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No computer Will detail tomorrow
1984. “Supergroup”. Lyrics are totally Hagar solo career. I’ll add more but I can say the sum of its parts isn’t…
It's very remedial. Michael Shrieve's sense of tempo on this record is horrible. If somebody told me that none of the 'band members' were ever in the recording studio together, I would believe it. The Firm did this recipe justice a year later.
Songs: 1.5 Ds
Performance: 2.25 Ds
Influence: 1.0 Ds
Overall: 1.75 D's
Jimmy and Gordy Johnson are from Minneapolis. They are both bass players. I met Gordy once. Jimmy played on a lot of my favorite records.
This album has some moments. Love the title track. There are some other songs that probably could have been Supertramp songs. I still prefer Roger in a band than solo.
Songs: 2.5 Ds
Performance: 2.5 Ds
Influence: 2.0 Ds
Overall: 2.25 D's
This is the kind of jazz I started listening to in middle school. I'd expand into big band and other forms but this fusion stuff was right up my alley. Great roster of musicians. There was certainly a group of these guys who played on everything including each other's solo records. Chad started as a drummer for Zappa in the early 80s.
Songs: 2.5 Ds
Performance: 3.5 Ds
Influence: 2.0 Ds
Overall: 2.75 D's
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Unusual pairing of Templeman and Holdsworth. I've never listened to this record until today. I don't mind it. Jack Bruce and Paul Williams sing on it. Jeff Berlin and Chad Wackerman play on it. It's an EP and I could have used a few more songs.
Songs: 3.0 Ds
Performance: 3.5 Ds
Influence: 2.5 Ds
Overall: 3.0 D's
I think back to my childhood and am amazed how much this album was in my life. It was on the radio all the time. It's the perfect party album (when people played whole albums at parties). The production is great. I like the variation of styles between Pat Simmons' and Michael McDonald's songwriting.
Songs: 3.25 Ds
Performance: 3.25 Ds
Influence: 3.0 Ds
Overall: 3.25 D's
Happy birthday Edward.
This is a great, great album. I didn't like it as much when it came out but I've really learned to love it and appreciate the importance of the record. The song '5150' is one of my top 5 favorite VH songs. The chorus is a real joy. 'Summer Nights' (the first song Sam and Ed wrote together) is another hooky track. Even the keyboard songs that people made fun of back when this came out are really good. They're Ed's songs and he had some great musical ideas. Sam's melodies and vocals were a perfect fit. Van Halen would NOT have succeeded with Roth staying in the band. So, thank the rock Gods for this era of VH.
Songs: 3.5 Ds
Performance: 3.75 Ds
Influence: 3.5 Ds
Overall: 3.75 D's
Great band. Not their best album but it's got some great songs on it. Radio staples and really good singing.
What is up with the drums on this record?! They're distorted as hell! Compression on FM radio must mask them OR Apple Music has a bad master. I need to investigate this aural travesty.
Songs: 2.75 Ds
Performance: 2.5 Ds
Influence: 2.0 Ds
Overall: 2.5 D's
This is the first time I've heard ANYTHING from this record. I really liked it. It was all the good things of late 70s Gilmour. Great band, great backup singers. A lot of it sounded like Floyd but not underneath Roger's thumb. I'll definitely listen to this record again.
Songs: 3.25 Ds
Performance: 3.5 Ds
Influence: 2.25 Ds
Overall: 3.0 D's
Yeah. Arguably the best album ever made. That won't make it a 5 D's across the board though.
Chris Thomas was brought in to be the guy to help mix the album. Chris is another guy that has done so much work with bands that I grew up with.
Songs: 4.5 Ds
Performance: 4.5 Ds
Influence: 3.0 Ds
Overall: 4.0 D's
This is a great Pete record. You can hear some later Who sounds on this album but that isn't unusual since Pete was pretty much the only songwriter for the band. The Who went the way of Pete.
3 of Pete's solo singles are on here along with 'Gonna Get Ya' which is a song I remember hearing as a kid enough to remember the end chorus vocal melody but I can't remember why I would have heard it. My parents didn't have the album, my aunts didn't but maybe they did because that would have been the only way I would have heard the last track. I don't believe it was a single.
The whole record is great and was a joy to listen to again.
Songs: 3.5 Ds
Performance: 3.0 Ds
Influence: 3.25 Ds
Overall: 3.25 D's
Songs: 3.25 Ds
Performance: 4.0 Ds
Influence: 3.75 Ds
Overall: 3.75 D's
I get that it was a different era but I can't understand why this album is worth 5 million in sales. The record would never sell that much today because there are only 2 good singles off of it. 'What's Love...' and 'Better Be Good To Me' were great songs. 'Private Dancer' was ok.
This is one of those records that has about 30 people involved in the making of the album. Easy pickings for this blog. I can go one of 15 ways for my next listen.
Songs: 2.25 Ds
Performance: 2.25 Ds
Influence: 1.0 Ds
Overall: 1.75 D's
I consider this the 2nd album of the 90s era of Rush. Presto was the first though that was 89.
It's a really good Rush album for its time. 'Where's My Thing' is probably their best structured instrumental. Concise, punchy, still contains great musicianship, structured in a way that those idio...people who don't like Rush because of Geddy's voice should appreciate the song. If not, then you aren't a music lover.
Not the best batch of Neil lyrics but they work. Saw them on this tour. Milwaukee.
Songs: 2.75 Ds
Performance: 2.75 Ds
Influence: 3.0 Ds
Overall: 3.0 D's
I picked this album up the day it came out and went to my friend Bryan's house to listen to it. It was strange hearing Al play on something other than a Rush album.
Most of the songs are pretty cool. Production is decent. Edwin's vocals are great. Actually, his whole backup band is great.
Songs: 2.5 Ds
Performance: 2.75 Ds
Influence: 2.75 Ds
Overall: 2.75 D's
This album is pretty solid. 1993 Canadian alt metal. It sounds of the day. Decent production.
Saw these guys open up for Dream Theater around the release of this album. They were pretty good live. Never really got into them because of the type of music I was listening to then.
Songs: 2.5 Ds
Performance: 2.5 Ds
Influence: 2.0 Ds
Overall: 2.25 D's
Decent music. Horrible lyrical content. Estranged is a great song. It's the better of the 2 Illusion records even with Axl's stupid vocal parts. Slash has that Slash guitar sound that I never really dug. It's like he forgot to turn his Wah pedal off.
Songs: 2.5 Ds
Performance: 3.0 Ds
Influence: 2.5 Ds
Overall: 2.75 D's
Songs: 2.75 Ds
Performance: 3.0 Ds
Influence: 2.0 Ds
Overall: 2.25 D's
I can honestly say I did not listen to this album before 2020. It was another deep dive into Jellyfish find. Eric was a great singer for this band. The album was really well done. Very sleazy but not over Slash'd. Cry of Love/Cinderella/Black Crowes sounding. Horrible album cover. Horrible album title.
I'm venturing out of the Jellyfish string of my journey. I think I'll be able to come back to it but I can tell we are going into some heavier shit in the next couple weeks. It was fun doing a double back, loop the loop on bands connected to Jellyfish.
Songs: 3.0 Ds
Performance: 3.0 Ds
Influence: 2.0 Ds
Overall: 2.5 Ds
Dog sitting this evening and entering today’s album via phone is really tough. I’ll update the post tonight.
Roger Joseph Manning Jr. was the keyboard player in Jellyfish. He was the keyboard player in Imperial Drag.
Stay tuned.
This album was a great find. I ended up finding it on my dive into the world of Jellyfish. Eric Dover was the guitar player for Jellyfish on their last tour as a band. Great guitarist and vocalist. When the band broke up, Roger and Eric were gonna start a band but Eric won the audition to be Slash's vocalist for the first Snakepit record. The Imperial Drag album was done right before and released after (I think). It's a great glam revival record.
Songs: 3.0 Ds
Performance: 3.0 Ds
Influence: 2.25 Ds
Overall: 2.75 Ds
I don't like this as much as Belly Button but in regards to bands who only put out 2 records, this is a great start to a 1-2 punch. Songs are great but the record has more of a lilt and float to it. 'That is Why' is a great, great, GREAT song.
I've read that people think this is Jellyfish's 'Revolver' to Belly Button being their Sgt. Peppers. Makes total sense.
Songs: 3.75 Ds
Performance: 4.5 Ds
Influence: 4.0 Ds
Overall: 4.25 Ds
Found this record in my deep dive of the Jellyfish family tree. The original Jellyfish guitar player (Jason Falkner) and the fill-in guitar player (Jon Brion) teamed up to form this band in 1994. They only lasted one album partly because of egos (how many songs of theirs would be on the record, etc). The sound of this record isn't as awesome as the Jellyfish albums but budget was probably a big issue. Most of the songs are great and a couple are phenomenal.
Songs: 3.5 Ds
Performance: 3.0 Ds
Influence: 3.0 Ds
Overall: 3.25 Ds
I knew of this band but never really gave them a chance back when this came out in 1993. I admit I was too pretentious with metal/progressive music/Zappa/jazz/fusion during that time. I wasn't watching MTV (I don't think we had it until a year later). I missed Jellyfish completely.
During Covid lockdown, I had a lot of free time and started to explore bands that my musician heroes were into. Mike Portnoy (drummer) always said he loved this band. He was doing a YouTube video cast of the top 10 power pop albums with a few other guys. This album was a unanimous pick for everybody. I decided to listen to it. It blew me the fuck away. I mean, like being a kid again and hearing Rush, Zappa or Van Halen for the first time. It was an experience you have about 5 or 6 times in your life when it comes to bands. I couldn't get enough. The band broke up before 1995 so there were only 2 studio albums and some demo compilations. However, there were dozens of hours of live video and interviews on YT that I gorged on late at night. I can honestly say that aside from my dog Spageddy Lee, this band and particularly this album was the best thing that happened to me since Covid. Even today, after probably the 500th listen, it still brings me joy and a smile. Beatles, meets Beach Boys meets Supertramp meets Queen. Great songs, great 4 PART vocal harmonies. It will be the favorite album of this Album:365 adventure.
Songs: 5.0 Ds
Performance: 5.0 Ds
Influence: 4.5 Ds
Overall: 5.0 Ds
(Connection to previous album: Steve Lukather played guitar on the Vortex album and is the guitar player in Toto)
I'll admit, this is the first time I played this album through. In fact, aside from "I'll Be Over You", I probably never heard these songs before. I liked Toto's first 4 records. This album had Joseph Williams on vocals. Decent singer but I'm a Bobby Kimball guy.
Steve Lukather is a great guitarist but his guitar tone on this record is thin. It's a classic mid 80s production. Lots of additional musicians.
Songs: 2.5 Ds
Performance: 4.0 Ds
Influence: 1.5 Ds
Overall: 2.5 Ds
Songs: 3.0 Ds
Performance: 4.0 Ds
Influence: 3.25 Ds
Overall: 3.5 Ds
This Dream Theater record was always a dark horse favorite for me. The band almost broke up making the album and they were forced to try some co-writing in order to make more radio friendly songs. Didn't really work. This album isn't all zingers but the proggiest songs are some of my favorites from the band's entire catalog. The drums sound fantastic and were recorded to tape. This is the pivot album for Dream Theater. Shit got way progressive and heavy after this.
Songs: 3.75 Ds
Performance: 4.25 Ds
Influence: 4.0 Ds
Overall: 4.0 Ds
Magna Carta was (is?) a record label that did a lot of really cool progressive metal albums in the late 90s. They tended to get a lot of famous musicians to collaborate on albums. Some were tribute records but some were actually 'groups' that would put 1 or 2 records out containing pretty epic songs.
Explorers Club was one of the better super groups of this era. It had 3/5 of Dream Theater, Terry Bozzio, Billy Sheehan, Steve Howe among others. Billy and Terry were a constant rhythm section throughout. There were about 3 singers that took sections, a few guitar players and keyboard players would do solos.
The album is interesting for a few listens. I actually maybe last listened to the record...15 years ago? Before that probably a dozen times in the 5 years after it came out. It brought back quite a few good memories about how I would figure out how to spend what litter cash I had on these releases. They were mostly mail order unless I could get The Exclusive Company to order them for me.
Songs: 2.0 Ds
Performance: 3.0 Ds
Influence: 2.25 Ds
Overall: 2.5 Ds
All my peeps know I'm a huge Dream Theater fan and have been since 1993. James is the singer of that band and has put out several solo records. This is number...3 I think.
My close friends also know that I have been unamused by most of James Labrie's singing for the last 15 years. This album is full of stylistic moments of his singing that would foreshadow some bad years for him. Granted, he did have a sever throat issue that lasted for years and this was at the tail end of that era. The band is pretty good. Mike Mangini on drums (Dream Theater, Vai, Extreme). The songs are pretty decent for 2005 and there are actually a few towards the back half that were catchy. Bryan is pretty laid back but that is actually what he was supposed to do on this record. He plays the perfect power metal/ prog pop bass player parts.
I got through this one because I thought of a trail that would lead me to one of my favorite albums and bands of the last 2 years that are both 30 years old. I was happy when I was able to figure out the next 4 days of albums. I think I might have even fist-pumped in the mirror.
Songs: 2.5 Ds
Performance: 3.0 Ds
Influence: 1.75 Ds
Overall: 2.0 Ds
Songs: 2.75 Ds
Performance: 4.5 Ds
Influence: 2.75 Ds
Overall: 3.5 Ds
Songs: 3.5 Ds
Performance: 4.5 Ds
Influence: 3.0 Ds
Overall: 3.5 Ds
(Connection to previous album: Gavin Harrison played drums on OSI's Blood and is the drummer for Porcupine Tree)
This one was a slow grower on me. I think I did In Absentia and Deadwing in the last Album 365. This one was a bit darker and a bit deeper. I'm a big prog fan of course but didn't enjoy this one as much back then.
I'm more appreciative now and was glad they played Anesthetize when I saw them on their last tour.
Songs: 3.5 Ds
Performance: 4.25 Ds
Influence: 3.5 Ds
Overall: 3.75 Ds
Progressive project's 3rd studio album. Band is essentially Kevin Moore (Ex Dream Theater keyboardist) and Jim Matheos (Fates Warning guitarist). Bass is played by Joey Vera (Fates Warning) and the drumming is by Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree and King Crimson drummer).
This record is more concise than the previous 2 studio albums. I think NOT having Mike Portnoy on the drums helped. The whole relationship with Kevin and Mike was something that probably affected the song performances.
Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt sings on 1 track.
Songs: 3.5 Ds
Performance: 3.5 Ds
Influence: 2.5 Ds
Overall: 3 Ds
Stay tuned…
New rules:
1 album a day
Can't repeat albums from previous attempt
Rating songs on a 5 D scale
Songs: (How I feel about the songs on the album as a whole)
Performance: (How I feel about the musicianship of the album as a whole)
Influence: (If and how the album inspired me)
Overall: (Sort of an average but I can give it less or more when needing to round up or down based on the album. It's just a tie breaking procedure)
