2024 Album-A-Day: Week 39

This is your 39th clue.

Who am I kidding, I never read those books.

Click here for the playlist link and recommend albums for me to talk about. You have a a decreasing window of time to do this.

September 23rd: American Beauty by the Grateful Dead

Further attempts to get into the Dead, this time with an album released the same year as Workingman's Dead. I think I'm starting to get it more, as I like this one a little more than I like the aforementioned Workingman's Dead, though I still like that one. I've liked "Friend of the Devil" for a long time, and I also had fun with "Ripple" and "Candyman." What I mostly got from this album is the idea that these songs are to be expanded upon live, with extensive jamming and upping the intensity. I've seen some videos of them playing live back in the day, and a few of Dead and Company as well, and I think that's when I get the ethos of the Dead the most. My favorite track is "Sugar Magnolia."

September 24th: Like Water for Chocolate by Common

Common is someone whose name I knew, but whose music I was completely unfamiliar with. When I looked up this album and saw that it credits both J Dilla and D'Angelo as producers, I knew that this was something I had to hear. Upon listening, I can confirm that I really like the production of most/all of these songs, but I'm not sure of how much I like Common as a rapper. He can flow and write some pretty solid lyrics, but some of these lines haven't aged all that well (you know the ones) and I just can't entirely get on board with his personality, he just seems like a slightly less likeable Q-Tip or a slightly more preachy Yasiin Bey. It's still a fun listen, but I don't quite love it. "The 6th Sense" was my favorite track.

September 25th: Closing Time by Tom Waits

Returning to the twisted mind of Tom Waits, but this time before it got so twisted. Waits' debut Closing Time is far more conventional than Bone Machine, which I listened to earlier in this project, sounding a lot like Leonard Cohen. Even before his era of macabre freak-blues, Waits wrote about hard times, broken hearts, and chronic alcoholism with a dash of empathy to make it all the more compelling. There's exceptions, however, such as "Ice Cream Man," which is now my second favorite song called "Ice Cream Man" that uses ice cream as an innuendo (number one is still Van Halen). My favorite track is "Virginia Avenue."

September 26th: Cool for Cats by Squeeze

I'm a sucker for some early new wave, so here's Squeeze. Previously I only knew the title track of this record and "Tempted," which is not on this album. Anyway THIS ALBUM RIIIIPS. Also, Jools Holland was in this band? I didn't know that! This is very reminiscent of your XTC and your Elvis Costello, because it's got that fun blend of pop hooks, rock grooves, and a uniquely British snark. Squeeze tell these dry stories about mundane British life, similar to their contemporaries, but with more of a narrative than the other acts I mentioned, in a way that Blur would eventually pick up. I can see myself listening to a lot of this band in the future. My favorite track is "It's So Dirty."

September 27th: Shadowland by k.d. lang

More of the original lesbian of country, this time without the Reclines. This album is largely the same sound of Absolute Torch and Twang but with a slightly more honky-tonk sound to it, and there's also darker songs like "Black Coffee," which is some real noir detective music. Stuff like this is a great reminder that however much I say I'm not a country listener, the core of the genre has an undeniable appeal. Also, her voice. Christ Pharotekton, her voice. My favorite track is the aforementioned "Black Coffee."

September 28th: How To Grow a Woman from the Ground by Chris Thile

I told you he'd be back. I still miss Live From Here. This album, which features the Punch Brothers but is not listed as a Punch Brothers album (???) feature not only Thile's usual mandolin shredding, but also covers of "Heart In A Cage" by the Strokes and "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" by the White Stripes. I love that, even though he plays in a very traditional medium, he's an outside-the-box thinker and someone who appreciates a wide variety of styles (watch this video of the Punch Brothers covering "Kid A"). It's also got lush and beautiful songs like "Stay Away" and, my favorite, "You're An Angel and I'm Gonna Cry." It turns out, I really really really like Chris Thile.

September 29th: Doppelgänger by the Fall of Troy

I knew I'd like this album the moment that I saw that there was a song titled "You Got a Death Wish, Johnny Truant?" These guys have read House of Leaves! That's amazing! Having heard all four At the Drive-In albums, this does scratch a similar itch for me. It's not exactly the same, though, with the biggest difference being Thomas Erak's technical guitar shredding. The intensity of the performances are really what sells it for me; they don't get too hung up on the complexity of the songs, even though it's fairly dense, they know that the delivery is what's needed for the listener to get on board. They do fall prey to some of the cliches of the time, like the lyrics sounding cool but not really meaning much, and the absurdly verbose and jokey song titles, but overall this album is very fun to listen to. My favorite track, not counting "F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X." because I already knew it, was "Mouths Like Sidewinder Missiles."

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