Thin White Rope - Moonhead (1987)

1. Not Your Fault 3:49

2. Wire Animals 2:57

3. Take It Home 3:58

4. Thing 4:37

5. Moonhead 2:22

6. Wet Heart 2:47

7. Mother 2:57

8. Come Around 2:44

9. If Those Tears 3:22

10. Crawl Piss Freeze 5:37

This record is so fucking cool. I can't even tell if I like it or not, it's just awesome

Taking Smiths-y jangle stuff and Americana-izing it when the idea is trip through the desert at night would seem suitable- the Americana to the road and the adventure and whatnot, but Moonhead is uniquely nightmarish and surreal in its vibe, like there's ghosts and they're watching you and that's actually pretty creepy and Moonhead is a pretty creepy and unique album despite somehow fitting into and making a lot of sense in the alt/indie canon

B+

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Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker (2000)

Dumbass next Dylan claims from nostalgic/lazy critics hyped this or didn't hype it enough ('being derivative of Dylan' not allowing for the record to be assessed by its own merits, only shortcomings). True, he makes the effort to write a song for some generation with the opener To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High), and that's a good one too, but Adams seems to enjoy himself more and also just sound better when Heartbreaker is more downer country-ish- his duet with Emmylou Harris being the highlight. Adams fans often have a shitty time thinking their hero should actually release less, and unfortunately there's that same fault with Heartbreaker: c'mon man, you didn't need to put all 15 tracks you recorded on this! True, real fans probably don't think Shakedown on 9th Street is a waste of time, or that there can be too much of a good thing when it comes to Adams at his best, but they're crazy. Despite its inconsistency, Heartbreaker rulz. Just look at all these A+++++ country songs:

My Winding Wheel, AMY, Oh My Sweet Carolina, Call Me on Your Way Back Home, Damn, Sam (I Love a Woman That Rains), Come Pick Me Up, Why Do They Leave?, Sweet Lil Gal (23rd/1st

8 out of 15 crazy good tracks is the kind of thing you usually get from a best of, but it's all Ryan Adams as a bummed out guy with an awesome voice and producer circa 2000

A

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Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas (1989)

1. Paris, Texas 2:57

2. Brothers 2:07

3. Nothing Out There 1:35

4. Canción Mixteca 4:17

5. No Safety Zone 1:55

6. Houston in Two Seconds 2:07

7. She's Leaving the Bank 6:02

8. On the Couch 1:32

9. I Knew These People 8:43

10. Dark Was the Night 2:52

Last one for the night! That feeling when you click that one of your favourite movies (top 5, I think!) has an incredible soundtrack

Based on Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground by Blind Willie Johnson, Cooder's acoustic score I dunno feels around (Nothing Out There), sometimes finding something (Canción Mixteca) and when it does so still feels because the lost pieces are moving and the movie is just so sad. I think if I found it without having seen the movie I'd still love it because it just conveys all that, although the spoken part (I Knew These People) would probably confuse me. The movie's cool 'cause everything's aimless and inconsequential for a while and then it's nostalgic but then it looks underneath that confused nostalgia and the whole thing unravels into a mess. I saw it when I was real young and didn't get slow films but I still found it moving! Although melodies come together and it feels like there's a purpose for a bit, you can sense things unravelling a few tracks in but it's still sad when it does that and it makes you glare at the nice songs like they lied to you- Canción Mixteca makes me kinda sad now. Also I like having the spoken part 'cause it's one of my favourite movie scenes ever


I love this record but man it bums me out


A+

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Scarecrow (1985)

Somewhere between the lyrical working class heroism of Springsteen, and the lyrical moral preachiness of Dylan lies Mellencamp's Scarecrow, which is all working class patriotism and morality. Why isn't it as revered as material by those two then? It's the lyrics, mainly. Where does that leave Scarecrow? Occasionally it rocks but not like Springsteen. And there's the lyrics which are harder to I don't know accept than Dylan's. But such comparisons are mostly unfair. The album does its job and you'll probably enjoy listening to it

A-

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