Inevitable (Shakira) (LP 3749)

Shakira   Dónde Están los Ladrones?  (CD, Sony Music, 1998) *****  

Genre: Latin American pop

Places I remember: Virgin Megastore (Dubai)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Ciega, Sordomuda

Gear costume: Tú, Ojos Así (YouTube)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (Shakira for short) is a Colombian singer-songwriter. She is a big deal in Latin America and her appeal is now global.

Back in the mid 2000's, I was reading 1001 Records You Must Hear Before You Die and Shakira's Dónde Están los Ladrones? was glowingly featured along the way. I took a punt and was amply rewarded.

Shakira sings in Spanish so her lyrics kind of pass me by (my Spanish is limited to two papers I did as a prerequisite for a masters' degree back in the late seventies). But her emotional vocal delivery and the infectious music carry me along anyway.

Where do they all belong? Yep - I agree, you need to hear this one before you die.

No one there (Sentenced) (LP 3748)

Sentenced  The Cold White Light (CD, Century Media, 2002) ****  

Genre: Finnish goth metal

Places I remember: Virgin Megastore (Dubai)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: No One There

Gear costume: You Are The One

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: I picked up quite a few of these kinds of Scandinavian metal albums while living in The Middle East. The Virgin Megastore in the Dubai Mall had leaps of CDs like this (btw - the store's still there but a pale shadow of what it one was).

Sentenced are a gothic metal band from Finland (they were huge in Finland!). The Cold White Light was their seventh album (they released eight before splitting).

The approach on the album is in the melodic metal style of Dream Theater and Lacuna Coil - with powerful lead vocals by Ville Laihiala, and the music has a rock'n'roll heart. It's still pretty heavy but we're not talking early Opeth here.

Where do they all belong? Not an album I play much now - the likelihood of my playing heavy doom metal is much reduced these days.

Singing in my sleep (Semisonic) (LP 3747)

Semisonic  Feeling Strangely Fine (CD, MCA Records, 1998) ****  

Genre: Pop 

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi, The Warehouse

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Closing Time

Gear costume: Secret Smile

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: This album is so good, I bought two copies. Ha ha! Not quite.

It's one of those times that I forgot I already had a copy and bought a second by mistake.

That said, Feeling Strangely Fine (their second album) is a great record! It includes three excellent singles: Closing Time, Singing In My Sleep, and Secret Smile. 

Although Semisonic is a trio (John Munson - bass, Jacob Slichter – drums, Dan Wilson - lead vocals, guitars, keyboards), it's Dan who is the main man.

Together, they create an excellent commercial pop sound throughout. Not as powerpop or as willfully inventive as Jellyfish, but in that same ballpark.

Where do they all belong? That's the only Semisonic album I have, but I'd be keen to add their next one - All About Chemistry (love that title song)

Let it rock (Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band) (LP 3743 - 3746)

Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band  'Live' Bullet (CD and vinyl, Capitol Records, 1976) *****  

Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band  The Distance (CD, Capitol Records, 1982) ***  

Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band  Like a Rock (CD, Capitol Records, 1986) ***  

Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band  Greatest Hits (CD, Capitol Records, 1994) **** 

Genre: Rock

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records,

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Katmandu ('Live' Bullet)

Gear costume: Get Out of Denver/ Let It Rock/ Little Queenie ('Live' Bullet)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: 'Live' Bullet kind of makes the back catalogue before it redundant. It's that good and that definitive. He'd been grinding away since 1968 without much success outside of the believers in Detroit, but 'Live' Bullet changed everything!

It was recorded live at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan. Smart move. In front of a hometown crowd, Bob and the band knock it out of the park. 

My favourties are the rockers like Katmandu, Get Out Of Denver, and Let It Rock. There are also some funkier numbers like I've Been Working that work well too.

It's not all smash and grab, blunt instrument rawk. Jody Girl and Turn The Page have a beautiful heart and resonance to them still. AllMusic sums up the album well: It's a rare occasion when a double live album captures an artist at an absolute peak, while summarizing his talents, and that's exactly what 'Live' Bullet does.

Perversely I don't have copies of the big albums that followed 'Live' Bullet like Night Moves and Stranger In Town. Instead we leap forward to the eighties and a couple of albums that I was given - The Distance and Like A Rock.

The sound is slicker on those albums and he has nothing to prove, but as long as he includes rocking stuff like Makin' Thunderbirds (The Distance) or Like a Rock, I'm onboard.

The best of collection - Greatest Hits, is my go to outside of 'Live' Bullet. It's got all the hits that you'd expect, so it's a great place to start if you are new to Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band.

Where do they all belong? I feel like the Bob Seger bases are covered with those albums.

Sweet muse (John Sebastian) (LP 3742)

John Sebastian The Four Of Us (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1971) ****  

Genre: Pop, rock

Places I remember: Slow Boat Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Well, Well, Well

Gear costume: Black Snake Blues

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: The Four of Us was his second studio album. I have previously reviewed his debut John B. Sebastian.

The Four of Us is a much rockier album, signaled by the lead off song - his version of In My Time of Dying, renamed here as Well, Well, Well. That's reinforced by the follow up - Black Snake Blues.

Dallas Taylor and John Barbata provide the muscular drums and Dr John (listed as 'Mac Rabinac' in the album credits) is on piano with John Sebastian providing the guitars.

The first side has the tougher edge, while side two is just the title track. It plays out as a suite of four parts (appropriate). It builds from Sebastian solo acoustic guitar - like he's sitting around a fireplace. Steel drums and rock moves interrupt the narrative which centres on a literal and metaphorical journey (it's a road trip - ha ha!).

Where do they all belong? Always keen to find other Sebastian records. He's a bit like Arlo Guthrie in my collection - a Woodstock performer who has an intriguing back catalogue.

The revolution will not be televised (Gil Scott-Heron) (LP 3740 - 3741)

Gil Scott-Heron  A New Black Poet - Small Talk at 125th and Lenix (Vinyl, Flying Dutchman Records, 1970) ****  

Gil Scott-Heron  Pieces of a Man (Vinyl, Flying Dutchman Records, 1971) ****

Genre: Street poetry, jazz 

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Pieces of a Man)

Gear costume: Lady Day and John Coltrane (Pieces of a Man), Whitey on the Moon (Small Talk...)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: I came across Gil Scott-Heron a long time after 1970, when his first album, performed live in the studio, came out and revolutionised performance poetry.

It was ten years later, while an undergraduate and doing poetry papers as part of my degree, that reading Amiri Baraka and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man led me to Gil Scott-Heron.

While working at Marbecks Records in the late seventies, I bought a compilation and that led to Pieces Of A Man and then to Small Talk at 125th and Lenix - where he is accompanied by David Barnes (percussion), Charlie Saunders, and Eddie Knowles (congas).

Both albums feature Gil's uncensored topical views on black life in America. Sadly, it sounds like not much has changed over 55 years as many of his messages are still extremely relevant (listen to Enough). Some advice: skip the homophobic The Subject Was Faggots.

Pieces of a Man is more conventional with clear song structures and sung songs, rather than the poetry accompanied by congas that is featured on Small Talk...

Brian Jackson's input on the album cannot be overstated. Brian wrote the music, plays piano and is joined by some jazz heavyweights: Hubert Laws on flute and sax, Ron Carter on bass and Bernard Purdie on drums. 

The album's combination of R&B, soul, jazz-funk, and proto-rap influenced the development of electronic dance music and hip hop. Gil was a revolutionary!

Where do they all belong? A must have if you have any kind of social conscience.

Born in a tent (Robert Scott) (LP 3739)

Robert Scott  Ends Run Together (Vinyl, Flying Nun Records, 2010) ****  

Genre: NZ Music, alt rock, alt pop, ambient 

Places I remember: Flying Nun Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Days Run Together

Gear costume: The Moon Upstairs

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: This is the third solo album by Robert Scott - member of The Clean and driving force behind The Bats. 

The music and approach seems deliberately positioned to move away from Clean/ Bats style alt rock and more into experimental ambient soundscapes. Which is bussin and skibidi (and all the other pimply hyperbole) because it allows Robert to stretch creatively.

That said, you can't take The Bats out of the boy so there are a couple of chiming songs that remind me of the band's catchiness (The Moon Upstairs is a good example).

Obviously, his excellent voice remains a touchpoint throughout. While the female vocals (Geva and Rainy) provide terrific harmonies and echoes of Robert's vocal lead.  

Where do they all belong? Always keen to build on my Flying Nun collection via Kevy's fantastic knowledge of the label. I probably wouldn't have found this album without his enthusiasm, although I was already a fan of The Bats.