Day 0866 - White Ladder

David Gray "White Ladder" (1998)

 

Gray had produced three albums of light folk that had met with some critical praise, but had not fared so well commercially.

His fourth album "White Ladder" was self-funded and produced by Gray, alongside Iestyn Polson and 'Clune' McClune.  The trio crafted an 'electro-folk' sound where smooth, unobtrusive beats created a bed for Gray's light drawl that walks a line between Bob Dylan and James Taylor.

It's a pleasant enough listen, though possibly a tad too inoffensive for me to listen to on the regular.   I quite enjoyed the moody title-track though.

Through its single "Babylon" and a support slot with the Dave Matthews Band, Gray had a hit on his hands, selling a couple of millions copies each in the US and UK.

Day 0865 - You've Come a Long Way Baby

Fatboy Slim "You've Come a Long Way Baby" (1998) - got it

Following on from his debut "Better Living Through chemistry" (day 810) and drawing on his association with big-beat maestros the Chemical Brothers, Norman Cook pole vaulted the "difficult second album" hurdle.   He created a record that hit no.1 in his homeland of the UK, and became omnipresent worldwide via singles like "Rockafeller Skank", "Right Here, Right Now" and "Praise You".

"Rockafeller..."with its repeated vocal hook of 'the funk soul brother' kind of lays out what Cook is about here: Mixing sampled of funk and soul tracks with epic, booming beats and a whole lot of audio tweaking... dance music for the masses.

Day 0864 - Apocalypse Dudes

Turbonegro "Apocalypse Dudes" (1998)

Turbonegro had started off with noise-rock, moved through their own 'death-punk' sound and here adopt a style that is straight out of the 70s rock, punk and glam play-books.   By all accounts their line-up was as changeable as their choice of genre.

"Selfdestructo Bust" sounds like a slightly updated take on the Stooges.  "Prince of the Rodeo" throws in some congas to glam up the mix, and album closer "Good Head" leads out with enough excessive guitar soloing to make Slash blush.

The song titles nod to the Norwegian group's tongue-in-cheek approach too, with pearlers like "Rock Against Ass", "Don't Say Motherfucker, Motherfucker" and "Rendezvous with Anus".

I probably won't rush to revisit it, but it was fun enough.

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 0862 - Clandestino

Manu Chao "Clandestino" (1998)

This is one that sounded good on paper, but didn't necessarily pan out to my tastes. 

 

After the breakup of his punk-influenced band (Manu Negra), multilingual singer/songwriter Chao travelled around with a multi-track recorder.  Influenced by different street music, but flirting subtly with a range of other genres, he recorded his first solo album.

I'd heard Chao's name around the place and was keen to find out what he was about, but I'm reasonably apathetic with the actual record.

There's a bit of an overuse of syncopated reggae-style guitar, and I'm not really a fan of Chao's voice.  The music isn't bad, but I also don't think it's as diverse as advertised.   "Bongo Bong" is a quirky little pop song, and I quite like the bleeps and bloops of "Je ne t'aime plus", but in general the album didn't really excite me.

Day 0861 - Live 1966

Bob Dylan "Live 1966" (1998)

Recorded during Dylan's controversial early move to electric music.  The first half of the concert/album is Dylan alone playing acoustic tracks.  For the second half, Dylan is accompanied by his excellent backing band the Hawks, who would go on to find fame themselves as "the Band" (see days 127 and 156).

The book states that Dylan and the Hawks were heckled and jeered during the electric set... maybe that was edited out of the version I listened to because it just sounds like cheers for the duration.

I like the mix of sounds between the two sets and I guess it's an important historical musical recording, but at an hour and a half, this is a touch too much Bob for my tastes.

Day 0860 - System of a Down

System of a Down "System of a Down" (1998) - got it

Wow, now that is a solid debut!   Punishingly heavy, yet pinpoint precise riffs; quirkiness, moments of high drama, all rolled into this one release.

System started life as a band called Soil, created by Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian.  Their manager Shavo Odajian eventually joined on bass.  Later, drummer John Dolmayan joined, the band attracted the attention of producer (and 90% beard) Rick Rubin who signed the band to his American Records label and they were off and running.

From the opening track, there's a run of guitar harmonics that sound almost fun, then the riffs come crashing in and the onslaught starts.  The band moves between metal, jazz, ska, melodic alt-rock, often shifting genres within the same song, and this is matched by singer Tankian whose voice can swing from beautiful melody to throat-rending screams and growls all with lyrics that speak of intelligence, political anger and a sense of humour.

This combination is used to staggering effect, like on single "Sugar" that moves from a heavy rock opening to a bouncy verse then into claustrophobic bridge with Tankian whispering, squeaking and roaring while loud guitar/bass/drum stabs come crashing in around him and building faster and faster to the conclusion.   "Spiders" offers a more straight ahead melodic reprieve.   "Peephole" has a demented circus vibe that suggests these guys have listened to some Mr Bungle at some point.   Album closer ""P.L.U.C.K." (Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers) addresses the Armenian genocides of the early 20th century.   All four band members are of Armenian descent and have worked to raise awareness of this event.