155 - The Pretenders - (eponymous)

Very energetic blend of rock, punk, pop, 60's Girl bands, early Beatles pop balladry, and reggae. I have the band's greatest hits collection from a couple dozen years ago that gets pulled out sporadically and mostly as background music. I dunno if it is a matter of focus when listening to the greatest hits, but The Pretenders surprised me with how diverse the songs were.

“The Phone Call” reminds me a lot of bands such as The Breeders with slightly fuzzy, jangly guitars. Chrissie coos, croons, groan, growls, squeals, and snarls – sometimes throwing in all of those in one song. “Tattooed Love Boys” combines punk start-stop-start guitar chugging with rock lead guitar flourishes. The rhythm section on “Space Invader” reminds me a lot of KISS, but is juxtaposed with New Wave guitar runs.

This album is on my Buy list now.

Songs I Knew I Liked: “Brass in Pocket”

Songs I Now Like: “The Phone Call,” “Kid,” and “Lovers of Today”

Songs I Don't Want to Ever Hear Again: None

154 - Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' in the Moonlight

I looked back at my review of the self-titled Howlin' Wolf album that I had already listened to for the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list. Reading my review for that album, it seems that my opinion is mostly the same when listening to Moanin' in the Moonlight. One major difference between the debut and this album is that all of the songs on the debut were written by Willie Dixon and these songs are mostly Howlin' Wolf originals. Each song sounds as if recorded in a shack located on some dirt road. Howlin' Wolf's raspy vocals don't sound put on as a character but as the result of years of poor living and a tough life.

If you are looking to explore the blues, this should be a top candidate.

Songs I Knew I Liked: “Smokestack Lightnin'”

Songs I Now Like: None jumped out to me.

Songs I Don't Want to Ever Hear Again: None

153 - A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory

Maybe my recent listens to Paul's Boutique is to blame, but what stuck out for me about Low End Theory is how spare it is. At a time where sampling had evolved past what a DJ with two-turntables could perform live, the use of just a few samples as a bed for rapping and reserving most vocal and fanciful sampling for instrumental fills between verses.

While I'm not one to pay a lot of attention to lyrics, I was surprised with how Q-Tip pulled me in with lots of his lines. He delivered cool, measured, abstract verses, seemingly more interested in painting a picture than using his time at the mic for narrative. Fife is much more straight forward in his delivery. I see a lot of similarities between the personalities and combination of Q-Tip and Phife and the pairing of Big Boi and Andre' in Outkast where the cool, artsy guy shares the mic with the cool, jock guy.

Songs I Knew I Liked: “Check the Rhime,” “Jazz (We've Got),” and “Scenario”

Songs I Now Like: “Buggin' Out,” “Butter,” and “Everything is Fair”

Songs I Don't Want to Ever Hear Again: None