435 - PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love

A bit more complicated and expansive sound from her previous two albums, To Bring You My Love is a brooding, primitive blues album featuring a vocalist that whispers, growls, and howls. There is a dirty, muddy aspect to many of the songs. The guitars are filled with fuzz, the lyrics are delivered in a primal manner and several songs feature the vocals a bit over-modulated, and the rhythm sounds like bigfoot is trudging through the swamp.

While I wouldn't say that Rid of Me, which preceded this album, rocks more...but this album doesn't seem really invite me to scream and shout along with it. I find myself wanting to listen to PJ use her voice than sing along with her. I used to own this album. I've never disliked it, but I traded To Bring You My Love in years ago to a record shop because I just never compelled to pull it out and give it a listen.

Songs I knew I liked: I remembered liking "Working for the Man," "Long Snake Moan" (such a great song), the single "Down By the Water," and "Send His Love to Me"

Songs I didn't know but now like: I had forgotten about "C'mon Billy"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: None in particular

434 - The Police - Outlandos D'Amour

How could someone listen to this album and not see that the Police and/or Sting was destined for pop stardom. The band sounds tight, energetic, and bred for pop radio (just listen to the vocals and harmonies on "Hole in My Life"). This collection of songs contain great hooks that prompt the listener to join in. Sure, the hits are front-loaded, but how many albums have I already encountered with that tendency? Besides, where the band loses the catchiness of "So Lonely" and "Roxanne," it is because of their willingness to stretch the rules of a pop song (partially due to their trying to maintain some post-punk cred or the quirky "Be My Girl - Sally").

Songs I knew I liked: As I mentioned on the entry for Syncronicity, I own the Message in a Box box set, so I've heard all of these songs before. However, I must confess that I listen to Discs 2-4 far more than Disc 1, that contains this album.

Songs I didn't know but now like: I can't say that I've admired "Truth Hits Everybody," "Be My Girl - Sally," or "Masoko Tanga" (such a great bass part!) much in the past.

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: None

433 - Brian Eno - Another Green World

From my sophomore year at Bama through graduation, I worked an overnight shift at the NPR station, WUAL-FM (and their repeater in NW AL - WQPR-FM). The bulk of that shift was filled with new age, avant garde jazz, ambient, and that sort of space music. I knew next to nothing about those styles of music when I joined. I was told to grab a ton of CDs from certain shelves in the Program Director's office the day before the shift. At first, I did a combination of grabbing some of the new releases, looking for CDs from artists names that rang a bell, and looking for CDs with the tell-tale color bar of Peter Gabriel's Real World Records on the spine. Brian Eno was one of those artists that I just knew the name and my playing tracks from the CDs they had gave me my introduction to his music. I honestly didn't pay a lot of attention to which albums of his I grabbed because I was primarily looking just to familiarize myself with how various artists' music sounded.

Another Green World is such a leap away from the music he put out in Here Come the Warm Jets, which he recorded just a year earlier. There are a few "songs" on the album, but for the most part, he's left conventional song-craft behind. Much of the album is instrumental. Each of these tracks are "audio art" with titles that really do a nice job of helping describe the sound of the songs - "Sky Saw," "In Dark Trees," "The Big Ship," "Spirits Drifting." Where there is singing, the lyrics are mostly nonsensical and serve as a form in which the "vocal instrument" is used in the music (such as "I'll Come Running" which repeats the phrase "I'll come running to tie your shoes" in a chorus-like manner over the second half of the song).

I have really enjoyed listening to this album this afternoon and will be on the hunt for it on vinyl at Vertical House Records and added the album (vinyl and CD) to my birthday wish list. Well, actually, I'll probably grab every Eno ambient album I can afford to grab the next time I'm at Vertical House.

Songs I knew I liked: The only song I KNOW I knew previously is "In Dark Trees" because it is on a mix tape I got as a Christmas gift from Molly, the hugest crush in my life (at the time, I was convinced it was love at first sight, it was that instantaneous). The song easily paints a picture of someone running through a fog-filled forest at night, strange noises in the darkness occasionally grabbing your attention. There are a ton of Goth bands (especially the synth-heavy ones) that owe a big "Thank you" to Brian Eno for this song.

Songs I didn't know but now like: I could be lazy and just state every song. To be more specific, I really enjoyed "Sky Saw," "The Big Ship," "I'll Come Running," "Golden Hours," and "Everything Merges with the Night."

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: There are none that I see myself skipping when listening to the CD in the future. Although I could say that I kinda wish the last third wasn't quite as sleepy.