You Want It Darker –

String Reprise / Treaty –

What’s that?? “All my LPs so far have been from the 70s or earlier?” Well I’ve only done three so far, but honestly that is what you should expect from “LP Mondays.” I have plenty of surprises up my sleeve though. How about an album that’s so new that it even hasn’t been out for a full week yet??!! :3

You Want It Darker (2016) by the late Leonard Cohen. Technically this album came out late October, about half a month prior to L. Cohen passing away (R.I.P.), but the vinyl printing didn’t come out till last Friday. I’m a huge Cohen fan, and I remember being extremely saddened upon hearing about his death. Pre-ordering his final album on vinyl was a no-brainer for me.

The album (fittingly) tackles matters of the frailness of death and his struggles with religion. Cohen was born into a Jewish family and had considered himself Jewish, but it’s really interesting listening to the lyrics within this album about his conversations with his higher power. Even if he does not provide all the answers in this album, there is still a contentness expressed between the opening track “You Want It Darker” and the closing track, a reprise of the of the album’s second song “Treaty.”

You might argue it’s not as brilliant and captivating as Bowie’s farewell album Blackstar also released early this year (I would actually probably agree honestly), but that doesn’t discount this album in any way. All in all, it’s a beautiful, deeply moving album that is worth a listen from start to finish. The album would release to critical acclaim (Rolling Stones ranked it 9th best album of the year) and become “Gold” certified in his home country of Canada before his death on November 7.

I Want You (She’s So Heavy)

Here Comes the Sun

Alright. So fully aware that my first two picks were a little more obscure, let’s fix that. Before I strike out with three strikes I figured just about everybody is familiar with this album.

Abbey Road (1969), the second last Beatles album (last recorded with the whole band), as if it needed any introduction. The best Beatles album ever made? One could easily make that argument, although critics initially hated it for its heavy use of technical effects and reliance on instruments like the Moog synthesizer. If The Beatles (White Album) consisted largely of them playing around with different sounds, Abbey Road could be considered their refining of those sounds with an incorporation of blues and progressive music, as well as musical styles that would later be associated with alternative rock.

My favorite Beatles album is probably the other most likely candidate for “Beatles Best”: Sgt. Peppers. Even if it is hard to pick the best album, every true Beatles fans has their favorite Beatle. That one’s easy for me. George Harrison. While I do enjoy Harrison’s Beatles songs a lot, (see “Here Comes the Sun” for proof) it really is his solo works after the Beatles that seals him in my mind as my favorite. Don’t be so surprised to see one of his albums pop up here eventually :3

Monkey Money

The Scarlatti Rip-Off

So after the first LP Monday being about a record that has so much nostalgia for me, let’s dive into some uncharted territory.

Chewing Pine (1975) by Leo Kottke. Amusingly released the exact same year as An Evening with John Denver. I had never heard of Kottke, well not until I picked up one of his albums at a record store last week. I literally knew nothing about this guy or what his music sounded like (other than he was an acoustic guitar player) prior to throwing him on the turntable. When I saw it in the store for 50 cents it caused me to pause and give it another look. Maybe it was something about the cover design that caught my designer’s attention, or the fact that I enjoy just the sound of the guitar, or that I had no knowledge of this guy, or that I generally enjoy the music from the 70s, or maybe it was just the cheap price tag. Whatever the case was, Leo Kottke wiggled his way into my vinyl collection and I’m rather pleased I didn’t overlook Chewing Pine.

Not having a lot of experience with Kottke, there ain’t a lot more I can mention here about him. I found out that the guitar wasn’t his first instrument, and he is known for a rather unique picking style. He often played on a 12-string guitar and probably his most famous song, Vaseline Machine Gun, was from his debut album.

Side note: I’ll try to keep LP Mondays to just two songs from each album (give or take a few exceptions).

The Music is You
&
Farewell Andromeda (Welcome to My Morning)

So I thought long and hard about what LP to choose from my collection to put up here for the first Monday LP. I wanted it to be special and memorable. While I did think very seriously about it for the past week, I knew pretty early it was going to be a John Denver album though.

An Evening with John Denver (1975), John Denver’s first live album recorded in University City, California. Denver was at the height of his musical career in the 70s. While often heavily criticized by music critics for being a lightweight, his music is still fairly popular all across the world. One of my favorite quotes from him came from a interview with Rolling Stone Magazine:

“All right, I’m not Bob Dylan. I don’t write songs like that. But I think 25 years from now people will be singing my songs even if they don’t remember who wrote them. Can you remember that Duke Ellington wrote ‘Mood Indigo’?”

So why is this album important to me. Well, this is the vinyl I remember be told at a very young age how to use a record player. I remember slowly lowering the needle to hear this beginning quite vividly. My surprise at being told I could flip the record over and hear something different was only surpassed by me discovering there was a second LP in its case (since it was a four-sided album). So yeah, lots of memories with this one. That actual vinyl I listened to is still back at my parents’ home, but this is just another copy I bought for myself somewhere along the line.