Ray Charles - The Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years: X (X)

I never wanted the Birth of Soul box set. It's too complete (everything he recorded for Atlantic), and it's too long. Unlike others, I do like the fact that it's on three discs even though it could fit on two, but it's still too long. I struggled alot with his Atlantic albums, but eventually got this one, and individually evaluated these four:

Ray Charles (aka Hallelujah I Love Her So) (1957)

The Genius of Ray Charles (1959)

What'd I Say (1959)

The Genius Sings the Blues (1961)

I listened to them all at least four times. See separate post on What'd I Say. I'm passing on The Genius of Ray Charles as #bigband/popvocals. If one has the best of under review, one has nine of the 13 tracks on Ray Charles (1957), so no need to consider that one separately. That leaves The Genius Sings the Blues, which I will evaluate separately. For reference here are the album breakdowns on this one:

9 from Ray Charles (1957) (13 total)

5 from Yes Indeed! (14 total)

2 from What'd I Say (10 total)

2 from The Genius of Ray Charles (12 total)

1 from Ray Charles in Person (live)

1 single

Orchestra Super Mazembe - Giants of East Africa: 8.5 (high A-)

Random Notation

I spent alot of this fine Fall day evaluating two three-album runs that could not be more different:

Ray Charles

Ray Charles (1957)

Genius of Ray Charles (1959)

Genius Sings the Blues (1961)

Pere Ubu

St. Arkansas (2002)

Lady From Shanghai (2013)

Carnival of Souls (2014)

I know, they're only semi-contiguous in each case, but still.... One big difference is that the Ray Charles albums are near the top of his catalog, critically, while the Pere Ubu ones are near the bottom of theirs. These exercises felt strangely similar enough on some level to make a note of it though.

Jimmy Reed - The Best of Jimmy Reed [GNP Crescendo, 1973]: notation

The Rolling Stone guide has this at five stars and therefore the best non-box set collection of Reed's work. However, according to AllMusic, it is a needle drop and sounds awful. In any event, almost all of its tracks are on The Very Best of Jimmy Reed [Rhino, 2000], which I have a copy of and has long been under review. I will get it it eventually. I will also note here that this one has the majority of the tracks appearing on Bright Lights, Big City [Chameleon, 1988], an early CD-era compilation which I de-shelved, presumably in favor of the Rhino set.

The Mighty Diamonds - The Right Time: 8.5 (high A-)

I have this on pristine vinyl. Apparently, this was issued on remastered CD in UK/Europe, but copies are ridiculously expensive, and Discogs has no dates on the releases, so....

The Rascals - Time Peace: The Rascals' Greatest Hits [Atlantic, 1968]: 8 (A-)

Probably upped a notch subconsciously for being in both iterations of Christgau's now-defunct "Record/Rock Libraries." Contains tracks from all three albums they did for Atlantic with the name "The Young Rascals": The Young Rascals (1966), Collections (1967), and Groovin' (1967). I hope to get around to listening to each of these one day.

Muddy Waters - At Newport: X (X)

I'm not qualified to grade this, but it is the highest rated album by Muddy on AllMusic, which says something, and of course I have a copy.

Muddy Waters - Hard Again: 8 (A-)

Muddy Waters - Folk Singer: X (X)

Normally, I would not collect something like this, but I have a beautifully remastered copy on CD, and, as Christgau calls it, it is "luxurious and intimate," so I will keep it. Stupid to let go of something like this.

The Platters - Encore of Golden Hits: X (X)

Not qualified to grade. This is what I have for them, on pristine vinyl.

Mother Love Bone - Mother Love Bone: 7 (B+)

I "liked" the album Apple (on here), and would probably give the Shine EP a 7 (B+), and even though I entered Apple as a "liked," I'm going to bump the whole thing up a notch on the strength of the EP, and just to have a nice release like this that epitomizes the band. I have the single-disc version. And I'll make an exception to #bestof given the stature of the short-lived band as a grunge-progenitor. 

Muddy Waters - Trouble No More: Singles (1955-1959) [Chess, 1989]: X (X)

Please see post re: His Best, 1947 to 1955.

Various - History of House Music, Vol. 2: New York Garage Style [Cold Front, 1997]: 7.5 (high B+)

#electronica/dance

Alberta Hunter - Amtrak Blues: X (X)

I owned this once and sold it off after numerous listens, not because I didn't like it so much as it wasn't something I wanted to collect. I probably still feel that way. I don't really see this as blues, or even jazz -- more like traditional pop vocals. I just listened to it again to make sure. Really great album. #traditional/popvocals

Joy Division - Substance: 8 (A-)

The Specials - The Singles Collection: 8 (A-)

The Specials - The Specials: 8.5 (high A-)

The Specials - Ghost Town/Why?/Friday Night Saturday Morning [Chrysalis EP, 1981]: 9 (A)

Bauhaus - 1979-1983, Vol. 2: liked

:-)

Muddy Waters - The Best of Muddy Waters: 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: X (X)

I'd feel like a cad giving this anything other than 10 (A+), so I'll employ my usual dodge and leave it ungraded. I like to use that grade only for things I play obsessively, for a long period of time. In fact, that's pretty much what the grade means to me. I would never do that with this. But I do love it. Why when we want to listen to blues/oldies/etc. do we always have to take them in massive doses? I don't want to always hear an hour plus of Muddy. If fact, I almost never do, and when I do, it's more of an exercise in scholarship than a pure listening pleasure. I feel like that with most of the albums in the genres I noted earlier. On the other hand, this one's perfect: 11 songs, 32 minutes of some of the most core blues there is. I had this in the sell pile until I realized this one day looking at it. Now it's back on the shelves and is what I would most likely play when I just want to hear some Muddy. I also love this 20th Century Masters series.

Howling Wolf [Howlin' Wolf] - Rides Again: placeholder

I had to put up this placeholder while I considered the necessity, for historical, discographical, and/or artistic reasons, of getting a copy of the so-called "Memphis" or "RPM" recordings issued and reissued under various titles over the years. Here are the ones I considered, without labels and dates to keep this from turning into a discographical treatise. I did listen to the above configuration three times, but ultimately went with the Ace reissue of Sings the Blues pictured below.

Sings the Blues, all of which's tracks appear on the above:

Sings the Blues was also issued as Big City Blues:

Rides Again was also issued as Moanin' at Midnight: The Memphis Recordings:

I'm sure I've missed some. I am aware, for instance, that Bear Family Records issued two volumes of this material, with repeated tracks and whatnot that made it unpalatable to me as a listening object. In the end, I just went with the cheapest/most readily-available, which as noted above was the Ace reissue of Sings the Blues.

The Bats - Corner Coming Up: liked

:-)

New York Dolls - Actress: Birth of the New York Dolls: liked

Aka Dawn of the Dolls [Fab Discs, 1997] as a Johnny Thunders release, not to be confused with the reissue of Lipstick Killers (Mercer Street sessions) by the Dolls on Cleopatra Records. Upped from "neutral" because it's the New York Dolls. I read somewhere on the internet that "Actress" is often referred to as the name of the early New York Dolls but was never actually used at the time. I'm a Dolls completist, but I'll be skipping this one. #demos

ps, This was also released together with French Kiss '74 on Cleopatra Records, which is the Bataclan show in 1974. I will post about release(s) of that show separately.

The Five Royales - The "5" Royales [King, 1960]: X (X)

I guess there were only four of them, so the title of the album has the "5" in quotes? But the cover also shows five guys, so who knows? I had originally determined to de-shelve this, because I thought it was a compilation of some kind that I didn't want, but apparently, it's a regular-issue album? Anyway, I've now determined to keep it for the time being.

Big Thief - Double Infinity: 8 (A-)