New York Dolls - Rock n' Roll (comp)

Finally got to liking them after repeated exposure to their songs on Yahoo! Launchcast, although the Chuck Berry-Keith Richards shuffle boogie can be a bit repetitive and sludgy. Best songs are where they sound trashy and sleazy - Trash, Lone Star Queen, Personality Crisis and the Yello-ish Stranded in the Jungle. I don't really like Frankenstein, which is a bit draggy. Still, I can see where most hair metal get their influences from, albeit the original had more panache and style. Quite glammy and punky also.

Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul

Expecting this to have the same muted wah wah guitar of the "Shaft" soundtrack. Can say I'm a bit disappointed but the reworkings of "Walk On By" and "By the Time I get to Phoenix" are sassy and monstrous. I could do without the spoken word intro to "Phoenix" but this is one heck of a meticulously arranged soul album. Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalmystic is one of the best twelve bar blues reworked into r n' b songs that I've heard, barring Prince's Kiss.

The Stooges - The Weirdness

This one, however, leaves me exasperated. There were times when the songs could have reached the pinnacle of the great two but something always pulls it back. Perhaps it's Iggy's more finite grasp of melody. Perhaps it's Ron Asheton's proficiency which makes it sound like mainstream garage rock. Dunno how much money they were offered to do this but it pisses all over the first two albums. Steve Albini's dense production also doesn't help it much.