Stephen Stills -- 2

  This hunk of junk second solo release by Stephen Stills has the perfect album title, the number 2, think about it!  Sound wise this record is all over the place, like he's not too sure who he wants to be, that or he's just doing a mish-mash of styles hoping that his chances for a hit song are greater, nevertheless as an album it's very irritating for the listener, a Folk tune, a Rock number, then a full tilt Soul track.  Personally I never liked Stills, even in the Buffalo Springfield days, I found his songs cheesy.  So as far as this album goes I think it's total sh*t, like the title!

Slint -- Spiderland

  Slint's monolithic sophmore album, Spiderland ... it's hard to describe and categorize this Post - Math - not so Grungy - Indie - Spoken Velvet-ish The Gift style - Rock record, but that was my best attempt!  No wonder these College kids, who had a burst of brilliant creativity, lost themselves in metal illness and stress while recording.  Honestly I didn't know sh*t from shinola about this band until my buddy Jon totally schooled me and bought me a copy ... it's hard to like this record, but easy to love it!

Genesis -- Live

  For starters I got this album for free, or else I wouldn't have given it a mere try ... and I can't say I was able to listen to a full track on this record ... maybe if there was something that resembled music on the album I would have been able to withstand one of their epic sh*t storms of sound.  I don't know much about the whole Prog scene ... and God knows I've tried ... but what I do know is that when it comes to this genre of music, only the German Krautrockers really know how to pull it off, maybe they weren't the first to invent it, but they are the only ones to execute Prog in a listenable fashion.  So f*ck Genesis and get that stupid triangle off your damn head!

Muddy Waters -- Electric Mud

  This not so good Sludgy Guitar Blues album by Muddy Waters was a valiant attempt to modernize his sound to what was currently going on in music, resulting in total bubkis.  The only good thing I see, other than that it is made by a legend, is that it gives the whole 60's Psychedelic Blues scene a thumbs up from the man himself for changing his music, the proof is that he's trying to play it their way, meaning, his humbled majesty has found good things in their version of the Blues.

The Meters -- Struttin'

  Super Funking Soul brotha outfit The Meters are pioneers in their genre.  Struttin' is mostly, with the exception of three tunes, an instrumental album, the riffs and rhythms are so intricate you get the impression that this is a musicians only release.  The three vocal numbers sung by Art Neville are great Soul numbers, and are not meant to be forgotten just because they have vocals, for these Funking instrumental snobs.  These guys have worked with a slew of luminaries, including doing back-up on Dr. John's most famous albums and tracks.  Get your Chicken Strut on!  And have a Funkin' good time!

In The Court Of The King Crimson

  A mish-mash of musical styles all colliding together to make one album, you've got Jazz-Metal, Synth-Folk and New Age Blues ... basically Krautrock not made in Germany, so we call it Prog.  Now when I got this record I was fully ready to bash it's gawd awful head to the ground, but I didn't hate it, I still don't really know what to make of it ... I do think it's got some bad 60's kitch that I'm sure sounded like future people music, but as time passes it just sounds dated and sometimes cheesy.  All in all I file this one in the not-quite-sure pile, where it's going to go from there, who knows, it's gonna have to go to the court of the King Jerm-son again!

Joni Mitchell -- Blue

  I was never a huge Joni Mitchell fan, mostly because I had only heard the big radio hits, which I found totally irritating, especially the vocals.  But I kept hearing about her Blue album, so I decided to give it the old college try ... and I loved it!

 Lyrically this is probably the most personal record I have ever heard, covering such topics as ... the ex-husband ... break-ups ... hippies ... Europe ... Canada ... LA ... personal nostalgia ... love ... child abandonment (don't judge, what can you do when you are too young and dirt poor!) ... and whatever else I failed to notice or mention, but you get the point.  

   Mitchell's use of alternative tuning, various instruments and interesting vocals (not Big Yellow Taxi style, which I still can't stand) makes her folk sounds vibrant and beautiful. She is a true artist ... and not only because of her innovative songwriting, she's also a painter, which is usually featured on the album covers, but not this one -- oddly enough ... maybe she was feeling too Blue ...