Last Four 5.

As of August 25th.

Joe Henry - Trampoline. Joe started out as a more or less alt.country kinda guy, and he was very good in that genre, especially on his third album Kindness of the World, with backing by another ür-Alt.Country outfit the Jayhawks. I guess he felt like he'd taken that as far as he could go, so he started experimenting with studio technology, drum loops, that sort of thing, and eventually started a collaboration with one Page Hamilton of the alternative rock band Helmet... and this was the result. Never really been a Helmet fan, but this is my favorite Henry album by a mile. The two blended styles perfectly with Joe looking to move away from country, and thus we get funk rhythms and harder heavier guitar, but with Henry's typically wry and observant lyrical style. Naturally, since this one blew me away, he hasn't done a single record like this since, opting to move towards a more atmospheric, low key, lyrically reflective jazz-rockish style which has produced some nice songs but if we're being honest here mostly bores me. Highlights: well, to be honest, I don't think there's a single bad cut on this record. Even the plodding "Medicine" works itself up to a grand crescendo. Of note is a sharp cover of Sly Stone's "Let Me Have It All", a deep cut FRESH selection. Finale "Parade" has a haunting, resigned melody and the lyric

"And I love you with all I am
And you love me with what you are
As pretty as a twisting vine
A mark so fine but still a scar"

I really wish he'd revisit this sound but this record is now 28 years old and I'm not holding my breath any more.

Mick Ronson - Play Don’t Worry. We all know (well, many of us do anyway) the sad story of how David Bowie cast out his early 70s band, the one with which he made his name, The Spiders from Mars, and that included his main collaborator/arranger/lead guitarist Ronson. Their management wanted to try to groom Mick into being a solo star, so they did a big publicity push for his debut album, 1974's Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, perhaps hastily and unwisely because that oddball album was made up of covers and Bowie hand-me-downs and lacked any kind of focus that would have made it more of a satisfying listen; Ronson didn't even play much guitar on it. Some guitar god, huh. Anyway, in spite of this, the album did have its moments, but died on the chart vine and the grand plan for Mick Ronson Solo Star was if not abandoned, at least set aside. Ronson just didn't seem to be comfortable in the spotlight. That didn't stop his career though, he accepted an invitation from his friend Ian Hunter to join the still ongoing Mott the Hoople, and even toured and recorded a little. While all this was going on, he worked on his follow-up solo album, and this is that. Song by song it's much stronger than Slaughter, but once more the covers hit harder than the originals- "The Girl Can't Help It", the Velvet's "White Light/White Heat" (which was proposed for Bowie's covers album Pinups back in '73 but left off), and a track from his collaboration with the main guy from the country-rock outfit Pure Prairie League, "Angel No. 9" were standouts. "Angel" finally saw Mick really cut loose on guitar. Theatricality was still part of the mix via "Billy Porter" a song about a naive kid on the mean streets of London, I think. It sounds kinda Brecht/Weillian, like Slaughter was supposed to be. The title track and "Woman" aspire to a pop sensibility. Overall it was a much stronger record than its predecessor but didn't perform much better on the charts. Mott also broke up (seems Mick's participation, albeit unintended, exacerbated internal band tensions that were there before he arrived) and soon he was hooked up with Bob Dylan, anonymously strumming his blonde Gibson in a cast of hundreds on the Rolling Thunder Revue tour.

The Beach Boys- Sunflower. Supposedly a turn-the-page album- more participation from Brian post-SMiLE, new record company (they played hardball with Mo Ostin of Warners), new self-owned record label, this was going to be a fresh start and make the old hat-skewing Boys relevant and hip again. The best laid plans, well, you know the saying. The Boys would assemble a track listing, Warners would reject. They'd do it again with some different songs, same result. Finally, the track list was agreed on and we got Sunflower, which was indeed a somewhat new-sounding BB's album, although some of the songs had been sitting around for a couple of years. It was released, a single ("Add Some Music to Your Day") was issued... and nothing worked. The record didn't sell, and the beautiful and lyrically clever single that should have been a huge hit did make it to #64 on the charts but didn't cause much of a buzz, many DJs declining to play it because of the perceived "unhipness" of the BBs then. Its follow up "Slip On Through", a cowbell driven Dennis tune didn't even chart. The debut of the Beach Boys on Warner/Brother Records was a disaster, a true golden sombrero (in baseball parlance, when a batter goes 0 for something with every out a strikeout). Discouraged but unbowed, the Boys tried again the next year with a new manager and new perspective, and their contract still allowed them the flexibility but this was the season in the wilderness for the Wilson/Love/Jardine/Johnston collective. Funny thing, though, as the decades have glided by, this record has grown in estimation among critics and fans, and is usually cited in lists of "Best Beach Boys records". It's not hard to understand why. "Add Some Music" was a perfect BB's tune, deserved better; and other highlights for me were Carl's rocking "This Whole World" and one of two Bruce Johnston old-fashioned pop songs, "Dierdre", with its sighing flutes, sashaying rhythm, and of course the harmonies makes it a winner in my book. And of course the supernaturally lovely echo-laden "All I Wanna Do", one of my favorite Boys tunes.

Strawbs - Hero and Heroine. British Folk-Prog-Rock outfit Strawbs had had their biggest success ever with the single "Part of the Union" and its attendant album Bursting at the Seams, but of course internal tensions caused the ensemble to split up, with "Union" writers John Ford and Richard Hudson seeking to parlay that success into a duo career, which actually did go on for a while but with less chart success. Nominal band leader Dave Cousins, for his part, regrouped to do a solo record with friends and acquaintances called Two Weeks Last Summer, I think it's a minor masterpiece. But the record companies said "Uh, fellas, we still have Strawbs under contract so..." and Dave recruited a new band that included guitarist Dave Lambert and members of other groups like Juicy Lucy and Stealer's Wheel, and here was the result. Now Dave when he was inclined could really wax poetic, some might even say pretentious, but he did it very well, and this Mellotron heavy record shaped the sound of Strawbs records for years after. The title track rocks hard, even with folk underpinnings; Lambert has a nice pop rocker called "Just Love" (Dave went on to contribute songs to the next several albums, all of high quality), and Cousins gives us a dark night of the soul suite of sorts with the last five tracks on side two although it's not presented that way. The moody and lovely "Midnight Sun" is the standout. Also, there's the multi-section album opener "Autumn". Although I like the next record, 1975's Ghosts a bit better (it was my first, after all), this is a very good album with perhaps a few cringeworthy lyrics but very strong overall. Love the cover too, which directly references the title track.

This concludes my reposts from Facebook; next one of these I do will be brand new. Can you stand the suspense?