Day 0971 - Sounds of Silver

 LCD Soundsystem “Sounds of Silver” (2007)

I'd been introduced to LCD Soundsystem via their track "Daft Punk is Playing at My House".   They're one of those bands where I've enjoyed everything I've heard from them but for some reason have never made an effort to investigate any more of it.   I was hoping they'd pop up on the list to force my lazy, disorganised arse into listening to them.

The late-70s influence is all over this,  “Get Innocuous” feels like an update of Bowie’s Young Americans album, while “Time to Get Away” is like mid-era Talking Heads.   Actually TH is a definite presence here with the danceable rock and skittish intellectual vocal approach.

“Someone Great” is a bed of swelling synths with a perky lead line, all topped with Murphy’s repetitive melodic vocal on top.  Comes across kind of like if Kraftwerk’s music making robots found a little more humanity... and lethargy.

Much of the rest of the album occasionally touches on the above influences but falls more into a sort of indie rock sound with a few electronic conceits included.
The album ends well with “New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” which starts out as a delicate piano piece sounding not unlike Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day'.   It eventually builds to an excellent crazed rock freak-out and then backs off again for the denouement.

Day 0954 - College Dropout

Kanye West “College Dropout” (2004)

Remember those days when Kanye wasn’t a Kardashian side-piece and a walking conversation-starter around the danger of not managing mental health issues.  When we hadn’t even had the “whoa that was a bit crazy” moment of him interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs.

Before all of that, and before Kanye even known as a rapper, he was a producer who was building a reputation for himself.  He specialised in a sound where he manipulated old soul samples and arranged beats behind them.  

West struggled to be taken seriously as a rapper and had a potential major label deal shot down before it could even happen.   He was eventually signed to Roc-a-Fella Records and set about recording his debut.

The production sounds good.  From the beats and gospel choir of “Jesus Walks” to the seamless blending of an RnB/soul vocal with West’s raps in "All Falls Down".  I can understand the reticence about signing West for his lyrics though.  He grew up the son of an English professor who, for a time relocated to China to teach there, taking Kanye with her. She helped pay for his first recording efforts.  Not the standard gangsta/street résumé often associated with the genre.  

To my mind, that life could still have thrown up some interesting stories/lyrics but instead Kanye often seems to rap about expensive possessions, lash out at those he perceives as having wronged him, and even falling back on the old standard ‘braggadocio’ track (“Breathe in, Breathe out”).

If anything, I found the most interesting, endearing and honest track to be the album-closer “Last Call” where Kanye spends 12+ minutes geeking out about his process, his history, recounting (sometimes in excruciating detail) his path to getting signed and making his record and generally just talking in a direct and honest way.   It's almost like an unannotated twitter feed.

Day 0860 - System of a Down

System of a Down "System of a Down" (1998) - got it

Wow, now that is a solid debut!   Punishingly heavy, yet pinpoint precise riffs; quirkiness, moments of high drama, all rolled into this one release.

System started life as a band called Soil, created by Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian.  Their manager Shavo Odajian eventually joined on bass.  Later, drummer John Dolmayan joined, the band attracted the attention of producer (and 90% beard) Rick Rubin who signed the band to his American Records label and they were off and running.

From the opening track, there's a run of guitar harmonics that sound almost fun, then the riffs come crashing in and the onslaught starts.  The band moves between metal, jazz, ska, melodic alt-rock, often shifting genres within the same song, and this is matched by singer Tankian whose voice can swing from beautiful melody to throat-rending screams and growls all with lyrics that speak of intelligence, political anger and a sense of humour.

This combination is used to staggering effect, like on single "Sugar" that moves from a heavy rock opening to a bouncy verse then into claustrophobic bridge with Tankian whispering, squeaking and roaring while loud guitar/bass/drum stabs come crashing in around him and building faster and faster to the conclusion.   "Spiders" offers a more straight ahead melodic reprieve.   "Peephole" has a demented circus vibe that suggests these guys have listened to some Mr Bungle at some point.   Album closer ""P.L.U.C.K." (Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers) addresses the Armenian genocides of the early 20th century.   All four band members are of Armenian descent and have worked to raise awareness of this event.

Day 0765 - Brutal Youth

Elvis Costello "Brutal Youth" (1994)

The book mentions Costello having recorded albums of surf and classical music.... so in a way it's a pity that they haven't really looked at those, instead selecting this one which returns to his early sound of melodic, yet biting rock music.

Having said that, the album does seem to wrap in different sounds that Costello had been playing around with, from jazz and soul flavours, piano balladry, and Beatles/Wilson-esque vocal harmonies which helped to keep things interesting.

As with all his other albums here, I enjoyed this and would happily listen to it again.

Day 0764 - Ill Communication

Beastie Boys "Ill Communication" (1994)

The second day of illness in a row.  Clearly 1994 was an ill year indeed!

 

The Beasties had been paring back their use of sampling, opting instead to play instruments themselves for their tracks.    That, combined with Adam Yauch's interest in Buddhism, their early hardcore punk roots, and their hip hop sound makes for an incredibly diverse album.

There are rocking hardcore tracks, monkish chants, moments of 70s funk, jazz instrumentals and of course the guys busting their raps all over it.   A couple of their better known tracks are found on this album including "Sabotage".  The band had worked out the music for it but had no lyrics.   Later, Ad-Rock was 'ambushed' by paparazzi while attending a private memorial service for River Phoenix.   He unleashed his anger in rap that ended up being the lyrical basis for 'Sabotage'.

Day 0696 - Apocalypse 91... the Enemy Strikes Black

Public Enemy "Apocalypse 91... the Enemy Strikes Black" (1991)

Increasing concerns from record companies around copyright laws were not conducive to Public Enemy's 'wall of noise' approach, building tracks from large quantities of samples.  To add to their woes, the data discs containing all the samples and bits and pieces for their fourth album were stolen, forcing them to go back to the drawing board.  The PE production group the Bomb Squad took a back-seat as 'Executive Producers' leaving the Imperial Grandmasters of Funk to handle the bulk of the production duties.

The arrangements are less dense, more conventional hip-hop production, but still a bit more interesting than just 'beat-n-bass'.

As usual, the mixture of MCs' styles adds a nice bit of variety to things.  Not really up to the standard of "It takes a nation of millions" or "Fear of a black planet" but it holds its own.

Day 0601 - Darklands

The Jesus and Mary Chain "Darklands" (1987)

With "Darklands" J&MC move from a fuzzed-out 'shoegazer' sound, to something that almost sounds like "upbeat Joy Division".  Their drummer had left to become the lead singer of Primal Scream, so the band opted to replace him with a drum machine.  As a result of this, and I guess their general songwriting style, their songs have zero groove.  It's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that their songs drift along like a dreamy wave heading serenely for shore, rather than like choppy surf.

I feel as though their previous album "Psychocandy" was the one that the band is better known for.  But I prefer the rolling, pulsing drone pop of "Darklands" over the fuzzy cloud of "Psychocandy".  I listened to this one 2 or 3 times and would happily spin it again.

Day 0593 - Music for the Masses

Depeche Mode "Music For the Masses" (1987)

With this album, Depeche Mode changed producers and set about shedding their more fragile synth/electronic pop for a more robust sound.  The album has fingers in genres ranging rock, electronica, goth and even pop.

Great range of sounds, from the boomy-roomy opening track "Never Let Me Down Again" through to the eerie piano and choir of album closer "Pimpf".

The band named the album ironically (much like Faith No More with their release "Album of the Year") based on its perceived lack of commercial appeal, but it ended up faring reasonably well.  It eventually sold a million copies in the US.

Day 0559 - Rain Dogs

Tom Waits "Rain Dogs" (1985)

If "Swordfishtrombones" was a drunken left-turn down a dark alley, populated by an assortment of weird and unusual characters; "Rain Dogs" is Waits deciding that he likes the alley-way and setting himself up in his spot around the trash-can fire.

The beat poetry and drunken piano ballads are largely gone in favour of stories about the aforementioned odd characters, backed by honking horns (that occasionally drift into New Orleans jazz territory) and interesting melodic percussion.   Regular John Zorn collaborator Marc Ribot provides guitar for the album with playing that ranges from jazzy surf and twangy lead, to abrasive avant sounds, and everything between.  The music includes remnants of his bar-room piano balladry, and even some country and western, but mostly it's a whole new world.

Waits' voice ranges from his newly adopted barking shout, to a gravelly croon, occasionally even dabbling in a sort of affected nasally cabaret vocal.

Day 0553 - Fear and Whiskey

The Mekons "Fear and Whiskey" (1985)

I am in unfamiliar territory here, having not heard of this band, or the one in the previous entry.  In addition to that, the 80s are not really the decade of music I'm most familiar with.

This was another goodie though, so again, it's been quite cool to be introduced to new bands/albums through this 'quest'.

This album is credited as being one of the first alt-country albums, and certainly I can hear the genesis of bands in that genre I enjoy, such as the Nudie Suits, or Dieselhed.   The album is mostly raucous, occasionally trippy and always sonically exploratory.  Genres as diverse as folk, country and post-punk collide, overlaid with slide guitars, fiddles, harmonicas and other country-synonymous sounds.

Day 0520 - Swordfishtrombones

Tom Waits "Swordfishtrombones" (1983)

Great album, and the beginning of a whole new era of Waits' music.  His wife Kathleen Brennan had been introducing him to a range of avant music and began collaborating on songwriting with him and it really starts to show with this album.

To me, this album feels like Waits' drunken barfly character fell so far down his hole of inebriation that he ended up in some strange hallucinatory underworld.  The opening track "Underground" could be seen as a signal of this, or a paean to Waits' own new musical discoveries courtesy of Brennan "It's a place I've found/There's a world going on/Underground.  The album title seems like something of a nod to Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica" too.   

The other image the music conjures up for me is the Waits barfly joining a travelling circus and hitting the road.  The jarring instrumentation holds a definite carnival vibe, and Waits practises his ringmaster's holler on several tracks.  There are still one or two gentle moments here, including the melodic outro of "Rainbirds", providing a nice contrast to the abrasive opener.

Day 0455 - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels

Dexy's Midnight Runners "Searching for the Young Soul Rebels" (1980)

Touché 80s - the goodness continues!

Kevin Rowland and Kevin 'Al' Archer, late of the punk band 'Killjoy' formed Dexy's Midnight Runners at the tail end of the 1970s. The band's name was a reference to the 60s party drug of choice, Dexedrine.

The album opens with a confusing babble of mixed radio programme signals before these are interrupted by a raucous yell, signalling the start of the music proper. My first impression was that this would be another punky ska album (though that hadn't been my experience with the one or two DMR songs I'd heard), it turned out to be more like 'Northern soul... with guts'. Horns and backing vocals that almost have a slight hint of theatricality to their wildness.

Day 0419 - Dire Straits

Dire Straits "Dire Straits" (1978)

Kind of an out-of-place album amongst the late 70s rush of punk, disco and the burgeoning new-wave scene. Dire straits was a vaguely blues-based 'adult-contemporary' rock band. Even the band's individual members are slightly incongruous in a rock setting. Band lead guitarist, singer and principal songwriter Mark Knopfler was an ex-journalist and schoolteacher; Knopfler's younger brother, guitarist David was a social worker; sociology student John Illsley on bass; and drummer Pick Withers.

The album did not fare well in Dire Straits' native England, but once the single "Sultans of Swing" blew up in the US, the UK sat up and took attention.

I don't have any particularly strong feelings about this album. It is perfectly enjoyable with some nice melodies and good musicianship... that said, it's so MoR that I find it more "inoffensive" than "life-changing".

Day 0381 - One World

John Martyn "One World" (1977)

 
Martyn was by this time burnt out on the music industry.  A hippy folkster who'd lived several of these years in a druggy haze.  Martyn took some time out to chill out and clean up in Jamaica with producer Lee 'Scratch' Perry.

Martyn came back kicking, with this album that meshes his folk background with some modern instrumentation and interesting techniques (some songs were recorded outside at night with additional microphones set up at a distance to capture the ambience). "Big Muff" despite being the name of one of the more popular guitar fuzz pedals, is a beautifully atmospheric and melodic track.

Day 0372 - Exodus

Bob Marley and the Wailers "Exodus" (1977) - got it

A bit of a change from my usual "all reggae sounds the same" spiel.  Though there are a few familiar reggae musical devices here; there is also a healthy dose of variety, with everything from scratchy organic reggae through to soul, pop and proto-disco elements finding their way into the mix.

While songs like "One love", "Jamming" and "Three little birds" are definitely reggae, they are also pretty solid pop songs.  Bob does a good job of balancing his political messages with some more universal messages.

It's a surprisingly upbeat record considering that Marley had recently relocated to England after a gunman injured him and his wife in their home during a murder attempt.