| Here's what SR had on offer when I was a senior in HS. If it's a February issue, that means this peek back in time includes the critics' top picks from the previous year. | | Albums of the Year for the Year 1981
–Rosanne Cash, Seven Year Ache
—42nd Street, Original Broadway Cast
–Aretha Franklin, Love All the Hurt Away
–Chico Freeman, The Outside Within
–Rolling Stones, Tattoo You
–Warren Zevon, Stand in the Fire | | Honorable Mentions
–Bobby Bare, Drunk and Crazy
–Barbara Cook, It's Better with a Band
–Peter Dean, Where Did the Magic Go?
–Ellen Foley, Spirit of St. Louis
–Helen Humes, Helen
–Al Jarreau, Breakin' Away
–Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places
—March of the Falsettos, Original Cast
–Carly Simon, Torch
–Bruce Springsteen, The River
–Squeeze, East Side Story
–Jane Voss and Hoyle Osborne, Get to the Heart | | The Annual Certificate of Merit goes to Benny Goodman, the subject of a lengthy profile by Chris Albertson. One point of focus in the piece is The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert, where Goodman recruited a slew of the greats of the day to bring jazz to the Hall for the first time. | | This month's reviewers are Chris Albertson, Noel Coppage, Phyl Garland, Paul Kresh, Mark Peel, Peter Reilly, Steve Simels, and Joel Vance. | | Best of the Month
–Lindsey Buckingham, Law and Order (SS) "Where Buckingham differs from most who have gone the one-man-band route is that he isn't trying to fool you into thinking you're listening to five people; this stuff wears its artifice on its sleeve. He wants to make interesting noises, not simulate someone's idea of a rock band, and that gives the whole thing the subtle—and endearing—cast of crackpottery."
–King Crimson, Discipline (MP) "It moves from dreamy Eastern scales to thundering tribal rhythms, from fluid, meditative guitar lines to crashing war-of-the-worlds cadences hammered out atop thick, ringing sheets of electronic distortion."
–Pieces of a Dream, S/T (PG) "…there is an immediately appealing freshness to their performances, and though they play with all the bite and drive you could ask for, you are aware of a tasteful restraint too. All this is unusual enough in any musical organization, but what makes this group even more remarkable is that its three artists are still in their teens…" | | Recordings of Special Merit
–Patti Austin, Every Home Should Have One (PG) "Austin handles every phrase of every selection with utmost authority. Her musical godfather (producer Quincy Jones) served her well on this one, and she has done him proud."
–Count Basie, Warm Breeze (CA) "The Basie band of the early Eighties does not have all the excitement of the band that rocketed Basie to stardom in the late Thirties, but the identity is intact…"
–The Four Tops, Tonight! (PG) "…the Four Tops are, miraculously enough, still capable of generating deep excitement with the beauty of the sound they project when they blend their voices."
–Mickey Newbury, After All These Years (NC) "Mickey Newbury has chosen to paint this one almost entirely in shade of blue, but he still wields a mighty brush."
–Peaches & Herb, Sayin' Something! (PG) "Above all, (they) blend their voices in such flawless rhythm and harmony that it's easy to forget how hard it is to achieve such a perfect musical match."
–Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Nine Tonight (MP) "It's not so much that this recording reveals new, unsuspected angles or nuances in his music; Seger simply gives himself free rein in concert." | | Featured Reviews
–Louis Armstrong & Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet in New York 1923-25 (CA) "…features the two New Orleans masters, both separately and together in a variety of impressive settings, laying down the ground rules for the budding art of improvisational jazz…This is the sort of album that whole books could be written about, but we're all better off just listening to it."
–Ashford & Simpson, Performance (CA) "If you have ever caught Ashford and Simpson in person, you know that they put on an energy-filled show, and this set captures them well…a wonderful distillation of sounds that have affected more of us than (their) middling stature in the music business would suggest."
–Lena Horne, The Lady and Her Music (PR) Labelled as an "intereview," as Reilly spoke with Horne following a performance of her Broadway one-woman show. On how she arrived at this moment of glory at age 64: "You see, for many years I had a problem, tremendous prejudice against a lot of things. Particularly racial. I was prejudiced against the people who gave me the chances when I knew there were twenty million other black women who looked as beautiful and who could sing better than I…(crediting conversations with Southern white civil rights activists following the assassination of Malcolm X)…that terrible coldness within me broke down and I began to feel some love and compassion for others. And that's when my singing began to appeal to people, not just the way I looked."
–The Police, Ghost in the Machine (SS) "For all the band's brilliant playing, and for all the undeniable charm of front-man Sting's languid vocals, they seem unwilling or unable to sustain inspiration in their writing over the course of an entire album." | | Other Disks Reviewed
–Bow Wow Wow, See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah! City All Over, Go Ape Crazy (JV) "I don't know if the joke is on punk or on the audience—probably both—but it's funny for a while…You can almost hear (singer Annabella Lwin's) innocence evaporating—Pollyanna sniffing her first tube of glue."
–Dan Fogelberg, The Innocent Age (NC) "The big difference between Fogelberg and such old pros as Gordon Lightfoot and John Prine is that where their lyrics continually refer to concrete things and give you something to picture in your head, Fogelberg's tend to stick with abstract words for long stretches."
–Art Garfunkel, Scissors Cut (PK) "There is grey in the curly Garfunkel locks by this time, yet he is still aiming that frail and wistful voice at the teenage market, and only rarely with particular panache."
–Grateful Dead, Dead Set (NC) "The Deadheads in the audience seem to be having a good time, but the boys in the band fluctuate between fervor and detachment."
—Hooked on Classics (PK) "You might expect some respite in the section titled 'Hooked on Bach,' but no such luck; the mindless beat never relents, pounding away right through the final, jazzed-up Offenbach 'Can-Can.'"
–The Kinks, Give the People What They Want (SS) "So what we get here is lyrical insight and melodic charm cheek by jowl with sloganeering and heavy-metal clichés. As Kinks albums go, it's hardly epochal, but it is a friendly, likable affair and by far the best they've done since moving to Arista." 80s Kinks LPs received frequent play in my college dorm room—I owned State of Confusion and James bought Give the People… and Word of Mouth during our years as roomies.
–Loverboy, Get Lucky (JV) "…this one has a solid ensemble sound and strong singing going for it, plus a very welcome sense of humor…Keep it up, boys."
–Meat Loaf, Dead Ringer (MP) "As for Mr. Loaf, he's a litmus test of one's charitable instincts. If you're the sort who'll give a guy the benefit of the doubt, you might take his posturing as beefcake parody. If you're among the more skeptical, you could be forgiven for taking him at his word."
–Tom Tom Club, S/T (SS) "…if you've ever wondered who is the brains behind Talking Heads, it isn't these guys…as novelty records go, the Tom Tom Club is at least as good as the Flying Lizards. If this album sells, however, the reason will lie beyond my comprehension." | | | | |
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