Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#750) is Paul Simon, Hearts and Bones. Hearts and Bones could be considered the “Lost Paul Simon Album.”  It wasn’t Simon and Garfunkel. It wasn’t Still Crazy, It wasn’t Graceland.  It was between all those classics and never received it’s proper due.  Well not until now. I myself hadn’t even played this for quite sometime.  Recently I was on facebook and saw a video by Al Di Meola.  In the thread beneath it, there was a comment that mentioned how Di Meola had “the most pick control” of anyone he could think of. Then I thought, “Al Di Meola and pick control, hmmm” .. I could only think of one solo. ...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#745 in the Series) is Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA At the start of 1984, with a new album imminent, Bruce Springsteen’s longtime fans must have been curious, maybe even anxious, about which direction he was going to take. His last effort, 1982’s superb “Nebraska” had been a bit of a departure, consisting as it did of a fairly sombre, and stark, suite of mainly downbeat songs. Bruce had been given artistic freedom to do his own thing on that release and he delivered a majestic masterpiece which has stood the test of time and remains, for many (myself included), his best album to date. This time around though both fans...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#734 in the Series) is The Beach Boys, That’s Why God Made the Radio The first thing that comes to mind when discussing a new Beach Boys album is a not so pleasant retro-flashback to the last record of original material under the Beach Boys brand name that was released almost 16 years ago called Summer in Paradise.  This release gave us the first glimpse of what it would be like if Mike Love hijacked the band, kidnapped Brian Wilson, and attempted to recreate the surf-opera sounds of summer without the genius production and arranging fairy dust provided by the undisputed leader of the band.  The result was expectantly bad, with the...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#705 in the Series) is Bob Dylan, Hard Rain I was more than a little late in becoming a Bob Dylan fan.  I don’t know why, maybe I was a little too young to understand the meaning and the impact of a good protest song.  That and I remember having to sing “Turn, Turn, Turn” at Church once. That wasn’t really a turn on for a this kid. I still remember the first time that he made an impact on me. PBS was running a special on producer John Hammond Sr.  On this show (which included a very young Bruce Springsteen if I remember correctly) Bob introduced his new song “Hurricane.” No,...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#700 in the Series) is Genesis, Foxtrot One thing that we do here at Cool Album of the Day is endeavor to bring you something special for our milestone numbered posts. As you’ve just read, this piece represents entry number 700. So today we bring you an album that more than arguably could be considered the best progressive-rock album of all time. It contains a song that could also potentially be considered the best progressive rock song of all time.  You already know the album is Foxtrot, and the song of course that I’m referring to is “Supper’s Ready.” Some  may say that Genesis’ magnum opus should be considered The Lamb lies...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#676 in the Series) is Queen,  News Of The World It’s hard to believe that it’s over twenty years since the passing of quite possibly the best front man ever to grace a stage. Freddie Mercury, the African-born Briton with the enviable vocal range, ability to write hit after hit, and over-the-top stage theatrics, died in 1991, leaving a gaping hole in the music world. Queen (or at least half of them) has limped on, most notably with Paul Rodgers, but it’s painfully obvious that Mercury is irreplaceable. Unfortunately I never got to see him live; I was only ten when he died, but I first got to know the band’s music...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#664 in the Series) is The Clash, Combat Rock We music fans love to hear stories about how classic songs were recorded, and how some almost never happened. There’s a great part in the Joe Strummer documentary The Future Is Unwritten where drummer Topper Headon talks about how the Clash single ‘Rock the Casbah’ came into being. It was 1982 and the Clash were coming apart at the seams; torn apart by egos, infighting, drug addiction, and the strain of such a heavy touring schedule. Musically, the band had long since left behind their band-of-the-people persona, and were now filling stadiums. Their last two albums London Calling and Sandinista had seen them...

  Details for the new Neil Young and Crazy Horse release have now just become much clearer. The album is going to be titled Americana and is going to be released on June 5th. It’s the first time that Neil Young and Crazy Horse have released an album in nine years, with that being Greendale in 2003.  However, it’s the first full album with all three Crazy Horse members them since Broken Arrow, that was 1996. “The Horse” remains Billy Talbot on bass, Ralph Molina on drums and Frank “Poncho” Sampedro on guitar and organ. Sampedro sat out the Greendale sessions feeling that a one guitar voice was more fitting for the project. Neil explained the newest project in...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#651 in the Series) is Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball The Boss is back and he’s an angry man! I’ll be honest, I never thought I’d fully enjoy a new Springsteen album again. Much as I love the man and his music, recent efforts have left me fairly underwhelmed. But come on, it’s Bruce! He’s never going to entirely let me down and both Magic and Working on a Dream certainly have their moments. Some fine songs between them but in terms of putting out an album that was a great listen all the way through, well, I thought it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Which just shows how much I know…………..this...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#632 in the Series) is Levon Helm, Dirt Farmer. (Vanguard Records) Every year since the early 80’s I’ve come up with my own Album of the Year. This won easily as my Album of Year in 2008.  (It was actually released late in late 2007, I know! You’ll understand soon.) We all know Levon Helm as drummer, picker and lead vocalist of The Band.  If you’re a fan of The Band, or just Americana music in general, you must add Dirt Farmer to your collection. It was strange.  I actually had this album for quite some time before I really got into it.  I had it, gave it a quick spin when...