Sounds of CineMcCollough

Next up before us, what do we see? A little silhouette of a man in the form of the British rock band Queen - one of Lord Rob's top five bands of all time, finally making an appearance here in the Sounds of CineMcCollough.

Rob had a lot of options for which two albums to pick - one of them seemed pretty obvious - 1975's "A Night at the Opera" and skip forward five years and a few albums for "The Game" (1980).

Queen is a band with a lot of memorable hit songs, but is not necessarily a group that one associates with particular albums. As a result, many music fans are also unfamiliar with some of their album tracks, which is a shame, as there are some hidden gems mixed in with the hits.

Listen in as Rob leads Butch, Jim and Jeremy (and bonus Joel!) through the two albums and we rank the songs on each disk!

TRACKS: 12 (Opera) and 10 (The Game)
RUNTIME: 43:08 (Opera) and 34:02 (The Game)
CERTIFICATION: 3x platinum (Opera) and 4x platinum (The Game)

Butch's pick is up next and he goes back to some 80s pop - though, for what it is worth, it is a former prog band - this week Butch asks "Give me GENESIS!" in his best Khan voice, and brings two albums from their 80s pop era, bookending the 80s - 1981's "ABACAB" and then skipping ahead a couple albums to their big late 80s hitmaker "Invisible Touch" (1986).

Genesis recently ceased touring with the medical retirement of Phil Collins, so it seems like eons ago when Phil Collins' presence was felt all over pop music, playing with Genesis, and as a solo artist, and as a visiting drummer and vocalist on all sorts of collaborations.

Question is, are the songs from these albums timeless or stuck int heir era? Did Butch pick the correct albums? And which songs do we think are all timers and which are duds? Listen in and find out!

TRACKS: 9 (ABACAB) and 8 (Invisible Touch)
RUNTIME: 48:03 (ABACAB) and 45:42 (Invisible Touch)
CERTIFICATION: 2x platinum (ABACAB) and 6x platinum (Invisible Touch)

Hot on the heels of our first disk of randomly selected one-hit-wonder tunes gathered from a 240-song database of songs 1960-1999, we bring you the second volume (out of 24 volumes) for your listening pleasure... and by that, we mean "listen to us talk about songs that we listened to..."

There is a little something for everyone on this list, as is the case with most of the volumes of CinemaK-Tel's Wheel of One-Hit Wonders... we rank the ten songs here to decide which still hold up and which belong in the time capsule.

-          “Tubthumping” by Chumba Wumba (1997)

-          “Into the Night” by Benny Mardones (1980)

-          “Valley Girl” by Frank Zappa (1982)

-          “Don’t Close Your Eyes” by Kix (1989)

-          “I Melt With You” by Modern English (1982)

-          “Forever Young” by Alphaville (1984)

-          “In My House” by Mary Jane Girls (1985)

-          “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” by Edison Lighthouse (1970)

-          “Maniac” by Michael Sembello (1983)

-          “Black Betty” by Ram Jam (1977)

We continue on our double-album cavalcade here at Sounds of CineMcCollough... but this time we take it in a slightly different direction by evaluating the two 1986 follow-up albums to Van Halen's juggernaut hit "1984" from two years later.

Our first album follows the band and the Van Halen brothers into the second iteration of Van Halen - with replacement lead singer Sammy Hagar, on what would be their first #1 album, "5150." Meanwhile, the departed lead singer David Lee Roth releases his big solo album "Eat 'Em and Smile" as a counterargument to exactly who in the band was the driving force of the success that had culminated in "1984."

We will evaluate every track on both albums, rank the top fives on each album, and stake a claim to which of the two albums we think was the superior product... and it should not be a surprise to learn that we collectively DISAGREE on the outcome! But which of the two will Jim, Butch, Rob and Jeremy select?

TRACKS: 9 (5150) and 10 (Eat Em & Smile)
RUNTIME: 43:16 (5150) and 31:04 (Eat Em & Smile)
CERTIFICATION: 6x platinum (5150) and platinum (Eat Em & Smile)

The Sounds of CineMcCollough this week turns the reins over to our honorary fifth member - Joel Perry - for a fresh and younger musical perspective. To that end, Joel selected for us two albums by Danish rock band Volbeat - "Seal the Deal and Let's Boogie" (2016) and their seventh album "Rewind, Replay, Rebound" (2019).

Proof that this is not only not your father's rock and roll music, but the rest of us Soundsters found out that Volbeat is not even THEIR rock and roll music. But it is rock music nonetheless, so we give it a listen and tell you what we think. Ranking each album track by track, and picking a winner between them.

TRACKS: 13 (Seal the Deal...) and 14 (Rewind...)
RUNTIME: 53:03 (Seal the Deal) and 56:45 (Rewind...)
CERTIFICATION: no certification for either album

Butch is back at the top of the Sounds of CineMcCollough list to pick the next pair of albums, and he is going back to the sixties to encourage us to open our minds... or at least our doors of perception. You guessed it, next up is a two-album pairing that spans the career of Jim Morrison - The Doors debut album from 1967, as well as the final album recorded by Morrison before his death at age 27, "LA Woman" (1971).

Truly a band possessing a unique sound, both thanks to the mellow voice and vocal stylings of Morrison but also to the keyboard proclivities of Ray Manzarek. Equal parts bombastic, melodic, and psychedelic, both albums are truly a crystal ship ride through that era. Both albums feel fully rooted in the late sixties rock sound, with lyrics to match.

But don't just take Butch's word for it - listen in and find out what Jim, Jay and Rob think and compare your notes with ours!

TRACKS: 11 (The Doors) and 10 (LA Woman)
RUNTIME: 43:34 (The Doors) and 48:25 (LA Woman)
CERTIFICATION: 4x platinum (The Doors) and 3x platinum (LA Woman)

While doing album reviews, Butch had an idea - a wonderful idea - a terrible and wonderful idea. How will we ever get to talk about one-hit-wonders doing album reviews?

The answer came to him in a flash - he went to the Internet and searched for 'one hit wonders" and then compiled a playlist of 240 of them from 1960-1999, a full four decades of artists forever identified with just a single song that somehow became a hit. Some of these artists are better known than others, and some of their songs are MUCH better known than others. But everyone has a few such songs that are among their favorite.

Butch then used random dice rolls to assemble that 240-song playlist into ten-song volumes - 24 of them, if my math is correct - and thus we bring to you the "CinemaK-Tel Wheel of One-Hit Wonders" -- 24 disks each with ten randomly-selected songs presented for our group to listen to and analyze and rank.

TRACKS FROM VOLUME I:
-          “Don’t Give Up on Us” by David Soul (1977)

-          “Precious and Few” by Climax (1971)

-          “Stone Cold” by Rainbow (1982)

-          “Kung Fu Fighting” by Carl Douglas (1974)

-          “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Iron Butterfly (1968)

-          “Voices Carry” by Til Tuesday (1985)

-          “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor (1990)

-          “She’s So High” by Tal Bachman (1999)

-          “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell (1981)

-          “Funkytown” by Pseudo Echo (1983)

Jay leaps completely off the map for his next pick, a band that he saw live for the first time while living in New York City and inspired him to pick up a few of their albums - Swedish garage rock band The Hives. He selected two of their albums - their big 2007 disk "The Black and White Album" and their follow-up from nearly five years later, "Lex Hives."

The Hives bring a ton of energy and high-tempo musical selections, and show a great deal of technical skill in their instrumentality. Plus the get bonus points for singing in English so we can comment on the lyrics! Don't be afraid to give one of these disks, or both of them, a listen if you've never heard of The Hives before, then listen to the Sounds of CineMcCollough's analysis and comparison.

TRACKS: 14 (Black and White) and 12 (Lex Hives)
RUNTIME: 47:57 (Black and White) and 31:14 (Lex Hives)
CERTIFICATION: no certification in the USA for either album

With his next double-album pick, Rob selects one of his top three all-time favorite bands - the German hard-rock group The Scorpions - and two albums from our youth: 1982's "Blackout" and "Crazy World: from 1990.

The Scorpions are a band that is a contemporary of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and like the latter of those two are still active today. The band almost certainly reached its peak later than the Stones, however, as it was the first album from today that really put them on the map, and the second album where they likely reached their apex with their biggest hit song.

Most of us here at Sounds of CineMcCollough believe The Scorpions are tragically underrated for both their songs and their skills. Give these two disks a listen, then give US a listen, and see if you agree!

TRACKS: 9 (Blackout) and 11 (Crazy World)
RUNTIME: 36:22 (Blackout) and 52:53 (Crazy World)
CERTIFICATION: platinum (Blackout) and 2x platinum (Crazy World)

And just like that, our trio at Sounds of CineMcCollough is now officially a quartet with the addition of "Cold Jim" Perry, who contributes HIS first selection of a pair of albums by an artist in this week's episode. He chose a pair of 80s albums by Aerosmith, "Permanent Vacation" (1987) and "Pump" (1989).

We still do it the way we have been doing it - track by track review, comparing the two albums, and then ranking our five favorite tracks (and one least favorite) from each album AND ranking all the albums we have reviewed so far. So JOIN US, give the albums a listen, and see how your thoughts compare to ours!

TRACKS: 12 (Permanent Vacation) and 10 (Pump)
RUNTIME: 51:46 (Permanent Vacation) and 47:44 (Pump)
CERTIFICATION: 5x platinum (Permanent Vacation) and 7x platinum (Pump)