Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September, 2010

Rock Solid: Prince

"If you only own one album by Prince it's gotta be [insert masterpiece here]." Welcome to Rock Solid , where we fill in the blank. Our goal is to pseudo-scientifically determine the best, the beloved, the most classic album in an artist's catalog. Here's how it works: I've consulted two main sources. The All Music Guide pro vides the professional critical point-of-view and Amazon.com offers the fan perspective ( because most people who choose to review albums on Amazon are adoring fans of the artist in question) . The album with the highest combined rating from both source s is the one I'll consider the best. The declared winner will be subjected to the Th riller Test (do I need to explain the name?), a set of 4 criteria an album should meet to be considered a masterpiece. Those are 1) at least 3 hits, 2) great album tracks that sh/could have been hits, 3) no filler, and 4) memorable cover art. An artist's entire body o

274. XTC: Nonsuch (1992)

Nonsuch is the 10th XTC album, but it was the 3rd for me, purchased at a Circuit City for $5.99 in the infancy of my XTC fandom. At the time, I didn't know much about the band other than that I wanted more of their music. I already owned Oranges and Lemons and Waxworks (a collection of early singles), and wasn't sure where to go next. I bought Nonsuch because I thought it was a latter-day "best of" compilation. Why did I think that? Well, the sheer number of songs (17!) was one factor, but mostly it was the back cover. Each track was given a box and an illustration, lending it an air of individual importance. Plus, the album title seemed like a insouciant nod to the thrown-together nature of hits collections. And though a listen and a look at the interior liner notes proved me wrong, I'd still say I wasn't too far off. Afterall, Nonsuch does contain all of XTC's major themes: the peaks and valleys of romance, war, human nature, and societal ills