Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#541 in the Series) is The Beach Boys, SMiLE Is SMiLE a magnificent work of inspired musical genius or an over-hyped load of half-formed, unfinished nonsense? You decide! Rumour, speculation, lies, half-truths, assumptions, deliberate misleads and red herrings, guesswork………it seems that SMiLE has been, and no doubt shall continue to be, the subject of all of the above and lots more besides. For many people, their opinion of this album (regularly cited as “the greatest lost classic” of all time) depends on not just the music which has crept out over the years, but also upon just whose version of events they choose to believe. And everyone involved with SMiLE seems to have...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#529 in the Series) is Laura Nyro,  Eli and the Thirteenth Confession Laura Nyro is Randy Newman without the Disney movie soundtracks. Known more for the songs she has written for other people that have gone on to become monster hits than her own releases, her musical output rivals only Carole King as one of the greatest singer song -writers of her generation and a hit-making machine.  A partial list of Laura Nyro penned hits includes “Stoney End” for Barbra Streisand, “Eli’s Coming” for Three Dog Night, “Wedding Bell Blues” for The Fifth Dimension, and the fantastic “And When I Die”, that became a monster hit for Blood Sweat and Tears. The real...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#513 in the Series) is Gino Vanelli, Brother to Brother. I’d love to know how many people freaked out when they saw today’s “Cool Album of The Day” is Gino Vanelli. I’ll say this, the real audiophiles are saying something like, “Amazing, a great album with an ultra-fantastic band.” Many though, only know him from his couple big hits like “I Just Wanna To Stop” and “Living Inside Myself,” and maybe even “People Gotta Move.” They probably know the look and the whole Gino Vanelli “thing” but have never heard some of the album cuts on this release. This album, and especially his live shows, featured some of the best musicians of their...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#510 in the Series, and #52 in the Live, Saturday Night Series) is Joni Mitchell, Shadows and Light. I’m not going to sit here and type away about how much I think this is a perfect and fantastic album.  If you’re a jazz affectionado, then maybe it is to you.  I like jazz, I appreciate jazz, but I’m not head over heels in love with it.  (BTW, when someone does a flip, shouldn’t it be “heels over head? As soon as I stand up I’m going to be head over heels. When I walk to the fridge? Yup, head over heels again!) … anyway, I like jazz but not enough to site through two to...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#504 in the Series) is Patricia Barber,  Nightclub A dark , delicious delight of an album. Take a look through Patricia Barber’s career and you’ll quickly see that she likes to be adventurous and do her own thing, rarely the safe option for her. Most people blessed with a voice and talent like hers would settle for a nice, comfortable career, the easy money. It’s to her credit that she tries not to go down that road too often and it’s her questing spirit which results in wonderful releases like this. It may also be the reason that you might not have heard of her! The aim on this recording was to...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#502 in the Series) is Colin Hay, Are You Looking At Me? One of the cool things about being a music fan is having good friends with whom you can play the “Trust me on this one” game. You know it; you probably played it and never even realized it.  A good friend comes up to you and either hands you a CD, or a cassette or even good ol’ vinyl and says “Check this out” I think you’ll like it.  You look at the title and try and hide your surprise when he or she hands you a title that you would never listen to on your own. In fact, you...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#499 in the Series) is The Beach Boys, Surfs Up Sometimes the Mojo inspirations for my psychedelic meanderings for Cool Album of the Day come from lubricating the death machine, wandering in the desert aimlessly with an Indian Shaman by my side guiding me.  Other times I am in the Falcon’s Nest jungle room staring at the black light posters of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin wondering where I can put my next lava lamp while consulting my Todd Mcfarlane figures of Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie, and Jim Morrison. Alice Cooper is usually the more vocal of this quartet. Dave Alvin (Cool Album of the Day #471) was his. Jim Morrison...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#498 in the Series) is Todd Rundgren, (Re)Production Todd’s (Re)Production is going to get a ton of bad reviews. Why you say? Well, this album just doesn’t come across that well on first listen. Unfortunately, that’s all most reviewers will give to a new disc. Not here, no no no.  I try to give a new release at least three spins before I take out my crayon and loose leaf paper, ok my laptop actually. One thing that we’ve discussed before is how albums that take a little longer to get into are usually the ones that stay with you longer. I feel that way.  That’s the case here. (Re)Production is all covers,...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#481 in the Series) the debut album from The Cars You’re a new band. You begin by putting pencil to paper as your first tracks take shape. Maybe you get a gig here and there.  You write a few more songs and then the gigs get more frequent and hopefully in a little bit better houses.   You think, maybe if things go well you’ll get noticed.  Heck, if things really go well, maybe a real label will give you a record deal! That’s how it often rolls. I don’t know exactly if this was the scenario of Boston’s The Cars, but I’m guessing it wasn’t all that different. So all that happens and you...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#474 in the Series and # 26 in the Whale Wednesday Series) is Billy Joel, The Stranger. We don’t feature greatest hits albums here on “Cool Album of the Day.” I swear we don’t! Yeah, I know this had about five of them on it, but it’s not a greatest hits album, I promise, it’s not! The Stranger was released in 1977 and houses some of Billy Joel’s most well-known songs. It just might have been the peak of his career.  It answers “yes” to the question about “Standing the test of time.”  Many of these tracks are part of his live shows to this day.  Many of these songs are still being...