Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen

Label: A&M
Genre: Rock and Roll
Year: 1970
Recommended by: Jeff Sherry

Joe Cocker is the best cover artist of all-time. He covers soul, folk, and rock. It's impressive considering his gravely voice that his performance is often the most well known of many of the songs he performs.

It's a great listen to live music, where Joe Cocker can be in his element, and it's great to hear covers on songs I already love. I loved both "Honky Tonk Women" and The Band's "The Weight". The Band is great and everyone should see The Last Waltz, which is currently streaming on Netflix.

Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman

Label: A&M
Genre: Folk Rock
Year: 1970
Recommended by: Rose Sherry
 

This is one album my mom would play growing up quite often. It's a fantastic work that wasn't really critically acclaimed at the time of it's release. "Father and Son" is one of my favorite songs of all-time and there are still five other great songs on the record. 

I think the strongest thing about the record is that ten different people could listen to it and strongly disagree on which song is the best on the album. It's a great feat.

Trip Shakespeare - Lulu

Label: A&M
Year: 1991
Genre: Rock
Recommending Person: Melissa, AKA My Sister

This 90s album, that wishes so much to be a band that played at Woodstock or open for the Grateful Dead, shows how many times that current bands take from their inspiration a little too closely to heart.

Unfortunately, Lulu never really caught on as a big seller during the 90s. It came out when Grunge was turning the business on it's head. It was way to poppy, happy, and melodic to succeed in a time when the biggest band in the world had a singer that no one could totally understand. Nirvana's Nevermind just changed the decade and Lulu would never become popular.

The record industry, through no work of their own, now has enough niches that Lulu would easily become a hit today and would be one of the top albums of the year. However, in 1991 you had to be over the top pop or grunge. Lulu was neither and failed because of it.

Every song seems familiar, as if it was in every movie from the early 90s, but has it's own spin. The biggest issue I have about the record is that for no reason what so ever the final track is two and a half minutes of crickets chirping. Now they title it correctly, but I really was waiting for something else. I guess they win.

Joe Jackson - Look Sharp

Label: A&M
Year: 1979
Genre: Punk, New Wave, Post-Punk
Recommending Person: Jeff Sherry

Joe Jackson's Look Sharp is an interesting snapshot of moving from the late 70s punk movement into the copycats of Huey Lewis in the 80s. 

It's a bridge album incorporating many tropes of late 70s punk/new wave acts like The Clash and introducing new techniques later seemingly aped by The J. Geils Band. You can here similarities between "Centerfold" and Jackson's hit single "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" and many of those pop punk-ish bands of the 80s sound very similar. 

I loved the punkier songs on the album like "Throw It Away" or "One More Time", maybe I just love 3 word titles. Joe Jackson never got huge, but he always seems to be around and mentioned a decent amount and his music, for the most part, ages well.