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Breakin' Away (Album of the Day)
Al Jarreau strikes an easy, confident pose on the cover of BREAKIN' AWAY and the music follows suit. The 1981 album was the singer's fifth studio set for Warner/Reprise, and at this point he'd perfected a seamless blend of genres – the collection topped the R&B and jazz charts and reached the pop Top 10. Along with producer Jay Graydon and associate producer Tom Canning, Al co-wrote half of these songs and makes the others – including standard “Teach Me Tonight” and crossover smash “We're in This Love Together” - his own with sublime phrasing. The cream of L.A. session players lend their talents to the platinum-certified BREAKIN' AWAY, which earned Jarreau a pair of Vocal Performance Grammys and remains among his very best albums.
Parachutes (Album of the Day)
By the turn of the millennium, Brit-pop had pretty much run its course when a new band emerged to pick up the U.K. music torch: Coldplay. Following a handful of independent E.P.s, the quartet signed to Parlophone and their full-length debut, PARACHUTES, arrived in 2000. A wistful and atmospheric brand of alternative rock led by frontman Chris Martin's high, aching vocals, the album spun off four singles: “Shiver,” “Trouble,” “Don't Panic” and the hit that introduced the group to American audiences, “Yellow." The collection would eventually go double-platinum in the States, and earned critical plaudits as well, including a Best Alternative Music Album Grammy and a Brit Award for Best British Album. Twenty years after PARACHUTES landed, Coldplay has grown into one of the world's top bands, and that success sounds inevitable on this fine set.
Pandemonium (Album of the Day)
Graffiti Bridge may not have been Prince's finest hour on screen, but if it brought The Time back after a 6-year hiatus, it's O.K. by us! Several songs from PANDEMONIUM appear in that film, and the Purple One's fingerprints are all over the 1990 reunion collection as co-producer and co-writer – of “Chocolate,” “Data Bank” and Top 10 hit “Jerk Out” among others - but the Minneapolis band are hardly overshadowed. Frontman Morris Day is his irrepressible self on these 15 tracks, adding lots of fun to the funk (which tips its hat to George Clinton as much as to Prince), while Jesse Johnson launches riffs that would be the envy of any rock guitarist. Released 30 years ago today, PANDEMONIUM is a non-stop party, and an album every R&B fan should make time for.
Just Coolin' (Album of the Day)
Building on the success of their THE BIG THROWDOWN breakthrough, JUST COOLIN' was the fourth album from Cleveland R&B trio LeVert. The band's Gerald Levert & Marc Gordon produced the 1988 Atlantic collection and penned all 11 originals, which include four Top 10 R&B hits: “Pull Over,” “Gotta Get the Money,” the title track (with guest Heavy D) and “Addicted to You,” co-written with Gerald's dad, Eddie LeVert Sr. of the O'Jays. New jack swing fans will find plenty to love here; the material is well balanced between danceable, uptempo songs and ballads showcasing the group's outstanding harmonies. Gerald Levert was born on this day in 1966 and we'll give the gold-certified JUST COOLIN' another spin in his honor.
White Pony (Album of the Day)
Deftones' third album (and first for Maverick Records), WHITE PONY was a major leap forward for the Sacramento, CA alternative metal band. Helmed by longtime producer Terry Date, the collection added U.K. indie atmospherics to the group's hard rock attack and Chino Moreno's lyrics grew more sophisticated. “I basically didn’t sing about myself on this record,” the frontman noted. “Once I did that I was able to sing about anything I wanted to.” The approach pays off on such highlights as “Change (In the House of Flies)” “Passenger” (which features Tool's Maynard Keenan) and Best Metal Performance Grammy winner “Elite.” Hailed by outlets including Kerrang!, Alternative Press and Rolling Stone, WHITE PONY just turned 20 years old and the platinum-certified set remains Deftones' most successful.
Simple Dreams (Album of the Day)
By the time of SIMPLE DREAMS, Linda Ronstadt had few peers as an interpreter of rock, country and pop. Her unerring ear for material and incandescent vocals made her one of the decade's most successful performers – that 1977 Asylum release includes a pair of songs from early rock 'n' roll greats Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison that became Top 10 singles (“It's So Easy” and “Blue Bayou”), more recent rockers from The Rolling Stones (“Tumbling Dice”) and Warren Zevon (“Poor Poor Pitiful Me”), and a country hit recorded with Dolly Parton (“I Never Will Marry”). Add the talents of some of L.A.'s best session players, and SIMPLE DREAMS couldn't miss – it became Ronstadt's fifth consecutive platinum LP, and spent weeks at No.1, knocking Fleetwood Mac's RUMOURS out of the top slot. Today is Linda's birthday, and we salute the singer with one of her very best albums.
Workingman's Dead (50th Anniversary Edition) (Album of the Day)
While the first three Grateful Dead studio albums appealed to many, the Bay Area band didn’t yet have the mass breakthrough that would make the entire world take notice – but the June 1970 release of WORKINGMAN'S DEAD changed all that. With eight perfect songs (“Casey Jones” and “High Time” among them), the album solidified the Jerry Garcia-Robert Hunter songwriting tandem as one of the best songwriting collaborations in music history. The album reached the Top Thirty and included the single “Uncle John’s Band,” which climbed to #69 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Now available, the 3-CD WORKINGMAN’S DEAD: 50th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION includes the original album with newly remastered sound, plus an unreleased concert recorded on February 21, 1971 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY.
Closer (Album of the Day)
The second album from influential Manchester post-punk band Joy Division is arguably superior to their landmark debut, featuring more ambitious arrangements and production (once again by Martin Hannett). CLOSER would also be the foursome's final album, released just a couple of months after lead singer Ian Curtis' suicide. That context, the funereal look of its cover and the despairing outlook of tracks like “Atrocity Exhibition,” “Isolation” and “Heart and Soul” combined to make the set a goth touchstone. Available again on vinyl, CLOSER was named Album of the Year by Britain's NME and, 40 years after its release, has lost none of its haunting power.
Picture Book (Expanded) (Album of the Day)
Though the band originally included three former members of Durutti Column, Simply Red is most famous as a showcase for the talents of Mick Hucknall. The redheaded singer's distinctive voice turned “Money's Too Tight (To Mention)” into a minor hit, and “Holding Back The Years” into a major one (the song, written by Hucknall, reached No.1 on the U.S. singles chart). Both tracks are included on Simply Red's 1985 Elektra Records debut, PICTURE BOOK, along with eight more sizzling slices of blue-eyed soul. The Expanded Edition of the platinum-certified album adds 5 remixes as bonus tracks, and we'll give the set a spin now to wish Mick Hucknall a happy 60th birthday.
We are Family (Album of the Day)
Sister Sledge had a couple of studio sets under their belts when they released WE ARE FAMILY but the 1979 collection stands as both the group's finest and one of the greatest long-players of the disco era. The title song became a No.2 hit and remains an anthem of pride and solidarity; opener “He's the Greatest Dancer” also reached the Top Ten (the album itself went platinum). Philadelphia siblings Kathy, Debbie, Joni and Kim Sledge harmonize like angels and each gets a chance to sing lead, and the sisters get a huge assist from Chic's Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, who wrote and produced these 8 tracks. Rogers once declared that “pound for pound, I think WE ARE FAMILY is our best album hands down,” and it's tough to argue with that assessment.