2021 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

January 30, 2022 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

As I march on with my challenge of deciding on my favourite albums from every year from 1960 to the present day, I also need to keep up with the present day. As such, here’s my favourite albums of the year just gone, 2021. I can’t be bothered to summarise the year because let’s be honest, it wasn’t all that great, and it feels like that massive boat getting stuck in the Suez Canal sums it up pretty well. The music, which is luckily what we’re here to talk about, was top notch however. If you’re more interested in lists for other years gone by, all the ones I’ve done so far are on the index page here.

I’ve made sure to include the 2021 top 10s from rateyourmusic.com ( a user music rating website), albumoftheyear.org (their aggregation of all critic top album lists), Pitchfork (my favourite online music magazine) and Anthony Fantano of the Needle Drop (one of my favourite music reviewers). As these lists only come out towards the end of 2021, I’ve taken January to get through them, making sure I’ve reviewed all the albums contained on them. Should you care to see what those top 10s were, I’ve listed them below this article.

Of course, I’ve also included anything else I’ve listened to this year that I’ve liked. So with a total of 37 to get through, let’s get cracking.

This is technically a 2020 release but presumably included on lots of 2021 lists because it came out on the 25th of December and therefore about 3 weeks after most publications do their ‘end of year’ lists. I’ll spare my rant on that for another time. Whole Lotta Red is Playboi Carti’s second album featuring guest appearances from Kid Cudi, Future and Kanye West - who was an executive producer on the album. 24 tracks and over an hour long, the album is a behemoth, and that to me is what holds it back.

Carti’s vocal style is more concerned with fitting into a tune than necessarily saying anything, but his style is rather singular. His croaks on Stop Breathing cut right through, and provide one of the year’s more interesting vocal performances as various timbres rattle left to right, over the kind of rumbling bass-heavy track that dominates much of the album. The tracks are immediate, effective, but rather repetitive both within themselves and from track to track. The beats are so similar at times that I’m not sure if it’s a new song at all, and by 60 minutes that gets rather old, and even boring. There’s some good stuff here, but not an hour’s worth of it.

Song Picks: Stop Breathing, M3tamorphosis

5.5/10

kick iii is Venezuelan singer and producer Arca’s sixth record and third entry in the Kick quintet. Arca herself describes the album as "a portal directly into the more manic, violently euphoric and aggressively psychedelic sound palettes in the series” which describes it as well as I ever could. There’s a sense of manic violence to it that makes the album quite an aggressive listen, and certainly not the most accessible. Like its enigmatic cover, taken by Frederik Heyman, it takes a while to absorb what the hell is going on, but once you do you’re rewarded with something singular and memorable.

kick iii is a demanding listen, and not something I’ll be putting on too regularly, I find it feels a bit too splattered for my tastes, without anything particularly to hang on to. That aside though, I can’t argue that its remarkably cohesive for how manic it is, and has a sound very much its own.

Song Picks: Intimate Flesh

6.5/10

Naked Flames’ second album is a whirlwind of reflective energy. 247 365 bounces in from the stratosphere, bleeping and sparkling away over the top of gently pounding drums and hyperactive bass grooves, and it never lets up. I’m not sure the lofi production adds all that much, and I think a cleaner sound would have helped, but this is still a favourite when I need to get something done.

Song Picks: 247 365

7/10

Dry Cleaning were one of the rare bands I saw live in 2021, where their post-punky, atmopsheric sound went across really well, though Florence Shaw’s spoken word vocal style got somewhat buried in the live mix.

The band’s debut album, New Long Leg, was one of the most talked about albums of the year over here in the UK, and certainly on my favourite radio station, BBC Radio 6. The band creates a very unique sound with Tom Dowse’s superb post-punk guitar work, where evocative riffs seem to fall to him from the sky; and Shaw’s spoken word, almost boredly mumbled vocals. It’s the vocals that will make or break the band for people I imagine, where you’ll either love the juxtoposition they create with the post-punk instrumental backing, or find them unengaging. I lie somewhere in the middle. I really like the whole ‘vibe’ the band gives off on this record, but I feel Shaw’s lyrics aren’t quite engaging enough to work with her deliberately deadpan delivery. When the lyrical content works with her delivery style, as on the detached Scratchcard Lanyard, I love it, but at other times I can feel the album drifting away from me as it fails to pull me in.

Song Picks: Scratchcard Lanyard, Leafy

7/10

Annie Clark’s sixth album as St. Vincent is inspired by her father’s release from prison in 2019. Daddy’s Home is St. Vincent leaning into 70s rock, but with a style very much her own. The elaborate productions here sound vintage and whisky drenched. Clark’s vocals teeter on the edge of hinged and unhinged, and the whole thing feels like a slightly seedy and lively basement bar.

There’s plenty to love here, such as that peppy Wurlitzer on Pay Your Way in Pain, a song that sinks into an almost groovy chorus for it’s final 30 seconds. The Wurlitzer makes plenty of other prominent appearances on the record, something I personally am a fan of, including its key place in the title track’s unique sonic bedding. I also like the classic feel to the album, something encapsulated in the guitar solo that closes the downtempo Live in the Dream.

Daddy’s Home is the type of album that it’s very hard to get bored of. There’s so much thought that’s gone into creating instrumental depth and atmosphere, that you notice new things on every listen. It completely nails a mood, which I always appreciate in an album, even if it hasn’t totally grabbed me.

Song Picks: Pay Your Way in Pain, Daddy’s Home, Live in the Dream, …At the Holiday Party

7/10

32. For the First Time

Black Country, New Road

For the First Time made quite a stir over here in the UK, with many of my friends becoming rather obsessed with the band’s unique blend of post-punk, math-rock and jazz elements. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

The London band’s debut is a remarkably mature, considered affair, with opening track Instrumental showing the band’s instrumental prowess and lack of care for scaring anyone off who might be averse to anything a bit too experimental. Isaac Wood’s vocals blend the tortured screams of La Dispute and the only slightly less tortured mumbles of mewithoutyou, showing as much dynamic range as the music itself. The songs are generally free from more common song-structures, and tend to take the form of longer form, building pieces that often don’t reach the crescendo they allude to earlier on. An exception to this is Science Fair, where the crescendo definitely does happen as Wood’s scream of “there’s black country out there” is followed by howls of saxophone and mashed guitars.

I like For the First Time a lot; it’s endlessly creative, clearly very carefully thought out, and also emotionally affecting at points. However, I can’t help feeling at times it’s trying to be a little too clever for its own good, and there’s a sense of pretentiousness to the whole thing that holds it back for me, and means it lacks soul somehow. I think that’s just a personal response, but hey, this is my personal list.

Song Picks: Science Fair, Sunglasses, Opus

7/10

31. Call Me If You Get Lost

Tyler, the Creator

Tyler, the Creator’s sixth album. The beats be chill, the rhymes be ill, and the sonic textures are lovely.

Song Picks: MASSA, Sweet / I Thought You Wanted to Dance, RUNITUP

7.5/10

30. A Beginner’s Mind

Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine

A Beginner’s Mind was recorded by Stevens and De Augustine in a cabin where they watched movies for inspiration. I’ve always thought about doing an album of songs inspired by individual movies, they’ve beaten me to it, bastards.

I have to confess here that I’ve not heard much of Sufjan’s stuff so I’m somewhat of a novice on that front - something I know will be rectified once my album of the year challenge gets far enough along (though I’m some way off, having got to 1984 at time of writing).

A Beginner’s Mind is lovely. Sufjan’s whispered melodies are as warm as ever, and they work well with De Augustine’s higher register to create somewhat of a king sized and comforting musical mattress. Musically the palate is fittingly smooth and wholesome, and keeps things just interesting enough without attempting anything particularly novel. It’s all very pretty, and holds up to both background and active listening sessions admirably.

Song Picks: A Beginner’s Mind, Murder and Crime

7.5/10

After multiple delays while Kanye lived at the Mercedez-Benz stadium in Atlanta, the album finally dropped in August, but of course, Kanye claimed that Universal had released it without his approval. As messy as its release, Donda goes on for an intimidating 108 minutes. It’s chaotic, somewhat diluted and disjointed, and yet there’s something magnificent about how impenetrable it can be. There’s plenty of evidence of Kanye is capable of, Off the Grid sounds like an earthquake, Hurricane is minimalist but hits like a storm and there’s a My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy level of magnitude to a lot of the tracks here which I really like. That said, the album is messy, some of the lyrics are lazy - that Messi line anyone? - and there’s nothing quite as mindblowing as we were used to from Kanye in the previous decade.

All four of the ‘part 2’s’, especially considering the controversial nature of their features, add nothing to the album, and only hold it back by making it too long. That - not inconsequential point - aside though, Donda feels like an unflinching look into Kanye’s mind, warts and all, and for that I think it deserves a little more praise than it’s got.

Song Picks: Off the Grid, Hurricane, Come to Life

7.5/10

Taja Cheek’s second album as L’Rain is one of those albums that is pretty difficult to define by genre, so people just call it avant-something, usually avant-pop.

Fatigue feels like a dream, turn the volume up, close your eyes, and you’ll be hovering somewhere between time and space itself, in a place full of lavish, atmospheric sounds, with beautiful melodies coming from all kinds of sources. It feels like swimming through a musical ocean, a description that is particularly apt for the beautiful Blame Me, which is coated in so much reverb it makes you question your own existence.

Fatigue is an oddball, it’s both completely gorgeous and a bit forgettable. I don’t think the short running length helps on the latter. It seems like the kind of album that’ll completely blow me away if I listen to it at the right moment, I just haven’t found that moment yet.

Song Picks: Blame Me, Take Two

7.5/10

The American synth-pop duo’s debut album features a whole variety of influences, and is perhaps best compared to a softer Grimes. Mica’s multi-tracked vocals are thick, warm, and melodic while never being particularly emotional. The production on the tracks is top-notch, with thick synths and bouncy drums creating a very inviting and enjoyable sonic palette.

Although the album doesn’t have any obvious themes to hold it together, it has a very coherent sound, with tracks flowing nicely from one to the other. Mercurial World is a great display of pop songwriting from front to back. If I had to criticise it I’d perhaps say that it lacks a certain unique character to make it particularly stand out, but there’s no doubt this is a well-executed and thoroughly enjoyable album.

Song Picks: Mercurial World, Dawning of the Season, Something for 2

8/10

I heard I Eat Boys played by Iggy Pop on Radio 6 and was pulled in by its great melody, dark lyrics, and just general feel. So I thought I’d best give her album a spin. Moriondo is an 18 year old Youtube star, with over 3 million subscribers, and this is her second album.

Blood Bunny has plenty of humour, including songs about getting high and discovering just how big Manta Rays are after an internet search, and the aforementioned I Eat Boys where she sings about luring boys into her basement and eating them. However, it’s also an album about being yourself: Opener Rly Don’t Care and the later Slacker being great examples of this. Moriondo has a Taylor Swift-esque knack for catchy melodies, and though the production is nothing particularly inventive or fresh, it is clean and atmospheric, giving songs like GIRL ON TV a real added weight, and turning the simple I Want to Be With You into a genuine stadium banger. This is pop with a dash of punk, and it’s one of the most enjoyable, sing-alongable albums of the year.

Song Picks: I Eat Boys, GIRL ON TV, I Want to Be With You

8/10

25. Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

Little Simz

The British rapper’s fourth comes in at a whopping 65 minutes, and it’s ambitious not just in length but in the sheer level of detail to each production, which is as smooth as silk, with gorgeous instrumental touches to accompany the plethora of chilled, funky beats and basslines.

Little Simz raps with an enviable confidence, one that cuts through even when her style barely rises above the volume of a conversation. She talks about personal issues, racism, fathers, and above all success through hard work. One listen to SIMBI (which is incidentally her first name), makes it clear that Little Simz was always going to make it one way or another. She raps about the level of dedication reserved to those who feel they have a right to be heard, and - in Little Simz’s case, she’s right, with a flow that is an absolute joy to listen to combined with astute lyricism.

On very few occasions over the album’s significant running length, Little Simz’s lyrics feel a little forced, and the interludes feel skippable after a listen or two. Those issues aside though Sometimes I Might be Introvert is one of the most straight-up enjoyable hip-hop albums I’ve heard for a while, with quality tracks from start to finish, production that sounds like a million dollars (in a good way), and the rewarding feeling that someone who truly deserved to break through with her last album, has flourished. It’s hard to imagine she doesn’t have a masterpiece up her sleeve soon, but this isn’t quite it.

Song Picks: Introvert, Woman, Point and Kill, Rollin Stone

8/10

Technically her first EP, but coming in at a very album length of 32 minutes it could easily be seen as her fourth album instead. Heaux Tales was named album of the year by Pitchfork.

An honest and personal hip-hop album, Heaux Tales is about women being proud of who they are, of their sexuality, and their femininity. Heaux Tales is a powerhouse of an album, and a bold statement of female empowerment. It makes a mark not only with its message, but also its slick production and great songwriting. Sullivan’s vocals are pitch-perfect, while still containing plenty of character, and her performances are powerful and yet vulnurable in a way that only someone with supreme confidence in her craft could muster. The album is a little too overtly sexual for my tastes, and that’ll impact how often I rerurn to it for sure, but I respect that is very much a personal thing, and that this album achieves what it sets out to do pretty spectacularly.

Oh and Lost One is gorgeous.

Song Picks: Put It Down, On it, Lost One, The Other Side

8/10

Lingua Inota’s fourth album is a vocal powerhouse, the imagery is less satanic than her previous album Caligula but no less religious in content and sound. The whole thing sounds like a visit to some culty church, where Kristin Hayter sings with an otherwordly power and accuracy over the top of the raucous pounding of instruments bouncing off the ornate walls.

Sinner Get Ready is very challenging, and I felt my body bracing to get through certain sections - the doom-laden organ sound on the opening trackTHE ORDER OF SPIRITUAL VIRGINS for example - but it’s ultimately worth it, even if I can’t see myself returning to it too often. Hayter’s vocal performance is astounding, full of drama, variety, and moments of pure brilliance, and the musical bedrock formed by Appalachian folk instruments accompanies the organ perfectly, creating a dark, doomed atmosphere. Sinner Get Ready absolutely isn’t for everyone, but Hayter’s ability to craft albums that sound so unique and important is remarkable, and I’d say this is essential listening for anyone interested in the pushing of musical envelopes.

Song Pick: THE ORDER OF SPIRITUAL VIRGINS, MANY HANDS, MAN IS LIKE A SPRING FLOWER

8/10

22. Collections from the Whiteout

Ben Howard

Howard’s fourth album sees him turning to a more electronic sound, something presumably somewhat forced by his lockdown isolation.

Collections from the Whiteout is meandering, but it’s not the kind of meandering where you’re lost and everything is so grey that no destination appeals more than another, it’s the kind of meandering where everything is so quietly bursting with beauty, that an aimless wander is the only way to soak it all in. It doesn’t hit me as hard as the excellent Noonday Dream, leaning a little too much into the steady and calmer parts of that record, but it’s still as gorgeous and earthy as that forest on the hill.

Song Picks: What a Day, Follies Fixture, Rookery

8/10

The Scottish band’s fourth album does nothing unexpected, but refines what the band do so well yet further.

Lauren Mayberry’s vocals soar even more than usual on this record, as she crafts dramatic melodies that punch through the dense productions with inspirational power. Mayberry’s lyrics are as personal as any from the band’s previous albums, with songs of broken relationships, deaths, and struggles with fame and society’s expectations. Iain Cook and Martin Doherty’s production is as maximalist as always, though with a taste for a few frequency filling instruments rather than many thinner ones to achieve a similar effect. The songs sound bigger than they ever have - no mean feat - and it’s hard not to be swept away by the album’s epic sound. Some of the melodies are starting to sound familiar here, and it wouldn’t hurt to have the odd song that doesn’t sound as if the planet depends on it, but this is another thoroughly enjoyable, danceable, singable and emotional cannonball of an album.

Song Picks: Violent Delights, How Not to Drown, Nightmares

8.5/10

Rodrigo’s debut album has been one of the year’s most commercially successful, and it’s easy to see why. Packed front to back with punchy bangers swarming in catchy melodies, it also features vocal performances from Rodrigo that aren’t afraid to include imperfections for the sake of emotional honesty.

There’s punk rockers like the opening brutal, slower ballads like traitor, and straight-up pop gems like good 4 u, one of the year’s most recognisable singles with its Paramore-esque chorus. There really isn’t a song here that couldn’t be a hit single, and that’s no mean feat.

SOUR isn’t afraid to sound like an album written by a 17-year-old and that’s what makes it so bloody good. It perfectly conveys the raw emotions one experiences at that age before getting numb to it all in later life, and it does it in a way we can all relate to. It’s pretty hard not to sing along to SOUR once its approachable lyrics bury themselves into your brain, and that’s because it encapsulates a part of all of us.

Song Picks: traitor, drivers license, good 4 u, favorite crime

8.5/10

Wye Oak co-founder Jenn Wasner released her debut studio album in 2016 under the moniker Flock of Dimes, this is her second solo album.

Dream pop can easily get lost in its own pretty atmospheres at times, and when that happens it can get quite dreary. Head of Roses is anything but. Jenn Wasner’s melodies and vocals are constantly captivating, rising above the beautiful musical backdrops to take you into the album's dreamy, melancholy world again and again. And when it all gets stripped back on the album’s more minimalist tracks, her vocals more than carry them.

It feels like a ride through some nebula on the back of a dragon, but one of those friendly cartoon dragons. If someone asked me what the prettiest album of 2021 was, this would undoubtedly be in contention.

Song Picks: 2 Heads, Awake for the Sunrise, Head of Roses

8.5/10

The Hold Steady’s eighth studio album was the first very much approached as an album rather than a collection of songs according to vocalist and lyricist Craig Finn, who has made more of a name for himself on his solo records recently. It’s no secret that The Hold Steady are one of my favourite bands, though I generally prefer the earlier records, and I feel their albums are more cohesive than this comment from Finn suggests.

Open Door Policy sees the band slow down, Finn is now nearly 50 after all, but still explosive when they need to be. It feels like a blend of the rambunctious the Hold Steady of old and Craig Finn’s great recent solo records, with the slower, more atmospheric soundscapes accompanying his Kerouac style lyrics on tracks like Lanyards, seamlessly linking with the song’s heavier chorus. It’s one of the album’s most poignant songs, telling the age-old story of someone going to California to follow their dreams of fame, only to come up empty:

I saw a few stars
But I never made it into a movie
Still trying to make moves
But I'm back in Independence, Missouri

The album’s crescendos are tastefully toned back to make sure you can still hear every one of Finn’s lyrics, which makes the louder parts of the record such as the triumphant, brass infused chorus of the lead single Family Farm punch less from an instrumental perspective, but Finn’s poetry and performance has always been what pulls The Hold Steady apart from other bands, and so keeping the focus on that is a wise decision in my books.

Open Door Policy flows as well as any album they’ve ever recorded, and it nails those highs that the band are so good at. It’s my favourite Hold Steady album since 2006’s Boys and Girls in America.

Song Picks: Lanyards, Family Farm

8.5/10

The English rock band’s second album was born of a more thought out and less improvisational style than their excellent 2019 debut, Schlagenheim.

While prog-rock has never quite reached the heady heights it reached in the 70s and 80s, there are still plenty of prog-rock bands around, though many seem to have got lost in the ‘look how well I can play my instrument’ craze. Black-Midi are very much bucking that trend. Don’t get me wrong, they’re stupidly proficient at their instruments, especially considering how young they are (they were just out of high school when gaining prominence in 2018), but that’s not the focus here. The focus here is to keep you on your toes. Cavalcade is constantly surprising, the fact that something as pulsating, grinding, and brilliantly abrasive as the opener John L is followed by something as calm and relaxed as Marlene Dietrich is a prime example of this. But it’s not just between songs, but in the songs themselves that this vivid unpredictability lives. Morgan Simpson’s superb, flurried drumming is the bedrock of an album that’s a perfect blend of calm and chaos. Intricate and barnstorming are words that can be used to describe different sections of many of the album’s songs, Chrondromalcia Patella being a great example, where the song’s finale threatens to explode into a chaotic mess, and yet is reigned in by Simpson’s seemingly superhero like ability to keep a beat no matter how intense and complicated everything gets around him.

My album of the year challenge has educated me plenty about prog-rock’s great records of the past, but Cavalcade is one of the best things I’ve heard released in the genre in recent years.

Song Picks: John L, Marlene Dietrich, Chrondromancia Patella

8.5/10

16. By the Time I Get to Phoenix

Injury Reserve

Injury Reserve member Stepa J Grogs died during the recording of this, their second album, and it is dedicated in his memory by surviving members Ritchie with a T and Parker Corey.

By the Time I Get to Phoenix very much defies genre descriptions, and is rather hard to put in a box. There are the rap elements you’d expect, but they’re by no means a centre point, and in fact the album manages to go along without having a clear centre point. It gracefully moves through its plethora of musical ideas, creating something that is rather hard to pin down, but in a way that adds intrigue rather than any feelings of frustration.

There’s no verses or choruses here, just sounds. It’s not ambient in any way - it hits too hard for that - but it shares a certain floaty, structure-free feel with the genre. However, while ambient music is often akin to something being delicately sprinkled near your ears, this is more like a frenetic scattering of thoughts, both musically and lyrically. Top Picks for You comes close to a structure, with the poetics perfectly accompanied by what sounds like a melodic siren. It’s a song that manages to sound massive with little, and one of my favourites of the year, a soulful, smooth, and ethereal record of loss. Wild Wild West disintegrates any calm that track may have built up, with what sounds like a frantic and futile scramble for cohesion.

By the Time I Get to Phoenix has been considered post-rap by some, and it defies genres so well that the only way to describe it would be to come up with a suitable new one, post-rap seems as good as any to me. I find the album’s reluctance to be grappled frustrating at times, but when I let go and stop trying to grapple it, it feels unlike anything I’ve heard for a long time - and it soars.

Song Picks: Top Picks for You, Knees, Bye Storm

8.5/10

JPEGMAFIA’s fourth album was released as both an ‘online’ (streaming services version) and offline (bandcamp, youtube and music sellers) version. In his ‘liner’ notes on bandcamp, JPEG claims the offline version is the ‘true LP!’, so that’s the one I’m going to review here. The record is perhaps less manic and envelope breaking than 2019’s All My Heroes are Cornballs, but it still skips and shouts with the punk mentality of a renegade.

LP! is an absolute bundle of energy, on DIRTY! it flits between staccato raps and percussion and dropping into one of my favourite bass parts of the year, an exhilarating nose dive down a tunnel slide. On END CREDITS (track 4, naturally), JPEGMAFIA demonstrates why he’s often considered the intersection between rap and punk, as he growls and screams over the top of an almost post-punk guitar riff. As with All My Heroes…, LP! is completely restless, jumping from one idea to the next like a 5-year-old child’s brain, only this time JPEG occasionally decides to turn an idea into a song, rather than having it appear once only for it to never appear again. This makes for a few more songs that work out of the context of the album, such as the aforementioned DIRTY!, as well as the superb REBOUND, where the squashed brass melody sounds massive. However, I’d still say this is best listened to as one crazy whole. THOT’S PRAYER is a great example of JPEGMAFIA’s originality here, and its fabulous repurposing of Britney Spears’ Hit Me Baby One More Time is probably my favourite ‘cover’ of the year

LP! is a condensed hit of unrefined sugar, one that only feels more conservative than his last release because that one broke so much ground it’s hard to find any new ground to break. As JPEG says on bandcamp, this is not for ‘doing the dishes to or whatever’, this is for those that like detail, and LP! sure is crammed with that.

Song Picks: DIRTY!, THOT’S PRAYER, END CREDITS, REBOUND

8.5/10

Bandleader Michelle Zauner said of their third release, "After spending the last five years writing about grief, I wanted our follow up to be about joy". The joy begins with the opening track Paprika, one of my favourite songs of the year featuring a triumphant melody accompanied by orchestral synths and marching toms which switch for a snare drum during the song’s brilliantly cheerful chorus. The joy continues with Be Sweet, an 80s pop-rocker with another immaculate set of melodies, which in a more perfect world would have spent weeks on end at number 1.

The album is full of great little touches around its songs’ central melodic anchors. Slide Tackle, a song about essentially wrestling your mind to be positive features fluttery guitar parts from Ryan Galloway for example, which really add a lot of depth to its sound. Posing in Bondage, a sultry song about controlled desire is elevated by synthy, pounding bass and what sounds like a sparkling xylophone during its climax. There’s a lot going on in each song here, with a sonic depth that is to be lauded. The instrumental ending to the closing track Posing for Cars is absolutely gorgeous too, taking me right back to my childhood with that 80s guitar solo.

Jubilee is a brilliantly executed pop album, that manages to convey a positive outlook, while never sounding too cheesy.

8.5/10

Turnstile’s third album is widely seen as their best yet, and it’s not difficult to see why. GLOW ON sees the band’s hardcore sound sprinkled with more than a dash of dream-pop, and it’s that inspired combination that gives the album a lot of its dynamics, which are what essentially make the album so great. The album makes every riff hit hard, which is no mean feat, and is as much about what precedes those riffs as the riffs themselves. Everything feels carefully sculpted for maximum impact. This almost scientific method of song construction can often make the resulting music sound stale and machine-like, but that’s not the case here. A lot of credit has to be given to Brendan Yates’ vocals, which sound as if he’s completely feeling everything he sings. There’s no feeling of over-rehearsed staleness here, and considering the amount of rehearsing that must have gone into some of these fairly complex arrangements, that’s rather impressive.

GLOW ON is the hardest hitting album of the year by a country mile, and it achieves this not by subjecting us to a constant barrage of distorted guitars (though there’s plenty of that), but by carefully switching things up just enough to keep things fresh, while never sacrificing its accessibility. GLOW ON isn’t revolutionary, but it’s reverb-drenched and slightly softened hardcore is refreshing, and it’s my favourite heavy album of the year.

Song Picks: MYSTERY, BLACKOUT, DON’T PLAY, UNDERWATER BOI, ALIEN LOVE CALL

8.5/10

Richard Dawson is one of those artists glaringly missing from my musical map, and this, his release with Finnish rock group Circle, has made me realise that is a wrong that needs to be righted pronto.

Conceptually the album is rooted (sorry…) in plants, with all seven of its tracks being named after one. Within this framework Dawson weaves the stories he’s so good at, on Ivy, about the Greek God of wine Dionysus, about the true story of a 32,000 year old seed being brought to life on Silene and on Methuselah, about the sad chopping down of what was thought to be the world’s oldest organism by Geographer Donald Rusk Curry in the 60s, the title referring to the name of what is now the oldest known living organism.

Researching lyrics to songs is rarely as fascinating as it is with Henki, but there’s a whole lot more to it than its strong, unique and interesting lyrical content. Dawson’s vocal performance is unpredictable, which is something new for the folk style he leans into. His melodies seem spontaneous, and he’s not afraid to test the range of his vocals and throw in imperfections. Circle’s backing is as masterful as you’d expect from a band that has released around 40 albums. There’s a wide variety of textures, from some that are clearly 70s metal-inspired, to others that are more prog-rock, to more ambient - almost jazzy - work in the breakdown of the 12-minute epic Silphium, which has a superb, almost post-rock finale. Henki stands out like an oak among pines for its sheer uniqueness, and from a songwriting perspective, it’s one of the most inspiring works of the year for me personally.

Song Picks: Cooksonia, Silphium

8.5/10

Many bands sound more and more tired as the years go on, as they become stuck for ideas. This isn’t the case with Low, a duo from Minnesota comprising of Alan Sparhawk on vocals and guitar, and Mimi Parker on drums and vocals. HEY WHAT is their 13th album, and it sounds as fresh, energetic, and bullish as a debut album.

Part trance, part rock, part pop and all Low, HEY WHAT is a statement of minimalism and maximalism all at the same time. There aren’t many instruments here but they all sound huge; that synth pounding into the distance on I Can Wait, sounds like it’s coming from another solar system, a warning of an approaching trance army. Sparhawk and Parker’s vocals often combine on the tracks to create an ethereal sound that seems to have no source, much like the pulverising distorted guitars and synths they sound as if they’ve just been birthed out of the midnight air.

At times, Hey What threatens to crumble into tiny particles and spread into nothingness, as if it’s become too big for this earth. Generally though, Low is a perfect example of making the most of one thing, rather than adding a lot of things. It creates walls of sound without drums or tons of instrumental parts overdubbed, using only the sheer breadth of its sounds. That guitar (I think?) on Disappearing, for example, seems to have its own gravitational pull, sucking you into your headphones.

Low feels like a monstrous barrage of sound and a warm pillow all at once, remarkable.

Song Picks: Disappearing, Hey, Days Like These

8.5/10

SKA DREAM is an oddball - it’s a complete ska rework of Rosenstock’s previous album NO DREAM, one which I confess to not having heard yet, despite it being on my list to check out when it came out last year. I was going to rectify that before listening to this, but then I thought it might be interesting to hear the perspective of someone for whom this is their first exposure to these lyrics and melodies - which I’m told are the same as the initial album.

It goes without saying for a ska album that this thing is energetic, but I’m going to say it anyway. Jeff Rosenstock has always had a talent for great pop-punk melodies and a style of singing that somehow makes them less Blink 182 and Sum 41, and with a lot more edge. Rosenstock’s lyrics are as cynical and brilliant as ever. From the opener NO TIME’s lyrics of having to be ok with living in a world you rather disagree with “Did you learn to make amends with your pile of flaming shit / Gain the patience to deal with total idiots?“ to on the nose commentary of school shootings in the US in NO DREAM, “They were lining up the unsuspecting teens / For a violent moment of celebrity”. Rosenstock is unflinching, and that helps to create that cathartic energy he always seems to muster on his records. He’s also more than happy to make songs less than 2 minutes long, which is an under-appreciated skill in my eyes.

If I had to choose a 2021 album to listen to performed live, then I’d choose NO DREAM. Not only because I’ve missed ska, but because the record’s bursting with resigned anger at the state of the world, and it feels like a scream of frustration at the walls (that of course don’t give a shit) that’s not only relieving but a silly amount of fun too.

Song Picks: NO TIME TO SKANK, Horn Line, Ohio Porkpie

8.5/10

9. To See the Next Part of the Dream

Parannoul

South Korean musician Parannoul’s second album is a post-rock masterstroke. No one knows who they are, or whether they have any help to create this mass of noise.

I guess To See the Next Part of the Dream sounds most like shoegaze if you had to categorise it, but it’s a lot messier than the sparkling, perfectly produced wall-of-sound we’ve come to expect from the genre. The drums on this album sound like they’ve been recorded on a phone - fuzzy and distorted, the bass is there but somehow so woolly it’s hard to tell what it’s doing other than adding some ‘thickness’ and the guitars are so distorted that at times, such as on the title track, they seem to blend into, and become one with the fizzy cymbal mayhem created by the drums. It’s lo-fi, but it somehow also sounds quite full, where a lot of lo-fi is thin. The opening of the penultimate track Chicken sounds bloody humongous for example. Parannoul’s vocals are so drowned out by the din around them, that it barely matters that they’re being sung in South Korean, I’d never have a chance of understanding them even if they were in English. The lyrics are helpfully translated on Bandcamp, and it only takes reading the opening track’s final verse to fully appreciate the amount of self-loathing on offer here:

I wish no one had seen my miserable self
I wish no one had seen my numerous failures
I wish my young and stupid days to disappear forever
My precious relationships, now they’re just in the memories

To See the Next Part of the Dream sounds like the anger of someone being told daily to ‘love themselves’ when all they want to do is scream about how much they don’t. The songs are massive, they build and build so much that at times it feels like flying. It’s as if Parannoul has sunk so low that they’ve found the musical ingredients for euphoria down there, and as the fuzz consumes you for over an hour, they try desperately to scream through the dreamy hiss and chaos. You’re left feeling cleansed, but not because of any renewed positive outlook. Quite the opposite, ‘the next part of the dream’ is a euphoric acceptance of mediocrity.

Song Picks: White Ceiling, Analog Sentimentalism, Chicken

8.5/10

Owusu’s remarkably accomplished debut album is one of the most god-damn fun things to come out this year. Owusu is completely unafraid to shift genres with tracks ranging from hip-hop to rock, to pop and sometimes seemingly all three at once. Owusu states that the album is “Performing what the world wants to see, even if you don't have the capacity to do so honestly. Slathering honey on your demons to make them palatable to people who only want to know if you're okay if the answer is yes. That's the idea, turned into beautiful, youthful, ugly, timeless and strange music.”

It does exactly that, Smiling With No Teeth is infectiously fun while beneath its surface, for those who are ready to hear it, there are stories of depression and mental health struggles. For those not ready to hear it, there’s pumping bass riffs, an infectious enthusiasm coming through from Owusu, catchy melodies, and above all, a variety and quality to the songs that would keep even those with the lowest attention spans entertained. I mean who would have thought that the guy who wrote a song like the emotional depression-ballad A Song About Fishing, would also write something as bouncy and gruff as the excellent Don’t Need You or as ragged and rocking as Black Dogs!. A Song About Fishing , by the way, is quite possibly my favourite song of the year. A perfectly produced song that’s chorus is as apt as anything written on depression this year:

And rise and shine, to dawn I wake
To cast my net in a fishless lake
Rise and shine, to dawn I wake
Casting my net in a fishless lake

Smiling With No Teeth is unpretentious and fun. It has depth while never making you feel bad for not looking for it, and it’s glorious.

Song Picks: Waitin’ On Ya’, A Song About Fishing, On the Move!

9/10

The Weather Station’s fifth album is like a meadow; nothing sticks out and calls for your attention, but together everything creates something majestic. And like a meadow, if you focus in on the individual parts, they’re all gorgeous in their own quiet way.

Tamara Lindeman’s vocals are sung as if no one is listening, so completely personally and quietly that the whole album feels like an intimate and important moment. All the instrumental additions complement this feel perfectly, with an alluring softness to them, gently sparkling as to never distract your attention from the whole, while adding up to make one of the most remarkable soundscapes of the year. A beautifully introverted journey that blooms and blooms with each listen.

Song Picks: Robber, Atlantic, Loss

9/10

Chrystia "Tia" Cabral’s experimental pop project Spellling returns with a third studio album, which Anthony Fantano named his favourite album of 2021 and gave a rare 10 to, something he’s only done with 6 other albums.

The Turning Wheel is sumptuously produced, Cabral’s vocals perfectly clear above the lush soundscapes created by the heap of additional musicians on this album, mainly adding a substantial brass backing to many of the album’s songs. The Turning Wheel is a carefully crafted experience that is melodic, constantly sonically engaging due to the wide array of instrumental touches, and probably the most well-produced record of the year. The whole album is luxurious to listen to and completely cohesive, succeeding in transporting me to a fantastical world that’s a complete joy to be enveloped in. A perfectly executed album.

Song Picks: Little Deer, Turning Wheel, Boys at School

9/10

Tuareg musician Mdou Moctar’s sixth album has made quite a few end of year lists in the English-speaking world. All the more impressive when you consider the whole album is sung in Tamasheq - a Malian variety of Tuareg - and that it’s very much rooted in traditional Tuareg music. For those who don’t know (I didn’t), the Tuareg people are a large ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Mdou Moctar himself is based in Niger.

Of course, I can’t speak about the lyrical content of the album, but I can talk about the music. It’s certainly refreshing to have more exotic rhythms and instruments than is typical in any of these albums, but that’s far from the album’s only selling point. The melodies on Afrique Victime are gorgeous - the soft recent single Tala Tannam a fine example, but what really makes Afrique Victime so brilliant, is Moctar’s incomparable guitar playing. It could be because I've not listened to any Tamasheq music before, but to me he sounds so unique, so prodigious, that I get excited every time I put this record on. Known to some as the Hendrix of the desert, his solos are the centrepiece to all the album’s tracks, with his guitar work on the title track in particular being nothing short of stratospheric. From the opening track Chismiten, where he arrives with some gnarly bluesy grit, Moctar’s guitar playing is exciting, bursting with energy, and completely his own. He plays using mainly his hands using a rapid finger movements as shown in this interview, and this pick-free style helps create his more free-form, less defined sound that is at times so fresh and powerful that I was giggling with joy. Afrique Victime is the best ‘guitar album’ I’ve heard for a long time.

Moctar, in the aforementioned interview, talks about how music isn’t as controlled in Africa as it is here, when he makes a tape it inevitably gets copied hundreds of times and sold on. Indeed, he first gained notice through a trading network of cellphones and memory cards. He talks of hearing his music on people’s phones as he sat on buses, people none the wiser that the guitarist they’re listening to is sat right next to them. Moctar doesn’t seem all that bothered about fame, ‘I can’t tell them’ he says, it’s pretty clear that Moctar plays the guitar because he bloody loves it, and that comes across perfectly on Afrique Victime, a tour de force of creative joy, and as great a testament to the power of the guitar as I’ve heard this decade.

Song Picks: Afrique Victime, Chismiten, Tala Tannam

9/10

4. Promises

Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra

We’ve had Pharaoh Sanders on plenty of albums on these lists already, way back in the 60s and 70s on both John and Alice Coltrane’s records for example, and it’s a delight to have him back here in 2021, combining with British producer Sam Shepherd, more commonly known as Floating Points.

Promises consists of one 46 minute piece divided into nine movements. The whole piece is composed by Sam Shepherd, with Pharaoh’s playing featuring extensively, and yet sparingly, throughout. Promises is a triumph of electronic meets classical, an ambient masterpiece that glides like the passing of time on a cobbled Italian street, with people sitting on balconies nursing a coffee as the sun sets. Pharaoh Sanders’ saxophone playing is some of the finest instrumental playing to appear on any modern record, his phrasing is measured and delicate, and yet he’s unafraid to skitter out more elaborate lines such as on the majestic Movement 5. At 80 years old he plays like an absolute master of his instrument, someone who can do it all, and yet does only what is needed. Shephard’s synth and piano provide a sparkling playground for Sanders to showcase his considerable talents in the opening 4 movements, before the Shephard’s string arrangements (played by the London Symphony Orchestra) take a more central role for the record’s second side. The saturated, long notes conjure up images of dramatic landscapes as Shepherd’s central piano twinkle keeps things grounded and flowing, before the piece settles into a gentle sparkle again in Movement 8.

This has quickly become one of my favourite ambient albums, up there with some of Brian Eno’s 70s creations, and I can’t give it any higher praise than that.

9/10

Space 1.8 is London based Belgian-Caribbean jazz musician Nala Sinephro’s debut album.

I mean where do you even start when talking about such an accomplished, well constructed, delicate piece of art from such a young musician. Nala was only 22 when recording Space 1.8, and yet she leads a whole host of UK jazz musicians to create something - that I guess has to be called ambient due to its lack of beats and relaxed, unstructured nature - but is so much more than that. The complex interwoven instrumental parts here combine to create something that immediately calms the mind, and brings on a state of simple clarity. But there’s a journey here too, as things build gently to the almost agitated Space 6, where the off-beat drums sound as if they’re frantically trying to make their way home, and the synths roar coldly before we’re lulled into the slightly calmer Space 7 which is orchestrated so perfectly with its unpredictable synth waves that it feels much like the calm after a storm. The storm may have disappeared, but it still lingers uneasily in you. By the 18-minute closing Space 8 we’re floating effortlessly through the twinkling stars, guided by various, almost bird-like, sounds and carefully breathed brass parts. Nala’s intricate performances on piano, keyboards and pedal harp have gently guided us - rather shyly for someone with such skill - through something that feels truly unforgettable.

Space 1.8 is a place I’ve escaped to on countless occasions this year, and it’s cleared my mind in a way very few things manage to do. I believe that comes from how well such underlying complexity is masked as something simple and ambient. The latter would stop working on me eventually, but Space 1.8’s underlying complexity seems to mean that my mind focuses on different things every listen, making each one its own journey. The album never quite seems the same, it almost seems alive.

Song Picks: Space 1, Space 2, Space 6

9/10

2. Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern

Lil Ugly Mane

Lil Ugly Mane’s third album sees the Travis Miller project turn away from hip-hop and features him singing on most tacks. It also gets the award for sounding the most like its cover this year which, when you look at the rather mad cover, is impressive.

Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern is scattershot, featuring a whole meld of different genres and styles, presented in Lil Ugly Mane’s characteristic lo-fi style. There’s a definite plunderphonic feel to the album here, and I’d most closely link it to a lo-fi and more drowsy version of the Avalanches, with the music seemingly being plucked or influenced from anywhere and everywhere. Vocally Miller is unspectacular and slightly detached, but that fits here perfectly in my opinion. I’m very much here for the way he sings catchy melodies with a lack of enthusiasm, as if he’s somehow bored of coming up with them. It all contributes to the pot-smoke drenched and breezy feel of the record.

I think Miller’s knack for a catchy melody is what ties the whole thing together (along with the delivery I’ve already mentioned), and while the music from song to song varies massively, there’s an undercurrent of fun and playfulness to all Miller’s seemingly LSD infused productions. The evocative, ramshackle and crackling 50s bar sound of styrofoam is just one of the glorious, complete surprises here, in an album chock full of them. The barnstorming distorted guitar haze of discard combined with the seemingly juxtapositional mumbled vocal is another.

Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern is as weird as it sounds, but it’s also brilliantly enjoyable and unpretentious, emanating a warm glow despite its often sombre lyrical content. It sounds like cynical creativity, and I love it.

Song Picks: benadryl submarine, discard, headboard, porcelain slightly

9/10

Electronic music producer Porter Robinson’s second album, and first for seven years perfectly combines folk, synths, electro-pop and shoegaze to create quite probably the year’s most uplifting album. Thematically songs are often about Robinson’s struggles with depression and his writer’s block. Nurture feels like the perfect expression of a turning point for him, one that he perfectly describes in a letter to fans from his Twitter about the single Get Your Wish, my favourite extract of which I’ll include here:

"I realized I shouldn't write music with the expectation that the productivity or achievement will fix my problems, but instead with the hope that my honest expression will move people the way music moves me. So when I was really struggling to write and it seemed impossible, instead of thinking, 'You're struggling because you're a fraud, you're clearly not cut out for this,' I began to tell myself, 'Yeah, this is what you sacrifice.'"

Both his depression and writer’s block are perfectly summarised in the final verse of the album’s lovely closing track, Trying to Feel Alive:

Then somebody somewhere finds
The warmth of summer in the songs you write
Maybe it's a gift that I couldn't recognize
Trying to feel alive

The album opens with pumping dance anthem Look at the Sky and takes us on a journey of well-produced, catchy songs featuring heavily processed vocals from Robinson, using pitch-shifting to give a male-female duet feel. The whole thing is consistently entrancing and cathartically personal and relatable in a way that electronic music - especially electronic music this lively - often isn’t. In a masterclass of how to pace an hour-long album, the record’s more piano rooted interludes and songs are perfectly placed to make the next folk-infused electronica banger hit all the harder. Robinson picked the name Nurture for the album because of how similar it sounds to ‘nature’. In a year where we’ve needed the former, and many have found it in the latter, it feels like the perfect album to celebrate getting through what has been a particularly tough year for many of us. The album’s heavily folk-inspired sound also helps with the ‘nurturing’ feel, grounding the album’s heavy production values somewhat.

Nurture’s rooting in warm, powerful synths and glowing, fuzzy vocals helps it feel like that childhood teddy bear or toy that still gives you comfort through memories of simpler times. Nurture feels like a euphoric bursting out of one’s mental cage in musical format, and there’s something truly glorious about that.

Song Picks: Sweet Time, Blossom, Wind Tempos, Musician, Something Comforting, Unfold

9.5/10

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

The lists I made sure to listen to (with albums that made it into my own top 10 bolded)

Anthony Fantano had the most make it into my own top 10, with 4.

rateyourmusic.com top 10 - this was taken in January 2022, and - with it being based on average user ratings - may change over time.

Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
LP! - JPEGMAFIA
Injury Reserve - By the Time I Get to Phoenix
black midi - Cavalcade
Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises
Lil Ugly Mane - Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern
Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready
Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World
Black Country, New Road - For the First Time
Tyler, the Creator - Call Me if You Get Lost

albumoftheyear.org critic lists aggregated (Top 10)

Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Tyler, the Creator- CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg
Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee
Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR
Low - Hey What
Turnstile - GLOW ON
Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales
The Weather Station - Ignorance

Pitchfork Top 10

Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales
L'Rain - Fatigue
Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises
Low - Hey What
Turnstile - GLOW ON
The Weather Station - Ignorance
Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
Playboi Carti - Whole Lotta Red
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

Anthony Fantano (the Needle Drop) Top 10

Spellling - The Turning Wheel
Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready
Arca - KicK iii
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises
St Vincent - Daddy’s Home
JPEGMAFIA - LP! (2021)
Richard Dawson & Circle - Henki (2021)
Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Porter Robinson - Nurture (2021)
Jeff Rosenstock - SKA DREAM (2021)

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

1981 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

October 12, 2021 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Well, this one’s taken a while as there’s been some goings on in my personal life that have led to a period of reflection. Possibly due to the fact I’ve lived with these albums for a while, this is one of the highest scoring years of the challenge so far.

But anyway, what happened in 1981 outside of music? President Raegan and Pope John Paul II were both wounded by gunmen on separate occasions, MTV first went on air famously starting with the song Video Killed the Radio Star, AIDS was first identified and IBM introduced its first personal computer.

In music here’s what rateyourmusic.com users rated as their top 5 albums of the year:

#1 King Crimson - Discipline
#2 This Heat - Deceit
#3 Rush - Moving Pictures
#4 Glenn Branca - The Ascension
#5 Kraftwerk - Computer World

And here’s some others I’m grabbing from further down the list:

#6 Wipers - Youth of America
#7 Siouxsie and the Banshees - Juju
#8 The Cure - Faith

But we’re not stopping there, Pitchfork’s top 40 from the 1980s includes Computer World - which we already have - and Black Flag’s Damaged - which we’ll add.

Finally, I’m taking a look at NPR’s best albums of all time by female artists list, as well as their reader voted list on the same topic and grabbing the following from there:

Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
Rickie Lee Jones - Pirates
Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna
The Go-Gos - Beauty and the Beat

That’s 13 albums to battle it out for 1981’s title. Off we go.

The debut solo album from ex-Fletwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks sold rather well, and was certified quadruple-platinum in 1990.

Featuring a whole heap of additional musicians, many of whom are pretty big names in their own right, the songs on Bella Donna feel nicely fleshed out and well produced. The production isn’t particularly exciting though, and it definitely verges a bit too much into middle-of-the-road country for my liking. There’s enough inventiveness sprinkled throughout though to raise it above much of the repetitive music in the genre, something which Stevie Nicks’ barnstorming vocals, which are impressive while never being showy, only help with further. Oh and it includes Edge of Seventeen, one of the decade’s best pop songs in my books, featuring probably Nicks’ strongest vocal performance on the album.

Bella Donna didn’t blow me away, but it does have a certain sparkle to it that kept me coming back for repeated listens.

Song Picks: Edge of Seventeen, How Still My Love

7/10

Ignored upon release, Black Flag’s debut album has since garnered quite the following as one of the most influential punk rock albums of all time, as well as pretty much giving birth to West Coast Hardcore. Pitchfork ranked it as the 25th best album of the 1980s.

Damaged is incredibly angry, but doesn’t take itself all that seriously, as shown by the inclusion of hilarious tracks such as TV Party, which essentially details a night in in front of the TV ignoring world events. Very much a three chords and the truth kind of album - though Ginn’s guitar on Life of Pain is spectacular , Damaged rattles along at breakneck speed, jumping from power chord to power chord as Robo smashes the drums like a man possessed. Henry Rollins, who had just joined the band, growls over the top of the din with an anger so cathartic that you feel as if you’ve just spent 35 minutes shouting your head off by the time you get to the end of the album, when in fact you’ve just been sat on your arse typing out a review.

Damaged is a train ride into the pits of hell while entertained by a bunch of a clowns with their finger firmly on the pulse of your demise.

“We’ve got nothing better to do,
Than watch TV and have a couple of brews”

Song Picks: TV Party, Rise Above, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Life of Pain

8/10

The Cure’s third album is stylistically similar to Seventeen Seconds from last year’s list, with gloomy atmospheres and sad, detached sounding melodies drifting out from beneath them.

The Holy Hour sets the tone, a song written by Smith whilst in church listening to mass, a song of people slipping away and unfulfilled promises. As with many Cure songs Smith’s guitar work injects just enough energy and hope to stop it being quite as bleak as bands like Joy Division. The album’s only single, Primary, features that fast paced guitar part common on so many of the band’s poppier songs. A song about growing older, the lyrics are once again as bleak as can be, but the overall feel of the song is perhaps as positive as any on the album.

Faith continues the band’s themes of mortality, alienation, and the general futility of life, something that sounds as dour and grey as the album’s cover. But there’s more to it than that, musically there are lights being shone at Smith’s bleak poetics, as if asking him to turn in their direction, as they flicker to instil some hope.

In the caves, all cats are grey
In the caves, the texture coats my skin
In the death cell, a single note rings on and on and on

Song Picks: The Holy Hour, Primary All Cats are Grey, The Drowning Man

8.5/10

Grace Jones’ fifth album was voted as the best album of the year by NME’s writers, and is widely considered as her best album. It sees her turn to a more new-wave style, blending a whole host of genres such as reggae, dub, pop and funk.

Full of drastically re-imagined covers including groovy baselines and Jones’ characteristic vocal style. The highlight of the covers is perhaps that of Bill Wither’s Use Me, which seems written for Jones’ vocal. Of the Grace Jones co-writes, Pull Up to the Bumper is my favourite; another 80s groove-fest, with a bass-line that sounds immediately iconic. Combine that with the wavy synths scattered over the top and you end up with one of the album’s most infectious tracks. Jones’ suggestive lyrics caused much controversy and many radio stations refused to play it on initial release, but that hasn’t stopped it becoming one of her most well known tracks.

Nightclubbing is testament to Jones’ originality. Undoubtedly a massive influence on lots of later pop-music, both in terms of the music itself, but also her image - which works perfectly with the music here - it’s an album completely unafraid to tread its own path, and sounds like the kind of music that people in the Blade Runner universe would listen to. An 80s vision of a future where fun has become sparse, but still seeps through the cracks of an overly sterile world.

Song Picks: Pull Up to the Bumper, Use Me, I’ve Done it Again

8.5/10

Rush’s eighth album continues the more radio-friendly theme started on their previous album Permanent Waves and features two of their most performed songs, Tom Sawyer and Limelight. It was also their best selling album, reaching number 1 in their Canadian homeland, and number 3 in the UK and US.

The opener, Tom Sawyer, is perhaps the quintessential Rush track, we’ve got a whole mix of time signatures, Geddy Lee’s restlessly strolling bass, Alex Lifeson’s atmospheric and powerful guitar, Neil Peart’s incomparable drumming - which is somehow both robotically in time and yet full of boundless human energy - and it all comes together to make something surprisingly accessible. Very prog, but accessible. It’s one of the finest songs in their catalogue for me. But Moving Pictures is no one hit wonder, Red Barchetta creates one of the band’s best stories, a car chase between the titular classic and two more futuristic police vehicles as our protagonist “[laughs] out loud with fear and hope”. Once again the production is punchy, the instrumentation constantly intriguing, and you’re very much kept on your toes throughout.

Moving Pictures is Rush’s most approachable album, and it’s also my favourite. There’s still a pomposity to the lyrics at times, but it seems to work here as the 3 band members are unable to settle on a tempo, time signature, style, or indeed anything. The album has some truly moving moments - YYZ’s magnificently slowed down, almost orchestral mid-section for example - and it’s just full of instrumental brilliance and unique song-structures. A wonderful coming together of all the band’s powers.

Song Picks: Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, Limelight, YYZ

9/10

Rickie Lee Jones’ second album is partially a breakup album after her split with musician Tom Waits, it was critical success and was rated as one of the 25 most underrated albums of all time by Word magazine in 2005.

Pirates is an album focused around Jones’ loose piano led song structures. Her spoken word style fits perfectly with the often dreamy, night-time evoking twinkle of her piano playing and the backing instruments. The way Jones weaves intricately poetic vignettes in the verses and then belts prophetically “We belong together”, the song’s title, in the chorus of the opening track is a perfect example of her songwriting skill. She’s clearly capable of writing more standard, accessible hits (just listen to Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking for proof), but she doesn’t want to, preferring to play with musical structures, poetry and even a mix of genres to create something infinitely more unpredictable and interesting. Traces of Western Slopes is a particular inventive highlight describing care-free nightlife with it’s gorgeously meandering verses and sporadic, tight choruses that seem to drop from the night sky.

I do think Jones’ lyrics get lost in the mix at points, particularly when listening on speakers, which is a damn shame considering how great they are, so this is definitely one I’d recommend checking out on headphones.

Pirates is a real gem, an album evoking late-nights walking quiet streets, thoughts coming and going, and a sense of ease.

Song Picks: We Belong Together, Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking, Traces of Western Slopes

9/10

Back after a seven year hiatus, King Crimson released their 8th studio album, and with it they find themselves making yet another appearance on one of these lists with only guitarist and founder Robert Fripp and drummer Bill Bruford remaining from the band’s previous line-up.

Discipline lives up to its name in that it feels more disciplined and tight than King Crimson’s previous albums. There’s less 9 minute prog-rock operas, and more new wave and inventive pieces that march along like intriguing and intricate clockwork. There’s more than a hint of the Talking Heads here with guitar riffs repeating over and over again until, though staying the same, they seem to morph into something different. The driving percussion, such as on Thela Hun Ginjeet, dares you not to move. On Indiscipline we’ve got an absolutely barnstorming riff by Robert Fripp, as Adrian Belew stutters and shouts over the top while Bruford’s drums thrash around like an animal dying to a variety of time signatures. Initially, I felt like the two closing instrumentals felt out of place here, but I’ve changed my mind on that. The Sheltering Sky is beautifully haunting, and the closing title track sounds like the birth of math rock with its plethora of time-signatures weaving in and out of each other hypnotically.

Discipline very much lives up to its name. A tight, well crafted and disciplined album at the base with the band’s inventiveness and musical skill generously sprinkled on top. It’s a triumphant comeback.

Song Picks: Indiscipline, Matte Kudasai, Thela Hun Ginjeet, Discipline

9/10

The second and final album from the experimental group is assembled from largely improvised recordings recorded in a disused refrigerated storeroom at a former meat pie factory in Brixton, known as ‘Cold Storage’ recordings, a studio space the band would continue to run after they disbanded. Deceit was designed to convey the anxiety around nuclear war at the time.

There’s experimental, and then there’s Deceit, at times it’s so chaotic it can barely be called music, at others - Paper Hats is a good example - you can almost dance to it. Throughout its 40 minute duration, I wouldn’t say boundaries are being pushed particularly, but it just feels like they don’t exist. Triumph sounds like a drug-fuelled instantaneous idea coming to life, S.P.Q.R’s drums try to keep things in tow until giving up and imploding at the track’s end, much like the idea of civilisation it depicts, on A New Kind of Water, there’s definitely a rhythm, but it’s so complex that it’s hard to decipher, and anyone unacquainted trying to move to it will quickly look daft. Some have argued the vocals are the band’s weakness, but I think they add to the off-kilter instrumentals, providing the odd warm respite - the ‘chorus’ on Cenotaph for example - while generally expressing the press of stress not being allowed to escape or breathe. There’s a tension to the album crucial to its atmosphere, a feeling that at any moment the whole thing could blow up, never to be heard again.

Deceit is a mood, one of industrial fear and dissonance. It’s easy to say that it’s unlike anything else, which is true, but it also succeeds in transporting you out from wherever you are into its uneven, brash and creaking world.

Song Picks: Radio Prague, Makeshift Swahili, A New Kind of Water

9/10

Beauty and the Beat is one of the most successful debut albums from a sales perspective, selling over 2 million copies. It’s also widely critically lauded as a key album in the ‘new wave’ genre.

The all female group’s debut is nothing short of a delight, and one of the most fun albums I’ve listened to for a while. Belinda Carlisle’s vocal melodies are infectious, and will be bouncing round your head long after the album has finished. How Much More is a great example of both Carlisle’s aforementioned vocal talents, but also how well the band backs her up. As if the vocal melody wasn’t catchy enough in the chorus, the guitar riff that follows is bound to have you bopping around with a smile on your face. The album continues in much the same vein, with perfectly crafted pop-tunes lined up one after the other containing a simplicity that hits you like a refreshing sea breeze.

Beauty and the Beat is a superb album in its own right, but it’s even more remarkable that it was so successful in a business that was - and in many ways still is - so sexist. They were rejected from many record companies for being just another ‘girl band’, something many had decided couldn’t be successful. Even when the album was released they were the victim of sexist reviews, among the worst of which was by NME, who claimed “It sounds like a joyous, bubbling celebration by five cute girls, with no thought inside their darling little heads save for tonight’s beach party,” while others claimed if 5 men from the USA (you know, that famously mistreated group) had made the album, everyone would have hated it.

Beauty and the Beat is powerfully joyous in the face of adversity, and though the band recall being disappointed in how ‘poppy’ the album sounded when they first heard it, beneath its poppy exterior this album’s attitude is as punk as anything out there.

Song Picks: How Much More, Tonite, We Got the Beat

9/10

Youth of America_Wipers.jpg — 4. Youth of America

Wipers

Wipers’ second album saw a sharp change in direction for the band, from the more traditional short song punk group evident on their debut album, to the more experimental, atmospheric group unafraid to put out songs over 10 minutes in length we see on this record. Youth of America is regularly cited as one of the most influential post-punk albums out there.

Sprawling pieces ask questions more than give answers. The vocal melodies are always catchy and often anthemic. No Fair laments the unfairness of existence, and asks 'why?', and the superb Youth of America is defeatist and bleak on the one hand, while also being a call to arms, "we've got to save it now" Sage screams as the blaring guitar threatens to swallow him. The mid-section consists of screeching guitar parts, drowned mumbles and post apocalyptic wails from decaying machinery. The guitar hook returns towards the end of the song’s over ten minute duration as Sage repeats 'Youth of America' into oblivion. You're the only hope he implies, but you don't get the impression he feels the place is worth saving.

Youth of America is a superb desolate landscape of noisy decay, with Sage’s constantly searching soul encapsulated in a vocal performance seemingly born out of endless frustration. It’s a man shouting all the questions we’ll never know the answers to at the sky, knowing full well no one up there gives a shit.

Through your mirror there is such vanity
Tell me, what is it that it wants from me?

Song Picks: No Fair, Youth of America

9.5/10

Glenn Branca’s debut album is seen as a no-wave classic, no-wave being a pun on new wave, a style of music it was trying to be the antithesis of. No wave tried not to recycle and develop ideas that were already there, but create entirely new ones using dissonance and a lot of noise.

Ascension was largely an experiment as to what would happen when you play guitar strings tuned to the same note at high volumes, those high volumes were brought across more in the band’s famous live shows than they are here, where you’ve got control of the volume and are unlikely to submit yourself to an intentionally loud barrage of dissonance unless you’re feeling brave. I’d very much recommend braving it though, it’s worth it.

Probably the most challenging album on this list, Ascension is noisy, unafraid to offend, single-minded and chaotic. Even more experimental than Deceit by This Heat, it took me a few listens to get into the groove. But once I did, the apocalyptic church bells of Lesson No. 2; the teetering close to catchy riffs while sounding like the collapse of society of The Spectacular Commodity; the death march of Structure; and the title track, which finishes the album triumphantly like a persistent siren accompanying an alien invasion, had completely won me over.

Ascension is like a relentless noisy chisel working away all the barnacles you’ve picked up from your earthly voyage, it’s fucking magnificent.

Song Picks: Lesson No. 2, The Spectacular Commodity, The Ascension

9.5/10

Siouxsie and the Banshees’ fourth album is generally seen as one of the most important post-punk albums, and was both critically and commercially successful on release.

Siouxsie Sioux’s vocals have a real sense of importance to them, whether she's singing about being smitten on the opening track, or about what happens after death on Into the Light, her vocals really pull you into the music. The band's solid, multi genre influenced backing adds plenty of intrigue; the way the toms mix with that timeless guitar line on Into the Light is a prime example of the band's talent for creating a unique atmosphere of darkness that is somehow still inviting. ‘Guitar riffs’ would have to be ticked as another of the album’s strengths with the howling effort on Arabian Nights and 2000s indie foreshadowing guitars on Monitor and Halloween being prime examples. In fact, the more I think about it what makes this album are the vocals, and the guitar work, which are both consistently sublime.

Juju is bloody timeless, something not all that common in the 80s. It could have come out yesterday, and it clearly influenced a whole heap of things that did. It also contains probably the best vocal performances of the 80s so far.

Song Picks: Spellbound, Into the Night, Monitor

9.5/10

Kraftwerk’s eighth album deals with the rise of computers in society, it was ranked as the 25th best album of the 1980s by Slant Magazine, and the 18th best by Pitchfork.

Even more relevant now than it was in 1981, as our lives have now well and truly been taken over by computers, Computer World contains more human sadness in its crystal clear synth lines than their previous albums. Despite its content, it feels more soulful somehow, like the resigned cry of someone who’s only method of communication is through the computers they’re surrounded by.

I think what gives Computer World this magical sense of humanity are two things. Firstly, the production is absolutely top drawer, gone is that harshness from some of their earlier albums - and indeed from the albums of many of their contemporaries - and its replaced with an electronic smoothness that can only be described as ‘warm’. Secondly, the synth melodies here are sublime: like futuristic nursery rhymes they somehow cut straight to the core. Those four notes of the two title tracks seem to echo through the stratosphere all the way to the sun, while Computer Love is probably my favourite song of the 80s so far, with a combination of wonderful synth melodies - which were later used by Coldplay on their 2005 song Talk - complementing the lost robotic vocal perfectly. It’s a masterpiece. As Pitchfork put it when rating the song the 53rd best of the 1980s “It's hard not to wonder if the title ‘Computer Love’ was meant as ‘love for computers’ or ‘love through computers.’ Both ideas are now so commonplace and intertwined that they verge on indistinguishable. It’s hard to think of another song out there that so perfectly and warmly sums up the ‘Computer World’ we live in today.

Computer World came completely out of leftfield for me, I’d really liked the previous Kraftwerk albums that appeared on these lists, but I hadn’t loved any of them and I thought this would be the same. How wrong I was. Computer World perfectly predicts the world we live in today, but instead of making that chilling and apocalyptic as is generally done, they’ve approached the topic with warmth and compassion. There’s a sense that no matter how surrounded by computers we get, our humanity will still seep through the cracks, whether that be by the creation of emotive melodies using computerised sounds, or by writing such as this on that computer screen in front of you.

Song Picks: Computer World (1&2), Computer Love, Home Computer,

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

1970s - Mop-Up and Albums of the Decade List

May 27, 2021 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

As promised, before we move onto the 80s, here’s a 70s roundup article, with a whole heap of albums that I didn’t get round to in the individual year lists followed by my best of decade rankings.

Where have you plucked this lot from you ask? Well I added anything that I hadn’t covered already that: is rated in the top 50 of the 1970s on rateyourmusic.com, placed highly on the Pitchfork best of the 70s list, and a few from some female only best-of lists across the internet. Here’s the 13 that are thrown into the mixer for this 70s round-up special, listed alongside the year they were released.

The Velvet Underground - Loaded (1970)
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain (1971)
Dolly Parton - Coat of Many Colours (1971)
Janis Joplin - Pearl (1971)
Sly and the Family Stone - There’s a Riot Going On (1971)
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate (1971)
Novos Baianos - Acabou Chorare (1972)
Aretha Franklin - Amazing Grace (1972)
Yes - Fragile (1972)
Labelle - Nightbirds (1974)
Heart - Dreamboat Annie (1976)
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady (1979)

Let’s rank this lot, and then we’ll see if any of them make it into my best of decade list!

The first hard rock band fronted by women, Heart, was led by sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson. Their debut album, Dreamboat Annie, includes the band’s hits Magic Man and Crazy on You.

It’s refreshing to hear female vocals over the top of the rocking instrumentals on display here, and the whole thing has a very polished sound. I’ve never been the biggest fan of hard rock, it feels like one of those genres that hasn’t aged all that well to me, but there’s plenty to enjoy here. The guitar riffs underpin the vocals perfectly, Crazy on You being a particularly great example of this, the vocals have great range and thankfully avoid that high pitched squeal that was all the rage in 70s heard-rock. The album has a great flow to it, ending with a nice reprise of the title track, and there’s some really beautiful moments such as Soul of the Sea, which has a fabulously Fleetwood Mac feel about it. The Wilsons’ vocals create a dreamy, ethereal feel that makes this record stand out amongst others in the genre.

Dreamboat Annie is a very enjoyable listen, and of course important as the first women led hard rock recording. As with most hard rock, it leans a bit too much into cheese at points, particularly with (Love Me like Music) I’ll be Your Song, and the production is a little uninspiring, but there’s plenty here to make it a very worthwhile listen.

Song Picks: Magic Man, Soul of the Sea

7/10

12. Coat of Many Colours (1971)

Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton’s eighth album is generally regarded as her best, appearing both in in the Time and Rolling Stone best albums of all time lists. Parton has said that the album’s title track is the best song she’s ever written.

Coat of Many Colours is straight up country, so if that’s not your bag then you’re not going to get on with this. I can’t claim to be the biggest country fan, but when done well I do enjoy it in smaller doses. This album is a delight generally, Parton’s jolly melodies soar over the plodding country arrangements. The title track is pretty much the perfect country song, a touching tale of a mother’s love. Traveling Man is perhaps the album’s other highlight, a twangy guitar rock ‘n’ roller that’s as American as the Grand Canyon. The record continues in a similar vein, with pleasant country song after pleasant country song showcasing Parton’s considerable talent for a melody, and production that really makes them shine.

The grass is always green with Dolly in your ear, but sometimes, as in the final two tracks, it gets a little too green. The ‘la,la,la’s’ of the final track catapulting things a little too far into ‘cheese’ for example.

Song Picks: Coat of Many Colours, Traveling Man,

7.5/10

labelle nightbirds.jpg — 11. Nightbirds (1974)

Labelle

All female vocal group Labelle’s fourth album was their most successful to date, and features their biggest hit, the often covered Lady Marmalade. The album is generally regarded as one of the greatest combinations of poppy r&b with funk and soul. Rolling Stone listed it as the 274th greatest album in their all time top 500 list.

The opener is probably more famous to my generation for the cover by 90s band All Saints, but Labelle’s version of Lady Marmalade trounces that one. That groovy bass riff, the gentle cowbell, the iconic vocals and melodies, it’s a pop gem, and a perfect meld of all the group’s influences into something truly unique.

LaBelle, Hendryx and Dash’s vocals work together brilliantly, with songs like It Took a Long Time being a great demonstration of that, but any of the lively tracks here would serve to make the point. Nightbirds glows with infectious songwriting, Allen Pouissant’s production - which is as comfortable as a warm sofa - and vocals as perfect and soulful as any of the decade. Oh and Hector Seda’s bass playing is some of the most underrated I’ve heard.

“It’s just an all-girl band, dealing with the facts and the pain”

Song Picks: Lady Marmalade, All Girl Band, What Can I Do For You, Somebody Somewhere

8.5/10

10. Songs of Love and Hate (1971)

Leonard Cohen

Cohen’s third album was the only one to make Rollling Stone’s best 500 albums of all time list, and placed at #74 in Pitchfork’s best of the 70s list. It’s here though because it’s rated at number #38 for the 1970s on rateyourmusic.com. Cohen himself spoke rather negatively of the album two years after its release:

"I suppose you could call it gimmicky if you were feeling uncharitable towards me. I have certainly felt uncharitable towards me from time to time over that record, and regretted many things. It was over-produced and over elaborated...an experiment that failed."

Right from the the opening murmurs of Avalanche it’s clear we’re in for a dark ride, as Cohen’s vocals sing his usual poetics over the top of a dark, syncopated guitar line in a timbre even more tired than usual. Though I love the sparse nature of Cohen’s debut, I disagree that this is overproduced and I feel Bob Johnston’s production additions, generally consisting of murmuring strings, flesh out the songs nicely. I think that Cohen’s more passionate vocal performances, such as his intense growl on Diamonds in the Mine, would have worked less well without Johnston’s production touches.

As usual with Cohen, the whole thing is gorgeously poetic, and he’s undoubtedly one of the best lyricists we’ve ever had, something his hummed - and occasionally growled - delivery really emphasises. It doesn’t floor me as much as his debut, but it’s as majestic and bewitching as you’d expect, with a depth as mysterious as the Mariana Trench.

Song picks: Avalanche, Last Year’s Man, Diamonds in the Mine

8.5/10

Fragile Yes.jpg — 9. Fragile (1971)

Yes

Yes’ first album with keyboardist Rick Wakeman features only four group compositions due to time and budget constraints at the time, the remaining five tracks are solo pieces, one from each member.

Those 5 solo pieces demonstrate just how much talent the band contained, and it’s remarkable that 5 such individually creative people could work together in a way that created something that was actually surprisingly modest. Opener Roundabout is a Yes favourite, and a great demonstration of their ability to create progressive music that is accessible despite it’s penchant for tons of different sections and time signatures. All the solo contributions are welcome breaks from the more lofty band recordings, but it’s Steve Howe’s Mood for a Day that’s a particular highlight, a beautiful instrumental acoustic guitar piece that twitters like exotic birds in the Sun.

Fragile doesn’t feel as important or weighty as the later Closer to the Edge, but there’s a real charm in its surprising sprinkles of simplicity, and the closing track, Heart of Sunshine, is a perfect segue to the aforementioned album, with Anderson’s belted out vocal foreshadowing his vocal style on a lot of its songs.

Song Picks: Roundabout, Mood for a Day, Heart of Sunrise

8.5/10

Aretha Franklin.jpg — 8. Amazing Grace (1972)

Aretha Franklin

Amazing Grace, Franklin’s 1972 live album, was recorded at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, with Reverend James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir accompanying her. It remains Franklin’s best-selling album, and the best-selling live gospel album of all time.

One of the finest vocal performances ever committed to tape, Aretha’s every word seems to soar like a beam to the heavens. The backing choir provide the bed for Aretha to bounce off, and bounce she does, providing quite probably the decade’s most energetic and iconic vocal performance. It’s warbling and over-sung at points, things I’m not generally a fan of, but here it sounds like Aretha’s soul exploding with joy, and that is quite the thing.

I’m not even remotely religious, I don’t think there’s anything waiting for us after death or that there’s any meaning to our lives beyond those for a spider or a mouse, but I don’t think you need need that kind of belief to enjoy this. There’s a undeniable sense of history, soul and weight to the whole thing that doesn’t require any faith in its subject matter for it to affect you rather deeply. That said, you definitely have to be in the mood for it!

Song Picks: Mary, Don’t You Weep; How I Got Over, Amazing Grace

8.5/10

7. Buzzcocks (1979)

Singles Going Steady

As a compilation, it’s debatable as to whether this belongs here, but Pitchfork named it the 16th best album of the 70s so I’m including it. Singles Going Steady was intended as an introduction to the band for an American audience, where it was the band’s first album released. It was eventually released in the UK in 1981, after it became a successful import. The album features the band’s 8 singles from 1977 up until Singles Going Steady’s release followed by the B-sides to each of those singles in chronological order.

Put simply, Singles Going Steady is a trip, destination Bangertown. As Jason Heller of Pitchfork puts it, it’s "a paragon of songwriting about the pain and joy of love that stands as one of the most endearing, intimate, and impeccably crafted batch of earworms in either the love-song or punk-rock realm". It’s hard to disagree. The record shows Buzzcocks for what they were, one of the best singles bands we’ve ever had, and certainly the best pop-punk singles band to ever grace our ears.

Song Picks: Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve),

9/10

Janis Joplin - Pearl.jpg — 6. Pearl (1971)

Janis Joplin

Joplin’s second solo studio album was released three months after her death due to an accidental heroin overdose. It was the final album released that she directly participated in, and was recorded with her final touring band. Paul A. Rothchild, who also produced The Doors, was given production duties here, and creates Joplin’s most polished sounding record. Rolling Stone ranked it 112th on their best albums of all time list.

Pearl is a magnificent display of what a vocal talent Joplin was. Her trademark raspiness extends to both her powerful (My Baby), and more delicate vocals (Me and Bobby McGee). She’s one of those rare vocalists where her tone, timbre and character mean that pretty much everything she sings has a gorgeous, intangible soul to it. The acapella Mercedes Benz is a perfect example of this. There’s not many vocalists who could carry an acapella performance so perfectly, and the fact it was the last song she ever recorded makes it all the more poignant. Joplin was due to record the vocals to Buried Alive in the Blues on the day of her death, and the instrumental, backing track sound feels like a hole in the middle of the album, a touching reminder that Joplin passed away during its creation.

Rothchild’s production and Joplin’s band back her perfectly, keeping the emphasis on her otherworldly vocals, while providing enough interest and edge to make sure things never get stale. Joplin was an incomparable talent, and Pearl is a beautiful goodbye. There’s no doubt she would have gone on to record a whole host of amazing records, but this is certainly a powerful one to finish with.

Song Picks: Move Over, Mercedes Benz, Cry Baby

9/10

plastic ono.jpg — **5. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)**

**John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band**

John Lennon’s debut solo album was released at the same time as his wife’s album, titled in the same way, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band. Heavily influenced by Lennon’s recent primal scream therapy, it focuses largely on Lennon’s personal problems, including those from his upbringing.

Songs on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band are incredibly simple, rarely featuring more than three chords and a few instruments, and often have a repetitive, almost trancelike quality to them. There’s a clean honesty to all the material here, and it’s one of those albums that is perfectly encapsulated by the cover. It sounds like the musical equivalent of what might go through your head if you were to sit under the peacefulness of a tree and meditate on your life. There’s beautifully quiet moments such as the piano led Love, and rockier - more Beatles-esque - moments like the fabulously gritty sounding Well, Well, Well - where the primal scream therapy influence becomes evident in Lennon’s unrestrained screams - but the common thread that holds the whole thing together is a wonderful sense of spontaneity and freedom. This is something particularly evident in the penultimate track God, where Lennon lets go of everything, even the Beatles.

Song Picks: Love; Well, Well, Well; God

9/10

Maggot Brain.JPG — 4. Maggot Brain (1971)

Funkadelic

Funkadelic’s third album was ranked the 14th best album of the 1970s by Pitchfork, and is the last to feature the band’s original lineup.

The album opens with the title track, a 10 minute guitar solo by Eddie Hazel, and the album’s most famous song. The band’s leader George Clinton was apparently high on LSD and asked Hazel to play as if his mother had just died The rest, as they say, is history. There’s no doubt in my mind that Maggot Brain is the finest guitar solo of all time, backed only by the odd sound effect and an arpeggiated guitar (apparently there was more playing along, but Clinton faded them out in the mix to keep the focus on Hazel’s guitar), Hazel delivers a stratospheric solo that says more than a lot of albums, books and people without saying a single word. It soars with its Jimi Hendrix inspired fuzz and wah effects, reverbed to sound as if they’re coming from some hole in the ground. I can’t remember the last time I was so completely floored by a song, it skitters and roars, howls and screeches, all in melodies that seem to stop the passing of time. It is, as one critic puts it, “an emotional apocalypse of sound,” and it might just be my favourite song of the 70s.

The rest of the album could never compete with something as stupendously powerful as that opening track, but it doesn’t fall all that far behind. Featuring a slightly more conventional psychedelic funk the band proceed to entertain the hell out of whoever is listening with some of the funkiest riffs in town (Hit It and Quit), bass lines that could make a gravestone groove (You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks) and yet another Eddie Hazel masterclass on the musical steamroller Super Stupid.

Quite honestly, I’m struggling to think of a more consistently entertaining 36 minutes of music in the entire decade.

Song Picks: Maggot Brain; Super Stupid; Hit it and Quit It; You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks

9.5/10

3. There’s a Riot Going On (1971)

Sly & the Family Stone

The soul and funk band’s fifth album was named as the 4th best album of the 70s by Pitchfork and it’s title is an answer to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, released six months earlier. Regularly cited as one of the most influential albums of all time, it’s recording process was by all accounts a huge mess, with Sly Stone fraying to drug abuse, and the band falling apart around him.

You can practically smell the marijuana, hear the cocaine snorts, and feel the mental fog emanating from all 12 of the album’s tracks, where the drum machines sound as if they’ve been used because they’re the only thing that couldn’t succumb to the drugs flying around, and would thus be able to hold the band together somewhat. The band plays loose and hazey, but this is hands down the funkiest album I’ve ever heard. Every track grooves with a crackled genius, Sly’s vocals often sounding so laid back it’s no surprise that he recorded some of them lying on a bed with a wireless microphone. The album lays out the cold, dark truth about America, both lyrically and sonically, but it does so in a way that’s soulful and enjoyable in a manner completely devoid of kitsch and cheese. There’s a Riot Going On is an album where I have real trouble picking my favourite tacks, everything fits the mood, everything is perfect.

9.5/10

2. Loaded (1970)

The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground’s fourth album was the final album recorded featuring founding member Lou Reed, who left before it was released. By the band’s next release, Squeeze in 1973, all but Doug Yule had left and thus this is often considered the ‘last’ album by the band. The album’s title alludes to the fact that they were asked by their record label (Atlantic) to produce an album ‘loaded with hits,’ a request which leads to this being the band’s most accessible release. Reed wasn’t pleased with the album on release, unhappy with the incorrect songwriting credits and the edits that had been made to the album’s song and running order without his consent. Nevertheless, the album is very much regarded as one of the 70’s best, with Pitchfork ranking it at #14 for the decade.

Loaded is a gem of enjoyable melodies, breezy productions, and a vibe not unlike peak 60s Dylan. Below that thoroughly enjoyable exterior, lies some incredibly intelligent songwriting. With hits like ‘Who Loves the Sun’ conveying a flat pessimism, which contrasts with both its poppy melodies and instrumentals as well as other pop songs of the time. The album’s other hit, Sweet Jane, is a bona-fide banger, with a sing-along chorus and engaging verses featuring evocative lyrics, again with more than a hint of Dylan to their delivery.

Loaded is the result of asking an incredibly talented band to make pop hits against their will. It’s catchy, easy-breezy and brilliant, and yet hides an intriguing bitter sarcasm at its core. Sometimes the true test of a band’s mettle is how well they can tread paths that have already been trodden. In the case of the Velvet Underground the answer is fabulously, creating a record that works both as a collection of pop hits, but that still has the band’s stamp of ingenuity, wit and intellect all over it. Sometimes pushy, money driven record labels genuinely lead to masterpieces.

“Oh, all the poets they studied rules of verse
And those ladies, they rolled their eyes”

9.5/10

acabou chorare.jpg — 1. Acabou Chorare (1972)

Nocos Baianos

We’ve had quite a lot of Brazilian music from the 70s on this list, and it’s all been a delight, so I’m delighted to be able to throw another one in. Voted as #49 of the 70s by rateyourmusic users and coming in at #1 on a list of the best Brazilian albums by Rolling Stone in 2007, Acabou Charare (No More Crying in English) is Novos Baianos’ second studio album.

Listening to some Brazilian music is always a refreshing change from the mainly Western music in these lists. I suspect once this challenge is complete I’ll look at doing some sort of ‘best albums from each country’ challenge to widen my horizons a bit in that regard.

Acabou Chorare is an absolute delight, the energetic hit Brasil Pandeiro and fan favourite Preta Pretinha start the album off perfectly. The former demonstrates the band’s flawless combining of male and female vocals, gorgeous, jolly guitar riffs, and melodies to make even the coldest of hearts sing. The latter is musical honey, Moreira’s vocals are so effortless, calm and tuneful and they blend with the samba of the nylon guitar like the ingredients of some timeless meal. The energetic guitar solo skitters and sparkles like a thousand butterflies in the blue sky, one of the prettiest songs of the 70s. I’m trying to keep these reviews shorter, but rest assured the album is littered with such brilliance, Swing de Campo Grande and the title track are some further highlights.

Acabou Chorare is an album that I think I’ll be turning to to lift my mood whenever I need it, along with some of the other Brazilian greats of the decade. Acabou Chorare is the musical Sun, an album of such positive energy and life that I cried the first time I heard it. As the Arial font of an e-mail blurred to some strange splodged painting, I felt the kind of joy of discovery that has been so hard to come by in the groundhog day lockdown shroud.

Song Picks: Brasil Pandeiro, Preta Pretinha, Swing de Campo Grande

10/10

1970s - Best of the Decade

And now, having reviewed over 130 albums from the 1970s, it’s time to rank my favourites of the decade. I’m upping the list from 25 (as in the 60s) to 30, as it was just too hard to cut it to 25. Here goes:

#1 Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
#2 Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
#3 Pink Floyd - The Wall
#4 Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
#5 Novos Baianos - Acabou Chorare

#6 Pink Floyd - Animals
#7 Miles Davis - Get Up With It
#8 Jorge Ben - A Tábua de Esmeralda
#9 Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
#10 Bob Marley and the Wailers - Exodus

#11 Joni Mitchell - Hejira
#12 Joni Mitchell - Hissing of Summer Lawns
#13 Milton Nascimento & Lo Borges - Clube Da Esquina
#14 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
#15 Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
#16 David Bowie - Low
#17 Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
#18 Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
#19 Yes - Close to the Edge
#20 Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

#21 Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
#22 David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
#23 Pink Floyd - Meddle
#24 The Velvet Underground - Loaded
#25 The Clash - London Calling
#26 Sly & the Family Stone - There’s a Riot Going On
#27 Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
#28 Joni Mitchell - Blue
#29 The Stooges - Raw Power
#30 Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

What a decade it’s been. The artist of the decade award has to go to Pink Floyd, with no less than five records in the end of decade top 30 list, something that I’m not sure will be beaten for the remainder of this challenge. Joni Mitchell comes in second with three records on the list, with an honourable mention to Miles Davis who got two entries into the top ten.

And so it’s time to get back in our time machine, and move to the decade of shoulder pads, neon colours, and oversized jumpers, the 80s. See you there.

1979 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

April 23, 2021 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Reviews, Music

We’ve made it to the final year of the 70s, and what a decade it’s been. As usual, I will be writing a wrap-up of the decade post, which will include ten or so albums I’ve not reviewed in any of my 70s posts so far. But before we do that, it’s time to take a look at 1979.

1979 was the year the Pol Pot regime finally collapsed in Cambodia, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of the UK, Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize and John Wayne passed away.

Musically speaking here’s what rateyourmusic.com’s users rate as the year’s top 5 albums:

#1 Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
#2 The Clash - London Calling
#3 Talking Heads - Fear of Music
#4 Gang of Four - Entertainment!
#5 Pink Floyd - The Wall

Pink Floyd and Talking Heads return, and we’ve got three new artists joining these prestigious ranks. As usual, 5 albums just isn’t enough, so I’ve plucked a load more from further down the list:

#6 Wire - 154
#7 Motörhead - Overkill
#10 Michael Jackson - Off the Wall
#23 The B-52’s - The B52’s
#43 Donna Summer - Bad Girls
#78 The Slits - Cut
#81 The Raincoats - The Raincoats

That’s 12 albums battling it out for this year’s title. Off we go.

Motörhead’s second album, and their first with Bronze Records, is the album where the band really cemented the sound they’re known for today, and is still considered by many as their best album.

If I could describe the album in one word it’d be ‘relentless’. Every track is a speedy, hi-hat drenched carriage towed by a whole host of furious guitar riffs. The title track doesn’t sound a whole lot different to the band’s most famous song, Ace of Spades, and you certainly don’t come to this album for variety. A lot of Lemmy’s gruffly performed vocal melodies are pretty similar, the band seems fairly stuck at 120bpm, and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor’s (what a nickname) powerhouse drumming is pretty predictable, though effective.

What the album does deliver though is a riff masterclass from Eddie Clark - whose punchy, monstrous guitar work goes perfectly with Lemmy’s whisky burnt vocals - and a boundless energy that never lets up. It’s an album that is immediately enjoyable, but lacks the depth and variety to make me want to return to it too regularly.

Song Picks: I’ll Be Your Sister, Overkill

7/10

Michael Jackson’s fifth studio album is the first to make an appearance on these lists, and the first produced by Quincy Jones, a partnership that would yield 3 extremely successful albums. Jackson’s genius is well documented, he has a voice like no one before or since, a captivating and mysterious live presence, and the moonwalk. I’m going to focus on the music here, so there’ll be no discussion of whether he did or didn’t abuse children, though I’d say that the documentary Leaving Neverland is fairly damning and conclusive on that matter (for the record, I think he did) and does lead to a certain level of discomfort in listening to this album, or indeed anything by Jackson.

From the opening ‘wooooo’ followed by that fabulous brass riff in Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, Off the Wall is a perfect, intricate disco record. Quincy Jones is one of my favourite producers based on this thing alone. The detail in the productions is superb, with each little addition - such as the funky guitars in either channel on the aforementioned opening track - contributing to the whole, and giving each track a level of depth to ensure it never gets boring. My Dad and Step-Mum are massive Jackson fans, and so I’ve heard these songs thousands of times in my youth, and yet they’re just as compelling as they were when I first heard them. As someone who generally gets bored of things quite quickly, that’s a remarkable achievement.

You can’t gloss over Jackson’s vocals when talking about one of his releases, his performances are pitch-perfect, while never being boring or clinical. He goes soft on the ballad She’s Out of My Life, as energetic as a firework display on Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, and a mix of the two on Rock With You, where Quincy Jones’ production once again provides endless intrigue to a fairly simple piece melodically speaking. The woody flute sound that comes in during the track’s second half is particularly fantastic, and somehow single-handedly gives Jackson permission to repeat the chorus multiple more times without it dragging.

Off the Wall has plenty of less well known songs on it, and plenty that even I hadn’t heard despite his music playing a big part in my childhood. Tracks like Workin’ Day, Night and Get on the Floor and Burn This Disco Out up the disco funk to ridiculous levels, Louis Johnson’s bass on the latter has to be one of the funkiest bass lines ever written, gyrating along like Elvis on speed. The title track is a clear sign of the horror influences that Thriller would pounce on, while Girlfriend and I Can’t Help It are examples of Jackson’s slower songs which are, though generally speaking my least favourite, a great display of Jackson’s vocal talents.

Off the Wall’s influence on the world of pop can’t be underestimated. Many of its hallmarks clearly echo in today’s pop songwriting, performances and production. And yet it doesn’t feel like a piece of history, but a bonafide collection of funky disco hits.

Song Picks: Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, Rock With You, Get on the Floor, Burn this Disco Out

8.5/10

Donna Summers - Bad Girls.jpg — 10. Bad Girls

Donna Summer

Originally released as a double album, Bad Girls was Summer’s 7th studio release and became the best-selling and most critically acclaimed album of her career. Featuring a whole host of hit singles, it was certified platinum within a week of its release. Put simply, Bad Girls made quite the mark, and it’s still considered one of the greatest disco albums of all time today.

Bad Girls pulls less punches than Mike Tyson, and opens with probably its two most famous songs, Hot Stuff and the title track Bad Girls. The former is so cemented into culture now that I imagine it’s quite difficult to find a night out that doesn’t play it at some point. Despite the fact it’s definitely overplayed, it’s still stupidly fun. That groovy as Austin Powers bass line, the punchy drums, the iconic synth lines, and of course Summer’s steamrolling vocal performance as she talks of the “hot stuff” that she needs “baby this evening” all combine brilliantly. Easily one of the best disco songs ever written, it’s pretty much impossible to keep yourself moving to its infectious beat, and singing along to its catchy melody.

The title track introduces some additional layers such as whistling, but focuses once again on a groovy bass line punctuated by brass stabs. The infectious melody is left to the brass section rather than the synths this time. It’s another musical disco-ball, and by the time you get to that rather spectacular breakdown, you’re completely sold on what Summer is doing, and rather delighted that there’s still over an hour of music left.

I sat back, soaked up the lights, drank in one soulful melody after another, and remembered that life is meant to be fun. 60 minutes later, I wasn’t quite ready to leave this world of unadulterated groove and joy, and started the album all over again. Though the first two tracks are undoubtedly the album’s most famous, there’s plenty more greats: tracks like Love Will Always Find You with it’s jolly saxophone part, Walk Away with it’s backing vocals begging you to shout along and Journey to the Centre of Your Heart, with its Kraftwerk-esque synth line are all fine examples of just how much of a pop music force Donna Summers is on this gem of a record. The slower tracks like There Will Always Be You haven’t aged as well, likely because they can’t back up their cheese factor with as much fun.

Bad Girls is a disco titan. The kind of album anyone can enjoy, an unpretentious bundle of fun which, if you can look past its slower ballads, is a force to be reckoned with.

Song Picks: Hot Stuff, Bad Girls, Journey to the Centre of Your Heart

8.5/10

Wire’s third album, and last before they first called it a day - they’ve made comebacks numerous times since - sees the band move further into experimental territory, almost completely losing the raw sound of their debut Pink Flag.

154 has intricate, developed soundscapes, such as the one on A Touching Display which sounds like the innards of some alien factory, howling with the creation of a Skynet-esque army spelling the end of us all. On Returning features some neat touches where synths sound like scrabbles of strings at some points and soft, hollow cushions at others. It thickens out a song that perhaps wouldn’t have been out of place on the band’s debut, with its punching drum beat and simple guitar part, to the extent where the band is barely recognisable anymore. But this isn’t the type of padding that aims to make the song more accessible, quite the opposite; it adds a mysterious intrigue to proceedings that permeates through the whole album.

I find it pretty difficult to pick a favourite in Wire’s initial trio, which has to be one of the most impressive three-year runs in album history, but 154 feels like the perfect end. It sounds akin to the band slowly letting go of their instruments as they float off into a mysterious, noisy and endlessly fascinating black hole. The final bleeps of 40 Versions is the rescue ship sent to recover them.

Song Picks: The 15th, On Returning, A Touching Display, Map Ref. 41°N 93°W

8.5/10

The British band’s debut album was written while three of the band’s members were living in squats. Kurt Cobain claimed the album was among his 50 favourites, and it’s largely due to him that the album was finally released in the US in 1993, having initially been released 1979 in the UK.

The album’s most famous track is easily the cover of the Kinks’ Lola, a version so charmingly loose it feels even more twee than the original. Palmolive’s drums roll unconventionally as the rest of the band sing over the top with characteristic eccentricity and energy. It’s The Void which is the album’s real highlight though, a song carried by Vicky Aspinall’s edgy violin and Gina Birch’s simple sliding bass riff, perfectly complementing the evocative vocals.

The Raincoats is definitely experimental - with a ragged nature and pioneering post-punk sound that fit punk’s DIY mentality into wider genres than the variety popularised by the Sex Pistols and the Ramones - but it’s also extremely accessible. The catchiness of Life on the Line, for example is brought not just by the song’s simple melodies, but also by its experimental feeling of spontaneity.

An album by four women with no interest in fitting any of the era’s trends, but expressing themselves in a way that paved the way for many bands to come, The Raincoats is a beacon of creativity and individuality, with a sense of playfulness making even the edgiest parts (such as that In Love chorus) sound breezy. The triumphant finish of No Looking is one of the most perfect finishes to an album.

Song Picks: Lola, The Void, Life on the Line, No Looking

8.5/10

Talking Heads’ third album is the second record they worked with Brian Eno on. NME named it as the best album of 1979 at the time, and it’s generally regarded as one of the band’s best releases.

The opener I Zimbra, has a definite afrobeat influence (featuring entirely made up words in its lyrics) and it only takes until track two for Tina Weymouth to come up with a characteristically great bass riff, one that goes from solid to teetering in the same bar throughout the song, Life During Wartime and Cities also see her on top form, carrying the band on her back with her groovy as hell bass-lines. The latter sees Byrne enigmatically singing about finding himself a city to live in, the former is written from the perspective of a Việt Cộng soldier during the Vietnam war, a subject somewhat hidden by the song’s funky disco nature. The chorus claims “This ain't no party, this ain't no disco / This ain't no fooling around” when the band’s funky rhythms and Byrne’s staccato vocals suggest that this very much is those things. It’s this juxtaposition that adds an interesting layer of trickery to proceedings.

Memories Can’t Wait takes this juxtaposition in the opposite direction, with the lyrics claiming “there’s a party in my mind / and I hope it never stops” while musically the track is the first on the album to not feel particularly danceable. Jerry Harrison’s guitar rings like a simple blues into the old west and Byrne’s vocals go so high that he sounds on the edge of a breakdown, a far cry from his usually popping, energetic vocals. The way he howls the track’s title towards the end of the song shows he’s not just a one-trick pony.

Heaven, on the album’s more contemplative second side, is one of the band’s most recognisable songs, featuring on their excellent Stop Making Sense concert film. It’s a slower song than usual, with Weymouth’s bass bopping along simply, Harrison’s guitar providing sparse chords while Byrne sings particularly tunefully about what heaven is to him:

Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens

Fear of Music continues Talking Heads’ exploration into interesting rhythms and is probably their most varied album so far. It’s yet another of their albums that is just a joy to listen to; with Byrne’s vocals and Weymouth’s bass providing superb entertainment value with their fun drenched performances while Byrne seems to be growing more and more detached from the world, something evident in the stark, industrial closing track Drugs.

Song Picks: Life During Wartime, Cities, Memories Can’t Wait, Heaven

9/10

English band Gang of Four’s debut is often pointed to as one of the most influential albums in the post-punk movement. Rolling Stone ranked it as the 273rd best album of all time. The album’s contents are best summed up by this paragraph from the album’s Wikipedia page:

“King's lyrics were heavily influenced by Situationism, feminism, and the effect of alienation on personal life; a unifying notion is that "the personal is political". Topics include commodification ("Natural's Not in It", "Return the Gift"), proletarian life ("At Home He's a Tourist"), Great Man theory ("Not Great Men"), Special Category Status prisoners in Northern Ireland ("Ether"), and the impact of media reporting of acts of terrorism and Maoist guerrilla warfare in Latin America ("5.45"). A number of songs apply these themes to challenge traditional concepts of love and love songs ("Anthrax", "Contract") and sex ("Damaged Goods", "I Found That Essence Rare").”

Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers cites Dave Allen’s bass on this album as a major influence, and it’s easy to see why. His riffs are punchy, and often repetitive in a similar way to Tina Weymouth’s of the Talking Heads, but there’s an added skitteriness to Allen’s playing. This is particularly evident on Not Great Men and the following Damaged Goods, where the bass very much drives the melodic content of the song, while the scratchy guitar adds some percussiveness. Hugo Burnham’s drums deserve a mention as well, providing funk and disco beats with all the reverb removed, leaving a dry, comforting sound to the drums that helps to reign in the often piercing sound of Andy Gill’s guitar riffs. Gang of Four were a band unwilling to compromise, sacrificing a Top of the Pops appearance that would likely have led to significant chart success due to their refusal to change one of the lyrics the BBC wouldn’t broadcast. Sure, they might have been more famous had they changed it, but they’re also unlikely to have made music that was so unapologetic in the first place.

Clearly a massively influential album on much of the post-punk to come, there’s a whole lot of other genres influenced by it to such as 2000s indie. Funky, edgy and infectious songs like Damaged Goods more than slightly resemble later bands such as Bloc Party.

I Found the Essence Rare, contains the line ‘the worst thing in 1954 was the bikini’, a clever play on the fact that the famous swimsuit is named after Bikini Atoll - the site of nuclear bomb tests only 4 days before the name was chosen for the swimsuit - and the fact that the public was more outraged by a swimsuit than the development of these deadly weapons. It’s the kind of questioning and pragmatic oversight that makes Gang of Four what they are and the dry, slightly clinical sound presented on Entertainment! is the perfect foil for them. There’s no attempt to pull at any heartstrings here, just a passionate plea to look around and acknowledge the absurdity of the world we live in.

“She said she was ambitious, so she accepts the process”

Song Picks: Damaged Goods, Not Great Man

9/10

Cut is the debut album by the British punk band the Slits, who formed in 1976 of members of the Flowers of Romance and the Castrators Ari Up, Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt. It reached number 30 in the UK album charts at the time, and was voted 58th in the Observer’s 100 best British albums list in 2004. Kurt Cobain also listed the album’s track Typical Girls as one of his 50 favourite recordings.

Cut is characterised by the way it blends reggae and punk in a rather visionary way. Ari Up’s vocals come from a punk mould, with plenty of attitude, growl, and an almost spoken word style that is so varied it keeps you engrossed throughout. She manages high pitched squeals on Shoplifting, can carry an off-kilter melody perfectly on the opening Instant Hit - about her friendship with Sid Vicious - and carries an almost haunting, hollow timbre on the brilliantly catchy Spend, Spend, Spend where the backing vocals play off Up’s perfectly, and help to cement the songs’ many great melodies.

Suzy Gutsy’s rumbling bass parts are infectious, and very much give the album its reggae tinted feel as Palmolive’s drums are certainly more in the punk mould. Instrumentally, the band has a simple appeal not miles from that of Talking Heads. Lyrically, they comment on consumerism, drugs, dissolution (in the case of Palmolive’s songs such as FM) as well as the way women are depicted in the media.

Cut is an album chock-full of attitude, groove, edginess, and powerful feminism. Ari Up’s vocal performances are some of the most engaging of the decade, and the whole record just sounds incredibly fresh, with inventive touches such as the dropped cutlery sound on Newtown and the almost prog nature of the different sections in Ping Pong Affair taking it far beyond the ‘three chords and the truth’ of punk at the time, and combining to create one of the genre’s most interesting albums.

Song Picks: Typical Girl, Spend, Spend, Spend

9/10

The B-52’s debut album doesn’t include any of their more famous hits (such as Love Shack) but is often named as their best album. It was ranked the 152nd best album of all time by Rolling Stone.

A pioneering, new wave album, it’s the first I’ve hard of its kind on this challenge. A style heavily hinged on instrumental and vocal hooks, it brims with a positive and quirky energy. Songs like 52 Girls are a great encapsulation of the band’s sound, with lyrics that largely list girls names and then ask ‘can you name them today?’. In classic B52s catchy fashion, the song bounces along with a simple - occasionally broken up - drum beat and a repetitive, infectious guitar riff creating a light-hearted and refreshing atmosphere that continues throughout the album.

But all this light hearted silliness - Ricky Wilson allegedly announced the riff to Rock Lobster to the band by saying it was the ‘silliest riff he’d ever written’ - comes hand in hand with a great knack for melodies, playing simple parts with maximum effect and vocals that are as engaging as any of the decade. I mean just listen to Dance this Mess Around, where Cindy Wilson, Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider play off each other perfectly, creating a kind of joyful chaos over the top of the rudimentary guitar, drums and synth. It’s a gem.

The aforementioned Rock Lobster is perhaps the album’s most famous track, and is the first song I’d turn to if asked to invent a silly dance. Bursting with a playfulness that sounds like Dan Deacon crossed with the Aquabats, it’s impossible not to look at the world through a lens that makes it all seem rather comical while embraced by the song’s childish synth lines, perfect guitar riff, and captivating vocals. It’s easy to imagine blasting it out the speakers anywhere and the whole dance floor just erupting into a mess of congas, howls and moves that have lost all self-awareness. It’s more than just a song, it’s a god damn state of mind.

The B52’s is one of the 70s greatest surprises for me. An album as fun as its cover, and as consistently catchy as anything out there. And yet, it’s also completely and utterly weird, and those things combined make it one of most memorable albums I’ve heard. Bravo.

Song Picks: Rock Lobster, 52 Girls, Dance this Mess Around

9.5/10

The Clash’s third, and most successful album was originally released as a double album and came in at number eight on Rolling Stones’ greatest albums of all time list. The record sees the Clash branching out from their punk roots into reggae, ska and pop, among other genres.

The apocalyptic and iconic title track opens proceedings with Topper Headon’s marching drums, Paul Simonon’s slidey bass riff, and Joe Strummer’s hollow vocals announcing the arrival of the next ice age. He goes on to ponder a whole host of ways we’re meeting our demise, while throwing in some references to the band’s struggles at the time too “phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust”. It’s a song that only seems to get more and more relevant as our doom gets closer and closer, the line “London is drowning / And I live by the river” seems particularly poignant, considering the climate emergency we’re currently facing. London Calling is stark, offers little hope, and remains the band’s masterpiece.

The band’s departure from their punk roots is cemented as early as track three with Jimmy Jazz, a charismatic tale of an outlaw on the run, told over a perfectly performed reggae and jazz inspired composition, which is a perfect example of just how enjoyable The Clash are to listen to on a purely surface level. There’s no overplaying in sight, everything has it’s place, and there’s a looseness resembling The Rolling Stones. It’s just damn slick. Hateful is a catchy number, its bounciness barely concealing the stark commentary on drugs at its core:

Oh, anything I want, he gives it to me
Anything I want, he gives it, but not for free
It's hateful
And it's paid for
And I'm so grateful to be nowhere

That final line, along with the verse opening “This year I've lost some friends (some friends) / What friends? I dunno, I didn't even notice” create such a stark picture, they send me into an existential thought spiral whenever I hear them. Talking of which, I think Lost in the Supermarket is one of the finest songs written about an existential crisis.

London Calling is completely fun on the surface, a brilliant rock record full of catchy melodies, bouncy instrumental performances with the only sonic hint of the album’s darker core in Strummer’s charismatic, throaty and tired vocals. That darker core is everywhere though, “we’re all fucked,” Strummer’s lyrics seem to say in a million different, creative ways. It’s like Strummer is looking forward as the train chugs helplessly towards a cliff edge while the band distracts all the passengers who watch mesmerised as they drink beer and talk, oblivious - or indeed wilfully ignorant - to their impending doom. I don’t think there’s ever been a better commentary of ‘first world’ society committed to tape.

“I’m all lost in the supermarket”

Song Picks: London Calling, Jimmy Jazz, Hateful, Lost in the Supermarket, Train in Vain

9.5/10

Joy Division’s debut album was the only one released during lead singer Ian Curtis’ lifetime, which tragically ended with his suicide in 1980. Martin Hannett produced the album, and is largely to thank for the atmospheric soundscapes that were absent in a lot of punk music at the time.

Unknown Pleasures has almost become a cliché, with its famous cover adorning posters in many a University dorm room, but that cliché relates only to the record’s exterior. Everything about this album is fresh, trailblazing and dark as all hell. In the prophetic Day of the Lords, one of the finest ‘war songs’ ever written, Curtis howls “when will it end?” over and over again as Bernard Summer’s guitar echoes like the death march of an approaching army. Of course he knows it’ll never end, such is obvious by the doomed soundscape that houses Curtis’ superbly tortured vocal performance. It’s one of my favourite songs of all time.

The music on Unknown Pleasures is all about space, the drums are completely stripped back, allowing the reverb on the guitars, bass and drums to create an undisturbed darkness to the atmosphere which is perfectly complimented by Curtis’ baritone vocals. This is demonstrated on the majority of the album’s tracks but particularly on New Dawn Fades, one of many Bernard Sumner riff masterclasses, where his guitar seems to tag-team with Curtis’ vocal, one never battling the other, and the song finishes with nothing but the electronic sounding drums, perfectly ending another dark production.

Insight is perhaps the album’s most devastating track, an angry expression of Curtis’ depression, “I keep my eyes on the door” he sings wearily, before mustering some energy to tell us he’s “not afraid anymore” as lasers and drums pound from left to right like a brain that has lost all ability to battle its negative thoughts and has accepted its sad fate.

Unknown Pleasures is quite probably one of the darkest, bleakest albums ever recorded. Its instrumental and vocal performances echo like a tired mutter into oblivion. The album sounds like nothing else before it, something that is as much thanks to Hannett’s singular production as it is the band’s performances. Apparently, Hannett always made sure the heat in the studio was low enough for the band to see their breath, and somehow that coldness comes across in the recor. I can’t think of a better example of a producer better encapsulating the mood of an album’s protagonist. Combine all that with the fact that Unknown Pleasures still sounds completely singular, like a visit to some desolate, undiscovered planet, and you have one of the greatest albums of all time, not just the 70’s.

Song Picks: Day of the Lords, New Dawn Fades, Insight,

10/10

Pink Floyd’s 11th album, tells the story of a jaded rock star - based on the concept creator Roger Waters and former band member Syd Barrett - who eventually self-imposes isolation from society. It received mixed reviews initially, with the main criticism being it was overblown and pretentious (come on guys, this is prog rock, that’s the whole point!) but has since come to be recognised as one of the best albums of all time.

Very much based on Roger Waters’ own sense of alienation with his audiences during the band’s last tour, feeling that their gigs had become more social events than concerts. A discontent that culminated in him famously spitting on a group of excited and noisy fans near the front of the stage during a show in 1977. Waters sounds like a rather difficult character, and eventually left the band in 1985, immediately entering a legal battle to stop the band continuing to use the Pink Floyd name, something which he failed at.

The Wall is huge, clocking in at just over 80 minutes, and is perhaps one of the most famous concept albums ever recorded. I won’t go into the plot here, but it’s very well outlined on the album’s Wikipedia page, and very much worth a read. The Wall features some of the band’s most famous songs in Comfortably Numb (including one of my favourite guitar solos), Run Like Hell, Mother and of course Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, and it’s remarkable that an album with such a strong theme could spawn a whole heap of songs that work so well out of context, but that’s where The Wall shines for me. It works on a completely surface level as just being a thoroughly enjoyable album to listen to. The production is as slick as an ice rink, with a clarity and depth to songs like Goodbye Blue Sky, Hey You and In the Flesh that I don’t think had been achieved on any record up to this point alongside intricate sonic additions creating a stratospheric atmosphere to the whole record. The songs are accessible, featuring enjoyable melodies and lyrics that feel relatable despite their overarching lofty concept and the instrumental performances are as perfectly judged as you’d expect. No part is overplayed, no note is out of place, everything has it’s space, the whole thing is a marvel of performance and songwriting.

What lifts this album yet higher though is the fact that the concept really works, the tracks blend into each other effortlessly, creating an 80 minute statement of isolation that gets more fascinating the more you delve into its crystal clear depths.

The Wall is a preposterously pretentious idea that should never have worked, and I’m not surprised the rest of the band were sceptical to Waters’ idea initially, but you know what, it does work. Waters can take credit for pushing for the concept, but in the end Gilmour, Wright, Mason and producer Bob Ezrin deserve their fair share of credit for the fact the concept is so enjoyable and relatable, which I doubt would have happened if this was a Waters solo project. The Wall is a perfect and rare example of a band successfully working to achieve one man’s vision. It’s an album of seemingly infinite depth, of intricate musical perfection, of real beauty, and of great importance. It’s my favourite Pink Floyd album. Online music site Consequence of Sound said “The Wall is the most cinematic experience ever committed to an album,” and I’d have to agree.

Song Picks: Comfortably Numb, Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2, Mother, Goodbye Blue Sky, Hey You, In the Flesh, Run Like Hell

10/10

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

2020 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

January 18, 2021 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

While I decide on my favourite album from every year in the past in this challenge, I’m also going to keep track of my favourite albums in years as I live them. This will be done a little differently to my other lists, mainly in that there’ll be more albums and less writing, but I’ll still review and include the top 10 albums according to rateyourmusic.com’s users for at least some consistency. I’ll also be sure to include any of the most critically well received albums, by grabbing the top rated albums from albumoftheyear.org; any that come high in my favourite online music reviewers’ estimations that aren’t already included; as well as, of course, anything else that I’ve enjoyed. Essentially, we should have a pretty solid list of what’s had the most buzz in 2020, both from critics’ and more general listeners’ perspectives.

Well 2020 was a year wasn’t it? But let’s not talk about all that, let’s focus on the music. So before we go onto the full list, here’s what our lovely rateyourmusic.com users rated as their top 10 albums of 2020:

#1 The Microphones - Microphones in 2020
#2 Ichiko Aoba - WIndswept Adan
#3 Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
#4 Clipping - Visions of Bodies Being Burned
#5 Jessie Ware - What’s Your Pleasure?
#6 DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Charmed
#7 Moor Mother & Billy Woods - Brass
#8 Run the Jewels - RTJ4
#9 Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi
#10 Charli XCX - How I’m Feeling Now

Those ten will be thrown into the mixer with 27 others. Let’s see who comes out the victor shall we?

What'sPleasure.jpg — 37. What’s Your Pleasure?

Jessie Ware

Undeniably well written and produced, and with plenty of catchy songs. It just didn’t feel exciting enough to keep me interested for its over 50 minute duration, often losing my attention by the final third.

Song Picks: Soul Control

6.5/10

Perhaps a little twee, but this is refreshingly positive, vocal led electronic music to warm the soul.

SP: What If, Ring, Free

7/10

Visionsofbodiesbiengburned — 35. Visions of Bodies Being Burned

clipping.

Clipping’s follow up and second part to 2019’s There Existed an Addiction to Blood creates another memorable horrorscape, which at times is more clever than affecting. You’ll be kept on your toes for the album’s 52 minute length, which features some truly memorable, at times cataclysmic moments (that pounding percussion on Something Underneath for example), but at times its doors are so meticulously crafted and complex it can be hard to work out how to get in.

Song Pick: Say the Name, Something Underneath

7/10

**34. Charmed**

**DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ**

A three hour trip through a gently euphoric land of colourful sweets and sherbet. At times unflinchingly cheesy and repetitive, but always charming. A chilled trance hug that’ll help replace that sad mist with a happier, yet equally unclear one.

Song PIcks: Pool Party, I Want You 2 Know, How Did You Know?, Charmed Life

7/10

Fleet Foxes’ fourth album is as pleasant and calming as the lapping of the sea on your toes at the beach. It blends into the background among some of the year’s other releases as it’s not the most memorable record, but there is an inescapable warmth to the sound and songwriting here.

Song Picks - Wading in the Waist-High Water, I’m Not My Season, Quiet Air/Gioia

7/10

The Strokes are back with their most enjoyable record for a while. Those warm fuzzy vocals, those catchy melodies, that breezy guitar sound. It’s all had a bit of a 2020 refresh, but the early 2000s soul is still there.

Song Picks: The Adults are Talking, Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus, Bad Decisions, Not the Same Anymore

7.5/10

The New Zealand extreme metal band’s sixth album is technically astounding, has so many time signatures you’ll find yourself in a perpetual state of confusion, and roars like a beast having a rather intense fit. It growls, it pounds, it thunders, but it never breaks, walking off again at the end of this spectacular 60 minute display unharmed, as if that earth-shattering display was simply in its DNA. It’s as challenging and full on as that description sounds though, so not for the faint hearted.

Song Picks - Stare into Death and be Still, Drawn into the Next Void , Dissolved Orders

7.5/10

Nicolas Jaar’s livelier side project continues to walk the tightrope between danceable and intriguing, never quite falling off to either side. Infectiously inventive.

Song Pick: Fantasy, You (forever)

7.5/10

saint cloud.jpg — 29. Saint Cloud

Waxahatchee

Waxahatchee’s fourth album already feels like a country and folk classic, an album with a beautiful, polished sheen. Nothing is done which doesn’t aid the song. Things are kept simple, straight and honest, and it’s fitting that an album about recovering from alcoholism should leave you feeling so emotionally cleansed. Nigh on impossible as it would have been, I just wish the latter half lived up to the first.

Song Picks - Oxbow, Can’t Do Much, Fire

7.5/10

The debut album by Canadian Micah Visser is an album he himself has said is about “growing up, moving on, and everything that happens in between”. The lyrics are simple and relatable and musically it’s full of thick synth lines with the attitude of distorted guitars. These are songs you can imagine playing as university students stand arm in arm in the middle of the dance-floor, eight £1 pints down, singing their lungs out, staring at the lights in the ceiling.

Song Picks : Keeping Up, Dear Megan, Your List, Making Peace with Suburbia

8/10

Rapper Billy Woods and activist/poet Moor Mother combine to create a dark, mysterious record that floats outside of definition. Rumbling along like a lost woolly mammoth the pairs’ words and sounds conjure up an image of a lost past.

Song Picks: Furies, The Blues Remembers Everything

8/10

The Swedish electronic duo have created quite probably the year’s most euphoric release. There’s nothing all that new here, but it’s a brilliant distillation of hand raising synth lines, electronic music tropes and melodic dreams, seemingly hoovering any negativity from your body like a despondency Dyson.

Song Picks: Portland, Attic, Arresten

8/10

FutureNostalgia — 25. Future Nostalgia

Dua Lipa

As the title suggests, this is a very current take on nostalgic genres such as disco, funk, synth-pop etc. Dua Lipa focuses on catchy songs about ‘dancing and having fun and being free and being in love’ while also making sure the whole thing has a cohesive feel. Needless to say, she’s succeeded, the sound palette is varied enough to keep it interesting while still sounding like a neat package. It’s rammed with bangers, and for its 37 minute duration you do indeed feel rather free.

Song Picks: Don’t Start Now, Cool, Physical, Love Again, Boys Will Be Boys

8/10

Un Canto por Mexico.jpg — 24. Un canto por México Vol. 1

Natalia Lafourcade

You sure as hell can’t fly to Mexico this year, but this gets you stupendously close. Lafourcade’s collection of covers and new versions of her older songs shines with all the joy and beauty of the sun on a cobbled Mexican street; bursting with life, melody and history.

Song Picks - Veracruz, Y No Vivo por Vivir , Mi Tiearra Veracruzana, Cucurrucucu Paloma

8/10

Mac Miller died two years ago as the result of an accidental drugs overdose in 2018. Circles was being worked on at the time. Posthumously completed and released by Miller’s producer, Jon Brion, the album is tastefully done, with perfectly subtle production to match Mac Miller’s relaxed sound. With a voice as smooth as polished marble, it’s the perfect lazy Sunday listen. A quietly sad and introspective goodbye from a true talent.

Song Picks - Circles, Blue World, Good News

8/10

Japanese folk singer-songwriter Ichiko Aoba’s seventh album ebbs and flows, flickers and enchants. The vocals hum like angels and the dense instrumentation sparkles as clearly and crisply as a mountain stream. Windswept Adan is rather hard to put into words, and the picture on the cover does it as much justice as anything. It’s a journey through a mysterious underwater world, where your exhalation becomes more than the exiting of oxygen, but the temporary glitter of a passed moment.

Song Picks: Dawn in the Adan, Sagu Palm’s Song

8/10

It’s difficult to call something so lo-fi a ‘wall of sound’ but within it’s limited frequency range Im Wald is a relentless storm by the Swiss one man band determined to make a racket. 2 hours in length, it sucks you into its ‘landscape of Winter’ with a sound that ceases to become a load of instruments playing as loudly as possible and seamlessly becomes one mass of emotionally affecting noise. Im Wald is an unforgettable ambient black metal experience, one that screams so loud it cleans your soul.

Song Picks - Uber den Baumen, Stimmen im Wald

8/10

setmyheartonfire — 20. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately

Perfume Genius

Perfume Genius’ fifth album feels both humongous - thanks to the engrossing depth of the production - and intimate - thanks to Hadreas’ wavering, delicate vocals - a combination that at times is so beautiful it somewhat buries the significant substance contained underneath. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately is the musical equivalent of a flowing and captivating interpretive dance.

Song Picks - Whole Life, Nothing at All, Some Dream

8/10

Named after his daughter’s favourite word, Suddenly is the first album to feature Dan Snaith’s vocals on every track. It’s danceable and yet relaxing, and surprisingly introspective. Snaith’s knack for hooks and melody is here in spades, and his vocals add a great intimacy to the songs. The production, as you’d expect, is as smooth as the finest silk.

Song Picks: Sunny’s Time, Home, Like I loved You

8/10

18. Alfredo

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemis

Freddie Gibbs and the Alchemist combine to create a 35 minute gem packed with bars so quick it’s hard to understand what’s said, but it hardly matters when the flow and rhythm are this good. The production is as slick as an ice-rink, combining with the syrupy smooth raps to create one of the year’s most immediately enjoyable albums.

Song Picks - God is Perfect, 1985, Something to Rap About

8/10

oranssipazuzu — 17. Mestarin Kynsi

Oranssi Pazuzu

The Finnish black-metal band’s fifth album is a dark journey into the belly of a giant orc. Atmospheric, gritty, doomed, and utterly disgusting, it growls with the anger of someone dying a prolonged and pointless death.

Song Pick: Ilmestys

8/10

purplemoonlightpages — 16. Purple Moonlight Pages

R.A.P. Ferreira

Rory Allan Philip Ferreira works with Jefferson Park Boys to create an intricate jazz fuelled hip-hop album. Segal, Carmack and Parvizi’s perfect productions are old-school in their sound, but very much new-school in their alluring complexity. Ferreira’s raps lack the urgency common in the genre, but it’s refreshing to listen to someone behind the beat, someone relaxed, someone not pushing for the mainstream but happy to drift along in a tributary.

Song Picks - LAUNDRY, GREENS, CYCLES, RO TALK

8/10

Swift’s eighth album, and first of two in 2020, is a gentle, constantly catchy, and just rather gorgeous step into storytelling for an artist that has tended to be autobiographical. Lyrically, she’s able to paint with fine brushstrokes, while her pictures are framed by a singular ability to craft endlessly pleasant melodies. A little one note perhaps, but what a lovely note.

Song Picks - Exile, the last great American dynasty, August, this is me trying, epiphany

8/10

Charli XCX’s fourth album, recorded during lockdown, is a serotonin coated glitch wave of pop-gems. Immediately accessible, and yet sparkling with abstract intrigue. A party of a record in a year without parties.

Song Picks - forever, claws, detonate, anthems, c2.0

8.5/10

A Hero's Death — 13. A Hero’s Death

Fontaines D.C.

The fast paced punk of their debut has largely gone, repalced by dreamier, slower and more atmospheric tracks filled out by a massive sounding distorted guitar. Sometimes this humongous sounding production adds a layer of mystery to a beautifully simple song - such as on Oh Such a Spring - other times it makes the whole thing explode through your headphones as in Televised Mind. Catchy and angry, it feels endlessly important.

Song Picks: I Don’t Belong, Oh What a Spring, Televised Mind

8.5/10

The Big Thief lead vocalist and guitarist’s sixth solo album is a record so delicate that it feels like it might crumble under my attempt to describe it, much like a dried leaf will break with the slightest touch. In a year where hugs have been hard to come by, Lenker provides one in the most beautiful musical form, with melodies and acoustic guitar lines as soothing and comforting as a warm fire.

Song Picks: two reverse, anything, half return, dragon eyes

8.5/10

roughnrowdyways — 11. Rough and Rowdy Ways

Bob Dylan

Dylan’s 39th album is probably his best since 1997’s Time Out of Mind. Perfecting the quietly growled vocal he’s had on his last few albums, he weaves lyrics as engaging as any he’s written for some time - and which are the best on any record this year - while backed perfectly by minimalistic and pretty instrumental melodies that never distract the attention from his meticulous poetics. The 17 minute closer, Murder Most Foul, is the year’s best song in my books, and one of the most affecting things Dylan has ever written.

Song Picks - Murder Most Foul, I Contain Multitudes, My Own Version of You, I’ve Made up my Mind to Give Myself to You

8.5/10

Blackis — 10. (Untitled) Black Is

Sault

The mysterious British collective’s third album is their first of two 2020 releases. They don’t interact with the press or on social media, and it’s pretty hard to find out who they are, other than that Inflo produces them. Released a month after George Floyd’s murder, (Untitled) Black Is seems to have been recorded entirely in response. This is music of the resistance, and not the burst of anger Rage Against the Machine variety, but the kind that is always there, simmering beneath the surface. Mixing disco and r&b with the more vintage sounds of blues and soul, all 56 minutes of this album sound timely and yet timeless, classic and yet modern, accessible and yet labyrinthine.

Song Picks: Hard Life, Wildfires, Monsters, Miracles, Pray Up

8.5/10

Run the Jewel’s fourth album is potent mix of raps that flow like gnarled treacle, with lyrics as serrated and sharp as a rambo knife and beats like a bulldozer smashing through a wall (and not the polystyrene type, Boris). A non-stop march of irresistible, infectious anger.

Song Picks - yankee and the brave, ooh lala, holy clamafuck, JU$T, a few words for the firing squad

8.5/10

ewomeninmusicpt3 — 8. Women in Music Pt. III

HAIM

Haim’s third album is another collection of 70s inspired pop gems. The three sisters incorporate new genres, while never losing their characteristic approachable catchiness. Women in Music Pt. III is the kind of album I imagine anyone would like. It’s not at all challenging, but it holds up to deep listens due to its creative production, infectious melodies, and grainy warmth. It’s 2020’s best comfort record.

Song Picks: The Steps, I Know Alone, 3am, I Don’t Wanna

8.5/10

heaventopatorturedmind — 7. Heaven to a Tortured Mind

Yves Tumor

Experimental electronic artist Yves Tumor’s fourth album perfectly mixes the vintage with the modern. It’s concise and yet expansive, soaking up every genre on earth and spitting out the complex mess of what results into surprisingly digestable songs. Heaven to a Tortured mind seems to sparkle in a separate universe, refusing to be defined. Like the superstars of old, Yves Tumor is ploughing his own path, creating a sound completely his own. Quite the achievement in 2020.

Song Picks: Gospel for a New Century, Kerosene

8.5/10

Marling’s other albums, for one reason or another, have always passed me by. Songs for our Daughter however grabbed me immediately. There’s a wonderful depth to her vocals, lyrics and the production. It feels like the album of a woman who’s found herself, and that’s a pretty remarkable thing to listen to. One of the year’s most confident efforts, her delicate vibrato seemingly opening a door right into her soul, which she’s happy to lay out on the floor in one of the best minimalist folk albums for quite some time.

Song Picks - Alexandra, Hold Down, Fortune, For You

8.5/10

Phoebe Bridger’s second album is a journey of melancholoy, delicate, and reverb-drenched beauty. Occasionally exploding to anger from its general sadness, it’s a triumph of affecting and unforgettable songwriting. A musical version of that introspective night you spent alone in the corner of your room on the verge of tears, before waking up the following day with a paralysing numbness to the world.

Song Picks: Garden Song, Kyoto, Halloween, Chinese Satellite, Moon Song, Graceland Too

9/10

The Japanese-British songwriter’s debut sounds like the result of someone throwing nu metal, 2000’s and 90s pop, and a whole host of other genres into a raging cyclone. It opens with quite probably the year’s most cataclysmic pop track, Dynasty, which is followed not long after by the best nu metal track I’ve heard for ages, STFU, with a riff that sounds like a mountain coming to life. Endlessly creative and completely unpredictable, SAWAYAMA is surely the birth of our next pop superstar.

Song Picks: Dynasty, STFU, Paradisin’, Bad Friend

9/10

Fetch the Bolt Cutters is an album of creative confidence, one where Fiona has rarely stopped herself and gone, ‘nah, this sounds like a bad idea,’ but rather followed a song’s path to completion, regardless of how unconventional and odd it might sound to begin with. What results is the rarest of beasts, an album as unique as herself, using music that has come before only as smatterings of influence, while never turning them into a template. Put simply, it’s groundbreaking.

Song Picks: Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Under the Table, Drumset, On I Go

9/10

We needed Melee in 2020. With no live performances since March we needed an album that got pretty close to doing the impossible, bringing the energy of a live show onto a record. Soitsiadis’ vocals are endless body-tensed screams - where it sounds as if his voice could crack on any one, never to work again. Grissom’s lead guitar screeches and flutters like his strings are unable to sit still, and Macinski’s bass marches along as Jacob Hanlon’s drumming flurries and thrashes at breakneck speed like an out of control tornado. In Bolivia, it’s not uncommon to end up driving on what seems like a normal straight road that is actually more than twice as high as the highest mountain peak in the UK, you only notice the marvel of what you’ve just experienced when you get back to sea level and can breathe again. On Melee, there’s so little let-up that this absolute typhoon of energy almost feels normal, until it ends and you return to ‘sea level’ and immediately feel less alive, before impulsively starting the record again, in an addictive need for the energy it provides. In a year where I needed a kick up the arse to break the endless monotony, Dogleg’s debut provided just that, and what a marvel it is.

Song Picks: Kawasaki Backflip, Fox, Headfirst

9.5/10

Elverum returns under his the Microphones moniker for the first time in 17 years in a characteristically experimental effort. A 44 minute song comprised of just two chords, it hums with a delicate beauty. Elverum breezes over lines like “The thing I just realised / For probably the millionth time / That walking with my knees trembling / Is the true state of all things” as if they weren’t bloody gorgeous, setting out his stall and struggle with a mumbled bluntness that’s infinitely refreshing. It breaks the fourth wall in such a way as to make you part of the experience of its creation, and to experience this while listening to the end product puts you into a weird state of timelessness. Then, as your guard drops in this void, you realise someone with Phil Elverum’s platform and success is just as lost as your are, and that you’ll probably both remain just as lost forever, and though you don’t know each other and never will, he feels like your brother. And you sit and stare at the ceiling as the song weaves from that double tracked acoustic guitar to the heavily distorted segments and back out like a boat navigating a sporadic storm, and you realise once again “for probably the millionth time” that you’re just an insignificant piece of sand in a massive universe that doesn’t mean anything, and everything you make will one day be lost, and everything you’ve made will one day be forgotten as if it never existed in the first place. And weirdly this thought makes you smile, because there’s a melancholy freedom in realising “for probably the millionth time” the futility of it all. And you go downstairs and you hug someone in your household. And suddenly their aura feels stronger as you realise, again “for probably the millionth time”, that all that really matters is each other, and that there’s no end, and that sure your search for meaning will never bear fruit, but some fruit will drop from the branches regardless if you just look around once in a while. And then finally, you realise how cheesy that all sounds, but you couldn’t care less. The Microphones in 2020 is 2020’s masterpiece.

9.5/10

1977 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

December 18, 2020 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

In what will likely be my final post of 2020 (don’t panic, I’ll very much be carrying on with this cahllenge into 2021 and beyond) we’re going to take a look at 1977. The year the nuclear-proliferation pact, curbing the spread of nuclear weapons was signed by 15 countries, Star Wars hit theatres for the first time, and British Public sector trade unions including firefighters undertook a strike for wage increases.

As usual, here’s what rateyourmusic.com’s users rate as the year’s top 5 albums, using their fancy new algorithm which seems to give a little less credence to how many reviews an album has, meaning less reviewed releases have a better chance of coming high up the lists.

#1 Pink Floyd - Animals
#2 David Bowie - Low
#3 Television - Marquee Moon
#4 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
#5 David Bowie - “Heroes”

So returns from Pink Floyd and Bowie and first time entries from Television and Fleetwood Mac. Bowie achieves the rarest of things by managing to release two albums in one year that make it onto the list. As usual, five just isn’t enough, so I’m grabbing a few from further down to compete for the coveted title for 1977, including a shameless dip quite far down to grab an old favourite.

#6 Trans Europa Express
#7 Fela Kuti - Zombie
#8 Wire - Pink Flag
#11 Bob Marley & the Wailers - Exodus
#12 Brian Eno - Before and After Science
#25 Martha Argerich - 24 Préludes, Op. 28
#85 Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols

Plenty of artists we’ve not had before there, so let’s get these 12 albums reviewed and see who comes out the victor. I know I’ve said this a few times already, but this is absolutely a contender for one of the strongest years we’ve had yet.

Trans-europaexpress — 12. Trans Europa Express

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk’s sixth album ‘saw the group refine their melodic electronic style, with a focus on sequenced rhythms, minimalism, and occasionally manipulated vocals. The themes include celebrations of the titular European railway service and Europe as a whole, and meditations on the disparities between reality and appearance.’ (Wikipedia). Their Previous album, Radio-Activity, had been their first entirely electronic one, moving away from their earlier krautrock style. Trans-Europa Express is regularly seen as a massively influential album on modern music, and was in fact called ‘the most important pop album of the last 40 years’ by the LA times.

Europa Endloss (Europe Endless in English) is a simple, dreamy song about the band travelling across Europe by train. It’s lyrics are simple and repetitive just like the electronic musical backing. The electronic percussion and synths lull you into a beautiful and yet musically primitive sleep. The simplicity of many of the arrangements was likely born out of how early this was in the development of electronic music, but it is also part of the album’s charm, lending it a slightly post-apocalypitc and industrial feel that is only added to by haunting vocals on songs such as Spiegelsall (Hall of Mirrors in English). “Even the biggest stars, don’t like themselves in the mirror” the vocals say in German repeatedly, with a reverb large enough to make it sound like an observation from god.

The songs on Trans- Europa express tend to hinge on a repeated vocal line and simple synth melody and drum beat. The title track is a great example. ‘Trans-Europa Express’ is repeated regularly through some sort of Vocoder to turn the vocals to mercury, and the skittering electronic drum beat is repeated throughout the six and a half minute track, while the synths fill the gaps with large, almost organ-like chords. It’s another strangely haunting piece, like an abandoned factory with the machinery left on. The beginnings of many electronic genres are here, and the influence Kraftwerk had is undisputable. The record has certainly aged, and its sounds are particularly primitive when compared to all the fancy stuff we can do now with electronic music. But it has aged gracefully, thanks to the musicality and atmosphere at its core, and it’s simplicity really is rather beautiful.

Song Picks: Europa Endloss, Spiegelsaal, Franz Schubert, Endloss

8/10

Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Op.28 were first published 1839, and contained 24 short piano pieces, one in each major and minor key. A Polish virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, Chopin apparently never performed more than 4 of the 24 pieces in a single performance, and there is still debate as to whether they were intended to be played in order, or indeed written as 24 separate pieces to use as possible introductions to other works, as Preludes generally were. The fact that Chopin ordered the songs using the circle of fifths rather than simply moving up the keys in semitones suggests to me that he had thought about the ordering a little too much for the pieces to be designed for consuming independently however. The 24 Preludes, Op.28 have been recorded and performed by a whole heap of pianists, but it’s Martha Argerich’s version, released in 1977 that makes it onto these lists.

Martha Argerich is an Argentine-Swiss concert pianist, and widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. Born in 1941 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she began playing the piano aged 3, eventually moving to Europe in 1955 and later gaining Swiss citizenship. Despite her incredible talent and rather impressive list of accolades (see her Wikipedia page here), Argerich has generally shied away from the spotlight, which would explain why this is the first I’ve heard of her.

Argerich’s performance here is masterful. Though I can’t claim to have heard these pieces played by anyone else, it’s hard to imagine them being performed more beautifully than they are here. Argerich can put dizzyingly fast lines together in a way that still feels very human, while making them sound just as effortless as the slower pieces. Those slower pieces have a delicate wonder to them, like the notes from some sunken ship resurfacing as bubbles on the ocean’s surface. There’s a whole world to get lost in here, and Argerich’s mastery of the instrument coupled with Chopin’s gorgeous compositions has absolutely become one of the piano albums I’ll point people to when they ask for my favourites, sitting proudly alongside with Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert.

8.5/10

Fela Kuti’s second album to make it onto these lists caused quite a stir. Hugely popular in his home country of Nigeria, the record angered the government there, which it criticised heavily. It angered them so much that they attacked his commune, murdering his mother by throwing her out of a window, severely beating Fela Kuti, burning the entire commune and destroying his studio and master tapes. Though the re-issue added an additional two tracks, I’ll be reviewing the original 25 minute 1977 release here, which featured just two tracks.

The album opens with the title track, a scathing attack on the Nigerian military, describing them all as zombies who just follow orders without thinking, “Zombie no go think, unless you tell am to think”. The sound is similar to the one on Expensive Shit, but perhaps larger. We’ve got a whole host of driving percussion, a scatty strummed electric guitar, and the two talking saxophones that form the centrepiece of Kuti’s afrobeat sound. Once Kuti starts chanting his political lyrics, it’s not hard to see why he had such a big impact in his home country. The music draws you in with its infinite danceability, and soon has you chanting its simple and yet astute political message along with him.

The second and final track Mr Follow Follow has a similar message, “Some dey follow follow, dem close dem eye”, but is a little calmer in it’s instrumentation, with the bass, guitar and saxes laying down an irresistibly smooth groove like the light-hearted march of a cartoon army. Fela preaches about how everyone follows instructions without questioning them by closing their ears, eyes and ‘sense’. A master of setting a theme or mood before introducing any lyrics, it takes Kuti around 7 minutes to start singing here again, and by the time he does, you’re so entranced by the groove that you’ll agree to anything he says, thankfully his message is one that we could all do with hearing.

Zombie is musically and thematically cohesive, an album that is incredibly enjoyable in itself, but which becomes even more remarkable when you know the context of its recording. It’s difficult to imagine how Kuti feels about the album that inadvertently led to the death of his own mother, but to me, this is a perfect example of the power of music to unite, to spread a message by both being accessible and revolutionary.

Song Picks: Zombie, Mr Follow Follow

8.5/10

The English band’s debut album was received well critically, but didn’t sell well. Widely seen as one of the most influential albums of the 70s, its footprints can be seen on many hardcore, punk and alternative albums since. The record features 21 songs over its 35 minute duration, focusing on short, punchy songs that get to the point quickly and never outstay their welcome.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned a lot of times how big a fan of Guided by Voices I am, I’ve always loved their immediacy, how their songs seem to be captured at the point of inspiration, rather than when they’ve been thought out endlessly in the studio, and there’s something attractively raw about that to me. Pink Flag gives me the same vibes. Many of these songs could quite easily have been turned into 3 minute radio hits, but they’d have lost something. There’s a real magic to the rawness here.

With so many songs to talk about, it’d be folly to try and cover them all, so I’ll just talk about some of my highlights. Here goes. Ex Lion Tamer seems to have single-handedly invented Brit-pop, well before that genre was to dominate the charts. The chorus is as catchy as a song about sitting in front of your TV waiting for things to change could be, an anthem for the procrastinator. Lowdown is a great example of how great Colin Newman’s vocals sound when he throws caution to the wind, while Brazil’s guitar sound is so filthy you feel as if you’re being dragged backwards through a rubbish dump. So Obvious features the kind of major chord riff that could have easily been turned into a rock classic, but was instead seemingly played into a washing machine for 50 seconds, recorded, and then left there. Surgeon’s Girl features the lines “Said you weren't a tuna fish, put in a tin / They're very big, ha-ha” while Straight Line includes another fabulous riff that gets played for 44 glorious seconds and is then cut short. Mr Suit is the perfect anti-establishment punk song, something it achieves in only 1:25 seconds with a chorus that says ‘fuck the system’ like no other, “no, no, no, no Mr Suit”. On the grungy Strange, the band decide to play for a whole 4 minutes, with a riff so fuzzy and brilliant that you feel like you’ve just stuck your head straight into the world’s warmest tube amp. The lyrics are simple but performed by Newman in a way that makes them bounce against the guitar riff gloriously. The album’s final two track end things in a blaze of glory, Gimme Love is so drawled you can barely understand what’s being said and 1 2 X U is the ultimate bounce around punk song, but with drums that sound so thin it’s like they’re being played on a load of plastic cups, and guitars that are so loud they’ve gone full circle and ended up quiet again. Chaos.

In a genre that often gets repetitive, Pink Flag is an outstanding album that’s unpredictable, inspired, has the attention span of a gnat, and is completely brilliant.

Song Picks: Strange, Ex Lion Tamer, Lowdown, So Obvious, Gimme Lov

9/10

Beforeandafterscience — 8. Before and after Science

Brian Eno

It’s been quite the decade for Brian Eno, both in terms of his own albums and his contributions to those of others, and his fifth release is another remarkable one. As usual, a whole host of musicians collaborated with Eno on the album’s material, and the it also includes Eno’s final examples of rock music, before he was to head in a more ambient direction. Notably, over 100 songs were written for the album with only 10 making the cut.

Once again, Eno’s lyrics are more about a mood than meaning, which is clear on the opening No One Receiving, where they paint a bleak, industrial picture perfectly backed by the machine-like and yet gently funky backing of the plethora of percussion driven along by the song’s ever-present guitar riff. It’s another perfect example of Eno’ ability to create a world very much his own, something that he was to excel at in his later solo ambient recordings. Backwater displays Eno’s perhaps underrated ability for simple and infectious melody, sounding like Eno’s interpretation of a light hearted sailor’s song. Once again the synths and instrumental create a musical palette that’s both unique and infinitely interesting. Eno’s emphasis on the sound of words rather than their meaning is further explored on the enigmatic Kurt’s Rejoinder, inspired Kurt Schwitters, a prominent figure in the dada movement, which you can read more about here. We see Eno’s ambient work begin to creep in on the eerie and beautiful Energy Folls the Magician and the opening side ends with King’s Lead Hat, a song inspired by the Talking Heads, who Eno would go on to produce multiple albums of, and who’s name the title of the song is an anagram of. For me, it’s one of the album’s highlights, with it’s bopping bass line and drums, topped with an irresistibly catchy melody performed in Eno’s characteristic style. It’s a track that screams ‘fun’, and fills me with joy whenever it comes on.

Side two takes a more introspective turn, with Here He Comes setting the tone nicely with its slightly withdrawn and mumbled vocal backed by some gorgeous lead guitar work. It’s a late night drive kind of a song, sparkling gently like the stars as you exit the air pollution of the city. The gorgeous, twinkling guitar work continues on Julie With… and the gentle night-time ride continues until the album’s end with Spider and I, a song that makes you feel like you’re floating into the most beautiful cosmos, with nothing but your best friend in company.

Before and After Science is very much an album of two halves. The first half perhaps more perfectly encapsulating what Eno had been trying to do with rock music than any of his previous work, and the second half beautifully slides us into his more ambient catalogue. It’s a perfectly documented turning point.

Song Picks: No One Receiving, King’s Lead Hat, Here He Comes, Spider and I

9/10

Bowie’s twelfth album and second of 1977 continues in similar vein to Low, which we’ll get to later in this list. The middle album of Bowie’s ‘Berlin Trilogy’, Heroes was the only one actually recorded in Berlin. Bowie rejoined Tony Visconti and Brian Eno, who he’d worked with on Low, and much of the other personnel remained the same, with the notable addition of Robert Fripp on guitar. The majority of the tracks were recorded spontaneously in the studio and, perhaps most remarkably, Bowie had no lyrics written before he started recording. It continues the theme of having the opening side dedicated to to more conventional songs, with the second side being given over to predominantly instrumental tracks. It was commercially successful, and the most well received of Bowie’s ‘Berlin Trilogy’ initially, though Low is now largely seen as his masterpiece.

The album comes storming out the gates with that familiar insdustrial sound on Bowie recordings since Station to Station, including the brutal machine-like drum sound, which pounds along as the rest of the musicians bounce energetically and Bowie’s lyrics remain largely impenetrable. It combines haunting and dancy in a way that only Bowie can. On the following track Joe the Lion, a tribute to Chris Burden, Fripp’s influence becomes obvious, his riff is another corker, making this one of Bowie’s best rock songs in my books. Fripp effortlessly switches between riffs and solos as Bowie’s howls create another cataclysmic song to lead us into the more gentle Heroes. There are songs that become so famous that they become very much their own thing, and can sometimes stick out when listening to an album purely because of how much more familiar you are with them than the rest of the record. Heroes could easily be such a song, and yet it fits in seamlessly, yes I’ve heard it 3000 times more than any of the other songs here, but this very much feels like the song’s home. Fripp’s guitarwork is yet again what raises the piece from great to amazing, adding in endless depth and texture to a song that could easily have become boring with its simplicity. Bowie’s vocal performance is singular, metallic, and brilliantly unrestrained, getting more shouty as the song progresses, and as Visconti moved the mic further and further away from Bowie. The song tells of a doomed relationship, enjoying it “just for one day” inspired by an affair that producer Tony Visconti was having at the time. Sons of the Silent Age is essentially about ‘average Joes’ living lives that Bowie clearly thinks are rather boring. The first side closes with Blackout, a return to the dancy, industrial sound of the opening track.

The largely instrumental second side is dominated by the three tracks that flow into each other at its core, Sense of Doubt, Moss Garden and Neuköln, the former has a similar dark, haunting and desolate atmosphere to the instrumental tracks on Low, perhaps with some added menace, while Moss Garden is beautifully relaxing, apparently written to recreate the feeling of sitting in some moss gardens in Japan. It makes me want to go and do that immediately. Neuköln brings us back to a slightly darker mood, and features Bowie on saxophone before we finish with Secret Life of Arabia, a warm disco inspired tune, topped with a dusky vocal.

I find Heroes quite hard to separate from Low, and I give the edge to Low purely because it was more groundbreaking, while Heroes was very much a continuation of what Low had started. I think Heroes does everything just as well, there’s just a little less of that intangible magic there that I can’t explain. It may simply be because I listened to Low first.

Song Picks: Beauty and the Beast, Joe the Lion, Heroes, Moss Garden

9/10

Marqueemoon — 6. Marquee Moon

Television

Television’s debut landed to widespread critical acclaim. The band had grown in prominence following their residence at the Lower Manhattan Club and Brian Eno, who seems to have his fingerprints on so much music of the 1970s, produced the band’s first four demos in 1974. The band were eventually signed to Elektra Records, who released their debut.

I’ve mentioned a few times now how one of my favourite things about this listening challenge is discovering an album that seems to invent a genre out of nowhere, this is especially remarkable when that genre is one that played such a big part in my own youth, the 2000s indie-rock revolution of The Libertines, The Strokes et al. Marquee Moon, to me, is the birth of that movement, as well as so many more closer to its date of release.

The album opens with See No Evil, a song propelled by a snake-like guitar riff in one channel accompanied by a basic off-beat chord riff in the other channel. This is all backed by some great jazz inspired, and yet straight, drumming and a vocal that cuts right through the mix with a high frequency, nasal quality that forces you to pay attention to the lyrics. Lyrics that, in this case, are about knowing one is being controlled by desires, and yet seeing the beauty in those desires. It’s the perfect indie-rock song, catapulting the album onto the scene with a number that’s both accessible and revolutionary.

Televison stand apart from other acts of the period for their mix of genres. There’s elements of punk rock, particularly in Tom Verlaine’s deliberately unrestrained vocal, of jazz in Billy Ficca’s intricate drumming, and of a combination of rock and jazz in the guitars, which use more interesting chords in one song than Status Quo probably did in their entire career. It’s a remarkable meld of musicality that’s progressive not for the sake of being progressive but because the sound created is so damn enjoyable. There’s a breeziness to it, an irresistible energetic Sunday morning feeling, a feeling that all is right with the world while music like this is being created.

The album is full of great moments. Among them the great off-kilter guitar work on Friction, which gives Mac DeMarco a run for his money - indeed the competing guitar solos throughout the song belong to the album’s many highlights. The great title track is another one, an 11 minute jam which was apparently the first take, and the engineer initially thought was a rehearsal, testament to just how well well these musicians gel, it sounds perfect. A perfect mix of instrumental intrigue, interspersed vocals, and lyrics that keep you engaged. Not least the majestic closing couplet:

I was listening
Listening to the rain
I was hearing
Hearing something else

By the time you reach the closing track Torn Curtain, which contains perhaps the album’s most affecting chorus and a cracking guitar solo by Tom Verlaine, you’re left feeling like you’ve been blessed by something completely fresh sounding, a refreshing musical shower under a mountain waterfall.

Song Picks: See No Evil, Marquee Moon, Torn Curtain

9/10

5. Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols

The Sex Pistols

The band had already been banned from playing in various parts of Britain and fired from two record labels by the time their only album was released by Virgin Records, and the controversy didn’t end there. The title meant many stores refused to stock it and some charts refused to display its name. Regardless, and probably because of this, it debuted at number 1 on the UK album charts. If you were to somehow measure which albums have influenced the most music since their release, I suspect Never Mind the Bollocks… would end up near the top. Sure we’d had punk before, notably with Ramones in 1976, but it had never been this chaotic, this free, this simple and giving this few fucks.

The album opens with Holidays in the Sun which explodes into motion following the marching bass drum and an explosive riff from Steve Jones on guitar (he also plays bass on most of the album). It’s important to note that the Sex Pistols achieved their sound not by using some sort of amp designed for distortion, oh no, they turned up the gain and volume so high on a predominantly clean amp so that it lead to the distorted racket they’re famous for today. Rotten’s lead vocals are pretty much the birth of the kind of half-sung half-shouted, theatrical vocal that became common on the punk scene after this album was released. It’s sneering, loud, bursting with a cocky attitude, and just generally bloody fabulous. The song also shows their often underrated ability to come up with a catchy hook.

Bodies, the only song to feature Sid Vicious, has a chorus that is so jubilantly cathartic it juxtaposes with the fact the song tackles abortion in such a head on and unflinching way that it appalled many people at the time. It’s probably the heaviest, most gut punching song on the record.

God Save the Queen is obviously monstrous too. Rotten shouting “God Save the Queen - fascist regime!!” and sarcastically belting out “we love our queen!” is quite probably the single most influential punk song of all time, along with the equally boisterous Anarchy UK later on, which a generation of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 fans (me included) have seared into their brains. It’s these two songs which perhaps influence in a foundational way, 50% of my own music. The Sex Pistols taught me to shout my head off, to make my thoughts heard, and to not care whatever anyone else thought. The Sex Pistols taught me freedom

Never Mind the Bollocks… says “We’re the Sex Pistols, and this is what we sound like. Deal with it.” and it’s the best statement of individuality, not caring what anyone thinks, and freedom that there’s probably ever been.

Holidays in the Sun, Bodies, God Save the Queen, Anarchy UK

9.5/10

Bowie’s 11th album is the first of his so called ‘Berlin Trilogy’. A trio of albums produced by Tony Visconti on which Bowie collaborated with Brian Eno. Though recorded after Bowie’s move to West Berlin following the drug addiction that had been apparent throughout the recording of his previous album, the album was actually mostly recorded in France. Low divided critics on release, and received little promotion. Nowadays though, it’s pretty hard to find any greatest album of all time list without Low near the top.

The album delves further into the electronic approach toyed with on Station to Station and is also probably Bowie’s least vocal album, with it’s entire second side featuring instrumentals, and the opening side featuring songs that don’t have much singing either.

Speed of Life bursts into an infectious guitar riff backed by synths and a distinctive punchy drum sound achieved by Visconti using a Eventide H910 harmoniser. It’s a relatively simple electronic track that puts Bowie’s knack for catchy melodies perfectly into an electronic context. Carlos Alomar’s serpentine lead guitar opens up Breaking Glass, on which we have our first Bowie vocal, which sparsely calls to the listener in three short verses over the top of a buzzing bass line, more gated drums, and the aforementioned guitar part that very much makes the song. It’s only on Sound and Vision that we reach our first Bowie ‘hit’. One of my very favourite Bowie songs, it’s once again lifted by a brilliant lead guitar part, this time by Ricky Gardiner, in what has to be one of the simplest and catchiest riffs ever written. Bowie’s vocals speak of an isolation in his blue house, or as Bowie puts it, “I was going through dreadful times. It was wanting to be put in a little cold room with omnipotent blue on the walls and blinds on the windows.” Bowie duets with himself, one version singing in his characteristic melodic tone, the other mumbling with a vocal that has been saturated so much it sounds like your own conscience. It’s a masterpiece of infectious mystery, and perhaps the closest song to what we had on Station to Station.

Always Crashing in the Same Car is a humble song about always making the same mistakes and never learning from them. The vocal performance is a resigned mumble, the guitars a fatalistic hum, and the synths try to break through the wall of sound like a sparkle of that good habit you should probably start cultivating. Be My Wife, the album’s second single is thought to be a final plea to his wife at the time to save their crumbling marriage, they divorced in 1980. It’s a classic, catchy Bowie number that’s followed expertly by first side’s closing track, A Career in a New Town. A song that contains some of the most heartbreaking harmonica ever cut to tape, like a cry for help from someone curled up on the floor.

As mentioned earlier, the album’s second side features purely instrumentals which open with the haunting, chilling Warszawa, a song that brings to mind a post-apocalytpic hell-scape of a city with empty houses, broken windows, crumbling walls, and faded dreams. Art Decade and Weeping Wall create similarly cold atmospheres. The latter hinting at some warmth with a percussive xylophone part that has a lovely intimacy to it. The synth melodies, however, are crushing. We finish with the masterpiece Subterraneans, its layers of synths like ages of man lost to the wind, which closes out a side of music that is as transcendental as anything I’ve heard in this challenge so far. We’ve already learnt that Brian Eno and David Bowie both made some of the best music of the 70s, but here they combine to create something untouchable, a desolate landscape of destroyed beauty, from which a flowering phoenix rises. Astounding.

Song Picks: Sound & Vision, Speed of Life, Subterraneans, A New Career in a New Town,

9.5/10

The band’s 11th studio album was famously recorded during a tough time for the band members’ personal lives. To summarise the atmosphere in which it was recorded, Christine (keyboard player and vocalist) and John McVie (bass guitarist) had divorced having been together for eight years and were strictly not talking to each other except for matters of music. Vocalists Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were in a rather intense on/off relationship that led to lots of heated arguments and drummer Mick Fleetwood had just discovered that his wife and mother of his two children - who was not in the band - had had an affair with his best friend. Essentially, Rumours is the work of a band not really getting on, but making it work for the sake of getting some music out.

Anyway, onto the music, which is glorious. Second Hand News opens the album and very much sets the tone, you’d be forgiven for thinking the song is a happy one based on the sing-along melody and marching bass and drums. However, listen in to the lyrics and it’s clear that this is about a breakup between Nicks and Cunningham, who seems to be singing their thoughts at each other, and it’s that tension which makes this song, and the whole album, so great. Dreams was written by Nicks in a room built for Sly Stone while some more technical things were being done to the album - mixing I presume. Apparently she entered the studio and said “I’ve just written the most amazing song”. That song was Dreams, a perfect breakup song to Buckingham. The acoustic Never Coming Back Again is Buckingham’s response, where his vocals soar beautifully over the picked guitar that is so clear it sounds like it’s being plucked by diamonds. Don’t Stop moves onto the McVie’s divorce, written by Christine McVie and sung by her and Buckingham. It’s a song about moving on, plodding on intently with a straightforward bouncing bass and drum part which the other instruments embelish perfectly. It’s another fabulous pop song before we arrive at the most perfect of pop songs, Go Your Own Way, which, though infinitely overplayed, retains its initial magic when listened in the context of the album. The first side is closed by Songbird, a song that is a completely timeless, beautifully performed, and delicate meditation on love. Has there ever been a more perfect chorus than:

And the songbirds keep singing
Like they know the score
And I love you, I love you, I love you
Like never before

I think not.

I’m finding it rather difficult to not continually use the word perfect in this review, but I’m going to have to use it again here. The Chain perfectly opens the second side with an opening acoustic guitar part as recognisable as anything ever recorded. The song is once again a melodic masterpiece, and the famous finale has to be one of my very favourites featuring a guitar solo that threatens to escape the realm of sound and turn into some swirling snake, I just wish it wasn’t faded out so quickly. I’ll stop gushing now, but the final four tracks of the album, though perhaps less iconic, are still generally pop gems, though I’ve never enjoyed Oh Daddy as much as the rest.

Rumours is an album that I’ve always liked, but never loved, perhaps because all my experiences of it were of other people playing it to me and telling me I had to love it. It often takes listening to an album by myself for me to fully feel it, and that was the case here. I can confirm I’ve been completely wrong to not to absolutely adore it up to now, Rumours is probably the most perfect pop record ever recorded, certainly up to this point in the challenge. Out of endless tension within the band flowered the most brilliant, affecting, and just downright enjoyable record.

Song Picks: Songbird, Second Hand News, The Chain, Never Going Back Again

9.5/10

Exodus is Bob Marley’s ninth album, and was recorded in London after he was exiled from Jamaica following an assassination attempt on him there. Often seen as Bob’s masterpiece, it’s the album that features most heavily on Legend, the Bob Marley greatest hits collection released in 1984. Bunny Wailer and Pete Tosh had left by this point, so this has more of a solo Bob Marley feel to it, though he continued to use the Wailers name on his records. Time magazine named Exodus the best album of the 20th century.

It opens with Natural Mystic where we hear Marley’s reggae stabs and Carlton Barrett’s bass walk fade in gently. It’s a groove that cuts right to your soul, very much like the ‘natural mystic' Marley sings about. There’s a touching tiredness to Marley’s vocal, and his ability to weave a catchy melody and sing it beautifully is as good as ever. So Much Things to Say gets characteristically political, and while referring to specific events it’s essentially about his tiredness of those in power with ‘so much to say,’ while they remain ignorant to what matters. Guiltiness talks of those same people, this time focusing on how many they’ve stood on to get to the top, and how they will one day get their comeuppance, “Woe to the downpressors / They will eat the bread of sorrow”. Marley’s backing singers add a wonderful depth to the melodies on the track, which are once again gorgeous and impossible to resist.

Exodus, one of Marley’s most famous compositions, closes out the political first side of the album, and is one of the most remarkable pieces of music ever recorded. Over seven and a half minutes of music are built over only one chord, with a perfect sense of the march of millions symbolised by the walking bass lines, swirling guitar parts and the odd stab of brass. It’s the march from slavery to freedom of an entire people in musical format, and it’s glorious.

Side two gets much less political and opens with Jammin’, a song which is essentially about having a good time, and the gorgeous Waitin’ In Vain, a personal Bob favourite, which is about waiting for love while not knowing if it’ll work out. The Wailers create a sumptuous bed of music, with Junior Marvin’s warm guitar playing feeling like a hug as Marley spins a web of melodies. I’ve gone on and on about Marley’s vocal ability in a previous review, but it’s particularly evident on this song, where he often provides his own backing vocals, and everything just sounds perfect. Turn Your Lights Down Low is Bob’s Sexual Healing and the album’s two closing tracks Three Little Birds and One Love/People Get Ready are perhaps his most famous of all. The former preaches positivity in the face of adversity and is bursting with so much sunshine it’s a wonder it doesn’t burn to ashes every device that plays it. The latter is another masterpiece preaching togetherness, ‘Let’s get together and feel alright’. As that chorus fills your head, you’re left wondering why something so simple is so difficult.

Exodus is Bob’s mainstream masterpiece, the pinnacle of both his political songwriting as well as his songs of love and acceptance. It shines and preaches in equal measure, and it fills your very soul with an unparalleled humanity.

Song Picks: Waitin’ In Vain, Three Little Birds, One Love/People Get Ready

10/10

Pink Floyd’s tenth album focuses on the socio-political conditions in the UK in the 1970s and continues their liking for long songs, with only 5 of them over its 41 minute duration. The band released no singles from the album, but it was commercially and critically well received. Very much a concept album, the concept is best described by the album’s Wikipedia page:

Loosely based on George Orwell's political fable Animal Farm, the album's lyrics describe various classes in society as different kinds of animals: the predatory dogs, the despotic ruthless pigs, and the "mindless and unquestioning herd" of sheep. Whereas the novella focuses on Stalinism, the album is a critique of capitalism and differs again in that the sheep eventually rise up to overpower the dogs. The album was developed from a collection of unrelated songs into a concept which, in the words of author Glenn Povey, "described the apparent social and moral decay of society, likening the human condition to that of mere animals".

The album is bookended by two short pieces, Pigs on the Wing part 1 and 2, love songs written by Roger Waters for his wife at the time. They’re simple acoustic compositions, with the same melodies and pretty lyrics. They provide a certain contrast to the 3 longer, denser songs that make up the meat of the album.

The first of those longer songs is Dogs, a 17 minute masterpiece about the trying to find your place in world that is essentially ‘dog eat dog’, where those dogs are businessmen, perhaps most darkly summed up by David Gilmour in the second verse:

You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder
You know, it's going to get harder, and harder, and harder
As you get older
Yeah, and in the end you'll pack up and fly down south
Hide your head in the sand
Just another sad old man
All alone and dying of cancer

Featuring numerous instrumental breaks that get darker as the song goes on, the piece is also yet another testament to David Gilmour’s majestic guitar playing. His first solo on the song is quite unforgettable. Roger Waters’ final verse couldn’t be more perfect, performed with a detached anger:

Who was born in a house full of pain
Who was trained not to spit in the fan
Who was told what to do by the man
Who was broken by trained personnel
Who was fitted with collar and chain
Who was given a pat on the back
Who was breaking away from the pack
Who was only a stranger at home
Who was ground down in the end
Who was found dead on the phone
Who was dragged down by the stone
Who was dragged down by the stone

Having critiqued capitalism, Pink Floyd moves onto politics in Pigs (Three Different Ones), which tells the story of people caring more about holding onto power than helping those they are there to serve. The catchy repeated line of ‘haha, charade you are’ is endlessly powerful, laughing in their faces as a picture of greed, gluttony and corruption is built up over a soundtrack that includes a whole host of pig noises clearly meant to represent the waffle these frauds are coming out with. It’s a powerful, angry and atmospheric piece of music that crushes the political façade like a giant tank dressed in a clown costume.

Finally, introduced by some gorgeous electric piano and a rumbling, approaching bass line, we enter the last of the epics, Sheep, a song about those that blindly follow commands without question:

What do you get for pretending the danger’s not real.
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel.

Sheep packs a punch, finishing this pessimistic look at society with a perfect crescendo of guitars and drums that echo off into the distance, replacing the dark synths that dominated the song earlier, before we enter the aforementioned dreamy Pigs on the Wing (Part II)

Animals is a pretty spectacular look at the dark parts of the society and systems we have built. which is just as relevant today as it was in 1977. It broods, preaches and dazzles in equal measure, and it might just be my favourite Pink Floyd album.

Song Picks: All of them

10/10

1976 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

November 13, 2020 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Well, hello there 1976. As usual, let’s look at some of the year’s main events. Pol Pot became President (well, dictator) of Cambodia, the 19 month civil war ended in Lebanon, Jimmy Carter was elected US President and Viking I landed on Mars.

In terms of music, here’s what rateyourmusic.com’s users rate as the year’s top 5 albums:

I note here that rateyourmusic.com seems to have undergone an update which significantly changes the algorithm used to rank albums on the site , so this order has changed quite a lot if you go to the site now. I’ll be sticking to the ranking that was there when I started on this post however, but will of course be following the new rankings from now on (as the old ones are no longer available). For what it’s worth, the new algorithm seems to pay less attention to number of reviews, which means less well known stuff is generally getting higher up the charts.

#1 David Bowie - Station to Station
#2 Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
#3 Ramones - Ramones
#4 Bob Dylan - Desire
#5 Rainbow - Rising

We’ve got returns for Stevie Wonder, Bowie and Jorge Ben, as well as a couple of new entrants: Judas Priest and Rainbow. As usual, I’ll be grabbing a few from further down the list.

#6 The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
#7 Rush - 2112
#8 Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny
#10 Joni Mitchell - Hejira
#13 Jorge Ben - África Brasil
#23 Patti Smith Group - Radio Ethiopia

And there we have it. 11 albums to review. Here’s my ranking and thoughts on the above.

The second album by the British heavy metal band received a positive reception when released in 1976, but had poor sales. It’s now seen as a cornerpiece of heavy metal history, and the point where Judas Priest found their sound and image. Interestingly, the band were struggling with their finances before its release, apparently restricting themselves to one meal a day and working part-time jobs during its recording.

The first thing you notice, is that this is the first appearance of the ‘heavy metal album cover’ made famous over the years by bands such as Iron Maiden. I’ve never been a fan of the look personally, but you can’t claim it wasn’t influential!

The album opens with its longest song, the almost 8 minute Victim of Changes, which serves as a pretty great introduction to what the band can do. There’s the bombardment of Black Sabbath-esque riffs, high-pitched howling vocals from Rob Halford and solid but occasionally flourishing drums from Alan Moore, but there’s also some more prog-rock elements in the song’s gentler end section. Halford demonstrates his considerable vocal range, singing in a calmer, lower tone that makes you wonder if he’s been swapped out for another vocalist before he goes into full 70s high-pitched death howl mode for the song’s conclusion. This is quickly followed by a phased solo that wouldn’t be out of place on a Hendrix album. Impressive stuff.

The Ripper is sung from the perspective of Jack the Ripper, and it’s here that the twin guitar sound of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing is particularly evident, one riffing away as the other adds interest by sprinkling notes in various sections.

Generally speaking, I enjoy their heavier sections more than the more proggy calmer ones, where they have that overly dramatic and self-important sound that I’ve never been that much of a fan of. Dreamer Deceiver serves as a pretty good example of what I’m talking about, though the guitar solo at the end is majestic and the way it flows into the chugging Deceiver is also rather fabulous.

Sad Wings of Destiny is undoubtedly an important heavy metal record, and it contains some brilliant riffs, production, guitar solos and notably impressive vocals from Halford. I can hear a whole heap of influences in their playing, as well as a load of people they clearly influence further down the line, which is impressive. It’s just not something I’ll be reaching to listen to again.

Song Picks: Victim of Changes, The Ripper

7.5/10

Rainbow are a British rock band led by Ritchie Blackmore, previously of Deep Purple. Their second album is often cited as one of the most influential metal albums, and was ranked as the 48th best metal album of all time by Rolling Stone in 2017.

A 33 minute feast of 70s hard rock, the Deep Purple influence is obvious and marching riffs like those on Starstruck would have been completely at home on Deep Purple’s In Rock. Ronnie James Dio’s vocals are fairly generic 70s hard rock, although he’s refreshingly more restrained when it comes to falsetto howls.

What strikes me most about Rising is how tight everything sounds. Cozy Powell’s drums are seemingly tied to the guitar, and the whole thing sounds remarkably perfect considering this is before the age of convenient digital editing. The stops and starts on Do You Close Your Eyes are perfectly timed, and it really helps them to hit home. Once we’re into the 8 minute epic Stargazer the band have completely hit their stride, Blackmore unleashing a riff that should be far more famous than it is, in a song that sounds prophetic in its grandiosity. It tells the story of a wizard who believes he can fly, so he gets loads of people to build a tower for him to jump off (many of them die in the process) before jumping off and falling to his death. Dark. Ronnie James Dio’s vocals are sublime, and it sounds like the song he was born to sing. It’s one of my favourite songs in a genre that I don’t feel has aged all that well. The album closes brilliantly with another of the speedy-riffs that Blackmore does so well, in the pacey A Light in the Black.

Rising is a powerful recording of a hard-rock band on top form. Meaty riffs, tunefully thundering vocals, and drums that sound thick with force, its influence on the more obsessively polished metal sounds to come is obvious.

Song Picks: Stargazer, A Light in the Black

8/10

The punk juggernauts’ self-titled debut was recorded for a paltry $6,400 over seven days on the eighth floor of Radio City Music Hall in New York. In lead singer Joey Ramone’s own words (all members adopted pseudonyms with the surname Ramone, they weren’t related): "Doing an album in a week and bringing it in for $6,400 was unheard of, especially since it was an album that really changed the world. It kicked off punk rock and started the whole thing—as well as us." Although punk had certainly appeared before with bands such as Iggy and the Stooges this is the first time where there’s an album featuring entirely the ‘three chords and the truth’ simplicity of punk rock as we know it today.

The album comes storming out the gates with the famous opener and punk rock anthem Blitzkrieg Bop, Johnny Ramone’s crashing guitar riff erupting through the speakers like a call to arms. Joey Ramone’s vocals are less shouty than what add been associated with punk up to now, such as Iggy Pop’s growling and screaming, and you could almost say they juxtapose with the aggressive sound of the rest of the band, chanting catchy melodies over the top like an excited kid.

The album sounds rough, but by no means thin, with Dee Dee Ramone’s bass providing some very punchy bottom end. The drums are nearly lost in the crash of guitars, but it works, creating something that’s very restrained in its musicality - I doubt many songs have more than three chords here - but chaotic in its sound.

Once you’ve heard the opener, you know what you’re getting (except for the slightly unexpected love song I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend). These are simple, catchy and punchy songs that you can imagine crowds bouncing around aggressively to in sweat filled rooms, singing along and bouncing off each other. It’s brimming with energy, enjoyable and undoubtedly influential, if a little one-note.

Song Picks: Blitzkrieg Bop, Down to the Basement

8/10

Having so far failed to create a particularly profitable record, the Canadian prog-rock band’s label, Anthem Records, gave them one more chance. 2112, Rush’s fourth album, is the result of that. It quickly outsold all their previous releases, and remains their second best selling album to this day.

The album opens with the 20 minute title track, which is suitably prog-rock, telling a science-fiction story of a city where creativity is banned and no one knows what music is. It’s massively pretentious - as you’d expect from Rush - and reading its lyrics is akin to reading a very long poem. The song introduces the band’s spacey sound which has aged much better than a lot of the prog-rock of the era, with drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, guitarist Alex Lifeson and vocalist/bassist Geddy Lee creating an expansive sound that defies their numbers. The song is at times pounding, at times calmer, but always massive, with Geddy Lee’s vocals displaying a remarkable range and ability to go from a high pitched growl to a calmer, more resonant style. Everything is absolutely bang in time, which is remarkable considering how complex the whole arrangement is, and to be honest, it shines as a great example of just how epic music can be. As Lee howls out his final verse it feels like nothing else matters right now except for this ridiculously over-dramatic song. I was left nodding my head along, my thoughts in the stratosphere.

The Twilight Zone is written about two episodes of the titular program, one which Rush were clearly big fans of as they dedicated parts to the show’s creator Rod Sterling in numerous of their album sleeves. It’s a calmer song than the one which opens the album, and a good example of the more standard song structures that are present through the rest of the album’s material. Songs like Lessons (which is a rare example of Lifeson providing lyrics) and the ballad Tears are essentially pop songs with a prog-rock flavour. The album closes out with Something for Nothing, a return to the proggier nature of the opening track, featuring some impressive guitar fiddlery from Lifeson and Lee’s characteristic vocal style as he regularly matches the cadence of the guitar and bass riffs.

2112 is an example of a band on top form instrumentally - and we’ve had plenty of those in this challenge - but also one unwilling to sacrifice its mission for the sake of more sales. Opening with a 20 minute epic paid off though, largely because that 20 minute epic was so damn good, and while you could absolutely say it carries the album, the rest of the songs are rather entertaining too, if not as groundbreaking.

Song Picks: 2112

8.5/10

RadioEthipia — 7. Radio Ethiopia

Patti Smith

Patti Smiths’ second album was a move by her to become more commercially successful, which was what drove the decision to have Jack Douglas produce the album. The album, in something that seems overly harsh to me, was criticised as being Patti Smith selling out. I’m unsure how something so punk and abrasive (just listen to the title track) can be described as selling out, though I do accept the backing musicians are a little more restrained in general.

The album opens with Ask the Angels, a bouncy number which hops along thanks to an offbeat bass and guitar riff. There’s a celebratory feel to the song and Smith’s vocals, particularly as she and the band stutter through the chorus of “wild, wild, wild”. Ain’t it Strange features one of Smith’s most remarkable vocal performances on the album as she holds notes so long, she seems determined to bring them with her to the afterlife she sings of in the song. The drums are scattered with Ivan Král’s (he co-wrote much of the album’s material) bass holding it all together. Poppies is another example of the rambling vocal Smith does so well before we get to Poppies, a song that the author Nick Hornby has mentioned as one of the 31 songs that provided a soundtrack to his life. I can see why, it’s a song where the dark mood created by the screeching guitar solo, the walking bass and Smith’s vocal perfectly accompany the even darker lyrics, “My bowels are empty excreting your soul/What more can I give you baby I don't know”. It’s another demonstration of just how much Smith can push boundaries within the template of a rock song.

The rest of Radio Ethiopia continues in much a similar vain, with a free rocking and yet generally fairly restrained band backing Smith’s vocals, which are completely unrestrained and free just as they were on the excellent Horses. Much of what you think of the album will probably hang on your thoughts on the title track, which apparently divides critics who either think it’s display of boundary pushing brilliance, or an over-indulgent mess. I’m in the former camp, to me it’s a brazen 10 minute mass of noise that epitomises Smith’s artistic immoderation, her vocals finally backed by an instrumental melange that screams as much chaos as her vocals always have. She’s broken out the cage of song structure, and it’s rather glorious.

Song Picks: Ask the Angels, Ain’t it Strange, Radio Ethiopia.

8.5/10

Bob Dylan’s 17th album is notable for being one of his most collaborative. Not only do many of the songs feature backing vocals from Emmylou Harris and Ronee Blakely, but much of the album was co-written by Jacques Levy. It also sees Dylan returning to a political narrative with its famous opening track, Hurricane, which covers Dylan’s belief that boxer Rubin Carter was framed - his conviction was in fact later overturned in 1985. It is one of Dylan’s bestselling albums, and was named number 176 in Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Recording sessions for the album began with a whole heap of musicians and were unsurprisingly chaotic, but numbers were gradually cut until Bob Dylan ended up with much of the band that would accompany him on the Rolling Thunder Revue tour and who are responsible for the album’s unique sound. The album has a sound which is notably darker than most of Dylan’s previous output, largely due to Scarlet Rivera’s haunting violin, something which is prominent on the aforementioned Hurricane, a track which marches along with Dylan telling a story with an anger reminiscent of his mid-60s acoustic albums. His vocal performance is as engaging as ever, and the out of time backing vocals give the ramshackle feel of a spontaneous live performance.

An album of stories, the next one is about a man’s search for meaning, as Dylan weaves a tale over twelve verses in one of the album’s most famous songs, Isis. The narrative is surprisingly followable (perhaps Levy’s influence) and is expertly accompanied once again by Rivera’s violin and Dylan’s charmingly shambly harmonica. This is followed by the slightly odd Mozambique, which was apparently inspired by Dylan and Levy’s quest to see how many words they could find to rhyme with ‘-ique’. It’s a simpler song, and has a particularly bouncy groove when compared to the rest of the album, providing some restbite to the generally darker content. It’s One More Cup of Coffee that’s my personal favourite though. Rivera’s violin singing sadly, the snare drum echoing like the drummer has got lost somewhere in a cave, and the bass adding beautiful flourishes when the other instruments and vocals leave a gap. The lyrics are beautifully mystical (this is notably one of the few songs not co-written by Levy) and Emmylou’s accompaniment on the chorus is irresistible, giving the song the gypsy feel that Dylan was apparently going for. “The valley below” mentioned in the song, “could mean anything,” Dylan asserts.

Side one is closed out by Oh Sister, a lovely duet where Dylan and Emmylou Harris’ vocals work together brilliantly, but the album’s second side, which begins with the overly long Joey, is not as strong as the first. Joey’s chorus melody is quite affecting - largely thanks to Emmylou’s accompaniment again, but Dylan’s story of the deceased gangster Joey Gallo - who he was accused of glorifying in the song - just isn’t interesting enough to keep my attention for its 12 minute duration. Romance in Durango thankfully provides some light relief with its Latin feel, and even features Dylan singing in Spanish.

I’ve always been a fan of penultimate track Black Diamond Bay’s jaunty melody and instrumentation, and Dylan’s vocal performance is one of the strongest on the album. The album closes with Sara, a song about his then wife, and probably the most honest and candid of all Dylan’s songs. He doesn’t hide behind metaphors or pseudonyms, and thus it’s quite a harrowing listen, the chorus seemingly letting you into his very soul, which isn’t a comfortable place to be.

I really love Desire, and have grown even more fond of it having seen Martin Scorcese’s excellent Rolling Thunder Review documentary. It has a mystical, dark quality to it that differentiates it from other Dylan albums, and Rivera’s violin is a masterful addition. Though the lyrics are still great and visually evocative, I don’t think they’re up there with his best output, and it’s also brought down by the fact that Joey isn’t really good enough to account for its 12 minute running length. Nevertheless, Desire is another great album from Bob, and certainly one of his best albums of the 70s.

Song Picks: One More Cup of Coffee, Black Diamond Bay, Hurricane

8.5/10

ModernLovers — 5. The Modern Lovers

The Modern Lovers

An album with a story far too complicated to get into here in much detail, but I’ll give you a short summary. Essentially, all 9 of the album’s songs were actually recorded in 1971 when the band couldn’t decide which record label to sign with and eventually broke up due to artistic disagreements. Lead singer, songwriter and lyricist Jonathan Richman eventually signed as a solo artist with Matthew Kaufman’s new Home of the Hits label in 1976, where Kaufman put together this release from their original 1971 recordings, six of which were produced by John Cale. So it’s the debut release of a band that had already broken up.

The Velvet Underground influence is evident from the off on Roadrunner, with messy guitars, almost talked vocals, and lyrics that have a very spontaneous spur of the moment feel to them. It’s a song about Richman’s love for Massachusetts - bandmate John Felice recalls he used to get ‘almost teary eyed’ looking out over it - driving around in his car with the radio on. It’s a simple idea, executed simply with just two chords, and it works.

The album’s light-heartedness is refreshing, and this is something that crops up again with Pablo Picasso, a song about how Pablo Picasso can get a way with acting like an ‘asshole’ because he’s famous, but you can’t. It bounces in a way not dissimilar to the opening track, with scattered, messy guitar and piano reminiscent once again of the Velvet Underground’s more experimental phase, while always remaining accessible due to the simple vocals, and bass part carrying the song structure. In She Cracked, the infectious bounce continues as Richman tells of the end of a relationship of a girlfriend who presumably succumbed to drugs. He sums it up with his trademark simplicity:

She cracked, I'm sad, but I won't
She cracked, I'm hurt, you're right
Alright

On Hospital, we see Richman showing some sadness, as he sings of an ex-lover being released from the psychiatric ward (perhaps the one he described in the previous track). The verses are slow and sombre, but the chorus has an energy similar to the rest of the album, Richman’s vocals mirroring the staccato rhythm of the guitar part.

The Modern Lovers is remarkable for its love of life, and also its ‘straight-edge’ lyrics - Richman regularly talks against drug use and smoking (see She’s Cracked and Modern World) - which goes against a lot of the music from this era. “Well the modern world is not so bad / Not like the students say” Richman sings on the album’s last track, and after listening to this upbeat gem of an album, it’s quite hard to disagree with him.

Song Picks: Roadrunner, She Cracked, Modern World, Someone to Care About

9/10

Jorge’s back with his 14th album, and his first on electric guitar. It incorporates both Afro-Brazilian and African-American pop styles and sees a significant steer towards funk. It’s considered one of his essential albums along with 1974’s A Tábua de Esmeralda (see my 1974 post for how much I loved that one).

Ponta de Lança Africano (Umbabarauma) opens with Jorge unaccompanied on his fancy new electric guitar, but it’s not long before the band enters and we’re into the familiar, happy and energetic space that so dominated the fabulous A Tábua de Esmeralda. It tells the story of a fictional African striker, and is often regarded as one of the finest songs about football ever written. To anyone, like me, who doesn’t understand Portuguese however, it’s just an infinitely positive sounding track notable for its more present groove than anything I’ve heard from Jorge before. The pattering percussion drives the track along as Jorge’s melodies are as catchy as ever. This infectious grooviness continues on Hermes Trismegisto Escreveu where Dadi Carvalho’s bass is the star of the show, bumbling along like that guy lost in his own world at a party, oblivious to the fact that everyone is staring at his carefree dance moves.

The musical palette is constantly interesting on Africa Brasil, with O Filósofo being a particularly fabulous example. I’m not sure what is making that ‘cuckoo’ noise in the song, but it’s brilliant, sprinkling a humorous joy all over the track, which is reinforced by the quacking wah sound that emphasises the end of each phrase. Jorge’s melody swirls gently again, as if he’s just coming up with catchy line after catchy line on the spot, and the whole thing has a Bob Marley produced by Scratch Perry feel to it, which is pretty much the highest compliment I can pay anything.

The backing vocals prevalent throughout the album are blissful, and help to frame Jorge’s choruses as on O Plebeu, or indeed emphasise them as on the splendid Taj Mahal, a song that’s so catchy I reckon you could throw a CD of it in the sea and empty the ocean - please don’t though Jorge, there’s too few fish as it is. Taj Mahal is quickly followed by perhaps the album’s catchiest track Xica da Silva, a song that again uses that cuckoo sound - though less prominently - and features a chorus that you just have to sing along to, even if you have no idea what he and his backing vocalists are singing about.

I could go on, but essentially what you have here is another album from Jorge Ben that’s full of life, energy, inventiveness, humour and above all, melody. With enough new instrumental palettes to make it remarkably different to A Tábua de Esmeralda, while still possessing the same soul, it’s an album so bursting with happiness that it’s hard not to smile for its duration.

Song picks: Taj Mahal, Xica da Silva, Ponta de Lança Africano (Umbabarauma)

9/10

StationtoStation — 3. Station to Station

David Bowie

For his tenth album, Bowie took on the persona of the ‘Thin White Duke’ and recorded in Los Angeles under such a haze of cocaine addiction that he claims to recall almost nothing of the recording and production. It came 52nd on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2020, and is widely seen as one of Bowie’s most important works.

The 10 minute opening title track is a perfect introduction. It starts with what sounds like a helicopter approaching, before a guitar screeches and some flimsy chords build ominously. The funk influence is immediately obvious, as is the German techno influence from bands such as Kraftwerk. The bass pounds and the melodica, guitar and ambient noise create an industrial soundscape fit for a character as seemingly detached as the Thin White Duke as he sings of his uncertainty of whether what he feels is love or just the cocaine - most likely the latter. By the time the song launches into a bouncy disco groove with the second chorus, as David Bowie sings “it’s too late to be grateful / it’s too late to be great again,” you’re left bopping and singing along, absorbed into Bowie’s cocaine fog, a fog taken to new levels by Earl Slick’s unruly lead guitar and George Murray’s irresistible bass. It’s a masterpiece.

This is followed by Golden Years, another display of bountiful bass from George Murray (one of the unsung heroes of this album). A funky disco number where Bowie’s ability to mix a whole host of vocal styles and catchy melodies combines perfectly with backing musicians creating a sound that hovers somewhere in-between electronic and the sound of a band, in a way that once again feeds the detached feeling of the album. The track was the first completed for the album, and was originally going to be the title track.

Word on a Wing is a slower, almost ballad-like song, which sees Bowie at his most intimate on the album until we reach the final track. Written about the ‘spiritual despair’ he went through on the set for the film The Man Who Fell to Earth. Bowie’s vocal performance is perfect once again, and particularly affecting, especially when he sings the beautifully melodic line “Sweet name, you're born once again for me”. It’s another highlight on an album of highlights.

TVC15 was reportedly written about an acid trip that Iggy Pop had at Bowie’s home where he thought the TV was swallowing his girlfriend. It’s another infectious, funky romp, this time with a slightly ramshackle and drunken feel thanks to Bowie’s vocal, despite the industrially precise musicianship on display. George Murray dials up the funky bass to 11 on the rambunctiously brilliant Stay before we reach the final track, a gorgeous cover of Wild is the Wind, a song Bowie was inspired to write after he met Nina Simone, who also covered the song on her album of the same name. Like Word on a Wing, the song features a particularly delicate Bowie vocal, which is particularly up front in the recording due to the more acoustic and stripped back sound of the rest of the band. It still has that detached industrial sound to it, likely because of the metallic reverb on Bowie’s voice, and it reeks of a man desperate to feel something.

Station to Station is one of Bowie’s masterpieces, and although I know it’s not a funk album as such, it’s still probably my favourite funky album, with the band working together brilliantly to create a whole host of infectious grooves. The fact these are led by Bowie’s unique vocals, lyrics, and just general feel, makes for a record unlike any other, one that is both intimate and yet completely cold, and one that is both authentic and fake. It’s the kind of album that could only have been written by Bowie while off his nut on cocaine, and it’s glorious.

Song Picks: Station to Station, Golden Years, Word on a Wing, Wild is the Wind

9.5/10

Joni Mitchell’s eighth album sees her continuing her journey away from pop and towards more jazz inspired arrangements, this time featuring Jaco Pastorious on the fretless electric bass. Regarded by many as one of the greatest bassist of all time, he died in in 1987 following a fight outside a bar. The album was largely written on a long trip from Maine back to LA in the car, something that’s clear in its sound as well as its lyrics. Though the album didn’t sell as well as its predecessors, it is regularly regarded as one of her strongest works.

The opening track, Coyote, was written while on tour with Bob Dylan and the Rolling Thunder Review. It’s the perfect opening song to the album, coasting along with Mitchell’s trademark guitar flourishes put through an electric guitar and phaser, gentle percussion dotting the soundscape like houses appearing on the horizon, and Mitchell’s vocals as free and melodic as birdsong. I’ve talked about Mitchell’s lyrical talents before, but this is another great example of it. A mystical tale of roadside events full of brilliant imagery, each majestic verse ends with the lines, “You just picked up a hitcher / A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway,” which is probably my favourite line of the year.

Joni’s electric guitar decorates each song perfectly, on Amelia it flies along like blurred lamp posts out the car window in the dark as Victor Feldman’s vibraphone adds the loveliest of cries to the soundscape. It’s all so damn pretty that you’d be forgiven for letting Mitchell’s lyrics wash over you, lost in her delicate melodies. But if you catch them, there’s a whole new world to explore.

While Joni’s gorgeous electric guitar playing is the centrepiece to most of the songs here, the variety of instruments that provide added sparkle is great and gives each song a unique feeling. Whether it be the previously mentioned vibraphone, or Neil Young’s gently unfettered harmonica playing on Furry Sings the Blues, or indeed Jaco Pastorious’ trademark singing bass on four of the album’s tracks, what’s created is an enchanting atmosphere, that perfectly backs Joni Mitchell’s tales of the mystical road.

Hejira is yet another superb album from Joni, and while I confidently said The Hissing of Summer Lawns was my favourite Joni Mitchell album when I reviewed it in 1975’s list, confident at the time that nothing could top it, I think Hejira is very much its equal. It’s an album that I’ll continue to discover new things with, where the lyrics have a wonderful depth, and yet even when you don’t pay attention to them the whole thing just sounds so beautiful. I’ve always loved solitary travel. The feeling of peace that exists when there really is nothing else you could be doing other than sitting there and staring out the window, watching the world go by. I’m not sure an album has ever got me closer to that feeling than this album and perhaps Ben Howard’s Noonday Dream. Joni sums it up best on the title track, where Pastorious’ bass glistens like happy thoughts sprinkling through your brain:

There's comfort in melancholy

When there's no need to explain

It's just as natural as the weather

In this moody sky today

Song Picks: Coyote, Amelia, Hejira

9.5/10

SongsintheKeyofLife — 1. Songs in the Key of Life

Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder’s 18th album came at a time when Wonder had seriously considered quitting music, but changed his mind to sign another seven album deal with the record label Motown. The first album of this deal was Songs in the Key of Life, a huge album of 21 songs (if you include the bonus EP included with the original release), and spanning over 104 minutes. It became Stevie Wonder’s best-selling and most critically acclaimed album of his career.

It’d be foolish to try and cover all of an album of such striking breadth and length in a review, so I’ll forgo my usual song by song orientated approach here, and try to talk about the album as whole, wile pointing to examples of what I’m talking about now and again.

I’ve talked a lot about albums being ‘tight’ this year, but Songs in the Key of Life is the tightest of them all. Every song is performed with a perfection that makes it hard to believe this wasn’t digitally edited at all. Wonder’s vocals are quite literally perfect at all times, tenderly singing more delicate songs like Knocks Me Off My Feet in a way that is absolutely food for the soul, while belting out more energetic numbers like I Wish with an infectious power that flows through your bloodstream like a drug.

Songs in the Key of Life is so influential it’s quite frankly ridiculous. Not only is it clearly a massive influence on R&B with it’s grooving soulful bass lines and impeccably recorded instruments that have a clarity absolutely not heard up to this point, but its melodies have been used and recycled all over the place. On a listen through you’re constantly recognising things, whether it be the fact that I Wish is essentially identical to (but better than) Will Smith’s later Wild Wild West, or the fact that Pastime Paradise was pretty much used in its entirety for Gangsta’s Paradise, one of the most famous rap songs out there. These are the most obvious, and credited examples, but I swear every melody on this thing has been used elsewhere, whether knowingly or not. When I first listened to it it was as if someone had just handed me a CD and said “here Clive, this is what influenced all the pop music you hear today, go listen to it”. It’s absolutely remarkable.

Songs in the Key of Life is exactly as its title suggests, full of life. Its an album full of all those things that make music so great: heart, joy, soul and passion. Over its 104 minute duration, I’m always overcome with an overflowing sense of joy where I just want to go and hug a a load of humans and maybe dance around the streets like Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain. Wonder’s otherworldly and yet humble vocals; the perfect, sparkling piano lines; the bass - primarily by Nathan Watts - is easily my favourite bass work on any album so far, perfectly embellishing these intricate compositions in a way that isn’t just an accompaniment, but that takes centre stage with its warm flourishes at numerous points in pretty much all the album’s songs. The backing vocals are majestic, and brass is used sparingly, to really punch and bring home a sense of jubilation when it is there.

This album is absolutely now one of my very favourites, and one that I’ll return to time and time again in the future, whenever I need reminding of just why I love music so much. I can’t pick a single fault with it, and I’ve quite often said that giving an album a 10 doesn’t necessarily mean it’s perfect, but in this case, I think it means exactly that.

Though of course nothing will replace listening to the whole of this majestic thing, I think if there’s one song on the album that embodies its boundless optimism, positivity, and melodic brilliance, it’s Isn’t She Lovely. A song that is so ‘lovely’ I feel like crying with joy every time I hear it.

Songs in the Key of Life is a perfect album. There, I’ve said it.

Song Picks: Isn’t She Lovely, I Wish, Sir Duke, Pastime Paradise

10/10

1973 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

September 07, 2020 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Well, hello there 1973, let’s have a look at what happened in your fine year. A ceasefire was signed ending the involvement of American groundtroops in the Vietnam war and the US also stopped bombing Cambodia, ending 12 years of conflict in Southeast Asia. Pablo Picasso died and Marlon Brando rejected his Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather in protest of the US Government’s treatment of Native Americans. TCP/IP was also invented, which a decade later would become the chosen communication method for computers over the internet.

Rateyourmusic.com users rate the following five albums as their top 5 of 1973:

#1 Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
#2 Can - Future Days
#3 Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
#4 King Crimson - Larks’ Tongues in Aspic
#5 Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

So, we have Led Zeppelin with yet another entry, along with returns from Pink Floyd, Can and King Crimson. Stevie Wonder on the other hand, makes his first appearance. Of course, as usual. I’ll take a look further down the list and throw some more into the mix:

#6 Genesis - Selling England by the Pound
#7 Iggy and The Stooges - Raw Power
#9 Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters
#10 David Bowie- Aladdin Sane
#11 Faust - Faust IV
#16 Tom Waits - Closing Time
#19 Bob Marley & The Wailers - Catch a Fire
#51 Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning
#97 Betty Davis - Betty Davis

And that’s 14 to get through this time, quite the battle royale. Let’s see who emerges the victor, and then I really should start reviewing a few less every year or I’ll never get this thing done. Anyway, here’s my reviews and ranking of the above 14 albums.

AshesAreBurning — 14. Ashes are Burning

Renaisannce

The fourth album from the English prog-rock band was the first of theirs to make it into the Billboard 200, peaking at 171. It’s also the album where they made a conscious decision to distance themselves from the more electric guitar led progressive rock bands that were starting to clog up the musical landscape and head in a more acoustic guitar led direction. Interestingly, most of the songrwiting was handled via post. Dunford, the band’s composer, who was later to join the band more fully, would send his melodies to Betty Thatcher, the group’s lyricist, before the whole thing got passed onto the rest of the band to come up with the arrangement.

Can You Understand opens the album with a dramatic piano led start backed by staccato drum and bass stabs before the whole thing explodes into motion. Once Annie Haslam’s choir-like vocals come in the whole thing has a distinctly more acoustic feel, which closes out the track and continues until the end when the soundscape expands somewhat again. Let It Grow is a gentle love-song about taking it slow and appreciating one another. The arrangement is strikingly simple for a prog-rock band and Annie’s vocals are quite wonderful, particularly the flawless falsetto she demonstrates in the chorus. Tout’s piano lines provide the perfect emotional follow-up to each chorus, twinkling like a drizzle of rain on a sunny day. It’s a lovely song. On the Frontier again demonstrates Renaissance’s main strength, their ability to craft pretty melodies, and in this particular instance creating an uplifting rallying cry for us to join the frontier. The frontier for what? Well you can decide that for yourself.

Side two opens with Carpet of the Sun and again Annie’s melody is so perfect it makes you wonder if you’ve heard this song before as it all sounds so strangely familiar and timeless. The violin, gentle percussion and of course the piano all provide luscious backing for the melodies as Annie sings a load of philosophical ideas, wrapped in the imagery of nature. The penultimate track, At The Harbour has what I’d call the album’s most ‘prog-rocky' melody, and thus is probably my least favourite song, though I do like the gentle twinkle of the plucked acoustic guitar and the evocative imagery of Thatcher’s lyrics. The album closes with the title track, an 11 minute journey through a beautiful sonic environment evoking that of a mythical forest as Haslam’s vocals seem to sing of passing into the afterlife. If the beautiful finale of the song is any indication, it seems we’ve got something pretty great to look forward to.

Ashes are Burning isn’t massively pushing any boundaries, and presents a fairly well-trodden folky sound, but it does contain some beautiful peaks and melodies. Though at times it borders on being a little cheesy, it remains an enjoyable, evocative listen throughout.

Song Picks: Let It Grow, On the Frontier, Ashes are Burning

7.5/10

13. Larks’ Tongues in Aspic

King Crimson

The fifth album by King Crimson sees a dramatic change in the band’s lineup, with only Robert Fripp remaining from the original one, and introducing four new members including drummer Bill Brufford - who left Yes after Close to the Edge, an album I loved from 1972. It draws more on Eastern European classical music, and the most striking change in sound is perhaps the removal of flutes and saxophone, and the addition of violin.

The opening 13 minute Lark’s Tongues in Aspic (Part I) is a song of contrasts. It starts with a James Muir percussive soundscape building up a tropical atmosphere before a thumping Robert Fripp riff smashes through the tropical feel like a bulldozer through a holiday resort. The atmosphere changes dramatically from then, and it becomes a haunting piece of peaks and troughs, building to Fripp’s devastating riff again before Brufford moves things along with a rattling beat accompanied again by Muir’s extravagantly varied percussion. This frantic middle-section is followed by a slow section, which sounds as if it’s coming from a mountain village, the violin having a charmingly amateur feel to it. It could easily have finished with another Fripp barrage, but it doesn’t. Building instead to an eerie soundscape of synths and ambient chatter.

Book of Saturday is a chilled, if slightly unremarkable song, the band creating a luscious, rather light-hearted landscape to back John Wetton’s vocals. Palmer-Jones’ lyrics depict the struggles of adapting to life in a new place on Exiles, a song that uses a mellotron for much of its instrumental impact, and features a typically drifting melody from Wetton. Easy Money sees the band grooving before another crescendo of percussive craziness from Muir - who seems keen to just pick up anything lying around and use it as an instrument by hitting it. Indeed he is credited as playing ‘allsorts’ in the album’s sleeve. The melody gives me slightly Pink Floyd feels, but the soundscape shows a much more Eastern feel. Talking Drum builds things very slowly back up to a rockier feel before the final track and pièce de résistance Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (Part II) dials the rock up to 10 with a whole host of weird time signatures, off-beat drumming and inventive sections. Some of the distorted guitar parts have clearly been incredibly influential and you can hear descendants of that sawed riff scattered through music over the next few decades, and even today. It’s a song that builds and builds to its riff based crescendos, ending in one that features some of the most scattered, chaotic drumming I’ve ever heard, before the guitar just swarms the soundscape like a terrifying horde of locusts, eating away everything and leaving us with silence. It’s one of the year’s best pieces of music and perhaps the first example of progressive metal.

Lark’s Tongues in Aspic has some of the highs of In the Court with the Crimson King, but it doesn’t quite have the consistency, containing some more fillery sections and songs - e.g. Talking Drum.

Song Picks: Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (Part II), Easy Money

8/10

SellingEngland — 12. Selling England by the Pound

Genesis

And the first Genesis album to grace our list is their fifth. An album about the decline of English folk culture in the face of American influence - as referenced in the title - it spawned the band's first top 30 UK hit with I Know What I Like. The album itself made it to number 3, and features many of the band’s most popular songs.

Dancing With the Moonlit Knight sets the tone for what's to come and is a pretty good indication of how much you'll like the rest of the album. The song combines folk with prog-rock as the whole album does. It starts with a folky, slightly cheesy start lamenting the loss of his country. Peter Gabriel's singing of the album's title followed by some a lovely folky soundscape seemingly straight from some band of elves. The end of the song turns to much more intense prog-rock as the organ ups the drama and Phil Collins racks up a whole heap of technically skilled beats, fills and stops, setting the tone for what is one of the finest drumming albums we've had so far on the challenge. Yep, there's more to him than that fill on the Cadbury's advert.

I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) is a song very much depicted by the album’s cover - a painting by Betty Swanwick that the band asked her to add a lawn mower to. The song depicts someone being persuaded to change in a multitude of ways and do more exciting things, but our protagonist just wants a simple life doing what he does best, mowing the lawn. The song features a strikingly anthemic chorus, a spoken word section, and plenty of that prog-rock keyboard sound that was so loved in the early 70s. The following Firth of Fifth starts with a keyboard solo that seems to spiral in on itself repeatedly, played by the group’s keyboard player Tony Banks, who wrote the song. It’s a pretty straight example of prog-rock with it’s switching of time-signatures, intensities and moods, all ridden by Phil Collins like he’s physically tied to the ideas of the rest of the band. The guy switches from complex section to complex section like he’s been doing it since birth. Hackett’s guitar - which is a reworked version of something Banks had written - is a majestic finale to the track, and competes with some of Pink Floyd’s best solos for sheer effective, emotionally affecting simplicity.

More Fool Me is the album’s only song to feature Phil Collins on vocals, a role he was to take up permanently in 1975 when Peter Gabriel left the band. Uncharacteristically for the album, the piece is a simple love song, reportedly written by Collins and bassist Bill Rutherford in a short time while sat out on the steps outside the front of the studio. It shows Collins’ talent for a stadium filling chorus that was to become a big part of his solo career later on.

Side two opens with the 11 minute Battle of Epping Forest, a song written by the Gabriel about the gang wars in East London. It’s my least favourite track on the album, held back by the fact the lyrics seem a little squashed in and forced, which to me reduces the impact of what is some very solidly performed prog-rock otherwise. After the Ordeal is a nice enough if slightly unremarkable instrumental with a nice climax. The albums’s final epic, the 10 and a half minute The Cinema Show has lyrics imspired by T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land. The song ends in a 4 and a half minute keyboard solo by Tony Banks, accompanied by the drifting of the rest of the band culminating in perhaps Collins’ best drum work on the whole album. The two minute Aisle of Plenty serves as a bookend to the album, reprising the opening track’s melody and lyrical themes, featuring a vocally intense outro that is both haunting and great.

Selling England by the Pound is 70s prog-rock through and through, it loves getting all complicated with time signatures and mixing things up constantly within songs. I have to confess to not being the biggest prog-rock guy, but despite that I still think this is great. The vast majority of the songs are interesting, well crafted, and the whole thing fits together cohesively. Phil Collins’ breathtaking performance on the drum kit throughout is probably the thing that’ll keep me coming back though.

Song Picks: Dancing With the Moonlit Knight, I Know What I Like, More Fool Me

8/10

Aladdin Sane (a lad insane - geddit?) is Bowie’s sixth album, and the first he wrote and released from a position of stardom. Bowie was by now huge in the UK, and Aladdin Sane was partly inspired by his keenness to be a big deal in the states too. Aladdin Sane was Bowie’s follow up character to Ziggy Stardust, and described by Bowie as ‘Ziggy Stardust in America.’ The album cover was the most expensive ever up to that point and has become one of his most iconic images. The text also looks charmingly like some WordArt from Windows 98.

Aladdin Sane sounds a bit more extravagant and a smidge heavier than the previous The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, but it’s still very much glam-rock. The album opens with Watch That Man, which is about an after-party put on by the New York Dolls’ lead singer David Johansen - ‘that man’ being him. The song has an exuberant party atmosphere and introduces Mike Garson on the piano, who’s playing adds bright colour to many of the album’s songs and features a guitar riff at the end by Mick Ronson that must have been stolen endless times in the years to come. Aladdin Sane introduces our protagonist in an anti-war song which features a piano solo from Garson that wouldn’t be out of place on a boundary pushing jazz album, it’s dissonant chord stabs giving a dark edge to the otherwise bouncy feeling instrumentation.

Drive-In Saturday features one of the album’s catchiest - and perhaps Ziggy Stardust-like - choruses, and it unsurprisingly reached #3 as a single. In Bowie’s words, ”it’s about a future where people have forgotten how to make love, so they go back onto video-films that they have kept from this century,” as you’d expect from Bowie, he builds this future world with aplomb, both lyrically and musically. We move onto the world percussion fest of Panic In Detroit, about the 1967 Detroit riots before moving onto the brilliant Cracked Actor - a song about an aging actor’s encounter with a prostitute which begins with a particularly Oasis-esque riff to close out side one.

Time opens side two with more Mike Garson piano wizardry, which provides much of the song’s burlesque, cabaret atmosphere. Bowie’s melodic “we should be home by now” that opens the chorus helps raise the song from an inventive piece of brilliance, to an inventive piece of brilliance that is also infectious, and perhaps my favourite track on the album. The Prettiest Star is a gentle saxophone led song written for Bowie’s first wife, Angie Barnett and Let’s Spend the Night Together somewhat recreates the party atmosphere of the opening track, once again largely thanks to Garson’s honky-tonk piano chords. The album is closed out by the infectious romp The Jean Genie - given a real backwoods blues feel by that amplified Harmonica sound, and the less known, but quietly beautiful, piano ballad Lady Grinning Soul, featuring yet another brilliant performance from Garson, who swirls along creating ribbons of notes to cocoon yourself in.

Aladdin Sane more or less continues the trajectory of 1972’s Ziggy Stardust, adding some heavier and fuller production, as well as Garson’s brilliant piano playing. The song writing isn’t quite up to the consistently great standard of Ziggy Stardust though, and that’s why it ends up slightly lower in my estimations. Though it has to be said, Ziggy Stardust is an unfairly high bar to judge anything by.

Song Picks: Watch that Man, Time, The Jean Genie, Lady Grinning Soul

8/10

Betty Davis’ debut album is filthy, funky as all hell, and absolutely one of the sexiest albums ever. Davis was married to Miles Davis for a year and also a close friend of Jimi Hendrix’s - who Miles accused her of having an affair with. She’s featured on the cover of Miles’ 1968 album Filles de Killimajaro - which also includes a song about her - and is also believed to have introduced Miles to a lot of the music that influenced his late 60s material and beyond. Now, prepare yourself for a review that features the word ‘funk’ so often, it should probably get a Guinness world record.

Betty Davis pulls no punches, and starts with the funktacular If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up. We’ve got a groovy, skipping drumbeat, a heavy guitar riff and the addition of a variety of percussion as well as an organ all creating an endlessly grooving, funky atmosphere. And then we get to Betty Davis’ voice, which is gravelly, expressive, breathy, and suggestive as she sings confidently of wanting to be taken home.

Your Man My Man features the band on top form, the guitarists, and particularly the bass bouncing around the drums like a noisy off-beat pogo stick. The clean backing vocals remind you just how much character Davis’ vocals have. There is so much energy and immediacy behind them, it’s hard to imagine her being anything but an exceptional live performer.

Stepping High in Her I. Miller Shoes tells the story of someone who comes to the city with talent and dreams, only to have them crushed. It’s based on the life of Devon Wilson, a onetime girlfriend of Jimi Hendrix’s. The song sees a change in the usual off-beat bass drum patterns you usually hear in funk, replaced by a much more straightforward beat. It gives the song a more straight hard-rock feel, one which the Jimi Hendrix-esque guitar riffing only aids. This break in funk helps the beat hit hard again when we get to the following Game is My Middle Name, featuring perhaps Davis’ most extravagant vocal performance backed by a Creedence Clearwater Revival style guitar riff, which turns an otherwise straight-rock arrangement into a surprisingly funky one.

Betty Davis’ extravagant vocals are as energetic and sexually powered as Mick Jagger’s, and it’s a heavier, tighter, and funkier version of the Rolling Stones that I’d most compare the sound of this album to. Betty Davis is the powerful arrival of one of funk’s pioneers, an irresistibly funky 30 minute package.

Song Picks: If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picked Up, Your Man My Man, Game is My Middle Name

8/10

ClosingTIme — 9. Closing Time

Tom Waits

Tom Waits’ debut album is perhaps not what you’d expect for fans of his later albums. It’s tuneful, accessible, and not at all as experimental as his later material. It is however beautiful. The album cover was apparently inspired by how Waits wanted the album to sound. He’s pictured with beer, a shot of whisky and a pack of cigarettes by a bar-piano. I’d say the cover nails it.

The album opens with Ol’ 55, one of Waits’ first songs, and one which was covered by the Eagles - a band Waits was less than keen on. It’s a simple song telling the story of a guy who only has a limited time to see his girlfriend because of a curfew. Waits’ piano is beautifully backed by some gentle drums, bass and piano, but it’s the piano itself that is the star of the show. That opening twinkle is particularly gorgeous. Waits is a convincing storyteller, with vocals that are interesting enough to add depth to the simple melody.

I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You is an intriguing reverse love song about a man who sees a woman at a bar and hopes they don’t fall in love as that would only cause him to ‘feel blue,’ presumably when she inevitably left him. It again shows Waits’ ability to tell a simple story, hooking you in with a repeat of the song’s title at the end of each verse to a catchy hummable melody.

The album is packed with well-written and engaging songs like the above - with jazzier instrumentation mixing things up on songs like Midnight Lullaby - but there’s a couple of times when it goes beyond that. Martha for example is a straight up masterpiece. It tells the story of an old man calling up an old lover over 40 years after they’ve broken up. Tom’s vocal is notably more ragged, convincingly passing for a man many years older than his 23 years, which helps to sell the performance. The song is minimally backed by some strings and sparse backing vocals towards its ending as Waits sings sadly of wanting to rekindle an old, old flame. The song’s melody soars and combines with the poignant lyrics to create something that only the coldest of hearts would fail to be moved by.

Tom Waits was a regular at a bar called ‘The Troubadour’ in LA, and it was there where a performance of Grapefruit Moon floored David Geffen and got Waits signed to Asylum Records, eventually leading to this release. Grapefruit Moon is included on this album and it’s easy to see why the song had such an effect on Geffen. Waits sings his way through three gorgeous verses with a ragged vocal similar to that on Martha and a melody equally as moving. It’s unclear exactly what it’s about, but to me it’s the story of an old man - Waits’ vocal style seems to back this - looking back on his life with more than a little regret.

Never had no destinations
Could not get across
You became my inspiration
Oh, but what a cost
And every time I hear that melody
Something breaks inside
And the grapefruit moon, one star shining
Is more than I can hide

Closing Time is a humble telling of familiar stories of love and loss - and ice cream. Waits’ performances are completely present, relatable, and affecting. I’m excited to get to Tom’s more famous releases, but this is a quite remarkable debut.

Song Picks: I Hope that I Don’t Fall In Love With You, Martha, Grapefruit Moon

8.5/10

Head Hunters_Herbie Hancock.jpg — 8. Head Hunters

Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock’s twelfth album saw him turning to funk, and a more accessible style of music. Or in his words, ‘I was tired of everything being heavy. I wanted to play something lighter.’ It is one of the defining moments of the jazz-fusion movement, and one of the first examples of jazz-funk.

Chameleon kicks things off with a quacky bass part played by Hancock on an ARP Odyssey synthesiser, and its marching groove dominates much of the track’s drive, along with Harvey Mason’s syncopated, funky beat with an infectious hi-hat shuffle. As Mason and Hancock march on Hancock splatters clavinet all over the track, creating a 70s sci-fi vibe as he plays the thing like a saxophone. The breakdowns - at 7:21 for example - are a sublime, offbeat and syncopated dream, filling your bloodstream with ‘the funk,’ leading to seriously restless limbs. I’ve already mentioned Mason’s drumming but I’m going to mention it again as it’s him who keeps the whole thing grooving along with the synth bass - and later Jackson’s actual bass, driving it for the full 15 minutes like a lively train with an impeccable sense of timing - a Swiss train if you will. By the time conga wizard Bill Summers comes in you’ve started bopping round the room like a pigeon, hypnotised by this music. It’s got soul, man.

Watermelon Man, a song that was already a jazz standard by now having been recorded numerous times - is back with an all new funky version. This one begins with an intro by Bill Summer blowing into a variety of beer bottles. The groove laid down by Mason’s bopping drums and Jackson’s bumbling bass is so relaxed its an absolute miracle a hammock doesn’t just appear out of nowhere when you listen to it, something that is only emphasised in its cool-as-a-cucumber breakdowns. Sly is, as the name implies, something that would be a fitting soundtrack for a spy, or indeed the Pink Panther. The bass footsteps along gently, as the rest of the band provide moments of panic, as our spy is about to be caught. Somewhere in there we’ve got the groove of safety before things all get a bit hectic as our agent has presumably got themselves into an inevitable car chase. The congas skitter like the vegetables in that market stall he’s just driven through and the Benny Maupin’s sax bends like the tight alleys he’s trying to lose his pursuer in. It’s a bit of a journey this one but it’s still got that infectious dance-able quality to it that is splashed all over this record.

The album ends with the brilliantly named 9-minute Vein Melter, which relaxes things significantly, rolling on like a walk through an empty town with a loved one. There’s the un-nerving echoes of eerie instruments in the distance, but you needn’t be too concerned because Mason’s bass is always there for a comforting hug, should you ever need one.

Head Hunters is a marvellous jazz-funk odyssey, and shows yet again Herbie Hancock’s ability to create worlds and stories with sound. Here he’s managed to pave the way for a whole new genre, while still making a downright accessible piece of music that pretty much anyone can enjoy. Remarkable.

Song Picks: Chameleon, Watermelon Man

8.5/10

Faust IV is - predictably - the German krautrock band’s fourth release. It was the last album by this incarnation of the band, though the band is still active today with a different lineup. The album was recorded after they were dropped from Polydor Records - largely due to them being rather hard to classify or market - and were taken up by Richard Branson’s then new label, Virgin Records.

The album opens with Krautrock, a track of distorted brilliance, creating an industrial, echoed atmosphere that’s central ‘melody’ is rather accessible. It builds and builds but takes around 7 minutes just for the drums to come in, by which point you’re in an industrial German trance. If anything, the drums add some comfort to the intimidating din, as the robotic R2D2-like noises begin to get more frequent and jumbled. It’s an 11 minute piece that is difficult to describe as anything else other than a fall into a distorted abyss where everything fragments and crumbles, much like the room of abstract thought in Pixar’s masterpiece Inside Out - if you’ve ever seen that. Once the waves of distortion bleed into The Sad Skinhead you’re already sold to the album’s intriguing sense of mystery. The Sad Skinhead only serves to increase this mystery by being the absolute opposite of what you’d expect to follow that song, a jolly, bouncy song that owuldn’t be out of place on the Nintendo 64’s Banjo Kazooie soundtrack. Lyrically it’s somewhat darker than that, something which you only have to pay attention the first verse to notice.

Apart from all the bad times you gave me
I always felt good with you
Going places, smashing faces
What else could we do?
What else could we do?

Jennifer takes us back to the distorted and echoed sound of the opening track, but this time it’s used to create the bedding for perhap’s the album’s catchiest track, featuring only two lines which are repeated throughout: ‘Jennifer, your red hair's burning, Yellow jokes come out of your mind.’ The song’s end is a distorted explosion, followed by a completely unexpected jingle on a variety of instruments seemingly preceded by a shout of ‘everyone only play happy notes!’

Side two opens with Just a Second, a song featuring an infinitely weird twittering like skitter of synthesisers, underlaid by what sounds like a UFO turning on its engines. But you’ve heard nothing yet, as Giggy Smile / Picnic on a Frozen River, Deuxieme Tableau is probably the weirdest of the bunch. Driven by a rattling drum beat and the melody of that ridiculously nursery-rhyme-like vocal which sings lyrics that could only have been written while under the influence of a variety of recreationals. The song mashes together a whole host of genres that probably shouldn’t work, and comes out the other end as something rather fantastic, with a Dan Deacon like feeling of joy to its climax, inspired by a chirpy melody line seemingly played on a toy, over and over again. It stops completely abruptly, leaving you thinking you’re about to receive a call, every goddam time.

Läuft...Heißt Das Es Läuft Oder Es Kommt Bald...Läuft starts with two band members conversing - the title a transcript of their conversation - before launching into a song that when described would sound overly complicated, but is actually just a simple guitar plucked number containing two lines in French which translate as ‘I’m not afraid of wasting my time, I’m not afraid of losing my teeth.’ The second half prominently features the organ, and what it plays is quietly beautiful, touching, and as always, completely unexpected. It slowly distorts - obviously - gently pulsating before the organ seemingly breaks, creating a swirling crescendo which fades back into the beautifully simple part from before. Quite honestly, it’s one of my favourite musical passages of the year.

Things finish with the dry It’s a Bit of a Pain, a song featuring the brilliant lyrics, ‘it's a bit of a pain, To be where I am, It's a bit of a pain, To be what I am’ sung with the utmost seriousness. The melody is simple, but the accompaniment features some Velvet Underground levels of dissonance and madness, particularly the chattering, garbled robot that seems to be trying to convey something rather simple that we’re just too dumb to understand.

Faust IV is quite unlike anything I’ve heard before. It’s unpredictable, completely mad, weird, disjointed, and yet it’s also strangely accessible. It sounds like a band trying to thoroughly deconstruct a pop framework, rather than one completely off the leash. And in the end that catchy heart is still there, it’s just been blown to a million infinitely interesting pieces.

Song Picks: Krautrock, Läuft...Heißt Das Es Läuft Oder Es Kommt Bald...Läuft, Giggy Smile / Picnic on a Frozen River, Deuxieme Tableau

8.5/10

HousesoftheHoly — 6. Houses of the Holy

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin are back with their fifth album, and their fifth to have made it on these lists. Quite the record. This one sees them actually putting some thought into the album’s name, though interestingly the title track - which was recorded for this album - didn’t appear until their next release.

The album’s cleaner and less distorted guitar led nature is clear from the off on The Song Remains the Same where - although the song definitely still rocks with a boundless energy - it’s less of a aural barrage than the heavier tracks on previous albums. Rain Song is a rare ballad from the band and features Robert Plant’s favourite vocal performance. Track three, Over the Hills and Far Away is a song about the hippie lifestyle and starts with a delightful acoustic guitar part that’s a wonderful mix of twiddly notes and solid strums. The second half is perhaps the heaviest the album gets, as the distorted guitar makes a brief return before everything disappears into the bottom of a well to be replaced by a soothing goodbye, leading us nicely into the John Bonham written The Crunge. Bonham wrote The Crunge’s funky drumbeat which Jimmy Page sings over in the style of James Brown - something that gets more exaggerated as the song goes on, emphasising the song’s not entirely serious nature. Page’s ‘where’s the bridge?’ joke at the end of the track takes this yet further. Rather unsurprisingly, the piece began its life as an on stage jam.

A lot of the album was written in a jovial atmosphere on Stargroves - Mick Jagger’s estate that he’d purchased in 1970. The estate cost him a massive £55,000 (£857,202.46 in today’s money). This jovial atmosphere is yet again evident on Dancing Days, a song with a clanging guitar riff and optimistic lyrics. Producer Eddie Kramer particularly remembers the band dancing around to the final mix in the garden at Stargroves, which is a lovely image. Now, before we talk about D’yer Mak’er we’ve got to talk about that name. Well, it’s based on the fact that ‘did you make her’ said in various British accents (e.g. Cockney) sounds like Jamaica, and the song is reggae inspired, geddit? Anyway, it’s one of my favourite Led Zeppelin songs. That riff like sunshine, Plant’s silly vocals, Bonham’s bouncy beat. D’yer Mak’er is absolutely delightful, a musical trip to a beach full of people being daft and having a good time.

No Quarter features one of my very favourite Led Zeppelin riffs - and there’s plenty of competition - as Jimmy Page saws his way over Bonham’s pounding beat. The riff magic is interspersed with Plant’s I’m-stuck-down-a-large-echoing-hole-please-help-me-out vocal that breaks up the pulverising riffs. An instrumental section towards the end sounds like a trip through some mysterious tunnel, and the whole thing is remarkably dark, Plant’s vocal sounding like that of a dying man by the time the last onslaught comes around. It’s another Led Zep favourite for me. Dark, brooding and mysteriously handsome. The album’s final track The Ocean probably sounds like a gentle sweeping epic to finish the album, but this is Led Zeppelin we’re talking about. The Ocean is in fact an AC/DC-esque celebration of their fans - ‘the ocean’ referring to the ocean of fans at their concerts. It’s the perfect way to finish an album that is strikingly optimistic and happy sounding, an album full of the gratitude of a band happy with where they’ve got to.

Houses of the Holy continues the band’s remarkably consistent run of albums and the second half is probably my favourite side on any Led Zeppelin album. It’s an album made by a band having a lot of fun, and that shines through.

Song Picks: The Song Remains the Same, D’yer Ma’ker, No Quarter

8.5/10

Future Days marks the third year on these lists from the German krautrockers. It’s their fourth album, and the last to feature vocalist Damo Suzuki. There’s no crazy story about its recording this time, which is a shame, but the album is interesting in the more ambient direction it takes. Focusing on as, critic Anthony Tognazzini puts it, “creating hazy, expansive soundscapes dominated by percolating rhythms and evocative layers of keys.”

From the start of the opening title track this dreamier atmosphere is clear. There’s less abrasiveness to the sound here and even Damo’s vocals have taken a chill pill, leading largely to quiet mumbles that fit effortlessly into the gorgeous musical soundscapes of the band. The song builds slowly on a syncopated drum beat, off-beat percussion and the repetitive picking of a guitar following an ambient start. The piece never crescendos - it doesn’t want to - and simply drifts along like the most pleasant of clouds on a calm Summer’s day. The guitars, keys and synthesisers add twinkles here, Damo appears now and again to talk about saving things for ‘future days’ before disappearing into the sky again. Around the 6 minute mark we’re launched off a ramp, the abyss looming below as things get darker and a guitar echoes from the bottom of the world’s largest pit, but it’s not long before we reach the other side of the ramp, breezing along again with Suzuki’s enigmatic ramblings. We’re launched again towards the song’s end as a synth helicopters loomingly above before everything fades out, Suzuki’s shouts of ‘for the sake of future days’ distorted and fading. It’s a gently funky, beautifully realised piece of music that’s strangely infectious.

Spray again relies heavily on the percussion to drive the track which takes a while to settle into its groove, but once it does there’s a wonderful clarity to everything. In particular the aforementioned percussion, which marches along in a way that brings to mind Miles Davis’ 1970 masterpiece Bitches Brew. Remember though on Bitches Brew there were three drummers and a percussionist, here we’ve just got Jaki Liebezeit who is clearly a master at creating percussive soundscapes. His drums blending seamlessly with the percussion - presumably overdubbed after - that colours it. Suzuki appears only rarely to add some variety to the musical soup, and the rarity of his appearances only makes his bizarrely brilliant rambles more effective.

Moonshake is that unusual beast, a 3 minute song by Can. not only this, but it’s one of the funkiest things I’ve ever heard. The bass and drums plod along as Michael Karoli’s guitar grooves around it like some funky alien around a pole - ok, that’s a weird image. Suzuki whispers along some characteristic nonsense in a way that’s somehow catchy. It’s a fabulous 3 minute example of just how singular, inventive and goddam effective Can are.

The entire second half f the album is taken up by the 20 minute sweeping epic Bel Air, which starts with the lapping of waves and a gentle chugging of a guitar. The organ darkens things somewhat but Suzuki’s vocal melody is remarkably twee. It sounds like a stroll on a beach as the sun is at the cusp of setting. Holger Czukay’s great basswork is particularly evident here, and its his quietly pulsating bass line that takes the song forward from the four minute mark, as the drums rattle on and the vocals get more and more distorted. The drums however remain so clear it sounds like you’re playing the things yourself. It all stops around the halfway mark to the sound of birds and mosquitoes before the guitar comes in with a new rhythm, this time perhaps more tropical. Suzuki continues to weave repetitive and happy melodies before he vanishes again, never to be heard again. There are points where it sounds chaotic, the drums frantic, the guitars and synth clashing in high pitched echoes, and yet miraculously it remains calming. There’s always that warm, chugging bass to return to, and although there is certainly some chaos around it, it feels like quiet chaos. The type of chaos that happens in your brain when you have a lie down and try to shut your brain off as various threads of thought try to quietly weave themselves into obscurity. Bel Air isn’t really a song as such, it’s a musical painting.

Future Days is my favourite Can album so far, it builds an atmosphere that’s impressively complex and chaotic for something so calming, and I don’t think there’s anything out there much like it. Suzuki’s last appearance on an album for the band is a restrained one, but it’s his measured, unexplainably catchy appearances that lift the sound perfectly every time it needs it. Future Days is an exercise in complex minimalism, if that is indeed a thing.

Song Picks: Moonshake, Future Days

9/10

4. Catch a Fire

Bob Marley & The Wailers

Bob Marley and the Wailers had just finished touring the UK and didn’t have enough money to return home to Jamaica. They approached producer Chris Blackwell, who agreed to advance them the money for an album so they could go back home and record it. Bob Marley returned with the tapes to London and - with the addition of some overdubs from Wayne Perkins to ‘westernise’ the sound a little - Catch a Fire was born. It’s now considered one of the greatest reggae albums of all time and began a successful period for the band under Chris Blackwell at Island Records. The album’s title is another way of saying ‘burn in hell’ and features on the song Slave Driver, Marley’s song of contempt about the slave trade. The cover above was only on the first 20,000 pressings, and opened like an actual zippo lighter, it was also used for the 2001 CD re-release.

To me, Bob Marley is one of the best vocalists of all time. His high and always perfectly in tune and characterful vocals can cut through any mix, and are the perfect companion to the concrete rumblingThe album starts with Concrete Jungle, a song perfectly demonstrating the abilities I’ve just outlined above. It jumps from gorgeous melody to gorgeous melody as Aston Barrett’s bass gently rumbles along and Bob Marley’s lyrics talk of his move to the US from Jamaica. I’ve already mentioned Slave Driver, which bounces along with a certain jolliness that defies its darker lyrics, featuring the particularly prescient couplet, ‘Today they say that we are free/Only to be chained in poverty.’ Few ever mastered the art of political lyrics without making them sound overly self-righteous quite as well as Bob. 400 Years - a different version of which appeared on the earlier Soul Rebels - is the first of two compositions by Pete Tosh on the album. His hollow, deeper vocal contrasting nicely with Bob’s as he sings sadly of 400 years of slavery and oppression. This is followed by Tosh’s second contribution, the more spritely Stop that Train, a song featuring a melody that you can’t help but song along to, and a song that perfectly demonstrates The Wailers’ ability to repeat lyrics and yet somehow never make them tiresome. Baby We’ve Got a Date sees the introduction of Bob’s backing vocalists Rita Marley - his wife - and Marcia Griffiths who complement Bob’s sumptuous melodies beautifully, and only help to increase the sunny atmosphere of the song.

Side two features more of the same, and not in a bad way, as the Wailers’ sun-drenched-concrete sound continues to transport you through classics such as the straight love song Stir it Up, Kinky Reggae and the slightly darker No More Trouble and Midnight Ravers. The latter shows the Wailer’s ability to groove along to just one chord, Bob’s melodies keeping things engaging, something they were to master on the song Exodus in 1977. The 2001 re-release saw the addition of High Tide or Low Tide (one of my Bob Marley favourites) and the jangling All Day All Night, but I won’t cover those here.

Although my favourite Bob Marley era will always be the productions Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry led - particularly Soul Revolution - this is undoubtedly one of the many highlights of his time with Island Records. Chris Blackwell changed their sound to one more accessible to Western audiences with the addition of Wayne Perkins’ guitar twinkles while maintaining the roots of what Bob’s music so engaging - and is no doubt largely to thank for Marley’s worldwide fame now. The gentle and yet dominating dubby bass lanes, those crisp off-beat guitar strums, and Carlton Barrett’s musical drums all create an atmosphere like no other, and one that was to drive Bob Marley’s career for years to come. Catch a Fire features one of music’s most powerful figures on top form, weaving gorgeous melodies for fun, and never losing touch with the strong political message of love and acceptance that his career was built on.

Song Picks: Slave Driver, Stir it Up, Baby We’ve Got a Date, Stop that Train

9/10

Considered one of the forerunners of punk-rock, Raw Power is the third album by the Stooges and sees a turn into more anthemic songs, led by the fact that the new guitarist James Williamson co-wrote much of the material with Iggy Pop. The Stooges were largely in disarray following the release of their previous album Fun House and on relocating to London Iggy Pop put together a new band to back him. He also mixed the first version of this album, which was rejected by the label for some dubious choices - particularly related to the stereo nature of the mix. Bowie was drafted in to re-mix the entire album in a day for its 1973 release. Iggy Pop was then invited to remix the album himself in 1996 for a re-release, and although I know it’s probably cheating, it’s this mix I want to review. Bowie’s mix is fine, and it’s worth mentioning it’s only the 1989 CD version I’ve heard, which I gather Iggy Pop hated, and so the original mix in 1973 may well have been better. The 1989 version I have access to just sounds a bit quiet, it doesn’t smash you in the face like Iggy Pop’s later mix does. Sure, technically I think Bowie’s mix is better and Iggy’s is compressed to within an inch of its life to make it pulverisingly loud, but I think that fits the album better. The guitars are also WAY more forward in Iggy’s mix which, again, serves the album well.

Onto the actual music. The album opens with Search & Destroy, an aural assault of the best kind. James Williamson’s guitar is an absolute force of nature. Iggy roars lyrics about a soldier’s experience in Vietnam and by the time we get to the last chorus the guitars are so loud and compressed that the whole things sounds like an unholy mess, and it’s aboslutely glorious.

James Williamson’s influence cannot be underestimated on this album, and I think the riffs are superior to those on the Stooges’ first two albums, an improvement he is wholly responsible for. Gimme Danger again features a great riff, which benefits from being pushed way to the front in Iggy’s mix. Pop’s distorted shouts have no issue being heard among the din, and it just gives the whole thing a whole load more power, which is what this album is all about.

The title track opens the second side of the album, again featuring a pulsating power-chord riff from Williamson, it’s a song about heroin, something that seemed to be a must for any wannabe edgy 70s band. There’s some rather interesting percussion on the track, including a tambourine and what sounds like a bell of some sort, which juxtoposes somewhat with the menacing, distorted guitar riff to create an atmopshere of fun and abandon. The screeching guitar solo at the end is a messy, drug fuelled cry for anarchy. It’s another piledriver of a track.

Columbia Records demanded the album have at least two ballads that could be played on the radio, one of those was I Need Somebody, a song where Iggy’s vocal is so distorted it sounds like the Strokes. It has a surprisingly catchy chorus, and a slightly calmer atmosphere than much of the album. I probably don’t need to say at this point that Williamson - who liked to write his songs on acoustic rather than electric guitar - provides yet another excellent guitar part. The calm precedes another storm, the dancy Shake Appeal, which pretty much dares you not to get up and dance as it’s gallant riff and vocals run through your veins. Iggy has stated it’s his favourite song from the album, and it might just be mine too.

The final track is Iggy’s message about how he knew the band was doomed to failure - none of their three albums sold very well during their existence - and seems an appropriate way to end their last album. He does seem to know that the band will be appreciated later on though, “we’re going down in history/we’re going down,” he shouts above another distorted barrage. How right he was.

Raw Power is my favourite album by the Stooges. To me it’s the culmination of what they were about, the final realisation of their sound, both in terms of the performance and the mix - as long as you listen to Iggy’s 1996 mix. The production does the material justice, creating a sense of anarchy, abandon, and just raw power, man.

Song Picks: Search and Destroy, Gimme Danger, Raw Power, Shake Appeal

9.5/10

Stevie Wonder’s 16th album - yep, I know that’s a lot - sees him transitioning from romantic ballads to more complex compositions. As with Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters, the album features the ARP synthesiser prominently. Stevie Wonder also plays the vast majority of the instruments on the album, being perhaps the first example of a ‘one-man band’ we’ve had on the challenge. Most songs feature him on the piano, bass moog, synthesiser, and drums while other musicians accompany him on a couple of other instruments.

Too High is a dominated by a funky ARP synthesiser line, bumbling along accompanied by a very technically proficient drum part. Wonder plays every single instrument on this thing, which is stupendously impressive when you listen to it. It’s complex, catchy and groovy, stopping and starting effortlessly with the tightness of a well knit band. it still perplexes me that he could overdub his own playing so effectively and in time. Lyrically, the song is a bit of an anti-drug warning. Visions sees Wonder joined by a bass, acoustic guitar and electric guitar which all create a sumptuous, gently twinkling atmosphere to he warmly sings of inner and societal peace before we head into the album’s first mega-hit, Living for the City.

Now, Living for the City is a masterpiece, a tale of a Black man who dreams of life in the city, only to find its just a new flavour of inequality, leaving him disillusioned by the song’s end. A poignant commentary on race-relations in the USA, it’s also a perfectly crafted song instrumentally and melodically. Wonder’s vocals are gruff and rock ‘n’ roll and his melodies as catchy as a really big fishing net. The backing vocalists give the chorus a wonderful boost, catapulting Wonder’s cries of ‘Living just enough/just enough for the city’ into the realms of musical magic.

You’d think something so brilliant couldn’t possible be followed by anything even remotely comparable right? Well, you’d be wrong. Golden Lady is a simple love song, lifted again by Wonder’s golden syrup vocals and a chorus melody that seems to have dropped down straight from the heavens. Then we segue into Higher Ground, a song famously covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’d probably go as far as to say it’s the funkiest song to appear so far on the challenge, that synth quacking along like Donald Duck on the funk juice as Wonder sings of reincarnation and second chances, seemingly unaware of his effortless genius. As you make your way through Wonder’s balanced look at modern religion in Jesus Children of America, you’re once again left pinching yourself when you find out he is playing every instrument on the song.

All is Fair in Love is another of the album’s true masterpieces, and one of the most affecting songs written about love I’ve ever heard. I mean just read this first verse:

All is fair in love
Love's a crazy game
Two people vow to stay
In love as one they say
But all is changed with time
The future none can see
The road you leave behind
Ahead lies mystery

Couple the song’s brilliantly evocative lyrics with Wonder’s cataclysmic vocal performance; going from gentle, to vibrato, to belting out notes at the top of his voice, and you have yourselves a powerful, powerful song. The album ends with the positively tropical Don’t You Worry About a Thing and the possible shot at President Nixon He’s Mr Know It All, another song driven by a melody that flows like lava through the chorus

3 days after the release of Innervisions, Stevie Wonder was involved in a car crash that involved a log smashing through the car and squarely into his forehead. Amazingly, he didn’t die, and was reportedly too scared to try and play an instrument while recovering in hospital, afraid he’d lost his musical skill. When he did eventually try a clavinet and realised he could play it, singer Ira Tucker noted, ‘man, you could just see the happiness spreading all over him. I'll never forget that.’ Innervisions is the work of a man for whom music very much was his life. Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was signed to a record label ever since the age of 11. Only someone who had been so absorbed in music from such a young age could have made Innervisions. The words musical genius are overused, but i have no hesitation in using them for Stevie Wonder, an this album is indisputable proof of that.

Song Picks: Living for the City, Higher Ground, All is Fair in Love, He’s Mr. Know It All

9.5/10

Pink Floyd’s eighth album, The Dark Side of the Moon, is probably one of the most famous albums out there, and one you’ll hear repeated many times if you ask people what their favourite album of all time is. It’s an album that’s almost impossible to listen to outside of its almost mythical place in the zeitgeist. It’s also Pink Floyd’s best selling album, and one of the bst selling albums of all-time, with over 45 million copies sold. A concept album about ‘greed, time, death and mental ilness’ according to Wikipedia, it well and truly put Pink Floyd on the map.

The album opens with Speak to Me, a one minute introduction track that begins with a heartbeat and recordings of the band talking, before the sound of a helicopter hovers in and we drop into track two, Breathe (In the Air). Gilmour’s ‘uni-vibe’ pedal makes his axe sound like a futuristic slide-guitar, and we have the album’s first lyrics, an imagery dense poem about going with the flow. The last verse sums it up nicely:

For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race towards an early grave

The following On the Run is another soundscape piece, that whirling sound created by a Synthi AKS synthesiser, and the rest of the spacey soundscape was created in a whole host of interesting ways. The sound of a variety of vehicles flying around in an empty black night on another planet is quickly stopped as we hear an explosion, followed by the gradual introduction of a ticking clock, leading us into one of the album’s highlights. Time begins with a clatter of pendulums and other metal, which fades into an ominous ticking and booming of what I’m assuming is a synth. Pink Floyd continue to hammer home the fact they really are the masters of soundscapes with the rumble of a conga from ear to ear, before a more traditional rock arrangement enters alongside David Gilmour’s vocals. The song returns to the theme of Breathe, of making the most of now. It does so in a much darker way than Breathe though, something evident in the song’s last four lines:

“Far away across the field/The tolling of the iron bell/Calls the faithful to their knees/To hear the softly spoken magic spells.” The song fades effortlessly into the epic The Great Gig In The Sky which features Clare Torry’s spectacular, traumatised sounding worldess vocal, which I used to find rather irritating but has now grown on me. The song’s title refers to heaven, and the soundscape underneath Torry’s vocal is rather heavenly, the soft piano chords are accompanied by the odd bass note, seemingly gliding across the cosmos. Torry’s vocal is angelic and cataclysmic all at once.

The we reach the first single on the album, Money. It opens with an incredibly innovative use of the sound of coins and a cash register to introduce its 7/4 time signature. It is the only song on the album that made the top 20, and in fact the only song in history to do so containing a 7/4 time signature. The song is a pretty blunt critique of commercialism, and features David Gilmour on absolute guitar god form when the song switches to 4/4, with solos that light up the piece like a Swiss firework display - go watch a firework display in Ascona and you’ll know what I mean.

Ok, we’ve critscised capitalism and the root of all evil, money. Now it’s time for war to come under the microscope in Us and Them, a song that for some reason is rarely in the conversation when talking about the greatest anti-war songs, but probably should be. We’re all just ordinary humans, the song emphatically dictates, and thus all war is senseless. Torry is back with backing vocals in what is one of the album’s hugest sounding songs, the end of each verse crescendoing into a burst of tuneful anger.

The album moves onto the keyboard an guitar solo led Any Colour You Like, which sparkles like a million possibilites, followed by Brain Damage, another song about former frontman Syd Barrett’s mental instability, before we end with Eclipse, a wholehearted list of how nothing really matters in the end, ‘for even the sun is eclipsed by the moon.’

The Dark Side of the Moon is a magnificent album. Even today, in 2020, the thing does not sound like it was recorded on this planet, the musical paintings it weaves belong to another universe. The Dark Side of the Moon is a timeless piece of art, it’s themes as universal as the stars.

Song Picks: Time, Money, Us and Them, Breathe (In the Air)

9.5/10

1972 - Clive's Top 5 Albums of Every Year Challenge

August 25, 2020 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 whole heap of others - 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.

And so we march on into the 70s. As is customary now, let’s have a look at some of the year’s main events: Britain took over direct rule of Northern Ireland in a bid for peace, Nixon ordered the ‘Christmas Bombing’ of North Vietnam, the US Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional, and the Watergate scandal began. Oh, and the CD was developed by RCA.

Here’s what our trusty rateyourmusic.com users rated as the year’s top 5 albums:

#1 David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
#2 Nick Drake - Pink Moon
#3 Yes - Close to the Edge
#4 Can - Ege Bamyasi
#5 Neil Young - Harvest

Only one new artist entering this year, in the form of prog-rockers Yes. As usual, five isn’t enough so we’ll throw some more into the mix from further down the list:

#6 The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main St.
#8 Curtis Mayfield - Super Fly
#9 Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges - Clube de Esquina
#12 Lou Reed - Transformer
#16 Miles Davis - On the Corner
#18 Charles Mingus - Let My Children Hear Music
#61 Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes - Paix
#67 Aretha Franklin - Young Gifted and Black

That takes us to 13 albums battling it out for the number one spot. Here’s my thoughts on, and rankings of them all. Spoiler, it’s one of the strongest selections yet…

Harvest, the best selling album of 1972 in the US, is Neil Young’s fourth and features a fair few famous guests, as well as the London Symphony Orchestra on a couple of its tracks. When reflecting of the mainstream fame the album got him, Young wrote: "it put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there." It was recorded on his farm while he recovered from surgery, and Young attributes the album’s mellow sound to the fact he recorded it all in a brace, and was unable to play the electric guitar.

The album’s opening track Out on the Weekend, immediately lets us know Young’s lyrics and melodies are as strong as ever. A simple, beautiful song that features a similarly simple and beautiful harmonica solo. It’s breezy and sets things up nicely for the album’s aforementioned mellower sound. The London Symphony Orchestra makes its first appearance on A Man Needs a Maid, adding a whole heap of drama to a song about Neil’s insecurity with requiring companionship and yet being scared of said companionship ending. I think the orchestra works in general, especially when the song is listened to on its own, but the huge sound of that orchestra that chugs away as Young laments about needing a maid doesn’t really fit with the generally lower key nature of the recordings on the album. I think a more intimate version, like the version he performs live simply on his piano, would have fit better. The version here just takes me out of the gently breezy atmosphere the album generally creates, which is a shame.

Heart of Gold is the album’s most famous track, and undoubtedly one of Neil Young’s most iconic songs. A simple, acoustic guitar led song about struggling to find his love, again featuring a gorgeous harmonica solo which sings like a migrating songbird that knows they’ll get to their destination eventually. James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt provide the backing, which adds plenty of punch to the parts of the song Young wants emphasised, without making the whole thing sound overly massive like on Man Needs a Maid. Later on we’re blessed by the the irresistible Old Man, a song that’s chorus bounces like an inflatable castle thanks to James Taylor’s jaunty banjo and the catchy vocal melody. It’s an affectionate ode to the foreman on Young’s farm.

There’s a World suffers from the same overly grandiose production as Man Needs a Maid, again hurting the albums cohesiveness for me, while the closing three songs Alabama, The Needle and the Damage Done and Words end things on a high note. The first being particularly notable for featuring the album’s only distorted guitar, and the second being a particular highlight, a song about the perils of heroin addiction, said to be about Crazy Horse member Danny Whitten.

Harvest is another album demonstrating Neil Young’s skills as a songwriter, both melodically and lyrically. Unfortunately it ends up being more of a songs album for me than a cohesive piece, something that wouldn’t be the case if the London Symphony Orchestra - great though they are - hadn’t been included on those two tracks mentioned, somewhat taking away from an otherwise intimate record.

Song Picks: Heart of Gold, Old Man, Out on the Weekend

7.5/10

LettheChildrenHearMusic — 12. Let My Children Hear Music

Charles Mingus

I promised I’d talk about this album back when we seemingly had a new Charles Mingus release every year back in the early 60s. Mingus himself called it ‘the best album I have ever made,’ and when our man Mingus says something like that, we listen. It consists of songs that in many cases had been bouncing around Mingus’ head for a while, just waiting for the opportunity to be recorded with a full orchestra. When Mingus finally got this opportunity, he took it with both hands.

Let My Children Hear Music is a mix of jazz and symphony. There’s the unmistakable bass walk and swinging drums of jazz - only the solo instrumentalists are mentioned in the sleeve so I’m not sure who plays them - combined with a feeling of musical narrative that you’d expect in a symphony, though Mingus already has experience of this from The Saint and the Sinner Lady.

On the opening track The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife things open with the melody and drama of a brass orchestra. A timpani approaches and announces a more relaxed section as we hear our first flutes arriving like small flock of birds. And then the jazz arrives. Delicately skittered drums, a walking bass line, and a variety of brass solos are surrounded by the larger sounds of the orchestra, creating the image of a four-piece jazz band surrounded by a whole host of other brass musicians. Around the three minute mark we have a piano solo that gets stuck on certain notes, bouncing off them only once the next idea has arrived. It’s an intimate moment before the orchestra kicks back in. The song continually switches between more orchestral parts and jazz parts with an effortless ease, the larger brass orchestra producing the sweeping narrative of the piece, while the soloists and rhythm section provide the colour.

Let My Children Hear Music sounds like the soundtrack to a film, the start of Adagio Ma Non Troppo wouldn’t be out of place on an Ennio Morricone soundtrack for example, the distant brass like wolves finding their way across the desert. The music creates a spectacular scene as all the instruments wake up sporadically as the wolves seemingly find something, before the lonesome cries of a variety of brass instruments suggest they’ve failed again. Like the whole album, the piece has a strong narrative, one which your mind will fill creatively as you drift along in its musical stream.

The album continues in a similar vein, with added ambience - such as on Don’t Be Afraid, the Clown’s Afraid Too - and even spoken word on The Chill of Death performed by Charles Mingus himself. Mingus tragically died of a heart attack in 1979, and this beautiful, engagingly mysterious album is a worthy final entry to these lists for a man that’s become one of my favourite artists since the start of this challenge. I prefer his less orchestral albums, but Let My Children Hear Music is yet another experiment from Mingus that succeeds.

Song Picks: The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife, Adagio Ma Non Troppo

8/10

Curtis Mayfield’s third album was the soundtrack to the film of the same name. It stands as one of the few soundtracks to have made more money than the film it was for and is widely considered a classic of 70s soul and funk. Super Fly was also one of the first examples of, along with Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, a soul concept album.

Lyrically, the album is about innercity neighbourhoods, and particularly drug dealing. Pusherman - which Curtis Mayfield appears in the film performing - is the most obvious example of this, telling the story of a neighbourhood drug dealer who’s clearly making plenty of money, but asks how long it’ll last, and seems resigned to a fate he doesn’t really want: ‘Been told I can't be nuthin' else/Just a hustler in spite of myself/I know I can break it/This life just don't make it.’ The track is funky, and Mayfield’s almost whispered vocals give the impression of someone not too proud of their status as a ‘Pusherman.’ Freddie’s Dead was the most successful single off the album, reaching #4 on the Billboard Charts. An anti-drug song, it tells the story of Freddie, a character in the film who die after being hit by a car. It finishes with the warning ‘if you wanna be a junkie, well remember Freddie’s dead’ and contains the rather poignant verse about America’s eagerness to fly to the moon and yet reluctance to sort out the issues in their own country:

We're all built up with progress
But sometimes, I must confess
We can deal with rockets and dreams
But, reality -- what does it mean?

Like a lot of the album, the song is gently funky, and accompanied brilliantly by Curtis Mayfield’s vocal, which is quieter and gentler than you’d perhaps expect for the genre - there’s no James Brown style ‘waaaaauuuuu’ here - and has soul for days.

Super Fly continues in this fashion, continually critiquing the drug-dealer life, particularly on Eddie You Should Know Better, which is as judgemental as its title suggests, closing finally - via the brilliantly infectious No Thing on Me - with the perhaps the album’s best track Superfly, a song that reached #8 on the Billboard charts. The song plays over the film’s closing credits and its off-beat bassline has been sampled by numerous artists including the Beastie Boys and the Notorious B.I.G.

Super Fly creates a relaxed, funky atmosphere perfect for Mayfield’s political discourse. It’s an album that feels very cohesive, a commentary on drug-culture in inner city neighbourhoods, which is likely as pertinent today as it was in 1972.

Song picks: Superfly, Freddie’s Dead, No Thing on Me

8/10

Transformer is Lou Reed’s second album and was produced by David Bowie, who was a big fan of Reed’s band The Velvet Underground, and Mick Ronson.

Transformer works as a nice double act with Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, it feels like a calmer version of the sound on that album. Reed’s vocals are gruffer, there’s less instrumentation in general, and everything is slower, but they both share a certain energy.

Transformer contains many of Reed’s most famous songs, including Walk on the Wild Side, a song named after a novel by Nelson Algren, which Reed was supposed to be doing the soundtrack for the movie adaptation of - though this never happened. The song starts with, and is largely defined by, Herbie Flower’s cigarette fuelled double-bass line which is accompanied by an acoustic guitar that is seemingly caressed as softly as possible as well as Lou Reed’s almost talked vocal. Reed slowly rambles his way through oral sex, drug abuse, prostitution and the rest, interspersing it all with probably the most iconic ‘du, de, du’ part ever. The backing vocals and especially Ronnie Ross’ tenor saxophone help to add some great flavour to what is a truly great and unique song.

Satellite of Love and Perfect Day features probably the only Bowie-esque choruses. The delay on Reed’s voice in both making him sound metallic, slightly ethereal even. The finger clicks and other interesting percussion that start the build to the former’s crescendo ending are a great touch. On the latter, the chorus is perhaps one of the most impactful in a love song ever. It’s ominous melody defying the more positive lyrics. It is of course not a traditional love song, but one about heroin. “You’re going to reap just what you sow,” Reed repeats at the end, knowing full well this ‘perfect day’ won’t last.

Even the songs that could have worked well as punchy punk songs have a laid back feel to them. Look at the opening track Vicious, where the drummer’s earth plate is somehow louder than the distorted guitars. The bouncy riff sitting surprisingly in the background as Reed barely pushes his vocal past a loud chatter. The electric shock guitar parts that buzz over the top of the track help to add a smidgen of chaos, reminiscent of the Velvet Underground.

Transformer is a great late night listen. It feels like the comedown after Reed’s more boisterous affairs with the Velvet Underground. The reckless abandon has been stripped away, though specks of it surface now and again, but Reed’s talent is still clear, crafting some of the decade’s most iconic songs.

Song Picks: Satellite of Love, Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side

8/10

The krautrockers are back after 1971’s Tago Mago. Having made some dosh with the success of their single Spoon - which was the theme tune to a popular German TV show at the time and is included on this album - the band was able to rent out a disused cinema to live and record in, seemingly incapable of recording in normal conditions. Hilariously, things almost didn’t work out because progress was "frustrated by keyboardist Irmin Schmidt and vocalist Damo Suzuki's playing chess obsessively day in, day out" according to guitarist Michael Karoli. The aforementioned Spoon was added to make up for the lack of material because of this.

At 40 minutes, the first thing that’s evident is that this is a much tighter affair than Tago Mago, there’s no 18 minute epics here - though they’re still not afraid to go over ten. It seems that this is more based on necessity - thanks to Suzuki and Schmidt’s chess obsession - than an artistic decision as such, but I feel it helps the album regardless.

The albums opens with Pinch, a drum-driven song featuring Suzuki’s nonsensical, scratchy, barely understandable screaming and mumbling over the top. It’s a fine example of Can messing with your expectations, an elaborate, spontaneous, primal sounding melange of sound ending in a screech of guitars and the energetic rolling of drums. Sing Swan Song will be familiar to any Kanye West fans as it was sampled on Drunk and Hot Girls, with many of the lyrics and the main chorus melody being pinched too. Though this song never refers to 'drunk and hot girls,’ only ‘a drunken hot ghost.’ Suzuki’s rambles - though still by no means easily understandable - are a little less difficult to decipher here and the song is a little more accessible due to it’s more prominent and consistent guitar parts and at least slightly familiar structure. It’s a haunting piece, something made even more evident when the comparably light sounding One More Night starts with its jazzy synth, slightly off beat and yet metronomic drums, and Suzuki’s calm mumbles. It soon becomes more sinister when he starts whispering though. The more you listen to Can, the more you realise how Suzuki uses his voice as an instrument, the lyrics aren’t important, it’s the feeling and expression that comes with them that can change the entire feel of a song from one minute to the next.

Vitamin C is the album’s highlight for me. A surprisingly catchy song punctuated by Suzuki’s fabulous screams of ‘You’re losing/You’re losing/You’re losing, your Vitamin C!!’ above instrumentation that’s more restrained than you’d usually associate with accompanying such passionate vocals. The bass and drums plod along until the end of each of these screams, when they momentarily wake up into a relaxed flurry to accentuate the fact that you’re losing your vitamin C and that you really should go and eat an orange. It’s weird, wonderful, completely hypnotic, and a great - relatively short - example of just how singular Can are.

Soup very much lives up to its name, you feel like you’ve been thrown into some strange soup, gained gills and are swimming to the bottom of a bowl of weird and wonderful ingredients you can’t quite make out. When the drums kick in the vocals distort and tangle around your ears, and the song becomes a strange collection of opposites. It’s calm and yet angry, it’s completely new and yet also strangely familiar, it makes no sense, and yet it does. By the time you get to the end of the song - which contains the only part even close to being as challenging as Tago Mago’s darker sections - you really do feel like you’ve been dunked into the greenest, weirdest musical soup, and yet you kind of want to jump straight back in.

The album closes with I’m So Green and Spoon, two short and snappy songs which are again - like Vitamin C - surprisingly catchy. I’m So Green in particular sounds like the result of putting a catchy 70s pop song through a blender.

Ege Bamyasi is singular, a strange trip, perfectly depicted by that cover of a soup can. It’s a tighter experience than Tago Mago - and perhaps even more inventive - although it lacks the infectious groove of the opening tracks from that album.

Song Picks: Vitamin C, Soup, I’m So Green, Spoon

8.5/10

OntheCorner — 8. On the Corner

Miles Davis

Miles had already re-invented himself and his sound who knows how many times by now, but he wasn’t done, taking a sharp turn into jazz-fusion and particularly funk, which had played a part on Bitches Brew, but is much more evident here. Jazz critics hated it on release, Stan Getz - of Getz & Gilberto - famously said of it: "That music is worthless. It means nothing; there is no form, no content, and it barely swings," while Bill Coleman rather harshly described it as "an insult to the intellect of the people." Nowadays though, it enjoys plenty of acclaim, being rated as the 30th best album of the 70s by Pitchfork and often being talked about as a big inspiration for a whole load of genres including the obvious jazz-funk, and rather less obvious electronica and hip-hop. On the Corner was Davis’ last formal studio album of the 70s, though there were numerous compilations and live albums to come.

The first thing evident is the arrival of that quacking guitar that was to take over funk, and become a big part of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters album in 1973. It’s particularly evident on the album’s third track where it waddles along like a pompous duck as the drums play disjointed beats accented by percussive congas and some sort of noisy tambourine. It feels much less fluid percussively than anything from Bitches Brew, but there’s an undeniable groove to it.

Other highlights include the closing track Helen Butte / Mr. Freedom X, a track that consistently has me bopping my head along to its mad, messy soundscape of funky bass, skittery and yet solid drums, that strange instrument making a noise like a dying bird, and Davis’ trumpet magically tying it all together, allowing it all to make sense like some sort of trumpeting translator. The opening track’s grated guitar solos from John McGlaughlin are pretty splendid too, mixing with the percussion and scattered, scratching notes of the other instruments in a blend of almost industrially funky jazz.

On the Corner is an album of space, of pauses, of parts that repeat, but seem to jitter as they do so. Much like Bitches Brew, there’s repetition creating a trance like sound, but here it’s a bit less joined up and more sporadic. Where Bitches Brew feels like the inspired march of the most talented musicians who’ve taken just the right amount of stimulants, On the Corner sounds like the morning after they’ve all taken too many. There’s a ruggedness to proceedings here. The way your voice feels after a night of heavy drinking, when you can’t quite hit the notes right - but it somehow has more character than when you do. And there’s some soul in that you know? I don’t think On the Corner is anywhere near as cohesive and downright revolutionary as Bitches Brew, but it’s still pretty damn great, and a clear influence on a lot of jazz and funk to come. I also think it’s one of those that will rise even higher in my estimations the more I soak up its whisky drenched grit.

Song Picks: One and One, Helen Butte / Mr. Freedom

8.5/10

The fourth album by French artist Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes marked the change of her musical direction to a more progressive folk sound.

Paix opens with the largely instrumental Roc alpin, where the progressive elements such as synth are evident from the start, while the second half features prominent la laaas from Ribeiro in her characteristically free vocal style.

It’s only on the following Jusqu'a Ce Que La Force De T'Aimer Me Manque where the extent of Ribeiro’s vocal talent becomes clear however. Her vocals are expressive, and full of importance and atmosphere. The heavy reverb helps them blend seamlessly into the song’s gorgeous instrumental bedding, created by Patrice Moullet’s constantly churning acoustic guitar, the twinkling synths, and the long, held organ notes. It’s a song that, although my lack of French stops me from understanding it lyrically, has a similar size and power to something like The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan.

The album’s final two tracks are lengthy folk experiments. The title track comes in at over 15 minutes and features one-note percussion that sounds like it’s being performed on the deadened strings of a guitar, giving a slightly modern sound. As the guitar and organ build and build we end up in a frenzy of fuzz, patters, and organ scrambles, the organ very much dating the piece as something from the 70s, though the rest of the instrumentation has a more timeless quality to it. That relentless percussive tap continues throughout the whole song, tying it together like some bassy ticker-tape. Once Ribeiro’s vocals enter, they’re characteristically unbound, expressive, and free of melody. Although I can’t understand a word of the poem that Ribeiro is acting out, it’s hard not to be moved by the piece. Ribeiro’s melodic cries which end the song cementing it as one of this list’s most transcendental pieces of music.

The closing track Un Jour... La Mort is over 24 minutes long and again creates a memorable soundscape. A tremolo sound ebbs and flows, with guitarring not unlike that of a more stuttered David Gilmour from Pink Floyd. Once again it’s Ribeiro’s wordless vocal that really stands out though, sounding like the howl of a wolf drifting over a huge but shrinking forest. The organ melodies are accompanied well by the plucked guitar part and once Ribeiro starts singing in French I’m reminded of Lana Del Rey, a comparison that fades once she gets more passionate. The fact is it’s difficult to compare Ribeiro to anyone, her unique expressive ability transcends language and is hard to forget. As the song reaches a close, that slightly electronic sounding percussion and the soaring organ notes are accompanied by Ribeiro’s increasingly frantic vocal, the guitar chugging along, the forest turning to dust, the camera launching to the sky as the Earth howls and growls a final goodbye. You might think I’m being overly dramatic, but just listen to the thing and I think you’ll know what I mean.

Paix is a superb piece of progressive folk, an album of unbridled atmosphere, all tugged along by Ribeiro’s singular vocal performances.

Song Picks: Paix, Jusqu'a Ce Que La Force De T'Aimer Me Manque

8.5/10

Aretha’s 18th studio album takes the name from the Nina Simone song, an interpretation of which is included on the album. It features a whole host of musicians spread across its 12 tracks and covers of songs by John Lennon & Paul McCartney, Otis Redding, Nina Simone, Elton John, and more, as well three compositions by Aretha herself.

On Young, Gifted and Black, Aretha seems to blend into the music more than on the previous two albums of hers on these lists. On the opening Oh Me Oh My (I’m a Fool for You Baby) Aretha’s vocals are sung with a pinpoint accuracy and a tone as warm as an electric blanket. However, though she’s very much belting them out, they never dominate over the drums, and even the backing vocals are at times louder. It’s the extra importance given to Aretha’s supporting cast that makes Young, Gifted and Black my favourite album by Franklin so far.

On the chilled-as-a-day-at-the-beach Day Dreaming we’ve got the addition of some lovely flute, and the guitar and drums are grooving together like a young couple completely in-tune on the dance floor. It’s a sumptuous track, everything combining to perfectly complement Aretha’s vocals.

On Rock Steady the band is so infectiously funky it’s hard no to get up and start gyrating around the room. Chuck Rainey’s bass and Bernard Purdie’s drums grooving together like they were meant to be. The organ and percussive touches complete a sound palette that is just fabulous, and that’s before we even mention the - of course - iconic vocals.

The album proceeds much in this vein, with thoughtful production creating a sumptuous soundscape for Aretha’s vocals to exist among, with songs like The First Snow in Kokomo being particularly irresistible. The title track is perhaps the album’s best however. It begins with Aretha leading her backing vocalists in rousing gospel style, accompanied only by her occasional chords on the piano. Then the band comes in, the bass and drums again grooving along beautifully to the gospel theatrics of Aretha and her backing vocalists. They’re well accompanied, and never overpowered. To be fair, I’m unsure a performance as powerful as the one of Aretha on this track could ever be overpowered, if you could turn it into electricity, we’d have enough power to last the whole world for eternity. Understandably, the song became an anthem for both the civil rights and Black power movements.

It’s always been clear that Aretha Franklin is one of the greats, you only have to listen to her sing one phrase to know that, but I feel like this is the first time I’ve heard her backed in such a consistently effective manner on an album. Young, Gifted and Black is a resplendent record of warmly and powerfully performed songs. It’s an album with an effortlessly warm glow that few will be able to resist.

Song Picks: Day Dreaming; Young, Gifted and Black; Rock Steady; First Snow in Kokomo; Border Song (Holy Moses)

9/10

Pink Moon.jpg — 5. Pink Moon

Nick Drake

Pink Moon is Nick Drake’s third and final album before his death in 1974, aged 26. Unlike his previous two albums, it features no backing musicians except on the title track. Lyrically, the content is largely thought to be about the battle with depression that eventually took his life. As with all of Drake’s work, it didn’t sell well during his lifetime, but has since become an album that you’ll see on most all-time lists.

The album opens with the ominous title track, informing us that “I saw it written and I saw it say/Pink moon is on its way/And none of you stand so tall/Pink moon gonna get you all.” As with a lot of Drake’s lyrics, it’s unclear what the ‘pink moon’ is, but in his hushed, tuneful, nearly mumbled vocal, you can tell that he’s already surrendered to it. The simple, two minute song features the album’s only accompaniment, a gentle piano part during the bridge.

Characteristic of the whole album, Place to Be is short and features few words - 2 minutes and three short verses respectively to be precise. The song clearly shows Drake’s struggles with his mental health at the time, as beautifully outlined in the second verse:

And I was green, greener than the hill
Where flowers grew and the sun shone still
Now I'm darker than the deepest sea
Just hand me down, give me a place to be

It’s a song, and very much an album about isolation, the last line above being particularly heartbreaking. Coming after Road, which perfectly demonstrates Drake’s notable skill on the acoustic guitar, comes one of the album’s more affecting songs, Which Will. A song of delicate questions, hummed into existence by Nick’s desperately quiet vocals. It’s the creation of a man lost - with a million more questions than answers - left plucking delicately at his guitar and singing to the floor. Even in the album's instrumentals, Drake expertly conveys a feeling of sad acceptance. On Horn, a sparsely plucked melody is accompanied by the odd quietly droning bass part as the notes seem to fly through the window like elegant, melancholy swallows.

The second side of the album opens with the record’s simplest song, Know. It features only four lines: ‘You know that I love you/You know I don't care/You know that I see you/You know I'm not there,’ delivered over probably the simplest guitar part on any Nick Drake song. It’s the type of thing he probably wrote in a matter of minutes, and yet his vocals make it ghostly, bewitching and delicately confusing. On the following Parasite, Drake sinks deeper into depression, Free Ride sees him at his most cryptic - but also at his most singable - mirroring the soothing melody expertly with his plucked guitar part, and on the final From the Morning he’s at his least introspective, singing instead of the beauty of nature.

Pink Moon is a sad, sad record about feeling isolated and lost. This sense of isolation is emphasised by the album’s sparse production. It’s like Nick Drake has decided to record the whole thing in his bedroom, without telling any of the backing musicians who appeared on his last two albums, unable to deal with the thought of interacting with them. The short songs and less traditional structures convey that he’s done trying to please others. This was an album written for him. A place for him to spill his soul, one last time.

Song Picks: Pink Moon, Which Will, Free Ride

9/10

ExileonMainSt — 4. Exile on Main St.

The Rolling Stones

The band’s 10th UK album was released as a double album and is the Stones album with perhaps the most interesting story behind it. It’s tempting to say Exile on Main St. is the result of the band’s tax exile in a French villa where they recorded the entire thing in the basement while doing too many drugs, having far too good a time, and generally living a hedonistic existence. Now, sure, the album very much sounds like that, but that’s not quite the true story.

In fact, many of the songs were recorded during the sessions for Sticky Fingers, at Olympic Studios or Jagger’s country house. It was only in 1971, when the band escaped the UK to avoid having their assets seized - they’d spent all the money they should have paid in taxes - that the villa recording phase began. It was Richards who rented the villa and, on struggling to find a suitable recording studio, the band decided to use the basement of said residence instead. They already had the Rolling Stones Mobile Recording Studio that I’ve mentioned in previous posts, so they just needed some space. There’s a documentary about the creation of this album - Stones in Exile - which I really need to watch, but the general thrust seems to be that the sessions were a mess. Jagger and Wyman were generally missing, Richards only appeared when his worsening heroin addiction allowed him to, and there was all sorts of musicians appearing and disappearing from one session to the next. Although the basics to a lot of the songs were recorded in these sessions, lead vocals, and endless other overdubs such as horns and such were added at Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, a distinctly less bohemian affair than that of Richards’ basement in Nellcôte.

By all accounts this is more a Keith Richards album than a Mick Jagger one, or as drummer Charlie Watts puts it, "A lot of Exile was done how Keith works, which is, play it 20 times, marinade, play it another 20 times. He knows what he likes, but he's very loose." However, that’s not to say Mick Jagger didn’t play a crucial role, and it’s the sessions that he led later at Recorded in Los Angeles that resulted in much of the album’s boisterous, almost party atmosphere. Jagger himself, who isn’t the biggest fan of the album, has said, “I had to finish the whole record myself, because otherwise there were just these drunks and junkies," something which, based on what I’ve read, seems rather true. One - probably oversimplified - way to look at it is that Richards provided the soul and foundation to the record while Jagger later added his characteristic energy and sparkle.

The album’s 18 songs aren’t as devoid of hits as is sometimes claimed, the album does contain Tumbling Dice, Sweet Virginia and Happy, all of which were hits and featured in the band’s set-lists for years to come. I’m not going to go into details on each song, but I do feel a need to talk through the album’s opening track, Rocks Off, which I feel perfectly encapsulates the raucous chaos of the record.

The track opens with the whisky drenched guitar of Richards and a gargled ‘oh yeah!’ from Jagger, who sounds like he’s battered and lying on the sofa. Before long the drums come in and we’ve got some delightfully bouncy piano accompanying Jagger’s vocal. It’s muddy, the vocals aren’t as loud as usual, and the whole thing just sounds like a debaucherous, drunken party. The horns blare for the first time just a minute into the song, and continue to accompany the song’s choruses like a messy rabble of drunks. Halfway through the song it sounds as though everyone’s been dunked underwater - or more likely beer - before everyone comes back out ready to party and bounce some more. The song, like the whole album, is an energetic, raw delight.

Exile on Main St. is the Rolling Stones’ best album, and that’s not because it contains the band’s best songs - it doesn’t - but because of the atmosphere the whole thing creates. The whole band have never sounded as free and loose, as energetic, as fun. The album is perhaps the only one by the Stones where Richard’s bohemian messiness dominates and - although the whole thing would be nowhere without Jagger’s additions - that’s a prime reason it works so well. There’s flaws and the performances aren’t perfect, but they’re there, ever present and immediate, and they’ve got endless soul. It captures an energy and feeling that hasn’t been repeated since, and that’s what makes it such a rock ‘n’ roll masterpiece.

Song Picks: Rocks Off, Tumbling Dice, Happy

9.5/10

Bowie’s fifth album is his only as Ziggy Stardust, and is backed by his backing band the Spiders from Mars. A lot of its material was written at the same time as his previous album Hunky Dory. Although often described as a concept album about Bowie’s titular character Ziggy Stardust’s arrival on planet Earth to save the planet from an impending disaster, most of the album’s concept was drawn up once the songs had already been recorded. After Hunky Dory’s heavily piano led sound, Ziggy Stardust returns to a more guitar dominated one. The cover, although it looks like a painting, is in fact a re-coloured photograph.

Ziggy Stardust starts with Five Years, a song that sets the stage for Ziggy’s entrance, detailing the end of the world in a frantic cramming of detail that crescendos and crescendos as Bowie performs some his most ‘shouty’ vocals, building and building to the outro as if he’s got so much to say he’s going to explode. By the time the outro comes, the payoff is huge, “We've got five years/what a surprise/We've got five years, stuck on my eyes/We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot” he sings in a variety of tones, his mind audibly at breaking point. It’s one of the finest album openers out there, a perfect scene setter, building to a splendid crescendo of agitation.

Soul Love is a song about love, a bit of an outlier when it comes to the narrative of the album, but fitting in perfectly in terms of its sound. The song starts with percussion and then guitar with the cleanest of clean production on it. So clean I want to bathe in it. Soul Love is a great introduction to Bowie’s uncanny ability to write strange, catchy choruses on this album, and the choice of added instruments like Trevor Bolder’s trumpet is just perfect, the distorted electric guitar giving the track plenty of oomph, while never drowning out any of the other instruments. Moonage Daydream introduces Ziggy Stardust, describing himself in the song’s iconic opening verse.

I'm an alligator
I'm a mama-papa coming for you
I'm a space invader
I'll be a rock 'n' rollin' bitch for you
Keep your mouth shut
You're squawking like a pink monkey bird
And I'm busting up my brains for the words

The song ends in a howl of laser like guitars and high pitched alien sounds announcing the arrival of our titular saviour before Starman, one of Bowie’s most iconic songs, gently drifts into our ears, filling them once again with catchy melodies, creative lyrics, and seemingly endless charm. An interpretation of Ron Davies’ It Ain’t Easy is followed by an ode to androgynous glam-rockers everywhere, but in particular Marc Bolan, Lady Stardust. Neither of these fit the album’s narrative as such, but again, sonically they’re right at home. On Rock & Roll star our saviour Ziggy realises the best way to change the world might be as a rock ‘n’ roll star.

Hang on to Yourself is one of my favourites, and a clear influence on the punk rock to come in the 70s and beyond, with its fast and infectious guitar riff - rather than the vocal - containing the hook. It tells of the attraction Ziggy is now getting from a fan, something that gets out of hand on the epic Ziggy Stardust, when he gets too big for his boots, causing friction with the band. The song features one of the world’s most iconic guitar intros and perhaps Bowie’s best vocal performance on the album. The infinitely danceable and infectious Suffragette City is followed by the final track, Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide, beautifully charting Ziggy’s demise, Bowie’s vocal rising from a gentle mumble to a chaotic scream as Ziggy Stardust falls into the abyss, never to return.

Ziggy Stardust is one of those albums where every song is great, even when taken out of context of the album. However, it’s when they’re all put together and performed by Bowie’s creation Ziggy Stardust that they become something truly magical, something greater even than the sum of their notable parts. Together they create an album that sounds like it’s dropped down from space, written by an alien who’s spent their life in a moonage daydream listening to our music.

Song Picks: Five Years, Starman, Suffragette City, Hang on to Yourself

9.5/10

The fifth album by English prog-rockers Yes is largely seen as one of the key recordings in the genre. It’s also probably the most electronic sounding album we’ve had on the challenge so far, with plenty of synth action going on.

The album opens with the 18 minute masterpiece and title track, Close to the Edge, which opens with the twittering of birds and the gentle sound of water, as a synth builds and builds in the distance. Before long the whole band arrives in a blaze of glory, Bill Brufford’s busy drums perfectly accompanying the buzzing bass - which sounds a hell of a lot like Muse’s bass and was clearly a big influence - and chirping guitar. Jon Anderson’s aaaaaahhhs stop the band who are able to dip in and out perfectly. The following breakdown is a perfect demonstration of Yes’ instrumental skill, and we’re over 4 minutes into the song by the time Anderson sings any words. Lyrically, the song is so full of metaphor it’s hard to decipher, or alternatively, it’s easy to put your own meaning onto it. It’s apparently based on the book Siddartha. Anderson’s vocals are distinctly thin, and sung at a pitch that makes them sound strikingly fragile and yet also incredibly powerful, like a knife so sharp it’ll break if you don’t use it quite right. The song is made by its dips, which are so varied and atmospheric that the piece feels like a story, a symphony even.

Those dips are interspersed with the same powerful chorus, which only plays a few times over the song’s 18 minute duration and ends with Anderson belting out “I get up/I get down” at the top of his lungs, a moment of such musical force it stops you in your tracks. The song has a magnificent sense of importance, and yet lacks the pomposity of a lot of prog-rock thanks to its less pretentious lyrics. The moment when Anderson once again ends a chorus with a wail of “I get up/I get down,” followed by an organ that sounds as if it’s announcing the end of the world has to be one of my favourite musical moments on any album, ever. The organ cuts back out, comes back in, playing tag team with Anderson’s heavily reverbed and melodic vocal before a synth comes in and marks the song’s final stage. A stage that takes us full circle, back to the frantic, controlled chaos of the band’s entrance, only with the dial turned up to 11. The band jumps from idea to idea like a hyperactive cat, by the time that chorus crescendos one last time in a triumphant, glorious explosion, you’re left picking your jaw up of the floor, aware you’ve just heard one of the finest and most powerful pieces of music ever written. I literally have to hold back the tears of joy every time I finish the song.

Now, asking the two remaining tracks of the album to match that would be completely foolish, and yet, they follow it brilliantly. Track two, And You and I again features pretty cryptic lyrics, but they’re sung with such conviction by Anderson that it barely matters. Like the opening track, it’s a song of complex structure, chopping and changing constantly, a particular highlight being the entrance of a flowing synth and organ part around the four-minute mark, which evolves into an even lusher soundscape once the weird guitar effects enter the fray. Then, just as you think the song couldn’t get any better, Anderson - predictably - belts out another chorus that is so massive it seems utterly ridiculous that the extra-terrestrials we no doubt share the universe with haven’t heard it yet.

Siberian Khatru doesn’t have an Earth-shattering chorus like the first two tracks, but it does feature some of the band’s best instrumental sections culminating in a bass buzzing groove-fest splattered with organ and chattered guitar before the band are faded out, seemingly carrying on with their jam into eternity.

Closer to the Edge, perhaps more than any other album I’ve ever heard, understands that crescendos are relative. It’s the mood you put the listener in a song’s more reflective parts that makes that crescendo all the more effective. The verses and instrumentals on this record are varied, gorgeous, and thoroughly unpredictable. The choruses, though they may only appear infrequently, are among the most emotionally powerful I’ve ever heard, and yet if you took them out of the context of this whole album they wouldn’t be. That’s the beauty of it. You need to listen to the whole thing to get the most out of its cloud busting peaks.

Song Picks: Closer to the Edge, And You and I

9.5/10

Clube de Esquina was a Brazilian music artist’s collective from the Southeastern state of Minas Gerais, of which Milton Nascimento & Lo Borges were two members. Although they contribute most of the vocals and songwriting to this album and are the members credited with this release, many others were involved in its recording. Now considered an important record in the history of Brazilian music, it features string arrangements by Eumir Deodato and Wagner Tiso, conducted by Paulo Moura.

Listening to Clube de Esquina for the first time is like being teleported to Southeast Brazil, you can practically smell the exotic fruit, the ocean, the dry, dusty cities, and the colour. On the opening Tudo Que Você Podia Ser the Spanish guitar combines with the soft vocal in a way that immediately pulls you in, and then the instruments explode into tens of bright tones led by that rapid, high guitar part. The album continues to soar like a grain of sand in the wind for its 74 minute duration, not letting go until the echoed final notes of Ao Que Vai Nascer, a song that sounds like it’s coming to us from the bottom of some ancient well. The whole thing is full of moments of breathtaking beauty: when the vocal in Cais fades and turns into a staccato piano part; when the guitar on O Trem Azul perfectly foreshadows the gorgeous vocal melody that is to appear in the song’s chorus, one of the most uplifting on the album; that long falsetto note held on Nuvem Cigana; and the moment in Um Girassol Da Cor De Seu Cabelo when the ominous strings come in and the song seems to multiply itself by 1000, turning into something unrecognisable from its gently tuneful start. I’m only up to track 8 of 21, I could go on.

Elis Regina once said that ‘if god sang, he would do it with Milton’s voice,’ and well, I’d have to agree. Nascimento’s voice can be melancholy, it can be wistful, but there’s always more than a flicker of hope there, and the overwhelming feeling is one of an optimistic fatalism. Milton can do falsettos, he can transport melodies for miles, he can hold notes, he can do it all. And yet his voice is one of the most humble you’ll hear, he is not interested in proving his vocal talents, he is only interested in serving the songs and the melody.

I don’t know Portuguese, so I can’t get to the bottom of any of the lyrics, but that takes nothing away from the album for me, and adds to it a nice layer of mystery, a humbling knowledge that I’ll never fully grasp it. It’s hard to find much information on Clube de Esquina, and certainly how it was recorded, but the whole thing feels like a very communal effort to me. It feels like the studio equivalent of a bunch of amazingly talented musicians getting round a fire and performing to themselves. The fact it’s named after and performed by many members of a musical collective would suggest that maybe, just maybe, this is true.

Clube de Esquina is probably one of Brazilian pop’s - often called MPB - most famous albums, but I certainly hadn’t heard of it until I started this challenge, and that’s a crime. There’s a mystical uplifting quality to it unlike anything else I’ve heard. The Latin American rhythms, melodies and guitar playing immediately make it stick out among the plethora of western releases we have on this challenge, and that certainly works in the album’s favour and helps to make it stand out. But there’s more to it than that, Clube de Esquina is full of gorgeous melodies, both uplifting and sad. It sounds like the moods of someone’s life, without being able to distinguish the individual events. There’s ups and there’s downs, all sung in a language I can’t understand. But cheesy as it sounds, moods and emotions are universal, they go beyond language. This album is a fabulous reminder that we’re all experiencing the same feelings, and that those are presented in a whole host of different flavours, ones that are influenced by whatever corner of this wonderful planet we were born on. I have no reservations in saying this is one of the most beautiful albums I’ve ever heard, and one that sees new parts flower every time I listen to it.

Song Picks: Tudo Que Você Podia Ser, Cais, Ao Que Vai Nascer, Um Girassol Da Cor De Seu Cabelo, San Vicente

9.5/10

1968 - Clive's Top 5 Albums of Every Year Challenge

July 03, 2020 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge

Over what will likely be the next few years I’m going to be ranking and reviewing the top 5 albums 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.

So we’ve made it to the penultimate year of the 60s, and if I continue this relentless pace of posting one every two weeks I should be finished some time in August 2022. Realistically though, I won’t be able to, and it won’t be finished until some time after that. Anyway, 1968, here’s some of the year’s most famous events: Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, Tommie Smith and John Carlos performed the Black power salute in silent protest at the Mexico Olympics, Apollo 8 became the first spacecraft to orbit the moon and Boeing introduced the first 747 ‘Jumbo Jet’.

Musically, these were the top 5 albums released according to rateyourmusic.com’s users:

#1 The Beatles - The Beatles (The White Album)
#2 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
#3 The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
#4 The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle
#5 Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

So, we’ve seen the top three before on these lists but we’ve got a couple of newbies to the challenge bolstering up the top 5. Because I’m a masochist and like to give myself work, I’ve also spotted these 5 albums from further down the list which look intriguing:

#6 The Kinks - The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society
#7 The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
#9 Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul
#11 Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets
#13 Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends

And well would you look at that? We’ve got ten albums to get through again. It’s as if I like nice round numbers isn’t it? Let’s get cracking, here’s my ranking and thoughts on the above.

odessey and oracle.jpg — 10. Odessey and Oracle

The Zombies

The Zombies’ second album, Odyssey and Oracle, wasn’t much of a success initially (and the band split up pretty soon after its release because of this) but has gained acclaim as the years have gone on. Partially recorded at Abbey Road Studios, their music bears a significant resemblance to that of Abbey Road’s most famous artists, the Beatles. There’s also more than a hint of the Beach Boys in their harmonies.

It’s easy to see how this album has gained so much acclaim, although a little puzzling as to why it didn’t initially. Odeyssey and Oracle is full of wonderfully catchy songs featuring varied instrumentation, slick production and harmonies that engulf you like a warm bath. The psychedelic nature of the album only ever serves to keep things interesting, and never leads the whole thing off the rails. The lyrics are surprisingly dark at times, something which is cleverly hidden by the comforting melodies that contain them.

Odyssey and Oracle is one of those albums you’ll swear you’ve heard before, it’s timelessly well written songs jogging memories that don’t exist, reminding you of unexplained gaps in your memory of things that should have happened, but didn’t. How could a song be this good and yet have had so little airplay? How come this hasn’t been part of my life sooner? I don’t have the answer to these questions, but I do know your musical life is about to improve should you allow this pop gem to enter it.

Song Picks: Care of Cell 44, Maybe After He’s Gone, Beechwood Park, Changes

8/10

LadySoul — 9. Lady Soul

Aretha Franklin

Aretha’s twelfth album is another vocal delight. Now, I spent most of my review of 1967’s I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You raving about Aretha’s amazing vocals, so I’ll spare you the superlatives here. Let’s just say her voice is as timeless and demanding of attention as ever, there doesn’t see to be a note in existence she can’t hit the bullseye on, and although she can get a little warbly for my tastes, it’s never completely gratuitous.

Again, Aretha’s original compositions sit effortlessly beside covers of classics such as People Get Ready and Money Won’t Change You. (You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman was written for, rather than by, Aretha Franklin, but it’s hard to imagine anyone else doing the song justice. The bombastic way she sings ‘You make me feeeeeel’ multiple ways before soulfully pouring out ‘like a natural woman’ is one of those great moments of recorded musical history where you can’t help but stop in your tracks and listen.

I’d say this is a stronger album than I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You purely because the band adds a little more, the opening track Chain of Fools is testament to this. An infectious bass and drum groove and some funktacular guitar work complement Aretha’s vocals perfectly, creating my favourite song on the album.

Song Picks: Chain of Fools, (You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman

8/10

VillageGreen — 8. The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

The Kinks

Well, that’s probably the longest album name we’ve had on the challenge so far. I’m going to give the album a short review as revenge, take that. This is the Kinks’ sixth studio album and their final one featuring all the original members as the bassist left following this album.

The album is sometimes referred to as a concept album about English life, in fact music-critic Stephen Erlewine described it as a ‘concept album lamenting the passing of old-fashioned English traditions.’ The reality however is that Ray Davies, the group’s lead singer and songwriter, did not compose the songs to fit a preset idea or concept. It just happened to be that he was scribbling a lot about these themes in the preceding two years when the album’s material was written.

Let’s cut to the chase, I love this thing. It’s such a merry affair and feels like sitting outside on a fine summer’s day, beer in hand, chilling. Sitting by the Riverside sums the whole album up perfectly with the line ‘Sitting there just drinking wine and looking at the view’.

Oh, and it has a song on it called The Phenomenal Cat, which has to be a contender for the greatest song title of all time. It also starts with the flute and features a prominent tambourine as Davies sings about this phenomenal cat, has there ever been a breezier song? It’s all filled with a cheerful creativity that nicely shows what this album is all about.

A jolly collection of simple, unassuming songs about day-to-day life that have production and instrumentation varied enough to keep it engaging throughout. I’ve talked before about how hard it is to create a genuinely happy album without it being cheesy, and the Kinks have absolutely nailed it here. Put this on, and even if it’s rainy and wet outside, it’ll feel like the sun’s come out. Magic.

Song picks: Last of the Steam-Powered Trains, Picture Book, Starstruck, All of my Friends Were There

8/10

BeggarsBanquet — 7. Beggars Banquet

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones’ last album before Brian Jones was kicked out the band later drowned in his swimming pool following struggles with drug addiction, Beggars Banquet sees the band getting more instrumental experimental and is a notable step up from their previous work for me.

Sympathy for the Devil features brilliant syncopated drum patterns spread across the stereo field that create a really unique drum fuelled, energetic atmosphere, which the piano and Jagger’s strained vocals perfectly complement. It’s one of those rare moments in music where everything just clicks, and is both really inventive and catchy at the same time. Factory Girl features a similarly innovative use of percussion.

Street Fighting Man, a song about riots, is a good example of Mick Jagger’s fierce and growling vocal throughout this album. A song recorded mainly on acoustic instruments (unusual for such a ‘heavy’ song), it has a really unique sense of space to it. Dear Doctor displays Mick Jagger’s often underrated ability to howl out a tune, bang in tune, and Salt of the Earth finishes the album with a heartfelt celebration of the working-class.

Beggars Banquet sees The Rolling Stones really hitting form. The songwriting has got more interesting and consistent, and the production is both cleaner and more full of ideas. It’s an album that’s a real pleasure to listen to, both fun and engaging, and featuring one of the year’s most captivating vocal performances.

Song Picks: Sympathy for the Devil, Street Fighting Man, Dear Doctor, Factory Girl

8.5/10

WhiteLight — 6. White Light / White Heat

The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground’s second album ditches pretty much all the accessibility of their debut which means we’re left with a 40 minute assault on the ears in the spirit of the aforementioned album’s more challenging tracks. Initially I didn’t really enjoy this all that much and found it too challenging but now, although I still don’t like it anywhere near as much as their debut, I’ve come to enjoy the creative chaos of it. I think it’s best to think of it as rock’s version of Free Jazz. An album written with complete freedom, with minimal concern for structure, melody etc.

Inevitably this means the album would go on the ‘difficult listening’ shelf, but it’s also rather rewarding when you stop trying to force it to fit your ideas of what an album and music should be.

The simplest song here is the gorgeously relaxed Here She Comes Now where Lou sings about a topic unknown (though some suggest it’s his guitar) in a remarkably out of breath manner for a song so vocally simple. The opener White Light/White Heat describes the effect of methamphetamine in much the way Heroin described the effects of its titular drug on their previous album. They’re the two most accessible songs on the album, which includes such weird delights as the instrumental, dark, mini-audiobook The Gift, the stoned, gently psychedelic Lady Godiva’s Operation and the suitably thrashing mess I Heard Her Call My Name.

Most challenging though, is closing track Sister Ray, a 17-minute noise-rock marvel that perfectly finishes this tumultuous, seemingly stream-of-consciousness record. Apparently the producer Tom Wilson walked out half-way through the recording because he was so shocked by the utter noisy chaos unfolding before him. Recorded in one take with warts and all left in, the song is a remarkable recording of a moment of unadulterated musical freedom. The drums march along uniformly while all the other instruments dart off in different directions trying to create as much, and as punishing a sound as possible, as the piece threatens to burst at the seams and explode, emphatically destroying your ear-drums. Lou Reed has talked about the topic of the song and stated, “I like to think of ‘Sister Ray’ as a transvestite smack dealer. The situation is a bunch of drag queens taking some sailors home with them, shooting up on smack and having this orgy when the police appear.” Something he describes as a ‘scene of total debauchery and decay.’ Just like that scene, the song is a complete and utter filthy mess, but if you just sit back and relax your innate resistance to its punishing dissonance, you’ll find yourself escaping reality for 17 minutes, swept away by it’s anarchy.

White Light / White Heat is a challenging album, and you’d struggle to call it an enjoyable listen in the traditional sense, but hidden in it’s jumbled spontaneity is something magic, a frenzied manifestation of a mind with no boundaries.

Song Picks: Sister Ray, White Light/White Heat, Here She Comes Now

8.5/10

Their fourth studio album is a concept album about life from childhood to old age, although this is only true of the first side, and the second side features mainly unused songs from The Graduate soundtrack, and Mrs Robinson, which was of course used.

I was immediately struck by how modern this sounded, Save the Life of My Child features some of the first synths I’ve heard so far in this challenge and the rowdy heavily reverbed ambient crowd wouldn’t be out of place on a recording today. The song has a strangely sinister tone, one that I absolutely wasn’t expecting, and it’s a great opening to the more experimental nature of this album. It the story of a bunch of people frantically trying to stop a child committing suicide by jumping off something.

America is perhaps my highlight on the album, and is a prime display of Paul Simon’s great lyrics and the duo’s melodic skill. It’s the story of Paul Simon and girlfriend Kathy’s trip around America, while contemplating the meaning of the American dream. The songs starts with some sumptuous low-key humming and each verse ends with a melody like a crackling, heart-warming fire, ‘.... to look for America’ they sing, as the image builds of a whole country of people looking for a country, which seems to disappear the harder they search.

Overs explores the point of a relationship where both parties know it’s over, but are too afraid to say that out loud. A similar topic to that of Dangling Conversation from 1966’s Sage, Rosemary & Thyme. This one has a remarkably more light-hearted feel, which juxtaposes nicely with the sad and resigned lyrics, ending perfectly with the verse:

How long can I delay?
We're just a habit
Like saccharin
And I'm habitually feelin' kinda blue
But each time I try on the thought of leaving you
I stop...
Stop and think it over

Voices of Old People is just that. The voices of old people as recorded by Garfunkel at United Home for Aged Hebrews and the California Home for the Aged at Reseda. It’s a touching and intimate break in the music which precedes the lovely Old Friends, an image of two old men sat on the bench together as the world goes by. Bookends (Reprise) marks the end of the concept part of the album as we move to the more ‘poppy’ part of the album. The highlight of which is undoubtedly the famous Mrs Robinson, a song with the most infectious of choruses, and which actually has little to do with the film, having been written before it’s inclusion. The album is also notable for the fact that it barely has any lines that rhyme, something pretty rare in the rock album world.

Bookends is definitely Simon & Garfunkel’s most experimental album, and my favourite up to now (we still have their classic and final album Bridge Over Troubled Water to come in 1970 though which could change that). It’s an album that perfectly demonstrates Simon’s lyrical skill, has some impressively clean and progressive production (particularly on that second track), and is just and album that begs for you to dig a little deeper. I’d have liked the concept nature to extend beyond the first half, but it still works well regardless.

Song Picks: Save the Life of My Child, America, Mrs Robinson

8.5/10

Pink Floyd’s second album is very much a transitional album. David Gilmour (who is so crucial Pink Floyd’s sound in the upcoming years) was joining, Syd Barrett was leaving. Gilmour contributed on all but 2 songs, while Barrett appeared on 3. Gilmour was initially brought in to cover for Syd Barrett’s ‘eccentricities’ such as when he was completely unresponsive on stage, but it was soon clear this was unworkable and Syd left the band. Notably, the band’s drummer, Nick Mason, states this is his favourite Pink Floyd album.

A Saucerful of Secrets very much feels like the birth of the Pink Floyd who would go on to record classic albums like The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Less psychedelic, and more spacey. Often cited as being a very diverse album because all members of the band contributed songwriting to the album, I actually feel that this is a more cohesive record than their debut (which was mostly written by Barrett). There’s an otherworldly, dreamy atmosphere to the whole thing perfectly encapsulated in the so-fragile-it-would-combust-if-you-touched-it See-Saw. The amount of additional instruments used to create a whole universe of sound is quite remarkable, and unlike anything I’ve heard up to this point in this challenge. I felt like I was being sucked into the world’s most gentle black hole, emerging on the other side to a whole new glorious sky of stars, planets and gentle explosions in the distance. Perhaps the most notable evidence of this ‘soundscape building’ is the epic title track, a 12 minute odyssey into the slightly ominous unknown. The piece is in 4 parts, and there are various theories as to what they represent. My favourite theory is that the four parts are all different sections of a battle ( the theory goes something like part 1: set-up, part 2: the battle itself, part 3: the view of the dead, part 4: the mourning of the dead). The piece works like a charm as a musical representation of a space battle, and by the time you get to the gorgeous final part Celestial Voices (which is a piece dominated by beautifully evocative organ chords, heavily reverbed as if reaching all corners of the universe) you’re there with all your space-being friends, feeling a kind of beautiful sadness at all the non-existent space-beings that have died. It’s quite magical.

Other parts of the album are perhaps a little repetitive and ‘floaty’ for the lack of a better word. It’s hard to get a grip on some of the songs as they seem to hover just out of reach. The whole thing feels very dreamy, which can make it feel like it lacks substance. To me though, the ethereal nature of it, mixed in with the more concrete riff-led tracks like Corporal Clegg is what makes the album what it is.

The final track Jugband Blues, which is Barrett’s last composition for the band is a tearful goodbye from a troubled soul. He sings of his detachment, before releasing the last verse over a gorgeous chord sequence, seemingly floating off into space never to be seen again.

And the sea isn’t green
And I love the Queen
And what exactly is a dream?
And what exactly is a joke?

Song Picks: A Saucerful of Secrets, See-Saw, Jugband Blues

8.5/10

The Beatles, more commonly known as ‘The White Album’ is the Beatles’ ninth album and by far their longest coming in at a whopping 1 hour and 33 minutes long. ‘Now, it can’t possibly all be good if it’s that long can it?’ I hear you say. Well, actually I’d argue that all of it is at least ‘good’ with a lot of it significantly better than that, and as a package it’s rather extraordinary, actually. The fact is though, you’re unlikely to find people agreeing on which songs are the best on this album, or indeed which ones should have been left off to cut down the obscene running length. There’s 30 songs on this thing, yes 30. Thus I’m not really going to go into song detail too much as I’ll be here all day, and I’d quite like to finish this challenge sometime before 2040.

Most of the album’s material was written from March to April while the band was on a meditation course in India, and the album has the feel of a bunch of material written really quickly. It reminds me of a challenge I do every February called FAWM (February Album Writing Month) where the challenge is to write, record, and upload 14 songs for everyone else doing the challenge to hear in the month of February. This time constraint leads to less of a critical mindset, there’s no time for writer’s block, and thus you end up following through with ideas you might otherwise think are stupid. Usually, in my case at least, this leads to a bunch of pretty varied songs, some fitting simplistic styles to make them quicker to write, others just a bit mad, weird experiments that very occasionally pay off. The White Album to me sounds a bit like what would result if the Beatles did an elongated version of this challenge. Some of the material is very simple, some of it’s a bit mad, quite a lot of it is pretty special, but all of the 30 songs are just that, songs. With the exception of the psychedelic and haunting Revolution 9 there’s no interludes or longform experimental instrumentals. Not that there’s any problem with those of course, it’s just rare for an album of this length not to contain significantly more. There’s plenty of experimentation within the songs however, and you’ll notice as you listen just how many of the ideas put forward in this album have become entire subgenres. Quite the achievement.

It’s a weird one is this record. I think the Beatles have absolutely created albums that are more cohesive (e.g. Sgt Peppers). The fact is though, The Beatles has a special atmosphere to it, like you’re sitting in on some of the world’s finest songwriters spontaneously recording some ideas, and the fact that it’s just so bloody long means you’re always discovering something new. Despite its simplicity, it’s length means you never quite feel like you’ve got to the bottom of it, and that makes it an album with probably unmatched longevity in their catalogue.

In many ways, this album encapsulates to me the joy of songwriting. There aren’t many albums of this length that can entertain for their entire duration and never feel like a slog, The Beatles absolutely achieves that, in fact it goes beyond that, it’s never less than a lot of fun. 1 hour and 33 minutes of it.

Song Picks: Back In The USSR; Blackbird; Helter Skelter; Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da; Revolution 1

9/10

I mean it’s hard enough getting through this monstrous double-album due to its 77 minute running time, reviewing something so expansive is even more difficult, but having just reviewed ‘The White Album’, this should be a walk in the park ey?

Electric Ladyland is Hendrix’s third and final album before his untimely death in 1970 after an overdose on sleeping pills. It’s also the only one of his albums he produced, and thus can certainly be considered the purest, most unfiltered distillation of what he was trying to achieve musically. His past two albums were already ground-breaking but this behemoth of an album pushed things yet further and features in my eyes, some of the best psychedelic rock ever recorded. Actually, scrap that, the best psychedelic rock ever recorded.

Obviously we’ve got the ‘hits’ here such as his mesmeric cover of Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower, which Dylan himself has appraised as the definitive version. Dylan had already brought the splendid lyrics to life in his version on 1968’s John Wesley Harding but Hendrix made the song larger than life, an explosion of lyrical imagery, a memorable display of bombastic, busy drum playing, and above all, some of the most iconic guitar soloing ever recorded. Simply put, he turned it from a brilliant song into a masterpiece. Other hits include the irresistible Crosstown Traffic where the guitar appears more like a bunch of distorted backing vocalists than a guitar, with a riff that has to be one of the most infectious things ever written. Besides that we’ve also got the incomparable guitar wizardry of Voodoo Child (Slight Return). A song which starts with that famous, quacky intro, which soon turns into a riff that could plough through mountains, planets, hell, even time itself. That transition is one of my favourite moments on any album. The song is only elevated further by one of Hendrix’s finest vocal performances, it’s perfect closing track to the album. While we’re talking about vocals, it’s interesting to note that Hendrix was never particularly confident about them, and insisted on recording behind a screen when singing.

But, that’s enough about the shorter, more instantly gratifying songs on the album, let’s talk about the record’s two sweeping epics. The first one we come across is the 15-minute psychedelic trip Voodoo Chile which features drummer Mitch Mitchell at his absolute best, flurrying around the kit like a tropical storm, building up into a hurricane of fills that seem to take off into the stratosphere. The guitar improvisation is superb too and proof to me that Hendrix is rock guitar’s answer to the jazz genius of Coltrane etc. Hendrix wanted to create the feel of an ‘informal club jam’ (Wikipedia), and thus got everyone in the studio to record some background shouting etc, which is used throughout the track. The crescendos benefit from Winwood’s organ part, adding further creatively scattered notes to Hendrix’s virtuosic soloing. I think it’s quite impossible to listen to the piece and not be absolutely blown away by it’s spontaneously in-the-moment brilliance. Hendrix’s longest song is also perhaps the definitive display of how at one he was with the guitar, whatever he thought, he could do. The second epic 1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) is more of a mood piece, but one that again displays Hendrix’s ability to sing the most beautiful melodies with his guitar. I particularly love Hendrix’s bass work on the track too (Redding didn’t contribute bass to this one) which has a spaced out chattering quality to it. The guitar melodies that bookend the track are as stratospheric as they are beautiful.

Electric Ladyland is an unfiltered look into the mind of one of rock’s greatest innovators, a final, colossally beautiful goodbye from someone who - although he was a massive influence on what was to come - has yet to be overtaken as a guitarist.

Song Picks: Crosstown Traffic, Voodoo Child (Slight Return), Voodoo Chile, All Along the Watchtower

9.5/10

Now, to understand how Astral Weeks, Van Morrison’s second album, came to be, I think it’s important to know about how the recording sessions operated. Essentially, Morrison sat behind a screen with his acoustic guitar and played as the band improvised around him. This band was essentially a jazz one led by Richard Davis (he played bass on Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch) who was accompanied by guitarist Jay Berliner (who had previously worked with our man Charles Mingus), Warren Smith Jr on percussion, and Connie Kay on drums. It’s this Davis led quartet that makes the album just as much as Morrison does.

Berliner said of the recordings, "We were used to playing to charts, but Van just played us the songs on his guitar and then told us to go ahead and play exactly what we felt." Kay said similar, “we more or less just sat there and jammed.” It’s this freedom that gives the album its unique sound. Lyrically, it’s not particularly coherent, but more a set of gorgeous images and spontaneous ideas flung into the air, much like the instrumentation that accompanies it. Put quite simply, I think it’s a unique combination of the jazz that has blessed these lists and the poetic melodies that have started to appear since the mid-60s.

Throughout the album, Morrison’s voice is beautifully melodic, his guitar playing simple and smooth like butter, and his lyrics seemingly magical:

And you know you gotta go
On that train from Dublin up to Sandy Row
Throwing pennies at the bridges down below
And the rain, hail, sleet, and snow

Combine this with a band that seems to know exactly what Morrison is going to do at every turn, and has the ability to throw the most delightfully colourful musical paint to fill in Van Morrison’s meditatively ‘present’ performances, and you have what is, in my opinion, one the greatest and most unique albums of all time. On that note, I think Madame George, some of the lyrics to which I posted above, is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever recorded.

In terms of some closing words to this review, I think my original rateyourmusic.com review of this album summed it up rather well, so I’ll finish with that:

‘Well this is just completely singular isn't it? I can't think of anything remotely similar. Free-form jazzy country folk. There's no structure, it just ebbs and flows along as Van Morrison spins melodies over the top, weaving a tapestry that floats somewhere in the realm of the images created in our minds while reading a book, intangible and yet beautiful. An album that flies, and forces you to fly along with it.’

Song Picks: Astral Weeks, Sweet Thing, Cyprus Avenue, Madame George

10/10

1967 - Clive's Top 5 Albums of Every Year Challenge

June 20, 2020 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Ok, here we are at the end of 1967, let’s take a look around and see what happened besides a whole heap of great albums being released. The six day war ended with Israel’s victory, race riots broke out across the US and particularly in Detroit, three astronauts were killed in a fire at the test-launch of Apollo 1, Che Guevara was shot to death after his capture in Bolivia and pulsars were discovered. If you want to see some great photographs from the year then I’d highly recommend this article from The Atlantic.

Now, onto what we’re here for. Here’s what rateyourmusic.com’s users rate as the top 5 albums of 1967:

#1 The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico
#2 The Doors - The Doors
#3 The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
#4 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced
#5 Leonard Cohen - Song of Leonard Cohen

Four of those are debut albums and thus new entries to our lists, only The Beatles have been here before. 1967 was such a stupendously strong year that I’m going to pick five more albums and throw them into the mix too:

#6 Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
#10 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold as Love
#11 Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Safe as Milk
#15 Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
#18 Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding

I’m not exaggerating when I say this is the strongest year yet, and it’s going to take some beating so let’s get right into it, here’s my thoughts on and ranking of the above ten albums.

PiperattheGatrsofDawn — 10. The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd’s debut album is the only one made under Syd Barrett’s leadership, and the only one to feature him extensively as he left part-way through recording their next album as his use of psychedelic drugs and reported schizophrenia made his behaviour increasingly unpredictable.

This is a less polished, messier affair than their famous albums once Syd had left, but Syd’s eccentric songwriting talents are evident here. The album starts with a bunch of songs that have sections that are surprisingly poppy (The first two minutes of Flaming could easily be a song by The Beatles) but then descend into psychedelic, spacey trips of the 60’s variety. Pink Floyd’s ability to build a psychedelic soundscape is evident on Pow R. Toc. H where a whole host of instruments and occasional ambient chatter and shouting create a whole world in a song. That kind of musical world-building is present throughout this whole album, peaking perhaps with the rambunctious Interstellar Overdrive which ends in such a mass of noise that you feel like you’ve just been hit by a brick wall, or as Abbey Road engineer Pete Brown put it, recalling walking in on them recording the song, ‘I opened the door and nearly shit myself’. Lucifer Sam is perhaps my favourite song though, a brilliant mix of an infectious hook, driving guitar riff and the kind of otherworldly soundscape that makes this album what it is.

Overall, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn leaves me a little confused, but in a good way. I love where it takes me, the band clearly know how to create an atmosphere with their sound and although the whole thing hasn’t completely grabbed me for whatever reason, there’s something charming about the weirdness of the whole thing.

Song Picks: Lucifer Sam, Interstellar Overdrive

7.5/10

Another debut album. This time by the fabulously named ‘Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band’.

At its heart Safe as Milk is a blues record, but it’s not one of those predictable blues records. No, no, no. This is creative, gritty, and more than a little bit mad. Captain Beefheart’s (Don Van Vliet for those who don’t like eccentric stage names) vocals sound like the ramblings of a mad-man who doesn’t want you to understand what he’s saying. When you can understand what he’s saying it’s often so surreal and mad that it’s rather difficult to get a grip of. Take these lines picked out in the album’s Wikipedia article, from the song Abba Zabba:

Mother say son, she say son, you can't lose, with the stuff you use
Abba Zabba go-zoom Babbette baboon
Run, run, monsoon, Indian dream, tiger moon

Oh Captain, I’m lost, lost in a sea of mad nonsense. Of course, this is an extreme example and Mr Van Vliet is capable of writing some pretty simple lyrics too, take those in Call on Me, where he spends the entire song mentioning the many times his ‘baby’ can call on him.

If you’re lost and it’s all just a bit rough for you, then I’m Glad is the song for you. A surprisingly soulful pop-jaunt including the unexpected complement of some backing singers. It wouldn’t be out of place on a Van Morrison album. Delightful.

Safe as Milk has a fantastically grungy, raw sound, that captures a great energy, aided by Captain Beefheart’s drawly, growling vocals. It feels like a vivacious mix of the delta blues and punk, and it comes highly recommended.

Song Picks: Sure’Nuff ‘n’ Yes, I Do; I’m Glad; Electricity, Plastic Factory

8/10

NeverLovedaMan — 8. I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You

Aretha Franklin

The eleventh studio album by Aretha Franklin is the first to appear on these lists, and probably her most famous. It’s essentially a great collection of performances by one of the best vocalists we’ve ever had. Consisting mainly of covers, the album doesn’t do anything all that exciting instrumentally and the production feels a little old, even in the context of 1967.

The band plod along, providing a perfectly adequate and easy-listening backing to Aretha’s towering vocal performances, without adding much to them. The album opens with one of the finest pop recordings ever, a cover of Otis Redding’s Respect, you’ll all have heard it’s infectious, dance inducing and heart-filling brilliance, and it’s one of those rare songs that gets people of every generation to the dancefloor. The album doesn’t quite continue at that level, but then if it did it would be the undisputed best album of all time and all other music would be deemed pointless. Well, maybe not quite, but it’s still an impossible bar to meet.

The rest of the album is still great and Aretha continues to captivate until the closing notes of the beautiful A Change Is Gonna Come. She is one of those singers that makes you want to sing along all the time, but then immediately makes you realise that you sound like a strangled possum in comparison. It’s worth noting how at home Aretha Franklin’s own compositions sound here. My two favourite examples are Baby, Baby, Baby, which has a deliciously calm groove, and the backing vocals provide a luscious bedding to Aretha’s splendid vocals (did I mention she could sing?), and Dr. Feelgood, which is a strong display of the raspier side of her voice.

I Never Loved a Man The Way I Loved You is the capturing of one of the greatest singers of all time, at her best. Nothing more, nothing less.

Song Picks: Respect, Good Times, Soul Serenade

8/10

Their debut album, The Doors is one of those albums you’ll always see knocking around on top albums of all-time lists and is generally regarded as one of the biggest influences on the psychedelic rock genre.

The Doors is a rock album with a jazz-sensibility. There’s a lot of instrumental sections and a freedom with song structure that is refreshing. The Doors never hesitate to repeat things as much as they feel like, and it’s in their repetition that the album cements itself into your brain, slowly hacking away at it with it’s catchy and yet un-poppy hooks like a determined and slightly scary woodpecker.

Break on Through is a prime example, it barely has a verse and is largely just a repetition of the line ‘break on through to the other side’ which builds and builds vocally as Jim Morrison is almost coughing the line out of his throat by the end of his song, having depleted himself of all his vocal energy.

The Doors sounds quite dark, Morrison’s voice has a reverb on it that makes it sound like it’s coming from the bottom of some deep chasm, a voice from the darkness, something his slightly ghostly tone only amplifies. It’s an album where I appreciate it’s artistry more than feel an urge to listen to it as such but it creates an atmosphere unlike any other album in my view, and that, combined with the great instrumental performances, original song structures, and powerful and varied vocal performance from Jim Morrison, makes this whole thing rather special.

And I haven’t even mentioned Light My Fire have I? You should go and listen to it, it’s their most famous song for a reason, and that reason is that it is splendid, magnetic, catchy, dark, hypnotic and so many other adjectives. In less adjectives, it’s a masterpiece.

Song Picks: Break on Through, Light My Fire, Back Door Man

8.5/10

JohnWesleyHarding — 6. John Wesley Harding

Bob Dylan

Dylan’s eighth album sees him returning to a calmer sound, and although he’s still backed by a band, the sound is much more acoustic and folky than that of his last few albums. I see this as less of a departure from those albums though, and more of a relaxed blend of everything from Another Side of Bob Dylan to Blonde on Blonde.

Vocally and instrumentally this is less brash than anything before it, and in fact his vocals are rather soothing here. Lyrically it still has the surrealness of some of the electric trio of albums (and Another Side of Dylan) but as Dylan himself said, ‘what I’m trying to do now is not use too many words’. The lines are more calculated, there’s no lines thrown in just for the sake of a rhyme. This loses them some of their playfulness, and to me, their magic. With his looser lyrics it felt like a rhyme could always throw a song or an image into a new, unexpected direction, as if Dylan himself had no idea where it was going, which kept things exciting. On John Wesley Harding that’s lacking a little and although the more calculated lyrics make the songs leaner, it also makes them a little colder.

Nevertheless, this still features the kind of evocative imagery you’d expect on a Dylan album. You only need to look at the final verse of All Along The Watchtower (later covered by Jimi Hendrix in what even Dylan agreed was the better version) to realise that Dylan hasn’t lost his touch:

All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants too
Outside, in the distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
The wind began to howl

I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine is another favourite, reminiscent of Visions of Johanna in it’s vocals, and bewitching me in a similar way whenever it comes on. The closer I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight is an underrated gem, a perfect country song, and the perfect signal of what was to come next. Even the vocals sound like they’re straight from his next album, 1969’s Nashville Skyline.

Recorded after Dylan had recovered from his motorbike accident in 1966, and around the same time as the famous Basement Tapes were being recorded (though they weren’t released until 1975), John Wesley Harding is Dylan at his most gentle, even the band plods along here, backing the change in Dylan’s vocal style perfectly. It serves as a great segue from the ‘thin mercury sound’ to a more country sound, and although it’s not as memorable as his best, it’s still one I turn to regularly, and a reminder of just how singular Dylan is. There’s no other album that sounds quite like John Wesley Harding, a black and white mix of folk, country, and lyrics to spin carefully shaped images in your mind.

Song Picks: John Wesley Harding, All Along The Watchtower, I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight

8.5/10

Are You Experienced Is Jimi Hendrix’s debut album, and widely regarded as one of the greatest rock debuts of all time. It’s another album that had different songs on the UK and US release. I’m going to be reviewing the US edition because I prefer the cover (see above, isn’t it glorious?), and because it has Purple Haze on it, and the UK edition doesn’t. Frankly, you’d have to be rather silly to review an album without Purple Haze on it if there’s a version out there with it on.

The aforementioned Purple Haze opens the album, and might just be the most emphatic announcement of the arrival of any artist on the first track of their debut in history. After a staccato intro Hendrix comes in with one of the best guitar riffs ever written, which is soon added to by some superbly scattershot drumming from Mitch Michell and another messy, infectious, riff from Hendrix, backed by Noel Redding’s gritty, wide-as-a-landscape bass. It encapsulates everything that’s great about The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Hey Joe was the band’s first single after Hendrix was plucked from backing guitarist obscurity and eventually ended up under the management of ex-Animals member Chas Chandler. Chas had enjoyed Hendrix’s performance of Hey Joe live and in a moment of rock ‘n’ roll history, sought to find Hendrix a permanent band, which ended up with the aforementioned Redding and Mitchell. The three perfectly complement each other and Hey Joe is another great example of this. They lay down an infectious groove which expands into a cosmic whirlwind of guitar solos, busy and brisk drumming and solid bass grooves holding the whole thing together. Mitch Michell is, in my eyes, one of the main reasons for Hendrix’s success, I can’t imagine a more perfect drummer for him. He has a light-touch jazz style that means he can be superbly busy and mesmeric while never taking over the song. This busy, hyperactive style goes well with Hendrix’s brilliantly filthy and virtuosic guitar work. Hey Joe’s solo sections are a perfect example of this.

The Wind Cries Mary is an example of Hendrix’s often under-appreciated lyrical skills. With a Dylan-esque talent for imagery he builds a variety of scenes which conclude with the wind uttering ‘Mary’ in one way or another, culminating in this fabulous last verse:

Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past?
And with its crutch, its old age, and its wisdom
It whispers no, this will be the last
And the wind cries Mary

The album’s 60 minute running length is chock-full of great psychedelic rock and blues songs and features classics such as the Hendrix guitar showpiece (well you could say that about all of them to be fair) Foxey Lady, the blisteringly pacey and irresistible Fire, and of course the rolling, fabulous Mitch Mitchell showcase Manic Depression.

The only negative thing to say about Are You Experienced? Is that it feels a little more like a greatest hits collection than an album. The production quality is not completely consistent (see the great I Don’t Live Today, which sounds rather thin), and it just doesn’t feel as cohesive as what was to come. I’m being nit-picky there though, as this is honestly one of the best rock albums you’re going to hear, and the fact it’s a debut is honestly rather mind-blowing.

Song Picks: Purple Haze, Hey Joe, I Don’t Live Today, The Wind Cries Mary, Manic Depression

9/10

SgtPeppers — 4. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles

The Beatles’ eighth album was their first following their retirement from live performance in August 1966. It’s a concept album performed by the fictionalised Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, an idea born in Paul McCartney’s brain on a flight where he thought of creating a song including an Edwardian military band. Again, like Revolver, it incorporates a whole variety of musical influences such as Indian, psychedelic and circus music. To me, it perfects what Revolver began.

The album starts with the delightful title track as over the hum of a crowd talking the band announces it’s arrival, ‘It was 20 years ago today, that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play…’, the crowd cheers and we’re off. It’s a fun song full of positivity, joy and fun, and it perfectly sets the mood that you’re listening to a fictional band’s performance. Although the crowd noise never re-appears (until the penultimate goodbye track from the band), you’ve still been transported into that environment, and it’s partly that context that makes the album so wonderful to me.

The album is a radiant beacon of joy. It’s whimsical, full of catchy, almost nursery-rhyme like melodies, and yet it never gets annoying. Quite the feat.

With A Little Help From My Friends sounds like a kids song (save for the ‘I get high with a little help from my friends’ line) and perfectly encapsulates the childish fun that a lot of this album has. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds was inspired by a picture drawn by Lennon’s son, who came home from nursery one day with a picture of his friend Lucy in the sky, and it was titled as the track is. The song is generally believed to be about LSD, with the title alluding to that (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) however Lennon has strongly denied this (you can watch him denying it here). I believe more in the line that it’s a reflection of his love of ‘Alice In Wonderland’ as a lot of the imagery in the song’s brilliantly vivid lyrics reminds me of Lewis Carroll’s style. The iconic opening verse is a great example:

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Anyway, whatever the song is about. It’s a merry, catchy, jovial song which shows a band unafraid to create something which could be considered quite childish, and to me, it’s that childish sense of fun that makes this album so special. The fact that this song was inspired by a child’s picture, just makes that idea even more great.

It feels kind of foolish to talk about all the songs on this album, similar to The Beach Boy’s Pet Sounds from 1966, this album feels like a whole, and talking about individual songs doesn’t do the album much justice. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is vivid, colourful journey into the mind of some of the best pop songwriters we’ve ever had. Even When I’m Sixty Four, which I find too simplistic out of context and don’t usually enjoy, shines in the context of this album. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is an unbridled joy, and has a special place in my heart. I’m going to stop my review there before I use the word ‘joy’ even more times than I already have.

Song Picks: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, With A Little Help From My Friends, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Getting Better, Within You Without You

9/10

Whereas Are You Experienced? sounded like the greatest of greatest hits collections, Axis: Bold as Love sounds like an album. The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s second album was released just 7 months after their first, and sees them venturing deeper into psychedelia.

Before we start talking about the album, let’s talk about that controversial cover, which none of the band had anything to do with and Hendrix particularly disliked. He didn’t see the relevance of the band being depicted as various forms of Vishnu, and felt it would have made more sense if the cover was influenced by his Native American background. The cover was banned in Malaysia because of how it appropriates the Hindu god.

At 38 minutes, this album is significantly shorter than the band’s debut, and it feels like a tighter, more cohesive ‘experience’ because of it. Hendrix is clearly pushing what he does in the studio here with the opener being more of a skit than a song as Mitch Mitchell interviews him about space with both their voices warped before the guitar travels around the stereo field, creating the image of falling into a psychedelic black hole. It’s weird, but it really puts you into the mood for what’s to come.

The album also features Hendrix performing some softer material, Up From The Skies has wonderful gentle bounce to it, Hendrix’s voice sounding particularly warm and comforting as he sings about an alien visiting earth and being less than impressed with what’s going on. Again, the use of the stereo image to swing Hendrix’s guitar around makes the whole thing an otherworldly experience. Castles Made of Sand is honey in song form. It’s sweet, gentle and smooth as all hell, using the change of the seasons as a metaphor for the changes in Hendrix’s own life. Perhaps most famous of the soft songs though is the gorgeous Little Wing, which ends in a magnificent, stratospheric and yet chilled solo.

Besides these breaks in the schedule though we’ve got the band at their absolute rocking best. Spanish Castle Magic sounds huge and features a riff that could obliterate whole planets. As Hendrix’s starry solo bounces around half-way through the track you feel as though you’ve been shot into space out of a cannon. Guitars may sound thicker nowadays, and drums more slick and punchy, but there’s still not many songs out there that can compete with the sheer ferocity of this track. Neil Redding’s ability to carry a track on his own is really emphasised on the poppy Wait Until Tomorrow where he provides a lot of the thrust of the song. A track that also features some great phasing work on the drums, making Mitchell’s drumming sound positively cosmic. Speaking of cosmic, let’s talk about the end of the closing title track. Mitchell’s short and otherworldly drum solo marks the start of a Hendrix guitar solo that, when combined with the seriously psychedelic sounding drums, is like some ginormous god picking you up and spinning you through the whole universe. It really is that good.

The whole band is on top form on Axis: Bold As Love, and though they were already stupendously good at creating tracks that were infectious, heavy and transformative, this is where they really nailed what it means to make an ‘album’. I’m rather excited about 1968’s Electric Ladyland, the band’s final album.

Song Picks: Spanish Castle Magic, Little Wing, Axis: Bold as Love, Castles Made of Sand

9.5/10

songsofchohen — 2. Songs Of Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Excellent, Leonard has finally joined the party! Although, this is not an album you’d want to put on at a party unless you want everyone to leave feeling all melancholy and reflective, having spent the ‘party’ staring at the ground contemplating the pointlessness of their existence . Songs of Leonard Cohen is the wonderfully originally named debut album (yep I know, another one) from the Canadian poet.

It’s very much an acoustic guitar led album, but features lots of subtle touches that gently add to the album’s dark atmosphere (see Master Song & Winter Lady), including Nancy Priddy’s gorgeous backing vocals.. What really makes the album though, is the combination of Cohen’s gentle nylon-string guitar fingerpicking, his almost spoken word singing style, and most importantly of all, his poetic lyrics.

In a way, the guitar playing and ‘singing’ is quite bland, but in this context, where the words are so majestic, that’s exactly what you need, nothing should distract you from them. The album opens with the famous Suzanne (first published as a poem in 1966) which features a heavenly chorus ending in the so-good-I’ve-run-out-of-superlatives line ‘For you've touched her perfect body with your mind’. The final verse is a great example of how stupidly brilliant our man Leonard is with words:

And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone

Excuse me while I just go and rip up everything I’ve ever written. The album continues much in this vain and I could plonk pretty much any of the album’s multitude of other verses here and marvel at their glory.

By the time So Long Marianne, one of the greatest songs ever written, comes round, what is a surprisingly full band sound complete with drums doesn’t sound too out of place. After all, though the album is quite sparse in many ways, when you really listen in there’s actually rather a lot going. The drums I’ve mentioned are overly busy, but not quite enough to distract from a song that is as touching, poetic, enveloping and sadly catchy as So Long Marianne, one of the multitude of timeless songs that 1967 has brought us.

The Songs of Leonard Cohen is like a book of poetry in musical form. Perfectly performed and produced, it’s the fleeting meeting of two art forms, creating a melancholy classic that sounds so unique I don’t think you ever forget your first listen of it. I, for one, can remember exactly where I was when I first entered its mystical world.

Song Picks: Suzanne, So Long Marianne, Master Song, Winter Lady

10/10

Velvet&Nico — 1. The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Velvet Underground

It’s unthinkable now that an album as iconic as The Velvet Underground & Nico wasn’t an immediate success, but it wasn’t. The album was initially a sales failure (entering the album charts at number 199), many record stores refused to stock it, radios didn’t play it, and critics largely ignored it. This is largely attributed to the controversial topics the album contains such as drug abuse and prostitution. However, I think a big part of it was just that it was so far ahead of it’s time that people couldn’t handle it. Nowadays, the album enjoys a well-earned status as one of the best albums of all time. In fact, the rateyoumusic.com community rates it not only as the best album of 1967, but the sixth best album of all time, higher than any album we’ve had so far on this challenge.

The album has been so influential on subsequent music that Brian Eno famously said that although it only sold 30,000 copies initially, ‘everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band’. The album’s recording was funded by Andy Warhol, who managed the band and also created that iconic album cover, perhaps the most famous album cover of all time. Although Warhol is listed as the producer too, he didn’t really have much influence over the sound, but Lou Reed states the fact that he just let them do exactly what they wanted is the main reason for the album that resulted, and in that way you could say he’s had a pretty big influence on it.

Part of the genius of the album is just how varied it is and yet how unified it sounds. The opener Sunday Morning is a beautifully blissful track that embodies the feeling of a sunny Sunday morning. The xylophone gently skips along as Lou Reed’s vocal seems to glide over you like a cloud, but a big fluffy white cloud as opposed to a sinister dark one. It’s a beautiful song. Compare this with the raucous closing track European Son and you’d never know they came from the same album. The band marches on into an aural oblivion of shrieks and fuzz and clatter and noise and out of tune guitars, a complete and utter chaotic assault on the ears. But the journey to that ending, and the musically suicidal ending, makes complete sense somehow.

As the band progresses from the marching, relentlessly cool I’m Waiting For The Man, to the melodic (and Nico’s first vocal performance) Femme Fatale, to the challenging and yet surprisingly catchy S&M inspired song Venus In Furs you get the feeling that every song on this album is going to be unlike anything else, a small fragment of brilliance. And it turns out that feeling is right. Run, Run, Run rushes along brilliantly, telling its stories of drug-hunting and abuse with a noisy spring in it’s step. The brash guitar ‘solo’ as sign of the chaos to come. All Tomorrow’s Parties sounds like a warped folk song, Nico’s vocal adding a great surrealness to the so-free-it’s-close-to-falling-apart instrumentation. Heroin though, is the most Velvet Underground song here, a song that tells of the use of the titular drug, alternating between a gentle guitar part and a rapid thrashing of chords, as the Reed’s vocals and thoughts barely keep up. All the while there’s a drone that gradually turns into a messy, scrambled squeak as the song enters it’s chaotic finale. It’s the free-est thing I’ve heard since Free Jazz way back in 1960, an uninhibited mess of noise and ideas that turns into something brilliant and incomparable. Then we’re back into a more accessible sound with There She Goes Again, a delightfully catchy number complete with backing vocals and ooooo’s. Nico returns for her final vocal appearance in a song where her German accent (that adds so much to her vocals) is particularly prominent, I’ll Be Your Mirror. The penultimate track The Black Angel’s Death Song is a perfect primer for the aforementioned noisy closing track European Son. There’s just enough to latch on in Reed’s vocal to keep you sane, even if a violin screeches along in an out of tune manner throughout the song. By the time European Son has come and gone, you’re left wondering who has just walked off with your mind, but you also feel strangely free.

The Velvet Underground & Nico is an experience like no other to listen to, it’s both challenging and endlessly rewarding. There’s a perfect mix of accessible stuff, and stuff that is just completely mind-bending. It’s both a mess and a masterpiece.

Song Picks: Sunday Morning; Heroin, Run Run Run, There She Goes Again

10/10

1965 - Clive's Top 5 Albums of Every Year Challenge

May 24, 2020 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Here we are, slap-bang in the middle of the 60s. But what happened in 1965? Well, Ed White became the first American to conduct a space walk, Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston to keep the heavyweight title he gained in 1964, Malcolm X was assassinated, and Martin Luther King led his famous civil-rights march to Selma leading to Johnson eventually singing the Voting Rights Act. In Britain Winston Churchill died and the 70 mph national speed limit was introduced.

And here are the top five albums of the year as rated by our lovely rateyourmusic.com users:

#1 John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
#2 Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
#3 The Beatles - Rubber Soul
#4 Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
#5 Otis Redding - Otis Blue

Coltrane’s back, and we’ve got two Dylan albums?? Count me in. We also see a return from The Beatles and Otis Redding’s first and only appearance. As usual I’ve had a look a little further down the list and spotted a few others that intrigue me:

#6 Vince Guaraldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas
#7 Nina Simone - Pastel Blues
#9 Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank
#20 The Sonics - Here Are The Sonics

Yes, you read right, I’m going to review a Christmas album. Anyway I’ve been an idiot and set myself the rather large task of reviewing nine this time, so I’d best get started. Here’s my thoughts and ranking of the above nine albums.

Here Are the Sonics is an album that I’ve often heard mentioned as an influence among some of my favourite punk bands but have never got round to listening to.

The first thing you’ll notice is just how terrible it sounds. I mean, it sounds like someone got a tape, smashed it with a mallet, converted it to a low-quality mp3, then uploaded it to youtube before downloading it again on the lowest quality setting. But this isn’t going for any sound quality awards, this is garage-rock, man. This is from an era before you could afford to have decent studio equipment in your house, and so if you didn’t record in a studio, it was likely to sound like the band had been shrunk to the size of borrowers and were playing in a tin can, underwater.

Anyway enough of that, what makes this album is the energy. Lead singer Gerry Roslie has a powerful voice and does that 50s/60s ‘waaaaaauuuuuu’ thing with a fantastic grittiness, and at least 5 times every song in a way that is fun and will bring a smile to the most angry of faces. Mainly covers with a couple of originals thrown in, this is a fun set of songs performed with infectious, charming energy, and I can see why it was so influential. It’s the first album I’ve heard in this challenge that has a really punk attitude, an attitude of ‘here we are, this is what we do, deal with it’. I feel most of the people they influenced improved on what they do here, but it’s remarkable to hear the birth of a more DIY sound and the punk attitude I’ve mentioned. Here are The Sonics! is probably more important than it is great, but a worthy listen nonetheless.

Song Pick: The Witch, Strychnine

7/10

‘Err, Clive, have you gone mad? It’s May and you’re reviewing a Christmas album??’ Yes I am. There’ll be no seasonal discrimination here. Christmas or not, this deserves a review.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is the soundtrack to the film of the same name, which despite being a massive Peanuts fan, I still haven’t seen.

So, once I’d got past the weirdness of listening to a Christmas album while it’s sunny and warm outside and I haven’t been able to see family for months, I began to realise just how much I’ve been missing in not making this a regular part of the Christmas rotation. You should listen to it now too, it makes you feel like a maverick. Find it, press play and scream, “screw you society and your silly calendar, I’ll do what I want, when I want, thanks!!” and maybe throw a chair out the window for good measure.

Silliness aside, this is actually a super relaxing album, so throwing a chair out to it would be nigh on impossible; the gentle jazz will make you put that chair right back down and sit on it in a contemplative manner. It feels like the Christmas equivalent of 1664’s Getz/Gilberto, a musical substitute to meditation.

Guaraldi is a jazz pianist, and these are jazz renditions of various Christmas classics, with a children’s choir sprinkled on top now and again to really up that Christmassy feel. It’s more charming than George Clooney and the band has a wonderful relaxed vibe to it that is just perfect for these songs. Fred Marshall’s double bass feels like it’s giving you a hug with it’s big, heavy, gently rumbling notes. Jerry Granelli’s drumming is so laid back, it’s easy to forget it’s even there at points, and Guaraldi’s piano solos are like the stars twinkling on Christmas eve, as he gently pads his way up and down the keys like a musical cat walking on the piano. I prefer the jazz instrumentals to the tracks with kids singing carols, but there’s not enough of the latter to ever make it annoying, at least not for me. This one will definitely be getting a spin at Christmas this year.

Song Picks: O Tannenbaum, What Child is This, Linus and Lucy, Greensleaves

7/10

Rubber Soul is The Beatles’ sixth studio album and the production has taken a notable step up since A Hard Day’s Night from 1964’s list.

This is the first time The Beatles had an extended time in the studio without other commitments to distract them, and it shows. There’s a bigger soundscape to the recording, more space for all the instruments to shine in and just a general feel that more time has gone into the songs. This generally works in its favour, but also loses it that slightly rougher, more raw edge that A Hard Day’s Night had. Lyrically this is more interesting, though still far from their peak, and there’s catchy choruses a-plenty as you’d expect.

The album opens with 3 great songs, the simple and catchy Drive My Car, the majestic Norwegian Wood featuring a great appearance on the sitar and probably the album’s best lyrics, and You Won’t See Me, a song where the improved production is particularly noticeable, and that features some great, fun, backing vocals that add thickness to the otherwise sparse sound. Where I struggle is with the album’s middle section, where songs blend into one a little too much. They’re all enjoyable enough, but perhaps too breezy and simple to be all that memorable. I’m Looking Through You is the exception here; it’s irresistible chorus melody followed by a punchy guitar part making it stand out from the crowd. The closer, Run For Your Life is another example of what The Beatles do best: an infectious sing-along melody with a bouncy rhythm section and some cheery guitar solos.

A happy, summery album full of catchy and enjoyable songs but that isn’t quite interesting enough to maintain my attention during an attentive listen. There’s better to come from this lot.

Song Picks: Drive My Car, Norwegian Wood, I’m Looking Through You

7/10

Nina Simone’s Pastel Blues is largely famous for the epic 10 minute rendition of the traditional Sinnerman that closes the album, but although that is undoubtedly the highlight, there’s plenty else to enjoy here.

These are all live performances, featuring generally sparse arrangements which really prove that Nina Simone is one of the most interesting vocalists we’ve ever had. She’s certainly one of my favourites. Her voice has a deep sadness to it, and yet also a roughness, an anger. Not to mention the fact it’s probably one of the most powerful voices I’ve ever heard. I mean I imagine if she sang the vocal tour-de-force Be My Husband at a shed, that shed would fall down under the sheer ferocity of her voice. The track features nothing but her vocals and some barebones percussion, and it’s spectacular; an inspirational display of how much interest can be created with the right vocal. It’s quite unthinkable that Nina had initially wanted to become a concert pianist and only started to sing because some clubs she played at asked her to.

Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out and the beautiful End of the Line show her talent for softer pieces, with a more traditional arrangement, creating a richer instrumental backing, but never taking the focus of Simone’s voice. Tell Me More and More and Then Some shows her often underrated piano skills. She’s got a lovely deft, but quick touch on the keys that provides the perfect accompaniment in the gaps between her vocal lines. It’s another highlight, showing the remarkable dynamic range in both her piano playing and singing.

But let’s talk about the star attraction, Sinnerman. The track starts with a simple, rhythmical piano part, but Simone’s vocals, a delicately footstepping bassline and some hi-hat tapping quickly join the fold and we’re away. The song tells of a man running from God’s judgement of the sins he’s committed. The song has a frantic, rumbling energy to it, perfectly capturing the feel of someone running to endless places in a hope to hide from an all-seeing God. It’s impossible not to get pulled in, and by the time Simone bashes out a few frantic chords on the piano and screams ‘power’ for the last time (she screams it a lot) as the band comes in for a final crescendo, you’re left feeling rather out of breath. It’s a masterful performance, a powerful releasing of every ounce of emotion inside her, which makes whatever you listen to afterwards seem a little inadequate and fake somehow.

Song picks: Be My Husband, Tell Me More and More and Then Some, Sinnerman

8/10

Otis Blue is Otis Redding’s third album and features mainly covers of soul hits with three originals.

The album opens with the original Ole Man Trouble and it’s clear as soon as Otis starts singing that his voice is magnificent, gritty, rich and timeless. If the highest quality, most complex tasting honey could sing, this is what it’d sound like. The way he can switch from powerful, to tuneful and soft, to both (somehow) is magical. There’s plenty else here to keep you entertained beyond some of the best vocals you’re ever likely to hear here however. For a start, the originals all show Otis’ considerable songwriting skill, Respect (later to become a signature song for Aretha Franklin) in particular is an absolute banger, made as much by Otis’ desperate, gritty cries for ‘respect!’ as it is by the horns that punctuate every chorus. The final original, I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (to Stop Now), shows Otis’ softer side. A beautifully simple love song where Otis’ gentle croons turn to a powerful, desperate growl by the end of the song.

As for the covers, Otis and the band completely make them their own, even Can’t Get No Satisfaction has a level of vocalised frustration to it that makes it stand on its own besides The Rolling Stones’ version, though that is perhaps the least convincing one. Highlights for me include the superb Down in the Valley, the fabulously uplifting Wonderful World and the groovy as all hell Rock Me Baby where Otis spends three and half minutes asking desperately to be ‘rocked’ in a manner that I don’t think anyone would be able to refuse.

Otis didn’t make many more albums, he tragically died in a plane crash in 1967. This is generally regarded as his best and it feels like an essential capturing of one of the best singers we’ve ever had, at the peak of his powers. It’s also the kind of album I think anyone would enjoy.

Song Picks: Ole Man Trouble, Respect, Down In The Valley, Rock Me Baby

9/10

Jackson C. Frank’s story is a sad one. This is his first and only album and he was unable to maintain his career due to a variety of mental health problems and addictions. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, and after struggles with depression, Frank ended up homeless in New York and died of pneumonia in 1999 aged 56.

Jackson C. Frank is entirely composed of Jackson’s vocal and guitar with nothing else added, and was produced by Paul Simon. Yes, that one. Apparently, Frank was so nervous he had to have screens all around him in the studio and the whole thing was recorded in just three and a half hours.

His voice has a perfect dark sounding reverb, helping give his hollow, low voice a powerful atmosphere. The guitar switches from simple chords to more complex picking and is reminiscent of Bob Dylan in many ways, although Simon’s production makes it sound much heavier.

Each song feels important here, and there’s a power to Jackson’s performances, particularly the vocals, that makes this sound like a lost classic somehow. As well as songs about being sad (e.g. the excellent Blues Run The Game) there’s political content here that’s just as powerful as some of the stuff Dylan was recording in the previous two years. Don’t Look Back urges us to keep looking out for corruption and injustice:

So don’t look back
Over your shoulder
Keep your eye on freedom shore
‘Cause you know
The brave men with you
Also pay the wages of war

He sings these words at the top of his voice, with a simple, loud guitar part that sounds like it’s close to unravelling. It’s a truly powerful piece. Milk & Honey was later covered by Nick Drake, and seems to foreshadow Jackson’s life. ‘I think I’ll be moving on’ he sings over a lovely picked guitar melody. Move on he did, but only to more sadness. My Name Is Carnival is my personal favourite, and has the strongest lyrics on here in my opinion. Frank spins a web of imagery over its six verses, all ending with the word ‘carnival’, perhaps my favourite is the penultimate:

The fat woman frowns at screaming frightened clowns that move enchanted
And the shadow lie and waits outside your iron gates with one wish granted
Colours fall, throw the ball, play the game of Carnival

This album proves Frank to be an expert songwriter, one who crafts melancholy, heavy melodies, can accompany these with a whole host of great lyrics, and perform the whole lot with a remarkable presentness, as if nothing else in the world mattered at that very moment.

‘Just like anything, to sing is a state of mind’ Jackson sings on the lovely closing track Just Like Anything. He’s clearly in that state of mind here, and it’s one of music’s saddest stories that he was never captured in it again.

Song Picks: Blues Run The Game, Don’t Look Back, My Name Is Carnival, Just Like Anything

9/10

Bob’s back. Bringing It All Back Home is his fifth album, and the first after he famously ‘went electric’, one night in 1966 having ‘JUDAS!!’ shouted at him at a gig at the Free Trade Concert Hall in Manchester. Yep, the one in England. A lot of Dylan’s folk fans had decided he’d sold out and no longer wrote music that spoke to them. I can see why they might think the latter, if they were following entirely for his direct political output then that had now very much disappeared (although this particular album is more political than often claimed in my view), replaced by an abstract poetry which, absolutely has less obvious meaning, but is in my humble opinion the best lyrical period of any artist, ever. The complaint that he’d ‘sold out’ I still don’t understand. Yes, he was using an electric guitar like a lot of the popular bands of the day (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones etc), but this sounded like no one else out there. An energetic mix of jazz like improvisation and loudly performed poetry.

The album opens with Subterranean Homesick Blues, Dylan’s first song to break the top 40 in the US (it got into the top 10 in England) and the emphatic announcement that electric Dylan had very much arrived. Often described (probably hyperbolically) as the song that invented both rap and music videos (you’ll no doubt have seen the below video, which originally featured in the documentary Don’t Look Back) it’s a patchwork blanket of anti-establishment imagery, inspired very much by Allen Ginsberg and the beats. Dylan’s social commentary is still alive and well here, as shown by this verse:

Oh, get sick, get well, hang around a ink well
Hang bail, hard to tell if anything is gonna sell
Try hard, get barred, get back, ride rail
Get jailed, jump bail, join the Army if you fail

By the time the song finishes with my favourite lyrical section you’ve had so many crazy images running through your head that it feels like you’ve taken some strange pill:

Better jump down a manhole light yourself a candle
Don't wear sandals try to avoid the scandals
Don't want to be a bum, you better chew gum
The pump don't work 'cause the vandals took the handles.

We haven’t got time to try and dissect every song here, try being the important word there. This is an album where every song is a goldmine of images and ideas, most of which I don’t understand, because I’m not sure all of it can be understood, but that’s what makes it kind of magical. Any meaning is always hovering just out of reach. And hell, I think sometimes people get bogged down with everything having to have a meaning. Sometimes a painting can just be beautiful, a view majestic, a piano solo pretty and inventive, even if there’s no obvious meaning attached. I’m not sure why it’s any different with words, and to me reading pretty much any Dylan lyric from the magical trio of albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde is proof of this. The meaning may float tantalisingly out of reach, but there’s no doubt what you’re reading is fabulous, fresh, spectacular, and when the lyrics come alive in the songs, well, it’s heaven.

Honestly, I could write a paragraph about all these songs but I’ll spare you that and talk about a couple more highlight moments.

Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream is an absurd piece about Dylan discovering America before Columbus. It’s a prime display of Dylan’s humour and endless imagination, but perhaps what I love most about it is the start of the song. Dylan starts the first verse ‘I was riding on the Mayflower when I thought I spied some land, I yelled for Captain Arab, I have you understand’ before bursting into laughter along with the rest of the band (who were supposed to have come in). ‘Ok take 2’, Bob says after they’ve caught their breath again, and the band and Dylan proceed to nail it on the second take. It’s a perfect capturing of the way these songs were recorded, mostly within three or so takes, with the rest of the band never having heard them before, and with Dylan frantically jumping from instrument to instrument in between takes giving people ideas for the next one. Take three would often sound like a completely different song from take one. Dylan never sat still, the band never performed it the same way twice, and that’s how everything sounds so immediate. Like the lightning in a bottle of a first performance being captured before repetition has allowed it to escape.

Mr Tambourine Man is probably the most famous song on this album (The Byrds’ cover of it went to number 1), and starts off the acoustic half of the album. It’s a song that I’m not even going to bother to try to describe, I’m just going to plonk the final verse here:

And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow

If I had to pick a favourite Dylan verse, it might just be that. My favourite performances of the song didn’t come until The Rolling Thunder tour in the 70s however, when Dylan’s rusty, cloudy vocal adds a wonderful added layer of mystery. One such performance features at the start of Michael Scorcese’s excellent Rolling Thunder Revue documentary about that tour.

Dylan’s band haven’t quite hit the peak of the ‘thin mercury sound’ they perfected on the next two albums, and ‘Maggie’s Farm’ remains one of the few songs of this era where I’m not that big on Dylan’s vocal, and that’s what holds this back compared to the other two I mention, but, as I’m about to explain, those are two of my favourite albums ever, so that’s not saying much.

Song Picks: Mr Tambourine Man, Subterranean Homesick Blues, She Belongs To Me, Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream

9.5/10

Widely regarded as Coltrane’s masterpiece, and indeed one of the greatest albums of all time, A Love Supreme was recorded in one session with Coltrane leading the quartet of Mccoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums.

A Love Supreme portrays, in a jazz format, the story of Coltrane’s spiritual awakening. Although there are dissonant sections, it’s not an album I’d describe as challenging as such. Coltrane is not playing in an aggressive or boundary pushing way, it feels like he’s just sat back and let whatever is in him come out, without forcing anything. Don’t get me wrong, the saxophone playing here is still sublime, it’s just effortlessly sublime. This is a recording of a master of his art, at the peak of his talents (we’ve had a few of those this year haven’t we?).

But, although it’s Coltrane’s playing that lifts this to the realms of magic, the rest of the band deserve a mention too for creating the perfect companion to Coltrane’s saxophone awakening. Part II: Resolution is a great example, Tyner effortlessly switches between stabbing at chords and twinkling over notes while Elvin Jones creates a flurry of noise on the drums that somehow keeps a perfect beat, providing a perfect and engaging introduction before Coltrane weaves his saxophone magic. Elvin’s work on Part I: Acknowledgement is notable too, with him creating an almost tribal sounding beat of effortless complexity, there’s so much going on, and it happens at such a pace that it has to go down as one of my jazz drumming highlights. Tyner once again shows his prowess of combining chord stabs and twinkling in his majestic solo on Part III: Pursuance, where he plays at such pace and with such accuracy and feeling it’s truly remarkable. When Coltrane finally comes in and Jones is busy creating yet another masterfully complex and rapid beat, you’re left wondering if you’re actually listening to four humans, or indeed some crazy talented aliens sent down from outer space.

I don’t think you have to know much about the spiritual background to the composition of this album to enjoy it. If you sit back it’ll take you places, wonderful, wonderful places. It’s an album I have no hesitation in calling ‘beautiful’, and it’s certainly one of my very favourite jazz albums.

Song Picks: Part I: Acknowledgement, Part III: Pursuance

9.5/10

5de9704b9bd8773ddbcb1de962f62386.1000x1000x1.jpg — 1. Highway 61 Revisited

Bob Dylan

Highway 61 Revisited is my favourite album of all-time. 10/10

I was going to leave it there, but I won’t leave you hanging like that, so I’ll write a bit about why I like it so much. This is Dylan’s sixth studio album, which is, with the exception of the 11 minute closing track Desolation Row, entirely electric.

I always like the following quote from Bruce Springsteen about Dylan and feel it sums up this album rather well (emphasis mine):

‘The first time I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind ... The way that Elvis freed your body, Dylan freed your mind, and showed us that because the music was physical did not mean it was anti-intellect. He had the vision and talent to make a pop song so that it contained the whole world. He invented a new way a pop singer could sound, broke through the limitations of what a recording could achieve, and he changed the face of rock'n'roll for ever and ever’

That snare shot that ‘sounded like somebody’d kicked open the door to your mind’ opens the album, and perhaps its most famous song, Like A Rolling Stone, bold, brash announcement that what Dylan called ‘that thin, that wild mercury sound’ had arrived. Once that famous snare hits what follows is a magical soundscape of skipping piano, floating organ, shimmering tambourine and the bass and electric guitar holding it all together. To me it’s a sound of instant joy. Whenever I get new pair of headphones or set of speakers, this is the first song I blast out at full volume. I remember at a good friend of mine’s stag do (Josh Keighley for you podcast listeners) we were renting out a house and on arrival, in one of the massive rooms, I found this massive stereo system. There was no auxiliary input. I scrambled through the CD collection hoping for something, and to my utter joy I found this album. I put it on, cranked it up, and just laid there on the wooden floor, floating up into the dreamland that Dylan and his band create on that majestic opening track. Yeah, I’m great fun at parties.

Besides that opening track, which I suspect is my most listened to song ever, this album is jam packed with energetic poetry backed by a band on top form. Tombstone Blues has a great ramshackle feel to it where it sounds as though it’ll fall apart at any moment, but never does. It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry fills me with an insatiable urge to start skipping around, Paul Griffith’s piano again proving to be one of the under-appreciated stars of this album. From a Buick 6 is missing Griffiths, but it’s made up for by a bouncing, friendly bass part which juxtaposes nicely with Dylan’s thin, harsh vocal.

Ballad of a Thin Man has perhaps the album’s best lyrics and vocal performance, and also feels significantly darker and more ominous than the rest of the album. Although no one’s ever got to the bottom of who the ‘Mr Jones’ mentioned in the song is, Dylan used to say ‘this is a song about people who ask me questions’ when performing it live, which suggests it’s about someone who interviewed him, something broached in the biopic I’m Not There. Whoever it is, Dylan wasn’t much of a fan, and spends the song’s six-minute duration tearing them down, singing emphatically every time the ‘chorus’ comes round:

And you know something is happening
But ya' don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

Griffiths is back with incomparable, bouncy piano parts that make Queen Jane Approximately and Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, not just poetic marvels that sew a tapestry of words in your mind, but ones that do so with an irresistible spring in their step. Highway 61 Revisited is sandwiched between these too and features the prominent use of a tin-whistle, again giving the piece the feel of a train chugging along that is prominent for the majority of this album. Dylan’s humour is particularly on point here as he blends a crazy cast of characters and situations, all linked by the titular highway:

Well Mack the Finger said to Louie the King
I got forty red, white and blue shoestrings
And a thousand telephones that don’t ring
Do you know where I can get rid of these things?

And Louie the King said "Let me think for a minute son"
And he said "Yes, I think it can be easily done
Just take everything down to Highway 61

A thousand telephones that don’t ring? Where does he think of this stuff. Fabulous.

The album closes with the acoustic Desolation Row, where Dylan’s guitar and harmonica are accompanied only by a bass and Charlie McCoy’s fabulously light-hearted sounding lead guitar. It’s an eleven and a half minute masterpiece that shows Dylan at his absolute lyrical peak. The performance is captivating. I mean the piece has no chorus and has the same melody for every verse of it’s epic duration, but you’re never bored, and as Dylan sings his last verse you’re left wondering if you’ll ever hear something quite so beautifully evocative ever again.

Highway 61 Revisited is a masterpiece, it’s my favourite set of lyrics ever committed to an album, and it’s backed by instrumental performances that feel immediate, affecting, and free as a hummingbird. I’ll stop gushing now, but this thing is glorious and it makes me smile just knowing it exists.

Song Picks: Like a Rolling Stone, It Takes a Lot To Laugh It Takes a Train to Cry, Desolation Row, Ballad of a Thin Man

10/10

1964 - Clive's Top 5 Albums of Every Year Challenge

May 15, 2020 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Well, we’re moving along nicely through the 60’s and we’ve now landed in 1964, so what happened outside of music? Well Khrushchev fell from power in Russia, President Johnson was re-elected as president of the USA after completing what would have been the final year of JFK’s term. Race riots broke out in Harlem and other US cities, Harold Wilson won the election in the UK as leader of the Labour party and the world’s first lung transplant occurred. And now that’s out the way, as usual, we’ll get to the music. Here’s what rateyourmusic.com users rate as their top 5 albums of 1964:

#1 Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch
#2 Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Getz / Gilberto
#3 Charles Mingus - Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mings, Mingus
#4 The Beatles - A Hard Day’s Night
#5 Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles

We’ve got our first Beatles entry, our first bossa-nova album and the return of the one and only Charles Mingus. On looking further down the list there’s two Dylan albums which I absolutely can’t pass up this opportunity to talk about, as well as an album by blues legend Muddy Waters, an artist I’ve always wanted to listen to. I’ll add them all to the pile too:

#6 Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin’
#11 Bob Dylan - Another Side of Bob Dylan
#15 Muddy Waters - Folk Singer

Once again we’ve got eight to get through. Strap yourselves in. Actually, just sit down, seatbelts are probably excessive for this. Here’s my thoughts and ranking of the above:

The Beatles’ third album and their first appearance on this list, A Hard Day’s Night features songs from the soundtrack to the film of the same name, and is the first to feature entirely original compositions.

A Hard Day’s Night is a testament to the fact that The Beatles really were the masters of coming up with a catchy melody. If this album was a balloon and catchy melodies were air, it would explode with a bang at a similar volume to that of a sonic boom. In terms of hits, we’ve got the title track as well as Can’t Buy Me Love (factually inaccurate, I’ve bought loads of things I love) but everything around them is just as catchy and fun.

I generally find The Beatles’ vocals a little bland and thus I prefer their later albums where they get more experimental lyrically and instrumentally, but there’s no doubt that this is a very strong set of simple, catchy pop songs. At times they’re a little too simple, particularly lyrically, but there’s a level of charm to the whole thing created by the simple vibrant guitars (particularly George Harrison’s 12-string Rickenbacker) and the well performed harmonies that alleviates this problem somewhat.

A Hard Day’s Night has a certain level of rawness that I appreciate too, the mix isn’t quite as clean as it is later in their career. The bass and guitars have a level of mud that makes the vocals stand out a little more, and it just gives the whole thing a lovely happy-go-lucky feel, and a slightly, dare I say it, punky edge. A 30 minute, 60’s pop, sugar rush.

Song Picks: A Hard Day’s Night, Can’t Buy Me Love, I Should Have Known Better,

7.5/10

EmpyreanIsles — 7. Empyrean Isles

Herbie Hancock

Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock’s fourth album and his first to make it onto these lists, like Out to Lunch (which we’ll get to soon) and many others we’ve heard previously, features Freddie Hubbard on cornet, who along with Hancock, is very much the star of the show.

On the opener One Finger Snap Hancock’s characteristic light, quick touch is evident as his right hand dances up and down the piano like a grasshopper with 73 legs. It’s a style completely different to Thelonius Monk’s, with more notes, less space and less rhythmic interest. Things tend to sound like scales played delicately but quickly with a wonderful precision and with accents providing the variation and interest. It’s a style I rather like. Hubbard is on characteristically fine form here too and the two work very well together. On the dreamy Oliloqui Valley Hancock comps twinkly chords beautifully as Hubbard’s cornet creates a musical painting of colourful dots across a canvas held together by Ron Carter’s rock solid bass and Tony Williams’ enigmatic drum flurries. Carter’s soulful bass solo towards the end of the track is also noteworthy.

Cantaloupe Island, a jazz standard nowadays, features a wonderful piano line from Hancock and Hubbard is perhaps on his finest form of the whole album here, accentuating the piano’s rolling chords delicately, but with plenty of feeling, like the vocals to Hancock’s instrumental bedding. The way Hancock manages to keep the song’s core line going while soloing around it is incredibly impressive, and it took me a while to realise there weren’t two pianists playing.

The 14 minute closer The Egg is perhaps the most experimental piece here, with less of a central theme. Hubbard weaves in and out of Williams’ drum whirlwind which seems to get more and more ferocious as the song goes on. Hancock is remarkably quiet in the first half of the track, but makes the most of it when he is in the limelight, chatting sparkly melodies and ideas to the rest of the band to respond to. Things go eerily quiet in the middle, as the band seemingly go to sleep, Carter’s rumbling bass gently waking everyone up out of their slumber. Hancock wakes with some of the finest piano playing on the album, with a timeless solo, evoking the night sky turning to dawn as a forest begins to wake, insects skittering about their morning routines.

Empyrean Isles is just a really solid jazz album, featuring a quartet that works beautifully together playing some really memorable compositions, and you can’t ask for much more than that.

Song Picks: Cantaloupe Island, Oliloqui Valley

8/10

FolkSinger — 6. Folk Singer

Muddy Waters

So, I got a new set of headphones through the post the other day, which will likely be the last in my embarrassingly large collection for a while, because I absolutely love them. Fittingly, the first album I listened to on them was this one, and indeed it was the first time I’d heard it. Within the first few chords and words of the opening track My Home Is In The Delta I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. It sounded so crisp, so deep, so wide, so bloody alive. I had a massive smile on my face that I struggled to remove for quite some time.

It turns out, it wasn’t entirely my headphones; this is just an absolute masterpiece in acoustic recording. That reverb on Muddy’s voice and the instruments is so good I’d say it’s the darn finest reverb I’ve ever heard. Enough about the production quality, what’s the actual music like you say? Ah, yes. Well, luckily, it’s pretty damn good too.

First of all, despite the title (which was chosen due to the popularity of folk at the time), this is very much a blues album, and a wonderfully bare-bones one at that. Waters plays acoustic guitar and sings, backed by Willie Dixon on bass (he’s also to thank for the brilliant production), Clifton James on drums and Buddy Guy on another acoustic guitar. The arrangements leave plenty of space for Muddy’s fabulously dynamic, deep and soulful vocals and the guitar playing has that wonderful blues groove that everyone loves, right?

On that last point I have to confess I have a bit of a bias towards the blues, it always brings me nostalgia for a time when I used to spend my summers at a blues festival near my Dad’s in Switzerland. The blues has always had a cosy predictability to it, something I don’t generally like in music, but that the blues manage to get away with.

Talking of predictability, once you’ve heard the opening track, you’ve pretty much heard them all here. I suspect a large amount of them are in the same key even but it hardly matters. Muddy’s vocal performance is so full of character, and so beautifully recorded that you feel like you’re sat in on a historic moment, a fly on the wall to one of the most influential blues musicians out there. The repetition is comforting, a warm hug in dark times, a 3-point shooter using the same graceful technique to hit the net time after time.

Song Picks: My Home Is In The Delta, The Same Thing, You Gonna Need My Help

8/10

This may be Dolphy’s first appearance on these lists as a bandleader but we’ve heard plenty from him before, he’s just been stealthily avoiding the limelight. He appeared on Coltrane’s 1961 releases Africa/Brass and Ole Coltrane as well as Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz from the same year. Incidentally, he also appears on Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (yep, that’s what it’s actually called) from this year. Unfortunately, he died later on in 1964, of a reported diabetic coma, so this, sadly, is the last we’ll hear from him as a bandleader.

Out to Lunch is generally regarded as an avant-garde jazz classic, but what does this philistine who knows nothing about jazz think about it? Well, let’s find out. I love the name and the cover, so that’s a good start.

The opening track Hat and Beard refers to our man Thelonious Monk from the last post (1963) and opens with a bass and brass walk with a childish fun to it. The xylophone only serves to increase this fun as it comes in playing the exact same line, which plays throughout the song in one form or another. The song sounds a bit like everyone taking it in turns to practice a very specific sequence of notes while the rest of the band mucks about trying to distract them. It’s interesting, slightly mystical sounding, has a strange amount of parallels to ambient music, and is quite unlike any jazz I’ve heard so far. Kudos.

Something , Sweet Something Tender interestingly mixes a rather jolly saxophone part with an ominous bass part, combining to create an opening with a strange tension to it. Again, the piece sounds very much like play, sparse play though, the kind of play where someone is lurking around the corner about to abduct you. Actually it’s probably not that dark, but it does sound like something that could be playing as a mildly scary, slightly uncoordinated monster wakes up in the woods of a fairytale, distracted by every falling leaf as he stumbles on looking for the hero.

Gazzelloni is probably my favourite, with Dolphy’s flute playing being both impressive and playful (there’s that word again). I mean it’s out of control, ‘you can’t put a leash on this baby!!’ he screams as he unleashes a flutey wall of noise that sounds like a bunch of comedic birds twittering at each other. Only Freddie Hubbard’s trumpet manages to shut him up, answering in an equally joyful, if slightly less reckless manner. It all combines to create a piece that’s happier than an un-budgeted trip to the sweet shop, and as manic as a kid shortly after consuming all said purchased sweets.

I’m not going to go into the other two tracks in detail, they’re creative, dazzling, confusing and fun just like those I’ve already struggled to describe. This is an album that shows Dolphy’s considerable skill as a multi-instrumentalist (he plays flute, clarinet and saxophone at various points) as well as as a bandleader. It can’t be easy holding something as experimental as this together. This is not an easy listen, and after my first few listens I was left a little confused. The more familiar it’s gentle madness got though, the more it grew on me, and I can now firmly say I’m a fan. I can’t help but feel it’s a little too challenging, and perhaps more inventive than it is a joy to listen to at times, but I can’t deny its fun, its vivacity, its creativity. It must have been one hell of a lunch.

Song Pick: Hat and Beard, Gazzelloni,

8/10

MingusMingus — 4. Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

Charles Mingus

Just look at that album title would you!! No one but Charles Mingus would have the audacity to just repeat his surname five times and call that an album title. What a man. Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus which I’m just going to refer to as Mingus x5 from here on for obvious reasons, is essentially a greatest hits album. Now before you scream at me, “Clive, you’ve already given the classic Out to Lunch a measly 8/10 and now you’re telling me a greatest hits collection is an album, who do you think you are? Alan Partridge?”, just hear me out. This is Charles Mingus, he wouldn’t just slap a load of previous recordings together and release that, oh no, he’s re-recorded them, reworked them a little in places, renamed them, and also added a cover of Mood Indigo for good measure.

Now, with the exception of Hora Decibutus, which is a new version of E’s Flat Ah’s Flat Too from Blues & Roots, and Mood Indigo I’ve not heard any of the original versions of these songs so they’re all new to me.

The opener II B.S. reminds me why I fell in love with Mingus in the first place. Catchy brass lines, stomping bass and saxophone flurries building up to a chaotic crescendo of smashed cymbals and shouting, before breaking back down again. As always with Mingus, there’s plenty to latch onto, and it makes you want to tap your feet.

Then, to prove that he’s far from a one trick pony, comes IX Love, a song of dissonant tenderness. The brass instruments are reminiscent of The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, creating a kind of uneasy carpet for the rest of the music to sit on. The sax plays off this beautifully, with a more straightforward minor scale feel to it, it’s all a little uneasy, but nevertheless memorable.

Celia is probably my favourite track here, which starts with a sweet, cloudy saxophone line before Mingus’ bass takes us for a walk through a night-time scene of alto-sax shrieks and a hug of tubas accompanying us on this mystical journey. The tension builds with some stabs towards the end before the bass and drums leave space for a majestic conversation between a whole host of saxophones up there in the trees, as you lay on the grass and look up at the stars.

The Mood Indigo cover is performed with similar aplomb and then Better Get Hit In Yo’ Soul comes up and again reminds you just how well Mingus crafts a rowdy and yet catchy number. This one sounds like a party that’s got out of hand but no one cares. What? Tony’s gone and knocked over the grandfather clock?? Susan’s had a few too many and smashed your entire glass cabinet? Marlon’s accidentally set fire to all your cigars and you’re all stumbling about in the Cuban smoke wondering what’s going on???

Who cares, man? This’ll make a great story.

Theme for Lester Young is perhaps the album’s least interesting track but thankfully Hora Decubitus ensures we finish on a high. Mingus x5 is a pretty great place to start for anyone wanting to check out just why Mingus is a bloody genius. It features him at his most energetic and his most tender, and although it’s not as cohesive as some of his other work (Tijuana Moods and The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady spring to mind), the fact it was all recorded in the same sessions means it doesn’t feel as disjointed as your usual greatest hits collection.

Mingus doesn’t make the top 5 again on any future rateyourmusic.com list, though I’ll probably be checking out his 1972 album Let My Children Hear Music when we make it to that year, as I’ve heard plenty of great things about it. But for now, this seems like a good way to say goodbye to the cigar smoking genius. A collection of his best material, performed emphatically well. Cheers Charles.

Song Picks: Celia, Better get Hit In Yo’ Soul, II B.S

8.5/10

AChangin — 3. The Times They Are A-Changin’

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s third album, and the first to feature entirely original compositions was to be his last with an intensely political message.

I remember I heard the title track in the cinema during the opening of Watchmen, well before I was particularly into Dylan. I remember thinking at the time that the it had such an urgency, such a sense of grandeur, and such an all encompassing sound that was remarkable for a song featuring only vocals, an acoustic guitar and a harmonica. The thing sounded huge. Obviously the cinema sound-system played a part in that, but I still feel like that about the song. It’s colossal. It’s a shame the rest of the film didn’t live up to that opening, which is still one of my most memorable musical moments in cinema.

This is both Dylan’s most and last political album. The humour of his debut has gone, there’s no breezy love songs anymore, this is just a set of stark, brilliantly observed songs about the fraught environment that Dylan was surrounded by in the 60’s.

The title track The Times They Are A-Changin’, which was deliberately written as an anthem for the change of the time, succeeds in doing just that. It’s prophetically performed, brilliantly written, and one of the most impactful songs I’ve ever heard. A real favourite.

Other highlights on this album include With God on Our Side, where over 7 minutes Bob tells how various opposing countries and ideas have claimed to have god on their side, and that if this is true god’s supported a whole manner of ills such as genocide and death. Dylan ends the song prophetically with the line: ‘If God’s on our side, then he’ll stop the next war’.

One Too Many Mornings is a rare moment of respite from the political preaching, and besides the title track, is my favourite song from the album. The line ‘and I’m one too many mornings, and a thousand miles behind’ that is repeated throughout the song is one of my very favourites, and delivered with the relatable resignation of never being where one wants to be.

When the Ship Comes In and The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll are two other examples of Dylan at his political best, the former with a sense of drama that mirrors The Times They Are A-Changin’.

There’s a lack of humour to this album for sure, and its political message can get overbearing, but there’s no doubt it contains some of the finest political songs ever written, and they’re sung, as ever, with an urgency and importance that Dylan never failed to bring across. It’s not quite as consistently engaging as Freewheelin’, and a bit more one-note, but it’s still rather special.

Song Picks: The Times They Are A-Changin’, One Too Many Mornings, With God On Our Side, When The Ship Comes In

8.5/10

Getz/Gilberto is a bossa nova album by American saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto. It also features Antonio Carlos Jobim on the piano who had a big hand in composing most of the tracks but obviously wasn’t deemed important enough to get his name on the album title, or perhaps two slashes is just one too many slashes? Who knows.

As mentioned in my review of Charles Mingus’ Tijuana Moods way back in 1961 I’m a big fan of two musical cultures coming together, and I’m delighted to say that this is another instance of it working really well. Considered as the album that popularised bossa nova around the world, Getz/Gilberto was a commercial as well as a critical success back in 1964. It’s opening track The Girl from Ipanema (Garota de Ipanema in Portuguese) is a song you’ve no doubt heard of, and is probably the most well known bossa nova song worldwide.

I’m not going to hide my feelings until the end of this review; this album is an absolute delight. Joao Gilberto’s nylon string guitar playing is as smooth and simple as butter (it’s just milk innit), and his singing has such a quiet, relaxing, contemplative feel to it that it’s hard not to get whisked away. Stan Getz’s saxophone playing may not have the technical prowess of someone like Coltrane but my, does it have feeling. That thing hums and sings in his hands, it expresses so much with so little, and is easily some of my favourite saxophone playing. I mean just listen to Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars), the song starts with one of Astrud Gilberto’s appearances, she also stars on Girl from Ipanema, as she sings of quiet nights and stars in a beautifully evocative way, again in a similarly un-showy and relaxed manner to Joao Gilberto’s vocals. Shortly after the words ‘oh how lovely’ float from her lips, in comes Getz with a short saxophone lick that took me straight to the promised land, a moment of pure magic.

Listening to all 33 minutes of this has got to be one of the most relaxing experiences anyone can have. I mean yoga, meditation and all that just seems redundant now that I’ve discovered this. I feel like I’m taking off, slowly rising over the Earth, zooming out on all the troubles of the world, before being planted back gently to wherever I’m sitting as the final saxophone note of Vivo Sonhando plays. This is a masterpiece in understatedness, every note is effective, nothing is overdone, and it all works together to create one of the prettiest things I’ve ever heard. It’s really hard to create a happy and relaxed sounding album that doesn’t sound painfully cheesy, and even less easy for one to include the saxophone so extensively (a famously cheesy instrument thanks to the 80s). Sometimes it’s not about pushing boundaries, but about mastering your craft so much that you can make something masterful sound as if you could play it while asleep. An absolute triumph.

Song Picks: Girl from Ipanema, Corcovado,

9.5/10

Dylan’s fourth album still has nothing but his voice, acoustic guitar and harmonica on it, but don’t let that fool you, Bob has taken a very new direction here. Gone are the political songs, replaced by a set of introspective, at times surreal, songs performed with a particular lack of vocal restraint.

Another Side of Dylan is a lyrical turning point, and the glorious birth of the more abstract poetry that would fill the rest of his 60’s albums. Lyrically, this is some of his strongest work in my opinion, and they are very much a main part as to why this is such a fascinating and underrated album. I think Dylan’s vocals are perhaps at their most testing here, he pushes them to where they perhaps shouldn’t go, but they have a more delicate feel to them. Gone is the invincible and prophetic Dylan of The Times They Are A-Changin’, he’s been replaced by a more poetic, introspective, and fragile version.

Chimes of Freedom is a case in point, a masterpiece in my eyes. Go and listen to it, I implore you. I’d say just read the lyrics, but you’d miss out on a truly captivating vocal performance and the wonderful melody that ends every verse. Here’s a section for you to read in the meantime:

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked it's poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leavin' only bells of lightning and it's thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
And the poet and the painter far behind his rightful time
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

The imagery created is fabulous, and the Rimbaud influences are evident (a poet Dylan was reading plenty of at this time and a massive influence on his lyrical style). This is where Dylan turns from a folk musician, to a singing poet. From someone who points a finger at things that exist, to someone who creates things that don’t.

To Ramona is another personal favourite of mine and another lyrical masterpiece which again shows Dylan’s uncanny ability to captivate without the need for a chorus. The verses end with a familiar, powerfully performed melody and before you know it, you’re hooked into yet another world of word mastery.

Dylan’s humour is evident here too in I Shall Be Free No 10 and particularly in Motorpsycho Nightmare where you can hear Dylan cracking himself up, his story getting more and more ludicrous as he decides the way to appease a farmer whose daughter he’s just been caught in bed with is to tell him he looks like Fidel Castro. This is the 60’s, in America. Bad idea.

Here’s some lyrics from the underrated gem My Back Pages:

A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
“Equality,” I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

I mean just read that! I’m not sure what it means, but it’s amazing. Which is pretty much how I’d sum up Dylan’s lyrics from this point forward. Sure, his lyrics were easier to decipher before, but they’re now full of mystery, full of imagery, full of stardust, like a magical dream that floats in your memory as you wake up, unable to grasp it again.

I’ve not even mentioned the famous It Ain’t Me Babe? which closes out this album, there’s just too much to talk about.

Another Side of Bob Dylan is one of Dylan’s more challenging albums, but one that is well worth the effort. Give it a few spins, let those slightly erratic vocals become more normal and then sit back and focus on the words, you won’t regret it.

I have to be honest, I didn’t think Dylan was going to take the title for 1964 when I started listening to these and Getz/Gilberto had it in the bag right up until earlier today. Then I listened to this again, and the fact that I’ve been listening to this thing for 10 years and still find new bits of magic every time is pretty spectacular. It’s unfair to compare an album that’s been a part of your life for so long to one you’ve heard for the first time a week or so ago, but this just pipped it to the post.

9.5/10

1963 - Clive's Top 5 Albums of Every Year Challenge

May 06, 2020 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

So here we are, 1963. “What happened in 1963?? Give me some context!!” I hear you scream. Well, first of all, calm down. Secondly, here are some headlines: JFK was assassinated, Martin Luther King delivered his ‘I have a dream’ speech, Kenya gained independence, thieves gained £2.5m pounds in the ‘great train robbery’ here in Britain and Quasars were discovered. What’s a Quasar? It’s an ‘extremely luminous active galactic nucleus’ of course (thanks, Wikipedia).

But anyway, as ever, we’re here to talk about music. So here’s what the rateyourmusic.com community rates as the top five albums of 1963:

#1 Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
#2 Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
#3 Berlin Philharmonic (Conducted by Herbert von Karajan) - Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9
#4 Duke Ellington/Charles Mingus/John Coltrane - Money Jungle
#5 Thelonius Monk Quartet - Monk’s Dream

Well, the jazz is, very slowly, starting to peter out. We had five in 1962, now we’ve only got three entries and my man Bob makes his first of many appearances. We’ve also got more Charles Mingus and The Duke’s first appearance. We are in for a treat I tell you, but, because I like to spoil you, I’ve also had a look further down the list and spotted some samba, some soul and another album featuring The Duke. I’ll throw them all into the mix too:

#6 Jorge Ben - Samba esquema novo
#7 Duke Ellington & John Coltrane - Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
#11 Sam Cooke - Night Beat

We’ve got eight albums to get through, and this is my favourite set yet! So we’d best get started. Here’s my ranking of and thoughts on the above:

It’s time for some samba! Jorge Ben Jor’s debut album Samba Esquema Novo features a song called Mas, Que Nada!, which I guarantee 95% of the people reading this have heard. It’s the one that goes: ‘uuuhm balyah da dum, uhm ba, uhm ba, uhm ba’. Nope? Nothing? Type it into youtube, you’ll almost certainly know it.

My Portuguese is non-existent so I can’t talk about the lyrics here, but I really like the vocals on this album. Jorge’s voice is quiet, it almost feels like a mutter at points, and has an unassuming quality that works well with this rather chilled collection of songs.

Instrumentally speaking, Jorge’s classical guitar playing takes you straight to a relaxed afternoon in a quiet Brazilian backstreet, and his simple samba rhythms are well accompanied by some quiet drumming, bare-bones bass, and tastefully sprinkled trumpet, creating a scene that is just extremely pleasant. It feels like a 28 minute holiday, by the end I’ve got into my beach-shorts, dug out my beach towel and put on the sun-cream, only to realise it’s freezing outside and there isn’t a good beach for absolute miles (sorry Cleethorpes). It was all a dream. Thanks Jorge.

Song Pick: Mas, Que Nada!

7.5/10

Night Beat is Sam Cooke’s twelfth and penultimate album, he was shot the following year in self-defense (although some dispute this), the circumstances around which are worth a read on Wikipedia. Night Beat is remarkable in that it’s his fabulous voice that takes centre stage here, undisturbed by the additional strings and backing choruses that apparently appear on a lot of his albums. I wouldn’t know as this is my first Sam Cooke album, so I’ll have to take their word for it.

This is a really simple rhythm & blues record, the band arrangements are generally pretty basic guitar, drum, bass and piano ones and serve to lay a soothing backing for Cooke’s voice that is so good I’m sure it could cure diseases (hang on, I think Trump’s calling...). It’s a smoother, quieter version of Otis Reading (he’ll be appearing in a few years’ time), with just the right amount of warbling, i.e not very much. There’s nothing I hate more than over-singing, and Cooke is absolutely not guilty of that. His brilliance is obvious, he has no need to show-off, and these songs are all the better for it. He has one of those timeless voices that immediately takes you somewhere, and I’m glad this album is such a great showcase of it.

Apparently these songs were all recorded in late-night recording sessions, and that’s certainly something that comes across. This thing has a very relaxed, contemplative night-time feel to it and is likely the most accessible album on this year’s list. I doubt there’s anyone out there that wouldn’t enjoy this.

Night Beat doesn’t do anything particularly inventive, but what it does it does so well, and with such grace, that it’s the perfect late-night listen. My only complaint is the choice of Shake, Rattle & Roll, which closes the album. Cooke sings it fine, but lacks the power and grittiness that the song needs.

Song Picks: Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen, You Gotta Move, Please Don’t Drive Me Away

8/10

DukeandJohn — 6. Duke Ellington & John Coltrane

Duke Ellington & John Coltrane

We’ve got two albums featuring The Duke in 1963. Aren’t we lucky? Here’s the first.

Coltrane had a massive admiration for Ellington and this set comprises a super relaxing set of jazz numbers, performed well within their abilities, but in a way that’s homely and warming. Ellington, owner of 'the largest recorded personal jazz legacy' and leader of the 'best known orchestral unit in the history of jazz' since the 1920s restrains himself for maximum effectiveness. The opener In a Sentimental Mood, which is one of the most famous jazz recordings out there and a personal favourite, is elevated by Duke's simple but effective piano licks. Coltrane's ability to make a saxophone sound beautifully sad is at it's best here too, and returns to similar form on My Little Brown Book later on. More than 20 years younger than Ellington, though Ellington was to outlive him, Coltrane is close to the height of his talents here, and that's audible even when he's playing well within them.

On the great closer The Feeling of Jazz Ellington plays gorgeous, spaced out chords that perfectly punctuate Coltrane's beautiful, wandering saxophone lines. It's like he's sitting back and letting the young upstart take over, like a father accompanying a son as he takes something he started to new heights.

This album isn't a challenging one, it doesn't push the boundaries in any way, but it's just so darn beautiful and listenable that it doesn't matter. This is a really accessible jazz album, made all the more magical when you think how dominant these two magicians were in their respective eras, and just how well they work together.

Song Picks: In a Sentimental Mood, My Little Brown Book, The Feeling of Jazz

8/10

It’s worth noting here that there is also a collection of all nine Beethoven symphonies as performed by the Berlin Philharmonic on the rateyourmusic.com top five for 1963, however I think it’s a bit of a stretch calling a collection that large an album, so I haven’t included it (though do check it out if you have five and a half hours to spare). I have however included this performance of Beethoven’s ninth symphony, as performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, which was released in 1963, and also made the top five.

Beethoven composed his ninth and final symphony from 1822 to 1824 while almost completely deaf. The story of its premiere in Vienna in 1824 is both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Beethoven stood in front of the conductor’s stand and conducted, although the orchestra was told to watch Michael Umlauf’s conducting instead due to the fact Beethoven couldn’t actually hear the orchestra, and thus couldn’t realistically be expected to conduct it. One report says that when the piece finished, Beethoven carried on conducting for two more bars as he was behind. Fortunately Caroline Unger, one of the performers, had the foresight to turn him around to face the audience at the end of the performance. The applause was apparently so jubilant, that although Beethoven couldn’t hear it, he would certainly have seen it.

As you’d expect, this is an intense, dramatic, majestic, and downright impressive piece. Perhaps a little smoother, more modern sounding, and more accessible than some of his other symphonies, but still with those trademark moments of high drama and explosive volume. It also has perhaps Beethoven’s most triumphant melody, and one of the most famous melodies ever written for that matter, Ode to Joy, which was adopted as the European anthem in 1985. I was sat there with the biggest smile on my face when it appeared in the fourth movement, hearing it for the first time in the context in which it was written. It’s notable also for being the first symphony from a major composer to include voices, which sing words from the poem Ode to Joy during the symphony’s triumphant finale mentioned above. This is a fittingly brilliant end to a whole host of great symphonies. I haven’t heard any other performances of it to deduce whether this is particularly good one, but it seems to me to be a well recorded and brilliantly performed version of this historically important piece. Did I mention it was written by a man who couldn’t hear? It’s enough to make you feel pretty inadequate.

8.5/10

Money Jungle.jpg — 4. Money Jungle

Duke Ellington / Charles Mingus / Max Roach

Duke Ellington’s second appearance here, and he appears this time alongside two familiar faces, Charles Mingus on double-bass and Max Roach on drums.

By all accounts the vast majority of the songs were written by Ellington who simply gave Mingus and Roach a lead sheet outlining the basic structure and melody of the track. They then played along, without a rehearsal, and what we have here is the result.

I’m always a bit wary of supergroups, it just never seems to work does it? A lot of what makes a band great is the way they complement each other, not how fabulous they all are as musicians individually. Money Jungle doesn’t have this problem, which considering they never even rehearsed together before recording this is remarkable. It’s a perfect display of how three performers can be individually very expressive, while still making something that works as a whole. The fact that it’s only a trio here helps, there’s only so much that can be going on at once. You can easily tune into each of their individual performances, and zoom back out into the whole. This, for someone relatively new to jazz like me, was a fascinating exercise.

It’s a fairly challenging listen (though nowhere near as much as Mingus’ The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady) but it’s one that rewards repeat listens and features some really magical moments. I mean listen to Mingus’ didgeridoo like bass line in the title track. Take that out of the context of everyone else’s playing and it would sound terrible, but in the mix it just works, buzzing along like the world’s largest bumble-bee as Ellington and Coltrane have their own battle of notes. Mingus’ throaty bassline on Fleurette Africaine is another wonder, how can a bass even make that noise? Most of the time though, it just feels like there’s no way that three musicians can be playing with this much energy and individuality and for it to work together, but somehow it does. A spectacular display of musicianship that’s also a damn fine listen.

Song Picks: Money Jungle, Fleurette Africaine

8.5/10

First of all, what a splendid name. Thelonious Monk. Monk’s Dream is his first album on Columbia Records. I was going to work out how many albums he’d done in total before this but it’s a lot and I kept losing count. Monk’s Dream features new recordings and interpretations of old songs by Thelonious, with only one completely new song: Bright Mississippi.

Monk has a really unique style, which is very rhythmical. He doesn’t tend to hold notes long, and he tends to hit notes hard, so much so that the poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin rather unfairly called him ‘the elephant on the keyboard’. I’d have to disagree strongly with that assessment. Sure, he plays pretty loudly, but there’s also a wonderful finesse to his playing (see Five Note Blues). The way he stutters, rolls and uses abrupt pauses just as effectively as abrupt notes is really unique and makes Thelonious stand out among other pianists I’ve heard in jazz. The way he plays also creates a completely unique tone, with lots of sparkling overtones. I always like it when you can recognise an artist immediately because their style is so distinctive, and that’s certainly the case with Monk.

Monk and his long-time saxophonist Charlie Rouse work together like Marmite and cheese. You can tell they’ve been playing together for a while here. On the title track Monk skitters around the keyboard dabbing at chords to begin with, then there’s a wonderful overlap as both he and Rouse play, before Monk peels off to give Rouse space to breathe, and breathe he does, crafting beautiful, steady lines over the top of Frankie Dunlop’s immaculately featherweight drumming (he’s superb throughout this album) and John Ore’s walking bassline. Monk finishes the song with his own, characteristically staccato, percussive and exciting solo. The album goes on much in that vein, it has a wonderfully relaxed feel, not miles from Duke Ellington & John Coltrane. The band works together beautifully, and that’s what makes this infinitely listenable, but it’s the personality that Monk puts into the piano playing that makes this something really special, and a jazz favourite for me.

Song Picks: Monk’s Dream, Body & Soul, Five Note Blues

9/10

Widely regarded as Mingus’ masterpiece, this is one of those where you feel like if you don’t give it a 10/10 the rateyourmusic.com version of Zeus will launch a lightning bolt javelin at you, striking you right through your headphones and into your puny non-music-understanding brain. So bearing in mind I’ve only ever given less than ten albums a 10/10, I approach this review with some trepidation.

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady was recorded by an 11-piece band, and orchestrated with a perfectionist’s touch by Charles Mingus, who had a very clear idea of how he wanted everything to sound. It was also the first jazz album to use overdubbing, a process of recording new takes on top of other ones that have already been recorded. The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady interestingly included some lengthy liner notes by Mr Mingus and a review by his psychotherapist, which is well worth a read and available here. By all accounts this album is an exploration of Mingus’ mind and how he sees the battles within it, and the world, and how he sees the battles on it.

Solo Dancer builds up tension around a saw-like brass line, with some busy cymbal and snare drum hitting and a chatty saxophone line before it all fades away beautifully into a more relaxed feel as everything calms down, leaving, for a very short period, nothing but the saxophone playing. The tension builds again in the front-line instruments, while the drums stay calmer, and we’re left with a more lengthy solo, underpinned by Mingus’ quick-stepping bass-line before everything explodes again into a wonderful crescendo featuring that sax-line that’s been there throughout, praying for a better tomorrow.

Duete Solo Dancers, starts with a less guttural version of the saw-like brass-line of the opener. In comes the most terrific twinkling piano and once again we’ve got ourselves a huge sound, an orchestral sounding piece with a particular melody line that sounds like a quicker version of the ‘dum, dum, dum’ we say out loud to mark a cliffhanger. There’s so much going on in this track, and indeed all of them, that I’m going to cease writing about them specifically now. I think it’s fair to say that what Mingus has created here is an extraordinary piece, a piece that tells a story much like a classical piece, and yet is firmly rooted in jazz. It’s so complex that a layman like me reviewing it feels a little like me trying to assess the meaning of life itself. It’s full of magical moments, such as the way the brass instruments seem to talk to each other, and to the listener, seemingly having an animated argument as a battle of good vs evil clatters on around them.

The way familiar lines crop up again throughout the piece keeps things rooted nicely, you get that lovely relief of being home again every time that swinging line re-appears, it’s a relief, a harbour in the intense storm that is this album.

Am I clever enough in the parlance of jazz to really talk about this album? No. But I can certainly appreciate just how ambitious it is. Written as a ballet, this piece tells a frenetic, noisy and at times dissonant and hard to listen to story that requires many repeat listens to really appreciate. I still pick up new things on every listen, and I suspect I’ll continue to do so for years to come. This is one that will probably rise in the ranks over time. For now it’s held back only by how challenging it is. It doesn’t have that fun accessibility that most of Mingus’ albums have, which I think is a side-effect of just how ambitious it is. But, even if I can’t see myself listening to this one as much as some of his other work, because it really does require all your undivided attention, I know that every time I sit down and dedicate myself to it, I’ll be taken away on a rather fabulous journey, noticing new elements to the scenery that I’d never seen before, or perhaps even taking routes I’d never taken before. This album is a puzzle book, one that I’ll probably never solve, but one that’s so satisfying to fail at it barely matters.

9/10

I await my death, oh Zeus of rateyourmusic.com, but maybe let me finish this challenge first yeah? And who knows, by the end this may well have grown to a 10/10, it feels like one of those albums.

Dylan - Freewheelin — 1. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

‘How many seas must the white dove sail, before she sleeps in the sand?’ Dylan sings on one of the most famous songs out there: Blowing in the Wind, the opening track of his second album, which followed up 1962’s collection of mainly covers (inventively titled Bob Dylan), and cemented his place as folk’s primary political troubadour.

It’s no secret that Dylan is my favourite artist, which is partly down to the fact I think he’s the best lyricist we’ve ever had. No one even comes close for me, maybe Cohen if I’m feeling generous. Now, I say this mainly based on his lyrical content from later years, when he sang the finest abstract poetry, conjuring up endless fabulous, often mad images as his band produced the kind of energetic, impactful and yet breezy sound that no one has managed to imitate particularly well since. But this is before then, this is when Bob played an acoustic guitar, and made his name for what he called ‘finger-pointing’ songs, commenting on the happenings of the day (pretty much all of which are still relevant today) with a sharp lyrical skill beyond his years.

This is essentially a mix of anti-war songs and love songs. Masters of War is a masterful example of the former, a song so cutting, that it’s hard to imagine one of the ‘Masters of War’ he refers to listening to it and not feeling rather ashamed. Bob repeats the same melody over and over, and the chords are painfully simple too. But it doesn’t matter, what’s important here is the words and the delivery. Now, I know there’s plenty of people out there who say ‘Dylan can’t sing’ and ‘all his songs are performed better by other people’ etc etc. But, obviously, I disagree rather strongly. For my money, Dylan’s 60s output has some of the best vocal performances we’ve ever heard or are likely to hear again. He’s the only artist I can think of where every word feels important, and that’s partly because of how the lyrics always hook me in, but also because of how he delivers them, not in the interest of creating a pretty melody, but in the interest of penetrating your brain, something he succeeds on doing better than anyone ever has, or probably ever will. At least for me.

Girl from the North Country, which borrows it’s melody and several of its lyrics from the English traditional Scarborough Fair, is perhaps the album’s finest love song as Dylan remembers a lost love fondly, hoping that she’s still ok. It’s performed with a breeziness of a man who has moved on, but not because he’s forgotten her. It’s likely about Suze Rotolo, Dylan’s girlfriend at the time, who appears on the cover.

Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright tells of the end of a, likely the same, relationship and ends rather brilliantly with the lines:

“Now, I'm not sayin' you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right”

Dylan sings them over a carefree sounding picked-guitar part, as if it’s no big deal, life goes on. The way an album can so effortlessly contain songs that have as breezy a feel as the above two (even if the third line above does have more than a hint of bitterness to it) and others that have the weight of Masters of War and my personal favourite A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall is rather special. Hell, the way it is both breezy (I’m a fan of that word today it seems) and demands your attention is remarkable.

There’s also great examples of Dylan’s slightly absurdist humour in I Shall Be Free, but we’ll get into that more on later releases, where it’s more prevalent.

It’s not my favourite Dylan album, those happen when Dylan picks up the electric guitar and starts singing about ragmen, pipers, jesters and who knows what else, but it is one of the finest acoustic albums out there, and the start of an album-run that is rather spectacular. I remember when I first listened to this (it was the first of his albums I heard) and it blew me away. Back then, I don’t think I could really explain why it blew me away so much and led to me listening to nothing but Bob Dylan albums for a solid 3 months. But I know now, I think it was the first time I’d ever listened to an entire album and paid attention to every, single, word, and that wasn’t because I wanted to, but because Bob demanded I did. For the first time, music didn’t just put a new filter on my surroundings, but took me completely out of them.

Errr, Clive, aren’t you going to link back to that lyric you mentioned in the first line of your review? Isn’t that what all good music reviewers do?

Nah, I just put that there because I like the image.

Song Picks: Blowin’ In The Wind; A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall; Girl from the North Country; Corrina, Corrina

9.5/10

1962 - Clive's Top 5 Albums of Every Year Challenge

April 29, 2020 by Clive in Music, Clive's Album Challenge

Before we go all musical, here’s some stuff that happened outside of music in 1962: Soviet missile bases were discovered in Cuba and eventually removed in exchange for the removal of US ones in Turkey, Phil Knight developed the first Nike running shoe, and Ranger IV became the first space probe to reach the moon. When I say ‘reach’, it just crashed on it, but that was what it was designed to do, so it goes down as a success.

Now back to music: Here’s what rateyourmusic.com users rate as the top 5 albums from 1962:

#1 Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Mosaic
#2 Charles Mingus - Tijuana Moods
#3 The John Coltrane Quartet - Coltrane
#4 Charles Mingus - Oh Yeah
# 5 Max Roach - It’s Time

*The observant may notice that the actual rateyourmusic.com list contains a couple of other entries (mainly performances by the Berlin Philharmonic of Beethoven symphonies), but those have significantly less than 500 ratings, so I’m not including them.

So, we have another 5 jazz albums, and I believe this is the last time that will happen, as the jazz slowly peters out before pretty much disappearing by the time we get to the 1970s. So enjoy it while it lasts, yeah? As usual, I’ve had a look at other albums in the top 20 or so, and there’s just lots more jazz, so I’ll stick to these 5 as we’ve got quite enough improvised trumpet and sax playing for one article here.

Off we go, here’s my rankings and views on the above:

Max Roach, one of two jazz drummer bandleaders on our list for this year rather inventively included a backing choir in his 1962 release It’s Time, including such vocals as de da de da, de da bu di bu da, among others.

This is a weird one. I admire Max’s inventiveness, and clearly a lot of people like this, but for me the choir is a bit too much. The jazz is already pretty intense, Max Roach himself is seemingly incapable of playing a single bar of music without throwing in some flair or fill in the opener It’s Time (though he does calm down somewhat later on). He’s absolutely ‘over-playing’, but it’s pretty scintillating to listen to, and I feel the backing choir just distracts from that, and what the rest of the band are doing.

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed a lot of aspects of this, and I can absolutely see why people like it. Max Roach’s drumming is inventive, impressive and has plenty of ‘feel’, the bass has a nice laid back buzziness to it, the piano is smoooooth (see Sunday Afternoon) and the choir, despite generally being too much for me, absolutely adds something on the brilliant Lonesome Lover where the less jazzy and more songy (yeah I know, my vocabulary is spectacular) nature of the song lends itself better to their voices.

Song Pick: Lonesome Lover

6.5/10

ArtBlakey — 4. Mosaic

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

Another album with the drummer as the band leader? Yes please. Mosaic is Blakey’s first with legendary trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who along with Blakey, plays at such breakneck speed that it’s a technical triumph.

Blakey is on the beat, ferociously fast, and with a surprisingly heavy-handed style for jazz, a genre known largely for light-touch drummers. Just listen to the way he plays in the opener Mosaic: there’s not a beat out of place, which considering the pace the song moves at is a miracle. Bear in mind too this is before someone in the studio could ‘fix’ that one beat you messed up. The drums are an integral part to this album, the way they play off Hubbard’s trumpet lines is marvellous, and they contribute largely to the speed of the whole thing. It feels like Art is pulling everyone along, daring them to go faster,and yet it’s a testament to the quality of musicians here that none of them struggles to keep up. The way he dances on the cymbals, the pinpoint fills, the way he’s laying the foundation while also providing a lot of the excitement, it’s great. Anyway, onto Hubbard: the guy plays the trumpet like a chatterbox, his parts are stuffed full of notes, moving at a pace reminiscent of Coltrane’s sax playing, and yet he knows when to sit back and let someone else have a go too. Arabia is a great example of Hubbard’s impossibly fast playing, like a drum roll on a trumpet, scattering notes everywhere like a musically talented lawn sprinkler.

What keeps this one as very good and stops it going to great for me, and this is very much a taste thing, is that everything feels a bit too under control. I’ve come to rather like jazz, but I like a sprinkling of chaos in there. This one is just lacking a little in that department, which makes it less exciting than other jazz records I’ve listened to. But if you’re after some smooth as butter and speedy as a cheetah jazz, this one’s for you.

Song picks: Mosaic

7.5/10

Having loved Blues & Roots way back in my 1960 article I get a little bit excited whenever I see Charles is on the list again, this time he’s on twice, and oh is that a treat! Charles Mingus knows how to have fun that’s for sure, and although predominantly known as a bandleader and bassist he has a stab at the piano and some vocals here. The piano playing is pretty barbaric at times and the vocals consist of such things as singing ‘eat that chicken’ over and over again. Needless to say, I’m in absolute love with it.

Hog Calling Blues opens with Mingus scatting away and is a track absolutely brimming with the humour that sets him apart from other bandleaders. Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s saxophone honking is hilarious, and sets the tone of what this album is all about. I mean the infectious sense of fun here had me laughing out loud, and that’s not an easy thing for a jazz track to do.

Devil Woman is a more straightforward jazz/blues blend and I rather like Mingus’s vocals at the start of the track, the rest is characterised by some excellent saxophone work, which is a little more serious and soulful than that on the opening track. Other notable tracks are the also infectiously fun and previously mentioned Eat that Chicken and the surprisingly otherworldly closer Passions of a Man, a mess of chanting, incomprehensible talking, thunderous drumming, and rattlesnake sounds, which unexpectedly ends in what The Jam’s Pauls Weller calls ‘a beautiful piano melody that Debussy or Satie would have been proud of’. That solo is only 30 seconds long, and I suspect it’s elevated a few notches by how brilliantly messy what comes before it sounds, but I can see what he means. It’s a mysterious, strange, and bewitching track unlike anything I’ve heard in jazz up until this point.

This whole thing sounds like some seriously good jazz musicians unafraid to good around and push a few boundaries. The whole album sounds like it was a blast to make, and when that comes across, it’s one of my favourite things in music. I’ve no idea what Mingus was like as a person, but in the studio he’s becoming one of my very favourite personalities.

Song Picks: Hog Callin’ Blues, Devil Woman, Passions of a Man

8.5/10

Coltrane1962 — 2. Coltrane

The John Coltrane Quartet

Coltrane’s back with a self-titled album featuring the same quartet that led his 1961 album Africa/Brass. Notably, the track Tunji was written in dedication of drummer Babatunde Olatunji, who also gets a mention in an upcoming 1963 album by Bob Dylan…

Like the cover of the album (oh isn’t it pretty), this oozes sophistication. Coltrane’s playing is a little slower, more calculated and dare I say, more melodic than a lot of what I’ve heard so far (with the probable exception of Africa/Brass). The opener Out of this World here features some wonderful work by the rhythm section that keep things in shape as well as providing plenty of intrigue as Elvin Jones glides over the drums and cymbals like some sort of noisy magician. Coltrane and McCoy Tyner (the pianist) work together well as Tyner creates us some lovely chord bedding for Coltrane to sing those sweet, sweet saxophone blues over the top of. It’s a pretty, pretty piece where the quartet creates a sound that is wider and deeper than it has any right to be.

Soul Eyes is my other favourite here. I’m a big fan of a Coltrane slow-jam (as you’ve probably figured out by now if you’ve read my previous posts) and this one is just as sweet, soulful and majestic as the best of them (yes, even Naima from Giant Steps). Coltrane has a tone that is like floating through the clouds at night. Tyner’s twinkling piano accompaniment is the stars lighting up the sky. It’s another beauty. There’s a dreamy sound to this whole album that’s a sign of things to come...

Song Picks: Out of this World, Soul Eyes

8.5/10

Originally recorded in 1957 but not released until 1962, Tijuana Moods is Charles Mingus’ 21st album as bandleader. Interestingly, he hated the name Charlie, claiming it was ‘a name for a dog’, and so I’m not sure how it wound up on the cover of this album. It was, naturally, inspired by a trip to Tijuana.

Tijuana Moods is a return to the familiar joviality that I experienced in Mingus’ Blues & Roots from 1960. It’s catchy, fun, and full of bounce and energy. The Latin American influences really enhance this and make it stand out among some of the other jazz I’ve been listening to. I love it when two two cultures of music come together and it works (Paul Simon’s Graceland is one of my favourite albums) and that’s certainly the case here.

The most obvious difference on listening is the expert use of castanets, a percussion instrument also known as clackers or palillos, by Ysabel Morel which create the illusion of a very percussive orchestra of crickets on a summer’s day in the Tijuana sun. Or, if you’re in a more sinister mood, the tick, tick, tick of a rattlesnake.

Mingus steers the band expertly with his bass and keeps your toes tapping throughout. I’m coming to love that about Mingus records, the instrument playing and concepts are advanced, but it’s never at the expense of being able to tap your toes to it. Dizzy Moods is a prime example, things speed up and slow down, even change time signatures on a whim, but Mingus’ rock-solid bass is always there, holding everything together. Ysabel’s Table Dance is quickly becoming one of my favourite jazz tracks. The thing is full of energy, constantly changing. Clarence Shaw’s trumpet and Jimmy Knepper’s trombone play off each other brilliantly, scattering notes like short, confidently expressed poems in either ear when you listen on headphones. Ysabel Morel’s very quiet-in-the-mix vocals give the piece a kind of manic feel, and help aid the mental transportation to Tijuana that this album achieves so effectively. The humour of the ending is another example of just how fun Mingus’ records are to listen to. It’s a thing of wonder, and a track everyone should check out.

It’s worth mentioning that on the 2000 expanded addition, the album finishes with A Colloquial Dream, which features an excellent spoken word part by Lonne Elder as he talks us through his love of jazz music, using a scene including a brilliantly sound-designed bar fight. I don’t often feel like later added bonus tracks add much to albums (they usually take something in my view), but this one works, and if somehow the original five tracks of Tijuana Moods have failed to transport you to the lively and colourful scene Mingus evokes so well, then Colloquial Dream will surely do the trick. What a fabulous album, and one that is particularly poignant in lockdown, where you can’t go very far physically, so we require the help of people like Mingus to take us there in our minds.

Song Picks: Dizzy Modds, Ysabel’s Table Dance, A Colloquial Dream

9/10

1961 - Clive's Top 5 Albums of Every Year Challenge

April 22, 2020 by Clive in Music, Clive's Album Challenge

The year is 1961. The Berlin Wall was built and Cuban exiles failed to invade Cuba through the Bay of Pigs. Electric toothbrushes and Barbie’s companion Ken are introduced. But let’s have a look at what our wonderful rateyourmusic.com users rated as the year’s top 5 albums:

#1 John Coltrane - My Favourite Things
#2 John Coltrane - Ole Coltrane
#3 The John Coltrane Quartet - Africa/Brass
#4 Columbia Symphony Orchestra / Igor Stravinsky - Stravinsky Conducts Le Sacre du printemps
#5 The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet - Free Jazz

Are you serious Coltrane? Give these other guys a chance would you? My word. Well it looks like we’re in for another load of jazz and our very first classical entry. A quick look through the rest of the top 15 or so reveals a load more jazz, so I’ll pass on adding any extras for the time being.

Let’s crack on, here’s my thoughts and ranking of the above 5 albums:

Coltrane’s ninth album, which features Spanish influences (like Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain did in 1960), was the last album he led on for Atlantic Records before moving to his new label Impulse! Records.

This one feels a bit by the numbers for Coltrane, if anything he touches can ever be called such a thing. There’s nothing that jumps out as being distinct from his other work. The soprano saxophone makes a return following its debut on My Favourite Things, which we’ll get to soon, but in a less interesting manner.

There’s plenty here to like, Coltranes’s playing is still impressive, and I particularly like Reggie Workman and Art Davis’ bass work which has a lovely relaxed, melodic feel, interspersed with more aggressive almost distorted sounding segments. The piano work just doesn’t gel as well with Coltrane this time, and it feels as if something indescribable is missing somewhat, perhaps it’s the gaps Coltrane leaves between solos where not all that much happens? I’m not sure.

The traditional slower track here is Aisha, which is a beauty and particularly notable for how well Coltrane and Eric Dolphy’s saxophones play off each other in the middle of the song. Like Marmite and cheese, a dream.

There’s no doubt this is really good, it’s just not quite up to some of his other work for me. But hey, what do I know?

Song Picks: Ole, Aisha

7/10

Coltrane’s 7th studio album is the first to feature him playing the soprano saxophone, the smaller, more high-pitched sax he is playing on the cover. An edited version of the title track, which features the melody from the famous song in The Sound of Music was a hit and was regularly played on the radio in 1961. I presume it was significantly shorter than the nearly 14 minute version here.

Miles Davis purchased Coltrane the aforementioned soprano saxophone on a previous tour and it features on the first half of the album, giving Coltrane’s playing a higher, less sombre tone, which makes these recordings stick out somewhat from others I’ve heard so far.

The opener My Favourite Things anchors itself on the famous melody I’ve already mentioned but also features plenty of Coltrane’s virtuoso soloing during it’s long run-time, which is all the more enthralling now that he’s having a go at a slightly different instrument. It’s a quick, busy track which sounds perhaps as summery as anything I’ve heard from Coltrane. On Everytime We Say Goodbye Coltrane reigns it in and demonstrates once more how he’s just as capable of playing something slow and melodic, as he is fast and chaotic. A beautiful piece where the snare sounds as gentle as sand and the bass plods along unassumingly, giving the whole thing a really relaxed feel. McCoy Tyner’s lovely twinkling piano also deserves a mention here, really adding to the contemplative, meditative feel of the track.

The second half features Coltrane back on the familiar tenor sax, and back to his busy old ways, buzzing around the neck like someone with 53 incredibly well coordinated fingers on each hand. As with most of 1961’s offerings, this one requires attentive listening, Coltrane’s playing is a little too aggressive for background listening. Sit back, close your eyes, and let Coltrane’s whirlwind saxophone playing take you away.

Song Picks: Everytime We Say Goodbye

7.5/10

3. Le Sacre du Printemps

Igor Stravinsky/Columbia Symphony Orchestra

‘The Rites of Spring’ as it’s known in English is a ballet and orchestral work originally written in 1913 by Igor Stravinsky and conducted by him here on this recording from 1960 (released in 1961). I’m not sure classical works like this can really be considered ‘albums’ but there’s so few of them that will appear over the next few years and none after 1965. So I figured it’d be good to review some of them while I can.

As Wikipedia states the work is for a scenario that ‘depicts various primitive rituals celebrating the advent of spring, after which a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death.’

As with a lot of classical music, it’s a very intense listen. I feel like the dynamic nature of classical pieces like this is something that hasn’t fully been explored yet in more modern music. One minute, it’s close to silent, and then it suddenly sounds like everyone on the planet in possession of a relevant instrument has got it out and started playing along, it sounds monstrous, in a way that is quite jarring if you’re not paying full attention to it.

Le Sacre du Printemps is dramatic, and you can certainly place certain parts with common film tropes, aspects of Jeux des Cités Rivales for example sound very much like they could be playing during a chase scene. One of the dramatic moments worth mentioning is in the second half of the piece Le Sacrifice, where things start in an ominously relaxed manner, with the odd relatively relaxed gong hit in there to prepare you for what’s to come. Then, the lovely flute lines fade into violins (I think, I’m no expert on classical instruments) before the whole thing explodes into a loud concoction of timpani and loud brass lines with the odd flute flourish over the top. It’s glorious. The work clearly tells a story, and if you, like me, have never seen any performances of The Rites of Spring (or any ballet for that matter), sitting down and seeing what images this piece brings up is quite the experience.

It’s a tight 30 minutes long, and well worth your time. It stands as an important document of a classical piece of composition, conducted by the man who wrote it.

Highlight: Part 2: Le Sacrifice

8/10

Africa Brass — 2. Africa/Brass

The John Coltrane Quartet

John Coltrane’s 8th studio album, his first on Impulse! Records, and first featuring a big band sound, with 21 participating musicians.

It’s pretty clear that things are different from the opening notes of Africa. There’s a depth to the sound that’s only possible with this many instruments. It sounds like an army of musicians, marching towards an African sunset, led by the ever energetic and noisy Coltrane. The core quartet is still very much here, but there’s a sense of atmosphere and scale added by all these additional musicians that helps this stand out from all the other Coltrane recordings I’ve heard so far.

Africa/Brass feels quite dark, there’s a certain depth and dark reverb to everything, and some of the soundscapes are truly original. Around 12 minutes into the opener Africa all the treble-y instruments take a back seat, and we’re left with the rumbling of drums and what sounds like a viola swirling to create the humming of a small swarm of mosquitoes, which is very effective. Greensleaves takes the melody of the traditional British folk-ballad of the same name and turns it into a virtuoso jazz-piece similar to My Favourite Things, but once again darker. The closing track Blues Minor’s triumphant ending is perhaps the only point in the album where this big band sounds like a true big band, ending the album in a glorious, emphatic blare of horns, before everything calms down to a lovely repeated saxophone line by Coltrane. At only 33 minutes, this is a great showing of what Coltrane does best in a condensed and more accessible package than a lot of his work so far.

Song Picks: Africa, Blues Minor

8/10

1. Free Jazz

The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet

Picture this: Ornette Coleman’s a bit bored, so he decides that for his 7th studio album he’ll assemble not only one band of top name jazz musicians, but two bands, and get them to improvise for 40 minutes in a studio together with practically no idea about what the other band is doing. You’ve just pictured Free Jazz, an album unlike any other I’ve ever heard.

Other than a few brief sections that were pre-determined, this whole thing is just two jazz bands improvising in one room. That’s two drummers, two bassists… yeah, you get the picture. Upon reading this I thought there’s no way this could be anything but a load of jazz noise, and lo and behold, it was just that, a load of jazz noise. My first two attempts to listen to it on headphones led to me aborting mission after around 5 minutes because it was just too much for my ears. An unholy cacophony of jazz noise (one band in my right ear, the other in my left) assaulting my ear-drums in a way they haven’t been assaulted for quite some time. Then, a couple of days later, I put it on on my speakers while cooking up a shakshuka and everything changed…

I was transported back to 1961, I was there with both bands in the studio as they played their instruments, trying to work off each other while playing some very complex stuff, the struggle was real. I had no idea what was going to happen next because they had no idea what was going to happen next. Would Coleman’s swirling saxophone solo end in a bum note? Would the drummer accidentally throw his sticks at someone’s head? Would a chandelier fall from the ceiling and wipe out some of jazz’s finest musicians amid the clatter and crash of glass and metal? It seemed like anything was possible. It was magical. An experience that was truly unique. I’m not sure how many times I’ll actually listen to Free Jazz, but it single handedly invented a genre (the genre free jazz is named after its title), and brought about one of my more memorable musical experiences, one where I felt completely in a moment, not this moment, but one from December 21st, 1960. There I was just cooking up a lovely vegetable and egg dish with Ornette and the gang playing away. I can totally understand why people would hate this, I did on my first two listens. But now I love it. I love its audacity, I love its inventiveness, I love how immediate it is. Give it a go, and you just might love it too. Just make sure you don’t listen on headphones.

In a year where Coltrane pushed a whole multitude of boundaries, Coleman obliterated them, and takes the title for 1961.

9/10

1960 - Clive's Top 5 Albums of Every Year Challenge

April 17, 2020 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

1960. The year CERN’s first particle accelerator went live and year Elvis returned from military duty. The year aluminium cans were used for the first time and Kennedy won the US election. The year loads of other stuff happened that I don’t have time to list right now because we’re here to talk about music.

Let’s get this party started. What do our wonderful rateyourmusic.com users think are the top 5 albums of 1960?

#1 Giant Steps - John Coltrane
#2 Charlie Mingus - Blues & Roots
#3 Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
#4 Hank Mobley - Soul Station
#5 Wes Montgomery - The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery

Well, well, well, what have we here? A complete jazz quintuplet. Now, I’m not particularly well acquainted with writing about jazz, though I have reviewed a couple of Miles Davis and John Coltrane albums in the past. So, I guess, this is jumping in at the deep end. But then everyone likes jumping in at the deep end right? No one wants to waddle around in the shallow end, that’s just boring and unrewarding. Also, let’s face it, jazz is a cracking word, so there’s that.

Besides the top 5 here that I’m obligated to review, I’ve picked out one other album from the top 10 which looks intriguing, and at least provides one thing that isn’t jazz:

#9 Etta James - At Last!

Anyhow, without further ado, here’s my ranking and reviews:

SketchesofSpain — 6. Sketches of Spain

Miles Davis

Apparently Miles’ jaunt into Spanish music was inspired after he attended a flamenco at his wife’s insistence, and well thank you Mrs Davis, for without you Concierto de Aranjuez probably wouldn’t exist.

The album opens with the aforementioned Concierto de Aranjuez: Adagio, a masterful piece that has a wonderful, quiet hope to it overall, but which occasionally bursts into triumphant flares of trumpet. It sounds like a sun rising peacefully in the distance, while celebratory fireworks go off at rather random intervals in the foreground. Which would feel a bit silly given you couldn’t really see the fireworks, but you get what I mean. It’s a sweeping 16 minute piece that never fails to take my attention.

The rest of the album never quite reaches those heady heights again, but it does create some really unique and evocative soundscapes, if without the excitement of that opening track. Saeta in particular feels a little straightforward.

Song Pick: Concierto de Aranjuez: Adagio

7/10

Wes Montgomery.jpg — 5. The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery

I like to think that Wes came up with the name of this album himself. He just walked into the Riverside Records headquarters one day and said, ‘lads, I’ve got it, listen up’. I mean you can’t really argue with it, his playing is rather incredible. A super smooth, scale aficionado, Wes sure knows how to play. His guitar has a warm, relaxing tone, which works really well with his jumpy, dynamic style. It’s refreshing to have a guitar led Jazz album in the mix, and this one is worth anyone’s time.

The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery could breeze by without much to say if you let it, but if you give it your full attention, there’s some really great guitar playing here, which is both enjoyable and impressive in equal measure. It appears sometimes you can judge an album by its cover, well its title at least.

Song Pick: D-Natural Blues

8/10

Etta James did not have it easy. She grew up without a father and her mother was only 14 when she was born. Thus she was mainly brought up by foster parents, where she was regularly physically abused. A quick read of her Wikipedia page also reveals time spent in a psychiatric unit and struggles with heroin, for the possession of which her husband was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

This, her debut album, features some truly extraordinary vocals, in fact it’s kind of unbelievable that this is her first album. Etta can do breathy, she can do loud, she can do gritty, she can do everything. She performs with a maturity and emotion that make this album what it is. As far as I can gather, Etta didn’t write most of these songs (the credits only mention her having a hand in Tough Mary), but she sure makes them all her own, including Willie Dixon’s famous I Just Wanna Make Love to You which she sings with such ferocity it’s a wonder my eardrums are still here. At Last is the highlight for me, a song of relief, of a hard time coming to an end. I don’t think things ever got easier for Etta, but it’s nice to imagine that at least while she sang this song, they did.

Besides the vocals, the music is very much of it’s time, with nothing more adventurous than a standard pop arrangement. It’s fine, and when you’ve got a vocalist with the undoubtable character and talent of Etta James, that’s all you need.

Song Picks: At Last, I Just Wanna Make Love to You, Stormy Weather

8/10

John Coltrane’s fifth album with him as leader, and one that spawned two jazz standards: Naima, and the title track Giant Steps.

You don’t need me to tell you how well Coltrane plays saxophone, the guy walks up and down the neck like it’s, well, a walk in the park. He plays notes with a speed and precision that is rather remarkable. But that’s not what this is about is it? It’s not all, ‘oh I wonder who can play instruments the most quickly and precisely’, this isn’t sport, it’s about feeling, man. I don’t find jazz the most emotionally evocative genre, but there’s no doubt that Coltrane creates a ‘feeling’. Combined with the quietly frenetic drumming (see the start of Countdown) and smooth, yet bouncy bass, Coltrane and the gang create an atmosphere of sitting out in sunny streets drinking various cold beverages and shooting the breeze with some friends. All while in some sort of incredibly vivid Van Gogh painting where the sky isn’t just blue, it’s really blue. There’s no doubt Coltrane’s saxophone playing is very busy, which may put some off, but it has a wonderful mystical quality, a life of its own, an instrument with too much to say in too little time. My favourite track has to be the least busy song however, the absolutely gorgeous Naima, which sounds like a trip to the moon: desolate, alone and full of mystery. Wynton Kelly’s piano working together with Coltrane’s saxophone to create something truly magical.

Having had a brief forward look, I can see that there’s plenty of Coltrane to come (spoiler: he dominates the top 5 in 1961) and having heard this I’m rather excited to hear more.

Song Picks: Naima, Giant Steps

8/10

Just look at that cover, he sure looks like a happy chappy. Hank Mobley was described by Leonard Father as the ‘middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone’, because his style is much less aggressive than the likes of Coltrane.

There’s no doubt here that Hank plays with quite a laid back style, one that means this album works much better as background music than some of the other offerings here (such as Coltrane), but that’s not a sleight on it by any means. There’s some really great instrumental performances here, with stellar moments on the double bass, piano and drums, as well as of course Hank’s sax, which sounds so effortlessly you can imagine Hank playing it in the bath. The instruments give each other space, and there’s a very ‘tag-team’ feel to the soloing here, once one instrument finishes improvising, another comes in. It’s never particularly challenging, but this is just a great listen from start to finish, and one I’ve thoroughly enjoyed putting on at pretty much any time of day. I dig it, as one might say.

Song Pick: This I Dig of You

8.5/10

Blues&Roots — 1. Blues & Roots

Charles Mingus

We’ll be seeing plenty of Mr. Mingus as we head through the 60s I’m sure, but here’s his first entry, apparently recorded as a response to critics who claimed he ‘didn’t swing enough’.

Charles Mingus, who is already well into double figures in terms of albums recorded with him as bandleader at this stage, provides the backbone to this wonderfully energetic collection with his rock solid and yet flamboyant, occasionally skittering double-bass playing. However, it’s far from the ‘Charles Mingus show’, with the rest of the band staking just as much of a claim to the limelight. Multiple saxophones play with a kind of barely controlled, joyous ecstasy, which when coupled with the occasional shouts by band members creates a kind of sophisticated raucousness (see opener Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting) that really is rather unique. Speaking of saxophone, Moanin’ features some delightfully rustic playing, with the sax playing a 1960s jazz equivalent of a dirty, distorted guitar riff. When things calm down such as on Crying Blues, it’s impossible not to get sucked into the gentle groove as Horace Parlan twinkles stardust all over it with his piano playing, but even then you’re never far away from another explosion of jazz energy as voices and saxophones scream and shout their lungs out before giving way to the groove again.

This album is a jazz bar fight in a well built saloon. The foundations are solid, you’re in good hands, but you just never quite know what’s going to happen next, and that’s what makes it so exhilarating. Of this lot, this takes the crown for 1960, and I can’t see many jazz albums beating it for me down the line. But then again, we have only just begun…

Song Picks: Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, Moanin’

9/10