Day 0911 - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

PJ Harvey “Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea” (2000) got it

 

PJ had been based in New York to do some acting work, wrote some songs and decided to live there for a time.   She was insistent that this was not her “New York album” but there is certainly a bit of a musical link to American alt-rock and punk.  In opening track “Big Exit” her vocal delivery sounds not unlike favourite NY son Lou Reed (though the drawl-meets-snarl vocal may just be Harvey’s own developing vocal style).  

Some of the lyrical content is definitely more American with “Something you Said’ listing off places and events in NY, and “Big Exit’s” gun fixation certainly sounds a lot more American than British.

The album has an overall more melodic and polished sound than PJ’s previous albums, though “This is Love” is still a fairly noisy rawk song that places swagger over sophistication.  Each verse consisting of a couple of repeated lines e.g.
“I can't believe that life's so complex
When I just want to sit here and watch you undress”.

Single “Good Fortune” has a nice folk-rock vibe to it and I think it was actually the first PJ Harvey song that I ever heard…. Well it was either that or “One time too many” from the (surprisingly good) “Batman Forever” soundtrack.

PJ continues to be an interesting musical force.  I’m slightly disappointed that the list doesn’t feature her “White Chalk” album where she challenged herself by switching to composing and recording on piano and singing in the upper reaches of her register.  The result was a beautiful yet uncomfortable listen.   She is well represented on the list though, so I can’t really complain.

Day 0738 - Exile in Guyville

Liz Phair "Exile in Guyville" (1993)

Phair started off with a collection of demos under the moniker 'Girly Sounds'.  After asking acquaintances who the 'coolest indie label' in town was, she approached the co-president of Matador Records.  As luck would have it, he had just been reading a review of her demo and asked her to send in a tape.   The tapes met with a good deal of enthusiasm and Phair was signed up.

The music is largely stripped down guitar and vocal.  It's melodic alt-rock with a little rawness to it, though this is interrupted somewhat by the almost perfect pop-rock song "Never Said" and the dreamy piano of "Canary" with Phair's slightly snarling vocals over the top.

She doesn't tread lightly lyrically, with songs such as "Divorce" and "Fuck and run" or "dance of the seven veils" in which she states "I'm a real c*nt in spring".  

Day 0501 - Too-Rye-Ay

Well that brings me officially over the halfway mark so...

Dexys Midnight Runners "Too-Rye-Ay" (1982) - got it

Following the relative success of "Searching for the Young Soul Rebels" subsequent singles failed to landand, and several of the band members left.  Kevin Rowland responded by taking on 3 violinists who specialised in Irish folk music and getting the horn section who were formerly his bandmates in as hired-hands.

The gutsy northern soul sound of the first album is still present to a certain extent, but with strings, folksy Celtic elements, the odd ballad, and even a sudden explosion of jazz in the middle of "Until I believe in my soul".

The album wasn't faring particularly well until the single "Come on Eileen" suddenly picked up steam and went on to be (deservingly) the biggest selling single of 1982 in the UK, even making headway on the US charts.

Day 0495 - The Visitors

ABBA "The Visitors" (1981)

 
I'm a bit of an ABBA fan but I don't actually own this album.  The album feels like a bit of ABBA past/present/future in that there are sounds that they'd already made famous: the catchy songs with luscious harmonies such as on "one of us", but many of the songs dip into (for the time) the 'now' sounds of modern synthesizer.  There are hints of the future too, both in songs like "I let the music speak" which hints at the musical theatre avenues that Benny and Bjorn would explore post-ABBA; and just with a track like "the Visitors" which with its swirling soundscapes and middle-eastern flavour almost sounds like the start of a Chemical Brothers' track.

The divorces of the two couples in ABBA (and subsequent breakup of the group) render this in a slightly more sombre collection of tracks than previous albums... and to be honest, I kind of feel like the darker undertone works well to offset their natural cheesiness and naivety.