The Doobie Brothers – Minute By Minute

I never cared for so called "reviews" which in fact are just opinions. If you don't like an album, great, doesn't mean it isn't a great album. Minute By Minute is a solid album, that sold gazillion, nothing wrong with that. Not every album has to be Lateralus. On a nice Sunday morning,doing housework, a little toe tapping with the Doobies is sweet indeed.

This release stands outside of the normal Doobies guitar driven catalogue. Having said that, it's FAR better than "Fault Line" or "Streets". Been a fave for years, and even though it's not "Toulouse", or "Captain", or "Stampede" it's a very good pop/rock FM radio friendly release and a multi platinum classic in it's own right.

mine says made in usa on the inner sleeve and the back jacket but no country of mfg stated on the labels. the cat no is bsk3193. im guessing its the Australian pressing?

Does anyone laughter?

Toward the end of the 70’s the Doobie Brothers frontman Tom Johnston left the band just as Livin’ On The Fault Line was being recorded, leaving Michael McDonald to finish the album, and then saw him take the lead here on Minute By Minute, making a very popular radio friendly corporate sounding mainstream record.

If anything, the Doobies tossed away their guitar oriented music in favor of a feel good guilty pleasure release that goes down as easy as vanilla ice cream, and even easier with some warm chocolate syrup with toppings. Everything on the album was sweet and soulful, McDonald’s choice of chord progressions for his Rhodes were sweet, the backing vocals were sweet, the guitar playing was sweet, with the drumming merely there to hold all this sweetness in check. Minute By Minute for the most part settles into mid-tempo grooves with absolutely no edges at all, seemingly designed to allow Michael’s vocals to soar effortlessly, nearly obnoxiously, soloing so emancipating-ly that at points his notes appear to be out of the range of the human listening experience … nevertheless, McDonald soars on and on. Of course the melodies are tight and righteous, yet all that instrumentation took a backseat to McDonald’s piano and vocals. With all my heart I want to say the the Doobie Brothers seemed to be on a collision course with Becker & Fagen to see who could divine an album with the most elegance and sonic perfection, where of course Steely Dan won out.

Nothing the Doobies were doing came off as essential, there was no breath, absolutely no air, to their music, no hooks to hang one’s hat on, no memorial moments of triumphed-ness. This was all a cheesy sonic pretense that simply filled up space without effect of purpose for those who didn’t want to think, for those strolling the malls and for those whom for some reason thought it might be a cool thing to settle down in the family room and spin a record with mom and dad laying on the shag carpet.

The proof of all this is defined by this concept: ”Minute By Minute” was the third official studio album from the Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonald as a member of the band, and I think it’s clear that the third time was the charm, both artistically and commercially, although the previous two albums certainly weren’t without solid commercial success, this one was a bonafide blockbuster, topping the charts, having gone platinum within the first four months of its original release, and having gone triple platinum by 1985. For this listener that says it all, with Michael McDonald at the helm the Doobie Brothers were on a fast track to nowhere. Others will say in the Rhino booklet that the band (minus McDonald) were a bit dissatisfied with the album, though they loved the money, though gone was any inkling of spontaneity, doing countless takes for each and every song that each member (minus Michael) nearly gave up. So when someone tries to infer that Minute By Minute was filled with energetic enthusiasm, they’re just not being truthful, because the band was drawn out, tight and tired. McDonald’s gasping soulful vocals don’t pack a wallop, nor are they infectious, they just are what they are, hanging there waiting to be forgotten, though in this case, forgotten means relegated to endless loops on work place inoffensive adult contemporary radio.

Another well know writer once said, The greatness doesn’t stop there. On the previous album, it was as if the band was either afraid to rock out or had forgotten how to do so, but they come gloriously roaring back in that department with Patrick Simmons’ enthusiastic bluesy rocker ‘Don’t Stop To Watch The Wheels,’ an irresistible song with a super fun guitar line and cool atmospheric stuff going on as well. Really? A super fun guitar line … one guitar line that was super fun? And a cool atmosphere of other stuff going one? What in the world does that mean? Well I’ll tell you, it means that the record was a gravy train and with all that money pouring in, reviewers felt that they must be missing something that the public was latching onto. But the public didn’t know any better, they were on board with this musical fashion to nowhere, this mindless influx of songs that were so laid back they fell over, so laid back that you couldn’t even get stoned to ‘em.

Minute By Minute was like viewing the Mona Lisa, something people were told was brilliant and appealing, and I’ve seen the real thing, it’s there, I took a look and walked away wondering what the fuss was about, while in the next room hung all 23 of the paintings from Joan Miro’s ‘Star Constellations’ which were actually were brilliant moving lively interactive and enveloping … but I was alone in that room because I ‘got it’ … I didn’t have to be told what greatness was. And while Minute By Minute may play out for years to come, it’s not gonna get any better with age.

Review by Jenell Kesler

has always been 5/5 one of the true greatest albums forever!

obviously boosted by 'what a fool believes' but a strong album none the less with some great grooves and strong vocals, I give it 3.5/5.