Day 0923 - Bright Flight

Silver Jews "Bright Flight" (2001)

Silver Jews were often written off as a Steven Malkmus side-project, despite having been started around the same time as his other more famous band Pavement, and Malkmus doesn't even feature on this album.   I actually enjoyed this more than Pavement/Malkmus too.

The sound of the album is generally a laid-back alt-country, with almost a touch of the melodic side of Velvet Underground (that impression helped by the laconic drawling vocal of that band's primary singer).   There's some variety though, "Transylvania Blues" an instrumental track with that 'driving down the highway at night' vibe to it that builds to haunted rock.   "Let's Not and Say We Did" has a kind of fun Honky-Tonk vibe to it.

The book mentions that Silver Jews mainstay David Berman had written a book of poetry too so I tried to pay a little more attention to the lyrics than I normally would.   I definitely heard a few lines I enjoyed like "You're the highest apple on the tree" and "they slow-danced so the needle wouldn't skip".
I'd also have to say, the part of me that loves a cheesy pun enjoyed the couplet in "Tennessee":
"Marry me and leave Kentucky, come to Tennessee/because you're the only ten I see".   Sweet, corny, perfect.

Day 0729 - Vulgar Display of Power

Pantera "Vulgar Display of Power" (1992) - got it

Pantera started out as a heavy glam-metal band.  They would later deny it, but the spandex, puffed up perms and histrionic high vocals don't lie.

They slowly evolved their sound into a heavier thrashier deal, particularly with the introduction of new vocalist Phil Anselmo.

With this, the third album with Anselmo, he had mostly set aside his glam vocals in favour of metal screams and deeper growls.  The music had moved away from glam and even thrash to focus on a slower "groove-metal" sound.  Drawing on the band's southern background, with hints of blues and southern rock to some of the riffs and solos.

There is plenty of variety within the album.  There's the single-string, 2-3 note simplicity of "Walk" (that must surely have joined 'smoke on the water' and 'nothing else matters' as stock songs for beginner guitarists to bang out at guitar shops).  There are the grunge-ballad verses/grinding metal choruses of "This Love" and "Hollow".  While "F**king Hostile" is more or less a hardcore punk track with a little more flash.

Anselmo's newly shaven head and songs about dominance and respect raised one or two eyebrows (probably more in retrospect with Anselmo's infamous "white power" incident in 2016).

Day 0697 - Low End Theory

A Tribe Called Quest "The Low End Theory" (1991)

This album would be interesting solely for the facts that it launched the solo career of Busta Rhymes, and that it featured bass from the legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter (the list of who he DIDN'T play with is probably shorter than the list of those he did), but beyond all of that, the album is also good.

Carter's presence reflects the album's heavy jazz influence.  In the first track they drop the couplet:
"You could find the Abstract listening to hip hop
My pops used to say, it reminded him of be-bop".

The  band were plagued by health issues, legal issues, one member leaving and some minor infighting between the remaining members, but still managed to produce a strong hip hop album.

The album's title was phrased to refer to both bass frequencies, and the way that many African Americans were treated in the US. 

Day 0578 - Graceland

Paul Simon "Graceland" (1986)

Described by the book as Paul Simon's midlife crisis - which seems somehow appropriate as, when I was growing up it was that album that everyone's middle-aged parents seemed to own.  My own parents had the concert on VHS.

PS had briefly reunited with Art Garfunkel, only for it to end acrimoniously.  His marriage had likewise ended, and his previous solo album had flopped.  A depressed PS found himself listening to bootleg recordings of South African township music.  Inspired by the sounds, he and his producer visited South Africa to record with musicians there, this despite a cultural boycott against South Africa due to the existence of Apartheid

PS stated that on previous albums he'd written the songs then brought them into the studio to teach them to his band, but for this album he tried to work the other way: jam out ideas with his musicians and then write a song around them.  The public were ready to slate the album for its perceived breach of the cultural boycott, but instead it became one of the biggest releases of the year and certainly of Paul Simon's career.

I enjoyed this a lot... it is possible that I am middle-aged now.

Day 0539 - Let it Be (no, not that one)

The Replacements "Let it Be" (1984)

 
This is another one that sounds good on the tin: "punk band that added in elements of melody and helped define the college rock sound".  I can certainly hear the sound of what had just come before (the  leftover classic punk sounds), and the more contemporary sounds (hints of hardcore and the raw stripped-down emotional rock of some of the post-punk set). 

All in all I liked it okay, but it don't feel a need to rush back to check it out again.  It falls into the "if someone puts it on at a party/bar I'll listen to it happily enough" category