Day 0759 - The Sun Rises in the East

Jeru the Damaja  "The Sun Rises in the East" (1994)

Jeru had worked with Gang Starr, and that group's DJ Premier produced this, Jeru's first solo album.  

The production and beats are probably the most interesting part of this album for me.   It almost seems to lean into trip-hop territory with moody instrumental samples backed with drum-machine loops.

The book talks about how Jeru calls out various other rap artists of the time for various perceived offences, but then I don't generally pay attention to lyrics.   Whatever is pissing off Jeru it goes past me, and musically the album doesn't really stand out for me above and beyond other albums or even other hip hop albums of the time.

Day 0758 - Venus Luxure No.1 Baby

Girls Against Boys "Venus Luxure No.1 Baby" (1994)

The band utilise synthesisers and dual bass guitars... I have to admit that I did not notice these things on first listen, it was only when I went back and gave it a second listen that could hear the two different basslines going on.

The music is largely grungey rock but it feels like it touches on the sounds of bands as diverse and Mazzy Star and Clutch.  There is some stonking, riff-heavy rock but there are also some moodier moments.  They play around with distorted piano lines in "Billy's One Stop", a hypnotic almost sensuous groove on "Get Down" and a slow groove-metal feel to "Rockets are Red".

Day 0757 - Teenager of the Year

Frank Black "Teenager of the Year" (1994)

 

Black Francis broke up the Pixies (announcing it in an interview before informing his bandmates) then changed his name to Frank Black and headed right back into the studio to record his first solo album.   That album didn't make it to the 1001 albums but this, his second album did.

It's a sprawling beast of a thing, with 22 tracks and a runtime of well over an hour.   Styles as varied as punk, reggae, rockabilly and Beatles-esque pop vie for space.   "Olé Mulholland" has a definite Lou Reed swagger to it, while album-closer "Pie in the Sky" has a kind of shouty rock that wouldn't be out of place on a Foo Fighters album. "Headache" has shades of Beatles.

Black has a keen instinct for melody and interesting melodic ideas, one of those songwriters whose melodies take unexpected (but not unwelcome) little twists and turns, like in "Fazer Eyes"

There was nothing on here I particularly disliked, and I actually find Black's lyrics more interesting than most, but it's unlikely that I'd sit down and listen to this in its entirety again which I did 3-4 times to get the measure of it.

Day 0756 - Tical

Method Man "Tical" (1994)

A hint of the pool of talent contained in the Wu-Tang Clan that its constituent members were already producing solo albums even as their debut was hitting.   They'd worked out a record deal that allowed them to record as solo artists for different record labels.

Method man signed with Def Jam for his debut.   The RZA's production brings more kung-fu film soundtrack bits, murky bass and interesting beats.  

There is the potential that having primarily just one MC this album could be less interesting than the Wu's material, but between the guest MCs and Meth's own bouncy, hypnotic flow, it's still a great album.

Day 0755 - Strange Cargo III

William Orbit "Strange Cargo III" (1993)

 

William Orbit is now a well known name in music, with production and remix gigs ranging from U2 and Madonna, through Blur, Finley Quaye, P!nk and Chris Brown.   But back in the day he was just starting out as an artist in his own right.

Orbit had been in a group called Torch Song, making music from their home-made studio... learning on the job essentially.  The group disbanded and Orbit started on his solo career.

The book opines that this album sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday rather than decades ago... I'd have to agree.  The trance-like soundscapes and well-aged synth sounds are as fresh as anything out today.

Day 0754 - Giant Steps

The Boo Radleys "Giant Steps" (1993)

Named after the excellent John Coltrane album of the same name this was the third album the Radleys released.  It was also on about the third record label they'd been signed to up to that point.

They had been on Rough Trade records, but when it collapsed they were picked up by Creation Records... yet to sign Oasis, but still with Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine and Teenage Fanclub on the roster.

Giant Steps is the Boo's second album for Creation and it lives up to its name with a huge range of styles covered across its 17 tracks.  There's dubby reggae covered in squalls of feedback, there's Beach Boys-esque chamber pop clashing with loud rock, psychedelic balladry with avant noise overlaid.

It's another case where I probably find the runtime a bit long for my tastes, but it's still a musically interesting and enjoyable album that I'd be happy to spin again.

Day 0753 - Bubble & Scrape

 Sebadoh “Bubble & Scrape” (1993)

 

Sebadoh was formed by Eric Gaffney and Dinosaur Jr. bassist/vocalist Lou Barlow.  Originally it acted as a creative outlet and side project for Barlow, who was being somewhat shut out of the songwriting process of Dinosaur Jr by his bandmate J Mascis.  Eventually Barlow was fired from Dinosaur Jr and made Sebadoh his full-time priority.

Possibly due to Mascis’ overbearing nature, some of Barlow’s songs ruminated on the subject of control.  In contrast to that band, Sebadoh seems much more democratic, with all three band members contributing songs to the album.

The band had built itself up on lo-fi indie recordings, but this was the first album that they recorded entirely in a professional studio, and the last album with founding member Gaffney, who went on to pursue a prodigious DIY solo career.

'Bubble and Scrape' benefits from the mix of writers with a range of sounds, from noisy fuzzed out lo-fi punk, to washy alt-rock and some almost 1960s pop moments (but sifted through a grimy 90s filter).

Day 0752 - Doggystyle

Snoop Doggy Dogg "Doggystyle" (1993)

Snoop's debut hit the ground running, thanks to hype created by his contributions to Dr Dre's "The Chronic" album, and by the fact that Snoop himself had been arrested in connection to the murder of an associate of a rival gang.   For many it would have given that hint of authenticity to Snoop's rhymes that other 'gangsters' might have been seen to be lacking.

Other than a few of the bigger tracks I hadn't really heard this album before. Great music, some of the best basslines around, thanks to Dre and his G-Funk sound.  

Snoop's delivery has so much attitude... not so fussed on some of the more misogynist lyrics, but then 80s and early 90s hip-hop, that's unfortunately par for the course.

Day 0751 - Orbital II

Orbital "Orbital II" (AKA "Orbital" AKA "The Brown Album") (1993)

I almost thought the version that I'd found to stream online was some kind of joke.  It just seemed to be a  looped recording of Worf from Star Trek TNG eventually repeating the same 5 words over and over again.  Turns out that is legitimately the first track of the album.   The whole album is bookended by two spoken word tracks.

The rest of the album is loop-based music.  Repetitive, yet quite layered and melodic electronica.  I can sometimes find the repetition in electronic music to be uninteresting, but here it works to create a musical trance that ensnares you and carries you along.

Day 0750 - Debut

 Björk "Debut" (1993) 

 

Björk is another musical 'lifer'.   She studied piano, released her first (self-titled) album at the age of 11, played in fusion bands, punk bands and achieved a degree of fame fronting the band Sugarcubes.  Even around those bands though she was recording with various other musicians in a variety of styles.

Björk moved to London to really get her solo career going.  She teamed up with producer Nellee Hooper (Massive Attack, Soul II Soul) and, grooving on the club culture, produced this album of largely dance/triphop-based tracks.  You couldn't really pigeonhole it to that one area though, with jazzy horn sections, sweet pop and weird 'Björky' idiosyncrasies.   

All across the album,  Björk's voice is on full display.  Ranging from whispered child-like melody to full-throated ecstatic yell-singing.   Bjork is a true original, to the extent that I've found myself referring to some artists as "like a French Björk" (Camille) or "like a less 'out there' Björk" (Emiliana Torrini).   She is pretty much her own genre.

The album was well received, and as a cherry on top, it was the beginning of Björk's visual creative partnership with Michel Gondry, whose quirky music videos were the perfect match for Björk's music.

Day 0749 - Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers

Wu-Tang Clan "Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers" (1993)

 

Cousins Robert Diggs, Gary Grice and Russell Jones formed a group called 'Force of the Imperial Master'.  The members ended up being signed to separate record labels for a time, but were eventually dropped from these contracts.   They re-focussed their efforts on making music together, with new names (RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard) as Wu-Tang Clan.

The group recorded their debut in a small studio on a limited budget.   RZA made the MCs battle each other to see who would rhyme over his beats.  The competition helped create some great music.   The mix of the different MCs' vocal styles, the various kung fu sound samples, and GZA's magpie-like approach to music production created a blueprint for the group and its myriad off-shoots and solo albums.   Really Wu-Tang is more than just a group, it's like a movement or organisation!

Day 0748 - The Infotainment Scan

The Fall "The Infotainment Scan" (1993)

The Fall embrace electronic elements on top of the rock, noise, spoken word sound of their previous two entries in this list.

The Infotainment Scan did reasonably well, hitting no.9 in the UK charts, and it has some interesting sounds throughout, but for some reason it just didn't tickle my music-bone the way other two entries (Live at the Witch Trials and This Nation's Saving Grace) did.

Day 0747 - Tuesday Night Music Club

Sheryl Crow "Tuesday Night Music Club" (1993)

Sheryl Crow is another of those who seems to have been a lifelong lover of music.  Her parents both played musical instruments, she studied composition and then made a living mixing teaching work, singing with bands at night, and recording advertising jingles.  Crow also toured with Michael Jackson in the 80s and provided backing vocals on his "Bad" tour.   After that she started singing backing for other artists and laid down a few songs of her own for film and TV.

Crow tried to record an album with Police and Split Enz producer Hugh Padgham, but neither she or the record company were happy with the result and it was shelved.

Crow started a relationship with musician Kevin Gilbert and the two of them were involved with a loose group of musicians and songwriters that called themselves the Tuesday Night Music Group.  The group worked extensively on this album and Crow and her record company were much happy with this mix of country, blues, balladry, and even pop (in the shape of the almost out-of-place hit single "All I wanna do").  

Great collection of songs.  I recognised "Strong Enough" though I think that was through a cover.  Pretty sure I've heard "the na-na song" too.

Day 0746 - Modern Life is Rubbish

 Blur “Modern Life is Rubbish” (1993) – got it

 

Blur had released their debut album “Leisure” which aligned itself stylistically with the ‘baggy’ scene, the musical movement mixing rock and dance rhythms.  The album fared well enough but things quickly went downhill.  The band came to be seen as bandwagon jumpers, they had an ill-received tour of the USA and found themselves owing quite a large sum of money, all while rival band Suede’s star was in ascension.

On the US tour, singer Damon Albarn had found himself missing the UK and listening to the pastoral, almost kitsch pop of the Kinks and formulating a bold change of direction for the next Blur album.  They all cut their hair and geared up in doc marten boots, narrow jeans and polo shirts to pose for photos under the label “British Image 1”.  The music followed suite with a more resolutely British bent to it.  Whether it was the brass band in “Sunday Sunday”, the London-centric lyrics of lead single “For Tomorrow” or Albarn's distinctive accent (labelled 'mockney' by his detractors) throughout.

It’s essentially the ‘classic’ Blur sound of upbeat pop songs with cheeky raucous vocals, lashings of backing vocals and embellished with brass bands and strings.  The clean pop doing battle with guitarist Graham Coxon’s love of noisy lo-fi indie rock and fuzzed-out distorted guitars.

But before you can get ideas about this album being all about Albarn and Coxon, the jagged bassline for “Colin Zeal” starts, with the drums and guitar coming in to create polyrythms against it, until it all congeals into the propulsive pop-rock chorus.

The band explore a range of sounds with "Miss America" being an interesting experiment in minimalism and atmosphere, that vaguely hints at Coxon's future work for "the End of the F**king World".  "Oily Water" almost bears a resemblance to what was going on in American indie-rock and "Advert" sounds like a blueprint for the faster tracks on their next two albums.

A lot of fans feel that “Modern Life…” is the best Blur album, others feel they perfected their sound with the next album “Parklife”.  My own heart lies with their murky, morose self-titled album, but I also like the fact that they don’t just settle on one sound and seem to be eternally questing for the next thing.

Day 0745 - Rid of Me

 PJ Harvey "Rid of Me" (1993) 

 

Polly Jean and her eponymous trio had been touring hard on the back of their debut "Dry".  In the meantime, things weren't totally hunky dory for Harvey.  Her relationship had broken up and her place at a College of arts and design was no longer to be held for her.  PJ suffered a nervous breakdown.

That stress and angst comes out in these raw, howling tracks, mostly consisting solely of guitar, drums and vocals with occasional bass.   PJ chose punky, no-nonsense producer Steve Albini to helm the majority of the album.   Albini's unconventional placement of microphones created a drum sound that Harvey enthused sounded just like standing right in front of the drums.  

An odd duck on the album was "Man-sized (sextet)" with its discordant string arrangement.

PJ broke up the trio after this and moved onto recording as a solo artist.

Day 0744 - Very

 Pet Shop Boys "Very" (1993)

 

The Band explained the title by saying that the album is 'very' everything.  "Very up, very sad, very pop very etc."

The music feels like the Boys finally stopped moodily noodling on synthesizers in a drab London flat and headed out to the club.   This ecstatic dramatic change in sound could be due to this being the group's first album in some years, an embracing of the emergent club scene, or possibly  Neil Tennant feeling a newfound sense of freedom as he prepared to reveal his homosexuality to the world at large.

Certainly that latter aspect is addressed in the lyrics of songs like "To speak is a sin" and "can you forgive her".... or more overtly with the club-esque cover of the Village People's "Go West" with its rousing male chorus.

Essentially the Pet Shop Boys managed to delve into different realms of pop, while still managing to sound like themselves.

 

Day 0743 - Emergency on Planet Earth

 Jamiroquai “Emergency on Planet Earth” (1993) – got it

 

Kind of like a combination of Herbie Hancock’s fusion material, and Steve Wonder… in fact, if I were to be uncharitable, I’d say that that’s pretty much all their sound is.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Jamiroquai’s tight funk grooves, danceable beats and Wonder-esque vocals, and I have a few of their releases; but I have to admit that their sound doesn’t change hugely between albums.  They might chuck in a ballad here or more of a disco influence there but generally they stick with what they know.

That aside, I could definitely understand this record and band making a splash when they first appeared.  Their music is lively, their musicians skilled, and lead-singer Jay Kay (who people forever assume is a solo artist called Jamiroquai) was a ball of big-hat-wearing energetic stage presence.

Day 0742 - In Utero

 Nirvana “In Utero” (1993) – got it

 

In my teens I was moving from mostly listening to my parents’ music, to getting into louder, heavier stuff.  There were a few albums (on cassette back then) from my brother’s collection that were starting to inform that transition.  Amongst these were the Nirvana albums “Nevermind” and “In Utero”.

With “In Utero” Nirvana were in the unenviable position of trying to follow up an album that had been a huge smash-hit, had reignited mainstream interest in punk and had helped helm the grunge movement… so, no pressure.

The band looked to kick back against the polished sound of “Nevermind” by hiring ‘punk’ producer Steve Albini.  Albini had worked with the Pixies, of whom Kurt Cobain was a fan, so that probably fed into the decision.  

The band had told Albini that they wanted to make a raw and uncompromising album, and he obliged, but it seems as though, once the record company heard the rough mixes, the compromises started.  Albini refused the band's request to remix the album, leading to several tracks being given a polishing remix by R.E.M’s regular producer Scott Lit.

You can kind of hear the difference between the two approaches.  Single “Heart Shaped Box” has a clean drum sound and clear vocals, whereas something like noisy opener “Serve the Servants” still has its roomy, noisy ambience favoured by Albini.  The raw, heartfelt "All apologies" sounds like the best of both worlds, with clean melodic, string-backed verses and raucous, 'recorded-in-someone's-bathroom' distorted choruses.

All in all, I feel like the mix and compromise makes the album more interesting than uneven.   More interesting than either another completely polished, ‘clean’ sounding Nevermind-esque recording, or a completely dirty, punky Albini-style record.

In true 1990s rock style, the album closes with a period of silence followed by the then-popular secret hidden track.

Day 0741 - Fuzzy

Grant Lee Buffalo "Fuzzy" (1993)

The members of Grant Lee Buffalo originally operated under the name Shiva Burlesque, but then reformed in the 90s under their new name.

The album has a definite feel of Americana to it.   Tales from the dusty US back-roads, rendered in a mix of acoustic and over-driven guitars.  My favourite is probably "Dixie Drug Store" the falsetto chorus of which, kind of reminds me favourably of U2's track "Numb".

There's a nice mix of raucous and rocking through to more mellow and meditative tracks.

Day 0740 - Whatever

Aimee Mann "Whatever" (1993)

Aimee had been bassist and vocalist for the band Til Tuesday, who had a successful Mann-penned single "Voices Carry".   The band broke up and Mann pursued her solo career.

This is Aimee's first solo album and it's brilliant for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost, Mann is an amazing songwriter.  She's another of those rare songwriters whose lyrics actually made me stop and take notice, she has real way with words.  The ballad "I know there's a word" is brilliant and affecting while still being tastefully opaque.

The other reason is that Mann enlisted the help of Til Tuesday touring member and multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion, who would go on to produce my favourite Fiona Apple album as well as albums by such adventurous souls as the Eels, David Byrne, and Rufus Wainright.

The music has a bit of a country lilt to it, maybe a hint of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, and then (possibly courtesy of Brion) a subtle theatricality in places.

I thoroughly enjoyed this.  It's almost the opposite to a lot of albums, in that rather than being a bit front-loaded, it gets better the further into the tracklist you go so that you end on a high note, ready to revisit the songs.

Day 0739 - Gentlemen

Afghan Whigs "Gentlemen" (1993)

The Whigs evolved out of Greg Dulli's former band the Black Republicans, with the goal being that the music should be a meeting place between the Temptations, the Band, and Neil Young playing with Crazy Horse.   I would say that the latter 2 influences are much more to the forefront than the former, though "Faded" has hints of soul, and "I keep coming back" has a nice soul vibe to it too.  It's followed by an emotive instrumental backed with synthesized strings.

Much of the rest of the album though falls into that vibe of 90s alt-rock, a mix of yelling rock vocals and a gentle gravelly croon.  The music is rock but mixes funk, and shoegazey textures into its guitar cauldron.

I enjoyed it well enough, and do like Dulli's work with Mark Langean under the moniker the Gutter Twins.

Day 0738 - Exile in Guyville

Liz Phair "Exile in Guyville" (1993)

Phair started off with a collection of demos under the moniker 'Girly Sounds'.  After asking acquaintances who the 'coolest indie label' in town was, she approached the co-president of Matador Records.  As luck would have it, he had just been reading a review of her demo and asked her to send in a tape.   The tapes met with a good deal of enthusiasm and Phair was signed up.

The music is largely stripped down guitar and vocal.  It's melodic alt-rock with a little rawness to it, though this is interrupted somewhat by the almost perfect pop-rock song "Never Said" and the dreamy piano of "Canary" with Phair's slightly snarling vocals over the top.

She doesn't tread lightly lyrically, with songs such as "Divorce" and "Fuck and run" or "dance of the seven veils" in which she states "I'm a real c*nt in spring".  

Day 0737 - New Wave

The Auteurs “New Wave” (1993)

The Auteurs were started by then couple Luke Haines and Alice Redman with former classmate Glenn Collins.  They put together a demo and were quickly signed to Hut Records.  “New Wave” was their first full-length release.

The entry in the book talks about them being progenitors of ‘Britpop’… but then, as frequently happens with genres or musical movements, several albums in the book have been given this honour.   I do find it interesting that so many of these musical movements can spring up like this, with multiple different bands all relatively independently arriving at similar musical destinations.

While I was living in the UK there seemed to be this trend towards artists who ruminated on everyday things (the Streets, Arctic Monkeys) whereas I’ve always preferred more obscure lyrics that maybe use a bit of clever or creative wordplay.   This band seems to have a more cinematic/theatrical vibe, such as on opening track "Show Girl" with the crashing, flashy intro suddenly vanishing into a quietly subdued verse.  The arrangements are bit more interesting than straight-ahead ‘rawk n roll’ and I could certainly hear similarities between this band and artists like Blur or Suede (Supergrass at a stretch).

While I won’t say they’re my new favourite band, I do think they are an artist that requires further investigation.  

Day 0736 - Siamese Dream

Smashing Pumpkins "Siamese Dream" (1993) - got it

I had an odd introduction to the Pumpkins.  My brother showed me the music video for "Tonight Tonight" and (being a Beatles fan who didn't really like "heavy" music) when I heard the string-backed alt-rock with a slightly nasally vocal I liked what I heard and was making connections in my mind to Lennon.   As we lived in a small town with no music store, I ordered the Pumpkins' first two albums "Gish" and "Siamese Dream" on cassette through a mail order catalogue.   That ended up being a slightly wrong (yet so right) move as neither album had "Tonight Tonight" and both were packed with loud swirls of distorted guitar.

Having shelled out the pocket money to get them, I pushed ahead listening to them, and pretty quickly they started to get under my skin.

Reading up on it, following the punishing tour schedule for psychedelic sludgey riff-fest Gish, the band started working on Siamese Dream.  Billy Corgan was driven in his vision to combine the heaviness of Black Sabbath, the psychedelia of Pink Floyd and the musicianship of Led Zeppelin. 

Arguably he succeed.  The music is a noisy wave of guitar woven over hummable melodies and overlaid with some wailing lead guitar parts.   The album has a bit of variety between the noisy guitar-cyclone of "Silverf*ck" to the aptly named ballad "Sweet Sweet" with its clean, chiming guitars.   There is a vaguely cinematic feel to a lot of the songs, whether it's the guitar-heavy "Geek USA", the melodic closer "Luna" or the slow build of "Soma".   Yet across its different tracks and different styles, the album (and this is true of Gish too) has its own internal logic, so that the songs sound like they belong together.

There has been some debate as to how much of the album featured guitarist James Iha and bassist D'arcy with some rumours putting it that Billy recorded everything himself, but drummer Jimmy Chamberlain is certainly present.   The punishing drums of Chamberlain have the musicality of jazz with the force and heaviness of metal and are a defining feature of the Pumpkins' sound.  Chamberlain's issues with narcotics started to interfere with the recording, with him occasionally vanishing during the recording process.  He was pushed towards rehab, though would continue to suffer addiction for a few more years.

Day 0735 - Wild Wood

Paul Weller "Wild Wood" (1993)

Weller had already made a decent contribution to the British music world, having been part of the Jam and the Style Council.  That latter band's star began to wane, until their record label refused to release their last album and the band disbanded.

After taking a year or so off music, Weller toured for a while as 'the Paul Weller Movement' which allowed him to revisit some of the catalogue of his two bands as well as showcasing some new music.  This tour was followed by a self-titled solo album.

With his solo career up and running, Paul released his second album 'Wild Wood.  It almost feels like a compendium of late 60s/early 70s sounds, with hints of Beatles-esque pop, Neil Young rock, Bowie glam and even a touch of Hendrix funk with a few bits of electronic/studio trickery thrown in on occasion to give the music that point of difference from its influences.

It's another one of those albums where I think any one of these songs in isolation would be an enjoyable listen, but for some reason, each time I listened through the album (4 or so times) my interest would wane by the last quarter.

Day 0734 - Suede

Suede "Suede" (1993) - got it

Suede was started by couple Brett Anderson and Justine Frischmann.   They recruited other members, even having an audition with the drummer from the Smiths (an influence on the pair).  They eventually enlisted drummer Simon Gilbert via future 'Office' creator Ricky Gervais.

Anderson and Frischmann broke up and Frischmann started dating Blur's Damon Albarn.  The band didn't survive the break with Frischmann leaving to form Elastica  while Anderson moved forward with Suede.

Something about Anderson's voice reminds me of the Dunedin sound, made famous in the late 70s and 80s.  The music though has that more 90s sound of distortion and indie rock with touches of leftover washy shoegazey guitar flavouring things slightly.

I initially bought this album on the strength of catchy single "Animal Nitrate" though I honestly don't listen to the album much now, it does still have some great tracks like the equally catchy "The Drowners" and the beautiful album closer, piano-based "The Next Life".

Day 0733 - Dry

PJ Harvey "Dry" (1992)

Things that I learned doing this list - number... whatever:  PJ Harvey, like Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper, used to be the name of a band as well as its titular lead singer.

Polly Jean had been raised by parents who exposed her to different styles of music.  She'd played in the ensemble Bologne and the folk duo Polekats.  She contributed saxophone, guitar and backing vocals to the group Automatic Dlamini.   During that time she had been honing her own songwriting talents, until finally she was ready to start her own band, along with two members of Automatic Dlamini.

After two critically well-received singles, PJ Harvey released her/their first album.   The music is stripped-down, raw rock with PJ (the person) hissing, howling, wailing and growling over the top.  There's noisy guitar, there are parts that are just stripped down to bass and vocals, but it doesn't just sound like indie-rock, you get a feeling that some of PJ's other musical background in folk, pop and jazz are floating around just below the surface.

The album laid down the gauntlet that has seen PJ (MBE)(the person) take up and maintain 'musical icon' status.

Day 0732 - Devotional Songs

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Party "Devotional Songs" (1992)

The list yet again throws up a little surprise.  In amongst the grunge, hip hop and electronic albums populating much of this part of the 1001; suddenly an album of devotional ragas sung in a passionate, strong voice with a fantastic range.

I would say that the only annoyance was that this was that it was another of those albums that was hard to track down.  I had to piece it together using a collection of youtube clips.  At one point I accidentally clicked the wrong link and ended up listening to a full uninterrupted half hour performance of one of these songs.   It's a credit to the music (a) that I didn't notice it had been going on that long, (b) that it held my interest throughout, and (c) that Fateh and his group seem to be able to maintain their intensity across a half hour of non-stop music!

Day 0731 - Henry's Dream

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds "Henry's Dream" (1992) - got it

After internal conflicts, the Birthday Party broke up.  Members Nick Cave and Mick Harvey put together a pretty impressive collection of talent with Barry Adamson, Blixa Bargeld (Einstürzende Neubauten) and JG Thirwell (Foetus, Steroid Maximus, Manorexia etc.).  The line-up eventually pared down somewhat and started cranking out the albums, evolving towards the Bad Seeds' particular blend of delta-blues, murder ballads and goth-gospel.

"Henry's Dream" was their seventh release.  Reportedly Cave didn't enjoy the recording process for it himself, but the result is pretty arresting.   It's like some giant apocalyptic catastrophe hits during the pulsing, unrelenting acoustic first track, with its dark imagery building to include "lynch mobs/death squads/babies being born without brains".  In the aftermath of this event there are those cracked, dry and broken ("Brother my cup is empty"), wandering around the world ("When I first came to town"), but there is also the chance for redeeming love ("Straight to you").

I love the bad seeds, but I have to say that a few of their albums (this one included) tend to lag a bit towards the end.  I find the last couple of tracks to be less interesting than what has preceded them.  Not bad, just not up to the standard of the rest of the album.

Day 0730 - Dirt

Alice in Chains "Dirt" (1992)

The band had been formed by guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Starr and drummer Sean Kinney.  Cantrell had been at his friend Layne Staley to come on as their vocalist while Staley was trying to get Cantrell as guitarist for his funk band.

Eventually the funk band disbanded and Alice in Chains was solidified.  Elements of funk showed up in their debut "Facelift" which was otherwise already fairly well formed with their signature mix of blues rock, chugging riffs and Staley and Cantrell's vocal harmonies.

The band followed up their debut with an acoustic EP (which they would also do after "Dirt") before coming back to their rock sound with "Dirt".
 
While the vocal harmonies are still present and there's melody to be had, these are some of the heaviest, most punishing riffs laid down by the band.  The lyrics are fairly dark, with the subject of addiction featuring largely, which is not surprising given that Staley would die of a drug overdose 10 years later.

Some great tracks on here with "Would" (featured in Cameron Crowe's "Singles" film), "Rain When I Die", and the one that first pricked up my ears towards AIC, Rooster.