Day 0997 - Channel Orange

Frank Ocean "Channel Orange" (2012)

Frank was studying at the University of New Orleans and working on his songwriting when Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home and recording setup.  He moved to Los Angeles, worked a number of jobs and established himself as a songwriter, writing for artists like John Legend and Justin Bieber.

After a run as part of a hip-hop collective, and a songwriting gig with Def Jam records, Frank self-released a mix-tape of him singing over other artists' songs.   The release blew up and Def Jam worked with Frank to release an album of his own material.

"Channel Orange" features collaborations with John Mayer, Andre 3000 and Pharrell Williams.  The book makes comparisons to Stevie Wonder and Prince, and those seem apt.   He has that 'soul mixed with good songwriting and embracing of technology' of Stevie, and the funk and sexuality of Prince.

"Crack Rock" "Bad Religion" and "Pink Matter" were my favourites.   "Bad Religion" in particular feels like it blends the Prince/Wonder influences perfectly.

In the album Ocean told of his unrequited love of a young man when he was in his teens which, given the more than occasional homophobia found in hip-hop, was a pretty damned brave thing to do.  It would have been worthy of inclusion in the list just for that, but the music earns its place too.

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 0793 - Exit Planet Dust

 Chemical Brothers "Exit Planet Dust" (1995)

The album title is likely a nod to the fact that the Chemical Brothers used to be called the Dust Brothers... until they were sued by the Beastie Boys' producers of the same name.   The duo were forced to change their name to the Chemical Brothers, which somehow feels like it suits them better anyway.  Another hangover from this previous moniker is the second track title "In Dust we Trust".

The Chemical Brothers' formula (see what I did there) is already pretty well established here, with its synthesizer loops, occasionally vaguely psychedelic soundscapes, and big beefy beats.

The duo were acknowledged in liner notes for albums from Fatboy Slim and Daft Punk following the release of their debut, showing the spread of their influence.  The big beat style also sounds very similar to that adopted by the Propellerheads, who are a bit of a favourite of mine.

Day 0766 - Vauxhall and I

Morrissey "Vauxhall and I" (1994)

Morrissey's fourth album... this is another of those points where I have scratch my head at the selections on the list.   I don't really hear anything musically in this album that hasn't already been covered in Morrissey's other entries in the list so far.  There are far more musically interesting albums out there from other artists that could have been selected in place of this.

The album is pretty much Morrissey doing his thing.   It's a bit mellower than "Your Arsenal" and the lyrics seem to very much be driven by the deaths of people around Morrissey at the time, including legendary guitarist Mick Ronson (who'd produced Morrissey's previous album), his manager, and a director of some of his music videos.   With a song called "Hold onto your friends", and the line 'tell all of my friends/I don't have too many' in the song "Now my heart is full" it seemed that Mos was ruminating on mortality in general and the shrinking of one's social circle with age.   Worthy subjects, but still not really enough that the album needed to be in this list.

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 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 0621 - The Trinity Session

Cowboy Junkies "The Trinity Session" (1988)

The Cowboy Junkies were something of a family affair, formed by lifelong friends Alan Anton and Michael Timmins, and eventually also featuring Michael's brother Peter on drums, and their sister Margo on vocals.

Margo was originally plagued with shyness, recording her vocals with her back to the rest of the band.

This album was recorded with the band grouped around one microphone in Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity (thus the album's title).  The result is a beautiful album of minimalistic, intimate country tracks.  A mixture of  original tracks and covers ranging from Hank Williams to Lou Reed.

Day 0613 - Fisherman's Blues

The Waterboys "Fisherman's Blues" (1988)

I think that in my head I'd confused the Waterboys with the Newsboys and was expecting some "Take me to your leader" style pop-rock.   The Waterboys had produced some rock albums, then their new violinist Steve Wickham invited singer and songwriter Mike Scott over to Ireland to hang out.  Apparently it changed his life (or at the least his musical direction).

The band wrote and recorded screeds of material and ended up whittling it down to these 13 songs (though a less successful second volume of songs was later released from these sessions).  The songs have a definite Irish/Celtic flavour throughout, probably more in a Dexys Midnight Runners way than something like the in-your-face sound of the Pogues though.  There are hints of Bob Dylan and the Band too with folky flavours throughout.

Day 0600 - Appetite For Destruction

Guns n Roses "Appetite For Destruction" (1987)

 
Gunners, formed from members of two bands: LA Guns and Hollywood Rose... should be pretty obvious from that where their new band got its name.   After a few disagreements and members quitting, guitarist Slash and drummer Steven Adler were brought into the fold and... well I'd say the rest was history, but the band line-up continued to be in flux long after this.

The 'classic' GnR lineup set about recording their debut album.  They had an abundance of material, and several songs (including "Don't Cry", "November Rain" and "You Could Be Mine") were held over until the "Use Your Illusion" album.

The album doesn't suffer from the omissions, it's a stonking classic of a rock album.  From opener "Welcome to the Jungle", the blues rock vibe of "Nightrain" to the MTV favourite, rock ballad "Sweet Child o' Mine", the album is a lean, mean rock monster.  I'm not even a huge GnR fan, but I enjoyed every song.

I'm not sure if this is true or 'Axl legend' but I read that the band finished the music quite quickly, but Axl insisted on recording his vocals one line at a time to make sure and get everything right.  I'll bet he had a glass of brown M&Ms on standby too.

The original cover (top) featuring some kind of robot john and a prostitute or something was deemed to be 'a bit much' and was replaced with the better known alternative above.

Day 0583 - Rapture

Anita Baker "Rapture" (1986)

Apparently this album was well-received on its release, but quickly faded from the public consciousness; I can kind of see why.  It's similar to Tina Turner's "Private Dancer" album.  A talented singer belting it out over a somewhat glossy, studio-polished set of tracks.

Enjoyable and totally listenable music, but not the most memorable or vital release ever.

Day 0569 - Infected

The The "Infected" (1986)

I enjoyed this much more than the previous The The album in this list (Soul Mining).  It has a strong pop base with some great beats and nice funky bass.   Some of it is upbeat and pulsing, other tracks are slinky and moody, one track even features an early appearance from Neneh Cherry ("Slow train to dawn").  Good solid 80s pop, with angry, socially conscious lyrics.

Day 0393 - New Boots and Panties!!

Ian Dury "New Boots and Panties!!" (1977)

This is mentioned in the book as being part of the punk movement, and there are one or two tracks of brazen rock, one song even opens with the line "arseholes, bastards, fucking cunts and pricks" but most of this smells more of the British musichall tradition with touches of the up and coming ska/reggae movement, definitely a hint of Madness (the band).  There's a bit of cockney rhyming slang and Brit street-talk delivered with not a lot of melody, so I guess it fits in with the 'taking music back to the people' and 'anyone can do it' ideal of punk.

Totally enjoyable.

Day 0373 - Out of the Blue

Electric Light Orchestra "Out of the Blue" (1977)

Jeff Lynne once made the daring declaration that ELO would pick up where the Beatles left off but still presenting it on stage rather than being a studio-bound unit.

I was quite surprised to see that this was actually the 7th album by the band, they're a tad more prolific than I'd thought.  They're even prolific within the album itself, it's a double LP, over 70 minutes long and includes a 3-part 12+ minute 'concerto' that took up much of one of the sides.

This album sounds like the work of someone who could easily have 3 or 4 different bands on the go to explore all of his musical ideas, but I find it enjoyable to have the mix of elements such as rock, prog, classical, pop and even hints of disco all fighting for space on one album. I've always liked what I've heard from ELO. This album in particular sounds to me, almost like a meshing of the Beatles and 80s era Queen, among other things.

Day 0196 - All Things Must Pass

George Harrison "All Things Must Pass" (1970) - got it

 
George Harrison must have had the worst case of musical blue balls working under Lennon/McCartney, because he shot forth a triple album!

I was always a fan of George's Beatles songs, and similarly his solo work doesn't disappoint.  Even across 3 LPs there is pleasingly little (to my ears) that seems like filler, with a range of sounds being explored, all with the help of Clapton and his 'Derek and the Dominoes' band.  The album also features Billy Preston, the Organ maestro from the Let it Be/Get Back sessions.