Day 0950 - Fever to Tell

Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Fever to Tell” (2004)

I’ve been aware of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and their singer Karen O for a while, but I’ve not investigated much of what they do outside of what I ran into on music tv.  

Listening to this album, while I don’t know if they deserve every scrap of hype they’ve received, I can certainly see the appeal.  The band play wild arty punk rock with drums, guitar (no bass as was the style at the time) and Karen O’s wild vocals that run the gamut from coy croons to hot-blooded yelps.

O and guitarist Nick Zinner had originally put together an acoustic duo but decided to form a noisy avant punk band like the ones O had experienced via art school.   They enlisted an acquaintance of O’s, Brian Chase on drums who was studying jazz (usually a good skill-set on a drummer).  They quickly built up a ‘buzz’ and did tours with hot-tickets the Strokes and the White Stripes and landed a spot at the SXSW festival.

The band opted to fund their debut recording themselves and enlisted Dave Sitek from the often brilliant TV on the Radio to produce the album.

In amongst the art punk stylings there is enough variety to keep things ticking along with some catchier parts and a song like "Man" which has an almost dangerous bluesy slant.  “Maps” offers up a mellower, more melodic reprieve from the maelstrom, as does the dreamy closing track “Modern Romance” and the subsequent ‘secret track’

 The music is complemented by the band's strong visual, from their arresting album cover, to O’s on-stage fashion which mixes punk, catwalk and fabulous.

Day 0900 - Lost Souls

It'll be interesting going into the 00s.  With the earlier albums on the list it's a lot easier to justify their place in the list based on longevity or influence on subsequent artists and genres.  I imagine the selection criteria will be less clear as it goes on.

 

0900
 

Doves "Lost Souls" (2000)

The book mentioned something about DJs/dance music so I thought I'd be listening to something in that vein.   Turns out that was Doves' previous incarnation 'Sub Sub' where they worked in the dance genre.   Their studio space burnt down, and the band lost their equipment and the music they'd been recording at the time.  The band used the insurance money to re-start and shift into a more alt-rock sound... and I like it!

They still have a bit of a dance approach to their tracks in that they seem to build a lot of the songs on repeated/looped ideas, and there's some nice production touches in place, but with more of an organic feel that dips into pop, indie, post-punk and even a touch of shoegaze.   They build up layers of sound, which is an approach that I dig.

The title track builds until it feels like a rising wave of voices rolling into shore.   "Catch the Sun" is a catchy, upbeat propulsive pop track built over a fuzzy drone.    "The man who told everything" is a more stripped down alt-rock track that brings strings and clean guitars over the choruses.   

 

Closer "A House" is an almost an alt-country track but with the sound of burning buildings fading in and out of the mix.   It's a musically adventurous and interesting album.

Not bad, 2000.  You're off to a good start.

Day 0861 - Live 1966

Bob Dylan "Live 1966" (1998)

Recorded during Dylan's controversial early move to electric music.  The first half of the concert/album is Dylan alone playing acoustic tracks.  For the second half, Dylan is accompanied by his excellent backing band the Hawks, who would go on to find fame themselves as "the Band" (see days 127 and 156).

The book states that Dylan and the Hawks were heckled and jeered during the electric set... maybe that was edited out of the version I listened to because it just sounds like cheers for the duration.

I like the mix of sounds between the two sets and I guess it's an important historical musical recording, but at an hour and a half, this is a touch too much Bob for my tastes.

Day 858 - Urban Hymns

The Verve "Urban Hymns" (1997)

The Verve reformed a year or two after breaking up (where's the commitment to the quitting?) and started working on new music.  Initially they were joined by Simon Tong in place of guitarist Nick McCabe but McCabe was convinced to rejoin.

While there is still some of the swirly, psychedelic rock  of "A Northern Soul" in tracks like "The Rolling People" and album closer "Come On" (featuring Liam Gallagher on backing vocals), the album's strong points are more in its subtler melodic moments like morose ballad "the Drugs Don't Work" or Orchestra-sampling, lawsuit-courting album opener "Bittersweet Symphony" that borrowed a little too obviously from an old Rolling Stones song.

I remember when this came out in the late 90s I didn't really care for it at all.  I kind of liked the track "Lucky Man" but I found the other singles to be quite grating.   I'm not sure if I was just being contrary, if my tastes have changed or these songs just needed time to percolate because coming into this listen I was really looking forward to hearing "drugs don't work" and other tracks, and just enjoyed listening to it all.

Day 0832 - First Band on the Moon

Cardigans "First Band on the Moon" (1996)

This is a deceptive wee album (and band).   On the face of it, it sounds like an upbeat mix of disco, funk and pop, like a more naive take on Chic.   On closer inspection there is a lot more going on, with the perky music often acting as background to rather depressing lyrics.  On hit single "Lovefool", the catchy danceable track features the rather bleak line "I don't care if you really care as long as you don't go".   I've always quite enjoyed that sort of juxtaposition; a sad message presented in a bright and shiny wrapper.

A couple of the band members Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson, had previously been in metal bands, and there are a couple of riffs here that, with a distortion pedal added, would rock quite heavily.   The band cover Black Sabbath's "Iron Man", and their own song "Heartbreaker" features the main riff from the song "Black Sabbath" from the album "Black Sabbath" by the band.... er well I forget their name.   It starts with the menacing riff but quickly switches into doe-eyed 60s-esque baroque pop before moving back to fade out in Black Sabby sludginess.

This band is definitely much more than just a one-trick pony and this album is more than that one song from a Leo DiCaprio film.

Day 0801- Liquid Swords

GZA/Genius "Liquid Swords" (1995)

The Wu Tang Clan were on a roll.   From their debut "Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers)" to solo releases from Method Man, Ol Dirty Bastard and Raekwon.

Like those albums, "Liquid Swords" was recorded in RZA's basement studio.   The album features samples from the film "Shogun Assassin" and GZA said that he was going for a more cinematic approach to the album.

It's kind of like what I was saying about the Smashing Pumpkins in entry 791 - when artists are firing creatively it feels like everything they touch is gold, and it makes sense to mine the vein while that's happening.  While I wasn't a fan of some of Raekwon's rhymes, I have to admit that everything RZA was doing around this time is solid.   I liked GZA's rhymes too, the two work well together.

Multiple other Wu members and affiliates feature, almost suggesting they could have just popped a new Wu album out every month if they'd wanted to.  But nice that they gave each other the space to do their own things without alienating each other.

Day 0756 - Tical

Method Man "Tical" (1994)

A hint of the pool of talent contained in the Wu-Tang Clan that its constituent members were already producing solo albums even as their debut was hitting.   They'd worked out a record deal that allowed them to record as solo artists for different record labels.

Method man signed with Def Jam for his debut.   The RZA's production brings more kung-fu film soundtrack bits, murky bass and interesting beats.  

There is the potential that having primarily just one MC this album could be less interesting than the Wu's material, but between the guest MCs and Meth's own bouncy, hypnotic flow, it's still a great album.

Day 0749 - Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers

Wu-Tang Clan "Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers" (1993)

 

Cousins Robert Diggs, Gary Grice and Russell Jones formed a group called 'Force of the Imperial Master'.  The members ended up being signed to separate record labels for a time, but were eventually dropped from these contracts.   They re-focussed their efforts on making music together, with new names (RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard) as Wu-Tang Clan.

The group recorded their debut in a small studio on a limited budget.   RZA made the MCs battle each other to see who would rhyme over his beats.  The competition helped create some great music.   The mix of the different MCs' vocal styles, the various kung fu sound samples, and GZA's magpie-like approach to music production created a blueprint for the group and its myriad off-shoots and solo albums.   Really Wu-Tang is more than just a group, it's like a movement or organisation!

Day 0735 - Wild Wood

Paul Weller "Wild Wood" (1993)

Weller had already made a decent contribution to the British music world, having been part of the Jam and the Style Council.  That latter band's star began to wane, until their record label refused to release their last album and the band disbanded.

After taking a year or so off music, Weller toured for a while as 'the Paul Weller Movement' which allowed him to revisit some of the catalogue of his two bands as well as showcasing some new music.  This tour was followed by a self-titled solo album.

With his solo career up and running, Paul released his second album 'Wild Wood.  It almost feels like a compendium of late 60s/early 70s sounds, with hints of Beatles-esque pop, Neil Young rock, Bowie glam and even a touch of Hendrix funk with a few bits of electronic/studio trickery thrown in on occasion to give the music that point of difference from its influences.

It's another one of those albums where I think any one of these songs in isolation would be an enjoyable listen, but for some reason, each time I listened through the album (4 or so times) my interest would wane by the last quarter.

Day 0719 - Automatic for the People

R.E.M. "Automatic for the People" (1992) - got it

The band did not tour their previous release “Out of Time”, opting instead to head straight back into writing new songs.

I actually find that quite admirable.  Often, bands get sucked into the treadmill of write-record-tour then, when their schedule says so, they have start being creative again to start that cycle again… whereas they might not be in a creative place at the time.  Better to nut out a string of albums in quick succession while you’re feeling inspired.

Anyhoo, the band wanted to write an album of rockier songs to contrast their previous album, but when guitarist Bill Berry, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Peter Buck got together, they just weren’t coming up with many songs in that vein.  The band were continuing their method of switching instruments to get themselves out of their comfort zone and write in different ways and ended up often not working with drums in the mix at all.

The  result was that the music they produced was quite pared back, with the drum parts being minimal, or in some instances, non-existent.   Berry stuck to clean guitar sounds, acoustic guitars and mandolins.  String arrangements from Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones would eventually garnish 4 of the album’s tracks.

Singer Michael Stipe responded to the new subdued material with lyrics of sadness and loss, with some lighter moments provided by track “Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight”.   Listening to the album as a whole, you really do appreciate what a great collection of songs it is, with even well-worn singles like “Everybody Hurts” and “Man on the Moon” feeling fresh within the context of the album-as-whole.

With regards to “Man on the Moon”, it had been written fairly early on but had remained an instrumental for the duration of recording.  Stipe felt he couldn’t get his head around it lyrically and thought it should stay instrumental.  It was only when his bandmates begged him to finish the song that he went out for a walk around the neighbourhood with the music in his headphones and came back with lyrics.

As with “Out of Time”, the band decided not to tour the album.  Making its success (presumably helped by radio/video-play and the band’s existing fans) all the more impressive.

Day 0701 - Spiderland

Slint "Spiderland" (1991)

At first I felt the need to push against this album, just because the reviewer for the book was so incredibly effusive about it.   Going with the old "this less famous band is so much better than those bands that everyone else knows" spiel.  After a few listens though, it has made its way under my skin.  I don't view them as the second coming or anything, but it's an interesting grunge/alt-rock record.

The band released only 2 albums and had changing membership within that time, which I guess is not surprising as they were all fairly young and were going to college in between albums.  They recorded their first album with no-nonsense punky producer Steve Albini, recording an EP's worth of songs around the same time (released later).

For second album "Spiderland" the group decided to go for a slightly more polished sound.  They jammed out songs in the basement, working at repeating the same riffs over and over again, slowly evolving them.

Singer Brian McMahon would take rough recordings to his parents' car to listen and work on vocals.  Said vocals range from soft, spoken-word through to bloody curdling screams.  Likewise, the music swings between cold, but delicate clean guitar lines, and crashing fuzzed-out walls of rock.

The band broke up by the time the album was released, leaving no tour, interviews or videos to promote the release.  However, critical acclaim and word of mouth built the album's status and prevented it from sinking into the fog of musical history.

Day 0607 - Bad

Michael Jackson "Bad" (1987)

My sister used to crank this album on a regular basis shortly after its release, and I remember out-and-out hating it.  I quite like it now, and I'm not sure if my tastes have just changed over time, or if back then my 1990s contrariness was just rearing its head a little early.

Jacko, together with producer Quincy Jones, had produced 2 amazingly successful albums in 'Off the Wall' and 'Thriller'.  With Thriller having been the highest selling album of all time (still is), it was a bit of a difficult act to follow.  Despite the weight of expectation, they come out firing with what is a brilliant (if somewhat over-polished) collection of songs.

The songs continues Jacko's mix of funk-rock (Smooth Criminal), cheese-rock and weepy soul (I Just Can't Stop Loving You).  He got right into the tough guy roll hinted at by the title track, donning his leathers with more buckles and zips than had been seen on an album cover before.

Whether or not this music is up to the standard of his previous couple of releases is up for debate; either way, it's a solid collection of songs.   Certainly from this point on, success  (presumably also fuelled by his messed up childhood) started to warp him into a crazy, monkey-toting, plastic-surgery-getting weirdo, whose music could still stoke the fires every now and then; but didn't really continue to hit the same heights.

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 0151 - Dusty in Memphis

Dusty Springfield "Dusty in Memphis" (1969)

The old "one person's trash is another's treasure" thing.  Apparently Dusty was appalled when she heard this music.  She didn't want to do easy-listening ballads, she wanted to sing gritty funk and RnB.

Ahmet Ertegun (that genius again) persisted and, after some fraught recording sessions with the odd ashtray flung, they came out with a wonderful album.

The album gave Dusty her first hit in ages with 'Son of a Preacher Man'.  The album received rave reviews, but it tanked commercially.  Personally, I love it.

Day 055 - Rubber Soul

The Beatles "Rubber Soul" (1965) - got it

Wow, 1965 was obviously a decent year for music (not like smelly old 1961), including as it does, this... contender for best Beatles album?

It manages somehow to be hugely varied, yet it still feels like it has a kind of uniform sound.  Possibly the only weak song is the country cover with Ringo on vocals.  Even that's not 'bad', and kind of makes a nice counterpoint to the baroque pop and increasingly psychedelic mod rock that makes up much of the rest of the album.  So many brilliant songs, I was going to list the great ones but it's pretty much all of them.  My one gripe (and it's only a small one) is around sequencing: "In my life" would have made a great album closer, rather than being jammed in the middle of the second side.

Apparently this was one of the first albums released in the US to not feature the artist's name on the cover... I guess at this point, they didn't have to.  It also adds to the enigmatic vibe of the album.