Nothing sounded stranger, cooler, more fiercely new in 1982 than Big Science, Laurie Anderson’s debut album. But strip away the art-scene façade and, “She’s just a nice young lady playing her fiddle and telling stories. What’s so odd about that?” (to quote a Texan club owner from back in the day). From The Air would’ve been the one about the plane crash where the pilot thought he’d have some wordplay fun on the way down.
The Specials were one of many so-called Two-Tone outfits to come out of England at the end of the 1970s. But come their second album, it was pretty clear they wanted to do more than just party hard, with Stereotypes (particularly the dubbed out second part) a solid example of people having wigged out fun in a recording studio. Marijuana may have been involved.
The Electric Light Orchestra still had a few things to work out come their third album On The Third Day, starting with that cover. What’s with the exposed navels, gentlemen? Is that really the best way to entice us all unto the mystical, magical musical wonders contained therein? Everything from fierce electrified rock to the resolutely Beatlesque expansions of New World Rising. Even John Lennon was proving a fan.
“My first impression of Magazine front man Howard DeVoto was that he looked pretty much like I’d expected. Not what you’d call a conventional leading man. Which made sense given the unconventional manner in which he snarled out his venomous tales of torn up romance and confusion. And yet he was telling the truth, and thus the light just poured out of him. It poured out of the whole Correct Use of Soap album, or perhaps you knew it as The Alternative Use of Soap (a few different tracks, a few different mixes, same fired up, angst-driven post-punk or new wave, or whatever). Either way, it was a sense of a future I could get behind. Not exactly pretty, but perhaps beautiful.” (Philip Random)
“Billy Preston had a pile of great moments from the late sixties through the early seventies. Fifth Beatle, sixth Rolling Stone, and a none too shabby solo careersolo career. Struttin’ gets the nod here because it’s a spaced out rip of total fun and funk, redolent of Saturday afternoons, bored, flipping through the channels, stumbling onto Soul Train, getting kicked into a whole new dimension.” (Philip Random)
Based on ample evidence, it’s easy to think of CCR as a singles band and dig no further, but then you’d miss out on a gem like Feelin’ Blue, a straight up bluesy jam that still feels fresh and relevant and coming from a nearby garage. “I first heard it around age twelve, so I didn’t much get it, or like it. But when you’ve only got maybe five albums in your collection, you tend to keep listening until you do get it. I didn’t like whiskey much then either, but I wasn’t going to get drunk just sitting there looking at it.” (Philip Random)
Randophonic 
