So the final post in this series – that’s been my most enthusiastic project on this blog – has been written! I’ve spent almost four weeks on this project, with 2-8 hours of music listening, reading lyrics and moving albums up and down every day, but what an amazing journey it has been! I’ve always dreamt of doing this, and now it’s done.
The hardest part was to stay true to the rules. The Best Album, not just an album with 5 good tracks with 3 bad ones; the full album was what counted.
In retrospective I think that Sixx A.M should change place with Toto. Heroin Diaries is an amazing album that no one should miss. Since it’s also a true story, with such a good purpose it may even be higher up. I also placed both Keane and Journey on a shared number 1-place, but I think that Journey is the true number 1. It’s almost silly how perfect that album is. Every single note is so good, on all instruments and the vocals from Steve Perry are truly amazing.
So, do I miss any albums on the list? Yes I think that Simply Red, Magnum, Don Henley, Frank Ocean, Iron Maiden and The Hooters should be somewhere on the list, but I’m not sure where. The lack of full albums without a track that you just want to skip is hard to find with those artists. Maybe Magnum is closest?
Thank you all that have followed this top-list. It’s been a pleasure to hear your thoughts both in person, on the blog and in e-mail.
I leave this series with a great track that actually wasn’t on the list; Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey
I hope you all get a good start of your week.
P.S If you want to go back in the series, there is a new menu at the top of this blog where you can find all the posts D.S
This is an album that have followed me ever since it was released back in 1986. The album was supposed to be called Freedom, but the title later changed to Raised On Radio. Some of the line-up were changed from the previous album, Escape, due to some internal disturbances.
Following their two most successful albums, lead singer Steve Perry began to take more control over the band’s direction. First, Ross Valory and Steve Smith were fired from the band, against the wishes of manager Herbie Herbert. The two were replaced by various studio musicians for the recording of Raised on Radio, including Randy Jackson (bass guitar) and Larrie Londin (drums). Smith did record three tracks with Journey on the album, and he and Valory still received revenues from the record and subsequent tour.
If you recognize one name from American Idol, you’re right; Randy Jackson, on bass.
Band members
Additional musicians
Source: Wikipedia
In 2009 the group had a major hit with the formerly released “Don’t Stop Belivin‘” (from the Escape-album) which became the ever most sold track on iTunes in 2009. Many people argue that Escape is a better album, but I can’t see that. Raised On Radio is as perfect as it get’s.
So, the album? Well what can I say? This is music at it’s very very best, and in my mind there is actually no downsides. Every single track, except the title track, is a five-star track in my mind. Just listen to the guitars, the vocals of Steve Perry which definitely is one of the world’s best vocals, the piano, the rhythm.
All the “time stamps” are based on the time in Spotify which may affect the YouTube-times slightly.
***** Girl Can’t Help It: The piano starts of slowly, and soon the guitar kicks in before we hear the first words from Steve Perry. Relaxed and controlled.. Don’t miss the bass line that’s so solid. The guitar break after 2:57 is so good, and listen to the final seconds.
***** Positive Touch: Bass, and a rhythmic guitar accompanied by a piano that follows the guitar. Listen to the guitar at 1:00, and 1:11 together with the solo at 1:50! The background vocals are also so good all the way through. The saxophone, guitar and vocals that are “answering” each other after 3:02 is another delicacy.
***** Suzanne: A bass and keyboard intro before “I see your face at the movies”. Listen to the bass line, and the articulated “Suzanne”! The solo after 2:00. Full of energy.
***** Be Good To Yourself: The track that you should play before going on vacation, need a break or just some positive words. The track starts of with a keyboard-intro, then a great solid verse before the amazing chorus at 0:40. Don’t miss the guitar in the background, and the backing vocals!
***** Once You Love Somebody: Just listen to that cooperation between guitar, bass, vocals!! Brutal! After 45 seconds the bridge to the chorus. The little delicacy with guitar at 1:28!
***** Happy To Give: This is a singing lesson of Steve Perry. “I was born a believer, played the fool, lonely dreamer left to choose”. Listen to the vocals after approximately 3 minutes together with the keyboard!
**** Raised On Radio: An amazing track, but the least good one in my opinion. Really like the guitar handling, and the “blues-ish” sound.
***** I’ll Be Allright Without You: A little slower track, but oh, this is soo good. The keyboard after 0:38, the guitar intro, the backing vocals “It’s all because of you” “Try not to think of you”. Just listen to it!
***** It Could Have Been You: Almost tired of writing how amazing this album is. There isn’t a single second that’s amazing. In this track. Just listen to the guitar after 1:49, and the break at 2:10! Then “Where are you…. ” BAAM “Now”! Guitar solo with the incredible bass line.
Time washes over, memories
I can’t look back no more
Change has forsaken, our promises
There’s someone else for you to hold again
***** The Eyes Of A Woman: Once again we’re all going into singing class in with our class teacher Steve Perry.
***** Why Can’t This Night Go On Forever. Romantic. Subtle. A song for a wedding? OMG! This is brutal! The atmosphere, the performance from the musicians. One of the most “perfect” songs ever?
Lost in twilight, the memories
Precious moments, you and me
We’ve been old friends, all through the years
Picture postcards, sharing tears
What’s in our hearts, there’s never time, to say
Need you tonight, lover don’t fade away
I’ve seen your city lights
As I walk away
Why can’t this night…go on forever
Some other tracks from other albums:
Open Arms, originally made for “The Babys” and John Waite, but released by Journey
Separate Ways
Whenever I discuss music with friends and acquaintances about Best Album Ever, this comes up as one of those that should be on the list. With no big dips, and an album that shifts in tempo but still keeps it together as an album. Awesome.
The sound is on the more modern hard-rock style like Tool and Alice in Chains, but I think there’s also some similarities with Green Day, and even though I’m not a big fan of Green Day, I really like their sound. Easy Accessible Modern Hard Rock. This is not an album that will keep you occupied in analyzing the lyrics, and try to think about every single word, or note for that matter. But it’s really good in it’s simplicity and youthfulness.
So why the name Hoobastank and how did they end up together? I found this print-out from an interview where this was discussed:
Purcell: Let me start off with the obvious question, where did the name “Hoobastank” originate?
Lappalainen: Hoobastank was an inside joke between us and now we think there’s no real meaning of it. It’s like Jamiroqui. What is Jamiroqui? What does Jamiroqui mean? We have different interpretations of it. One definition is an ice-skating term for when you try to do a triple axle and fall on your butt. That’s Hoobastank. I heard a couple of kids on ESPN say that it’s two monkeys having sex. It’s up to your own interpretation.
Purcell: Why was the spelling of Hoobastank changed? I noticed it used to be HoobUstank and now it’s HoobAstank. What’s the deal with that?
Lappalainen: The whole thing with the “u” to the “a” was we just kept getting “Hoo-Boo-Stank” and there were totally different spellings of our name. It made it a whole lot easier with HoobAstank.
Purcell: That’s pretty interesting. Where’d you guys meet?
Lappalainen: Dan and I we met in ’92 and we used to be in a band called Idiosyncratic. Then Dan and I went our separate ways. When I left, Dan and Doug got together and started writing music. Then one day I saw Dan’s number in the paper and I called up and said “Hey Dan, what’s going on?” He was like “Ah nothing,” so they both came over to my house. Dan and Doug showed me some of their stuff. I thought “wow this is actually kind of cool.” I showed them my stuff and Dan and I just started clicking again. We found Chris a couple months later in a recycler (a newspaper for musicians). Three months later, Hoobastank was formed.
Source: http://hoobastank.no.sapo.pt/interviews/hoobustank-fan-source.txt
The band (at the year of this album):
Doug Robb – vocals
Dan Estrin – guitar
Markku Lappalainen – bass
Chris Hesse – drums
Joshua Tree (album of the year 1987) was the first album where I really discovered this supergroup, U2. Many U2-hardcorefans holds their third album – War – higher than this, the fifth – Joshua Tree, but I count this as the best. U2, formed in 1976 was named after a word game with “You Too” as well as the name of a U.S spy aircraft. The name was first not liked by Bono, but slowly accepted.
Musically U2 has its roots in post-punk, but later incorporated more popular music and with this album many other influences (more about that later).
For me U2 is all about a clean crisp sound, but most of all, a clean crisp sound that’s absolute unique. With “The Edge” (David Evans) on guitar, Adam Clayton on his solid base, Larry Mullens drive on the drums, and of course Bono’s (Paul Hewson) voice. Things can’t be much better, and more unique.
During this “Best Album Of All Times”-trip I’ve read quite a lot about the artists, and each album. What I found fascinating with this particular album was that U2, before this album described themselves as root less. Roots that they searched before making this album.
Realising that “U2 had no tradition” and that their knowledge of music from before their childhood was limited, the group delved into American and Irish roots music. Friendships with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Keith Richards motivated the band to explore blues, folk, and gospel music and focused Bono on his skills as a songwriter and lyricist. U2 interrupted the album sessions in mid-1986 to serve as a headline act on Amnesty International’s A Conspiracy of Hope tour. Rather than being a distraction, the tour added extra intensity and focus to their new material. Later that year, Bono travelled to San Salvador and Nicaragua and saw first-hand the distress of peasants bullied in internal conflicts that were subject to US political intervention. The experience became a central influence on the new music.
Source: Wikipedia
The search for roots is also described in this interview with The Edge, and the live recordings with the Gospel Choir; for the song With Or Without You (watch video down below)
After releasing the “Joshua Tree” album U2 quickly got two number one singles in U.S: “With Or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m looking For”. Two epic songs at the time, and still is. The tour after the album Joshua Tree was portrayed in the movie “Rattle and Hum”.
What I truly enjoy with U2 (and many of the best bands) is their strive for perfection, and at the same time passion and honesty for what their music/work is about. I’ve always believed that there are no shortcuts for success. It’s all about hard work, and I think that U2 truly reflects that opinion. I hope you like this album as much as I do.
Rare clip with U2 and Bruce Springsteen – Still Haven’t Found What I Was Looking For
Full album
Interview with U2, 1987
For more parts, click the You-tube link
From iTunes
Lapse It is an award-winning full featured app for capturing amazing time lapse and stop motion videos. It is easy, fast and intuitive.
No need for expensive photography equipment, you just need Lapse It.• Featured on the English TV Show “The Gadget Show” http://youtu.be/QjjayQVHnrk
• “Looking to do time-lapse with your mobile device? Lapse It is a very appealing option” by Erez Zukerman, PCWorld
• “Lapse It is by far the best time lapse application I’ve come across so far” by Robert Iagar, AppStorm
So, we’re getting close to the top. So far we’ve covered places 40-11, and it’s time to enter top 10. It’s almost impossible to compare the albums so close to the top but I’ll give it a go.
So, this will be an outsider. But an awesome outsider…
First out, in the top 10:s is the album Red Eden, by Sara Isaksson.
If Stephen Simmonds is a well-kept secret internationally in the category male singers, Sara Isaksson is almost an even more kept secret in the female singers category.
The album Red Eden is a quite low-key album where Sara:s incredible voice truly has the ability to shine. This will never be the album to listen to before a night out on town, but a great album to listen to when you get back home.
I guess in some sense it’s an album for musicians, but on the other hand it’s just an easy listening country, singer/song-writer album put together for everyone.
I couldn’t find any YouTube tracks from this particular album so I settle with the Spotify playlist.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Oh, now things are heating up. Thirteen albums left, and I think every one of them are totally awesome. At 13:th place I’ve placed an album, that I think I’ve said in every post, could/would’ve been placed higher up. This album is one of those that I return to every now and then, in short a real goldie, literally; the album Gold from the Swedish Music Collective, Blacknuss.
Blacknuss plays a combination of RnB, Soul and Jazz in a great mix, and among the musicians you find many of the Swedish elite. Only one person have played on all albums, the drummer Martin Jonsson.
I’ve been fortunate to watch Blacknuss live at Mosebacke in Stockholm, and when it comes to rhythmic experiences, and “people just can’t be standing still”-experiences, that’s still my nr. 1.
It’s hard to point out some favorites, since all tracks has its place on this awesome album, but if I should try, you shouldn’t miss Thinking Of You, Rising To The Top (with the amazing Lisa Nilsson on vocals), Dinah, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, It Should Have Been You… or… just listen to the album. This is one of those albums, that after a few plays will stay in your library forever and really hasn’t any big weaknesses.
Nikki Sixx (Frank Ferrana), Vince Neil (Vince Neil Warton), Mick Mars (Robert Allen Bippus) and Tomme Lee (Tomme Lee Bass) may be the band that have lived the rock’n roll life to its absolute maximum. Success, fame, glam, women and party on one hand. Drugs, jail, trash, crash, burn and even dead band members. Nikki Six was in an academic way dead for two minutes before found by Slash in his hotel room 1987, and the injected with adrenalin in the heart and survived. This was actually the background for the track “Kickstart my heart” on the Dr Feelgood album.
Back to the album. This is after all a “Best album of all times”-list. Shout at Devil was released in 1983 and was Mötley Crües biggest hit at the time. The sound, with its roots in Blues, and old school rock n’ roll, played on speed became part of the beginning of a new era in the hard rock / heavy metal scene; Glam rock.
Many parents in Sweden were really afraid of Mötley Crüe and other bands at the time (especially W.A.S.P), and even Swedish Television arranged a talk show around this matter (Swedish), and even though Nikki Sixx tried his best to explain the lyrics in a more down to earth way, the parents hated the album, which always is a good reason for the teenagers to do the opposite. “What a crock of shit! There was nothing demonic about Shout at the Devil. All we were saying was that everyone should stand up and shout at those people who are holding them down, whether it’s their parents, their teachers, or their bosses.” Nikki Sixx (source: nikkisixx.tv).
The highlights on the record, except for the title track is, in my mind “Looks that kill”, “Helter Skelter” (Beatles Cover) and “Too young to fall in love”.
I really like the full sound of Mötley Crüe at this stage in their career, with the crisp guitar, the always amazing drums, Nikki Sixx (as the most frequent writer of the tracks) bass lines and of course the falsetto voice of Vince Neil.
Some other facts:
If you wan’t to discover more from Mötley Crüe, try out these tracks:
Full album:
11:th of June 2008, Coldplay released the Brian Eno produced album “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends”. For me, this album was the first time I really started to enjoy Coldplay. As often when I come across new artists it takes a little while to get used to the sound, the atmosphere and of course the lyrics. What really makes this album complete, is the fulfillment of all those categories.
In short, the album covers the aspects of life, death, war and love. Not the typical “easy going topics”, to say the least.
The album starts off with Life in Technicolor, which is a long intro to the rest of the album. In my opinion this intro works perfectly as an atmosphere leveler.
Cemeteries of London; a typical track about the topics of the album, was recorded in a Barcelona church, and if you listen closely you can hear some spanish “clapping” in the song, while “Bass player Guy Berryman told Entertainment Weekly: When I imagine the song in my head, I see London in 1850. A hell of a lot of rain and men in top hats.” (reference Entertainment Weekly)
Lost! is really well described by “Floridaguy” on song meanings:
This was one of the first songs Coldplay worked on for the record. The band were originally inspired by the song “Sing” by Blur, which they were listening to in their dressing room before performing in a gig in Detroit. They tried to write a song like it and it ended up evolving in various ways with lots of different versions before the final recorded rendering. Chris Martin explained to MTV News: “That’s often how we write, is we listen to something and we think it’s incredible, and we feel stupid for not having anything as good as that, so we go and try to play it. And then, of course, because we don’t know how to do that, we often come up with something new.”
42 is a quite melancholic track with many of the big life questions asked. So far in this review I’ve kept much focus on the lyrics, but the album musically is really amazing. What’s different with this track is that it doesn’t contain a chorus. Instead it’s divided into three parts.
Lovers in Japan. When asked about the development of the song, during a track-by-track reveal, drummer Will Champion said:
We were in a studio in New York, this place called the Magic Shop, and it had this thing called a tack piano there, which sounds like an old honky-tonk piano, where you put little tacks in the hammers, so it sounds like more of a harpsichord almost. And so we wanted to use that kind of sound, but we didn’t have a tack piano, so rather than sample it, we went and bought an old piano from the shop up the road from our studio, and we bought a load of tacks, and me and Guy and Jon spent a couple of hours pushing tacks into the piano hammers. (Source Wikipedia)
Yes: As many of the tracks on this album, this track also have it’s completely own identity. The vocals by Chris Martin are really low.
Viva La Vida is the big top hit from this album reaching the top in both the UK singles chars as Billboard Hot 100. I guess almost everyone who reads this blog at least have heard the typical strings intro. The lyrics carry many biblical references but seems to be more aimed at the conflict between people and government, and especially around war.
Violet Hill. Also a track about a soldier going into battle. The first rows in the lyrics are truly amazing, and gives the rest of the track its atmosphere.
Was a long and dark December
From the rooftops I remember
There was snow
White snow
I really like the contrast in this song (which I may write about almost all the tracks on this album)
Strawberry Swing is a low-key track with african drums, a guitar melody that almost runs throughout the track as a thread.
The last track, Death And All His Friends somehow share some identity with the Swedish pop band Kent.
In the later part of the track the summarize the album beautifully with the sound of “Life in Technicolor”
Full album on Youtube:
Gary Moore (1952-2011), is probably one of the “all greatest guitarists so far”. Maybe not always the fastest, but the combination technical skills, incredible melodies and a 6:th sense to catch an atmosphere has brought him to the absolute top.
As I wrote in the first post in this series – The Best Album of All Times – I will only post one album per artist and I guess that Gary Moore could hold more places than one. The hard part is to choose between the three of them Wild Frontier, After the war and Run for Cover.
In my opinion Wild Frontier is the best when it come to a complete album without any big dips, and oh’boy this album is on the safe side all the way. The difference between this album and the earlier ones are obvious but an interesting detail is the use of a drum machine instead of a human drummer.
The album kicks off with the famous “Over The Hills And Far Away” (later covered by many others for example Nightwish), followed up by the title song “Wild Frontier”. These both songs marks perfectly the change in Gary Moores style after the previous mentioned albums. The Heavy Metal is more popilicious, and the overall sound more friendly.
It continues with “Take A Little Time”. Still a really good song, but a bit after the first two tracks. In my opinion this track get’s a little bit to flirty with the new style and the chorus isn’t far away from many other Dance-tracks.
The Loner is a true epic track with Moore showing of his rare sensitivity in creating emotions / feelings with a guitar. An awesome track!
The weakest part of this album may be the start of “Friday On My Mind”, and it doesn’t really kick off completely, but still is an okay track.
Strangers In The Darkness is a track that may be influenced by Billy Idol (?). The atmosphere, and even more, the vocals are pretty close.
Thunder Rising; a track with a heavy guitar adrenaline stamina that runs almost through the whole song, a punchy chorus and after approx 3:30 a guitar that almost sounds like a bagpipe.
Johnny Boy; a sad track with beautiful melodies dedicated to his friend Phil Lynnot that passed away 1986.
Don’t miss the last track (since it’s hidden behind a second version of “Over the hills and far away”). I’m not really sure how to comment on this track. This track is really different from the others. Some West Coast influences (?), some pop and a bit of a 70’s sound at the same time. In short, Great track! Don’t miss!
If you want to explore more songs from his previous albums I suggest:
After The War
Led Clones (With Ozzy Osbourne on Vocals)
Military Man
Empty Rooms
Out in the fields
Every now and the most of us receives, and shares quotes. What’s really hard to find is quotes that aren’t to corny or sentimental, and just get’s to the core. These 42 points is all about that. I hope you’ll find them as thoughtful as I did.
Best wishes
Stephen Simmonds may be one of the best kept secrets internationally when it comes to male singers. Stephen is a Swedish singer and is appearing frequently in tv-shows, back other artists but rarely plays on his own stages. I’ve never figured out why he hasn’t made it to the big stages in the BIG world, but sometimes I guess it’s a choice of his own.
His album, For Father, released in 2002 is absolutely amazing, and while I’m writing this I’m starting to think that it might be higher up in the list, but as always prioritizing is hard and music can never be “absolute”.
actually I didn’t discover this album until the 2010’s within Spotify, and I directly got struck by it. The album is low key and as a rich full red wine perfect for long evenings at home.
If you like me enjoys his voice, he uses his full potential on all tracks. The high notes in the album, in my opinion is the title song For Father, Where is your heart, Always in my head and More to do and I guess I could list them all.
If you haven’t given Stephen Simmonds a chance before, now you have the chance. Don’t miss it out.
If you like to try out new photo apps for your iPhone / iPad you might enjoy some paid apps that are currently free for a short period. Click on the name of the app for a direct link to each app.
If you like to add text:s to your photos this app may be what you’re looking for. Normal price $1, now free.
A typical Photo Editor app, with quite a lot of functionality built into it. Even though it says that the app used to cost $21 and now’s out for free it’s not the full truth. I checked the history of the app and they increased the price on the 10:th of July from $1 to $21. Maybe a good advertising trick. Anyhow, it seems like a good app even though I’ve not tried it out that much yet.
A traditional “filter app” in the same tradition as many others. Some nice ones if you like to add new filters to your vault.
Ratt, the band with the name that’s a synonym to Steering Wheel in Swedish was one of my big favorites as a teenager, and they still are. Risen from the L.A Glam scene, in competition with bands like Mötley Crüe, Van Halen and its likes, Ratt was a solid contender of the heavy metal scene back in my youth. In Sweden they had a few hits, but my feeling is that the group didn’t get the attention that they deserved, and experienced in other parts of the world.
The guitar sound from this record may be one of the most “cold” guitar sounds ever, and the tempo slow for this kind of music, while the vocals are “slow”; but wow this is a great album from start to finish. An album that’s solid and well-kept together as a whole. This was one of those albums that could’ve ended up on many places in this 40-top list; both higher and lower.
In my opinion Round and Round is the most significant contribution of all songs on this record. The song is almost a summary of the rest of the tracks.
I guess the lyrics won’t be mentioned in the lyrics classes in the 2100:s, but the clean crisp sound may end up in the musical classes.
If you want to explore more music by Ratt, check out the track Lay it down from the “Invasion of your privacy album” (1985), and while you’re at it, their more recent albums.
In my opinion the more recent contributions doesn’t share the same quality as before but still some good music to explore… and yes, they are (as a brand at least) still active with new albums on their way.
Best wishes for a great Tuesday.
Aldo Nova, a Canadian artist became a huge success in the early-/mid 80:s with his albums “Aldo Nova” and “Subject..”.
Even though the first two albums are really good, I think Twitch is the one that’s the most complete, and keeps a certain atmosphere through the whole album with its 80’s Gary Moore influenced guitars and easy straight rock in the flavor of Bryan Adams, and maybe also Bon Jovi. If I’ve read the facts right this album was not a huge success in the world, but in Sweden it became the most successful one when it was launched in 1985.
As mentioned earlier the album is really solid, and if there is one song that lacks behind it may be the title song – Twitch. Other than that it’s an album that can be kept on replay a number of times.
On the other side it’s harder to pick a favorite, which often is the case with “Best albums”.
Aldo Nova has also been a successful song writer to a number of artists such as Jon Bon Jovi, Céline Dion, Blue Öyster Cult, Chantal and Clay Aiken’s “This Is the Night” (co-written with Chris Braide and Gary Burr), which in the U.S. was a number one hit and the best selling single of 2003. (Source: Wikipedia)
Today I started wondering about which albums, no matter the category, that are the best of all times in my opinion. With “best” I don’t necessarily mean the most historic or changing. I just mean, the best albums for me. The albums that I come back to time after time, some of them just for the memories connected to them, and others simply for the amazing music.
It might be good to know that my musical background has its roots in west coast/AOR, old school heavy metal and more instrumental genres, even though I listen to almost everything nowadays. In my music tab you can find my current favorites.
So instead of just posting them all in one post I figured that I’ll split them up in 11 separate posts, and today I begin with those that didn’t make it to the top-20 list and a special around the runner-up for top-20.
Some of my favorite artist would have more than one album on this list, but I’ve chosen to keep just one album from every artist, and mention others worth noticing.
And remember, best album doesn’t mean best two or three songs that are good or maybe even awesome. Best album is “Best album all together”.
So, here we go…
Which albums didn’t make it to the top-20 list? (Spotify linked)
21 Dire Straits – On every street (Special mention Brothers in arms)
22 The Fray – The Fray
23 Metallica – Metallica
24 Adele – 21
25 Top Gun – Motion Picture Soundtrack
26 David Foster
27 Nirvana – Nevermind
28 Peter Gabriel – So
29 Abba – The Album
30 Robert Plant / Alison Krauss – Raising Sand
31 Johnny Hates Jazz – Turn Back The Clock
32 Bruce Hornsby – The Way It is
33 Level 42 – Running in the family
34 Chicago – Chicago 17
35 Marc Cohn – Marc Cohn
36 Richard Marx – Richard Marx
37 Gun’s n Roses – Apetite for Destruction
38 Europe – Wings of Tomorrow
39 Saga – Wildest Dreams
40 Elvis Presley – G.I Blues
P.S I also try to post a photo of my own that I think is connected to each album in some kind of way. D.S
This album is, as Brothers in Arms one of the albums that are heavily used as a reference album when it comes to demonstrating sound in HiFi-shops. The sound is really clear, and you can separate all the instruments really well, and I guess the subtle music also makes some sense in a public place.
I guess many listeners would’ve voted Brothers in arms as the better album of the two, but I favor this album since I think the feeling / atmosphere as a complete album is more tight. Brothers in arms holds many of Dire Straits top selling hits but the album feels straggly compared to the more collected On every street.
This is maybe not one of the albums that I’ve listened to the most, but it’s an album that I come back to every now and then and the title song, On Every Street is one of my long time favorites.
The high points, except the already mentioned title song, is Iron Hand, Calling Elvis, fade to black and the country inspired The Bug.
Dire Straits in short, from Wikipedia:
Dire Straits were a British rock band, formed in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), his younger brother David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Pick Withers (drums and percussion). Dire Straits’ sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest to beat music within the context of rock and roll. Despite the prominence of punk rock during the band’s early years, the band’s stripped-down sound contrasted with punk, demonstrating a more “rootsy” influence that emerged out of pub rock. Many of Dire Straits’ compositions were melancholic.[3] Dire Straits’ biggest selling album, Brothers in Arms, has sold over 30 million copies.[4]
They also became one of the world’s most commercially successful bands, with worldwide album sales of over 120 million.[5] Dire Straits won numerous music awards during their career, including four Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards—winning Best British Group twice, and two MTV Video Music Awards.[5] The band’s most popular songs include “Sultans of Swing”, “Lady Writer”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Tunnel of Love”, “Telegraph Road”, “Private Investigations”, “Money for Nothing”, “Walk of Life”, “So Far Away”, “Your Latest Trick” and “Brothers in Arms”.
Dire Straits’ career spanned a combined total of 15 years. The band originally split up in 1988, but reformed in 1991. Dire Straits disbanded for good in 1995 when Mark Knopfler launched his career full time as a solo artist. There were several changes in personnel over both periods, leaving Mark Knopfler and John Illsley as the only two original bandmates who had remained throughout the band’s career.
Photo by: Simon Christen; simonchristen.com
During the last month I’ve visited Malta and Amsterdam and of course spent time in my hometown Stockholm. In almost every scenic place around the world people are getting more frequent in hanging up locks to show their feelings for one another.
The tradition is to right something on the lock, hang it on a bridge, a wire or anywhere with the scenery behing it, lock it, and then throw away the key.
In these secular times, maybe this is a modern way of getting married?
All the photos are taken with iPhone 5.
In Sweden we have an expression called “I-landsproblem”. If I should try to explain it, it’s like a problem that’s only a problem when everything else is okay. For instance, your nearest store have changed the place of the Coca-Colas, your new Ferrari only comes with 18″ wheels, or that your planned washing time at your house is occupied 5 minutes longer than you expected. They are all “i-landsproblem”.
This post will probably hit one of those marks where “i-Landsproblem” almost won’t cut it, but still I find this topic a little fascinating since it’s all apart of our new society, and about Social Media. This phenomena (Social Media) that’s not even 10 years old but everyone knows all about it… or?
This topic is about those people who are commenting or “liking” friends posts that are “public”. You know with the “Tellus-symbol” attached to it. This means that the posts that your “friend”, “colleague” or just “facebook acquaintance” have posted is “all out there” for everyone to see. (1)
So what’s the big fuzz? What’s the problem with that?
Before I explain my thoughts around this matter; let me give a short insight to all of those who might not be aware of how Facebook friend categories work. If you know all about it.. -> Skip to “Continue here”
Everytime you post something on Facebook you will have the choice to choose who will see your message.
The main categories are:
Except the categories above, you can also categorize your friends in the category “limited”, which means that they will not see anyone of your posts, except the ones that are posted as “public”.
Continue here…
So, my question is, why do people click or comment, on friends “public” postings (except if the friend has a “higher” purpose of some kind like sending an important message or aiming at getting something important widely spread)? (1)
So, why shouldn’t you click on your friends public posts?
1) Your friend has maybe put you on their “limited” list, which means that you only see these posts that they’ve chosen to be public, which means that you’re maybe not so good friends after all.
2) When you click that public post, everyone of your friends, not just their friends… ALL of your friends will also see it. This will also mean that your digital foot print will be left entirely in their hands. Not in yours.
3) Except for the above; when you click a public post you will also “spam” your friends with the same message that most of them probably won’t care about, since they probably don’t know this person. Maybe not a big issue if you have 50 “friends”, but certainly if you have 500 or more.
So my tip to you “social media people”; think about where you’re putting your digital foot print, and make sure that you can control your own digital foot prints by yourself, instead of handing that choice over to somebody else who may keep it in public forever.
We’re living in a new era where we all are trying to keep up with these new media types, and I guess many of us (including myself) aren’t paying enough attention to what we are leaving as footprint forever.
So, in short, “like” and “comment” only posts that you know that you can control in the future.
A last short tip. When did you last clean your Facebook page, and made all your previous posts just visible to yourself? That’s a real good functionality within Facebook that many people don’t know about. Summer cleaning?
… and to all of you posting in public; remember that these posts will be public for your next employer, your friends friends (also in the future), the government and of course your children’s / parents friends.
(1) The information above isn’t applicable when you change profile picture or wall picture since those are (in most cases) public by default
Today Flickr announced that they are increasing free storage to 1 TB / user. This was previously limited to professional users, but now it’s available for all users.
It’s evident that Flickr are serious in getting up to speed with the competition from 500px, Instagram/Facebook and so on.
Read more about this here
I previously had a post about my purchase of the Olloclip Macro lens for iPhone. I really start
to appreciate the small format, but at the same time I also appreciate it’s form which makes it easier to find in the pocket (compared to previous lenses).
If you are interested in finding more photos from Olloclip, you can find them in my instagram feed at http://instagram.com/pedrohansson
According to Swedish, and international media the World Press Photo winner Paul Hansen is now cleared from the accusations of faking his award winning photo, and will keep his award, best photo of the year.
For an update in english, click here
According to Extreme Tech the World Press Photo of the year, taken by Paul Hansen is fake. What do you think? Are they right?
I’ve always enjoyed watching old photos/videos of familiar places, and to get a glimpse of how places used to look like. This must be a quite rare color clip from 1927, of a growing London. Really surprising that there were so many motor vehicles on the streets back then, and also that things looks so familiar even thought it’s almost 100 years back in time.
At the end of the clip you’ll se how this place looked back then.
This will be my first post in a series of two where I try one of the three lenses in total that comes with the Olloclip package. It can also be found on my more technical site: http://lifeinsumpan.com
With my previous iPhones I really enjoyed using those small macro lenses that could be attached on the phone by using a simple cover (Tested in a previous post). Now I’ve bought a similar lens for my iPhone 5, from Olloclip.
The price tag differs quite much from the old lens. For this lens Apple Store want’s $100, which I think is rather expensive and I guess that it could be found for far less money than that in other stores than Apples own store.
This lens is attached to the phone by sliding it over the edge of the iPhone 5, and over the camera lens. The first impression of this solution is that even though it’s nice to use a lens like this without attaching some kind of magnet, or using a complete cover it doesn’t feel tight enough. It really feels that the lens might slide off someday.
With all that said it’s really easy to bring the lens, and maybe I will use this more than the previous one for the iPhone 4S.
Summary – Olloclip Macro lens: I really enjoy the possibility to be able to take macro photos with the phone, even though it’s hard to keep the subjects still and get a sharp image, but the possibility in itself, to see nature and other things better than it’s possible with the real eye is a real thrill sometimes. So if you have $100 lying around somewhere, and enjoy the creative part in getting up close with things, you’ll have a good time as long as you don’t drop the lens due to the light fixing.
I guess I’m – at least in Sweden – one of very few that already longs for winter time. During the last few years I’ve really discovered the alps and the amazing nature, and of course adrenaline rides it can bring.
Earlier today I watched some videos with some of the best skiers in the world, and it’s strange, I almost can’t wait for next winter when I see this. Normally I’m a guy who’s a speed freak in the slopes, but these videos are really inspiring in terms of off-pist, technique and so on.
But as always… it’s better to enjoy every season and appreciate it for what it brings, so let’s make the summer of 2013 the best ever, and prepare for next winter.
Anyhow, for next winter, here comes some inspiration.
…and for all of you who enjoys photo, this video is AMAZING!
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If you like to experience with apps in your iOS device, maybe FX Photo Studio may be something for you? Since it’s free for one day, it may be worth a download, at least for checking it out.
Best wishes for a new week
Saarimner.com 