Tag Archives: Top 75 Studio Albums

Music

72: New Favorite (Alison Krauss & Union Station)

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Album: New Favorite
Artist: Alison Krauss & Union Station
Year: 2001

1. Let Me Touch You For A While
2. The Boy Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn (US)
3. The Lucky One
4. Choctaw Hayride (US)
5. Crazy Faith
6. Momma Cried (US)
7. I’m Gone
8. Daylight
9. Bright Sunny South (US)
10. Stars
11. It All Comes Down To You (US)
12. Take Me For Longing
13. New Favorite

Alison Krauss has been a Grammy darling, but her album with Robert Plant notwithstanding, has gotten virtually no love on the charts. Perhaps it’s because bluegrass really doesn’t have a home on the radio, as it straddles both country and adult contemporary. What I do know is that her stuff is better than most of the crap currently on country radio.

New Favorite starts out with an incredible song in Let Me Touch You For A While, probably my favorite by her. We then start the yo-yo between Alison and Dan Tyminski, the lead singer for Union Station. He’s a decent singer, best known for Man of Constant Sorrow, but it’s awkward constantly switching leads on this album. Part of it is that their voices are different, but the general tone of each song swings as well. Alison’s songs, with the exception of Take Me for Longing, feel like pure solos and sound more like contemporary country than bluegrass. Union Station’s songs are pure bluegrass, backed by mandolins, banjos, dobros, and lap steels. It’s jarring, for sure. Especially since the album’s second song is…well, I just don’t care about this boy who wouldn’t hoe corn.

It rebounds quickly with The Lucky One, and the rest of the album remains solid, if unspectacular. Choctaw Hayride is pure instrumental, Union Station at their best. Crazy Faith and New Favorite are also highlights, helping this album round out into one of my favorites.

Music

73: Bringing Down the Horse (The Wallflowers)

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Album: Bringing Down the Horse
Artist: The Wallflowers
Year: 1996

1. One Headlight
2. 6th Avenue Heartache
3. Bleeders
4. Three Marlenas
5. The Difference
6. Invisible City
7. Laughing Out Loud
8. Josephine
9. God Don’t Make Lonely Girls
10. Angel on My Bike
11. I Wish I Felt Nothing

I originally had Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi in this spot, but then I listened to it a couple of days ago and was bored out of my mind. For an album that is very polished and has no really bad songs, it does surprisingly little for me these days. So I looked at the albums that just missed the cut and decided that Bringing Down the Horse, while flawed, doesn’t bore me and still enjoys an occasional playthrough.

The album is quite top-heavy, starting with its best song, One Headlight and continuing with probably its second best song, 6th Avenue Heartache. The passion in Jake Dylan’s voice really comes through in these two songs. Though, while he’s got a better voice than his father, he does very little with it for the rest of the album. The melodies are generally catchy, but the songs don’t really distinguish themselves from each other with Jake sounding the same on every one. Their second biggest hit, The Difference, has good verses but an awful chorus where Jake holds down the notes way longer than he’s capable of. The slowly worsening album is saved just a bit right at the end with I Wish I Felt Nothing, an understated angsty ballad.

I don’t think I’ve listened to one second of anything else by this band, and from looking at the charts, it doesn’t look like anyone else has either. If you have, please throw down your critique in the comments.

 

 

 

Music

74: Waitin’ on Sundown (Brooks & Dunn)

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Album: Waitin’ on Sundown
Artist: Brooks & Dunn
Year: 1994

1. Little Miss Honky Tonk (D)
2. She’s Not the Cheatin’ Kind (D)
3. Silver and Gold (B)
4. I’ll Never Forgive My Heart (D)
5. You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone (B)
6. My Kind of Crazy (B)
7. Whiskey Under the Bridge (D)
8. If That’s the Way You Want It (D)
9. She’s the Kind of Trouble (B)
10. A Few Good Rides Away (B)

Brooks & Dunn’s career spanned from 1990 to 2010.  During that time, they released ten albums and fifty singles.  Twenty of those singles reached #1 on the country charts. They were definitely stronger during the first half of their career together. What’s unique about this duo is that they almost never sing together on a song, with the possible exception of the chorus. They almost never wrote songs together either.  Dunn would write a song, sing it, and Brooks would rock out the guitar. Or Brooks would write a song, sing it, and Dunn would do the same. I put their initials after each song so you can see the breakdown.

Waitin’ on Sundown is their third album. It isn’t their strongest, but what it does do avoid some of the faults prevalent on their later albums, mainly boring power ballads by Dunn and awful singing by Brooks as his voice went to hell during the last decade.

For the third album in a row, they start out with a loud, rockin’ number in Little Miss Honky Tonk that’s great to sing and dance to (not that I dance). Another hit follows right after that showcases Dunn’s spectacular voice. Silver and Gold is the underrated gem of the album, similar in theme to She’s Not the Cheatin’ Kind, but more original. You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone is one of Brooks’s best and most popular songs. In fact, only six of his songs were ever released as singles (despite him contributing about 50% to each album), and this was the only number one. There’s nothing special about it lyrically, but it’s wrought with sadness that comes through in his voice.

The last half of the album is a bit weaker. My Kind of Crazy is inoffensive enough that I usually don’t skip it, but there’s no reason to listen to it. The next two songs sound fine, but are really, really boring thematically (but not as boring as Dunn gets on later albums, trust me). Brooks ends with two songs, both of them above average. She’s the Kind of Trouble is goofy fun, and A Few Good Rides Away is a sappy but pleasant story about a Texas waitress going through rough times.

All in all, nothing really stands out, either good or bad, making it just good enough to make the countdown.

Music

75: Americana (The Offspring)

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Album: Americana
Artist: The Offspring
Year: 1998

1. Welcome
2. Have You Ever
3. Staring at the Sun
4. Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
5. The Kids Aren’t Alright
6. Feelings
7. She’s Got Issues
8. Walla Walla
9. The End of the Line
10. No Brakes
11. Why Don’t You Get a Job?
12. Americana
13. Pay the Man

I don’t get angry or bitter all that often, but when I do, this has always been a good album to crank up loud and scream to for an hour. The pace is frenetic right from the start, and up through the end of Staring at the Sun, the mood is perfect. Then we get to the band’s highest ranked song on the pop charts, Pretty Fly. It’s…fine, silly, but grinds the album to a halt. Thankfully, it picks right back up with the The Kids Aren’t Alright, a pretty poignant song (about the broken dreams of children) considering how hurried it is.

The middle of the album consists of a string of really bitter songs, the best place on the album for them. Walla Walla has a nice sound, but it’s hard to ignore the silly theme (Ha ha, you’re going to prison cuz yer dumb). The End of the Line and No Brakes somehow speed up the pace of the album, and by the end you’re wondering where the album has yet to go. And then Why Don’t You Get a Job? happens. Like Walla Walla, it’s a preachy song while also killing the pace of the album. Not to mention the rhythm (and the rhyme scheme) is horrendous.

The album redeems itself, with a predictable but fun criticism of consumerism. The final song, Pay the Man, really slows things down (while still being loud) to a snail’s pace, the perfect descrescendo to the previous frenzied pace.

I haven’t tested out much else the band has had to offer. I’m obviously familiar with the song Come Out and Play, but would love other suggestions.