Digital Roundup: 7/23/14
New this week in the Rhino Room at iTunes:
Foghat, The Essentials: Interested in investigating the back catalog of Foghat but feeling like our Hi-Five look into their career just isn’t in-depth enough? You’re in luck: this compilation offers just enough of an exploration of their hits and classic album tracks to provide an education without being too overwhelming.
The Unforgiven, The Unforgiven: This self-titled artifact from 1986 may be best known because one of the band’s members, Johnny Hickman, went on to team up with former Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery to form Cracker. If you can imagine a bunch of kids raised on Ennio Morricone soundtracks making roots rock…well, you probably still wouldn’t really have the sound of The Unforgiven down, since their songs also featured “gang vocals,” with everyone singing together. It’s a fun listen, though.
Lee Hazlewood, The NSVIPs / Friday’s Child / Love & Other Crimes / Strung Out on Something New: The Reprise Recordings: When Lee Hazlewood died in 2007 at the age of 78, he left behind several iconic singles, including compositions like “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” “Some Velvet Morning,” and “Rebel-Rouser,” which he co-wrote with Duane Eddy, but beyond those classics, he also wrote a variety of other material which runs the range from brilliant to bizarre. 1965’s The NSVIPs (the acronym stands for “Not So Very Important People”) is definitely one of the more eccentric titles, although it’s entertaining nonetheless, while 1966’s Friday’s Child and 1968’s Love and Other Crimes are far closer to the “brilliant” end of the scale. Strung Out on Something New: The Reprise Recordings, however, is all over the place, and while part of that is because it includes the aforementioned trio of albums, it’s also because it additionally features Hazlewood’s work behind the console for other Reprise artists. It’s not necessarily for beginners, but it definitely provides an education for those who want a fuller picture of Hazlewood’s late ‘60s, non-Nancy career.
