263 - Tracy Chapman - (eponymous)

This is one of my milestone albums in my life. Tracy Chapman's debut album was the first contemporary album I bought that gave me the feeling I was listening to a "mature" album; not a bunch of adults playing rock or having fun with music. Here was an album of songs that had a message, conveyed serious emotion, and told me stories of American lives that were different from mine and the immediate world around me.

While the social message in many of the songs are quite poignant, it is the heartache in Tracy's songs about personal relationships that kept me hooked to listening to this album as a teenager. Tracy's vocal delivery is soft but doesn't get delicate or precious. That strength helps buoy the gratefulness and poignancy of the song lyrics. You don't feel that the protagonist has given up in "Fast Car" and that there is still fight left in the storyteller of "Behind the Wall."

There is one additional thought that kept going through my head - the clean production of the recording. While it was never a problem for me, there were times (especially during the moments of silence in "Behind the Wall") that I wish you could hear the room to add an atmosphere of solitude.

Songs I knew I liked: "Talkin' Bout a Revolution," "Fast Car," "Behind the Wall" (such a beautiful a cappella song), "Baby Can I Hold You," "Mountains O' Things," "For My Lover," "If Not Now..."

Songs I didn't know but now like: No "rediscoveries" while listening.

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

262 - Crosby, Stills, & Nash - (eponymous)

The trio's close harmonies is the key to enjoying this album. The songs are good, but it is the sound they make when harmonizing that makes these songs special. Strip out the layers of vocals and you'd have good songs that could easily be imagined on a Nick Drake, Cat Stevens, or some other singer-songwriter album. But not all tracks are tame "singer-songwriter," the group does attempt to rock out on a few tracks such as "Marrakesh Express" and "Pre-Road Downs." For me, "Marrakesh Express" is so stuck in the late 60's that I have a love/hate relationship with it. Strip out the Eastern influences and change the lyrics and I'd think the song is pretty good. How it stands, though, I find the chant at the beginning and the Marrakesh storyline to be from some strange world that doesn't resemble the one I'm in or am familiar with...which makes it harder for me to be as excited as Graham wants the listener to be when listening to it.

Songs I knew I liked: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and "Long Time Gone"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Guinnevere," "You Don't Have to Cry," "Pre-Road Downs," and "49 Bye-Byes"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Lady of the Island" and, to a lesser extent, "Wooden Ships"

261 - Grateful Dead - American Beauty

I started off thinking I was going to enjoy the album. However, I soon learned that most of the songs on American Beauty fit into either the love or hate category for me...with little that falls between. In several ways, this album sounds like Workingman's Dead Part 2. However, that seems to ignore the greater use of country music on here. This sounds a lot more like The Dead + Gram Parsons/Flying Burrito Brothers. This level of country influence caught be a bit off guard.

Don't get me wrong. My liking the songs on American Beauty or not is all about personal preference. The music on the album is quality - the lyrics are mostly interesting, the instrumentation and harmonies are impressive, and several of the songs have good hooks.

Songs I knew I liked: "Sugar Magnolia" and "Truckin'"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Box of Rain," "Friend of the Devil," and "Ripple"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Operator," "Candyman," "Brokedown Palace," and "Attics of My Life"