Day 0939 - The Coral

The Coral "The Coral" (2002)

What the what?!

Another situation where I was familiar with the name but for some reason assumed this band was one of the indie rock groups making the scene at the time; far from it! This album mixes a punky raucousness with melodic sensibility.  Musical control with wild abandon.  The whole thing is smothered in vocal harmonies which is something that (if you're keeping track) I love.

"Goodbye" has jazzy fusiony vamps.  "Shadows Fall" has a Specials-esque bit of moody two-tone with folky vocals that suddenly launch into a burst of hot jazz and plays out with a cool ping-pong vocal thing.  "I Remember When" moves between slow morose alt-rock and bursts into an explosive almost punky rock for the chorus and rounds out on a sort of klezmer section.

It's a definite "all sounds considered" approach that wraps in rock, folk, jazz, balladry, reggae, sea shanty, indie rock.  Music for the sake of music, and I love it!

Day 0780 - Grace

Jeff Buckley "Grace" (1994) - got it

Buckley seems to have been a hard worker and another musical 'lifer'.   The son of 60s folk star Tim Buckley, he could easily have leant on his famous name to fast-track his music career.  Instead Jeff first put in years playing guitar and/or performing backing vocals in bands ranging from jazz, reggae, blues and metal.    He eventually started working on more and more of his own music.   Taking the time to get that musical education and putting in the work helped Buckley form a musical identity that wasn't just a rehash of his dad's sound.

Though there is a posthumous release of Buckley's incomplete second album, "Grace" is the only album he released during his lifetime, drowning while night-swimming at the age of 27.

It would be an amazing album in any situation... that it's Buckley's debut is testament to the work that he put in beforehand.   There is a bit of a mix of styles, but it gels well into a cohesive whole, mostly driven by clean guitars and Buckley's soaring voice that hits high notes that can send shivers down your spine.   I could imagine a live rendition of his cover of "Corpus Christie Carol" being something that could bring tears to the eyes... there's just a hint of Freddie Mercury to it too (but in a subtle way).  

 

The most famous cover on here of course being Leonard Cohen's "Halellujah" which has been used in more films and tv shows then I'm aware of, and is probably better known than the original.

That's not to downplay Jeff's own songs though, the title track is a swirling beautiful wave of melodic alt-rock, again with Buckley's voice taking the whole thing higher.  His voice can be plaintive and begging through to aggressive and decisive and occasionally treads a line of drama that would seem overblown in the wrong hands (or with the wrong voice) but that Jeff nails.   

His potential career will remain one of the great 'what ifs' of music.

Day 0504 - The Nightfly

Donald Fagen "The Nightfly" (1982)

Following the breakup of Steely Dan, Fagen set out to record this solo album.  The album dabbles in soul, funk and jazz, but the early digital recording equipment used (one of the first albums to be recorded entirely digitally, apparently) combined with its perfectionist engineers seemed to serve to suck out a lot of the spontaneity and humanity that those genres usually embody.

That being said: these do work just nicely as good catchy pop songs.

Day 0483 - Non-stop Erotic Cabaret

Soft Cell "Non-stop Erotic Cabaret" (1981)

My favourite part from the blurb about this one in the book is where it said that the band ended up breaking up when, after a bad review, vocalist Marc Almond marched into the office of the critic and set upon him with a bullwhip.   It just screams the kind of twisted sass that you'd associate with a band who made a career out of singing about the seedy sex-market underbelly of the UK.

It's an interesting album  with a very 80s vibe.  The band are a duo with one of them on vocals and the other creating the music, largely just using a drum machine and synthesisers.  There are hints of sleazy jazz moods.  As far as the lyrical sleaze, it feels almost a tad naive in places; like a virgin trying to bluff everyone that he has totally got laid a bunch of times (no matter what that flasher jacket and sleazy porn-star mo might suggest).


The track most people will know from this one is "Tainted Love".





Really looking forward to the next little run of albums.  There are a few artists that I've been meaning to check out and just have never got around to.

Day 0448 - The Wall

Pink Floyd "The Wall" (1979) - got it

A monster! Genius!

While many great prog bands had fallen from favour in the face of punk, or had attempted to change their sound to fit with the evolving musical climate; Pink Floyd pretty much just kept doing Pink Floyd.  Exploring their feeling of alienation from their audience in the spotlight of fame by building a literal wall (a beautiful wall, the bigliest) between them and the audience.

This is one of those rare double albums that actually legitimately works and doesn't just feel like a bunch of songs that could just as easily have been stuck on a couple of single releases.

The album uses repeated musical themes without sounding like it's just running short of ideas. Most of the songs work fine in isolation as well as part of the overall narrative. I can listen to one of my favourite Floyd songs "Goodbye Blue Sky" and not feel like I'm missing out on the story by not having heard the previous 6 tracks.

The album has plenty of variety, with theatrical art rock, pseudo-funk, atmospheric ballads, and yet manages to wrap all of this into a cohesive lyrical and musical narrative whole across two discs/records.

As a teen I used to listen to this album on a regular basis. Doing nothing else but lying back and listening to the whole 26 tracks uninterrupted.