Day 0911 - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

PJ Harvey “Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea” (2000) got it

 

PJ had been based in New York to do some acting work, wrote some songs and decided to live there for a time.   She was insistent that this was not her “New York album” but there is certainly a bit of a musical link to American alt-rock and punk.  In opening track “Big Exit” her vocal delivery sounds not unlike favourite NY son Lou Reed (though the drawl-meets-snarl vocal may just be Harvey’s own developing vocal style).  

Some of the lyrical content is definitely more American with “Something you Said’ listing off places and events in NY, and “Big Exit’s” gun fixation certainly sounds a lot more American than British.

The album has an overall more melodic and polished sound than PJ’s previous albums, though “This is Love” is still a fairly noisy rawk song that places swagger over sophistication.  Each verse consisting of a couple of repeated lines e.g.
“I can't believe that life's so complex
When I just want to sit here and watch you undress”.

Single “Good Fortune” has a nice folk-rock vibe to it and I think it was actually the first PJ Harvey song that I ever heard…. Well it was either that or “One time too many” from the (surprisingly good) “Batman Forever” soundtrack.

PJ continues to be an interesting musical force.  I’m slightly disappointed that the list doesn’t feature her “White Chalk” album where she challenged herself by switching to composing and recording on piano and singing in the upper reaches of her register.  The result was a beautiful yet uncomfortable listen.   She is well represented on the list though, so I can’t really complain.

Day 0910 - The Hour of Bewilderbeest

Badly Drawn Boy "The Hour of Bewilderbeest" (2000)

Badly Drawn Boy (nee Damon Gough) is someone I was mainly familiar with due to his work on the "About a Boy" soundtrack and the fact that he seems to always be wearing a beanie.  I had no real feel for him or his music at all.

Gough released a string of EPs before producing this debut full-length.   The 18-track album was said to be a loose concept album describing the lifespan of a relationship.

Ambitious project as far as the narrative idea, the mix of styles (technically he's indie folk-pop but there are elements of funk, baroque pop and rock, amongst others) and as far as the amount of music on the album.   

Can't say it really won me over.  It's one of those albums where none of the music is really unpleasant.  Quite the opposite, each track was nice enough.  The problem is that none of it really stuck with me.   As each track finished it was gone from my head and I felt no real connection to the music.   With over an hour of it  (and I  played it through a couple of times) it made for a cumbersome listening experience.

Day 0909 - Figure 8

Elliott Smith "Figure 8" (2000)

 
The inclusion of some of Smith's songs in the soundtrack for "Good Will Hunting" (which garnered an Oscar nomination for best original song) raised his profile.  He was signed to Dreamworks records, which meant his days of recording his albums at his and other people's houses was numbered.

This album was recorded at professional studios including Abbey Road... which seems apt as Smith's increased budget and big label direction allowed him to make a Beatles-esque baroque pop album.

The stripped down sound of "Either/Or" gives way to a lush layered approach.  Opener "Son of Sam" features some backing vocals that wouldn't be out of place on a mid-60s era Beatles album.   "Pretty Mary Kay" has a certain Lennon (via Pink Floyd) vibe to it.

Strings, layered vocals and bouncy Ringo-styled drums abound.  But while the Beatles' songs were generally uplifting, hopeful, love-focussed; Elliott had struggled with addiction and heartbreak and his songs funnelled that pop sound through a more nihilistic filter.   Not a million miles from the lovely, yet oddly sinister sound of the band Mini Mansions nearly a decade later.

Probably a track or so too long, but with a sound this lush and interesting, I'll let him away with it.

Day 0908 - Parachutes

Coldplay “Parachutes” (2000)

Though the name Coldplay has gone on to be used as a shorthand by some music fans for ‘bland’ and ‘MOR’, I do quite enjoy their first album.    It’s a concise slice of melodic rock and balladry without too many airs and graces.

Reading up on the band’s progression to their first album it does sound as though they were fairly single-minded and ambitious, pressing demos and playing showcases to get the attention of labels from pretty early on.  It also sounds like the labels responded in kind, grooming the band and having someone advise them on their musical direction (which I find a tad distasteful... sort your own shit).

The musical direction they chose is frequently dismissed as being ‘Radiohead-lite’ but again I feel like this is an unfair assessment.   A higher-pitched voice over alt-rock built on acoustic guitar and an electric guitar with some effects doesn’t necessarily = Radiohead.    As a side-note I would say the same for Muse who get tarred with the same brush, yet to my mind their sound owes a much larger debt to Queen than Radiohead.

With Coldplay, the write-up in the book suggests that Jeff Buckley could well have been an influence, and I could certainly agree with that on a song like “Shiver” (one of my personal favourites) which builds to ascending guitar parts and desperate yet somehow unrestrained vocals.

There’s a pleasing amount of variety with the piano ballad “Trouble”, the gentle acoustic interlude of the title track, the pulsing-along pop of “Don’t Panic” and of course the gentle acoustic ballad-turned-wall-of-guitar-squall that is the is the single “Yellow” (never really one of my favourites).

All in all, a fine if possibly cynically calculated pop album.  The follow-up “Rush of Blood to the Head” was likewise still reasonably worthy.

Day 0907 - All That You Can’t Leave Behind

U2 “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” (2000)

It’d be easy enough to write this one up as “Famous rock band finally stop faffing about with pop/dance music and gets back to rocking” but that would sell short the band's growth.

As outlined in my write-up for “Achtung Baby” (day 702) the band had moved away from their more ‘meat n potatoes’ melodic-rock sound and experimented with dance, funk, and alt-rock, culminating in their album “Pop” where they fully embraced the dance and pop scene.  That album was not a favourite among fans and the band felt that it was rushed and not their best work.   I personally think it’s one of their better ones, but there we go.  One person’s trash…. and all that.

So the band decided to get back to their roots of “band playing together in a room”.  They reunited with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois who had helmed their biggest 1980s albums.

The sound is fairly straightforward, with guitarist the Edge mostly sticking to clean tones with less sonic experimentation than he’d previously indulged in.  That’s not to say the album is a straight reversion to their “Joshua Tree” sound though.  They seem to have retained some of their more European melodic ideas.  Single “Elevation” sounds like it could be the younger cousin of “Mysterious Ways” from the Achtung Baby album with its effect-laden guitar, dance elements and slightly sexual lyrics.  There are still some dance beats to be had elsewhere too.

I was interested to see what the album as a whole would be like as the first 3-4 songs are its singles (Beautiful Day, Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out of, Elevation and Walk On), so I wondered if they’d front-loaded the album in the hopes that side A would sell side B.   That kind of is the case too.  

There are some other good songs besides the singles, “In a little while” is a nice simple pop song, and “Grace” lives up to its name. But, much of the second half of the album is a bit forgettable, or self-important (“Peace on Earth”).

Day 0906 - Kid A

Radiohead "Kid A" (2000) – got it

 

An album where genius and arrogance meet.  The band completely changed their melodic alt-rock sound for a direction more influenced by electronic music (particularly the sounds of alt-electro artists like Aphex Twin and Autechre) and left it up to fans to follow them on the journey or get out of the way.

I’ve often wondered if this change in direction was a natural evolution decided on unanimously by the band.  Reading about it though, it sounds as though the push came primarily from singer Thom Yorke.  Yorke was convinced that guitar rock was a dying genre… at the risk of being a touch salty, he wasn’t the first slightly self-important rocker to come to this conclusion with Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins having made similar declarations as he moved his band towards an electronic and acoustic sound for their 1998 album “Adore”.  

The other members of Radiohead had concerns about the change.  Concerns ranging from whether it was self-indulgent art rock for the sake of it, through to what (if anything) they’d personally be doing on each of the new songs.    Definitely this second point is a valid concern when you look at a song like “Idioteque” which is based around a drum machine part and a looped sample of an experimental 1960s piece of computer music with Yorke being the most prominent member featured.  Yet the album works.

The new sound is on display right from the off, with the warm bleepy synth and looped vocal opening of “Everything in its right place”, the synth and drum machine of the title track and the Krautrock vibe of “National Anthem”.  

Guitars start to make a reappearance around the middle of the album.  “How to Disappear Completely” (with its acoustic guitar, morose vocal and light live drums over a soupy drone) sounds like it could have easily been on “OK Computer”.   “Optimistic” and “In Limbo” also feature guitars but with the vocals seeming less like a narrative and more like a free-form chanted mantra.  The vocals across the album are treated with various effects and processing that often sees them buried in the mix rather than front and centre as you'd expect for a rock or pop album.

Even the promotion of the album mixes genius and arrogance.   Instead of doing music videos for 2 or 3 select tracks, the band did a series of short advert-length videos for each track on the album.  It was a smart move because it helped signpost the band’s change of direction and gave the public a passing familiarity with the whole album without getting them burnt out on any one song.  Of course though the band felt the need to couch it as a ‘comment’ on how music videos are commercials and blah blah blah, (to reference Frank Zappa) “SHUT UP ‘N PLAY YER GUITAR”.

Love this album.  With some bands that have made big stylistic changes, I've taken a bit of time to acclimatise to them, but I enjoyed this one from the start.

Day 0905 - Red Dirt Girl

Emmylou Harris "Red Dirt Girl" (2000)

The third entry here featuring Emmylou (her 1975 album "Pieces of the Sky" was day 336 and the "Trio" album with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt was day 588).   Emmylou had gone from releasing an album every year or two in the 1980s to a much slower/lower output in the 90s.   Her 1995 album "Wrecking Ball" with regular U2 producer Daniel Lanois added a little extra atmosphere to her sound and was critically lauded.  

It took her a solid 4-5 years to follow it up with this album, which was different from her usual releases in that she wrote or co-wrote nearly every song.   It's not like she'd been slacking in the meantime though, with live albums and collaborations (including a second 'Trio' album) in the meantime.

The music is nice enough.  Kind of a folky alt-country vibe.   "Tragedy" has atmospheric looprf beats not dissimilar to "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks.   "My Baby Needs a Shephard" has lovely waves of vocal harmonies rising up on its folky arrangements.   

I don't really have too much more to say about this one.   Perfectly listenable, but not one I'll rush to revisit.

Day 0904 - Sincere

M.J. Cole "Sincere" (2000)

 

Cole was classically trained in oboe and piano.  He got a job as a tape operator and sound engineer for a drum and bass label which fuelled a love for electronic music.

I was kind of surprised at first.  I'd read something about him being into garage so I'd assumed it was garage-rock as that genre was due to become big in the next few years; instead it was the electronic genre of garage  ...I guess it makes sense.  You have house music, why wouldn't you have garage music?  I'm sure the garden shed music is just around the corner.

To my electronica layman's ears this sounds like interesting enough electronic music with touches of pop and soul, but nothing I feel I'll need to revisit.   The most interesting parts to me are the poppier ones like 70 funk-esque track "Rough Out Here" or single "Crazy Love" with its belting vocal.

There are some hints of Cole's classical training with pianos and strings popping up in places.  

Day 0903 - Tanto Tempo

Bebel Gilberto "Tanto Tempo" (2000) - got it

I came to Bebel’s music via her collaboration on Mike Patton’s Peeping Tom project.  I enjoyed the sound of that track and decided to investigate Bebel's own music.  At the time the local music stores were pretty well stocked and I managed to find both this and the self-titled follow up reasonably easily and cheaply.

Bebel had been around music her whole life with her father being the famous Brazilian musician João Gilberto who had collaborated on the feted “Getz/Gilberto” album (day 41) and had written the bossa nova classic “Girl from Ipanema”.

Bebel released music with her parents and wrote and released music with a friend before teaming up with Serbian-born producer Suba (see day 879) who had immersed himself in the Brazilian music scene, mixing traditional musical styles like bossa nova with electronic elements.
 

This album takes that mix of styles, but it is fairly subtle on the electronic elements.  They mainly come to the fore in opener "Samba da Benção“, "Alguém” and "Lonely".  There’s a laidback bossa sound to much of the album, with a lovely rendition of bossa classic “So Nice (Summer Samba)”.   

 

Tracks “Bananeira” and “No Return” offer a spicier, livelier side to Bebel’s sound.

Day 0902 - Heartbreaker

Ryan Adams "Heartbreaker" (2000)

I've never had a huge urge to check out Ryan Adams.  Not sure why, I think I heard a song or two back in the day that I didn't care for, then heard stories about him being a bit of a dick (not that that necessarily makes for bad music) so didn't really feel the motivation.

After the breakup of his alt-country group Whiskeytown, Adams teamed up with country/Americana artists Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to work on his solo album.

The album was actually pretty good.  It's mostly alt-country with a bit of a Bob Dylan vibe in places (drawling vocal, harmonica and acoustic guitars).   The opening track is wasted on a discussion about which album a particular Morrissey song is on... not exactly going to stand up to re-listens that one.  

After that it bursts into an ambitious rockabilly track "To be young (is to be sad, is to be high) which breaks into more melodic passages.  "Amy" is a gorgeous 60s flavoured ballad that wouldn't be out of place on a later era Beatles album.   "Oh my sweet Carolina" is a smouldering country ballad with guest vocals by Emmylou Harris, whose album "Red Dirt Girl" shows up shortly in this list.  "Bartering Lines" almost has that atmospheric T-Bone Burnett production to it and some lovely vocal harmonies.

Perfectly listenable, and I'd be more than happy to check out further Adams albums based on this.

Day 0901 - The Virgin Suicides (Soundtrack)

Air “The Virgin Suicides (Soundtrack)” (2000) – got it

Air’s debut album “Moon Safari” (entry 874) had been chilling people out for a year or two, and then the French duo reappeared scoring Sofia Coppola’s directorial debut ‘Virgin Suicides’, the film adaptation of Jeffery Eugenides’ novel.

The film is full of beauty and bleakness, life and death.  The music offsets this with a quality that is dreamy, yet with an underlying darkness.  A vibe not unlike Angelo Badalementi’s work for David Lynch on Twin Peaks.

The opening track "Playground Love" is a dreamy electro indie-pop track, but much of the rest of the album is instrumental with a few melodic themes repeated on different tracks like one of Marvin Gaye's song-suite albums.   

There's a vaguely trippy 70s-era Pink Floydian vibe to some of the music, particularly closing track "Suicide Underground" which also features narration from the film, linking the score back to its source.

Day 0900 - Lost Souls

It'll be interesting going into the 00s.  With the earlier albums on the list it's a lot easier to justify their place in the list based on longevity or influence on subsequent artists and genres.  I imagine the selection criteria will be less clear as it goes on.

 

0900
 

Doves "Lost Souls" (2000)

The book mentioned something about DJs/dance music so I thought I'd be listening to something in that vein.   Turns out that was Doves' previous incarnation 'Sub Sub' where they worked in the dance genre.   Their studio space burnt down, and the band lost their equipment and the music they'd been recording at the time.  The band used the insurance money to re-start and shift into a more alt-rock sound... and I like it!

They still have a bit of a dance approach to their tracks in that they seem to build a lot of the songs on repeated/looped ideas, and there's some nice production touches in place, but with more of an organic feel that dips into pop, indie, post-punk and even a touch of shoegaze.   They build up layers of sound, which is an approach that I dig.

The title track builds until it feels like a rising wave of voices rolling into shore.   "Catch the Sun" is a catchy, upbeat propulsive pop track built over a fuzzy drone.    "The man who told everything" is a more stripped down alt-rock track that brings strings and clean guitars over the choruses.   

 

Closer "A House" is an almost an alt-country track but with the sound of burning buildings fading in and out of the mix.   It's a musically adventurous and interesting album.

Not bad, 2000.  You're off to a good start.

Day 0899 - Ágætis byrjun

Sigur Rós "Ágætis byrjun" (1999)

Iceland continuing to punch above its weight musically.  

Sigur Rós were signed to the Sugarcubes' Bad Taste label and released their first album "Von".   It sold a small number of copies in Iceland but went overlooked most everywhere else.   That did not happen with this, their second album.  The album did have humble beginnings, with the band themselves manually putting together the first run of CDs/booklets.

The album topped the charts in Iceland, then the rest of the world started to notice and take an interest.  I can kind of see why too.  The ethereal soundscapes that are still bursting with melody even as they engulf you.  There are guitars bowed like violins, and Jón Þór Birgisson's high, pretty vocals.   There is variety within that sound too with "Viðrar vel til loftárása" being a beautiful piano piece with some slide guitar, or "Starálfur" with its lush explosion of strings.  It's music that you can sink into and float around in like a warm urine-free pool.  This may sound like a bit of an 'airy fairy' description, but with music this magical it's hard to be too dry in your assessment of it.


Welp, that wraps up the 90s.   

 

For me, the 90s and the 60s were the most influential decades on my formative musical development.   The 90s saw the revival, ascendancy and decline (again) of rock, the revival of punk via grunge and and pop-punk, and the rise of 'alt-rock'.  It saw the popularisation of the mashing of rap and metal (for better or worse).  The dance and hiphop genres finding their feet to bust out some of their best, classic albums. 

Day 0898 - Californication

Red Hot Chili Peppers “Californication” (1999) – got it

Another album that I don’t necessarily have to listen to specifically for the list because it’s burned into my memory… but for completism’s sake I gave it another spin.

Following the departure of guitar prodigy John Frusciante, the Chili Peppers tried a couple of different guitarists and carried on with Arik Marshall for their Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour, but when they came to record music, Marshall wasn’t clicking.   They enlisted Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro and together made the album “One Hot Minute” which had a much heavier and more layered sound than BSSM.  Personally I love OHM, but fans, some critics, and even the band themselves were less enamoured.  It constantly gets held up as a commercial failure… which is odd as it sold at least a couple of million copies, but I guess that’s not BSSM numbers.

Anyhoo, the partnership with Navarro ended too and the band reunited with Frusciante who had, in the interim released a couple of interesting-to-difficult solo albums and almost destroyed himself with heroin (he had no usable teeth left and his arms were heavily scarred from improper heroin injection).  He managed to clean himself up and switched his obsessive focus from junk back to music.

Which brings us to Californication.  The band reconvened in bass player Flea’s garage and in a really low-key way just started jamming together and coming up with music.

From the opening track “Around the World” it might almost seem like the band were picking up where they left off with a tornado of funk giving way to percussive single-note guitar lines and bouncy bass, but then the melodic chorus with Frusciante’s backing vocals kicks in.   Of course the game had already been given away with lead single “Scar Tissue” that seemed to nicely sum up the band’s journey since BSSM and was a much more melodic direction for the band.  More harmony/backing vocal arrangements from Frusciante and his technique of breaking chords down to 2 or 3 separately plucked clean notes with a bass and treble thing so it's almost mimicking a kick-and-snare rhythm pattern on drums.

I like the album for its simplicity.  The band aren't really looking to play a million miles a minute like they did on Mother's Milk, and Frusciante had not played for a couple of years so was just finding his way back around his instrument.  They explore their new mature melodic side on tracks like "Porcelain", the title track and the lovely acoustic album-closer "Road Trippin" (and singer Anthony Kiedis acquits himself well despite the many criticisms of his singing ability through the years), but they still dip into their funk sound with "Get on top" "I like dirt" and the fun "Purple Stain".  

In subsequent albums Frusciante would become a force to be reckoned with, and would arguably become too controlling in his vision, but here he's back to finding his feet and the four feel like equal partners.

The album isn't perfection.  The band starts to be guilty of "chorus overuse syndrome" repeating hooks on certain songs ad nauseum.   The 'hits' here suffered from radio saturation.  I can't listen to the title track or "Otherside" in isolation any more, though as part of the album as a whole they are still tolerable.

Day 0897 - Remedy

Basement Jaxx "Remedy" (1999)

I love the Jaxx! I don’t own a lot of their albums (a greatest hits and “Crazy Itch Radio”) but I enjoy everything I’ve heard from them and have used them as inspiration for some of my own forays into electronic (pop) music.   So with that in mind, when I saw one of their albums on the list, I was definitely keen to check it out.  I wasn't disappointed.

Jaxx felt that a lot of electronic music was a bit too shiny and superficial, and certainly their music (the 'remedy' to this) seeks to make you shake your thang, but with fun and interesting music with enough hooks to appeal to a broader audience rather than just existing ravers and club-goers.

There's the body-moving "Jump N Shout", the moody triphop of "Always be There" and the electro pop of "Rendez Vu" with its propulsive acoustic guitar break.

The Jaxx quirkiness is on display with the funky "U Can't Stop Me", the twitchy "Bingo Bango" and the chanted chorus of "Same Old Show".

The album ends on a subdued, smooth grooving fingersnapping note with "Being With U" and there's enough of a mix of genres that you don't really come away feeling like there's a single wasted track on the whole thing.

Day 0896 - HMS Fable

Shack "HMS Fable" (1999)

I'd initially put this one on while I was cooking dinner.  I  was listening to the first track thinking "oh yeah I think I know what this one is about - sounds like a bit of 90s brit rock, like Oasis but with a touch of Suede.   But then that first track "Natalie's Party" breaks from its rowdy-yet-melodic rock to drop in a nice little string section.   I decided I needed to give the album a bit more of my attention rather than having it as background music.    

I've listened to it a couple of times through now and there are certainly some swirly rock tracks that have more than a hint of the 'Madchester' sound but this album is all over the place in an interesting way.

There's bouncy melodic "Lend's Some Dough" with its beautiful layered vocals.  "Captains Table" has a dreamy, folky vocal-heavy sound not unlike the last Tripping Daisy albums before they transitioned into Polyphonic Spree.   "The Streets of Kenny" somehow manages to build a mellow, vocal laden track into what feels like a crescendo before suddenly cutting out and dropping you into "Re-instated" which, with its strings and mellow trumpet parts almost seems to hint at Burt Bacharach.  After a couple of more guitar-heavy tracks, the album closes out with the delicate acoustic "Daniella".

Day 0895 - I See a Darkness" (1999)

Bonnie Prince Billy "I See a Darkness" (1999)

Will Oldham had been making music for a while under different aliases.  As well as his own name, he’d recorded with groups named Palace Brothers and Palace Music.  Oldham explained the reason for these changing names was that he was making different music with each ensemble/project so wanted to signpost this with the name changes.

This is the first album released under the Bonnie “Prince” Billy nom de plume, and he seems to have stuck with it since then.

The sound here is a kind of delicate, gloomy folk.   It's really subdued, stripped down, acoustic and brilliant with occasional rocking outbursts.  "Nomadic Revery" kind of reminds me of Nirvana unplugged covering the Meat Puppets.  Tracks elsewhere could be favourably compared to Nick Cave's "The Boatman's Call" album.

The album was well received critically and other artists looked to cover the songs, most notably Johnny Cash covering the title track on one of his "American Recordings" albums.

Day 0894 - S&M

Metallica "S&M" (1999) - got it

Arranger and film composer Michael Kamen met Metallica at the Grammy awards in the early 90s.  Having put together an orchestral arrangement for an acoustic version of the band's hit "Nothing Else Matters" he had approached them about doing more with an orchestra.   Nothing came of it, until a few years later when the band themselves revisited the idea with Kamen.

These "band mixed with orchestra" things are always a bit hit and miss and that's the case here too.   Some of the arrangements are a bit busy and distract from the already dense arrangements, or they go completely the opposite way and are too slow with lots of legato that doesn't match or effectively counterpoint the faster source material.  

Some of the more successful tracks are from the Black Album and Load/ReLoad because they have a more stripped down sound which gives the orchestra a lot more room to inhabit.   There's the big brassy power put behind the opening bass riff of "Devil's Dance", or the appropriately Middle-Eastern flavoured strings giving "Wherever I may Roam" an extra epic dimension... almost like "Kashmir" via Metallica.

The two new songs "No Leaf Clover" and "-Human" see the band continuing in the more melodic stripped-down vibe they'd explored on their previous few albums.   That sound wouldn't last though.

This was the last album to feature bassist Jason Newsted and the band started to move to recapture their old 1980s sound and their old fans with a return to their thrashy roots.

At the time this album was released I was going through a bit of a Metallica obsession and willingly, aurally-inhaled this new offering.   With other music having since taken me away from them, I couldn't say that I listen to this album with any regularity.  I revisit their albums on a regular basis, but I don't feel like this one necessarily adds anything to their oeuvre other than offering an interesting sidestep.

Day 0893 - The Slim Shady LP

Eminem "The Slim Shady LP" (1999)

Eminem/Slim Shady/Marshall Mathers' story has already been told (in broad strokes) via the film "8 Mile":  Poor, working class white kid in a predominantly black neighbourhood, falls in love with hip-hop and builds up his skill in  underground rap battles.

Mathers released the relatively straight-ahead  hip-hop album "Infinite" which was a commercial failure and led to some DJs suggesting that as a white guy he should stick to 'rock'.   Mathers channelled his anger and frustration into a new persona Slim Shady, an angry-yet-mischievous alter ego who could and would say anything Mathers wanted him to say.

The character was a success, after an EP release, Mathers got to work with N.W.A.'s Dr Dre of whom he was a fan.   The pair worked well together, with beats by Dre inspiring Em.   The arrangements are mostly just stripped back to bass and beats while Mathers is rapping, but with lots of interesting bits and pieces going on in between.    

The album opens with a pretty hefty 1-2 punch of "My Name is" and "Guilty Conscience", both solid tracks that introduce the new anarchic, angry Slim Shady (his voice even sounds different than from on "Infinite") who was also an engaging storyteller.  

Where Will Smith released "Just the two of us" as a loving ode to fatherhood, Eminem's track "97' Bonnie and Clyde" previously also titled "Just the two of us" is a horror story of making his daughter unwitting accessory to murder.   The horror theme feels like it's continued on "Rock Bottom" the backing track of which sounds akin to old giallo soundtracks, maybe something from Morricone.

Mathers' first album sold around 1,000 copies.  Though he would come to largely retire the Slim Shady character as he matured, Slim helped him sell millions of copies of this second album and essentially put him on the musical map.

Day 0892 - Le Tigre

Le Tigre "Le Tigre" (1999)

Le Tigre - not just one of Derek Zoolander's many varied looks.

After the breakup of her riot grrrl (90s feminist punk movement) band Bikini Kill, Kathleen Hanna released a solo album under the name Julie Ruin.   She put together a band with Johanna Fateman and Sadie Benning to play the album live but they soon moved beyond that and began making music together.

The abrasive punk of Bikini Kill is less prominent here, outside of the odd track like "The The Empty".  There is still that coiled spring energy but it's channelled into much catchier (though still rocking and lo-fi) danceable fare, like opener "Deceptacon".  Or there's "Hot Topic" which name-checks a number of notable creative people in a way that works as almost a kind of beat poetry.   "My My Metrocard" has kitschy 60s, Austin Powers-esque organ over a shouted punchy groove.

The whole thing has a retro feel to it that seems like it's referencing catchy  50s and 60s pop-rock but without sounding specific to that period thanks to its underlying raw power and punk attitude.

Day 0891 - Darkdancer

Les Rythmes Digitales “Darkdancer” (1999)

More dance music, *le sigh*

No, this was actually pretty enjoyable.  Much like Mark Ronson’s “Record Collection” album some 10 years later, this album draws on a 1980s synth pop sound and features singers from that era/genre.   Singer Shannon features on track “Take a Little Time”, and the catchy “Sometimes” features singer and multi-instrumentalist Nik Kershaw.

Les Rythmes is Stuart Price, an English lad with a soft spot for French electro-pop.   Price has done production and remixing work for a number of artists including Pet Shop Boys, the Killers, Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Coldplay.

This album features upbeat, vibrant synthesizer pop that feels like it’s dripping with fluro 80s colour.   The track “Soft Machine” has a nice jittery, off-kilter rhythm and raspy rock vocal that I quite enjoyed.   "Music Makes You Lose Control" has the kind of repetitive loop-based approach to making music, has a fairly musical synth/bass line running throughout.  

Day 0890 - The Soft Bulletin

Flaming Lips "The Soft Bulletin" (1999)

The Lips had been mining experimental veins of musical exploration,  which could be seen to culminate with the "Zaireeka" album consisting of 4 discs designed to be played simultaneously on 4 different players.   Where to go from there?  Obviously the answer was to make a transcendent baroque pop album.

The Lips did it in their own way though, so interesting sonic manipulation is evident throughout more traditional instrumentation and lush arrangements.

The highlight for me is the mostly instrumental, wordless track "the Observer".    

 

"Feeling Yourself Disintergrate" starts with a repeated, ping-pong vocal somewhere between beatbox and scat that is then enveloped by treated keyboards, reverby vocals and a general warm blanket of music.  Despite its seemingly bleak title, the track in fact dwells on love, life and the universe in a dreamy, tripped out way.  That approach seems to be the bent of many of singer Wayne Coyne's lyrics: filling with hope instead of the cynicism and nihilism of some of his musical peers.

This trippy pop approach and psychedelic yet uplifting lyrics would go on to be further developed on follow-up "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots".

Day 0889 - Play

Moby "Play" (1999) - got it

Fun fact that I did not previously know: Moby chose his stage name because he's a descendant of Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick (at least according to Moby himself).

Moby did some DJing, played in alt-rock and hardcore bands and started to build up a reputation via his electronic music and remixes for other artists.   Then he put his musical foot in it by releasing a guitar-heavy, hard-core-style record called "Animal Rights".  the creative left-turn was not well received which left Moby mopey.  Following this setback, Moby convinced himself to carry on making music and produced Play. 

Initially not that successful, Moby and his team, as a last resort, licensed out all of the tracks for use in advertising and television which helped familiarise the public with the album.

Moby's approach is generally similar to that of Fatboy Slim, to take samples of older music (generally soul/blues/rock) and combine that with some beats and interesting arrangements to take the samples to new places.  Opener "Honey" more or less builds an entire song around one line from a Bessie Jones track.  Single "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad" likewise uses a couple of lines of lyrics combined with piano, strings and a gospel choir to create something different from its constituent pieces.

The album was eventually huge, spawning 8 singles.   Probably one problem with it (even for those of us who like a bit of Moby) is that it is huge track-wise too.   There are 18 tracks, over an hour of music and it's a bit much for a single listen.   There are a couple of more straight-ahead electro tracks and I almost feel like he should have made it two albums or a double album, split into more sample-based pop tracks, and some more electronic/dancey tracks.

Day 0888 - The Contino Sessions

Death in Vegas “The Contino Sessions” (1999)

The band were originally called ‘Dead Elvis’, but as it tunred out this was the name of an existing record label.  They changed their name to the thematically similar ‘Death in Vegas’ and used the Dead Elvis moniker for their first album instead.

The Contino Sessions (named for their recording space) is their second album.  The blurb in the book mentioned DJing and electronica and I’d thought that I’d be getting something very much in that musical arena.   I was quite surprised then to hear the opening track “Dirge” that starts with a sparse guitar line and vocals, then eventually builds to a Shoe-gazey wall of guitar noise.  

There are definitely electronic elements here (electronic beats, loops) but the sound veers between the aforementioned shoegazey sound and triphop, with shoe-gaze/wall-of-guitar band Jesus and Mary Chain’s vocalist Jim Reid featuring on one track “Broken Little Sister”.  Actually, that one sounded a bit familiar to me.

The second track “Soul Auctioneer” features a sinister, subdued groove that would not feel out of place on an early Massive Attack album.   Iggy Pop features spoken word vocals on “Aisha”, meanwhile the track “Aladdin’s Story” is a rare burst of upbeat melody amongst the gloom… though even there, it’s deceptive.  The few lyrics are hardly uplifting “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen/Nobody knows my sorrow”.

Day 0887 - Beyond Skin

Nitin Sawhney "Beyond Skin" (1999)

Another interesting, multi-faceted creative type.  Sawhney studied piano, guitar, sitar and tabla.  He toured with the group the James Taylor Quartet, formed his own band, the Jazztones, then joined forces with Talvin Singh (entry 875) to create the Tihai Trio.

Sawhney joined up with an old university friend Sanjeev Baskhar to write a comedy radio show that eventually became the brilliant tv programme "Goodness Gracious Me".   Sawhney also continued with his music.

The Talvin Singh connection made me expect that this would be another album in the 'Asian Underground' sub-genre, but that's not the case at all.   The first track "Broken Skin" sounds like a pretty straight-ahead bit of soulful pop, albeit with chants in the middle section.   Another track features what sounds like Southern American music.  On the whole it wouldn't be unfair to label the album 'world music', but not in some pigeonholing or dismissive way, more because it feels like whole world is capture here through differing genres, instrumentation and musical ethnicity!

"Serpents" and "the Conference" both feature enjoyably speedy rhythmic vocal and percussion sounds playing off against each other.   "Nadia" would fit broadly into the Asian Underground category.  "Nostalgia" is another somewhat poppy track.

There is a theme running through about nuclear weapons.  Beyond this, in the album liner notes Sawhney stated:
    "I believe in Hindu philosophy.  I am not religious.  I am a pacifist.  I am a British Asian.  My identity     and my history are defined only by myself - beyond politics, beyond nationality, beyond religion and     Beyond Skin."

Day 0886 - Central Reservation

Beth Orton "Central Reservation" (1999) - got it

Another interesting character.  Beth spent time living with Buddhist nuns in Thailand, did catering work and performed in the theatre.   She dated producer William Orbit and they collaborated on music together, including a full release "Superpinkymandy" and working on music that would wind up on their respective solo albums.

Orton's first solo album featured triphoppy beats mixed with a folk sound.   She followed this up with an EP collaborating with singer Terry Callier with a more 'organic' sound and she followed that direction through into "Central Reservation".

This is another situation where I knew Orton's name and had listened to some things she'd done with artists such as Finley Quaye, Orbit, and the Chemical Brothers but wasn't really familiar with her own music.   Luckily my wife had a copy of this album (so by extension, I have it) and I enjoyed being educated.

Turns out I was familiar with the opening track "Stolen Car" though Jenni suggested this might be because she's played it for me before.  The album largely sticks to a folky/alt-country sound.  To my ears, the tracks when she does bring in some beats (in places, courtesy of Everything But the Girl's Ben Watt) such as "Stars All Seem to Weep" it feels kind of jarring alongside the more earthy tracks on the rest of the album.

Day 0885 - Slipknot

Slipknot “Slipknot” (1999) – got it

Slipknot as a band are something of an onslaught on all fronts.  For a start, the album cover that shows all 9(!) members of the band in their stage garb (borrowed liberally from Mr Bungle) of matching overalls and a collection of bondage, clown and other masks.  This image combined with the band-members being identified by numbers instead of their names leads to an general dehumanisation of them.

With 1 drummer, 2 percussionists, a bassist, 2 guitarists, a DJ, a sampler and a vocalist, the band present an imposing aural and visual presence.

After a brief track with repeated vocal sample and unsettling oscillating drone sounds, the aural part of the assault kicks off with opening track "(sic)".  It’s a thundering wall of metal guitar and pounding drums.   A friend of mine pointed out that Slipknot’s heaviness comes less from their guitars (though the riffs are plenty heavy) or the vocals (though again, ROAR) and more from the 3-headed drums/percussion monster that really gives the music much of its punishing brutality.

If the band's approach has a problem, it'd be that the onslaught is a little too constant.  Though there's a drum-n-bass break at the start of third track, a little more melody in single "Wait and Bleed" and one or two other little variations, for the most part it's the same sound across the album's runtime.


.... and of course don't forget the secret hidden track, because it's still the 90s.

Day 0884 - The Man Who

Travis "The Man Who"

Listening to this album kind of confirms for me what I've always thought about Travis.   That some of their songs are good, but overall I'm probably never going to be a rabid fan or buy their albums.

Travis had released their slightly rockier debut "Good Feeling" to reasonable sales but not blistering success.  After a tour with Oasis, the band got together with Radiohead's producer Nigel Godrich... I hate to say it, but you can tell.   The track "As You Are" has a Bends-esque quiet-to-loud guitar build-up, and singer Fran Healy's high voice hits some rasps over the big distorted chorus that instantly brings Thom Yorke to mind.

For the most part, the album is ballad-heavy.   there are a lot of acoustic and clean guitars with Healy's voice going for a more gentle tone.   It seems to be a similar Radiohead-lite vein mined by Coldplay a year or two later.   Melodic and inoffensive but not really earth-moving.   

The single "Why Does it Always Rain on Me" helped to launch the album commercially, and it ended up selling a ridiculous number of copies and making the band (at least briefly) one of the biggest around.

The album features (as was the style at the time) a hidden track at the end of the CD after a long stretch of silence.   It's quite foul mouthed and makes a nice departure from the overly tasteful, and radio-friendly fare of the album.