Day 0988 - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (2010)

Kanye shut himself away following a few high profile bits of bad publicity, including his decision to crash the stage during the Video Music Awards to interrupt Taylor Swift as she went to accept an award for best music video.   West cited overwork and stress on his erratic behaviour, though it has since become clear that he has some reasonably serious, legitimate mental health issues.

This album is almost an insight into what is going on in his head, a huge busy mix of sounds tinged with paranoia, narcissism and brilliance.   I've always taken a passing interest in Kanye's music, yet weirdly (given its renown) I've never checked this one out.   It is actually a brilliant album.  Varied, unconventional, and fairly honest.

The first few tracks move between a vaguely churchy/gospel feel, which kind of signposted where Kanye was going to go next, and the synth-and-beat sound his previous album "808s and Heartbreak".    "Devil in a New Dress" displays a bit of old-school Kanye with the pitch-shifted soul vocal backing track, but from there there are big pulsing beats that brings the later West track "Black Skinhead" to mind.   Pitch-dropped vocals provide a vaguely nightmarish, unhinged sound.

The album is a solid block of music, with far less of the skits and interludes that usually populate hip-hop albums (including previous West outings).   Kanye had assembled teams of producers and performers and more or less lived in the studio, having 3 different studios going at once so he could work on whichever track he felt inspired to attack that day.  He also ran his ideas past his collaborators on a regular basis to refine and change the tracks.   Q-Tip described the approach as 'music by committee', but that Kanye was able to use parts of everyone's input while still doing his own thing.

Day 0939 - The Coral

The Coral "The Coral" (2002)

What the what?!

Another situation where I was familiar with the name but for some reason assumed this band was one of the indie rock groups making the scene at the time; far from it! This album mixes a punky raucousness with melodic sensibility.  Musical control with wild abandon.  The whole thing is smothered in vocal harmonies which is something that (if you're keeping track) I love.

"Goodbye" has jazzy fusiony vamps.  "Shadows Fall" has a Specials-esque bit of moody two-tone with folky vocals that suddenly launch into a burst of hot jazz and plays out with a cool ping-pong vocal thing.  "I Remember When" moves between slow morose alt-rock and bursts into an explosive almost punky rock for the chorus and rounds out on a sort of klezmer section.

It's a definite "all sounds considered" approach that wraps in rock, folk, jazz, balladry, reggae, sea shanty, indie rock.  Music for the sake of music, and I love it!

Day 0846 - Fat of the Land

Prodigy "Fat of the Land"  - got it

Prodigy dropped the 'the' from their name, got themselves a shiny new ant logo, and got PUNK.  

From Keith Flint's spiky hairdo and punky vocal contributions to the album, to the confrontational nature of opening track "Smack my Bitch up".

The album was a bit of a change up from its predecessors.  It still had the big thumping beats and aggressive razor-blade synth lines but there are a lot more vocals here.    As well as Flint's contributions to hits "Breathe" and "Firestarter" and a couple of other tracks, Prodigy member Maxim Reality is on a couple of tracks and Doctor Octagon himself Kool Keith features on the slightly lower tempo "Diesel Power".

The change worked well for them, with the first couple of singles going to number one and the album in general being a critical and commercial success.  

The band tried to recapture the magic with single "Baby's got a temper" but it was seen as a bit of a weak retread and their next full album would see the focus move from Maxim and Flint back to Howlett's beats and production.

Day 0693 - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

This is a lengthy one because... as I say below, this is a favourite. 


Red Hot Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" (1991) - got it

I’m a big Chili Pepper’s fan, so here’s some band history.   The Chili Peppers formed, and recorded 3 albums of punky, speedy rap-funk characterised by busy slap-pop bass, minimalist guitar and sex-inspired rhymes, but also exploring elements such as RnB, psychedelic rock and metal.

Original guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose and drummer Jack Irons decided to leave music (though he’d later join Pearl Jam for – arguably – their best albums).

Mainstays Anthony Kiedis and Flea recruited drumming behemoth Chad Smith and teen guitar prodigy John Frusciante and together they released the much heavier “Mother’s Milk” album with wall-to-wall distorted guitar on some tracks, and with each of the players showing off their musical chops.   The band parted company with EMI, and signed to a new label.  They joined forces with young producer Rick Rubin, who had co-founded Def Jam records and was making a name producing rap and metal albums (LL Cool J, Run DMC, Slayer etc.).  He suggested that they rent a house to live and record in, and in that laid-back setting, this collection of tracks was created.

For a time this was my favourite album (in general, not just for the Chili Peppers), until I realised that ‘favourites’ with music are somewhat transitory.  There's over an hour of music across 17 tracks, yet to my tastes, it does not sag at any point.  One of those albums where every other song has been my 'favourite' at some point.

The studio polish that defines the Chili Peppers now was barely starting to show then, which is a good thing.   Where their records now feature tight, compressed polished production; the drums on "give it away" sound like they were recorded in someone's bathroom, and it's fantastic.

Whereas they are now serial offenders for COS (Chorus Overuse Syndrome), on BSSM they would play around a lot more with structures and parts, with lengthy jam sections being injected into songs.   There's something like "Power of Equality" which just keeps going with multiple verses before breaking into a slappy bass outro that eventually winds down to scattered applause.  Even a 'hit' song like "Under the Bridge" has that beautiful opening guitar part... that never pops up again in the rest of the song!

Frusciante would later become somewhat overbearing creatively, but here he is balanced by still finding his place, so provides brilliant playing and ideas but more as a facilitator than as a leader.

The album is diverse, yet has a certain internal logic, helped by the band's MO at that point of having the tracks segue into each other, creating the feeling of an "album" as opposed to just a collection of songs.  The sound is mostly slow, minimalist funk with interplaying parts that don't necessarily ape each other.  There is rock in tracks like "Suck my kiss" and "My lovely man".   There's melodic balladry with songs like "Breaking the girl" and "I could have lied", there's the leisurely psychedelic outro of "Sir Psycho Sexy" and the fun coda of Robert Johnson cover "They're Red Hot", recorded outside at night (you can hear cars driving past in places).

This was lightning in a bottle, and even the Peppers themselves while promoting other albums have often acknowledged that it was special album for them.

Day 0680 - Fear of a Black Planet

Public Enemy "Fear of a Black Planet" (1990)

Production team the Bomb Squad were clearly on a roll with this, and Ice Cube's album a couple of entries earlier on the list.

Here Public Enemy revisit the 'wall of noise', and layered samples that seem more like sound collages to a beat, than just straight backing tracks.  The MCs lay abrasive in-your-face rhymes over this... it's essentially a continuation of the sound of their brilliant sophomore album "It takes a nation of millions to hold us back".

If it aint broke, don't fix it.

As the title suggests, race relations, African American empowerment and the issue of white supremacy are addressed.
A great time for hip hop, and an intense listening experience.  I can only guess at what it would be like to see these guys do their thing live.

Day 0667 - The La's

The La's "The La's" (1990)

 
There must be something about Liverpool.  This is a strong and competent pop album that reflects the passion for 1960s retro prevalent in the 90s.... actually, technically most of these songs were written in the 80s. 

The band had been trying to record the album for 3-4 years with 3-4 different producers and were never quite happy with any of these attempts.  The record company finally pushed for it to be released and the band (or at least songwriter Lee Mavers) was dissatisfied with the results, and didn't mind telling people.

Not sure what Mayers' problem was; it's great collection of concise pop songs.  The main frame of reference is early-to-mid-era Beatles played through a 1990s filter.  The most instantly recognisable song is "There she goes", and surely there can't be too many people in the western world who haven't heard it, due to its radio play and extensive use in film and tv.  The rest of the album is hardly filler though, with memorable upbeat pop tracks, the vaguely musichall "Freedom song" and the glorious "Looking glass" that starts off simple but builds to noisy-yet-melodic crescendo.  

Day 0666 - World Clique

Dee-Lite "World Clique" (1990) - got it

More than just "Groove is in the Heart".  This is an album that features guest spots from such luminaries as Bootsy Collins, Herbie Hancock and Maceo Parker.  But it is more than those guest spots too.  This is an album that grooves from start to finish.  Some of the big rollicking beats and jagged piano date the music slightly, but aside from that, it's a great mix of techno, funk and pop.

Different styles and sounds are on display, mixing live instruments and samples.  Lady Miss Kier's voice provides enough variety that I didn't grow weary of hearing the same singer throughout.

Day 0571 - Talking With the Taxman About Poetry

Billy Bragg "Talking With the Taxman About Poetry" (1986)

The book talks about Bragg's ability to find the personal in politics and the political in the personal.  As is often the case, I didn't really pay much attention to the lyrics so I didn't really pick up on that so much, but I did enjoy the album musically.

Bragg's reverb drenched guitar manages to accentuate a variety of styles, from rockabilly, folk, pop and country.  I didn't even realise the first time I listened to the album, but there's little-to-no drumming in it, and the songs don't suffer at all as a result.  One or two tracks have limited percussion but that's it.

The album also features contributions from the Smiths' Johnny Marr, and Kirsty MacColl (of 'fairytale of New York' fame.