Love That Album

Episode 43 of LTA is mammoth, huge…not (just) in length, but in content. I am joined by Ben Eisen of the All Time Top Ten podcast to discuss The Who’s “Who’s Next” album. The Who had just come off the success of Tommy, and Pete Townshend was keen to tell another story called Lifehouse. Not for him to write an ordinary kitchen sink drama – no way. Mr Townshend had big ideas about a future run by a...

Hard to believe it’s taken 42 episodes of Love That Album to get to discuss a Richard Thompson album (considering my obsession with his music). Still, the great songwriter and guitarist’s guitarist has released a new LP and that seemed a good a reason as any to chat about it on the podcast. My guests for this discussion are John Ross (convenor of the excellent Feed My Ears FB page), returning for...

Welcome to episode 41 of Love That Album aka “Son of Shooting The Shit”. Yep, in addition to the regular crew of Tim Merrill, Eric Peterson, and John Stirrat, we welcome special guest shit-shooter Thomas Deja to the world-wide round table. Ever wonder where the old LTA segment of “What have You Been Listening to Lately” went? No??? Oh…(said he with a slightly wounded ego)… I’ll tell you anyway. It...

It was 1982 - the Australian popular music landscape had a number of iconic albums released: Men at Work's "Business As Usual", Midnight Oil's "10, 9, 8...", Goanna's "Spirit of Place", Cold Chisel's "Circus Animals" and Richard Clapton's "The Great Escape". Richard was already revered as one of Australia's greatest songwriters recording music that was identifiably Australian combining a bit of su...

For episode 39 of Love That Album, I’m joined by Thomas Deja of the Better In The Dark podcast to discuss Aimee Mann’s album from 2000 Bachelor No. 2 or The Last Remains of the Dodo. This was Aimee’s third album, released after buying back the recordings from her unsupportive record company declaring it to have no commercial appeal (which shows part of the reason why real music lovers hold record...

Love That Album episode 38 is doing something a little different to the usual – we’re not discussing an album. Wha???????????????????????? "Silva and Gold" podcast’s Doctor Zom and I spend the show discussing two great British movies from the early seventies – 1973’s “That’ll Be The Day” and 1974’s “Stardust”. Both films feature a lot of rock and roll, and are centred on the power it has over its...

For episode 37 of Love That Album, I’m happy to welcome Simon and Brian of the truly excellent Sodajerker on Songwriting podcast (download at www.sodajerker.com) In 1968, The Zombies were in the unfortunate position of not really having achieved the sort of success they deserved. History had been far kinder to many of their contemporaries. They decided they would record one final album (at Abbey R...

It’s time for the first episode of Love That Album podcast in 2013, and I thought I’d start the year with a depressing album to discuss….sort of. For episode 36 of LTA, I’m joined by JuanJose De laCruz of The List Music Podcast to talk about Elliott Smith’s 1998 album, XO. This was Smith’s first major label release, and he was able to sonically expand on the sound he’d created on previous albums l...

The "Shooting The Shit" crew (comprising Eric Reanimator, John Stirrat, Tim Merrill and myself) reconvene to discuss our favourite albums of 2012, either released this year or albums of old we discovered this year. I think we had a fascinating discussion and hopefully you'll enjoy it too. Our tastes were broad so LOTS of new music to discover. We also had some great feedback from the listeners wit...

For episode 34 of Love That Album, Michael Pursche and I discuss the first two albums by The Pretenders (funnily enough called Pretenders and Pretenders 2). Formed back in 1978, the original recorded lineup of Chrissie Hynde, Martin Chambers, Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott only lasted two albums (both Scott and Farndon died of drug related causes). These are the albums where (in my opinion)...

For episode 33 of Love That Album podcast, Michael Pursche and I are not tackling a single album, but rather, looking at the overall work and career of Sky, the superband comprised of three English and two Australian musicians including classical guitar maestro John Williams (NO, NOT THAT JOHN WILLIAMS). The musicians in Sky were all session musicians or classical musicians (seen the Deer Hunter?...

One of the great things about doing a podcast and having a community page for the show is you get to meet fellow music lovers from the other side of the globe. I have met one such fellow, John Ross who started the excellent Feed My Ears Facebook page. For Episode 32 of Love That Album podcast, John and I discuss an album he recommended me, the excellent 2012 release for Ray Wylie Hubbard, “The Gri...

For episode 31 of Love That Album I am joined by Ben Eisen of the All Time Top Ten podcast to discuss a highlight album from a champagne year for rock music. By 1967, The Kinks had already released an enviable number of brilliantly crafted singles. Like many other bands from the so-called British Invasion, they had their blues roots (Ray Davies was particularly keen on Big Bill Broonzy), but then...

For Episode 30 of Love That Album, I’m joined by Tim Merrill to discuss the second album by the supergroup Tex, Don and Charlie, “All Is Forgiven”. Tex is Tex Perkins, ex-lead singer of Beasts of Bourbon and The Cruel Sea. Don is Don Walker, songwriter for Cold Chisel, Catfish and his current project the Suave Fucks (the best band name EVER). Charlie is Charlie Owen, guitarist extraordinaire to a...

For episode 29 of Love That Album, I’m joined by VK Lynne, singer, podcaster (at the List Music Podcast) and obsessive Nightwish fan. Sting. He has his share of admirers and detractors. There are those who love him for his time as a Police man and hate his solo material decrying it as boring AOR. Some just hate how ubiquitous he is in the media. Putting those external factors aside, I’m a huge adm...

For episode 28 of Love That Album, I am joined initially by previous co-presenter John Stirrat, regular segment contributor Eric Reanimator, and later in the show by music and film enthusiast Tim Merrill to just chat about whatever music-related issues come to mind. There is no set album to discuss – we just chat about what we’ve been listening to, music snobbery, whether the predicted imminent de...

1992 saw the release of the album considered to be Los Lobos’ masterpiece, Kiko. They formed a partnership with Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake who produced and engineered an album that sounded both familiar and different. I cannot believe that it’s been 20 years since the release of Kiko. Los Lobos is celebrating by releasing a 20th anniversary edition of the album, and I’m celebrating by making i...

1968 arrived and The Byrds were not the same lineup that had produced the jangly folk-pop their fans had grown to know and love. Down to Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, they recruited Kevin Kelley and Gram Parsons to their ranks. Parsons convinced the group to do an all country record called Sweetheart of the Rodeo, now cited as a big influence on country rock. This was not The Byrds as we’d hear...

The late seventies saw Australian music going towards a punk style (featuring bands like the Saints) or continuing with a more bluesy-country style as typified by the Adelaide band, Stars (not to be confused with the band from Canada of the same name). Featuring impeccable musicianship and wonderful songwriting courtesy of guitarists, Andy Durant and Mal Eastick, they crafted two wonderful studio...

On episode 24 of Love That Album podcast, Thomas Deja of the “Better In The Dark”podcast and myself delve into the dark album that is Ben Folds’ “Songs For Silverman”. He credits his wife of the time with being a source of inspiration for him on the album’s liner notes, and yet, this is most definitely a breakup album – it just happened to be released before the breakup took place. Among the songs...

On Episode 23 of Love That Album podcast, Mondo Film podcast presenter Justin Bozung and I discuss the sheer wonderfulness that is Big Star’s “#1 Record”. Out of all the bands that went nowhere in their day, Big Star was the most undeserving of such a fate. In the early 70s, when existing band Icewater comprising Jody Stephens, Andy Hummel and Chris Bell invited Alex Chilton (of Box Tops fame) to...

For episode 22 of Love That Album, we’re doing something a little different. Michael Pursche (from the Sitting In A Bar In Adelaide podcast) and I decided to go all List Music Podcast on you (apologies to Ricardo, Jenny, VK and Juan for theft of your idea – but it’s only one episode). We’re going through each of our top 10 all-instrumental albums – that is, no vocals. They’re in no particular orde...

The Doors. Rock fans either revere or revile them….and by them, I mean Jim Morrison, the public face of the band. While it’s true that the lead singer is often the member the general public remember more than, say, the keyboard player, few bands take this to the extreme like The Doors. It seems to me that people forget The Doors were a BAND, not Jim Morrison’s pseudonym. So when all is said and do...

The Gaslight Anthem have in the last few years attracted a dedicated following with their cross of modern punk and Springsteen influences.  Songwriter Brian Fallon has put together a side project called The Horrible Crowes for material that would not necessarily work in the context of his main band. If you’ve listened to previous episodes of Love That Album with Geoff Smith as my fellow commentato...

I have been heard to say that I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. You like what you like – end of story. As will be obvious from Episode 19 of Love That Album, I love Billy Joel’s album “The Stranger”. Nowadays in some people’s eyes (and for someone from this list you KNOW who you are), that is an admission tantamount to confessing to having an STD. The fact of the matter is that this album is fu...