CaptainD's Top Ten (going on Forty) Pop & Rock Albums...May 25 '04 (Updated Jan 23 '07) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Looking for something? Found something you have! This is going to be a little different from most of these “Best of” lists because 1/ I don’t mind including “Best of” albums (ironic, huh?) and 2/ I’m not choosing the albums I necessarily think of as the best musically that I have ever heard, but the ones I 1/ listen to again and again (not the musical accomplishment doesn’t come into it at all!), or 2/ have the fondest memories of - some of my CD’s have been played to death and no longer play… ;-(. Since this is for “Rock & Pop”, I haven’t included any of my jazz or classical albums, some of which would certainly make it into my top 20 albums overall. Now that’s out of the way, here goes… Oh, and I couldn’t stick to just 10, so I doubled it… and then I put a few more in joint positions because I thought of some I couldn’t bear to leave out after writing the initial 20… (Actually I've ended up with 40 or so...!) I wanted to do something a bit different for my 250th review, so I decided to return to Music - my first ever review was in this category but this is now only my 4th review here. Oh, and be warned – this is probably the longest review I’ve ever written! Let The Chart Countdown Begin… ** NUMBER 20 JOINT POSITION So Close by Dina Carroll A nice album to relax to, shows of Carroll’s excellent vocal range. Sadly she never really came up with the goods after this album. Favourite Track Ain’t No Man AND Exodus by Sunscreem Probably a weird choice considering my general taste in music, but I like this album – it’s a bit frenetic at times but the lead singer has a great voice and there’s some good lyrics in here. Favourite Track: God heard you talking in your sleep ** NUMBER 19 We Can’t Dance by Genesis Genesis went into soft pop ballad mode with this album, and Phil Collins’ vocals are well used in a series of songs that actually contain a message or tell a story. Favourite Track: Hold on my Heart Lyrical moment: “Hold on my heart / just hold on / to this feeling / we both know we’ve been here before / we both know what an happen” ** NUMBER 18 JOINT POSITION Greatest Hits by Gloria Estafan La Latina has belted out some great songs in her time, and some of the best ones are on this album. From the wonderful cheesiness of Dr Beat and Bad Boy to the inspirational Coming Out of the Dark (which I believe is the first song she released after recovering from her car accident), this is a really nice album. Favourite Track: Cuts Both Ways Lyrical moments: “Cuts both ways / our love is like a knife / it cuts both ways” - “Bay, bad, bad, bad boy / you make me feel so good” AND Move To This by Cathy Dennis Our Cathy was never tremendously well known and only produced two albums (to the best of my knowledge) before going into song writing full-time, writing for Kylie Minogue among others. This is a dance-inspired album with some good songs, I always felt it was a shame she stopped performing. The other album, Into The Skyline, has one fantastic song (“Irresistable”), but it otherwise not as good as this one. She lacks vocal range but makes up for it with enthusiasm! Favourite Track: My Beating Heart Lyrical moment: “Can you hear the sound of my / beating hear, you can / make it stop / whenever you want” ** NUMBER 17 Automatic for the People by REM This is prevented from being a great album by a one or two of the songs being pretty mediocre, but has enough great songs to make it a very good album. “Man on the Moon” is my second favourite. Wasn’t too sure about the instrumental piece though… Favourite Track: Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight ** NUMBER 16 Whisper A Prayer by Mica Paris Released while Mica had gained a reasonable amount of popular recognition (unfortunately long gone, but she’s still around on the jazz circuit), her soulful voice in a good range of songs from ballad to dance still sound good today. Favourite Track: I’ve Never Felt Like This Before ** NUMBER 15 JOINT POSITION Invisible Touch by Genesis This time Genesis went more into a “hard rock” mode, and the result was fantastic. Their eclectic style and penchant for meaningful lyrics are in full force again here, though more emphasis is put onto driving beats, rhythm, and guitar riffs (good old Mike Rutherford, eh?). Favourite Track: Land of Confusion Lyrical moments: “I must have dreamed a thousand dreams / been haunted by a million screams / but I can hear the marching feet / of them moving into street // well Superman where are you now / seems everything’s been lost somehow / the men of steel, and the men of power / are losing control by the hour” – “Hold on my heart / just hold on to that feeling / we both know we’ve been here before / we both know what can happen” Useful / useless information - I would have loved to see Genesis in concert, but I had to settle for Phil Collins solo performance at Wembley Arena. Sad to say, it stank. More useful / useless information - I haven’t heard any of Genesis’ music since that guy from one-hit-wonder band Stiltskin took over as lead singer, but the fact that they haven’t had a single hit since then would seem to indicate that Genesis’ halcyon days are long gone… AND Absolutely by ABC All the songs on this album are good, but the inclusion of “Poison Arrow” and “The Look” meant that I had to include it in my top 10 (/20 / 28). I’ve seen them twice in concert (at Wembley Arena), and they were superb both times. (Albeit suffering slightly from the sound quality being bad the first time.) Favourite Track: Poison Arrow ** NUMBER 14 ¡Volare! Lo Mejor de The Gypsy Kings by Erm… The Gypsy Kings This Spanish outfit have produced a seemingly endless stream of energetic and infectious tunes, and this album is a 2CD set packed with them. The only problem is that they sound a little too similar after a while, but that’s only really a problem if you don’t like them in the first place! Favourite Track: Bem, Bem, Maria (don’t ask me what it means though) ** NUMBER 13 JOINT POSITION White Ladder by David Gray While not exactly cheerful, the songs on this album are both beautiful melodically and contain some extremely good lyrics. I guess our David’s vocals are something you either appreciate or don’t, with no middle ground – obviously, I fall into the first group! Favourite Track: Sail Away Lyrical moment: “Sail away with me, honey / I put my heart in your hands / sail away with me, honey / now, now, now / sail away with me / what will be, will be / I want to hold you now” AND Arena by Duran Duran Although the cover picture of the boys looking very effeminate scares the living daylights out of me, their music is top notch, and somehow has that quality that always gets you going and that you never get bored of listening to. Favourite Track: Hungry Like The Wolf ** NUMBER 12 JOINT POSITION Greatest Hits by Fleetwood Mac The seventies supergroup produced some all-time classics other than the one I’ve singled out as my favourite track. The only real drawback with this album (though for most of us it’s not such a drawback) is that it doesn’t contain any of the earlier songs from the sixties’ era, when Mac were much more blues-based and were (I think) the first group to feature 3 lead guitars. It does, though, have Tusk, which is extremely weird (but in a good way). Note 1 – if you ever get the chance to see the tribute band “Rumours”, they put on a great show, which is split into the sixties music for the first half, then the seventies in the second. Note 2 – Peter Green tours the UK as a solo / with his backing group (the name escapes me at the moment). I saw him at Watermans in Brentford (Middlesex) a few years back and it was a good night (except for all the cigarette smoke!). Don’t go to see him unless you like the blues, though. Favourite Track: Tell Me Lies AND Level Best by Level 42 If I had to choose a single favourite band, it would be Level 42. I’ve seen them in concert at the Royal Albert Hall twice, and they’re absolutely brilliant – though they never seem to feature anything from the “Forever Now” album (mentioned further up this top 20 list), which is a shame. (I guess there are just so many songs that fans would be disappointed if they left out that there’s simply not enough time.). Though they never had huge success in the charts (they only ever had one number one hit - “Lessons in Love”), they maintain a cult following that will probably never die out. Although this album has a lot of their classics (“Running in the Family”, “Hot Water”, “Leaving Me Now”, “Children Say”, “The Chinese Way”, “Tracie”, etc), it suffers from having, in my opinion, two really awful songs (“Microkid” and “Starchild” – is there a connection?). No Level 42 fan should be without this album. A great album but I always program my CD player to skip those two songs! Favourite Track: Living It Up (The Sun Goes Down) ** NUMBER 11 Forgiven, Not Forgotten by The Corrs The first album released by The Corrs (unless they released any before that in Ireland), I always felt this was significantly better than the more commercially successful second album, “Talk On Corners” – of which there was estimated to a copy in 25% of all UK households! – even though I did like TOC. (After that they seem to have gone downhill quite a bit, unfortunately.) The title song is superb, every song is at least good, and one of the instrumental pieces on this album is about the best piece of Irish folk / folk-influenced music I’ve ever heard. Favourite Track: Run Away ** NUMBER 10 ** Fever by Kylie Minogue And now we’re up to the top ten. I couldn’t stand Kylie when she first starting squeaking… erm, I mean singing. But with this album she captures the very spirit of disco and grooves her way through a series of spanking songs. (Um… that didn’t quite come out right…) If only “Spinning Around” and “On a Night Like This” had also been on this album, it could have been in the top five… Favourite Track: Fragile Lyrical moment: “I’m fragile when I hear your name / fragile when you call / this could be the nearest thing to love” – “La la la / la la, la la la / la la la / la la, la la la”… - okay, okay… not all lyrics have to be meaningful!! ** NUMBER 9 Real Love by Lisa Stansfield To my mind this is still the best album our Lisa has ever done. Extremely soulful, great lyrics, and her voice is so much more suited to this style of music than some of the dance hall numbers she’s done. Favourite Track: I Wanna Make Love To You Lyrical moment: “I want to say it now / and I’ll explain somehow / the way I feel about the way we are / I know no other way / than just to say it straight / I want to shout it from the rooftops // ‘cos you fill me up / and cheer me up / when your eyes start dancing with my mind” (I particularly like that last line!) ** NUMBER 8 Coem Away With Me by Nora Jones Nora’s as soulful as Ella Fitzgerald and her debut album proves that she has the talent and vocal range to become one of the best female singers of her generation. The songs could do with a little more variety in all honesty but are all so good that this doesn’t actually detract from the album noticeably. A very good “winding-down” album at the end of a tough day, writing this reminds me that I must go out and get her second album… Favourite Track: Turn Me On ** NUMBER 7 Best of the Bangles by Go on, take a guess… I was never really a fan of the Bangles when I was younger, but hearing Atomic Kitten ruin Eternal Flame urged me to try them out again. I got this album very cheaply and it has probably been one of the best purchases of my life! For the complete opposite mood to the previous album, the vast majority of the songs on this album are very lively and upbeat, and of course contains the three classics that everyone knows – “Eternal Flame”, “Manic Monday”, and “Walk Like An Egyptian”. Favourite Track: If He Knew What She Wants ** NUMBER 6 Greatest Hits by Belinda Carlisle I love Belinda’s voice, though sadly I have only had a chance to see her in concert once. What a fantastic singer she is, and almost all of her best songs are on this brilliant album – in fact, I can barely think of one that’s missing of the same quality as those on it. If you like her singing, this album if priceless. If you don’t.. well, there’s just no helping some people! Favourite Track: Summer Rain ** NUMBER 5 Always & Forever by Eternal (before Louise Redknapp [then Nurling] left the group and niether she nor Eternal did anything worth remembering – with the very notable exception of “I Want to be the Only One”, which Eternal did with Bebe King) Favourite Track: Stay ** NUMBER 4 Tourism by Roxette Probably the best thing to come out of Sweden (okay, besides David Johanson…), their lyrics are not all that clever (though there are notable exceptions, such as in my favourite track), the rhythms and guitar playing are often very simple (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing), but altogether this is one of the most enjoyable albums to listen to that’s ever been produced. The fact that it features many live performances really helps – they’re infinitely better than their studio equivalents. I’d love to see them in concert, but unfortunately I don’t even know if they’re still together, let alone touring! (Another thing to check up on…) Favourite Track: Heart- Shaped Sea ** NUMBER 3 De Aki A Ketama by Ketama I’m not sure how popular this Spanish flamenco group are outside of their native country, so you may never have heard of them. I bought this album on the recommendation of a Spanish friend while I was in Madrid and… well, it’s my number 3 pop / rock album of all time – do I need to say more?!?! You don’t need to understand the words, though if you do you’ll realise there’s quite a bit of depth to them! Favourite Track: Se Dejaba Llevar Por Ti Lyrical moment: “No estamos locos / que sabemos lo que queremos // vida la vida / egual que se fren un sueno, pero / que nunca termino / que sepia te con el tiempo / y buscare / o ye pero buscare - okay, here’s the English translation, as much as I could make out: “We are not crazy / but we know what we want / live life / as if it were a dream / we’ll never stop / we’ll go with the time (??) / and we’re looking / we’re still looking” ** NUMBER 2 Forever Now (US Version) by Level 42 (The UK album is good but the US album is just so much better in this case!) Don’t ask me why, but the UK album of Forever Now, while good, isn’t a patch on its US equivalent. Better song selection and order, more songs, and even better arrangements of some of the same songs that are on the UK album (which may have squeaked in to this top 20 in its own right),this album contains some of the best songs Level42 have ever written (or are ever likely to now.) Mark King still tours with Level 42 (who are still as fantastic as ever in live performance) but has released at least one solo album as well, which is nice enough but nothing spectacular (reminiscent of Level 42’s more mellow tunes). I don’t know if Martin Lindow has released anything since he split from the group. Favourite Track: Love in a Peaceful World ** NUMBER 1 ** JOINT POSITION Yep you guessed it… it’s a tie. Reckless by Bryan Adams I went of Bryan Adams big time after that damned “Everything I do, I do It For You” song stayed at number one for something like 14 weeks (seemed like forever, though), but there are some all-time classics on this song. “Summer of 69” has always been a favourite of mine but there are several songs in this album that are very nearly as good. Definitely a classic. Favourite Track: Summer of 69 AND The Ultimate Collection by Santana (this is the 2-CD album – I believe there’s an older version of the same name with just one CD available too – though maybe that’s just called “Greatest Hits”…) Part rock, part salsa, part merengue, part samba, but 100% Carlos Santana, this album really packs a punch with some fantastic songs in English and Spanish. Santana’s distinctive guitar style, powerful vocals, and an irresistible rhythmic style make Santana’s Ultimate Collection my joint number one album of all time! Favourite Track: I can only pick one?!?!? Nope… “Black Magic Woman”, “Love, Devotion, and Surrender”, , “Evil Ways”, How Long”… better stop there, I guess… -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Completely useless facts… - Only two groups managed to make it into the top 20 twice (Genesis and Level 42). - I tend to like female vocalists – as you can see from the list. - I keep calling people “our” in an attempt to appear more Northern… but I don’t know why. - I’m now officially an old fogey – I can’t stand a lot of what passes for music these days. - I’m sure that every so often I’ll wonder why I missed off a particular album… - You’ll probably disagree with a lot of my choices - I don’t really care if you agree or not - I can basically guarantee that I’ve got a lot of slight inaccuracies here in the song titles and lyrics… but this has still taken me longer to write than any other review I’ve ever written! - I’ve run out of completely useless facts. CaptainD LAST MINUTE REPRIEVES Well I’m not going to change my list now, but here are some that should not be neglected: Van Morrison – “Super Hits” – it’s got “Brown Eyed Girl” on it… that alone is enough for it to merit inclusion! Gerry Rafferty – “Baker Street” – read as above but with “Baker Street”… Gabrielle – “Greatest Hits” – how on earth did I leave this out?!?!?? “Out of Reach” particularly is a favourite of mine. D:Ream – “D:ream on Volume 1” – great album, follow up was good too, whatever happened to them?!? (Having their song chosen for the Labour Party political campaign probably killed them off...) Samantha Mumba – “Gotta Tell You” – a really nice album, my favourite track is “Always Come Back To Your Love” Madness – “The Heavy Heavy Hits” – most of the classics on are this album Barry White – “Let the Music Play” - I’m gonna love you just a little bit more, baby… Paul Simon – “Graceland” – fave track “Under African Skies” Shania Twain - “Come On Over” – she’s never produced a better album than this. Faith Hill – “Breathe” – as above. And finally, two that most people outside South Africa will probably never have heard of: Mango Groove – “The Best Of Mango Groove” – A great album, very upbeat, and Claire Johnston’s vocals are just amazing (I hear she’s gone solo now). Can’t choose a favourite, I like all of them!! Johnny Clegg – “Anthology” – Terrific singer, meaningful lyrics (well, most of the time). Favourite song: “Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World” – one of my all time favourite songs by any artist! (In case you’re wondering how an English boy like myself has heard of the two above, it’s because I married a South African girl. So now you know.) And that, finally, is all!!! (Thanks for you patience,) No really, you can go now. Byeeeeeeeeee. CaptainD http://www.darscom.net  |
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