Day 0940 - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

The Flaming Lips “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” (2002) – got it

A continuation of the brilliantly trippy pop sound of 1999’s “The Soft Bulletin” (see day 890).   I could see that it would be easy enough with this album to make comparisons to the Beatles, what with it being a spacey baroque pop.  To my ears though, it sounds more like ‘psychedelic Bacharach’ with its clash of laid-back, beautiful melodies with crazy sounds.  This dichotomy between the weird and the traditional is probably best exemplified by Parts one and two of the title track.  The first of which is an earnest acoustic ballad with trippy trappings, the second of which is a proggy noise-fest punctuated with human screams.

On the face of it, this seems as though it’s a concept album, with its sci-fi overtones, the two-part title track and the continued references to robots and fights.  Singer Wayne Coyne though has refuted the idea, so it seems like there are just some similar lyrical ideas.  The opening track was deemed to be a bit close to Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son” so he was given a writing credit.  The lyrics of that song (“Fight Test”) seem to turn against pacifism and state the need to fight.  I remember some people at the time opining that this was a reference to 9/11… I personally don’t think so, but if anyone was going to recast Al Qaeda as pink robots then I guess it’d be the Flaming Lips.

Many of the other songs follow the vibe of the “Soft Bulletin” looking at such elemental ideas as love, life, death, loneliness but never in a cynical, nihilistic way.  Certainly, the spacey, ecstatic ballad "Do You Realise" has to be one of the most beautiful and positive musings on death ever committed to record.

One thing I like about this album is that if you stripped most of these songs down to just acoustic guitar with bass and drums, they’d still be good songs.  The washes of sound, the bleeps and bloops, the sonic manipulation are all just icing (pink icing if you will) on the Lips’ cake.

Day 0896 - HMS Fable

Shack "HMS Fable" (1999)

I'd initially put this one on while I was cooking dinner.  I  was listening to the first track thinking "oh yeah I think I know what this one is about - sounds like a bit of 90s brit rock, like Oasis but with a touch of Suede.   But then that first track "Natalie's Party" breaks from its rowdy-yet-melodic rock to drop in a nice little string section.   I decided I needed to give the album a bit more of my attention rather than having it as background music.    

I've listened to it a couple of times through now and there are certainly some swirly rock tracks that have more than a hint of the 'Madchester' sound but this album is all over the place in an interesting way.

There's bouncy melodic "Lend's Some Dough" with its beautiful layered vocals.  "Captains Table" has a dreamy, folky vocal-heavy sound not unlike the last Tripping Daisy albums before they transitioned into Polyphonic Spree.   "The Streets of Kenny" somehow manages to build a mellow, vocal laden track into what feels like a crescendo before suddenly cutting out and dropping you into "Re-instated" which, with its strings and mellow trumpet parts almost seems to hint at Burt Bacharach.  After a couple of more guitar-heavy tracks, the album closes out with the delicate acoustic "Daniella".

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 0890 - The Soft Bulletin

Flaming Lips "The Soft Bulletin" (1999)

The Lips had been mining experimental veins of musical exploration,  which could be seen to culminate with the "Zaireeka" album consisting of 4 discs designed to be played simultaneously on 4 different players.   Where to go from there?  Obviously the answer was to make a transcendent baroque pop album.

The Lips did it in their own way though, so interesting sonic manipulation is evident throughout more traditional instrumentation and lush arrangements.

The highlight for me is the mostly instrumental, wordless track "the Observer".    

 

"Feeling Yourself Disintergrate" starts with a repeated, ping-pong vocal somewhere between beatbox and scat that is then enveloped by treated keyboards, reverby vocals and a general warm blanket of music.  Despite its seemingly bleak title, the track in fact dwells on love, life and the universe in a dreamy, tripped out way.  That approach seems to be the bent of many of singer Wayne Coyne's lyrics: filling with hope instead of the cynicism and nihilism of some of his musical peers.

This trippy pop approach and psychedelic yet uplifting lyrics would go on to be further developed on follow-up "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots".

Day 0882 - Make Yourself

Incubus “Make Yourself” (1999) – got it

Though I feel their last few releases have been on a slight downward turn, I am a big fan of Incubus’ first slew of albums.

Make Yourself sees them at the height of their “Nu-Metal” phase, though it seems unfair to lump them in with either that genre or “Rap-Metal” which were both starting to run rampant at the time.  They share the turntables, the “phat” bass sound and the quiet verse/loud chorus format favoured by those genres, but they inject a lot more variety, musicality and experimentation into the mix.

At the time they were one of those 'greater than the sum of its parts' bands.   Drummer Jose Pasillas III has a great groove with occasional flash (as and where required), bassist Dirk Lance brings the aforementioned 'phatness' and some funk undertones to the rock sound.   DJ Chris Kilmore doesn't just chuck in a few 'wicky wicky' scratches, or he does some of that, but also creates a whirling dervishes of noise in places and supplies ambient audio-beds elsewhere, such as on the chorus of whale-song that opens "The Warmth".   Vocalist Brandon Boyd has a great voice and some interesting lyrics and he can really stack some power in his delivery.   Guitarist Michael Einziger to my mind though is the biggest star. His range of guitar tones pushed through various effects pedals can sound almost aquatic, or clean and dancing, or fuzzed out and bombastic.

The opening track "Privilege" is a rousing rocker with a funk groove to it.  The funk vibe reappears throughout, most notably in the instrumental backing for the DJ 'battle' track "Battlestar Scraaltchlactica".   There are pleasing alt-rock ballads in "I Miss You" and the acoustic MTV favourite "Drive".    Track "Consequence" features a guitar break in the middle that is pretty much just a note run through nearly every effects pedal at once.   Then there's the djembe intro to groovy rocker "Clean".

That they manage to do all of this, constantly switching between sounds and still keep the album down to just above the punchy 45-minute mark just adds pleasure to the listening experience.

Day 0878 - Music has the Right to Children

Boards of Canada "Music has the Right to Children" (1998)

Boards of Canada: again I knew the band name but not what the music sounded like.   I'd kind of assumed it'd be indie stuff, but nope it's bleepy, soupy synthesizer tracks.  

The band consists of two brothers from Scotland who were playing music and experimenting with recording techniques from an early age.  They'd released an EP but this was their first full-length.

The book talks about how this album showed that electronic music could show emotion.   I'm not sure about that, certainly it can create atmospheres with some sort of mood to them, but emotion might be overstating it.   I mean come on.... it's not Moonlight Sonata!

There are some warm, analogue synth sounds that feel like they've come straight from the 70s, with a few short tracks that are just extended synth sound-beds.   "Telephasic Workshop" has some cool stuttery vocal sounds over a jittery beat.   "Sixtyten" mixes the aforementioned synth sounds and found sounds to create mood.

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 0716 - Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy "Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury" (1992)

This one was a pretty full-on aural onslaught from right out of the gate.  Picking up where Public Enemy left off to put forward a wall of noise.  The album mixes samples, band performance and various foley-esque sounds, including the use of sheet metal as percussion.  The lyrics tackle  non-stop issues, including everything from racism and homophobia to the media.

Vocalist Michael Franti would depart the group a year or so later to start his group Spearhead who are still active at the time of writing.

I enjoyed this one well enough.  Franti's lyrics are clever and the production complements him nicely.

Day 0675 - Listen Without Prejudice Vol.1

George Michael "Listen Without Prejudice  Vol.1" (1990)

Another excellent solo album from GM.  He was clearly still looking to show that he was more than a pretty face and a pair of short-shorts in Wham!

The album mixes jazz, gospel and West Indian influences, with a range of sonic textures and GM's strong voice soaring over it all.

Amazing voice, and his rendition of Stevie Wonder's "They won't go when I go" is a new favourite.

Unfortunately, the record did not sell as well as it's predecessor "Faith" ...though 8 million in sales sounds pretty damned good to me.  GM quarrelled with his record label, accusing them of not supporting his career.  Everyone just needs to calm the heck down!

Day 0646 - Spy vs Spy

John Zorn "Spy vs Spy" (1989) - got it

It's a shame to see some artists get almost their entire discography included in this book, while someone with as varied an oeuvre as John Zorn only gets this one.   

In some ways its an appropriate enough album, a bit of a microcosm for what Zorn is about: it takes familiar elements (the free-jazz compositions of Ornette Coleman, elements of hardcore, hints of Carl Stalling's cartoon music, and metal grind) and mixes it together to form something original.  Dishing out short bursts of sound.
On the other hand, it's not the most diverse or representative of Zorn's albums (not reflecting the more melodic sides of his sound, the breadth of his soundtrack work, or his passion for traditional Jewish music), it doesn’t feature any original compositions from the prolific Zorn, and the unrelenting sonic pummelling does risk becoming a bit samey by the end.

Zorn's goal here had been to try and reimagine Coleman's compositions while reinvigorating the shock factor they would have had when they were first unveiled.   Zorn and the other sax player Tim Berne are panned either side and improvving over an amazing rhythm section.  They're like "you want some hard bop rhythm?  Not a problem.   What's that?  Blast beats... yeah, sure thing". 

Free free jazz.

Day 0621 - The Trinity Session

Cowboy Junkies "The Trinity Session" (1988)

The Cowboy Junkies were something of a family affair, formed by lifelong friends Alan Anton and Michael Timmins, and eventually also featuring Michael's brother Peter on drums, and their sister Margo on vocals.

Margo was originally plagued with shyness, recording her vocals with her back to the rest of the band.

This album was recorded with the band grouped around one microphone in Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity (thus the album's title).  The result is a beautiful album of minimalistic, intimate country tracks.  A mixture of  original tracks and covers ranging from Hank Williams to Lou Reed.

Day 0618 - Green

R.E.M. "Green" (1988) - got it

The band's first major label release after parting company with I.R.S. Records.   According to interviews, the band felt that I.R.S. was putting pressure on them to sell well, while not really putting a lot of marketing or wide distribution efforts behind them.  Following the move to a major label (who guaranteed them creative freedom), the band became defensive in interviews in response to accusations of 'selling out'.

When left to their own devices, the band threw themselves more into major-key pop-rock tunes, but at the same time, Peter Buck starts spraying mandolin all over the place, laying down that sort of 'alt-folk' sound that would become prevalent on a few of their 90s releases.  The band experimented with trying to write "un-REM-ish" songs and switching instruments to change things up a bit.

There are touches of country, and the odd moodier track.  "I remember California" sounds like some effective middle-ground between gothy post-punk and grunge.

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 0595 - Faith

George Michael "Faith" (1987)

 
Wham! played their last show, then George Michael immediately got to work on his first solo album.  Given that he had been the producer and main songwriter in the band, and had an easily marketable image (i.e. he was a pretty face); the move to a solo career wasn't exactly a shock. 

He probably could have coasted for his first solo outing, producing Wham!-lite; instead he delivers a stonking pop and RnB album that perfectly showcases his strong, clear voice.

Possibly a controversial take but I feel like George Michael would have made a great replacement for Freddie Mercury in Queen.  Obviously nobody can live up to Freddie, but GM has a kind of similar tone to his voice, he can sing it hard or delicate, and his rendition of "Somebody to Love" at the Freddie tribute concert was fantastic.   I kind of feel like his pop and soul vibe would nicely offset the rock of Brian and Roger to produce the variety that Queen always had. 

In case you didn't get the message, this is me giving GM high praise.  Normally, the idea of Queen playing with anyone else on vocals leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Day 0590 - Document

R.E.M. "Document" (1987)

Kind of a transitional album for R.E.M.   It was their last album for IRS records before moving onto a major label and their first with Scott Litt producing.

Musically, they were already starting to evolve into their more commercial 90s sound... to the extent that I was sure that catchy track "The One I Love" was on one of those later albums, rather than on one of the IRS releases.  I think part of the change is that Michael Stipe had really found his feet as a singer and frontman, so had set aside his mumbled obscure vocal delivery and moved to a more clear and outgoing style.

Musically, the album has a nice range of styles, from the jangly folk rock of "It's the End of the World..." (with the event of Covid 19, this one has actually had a resurgence), the slow dirge intensity of "Oddfellows Local 151" and the catchy, borderline-anthemic nature of "Finest Worksong".

Day 0537 - 1984

Van Halen "1984" (1984)

As the book suggests, there's nothing new here lyrically: more macho musings on fast cars and fast women; but the music shows signs of evolution.  Having worked on Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album that combined live instruments with synthesizers, and having been pushing to include synths on previous VH albums, Eddie Van Halen finally got his way here.

The resultant sound is a pretty fun mix of hard rock and cheesy synth rock, with "Jump" being the most known hit here.  Eddie VH still sprays a liberal serving of searing lead guitar over the album, and David Lee Roth is in fine voice.

Day 0522 - Back to Mystery City

Hanoi Rocks "Back to Mystery City" (1983)

The book referred to these guys as the meeting point between glam-rock and punk... which I kind of doubted and assumed they'd just sound like every other 80s rock band - newsflash: I was wrong.  This does have the anthemic vibe, flashy guitar solos and some of the glitz that I'd associate with glam; but also has a lot of humour to it and punky energy and swagger in places.

A couple of members of Mott the Hoople helped the band produce this, their third album overall, and their first with new improved drummer Razzle.  The success of the album landed them a three album deal with CBS.  Unfortunately the band broke up after Razzle was killed in a car accident while a passenger in the car of Vince Neill from Motley Crue.

0518 - Murmur

R.E.M. "Murmur" (1983)

Quite a different beast to the R.E.M. who would eventually break on the scene with their earnest emotional ballads and occasional rockers.  This is much more folky shoegazer stuff, with twangy Rickenbacker guitar behind Stipe's mumbled poetry and much less of Mike Mill's backing vocals.

There are moments of the future band shining through, but I can certainly understand why people who got into the band at this stage of their career might have been disappointed with their later direction (though I'm a fan of their mid-era albums myself).

Day 0508 - Thriller

Michael Jackson "Thriller" (1982)

The highest selling album of all time, sold a million copies per month for its first year of release, 6 of its 10 songs were hit singles.

What more could you really want from an album: it was produced by Quincy Jones with a seasoned collection of studio players (check out the videos of Michael's drummer playing some of the hits from this era, the groove is tight like you wouldn't believe), a guest vocal by Paul McCartney, a guitar solo by Eddie van Halen and even some backing vocals from his sister Janet.

I won't say that it doesn't sound dated, there are some production and instrument sounds here that are unmistakably 80s.  That being said, there are other sounds on here that have aged nicely and wouldn't be out of place in contemporary pop, particularly given the number of artists who Jacko has influenced directly or indirectly.

Day 0470 - Hypnotised

The Undertones "Hypnotised" (1980)

I wasn't really too fussed on the previous Undertones album on this list; it was kind of fairly nondescript punk with a little extra melody thrown in.

This one is more of the same but with the punk dialled down a little and the pop/melody turned up slightly, and yet it seems so much better (to my ears). Maybe they reached the punk/melody 'bliss point' or were on a bit of a roll songwriting-wise... who knows?

Again it's not one that I'm really planning on revisiting, but it's more enjoyable and a lot of the songs just seem 'familiar'. I kind of feel like they could potentially have been an early influence on Blur (of whom I am a fan), going by the similarities in sound.