Day 0964 - Illinois

Sufjan Stevens "Illinois" (2005)

Stevens had started a project which he'd planned to be 50 albums, one for each state of the US.   He started with his home state of Michigan then moved onto Illinois.   The project appears to have petered out, with Stevens himself referring to it as just a publicity stunt.   I wonder if the truth is more that he burnt himself out.

He seems to have researched the album a bit beforehand, reading histories of the state, reading books by authors from that state, engaging with locals online.  This album is over an hour long and as it is he had enough songs left over to release an album of out-takes, "The Avalanche" the year after this.   If he'd carried on in this way, that kind of output would be like a fire hydrant of music.

I don't mind Sufjan, this album could have had a place in my heart if it had been cut the hell down to say 40 or 45 minutes of music.   However, there are lots of enjoyable sounds here, with a pleasing range of instrumentation.  In particular "Chicago" sounded familiar and its mix of horns, strings and layered vocals tickled my music bone.  Overall though, there's just way too much music here and I don't gel with Sufjan's style enough to really fully get on board for an hour and a quarter's-worth of music across 22 tracks.

Day 0701 - Spiderland

Slint "Spiderland" (1991)

At first I felt the need to push against this album, just because the reviewer for the book was so incredibly effusive about it.   Going with the old "this less famous band is so much better than those bands that everyone else knows" spiel.  After a few listens though, it has made its way under my skin.  I don't view them as the second coming or anything, but it's an interesting grunge/alt-rock record.

The band released only 2 albums and had changing membership within that time, which I guess is not surprising as they were all fairly young and were going to college in between albums.  They recorded their first album with no-nonsense punky producer Steve Albini, recording an EP's worth of songs around the same time (released later).

For second album "Spiderland" the group decided to go for a slightly more polished sound.  They jammed out songs in the basement, working at repeating the same riffs over and over again, slowly evolving them.

Singer Brian McMahon would take rough recordings to his parents' car to listen and work on vocals.  Said vocals range from soft, spoken-word through to bloody curdling screams.  Likewise, the music swings between cold, but delicate clean guitar lines, and crashing fuzzed-out walls of rock.

The band broke up by the time the album was released, leaving no tour, interviews or videos to promote the release.  However, critical acclaim and word of mouth built the album's status and prevented it from sinking into the fog of musical history.

Day 0390 - Bat out of Hell

Meatloaf "Bat out of Hell" (1977)

Take a larger-than-life (not a fat-joke) actor with an operatic rock voice.  Take Jim Steinman, a composer of theatrical rock, frequently epic in style.  Put them in a studio with Todd Rundgren in the control room, and you have an album that stayed in the UK album chart on and off for 10 years!


The duo had started work on the album's songs some time earlier based on pieces that Steinman had written for a course.  They were touring together National Lampoons and took a few of the songs to develop on.





Meatloaf belts out Steinman's tracks with passion, wild abandon and (in places) a little tenderness.
I don't have much more to say except: great album!