Pandemonium Cheesecake

U2 must love their album Achtung Baby because they've spent the last 20 years of their career trying to record another album like it. So far they have failed. Released late in 1991 while Nirvana was slowly conquering the world, Achtung Baby was the follow up to Rattle & Hum , a mostly disappointing album which found U2 trying too hard to be the 'worlds greatest band.' U2 recorded Achtung Baby in Berlin, so it's no surprise that the Americana blues/folk sound that they leaned heavily on for their previous albums was replaced by late 70s Bowie-esque sound, another rocker famous for reinventing himself in Germany. Combining Bowie's electronic sound with the music coming out of 'Madchester' (psychedelic dance rock), U2 created what has been their sound ever since, swirling guitars drenched in effects over a pop/dance heavy rhythm section. For Achtung Baby Bono trades in his politically fueled lyrics for more personal ones. Songs like "Who's Gon...

In honor of its release 39 years ago today (5.12.72) I am going to repost a review from more than a year ago. The Rolling Stones, Exile On Main Street . Exile On Main Street ends the greatest four studio album stretch in rock history. Between 1968 and 1972 the Stones released Beggars Banquet , Let It Bleed , Sticky Fingers and finally Exile . Are you fucking kidding me? Today bands take longer breaks between albums than this and the Stones release 4 of the best 100 albums ever during this time. Exile is among one of the tougher records in rock history to get into, the first two or three time I listened to it I hated it. Alot. So much so that I didn't listen to it for years after that. Where was the 'Brown Sugar' or 'Sympathy For The Devil', the only song my local classic rock radio station played from this album was 'Tumbling Dice', really? That's the best song on it? If you were lucky they played 'Happy', which was sung by Keith and really do...

One of the greatest 'what ifs' of the 90s is Blind Melon. Their first album, Blind Melon , was a wonder of down-home psychedelic southern rock in a time dominated by grunge. If you haven't heard their debut, you probably think they were nothing more than a one-hit wonder. If you had a TV in 1993 then you probably saw (repeatedly) "No Rain", or 'the bee girl song'. But it's their second album, Soup , that proves this band was much more than a one-hit wonder and could have been one of the better bands that came out of the 90s. Their career was cut tragically short by the death of lead singer, Shannon Hoon, childhood friend of Axl Rose. (Why oh why couldn't they have changed places.) Ignored by MTV and the press because there was no "No Rain" on this album, Soup , is definately a mixed bowl of great music. There is plenty of their take on classic rock, from the Zep-esque "2x4", "Vernie" sounds like Black Sabbath-via-the ...