Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001 at the very peak of her success. I feel a little guilty for wondering if this tragedy hasn't colored her legacy, which is described as significant and influential, even game-changing pop-R&B in the 90s. Given all that, I was pretty shocked about how basic most of her music is.
Her debut album Age Ain't Nothing but Number comes out in 1994 and gets certified Gold. I don't see it. She writes none of the music or lyrics. The only thing remotely impressive about the album is that it was made by a child. "Back and Forth" is an OK song, but there's nothing spectacular about the beats, lyrics, or even her voice. She songs softly and subdued, often overshadowed by the rap verses on songs or even the backing vocals. Maybe it's just too silky for my tastes.
R. Kelly lurking in the background on the album cover is eerily symbolic. He met Aaliyah when she was 12 and became her mentor, song writer, producer, and...husband. She's 14 when they make the album. So gross.
The music gets immediately better with a more contemporary, edgy, and more adult sound on her 2nd album, with Missy Elliot and Timbaland, and also on her 3rd album, which is slightly more experimental. Aside from various posthumous compilations and occasional tracks, the third album was her last.
"One in a Million" may not make my wedding play list but it apparently made the Best Wedding Reception Music, Vol 1.And then that got in my digital library...somehow.
Then there's "Rock the Boat," but that's just sad to see her dancing in the islands knowing that she (and 8 others!) died on the way home.
I know her best for her this song from the movie Romeo Must Die, which I suppose is otherwise a pretty forgettable movie, but it was Aaliyah's acting debut, opposite Jet Li. I wasn't even into the movie or this video at the time, but the song ended up in my library and floated around favorably for years. So it might not her biggest hit, but it is to me. (Actually, she was the first artist to get to the top of the Billboard Top 100 solely on airplay.) Yes, it's that same "just OK" voice from the first album, but it is surrounded with better sounds (that squelchy keyboard bass!) that shine on it favorably.
I feel the loss of Aaliyah greatest when I see her acting. I am in agreement with her fans on that point, that she could have been a contender. Queen of the Damned was a deeply flawed movie, but she was unforgettable in it
I started listening to my music collection alphabetically at the end of last summer; it is now deep winter. I have just made it to the As. I listened to 20-some bands whose names start with numbers or symbols. Assuming it's going to take approximately 6 months on average to get through each letter, that means this project could last over a decade. I'm OK with that. I'm committed to the bit at this point. I was really steeled by the 311 experience. I'm sure there are worse bands in the world, and some of them will have far more than eleven albums. But now I am looking forward to such challenges. The whole thing can have a bit of a masochistic element to it, but mostly I appreciate the musical blend of challenge and fulfillment.
The project remains decidedly subjective. I can only offer my perspective and it is not meant to be absolute. While I want to write briefly about each band I listen to, the response is meant to be mine alone, and won't always be an exhaustive look at the artist or their catalog. I am also limited by the confines of the digital library I have chosen to associate with (Google Play), allowing its choices to make most of my cataloging decisions. I also need to become a better write because I feel like I am constantly using the same phrases to describe the music.
As far as the Numbers:
50 Cent probably nudges out 311 to take The Worst
Later-day 10,000 Maniacs and all of 112 made for some difficult listening as well.
The 145s are The Best
I discovered a couple bands I liked that I knew nothing about before: +/- and 100s
2 Live Crew is more somehow both more complex and far less complex than people give them credit for.
I'm glad I can tell the difference between 2 in Rhythm and 2 Unlimited now....
808 state is an early techno band. They might even be called influential. It seems they get name dropped a lot, but I'm not 100% that's not just people mutually referencing the famous old-school drum machine from which they took their band name.
They are from Manchester, so I suppose we must associate them with that scene - and indeed they are definitely acid house music. Their early records sound like just simple but effective early techno and early versions of house music. And it is early, so it sounds primitive at first, but the noises they make are very satisfying from the start and only get better as they move forward, all the way to present day (well, 2003) material that is glossy and refined yet still weird and interesting. Aphex Twin was an early champion of their first record in 1998, which makes sense. They also remind me a lot of Art of Noise and Orb/Orbital (and I hope that I when I get to 'O' I'll have finally learned how to accurately distinguish between those two bands).
They break into the scene with a pop break-through hit "Pacific State," and they weren't really an album oriented band at first. It is non-rewarding listening to hear an "album" that is essentially several versions of just a few songs, to say nothing of the remixes EPs and such. However, 1996's Don Solaris is a standout as a more album-oriented sound- a well-put together collection. And their introduction of drum-and-bass sounds later in their career is an extremely welcome addition to the already pleasant variety of electronic sounds and styles. I might also call this pre-post dance music. It's not nearly as glitchy as today's post-EDM sound, but it's still abstract enough at times - that's acid house for ya.
Perhaps the most exceptional track in their whole catalog is their song with Bjork on guest vocals, "Opps." She did wordless vocals on at least one other track of theirs, but this delightful number was like finding a lost song by the Sugarcubes, which is really say something considering that band's limited output.
Yep -that's what hip-hop from South Florida sounds like. Neither as filthy as 2 Live Crew nor as explicitly violent as some other Dirty South rap, these guys found a just-pop-enough niche for their three albums in 1994, 1998, and 2000.
They had their moment and peaked with the first album, which is not bad!
And "Tootsie Roll" was forever enshrined as a popular booty-shaking Jock Jam.
This is a rather interesting band. They seem to awkwardly bridge "oldies" and "rock music." I know them well for "Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In," and I love that gospel-funk. I won't judge anyone who knows it exclusively from the Forrest Gump soundtrack. I knew it was from Hair, but I was never really clear on if they did it in the Broadway version or if they were doing a cover. Turns out they do a lot of covers, and with the light opera and show tunes thrown in there it can get a little scholocky. At times it reminds me of that 1960s versions of American Idol or Glee Club antics - they do a bunch of medleys. Their impressive voices are all certainly front-and-center, but at times it gets a bit too brash. I did find myself turning them down on more than one occasion. Apparently there sound was dubbed "Champagne Soul," and I can't shake the notion that is sanitized for white people's consumption. They made a bunch of TV appearances in the 60s like on Ed Sullivan and other TV Specials. Even when it's political it's sort of politely defiant. So at times it is super cheesy. It is occasionally reminiscent of elevator music or what might be labeled "A.M. Gold." But at other times it is funky and gruff and fun- good for a retro-dance party. Some of those covers work well, such as when they do "Ticket to Ride" or "Sunshine of Your Love," but other covers are totally unnecessary and seem too cleaned up.
Their first hit was a cover of The Mammas and The Pappas own "Go Where You Wanna Go," which charted better than the original, but their breakthrough is "Up, Up, and Away" (1967) from the album of the same name. It's a fairly grating song and the album is more of the same. Next, The Magic Garden is more interesting, thematically consistent to a degree that it is practically a concept album (written entirely by Jimmy Webb) and one of their best. "Weeding Bell Blues" was another hit; it's not my favorite, but it's another one for one's Wedding playlist. The next couple albums are good too, but eventually they slowly lose whatever slight edge they started off with. Their late 70s albums are not great. Living Together, Growing Together was particularly egregious with high levels of saccharin- their cover of "Day By Day" from Godspell is almost intolerable.
Yet heir 1971 live album is great and includes a noteworthy version of "Ode to Billie Joe" (originally by Bobbie Gentry), and "Shake your Tambourine" is a forgotten classic- a funky song done well. (It was originally by Bobby Marchan - a fascinating character in his own right who after some R&B hits returned to New Orleans to work as a female impersonator and MC, was involved in booking and promoting early bounce and hiphop - including for DJ Jubilee's Take Fo Records, and he was also involved in the formation of Cash Money Records! I was wondering if he was the first guy to say, "Shake your moneymaker," but that might be Elmore James.)
Despite the great dance moves and costumes in this clip, it gives a good sense of their hokey show-tunes take on these song. The "Love" medley is hard to take, but this clip does ends with a rollicking version of Shake Your Tambourine"
Although their first three albums came out on Soul City Records, then a few on Bell Records, in 2005 someone called Classic World Productions, who went bankrupt the same year despite a diverse catalog of mostly oldies, put out a 5th Dimension album called Live! Plus Other Rare Studio Recordings. The live stuff is good, but the "rare studio recordings" oddly represent some late incarnation of the band that is more heavily influenced by soul and disco.
And then two of the members went on to form Ashford & Simpson.
They reunited for a tour in 1990 and 1991! Morbid curiosity would have been more than enough to get me to that show. As of 2016 original member Florence LaRue is still touring as one version of the act. As of matter of fact her sold-out show got a good review and she took some time out to show she still cares about love, peace, and happiness - in a good way, really. Meanwhile, original members and real-life married couple Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis tour with their own version of the band.
Sure, I could have listened to these guys under "F," but here is where they were listed by Google Play so here is where I will listen to them. That's how it works- mostly out of my hands. All in all, it was a interesting journey through the long and mostly-tolerable music career of a band I would never have otherwise heard so completely. No regrets... OK, maybe a few.
You may remember The 5.6.7.8s as the band in that scene of Kill Bill, and damned if it isn't one of the realest things captured on film (that year?).
or that Vonage commercial.
1994 to 1996 was a glorious time, ripe for them to put out two good albums. That's all I got streaming here anyway, although there are actually a handful of other albums between 1991 and 2014 that aren't showing up in my digital library. [But that's what I'm listening to- whatever is available streaming.] They released two new songs in 2016 - still great! Yes, the vocals are raw. That's why we are here! File under garage rock - for real! And yet they were in that mainstream movie and commercial. Love those 90s. They are a Japanese trio that is playing American rock music, so there's that.
And Wikipedia says,
"Even though the group mostly sing their songs in Japanese, they do many covers of American rock and roll records from the 1950s to the 1980s. However, their official website and most of their fansites and fanclubs are in Japanese, as they have their biggest following in their home country."
(But you know what Wikipedia does NOT mention? That time The 145s from Austin,TX played in Japan with the 5678s, in what I can only imagine was called The 145678 Tour. As there is now a cheesy cover band also called the 145s, limited evidence of their very existence continues to diminish, but I found this. It might as well be on geocities. Love it.)
The 5678s are super fun. Enjoy them at your next mixer. I guess we are stylizing it as The 5.6.7.8s, but I can't bring myself to use the apostrophe.
One of the great things about this project is that if anyone ever asks me, "Hey - do you like 50 Cent?" then I can be like, "No," and it's not some sort of half-baked, unfounded position. I have listened to every single 50 Cent song at least once and found them all to be severely lacking. I don't have to like everything. At least I listened to it once.
Please don't tell him. I do not want to piss this guy off, but... he mumbles. He's a truly awful singer. The beats are boring, and the music is an afterthought. I suppose in that golden era of 2005, before America suffered mass-shooting on a semi-regular basis, someone thought it would be a good idea to recreate all the horrific sounds of a mass shooting on an album, but I have no idea who considers that valid entertainment. Not me (and I'm pretty open minded). Even the hits are mild."In Da Club" may have set a Billboard record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week, but it is totally forgettable; I have literally already forgotten it. "Candy Shop" is not as good as it sounds like it should be. I'm sorry- I normally come to the defense of East Coast rap and I <3 NYC, but this stuff does nothing for me. His six albums felt like 20; I did not like the redundant and hackneyed themes of the lyrics and found it all to be virtually amusical. And then I gotta listen to Eminem too?! Nah.
At one point he had a viral video of him making fun of an autistic teenager working as a janitor in an airport. Another time he got hauled into court for claiming to have no money but posting pics of stacks of bills on Instagram. He has various complex business ventures. He's got feuds with Ja Rule, The Game, and Rick Ross among others. He's had various ugly civil and criminal matters to handle. I guess that's the whole point of the appeal to some, right? Legit street cred? That and the abs. You really can't argue with those guns either. Glad he started acting. Not trying to be mean, but seriously.
