Guilty Pleasures & Opinions on Tom Petty and Rhymefest

Guilty Pleasures: Jim, Greg & some brave listeners reveal their musical Guilty Pleasures. Plus, Jim and Greg review new albums by veteran rocker Tom Petty & rapper Rhymefest.

Guilty Pleasures
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Guilty Pleasures

Everyone has a cheesy pop skeleton in his or her musical closet–even rock critics. This week Jim and Greg fess up and reveal their musical Guilty Pleasures. These are songs that our hosts know are not "cool" or "artistic," but for whatever reason, they love 'em. And at Sound Opinions we have a completely populist philosophy about music. If it's got a good beat, and you can dance to it, enjoy it.

Here are Jim and Greg’s Guilty Pleasures:

Jim

  • Everlast, "Saving Grace"
  • P.M. Dawn, "Downtown Venus"
  • Ted Nugent, "Good Friends and a Bottle of Wine"

Greg

  • John Fred And His Playboy Band, "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)"
  • Sweet, "Blockbuster"
  • The Moody Blues, "Late Lament"

Listeners

Jim and Greg didn’t want to be alone in confessions. They invited some listeners to come clean as well:

  • Alec from New Orleans, Captain and Tennille, "Love Will Keep Us Together"
  • Liana from Portland, "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid
  • Dan from Philadelphia, Cyndi Lauper, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"
  • Brady from Concord, NH, Richard Harris, "MacArthur Park"

Mojo Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Mojo

In his four decades in music, Tom Petty has appeared to do it all. He's been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he's performed at the Superbowl, and he's collaborated with everyone from George Harrison to Johnny Cash. So, Jim and Greg wonder, what's left to accomplish? On his new album Mojo, it sounds like the only goal was to have an easygoing jam. That's not a bad thing, necessarily, but Jim feels like the fight has gone out of Petty. Greg agrees, explaining that Mojo is more about the band's performances and the songs themselves. Both critics give Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers a Try It rating.

El Che Rhymefest

El Che

After years battling with his major label J Records, rapper Rhymefest has finally released an album on his own. El Che is his second official release, though he put out a fascinating (and unauthorized) Michael Jackson tribute in 2008. As Greg explains, this record definitely doesn't fit in a major label model–it's too hard to market as one thing. It's funny, political and poppy. But, because of that, the sound of El Che is sometimes erratic and not as strong as his debut. Greg gives the record a Try It. Jim disagrees. He hasn't seen this kind of strength of character in hip hop in a long time. Rhymefest is indeed weird, but he's funny, unique and totally himself. Jim gives El Che a Buy It.

Dear Listeners,

For more than 15 years, Sound Opinions was a production of WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station. Now that the show is independent, we're inviting you to join the band and lend a hand! We need your support more than ever because now we have to do all the behind-the-scenes work that WBEZ handled before (like buying insurance and paying for podcast hosting, ugh). Plus, we have some exciting ideas we'd like to try now that there's no one to tell us no!