Day 0740 - Whatever

Aimee Mann "Whatever" (1993)

Aimee had been bassist and vocalist for the band Til Tuesday, who had a successful Mann-penned single "Voices Carry".   The band broke up and Mann pursued her solo career.

This is Aimee's first solo album and it's brilliant for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost, Mann is an amazing songwriter.  She's another of those rare songwriters whose lyrics actually made me stop and take notice, she has real way with words.  The ballad "I know there's a word" is brilliant and affecting while still being tastefully opaque.

The other reason is that Mann enlisted the help of Til Tuesday touring member and multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion, who would go on to produce my favourite Fiona Apple album as well as albums by such adventurous souls as the Eels, David Byrne, and Rufus Wainright.

The music has a bit of a country lilt to it, maybe a hint of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, and then (possibly courtesy of Brion) a subtle theatricality in places.

I thoroughly enjoyed this.  It's almost the opposite to a lot of albums, in that rather than being a bit front-loaded, it gets better the further into the tracklist you go so that you end on a high note, ready to revisit the songs.

Day 0562 - Picture Book

Simply Red "Picture Book" (1985)

Mick Hucknall had started out in a punk band called the Frantic Elevators, but decided that he wanted to play a genre that would give his voice more room to showcase itself.  He assembled a number of session players to form Simply Red.

This album skits around a few genres, including rock and jazz, but mostly sits in the soul zone, where Hucknall makes full use of his (admittedly strong) voice.  Not a huge fan of the band.  There's some okay stuff here, but much of it sits firmly in the middle-of-the-road.

Eventually the band would go on to become a revolving cast of players with Hucknall as the only constant.

Day 0520 - Swordfishtrombones

Tom Waits "Swordfishtrombones" (1983)

Great album, and the beginning of a whole new era of Waits' music.  His wife Kathleen Brennan had been introducing him to a range of avant music and began collaborating on songwriting with him and it really starts to show with this album.

To me, this album feels like Waits' drunken barfly character fell so far down his hole of inebriation that he ended up in some strange hallucinatory underworld.  The opening track "Underground" could be seen as a signal of this, or a paean to Waits' own new musical discoveries courtesy of Brennan "It's a place I've found/There's a world going on/Underground.  The album title seems like something of a nod to Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica" too.   

The other image the music conjures up for me is the Waits barfly joining a travelling circus and hitting the road.  The jarring instrumentation holds a definite carnival vibe, and Waits practises his ringmaster's holler on several tracks.  There are still one or two gentle moments here, including the melodic outro of "Rainbirds", providing a nice contrast to the abrasive opener.

Day 0500 - Pornography

The Cure "Pornography" (1982)

 
It's almost like one of those cheesy billboards "Pornography!  Now that I've got your attention..."

The last of the 'early' Cure albums as the band was torn apart by in-fighting, drug use, and Smith working to cope with his depression.  From this point on, the band would move away from their gothy droney alt-rock sound for more of a gothy pop influence.

This album is all bass and drum grooves with synth and minimal guitars layered over the top, creating music-beds for Smith's desolate lyrics.

The final (title) track is an interesting sound collage.

Day 0351 - Station to Station

David Bowie "Station to Station" (1976) - got it

 
Originally planned to be titled "the White Duke" in a continuation of Bowie's character pieces such as Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane.  However, in the midst of Bowie's personal (relationship breakup, battle with drugs) and musical uncertainty, he cast aside all of that to just deliver a "soul record, devoid of soul".

I’m not really one for choosing favourites, but this would sit fairly high in my ranking of Bowie albums. In some ways it’s neither fish nor fowl, having touches of his glam pop sound, his recent dalliance with danceable soul, and even hints of future directions, all with its own internal musical logic. Bowie breaks further away from the 3 minute pop/rock song formula in places to explore longer-form songs.

The title track, starts musically with the glam swagger of some of Bowie’s Aladdin Sane or Ziggy Stardust tracks (or Marc Bolan, of whom he was a fan) but the vocal melody has a much looser ‘jazz’ feel, weaving in and out of the grinding riffs.

“Golden Years” picks up on the funk/soul flavour of his previous ‘Young Americans’ album. It’s a brilliant song, a successful single… and yet not (IMO) even the best thing on here.

“TVC15” hints a little at the coming Berlin trilogy while still sounding a bit brit-poppy... a foot each in the past and the future.

"Word on a wing" has lyricism to its melody and Bowie’s delivery that is hard to quantify. The whole thing rounds off with 'Wild is the Wind' a vulnerable sounding Bowie vocal over a song that almost sounds like it could be an old Nancy Sinatra pop track.

Day 0267 - The Rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

David Bowie "The Rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" (1972) - got it

As with a few of the albums on the list, I didn't really need to listen to this one specifically for the 1001 albums thing, because it's indelibly printed on my synapses.  Having said that... I'll take any excuse to listen to some Bowie.

It's a lush, interesting, and immaculately crafted pop album.  All the more impressive that (aside from some sax and trumpet) it is pretty much just the standard "drums, bass, guitar, piano/keyboard and vocals".  Speaking of the vocals, they do really feel like they help to flesh out the arrangements.  Much of the shift from 'intimate' to 'grandiose' that comes when the choruses of "Starman" kick in comes from Bowie swinging between octaves in best "Somewhere over the rainbow" fashion.

Bowie's voice is sometimes gentle and confessional, sometimes brash and glammy, occasionally desperate and howling.  'Five years' has an almost Marlene Dietrich feel to it.  There's the gospel feel of 'It ain't easy', and 'Rock n roll suicide' might be the most perfect album closer ever conceived, going from a burnt out acoustic jam and building to a cathartic crescendo.

With the quality of music, it's no wonder that this album was a success in the US and UK, and lednew fans back to "Hunky Dory" and other previous releases.

Bowie reinvented himself and, with his androgynous alien persona, reinvented the idea of what a rock star could be. The black and white photo tinted after the fact just adds to the sci-fi/alien vibe that Bowie is putting out.