Day 0946 - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Outkast “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” (2003) – got it

This is a lot!   

• Two discs
• Over two hours of music 
• Multiple guest collaborators 
• Covering a range of styles and genres.

Following the success of “Stankonia” (see day 921) and a follow-up single “The Whole World” to help promote their greatest hits collection, the duo started working on new music.   Initially they worked separately with plans towards maybe doing a solo album each, but then they came together in the studio and further developed the album as a split/double Outkast album.   Though the two releases largely each the work of an individual member, 3000 and Big Boi still contributed to and influenced each other’s music.

It would be easy enough to just write off this album (and maybe the group as a whole) as “Andre 3000 is the quirky flamboyant one and Big Boi is the straight-up hip hop guy” but that’s not really being fair to either of them.

True, Big Boi’s “Speakerboxxx” is more centred on hip-hop but there is still a range of styles packed in there.   The first track proper “Ghetto Musick” explodes with a heart-pumping, almost techno beat, wild synth sounds and speedy raps.  Breaks for soulful gospel vocals and organ keep you guessing.   “Bowtie” has a horn backed swagger.

There’s a strong P-Funk vibe to proceedings, both with the music, vocal harmonies and even via the high-pitch pitch-shifted vocal that pops up across several tracks.

The Love Below has more of a pop and psychedelic vibe (some comparisons to made with Prince).  There's the innocent alien pop of "Protoype" the jazz-meets-dance interpretation of "My Favourite Things" and of course the propulsive funky pop of singles "Roses" and "Hey Ya".

It's hard to know what to make of this all in all.  It could just have easily been two solo albums instead of an Outkast album.   Taking it as one thing, it is cumbersome.  But, unlike a lot of double albums, this one doesn't feel like it could easily be trimmed down to a single cohesive album, it's not laden with filler.   

 

I used to prefer the Love Below for its melody and musical diversity but I've since come to appreciate Speakerboxxx for its conciseness, and that it manages to exhibit great diversity with a little more internal cohesion.

Day 0916 - The Marshall Mathers LP

 Eminem "The Marshall Mathers LP" (2000)

"The Slim Shady LP" (not the most original when it comes to naming albums) moved Em from underground rapper to international celebrity.   The fame and fortune didn't seem to bring happiness with it, as this album is more angry and seems to be working harder to offend (though I guess possibly he was just realising that this approach sold records so leaned into it).

Eminem hunkered down in the studio with Dr Dre and production team the Bass Brothers to work on the follow-up.   

To my mind the album is much more sonically interesting than its predecessor, with songs like "Stan", "the Way I am" and "Marhsall Mathers" being invested with a bit more musicality.

Mathers brings back his Slim Shady persona for "Criminal" and "The Real Slim Shady".   The former with it's slightly stuttered groove feels like it could have been on "Slim Shady LP".  He seems to relish in the fact that so many people/institutions hated him after his first album, name-checking and lashing out at various targets even as he runs his mouth with the usual combination of misogyny, homophobia and general crassness, baiting his critics and inviting their ire.

It's not all wink-to-the-camera trolling though, "Kim" is actually horror movie stuff.   It's Mathers playing out a scenario of confronting and murdering his wife but his passionate vocal delivery with voice cracking as he yells accusations at her, breaks down and then turns to violence makes it feel genuine.  It's disturbing, like the musical equivalent of a snuff film.    It almost feels like it could be from a hidden recording of a real domestic dispute.   I guess that's why people love/hate Eminem, whether it's his anger, his violence, or his twisted humour, it feels real.

 

Day 0863 - Mermaid Avenue

Billy Bragg & Wilco “Mermaid Avenue” (1998)

Woody Guthrie’s daughter Nora was looking for someone to put music to a collection of her father’s unreleased lyrics.  After hearing Bragg playing at a Guthrie tribute concert, she contacted him about the project.  Bragg in turn contacted Wilco to help him with the songs and to arrange some themselves.

Bragg and Wilco have both already featured in this list, and the project ‘on paper’ interested me, so I was keen to check this out.

It exceeded my expectations, with a sound that brings to my mind Ween’s country moments.  Interesting lyrics backed with a mix of old timey Americana, and more modern alt-country and bouncy Beatles-esque melodic and arrangement sensibilities (“Another Man’s Done Gone” almost sounds like a McCartney-esque piano ballad).

There’s the rootin’ tootin’ opener “Walt Whitman’s Niece”, the intimate acoustic guitar and voice of “Ingrid Bergman” and “I Guess I Planted” has hints of Elvis Costello circa “My Aim is True”.

My favourite though is “Way Over Yonder in a Minor Key” which features backing vocals from Natalie Merchant and is frankly just a beautiful song.

Two more collections of songs would eventually be produced by Bragg and Wilco under the Mermaid Avenue name.

Day 0679 - Mama Said Knock You Out

LL Cool J "Mama Said Knock You Out" (1990)

LL's brand of brag-rap had been starting to wane in the face of socially conscious rap and the violent, occasionally misogynistic gangsta rap styles.  LL's 1989 album "Walking With a Panther" had attempted to change things up stylistically, and was a commercial success, but led to some derision from the rap community.

LL swung back into action, helped by producer Marley Marl, as the title suggests, he was ready for a fight.  Sparse beats and booming bass dominate with occasional samples adding a nice bit of flavour.   LL is a skilled wordsmith, agile, powerful and interesting.

Day 0579 - Raising Hell

Run-D.M.C. "Raising Hell"  (1986)

The third album from Run-D.M.C put them on the map (and on MTV), in particular their collaboration with the members of Aerosmith on that band's track "Walk this way".  The collab was suggested by producer Rick Rubin after he gave Run-D.M.C. a copy of the lyrics to read.  The track was a hit and also helped rejuvenate Aerosmith's slightly slumped career by introducing them to a new audience.

'Raising Hell' continues the group's brilliant mix of rock riffs with scratches and with the two MCs trading rhymes over the top.  The extra loud and chunky scratches, booming beats and occasional cowbell render this almost the epitome of "old school hip hop".

A sonically interesting album that, much like Afrika Bambaataa, takes existing material and molds it into something new, original and exciting. 

Day 0564 - Cupid & Psyche 85

Scritti Politti "Cupid & Psyche 85" (1985)

I was quite looking forward to this based on the description: a loose musical collective who had been noodling around in post-punk experimentalism, but (having heard Quincy Jones' production on Michael Jackson's albums) decided to delve into the world of pop.  I ended up feeling slightly underwhelmed by it.

The band had enlisted some seasoned session players and sprinkled everything with some studio gloss, but the songs just feel like they're not memorable enough, and the gloss is a little thick so the songs seem to lose their 'oomph' a bit.  Possibly it's just that this sound is, 'aesthetically', not in line with my tastes.

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 0383 - Rumours

Fleetwood Mac "Rumours" (1977)

A powerhouse release! FM had been a London-based blues band started in the 1960s, but after recruiting musical (and romantic) partners Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, they re-crafted their sound to produce a much more Americanised adult contemporary rock sound with a rich summery West Coast pop flavour. The new line-up released an eponymous album which did fairly well, then came Rumours.

Possibly proving the idea that internal tension and tumult can often lead to good music, during the making of the album Nicks and Buckingham were breaking up and the other 3 band members were in the middle of divorces... yet out of this angsty musical hotbed came 'Rumours' an album that topped the charts for 31 weeks and included 3 US top 20 singles "don't stop" "go your own way" and "dreams" and on top of all of that... it's good. Great mix of male and female vocals and upbeat and laidback tracks with stellar musicianship.
 

Day 0371 - The Stranger

Billy Joel "The Stranger" (1977)

 
Billy had apparently played in piano bars during his high school years to help support his single mother (good boy) which must have been a help in both refining his chops, and increasing his confidence as a performer.

This isn't his first album, and he had had a hit with "Piano Man" previously, but this album was considered by many to be his commercial breakthrough. It makes me feel like I should check out more of his albums too because, yes the singles ("Movin' out (Anthony's song)", "Just the way you are", "Only the good die young", "She's always a woman") are great, but there are some tasty deeper cuts here. The title track opens with a moody noir piano piece with Morricone-esque whistle over the top that segues into an upbeat pop-rock track and then back into the piano and whistle at the end, as though the whole song has emerged from and then vanished back into the fog in some Humphrey Bogart film.

"Scenes from an Italian restaurant" sounds almost like Billy Joel meets Paul McCartney with the growly vocal and bouncy baroque-tinged pop.

"Vienna" is delicate and lovely, "Get it right first time" has an almost fusiony world-music feel to it informing a bright and brassy pop song.

The album wraps up with the gospel tinged rager "everybody has a dream", that gives way to a reprise of the title track's intro/outro section. An enjoyable listen all round.