FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Fourteen: Björk

FEATURE:

 

A Buyer’s Guide

PHOTO CREDIT: Inez & Vinoodh

Part Fourteen: Björk

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I can’t think of many artists…

PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Walker

who are more original and influential than the Reykjavík-born pioneer, Björk. Since her 1993 debut solo album, Debut (which was actually her second album: her eponymous debut was released in 1977), she has created masterful album after masterful album. Her ninth studio album, Utopia, was released in 2017, and it was another astonishing work from Björk. Whether solo or as a member of The Sugarcubes, there has been nobody in music like Björk! She is an amazing artist and, if you need some guidance regarding her best albums, I have collected together her four essential studio albums (solo); the one that I feel is underrated, and her most current release – in addition to a Björk book that is worth consideration. I am such a massive fan of Björk, so it is a pleasure to include her in… 

A Buyer’s Guide.

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The Four Essential Albums

Debut

Release Date: 5th July, 1993

Labels: One Little Indian/Elektra

Producers: Nellee Hooper/Björk

Standout Tracks: Venus as a Boy/Big Time Sensuality/Violently Happy

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Debut/master/34486

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5BTTaN1CMOdiPtJHagNCes

Review:

“Freed from the Sugarcubes' confines, Björk takes her voice and creativity to new heights on Debut, her first work after the group's breakup. With producer Nellee Hooper's help, she moves in an elegantly playful, dance-inspired direction, crafting highly individual, emotional electronic pop songs like the shivery, idealistic "One Day" and the bittersweet "Violently Happy." Despite the album's swift stylistic shifts, each of Debut's tracks are distinctively Björk. "Human Behaviour"'s dramatic percussion provides a perfect showcase for her wide-ranging voice; "Aeroplane" casts her as a yearning lover against a lush, exotica-inspired backdrop; and the spare, poignant "Anchor Song" uses just her voice and a brass section to capture the loneliness of the sea. Though Debut is just as arty as anything she recorded with the Sugarcubes, the album's club-oriented tracks provide an exciting contrast to the rest of the album's delicate atmosphere. Björk's playful energy ignites the dance-pop-like "Big Time Sensuality" and turns the genre on its head with "There's More to Life Than This." Recorded live at the Milk Bar Toilets, it captures the dancefloor's sweaty, claustrophobic groove, but her impish voice gives it an almost alien feel. But the album's romantic moments may be its most striking; "Venus as a Boy" fairly swoons with twinkly vibes and lush strings, and Björk's vocals and lyrics -- "His wicked sense of humor/Suggests exciting sex" -- are sweet and just the slightest bit naughty. With harpist Corky Hale, she completely reinvents "Like Someone in Love," making it one of her own ballads. Possibly her prettiest work, Björk's horizons expanded on her other releases, but the album still sounds fresh, which is even more impressive considering electronic music's whiplash-speed innovations. Debut not only announced Björk's remarkable talent; it suggested she had even more to offer” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Human Behaviour

Post

Release Date: 13th June, 1995

Labels: One Little Indian/Elektra

Producers: Björk/Nellee Hooper/Graham Massey/Tricky/Howie B

Standout Tracks: It’s Oh So Quiet/Isobel/I Miss You

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Post/master/36251

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2Ul7B1LEHxXzYubtkTMENs

Review:

“It’s Oh So Quiet,” an instrumentally faithful cover of a 1940s Betty Hutton big band number, was Björk’s biggest crossover moment ever, and if it’s usually rejected by most Björkheads, well, then that’s another testament to the extent she implores people to open up their musical horizons. Each track on Post reveals another emotional extreme: “Possibly Maybe,” an almost masturbatory ode to the wax and wane of love affairs; “Enjoy,” a dark and dubby dalliance with the seedier side of sexuality; and “I Miss You,” which should resonate with anyone familiar with the “Amor Omnia” speech in Carl Dreyer’s Gertrud. And in case some odd ducks still hadn’t caught on to Björk’s lost-in-a-costume-shop approach to public guises, Post came fully equipped with another barrage of music videos (six of the little buggers!), many of which have gone on to become classics, most notably Michel Gondry’s industrial wasteland “Army of Me” and Spike Jonze’s clodhopping tribute to Busby Berkeley and Jacques Demy, “It’s Oh So Quiet.”

Collaboration has always been an important aspect of Björk’s work ethic. Testifying to this is the fact that she has had romantic affairs with a great many of her colleagues (Tricky, Stephane Sednaoui…though probably not Lars von Trier). She also suggested that the Post remix album, Telegram, is, if anything, even more true to her personal vision than the prototype, despite having an even wider range of styles and producers (a shrieking, classical Brodsky Quartet “Hyper-Ballad” mingles with a distorted, NIN-like “Possibly Maybe” and a ghetto-blasting hip-hop “I Miss You”).

For many, the delicate balance of Post represented the ultimate Björkian pop experience, and one that has yet to be topped. In fact, Björk’s next album, her 1997 glass-dragon Homogenic, indicated with one fell swoop that Björk had moved beyond pop into what one might call her own cloistered “genre of me.” The shimmering Vespertine, from 2001, suggested a move on Björk’s part to translate her own unique musical style back into the world of pop (with some fantastically emotional moments like “Undo” and “It’s Not Up to You”), but Post will likely always remain the Björk album that most successfully sustains her winning balance of experimental whimsy and solid pop magic” – SLANT

Choice Cut: Army of Me

Vespertine

Release Date: 27th August, 2001

Labels: One Little Indian/Elektra

Producers: Björk/Thomas Knak/Martin Gretschmann/Marius de Vries

Standout Tracks: Hidden Place/Pagan Poetry/Sun in My Mouth

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Vespertine/master/37082

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5vBpIxm8ws6pWyVmTWiGE1

Review:

“Vespertine ("occurring in the evening") is an apposite title for Björk's first studio album since 1997's Homogenic. Its stillness and space evoke the Arctic night - probably a fanciful impression now that Björk's corner of the Arctic has been overrun by British clubbers, but her music has always suspended reality. Her modish collaborators, including electro-duo Matmos and harpist Zeena Parkins, confect a world of crunches, crackles and celestial choirs, through which Björk flutters, unconstrained as ever by rhythm. Her least commercial effort yet, its impact derives from the enchanted union of that wild voice and intimate instrumentation. The odd lapse into tweeness (a tinkling instrumental called Frosti) aside, there's magic afoot: on the soaring Hidden Place, amid the whirrs of Undo, and near enough everywhere else”  The Guardian

Choice Cut: Cocoon

Medúlla

Release Date: 30th August, 2004

Labels: One Little Indian/Elektra

Producers: Björk/Mark Bell

Standout Tracks: Where Is the Line/Vökuró/Oceania

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Med%C3%BAlla/master/39459

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6bjGw9Clp684XTRPBI0h6K

Review:

“The more atmospheric songs on Medulla are arguably its most evocative and powerful. "Vokuro" (or "Vigil") is one of two songs sung in Björk's native Icelandic, and is in fact an adaptation of a piano piece by Jorunn Vidar. Björk sings its plaintive strains accompanied by a solemn choir, and brings out its inherently hymn-like qualities. Wyatt overwhelms "Submarine" with his ghostly, striking vocals, thickly layered and overdubbed. Björk doesn't even enter with the melody for almost a minute-and-a-half, by which time Wyatt has already made his redoubtable mark. Not to be outdone, Björk's collage of sighs, whispers, cries and otherwise indescribable sounds on "Ancestors" might scare fans accustomed to a steady diet of actual songs. It reminds me of the work of American experimental vocalist and composer Meredith Monk (Björk has performed her "Gotham Lullaby" in concert several times), though some folks may just hear it as the "unlistenable" song on Medulla.

Medulla is an interesting record. It continues Björk's run of releases that sound nothing like their predecessors, yet is, as ever, particular to her. Furthermore, she's found a way to bathe her immediately distinctive melodies and vocal nuances in a solutions that cause me to reevaluate her voice and her craft. I shouldn't be surprised: She's made a career of making me interested in her world of sound. And that she doesn't appear to be short on ideas 25 years into her professional career should end all speculation” – Pitchfork

Choice Cut: Triumph of a Heart

The Underrated Gem

Volta

Release Date: 1st May, 2007

Labels: One Little Indian (U.K.)/Polydor (Europe)/Elektra/Atlantic (N.A.)

Producers: Björk/Timbaland/Danja/Mark Bell/Damian Taylor

Standout Tracks: The Dull Flame of Desire/Innocence/Declare Independence

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Volta/master/5500

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/71wEGvzOfEbIAtNnRIh9IK

Review:

“Wanderlust" follows and provides the yin to "Earth Intruders"' yang, its horns and brooding melody giving it the feel of a moodier, more contemplative version of "The Anchor Song." These two songs set the tone for the rest of Volta's pendulum-like swings between sounds and moods, all of which are tied together by found-sound and brass-driven interludes that give the impression that the album was recorded in a harbor -- an apt metaphor for how ideas and collaborators come and go on this album. Timbaland's beats resurface on "Innocence," another of Volta's most potent moments; a sample of what sounds like a man getting punched in the gut underscores Björk's viewpoint that purity is something powerful, not gentle. Antony and the Johnsons' Antony Hegarty lends his velvety voice to two outstanding but very different love songs: "The Dull Flame of Desire" captures swooning romance by pairing Björk and Hegarty's voices with a slowly building tattoo courtesy of Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale; "My Juvenile," which is dedicated to Björk's son Sindri, closes Volta with a much gentler duet. Considering how much sonic and emotional territory the album spans -- from the brash, anthemic "Declare Independence," which sounds a bit like Homogenic's "Pluto," to "Pneumonia" and "Vertebrae by Vertebrae," which are as elliptical and gentle as anything on Vespertine or Drawing Restraint 9 -- Volta could very easily sound scattered, but this isn't the case. Instead, it finds the perfect balance between the vibrancy of her poppier work in the '90s and her experiments in the 2000s” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Earth Intruders

The Latest/Final Album

Utopia

Release Date: 24th November, 2017

Labels: One Little Independent Records/Caroline International/Universal Music Group/The Orchard Enterprises

Producers: Björk/Arca/Rabit

Standout Tracks: Arisen My Senses/utopia/Tabla Rasa

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Utopia/master/1270127

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/037hz3oZyrgcJOheyhPMnC

Review:

“Earlier this year Björk smirkingly described her ninth record as her “Tinder album”, dealing with the process of falling in love again after experiencing monumental heartbreak. This is most evident on the twinkling harp-swathed ‘Blissing Me’, where she dreamily sings of “two music nerds, obsessing” and “sending each other MP3s, falling in love to a song”. In keeping with the ‘Utopia’ of its title, Björk has created a paradise-like world here, with birdsong dotted throughout the album, transporting the listener to a magical sonic rainforest, with tracks like ‘Saint’ having more in common with a David Attenborough nature documentary soundtrack than a pop song. Most evocative of all though, is the sound produced by a 12-piece Icelandic female flute orchestra, the lushness of which lifts every track with a lightness that is at once hopeful but haunting.

‘Sue Me’ gets more murky however, as crunchy electronics and scattershot beats gallop under her cooing lyrics about the “sins of the father”, likely a reference to her ex – the artist Matthew Barney – suing for custody of their daughter after their split. ‘Utopia’ is where art, real life and deep experimentation intersects, and it’s utterly compelling” – NME

Choice Cut: The Gate

The Björk Book

Björk: Archives

Authors: Alex Ross/Nicola Dibben/Timothy Morton

Publication Date: 2nd March, 2015

Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd

Synopsis:

“Bjoerk is a contemporary icon whose contributions to music, video, film, fashion and art have influenced a generation worldwide. Here, now, is the ultimate celebration of this multimillion-selling superstar. Designed by top design studio M/M (Paris) as a slipcased world of wonders, this publication - which accompanies spring's exhibition on Bjoerk at The Museum of Modern Art - is composed of six parts: four booklets, a paperback and a poster. Each booklet contains illustrated texts by, respectively, Klaus Biesenbach, Alex Ross, Nicola Dibben and Timothy Morton, while the poster features artwork of Bjoerk's albums and singles. The main book focuses on her seven major albums - Debut, Post, Homogenic, Vespertine, Medulla, Volta and Biophilia - and the personas created for each one. Poetic texts by longtime collaborator, Icelandic poet Sjon, are accompanied by shots of Bjoerk performing live; multiple stills from music videos made by directors including Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham and Spike Jonze; images of Bjoerk in breathtaking costumes by designers such as Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan; and shots by star photographers such as Nan Goldin, Juergen Teller, Stephane Sednaoui, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, and Araki. All combine to form an extraordinary visual masterpiece, celebrating the magical world of Bjoerk” – Waterstone

Order: https://www.waterstones.com/book/bjork/klaus-biesenbach/alex-ross/9780500291948

FEATURE: Too Good to Be Forgotten: Tracks that Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure: Hanson - MMMBop

FEATURE:

 

Too Good to Be Forgotten: Tracks that Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure

Hanson - MMMBop

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MAYBE this will not turn into…

a regular feature, but there are songs that some people might consider guilty pleasures and, for that reason, they do not get much play on radio. Others might feel that the song is a bit out of step with modern sounds, so you do not hear much about it. To be fair, I think Hanson’s MMMBop captured a sound that we do need more of today! I was thirteen when the song came out in 1997 and, as a high school student, music was more than just something that was on in the background. To me, it was a way of life, a conversational centrepiece, and a way of making life a lot easier. In 1997, there were a few reasons why Hanson’s MMMBop hit me quite hard – and many people I knew. Look at the best albums of that year, and Hanson sound unlike anything really! We has Radiohead (OK Computer), Björk (Homogenic) and The Chemical Brothers (Dig Your Own Hole) putting out these albums that were a little darker and moodier than what was in the mainstream; Britpop was sort of declining and Oasis’ Be Here Now, whilst it received a rapturous reception when it was released, in hindsight, was not their greatest moment. In terms of U.K. singles, there was some Pop in the mix – the Spice Girls, Lisa Stansfield and The Cardigans all had singles out -, but it was clear that there was a change in the air. From the euphoria of late-1980s and early-1990s Dance and Rave to the Britpop movement, a noticeable transformation was a occurring. Because of that, I think I clung onto Hanson, as it was a sort of American injection of Britpop, at a time in my life when I still needed that uplift and optimism.

Politically, Labour came to power and there was optimism about the future, but it seemed that artists were reacting against Britpop and, as such, we did not see as many joyous anthems as we did between, say, 1991 and 1996. Taken from their excellent Middle of Nowhere (1997) album, MMMBop was written by band members, Isaac Hanson, Taylor Hanson, Zac Hanson…and that is pretty impressive in itself! Normally, when you have a Pop group that young – they were teens when that album came out –, there are other writers and producers crammed together who are charged with coming up with a hit. On Middle of Nowhere, that does happen on most of the tracks, but it is normally one or two writers on each song, rather than the horde you see on so many albums to this day! The Dust Brothers’ production turned MMMBop from a song that started out a lot softer and slower, and it was transformed into a Sunshine Pop monster! The song was nominated for two gongs at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards, and it is the band's most successful single to date. MMMBop was a major success worldwide, reaching number-one in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States – it hit the top spot in twelve countries altogether! Whilst their album contained few songs as strong and catchy as MMMBop, they had Where’s the Love, another hugely catchy track, and Thinking of You.

I think Middle of Nowhere is one of the more underrated albums of the 1990s, and a big part of its success is MMMBop. Even though some polls have placed the songs in their top-hundred tracks of the 1990s, I think MMMBop gets sneered at by some, whilst one hardly hears it on the airwaves! That is a shame. In an August 2004 interview with Songfacts, Zac Hanson explained the song's origins:

“That song started out really as the background part for another song. We were making our first independent album and we were trying to come up with a background part. We started singing a slightly different incarnation of what is now the chorus of "MMMbop." That sort of stuck in our heads and never really worked as a background part, and over a couple of years, that piece really has stuck in our heads and we really crafted the rest of the song - the verses and bridge and so on.

What that song talks about is, you've got to hold on to the things that really matter. MMMbop represents a frame of time or the futility of life. Things are going to be gone, whether it's your age and your youth, or maybe the money you have, or whatever it is, and all that's going to be left are the people you've nurtured and have really built to be your backbone and your support system.

They [the lyrics] weren't inspired by one artist in particular. The first music that we got into was '50s and '60s music. If anything, "MMMbop" was inspired by The Beach Boys and vocal groups of that era - using your voice as almost a doo-wop kind of thing. It was something we almost stumbled upon [3]“

I do think MMMBop is a Pop classic, and it is far more substantial than many people think. One hears the title’s word repeated and feels that it means nothing; they hear the sunny chorus and dismiss it as a sugary Pop song. Right from the first verse, the then-teen Hanson brothers were penning lyrics about love, ageing and the uncertainty of life with a lot of maturity and insight – “You have so many relationships in this life/Only one or two will last/You go through all the pain and strife/Then you turn your back and they're gone so fast”. The lyrics are delivered quite fast, so it can be hard deciphering a few of them – it makes me think that MMMBop would make a very interesting ballad! There is that contrast between the deeper and more image-provoking verses, and the chorus itself: an explosion of singalong bliss that, twenty-three years after its release, still sound so fresh and essential! A lot of Pop from the 1990s hasn’t dated that well and, to be frank, I can listen to the songs a few times and not need another look in for a while! I can spin MMMBop over and over, as it never outstays its welcome. That alluring and insatiable chorus keeps you coming back in; the nuanced and interesting lyrics mean the song demands repeated listens.

Consider lines like “Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose/You can plant any one of those/Keep planting to find out which one grows/It's a secret no one knows”, and those are lyrics that puts one in a very philosophical mood! Not to hark back to their age, but those are some big and moving words from teenagers! I wonder, if MMMBop came out in 1994 or 1995, it would have been considered a sort of U.S. Britpop challenger!? The song got a lot of praise upon its release, but not many people I know look back on 1997 and rank MMMBop alongside the best music of the year. One cannot help get drawn to the song, and its video goes a long way to adding charm! The boys are seen in a variety of locations, just having fun and embracing the brevity of youth – we see them roller-skating, at a payphone, and even on The Moon! The pairing of that smile-inducing video and a song that is sunny and mature makes MMMBop a treasure. It is seen as a guilty pleasure by some, and others just ignore it as a minor track from the 1990s. It is so much more than that! Have a listen to it now, and I guarantee the song will put you in a better mood and, to boot, it will stick in your head for ages! The album, Middle of Nowhere, was an accomplished debut, and I like the fact that Hanson have performed MMMBop since then. It is a song that they feel very proud of, even if it is a little strange seeing the grown-up brothers singing this song that one associates with youthfulness and a past time! The mighty MMMBop deserves more love and reinvestigation as it is a…

BEAUTIFUL song that I can’t get enough of.

FEATURE: In My Life: Desert Island Discs and the Songs of Youth

FEATURE:

 

In My Life

IN THIS PHOTO: Ian Wright appeared on Desert Island Discs in February, in one of the most celebrated and emotional episodes of recent years/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC 

Desert Island Discs and the Songs of Youth

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THOUGH I have written about nostalgia before…

IN THIS PHOTO: BBC Radio 6’s Lauren Laverne is the current host of Desert Island Discs - she took over from Kirsty Young in 2018/PHOTO CREDIT: Chris McAndrew for The Times

I wanted to approach it from a different angles. Through lockdown, I have been listening to a lot of Desert Island Discs, which is hosted by Lauren Laverne. I have been following the series for a while, but I love how there is an archive of the previous episodes so, amazingly, we can go back years and years and hear these vintage editions! That is quite rare as, for most other shows and radio stations, stuff is only archived for thirty days on BBC Sounds, and then it goes away. Explorer Steve Backshall was last on Desert Island Discs, and he was talking about his life experiences, but how music played into them, and what various songs mean to him. Although a lot of the castaways choose songs from more-recent times to score important memories, there does seem to be this window we all have, where music is formative and plays a much bigger role than it does later in life. I think we have all fantasised about appearing on Desert Island Discs, as we have these special songs that have meant so much. This article explains how Desert Island Discs has been studied, and research has shown that there is this band of time where music plays its biggest role in the lives of the castaways:

“Researchers at the University of Westminster and City University of London analysing the music record choices of guests on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs programme has found that the music we listen to between the age of 10 and 30 define us for the rest of our lives.

Music from this time which the researchers call 'self-defining period' connects an individual to the people, places, and times that are significant to their identity. The study reveals that people imagining themselves in isolation not only prefer music reminding them of a time when they were aged between 10 and 30, but also they are most likely to choose music that reminds them of an important person playing to the sense that someone is with them, or an important turning point in their life as a powerful way to strengthen their sense of self.

PHOTO CREDIT: @denissadevy/Unsplash

In Britain's longest running radio programme guests are invited to imagine they are being cast away to a desert island and are asked to choose eight records to take with them. The researchers analysed the responses of 80 Desert Island Discs guests to reveal how people choose music that is important to them and whether they are more likely to select music from a particular time in their life if they can choose anything they like.

Half of all musical choices were seen to be important between the ages of 10 and 30, a period that has been commonly known as the 'reminiscence bump'. However, this new study reveals that it is more helpful to think of this period as a 'self-defining period' because it is characterised by enduring memories that support our sense of who we are. They suggest that listening to music is typically a key feature of this age and that music is also intrinsically linked to the developing self.

The power of music in identity formation is well-demonstrated through the reasons why people select certain records on Desert Island Discs. The most frequent reason for choosing a song (17%) was that it reminded the guest of their relationship with a specific person, such as a parent, partner or a friend, followed by a memory of a period of time (16.2%) such as reminding someone of their childhood or "remembering playing this at home over and over again". The third most popular explanation for choosing a record was the song's connection to specific memories relating to the formation of identity through life-changing moments (12.9%). Such reason was given by Bruce Springsteen, who said that the Beatles song "I want to hold your hand" had inspired him to pick up the guitar and start a band.

PHOTO CREDIT: @kpebedko_o/Unsplash

Professor Catherine Loveday, Neuropsychologist at the University of Westminster and Lead Researcher, said: "Guests frequently chose songs because they were related to important memories that occurred during teenage years. This extends previous findings by showing that music from this time has particular meaning, primarily because it relates to memories from this very important developmental period of our life. Unlike previous studies, this study shows that this occurs even in a completely naturalistic setting, where people are not constrained by experimental settings and have a completely free rein on their musical choices.

"Because the premise of the programme is that people imagine themselves in isolation, this research has relevance to anyone who becomes isolated, including during lockdown measures in the current coronavirus pandemic, or who becomes displaced from their everyday environment, such as residents in care homes, refugees or hospital patients".

I am pretty similar when it comes to music: the majority of the most impactful tracks to me occurred after the age of ten and before the age of thirty. I would say that my parameter is probably from the ages of eight to twenty, but it is clear that childhood and adolescence is a very vital period where music helps us through tough times - and it seems to burrow into the mind, whether obviously or subconsciously. One of the great things about Desert Island Discs is hearing how songs many of us love mean different things to very different people. Whether you have an actor or director on the show or an academic or sports personality, these tracks the likes of you and I love have a very special place in their hearts.

IN THIS PHOTO: Ruth Jones was a castaway on Desert Island Discs in 2019/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

It is wonderful to have this sort of bond with the castaways, though thousands of people share it too! I do love the interview part of each Desert Island Discs episode, but I am always extra-curious about the musical choices, and why a particular song resonates. It got me thinking about that study and why music from castaways and, well, everyone matters that much more when we are young or moving through adulthood, rather than later in life or when we are in primary school. Perhaps we are a bit young and inexperienced to attach importance to music when we are very young, and our minds might not work that way. When one reaches middle age, I guess one forms fewer transformative memories, and we often go back to the tracks we grew up with rather than taking to heart new songs. That 'reminiscence bump' is important to me and so many people, because we can look back and think about how music moved and shaped us when we were younger. Maybe most of us are not going to make it onto Desert Island Discs but, secretly, we all have our eight discs, book and luxury lined up, just in case that call ever comes through! Think about the songs that I would select and, yes, they all come from the ages of ten and thirty – maybe there would be one that is a little more recent. I was keen to explore reminiscence and at what ages music really digs deep but, also, I want to salute the ever-brilliant Desert Island Discs which, decades after it started, remains…

IN THIS PHOTO: James Rebanks appeared with Lauren Laverne on Desert Island Discs in 2019/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

SUCH an institution.

FEATURE: Love and Anger: Why the Mystery and Tension Around Whether Kate Bush Will Release Another Album Is Pointless

FEATURE:

 

Love and Anger

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional shot for 2011’s 50 Words for Snow (‘Creating Wild Man’)/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Why the Mystery and Tension Around Whether Kate Bush Will Release Another Album Is Pointless

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I am going to start with an article…

IN THIS PHOTO: Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek

that I sourced from last weekend - as I talked about the demands and misguided expectations of executives in the music industry. The article has caused quite a stir in the music world, and rightly so! The suggestion was, from Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek, that artists need to engage more with their fans and cannot rely on putting an album out every few years. Music Radar explains more:

“Despite the fact Spotify is still not making money, critics continue to suggest it's not paying musicians enough in royalties for the streaming of their music on its service. And Music Ally's new with interview CEO and founder Daniel Ek's is unlikely to win them around any time soon.

The interview followed the announcement of Spotify's Q2 numbers, and the billionaire Swede suggested that the royalties offered by company's business model are not the issue, and it's really a question of volume and marketing when it comes to musicians' output.

“There is a narrative fallacy here," said Ek, "combined with the fact that, obviously, some artists that used to do well in the past may not do well in this future landscape, where you can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough.

"The artists today that are making it realise that it’s about creating a continuous engagement with their fans. It is about putting the work in, about the storytelling around the album, and about keeping a continuous dialogue with your fans".

I can understand why some would feel putting an album into the world regularly would be possible and advisable. Look back at decades past, and some of the biggest artists ever would be releasing an album every year or so. If artists were to commit to an album or new music so regularly, they would not be able to tour, and there would be very little in the way of quality control. Whilst releasing one album every five years might seem excessively infrequent, what is the perfect time period!? It is hard to say, but it is rich for a very wealthy boss like Ek to say that artists need to step up when he is not an artist! Every artist, whether they are established or new, has their own plan, and I think there are definitely risks when it comes to leaving it too long before putting music out. I think some of the best and most rewarding albums produced have happened because artists have left things long enough so they can ruminate and take their time let the muse strike. This takes me, rather ineloquently, to the subject of Kate Bush. Last week (on 30th July), she celebrated her birthday, and thousands of fans took to the Internet to praise and pay tribute to her. It is amazing to see all the love that was poured forth! I don’t think there is any other artist that has received so much love on their birthday – maybe someone like Paul McCartney or Madonna, but there aren’t many!

IMAGE CREDIT: Lance Unrau

Not only was Bush’s birthday a chance for people to list their favourite songs and albums of hers but, at the same time, many were asking when she would be returning with a new album. I can appreciate why some fans would feel a little tense and, at times, angry that there has not been a new Kate Bush album since 2011. Complex wrote an article last week that highlighted Bush’s impact on other artists, but they also implied that she had vanished:

"My life and my work are very interlocked. That's partly why I like to keep my private life private,” Kate Bush said in 2005. Privacy is an integral part of the British pop star’s nature. She rarely updates her social media accounts, her latest published interview was in 2016, and her last tour was in 1979. When it comes to projects, Bush has always followed her own agenda. Her most recent album was released nine years ago and came six years after the album before that. In other words, being a fan of the singer-songwriter is a never-ending waiting game supplemented by diving into the 10 studio albums she’s produced so far. Bush’s extensive discography, which has been described as complex and ethereal, has the range to keep fans immersed, no matter how lengthy the waiting period.

For the last three decades, Bush has been crowned the queen of art-pop without ever winning a Grammy or touring after the releases of new albums. You won’t catch her in the audience at an award show or giving lengthy interviews on a talk show. In fact, it isn’t even certain where she is spending her time, but many fans assume she’s tucked away somewhere in South Devon. With her pioneering legacy of experimental sound, masterful storytelling, and unconventional lyrics and structure, Bush’s influence in the music industry has stretched across genres and borders. “Kate Bush has always been a typewriter in a renaissance," Boy George explained. "She appeared out of nowhere at the tail end of punk and sort of embodied the punk spirit by just being completely herself. She blew things apart with things like ‘Running Up That Hill’ because it defied the classic logic of pop.”

After Bush’s seventh album in 1993, The Red Shoes, she took a 12-year hiatus. The break can be attributed to the birth of her first son in 1998, which was even kept a secret until two years later when it was revealed by Peter Gabriel during an interview. A nine-year hiatus followed that, pushing the idea that Bush had become a recluse and was nearing her final years in music. Whether that be true or not, her eclectic music style has yet to go out of fashion.  

Even modern film has made space for the work of Bush. The iconic sex scene in Love and Basketball wouldn’t be nearly as steamy or moving without Maxwell’s cover of “This Woman’s Work.” More recently, “Running Up That Hill” was coined as a symbol of Angel and Stan’s relationship in Pose. Even “Cloudbusting” and Bush’s original “This Woman’s Work” helped set the tone in The Handmaid’s Tale”.

Whilst some media sources asked whether Bush had vanished others, like Graeme Thomson – the Scottish author wrote her biography, Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush, and he looked back at her productivity in the first and second thirty-one years of her life and asked what comes next. I think many are genuinely curious and patient, but there are those who feel like Bush has disappeared and will not return. I have been one of those people who has asked whether we will get a Kate Bush album in 2020. It seems unlikely considering it is August, but I feel the best thing about waiting for a new album is the impact it has when you finally get to hear it! Books have been written about Kate Bush’s life and how there is a long wait between some of her albums. - or how she seems to sort of fade into the mist After 1993’s The Red Shoes, there was a twelve year wait until Aerial. After that, there was six years until Director’s Cut. It has been almost nine years since 50 Words for Snow in 2011.

 

Kate Bush is 62 today. In the first 31 years she released 6 albums of original material and played 28 shows. In the second 31 years she made 3 albums of new material, one a double, plus Director's Cut, and played 22 shows. It's almost 9 years since 50 Words For Snow. What next?

— Graeme Thomson (@GraemeAThomson) July 30, 2020

As we are lockdown-ed and there is no saying when things will return to normal, it seems like the perfect opportunity for Bush to concoct and percolate ideas. I can imagine that studio time has been a part of her 2020, and it would have been a shame if she felt rushed into releasing an album so soon after 50 Words for Snow. Returning to the opening paragraph regarding Spotify’s CEO and how artists need to constantly engage; I guess not everyone is in the same position as Kate Bush, but I think there is too much pressure on all artists to churn out albums and, if they had a hit with their last album, to get back into the studio and follow it up. Bush faced that sort of pressure at the start of her career, and she released two albums in 1978 – The Kick Inside (her debut), and Lionheart. She felt that this was a mistake and, after some degree of expectation and push from EMI, it led to 1979’s The Tour of Life: not only a chance to get her albums’ material on the stage, but chance for her to assume some control and have a say regarding the next step in her career. Between 1978-1993, Bush put out seven studio albums, toured the world in 1979, and there were countless T.V. appearances, interviews, and events. It was an exhausting for her, and that was a big reason why she stepped away from music in 1993 – her mother also died in 1992, and her long-term relationship with Del Palmer broke up not too long after: a twin blow for an artist who desperately needed a break.

Whilst Bush has said she feels frustrated at how long it takes her to release albums, the wait between The Red Shoes and Aerial was worth the wait! I am not the only one who thinks that, and it allowed Bush the chance to start a family (her son, Bertie, was born in 1998) and re-evaluate. The double album she gave to us in 2005 was incredible! The sort of impatience and speculation that accompanies any long pause between albums directly links into this misconception that Bush is a recluse. This is a tag that has followed her for most of her career. The fact she does not attend galas and court press attention is why some think that she is hidden away and does not go outside! The truth of the matter is much simpler: she is trying to lead a normal life and, after years of working tirelessly, Bush has earned the right to create and release albums at her own pace. In an interview with The Guardian in 2005, Bush tackled the subjects of being viewed as a recluse and why she takes so long between albums:

“So, do the rumours bug you? That you're some fragile being who's hidden herself away?

"No," she replies. "A lot of the time it doesn't bother me. I suppose I do think I go out of my way to be a very normal person and I just find it frustrating that people think that I'm some kind of weirdo reclusive that never comes out into the world." Her voice notches up in volume. "Y'know, I'm a very strong person and I think that's why actually I find it really infuriating when I read, 'She had a nervous breakdown' or 'She's not very mentally stable, just a weak, frail little creature'."

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

This is how 12 years disappear if you're Kate Bush. You release The Red Shoes in 1993, your seventh album in a 15-year career characterised by increasingly ambitious records, ever-lengthening recording schedules and compulsive attention to detail. You are emotionally drained after the death of your mother Hannah but, against the advice of some of your friends, you throw yourself into The Line, the Cross & the Curve, a 45-minute video album released the following year that - despite its merits - you now consider to be "a load of bollocks". You take two years off to recharge your batteries, because you can. In 1996, you write a song called King of the Mountain. You have a bit of a think and take some more time off, similarly, because you can.

If the completion of Aerial put paid to one set of anxieties for Bush, then its impending release has brought another - not least, a brace of newspaper stories keen to push the "rock's mystery recluse" angle. It seems the more she craves privacy, the more it is threatened. "For the last 12 years, I've felt really privileged to be living such a normal life," she explains. "It's so a part of who I am. It's so important to me to do the washing, do the Hoovering. Friends of mine in the business don't know how dishwashers work. For me, that's frightening. I want to be in a position where I can function as a human being. Even more so now where you've got this sort of truly silly preoccupation with celebrities. Just because somebody's been in an ad on TV, so what? Who gives a toss?"

All of this considered makes me glad that there is no news of a new album! The past few months has been a very strange time, and a lot of changed in Bush’s life since her last studio album came out. Maybe she has written an album’s worth of songs, or there may be a couple of songs recorded. It is the distinctly unhurried approach to releasing albums that makes her so fascinating and admired. Rather than post tweets and teases regarding new songs and sharing silent videos ahead of an album coming out, Bush shuns the current-day promotional cycle where every morsel of an album needs to be shared and pushed to everyone! Bush’s last two studio albums – excluding Director’s Cut – have been, debatably, two of her strongest-ever albums, and they are more resonant and long-lasting than some of her material when she was at the peak of her career. That not only shows that Bush grows stronger with age, but time to cultivate and germinate at her own pace leads to phenomenal music of the highest order! The recluse tag will always follow her around, but Bush is the model of domesticity and normality.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

At a time when artists are being judged by the CEO of Spotify and there is a certain level of expectation from fans and record labels, someone like Kate Bush no longer feels the need to promote herself endlessly and put albums out to please the label. The fact she has her own label, Fish People, also means that she will not be getting polite reminders from EMI that it has been a while since 50 Words for Snow came out! Whether she chooses to release another album or not is up to her, and there is a wonderful joy in imagining what Bush is doing, what her next release will sound like and what might be. In any case, I think the birthday wave of affection she received last week shows that Bush has won the hearts of millions and has earned herself the right to whatever she likes! The always-adored and intriguing Kate Bush remains the subject of conversation, appreciation, and speculation…

OVER four decades after her debut album.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Another Sky

FEATURE:

 

Spotlight

Another Sky

___________

I have said it in previous outings of Spotlight…

but the band market is one I have ignored for a while. I have always been more attuned to solo artists however, this year, there are some terrific bands emerging that have turned my head! Though Another Sky have been playing for a few years now, the fact their debut album is coming very soon is a big reason to highlight that – I shall end the feature talking about that. From the sumptuous, almost choir-like vocals to the delicate piano, All Ends is a song that suggests the album, I Slept on the Floor, is going to be one of the best from 2020! It is a bit early to say this, but I would not be surprised if the album is nominated for a Mercury Prize next year – the shortlist for this year’s prize has just been announced. In Catrin Vincent, Another Sky has an amazing vocalist: shades of London Grammar’s Hannah Reid can be heard, yet Vincent is much more haunting and striking, I feel. So, then…who are the band? Here is some useful biography:

“When you listen to Another Sky, it’s probably Catrin Vincent’s voice that’ll catch your attention first. It is a weapon – peculiar, androgynous, lurching and defiant – that she wields to beautiful, evocative effect. When Guardian music critic Caroline Sullivan saw the band perform at The Great Escape this year, she tweeted, “I'm almost dumbstruck by the singer – she has the strangest, most haunting voice I've heard in ages.” Catrin is delighted that people find it so strange. “A lot of people think I’m a man,” she laughs. “I think people are embarrassed when they initially think it’s one of the guys singing, but I love it. It’s like I’ve got two voices – there’s this soft, whispery voice that can go really high, and then suddenly there’s this angry chest voice. Somewhere along the way, I drew two voices together.”

Catrin’s unusual vocals certainly caught the attention of her future bandmates – drummer Max, bassist Naomi and guitarist Jack – when they were studying music together at Goldsmiths University. Before they came together to form Another Sky (which is named after an Emily Dickinson poem), “we were all just drifting,” says Catrin. But as soon as they found each other, something clicked. “We started by jamming, and songs would come out of just hours of jamming. Then I would put the melody and lyrics down. It’s really collaborative, no-one’s really in charge. I think that’s the best thing about it.”

Their varied but complimentary tastes helped create their inimitable sound. Max was inspired by electronic artists such as Four Tet and Bonobo; Naomi’s bass lines were influenced by Mutemath and Radiohead; Jack drew from bands like Coldplay and Talk Talk, and Catrin most connected to storytellers like Joni Mitchell. When they rehearsed, they would do so in total darkness. “The studio was on the main New Cross road, where ambulances and police cars go past all the time, and there was this really high window. You’d be in total silence and darkness, but there’d be blue lights flashing past. It was a gorgeous, atmospheric environment.” Until recently, they performed in darkness too. “I think it was just to place the focus completely on the music,” says Catrin, “so it wasn’t this spectacle of me being the singer at the front. We wanted to be anonymous, and just make it all about the music.” Now, they’re willing to let themselves be a little more visible – they’re no longer anonymous, and they show themselves on stage, albeit in silhouette – but that darkness still firmly resides in the music”.

I have been listening back to Another Sky’s previous work, and I am amazed by how far they have come. They were simply amazing to start, but their music has become even brilliant as time has progressed. If you need a band to follow that will, no doubt, unveil one of the year’s finest albums, then tilt your head in the direction of Another Sky. Looking online, and there is not as much press and kudos out there as there should be, in terms of spotlighting. I think Another Sky are going to go a very long way, and they are primed for massive success; I think they will definitely establish a big market in the U.S. Last year, in their ‘Class of 2020’ series, DIY spent some time promulgating the wonder of Another Sky:

“It’s not often that an unknown new band finds themselves plonked into the infamous rotating cast of Later… with Jools Holland, in amongst jazz supremos and chart-toppers. But back in October last year, that’s exactly where Another Sky made their first break into the public consciousness. Needless to say, it was a bit of a moment.

It’s in the time since, however, that the London-based quartet have found themselves growing all the more powerful. While they were quick off the blocks with a series of dynamic and intoxicating tracks – including the tirade against the 1% of the darkly driven ‘Chillers’ - it’s been over the last twelve months that they’ve spent time building themselves into an even more intense prospect.

“It’s just been non-stop, really,” reflects front woman Catrin Vincent. “We really had to get down and grind, as they say. Or no one says… I’ve never heard that before in my life!” she laughs. “We’re all still working, so it’s literally been [about] every chance we get, being in the studio, practicing for gigs, going on tour…”

A quick glance across their recent gig schedule and social media proves as much. Alongside the release of second EP ‘Life Was Coming In Through The Blinds’, the quartet have spent much of their year performing on both sides of the Atlantic. “[We went on] a US tour which was actually quite successful,” she continues. “We didn’t think anyone would turn up at the shows, but then there were people singing the lyrics. That was really, really cool”.

Looking at the band’s social media channels, and they are pumped the album is just around the corner and, more than a debut album, it seems like this has been a real dream for them. It will be interesting to see how their sound expands into a full release, as E.P.s such as Life Was Coming in Through the Blinds (released last year) showed immense promise. That E.P. was one that I heard and fell in love with! It gained some positive reviews and, as this one shows, their music is immersive and affecting, and it does reward repeated listens:

“The EP contains their two previous singles, the wonderful  ‘Apple Tree‘ and  ‘The Cracks’ alongside the EP’s title track and ‘ I Don’t Hate You’

The title track is probably their most disorientating track to date, and it does take a few listens to actually grasp it, it’s a swirling sonic soundscape that completely envelopes the senses. The EP finishes with the darkly brooding cinematic ‘ I Don’t Hate You’ which kind of sums up the Ep’s ethos which focuses on resilience and celebration in the darkest of times, loosely inspired by ‘The Wisdom Of No Escape’, by Pema Chodron. It also represents the next stage in Another Sky’s development as they continue to push the boundaries, challenges the listener’s expectations and in doing so make a sound that is uniquely their own”.

This sort of takes us to the here and now. The band have some gigs planned for later this year and next year, and I do hope they get to fulfill them, as their music is gaining a lot of traction, and they have an ever-growing fanbase behind them. I love their sound, and it has a dreaminess and weight that definitely remains in the mind and gets into the blood. I Slept on the Floor is going to be one of the most-anticipated albums of 2020, and I cannot wait to see the reviews pour forward. Go to the band’s official website to pre-order your copy now. DIY caught up with the band in June as they were preparing to release the single, Fell in Love with the City:

“Woohoo! Another Sky have announced that their debut album ‘I Slept On The Floor’ is set to land on 7th August via Fiction Records, and they’re sharing brand new single ‘Fell In Love With The City’ to celebrate too!

Speaking on the new single, Catrin Vincent explains, “I hate breakup songs. I don’t know why, it’s the most universal feeling. Maybe because the world has so many of them. Moving to London was a dramatic shift from small-town life where it didn’t even occur to me I could do music, where this vision of me as a housewife who never amounted to anything felt inescapable, in to a bigger world, of people from all over, of new ideas and a new version of myself.”

Talking more about the album, Catrin also shared the following statement,

“People say I sound like a man. Maybe that means they’ll listen.

‘I Slept On The Floor’ is an amalgamation of the ever-shifting life I have shared with Another Sky over the last six years, searching for resolution between my hometown-self and the self a new city brought me. It was why in 2017, at St. Pancras Church, Another Sky performed in the dark as silhouettes, big illuminated circles behind each of us.

People left asking if the singer was a woman or a man. I wanted to ask why it mattered.

I wanted the band to be a mirror, reflecting the darkness back at itself. I thought I had found myself in that darkness.

I grew up in a white picket fence town with a fear of beds, preferring to sleep on the floors of bathrooms in case I got sick at night. My anxiety was so suppressed, so unacknowledged by my environment that my body broke to get my attention. I became very unwell. My body tried to tell me, “you can’t mould yourself into their ideal,” but I didn’t know there was an alternative. I was malleable soil instead, filling a vase, growing into a shape I couldn’t see.

You can’t see the walls around you if they look like the edges of the Universe.

In 2013, I moved to London and thought I’d found a bigger, better vase. Suddenly I was exploding into a world of a million possibilities, but rather than finding myself bursting at the seams, I couldn’t find the edges of myself at all.

Just as my hometown had shaped me, so did London begin to. Among the rising rents and an increasingly hostile political landscape, the pressure to define my limits grew. The world didn’t stop breaking me down just because I had moved on from the confines of my childhood.

I Slept On The Floor documents the childhood rejection we carry with us into adulthood. This album is about only understanding a place once you’ve left it”.

I wish the band the best of success, but I am sure they will not need it! Their music is phenomenal, and they will only get stronger as the years go by. I feel their debut album is one you cannot afford to miss out on. If you need a new band to follow, then I think you can’t go wrong with the mighty Another Sky. This simply amazing act are preparing to release a stunning debut album, and I just know there is going to be a lot of success for them…

ON the horizon.

______________

Follow Another Sky

Official:

https://www.underneathanothersky.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/UnderneathAnotherSky/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/anotherskymusic

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/08p5D6BYuwPqGsFuIDLNFr

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/anothersky/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9RHq6K8kofqlWF6Nb3EaQ

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Enya - Watermark

FEATURE:

 

Vinyl Corner

Enya - Watermark

___________

I can’t think of another artist…

quite like Enya! Perhaps people know her only for the hit, Orinoco Flow, but many do not know the album it came from. Watermark is the second studio album from County Donegal-born artist, and I remember, just about, Orinoco Flow, being everywhere when it came out. It was one of those songs that was entirely different from anything around. Maybe it is the mood of the piece, or the Celtic flows; the beauty of Enya’s voice, or everything combined! Whatever it was, I was hooked! I would encourage people to buy Watermark on vinyl, as it is a great album that not many people talk about now, but it is one of the best from the 1980s. Released on 19th September, 1988, Enya secured a contract with Warner following the release of her eponymous debut album of 1987. Her contract granted her the creative and artist freedom she needed. Unlike a lot of big labels, Enya was not being moulded and directed. There was not a deadline to have the album ready so, with few restrictions and pressures, she was not watching the clock or having her ideas rehashed or dismissed. Because of that, I think there is a real sense of consistency, authenticity and openness on Watermark. Enya recorded Watermark with her longtime collaborators, manager, producer and arranger Nicky Ryan and his wife, lyricist Roma Ryan. It was a bountiful collaboration and, within ten months, they had this masterful album on their hands! Evening Falls…, Storms in Africa, and Exile were also released as singles from the album.

Orinoco Flow hit number-one in many nations (including the U.K.) and, though the remaining singles did not chart as well, the album itself received acclaim and big sales. Few would have expected such an unconventional and uncommercial album to sell well. Even to this day, one might label Watermark a ‘World Music’ album, or something quite niche. Perhaps it was the popularity and accessibility of Orinoco Flow that helped make the album a success but, when you listen through, there are a lot of great songs that carry the same emotion and majesty as that track. Watermark reached number-five on the U.K. album chart, and it was certified quadruple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 1.2 million and four-million copies across the United Kingdom and the United States respectively. I think there are a few aspects that define the album. The layered and gorgeous vocals from Enya are a big reason why her music is so addicting and striking. The influence of Celtic music was quite new to a lot of people in 1988, and it helped establish that style of music to a new audience. Away from the traditional sounds and mainstream tracks, Watermark is an album that provided a fascinating alternative. Many might know Enya from Clannad - her family's Celtic band, in the early-1980s –, and she was influenced by The Beach Boys and their vocal harmonies, in addition to Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound technique.

I think Watermark would be less mesmeric if there were few layers; the fact we get to hear waves of vocals raises the songs to heavenly heights. One can well imagine the number of vocal takes Enya would have gone through…not only to get the songs sounding how she wanted them, but to experiment and see just where she could take her voice! Watermark is one of those albums not necessarily defined by the singles. Whilst they are exceptional, there is so much gold to be found, with songs like Cursum Perficio, and Na Laetha Geal M'óige as appealing and memorable as the singles. It was that lack of a deadline that meant Enya was able to work on tracks and come back to them if needs be. Orinoco Flow was the final track recorded for Watermark, and it was a difficult one – with Enya taking a break and having to come back to it. Watermark is one of those albums that is not ranked with the best albums of the late-1980s, and that is unfair. If you have a moment spare and can afford the vinyl, it will not disappoint! It is a fantastic album, and it is both calming and uplifting. The reviews for Watermark – aside from a few mixed ones – have been glowing and positive. This is what AllMusic said in their review:

“Thanks to its distinct, downright catchy single "Orinoco Flow," which amusingly referenced both her record-company boss Rob Dickins and co-producer Ross Cullum in the lyrics, Enya's second album Watermark established her as the unexpected queen of gentle, Celtic-tinged new age music. To be sure, her success was as much due to marketing a niche audience in later years equally in love with Yanni and Michael Flatley's Irish dancing, but Enya's rarely given a sense of pandering in her work.

She does what she does, just as she did before her fame. (Admittedly, avoiding overblown concerts run constantly on PBS hasn’t hurt.) Indeed, the subtlety that characterizes her work at her best dominates Watermark, with the lovely title track, her multi-tracked voice gently swooping among the lead piano, and strings like a softly haunting ghost, as fine an example as any. “Orinoco Flow” itself, for all its implicit dramatics, gently charges instead of piling things on, while the organ-led “On Your Shore” feels like a hushed church piece. Elsewhere, meanwhile, Enya lets in a darkness not overly present on The Celts, resulting in work even more appropriate for a moody soundtrack than that album. “Cursum Perficio,” with her steady chanting-via-overdub of the title phrase, gets more sweeping and passionate as the song progresses, matched in slightly calmer results with the equally compelling “The Longships.” “Storms in Africa,” meanwhile, uses drums from Chris Hughes to add to the understated, evocative fire of the song, which certainly lives up to its name. Watermark ends with a fascinating piece, “Na Laetha Geal M’Oige,” where fellow Irish modern/traditional fusion artist Davy Spillane adds a gripping, heartbreaking uilleann pipe solo to the otherwise calm synth-based performance. It’s a perfect combination of timelessness and technology, an appropriate end to this fine album”.

I really love Watermark and, whilst Enya did not quite hit the same peaks on future albums, her latest studio album, 2015’s Dark Sky Island, shows that she still has plenty of terrific songs up her sleeves! Watermark is a tremendous album, and hearing it on vinyl is very special indeed. I just want to bring in one more review before moving along.

This article raises some interesting observations:

"On Your Shore" is a love poem about a past not easily forgotten. Enya's daydreamy trips to her homeland cause listeners to recall homes they have left behind. It's a bittersweet journey.

Enya may delve into folk and traditional harmonies, but that doesn't mean she can't get commercial. Her single "Orinoco Flow" is as catchy as anything on radio today. She sings of global travel while her overdubbed harmonizing urges her on: "Sail away, sail away, sail away”.

Enya's instrumental songs are simple and pleasant musical ideas but are overshadowed by the strength of her more fully realized vocalworks. Her singing is so strong that it is painfully obvious when she isn't singing.

Then there is "Na Laetha Geal M'oige," one of the most beautiful melodies recorded by anyone recently. Enya s breezy voice flows around subtle synthesizers, bridged by a mournful Irish piper. Although the lyrics are Gaelic, they are sung with such conviction and warmth that translations aren't necessary.

Enya is a hard-to-label artist. Although some of her work is New Age, her singing demands attention. You can't ignore her voice regardless of volume

The fact that this is a digital recording only heightens the ambiance she brings to the compact disc. Her every breath becomes an instrument that adds to her vocal orchestra. Watermark is more than an album of songs: It is a work of art”.

I will leave it there, but go and get Watermark if you can or, failing that, stream it. I think we all need a bit of soothing and calm, and you get plenty of that on the album, but there is ample spirit and rush! It is clear that Watermark is…

A wonderful aural treat.

FEATURE: Islands in the Stream: Will Spotify Ever Put Artists First?

FEATURE:

 

Islands in the Stream

IN THIS PHOTO: Spotify’s billionaire CEO, Daniel Ek, said this week that artists “can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough”; his comments attracted a huge backlash on social media/PHOTO CREDIT: Oru Yamanaka/Getty Images

Will Spotify Ever Put Artists First?

___________

BARELY a week goes by…

PHOTO CREDIT: @morningbrew/Unsplash

without Spotify upsetting artists, short-changing people, or making the news! I admit that I use it all of the times and pay a monthly fee, but I always have a sense of guilt thinking about how little artists are being compensated. Most artists put their everything into their careers, and they put out music as much as they can; keen to establish a continuing and close relationship with their fans. Daniel EK, the CEO of Spotify, came out this week and criticised artists who release albums every few years, arguing that they need to be more prolific if they want to connect with their fans and enjoy better revenues. This article from Far Out Magazine explains more:

“Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, has waded into the debate about the financial status of the music industry amid major streaming platform dominance.

Artists have relentlessly spoken against the minimal financial gain from the creations, with a single stream typically earning a figure of $0,0032 per play which is then split between the record label, producers, artists, and songwriters.

Now, as part of new interview with Music Ally, Daniel Ek has voiced his opinion on the situation, urging artists to be more proactive in the continuous engagement with their fans.

“It’s quite interesting that while the overall pie is growing, and more and more people can partake in that pie, we tend to focus on a very limited set of artists,” Ek said in the interview before adding: “Even today on our marketplace, there’s literally millions and millions of artists. What tends to be reported are the people that are unhappy.”

PHOTO CREDIT: @lgnwvr/Unsplash

His controversial comments continued: “In the entire existence [of Spotify] I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single artist [publicly say] ‘I’m happy with all the money I’m getting from streaming’,” he added. “In private, they have done that many times, but in public they have no incentive to do it. But unequivocally, from the data, there are more and more artists that are able to live off streaming income in itself.”

“You can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough. The artists today that are making it realise that it’s about creating a continuous engagement with their fans. It is about putting the work in, about the storytelling around the album, and about keeping a continuous dialogue with your fans”.

I think more and more, Spotify is isolating and marooning artists in the streaming sea - almost like dislocated islands with no real hope tourism. That may seem like a weird metaphor, but Spotify should be there to ensure that artists are connected to one another and their fans; that the artists are paid appropriately, and it shouldn’t be a platform where the mainstream artists are okay but everyone else has to struggle! At a time like this, your bigger stars will be okay financially, but they account for a very small percentage of the total market. It is the smaller artists not signed to big labels that rely on revenue from streaming, merchandise, and gig receipts. As artists are not touring and things have slowed down, streaming is becoming more relied-upon.

IN THIS PHOTO: Producer and musician Nigel Godrich is one of many who took to Twitter in response to Daniel EK’s remarks this week/PHOTO CREDIT: Kristy Sparow/WireImage

I know Ek and Spotify cannot afford to pay every artist a lot of money per stream, but to say that musicians need to be more productive and crank out albums regularly is insulting! It is unsurprising that so many people took to Twitter (and social media in general) to condemn Ek’s assessment. As a non-musician, he is unaware of the realities of the industry, and how artists struggle to make ends meet! When an album is out, artists need to tour it and, between records, they release singles and are out there as much as they can. If they were to put out albums every year, then that would mean they would not be able to play as much, and they would lose out financially. Maybe The Beatles were able to release an album a year, but the reality for the vast majority of musicians then and now is that they cannot do that! For one, they need to gather enough material and experience between records, rather than rush-writing whatever comes to mind – that would result in very poor albums. Also, touring can take a real toll on a musician, and Ek has little realisation what consistent gigging can do to an artist. Even though they love to bring music to the fans, there needs to be periods of downtime and recovery between tours, and it does not always mean that recording is the best next step. In any case, the negativity and anger that met his comments is quite right!

IN THIS PHOTO: The brilliant Nadine Shah took to Twitter to ask for change in light of Ek’s comments

This is someone who pays very little to artists when they release singles and albums but wants them to release them more regularly. Maybe an artist like Taylor Swift can benefit from releasing an album (folklore, 2020) so soon after her last (Lover, 2019) but even most mainstream artists leave it a couple of years or longer between records - the impact that releasing albums every year or two would have on their mental-health is worrying. For years, there has been questions as to whether Spotify needs to change its business model and think about the way it pays artists. Worryingly, I think Spotify is in danger of alienating musicians, who more and more are feeling like their voices are not being heard! This article from Music Ally discusses the subject of under-payment to artists, and how Spotify seem to be more invested in podcasts and the revenue they are bringing in from advertising:

“However, in 2020 more than any other year since Spotify launched, there’s been a surge of musicians talking publicly about their streaming royalties not being enough to live on – including a campaign in the UK (#BrokenRecord) that has trained its sights not just on streaming services, but on labels and the wider industry structures.

Labels and streaming services have been pretty quiet amid this debate, so we put the question to Ek: why is there this gap between Spotify’s stated ambitions, and the experiences of the musicians who have been speaking out? And what’s needed to bridge that gap?

IN THIS PHOTO: Whilst huge artists like Taylor Swift (pictured) can generate enormous streaming revenue (even if a lot of that is going to her label) through Spotify, the reality for most artists is very different indeed/PHOTO CREDIT: Beth Garrabrant

“There are two different trends here worth picking apart. We realise that a lot of artists are impacted in the short term by Covid and the impact it has on the live industry. As you very well know, a lot of the income today that artists are getting [pre-Covid-19] is from touring and live performances. A lot of artists are struggling because of that,” said Ek.

Earlier during the conversation, we also asked Ek about podcasts, and specifically about their role in the startling growth in Spotify’s market cap (value) this year: from around $29bn at the start of 2020 to $50bn now, including noticeable spikes accompanying some of its big podcast announcements.

What’s going on here, for investors? “I can’t really speak to why other people are valuing Spotify in the way that they are,” said Ek, before venturing an opinion.

“If I made a guess, we’ve been talking about this audio-first strategy for quite some time, and now people have started understanding what we actually meant by that strategy… and understanding that not only are we talking about the music business, we’re going after all of radio, which is obviously a much bigger addressable market.”

There has been some unease within the music industry as it watches Spotify’s strategy playing out, including references by some major label executives to the need to ‘ring fence’ their royalties from Spotify, rather than see them potentially cannibalised by podcasts. Are those the kinds of negotiations going on?

PHOTO CREDT: @convertkit/Unsplash

“I can’t really talk about the specifics around that. We renewed the Universal Music deal, and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have renewed that deal if they didn’t feel comfortable about where this was heading, and being happy about the economics they receive from Spotify,” said Ek.

With sites like Bandcamp proving a more sustainable, fair-minded, and compassionate platform for artists, Spotify really need to look around and realise that they need to make some big changes! Unfortunately, most artists cannot afford to jump ship and not put music on Spotify, as they need to get exposure for their music; so many of their fans use Spotify. To infer that artists need to be more proactive and release albums as often as they can is not only insulting and unrealistic, but it betrays artists and shows that there is a huge gulf between the wealthy and uninformed Ek and the musicians who are bringing his streaming site so much money and popularity! I do hope that the continued outcry and condemnation from artists and music lovers compels Ek to change his ways and realise that the answer (to artists struggling financially) is not to pump albums out every year, but for him to understand they deserve more for their work; that they should be paid more per stream and, as Spotify generates astonishing amounts of money, the balance needs to shift so that smaller artists are paid as much as the A-list, mainstream acts – or the minority who have massive fanbases and have huge labels behind them. Continuingly seeing artists shafted and overlooked by Ek and Spotify is…

PHOTO CREDIT: @fixelgraphy/Unsplash

SO heartbreaking to see.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: A Jazz Funk Workout

FEATURE:

 

The Lockdown Playlist

PHOTO CREDIT: @clemono2/Unsplash

A Jazz Funk Workout

___________

FOR a sunny Sunday…

PHOTO CREDIT: @stuchy/Unsplash

I thought we could do with some great tunes to keep the weekend spirit going! I have covered quite a few genres but, after seeing a T.V. documentary recently, I have been listening to Jazz Funk tracks and wondering what this style of music is not bigger today than it is! It really should be, as the genre combines the lifting mood of Funk and the spirit of Jazz: a great combination that has resulted in some seriously hot songs! To see us through into the next working week, I have compiled a comprehensive playlist with some Jazz Funk songs that will put a step in your walk and ensure that we end the weekend…

PHOTO CREDIT: @joshgordon/Unsplash

ON a real high.

FEATURE: Not a Bad Way to Start! The Best Debut Albums of 2020 (So Far)

FEATURE:

Not a Bad Way to Start!

IN THIS PHOTO: Jessie Reyez

The Best Debut Albums of 2020 (So Far)

___________

I have compiled various features…

IN THIS PHOTO: Moses Boyd/PHOTO CREDIT: Eddie Otchere

recently regarding the best albums of the year – whether they are from the U.K. or the U.S. Today, I wanted to look at the best debut albums of the year. The debut album is a scary thing, and getting it right is very hard! From an established star like Hayley Williams (Paramore) stepping alone, or Porridge Radio releasing their first album to a major label, to a hot British talent like Rina Sawayama striking hard, this year has seen some great debut albums burst forth. I have collated the ten best of the year so far and, as you will see, there is plenty of variation and quality! These artists have started extraordinarily, and I think they will continue to grow stronger! Have a look and a listen to these…

IN THIS PHOTO: Hayley Williams/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

WONDERFUL debut albums.

_____________

Rina Sawayama - SAWAYAMA

Release Date: 17th April

Label: Dirty Hit

Producers: Clarence Clarity/Chris Lyon/Valley Girl/Bram Inscore/Danny L Harle/Rina Sawayama/Jonathan Gilmore/Kyle Shearer

Standout Tracks: XS/Bad Friend/Chosen Family

Review:

“There’s a nod to the early 2000s through much of the album. But rather than being nostalgic for the era, ‘Sawayama’ reworks and gives new life to the music Millennials and Gen Z’ers grew up to. It’s a fitting ode to that period: the album’s inspiration comes mostly from Rina’s experiences with growing up, family and identity.

Rina’s vocal presence is just as impressive as the album's genre span. Across the 13 track span of 'Sawayama' you’ll hear the powerful tones of a woman whose passion and fierceness is undeniable - never more than in uplifting tracks such as ‘Love Me 4 Me’ and ‘Chosen Family’.

The tracks ‘Akasaka Sad’ and ‘Paradisin’ specifically explore those memories of growing up between two places (for Rina, Japan and the UK) and the conflicting emotions that must come with that challenge, the first being about feeling displaced wherever in the world, and ‘Paradisin’ honing in on rebelling against authority, AKA… mum.

Although ‘Sawayama’ is a deeply personal album, the range of emotions portrayed throughout can be felt and personalised by anyone. The use of heavy metal, theatrics, synth and pop each have their hand in portraying so many varied emotions - from anger to guilt, confusion to elation. Each of these layers add to the melting pot, and these tough emotions have ultimately contributed to the creation of a flawless pop record.

Raw artistry paired with rich heritage makes for a magnificent, spine-tingling first album for Rina Sawayama” – CLASH

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/rina-sawayama/sawayama

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3stadz88XVpHcXnVYMHc4J?si=nuGPCvmaQ1yNpWmjJbBjgw

Key Cut: STFU!

070 Shake – Modus Vivendi

Release Date: 17th January

Labels: GOOD/Def Jam

Producers: Clyde Ellison/Dave Hamelin/dom$olo/Francis and the Lights/Harry Mejias/James Shaw/Juan Sebastian Brito/Kenneth Gamble/Leon Huff/Mike Dean/Myles William/Sarah Schachner/Sean Solymar

Standout Tracks: Morrow/Guilty Conscience/Under the Moon

Review:

“Among the few highlights from Kanye West’s 2018 album, ye, were two features from emerging New Jersey artist Danielle Balbuena – known by the moniker 070 Shake. Most notably, the bilingual singer-rapper’s guest verse on Ghost Town swam with a heady feeling of darkness and freedom – something that carries through to Modus Vivendi, Balbuena’s debut album. It’s a record that blends genres with assurance as 070 Shake interrogates her nihilistic internal monologues. “I don’t know if I’ll be here tomorrow,” she refrains, catchily, on the propulsive Morrow, before the beat dissolves into new age multi-harmony vocals that, surreally, recall Enya.

That tender glimmer of fantasy recurs throughout the album, not least as Balbuena considers drug use in a liberating, matter-of-fact way, playing with the classic associations of drugs with mental health and romance (on Microdosing, she could be singing about any of these). There’s a sheen of yearning throughout as she spins between bright, light and very dark, be that via the synthpop glaze on Guilty Conscience or the beguiling Bollywood sample on Come Around. Though at times songs and sentiments blur a little forgettably, this is an impressive statement of intent” – The Guardian

Pre-Order: https://thesoundofvinyl.com/*/Pre-Orders/Modus-Vivendi-Limited-Edition-Double-Orange-Marble-Vinyl/6GDI0JXN000

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6Q2rUMVAKj1DaDh3xB0IEU?si=DWE_7I3zRUuQmuUfSfeFfg

Key Cut: Nice to Have

Jessie Reyez – BEFORE LOVE CAME TO KILL US

Release Date: 27th March

Labels: FMLY/Island

Producers: Jessy Aaron/Fred Ball/Bizness Boi/Rogét Chahayed/Alexander Delicata/Björn Djupström/Eminem/Tobias Frelin/Andre Harris/Hennedub/Blvk Jvck/KamoLazuli/Mura Masa/The Monarch/P2J/Jessie Reyez/R!o/Tim Suby/VegynYogi/TheProducer

Standout Tracks: INTRUDERS/IMPORTED/KILL US

Review:

“Anyone familiar with the range Jessie Reyez has shown since 2016 was not taken aback by news that the artist fought the pressure to make her first album a cohesive one. The uncommonly versatile singer and songwriter went multi-platinum in her native Canada with a sparse heartbreak ballad, "Figures." Its parent release, the Kiddo EP, also featured the glass-rattling "Gatekeeper" -- an alarming account of her experience with a sexual predator -- in which she sang from her perspective, and rapped and sang from that of the offender. She has co-written simple love songs like "One Kiss," a U.K. number one, U.S. Top 40 pop hit for Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa, and has also worked with Romeo Santos, Eminem, and Sam Smith. All of this has indicated that Reyez is a complex figure not cut out for unloading unified, easily digestible LPs. Before Love Came to Kill Us simply, if in a deliberately messy way, expands on her EPs, singles, and collaborations. Reyez makes her entrance with "I shoulda fucked your friends" on the adult contemporary quasi-trap ballad "Do You Love Her," and just before the reappearance of "Figures" finishes with a comparably wholesome form of remorse on the gospel-tinged "I Do." The in-between highlights are just as scattered. Reyez uses her voice as a protean instrument -- the settings of which include crooning child, squeaky-swaggering hedonist, high-velocity rapper, and raging Gwen Stefani -- and on the haunted ballad "La Memoria," she sings in her first language. Unsurprisingly, the emotions are varied and unfiltered. Reyez is obsessed enough to "jump off the roof" (the Eminem duet "Coffin"), willing to pledge her allegiance to XXXTentacion's "Fuck Love" ("Deaf [Who Are You]"), steadfast and grateful in the traditional ballad sense ("Love in the Dark"), and assertive in dominance ("Ankles"). That covers less than one-quarter of what Reyez relates here. Although it's all over the place, Before Love Came to Kill Us radiates conviction from front to back, and is without doubt a true representation of its creator” – AllMusic

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Jessie-Reyez-Before-Love-Came-To-Kill-Us/master/1710332

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/42MQxlJENU0xJORW7byNNS?si=ppfKO8foTf66RCve7cA-jA

Key Cut: FIGURES

Public Practice – Gentle Grip

Release Date: 15th May

Label: Wharf Cat Records

Standout Tracks: Cities/My Head/Leave Me Alone

Review:

“‘Gentle Grip’ presents some conundrums for both listeners and the band themselves. In its subject matter, it ruminates on the “moral gymnastics” of life in 2020 – one where we’re trying to do our best for the world around us, but are also still driven by material wants and desires. The early Blondie gleam of ‘Compromised’ finds York torn between the two sides over tumbling guitar hooks, spinning circles around herself as she whispers: “House is important/Car is important/Shoes are important […] Trees are important.”

Sonically, though, the album is also a puzzle – namely, where on earth is it going to go next? That unpredictability exists as it changes from track to track but also within each individual song themselves. Opener ‘Moon’ is a dark, swirling piece that puts Public Practice’s love of the theatrical at the forefront, York presiding like a mythical higher being over a thunderstorm of drummer Scott Rosenthal’s beats and McClelland and Citron’s spiralling, spiky accompaniments. Later, ‘Disposable’ metamorphoses from chunky Rapture riffs ready to soundtrack the grimiest of DIY discos to something more fragmented and eerie, like morning sun piercing through warehouse windows and shaking you out of party mode” – NME  

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/public-practice/gentle-grip

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5Q0eIN7O8l2D1boJlIc3CY?si=gW5_7udTSImmd_Onm8ABQQ

Key Cut: Underneath

Sports Team – Deep Down Happy

Release Date: 5th June

Label: Island

Producer: Burke Reid

Standout Tracks: Going Soft/Long Hot Summer/The Races

Review:

“London-based six-piece Sports Team managed to generate excitement from their inception. Packing shows as students at Cambridge University, they quickly drew the interest of indie labels like Nice Swan with their muscular guitar hooks and point-blank, chant-along choruses about class division, demagogues, friends who change, friends who won't, and actor Ashton Kutcher. Arriving on Island Records following a couple years' worth of independently released singles and EPs, their debut album, Deep Down Happy, delivers on the hype. Demanding attention from the start, simultaneous crashing drums, wailing guitar, and a yell (by guitarist Robb Knaggs) open "Lander," a frustrated rant about needing a job and maybe becoming a doctor or a lawyer -- "So, arthritis probably doesn't matter a lot/I've been thinking a little bit about that sort of thing." Alternating a raised voice over chugging, melodic guitars and bass with quieter passages that keep the syncopated rock groove going, the song's instruments carry rambling thoughts through to inevitable death ("wearing your nicest clothes"). There's no letdown from there, with the sleeker, spikier "Here It Comes Again" blowing by in two-and-a-quarter minutes. It's the second of 12 tracks in all that average three minutes apiece. Ear-snagging intros are another feature here, most notably on "Feels Like Fun," whose simple, two-chord dissonance makes it identifiable within seconds. A highlight among potential radio anthems is "Here's the Thing," an irresistibly catchy, takes-no-prisoners diatribe against the establishment: "If your parents worked to earn it then it's yours/(Here's the thing) And If you're barely getting by then that's your fault/(Here's the thing) Everything in life is fair and that's the rules/It's all just lies, lies, lies, lies...." Despite aggravated lyrics like these, the tone of Deep Down Happy is irreverent and fun, with rhymes like "friends" and "Thames" and "Thumblands" and "old bands," and lead singer Alex Rice's implied raised eyebrow keeping things in a playful zone. The album's length is just about right, going by in an efficient 36 minutes but feeling satisfying at the end, and while fans are bound to pick favorites, there's not a real dud in the bunch” – AllMusic

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/sports-team/deep-down-happy

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/7IQGnVFNKh5oy8g6D1oq3y

Key Cut: Here’s the Thing

Louise Patricia Crane – Deep Blue

Release Date: 15th May

Label: Peculiar Doll Records

Producer: Stephen Carey

Standout Tracks: Snake Oil/Cascading/Ophelia

Review:

“Painted World” starts with the amazing tone of Uilleann Pipes before a heavier sound takes over. Crane shows a full range of vocals here, which add to the depth of the song, and the mix of acoustic and electric guitar works well. “Cascading” would be at home on any Cocteau Twins album – with Crane’s haunting and mesmerising vocals it has a beautiful dreamy edge to it, and for me is one of the stand-out tracks on the album.

“Moon” starts with the title track “Deep Blue”. Carey’s beautiful piano mixed with viola and violin supplied by Shir-Ran Yinon blend wonderfully. A stripped-back love song with yet more atmospheric vocal. This is followed by “Ophelia”, the first single from the album. A darker song which sees the return of Anderson’s flute to add more atmosphere. The first appearance of Gibbons on bass and fretless bass adds depth too – to the song and seemingly to the water that the girl is laid in. Church bells introduce us to “Isolde” – a sad and sombre 6-minute epic which is very prog-like in mood and time changes. Still a beautiful song, again using Yinon’s violin to great effect. Closing out the album is “The Eve of the Hunter”. Danny Thompson’s bass still has tones of Gabriel’s material in it, and the song could easily be one of his epic film soundtracks. The song builds to a crescendo and surely leaves you wanting more.

Put all of that together and you have an amazing album, atmospheric and ethereal. It will transport you on a journey that you just may not want to come back from. I would thoroughly recommend adding to your collection” – HRH Mag

Buy: https://louisepatriciacrane.bandcamp.com/album/deep-blue

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4HW2z4vvs15IggnPnhj3vq?si=wJBZ_GgkQxuWUGuJsCHd5A

Key Cut: Deity

Hayley Williams - Petals for Armor

Release Date: 8th May

Label: Atlantic

Producer: Taylor Yorke

Standout Tracks: Leave It Alone/Dead Horse/Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris

Review:

“Hayley Williams' artful and deeply personal solo debut, 2020's Petals for Armor, reportedly comes on the heels of a period of deep self-reflection for the longtime Paramore vocalist, and it shows. Along with Paramore's breakthrough chart success with their 2013 self-titled album and 2017's After Laughter, Williams and the band endured three frought lineup changes. It was also during these years that Williams married, divorced, and saw her beloved grandmother endure a life-altering injury. She brings all of these experiences to bear on Petals for Armor, digging with poetic intensity into the depression and self-doubt that have often clouded her success. Joining Williams is Paramore guitarist Taylor York who also takes the helm as producer. A fluidly inventive instrumentalist and songwriter, York brings the same level of empathetic creativity to Williams' work here as he does with Paramore. Also on board are Paramore touring bassist Joey Howard (who shares at least half of the co-writing credits), drummer Aaron Steele (Ghost Beach, Fences, Ximena Sarinana), and cellist/violinist Benjamin Kaufman. Together, they've crafted a series of intimate mood pieces that pair Williams' candid lyrics (she also plays guitar and keyboards) with arty post-rock arrangements and evocative adult-contemporary flourishes. There's a palpable sense of exploration on Petals for Armor, as Williams includes nods to the progressive Baroque pop and funky dance music of artists like Kate Bush, Tori Amos, and David Byrne. Cuts like the opening "Simmer" and "Leave It Alone" have a narcotic dream energy, punctuated by menacing bass grooves and icy string accents. They also showcase Williams' continued growth as a singer, her resonant voice pulled down to a hushed lilt one minute and a soaring, mellifluous shimmer the next. While there's a sculpted precision to many of these songs, they are balanced with a frank emotionality. On the dancey, Latin-inflected "Dead Horse," Williams details a toxic relationship, singing "Every morning I wake up/From a dream of you/Holding me underwater/Is that a dream or a memory?/Held my breath for a decade/Dyed my hair blue to match my lips/Cool of me to try/Pretty cool I'm still alive." Also helping to illuminate Williams' softly cathartic sound are singer/songwriter's Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker who sing back-up on the flowing, downtempo orchestral track "Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris." It's a textured, nuanced song, rife with an empowered and explicitly feminine eye for detail. Williams sings, "I think of all the wilted women/Who crane their necks to reach a window/Ripping all their petals off just cause 'He loves me now, he loves me not.' 'While there's certainly an audible sense of collaboration on Petals for Armor, it's Williams' ability to turn her dark, personal moments into anthems of survival that stick with you. As she sings on "Watch Me While I Bloom," "I'm alive in spite of me/And I'm on my move/So come and look inside of me/Watch me while I bloom” – AllMusic

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/hayley-williams/petals-for-armor

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4HXpQ5KQBVWN25ltjnX7xa?si=hYcOpgPLQta9V0EMhNw9WQ

Key Cut: Simmer

JARV IS… - Beyond the Pale

Release Date: 17th July

Label: Rough Trade

Producers: Jarvis Cocker/Jason Buckle

Standout Tracks: Save the Whale/Must I Evolve?/Swanky Modes

Review:

“With the group’s stated aim to explore the prospect of writing songs in collaboration with the audience, there’s a crackle of concert electricity at Jarvis’ fingertips throughout. ‘Children Of The Echo’ was recorded live at Primavera last year, and there’s a muscle, a tight-knit urgency that pushes JARV… IS forwards.

‘House Music All Night Long’ has that call-and-response festival feel, but it’s sense of missing out on the party - “God damn this claustrophobia / Cos I should be disrobing ya...” - is a wonderfully eloquent evocation of lockdown life.

A record draped in FOMO, it finds Jarvis Cocker resuming his role as the perpetual outsider. He’s tempted, but never fully gives in, by the cultural temptations around him; take album standout ‘Am I Missing Something’, and it’s waspish lyric “I don’t want to dance with the Devil / But d’you mind if I tap my foot?”

‘Beyond The Pale’ is bedecked in highlights, a project draped in fantastic moments. It’s a funny, theatrical, but intensely musical experience, with those curious flourishes and daubs of colour – the neat arrangement on ‘Swanky Modes’, the stop-start structure of ‘Sometimes I Am Pharoah’ - pushing JARV… IS out into a realm of their own.

It would be easy, given his illustrious catalogue, to judge Jarvis Cocker against his past, but that would unfair to what JARV… IS have achieved together. ‘Beyond The Pale’ stands alone – sure, there are parallels with his previous work, but neither should we expect the frontman to undergo some Doctor Who esque regeneration. Instead, JARV… IS grapple with fresh possibilities in a wry, recognisable, but incredibly fresh way.

‘Beyond The Pale’ is a triumph” – CLASH

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/jarv-is/beyond-the-pale

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/11TCoFgFirZuNc0qjXyjmW?si=JJq9TDedSlCQoYfmX4UbTg

Key Cut: House Music All Night Long

Moses Boyd – Dark Matter

Release Date: 14th February

Label: EXODUS Records

Standout Tracks: Stranger Than Fiction/BTB/Shades of You

Review:

“Drummer Moses Boyd has always been a difficult musician to pin down. Half of the fiercely propulsive free jazz duo Binker and Moses, he was heralded as a poster boy of the London jazz revival when they won a Mobo for best jazz act in 2015. But his first solo offering, 2016’s Rye Lane Shuffle, was a dancefloor-focused 12-inch that was closer to the jazz-inflected house of Theo Parrish than any regular improvised setup.

Boyd followed this with two more Binker and Moses releases and a production credit on singer Zara McFarlane’s reggae-jazz 2017 album Arise, as well as a collaborative release in 2018, Displaced Diaspora. Dark Matter, his debut solo LP, is just as variable and no less confounding.

Opener Stranger Than Fiction begins with a twinkling roll call of keys and cymbal washes before descending into a bouncy, tuba-driven rhythm reminiscent of a snappy early 2000s grime instrumental. A soaring trumpet solo then takes over, disregarding the leaden weight of the groove, as if sound-clashing two tracks at once. That clash is a staple of the record, as with Poppy Ajudha’s crystalline vocals on the broken beat Shades of You sequenced next to Obongjayar’s earthen growl on dubby following number Dancing in the Dark” – The Guardian

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Moses-Boyd-Dark-Matter/release/14826090

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4XRA7yDYWSkO5BMvZinESW?si=6GJhcjWNRQWyWdH-xoC9xA

Key Cut: Dancing in the Dark

Porridge Radio – Every Bad (Debut Major Label Album)

Release Date: 13th March

Label: Secretly Canadian 

Standout Tracks: Long/Pop Song/Lilac

Review:

“Repetition is key to Every Bad. On lead track “Born Confused,” Margolin endlessly chants “Thank you for leaving me / Thank you for making me happy,” and it’s the first of many tidbits of blinding maturity on this album. “You will like me when you meet me” from “Sweet” is another mantra, delivered in Margolin’s sinister tone, and it comes after acknowledging several personal flaws. This kind of not-so-rosy romantic sentiment feels so essential right now, and Porridge Radio are masters of it.

Porridge Radio’s effective use of varied tempos, tones and levels of aggression is what makes their indie rock songs stand high above their peers. There’s a punk-ish, reverb-filled fury in the middle of “Don’t Ask Me Twice,” before the song’s relaxed conclusion. Not only do they channel emotions that change from minute to minute, but their songs are never stagnant either.

They might not be able to get away with such pummeling seriousness and instrumental intrigue if it wasn’t also aided by moments of charm and sheer magnetism. One such moment is the brutal, backwards outro of “Lilac” that bleeds into “Circling.” “Lilac” could hardly have a more fiery ending, but when “Circling” opens with light-hearted, nautical keys, it’s easy to grin and remember that everything is going to be okay (even if it is a song about how hiding away is sometimes necessary). Though spooky, Margolin’s voice is strangely easy to trust, and it cuts through the bleakness that she experiences in abundance.

Through scratchy indie rock (“Don’t Ask Me Twice,” “Give/Take”), grand punk (“Lilac”) and even auto-tuned pop (“Something”), Porridge Radio take pop songs much further than listeners might’ve thought possible. They want us to know that it’s okay to not have all the answers, and it’s okay to feel contradictory emotions. They shout repeated lines like they’re therapeutically screaming into the void, but surprisingly, listening to it is just as therapeutic. It’s one thing for a band to capture a world in chaos, but it’s much more difficult to accurately capture a mind in chaos—Porridge Radio make it look like a cakewalk. Every Bad is the nuanced album that indie rock has needed for years” – PASTE

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/porridge-radio/every-bad

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4DN3XbB33kHTJA7HhI0RFI?si=9OjbIj27RHeQcFGTzQFjAw

Key Cut: Sweet

FEATURE: You Can’t Always Get What You Want: Wait for the Green Light: Politicians and the Unauthorised Use of Artists’ Songs

FEATURE:

 

 

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

IN THIS PHOTO: Lorde

Wait for the Green Light: Politicians and the Unauthorised Use of Artists’ Songs

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I realise that this story…

IN THIS PHOTO: The Rolling Stones

has been out for a few days now but, as I can only publish so many articles a week, I have left it until now to talk about the issue of politicians using artists’ tracks without their expressed permission. This is not a new phenomenon at all, because politicians are a little lax when it comes to asking artists to use their songs for campaigns and speeches. The Guardian have reported the latest chapter in the story, and the artists who are taking a stand:

“Music stars including Lorde, Sia and Mick Jagger have signed an open letter demanding politicians gain clearance to their music before using songs in campaign advertising or events.

The letter, produced in partnership with the Artist Rights Alliance, urges political parties to “establish clear policies requiring campaigns to seek consent” from any artists they hope to feature.

Neil Young says Trump's use of songs at Mount Rushmore 'not OK with me'

 “This is the only way to effectively protect your candidates from legal risk, unnecessary public controversy, and the moral quagmire that comes from falsely claiming or implying an artist’s support or distorting an artists’ expression in such a high stakes public way,” the letter reads.

Using a song without going through the correct channels is called “dishonest and immoral” and publicised use “can compromise an artist’s personal values while disappointing and alienating fans – with great moral and economic cost”.

The letter also warns that improper use can “inevitably draw even the most reluctant or apolitical artists off the sidelines, compelling them to explain the ways they disagree with candidates wrongfully using their music”.

While it’s stated that this isn’t a partisan issue, its arrival comes after many artists have expressed outrage over their music being used by Donald Trump and his team. Stars including Pharrell Williams, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen have all made their displeasure known while most recently Neil Young has said he is reconsidering legal action after Rockin’ in the Free World continues to be played at rallies.

Other signatories of the letter include Sia, Alanis Morissette, Lionel Richie, Elvis Costello, Regina Spektor, Sheryl Crow and Steven Tyler. It calls for a request for a plan on how to deal with the issue in future by 10 August”.

It is not just Donald Trump who is culpable of using songs that he has not been given permission to do so, but he seems to be a repeat offender! I think a lot of leaders think that they can do what they want with music, and that the artist will be quite flattered. I can see why artists would want to be distanced from politicians like Trump because, not only has their work being used in an inappropriate setting, but it might suggest the political allegiance of that artist. Even if a British act like The Rolling Stones or a New Zealand artist like Lorde has their music used in the U.S., it still might offer the impression that they are supportive of Trump and back what he is saying.

IN THIS PHOTO: Regina Spektor/PHOTO CREDIT: Shervin Lainez

One cannot imagine too many artists stepping forward and being okay with Trump using their music. The same is true in this country – how many bands and acts would want Boris Johnson using one of their tracks?! There have been famous cases of artists refusing permission for politicians to use their songs, and it seems like this problem is not going away soon! Back in 2015, Rolling Stone reacted to the seemingly continued use of unauthorised music by politicians. It seems like, sadly, the law does sort of protect politicians playing songs in stadiums and bigger events:

“As Donald Trump recently demonstrated, when he blared Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” and received a public rebuttal from Young himself, candidates often neglect little details when picking campaign songs – like, say, contacting the songwriters. Over and over, this leads to embarrassing situations, most famously when Bruce Springsteen upbraided President Reagan for planning to install “Born in the U.S.A.” as a backdrop for his reelection campaign in 1984, but also more recently, when union-bashing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker prominently used “I’m Shipping Out to Boston” at an Iowa event and received a “we literally hate you!!!” tweet from pro-union punk band Dropkick Murphys.

Either way, the impact of such unauthorized use can be devastating for a songwriter. “The artist gets drawn into the question of whether or not to take any action, and run the risk of giving the politicians some additional publicity, or [allowing] the public for one second to think that someone like Neil Young was endorsing Donald Trump,” says Jon Landau, Springsteen’s longtime manager. “It’s kind of a reverse endorsement trap – Ronald Reagan declares Bruce as one of his own, and then Bruce has to either let it stand or actively disassociate. When the confusion gets big enough, most artists will, one way or the other, step in.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Donald Trump/PHOTO CREDIT: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Technically speaking, copyright laws allow political candidates to use just about any song they want, as long as they’re played at a stadium, arena or other venue that already has a public-performance license through a songwriters’ association such as ASCAP or BMI. However, the law contains plenty of gray area. If a candidate refuses to stop using a song in this scenario, an artist may be able to protect his “right of publicity” – Springsteen’s voice blaring over a loudspeaker is part of his image, and he has a right to protect his own image. “It’s untested in the political realm,” says Lawrence Iser, an intellectual-property lawyer who has represented the Beatles, Michael Jackson and many others. “Even if Donald Trump has the ASCAP right to use a Neil Young song, does Neil have the right to nevertheless go after him on right of publicity? I say he does.”

Iser represented David Byrne when the ex-Talking Head successfully sued Florida Republican Charlie Crist for using “Road to Nowhere” in a video to attack opponent Marco Rubio during a 2010 U.S. Senate campaign. He also helped Jackson Browne win a suit against John McCain in 2008 when the Republican presidential candidate played “Running on Empty” in an ad bashing Barack Obama on gas conservation.

“Why does it keep happening? I would say arrogance. Or because [candidates] want to use music in order to associate [with] fans of the artists whose music they’re using, and they think they can’t get permission,” Iser says. “What’s that expression? ‘It’s better to beg forgiveness than to ask [only] to get turned down’”.

A couple of songs have been used at rallies and events that have benefited politicians and artists alike. Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop was a reason why the band reunited in 1993 to play at his inaugural ball, and Clinton used the song quite a lot afterwards. It seems like that was quite beneficial for both Clinton and Fleetwood Mac – showing that there are occasions where both parties are happy. Maybe it is all down to popularity and how Clinton was taken to heart by many in music, whilst Trump has very few supporters in that area. D:Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better was appropriated by Tony Blair for his campaign in 1997. That was a good match, as the song suggested a change in the wind and, after years of Conservative rule, the U.K. was about to embrace a new dawn and sense of hope. Again, that was a case of a popular politician using music to help propel a campaign that was matched by public approval. Back in 2018, Trump (again) was in the news for using songs by Guns N’ Roses and Rihanna. I can understand why artists would be aghast at having their music used by politicians they do not support, and there are loopholes that benefit politicians in terms of permission. Can artists really stop their music being used?!

“As intellectual property lawyer Danwill Schwender laid out in his 2017 academic article “The Copyright Conflict Between Musicians and Political Campaigns Spins Around Again,” most musicians assign their rights to perform their music to a performance rights organization (PRO), from whom venues and events can then license the songs. This means the artists don’t always need to be consulted, but that in turn leaves open the possibility of negative publicity. For instance, Trump played Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” at his original campaign kick-off announcement in 2015. When Young’s management criticized this use of his music, Trump’s campaign team replied that they had “done everything legal and by the book,” licensing the song through the PRO known as the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). Even still, in the face of blowback from Young, they announced they would no longer be using his music going forward.

IN THIS PHOTO: Rihanna

In his article, Schwender wrote that another PRO known as Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) created a separate license for “political entities and organizations” in 2012. This license includes an opt-out clause allowing musicians to withdraw their music from the license “for any reason” before or after it’s been used in a way they don’t like. This was invoked by Queen after “We Are the Champions” was played at the 2016 Republican National Convention, where Trump was officially nominated as the party’s presidential candidate. However, this is not a definitive solution. Schwender wrote that “a venue’s blanket license could supersede a political campaign’s license.” This appears to be what’s happened to Guns N’ Roses. According to Rose, the Trump team is getting around their complaints by relying on venue licenses when playing songs like “Sweet Child O’ Mine” at events”.

The sheer stubbornness of politicians like Donald Trump suggests that the latest campaign by Lorde et al. will not come to much. He might stop using their songs but, when the election happens in November, you just know Trump will use someone’s song as jingoism or an attack against a Democrat competitor! I do feel for artists, and I think they deserve the respect of being asked to have their music used. It might lead to unpopular politicians being denied by everyone, but it is also unfair on artists to hear their music being used; it suggests they have okay-ed it and that they want their songs out there in that manner. Let’s hope that, going forward, politicians around the world wait for a green light from Lorde, or they ask The Rolling Stones if they can have what they want. It is only right artists are approached for any use of their material because, whether politicians like it or not, they do have…

THE right to refuse.

FEATURE: Second Spin: The Coral – Magic and Medicine

FEATURE:

Second Spin

The Coral – Magic and Medicine

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WHEN I think about albums that have been…

harshly overlooked, The Coral’s Magic and Medicine instantly springs to mind! The Coral are a rock band who formed in 1996 in Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside. They shot to prominence with their stunning eponymous album of 2002. That album was nominated for a Mercury Prize, and it spawned the massive single, Dreaming of You. The album is terrific and, with tracks like Shadows Fall, Spanish Main, and Skeleton Key, there is the right amount of eccentricity and romance! I think the reason that album hit people so hard is because it was so unusual and energetic. There is a weirdness and quirkiness that makes the song shine, but it is an easy album to love and understand. It is a fun album, stuffed with great moments and memorable songs. I think people were expecting a follow-up that was very much like the debut: another romp that was full of charm and infused the same sort of sounds together. Rather than copy their debut album, The Coral released Magic and Medicine in 2003. The album is more mature than the debut, and the sound is quite different. One can find ample oddness, but there is nothing quite as urgent and singalong as Dreaming of You, nor lovingly-bizarre as Skeleton Key. Despite the fact that some were not keen of the shift between The Coral, and Magic and Medicine, the album did get to number-one, and it earned them their first top-ten hits in Don’t Think You’re the First, and Pass It On.

I would encourage people to buy the album as Magic and Medicine sounds unlike anything that came out in 2003 – in a year that saw The White Stripes’ Elephant, OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, Blur’s Think Tank, and Dizzie Rascal’s Boy in da Corner unleashed into the world. Maybe there were people comparing Magic and Medicine to what else was out, and those who wanted the same as what they experienced on the band’s debut. To be fair, it is more the critical lack of love that bugs me rather than a lack of faith from fans. I think Magic and Medicine is one of these albums whose good sales and popularity was not matched by great reviews. There are a few better reviews but, for the most part, the album picked up three-star reviews and the feeling that, whilst there are some good moments to be found, it is a disappointing follow-up to The Coral; the band’s masterpiece, it seems, is not to be found here! The vibe is a little moodier and darker on Magic and Medicine, but the songcraft and writing is exceptional throughout. Don’t Think You’re the First, Secret Kiss, Bill McCai, and Pass It On are all natural standouts, whilst Talkin' Gypsy Market Blues, Eskimo Lament, and Confessions of A.D.D.D. are terrific! Whilst there are a couple of filler tracks on Magic and Medicine - Milkwood Blues, and All of Our Love are inessential – the same can be said of The Coral – I think, in fact, there are more weak moments on that album compared with Magic and Medicine.

I do feel that it is harsh that so many people who reviewed Magic and Medicine in 2003 had hopes that The Coral would produce something similar to their debut and, when that was not really the case, they were a bit let down. There have been a few retrospective reviews that have been kinder, but this Pitchfork review from 2004 is one of the contemporary reviews that was a little muted:

“It seems the jury is still out on The Coral. Though their self-titled debut was a schizophonic monster of noise, blues and Beatle-delic pop, effects peddles and stoner rock, it was lacking in substance and cohesion, and sounded more like a gang of kids on a school trip discovering what they could do in a recording studio than a creative tour-de-force. Furthermore, its songs were not the white-knuckle, feedback-fuelled stomps they were hyped as, but merely stitched-together fragments of ideas, upon which frontman James Skelly sketched some rough melodic framework. Still, where that album disappointed in its application, it at least astounded with its audacity. On Magic & Medicine, the band's frenetic freakout leanings have been stripped away in favor of a more humble approach, placing subtlety and songwriting above the sounds being produced. It all sounds far less interesting”.

As an aside, I would also urge people to check out 2004’s Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker, as it is a great mini-album and boasts some fab songs. Maybe The Coral were trying to move on from the sound and tone of their debut too quickly, but I would not have seen the benefit of them repeating that debut.

Despite quite a few slightly negative or average reviews from Magic and Medicine, there are a few positives ones that are a bit fairer towards the album. This is what AllMusic wrote in their review:

“Mixing equal bits Merseybeat melody, ragged Nuggets energy, and pure rock nostalgia, the Coral create one of the 21st century's finest odes to 1960s and 1970s garage rock. Not since The La's has a band more convincingly aped an era, and like that album, there's not a cringe-worthy moment in sight. If the lads were accused of being too bombastic and experimental on their debut, here they rein in their influences and just stick with the program of creating rocking tunes. The songwriting, playing, and production are so subtle, one almost imagines that these 12 songs are lost sonic treats from the Animals, Love, or some forgotten band of psych-pop dreamers. While a number of the songs stick out as highlights, particularly the catchy U.K. singles "Don't Think You're the First" and "Pass It On," a majority of the songs work as growers. While the band has abandoned the rousing loony attitude of its debut, and filtered out any ska influence, jazz, blues, and Spanish guitar motifs keep things varied.

Beyond the singles, every track works its own fine magic, but the spooky, chugging "Bill McCai" and the atmospheric ballad "Careless Hands" are particularly noteworthy. The album loses its bearings somewhat after "Pass It On," not because the final two songs are weak, but because they stray from the even tone of the previous ten songs. Remarkably authentic in recovering the vibes of early British rock, Magic and Medicine is a mature, solid throwback. Whether or not the Coral travel these same musical avenues in the future, for now they've definitely created an album that's a world unto itself, and one that's well worth repeat visits”.

I feel the departure from the slightly unhinged flavour of the debut was a brave mood, but I think Magic and Medicine is a more rewarding and accessible listen than The Coral, but it is also an album that possesses a lot of variation and incredible sounds. I have a lot of affection for Magic and Medicine, as it was released when I was at university, and I was already aware of The Coral. I bought Magic and Medicine, and I instantly bonded with the songs and would play the album over and over! It still sounds awesome today, and The Coral have since gone on to release seven more albums – their last, Move Through the Dawn, was released in 2018. I would prompt people to listen to Magic and Medicine again (or for the first time), as it was unfairly reviewed in 2003 and it is, in my opinion, an album…

WORTH spending some time with.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Folk Rock Pearls

FEATURE:

 

The Lockdown Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Simon and Garfunkel/PHOTO CREDIT: Bettmann Archive

Folk Rock Pearls

___________

THIS weekend is going to be…

PHOTO CREDIT: @edwardeyer/Unsplash

a pretty hot one, and many of will be out and about! Although it seems like we are out of lockdown, there are still restrictions in place, and there is a long way until we can get back to some semblance or normality and the familiarity. Until then, I think music is providing a great comfort, and so many of us have been immersing our days in music. In the latest Lockdown Playlist, I have collected together the very best Folk Rock songs. It is a great genre, and one that has spawned some terrific tracks! Have a listen to the songs below, and I hope they will give your weekend…

IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell

AN extra sweetness.

FEATURE: In the Air, the Night Scented Stock: Is Never for Ever Kate Bush’s Most Underrated Album?

FEATURE:

In the Air, the Night Scented Stock

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980

Is Never for Ever Kate Bush’s Most Underrated Album?

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I have written about…

various aspects of Never for Ever, and I approached it from different angles. I asked, earlier in the year, whether there would be an anniversary edition ahead of its fortieth on 7th September. Although Kate Bush is reluctant to look back, it would have been great to have an anniversary release, as I think Never for Ever might be one of her most important album. Hounds of Love is celebrating thirty-five years in September, and it remains her most-celebrated moment. I am going to reassess that album and give it a lot more attention over the coming weeks, but before that titanic album turns thirty-five, Never for Ever turns forty. The Kick Inside (1978), her debut, is my favourite album, and I think Lionheart (released later that year) was a bit rushed and, although underrated, it does not rank with her true essence. I think The Dreaming (1982) was important, as it was Bush alone as a produce; she released her most layered and intriguing albums to that point and, not long after that album was released, Bush was making changes to her life that would lead to the revelatory and genius Hounds of Love. I recently argued that Lionheart was a seriously underrated album, but I think Never for Ever is one of her most underrated album of all. It is also one of her most important, as there was a lot of expectation looming in the air. Lionheart was met with a murmur of disappointment. 1978 was a busy and tiring year for Bush!

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during 1979’s Tour of Life

It seemed like there was no moment for rest! Many would have understood if Bush took a lot of time off in 1979, but she took her Tour of Life across Europe. It was important for her to assume more control of her work, as there was a feeling that, on her first two albums, she was more a bystander rather than the creative engine. The Tour of Life went some way to appeasing Bush’s lack of satisfaction; a tour that was very much her at the forefront. In the same way people massively underrate The Kick Inside and dismiss it as a ‘promising debut’ (which I think is her most underrated record), I do not hear a lot of people underline just how pivotal Never for Ever was. Maybe, looking back, Bush felt that Never for Ever was a small step to where she wanted to head, if not completely in love with the album – in interviews from the 1980s and 1990s she sort of distanced herself from her first three albums. Maybe it is not as accomplished and ambitious as Hounds of Love, but I think Never for Ever is more accessible than The Dreaming, and it is packed with brilliant moments. Kate Bush produced Never for Ever alongside Jon Kelly (who was an engineer on The Kick Inside, and Lionheart), and I think this really adds something to the album.

She was only twenty-one where she was recording the album, so it might have been a bit early to produce on her own – and after a tiring last couple of years, another body in the producer’s seat would have been welcomed! Never for Ever is vital, as it was an important transition from the sounds of her first two albums. Those albums explore various subjects, but there are a lot of songs about passion and love; the piano takes the starring role, and Never for Ever signalled a lot of development. I have seen a lot of reviews for Never for Ever, but very few are profusive and really do the album justice! The album entered the U.K. album chart at number-one on the weekend ending 20th September, 1980. That was impressive, as Bush became the first female British solo artist to achieve that status. Never for Ever is also the first studio album by any female solo artist to reach number-one in the U.K. It was a hugely popular album, so I wonder why the reviews were not terrific. Listen to the album as a whole, and the song quality is tremendous! Apart from the rather throwaway Blow Away (for Bill), every song on the album is a treasure! I feel Never for Ever gave Bush the confidence to experiment and push herself on albums that followed and, liberated by her Tour of Life the year before and the chance to work alongside a new producer, you can really hear the difference.

Although, on most polls, Never for Ever makes the top-five or six, it rarely gets any higher. I think the album is one of her most varied, and it easily unites the beauty of her first two albums and the more experimental and forward-looking sounds she would explore after Never for Ever. One big change from her first two albums to Never for Ever was a more political flavour. Whether it was a reaction following an interview Bush conducted with Danny Baker in 1979 (where he sort of suggested she lacked edge), or her reacting to a decade that was ending with a lot of division, I am not too sure. Like Bush’s best albums, the track listing is perfect. The more ‘political’ songs, Army Dreamers, and Breathing, end the album, but both are different in tone. The former has a nimbler vocal, where Bush adopts an Irish accent (Bush’s mother was Irish, as a side-note). The song talks about the way young men are sent to war and lives are wasted and, whilst it is a heavy subject, there is a lightness and beauty to the song that keeps it from being too harrowing. Breathing is an epic closer where we see a perspective of a fetus who is trying to stay safe from the horrors of the outside world: a land where nuclear war is imminent and there is so much danger around. The stark and unexpected leap from The Kick Inside/Lionheart in terms of maturity and lyrical themes is noticeable. If Bush’s first two albums hinted at broadness and an eclectic musical mind, Never for Ever was the first indication of who she really was and where she wanted to go.

Many reviews in 1980 – and a few since – single out the singles as highlights, but they feel the rest of the album lacks something. Breathing was released on 14th April, 1980 and got to number-sixteen in the U.K. charts. Army Dreamers was released on 22nd September, and it reached the same position. Between those songs was the second single and album opener: the majestic and beloved Babooshka. I went deep with that song back in May as I looked ahead to its fortieth anniversary and, following its release on 27th June, the single reached number-five in the U.K. charts. In the space of three singles, Bush covered so much ground! I love Babooshka’s wonderful introduction and the breaking glass sound from the Fairlight CMI we get later on. I think the introduction of the Fairlight CMI into Bush’s world offered new possibilities and added something special. Never for Ever, to that point, was her most musically-varied, and I love the fact there were a lot of musicians involved. Alongside strings, bass, and drums, Paddy Bush (her brother) brought in rarer instruments like a balalaika, sitar, koto, mandolin and the strumento de porco to give various songs unusual scents and beautifully angular sounds. Some truly exceptional albums arrived in 1980, and there was this sort of moment where Punk was fading and artists like David Bowie and Talking Heads were offering something more experimental and richer. Kate Bush, in my view, was as boundary-pushing and bold as those artists, and Never for Ever overflows with genius.

I disagree that the three singles are the only things worth getting excited about. From the urgency and oddness of Babooshka, Delius (Song of Summer) is a different beast. Bush’s ethereal and gorgeous vocals mix with Ian Bairnson’s bass vocal perfectly. Blow Away (for Bill) is one of the weaker tracks, but it is still beautifully performed – and it is an ode to musical stars who recently departed (including Minnie Riperton and Marc Bolan). Bush remarked in interviews around the time that a lot of great albums came out in 1980 as a reaction to a lot of the loss – in terms of musicians passing - and tensions that were happening in the world. All We Ever Look For, and Egypt end the first side of Never for Ever and, as you’d expect, Bush does not stand still - and neither song shares a lot of common ground! All We Ever Look For is one of Bush’s most-underrated songs. As she explained in an interview, the song was not about her:

“One of my new songs, 'All We Ever Look For', it's not about me. It's about family relationships generally. Our parents got beaten physically. We get beaten psychologically. The last line - "All we ever look for - but we never did score".' Well, that's the way it is - you do get faced sometimes with futile situations. But the answer's not to kill yourself. You have to accept it, you have to cope with it. (Derek Jewell, 'How To Write Songs And Influence People'. Sunday Times (UK), 5 October 1980)”.

I love the second side, and you get the rush of Violin, and this wonderful segue track, Night Scented Stock, before Army Dreamers. A lot of artists put out these sub-one minute songs that act as a pause or way to bridge between two very different songs. More than a filler track, Night Scented Stock is an incredibly beautiful passage where we get wordless vocals from Bush; her phrasing and utterances are sublime and dreamy! The song is more like a mini-hymn, and one cannot help but listen and be transported! Two of the best tracks on the album occur on the second side: The Wedding List, and The Infant Kiss. Bush always had a gift for storytelling and pushing beyond the simple, and we get these two marvellous songs that not a lot of people discuss today. The Wedding List was inspired by a François Truffaut's film called The Bride Wore Black (La Mariée était en noir). It tells of a groom who is accidentally murdered on the day of his wedding by a group of five people who shoot at him from a window. The bride succeeds in tracking down each one of the five and kills them in a row, including the last one who happens to be in jail. I love the black humour of the song and, in my view, it could have been released as a single and been a chart success! The Infant Kiss was inspired by the horror movie, The Innocents, which in turn was inspired by Henry James' novel, The Turn of the Screw. The story is about a governess who believes the ghost of her predecessor's dead lover is trying to possess the bodies of the children she is looking after. Not many artists would take inspiration from such sources, but Bush proved that there was nobody like her!

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Andy Phillips

In an interview Bush conducted with NME, she was asked about The Infant Kiss:

“I: Your songs all have different identity, very specific mood, based in part on the subject matter and one can't help but wonder in what circumstances the ideas come to you. Let's just take one, the next one - "The Infant Kiss". Where and how did that idea come to you?

K: That's from a very old British movie, I think it's a Fifties movie that was called The Innocents and it was based on a book called The Turn of the Screw. I haven't seen the film for I suppose eight years now but they showed it twice I think when I was much younger and it's a very very haunting film and the fact that it's in black and white makes it even spookier, it's very eerie. The story is that a governess goes to look after two children, a young boy and a young girl who are in fact possessed by the spirits of the previous gardener and the maid - and she doesn't know this, as far as she's concerned they're just two children. She starts noticing that when she tucks the little boy in bed that instead of giving her a little peck on the cheek he give her a very big manly passionate kiss. And in the film they really didn't go into that area very strongly, it was much more the haunting, but it always fascinated me that strange distortion of the child having a very experienced hard man inside. Something that the child could never be without the experience that a much older man would have. It seemed very disturbing and in order to make it very intimate and to make people try to understand how terrible it is for her, it's sung in the first person and it's really confusing for her, she's really terrified by what's happening.

I: I do find this such a beautiful lyric: Word of caress on their lips that speak of adult love, I want to smack by I hold back; I only want to touch. You really do create this picture of a woman who wants to respond as a woman rather than as a governess or a mother. Does the distortion of relationships in general other than just this particular one, appeal to you as a subject?

K: Yes, terribly. I think it is that distortion that makes me want to write about it and there seems to be distortion in so many areas and that's what's so fascinating, because without that distortion things would probably be so simple, so easy and it's always that little thing that makes it hard for us.

In the same interview, she discussed the balance of the commercial demands that would have been on her, in addition to the more experimental mentality she had:

“I: You mentioned that so much of it is experimental and I agree with you and we'll be talking about that - but was there pressure on you to have those commercial considerations which would be the result of your previous success?

K: Well, to be quite honest that's something that I never really consider. Commerciality is such - a word that we use a lot that sometimes gets mixed up, because in many terms commerciality is really something that people like, a lot of people like. Sometimes a very unobvious thing can in fact be commercial and really the way I go for it is just if I feel I have a good enough song to build on it and to give it all I can give it, all its highlights, the best you can and then really it has its own life then. It's not so much a matter of commerciality as rather dressing the song in the correct manner - like putting a nice suit on it instead of, you know, a pair of overalls.

Bush talked about the unconventional angles of love, and the fact that a song such as The Wedding List would take many by surprise:

“I: But the one you've written about is another tale of romance, successful and failed and a very touching one about a man who is tired a bit of his wife but when she dresses up in what we might call new clothes he falls for her all over again. Now someone might say that this is a very novel way of looking at love. Do you think of yourself as a writer of love songs?

K: I don't know. I suppose I would say that I have written some love songs but I wouldn't term that as one. Really I'm very annoyed at the way that the woman is behaving in this song because it is so stupid and in fact she's just ruining the whole situation which was very lovely - and it's only because of what's going on in her brain that she does these things so - suspicion, paranoia all these naughty energies again and it's really quite sad I think.

I: Has a great effort gone into the sound of this album, not just the music but the sound?

K: Yes. I thinks sounds are so important because that is what music is - it is the sound of the music - and the way sounds mix and move together is incredible. It is again so similar to colours and to have a pure colour and pure sounds are very similar things. In many ways I think we saw a lot of the sounds a visual things - this is the way I often interpret music, I see it visually, and so in many ways you'd interpret a mountain in the picture into a very pure guitar sound or whatever. I think everyone was very aware of sounds and the animation of it and how a certain sound could imply so much more at one piece in the song”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush signing a copy of Never for Ever in Glasgow on 9th September, 1980

One of the most defining aspects of Never for Ever is Bush being in the producer’s role. She has assisted with Lionheart, but here she was having a much bigger say! It is clear that this freedom and responsibility was something she was keen to take on:

“I: You are the co-producer of this album with Jon Kelly. I suppose this then was your job in that regard, the direction of the sound?

K: Yes. The whole thing was so exciting for me, to actually have control of my baby for the first time. Something that I have been working for and was very nervous of too, obviously, because when you go in for the first time you really wonder if you are capable - you hope you are. Every time that we tried something and it worked it just made you feel so much braver. Of course it doesn't always work, but everyone helping and concentrating on the music, it's such a beautiful thing, it really is a wonderful experience - everyone's feelings going into the songs that you wrote perhaps in a little room somewhere in London, you know, it's all coming out on the tape”.

Hounds of Love will get a lot of love (as it should) when it turns thirty-five in September, but Never for Ever’s fortieth happens sooner. Maybe non-Kate Bush fans will not realise the significance, but I hope there is some focus on an album that remains hugely underrated and was a real evolution for Bush. I think more people should listen to the album, and it is long-overdue a reappraisal. Like several Kate Bush albums, many have just focused on the singles and assumed the rest of the material is inferior. That is not the case with Never for Ever. Bush herself might feel Never for Ever was good at the time but she was still finding herself and not at her very best. I feel Never for Ever is better than that and, having heard the album so many times through, it still affects me in different ways…

EACH time I return to it.

FEATURE: Denise Johnson: A Timeless Talent: The Great Lesser-Known Voices on Dance, Trip Hop and Club Classics: The Playlist

FEATURE:

 

Denise Johnson: A Timeless Talent

IN THIS PHOTO: Denise Johnson

The Great Lesser-Known Voices on Dance, Trip Hop and Club Classics: The Playlist

___________

EARLIER in the week…

PHOTO CREDIT: Pete Smith

the music world said goodbye to the great Denise Johnson. Many people might not know her face or name, but you would have heard her voice! It was an especially shocking piece of news, as Johnson seemed to be healthy and in good spirits. She was looking forward to the release of her debut solo album, Where Does It Go, and it was going to be a very busy time for her. The music world have been paying tribute all week, and it has rocked so many people to the core. This is how The Guardian reacted:

“Manchester’s nostalgia industrial complex tends to privilege its white men: Joy Division and Tony Wilson are the ones to have had biopics made about them, with another about Shaun Ryder on the way. But these rightful remembrances can crowd out figures such as Barry Adamson and Rowetta: black, genre-fluid pioneers amid the city’s wildly exciting music scene in the 1980s and early 90s. Vocalist Denise Johnson, who died this week aged 56, was another of them at the vanguard.

“Even though she was a mate,” remembers Johnny Marr, “you felt it was a privilege her being on your song. She kind of gold-plated songs – you knew that the track was going to acquire a few extra gold stars.”

Born into the 1960s working-class Manchester encapsulated by the photographs of Shirley Baker, Johnson was brought up by her Jamaican mother in the shadow of the imposing modernist Hulme Crescents estate. An early passion for Manchester City had to be suppressed as a child due to fears of racial abuse on the terraces, though she would later become an enthusiastic and eloquent advocate of the club. As soon as the infant Denise was aware of singing, however, it became her life, initially schooled on an eclectic syllabus of Tamla Motown, reggae and Hollywood musicals.

Listening to Johnson’s gorgeous voice, you could be forgiven for assuming that her roots were in gospel – instead, she was shaped by the far more prosaic world of the north-west club scene, singing on the Phoenix Nights circuit as part of a four-piece cabaret act, complete with cassette backing tape. She said she was fired for being “too opinionated”, but an entirely different clubland would be waiting to claim her for its own.

In 1989, Johnson joined the British neo-soul outfit Fifth of Heaven – her velvety Just a Little More is an underappreciated cut from that time – but she grew disillusioned with the constraints of the genre. “It sounded so complacent and subdued,” she told Vox magazine in 1994. “And it had no fire. I need fire.” She guested on tracks around Manchester, with the debut single for the Creation Records rave outfit Hypnotone laying the template for a career.”.

I have been inspired by The People’s Playlist on Lauren Laverne’s BBC Radio 6 Music breakfast show from Thursday. To salute Denise Johnson, she asked listeners for those hits featuring singers that we do not hear a lot about. There was a slew of Dance and Club hits in the 1980s and 1990s where the singer was either uncredited or they were not as lauded as the artist who made the song – or their name is not as famous as it should be! From Basement Jaxx and Primal Scream through to Urban Cookie Collective and Black Box, we have grown up around these songs that have soundtracked some of our best years.  After hearing of Denise Johnson’s death, I was compelled to listen back to the songs she featured on, and I have been musing about the classic tracks with incredible vocals from relatively unknown singers. I am focusing on women and their voices and, to add to the playlist Laverne collated for her show this week, I am putting out a mix of songs where we might be familiar with the voice but not the person who performed it. Here is a small selection of Dance, Trip Hop and Club classics…

PHOTO CREDIT: @5tep5/Unsplash

OF immense proportions.

FEATURE: The August Playlist: Vol. 1: I Want Something More in My Future

FEATURE:

 

The August Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Eilish/PHOTO CREDIT: Arielle Bobb-Willis

Vol. 1: I Want Something More in My Future

__________

WHEN it comes to awesome and packed…

IN THIS PHOTO: Fontaines D.C.

weeks in music, they do not get much bigger than this! There are new tracks from Billie Eilish, Róisín Murphy, Beyoncé (with Shatta Wale and Major Lazer), Fontaines D.C., The Go-Go’s, Robert Plant, Sheryl Crow, Lana Del Rey, Angel Olsen, Alanis Morissette, Jorja Smith, Brandy, Marilyn Manson, Everything Everything, Glass Animals, and The Lemon Twigs! It is a rammed and ready playlist featuring every style and texture you could possibly ever want! If you require some spring and motivation to get you fully into the weekend, then this playlist is definitely going to do the job! In one of the busiest and best weeks of music this year so far, we have been treated to…

IN THIS PHOTO: Róisín Murphy

SO much bounty.

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

__________

PHOTO CREDIT: Lars Crommelinck

Billie Eilish – my future

PHOTO CREDIT: Adrian Samson

Róisín Murphy – Something More (Extended Mix)

Beyoncé, Shatta Wale, Major Lazer – ALREADY

Fontaines D.C. – A Lucid Dream

The Go-Go’s - Club Zero

Angel Olsen - Whole New Mess

Alanis Morissette – Missing the Miracle

PHOTO CREDIT: Clark Franklyn

Jorja Smith - By Any Means

Tricky (ft. Marta) - Thinking Of

Brandy - Borderline

PHOTO CREDIT: Lindsay Ellary

Phoebe Bridgers - I Know the End

Mina Tindle (ft. Sufjan Stevens)  - Give a Little Love

Marilyn Manson - WE ARE CHAOS

Black Honey – Beaches

Laura Veirs - Burn Too Bright

Holly Humberstone - Fake Plastic Trees

Glass Animals - It's All So Incredibly Loud

Calva Louise - I Wish

Everything Everything - Violet Sun

Robert Plant – Charlie Patton Highway (Turn it Up, Pt. I)

PHOTO CREDIT: Lillie Eiger

Flohio – Glamourised

Phoebe Green – Reinvent

Hinds - Spanish Bombs (The Clash Cover)

Toni Braxton – Dance

Lana Del Rey – LA Who Am I to Love You (from the Audiobook, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass)

Alex Kapranos & Clara Luciani - Summer Wine

Biffy Clyro - Weird Leisure

Izzy Bizu – Tough Pill

Matt Berry - Take a Bow

Liela Moss - Turn Your Back Around

Ward Thomas – Sweet Time

Sheryl Crow – Woman in the White House (2020 Version)

PHOTO CREDIT: 4thFloorCreative

Koffee – Pressure

SOAK (ft. Gemma Doherty) - I'm Alive

Sam Smith (ft. Burna Boy) - My Oasis

PHOTO CREDIT: Gabriel Green

The Lemon Twigs - No One Holds You Closer (Than the One You Haven't Met)

Hannah Wants, Eskuche – The ISH

Dizzy – Beatrice

PHOTO CREDIT: Stephanie Sian-Smith

Ella Eyre, Yxng Bane – Careless

Peaches - Solid Gold, Easy Action

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Thirteen: Public Enemy

FEATURE:

  

A Buyer’s Guide

Part Thirteen: Public Enemy

___________

AS it is the sixtieth birthday of Public Enemy’s Chuck D…

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

today (1st August), I thought it was high time I included the group in A Buyer’s Guide! I am a big fan of the Long Island-formed band, and I have been following their work for a while. I would count It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back among my twenty favourite albums, and they just put out an album, Loud Is Not Enough (under the name Public Enemy Radio). To celebrate one of the most influential and powerful Hip-Hop groups ever, I have selected the four essential albums that everyone needs to own; one that is underrated and deserves wider appreciation; their current album, in addition to a useful book that is worth reading. Whether you are new to Public Enemy or have been with them since the start, I hope this guide provides…

YOU with some useful tips.

_____________

The Four Essential Albums

Yo! Bum Rush the Show

Release Date: 10th February, 1987

Labels: Def Jam/Columbia

Producers: Rick Rubin (exec.)/Bill Stephney/The Bomb Squad

Standout Tracks: You’re Gonna Get Yours/Timebomb/Yo! Bum Rush the Show

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Public-Enemy-Yo-Bum-Rush-The-Show/master/50985

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0YI9ihAQIC63jyDuP5d6DN

Review:

“Sometimes, debut albums present an artist in full bloom, with an assured grasp on their sound and message. Sometimes, debut albums are nothing but promise, pointing toward what the artist could do. Public Enemy's gripping first album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, manages to fill both categories: it's an expert, fully realized record of extraordinary power, but it pales in comparison with what came merely a year later. This is very much a Rick Rubin-directed production, kicking heavy guitars toward the front, honing the loops, rhythms, and samples into a roar with as much in common with rock as rap. The Bomb Squad are apparent, but they're in nascent stage -- certain sounds and ideas that would later become trademarks bubble underneath the surface. And the same thing could be said for Chuck D, whose searing, structured rhymes and revolutionary ideas are still being formed. This is still the sound of a group comfortable rocking the neighborhood, but not yet ready to enter the larger national stage. But, damn if they don't sound like they've already conquered the world! Already, there is a tangible, physical excitement to the music, something that hits the gut with relentless force, as the mind races to keep up with Chuck's relentless rhymes or Flavor Flav's spastic outbursts. And if there doesn't seem to be as many classics here -- "You're Gonna Get Yours," "Miuzi Weighs a Ton," "Public Enemy No. 1" -- that's only in comparison to what came later, since by any other artist an album this furious, visceral, and exciting would unquestionably be heralded as a classic. From Public Enemy, this is simply a shade under classic status” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Public Enemy No. 1

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

Release Date: 28th June, 1988

Labels: Def Jam/Columbia

Producers: Chuck D/Rick Rubin (exec.)/Hank Shocklee

Standout Tracks: Bring the Noise/Don’t Believe the Hype/Night of the Living Baseheads

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Public-Enemy-It-Takes-A-Nation-Of-Millions-To-Hold-Us-Back/master/30296

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3PxXiYU3PjymOEE22PewGZ

Review:

“Nation of Millions netted Public Enemy the elusive American audience and platinum sales their debut couldn’t, and it changed the face of rap music. The hip-hop landscape of ‘89-’90 was dotted with sample-heavy sons of Nation. Chuck sent early copies of the album out west to Dre and Ice Cube, and N.W.A.’s landmark Straight Outta Compton cropped up like a gangsta rap rejoinder to the Bomb Squad ethos. (Cube would later tap the team for production on his post-N.W.A. solo debut AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted.) De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising and the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique added a playful, psychedelic charm to the proceedings. Nation’s message of black self-sufficiency resonated through the proudly Afrocentric art of A Tribe Called Quest, X Clan, Brand Nubian and more. Beyond the ’80s, the music of Nation of Millions would continue to find new life in unexpected places: Weezer’s 1996 comeback single “El Scorcho” nicked its “I’m the epitome of public enemy” barb from “Don’t Believe the Hype,” and Jay-Z’s 2006 post-retirement salvo “Show Me What You Got” is a nod to Nation’s “Show ‘Em Whatcha Got” – Pitchfork

Choice Cut: She Watch Channel Zero?!

Fear of a Black Planet

Release Date: 10th April 1990

Labels: Def Jam/Columbia

Producers: Chuck D/Eric "Vietnam" Sadler/Hank Shocklee/Keith Shocklee

Standout Tracks: Welcome to the Terrordome/Fear of a Black Planet/Revolutionary Generation

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Public-Enemy-Fear-Of-A-Black-Planet/master/30255

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0aFNb4RDk2hmKKLa0bzXNz

Review:

“At the time of its release in March 1990 -- just a mere two years after It Takes a Nation of Millions -- nearly all of the attention spent on Public Enemy's third album, Fear of a Black Planet, was concentrated on the dying controversy over Professor Griff's anti-Semitic statements of 1989, and how leader Chuck D bungled the public relations regarding his dismissal. References to the controversy are scattered throughout the album -- and it fueled the incendiary lead single, "Welcome to the Terrordome" -- but years later, after the furor has died down, what remains is a remarkable piece of modern art, a record that ushered in the '90s in a hail of multiculturalism and kaleidoscopic confusion. It also easily stands as the Bomb Squad's finest musical moment. Where Millions was all about aggression -- layered aggression, but aggression nonetheless -- Fear of a Black Planet encompasses everything, touching on seductive grooves, relentless beats, hard funk, and dub reggae without blinking an eye. All the more impressive is that this is one of the records made during the golden age of sampling, before legal limits were set on sampling, so this is a wild, endlessly layered record filled with familiar sounds you can't place; it's nearly as heady as the Beastie Boys' magnum opus, Paul's Boutique, in how it pulls from anonymous and familiar sources to create something totally original and modern. While the Bomb Squad were casting a wider net, Chuck D's writing was tighter than ever, with each track tackling a specific topic (apart from the aforementioned "Welcome to the Terrordome," whose careening rhymes and paranoid confusion are all the more effective when surrounded by such detailed arguments), a sentiment that spills over to Flavor Flav, who delivers the pungent black humor of "911 Is a Joke," perhaps the best-known song here. Chuck gets himself into trouble here and there -- most notoriously on "Meet the G That Killed Me," where he skirts with homophobia -- but by and large, he's never been so eloquent, angry, or persuasive as he is here. This isn't as revolutionary or as potent as Millions, but it holds together better, and as a piece of music, this is the best hip-hop has ever had to offer” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: 911 is a Joke

Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black

Release Date: 1st October, 1991

Labels: Def Jam/Columbia

Producers: Gary G-Wiz The Bomb Squad (exec.)/The Imperial Grand Ministers of Funk

Standout Tracks: Nighttrain/Can't Truss It/Bring tha Noize

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Public-Enemy-Apocalypse-91-The-Enemy-Strikes-Black/master/30225

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2UqKqZofb9pdapHk4HzRUo

Review:

“When Chuck calls out, ”Here comes the drums!” on ”Truss,” he invokes the music’s African rhythmic base. Between the syncopated verses are melodic interludes that spell the song’s march. This contrast between African and European musical modes parallels the ambivalent feelings that are part of the black American experience.

Apocalypse ’91 gives us PE’s hardest-hitting music ever. Hank Shocklee’s Bomb Squad production turns the rhetoric into kinetic sensations. Keening noises rise out of steamroller grooves. Two tracks, ”Lost at Birth” and ”Rebirth,” reassemble key sounds and words from PE’s past into edgy, jazz-metal abstractions.

At a time when some West Coast rappers concentrate on unfocused anger and profanity, this album finds Public Enemy theorizing about black discontent with a close-up, street-life focus, while insisting that rap be more than the whine of crybabies or thugs. Apocalypse ’91 has an emotional and intellectual sweep, advancing political awareness along with fellow feeling, enlightenment with pleasure” – Entertainment Weekly

Choice Cut: Shut ‘em Down

The Underrated Gem

How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?

Release Date: 7th August, 2007

Labels: SlamJamz/Redeye

Producers: Gary G-Wiz/Amani K. Smith/Flavor Flav

Standout Tracks: Black Is Back/Harder Than You Think/Amerikan Gangster

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Public-Enemy-How-You-Sell-Soul-To-A-Soulless-People-Who-Sold-Their-Soul/release/1093986

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3jnhHyPedm6hlPStXitAsK

Review:

“Starting in a remarkably upbeat mood, HYSSTASPWSTS turns darker when the state of modern R’n’B gets its come-uppance on tracks like “Sex Drugs And Violence “ (featuring the conscious rhymes of a guesting KRS-One), “Frankenstar” or “Amerikan Gangster”. The days of Hank Shocklee’s Bomb Squad may be gone, but Gary G Wiz’s production incorporates enough funk, psychedelic rock and rib-crushing beats to make Public Enemy’s sound almost as insistent as their halcyon days.

Even the man who seemingly single-handedly tried to destroy his band’s legacy, Flavor Flav, reins in his japery and turns in two absolutely fine self-promotional tracks as well as an compelling autobiographical tale on “Bridge Of Pain”. By “The Long And Whining Road” (where Chuck even namechecks his favourite Dylan tracks) the whole vibe’s turned slightly surreal. “Eve Of Destruction” - Barry Maguire’s protest song updated for today’s middle eastern conflict - should convince any doubters that PE still have plenty of thought-provoking moves left.

The sleevenotes address the age-old concerns of any artist who’s suffered at the hands of an industry bent on restricting the output and distribution of musicians’ work. This may obscure the deeper message of PE that resides in the grooves, but in the end this album speaks for itself. A whole generation may just now pay lip service to the legacy of Chuck D etc. but HYSSTASPWSTS stands tall on its own terms” – BBC

Choice Cut: Eve of Destruction

The Latest/Final Album

 

Loud Is Not Enough (As Public Enemy Radio)

Release Date: 1st April, 2020

Label: The SpitSLAM Record Label Group

Standout Tracks: Food as a Machine Gun/Man Listen/The Kids Ain’t Alright

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Enemy-Radio-Loud-Is-Not-Enough/release/15028551

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0oilBN99CQEXZYMRZrQOCj

Review:

“Enemy Radio is composed of Chuck D, DJ Lord Aswod, and Oakland-based rapper and educator Jahi Torman. It’s supposed to signify a return to Public Enemy’s “two turntables, a mic, and a massive sound system” roots. Jahi has known the crew since 1999 and has recorded music with the crew since the mid-2010s; he’s the frontman for PE2.0, the “next generation” of Public Enemy.

Sonically, Loud Is Not Enough is more Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987) than Fear of a Black Planet (1990). The beats, produced entirely by David “C-Doc” Synder (a.k.a. the Warhammer), still feel like they’d fit on a Public Enemy album, but they’re often more stark, while still hitting hard. In terms of subject matter, Chuck D and Jahi stay true to their conscious roots, seeking to inspire others to action, as well as educate the younger generation. The project is tight and compact, running at about 32 minutes, but the crew says a lot in a short time period.

The album ends on a fairly melancholy note with “The Kids Ain’t Alright.” It’s fairly pessimistic in its outlook on the future, with Chuck lamenting as he watches this generation’s youth fall into traps set by society. Daddy-O, of Stetsasonic fame, ends the song by decrying the decay of the culture surrounding hip-hop music. “We called Latifah ‘Queen’; you call Megan ‘bitch,’” he notes.

Just as much as any other time in Public Enemy’s existence, the culture needs Chuck D. He’s older and wiser, but still able to examine threats to the oppressed with potent messages and delivery. I’m certainly hoping that as time goes on, whatever viral marketing idea Chuck used in the hopes of hyping Loud Is Not Enough fades into the background, so that the album itself can get the respect it deserves” – Albumism

Choice Cut: STD (Slavery Transmitted Disease)

The Public Enemy Book

Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (33 1/3)

Author: Christopher Weingarten

Publication Date: 21st June, 2010

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Synopsis:

“Christopher R. Weingarten provides a thrilling account of how the Bomb Squad produced such a singular-sounding record: engineering, sampling, scratching, constructing, deconstructing, reconstructing - even occasionally stomping on vinyl that sounded too clean. Using production techniques that have never been duplicated, the Bomb Squad plundered and reconfigured their own compositions to make frenetic splatter collages; they played samples by hand together in a room like a rock band to create a "not quite right" tension; they hand-picked their samples from only the ugliest squawks and sirens.

Weingarten treats the samples used on Nation Of Millions as molecules of a greater whole, slivers of music that retain their own secret histories and folk traditions. Can the essence of a hip-hop record be found in the motives, emotions and energies of the artists it samples? Is it likely that something an artist intended 20 years ago would re-emerge anew? This is a compelling and thoroughly researched investigation that tells the story of one of hip-hop's landmark albums” – Rough Trade

Order: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/christopher-weingarten/33-1-3-public-enemy-s-it-takes-a-nation-of-millions-to-hold-us-back

FEATURE: Sexism, Discrimination, Abuse and Misogyny in the Music Industry: Will We See a Turn Towards Change Soon?

FEATURE:

 

Sexism, Discrimination, Abuse and Misogyny in the Music Industry

IN THIS PHOTO: Haim (from left): Alana, Este and Danielle/PHOTO CREDIT: Drew Le Fore Escriva/The Guardian

Will We See a Turn Towards Change Soon?

___________

IT might seem like music has gone…

PHOTO CREDIT: @marvelous/Unsplash

into a state of hibernation, as not many gigs are happening, and there is a very strange feel about things at the moment. Plans are being made for next year and, recently, the nominations for this year’s Mercury Prize were announced. The most positive thing to come out of the shortlist was the fact that, for the first time in the award’s history, women outnumbered men on the list – either as solo artists or the lead of a band. We should be at a place where it is seen as normal that women are equal or outnumbering men in terms of award nominations, but it is still a big surprise as disparity continues. Though music has slowed and things are not as they were before, that is not to say that issues such as misogyny and sexism have gone away. Alongside continuing misogyny and sexism, women are still on the receiving end of harassment at festivals. I have read a couple of stories recently relating to sexual assault and toxicity at music festivals and, for years it has been a huge issue. One of the music world’s biggest names, Hayley Williams, recently talked about her experiences and those of her friends:

“Hayley Williams opened up about the stories of sexual assault and abuse she's been reading from friends and peers in the music industry lately in a lengthy tweet on Monday night (July 20) in which the Paramore singer and solo star sent her love and support to those who've suffered while revealing her own experience as a frontwoman in the emo scene.

"It makes my stomach hurt and my eyes turn red," Williams said about unspecified stories of sexual and other forms of abuse at the hands of men in bands or in other parts of the music industry. "It's so crazy to me how frontwomxn can be such powerful inspiration to so many young people, who see us as very much 'in control' of ourselves and our immediate surroundings when we're up on a stage."

Williams wrote that she knows that powerful feeling, which is very real for her, transcending "any notion of gender" and, for her, is more than the sum of her parts when she's on stage. "But the truth is, all us 'music people' are first and foremost human beings," she wrote, adding that female lead singers are vulnerable and feel shame just like any other young person.

While Williams did not specify which stories she's been reading, her post came amid recent reports of alleged sexual abuse and misconduct leveled at musicians and record labels and it found her thinking out loud about the vulnerability of young male rock performers that can transform due to the ingrained toxicity in the scene. "They are most definitely vulnerable too and unfortunately -- whether consciously or not -- wrapped up in the toxicity of a culture that has existed long before most of us became a factor in it," she wrote”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Hayley Williams/PHOTO CREDIT: Natasha Moustache/Getty Images

This year has been a challenging one for the industry – more so than usual -, and there is no certainty regarding gigs next year and whether a lot of our venues will still be standing. That is fair enough, but I would hope that, among these recovery plans, there is going to be discussion regarding new frameworks and protective measures in place that protects women across the industry. I will talk about sexism in a minute but, in terms of talking about assault and abuse against women, the figures do not seem to improving - the reality is bleak, and recent stories involving Ian Svenonius and The Killers’ touring crew is bleak! I am aware that music festivals are hard to police but, as next year’s festivals will be the busiest and most-anticipated ever, it is going to cause extra strain, and it also means that there will be countless cases of harassment and assault against female festival-goers. I would recommend people investigate this recent article from Louder Sound, as it talks about the ongoing issues at festivals and wider afield:

“In recent years, the wider #MeToo movement has prompted women who have been the victims of assault and abuse at the hands of musicians to speak up. A wave of allegations against prominent musicians, like Brand New’s Jesse Lacey in 2017, encouraged women to come forward with their stories.

However, as the root causes of that abuse have not been stamped out, and the perpetrators not held properly accountable, little has changed.

PHOTO CREDIT: @globelet/Unsplash

There are a few factors that make abuse more endemic within alternative scenes – like hardcore, emo, pop punk and metal – than other areas of the music industry. One, an overwhelming percentage of musicians and fans in alternative music are male. Two, the age gaps between artists and their teenaged fans is often broad. Three – and this is key – artists hold power over their female fans. In many cases, the reverence that fans have for their favourite singers and musicians makes it difficult to realise that they’re being taken advantage of”.

I wonder whether there will be a #MeToo movement for music. Compared to Hollywood, I would imagine sexual abuse, sexism and assault is just as common, and most women in the music industry would have experienced some form of sexism. I have brought the subject up now as, a) I felt that this year would be a year for change and progression. COVID-19 has sort of put a spanner in the works, but the fact women are still speaking about sexism and abuse so frequently is worrying. Also, b), I feel that the fact women are dominating and producing the best work around is not been reflected in terms of opportunities, equality and a wider platform. I hope that next year will not only see a resurgence in live gigs and security for the industry, but greater rights for women, whether this begins with discussions or funding. In the U.K., a lot of money has been pledged to help our arts scene survive this tough time.

PHOTO CREDIT: @mihaisurdu/Unsplash

I would like to imagine that a small chunk of this money would be earmarked to bring about parity, improvement and new measures that means women are not only better safeguarded and protected when it comes to sexual assault, but their talent, importance and voices are heard – from female producers and songwriters through to artists and everyone in between! As this article explores, female artists alone have to deal with so much scrutiny, double standards and sexism:

“All singers are constantly being judged and scrutinized under a magnifying glass every second of their every day, but female artists are known to always get the short end of the stick. In fact, any aspect of their lives is the subject of discussion and careless rumors, with their stories being constantly paraded on the covers and headlines of flashy gossip magazines.

Their body is continuously judged – as it never seems to be ‘thin enough’ or ‘curvy enough’. Their fashion sense is picked apart by wannabe fashionistas – as it is either ‘too boring’ or ‘too sexy’. Their love life and behavior are analyzed by cheap press reporters who act like part-time psychologists, and who feel like they are entitled to have an opinion on a stranger’s life. In the public eye, female artists are either never enough or just way too much, and that must be incredibly frustrating for them.

Therefore, it is no wonder why there are so few women who actually make it into the entertainment industry, as according to a study from 2017, 16.8% of artists are female, whereas 83.2% are men.

PHOTO CREDIT: @henmankk/Unsplash

Even women who work behind the scenes in music face an abundance of misogyny, however different it may be from what female singers experience.

Women who work as record producers, composers or songwriters face incredibly tough challenges every day, trials that can be compared to what women in STEM fields (i.e. science, technology, engineering, and math) go through: they are not respected or taken seriously by the public, and they are always the second choice, after their male colleagues. Female producers need to be the best of the best to be recognized for their talent, and even then, that doesn’t happen very often”.

 Although the Mercury Prize has seen equality for the first time, and Glastonbury’s intended 2020 bill was gender-equal, big award shows like the BRITs still have a problem with gender. The fix is not going to be overnight and easy, but I am looking on social media and seeing daily tweets from women relating to sexism and their negative experiences. Whether that is a new artist being overlooked on radio playlists or reading derogatory comments in press articles, it is appalling! Big artists, too, are not immune from sexism. Haim have delivered one of this year’s best albums in Women in Music: Pt. III, and one would imagine they not have to shout for attention or struggle to be appreciated.

As this article from Music News outlines, the band tackled the issue of sexism on their current album:

“Haim have opened up about the sexism they've encountered in the music industry on their new album.

The all-female sibling trio, comprised of Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim, are one of the hottest Los Angeles pop-rock outfits, but in a chat with Variety, they revealed interviewers were fixated on their gender up until recently.

Admitting that they would constantly be asked, "What it's like to be...?" in "every single interview", Danielle said: "We haven't gotten asked the question this record cycle, which is also another reason why we wanted to call the album Women in Music. So it's actually great."

The new record, titled Women in Music Pt. III, appears to tackle sexism from the outset, with the cover art portraying The Wire hitmakers behind the counter at their beloved Canter's Deli in Los Angeles, posing in front of a sea of sausages.

Danielle, the group's main songwriter and lead vocalist, confessed the title is "mostly funny. But we also thought, 'Why don't we just put it into our music and tell our fans some of the experiences that we've had?'"

IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa/PHOTO CREDIT: Hugo Comte

Maybe the root cause of sexism, misogyny and ignorance comes from the fact that men still dominate when it comes to positions of power. It may seem terribly naïve of me to say that quality and talent should be recognised, and that men need to stop ignoring and objectifying female artists. The more artists who speak out, the more the discussion continues. Another world-class album from this year arrived in the form of Future Nostalgia from Dua Lipa. Again, Lipa is an artist who has faced various forms of discrimination and sexism. I think one of the common threads is the way women are viewed and how there is this standard for men – where they are not criticised and told how to dress -, and a different one for women. NME explained more in an article from earlier this year:

“In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Lipa discussed ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ – a new track from her ‘Future Nostalgia’ album – which explores men’s treatment of women, saying she hoped the song would start a “conversation” because these were “real things [she has] gone through.”

“There is a lot less scrutiny of male pop stars,” Lipa said, adding: “…the way women are described compared to men, it’s, like, she is wearing shorts? ‘She puts on a leggy display!’ I just feel I’m here because I do music, but when people write articles like that about me, it takes it away from my talent and makes me a thing. An object. People like to just objectify women”.

In a year where the music industry has suffered shockwaves, one would hope that, when we are out the other side, there will be a reappraisal of the way women are viewed! There have been small improvements in the last couple of years, but things seem so painfully lopsided still regarding women’s rights and balance. The last female artists I want to bring in is Beyoncé. As one of the most influential women in music, she knows how important she is to many other women out there - and it seems like she has also had enough. When she delivered a graduation speech earlier in the year, she discussed sexism:

“She also touched on the sexism that is still prevalent in the music industry and how she had to carve her own path to success. Although the process was “terrifying” in her own words, building her own company was a major turning point in her life, “I know how hard it is to step out and bet on yourself.”

“The entertainment business is still very sexist. It’s still very male-dominated and as a woman, I did not see enough female role models given the opportunity to what I knew I had to do — to run my label, and management company, to direct my films and produce my tours that meant ownership, owning my masters, owning my art, owning my future and writing my own story. Not enough Black women had a seat at the table. So I had to go and chop down that wood and build my own table. Then I had to invite the best there was to have a seat. That meant hiring women, men outsiders, underdogs, people that were overlook and waiting to be seen,” she said.

She touched on how race and gender played a part in music corporations overlooking some talented candidates.

“Many of the best creatives and business people, who although supremely qualified and talented, were turned down over and over as executives at major corporations because they were female or because of racial disparity. And I’ve been very proud to provide them with a place at my table. One of the main purposes of my art for many years has been dedicated to showing the beauty of Black people to the world, our history, our profundity and the value of Black lives. I’ve tried my best to pull down the veil of appeasement to those who may feel uncomfortable with our excellence,” she said”.

From Beyoncé’s impassioned speech to Taylor Swift’s video for The Man taking shots at everyday sexism, Janelle Monáe attacking the misogyny that is rife, it seems that some serious work needs to happen! One area where sexism and gender imbalance is rife is to do with songwriting and production credits. In this L.A. Times article, there are some concerning statistics:

“In the Grammy Awards arena, females have fared best as new artist and song of the year contenders, averaging 36.9% and 24.6% of nominations over eight years studied. Come Sunday, 44.4% of the song of the year nominees are women, and 46.2% of new artist contenders are female.

By contrast, among nominations for overall record of the year (which recognizes vocal performance, production and engineering) and album of the year categories, an average of 8.2% have gone to females since 2012, and just 2.5% for producer of the year, in the form of a single nomination in 2019 for producer Linda Perry.

IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé

Looking more broadly to the recordings that have fared best on the Billboard Hot 100, the numbers become significantly more skewed: Last year just 14.4% of the 3,874 songwriters responsible for the most popular 800 songs over the study’s eight-year span were women, a statistically insignificant blip above the eight-year average of 12.5%. That figure has remained nearly static over time: in 2012, 11% of songwriters who crafted the top 100 songs that year were female.

The disparity in the world of record production is even more staggering: 5% of 2019’s top 100 recordings were produced by a woman; the eight-year average is 2.6% women to 97.4% men.

“The music industry has virtually erased female producers, particularly women of color, from the popular charts,” Smith said. “As producers fill a leading creative role, it’s essential to ensure that women from all backgrounds are being considered and hired throughout the industry. Moreover, the industry itself must continue to expand its commitment to representing the voices and talent of women in all aspects of the business”.

I have thrown a lot of information in the mix, but all of this is recent. Nothing new is being revealed here. Although, as I said, there have been changes in some areas, overall, the music industry has a huge problem with sexism and misogyny! As we are in a period of relative quiet regarding gigs, it would be a good time for festival organisers to ensure that next year’s festivities are aimed at keeping women as safe as possible – the same goes for venues.

PHOTO CREDIT: @dole777/Unsplash

I think there has been a change whereby people are being activated and motivated through social media, and there is a definite desire for evolution. I feel the problem is now as it has been: those in power are normally men, and they are not often incentivised to change things. If they perceive everything is okay, then they will not do much to upset the apple cart. The fact we have testimony from big artists and countless social media post from women in the industry sharing their experiences shows that doing nothing is not an option! Whilst there are very few gigs right now, that only briefly stops one problem among myriad ones. From a lack of exposure for female producers and encouragement for women to get into the studio, to media and record label scrutiny and sexist attitudes towards female talent, this could be a time for new pledges and a change in attitudes! I do think a bit of money would help set up bodies and organisations – aside from the ones that are there – that exclusively deal with making the music industry much safer and fairer for women. I do think a #MeToo movement is needed, and it could flourish and effect change. I think those in power need to take accountability, and reports regarding sexual assault at festivals and artists like Haim speaking about their struggles should open eyes. From the amazing albums released this year to record labels, venues and every corner of the music industry, women are essential and hugely important! It is tragic that, in 2020, we still need to have these conversations. Change and true progress needs to happen now but, to be fair…

IT should have happened years ago!

FEATURE: Shape of You: Ed Sheeran on Addiction and the Early Pressure of Fame: The Expectations Artists Face

FEATURE:

Shape of You

IN THIS PHOTO: Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran on Addiction and the Early Pressure of Fame: The Expectations Artists Face

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A few things have occurred in the music world…

that have compelled me to write a feature. I will explore the legacy of Denise Johnson this weekend, but I was caught by a story that appeared online concerning Ed Sheeran. I can’t count myself as one of his fans and, when it comes to his music, I have been unkind in the past. Whilst I am not a lover of his music, I have always respected him as a person, as it seems like he had a pretty long road to acknowledgment and, when his music did get out there and started to become popular, the pressure would have been immense. Now, he seems to have a comfortable life with his wife Cherry Seaborn, and he is able to be more selective regarding the gigging he does, as he has amassed quite a fortune. He has worked hard for it and, whatever you think of his music, one has to feel sympathy towards him, as we do not really think about these artists that are capitulated to fame. I think back to the 1990s when artists like Britney Spears burst through, and what things were like behind the scenes. One assumes that stardom and success would be nothing but a blessing for an artist like Ed Sheeran but, when you consider all the touring and exposure, it would have been a real struggle. Sheeran has talked about his issues with addiction and binge eating. This BBC article explains more:

 “Ed Sheeran has revealed how his "very addictive personality" led him to binge on food and alcohol during the early days of his success.

Speaking at an online summit on anxiety and wellbeing, the star said he had suffered panic attacks and hated the way he looked after becoming famous.

He hit a particularly rough patch during his 2014-15 world tour.

"I felt, 'What was the point?' In a dark way, like, 'Why am I around? What is the point?'" he said.

The star said credited his wife, Cherry, and a more healthy lifestyle for helping him turn his life around.

"She exercises a lot, so I started going on runs with her. She eats quite healthily so I started eating quite healthily. She doesn't drink that much so I wasn't drinking," he said. "I think that all changed things."

Sheeran said the 180-date world tour to promote his 2014 album X, was his lowest point.

"I would stay up and drink all night and then sleep on the bus," he said. "The buses would park underneath the arenas and I'd sleep on the bus all day, then wake up and then come out, do the show, drink, get back on the bus and I didn't see sunlight for maybe four months.

"It's all fun and games at the start. it's all rock and roll, and then like it starts getting sad. That was probably like the lowest that I've been and I kind of ballooned in weight."

Sheeran was signed to Elton John's management company at the start of his career - and he said that reading his mentor's autobiography had prompted a few realisations about his own lifestyle.

"There are so many things that he did that I do," the star explained.

"He would be like, 'I would just go on an ice cream binge and eat four desserts until I threw up', and I was like, 'I've done that before'.

"Or his martini binges, where he sees how many martinis he can drink. And I'm like, 'I've done that before too'.

"With addiction, its very hard to moderate but moderation is the key".

I am glad that he is more stable now, and things could have been very different considering the levels of his addiction and the fact that he would have been touring and making music at the same time – the energy this would have taken out of Sheeran is startling! Hearing about Sheeran’s experiences has made me look at modern music now and how there are so many upcoming and promising artists who might be in the same position. Not all will have addictive personalities like Sheeran but, as I have written about mental-health in music before, I think there are going to be a lot of artists out there who can identify with Sheeran and his struggle. I am not placing the blame on any one area of the music industry but I think, at a time when social media and streaming figures are as important as gigs and radio play, there is an awful lot for artists to take in and deal with. I think streaming figures and numbers is one huge reason why a lot of artists suffer from mental-health issues and do, like Sheeran, turn to some form of excess and addiction. This interesting article argues why numbers don’t reflect the value of musicians: 

“Listeners often look to the numbers to choose which music to listen to and to measure an artist’s success. “If a song has a lot of streams, it must be good”, conventional thinking says. But when musicians put too much stock into the numbers associated with their own music, it can limit their creativity, usher negativity into their careers, and distract from their music.

PHOTO CREDIT: @morningbrew/Unsplash

Because numbers in music can easily be interpreted as indicators of status, many musicians get wrapped up in endless quests to boost their streaming and social media standings. This is where an earnest desire to share music with people can morph into an unsatisfying game of points where the definition of creative success is narrowed down to whether your numbers go up or not. It’s the opposite of creating authentic, meaningful music, which is what your focus should be as a musician.

Streams, album sales, and Instagram likes can’t tell you your value and potential as a musician, (or a person in general for that matter). You absolutely should strive to reach as many people as you can through your music if that’s your goal as a musician. But believing a song has value because it’s streamed a lot (or that another has less because it isn’t) misses the point. Myriad human-related factors like your unique fanbase and the way you promote your music as well as things out of your control like algorithms and trends typically determine whether audiences latch on to new music or not”.

I did not want to make this a huge feature that focuses on every possible stress and pressure on young artists, but I have been thinking about life post-COVID-19 when artists get back to touring and full-on promotion. At any other time, promotion and touring is quite exhausting, but that will become worse when we are all seeing live gigs again, as there is a sense of catching up on lost time and trying to regain momentum.

IN THIS PHOTO: James Blake/PHOTO CREDIT:  The1point8

Not only do a lot of artists have to face financial loss and anaemia right now, but they are not able to get out there and play. That being said, the touring life can be a big weight, as artists are carried from pillar to post and undergo gruelling schedules. Last year, James Blake spoke to NME and shared his experiences of touring and how it has impacted his mental-health:

“As he subsequently opened up on his mental health battles, the Mercury Prize-winning producer admitted that it’s often harboured by long periods of time on the road.

“There are a lot of musicians just starting out now who might not be aware of the pitfalls of touring, and the pitfalls of a musician’s life. Mental health on the road is something which has generally been left until this generation to really deal with”, he explained.

“I think we’ve seen the effects of the artist’s life laid out for us in previous generations, and I think we’re just starting to go, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t use these methods to cope with it, maybe I should talk to somebody.’”

But while Blake believes that the stigma on mental health is lessening, he think that musicians have never been under more pressure.

“Coming up at a time when the internet destroyed any chance of selling lots and lots of records meant there was a lot of pressure to tour, and you couldn’t really stop without taking a huge financial hit,” Blake said”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kehlani

Ed Sheeran also remarked how he has stepped away from social media because, though it is a great tool to market music and connect with fans, there is that downside. So many musicians live with mental illnesses and, when that is revealed online, sometimes the reaction is not particularly positive or empathetic:

“When you're working in a field that opens you up to public discussion, or even ridicule, you learn to harden yourself against criticism that comes both from journalists and the sort of people whose only avatars are dogs, cartoons or the gauzy Twitter head-and-shoulders icon (RIP the egg). But it's important to note the line between criticism and vitriol. Artists like Kehlani, Fifth Harmony's Normani Kordei and most recently Arcade Fire's Win Butler have stepped away from Twitter, often citing hateful language as the reason why. Kanye West and Sinead O'Connor have had their struggles with mental illness mocked. None of this counts as productive criticism. It's being a prick, and doing so when your comments can be carried around on a screen in someone's back pocket.

"Social media allows fans to feel an authentic connection to artists, which creates more of a psychological bond and sense of relationship," says Dr Pamela Rutledge, a media psychologist based in California. "It feels close. But that closeness also makes negative remarks and harassment seem all the more hurtful." Anyone who's waited for their crush's name to pop up on the list of people who watched their latest shaky Instagram Story will already know how craving validation on social media can lead to dependence. If that validation disappears, it can trigger unfounded feelings of isolation or inadequacy”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Normani Kordei

At the moment, artists need to be protected regarding streaming income, and many are facing a very lean 2020 and an extremely packed and frantic 2021 ahead. Even if you are a very small artist starting out, that polar extreme is going to take its toll. I do hope that live music can restart properly soon enough, but I am concerned that underground and mainstream artists alike will face their toughest challenge yet regarding maintaining a work-life balance and ensuring that they take some time out and rest. I am not predicting a load of artists will speak out like Ed Sheeran and go through the same struggles, but there will be additional pressures and problems on the shoulders of artists everywhere. There are great charities and resources that are there for musicians during this very challenging time. In a more long-term sense, I do wonder whether there needs to be a shake-up regarding the life of an artist and how many hours they spend on the road and online. One might say this is all part of being a musician, but so many do not take time off, and the uncensored and vast pit of social media means that artists are exposed to all sorts of comments and criticisms – making them less likely to be open about their problems or want to speak out at all. I do hope that the industry and labels put something in place when things get back to normal, as it will be a very tough transition, and Ed Sheeran’s revelations will open quite a few eyes. Whilst we all want to hear as much new music as possible and get back into venues and see artists climb back onto the stage, I hope that, when that is possible, we all take a bit of time out to consider the wellbeing and happiness of…

PHOTO CREDIT: @ricardonunes_fotografo/Unsplash

THE people behind the music.

FEATURE: Oh to Be in Love: The Ongoing Impact of Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside on Me

FEATURE:

 

Oh to Be in Love

The Ongoing Impact of Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside on Me

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I would not normally put out…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Moorhouse/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

three different Kate Bush-related features in a week but, as it is her birthday today (30th July), I wanted to add an extra one to return to my favourite album ever, The Kick Inside. It turned forty-two in February, and it is a record that I am deeply enamoured of. I wanted to focus on the album as, in my view, it is the best thing Bush put out and, even though it is her debut, it is the thing I love the most. There has been news recently that Bush might be collaborating with Big Boi on a project of his but, until it can be confirmed, there is no solid news as to when we might hear her on record again. Until we do, it is a great time to look back on her incredible back catalogue. Before I move on, this article provides the background to Kate Bush’s debut album:

“By 1975 Kate Mush had recorded several cassettes’ worth of demos and song sketches on her dad’s Akai reel-to-reel tape machine. Impressed, her family enlisted Ricky Hopper, a record plugger friend, to hawk them around the labels in the hope of getting a publishing deal. After all the majors had turned them down as “uncommercial”, Hopper contacted his old Cambridge University buddy David Gilmour. The Pink Floyd guitarist was sufficiently impressed to invite Kate to record a demo at his Essex home studio, backed by him and the rhythm section from Unicorn, a band he was also nurturing. “I was convinced from the beginning that this girl had remarkable talent,” Gilmour later said.

After that didn’t work either, Gilmour decided the only way forward would be to record three properly arranged songs. Putting up the money himself, he booked time at London’s AIR Studios in June 1975, bringing in arranger friend Andrew Powell, who had worked with Cockney Rebel, Pilot and Alan Parsons. They recorded The Saxophone Song, The Man With The Child In His Eyes and Maybe, with members of the London Symphony Orchestra (the first two songs would appear on The Kick Inside.

Gilmour played the demo to Bob Mercer, then head of EMI’s pop division, who was impressed enough to sign her up. A deal was eventually sealed by July 1976. Having left school with 10 ‘O’ Levels, Bush set up a company to manage her affairs – a precocious glimpse of the total control that would come later in her career.

The Kick Inside was recorded at AIR studios over six weeks in July and August 1977 with producer Powell. Like Mick Jones of The Clash diligently soaking up Sandy Pearlman’s laborious realisation of his group’s second album so he could co-produce their masterpiece London Calling, Bush watched Powell work, absorbing the ropes to use when she struck out on her own a couple of years later”.

I will put out a podcast relating to The Kick Inside one day, because it would be great to dissect and examine the album with other people. I adore the sheer beauty of the songs and how, even though piano is at the centre, Bush manages to add as much texture and variation with her vocal phrasing and lyrics. The songs have their own skin, and the breadth of subject matter is amazing.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional shot for Wuthering Heights in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

There are links where one can hear Bush’s early demos, and there are great playlists and sites where one can hear the buds of The Kick Inside. I would encourage people to listen to the demos as it shows, even before Bush’s first recordings for the album, she was this prodigious talent! Maybe there was a perception that Bush was being marketed as a female body rather than a songwriter on her debut. Bush referenced that herself in 1982, and there were grey areas. There were photographs where Bush’s physique was more important than her expression, and some media sources were more concerned with her body than her music. I think a lot of the shoots from 1978 are very expressive and memorable, and they do stray from the more sexualised. From Kate Bush’s first T.V. appearance on 9th February, 1978 to  the end of 1978, The Kick Inside kept her very busy indeed! Of course, prior to February 1978, the world was introduced to her remarkable debut single, Wuthering Heights. Like so many people, this was the first experience and taste of Bush’s music, and it might be one of the reasons why the album remains my favourite. I saw the video for Wuthering Heights as a child – at the same time I saw the video for Them Heavy People (which appears on The Kick Inside) -, and it was a revelation! I do not think I had ever discovered an artist through a video rather than the music itself, and the impact of that video changed everything.

I know I have written about The Kick Inside a fair bit through the years, but it is album that consistently intrigues me. Of course, Wuthering Heights is what most people associate with the album. This article from The Skinny, goes into more details:

“The song that gets the most attention on The Kick Inside is, of course, Wuthering Heights. Now a bona fide classic, endlessly gushed over as an exemplar of 70s art pop (against the grain of the then-ubiquitous disco and punk). It's also destined to be forever remembered for its equally famous visual of Bush dancing in a white dress with cheesy post-production effects (or the 'red dress' American version, with equally theatrical dancing on some real-life moors), still a few years before MTV would make the music video a mainstream creative medium.

Wuthering Heights was the first self-penned number one for a female artist in the UK, written when Bush was 18 (released a year later). Bizarrely, EMI had decided that James and the Cold Gun would be the first single from the album, but Bush was determined that Wuthering Heights should be the first release and – amazingly for a young woman in the music industry in the 70s – she got her way. This imperturbable drive towards her own creative vision is something that Bush would continually exhibit throughout her career.

Lyrically, the song deals with the ghost of Catherine (Cathy) Earnshaw – from Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights – pleading to be released from her purgatory and let back in from her post-death wandering on the moors. Despite the novel's ambiguity when it comes to Cathy's affections (for either Heathcliff or Edgar), Bush asserts that Cathy longs for Heathcliff, 'I'm coming back to his side to put it right / I'm coming home to wuthering, wuthering, wuthering heights' – i.e. the wild, passionate side of her character that she supressed during her lifetime. As a mission statement for an artist unmoored from conformity, social mores or traditional expectations, it's more or less perfect”.

If one wants a start point for Kate Bush, then starting at the beginning is the way it should be done. There is so much to love about The Kick Inside. From the beautiful opener, Moving, to the title track at the end, there are so many beautiful stories and layers that beckon you in and keep you coming back for more. I think the boldness and confidence through the album is especially impressive! As Bush was a teenager when the album was written, it is all the more impressive that the songs tackle themes that stray away from the traditional boy-meets-girl. From menstruation and synchronicity of Strange Phenomena, to incest and suicide on The Kick Inside, there is this blend of more traditional songs of love and passion together with more challenging themes.

Though Bush’s voice would develop and widen as her career progression, I do really love her in the higher range. It is not everyone’s preferred sound, but I think it is what makes the album so entrancing and gorgeous! I still think The Kick Inside is seen as a promising debut, and there is almost this shared feeling (among critics) that she would do better. That is subjective, but it is the way The Kick Inside is brushed aside by some that bothers me. In recent years, there has been more of a positive and constructive approach to the album but, even so, there is more attention paid to albums like The Dreaming, and Hounds of Love. Today, there will be a lot of tribute paid to Bush, and many people will share their memories of her music and the songs/albums that mean the most to them. I love everything she has put out, but The Kick Inside will always be the album I come back to the most. I wanted to put out this feature, not only to have my say on Kate Bush’s birthday, but to, hopefully, turn more people onto The Kick Inside. It is a remarkable work that has provided me with so much strength and joy during the hard times we find ourselves in. It remains for me to wish Bush a happy birthday and, for anyone who is unfamiliar with the sensational The Kick Inside, to go out and buy it and…

IN THIS PHOTO: On 9th February, 1978, a 19-year-old Kate Bush experienced her first T.V. appearance, performing the A and B-sides of Wuthering Heights (Kite) on the West German T.V.’s Bios Bahnhof (Bio’s Station)

FALL for its many charms!

FEATURE: A Year Like No Other: The Twelve Best Albums from American and Canadian Artists in 2020 (So Far)

FEATURE:

 

A Year Like No Other

IN THIS PHOTO: Fiona Apple/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Hayes

The Twelve Best Albums from American and Canadian Artists in 2020 (So Far)

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IN September…

IN THIS PHOTO: Moses Sumney/PHOTO CREDIT: Eric Gyamfi

we will get to see which artist walks away with the Mercury Prize. The award is handed to the best album from a U.K. or E.I.R.E. artist over the past year. This year’s shortlist is brilliant and diverse but, whilst British and Irish artists have produced some incredible work this year (the Mercury Prize also includes albums from July 2019 onwards), I think American and Canadian artists have topped us in terms of sheer wonder and genius - as unpatriotic as that might sound! That may seem contentious, but I think many of the biggest albums of 2020 have arrived from the U.S. and Canada. Rather than do another feature that collects the best albums of the year so far, I want to focus on the best of the U.S. and Canada. From established masters like Bob Dylan, through to young mainstream stars like Taylor Swift, there have been phenomenal albums from every corner. Here, as a sort of alternative to the Mercury shortlist, are twelve musical…

IN THIS PHOTO: Haim

WORKS of brilliance.

_________________

Taylor Swift – folklore

Release Date: 24th July

Label: Republic

Producers: Aaron Dessner/Jack Antonoff/Taylor Swift

Standout Tracks: the last great american dynasty/illicit affairs/mad woman

Sample Review:

“Despite the centre-stage given to lyricisms and songwriting on this album, it would be reductive to call this a return to her roots – even when she was embracing full-on bombastic pop a-la Reputation the songwriting was always there. It always has been, Swift trading on stories and quick turns of phrase even on her now infamous red-herring singles. On Folklore this runs deeper, the lyrics once more given space to move and breathe, the music fitting around the story being told instead of succinct pop hooks. On this record Swift is enjoying the huge discography that trails behind her, even when she's trying on other people's tales: on "the 1" we get a glimpse of witty and unlucky-in-love Swift, (it would've been fun / if you would've been the one") whilst Bon Iver collaboration "exile" brings to mind "The Last Time", a collaboration with Gary Lightbody found on her Red album.

In an interview with Mark Sutherland for The Telegraph in 2015, Swift hoped that: "if I ever find some sort of meaningful relationship, I’ll be able to still find inspiration, just through the everyday ups and downs." Folklore is proof that she can, she can, she can – and beyond just writing about her own love story. This is an album of Swift at her most knowing, pushing away the tabloid fodder that has often surrounded her artistry and magnifying the talent she's been honing her entire life. The melodies are full of warmth and round-edges, moving and twinkling on her whim as she indulges in one of the most most human and timeless past-times we have” – The Line of Best Fit

Buy: https://shop.virginemi.com/taylorswift/

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0xS0iOtxQRoJvfcFcJA5Gv?si=mRuv3sXwTO-g94yae6VpTA

Key Cut: cardigan

Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways

Release Date: 19th June

Label: Columbia

Standout Tracks: I Contain Multitudes/Black Rider/Murder Most Foul

Sample Review:

“"I Contain Multitudes" is a meditation on a life yet unfolding; historic figures -- Anne Frank, William Blake, the Rolling Stones, etc. -- jostle against archetypes of gunslingers: "…What can I tell ya? I sleep with life and death in the same bed…." "False Prophet" is a jeremiad disguised as blues house rocker. The protagonist testifies; he's a witness who confronts evil in history and real time. "Goodbye Jimmy Reed" celebrates the bluesman in his own house-rocking style to equate religion, sin, and redemption with romantic obsession and sex. "Crossing the Rubicon" is a roadhouse blues with the afterlife riding shotgun: "Three miles north of purgatory/One step from the great beyond/I pray to the cross/I kiss the girls/and I cross the Rubicon…." Dylan's band are loose and joyful; their raucousness carries his swagger and joy. The suspenseful, loungey "My Own Version of You" features grave robbing as it employs the inspiration of the Bride of Frankenstein to seek truth in taboo. "I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You," caressed by marimbas, and brushed snares, finds Dylan blurring distinctions between carnal and spiritual love. Conversely, "Black Rider" whistles past the graveyard, with a nasty caution: "… Don’t hug me, don’t turn on the charm/I'll take a sword and hack off your arm…." In the Celtic gospel of "Mother of Muses," he's a grateful supplicant, a servant who humbly requests transformation knowing full well he may not be entitled: "… wherever you are/I've already outlived my life by far…."

The album's final half-hour contains only two songs. The nine-plus-minute "Key West (Philosopher Pirate)" is a rambling dirge guided by a soft accordion in a stripped-down journey of longing and weariness; an acknowledgment of mortality with the ghosts of the Beats, Buddy Holly, and Jimi Hendrix alongside him. It stands with his best work from the '70s. That gentle sojourn prepares listeners for "Murder Most Foul," a sprawling, 17-minute lyrical, labyrinthian closer that moves through history, metaphor, and culture with JFK's assassination as its hub. It will be decoded for generations. Rough and Rowdy Ways is akin to transformational albums such as Love and Theft, and Slow Train Coming. It's a portrait of the artist in winter who remains vital and enigmatic. At nearly 80, Dylan's pen and guitar case still hold plenty of magic” – AllMusic

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/bob-dylan/rough-and-rowdy-ways

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1Qht64MPvWTWa0aMsqxegB?autoplay=true

Key Cut: False Prophet

BC Camplight – Shortly After Takeoff

Release Date: 24th April

Label: Bella Union

Standout Tracks: Back to Work/Shortly After Takeoff/Angelo

Sample Review:

“Brian Christinzio’s fifth album as BC Camplight is a marvel, in which currents cut across each other in a half hour or so that roils with anxiety, stuns with beauty and, occasionally, provokes laughter. The whole uneasy tone – is it wrong to take so much pleasure in something so plainly the result of turmoil – is set with the opening to the second track, Ghosthunting, in which Christinzio delivers a parody standup routine to bilious audience laughter: “For the whole first half of this record, I thought I had a really bad disease. It turns out I’m just mentally ill. I called an attorney to get my affairs in order and everything. He said, ‘You know I’m a personal injury lawyer, right?’ He asked me, ‘Have you fallen?’ I said, ‘Boy have I ever.’”

Christinzio has previously spoken of his reluctance to dwell on pretty melodies or memorable choruses. That’s not the case here: he’s still not one for hammering a hook down your throat until it’s so caught it becomes irritating, but he lets them hang around long enough to sink in, and allows them to return. It’s more that the passages of disruption serve as palate-cleansers for the next piece of sweetness. It’s funny, too. Born to Cruise – whose opening minute or so is a grand, four-to-the-floor road trip banger, which makes you want to wind your window down and hammer the steering wheel, begins with the perfect bathos-laden lyric: “I’ve had my indicator on since leaving Crewe / That explains the gestures in my rearview.” This album is a masterpiece” – The Guardian

Buy: https://bellaunion.ochre.store/release/167312-bc-camplight-shortly-after-takeoff

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3hAhEoDACSr25dnJcov5eb?Smoke_=

Key Cut: Born to Cruise

Haim – Women in Music Pt. III

Release Date: 26th June

Labels: Polydor/Vertigo Berlin/Columbia

Producers: Danielle Haim/Rostam Batmanglij/Ariel Rechtshaid

Standout Tracks: I Know Alone/3 AM/Leaning on You

Sample Review:

“They sound intimately familiar with depression in all its states, whether they're turning away from the wearying, pointless challenge to prove themselves to men in media and the music industry on "Man from the Magazine," sinking into isolation on the oddly comforting standout "I Know Alone," or emerging from the darkness on "Now I'm in It," a slow-building anthem that could be the album's statement of purpose. Women in Music Pt. III's creative process echoes its feeling of growing agency. For the first time, Danielle took on production duties alongside Rechtshaid and Rostam Batmanglij, and impressionistic touches like the seagulls and alarm clocks that embellish "Up from a Dream" or the way the guitar and saxophones drift through "Los Angeles" echo Batmanglij's dreamy musical memoir Half-Light. HAIM let each song and each mood be exactly what it needs to be, making for a collection of moments that are more interesting and real than if they'd attempted a more uniform sound across the album. The band's love for the '90s is as strong as ever on the Roxette-like "Another Try" and "3 AM"'s flirty homage to the era's R&B. Their singer/songwriter and folk-pop roots get their due on "Hallelujah" and the gorgeous "Leaning on You," a pair of songs that unite the sisters' voices and struggles in perfect harmony. The lightness HAIM use to combat the heavy things going on in their lives reaches its peak at the album's end: Written in the wake of Rechtshaid's diagnosis, "Summer Girl," taps into memories of the good times to get through the bad ones and borrows the effortlessness of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side," but trades that song's aloofness for unconditional love. Sprawling and intimate, breezy and affecting, Women in Music Pt. III is a low-key triumph” – AllMusic

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/haim/women-in-music-pt-iii

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6NtEjhPWfZcvJQuvjGX4bk

Key Cut: The Steps

Thundercat – It Is What It Is

Release Date: 3rd April

Label: Brainfeeder

Producers: BadBadNotGood/Flying Lotus/Mono/Poly/Sounwave/Steve Lacy/Taylor Graves/Thundercat

Standout Tracks: Black Qualls/Dragonball Durag/Fair Chance

Sample Review:

“What’s impressive is how Thundercat makes this music, with its complex structures and zigzagging rhythms, so human. “Dance away the pain,” he sings on “Miguel’s Happy Dance”. “It’s gonna be alright… just do the f***ing dance.” The bass skirts around his airy falsetto like a car dodging traffic, punctuated by bursts of Eighties-style synths. “How Sway” is the dance itself, a jittery burst of energy that disappears as quickly as it arrives.

Few songs make it past the three-minute mark: the album’s mid-section is three skits, including “Funny Thing”, where the squelchy bassline is a continuation of Drunk’​s boozy, carefree sentiment. Songs such as “How I Feel” or the freewheeling “Innerstellar Love” (on which Kamasi Washington offers a brief but intricate sax solo) speak more to the space-y grandeur of 2015 album The Epic; synths blink and whirl like constellations and Thundercat’s vocals take on a psychedelic tone.

“Fair Chance”, which directly addresses Mac Miller’s death, feels raw with grief. The acceptance that runs through the album is still here, but Thundercat sings in a softer register – almost a whisper – as the “tik-tok” of the hi-hat marks the passage of time. “Everything’s so strange,” Ty Dolla $ign, who has a surprisingly soulful voice when it isn’t bogged down with autotune, sings. “Too hard to get over it,” Thundercat admits, before uttering the album’s title. He acknowledges he cannot change things, but at the same time legitimises his own struggle to accept that. Not all things are meant to be understood” – The Independent 

Buy: https://thundercat.bandcamp.com/album/it-is-what-it-is

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/59GRmAvlGs7KjLizFnV7Y9

Key Cut: King of the Hill

Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Release Date: 17th April

Labels: Epic/Clean Slate

Producers: Fiona Apple/Amy Aileen Wood/Sebastian Steinberg/Davíd Garza

Standout Tracks: Shameika/Newspaper/For Her

Sample Review:

“About a minute into "I Want You to Love Me," the opening cut on her fifth album Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Fiona Apple holds a note a few seconds longer than you'd expect, then a few seconds more. It's the first time Apple veers away from the expected course on Fetch the Bolt Cutters and it's hardly the last, but it's telling that the shift occurs within a song, not in a transition between tracks. Apple spent the years after the 2012 release of The Idler Wheel sculpting the songs and sounds of Fetch the Bolt Cutters, working at her home studio with a band featuring drummer Amy Aileen Wood, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and multi-instrumentalist David Garza, using their interactions and interplay as a suggestion of where the finished track should head. Everything on Fetch the Bolt Cutters seems restless: overdubbed harmonies don't quite jibe, rhythms are cluttered, narratives turn inside out, and Apple treats her own voice as a rubber instrument, stretching it beyond comfort. As pure sound, it's exhilarating. It's rare to listen to a pop album and have no idea what comes next, and Fetch the Bolt Cutters delivers surprises that delight and bruise at a rapid pace. The density is dizzying but melodies and certain lyrics make an immediate impression, such as the jolting denouement of "For Her." Apple wrote "For Her" in the wake of the contentious Brett Kavanaugh hearings and while its fury is palpable and by no means an anomaly on Fetch the Bolt Cutters, the album isn't defined by anger. Rage sits alongside heartache and humor, the shifts in mood occurring with a dramatic flair and a disarming playfulness. The unpredictable nature feels complex and profoundly human, resulting in an album that's nourishing and joyfully cathartic” – AllMusic

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/fiona-apple/fetch-the-bolt-cutters

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0fO1KemWL2uCCQmM22iKlj

Key Cut: Under the Table

Neil Young – Homegrown

Release Date: 19th June

Label: Reprise

Producers: Neil Young/Elliot Mazer/Ben Keith/Tim Mulligan

Standout Tracks: Separate Ways/Mexico/White Line

Sample Review:

“Of its 12 songs – recorded in late 1974 and early 1975 – seven have never been released before, including heartfelt opener ‘Separate Ways’. Over Levon Helm’s solid but minimal drum line comes a chorus up there with Young’s best, as melodic as it is thoughtful, as pensive as it is powerful. A sonic red herring, it’s perhaps the most downbeat moment on the record, which is overall a pretty chipper thing. The upbeat Try follows, a sweet little shuffle with Emmylou Harris on backing vocals and Young at his most positive, crooning: “We’ve got lots of time / To get together if we try.

The first recordings of songs that would appear on later albums from 1975 to 1980 boost the record into something not just of niche interest to Neil Young diehards, but something with universal appeal. Here the sugary ‘Love Is A Rose’ – first released by the majestic Linda Ronstadt in 1975 – sees Young being just about as cute as he’ll ever be (“I wanna see what’s never been seen / I wanna live that age old dream”) while the sparse ‘White Line’ and devastating ‘Little Wing’ prove his masterful way with deceptively simple balladry.

The hip-shakin’, joint-rollin’ title track – which would first be aired on 1977’s ‘American Stars ‘N Bars’ alongside ‘Star of Bethlehem’ – is proof, too, that Neil Young has always known how to have fun, but – as with the drawn-out release of ‘Homegrown’ – it will always be on his terms” – NME

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/neil-young/homegrown

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5zPtFuFrZs4IKuCEKNVJla

Key Cut: Love Is a Rose

Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud

Release Date: 27th March

Label: Merge

Producer: Brad Cook

Standout Tracks: Fire/Hell/Ruby Falls

Sample Review:

“There’s always something tempering the beauty of Waxahatchee’s music. I mean that as a compliment: on the American singer-songwriter’s fifth album, Saint Cloud, luscious melodies are undercut by a lingering unease, sentimentality by steeliness.

The glorious “Fire”, which starts with plaintive keyboard strains, might have been described as “lovely” were it sung down an octave. As it is, with Waxahatchee (real name Katie Crutchfield) stretching to the upper limits of her range, her voice sounds like a match being struck. Her lolloping delivery on “Lilacs” – “and the lilacs drank the water/ and the lilacs die/ and the lilacs drank the water/ marking the slow, slow, slow passing of time” – is Bob Dylan by way of Lucinda Williams” – The Independent

Buy: https://waxahatchee.bandcamp.com/album/saint-cloud-2

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7icLwE6vs6umiO7MrCy6XJ

Key Cut: Lilacs

Moses Sumney - Græ

Release Date: 21st February (Part One)/ 15th May (Part Two)

Label: Jagjaguwar

Producers: Moses Sumney/Adult Jazz/Ben Baptie/John Congleton/FKJ/Daniel Lopatin/Matthew Otto

Standout Tracks: Cut Me/Polly/Me in 20 Years

Sample Review:

“The 2014 arrival of Moses Sumney’s soaring soul voice attracted fans from Solange Knowles to Sufjan Stevens and led to a record-label bidding war. The Ghanaian-American’s 2017 debut Aromanticism was a beautiful collection of essays on romantic attachment, and Græ picks up on this theme from its opening spoken-word passage on the subject of isolation.

Released in two parts (Part One in February), the album branches into themes of masculinity, encapsulated by the propulsive “Virile”, where a satisfying contrast of textures incorporates a growling drone, soft flute and his angelic vocals. When the album shifts into its second part, and turns inwards with a slower pace to match its vulnerable introspection, there’s no jolt: Sumney’s voice ensures that his soundscapes melt together.

It’s here that the emotional heft is to be found, particularly in “Two Dogs”, “Bless Me” and the heart-wrenching apex, “Me in 20 Years”, in which he imagines himself alone in the distant future. The song swells with an arpeggiating harp, male choral backing and delicate splashes of cymbals, until his voice is flowing so freely of rhythm that you feel him yearning, painfully, for an answer to “I wonder how I’ll sleep at night/ With a cavity by my side/ And nothing left to hold but pride.

When pinned down, Sumney defines his music as “experimental folk-soul-jazz”, but it’s more complex than that. Under his masterful production, it sounds as though there are 20 musicians in the room with him. Flourishes of jazz flute and brass add warmth to “Two Dogs”, which showcases the acrobatics of his vocals as they glide effortlessly from falsetto vibrato to rich baritone. And the euphoric dreaminess of “Bless Me” – could there be a more heavenly gospel-cloaked crescendo on which to wrap up this astonishing feat?” – The Independent

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/moses-sumney/grae

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/35CHoLB0GEwYlOomriifC6

Key Cut: Virile

Run the Jewels – RTJ4

Release Date: 3rd June

Labels: Jewel Runners/BMG

Producers: El-P/Josh Homme

Standout Tracks: yankee and the brave (ep. 4)/ooh la la/JU$T

Sample Review:

“‘Walking In The Snow’, the album’s sixth track features a guest appearance by one time Three 6 Mafia member Gangsta Boo. The beat is heavy and the lyrics are eerily all too close for comfort as Mike takes us back to the 2014 death of Eric Garner at the hands of the police: “And every day on evening news, they feed you fear for free / And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me / And 'til my voice goes from a shriek to whisper / ‘I can't breathe’ / And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV / The most you give's a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy.” Such lyrics are hard to listen to, especially in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a police officer.

‘RTJ4’ is a must listen. It is diverse enough to appeal to even the hardest crowds. Many genres are represented here, but lyrical hip-hop is at the forefront of all that Run The Jewels is. They stand out from the crowd, whilst invoking the people to stand up for themselves. There is not a bad song on the entire album and the production and features are second to none. I kept rewinding the tracks, not just from a reviewer’s perspective, but to hear the how well combined Mike and El-P are.

As the album’s finale builds up with a saxophone crescendo, the track fades out before we are once again introduced to the mock TV show Yankee And The Brave. As I pressed play once more on the album, I realised I cannot wait to hear what Run The Jewels 5 will bring” – CLASH

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/run-the-jewels/rtj4

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6cx4GVNs03Pu4ZczRnWiLd

Key Cut: pulling the pin

Perfume Genius – Set My Heart on Fire Immediately

Release Date: 15th May

Label: Matador

Producer: Blake Mills

Standout Tracks: Describe/Your Body Changes Everything/Nothing at All

Sample Review:

“It feels like he’s rewriting musical history in his own image, usually by making it more oblique. Hadreas is a really good lyricist, who has an eye for detail – as when the grim, youthful one-night-stand in Jason plays out to the sound of “the Breeders on CD” – and a way with a striking line. Moonbend, the one track that recalls his early work, with its sparse sound, tape hiss and the audible creak of chairs, features a description of sex that keeps shifting from erotic to dissonantly medical: “carving his lung, ribs fold like fabric.” But it frequently feels as if he’s adapting the music here to express feelings he can’t quite articulate. Describe is punchy until it cuts dead halfway through, the rest of the song given over to ghostly synthesisers and mumbled, indecipherable voices; the beautiful harp arpeggios on Leave are set against a vocal that’s distorted and mumbled until it’s only half-comprehensible.

Whatever he’s doing, the results are uniformly fantastic: rich, fascinating and moving, packed with gorgeous melodies and arrangements that feel alive, constantly writhing into unexpected new shapes. For an artist frequently characterised by his miserable backstory of bullying, addiction and chronic illness and his lyrical empathy for human failure and frailty, it feels astonishingly assured and confident in its approach, which perhaps explains the cover image and supporting cast: an expression of power and focus, like the album itself” – The Guardian

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/perfume-genius/set-my-heart-on-fire-immediately

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6daEdTBi1hyFQgmsnR7oRr

Key Cut: On the Floor

Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher

Release Date: 18th June

Label: Dead Oceans

Producers: Tony Berg/Ethan Gruska/Phoebe Bridgers

Standout Tracks: Garden Song/Kyoto/Chinese Satellite

Sample Review:

“When Bridgers drops down to breathily lament “I know you had to go”, it carries a heartbreaking power before the song explodes into a surprising noise-rock coda. The epic, free-form conclusion includes contributions from iconic 1970s singer-songwriter Jackson Browne on piano, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zimmer on guitar and top session drummer Jim Keltner, alongside a choir featuring Conor Oberst and many other Americana contemporaries, while Bridgers screams at the top of her lungs. It’s evidence of how much regard Bridgers is held in by the music world, and a finale that leaves you wondering where the woman of the hour will go next.

A take-no-prisoners penchant for cutting to the savage kernel of truth is something that has been at the essence of the singer-songwriter genre since its earliest days. Bridgers’s modernity is actually a kind of timelessness, yet delivered in an emotional and lyrical lexicon that speaks directly to this moment. Punisher is an album stretched between depression and recovery, laughing at the world to stop from crying, on a set of songs exploring Bridgers’s emotional self-isolation, yearning for places and people that she can no longer reach, and might not want to even if she could.

And what could be more timely than that?” – The Daily Telegraph

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/phoebe-bridgers/punisher

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2xECuqnvvmVktV7UO8Dd3s

Key Cut: Punisher