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 0489 - Dare

The Human League "Dare" (19881) - got it

The Human League had lost two of its founding members Maryn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh who were busy getting Heaven 17 up and running.

Lead singer Philip Oakley recruited two teenage girls as dancers/backing vocalists and set about making the 80s-est 80s album to ever 80s.  The band's previous, more experimental sound is given the odd nod, particularly in selected tracks on side B, but mostly this album is stripped-down, catchy synth-pop finery.

Track "Don't you want me" is one of those big 80s hits that most people know.

Day 0378 - Low

David Bowie "Low" (1977) - got it

 

As I was listening to this album, I started to think about how this is the album where Bowie really became an artist in moving away from traditional song-forms (though that was also true of 'Station to station' to a certain extent).  As a famous singer, it was a reasonably daring move to produce largely instrumental music ("Speed of life"), or have his voice feature more as another instrument with equal billing in the mix ("Warszawa").

But of course that would be a fairly arbitrary and debatable notion; really you could just as easily say that Bowie became an artist when he started creating and inhabiting characters for his music to exist through, or when he started creating concept albums, or even when he started making music at all.

I think it would be more accurate to say that this was like when he saw Bolan doing glam and thought "I'll have a bit of that", or when he decided to investigate grunge, or techno/EDM in later years.  It was just a case of Bowie listening to krautrock and hearing people like Eno making avant, collage music and thinking "yeah, why not?!"

This album features a couple of favourites of mine, the bouncy "Sound and vision" with its compact harmonised vocals; and the majestic, beautiful 'Warszawa' that, with its chanting vocals and ambient textures, feels like it must have been an influence on my old favourite Mike Patton for some of his more atmospheric work.

A stylistic leap for Bowie and an absolute success (IMO).