JOESEDDIT’S CRATES FULL OF VINYL – THE FIXX, THE PRETENDERS,    EDIE BRICKELL & THE NEW BOHEMIANS

I’ve got a couple of crates full of old vinyl albums that I haven’t listened to in years due to lack of equipment to play them. Over a period of about a year and a half I revisited each album on the internet or bought the CD and ranked the songs. I also recorded some brief thoughts, rated the album, and posted the results on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artists comment section. I’m recycling and categorizing/grouping the posts on this website.

Reach the Beach

Often times I would buy an album for a song I liked in hopes that the rest of the songs would be good. “One Thing Leads to Another” by The Fixx prompted me to buy this one. It was the 80s and Neil and the Stones had been letting me down so I guess I was groping. And this album is definitely 80s --conjured up images of some dude with a mullet doing that robot dance. I didn’t hate it near as much as I thought I would, though. I don’t have much point of reference so I’m not sure if those who subscribed to the “new wave” genre would give this album a decent grade. But I’m not a big fan of 80s music, so for that reason……I’m out. I still like “One Thing Leads to Another”, though.

Scale of 1 to 10:  D +

1- One Thing Leads to Another

2- Running

3- Saved by Zero

4- Privilege

5- The Sign of Fire

6- Reach the Beach

7- Outside

8- Liner

9- Changing

10- Opinions

Learning to Crawl

Whoa. I don’t remember liking this one as much as I did upon this revisit. The only Pretenders album in the crates. I bought it because I liked the song “Middle of the Road”, and that MTV video with Chrissie Hynde wearing the sparkly top hat only made me like it more. As far as looking and sounding the part, I consider Hynde to be the quintessential rock ‘n roll byych(sp). And I didn’t realize it until now, but she wrote all of these songs (except one). I always did like “My City Was Gone” (featuring the all-time greatest bass line) and it sits at the top of my list. This album was released smack in the middle of the 80s which is reflected with kind of a blend of new wave and punk/angst. I do remember liking it back in the day, but like a wine that’s been put away and forgotten about, it somehow got better with age.

Scale of 1 to 10:  A -

1- My City Was Gone

2- Middle of the Road

3- Thumbelina

4- Time the Avenger

5- Back on the Chain Gang

6- 2000 Miles

7- Watching the Clothes

8- Show Me

9- I Hurt You

10- Thin Line Between Love and Hate

Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars

I bought this album by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians for the song “What I Am”, which features a guitar solo that sounds like Jerry. The top three songs on my list are good enough to prevent me from going a half a grade lower, the last two are there for good reason, and the rest are pretty much inseparable as ok but nothing special.

Scale of 1 to 10:  C

1- What I Am

2- I Do

3- Circle

4- Love Like We Do

5- Little Miss S.

6- Air of December

7- She

8- Keep Coming Back

9- Beat the Time

10- The Wheel

11- Nothing

12- Now