Day 0907 - All That You Can’t Leave Behind

U2 “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” (2000)

It’d be easy enough to write this one up as “Famous rock band finally stop faffing about with pop/dance music and gets back to rocking” but that would sell short the band's growth.

As outlined in my write-up for “Achtung Baby” (day 702) the band had moved away from their more ‘meat n potatoes’ melodic-rock sound and experimented with dance, funk, and alt-rock, culminating in their album “Pop” where they fully embraced the dance and pop scene.  That album was not a favourite among fans and the band felt that it was rushed and not their best work.   I personally think it’s one of their better ones, but there we go.  One person’s trash…. and all that.

So the band decided to get back to their roots of “band playing together in a room”.  They reunited with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois who had helmed their biggest 1980s albums.

The sound is fairly straightforward, with guitarist the Edge mostly sticking to clean tones with less sonic experimentation than he’d previously indulged in.  That’s not to say the album is a straight reversion to their “Joshua Tree” sound though.  They seem to have retained some of their more European melodic ideas.  Single “Elevation” sounds like it could be the younger cousin of “Mysterious Ways” from the Achtung Baby album with its effect-laden guitar, dance elements and slightly sexual lyrics.  There are still some dance beats to be had elsewhere too.

I was interested to see what the album as a whole would be like as the first 3-4 songs are its singles (Beautiful Day, Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out of, Elevation and Walk On), so I wondered if they’d front-loaded the album in the hopes that side A would sell side B.   That kind of is the case too.  

There are some other good songs besides the singles, “In a little while” is a nice simple pop song, and “Grace” lives up to its name. But, much of the second half of the album is a bit forgettable, or self-important (“Peace on Earth”).

Day 0843 - Shleep

Robert Wyatt "Shleep" (1997)

If you were giving points just for longevity, Wyatt would be doing well.  His last entry in this list "Rock Bottom" (day 325) was released in 1974.  If you were just going based on fun song titles he'd be doing well with doozies like "Free Will and Testament" and "the Whole Point of No Return".   If you were going based on the respect of other musicians, he'd be doing well as Brian Eno helps produce and guitars are provided by Paul Weller and Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera.

The fact is that, beside all of the above, the music is damned good too.  From the naive 60s-esque pop of "Heaps of Sheep" and "Maryan" to the jazzy experimentation of "the Duchess", the extended fusiony jam of "Alien" to the jazzy beat poetry homage to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" this is just a great collection of songs.   The music brings to mind everything from the Kinks, early Pink Floyd, and Frank Zappa to later interesting and inventive bands like Ween and XTC.

Day 0702 - Achtung Baby

U2 "Achtung Baby" (1991) - got it

While not my favourite U2 album, I can see that this one really does deserve its place on the list.  The band had been slowly evolving their overly-earnest sound, working through early post-punk, to a more nuanced pop-rock under the tutelage of producers Eno and Lanois, and then eventually delving deep into America’s rock and blues sound.   But when they released “Achtung Baby” (a line from Mel Brooks’ “the Producers” and an exclamation often uttered by one of the studio crew) it was a reasonably sizeable stylistic left-hand turn for such a major band.

The band were embracing dance rhythms and electronic elements, a style that, to my mind played to the strengths of sonic experimenter, guitarist the Edge, and metronomic, powerhouse drummer Larry Mullen Jr.

The road to the album hadn't been an easy one.  The band limped through fractious sessions in Berlin that yielded hardly any useable tracks.   Close to the tipping point, the band came up with the track "One" and from then on things started flowing, with the band picking up sessions again back in Ireland.

There are looped bass and drum sounds, "Rubber Soul"-era Beatles-style vocal harmonies (a combination that sounds not unlike some of the Chemical Brothers' work with Noel Gallagher).  There's the chunky wah-wah guitar of "Mysterious Ways", and the psychedelic swirl of "Even better than the real thing".   It's the track "the Fly" that really strikes me: Bono can be a bit of a self-righteous twat on occasion, but he really can write some good lyrics when it comes down to it.  I don't usually listen much to lyrics, but there's something about Bono's desperate, whispered delivery that makes you take notice.

The band would carry on down this avenue of experimentation through the "Zooropa" album, culminating with the "Pop" album, maligned by the band, but something of a favourite of mine.  After that, they returned to a more earnest, straight-ahead rock sound and were viewed by fans to have 'made a comeback' but I still enjoy this era of exploration.

Day 0609 - The Joshua Tree

U2 "The Joshua Tree" (1987) - got it

Love or hate them, this really is U2 at the height of their powers.  They still had their earnestness and honesty, but hadn't become insufferably preachy.  They had mastered their instruments and embraced studio technology without being overly reliant on it.  With one Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois-produced album (the Unforgettable Fire) under their belt, they had found their groove with the producers and were able to trust them and take risks with their sound.

I'd obviously heard a lot of this music (even before I'd bought the album), but I was still pleasantly surprised what a strong overall 'package' the album is.  You have the awesome pop trio of "where the streets have no name" "Still haven't found what I'm looking for" and "With or without you" followed on by the atmospheric rock of "Bullet the blue sky".  The quality doesn't dip on the second side with "Red Hill mining town" and the NZ-inspired "One Tree Hill".

As someone who isn't a rabid U2 fan, but appreciates parts of their oeuvre, I would still point to this as their pinnacle.   Passion meeting studio-savvy without getting too far up their own arses in either of those aspects.

Day 0485 - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

David Byrne and Brian Eno "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" (1981)

Having enjoyed the individual works of Eno and Byrne; I was keen to hear this one.  The album, described by Eno as "psychedelic Africa" was delayed in its release due clearance issues with the various copyrighted materials sampled.  As a result, the Talking Heads'  "Remain in Light" album (also produced by Eno), though recorded later, was released before this collaboration.

Whereas that Talking Heads album was built on a foundation of jam sessions among the various musicians, this is much more a studio construct, formed around samples and based heavily on Holger Czukay's "movies" album.  An interesting album to be sure, but I'd say I really prefer Byrne in more of a traditional song-based vein, whether it's with the Heads, with St Vincent or as a solo artist.

Day 0435 - Fear of Music

Talking Heads "Fear of Music" (1979)

Hmm, another Talking Heads album that I don't own. This one is really interesting, Eno's influence seems to be creeping in even more than on 'More songs about buildings and food' with additional sonic trickery.

David Byrne took the nervous energy and anxiety that popped up in places on the first two albums and just smeared it all over the songs here. Even the serene 'Heaven' (rendered as an ethereal ballad by Icehouse) has a slightly cynical and bleak feel to it.

Eno tweaks the sounds made by the band as well as increasing the nervous energy by throwing plenty of extra little unsettling bleeps and bloops into the mix.

Day 0425 - Ambient 1: Music For Airports

Brian Eno "Ambient 1: Music For Airports" (1978)

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Eno, having produced some great pop-rock records and Bowie's adventurous Berlin trilogy, as well as his own solo albums that mixed traditional song structures with interesting production techniques and background sonic experiments took a few steps further here.

Eno had been moving in more and more ambient directions, here he fully takes the plunge with relatively formless, sparse soundscapes. Eno stated that the music "...must be as ignorable as it is interesting", music designed to have on in the background and drift in and out of, rather than concentrate on intently, and in that, it succeeds beautifully.

Day 0418 - Are we not Men? A" We are Devo!

Devo "Q: Are we not Men? A" We are Devo!" (1978)

Devo mix a vaguely punk sound with sparing use of synthesisers that's not a million miles from the more frantic moments of early Talking Heads (possibly not surprising then that Brian Eno, having finished work on the second TH album, produced this one) mixed with a touch of Blondie's gloss.

I'd listened to one or two Devo songs, and knew of their influence on a number of other artists, but was mostly familiar with the big hit 'whip it'. I liked that song (with even more synthesiser than is on show here) and I like this album.

Intellectual electro-punk; what's not to like?

Day 0413 - More Songs About Buildings and Food

Talking Heads "More Songs About Buildings and Food" 1978 - got it

Brian Eno joins the Heads in the studio, bringing his gift of mixing pop with new and interesting production ideas, starting a creative partnership that would help produce some great TH albums, but would also see fractures appear in the group.

The band mixes its skittish brand of art-rock with touches of scratchy funk and danceable disco beats, creating a sound that would be ripped off wholesale (though done very well) by Franz Ferdinand some 25-30 years later.

Byrne sounds like he's recording some of his vocals after drinking several pots of coffee, just a nervous gangly energy to what he's doing.

The husband-and-wife rhythm section of Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth lay down some tight grooves over a mix of styles.

The second-to-last track is a cool-down.  A fairly sedate reading of Al Green's "Take me to the river" that has become a bit of a classic rock radio staple (or at least it has over here).

Day 0384 - Heroes

David Bowie ""Heroes"" (1977)

A continuation of Bowie's 'Berlin Trilogy' (started with "Low") and another mix of avant-pop and atmospheric instrumentals.  While the songs on the first half are musically busy, vocally Bowie engages in some melodic minimalism.  I mean the title track vocal melody largely sits between two notes while the music gives it mood and context. "Sons of the silent age" is a bit more exploratory.

The instrumental tracks move even further into Eno/Krautrock territory and away from Bowie-the-popstar, with no obvious vocal tracks (lyrical or otherwise) featured.

Day 0378 - Low

David Bowie "Low" (1977) - got it

 

As I was listening to this album, I started to think about how this is the album where Bowie really became an artist in moving away from traditional song-forms (though that was also true of 'Station to station' to a certain extent).  As a famous singer, it was a reasonably daring move to produce largely instrumental music ("Speed of life"), or have his voice feature more as another instrument with equal billing in the mix ("Warszawa").

But of course that would be a fairly arbitrary and debatable notion; really you could just as easily say that Bowie became an artist when he started creating and inhabiting characters for his music to exist through, or when he started creating concept albums, or even when he started making music at all.

I think it would be more accurate to say that this was like when he saw Bolan doing glam and thought "I'll have a bit of that", or when he decided to investigate grunge, or techno/EDM in later years.  It was just a case of Bowie listening to krautrock and hearing people like Eno making avant, collage music and thinking "yeah, why not?!"

This album features a couple of favourites of mine, the bouncy "Sound and vision" with its compact harmonised vocals; and the majestic, beautiful 'Warszawa' that, with its chanting vocals and ambient textures, feels like it must have been an influence on my old favourite Mike Patton for some of his more atmospheric work.

A stylistic leap for Bowie and an absolute success (IMO).

Day 0369 - Before and After Science

Brian Eno "Before and After Science" (1977)

Eno collaborates with a catalogue of artists including Robert Fripp and even Phil Collins. As with his other solo albums that I've listened to so far, he manages to incorporate interesting audio textures, avant garde techniques and, here, some occasionally virtuosic performances into a cohesive and often quite 'pop' sounding whole.

This album doesn't stand out above the other two of his that I've heard on this list, but that says more about the consistency of quality of Eno's solo output than any particular shortcoming of this album.

Fun fact, Eno would go on to produce the second Talking Heads album, and this record features a track "King's Lead Hat" which is an anagram of that band's name.

Day 0264 - Roxy Music

Roxy Music "Roxy Music" (1972) - got it

 
Roxy Music are almost textbook case of the "strong personalities making interesting music until some of those personalities departs and the other/s take over" thing.

The clash of 50s-style rock n roll mixed with glam, a little punk, a smattering of horns, and Brian Eno's space-aged synth noises is an exciting musical smack in the face!  Eno left early on (I think after the first or second album) and by the time they released "Avalon" half the band had left and Bryan Ferry ruled the roost.  Avalon didn't really match the early material (though having said that 'More than this' is a brilliant tune).

Back to the debut though: it is a bold, brash musical statement which is the opposite of that "Oh I don't want to stand out, I just want to 'serve the song'" idea that mediocres so much music.  The first track even makes space for each member to show off with a bar or two of solo.  The music twists and turns, with Ferry still learning his craft as a singer and lyricist, seeming to have a unique, more defined vocal delivery than in later albums (the reverse of what normally happens).

Oddly my relationship with this band/album started somewhat indirectly when I read about them as an influence on one of my favourite NZ bands Split Enz (who, like RM started in an art rock sort of vein and moved to a slightly poppier sound later on), and when I saw a cover of the song 'Virginia Plain' on the British sketch show "Big Train" (an early break for Simon Pegg, Catherine Tate and Mark Heap) I was hooked in.