Discogsಪರಿಶೀಲಿಸಿದ ಖಾತೆ

That’s it that’s all just listened through Sweet Baby James and had a blast- check me out at @grandson if you want, if not that’s ok too you do you. Peace!!!

It’s a personal, questioning, personal reflection as a young man, and I think my debut album Death Of An Optimist, though being an entirely different genre of music, attempted to share those personal doubts and reflections with the listener in a similar way.

“You can say I wanna be free. I can say someday I will be”. I like that he ends on this feeling. And then he goes big band at the end as a curtain call. I’m not mad at the bigger production at the end here

Critic William Ruhlmann wrote about how the album reflected "the pessimism and desperation of the 1960s hangover that was the early '70s"

I read he only included Suite for 20G because he got a $20,000 bonus for completing the album. This is such a gorgeous song. The harmonies, the unexpected places it takes you with the chords. Feels like Crosby still nash and young but without the full stack of harmonies.

I love oh Baby don’t lose your lip on me. It’s so unexpectedly hard. He couldn’t help but flex on us with the crazy guitar chops. I love pentatonic blues. The pleading, he’s singing like he’s hurting but you can hear him smiling through the record.

Whenever we work on a grandson song, it needs to hit just like this, as stripped back as possible. Only then can we really build the production up and trust we aren’t just overcompensating for bad songwriting with big drops and shit.

Which I certainly relate to, having left home at 17, having spent 2 years living on a tour bus. People living day to day not noticing the passage of time...and neither do I. He just says the hard thing the simple way. That’s what I love about this album.

Anywhere like heaven is probably the song I’ve listened to the least. Chorus is so good. Feels a bit redundant with sunny skies and blossom. But it’s like, he left home behind, in search of something, and then he’s just tired and maybe longing for that familiar person that place.

This is the kind of shit that I listen to when I don’t even feel like listening to music. It’s like silence for me but better

Blossom is next. This one isn’t my favorite, it’s back in the lullaby category. But still undeniably beautiful. This album is reflective of the shift from the emphasis on social issues in 60s rock and roll to the emphasis on the self. So personal and intimate.

Again. He remains so restrained in his singing but there’s a clear movement across the song where he puts more feeling, more desperation behind what he’s singing. Loss be like that. You have a plan, a future, and then it’s “in pieces on the ground”.

Side 2. Fire and Rain. The hit. The heartbreaking songwriting. The delicate instrumentation. Might be his best ever. I think this was about losing a friend in a plane crash? Wow. Life can change like THAT.

This is the only song on the album that is a cover but it’s also the one that’s somehow the most quintessential James Taylor. The guitar work is 10/10. He never overplays or over sings. So beautiful. This is the only song I can play on harmonica, randomly.

Oh Susannah makes me think of my mom and dad. They worshipped James growing up. And this song was one we always heard growing up. This and leaving on a jet plane. Makes me feel like a kid again. Might cry. I miss my fucking parents. I hate covid.

I generally hate a fade out but, given this feeling of just setting off into the sunset that this song has always evoked in me, we will let it slide on this one.

Fuck. Record skipping. Got this at amoeba for 2 dollars used. One second

Country Road. Whew. And we are back. This song has been there on so many road trips, so many different expressions of my longing for independence in my late teens and early 20s. I don’t know where I’m going but I’m on my way. Very much inspired my song apologize.