Double Album Round and Our 1st Selection! (It’s Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde)

Double Album Round & 1st Selection of Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde.

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:

  • The Smashing Pumpkins – ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’
  • Arcade Fire — ‘Reflektor’
  • The Clash – ‘London Calling’ (But I’ve already picked a Clash album. Have a listen.)

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!

Review of Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

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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Review of Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force: Planet Rock

Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock

For a change in pace, we decided that the 4 Sonic Collective members should select albums from a randomly selected genre for everyones next pick. Hip Hop was chosen and for the second pick of this round member Scott Coates chose A Tribe Called Quest: People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

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Review of A Tribe Called Quest: People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

For a change in pace, we decided that the 4 Sonic Collective members should select albums from a randomly selected genre for everyones next pick. Hip Hop was chosen and for the second pick of this round member Scott Coates chose A Tribe Called Quest: People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

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Review Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a Man

Gil Scott-Heron’s Pieces of a Man was mentioned often as a very powerful influence, namely the song ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, which is a spoken word politically powerful piece that highlights the struggles of the black population in the United States during the late 1960s. We listened, we mostly liked, and we learned a lot about GSH.

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Review of Jeff Buckley: Grace

Jeff Buckley’s Grace was his only album. Shortly after the release of this album Jeff died in a strange drowning accident. None of us really knew this album, but with heavyweights like David Bowie and Jimmy Page citing it as one of their favourite albums, we knew it had to be great … right? Well… it didn’t quite go the way we thought. Listen and find out why.

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Review of Van Halen: Van Halen

Van Halen cover art

Please read and listen to Alain DuPuis’ pick  Van Halen: Van Halen before reading and listening to our reviews below.

Quick Summary: 

  • Would we recommend?
  • Influence us and our tastes?
  • Overall
5

Review of Van Halen: Van Halen

Just like this album, we had way too much fun recording the podcast review for Van Halen’s self-titled debut album. Sonic member Alain DuPuis selected this California Rock/Metal album for February 2020 and we got to go back and listen to this classic. This album definitely highlights a lost art of selecting tracks to listen to in order to create a party/story for the listener. As we now live in an age of releasing singles and rarely listening to a full album in order from an artist, it is nice to go back and remember this lost art form.

We had a blast with this one and it is one of few that received a perfect score from us. Stop reading this and go listen to our podcast now and then get that album queued for your next gym session.

We invite you to hear our four differing opinions of this album and learn something with us. In this podcast you will learn the following about Van Halen’s debut album and much more:

  • Why did the band choose to have 2 cover songs on their debut album anyway?
  • There was a crazy rumour about Van Halen after this album debuted that related to the band Kiss, what was it?
  • Scott Coates points out which song was sampled from this album for a very famous rap tune.
  • Now that vape pens are legal in Canada how did Darren do trying to get through his scattered thoughts? Thanks to 420 Premium Market for the Top Leaf Florida Lemons Vape Cartridge.

Listen to our thoughts and see if this is worth going back to and let us know what your experience was with this album.

The Sonic Collective

Individual Review Scoring

Alain DuPuis:

Overall opinion: 5
Would I recommend?: 5
Influenced my tastes: 5

Darren Scott:

Overall opinion: 5
Would I recommend?: 5
Influenced my tastes: 5

 

Scott Coates

Overall opinion: 5
Would I recommend?: 5
Influenced my tastes: 5

Scott Gregory

Overall opinion: 5
Would I recommend?: 5
Influenced my tastes: 5