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 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 0486 - Damaged

Black Flag "Damaged" (1981)

Wow, that is an in-your-face punk album!  According to the book, the first few BF recordings had been in a much less intense 70s punk vein.  This album (the first with raging new singer Henry Rollins) slit that vein and spewed forth angry hardcore punk rock, almost crossing into metal in places.  There's not a lot of melody on show here, but it sorts of feels like too much melody would take away from the intensity of the music.

The band were early proponents of the DIY punk scene.  After their record label decided not to release the album, (claiming it was immoral) the band released it themselves.   The band then jumped in a van with their gear and a roadmap to tour the album off their own bat.