Morning Shuffle: Pretty Face by Refused

I like Refused ok, but I'm not sure I think they're the white whale of post-punk like a lot of people seem to think.  That said, The Shape of Punk To Come is an awesome record.

Morning Shuffle: Searchlights (Indoor Soccer) by Falling Up

I've liked a few songs from Falling Up.  This isn't one of them.  Delete.

Morning Shuffle: Metal Militia by Metallica

This is from Metallica's first record, Kill 'Em All (1983), and came well before my interest in them.  I'm not sure I ever will like this record.  The next record, Ride The Lightning, was a big leap stylistically and they've been refining their sound ever since.  Thinking back though - there was NOTHING like this in 1983 as far as I know...at least not that had gotten released into the mainstream.

Morning Shuffle: Backslidin' Blues by Petra

I was a BIG Petra fan back in the day.  It started with their On Fire record when I was in middle school, and lasted until their Unseen Power record.  I saw them on tour a few times in Albuquerque and one time when they were having an autograph party after the show I brought a STACK of things to be signed, not realizing I should only bring one thing.  Silly me.  I had also gotten some of their back catalog and, while I thought the early 80s and 70s rock was goofy I liked a few of the songs.

Petra has a song called Chameleon, which turns out to be fitting for them musically.  Around the time I started not liking the music anymore I realized they pretty much made music to be compatible with what's popular at the time...and that they were stretching into areas where it didn't seem congruent with the people in the band.  If they were still around today they'd probably be dropping some dubstep on us:)

That said, when this song came up (and I've never heard this one before) I was expecting a contrived piece of garbage - but it wasn't.  The tones in the instrumentation and the urgency and feeling in the vocals make this song feel legit.  I'm kind of surprised that I liked it just a bit.  This is from their first record in 1974.

Morning Shuffle: Infatuation by Rod Stewart

I don't like this song - deleting it now.  I think I got it with some other "best of" Rod Stewart songs.  Not exactly a shining moment for Morning Shuffle, or Rod for that matter.