Day 0651 - Disintegration

The Cure "Disintegration" (1989) 

Robert Smith plumbed the depths again, facing the realisation that he was growing old because he was turning 30...  my near-40-year-old heart bleeds for him.

Smith felt pressured to follow up on the Cure's prior successes.  They had initially had a Gothic vibe to them, but once people came to expect that, he switched to a more accessible pop vein, but disliked the increased popularity so returned again to the goth fold.

This album certainly doesn't appear to court MTV or commercial radio, with the songs being lengthy morose grooves that take their time creating an atmosphere (though still with a keen sense of melody on display).  Whatever Smith's intentions, the album did reasonably well commercially.

Day 0514 - Rio

Duran Duran "Rio" (1982)

Perhaps the band that most typified the vibe of the 80s pop scene: synth-heavy new-romanticism with a touch of white-boy funk; glossy, high-production music videos in high rotation on MTV, depicting the band as sophisticated, jet-setting young men with the world at their feet.

I have a Duran Duran greatest hits album and half of these tracks are on it, which to my mind suggests that this is a solid album.  I would say that something like "Save a prayer" even though it's steeped in 80s-ness still sounds quite contemporary.  Likewise, the last track "The Chauffeur" is a nice gradual piece that wouldn't sound out of place on the radio today.

Day 0488 - Talk Talk Talk

The Psychedelic Furs "Talk Talk Talk" (1981)

An 80s band that managed to bridge the gap between the mainstream and underground pop scenes.  Melding melodic guitar lines and catchy saxophone, with a bit of punk directness showing up on some track.  The vocals seem to run somewhere between the ragged drawl of Shane McGowan and the snarl of Lou Reed.   The lyrics are anti-love and more focussed on sex for sex's sake, with penultimate track "I wanna sleep with you" feeling particularly aurally 'climactic'.

The track "Pretty in pink" had something of a resurgence in popularity after John Hughes used it in his film of the same name.

Day 0466 - Group Sex

Circle Jerks "Group Sex" (1980)

14 tracks in 15 minutes... it doesn't get much more punk than that, motherfucker!

Keith Morris had left Blackflag to form his own band which he did, forming Circle Jerks with Red Kross guitarist Greg Hetson.

The songs are raucous party tracks and pretty much set down the blueprint for every party punk band to follow e.g. NOFX.

Day 0454 - Kings of the Wild Frontier

...and hello the 80s. Bracing self for cheesiness, overflow of synthesisers, big hair, but hoping to discover some good music out of it. In particular the early rap music, most of which I'm not that well versed in.


0454

Adam and the Ants "Kings of the Wild Frontier" (1980)

Well the 80s are off to a good start. I'd heard a couple of Adam Ant songs in the past and liked them; one of them "Antmusic" is on this album.

Reading about this one it's quite interesting. A&tA had released a 1979 post-punk album, Adam wanted to distance himself further from punk and its supposed anti-pop aesthetic. The Sex Pistols' architect Malcolm McLaren suggested using African rhythms and so Adam set about assembling some drummers to make this happened... then McLaren stole them away to form the group Bow Wow Wow.

Adam picked up and started again, assembling a new band and drawing in influences from all over the spectrum, military drum beats, hints of African rhythms, blasting guitars, clean plinky funk guitar, sea shanty melodies with almost glam guitar, and skittish Talking Heads-esque vocals. Definitely keen to check out more from this band!

Day 0448 - The Wall

Pink Floyd "The Wall" (1979) - got it

A monster! Genius!

While many great prog bands had fallen from favour in the face of punk, or had attempted to change their sound to fit with the evolving musical climate; Pink Floyd pretty much just kept doing Pink Floyd.  Exploring their feeling of alienation from their audience in the spotlight of fame by building a literal wall (a beautiful wall, the bigliest) between them and the audience.

This is one of those rare double albums that actually legitimately works and doesn't just feel like a bunch of songs that could just as easily have been stuck on a couple of single releases.

The album uses repeated musical themes without sounding like it's just running short of ideas. Most of the songs work fine in isolation as well as part of the overall narrative. I can listen to one of my favourite Floyd songs "Goodbye Blue Sky" and not feel like I'm missing out on the story by not having heard the previous 6 tracks.

The album has plenty of variety, with theatrical art rock, pseudo-funk, atmospheric ballads, and yet manages to wrap all of this into a cohesive lyrical and musical narrative whole across two discs/records.

As a teen I used to listen to this album on a regular basis. Doing nothing else but lying back and listening to the whole 26 tracks uninterrupted.

Day 0345 - A Night at the Opera

Queen "A Night at the Opera" (1975) - got it

Although I did listen to the album again for the 1001 albums (twice in fact) I'm mostly just going to plagiarise another review I wrote when I was re-listening to all of the Queen albums a few years back. ~apologies, this will be a long one~

Queen started with a fairly cohesive 'band' sound over their first couple of albums, but the work of the individual songwriters (mostly) became easier and easier to pick.

On night at the opera they're kind of in a middle ground, you can pick the different songwriters but this is still such a cohesive 'album', right from the opening piano flourishes through to the big finale of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "God save the Queen".

"Death on two legs" is such a great opener, Freddie belting it out with real venom before the wall of voices comes crashing in to back him up.  Mercury then performs a compositional 180 with the light and cheery 'Lazing on a Sunday afternoon'.

Roger Taylor's "I'm in love with my car" is such a musically strong slice of rock (some great lead guitar) that I'm actually able to ignore the fact that he used the lines:

"Told my girl I just had to forget her, Rather buy me a new carburettor

So she made tracks sayin' ths is the end now 

Cars don't talk back they're just four wheeled friends now"

The rock calms down into John Deacon's much lauded 'You're my best friend'.  It's not my favourite of his ("spread your wings" holds that spot) but I have succumbed to its charms over the years.

Brian May's '39' is an odd mix of old and new.  It kind of has an olde timey folk feel, yet lyrically it is a sci-fi story.  Roger Taylor's eerie falsetto in the middle section is particularly stunning. "Sweet lady" is one that I never really used to like, but listening to it now, I'm not sure why as the verses sound kind of like David Bowie rock tracks or maybe the rolling stones, while the chorus riff... it's like part funk, part metal ...like extra heavy Hendrix (makes sense as Roger, Brian and Freddie were all big fans of Jimi, with Freddie in particular following him around on tour in the UK)!

Side a is rounded out with another jaunty little music-hall number , complete with a kazoo horn section and Freddie and Roger doing a tap dance routine by wearing thimbles and drumming on the recording console!

Side B kicks off with 'The Prophet's song' (the longest song Queen released while Freddie was alive) which has always been a favourite of mine.  I would be surprised if some 90s alt-rock bands like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains haven't heard this song, the riffs and vocal harmonies are very ahead of their time.  The vocal/delay section in the middle is still mind-blowing... almost literally, I was listening to the album while walking home from the gym and I just fell over, I was getting so disorientated trying to follow the different parts as they flicked from one ear to the other.
"Love of my life"... I really kind of prefer the live version of this song, just acoustic guitar with the power of Freddie's voice and the quality of the songwriting brought to the fore, but this song is beautiful in any form.

"Good company"; I'm guessing it was Brian aiming for a George Formby sound, but to me it kind of comes off sounding more Paul McCartney and not necessarily in a good way. "Bohemian Rhapsody"... this song is still amazing no matter how many times I've heard it, seen the video, sung it at karaoke, or watched it in Wayne's world. The album's outro of 'God save the Queen' is a brilliant cheeky little touch and really does make it feel like you've reached the end of a journey or sorts with the album.

Day 0292 - Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" (1973) - got it

In some ways it seems odd that this became a platinum-selling hit record.  It was created by the band members trying to shed the psychedelic image that they had become popular for.  They were sat around drummer Nick Mason's kitchen table and making a list of things that worried them (money, time, death, madness) put some songs together and took them on the road as "Eclipse: a Piece For Assorted Lunatics".

In the studio the funky grooves and spacey guitar solos were augmented with avant, wordless female vocals; a musique concrete approach, bubbly synthesizers, and ALL of the studio technology of the time thrown at it.  With all of these non-'pop' elements, in some ways it doesn't seem like it should be the most 'mainstream' album.. but there are enough melodies and catchy grooves for the record-buying public to hang their hats on and so this album helped usher in the next stage of Floyd's sound.

"Dark Side of the Moon" became a musically and visually iconic album.   Just for the record, I haven't done the "Dark Side of the Moon/Wizard of Oz" thing, though I am Dark Side-curious.

Day 0193 - Live at Leeds

The Who "Live at Leeds" (1970)

The book muses on the fact that the studio always somewhat deadened the energy of the band, and that the best way to experience them was live.  That sure as hell seems to be the case here, the band is explosive.  Moon's drumming seems totally out of control yet fits perfectly into the songs.  Entwistle's bass-playing pins the song down while still being dexterous and exciting!  Townsend and Daltry paint over the top of all of this.

There's a hilarious contrast between the wild rocking performance and the quiet, polite well-spoken moments in between (with the occasional cheeky interjection by Keith up the back in the cheap seats).