The Past is Calling: The Who’s ‘Quadrophenia’ (Revisited)
Sean MurphyMost popular Who album? No. Most important Who album? No. Most influential Who album? No. Best Who album? Definitely. More: Best album of the ‘70s? Probably. More? Best rock album,…
Hey Gibson, Let’s Talk Guitar Albums (Revisited)
(August, 2010) Okay. Gibson (the fine folks who bring us some of our best guitars) has recently announced their selections of what they deem the Top 50 Guitar Albums ever.…
Elvis Is (Still) Dead: Long Live The King (Revisited)
Poor Elvis. The one-time king is now more often the (big) butt of jokes (see?). But his musical and cultural imprint remains huge and will forever be impossible to escape…
Thoughts on the Olympics, Improvisation and Jay Adams (Revisited)
The Olympics, particularly the two most popular sports from each season—the gymnastics and figure skating—sells itself, accurately, as an embodiment of competition and tension, complete with a touch of voyeurism.…
Ten Albums That Supposedly Suck (But Do Not): #1 (Revisited)
1. Led Zeppelin, In Through the Out Door (1979) There are three distinctive types of Led Zeppelin fans. The first group knows Zep is great because of the classic songs…
Ten Albums That Supposedly Suck (But Do Not): #2 (Revisited)
2. Black Sabbath, Never Say Die! (1978) Maybe Ozzy really did sell his soul to the devil. How else to explain his solo albums getting more love—even amongst old school…
Ten Albums That Supposedly Suck (But Do Not): #3 (Revisited)
3. R.E.M., Monster (1994) Several theories could be advanced about why Monster was not so warmly embraced, and why it remains the least-loved of the original band’s works. One possibility…
Ten Albums That Supposedly Suck (But Do Not): #4 (Revisited)
4. Pink Floyd, More (1969) Here’s another one that may not be accused of sucking so much as not being acknowledged at all which, we should agree, is even worse.…
Ten Albums That Supposedly Suck (But Do Not): #6 & #5 (Revisited)
6. Cranes, Population 4 (1997) Cranes should have been huge for the same reason they could never be huge: they were too original, eccentric and off-putting to reach a mass…
Ten Albums That Supposedly Suck (But Do Not): #8 & #7 (Revisited)
8. Fantômas, Fantômas (1999) This one is a bit of a stretch; it may even be cheating a little bit to include it since it’s not (necessarily) dismissed. On the…