Record #673: Herbie Hancock – Sound-System (1984)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Herbie Hancock is one of the more convincing chameleons (pun intended) in jazz history.

After writing indelible standards like “Maiden Voyage” and “Watermelon Man,” pioneering fusion alongside Miles Davis, and leading the far-out, futuro-Afro fusion band Mwandishi, Herbie easily could have rested on his laurels and still been heralded as a legend.

But resting isn’t exactly one of Herbie’s strong suits. And in the mid-eighties, he continued to look forward. Sound-System, his second album with the Rockit band, finds him setting aside horns, pianos, and tune itself in favor of drum machines, turntables, and samplers and exploring hip hop, funk, and electro.

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Record #672: Heart – Dreamboat Annie (1975)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It’s easy to take Heart for granted.

Their powerful blend of hard rock virtuosity and folk songwriting have made them an indelible part of the rock and roll canon. It’s almost impossible to listen to a classic rock station for more than three hours without hearing at least one Heart song.

But beyond enjoying every song I’ve heard of theirs on the radio, I’ve never had much of a desire to dig into their albums. However, after finding a copy of their debut Dreamboat Annie in a box of records given to me, one listen showed me just how foolish that oversight was.

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Record #671: Cloakroom – Infinity (2013)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Among all of the bands carrying the return of loud, low, heavy guitar music pioneered by bands HUM and Failure, one act is often hoisted above the rest as the standard bearers.

That band is Cloakroom, doomgazers/space rockers/slacker rockers  from Northwest Indiana (hey, that’s where I live)! And on their debut EP, Infinity, Cloakroom roars into infamy with the roar of a thousand amplifiers and an earth-crushing gravity.

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Record #670: Fleetwood Mac – Tango in the Night (1987)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

After the manic scattershot of Tusk, Fleetwood Mac pulled hard to the center with 1982’s Mirage, a pleasant enough record that I remember being a bit dull (though I’m overdue a relisten).

After a five year break, they returned with Tango In the Night, an album that combines their winning popcraft with Lindsey Buckingham’s more esoteric tendencies in a way that feels like they’re actually in concert with eachother.

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Record #669: Fleetwood Mac – Tusk (1979)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

How do you follow up a masterpiece?

It’s a question that every artist asks after releasing a perfect work. Some try the same formula again, hoping lighting will strike the same place twice. Others decide to take a major left turn (see: Radiohead). Some have even gone mad under the pressure.

After the impeccable Rumours, the songwriters behind Fleetwood Mac chose option D: all of the above.

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Record #668: Envy – Insomniac Doze (2006)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

As long as I’ve been in the emosphere (read: like 2001 or so), I’ve somehow entirely ignored Japanese screamo pioneers Envy. It’s quite likely that I heard their names thrown around with acts like Orchid and Loma Prieta that I didn’t like at all, and assumed they would carry all of the same abrasiveness.

Had I known though that they leaned much closer to post rock than to hardcore, I wouldn’t have waited fifteen years to listen to this masterpiece.

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Record #667: Death of Lovers – Buried Under A World of Roses (2014)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Given the deep nostalgic ties in the shoegaze, dream pop, new wave, and post punk revivals, it’s little wonder that there’s a fair amount of crossover between them. Hundredth’s RARE drew as much inspiration from New Order as Slowdive. Metallic genre benders like Deftones and Deafheaven have looked to The Cure as much as My Bloody Valentine.

And so, when noted shoegaze revivalists Nothing trade their fuzz pedals for synths and do their best Joy Division impressions, it shouldn’t come as much as a surprise.

(And to be clear, that isn’t an insult).

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Record #666: Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast (1982)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

There was only one record appropriate for this entry. And truth be told, I had to borrow it, bending the rules of the blog for a bit. But given the opportunity at hand, I’m not sure I had another option.

Numerical gimmicks aside, this is my first time listening to this record, or any Iron Maiden record, most of my previous exposure coming from the Iron Maiden pinball machine (though the self-titled track here is my favorite song on that machine).

That said, like most classic heavy metal before it (see also: Black Sabbath), it’s not nearly as evil as the controversy surrounding it would suggest. Instead, it’s just a great album filled with virtuosic performances and surprisingly catchy songs.

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Record #665: Elliott – Song in the Air (2003)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

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As convenient as online shopping has made it to find all the exact records that you’re looking for, perusing a record store can bring gems that you would have otherwise ignored.

Case in point: Song in the Air by Elliott, which I found at Planet Retro in St. Pete while browsing their impressive Punk/Metal section (Kate Bush was in there too, so take “punk/metal” with a grain of salt). Having been tangentially aware of them, I pulled up Spotify and scanned through some of the songs.

What I found was a powerful emo record that gets most of its emotional weight from the intricacy of its songwriting rather than the bombast of its arrangements.

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Record #664: Electric Light Orchestra – TIME (1981)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

The 1980s saw a lot of rock and roll stalwarts trading in their electric guitars and drum sets for synthesizers and drum machines. Not even hair metal heroes like Van Halen were safe from the new wave revolution.

Even so, it stung a little harder when Electric Light Orchestra traded in their strings and horns for analog synthesizers.

However, it’d sting a whole lot more if the songs weren’t so damn catchy.

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