Last weeks listening list, for your reading pleasure

Another mixed bag of musical treats got the call up to my playlist last week.  Here's the highlights:

Miles Davis and John Coltrane, two of the jazz greats, together?  What's not to like?  Well, the sound quality on Abstract Impressions mainly.  If you can get past that then this is a pretty good introduction to both musicians, and they're in fine form here.  It's not the cutting edge Miles, that phase of experimentation started shortly after this was recorded, but if you want to hear him, and Coltrane, playing some of the songs that made them both huge names, then this should do it for you.

I hadn't listened to the Gravediggaz for a long time but had a hankering for some old-school horror rap.  It's hard to believe that Six Feet Deep came out in 1994 - it still sounds fresh, probably because of the influences of Prince Paul and RZA; both have always made strong music that lasts over time.  1-800-Suicide and Diary of a Madman from this album always do it for me - both great tracks full of comic book/horror movie inspired lyrics but with that gangsta touch.

Pink Floyd don't always do it for me but Wish You Were Here is one of my favourite rock albums.  It somehow manages to be mellow and interesting at the same time, haunting  and intense.  It's only 5 songs long, but with two clocking in at over 12 minutes each and the rest over 5 minutes, it's as long as most albums with twice as many songs.  The title track is the standout for me.

If you've ever found yourself wanting your music to be more amusing and ironic, then Richard Cheese is what you want to be getting into.  He takes popular songs, puts them into his lounge blender, and spits them out as Vegas style big band numbers.  Everything from Limp Bizkit's Nookie to Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up, all areas of popular music get lampooned.  Sure it's a novelty album but it's a lot of fun at the same time.

The Smiths had a huge impact on music in the 80's, despite only being together for 5 years.  That said, not all of their albums were good and there were some dud songs among the gems. Singles collects those gems and puts them all on one CD; really, it's the only Smiths album you need.  It spans their short career and, while they're not necessarily their most important songs, they're the songs that people remember and that made them so big for a short time in the mid 1980's.