The Micro Review Thread

With MWE over today and hundreds of albums still on my "you should probably listen to these at some point" list, I figured I'd create this thread to try and encourage more listening outside of the norm for me.

I'm thinking of this as essentially being MWE for any time other than February, but don't know that it necessarily has to be albums we've never heard before. Obviously not going to be doing one album a day, but might try for one a week.

 

Lucero are fantastic (touring soon with The Menzingers and The Dirty Nil) definitely check them out. My personal favorite album of theirs is 1372 Overton Park.

 

I never knew Ben had a solo album. Very interested now. I love Lucero. They never miss.

 

It's based on Cormac McCarthy's book Blood Meridian which makes it that much cooler

 

Restless Heart - Wheels

Really killer '80s pop-country. You can hear how it pre-sages so much of the '90s country sound I love. I could sing you half the choruses after one listen just reading the setlist, but "This Rock Won't Roll" in particular takes the cake. @Craig Manning ever heard these guys?

 

I have not, but I’m intrigued!

 

Fully vouch for it. Back when pop-country was trying to write good songs and not memes.

 

In fairness, there are still pop-country artists who keep their head down and focus on the songs. They are just not many of them.

 

No argument here. Was just speaking in macro terms.

 

This rules. Can you give me others (obvious or not) in a similar vein?

 

Short answer, not really yet. I know Shenandoah gets grouped with them a bit but haven't listened yet.

I'm only just getting into this era of pop country, but what I love is it pre-sages some early '90s stuff I already really love like Come on Come On by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Brand New Man by Brooks and Dunn and I Still Believe in You by Vince Gill with the clean melodic guitar and mixture of ballads.

Edit:
It's a little earlier, but Firin' Up by Pure Prairie League is a country band album that hits a lot of the same pleasure centers for me.

 

A great fall album. If you like Astral Weeks (my favorite), try Veedon Fleece.

 

These guys were from Baltimore where I grew up, so I saw them at a bunch of hometown shows. I never owned this album, but I bought and got really into their second one. I revisited them a couple months ago, and they definitely had the hooks to justify a longer career. One thing that really stood out to me though is how poorly a lot of their lyrics have aged

 

The combination of Broadway and Springsteen, fed on outsized teenage horniness and '50s car crash songs remains completely unique to this day. And Rundgren produced the hell out of it.

 

The amount of people that used that song as a bathroom break both times I've seen him play it means you're definitely not alone there.

 

"Drive All Night" is a sentimental favorite for me. True of all the ballads at the end of the record, actually. But I get why someone might tire of it, given the length.

 

I think the only time I wrote about The River was when I went to the tour in 2016 where he played the whole album. I haven't read this one back in awhile, but it definitely still captures what I love about the album. It was an AbsolutePunk article, but I saved it on my blog when that site went away.

Closer to the Truth and Further From the Sky: No Retreat, No Surrender: Learning Life's Big Lessons from Bruce Springsteen's Live Show

 

I had the worst seats for the River tour (top row of the nosebleeds, pretty much behind the stage) and it was still so much fun.

 

I almost got into the front pit for that show. Still had a great vantage point.

 

The Moon - Without Earth (1968)

Really goregeous lightly psychedelic, well-orchestrated/arranged piano-based pop. A serious hidden gem.

Was looking up solo careers and side projects from The Beach Boys and saw this as something David Marks was a part of with some really glowing Reddit comments. Threw one song on Youtube to get the vibe and just played the whole thing I was so into it.

Definitely makes me miss the Blog Era where I could probably have found a download of it. Stuck with YouTube now.