Legends Latest (Nas, Sting, Metallica)

Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts Andy, Don, and Dude. I am a legend. It's Album Nerds podcast. I'm Dude. I got Andy and Don with me. Andy, how you doing my friend? You ready for a legendary day? Yeah buddy, every day is a legendary day on the Album Nerds podcast. Okay. Am I right? I'm not sure. I hope the answer is yes from our listeners. Don, how you doing man? Good. Just got finished chopping up some Octo-Rocks. Octo-Rocks? This isn't the Legend of Zelda episode. I thought.

Oh jeez. Oh my gosh. I think they were called Octo-Rocks. The big fluffy rock guys that shoot things at you. That game was far too much work for me at that stage of my life. I'm like, I just want to eat a mushroom, grow and jump on stuff. Hit my head, get some coins. All right. So this is the Album Nerds podcast. We love talking about albums and the album format. And today we're going to be talking about some albums from legendary artists. Their very latest releases.

We've got a great show for you. We're going to go through some of the stuff that we checked out and prep for the show. Then we're going to get to all of our album selections. We're going to answer a question loosely related to today's topic. And then we're going to spin the wheel of musical destiny to find out what we're going to talk about on the next show. But right now it's time for some legends. It's going to be legend. Wait for it.

And I hope you're not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is dairy. That's what I'm talking about. Well, the term legend is of course subjective, but anyone would agree that we discuss many legends on this podcast from Prince to John Coltrane. Unfortunately each year we lose some. Like this year we've lost Jeff Beck, Tony Bennett, and Robbie Robertson. But fortunately many music legends are still with us. Often we focus on albums from early in their careers.

But today we are each presenting the latest album from a legend. It's a bigger ask than you would think. Because when you're listening to newer records by legends, often you're just kind of aching to go listen to one of their early records. So how'd you guys do? Yeah, this was a bit of a challenge. I mean there's the question of like legendary. What qualifies as legendary? Legendary to me is not legendary to you necessarily.

And we had a few of those debates, but I'll throw out a couple that I think are in the ballpark at least. Listen to the new Red Hatchley Peppers, returned from the dream canteen. Me too. It's like a psychedelic sort of jammy record in comparison to some of the poppier stuff they've been doing lately. Listen to Bob Dylan's Shadow Kingdom that came out earlier this year. There's like one or two really good songs on there. Not a legend. Not a legend. It doesn't count.

Ben Morrison's moving on Skiffle. Didn't he do like Over the Rainbow or something? Wasn't he doing like goofy old tracks or something? There's a lot of covers on there. And I think there are some originals, some new stuff though, about two. That's okay. The one I kind of wanted to go with was the latest Blur record, Ballad of Darren. It's not something like that at all.

It's a really good record, but we were debating whether or not Blur was really legendary or at the stage of their career at least. But yeah, how about you Don? Well I started, for some reason I started thinking about like electronic music. I mean I could have done Gary Newman, but we did one of his albums recently. I actually went to Kraftwerk, those German pioneers of kind of electronic noise. They actually, their last album was in 2003. It's called Tour de France.

It was actually for the Tour de France. Kind of an interesting listen, but also Brian Eno, he finally, he did an album that actually had vocals on it fairly recently. And it was interesting, but I don't know. I thought it was kind of a difficult listen. Yeah, I listened to that one too. I ended up making a more obvious pick.

I think we all kind of gravitated towards obvious so that we wouldn't be spending too much time in the show debating whether or not the artists or band or whatever is legendary. The big ones, Rolling Stones, Hackney Diamonds, that just came out. I don't know if any of us have had time to digest it enough for us to feel one way or another about it. It's okay. That's pretty good. Mellencamp's Orpheus Descending. He sounds more and more like Tom Waits with every record.

Paul McCartney III from 2020. ACDC Power Up from 2020. I thought about Loretta Lynn's Still Woman enough from 2021 is pretty damn good. That is a good record. Yeah, got some good guests on it and stuff. But we just did Country last week. So REM Collapse and then now their final album in 2011. I never really listened to it. It's pretty good. It's got all the right REM-ness that I'm looking for. It was surprisingly enjoyable. I was close on that one.

I had a little fun with it, but the fun and games are over. It's time to get to work. You choo choo choose me?

I'm going to do what I want to do now. And it's the freedom of creating records because I just feel like it. I want more people to join me for my era. I want them to join it. Releasing records. Working hard on these shits. That is of course Nas. We're going to be talking about his 17th studio album titled Magic 3. I had no idea there were that many records. It's been busy, especially lately. This album came out back in September 14th of 2023 on his 50th birthday.

We are going to play this is the third track called Superhero Status. I love that track, especially that sample on that track. I don't know, man. I couldn't get that sample out of my head all week. It's from a 70's artist by the name of Eddie Kendricks. You guys familiar? I believe he was in The Temptations. He was in The Temptations? Yeah. Cool. This is the sixth album that Nas has put out over the last couple of years in this run.

There's been three in the Magic series and three in this King's Disease series. The kind of unifying force behind all these records is the production from an artist named Hitboy who's been doing all the producing work and kind of working pretty closely with Nas on developing the sound he's been putting out. Kind of this bit of a late career renaissance for him I would say over the last few years here really kind of since the pandemic. He's been doing some really great stuff.

The three words I had for this record are a magical run. It's just so impressive to see someone who's like 50 plus now putting out stuff that is maybe not as great as what he was doing in the 90's, but I think it's really high caliber work and just the quantity of it is really impressive. Well, not only the quantity, but I listened to this record and I was like, oh man, this is really good. He's still got it. There's been like six records in the span of a couple of years.

With all that quantity, I would expect a severe drop in quality, especially when you're pumping them out at the rate he is, I would expect that it's phoning it in to cash checks somehow. Yeah, right. You would think so. Or to fulfill record company contracts that you have to put out records or whatever. I was really impressed. I mean, it sounded fresh to me. If you said this was a new artist, I'd be like, man, this guy's good. Well, he's been reborn.

Okay, so why don't we play another cut from the record. This is entitled, Eever. Deepak Chopra makes his name. That's impressive. Yeah, so of course, like all the others that was co-written with Hitboy. This song in particular, but maybe the whole album feels like a reflection on his career. The one line, celebrating years of flows and crazy wordplay. And then a lot of this seemed to be him. I can't believe he's 50 years old, but that's... He looks good for 50. He sure does and sounds good.

Hey. Yeah, also another lyric in that song, fly from infancy to half a century. So that's him turning 50, I guess. And yeah, so the three words I chose to describe the album. Actually another reference that last week I mentioned Jimmy Buffett's song, A Pirate Looks at 40. So I did a rapper looks at 50. As long as Nas does not do a sample from cheeseburgers in paradise, I think we're going to be okay. He can probably make it work.

I'm glad Andy found this album because I actually, I was looking around, I wanted to find a hip hop legend that was still doing stuff. And I don't know, it still seems like hip hop is a young man's game. The founding fathers from the 80s and 70s, they're either in the background producing or something, or they're just not putting their names on records anymore. So it's nice to see that Nas is still doing it. And I want to hear what these guys have to say in middle age or just past middle age.

Yeah, that's exactly what Nas says in that clip. He wants that perspective of people looking back on generations of hip hop to be more of the conversation and not just so like, here's what's going on right now, which I think is a really valid point. Yeah. And this, again, other than Illmatic, I haven't really followed Nas's career. But this one just seems very focused and up close and personal. The Hit Boy production and beats are intricate, but I don't know, it has a simple feel to me.

And I love actually that there's no special guests. There's one with Lil Wayne. Lil Wayne, yeah. But everything else, it's just Nas and Hit Boy. I like that a lot. I will give Lil Wayne some credit though, because that track, Never Die, that's a great song. And I love the rhyme schemes that go on there, but Lil Wayne nails it. He does such a good job with the way he puts those words together and makes them rhyme, even though they don't. He sounds great. It does sound good.

I've kind of forgotten about him since he started trying to play guitar. So I'm pretty impressed actually. Yeah, it's pretty common for Nas to really just feature one or two close friends on a record. But yeah, the focus is really on his wordplay. Storytelling is a big part of this record as usually is on his type of stuff. He's great at placing you into a scene or a setting, a place maybe you're not familiar with. Oh, it just seems like he and Hit Boy have great chemistry.

And it doesn't feel like he's chasing hits at all. He's just getting in the studio and rapping. Yeah, it seems like exercising, just kind of having fun. Let me play another cut here. This is track five, No Tears. Yeah, so a little bit of a look back at life and the struggles of his youth and how he was able to rise above and not dwell in it and have success and build something for himself. And then that outro mentioning being in his 50s and how you can get there.

And of course, my life experience is different. But as a guy around his age, it just sounds so young and confident and strong. It makes me feel a little bit like that myself. So it ain't over. A lot of life to live. But it's not going to do it. I mean, why the hell not? Right. Hold ourselves to that standard. Maybe he's got a little something special going on there. But so the three words I used to describe this album are grown man's hip hop. I'm a grown ass man, dog.

I was alluding to it is this is this is mature, but it also sounds vital and new. But it definitely is, you know, adults, older folks, I think, will have a lot to relate to here and I think younger people can maybe get a good honest picture of what it's like to see your life behind you. And let's all hope that 50 is only halfway, you know, and that you got 50 more to go. So I love the beats and the production and the samples.

Hip-boy, this partnership, as we mentioned, at least on this record, very impressive. I was reading that this may be the pinnacle of that so far, that this might be the best that they've done together. Supposedly, it's going to be the last of the of their projects together. There was some speculation. I don't know if it's warranted. This might be now as his last project, but I don't know. That's unclear.

Yeah. I mean, I love that clip we played at the beginning where he's encouraging other artists from from that golden era of hip hop to come out, be vital. You don't have to do it to gain an audience or for any other reason to express yourself. And that's what's really cool about this is that's all that is. And it is awesome at the same time. Yeah. So if you haven't heard what now has been up to lately, you were a fan back in the 90s or whatever.

Yeah, definitely check out this run of projects with the King's Disease and Magic series. I think they're worth the time. Once again, Nas Magic 3. I'm good enough. I'm smart enough and doggone it. People like me. If you're enjoying the show and we hope you are, do us a solid and leave a review on Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Maybe we made you laugh or you discovered an album you enjoy. Leaving a review keeps the show going and helps other music fans find us.

Sting! There's Stinglhoffer! Making copies! We make Stingster! Stingatola! Sting! Stingalinga ding ding ding ding! Sting! Sting! Sting! Sting! Sting! Sting! Sting! Sting! Yeah, so the legend I chose is Sting, born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner in Walson, England in 1951. Sting, of course, was the front man and bassist of the band The Police and has been a successful solo artist for almost 40 years. His most recent release is an album called The Bridge from November 2021.

Here's the opening cut, Rushing Water. Rushing Water was co-written with producer Martin Kierzenbaum and somebody named Gavin Brown. Yeah, the refrain and really the whole song does remind me of The Police, probably more than any Sting song I've heard in recent years. This is the sound of rushing water flooding through my brain. That part, yeah, it just sounds like something that could have been on Ghost in the Machine or something.

I think the song is basically dealing with the pressure that we feel and chaos. Of course, this album was written at the time of the pandemic and all the other chaos that's going on. In fact, Sting quoted as saying, in a year of global pandemic, personal loss, separation, disruption, lockdown, and extraordinary social and political turmoil. In this song, Rushing Water, he actually has the line, what we have here is so easy to solve, just take a firm purpose and some resolve.

I like that even though I think this album is serious, there's still hope in it. I'm the Stinger, that's who I am. But yeah, I love the youthful energy in that track. The three words I chose to describe the album are fields of silver. The fields of gold. So I mean, it's a very good album, perhaps not fantastic. So it's not quite gold, maybe silver or copper. I think his hair had gone like gray or something. Well, that was, yeah, that's the, it's like a, it's a triple entendre or something here.

Impressive. Like I've kind of ignored him since 10 Summoner's Tales, which featured the song Fields of Gold, which I actually, even in my grunge heyday, I enjoyed that record. And then he started getting a little too world musicky for my taste and I kind of moved on. But this felt kind of like that record. God, I remember that Desert Rose song. I hated it so much. Yes, that's what ruined it. I hated that. That pretty much put me off Sting until listening to this.

Yeah. So, and then he did that album with Shaggy a couple of years ago and I'm like, no, thank you. If it was the guy from Scooby Doo, I would have been into it, but it was, it was the guy. Yeah. Zoiks. I'm a big fan of the police. I liked their blend of sort of reggae and post-punk, but I always felt like, and of course I was young at the time, really young, but it just seemed like in 1985 when he went off on his own, all of a sudden he aged 20 years.

He just seemed like an old adult contemporary artist. Yeah. Now, I don't know, I guess I'm at the age where I'm ready for Sting and I appreciate it. So, I really enjoyed this album a lot. I like the mellowness of it. I like, as I said before, sort of the serious tone, but also that element of hope. Even though it's mostly, I think, a pop record, it still has those elements of rock and jazz and reggae and classical that he always does. All right. Well, let's hear some more.

Here is the book of numbers. I think what I liked about that track was just, he sounds really good. He sounds like nothing, his voice hasn't changed at all. Now that could have, he could have had some electronic help, I don't know, but sounded great. He sounded like Sting. He does. Yeah. Great addition. It's just a tiny bit of gravel in his voice, which I think sounds good. Sting will be another person who's a hero.

The music that he's created over the years, I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's making it, I respect that. I agree. So, the three words I used to describe the album were, can still sting. Like Don said earlier, I think the police are way cooler than Sting's solo output myself, but it has its place and it is pleasant and the older I've gotten, I probably appreciate that chill vibe that he puts out more than I did as a kid.

So he's still doing his thing and there's that loose theme of bridges throughout the album, like musical forms of bridges, memory and time, life and death, and then all those allusions to water throughout the album. What I read was after he had completed recording, he was like, hey, a lot of these songs have water in them and put together what that theme was after the fact that he subconsciously was thinking about these things. I think that's cool too. Okay. Well, let's hear another one.

This is Bells of St. Thomas. Oh, thank God. I thought it was a different word than bells. I thought it was balls. That's what Sting would write about. It's part of that Tantric thing he does. I've now ruined that song because I'm applying the lyrics to my theoretical title. Well, I mean, based on the lyrical content of the song, you might not be that far off from what it's about. It seems to be about an affair, was the impression I had.

I mean, a good part of this record seems to deal with infidelity or at least troubled relationships. Maybe it's a bridge over troubled waters would be a good words for this record. But the three words I used to describe it are bridge over a trickle. Hey, is that like a reference to not being able to pee when you get older? Like a prostate thing, that's not cool. Not cool. Not per se. I feel like he doesn't have that problem. I think he just seems extremely healthy.

Yeah, he's a virile 72, I'll tell you. I'm sure we could all learn a lot from Sting's aging. Yeah, I mean, Sting is someone I've always been curious about. Whenever I see him interviewed on a talk show or something, he's always very interesting and lots of insightful things to say about music and just living. But yeah, this album, it was very simple and I guess a passive would be the other word I'd use to describe it. Yeah. It's really bad or a good thing.

I guess I was just hoping for more from it. I had those thoughts from the 90s of this is gonna be more like world music, which it really isn't at all, at least hardly at all. So I was hoping for more of that, I guess, I kind of like just something different, a little bit more in terms of the instrumentation. The other thing that kind of bothered me or I got stuck on a lot was just the rhyming at Amp's Listen to the Nas record and then come and listen to this.

Right. Sometimes I'm like really, yeah, really painfully obvious at times. Yeah. The sky turned yellow, he was a nice fellow. Yeah, it's not too far off. Yeah, it just feels a little, again, overly simplistic, I guess, for what I expected this to maybe be, which is probably my own bias here coming into play. There's a couple of interesting songs on the expanded edition of this.

That's a few of those tracks towards the end, instrumental track, kind of like a version of one of the other songs in here, Captain Bateman, that I thought was kind of interesting and a cover of Sitting by the Dock of the Bay, which I thought was pretty good. But yeah, I guess that was just kind of the middle of the road, middle of Harmony Road, you could say, on this record. OK, so the latest from the legendary Sting is an album called The Bridge from November 2021.

Excuse me, I'd like to ask you a few questions. Now, deep questions with Don. Well, what legend would you guys want to hang out with? Well, I mean, my answer is you two. But I'd be interested to see what Andy thinks. That's a good question. There are a lot of people that came to mind that would just be cool to like kind of pick their brains and how they did what they did.

But I think to just like hang out with and just hear some stories and like maybe get into trouble or do something stupid with. Tom Waits has got to be like one of the most interesting guys I can think of that probably has some random stories that I would love to hear in his Bradley voice. Just bring a carton of smokes and he'll watch it in the door. Bala Bourbon. Yeah, I mean, I was listening to his latest record as part for the show Bad as Me, which came out like over a decade ago.

It's pretty solid. But he also popped up in a movie I saw recently, Licorice Pizza, which came out last year. It was an interesting cameo in it. Yuck. You don't want some of that Licorice Pizza? I don't want Licorice in any form. But yeah, Tom becomes a cameo in that movie, he just does like some insane stuff where he is like just off the wall zany stuff and he's got to be in like pushing 75, I would guess. So yeah, he's a he's a character and I'd love to spend some time with him.

Yeah, so my initial reaction was to think of someone in music and one that comes to mind is Dave Grohl. But I recently read his book or the audio book. So I listened to his book, but he's the narrator and I kind of feel like I know him a little bit from him telling stories about his upbringing and everything. So I think I know him enough for now. I want to go with something a little weirder. I'd want to hang out with Stephen King. Stephen King. Why Stephen King?

I mean, he's a functioning normal human being, but he is for decades come up with some messed up stuff. And I would love to I would love to talk to someone who just want to understand how you unleash that part of your brain and then close it back up against you can function in society. Yeah, he's just a fascinating dude. Whenever I see interviews where he's weighing in on any topic, I watch it. He's just got some really good insights into human behavior and stuff.

So yeah, Stephen King. And then I want to get I want to get co-writing credits on the next the next one. Yeah, it's a difficult question. I'm always kind of afraid to meet celebrities, particularly people that I admire because I feel like they're going to let me down or I'm going to I'm going to gush and bore the hell out of them asking them stupid questions. And what was up with the fourth song on the album? Or trying or trying like prove that you know them better than they know themselves.

And it's like, yeah, yeah, actually. And then, you know, I mean, I think I'd rather like people that are just like borderline celebrities who probably aren't too full of themselves. And so I was thinking, you know, that Eddie Trunk guy that used to host like that was it called that metal show or something on VH1 Classic? He's got he's got XM radio stuff and he's like the insider.

And I think that's a great way to get people to talk to him or, you know, Matt Pinfield, who's also sort of like a music nerd. I think I could probably just talk music with those guys for for hours. And I don't think they would be annoyed by it. Like I know if if I met when I have that conversation. Yeah. If I met Johnny Maher, like I don't know that he's going to want to talk guitar for five hours or something. But you know, these guys, you know, yeah.

We talked about Anthrax because he was friends with those guys and like for the Cry For The Indians song when they perform it live, he went downtown New York City and found the headdress that they used in the video and then for live performances. So he's like really mixed in with that world. So yeah, that's a good one, Don. So what legend do you want to hang out with? Let us know. Hit us up on the socials, Facebook, Instagram and threads. Also on Discord, AlbumNerds.com slash Discord.

Would rather see Metallica be broke and penniless on welfare than see them as they are today. This is a nightmare. All I can say is it's sad, pathetic. What the f*** are we doing? Hey Jimmy, here's your phone back. Lars ruins the band. See headline. So that was a little bit where Metallica were reading bad reviews, one star reviews of their albums on Amazon.

So I went with kind of an obvious pick for me and you know it's funny how this show, except for the most part, was almost like a new release episode, which I think was unintentional when we got hit with this topic. So I'm going with 72 seasons. It came out April 14th, 2023, of course, Metallica formed in 1981, 11 albums, black album, Master Puppets. You guys know the drill there. St. Anger. St. Anger around my neck. All right, so why don't we get into the first single, 72 seasons.

This is Lux Eterna. This beauty's got 12 tracks, 77 minutes. I wish they'd just put out shorter albums more frequently. It's always so long between records now because they're such perfectionists. The album's title, 72 seasons, is a reference to the first 18 years of one's life, symbolizing growth and maturity because within that 18 years, there are 72 seasons. James Hetfield said the album's lyrics draw from his own experiences and his life's journey.

It touches on themes of darkness and light balance and the impact of past experiences. It does maintain that powerful guitar-driven style that they're known for, but I wouldn't say there are any new tricks in the bag here. I described the album in three words with raging, resilient reflections. There's still that anger. There's still some of that darkness there.

Even though these guys are in their 50s and they've had incredible success, James Hetfield is still haunted by whatever went on in those 72 seasons. Killed a lot of demons, I can tell. You're over it already. Wow. Jessica. So, the song Lux Eterna is Latin for eternal light. The message it carries is embrace the light, the things that make you happy, celebrate, lose yourself in music in particular, I think is what James was doing.

The little clip we played mentioned you hear from Motor Breath, one of their early songs, Enlightening to the Nations. It's got a nwabum feel, but it's also New Wave of British Heavy Metal, for those who think it's douchey to say nwabum, which I do and I'm kind of a douche. They're referencing Diamond Head, which was one of their big influences. I think Andy and I long ago talked about that album on the show. Yeah, why don't we jump into one of the other tracks.

This one is called If Darkness Had a Son. I believe that was the third single from the album. Seems like James is working through some stuff from his childhood, perhaps. I mean, based on some of the lyrics and the album art, seems like he's going back pretty far. Well, you know, he kind of bears the burden.

I think the reason that Metallica is still so popular and holds a place in my heart is I feel like he kind of carries that weight for all of us, the anger and the things that you had in your youth or the resentments that you might hold deep down inside. He gets it out for us and I appreciate that. Unfortunately, it's had its toll on him. He's kind of Saint Anger. He really is. He's the patron saint of Anger. The Three Words He Scouts album are drinking the well dry.

I mean, not that they're alcoholics, but I feel like they're really, I mean, in some ways it's impressive how much they've fine tuned this sort of metal machine that they've created over the last couple of decades. Just putting out these like, not cookie cutter by any means, but they definitely follow a blueprint, I guess.

Like this sort of riff heavy sound that they've created and they've done it a little bit more here than they've done it in the past, a little bit longer than they have done in the past. Yeah. Some of the songs have more bridges and things than I think are necessary. There's a lack of spontaneity in what they do now and that's part of metal is that spontaneity and like you said, yeah, they have it down. He sounds great too. Yeah. I think they all sound really good.

I might be with some of the most enjoyable solos from Kurt on this record, I think. There's some really impressive moments and I think each member sounds good. They all sound comfortable together. It sounds like a very cohesive unit. Did you notice that the bass is much like, ever since Robert Trelo joined the band, you actually hear the bass and it has a place in their songs and it is a part of the driving force behind more groovy moments. And I appreciate that.

It's necessary for what they've turned their sound into this sort of groove metal new wave of a British heavy metal traditional metal thing that they've created. Yeah. They really have gone away from the thrash sound. Lux Aeternum might be the closest they get to that, but yeah, it's groovy, which I like. But I think it's a pretty solid album and it really weren't any tracks that I was like, oh, so let's just throw away stuff. But yeah, it's pretty solid. There's just so much of it.

And I kind of wonder, I find myself wondering after listening to it a few times, how many more riffs can these guys possibly write as a force? I'm like, they have to have drank the well dry at this point. Maybe on the next one, they bring Mustaine in. Oh, right. That'd be fun. That'd be cool. Back to the OG right now. All right. So why don't we get to another track. This one is, why Don? Why couldn't you pick one that's called like black? Innamorata. I think that's it. Yeah. All right.

Innamorata. Innamorata. Innamorata baby. Yeah. That's the stuff. Those quieter moments there on this track, it kind of reminded me of Tool. Even his voice for a minute there, it kind of reminded me of, was it Maynard? Innamorata is actually the longest song by the band ever recorded. It's over 11 minutes long. But I mean, unlike the album as a whole, I feel like this song, it doesn't get monotonous. It actually keeps my attention through the whole thing. Yeah, agreed.

Supposedly the main riff of that track was written while James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich were bored on a Zoom call. We're going to have inspiration hit on when we do calls. Eventually. We are due. I am bored. So there's a greedy one. So yeah, so basically the song just seems like a, it's like a love hate relationship with misery, which is kind of interesting. I think sometimes negative emotions like misery or grief, sometimes you get so used to them that it becomes kind of like a comfort.

Yeah, so it's kind of, I don't know, it's an interesting lyric, I think. The three words I chose to describe the album are just Metallica being Metallica. Exactly. So this is a Metallica record. I appreciate that about it. I guess it's what I would hope for from a Metallica record and it's what I would expect. There have been times in their history where they have done things that I didn't expect and sometimes it was great and sometimes it was terrible.

So this one at least, it's a Metallica record. It's very consistent. As Andy said, I don't think there's a bad track on it, but we already mentioned the length, I think if it was split into a couple albums or something, maybe it would be just an easier listen. But I think maybe because it is such a consistent record, it gets a bit monotonous for 77 minutes like that. But yeah, so I mean, overall I appreciate this album. I don't think they're just pandering to fans who want them to be Metallica.

I don't see that at all. I don't think this would win any new fans. At first I listened to it and it was a letdown. The first couple of listens, it's like, eh. But then as I've listened to it since then, I find myself feeling like it's any other Metallica record. I think the difference is because it's new, you don't have those memories from the ones you listen to as a youth. So you don't have those connections. You're trying to build them right now.

I think that's part of what might be a challenge here with legendary artists is you know them. And so when you're listening to their new stuff, it's like, I'm not feeling warm and fuzzy like I do about the old ones because you don't have those connections yet. Yeah. Yeah. That's a really good point, man. Expectations can be unreasonable with these legendary guys.

Yeah. So if you enjoy Metallica and you enjoy just solid riffs and grooves and a little darkness with a dash of light, go check out Metallica's 72 Seasons and then go listen to the other 10 records too. Even Sane Anger.

So we immersed ourselves in the most recent work of legends. What did we learn? Well, there's a couple of things I've been thinking about as we've been chatting here, boys. I was thinking about the consistency of these artists a little bit. Like Metallica, if you look back, they put out records. They put out, this is their 11th record. They've been fairly consistent about every four or five years they put out something, three or four years maybe even.

For like what, 30 years now they've been doing it. So that's pretty impressive. I mean, same with Sting, right? I mean, he's done maybe not as prolific, but he's done things pretty consistently through the decades, right? Yeah. He's done, that's 15. This was his 15th record since like 1985. Yeah. Solo or total? Solo, I believe. Oh, plus the police. Wow. Yeah, that's crazy. I think Nas was like 17, I want to say. Well, yeah, they- That's a lot.

Yeah. I expect it from Sting, but Metallica had a big head start on Nas about 10 years. Yeah. So I mean, that's cool. I mean, geez, you really can do a lot when you're as consistent for that long. Well, I think being of legendary status gives you the opportunity to do that, right? The bands that struggle, whether they're great or not, might get two or three records and don't have any support and have to give up because they have been bestowed legendary status.

Well, I think it's good when artists are consistently working because a lot of times you get these legends that disappear for a while and all of a sudden it's a comeback album. I think a lot of times those are disappointing or they don't work. Most often after a comeback, it's like the second or third album they do after coming back. Warm up when they're good. Yeah. Yeah. Got comfortable. They're not trying to fit into what's happening currently. They maybe have gone back to what's comfortable.

I think I learned if you're good, you're good. And all three of these were true to themselves and I was impressed at how good they all sound and how vital they all sound. And that's one to grow on. I'm your density. I mean your destiny. All right, boys and girls, it is that time once again, gather rounds, the legendary wheel of musical destiny. Let's find out what our fate has in store for us next week. Your musical destiny will be taking you to the Pacific Northwest.

The city of Seattle has fostered many bands and artists and some interesting music scenes. So get out your umbrellas, stop at a coffee shop and enjoy. The songs of Seattle. There we go. I'm listening. I was going to say, is that a... It's okay. Quick reminder, you can go to our website, albumnerds.com to suggest your topics for the Wheel of Musical Destiny. Vote on any ongoing Album Nerds Hall of Fame nominations. Who's your favorite artist from Seattle? What else are you listening to?

Let us know. Join fellow Album Nerds on Discord at albumnerds.com slash Discord. You can email us at podcast at albumnerds.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and threads at Album Nerds. Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast app. If you'd like to support the show, you can do so via PayPal at albumnerds.com slash support. Thank you for joining us on the Album Nerds podcast. We'll catch you next time in rainy Seattle. Thanks for listening, everybody. See you next week.

But I don't know what to do with those tossed salads and scrambles. They're calling again. Good night, Seattle. We love you.