186 - Sly & the Family Stone - Fresh

Maybe I came in with misguided ideas, but I found Sly and the Family Stone on Fresh to be sluggish, slack, and spare. Each song seemed to be in a bit of a haze. If I played Fresh on a cassette, I'd probably be convinced that the tape was stretched or the cassette player motor was running slow.

During the second listen, I started to see the minimizing of instrumentation that Sly did on this album as a good character trait. These songs seem constructed with the fewest instrumental elements as I think Sly thought he could get away with. The drums and bass put down a spare groove, everything else appears in little bursts of riffs or long squeals or wails. It is the light elements that create a draped wall of sound.

I never heard Sly sounding so much like Prince, but there is something about his tone or affectation that Prince used to utilize a lot in the post-Purple Rain to Graffiti Bridge era. The repetitious riffs seem to be the analog fore-bearers of hip-hop sampling loops.

But, in the end, I find myself feeling I'd enjoy most of the album more if they were instrumentals. There were a few times I was reminded of The Meters and that association became a temptation for me to stop the album and put on The Meters instead. Lemme restate my lack of interest in lyrics as a very likely reason why I was mostly underwhelmed by the vocals. I'm not saying they're bad, I just find them the least interesting elements on Fresh.

Songs I Knew I Liked: None, although I was positively familiar with portions of their cover of “Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” I had heard used in other media

Songs I Now Like: “If You Want Me to Stay”

Songs I Don't Want to Ever Hear Again: None I particularly want to avoid.

185 - The Stooges - (eponymous)

I much preferred Funhouse to The Stooges. This album sounded as if Iggy's energy was a mere quarter of what his live energy was. He's raw, but not as wild as he sounded on Funhouse. Iggy's singing is so quiet on some of these songs (especially “Ann”) that he sounds eerily like Lou Reed. “Ann” also is one of the few songs that seem really close to the sound of the Velvet Underground. At other times, such as the three they recorded in a rush at the last minute, they sound just a step above the typical garage band. They don't seem to be completely themselves quite yet. After this album, I think they found themselves.

Songs I Knew I Liked: "I Wanna Be Your Dog"

Songs I Now Like: “1969”

Songs I Don't Want to Ever Hear Again: “We Will Fall” - UGH! The sluggish, spare monotony...because those are key traits for fans love of The Stooges. /sarcasm OH! And it is 10+ minutes long!

184 - Madonna - The Immaculate Collection

For those wanting to have a single-disc compilation of the music that made Madonna a star, The Immaculate Collection serves that purpose well. It gathers most of her singles from “Holiday” and “Borderline” up to when Madonna started her Sex book push with “Justify My Love” and “Rescue Me.” The listener gets to hear the girl that breathily sang along to club tunes with drum tracks to the confident mega-celebrity attempting to empower all of womankind.

This isn't a perfect collection in that it does skip out on some good songs such as “Who's That Girl” and “Dress You Up” and many of the tracks that are included are slightly altered from the originals we fell in love with. Mostly, the changes are slightly increased tempos or fading out earlier, but there are some songs that are actually remixed for this album.

Songs I Knew I Liked: All, except for “La Isla Bonita” and “Cherish”

Songs I Now Like: Nothing new

Songs I Don't Want to Ever Hear Again: “La Isla Bonita” does grate on my nerves a bit because it has a knack of becoming an ear worm.