Day 0949 - Elephant

I was saying earlier that I didn't know how this decade of the book would play out and how they'd choose entries without the proof of longevity or influence on other artists to recommend them.   Well I've noticed they do seem to be working through the years quicker, with maybe less than 10 entries for some years whereas the 60s-90s' years tended to have a lot more albums represented. 

0949

The White Stripes “Elephant” (2003)

Another reasonably tight, concise bit of rock from the White Stripes.

Following on from the mainstream success of “White Blood Cells” (see day 929) the Stripes buckled down to work on their fourth album.   They used only old analogue recording equipment because that was Jack White’s whole anti-technology obsession at the time.

The album starts off strong with the big single “Seven Nation Army” which has an economical but effective arrangement, paring a memorable octaved-down single-string guitar line with a thumping tom drum, breaking out into trebly distorted guitar with splashy cymbals for the vocal-less chorus.   The second track “Black Math” almost has a bit of a punky bent to it (as does later track “Girl you Have no Faith in Medicine”).  

While the other songs are good, I do feel like the album/band start to lose their punch.  The third track “There’s no Home for You Here” sounds like a re-tread of “Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground” from the previous album, but with the raucous choruses replaced with vocal harmonies.  I also notice that a lot of the songs seem to start in a similar key or even with a same chord leading me to think that White’s voice, though distinctive and strong may not have the broadest range.

As I say though, still a strong album.  Some other highlights include “In the Cold Cold Night” which is a nice bluesy ballad with Meg on vocals; “I want to be the boy to warm your mother’s heart” which is a piano-based track with a country-sounding lead break; and the other big single from the album “Hardest Button to Button”.

Day 0887 - Beyond Skin

Nitin Sawhney "Beyond Skin" (1999)

Another interesting, multi-faceted creative type.  Sawhney studied piano, guitar, sitar and tabla.  He toured with the group the James Taylor Quartet, formed his own band, the Jazztones, then joined forces with Talvin Singh (entry 875) to create the Tihai Trio.

Sawhney joined up with an old university friend Sanjeev Baskhar to write a comedy radio show that eventually became the brilliant tv programme "Goodness Gracious Me".   Sawhney also continued with his music.

The Talvin Singh connection made me expect that this would be another album in the 'Asian Underground' sub-genre, but that's not the case at all.   The first track "Broken Skin" sounds like a pretty straight-ahead bit of soulful pop, albeit with chants in the middle section.   Another track features what sounds like Southern American music.  On the whole it wouldn't be unfair to label the album 'world music', but not in some pigeonholing or dismissive way, more because it feels like whole world is capture here through differing genres, instrumentation and musical ethnicity!

"Serpents" and "the Conference" both feature enjoyably speedy rhythmic vocal and percussion sounds playing off against each other.   "Nadia" would fit broadly into the Asian Underground category.  "Nostalgia" is another somewhat poppy track.

There is a theme running through about nuclear weapons.  Beyond this, in the album liner notes Sawhney stated:
    "I believe in Hindu philosophy.  I am not religious.  I am a pacifist.  I am a British Asian.  My identity     and my history are defined only by myself - beyond politics, beyond nationality, beyond religion and     Beyond Skin."

Day 0603 - Opus Dei

Laibach "Opus Dei" (1987)

One of those "what did I just listen to?!" albums.  It's hard to listen to the guttural vocals and Teutonic groove of Laibach and NOT assume that Rammstein were heavily influenced by them.

The band were musical magpies, with a reworked version of Queen's "One Vision" (as "Geburt einer Nation").  Pieces of Bernard Hermann's edgy film scores are mixed in with other pieces of Queen music, industrial rhythms and wild synthesizers on "Trans-national" to produce something that sounds like Kraftwerk on meth!

The Slovenian band courted political controversy by naming themselves with the name historically given to Slovenia's capital Ljubjana by the Germans, alluding to the Nazi occupation during WWII.  In the face of socialism, they poked everyone in the eye by draping themselves in the trappings of nationalism and totalitarianism.   They were the provocative musical arm of a political artistic collective called 'Neue Slowenische Kunst' (New Slovenian Art).