Day 0785 - Dookie

Green Day "Dookie" (1994) - got it

 

The band signed to a major label after their second album “Kerplunk” attracted attention from a number of labels and put the group at the centre of a minor bidding war.   This move away from independent release led to some of their punk fans labelling them “sellouts”.  I find that a bit odd really because I don’t entirely view Green Day as a pure punk band to begin with.   It’s kind of like, if punk is a shot of espresso, Green Day are a cappuccino.  You get a taste and a bit of a zing, but not the full hit.

The group produce pop-punk, in places it delves into jazzy territory, with the bass-driven "Longview"; there's more 'pure' punk with "In the End"; and an almost early-Beatles vibe (but with more distortion) in "Pulling Teeth".   Loud guitars and vocal harmonies abound throughout, with singer Billie Joe Armstrong affecting a sneery vocal that almost sounds like he's doing a British accent to give it a bit more of a Sex Pistols vibe or something.

While the band would arguably go through a period of being more focussed around Armstrong, this sounds like a band effort, with Mike Dirnt's bass often being boosted in the mix to shove it in your face.   Even hit "When I come around", Dirnt isn't just following the guitar line, he's weaving in and out of it with busy basslines.   

Drummer Tre Cool is also given plenty of space to shine, whether it's his jazzy shuffle on Longview, his speedy snare rolls and flanges on album opener "Burnout" or his bouncing, almost Cuban interlude in the middle of "In the End" (the album also closes with a secret track penned and performed by Cool).

It's not 'really' punk, but I like it.

Day 0762 - Haunted Dancehall

Sabres of Paradise "Haunted Dancehall" (1994)

Producer and remixer Andrew Weatherall formed Sabres with engineers Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns.  The group made acid house and dub-based music and set up their own "Sabresonic" warehouse raves.

This is a sonically interesting album of largely (maybe completely, I'm forgetting) instrumental electronica.   There are some grimey dubby baselines, moody synth-lines, interesting beats, what sound like industrial/machine noises and even a brass band at one point.  

This album would work really well as a score/soundtrack: interesting, but not overwhelming.   Hypnotic, but not repetitive in any kind of boring way.

Day 0755 - Strange Cargo III

William Orbit "Strange Cargo III" (1993)

 

William Orbit is now a well known name in music, with production and remix gigs ranging from U2 and Madonna, through Blur, Finley Quaye, P!nk and Chris Brown.   But back in the day he was just starting out as an artist in his own right.

Orbit had been in a group called Torch Song, making music from their home-made studio... learning on the job essentially.  The group disbanded and Orbit started on his solo career.

The book opines that this album sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday rather than decades ago... I'd have to agree.  The trance-like soundscapes and well-aged synth sounds are as fresh as anything out today.

Day 0600 - Appetite For Destruction

Guns n Roses "Appetite For Destruction" (1987)

 
Gunners, formed from members of two bands: LA Guns and Hollywood Rose... should be pretty obvious from that where their new band got its name.   After a few disagreements and members quitting, guitarist Slash and drummer Steven Adler were brought into the fold and... well I'd say the rest was history, but the band line-up continued to be in flux long after this.

The 'classic' GnR lineup set about recording their debut album.  They had an abundance of material, and several songs (including "Don't Cry", "November Rain" and "You Could Be Mine") were held over until the "Use Your Illusion" album.

The album doesn't suffer from the omissions, it's a stonking classic of a rock album.  From opener "Welcome to the Jungle", the blues rock vibe of "Nightrain" to the MTV favourite, rock ballad "Sweet Child o' Mine", the album is a lean, mean rock monster.  I'm not even a huge GnR fan, but I enjoyed every song.

I'm not sure if this is true or 'Axl legend' but I read that the band finished the music quite quickly, but Axl insisted on recording his vocals one line at a time to make sure and get everything right.  I'll bet he had a glass of brown M&Ms on standby too.

The original cover (top) featuring some kind of robot john and a prostitute or something was deemed to be 'a bit much' and was replaced with the better known alternative above.

Day 0390 - Bat out of Hell

Meatloaf "Bat out of Hell" (1977)

Take a larger-than-life (not a fat-joke) actor with an operatic rock voice.  Take Jim Steinman, a composer of theatrical rock, frequently epic in style.  Put them in a studio with Todd Rundgren in the control room, and you have an album that stayed in the UK album chart on and off for 10 years!


The duo had started work on the album's songs some time earlier based on pieces that Steinman had written for a course.  They were touring together National Lampoons and took a few of the songs to develop on.





Meatloaf belts out Steinman's tracks with passion, wild abandon and (in places) a little tenderness.
I don't have much more to say except: great album!

Day 0367 - Songs in the Key of Life

Stevie Wonder "Songs in the Key of Life" (1976) - got it

Stevie had parted company with synthesizer wizards Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil who had left him with a stockpile of some 250 songs (of which only a handful have since been released).  Rather than fall back on those tracks, Stevie set about recording new songs.  Now, this is where the role of a producer can show its merit.  When RM and MC were on board with Stevie they'd give him the tools to explore his ideas, but they would also make sure he finished songs and got albums out into the world, instead of constantly starting new things and not seeing them through.

"Songs.." took 2 years of Stevie constantly telling Motown that he was ready to deliver the album (at one point they even put up huge billboards advertising its release... a year or so before it finally got delivered). He recorded a further 200 songs with various guests, involved including Herbie Hancock, George Benson, and one or two of Stevie's exes on vocals. I feel as though after his death there will be a giant stockpile of songs that could be released if he hasn't destroyed them or they don't get stymied in a legal quagmire (at the time of writing, that's what seems to have happened to most of Prince's unreleased stuff.)

When the album finally came out, a few songs followed soon after release on an EP.  It suggests to me that Stevie, left to his own devices, just couldn't bring himself to 'close the loop' on the album.  In that respect, he'd probably fare quite well in the current music world where he could just drip out tracks via bandcamp or iTunes or something.

There are tons of brilliant tracks here ('Sir Duke', 'I Wish', 'Pastime Paradise', 'As') and of course there are.  This is 1970s Stevie: he was untouchable at this point.  That said, the album does suffer from the same 'track exhaustion' found in a lot of double albums.  I couldn't pick any 'bad' tracks per se, it just feels like a lot of work listening to the whole thing and could have been better presented or experienced as 2 or 3 separate albums.