Day 0957 - Penance Soiree

The Icarus Line "Penance Soiree"

The album's cover with its streams of red running from the face of a wild-haired mosher kind of hints at the possible aggression of the music within.

At first it sounds quite blunt and aggressive, but as you go on a lot of it sounds akin to some of the 70s garage rock revivalists like the Datsuns, or a wilder version of Jet which is not necessarily my favourite genre.   I could kind of see them inspiring a band like Royal Blood in places.

"Spike Island" and "Kiss Like Lizards"  bear some resemblance the heavier moments of grunge bands like Stone Temple Pilots or Alice in Chains.  "Big Sleep" has a nice slow, moody lead-in that then becomes less interesting as it kicks into more of the same 'raw rock'.   "Meatmaker" has a mix of industrial beats and vocal effects that make it seem like a pleasingly ugly mix of Butthole Surfers and Ministry.

Not my favourite album on here so far but it had its moments.

Day 0935 - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" (2002) - got it

YHF was a mixture of experiences for Wilco, on the one hand parting company with their drummer, but parting with him in favour of new more versatile drummer Glen Kotche.  They were still making the "Mermaid Avenue" albums with Billy Bragg on the side.   Yankee Hotel Foxtrot ended up being rejected by their record label and the band released it online before having the chance to release it themselves the next year on a smaller label.   Regardless of its proliferation on the internet, it was their most successful release up till that point... but to add to the rollercoaster, they were also sued for the use of a sound sample used on the album.

The album title came from the phonetic alphabet used on a collection of short-wave radio recordings that singer Jeff Tweedy had heard.   There is a bit of a short-wave radio sound and a vibe of searching the airwaves to the opening track "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" (which features some great stop-start drumming) and moody, atmospheric closer "Reservations".

The album is mostly a continuation of their melodic alt-country, but the are a few different sounds, like the rocking "I'm the Man Who Loves You" with it's brass that almost has a bit of a Beatles vibe to it.   "Poor Places" is mostly Tweedy singing over a radio frequency-like drones but guitar and piano parts develop over them, building to a crescendo of song and drone.

Another album that my wife owns and that I was more than happy to listen to.

Day 0863 - Mermaid Avenue

Billy Bragg & Wilco “Mermaid Avenue” (1998)

Woody Guthrie’s daughter Nora was looking for someone to put music to a collection of her father’s unreleased lyrics.  After hearing Bragg playing at a Guthrie tribute concert, she contacted him about the project.  Bragg in turn contacted Wilco to help him with the songs and to arrange some themselves.

Bragg and Wilco have both already featured in this list, and the project ‘on paper’ interested me, so I was keen to check this out.

It exceeded my expectations, with a sound that brings to my mind Ween’s country moments.  Interesting lyrics backed with a mix of old timey Americana, and more modern alt-country and bouncy Beatles-esque melodic and arrangement sensibilities (“Another Man’s Done Gone” almost sounds like a McCartney-esque piano ballad).

There’s the rootin’ tootin’ opener “Walt Whitman’s Niece”, the intimate acoustic guitar and voice of “Ingrid Bergman” and “I Guess I Planted” has hints of Elvis Costello circa “My Aim is True”.

My favourite though is “Way Over Yonder in a Minor Key” which features backing vocals from Natalie Merchant and is frankly just a beautiful song.

Two more collections of songs would eventually be produced by Bragg and Wilco under the Mermaid Avenue name.

Day 0820 - Being There

Wilco "Being There" (1996)

Following the dissolution of his band Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy and the majority of his bandmates formed the new band Wilco.

 

Initially Wiclo carried on Uncle Tupelo's alt-country sound, but with this, their second album they branched out, both stylistically (genres) and sonically (production).   The opening track "Misunderstood" mixes mellow piano with loud, fuzzy guitar... kind of starting off by letting you know that this is going to be a different kettle of fish.  There is brash rock in "Monday" which, with its bluesy rock and sassy horns doesn't sound a million miles from the Rolling Stones.  

The album is not without its alt-country tracks though.  "What's the world got in store" is a nice bit of banjo heavy balladry.   "Red-eyed and blue" is a beautiful song with almost a sort of jazzy undertone to its mellow country.  The bridge features an atmospheric roomy sounding whistle solo (love a good a whistle solo).  

The penultimate track "The lonely 1" starts with lush strings, letting you think that the album will end on a gentle emotive tack, until the closing track "Dreamer in my Dreams" comes crashing in with its raunchy honky tonk and rocks you out to the close.

A double album and probably a bit long for me, but another one where there no songs I actively disliked and I could happily listen to this in bits and pieces (my wife has a few Wilco albums so this one might even be around the house somewhere).   Actually it'd probably be quite a good road-trip album with its mix of reflective and rocking tracks.

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 0698 - Ten

Pearl Jam "Ten" (1991) - got it

Pearl Jam rose (I'm not going to say "like a phoenix" because... trite) from the ashes of another band.  When the vocalist for Mother Love Bone died of an overdose, guitarist Stone Gossard started jamming with his friend Mike McCready who urged him to reconnect with his MLB bandmate bassist Jeff Ament.  They found young precocious vocalist Eddie Vedder through their friend (and ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer) Jack Irons.

This album is considered one of the cornerstones of the grunge movement, a genre label that seemed to cover a range of sounds.  Nirvana were raging punk with a sense of melody, Soundgarden were sludgey Zeppelin-meets-Sabbath metal, slowly giving way to a more melodic mode, Pearl Jam started off with 'classic rock' riffs over funky mid-tempo rhythms and Vedder's growling voice.  I guess that they had in common a darker, grittier more cynical sound than some of the other artists that had been filling the rock charts at the time.

In some ways, it's odd that "Ten" is the album that a lot of people associate with the band.  It certainly is a good album, and it was commercially successful, but it doesn't feature feature either of their longest serving drummers Jack Irons or Matt Cameron, and the bulk of the songwriting is undertaken by Ament and Gossard, rather than the more even spread of input and large input from Vedder that would characterise later albums.  The album has much less variety than later releases, to the extent that "Even Flow" and "Why Go" have almost identical riffs, and Ament admitted that "Jeremy" was largely written around an E chord!

There are some great tracks though, with the heartfelt "Black", the raging "Porch", the meditative drone of "Release" and the anthemic "Alive". That last track was originally pitched by Vedder as the burden of being left behind when others die but over time has been taken by fans to be a life-affirming track.  The band have come around to that interpretation too.

Mention should be made of lead guitarist McCready, whose songwriting contributions are minimal on this album, but who is allowed pretty free-reign and sprays blistering blues lead all over the songs, including "Alive" which ends with an extended guitar solo.

I was quite late coming to Pearl Jam.  I have friends who were into them in the 90s.  I actually got into them (being serious for a moment, fam) when I was going through a  bout of depression.  I've often found something that can help push me out of that kind of funk is to listen to music that I'm unfamiliar with, or don't know that I really like it.  There were one or two PJ songs I liked and I was peripherally aware of one or two other things of theirs.  I dove in headfirst to their oeuvre and I've not regretted it at all.

Day 0668 - Shake Your Money Maker

The Black Crowes "Shake Your Money Maker" (1990)

 
To pull out the 'old reliable' again "I'd heard of the band by name, but wasn't familiar with any of their music".  Turns out that I had heard a couple of these tracks ("Too hard to handle" and "She talks to angels") but just wasn't aware that they were Black Crowes songs.

The band was maybe one of the earlier groups to start the fad of reviving the 1960s blues rock sound.  Channelling artists such as Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker ("Seeing things") and Tom Petty.  They deliver a set of tracks that dwell in the sleazy, greasy good-time aspect of rock n roll, while still delivering a slice of gravity in "She talks to angels" which deals with another rock n roll 'classic'... heroin addiction.

Day 0597 - Locust Abortion Technician

Butthole Surfers "Locust Abortion Technician"

Music-wise I used to think of the 80s as all glam and synthesisers.  I was also very aware of the thrash metal thing (having been a fan of Metallica and Slayer), but I mostly forgot, or didn't know about some of the interesting boundary pushing bands that were active then.  I mean, I was aware of Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth, but I'd associated them more with the 90s.

This is the Surfers' third album, and the first with bassist Jeff Pinkus (who has also played on Melvins albums, including the appropriately titled "Pinkus Abortion Technician").  The album also marks the first appearance of singer Gibby Haynes' "Gibbytronix" device which he used to manipulate and distort his voice to create a number of weird and wonderful sounds.

There is the straight-ahead punk of "Human Canonball" and the world music-meets-puerile-humour "Kuntz", but other than that, the album is generally a some of the noisiest, most deconstructed rock you're likely to hear anytime soon.  The album closes with a chorus of mooing cows on "22 going on 23".

Day 0576 - Reign in Blood

Slayer "Reign in Blood" (1986) - got it

 
An album that kicks off with a punishing blizzard of guitars and cymbals, and (after an unsettling high-pitched yell) leads off with the lyrics:

"Auschwitz, the meaning of death, the way that I want you to die"

certainly made it difficult to ignore Slayer.  Though that opening track "Angel of Death" would lead them to have to continually reiterate in interviews that they did not support nazi ideals.

The album combines the stripped-down, unrelenting aggression of hardcore punk with the musicality and 'menace' of the nascent 'heavy metal' to create one of the early cornerstones of thrash metal.

Tom Araya's aggressive and fairly tuneless vocal yell means that the riffs can go where they want without clashing too much with his voice.  Though it has to be said that the little melody that is in the guitar parts is pulverised by speed and distortion with the focus being more on the rhythm than melody.

Some flashy lead guitar work on show, but the real (background) star of the album is Dave Lombardo who, with his inventive, unrelenting drumming can (even now) outplay most other drummers in his genre.  His playing has elements of jazz, punk, metal and more.

Day 0541 - Private Dancer

Tina Turner "Private Dancer" (1984)

Having split with Ike Turner, and having been struggling to get her solo career to really take off, Tina released "Private Dancer".  The album had a number of producers, including one member of the band Heaven 17.  The machine-pop (and occasional rock) laden with synthesizers and drum machines replaces the organic RnB of Tina's music with Ike.

The album was a huge success, though I agree with the assessment that much of the music itself is kind of forgettable.  It's Turner's amazing voice that really sells this music.  I didn't even entirely recognise "What's love got to do with it" until her voice kicked in.  In some ways though, the underwhelming impact of the music does serve to spotlight Turner's vocal power all the more.  

Side note: I never thought I'd hear someone best Al Green at "Let's stick together", but wow, she gives him a run for his money.

Day 0536 - Out of Step

Minor Threat "Out of Step" (1984)

Minor Threat, a band that only produced around 50 minutes worth of music yet heavily influenced modern punk rock and, through their song "Straight-edge" helped to both christen and kickstart the lifestyle movement of the same name.

This album has all the aggression and speed associated with the hardcore movement, but also the sense of humour and ability to laugh at themselves that bands like the Dead Kennedys displayed.

The band released one more EP after this and then split, leaving Ian McKaye free to form Fugazi and continue his musical explorations.

Day 0373 - Out of the Blue

Electric Light Orchestra "Out of the Blue" (1977)

Jeff Lynne once made the daring declaration that ELO would pick up where the Beatles left off but still presenting it on stage rather than being a studio-bound unit.

I was quite surprised to see that this was actually the 7th album by the band, they're a tad more prolific than I'd thought.  They're even prolific within the album itself, it's a double LP, over 70 minutes long and includes a 3-part 12+ minute 'concerto' that took up much of one of the sides.

This album sounds like the work of someone who could easily have 3 or 4 different bands on the go to explore all of his musical ideas, but I find it enjoyable to have the mix of elements such as rock, prog, classical, pop and even hints of disco all fighting for space on one album. I've always liked what I've heard from ELO. This album in particular sounds to me, almost like a meshing of the Beatles and 80s era Queen, among other things.

Day 0128 - Truth

Jeff Beck "Truth" (1968)

 

 
Hadn't really heard much of Jeff's music outside of some of his work with the Yardbirds, and his beautiful playing on the version of 'A day in the life' for Sir George Martin's "In my life" album.

This is a nice bluesy rocking album (aside from a breezy acoustic rendition of Greensleeves) with various star players featuring, most notably Beck's upcoming young singer Rod Stewart.  The Who's Keith Moon appears on one track and the Rolling Stones' Ron Wood pops up on another. Beck shines most in the instrumental tracks, but then I'm glad that it's not an entirely instrumental guitar album as the vocals add some variety to proceedings.