The New Rolling Stone Album Guide PDF
Preview The New Rolling Stone Album Guide
THE NEW { } More Than 10,000 of the Best Rock, Pop, Hip-Hopr^^ and 8oul Records, Reviewed and Rated '^ss^i.'nj'.fv^- COMPLETELY REVISED AND UPDATED FOURTH EDITION NATHAN BRACKETT CHRISTIAN HOARD EDITED BY WITH Digitized by the Internet Archive 2013 in http://archive.org/details/newrollingstoneaOObrac I CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jenny Eliscu, Nina Pearlnnan RESEARCH EDITORS Brian Gilmore Nicholas Messing Jane Lerner Dara Pettinelli Emily Lemanczyk Jessica Robertson Will Levith Patrick Ryan Steve Marzolf Janice Schiffman Annelia McDonell-Parry Jason Stutts EDITORIAL STAFF Lauren Gitlin CONSULTING EDITORS Anthony DeCurtis, Joe Levy, HollyGeorge-Warren THIRD EDITION EDITORS James Henke,AnthonyDeCurtis, HollyGeorge-Warren {THE NEW} ALBUM GUIDE COMPLETELY REVISED AND UPDATED FOURTH EDITION A FIRESIDE BOOK PUBLISHED BY SIMON & SCHUSTER NewYork London Toronto Sydney ra FIRESIDE RockefellerCenter 1230AvenueoftheAmericas NewYork, NY 10020 Revised edition copyright©2004 by Rolling Stone LLC Copyright© 1992 byStraightArrow Publishers, Inc. Copyright© 1979, 1983 by Rolling Stone Pressand Dave Marsh All rights reserved, includingthe rightofreproduction inw^holeorin partin anyform. First Fireside Edition 2004 Firesideand colophon are registeredtrademarksofSimon & Schuster, Inc. Forinformation regardingspecial discountsforbulkpurchases, pleasecontactSimon & SchusterSpecial Salesat 1-800-456-6798 [email protected] Designed byJoyO'Meara Manufactured in the United StatesofAmerica 987654321 10 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publication Data isavailable. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8 Jntrqductipn by Nathan Brackett Welcome to The New Rolling Stone Album This is not a book for pop music historians, Guide, your handbook to every record that mat- nor is it an encyclopedia (for that, see The ters. This fourth edition covers more than Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, 10,000 albums from the most important artists also published by Fireside/Simon & Schuster). of rock, punk, hip-hop, techno, soul, dance, This is a book to be used and enjoyed. Because blues, jazz, country, gospel, disco, reggae, and this is aconsumerguide,we'velimited ourselves Top 40 pop, and is the product ofthree years of tocoveringdomesticallyreleasedalbumsthatare workby more than 70writers and editors. currentlyinprint. Ourmaincriterionwasthatal- It's been a long 12 years since our \astAlbum bums needed to be easily available from major Guide, which was edited by Anthony DeCurtis, online stores such as Amazon.com and Barnes Holly George-Warren, and James Henke. More andnoble.com. (One caveat: In special cases, than 350,000 albums have been released. The we've included out-of-print or import albums if record business has gone from big profits to they are essential to understanding an artist.) In experiencing the worst recession since the early the case of nonrock artists with enormous '80s. And, more important for a book about discographies, such as Miles Davis and Pete albums, there are innumerable more ways for Seeger, we've included a selective list to serve as peopletolearnaboutmusic: notjustfrommaga- a starting point forthe interestedbeginner. zines anymore, but from fan websites; listening This book stands upon the foundation ofthe kiosks at record stores; music websites such \992AlbumGuide, whichwaswrittenentirelyby as AllMusic.com and RollingStone.com; on- just fourwriters: J.D. Considine, David McGee, line music services such as iTunes Music Store; Paul Ev—ans, and Mark Coleman. Three o—fthose and, notoriously, file-sharing software such as writers Considine, Evans, and McGee have LimeWire and Kazaa. returned to update many of their old entries. Sohowdo you make an album guide that fits Some entries have been cut (so long, Lobo; into a book bag? Selectively. For the most part, farewell to the Vogues); hundreds have been we've tried to limit the artists in this book to the added, tothepointthatapproximately70percent peoplewethinkwe'llstillbelisteningtowhenthe ofthisAlbum Guideisentirelynew. fifthorsixthedi—tionoftheGuidecomesout, orto In the introduction to the first RS Record the artist—s who even ifthey're not well known Guide, published in 1979, editor Dave Marsh anymore have madealasting, undeniable con- noted that "writing about performers as diverse tributiontopopmusic. Everyoneinthisbookhas as Roscoe Holcomb, Elvis Presley and the Sex moved the culturalneedlein one direction orthe Pistols ought to be confusing," but went on to other; youwon'tfindmanyone-hitwonders, un- marvelthat "asweprogressed, thewholeofpop- lesstheywerejusttoofascinatingtoignore. ularmusicbeganto seema seamlessweb." I Introduction Aswestarted this project, that notion seemed that in 25 years, these distinctions will seem — quaint pop is often described as a fragmented less funny, just as the idea (as any Uncle Tupelo place today, where strange cliques form and fan can attest) of the Sex Pistols and Roscoe multiply. As we got further into it, though, Holcomb in one place doesn't seem so radical Marsh's original idea didn't seem soodd. Part of today. — thejoyofabooklikethis isthestrangejuxtaposi- Above all despite the intimidati—ng pages of tions: Papa Roach appears on the same page graytextand official-lookinglistings thisbook as Charlie Parker; techno pioneer (uan Atkins is meanttobefun, and to makeyouwant tohear follows Chet Atkins. But you also get the sense this music. Goodhunting! Ratings •••** *** Classic: Essentiallisteningifyou'reevenmildly Average to Good: Albums in the three-star curious about the artist or genre under discus- range will primarily be of interest to fans ofthe sion. Not only are these albums worthy ofyour artistbeingdiscussed. Likea B-l- movie, theseal- disposable income, they stand a good chance of bums are often pleasurable but not necessarily enrichingyourlife. memorable. *•*• •* Excellent: Four-star albums generally repre- Fair to Poor: Albums inthetwo-starcategory sent outstanding performances by immortal either fall below the artist's established standard artists or peak performances by mere mortals. If orarefailures in and ofthemselves. you'reafan oftheartistortypeofmusicinques- tion, it's hard to go wrong with any ofthese al- bums. Disastrous: Albums intherangeofonestaror less are wastes of vital resources. Only maso- chists and completists needapply.
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