1991’s Laughter & Lust was the last “traditional” album Joe Jackson released, and it was my first exposure to him (apart from knowing ‘Steppin’ Out’ and ‘Breaking Us in Two’ from the radio).
I remember buying the album because the cover and general vibe reminded me of Elvis Costello’s Spike, and having recently discovered Mr. Costello, I thought maybe I’d luck into another great discovery.
It’s funny that, for a guy who isn’t a fan of Joni Mitchell, I own four of her albums.
I bought Court and Spark and Blue somewhere along the way in my quest to own all of the albums a person should own. I never listen to them, but I gave them a shot.
I also own Hits (courtesy of my sister, a Mitchell fan) and Both Sides Now, a 2000 covers album which might have spontaneously generated on my CD shelf, because I have no recollection of how it got there.
Talk about growing up in the shadow of greatness.
Solange is Beyoncé’s little sister, a young woman who no doubt wants to be the Eli Manning of pop/R&B music, but better hope she doesn’t wind up the Stephen Baldwin.
While Solange is a pale imitation of her goddess older sister, and this song is forgettable, I do love the video.
tUnE-yArDs first showed up on this blog during a recap of last year’s Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll, in which hundreds of music critics’ top ten lists are combined to generate a list of the year’s best songs and albums.
tUnE-yArDs’ album wound up topping that list, shocking me as I’d never heard of them before. The top song was Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep,’ so it’s not as if the list was deliberately non-mainstream. I will be writing about this year’s Pazz & Jop poll as soon as its published.
Fiona Apple has released some wonderful videos during her career, many courtesy of one-time boyfriend Paul Thomas Anderson.
My favorites are the big-band dance number they staged for the ‘Paper Bag’ video and the slow-mo black-and-white clip accompanying her cover of ‘Across the Universe’ (recorded for the film Pleasantville).
