Show Notes
The Rolling Stones were back in 1981 with a brand new album --- except this was unlike any "Brand New Album" they'd ever released as a band, since almost none of it was actually brand new. Instead, the Stones and their engineering team combed the vaults and found a bunch of half-finished tracks, put lyrics and modern production on them, and released them to the public. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right?
Except it was great. Tattoo You is broadly viewed as the last truly awesome Rolling Stones album, and time has arguably been kinder to it than even the initial reviews were. Similar to mix of rock, balladry, and groove that they perfected on Some Girls, this mix of songs sounds surprisingly coherent, despite most of them not coming from the same recording session (or even the same group of musicians, in many cases).
We go track-by-track through the grooves on this album, from the archetypal riffage of Start Me Up all the way to the dreamy songscaping of Waiting on a Friend.
More from Cosmic America
Galen is back with more track talk, as we induct several new songs into the CrimsonCast Music Companion playlist on Spotify, including: In The Meantime by Spacehog Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver Lake Superior by The Arcs Walk Away by James Gang Dripfield by Goose Kilby Girl by The Backseat Lovers The Bend by Real Estate
A soft relaunch of Cosmic America, as Galen talks through four new additions to the CrimsonCast Music Companion, which you can follow on Spotify.
Cosmic America is back for a limited time! Galen Clavio invites Jeremy Gray on the podcast for a look back at the 1980s in music, as both of us give our Top 20 songs from the decade. In classic Cosmic America fashion, we listen to the songs all the way through while we break them down, talking through what made each of the picks special to us, as well as what they represented in pop culture and music culture at the time. Through 96 minutes of discussion, we cover everything from Prince to Phil Collins, A-Ha to the Psychedelic Furs, Guns n Roses to Michael Jackson, Tears for Fears to Def Leppard. There are some difficult omissions, and some surprise inclusions. Let us know what your own personal top 20 lists for the 1980s look like!
Our last review in the Steely Dan catalogue finds us in 2003, as we evaluate "Everything Must Go". There are some good moments, for sure! But there's also some questions. While Two Against Nature succeeded modernizing both the jazz sound and the lyrical inspirations of the classic Steely Dan formula, Everything Must Go comes up a bit short in both. It's absolutely not a bad album, but it ends up being a bit disappointing --- especially since it's the last album in the official canon. And while we'd go on to get some more solo albums and band tours, this ends up being the end of the road for the Dan's recording career.
After the surprise live show reunion of the mid-1990s, it felt like only a matter of time before Steely Dan were reconstituted as a studio act. And while it would take until 2000 for that to actually come to fruition, the result ended up being...pretty good, all things considered!