Album Review: 10 Self Titled Heart

 Album Review: 10

Self Titled Heart

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

Heart Heart

1985 Capitol Records CDP 7 46157 2

****

"Darkness on the edge

Shadows where I stand

I search for the time

On a watch with no hands

I want to see you clearly

Come closer than this

But all I remember

Are the dreams in the mist"

It seems to me that most of these songs eventually became hits, or at least it seems like it. I often wonder why this album was self-titled. Usually a self-titled album is the band’s first album, but this was Heart’s 9th album (8th if you don't count The Greatest Hits album, which did have some original material). Anyway, the Wilson sisters kick some royal rock-n-roll arse on this album. The album starts heavy rockin' with If Looks Could Kill and continues, on from there. Perhaps the highlight of the album is These Dreams which is the first Heart song where Nancy* sings lead vocals instead of Ann. In the mid 1980s when this album came out Rock-n-Roll was all about Hair Bands and Nancy certainly let hers fly all over the place. I first got this album on vinyl, I think I still have it on that format, as part of my first dozen albums or so when I signed up to the then Columbia Record and Tape Club, eventually the mail-order service changed its name to the Columbia CD Club when they stopped dealing in vinyl in the early 1990s. All in all, this is probably my favorite Heart Album, I'd be hard pressed to pick a second favorite, I like them all.

*Nancy recently released her first solo album You and Me on 07 May 2021.

Album Review: 09 On Cloud Nine With George Harrison

 Album Review: 09

On Cloud Nine With George Harrison

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

George Harrison Cloud Nine

1987 Dark Horse Records 9 25643-2

****.5

“But it's gonna take money

A whole lot of spending money

It's gonna take plenty of money

To do it right, child.”

In my opinion Cloud Nine is one of if not the best of the later years George Harrison albums. It was produced by George and Jeff Lynne (ELO) which adds some orchestration to some of the songs making them sound bigger.

Like many of my reviews I don't know how I'm going to write them until I start on them, even then sometimes I change in mid-stride my approach. This album is mostly light and airy maybe that is what the title Cloud Nine means. I wasn't sure exactly how to write the review for this album so I will do the track by track thing:

Cloud Nine: The first track is also the title track. It makes some sense like the tradition of naming song titles with the first line of lyrics. Sometimes there is no title track. Anyway, this song I guess could be described as a sort of rock love ballad with a little bit of pep.

That's What it Takes: This song is one of the better mixes of the Harrison solos with Lynne's ELO sounds. The use of the harmonies gives it a soft heavenly sort of sound. It acts as a kind of preview of The Traveling Wilburys Sound.

Fish on the Sand: This one reminds me some of Harrison's Tribute to John Lennon All Those Years Ago sound wise. The title and some of the lyrics sort of suggest an awkward relationship.

Just For Today: A soft and slow tune that just sort of floats around giving a light peaceful air. The piano reminds me of Lennon's Imagine then with George's solo about mid-way I picture it as a slow-dance prom song with a little bit of that pseudo 1950s rockabilly.

This is Love: Another of the high ELO influenced songs. Part of it I almost expect to hear Roy Orbison joining in on it.

When We Was Fab: George’s tribute song to his Beatles years. It has that signature George Harrison weirdness to it. It mixes the eeriness of the cello sounds from Eleanor Rigby mixed with the I Am The Walrus Oooohh Chorus with kettle drums just to add some bounce. It finishes with some of George’s sitar sounds.

Devil's Radio: I think this song is making a statement about subliminal advertising and televangelist type preaching. Hidden agendas and how that evil influence. Then again maybe that is reading too much into it.

Someplace Else: Another slow prom dance song. I almost feel it is a second John Lennon tribute song that or pinning for a lost love.

Wreck of the Hesperus: Another one I’m not sure what to say. It is a good song I just don’t know how to explain it. It has a story song feel to it.

Breath Away From Heaven: Part of it has that Old Japanese kabuki tip-toeing type sound that one would expect from a John Lennon song not a George Harrison song.

Got My Mind Set On You: This is the second of the first two singles released from this album When We Was Fab was the first one. It is a fun but simple song. It is also a cover song originally recorded by James Ray in 1962 as “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You”. “Weird Al” Yankovic recorded the parody (This Song’s Just) Six Words Long on his Even Worse album.

In conclusion this is an overall excellent album. I would recommend it as an introduction to George Harrison’s albums especially his later ones.

Ebay Reselling Update: April 2021

EBAY Reselling Update:
April 2021 Sales

My last Sales update Feb 2021 I had 2 sales and 41 listings in the store. I had no sales in March.

So What Sold in Apr 2021?

1. Number 10 Envelopes Red 25 count pack $4.99 Free Shipping

Total: $4.99

Item number 1 was the last package of colored envelopes.

In March I took down a listing for some basketball cards to make a trade I did over at the trading card data base (tcdb.com). The cards not in the trade I will need to relist sometime. For me unfortunately it looks like the 5 cards I was supposed to receive were either lost in the mail (if sent) or were stolen by porch pirates if it was a large package left at my door.

I now have 39 store listings at a count of 49 units.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02
Ecrater Store: CaptKirk42 (AKA: Kirk's Knook)

Album Review: 08 Aerosmith Will PUMP You UP

 Album Review: 08

Aerosmith Will PUMP You UP!

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. It was one of the reviews I was assigned in the "Go Review That Album" game on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

Aerosmith Pump

1989 Geffen Records 9 24254-2

****

"Janie´s got a gun

Janie´s got a gun

Her dog day´s just begun

Now everybody is on the run

Tell me now it´s untrue.

What did her daddy do"

This is one of the best later Aerosmith albums. In a few years it can be called a classic, if it's not already. With hits like Love in An Elevator, Janie's Got A Gun and The Other Side how can it not be a classic? I think the tracks What It Takes, My Girl and Young Lust have had some major airplay as well. This is Aerosmith at their best. The only thing that stumps me is the Celtic style Dulcimer Stomp and the extra "hidden" country jig track at the end of What It Takes, they are good they just don't seem to fit with the rest of the regular stuff. Maybe it's a concept for the album that I just am not getting. OH and also on track number four Monkey On My Back the A-Boys use their Giving Dog A Bone base riff. This album is a good starting off point for new Aerosmith fans.

Post Number FIVE HUNDRED

OK so what is so special about this post?

Well it is post number 500 in 15 years so what?

OK so nothing special move it along folks move it along. NEXT!

Album Review: 07 Toying In The Attic With Aerosmith

Album Review: 07

Toying in The Attic With Aerosmith

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. It was one of the reviews I was assigned in the "Go Review That Album" game on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

Aerosmith Toys In The Attic

1975 Columbia Records CK 33479

***.5

“Backstroke lover always hidin’ ‘neath the covers

‘Til I talked to your daddy he say

He said you ain’t seen nothin’ ‘til you’re down on a muffin

Then you’re sure to be a changin’ your way” 

This classic rock album produced what would be two of Aerosmith's biggest world-wide hits Sweet Emotion and Walk This Way (which would be revived in the mid-1980s by Run-DMC's rap version cover of it.) It would also help put them onto the rock and roll map and help keep them on it. The album starts off fast with the title track, it loses a little bit of steam after Sweet Emotion though. It had been several years since I've listened to this album, before relistening to it for this review. That was in part due to being tired of hearing Sweet Emotion on the radio and the rap-a-sizing of Walk This Way. At first I didn't like the Run DMC cover but after it had een around for about 15 years I started to at least tolerate it.

An odd fact about this album is that the song Big Ten Inch Record came to the attention of the band via The Doctor Demento Show, Steven Tyler had heard the original recording of the song and the band played it for laughs and for their producer who liked it and wanted it on the album. As a result, in the album credits there is a thank you to Doctor Demento and that is the reason why.

It occurred to me while listening to the title track Toys In The Attic that the chorus harmonies sound very much like some Blue Oyster Cult songs. The style of the second song Uncle Salty near the beginning is similar to a Shania Twain song, I think it is Man, I Feel Like a Woman.

This album doesn't disappoint and if you consider yourself an Aerosmith fan it should be in your collection.

I reviewed the CD version of this, I also have it on Minidisc, but unfortunately I don't have a functioning minidisc player anymore, my portable one crapped out on me years ago. That's OK I only have 4 pre-recorded minidiscs. Someday I'd like to get a Sony minidisc deck for my stereo. 

Album Review: 06 Dissecting Stereos With Alan Parsons What?

Album Review: 06 

Dissecting Stereos with Alan Parsons What?

So Yeah this is getting to be a sort of regular thing. Sorry if this blog hasn't had any other type of posts all these weeks. I decided to schedule a whole bunch of these reviews to get them published so I wouldn't have yet another unfinished project. I have been scheduling them to publish Mondays at 12 Noon. At this rate (if I keep up with the scheduling) they will run every Monday until at least mid August. It also helps me with my posting quota for this year, maybe I'll get out of the red this year.

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. It was one of the reviews I was assigned in the "Go Review That Album" game on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

The Alan Parsons Project Stereotomy

1985 Arista Records AL9-8384

****.5

"I am just a dreamer, when I close my eyes

I can fly so close to the sun, that I can not see it rise

Going round in circles, in a silent sky

I am lost for so many worlds

I can not say why

I can not say why"

Of all the The Alan Parsons Project albums this was the first one I purchased near the time of its release. I don't usually get albums even close to when they are first released unless it is one of my super faves and I am Jonesing for the album. This album is also in the top 3 or 4 of my favorite APP albums.

I feel it is a sort of mix of the typical Alan Parsons sound with the 1980s pop-rock movie soundtrack sound. I could picture movie producers using the title track Stereotomy, Limelight, In the Real World or even Light of the World as a beginning theme song, ending theme song or maybe even the music used for the climax reveal maybe that is just me. The Grammy nominated instrumental track Where's The Walrus? has that Miami Vice/Smugglers Blues kind of sound and feel.

Every track I feel has its own sort of energy that has the ability to lift you up and take you on a journey of the senses.

On the track Light of The World the lead vocalist Graham Dye sounds a bit like John or maybe even Julian Lennon. That alone makes that track even cooler sounding.

I have always found the title "Stereotomy" an interesting word. Pronounced as ster-ee-auto-mee instead of ster-ee-oh-to-my as one might think. I didn't know until I looked on the Wikipedia page for the album that the word Stereotomy was used in an Edgar Allan Poe work "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (not the first time The Alan Parsons Project was inspired by Poe). The word means the cutting of solid shapes. Which would explain the cover art concept for the first pressing of the album.

The first pressing of this album had a cool cover art concept. Wikipedia mentions it. The album had a plastic outer sleeve that was red on one side blue on the other. The cover design used both colors so depending on which side of the plastic cover you had over the cover it would filter out one of the colors making the artwork look different. This color effect was used in the 1950s and 60s a lot, often on sports trading cards and non-sport cards for "secret" messages. Similar to early 3-D simulations that use red and blue colors and those "cheap sunglasses" made of cardboard that have the read and blue plastic film (lighting gels) lenses. 

NOTE: During a collection purge (I think in my infamous 1987 purge that I may or may not go into detail sometime) I had gotten rid of my original vinyl version. I based this review on the CD. In my original RYM review years ago I mentioned having the original pressing at one time, but being unsure if I still had it. I had in fact at one time gotten rid of it and for many years only had the CD copy. In recent months got a copy from Ebay for pretty cheap. Sadly there is a little tear in the plastic sleeve at the corner opening. It is a very tight fit when you slide the cover in the way that appears to be proper so that is probably why the approximately inch long tear is there. Oddly the "hype" sticker appears to be a second hype sticker covering over the remains of an original one that had been damaged.

Album Review: 05 Experiencing The Best Of Jimi Hendrix

Album Review: 05

Experiencing The Best of Jimi Hendrix

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. It was one of the reviews I was assigned in the "Go Review That Album" game on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

Jimi Hendrix Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix

1997 MCA Records MCAD-11671

****

"I'm not the only soul who's accused of hit and run
Tire tracks all across your back
I can see you had your fun
But darlin' can't you see my signals turn from green to red
And with you I can see a traffic jam straight up ahead"

This is almost the ultimate Jimi Hendrix greatest hits collection. But why is it called Experience Hendrix when it doesn't even have Are You Experienced? on it? Oh well I guess you can't have everything you want. The tunes that are included on this album are most of the rest of Jimi's greatest hits. Some of the intros and outros of a few of the songs, seem like they are missing something. I'm not sure but I think they weren't quite sure where to begin or end a song from an original segue from one song into the next.

I remember when I was a kid, I had gotten bored of some of the Hendrix songs because I heard them so often on my local "classic" rock radio station. * Back in the days when they called it "Album Oriented Rock" or just plain "rock" just before stations started using the "Classic" rock label. In fact, I used to get annoyed whenever I would hear Hendrix's recording of The Star Spangled Banner from Woodstock. I used to think it was horrible because he was being "creative" with the national anthem. Well when I got older, I started to appreciate creativity by putting your own spin on a standard. Even if Hendrix was stoned while he was playing it, you have to admit that he was a talented guitarist.

I feel that the first part of the album is practically super hit after super hit, then somewhere after Foxy Lady the pace slows down slightly then picks up some and then of course it ends with the show stopping (or rather morning starting) The Star Spangled Banner, maybe because some of those songs I had barely heard, before I had gotten this disc.

* I have a whole lot of songs and artists that I have heard so often I am tired of them. It doesn’t necessarily mean I hate the artists I am just tired of them or their “anthem” songs/hits. Some of the artists on my list are Led Zeppelin (especially Stairway To Heaven), The Doors, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, James Taylor and probably a few other artists.

Album Review: 04 Christmas In America With Pat Benatar

 Album Review: 04

Christmas Time in America With Pat Benatar

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

Pat Benater Christmas In America/Please Come Home For Christmas

2001 Gold Circle Records GC58804-2

****.5 

“Coz It's Christmas in America

Let the angels sing

It's Christmas in America

Let freedom ring

Let peace resound throughout the world

Especially on this day

It's Christmas in America

God bless the USA”

This song was written as a heart-felt reaction to the tragic events of Setember 11, 2001.

I got this CD single at a time when it was only available via the official Pat Benatar website. In 2003 The Title song Christmas In America was included as a bonus track on the album Go. It is one of my favorite Christmas songs ever.

Album Review: 03 A Royal Night At The Opera With Queen

Album Review: 03
A Royal Night At The Opera With Queen

 This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. It was one of the reviews I was assigned in the "Go Review That Album" game on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

Queen A Night At The Opera

1975 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDCD 568

****.5

“I see a little silhouette of a man,
Scaramouch, Scaramouch will you do the Fandango,
Thunderbolt and lightning - very very frightening me –
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo Figaro-Magnifco”

This is the quintessential Queen album. This album shows the band’s versatility and the wide range of their talents, especially their harmonizing. The title and some of the tracks themselves suggest that this is a concept album that the listener is attending “A Night at the Opera” a Rock Opera that is. Even though that is the suggestion it could be argued that it is not a concept album since the style of the songs is a large range, they don’t contribute to a common story and only a couple of them could be called Opera music, of course I think it is mostly because Freddy Mercury and the band were big fans of the Marx Brothers as their next album was called “A Day at the Races” According to Wikipedia they were watching “A Night at the Opera” in the recording studio while working on the album. I like my Marx Brothers fanboy angle better. I’m not sure of my first thoughts of the album the first time I heard it other than knowing the title was also the name of a Marx Brother’s movie and having heard Bohemian Rhapsody on the radio many times. I have also always thought that it possibly could be made into an opera, or at least Bohemian Rhapsody could be made into a sort of mini opera.

Well I wasn’t going to do my review like this, but I think I will give a brief track-by-track comment. This album opens in the first few notes sounding like some sort of science fiction B-grade movie with “Death on Two Legs”. The listener is then shocked a little bit with track two sounding like a 1920s tin can soundtrack to a tennis or cricket match in “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon.” Then Drummer Roger Taylor gives what can best be called an autosexual serenade to a car on “I’m in Love With My Car”. We get back on track with typical ‘70s album oriented rock with “You’re My Best Friend” one of the tracks on the album that gets a good amount of radio airplay. Then we switch gears and styles on “‘39” an acoustic folky almost sea chantey type feel. Next we come back to modern times with “Sweet Lady” a typical Queen sounding type song.

We get really artistic with “Seaside Rendezvous” which goes back again to the early 20th century tinny (in a tin can sort of way) sounds and the extraordinary vocal talents of Roger Taylor imitating percussion instruments and Freddie Mercury imitating woodwinds. Next “The Prophet’s Song” mixes a marching sort of Native American sound with a bit of a school choir recital that flows into an Acapulco canon and then back into a modern rock band sound and back again. After the fact I can hear some of the styles that would later appear in the theme to “The Highlander” movie. The song sort of drifts from a summer cabin in the rain to the piano dependent “Love of My Life” which gives us some more of Queen’s beautiful harmonizing. Next we add a little harmonizing with a little vaudeville ukulele and a little Beatles influence sound on “Good Company”. I think as a kid I did think that song was by the Beatles.

Near the end we have the most famous song from the album the piece that is most Opera like of the whole album “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The song played a big memorable part in the movie “Wayne’s World” after having been re-released shortly after Freddie Mercury’s death. It crosses a wide range of vocal styles and musical themes exploring high and low sounds fast and slow tempos as well. Then we end the album on the Patriotic instrumental “God Save The Queen”.

The copy of the CD I have and based this review on is an “Original Master” recording (OMR) made by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs (MFSL) pressed on a Gold CD. Most CDs of the time were from analog recordings and mixed with analog recording with digital mastering (AAD). The OMRs and especially the gold discs were ADD recordings. Back before CDs audiophiles had to get “1/2 speed” master recordings on “Virgin” Vinyl to get their pure sounding records with as little sound distortion as possible. The idea is that there are less impurities in virgin vinyl than ordinary vinyl. These OMRs usually would cost twice as much as the regular version. I started getting into OMRs in the early 80s when the prices for MFSL OMRs started getting more reasonable, just as CDs were starting to take over.