Continuing the great Genesis Listening Post, we pick up with the Phil Collins Years. Genesis – A Trick of the Tail – 1976 A new lead singer (Phil Collins after over 300 auditioned) and a new producer (Ex-Elton John engineer David Hentschel) and a new collection of (7/8, 9/8 and Continue Reading
Allen Lulu
Listening Post: Genesis + Peter Gabriel
In May of 2010 I embarked on the epic Genesis retrospective. But I cheated. I started with their second album, Nursery Cryme, since that was the more acclaimed of the first two records and the first one seemed like…well, the pretensions of youth. To compensate I also did the bulk Continue Reading
Listening Post: Madonna
Originally posted at Allenlulu.comThe entire catalog was listened to during an April trip from LA to Corpus Christi, then an RV to Houston and a plane back to Los Angeles. This retrospective was the best thing about that trip. Madonna – Madonna – 1983 There is a programmed electronic hi-hat Continue Reading
Listening Post: Meat Loaf
These were originally posted earlier this year at allenlulu.com Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell – 1978 Here’s something I didn’t know: Writer Jim Steinman had been working on a sci-fi musical version of Peter Pan called Neverland. Three of the songs from Bat Out of Hell were from Continue Reading
Listening Post: David Bowie
I thought I was done with Listening Posts, to be honest. How many artists can one cover whose work spans the decades like AC/DC, Elvis Costello, Madonna, et al?And then a couple weeks ago I thought, hey, you know what? I’ve never really listened to Bowie. I had Scary Monsters Continue Reading
Listening Post: Elvis Costello
These reviews originally appeared at allenlulu.com Elvis Costello – My Aim is True – 1977 When I first read that Clover, a band that would count among its members American faux-soul, semi rocker Huey Lewis, was the backing group on Elvis Costello’s debut record, My Aim is True, I thought Continue Reading
The listening post will return
Transferring all the reviews to my personal site was a noble idea, but it was, in a way, like sending them to Siberia. I will over the next few weeks, be reposting all of the reviews back on this site. If you are still out there, I hope you enjoy Continue Reading
An open letter to Barack Obama
Dear Mr. President. They will never let you win, you know. They will never compromise. They will continue to move the line of scrimmage to the right. This isn’t about what’s best for us, you know. The Republicans care about one thing: winning. Okay, that’s not totally fair and I Continue Reading
Selling Music on a Steel Train
Steel Train – Steel Train – 2010 (Buy it) Arcade Fire has the number one record in the United States this week. Sure, that doesn’t mean the same thing it did 30 years ago when it was Thriller. Or 20 years ago when we were talking about Nirvana. Or even Continue Reading
Madonna!?! Meat Loaf!?!?
The Listening Posts for Meat Loaf are done. Well done, I might add.And Madonna is underway!Like always, the can now be found here.Go!