The Album Review Club - End of Round #9 Break (page 1904)

[Mancitydoogle]

One amateur has correctly guessed your last 3 albums since arriving (p. 1164, 1380 and 1681).

Well that was the river, this is the sea! Wooo! ;-)

Ah ,i forgot about you Columbo.

 

[Mancitydoogle]

@Mancitydoogle is on trend with this pick as apparently the UK is up 67% year on year in streaming country music at the moment. Not sure the degree to which that's distorted by 70 gazillion streams of Beyonce's efforts which I must get round to having a listen to at some point.

Every now and then we go back to the genre discussion and I was reminded of this when doogle mentioned 'new country' which was indeed the term used for Earle and a host of others so broad as to render it meaningless other than as a marketing term to make country music seem less naff. In fairness it did the trick, it got the likes of Q magazine and even some of the music newspapers reviewing albums that they otherwise might not have done. Pretty sure the first Nanci Griffith album I bought was off the back of one of those types of 'new country' reviews, the fact that when I put it one it turned out to be folk music sung in a slightly cutsie Americana accent was neither here nor there as I enjoyed it immensely.

Back to the pick, I dug out my physical copy and was looking at the cover at the, not that young but, still relatively fresh faced man looking back at me and thinking of that face now and the life it has led. That thought made My Old Friend The Blues, which is already one of my favourite songs, all the more poignant to listen to.

Ha ha I’ve always been in vogue in the music scene.i’ve not had the stomach to
listen to Beyoncé goes Country yet either, although I do listen to a lot of new country artists.
SE was in his 30s when he recorded Guitar Town, I first saw him live at The Apollo only a few years later and he aged considerably, not sure if it was the drug abuse or the ex wives that had taken their toll.

 

[RobMCFC]

Ha ha I’ve always been in vogue in the music scene.i’ve not had the stomach to
listen to Beyoncé goes Country yet either, although I do listen to a lot of new country artists.
SE was in his 30s when he recorded Guitar Town, I first saw him live at The Apollo only a few years later and he aged considerably, not sure if it was the drug abuse or the ex wives that had taken their toll.

As well as the International in 1988, I saw him at The Apollo in 1990 on The Hard Way tour. I assume that this was another gig we were both at :)

 

[RobMCFC]

Guitar Town – Steve Earle

@threespires has expressed surprise that the nominated album isn’t Copperhead Road, and @OB1 has said that he had this down as a possible (as did I). That should tell you what a big deal Steve Earle is to some on this thread, and Copperhead Road is so good that it even made number 412 in Colin Larkin’s list.

But instead, we are listening to Earle’s first album, Guitar Town, which is fine by me. Introduced to his music in 1988 by my girlfriend at the time, I bought this album and the follow-up, Exit 0 early in the year, bought Copperhead Road when it came out and then got to see him in concert at The International later in the same year. So musically, 1988 was the year of Steve Earle for me.

What I am concerned about with this pick is that people will listen and just hear typical country music. The production is a bit thinner than what would come later but the way Steve Earle sings, the quality of his songs shine through. So, I see this as a useful marker of where he started – the whole point of the New Country genre was to leave the glitzy pop polish and sequined outfits behind, and on this album, he certainly does that.

Let’s start with the best songs. The album kicks off with “Guitar Town”, a chipper little number about a guy in a band, and “Someday” is a song about a young guy working a dead-end gas station job and wanting to leave town and is, as AllMusic states, the best Springsteen song that the Boss didn’t write.

“Good Ol’ Boy” sees the protagonist battling 80s Reaganomics, with lyrics like "I got a job but it ain't nearly enough" and "I was born in the land of plenty now there ain't enough", Steve Earle manages to match his powerful lyrics with a muscular band sound.

Elsewhere, as Mancitydoogle says, "Little Rock 'n' Roller" takes on extra poignancy with the recent death of Earle’s son, Justin. When he sings “I know there's an angel just for rock 'n' rollers watchin' over you and your daddy tonight", it turns out to be true for the father who survived prison and a heroin/cocaine addiction, but sadly not for his son.

"My Old Friend the Blues" is a nicely played song that was later covered by The Proclaimers. I’ve always enjoyed the upbeat "Goodbye's All We've Got Left" and "Hillbilly Highway" but from memory, the album tailed off after “Someday”. However, listening again this morning, it’s apparent how good songs like “Fearless Heart” and “Down The Road” are, and only “Think It Over” sounds like some old country pastiche.

I understand why @Mancitydoogle picked this album; it was the one that got him into country music and of course it was Earle’s major label debut. But the fact is that good as this album is, it didn’t represent where he eventually took the music and, in my opinion, his best albums are Copperhead Road, The Hard Way and I Feel Alright. On these albums, the guitars truly buzz and are frequently joined by mandolins and other eclectic instruments. There are some fantastic songs on his first two albums, but later on his band’s playing, the production and the arrangements lifted him to another level. 8/10

 

[Mancitydoogle]

As well as the International in 1988, I saw him at The Apollo in 1990 on The Hard Way tour. I assume that this was another gig we were both at :)

Yep I was at both those.

 

[threespires]

Guitar Town – Steve Earle

@threespires has expressed surprise that the nominated album isn’t Copperhead Road, and @OB1 has said that he had this down as a possible (as did I). That should tell you what a big deal Steve Earle is to some on this thread, and Copperhead Road is so good that it even made number 412 in Colin Larkin’s list.

But instead, we are listening to Earle’s first album, Guitar Town, which is fine by me. Introduced to his music in 1988 by my girlfriend at the time, I bought this album and the follow-up, Exit 0 early in the year, bought Copperhead Road when it came out and then got to see him in concert at The International later in the same year. So musically, 1988 was the year of Steve Earle for me.

What I am concerned about with this pick is that people will listen and just hear typical country music. The production is a bit thinner than what would come later but the way Steve Earle sings, the quality of his songs shine through. So, I see this as a useful marker of where he started – the whole point of the New Country genre was to leave the glitzy pop polish and sequined outfits behind, and on this album, he certainly does that.

Let’s start with the best songs. The album kicks off with “Guitar Town”, a chipper little number about a guy in a band, and “Someday” is a song about a young guy working a dead-end gas station job and wanting to leave town and is, as AllMusic states, the best Springsteen song that the Boss didn’t write.

“Good Ol’ Boy” sees the protagonist battling 80s Reaganomics, with lyrics like "I got a job but it ain't nearly enough" and "I was born in the land of plenty now there ain't enough", Steve Earle manages to match his powerful lyrics with a muscular band sound.

Elsewhere, as Mancitydoogle says, "Little Rock 'n' Roller" takes on extra poignancy with the recent death of Earle’s son, Justin. When he sings “I know there's an angel just for rock 'n' rollers watchin' over you and your daddy tonight", it turns out to be true for the father who survived prison and a heroin/cocaine addiction, but sadly not for his son.

"My Old Friend the Blues" is a nicely played song that was later covered by The Proclaimers. I’ve always enjoyed the upbeat "Goodbye's All We've Got Left" and "Hillbilly Highway" but from memory, the album tailed off after “Someday”. However, listening again this morning, it’s apparent how good songs like “Fearless Heart” and “Down The Road” are, and only “Think It Over” sounds like some old country pastiche.

I understand why @Mancitydoogle picked this album; it was the one that got him into country music and of course it was Earle’s major label debut. But the fact is that good as this album is, it didn’t represent where he eventually took the music and, in my opinion, his best albums are Copperhead Road, The Hard Way and I Feel Alright. On these albums, the guitars truly buzz and are frequently joined by mandolins and other eclectic instruments. There are some fantastic songs on his first two albums, but later on his band’s playing, the production and the arrangements lifted him to another level. 8/10

I'd agree with pretty much all of that. Might not bother writing a review this week!

I think Eddi Reader and Patty Loveless have both done better versions of My Old Friend than our bespectacled friends from north of the border, Loveless's has a beautifully simple bluegrass(ish) backing.

 

[BimboBob]

Sounds very generic on my first listen. Could be any country star from the last 50 years. Not sure about his voice yet but I don't like the guitar sound that much. My trouble is I like country rock...I like The Dead South...but this seems just so boring compared. There's nothing going on, just similar lyrics about losing women or having the best women on the planet. It's sitting at a bar nursing a bud light music. There's no get up and go. Just drones on and on.

Still, I might have a lightbulb moment in the next two listens.

 

[Saddleworth2]

I am happy to but I think it will most folks will tend to value sheer quantity of high-quality music (i.e. music they still like) per year than selecting a year with experimental changes in direction when it comes to determining "best years for music."

To me "best" years are going to be about transitions that wrecked what came before and gave artists opportunities to go in new directions. My years aren't going to be any of the years the rest of you pick.

I never expected you to follow us herd Foggy :-).
I think it can be either scenario the albums chosen should either demonstrate the quality/quantity of the work or their role in ‘changing’ the music landscape. Do you have views on the number? I would be happy with ten but if the consensus is five then fine with that too.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I never expected you to follow us herd Foggy :-).
I think it can be either scenario the albums chosen should either demonstrate the quality/quantity of the work or their role in ‘changing’ the music landscape. Do you have views on the number? I would be happy with ten but if the consensus is five then fine with that too.

I think five — ten is a lot!

 

[Saddleworth2]

It's a nice idea but this might mean listening to 80 or 90 albums nominated by others to get your favourite because there's a very good chance people will be coming up with stuff you don't know.

Obviously I'll play as far as possible but I can see me looking at the list for, say, 1974 and thinking I know two songs in total from all of those albums!

That’s a good point. I hadn’t thought that everyone would listen to every album. Many they will know, others they will dip in and out of. It’s a valid reason to restrict to five albums though.