Day 0986 - Teen Dream

Beach House "Teen Dream" (2010)

Beach House are a duo who had initially tried to work in a lo-fi way, leaning on their limitations to push them further and then often drenching the results in reverb.   

After two albums, the band signed to Sub Pop records and recorded this album.  They changed things up, going for a more sophisticated approach.   I'm just listening to one of the previous albums at the moment to get an idea of them and it seems like a similar vibe in some ways, so I guess the change in approach is around production choices (they said they used hardly any reverb this time around) and arrangement ideas.

The album opens with "Zebra" which is clean guitar and some nice layered vocals backing it.   "Walk in the Park" has a pulsing organ groove that seems like it should be a breezy Beach Boys-style piece but instead feels somehow ominous, like there's an underlying unhappiness.  Looking at the lyrics, I suspect that was intentional.  

"Better Times" starts with a nice light keyboard and starts getting subtle guitar parts coming in too.   The chorus somehow has a bit more oomph to it while still being restrained.  It eventually builds to a climax of arpeggios and vocal.  "Real Love" is a spacious piano ballad with atmospheric synth sounds in the background.

Another one where I liked the overall sound and would happily listen to it again (or check out some of their other albums).  Like it's a nice sound, but the songs didn't necessarily stick in my memory after I'd finished listening to the song/album for some reason.   

Day 0817 - Beautiful Freak

Eels "Beautiful Freak" (1996) - got it

If the Eels' sound seems to come somewhat fully formed, perhaps that's because the band was always more or less centred around singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett.  Prior to forming the Eels with drummer Butch and bassist Tommy Walter, Everett had honed his skills across two solo albums under his moniker 'E'.  

Lately I've been more focussed on the more recent Eels albums like "Hombre Lobo" and "Wonderful Glorious" (good) and "End Times" (less great), so it's been nice revisiting this great album.

On the face of it, it's a kind of downbeat indie pop and rock album, but there's plenty more here.   Opening track and single "Novocaine for the soul" features a sample of Fats Domino, some tinkling piano, strings and looped beats.   Track "Flower" opens with what sounds like a church choir then drops in some tasteful slide guitar, giving the track a hint of country.

E and his rotating cast of musicians would go on to plumb emotional depths, investigate harder rock sounds and string-backed mellowness but this album is already just bursting with musical information.  E lays out self-analysis, observations of the world around him and his offbeat take on love songs (as on the title track).

Day 0705 - Screamadelica

Primal Scream "Screamadelica"

Primal Scream started as a duo of Jim Beatty and Bobby Gillespie.  As they developed their music and started playing live, they expanded their line-up.   Their flavour of jangly pop-rock did not go over well with punters or critics, with the band being accused of being unoriginal and bland.

The band started to get into the acid house scene and asked DJ Andrew Weatherall to remix one of their tracks.  The resulting remix of "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have" (repurposed as "Loaded") was a success and the band delved deeper into this mix of rock and dance, already being explored by bands such as the Happy Mondays and New Order.

Screamadelica actually lives up to some of the hype laid on it by the book.  It has heart, it has musical exploration, it has some catchy bits, some interesting bits and a wide range of sounds.  If it has any weaknesses for my tastes, it's maybe that some of the more electronic/remixy tracks don't necessarily sit coherently alongside the more "voice and guitar" kind of tracks.  They aren't really completely incompatible or anything though, so it just adds a little extra variety to spice up the lengthy runtime of the album.

The album wasn't a commercial or critical runaway success, but it was certainly a step up for the group, making it to number 8 in the UK charts and gaining a few accolades including the inaugural Mercury Prize.   Speaking of the Mercury Prize, looking at the calibre of the winning albums that I am familiar with I feel like I should put the other winners on my musical 'to-do' list for future investigation.  

Day 0687 - Woodface

Crowded House "Woodface" (1991) - got it

For a long time this was my favourite Crowded House album, though "Together Alone" is slowly drawing me into its orbit.

Neil Finn's writing towards CH's 3rd album had met with lukewarm response from his record company.  He was concurrently working on some material with his brother Tim so invited him to join the band and put their collaborative songs towards Crowded House.

As much as I enjoy most Finn related musical activities, Split Enz has always been my favourite, so the reuniting of the two brothers and the injection of slightly more quirk and humour to the often overly earnest House mix, was welcome.

There's a nice mix of light (Chocolate Cake, Italian Plastic) and sombre (Fall at Your Feet, Four Seasons in One Day).   Tim's beautiful"All I ask" is probably my current favourite on the record, but half of these songs have held that position at some point.

The album was a big hit for the band in the UK and back home in the Antipodes, but tanked somewhat in the US after the single "Chocolate Cake" (featuring the line "the excess of fat on your American bones, will cushion the impact as you sink like a stone") failed to make an impression.  

 Despite the album's success, Tim was fired from the band during the subsequent tour.  Though they'd made beautiful music together, it didn't seem as though Tim was the right fit for Crowded House, leading to any number of 'witty' headlines about how crowded the house was yadda yadda yadda.

Day 0654 - Moss Side Story

Barry Adamson "Moss Side Story" (1989)

Barry had amassed a pretty impressive portfolio prior to this album.  He'd played in Magazine, the Buzzcocks, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and a couple of other acts.   Adamson cast this, his first solo album as the soundtrack to a non-existent film noir.   In part it was a reflection of Adamson's love of film soundtrack music (the influences of composers such as Bernard Hermann, Ennio Morricone and even Angelo Badalamenti are never far away), and in part he set it as a sort of musical CV with which to try and rope in some actual film scoring work.   That did eventually bear fruit and Adamson would go on to contribute scores for films including "Natural Born Killers"  "The Beach" and "Lost Highway".

The album is a masterpiece, mixing noirish jazz, frantic rock interludes, smouldering piano, nightmarish ambience, and even a cheeky wee cover of the theme to "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"  Adamson throws everything he has at the album.  Judging from the album cover (never judge by the cover!) and his connection with the Bad Seeds, I had thought this might be a bit of a crooning record with a touch of murder-blues, but it ended up being so much more.

Day 0653 - What’s That Noise?

Coldcut "What's That Noise?" (1989)

"What do you get when you combine an art teacher and a computer programmer?"  Sounds like the setup to a bad joke, but the answer is actually 'Coldcut'.   The two had started off DJing individually and eventually made contact and started working together.

Much like the previous entry from 808 State, this is an interesting electronic album, built mainly from samples.  Unlike the 808 State album though, this one does have a few featured vocal turns including Mark E Smith from the Fall (“I’m in deep”), and Lisa Stansfield (“People hold on”).

Day 0582 - I Against I

Bad Brains "I Against I" (1986)

I'm kind of surprised that the first (self titled) Bad Brains album isn't on this list.  Its sound - blistering onslaught of fast thrashy hardcore punk that could change speed or rhythm on a dime - is breathtaking.

That's not to take anything away from this album though as it is an amazing collection of tracks.  There's the groovy "Sacred Love" with its dreamy vocals which were recorded over the phone from the jail by singer HR where he was being held on charges of marijuana possession.  There's the face-melting opening of "House of Suffering" or the catchy Neanderthal groove of the title track.

The mix of groove with thrashy guitars and sneery punky spat-out lyrics brings to mind the Chuck Mosley iteration of Faith No More (seem to remember reading that Chuck briefly joined Bad Brains) or Fishbone.  Great album!

Day 0503 - the Rise and Fall

Madness "the Rise and Fall" (1982)

 
By this stage Madness had released 3 albums, a greatest hits collection, and (most importantly) had made the first of their two appearances on 'the Young Ones'.  Their fourth album is suitably sonically interesting.  Still working within their ska framework, but pushing that sound to its very limits with songs that alternatively bounce, cajole, swing, wallow, and reminisce.

'The Rise and Fall' was designed to be a concept album of sorts, looking at aspects of the band's childhood and upbringing, but that concept fell slightly by the wayside with tracks about New Delhi, and Margaret Thatcher ('Blue skinned beast') being included.  The latter of these two would signal a slightly more political bent in Madness' future albums.

At the moment I have a greatest hits album by Madness, but listening to this one has convinced me that I should probably explore their discography a bit more!