Whenever I hear Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty, I think of the exact moment I was eating pizza at Mack & Manco's on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ. That's my beach tune forever. I don't have a whole album for that summer, 1978.
I'm getting ready to travel to Upstate New York to see family for a couple weeks, so I don't have time fully think this through. Here are three albums that are making the summer playlist so far:
McCartney by Paul McCartney - I just finally got a good, playable copy of this album, and I love its unforced nature. It was made during the breakup of the Beatles (though no one consciously knew that at the time), and I believe it aspires to be everything that an album like Abbey Road is not. This is Paul trying to do the opposite of a Beatles album -- rolling tape at home with his family and just keeping what seems to work. It's therapy for him, but confounds everyone who expects another Fab Four-like studio masterpiece. Maybe I'm Amazed is the only track that aspires to that, and the rest just relaxes into its lo-fi/indie nature.
Where The Light Is by John Mayer - This live album catches Mayer coming off a big concert tour and showing the world everything he's learned up to and including the recording of the album Continuum. The next few years won't all be smooth sailing (foot, meet mouth, repeatedly,) but that is still to come. Here, he's recognizable as a formidable guitarist, singer, and songwriter in ways that his first hit single "Your Body Is Wonderland" did not even imply. When asked about John Mayer, Eric Clapton has said "he is a master guitarist".
Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys - This just turned 60 a few weeks ago. "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Sloop John B", and "God Only Knows" are monumental 1960's pop. An album that made the Beatles up their game.
Whenever I hear Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty, I think of the exact moment I was eating pizza at Mack & Manco's on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ. That's my beach tune forever. I don't have a whole album for that summer, 1978.
I'm getting ready to travel to Upstate New York to see family for a couple weeks, so I don't have time fully think this through. Here are three albums that are making the summer playlist so far:
McCartney by Paul McCartney - I just finally got a good, playable copy of this album, and I love its unforced nature. It was made during the breakup of the Beatles (though no one consciously knew that at the time), and I believe it aspires to be everything that an album like Abbey Road is not. This is Paul trying to do the opposite of a Beatles album -- rolling tape at home with his family and just keeping what seems to work. It's therapy for him, but confounds everyone who expects another Fab Four-like studio masterpiece. Maybe I'm Amazed is the only track that aspires to that, and the rest just relaxes into its lo-fi/indie nature.
Where The Light Is by John Mayer - This live album catches Mayer coming off a big concert tour and showing the world everything he's learned up to and including the recording of the album Continuum. The next few years won't all be smooth sailing (foot, meet mouth, repeatedly,) but that is still to come. Here, he's recognizable as a formidable guitarist, singer, and songwriter in ways that his first hit single "Your Body Is Wonderland" did not even imply. When asked about John Mayer, Eric Clapton has said "he is a master guitarist".
Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys - This just turned 60 a few weeks ago. "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Sloop John B", and "God Only Knows" are monumental 1960's pop. An album that made the Beatles up their game.