The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill - Lauryn Hill

We have cheated a number of times in choosing this week's classic album. It's Friday night for a start. We also went through a number of 'random' selections before finding an album we wanted to listen to. Nirvana, the Velvet Underground and Nick Cave were not appropriate for this balmy Canberra evening where the beers are flowing and there is still the promise of the weekend. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is perfect.

Lauryn Hill's first solo album is a deep, slow-burning, hip hop record. It's low-key but intense - the lyrics and themes are deeply personal - exploring race, love, women and faith. Hill's rapping rivals anyone in the game but it's her singing that sets her apart. It's smooth, subtle and soulful. She switches seamlessly from rapping to singing throughout the album, harmonising with herself and riffing off her own melodies.

B offers his analysis - "It sounds like she was smoking a lot of weed". Well yes, she was hanging out in Jamaica with Bob Marley's son and the family of Marleys. Hill was pregnant when she was writing this album - the creativity and moving influence of this time of her life is borne out in the songs.  She mixes reggae, r&b and soul influences, producing a ground-breaking hip hop album that challenged and defeated the misogynistic genre.

The massive hit was Doo Wop (That Thing). This is the song you want your little girls to listen to. It's Aretha Franklin's modern day Respect. Make your boys listen too for that matter. This album was huge because it appealed to everyone. And if you find someone who claims to like hip hop without respecting this album, then kick them in the shins. Ex-Factor is the killer break up song that Kelly Clarkson wishes she could get close to.

Despite being a brilliant album that easily stacks up 15 years down the track, at 70 minutes in length, it does start to fade towards the end, particularly the appalling Nothing Even Matters with D'Angelo. Nonetheless, Everything is Everything kicks in towards the end and keeps the faith. The film clip of  New York as a giant record is a revelation.

It is only fitting that Kanye ends our post tonight with some sadly honest lines about Hill in his song Champion - "Lauryn Hill says her heart was in Zion. I wish her heart still was in rhyming. Cos who the kids gonna listen to huh? I guess me if it isn't you". Yep, nicest way to say that since this very brilliant album, Lauryn Hill has stepped off the reservation.

'68 Comeback Special - Elvis Presley

If we could only take one album between us on a desert island, this would be it. No ifs, no buts. Elvis' black leather suit comeback album is the perfect mix of rockin', croonin' and swagger. We love the stand-up version, but it's the sit-down version that makes us lose our shit.

After a decade long contract with the big movie studios, Elvis had to be reintroduced to the public to prove that he was still cool. The stand-up special is an OTT, musical stage play of his most popular numbers. Famously, during a break in rehearsals, the producers saw Elvis jamming with his band in the break-out room and were blown away. The low-key 'sit-down' show was born and was released as the B-side. Thank goodness, because it is stripped-back, raw and perfect. Elvis jamming and joking around with his bandmates. Just singing and letting loose.

They play fragments of songs, they play songs twice, they start songs and Elvis forgets the words, they shift seamlessly from one song to another (When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again into Blue Christmas is fabulous). And it's the most wonderful recording ever made.  That's Alright Mama is simply gold. The second time they play Lawdy Miss Clawdy is spine tingling - the first wailing note that Elvis sings is a pants-wetting moment. The greatest single bar in popular music. If we could travel to any point in the history of the earth, it would be this.

The stories and banter between songs are hilarious. Elvis talks about being banned from moving his hips during gigs. He reflects on the changes to music since he last performed live. "I like a lot of the new groups, the Beatles, the Byrds...". he's reflective, he's very funny, he's shy and he's commanding. All at the same time.

It's easy to get blown away by Elvis' voice and hear nothing else. But every member of the band is a genius (even if some of them tell bad jokes). Scotty Moore's guitar is subtle and exquisite. And DJ Fontana is playing drums on a guitar case. A goddamn guitar case. And have we mentioned the leather suit???

The second time they play Trying to Get to You is amazing, with Elvis throwing everything at it. The most beautiful moment is when the song draws to a close and the band pleads with Elvis "one more time, one more time" and he tears into the chorus with no regard for his vocal chords.

The set on the version we have closes with If I Can Dream, a poignant, optimistic rip-roaring plea for hope. "While I can think, while I can talk, while I can stand, while I can walk, while I can dream, please let me dream". Lennon's Imagine is weak compared to this.

Our friend Elvio introduced us to this record and he has our eternal gratitude. If you only know Elvis from the ballads like Love Me Tender, you need to buy this record. If you're a living, breathing human being, you need to buy this record. And if you're a bloke, accept that you're wife will never be as attracted to you as she is to Elvis (but if it's any comfort, the man sure as shit went downhill from here...). This is not just the peak of Elvis, this is the peak of music.

Definitely Maybe - Oasis

I'm surprised it's taken us this long to get to Oasis. Of B's favourite bands of his long-haired and awkward youth (we now only have You Am I and Ryan Adams to go - stay tuned).

Oasis's first album, Definitely Maybe marked the resurgence of British rock'n'roll and spoilt rock stars.  Oasis had swagger before Kanye even knew what the word meant. We could probably dedicate a blog to "quotes of Noel". For a band that took itself so seriously, the best thing about Definitely Maybe is the sense of fun. Rock and Roll Star is a balls-out rock and roll song about wanting to be a balls-out rock and roller. I loved playing this song on guitar, turning up my 15-watt amp and wailing "toniiiight, I'm a rock and roll star" (along with, I'm sure,  hundreds of thousands of adolescent indie boys).

Shakermaker is kind of fun, kind of cheesy and kind of forgettable. Surprisingly, it was the second single from the album.

Live Forever is the sort of anthemic ballad for which Oasis became famous and which multiplied their fan base by the millions. It's a great song, but I can't help but think that it pales in comparison to later songs like Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova. And I will be honest and say that while Noel is a brilliant songwriter, his lyrics are naff. "Maybe I don't really want to know how your garden grows, cos I just want to fly."

The riff in Columbia is thrilling. The best live show I've seen Oasis perform was at the Livid festival in Melbourne. It was so freakin energised and this song was a highlight. Listen to the beat and imagine yourself jumping up and down in a mosh with a thousand pasty brit-pop fans. (Ok, that image does not sound as awesome as it was...) Speaking of naff, the backdrop for the stage was a black banner with the word "EXIST" written in massive white letters. Umm, ok, thanks Oasis. Will do.

Supersonic. First single they ever released. It grabs every other rock song written in the 1990s by the collar and punches them in the face. Our friend Karin is painting 100 stories about people's favourite songs. My story was about Supersonic, so read it and see the painting here.

Cigarettes and Alcohol is brilliantly funky and fun. Noel was accused of stealing the riff from Get It On by T-Rex. Agreed, it is pretty similar, but who cares? He took the riff, dressed it in some skinny jeans, stuck a cigarette in its mouth and poured a shot of Jack down its throat. Job well done.

Digsy's Dinner is the band playing around, still to great effect. It's most famous for the opening line: "what a life it would be if you would come to mine for tea, I'll pick you up at half past three and we'll have lasagne." The Beatles comparison always bemused me - Oasis were a rocking great band, but Noel sits a few rungs below John and Paul in the songwriter stakes.

Slide Away almost sounds like a grunge song, which is odd because Oasis billed themselves as the antithesis of grunge, the dominant sound of the time. It shifts from the minor-key verse into the major chorus though, and the morose, grungy, mood is dismissed by the uplifting brit-pop chorus.

The album closes with Married With Children, a throw-away song (with some brilliant lead guitar work)  that still sounds excellent. My favourite line is "I hate the books you read and all your friends, your music's shite it keeps me up all night."

I spent many years thinking about which of Definitely Maybe or (What's the Story) Morning Glory (also in the basket) was my favourite Oasis album. I usually came down on the side of Definitely Maybe because the sound is much more raw. On the verge of becoming one of the biggest bands in the world, Oasis sounded like a bunch of lads rocking out in their Mum's garage. I dearly love this album for sentimental reasons. It might not be the greatest album, however it's pretty fucking good.

Sorry, you can't write about Oasis without swearing.

Abbey Road - The Beatles

It had to happen at some point. There are twenty-five goddamn Beatles' albums in the basket. And so as last week's post was my love letter to Tom Waits (and if you haven't bought his new album, Bad As Me, shame on you), it's B's turn to carry on like a pork chop about Lennon and McCartney this week. I accept the songs are good but god I hate The Beatles.

Taking the laptop from L, I point out that The Beatles only released 13 albums (four are in the basket). Considering all were written in a seven-year period, I consider this to be the richest period of artistic creation in the history of humanity.

Writing about Abbey Road is like reviewing the Bible. Fortunately, we have the cojones to do so. (Incidentally, our review of the Bible would consist of five words - "could do with an edit").

Come Together is one of those Beatles songs which is so omniscient you forget how brilliant it is. It doesn't sound like any other Beatles song - it's all drums and percussions and funk. It wears its jeans so tight it needs to do the fly up with pliers and would be (re: is) cool in any era.

There's not much to say about Something, except that it's perfect. It has never been bested. Period. Until you hear Here Comes the Sun. It's a Harrison one-two knockout punch that leaves you lying on the canvas, bruised and breathless.

This album is the most polished of all Beatles releases. The songs in themselves are pure, breathtaking genius. But the production polishes them up until they are flawless diamonds. It verges on over-production, but never crosses the line, with harmonies and string sent in just at the right moment to rocket the songs into the stratosphere.

I reckon if someone challenged God to write a pop song, he would write Oh Darling. The piano riff is textbook 50s-Jerry-Lee Lewis-Little Richard rock and roll, but the plaintive plea of the chorus is sung with such raw passion it sounds like it's tearing McCartney's vocal chords to shreds.

As all readers would know, after Because, side two is seamless, with each song segueing into the next. This is not easily done, particularly considering Lennon and McCartney had stopped writing together. McCartney and George Martin took the fragments of unfinished songs and melded them into an incredible medley. Some of these songs fully formed would have been the pinnacle of another songwriter's career, but for The Beatles, they are the leftovers spooned onto a plate and microwaved to make a meal.

The album is McCartney's from this point on. You Never Give Me Your Money starts with a quintessential McCartney minor key, brooding, melody describing his boredom with daily life and then jumps into a rocking anthem about the thrill of escape when "one sweet dream came true today".

My favourite song on the album is She Came in Through the Bathroom Window. The bassline is funky and the verses are exhilarating. McCartney is wonderfully skilful at capturing suburban mundanity with lines like "Sunday's on the phone to Monday, Tuesday's on the phone to me."

The climax is all four Beatles singing "boy, you're going to carry that weight a long time"; it sounds like the encore to the best concert you never went to. Brilliantly, it reverts back to You Never Give Me You Your Money and then segues into The End, which sounds like a victory lap, with the band throwing flowers into the crowd.

There's really no way to describe Abbey Road and do it justice. Put it on and let it take your breath away. And with Queen Elizabeth in town, enjoy the final line of "I want to tell her that I love her a lot, but I gotta get a belly full of wine, Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl and someday I'm gonna make her mine."

Even L admits that she doesn't mind the album by the end, although she does note that my hyperbole-filled post has failed to mention Octopus's Garden....

Closing Time - Tom Waits

I've been waiting patiently for this album to be pulled out of the basket. Tom Waits' first album from 1973, Closing Time, is my favourite. It was before he shredded his vocal chords so it's very accessible, however, it still has the tragic, romantic and lonesome themes of the rest of his canon.

Even though Waits was in his early twenties when this was released, you'd believe he was an old man sitting drunk at the bar. Similar to Bruce Springsteen, Waits sings stories of people - their fears, hopes and dreams.

Sadly, B doesn't find Waits' voice on his later albums - described as being "soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car" - as seductive as I do so this album is played more than his other work at our house. It is also one of 'our' albums, which together with the aforementioned Springsteen reference should provide you with adequate forewarning, dear reader, of the painful mush to come in this post.

Early in our 'courting days' B & I took a 'sick day' and just hung out. Martha Wainwright was being interviewed on triple j about her favourite songs and she played I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You. We both listened gobsmacked by the beauty of the song; the clarity of Waits' voice and the vivid picture it painted in our minds. We were both pretending not to be in love with one another but knowing damn well where it was headed.

Martha of course, played Martha next. Alone in our imaginations, we speculated about forty years down the track when our relationship - which hadn't really started - hadn't actually worked out, as an old Tom Frost wonders what might have been with Martha. In order to avoid this fate, B would argue I stuck my claws in at this very point and haven't let up...

Martha is the best song on the album. But before you can feel sorry for the fool, there is plenty of male bravado. Old Shoes (& Pictures Postcards) is the cocky goodbye to a lover - "farewell to the girl with the sun in her eyes, I'm gonna kiss you and then I'll be gone". It's followed up by Midnight Lullaby which epitomises the mood of this album. You need to listen to it in a smokey club, with velvet drapes, nursing your joys or your sorrows over a whiskey at 2am.

The album veers from blues to swing. Virginia Avenue is Tom serenading the tired hooker who frequents the bar. The swing is particularly joyous on Ice Cream Man. Sung with a wink, it's a song that sparkles of show tunes.

Tom Waits music has remained interesting, challenging and brilliant since this debut. Waits is probably the most popular singer to be labelled a cult artist. A bit like Charles Bukowski whose poetry remains immensely popular too. Unlike most things 'cult' he is still releasing albums worth buying almost forty years later.

If you need to be introduced to Waits (and find his gravelly voice grating), then grab a copy of Closing Time. There are a few different women on this album and no doubt Waits loves them all and doesn't mean to break their hearts. But he does. And god he makes bloody beautiful music about it. And to finish off your evening, treat yourself by having a listening to Springsteen covering the best song ever written, Tom Waits' Jersey Girl.