Day 0791 - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

The Smashing Pumpkins "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" (1995) - got it

 

This is another of those albums that I did not really need to listen to for the list (but did anyway) because it is imprinted firmly on my brain.    This was one of the first albums that was 'mine' as opposed to listening to my parents' or siblings' music.   I used to sit and listen to this album (all 2+ hours/28 tracks of it) at LEAST once a day.  Not doing anything else (except maybe making up music videos in my mind) just listening to the music.  Some days I wish I had the luxury of and concentration for doing that now.

It had been decided before the songs had even been written that the Mellon Collie would be a double-album.   Corgan stated they'd almost had enough songs to make the previous album "Siamese Dream" a double album too, which probably explains the full-length b-sides album "Pisces Iscariot" that was released between the two studio albums.

What could easily have been a giant overindulgent mess ends up being quite a cohesive musical journey (remembering that this is wound so deep into my synapses that I can't be entirely unbiased towards it).

While the vibe is largely angst, loneliness and nihilism, there is also joy and fear and love and the whole spectrum of human emotion.  The music has range too, with a delicate piano opening track seguing into "Tonight Tonight" with its interesting mix of prominent strings with a melodic alt-pop track (also the first Pumpkins song that I ever heard).   I won't got track by  track through the album, but suffice to say it has punishing riffs (Tales of a Scorched Earth, Bodies), subtle melodic tracks (Galapagos, Stumbleine), ventures into prog (Porcelina of the Vast Ocean), dabbles with electronic elements (1979, Beautiful) and a dozen other genres.   The whole thing is divided into two disks "Dawn to Dusk" and "Twilight to Starlight" and the final track "Farewell and Goodnight" features all four band members taking turns on the vocals to wish the viewer sweet dreams, again letting you feel like you've taken a musical journey. 

I think an important part of the success of this album is that Billy and the band were just creatively on fire at this point (or maybe it's just that this is when their songwriting most aligned with my own personal tastes).   All 28 songs from the album are enjoyable, most of the 25-30 B-sides associated with the album are really good, even the unreleased demos I've heard from this period are mostly decent.   Nowadays I'm lucky if a new Pumpkins song sticks with me past the first listen.

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 0609 - The Joshua Tree

U2 "The Joshua Tree" (1987) - got it

Love or hate them, this really is U2 at the height of their powers.  They still had their earnestness and honesty, but hadn't become insufferably preachy.  They had mastered their instruments and embraced studio technology without being overly reliant on it.  With one Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois-produced album (the Unforgettable Fire) under their belt, they had found their groove with the producers and were able to trust them and take risks with their sound.

I'd obviously heard a lot of this music (even before I'd bought the album), but I was still pleasantly surprised what a strong overall 'package' the album is.  You have the awesome pop trio of "where the streets have no name" "Still haven't found what I'm looking for" and "With or without you" followed on by the atmospheric rock of "Bullet the blue sky".  The quality doesn't dip on the second side with "Red Hill mining town" and the NZ-inspired "One Tree Hill".

As someone who isn't a rabid U2 fan, but appreciates parts of their oeuvre, I would still point to this as their pinnacle.   Passion meeting studio-savvy without getting too far up their own arses in either of those aspects.

Day 0463 - Ace of Spades

Motörhead "Ace of Spades" (1980)

Lemmy, having been kicked out of Hawkwind for taking too much speed, went on to start a band that seems like the musical equivalent of that drug.

I quite enjoyed the band's slightly less intense self-titled debut album, but it's hard to deny the power and immediacy of the lightning fast riffage, crazed intensity and throat tearing yells of these tracks. One of the initial building blocks of metal, but also beloved by punks at the time.