FEATURE: Second Spin: Sevdaliza – Shabrang

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Sevdaliza – Shabrang

___________

THIS is one of these albums…

that was very well reviewed but does not get played much now. I tend to mix things up in Second Spin between the underrated and underplayed. One album that should get played more is Sevdaliza’s Shabrang. I discovered it when it came out last year. It is a relatively new album that got some great press but didn’t really get discussed and exposed like the mainstream albums or Pop acts. Maybe the more experimental and deep nature of the album means it is not as accessible and digestible as other albums. To me, Shabrang is a terrific album that has so many layers and remarkable songs. This Wikipedia article provides some more details:

“Shabrang (Persian for "night color”) is the second studio album by Dutch-Iranian singer Sevdaliza. It was released on 28 August 2020, by Twisted Elegance. The singer wrote and produced the album, primarily alongside Mucky. The album encompasses art pop, trip hop and alternative R&B.

The album spawned the singles "Darkest Hour", "Oh My God", "Lamp Lady", "Joanna" and "Habibi", as well as "Human Nature", which was originally released as part of Sevdaliza's 2018 extended play The Calling, her previous release. The album cover was shot by Tré Koch”.

What I want to do is bring in a couple of very positive reviews that tell you what critics thought when the album was released. It is an album that many people should listen to. I will drop the album in at the end of this feature; I will source a few of the songs before then.

Before that, I want to bring in a review from AllMusic. Their observations and words really get to the heart of a truly remarkable and affecting album:

“From the beginning, Sevdaliza's emotive singing and songwriting and cutting-edge productions were fully realized. Nevertheless, she's found room for artistic growth with every release. On her debut album, Ison, she expressed its concept of past and present incarnations with tracks that layered upon each other into a transcendent whole. With Shabrang, she expresses the themes of pain, loss, healing, and renewal in ways that are more varied, but just as striking. The album's title means "night-colored" in Persian, a motif that's echoed in Sevdaliza's bruised eye on its artwork and the way she leans into her music's ache. She uses more organic sounds and rougher textures to dig deeper and pull listeners in closer on the haunting "Joanna," where her songwriting takes on a mythical, almost folkloric quality to tell a story of all-consuming love. Similarly, on the title track she traces the almost imperceptible shifts and seismic changes of the heart with the intensity of a classic torch song, even as an ominous dubstep bass looms behind her. This embrace of long-standing song forms -- which recalls Ison's exploration of how the past shapes the future -- stretches to the prominence of Sevdaliza's Iranian roots on the album. The title Shabrang alludes to the name of a loyal steed in an 11th century epic poem from her birthplace, while her somber, string-laden reimagining of Googoosh's 1974 song "Gole Bi Goldoon" pays tribute to her heritage as well as Sevdaliza's own flair for drama.

Throughout Shabrang, she uses traditional melisma and vibrato as well as futuristic pitch-shifting skillfully to transform her voice into new shapes and emotions. On "Human Nature," she lets it melt and flow like water before lifting it into impossibly, achingly high notes; on "Oh My God," she morphs into different personae as she questions the politicization of her heritage. In its natural state, her voice is so rich that it fits perfectly into every setting she puts it in on Shabrang. Working once again with co-producer Mucky and string arranger Mihai Puscoiu, Sevdaliza uses a wider and more adventurous musical palette than ever before. On the tumbling, hypnotic "All Rivers at Once," she juxtaposes electric guitar, synth, and violin in ways that make them all sound fresh. As always, her use of textures is stunningly expressive, particularly on "Darkest Hour," which transforms from piano-driven heartbreak into dark, propulsive, dancefloor-ready grooves that distill the album's mission to turn pain into strength. At once dazzling and heartfelt, Shabrang is an epic journey, and Sevdaliza is brilliantly in control throughout it”.

There is something very weighty and substantial when one listens to Shabrang. Rather than it being a collection of songs that just drift by and have occasional flashes of brilliance, Shabrang is a properly immersive and consistently amazing album. Everything Is Noise wrote passionately about Sevdaliza’s second studio album:

“The album is paced perfectly, its first third featuring early album highlights such as “All Rivers At Once” which, with its unsettled americana touch, is perhaps the record’s boldest and most enjoyable experiment. Further along, you have lead single “Habibi” which is what you’d get if The Fragile-era Nine Inch Nails was re-imagined as piano balladry performed by 070 Shake. Elsewhere, we’re treated to the spectacular cover of a classic Persian pop song “Gole Bi Goldoon” – whose grand re-imagining here makes it one of the greatest covers I’ve ever heard.

Concluding the album strongly are “Rhode” and “Comet”.  “Rhode” plays out as the album’s final catharsis, the darkest track here, and the one that most resembles the Sevdaliza of old, barring the incredible solo that ends the track with a sense of spiraling finality. Afterwards, we’re treated to album closer “Comet”, a subtle reference to Sevdaliza’s first record ISON, and the logical denouement to Shabrang, utilizing immersive orchestral elements to signal that we’ve reached the end of an era.

The only creative decision that truly puzzled me was the album’s inclusion of “Human Nature”; a track previously released on The Calling. It feels somewhat out of place here, despite its subtle orchestral makeover. Taking a step back, I can also see how other long-time fans might find the album’s sharp turn into new stylistic territory not to their liking. I can only hope they give the album its chance to grow on them. With subsequent listens, my initial appreciation developed into adoration – and I’m confident others will have a similar experience.

Shabrang is album of the year material, and Sevdaliza’s greatest artistic achievement yet. She skillfully honed her craftsmanship to shed any traces of imitation that might have appeared in earlier material, while evolving her sound in a way that doesn’t entirely turn its back on the past. It is an evolution that will keep most of her fans on board, and certainly draw in many, many more. If there was any doubt before, Shabrang should dispel it: there isn’t an artistic powerhouse out there quite like Sevdaliza”.

I shall wrap it up there. I think that Shabrang is one of those albums that affected everyone who reviewed it but, to me, there was not as much coverage as there should have been. Go and listen to the album and experience something majestic. Even though it has not been in the world for that long, I think that Shabrang warrants new investigation and inspection. It is an album that provides…

A life-affirming listening experience.

FEATURE: On Folk, Fame and Femininity… A Look Inside a ‘Lost’ Kate Bush Interview from 1989

FEATURE:

 

 

On Folk, Fame and Femininity…

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

A Look Inside a ‘Lost’ Kate Bush Interview from 1989

___________

NOW that I have read and digested…

a recent edition of MOJO that dedicated a lot of space to Kate Bush, there are some interesting discussion points. The first I want to bring up is an interview from 1989 that was supposedly lost in the midst of time. It was never published in English and, in the conversation with Martin Aston, there were some intriguing points of discussion. As the U.K, correspondent of a Dutch magazine, OOR, it seems like there was a round of interviews where people got to talk with Bush about her ‘return’. She released Hounds of Love in 1985 and, four years later, she was back with an album. That period of time between albums is not remarkable today, though for a big artists in the 1980s, I guess the press wrote off those that did not come back with another album very soon after the last. Ashton noted how Bush was almost enveloped by an armchair where they were sitting at Chilston Park (a stately home in Kent)! Shy and charismatic, the paradox was something that caught his imagination. It was noted that, maybe, because she had been in the studio so long, the reluctance to do many interviews was because she had been by herself/very people for a long time. Bush noted how The Sensual World (the album she was promoting) was her most ‘female’. In the past, she had written more from a man’s perspective (or a child in more than one case); The Sensual World has a very female energy and, whereas past albums have seen her deliver her words with masculine energy, maybe there was something more paternal and personal here.

Martin Aston picked up on what Bush said about The Sensual World being a ‘female’ album. He asked if women can be many things: “Yes, they can, but I am a female, and so most people presume that females write from a female point of view…”. Bush said how Hounds of Love had this male energy with big drums and quite a propulsive tone. The Sensual World had “much more of a female energy to it”. When challenged to define what constitutes a female energy, Bush suggested how one did not hear many female sounds at the time. A lot of music, such as Rock, was being distilled by male producers or dissipated in some way. In ethnic music (her words), the Trio Bulgarka (a Bulgarian female vocal ensemble) were pure and intense. They were not being directed or made to sound commercial. The Sensual World definitely benefits from their experience and power! Bush, without wanting to sound sexist, felt that The Sensual World would appeal to a few more women than her past work. Even though her musicians and technical team were men, the songs and themes covered on The Sensual World, to me, are closer to her heart than ever. I definitely think that Bush was putting more of herself into the work. Bush was stunned that people were so interested in her work. “I just continue to think how extraordinary it is that people do want to hear my stuff”.

She noted how, stuck in the studio and working so hard, she is never sure what people think and whether they will like her music. The question of touring came up and, as it has been a decade since The Tour of Life, she thought it was a little ridiculous people still asked about it – it would be another twenty-five years before a big return to the stage. There is a lot to love and pour over in the interview with Martin Aston. I am not sure why it was not run and whether there was something in there that was blocked by EMI or the Dutch magazine. Having it preserved by MOJO is a real treat! One of the most revealing questions came when Aston asked whether letting go of her music and having people hear it haunts her. Given that she is so driven and spends a long time honing her songs, is there that panic when it is finally out? “I think that ‘letting go’ is a key phrase for so many things in my life”. She stated how she is a tenacious person and that she does not like to let things go. For The Sensual World, however, “I couldn’t wait for the album to be finished, and to be out”. There was palpable relief at having an album out! One of the things that crops up in Bush interviews is that she can never be happy with anything. She told Aston that she learns to be a little less disappointed each time. On The Sensual World, she had reached the logical conclusion of each song; there were a few tracks she feared that would never be completed.

Bush revealed how, when recording The Sensual World, “how obsessive I am when making a record, and how it shuts me off from so many things”. I think the album was transformational in the sense that Bush would prioritise herself more after this album. By the time The Red Shoes was released in 1993, it was clear that she needed some time out and recharge. Bush took breaks when recording the album, and she was frustrated at how long lyrics were taking – “There were times I just couldn’t go any further”. Taking time out and doing stuff like gardening, when she couldn’t write and had to take breaks, spending some time doing something more relaxing was a help. Having reached the age of thirty (in 1988), she was looking art things differently. “I had to look at a lot of things in myself, and I think, “Is making an album that important to me?”. Bush revealed how it was important how she had friends and could divert from music and not solely be obsessed with recording and making an album. Asked whether there was a burden on her with the expectation surrounding a new album, Bush said how it was unfair that people assumed that an album would fare well and be a success. “Obviously, I would love them (the public) to like it, but again, it’s down to ‘Why do you make an album?”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for The Sensual World single/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush 

Bush discussed that she wrote songs because she had something specific to say and, if people don’t like them, then she has done her best and that is that. Perhaps the most surprising quote came at the end. After being away for so long, Bush found it surreal regarding the fascination. “Why are people so interested in me when I just make an album every now and then?”. Perhaps it is modesty on her behalf, though it was clear that Bush had achieved so much by 1989 and had a massive fanbase! Even though she was not releasing albums that regularly, the same sort of interest and expectation that met The Sensual World then exists in 2021. It has been nearly a decade since her last album, 50 Words for Snow, and it is clear that family and personal space has become more of a priority over thirty years later. In the Martin Aston interview, she was asked whether the track, This Woman’s Work, made her think of becoming a mother (Bush was quick to point out that this was quite a personal question!). Bush is a mother now and things have changed a lot in her life. What has remained is the popularity she has and, whilst she might not be as obsessive now towards making albums than she was in the past, there is still the media attention and the sort of expectation of new material. I am glad the 1989 interview has surfaced, and we do learn new things about Kate Bush. Reading Bush talk about The Sensual World and the songs makes you realise that it was…

A very important album and time for her.

FEATURE: Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure: Duran Duran – Rio

FEATURE:

 

 

Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure

 Duran Duran – Rio

___________

SOME may argue vociferously…

against me including Duran Duran’s Rio in this feature. I love the album (of the same name) and feel it is one of the best of the 1980s. I think that the band get this tag because they think of a lot of the music from the early-1980s as being a bit fake, cheesy and naff. Duran Duran released one of my favourite songs with Ordinary World (from their 1993 eponymous release (though many know it as The Wedding Album). I have seen Rio and Girls on Film appear in a couple of guilty pleasure songs lists – and, as I keep saying, I do not buy into the notion that a song is a guilty pleasure. I will bring in a review of the Rio album – as I think it is one everyone should listen to -, but I am charged with showing how good Rio is. I am not a huge fan of the song’s video; that is a minor flaw. Rio is one of the best tracks of the 1980s and, when you hear the song start, you are instantly captured and uplifted! Before I go on, I want to bring in some background information regarding the song:

“The keyboard pattern for "Rio", well-known among Duran Duran fans and synthesizer enthusiasts, was produced by an arpeggiator—a tool which can play the individual notes in a chord in a chosen pattern. It was once rumoured that the synthesiser used to achieve this was a Roland Jupiter-8. However, it has been said by Nick Rhodes to actually be a Roland Jupiter-4 using the random mode on the arpeggiator with a Cmaj7 chord.

Rhodes created the unusual sound at the beginning of the song by throwing several small metal rods onto the strings of a grand piano in the studio. The recorded sound was then reversed to create the intro. The laughter on the track was that of Rhodes' girlfriend at the time.

The song's verse was musically inspired by their earlier song "See Me, Repeat Me" and the chorus was taken from "Stevie's Radio Station", a song written by TV Eye which featured singer Andy Wickett who went on to be one of Duran Duran's early singers. The song was a favourite of Nick and John and was incorporated into Duran Duran live sets during Wickett's tenure.

Originating from an idea by John Taylor about Rio de Janeiro – "the truly foreign, the exotic, a cornucopia of earthly delights, a party that would never stop" – Simon Le Bon wrote the lyrics to the song, and chose not to write about the city but about a girl named Rio

The tenor saxophone solo was performed by Andy Hamilton, who has also worked with Wham! and Elton John amongst others”.

Not only is Rio one of the best singles of 1982 (the single arrived in November; the album came out in May); the album from which is came is a classic! This is what AllMusic wrote in their review of the marvellous and timeless Rio:

“From its Nagel cover to the haircuts and overall design -- and first and foremost the music -- Rio is as representative of the '80s at its best as it gets. The original Duran Duran's high point, and just as likely the band's as a whole, its fusion of style and substance ensures that even two decades after its release it remains as listenable and danceable as ever. The quintet integrates its sound near-perfectly throughout, the John and Roger Taylor rhythm section providing both driving propulsion and subtle pacing.

For the latter, consider the lush, semi-tropical sway of "Save a Prayer," or the closing paranoid creep of "The Chauffeur," a descendant of Roxy Music's equally affecting dark groover "The Bogus Man." Andy Taylor's muscular riffs provide fine rock crunch throughout, Rhodes' synth wash adds perfect sheen, and Le Bon tops it off with sometimes overly cryptic lyrics that still always sound just fine in context, courtesy of his strong delivery. Rio's two biggest smashes burst open the door in America for the New Romantic/synth rock crossover. "Hungry Like the Wolf" blended a tight, guitar-heavy groove with electronic production and a series of instant hooks, while the title track was even more anthemic, with a great sax break from guest Andy Hamilton adding to the soaring atmosphere. Lesser known cuts like "Lonely in Your Nightmare" and "Last Chance on the Stairway" still have pop thrills a-plenty, while "Hold Back the Rain" is the sleeper hit on Rio, an invigorating blast of feedback, keyboards and beat that doesn't let up. From start to finish, a great album that has outlasted its era”.

It is a shame that some bands like Duran Duran get this ‘guilty pleasure’ tag applied to them. They have recorded some songs that are not especially great – Rio is definitely not one of those. During these hard times, tracks such as Rio provide a positive boost and rush!

 IN THIS PHOTO: Duran Duran in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Lynn Goldsmith

I want to close with a great article that outlined why Rio is such a great song. For those who are not a big fan of it, maybe these words will sway your opinion:

“What’s the most seminal, classic, 1980s pop song you can think of? What’s the song that perfectly encapsulates the musical trends and styles of the decade? This is a question that will get a multitude of answers from people, but at least a fair number of people would answer “Hungry Like the Wolf”, by Duran Duran from the band’s 1982 album Rio. More than just “Wolf,”

Rio is a quintessentially 1980s album, an album that helps to define a decade, despite it’s release early in the decade. After all, Rio was released in 1982. It shows just how on-point Duran Duran was that they could release an album that helped to serve as a cornerstone of the decade when the decade had just started.

More than anything, Rio is fun. This is to be expected–Duran Duran took the band’s name from a Barbarella character, for crying out loud, this is a band that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Songs on Rio are willing to push the envelope, delving into something that’s goofy yet spectacularly well-made. “My Own Way” ends with Simon le Bon shouting phrases over a pulsing guitar melody, in an endearing yet slightly dumb manner.

The biggest candidate for Duran Duran’s well-polished fun is “Hungry Like the Wolf”, a song that’s equally iconic and equally stupid. “Hungry Like the Wolf” is an amazing song, three minutes of pop perfection with an amazing vocal line, wonderful backing vocals, a beautiful thirty seconds in the final chorus, and the dumbest lyrics known to man. What on Earth does “I smell like I sound” even mean to begin with? The bit before the final chorus, where Simon le Bon whispers “hungry like the wolf” over the sound of heavy breathing is also hilariously silly–and that’s the point. Duran Duran knows it sounds silly, why else would they do this? This is a beautifully silly song that they play 100% straight and that makes it all the better.

Rio is an album full of amazingly well-crafted and well-produced songs that are actually quite long. A good number of the songs on the album are over four minutes, eschewing the traditional pop radio time constraints. And yet, they don’t feel like they’re over four minutes. “The Chauffeur” pushes five minutes and yet sounds shorter and longer at the same time. The song is haunting, le Bon’s vocals flitting over a minimal score, the synth dropping in like raindrops before swapping to a flowing, lilty overplay, bringing so much atmospheric power to the piece. Those moments where le Bon sings the phrase “Sing Blue Silver” are downright transcendent, a musical oddity that somehow sets itself apart from the other songs but fits the tone of the album perfectly.

At least for me, the true highlight of the album is the title track. “Rio” is such a beautifully composed song. There’s no weak moments, there aren’t any obvious faults, it’s just a bright, beautiful poppy with an amazing sax riff near the end. From those opening synths to the pounding guitars, it’s an amazing opening that just drops you right into pop perfection. Do the lyrics make sense? Not entirely! But again, it doesn’t matter. The lyrics are a perfect fit for the moment, only falling apart if I’m also just so happy to see a synthpop song dealing with the American Southwest. So often that area’s just relegated to country/western but nope, here’s a ridiculous synthpop masterpiece that namechecks the Rio Grande River”.

Take some time to check out one of Duran Duran’s most-popular songs. Though some feel that it is not a track to sing along to and admit that you like, many others (rightly) rate it as a classic. I have been spinning it a bit because there is so much to love. The infectious chorus, the bounce and flow of the song…everything hits the mark! I don’t think it has aged badly; in the sense that it is a big hit that sounds good no matter when you play it. Although the sensations and sounds of Rio might seem a million miles away, you can listen to the song and…

FEEL like you are somewhere exotic.

FEATURE: Interlude: Pledge: Saluting the Importance and Legacy of Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814

FEATURE:

 

 

Interlude: Pledge

Saluting the Importance and Legacy of Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814

___________

IT was only a couple of days ago…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Janet Jackson during the Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 album cover shoot in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Guzman

that I did a Lockdown Playlist regarding songs that have been inducted into the Recording Registry. Just after I published it, a news article came out detailing new recordings that are going into the Registry. I am mentioning Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, as this is an album that has been included – it is one that I think is very important. The BBC reported on the story:

“Spotify recently revealed that 60,000 tracks are uploaded to its servers every day - that's a new song every one and a half seconds.

The US Library of Congress is more picky: admitting just 25 recordings to its Recording Registry every year.

Those works, which are deemed to have historical and cultural significance, are then preserved for posterity.

This year's inductees have just been announced, with Janet Jackson, Winston Churchill and The Muppets on the list.

Nas' iconic debut, Illmatic, was also added to the registry, as was Labelle's Lady Marmalade and Louis Armstrong's 1938 recording of When the Saints Go Marching In.

Janet Jackson's 1989 album Rhythm Nation 1814 is one of the newest records to be added to the registry this year.

The Library of Congress recognised how the pop star had rejected pressure to repeat the commercial success of her previous record, Control, and instead made a record that grappled with racism, homelessness, gun crime and social injustice.

"We wanted Rhythm Nation to really communicate empowerment," Jackson's producer Jimmy Jam told the Library of Congress. "It was making an observation, but it was also a call to action. Janet's purpose was to lead people and do it through music, which I think is the ultimate uniter of people”.

I am not going to go too deep into Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, though I think it is a hugely popular and stunning album from one of music’s true greats. Arriving four years before her janet. album and three years after Control, I think that Jackson was on this golden run. I think that her music became more political and rawer since her first album or two. Maybe her style and sound changed from janet. onward in terms of its accessibility and not being quite as edgy – though that album is remarkable and one that I really love. Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, since its release in 1989, has had this enormous legacy. There was this feeling that tackling politics would be dangerous for such a popular artist. I feel that Janet Jackson’s remarkable Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 opened the doors for other artists and marked her as an icon. I want to bring in a couple of reviews for the album before wrapping up. This is what AllMusic had to say:

“After shocking the R&B world with 1986's Control -- a gutsy, risk-taking triumph that was a radical departure from her first two albums -- Michael and Jermaine Jackson's younger sister reached an even higher artistic plateau with the conceptual Rhythm Nation 1814. Once again, she enlists the help of Time graduates Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (one of the more soulful production/songwriting teams of 1980s and '90s R&B) with wildly successful results. In 1989, protest songs were common in rap but rare in R&B -- Janet Jackson, following rap's lead, dares to address social and political topics on "The Knowledge," the disturbing "State of the World," and the poignant ballad "Living in a World" (which decries the reality of children being exposed to violence). Jackson's voice is wafer-thin, and she doesn't have much of a range -- but she definitely has lots of soul and spirit and uses it to maximum advantage on those gems as well as nonpolitical pieces ranging from the Prince-influenced funk/pop of "Miss You Much" and "Alright" to the caressing, silky ballads "Someday Is Tonight," "Alone," and "Come Back to Me" to the pop/rock smoker "Black Cat." For those purchasing their first Janet Jackson release, Rhythm Nation would be an even wiser investment than Control -- and that's saying a lot”.

In another positive review, Pitchfork made some interesting remarks about one of the finest albums of the 1980s:

“This would thrust her career into an adult sensuality—by 1993, at 27, she would be posing topless on the cover of Rolling Stone. But Rhythm Nation’s arc was also explicitly historical. After much speculation about what the “1814” in the title stood for, Jackson later confirmed that it referred to the year Francis Scott Key wrote the “Star-Spangled Banner,” firmly asserting this was her new national anthem. In the “Alright” video, a song that worked alongside “Escapade” as an explicit reprieve from the social ills she addressed on the album—the permission to get loose after all that stress, a pop structure that still proves useful today—Jackson wore a zoot suit and cast ’40s and ’50s icons Cyd Charisse and Cab Calloway, the former a dance legend of the silver screen, the latter a music director who spent much of his early career as the gifted entertainment for wealthy whites in Harlem’s segregated Cotton Club. “Alright” was a pop art homage to those old timey musicals, and an implicit vision of what the world could be like, should her utopia be instated. The melody was forward-looking and comforting, a love song and with more swing and the synth horns that signified a kind of aspiration among an orchestra of agreeance. She sang:

Friends come and friends may go

My friends you’re real I know

True self you have shown

You’re alright with me

That some dismissive critics then thought the politics were separable from the love songs was an incorrect reading. Jackson’s further assertion of self was as personal-as-political as the era demanded, reflecting in part her relationship and eventual marriage to René Elizondo, done in secret to keep both the press and her former dadager at bay. She was fully growing into herself as a human, exploring her internal territory and reconciling it with the world outside, while pushing herself musically more than ever. “Black Cat,” which she wrote entirely herself, was the fully manifested example of this internal and external congealing. She threw down a slinky, sexy snarl over a rock guitar shred that was also wildly jiggy, making an unlikely dive-bar banger that spoke to both gang members and the wronged women who loved them. Another nod to history—topically, the bad boy lament could be traced back to Big Mama Thornton, the black blueswoman who invented rock’n’roll—Jackson was proving to the world she was as versatile as any other chart-topper of the day, and no move she made was without substance. Perhaps by presenting her self-made utopia, she also envisioned that the real-life dystopian one would recognize her not for what it wanted her to be, but for who she was”.

I think that Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 thoroughly deserves to be honoured and marked as one of the most important albums ever. Over thirty years since it was released, then songs still sound so relevant and impressive. Some may say Janet Jackson released better albums: I do not think she recorded a more important one.

The final article I want to introduce is from Albuism. They discussed the strength of Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 and its legacy after all of these years:

“Just as the album opened with a trio of songs focusing on social consciousness, the album closes with another trio of songs, this time focused on relationships, love and sexuality. “Lonely” leads the pack with a slow-jam of densely stacked harmonies and swaying melodies. “Come Back To Me” is a pleading ballad of lament and longing, and “Someday Is Tonight” is the sexual climax of Control’s “Let’s Wait A While,” where Jackson delivers on the promise of being “worth the wait.” Sensual and breathy, Jackson seduces and pulls you in, setting the tone for her more sexual slow burn songs that would close out many of her albums that would follow this.

Rhythm Nation 1814 is perhaps the most perfect encapsulation of Janet Jackson. In many ways it became the blueprint for her albums that would follow both in structure and sequencing. And despite the fears of her record label, it was an unqualified smash success, surpassing the sales of its predecessor and cementing Jackson’s place within the superstar sphere.

Accompanied by a powerful and engaging 30-minute mini-movie, Rhythm Nation 1814 found Jackson wearing her heart on her black military inspired sleeve and dared to make a difference. In what would soon be iconic black and white imagery and oft repeated dance moves, Jackson created a look, feel, and sound of a whole generation to feel a part of.

But more important than the millions of sales and countless Top Ten hits, the album made an impact in people’s lives. It opened eyes. It gave voice to the issues of the day. It encouraged its listeners to make a difference in the world and their own lives. It made them care.

And it made a difference. If music has the power to connect us to an emotion or feel a part of something bigger, then Rhythm Nation did that. Kids hearing “The Knowledge” were inspired to stay on in school or seek a college education. People wary of differences became less fearful and embraced them. It inspired a generation to believe, to have hope, and feel that they could make a change. It engaged and connected with the listener. And it gave the listener a feeling of belonging, a place to feel good, to feel empowered.

Thirty years on and Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 is still a landmark album. It still resonates. And sadly it still reflects many of the ills that plague us. It’s both a time capsule and a mirror. A movement for the heart and mind. It’s a near flawless album. One that pulled Jackson once and for all out of the shadows of her elder siblings and made her a bona fide superstar who can still sell out arenas to this day. It’s an important milestone not only in Jackson’s career, but in the musical landscape in general. And when talk centers around great albums with a social conscience, it deserves to be included”.

Congratulations to an iconic artist on having one of her masterpieces inducted into Recording Registry by the U.S. Library of Congress. I was keen to salute Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814. After almost thirty-two years after its release, it remains such an important and…

PHENOMENAL record.

FEATURE: Music Technology Breakthroughs: Part Fifteen: The Microphone

FEATURE:

 

 

Music Technology Breakthroughs

PHOTO CREDIT: @leowieling/Unsplash

Part Fifteen: The Microphone

___________

IN the final edition of…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @farber/Unsplash

Music Technology Breakthroughs, I am focusing on an invention that sort of predates a lot of the technology I have already covered. It is impossible to cover the complete history and development of the microphone but, as it is so pivotal and instrumental when it comes to music, I had to discuss it. I know that microphone technology was being used in other devices and areas before it came to music. In terms of some history, Rode looked at the microphone’s beginnings:

“You could argue that the original microphones came from Alexander Graeme Bell, inventor of the telephone. The very first device of this type actually used vibrations from a voice to make a needle rattle in water. The changing liquid would affect an electrical current, which could be transmitted to a receiver on the other end of a line. Indeed, Bell was able to make a phone call work over existing telegraph lines in his demonstrations!

Next came Emil Berliner, another famous inventor in the audio recording industry. A German man, Berliner is said to have created the world's first carbon button microphone (1876), a superior audio recording device than Bell's water-based model. This microphone involved applying vibrations from an electroconductive diaphragm to a packet of carbon granules, which could be picked up by an electrical output signal.

This proved highly successful, leading to Bell purchasing it for his later telephone models (still pre-1900s).

And then came sound recording

Early sound recording devices had no digital parts, and wouldn't for decades.

Thomas Edison first theorised the possibility that we could record sound after wondering how to create a more efficient transmitting device than the telegraph. According to Adam Kennedy of Penn State University, in 1877, Edison connected the needle of a telegraph device to the diaphragm of a telephone and spoke into it. As expected, the needle responded to the vibrations of his voice and recorded a pattern on paper. However, this produced no sound when listened back to.

So he devised a second device, made out of a tinfoil cylinder. The needle carved the sound into the tin, creating an imprint of him saying the nursery rhyme 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'. Though low-quality, it worked. Sound recording was born.

The next time you are listening back to a dialogue track on your computer, just think: not too long ago you would have needed a tinfoil cylinder!”.

It is amazing to consider how the microphone has evolved since its early use and how widespread it is now – not just for musicians but in so many areas of our lives. Many of us have laptops with built-in microphones; many have been using microphones for Zoom calls and podcasts. The technology has definitely advanced to the point where pretty much anyone can record sound clearly and professionally in their own homes – something that people could not have imagined or believed centuries ago!

 PHOTO CREDIT: @kellysikkema/Unsplash

I am going to end by quoting from an article that outlines several ways the microphone has changed the music industry. In terms of its development, this fascinating article takes us through the years and the various microphone breakthroughs and models:

“Condenser Microphones - In 1916, Edward Christopher “EC” Wente of Bell Laboratories introduced the first condenser microphone. Although this device was developed as an instrument to measure sound intensity, the basic design would lead to the development of condenser microphones suitable for sound recording.

The development of the vacuum tube was the next evolutionary step for microphones. Although Frederick Guthrie discovered thermionic emission in 1873, it was Thomas Edison's discovery in 1883 of the phenomenon that became known as the Edison effect that led to further development of the vacuum tube. John Ambrose Fleming used the diode tube to detect radio signals in the early twentieth century. In 1906 Lee De Forest came up with the Audion, which was also developed as a radio detector. However, it was his development of the triode tube that essentially became the first electronic amplifier.

The condenser microphone had a relatively weak output. It was the development of the electronic amplifier that made this design practical. The condenser microphone consisted of two parallel plates, each with an electrical charge. Sound vibrations move the front plate, while the rear plate remains fixed, which slightly alters the capacitance between the plates, causing a change in current flow in the electrical circuit to which it is connected. This signal is then electronically amplified to a usable level. Early designs used thick steel plates to provide stiffness to raise the resonant frequency above the audio range. This design produced a frequency response up to about 6 kHz, well above the carbon microphones of the time, which reach only 3 kHz. However, when thin aluminum was stretched over a round frame to produce the front plate, the response increased to 15 kHz.

PHOTO CREDIT: @birukmak/Unsplash

Georg Neumann and Co. was founded in Germany in 1928 and became world-famous for its microphones. It designed and produced the first commercial condenser microphone, the CMV3, which, because of its shape, was nicknamed “the bottle.” Its capsule, designated as M1, was hand-made with the front plate now made of gold-plated PVC. These microphones now had a frequency response from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. In 1932, Neumann produced the CMV3A, which provided for interchangeable heads, with a new capsule designated the M7, with a double-membrane design. The cancellation of sound reaching the rear of the capsule produced a cardioid pattern, becoming the first cardioid microphone.

During World War II, Neumann's factory in Berlin was damaged by Allied bombing, forcing him to moved the company to the town of Gefell in eastern Germany. After the war, Georg Neumann reestablished his company in one of the Allied sectors of Berlin In 1948, it introduced the U47, which was distributed by Telefunken and carried a Telefunken badge. The U47, nicknamed the “Telly,” was the first condenser microphone with a switchable-pattern. A switch allowed for changing between cardioid and omni-directional patterns. It used the M7 capsule and an amplifier using Telefunken's VF-14 tube. The VF-14 was a pre-World War II metal-clad pentode configured as a triode. Although the VF-14 had a filament designed to work at 55 volts, Neumann used only 36 volts to extend the tube life and for quieter operation.10 Because these microphones had a presence with unprecedented detail, they soon became the most in-demand microphones in studios all over the world. It has been said that Frank Sinatra wouldn't sing without his “Telly.”

Wireless Microphones - The next development was the wireless microphone. Eliminating tangled cable strewn all over a stage is a nice goal, but for some situations, such as performers singing while skating at an ice show, it almost necessary. That is why figure skater and flight engineer Reg Moores put together a wireless microphone that he used during the 1949 production of Aladdin on Ice at the Sports Stadium Brighton in the UK. With the microphone and transmitter attached to his costume, it performed flawlessly. However, because he was using an illegal frequency, the producers of the show decided to not to continue using the device.

The first commercial wireless microphone system for performers was the Vagabond 88, introduced by the Shure Brothers in 1953.15 Using a microphone with a low-frequency transmitter with five subminiature vacuum tubes powered by two hearing aid batteries, it transmitted to a copper wire that was placed on the floor or suspended from the ceiling. It was quite expensive and was used primarily by live shows in Las Vegas.16 Shure did not re-enter the wireless microphone market until 1990.

In 1958, the German company Lab W (now Sennheiser) introduced a wireless microphone system called the Mikroport that was marketed by Telefunken. It consisted of a pocket-sized moving coil microphone with a transmitter operating at 37 MHz with a range of 300 feet.

The first patented wireless microphone system was granted in 1964 to Raymond A. Litke, an American electrical engineer with Educational Media Resources and San Jose State College. Vega Electronics Corporation began manufacturing the system in 1959. It offered the choice of a hand-held or lavalier style microphone with a 7-ounce cigar-shaped transmitter. It was first used by the broadcast media when the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) used it at the 1960 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. For the first time television reporters could roam freely on the floor of the conventions and interview participants.

The wireless microphone continued to be improved, increasing fidelity and improving resistance to interference. While wireless microphones are rarely used in the recording studio, today they have become ubiquitous on television broadcasts of musical performances and are frequently seen at live performances”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: @denisolvr/Unsplash

I will wrap up soon but, in this fifteenth edition, I think that microphone is possibly one of the most important technological breakthroughs in music! We take it for granted now but, decades ago, the technology was relatively simple. Now, with wireless microphones and such incredible sound quality, maybe we take it for granted.  In the final article that I want to bring in, they explain ways in which a microphone aides and enhances sound and live performance:

“Without outside amplification, the loudest musician wins every time. But when you introduce microphones into the mix, every individual instrument can be heard as the composer intended. So you can have brass instruments playing at fortissimo, and woodwinds and strings playing mezzopiano, but the final decision as to the volume is up to the sound engineer running the music recording equipment.

Likewise, in a live setting, a quiet singer or instrumentalist can still be heard in the back row with proper amplification. Microphones can be strategically placed around a stage to pick up any whisper or important sounds, so the audience can hear them regardless of where they are seated.

With a live performance, a performer can relax and focus on quality over quantity, so to speak. In addition to the value of amplifying the output, microphones can be used in conjunction with music recording equipment to provide a wide variety of aftereffects.

Overdubbing, for example, can be beneficial for a solo artist who plays multiple instruments or sings different parts on a track. With the right music recording equipment, the artist can set up for the backing vocals, instrumentation, and then focus on lead vocals and one instrument during a live performance — or put it all together for a music video, like this YouTube artist.

Sampling requires a microphone for it to be of any sort of use at all. The difference between a cover and a sample lies with who is doing the performing. An artist who wishes to sample another needs the original recording, otherwise he or she will be covering the work instead of just sampling the original artist. With a microphone used in conjunction with the rest of the music recording equipment for the original recording, the sample can be overlaid with the new artist’s and processed through another microphone”.

I will wrap up there, only to say that the microphone has transformed and expanded (in terms of the range of choices) through time. It is a simple yet wonderful invention and breakthrough that fascinates me. It is this point that I will…

SIGN this feature off.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Lady Gaga at Thirty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

Lady Gaga at Thirty-Five

___________

I have done a few ‘big birthday’…

Lockdown Playlists recently. Not to draw attention to the fact but, when an artist celebrates a big birthday, I like to nod to it and include them. Lady Gaga is thirty-five tomorrow (28th March) so, to celebrate that, I have put together a selection of her greatest songs. Before then, and as I often do, here is some background information:

“Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (/ˈstɛfəni ˌdʒɜːrməˈnɒtə/ STEF-ən-ee JUR-mə-NOT-ə; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenager, singing at open mic nights and acting in school plays. She studied at Collaborative Arts Project 21, through New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, before dropping out to pursue a career in music. After Def Jam Recordings canceled her contract, she worked as a songwriter for Sony/ATV Music Publishing, where she signed a joint deal with Interscope Records and Akon's label, KonLive Distribution, in 2007. Gaga rose to prominence the following year with her debut studio album, The Fame, and its chart-topping singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The album was later reissued to include the EP, The Fame Monster (2009), which yielded the successful singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone", and "Alejandro". 

Gaga's five succeeding studio albums all debuted atop the US Billboard 200. Her second full-length album, Born This Way (2011), explored electronic rock and techno-pop and sold more than one million copies in its first week. Its title track became the fastest-selling song on the iTunes Store, with over one million downloads in less than one week.

Following her EDM-influenced third album, Artpop (2013) and its lead single "Applause", Gaga released the jazz album Cheek to Cheek (2014) with Tony Bennett and the country pop and soft rock-influenced album Joanne (2016). She also ventured into acting, playing leading roles in the miniseries American Horror Story: Hotel (2015–2016), for which she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and the critically acclaimed musical drama film A Star Is Born (2018). Her contributions to the latter's soundtrack, which spawned the chart-topping single "Shallow", made her the first woman to win an Academy, Grammy, BAFTA, and Golden Globe Award in one year. Gaga returned to her dance-pop roots with her sixth studio album, Chromatica (2020), which yielded the number-one single "Rain on Me".

Having sold 124 million records as of 2014, Gaga is one of the world's best-selling music artists and the fourth highest-earning female musician of the 2010s. Her achievements include various Guinness World Records, 12 Grammy Awards, awards from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and recognition as Billboard's Artist of the Year and Woman of the Year. Gaga has also been included in Forbes' power rankings and was ranked fourth on VH1's Greatest Women in Music (2012) and second on Time's 2011 readers' poll of the most influential people of the past decade. Her philanthropy and activism focus on mental health awareness and LGBT rights; in 2012, she founded the Born This Way Foundation, a non-profit organization aiming to empower youth, improve mental health, and prevent bullying. Gaga's business ventures include Haus Laboratories, a vegan cosmetics brand that launched in 2019.

Here is a collection of tracks from one of the most important and successful Pop artists of her generation. To salute Lady Gaga ahead of her thirty-fifth birthday, this Lockdown Playlist is a rundown of some of her…

PRIME cuts.

FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Thirty-Nine: Dawn Richard

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern Heroines

Part Thirty-Nine: Dawn Richard

___________

WHEN it comes to most of the …

artists that I feature in my Modern Heroines feature, I include those who are fairly new and who I feel will be icons of the future. Dawn Richard is releasing her sixth studio album, Second Line, late next month (she is releasing it under the moniker of DAWN). I also feature artists who are established but might not be recognised and known to all. I would encourage people to pre-order Richard’s Second Line, as it is shaping up to be a cracking album! I will bring in a selection of interviews that reveal more about the tremendous New Orleans-born artist. I want to introduce a review of Dawn Richard’s previous album, 2019’s New Breed, as it is a terrific and hugely fascinating release:

“A trilogy of expansive albums plus a crop of intermediary releases and featured appearances did not deplete Dawn Richard's reserve. On New Breed, her first major release since Redemption, the label-defiant marvel again switches up her supporting co-producers and cooks up another half-hour of authoritative progressive pop. Cosmopolitan as ever and adaptive to each backdrop, whether it includes percolating Germanic synthesizers, elastic disco-funk basslines, or window-shaking drums, Richard also keeps her New Orleans hometown at the fore, honoring her Washitaw Nation heritage, indulging in flashbacks, and incorporating musical references that are either understated or happenstance. She rejects any expectation and tag that is not self-assigned. The title track contains a verse that begins with "F*ck the heels and dress" and ends with a dismissive "I'm the motherf*cking king, yeah," and later uses as punctuation a vintage soundbite from artistic antecedent Grace Jones. The lack of inhibition transfers into the several romantic escapades, like when her partner is urged to "Live flagrant, make people nervous," or to "Keep it comin' 'til I can't move." Although Richard is resolutely combatant, only strengthened by each being or systemic force in her way, she's not above writing about her envy and insecurity -- as an impenitent wanting "petty to win tonight" as she is when she's fighting for the upliftment of black women. Even when the subtle power of Richard's voice is diminished slightly by trouble or distress, it's advisable to be on the singer's side or out of the way”.

The first interview that I want to bring in is from FACT. They spoke to her in promotion of her second studio album, Goldenheart. After her group Diddy – Dirty Money disbanded in 2012, Richard worked with creative partner and manager, Andrew ‘Druski’ Scott - who co-wrote Goldenheart with her. It is the first in a trilogy of albums by Richard about love, loss, and redemption:

“Her vocals are spare, echoing slowly into blank space; the intonation of that line simultaneously communicates triumph, relief and shock. Once again, she sings about losing it all and the world around her begins to fill up with colour – first a kick drum’s thump and multi-tracked Richards, then glissando strings and fingersnaps – before the pace picks up, morphing from austerity to richly detailed soundscapes. From the possibility of loss, Richard builds and builds, crafting her own universe in the process. Welcome to the world of Blackheart.

To those unaccustomed to Richard’s take on R&B, a quick timeline: New Orleans native, daughter to the ex-frontman of ’70s soul band Chocolate Milk, shot into the starlight as a member of Diddy’s Making the Band girl group experiment Danity Kane, co-conspirator in Diddy’s short-lived and much loved Dirty Money, and now an independent artist very much navigating her own lane. Her debut album, 2013’s Goldenheart, found her fulfilling the promise of her previous mixtapes and EPs with wild ambition. Alongside musical collaborator Druski, she brought AOR, house and classical influences to her years of experience in R&B in a manner that rarely jarred, and felt epic in a way that many independent R&B records struggle to reach. There was also the fantasy and sci-fi element, from George R.R. Martin references (a song called ‘Warfaire’) to the album’s placement at the start of a narrative trilogy.

It’s fitting that Blackheart feels like the second instalment of a trilogy, the stage where a familiar world grows vaster and the author showcases wider emotional and thematic range. It’s The Empire Strikes Back to Goldenheart‘s A New Hope. It’s an album that emerges from a year of personal ruptures in Richard’s life – a professional split from Druski, the reunion and collapse of Danity Kane, family deaths and illnesses – and locates triumph within”.

It also feels like a less narratively structured album than Goldenheart was.

Mmhmm, absolutely! Blackheart is about the fall and like I said, when you’re falling you don’t really have the time to say, “okay everybody, I’m falling!” You’re trying to catch your breath, catch your life. And when you do that, there’s a sudden realisation of who you are, what you’re in and how to stay sane. There’s no narrator needed because you are speaking directly from your soul, and I’m glad everyone can see the stories we’re showing are real and we don’t have to force it. That’s beautiful, because sometimes it’s hard to get people on your wavelength and taking you seriously. Especially when you’re independent with no budget or money and wanting to relate a difficult story and keep it authentic and – honestly – cinematic.

It’s interesting that you use the term “cinematic”, because at times listening to the album is like watching a film go widescreen, like the possibilities are suddenly much vaster. It also emphasises character traits that you may not have displayed on Goldenheart, like the wry sense of humour on ‘Billie Jean’. It takes a lot of cojones to call your song ‘Billie Jean’, for instance.

I want to be clear that I wasn’t trying to take him on, what Michael did was brilliant! Michael talked about her so brilliantly that there remains this idea of what a Billie Jean is. I’ve encountered a lot of [Billie Jeans] in this industry… We’ll call her a hoe, a tramp, a stripper, a reality TV show groupie. And what I’ve realised that there is a thin line between the whore and the artist starving and willing to do whatever to make it on her label, or what the tennis player will do for their agent, or the football player will do for that deal. Instead of calling her a hoe, I called her Billie Jean. I’m like… intrigued and impressed at the maneuvering behind the woman matching the Billie Jean idea. She’s making it. It’s a feminist take on who people call the hoes and video girls of the world or whatever they may be – by the end of the record I’ve become her. I had to do what she did just to get a number one record. Am I Billie Jean? We’re all on the borderline of doing something to get where we need to get. I didn’t want to come at it negatively, so there’s that lightheartedness you mentioned.

Do you consider Blackheart a feminist album?

Yeah. But listen, before you write that down, let me go back. People throw that term around so strongly these days that I want to be careful in the way I state this: I am just a woman. I’m a woman that has stood by her brand and this independent push for a very long time. A lot of my other records have taken a feminist approach because I feel like there are not enough of us out there having the voice that we should have, and when we speak, we’re ridiculed. A lot. I’m not here to call myself a feminist, but what I love about our brand is that as a woman, I’m able to put out an album that never antagonises the woman, only lifts her. And what we’re trying to do is beyond than just being a woman or the colour of your skin – there is no gender, no colour and no genre to this music. It is universal. Blackheart is not a feminist album – the movement that we’re doing is a feminist act”.

I am not going to go into depth with all of her albums but, as her sophomore release came eight years after Been a While (an ironic title in hindsight!), it was worth exploration. In 2019, Richard spoke with London in Stereo about her development and ideas behind New Breed:

“There is a new movement of people coming. It’s with creatives, it’s with artists, it’s with women. We are no longer silenced by the things we felt we had to be,” Dawn Richard asserts over the phone from LAX. Now under the moniker of DAWN (FKA D∆WN), the American artist, who as we speak is about to wrap up a tour with her old US chart-topping group Danity Kane, rattles answers out at a frenetic pace. This is a woman with passion and cynical know-how that’s indebted as much to her upbringing in New Orleans as it is to her switch from pop star to independent solo artist…

“You know, as a black woman,” she says, reflecting on her early career, “I’ve had to pander and I’ve had to be quiet. We listened because we were afraid to lose our jobs. I realised that that woman was someone I was never going to be: someone who I wasn’t raised to be.”

DAWN is talking about the message at the core of her forthcoming record, new breed. The album, which arrives three years after the conclusion of her solo album trilogy, is an uncompromising calling card for honouring the true self.

“This new album really speaks to the history behind why I chose to be an indie artist even though it was a really hard run,” DAWN explains. “I was told, ‘If you just do this and just be like this then you can have the career you want.’ But that just wasn’t me. I owe that all to the foundation of where I come from.”

The submissive nature of the pop industry she discusses sits at odds with the spirit of New Orleans. “Where I come from, the Mardi Gras Indian, the woman, the queen, the kings, they are proud people – we are proud people. This album speaks to who I was and who I am now. This album speaks to every girl, every man, every gay, every person who’s ever felt they’re new – they’re a new breed of person – and they’re refusing to be unapologetic for being exactly the fuck themselves.”

With new breed, DAWN has found a way to channel this outlook. The title track, at points carrying remnants of New Orleans bounce, is full of proud proclamations dotted over hulky polyrhythms – “I am a lion, I am a woman,” she sings. At the end of the carnivalesque ‘dreams and converse’, Richard introduces Mardi Gras field recordings. It’s the first of many spoken-word vignettes that bind the old New Orleans with the new: the resilient, musical city, and the modern electronic sounds Richard so boldly experiments with.

When the subject is broached about whether the music industry is finally catching up with female producers like herself, she says it is, but slowly. “With goldenheart in 2013 I was doing alternative underground stuff at a time when people weren’t really celebrating a girl without a label. In 2015 everyone was like, ‘Oh [FKA] Twigs, SZA, Kelela…we get it.’ Don’t forget, I was blessed [in Danity Kane] to be part of something that was a hit but I want people to catch up a little faster.” She mentions Janelle Monáe. “We’re only just catching up with her as a beautiful brown girl who’s doing something that isn’t just R&B.” Richard wants to “champion” these women, “especially chocolatey brown girls doing great things in electronic music”.

I will round off soon but, as Dawn Richard is such an accomplished and strong artist that many people have not heard, I wanted to take a slight diversion from the path of the promising newcomer and throw some light on one of the most remarkable songwriters and vocalists on the scene. I want to finish by quoting from a PITCHFORK interview. They spoke with Dawn Richard/DAWN about signing with the Merge label for her new album, Second Line; what lessons she learned from her early career, and how she has been keeping busy during lockdown:

“In 2020, when the pandemic led those who could afford it to retreat into sloth, Dawn Richard did an extremely Dawn Richard thing: She made moves. Several. The 37-year-old used lessons from her expansive career—which includes a star turn on MTV’s Making the Band, time as a founding member of girl group Danity Kane, her Dirty Money electropop revolution, and the decade she’s spent devising a sound of her own—to inform her business decisions. First she upgraded one of her side-hustles, Papa Ted’s, from a vegan food-truck to a “vegan sensory experience” organized around collaborations with juiceries, chefs, artists, and DJs in her hometown of New Orleans. By the end of the year, she had tripled Papa Ted’s revenue. Then she launched a new partnership with Adult Swim aimed at bringing in more queer and Black animators into its ranks.

In April, Merge will release Richard’s Second Line: An Electro Revival, an album she hopes will redefine her native city in the public’s imagination. “When people think of New Orleans, they think of the past, of jazz or R&B or soul,” she says. Now they can also think of Richard’s genre experiments—nebulas of rhythm-first, luxuriantly bass-y production brought to Earth by her storytelling. Richard wants to correct the record on something else, too: that Black women can move the needle in electronic music, as they do elsewhere. “I want to fucking break that taboo all the way,” she says. “My first entrance into the music industry was with [Danity Kane], a multi-racial girl group signed to a hip-hop label. Then I joined [Dirty Money], a group that was electropop soul built from Ibiza. If that ain’t unconventional, I don’t know what is.”

When you started out in the 2000s, there was a whole lot less transparency than there is today, even with the relative access that you had through your family.

There was no social media at the time, so I went through the same journey as my father where you signed away your child, your bloodline, and everything else with it to try to get a shot. When we got into Making the Band, we had to sign a contract just to stand in the line, and that contract bled over. If you made the band then you just sold your soul. But for a kid coming from nothing, I was already aware that my soul was probably being sold. I think it saved me that my dad didn’t paint it beautifully. He painted the truth of it, so I understood it wasn’t going to be a picnic.

As a working artist who finds a balance between being creatively fulfilled and being able to support yourself financially, what are some of the biggest lessons from your early career?

During the Bad Boy times, we didn’t have social media to tell us, “Black girls are not in right now.” In our hearts, we knew we were doing something that was a hit. But we had no clue whether it would work or not. But what I’m learning more and more is that tech takes away from that a bit. You can dictate your moves based off all the trends now. Five songs on Billboard sound the same because they understand what’s happening on TikTok. I think there’s brilliance in that, but I also would prefer us to utilize the unknown as a catalyst. Even Puff, that’s what makes him great in the sense of marketing: He looks at what’s popping. If we had social media, he might not have even done Dirty Money. He would’ve looked at the trends and said, “Oh, nuh-uh.”

How did you link up with Merge?

I had gotten over finding a team because I felt like I had gotten so good at being alone. But [my new manager] got me a job with Lincoln doing some branding work, and I thought I’d give it a try. And man, I’m so happy I did. He said, “I think we should talk to Merge.” Immediately I saw Caribou, I saw the indie rock roster, and I was like, “Hell yes. No one would think I’d go there but I feel like I fit so well.”

When you’re a Black woman pushing a lane that isn’t familiar to people, or it’s multiple genres, you’re [pegged as] “alternative R&B” immediately. That’s all they’re going to give you. For eight years, I’ve been saying Black women exist in electronic, but were never on any charts, we’re never getting any awards or nominations. With this album I wanted to be unapologetically going for it, just saying, “Yeah, girls from the South can do this music. If we do this right, we’ll open up a floodgate for other Black girls to feel that they have a lane here.” And Merge understood that”.

Even though Dawn Richard has been in the industry for many years and has established a huge fanbase, she is not only an artist who has passed some people by and remains hidden; I think she will also be an icon of the future. I wanted to include her in Modern Heroines as she has already influenced many artists but, as she keeps releasing music, she will compel and shape so many others! Keep an eye out for Second Line and the next chapter from an artist who…

IS a genuine superstar.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Blondie’s Rapture and Hip-Hop Pioneers

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Blondie (from left) Frank Infante, Chris Stein, Nigel Harrison, Jimmy Destri and Clem Burke alongside Debbie Harry/PHOTO CREDIT: Maureen Donaldson/Getty Images

Blondie’s Rapture and Hip-Hop Pioneers

___________

IN another anniversary-related…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Grandmaster Flash

Lockdown Playlist, I am putting Blondie’s Rapture in the spotlight. On 28th March, 1981, the track started a two-week run at number-one on the U.S. singles chart - the group's fourth U.S. chart-topper and the first number-one song in the U.S. to feature Rap and its lyrics, notable for name-checking Hip-Hop pioneers Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash. To tie in with this Blondie breakthrough anniversary, I am including the song, in addition to a few Hip-Hop pioneers (including Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash). Over forty years after its release, Rapture still sounds majestic and incredibly important. This brilliant article goes into depth about the background and influence of Rapture. I think it is one of the group’s best tracks. Debbie Harry vocal is incredible and, the more you play the track, the better it becomes. As Rapture name-checked some Hip-Hop icons, this Lockdown Playlist takes the ball and…

RUNS with it.

FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential April Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

Essential April Releases

___________

THERE are a selection of great albums…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dawn Richard releases her new album, Second Line: An Electro Revival, on 30th April

that are due next month that are worth further investigation. On 2nd April, Demi Lovato’s Dancing with the Devil… The Art of Starting Over is due. It is worth pre-ordering, as Lovato is one of the finest Pop artists of today:

“Demi Lovato’s new album, The Art of Starting Over…Dancing with the Devil features 19 songs (1 interlude, 2 previously released tracks “Anyone” and “What Other People Say”, plus 16 new studio tracks). This album acts as a companion piece to the recently announced ‘Dancing With The Devil’ YouTube documentary series”.

There is a lot of talk about a new Demi Lovato documentary that has just come out. Dancing with the Devil is out of the most honest music documentary in years – it is well worth a watch. In this interview with PAPER, we discover more about the documentary and Lovato’s upcoming seventh studio album:

“Toward the tail end of 2020, Demi Lovato got a haircut. Pop stars get a lot of haircuts (at the time of this writing, Billie Eilish has just thrilled fans by going blonde). This haircut was different.

Lovato, a 28-year-old megastar committed to regular feats of Olympic-level vocal pyrotechnics, went from flowing, Siren-like locks to a look that she felt reflected who she really was: a blonde spiky shag, buzzed at the sides. In her new documentary, Dancing With the Devil (airing in four episodes on YouTube starting March 23), viewers can see an ecstatic Lovato getting her head shaven. She describes it as a literal shedding of her past and a visual reflection of her queer identity, something she has recently, publicly, embraced.

"Going back over the past year, I thought my life was going to turn out a lot differently than it has," Lovato says over Zoom from her home in Los Angeles, hair now styled into a black pixie. "At one point I was engaged to a man, and now I'm very much not. And so I just wanted to allow myself the freedom to match my outside to what I feel like on the inside, and that's what I've done."

After a public engagement (and break up) to a cis male actor last year, Lovato is eager to embrace her queerness. "The queer label is fine because to me it's just this blanket statement of being different," she says. "That's what I can commit to. I feel like I'm too fluid to commit to a label."

Sexuality is just one of many deeply personal topics that Lovato approaches with unflinching candor in Dancing With the Devil. The documentary includes a series of harrowing, acutely painful revelations surrounding sexual assault, addiction and her recovery from a lifelong eating disorder. Lovato stares into the camera and shares everything, an act of steely courage and open generosity. She values extreme transparency (this is her second such YouTube documentary, after 2017's Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated), and practices a form of radical honesty in the public eye.

A new album, Dancing with the Devil... The Art of Starting Over, will be released on April 2, as a companion piece to the documentary. "Even though [the album] is not technically a soundtrack to the documentary, it kind of is," she says. "If you were to follow the track listing in order, it really goes to the way my life has played out over the last year."

The album starts out with power ballads chronicling Lovato's darkest days ("Anyone," "Dancing with the Devil," "ICU"), and then moves into her recovery. The lyrics are specific and autobiographical: she sings about working through her eating disorder on the surprisingly upbeat "Melon Cake" (she was only allowed watermelon covered in fat-free whipped cream on her birthdays for years); and about her biological father, who passed away in 2013 and with whom she had a complicated relationship, on "Butterfly."

The queer subtext of "Cool for the Summer" becomes text on "The Kind of Lover I Am," in which Lovato plainly states that it "doesn't matter if you're a woman or a man." The album takes on a folkier tone and showcases the Voice while still allowing for post-quarantine club bangers. There's "My GFs are My BFs," a classic female empowerment anthem featuring Saweetie, and "Met Him Last Night," a collaboration with Ariana Grande that highlights two of the most powerful voices in pop”.

Also out on 2nd April is Du Blonde’s Homecoming. The amazing Beth Jeans Houghton is joined by the likes of Shirley Manson, Ezra Furman on a much-anticipated album. I think it is going to be one of this year’s best-received albums. Rough Trade describe the album like this:

“Du Blonde is back with new album Homecoming and with it, her own record label, clothing brand and all-round art house Daemon T.V. Written, recorded and produced by Du Blonde (aka Beth Jeans Houghton), Homecoming is a refreshing taste of pop-grunge finery, featuring guests including Shirley Manson, Ezra Furman, Andy Bell (Ride/Oasis), The Farting Suffragettes, and members of Girl Ray and Tunng among others.

The album began as a few songs hashed out on a porch in LA in early 2020, and as Houghton’s desire to create something self-made and self-released merged with the then incoming pandemic. Admirers of Du Blonde’s previous two studio albums (2015’s Welcome Back to Milk and 2019’s Lung Bread for Daddy) might be surprised to find that Homecoming takes on the form of a pop record. The garage rock, grunge and metal guitar licks that have come to define Du Blonde are still there in spades, but as a whole the direction of the album is pop through and through. Houghton’s freak flag is still flying high however, a fact that’s no more apparent than on ‘Smoking Me Out’, a bizarre mash up of 80’s shock rock, metal and 60’s pop group harmonies. This defiant and energetic attitude can be heard throughout Homecoming, whether writing about her medication (30mg of citalopram, once a day), her queerness on 'I Can’t Help You There' (“I’ve been a queen, I’ve been a king, and still I don’t fit in”), to the joyous and manic explosion of 'Pull The Plug' (“say that I’m deranged, but I’ve been feeling more myself than ever”), Houghton is nothing if not herself, full force and unapologetic in her approach to writing, playing and recording her music”.

I think that most of the best albums from April arrive in the second half. The week ending 16th is especially busy. London Grammar’s Californian Soil is an album that I am very much looking forward to. Do go and pre-order a copy of the trio’s third studio album. Led by the amazing Hannah Reid, I think that they will hit a new stride on Californian Soil. 2017’s Truth Is a Beautiful Thing is a great album, but I think the songs on their new album is more personal and stirring. In a recent interview with NME, we learn more about the double standards and misogyny Reid has faced, in addition to why she has taken the reigns when it came to lyrics for album three:

“Over the course of a decade in London Grammar, the double standards constantly on show proved understandably exhausting for the vocalist. “If I’m strong-minded, I’m being really ‘difficult’ or I’m being a ‘bitch’,” she says, “whereas for the boys they’ve just got ‘integrity’ over what they do. It can be a really, really tiny thing – but if you have it every day, and it becomes a thousand moments, it can actually change who you are… You can’t let it go when it’s happening all the time.”

She adds: “I felt like I started to mould myself around certain men. I just felt like I had a different task to the boys. They could walk into a room and just be taken seriously as musicians straight away.”

When finishing the tour for the band’s second record at the end of 2017, something had to give. While Hannah is adamant that quitting London Grammar wasn’t on the cards, there were moments when she considered if it was all worth it.

“I did think that I wasn’t cut out for the industry,” she reflects today. “And I did say to Dan and Dot, ‘I don’t want this to end, but something does have to change because I just can’t keep doing my best work or going out on the road if I’m going to come back and feel this way.’”

But instead of quitting, Hannah pushed forward with work on album three, stepping up into a figurehead role in the band, taking on responsibility for most of the record’s visual aesthetic and bringing more of herself to the songwriting. There was no big conversation about this shift in dynamic between the trio, but work on ‘Californian Soil’ came alongside a natural gear change.

Her bandmates were happy to let her take the reins. “Lyrically, [‘Californian Soil’] is very much about Hannah’s experience as a woman, and we wanted that message to come through as loud as possible,” Dot tells NME on a separate Zoom call alongside Dan a few days later.

This shift in dynamic is strikingly evident on album three, a record in which Hannah refuses to hide, her songwriting and stories bursting out front and centre. “I was hiding my vulnerability away and hiding the message of songs away,” she says of the band’s past material. This time around, the increased focus on the meanings behind the songs makes for the band’s most honest and personal work yet”.

The Offspring’s Let the Bad Times Roll arrives on 16th April. The band have been going for decades! I remember when Americana came out in the 1990s and I wondered whether they would still be putting music out years later. Go and pre-order the band’s upcoming tenth studio album:

“The legendary So-Cal punk group The Offspring are back with their 10th album and first new offering since 2008. After releasing two standalone tracks in 2020 - the over-the-top cover of Joe Exotic's (of Tiger King infamy) "Hey Kitty Kitty" and a rendition of Darlene Love's classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" - the band is ready to plant their punk rock flag in the sand once again with their blistering new album Let the Bad Times Roll.

With the help of producer Bob Rock, Dexter Holland describes the album as "the most cathartic thing we've done. The messages might be dark, but at the end what's left is that communication is important, working through feelings is important and most of all, hope is important." Then let the bad times roll for now, in the hopes that good times lie ahead”.

I am looking forward to this album, as I have been following the band for years - and I am really excited to see what they have come up with for Let the Bad Times Roll. Maybe not as jocular and light as some of their earliest albums, it sounds like a new depth and meaning has come into the Offspring camp.

There are a few great albums out on 30th April I am keen to recommend. On 23rd April, Field Music’s Flat White Moon is due. I am a big fan of David and Peter Brewis. It seems like we are in for a real treat with their latest album. Do go and order a copy of an album that is shaping up to be really fascinating:

“We want to make people feel good about things that we feel terrible about." says David Brewis, who has co-led the band Field Music with his brother Peter since 2004. It's a statement which seems particularly fitting to their latest album, Flat White Moon released via Memphis Industries.

Sporadic sessions for the album began in late 2019 at the pair's studio in Sunderland, slotted between rehearsals and touring. The initial recordings pushed a looser performance aspect to the fore, inspired by some of their very first musical loves; Free, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles; old tapes and LPs pilfered from their parents' shelves. But a balance between performance and construction has always been an essential part of Field Music.

By March 2020, recording had already begun for most of the album's tracks and, with touring for Making A New World winding down, Peter and David were ready to plough on and finish the record.

The playfulness that’s evident in much of Flat White Moon's music became a way to offset the darkness and the sadness of many of the lyrics. Much of the album is plainly about loss and grief, and also about the guilt and isolation which comes with that.

Those personal upheavals are apparent on songs like Out of the Frame, where the loss of a loved one is felt more deeply because they can't be found in photographs and compounded by the suspicion that you caused their absence, or on When You Last Heard From a Linda, which details the confusion of being unable to penetrate a best friend's loneliness in the darkest of circumstances.

Some songs are more impressionistic. Orion From The Streets combines Studio Ghibli, a documentary about Cary Grant and an excess of wine to become a hallucinogenic treatise on memory and guilt.. Others, such as Not When You're In Love, are more descriptive. Here, the narrator guides us through slide- projected scenes, questioning the ideas and semantics of 'love' as well the reliability of his own memory.

For the most part, the album has fewer explicitly political themes than previous records, though there is No Pressure, about a political class who feel no obligation to take responsibility if they can finagle a narrative instead. And there's I'm The One Who Wants To Be With You which skirts its way around toxic masculinity through teenage renditions of soft-rock balladry.

On Flat White Moon Field Music take on the challenge of representing negative emotions in a way that doesn't dilute or obscure them but which can still uplift. The result is a generous record of

bounteous musical ideas, in many ways Field Music's most immediately gratifying to date”.

Moving to 30th April, there are several album that I want to push your way. You might not have heard of Ashley Munroe. Her new album, Rosegold, is beautiful. She is a phenomenal artist who I would urge people to check out; make sure you listen back to her past work. Rosegold is an album that you will want to pre-order:

“A reliable traditionalist with a penchant for bittersweet songs of heartbreak and loss, Ashley Monroe pulled a complete 180 for her spectacular new album, Rosegold, riding the joyful emotional wave that followed the birth of her son to create her most ecstatic, blissed-out collection yet. Written and recorded over the past two years, the record finds the Grammy - nominated Nashville star pushing her sound in bold new directions, drawing on everything from Kanye West and Kid Cudi to Beck and The Beach Boys as she layers lush vocal harmonies atop dreamy, synthesized soundscapes and sensual, intoxicating beats.

Monroe worked with a variety of producers on the album, letting the tracks dictate her direction rather than any arbitrary adherence to genre or tradition, and the result is a record as daring as it is rewarding, an ecstatic, revelatory meditation on happiness and gratitude that tosses expectation to the wind as it celebrates our endless capacity to love, and to be loved, even in the midst of chaos and tragedy. Born in Knoxville, TN, Monroe first began turning heads in Nashville as a teenager, when she arrived in town with a notebook full of mature, emotionally sophisticated songs that belied her young age. A jack-of-all-trades, she picked up work behind the scenes at first, singing on sessions at Jack White’s Third Man Studios and penning tunes that would appear on albums by the likes of Guy Clark, Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, and Miranda Lambert. Monroe and Lambert forged a close personal bond through their collaborations, and in 2011, they teamed up with fellow Nashville journey woman Angaleena Presley to launch the critically acclaimed trio Pistol Annies, which would go on to top the Country Album charts, crack the Top 5 on the Billboard 200, and earn a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album. Monroe’s solo output was equally lauded, with NPRhailing her work as “subtle and breathtaking” and Rolling Stone praising her writing as “riveting [and] sharp-witted”.

Dawn Richard’s Second Line: An Electro Revival is also out on 30th April. She is an artist I have been spending a lot of time with lately. I am including her in my Modern Heroines feature soon, as she is one of the finest artists in the world right now. Go and pre-order her new album, as I think it is her finest yet. I reckon the music she is putting out now is so strong and memorable. A nod of the head to Rough Trade, who provide some useful information:

“Much like the New Orleans–born artist who created it, Second Line is an unapologetic genre bender that pushes boundaries, expands possibilities, and shatters expectations. It’s more than just an album: Second Line is a cohesive sensory experience that questions traditional ideas of sound, production, and visual aesthetics as they relate to music. Its interlocking parts tell an epic story about the quest for artistic expression, with Dawn describing her project as “a movement to bring pioneering Black women in electronic music to the forefront.”

Second Line cuts to the chase with its opening suite of dancefloor bangers, immediately displaying Dawn’s mastery of layered production and melodic hooks. Second Line treats Louisiana Creole culture, New Orleans bounce, and Southern Swag as elemental, allowing Dawn to weave in and out of house, footwork, R&B, and more. As she says, “I am the genre.”

The story of Second Line centers on Dawn’s persona King Creole, assassin of stereotypes, a Black girl from the South at a crossroads in her artistic career. To move forward, she decides to look back, but where previous album New Breed took influence from her father, Second Line is illuminated by Dawn’s mother. Her proud repeated proclamation of “I’m a Creole Girl” introduces the ecstatic dancehall pop of “Jacuzzi,” and later, on the cinematic album centerpiece “Mornin | Streetlights,” she answers Dawn’s question of how many times she has been in love. Intimate conversations like this between the two are interlaced throughout Second Line, giving credence to how the protagonist came to be, and direction to build a lane forward.

It’s no surprise that King Creole’s story parallels Dawn Richard’s. As a founding member of Danity Kane, and later with Diddy’s Dirty Money, Dawn was able to explore the ins and outs of commercial pop music. As a solo artist, she opted to selfrelease her music. Over the span of five critically acclaimed full-length albums, Dawn has made the message clear that she will not bow down or bend to industry norms. All the while, she’s built her resume with enough extracurriculars to make your head spin: Cheerleader for the New Orleans Hornets? Check. Animator for Adult Swim? Check. Owner-operator of a vegan pop-up food truck? Check. Martial arts expert? Check! Second Line embodies the heritage of soul music and the roots of New Orleans, all surrounded by the influences of electronic futurism. “The definition of a Second Line in New Orleans is a celebration of someone’s homecoming,” says Dawn. “In death and in life, we celebrate the impact of a person’s legacy through dance and music. I’m celebrating the death of old views in the industry. The death of boxes and limits. I’m celebrating the homecoming of the Future. The homecoming to the new wave of artists. The emergence of all the King Creoles to come.” Dawn Richard is bold, confident, purposeful, and a King throughout Second Line. Are you ready to dance”.

Another album that I am looking forward to is Marianne Faithfull and Warren Ellis’ She Walks In Beauty. I have heard some of the music from the album, and it is so gorgeous and rich. This is an album that every music fan will want to get a hold of! Go and order the album now, as it is definitely going to score a lot of phenomenal reviews:

“A unique new album of poetry and music featuring Marianne Faithfull set to the music of Warren Ellis, and featuring Nick Cave, Brian Eno and Vincent Ségal. With She Walks in Beauty, Marianne Faithfull with composer and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis releases one of the most distinctive and singular albums of her long, extraordinary life and career. It was recorded just before and during the first Covid-19 lockdown – during which the singer herself became infected and almost died of the disease – with musical friends and family including not only composer Warren Ellis but Nick Cave, Brian Eno, cellist Vincent Ségal and producer-engineer Head.

She Walks in Beauty fulfils Faithfull’s long-held ambition to record an album of poetry with music. It’s a record that draws on her passion for the English Romantic poets, a passion she fostered in her A Level studies with one Mrs Simpson at St Joseph's Convent School in Reading. Drawing deep on the poetry of Shelley, Keats, Byron, Wordsworth, Tennyson and Thomas Hood, Faithfull’s vocal performances set to Ellis’s subtle collages of sound draw out the heart, the quick, the vibrant living matter in all these great poems, making them fresh, renewing them with the complex, lived-in timbres of her voice, and set to a subtle palette of ambient musical settings. It’s both a radical departure and a return to her original inspirations as an artist and performer”.

There are two more albums that I want to bring in before wrapping things up. Brighton duo Royal Blood deliver their hotly-anticipated new album, Typhoons, on 30th April. It is one that you will want to get. If their eponymous debut was more influenced by artists like Queens of the Stone Age and The White Stripes, it seems like they heading in a new direction for Typhoons:

“Eagerly anticipated third album Typhoons. When Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher sat down to talk about making a new album, they knew what they wanted to achieve. It involved a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius. It also called for a similar back-to-basics approach to what had made their self-titled debut album so thrilling, visceral and original.

“We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play,” recalls Kerr. “That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh”.

The final album from April you’ll want to save some pennies for is Teenage Fanclub’s Endless Arcade. A new album from the Glasgow band is always a very good thing! Be sure to pre-order an album that we very much all need right now:

“Even if we weren’t living through extraordinarily troubling times, there is nothing quite like a Teenage Fanclub album to assuage the mind, body and soul, and to reaffirm that all is not lost in this world. Endless Arcade follows the band’s ninth album Here, released in 2016. It's quintessential TFC: melodies are equal parts heartwarming and heartaching; guitars chime and distort; keyboard lines mesh and spiral; harmony-coated choruses burst out like sun on a stormy day”.

Those are the recommendations for this month. I am writing this on 25th April, so I know that some albums might be pushed back and others might be pulled forward – such is the unpredictable and erratic nature of releases and scheduled during the pandemic! You can see which other albums are coming out in April if you need some more suggestions. I did think that the McCartney III Imagined album was coming out on 16th April, though that looks like it is coming out in July. Regardless, the albums I have highlighted above should keep you busy and add some nice releases…

TO your record collection.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Louis Armstrong – What a Wonderful World

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Louis Armstrong – What a Wonderful World

___________

FOR this edition of Groovelines…

I want to include a song that has such a legacy. In terms of songs that move people and stirs you every time you listen, there are few as potent and beautiful as Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World. Released in 1967, I feel there are few tracks in recorded history that have that simplicity and wonderment. I am going to bring in an article from the BBC soon that highlights how, in spite of What a Wonderful World being this awe-struck and embracing song. The background and story behind how the song got to Louis Armstrong is quite interesting:

“The song was written by producer Bob Thiele (as "George Douglas") and composer and performer George David Weiss.

One source claims the song was first offered to Tony Bennett, who turned it down, although Louis Armstrong biographer Ricky Riccardi disputes this claim. George Weiss recounts in the book Off the Record: Songwriters on Songwriting by Graham Nash that he wrote the song specifically for Louis Armstrong. Weiss was inspired by Armstrong's ability to bring people of different races together.

Because he was gigging at the Tropicana Hotel, Armstrong recorded the song in Las Vegas at Bill Porter’s United Recording studio. The session was scheduled to follow Armstrong's midnight show, and by 2 am the musicians were settled and tape was rolling. Arranger Artie Butler was there with songwriters Weiss and Thiele, and Armstrong was in the studio singing with the orchestra. Armstrong had recently signed to ABC Records, and ABC president Larry Newton showed up to photograph Armstrong.

Newton wanted a swingy pop song like "Hello, Dolly!", a big hit for Armstrong when he was with Kapp Records, so when Newton heard the slow pace of "What a Wonderful World", he tried to stop the session. Newton was locked out of the studio for his disruption, but a second problem arose: nearby freight train whistles interrupted the session twice, forcing the recording to start over. Armstrong shook his head and laughed off the distractions, keeping his composure. The session ended around 6 am, going longer than expected. To make sure the orchestra members were paid extra for their overtime, Armstrong accepted only $250 musicians union scale for his work”.

I am going to end by bringing in a short snippet from NPR. I think that, during such a hard time, a song like What a Wonderful World has not only taken on a new meaning; it is also providing strength and comfort to many others. I am keen to get to the BBC article. First, Smooth Radio highlighted how What a Wonderful World was not an initial hit – but it has taken on a whole new life through film:

“The song was not initially a hit in America, where it sold less than 1,000 copies because ABC Records head Larry Newton did not like the song and chose not to promote it.

However, it was a huge success in the UK, reaching number one and becoming the biggest-selling single of 1968. The song made Louis Armstrong the oldest male to top the UK Singles Chart. Tom Jones later broke this record in 2009.

In 1988, Armstrong's recording appeared in the film Good Morning, Vietnam (despite the film being set in 1965 — two years before it was recorded) and was re-released as a single. This time, it reached a new peak of number 32”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Verve Records/Courtesy of Louis Armstrong House Museum

Although, in my mind, there is no big political angle or alternate meaning behind What a Wonderful World, the fact the song has been used in films/T.V. shows depicting war or as a message to preserve the planet (David Attenborough has performed a version of What a Wonderful World to soundtrack the BBC's nature coverage) is intriguing. Maybe it is a call for peace or a song that should make people stop and think about the world and how we need to protect it. Some see the lyrics as a little cloying and saccharine. I think there is so much power in its simplicity and purity. Armstrong’s gravelled and almost worldly voice gives the song such stature and dignity. In an article from 2011, the BBC discussed how the song’s creators hoped there would be this political power and relevance:

“Its creators, producer Bob Thiele and songwriter George David Weiss, hoped that Armstrong's grandfatherly image would help convey the song's message - and the message was political.

The single was released in 1968, a year in which America saw curfews as race riots spread from Newark and Detroit to over 100 cities. There were fears of a second civil war and the violence included attacks on Jewish shops.

Peter Ling, professor of American Studies at Nottingham, told the BBC that the Jewish-American Thiele and Weiss saw Armstrong as "the perfect ambassador to restore race relations between white people like them and the African-American community."

Unlike that of many black artists, Armstrong's appeal extended irrespective of race, and the hope was that a 66-year-old on the airwaves extolling the virtues of goodwill would wield some heft - the world is wonderful, and so are we all.

Not everyone was convinced, which may account for the single's initial commercial failure. Since the 1950s, Armstrong had been dealing with accusations of being an "Uncle Tom" - of subserviently providing entertainment for white America. Armstrong himself, naturally, disagreed.

Like other songs with universal themes - say, REM's Everybody Hurts - the imprecision of the lyric is seen by the many it reaches as a strength and by others as a weakness - a vagueness approaching greeting-card levels.

It's also irrepressibly public-spirited, people shaking hands on the street are, apparently, "saying I love you" - illustrated in the Attenborough video, oddly, by two hippopotamuses fighting each other in the Okavango river.

And this is not the first time What A Wonderful World's generosity of spirit has been juxtaposed with less-than-cheerful imagery.

The song became better known in America after its ironic use to soundtrack the carnage of war in the 1987 film Good Morning Vietnam. In the UK, it was played at the end of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy as Ford and Arthur anticipate the destruction of the Earth by the Vogons, and puppet show Spitting Image rewrote it with a pollution theme as We've Ruined The World: "I see forests cut down, great ozone holes..."

It also crops up on soundtracks in non-ironic contexts, though these days you're more likely to hear it as part of a medley with Over The Rainbow, performed by Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole in a bare-bones ukulele format that lends an aura of authenticity.

To some, you could add "spirituality" to "authenticity". Like Bridge Over Troubled Water and Stand By Me, it's in a genre you might call "secular sacred" - as at home in choral versions on Songs of Praise as it is in the record collections of atheists”.

It is interesting. I never think of What a Wonderful World as political or being a call for war to end and nations to change their ways. Having read more about the song and its context, perhaps this idea of a slightly aged and dignified Louis Armstrong singing this song with reverence and passion would act as a protest song. For me and many others, it is a tender and touching song that provides strength and contemplation. NPR published an article last month. They spoke with Karen L'Hussier. She talked about how the song resonates with her and the importance it holds:

“The song "What a Wonderful World" helped my dad persevere through challenges. My mom died when I was very young. Her death left my dad a young single father raising two young children in 1969. The song made him happy. And, it showed us there are many places in the world where we could still find joy.

The song is also part of my favorite memory of my dad. I was on a return trip to Massachusetts. Just as I was about to leave, my father and I turned on the song. We sang and danced around the living room before I left.

One day, we'll hold a beautiful celebration of life for my dad. I plan to honor him by playing the song. — Karen L'Hussier, daughter”.

No matter how you interpret the song or when it came into your life, I feel most of us have different reasons for loving What a Wonderful World. When it comes to peace and calling for calm, one can argue that the song is as relevant today than it was at a time of warfare and civil rights conflict. For better and worse, Louis Armstrong’s most-famous song will be…

TIMELESS in its importance.

FEATURE: A Worthy Encore: Max Browne’s Three Nights in Hammersmith: Kate Bush onstage in 1979 and The Tour of Life

FEATURE:

 

 

A Worthy Encore

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during 1979’s The Tour of Life/ PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne 

Max Browne’s Three Nights in Hammersmith: Kate Bush onstage in 1979 and The Tour of Life

___________

I keep joking that every week…

 IMAGE CREDIT: Max Browne

seems to see a new Kate Bush book being released! Recently, yet another book was announced in the form of Max Browne’s Three Nights in Hammersmith: Kate Bush onstage in 1979. I am tempted to buy it but, as it is £87.50, it may have to wait a while! I think we might see one or two other Kate Bluish-related books before the end of this year. I knew that the Browne book was coming. The photos he shot during that hugely exciting and memorable series of shows for The Tour of Life in London (the tour went around the U.K. and Europe) are amazing! There is a lot to enjoy regarding the new book:

“Industry comments on the photographs:-

' . . a new book which will showcase his incredible photographs.' (KateBushNews)

' . . a revelation to many:' (Record Collector magazine)

' . . the best live shots of her . .' (Jill Furmanovsky, RockArchive)

'This is a treasure trove!' (Guido Harari, Wall of Sound)

'Nice stuff Max . .' (Del Palmer)

This book is a photographic presentation of the last three concerts of a tour that is now regarded as one of the greatest in Rock Music history. The 250 photographs by Max Browne included here illustrate why, song by song, as Kate Bush sings, dances and role-plays her way into legend at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, in 1979.

Renowned photographer Jill Furmanovsky has contributed the Foreword: The founder of RockArchive is also a fan.

All proceeds beyond the cost of this self-published edition are to be donated to charities supporting the endangered animals of our world disadvantaged by Man”.

  PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne

I think a lot of authors and fans of Kate Bush are finding that, during lockdown, they are listening to her music more and considering its impact. It is good that there is a new photobook, as this is an area that is a little understocked. I feel photos can illustrate Bush’s work and live performances in a way that words cannot. Max Browne’s recollections are important, yet it is the way he captured her during such a big and thrilling tour that people will remember. The Tour of Life, as I have written about several times before, was such an original and influential show. Starting in April 1979, the tour lasted just over one month. Consisting of twenty-four performances from Bush's first two studio albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart (both 1978), it incorporated mime, magic, and readings during costume changes. Of course, many of were not alive when that tour took place. There are YouTube videos that are from that tour - and, whilst the quality is not great, we can get an essence of what people experienced in 1979. I think the photos provides a series of snapshots of the true experience; the way Bush transformed during the show and what an undertaking it was to pull off such an accomplished live feat! I would advise people to buy the book and get a feel of the magnificent The Tour of Life.

I will wrap up soon, but I want to bring in Dreams or Orgonon. They provided their take and details on the preparation for The Tour of Life and how it was received:

“Planning for Bush’s tour (known then and during its existence just as the Kate Bush Tour) began at the end of December 1978 with a brainstorming session involving Bush and set designer David Jackson at EMI’s headquarters. Further preliminary meetings were held at East Wickham Farm in January, and shortly afterwards Bush was meeting wardrobe consultant Lisa Hayes. Rehearsals then began in earnest: Bush spent mornings at The Place performance center in Euston, preparing the tour’s dance routines with choreographer Anthony Van Laast (now of Mamma Mia! and Harry Potter fame) and dancers Stewart Avon Arnold and Gary Hurst. These sessions were as collaborative as they were instructive: Bush had worked with Van Laast before, as he’d appeared in the “Hammer Horror” music video as her masked dancing partner. They spent the mornings designing routines for the show, informed by Van Laast’s seasoned dancing skill and Bush’s mime training. It was a positive union: the resulting concerts have notable dancing which is inseparable from the songs it’s set to. As Bush had to both sing and dance onstage, she and Van Laast worked out choreography that would both work as dance and allow her to sing without losing her breath. The minimalism of “Moving” and Bush’s all-limb gesturing during it is one such careful work of planning, as is her most frenetic gun-happiness during the extended bridge of “James and the Cold Gun,” where she doesn’t sing.

Every tour performance began with “Moving.” Whale sounds were played for several seconds, as they were on The Kick Inside, while a transparent blue curtain cordoned off those onstage from the audience, with only a bright light in the center of the stage and the silhouette of Bush completely visible through it. Then came the vocal and the piano: “moving stranger, does it really matter/as long as you’re not afraid to feel?” called Bush to her audience as the curtain was pulled back. Her dance, made up of open arms and gestures aimed at the outline of her body, was an invitation to the audience to collaborate and be part of her music. According to every recording of these concerts, it was a steady introduction: when the first number ended, the audience cheered loudly. “The show went well and the audience was wildly appreciative,” said Lisa Bradley in the Kate Bush newsletter, “it was unfortunate that we rarely had a chance to see it as the merchandise stand had to be looked after all the time.”

Every night of the show got stark raving reviews from the British press. Mike Davies of Melody Maker admitted going to see Bush “more as a pilgrim than a critic,” John Coldstream of the Daily Telegraph praised her “balance between the vivid and the simple,” and former Bush naysayer Sandy Robertson of Sounds announced she had “seen the light.” There were a couple reviews from more negative quarters, mostly notably by Charles Shaar Murray in NME, who opined that “her songwriting hints that it means more than it says and in fact it means less” and “her shrill self-satisfied whine is unmistakable.” One could smugly grin at Murray for panning a critically praised and influential tour in 1979, but why do that when he invented every sexist whinge about Lauren Mayberry more than three decades early? It’s a break from the orthodoxy of Bush’s tour reviews, and thus in keeping with Bush’s ethos.

In theory Bush was doing the Lionheart Tour, as it was her most recent album. Yet in practice, it was equally the Kick Inside Tour. All the songs from both albums were performed barring “Oh To Be In Love” (perhaps justifiably — it’s the Bush album track which most feels like a holdover from the Phoenix years), plus a couple of new songs called “Violin” and “Egypt,” the latter of which we’ll return to next week. It’s a well-organized setlist, as Kick and Lionheart are both preoccupied with the sort of adolescent world-storming the tour is. Bush’s concert setlists show off this interplay of albums well: Act One is constructed around the lighter songs of The Kick Inside like “Them Heavy People” and “L’Amour Looks Something Like You” with the two new songs, while Act Two centers the anxiety-ridden bulk of Lionheart plus “Strange Phenomena,” and Act Three provides the show with a theatrical climax of “Coffee Homeground” and “Kite” before the encore of “Oh England My Lionheart,” and finally “Wuthering Heights.” Setlists can be unruly things: while touring for albums, you’ll want to intersperse the newer material with the hits. Bush keeps this in mind while also remembering she’s doing a stage show with act breaks and thematic resonances. It’s a strong act, one that’s bolstered by its setlist.

PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne 

It was a wild time for Bush. “It’s like I’m seeing God, man!” she said enthusiastically. When she’s onstage in a black-and-gold bodysuit and blasting her bandmates with a golden, it’s easy to believe she made that comment while looking in a mirror. It takes a shot of the divine (or perhaps a deal with it?) to stage a tour of this magnitude and success while dealing with such severe drama behind the scenes? It’s no wonder Bush stayed in the studio after this, recording closer to home all the time until she set up a studio in her backyard. Even when she finally returned to the stage thirty-five years later, she made sure her venue was in nearby London. 1979 was a different time. A Labour government was feasible, and Kate Bush was regularly on TV. She plays things close to the chest now, never retiring from music but often looking infuriatingly close to it. In a way, she retired in 1979. Kate Bush the media sensation was a spectacle of the Seventies. She cordoned herself off afterwards, becoming Kate Bush the Artist. Next week we’ll look at Never for Ever, the first post-tour Kate Bush album where she unleashes a flood of ideas into the world. What does one do after the Tour of Life? In Bush’s words: “everything”.

It is remarkable to think that Bush, so early in her career, delivered this sublime and rave-reviewed tour. I think that Max Browne’s new book will give us a rare insight into what it was like to watch the music and theatre unfold. Even though most of us were not there, seeing his incredible photos bring us closer to…

A once-in-a-lifetime experience!

FEATURE: Is This the Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy? Celebrating Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody Turning Diamond

FEATURE:

 

 

Is This the Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy?

IN THIS PHOTO: Queen in 1975/PHOTO CREDIT: Mick Rock 

Celebrating Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody Turning Diamond

___________

I have discussed Queen’s mega-hit, Bohemian Rhapsody…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Queen Productions Ltd

beforehand, but it has just passed a huge landmark in terms of its sales figures. I just had to come back and revisit this phenomenal song. We hear about these songs that reach gold and silver status because of big sales number. Released on 31st October, 1975 and taken from their album, A Night at the Opera, I am not surprised that this titanic song has achieved something incredible. This NME article explains more:

“Queen have become the first ever UK band to have a song certified ‘diamond’, reaching the milestone for their iconic 1975 hit ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

The certification, awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), comes after a track reaches 10million sales or streaming equivalents in the United States.

Reflecting on the achievement in a statement, Brian May said: “This is incredible news. At times like this I have to pinch myself to be sure it’s real.

“All those wild dreams we had — this is beyond any of them. Huge thanks to all who have believed in us over the years.

The band’s drummer Roger Taylor added: “It’s a wonderful and gratifying thought to know the song has reached out and connected with so many people!”

Bohemian Rhapsody always appears high in those lists of the greatest songs of all time. In terms of its scale, originality and cultural impact, there are few songs that have such a reputation and power. Rather than leave things there and drop the song in this feature, I wanted to bring in some detail regarding its origins and legacy. This article from last year goes deep into a remarkable song:

“I remember Freddie coming in with loads of bits of paper from his dad’s work, like Post-it notes, and pounding on the piano,” May said in 2008. “He played the piano like most people play the drums. And this song he had was full of gaps where he explained that something operatic would happen here and so on. He’d worked out the harmonies in his head.”

Mercury told bandmates that he believed he had enough material for about three songs but was thinking about blending all the lyrics into one long extravaganza. The final six-minute iconic mini rock opera became the band’s defining song, and eventually provided the title of the hit 2019 biopic starring Rami Malek as Mercury.

Queen first properly rehearsed “Bohemian Rhapsody” at Ridge Farm Studio, in Surrey, in mid-1975, and then spent three weeks honing the song at Penrhos Court in Herefordshire. By the summer they were ready to record it; taping began on August 24, 1975 at the famous Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales. It was a moment that May described as “just the biggest thrill.”

The innovative song began with the famous a cappella intro (“Is this the real life?/Is this just fantasy?”) before embracing everything from glam-metal rock to opera. A week was devoted to the operatic interlude, for which Mercury had methodically written out all the harmony parts. For the grand chorale, the group layered 160 tracks of vocal overdubs (using 24-track analogue recording), with Mercury singing the middle register, May the low register, and drummer Roger Taylor the high register (John Deacon was on bass guitar but did not sing). Mercury performed with real verve, overdubbing his voice until it sounded like a choir, with the words “mamma mia”, “Galileo” and “Figaro” bouncing up and down the octaves. “We ran the tape through so many times it kept wearing out,” May said. “Once we held the tape up to the light and we could see straight through it, the music had practically vanished. Every time Fred decided to add a few more ‘Galileo’s we lost something, too.”

After the final version was completed – following some refinements at Roundhouse, Sarm East Studios, Scorpio Sound, and Wessex Sound Studios – there was a feeling that Queen had created something special. “Nobody really knew how it was going to sound as a whole six-minute song until it was put together,” producer Roy Thomas Baker told Performing Songwriter magazine. “I was standing at the back of the control room, and you just knew that you were listening for the first time to a big page in history. Something inside me told me that this was a red-letter day, and it really was.”

The song, which appears on the album A Night At The Opera, was finally released on October 31, 1975, and the impact was instantaneous. “I was green with envy when I heard ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.” It was a piece of sheer originality that took rock and pop away from the normal path,” said Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA.

Though the group’s record company were initially reluctant to issue “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a single, Queen were united in insisting that it was the right choice, despite exceeding the three-minute running time expected of most single releases. The band were told the song had no hope of getting airplay, but they were helped by Capital Radio DJ Kenny Everett, a friend of Mercury’s, who played it 14 times in one weekend and started the buzz that eventually ended with the single going to No. 1.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” opened their celebrated Live Aid set in July 1985 and it has remained remarkably popular. In 2004, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame, and Mercury’s vocal performance was named by the readers of Rolling Stone magazine as the best in rock history. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the third best-selling single of all-time in the UK and, in December 2018, “Bo Rhap” – as it is affectionately known among Queen fans – was officially proclaimed the world’s most-streamed song from the 20th Century, passing 1.6 billion listens globally across all major streaming services. A mere seven months later, on July 21, 2019, the video surpassed one billion streams on YouTube.

“It is one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it,” Mercury said. “I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them”.

I am going to end the feature soon. Before then, I want to drop in a little information regarding the chart success and popularity of Queen’s monster hit:  

"Bohemian Rhapsody" topped the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks and had sold more than a million copies by the end of January 1976. In 1991, after Mercury's death, it topped the charts for another five weeks eventually becoming the UK's third best-selling single of all time. It is also the only song to reach the UK Christmas number one twice by the same artist. It also topped the charts in countries including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the Netherlands, becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time with over six million copies sold worldwide. In the United States, the song peaked at number nine in 1976, but reached a new peak of number two on the Billboard Hot 100 after being used in the film Wayne's World (1992). In 2018, the release of Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody brought the song renewed popularity and chart success worldwide.

Although critical reaction was initially mixed, "Bohemian Rhapsody" has since become Queen's most popular song and is considered one of the greatest rock songs of all time. The single was accompanied by a groundbreaking promotional video. Rolling Stone stated that its influence "cannot be overstated, practically inventing the music video seven years before MTV went on the air." The Guardian named its music video one of the 50 key events in rock music history, helping make videos a critical tool in music marketing”.

I am not sure whether other songs will reach the status of diamond. Through its use in film and T.V., so many people have discovered the song whereas they might not have done before. It is a magnificent song in its own right, yet there is something timeless about it that means we will see Bohemian Rhapsody in films and shows for years to come! This year marks thirty years since Freddie Mercury died. We rightly celebrate him as one of the greatest voices ever but, as a songwriter, I think he had his own style and brilliance that doesn’t get talked about enough. On Bohemian Rhapsody, this was the master…

AT his absolute best.

FEATURE: The March Playlist: Vol. 4: The Boy from Michigan Wears It Like a Crown

FEATURE:

 

 

The March Playlist

IN THIS IMAGE: John Grant 

Vol. 4: The Boy from Michigan Wears It Like a Crown

__________

THIS week’s Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Sarah Harding

is rammed with superb songs. There is new music from John Grant, Sarah Harding, Taylor Swift (ft. Maren Morris), Black Midi, Demi Lovato, beabadoobee, Princess Nokia, Royal Blood, Dawn Richard, Paul McCartney (ft. Beck), and Evanescence. Throw in some Jungle, Du Blonde, Art School Girlfriend, and easy life; it makes for a very varied and interesting cocktail! If you need a boost and some motivation to kick this weekend off, then have a listen to the tracks below and I am sure they will get you into the swing of things. The collection of songs this week is just what you require to make sure that this weekend gets underway with…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Royal Blood

A real spark.   

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

__________

John Grant – Boy from Michigan

Sarah Harding – Wear it Like a Crown

Taylor Swift (ft. Maren Morris) - You All Over Me (From the Vault)

PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Topete

black midi – John L

Demi Lovato - Dancing with the Devil

beabadoobee - Last Day on Earth

Princess Nokia – It’s Not My Fault

Royal Blood – Limbo

Maddie & Tae - Woman You Got

PHOTO CREDIT: Hector Dockrill

Paul McCartney (ft. Beck) – Find My Way

Dawn Richard – Jacuzzi

Tune-Yards – hypnotized

Evanescence - Artifact/The Turn

Jungle – Keep Moving

Gwenno - Meur ras dhia Gernow (Thank you from Kernow)

Du Blonde - Pull the Plug

Julia Michaels - All Your Exes

PHOTO CREDIT: Jake Michaels

 Real Estate - D+

Art School Girlfriend– In the Middle

Snapped Ankles - Rhythm Is Our Business

PHOTO CREDIT: Holly Whittaker

Chloe Foy – Shining Star

Anna of the North - Here's to Another

Fionn Regan - The Scene Is Dead

easy life - a message to myself

Braids - Slayer Moon

Gabrielle - Can't Hurry Love

PHOTO CREDIT: Christian Anwander

Natalie Bergman – Home at Last

Saint Sister – Karaoke Song

Pixey – The Mersey Line

KAROL G, Mariah Angeliq - EL MAKINON

KAMILLE – Mirror Mirror

NewDad – Drown

Noomi – Ride

Sofia Carson – Fool’s Gold

PHOTO CREDIT: Ashlan Grey

BROCKHAMPTON (ft. Danny Brown) - Buzzcut

Sofia Lafuente – State of Flux

Mysie – Keep Up with Your Heart

PHOTO CREDIT: Casper Buijtendijk

TESSEL, Amber Arcades – Cinema

Noga Erez - Fire Kites

Maya Delilah – Gravity

Becky Hill - Last Time

Rag'n'Bone Man - Fall in Love Again

Izzi De-Rosa – Love & Roulette

Lily Denning - Wouldn't It Be Nice

PHOTO CREDIT: Rachael Wright

Kele - Smalltown Boy

foxgluvv - 1:00AM

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordon Rose

HANYA - Lydia

Naoko Sakata - Improvisation 4

Anna Fox Rochinski - Everybody’s Down

Mannequin Pussy - Control

FEATURE: The Same Old Excuses: Why Are Festivals Resistance to Change and Gender Equality?

FEATURE:

 

 

The Same Old Excuses

IN THIS PHOTO: Led by the incapable Ellie Rowsell, Wolf Alice are one of many female-fronted bands who are hugely popular and should be a fixture of the 2021 festival scene

Why Are Festivals Resistance to Change and Gender Equality?

___________

LAST year…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Porridge Radio are playing mid-bill at this year’s Standon Calling (this year’s event features 53% male performers, with 100% male headliners)

a lot of festivals were wondering whether they should cancel by this point. Many called off their line-ups by the time spring really kicked in. One of the glaring facts about the line-ups that were announced by this time last year was the lack of female artists on the bill. In  terms of U.K. festivals, I think Glastonbury were the only ones who were really committed to gender equality. Not only that, but Emily and Michael Eavis put together a good mix of bands, solo artists and duos. There was a sonic blend; pretty much what you want from a  festival. Other organisers were less keen to promote that same sense of sonic diversity and gender balance. Whilst it is egregious and disappointing to see the same bands and sounds being booked every year, it is the lack of gender diversity on the line-ups that has caused the greatest problem. Many festivals have pledged a fifty-fifty gender split on their bills by 2022. Whilst some have not, there was this feeling that most would be on the same page by next year. This year, one would assume that the lockdown and time for reflection and consideration would have resulted in many organisers changing their ways and recognising the wealth of female talent on display – that has not been the case! Depressingly, many news stories this week regarding festivals has concentrated on the male-heavy line-ups. Is this an oversight on the case of organisers?

 IN THIS IMAGE: A glaringly male-heavy line-up this year’s Isle of Wight Festival

It seems that many festivals refuse to budge, not only in terms of their male-heavy roster, but also the fact new talent is not being booked – we are seeing a lot of the same bands appearing on the bill. This is how CLASH reacted:

“2020 was an appalling, genuinely horrific year for live music. An entire sector was wiped out, while government assistance – when it eventually arrived – was paltry, and earned across-the-board condemnation from professionals on the ground.

At times, it felt as though only the love of ordinary music fans was preventing the entire live music infrastructure from collapsing. The outstanding work done by the Music Venue Trust to organise and rally crowdfunding campaigns allowed countless venues to keep the doors open, saving numerous jobs in the process.

It was done, though, with a caveat – everyone knew that live music wasn’t perfect, that the system was proving to be resistant to change. From poor pay for support bands to the lack of representation on festival bills, money was donated in the hope not just that our favourite venues could survive, but that something good, something better could emerge from the rubble.

Perhaps that’s why this week’s rally of festival announcements has ruffled so many feathers. Victorious Festival on the south coast went first, and its cavalcade of male headliners spawned a viral meme, with all of its paltry selection of female artists highlighted.

IN THIS PHOTO: Whilst Lewis Capaldi is a popular artist, bookings like this show that festival organisers are out of touch with the sheer quality and variation of female artists

The Isle of Wight festival went next. Pushing its weekend-long event to September, the reconstituted event confirmed the first names on its bill a few hours ago, with Liam Gallagher, Duran Duran, and Snow Patrol all set to play. Female artists were sorely lacking in the announcement, and indeed this is a criticism that has been labelled at the Isle Of Wight festival for some time now.

Noting this, one Clash reader responded: “Hate to be THAT guy but I prefer the 1970 line-up more. This is the same festival. (speaking of female acts, 1970 had Joni. 2021, in comparison...)”

Finally, TRNSMT has just confirmed plans for its overhauled event. The Glasgow Green festival caused up-roar in 2019 when founder Geoff Ellis suggested that not enough women were forming bands, a potential means to explain the gender bias on their bill. At the time, he said: “We all know there aren’t a lot of festival headliners out there. It’s been the case for the past decade.”

Leaving aside the factual dishonesty of that statement, it’s worth pointing out the names on this year’s line up: a now ubiquitous Liam Gallagher, COVID denier Ian Brown, Courteeners, and The Chemical Brothers, who swoop to replace local-crooner-made-good Lewis Capaldi.

It’s a sorry state of affairs, one that abuses the trust placed by so many fans in the live music sector. Why go through the pain and anguish of a music-free summer only to be confronted by a series of organisations so resistant to change, so hesitant to move forwards? We have no doubt that a great many people will buy tickets for these events – a high proportion of fans may well be women, too. But it’s gnawing to see the glacial pace of change laid out so clearly”.

 IMAGE CREDIT: Reading Festival

It would literally be impossible for me to name all the worthy female artists who could appear at most festivals, such is the vastness of options! From Pop superstars like Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift through to exciting acts like Arlo Parks and Rina Sawayama, pretty much any taste and genre is covered. I think there are hundreds of female band/female-fronted bands, solo acts, duos, trios and collectives that could satisfy any requirement! One cannot say that a lack of exposure and popularity is responsible for this gender imbalance. One only need listen to the most-acclaimed albums from the past few years. I feel the majority have been made by women. Listen to stations like BBC Radio 6 Music and one will see so many great new female artists spun. Look at the music media and the interviews and features that spotlight great women. From the strong lead voice of Ellie Rowsell In Wolf Alice to the incredible Jehnny Beth, one cannot say that there is a lack of grit and firepower from female artists. I think that festivals like Reading and Leeds and Isle of Wight have been booking Rock acts - when it came to explaining a lack of women, maybe they feel there are not enough women in Rock bands or who fit their criteria. I think both of these festivals are broad enough and are not restricted in terms of what genres they cover. Also, it is not the case that there are a lack of women in Rock (playlists like this outline women new and established in the Rock genre) and on that side of the spectrum.

  IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa is not only a natural festival headliner; she is one of hundreds of female artists who could enrich any festival bill 

In any case, I think the same excuses are levied when it comes to explaining why festival bills are not equal. Most say that they book acts that are popular; the male artists are more commercial, and the talent pool is not deep when it comes to women. Even Glastonbury used this excuse a couple of years back. In an age where women are dominating and there are more new female artists coming through than any time in history, no festival can hide behind tired excuses. I do not feel that festival audiences only want male bands and will not attend if that is changed. It is disgusting to see the comments levied at women who raise the issue of gender inequality at festivals. They are subjected to so much hate and disrespect. It is more than clear that there is rife sexism and exclusion through the majority of festivals. The Guardian stated how the recently-revealed festivals line-ups are not mistakes: they are wanton acts of exclusion:

“The male-skewing trends chimed with earlier festival announcements, some of them still partial. Dance festival Creamfields features a 91% male lineup. Indie-rock festival Victorious and metal events Slam Dunk and Bloodstock offered in excess of 80% male performers; at Strawberries and Creem, the Big Feastival, Latitude, Parklife and Big Foot it was more than 70%; Naked City, BST Hyde Park, We Out Here, Maiden Voyage, Field Day, Neighbourhood and Leopallooza over 60%.

IMAGE CREDIT: Creamfields 

Only Love Supreme and Deer Shed festivals featured more acts featuring women than men on their line-ups. Reading and Leeds, Standon Calling, Black Deer, Kaleidoscope, Camp Bestival, Gala, Liverpool Sound City, Wide Awake, Cross the Tracks and End of the Road featured between 50 and 60% male performers.

Standon Calling founder Alex Trenchard signed up to Keychange in 2018 after the festival’s family-heavy demographic said it wanted to see more women on the bill. This year’s event features 53% male performers, but 100% male headliners, Trenchard rued.

Partially that came down to an inability to book international artists owing to the ongoing coronavirus restrictions on travel, he said. “We’ve tried to make up for that further down the bill – this year our second stage is 65% female.

In September, the Musicians’ Union reported that one-third of professional British musicians were considering giving up their careers due to a lack of work and financial support during the pandemic. With women, gender minorities and women of colour disproportionately affected by the pandemic, said Gedge, better representation was crucial. “It’s really important that we take that very seriously and think about what we want the future of music to look like, and not what it did look like.”

Oliver Jones, director of Yorkshire’s Deer Shed – which has one female-fronted headliner of three overall, and 49% all-male acts on its bill – said festival organisers should be “actively seeking out female bands” and “supporting the underdog”. This year, London punk trio Dream Wife are headlining the festival’s second stage after appearing in an earlier slot a few years ago.

While Standon Calling had struggled to book a female headliner this year, said Trenchard, the strength of the female performers in the middle of the event’s bill – among them Porridge Radio, Billy Nomates and Greentea Peng – boded well for the future. “It’s a positive sign, even if things don’t look positive for now”.

IN THIS PHOTO: HAIM are one of the finest bands in the world and could fit onto any festival’s bill 

With Glastonbury possibly offering a virtual gig or one-off event later in the year, they are not putting on a full festival. That means one of the very few festivals that committed to a gender-equal bill are not going ahead. During a very tough year when you would have hoped that the amazing women in music would be recognised and festival bills would be overhauled, once again we are having the same discussions about equality and exclusion! Also, once more, there is either a wall of silence from organisers of excuses around a lack of female talent and male artists being more popular and festival-worthy. If festivals need a list of great women to book then, apart from opening their ears and reading the music press, there is The F-List that gives ample choice. Next year was supposed to be a year when many festivals demonstrated a desire for gender equality. It almost seems like there has been regression so that, by this time next year, will it only be Glastonbury who has an equal bill? Aside from the obvious sexism and ignorance, it is boring seeing the same names and lazy bookings! Maybe a small section of festival audiences want to see these artists play but, when you ask people and look around, I think there is a strong desire for change and equality. Music now is as broad and busy with fresh talent as ever. So many tremendous women are being denied and having to lose out on gig experience because festivals are overlooking them. I have even seen many discuss setting up their own festivals, just so that they can curate a line-up that has women on the bill! Let’s hope that festivals learn from their mistakes and correct their bills next year. With so much stubbornness and few organisers willing to bend, I worry that true gender equality and recognition of women is…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz is one of the finest artists in modern music

A long way off.

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Forty-Eight: Laurie Anderson

FEATURE:

 

 

A Buyer’s Guide

Part Forty-Eight: Laurie Anderson

___________

I usually include artists in this feature…

who have released at least eight studio albums and there is a book out there about them but, as Laurie Anderson is such an established and influential artist, I wanted to include her (she has released eight albums, though one is a Spoken Word release). Matt Everitt recently spoke with Anderson on his The First Time with… If you do not know much about Laurie Anderson, then here is some information:

“Laura Phillips Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting, Anderson pursued a variety of performance art projects in New York during the 1970s, focusing particularly on language, technology, and visual imagery. She became more widely known outside the art world when her single "O Superman" reached number two on the UK singles chart in 1981. She also starred in and directed the 1986 concert film Home of the Brave.

Anderson is a pioneer in electronic music and has invented several devices that she has used in her recordings and performance art shows. In 1977, she created a tape-bow violin that uses recorded magnetic tape on the bow instead of horsehair and a magnetic tape head in the bridge.[8] In the late 1990s, she collaborated with Interval Research to develop an instrument she called a "talking stick", a six-foot (1.8 m) long baton-like MIDI controller that can access and replicate sounds”.

This is a nod to and celebration of a terrific artist who is among the most original there has ever been. This is the four essential Laurie Anderson albums, an underrated gem, and her most-recent studio album – I also recommend a good book to dig into. If you require a good to a fantastic artist, then I hope that the suggestions below…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Carolyn Cole

ARE of assistance.

_____________

The Four Essential Albums

 

Big Science

Release Date: 19th April, 1992

Label: Warner Bros.

Producers: Laurie Anderson/Roma Baran

Standout Tracks: From the Air/Big Science/Walking and Falling

Buy: https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/laurie-anderson-big-science-red-vinyl/

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5nfdstl6JxGrDQtm1B2LnZ?si=cbAg19FDR4muW1NTOBqsgA

Review:

“Anderson's ingenious move, musically, was utilizing the vocoder not as a trick but as a melodic tool. It's the first thing you hear on Big Science, looped in "From the Air" like some bizarre man-machine synth. The rest of the track revolves around a circular pattern of blurted sax figures and hypnotic drums. There's virtually nothing about it that screams its age as Anderson intones a wry announcement from a (caveman) pilot of a plummeting flight. "There is no pilot," she speaks. "You are not alone. Standby. This is the time. And this is the record of the time." It's a metaphor for every frightening thing about 20th (and now 21st century) living you can think of, and in its spare way it's enough to scare you silly.

The gloomy ghost town future-music of the title track sounds like the rueful ruminations of someone who sees the end of the world on the horizon and can't help but to chuckle a little at their impending doom. The austere soundscapes of "Walking & Falling" and "Born, Never Asked" convey a similar chilliness laced with a despair at once aloof and oddly wistful. "Example #22" is like a Can/Yoko/Eno chop-shop, its funky wordless denouement part chant, part celebration of the absurd.

In fact, one of the elements that makes Big Science so special is Anderson's sense of humor. In "Let X=X", Anderson offers, with a wink, "I can see the future, and it's a place-- about 70 miles east of here." It's a perverse punchline to some cosmic joke, and the human element back and forth of "It Tango" does little to dissipate the feeling that on Big Science it's the machines that are getting the last laugh at the expense of their masters. The future was yesterday. The future is now. Welcome to the future” – Pitchfork

Choice Cut: O Superman

Mister Heartbreak

Release Date: 14th February, 1984

Label: Warner Bros.

Producers: Laurie Anderson/Bill Laswell/Roma Baran/Peter Gabriel

Standout Tracks: Sharkey's Day/Gravity's Angel/Excellent Birds

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/61107

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5n3H377w7raCOYV1vr9vUN?si=tt-p-Zb9RjCofqYKZTBdJQ

Review:

“Probably the most pop-accessible of Laurie Anderson's recorded work, Mister Heartbreak features a number of stunning luminaries on the cutting edge of popular music at the time. Striking guitar work by King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew permeates this disc -- notably on "Sharkey's Day" -- punchy and angular. The production and bass work from Bill Laswell is superb. Peter Gabriel -- at the time still coming off the buzz of his departure from Genesis -- is featured in a duet with Anderson on "Excellent Birds." There is a heavy reliance on early-'80s synthesizers which would normally be very off-putting, but here they are executed well. Nowhere does the music slip into irreparable '80s cliché; it is still an entertaining listen. Lyrics are typical of Anderson' work -- complex, literate, provocative, difficult to fully comprehend. Haunting "Gravity's Angel" borrows imagery from Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. Spoken word delivery on "Sharkey's Night" is given by the legendary William S. Burroughs. This is a very satisfying listen and a great intro for those unfamiliar with Anderson's work” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Sharkey's Night

Strange Angels

Release Date: 24th October, 1989

Label: Warner Bros.

Producers: Laurie Anderson/Roma Baran/Mike Thorne/Arto Lindsay/Ian Ritchie/Leon Pendarvis/Peter Scherer

Standout Tracks: Babydoll/The Day the Devil/My Eyes

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/63663

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6Sy383KpqoNe5b6MmvgfCQ?si=xwI-ffn5S_24v7eEZzLA4A

Review:

“Laurie Anderson's third proper studio album, coming over five years after 1984's Mister Heartbreak (1986's Home of the Brave was a film soundtrack), is a near-total departure from anything she had done before or, indeed, anything she did after. The most purely musical of Anderson's albums and the one on which she does the most actual singing (though her trademark deadpan spoken-word passages are still present and accounted for), Strange Angels seems to be Anderson's idea of a straightforward pop album. Of course, given Anderson's pedigree, this is not Whitney Houston territory; the closest parallel would be Joni Mitchell's more experimental, post-Mingus work: pretty but chilly, with a certain emotional distance even on the most immediately appealing songs (in this case, the thrilling "Babydoll" and the dreamy title track). There appears to be no underlying concept to the album, although the lyrical themes of three of the songs are explicitly taken from 19th century American literature. The musical arrangements are remarkably complex and feature cameos from not only Anderson's usual collaborators (Adrian Belew, David Van Tieghem, etc.) but also a motley crew ranging from jazz vocalist Bobby McFerrin to session keyboardist Robbie Kilgore. As a result, the songs are sometimes a little too busy, but Anderson manages to remain the center of attention throughout. An album on which longtime Anderson fans tend to be divided, Strange Angels is a perfect introduction for anyone who might find the deadpan surrealism of Big Science or United States I-IV a bit much” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Strange Angels

Bright Red

Release Date: 25th October, 1994

Label: Warner Bros.

Producers: Brian Eno/Laurie Anderson

Standout Tracks: Bright Red/Beautiful Pea Green Boat/Tightrope

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=38898&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6b3Ik5hjGBbhR8myjstjOt?si=JNTt1r07SOGv-8VGQAPtog

Review:

“Five years after the release of 1989's pop-oriented Strange Angels, Laurie Anderson returned with Bright Red, a Brian Eno-produced excursion into much darker territory. Strange Angels and its predecessor, 1984's Mister Heartbreak, introduced a new level of melodic and rhythmic sophistication into the spare electronics of Anderson's early work, but Bright Red largely dispenses with that; instead, Eno provides a sound closer to his trademark ambient music (though it's still more melodically and rhythmically varied than, say, Ambient 1: Music for Airports) and Anderson largely abandons singing for her earlier, more conversational spoken-word style. Thematically, the album is filled with images of disconnection, miscommunication, and fear, with the sly wit and deadpan humor of her early days almost entirely absent. The result is an album that's more to be admired than enjoyed, since (apparently by design) it's nearly impossible to make any sort of emotional connection with this music. Gossip hounds will enjoy combing "In Our Sleep," a duet with then-boyfriend Lou Reed, for hints about their relationship” - AllMusic

Choice Cut: Speak My Language

The Underrated Gem

 

Life on a String

Release Date: 21st August, 2001

Labels: Nonesuch/Elektra Records

Producers: Laurie Anderson/Hal Willner

Standout Tracks: One White Whale/My Compensation/Statue of Liberty

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=72054&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1WgJd9ONDjjUfo5xCJQDIc?si=5Irqyd9HT8WXR_Mhgz-hsw

Review:

“As the album-opening "One White Whale" indicates, bits of that project made it onto the album. The three tracks surviving from Songs And Stories suggest that Anderson might want to finish the job someday, even if the best one, "Pieces And Parts," has less to do with Melville's writing than Anderson's own powerful narrative skills. Half-spoken and half-sung, the track uses the 19th-century discovery of whale bones in Alabama as a point of departure for a discussion of history, heartbreak, and God. Anderson's best work has always been simultaneously opaque and pointed, suggestive, and even topical, without being didactic. Those qualities apply again here. Through repetitive melodies (aided by A-list guest performers like Bill Frisell, Lou Reed, and Mitchell Froom), accomplished singing, and plainspoken delivery, Anderson achieves a hazy kind of subconscious logic. "And over on Jane Street they're shooting that movie again / They just can't seem to get it right," goes one couplet from "Washington Street." Anderson makes lines like that make sense without really making sense at all. The same could be said of her new album, which starts with a whale and ends with a pilgrimage to parts unknown” – The A.V. Club

Choice Cut: Pieces and Parts

The Latest Album

 

Homeland

Release Date: 22nd June, 2010

Labels: Nonesuch/Elektra Records

Producers: Laurie Anderson/Lou Reed/Roma Baran

Standout Tracks: My Right Eye/Another Day in America/The Beginning of Memory

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=256626&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4ak54Q9kwqnyRL6yLkbFBO?si=TOifFuv7SyyaizBbwPtgcQ

Review:

“Only an Expert" makes a pervasive, subtle theme momentarily explicit: How shared illusions about security and plenitude perpetuate a predictable cycle of cultural, environmental, and existential crises. But this threatens to make the album sound punitive, when somehow, Anderson's wrath feels compassionate. As "Falling" would have it, "Americans, unrooted, blow with the wind/ But they feel the truth if it touches them." It's confrontational and beautiful, the grim tidings leavened with empathetic portraiture. "Transitory Life" is haunting and cunningly crafted. When Anderson sings that her dead grandmother "made herself a bed inside my ear/ Every night I hear," the Tuvan throat singer from the song's intro reappears, the formless cries suddenly given a narrative role.

But the epic "Another Day in America" is the album's huge, dark heart. Anderson's voice is pitched down and slowed-- she becomes her character on the cover, a slapstick figure of male authority-- over lingering strings and keyboards. The oration is a vortex of visionary proclamations, pointed fables, downbeat jokes. It makes palpable not only all the pathos and superstition of the American psyche, but the weight of time passing away-- another diminishing resource. Every malfunction of the status quo, Anderson implies, is a chance to start over, instead of rushing to rebuild what always breaks down. Her pessimism might not be comforting, but as oil continues to poison the Gulf of Mexico, it feels awfully prescient” – Pitchfork

Choice Cut: Only an Expert

The Laurie Anderson Book

 

Laurie Anderson: All the Things I Lost in the Flood

Author: Laurie Anderson

Publication Date: 6th February, 2018

Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications

Synopsis:

“Laurie Anderson is one of the most revered artists working today, and she is as prolific as she is inventive. She is a musician, performance artist, composer, fiction writer, and filmmaker (her most recent foray, Heart of a Dog, was lauded as an experimental marvel by the Los Angeles Times). Anderson moves seamlessly between the music world and the fine-art world while maintaining her stronghold in both. A true polymath, her interest in new media made her an early pioneer of harnessing technology for artistic purposes long before the technology boom of the last ten years. Regardless of the medium, however, it is exploration of language (and how it seeps into the image) and storytelling that is her metier. A few years ago, Anderson began poring through her extensive archive of nearly forty years of work, which includes scores of documentation, notebooks, and sketchbooks. In the process, she rediscovered important work and looked at well-known projects with a new lens. In this landmark volume, the artist brings together the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date, some of which has never before been seen or published. Spanning drawing, multimedia installations, performance, and new projects using augmented reality, the extensive volume traverses four decades of her ground-breaking art. Each chapter includes commentary written by Anderson herself, offering an intimate understanding of her work through the artist s own words” – Waterstones

Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/laurie-anderson/laurie-anderson/9780847860555

FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Thirty-Eight: Jhené Aiko

FEATURE:

 

Modern Heroines

 PHOTO CREDIT: Steven Taylor 

Part Thirty-Eight: Jhené Aiko

___________

I am going to bring in a few interviews…

 PHOTO CREDIT: ICM Partners

through this feature to illustrate Jhené Aiko. A couple of weeks ago her new album, Chilombo, was nominated for Album of the Year (it lost out to Taylor Swift’s folklore). I will come to that but, before I move on, it is worth bringing in some general biographical information about an incredible artist:

“Jhené Aiko Efuru Chilombo (/dʒəˈneɪ ˈaɪkoʊ/; born March 16, 1988) is an American singer and songwriter, who embarked on her music career contributing vocals and appearing in several music videos for R&B group B2K. At the time, she was known as B2K member Lil' Fizz's "cousin", though she is not actually related to him. It was used as a marketing tool, suggested by Sony and Epic Records to promote Aiko through group and cultivate her own following. In 2003, Aiko was set to release her debut album, My Name Is Jhené, through her labels Sony, The Ultimate Group and Epic; however, the album was never released, with Aiko eventually asking to be released from the label in order to continue her education.

In March 2011, Aiko made her return to music with the release of her first full-length project, a mixtape titled Sailing Soul(s). On December 16, 2011, Aiko signed a recording contract with American record producer No I.D.'s record label ARTium, distributed through Def Jam Recordings. In 2013, Aiko appeared on Big Sean's single "Beware", also featuring Lil Wayne, which became her first top 40 single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. In November 2013, she released her first project for Artium and Def Jam, an extended play (EP), titled Sail Out. The EP was supported by the singles "3:16AM", "Bed Peace" and "The Worst", the latter of which went on to become certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Aiko released her major-label debut album, Souled Out, on September 9, 2014. On September 22, 2017, she released her second studio album Trip. On March 6, 2020, she released her third studio album, Chilombo, which earned Aiko three Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year”.

I want to start by discussing her previous album, 2017’s Trip. I think that Chilombo is a great album, though Aiko’s best work is still ahead of her. Trip is an incredible album that won praise. In an interview with Rookie Mag, Aiko discussed the album and what she has learned from her time in the industry to that point (her debut studio album, Souled Out, arrived in 2014):

“Jhené Aiko’s latest album, Trip, is a sonic exploration of grief, love, and enlightenment. The 22-track LP is filled with keenly honest writing about some of Aiko’s darkest moments. The concept album is filled with silvery, airy songs that can be played on loop—much like the rollercoaster of emotions it works to emulate. The album is one part of Aiko’s M.A.P (which stands for movie, album, poetry) project which includes a film, and a soon to be released poetry book.

DIAMOND SHARP: Your new album is out. Can you tell me about the thought process behind the album?

JHENÉ AIKO: A lot of it came from my notebooks. I’ve been keeping notebooks since I was really young, and since the death of my big brother. I guess what’s different this time around is that I really just referred to my notebook. I made this short film, and I made the album, and then I made the poetry book all just referring to these notebooks that I’ve been keeping. It became extra personal and super honest because it was literally just me referring to my diary. I just wanted to give it my all. There’s 22 songs because I didn’t want to compromise the story at all. It’s been a long time in the making. M.A.P is an acronym for “Movie Album Poetry” book. I had already completed the movie, the album, and the poetry book and I was explaining it to someone and then I realized that it was an acronym for M.A.P. It all made sense because this whole process of me creating all of these projects has sort of served as a map for me, to help me find myself, to help me heal and navigate through my suffering and pain, and even love and joy. It’s just helped me make sense of all these things and put me on the path of my purpose. It helped me really figure out what path I’m supposed to be on, and that’s why it’s a map. I feel like it could help other people going through similar things to stay the course and lead them to the light at the end of their tunnel.

I know you’ve been in the industry since you were young. What do you know now that you wish you had known then?

I know now that I don’t have to compromise anything for anyone. If I have a vision, I can take the time to see it through. I know that I’m around great people. I have a great team that is family and that they are all here to support me. They all help me see the vision through and I think it’s important to keep those people around you. A lot of people think that once they start working more and more, that they have to switch it up and work with people that they feel are on a different level as far as what they can do for you. But, I feel like what’s most important is, you could do everything you need to do for yourself. You just have to be around people that actually believe in you like you believe in you. I think, no one believes in you more than yourself. But, after yourself, the people that believe in you the most are the people that are your true friends and true family.

When my first album was sold out, I felt like a little rushed, but it wasn’t coming from myself. There were people that were putting the pressure on it, but at the end of the day, I allowed them to make me feel that way. That was really my first time putting together an album myself and I did allow other things to sort of control like how I was moving in the situation. But, this time around, I am super focused and I know exactly what I want and how I want it. I think that that is the most important difference”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Danny Williams

I do believe that Jhené Aiko is a huge name of the future. It is interesting seeing these first few albums come out and hearing how she progresses and builds. I was caught by an interview from Revolt. It is amazing to think that, then, she was looking ahead to a decade of being in the industry (Aiki is thirty-two):

“Beyond her beauty, the recording artist exists in many people’s minds as an ephemeral voice as soft as an angel’s whisper with lyrics on love and despair. Her process of making such soulful music is as natural and organic as her beauty. “Most of my songs are freestyles. They start off with me either having something in my head and I’ll sit down with my keyboard player or [producers] Fisticuffs... I’ll tell [them], ‘I have these melodies, just give me a metronome’ and we’ll build music around what I did.”

That’s how her latest song, the scorned lover ode “Triggered (Freestyle),” was created. Her and her longtime producers Fisticuffs started the emotive, piano track with a few instruments before Aiko took the beat to her home studio to record it herself. “[I] just kept singing until [I] said everything I needed to say,” she explained.

“When I’m going through something, it actually flows out easier for me. Doing ‘Triggered’ and several other songs... [gives me] that same feeling that I have to release [it],” Aiko revealed. “It just flows out and I try not to overthink it until I want to [put] ad-libs in or background [vocals]. My new album I’m working on now is like that. Every song that you hear is me [freestyling].”

She says her new LP will be coming “sooner than later” with an update on its status coming from Aiko herself in the near future.

The year 2020 will roughly mark the first decade of Aiko’s solo career since entering the scene with her mixtape Sailing Soul(s). “I’m the same since Sailing Soul(s). I’m just a little more evolved version of myself,” the star explains. “Ever since the first grade, I’ve always known who I was. Now, I’m becoming more of who I am.”

The girl, who had to face decisions like choosing which of her ethnicities she should identify with in order to get casted, has grown into a world where Rihanna’s cosmetic line is one of the biggest in the world. In addition, one of the biggest songs on Beyoncé’s The Lion King soundtrack celebrates "Brown Skin Girls," and different shades of beauty are finally being celebrated in mainstream media. Aiko admits “there’s still more work to be done [with] showing diverse faces and bodies.” But, she is hopeful for the progress. “Now, more than ever, we’re celebrating being unique individuals... and embracing their (women of color) unique features,” she closed”.

I am going to finish off with some reviews of her new album, Chilombo. It is an album that is among the most underrated of last year. I would urge people to check it out and explore its incredible songs. I do, as I keep saying, feel that the best is still to come from Jhené Aiko.

In a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, Aiko discussed how she has changed as an artist - in addition to an interesting technique she deployed through Chilombo:

“Grammy nominations morning was a bittersweet one for Jhené Aiko. An hour after learning she was up for some of the biggest awards of her career — including Album of the Year for her third record, the curative Chilombo — Aiko found out that her uncle had passed away.

“We were in our own little world,” she says of her and partner Big Sean; at the time the two were on vacation but absorbed the awards news separately. “I was talking with my family about my uncle as well as answering people’s Grammy stuff. To be honest, it was a weird, out-of-body kind of moment, which is usually how I live my life.”

The difference in making Chilombo, though, was in finally recognizing her own power as an artist, thanks to the feedback she received from fans. “Different people come up to me and they let me know what my music means to them, and what it helps them with,” she says. “And so with Chilombo, I just really took that into consideration.”

One of the methods Aiko decided to incorporate into each song was the use of sound bowls. “Because I have been studying sound healing, I did want this album to have an actual, proven healing technique in every track. Not only could people listen to it and relate, it could also balance out different parts of their body, [make them] feel better, and have it actually be an experience to listen to the songs.”

The success of Chilombo — along with its Grammy nominations, the record bowed at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 — and the reality of America still being in quarantine have only further pushed Aiko to continue writing about anything and everything. For one, she has her sights on a new album from Twenty88, her ongoing collaboration with Big Sean — even if it’s more of an idea right now than an actual project. “In [a] time that most people perceive as dark or chaotic, that’s where I find my inspiration. That’s when I’m my most creative,” she says. “So I’m not saying that I’m hoping for another crazy year, but whatever happens, there’s always something to be inspired by”.

I want to source from one more interview, as I think we learn some new about Aiko with every interview. In this Essence interview, Aiko explains why she makes music for healing purposes:

“Incense is burning and I’ve just listened to Chilombo in its entirety, which is how Aiko prefers fans to experience her new project that’s equal parts healing and bops. Every song was originally freestyled and had an undercurrent of crystal bowls meant to stimulate different chakras, or energy points, in the body. The R&B singer got into alternative medicine, meditation and sound healing after having too many side effects from prescriptions. So what is Aiko healing from?

“I make music for healing purposes, for myself,” she told ESSENCE after the listening session. “It’s like journaling or when people paint. It’s sort of an escape. It’s turning pain or frustration into something; into art. Sharing it is also therapeutic because when people express to you that they are relating to it, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m not alone in what I’m going through.'”

If 2017’s Trip was Aiko’s escape from her grief through psychedelic drugs, Chilombo is her reclaiming of power through vibrational healing. And before you think it’s too hippy-dippy, the single “P*$$Y Fairy (OTW)” is a clear indication that in everything Aiko does, including the albums that made us fall in love with her, her 2013 debut Sail Out and her 2014 follow-up Souled Out, there’s balance. Let’s be real: she did have all of you, and your cousins, singing about eatin’ booties and groceries. So there’s that. There’s also collabs with John Legend, H.E.R., Miguel, Nas and, of course, Big Sean”.

To finish up, I will bring in a couple of positive reviews for Chilombo. When they say down and listened to the album, this is what Stereogum had to say:

“In fact, one of Chilombo’s many highlights is “None Of Your Concern,” which the couple recorded and released last year while broken up. It’s a bracingly honest and sometimes explicit postmortem on their romance, and it’s one of many unflinching moments on the album. Recording in Hawaii in the wake of her breakup from Sean, Aiko incorporated the sound of crystal alchemy singing bowls tuned to specific chakra frequencies as a mode of healing. If that sounds serene, the lyrics are strikingly raw. “You muhfuckin’ right, I’m bitter/ You muhfuckin’ right, I’m triggered,” Aiko sings over zoned-out keyboard chords and trap drums on early single “Triggered,” one of many elegant reunions with longtime producers Fisticuffs and Lejkeys. On the ghostly “Speak,” she taunts, “I’m moving on I’m putting on my favorite dress, the one you hated/ Said I looked naked in.” Alongside H.E.R. on “B.S.,” she continues the offensive: “It seem like I give so much and don’t get nothin’ back/ I really thought it was love but you’re so fuckin’ wack.”

The original Chilombo tracklist maintains this vibe for an hour. Even brief stylistic detours like the languid funk track “Tryna Smoke” and the John Legend duet “Lightning & Thunder” — a retro soul update similar to Rihanna’s “Love On The Brain” — sound like natural outgrowths of the album’s world. “I know life’s a bitch, but she could at least give me head sometimes,” she memorably quips on the former, and seemingly every track offers up some similarly memorable lyric, often broadcasted in the song titles. On the sparse “Define Me” she proclaims, “You cannot define me.” On the acoustic “Born Tired” she sums up her exhaustion: “Baby, I was born tired.” Few images this year are more evocative than Aiko as the “Pussy Fairy on the way.” By the time Ty Dolla $ign shows up for the thumping and surprisingly upbeat but still fundamentally misty closer “Party For Me,” Aiko has completed one of the most accomplished R&B albums in recent memory”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Steven Taylor

There have been some mixed reviews for the album. I think that Chilombo is underrated. It is an album that grows the more you listen to it. In their review, EUPHORIA. made the following remarks:

“Aiko flexes her self love and dismissal of ex-lovers on Trip with “Never Call Me” and “Nobody” and on Chilombo with “None of Your Concern” and “BS.” Both albums are easy listening even at their length and truly take you through Aiko’s analysis and reflection over time.

The thing that Chilombo gains from staying so similar to Trip is the unforced delivery of how Aiko processes life through lyrics and melody. However, Trip mixed in an internalized and sometimes dark tone, seemingly due to drug experiences that influenced the album. These drug revelations – that seemed to question existence – appear to also represent something that felt like youthful confusion. Differently, on Chilombo Aiko seems to tackle this confusion with more of a yoga-like and meditative approach. This shows the progression of her thinking while still keeping the same essence of the album prior.

On a song like “Born Tired” Aiko dissects a release of her anger and twisted thoughts for the sake of a grateful mindset. One where she appreciates all she has figured out rather than what is still causing conflict. She sings:

“It’s been a long night / Long life, long time fighting Let out a long sigh / Alright, why am I trying? / ‘Cause look at how far you have come / And look at all that you have going / Look at who I have become.”

To end the album Aiko then transitions into a mode of forgiveness with a song like “10k hours.” The forgiveness blossoms into acceptance of the reality of moving on from someone while remembering the love and wishing them well. On “Pray For You” she sings:

“I pray you find your confidence / Pray you find a confidant, pray you get everything that you want / Pray you get everything that I could not give to you /I know that it may seem weird to you”.

I will end with a playlist consisting of the best Jhené Aiko tracks so far. I think she is going to be an artist who will bring out incredible music for years and she will inspire other artists. If you have not heard Jhené Aiko and her music, then get involved and discover…

A superb talent.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: The Great Escape 2021: The First Wave

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: ĠENN/PHOTO CREDIT: Bridie Florence 

The Great Escape 2021: The First Wave

___________

I really miss…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Marten

getting down to Brighton because there is such a vibe and sense of warmth and friendliness! A great festival that is held there every year, The Great Escape, has announced its first wave of acts. Things, as this NME article highlights, are different this year:

“The Great Escape has announced the first 68 artists for its virtual edition – check out the line-up so far below.

The Brighton-based new music festival announced last month that it had cancelled its traditional in-person event for 2021, with a virtual festival taking its place.

The event was aiming to return this year after its 2020 edition was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but ongoing restrictions mean the 2021 festival will now be unable to take place in its usual guise. Dates of May 11-14 were also announced for the return of the full-scale festival in 2022.

This year, from May 13-14, a host of artists will perform virtually, and the first number of acts have been announced now.

Among the 68 acts announced today (March 24) are a host of NME 100 acts for 2021, including PVA, Yard Act and Chubby and The Gang”.

Because the first wave of acts is so strong, this Lockdown Playlist is a collection of songs by those acts. Make sure you follow news of the festival because, to me, their line-up is the broadest in terms of sound and balanced when it comes to gender and race – few festivals commit to that sort of pledge. As you can hear from the Lockdown Playlist below, this year’s Great Escape boasts…

 IN THIS PHOTO: NeOne the Wonderer/PHOTO CREDIT: @hannah.boyd.art

SOME awesome talent.

FEATURE: Members Only: The Lockdown Playlist: Songs in the National Recording Registry

FEATURE:

 

 

Members Only

The Lockdown Playlist: Songs in the National Recording Registry

___________

BECAUSE Billy Joel’s…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @florenciaviadana/Unsplash

iconic hit, Piano Man, was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its cultural, historic, or artistic significance on 26th March, 2016, I am celebrating that anniversary by compiling a Lockdown Playlist of songs that share a special place in that club. I am not going to include EVERY single, as that may take quite a lot of your time up – I have highlighted a few that I particular like. It is quite an honour being inducted into the National Recording Registry so, to mark five years of Piano Man being among some prestigious songs, here is a selection of…

ELITE recordings.

FEATURE: Pressed and Repressed: Vinyl Demand and Possible Shortages

FEATURE:

 

 

Pressed and Repressed

PHOTO CREDIT: Karsten Winegeart 

Vinyl Demand and Possible Shortages

___________

I have written about vinyl…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @julemergener_/Unsplash

quite a lot during the pandemic. I thought that record shops would struggle and many would close their doors. Some have, though there has been this boom in regards physical sales, especially in the vinyl market. I hope that this prosperity continues and there will be this ongoing demand and appetite for vinyl for many years! I was just about the launch into a feature that asked why many great albums new and older are not available on vinyl. They would have been when they were originally released, though many are either ludicrously expensive to buy or that album needs to be repressed. I wrote about Lily Allen’s 2006 debut, Alright, Still, and how that should be given a new vinyl release. There are countless albums that would benefit a vinyl release but, at present, one cannot get the album on that format – or, as I say, there are versions available that are very steep! It seems as simple as labels committing to pressing that album and organising a new release, but I understand that there are limited vinyl pressing factories and facilities; it can be very expensive to create a run of albums. Demand also needs to be pretty high for it to profitable to bring an album out on vinyl. In a wider sense, I was reading an article in The Telegraph; it made me concerned for the future of vinyl and distribution. The article highlights positives regarding sales during the start of the pandemic. As of the start of this year, things have changed slightly:

“In amongst all the dark clouds that have gathered over business in the UK during the pandemic, there have been some silver linings. While in the music world, the live sector – which has been booming for over  20 years – has been plunged into crisis, recorded music has enjoyed a considerable renaissance.

For many years, the record industry was the failing sibling enterprise to touring, after MP3 filesharing scuppered the dominance of major labels, but Covid-19 has turned that whole picture upside down. With most of the nation suddenly stranded at home, streaming via platforms such as Spotify has gone through the roof, and the majors are buoyant once more.

PHOTO CREDIT: Clay Banks 

Also, mail-order for physical releases has enjoyed an unforeseen upturn. Last week, the vinyl and CD selling platform, Discogs, announced that sales in 2020 were up 40 per cent on 2019, and this has been the trend across all areas of physical music business. “Much as nobody really wants to say it, last year was a good year for record labels,” says Ian Ballard, who runs a shoestring independent imprint called Damaged Goods, specializing in garage-rock.

“I feel a bit bad, because it was a terrible year for musicians and journalists and everyone else, but if you were a record company that actually had releases coming out in 2020 and you did mail order while the shops were shut, then figures were up”.

On 1 January 2021, however, everything changed. Overnight, a sizable percentage of that burgeoning trade was at best thrown into confusion, or limbo, and at worst all but killed stone dead. Ballard had spent months preparing a four-album box set of new material from his flagship artist, Billy Childish, who has been lionized over the years by giants such as Nirvana and The White Stripes, but is perhaps still best known here for his nominal mention on artist Tracey Emin’s My Bed, as one of her ex-boyfriends.

Certainly, it seems likely that major labels, who are already set up as multi-national concerns, will restructure their operations around physical releases to mainland Europe, simply importing all stock here, at a cost which will ultimately be felt by the consumer, in rising prices for their records.

PHOTO CREDIT: @rocinante_11/Unsplash 

For the majors, physical sales only represent a boutique sideline to the main business of streaming, where they’re also banking disproportionately huge percentages at the expense of increasingly disgruntled artists.

‘Physical’, particularly vinyl, however, is the main focus for the smaller labels, and as in live music, it’s at this lower end of the record-business scale that the increased logistical challenges and spiralling costs will be most acutely felt. Ian Ballard gamely explains how, before New Year’s Day 2021, Damaged Goods would have all their records pressed in the Czech Republic, store them in a warehouse in Hull, then ship those destined for EU retail to a distributor in Germany. “Crazy, but it was cheaper that way,” he says.  “We would fill a pallet with about a thousand to 1500 items,” he continues, “including CDs, a mixture of vinyl albums and singles, and shipping that from Hull to Germany on a lorry used to cost 165 quid. The paperwork was just a delivery note, and it would take four or five days”.

We learned last year that vinyl sales were at a record (excuse the pun!) high. Artists are taking advantage of this rise and offering albums in the form of special editions and reissues. This will introduce younger listeners and new fans to the wonders of such a pure format. This article of 23rd March suggested classic albums are helping to boost vinyl sales. The format is on course to overtake C.D. sales for the first time since 1987.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Akshay Chauhan

It seems that the vinyl market is also booming in the U.S. Late last year, The Manual highlighted the vinyl rise and spoke with the CEO of Victrola, Scott Hagen:

“So vinyl is here to stay, it seems, despite all technological advances that would have seemed to threaten it. The same RIAA study that found records surpassing CDs also revealed that streaming music now account for more than 85% of all music enjoyed. Only 6% of music is now downloaded, even less than is physically purchased in the form of records, CDs, or the last tapes.

So records don’t sell like digital, but that doesn’t mean they’re on the outs.

“I think they are certainly here to stay,” says Charlie Randall. “We are seeing records and turntables become more popular and more advanced in technology like [with] our MTI100 integrated turntable, for example.”

“I think it’s got a ton of staying power,” Scott Hagen says. “In 2013, there were about $200 million in sales in the U.S. The year, we’re probably going to eclipse $600 million just in America. I see the future of vinyl being it becoming more a staple in homes where people value listening to music, not ever less. We just did a survey of more than 400 people, people between 18 and 70 years old, and asked them if they had a vinyl record player in the home, and more than 55% said yes. But what was really interesting, is of those people who had a record player, more than 70% said they had used it, had listened to a record within the last month.”

PHOTO CREDIT: @victrola/Unsplash 

“But even more compelling for me,” Hagen added, “was that with the younger people 18 to 29, more than 60% had a record player. And others were planning to get one.”

Why does Scott Hagen think that record players are not only not going anywhere but are getting ever more popular?

“Because the world that we’re in needs this kind of format — it needs us to slow down and enjoy a really nice meal once in a while, a good bourbon or cocktail now and then, and to sit down and just listen to music sometimes”.

There is uncertainty how the vinyl market will be affected in the U.K. this year. With Brexit and the pandemic there is likely to be some delays and production changes. Maybe my aspirations regarding there being this wave of albums coming out on vinyl (that one could not get beforehand) might not happen. I do feel that the vinyl rise will continue, though there are concerns when it comes supply. The small labels, it seems, are going to feel the biggest hit. I am not sure whether it is cheaper importing from America or whether some deal can be brokered between labels and pressing plants. I feel that there is this optimism regarding the future of record shops and a clear sales boost that is being driven by listeners wanting something physical and tangible – those that feel streaming cannot deliver a genuine listening experience. Let’s hope that small and large labels alike will not be affected too severely this year and going forward. For music lovers around the world, there is nothing that can equal…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @florenciaviadana/Unsplash

THE pleasure, feel and value of vinyl.

FEATURE: Soul Queens: Awesome Women of Philadelphia International Records

FEATURE:

 

 

Soul Queens

IN THIS PHOTO: Phyllis Hyman/PHOTO CREDIT: Anthony Barboza/Getty Images 

Awesome Women of Philadelphia International Records

___________

I was struck by an article…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dee Dee Sharp

that appeared on The Guardian website last week regarding ther fiftieth anniversary of Philadelphia International Records. It is an exciting milestone, but their angle of highlighting the incredible cool and talented women of the label stuck with me:

“Still, not everything worked by the Motown plan. Unlike Berry Gordy’s company, Gamble and Huff’s venture enjoyed far more success with their male stars than their female ones. Lacking a distaff act with the enormous popularity of Diana Ross and the Supremes, Gladys Knight or Martha Reeves, the label scored most of their biggest hits with male acts like the O’Jays, Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, Billy Paul and the solo Teddy Pendergrass. The only time they scored a top-five pop hit for a female act came when the Three Degrees cooed When Will I See You Again. Otherwise, Philly’s female artists enjoyed far more success on the American R&B charts than on the broader pop list. At the same time, the women of Philly Soul – including Carn, Dee Dee Sharp, Phyllis Hyman, the Jones Girls and the Three Degrees - created many of the label’s most adventurous recordings. For a short spell, Patti LaBelle also recorded for the label, but she enjoyed her biggest hits on Epic with the group Labelle, or with her solo work on MCA.

“I learned so much about writing and producing from the best in the business,” said Shirley Jones, lead singer of the Jones Girls. “The label also helped me to become an activist.”

 The first release by a female act on the label – the self-titled album by the Three Degrees – came two years and 12 albums into Philly International’s history. The Three Degrees experienced more hits in the UK than the US, including two gold albums and a hit single, Year of Decision. The lyrics to the single epitomized the label’s socio-political mission, told in its pointed entreaties to “open up your mind” and “leave the bad stuff behind”.

The label’s next female act, Dee Dee Sharp, made her debut for Philly in 1976 with the album Happy About the Whole Thing. Sharp, who scored doo-wop hits in the early 1960s like the No 1 song Mashed Potato Time, and who married Kenny Gamble in 1967, had a huge vocal range. Her Philly work gave her the chance to show it off in cuts like a highly theatrical cover of 10cc’s I’m Not in Love and a take on Terry Collier’s rapturous jazz ballad What Color Is Love.

The last female artist released by the label, as well as its final artist overall – Phyllis Hyman – already had a decade-long track record on Buddha and Arista Records although her Philly releases rank among her greatest works. They expanded her status as a vocalist who was highly respected by her peers and by black audiences. But the fact that she never earned a pop hit gnawed at her. “She felt very underappreciated,” Carn said. She also had depression. “I saw those mood swings – everybody did”.

In a similar nod to the underrated and somewhat overlooked women of Philadelphia International Records, this Lockdown Playlist selects songs from them. Even though the label favoured and supported male acts more, as you can tell from these tracks, the Soul queens on the label created…

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Three Degrees

SUCH incredible music!