The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project

5/15/23

Buffalo%20Springfield%20Again.jpg

Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield Again





This one came up on my personal challenge a little while ago:
I don't know that I've actually listened to any of their albums properly but I've always been much more into Buffalo Springfield than CSN(Y) with whatever exposure I've had to each (in the case of Buffalo Springfield it was mostly the CD copy of Retrospective that I had back in high school.) This album starts really strong but then dips into the mostly okay/good category before closing quite strong as well. It's no surprise to me that two of my three favourite tracks were written by Neil Young and make for great album bookends. Richie Furay's "A Child's Claim to Fame" is my other favourite here.

3/5
 
5/12/23
The Doors - The Doors





@avecigrec in his twenties would have given this a five in seconds with no second thought, even though this was never even my favourite Doors album. I feel far less enthralled with Jim Morrison than I did in my early twenties especially. While I very much enjoy @Joe Mac's take and don't find myself called to listen to them very often, I do still enjoy The Doors and feel like this is a damn solid debut. 4/5
 
Doors… I fucking hate Morrison. However, the energy of this album is undeniable. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again…. You only need the first and LA Woman albums. The music is great. Even with the awfulness of the End, this gets five stars from me.

Buffal Springfield again. A wildly uneven album with some great Neil Somgs, never comes close to the debut album as a whole. 4 stars.
 
5/16/23

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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers




Is 'American Girl' that 'American Girl'?

WE SHALL SEE!

(I really don't know Tom Petty, at all!)

Yes it is. (I'm sure I have heard a cover that's about 10000000 times better than this.)

That's about it, really.

I can't see myself lying back in bed, knowing I have listened to this album, and feeling ready to die.

2 / 5 stars.
 
Hot takes thread, this morning I see.

This is a solid album by one of the most consistent bands in American music. I mean Power Pop wasn’t even really a thing yet but you had Petty, Big Star and Dwight Twilley making it a thing. This album is a concoction of southern sensibilities and Punk aesthetic. They made better albums for sure but the sneer was never the same & there was never the same sense of urgency. Sure, almost 50 years later this sounds like classic rock radio but this was fresh and new and slightly dangerous in its day. If nothing else, it has Breakdown and American Girl which are stone cold classics. It’s amazing to think they were this fully realized from the get go.

4 stars.
 
Hot takes thread, this morning I see.

This is a solid album by one of the most consistent bands in American music. I mean Power Pop wasn’t even really a thing yet but you had Petty, Big Star and Dwight Twilley making it a thing. This album is a concoction of southern sensibilities and Punk aesthetic. They made better albums for sure but the sneer was never the same & there was never the same sense of urgency. Sure, almost 50 years later this sounds like classic rock radio but this was fresh and new and slightly dangerous in its day. If nothing else, it has Breakdown and American Girl which are stone cold classics. It’s amazing to think they were this fully realized from the get go.

4 stars.
I know I have only been lurking/silently participating here, but thank you for saying this; I’m calmed down now
 
5/16/23

TomPettyDebutCover.jpg


Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers





Hot takes thread, this morning I see.

This is a solid album by one of the most consistent bands in American music. I mean Power Pop wasn’t even really a thing yet but you had Petty, Big Star and Dwight Twilley making it a thing. This album is a concoction of southern sensibilities and Punk aesthetic. They made better albums for sure but the sneer was never the same & there was never the same sense of urgency. Sure, almost 50 years later this sounds like classic rock radio but this was fresh and new and slightly dangerous in its day. If nothing else, it has Breakdown and American Girl which are stone cold classics. It’s amazing to think they were this fully realized from the get go.

4 stars.

@Lee Newman pretty much sums up my thoughts, and then some, above. This was part of a Columbia House stack of discs my mom got me with my first CD player back in '93, and being then only familiar with "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and "Free Falling" my first response at 13 was, "What the fuck is this?!" but the more I listened to it, the more I loved it - especially the sneer that disappeared. (I'm also fine with the fact that it didn't stay because what came after was great, but I really do love the sneer here. 4/5
 
I love Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (and his "solo" stuff too naturally). This is an assured debut, but they would only live up to their full potential on later albums. The run from Damn the Torpedoes to Long After Dark is pretty perfect power pop bliss and Into the Great Wide Open and Wildflowers are two of the best albums from the 90s. So, I'm not really getting why they picked this particular Petty-album for this list, save two or three solid and classic songs. Score: 3 stars
 
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5/16/23

TomPettyDebutCover.jpg


Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers




This isn’t his best record overall but it’s still pretty great and one heck of a debut. Summer is Tom Petty season, perfect soundtrack to sippin’ a beverage on the back patio or driving around with the windows rolled down.
 
I know I have only been lurking/silently participating here, but thank you for saying this; I’m calmed down now
Yeah, surprised Tom Petty could be thought of as boring. I still remember walking into my local record store in my early 20s (Waiting Room Records in Bloomington, IL) and the owner, Jared was about 10 years older than me, an emo/punk guy, thick rimmed glasses, half-zipped hoodie over a band punk t-shirt, lots of tattoos was blasting Tom Petty. It wasn’t strange for him to be playing music that didn’t fit with his personal taste but it typically wasn’t something that he would crank. I asked him about it and he said someone had recently traded in the CD Boxset of TP & Heartbreakers discography and he initially planned on listening to it just to check on the condition but he got sucked in and discovered he LOVED Tom Petty, he was surprised at how many of the songs he already knew but was even more surprised at how great the non-single tracks were.

Anyways, I always think of that when people are down on Tom Petty, I just assume they haven’t given him an honest chance with open ears.
 
Also I’m so glad I don’t listen to the radio all that much, especially classic rock radio. I’d hate to be burned out on something this good!

One saving grace for me with bands I heard overplayed on classic rock radio whenever I was in the truck with my stepdad growing up was that they only usually played the greatest hits, so once I started digging into albums the overplayed stuff was nicely spread out to only one or two songs per album (not a Tom Petty specific observation)
 
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