Day 0951 - Rejoicing in the Hands

 Devendra Banhart "Rejoicing in the Hands" (2004)

I'm 50/50 on this one.  There are some interesting sounds on here, with compositional ideas ranging from dusty Americana, Eastern influences and indie-folk.  It's a pretty stripped down record mostly centring around Banhart's high, tremulous voice and nimble guitar.    

 

On the other hand, I got a little tired of the constant count-ins at the start of every second track.  Not particularly difficult to edit out.. "yeah we get it, you're not recording in a professional studio and it's all very DIY".   Also, the stripped down sound and shortness of most of the tracks started to grate on me.  As much as I often prefer songs not to overstay their welcome, I fee like some of the songs here could have used a bit more time to connect with the listener.

In that respect, some of my favourite parts on the album are when it changes up its approach, such as penultimate track "Insect Eyes" taking around 5 minutes to make its point. "When the Sun Shone on Vetiver" provides a welcome change of sound with string arrangements mixing melodic parts with scratchy discordant strings.

"Fall" sounded familiar but I'm not sure if I've heard that song or if it' just Banhart's general sound that's familiar.

Day 0912 - Mama's Gun

Erykah Badu "Mama's Gun" (2000)

 

Badu is another artist with a long musical history, having sung from a young age and been rapping since she was a teen.   She studied performing arts, recorded a demo and this led to her recording a duet with neo-soul aritst D'Angelo.

From there Badu's deubt album "Baduizm" was a success but she then took time off to be with her newborn son to Outkast rapper Andre Benjamin.   The relationship with Benjamin broke down and both parties expressed this through their music: Outkast's "Miss Jackson" and tracks on Badu's second album "Mama's Gun".

The sound has a bit of neo-soul going on but it's a bit of an organic, live-instrument mix of funk, jazz and hip-hop too... not surprising then that one of Badu's collaborators is ?uestlove whose group the Roots mines a similar musical vein.   Badu's voice is her game changer though.  She can to do soul singing and rap, but then on a song like "Green Eyes" she can switch into a straight-up jazz singer.

The tracks "Orange Moon" and "In Love With You" sounded familiar to me.   Good album!

Day 0853 - Butterfly

Mariah Carey "Butterfly" (1997)

For album number 6, Mariah dialled back her usual vocal acrobatics and explored some other genres outside of her pop ballad sound with the help of a bevvy of collaborators, including Puff Daddy, Missy Elliott and Q-Tip.   Those names don't diminish Mariah's own role in her creative path though.  She had been slowly pulling away from the influence of her controlling husband, Sony Music executive Tommy Mottola (who she broke up with around this time) to take a few creative risks and court the hip-hop/RnB market a bit more.

There is still straight ahead-diva pop like the choir-backed title track, but there's also the RnB of "The Roof (back in time)" and "Baby Doll", the collaboration with the brilliant Bone Thugs-n-Harmony "Breakdown" and even a stonking rendition of "The Beautiful Ones" from Prince's "Purple Rain" album.

Mariah's not an artist that I spent a lot of time investigating in the 90s, and this is still not my favourite style of music, but this is a strong album, and obviously she has an incredible voice.

Day 0757 - Teenager of the Year

Frank Black "Teenager of the Year" (1994)

 

Black Francis broke up the Pixies (announcing it in an interview before informing his bandmates) then changed his name to Frank Black and headed right back into the studio to record his first solo album.   That album didn't make it to the 1001 albums but this, his second album did.

It's a sprawling beast of a thing, with 22 tracks and a runtime of well over an hour.   Styles as varied as punk, reggae, rockabilly and Beatles-esque pop vie for space.   "Olé Mulholland" has a definite Lou Reed swagger to it, while album-closer "Pie in the Sky" has a kind of shouty rock that wouldn't be out of place on a Foo Fighters album. "Headache" has shades of Beatles.

Black has a keen instinct for melody and interesting melodic ideas, one of those songwriters whose melodies take unexpected (but not unwelcome) little twists and turns, like in "Fazer Eyes"

There was nothing on here I particularly disliked, and I actually find Black's lyrics more interesting than most, but it's unlikely that I'd sit down and listen to this in its entirety again which I did 3-4 times to get the measure of it.

Day 0669 - Violator

Depeche Mode "Violator" (1990)

 
After making several albums, and getting good at what they did, th'Mode decided to pare things back on their first album of the 90s.   Band-member Martin Gore described how the group had become bored with the extensive pre-production and discussions on album 'sound' that they would usually undertake before working on a release.  They decided instead to work things out on the fly in the studio with new producer Flood (New Order, Ministry, Smashing Pumpkins, PJ Harvey, NIN etc.)

Apparently Depeche Mode were a big influence on Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, and I can hear it.  The synthline in first track "World in my Eyes" bears more than a passing resemblance to that band's sound.  The album mostly goes for sparse, but moody synth arrangements.  "Waiting for the Night" and "Clean" provide slightly fuller arrangements.

Oh it also has "Personal Jesus" on it.  Most people would at least be familiar with that or the so-so Marilyn Manson cover of it a few years later.

Day 0001 - in the Wee Small Hours

Frank Sinatara "In the Wee Small Hours" (1955) Got it

I once listened to this album on headphones while walking home on a moonlit night and it was freaking magical!

I'd read a biography of Nat King Cole that said Nat had helped the (at that stage) failed Sinatara, who had been dropped by his record company and had tried to commit suicide, to get his record deal with Capitol and helped put him together with composer/arranger Nelson Riddle.  Both of these moves essentially rejuvenated Frank's career and lead to the golden age of his career... (thanks Nat!)

This is (according to the book) is one of first, (if not the first ) longplaying 12" 'albums', and it is just a thing of beauty.  Riddle's sombre, delicate and imaginative arrangements and Sinatra's voice combine to make something that is #overusedphrase 'timeless'.