Posts Tagged 1001 Albums To Hear Before You Die
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March 12, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 132: Jeru The Damaja – “The Sun Rises In The East”
Now I knew about this album – maybe not quite at the time, but sometime shortly after, and I just never quite made it through to it. A shame. And good to be there now. Because not only is Jeru The Damaja great, and certainly career-best here on this debut, but also I was into all the stuff that came up around this time […]Archive
March 10, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 131: Girls Against Boys – “Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby”
So, every now and then when I’m wondering why I’m still going through this book and trying to listen to every album listed that I haven’t previously heard something genuinely surprising will come along. There’s been albums that are great by artists I thought I didn’t care about, there’s been some things, too, that I’d […]Archive
March 6, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 130: William Orbit – “Strange Cargo III”
In the early-90s William Orbit made three albums with the same title, well three volumes, culiminating then with this – “Strange Cargo III”. He of course made plenty of other great things, including lots of key remixes and production work (I was, for a time, rather besotted with his Pieces In A Modern Style). He was all the rage when I was working […]Archive
March 3, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 129: Ice Cube – “The Predator”
I rate Ice Cube – big time. Made it work for him in acting (wasn’t/isn’t great, yet isn’t flat out terrible, etc…) but really his true strength, apart from building a business empire, a brand, is his rapping, or even – actually – his writing. Dude is one of the great lyricists in hip-hop. A pioneer even. […]Archive
February 25, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 128: Stereo MC’s – “Connected”
There’s a wince of nostalgia at the title track and though I know a few more songs on here and by Stereo MC’s this is my first time hearing the Connected album. And I definitely didn’t need to hear this. It’s a bit like – I imagine – recommending something by Ronny Jordan or The Seahorses or Ocean Colour Scene. Just dated shit from a time when you had […]Archive
February 17, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 126: Koffi Olomide – “Haut De Gamme”
Probably couldn’t have picked a worse time to ‘discover’ Koffi Olomide. I’d never heard his music, not sure I’d even heard of the Congolese singer and musician, if I’m honest. But in a routine-Googling to find the cover image and any background guff to add to this – I found out he’s accused of multiple sexual assaults and is generally […]Archive
February 16, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 125: Gang Starr – “Step In The Arena”
This is the sort of straight-up banger that makes me pleased I signed up for and carried on this ridiculous ‘Challenge’. Here I am going through old albums I missed at the time. Mostly finding gems. A few duds. A few ‘who really cares’, a few ‘you had to be theres/time/place’ but mostly finding gems…then there’s something like this. You’d […]Archive
February 13, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 124: Happy Mondays – “Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches”
I was just slightly too young to really get into much of the British music from the very late 80s and into the early 90s; there was some, sure. But the whole Second Summer of Love-thing didn’t mean a great deal to me – I liked some music videos I saw on music TV and […]Archive
February 10, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 123: Digital Underground – “Sex Packets”
Yes, yes, I know The Humpty Dance – because who doesn’t? Even people who are sure they don’t know that or maybe don’t recognise the title do actually know that song. But I had never heard the whole album. I had heard one or two other Digital Underground tracks, but never a whole album – and this, their debut, is one of […]Archive
February 8, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 122: The Shamen – “En-Tact”
Barriers of entry. You just need to dive in – mostly. But sometimes it helps if you’re there at the right time. And with anything dance-music related I feel that’s most certainly the case, for the most part anyway. I love a lot of Daft Punk’s music because I hear it always thinking about how I heard […]Archive
February 4, 2019 by Simon Sweetman