Judy Collins - Judith


Now here's an interesting album. Judith is the 12th studio album by Judy Collins, and even random people in their basements say it's 50/50. The highs are exceptional, the lows are indication that she's gonna make a bunch of albums that suck. Can i bring a different point of view to the table?

Yeah, i think so. What other mid-career 12th albums about dying are you going to compare it to? Seriously, 28 studio albums. Least effective Jagger/Richards cover ever? Admit it, you're assuming the original Salt of the Earth wasn't a sarcastic snipe at elitism, and you're not noticing that this is a farce in its own right. This is a two-faced album, and you're just ignoring the other face. You say half this album is great, half is crap, but you never bother to ask why the half you don't like is there in the first place. I'm not saying i have the right answer, but half broadway musical, half honky-tonk isn't an accident.

Part of the reason self titled albums should be your first is that it's really hard to say "i know you like all the albums i made, but they're not real, here's the real me, hope you aren't mad." This album is a great example. You can't accept the split personality, so you say she's doing a bad job. That's crap criticism. I don't like the overtly country cuts because they're country, and that's nobody's fault but my own. I'm prejudiced, so i have to recuse myself. Actually, no i don't. She's half countercultural icon, half entertainer with an entire crew to financially support, and even though she's paying for all of it at the end of the ledger, some rich white guy who thinks country shlock sells is putting down the money up front. Criticize the industry and the mainstream audience for that one.

So, while i agree that half of it sucks, it's the half that made it possible for me to hold in my hand this evening, and if that doesn't strike you as a little bit suspect then you need a turn in front of my funhouse shaving mirror of doom. This album screams "not allowed to write the whole album myself!," and that's about as honest a self titled album as anyone could dream up.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 4 Seasons - The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette

Image
This might be my longest  album review ever. But i swear a couple times, so it's worth the read ;) How could i possibly mention Jefferson Airplane, The 4 Seasons, and Frank Zappa in the same context? Zappa said "this is rediculous" and a few years later The 4 Seasons said "you know what, Frank is right. This IS ridiculous." To which Jefferson Airplane said, "Oh. Ok. Got it." The real question is: which one is the most transgressive? Zappa said stop fighting, you look like idiots. Jefferson Airplane said i guess if love and community is a bad thing, then sure we're criminals and we'd be happy to move out into the fields and live peaceful lives without your garbage, let us go already. The 4 Seasons said hold my champagne for a moment. In 1969, The 4 Seasons released the single most ironic, acidic, extravagant, and downright befuddling album ever created, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. Zappa was accused of writing "shitty doo-w
Read more

Welcome to my blog, and my record collection.

This is a blog about my love of listening to albums. It started off as a nightly perusal of my dad's record collection (which sadly became mine) on my personal facebook page. Over the last two months it has become quite an enjoyable process of simply ranting about what i think is a real art form, the album. It needs a more permanent home. Some of my reviews are positive, some negative. They might not be what you expect from album reviews, but i hope you at least find them entertaining. For the most part i do very little research, and they tend to be train of thought reactions rather than calculated essays. If nothing else, know that i'm really listening to them and whether they are amazing or abysmal i want you to go listen to them too.  I'll start migrating the 60+ i've written so far over here in the next few days, and hopefully get to the point where i just start writing them here. I'd probably even take suggestions if you're just dying to know my tho
Read more

Pat Benatar - Seven The Hard Way

Image
I don't know about you, but i love Pat Benatar. Yes, that's also her debut album with the single most underrated song in the universe (My Clone Sleeps Alone) in the background, but that's just a generic non-self-titled debut album. We're jumping ahead to her 6th album, Seven The Hard Way, because that, ladies and gentle germs, is how you kalaidescope a concept. Not one, not two, not three, but 4 protien-packed layers to this metaphor. You don't really need to know the overly complicated rules of Craps to know that A) it's gambling, B) "the hard way" refers to rolling doubles, so good luck rolling two 3.5s, and C) you're going to lose, one way or another. It's a joke, but more importantly, it's Pat Benatar and the roll out is Sex As A Weapon, so the innuendo is not intended to be subtle. Wait wait wait, that's only 3, Bottle, where's 4? You're right, last but not least, side B opens with Seven Rooms of Gloom, a Holland-Dozier-Hol
Read more