Day 0729 - Vulgar Display of Power

Pantera "Vulgar Display of Power" (1992) - got it

Pantera started out as a heavy glam-metal band.  They would later deny it, but the spandex, puffed up perms and histrionic high vocals don't lie.

They slowly evolved their sound into a heavier thrashier deal, particularly with the introduction of new vocalist Phil Anselmo.

With this, the third album with Anselmo, he had mostly set aside his glam vocals in favour of metal screams and deeper growls.  The music had moved away from glam and even thrash to focus on a slower "groove-metal" sound.  Drawing on the band's southern background, with hints of blues and southern rock to some of the riffs and solos.

There is plenty of variety within the album.  There's the single-string, 2-3 note simplicity of "Walk" (that must surely have joined 'smoke on the water' and 'nothing else matters' as stock songs for beginner guitarists to bang out at guitar shops).  There are the grunge-ballad verses/grinding metal choruses of "This Love" and "Hollow".  While "F**king Hostile" is more or less a hardcore punk track with a little more flash.

Anselmo's newly shaven head and songs about dominance and respect raised one or two eyebrows (probably more in retrospect with Anselmo's infamous "white power" incident in 2016).

Day 0728 - The Predator

Ice Cube "The Predator" (1992)

Put "Are we there yet?" out of your mind, because this is the real Ice Cube.  Angry, confident, justifiably enraged.   Predator was released following the acquittal of police responsible for the on-camera beating of Rodney King, and the album certainly takes a look at racism and the police.

The production is bassy, beaty and interesting, with a number of collaborators (including Cypress Hill's DJ Muggs) involved.   A number of dialogue samples are mixed in, joining it all together and giving it a feeling like a whole 'album' as opposed to just a collection of songs.   All in all, another interesting early 90s rap album

Fun fact: this album is believed to be the origin of the phrase "it's on like donkey-kong".

Day 0727 - Little Earthquakes

Tori Amos "Little Earthquakes" (1992) - got it

Tori had been making music from a young age and circulated some demos with help from her father.  These demos eventually resulted in her being signed to release the synth-pop album "Y Cant Tori Read" under a band of the same name.

That band broke up and Tori submitted further demos that would eventually become "Little Earthquakes".

This album to my ears is the bridge from Kate Bush to Regina Spektor.  Moving between beauty and high theatre of "China" to the harsh simplicity of the acapella "Me and a gun" (recounting a sexual assault that Tori experienced).

The album is very piano heavy but with occasional bursts of loud guitar, or tasteful strings, as in personal favourite, the cabaret-esque "Leather".

Another one where my wife owns a copy so I unwittingly technically own it to (lucky me 😎)

Day 726 - Psalm 69: the Way to Suceed and the Way to Suck Eggs

Ministry "Psalm 69: the Way to Suceed and the Way to Suck Eggs" (1992)

One of those "what did I just listen to (in a good way)"  albums.

Much of this is speedy industrial rockabilly... like Motorhead meets Marilyn Manson.   There are grinding riffs, speedy beats, mixes of rockabilly, metal, military, choir elements.  It's speedy rock, but with quite cold, sterile production and the vocals not overly clear in the mix.

The most 'known' song (and the only one I knew in advance) is "Jesus built my hotrod" a redneck, high octane ripsnorter with Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfers on vocals.   Compared to the bleak, 'scorched earth' vibe of much of the rest album, "hotrod" is almost a pop hit.

Day 0725 - Connected

Stereo MCs "Connected"

Stereo MCs had slowly been building their reputation through their first couple of releases.   Tracks backing MC Rob B and vocalist Cath Coffey were largely sample-based.   For "Connected" they upped the ante with several backing singers and a full band.

The tracks mix rap, soul, electronica, dub and pop to create a sound that is catchy, danceable and almost a touch hypnotic.

The album was a huge success, but the band would not follow it up for another 8-9 years.  The intervening time being peppered with some remix work for other artists.

Day 0724 - Dirty

Sonic Youth "Dirty" (1992)

Sonic Youth seem to be another of those bands whose discography is very heavily represented in this list, and I'm not entirely sure it's warranted.  That's not to say that any of their albums are bad, far from it.  There's just not enough variety between the albums to really set them above artists with more diverse catalogues who are less represented here.

The band chose Butch Vig to produce the album.  Vig was riding high on having produced Nirvana's punky-yet-polished "Nevermind", but this was apparently not why Sonic Youth chose him.   Certainly, while Vig sought to tighten the band's arrangements, their music was no more "consumer-friendly" as a result of the collaboration.

There are some great things done with hard-panning the guitars to either side to really make use of the stereophonic field, and with bassist Kim Gordon experimenting with a variety of vocal sounds.  Essentially this album sits in the same ranking as their others for me: good album, but kind of similar to its fellows (to my ears).

Day 0723 - Bone Machine

Tom Waits "Bone Machine" (1992)

This was Waits' first album in 5 years - though the gap had been filled by a live album and a Jim Jarmusch soundtrack.

Waits had been moving away from his jazzy lounge piano tunes and drunken balladeer persona and into more avant territory.  Here he takes that evolution one step further, with a sound that I would class as "demented T-Bone Burnett". 

Waits recorded the album in space in the basement of the recording studio with concrete floors and a hot water heater.  He liked the echo of the room, and used this to best suit the songs.  They were essentially stripped down blues tracks, but with the vibe created by the room the sound feels much denser than it actually is.

The album is light on piano, with Waits' sound moving more towards the guitar and interesting percussion tracks.

Probably not my favourite Waits album, but you can hear him starting to get his 90s-Waits sound going and getting comfortable in that skin.

Day 0772 - Copper Blue

Sugar "Copper Blue" (1992)

After Hüsker Dü called it a day, frontman Bob Mould released a couple of acoustic-y solo albums that didn't fare too well.   His record company released him from his contract and he set about writing the music for what would become Sugar. 

Mould returns to his favoured style of distorted guitars with melodic vocals.  I'll be honest, his stuff doesn't do much for me.   It's generally listenable enough, and I can hear his influence on a few bands I know and like, but these songs really just passed me by without leaving much of an impression.  Same with much of the Hüsker Dü I've heard.

In interviews and press, Sugar were plagued by Nirvana questions and comparisons and whether the band was doing well thanks to the grunge scene.  All this despite Mould's former band having been a probable influence on many of the grunge bands, so that can't have been easy for Mould.

Day 0721 - Lazer Guided Melodies

Spiritualized "Lazer Guided Melodies" (1992)

Following the disbanding of Spacemen 3, the bulk of the members of that group formed Spiritualized.   Due to the number of members carrying over from Spacemen 3, the new band were still bound by the former's record contract.

Spiritualized did away with much of the noisier rock elements of Spacemen 3, opting instead for a mix of electronic drone-grooves tracks and... almost "digital-shoegazer" songs.  Built from layers of sound over the core grooves.

It's a fairly atmospheric, dreamy record.  

Day 0720 - Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde

The Pharcyde "Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde" (1992) - got it

This group somehow manage to mix the groovy, trippiness of De La Soul with the energetic, and quirky energy of Fishbone or the Beastie Boys.   The group started off as dancers, and you can kind of hear it because these rhymes are just constantly moving and the beats are totally danceable.   I honestly couldn't keep still while listening to this (3 or so times in a row).

The group seems to steer clear of the gangsta rap that was dominating much of the rap scene.  There's a bit of brag-rap to be found, but a lot of it is just fun, silliness and impressive flow.

Another one that I don't have a lot to say about, but really enjoyed.  Will definitely keep an eye out for a copy. (as with "Ingenue" I have since picked up a copy).

Day 0719 - Automatic for the People

R.E.M. "Automatic for the People" (1992) - got it

The band did not tour their previous release “Out of Time”, opting instead to head straight back into writing new songs.

I actually find that quite admirable.  Often, bands get sucked into the treadmill of write-record-tour then, when their schedule says so, they have start being creative again to start that cycle again… whereas they might not be in a creative place at the time.  Better to nut out a string of albums in quick succession while you’re feeling inspired.

Anyhoo, the band wanted to write an album of rockier songs to contrast their previous album, but when guitarist Bill Berry, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Peter Buck got together, they just weren’t coming up with many songs in that vein.  The band were continuing their method of switching instruments to get themselves out of their comfort zone and write in different ways and ended up often not working with drums in the mix at all.

The  result was that the music they produced was quite pared back, with the drum parts being minimal, or in some instances, non-existent.   Berry stuck to clean guitar sounds, acoustic guitars and mandolins.  String arrangements from Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones would eventually garnish 4 of the album’s tracks.

Singer Michael Stipe responded to the new subdued material with lyrics of sadness and loss, with some lighter moments provided by track “Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight”.   Listening to the album as a whole, you really do appreciate what a great collection of songs it is, with even well-worn singles like “Everybody Hurts” and “Man on the Moon” feeling fresh within the context of the album-as-whole.

With regards to “Man on the Moon”, it had been written fairly early on but had remained an instrumental for the duration of recording.  Stipe felt he couldn’t get his head around it lyrically and thought it should stay instrumental.  It was only when his bandmates begged him to finish the song that he went out for a walk around the neighbourhood with the music in his headphones and came back with lyrics.

As with “Out of Time”, the band decided not to tour the album.  Making its success (presumably helped by radio/video-play and the band’s existing fans) all the more impressive.

Day 0718 - The Chronic

Dr. Dre "The Chronic" (1992)

Dre left N.W.A. and teamed up with Suge Knight to create Death Row Records (which got off to a running start with classic albums from Dre, Snoop and eventually Tupac) and released his first solo album.

Dre's production created the genre known as 'G-Funk', slow P-Funk style grooves with deep sludgy bass and high lead-synth parts.  Dre would often re-record the source material rather than just sample the original recordings, and the lyrical approach of this new genre was confrontational and 'raw'.

I know that rap beefs are part of the fabric of the genre, but so much of that feels a bit petty and insecure, with shots being fired at some of Dre's old N.W.A. associates (Eazy E in particular).  A lot of the rest seems to focus on dicks and balls being people's mouths, or people being on said dicks and balls... to the extent that there's even a track called "Deeez nuuuts".

Whatever my feeling toward the lyrical approach, the album helped launch the production career of Dre, and the rap career of Snoop Dogg before he'd even released an album of his own - though once his debut "Doggystyle" appeared, he cemented that success.

Day 0717 - Ingénue

K.D. Lang "Ingénue" (1992) - got it

For Lang's second solo album, she largely left her country sound behind in favour of more of a mix of cabaret, pop, alt-country, tango and a few other flavours.   There are times that the style could almost seem musically a bit 'middle-of-the-road', but it is saved by Lang's amazing voice, her painful honesty, and her brilliant songwriting abilities, such as on album opener "Save me"

This is a relatively short write-up, but suffice it to say, I am very much in love with this album, and will be keeping an eye out for a copy (as you can see above, since writing this, I found one).

I can hear the possible influence from this on artists I enjoy such as Amanda Palmer and Pink Martini.

Day 0716 - Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy "Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury" (1992)

This one was a pretty full-on aural onslaught from right out of the gate.  Picking up where Public Enemy left off to put forward a wall of noise.  The album mixes samples, band performance and various foley-esque sounds, including the use of sheet metal as percussion.  The lyrics tackle  non-stop issues, including everything from racism and homophobia to the media.

Vocalist Michael Franti would depart the group a year or so later to start his group Spearhead who are still active at the time of writing.

I enjoyed this one well enough.  Franti's lyrics are clever and the production complements him nicely.

Day 0715 - Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine "Rage Against the Machine" (1992) - got it

Many bands are described as "exploding onto the music scene", but I'd say that RATM are actually deserving of that phrase.   Of all the bands branded with the often maligned label 'rap-metal', RATM managed to tap into the anger and aggression of both genres without really de-clawing either of them.

Rhythm section Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford lay down a funky and hardhitting base for vocalist Zack de la Rocha (once described, not inaccurately, by Tom Morello as the "punk-rock James Brown") to belt his raw-throated screams, raps and political protests over.  But the band-member name-checked most frequently is guitarist Tom Morello.  His guitar spits out thrash riffs, fiddly solos rhythmic grooves, and riffs... oh so many riffs.  Beyond that though, he engages in musical experimentation that sees him all but make his guitar moo like a cow.  His collection of squeals, stutters and scratches borrows from both metal and rap and elevates the band, giving them that point of difference.

The first song "Bombtrack" starts with a tantalising build-up before exploding all in your ears.  Single "Killing in the name" (whose riff Morello came up with while giving guitar lessons) is barely contained rock rage.   A little variety is provided by a guest spot by TOOL's Maynard James Keenan on "Know your enemy" and a moodier, more subdued approach to "Settle for Nothing" (though that also turns into a rager too on the choruses).

The band couldn't maintain this level of fire and originality, with their following two albums being a case of diminishing returns.  They rounded out their recorded career with the brilliant covers album "Renegades".  The band, freed from the requirement to come up with material, were able to just 'rage-ify' some existing songs.

Day 0714 - It's a Shame About Ray

The Lemonheads "It's a Shame About Ray" (1992)

The Lemonheads were up to album number 5 with "It's a Shame About Ray" leading to a few commentators to point to the rise of grunge as being beneficial for the band.   The band were also buoyed by their remake of Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs Robinson" which was put out in conjunction with a re-release of the film 'the Graduate'.

Things hadn't been rosy before that.  The band's fourth album hadn't fared too well and one band member left the group.  Guitarist/singer/songwriter Evan Dando decamped to Australia to work on songs that would end up going towards this album.

With its upbeat, catchy songs with a bit of straight-ahead rock guitar backing, the Lemonhead's sound would occasionally get tagged with the label of "bubble grunge".  The group combine grunge, pop, garage and even a bit of country to make their sound.

Another one, unfortunately, that falls into the category of "I liked it well enough, but won't rush to revisit it."

Day 0713 - Lam Toro

Baaba Maal "Lam Toro" (1992)

I'd listened to one of Maal's albums already on the list.   The lovely, stripped down, mostly acoustic "Djam Leelii" that he recorded with his mentor Mansour Seck.

This album is a different kettle of fish, much livelier and drawing heavily on musical styles from Maal's Senengalese homeland.   Producer Simon Booth injects elements of celtic music into some of the music, a mix of styles that he would go on to explore further with his own group Afro Celt Sound System.

There are patches of the album that have dated slightly (technology gives the game away so often), but otherwise, it's a fun enough collection of tracks.

Day 0712 - Your Arsenal

Morrissey "Your Arsenal" (1992)

Morrissey has become a bit of an embarrassment in recent years, cancelling gigs and tours left right and centre, and seeming to espouse isolationist, extreme rightwing ideas.    Back in the 90s though, he was still better known for his music.

With "Your Arsenal" he had a band together and enlisted the help of David Bowie collaborator Mick Ronson to produce this album.   Ronson worked with Bowie on his 70s glammy albums, and he is clearly the right person to helm this album, as Morrissey turns down his indie side and cranks up the glam rock a bit.  His lyrics had already started to hint at the kind of controversy he now gladly courts, with a song titled "The National Front Disco" which included the chant "England for the English".  People were a bit uncomfortable with this, not finding it clear if he was being tongue-in-cheek or not.

Musically though, it's an enjoyable album.  Despite the rockier, 'ballsier' sound, my favourite track is the gentle, atmospheric "Seasick, yet still docked".

Day 0711 - Haut De Gamme

Koffi Olomide "Haut De Gamme" (1992)

I really don't have much to say about this one.   It's Olomide's take on a traditional style of Congolese music, which he dubbed as Tcha Tcho.  It features songs that often start slow and then burst into upbeat syncopated guitar and snare drum, perfect for dancing.

Olomide seems to have been a lifelong lover of music, making do as a child creating music with no access to musical instruments.  He went on to release music both as a solo artist and with various collaborators, and then also teaching others. 

I found his music enjoyable enough, even if the production sounded a little dated (some really old-school electric-keyboard sounds).  If nothing else, I respect someone with such an abiding lifelong love of music.

Day 0710 - 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of...

Arrested Development "3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of..." (1992) - got it

I picked up a copy of this album a few years back on the strength of the single "Mr. Wendal".  The rest of the album didn't overly thrill me.  Another of those ones where it's perfectly listenable, but not one that I tend to revisit much.

The book points out that this group of socially conscious rappers were one of the first big hip hop exports from Atlanta, infusing their music with a southern flavour and acting as inspiration, or opening the door for acts like Goodie Mob, Cee-Lo Green and Outkast (all of which I do enjoy quite a bit).

Day 0709 - Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Aphex Twin "Selected Ambient Works 85-92" (1992)

Richard D James AKA Aphex Twin had, by this point, moved to London, started a record label with Grant Wilson-Claridge, and released a few EPs.   However, this compilation actually constitutes his first full-length long-playing release. 

James was born in 1971, meaning that some of these tracks were written/recorded when he was only 13 or 14 years old.   By all accounts he seems to have been an audio experimenter from a young age, tweaking, rebuilding, and otherwise fiddling with synthesizers and computers.

The tracks are (aside from a sample of the Willy Wonka "we are the music makers...." quote) entirely instrumental.  The bleeps and bloops, sparse beats and bass lines with synthy shadings are well ahead of their time, even without taking into account James' young age when making them.... "start as you mean to go on" as they say.

Day 0708 - Slanted and Enchanted

Pavement "Slanted and Enchanted" (1992)

Originally started as a studio-only project, Pavenement released a number of lo-fi releases.   They eventually recruited a drummer for more recordings and even some live shows.

The band certainly weren't courting fame and success, with the original version of this album being circulated on cassette with no song titles listed.   The music created some buzz and eventually the full version of the album was released.

It has kind of a Velvet Underground vibe with vocalist Stephen Malkmus' drawling vocals.  The music is vaguely melodic with lots of noisy guitar; so not unlike more than a few other bands active at the time.   It didn't really grab me.  It's perfectly listenable, but not something I'm likely to revisit or investigate further.

Day 0707 - Metallica

Metallica "Metallica (AKA The Black Album)" (1992) - got it

Metallica’s greatest album, or “the one where they sold out” depending on where you hang your hat.

Metallica had started off playing sweaty, dirty punk-metal, a genre that came to be known as ‘thrash’.  The intensity of punk, but the heaviness and musicianship of metal.   The band had been evolving on each album, with arrangements becoming more and more intricate and harmonically interesting, with many different riffs, time changes and the songs building in length.  This all came to a head with “…and Justice For All” where the songs were generally all around the 7-10 minute mark with a multitude of riffs.  The band found the songs hard going while playing them live, and even started to notice some of the fans in the audience noticeably losing interest during the duration.

Enter “Metallica (the Black Album)”, the band enlisted producer Bob Rock, impressed with his work on Motley Crue’s Dr Feelgood album with it’s crunchy-yet-polished sound.  With Rock’s help, the band simplified their songs, basing them around one or two riffs, (instead of 15!)  The band slowed most of their songs down, using more of a ‘groove-metal’ approach, fusing heaviness with a greater degree of melody and atmosphere than had maybe been present before.

While some felt Rock’s production sound was too polished, I feel it adds a bit of much needed bottom-end to ‘tallica’s sound.  Jason Newsted’s bass is audible after being MIA on “…and Justice”.   He doesn’t have the nimble-fingered virtuosity of previous bassist Cliff Burton, but his solid, chunky sound suits the groove of the new music nicely.

There are still some speedy riffs that wouldn't be out of place on their 80s albums.  Songs like “Holier than thou”, “Through the Never” race along at a rate of knots.  Elsewhere, songs such as “Wherever I may roam” and “Sad but true” have a slower, more epic bent.

The album was a massive success, going multi-platinum and (to date) spending more than 500 weeks in the billboard 200.  With the polished sound, simpler songs, music videos, and the occasional (gasp!) ballad - the beautifully simplistic “Nothing Else Matters” – this album would also cause one of the biggest divides between Metallica fans until the next album where they (Gasp!  Again) cut their hair.

Day 0706 - Bandwagonesque

Teenage Fanclub "Bandwagonesque"

The third album by the Scottish band, and an album that managed to beat out Nirvana's "Nevermind" as Spin Magazine's "album of the year". 

The album starts off promisingly enough, "The Concept" runs through noisy pop into some divine Beach Boys-esque harmonies and then a pleasant instrumental outro.   That song is followed by the noisy dervish of "Satan" which opens with a frenzy of noise that segues into a bit of rock.

From there on though, it falls into a pretty samey sound across the rest of the album.  It's not a bad sound (think the Byrds, or early-era Beatles pop songs and vocal harmonies but with washy distorted guitar), but after the variety of the first couple of tracks the rest of the album felt like a bit of a cool off.

Day 0705 - Screamadelica

Primal Scream "Screamadelica"

Primal Scream started as a duo of Jim Beatty and Bobby Gillespie.  As they developed their music and started playing live, they expanded their line-up.   Their flavour of jangly pop-rock did not go over well with punters or critics, with the band being accused of being unoriginal and bland.

The band started to get into the acid house scene and asked DJ Andrew Weatherall to remix one of their tracks.  The resulting remix of "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have" (repurposed as "Loaded") was a success and the band delved deeper into this mix of rock and dance, already being explored by bands such as the Happy Mondays and New Order.

Screamadelica actually lives up to some of the hype laid on it by the book.  It has heart, it has musical exploration, it has some catchy bits, some interesting bits and a wide range of sounds.  If it has any weaknesses for my tastes, it's maybe that some of the more electronic/remixy tracks don't necessarily sit coherently alongside the more "voice and guitar" kind of tracks.  They aren't really completely incompatible or anything though, so it just adds a little extra variety to spice up the lengthy runtime of the album.

The album wasn't a commercial or critical runaway success, but it was certainly a step up for the group, making it to number 8 in the UK charts and gaining a few accolades including the inaugural Mercury Prize.   Speaking of the Mercury Prize, looking at the calibre of the winning albums that I am familiar with I feel like I should put the other winners on my musical 'to-do' list for future investigation.  

Day 0704 - Blue Lines

Massive Attack "Blue Lines" (1991)

Massive Attack had gravitated towards each other and been developing music together for months.  Some of the group were involved in the production of Neneh Cherry's "Raw Like Sushi" album, and Neneh in turn had been motivating the group to make and release their own music.  In the words of Daddy G:

"We were lazy Bristol twats. It was Neneh Cherry who kicked our arses and got us in the studio. We recorded a lot at her house, in her baby's room. It stank for months and eventually we found a dirty nappy behind a radiator".

The group produced music with an electronic vibe, but throwing live instruments into the mix and with much slower tempos than typically found in the electronic genre.  Hiphop beats and rapping mix with an almost loungey soul, strings and brilliant vocals from Shara Nelson, Horace Andy and rapper Tricky, who would go on to have an extensive solo career.

Viewed as one of the first/cornerstone albums in the yet-to-be labelled 'trip-hop' genre.

Day 0703 - The White Room

The KLF "The White Room" (1991)

The KLF released music under the names the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, JAMs, and (to release a childhood favourite of mine "Doctorin' the TARDIS") the Timelords.  The group also published a book "The Manual (how to have a number one the easy way)". 

The group pulled off some rather extreme performance pieces, including dumping a dead sheep at their after-show party, and then disbanded.  They formed the K Foundation with the mission of subverting and creating.

Prior to the breakup though, they produced this album.  Originally designed as a soundtrack for a film of the same name, the film was cancelled so the group moved towards producing a standalone album instead.   The music goes between the worlds of pop and the trance/rave scene.  For an album from the constantly evolving (musically and technologically) electronic scene, this one has aged incredibly well and I could imagine them possibly having influenced the Prodigy among others.

Day 0702 - Achtung Baby

U2 "Achtung Baby" (1991) - got it

While not my favourite U2 album, I can see that this one really does deserve its place on the list.  The band had been slowly evolving their overly-earnest sound, working through early post-punk, to a more nuanced pop-rock under the tutelage of producers Eno and Lanois, and then eventually delving deep into America’s rock and blues sound.   But when they released “Achtung Baby” (a line from Mel Brooks’ “the Producers” and an exclamation often uttered by one of the studio crew) it was a reasonably sizeable stylistic left-hand turn for such a major band.

The band were embracing dance rhythms and electronic elements, a style that, to my mind played to the strengths of sonic experimenter, guitarist the Edge, and metronomic, powerhouse drummer Larry Mullen Jr.

The road to the album hadn't been an easy one.  The band limped through fractious sessions in Berlin that yielded hardly any useable tracks.   Close to the tipping point, the band came up with the track "One" and from then on things started flowing, with the band picking up sessions again back in Ireland.

There are looped bass and drum sounds, "Rubber Soul"-era Beatles-style vocal harmonies (a combination that sounds not unlike some of the Chemical Brothers' work with Noel Gallagher).  There's the chunky wah-wah guitar of "Mysterious Ways", and the psychedelic swirl of "Even better than the real thing".   It's the track "the Fly" that really strikes me: Bono can be a bit of a self-righteous twat on occasion, but he really can write some good lyrics when it comes down to it.  I don't usually listen much to lyrics, but there's something about Bono's desperate, whispered delivery that makes you take notice.

The band would carry on down this avenue of experimentation through the "Zooropa" album, culminating with the "Pop" album, maligned by the band, but something of a favourite of mine.  After that, they returned to a more earnest, straight-ahead rock sound and were viewed by fans to have 'made a comeback' but I still enjoy this era of exploration.

Day 0701 - Spiderland

Slint "Spiderland" (1991)

At first I felt the need to push against this album, just because the reviewer for the book was so incredibly effusive about it.   Going with the old "this less famous band is so much better than those bands that everyone else knows" spiel.  After a few listens though, it has made its way under my skin.  I don't view them as the second coming or anything, but it's an interesting grunge/alt-rock record.

The band released only 2 albums and had changing membership within that time, which I guess is not surprising as they were all fairly young and were going to college in between albums.  They recorded their first album with no-nonsense punky producer Steve Albini, recording an EP's worth of songs around the same time (released later).

For second album "Spiderland" the group decided to go for a slightly more polished sound.  They jammed out songs in the basement, working at repeating the same riffs over and over again, slowly evolving them.

Singer Brian McMahon would take rough recordings to his parents' car to listen and work on vocals.  Said vocals range from soft, spoken-word through to bloody curdling screams.  Likewise, the music swings between cold, but delicate clean guitar lines, and crashing fuzzed-out walls of rock.

The band broke up by the time the album was released, leaving no tour, interviews or videos to promote the release.  However, critical acclaim and word of mouth built the album's status and prevented it from sinking into the fog of musical history.

Day 0700 - Arise

Sepultura "Arise" (1991) - got it

After 3 albums of derivative, somewhat ratty sounding thrash albums, Sepultura (which means 'grave' in Portuguese) travelled to the US to produce their fourth album.

Though the band are still wearing their Slayer and 80s-Metallica hearts well and truly on their sleeves, there are hints of the more melodic and slower 'groove metal' style that they and contemporaries Pantera (among others) would develop.  They also started bringing in the tribal percussion that would become one of Sepultura's trademarks.

This is still largely a thrash affair, with blistering guitar solos, Max Cavelera's aggressive growl, and brother Igor Cavalera's punishing, crazed, yet virtuosic drumming.

Day 0699 - Foxbase Alpha

Saint-Étienne "Foxbase Alpha" (1991) - got it

This album channels 1960s sounds through a 1990s 'filter', so it's pretty much in my wheelhouse.

The group was formed by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, who had both been music writers (who says 'those who can't, write).  They'd originally planned to feature different singers across every album, but after working with Sarah Cracknell on this, their debut, they decided to invite her in as a permanent vocalist.

The album does something that I love, namely it engages in musical collage/experimentation, but uses it to create something quite accessible and poppy.   The dancey beats were akin to the sounds fermenting in the triphop scene, some of the film/dialogue samples lend things a touch of musique concrete, but the melodies and much of the arrangement hints more at summery 60s pop, with wistful female vocals and swirly psychedelic string touches.

Oddly, I've never got around to checking out the rest of their albums.  Might have to put it on the musical to-do list once I've finished the 1001.