Day 0790 - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx

Raewkon  "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" (1995)

Another Wu Tang solo album.   As with the other first few solo Wu albums "Cuban Linx" was produced by RZA, ensuring that the music is interesting and loaded with film samples and kung fu.

The lyrics, delivered by Raekwon and fellow Wu Tang alumnus Ghostface Killah I'm less fond of.   Some of the tracks flow nicely like "Guillotine (Swords)", but there are a few racial slurs and (seems to be a theme with a lot of rap albums of this era) it's quite long, with a runtime of 70-odd minutes.   I guess it's because while I like a bit of hip hop, it's not my number one genre.  Definitely there are albums of that length in other genres (see day 791) that I enjoy.

I would say though, the combination of a great backing track, the rhymes and female backing vocals on "Glaciers of Ice" caught my attention more than many of the other tracks.

Day 0601 - Darklands

The Jesus and Mary Chain "Darklands" (1987)

With "Darklands" J&MC move from a fuzzed-out 'shoegazer' sound, to something that almost sounds like "upbeat Joy Division".  Their drummer had left to become the lead singer of Primal Scream, so the band opted to replace him with a drum machine.  As a result of this, and I guess their general songwriting style, their songs have zero groove.  It's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that their songs drift along like a dreamy wave heading serenely for shore, rather than like choppy surf.

I feel as though their previous album "Psychocandy" was the one that the band is better known for.  But I prefer the rolling, pulsing drone pop of "Darklands" over the fuzzy cloud of "Psychocandy".  I listened to this one 2 or 3 times and would happily spin it again.

Day 0580 - Skylarking

XTC "Skylarking" (1986)

I'm always keen to check out more XTC.   I got into their album "Apples Venus vol.1" (I think through looking at the 1001 albums book back in 2009 or so) and I loved the lovely, lush, slightly 1960s-esque pop with it's orchestral touches here and there.

By the time this album came out, the band had largely become a studio-based project, following singer/songwriter Andy Partridge's breakdown and refusal to continue touring.  I do wonder if artists would be able to work as a solely studio-based unit nowadays with the majority of people not bothering to pay for recordings of music anymore.

This albums is typical of the other XTC albums I've heard before: excellent songcraft, some lush and interesting orchestrations, but with the occasional song that suits and utilises a more stripped-down approach.  The tracks range from baroque pop to faux jazz to eastern psychedelia.

Apparently lyrically it is supposed to be the journey from birth, school, marriage, kids through to death.  I picked up on bits and pieces of that, but for me it was largely just a musically enjoyable album.