Philip Glass - "Songs From Liquid Days" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1986 (CBS)

There is the Philip Glass the opera composer and film track composer, but there is also Philip the songwriter.  "Songs From Liquid Days" is an album made in 1986, at the height of his fame/talents with respect to doing the perfection that is the "Mishima" soundtrack score.  Glass approached Paul Simon, David Byrne, Suzanne Vega, and Laurie Anderson to write lyrics to his set of music that are songs that stand by themselves and not part of an opera or any other project.  So essentially this is his first 'pop' album. 

"Songs From Liquid Days" is stamped inside my memory banks, and all I have to do is look at the song list that's on this album, and I immediately can hear it just by looking at the text.  Six long songs that are at times danceable,  but often hauntingly beautiful.  Glass is a great melodist, and the songs here are majestic, which is a great source of inspiration as the day turns into dark.  

It is also very New York City 1986, due that the lyricists were at their height of songwriting powers or reputation.  "Changing Opinion" is a fantastic Paul Simon lyric that is more of his observational works where he comments on the moments of the day.   I think in his own fashion, was trying to be a minimalist!   Laurie Anderson is also an observational writer, and this is one theme that seems to be running through all the songs.  The songs not surprisingly have a Broadway aesthetic.   Still, it's Glass' melodies that are the shining stars.  

Ian Hunter - "Ian Hunter" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1975 (CBS)

The great team that should have done more music:  Ian Hunter with Mick Ronson.  On the other hand, this is my favorite Mott the Hoople without the Hoople.  I think "Ian Hunter" is Ian Hunter's best album.   The first side of the album is like a mini-opera.  I don't believe there is a narrative here, but the way the songs flow on side one is remarkable. "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" is just classic almost minimal glam rock that goes for the throat.  Mick Ronson's arrangements are never show-off practices but always serves the song.  That's the beauty and talent of Ronson.  His work with David Bowie is very known, but whenever he adds his presence on other recordings, for instance, Lou Reed's "Transformer," it is always fantastic, and he doesn't upstage the star.   In other words, the perfect Captain to the General (Ian Hunter, Bowie, Lou Reed, etc.look at the song in an objective manner).

Ian Hunter is a great meat and potato songwriter.  There is nothing fancy, but what makes him interesting is that he rocks hard, but has a strong pop mentality.  "I Get So Excited" is very much the framework of a classic Ian song.  The chorus is almost ABBA like, but within a rock n' roll frame.  Ronson, I suspect looks at the material like a surgeon or architect.  He knows how to get the parts to work together.  Ronson can write good songs, but his strength is to objectively look at the song.   

Side two of the album is not as dynamic as the first - and it's interesting that on the back cover, they list the sides as Part one and Part two.  Not side one or side two.  And the album feels that way in a sense.  Very much a work that fits into the medium of the vinyl record.  Side one ends with "Boy" which is over 8 minutes long, and it's a tour de force for Hunter's writing (with Mick), but also Ronson's brilliant orchestration.   A song one can presume is about Bowie, but...  

Miles Davis - “Get Up With It” (2 x Vinyl LP, CBS)

For the longest time, I avoided Miles Davis electric albums for reasons I truly don’t understand.   I think my mind-set was perhaps that his work was the best from the 1950s and the rest …was, not that important.  I’m clearly an idiot.  For example, just by chance, I purchased “Get Up With It, ” which seems by the packaging as an album of loose-ends and recordings.  Stuff that didn’t make it to the final album.  Therefore, probably not that interesting.  As I mentioned a few sentences ago, I’m an idiot.

“Get Up With It,” is in many ways, a wrong title for this collection of moody reflective and kind of down orientated music.  What it is, and clearly so, even after the first listening experience - a masterpiece.  “He Loved Him Madly” a song dedicated to Duke Ellington, is just like floating on a dark moist cloud.   Miles plays organ (pretty much through the album) with block minimal notes, that adds a certain intensity to the whole sound landscape.   As an homage, it’s a dark piece of music.   It’s an odd track to launch off an album.  The next track on the other side, “Maiysha” is more upbeat.  At this point and time, I don’t think Miles was thinking jazz, but just ‘music.' Or to be straight forward ‘funk.’  

I have read that Brian Eno’s favorite Miles album is this one - and I can clearly hear the Miles influence on some of Eno’s work as a solo artist as well as a producer - for instance Talking Heads.  For me, the track that makes me go ga-ga is “Calypso Frelimo.” Miles’ playing the organ on this one is such a sweet melody that comes in and out of the mix.  “Billy Preston” is another standout track for me.  The mixture of Miles’ version of funk, with the addition of sitar and Tabla is just the right combination.  Superb album.