From: ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (andrew.j.whitman)
Subject: Favorites of '92
Organization: AT&T
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 16:58:18 GMT

I use a fairly rigorous algorithm for determining the best music.
I award anywhere from 50 to 100 points per album for instrumental 
virtuosity, figure in the Artistic Hair factor (-5 to +5 points),
run the lyrics through the Poetry Analyzer (which yields a value
between 36 and 74, except for jazz and country and western albums,
which are automatically awarded values of +18 and -4, respectively),
determine the Objective Historical Significance (typically a +10,
but can go as high as +93 for bands from Seattle), and add in the
usual bonus points for appearances on Saturday Night Live, MTV
Unplugged, etc.  Not surpringly, the BEST ALBUMS of 1992 were
Yes's "Close the Edge" (20th consecutive year!) and Pearl Jam's
"Ten."  

Once the objective stuff is out of the way I start thinking about 
which albums have spent the most time in my CD player, cassette
player, and on my turntable during any given year.  This gets 
tricky because it involves filtering out very strong memories of
Raffi, Bert and Ernie, and various Disney soundtracks that my
kids love.  But here's what was left over.  It's a mess, and
most of it consists of old music or music that was re-issued in
1992 - proof positive, I suppose, that I've officially reached 
Old Farthood and that it's only a matter of time before I'm
yelling "turn down that noise" up the stairs.

- The Bats - "Fear of God"

Great power pop from New Zealand.  Jangly guitars, quirky lyrics, and 
hooks that won't quit.  This is the poppy side of Flying Nun records,
and, as such, may be less hip than some of the noisier or more
idiosyncratic Kiwi bands like Bailter Space or Tall Dwarfs.  All
I know is that I like it and play it all the time.

- Big Star - "#1 Record/Radio City"

The undisputed winner in the CD player. Two of the greatest rock albums
ever released put back together on one CD, and about as good as
Beatles-influenced music gets.

- Boiled in Lead - "Old Lead"

The first two albums - "Boiled in Lead" and "Hotheads" - re-released.
These days BiL are considerably more polished and eclectic.  This
is pretty much straightforward Celtic punk bashing, with traditional
Irish jigs done up with power chords and feedback.  I think it's a 
great combination.

- T Bone Burnett - "The Criminal Under My Own Hat"

A great album, full of sweet love songs and ironic little digs at 
capitalism and politicians and televangelists.  But there's more
sorrow here than smugness and cynicism, and it's kind of delightful
to encounter somebody who can manage to sound like he cares without
sounding wimpy.  And the bluegrass cum chamber music backup from
the likes of Mark O'Connor, Jerry Douglas, and Edgar Meyer is 
out of this world.  A quiet little masterpiece.

- Don Byron - "Tuskegee Experiments"

Part klezmer music, part jazz improvisation, and all virtuosity and
unbounded creativity.  Byron's made the most breathtaking jazz that
I've heard this year, and he's made it using that most unlikely
and underused instrument - the clarinet.

- Bob Dylan - "Good As I Been To You"

Every time I'm ready to write this guy off completely he comes out
with an album that makes me shake my head in wonder and amazement.
He's done it probably half a dozen times now, and he did it again
this year.  Here we have a bunch of traditional folk songs presented
in the most unadorned light - just Dylan's guitar, harmonica, and
voice.  It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.  It doesn't
happen.  Forget the "Poet of a Generation" stuff, and just appreciate
this album for what is - a great folksinger having fun with some
of his favorite songs.  

- E - "A Man Called (E)"

I'm a sucker for bright, melodic, acoustic pop songs, and the mysterious
E wrote a bunch for this album.  Sort of Beatles-esque, sort of folkish
songs about girls and teenage angst.  Some of us actually think that 
this sort of thing comes pretty close to musical nirvana.

- Aretha Franklin - "Queen of Soul"

If there's a celestial choir I know who the soloist is going to be.  
This 4-CD set compiles most of what Aretha recorded for Atlantic
between '67 to '72, and a smattering of what she recorded between 
'72 and '76.  The female voice has never sounded so good.

- Dick Gaughan - "Handful of Earth"

It's always a toss-up in my mind as to who is the finest Scottish
singer - Andy Stewart or Dick Gaughan.  This year I'm tilting
slightly toward Gaughan, mainly on the strength of this great
1979 album.  Merge Stewart's keening, high tenor with Billy
Bragg's political sensibilities and you've got a fair idea of
what this album is like.  And when Gaughan latches on to a 
three-hundred-year-old song like "World Turned Upside Down,"
a tale of political oppression and starvation and grinding
poverty, he could be spitting out those words about Somalia or
Bosnia or south-central L.A.  That kind of anger is timeless.
So is Gaughan's voice.

- Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers - Live at the Ryman

Emmylou has always been a great interpreter of classic country
songwriters and a lousy interpreter of rock 'n roll.  So this
time out she assembles her finest band since the early '80s,
jettisons the Chuck Berry and Beatles tunes, and hunkers down
and delivers a dozen country standards and bluegrass romps.
The pickin' has me grinnin', and Emmylou rises to the occasion
and delivers some of her most heartfelt, soulful vocals.  Very
fine indeed.

- Mark Heard - "Satellite Sky"

Mark Heard recorded ten albums for Christian labels wherein he
questioned his faith, cut through the pious schmaltz, skewered 
right-wing political thinking, and made some pretty good rock 'n roll 
in the process.  It's not too surprising that the Christian labels 
wouldn't touch him after awhile.  His last few albums were low-budget 
affairs recorded in his home studio, but still featured the likes of 
T Bone Burnett, Bruce Cockburn, and Sam Phillips.  "Satellite Sky" was 
the last album he recorded before his untimely death this year at the 
age of 42.  It's a typical album in that it features Heard's fine
electric mandolin work and his beautiful, poetic lyrics that refuse
to settle for easy answers or to deal in cliches.  "Like bees in a
bottle we are flying at fate/Beating our wings against the walls of
this place/Unaware that the struggle is the burden of proof/Of
choosing to believe the unbelievable truth."  Amy Grant this is
not.  What it is is some of the finest songwriting I've encountered
this year, regardless of religious or political persuasion.

- Howlin' Wolf - "The Chess Box"

Want to know where rock 'n roll came from?  Listen to the smoldering
blues that Wolf was making in Memphis in the early '50s.  So raw
and primal that just the *thought* of it should scare the PMRC.
Absolutely riveting, awe-inspiring stuff.

- Wanda Jackson - "Right or Wrong (1954 - 1962)"

Wanda Jackson is wrongly categorized as a country singer.  She's
not.  Dolly Parton is a country singer.  Wanda Jackson is the
female version of The Killer, and there are times on this 4-CD
box set that I swear that she could out-snarl and out-sing
Jerry Lee or Elvis or Johnny or any of the other Sun kings of
the mid-fifties.  Why this woman isn't regarded as a rock 'n roll
icon is a mystery to me.

- Kronos Quartet - "Pieces of Africa" 

Look ma, no boundaries.  Sometimes I grow a little weary of Kronos'
relentless eclecticism, but not this time out.  On "Pieces of
Africa" Kronos does what I rely on them to do - introduce me to
new composers and new ideas in contemporary classical music.  
I've fallen in love with the music of Crumb, Part, and Nancarrow
because of their work.  Now it's time to check out the bevy of
African composers who are showcased on this recording.  Only
Kevin Volans has been featured before, so it's almost all new to
me.  The drums and the vocals are a nice touch, and the whole
effort swings like crazy - something that I surely *don't* expect
from a Kronos recording.  Wonder of wonders - there's actually
*joy* here.  

- Los Lobos - "Kiko"

Sure to disappoint those expecting "La Bamba, Part IX."  I don't
care.  This is Los Lobos' most adventurous recording to date,
and every risk pays off.  This album was released with a minimum
of fanfare and sank out of sight almost immediately.  Well,
consider this at least a personal version of fanfare.  Buy
this album.  This band is too good to languish in obscurity.

- L.S.U. - "This is the Healing"

I don't know what to say about this album.  L.S.U. is yet another
Christian band that I've become intrigued by this year.  There
are two lead vocalists.  One has a serious David Bowie affectation;
the other sounds like Jessye Norman or Kathleen Battle.  They
sometimes sing together on some songs, and when that happens
the Jessye/Kathleen wannabe typically sings in German or Russian.
The guitarist wants to be Robert Fripp, and doesn't do too bad
of an imitation.  They sing songs about terminal cancer and
praying for miracles, and in their songs the miracles are not
granted.  Don't look for *these* folks to show up on the Amy
Grant Christmas special either.

- Magic Sam - "West Side Soul"

Magic Sam Maghett was a great blues guitarist and vocalist who died
too young.  On the soul numbers he sounds like Sam Cooke, and on the
blues numbers he sounds like Buddy Guy.  On all of the numbers his
guitar sounds like Eric Clapton's on a good night.  Listen to where
Clapton and Stevie Ray went to school.

- W. A. Mozart - "Great Mass in C Minor"

How utterly middle-brow, I know.  If you know the music then you
know I don't have to justify it.  If you don't then I can't describe
it.  But there's a scene in "Amadeus" where Sallieri, after hearing
Mozart's music, adopts a look of stunned disbelief.  I've heard
this music so often that it now rarely has the power to move me.
But sometimes it still does.  And the fact that it can still do that 
after hundreds of playings is part of the greatness of this music.

 - Lou Reed - "Magic and Loss"

Thirteen songs about watching a friend die of cancer, wondering what
God's role in the process is, attending the funeral, experiencing
loss and regreat, and watching the movers carrying everything out of
the deceased's apartment.  Some fun, huh?  Maybe it's because I
bought this album this spring shortly before my mom died, and maybe
it's because it helped me through a tough time, but this album is
really special.  Kind of a raw, open wound of an album that will
make you uncomfortable and give you hope at the same time.  I 
think it's easily one of Lou's best efforts.  But don't play it
at your next party.

- Sonny Rollins - "Saxophone Colossus"

Yeah, it's thirty-five years old, and I've owned it for almost a 
decade.  Still, it's never really registered until this year.  
The version of "You Don't Know What Love Is" just flattens me
every time, and the light is beginning to dawn on why Sonny
is considered one of the masters of the tenor sax.

- Michelle Shocked - "Arkansas Traveler"

My favorite folk album this year.  Shocked writes angry, bitterly
ironic folk songs about racism and war and sexual oppression.  
And she also finds a way to wed her scathing lyrics to bright,
uptempo bluegrass melodies and instrumentation.  It's a bizarre
combination, but it works.

- Matthew Sweet - "Girlfriend"

More power pop songs about finding girlfriends and losing girlfriends.
Winner of the Best Beatles Imitation Award for 1992 (for "Divine
Intervention"), while also featuring some amazing guitar work 
from ex-punks Richard Lloyd from Television and Robert Quine from
Lou Reed's band.  Great tunes.  Great harmonies.  And Tuesday
Weld on the cover.  How can you go wrong?

- Teenage Fanclub - "Bandwagonesque"

Updated Big Star, which is good enough for me.  It's also hard to
go wrong with a guitarist named Norman Blake.  

- Travis Tritt - "T-R-O-U-B-L-E"

An amazing effort considering that he started out in a -4 lyrical
hole.  Frankly, I don't care much about the Country Revival, and
if Garth Brooks and Vince Gill collapsed at my feet, I'd certainly
make no effort to revive *them.*  But Travis Tritt is the real
deal, and when he leans into a song like "Lord Have Mercy on
the Working Man" it's hard not to hear the echoes of ol' Hank
and Merle and No-Show Jones.  The guy can flat-out sing.  

- Chris Whitley - "Living with the Law"

As usual I came to this album belatedly.  He's probably released
three other albums by now, won a couple Grammy's, toured eastern
Europe, guest-hosted SNL, and overdosed a few times, and I wouldn't
know about it.  I *do* know that "Living with the Law" is one
of those rare albums where a new artist comes out of the gate 
possessing the whole package - a great, gritty voice and eerie
blues moan, superb slide guitar technique, fine, infectious
songs, and intriguing lyrics.  I can't wait for somebody to
tell me about the box sets, tribute albums, and career
retrospectives that I've already missed.

Andy Whitman
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio
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