Day 0954 - College Dropout

Kanye West “College Dropout” (2004)

Remember those days when Kanye wasn’t a Kardashian side-piece and a walking conversation-starter around the danger of not managing mental health issues.  When we hadn’t even had the “whoa that was a bit crazy” moment of him interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs.

Before all of that, and before Kanye even known as a rapper, he was a producer who was building a reputation for himself.  He specialised in a sound where he manipulated old soul samples and arranged beats behind them.  

West struggled to be taken seriously as a rapper and had a potential major label deal shot down before it could even happen.   He was eventually signed to Roc-a-Fella Records and set about recording his debut.

The production sounds good.  From the beats and gospel choir of “Jesus Walks” to the seamless blending of an RnB/soul vocal with West’s raps in "All Falls Down".  I can understand the reticence about signing West for his lyrics though.  He grew up the son of an English professor who, for a time relocated to China to teach there, taking Kanye with her. She helped pay for his first recording efforts.  Not the standard gangsta/street résumé often associated with the genre.  

To my mind, that life could still have thrown up some interesting stories/lyrics but instead Kanye often seems to rap about expensive possessions, lash out at those he perceives as having wronged him, and even falling back on the old standard ‘braggadocio’ track (“Breathe in, Breathe out”).

If anything, I found the most interesting, endearing and honest track to be the album-closer “Last Call” where Kanye spends 12+ minutes geeking out about his process, his history, recounting (sometimes in excruciating detail) his path to getting signed and making his record and generally just talking in a direct and honest way.   It's almost like an unannotated twitter feed.

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 726 - Psalm 69: the Way to Suceed and the Way to Suck Eggs

Ministry "Psalm 69: the Way to Suceed and the Way to Suck Eggs" (1992)

One of those "what did I just listen to (in a good way)"  albums.

Much of this is speedy industrial rockabilly... like Motorhead meets Marilyn Manson.   There are grinding riffs, speedy beats, mixes of rockabilly, metal, military, choir elements.  It's speedy rock, but with quite cold, sterile production and the vocals not overly clear in the mix.

The most 'known' song (and the only one I knew in advance) is "Jesus built my hotrod" a redneck, high octane ripsnorter with Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfers on vocals.   Compared to the bleak, 'scorched earth' vibe of much of the rest album, "hotrod" is almost a pop hit.

Day 0723 - Bone Machine

Tom Waits "Bone Machine" (1992)

This was Waits' first album in 5 years - though the gap had been filled by a live album and a Jim Jarmusch soundtrack.

Waits had been moving away from his jazzy lounge piano tunes and drunken balladeer persona and into more avant territory.  Here he takes that evolution one step further, with a sound that I would class as "demented T-Bone Burnett". 

Waits recorded the album in space in the basement of the recording studio with concrete floors and a hot water heater.  He liked the echo of the room, and used this to best suit the songs.  They were essentially stripped down blues tracks, but with the vibe created by the room the sound feels much denser than it actually is.

The album is light on piano, with Waits' sound moving more towards the guitar and interesting percussion tracks.

Probably not my favourite Waits album, but you can hear him starting to get his 90s-Waits sound going and getting comfortable in that skin.

Day 0669 - Violator

Depeche Mode "Violator" (1990)

 
After making several albums, and getting good at what they did, th'Mode decided to pare things back on their first album of the 90s.   Band-member Martin Gore described how the group had become bored with the extensive pre-production and discussions on album 'sound' that they would usually undertake before working on a release.  They decided instead to work things out on the fly in the studio with new producer Flood (New Order, Ministry, Smashing Pumpkins, PJ Harvey, NIN etc.)

Apparently Depeche Mode were a big influence on Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, and I can hear it.  The synthline in first track "World in my Eyes" bears more than a passing resemblance to that band's sound.  The album mostly goes for sparse, but moody synth arrangements.  "Waiting for the Night" and "Clean" provide slightly fuller arrangements.

Oh it also has "Personal Jesus" on it.  Most people would at least be familiar with that or the so-so Marilyn Manson cover of it a few years later.

Day 0601 - Darklands

The Jesus and Mary Chain "Darklands" (1987)

With "Darklands" J&MC move from a fuzzed-out 'shoegazer' sound, to something that almost sounds like "upbeat Joy Division".  Their drummer had left to become the lead singer of Primal Scream, so the band opted to replace him with a drum machine.  As a result of this, and I guess their general songwriting style, their songs have zero groove.  It's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that their songs drift along like a dreamy wave heading serenely for shore, rather than like choppy surf.

I feel as though their previous album "Psychocandy" was the one that the band is better known for.  But I prefer the rolling, pulsing drone pop of "Darklands" over the fuzzy cloud of "Psychocandy".  I listened to this one 2 or 3 times and would happily spin it again.

Day 0560 - Psychocandy

The Jesus and Mary Chain "Psychocandy" (1985)

Much like the Smiths a couple of posts ago, I knew the Jesus and Mary Chain by name more than by their music.  As with the Smiths I'd dipped my toe a few years back but didn't really respond to what I found.

On revisiting the Smiths this time, I didn't mind them too much (more for Marr than Morrisey), but with the J&MC, I haven't really changed my mind on them.  They seek to mix the pop of 50s-60s girl groups and the abrasive wall of sound/noise of the Velvet Underground.  That could have been great, but, to my tastes, it feels like they took the weaker parts of those two sounds to create something that on the whole, falls a little flat.