1982 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

December 09, 2021 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Over what will likely be the next few years I’m going to be ranking and reviewing the top 5 albums - plus a fair few extras - according to users on rateyourmusic.com (think IMDB for music) from every year from 1960 to the present. If you want to know more, I wrote an introduction to the ‘challenge’ here. You can also read all the other entries I’ve written so far by heading to the lovely index page here.

It’s time to musically tackle 1982, the year the space shuttle Columbia made its first mission, Steven Spielberg’s E.T. and the Commodore 64 was released, the Falklands War happened, and Ingrid Bergman died.

We’re here for the music though right? Well, here’s what rateyourmusic.com’s users rate as their top 5 albums of 1982:

#1 The Cure - Pornography
#2 Kate Bush - The Dreaming
#3 Michael Jackson - Thriller
#4 Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
#5 Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters

I’m also grabbing this lot from further down the list:

#6 Glenn Gould - The Goldberg Variations
#9 Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
#13 The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
#18 Hiroshi Yoshimura - Wave Notation 1: Music for Nine Post Cards

And we’ve also got an extra album from NPR’s best albums by female artists list (Kate Bush’s Dreaming is also on that list, but we already have it above):

Laurie Anderson - Big Science (#80 in NPR’s 150 Best Albums Made by Women)

10 albums, let’s go.

10. The Number of the Beast

Iron Maiden

The English heavy metal outfit’s third album was their last with drummer Clive Burr and first with vocalist Bruce Dickinson.

At this point it’s all a bit of a blur, but I assume I’ve talked about how I’m not a massive fan of the kind of howly, heavy rock that Iron Maiden are famous for, and I’m definitely not a fan of their cover art, this one being partricularly bad. That said, I’ve enjoyed my listens of The Number of the Beast with tracks like Children of the Damned being thoroughly daft and enjoyable. There’s no doubt that Dave Murray knows how to write powerful guitar riffs and ripping solos (see The Prisoner) and that Dickinson’s howled vocals add the required drama to proceedings, it just hasn’t got me past my prejudice towards the genre - something others have managed more effectively.

Song Picks: Children of the Damned

6/10

9. Plastic Surgery Disasters

Dead Kennedys

The Dead Kennedy's second album is lead singer Jello Biafra's favourite and sees them expand further into the high speed hardcore chaos that made Holiday in Cambodia such a great track.

East Bay Ray's guitar riffs are so frantic one imagines his left hand must be a blur while he's playing them, while Biafra’s vocals give off the vibe of someone imminently about to fall off a cliff frantically blurting out as much as they can before they do. Lyrically it’s a mix of political and social commentary, with Biafra’s battling against social norms being as present as ever.

You could certainly critiscise Plastic Surgery Disasters for being samey, and the songs do seem to blend into one a bit, but if you’re after fast songs ranting about a whole range of topics in a relentlessly energetic manner, look no further.

Song Pick: Government Flu

7/10

Kate Bush’s fourth album is often considered her most experimental, and it’s easy to see why. The poppy melodies of her other releases haven’t disappeared entirely, but they are much less frequent and replaced with a playful creativity.

The Dreaming’s tracks feature Kate Bush duetting with herself regularly, in fact - as on the superb Suspended in Gaffa - she’s often singing in four or more distinct styles. Combined with the rhythmic and often staccato instrumentation this creates a really unique sound, and one that I’d struggle to find anything comparable to even today. Bush has herself called the album ‘mad’, and indeed it is. There’s a feeling of freedom to the way the compositions skitter from melody to melody, instrument to instrument and section to section, in a way that is largely unpredictable and unvonventional.

I’m in no doubt that many will find this album a bit too challenging, it’s not as immediately gripping as 1978’s The Kick Inside for example, and there’s not all that much to latch onto or even remember particularly, but to those who give it time this is a really rewarding album that you’re unlikely ever to get bored of.

The Dreaming cements Kate Bush as not only someone who can write great songs - we already knew that from previous entries to these lists - but someone who is completely unafraid to be herself. Bush was already pretty singular before The Dreaming, with its release she became one of the most remarkable artists to grace our airwaves.

Song Picks: Suspended in Gaffa, Sat in Your Lap

8.5/10

The Fall’s fourth album is described by the lead singer, Mark E. Smith, as a satirical stand against "bland bastards like Elvis Costello and Spandau Ballet ... [and] all that shit", and features his standard abrasive vocal style and lyrics rooted in ‘kitchen sink realism’, a movement from the 50s and 60s in the arts that saw protagonists disollusioned with life and living in cramped working-class conditions, portraying a harsh and more realistic style than the art that had come before it. The album was mainly recorded in a disused cinema in Hertfordshire.

The album starts with the fantastically brash The Classical, which unfortunately drops the ‘N’ word within the first few lines, something that was not uncommon at the time. Mark E. Smith has claimed he’s singing as if it’s not him saying it - believable considering his lyrics are often built up of random outbursts coming from seemingly different people - but it’s still problematic as is explored in much more depth than I have room to here. That aside though, the song demonstrates the band’s ability to create an infectiously ramshackle sound - with the melody often coming from the guitars rather than Smith’s vocals, which snarl and grate in a way that’s so brash you can’t help but love them.

Jawbone and the Air-Rifle is another superb track with a guitar riff that you can imagine people bouncing around to aggressively in 80s clubs, Smith’s vocals carry more of a melody this time, something he’s more than capable of doing, while still never loosing that razor sharp edge he has. The track feels entirely unconventional, while also remaining very accessible. It sounds like a band playing in a room far too small for them, so the drums pound over everything else, while the guitars bounce off the grime on the walls and Smith has to thin his voice to make himself heard. It’s a rough, perfectly British mess that’s punker than punk itself. Hex Induction Hour’s remaining tracks are probably less memorable, and certainly less dance-able and infectious, but they’re still the musical equivalent of showing your teeth to the system.

Song Picks: The Classical, Jawbone and the Air-Rifle

8.5/10

The English band’s fourth album wasn’t well received critically, though it was their most succesfull up to that point commercially. It has since garnered plenty of critical acclaim, and is seen as an important album in the development of gothic rock. It was their final album with Simon Gallup, whose departure meant that all of the band’s following albums had a poppier, and lighter feel. This one is very dark though, and was written and recorded during what songwriter and vocalist Rober Smith called “an extremely stressful and self-destructive period”.

The Cure have always been the masters of atmosphere and it doesn’t take long to realise this album is no different, with the opening One Hundred Years’ guitar part sounding positively massive, with so much reverb put on it that you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve fallen into a cave, “One and one we die one after the other” Smith sings as the guitar echoes this with suitably doomed notes. The Hanging Garden is a great example of the uptempo but downbeat thing that The Cure do so well, as the song chugs along at a fair clip while Smith sings lines like “Fall, fall, fall, fall out of the sky / Cover my face as the animals die” in a manner that suggests he’s had enough. But it’s not all doom and gloom… no, actually it is, every minute of Pornography is unapologetically devoid of hope. It’s a dip into the mind of someone at their lowest point, and yet in all the gloom and sadness, Smith’s melodies still fly. On the title track which closes the album, Smith is practically screaming as the drums march ominously on one side and a doom synth plays like a church organ signifying the end of time in the other, then it all cuts to black. Smith has cited this as the album that turned things around for him personally, and I see that cut at the end as the moment he’s got so low, that the only way is up, a flicker of hope that ignites a fire.

Song Picks: The Hanging Garden, One Hundred Years, Siamese Twins

9/10

Laurie Anderson’s debut is comprised of a selection of highlights from her eight-hour production United States Live - a performance piece in which music was only one element.

Big Science is avant-garde and hard to define. It’s electronic, but more concerned with soundscapes to back Anderson’s spoken word vocals than songs in the traditional sense. Having said that there are still melodies and hooks in there, often provided by other vocalists, as on the eerie title track, which brilliantly conveys the expansion of humankind in the following verse. Here Anderson cleverly turns direction giving on its head, referencing buildings that will be built rather than ones that are/were there:

Well just take a right where they're going to build that new shopping mall
Go straight past where they're going to put in the freeway
Take a left at what's going to be the new sports center
And keep going until you hit the place where
They're thinking of building that drive-in bank

O Superman, which became a surprise hit in the UK after John Peel championed it, is the album’s centrepiece and - in my opinion - masterpiece. Repeated ‘Ha’s’ in two different notes create the song’s spartan musical backdrop as Anderson talks enigmatically, and breaks into eerie melodies as she sings ‘here come the planes’. Originally inspired by the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 - the one depicted in the hit film Argo - it resonates far beyond that calmly presenting the fall of the world into some Orwellian nightmare:

'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice
And when justice is gone, there's always force
And when force is gone, there's always Mom.

Anderson begins to sing more after this song, and the album’s second half shines because of it. There’s a sense that Anderson has freed herself of self-consciousness as she bursts into a gentle, melodic flame.

Big Science is a bit like a 50 minute meditation session, but where instead of ‘scanning’ your body and feeling present, you follow Anderson’s soothing voice into an infinitely interesting and timeless void. It’s a kind of less on the nose, more beautiful 1984 in musical form. One of the most creative albums of the decade.

Song Picks: O Superman, Example #22, Let X=X

9/10

Springsteen’s sixth studio album is made up of songs that were initially intended to be demos that the E-Street band would flesh out, but he decided to release them as they were. It was recorded using just two SM57s and a 4-track recorder, as many a nerdy, wannabe sound engineer forum poster will tell you. Springsteen’s decision to keep the whole thing raw was a stroke of genius, and has played no small impact in the album being one of his most well regarded. Due to the sombre nature of the record, Springsteen never toured it.

Nebraska’s songs are about murderers, working class people, corrupt cops, or Springsteen’s childhood. He’s always been an exceptional storyteller, and when his songs are reduced to simple melodies, sparse acoustic guitar and harmonica arrangements and his voice, it’s his ability to get into the head of his subjects and portray their stories that makes this album shine so brightly. Bruce’s vocals are low and sombre, with none of the energy of Born to Run for example. There’s a resigned longing to all the songs, as if the songs’ subjects are always hoping for more, though they know they’ll never get it.

Such dark and intimate stories are presented here with no frills beside an atmospheric reverb. The lack of backup from a band makes the whole thing more intimate, you’re there with The Boss as he tells his stories. As Pitchfork’s review states, and indeed Bruce himself, Nebraska is as much about the presentation as the content. It was written in the environment it was recorded, and the songs would have lost something when taken out of that context. Nebraska is the perfect document of a moment when Bruce Springsteen sat down in his rented house in New Jersey, and unbeknownst to himself, wrote one of the most touching acoustic albums of all time.

Song Picks: Nebraska, Mansion on the Hill

9/10

3. Music for Nine Postcards

Hiroshi Yoshimura

Yoshimura’s debut album was initially intended to be played in the Hara Museum for Contemporary Art building, but was given a wider release after it garnered interest from the visitors. The album uses only a Fender Rhodes (a type of electric piano) and a piano. In the liner notes Yoshimura stated that he was inspired by “the movements of clouds, the shade of a tree in summertime, the sound of rain, the snow in a town." The album was only released in Japan in 1982, and was not given a release outside the country until 2017, when it was picked up by the Empire of Signs label and re-issued. It’s re-release was highly critically acclaimed.

Music for Nine Postcards is minimalistic, letting each note echo into your ears, it’s sad and yet hopeful, it sparkles and hums. A triumph in minimalism it sounds well ahead of its time, and could just as well have come out this year. The whistful twinkles of Clouds, the almost childish simplicity, but sheer beauty of the melody on Blink, and the quiet euphoria of Dance PM are just samples of the treat that you’re in for if you listen to this gem. The latter is perhaps my favourite album of the track, with certain notes being just out of time enough to feel real, natural, unprogrammed, and human - whilst maintaining a level of repetition that leaves me in a gentle trance. Dance PM is everything this album does so well. Unassuming, simple, really moving and bloody gorgeous from start to finish. Music for Nine Postcards has gently weaved its way into my heart, and I can’t see it ever leaving again. In a decade of excess, it hums along quietly and patiently, waiting for everyone to notice just how damn pretty it is.

Song Picks: Blink, Dance PM,

9/10

I’ve talked about Michael Jackson’s problematic nature in a previous review (1979’s Off the Wall), and how I think the evidence is pretty strong following numerous documentaries on the subject that he did indeed abuse children and that that has undoubtedly tainted his legacy and music, but also - more importantly - caused a lot of children and families unfathomable pain and trauma. Nevertheless, I’m going to talk about the music here, which is completely sublime.

The term is overused but I’ve no reservations in calling Michael Jackson a musical genius, something which is displayed here where he’s at the peak of his powers. Quincy Jones’ production is superb, with crystal clear instrumentation, and instrumental flourishes filling every space in a way that doesn’t feel overblown, but infectious and tasteful. On the all-time-classic opener Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ , that sublime guitar and bass groove are accompanied not only by Jackson’s sublime vocals - effortlessly going from gritty to smooth and always bang in tune - but also an endless array of instrumental touches; that brass shake echoing the bass and guitar line, the synth taps, I could go on. It’s a dance masterpiece, running through your blood and into your heart.

I’ve always been less of a fan of Jackson’s slower songs, but even those are great here, and he conjures up one of his most memorable melodies in the smooth The Girl is Mine where his vocals work surprisingly well with Paul McCartney’s, while Human Nature is another example of Jones’ knack of accentuating Jackson’s vocals by following them with perfect little guitar jingles, with a skittering, superb synth part that appears twice where most artists would hang an entire song on it.

The mid-album trio of Thriller, Beat It and Billie Jean are quite probably the best successive trio of songs on any album ever and Thriller and Billie Jean are undoubtedly two of the greatest pop songs of all time. The former combining gothic and pop in a way that hasn’t really been equalled before or since - those brass stabs, wolf howls, and that groove and narration by Vincent Price creating an atmosphere that’s so brilliant, that despite the fact I’ve hard it countless times, I still whoop whenever it comes on. Billie Jean features what I think is my favourite bass line ever, one which Quincy Jones apparently didn’t like and was only persuaded to use when Jackson told him it ‘made him want to dance’. I guess even the greats are wrong sometimes. The way the song starts with just the drums, before that bass line comes in, those little trumpet hums in the pre-chorus, Jackson’s imperious vocal performance, and that perfect chorus combine to make a song that’ll forever grace a list of my favourites. Hell, I’ve heard it 5,555,423 times, but yet here I am dancing around in my office chair to it, every nerve in my body revitalised. Billie Jean is a freaking beacon of life and energy smashing through your weary flesh.

Oh and I’ve not even mentioned Van Halen’s stupendous solo on Beat It have I? This album is just chock full of brilliance, so apologies if I’ve missed the odd bit.

I can totally understand those who don’t listen to Thriller, but I’m here to review the music rather than its creators, and I don’t think anyone can argue against the fact that this is one of the finest pop albums of all time.

Song Picks: Wanna Be Startin’ Something, Billie Jean, Beat It, Thriller

9.5/10

Classical pianist Glenn Gould initially recorded his interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) in 1955, which sold very well for a classical album and very much launched Gould’s career. He re-recorded the variations in 1981 and died a year later in 1982, when this recording was released. Pitchfork have written an excellent comparison between the two here, but as this is an article about 1982 I’ll be focusing on the latter recording, which had sold over 2 million copies by the year 2000.

As Wikipedia states, Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) “is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also have been the first performer of the work.”

I’ve always enjoyed listening to solo piano performances - Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert is one of my favourite live recordings of all time - but this one definitely stands out among the crowd. Gould’s virtuoisic skill eminantes from all 30 variations here, with a confident, sturdy style full of beautiful flurries. This interpretation of the Variations sounds autumnal, you can almost imagine the leaves of trees falling in time with Gould’s intricate key presses. The Goldberg Variations is a truly sumptuous piano recording, it makes for great background listening while working, but it shines when you lie down, close your eyes, and submit yourself to its joyful, hopeful music, where Gould weaves delicate worlds of piano notes seemingly effortlessly. There’s something magical about being completely transfixed by just one instrument, and that’s absolutely the case here. The Goldberg Variations is magic.

10/10

1980 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

August 03, 2021 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music, Clive

And so we begin with the 1980s. I’m going to make a couple of changes (don’t worry they’re not that radical!) to the format of these going forward:

I’m going to make a concerted effort to make reviews shorter, so probably more of a summary feel than the song by song narrative I’ve been relying on fairly frequently. I’m still very much finding my review style, something I hope this challenge will help me with, so I’ll keep experimenting with this until I find a style that seems the most ‘me’.
Instead of doing a roundup at the end of a decade, where I check other lists and review any from the decade that have passed me by I’m going to try and incorporate a few from other lists - particularly female artist lists - as I go.

So, before we get onto music, what happened in 1980? Ronald Raegan was elected President of the USA, John Lennon was shot dead in New York City, CNN was launched as the first all-news network and Janice Brown made the first long-distance solar-powered flight in the Solar Challenger.

Onto music, here’s the top 5 rated albums for 1980 on rateyourmusic.com, which - as usual - automatically get added into my list:

#1 Talking Heads - Remain in Light (Also #5 on Pitchfork best of 1980s list)
#2 Joy Division - Closer - (Also #12 on Pitchfork best of 1980s List)
#3 Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
#4 John Williams - Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
#5 Peter Gabriel - Melt (Peter Gabriel 3)

Of course, we can’t stop at five, so I’ve grabbed a few from further down the list:

#6 Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
#9 Rush - Permanent Waves
#12 David Bowie - Scary Monsters
#14 Kate Bush - Never for Ever
#20 The Cure- Seventeen Seconds

Then, in a futile attempt not to miss anything I’m grabbing the below from a mix of Pitchfork’s best of the 80s list (anything from their top 40 not already included), NPR’s greatest albums by female artists list, and a reader version of the same NPR list.

Prince - Dirty Mind (#33 on Pitchfork best of the 1980s list)
The Pretenders - Pretenders (#60 NPR’s 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women list)
X - Los Angeles (#87 NPR’s 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women list)

And finally a recommendation from a friend: The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us.

That brings the total to a hefty 14 albums. I’d best get on with it. Let’s see who emerges victorious.

Black Sabbath’s 9th album is their first without Ozzy Osbourne, and first with replacement vocalist Ronnie James Dio. It’s also where the 2006 band, again featuring Dio on vocals, gets its name from. The album sold well, becoming the band’s third best selling album, and best selling since 1975’s Sabotage. Critically, a lot of reviews at the time seemed to focus on whether it did or didn’t sound like Black Sabbath.

I’d say it doesn’t sound like Black Sabbath massively. Dio can certainly sing, and his style suits well here, but he doesn’t have Osbourne’s vocal charisma in my eyes (or ears), and sounds a bit cookie-cutter 80s metal to me. I think Heaven and Hell is a really enjoyable album, it’s not as interesting or varied as the previous Sabbath albums we’ve looked at, but it is quite infectious. Iommi’s guitar riffs are on point, and his soloing on tacks such as Die Young is stratospheric. Bill Ward’s drumming pounds more than ever, and Butler’s ever reliable bass playing provides a great foundation to everything.

Heaven and Hell sounds a bit like a band that are really bloody good at what they do playing it safe. Everything sounds clean and rather predictable, but their considerable sonic skill still makes it a very fun listen.

Song Picks: Children of the Sea, Heaven and Hell, Lonely is the Word

7.5/10

Rush’s seventh album see them them turning away slightly from longform songs and towards a more radio friendly format, though the closing song, Natural Science, is still over 9 minutes long.

Permanent Waves is probably one of the band’s most accessible albums, opener Spirit of the Radio is one of their most poppy songs, featuring a wavy arpeggio from Alex Lifeson on the electric guitar, and fluttering and yet completely on point drums from Neil Peart. It’s a pop song written by a band with considerable instrumental talent who aren’t afraid to show off. When the instrumental section lifts off and shifts effortlessly between reggae and metal as the track closes, it’s clear the band have lost none of their inventiveness. Lyrics are never Rush’s strongpoint I feel, and it’s the slightly on the nose nature of Freewill - which is otherwise excellent, especially Lee’s high pitched finish, which was the last time he’d sing like that on a recording - and other songs like Entre Nous, that make the album less interesting than it could be in my opinion. On the epic closer, Natural Science, the band focus on what they do best, flitting from one time signature to another like restless children who also happen to be musical virtuosos, it’s another surprisingly moving epic from the band.

Song Picks: Spirt of the Radio, Natural Science

7.5/10

X’s debut album was produced by ex-The Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek and ranked at number 286 in Rolling Stones’ best albums of all-time list.

As soon as the starting pistol fires, Los Angeles hits full speed and never lets up. The opener Your Phone’s Off the Hook But You’re Not perfectly displays the band’s unique combination of punk rock and rockabilly in a song about lead singer Exene Cervenka’s sister. Tragically, Exene’s sister died in a car accident on the night of the band’s first gig in support of this album in 1980. The album is energetic, with John Doe and Cervenka’s vocals being consistently great, and working together particularly well on one of the album’s highlights, the haunting The Unheard Music as well as what is quickly becoming one of my famous punk songs The World’s a Mess; It’s in My Kiss, where the rockabilly influence once again adds an unadulterated energy to proceedings.

Inexcusably, in the album’s title track the band drops the ‘N’ word, something an all white band rightly wouldn’t get away with now. The song itself personifies a case of tunnel vision, about someone blaming everyone and everything around them for their problems rather than perhaps once taking a look in the mirror. Apparently the band no longer use the ‘N’ word when performing the song live, changing the lyric to “every Christian and Jew” instead. Unfortunately, it’s still here on the re-release, and somewhat tarnishes what is otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable album.

Song Picks: Your Phone’s Off the Hook But You’re Not, The Unheard Music, The World’s a Mess; It’s in My Kiss

8/10

11. Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Dead Kennedys

American punk-rock band Dead Kennedy’s debut album is clearly inspired by the Sex Pistols, and is generally seen as an important album in the hardcore punk genre.

The album is energetic and simple, with much of its appeal being the humour and warble of Jello Biafra’s lyrics and vocals respectively. California Uber Alles is the album’s most famous track, a pop-perfect song about his unfounded belief that California hippy-ism was going to be imposed on the whole of the USA. It’s the only song that prominently features multiple vocal tracks, creating a real punch to the chorus which is further emphasised by East Bay Ray’s searing power chord riffs. It shows Biafra’s vocal energy and humour perfectly. The album’s other banger, Holiday in Cambodia, is a perfect critique of the privileged guy who self-righteously talks about those less fortunate than himself, while never actually doing much to help. The mix isn’t as punchy as California Uber Alles, and again there’s an uncomfortable dropping of the ‘N’ word, but the song is brimming with the liveliness that the band is known for. You could certainly criticise the rest of the tracks for being samey and not all that inventive, but there’s something to be said for the infectious vigour the whole album has. It feels like a musical kick in the arse.

Song Picks: Kill the Poor, California Uber Alles, Holiday in Cambodia.

8/10

Prince’s third album was produced, arranged and composed entirely by Prince in his home studio. He also played the vast majority of the instruments. As you might expect from the title, it’s completely filthy, and is often considered one of the main albums that smashed open the gates for sexually explicit albums and songs in later years.

Quite probably the sexiest album of all time, Dirty Mind is nevertheless a bit too unintentionally comedic to actually be an aphrodisiac. The opening title track sets the tone, managing somehow to be funky and yet entirely on the beat with a synth powering the piece forward like a disco fuelled train. When You Were Mine is one of Prince’s most famous songs, with cracking melody after cracking melody and that synth part combining with the twangy guitar work to create a truly iconic musical moment. Things start to get more comedic as Do It All Night enters the fray. There’s no point me even talking about the subject matter, the title says it all, but that bass part is some of the cheesiest and funkiest disco brilliance I’ve ever heard. Prince’s productions are intricate, and brilliantly measured, which is all the more impressive considering he’s playing most of the instruments here.

It’s difficult to take proceedings particularly seriously as Prince talks about sexual fantasy after sexual fantasy, but damn is this record a lot of fun. It’s rather impossible to sit still, and even trickier to wipe that stupid smile off your face as the album emits a beam of positive energy. Dirty Mind is quite literally ridiculously funky.

Song Picks: Uptown, When You Were Mine

8.5/10

The Pretender’s debut album very much put the band on the musical map, and is regularly mentioned in best albums of all time lists, such as that by Rolling Stone where it came 152nd in the latest iteration.

Pretenders is an intriguing mix of punk - with songs such as the opening Precious with its marching guitars and lively vocals from lead singer Chrissie Hyde - and pop, with hits such as Brass in Pocket and Stop Your Sobbing. Chrissie Hyde is just as at home with either style, and can certainly carry a catchy melody with plenty of personality. There’s a refreshing honesty to all the album’s tracks and Chrissie is unafraid to tackle more promiscuous topics such as on the explicit Tattooed Love Boys. Of the other band members it’s guitarist James Honeyman-Scott who provides the most memorable performances, with his guitar work on Kid being particularly fantastic, from the excellent riffs that follow each verse to the perfect solo that’s just the right side of cheesy. Oh, and there aren’t many better pop songs out there than Brass in Pocket, which blends the band’s punk attitude brilliantly with their growing pop sensibilities.

I think anyone can enjoy Pretenders, it’s a great pop record with some punk smattered in to keep you on your toes.

Song Picks: Stop Your Sobbing, Kid, Brass in Pocket

8.5/10

English rock band The Cure’s second album was their first to yield a UK Top 40 single, A Forest. The band’s lead vocalist and songwriter Robert Smith wrote most of the album’s music and lyrics at his parents’ home on a Hammond organ with a built in tape recorder. Bassist Michael Dempsey didn’t like the direction the band was going in and so left and was replaced by Simon Gallup.

Seventeen Seconds is regularly cited as an early example of gothic rock due to its gloomy atmosphere, and its that atmosphere that makes this record. The album is blurry, undefined, and rumbles along while you fill out the gaps in your mind. Guitar and piano lines are often repeated seemingly endlessly as you’re lifted into a quiet, calming, and ill-lit dream. Robert Smith’s vocals are often barely audible over the instrumentation, a distant, melodic mumble about failing relationships and the endless existential struggle. The album does occasionally pop out of the clouds and hint at The Cure’s poppier side, with songs like Play for Today perfectly demonstrating their penchant for bouncy guitar riffs perfectly accompanying Robert Smith’s quietly tortured vocals, with each as capable of a hook as the other. A Forest provides a slightly murkier demonstration of the same talents.

Seventeen Seconds is not the kind of assertive album to drill your brain with ideas, it’s a more passive, contemplative album for your brain to add its own notes and thoughts, for which it provides a rather gorgeous foundation.

I drown at night in your house
Pretending to swim, pretending to swim

Song Picks: Play for Today, Secrets, A Forest

8.5/10

7. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

David Bowie

David Bowie’s 14th album followed his critically lauded and massively influential Berlin trilogy. Scary Monsters sees Bowie turn to a more commercial sound, with a removal of the more experimental electronic tracks prevalent on particularly the first two albums of the trilogy. Scary Monsters was regularly talked about as Bowie’s last great album, until the releases of The Next Day and Blackstar in 2013 and 2016 respectively.

Scary Monsters feels like a culmination of the poppier aspects of Bowie’s 70s recordings, with catchy melodies, slightly overblown production, and that line between accessibility and weirdness that Bowie always treads so well. Songs like Ashes to Ashes and the bouncy Fashion are perfect examples of this, while Teenage Wildlife treads similar sonic grounds to Heroes, with Robert Fripp’s guitar - which is prevalent on many of the album’s songs - once again providing a perfect dramatic and melodic backdrop to Bowie’s howled vocals in what I think is one of Bowie’s more underrated songs. An album full of 80s pomposity while still being very Bowie, Scary Monsters is somehow both simple and complex at the same time. The sugar rush of a sweet, and the depth of flavour of a good vintage cheddar. Obviously those two things together would be disgusting, but hopefully you get what I mean.

Song Picks: Ashes to Ashes, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Teenage Wildlife, It’s No Game (Pt. 2)

8.5/10

6. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Soundtrack

John Williams

Composed by John Williams and recorded with him conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, the Star Wars soundtrack is unarguably one of the most iconic soundtracks in cinema, and nowhere is that demonstrated better than in this soundtrack release for Episode V.

Obviously the main theme is quite probably the greatest main theme of all time. Nothing gets my excitement flowing quite like the start of a Star Wars film as the text scrolls and the horns blare out that fabulous, triumphant tune. But it’s the lesser known pieces that make this collection what it is; the gentle, meditative beauty of Yoda’s Theme, the tentative hopefulness of The Training of a Jedi Knight, and the tense, winding The Heroics of Luke and Han. The latter first introduces the famous melody of The Imperial Death March, which is then elaborated on in Darth Vader’s Theme, one of the most perfect pieces ever written for a soundtrack, perfectly capturing the menace that is The Empire, while the gentle flute sections make it clear there’s hope of some humanity beneath the mask.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back does exactly what you’d want a soundtrack to do, it transports you to another world, in this case one of the greatest universes ever created. It’s a cinematic, nostalgic and glorious testament to the power of music in elevating everything, even if that thing is already damn fabulous.

Song Picks: Main Theme, The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme), Yoda’s Theme

9/10

Kate Bush’s third album was the first ever album led by a female artist to enter the UK charts at number 1, and sees her trademark high vocal grace numerous inventive productions - much like her debut.

The album contains three top 20 singles, which summarise the album well. Babooshka, a tale of a woman who poses as someone else to test her husband’s loyalty, and one of Bush’s most famous songs. A great example of how she can make the slightly weird wonderful, with her Babooshka chorus being rather difficult to remove from your head once you’ve heard it. Army Dreamers is a more delicate number, featuring great interplay with Kate Bush’s clear vocal and the murkier male backing vocal, it’s a Waltz that skips along with a sad acceptance of a son’s death in war. The album is closed by Breathing - which is a good example of the effective production present throughout the album - which Bush herself worked on alongside Jon Kelly - skipping from ominous, almost orchestral sounds to a beautiful floating bass and synth section that Bush perfectly complements with a vocal that sails from softly piercing highs, to comforting lows as effortlessly as only she knows how. It’s a masterpiece written from the perspective of a foetus growing in the womb and frightened by nuclear fallout, musically portraying the juxtaposing tone of comfort and fear perfectly.

The rest of the album’s tracks live up to those, continually highlighting Kate Bush’s considerable talent for singing, songwriting, and intrigue. Like a lot of my favourite albums, you never feel like you can grasp it completely, it slides slowly and delicately out of any attempts to catch it.

Song Picks: Breathing, Army Dreamers, All We Ever Look For

9/10

Released two months after Ian Curtis’ suicide, Joy Division’s second album was again produced by Martin Hannett, who’s sound had such a big influence on their first record. As with their debut, it’s regarded as one of the best albums of all time, and particularly important in the post-punk movement.

Closer is as desolate, industrial and bleak as its predecessor, but it’s a little more tight, with less of what could be called ‘jams’. The album opens with Atrocity Exhibition, featuring a rather jolly tom riff from drummer Stephen Morris, which is accompanied by a screeching racket and Curtis’ characteristically deadpan delivery, painting a world of chaos. ‘This is the way, step inside’ he sings as he invites us into the uncomfortable, dissonant noise of his mind. The synth on Isolation is surprisingly catchy, one could even say positive, but Curtis’ detached lyrics about an affair he had on his wife are anything but:

Mother I tried please believe me
I'm doing the best that I can
I'm ashamed of the things I've been put through
I'm ashamed of the person I am

Passover features some of Sumner’s best guitar work, and is a great example of how the band always wrote around the bass and drums, the guitar and vocals providing power from that jumping off point. This is something again evident in the glorious A Means to an End, where Curtis repeats ‘I put my trust in you’ to infinity like a disappointed citizen of the Earth.

By the time we get to the closer, Decades, which again juxtaposes something hopeful - that spritely synth part - with the majority of the track sounding like oblivion itself, it’s been another journey into the a bottomless, dark pit. But one of inescapable beauty.

Song Picks: Isolation, Passover, A Means to an End, Twenty Four Hours

9/10

The debut album by American punk rock band The Cramps was recommended to me for inclusion on this list by my good friend Alasdair.

Let’s be honest, the rock ‘n’ roll that shocked and offended many of our ancestors now sounds pretty tame. Songs the Lord Taught is perhaps as close as we’ll get to understanding how they felt in the 1950s. Although the album’s influences are clearly rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly, their smothered in so much grime that they become barely recognisable. On the cover of Jimmy Stewart’s Rock on the Moon the guitar is treated with so much echo and reverb that its tight percussive sound becomes a mush only just recognisable as a rock ‘n’ roll riff, and yet still infinitely danceable. Lux Interior’s vocals have great immediacy and freedom to them which complement the band’s messy theatrics perfectly. On Garbageman, the instrumental section in the middle sounds like some sort of garbage disposal centre; crunching, full of sludge and undefined. Interior’s vocals blend in perfectly, like a man who’s just walked into this monstrosity and decided to spontaneously howl along to the centre’s futile attempts to deal with capitalism’s waste. Producer Alex Chilton called the band the night before the album was due to be mastered asking them to re-record the whole thing. Obviously, they refused, and it’s that insistence on being an unfiltered version of themselves that makes this album the messy and unfettered piece of timeless brilliance that it is.

Songs the Lord Taught Us is quite unlike anything else, but while that often comes hand in hand with something being challenging to listen to, I don’t think that’s the case here. Buried beneath the wholesome mud are accessible melodies and riffs that anyone could enjoy, and indeed this is one of the most straight up enjoyable albums I’ve ever heard. A cathartic reminder that even when utter chaos unfolds in front of you - as I’m sure it did during these recording sessions - just going with the flow is sometimes the best thing to do.

Song Picks: Fever, Garbageman,

9/10

Talking Heads’ fourth album, and final album produced by Brian Eno, sees the band experimenting with polyrhythms and funk heavily inspired by Fela Kuti. Regularly considered the band’s magnum opus, it features more side musicians than any of their previous albums.

Remain in the Light is a whirlwind of grooves starting with the perfectly produced and grooviest song ever written about the Watergate scandal, Born Under Punches, and finishing with the eerie and sparse The Overload. It’s a journey of musical creativity, never afraid to repeat itself to burrow its ideas deep in your brain, and punctuated by enigmatic and spontaneous vocal performances from Byrne. These combine perfectly with his new stream of consciousness lyrical style, something he adopted due to struggles with writer’s block, as well as due to inspiration from early rap and African academic literature. The band are on infectious top form and the Fela Kuti afrobeat influence is obvious, but it's the unexpected touching moments like the darkly atmospheric Listening Wind, featuring some superb howling guitar work from Adrian Belew, that makes Remain in the Light not just an album of enjoyable tunes, but an album of continual intrigue and mystique. I had to read into them to work out what many of the album’s songs were about, but I’d actually advise against that. Byrne’s bursts of lyrical energy plant images and ideas in your mind that differ with each spin of the record. It seems to morph into whatever you most need that day, and for that reason it’s one of those albums that’ll be a companion for life.

Song Picks: Born Under Punches, Listening Wind, Once In a Lifetime

9.5/10

1. Peter Gabriel III (Melt)

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel’s third solo album is technically called ‘Peter Gabriel III’, but has taken on the name ‘Melt’ due to its cover art. Melt is widely thought of as Gabriel’s breakthrough album as a solo artist, demonstrating his willingness to push things in new directions.

Melt feels like the perfect introduction to the 80s. It kicks of with Intruder, which triumphantly introduces us to the sound of the decade, a gated snare drum played by Gabriel’s former bandmate Phil Collins. Collins features on many of the albums tracks and even performs a very ‘In the Air Tonight’ fill on No Self Control. Gabriel’s vocals are engaging throughout, showing much more variation than any of his Genesis work with everything from a resigned croak on the aforementioned Intruder, to a triumphant scream on the powerful And Through the Wire. Production wise it’s colourful, with saxophones (yes, I told you this was 80s), xylophones, synths and a whole heap of guitar effects creating a futuristic, dramatic atmosphere. The album is notable for the way it nails its crescendos - No Self Control’s nearly takes your head off for example - and how it manages to nail drama while somehow not quite dropping into the cheese that most of the music attempting the same in the 80s did. There’s echoed saxophones on Start, reverb worthy of the world’s largest cathedral on No Self Control and cascading power chords on I Don’t Remember. It all threatens to become too much, to collapse under its own sense of pomposity, but it never does. Every song hits an all-conquering home-run, flooding life into fatigued veins. It embraces the dark, and then obliterates it with light, finishing with a magnificent ode to the murdered anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, a seven and a half minute call to arms which finishes, most fittingly, with two gated snare drum blasts. The 80s are here my friends, the 80s are here. Melt is an ambitious, perfectly executed album that’s a perfect representation of its decade.

You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher

Song Picks: And Through the Wire, No Self Control, Family Snapshot

9.5/10

1978 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

March 04, 2021 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

It’s good to be back, having taken a month off to partake in February Album Writing Month. I’m looking forward to continuing to move through the years.

So, 1978, the year that Jim Jones’ cult followers committed mass suicide in Jonestown, the Panama canal treaty was signed agreeing to give possession of the canal to Panama by the year 2000, Sony introduced the first Walkman, and the first transatlantic balloon flight was made.

As for music, the following are rated as the top five albums of 1978 according to our lovely rateyourmusic.com users.

#1 Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
#2 Kraftwerk - Die Mensch-Maschine
#3 Wire - Chairs Missing
#4 Sun Ra - Lanquidity
#5 Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town

We’ve got our first entries from Steve Reich and Sun Ra, and three returning artists. I’m also throwing this lot into the mixer from further down the list:

#7 Rush - Hemispheres
#8 Elvis Costello - Next Year’s Model
#9 Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
#18 Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
#19 Blondie - Parallel Lines
#25 Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports
#62 Rolling Stones - Some Girls

Let’s see which of these 12 heavyweights comes out on top in probably our tightest contest yet.

Die Mensch Maschine (The Man Machine in English) is the seventh album by the German electronic band. As stated on Wikipedia, ‘it sees them moving to more danceable rhythms and less minimalistic arrangements’.

The album kicks off with Die Roboter (The Robots), the album’s first single. “We’re charging our batteries / and now we’re full of power” the song repeats, along with very few other lines, creating a slightly sinister, industrial feel. The track is repetitive and features the usual simple synth melodies following the almost spoken word vocals. What’s particularly notable is how the synthesised bass pounds in a way that I’ve not experienced from anything electronic up to this point. It’s a good indication of what’s to come.

I prefer the tracks that don’t rely as heavily on the slightly cheesy sounding synth melodies present on the first track, and that create more interesting soundscapes. Spacelabs is such an example, where the synths combine with electronic drums to create something that wouldn’t have been out of place on a 70s sci-fi film. An intricate, and still very danceable track that is both memorable and haunting.

As with Trans-Europe Express there’s definitely an industrial beauty in the simplicity to the songs here, and their influence on future electronic music is evident. The pulsating electronic lines repeat over and over creating a trance-like atmosphere, punctuated with simple melodies by a variety of synth sounds and vocoder infused, metallic vocals. In Das Model Kraftwerk came up with the first purely electronic banger, and in Die Mensch Maschine they came up with an album that seemed like a distillation of everything they’d been creating up to that point. I can’t see myself coming back to it all that often, but it’s an enjoyable look into the birth of electronic music.

Song Picks: Spacelab, Das model

7.5/10

Costello’s second album, and first with the Attractions, made it to number 98 on Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. The English singer-songwriter was born out of the pub rock scene in the early 70s, which was to be a major influencing factor - due to its emphasis on cheaper recordings and independent labels - on the punk rock movement of the later 70s.

This Year’s Model is full of catchy, high energy songs that bounce along with an infectious happy-go-lucky attitude. Instrumental touches such as the spritely organ on You Belong to Me and the futuristic sounding vocoder vocals that kick off Hand in Hand make the album just as much as Costello’s saturated, catchy vocals and his simple and yet effective lyrics.

(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea, written in the office Costello worked at once everyone had gone home, is a great demonstration of everything Costello and the Attractions do so well here. They pick one instrument to drive the track, in this case the bass; Costello keeps his melodies within a small range; and uses lyrics with few adjectives, forcing you to fill in the blanks somewhat in a way that changes the songs a little each time you listen to them.

The album’s closer Radio, Radio is, well, an absolute banger. The perfect bass part and celebratory organ punctuations accompany Costello’s drawled vocals like cheese complements wine as he rants about Radio’s unwillingness to play many of the era’s punk rock tunes, and their ‘anaesthetise(d)’ take on music.

It’s hard to imagine anyone disliking This Year’s Model, it sounds fresh, fun, was clearly influential on a lot of British music and yet, at a time when many bands were pushing for more complexity, revels in the simple.

Song Picks: (I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea; Radio, Radio; Pump it Up

8.5/10

10. More Songs About Buildings and Food

Talking Heads

Talking Heads’ second album is their first of three produced by our man Brian Eno, seeing them shift to a more danceable style, driven largely by Tina Weymouth’s superb bass playing. You might expect the addition of Eno as producer to have led to a more atmospheric and dense production, but in fact it leads to a more focused, bass and rhythm oriented sound which massively plays to the band’s strengths.

The album opens with Thank You for Sending Me an Angel, a song about a parent who is grateful for their child. It’s a great opener, building with it’s repeated drum shuffle and guitar part to a sudden ending, before Tina Weymouth’s tour de force starts on With Your Love, where her fluttering bass riff defines the verse. Throughout the album, her fun, simple, melodic, and clearly Motown inspired bass parts combine perfectly with Chris Frantz’s on the beat drumming to create a very danceable and bouncy rhythm while David Byrne’s nervous bursts of vocal help add some unpredictability.

This combination works a dream on all the album’s tracks, but peaks on a few tracks in particular. On The Good Thing, the rhythm guitar plays beautifully with Weymouth’s bass and Byrne’s melodies are some of the most relaxed on the record, including a chorus that has an almost anthemic quality created by the backing vocals. The bass in the bridge leads the ragged guitar skitters beautifully, like a straight flying bird guiding scattered butterflies.

Found a Job is perhaps the album’s most popular song - besides the great Take Me to the River cover, and as soon as you hear Weymouth’s iconic bass riff which sounds like the life of the party, it’s clear why. The song is essentially about a couple being bored of what’s on TV and thus creating their own show, which makes them happier. The final verse gives a direct instruction to the listener, and it’s undoubtedly an oversimplified message, but it’s a nice one to hear now and again, particularly when coming from a band making music as fun as this.

So think about this little scene, apply it to your life
If your work isn't what you love, then something isn't right
Just think of Bob and Judy, they're happy as can be
Inventing situations, putting them on TV

In fact many of the album’s lyrics are refreshingly honest, I particularly love Byrne’s cries of “I don’t have to prove I’m creative” on Artists Only, a song where the bass has an almost haunting quality to it. I’m Not In Love is almost moshable anti-love song with its speed and bounce, and again features some great, on the nose lyrics.

More Songs About Buildings and Food is as unpretentious as its title and as straight and grid like, yet odd and creative as its cover art. It’s a great advertisement of just how inventive and singular the Talking Heads were.

Song Picks: The Good Thing, Artists Only

8.5/10

Rush’s sixth album is another prog rock tour de force, and perhaps the most prog-rock of any of their albums I’ve heard so far - which is saying something. We’ve got arrangements that have clearly been thought out to the finest detail here, and one of those arrangements is a whopping 18 minutes long.

Said 18 minute whopper is the opening track CygnusX-1 Book II: Hemispheres (quite the catchy title). The song, in classic prog rock fashion, is about the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus and is a journey through endless cleverly thought out sections of music. Starting with a few heavily reverbed guitar stabs and bass drum thuds, it soon evolves into a flowing cascade of impressive musical skills. Lee hums along on his bass guitar, with that classic Rickenbacker grit, while drummer Peart is so unable to be thrown out of time by even the smallest margin that you’d be forgiven for thinking that he’s a super hero who’s origin story involves him swallowing a clock and becoming time itself. Lifeson’s phased and reverberating guitar is the prime driver for the song’s massive sound, though the minimalistic synth parts also help. I lost count of how many different sections the song had after only 4 minutes or so, but I will say that they were all a delight. Geddy Lee’s dramatic rendition of an impressively ambitious lyric fits among its musical surroundings perfectly, cutting through the mix with his high pitch, while never getting irritating. The song is the constant to-ing an fro-ing between sections that seem to glide along like a magic carpet, and others that stab like lightning from the sky. It keeps you on your toes, never gets boring, and, most impressively of all, builds to an incredibly satisfying conclusion, a rather touching and unexpected acoustic guitar outro.

Circumstances, at a mere 3 minutes and 40 seconds, feels like a ditty in comparison. It crams an un-standard amount of sections into its fairly standard running length and depicts Neil Peart’s struggles to make it as a drummer in London. Something that is rather perplexing considering how stupidly good he is, switching between tempos, time signatures, and styles with an ease I’m not sure anyone has ever replicated since. This is followed, in classic Rush style, with a song about trees. The Trees was chosen as a single along with Circumstances - probably because they’re the only ones short enough to be played on the radio - and is a particularly great demonstration of Lee’s talent for vocal melody as he sings about a conflict between oaks and maples, centred around the oaks taking up all the light. Only Rush could pull it off, and I mean that in the best possible way.

At this point, we’re left wondering why we’ve had two songs in a row that are a reasonable length on a Rush album. But this is soon rectified with the nine and a half minute closer, La Villa Strangiato, the band’s first instrumental song. Once again the band are unable to sit with a concept for more than 20 seconds and dart from section to section until they seemingly exhaust themselves around the halfway mark, where we’re blessed with relaxing bass decays and a scintillating guitar solo from Lifeson. Things build again to a riff led melee of noise so pounding it’s easy to forget that it’s being created by only three people, before we finish with bass and drum solos.

Hemispheres is another testament to Rush’s prog-rock brilliance, pushing the boundaries of how many time signatures a song should contain, but in a way that is still thoroughly enjoyable to listen to.

Song Picks: CygnusX-1 Book II: Hemispheres, The Trees

8.5/10

prallel lines.jpg — 8. Parallel Lines

Blondie

Blondie’s third album reached number 1 in the UK charts, and led to their breakthrough in the US, where it reached number 6. The album features many of the group’s most famous songs, including Hanging on the Telephone and Heart of Glass.

Debbie Harry’s vocals are superb throughout the album, going seamlessly from a growl on the punchy One Way or Another; to more gentle and melodic on Picture This, where her trademark rasp appears during the song’s rather massive climax, aided by some great guitars from the group’s co-founder Chris Stein; to almost dreamy on the country inspired Fade Away. She even goes slightly Patti Smith in the opening of the Brooke Shields inspired Pretty Baby.

The band gets rather heavy at times, Stein’s cataclysmic riff on I Know But I Don’t Know wouldn’t be out of place on a Black Sabbath album, and Harry’s glassy vocals juxtapose well with the din created by the rest of the band while Clem Burke’s cymbal averse drumming - until the bridge - helps stop it leaning too much into ‘metal’. Stein’s guitar solo is a delight of chaotic, careering fuzz.

Before we get to the jewel of the album’s second side we discover 11:59 and Will Anything Happen, two songs that again demonstrate the band’s talent for catchy melodies, and the way they’re able to fill out the sound spectrum with a fairly straightforward rock sound that’s somehow much more interesting than that. The stair-like jitters on the latter are a good example of how the band know exactly when to mix it up to keep things interesting without overdoing it. Sunday Girl is a rare song where they seem to fail to do this and the piece sounds a bit more formulaic than other tracks on the album, though it’s still well written and enjoyable enough.

The jewel of side two is, of course, the masterpiece Heart of Glass, the band’s most famous song. Opening with a bass and guitar riff as iconic as anything ever written, things reach even headier heights once Harry’s perfect glassy vocal enters. It feels like the first real ‘club banger’ we’ve come across in this challenge. It sounds massive, with that iconic melody worming it’s way into your brain via Harry’s vocals and that mountainous synth in the bridge. The production on the piece is some of the best I’ve heard on anything so far, with tastefully added double-tracks, hummed sections, vocal ad-libs and that prophetic synth adding to what is already a tune with a whole lot going for it. 5 minutes and 50 seconds hardly seems enough time to contain something so brilliant.

Parallel Lines is a truly great and influential pop album. Harry’s happy to try her hand at a whole host of vocal styles, sometimes within the same song, and the band follows suit with performances and ideas that help make sure things never grow stale. It has a bit more of a ‘collection of songs’ feel than an album to me, which is what holds it back slightly, but when the songs are this good, that’s not much of an issue.

Song Picks: I Know But I Don’t Know, Hanging on the Telephone, Heart of Glass, One Way or Another

8.5/10

7. Darkness on the Edge of Town

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce is back with his fourth album, and first since 1975’s masterpiece Born to Run. While 1975’s effort usually outshines it in terms of popularity, Darkness on the Edge of Town was ranked by Rolling Stone as the 91st best album of all time, and received pretty much only positive reviews on its release. It continues to be a fan favourite, and features songs that remain mainstays of Bruce’s live sets today.

The album is less commercial than its predecessor, and also less energetic in general, though plenty of Born to Run’s vivacity is evident in the meteoric opener Badlands - a perfect segue from Born to Run’s messages of escape, to Darkness on the Edge of Town’s more introspective tone. Springsteen explores the characters that don’t fit in - as he has during much of his career - and nowhere is this clearer than on the ‘ballad of the black sheep of the family’ Adam Raised a Cain, which features one of Springsteen’s rockiest backdrops. Something in the Night takes a gentler turn, and seems to be referencing Bruce’s lawsuit with his manager in the verse:

Well you're born with nothing
And better off that way
Soon as you've got something they send
Someone to try and take it away

It’s another song about a freedom, with plenty of car imagery as you’d expect. In an album full of captivating vocal performances, this is perhaps one of the best, full of long notes and seemingly performed straight from the soul, it sounds like the crumbled American dream itself is singing to you. The chorus rings with both despair and the triumph of having finally hit the bottom from where there’s no way but up. The same could be said for Racing in the Street, another affecting song of freedom hung on a simple piano part that’s one of the most beautiful things on the album, or indeed on any of these albums. Springsteen’s vocals are as sad as a lonely night, but with the melody of someone who sees the beauty in it all.

It’s not until Promised Land that Bruce regains some energy, which he combines with perhaps his most powerful hook “Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man, And I believe in a promised land” to create another powerful anthem of escape, and one I’d argue is perhaps his most brilliant. Clemons’ sax solo is as free as a migrating bird, and harkens back to his meteoric performances on Born to Run.

The title track, which closes the album, is one of Springsteen’s masterpieces. A song that meditates on how we spend our lives distracting ourselves from dealing with the darkness in ourselves, in a similar way that society ignores the ‘darkness on the edge of town’. The laboured way the song’s title is sung in the chorus contrasts perfectly with the more explosive vocal parts in the song, representing, to me, how our dreams and thoughts are often so far detached from the dark reality.

Darkness on the Edge of town is another great album about the existential struggle of the working man, something Bruce has made a career out of. And when you see the artistry, poetry, and earnest performances that grace this album, it’s easy to see why.

Song Picks: Promised Land, Badlands, Racing in the Street, Darkness on the Edge of Town

9/10

Created by layering tape loops of differing lengths, Eno’s sixth album sees him moving firmly into the ambient genre he was to pioneer. As the title suggests, this was designed to be played on a loop continuously in airports, an environment Eno felt could do with becoming less stressful. Eno himself described the idea of ambient music as being “as ignorable as it is interesting” and that it would “induce calm and a space to think”.

As someone with a busy brain that isn’t always my friend, I’ve always had a soft-spot for ambient music as a way to ‘induce calm’ as Eno says above. Though this isn’t the first release that could be described as ambient music, it is the first album to explicitly label itself as that, and thus to me is undoubtedly the birth of the genre.

1/1 opens the album with soft and slow interweaving piano lines that are repeated throughout, backed by gentle atmospheric synths. It’s minimalistic in the extreme, but it’s ability to relax you is quite something, and despite its simplicity, there’s enough gentle creativity and beauty in the track for it to work both when listening intently, or when half-listening. The following 2/1 features vocals backed by a synth. Again, the piece is just a series of loops repeating themselves to a timescale that means they never come back into sync. With that, it continuously feels very familiar and safe, while never sounding the same. A masterstroke that again tricks the brain into feeling completely at home, while never getting bored. The second side continues much like the first, with gorgeous repeating melodies being played out at different times creating a cloudy, dreamy atmosphere.

Ambient 1: Music for Airports, is remarkable in that it achieves exactly what it sets out to do, and proves once again the amazing effect music has on our brains. It’s an audio version of a port in a storm, and they really should start playing it in airports.

Song Picks: 1/1, 1/2

9/10

The title of Wire’s second album apparently refers to the British expression “he’s got a few chairs missing in his front room”, one which I’ve never heard but that reminds me of the Swiss expression “he’s missing a few glasses in his cupboard”. The album sees the band experiment with more developed song structures and adds synth and keyboards to their arsenal.

There’s a darkness to the songs here, something evident from the opening track Practice Makes Perfect, which the bass tries its best to make jolly, but is made rather haunting by the reverberated laughter that appears in the second half of the track. Lyrically, the song is about waiting to go up to Sarah Bernhardt’s - a French actress from the 19th century - room. The following French Film Blurred is more difficult to decipher, and sets the tone for an album that is both rather weird, and yet completely fascinating. Glimpses of the punk from their debut re-appear at times. Such as the catchy bass part on Men 2nd and the bouncy guitars on Sand in my Joints, but they’re generally blurred by the dark, ambient soundscapes the band is now creating.

Marooned features probably my favourite lyric, one that seems to portray a complete loneliness that is perfectly emphasised by the distorted guitar that sounds as if it’s coming from miles a way and the bumbling bass that seems like it’s trying to comfort our singer, who mumbles his way through the pretty and desolate word picture he’s built. Being Sucked in Again is the perfect mix of the more catchy nature of their debut, and the darker, more intriguing nature of this effort. The riffs and chants of ‘being sucked in again’ worm their way into your ears, while some of the effects on the instruments create an atmosphere that makes the song endlessly more interesting than the simple one it is on the surface, with that almost underwater bass sound being particularly brilliant. The album’s highlight though is perhaps Mercy, a six minute tirade of blaring, crunchy, guitars that make Colin Newman’s vocals almost inaudible, finishing with a Robert Gotobed (what a surname) smashing the drum kit with some robotic quarter notes as the guitars threaten to swallow him whole. It’s probably the most ‘post-rock’ track I’ve heard so far on this challenge.

Chairs Missing is a mood; dreamy, dark, mysterious and untouchable in equal measure. It’s not often I describe an album as fascinating, but I think Chairs Missing is just that.

Song Picks: Marooned, Being Sucked in Again, Heartbeats, Mercy, Outdoor Miner

9/10

Sun Ra was a bit of a character. He abandoned his birth name in the 1940s, taking the name Le Sony'r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra (after Ra, the Egyptian God of the Sun). He also claimed to be an Alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace and denied any links with his previous identity.

Musically, he’s known for avant-garde, jazz inspired music with extensive use of his synthesiser playing. A prolific artist, Sun Ra had already released well over 30 albums by the time Lanquidity was released in 1978.

Lanquidity opens with the suitably sci-fi title track. The horns gently breathing like an alien life-force as nostalgic twinkles and echoes accompany them to create an otherworldly, mysterious, and slightly gloomy atmosphere. The album comes back to planet Earth with the groovy Where Pathways Meet, a song that’d make a perfect companion to marching elephants in a grittier remake of the Jungle Book, with it’s clunking percussion, and broad brass lines accompanied by some virtuoso guitar twiddling. That’s How I Feel continues the more accessible feel, built on a simple rumbling bassline that grounds the otherwise relaxingly free sax, piano and guitar parts that sound as if they’re discussing world peace in the language of music.

Sun Ra’s synth work on Twin Stars of Thence is probably the album’s most magical moment; playing perfectly off Richard Williams’ bass walk he scatters notes into the ether like an unstoppable, gentle firework as the piece builds slowly to John Gilmore’s solo, and finally Disco Kid’s superb guitar twinkles. It’s 9 minutes of pure jazz bliss. Everything closes with the infinitely weirder, but also strikingly pretty There are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of), which puts you back on the planet we visited in track one, filling out some of the details. Sketching the wind with warm saxophone blasts, and the stars with subtle xylophone taps. The spoken words whisper in either ear, absorbing you fully into this weird world as surprisingly calm screeches and creative synth sounds fill out this rather magical sound experiment.

Lanquidity is surprisingly accessible for how experimental it is, and it’s one of those rare records that creates a mood very much its own.

Song Picks: Where Pathways Meet, That’s How I Feel, Twin Stars of Thence

9/10

The Stones’ 14th British, and 16th American studio album is the first to feature Ronnie Wood as a full time member and sees them take a more disco direction, inspired by Mick Jagger and their decline in popularity since 1972’s Exile on Main Street.

The turn to a disco influence was a good one in my books, as Jagger’s energy, Wyman’s grooving bass lines, and the more rock ‘n’ roll nature of Richards’ guitar work and Wyman’s drumming make for an infectious blend of the two genres.

The album is injected with a great playfulness and fun that is evident from the first bass notes of Miss You - quite probably one of my very favourite bass parts. The “oooh oooh oooh” parts glide perfectly over Wyman’s impossibly groovy bass as Jagger energetically talks of feelings of longing. It’s the kind of song that immediately gets me dancing about, much like the following When the Whip Comes Down - which features yet another infectious bass part from Wyman, and which has a bouncy feel despite it’s rather dark and tragic story of a gay drifter. Just My Imagination features some classic Keith Richards noodling before his blurry riff helps create yet another winner of a chorus.

Some Girls saw the Stones getting rather controversial again. Their label wanted them to cut the song, which essentially talks about what women of various nationalities and races do. Jagger refused, saying that the song was a parody of racist attitudes, something he’d have probably had an easier time selling if his delivery didn’t sound so frolicsome in most of their other songs too. Far Away Eyes is a personal favourite of mine. A perfect tongue-in-cheek country song with lines like the below that always make me laugh:

And the preacher said, "You know, you always have the
Lord by your side"
And I was so pleased to be informed of this
That I ran twenty red lights in his honour

Some Girls is very Rolling Stones, Jagger hasn’t grown up, but he continues to give vocal performances that are as engaging as any from the time, with a bristling energy and immediacy to them on every song. Combine that with great melodies, groovy as hell bass parts, and the general feeling of a band having a good time - similar to that on the classic Exile on Main Street - and you have a winner of an album. You can’t take it too seriously, but then I doubt the Stones want you to.

Song Picks: Shattered, Far Away Eyes, Miss you

9/10

The English singer-songwriter’s debut album includes her number one hit in the UK, Wuthering Heights, and reached number 3 in the albums chart. It was critically acclaimed across the board on release, and has continued to receive universal praise since. The album was produced by David Gilmour’s friend Andrew Powell, and executive produced by David Gilmour himself, who funded Bush’s very first demos having been impressed by them in 1972, when Bush was just 13.

Things kick off with some whale song on the opening track, Moving, which was a hit in Japan. The song is a perfect introduction to Bush’s considerable talent. Her vocals start impossibly high and perfect, gliding over the soft piano like some ethereal being. The chorus melody is gorgeous and elevated by a production that doesn’t have too much going on, but is still very full sounding. Bush’s floating vocals - which probably have the largest range I’ve ever heard in a vocalist - are certainly the hallmark of the album, bringing to life the angelic melodies of Strange Phenomena and many more, but let’s not forget the rest of the music shall we? David Paton’s bass guitar on Kite provides the perfect counterpart to probably Bush’s highest vocal on the album, and it’s as if it’s mumbling agreement with Bush’s calls to “come up and be a kite”. The song is fun, bouncy, and impeccably performed on all fronts, with variations in tempo keeping things fresh.

It’s hard to listen to the album without getting the feeling you’ve been blessed by some angel from the heavens, and songs that could easily have been a bit boring, like The Man with the Child in His Eyes are elevated to being wondrous because of Andrew Powell’s dramatic arrangements and Bush’s soaring vocals.

Wuthering Heights is, of course, the album’s most famous song and it’s now rather perplexing that Bush had to press for it to be released as the first single, as her record company were pressing for Jesus and the Cold Gun. Kate Bush turned out to be right obviously, and it remains Bush’s most successful single to this day, spending 4 weeks at number 1 on the British chart. The song features one of the most recognisable and unique chorus melodies ever written, one that sounds as if it was composed by some musically talented birds longing for the return of the sun. Ian Bairnson’s understated guitar solo is the perfect ending. A song about the novel after which it’s named, it’s one of the best songs ever written, completely incomparable to anything that has come before or since.

The second side opens with perhaps the album’s most by the numbers track, the aforementioned James and the Cold Gun. The vulnerable, and beautifully simple retelling of a sexual encounter on Feel It is particularly memorable, and is followed quickly by the fun and endlessly interesting Oh to Be in Love, featuring rare male vocals, which provide a great foundation to Bush’s, in a chorus that’s one of the most enjoyable on the record. The album’s final four tracks continue to display Bush’s endless vocal talent and the tasteful and interesting arrangements, maintaining the feeling that you’re listening to something that’s just dropped from the sky.

Song Picks: Kite, Wuthering Heights, Strange Phenomena, Oh to be in Love

9/10

Music for 18 Musicians, a work of instrumental minimalism first premiered in 1976, but a recording of the piece wasn’t released until 1978. Reich’s first attempt at writing for larger ensembles, the piece is based on a cycle of eleven chords, with pieces of music based on one chord effortlessly flowing into a short piece based on another etc.

The album is made up of the single 56 minute title piece, which swells and sparkles from chord to chord putting you into a relaxed trance state. It feels like a quicker, livelier version of something like Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports, with repetition creating a homely familiarity within the subtle, slow changes in the piece. Although there’s a whole host of instruments playing here, such as pianos, marimbas and xylophones, there’s rarely more than 2 of each instrument, creating a sound that maintains its intimacy, something the fact nothing is electronic here also helps add to. The real masterstroke however is Reich’s decision to focus on the breath of his musicians, instructing them to create pulses present throughout the piece by repeating breaths in the same time intervals for as long as their lungs would let them. This makes the piece feel like a living, breathing entity, and it becomes more than just music, but something you swear you could touch. When this idea reaches its climax with a female voice creating pulses using the same idea, I could have sworn I entered a parallel universe for a fleeting moment.

I’ve always been a big believer in certain albums coming to life in certain situations, and Robert Christgau’s claim that the album ‘sounds great in the evening by the sea’ has me rather excited to try that one day. For now though, I’ll just have to listen its intricate pitter-patter melodies and gorgeous minimalism and imagine the waves lapping the pebbles by the sea, the wind pressing my baggy shirt against my skin, and the seagulls nesting noisily in the cliffs, all given new vibrant colours through the lens of Reich’s magnificent creation. It’s all rather easy to imagine when listening to something so majestic.

9.5/10