Category: Music

Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene (1976)

Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene 3 (2016)

And I stand by my original assessment…

Pink Floyd: The Wall (1979)

Eurythmics: Touch (1983)

Fuck, I’m old.

Queen: A Night at the Opera (1975)

Everyone knows Bohemian Rhapsody, but my personal favorites on the album are 39 and Prophet’s Song.

Madonna: You Can Dance (1987)

Jean Michael Jarre: Equinoxe (1978)

Grace Jones: Inside Story (1986)

Madonna: Like A Virgin (1984)

Damn, I’m old, part infinity.

Chicago: Chicago IX – Greatest Hits (1975)

I can remember laying on my bed in high school with this blaring through my Pioneer headphones.

Damn, I feel old.

Carpenters: Horizon (1974)

What struck me most about this album back in the day was the audio quality. I don’t know what magic the recording engineers used, but Karen’s voice was crystal clear, front and center. It was as if she was on stage right in front of you, and it seemed you could hear every instrument used in the arrangements.

Their take on “Please Mr. Postman” remains one of my favorites.

Barbra Streisand: The Broadway Album (1985)

I was never much of a Streisand fan (I know, I know, turn in my gay card) until this album came out. And even then it was only one of a handful of her albums that I’ve ever bought.

Elton John: Madman Across The Water (1971)

Grace Jones: Hurricane (2008)

My jury’s still out on this one, nearly twenty years on. It was just so different from her earlier work, and coming after such a long hiatus, it certainly wasn’t what I (or anyone else, for that matter) was expecting. Still, I have a copy in my library, because…well…Grace.

Donna Summer: Once Upon a Time… (1977)

Her masterpiece, and as I have written of many times before, an album that holds a very special place in my heart.

Stevie Wonder: Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants (1979)

When you first took this album out of its shrink-wrap it smelled like orchids.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Welcome to the Pleasuredome (1984)

Grace Jones: Slave to the Rhythm (1985)

Prince: 1999 (1982)

Elton John: Blue Moves (1976)

Like many others, when  Blue Moves first came out, and for many years later, I had a love/hate relationship with this album. The sound was so different from all of Elton’s previous work, and yet still so fresh. It also annoyed me no end back in the day that all four sides of the album wouldn’t fit on a standard 90 minute cassette tape, requiring that you buy a notoriously thin and prone to breakage and entanglement-in-the-player 120-minute cassette.

Now, of course, I think this collection is brilliant.

Favorite tracks: One Horse Town, Boogie Pilgrim, Crazy Water, Shoulder Holster, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, If There’s a God in Heaven (What’s He Waiting For?), and Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance).

Culture Club: Colour by Numbers (1983)

We’re getting OLD, my friends. But damn, we’ve lived some good lives.

Quarterflash: Quarterflash (1981)

Madonna: Erotica (1992)

Donna Summer: The Wanderer (1980)

Or as I call it, “The beginning of the end of her career.”

I had no idea that Very existed in this particular format (the solid orange, Lego-like jewel case) until a few weeks ago (or if it did at one time, it’s long gone from memory). When it originally came into my life in 1993, I picked up the two disc set, Very/Relentless after hearing the Relentless portion at The Playground. Even that release was unusual, in that the discs were in cardboard sleeves inside a flexible, clear, embossed fold-out case. Very/Relentless was one of my most beloved discs and was actually the second CD I replaced (the first being Kraftwerk’s Minimum/Maximum) after I started rebuilding my collection a few years ago.

This particular copy of Very has issues. There are a couple of scratches on the disc, and the jewel case is missing all the splines that hold the disc in place, but what do you want for $8? Fortunately I found another copy for the same price last night that’s described as “near-mint” and is on its way. This copy will go in the trade/sell pile for my next trip to Book●Off.

So much for not posting as much, eh?