November 27, 2020
November 26, 2020
November 25, 2020
November 24, 2020
Side A
November 20, 2020
Living Eyes is the Bee Gees' sixteenth original album (fourteenth internationally), released in 1981. The Bee Gees turned away from the disco sound that was prominent on their work in the middle-to-late 1970s with this album. However, the album was not a commercial success, perhaps due to their being so strongly associated with disco.
November 17, 2020
The album starts out with "Some People",which along wih "Wonderland" have this thick,uptempo rocking soul to it. There's little gloss except for accents here and there. Paul helps this out by writing/co-writing every song here with a strong sense of reflection and thoughtfulness reflecting more adult matters and relationships. "War Games" is an excellent song. Could be about romance or politics actually much like "Respect" has has this thick psychedelic funk groove to it and an unusual melody. "In The Long Run" and "A Certain Passion" ride less on rhythm and more on these low bubbling bass lines and a softly percussive effect. The ballads "Wasting My Time" and the title song are straight of the Sam Cooke era gospel drenched soul ballad attitude which Paul brings to life even more so. The final song is the intense,upbeat horn funk of "Wedding Day",my personal favorite on the album.
One thing about this album is that it really helps you realize there's a big difference between melodic music and melodic pop music. In pop you tend to have melodies that tend to be crafted to sound as close to perfect as humanely possible together. That's where hit songs tend to come out of. These songs all have melodies. But they aren't as heavily crafted. Some of the melodic ideas on this album seem to spring out into similar ones. They are definitely designed not just to show how far Paul Young could extend his voice,but how his band could handle themselves musically. This is one of those few very commercial sounding albums that isn't a big hit parade. Paul Young had always had a strong artistic vision behind what he did. And was lucky enough to extend it into big pop success. Here he just sings and writes from his mind and heart. And it really does work.
November 13, 2020
Pipes of Peace is the fourth solo studio album by English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney, released in 1983. As the follow-up to the popular Tug of War, the album came close to matching the commercial success of its predecessor in Britain but peaked only at number 15 on America's Billboard 200 albums chart.
Many of the songs released on Pipes of Peace were recorded during the 1981 sessions for Tug of War, with "Pipes of Peace", "The Other Me", "So Bad", "Tug of Peace" and "Through Our Love" being recorded afterwards, in September–October 1982. Accordingly, the album has many things in common with its predecessor: it was produced by George Martin, it featured two collaborations with the same artist (this time with Michael Jackson; the Tug of War collaborations being with Stevie Wonder), and continued McCartney's alliance in the studio with Ringo Starr, former 10cc guitarist Eric Stewart and his last session work with Wings guitarist Denny Laine.
Unlike Tug of War, the album features an electro-tinged sound. On the track "Tug of Peace", McCartney blended the title song to Tug of War with that of the new album. The album describes the mix as "an almost-electro collage that twists the songs into McCartney II territory".
All songs written by Paul McCartney, except "Say Say Say" and "The Man" co-written by Michael Jackson, and "Hey Hey" co-written by Stanley Clarke.
November 08, 2020
November 01, 2020
Faces addresses cosmic and social concerns, but its thinking is only Madison Avenue deep: e.g., when Joseph Worken Hardy (the name of the black everyman in “Let Me Talk”) ends his complaints about the Arabs, inflation and designer jeans with the observation “We’re all the same, with different names.”
What holds this double LP together isn’t tunes or ideas but a collective Ă©lan and Maurice White’s sparkling production, which runs the gamut from Sly Stone funk (“Pride”) to aural collage (“Faces”) to Bee Gees-influenced pop romanticism (“Sparkle,” “You”). The common denominator of White’s productions is their highly contrasted textures and boldly blocked arrangements, with brass and percussion every bit as important as the singing.
However impersonal, sprawling and weak at the seams Faces is, at least it coheres as a “happening,” resplendent with fireworks and pep-rally vibes.