Day 0992 - Let England Shake

P.J. Harvey "Let England Shake" (2011)

Harvey had pushed the boat out and away from her rock sound with previous album "White Chalk" where she wrote largely on the piano and singing in highest reaches of her vocal range.   For "Let England Shake" she again changed her approach, starting with words and letting the music come from that instead of the other way around. Harvey also composed quite a bit on autoharp, so again changing things up.

The album was recorded in a church with Harvey leaving a bit of space in the arrangements, giving her collaborators (including John Parish with whom she'd recorded some albums as a duo) the chance to have input into the final work.

The title track opens the album with busy bustle of strummed instruments and tinkly lead line on what might be xylophone.  It's melody seems akin to the more unsettling but beautiful sounds of "White Chalk".   The palm-muted sparse guitar of "The Last Living Rose" recalls Harvey's earlier work but still with a gentler folkier sound.

The lyrics dwell on England, death, war and diplomacy.    Alluding to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, but with Harvey also having read up about Gallipoli and WWI in general.

The album isn't a terminal downer though.  There's some beauty there with the songs often taking on a pastoral, folky quality.   Elsewhere "The Words that Maketh Murder" almost has a hint of "Bird is the Word" by the Trashmen but with horns popping out to add colour and an interesting outro.

"Written on the Forehead" has almost ecstatic backing vocals.   Long-time collaborator (and sometime Bad Seed with Nick Cave) Mick Harvey shares vocal duties on the closing track "The Colour of the Earth".

Another daring and interesting album from Polly Jean, where she reaches outside of her comfort zone to create something that seems totally new for her, yet that also doesn't seem out of place in her body of work.

Day 0765 - Brutal Youth

Elvis Costello "Brutal Youth" (1994)

The book mentions Costello having recorded albums of surf and classical music.... so in a way it's a pity that they haven't really looked at those, instead selecting this one which returns to his early sound of melodic, yet biting rock music.

Having said that, the album does seem to wrap in different sounds that Costello had been playing around with, from jazz and soul flavours, piano balladry, and Beatles/Wilson-esque vocal harmonies which helped to keep things interesting.

As with all his other albums here, I enjoyed this and would happily listen to it again.

Day 0752 - Doggystyle

Snoop Doggy Dogg "Doggystyle" (1993)

Snoop's debut hit the ground running, thanks to hype created by his contributions to Dr Dre's "The Chronic" album, and by the fact that Snoop himself had been arrested in connection to the murder of an associate of a rival gang.   For many it would have given that hint of authenticity to Snoop's rhymes that other 'gangsters' might have been seen to be lacking.

Other than a few of the bigger tracks I hadn't really heard this album before. Great music, some of the best basslines around, thanks to Dre and his G-Funk sound.  

Snoop's delivery has so much attitude... not so fussed on some of the more misogynist lyrics, but then 80s and early 90s hip-hop, that's unfortunately par for the course.

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 0700 - Arise

Sepultura "Arise" (1991) - got it

After 3 albums of derivative, somewhat ratty sounding thrash albums, Sepultura (which means 'grave' in Portuguese) travelled to the US to produce their fourth album.

Though the band are still wearing their Slayer and 80s-Metallica hearts well and truly on their sleeves, there are hints of the more melodic and slower 'groove metal' style that they and contemporaries Pantera (among others) would develop.  They also started bringing in the tribal percussion that would become one of Sepultura's trademarks.

This is still largely a thrash affair, with blistering guitar solos, Max Cavelera's aggressive growl, and brother Igor Cavalera's punishing, crazed, yet virtuosic drumming.

Day 0529 - Synchronicity

The Police "Synchronicity" (1983) - got it

 The Police were more or less sick of each other by this point, recording their parts in separate rooms of the studio, and even being symbolically 'separated' on the album cover.

The music seemed to be separating and stretching to the four corners too, with less of their reggae sounds, increased synthesizer presence, and touches of world music.   Sting's songs were sounding more and more like the de-clawed pop that he'd perfect later on.  He and drummer Stewart Copeland nearly fought aggressively because Sting wanted some simple, straight-ahead drumming on "Every breath you take" and Copeland wanted to do his thing (which he would go on to do to great effect in the band Oysterhead with members of Primus and Phish).

Andy Summers' two tracks are possibly among the more interesting: "mother" is a demented ode to the most important woman in his life, and 'Murder by numbers' is my favourite track on the album and (to my mind) the best mesh of the pop and experimental sides of the band's sound.

The band split after one last tour and, though they reunited for a series of shows, never rekindled their spark enough to want to record together again.

Day 0153 - The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground "The Velvet Underground" (1969) - got it

The Velvets aren't doing too badly so far.  This was their third album released, it's also their third album on this list.

A much more straight-ahead, mellower album (and possibly my favourite from VU) than previous outings. "Some kinda love"  is almost like a more languid, loping read on the Beatles' "Get Back". "Beginning to see the light" is cathartic, "Jesus" is lovely, "the murder mystery" is a touch of the older, weirder Velvets (and is brilliant).  Things calm back down for the closing track "after hours" ...which, incidentally, is the first VU song that I ever heard.

According to the book, the band's equipment was stolen when they arrived in town to record, but that didn't stop them from having quite a relaxed, enjoyable recording session.