[Maeglas]

Muse - Resistance

Amazing album.

 

[jazznap]

Hank Mobley - Roll Call

 

[kb1gra]

There's only one song on this album I like: "Sugar in the Sacrament."

 

[DoYouRight]

Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect (2009 leak)

 

[Aynjell]

T.I. - Paper Trail

 

[priest]

 

[gopack87]

 

[Cankin]

Eagles - Hotel California

 

[Hi-Finthen]

Tumbleweed Connection

Elton John

Audio CD (February 20, 1996)
Original Release Date: January 1971
Number of Discs: 1
Format: Original recording reissued,
Original recording remastered
Label: Island

Song Title:

1. Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun5:01
2. Come Down In Time3:25
3. Country Comfort5:07
4. Son Of Your Father3:48
5. My Father's Gun6:21
6. Where To Now St. Peter?4:11
7. Love Song3:39
8. Amoreena5:02
9. Talking Old Soldiers4:04
10. Burn Down The Mission6:23
11. Into The Old Man's Shoes4:17
12. Madman Across The Water8:53

-Before Elton was fab, May 22, 2005
Review By John Stodder

As time has gone by, the music audience's awareness of Elton John's "classic" period has boiled down to his hit singles (a disproportionate number of them novelty songs or nostalgia exercises) and his most outlandish costumes. Although in recent years, he has clearly tried to put the emphasis back on his music, the image of Sir Elton John paying court to Princess Diana, wearing peacock feathers and giant clown glasses while collecting royalties on 70s nostagiac fluff like "Crocodile Rock" seemed to eliminate him from serious consideration. He was good for fun memories and a few million for good causes, but not someone whose music should be considered alongside the Stones, Springsteen, Aretha Franklin or The Band.

But at the same time as his hit singles were topping the charts, Elton John put out four or five of the best "rock" albums of rock's classic era. "Tumbleweed Connection" is the finest of them all, but it is the most neglected because nary a song off it shows up on a Greatest Hits package. Not because the album "failed" to produce a single, but because there is not one song on it that sounds like an artistic compromise, or playing for the galleries. While not exactly a "concept album," it is clearly meant to be played all at once. It sustains a mood, and is adroitly balanced between some pretty hard rockers, some gorgeous love balladry, and a couple of songs that perfectly reflect the questing, questioning qualities of rock at its most meaningful--"My Father's Gun" and especially "Where To Now, St. Peter?"

Like so many albums of the early 1970s, "Tumbleweed Connection" was heavily influenced by The Band. The lyrics also borrow heavily from the Bob Dylan of "John Wesley Harding," and the words Robert Hunter contributed to the Grateful Dead for "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead." The old-west/Civil War atmosphere is so thick, it is reflected in the sepia-toned packaging. The packaging also gives prominence to Taupin, underscoring that this album is a collaboration.

But it wouldn't be a great album without the artistry that Elton John brought to it as a songwriter, singer and pianist. The piano-playing is especially strong on this disk, and his singing is powerful, emotional, real; none of the archness or forced irony that started to infect his work a few years later. The piano is mixed right up front on most tracks, and is stunningly great. The guitar is rock's signature instrument, but the piano has a long tradition too, from Fats Domino and Little Richard, to brilliant sidemen like Roy Bittan and Nicky Hopkins. On this album, Elton tops them all. This record is to rock piano what "Electric Ladyland" is to the guitar.

-Reviewby Stephen Thomas Erlewine, for Allmusic:
Instead of repeating the formula that made Elton John a success, John and Bernie Taupin attempted their most ambitious record to date for the follow-up to their breakthrough. A loose concept album about the American West, Tumbleweed Connection emphasized the pretensions that always lay beneath their songcraft. Half of the songs don't follow conventional pop song structures; instead, they flow between verses and vague choruses. These experiments are remarkably successful, primarily because Taupin's lyrics are evocative and John's melodic sense is at its best. As should be expected for a concept album about the Wild West, the music draws from country and blues in equal measures, ranging from the bluesy choruses of "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun" and the modified country of "Country Comfort" to the gospel-inflected "Burn Down the Mission" and the rolling, soulful "Amoreena." Paul Buckmaster manages to write dramatic but appropriate string arrangements that accentuate the cinematic feel of the album.

/ Wonderfully remastered, must have performance / recording !


"Talking Old Soldiers", Lyrics:

Why hello, say can I buy you another glass of beer

Well thanks a lot that's kind of you, it's nice to know you care

These days there's so much going on

No one seems to want to know

I may be just an old soldier to some

But I know how it feels to grow old



Yeah that's right, you can see me here most every night

You'll always see me staring at the walls and at the lights

Funny I remember oh it's years ago I'd say

I'd stand at that bar with my friends who've passed away

And drink three times the beer that I can drink today

Yes I know how it feels to grow old



I know what they're saying son

There goes old man Joe again

Well I may be mad at that I've seen enough

To make a man go out his brains

Well do they know what it's like

To have a graveyard as a friend

`Cause that's where they are boy, all of them

Don't seem likely I'll get friends like that again



Well it's time I moved off

But it's been great just listening to you

And I might even see you next time I'm passing through

You're right there's so much going on

No one seems to want to know

So keep well, keep well old friend

And have another drink on me

Just ignore all the others you got your memories

You got your memories

~

~

 

[Jerrycan]

Sara K - Gypsy Alley

 

[kidult]

Slope - Steve Jansen

 

[whaleyboy]

CAKE - "Fashion Nugget"

 

[TimJo]

Monsters Of Folk - Monsters Of Folk (Shangri-la 101047)

(For those unfamiliar, it's a collaboration between Conor Oberst & Mike Mogis <Bright Eyes> Jim James <My Morning Jacket> and M. Ward <She & Him...> This is the double lp gatefold edition.)

 

[virometal]

Love

Da Capo

I've been in a bit of a psychedelic mood lately.

 

[krmathis]

"Trancenexus" - Revox