Leonard Cohen -- Songs Of Love And Hate

  Montreal's answer to Bobby D, Songs Of Love And Hate, recorded in Nashville by famous producer Bob Johnson.  Cohen's usual folk sounds has the addition of string arrangements on the record making the mood moodier.  His words seem to speak straight to the heart, poignant lyrics emulating feeling, spearheading itself to everyman.  Even the tunes that I'd consider bad, Diamonds in the Mine and Sing Another Song, Boys, have a pre-John Cooper Clarke quality to it.  I just wonder why they didn't put any effort for the cover, they didn't have an artist friend hanging around to pick up the slack, oh well f*uck it, let's sing a song for Last Year's Man ....  "Sincerely, L." Jerm-man!

Ike and Tina Turner -- Greatest Hits

  This record is a collection of early Ike and Tina hit numbers.  We all know Ike for being one of the corner stones of Rock 'n' Roll music, and a strong contender for possibly inventing it!  Each and every song is beyond great, Ike Turner's soul blues.  Now the funny part about the album, all the songs on this record are tunes sung by Tina about her love and longing for her man, but Ike wrote 'em all, like love letters to himself, even going as far as having a track called Letter From Tina but written by Ike, ha ha, we've all heard the stories of what kinda lover man Ike was.  I guess Tina was just A Fool In Love.

Shadows Of Knight -- Gloria

  Chicago's re-answer to the Blues, doing what the Stones, Yardbirds and the Who did and Amaricafied it back, the result being early Punk Rock.  Covering mostly classic Chicago Blues tunes and using Them's Gloria as the title track.  The real money is on the original tracks, Light Bulb Blues, It Always Happens That Way and Darkside, the first two are fuzzed out Punk numbers with switchblade riffs, the other a bleak moody ballad.  The Uk may have re-invented the blues, but the Americans regurgitated it an invented Punk!  Funny footnote, they're on the Dunwich label, product number 666, ouuuuu, spooky!

The Jimi Hendrix Experience -- Axis: Bold As Love

  Man ... I've been crazy about this album since I was a kid, it's by far the best record in the whole Hendrix catalogue.  There's just something smoother, more soulful and less showboaty about this album!  In my opinion Castles Made Of Sand is Hendrix's greatest contribution to rock music, the riff  and insightful lyrics can span the ages, even released today it'd be retrolessly fresh "...and so castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually..."

The Turtles -- Happy Together

  Part of me wants to like their sound but honestly I don't like this music at all, it's just too hippie dippie and seems like it wasn't 100% thought out.  Feels like it could have been good but turned out bad, there were moments of greatness, but they were just too far and few between.  Nice try, sh*tty record.

Queen -- A Night at the Opera

  I'm not a big fan of the whole 70's Classic Rock genre or Queen in general, they've got some good tunes, but I don't love em' all.  A Night at the Opera is a sporadic pastiche of genres from Heavy Metal to Sgt. Pepper to Dixieland to Folk to Bohemian Rhapsody, which is the melting pot of cross genre-ing ... but nonetheless Rock 'n' Roll wouldn't be the same without em' or this album.

Gladys Knight and the Pips -- Pow!

  Bargain basement label Pickwick assembles another off the cuff compilation.  Pow! is an early collection of Gladys Knight and the Pips pre-Motown recordings.  Unlike the straight up Soul sound of Hitsville USA, this album drifts from the early Girl Group style to R & B to Doo Wop, it even includes Knight-less numbers.  Opening track It Hurts Me So Bad, takes the cake and eats it too!