I get confused every day

Alice Cooper - Love it to Death - 1971

We start a new year, and it makes me very happy that this is the first album of the year, because it sure it's a great one.
After listening to Alice's previous couple of albums, I think that he was abducted by aliens, shown a glimpse of the future, and returned back. And if this sounds a bit crazy, give it a thought and tell me that Alice Cooper wouldn't be a great choice for an alien to abduct!
This sounds not only a lot like the Alice we all know and love, but it sounds exactly the opposite of "dated": many of the songs would not be out of place in any rock album released 10 or 15 years later. For the most part, all the crazy experimental stuff is gone, and what we have here is straight up, fun, classic Alice Cooper. Still bizarre, still out there, but much cleaner and better.
Production had a lot to do with it, this being the first album produced by Bob Ezrin, who would later on produce very well known albums by bands like Aerosmith, Kiss, Pink Floyd, among others.
This album was also the first one from the band to have a major single, "I'm eighteen", which entered the US charts, and there are quite a few songs here that have been played by the band for years.
And it's been a major influence on, well, probably pretty much everybody from the 70s, 80s and even 90s.
I did like the first ones a bit, but this one is such a breath of fresh air!

• Perhaps the only "experimental" track here is "Black Juju", which reminds me at times a bit of Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive" or "Set the Controls....". But, as with most of the album, even this experimental track sounds much more focused than anything in the previous albums.
• In live performances of "The Ballad of Dwight Fry", Alice will be dragged offstage to reappear in a straightjacket. I can say that I've had the joy and fun of seeing him live, straightjacket and all.
• Some parts of "Dwight Fry" remind me a bit of the acoustic version of Guns'n'Roses' "One in a Million". It's probably my favourite track of the album, so here it is, in all its living (and live) glory.

Busted flat in Baton Rouge, heading for the trains

Janis Joplin - Pearl - 1971

Released in January 1971, this album saw the light 4 months after Janis's death, in October 1970, while this one was being recorded.

Which makes me wonder if this album would have the legendary quality it's acquired if it wasn't released soon after Janis's untimely death.

Don't get me wrong, I know this is a very good album, and most of the problems I have with it have to do with the fact that, as I said before, I have never been too much of a fan of her voice or style. 

Also, this is very much an unfinished album, with some of her singing being recorded only a couple of days before she died. So I don't expect it to be perfect.
Now, still if some of the success of the album had to do with the circumstances surrounding it, there's no denying that there is a lot of good here, we can enjoy some amazing vocal moments, and she had solid musicians backing her up.

And there is one more thing: The feeling that this is so authentic, so natural. And this is something you don't usually find in popular music, least of all in female performers. But Janis's vocal always seem raw and carry so much feeling that you can't help by being moved by her singing.

• There's an instrumental track here, "Buried Alive in the Blues". Janis was supposed to record the vocal track on the day she died.
• Some of my favourite tracks here are "Move Over", her cover of "Me & Bobby McGee", and "Get it While you can".
• And no, I haven't forgotten the classic "Cry, Baby". It was the first song I ever heard by her. Until then I had only known her by reputation, and I guess I was expecting a lower range singer for some reason. It was a live performance, and I remember being quite surprised at the sheer energy and passion she conveyed. Again, it's hard to think of female singers that can let go like that on stage and give such raw feelings. I can't tell if that first performance I saw is the same as this video, but she still manages to shock me a bit.