What Makes a Great Album? Featuring Broadcasting Legend Alan Cross

There’s been one common thread regardless of genre, time period, or concept, that’s run through each of our album selections. The search for a great album. The entire package. A group of songs that work together to create more than just a few good singles, rather an experience and journey for the listener. So what makes a great album? This is the question and discussion we had with Alan Cross, an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. Enjoy.

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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