For February 2021, member Scott Coates picked this legendary and transformational album from Willie Nelson. This is his first album after leaving his former record label, RCA, who Willie felt was over controlling and over producing his previous albums. At 39 years old Willie stated that the freedom his new label Atlantic Records gave him to create this Shotgun Willie album, allowed him to clear his throat, and create the album he wanted. Listen along and enjoy.
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Welcome to the Sonic Collective. On this special episode we’ll get to know a very talented musician from western Canada. From early days in the Calgary bar scene, building his name as a solo artist, to playing with two supporting players, singer-songwriter WiL has built a loyal following many musicians would love to have. In this fickle business, what’s kept him going for so many years, what does he still love about music, and what’s next?
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Our first pick of our country music round of four influential country music artists started with member Darren Scott. He chose one of America’s greatest songwriters, Dolly Parton and her Jolene album.
Please go back to our last episode to listen to why Darren chose this album and then dive into this review and find out what we liked, and did not like about this classic album.
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For our last pick of our double-album round, Sonic Collective member Scott Gregory picked this ambient, synth-pop, adored album, M83’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. Listen to this full review as we chat about how we enjoyed our pick for November 2020, which marks the 6th anniversary of our podcast. Have a listen to how the album impacted us and what our impressions were.
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The Sonic Collective has decided to pick a round of influential country music artists. Member Darren Scott explains why he chose Dolly Parton’s Jolene album. As we look to explore the most influential albums, a person cannot ignore that the title track Jolene, and another little song that did ok for her and Whitney Houston, I will Always Love You, have to be two of the most influential songs in our lifetime.
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On this special episode of The Sonic Collective, we chat with Sam Roberts, of the Sam Roberts band, about their October 2020 release, All of Us. He goes deep about how the songs were written and sharing it with the world in a time of COVID. But we start by going back in time, with Sam sharing what it feels like to have been recording professionally for almost two decades, being the son of parents from South Africa who immigrated to Canada, what it means to be Canadian, and even some of his musical guilty pleasures.
Get ready to hear a very candid Sam Roberts share on multiple levels.
Enjoy the musical ride!
Please read Alain DuPuis’s pick, Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Welcome to the Pleasuredome, before reading and listening to our reviews below.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Welcome to the Pleasuredome
For our 3rd selection in this round of influential double-albums, Sonic Collective member Alain Dupuis reached back to 1984 and this first Frankie Goes to Hollywood album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome. This albums contains the 6th and 20th best selling singles in the U.K., for Relax and Two Tribes. But how did this stand up as a whole album? Can we all finally relax? Well, this review didn’t go as we thought. Listen along and see why we struggled with this 80s classic. Hint: It’s the cover songs and the bi-polar sound of this album.
Perhaps the producer was over zealous, perhaps the band wasn’t in control, perhaps this lives just perfectly in 1984 and should stay there. What do you think?
Overall opinion: 2.6
Would we recommend?: 2.3
Influenced our tastes: 2.5
Our Individual Review Scores
Alain Dupuis
Overall opinion: 3
Would I recommend?: 2.5
Influenced my tastes: 1
Scott Gregory
Overall opinion: 3
Would I recommend?: 3
Influenced my tastes: 5
Scott Coates
Overall opinion: 2
Would I recommend?: 1
Influenced my tastes: 1
Darren Scott
Overall opinion: 2.5
Would I recommend?: 2.5
Influenced my tastes: 3
As we have just completed a round of album reviews that were all hip hop and rap, we thought it will be a blast to try a new concept this month. We all came up with some ideas, but an interesting one was double albums. Younger people may not even know what a double album is (or even a single album, for that matter).
Listen to my story of how we came to this concept and as to why I decided to pick Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde album.
Spend the next month with us listening to this album and then come back at the beginning of September 2020 to hear our review show about this album. We will dive into the history of a double album a little more and see if releasing so many tracks at once is a good idea.
Times, they are a changin’
Darren
Other albums I considered were:
We have also already reviewed a few double albums by chance. Check out:
The Mothers of Invention: Freak Out
The Allman Brothers Band: Live at Fillmore East
Enjoy!
Lauryn Hill is an amazing vocalist. She can sing. She can rap. She can do it all. This album really set the tome of what was to come for hip hop. WE know now just how powerful hip hop and rap is now, but back when this was released in the late 90s some though hip hop might just be a phase, or just more droning type pop music.
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Welcome to the Sonic Collective, and another one of our exploratory podcast episodes.
In this episode, we’ll explore musical supergroups. So what is a supergroup? Well, for us, it’s a musical performing group of three or more persons, whose members have successful solo careers, are members of other groups, or are well known in other musical professions. They come together to form an epic alignment of mighty musical talents. For us, this isn’t a duo and they must have released at least one full-length album. These supergroups can also come from any genre. The term can sometimes also be applied to a group that has no specific preferred genre. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and today, we’ll touch on a few that fall in both categories and some in between.
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