Wax Picks: Friday $5 Picks
Amazon crushed it this week with 5 great albums for just $5 each. The theme is “first albums.”
Though technically, U2′s Boy was released after their Irish debut Three, Boy was their first international release and the album that broke them into the scene. None of these releases are my absolute favorite albums by these artists, I would take Kind of Blue over Birth of the Cool, IV over Led Zeppelin, and Joshua Tree over Boy. Nonetheless they are great looks into bands that have undeniably shaped the face of music for the rest of us. It also goes to show that even the greatest of bands take an album or two to find their groove.
Something also has to be said for Miles Davis’ album titles. He has got to have the monopoly on hip album names or something. Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew and though Birth of the Cool wasn’t titled as such until later, that’s such a bold statement to make. It’s like the guy at the party that shows up and says, “Start the party, I’m here” only Davis wasn’t a tool. It was, in fact, saying just that though; cool did not exist until Miles Davis laid it down.
When you look at the albums’ release dates, it’s astounding to consider what these pioneers were each doing in their own time. Boy was released in 1980, Birth of the Cool recorded in 1949, nobody was doing what these artists were doing in their respective eras. We’ve now seen the legacies that each of these bands have left, but would we have seen it coming at the time? Who are some artists in this day and age that we’ll credit with reshaping music when we look back in 20, 30, or even 50 years?
Check out the albums here and like I always say, get your roots right:
U2 – Boy
Miles Davis – Birth of the Cool
The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico
Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
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