sterlewine.bsky.social
Music writer and journalist, a founding editor of Allmusic now freelancer for hire. Bylines at Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Mojo Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and more. Subscribe to my Newsletter: sterlewine.substack.com
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It's an enjoyable record! (I mean the Doobies, although I like them both.)
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Looking forward to checking this out, thanks for the tip!
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Can’t speak to my review but the album is worth the wait.
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I had a very similar Lollapalooza 94 experience and somehow worked Luscious Jackson into the mix too.
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Happy to help! And hope you’re pleased with the record
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In any case, the Taylor's Version project is now an artifact of a different kind: no longer an "artist's rights" gambit by the world's biggest & possibly wealthiest megastar, it takes its rightful place the headiest Baudrillardian similacra/simulation intervention ever staged by a megastar
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My personal preference is always for original versions but my 16 year old stepdaughter prefers the Taylor’s Versions for musical reasons.
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I'm of a very similar mind. The loss of received canon can result in some fascinating and unexpected connections and juxtapositions, but I do think context and history is necessary to preserve. I also have been thinking that the context of 21st music could easily be lost to a digital dark age.
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Exactly. The "classic rock" era was defined by cross pollination (this is true even of a good portion of the alt-rock years, too).
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That's a really good point. "Classic" connotates something different than "Oldies," for one, suggesting that it is something that's endured. And the line between "Classic Rock" and "Album Rock" is blurry, but there's a difference in sensibility between the two.
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Having genres and styles siloed into carefully-tailored formats does a disservice to all the overly-familiar hits, which often sound livelier when put next to other hits from their era.
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I definitely do--and I know there are "classic alternative" stations, too.
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One radio station out of northern Michigan had a regular DJ that specialized in rarities from the 50s and 60s--and the album rock station from western Michigan had a distinct prog-rock bent that distinguished it from other stations. That kind of DJ-driven, region-specific playlist is gone.
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Two of my absolute favorite artists of any genre.
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There's definitely a shift within his own discography where the first two records aim at airplay, the second target streaming to the point they seem like data dumps. He's always peddled product but the shift toward a formless format reveals how he's essentially a cipher.
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Until I revisited it five years ago for that Studio Albums box, I thought I never needed to hear it again…and it played better than I remembered.