Day 0894 - S&M

Metallica "S&M" (1999) - got it

Arranger and film composer Michael Kamen met Metallica at the Grammy awards in the early 90s.  Having put together an orchestral arrangement for an acoustic version of the band's hit "Nothing Else Matters" he had approached them about doing more with an orchestra.   Nothing came of it, until a few years later when the band themselves revisited the idea with Kamen.

These "band mixed with orchestra" things are always a bit hit and miss and that's the case here too.   Some of the arrangements are a bit busy and distract from the already dense arrangements, or they go completely the opposite way and are too slow with lots of legato that doesn't match or effectively counterpoint the faster source material.  

Some of the more successful tracks are from the Black Album and Load/ReLoad because they have a more stripped down sound which gives the orchestra a lot more room to inhabit.   There's the big brassy power put behind the opening bass riff of "Devil's Dance", or the appropriately Middle-Eastern flavoured strings giving "Wherever I may Roam" an extra epic dimension... almost like "Kashmir" via Metallica.

The two new songs "No Leaf Clover" and "-Human" see the band continuing in the more melodic stripped-down vibe they'd explored on their previous few albums.   That sound wouldn't last though.

This was the last album to feature bassist Jason Newsted and the band started to move to recapture their old 1980s sound and their old fans with a return to their thrashy roots.

At the time this album was released I was going through a bit of a Metallica obsession and willingly, aurally-inhaled this new offering.   With other music having since taken me away from them, I couldn't say that I listen to this album with any regularity.  I revisit their albums on a regular basis, but I don't feel like this one necessarily adds anything to their oeuvre other than offering an interesting sidestep.

Day 0859 - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

Spiritualized "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (1997)

To my tastes this is an improvement on the previous Spiritualized album in this list (entry 721).   They'd taken that sound that I'd classed as "digital shoegazer and ramped up the pop aspect of it.   The opening title-track has an almost 60s folk-pop sound while still being drenched in synths, guitar and spacey production.  

The tracks move between melodic aural overloads, and dreamier, more stripped down tracks like "Stay With Me".

Would happily listen to it again.

Day 0753 - Bubble & Scrape

 Sebadoh “Bubble & Scrape” (1993)

 

Sebadoh was formed by Eric Gaffney and Dinosaur Jr. bassist/vocalist Lou Barlow.  Originally it acted as a creative outlet and side project for Barlow, who was being somewhat shut out of the songwriting process of Dinosaur Jr by his bandmate J Mascis.  Eventually Barlow was fired from Dinosaur Jr and made Sebadoh his full-time priority.

Possibly due to Mascis’ overbearing nature, some of Barlow’s songs ruminated on the subject of control.  In contrast to that band, Sebadoh seems much more democratic, with all three band members contributing songs to the album.

The band had built itself up on lo-fi indie recordings, but this was the first album that they recorded entirely in a professional studio, and the last album with founding member Gaffney, who went on to pursue a prodigious DIY solo career.

'Bubble and Scrape' benefits from the mix of writers with a range of sounds, from noisy fuzzed out lo-fi punk, to washy alt-rock and some almost 1960s pop moments (but sifted through a grimy 90s filter).

Day 0721 - Lazer Guided Melodies

Spiritualized "Lazer Guided Melodies" (1992)

Following the disbanding of Spacemen 3, the bulk of the members of that group formed Spiritualized.   Due to the number of members carrying over from Spacemen 3, the new band were still bound by the former's record contract.

Spiritualized did away with much of the noisier rock elements of Spacemen 3, opting instead for a mix of electronic drone-grooves tracks and... almost "digital-shoegazer" songs.  Built from layers of sound over the core grooves.

It's a fairly atmospheric, dreamy record.  

Day 0707 - Metallica

Metallica "Metallica (AKA The Black Album)" (1992) - got it

Metallica’s greatest album, or “the one where they sold out” depending on where you hang your hat.

Metallica had started off playing sweaty, dirty punk-metal, a genre that came to be known as ‘thrash’.  The intensity of punk, but the heaviness and musicianship of metal.   The band had been evolving on each album, with arrangements becoming more and more intricate and harmonically interesting, with many different riffs, time changes and the songs building in length.  This all came to a head with “…and Justice For All” where the songs were generally all around the 7-10 minute mark with a multitude of riffs.  The band found the songs hard going while playing them live, and even started to notice some of the fans in the audience noticeably losing interest during the duration.

Enter “Metallica (the Black Album)”, the band enlisted producer Bob Rock, impressed with his work on Motley Crue’s Dr Feelgood album with it’s crunchy-yet-polished sound.  With Rock’s help, the band simplified their songs, basing them around one or two riffs, (instead of 15!)  The band slowed most of their songs down, using more of a ‘groove-metal’ approach, fusing heaviness with a greater degree of melody and atmosphere than had maybe been present before.

While some felt Rock’s production sound was too polished, I feel it adds a bit of much needed bottom-end to ‘tallica’s sound.  Jason Newsted’s bass is audible after being MIA on “…and Justice”.   He doesn’t have the nimble-fingered virtuosity of previous bassist Cliff Burton, but his solid, chunky sound suits the groove of the new music nicely.

There are still some speedy riffs that wouldn't be out of place on their 80s albums.  Songs like “Holier than thou”, “Through the Never” race along at a rate of knots.  Elsewhere, songs such as “Wherever I may roam” and “Sad but true” have a slower, more epic bent.

The album was a massive success, going multi-platinum and (to date) spending more than 500 weeks in the billboard 200.  With the polished sound, simpler songs, music videos, and the occasional (gasp!) ballad - the beautifully simplistic “Nothing Else Matters” – this album would also cause one of the biggest divides between Metallica fans until the next album where they (Gasp!  Again) cut their hair.

Day 0625 - …and Justice For All

Metallica “…and Justice For All” (1988) – got it

This is another album that I could expound on without listening to it.  But I will listen to it for completism, and because…. METALLICA!  Accordingly, I'll warn you that this is lengthy...

Metallica had started out playing their punky thrash on “Kill em All” and had slowly been adding layers of melodic and harmonic sophistication to their speedy thrash, reaching their peak with the album "Master of Puppets".  On the tour for that album, the band’s tour bus crashed, tragically killing bass-player Cliff Burton and leaving a fissure in the band that would take years to properly heal.  Rather than take time off to process this tragedy, the band quickly recruited a new bassist Jason Newsted, recorded an EP and hit the road again, before eventually decamping to record "...and Justice".

The band ended up taking out a lot of their unresolved issues on Newsted, with the bassist being mercilessly hazed for a long time, being given nicknames such as ‘Jason Newkid’ and ‘Carole’ (due to his supposed likeness to Carole King).  Another result of Cliff's death was a shift in the power-balance of the band.  Metallica had been becoming increasingly democratic, with all members contributing songs and arrangement ideas.  “…and Justice” saw the power swing back largely to singer/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich.  Newsted only contributed to the writing of one song on the album, "Blackened" and his bass was famously almost non-existent in the final mix of the album.  It was suggested that this was further hazing from the band, who felt that Newsted’s playing was not up to scratch compared to their fallen comrade.

The album is an odd duck, but it really is its own thing.  With speedy thrash riffs mixing with occasionally dramatic vocals (and in the case of "Frayed Ends of Sanity" with a chant nicked from the Wizard of Oz).  The lack of bass is partially compensated by some low-chugging guitars and the resulting sound is odd but distinctive.  Hetfield was moving away from his throat scraping, trebly screams and into his now trademark, deep gravelly growl.  Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett is a star here, funnelling melodic themes, spitfire runs of notes and various scrapes, squeals and other sounds through his own virtuoso style to elevate each of the songs.

The songs could be seen as overblown in places, but I view them as being akin to a weird 'metal' take on classical music, particularly on instrumental track "To live is to die" which lays out its themes and then builds on them beautifully and brutally over its nearly 10 minute duration.

I do love this album, as it is one of those formative (high school) musical discoveries for me.  But, having heard one or two versions of this album where Jason Newsted’s basslines are added back into the mix (thanks to their inclusion on the Guitar Hero video game), the album certainly would not have suffered from having that extra bit of bottom-end.

Ultimately, the band tired of the complexity and length of the songs and started dropping them from live sets when they noticed some of their fans likewise losing interest.  The band ended up moving to a more commercial and compositionally compact approach for their follow-up (1991’s “Metallica” AKA “the Black Album”).