Day 0986 - Teen Dream

Beach House "Teen Dream" (2010)

Beach House are a duo who had initially tried to work in a lo-fi way, leaning on their limitations to push them further and then often drenching the results in reverb.   

After two albums, the band signed to Sub Pop records and recorded this album.  They changed things up, going for a more sophisticated approach.   I'm just listening to one of the previous albums at the moment to get an idea of them and it seems like a similar vibe in some ways, so I guess the change in approach is around production choices (they said they used hardly any reverb this time around) and arrangement ideas.

The album opens with "Zebra" which is clean guitar and some nice layered vocals backing it.   "Walk in the Park" has a pulsing organ groove that seems like it should be a breezy Beach Boys-style piece but instead feels somehow ominous, like there's an underlying unhappiness.  Looking at the lyrics, I suspect that was intentional.  

"Better Times" starts with a nice light keyboard and starts getting subtle guitar parts coming in too.   The chorus somehow has a bit more oomph to it while still being restrained.  It eventually builds to a climax of arpeggios and vocal.  "Real Love" is a spacious piano ballad with atmospheric synth sounds in the background.

Another one where I liked the overall sound and would happily listen to it again (or check out some of their other albums).  Like it's a nice sound, but the songs didn't necessarily stick in my memory after I'd finished listening to the song/album for some reason.   

Day 0962 - Be

Common “Be” (2005)

Following his success with “Like Water For Chocolate” (see day 913) Common really shook things up with his follow-up “Electric Circus”.  He moved away from his hip-hop sound, incorporating rock and psychedelic aspects.  That move was critically well-received, but the kudos wasn’t reflected in his album sales.

Common parted company with label MCA and was signed to Kanye West’s newly formed GOOD records.  Kanye was a fan of Common’s and the two got together with Common’s producer J Dilla (RIP) to produce “Be”.

The album almost feels like a modern “What’s Going On” (see day 208) and even samples Marvin Gaye on “Love is….”.   There is plenty of soul used in the backing tracks, and Common largely acts as a reporter of life growing up black in the US, particularly on tracks like “Be”, “The Corner” and “Real People”.  

The track “Testify” feels like it’s something similar but takes a turn as a is man set up and framed by his heartless wife.  Probably a theme Marvin Gaye would have got on board with as he seemed to play the victim following his divorce from Anna Gordy, which in turn led to him producing the album “Here My Dear” with the court ordering any royalties be paid to Gordy.

By contrast the track “Faithful” sees Common reflecting thoughtfully on the way he does and should treat women.

I probably preferred this to "Like Water for Chocolate".  Just the general overall sound and the slightly more 'conscious' lyrics appealed to me.

Day 0916 - The Marshall Mathers LP

 Eminem "The Marshall Mathers LP" (2000)

"The Slim Shady LP" (not the most original when it comes to naming albums) moved Em from underground rapper to international celebrity.   The fame and fortune didn't seem to bring happiness with it, as this album is more angry and seems to be working harder to offend (though I guess possibly he was just realising that this approach sold records so leaned into it).

Eminem hunkered down in the studio with Dr Dre and production team the Bass Brothers to work on the follow-up.   

To my mind the album is much more sonically interesting than its predecessor, with songs like "Stan", "the Way I am" and "Marhsall Mathers" being invested with a bit more musicality.

Mathers brings back his Slim Shady persona for "Criminal" and "The Real Slim Shady".   The former with it's slightly stuttered groove feels like it could have been on "Slim Shady LP".  He seems to relish in the fact that so many people/institutions hated him after his first album, name-checking and lashing out at various targets even as he runs his mouth with the usual combination of misogyny, homophobia and general crassness, baiting his critics and inviting their ire.

It's not all wink-to-the-camera trolling though, "Kim" is actually horror movie stuff.   It's Mathers playing out a scenario of confronting and murdering his wife but his passionate vocal delivery with voice cracking as he yells accusations at her, breaks down and then turns to violence makes it feel genuine.  It's disturbing, like the musical equivalent of a snuff film.    It almost feels like it could be from a hidden recording of a real domestic dispute.   I guess that's why people love/hate Eminem, whether it's his anger, his violence, or his twisted humour, it feels real.

 

Day 0702 - Achtung Baby

U2 "Achtung Baby" (1991) - got it

While not my favourite U2 album, I can see that this one really does deserve its place on the list.  The band had been slowly evolving their overly-earnest sound, working through early post-punk, to a more nuanced pop-rock under the tutelage of producers Eno and Lanois, and then eventually delving deep into America’s rock and blues sound.   But when they released “Achtung Baby” (a line from Mel Brooks’ “the Producers” and an exclamation often uttered by one of the studio crew) it was a reasonably sizeable stylistic left-hand turn for such a major band.

The band were embracing dance rhythms and electronic elements, a style that, to my mind played to the strengths of sonic experimenter, guitarist the Edge, and metronomic, powerhouse drummer Larry Mullen Jr.

The road to the album hadn't been an easy one.  The band limped through fractious sessions in Berlin that yielded hardly any useable tracks.   Close to the tipping point, the band came up with the track "One" and from then on things started flowing, with the band picking up sessions again back in Ireland.

There are looped bass and drum sounds, "Rubber Soul"-era Beatles-style vocal harmonies (a combination that sounds not unlike some of the Chemical Brothers' work with Noel Gallagher).  There's the chunky wah-wah guitar of "Mysterious Ways", and the psychedelic swirl of "Even better than the real thing".   It's the track "the Fly" that really strikes me: Bono can be a bit of a self-righteous twat on occasion, but he really can write some good lyrics when it comes down to it.  I don't usually listen much to lyrics, but there's something about Bono's desperate, whispered delivery that makes you take notice.

The band would carry on down this avenue of experimentation through the "Zooropa" album, culminating with the "Pop" album, maligned by the band, but something of a favourite of mine.  After that, they returned to a more earnest, straight-ahead rock sound and were viewed by fans to have 'made a comeback' but I still enjoy this era of exploration.