4ZZZ

I agree. Classic rock radio = lazy radio for lazy listeners.

I entirely agree with you on your thoughts on Dylan speak-singing preceding The Velvet Underground. Listen to Run Run Run for example and it could be a Dylan song.

Top thread.

Astronomer

Agreed, definitely. These are really great reviews I've enjoyed reading them, keep them up.

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Brad Stengel

My first of only a few repeat-bands on this list. I was debating whether or not to keep it to 30 seperate bands, one album each, but in my eyes, what the list would gain in eclectisity (word?) it would lose in quality. Also, there was more than one Pavement album that I really wanted to mention, and if I'm going to make an exeption for them, I'm going to have to make one for everyone. So here you have it, the second, and final, Husker Du album on this list, and my favorite Husker Du album. Although I bought this in 2006, I had a cassete of 'New Day Rising' since I was in ninth grade, although the only song I ever listened to was "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill". In retrospect I can see why, this is Husker Du's perfect fusion of their hardcore roots with their indie aesthetic, giving the song a sound that would be mimicked by dozens of more succesful, yet less talented 90's bands.

"New Day Rising" is like if "Zen Arcade" were reduced to one album, and it was all their more straightforward punk songs. This album is very 'to-the-point', opening with "New Day Rising", something that sounds like a hardcore song, yet would be welcome on any of Husker Du's alternative albums. From there you go into "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill", "I Apologize", "Books About UFO's" and the albums masterpeice, "Celebrated Summer".

Not only is "Celebrated Summer" an absolute classic song, one that I revere for its great melody, and lyrics about summer like, "Getting drunk out on a beach/or playing in a band" that I can relate so many summers to, but this seems to predict every early 90's band's sound as well. We have acoustic guitar quiet openers, distortion coming in halfway through the verse, and the chorus is a joyously loud outburst of energy. The Pixies did not invent 'quiet-LOUD-quiet', in fact on the posters they used to hang up when they were looking for a bassist, they stated their main two influences as Husker Du, and Peter Paul and Mary. Listening to 'New Day Rising', it's fairly obvious that it's an extremely rough, lost Pixies album, with more of a punk influence.

'New Day Rising' has the same sound as 'Zen Arcade', but where they make it really count, is immediacy. The only truly skippable tracks are the last two noise songs, and every once in a while I'll let them close out the album, they're not bad, it's just the rest of the album completely eclipses them. This is Husker Du at their prime, and one of the best 'alternative' albums of the 80's.
91/100

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Urban Hat€monger ?

Wow

You know I did almost exactly the same as you. I was bored of metal & one of the first non metal albums I ever picked up was Raw Power.

Do you have the original abrasive version or the horrible 'remastered' version?

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Brad Stengel

The horrible remastered one of course

To be fair I've never heard the original Bowie produced version, so the remastering doesn't bother me as much because that's how I originally heard it. I do however have a CD of 'Raw Power' outtakes like "Open Up and Bleed", and "Cock in My Pocket" that includes some radio sessions of "Raw Power", "Search and Destroy" and "Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell". The latter of all those is the only one I prefer to the original, although they're all fantastic.

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Urban Hat€monger ?

I love the original version.

The bass is virtually inaudible and the treble on the guitars is so high it could strip flesh off you.

That's how you listen to The Stooges

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jackhammer

^^^

One album that I would love to check out.

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Brad Stengel

I think if I had made this list in 2006 rather than now, this album would have been #2 or #3, because I LOVED this album when I first heard it. And the reason why it's higher now isn't because it's gotten stale over the years-it's still just as fantastic as when I first popped it into my CD player-it's just that alot of albums that I wasn't listening to that year that were less immediate didn't get played as often, and only now have a realized how wonderful they are.

In any case, this is one of the best punk albums ever made. I absolutely adore 70's punk, but unforunately, it's more of a singles genre than one that put out great albums. Out of the hundreds of seventies punk bands I've listened to, theres maybe only 10-12 solid albums that I've heard, this being one of them. You have the obvious great songs here- the singles, "Blank Generation" and "Love Comes In Spurts", and if this was any other punk band, there might be one MAYBE two other good songs. Howver, of the ten songs on this album, only the last one do I have a distaste for, and it's more over the length, "The Plan" clocks in at over eight minutes, than the quality. No, you have "New Pleasure" one of my favorite Voidoids tunes, "Down at The Rock and Roll Club", and an awesome cover of "Walking on the Water" by CCR.

The Voidoids sound is basically a combination of Richard Hell's previous two bands, The Heartbreakers and Television. His songs have the basic rock and roll structure of the Heartbreakers, but the post-punk guitar workings of Television, thanks to Robert Quine, one of the best guitarists of the era. The guitar playing on this album really makes this album, along with the energy, which is one of the most important factors for me when listening to an album. To me, the Voidoids have much more energy than the Heartbreakers, while also having a much more unique sound, which is why I will always rate Richard Hell above Johnny Thunders.

Theres another reason why Richard Hell is better than Thunders-he's an absolutely brilliant songwriter. Take for example the song "Blank Generation", where Richard affectionately retells the story of his birth,


This is nt your average punk song, no, this is far wittier and more cerebral than 99% of what was out there in 1977. Don't forget Richard Hell was in Television, and good friends with Tom Verlaine, and that before punk rock came along, they wanted to be poets. This is one of the reasons why I fucking hate when people hear The Clash and The Sex Pistols, and dismiss punk rock altogether. Albums like this, that have almost nothing in common with the thick headed, 'I hate everything', three chord ramones/pistols rip off punk. This is not that. Listen to this album and tell me punk rock has nothing to offer, I dare you.
93/100

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Akira

Ha, d'you know, I was only looking at that album the other day thinking the same thing.

Too many albums, too little time.

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4ZZZ

And don't that sum up life.