Britney Spears ...Baby One More Time (1999):
Jesus another iconic album of an awful era. Lotta overlap with the Timberlake album I listened to last round, but this one's way more interesting to think about, even just culturally. Both of those albums were dropped from later editions of the book, but imo they should have kept this one on there. Makes me really sad to listen to, knowing the injustice of what was coming up for her.
Setting aside the paparazzi angle, though, I would have been 7 when this released, and I couldn't stand this music back then. It was interesting to revisit this, having picked up more literacy about what Music was doing during that era. It was cool to be able to detect "oh this is doing shit that Janet Jackson had already worked over 10 years ago." R&B repackaged for white people, there's a much bigger context that this is clearly a component of.
Any case, I didn't really like this. I do like "Toxic" alright, but I never sat down with the album it came from, so idk if the rest of her stuff from that point sounded like that.
Buck Owens and his Buckaroos I've Got a Tiger By the Tail (1965):
I do not, and never will like honky tonk, but I do prefer country music being this kind of silly cornball stuff compared to what it's doing in the year 2024.
Stevie Wonder Talking Book (1972):
The rest of it's good, but ultimately dwarfed by "Superstition," which is a song that gets you into heaven
Aerosmith Toys In The Attic (1975):
Inoffensive, but this is the third album I've been served from them, and that's really just too many Aerosmith albums.
The Sugarcubes Life's Too Good (1988):
My first thought was this sounded kind of like B-52s, but then I kept listening and realized "wait a minute no, that's definitely Björk singing!" Keeping up the trend of preferring her early work, I liked this one a lot.
Fatboy Slim You've Come a Long Way Baby (1998) and Better Living Through Chemistry (1996):
Double feature! Unfortunately it gave me the later & more iconic album first; might have rated it higher if I'd listened to it second, because Chemistry was a complete snooze, indistinguishable from the rest of the 90s UK techno on this list. The only conceivable reason to include it would be showing off how different the second album is, because I cannot stress enough how bland the thing was.
You've Come a Long Way Baby is really obnoxious in a hilariously of-its-time way, but at least it has a personality. "The Rockafeller Skank" didn't make it onto my highlights playlist, but it certainly does a good job calling up childhood memories
FKA Twigs LP1 (2014):
Lotta people I know are into this kind of thing. I have nothing bad to say about it, but it doesn't Speak to me at all. I prefer a more staccato layered soundscape.
Robert Wyatt Shleep (1997):
Doesn't offer much that you couldn't get from a Gabriel-era Genesis album, tbh
Bee Gees Odessa (1969):
Less of a snooze than Trafalgar, but still not great. The People Demand Saturday Night Fever!!!
Girls Against Boys Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby (1993):
Grunge was mostly a mistake, there were only like two or three bands that could pull it off
The Auteurs New Wave (1993):
This is not new wave, and these guys aren't very good
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (1976):
Fine filler for oldies radio stations
Dion Born To Be With You (1975):
Always a bad time to be confronted with the era of songwriting where you're incessantly and exclusively calling the object of your lust "Little Girl," and goes double for something like this where the goal doesn't seem to have been getting sleazy in the first place
Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (1983):
More chops than I was really expecting, but still unquestionably a one-hit-wonder entry
Stephen Stills Manassas (1972):
Neil Young can get away with doing this kind of boring stuff because he's got a weird distinctive voice
Anyway, Gizzard's got a blues rock album out today, time to break for that for the weekend
