Tusk by Fleetwood Mac

According to Wikipedia this album took 10 months to produce, cost well over a million dollars and was recorded through a blizzard of cocaine. The personal relationships between the two couples in the band had long since broken down, but they stayed in the band like divorced parents staying together in frosty silence for the sake of the children.

Thus, many of the tracks were recorded individually before being stitched together with the end result feeling curiously flat. The album meanders on over four sides without really ever going anywhere. There are a couple of fun bouncy tracks that weirdly enough reminded me of the sort of thing that Wild Willy Barrett produces, with the difference being that he is working from a shed with instruments salvaged from bits of driftwood and scrap, instead of a million dollar studio.

After the previous album featured a picture that automatically made you think about Mick Fleetwood’s dangly bollocks the title of this one comes from his nickname for his todger. Apparently Stevie Nicks almost left the band when she found out, and maybe if she had we would have spared this snooze fest.

Grapes, Ice

Cool as ice water
Sweet, juicy and delicious
Grape expectations

Dolly Parton: Here I Am

I have a great affection for Dolly Parton and genuinely cried when I heard the news of her passing this week. Listening to all of her albums with a friend on Twitter got me through the dreadful year that was 2020 and confirmed that she was one of the greatest songwriters of all time, with over 3000 original songs to her credit and fifty or more studio albums.

At ninety minutes, this 2019 documentary can't really do much more than skim the surface but it was nicely done with some good interviews and archive clips, and well chosen bits of music. I was particularly moved by the bit on her bluegrass albums from the early 2000s. They were critically acclaimed but commercially not very successful, but she thought that they were some of her best work. The Grass is Blue is not just my favourite Dolly album but one of my all time faviourites.

Dolly Parton: Here I Am

Potato, Crow

Crow perched patiently
Protects the potato patch
From next door's tabby

808:90 by 808 State

The late 80s and early 90s were a period of wild experimentation for the UK dance scene, both with drugs and technology. In the case of 808 State they took the Roland 808 drum machine and pushed it to the limits of what it could do, programming complex beats and patterns to craft pieces that were perfectly suited for getting smashed and dancing in a warehouse somewhere.

Listening back to this now, nearly 40 years later is a slightly odd experience. The sound is very much of its time and much of it doesn’t work outside of the original context, but the transcendent saxophone line on Pacific 202 (an unlikely breakthrough hit on the UK pop charts) still has its hooks somewhere deep in my subconscious.

Big fish, little fish, cardboard box-tastic!

Buzz

Remember when
Buzz lamped that tin foil hatter
Absolute legend!

700 down!

Apparently I've just hit 700 albums with another 389 to go!

https://1001albumsgenerator.com/album-wall/6598252c28f2106678f4231d