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 0867 - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Lucinda Williams “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” (1998)

For Williams’ fifth album, she ended her working relationship with producer Gurf Morlix and worked instead with alt-country star Steve Earle who described it as “the least amount of fun I’ve had working on a record”.  

Whatever the case behind the scenes, the album turned out alright.  It’s loosely classed under the ‘country’ label, but in practise is a mix of rootsy folky country, like on album closer “Jackson”; and melodic Southern-Rock with enough twang and other country affectations to keep it within that camp, such as album opener “Right in Time”.   Similar sound to Sheryl Crow, but (a) more country than that and (b) Lucinda had been releasing music since the 70s so predates Crow.

This didn’t blow my mind, but I found enough to enjoy in there that I’d happily listen to it again.

Day 0865 - You've Come a Long Way Baby

Fatboy Slim "You've Come a Long Way Baby" (1998) - got it

Following on from his debut "Better Living Through chemistry" (day 810) and drawing on his association with big-beat maestros the Chemical Brothers, Norman Cook pole vaulted the "difficult second album" hurdle.   He created a record that hit no.1 in his homeland of the UK, and became omnipresent worldwide via singles like "Rockafeller Skank", "Right Here, Right Now" and "Praise You".

"Rockafeller..."with its repeated vocal hook of 'the funk soul brother' kind of lays out what Cook is about here: Mixing sampled of funk and soul tracks with epic, booming beats and a whole lot of audio tweaking... dance music for the masses.

Day 0567 - Licensed to Ill

Beastie Boys "Licensed to Ill" (1986)

The Beasties started off as an obnoxious, 'in your face' hardcore punk band, but tired of the limitations imposed by the expectations of fans of that genre.  The boys dropped a couple of members and gained another to slowly evolve into an obnoxious, 'in your face' hip hop group.

The Beasties kept the party vibe and anarchic spirit of punk while stretching their musical wings a bit more; mixing punk and metal riffs with turntables and rap.   The more serious political sound that the band would move towards later on is not really here, but the sonic experimentalism is.

This went on to become one of the most commercially successful hip hop albums... I wish it could be said that it had nothing to do with a passively (or even actively) racist recording industry, but it's unlikely.  To be fair though, this is a musically interesting album that is not undeserving of some success.