Day 0923 - Bright Flight

Silver Jews "Bright Flight" (2001)

Silver Jews were often written off as a Steven Malkmus side-project, despite having been started around the same time as his other more famous band Pavement, and Malkmus doesn't even feature on this album.   I actually enjoyed this more than Pavement/Malkmus too.

The sound of the album is generally a laid-back alt-country, with almost a touch of the melodic side of Velvet Underground (that impression helped by the laconic drawling vocal of that band's primary singer).   There's some variety though, "Transylvania Blues" an instrumental track with that 'driving down the highway at night' vibe to it that builds to haunted rock.   "Let's Not and Say We Did" has a kind of fun Honky-Tonk vibe to it.

The book mentions that Silver Jews mainstay David Berman had written a book of poetry too so I tried to pay a little more attention to the lyrics than I normally would.   I definitely heard a few lines I enjoyed like "You're the highest apple on the tree" and "they slow-danced so the needle wouldn't skip".
I'd also have to say, the part of me that loves a cheesy pun enjoyed the couplet in "Tennessee":
"Marry me and leave Kentucky, come to Tennessee/because you're the only ten I see".   Sweet, corny, perfect.

Day 0912 - Mama's Gun

Erykah Badu "Mama's Gun" (2000)

 

Badu is another artist with a long musical history, having sung from a young age and been rapping since she was a teen.   She studied performing arts, recorded a demo and this led to her recording a duet with neo-soul aritst D'Angelo.

From there Badu's deubt album "Baduizm" was a success but she then took time off to be with her newborn son to Outkast rapper Andre Benjamin.   The relationship with Benjamin broke down and both parties expressed this through their music: Outkast's "Miss Jackson" and tracks on Badu's second album "Mama's Gun".

The sound has a bit of neo-soul going on but it's a bit of an organic, live-instrument mix of funk, jazz and hip-hop too... not surprising then that one of Badu's collaborators is ?uestlove whose group the Roots mines a similar musical vein.   Badu's voice is her game changer though.  She can to do soul singing and rap, but then on a song like "Green Eyes" she can switch into a straight-up jazz singer.

The tracks "Orange Moon" and "In Love With You" sounded familiar to me.   Good album!

Day 0760 - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Pavement "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" (1994)

I think I preferred this one to the previous Pavement album in the list.   I've seen it referred to as a more mainstream sound than the previous album, but I dunno.  It's still quite noisy and has some unconventional compositional directions.

Though the album has some nice hummable melodies, there's still a lot of noise.   A sparse piano part will appear out of a cloud of fuzzed guitar.  A rock song will suddenly give way for an extended, repeated clean guitar section.  There's a jazzy instrumental in 5/4 time "5-4 = Unity" which is a tribute to jazz pianist Dave Brubeck but it also has elements of rock and even rockabilly on show.

The 90s are obviously well underway by now with that idea of it being cool to not care.   Singer Stephen Malkmus is just so unimpressed, and so cynical, and takes the time to make fun of several other 90s rock acts in song "Range Life".

Day 0708 - Slanted and Enchanted

Pavement "Slanted and Enchanted" (1992)

Originally started as a studio-only project, Pavenement released a number of lo-fi releases.   They eventually recruited a drummer for more recordings and even some live shows.

The band certainly weren't courting fame and success, with the original version of this album being circulated on cassette with no song titles listed.   The music created some buzz and eventually the full version of the album was released.

It has kind of a Velvet Underground vibe with vocalist Stephen Malkmus' drawling vocals.  The music is vaguely melodic with lots of noisy guitar; so not unlike more than a few other bands active at the time.   It didn't really grab me.  It's perfectly listenable, but not something I'm likely to revisit or investigate further.

Day 0678 - Ritual de lo Habitual

Jane's Addiction "Ritual de lo Habitual" (1990) - got it

The last album before the tumultuous Jane's broke up (for the first time). 

It really is "an album of two halves".  The first 5 tracks are more or less stand-alone rock songs, including the brilliant "Been caught stealing".  The last 4 songs take you on a journey, musically and emotionally with songs written for Farrell's mother who committed suicide, and his girlfriend who overdosed.  The songs are drawn out alternative rock epics with synthesisers, piano and strings on "Then she did..." which almost touches on Zeppelin's 'Kashmir' or "Stairway' in its scope and power.   That is followed by the brilliantly left-field middle-eastern flavoured "Of course" with heavily featured violin, plodding, elephantine percussion and Farrell's voice hitting new heights of nasal-ness.... nasality?

Day 0639 - Technique

New Order "Technique" (1989)

So the book lines this up as one of the founding pillars of the acid house movement... now if I knew anything much about that movement, it might help me assess or have a deeper understanding of the album.   As it is, I don't know much about the genre/movement, but I still enjoyed this as a workable blend of dance music elements, with new-wavey synth pop.

The band went to work on this, their 5th album, in Ibiza and ended up having an extended holiday, taking in the local dance culture.  According to the book they came home with 12 rhythm tracks and a guitar solo rather than an entire album, but had successfully managed to filter the Ibiza feel into their music.  

This would be New Order's second-to-last album before a nearly-decade long break.

Day 0634 - Nothing's Shocking

Jane's Addiction "Nothing's Shocking" (1988) - got it

Jane's have been compared to Led Zeppelin in the past, and I can kind of see it.  Unlike bands like Wolfmother or Greta Van Fleet who emulate Zeppelin like they're a covers band, Jane's channelled the same energy into an original sound.   Four members each with masterful control over their instrument.  Pounding drums, wailing high vocals, twiddly bass-lines and guitar that melds folky-acoustic, psychedelia, stadium rock and virtuoso soloing.

The songs have an energy and danger to them, dripping with sexuality and cynicism.  This is one of those albums that laid a lot of groundwork for the 90s alt-rock movement.  In fact it was bands like Jane's with their mix of stadium rock, psychedelic pop, funk, atmospheric rock etc. that led to the 'alt-rock' label to be coined... which must have frustrated them, as the whole point for them was trying to make music that avoided labels.

Jane's have always been a bit of a fraught outfit.  During the recording of this outfit, singer Perry Farrell suddenly demanded 50% of the royalties for writing the lyrics and a percentage for writing the music.   Eventually he got his way and the rest of the band walked away with 12.5% each.  Inner conflicts eventually led to the band breaking up, with intermittent reunions in the years to follow (almost always sans original bassist Eric Avery).

Day 0630 - Viva Hate

Morrissey "Viva Hate" (1988)

Released a mere 6 months after the Smiths' swansong "Strangeways Here We Come", Morrissey hit the ground running assisted by Smiths (and eventually Cranberries, Blur and Kaiser Chiefs) producer Stephen Street.

Street, and guitarist/keyboardist Vini Reilly would later argue over which of them wrote the bulk of the songs on the album, but whatever the case, one of them helped Morrissey get over the potentially awkward hurdle of the first solo album.

To my mind, the tracks are a bit of a mixed bunch and stand or fall based on the backing track.  Morrissey himself mostly seems to do a similar vocal thing over each track.   There's are some sonic experiments (particularly in the first couple of tracks) mixed with more traditional arrangements, one or two even sounding a bit like the Smiths.

A couple of favourites are "Ordinary Boys" (from which the band of the same name got their moniker) and "Margaret on the Guillotine" in which Morrissey wistfully imagines Margaret Thatcher being killed... and as a result, in real life, got him questioned by the Special Branch (according to Morrissey's autobiography).

Day 0584 - The Queen is Dead

The Smiths "The Queen is Dead" (1986)

Seems I kind of have this thing with the Smiths, whereby I like their music, but I can't really tell their albums apart.  It all just sounds kind of... Smithy.

This is an enjoyable album though.  Johnny Marr paints the songs with a range of guitar tones from swirling and dreamy to vigorous folk, to country twang and everything in between.  Morrissey's lyrics continue to be intelligent and with a touch of humour.

This was the band's 3rd album in 4 years, and after one more album the band broke up.  Unlike most bands that go through the whole break up thing, they seem to have resisted the urge to reunite, even to revisit their back-catalog for a quick buck.

Day 0558 - Meat is Murder

The Smiths "Meat is Murder"

I'll admit to not being hugely familiar with the Smiths' music.  They were solely active in the 80s which was not a time that I was actively seeking out music.  Once I was more into music I was more interested in 60s pop or loud distorted guitars; the Smiths don't fit the bill in either case.  A teacher of mine who also helped out one of the high school bands I was in recommended the Smiths to me and I listened to one or two tracks, but it didn't really peak my interest.

So essentially I came to this fairly 'blank slate', the only song I was familiar with on this album was "How soon is now?" (only featured on certain versions of the album) as the theme tune to the tv show 'Charmed'.

I'd say there are more than a few connections that could be made between the Smiths and U2; both bands with solid rhythm sections, sonically explorative guitarists, and cause-heavy lyricists.

Guitarist Johnny Marr is the real star on this album, his guitar sounds ranging from jangly rockabilly, wicky funk, extreme tremolo guitar overlaid with slide lead parts, delicate acoustic guitar, clean new-wave-style guitar.

Morrisey's vocals seem to largely follow the pattern of being emotive and drenched in reverb.  While he is all about his causes here (pacifism, anti-monarchy, and the obvious vegetarian message of the title track) he does occasionally show a bit of a sense of humour, which I'm not sure is still present in his more recent work.

Day 0496 - The Lexicon of Love

ABC "The Lexicon of Love" (1982) - got it

 


ABC formed in Sheffield, initially under the name Vice Versa.  By the time they'd teamed up with producer Trevor Horn for this album, they'd developed a mix of post-punk and funk.  Horn had toured with Yes and acted as producer for a string of glossy pop hits.

The two parties opened each other up to their respective musical worlds with the band introducing Horn to bands like Defunkt, and Horn introducing the band to the possibilities of the studio, telling them "if you want a pizza; I'll get you a pizza.  If you want a string section; I'll get you a string section".  The band built many of the songs using sequencers and drum machines and then went back and replaced those tracks with their own playing, leading to tight, almost mechanised grooves.

A polished, new-wave funk masterpiece.  The bonus jazz reworking of single "Poison Arrow" is brilliant and shows how strong the song is, regardless of genre/arrangement.

Day 0468 - Closer

Joy Division "Closer" (1980)

The sonic experimentation of 'unknown pleasures' is set aside in favour of laying the songs bare (other than some well placed reverb). The music remains fairly mechanical and cold but with increasing use of synthesizers, possibly hinting that the New Order direction would have still happened had Curtis survived.

Ian Curtis' lyrics are grim and funereal. He had said to one of his bandmates that he felt the lyrics were essentially writing themselves and that he felt like a weird feeling of claustrophobia and being pulled into a whirlpool and drowning. He was dead before the album was released, which makes the crypt/tomb album cover a rather prescient choice.

Day 0436 - Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division "Unknown Pleasures" (1979)

Another band where I'd listened to lots of bits and pieces but not an entire album.

Unlike some other artists on this list, Joy Division manages to totally earn the hype that surrounds them. With its mix of electronic and acoustic drums, the pulsing basslines and the various 'found sounds' basically make this a forerunner to a lot of industrial rock.

Ian Curtis' vaguely droney baritone occasionally bursts into a rock snarl, but mostly helps pin the music in a sort of garage-meets-minimalit-shoegazer area. Seems as though it could have been a starting point for bands as diverse as R.E.M, Sonic Youth and NIN.