Day 0834 - The Score

Fugees "The Score" (1996) - got it

Another of those albums/artists that was everywhere when I was in high school.   The Fugees had evolved from an earlier group featuring members Lauryn Hill and Pras.  They were joined by Wyclef Jean and renamed themselves Fugees (short for Refugees or Refugee Camp).

The Fugees' second album 'the Score' lays out a definite political/conscious hip-hop sound.  Making use of plenty of existing material, but instead of just sampling and working over the top of it, the group chose to largely re-record what they use.  They covered Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" and Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry", but also utilised (and repurposed) parts of "Ready or not" by the Delfonics for their own song of the same name.

The album was a hit, but then the three Fugees busied themselves with solo projects and, sadly, to this day have never really produced anything further together, save one leaked single.

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.