Day 0992 - Let England Shake

P.J. Harvey "Let England Shake" (2011)

Harvey had pushed the boat out and away from her rock sound with previous album "White Chalk" where she wrote largely on the piano and singing in highest reaches of her vocal range.   For "Let England Shake" she again changed her approach, starting with words and letting the music come from that instead of the other way around. Harvey also composed quite a bit on autoharp, so again changing things up.

The album was recorded in a church with Harvey leaving a bit of space in the arrangements, giving her collaborators (including John Parish with whom she'd recorded some albums as a duo) the chance to have input into the final work.

The title track opens the album with busy bustle of strummed instruments and tinkly lead line on what might be xylophone.  It's melody seems akin to the more unsettling but beautiful sounds of "White Chalk".   The palm-muted sparse guitar of "The Last Living Rose" recalls Harvey's earlier work but still with a gentler folkier sound.

The lyrics dwell on England, death, war and diplomacy.    Alluding to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, but with Harvey also having read up about Gallipoli and WWI in general.

The album isn't a terminal downer though.  There's some beauty there with the songs often taking on a pastoral, folky quality.   Elsewhere "The Words that Maketh Murder" almost has a hint of "Bird is the Word" by the Trashmen but with horns popping out to add colour and an interesting outro.

"Written on the Forehead" has almost ecstatic backing vocals.   Long-time collaborator (and sometime Bad Seed with Nick Cave) Mick Harvey shares vocal duties on the closing track "The Colour of the Earth".

Another daring and interesting album from Polly Jean, where she reaches outside of her comfort zone to create something that seems totally new for her, yet that also doesn't seem out of place in her body of work.

Day 0870 - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” (1998)

Following the Fugee’s phenomenally successful album 'the Score', Hill helped fellow Fugee Wyclef Jean with his solo album, then started on her own.  She struck writers block but found a well of inspiration following the birth of her first child.

The resultant album is brilliant and powerful.  Hill mixes RnB, pop, hip-hop and dub but manages to make it all sit together cohesively.

After a brief school roll-call styled intro, the album hits the ground running with "Lost Ones" with Hill rapping over a sparse but funky track that kind of brings to mind the Roots for some reason.   The album almost immediately switches gears to deliver the soulful pop of "Ex-Factor".

Lauryn switches back and forth between rapping ("Final Hour" is as good a set of rhymes as any of her contemporaries) and singing (like on the beautifully harmonised "I Used to Love Him").  

To date, this appears to be the only full-length solo release from Lauryn Hill.   Quality over quantity I guess.

Day 0834 - The Score

Fugees "The Score" (1996) - got it

Another of those albums/artists that was everywhere when I was in high school.   The Fugees had evolved from an earlier group featuring members Lauryn Hill and Pras.  They were joined by Wyclef Jean and renamed themselves Fugees (short for Refugees or Refugee Camp).

The Fugees' second album 'the Score' lays out a definite political/conscious hip-hop sound.  Making use of plenty of existing material, but instead of just sampling and working over the top of it, the group chose to largely re-record what they use.  They covered Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" and Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry", but also utilised (and repurposed) parts of "Ready or not" by the Delfonics for their own song of the same name.

The album was a hit, but then the three Fugees busied themselves with solo projects and, sadly, to this day have never really produced anything further together, save one leaked single.

Day 0688 - Cypress Hill

Cypress Hill "Cypress Hill" (1991)

It's a really great hiphop album.  The mix of two MC's different voices, the mix of the sense of humour with the more hardcore subject matter, and underneath it all, DJ Muggs' simple, yet memorable arrangements.

The bass and beat-centric music with some interesting, but sparse use of samples and miscellaneous noises is kind of what I used to associate with 90s hiphop, I suppose because I was mostly familiar with artists like Cypress Hill, House of Pain, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony who go for those more stripped-down arrangements.  

Day 0557 - Hounds of Love

Kate Bush "Hounds of Love" (1985)

 Following the relatively poor sales of her previous album "the Dreaming" Kate holed up her studio to work on this critically acclaimed album... that seems somewhat bass ackwards to me as I loved 'the Dreaming' but found this one to be only half as interesting.

Both albums are batshit crazy in their mixing and matching of different genres and sounds.  This one possibly mixes even more sounds with synths, choirs, folky celtic percussion, genteel strings, vaguely tribal tones.  I find the variety enjoyable, but I just think that the songs on "the Dreaming" are the stronger compositions.

Day 0526 - Eliminator

ZZ Top "Eliminator" (1983) - got it

The Top were still well into their dry-n-dusty blues-rock, and still singing about cars and girls.   Any suggestion, however, that they were a complete anachronism was at least delayed by them getting into synths and drum machines and injecting elements of disco and new-wave into their catchy rock grooves.

Various rumours have Billy Gibbons more or less excluding his two bandmates in favour of drum machines and playing the other instruments himself.  Whatever the case, the album fared very well, helped in no small part by its music videos (such as "Legs") which were put into high rotation on MTV.

Day 0511 - Nebraska

Bruce Springsteen "Nebraska"  (1982) - got it

Springsteen originally recorded the demos for this album at home on his 4-track.  He took the demos into the studio to record them with his E-Street Band.  But, once the tracks were down, Bruce and his team decided that the rootsy, stripped-down melancholy of the original demos was the sound that the songs needed and elected to just release Springsteen's demos.  The record company were less certain, but eventually allowed it.

The album remains (justifiably) critically acclaimed.  It is a morose and intimate portrait of struggling small town America.  Bruce moved to more radio-and-stadium-friendly fare for his next album "Born in the USA", but this one certainly adds an extra dimension to his oeuvre.

Day 0465 - British Steel

Judas Priest "British Steel" (1980) - got it

 
So the development of metal continues.  Priest took the musicianship and thunder of Led Zep and Black Sabbath, added the speed and intensity of punk.  The vocals and lyrics though stay larger-than-life with songs like "Metal Gods" or "Grinder".

Because metal hadn't come of age and the 'rulebook' hadn't been set, there seemed to be no feelings of self-consciousness about belting out an uplifting anthem like "United", engaging in some party rock with "Living after midnight", or even dropping a hint of reggae with "the Rage".

I saw Judas Priest 4 years ago at a metal festival in Auckland, and by golly they could still put on a show! Rob Halford may be in his 60s but he was still able to wail and scream with the best of them. He also did this whole thing where he went off stage partway through one song, there was a loud roaring and he came rolling onto the stage on the back of a motorbike... what a showman.

Day 0005 - This is Fats

Fats Domino "This is Fats!" (1957)

...not to be mistaken with his 1956 album "This is Fats Domino"

I listened to this one a few years back when I first had a look at the '1001' albums book and remember thinking it was maybe a bit samey.  Certainly, when you compare it to the albums released in the mid-late 60s sure it can seem a bit limited with similar blues basslines being the core of pretty much every song; but then you get a mix of ballads and more upbeat numbers and something like "the fat man's hop" which has an almost middle-eastern vibe to the horn arrangements!  I've come to appreciate the subtleties a bit more.

"Blueberry Hill" will always have a special place in my heart because when we'd go on family holidays my parents had these compilation albums 'Cruisin' Classics' and that song was a favourite from it. According to the book, Blueberry Hill was never successfully recorded in the studio and was plagued with issues.  They couldn't find the sheet music, then once things were underway Fats kept forgetting the lyrics so they ended up cutting and pasting several aborted takes together after the fact.