Retro Spins: Aaron Neville - Warm Your Heart

 

Aaron Neville is a nice change of pace from the hard drumming, loud strumming music I'm accustomed to. Thought I'd be lying if I said it was my favorite, it's still nice to sometimes just listen to something mellow. That's what I got from Aaron Neville's 1991 album, Warm Your Heart.

I purchased this album for two specific songs, Everybody Plays The Fool and Ava Maria. Much like the style of music, these are far from my favorite songs in the world, but again, the quieter, soothing nature of them is a nice change of pace. Especially when you're having a blah sort of day, which I was. It was one of those boring sort of Saturdays where I just didn't want to do anything. Even perusing through 80's albums felt like work, and I just wasn't feeling it.

Perhaps what I really needed was a nap. Because that's what I (somewhat) got while listening to Warm Your Heart. It was so relaxing that I kept finding myself tilting back in my chair with my eyes closed. That may have been driven by the massive lunch I ate though. Check this bad boy out.

Don't let the tin foil fool you. That massive Big Mac looking beast is home made, including the special sauce. I've felt pretty lethargic (and miserable) ever since crushing that beast.

But that's a different kind of "warm your heart". This post is supposed to be about Aaron Neville.

Um...Yeah, the album was okay. Nothing to write home about. A nice change of pace, but not with any songs, beyond the two noted above, to really get excited about. Anyway...back to my nap.

This is going to be my last 90's and beyond album for a while. Honestly, my desire for these albums got derailed by Alanis Morrisset. Killed my desire. Coupled with the shear volume of 80's albums I still have that are sitting unheard, I really don't have the time to delve into anything beyond that decade.

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Retro Spins: Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

 

1993 was my introduction to Ozzy Osbourne. It was a fascinating venture into the growing genre of heavy metal. To me, Ozzy was new, fresh, raw and with a solid album in No More Tears (which was actually released in 1991). It blew my mind to see that he had so many albums prior to it. How could I have never heard of the man? The doorway was kicked wide open as I was soon exposed to classics such as Blizzard of Oz, Diary of A Madman, and my personal, and the most unappreciated album in his catalog, The Ultimate Sin.

Over the course of my life, I've gone in and out of phases for bands / singers, and for me, this era was all about Ozzy. He had dethroned artists such as Prince, Guns N' Roses and Ozzy Osborune. He would later be dethroned by Rush, which would lead to my all time favorite group of all time, Queen. While I've since then expanded even further into other music, they remain at the top of that list to this day.

But I digress. Let's step back in time to Ozzy's 1991 album, No More Tears.

When I first heard it, I had a great appreciation for the first half of the record. Mr. Tinkertrain, I Don't Want To Change The World, Mama I'm Coming Home, Desire, No More Tears and S.I.N. were my favorites of that point in history. However, after giving them their fair chance much later down the road, I grew to enjoy several tracks from the back half of the album. Not all of them, but most of them.

However, as I sit down to listen to this album today, while I still like the songs from it, they are admittedly very "loud". I don't know if this is because I've grown older or if perhaps I'm just not in the mood for something like this. It's admittedly been a rather frustrating day. So in that regard, the timing may not have been right for it. Of course, the other viable problem could be that I've simply listened to this album too much over the years and I'm just over it. Whatever the reason was, I eventually turned it off.

Regardless of where I'm at today that prevented me from getting through it, this album holds a special place in my mind to me. It transports me back to a time when life was a bit easier, living at home, going through high school and having the final years of my responsibility free life before really learning what it meant to be an adult.

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Retro Spins: Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid

My personal introduction to Alice Cooper didn't happen until 1989 with his album, Trash. To me, it may as well have been his first. I'd never heard of the guy. It was a pretty decent album. Decent enough that when his follow up, Hey Stoopid, was released in 1991 I picked it up on cassette.

Mind you, this was back in the day when there was no Youtube. I wasn't able to go to a streaming site and listen to a few tracks to determine if I wanted the album. Nope. If it wasn't on the radio, you essentially bought in good faith that an artist you liked would continue to deliver the goods.

Thankfully, this paid off. Hey Stoopid remains my all time favorite album from Cooper. Now I know some of you are thinking right now that I'm crazy. Alice Cooper has had classic hits from the 70's that remain a staple in his concert tours. Nobody even remembers Hey Stoopid.

Alright, I won't deny that. I won't disagree with it either. It's not exactly rated one of the best albums of all time. For me though, it is.

The excitement slowly builds as the chanting of, "Hey, hey, hey, hey," repeats with the drum, and  then takes off as it launches into the title track of the album. If you listen carefully, you'll hear the distinct voice of rocker Ozzy Osbourne singing back up. From there, the album delivers a variety of great tracks, good tracks and just okay ones.

Throughout the record, Alice delivers a variety of hard rock and ballads all with full emotion and energy. No matter what you're looking for, you'll find it on Hey Stoopid.

The great tracks, for me, are Hey Stoopid, Snakebite, Might As Well Be On Mars (my absolute favorite on the album) and Wind-Up Toy. The good tracks, again, for me, are Loves A Loaded Gun, Burning Our Bed, Dangerous Tonight, Feed My Frankenstein, Hurricane Years and Die For You. Meanwhile, the just okay ones are Little By Little and Dirty Dreams.

Look, I could sit here and just keep reiterating how great this album is, or you could do yourself a favor and go check it out for yourself.

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Retro Spins: Queen - Innuendo

I need to call a time out after last week's Retro Spin. Give myself a moment to regroup before moving on in full swing. As such, please indulge me as I take a free throw with this week's album.

I've said it a hundred times over here at The Toy Box, I love Queen! They're my all time favorite band...Which is why I wish Brian May and Roger Taylor would really stop trying to kill their legacy. One of Freddie Mercury's last wishes was that nobody made him boring in death. I fear with an oversaturation of greatest hits releases, a "new" front man that Queen purists won't pay a dime to see and a plethora of potential live albums which the surviving members refuse to release, they're doing just that.

1991 was both a tragic and amazing year for Queen and their fans. The world lost Freddie Mercury to AIDS, but also got the amazing album, Innuendo. Driven by some of the best tracks since the band's work in the 70's, this final album to have Freddie's fingerprints on it was a masterpiece. Nay, IS a masterpiece.

It features deep and emotional songs which we can hear Freddie saying goodbye to his many fans across the world, while also dishing out peppy and straight up rock and roll songs which say, "I still want to entertain you, darlings."

The band knew this would be their final outing with Freddie, and their collaboration shows. Each member brings their all to the table. Brian May provides a mixture of guitar work from classical, Latin and hard rock, while Roger Taylor and John Deacon work in unison to lay down a mixture of subtle when necessary bass lines, and hard, power packed ones when they're called for.

Each one of its twelve tracks is crucial to the next, so much in a way that I can't personally imagine not hearing it back to back in its entirety each time I play it...And I've played it a lot. Not as much as my brother played Alanis Morissette, but a lot nonetheless. Actually, that may not be true. I may have broken my brother's record. Just not in consecutive days like he did.

Though Queen did go on to release one posthumous album on behalf of Freddie in 1995, to me, Innuendo feels more so like the perfect finale to the band's studio catalog. It takes twenty years of Queen and delivers a wonderfully satisfying conclusion to an era of rock and roll that will probably never be repeated or replicated.

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Retro Spins: Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch - Music For The People

I have a guilty pleasure in songs from this album. Specifically, Music For The People, Good Vibrations and Wildside. I've liked these tracks ever since the 90's, when I heard my brother pumping them through his speakers. However, I never actually got around to hearing the whole album. With Retro Spins visiting the 90's this year, I thought, why not.

This CD came into my possession during one of my many Timonium visits to see, CD Guy. As I've said in the past, that's actually not his name. I didn't actually expect to come across this album, nor was I actively looking for it. However, when I did, I nabbed it up quicker than quick and added it to my pile.

After hearing Music For The People, the album, again after all these years, I can fully understand why my brother only played the first three tracks mentioned above. It's not very good. In fact, I'm not even a fan of Wildside anymore after hearing it again. It has not aged well, and its message, while deep in 1991, is a little corny now.

Music For The People and Good Vibrations? Well, that's another story. Those two tracks are still pretty solid. Dope if you will. With that said, I won't be rushing to hear them again any time soon.

I can also understand why Mark Wahlberg has distanced himself from his Marky Mark persona and music. If this album was hot in the 90's, it hasn't aged well over time.

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Retro Spins: Nirvana - Nevermind

In 1991, I could take or leave Nirvana, and pretty much left it. I wasn't into the hype of grunge music, nor the "deep" lyrics of Kurt Cobain. To me, they were irrelevant. The problem I soon found myself facing was that they were eating up the airwaves of early 90's radio, and the music I enjoyed from the 80's was quickly disappearing.

The irony of Nirvan's popularity in the 90's was that the band actually got its start in the 80's, and even released their first album, Bleach, in 1989. However, at that time, nobody cared about them or even knew who they were.

As time went by, I learned to appreciate their songs a little more, but I was still by no means a fan. I, like so many others, had their album, Nevermind, because, well, it was 1991 and everyone did. Overnight, the schoolyard started changing. People were dressing different, acting different, and some were just becoming plain unlikable. It was as if grunge music was turning people into miserable shells, or at the very least, telling people they didn't have to pretend to be happy anymore. It actually kind of sucked, and things really haven't been the same since.

Mind you, I'm not blaming grunge music for the turn in youth culture. However, one would be remiss to not say there was definitely some contribution and influence to it. Nirvana was a big part of that scene, and it really showed just how true that was in the spring of 1994 when his dead body was found, allegedly from suicide.

What was interesting about listening to Nevermind as I prepared this post was how I too felt my own mood changing with each passing track. It was actually depressing me a bit. Yes, there were a lot of good tracks, but not in a peppy, want to sing along type of way. It was actually bumming me out the more I heard it. Plus, it was kind of just loud. That's saying something for someone who just reviewed a Marilyn Manson CD the week before.

Overall though, I would be lying if said I didn't immediately remembered tracks such as Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom, Come As You Are, Breed, Lithium, Polly, Drain You, Lounge Act, Stay Away, On A Plain and Something In The Way. These songs were everywhere during the time frame, and you'd have to be going out of your way, or be deaf, to not have them ingrained into your skull. You literally couldn't swing a stick without hitting them back in the day. Quality wise, they still hold up and appear to have aged well with the times.

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