Bruce Springsteen: Human Touch
CD Audio I have it ★★
Bruce Springsteen: Lucky Town
CD Audio I have it ★★★
Bruce Springsteen: The Rising
CD Audio I have it ★★
Bruce Springsteen: The Ghost Of Tom Joad
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
Buffalo Springfield: Buffalo Springfield
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Yes, "Illuminations" is cooler, but I don’t see a reason to rate this album too low. For me, it’s another of her masterpieces. Diverse, original, marked by the extraordinary style of Sainte-Marie, who in 1967 hits you with some truly "bomb" tracks with that voice full of vibrato that’s just mind-blowing, capable of evoking inexplicable emotions. She deserves credit for being one of the first to interpret the songs of a young author who would debut in the studio the following year, one Roberta Joan Anderson, known to friends as "Joni." Buffy is at the highest level both as a singer-songwriter and as an interpreter. I lament the lack of a duet between her and Roger Chapman... With all that vibrato and the stereo turned up, the walls of the house would have collapsed.
  • hellraiser
    29 oct 17
    Well, I have never explored her in depth; I see you've been speaking very highly of her for years. Maybe I’ll look into it in the coming times. Which album would you recommend to start with?
  • hjhhjij
    29 oct 17
    From the beginning. To understand how ahead of her time she was as a folk singer-songwriter in terms of vocals and songwriting style (we’re talking about 1964!). Then there's this, which is the most varied and kaleidoscopic, and finally "Illuminations," which is... Well, it's the album for which she will rightfully remain in the history of music, in the year 1969, also years ahead of the stuff of that era. If you like these, which are, in my opinion, her three masterpieces, feel free to move on to the rest; up until the early '70s, it's all quality material, then I stopped.
  • adrmb
    28 dec 17
    The twilight 'Summer boy' has captivated me.
  • hjhhjij
    28 dec 17
    Chilling, one of the best.
Buffy Sainte-Marie: It's My Way!
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Unmissable debut. Beyond some jewels of protest folk, certain other songs here from 1964 were truly something original and very particular, thanks to the unique style and incredible voice (though not yet so filled with mind-bending vibratos as it would become later) of Sainte-Marie. "Mayo Sto Hoon," "Eyes of Amber," "The Incest Song" are masterpieces written and performed with a style that had no equals at the time. Then there are other beautiful songs to embellish the masterpiece ("He Lived Alone in Town"). Exceptional singer-songwriter, immense voice.
  • bluesboy94
    17 jan 16
    Here, it’s time to listen to her seriously!
    Ps: right now I have a beautiful "He lived alone in town" in my headphones.
  • hjhhjij
    17 jan 16
    A piece of incredible melancholy and sadness. She will continuously evolve; she was ahead of her time in 1964 and will still be so in 1969. In my opinion, the other two cornerstones of her discography are the versatile "Fire Fleet & Candlelight" (where her passion for traditional British music explodes, anticipating the recovery of two pieces even before Fairport Convention and Pentangle, and where she interprets two songs by a Mitchell still active only live) and of course "Illuminations," her peak, psychedelic-spirited-alienated-elec tronic singer-songwriter work. However, in the 60s (and very early 70s), all her records are good.
  • luludia
    17 jan 16
    You've piqued my curiosity and I'm listening too... really not bad...
  • hjhhjij
    17 jan 16
    Only a few people know her :( But I’m glad I’ve piqued a couple of interests.
  • bluesboy94
    17 jan 16
    I had overlooked the release date of the album. 1964!
  • hjhhjij
    17 jan 16
    That's an important point. I said it was truly something on its own, a songwriter, a singer-songwriter, incredibly talented with a completely unique and original style, unmistakable. No one in '64, and even after, wrote and sang like that. I fell in love with it. Another masterpiece from an album you can't miss.
  • hjhhjij
    17 jan 16
    And also as an interpreter Feel how this voice vibrates.
  • bluesboy94
    17 jan 16
    "One of a kind"... after all, she belongs to an almost extinct breed, it's only natural that her songs and singing style come across as distinctive to us.
  • hjhhjij
    17 jan 16
    "She belongs to an almost extinct race." Exactly, Canadians. Just kidding XD Yes, in fact, the roots of Sainte-Marie often resurface both in her singing style and in her "musical" writing, as well as in her lyrics ("Now That the Buffalo's Gone" is a pretty decent business card, I’d say, a bit like her "Blowin' in the Wind"). But it’s not just that; blues is even more, otherwise her passion for traditional British music wouldn't make sense—she was truly versatile. Even French chanson has influenced her; "Until It's Time for You to Go" is a beautiful song on her second album that very much resembles the style of French singer-songwriter music. Indeed, in her 1967 masterpiece, she re-recorded it with a more emphatic style, singing it in French.
  • hjhhjij
    17 jan 16
    Oh, and by "return to the singing style" I mean those shamanic flourishes present in practically all of his albums, peaking on "Illuminations," which feels like a ritual with hallucinogenic herbs from some ancient and now extinct tribe that has found itself with synthesizers while traveling through time.
  • bluesboy94
    18 jan 16
    I go over it to say that I've listened to all the songs on this album, and a question arises spontaneously: how is it possible that such a singer-songwriter (perhaps one of the most distinctive and unique of all time, thanks to a vocal style that already seems unique in this album) is so little regarded even on Debaser?
  • bluesboy94
    19 jan 16
    As a debut, it’s more of a 4.5 than a 5 star (minor details...), but among the singer-songwriters I adore, more or less contemporaneous with Buffy (Mitchell, Nyro, Judee Sill, and even Nico), none have debuted like this, with such a well-defined personality already (for example, the debut albums of Mitchell and Nyro are overflowing with beautiful songs, but their personalities don't fully emerge, in my opinion).
  • hjhhjij
    19 jan 16
    For me, this deserves a 5 also because some of the subsequent ones are, in my opinion, a bit inferior, like "Many a Mile" from 1965, which is nice but, in my view, not as good as this one. Meanwhile, the other albums you mentioned, after a nice but still not outstanding debut, started to bring forth masterpieces (although I think Sill, unlike Joni and Nyro, was already fully formed and deserving of a 5 from her debut, though that’s just a detail). Perhaps Buffy, having debuted (before all the others) with such a distinct and declared personality, alternated between good albums and other masterpieces (at least a couple for me, "Illuminations" for sure). I don't know why she is so little regarded on Debaser; after all, it's not like Laura Nyro has received such a massive following here either...
  • hjhhjij
    19 jan 16
    However, thinking about it, even Mitchell had a very distinct personality from the very beginning, although that album is, for me, just beautiful and not yet exceptional. I say this because at the time of her debut, Joni had spent at least two years lending her songs, performed live, to various artists, including Davy Graham and, indeed, Sainte-Marie. The Mitchell style, when "Song to a Seagull" was released in 1968, had already been around for a couple of years, very recognizable.
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Many a Mile
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
A good second album for Buffy, always marked by her unique and unmistakable vocal style. Here, however, in addition to the self-penned tracks that dominated her debut, the singer-songwriter begins to give space to interpretations of various traditional songs (as many as 6) and a couple of covers, including the beautiful rendition of "Many a Mile" by Patrick Sky, also present on the contemporary debut of the latter, which features Sky himself on guitar here. Overall, I find it less captivating and distinctive than some of her other works, even though Buffy the songwriter does not fail to deliver stunning songs ("Until It's Time for You to Go").
  • Carlos
    21 jan 16
    Oh, I didn’t know the vampire played as well. I’ll look into it.
  • Carlos
    21 jan 16
    vampire-slayer, sorry. That was the one who was getting it on in the series, right?!
  • hjhhjij
    21 jan 16
    No more than with a ritual for Manitu with some hallucinogen, it's evident that the Canadian has, unfortunately, predicted a sad future with a stunning piece, by the way.
  • hjhhjij
    21 jan 16
    By the way, I hate that series, please don’t mention it again when talking about this singer-songwriter phenomenon :D
  • bluesboy94
    21 jan 16
    Awesome voice (not for all ears though). I must say, every time I listen to one of his songs, I can’t help but think about how we "civilized Westerners" wiped out his race... it gives me an indescribable lump in my throat!
  • bluesboy94
    21 jan 16
    Some time ago, I shared this song here on debaser...https://www.debaser.it/main/Video.aspx?y=WT3iqK7A6sM I listened to it because I was captivated by the intricate acoustic guitar work and this unique voice. Now that I know what it’s about, this song feels even more enriched.
  • bluesboy94
    21 jan 16
    I am referring to this
DOOOM!
Camel: Moonmadness
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
9
Camel: The Snow Goose
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Camel: Mirage
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Camel: Camel
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
Great debut.
Camel: Breathless
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
Camel: Alive Record
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
8
Camel: I Can See Your House From Here
CD Audio I have it ★★★
Camel: Rain Dances
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
Can: Ege Bamyasi
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
The brilliance of Czukay & co in a handful of short, simple, and irresistible songs, with a killer groove and Suzuki's always slightly off-kilter melodies that stick in your head (like "Vitamin C" – how lovely is that?) Plus, a couple of longer tracks where they unleash all their madness and experiment more, without giving up that hypnotic and spectacular drive gifted mainly by Jaki's drumming. The album is a masterpiece, perfectly balanced between experimentation, madness, and greater simplicity compared to "Tago Mago." Of the three with Damo, this is the one I listen to most often. How great are the Can (-can).
Can: Future Days
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
In some ways even superior to Tago Mago. Bel-Air is incredibly magical and evocative.
Can: Monster Movie
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Beautiful album. Not a masterpiece (those will come, one after the other, between 1971 and 1974) and it is their most classically psychedelic and less original record, but we are still at high levels in any case. Whether it's 5 scarce balls or equally 4 very generous ones, we are there. Great debut nonetheless.
  • adrmb
    4 jun 18
    I will remember this album mainly as a tribute to Eva 01 ante-litteram 😂
  • hjhhjij
    4 jun 18
    I believe it deserves to be remembered for other things too, let's say (which, by the way, is an album I like more now compared to when I voted for it here) but, damn, it's really true :D Can-Genesis Evangelion. And it's not a crossover album between the two bands.
  • adrmb
    4 jun 18
    I haven't listened to it yet ahahaha I agree with you about trust, come on.
Can: Tago Mago
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
One of my absolute favorite albums. One of those that deserves more than a 5 in my opinion.
Capcom: Resident Evil 2
CD Video I have it ★★★★★
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Safe As Milk
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Mirror Man
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Certo! Inviami il testo e procederò con la traduzione.
  • tonysoprano
    2 jun 16
    I still find it hard to get a handle on him. And to think I must have listened to it at least 5-6 times...
Caravan: In The Land Of Grey And Pink
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Caravan: Waterloo Lily
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Debut album of this extraordinary French band (here still 2Bis and not Alpes), firmly led by the brain duo Catherine Ribeiro (vocals and author of all lyrics) and Patrice Moullet (guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, inventor of instruments like the Cosmophone, half guitar and half lyre, and composer of all the music). Here Ribeiro and Moullet are still on more singer-songwriter/folk coordinates compared to the more experimental/prog/spacepsych expansions of the '70s, the arrangements are quite sparse and minimal, pure accompaniment to Ribeiro's vocal performance, strong, magnetic, and charismatic. Ribeiro's lyrics, well, you don't need to be an expert in French to understand that the vibe is quite angry, quite polemical and the style is that of modern electro-acoustic folk protest singer-songwriter, Ribeiro writes and sings (a lot, there’s a bit of verbosity) like in the best streams of consciousness of singer-songwriters, with the added virtuosity of her exceptional voice, which is sweetness and anger, bel canto and raucous screams, theatricality, cartoon whistles, and shamanic hallucinatory declamations, anathema and laughter (certainly not joyful, but derisive and mocking, or anger also). The only track where the stage is left to Moullet and the other musicians is "Voyage 1" which instead directly embarks on the path of 60s psychedelic hypnotism 100% and does so quite well. Very beautiful, but the best is yet to come.
  • adrmb
    20 jan 22
    zaaaac
  • adrmb
    20 jan 22
    Ah, there it is, now I see it in full.
  • hjhhjij
    20 jan 22
    I was struggling against my logorrhea, sorry.
  • adrmb
    20 jan 22
    ahahah
Chick Corea: Tone's For Joan's Bones
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Chick Corea: Now He Sings Now He Sobs
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Chick Corea: Friends
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
Beautiful album, really delightful. Quartet in great shape, an inspired Corea.
Claudio Lolli: Aspettando Godot
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
One of the most shocking debuts in Italian music. A heavy, challenging, difficult record because it is completely immersed in the darkest pessimism with no way out, and at the center are the lyrics, lyrics, and more lyrics. The arrangement is sparse and purely supportive but perfectly centered; violins, cellos, and flutes provide that right touch every now and then while Lolli, accompanied by a very simple acoustic guitar, pulls us into his black hole. A raw, disconcerting album, one of the most pessimistic ever heard in Italy.
  • darth agnan
    31 mar 15
    Ok, you’ve convinced me to delve into it. I've had Lolli on my "I'll listen to it sooner or later" list for a few months, maybe I'll finally decide to start ;)
  • hjhhjij
    31 mar 15
    I don't know, give it a try, maybe you'll like it or maybe you’ll hate it, I can’t tell you :)
  • Stanlio
    31 mar 15
    I liked it from the very beginning ;)
  • SydBarrett96
    31 mar 15
    Absolutely well described, Hj. :) I have already said many times that for me Lolli is perhaps the most emotional Italian singer-songwriter of all (his poetry is very close to that of Leopardi, or at least that’s how I see it). Now you’re ready for the Zingari Felici! :D
  • Dragonstar
    31 mar 15
    Happy Gypsies is more fluid and psychedelic. The pessimism remains unchanged, but the music flows much better. This is a debut with a bang, but the second album "A Man in Crisis" (which opens with "I Tell You," a depressing analysis of human society seen through the weary and frustrated gaze of the author) is even better! Then there's also Songs of Rage, another amazing album... and speaking of amazing, that album contains "The First Communion," a violent anti-clerical lyric, bordering on blasphemy. Get ready hj, the best is yet to come. Happy crushing! :)
  • hjhhjij
    31 mar 15
    I think I’ve come across a big-time singer-songwriter.
  • SydBarrett96
    31 mar 15
    "A Man in Crisis" and "Songs of Rage" are even more skeletal in their arrangements, almost minimal in their even more pessimistic and somewhat grim progression. The latter of the two is heavily influenced by anarchic and folk songs, among other things, with extremely high peaks of decadent poetry ("But the desire to live, which is already nostalgia, you enter another tunnel" is stated in "Journey"). I already endorse what Dragon said. :)
  • proggen_ait94
    31 mar 15
    Tell me? Musically, it doesn't seem that crazy to me. Beautiful lyrics, okay.
  • hjhhjij
    1 apr 15
    "Musically, it doesn't seem that crazy to me." And to think I warned you :)
  • SydBarrett96
    1 apr 15
    @proggen: listen to "I also saw some happy gypsies" and you'll change your mind. :)
  • proggen_ait94
    12 apr 15
    I already know it, much better than this in fact... this album has great ideas but very poor arrangements.
  • hjhhjij
    12 apr 15
    It depends on what you’re looking for. This record has never aimed for rich and varied arrangements; it has to be a sparse and simple album. For me, its charm lies, in part, here. Of course, if it doesn’t match what you prefer to listen to, it all boils down to “well, I tried, but I don’t like it.”
  • proggen_ait94
    12 apr 15
    Of course, one can dismiss one of the main characteristics of the album with a simple "it was intentional," but in my opinion, we can delve deeper... just looking at Wikipedia, it says that the album was not arranged by Lolli (too young at the time?) but by one of these Los Marcellos Ferial - Wikipedia I’d say this explains a lot.
  • hjhhjij
    13 apr 15
    Proggen but still intended doesn’t change anything. Here, even for Lolli, the texts mattered, just those, and nothing else; he probably said, “Well, put a couple of flutes and cellos here and there, but not too much.” And that’s obvious. The evolution came later, as it often happens.
Claudio Rocchi: Volo magico n. 1
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Clint Ruin & Lydia Lunch: Stinkfist
CD Audio I lack ★★★★
J.G. Thirlwell, in one of his 100 identities, alongside a perfect accomplice like Lydia Lunch, unleashes himself in three tracks of pure sonic terrorism, at times devastating. "Meltdown Oratorio," featuring Lunch's declamations, is sublime. In the fourth track, Thurston Moore joins in, co-authoring the piece with Lunch, and the three of them create a hell of a racket. The duo has done better separately, but for fans of these guys, this is a must-have. Beautiful cover :D
Here, I like this even more than "Stinkfist," more accessible but still beautifully twisted. There's still "sonic terrorism" (Clinch) but here Ruin and the Lunch also have fun with covers of two pop songs like the title track and even the Beatles from the white album, two gorgeous covers (the one by BOC is a masterpiece, IMO). However, the masterpiece is "Serpentine" by Ruin, an elegant and dark duet between the two voices accompanied by trumpet. A delightful "divertissement" between the two but splendid.
Comus: First Utterance
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Indescribable. One of my absolute favorite albums, that's all I can say because for everything else I would never find the right words to convey what is in "First Utterance."
Comus: To Keep from Crying
CD Audio I have it ★★★
7
Cows: Taint Pluribus Taint Unum
CD Audio I lack ★★★★
A band of crazy cows from Minneapolis. The Cows proudly belong to that strand of bands that, starting from garage and raw rock'n'roll, plunged into the maelstrom of the most violent noise distortions, with the inevitable lesson of punk and, now and then, some slowdown of a blues matrix so deformed as to be unrecognizable or entirely new, nonetheless. And they didn’t forget an iconoclastic amateurish pride, a fury expressed amidst the shit, the provocative passion for playing music badly, ostensibly, ugly. And annoying. I say ostensibly because, amid the noise, with guitars that are pure dissonant and senseless background, there are rock'n'roll/garage/punk tracks that are excellent rock'n'roll/garage/punk tunes like "Sieve," "Yellowbelly," and "Mother (I Love That Bitch)," to name a few. There’s the fun of playing songs that seem like a joke for being so crooked and poorly made, and they truly are entertaining (and that little trumpet that pops up every now and then, all wrong, how great; and the genius cover of Philip Glass? Beautiful, I mean, hideous). Of course, if someone said to me, "What is this crap?" they would have every reason, and probably one has to be crazy to appreciate them, but so it goes... This debut album of theirs, one of the most twisted and mad in their discography, is the best possible business card for the music of the Cows from Minneapolis.