386 - Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang 36 Chambers

I wasn't expecting much when I came to this album. The Wu-Tang Clan emerged in the early 90's tidal wave of harsh, gangsta rap. The preening and posturing of the 80's got deadly serious at this point. At the time, I mourned that the work by De La Soul, Digital Planets, and Arrested Development were about to be wiped out just as grunge cleared heavy metal from the radio just a year or two before.

My memory of listening to the album when we got it at WVUA was that the album was jumbled and chaotic in sound and structure. Listening to this album over the weekend, I definitely still feel that chaos, though it doesn't seem quite as a distraction now. The MCs swap back and forth through the various tracks and I, personally, had a hard time keeping track of who was who. However, I gotta send some love out to the fact that there are references to kung-fu, Voltron, and Lucky Charms. The wide variety of MCs still can be a bit daunting, but RZA's sampling helps to make the album cohesive. The simple piano tracks, staccato rhythms, and movie samples don't sound overly spare and yet lay the foundation for the type of sampling I've heard in Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G., and NAS while going through the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list.

As one can usually state with confidence when listening to 90's rap albums, the skits between tracks are potentially chuckle-worthy on the first listen, but just become annoying upon repeat listens.

Songs I knew I liked: While I didn't recognize any songs by title, "Bring Da Ruckus" sounded really familiar after giving it a listen.

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Bring Da Ruckus" and "Method Man" stuck out for me.

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: While I didn't dislike the album as expected, I can't say that I'm particularly eager to listen to the album again.

Luke: Quick Summary

I knew that there would be redundancy when going through the four Gospels. Still, going through the Gospels back-to-back in just a few days and Luke's historian approach of making a comprehensive account of Jesus's life and teachings made Luke seem all the more redundant to me. On the other side of the coin, when I did come across stories in Luke that weren't shared in Matthew and Mark, they stuck out all the more for me. Of the first three Gospels, I like Luke's writing style the best.

John: Quick Summary

After the redundancy of Luke, I was really worried about being able to remain focused when going through the fourth Gospel. However, John's writing style differs a good deal from the other Gospel authors. Matthew seemed utmost concerned with presenting Jesus's life and words in juxtaposition with quotes and prophesies from the Old Testament. Mark's approach dropped some of Matthew's OT quoting and jumped right into the ministry of Jesus. Luke then added more stories and, IMO, did more to show Jesus and his disciples in a more humanizing way.

John, however, seemed to me less concerned about historical accuracy and more interested in reinforcing what he felt was the important teachings of Jesus. John was the last of the four Gospels written and John wrote it near the end of his life (some time in his 80's, I think). Where the other Gospels are keen on chronological details of what Jesus did when, John frequently just said: "And one day, Jesus...". I'll just blame the ESV translation I listened to, but I think the key phrase for the Book of John is "Truly, Truly." It seemed that nearly every quote of Jesus starts off with "Truly, truly, I tell you..."

385 - Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic

Yippee! My first Steely Dan album on the list!!!

On their third album, Steely Dan took the sound they started refining on Countdown to Ecstasy and condensed those five- and six-minute songs into 3-minute songs (with "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and "Pretzel Logic" being the only tracks stretching out over more than the four minute mark). While jazz made an unmistakable mark on the previous album, "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" is no rock-jazz mesh; it is jazz with a few other influences sprinkled on top. Although I've listened to this album a lot since discovering Steely Dan about 12 years ago, during my listens this weekend "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" seemed like it could have easily have been a Grateful Dead track.

Songs I knew I liked: This album is a fairly common listen to me, so I knew I liked most of the tracks.

Songs I didn't know but now like: No discoveries of newly liked aspects of these songs.

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: I wouldn't cry if "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" was automatically skipped whenever I listen to the album.

384 - Def Leppard - Pyromania

Just thinking of Pyromania brings back images of a park near Neabsco Elementary school in Dale City, Virginia. I was in 4th grade and someone had the tape blaring from their car or boombox. At the time, Def Leppard was one of the hardest hitting metal bands I heard (other than brief viewings of Twisted Sister and Motorhead on MTV).

I earlier had to review Hysteria. Pyromania is polished hard rock, but it doesn't have the chrome shine that their next album would take. The first track, "Rock Rock (Till You Drop)" sounds like AC/DC and has a grittiness that would be completely removed by the next album. The crowd noise and distortion on "Stagefright" are also a welcome bit of rough edges that Mutt would never have accepted later. But the brilliant pop-metal stylings come into play on "Photograph" (which is still my favorite Def Leppard song EVAR), "Too Late for Love," "Foolin'," "Rock of Ages," and "Comin' Under Fire." The album fits right in with Judas Priest, AC/DC, and early 80's metal...just with some effort put into the production to smooth out the sound.

Songs I knew I liked: "Photograph," "Foolin'," and "Rock of Ages"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Stagefright," "Too Late for Love," and "Comin Under Fire"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: My brain still can't retain what "Action! Not Words" and "Billy's Got a Gun" sound like after 3 hours of having the album on repeat. So, while I don't hate them, my brain has deemed them unworthy of my attention. ;)