Listen Closely with Jon & Chris

Widely regarded as one of the most influential bands of all time (they're Jon’s #1 favorite band) and long praised by critics, Roxy Music were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame in 2019. Yet their 1980 album, Flesh + Blood, was largely panned by critics and dismissed by many die-hard Roxy Music fans. In the final episode of season one of Listen Closely with Jon and Chris, the two make a compelling argument as to why (despite one painfully terrible track) Flesh + Blood is the very definition of a summer album, and is one that contains some incredible songs and deserves a closer listen.

In the penultimate (a word both Jon and Chris are quite fond of) episode of season one of Listen Closely with Jon & Chris, the guys are joined by longtime friend and fellow popular music enthusiast, Jim Moscater. The three discuss the jazzy, funky, and cryptic 1977 masterpiece, Aja, by Steely Dan. Featuring the finest session musicians of the era, infectious grooves, and Steely Dan's trademark perplexing lyrics, the album captures Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker at  their creative zenith.

After a five-year disappearing act which landed him on a mountaintop surrounded by Buddhist monks, the charming and eloquent Canadian singer-songwriter/poet/ladies man returned to the music scene refreshed and reinvigorated with several new songs (ten, to be exact), Cohen also joined forces with this album's secret weapon: Sharon Robinson, a multi-talented singer-songwriter and instrumentalist. 

Jon and Chris discuss this moving collection of songs- Cohen's first of the 21st century- and the start of what would be the long and productive last chapter of his incredible life and career. 

On July 13th, 1985, the Live Aid concerts were held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia. They featured the top pop and rock musicians of the day, and over sixteen hours of live music.  Organized by a fading post-punk/new wave performer (Bob Geldof) the purpose of the concerts (which were referred to as a 'Global Jukebox') were to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. The result was a wild, raucous, and often entertaining day of music, insanity, and strange hairstyles. 

Chris and Jon take a look back at a few of the few highlights and several of the lowlights from this seminal day in rock and roll history, thirty-five years later. 

Perfect July 4th Weekend listening, this landmark album from the legendary Boz Scaggs is blue-eyed 70s soul at its absolute finest.  Featuring incredible musicianship, smooth vocals, and slick production, the album is filled with infectious melodies and bizarre lyrics (track #2, 'Georgia,' is not an ode to the Peachtree state, but is instead about a man's relationship with a much, much younger female). 

Get the dirty lowdown on this amazing collection of songs as Jon and Chris rave about this sentimental summer favorite from 1976. 

A monumental album from The Boss. Chris loves it, Jon has mixed feelings about it. But both agree that this is one of the most important and significant rock albums of the 1980s and perhaps even of all time.  Listen as Chris gets all professorial while discussing the finer points of the title track, and Jon spends a large part of the episode singing the praises of a song that's not even on the album, 

Jon and Chris look back on twenty-five years since high school graduation. They are joined by their old friend and classmate, Joe Beleznay, and the three take a nostalgic trip down memory lane and revisit the good (and not so good) songs that defined the long, hot, crazy summer of 1995. 

One of the most underrated bands of the 1990s (and beyond) is undoubtedly the multi-talented Manchester band, James. Produced by the legendary, Brian Eno, their 1993 album - which contains the hit song, 'Laid'-  is widely considered to be one of the best to come out of the UK in the 1990s. 

Take a close listen as Jon and Chris examine the album, and make a compelling argument for why (more than a quarter-century after it was released) the album sounds as fresh and relevant as ever. 

This genre of music (often referred to as 'Yacht Rock' or Marina Rock') is so near and dear to both Chris and Jon that they obnoxiously devote over an hour to it. Listen to this often entertaining and occasionally rambling analysis of the smooth, easy sounds of the late-70s and early-80s. 

And what better way is there to launch a summer of isolation and social distancing then by extolling the virtues of Steely Dan, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins and Boz Scaggs?