Day 0955 - Cee-lo Green...is the Soul Machine

Cee-lo Green "Cee-lo Green...is the Soul Machine" (2004) - got it

Like a few people, I was introduced to the immense talents of Cee-lo Green via his duo Gnarls Barkley, also featuring producer Danger Mouse. 

I immediately began investigating the back-catalogues of both members and discovered Cee-lo's solo albums.  "...Soul Machine" is a heavyweight of an album.   The last track on the album asks "Damn 'lo, what DON'T you do!" and it's an appropriate question as Green mixes speedy, clever raps in "Childz Play", electronic/dance elements in "I am Selling Soul" and beautiful singing in "Let's Stay Together".  There's jazz in "Living Again" and huge stacked vocal harmonies in "Soul Machine".

The album is possibly a tad long, and do prefer Cee-lo's next solo release "The Lady Killer" where he leaned on his singing/soul side a little more.   But as with all of his material, this one has some great backing tracks, huge vocals and clever lyrics.

Day 0859 - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

Spiritualized "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (1997)

To my tastes this is an improvement on the previous Spiritualized album in this list (entry 721).   They'd taken that sound that I'd classed as "digital shoegazer and ramped up the pop aspect of it.   The opening title-track has an almost 60s folk-pop sound while still being drenched in synths, guitar and spacey production.  

The tracks move between melodic aural overloads, and dreamier, more stripped down tracks like "Stay With Me".

Would happily listen to it again.

Day 0705 - Screamadelica

Primal Scream "Screamadelica"

Primal Scream started as a duo of Jim Beatty and Bobby Gillespie.  As they developed their music and started playing live, they expanded their line-up.   Their flavour of jangly pop-rock did not go over well with punters or critics, with the band being accused of being unoriginal and bland.

The band started to get into the acid house scene and asked DJ Andrew Weatherall to remix one of their tracks.  The resulting remix of "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have" (repurposed as "Loaded") was a success and the band delved deeper into this mix of rock and dance, already being explored by bands such as the Happy Mondays and New Order.

Screamadelica actually lives up to some of the hype laid on it by the book.  It has heart, it has musical exploration, it has some catchy bits, some interesting bits and a wide range of sounds.  If it has any weaknesses for my tastes, it's maybe that some of the more electronic/remixy tracks don't necessarily sit coherently alongside the more "voice and guitar" kind of tracks.  They aren't really completely incompatible or anything though, so it just adds a little extra variety to spice up the lengthy runtime of the album.

The album wasn't a commercial or critical runaway success, but it was certainly a step up for the group, making it to number 8 in the UK charts and gaining a few accolades including the inaugural Mercury Prize.   Speaking of the Mercury Prize, looking at the calibre of the winning albums that I am familiar with I feel like I should put the other winners on my musical 'to-do' list for future investigation.  

Day 0640 - Like a Prayer

Madonna "Like a Prayer" (1989)

Madonna moved away from her dancey pop music into a more artistically daring form of pop, one that led critics to label it "as close to art as pop gets"

An album born from turmoil, Madonna was dealing with the Catholic guilt bred into her through her upbringing, coming close to the age her mother had been when she died, and having her tumultuous marriage to Sean Penn come to an end.

Madonna funnelled all of this into her work, with an album steeped in sex and God.  As such, it wasn't exactly welcomed by the church.  The Vatican condemned one of her music videos and Pepsi pulled out of promotional deal with her (apparently controversial religious overtones are not welcome, but shallow Kardashian trivialisation of important social movements is fine). 

She had been working to develop a musical with Prince, that didn't end up eventuating, but the collaboration did result in him dueting with her on the song "Love Song" and contributed some guitar and production elsewhere on the album.

The album cemented Madonna's place as pop royalty and seemed to be her working out some residual catholic guilt, opening her up to more confronting projects such as her album "Erotica" and her book "Sex".

Day 0541 - Private Dancer

Tina Turner "Private Dancer" (1984)

Having split with Ike Turner, and having been struggling to get her solo career to really take off, Tina released "Private Dancer".  The album had a number of producers, including one member of the band Heaven 17.  The machine-pop (and occasional rock) laden with synthesizers and drum machines replaces the organic RnB of Tina's music with Ike.

The album was a huge success, though I agree with the assessment that much of the music itself is kind of forgettable.  It's Turner's amazing voice that really sells this music.  I didn't even entirely recognise "What's love got to do with it" until her voice kicked in.  In some ways though, the underwhelming impact of the music does serve to spotlight Turner's vocal power all the more.  

Side note: I never thought I'd hear someone best Al Green at "Let's stick together", but wow, she gives him a run for his money.