It’s time for another round of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees. Having covered the artists inducted in 2017 through 2020, I’m now turning my attention to the 2016 class.
First up is Cheap Trick, the Illinois-based rock band that debuted in 1973 and is still making music today (a planned 2020 album release was delayed due to Covid and will come out later this year).
Cheap Trick has been eligible for the Rock Hall since 2003 and made it in the first year they were nominated.
While I won’t argue with anybody who names 2016’s Lemonade as Beyoncé’s masterpiece, I do feel respect must be paid to the icon’s 2013 self-titled album.
The daring and sexy Beyoncé was the artist’s first “visual album” and the first she dropped unannounced, two tactics she repeated with great success on Lemonade. In ‘XO,’ ‘Drunk in Love’ and ‘Flawless,’ the album offered up three tracks as iconic as anything on its follow-up.
I’m forgoing today’s Random Weekend selection to close out my short series on Brandi Carlile. At first I figured I’d given her most recent album enough exposure on the blog (four songs before this one), but it didn’t feel right to leave it out.
Released in 2018, By the Way, I Forgive You was the record that finally brought Carlile the widespread recognition she’s deserved since her debut. She won a Grammy for Best Americana Album, and competed for Album, Song and Record of the Year.
Brandi Carlile’s fourth album, 2015’s The Firewatcher’s Daughter, sounds like a reaction to its low-key predecessor. Where Bear Creek leaned into acoustic folk and country, Firewatcher finds Carlile and company rocking out. On about half of its tracks, anyway.
Having been lucky enough to see Carlile live right before the pandemic, I can attest that this album comes closer to capturing her live sound than any of its predecessors. Indeed, Carlile says the band didn’t record any demos for the record, instead choosing to capture the performances for the first time during the final recording sessions.
Brandi Carlile released her fourth album, Bear Creek, in 2012. The record is named after Bear Creek Studio in Washington state, a farmhouse recording studio where artists of all sorts have cut albums. Carlile has been based in Washington for two decades, so recording there didn’t require much of a commute.
The album’s sound is appropriate to its rural setting. This is the most country-sounding album in Carlile’s output to date, though it does take a couple of detours into foot-stomping blues rock and, on its final track, something close to New Age.
