1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 126. Big Brother and the Holding Company – Cheap Thrills (1968)
I tend to listen to these albums without doing any prior research, nor knowing why they were included in the list, and so it was partway through the first track that I thought “That sounds like Janis Joplin”. And, indeed, it is; the second of two albums she did with Big Brother before going solo, before sadly joining the 27 Club a couple of years later.
Like Jeff Beck’s album last time, this is largely blues-rock, with an added dash of psychedelia (because it’s 1968 and therefore almost compulsory), bits of soul, R&B and even a bit of Gershwin, but sounds a lot more visceral and real compared to Beck. A big part of this is due to Joplin’s emotive vocals with a voice like an angel made of sandpaper. She’s a lot better at sounding authentic.
Many of the songs are funkier than
Beck as well, with a groovy bassline from Pete Aldrin, and the double guitars
of Sam Andrew and James Gurley. I listened to the re-release version, and all
of the tracks are good – for Joplin the stand-out is probably the cover of
Piece of My Heart, for sheer exuberance the first track Combination
of the Two is a great piece of San Francisco psychedelia.
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