Face the MUSIC!!!

  There are a certain number of albums from my childhood that I'd consider "must haves" and absolutely essential for any collection and Hunters & Collectors "Human Frailty" is absolutely one of those.  I'll admit that grouping of albums is larger than a handful, probably more like 20-30 albums, but there are a select few that fit into the absolutely must own category in regards to life changing albums.  I still remember when I first bought this on cassette tape and I think I knew immediately that I had found something that would change my musical life forever. One thing to note right off the bat is that the original American version of the album ran in a different order than the Australian, and to my knowledge this album has only ever been offered on CD with the latter ordering.  Having said that, I actually prefer the US version's order although it might just be due to having first heard the album that way.  Also, the original US CD version includes...

  The year was 1985 and I was a mere 14 years old.  For my age, I was really into music, not only owning more albums than most people around me but I actually knew them inside and out.  I was also silently developing my singing skills by singing along to albums at full blast in my bedroom, assuredly driving my mother insane.  A bit to her credit, she never complained about my singing, just the volume of the music itself, by banging excessively on the adjoining wall while yelling "...turn it down!!!" At this point in time, I was looking for something new to listen to, different if you will.  It was around May of 1985 and I first chose to buy the Icicle Works self titled album from 1984.  This initially was a total clunker to me as I simply couldn't get into it.  Now, later on, this album would do a 180 degree turn and become one of the big albums for me but initially I couldn't get my head around it at all.  Because of this, two months later, I wen...

  It's not really that much of a stretch to say that Ali Farka Toure completely changed my musical life and direction.  It all kind of started in the mid 90's, more or less a continuation of what I wrote about within the Bill Frisell "Good Dog, Happy Man" entry.  Around this time, after venturing into guitar based jazz and other areas, another storm was brewing internally for me:  world music. I would say that this pretty much started with my minor interest in Kitaro, someone who straddled the line between New Age and World in general.  When you're really into music, one artist tends to forge a path to another, and then another, and the next thing you know you're at a doorstep that you would have never imagined.  Another album that helped get me to that doorway was Peter Gabriel's "Passion" instrumental album from the late 80's, not to mention most of Gabriel's work since his third solo release.  Gabriel put an incredible amount of effort...

  I knew I wouldn't get too terribly far into this list without bringing up Bill Frisell.  To say that Bill Frisell changed my musical life is pretty much an understatement.  Back in the early 90's, I did actually  listen to some instrumental music/light jazz and/or New Age, as it was called back then, but I honestly didn't take it that seriously at the time.  Next to the rock music that I heavily listened to, the instrumental albums seemed a bit flimsy, old fogey-ish, and something not terribly sustainable for a listener.  Yes, that was my old self talking.  I tended to use instrumental music much more as a background or music simply to veg and relax to. And then, I met someone at work that changed my musical life.  It was I believe the very first time I met this man that he mentioned "...I think you'd like Bill Frisell...ever heard of him?"  My answer was "Bill who?!".  Now, I guess my statement above about instrumental music isn't all...

  Perhaps no album in my collection stands as important to me personally as Big Country's first album "The Crossing".  I still remember when I purchased this album in early 1984, when I was still pretty young, and I somehow had managed to save up enough dollars (probably a quarter at a time) to buy this on cassette from a catalog company store along the lines of a Service Merchandise.  Back in those days, coming up with $6 - $7 was serious business for a 12 or 13 year old with no allowance, and so it took days and weeks of thought and pondering before making a final decision to move forward with an album purchase, or what I considered an "investment" in a band.  And then, there was the finagling of my parents to somehow get them to drive me to a location that would have the album in stock.  I actually got fairly smart; I learned what each store had in stock beforehand, especially places that my parents would go to more often, and then act like I needed, say, som...

  I can think of no better album that's literally wonderfully crafted pure pop than Joe Jackson's "Laughter and Lust".  This album is truly famous in my catalog, one that I feel hardly anyone knows about and/or has ever heard.  It plays from start to finish almost like a greatest hits album, where each and every song is so pop/radio friendly that it's hard to even guess at which track was chosen as the single.  Ironically, the first single was the opening "Obvious Song", and that's probably my least favorite song on the album...but that's not saying much since it's also a fantastic track, and that's just how high the bar is set here. I actually got my hands on this album via the old Columbia House "get 10 CD's for a $1" routine that was very popular in the 80's/90's.  I tended to use this "discount", if you will, as a way for me to try out music that I might otherwise not go out and purchase.  It was someti...