I’ll go further, reubent. King Of America is my favorite of EC’s (in the same way that Full Moon Fever is my favorite Petty album). Nice full, warm acoustic rhythm guitar parts (giving it an Everly Brothers sound), a more relaxed, "Southern" feel than The Attractions provide him with (they have that somewhat rushed, "trying too hard" feel common to British bands). A lot of great American musicians play on the album: the incredible Jerry Scheff on bass, Earl Palmer, Jim Keltner, Ron Tutt, and Mickey Curry (all great) on drums, James Burton and T-Bone Wolk on guitar. Wow! And T Bone Burnett’s production is much better than that of Nick Lowe and others on EC’s other albums (Jeff Lynne's production on Petty's FMF is vastly superior to that of Petty's other albums). I have the U.K. F-Beat label pressing, which sounds great. Some of the now-out-of-print CD versions of the album contain bonus tracks. |
@bdp24 @loomisjohnson - Thanks for your follow-up comments regarding Elvis Costello's "King of America". It is an outstanding album. Just curious, what are your other couple of favorite Elvis Costello albums? I guess my criteria for judging my favorites would be how often I play them. I've got probably 10 different EC albums. The 3 that end up playing on my TT or CD player most often (in no particular order) are: "King of America" "Spike" "All This Useless Beauty" |
reubent, i'd offer the following: 1. song for song, i'd say this year's model is the strongest, esp. the deluxe version, which has great obscurities like big tears and tiny steps. on a certain level, i think the playing's great, esp. the thomases on bass and drums, but as per bdps' remarks, it does sound a tad studied and restrained compared to, say, graham parker and the rumour. 2. my other go-to is imperial bedroom, which really is more of a chamber piece than a rock album; i think the songs are better matched to the band's more clinical virtuosity, although steve naive tends to overplay like a MF. 3. i also dig the odds and sods collection, taking liberties, which by and large rocks the hardest and is the least fussiest record in his canon. |
Brian Auger's Oblivion Express - "Closer To It" I've owned this record for something like 40 years and over the years I've played it A LOT! Took a spin again tonight and still love it. I always play side B first because I love the versions of "Compared to What?" and "Inner City Blues" that Brian and company lay down. I'm a sucker for a Hammond B3. What can I say......... |
@reubent Since you like Brian Auger (and assuming you aren't already aware of the series) check out CAB2 by Tony MacAlpine, Bunny Brunel and Dennis Chambers + Brian Auger. You might enjoy it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAB_2 |
I was afraid of that, reubent. When I saw and heard her singing with Steve Earle recently on TV, Lucinda was a mess, and sounded drunk. Which is a shame; I like the band sound she had developed since the time of the original SOW. The sound on that album is, as you characterized it, very thin and lightweight, far too "Poppy". Donald Lindley was just an okay drummer, and unfortunately tensioned his snare drum rather tight, giving it that piccolo snare drum sound that I despise (Chad Smith’s piccolo snare drum sound ruined for me the Dixie Chick’s fine Taking The Long Way album). And whoever mixed her s/t Rough Trade and SOW albums put that drum WAY too high in stew, imo. It doesn’t "sit" down in the music the way Jim Keltner’s snare does on the Essence album, for instance. And while Gurf Morlix was and is a fantastic guitarist, his playing on those two albums being great, I think the thicker, fuller sound of the guitars on more recent albums serves Lucinda’s voice and songs better than did Gurf’s Telecaster. She’s more a Blues singer than a Country one. |
slaw, is the 2013 Lucinda s/t album on LP? I have an expanded and remastered CD version from 1998 on Koch Records with six bonus live tracks, and the original Rough Trade LP. I like the album enough to get a new LP if it’s been done real well. reubent, love The Rose Of England album! I saw Nick live quite a few years ago with his cool little 3-piece band, and he had Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham open for him. Great show! |
@bdp24 - I saw Nick Lowe in a solo show last year. It was really fun. He played like 30-40 songs, each about 2 minutes long, in rapid-fire order. Too cool...... I too Love - "The Rose of England". Got it when it came out and I've re-visited it regularly since. I just bought a second copy on Tuesday. You know, just in case...... |
@bdp24 , If you’re thinking about getting "Little Honey" on vinyl...I think you’ll be disappointed. From my experience as it not being the best SQ, it is extremely noisy. Cheers! FWIW... My previous feeling on the SQ of Lucinda Williams "S/T" 2013 re-mastred lp was confirmed. A real nice sounding record..I’d give it an easy, conservative 9. Easy recommendation for the vinyl. Happy vinyl shopping LA! |
slaw, okay, now I get it---if you're writing about it, it's an LP! Red vinyl---my favorite LP color. Clear is pretty cool, too. Non-black LP's are sometimes noisy though. Let us know how the s/t vinyl sounds, ay? reubent, Nick had Los Straitjackets touring with him recently, acting as his opening act and backing band. Their bass player is an old, old friend of mine (we met the first day of 7th grade, way back in September of 1962!), and we were playing together in a 3-piece band when LS offered him the job. Pretty cool band. |
Haircut One Hundred - "Pelican West" I've owned this record since it was released in 1982. I've always liked it. Anyway, was at my LRS today and picked another copy out of the dollar bin. It was the exact same version I already own, but it was super clean and looked like it needed a good home. Brought it home, cleaned it on the Spin-Clean and gave it a listen. It's nearly perfect. Quiet and no imperfections. Anyway, now I own two nice copies. I'll probably gift this one to my neighbor as I know he's a fan, at least of the 2 hits off of the album..... |
