Beyond Frank'n Furter, Ziggy & Hedwig: Album Recs Plz!
March 2, 2020 1:39 PM Subscribe
Hello AskMefi, I just had rotator cuff surgery and am chillin' to groovy tunes until the nerve block wears off. And possibly beyond depending on how that goes! Looking for full album listens to continue/expand upon this sequence:
(I'm on Hedwig now):
Rocky horror picture show original motion picture soundtrack
Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars
Hedwig and the angry inch original motion picture soundtrack
???
I would be delighted to be pointed to music by people who are not white or men. But white men are OK too! So if this were an SAT question what would your answer be? I am open to a wide variety of genres If your instinct is to associate by thematic elements rather than musical genre. Feel free to go wide in any direction! But in general the rock/ power ballad vibe of these albums is working for me very well right now. That may change when I have to start taking the pain medicine.
I have a subscription to google play music. And I suppose there's always YouTube. I also have a pretty big music library so who knows I might even have an album you suggest.
(I'm on Hedwig now):
Rocky horror picture show original motion picture soundtrack
Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars
Hedwig and the angry inch original motion picture soundtrack
???
I would be delighted to be pointed to music by people who are not white or men. But white men are OK too! So if this were an SAT question what would your answer be? I am open to a wide variety of genres If your instinct is to associate by thematic elements rather than musical genre. Feel free to go wide in any direction! But in general the rock/ power ballad vibe of these albums is working for me very well right now. That may change when I have to start taking the pain medicine.
I have a subscription to google play music. And I suppose there's always YouTube. I also have a pretty big music library so who knows I might even have an album you suggest.
Are you familiar with the rest of the Bowie canon? The sequence of Pin-Ups, Aladdin Sane, and Diamond Dogs has logical follow-through with Ziggy Stardust and they have a lot of cinematic/dramatic elements in common.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:53 PM on March 2, 2020
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:53 PM on March 2, 2020
Lou Reed - Transformer
posted by Huffy Puffy at 1:55 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Huffy Puffy at 1:55 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell is one I have always turned to..an odd comfort album, if you will.
posted by annieb at 2:04 PM on March 2, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by annieb at 2:04 PM on March 2, 2020 [7 favorites]
Scissor Sisters, either their self-titled album or "Night Work" would continue the vein you've been in.
posted by adamrice at 2:08 PM on March 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by adamrice at 2:08 PM on March 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
Shock Treatment soundtrack. More of the good stuff from the Rocky Horror people.
And a Janet who is an ALTO yesss
posted by tomboko at 3:01 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
And a Janet who is an ALTO yesss
posted by tomboko at 3:01 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
kilroy was here by styx (1983) aspires to be a rock opera, and tangentially touches on identity, though, in fairness, not gender identity. also, maybe not as musically strong as, well, all the foregoing.
hair, the american triabal love-rock musical, is probably closer. see, e.g.
posted by 20 year lurk at 3:12 PM on March 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
hair, the american triabal love-rock musical, is probably closer. see, e.g.
posted by 20 year lurk at 3:12 PM on March 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
Danny Elfman's Forbidden Zone soundtrack.
posted by ovvl at 3:56 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by ovvl at 3:56 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Laurie Anderson "Mister Heartbreak" 1984
posted by SoberHighland at 4:01 PM on March 2, 2020
posted by SoberHighland at 4:01 PM on March 2, 2020
Rent and Spring Awakening.
posted by Champagne Supernova at 4:08 PM on March 2, 2020
posted by Champagne Supernova at 4:08 PM on March 2, 2020
I kinda feel like recommending Oasis here, especially What’s the Story Morning Glory.
I’ll also bring up very late Bowie: The Next Day is a banger. (Blackstar is good, but kinda space jazzy and different. The Next Day is more straightforward.)
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:15 PM on March 2, 2020
I’ll also bring up very late Bowie: The Next Day is a banger. (Blackstar is good, but kinda space jazzy and different. The Next Day is more straightforward.)
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:15 PM on March 2, 2020
How has no one recommended Janelle Monáe? All of her albums are immersive concept albums. They even relate to each other! I am a die-hard Bowie fan and say without hesitation that she is the biggest talent since Bowie. Bonus on the not-a-white-guy scale: she is a queer black woman in addition to being a genius.
Her albums, in order:
The Archandroid
The Electric Lady
Dirty Computer
Also, and people may feel free to disagree with me on this, but Billy Idol's concept album Cyberpunk is delightful. He was originally slated to play the evil terminator in Terminator 2, but had to bow out after a motor vehicle accident that put a metal bar in his hip. Instead, he was inspired to write this album.
posted by bile and syntax at 5:00 PM on March 2, 2020 [8 favorites]
Her albums, in order:
The Archandroid
The Electric Lady
Dirty Computer
Also, and people may feel free to disagree with me on this, but Billy Idol's concept album Cyberpunk is delightful. He was originally slated to play the evil terminator in Terminator 2, but had to bow out after a motor vehicle accident that put a metal bar in his hip. Instead, he was inspired to write this album.
posted by bile and syntax at 5:00 PM on March 2, 2020 [8 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks to everyone who has answered (and to those who may yet answer) for reminding me of albums/artists that I already know and love and suggesting new ones for me to discover. They are all best answers in my book. Although on preview thank you, bile and syntax, for the "True Facts about Billy Idol," I am definitely going to check that album out (and Janelle Monáe, who sounds amazing!)
posted by acanthous at 5:15 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by acanthous at 5:15 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Spacehog’s “Resident Alien”? Pitchfork review:
“This is like a lost Bowie album, circa Ziggy Stardust....Thirteen tracks of electric lunar genius that will make you smile guaranteed.”
posted by snez at 7:06 PM on March 2, 2020
“This is like a lost Bowie album, circa Ziggy Stardust....Thirteen tracks of electric lunar genius that will make you smile guaranteed.”
posted by snez at 7:06 PM on March 2, 2020
From the examples provided, it seems like you might like the overlap between soundtrack/ensemble recordings and glam rock. The film it comes from is not for everyone but the soundtrack from Todd Haynes' film Velvet Goldmine is an excellent mix of original recordings, modern remakes, and stylistic homages that are much in the same vein.
Or you could go straight for some classics. Are you familiar with Brian Eno's mid-70s vocal albums? All four are groundbreaking classics in their own ways; try them in order for full effect, starting with Here Come the Warm Jets.
posted by Nerd of the North at 7:29 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Or you could go straight for some classics. Are you familiar with Brian Eno's mid-70s vocal albums? All four are groundbreaking classics in their own ways; try them in order for full effect, starting with Here Come the Warm Jets.
posted by Nerd of the North at 7:29 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Seconding Velvet Goldmine. If you like the Rocky Horror and Hedwig movies, I think you'll like Velvet Goldmine also.
After that try the Flaming Lips. At War with the Mystics and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.
WFMU had a recording of the Rocky Horror original Norwegian cast a couple years ago which is a delight if you can find it.
posted by Arctic Circle at 8:42 PM on March 2, 2020
After that try the Flaming Lips. At War with the Mystics and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.
WFMU had a recording of the Rocky Horror original Norwegian cast a couple years ago which is a delight if you can find it.
posted by Arctic Circle at 8:42 PM on March 2, 2020
I think you should listen to the female artists Hedwig mentions in midnight radio: Patti Smith, Tina Turner, Yoko Ono, Aretha Franklin, Nona Hendryx, and Nico (of the Velvet Underground.)
For Yoko Ono, she can be a little impenetrable but given your tastes I think you'll really like Some Time in NYC by John and Yoko. Generally, I think you'd like mid-70s John Lennon.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:00 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
For Yoko Ono, she can be a little impenetrable but given your tastes I think you'll really like Some Time in NYC by John and Yoko. Generally, I think you'd like mid-70s John Lennon.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:00 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Marc Bolan, though white, was less man than elf, and T. Rex – Electric Warrior would fit into your sequence nicely.
posted by Beardman at 10:18 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Beardman at 10:18 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
How about Betty Davis? Her music from the 1970s has been rediscovered the past few years.
posted by larrybob at 11:42 AM on March 3, 2020
posted by larrybob at 11:42 AM on March 3, 2020
A couple of years ago I became slightly obsessed with an album called Uomo Donna by Andrea Laszlo de Simone. Big, big songs, in Italian. As I don't speak Italian, I have no idea what they're about but it seems to be mainly love and death. Here's one of them (verse melody stolen from the White Album). The kind of thing I'd listen to while I was down with the flu, so probably very good for tranqheadedness.
If you like something theatrical-ish, do you know The Divine Comedy at all? Especially the earlier albums (Liberation, Promenade, Casanova, Fin de Siecle - the next album, Regeneration is fantastic, but less orchestral. After that, they're good but somehow self-consciously Divine Comedy. Though you could look for The Duckworth Lewis Method, an album of light-hearted songs about cricket).
Or Scott Walker's 60s albums - Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3, Scott 4 and 'Til the Band Comes In. Or even Climate of Hunter, which is ridiculously 80s, but still somehow amazing. You might want to stop before you get to Tilt. Or you might not. But you definitely wouldn't want the meat-slapping fun of The Drift.
Oh, and I'd have thought the next step from your list would be Jim Steinman, especially his solo album Bad For Good, but perhaps not...
posted by Grangousier at 12:55 PM on March 3, 2020
If you like something theatrical-ish, do you know The Divine Comedy at all? Especially the earlier albums (Liberation, Promenade, Casanova, Fin de Siecle - the next album, Regeneration is fantastic, but less orchestral. After that, they're good but somehow self-consciously Divine Comedy. Though you could look for The Duckworth Lewis Method, an album of light-hearted songs about cricket).
Or Scott Walker's 60s albums - Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3, Scott 4 and 'Til the Band Comes In. Or even Climate of Hunter, which is ridiculously 80s, but still somehow amazing. You might want to stop before you get to Tilt. Or you might not. But you definitely wouldn't want the meat-slapping fun of The Drift.
Oh, and I'd have thought the next step from your list would be Jim Steinman, especially his solo album Bad For Good, but perhaps not...
posted by Grangousier at 12:55 PM on March 3, 2020
Oh, although I don't know if I can recommend her as a person (I genuinely don't know, although she's apparently tacked to the right, somewhat), you might try the extraordinary album Karuki, Samen, Kuri no Hana by Shiina Ringo ( 加爾基 精液 栗ノ花 by 椎名 林檎). I listened to it at least once a day for six months, and couldn't really listen to anything else.
posted by Grangousier at 1:04 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Grangousier at 1:04 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by alex1965 at 1:42 PM on March 2, 2020