great fills and works with her in exactly the right way, though I think the backing vocal chorus is over used and over-mixed (i.e. too loud) in several spots. When her voice is so, so good, why clutter it up? This is the first record on our list so far that I’ve instantly wanted to play again (save “Remain in Light” which I already love). A really fine album by a uniquely talented artist. Since soul isn’t my gig, it’s 7/10, but because it’s Aretha, I’ll add a bonus point for genius. 8/10.

Incidentally @BlueHammer85, in America either "Think" or "Chain of Fools" or -- especially -- "Respect" would be considered bigger Aretha hits than "I Say A Little Prayer" -- I think you might be thinking of Dionne Warwick's original version, which was the hit.

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

She really was pretty great, and I’m no enormous fan of the soul or the blues, nor that knowledgeable about them. But in that context, she’s like watching Messi – you don’t need to know much about the game to instantly recognize the best player in it. “Think” is an utter stone cold classic. “I Say A Little Prayer” is a song I’ve never cared for because Burt Bacharach wrote it, and it’s the weakest thing here. “See Saw” almost seems beneath her at first but, man, does it sound good (Steve Cropper of the Blues Brothers and “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” fame co-wrote it). “Night Time Is The Right Time” she just takes by its neck and strangles to within an inch of its life – wow! But as legendary as “You Send Me” is, it’s hard to beat Sam Cooke’s original version. On the flip side she’s cruising at 34,000 feet and the tunes are little less solid – though Isaac Hayes’ “I Take What I Want” and “A Change” are a lot of fun. The tempo changes tune-to-tune are absolutely on the money across the board, and her band (a dizzying collection of session musicians) rolls around with great fills and works with her in exactly the right way, though I think the backing vocal chorus is over used and over-mixed (i.e. too loud) in several spots. When her voice is so, so good, why clutter it up? This is the first record on our list so far that I’ve instantly wanted to play again (save “Remain in Light” which I already love). A really fine album by a uniquely talented artist. Since soul isn’t my gig, it’s 7/10, but because it’s Aretha, I’ll add a bonus point for genius. 8/10.

Incidentally @BlueHammer85, in America either "Think" or "Chain of Fools" or -- especially -- "Respect" would be considered bigger Aretha hits than "I Say A Little Prayer" -- I think you might be thinking of Dionne Warwick's original version, which was the hit.

Top write up as usual matey........