![]() This feat stood for 40 years until Billie Eilish replicated it in 2020. Christopher Cross – Christopher Cross (1979) and Best of Christopher Cross (1993)Ĭhristopher Cross won five Grammy Awards for his eponymous debut, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year (#1 hit “Sailing”), and Best New Artist. Yours truly was a few years late to the party with Business as Usual. Greg Ham’s trademark saxophone adds gravitas to “People Just Love to Play with Words” and “Underground”, while epic album closer “Down by the Sea” would feel (mostly) at home on an early Church record. With its angular guitars and quirky underwater sound effects, the heartbreaking “I Can See It in Your Eyes” could teach Thomas Dolby a thing or two and probably did. And yet, here we are! Alongside massive hits like “Down Under”, “Who Can It Be Now?”, and “Be Good Johnny”, Men at Work’s Business as Usual sneaks in under the radar with some of the most sublime New Wave-inflected tracks of the early 1980s. Can you say yuck? Superman should bathe in Kryptonite before any self-respecting rock critic would cue up this nauseatingly popular fan favorite. Endless years of heavy MTV video rotation. Men at Work – Business as Usual (1981)įifteen weeks atop the US album chart. So, all you music zombies: Lock the door, turn out the lights, and watch us joyously set fire to whatever meager credibility we have left.Ħ. ![]() Seriously, some of these turkeys are egregious enough to end marriages. And a guilty pleasure nobody ever heard of, ain’t guilty at all. Some obvious choices are missing – Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, and the Carpenters were Gen-X rites of childhood, not a source of embarrassment. ![]() ![]() “Overplayed but respected” doesn’t count, while “Greatest Hits” compilations are fair game. So, after two decades in this racket, it’s time to bare my soul with self-immolating glee. Of course, this doesn’t mean we want anyone else to know about it.įortunately, representing the Old Guard means never having to say you’re sorry. Well-known hit albums that, by all rights, should never soil our privileged speakers, yet somehow claw their way onto the rotation and linger there like mold for years in some cases. Put simply? While we may know a lot about music, we can also be a real pain in the ass.īut every rose has its thorn (sorry), and every pompous critic has a few rotting skeletons in their musical closet. Such fashionable disregard is the source of our priceless credibility, or so we tell ourselves. Our preferences nearly always align against the public and, therefore, the almighty dollar, setting us up for penury and much-deserved ridicule. We inveterate snobs sit perched on high, passing objective judgment on an industry that is, by definition, entirely subjective. In fact just looking at Eddie Vedder's face is a show unto itself: he's a lead singer to rank with the greats, aside from the vocal power from projecting so much on his face (you don't know whether he'll kill someone, have an epileptic fit, or just pet a sheep), and he has a lot of joy in his performance, at one pointy riding a wave or something on his stool! This is what fans want to see, and circa 1992 the most versatile and perhaps just flat-out talented Seattle band deliver the goods.Music “street cred” is a precious commodity for critics. But of course it's impossible to neglect the classics like Alive, Even Flow or Jeremy which after being played out on radio for so many years still pack a wallop when given the ferocity and harrowing spirit of the live performance. We get, for example, one of the finest and most energetic performances of any song of the 90s, with their number Porch. And yet, for 35 minutes, Pearl Jam fans or just anyone looking for a solid rock show get their minutes worth. It is what is is, and gives the MTV folks perhaps TOO much time for commercials. It's one of those cases where the only real flaw is a typical limitation of television: it's only 35 minutes long! Even on the recently re-release on DVD (it comes with the deluxe package of the Ten reissue) there are no extra songs, no extra pieces of fat like when Nirvana or Alice in Chains had their unplugged performances released. They're so into the swing of things, as are the audience, that nothing goes wrong. Pearl Jam live rarely disappoints and this collection of songs straight from their first smash Ten (save for the State of Love and Trust song which you'll recognize if you've listened to enough rock radio over the years but for some idiotic reason was left off the album) is one of their classic shows.
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