Day 0622 - Tracy Chapman

Tracy Chapman "Tracy Chapman" (1988)

Chapman was introduced to the media at the time when they were invited to a showcase by Natalie Merchant from 10,000 Maniacs.   Tracy also played at this showcase, and by all accounts, she impressed.   Once she had recorded this debut album, she was given a chance to play a concert for Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday which further helped to get her music quickly out in the public eye/ear.

It's a pretty strong selection of songs.  To my tastes, it works best when the band/studio side of things is pared back, leaving the songs to rely more on Chapman's guitar and voice (or just her voice in the case of the effective acapella track "Behind the Wall").

The songs range from passionate folk and protests to more country sounds and just overall really good 'singer-songrwriter' stuff.

Day 0415 - Van Halen

Van Halen "Van Halen" (1978)

This album is the business!  I listened to it a year or two ago out of curiosity (everyone knows the name Van Halen) and was wowed by the raw energy and relative musical inventiveness - within the rock idiom.  The sudden burst of doowop vocals gave me a pleasant surprise back then, and again now. Eddie Van Halen is a guitar legend, even if 'Eruption' didn't prove it (it does), he kills on every other track with his riffs and lead breaks.

Apparently the band had been scooped up by Kiss' Gene Simmons who, seeing their potential, put them to work writing demos for both themselves and for Kiss.  He even tried to recruit Eddie VH for his band!

Van Halen could easily be accused of helping to start the whole 80s hair-metal thing, but as is often the case with the progenitors of various styles, they're so much better than much of the rest of it.
 

Day 0373 - Out of the Blue

Electric Light Orchestra "Out of the Blue" (1977)

Jeff Lynne once made the daring declaration that ELO would pick up where the Beatles left off but still presenting it on stage rather than being a studio-bound unit.

I was quite surprised to see that this was actually the 7th album by the band, they're a tad more prolific than I'd thought.  They're even prolific within the album itself, it's a double LP, over 70 minutes long and includes a 3-part 12+ minute 'concerto' that took up much of one of the sides.

This album sounds like the work of someone who could easily have 3 or 4 different bands on the go to explore all of his musical ideas, but I find it enjoyable to have the mix of elements such as rock, prog, classical, pop and even hints of disco all fighting for space on one album. I've always liked what I've heard from ELO. This album in particular sounds to me, almost like a meshing of the Beatles and 80s era Queen, among other things.