Have You Never Been Mellow [MCA, 1975]
After checking out the competition--I've given up on Helen Reddy, Anne Murray repeats herself, and Loretta Lynn's latest is a bummer--I began to entertain heathenish thoughts about this MOR nemesis, whose mid-Atlantic accent inspired Tammy Wynette to found a country music association designed to exclude her. At least this woman sounds sexy, says I to meself, but Carola soon set me straight. "A geisha," she scoffed. "She makes her voice smaller than it really is just to please men." At which point I put away my heathenish thoughts and finished the dishes. D+
Best Cuckgau reviews
James Morris
Sebastian Moore
kek
Levi Perry
2 Years On [Atco, 1970]
This is slightly better than the lps the Gibb brothers put out during their separation--Cucumber Castle, which at least sold some and the solo flop Robin's Reign. But "Lonely Days" sounded more distinctive on the radio than it does here among its epigones and the collective vibrato is turning into a grating affectation. Presumably they broke up because they sensed the formula was getting stale. Trying to recreate it now is the surest way to go from good pop group to bad one. C
Nolan Adams
shocked this hasn't been posted yet
Isaiah Butler
Sheik Yerbouti [Zappa, 1979]
If this be social "satire," how come its sole targets are ordinary citizens whose weirdnesses happen to diverge from those of the retentive gent at the control board? Or are we to read his new fixation on buggery as an indication of approval? Makes you wonder whether his primo guitar solo on "Yo' Mama" and those as-unique-as-they-used-to-be rhythms and textures are as arid spiritually as he is. As if there were any question after all these years. C
Gabriel Nguyen
Strange Little Girls [Atlantic, 2001]
"'97 Bonnie and Clyde" *choice cuts*
Sebastian Lewis
The Further Adventures of Larson E. Whipsnade and Other Taradiddles [Columbia, 1975]
A quarter century after his death, Fields is harder to deny in the contemplation than on the TV or the stereo. Sure, he was a great comedian, but that doesn't make his films or records compellingly funny. Poppy and The Great Radio Feuds, two companion discs, suffer from limitations of format and context (radio play, complete with ingenue at swimming hole for sex appeal, running gags about Charlie McCarthy's wooden legs) that seem quaint at best. This collection, however, is so wild that to call it surrealistic is to taint it with aesthetic respectability. Laugh first, appreciate later, I say. A-
Xavier Morgan
Just Another Band From L.A. [Zappa, 1972]
You said it, Frank, I didn't. C
Isaiah Carter
>Adjusted for inflation, $7.50 in 1980 is equal to $25.47 in 2021
Is that really such a great deal?
Elijah Flores
yeah, that was the price of a single lp, but you get twice as much music.