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 0639 - Technique

New Order "Technique" (1989)

So the book lines this up as one of the founding pillars of the acid house movement... now if I knew anything much about that movement, it might help me assess or have a deeper understanding of the album.   As it is, I don't know much about the genre/movement, but I still enjoyed this as a workable blend of dance music elements, with new-wavey synth pop.

The band went to work on this, their 5th album, in Ibiza and ended up having an extended holiday, taking in the local dance culture.  According to the book they came home with 12 rhythm tracks and a guitar solo rather than an entire album, but had successfully managed to filter the Ibiza feel into their music.  

This would be New Order's second-to-last album before a nearly-decade long break.

Day 0468 - Closer

Joy Division "Closer" (1980)

The sonic experimentation of 'unknown pleasures' is set aside in favour of laying the songs bare (other than some well placed reverb). The music remains fairly mechanical and cold but with increasing use of synthesizers, possibly hinting that the New Order direction would have still happened had Curtis survived.

Ian Curtis' lyrics are grim and funereal. He had said to one of his bandmates that he felt the lyrics were essentially writing themselves and that he felt like a weird feeling of claustrophobia and being pulled into a whirlpool and drowning. He was dead before the album was released, which makes the crypt/tomb album cover a rather prescient choice.

Day 0436 - Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division "Unknown Pleasures" (1979)

Another band where I'd listened to lots of bits and pieces but not an entire album.

Unlike some other artists on this list, Joy Division manages to totally earn the hype that surrounds them. With its mix of electronic and acoustic drums, the pulsing basslines and the various 'found sounds' basically make this a forerunner to a lot of industrial rock.

Ian Curtis' vaguely droney baritone occasionally bursts into a rock snarl, but mostly helps pin the music in a sort of garage-meets-minimalit-shoegazer area. Seems as though it could have been a starting point for bands as diverse as R.E.M, Sonic Youth and NIN.