Day 0965 - Back to Black

Amy Winehouse "Back to Black" (2006) - got it

It would be easy enough to go on about Amy's drug problems (and her possibly related parental problems) or her early death making her a late-era member of the famed '27 club', but I love this album and would prefer to stick to the music.

I enjoy Amy's debut "Frank" well enough, it's more of a straight-ahead jazz thing with a few reggae and pop touches, but this one is much more my cup of tea.   As Winehouse began her relationship with her eventual husband Blake Fielder-Civil they were hanging out in bars with a lot of jukebox music, lots of 60s girl groups and Motown stuff.   This soundtrack highly influenced her writing, and even after the relationship with Fielder-Civil fell apart (for a time) she carried on with the sound.

While there are one or two more straight ahead jazz ballads here like "Love is a Losing Game" and "Wake Up Alone", for the most part the songs have a bit more of a groove to them, combined with Amy's strong, controlled, distinctive voice.    

 

Whether it's my favourite, the funereal, cinematic title track (the basic track of which was thrown together overnight by producer Mark Ronson to show Winehouse that he could get with the sound she wanted); or jazzy funk of opening track "Rehab", Ronson and Winehouse bring a groove that is somehow simultaneously retro and contemporary.  "Tears Dry on Their Own" takes things a step further, isn't just influenced by Motown, it's Winehouse and Ronson pretty much building a new song over the backing track for the Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell track "Ain't no Mountain High Enough".

Mark Ronson's string and horn arrangements suit the pop/motown vibe perfectly, while Winehouse's voice still with its jazzy nod to the versatility of Sarah Vaughan and the raw emotion of Billie Holliday slinks around the tunes.   It's an album that started being written in the throes of love and was finished in the pain of breakup, it gives you the lot, and in under 40 minutes to-boot

Despite what I said about not dwelling on her death, I will say that Amy Winehouse is another of those great musical 'what ifs'.   Maybe she never would have topped this album, but I feel like she was (apologies for the cliche) just getting started.

Day 0797 - the Bends

Radiohead "The Bends" (1995) - got it

The heady days, before many Radiohead fans became insufferable snobs who crapped over the bands they perceived Radiohead to have influenced.  When Radiohead themselves were just "that band who sang Creep" with everyone waiting to see if they could follow up their 'hit'.

While the bleeps and bloops of "Kid A" are often pointed out as the big change in direction for Radiohead, arguably their first few albums all displayed fairly major stylistic shifts.   "The Bends" saw the band move away from their straight-ahead alt-rock to a more densely nuanced, melodically sophisticated sound, but still with more of a rock-guitar sound than follow-up "OK Computer" would have.

The band worked more collaboratively on songrwiting and arranging, instead of creating a wall of guitars, they played with arrangements that put together different parts for each of the three guitarists that worked together.  In some places the sound was still dense, like on single "Just" a bit of a favourite of mine, and something of a good middle point between their rock sound and their intelligent melodic directions.  Elsewhere, they stripped things back on songs like the acoustic, atmospheric "Bullet Proof... I wish I was" and album-closer "Street Spirit (Fade Out)".... damn, actually Radiohead always have the best album-closer tracks.

Most of the tracks start small and build their arrangements, as can be heard in songs like "Fake Plastic Trees", "My Iron Lung" and "Nice Dream".   

An argument could be made for this being the album where Radiohead really found their sound, with that more melodically sophisticated vein being mined; but you could also argue that Radiohead are another of those good bands who never quite fix on their sound and are constantly trying to forge new ground.

Day 0745 - Rid of Me

 PJ Harvey "Rid of Me" (1993) 

 

Polly Jean and her eponymous trio had been touring hard on the back of their debut "Dry".  In the meantime, things weren't totally hunky dory for Harvey.  Her relationship had broken up and her place at a College of arts and design was no longer to be held for her.  PJ suffered a nervous breakdown.

That stress and angst comes out in these raw, howling tracks, mostly consisting solely of guitar, drums and vocals with occasional bass.   PJ chose punky, no-nonsense producer Steve Albini to helm the majority of the album.   Albini's unconventional placement of microphones created a drum sound that Harvey enthused sounded just like standing right in front of the drums.  

An odd duck on the album was "Man-sized (sextet)" with its discordant string arrangement.

PJ broke up the trio after this and moved onto recording as a solo artist.