album reviews
The Jackson 5
Maybe Tomorrow Motown
This might be referred to as a "mature" album, and that's its major disappointment. Rather than an intensification of the Jackson 5's earlier work, Maybe Tomorrow is a cooling off — carefully considered and well-timed, but just a little too easy. It's the difference between the slow exhalation of breath that opens "Never Can Say Goodbye" and the urgent screams in "I Want You Back." In its own way, Michael breathing in your ear is exciting as instant intimacy but it's... | More »
Elton John
11/17/1970
Jim Morrison used to toy with this idea of starting an album with the sounds of a guy driving around with the rain pouring down. Finally the guy turns the radio on and lo and behold it's the new Doors album. Naturally Paul Rothchild nixed the idea so it never got done. So we've got to settle for an Elton John radio album instead. I mean who else could ever do it in a million years but the master of preciousness? Like he couldn't have done it on AM, it had to be FM. At least it ... | More »
Rod Stewart
Every Picture Tells A Story Mercury
He has it in him, has Rod Stewart, to save a lot of souls, to rescue those of us who are too old for Grand Funk but not old enough for those adorable McCartneys from being nearly consummately bored with the current rock and roll scene. It's not inconceivable that he could do it without even opening his mouth: He's physically sensational, the idol of perhaps three continents' heavy trendies, the most profound influence on rock and roll fashion since the Stones' Tour. He�... | More »
Paul McCartney
Ram Apple/EMI
Ram represents the nadir in the decomposition of Sixties rock thus far. For some, including myself, Self-Portrait had been secure in that position, but at least Self-Portrait was an album that you could hate, a record you could feel something over, even if it were nothing but regret. Ram is so incredibly inconsequential and so monumentally irrelevant you can't even do that with it: it is difficult to concentrate on, let alone dislike or even hate. McCartney's work in the Beatles wa... | More »
James Taylor
Mud Slide Slim & The Blue Horizon Warner Bros
When an artist has finally achieved success he is subjected to the kind of critical evaluation which will either legitimize that success or destroy it. Today, the consensus seems to be that this is the season for the demolition of James Taylor. It is the sheer vastness of his success which condemns him, somehow, even to his partisans. By comparison his less talented fellow chart-busters like Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk in fact, almost anyone get off easily. There are both good and bad reasons f... | More »
Curtis Mayfield
Curtis/Live!
Curtis Mayfield is confusing his strengths with his weaknesses these days. As the composer and lead singer of the Impressions he proved to be first and foremost, a beautiful melodist. After that, he often wrote extremely personal and sensitive lyrics, although for every good one he came up with, there was also an inept and pretentious counterpart. His own voice sounded brilliant when pitted against the fabulous harmonies that Sam Gooden and Fred Cash used to supply. And Johnny Pate's arr... | More »
Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind and Fire is a R&B tentet from Chicago with several vocalists, horn players that are polished but not too much, and a heavy Sly influence. Which is no denigration, because Sly's riffs are showing up (in sometimes peculiar contexts) in a large percentage of the albums appearing today, from Redbone to your latest funky-bucolic rock band. Sly pacesetters like "Thank You" are written all over such songs as "C'Mon Children" and "Moment of Truth." Which is not to say that t... | More »
Mott the Hoople
Wildlife Atlantic Records
The outcome of the battle has yet to be conclusively determined, but my scorecard gives the race for "The Most Beloved Rock And Roll Band In All The English Isles" to Mott The Hoople by two full lengths over Free. On this, their third album, they apparently feel sure enough of themselves to venture away from the piano/organ dominated sound which initially distinguished them (and invited all those Dylan comparisons). Instead we hear the country overtones of "It Must Be Love" and "Original Mix... | More »
Donny Hathaway
Donny Hathaway
Donny Hathaway is one of the most important black performers to emerge in recent years. Important in the sense that Isaac Hayes, Sly Stone, Funkadelic/Parliament or the Last Poets are important: influential (for better or worse), far-ranging and possessed of a unique, new style. Hathaway had already completed brilliant work as producer, arranger, composer, musician (choose one or any combination of the above) with Roberta Flack, Jerry Butler, Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions and others b... | More »
The Doors
L.A. Woman
Besides being heavy in their early days the Doors were funny too. Funnier than a fish. Who can ever forget those great Morrison ad libs like the one he once did during a lull in "Gloria" ("Little girl how old are you. little girl what school do you go to, little girl suck my cock")? He was an earnest drinker, which of course helped. Now he's drinking more than ever, hence there's some material basis for all the laughs. And since heaviness has been kicked in the ass of late all the k... | More »
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