R.E.M.’s Monster was a true WTF album. Following the mega-success of the warm, elegant pop albums Out of Time (1991) and Automatic For the People (1992), this 1994 release hit fans like a bucket of cold water.
Steeped in grunge and drowning in reverb and feedback, Monster was the loudest and least pretty collection R.E.M. ever recorded. But listening to it 22 years later, it doesn’t seem all that scary.
The Random iTunes Fairy is inadvertently jumping the gun here, unaware that I’m planning a theme week on Sinead O’Connor. This track wasn’t in the lineup, though, so no harm, no foul.
‘Just Call Me Joe’ is the final track of O’Connor’s impressive 1987 debut album, The Lion and the Cobra. For those (like me) whose first exposure to the bald songstress was through the quiet elegance of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U,’ this album was eye-opening.
Talking Heads’ 1983 album Speaking in Tongues was the band’s commercial breakthrough, to whatever extent a band this idiosyncratic can break through. The single ‘Burning Down the House’ became the group’s only top ten hit.
Speaking in Tongues followed the critically lauded but less accessible Remain in Light, and these two records form the band’s creative high point.
The fourth track from Prince’s classic Purple Rain soundtrack, ‘Computer Blue,’ underwent major changes between concept and final execution. The song originally ran about 14 minutes and ended with “three full minutes of screeching feedback,” according to Wikipedia. I’d say saner minds prevailed.
Apparently the song was trimmed after ‘Take Me With U’ was added to the album lineup, though I’m not sure what one thing has to do with the other.
Plain White T’s are best known (perhaps only known) for their hit single ‘Hey There Delilah.’ Looking back at Song of the Day #38, when I first posted that song, it’s amusing to see that I discovered it in an episode of iCarly about a year and a half after it was released. Guess I should have been doing the Billboard thing back then.
‘Hey There Delilah’ is such a simple, beautiful song and the other tracks I’ve heard from Plain White T’s just don’t compare. Today’s SOTD isn’t bad, but it’s not in the same league as ‘Delilah.’
Meet Me In Montauk 