Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley

In a week dominated by the Fifties on Live Drive, it seems appropriate that this weeks Critical Junction hails from that very decade.
1956 saw the release of Elvis Presley the debut album from from the man who would be King.
RCA had bought Presley's contract from Sun Records the previous year for $35,000, taking a risk on the untested waters of Rock and Roll. Five recording sessions, one at Sun Studios, two in RCA's Nashville Studios and two in their New York studios spawned what was to become the first ever NO. I Rock album and cemented the foundation of the Mother of all Musical Genres. Rock And Roll had arrived.
The runaway hit single was Heartbreak Hotel, with Blue Suede Shoes ( written by Sun artist Carl Perkins) also charting well. Tutti Frutti had been a hit for Little Richard the prevoius year, as had I Got A Woman, by Ray Charles.
The album cover has had homage paid to it by Tom Waits, K.D Lang and best known perhaps, by The Clash, who mimicked it for previous Critical Junction London Calling.
Elvis Presley is this Thursdays Critical Junction.

Track Listing
Side One
1. Blue Suede Shoes
2. I'm Counting on You
3. I Got A Woman
4. One-Sided Love Affair
5. I Love You Because
6. Just Because
Side Two
1. Tutti Frutti
2. Trying To Get You
3. I'm Gonna Sit Down and Cry (Over You)
4. I'll Never Let You Go (Lil' Darlin')
5. Blue Moon
6. Money Honey

Is This It - The Strokes

Released in 2001 Is This It is debut from much hyped New York Garage rockers The Strokes. Admittedly I found the whole thing very hard to swallow when it was released but upon reflection this album has a deserved place on the Critical Junctions roster.

Its influence has led, good or bad, to a resurgence in the garage rock scene and indeed the revitalisation of the Post Punk ethic of rip it up and start again. The album has gone Platinum around the world and is often in top 100 album lists of all time.

It spawned a plethora of hit singles such as Someday, Last Night and the anthemic Hard To Explain. Standout album track’s include. Soma, Try your Luck and Barely Legal.

The Modern Age was the first release the band ever put out as an EP and it appears on the album. A catchy song that’s you could almost swear Lou Reed was singing!! Hard To Explain was their first single and it whipped the music press into a salivating frenzy for the release of Is This It. They album is filled with simple hooks and driving beats and the signature distorted vocals of Julian Casablancas.

They have been called the saviours of rock and roll, the new Rolling Stones and bizarrely the second coming of the Velvet Underground. But what they are are very good songwriters who create simple raw songs that keep your toes tapping until they cramp up and freeze.

Track Listing

1. Is This It

2. The Modern Age

3. Soma

4. Barely Legal

5. Alone Together

6. Someday

7. Last Night

8. Hard To Explain

9. New York City Cops

10. Trying Your Luck

11. Take It Or Leave It

Ten - Pearl Jam

Ten is the 1991, twelve times platinum, debut studio album by Seattle-based rock band Pearl Jam. Their most successful album to date, it was a slow burner and took almost 2 years to reach the US Billboard Top Ten. The band are widely recognised as part of the Holy Trinity of grunge bands along with Nirvana and Soundgarden and despite criticism that they simply “jumped on the grunge bandwagon” it’s fair to say that Ten was an instrumental part of the rise of alternative rock in popular music in the ‘90s.
Originally calling themselves Mookie Blaylock (after the professional basketball player), they recorded the album in Seattle’s London Bridge Studios in one month as most of the material was written before going in to studio.

The album's eleven tracks deal with dark subjects like depression, suicide, loneliness, and murder. “Jeremy” and its accompanying video were inspired by a true story in which a high school student shot himself in front of his classmates. The songs “Alive”, “Once”, and “Footsteps” (the last of which was not on the album, but appeared as a b-side on the “Jeremy” single) formed a song cycle Vedder called the “Mamasan” trilogy. Vedder has said that the lyrics tell the story of a young man whose father dies (“Alive”), causing him to go on a killing spree (“Once”) which leads to his capture and execution (“Footsteps”). It was later revealed that Vedder's lyrics were inspired by his discovering at the age of seventeen that the man he thought was his father was not, and that his real father had already died.

“Ten” is almost universally considered to be one of the highest points of the early 1990’s alternative rock sound. With the success of “Ten”, Pearl Jam became a key member of the Seattle grunge explosion, along with groups like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden. However, they were criticised by both the music press and their peers; British music magazine NME said the band was “trying to steal money from young alternative kids' pockets”, and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain angrily attacked Pearl Jam, claiming the band were commercial sell-outs and arguing that “Ten” was not a proper alternative album because it had so many prominent guitar leads. Cobain later reconciled with Vedder, and they reportedly became friends before Cobain's death in 1994.
Ten is this Thursdays Critical Junction.

Track listing
1. Once
2. Even Flow
3. Alive
4. Why Go
5. Black
6. Jeremy
7. Oceans
8. Porch
9. Garden
10. Deep
11. Release

Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel

Bridge Over Troubled Water was the fifth and final album from Simon & Garfunkel and a swan-song that yielded some of their most enduring songs.
The pair were barely on speaking terms during recording, Garfunkel was busy acting in Catch-22 and they feuded and argued not just over the production style but also over what tracks to include.
A multi grammy award winner, including a nod for Best Album and Song Of The Year for Bridge Over Troubled Water it went on to sell more than 5 Million Copies and in some ways almost plays like a Simon &Garfunkel best-of today. The Boxer, Song For The Asking, El Condor Pasa, Cecillia, Keep The Customer Satisfied, and the Title Track are all very well known and the lesser known but equally good, The Only Living Boy In New York and So Long Frank LLoyd Wright add up to complete an outstanding Album. Bridge over Troubled Water is this Thursdays Critical Junction.

Track Listing.
1. "Bridge over Troubled Water" – 4:52
2. "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" – 3:06
3. "Cecilia" – 2:54
4. "Keep the Customer Satisfied" – 2:33
5. "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" – 3:47
6. "The Boxer" – 5:08
7. "Baby Driver" – 3:14
8. "The Only Living Boy in New York" – 3:58
9. "Why Don't You Write Me" – 2:45
10. "Bye Bye Love"* (live recording from Ames, Iowa) – 2:55
11. "Song for the Asking" – 1:49

Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd

A concept album from Prog Rockers would typically send me running, but for Pink Floyd virgins this album is the place to start. Originally titled Eclipse (A Piece For Assorted Lunatics) it was released as The Dark Side Of The Moon in 1973 and it proved to be the bands commercial breakthrough. Exploring themes of money, madness and death, and sometimes referred to as a soundtrack to the end of the Watergate era it was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and employed the most advanced recording techniques of the day with all members of the band simultaneously operating different faders to achieve the desired sound and mix and including the experimental use of reverb, echoes, and voices. An orchestral version of The Beatles Ticket To Ride can be heard faintly over the heartbeats at the end of Eclipse and it has been suggested that this was actually a mastering error. The iconic Album cover folded out to reveal a prism endlessly refracting a beam of light.
The album became one of the biggest selling albums of all time and apparently, some of the profits were used to finance Monty Python And The Holy Grail, (so it wasn't all bad then;-).
Track listing
1. Speak To Me
2. Breathe
3. On The Run
4. Time
5. Great Gig In The Sky, The
6. Money
7. Us And Them
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Brain Damage
10. Eclipse