Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “The Magdalene Laundries” by Joni Mitchell – Turbulent Indigo was Joni Mitchell’s last great album. That’s not to say that all that followed wasn’t any good, it’s just that Indigo was her last consistently good album from beginning to end. Coming in on the heels of a trio of experimental records on the Geffen label — Dog Eat Dog, Chalk Marks In a Rainstorm and Night Ride Home – that featured electronic textures and somewhat dated layered production, Turbulent Indigo returned Mitchell to Reprise records with a more stripped down straight-ahead sound that peeled back the atmospheric electronics of the previous records in favor of more organic instrumentation akin to...

Today’s Cool Album Of the Day (#354 in the Series) is Morrissey, Vauxhall And I Morrissey is, for many, the best singer and lyricist to emerge in the last 30 years. And Vauxhall And I is his greatest album. “How can you tell?” I hear you cry, “They all sound the same!” That’s a pretty common accusation from non-Moz fans and, to be fair, there’s a grain of truth in it. Stylistically, he doesn’t change things too much, he’s found his groove and he’s staying in it. There’s been the occasional foray into experimental territory (almost exclusively confined to extra tracks on his singles) but, by and large, his stuff sounds pretty much the same as it did way...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#281 in the Series) is Jeff Buckley, Grace. Make a list of the best debut albums of all-time and it won’t be very long before you get to Grace. For, quite simply, Jeff Buckley and his band created a beautiful work, rich and varied in scope, tough but also tender. As a performer in his own right, Buckley first came to the attention of the public (and most A&R men) when he took up a weekly residency at Sin-E, a small basement cafe in New York. Appearances there saw him hone his craft to perfection, crafting a rare beauty from his soaring vocal range, dazzling guitar skills and myriad influences, most notably Led...