Day 0976 - Seldom Seen Kid

Elbow "Seldom Seen Kid" (2008) - got it

I had no real expectations coming into this one, though I later remembered that my wife owns some Elbow albums. I'm happy to say that is now another taste that we share.

Loved it! It has such a great mix of sonic experimentation, clever arrangements.  It keeps things interesting by changing the approach to best suit each song.

The album opens with "Starlings" which begins with reverbed guitars, gentle pulsing vocals and vocals, almost sonically evoking the birds themselves, before bursting into huge soundings of horns, very loud in the mix.    Guy Garvey's gentle vocals ride the winds between.   Such sonic picture painting is also used in "The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver", which with its slow booming drums and slow strings underpinning a staccato guitar line seems to evoke a wide, beautiful city scape viewed from up high.

"The Bones of You" starts off much more stripped down with sparse guitar over a percussion groove, but it builds with fuzzed guitar and vocal harmonies that bring Muse to mind for me.  The middle section is wild guitar that wouldn't feel out of place on Radiohead's "The Bends".   But none of this is to suggest this band are derivative, these are just the nearest reference points I can draw.   For example, the band out-Black Keys the Black Keys with the bluesy rock of "Grounds for Divorce".   "An Audience With the Pope" has an angular piano-backed groove that hangs somewhere between Space (the band) and the Specials' "Ghost Town".

"The Fix" features guest vocals from Richard Hawley, and his deep croon nicely plays against Garvey's higher tone.   "Some Riot" has an almost Beatles-y/Lennon vibe to it.   "One Day Like This" has an uplifting choir backing.

After all the darting around and grand arrangements, the album ends on a subtle key with the subdued "We're Away".   Loved the journey and had no qualms about taking it back to the start and listening again a couple more times.

Day 0631 - Daydream Nation

Sonic Youth "Daydream Nation" (1988)

Sonic Youth's last release before moving across to a major label.   Friends of the band, including Henry Rollins had told them that their albums were great, but the long-form noise jam versions of the songs that would characterise their live shows had never really been captured on record.

The band took this on board, and when Thurston Moore brought in the songs for "Daydream Nation", instead of refining and condensing his ideas, the band sought to expand them out into a form more recognisable to fans of their live work.   The resulting album is viewed by many as Sonic Youth's creative peak.

Myself I probably preferred "EVOL" and "Sisters" as I enjoy that more concise approach.  However, this is still a worthwhile and interesting album.

Day 0377 - The Clash

The Clash "The Clash" (1977) - got it

The Clash mostly eschewed the self-destructive ideology of many of their peers, digging more into the political anger and cynicism. According to the book (and a Joe Strummer doco I saw a while back) they were accused of sloganeering and bandwagon jumping in some corners, but they made good music, so who really cares what their motivations were. As best as I can tell, the lyrics of songs like "Career opportunities" and "I'm so bored with the USA" seem authentic enough.

The band soaked up the multiple cultural influences of living in West London at the time, with sounds including reggae, ska and rocksteady fusing into their punk with a bit more musicality than some of their contemporaries could/wanted to included.