comments on 40-31
40. for the most part, as quiet as nick drake, but not fragile: ephemeral.
39. the only zeppelin album i can listen to straight through (even "the crunge"!), amazing for a band with a storied inclination for lapses in taste.
38. sure, the comeback special was a success, but once he announced his return, he couldn't go back to singing "wooden heart" (its influence on bryan ferry's vocals notwithstanding), could he? so he went back to memphis and sang eddy arnold, burt bacharach, john hartford, and gamble & huff like they came from the same hymnal.
37. years of backpacking across europe and singing brel turned him into the songwriter he always wanted to be, but, with his worst chart performance of the 60s, apparently no one was listening. except bowie, ferry, almond, cave, cope, etc.
36. this album has been dropping in my estimation (while new morning rises), but i'll say this for it: it makes me laugh, unusual for a rock record (and even more unusual with "comedy" rock records. which i hate).
35. ages me everytime i hear it, but too lovely to ignore. evokes closing time at a border honky tonk, one couple left on the dancefloor.
34. takes murmur and cranks up the volume, while maintaining the intimacy and melancholy on songs like "camera" and "time after time." simply, their best set of songs.
33. it's interesting that his soundtrack albums, which come with a built-in storyline, tend to be the most all over the place. this one, gloriously so. filmed in panavision and, unlike the film, in technicolor.
32. people who hate this album say it's due to kevin rowland; people who love it say the same. yeah, he's pretentious and affected, but he's also terribly sincere and unafraid of standing before the firing squad, heart in hand. he also had the good sense to make the world's first punk rock soul album.
31. each velvet album seemed to have spawned a different genre (alternative, noise, twee), except for the last, the vu album for classic rock fans. so convincing, in fact, that it fooled fm programmers into thinking that "rock n' roll" and "sweet jane" were hits. and now they are.