Monday, December 28, 2020

The 1981 Listening Post - Roky Erickson and the Aliens - The Evil One

Roky Erickson and the Aliens - The Evil One 


#118

1981 Housekeeping

Roky Erickson and the Aliens

The Evil One

Genre: Psychedelic Garage

4 out of 5


Highlights:

The Wind and More

Bloody Hammer


Figuring this out was a challenge. And all the credit goes to Sheffield for figuring it out.

Roky released the Aliens debut record the year before and every site has THAT album listed as The Evil One so the streamers are all…wrong. Only Discogs gets it right. So what you have to do, if you have Apple Music, is set up a playlist with the correct songs from this release to hear it properly.

That means that Five songs are different: 

Sputnik

The Wind and More

Bloody Hammer

Click Your Fingers

If You Have Ghosts


So, what we are gonna do is repost the review of the last album but I will also note that if you liked that, this is…more. 

I almost wish we had held the album off because, as you probably have realized 1/4 of the way in to 1981…1980 was SUCH a good year that it appears the music industry needed time to recover. We have heard so much absolute garbage and hackneyed stuff that it’s very possible that this record would have rated higher than a 3.5 But, since I am just listening to the five extra tracks I’ll just bump it up a half point. 


He’s still the spirit animal for John Darnielle. And if you love that, you will love this. 


“August 22 1980

Roky Erickson and the Aliens

Roky Erickson and the Aliens

Genre: Psychedelic Rock

3.5 out of 5


Highlights:

I Think of Demons


Listen to the second track, “I Think of Demons” and tell me that Roky isn’t the occult version of Lindsey Buckingham. 

Listen to “I Walk with a Zombie” and tell me that Roky isn’t John Fogerty’s spirit animal.

Listen to “A Cold Night for Alligators” and tell me that John Darnielle isn’t a Roky Erickson fan. 

Also, its impossible to listen to him and not hear Warren Zevon’s sideways take on the world. 


In other words, Roky was influenced by and influenced a bunch of people and sounds like all of them. 







https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-evil-one/678605638

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