Day 0975 - Renaissance

Q-Tip "Renaissance" (2008)

I've seen a lot about Q-Tip, but almost always either as a member of a group (most notably Tribe Called Quest and Soulquarians) or as a producer for other artists' work, often partnering up with J-Dilla.

Q-Tip released his first solo album 'Amplified' in 1999.  A further release was abandoned by his record company and he changed labels.   After some more production work and with a 9 year gap since 'Amplified' he followed up his first release with 'The Renaissance'.

It took me a listen or two to really latch onto the album, though tracks like "You", "WeFight/WeLove" and "Life is Better" (with Norah Jones) clicked straight away for me.  I'm on my fourth listen now and the album is funky, soulful, and of course well produced.  Lots of live drum sounds prominent in the mix.   Something like "Shaka" sounds kind of retro and totally contemporary at the same time.

Day 0929 - White Blood Cells

The White Stripes “White Blood Cells” (2001)

For some reason I’ve always kicked against the White Stripes.  I think in part it was that they were so hyped when they first came over here, like some kind of ‘second coming of rock’.  Partly too it was this vibe I got that Jack White was trying just a bit too hard to be this “back to basics no frills rock dude who eschews bass (how dare he) to have his two-piece rock band”.   The cynical 90s teen in me balked at these things.

On reflection though, and setting aside all of that, they are just a good band.   White’s high strong voice is distinctive and the music (though borrowing very heavily from blues and 70s garage rock) is catchy yet punchy.

The album is a nice concise 40-odd minutes despite being 16 tracks long.  That’s also something that I usually like, an album that doesn’t muck around and with songs that don’t overstay their welcome, so again it was a bit foolish of me to cut off my nose to spite my ears (so to speak).  Opener “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” is propelled by Meg’s simple but effective drumming in a nice slow lope which is contrasted with the following track “Hotel Yorba” with its speedy acoustic guitar and almost rockabilly feel.

“Fell in Love with a Girl” is the obvious catchy rock hit that everyone knows, and I certainly don’t dislike it, even after the saturation play it got back in the day.   “We’re Going to be Friends” has a kind of naïve cuteness to it which the band were presumably courting with their peppermint stripe motif and story that they were brother and sister (they were actually husband and wife with Jack Gillis having taken his wife Meg White’s surname).

Rock, blues and country mix in a catchy package.  I’m still not convinced at the band’s divinity, but I can admit that they’ve made some pretty good music over their career.

Day 0700 - Arise

Sepultura "Arise" (1991) - got it

After 3 albums of derivative, somewhat ratty sounding thrash albums, Sepultura (which means 'grave' in Portuguese) travelled to the US to produce their fourth album.

Though the band are still wearing their Slayer and 80s-Metallica hearts well and truly on their sleeves, there are hints of the more melodic and slower 'groove metal' style that they and contemporaries Pantera (among others) would develop.  They also started bringing in the tribal percussion that would become one of Sepultura's trademarks.

This is still largely a thrash affair, with blistering guitar solos, Max Cavelera's aggressive growl, and brother Igor Cavalera's punishing, crazed, yet virtuosic drumming.

Day 0677 - Amerikkka's Most Wanted

Ice Cube "Amerikkka's Most Wanted" (1990)

Ice Cube's first album after leaving N.W.A.  The album was produced by the BombSquad (also producing for Public Enemy, whose Flavour Flav and Chuck D guest here).  It's an almost unrelenting aural assault, and two things become quite clear from listening to it:
1. Ice Cub loves the word 'mutherfucka' 
2, He is not to impressed with anyone being 'on his dick'.

You have to take the lyrics with a grain of salt as Cube blasts a certain degree of misogyny over the tracks.  This side of things is at least partly counterbalanced by his rap battle with Yo Yo on "It's a man's world".  She gives him a run for his money.

Day 0614 - Truth and Soul

Fishbone "Truth and Soul" (1988) - got it

I am a big Fishbone fan, and I think it's a pity that they've never enjoyed the same notoriety as their contemporaries in bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Primus, or bands they influenced, such as No Doubt or Sublime.   It could be because they have stayed weird and haven't made any deliberately commercial moves, or it could be (as was hinted in the excellent film "Everyday Sunshine: the Story of Fishbone") more a question of race.

Definitely, outside of one or two middling-to-good releases, the band have continued to produce interesting and quality music throughout their career.  This is their second album, and possibly my favourite of theirs (don't know, my 'favourite' changes every so often).  They'd taken their wild, madcap mix of funk, ska, reggae and rock and had added elements of metal, jazz, punk and even an acoustic ballad (album closer "Change").  It's probably too the album where they best balanced their different sounds.

The band had added a more mature and serious tone with tracks like "Change", or "One Day" (which, to my ears, almost sounds like they were borrowing the vocal harmony sound of David Bowie's "Sound and Vision" but making it funky), or the moody "Pouring Rain" which acts as a bridge between the Fusion of Miles Davis and the sound of modern dub.  The band still retain their wackiness on tracks like the jazzy stomp of "I like to hide behind my glasses" or the funky-as-all-hell "Bonin' in the Boneyard".

I could continue going track-by-track, suffice to say, it's a brilliant album.

Day 0574 - Slippery When Wet

Bon Jovi "Slippery When Wet" (1986)

 
I'm not the biggest Bon Jovi fan, but it's hard to deny the sheer commercial whomp of this album.  You've got "You give love a bad name", "Livin' on a prayer" and "Wanted: dead or alive", three huge pop-rock anthems.
The band had been shooting for a pop sound on the album, but wanted to retain a hard rock feel.  To try and find this balance they would go and play their recordings to local teens to get feedback on the best running order or whether the songs were working.

The band had originally planned a different album cover featuring a woman in a wet t-shirt.  It had been posited that this cover was pulled as it would be deemed sexist and might not be run by some of the record stores, but the band themselves claimed that the record company tried to put a bright pink border around the planned cover so they rejected it.  Apparently not the most enlightened guys.

Day 0573 - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?

Megadeth "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" (1986)

 
Following his expulsion as lead guitarist for Metallica, Dave Mustaine formed Megadeth... and brought along all of his baggage.  Mustaine was ousted from Metallica for (among other things) his issues with alcohol and drugs, which continued, and were shared by others in his new band.  The band's rhythm guitarist and drummer would go on to be fired at the conclusion of the promotional tour for this album for continuing drug use.  The guitarist would later resurface as a session player on a later Megadeth album, which kind of speaks to how the band would essentially go on to just be Mustaine backed with a revolving cast of musicians.  Even stalwart David Ellefson left for a period in the 00s.

Dave also bought to his new band, the original Metallica sound that he had helped craft, but without the sonic development they started undergoing pretty soon after his departure.  He kind of stuck with  his format of speedy riffs and virtuoso guitar solos, but with songs never as memorable as Metallica's, and with much cheesier lyrics.  He seemed for much of his career to be playing catch-up, to the extent that, following the success of Metallica's LOAD albums, Lars Ulrich suggested that Dave take more risks with his sound.  The result was him releasing the imaginatively titled "Risk" with an alt-rock sound that most of his fans hated because they'd always loved that he stuck to a more or less similar sound across his albums.

So anyway, this record is a competent piece of thrash metal, but with few particularly memorable songs.  Some good riffs here and there and some impressive soloing, but not up to the standard of his former band.

Day 0510 - Black Metal

Venom "Black Metal" (1982)

A bunch of Geordies having fun, playing speedy, punky metal and kind of having a bit of a laugh with it.  Yet they somehow manage to help create the genre of speed metal, and to spawn (or at least to help christen) a new, dark, twisted subgenre of metal that would go on to take itself and its church-burning far too seriously.

This album starts with the drummer cutting through a metal door with a chainsaw (according to the book... and it does sound like that's what's happening) and once the music gets going, the acoustics make it sound like it was recorded in a cave. All of this helps give the music on the album a special, feral charm.

Day 0509 - Junkyard

The Birthday Party "Junkyard" (1982)

The wild, rabid Aussie band had made the move to the UK.  Based on acts such as the Fall, they assumed that they would find a music scene full of kindred spirits; but instead found a country well in the grip of new-wave, new romanticism and various other 'news'.

They did find supporters in England for the turbulent last year or so of their existence (in an already turbulent life... the band used to take hard drugs, and steal cars, amongst other things).  Drugs, alcohol, in-fighting all the usual band noise plagued this punky, demented murder-blues band, before Nick Cave left to start up his new gothy murder-blues band.

The songs on this, their last album, are as buck-wild and bare-backed as anything they ever worked on, with the songs being clamorous enough in places that you could imagine that each member was working on a totally different song.  Working 'against' rather than 'with' each other, but  somehow still working.

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 0458 - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Dead Kennedys "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables" (1980) - got it

Contender for best punk album of all time, in my opinion... shockingly this was my first (second and third) time listening to this album from start to finish.

It combines everything that can be good about punk: there's anger and vitriol, but tempered with a sense of humour.  Blisteringly fast-paced music (but played with tight musicianship) that takes some sideways detours in places. Instead of being macho and body-slamming, or agro in vaguely white supremacist manner like some of their hardcore contemporaries; this music is almost spidery and angular with the bass overruling the guitar in a lot of places.

Jello Biafra's vocals sounds wild, frantic and slightly crazy but when you actually listen to him, you see that he's one of the smarter, more eloquent spokesmen for punk.

I was actually familiar with a lot of the songs, in part because I've heard several of them covered by other bands... always a good sign.

As you can see from the above - I have since picked up a copy of this one.