Thursday, June 18, 2020

The 1980 Listening Post - X - Los Angeles

X - Los Angeles


#159
by Rob Slater
X
Los Angeles
Genre: Genre: Wannabe The Ramones (and a bunch of other folks).
Allen’s Rating: 5 out of 5
Rob’s Rating: 3 out of 5.  (Fun, a few playlist worthy songs.)



Produced by Ray Manzarek keyboard player of the Doors.

Recorded '4/ records' (because I'm using voice recognition to be nice to my carpal tunnel syndrome.) for Slash Records, the label home to The Blasters, BoDeans, The Del Fuegos, Dream Syndicate, Faith No More, Grant Lee Buffalo, Harvey Danger, L7, Los Lobos, Misfits, Rammstein, Violent Femmes and others.

1. "Your Phone's Off the Hook, But You're Not" - Wow! Ramones with a girl singer. Fun. Garage. Could have sworn she said f*** Tuna instead of “You don't have to call me back.”
2. "Johny Hit and Run Paulene" - And Ramones with a guy singer. Plus Johnny B. Goode with Judas Priest rhythm guitar.
3. "Soul Kitchen" - Yeah. Requisite eighties cover. From the Doors, note the producer above. Manzerek plays on a few tracks. Weirdly enough, it works.
4. "Nausea" - And back to her. Nice. 
5. "Sugarlight"         - More of the same, but still nicely done. Energy as I sit here in my bed trying to get work done!
Essentially at this point, they all sound the same but I really did enjoy the 1st 3 songs. May try to listen to the 2nd half a 2nd time.

Second half is better when treated as if it was a new thing.
6. "Los Angeles" – Opens like Spinal Tap, then it kind of breaks like the wind...
7. "Sex and Dying in High Society” - Great lyrics. Decent tune
8. "The Unheard Music" – Poetic lyrics. Decent tune. Guitar from 70s rock, Circus carillon piano. [Nice bits of lots of different genres infusing the punk here.]
9. "The World's a Mess; It's in My Kiss" – Timely lyrics. Decent tune. 

Worth listening to, especially if you like the other bands I referenced here.  

'Spot a 5' (Spotify translated by voice recognition) played me as the next song another requisite eighties cover from X's 1985 release extras. “Wild Thing” by the Troggs. Best X song I heard today. The next “Bonus” track caused me to check and make sure it was on the album, because I hit the stop button. It was not a bonus.

Don't really get how this album is such a legend. But they have a new album out today, Shakespeare's birth/death day. Will have to listen to it.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2TIMl7RrWNQchOBVUC3u1W?si=SHvwuNJnT7KuJhpjn0I4cA

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