Day 0972 - In Rainbows

Radiohead “In Rainbows” (2007) – got it

Radiohead took a bit of a break following the tour for their previous album “Hail to the Thief”.  They’d completed the obligations of their record contract, and arguably "Hail" wasn’t their finest hour.   After the steady evolution of Pablo Honey through to the Kid A/Amnesiac albums, Hail felt like a bit of a backward step.

The band regrouped and tried to come up with some music but the sessions proved difficult.  The band tried working with different producers and then went on tour.  Finally they reunited with producer Nigel Godrich who, Thom Yorke said, gave them a “walloping kick up the arse”.   Work picked up and the band ended up with 16 songs which they trimmed down to just 10 tracks on the album, wanting to put forward a concise musical statement.

The album is pleasingly defiant of overall categorisation, with opener “15 Step” starting with a Kid A-esque electronic beat but overlaid with clean guitar and coherent vocals.  There’s a lot of clean guitar tones, for instance with "Nude" and single “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” which sounds to be a mix of acoustic and electric guitars.  Nude has melodic atmospheric guitar parts that swell and fade in the background along with harmonised backing vocals.

"Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" has a propulsive almost dance beat with a fairly clean start that eventually builds to swirls of sound and at one point the music underneath cuts down to just the beat and Yorke's vocal.

"All I Need" has a loping synthy bass but builds to a crescendo.   "House of Cards" almost has hints of later era U2 (not in a bad way) in its earnest minimalism but still with some sonic experimentation.

Radiohead generally seem to pick great songs as their album closers, and “Videotape” is no exception, with it’s slow sombre piano and stuttering stabs of drums.

Day 0906 - Kid A

Radiohead "Kid A" (2000) – got it

 

An album where genius and arrogance meet.  The band completely changed their melodic alt-rock sound for a direction more influenced by electronic music (particularly the sounds of alt-electro artists like Aphex Twin and Autechre) and left it up to fans to follow them on the journey or get out of the way.

I’ve often wondered if this change in direction was a natural evolution decided on unanimously by the band.  Reading about it though, it sounds as though the push came primarily from singer Thom Yorke.  Yorke was convinced that guitar rock was a dying genre… at the risk of being a touch salty, he wasn’t the first slightly self-important rocker to come to this conclusion with Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins having made similar declarations as he moved his band towards an electronic and acoustic sound for their 1998 album “Adore”.  

The other members of Radiohead had concerns about the change.  Concerns ranging from whether it was self-indulgent art rock for the sake of it, through to what (if anything) they’d personally be doing on each of the new songs.    Definitely this second point is a valid concern when you look at a song like “Idioteque” which is based around a drum machine part and a looped sample of an experimental 1960s piece of computer music with Yorke being the most prominent member featured.  Yet the album works.

The new sound is on display right from the off, with the warm bleepy synth and looped vocal opening of “Everything in its right place”, the synth and drum machine of the title track and the Krautrock vibe of “National Anthem”.  

Guitars start to make a reappearance around the middle of the album.  “How to Disappear Completely” (with its acoustic guitar, morose vocal and light live drums over a soupy drone) sounds like it could have easily been on “OK Computer”.   “Optimistic” and “In Limbo” also feature guitars but with the vocals seeming less like a narrative and more like a free-form chanted mantra.  The vocals across the album are treated with various effects and processing that often sees them buried in the mix rather than front and centre as you'd expect for a rock or pop album.

Even the promotion of the album mixes genius and arrogance.   Instead of doing music videos for 2 or 3 select tracks, the band did a series of short advert-length videos for each track on the album.  It was a smart move because it helped signpost the band’s change of direction and gave the public a passing familiarity with the whole album without getting them burnt out on any one song.  Of course though the band felt the need to couch it as a ‘comment’ on how music videos are commercials and blah blah blah, (to reference Frank Zappa) “SHUT UP ‘N PLAY YER GUITAR”.

Love this album.  With some bands that have made big stylistic changes, I've taken a bit of time to acclimatise to them, but I enjoyed this one from the start.

Day 0843 - Shleep

Robert Wyatt "Shleep" (1997)

If you were giving points just for longevity, Wyatt would be doing well.  His last entry in this list "Rock Bottom" (day 325) was released in 1974.  If you were just going based on fun song titles he'd be doing well with doozies like "Free Will and Testament" and "the Whole Point of No Return".   If you were going based on the respect of other musicians, he'd be doing well as Brian Eno helps produce and guitars are provided by Paul Weller and Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera.

The fact is that, beside all of the above, the music is damned good too.  From the naive 60s-esque pop of "Heaps of Sheep" and "Maryan" to the jazzy experimentation of "the Duchess", the extended fusiony jam of "Alien" to the jazzy beat poetry homage to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" this is just a great collection of songs.   The music brings to mind everything from the Kinks, early Pink Floyd, and Frank Zappa to later interesting and inventive bands like Ween and XTC.

Day 0838 - OK Computer

Radiohead "OK Computer" (1997) - got it

A couple of things I learned reading about 'OK Computer':

1. Most it was recorded with the band playing together, allowing for bleed through of the instruments into each other's feed and using minimal overdubs.  I find that kind of interesting, as I've always pictured the band meticulously layering overdubs and putting together the album piece by piece like that.
   
   
2. A couple of the songs were thrown together fairly quickly at outside requests.  Again, I find that surprising because I assumed the band were a group of perfectionists who would need/want to spend weeks or even months on any given track.

It was one of these quick turnaround songs "Lucky" that started off the writing for OK Computer.  Brian Eno had requested a composition from the band for a charity compilation and the song was recorded in five hours with Nigel Godrich, who had been an engineer on previous album "The Bends".   The band were happy with the experience and brought Godrich on to produce OK Computer, and eventually all subsequent Radiohead albums and Thom Yorke's solo material.

The album moves further away from the rock sound of "Pablo Honey" and "the Bends", with only "Electioneering" really feeling like a 'rock' song.  

The album starts off with an almost 'Bends-esque' track "Airbag", but then track two "Paranoid Android" comes crashing in taking you on a sonic odyssey and setting the scene for the album, from the simple acoustic guitar and vocal that swells to a dense arrangement mixing guitar noises and keyboards, with multiple vocals layered and playing against each other in a melancholic, almost unsettling atmosphere.  A similar approach is used on "Karma Police" and the brilliant "Exit Music (For a Film)" (written at request for the soundtrack to Baz Lurhmann's "Romeo and Juliet" film).

The lovely, delicate "No Suprises" offers a respite from the aural density.  

The album was a huge success, but Radiohead would not rest on their laurels, taking even bigger risks with their next release "Kid A" and flipping the script on their sound yet again.

Day 0797 - the Bends

Radiohead "The Bends" (1995) - got it

The heady days, before many Radiohead fans became insufferable snobs who crapped over the bands they perceived Radiohead to have influenced.  When Radiohead themselves were just "that band who sang Creep" with everyone waiting to see if they could follow up their 'hit'.

While the bleeps and bloops of "Kid A" are often pointed out as the big change in direction for Radiohead, arguably their first few albums all displayed fairly major stylistic shifts.   "The Bends" saw the band move away from their straight-ahead alt-rock to a more densely nuanced, melodically sophisticated sound, but still with more of a rock-guitar sound than follow-up "OK Computer" would have.

The band worked more collaboratively on songrwiting and arranging, instead of creating a wall of guitars, they played with arrangements that put together different parts for each of the three guitarists that worked together.  In some places the sound was still dense, like on single "Just" a bit of a favourite of mine, and something of a good middle point between their rock sound and their intelligent melodic directions.  Elsewhere, they stripped things back on songs like the acoustic, atmospheric "Bullet Proof... I wish I was" and album-closer "Street Spirit (Fade Out)".... damn, actually Radiohead always have the best album-closer tracks.

Most of the tracks start small and build their arrangements, as can be heard in songs like "Fake Plastic Trees", "My Iron Lung" and "Nice Dream".   

An argument could be made for this being the album where Radiohead really found their sound, with that more melodically sophisticated vein being mined; but you could also argue that Radiohead are another of those good bands who never quite fix on their sound and are constantly trying to forge new ground.

Day 0771 - Parklife

Blur “Parklife” (1994) – got it

Blur were feeling reinvigorated following the release of their second album “Modern Life is Rubbish”.  It hadn’t broken records with its sale figures, but was critically well received and the band felt they were on the right track.  As soon as they’d finished that record, singer Damon Albarn started writing a large number of songs and the band worked at demoing them.  They got back in the studio with producer Stephen Street as soon as they could, and most of the album was recorded fairly quickly.

Aside from the opening track “Girls and Boys” which has a bit of a European dance/disco vibe to it, and one or two of the more grand tracks like “To the End”, this album is British through and through.  In fact even "Girls and Boys starts" with a line about “following the herd to Greece on holiday”, sounding like the start of episode of “Boozed up Brits Abroad”.   

The Britishness continues with the “oi oi oi” punky rock of “Bank Holiday”, the brass band waltz of instrumental “the Debt Collector” (as well as brassy bass embellishments on the title track and rocking "Jubilee"), the pastoral harpsicord of “Clover over Dover” and of course Albarn’s almost aggressively cockney/mockney accent pushing into the songs.  Even bassist Alex James' composition "Far Out" sounds like it would be at home in a 1960s Pink Floyd club gig in swinging London.

It's a brilliant album (if maybe a track or so too long).  They do copy Modern Life a bit with the overall sound and having a couple of fun instrumental 'interludes', but with "Girls and Boys" and the loungey stylings of "To the end" they were definitely forging new ground.

Day 0729 - Vulgar Display of Power

Pantera "Vulgar Display of Power" (1992) - got it

Pantera started out as a heavy glam-metal band.  They would later deny it, but the spandex, puffed up perms and histrionic high vocals don't lie.

They slowly evolved their sound into a heavier thrashier deal, particularly with the introduction of new vocalist Phil Anselmo.

With this, the third album with Anselmo, he had mostly set aside his glam vocals in favour of metal screams and deeper growls.  The music had moved away from glam and even thrash to focus on a slower "groove-metal" sound.  Drawing on the band's southern background, with hints of blues and southern rock to some of the riffs and solos.

There is plenty of variety within the album.  There's the single-string, 2-3 note simplicity of "Walk" (that must surely have joined 'smoke on the water' and 'nothing else matters' as stock songs for beginner guitarists to bang out at guitar shops).  There are the grunge-ballad verses/grinding metal choruses of "This Love" and "Hollow".  While "F**king Hostile" is more or less a hardcore punk track with a little more flash.

Anselmo's newly shaven head and songs about dominance and respect raised one or two eyebrows (probably more in retrospect with Anselmo's infamous "white power" incident in 2016).

Day 0589 - Hysteria

Def Leppard "Hysteria" (1987)

An interesting one... I mean the music itself is just catchy, bombastic, glammy rock with a touch of studio sheen to it, but there's a bit of a story to the album's creation.

The album was originally to be produced by Mutt Lange (he's produced everything from AC/DC and Foreigner through to Maroon 5 and Britney Spears) who had produced their previous album 'Pyromania', but Lange bowed out due to exhaustion.  The band tried to make things happen with Jim Steinman (of Meatloaf fame), but he wanted to make a raw, stripped-down rock record, clashing with Leppard who wanted to go with a more glossy and pop-metal sound.  Eventually Steinman departed and the band tried to produce themselves.  These sessions were eventually scrapped when Lange came back into the fold.

Of course, as is well known, Leppard's drummer lost his arm in a car accident.  The band stood by him and his decision to keep drumming, using a mix of traditional drums and some automation tricks to fill in the gaps left by his missing arm.

The long wait, the time put in, and all the studio work paid off.   At its peak, the album was moving around a million copies a week.

Day 0517 - Pyromania

Def Leppard "Pyromania" (1983)

The book tries to claim that the only thing that's dated about this album is the cover (showing sniper sights on a burning building, which probably wouldn't go down well in these days of modern terrorism) but I'd disagree.  This music sounds about as 80s as it possibly could; from the shiny production to the programmed drums, that apparently annoyed drummer Rick Allen so much that he threw a drum stick at the wall, where it embedded itself.

This is a big slab of glossy 80s stadium rock with all the epic-scale reverb the music could handle, flashy lead guitar breaks, and wailing harmonised vocals.  I can understand the sentiment of the guy saying it hasn't aged, because to me, most the albums of my youth still sound as fresh to me as they did when I first heard them... though I can still hear all of the hallmarks of their (usually) 1960s and 1990s backgrounds.

Day 0482 - No Sleep 'til Hammersmith

Motörhead "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith" (1981)

A pretty solid live album.  I've said it before, I'm not the biggest fan of live albums.  This one works though, given that their albums are pretty down and dirty and lacking studio 'sheen' so this is just a raw representation of what they do, with the extra sweat and intensity of it being laid out live, and maybe a little faster.

The Motörhead ethos is clearly spelt out with the liner notes which include the dedication

"Thanks to Smirnoff and Carlsberg without whom lots of this would have been coherent."

Day 0463 - Ace of Spades

Motörhead "Ace of Spades" (1980)

Lemmy, having been kicked out of Hawkwind for taking too much speed, went on to start a band that seems like the musical equivalent of that drug.

I quite enjoyed the band's slightly less intense self-titled debut album, but it's hard to deny the power and immediacy of the lightning fast riffage, crazed intensity and throat tearing yells of these tracks. One of the initial building blocks of metal, but also beloved by punks at the time.

Day 0459 - Peter Gabriel III (AKA "Melt")

Peter Gabriel "Peter Gabriel III" (AKA "Melt") (1980)

 
Gabriel was well clear of his Genesis 'Prog' sound, and with his first two relatively quirky and eccentric solo albums also behind him, he seemed content to settle into a groove as a purveyor of interesting and innovative art pop-rock in the vein of Berlin-Bowie and Brian Eno. He even uses Eno-regular Robert Fripp on guitar, along with his Genesis bandmate (and vocal replacement) Phil Collins.

PG experiments with world music (sampling African chants for one song) and new technology, playing around with drum machines, and studio trickery to produce an album that seems a collision of human with machine.

Day 0456 - Back in Black

AC/DC "Back in Black" (1980)

 
AC/DC had managed to pull themselves up by their Aussie bootstraps to 'take on the world'. By the time they released "Highway to Hell" they had won over Europe, but hadn't quite cracked the US. Tragedy befell them when their lead singer Bon Scott died after a night of drinking.

The band didn't pause.  They started recording straight away and recruited British vocalist Brian Johnson to take up lead singer duties. The album opens with tolling bells and then slow, ominous guitar, leading you to believe that maybe the band were going to deliver a solemn eulogy to their fallen bandmate... at least you might believe that if you were unfamiliar with the rest of their work. Pretty quickly,  the slow opening gives way to an 'all hands to the pump' rocker, and things doesn't really let up from there.

The band continue with their misogynistic, wild-time lyrics and solid riffing rock. Solid is the word too; apart from Angus Young's flashy lead guitar parts, the music is fairly workmanlike in its simplicity. The rhythm section mainly hold down the most basic groove needed to support the guitar riffs, which in turn provide a bed for Johnson's vocals to bounce around on top of. It is rock economy, and it works really well for the songs.

The album took off in the US. It has since racked up 22x platinum sales, and sits as the sixth highest selling album of all time in the US!

Day 0427 - Highway to Hell

AC/DC "Highway to Hell" (1979)

Apparently this was Acca Dacca's 5th album. The title had come from Angus Young being asked to describe their drunken bus tours, he responded with "like a highway to hell" and it just kind of stuck.

I've obviously heard plenty of AC/DC before, but have never really sat down and listened to an entire album in one sitting before.  All in all they make pretty solid rock n roll (though I guess that should go without saying).  There's just not quite enough variety for my tastes. Looking forward to 'back in black' presumably coming up on this list though.

This was Bon Scott's last album with the band before his alcohol-related death.

Day 0412 - Live and Dangerous

Thin Lizzy "Live and Dangerous" (1978)

 
I'm not really familiar with Thin Lizzy outside of a couple of 'hits', so I can't really comment on how this compares to their recorded/studio output.  Whatever the case, it sounds like a killer concert, with some wailing guitar. I had read that TL's guitar harmonies were an influence on Metallica's Cliff Burton and that sounds about right from what I can hear here.

The music is exciting and (literally and figuratively) electric. I've mentioned in the past that live albums are not usually my favourite thing, and long albums are also not usually a favourite of mine -  this is both.

The live part doesn't really worry me here because (judging from the one or two songs of theirs I had heard before)  they seem like one of those bands that probably sounded a bit tamer in the studio but then really unleash live.  For all of the excitement and vitality, the running time did kind of wear me down a bit by the end and I started to lose my concentration on the music.

Day 0371 - The Stranger

Billy Joel "The Stranger" (1977)

 
Billy had apparently played in piano bars during his high school years to help support his single mother (good boy) which must have been a help in both refining his chops, and increasing his confidence as a performer.

This isn't his first album, and he had had a hit with "Piano Man" previously, but this album was considered by many to be his commercial breakthrough. It makes me feel like I should check out more of his albums too because, yes the singles ("Movin' out (Anthony's song)", "Just the way you are", "Only the good die young", "She's always a woman") are great, but there are some tasty deeper cuts here. The title track opens with a moody noir piano piece with Morricone-esque whistle over the top that segues into an upbeat pop-rock track and then back into the piano and whistle at the end, as though the whole song has emerged from and then vanished back into the fog in some Humphrey Bogart film.

"Scenes from an Italian restaurant" sounds almost like Billy Joel meets Paul McCartney with the growly vocal and bouncy baroque-tinged pop.

"Vienna" is delicate and lovely, "Get it right first time" has an almost fusiony world-music feel to it informing a bright and brassy pop song.

The album wraps up with the gospel tinged rager "everybody has a dream", that gives way to a reprise of the title track's intro/outro section. An enjoyable listen all round.

Day 0280 - Selling England by the Pound

Genesis "Selling England by the Pound" (1973)

Was surprised to find that this was Genesis' 5th album.  I didn't realise that they'd recorded so many with Peter Gabriel.

There seems to be a thing about prog albums using paintings as their album covers rather than photos or some other such thing.  Definitely bands like Gentle Giant, Genesis, some of Crimson's got on in on it.   Similar to the 50's jazz scene's flirtations with the modern artists.   It works for this album matching the parochial English vibe of the album.

Much as it's popular to jump on the 'Phil Collins bashing bandwagon', his drumming, while nowhere near as exploratory or virtuosic as some of his prog peers, is still pretty damned fine. Synths that sound like they're soundtracking a fox hunt, guitars that are at time frantic and unsettling and at others, majestic and grand, vocals that verge on the theatrical and playful.  This is definitely a long way from the poppy, sometimes slightly too-serious-for-its-own-good, later-era Genesis.

I would not be surprised if John Frusciate was into Genesis either.  There seem to be a lot of sounds that would not be out of place on some of his later work with the Chili Peppers or some of his mid-era solo work.