Beautiful Noise - Neil Diamond (1976)

Your favorite podcast co-hosts share some exciting news regarding new episodes of Listen Closely with Jon & Chris, as well as a subpar Michael McDonald impression. 

Jon and Chris are joined by Jim Moscater and Listen Closely newcomer, Mike Slatky, for the finale of season two. The four take an insightful and entertaining look at Tattoo You from The Rolling Stones. Released nearly forty years ago and consisting almost entirely of previously unreleased demos and outtakes, Tattoo You was the surprise hit album of 1981, and the album's second side is considered by many fans and critics to contain some of the Stones' most ambitious and innovative work. Tattoo You and the outlandish music videos from the album also helped introduce a new generation of fans to The Rolling Stones, with the album being released less than a month after the premiere of a new 24 hour music television network known as MTV.

In a career that has spanned an impressive sixty years, the great American troubadour, Neil Diamond, has given the world plenty of hits (and a few misses). One of the more fascinating moments in this career came when he joined forces with Robbie Robertson of The Band (much to the chagrin of Robertson's bandmates) for 1976s Beautiful Noise. While the album produced little in the way of commercial hits, it contains some of Diamond's most moving, sentimental, and admired songs (the album's closing track, Dry Your Eyes, was notably covered by Sinatra).  For the penultimate episode of Season 2 of Listen Closely with Jon & Chris, the co-hosts honor the incomparable Neil Diamond on the occasion of his 80th birthday (January 24th), and take a closer look and listen at this nostalgic 1976 ode to Tin Pan Alley and to days of yore. 

Starting 2021 off with the most contemporary album they have discussed to date, Chris and Jon do a deep dive into 2014s Lost in the Dream from American indie rock band, The War on Drugs. Upon its release, this album quickly garnered praise from critics, many of whom considered it to be one of the best albums of the year.  Lost in the Dream is a moody, atmospheric, and emotional journey that showcases the talents of prolific singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Adam Granduciel, and this hauntingly beautiful album has its roots in American folk-rock, synth-rock, 1980s new wave, and psychedelic rock. 

Jon and Chris welcome Jim Moscater back to the podcast, and the three say goodbye to 2020 in style by paying homage to the Brazilian Bossa Nova craze of the 1960s, and the album that started it all. Featuring the brilliant American saxophonist, Stan Getz. and the legendary Brazilian guitarist, Joao Gilberto, the album introduced America to the beautiful and stylish songs of songwriter and pianist, Antonio Carlos Jobim. Getz/Gilberto also made an unlikely star of Gilberto's wife, Astrud, who sang vocals on the album's biggest single, 'The Girl from Ipanema' (a song that would become one of the most recorded in the history of popular music, and would also go on to inspire two Playboy spreads), and the album helped to usher in an era of smooth lounge music in the mid-1960s that would pave the way for chill pop music in decades to come. 

In this very special (and somewhat long) episode, hosts Jon and Chris take a fond and sentimental look back at their favorite Christmas music of all time, and each of them count down their top five Christmas carols. The duo also discuss their December 1985 acting debuts in a third grade production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, in which Jon portrayed The Ghost of Christmas Present and Chris had a three-line 'cameo' as Boy With Turkey.

There was no escaping the Fine Young Cannibals and their chart-topping album, The Raw and the Cooked, in 1989 and 1990. Combining new wave, techno, and soul sounds, the album was #1 for seven consecutive weeks during the summer of 1989, and their lead singer, Roland Gift, graced the cover of Rolling Stone, was named one of People's 50 Most Beautiful People, and had a golden voice that drew comparisons to Al Green, Sam Cooke, and Mick Jagger.  And while their success was short-lived (The Raw and the Cooked was the group's second and final studio album), their music left an indelible impression on pop music and on Chris and Jon. Listen as the two take a look back on this vital and hugely successful 1989 album, as well as their shared affinity for peanut butter sauce.

As the lead singer and principal songwriter of the pioneering 1970s soft rock group, Bread, David Gates was one of the decade's most successful and accomplished songsmiths. Releasing six studio albums in their less than a decade together, Bread had more than a dozen hit singles (five of which peaked in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 between 1970 and 1976), and over the years, Gates' songs have been covered by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Hootie & the Blowfish.  David Gates will celebrate his 80th birthday on December 11th, and in honor of this very special occasion, Jon and Chris take a sentimental look back at the songs of this groundbreaking, brilliant, and often unsung hero of soft rock. 

Though they had been together since the late 1970s, Sheffield, England's Pulp would ride the Britpop wave of the 1990s to finally achieve superstar status in the UK and beyond. Fronted by the cheeky and lanky singer/songwriter, Jarvis Cocker, the group combined new wave, disco and synth-pop sounds with Cocker's irreverent, witty, and often times depraved lyrics to create some of the most memorable alternative music of the 1990s. Their 1995 album, Different Class, is a watershed moment in Britpop and 1990s alt-rock, ultimately making Pulp rival the likes of Oasis and Blur.  On the 25th anniversary of the release of Different Class, Jon and Chris look back on an album that is anthemic, sexy, at times dark, but still incredibly relevant a quarter-century after its release. 

By the mid-1970s, Fleetwood Mac were a well-established blues/rock band with a cult following and a revolving door of guitarists. Widespread commercial success, however, had eluded them. That would all change in 1975 with the addition of a brilliant young guitarist and singer, Lindsey Buckingham, and his incredibly talented on-again/off-again girlfriend, Stevie Nicks. This would catapult Mick Fleetwood and company into superstardom, and their incredible songs and behind-the-scenes drama would make them one of the most successful and endearing bands of the 1970s and 1980s.  Forty-five years after its release, Jon and Chris look back at this landmark album's mostly exceptional eleven tracks, Buckingham's guitar virtuosity, and the band's secret weapon: Christine McVie.