FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Michael Jackson - Off the Wall

FEATURE:

 

Vinyl Corner 

Michael Jackson - Off the Wall

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ONE can argue…

IN THIS PHOTO: Michael Jackson in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Barry Schultz

which Michael Jackson is the best. Some would say it is 1982’s Thriller. I am a big fan of 1987’s Bad and 1991’s Dangerous. It is impossible to ignore the importance of 1979’s Off the Wall. One of the best-selling albums ever, it is also considered among the best albums ever. Not as commercially successful as Thriller, many critics have named Off the Wall as Michael Jackson’s defining album. It was Jackson's first album released through Epic Records, the label he recorded under until his death in 2009, and the first produced by Quincy Jones, whom he met while working on the 1978 film, The Wiz. The mix of sounds - Disco, Pop, Funk, R&B, Soft Rock and ballads – fuses with Its lyrical themes include escapism, liberation, loneliness, hedonism and romance. Off the Wall is the sound of Jackson breaking away from The Jackson 5. This is an artist liberated and striding out alone. With song contributions from the likes of Rod Temperton and Paul McCartney, there is not a weak or wasted moment on Off the Wall. Jackson wrote two of the album’s best tracks: Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough and Workin’ Day and Night. If you do not own the album on vinyl, it is one that you should definitely buy. Off the Wall possesses so many terrific songs. Jackson is so committed and astonishing throughout. In 1979, there was praise for a breakthrough album by Jackson. I feel there were some who were not sold or did not give Off the Wall the huge acclaim it deserved. Retrospective reviews have boasted the album’s profile and recognised its freshness - and how it was this major Disco record that would go on to influence legions of other artists.

There are a couple of glowing reviews that I want to source. It shows how critics have reacted to the Michael Jackson masterpiece in the years after its release. This is AllMusic’s take on one of the finest albums of the 1970s:

“Michael Jackson had recorded solo prior to the release of Off the Wall in 1979, but this was his breakthrough, the album that established him as an artist of astonishing talent and a bright star in his own right. This was a visionary album, a record that found a way to break disco wide open into a new world where the beat was undeniable, but not the primary focus -- it was part of a colorful tapestry of lush ballads and strings, smooth soul and pop, soft rock, and alluring funk. Its roots hearken back to the Jacksons' huge mid-'70s hit "Dancing Machine," but this is an enormously fresh record, one that remains vibrant and giddily exciting years after its release. This is certainly due to Jackson's emergence as a blindingly gifted vocalist, equally skilled with overwrought ballads as "She's Out of My Life" as driving dancefloor shakers as "Working Day and Night" and "Get on the Floor," where his asides are as gripping as his delivery on the verses. It's also due to the brilliant songwriting, an intoxicating blend of strong melodies, rhythmic hooks, and indelible construction. Most of all, its success is due to the sound constructed by Jackson and producer Quincy Jones, a dazzling array of disco beats, funk guitars, clean mainstream pop, and unashamed (and therefore affecting) schmaltz that is utterly thrilling in its utter joy. This is highly professional, highly crafted music, and its details are evident, but the overall effect is nothing but pure pleasure. Jackson and Jones expanded this approach on the blockbuster Thriller, often with equally stunning results, but they never bettered it”.

I am going to wrap up in a bit. Pitchfork examined Off the Wall in 2016. It is amazing to think of the Michael Jackson who created that album in the 1970s. Compare that to how his career would explode and how his life (tragically) would end:

“Off the Wall is the sound of that liberation. And he knew exactly what he was doing. On November 6, 1979, just as the album was starting to take off, Michael wrote a note to himself on the back of a tour itinerary, a proclamation of self so ambitious it could make Kanye blush. "MJ will be my new name, no more Michael Jackson. I want a whole new character, a whole new look, I should be a totally different person. People should never think of me as the kid who sang ‘ABC’ [and] ‘I Want You Back,’" he jotted down. "I should be a new incredible actor singer dancer that will shock the world. I will do no interviews. I will be magic. I will be a perfectionist, a researcher, a trainer, a masterer… I will study and look back on the whole world of entertainment and perfect it. Take it steps further from where the greats left off."

Those words were eerily prescient in many ways, of course, but they also highlight one of Michael’s most important dualities: He wanted to be magical—to defy expectation and reality—but he knew that such skills could not materialize from thin air. He understood that exceptionalism took hard work. Growing up in the Motown system, he would often sit in on sessions, soaking up lessons from the greats: Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations. He studied the way James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr., and Fred Astaire moved their feet onstage, in movies, and on TV. At 17, he counted hallowed masters like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Duke Ellington among his favorite songwriters. He had released four solo albums in the early ’70s, but Off the Wall, which came out when he was 21, finally allowed him to flex all those hours of research into something that was his.

It also marked a moment of idealism. Around the time of Off the Wall, Michael’s musical and physical changes felt natural—joyous extensions of the black American experience. Disco was overwhelmingly popular, breaking down color lines and radio formats while offering utopia on the dancefloor. Coming from the segregated, working-class city of Gary, Ind., Jackson's achievements and acceptance represented a rosy view of the country’s future. But 1979 was scarred by the beginning of the quasi-racist "disco sucks" backlash; Michael also got his first nose job that year, narrowing his nostrils. And though he would become even more successful in the '80s, those astronomical heights sometimes catered to white tastes—in both appearance and sound—in a way that could seem effortful, cynical, and sad.

So part of the reason why Off the Wall remains so unabashedly fun to return to involves that lack of baggage. For 41 minutes, we can live in the eternally young Neverland Michael longed for, a universe largely without consequence or death. This lasting affection is reiterated by a new Spike Lee documentary, Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall, which is included in this CD/DVD reissue and finds Jackson family members and associates, along with more modern stars like the Weeknd’s Abel Tesfaye, ?uestlove, and Pharrell, paying tribute to Michael’s earliest incarnations. "Off the Wall was definitely the one that made me feel like I could sing," says Tesfaye in the doc, which was in part produced by executors of Michael’s estate and barely mentions anything about the artist’s life after Off the Wall.

The album was released toward the tail end of the disco era and it managed to encompass much of what made that style so infectious while also pushing out its edges. "Our underlying plan was to take disco out. That was the bottom line," the record’s producer, Quincy Jones, once said. "I admired disco, don’t get me wrong. I just thought it had gone far enough." Jones, a calm, jazzy Zen master who had worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, and Count Basie, helped Michael flesh out his own songs as well as tracks written by others, putting forth a record that is at once beautifully simple and sneakily complex”.

An enormously important album, there is no doubt that Off the Wall is one of the best ever. So many classic tracks and amazing production from Quincy Jones. Over forty years after its release, I don’t think there has been another album quite like it. From Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough to Burn the Disco Down, Off the Wall is ten tracks of…

PURE perfection.

FEATURE: The Kate Bush Interview Archive: John Shearlaw (1979)

FEATURE:

 

 

The Kate Bush Interview Archive

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Kite during The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Still Photography

John Shearlaw (1979)

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WHEN thinking of which year to focus on…

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

for this part of the Kate Bush Interview Archive, I wanted to go back to 1979. This interview was conducted by John Shearlaw. It was ahead of Bush heading out to do her first (and only) tour. The Tour of Life was Bush hitting the road following two great albums: 1978’s The Kick Inside and Lionheart. A preview feature ahead of the tour, 1978 and 1979 are my favourite years of Bush’s career. It was when so much was happening. A lot of the media did not know what to make of her. Trying to grasp this unique music and a very special artist, the interviews from that time are very interesting! I am not going to source all of the interview conducted by Shearlaw. There are some segments that are particularly noteworthy:

“For Kate, still only twenty years old, has found that what was at first a tentative (and very well planned) debut outing has swollen into a full-scale tour--now including five nights at the London Palladium, with Europe to follow.

While I've found (let's say a birdie told me!) that this spectacular initiation is likely to offer such treats as:

Two supporting dancers appearing with Kate (herself an accomplished dancer and mime artist);

What has loosely described as a "magician" (although, typically, the nature of the act is being kept a secret!).

A specially designed stage with opening mirrored ramps for Kate and the seven-piece band to disappear in and out of.

A variety of equipment--including a black carpet that will cover the entire stage area.

Mind-boggling set-pieces--one of which seems likely to be Kate suspended inside a giant, transparent egg (with only two handholds and two footholds) which will rotate as she sings.

As well as a completely new approach to the singer as the center of attention--perhaps one of the most interesting innovations! As well as using radio microphones (without leads), she'll also be wearing a wire head-piece (with a mike) for certain songs--thus making it easier to move, dance and sing...with no limitations.

Nor is all this dedication to presentation a mere attempt at technoflash. In fact, the whole production (which will travel with the tour and be adapted for each venue--with the full works being reserved for the largest stage: the London Palladium) isn't reckoned to be that expensive. (A figure of around 150,000 Pounds has been mentioned--almost peanuts in relation to full-scale ELO-like production packages).

Rather, if it works--and with all the effort that's gone into it, it looks like it will--it will be some way towards Kate's original stated ambition of "combining songs and dance in a slightly different way--a way that suits me."

Now you know, although you shouldn't! Prepare for something a little bit special--that's if Wuthering Heights didn't, or the incredible BBC TV video she recorded in Switzerland last month for Wow doesn't either. 

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during a performance of Room for the Life for The Tour of Life

Ms. Bush, whichever way you look at it, is about to break out in a big way. And not just out of an egg!

Yes, she has played live before--"in pubs and clubs, from when I was about fourteen," she remembers. "I was always happy to perform." And who can forget that it was Kate, as a squeaky and precocious sixteen-year-old, who first gained record company interest (and to certain people, also from record companies, who must now be kicking themselves with some force, abject scorn) by accompanying herself on piano at her doctor-father's house?

But, since the success of Wuthering Heights and her subsequent breakthrough as one of the most truly original voices of the decade (perfectly executed and illustrated on two albums) last year, there hasn't been what product-managers would call back-up. No live appearances; just videos in Japan and playbacks for Top of the Pops.

The reason being, yes..."a genuine lack of time."

"I think I survived all the digs I had last year," she says now. "I really wasn't deliberately keeping myself away from an audience to build up a reputation. It has simply taken all this time to stage things the way I want to. And to match up to the standard I've set myself.

"Which I haven't reached, and probably won't reach!" she laughs.

"But however it turns out, it's my concept--my concept, as much as the time, the budget and the presentation will allow.

"And it's for all the Lionhearts first!"

"It's also a concept, says Kate, that is the culmination of two years' planning, and--more realistically--six solid months of rehearsal, which began with the band long before Christmas, extended into lighting and effects work at a Home Counties film studio, and will culminate, for the rest of this month, with full run-throughs at a major London theatre.

"It does, however, make it somewhat understandable that the lady herself is reluctant to disclose any details of the surprises in store. Since Christmas she's lived with the hard-core reality of putting the show on--a development that has attracted so much rumour and speculation that someone less determined (and less in total control of her own projectction) might be tempted to begin her own publicity before the event. Not so.

Great, fantastic and incredible. How else would she put it?

"I'm really looking forward to it so much," she says. "I look at myself, and I'm not a public person. At least I don't see myself as a public person; I don't go out and go to parties. My friends" --her boyfriends "are "just good friends", she points out--"don't make front-page news! All that amazing show-business thing, you know.

"But," she continues, "you do have different faces. My different face is when I perform--it will be when I perform, I mean!

"When I'm on stage, I get possessed, really." Her eyes--still bigger-than-believable, away from the flash-guns--sparkle. "Away from it, I'm just normal and small...then, suddenly, I've got this really special thing. I'm really letting go.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Hammer Horror during The Tour of Life

"It's an amazing feeling, a great big rush."

She pauses and delivers a sentence that could have a malicious tease about it. Equally, it could be genuine. "It's almost like seeing God, man! Though it's not quite as simple as that...

"You're communicating, without talking, something that's inside you--your creation--and it's going out to people. It's fantastic when you see them accepting it."

And does she feel they do, or sorry, that they will? Or does she worry about projecting a conscious image to gain that acceptance?

In a word, no. "It's not a question of being sexy or anything. It's much more to do with the interpretation of each song. Each one you see differently and present differently," she says. "I've been very open to lots of influences up until now, or I wouldn't even be doing the things I am doing. Like if I hadn't worked with Lindsay Kemp, I wouldn't be moving around at all while I was singing! Can you imagine that?”.

We all know that The Tour of Life was a success. Bush was hailed by many critics. It was an exceptional set of shows that broke new ground and marked her as one of the most spectacular live performers in the world. I can imagine there was this mixture of excitement and nerves discussing The Tour of Life. It makes me wonder whether, ever, there will be a book of interviews Bush was involved with through the years. They are always so different and fascinating. The one above…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performs Moving during The Tour of Life in 1979

IS simple proof of that.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Spandau Ballet - True

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin 

Spandau Ballet - True

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I have been thinking about…

albums released in the year I was born. That would be 1983. There were some classics released that year – including Madonna’s eponymous debut. I think that there were some albums released that year that are underrated. In 1983, we still had the New Romantic movement. Bands like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet were ruling the charts. I have always had a soft spot for Spandau Ballet. I think True was the number-one single when I was born on 9th May, 1983. The True album is one that is far stronger than many have given it credit for. Aside from the iconic, chart-topping title track, it also has the unstoppable Gold. Some have dismissed the rest of the album as being weak in comparison to those two tracks. I feel True is well worth investigation. Maybe it seems dated in 2021 (it was released in March 1983) as we do not have any sounds like this today. Defining it as purely New Romantic is taking something away from an album that is incredible. With all eight tracks written by the band’s guitarist, Gary Kemp, there is much to enjoy through True. I particularly like Communication and Heaven Is a Secret. If their first couple of albums made them big names in the U.K. and Europe, the success of their third studio album elevated them to worldwide stars. I want to bring in a couple of reviews for True – to show what some critics have said about the album.

Before coming to them, I want to zero in on the album’s title cut. In 2012, Gary Kemp discussed the story behind the classic track:

“On the most romantic day of the year, read the inside story on the classic eighties song True by its writer Gary Kemp.

True was one of the songs on our third album.  Spandau Ballet were quite established in Europe by this time but not at all in the US. We were kind of a cult band.

Our first two albums were electronic dance records, very much influenced by the New Romantic scene. The second was also in the club vein and we'd had about six hit singles but we were never going to remain a culty London band forever - we'd done Top of the Pops half a dozen times and for me there was a sense of 'do we just want to keep up with the dance scene or do we really want to sell records around the world', which is what I always wanted to do. I'd grown up on pop and it seemed to me that with True it was time to go back to what I'd been doing since I was 11; writing a song, as opposed to finding what the groove is and writing a song on top of that, which is what we'd been doing.

My three biggest influences were David Bowie, punk and soul music. I could play records by Chic and the Sex Pistols at the same sitting. True was trying to make an amalgam of all those influences.

At 22 I'd had two hit albums but I'm a working-class boy. Working class kids don't move out until they get married. The song was written at my parent's house off the Essex Road, sitting on my bed.

I had a passionate unrequited love for someone who will remain nameless... I was partly writing a song about her too.

I had a passionate unrequited love for someone who will remain nameless. I was a bit obsessed with her, and she with me, but nothing was ever going to happen. She also listened to a lot of Al Green and Marvin Gaye. I was partly writing a song about her too. The tune came from trying to write a song a bit like I'm Still In Love with You by Al Green. I loved the way he looped the 'I' around. There was another song by John Lennon - I was watching Let It Be and he sang ‘I'm so tired and I-I-I-I....’ I really wanted to do that. I ended up with ‘I know this much is true’, about how hard it is to be honest in a love song.  So the line came into my head ‘Why do I find it hard to write the next line, I want the truth to be said’.

The girl I was obsessed with had given me a copy of Lolita by Nabokov and I adapted two lines for the song, one was 'seaside arms', the other 'with a thrill in my head and a pill on my tongue' which I loved as soon as I read it; it was the story of our lives at the time. I wanted to mention Marvin Gaye, I kind of liked that because the song was a homage to different soul singers.

My first choice of producer was Trevor Horn, but I'm glad we ended up with Simon Jolley and Tony Swain, two white guys who did the Imagination records, understood the 12” record, understood the remix, but the song was there.

We said ‘we’re not making an English record, it’s an international record, we can’t make it in London’. The album was recorded at Compass Point in Nassau. I loved that whole Island Records, Chris Blackwell vibe. We hoped it would rub off on the record, and it did. We had a great new keyboard that gave us that chord sound on True, but the big thing was the backing vocal. We decided that the ‘I-I-I-I’ bit wasn’t something that Tony did. I recorded it and Tony put an effect on it.

I’ve got the video from Compass Point, and everyone is singing along in the mixing room and at that moment we knew this was the biggest record we’d ever made.

When the album was released, True started getting crazy radio plays and took on a life all of its own. In those days it wasn’t easy to get to Number one. It was there for four weeks. It got to number four in the US but its legacy is that it’s a black radio favourite, we’re up to four million airplays on the record”.

Although True has not received many all-out positive reviews, there are some who have pointed at highs and reasons to listen. Sputnikmusic reflected on True back in 2007:

“Spandau Ballet is sort of a weird band in terms of popularity. At the forefront of the 80’s New Romantic movement, Spandau Ballet's success was a mixed bag. They entered the British charts in 1980 with the song ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’,(which was the only good song on their debut album, Journeys To Glory) only to have mixed results with their follow up Diamond which was a lot stronger as a whole, but didn’t deliver much success on the charts. Hence we come to True, which showed a stylistic change in the band’s sound and image, going for a sleek adult contemporary feel along the lines of Make it Big era Wham!. The album’s singles garnered international success, and was the last (and perhaps, only) album to get critical acclaim.

Like so many other 80’s pop albums, True was written with a specific goal in mind, to get singles on the charts. As an album as a whole, this makes for an unvaried batch of songs in terms of sound and composition, while not necessarily bad tracks on their own. All of these songs are essentially driven by synth sounds and bouncy basslines, which allows vocalist Tony Hadley to be put at the forefront of the mix. There is unfortunately so little variation amongst this sound combined with a strong dogma to follow traditional pop song structure that this album only works in doses.

That said, the band did manage to spew out two fantastic songs. ‘Gold’ more or less makes up for the repetitive songwriting, and showcases the best vocal performance on the album(although also some of the cheesiest back-up vocals you will ever hear). The band’s biggest hit, ‘True’ is essentially a tribute to the Marvin Gaye sound, and is a nice break as it has a somewhat different sound from the rest of the album as it’s very laid back.

The weaker songs like ‘Lifeline’ and ‘Foundation’ don’t work because of the faster, upbeat tempo the band wanted to give these songs and the annoying layered and/or backing vocals don’t help either. Though the band gets points for effort, they are simply much more effective when Hadly can sing his lungs out and sustain to his heart’s content. Though this is Spandau Ballet’s best studio album, casual fans of the band are better off buying Gold: The Best of Spandau Ballet, a greatest”.

Perhaps 1983 was a year of transition and change. One where Spandau Ballet were out of fashion or had to change their sound. With some incredible Pop emerging that year, the New Romantic scene was dying down. I think, it we take True out of 1983 and listen to it with fresh ears now, there are songs on the album that resonate. I think it is a very solid album. Critics have been a bit mixed in their views. This is AllMusic’s take:

“By 1983, with the new romantic movement they'd sprung from a rapidly fading memory, the members of Spandau Ballet showed they had no intention of traveling the same path. Always ambitious, the British quintet really got down to business: Gone were the kilts, frilly shirts, and makeup -- as well as the sometimes chilly electronics of their first two albums. Instead, after recording at Compass Point Studios in the sun-soaked Bahamas, the group turned up in smartly tailored suits, with a sleek and mainstream sound to match. That came courtesy of producers Steve Jolley and Tony Swain, who gave Spandau the sort of pop-R&B sheen that had produced hits for clients like Imagination. And it also reflected the growing skill of guitarist Gary Kemp, the band's primary songwriter, who crafted a set of tunes aimed squarely at the charts.

The one that succeeded most spectacularly, of course, was the title cut, a glossily-updated Motown-style ballad that became one of the decade's biggest hits -- aided by a video that cast singer Tony Hadley as a young Frank Sinatra, crooning about the sound of his soul. But Kemp had more arrows in his quiver, as well; the catchy soft disco of "Communication" and "Lifeline" coyly suggests, rather than demands, listeners' presence on the dancefloor, while the suave, spy flick-inspired "Gold" finally gives Hadley an appropriately rich setting for his dramatic warble. Some listeners at the time called the album an MOR sellout, but its slick surfaces remain tough to resist, and while none of the cuts generate the excitement of past singles like "To Cut a Long Story Short" or "Chant No. 1," True remains Spandau Ballet's most consistent and best all-around album”.

With the band in great form and Tony Hadley delivering some of his finest vocals, True is an album that will definitely win you over. Whilst not every track is gold, there are plenty of fine cuts to keep people more than invested. I don’t think you need to have been around in the 1980s and loved Spandau Ballet to appreciate Gold. Many albums from the 1980s have dated and faded in the years since. I think that Gold is an album that…

HAS lost none of its currency.

FEATURE: Childhood Treasures: Albums That Impacted Me: Oasis – Be Here Now

FEATURE:

 

 

Childhood Treasures: Albums That Impacted Me 

Oasis – Be Here Now

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THERE are a couple of albums from 1997…

IN THIS PHOTO: Oasis in 1997/PHOTO CREDIT: Jill Furmanovsky

that I am going to feature in the coming weeks. The first is Oasis’ third studio album, Be Here Now. Whilst I was a big fan of their first two albums, by the time their third album arrived I was fourteen. I think that I was more aware of the wider music world and I was definitely buying more music. Be Here Now is one of the most fascinating albums ever. For me, it was a case of exploring an album from a band who were on top of the world. They were the biggest in the world and, as there was talk around school about Be Here Now, many of my friends got it. I can remember how people were queuing outside record shops to get the album when it came out on 21st August, 1997. The initial critical reaction was hugely positive. A lot of hyperbole was thrown around. People were reviewing Be Here Now based on Oasis’ reputation and expectation rather than how good the album actually was. I know that it is flawed, so it is not surprising that retrospective reviews have been more balanced. Many observe how it is quite bloated, overlong and in need of an edit. Some called it a ‘cocaine album’, in the sense there is braggadocio, bravado and this bold energy that runs wild. Perhaps lacking the depth, concision and anthems of 1994’s Definitely Maybe and 1995’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Be Here Now is still an album that has some gems.

I am going to bring in a couple of reviews for Be Here Now soon. One is from 1997, whilst the other is a more recent inspection. Maybe it was the hype and the sheer sense of anticipation around Be Here Now that means it is an album that is dear to me and encoded into my bloodstream. I recall getting the album and playing it over and over. My favourite track, Stand By Me, has a kick-ass chorus and is catchy. I like the swagger of the opener, D'You Know What I Mean?, and the brilliance of All Around the World. Listening to the album now, it is amazing how long the songs are! Maybe it was Noel Gallagher (the band’s songwriter) wanting to fill a C.D. or feeling that, because Oasis were so popular, he could get away with such lengthy songs. Maybe more suited for festival crowds, Be Here Now can be a little tiring as a listening experience. By the time you get to the closer, All Around the World (Reprise), one has listened to nearly an hour and ten minutes of music! That is double album length. If Oasis were to do the album again, I think they would shorten things and take away two or three tracks. The strengths of the album are the reliably hypnotic vocals of Liam Gallagher and the way Noel Gallagher can pen these huge tunes that get you singing along.

The band are committed and brilliant throughout. I have gone back and forth with Be Here Now in terms of opinion. I realise how vital it was in my childhood and 1997 – a year when I was struck by so many brilliant albums that have stood the test of time. By 1997, Britpop was over. Bands such as Blur were embracing new directions (their 1997 eponymous album is more indebted to bands like Pavement and U.S. guitar music than 1960s British Pop acts like The Beatles). I do like a Rock album that has plenty of confidence, though Be Here Now lacks a certain sense of focus and quality control. I knew this back in 1997. I was swept up by this album that was talked about almost like this awakening and world event. It was very exciting! I think Be Here Now stands up well enough and is a great album that should be heard. Soundtracking some of my best moments in 1997, it is a special album. This is what Rolling Stone said about Be Here Now in 1997:

“Oasis are not, and have never been, a complex listening experience; in fact, they’ve basically made the same album thrice. Like 1994’s Definitely Maybe and 1995’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Be Here Now is ’60s and ’70s rock classcism writ large and loud, all broad strokes and bullish enthusiasm. As the band’s songwriter, co-producer and (for all intents and purposes) iron ruler, guitarist Noel Gallagher doesn’t spend any sweat on highbrow drama or intellectual pretense. He fires up sing-along hooks with industrial-strength glam-rock licks; he drapes his words and music in the reflected splendor of the Beatles at every available turn, mostly through song — and album-title references, and spit-shines the results with a kind of roughneck sentimentality, heard to most obvious effect in the Sunday-night-pub-chorale endings of “Magic Pie” and “All Around the World.”

It’s a formula that can go either way: brilliant, steel-plated consistency or vacuous, shopworn predictability. Gallagher and Oasis pull it off, in great part, because they do not concede any possibility of fucking up. A lot of Gallagher’s lyrics are catch-phrase cocktails of youthful optimism and hard-boy temperament: “Comin’ in out of nowhere/Singing rhapsody” (“Fade In-Out”); “Into my big mouth/You could fly a plane” (“My Big Mouth”). But the most contagious thing about buzz bombs like “My Big Mouth,” “I Hope, I Think, I Know” and “It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!)” is the sheer physical confidence of the music, particularly in the tandem rock ribbed guitars of Gallagher and Bone-head (a k a Paul Arthurs), and the way singer Liam Gallagher literally assaults the songs written for him by his older brother.

Much has been made of the John Lennon factor in Liam’s nasally, brattish intonation. In fact, his voice is a flat, thin thing. What’s remarkable about it is its emphatic, almost fighting quality; Liam enunciates Noel’s lyrics with snappish irritation and grinds the vowels in words like fade and away into high-tension whines. By the time Liam gets done with the chorus in Noel’s Big Melodrama ballad, “Stand by Me” — “Stand by me-e-e/Nobody kno-woa-ahs/The way it’s gon-nah-h be-e-e” — it sounds full of portent, if not bona fide linear meaning.

The payoff in Noel’s writing is always in the choruses; all riffs, hooks and bridges lead there. So Noel feeds Liam words and phrases that, above all, sound good. While it’s hard to excuse jury-rigged verse like “A cold and frosty morning/There’s not a lot to say/About the things caught in my mind” (“Don’t Go Away”), sometimes in pop music, melody, muscle and mouthing off can be their own substantial reward.

But only for so long. Oasis can’t rely on this Abbey Road-meets-Never Mind the Bollocks routine forever. There are already signs of strain on Be Here Now. “Stand by Me” is a little too close to Morning Glory‘s “Don’t Look Back in Anger” for coincidence, and there is an overreliance on swollen “Hey Jude”-style finales in the ballads.

Which brings up the Beatles issue. Noel Gallagher’s love of the group is genuine. “Sing a song for me/One from Let It Be,” he writes in “Be Here Now” — a title cribbed from Lennon’s infamous quip to an interviewer who asked him about the deep, underlying philosophy of rock & roll. But Noel is starting to overplay his hand; dropping a line like “The fool on the hill and I feel fine” in the middle of “D’You Know What I Mean?” smacks of laziness more than fannish ardor.

Maybe if Oasis weren’t so ultra-mega-huge in England and smiled more onstage when they came here, it would be easier to accept them for what they are: a great pop band with a long memory. What will they, or their records, mean in 20 years’ time? Who cares? Be here now. History will take care of itself”.

I can understand why so many reviewers were glowing when Be Here Now came out. The year before, Oasis played two nights at Knebworth and were kings of the scene! It took a little for views to shift and people to reassess the value and reality of Be Here Now. When it was reissued in 2016, Drowned in Sound provided a more mixed reaction:

“It is, for sure, a less good album than Definitely Maybe and (What's the Story) Morning Glory, being in large part the sound of a band who'd made their name writing three-to-four-minute-long indie rock songs now trying to write seven-to-nine-minute-long indie rock songs, with indie-rock not being a genre especially supportive of that sort of length, especially from a group that were hardly virtuoso musicians. It also mostly lacks the aspirational rock'n'roll swagger that had defined their early work.

The obvious exception to both these rules was the awesome lead single 'D'You Know What I Mean?', on which the gargantuan running time was justified by the fantastically bombastic deployment of FX - morse code! Backwards vocals! - and lyrics that (insofar as they meant anything) seemed to exist as monument to the scale of the band's success ("all my people right here right now, d'you know what I mean?" - millions of people did). But it's the peak of the album by a long shot, and the generally accepted wisdom is that fame and its attendant drugs had buggered up songwriter Noel Gallagher’s muse.

Though they would continue for another 12 years, Be Here Now essentially broke Oasis. While Pulp and Blur ran away from their Britpop-era success, Oasis never stopped trying to appease the multitudes that had bought their first two records. Though they would continue to be a big band, they would effectively become a nostalgia act from this point on - at their last ever gig, 12 of the 19 songs played were from the first two records and accompanying b-sides.

Nowadays this all feels like a distant tale from another age, and it should be easier to listen to the record with something like objectivity. But the truth is that it's hard to imagine it being made by a band not in their weird, impossible position. 'D'You Know What I Mean?' opens it in bombastically brilliant fashion. 'All Around the World' closes it interminably, a Beatles-y plodder far far far too enamoured of its expensive, cokey orchestra. In between there are definite moments, but the preponderance of very long songs makes it a slog to this day. That all accepted, it’s not like Noel had totally lost it: if you liked the early stuff, there’s no real reason why you’d have a problem with ‘Stand By Me’, ‘Don’t Go Away’, ‘The Girl in the Dirty Shirt’ et al, they just lack the romance of the early stuff”.

I don’t mind about the retrospection and how Be Here Now might be a case of hype over quality. To me, it is an album that provided so much joy and strength when I was in high school. It was an album that bonded me to people. I was swept away in the rush of songs like Stand By Me. With no shortage of confidence Oasis were definitely making songs to be played on big stages that got crowds united and singing along. If Be Here Now is lacking substance and the brilliance of their first two albums, it is definitely not a disaster. It received plenty of love in 1997. Many people I know who bought the album back then still listen to it now. When I was fourteen, I certainly played it an awful lot. For that reason, I will always have respect…

FOR Be Here Now.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s The Whole Story at Thirty-Five: All We Ever Look For: Which Tracks Would a Modern-Day ‘Best of’ Collection Contain?

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s The Whole Story at Thirty-Five 

All We Ever Look For: Which Tracks Would a Modern-Day ‘Best of’ Collection Contain?

___________

THERE are a couple of Kate Bush…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a still from the video for Experiment IV. A single written especially for the release of The Whole Story, Bush directed the video herself

anniversaries happening in November. By that, I mean big anniversaries. Her latest studio album, 50 Words for Snow, turns ten (on 21st). On 10th November, The Whole Story is thirty-five. This was the first real greatest hits collection. Released a year after Hounds of Love, the massive success of that album meant that EMI had good cause to release an album of Bush’s best tracks to that date – and she was getting a lot more press and attention in America. I have already written features about the album (including one where I imagine a new greatest hits collection, rather than a broader best of); I will write some more before the anniversary. I am amazed that there weren’t any comprehensive greatest hits albums prior to 1986. I guess Bush did not want to be seen as cashing-in. Maybe a greatest hits collection signals an artist who is ready to end their career. In fact, Bush has released five studio albums since The Whole Story came out. In the years since, there have been a few collections and greatest hits packages. Although I have asked whether we will get another greatest hits album at some point, I have not really taken it upon myself to decide what would be on that album. I guess her Remastered albums of 2018 included some rare tracks and hits. There was not really a single ‘best of’ album there. One has to go back to 1990 to find the last example of a genuine best of: This Woman's Work: Anthology 1978–1990. I will end by deciding upon, if such a thing were to be proposed, a modern-day best of album – it would be this rather than greatest hits, as it would allow for non-singles and chart successes; songs that still have this incredible quality and brilliance.

It is small wonder The Whole Story hit the top of the album charts upon its release in the U.K. It did well in Europe, though it only got to seventy-six in the U.S. Perhaps people there were familiar with Hounds of Love but were not too aware of albums prior to that. I think, with thirty-five years of discovery and room since The Whole Story, a best of album could be released. Prior to a new album – if there is going to be one -, it would be a great introduction to new fans, in addition to a great compilation for diehards. Maybe Bush, who now released her music under her label, Fish People, would not be too keen. EMI would be able to…though I think Bush owns the masters and rights to her albums from The Dreaming (1982) on. Unless there was complete cooperation and harmony, it might be a hassle! I do think, thirty-five years from The Whole Story and a decade from 50 Words for Snow, there is this opportunity. Before coming to my suggested double album (as we would need that sort of room to accommodate her very best work), The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia have this article about The Whole Story:

“Formats

The album was released on LP, CD, tape and - in 1998 - on Minidisc. The LP came in a gatefold sleeve.

A 180 gram vinyl edition was released by Simply Vinyl on 30 October 2000.

In 2005, a so-called 'mini LP replica' version was released on CD in Japan.

There was also a video version of 'The Whole Story', released on VHS video and Laserdisc, containing the videos for all the tracks, plus one bonus video: The Big Sky. A Video CD version was released a few years later, entitled The Whole Story '94.

Critical reception

Roger Holland in Sounds (UK): "Over the last nine years and five albums, Kate Bush (...) has matured into quite the most sensual, expressive, and creative artist this country can now boast". Colin Irwin, Melody Maker (UK): "This glorious retrospective collection... she's playing a high-risk game, and more often than not her irrepressible flair, her instinct for a hook, and her gift for unusual and gripping arrangements carry her through." John McReady, NME (UK): "More useful and more enjoyable than the constipated jangling of a hundred and one little lads with big mouths and even bigger clothes allowances. Such people are not worth a carrot. Meat or no meat, Kate Bush is streets ahead." Andy Strickland, Record Mirror (UK): "A monumental tribute to this craziest, coziest girl-next-door. (...) One of the most refreshing compilation LPs it would be possible to put together."

Kate about 'The Whole Story'

Yes, I was [against the release of a compilation album] at first. I was concerned that it would be like a "K-tel" record, a cheapo-compo with little thought behind it. It was the record company's decision, and I didn't mind as long as it was well put together. We put a lot of work into the packaging, trying to make it look tasteful, and carefully thought out the running order. And the response has been phenomenal - I'm amazed! (Kate Bush Club newsletter, Issue 22, December 1987)

It wasn't chronological because we wanted to have a running time that was equal on both sides, otherwise you get a bad pressing. In America, where I'm not very well known, they didn't realise it was a compilation! ('Love, Trust and Hitler'. Tracks (UK), November 1989)”.

Rather than explain the rationale behind each of the tracks I have selected for the new best of, I wanted to put it into a playlist. I have done two, in fact: side one and two of the album. It would be, if this thing were to exist, available on vinyl (I guess, eight L.P.s? Maybe it would be expensive, though it could be sold for under £50), and it would be available to stream (the vinyl collection would have great linear notes, photos and extras. Whilst some songs would be repeated, there would be many others that have not been included. Being a best of, one cannot really put together many B-sides and rarities! That said, there are some deeper cuts that are too good to ignore! I have also included tracks that are non-singles which I feel are worthy. It total, there are thirty songs. Like The Whole Story, this compilation is not arranged chronologically. We mix albums together and get a blend of her earliest stuff with albums that followed. In terms of titles. I could go with something obvious. I thought that calling it Full House (the title of a track from 1978’s Lionheart). Instead, ironically naming it after a deep cut, I would name it All We Ever Look For. This is a beautiful track from 1980’s Never for Ever (not included in the compilation, I felt the title/track was perfect in this instance). November will be interesting. As we look ahead, not only to the anniversary of her most-current studio album, but her greatest hits collection, The Whole Story, many will wonder why such a gap has been left without revision and a new, expanded best of selection. Many fans, through the years, would have put together their own version of Kate Bush’s greatest hits. Here, in all its double album form, is my opinion as to which songs…

WOULD make the cut.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Brandy - Never Say Never

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin 

Brandy - Never Say Never

___________

WITH a raft of singles… 

released between 1998 and 2000, it is clear that there was a big push behind Brandy’s second studio album, Never Say Never. I would say that, when it was released on 4th June, 1998, there was this fertile and exciting R&B scene. Together with a growing wave of Electronic and Trip-Hop albums, 1998 was a really interesting year for music. Following her promising debut, Brandy (1994), there must have been a lot of people wondering whether Brandy would return - four years between albums is quite a gap I guess. Brandy is still making music today. Her seventh studio album, B7, was released in 2020. It is a great work. I particularly love Never Say Never. It does not get the credit it deserves. Maybe the weight and attention its biggest single, The Boy Is Mine (a duet with Monica), means people take against the album. That, or people compare the other songs unfavourably. As I said, there were a lot of singles put out for the album. With a huge writing and production team behind the album (including contributions from Diane Warren and Bryan Adams among others), there are a lot of different voices on the album. It is a bit odd Brandy chose to cover Adams’ (Everything I Do) I Do It for You and end the album like that! That said, the singles are assorted so that Never Say Never is not top or bottom-heavy. Stunning songs like Angel in Disguise, Never Say Never and U Don't Know Me (Like U Used To) mean we get this brilliant album with so many highs. It is a shame that there was a lot of mixed reviews in 1998. There is a lot of energy and effusiveness from Brandy.

One cannot call Never Say Never a flat or boring album. Even though there are some more romantic and slushy-ish moments, the abiding feeling is this intense and uplifting album full of great vocal performances and hooks. Some reviews pitched Brandy between artists such as Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige. Brandy possessed that mix of streetwise edge and sweetness. One gets this artist who has punch and cut - through there is plenty of warmth and heart. I think that Never Say Never is one of the more underrated albums from the 1990s. Again, this is a case of an album selling and charting well – though one where critics were not fully on board. Never Say Never made Brandy an international name. It debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 160,000 copies in its first week. It peaked at number two the following week, remaining within the chart's top twenty for twenty-eight  weeks. It is amazing that eight of the album's sixteen songs were chosen as singles! Perhaps there was a sense of fatigue from some who were reviewing it after many of the singles were released.  Regardless, Never Say Never has been certified quintuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It has gone on to sell in excess of sixteen million copies worldwide.

1998 was such an exciting and eclectic year for music. Alongside Madonna’s Ray of Light was Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Air’s Moon Safari and Massive Attacks Mezzanine, Brandy put Never Say Never into the world. There were so many different genres being elevated and experimented with. Despite Never Say Never being accessible and commercial, there is plenty of individuality and original moments that Brandy injects. She is not mimicking any other artist. Instead, even with a host of producers, she released an album that is very much her vision and D.N.A. It is bemusing there are very few out-and-out positive reviews. Most are fairly positive, with a mild undertow of disappointment. This is what AllMusic said in their review:

“Shortly after the release of her eponymous debut in 1995, Brandy became a star. Not only did the album sell well, but she starred on UPN's Moesha and Disney's made-for-TV Cinderella, all before she released her second album, Never Say Never, in 1998. Needless to say, there was much more riding on the second record than the debut and, fortunately, she follows through with Never Say Never, delivering an album that rivals her first. Brandy wisely decides to find a middle ground between Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige -- it's adult contemporary with a slight streetwise edge. As with most adult contemporary albums, the record is bogged down by some filler, but Brandy's delivery has improved and her subdued vocals can make mediocre material sound convincing. Still, what makes Never Say Never a winning record is the quality songs and production. The smooth Monica duet "The Boy Is Mine" and the tripped-out "Top of the World" (which features a rap from Mase) are two examples of what Brandy can achieve when everything's in the right place, and they help make Never Say Never a more adventurous record than her debut”.

This interview from the BBC is a little wamrwer and more in-depth. I can understand why Never Say Never sold so many copies. It definitely captured a mood at the time. It produced so many instantly memorable songs:

“Selling more than 14 million albums worldwide, singer and actress Brandy Norwood’s second album established her as a late 90s superstar. Following up 1994’s eponymous debut, Never Say Never was a collection of smooth, mid-paced jams, which very much provide a snapshot of commercial RnB from the era.

Never Say Never is dominated by its second single, The Boy Is Mine, a duet with the then-white-hot soul diva Monica. Much was made of the duo having an alleged ‘beef’, whereas in reality they had never even met. It was thought appropriate to capitalise on their individual success and supposedly collective notoriety. With a more than knowing wink to Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney’s duet The Girl Is Mine from 1982, the track, like most of the album, sounds effortless. The single topped the US charts for an extraordinary 13 weeks in summer 1998.

Never Say Never could easily have been eclipsed by the scale of its lead single’s success, but its quality threshold, in the main, is set high. The title track is an exemplary piece of RnB, while the opener, Angel in Disguise, is minor-key, icy soul, rendered emotional by Brandy’s gospel-trained voice. The infectious UK number two single, Top of the World featuring Ma$e, highlights Brandy’s uniquely affecting yet somehow dispassionate style over its shuddering minimalist groove.

Working with session players the calibre of bassist Nathan East and David Foster on keyboards, Never Say Never was aimed at the widest audience possible. This was most evident on Have You Ever?, her second US number one. Written by Dianne Warren, the ballad sounds a little too formulaic and off-the-peg, aimed for the summit of the hit parade. The other strange choice is the verging-on-karaoke version of (Everything I Do) I Do It for You which, by closing the album, serves almost to undermine its triumph.

Ultimately, Never Say Never is the epitome of a mixed bag. However, given that a lot of RnB in the late 90s sounds like an ornate musical box revolving, the album is an intelligent brew that deviates sufficiently from that template and plays to Brandy and executive producer Rodney Jerkins’s considerable strengths”.

Blending Soul, Adult Contemporary, R&B and Pop into an album that is, at once white-hot and intense and the next moment seductive and cooler, there is plenty to enjoy. I do feel like we should give Brandy’s second studio album a second spin. One of the very best albums of 1998, one can immerse themselves in Never Say Never. Although The Boy Is Mine is the obvious highlight, I do feel there are other terrific tracks on the album (not necessarily singles) that you will come back to after the first listen. In any case, spend some time today with…

THE amazing Never Say Never.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Adia Victoria

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight 

PHOTO CREDIT: Joshua Asante

Adia Victoria

___________

ALTHOUGH I have interviewed…

PHOTO CREDIT: Huy Nguyen

Adia Victoria before, I have not included her in my spotlight feature. I am highlighting her, as there are many who do not know about her music. Her album, A Southern Gothic, came out on 17th September. Showcasing her incredible ‘gothic blues’ style, she is one of the most fascinating artists in the world. The Nashville-based artist is amazing. I am going to come to a recent interview with Adia Victoria. Before then, there are a couple of 2019 interviews and a review of her previous album, Silences, that I want to include. The first interview is from Popmatters. In it, we get a sense of how Adia Victoria started out and what she aimed for on Silences:  

“Adia Victoria always wanted to be heard. The problem was, no one seemed to be listening. Hence, the journey began for a young, black woman from the South who battled for truth, justice and a better American way of life.

She wanted to find a means to express herself, whether it required her voice or her pen. The exploration involving a kid raised by a religious family in South Carolina en route to becoming a blues musician living in Nashville — a city that’s seemingly less authentic than advertised during its heyday — has been a perilous one. But Victoria is a determined fighter, and is telling a personal story of survival ahead of Silences, her second full-length album, to be released on Friday, February 22.

The 12-song album, which she co-produced with Aaron Dessner (The National), is a remarkable achievement filled with lyrical and musical ambition while following the travails of a willful woman (“I like to do things my way / Or I don’t do ’em at all” is heard on “Heathen”) who takes on God and deals with the devil, getting worn down in the process. By “Get Lonely”, the tender ballad that serves as the final track, she’s just striving for that feeling of splendid isolation, as long as a lover is involved. It’s no coincidence that Victoria wrote all the words on the record, other than on “The City”, where she gets a co-writing credit.

The outspoken singer-songwriter-guitarist, who still tries to meet once a week in a poetry group with friends Caroline Randall Williams and Ciona Rouse, has already led a fascinating life during an endless search for belonging. Revealing many of her experiences during a phone interview from Williams’ home in Nashville on Valentine’s Day, she also was focused on the impending record release and the “Dope Queen Tour” that was about to begin, laughing that there was no time to celebrate the holiday with her boyfriend.

Asked what her expectations were for this album, her first full-length release since 2016’s Beyond the Bloodhounds, Victoria first joked about getting back on the road again, starting February 18 with six traveling companions. “I expect I’m gonna be in a van for a very long time. (laughs) I’m going to war. I’m preparing for battle.”

Victoria quickly took a seriously straightforward turn, though.

“I try not to put too many expectations on this experience these days because I want to be able, whatever it is that I come up against, that I meet and confront, I want to be appreciative of it,” she said. “I expect to put on a damn good show with my band. I expect us to have some very strange and interesting experiences out there on the road and I expect a lot of people to hear their own story on the album. Even parts of themselves that they don’t necessarily see spoken about in quote-unquote ‘polite society’. And that’s all I’ve ever wanted from this album was to kind of expand the conversation on things like mental health, the effects of capitalism on the human psyche, what it’s doing to us to constantly have to be on all the time”.

Prior to bringing in a review, another album around Silences provides more depth and detail about a fascinating artist. I think I recall hearing some of the songs from Silences a little bit before they appeared on the album. I was instantly hooked on Adia Victoria’s music. Red Line Roots spoke with her in 2019. She spoke about being influenced by the foremothers of Blues:

“RLR: The songs on “Silences” have been out in the world for a while. Have there been textures or corners of the songs that you have discovered by bringing them out on the road?

AV: Right. So, you know, it’s just a completely different animal, recording an album and putting on a live show of it. Some of my favorite musicians, people who have had the biggest impact on me, they’ve allowed these songs to live and grow with them. My band, we’re seven human beings up on stage performing every night, so there’s going to be changes, it’s going to evolve, as it should. And that’s something we had the foresight to say, “We don’t want to play the same show every night.” So we’re open to new interpretations, new dynamics, and it just keeps things fresh, and keeps us engaged.

RLR: This album feels like a journey that you’re taking the listener on. It’s a record that rewards someone who listens to it in order. But that’s not how many people listen to music these days. Does that matter to you at all, or is that a distraction from just creating?

AV: There’s a certain part of me that idealizes how I would like to have my art received and engaged with by the audience, but I have also understood that’s part of my ego that can’t be satiated. I can’t control the way people engage with my art and I find it a lot more enjoyable when I don’t try to.

The album itself, it is a story, it’s a cohesive story of wandering outside of yourself and then what happens when you reach those boundaries of the self and let the world in. Failing that people listen to the whole album front-to-back, I wanted each song to be a kind of vignette of that process.

RLR: As you think about blues music, the devil looms large in both music and folklore and the devil is an explicit and implicit thread through this record. How do you think about those songs in conversation with each other and also with blues in general?

AV: I was very much influenced by the foremothers of the blues writing this record and also just living my life. I’ve been diving deeper into my blues scholarship; I just finished a book called Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, by Angela Davis, where she covers Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Billie Holiday. She’s talking about the function of the blues as a political statement, of these women who were often one generation removed from slavery. And the first thing that they did with this little bit of autonomy is they completely severed themselves from the social norms and mores of white, capital, Christian, male hierarchy.

RLR: Can you say a bit more about the blues you’re thinking of?

AV: I think about it as a sort of juxtapositon to how we’re socialized in order for our system to work. Especially women, but not just women. All of us are inculcated with these restrictions of how to act, how to be, and how to be correct in this world. And often the end result of that is a profound sense of isolation from oneself. You come to an understanding from what you are taught as a child that there are parts of yourself and your psyche that are off-limits. In our society, it’s considered radical to be human. We’re raised to be something other than human: we’re raised to be good consumers, good worker bees; we’re raised to be subservient to power, and this is not our natural station. To me, that’s radical. There’s nothing more natural than allowing yourself to feel and to express that. But we don’t live in a world where we’re afforded that privilege”.

I think that Silences is one of the best albums from 2019. It is a terrific record that brought Adia Victoria’s music to new audiences. I think A Southern Gothic will help elevate and broaden her fanbase and reach. This is what AllMusic said when they reviewed Silences:

“In following up 2016's excellent Beyond the Bloodhounds, Adia Victoria both deepens her arresting Southern poeticism and takes a significant sonic leap beyond her indie blues origins. On Silences, the singer/songwriter's sophomore set, the melting pot of swampy blues, folk, and garage punk that marked her debut has given way to a more exploratory and layered approach. Recording in Upstate New York with co-producer Aaron Dessner (the National), Victoria frames her 12 varied missives against a backdrop of subtle electronic noise, austere string and brass orchestrations, and tensely cinematic indie rock. While the blues are not absent from this set, they are transmuted to something more ephemeral and adapted to whatever climate or situation suits the artist's needs. A native of South Carolina who did stints in New York, Atlanta, and Europe before calling Nashville home, Victoria's prickly relationship with the South remains a throughline in her music, and she pulls no punches grappling with its deep-rooted influence. Whether slaying spiritual deities on the dramatic "Clean" or coming to terms with demons on the Fiona Apple-sque "Devil Is a Lie," she plays on her own mercurial nature, delivering a devastating emotional blow followed by a playful wink. Of Silences' more pop-driven arrangements, "The City" and "Get Lonely" reveal her aptitude for silvery synth-led fare, while the more organic swagger of songs like "Pacolet Road" and "Dope Queen Blues" build on her previously established strengths. Combative, defiant, and teeming with Victoria's distinctive mix of streetwise poeticism and literary depth, Silences is a strong and inventive follow-up”.

Knowing about Silences and its recording process, I was interested to learn how A Southern Gothic differed. With the pandemic causing issues for all artists, American Highways discovered more about the creation of a much-anticipated album:

“Americana Highways: I would imagine with the pandemic, it’s a much longer process than you’re used to.

Adia Victoria: It’s funny – actually, in a way, it wasn’t. I guess the process of actually recording the songs was longer, but the writing period was just as long as my previous record. But what is time? Time’s a flat circle!

AH: Exactly! Now a lot of it was written and recorded pre-pandemic in France, correct?

AV: Yes. A few of the tracks were written while I was in Paris on a writing sojourn. I was there with one of my collaborators, Marcello Giuliani, and Stone Jack Jones – he’s a Southern folk artist. I’d say we did about four songs the month I was there. I was there from end of January 2020 to end of February 2020, so I got home just before everything shut down. So Paris is definitely a big part of this record. Which is great, because I love Paris.

AH: One thing I noticed is the title, A Southern Gothic, with the article “A” in front of it. It seems to me that, by saying it’s “A” Southern gothic, it’s specifying a part of the South that really hasn’t been talked about very much – a different perspective.

AV: Yeah, that’s exactly right. I think one of the things that pushed me to name it that  – I had recently gone into one of my favorite antique book stores here in Nashville, a place called Rhino Booksellers. I was looking at their Southern literature section. There was the usual names there – Eudora Welty, Faulkner, O’Connor – the people you’d usually expect to find in that section, and I realized that there were no Black Southern authors there. Then I went over, and I found Black Southern writers in the African-American section, because they’ve kind of been, in a way, just divided off and segregated away from what we think of when we talk about the South. And then I got to thinking about my own experience growing up in South Carolina and understanding that what I was necessarily feeling and perceiving in the world was not being reflected back to me. What was being reflected back to me – by my church, by society at large, by school, by teachers – was that I was not included in the South. I was this aberration. Naming it A Southern Gothic is kind of reclaiming what we think of when we think of “Southern,” and I think about my own experiences, and my ancestors’ experiences in South Carolina, and what could be more goth than the sh!t that they had to put up with. 

AH: Did recording it in Paris, writing some and recording some there, allow you to have a wider view of things and consider stories in addition to your own?

AV: Yeah. yeah. Paris, to me, has always been my sweet spot of creativity. It’s a place I’ve been traveling to, often alone, with the express purpose of writing. I think there’s something about 1) of course, the distance – you’ve got a whole ocean between you and home and 2) even though I’m passively fluent in French, I still have to consider my words, I have to consider my thoughts. I have to listen closer and differently than I do when I’m back home, when you take communicating for granted, and you’re kind of on auto-pilot. In Paris, I find I’m a much more present, tuned-in being than I am here. And, of course, Paris is famous for walking and just pondering and being with oneself. It’s kind of like the perfect storm – all the ingredients for me, personally, to create. But when I do go to Paris, I do carry over with me Southern writers, Southern scholarship, Southern literary criticism, because I am over there with the distinct reason of looking back home, and seeing it differently, being so far removed.

AH: Listening to the album, for almost the entire time, there’s this kind of underlying sense of tension, like a lot of Southern gothic novels. Did that level of intensity take a lot of energy to tell stories that way?

AV: Yeah, it does. This was the first time that I felt I was writing for my life, and I was living through the story that I was trying to tell. In A Southern Gothic, you’re hearing about the story of a young girl  – right off the bat, you learn that her father’s a preacher, and that she is not at one with her community. She does not feel she belongs – she feels isolated and judged. And I was using this young girl to tell my own story through. So it wasn’t me literally, but it was feelings I’d had, it was friends that I’d known. And then the other songs on the record – it’s people singing ABOUT her and observing her behavior. So it kind of becomes a question of who’s the reliable narrator? There’s this tension that I wanted that record to have of, there are no epiphanies. She starts the record lost from South CArolina, and then she ends the record in New York City, and she’s, “BAM – I’m going home.” So there is no resolution. She never arrives anywhere, so we’re never sure what we should trust. Is it this woman who’s telling us what happened to her? Or is it the people around her saying, “This is who she is?” So I think that creates a tension, certainly.

AH: It seems like, over the past couple of years, there’s been a community of artists outside of the mainstream country genre that are really supportive of other artists, and some of them are on your album – Jason Isbell and Margo Price. It seems like certain folks really want to work with each other, and that enhances everybody’s music. Is that what you find?

AV: Maybe, sure. I just call up my girls and say, “Hey, y’all wanna make some art?” I think that’s a big part of the community that I’m blessed to be a part of here in Nashville. There’s so much talent here and so many kindred spirits and weirdos and freaks. It took me until a pandemic to actually really take advantage of the connections and the stories that are here and the talent that is here. For a lot of people, a lot of performers here in Nashville, we saw the uncertainties that swallowed up so much of the business. The business side of things was in absolute disarray last year. Touring was canceled, promotional cycles were canceled, called off, Everything shut down, so the business can’t keep making money. But we can keep creating, and that’s especially powerful for me. We’re taught so much, “Think about our careers! Think about money and the business and what makes sense as far as advancing.” And all of that is 1) make-believe, 2) based on nothing and 3) liable to disappear at the first sign of weakness. And that’s what happened – the business cratered. But what we were left with was why we got into music, why we picked up a guitar in the first place, or moved to Nashville. It was songs, it was writing, it was meeting up with friends and making art, and that’s internal. That doesn’t go away.

AH: Now that things are lifting a little bit, we hope, from an outsider’s perspective, it seems like artists, performers, musicians have a renewed sense of, maybe not purpose, but joy in what they’re doing. Is that something that you’ve felt or that you’ve seen?

AV: That’s a good question. I was at Newport [Folk Festival] last month. I wasn’t there to perform, I was there to do my podcast, “Call & Response” – we were doing a little special, “Live at Newport.” It was crazy, because that was the first national festival to come back, and no one really knew what to expect. A lot of performers didn’t have their full bands with them, they were doing stripped-down things. There wasn’t as much hustling going on. It was, “What am I even walking into?” It was the first time that I had even been around live music since the pandemic – a year and a half, right? And when I tell you that it felt like the most sacred event that I’ve been a part of as far as my work is concerned…there was this reverence for other people’s bodies, other people’s presence. Before, you’d take it for granted. I was at Newport in 2019, and you’re so busy (snapping fingers) trying to “catch the carrot” and hustle and make headlines and have a big moment – it’s so ego-driven. But there was this sense of grace that flowed from the top down. Jay Sweet, the [executive producer] of Newport, was very intentional about making sure that people felt space to feel and that people did not feel that they were “supposed” to feel a certain way, or put pressure on the performers – “We gotta make sure we come back strong.” No, this is new territory for ALL of us. I just felt so protected and held up in that moment, getting to perform with Allison Russell and the super-jam that she did with all the women, Chaka Khan – Once and Future Sounds – that was holy. It felt sacred. It felt like community, the way that community SHOULD feel. My prayer is that we are able to maintain that sense of grace moving forward, for ourselves and for each other and for the audience. Let’s be present for each other, let’s take care of one another, because, as we’ve learned over the past year, we’re all we have. If you ain’t got your people, you ain’t get nothin’.

 AH: All through the album, you’re listing and discussing a lot of problems with the South. But at the very end, “South for the Winter” is almost a “no place like home” moment, realizing at the end, “Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass, but that’s where I want to be.” Was that what you intended?

AV: That song’s probably one of the most autobiographical songs on the record. I wrote that by going back and reading journals that I kept while living in New York City, 2005-2008. It was the first place I’d lived outside of my mom’s house in South Carolina, then moved to Brooklyn. And I just thought about a moment when I was with my underage friends – we were 19, and we were stumbling around 5th Avenue, just wasted, and trying to get downtown to party, and “Why? What am I doing here?” That was the place that I’d moved to to become a ghost. And then I realized that I kind of got abstracted into this mass culture up there – it’s very different than the mountains of South Carolina. And just wanting to get back home, to feeling something concrete, instead of chasing these big velvet lies that the world brainwashes you into thinking you want. That was another one that I wrote in Paris at Stone Jack Jones’ house, and I was, “Man, I wanna go home. Already. What is this feeling?” I feel like, with Southerners, that’s never really resolved. It’s such a conflicted territory, a conflicted land to grow up in and have ancestors there. It’s tearing you apart, but to leave it would break your heart”.

Go and follow Adia Victoria is you have not heard her music before. A Southern Gothic is a brilliant album that cements her reputation as an artist to watch closely. I think that we will see many more fantastic albums from her. A Southern Gothic, after one listen, is almost…

IMPOSSIBLE to forget.

_____________

Follow Adia Victoria  

PHOTO CREDIT: Huy Nguyen/Press

Official:

https://www.adiavictoria.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/adiavictoria

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/adiavictoria/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/adiavictoria/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwXoqCy4Gf15M2j3wz4_uzQ

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1HKGjRPwI0gaFyv4aSWPPl

FEATURE: Groovelines: Public Enemy - Fight the Power

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Public Enemy - Fight the Power

___________

ONE reason why… 

I am putting Public Enemy’s Fight the Power in Groovelines is because Rolling Stone recently ran a feature deciding the best five-hundred tracks ever. It was a revision of a list they last published in 2004. Coming in second was the Public Enemy classic. It is, perhaps, a song that means more now than it did in 2004. In fact, one can say it is more powerful than when it was released in 1989. This is what Rolling Stone said about their silver medal selection:

 “Chuck D once likened “Fight the Power” to Pete Seeger singing “We Shall Overcome.” “‘Fight the Power,'” he said, “points to the legacy of the strengths of standing up in music.” Filmmaker Spike Lee had originally asked Public Enemy to write an anthem for Do the Right Thing — a movie about confronting white supremacy — so Chuck and the group’s producers, the Bomb Squad, took inspiration from the Isley Brothers’ funky “Fight the Power” and used the title as a blueprint for a whole new war cry.

In just under five minutes of scuzzy breakbeats and clarion-call horn samples, Chuck D and his foil, Flavor Flav, present a manifesto for racial revolution and Black pride with koans like “Our freedom of speech is freedom of death,” and rallying cries to rethink the basics of American life itself in lines like “Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps.” The song was exactly what Lee’s movie needed, so it was played over and over again, anytime the character Radio Raheem showed up with his boombox, making it an instant classic.

“I think it was Public Enemy’s and Spike Lee’s defining moment because it had awoken the Black community to a revolution that was akin to the Sixties revolution, where you had Martin Luther King or Malcolm X,” the Bomb Squad’s Hank Shocklee once said. “It made the entire hip-hop community recognize its power. Then the real revolution began”.

As the closing track on 1990’s Fear of a Black Planet, I think Fight the Power makes a big statement and ends the album on a really provocative and moving note. It is one of the most popular and important songs in the Public Enemy catalogue. There are a few articles online that take inside the making of and background to Fight the Power. In 2019, the BBC argued as to why it is the most provocative song ever:

“Chuck always wrote from the title down and he took this one from the Isley Brothers’ 1975 hit Fight the Power, which he remembered as the first time he had ever heard the word “bullshit” in a pop song. Ron Isley’s defence of the word – “It needed to be said” – was an apt sentiment for Public Enemy. Chuck wrote most of the lyrics in Europe, where Public Enemy were opening for Run-DMC. The tough work, he said, was compression, crunching his ideas down into a tight, hard grenade of information: “the rhymes designed to fill your mind”. He wanted the righteous immediacy of black talk-radio hosts like Gary Byrd and Mark Riley, who spoke out about the kind of racist outrages that inspired Lee’s movie. “I knew I had to step up to the plate and present an anthem that answered the questions from this film,” Chuck said.

Unfolding on a single block on a single day at the height of a heatwave, Do the Right Thing climaxes with a riot that begins with an argument about the absence of black faces on the wall of the local pizzeria. Chuck ran with the idea of building a pantheon of black icons (“Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps”), which meant taking down some white ones. In his 1980 single Blowfly’s Rapp, the funk prankster Clarence “Blowfly” Reid had a Ku Klux Klansman provoke him by saying, “Motherfuck you and Muhammad Ali.” This led Chuck to wonder which sacred cows would have a similar effect on a white American: “Elvis was a hero to most/ But he never meant shit to me/ Straight up racist that sucker was simple and plain/ Motherfuck him and John Wayne.” Even Shocklee was taken aback when he heard those lines.

Not every message in Fight the Power was that direct. “Swinging while I’m singing” alluded to Malcolm X’s famous 1964 dismissal of We Shall Overcome (“It’s time to stop singing and start swinging”), with the implication that Public Enemy could do both at the same time. Chuck knew his history. Whether by directly quoting the Black Panther slogan “Power to the people” and James Brown’s Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud or making veiled references to Bob Marley and Frederick Douglass, he was staking Public Enemy’s place in the long tradition of black pride and dissent and steeling listeners to join the fight: “What we need is awareness, we can’t get careless.”

Even as an a cappella, Fight the Power would have been thick with meaning – but the Bomb Squad’s audacious production added another dimension to its black history lesson. Sampling was still in its Wild West phase, when you could take whatever you wanted and copyright be damned: this was the year of De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising and the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique. While those sample collages were vibrantly playful, the Bomb Squad aimed for an intense, overwhelming ‘hailstorm’ of sound, pushing their equipment to its limits by cramming in so many samples that even they couldn’t remember them all: “loops on top of loops on top of loops,” said Chuck.

The WhoSampled online database lists 21 and counting, including speeches by civil rights activists (Jesse Jackson, Thomas ‘TNT’ Todd), classic soul (Sly Stone, Wilson Pickett), reggae, electro, R&B and even Public Enemy’s own Yo! Bum Rush the Show. The clamorous central loop alone, which Shocklee compared to war drums, was constructed from 10 different samples. Lee managed to get his beloved jazz in there via saxophonist Branford Marsalis, whom Shocklee asked to perform three solos in different styles and then surprised by weaving all three into the mix to intensify the sense of a city at boiling point. “I wanted you to feel the concrete, the people walking by, the cars that are going by and the vrroom in the system,” the producer said. “I wanted that grittiness, the mugginess, the hot, sticky, no-air vibration of the city.”

Summer seemed a long way off when Spike Lee shot the song’s video on a cold, wet spring day in Brooklyn. Holding up portraits of black heroes, the band and hundreds of volunteers staged a ‘Young Person’s March to End Racial Violence’, ending up on the Bedford-Stuyvesant block where Do the Right Thing had been filmed. By opening with footage of Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington, the video, like the song and the movie, created a provocative dialogue between the past and present of the African-American experience to challenge the mainstream narrative of progress. How much had the US really changed?

When Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson chose a movie for their first date, the first thing they saw was Rosie Perez dancing to Fight the Power

When Chuck first saw a rough cut of Do the Right Thing he was stunned by how many times the song appeared. As well as opening with it, Lee had made Fight the Power the theme tune of Bill Nunn’s character Radio Raheem, who blasted it from his boombox every time he appeared (“I don’t like nothin’ else”), thus making it the heartbeat of the movie. Marsalis called the song’s placement “the greatest marketing tool in the world”. When Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson chose a movie for their first date, the first thing they saw was Rosie Perez dancing to Fight the Power.

Public Enemy were unable to savour their big moment because between the video shoot and the single’s release date, antisemitic comments by their ‘Minister of Information’ Professor Griff plunged the band into an existential crisis that almost proved fatal. Torn between loyalty to his group and a blistering media backlash, Chuck himself agonised over how to do the right thing. Accused of inciting violence, the film itself was controversial enough to merit a round-table debate in the New York Times, during which a white judge from the Bronx complained that it was too negative: “Why can’t we fight for power, rather than fight the power?”

But the song, which sold half a million copies despite being shunned by mainstream radio, took on a life of its own, from the black students in Virginia Beach who chanted the chorus at police during riots that September to Serbia’s dissident radio station B92, which turned it into an anti-Milošević anthem in 1991, playing it on repeat when banned from broadcasting news during an armed crackdown by the regime. That first summer, it could not have been more relevant. In August, New York’s racial unease came to a head with the murder of 16-year-old Yusef Hawkins, which provoked a real-life march through Brooklyn and contributed to the election of David Dinkins, the city’s first black mayor. Time magazine claimed that Fight the Power, more than any other track, proved that hip hop was “more than entertainment – more, even, than an expression of [fans’] alienation and resentments. It is a major social force”.

Maybe I should have put this up top, but I want to highlight the reception to Fight the Power. This Wikipedia article provides a snapshot of critical reaction to an incredibly influential song:

"Fight the Power" was well-received by music critics upon its release. Greg Sandow of Entertainment Weekly wrote that it is "perhaps the strongest pop single of 1989". "Fight the Power" was voted the best single of 1989 in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll. Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it as the sixth best on his own list. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance at the 1990 Grammy Awards.

The lyrics disparaging Elvis Presley and John Wayne were shocking and offensive to many listeners at the time. Chuck D reflected on the controversy surrounding these lyrics by stating that "I think it was the first time that every word in a rap song was being scrutinized word for word, and line for line”.

I am not surprised Rolling Stone placed Fight the Power at number two in their list of the five-hundred finest songs ever. It was a big and powerful single back in 1989. Over three decades later, Fight the Power grows in relevance and popularity. I wonder whether any Hip-Hop artists have released a song as vital and reactionary than this! Lauded as an anthem and rally cry for millions of youths, Fight the Power is…

A towering statement.

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Seventy-Three: Echo & the Bunnymen

FEATURE:

 

 

A Buyer’s Guide

Part Seventy-Three: Echo & the Bunnymen

___________

IT has taken me a while…

 PHOTO CREDIT: David Hogan/Rex Features

to get around to Echo & the Bunnymen for A Buyer’s Guide. One of the defining bands of the 1980s,. they have released so many great albums. I am going to recommend the four essential ones, the underrated gem in the catalogue, in addition to highlighting their latest studio album. There is also a book about the band that I have mentioned. Before getting to that, here is some biography from AllMusic:

“Echo & the Bunnymen's dark, swirling fusion of gloomy post-punk and Doors-inspired psychedelia brought the group a handful of British hits in the early '80s, while attracting a cult following in the United States. Driven by the majestic voice and outsized persona of singer Ian McCulloch and the frequently brilliant guitar work of Will Sergeant, the band started off as an angular post-punk group on their first album, 1980's Crocodiles, but by the time of 1984's Ocean Rain they had become cinematically baroque. After stripping their sound down to basics for 1987's self-titled album, which produced the deathless hit "Lips Like Sugar," the band ran into problems and experienced tragedy (like the death of drummer Pete de Freitas), but eventually McCulloch and Sergeant cemented a musical bond that cracked but never shattered over the course of two decades of albums -- some introspective gems like 1999's What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?, some like 2014's Meteorites that recaptured their dramatic spark -- and live dates.

The Bunnymen grew out of the Crucial Three, a late-'70s trio featuring vocalist Ian McCulloch, Pete Wylie, and Julian Cope. Cope and Wylie left the group by the end of 1977, forming the Teardrop Explodes and Wah!, respectively. McCulloch met guitarist Will Sergeant in the summer of 1978 and the pair began recording demos with a drum machine that the duo called "Echo." Adding bassist Les Pattinson, the band made its live debut at the Liverpool club Eric's at the end of 1978, calling itself Echo & the Bunnymen.

In March of 1979, the group released its first single, "Pictures on My Wall"/"Read It in Books," on the local Zoo record label. The single and their popular live performances led to a contract with Korova. After signing the contract, the group discarded the drum machine, adding drummer Pete de Freitas. Released in the summer of 1980, their debut album, Crocodiles, reached number 17 on the U.K. charts. Shine So Hard, an EP released in the fall, became their first record to crack the U.K. Top 40. With the more ambitious and atmospheric Heaven Up Here (1981), the group began to gain momentum, thanks to positive reviews; it became their first U.K. Top Ten album. Two years later, Porcupine appeared, becoming the band's biggest hit (peaking at number two on the U.K. charts) and launching the Top Ten single "The Cutter."

"The Killing Moon" became the group's second Top Ten hit at the beginning of 1984 and the album that followed in May, Ocean Rain, was released to great critical acclaim; peaking at number four in Britain, the record became the Bunnymen's first album to chart in the U.S. Top 100. The following year was a quiet one for the band as they released only one new song, "Bring on the Dancing Horses," which was included on the compilation Songs to Learn & Sing. De Freitas left the band at the start of 1986 and was replaced by former Haircut 100 drummer Mark Fox; by September, de Freitas rejoined the group.

Echo & the Bunnymen returned with new material in the summer of 1987, releasing the single "The Game" and a self-titled album. Echo & the Bunnymen became their biggest American hit, peaking at number 51; it was a success in England as well, reaching number four. However, the album indicated that the group was in a musical holding pattern. At the end of 1988, McCulloch left the band to pursue a solo career; the rest of the band decided to continue without the singer. Tragedy hit the band in the summer of 1989 when de Freitas was killed in an auto accident. McCulloch released his first solo album, Candleland, in the fall of 1989; it peaked at number 18 in the U.K. and number 159 in the U.S. Echo & the Bunnymen released Reverberation, their first album recorded without McCulloch, in 1990; it failed to make the charts. McCulloch released his second solo album, Mysterio, in 1992. Two years later, McCulloch and Sergeant formed Electrafixion, releasing their first album in 1995. In 1997, the duo re-teamed with Pattinson to re-form Echo & the Bunnymen, issuing the LP Evergreen. Two years later, they returned with What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?

The new millennium brought Echo & the Bunnymen back to the basics. The British press touted the band's storybook flair found on 1983's Ocean Rain and figured such spark would be found on their ninth album, Flowers. Issued in spring 2001, it reflected McCulloch's dark vocals and Sergeant's signature hooks. Live in Liverpool, a concert disc capturing the band's two gigs at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts while on tour in support of Flowers, followed a year later.

For 2005's Siberia, McCulloch and Sergeant joined producer Hugh Jones for the band's most classic effort since their 1997 comeback. A second proper live album, 2006's Me, I'm All Smiles, captured the Bunnymen's gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire while on tour in support of Siberia. In early 2008, the band announced that they would be releasing their next album, The Fountain, as well as playing a show at Radio City Music Hall to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Late 2010 also brought a short run of equally interesting U.K. shows, when the band played both Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here live in their entirety.

For the next few years they continued to remain active on the live circuit, most notably playing as the touring support act for a re-formed James in 2013. They weren't strangers to the studio either, working with producer Youth on their 12th album, Meteorites. The record recaptured the majesty and mystery of much earlier Echo albums and was released in 2014 by 429 Records. It was the first album by the band in many years to crack the U.K. Top 40 album chart, peaking at number 37. The band continued to tour and their success caught the attention of BMG, who offered the band a contract. The first fruit of the partnership was 2018's The Stars, the Oceans & the Moon, an album of old classics redone, some with orchestras, some in stripped-down fashion. It also featured two new songs written by McCulloch and Sergeant”.

To celebrate and spotlight the great work of Echo & the Bunnymen, below are the albums that you will want to own. If you are a bit new to the band or have not listened to them in a while, then I hope that the guide below…

HELPS you out.

___________

The Four Essential Albums

 

Crocodiles

Release Date: 18th July, 1980

Label: Korova

Producers: Bill Drummond/David Balfe/Ian Broudie

Standout Tracks: Going Up/Crocodiles/Rescue

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=27552&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0TXcd8jwKkHP3IamgFHeRJ?si=_tu4v0leQ8ui85UmpDpCZg&dl_branch=1

Review:

“Inspired by psychedelia, sure. Bit of Jim Morrison in the vocals? OK, it's there. But for all the references and connections that can be drawn (and they can), one listen to Echo's brilliant, often harrowing debut album and it's clear when a unique, special band presents itself. Beginning with the dramatic, building climb of "Going Up," Crocodiles at once showcases four individual players sure of their own gifts and their ability to bring it all together to make things more than the sum of their parts. Will Sergeant in particular is a revelation -- arguably only Johnny Marr and Vini Reilly were better English guitarists from the '80s, eschewing typical guitar-wank overload showboating in favor of delicacy, shades, and inventive, unexpected melodies. More than many before or since, he plays the electric guitar as just that, electric not acoustic, dedicated to finding out what can be done with it while never using it as an excuse to bend frets. His highlights are legion, whether it's the hooky opening chime of "Rescue" or the exchanges of sound and silence in "Happy Death Men." Meanwhile, the Pattinson/De Freitas rhythm section stakes its own claim for greatness, the former's bass driving yet almost seductive, the latter's percussion constantly shifting rhythms and styles while never leaving the central beat of the song to die. "Pride" is one standout moment of many, Pattinson's high notes and De Freitas' interjections on what sound like chimes or blocks are inspired touches. Then there's McCulloch himself, and while the imagery can be cryptic, the delivery soars, even while his semi-wail conjures up, as on the nervy, edgy picture of addiction "Villiers Terrace," "People rolling round on the carpet/Mixing up the medicine." Brisk, wasting not a note, and burning with barely controlled energy, Crocodiles remains a deserved classic” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Pictures on My Wall

Heaven Up Here

Release Date: 30th May, 1981

Label: Korova

Producers: Hugh Jones/The Bunnymen

Standout Tracks: Over the Wall/Heaven Up Here/All My Colours

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/echo-and-the-bunnymen/heaven-up-here-rocktober-exclusive

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2jnfTHz4rKiOXbpU88TpNS?si=MXqa8wVFRYe4tDRzCLiDmg&dl_branch=1

Review:

“The most notable totem of Echo And The Bunnymen was the much-profiled frontman. Naturally, teenage me was fixated by Ian McCulloch. Here was a man who was so much more than a pop singer. He was an icon and a poet, a spokesman for a generation. Sure, he was dripping in confidence, brash, arrogant and absolutely certain of his genius, but aren’t your heroes supposed to be? You sensed that McCulloch had taken himself away and immersed himself in the works of Scott Walker and Baudelaire. For him, this was about so much more than pop music. It really mattered to him, it was life and death, and because of that we bought into it. He was our Jim Morrison, our Lou Reed. He truly believed that The Bunnymen were the greatest band on the planet and, for a few short years, he was absolutely correct. Ian McCulloch was everything that me and my kind always aspired to, but never actually believed we could be. His lyrics, mysteriously enigmatic, were pored over incessantly and, just like Dylan, much would be made of his words. I mean, who or what is “Zimbo” anyway? The music press leapt to the conclusion that because his words were hard to decipher, they must be drug-induced. They were described as “psychedelic”, with a knowing nod and wink. This infuriated McCulloch, who railed at the lazy journalism and informed the world that if the lyrics had a dream-like quality that was possibly down to the fact that he based them on his dreams. You know, the kind we all have.

As a frontman, he was peerless, exuding magnetism; all eyes on him. But musically, Echo And The Bunnymen were a band of equals. I’ve already mentioned de Freitas’s powerful drumming, providing a rolling and pounding foundation to the beautifully atmospheric All My Colours. Listen too to how he propels A Promise, driving it on relentlessly. To think they had initially tried to get the band off the ground with a drum machine (the famous Echo) in the seat ultimately taken by de Freitas. In absolute harmony with those beats, we had the incredibly underrated bass playing of Les Pattinson. His brilliance slaps you right in the face in the first five seconds when his bass line kicks into the opening track, Show Of Strength. And then again, immediately afterwards on With A Hip, when his riff coils around the entire song, transforming it into a glorious sliver of sheer funk. Together, de Freitas and Pattinson formed a rhythm section that were the nonpareil of their era.

However, brilliant as de Freitas and Pattinson are, stunning as McCulloch’s singing and lyrics are, the star of Heaven Up Here is guitarist Will Sergeant. There are certain guitarists who you know immediately, the second you hear them. Johnny Marr is one, Wilko Johnson another. Will Sergeant fits that epithet perfectly. Apparently, he substituted his plectrum for a pair of scissors at one point in recording. Imagine Salvador Dali had been a barber? There’s the sound. At other times he is incisive, like Errol Flynn with a rapier. Heaven Up Here is comprised of a plethora of sounds and textures that materialise from Sergeant’s six-string. There’s no question that his playing has evolved since their debut the previous year. He is no longer playing songs. Instead, he is creating vivid soundscapes out of complex layers. He soars in Show Of Strength and Over The Wall; manufactures gorgeously simple, yet memorable, solos like the one in With A Hip. He flits from the jangling treble of It Was A Pleasure to the distorted buzzsaw of the title track. Such incredible versatility. He is at his very best though when the distortion is minimised and he makes his notes ring out with the clarity of crystal. Do It Clean, Will.

Theoretically speaking, as a band, Echo And The Bunnymen were yet to peak. The follow-up to Heaven Up Here, Porcupine, is technically more accomplished. But despite many more highlights, and several hit singles, they never crafted an album quite like Heaven Up Here again. As great as Porcupine and 1997’s hugely underrated Evergreen are, they cannot match Heaven Up Here in terms of being such a coherent and impactful collection. That’s all down to the songs. With A Hip is as bold and innovative as anything the band ever did. The pop sensibility of A Promise is the equal of The Back Of Love or The Killing Moon and to this day I am astonished that it wasn’t as commercially successful. The intensely smouldering Over The Wall is pure melodrama, whilst All My Colours is unadulterated spiritual, handed down from the heavens on tablets of stone. We have the sublime, shimmering swagger of Turquoise Days and the brooding portentousness of Show Of Strength. In total, there are eleven songs. Eleven jewels in a sparkling crown. No filler.

For forty years, Heaven Up Here has been a constant companion. It’s an album that has lifted me up and laid me down again, so many times. Over the years, it has been relegated down the ranks in my ongoing mental league table of albums. Once dominant, from ’81 to ’86 when it was unrivalled, it became a top three album for about a decade. Today it has stabilised. Most of the time I would place it top six, comfortably. Somedays, another great album will challenge it, but it never drops out of the top ten. I doubt it ever will” – Louder Than War

Choice Cut: A Promise

Ocean Rain

Release Date: 4th May, 1984

Label: Korova

Producers: Echo & the Bunnymen/Gil Norton/Henri Loustau

Standout Tracks: Silver/Seven Seas/Ocean Rain

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=27874&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3V4j1tMdQqpq8nwW02UOiW?si=v0DoCc6yQIavqgb97IsABg&dl_branch=1

Review:

“Following the commercial breakthrough of 1983's Porcupine, Ocean Rain was both a consolidation and point of disintegration for the Bunnymen: the point where the cracks began to show, but were masked with such beauty as to hardly matter. Here you sense a pull in two directions. McCullogh's theatrics beg for widescreen setting yet Will Sergeant's fierce, jagged guitar pays homage to every proto-psych garage band that appeared on the Pebbles and Nuggets compilations that wormed their way through the record collections of a myriad music geeks in the late 70s. As a result Ocean Rain represents Liverpudlian psych at its absolute peak.

Both the album and the wondrous live bonus disc - recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in 1983 - represent a glorious blend of vaulting ambition and limited ability. The Donny Darko-assisted ubiquity of The Killing Moon may have blunted its impact, but it's still a gorgeous sweeping romantic gesture. Likewise second single, Seven Seas. But Thorn Of Crowns, pushed the shamanic Jim Morrisonisms a little too far. And while the use of a 35-piece orchestra allows the songs like Nocturnal Me (brooding with Eastern European sang froid) and the title track to set sail, in other cases (The Yo Yo Man) songs can flounder under the weight of intrusive arrangements. Also the sheen obscures the thiness of opener, Silver; a song that, if closely examined, shows signs of the band covering old ground.

In retrospect it sounds as though their garage roots were withering in the harsh glare of success. Unlike, say U2, who could reinvent themselves as world citizens, the Bunnymen would always be a very English institution. Only Pete de Freitas, whose performance on the live disc is a testament to his place at the very heart of the band, sounds like an utterly confident world-beater” – BBC (Collector’s Edition review)

Choice Cut: The Killing Moon

What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?

Release Date: 5th April, 1999

Label: London

Producers: Echo & the Bunnymen/Alan Douglas

Standout Tracks: What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?/Get in the Car/Lost on You

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=29155&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5hY6V6zz940G2D8VVKkg6P?si=qn9HYww_RpuBA-D13gWJSA&dl_branch=1

Review:

“Echo & the Bunnymen made a dignified return in 1997 with Evergreen, but that record displayed some hints of rustiness and a desire to stay hip -- two things notably absent from its superb sequel, What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? Trimmed to just the duo of Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant, Echo has succeeded where many of their peers have failed -- they have matured without getting stodgy, they have deepened their signature sound without appearing self-conscious. Indeed, What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? feels of a piece with their earlier albums, not only sonically, but in terms of quality. Clocking in at just 38 minutes, the record is concise and dense with detail, finding the precise tone between the floating grandeur of early Echo and the timeless romanticism of classic torch songs. It's melancholy without ever being self-pitying and it never once sounds gloomy or depressing. The key is that McCulloch and Sergeant never push too hard. They never force themselves to play up-tempo, nor do they try to recapture their "edge" -- they settle into a sad groove and find all the possible variations in the sound, both sonically and emotionally. The perfect thing is, this is exactly the kind of record a post-punk band should be making as they reach their 20th anniversary -- it speaks to where they are now, and it speaks to their aging fans” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Rust

The Underrated Gem

 

Meteorites

Release Date: 3rd June, 2014

Label: 429 Records

Producers: Youth/Andrea Wright

Standout Tracks: Meteorites/Is This a Breakdown?/Burn It Down

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=691768&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6TCkv0NigYev4MOpz8tyOo?si=TDqhXtZkRUuO-r6_uNbpfQ&dl_branch=1

Review:

“After they reunited in the mid-'90s, Echo & the Bunnymen cranked out album after album of decent-to-good material, spotlighting Ian McCulloch's ageless vocals and the band's sure way with a dramatic hook. For 2014's Meteorites, the duo of McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant turned to legendary producer Youth to help guide the album, and came up with a record that compares favorably to the best work of their original run in the '80s. Where their previous effort, Fountain, was a big-sounding, very clean modern rock album that reduced the band to its essential core, this one aspires to more epic heights. Teeming with giant string arrangements, widescreen vocal production, and songs that hark back to the glory days of Ocean Rain, the album is a mysterious, murky, impressively nostalgic affair. With Sergeant providing his typically concise and perfectly complementary guitar lines and Mac digging deep to turn in one of his better vocal performances in a while, the duo give Youth a lot to work with and he spins it into some gauzy magic. Tracks like "Lovers on the Run" and "Holy Moses" have a dramatic intensity and sweeping power that their more focused and stripped-back songs of recent years have surely missed. When they go big, it works extremely well, like on the opening title track, a slowly unspooling epic with truly heart-rending string crescendos and some of Mac's most broken-sounding singing in a long time, or the huge-sounding "Market Town," which runs seven minutes, features a long Sergeant guitar solo, and doesn't flag at all. Even the simpler, more direct songs, like the quiet ballad "Grapes Upon the Vine," have a big sound, though not so big as to overwhelm the fragile emotions on display. Youth and the group walk the line between grandiose and epic throughout, never falling on the wrong side even once. Between the impressive set of songs, the totally invested performances, and Youth's brilliant production, Meteorites ends up as a late-in-the-game triumph for the band and a worthy successor to their finest album, Ocean Rain. It may be too late to really matter, and they may be doomed to be seen as a nostalgia act, but many of the bands in 2014 that are making neo-psychedelic albums would be well served to check with the Bunnymen to see how to go about things the correct way” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Lovers on the Run

The Latest Album

 

The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon

Release Date: 5th October, 2018

Label: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT GmbH

Producers: Echo & the Bunnymen/Andy Wright

Standout Tracks: Nothing Lasts Forever/Rescue/The Killing Moon

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1432666&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/194coQAsvAJhxlc8wdxewI?si=wGoRJxfHT2SiBsGccsX0dA&dl_branch=1

Review:

“Again and again on the release, I was impressed with McCulloch and Sergeant’s respectful treatment of their classics. Throughout the release it is evident they put tremendous effort into getting it right. This is really apparent on the tracks Stars are Stars and Ocean Rain which made me want to go back and listen to the originals and fall in love with both originals and their reinterpretations.

Seven Seas is slowed down reflecting the maturity the band has gained. The track is simpler in ways but still loaded with yearning and just as evocative. I totally love the addition of the accordion. I didn’t think the song could get more earnest but Ian and Will pull it off and deliver a dénouement of sorts for their discography. I paused when I saw that the band was taking on a reinterpretation of The Cutter which is in the pantheon of classic Post Punk songs. This was going to be a highwire act over a shark tank. The song made Echo and the Bunnymen who they are in music history, giving them their legendary sonic fingerprint. The original uncontrolled hysteria is now better controlled. It is not as murky and delivers more of punch lyrically as again the production is brighter and cleaner.

The final two tracks are a great contrast of the new juxtaposed against one of Echo and the Bunnymen's’ most unforgettable songs. How Far? is a touching tribute to their career and reviews the path they have travelled. There are music references to prior songs, ideas and lyrics. The “We are all astronauts looking for heaven” lyric cleverly refers to the universal quest for the meaning of life that the band has always sought and to the title of this release. The final track, The Killing Moon utilizes a piano ballad with orchestral strings rather than the keening synths and guitars that characterized the original. This song is as beautiful as the original and takes on another life. It is a stunning way to end a transcendent album. Many times during the release McCulloch challenges himself. He takes on the original tracks and his younger self and miraculously comes out unscathed taking nothing away from the first renditions and only adds illumination. That is not easy to do and everyone involved deserves praises for pulling it off.

The Stars, The Oceans and the Moon is an outstanding release that in inspired in it's retranslating of the Echo and the Bunnymen canon. In many ways, the album performs the same task as Songs to Learn and Sing did in the mid-eighties giving a shorthand version of some of the band’s most powerful songs. It is an excellent gateway into the discography of Echo and the Bunnymen for younger listeners and will provide endless interest for hardcore fans. For those fans, there are no disappointments to be found on the album and take that as a ringing endorsement from me, a gal who once had a treasured poster of the cover of Songs to Learn and Sing in her dorm room. The two new tracks are worthy to be placed with these long-standing classics. As anniversary/tribute releases go, Echo and the Bunnymen have successfully walked the tightrope between refreshing their classics and honouring them beautifully” – XS NOIZE

Choice Cut: Lips Like Sugar

The Echo & the Bunnymen Book

 

Turquoise Days: The Weird World of Echo and The Bunnymen: The Weird World of "Echo and the Bunnymen"

Author: Chris Adams

Publication Date: 1st July, 2002

Publisher: Soft Skull Press

Synopsis:

“Echo and the Bunnymen combine the rawness and venom of New York punk with the moody textures of groups like the Doors and the Velvet Underground. A major force in English post-punk, the band remains an enduring presence on the music scene thanks to Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant’s exceptional songwriting skills and irresistible hooks. Turquoise Days covers the band’s entire career, from its inception in 1978 to the present. It documents in heady detail the forces that gave rise to the group, their early stumbles and successes, and the qualities that have kept them in the musical limelight. An exhaustive critical history and biography, this lavishly illustrated history, with 200 color and black-and-white photos, also includes the complete lyrics of Ian McCulloch; hundreds of quotes from the Bunnymen, their fans, and their critics; and numerous never-before-published photographs” – Amazon.co.uk

Order:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Turquoise-Days-Weird-World-Bunnymen/dp/1887128891/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=echo+and+the+bunnymen&qid=1631692492&qsid=257-5146456-7682467&s=books&sr=1-3&sres=B07DYMMK26%2C0863595251%2C1887128891%2CB09BY84Y2P%2CB08NMMPD4T%2CB09BTCKGCG%2CB00EGPFH8U%2C1472135032%2C0711911215%2CB07D39F35S%2C1859095313%2CB0018KSORC%2CB089QPJ3K7%2CB001QOOONS%2CB002QAM1QI%2CB002P0UGUM

FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Sixty-Eight: Nova Twins

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern Heroines

PHOTO CREDIT: Arthur René Walwin 

Part Sixty-Eight: Nova Twins

___________

THIS outing of Modern Heroines…

features a duo who are hugely inspiring and will be icons of the future. Nova Twins are an incredible force who everyone should know about. They are a Rock duo formed in London in 2014, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Amy Love and bassist Georgia South. In addition to bringing in a review of their debut album, Who Are the Girls?, it is worth collating some interviews so that we can learn more about a duo who are primed for a huge career and legacy. It is a little heartbreaking that Nova Twins’ rise started to happen just before the pandemic kicked in. I think they had a few huge tour dates in the book that had to be cancelled. I can only imagine how they felt knowing they would travel the world and had this moment to connect with fans, only for it to be halted! They will definitely make up for that. Even though Nova Twins have released one album, I am confident they are going to go very far and become legends. The first interview I want to illustrate is from Upset. They discuss the momentum of the duo, in addition to the quality and importance of Who Are the Girls?:

“Nova Twins have been steadily gaining momentum on the underground circuit for a number of years. With an amorphous signature that fleets between gritty punk, riotous grime, and a sound that often is so raucous that it denies all definition, there's a sense of exploring the unknown which the flows through their naturally unhinged noise. Riotous bass lines that simultaneously soothe and assault the senses, blurred with ravaging vocals that oscillate between saccharine and murderous; Nova Twins are carving their own path in the music industry and since they're pretty much the first of their kind; they get to make the rules.

"When we first did music, we were doing it for ourselves simply because we wanted to make music together. Then when you realise how it can affect [people] and how it can be a political thing, you're suddenly more woke and aware of what you're doing. You feel more precious about things," vocalist and guitarist Amy Love explains of their inception.

After being introduced to their music by a member of Nothing But Thieves, producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Kasabian) got in touch with Nova Twins about whether they'd be up for working with him. The timing couldn't have been more spot-on, as they had just finished up writing songs with an album in mind.

Let it be said that 'Who Are The Girls?' is one hell of a debut. From the Tim Burton-esque 'Ivory Tower' to the industrial rave à la The Prodigy in 'Taxi'. Amy and Georgia are masters at what they do, and their high expectations bring along a kind of perfectionism to it all. So much so that ten minutes before having to submit the album, they were trying to make changes. Thematically, 'Who Are The Girls?' is an introduction to the world of Nova. It is about the pair delving into their craft and seeing how far they can go with conjuring up new sounds. "We're in our own bubble a lot of the time," says Amy of how serious they can be with their gear and the way that they do things. "It would definitely be interesting to show people the inner workings."

With a sound so unique, it would be nothing short of crazy not to be secretive about it. Both Amy and Georgia are very specific about the kind of gear they use since it makes up their signature colossal wall of noise. So, then. What is the secret ingredient to Nova? God loves a trier, but they're not giving it up that easily! Speaking of why she's so protective over her pedalboard Georgia says, "People at the beginning used to just take pictures of it. I'd get so annoyed, I felt like it was theft! You don't even know how many years I took to build it. It's like you can't just take it, buy it, and do it! So, somebody did that a few times and I just duct-taped the shit out of it."

It's this idea of reclaiming what is yours and not allowing somebody to step into your lane without permission that bleeds throughout the songs on the album. 'Bullet' is an unwavering, unapologetic response on behalf of all of the women who have been subject to catcalling, but there is also more depth to it as Amy explains: "'Bullet' was touching more onto sexuality. We know that women are under so much more scrutiny and everything; we're expected to get criticised 24/7, to be strong and just take it. It was just a hit back at saying we're taking our power back, and you know what? Fuck everyone else who has tried to come between that."

Nova Twins are flying the flag for anyone sick of having to change themselves to please the patriarchy. 'Not My Day' is in Amy's words, "about how sometimes you can have a really shitty day and you don't have to put on a brave face all the time. A little bit of vulnerability is sometimes a good thing. I think a problem we have in this society is, everyone is posting what they want everyone to think, and nothing is tangible or real anymore, and sometimes it's a case of aggression. Sometimes you act out, and it might not be appropriate, or it's appropriate for that moment, but then you get over it."

If you are a person of colour who feels like they have no faces to relate to in the music industry, then Nova Twins are part of a wave of musicians that are trying to create a sense of community for you to exist in. "The underground is starting to catch-up and being more open and more inclusive to the LGBT community, people of colour and everyone on that scene. The mainstream is not having it at all, so that's where we still have to keep fighting to push through. We haven't got there yet."

Looking back to four or five years ago when the underground scene was opening up and being more inclusive; while the progress was good, it was still biased. "If you sounded like The Slits, Bikini Kill or L7, and if you were blonde it was great because you could fit into that kind of market. We didn't fit into that, so we didn't start getting picked up until a couple of years in. It's amazing because you see people like Big Joanie and Fuck You, Pay Us coming through and Skinny Girl Diet who are like the main ones in the UK representing at that particular time, and it was kind of scarce for women of colour in live music in the rock world. [In] the rock world you've just got white skin, and there's no place for people like us, so we had to create our own lane”.

This interview from LOUDER from early last year focuses on Nova Twins before they immersed themselves in a wave of tour dates – well, that was the plan! Whilst it is sad many of the dates never came to fruition, hearing them speak about their friendship and their debut album is wonderfully illuminating:

“Jim Abbiss – mastermind producer behind the big debut albums from Arctic Monkeys, Adele, and Kasabian – was so excited by the prospect of producing such an album that he jumped on board when the opportunity to work with the duo arose. Together, Abbiss, Love and South took time to play around with sounds from their pedalboards, finding glitches within different pedal and instruments to give tracks depth and an innovative, challenging sound.

Before they were ever thinking about their debut album, though, the duo frequented infamous London venues – Camden’s The Stables and the Amersham Arms in New Cross – playing to whoever was listening. Eventually, they started building a following around the live London scene.

The pair assert they couldn’t have started anywhere better: “Although it is quite savage at times, it was probably a great thing,” bassist South tells us. While it might have taken “resilience” to break such a tough scene, it clearly paid off.

From then on they started playing UK festivals, from 2000trees to the Great Escape, Brighton. It was here that they met Jean-Louis, a French promoter known for running Trans Musicales, a festival held once a year in Brittany, France. The festival is famous for showcasing ‘the next big thing’, with previous up-and-comers including Nirvana, Bjork, Daft Punk and Lenny Kravitz. Amy described the festival as nothing she had ever seen before: “It’s these huge massive warehouses in this industrial estate, four thousand capacity for each venue where there is so much world music," she told us.

“Jean-Louis invited us down and we didn’t realise how big it was going to be. When we arrived, there was a curtain behind the stage where you could see [into the crowd], so our first gig out in France ended up being at a 4000 capacity venue.”

From then on, the girls played all around the world, travelling from France, to New York, to Kazakhstan, playing a range of different venues to completely different audiences and supporting everyone from Prophets Of Rage to Little Simz. Fitting, considering their defiant approach to musical categorisation.

The pair are about to set off on their most important and extensive tour yet in support of their debut. But they don’t seem the slightest bit scared, which could be down to their tight bond and lifelong friendship. As South describes it: “We’re always together – it’s like a holiday instead of a tour.”

They also believe their friendship is the foundation of their music and success. “We move together and think the same way together." says South. "I think that’s the formula to our music. It’s got its own little quirks to it because our personalities work so well together, it’s really important.”

The duo’s DIY approach – their music consists of vocals, bass and guitar, as well as a drummer who joins them for live gigs – extends further than just their music. The pair make and direct their own music videos, as well as making their own sets and designing and creating their own clothes. It may seem a lot, but it’s clear how much they enjoy it.

Georgia claims even if they get more people in their team, they’ll always be a part of the behind the scenes process within the band. “It just might not be us always hand sewing each thing,” laughs South.

Before I come to a recent NME interview, it is time to highlight a review of Who Are the Girls? CLASH had some positive things to say about a hugely important debut from last year. If you have not checked out the album, then make sure that you do:

“Nova Twins, perhaps more so than any of their peers, look well placed to kick this dull status quo right between the legs. Over the four years since the release of their ear-catching, if a little ropey, debut EP, the duo have been gathering their strength and honing their style, readying themselves for the release of their full-scale manifesto. Love has become infinitely more assured as a vocalist, her shit-talking snarl combining some of Little Simz’ commanding drawl, a hint of Brody Dalle’s roar, and a hefty dose of Luciana’s braggadocio from Bodyrox’s ‘Yeah Yeah’. It’s a voice that kicks down doors and takes names, never allowing itself to get lost behind the sonic wall built up by her guitar and South’s bass.

Nova Twins’ pedalboards have also grown exponentially since 2016, when their reputation for grotty, pitch-shifted assaults of distortion earned them the label ‘grime-punk’. It’s not an unfair description. South’s basslines are what supercharge the songs, leading from the bottom with a dirty, street-gutter rumble that attains absolute perfection on lead single ‘Taxi’. When paired with Love’s delivery, the music can resemble the heavier cuts from Skepta and Tempa T, but they just as often deviate into the realms of UK garage, or rave, or even dubstep.

Both ‘Play Fair’ and ‘Bullet’ end with full-on wub-a-dub freakouts that owe a debt to the likes of Caspa and Rusko, while ‘Undertaker’ genuinely sounds like it could have been painstakingly pieced together out of re-pitched Rage Against The Machine tracks by The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett.

While their peers are busy taking on board smooth-edged American influences and trying to become the next Imagine Dragons, Nova Twins’ sound remains 100% homegrown British beefiness. There are many people out there from across the rap-rock spectrum who will despise this album (for reasons both fair and foul), but there are many more who will appreciate the lack of compromise in this rollicking call to arms. You have never heard two women have this much fun with a metric fucktonne of distortion pedals, but if you do in the future, then the way will have been paved by Nova Twins”.

Things have changed over the past year. Though Nova Twins couldn’t fulfil some of their touring commitments, they have played some really important gigs this year. They played Reading & Leeds recently. NME spoke with Nova Twins earlier this month. Love and South reflected on playing the festival, them being independent, in addition to looking ahead to their second album:

“Love is a little older than South, and both are mixed-race – Love half-Nigerian and Iranian, South Jamaican-British – supporting each other through the awkward transition from being teenagers to their 20s. South cringes: “I remember having this massive afro emo fringe, and Amy would always be like, ‘Just get it out of your face!” She shakes out her enviably enormous mass of red curls. “I used to hate it because people would always pull it or touch it or try and put pins in it, but now I think the bigger the better, honestly.”

Though the pair gigged and worked relentlessly, the barriers of racial stereotype did come into play. Both recall feeling overlooked or discriminated against as a new band, and dismissed by those who couldn’t seem to understand why they weren’t performing straight hip-hop or R&B.

“We really noticed that when we first came on the scene there was this whole new wave of feminist punk,” says Love. “A lot of magazines were picking and choosing. NME actually did cover us when we first came out, but even though we were playing the same shows as a lot of our peers, we weren’t getting included or seen as riot grrrls. It was really strange. I’m not gonna mention names, but certain magazines would cover a full event day stage and they still wouldn’t write about us. It was almost like they couldn’t comprehend that two Black women could be seen as riot grrrls, you know? Or maybe the type of music we were doing was a little bit different.

“We don’t feel that isolation so much any more now the ball is starting to roll, but I do remember us thinking to ourselves, ‘What’s wrong with us?’”

“I’ve definitely seen the growth, recognising how many things we’ve achieved that we used to long for,” says South. “We always used to love watching award shows; the BRITS, the Mercury’s, the MTV awards. We’d watch them all, just being like ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be amazing to host an award?’ Tonight we’re doing it at the Heavy Music Awards, and we’re shitting it!”

Nova Twins don’t just talk a good game. Committed ambassadors for their scene, the duo can be frequently found getting properly stuck in, hanging out with fans after shows and – in the last year alone – working with Love Music Hate Racism and The Music Venue Trust; Dr Martens on the curation of an underrepresented POC playlist (which raised funds to The Black Curriculum); and volunteering as mentors for Rip It Up, a bursary programme that offers support for a new generation of diverse music talent.

South and Love are vocal about their racialized position in rock, but have never minded laying down their boundaries – see their very first 2016 single ‘Bassline Bitch’, which layers an interpolation of the iconic festival chant “Papa’s got a brand new pigbag”’ over a no-nonsense message of their arrival: “We’ll blow your mind with it / We’ll slap that look right off your face.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Nathan Roach for NME 

“There’s not many people in the alt-field that look like us, so we were just like, ‘God, we’re going to have to really go at this’,” says South. “Just think of more ways to be as powerful as possible and slay it in ways that other bands might not.”

There is also the small matter of a second Nova Twins album. Having entered a new partnership with Marshall Records, they are five songs into recording on a deal that will maintain their artistic rights with no possibility of, in Love’s words, “giving away album after album and getting stuck if something doesn’t work out”.

“We’ve always been independent; it was a necessity in the beginning, but now we’re at a point where we love it,” says Love. “We’re just trying to create positive change in the game… We’re just trying to fire as many bullets as we can.”

Whatever it sounds like, album two will adhere to the core Nova Twins manifesto: do it yourself and keep it simple. “We’re definitely experimenting with things, and it sounds more like us than ever, in a way,” says South. “All those little details and the scrappiness of things, that’s what feels ‘Nova’. To stay DIY but to keep progressing, it’s cool to send a message that anyone can do it… Just get grafting, and you can make magic.”

“Our thing has always been that if you can’t play it yourself on guitar, drums and bass, it’s not going on the record,” agrees Love. “We’re not saying that we’ll never go bigger, but for where we’re at with a second record, it’s nice to feel like it’s still a ‘come as you are’ kind of thing. We don’t want to say too much just yet, but trust us – when this album comes out, we feel like you’ll know about it!”.

A rising duo who are growing stronger and marking themselves as icons, I am looking forward to the second album from Nova Twins. With some big gigs and festivals under their belt, Amy Love and Georgia South are acquiring more and more fans. There is so much love out there for what they do. Go and check out Nova Twins’ work. They are a phenomenal duo who are…

LEGENDS of the future.

FEATURE: The Kate Bush Interview Archive: 1982: The Dreaming Interview from CBAK 4011 CD

FEATURE:

 

 

The Kate Bush Interview Archive 

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in album cover outtake for The Dreaming (1982)/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

1982: The Dreaming Interview from CBAK 4011 CD

___________

THIS feature…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a single cover outtake for Sat In Your Lap/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

allows me to look back on interviews through Kate Bush’s career. Until now, they have been print interviews. I am going back to 1982, because The Dreaming Interview from CBAK 4011 CD (which has appeared in bootleg forms through the years) is interesting to read. Whilst some of the conversation has been transcribed with question marks and a lack of certainty in spots, I do really like the discussion. It is an interview where Bush and the interviewer were sitting down for a meal. I really like the interviews from 1982. This one caught my eye because of the connection between the interviewer and Bush. As this website explains about this particular case: “Originally transcribed by Stephen Thomas and edited by Jeffrey Burka. This edition is by Andrew Marvick [Second part transcribed by Ronald Hill. This contains more of the interview then was originally contained in the transcription, probably a different bootleg. In order to get a decent transcription, computer analysis was utilitized”:

“I've just got back from Europe, and I only got back the day before yesterday and I spent yesterday catching up on all the stuff I got behind with when I was in Europe."

What were you doing there?

"TV's and a little bit of radio, but mainly TV's, and we did Italy and Germany."

And was that for the album?

"Yes. It was indirectly for the album because out there The Dreaming -- the single -- is still happening."

It has done better over there, has it?

"Well, it's only just starting to happen, so we're doing TV's to help it, and every show we did, we did The Dreaming." So, you know, been testing to see how it does. But it all helps the album, really, so I was into doing it from that point of view. It's great, it's just very busy, that's all."

I saw the video to the Dreaming -- they eventually did get it on TV --

"Yeah!

Very...up to scratch, should I say, you know?

"You liked it?"

Umm! [Possibly affirmative.]

"Oh, good."

It was similar to the stage set, you know--the dancers, but it had the benefit of all the people in the background. Where was it shot? "We shot it in [unintelligible], which is a video studio in Wandsworth."

Oh, that was a studio? [Surprised.]

"Yeah!"

Crikey!

"It was a very good set, wasn't it? Incredible set designers."

Where did you get the guys from?

"We actually found those set designers through the director I was using, through their production company."

Who did direct it?

"It was Golden Dawn Productions, a guy called Paul Henry."

And what's going to be the next single that you're working on?

"Well, we've done the video for the next one, which is There Goes a Tenner."

Sorry?

"There Goes a Tenner."

What's that about? Is it about robbery?

"Yeah, yeah."

What, sort of pickpockets in the East End, et cetera?

"Yeah. It's about amateur robbers who have only done small things, and this is quite a big robbery that they've been planning for months, and when it actually starts happening, they start freaking out. They're really scared, and they're so aware of the fact that something could go wrong that they just freaked out, and paranoid and want to go home."

Do you think this one's going to be more successful than the last one?

"I don't know. I don't know what to think about the singles anymore."

Was it your idea for it to be a single?

"What, There Goes a Tenner? Yes. I think I was in full agreement with them. But I think I've reached a stage where, because The Dreaming didn't work, we all felt--especially from an airplay point of view--that in order to get airplay, which you need for a single to work, we should go for one that was more obvious, and there is no doubt that There Goes a Tenner is one of the more obvious songs."

Not that there are a lot on the album that are obvious."

"No, so we're just going for this and seeing what happens."

It's quite a bold move to go in that kind of direction, particularly when you've been out of the limelight for a year or two. How sensible do you think it is, to make? It's easily the least commercial step you've ever done, this album, at a time when perhaps you should have been doing the most."

"Yes. You see, from my point of view, although I've been out of the limelight, from the last album all I was planning to do was make another album as quickly as I could. But as soon as I wrote the songs I realized that it was very different, and all the time I do very much want to change my art, and I do actually think that the direction I'm going in is away from the commercial, well the obvious commercial. But I think from my point of view it wasn't so much because I was out of the limelight that I had to do something more commercial, because at that time I wasn't actually out of the limelight, I was just starting my next album, and I thought it was only going to take me a couple of months, but before I know it the whole thing has become much more involved, the songs are much more involved, and I know that it's going to take me at least six months to a year to get it the way I want. So by the time it's finished, I've been out of the public's eye for maybe...apart from Sat In Your Lap, of course."

So you've not really got a band, as such, any more, have you?

"No. That's actually quite a depressing thought."

Well, not really."

"Well, no, I suppose not, because it leaves me nice and open."

You see what Kevin Rowland's doing with Dexy's Midnight Runners?

"No...?"

He's got a central nucleus of about three, and the stage show incorporates about eleven, and he can't keep eleven people on wages, so he calls them up when he wants them."

"So he just keeps the three."

And I think that really how rock's going to move. And the people who aren't working with him, when they're not working with him, they've got a reputation from him to go on and do session work."

"You see, I think I'm a bit like that, in that right from the start I definitely carried two people with me all the way, or three I suppose, as Pad has always been with me."

He's your brother, though, isn't he?

"Yes, he is."

Is he a guitarist, or [does he] play accordion?

"No, he plays a lot of different instruments. Again, he really is the one who's allowed me to use unusual instruments because he happens to be able to play them, so it's great because Pad's got this real knack of being able to pick up nearly any instrument that's unusual and just have a feel for it."

Is he some kind of influence behind the dijeridu, for example?

"Yes, I do think Pad actually started the initial interest in me in unusual ethnic instruments, because for years he's been interested in them, and building them. Like you'll find an instrument that hasn't been made for hundreds of years, and he'll build one. That's very stimulating."

How old is Pad? Is he younger or older than you?

"No, he's older than me, yes, but I think he definitely has been a strong stimulus in that area. Especially with the instruments, because he's really brought to my notice a lot of instruments that I'd never heard of before, but he makes them familiar to me. I get to know the sound of them, and then maybe one day when I'm writing a song, I think 'Oh yeah, that sound that Pad had, that'd be great in there.'"

[Second part of the bootleg interview]

Are you doing some practice...?

"We're working for things , but we're not actually together as a unit. But the last thing about Del and Brian is that we've been together since the rock band that we had in the pubs, which is like, what, five years ago."

I'm sorry, which one is that?

"The KT Bush band, which is when we were going around the pubs."

And you've been with which one of the guys?

"With Brian Bath and Del Palmer, they've both been with me ever since. And they've maybe never played on all the albums, but they've been on each album for two or three tracks, and they were on the tour. And it's lovely because I feel that I would still want to use them in the future, which is great because in a way they are my traveling nucleus, just those three. But I would love to have a band, like a secure band, because I think that's a very good feeling. And even though you have a little personality problems, um, at least you're together... and they learn what you want. So eventually it must be so easy to communicate with them."

So Del's been with you, what, since post-Gilmour, EMI contract days or something.

"Yes, and so's Brian. Because before I actually started recording the album, the years when EMI was just sorta not doing anything, and I was more or less just doing things so that my time would be full, we got little three piece band together."

You are, you're into reincarnation a bit aren't you.

"Yes, I think so. I love the idea of a person during one lifetime actually having three or four lives."

Within the same lifetime?

"Yeah. You see I feel that reincarnation is perhaps just a continuation of that. Cause if you look at yourself or maybe other people, you can see little circles, that maybe they emit the..., say there's fifty or sixty, but these little circles have occurred each time, maybe in each phase of there life. You know, where they get into a rut, and come around to a very similar relationship to the one they had years ago, and it ends up in exactly the same way. They start again, exactly the same thing happens, and they end up where they are again. And its something ... maybe that little complete circle, and then break right away. And really, I mean, for myself, if I look at my life, in a way I feel I've led almost two lives. Because the first part of my life was so difficult, whereas the second part...

Which part?

"...the second stage..." 

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982, performing The Dreaming on the German T.V. show, Na Sowas

Staying at home all day, composing?

"Yes, I would say from my life up until 16 and then from 17 up until now have been two completely different stages. I mean I changed my christian name, become a vegetarian, left school, go into dance..." Really, what was your christian name?

"Well, it's just that I used to be called Cathy and I became Kate. And that was a very different stage for me."

Why would Kate...be more sorta tided into the vegetarian thing I suppose.

"I don't know, but it actually created..."

Did you lose lots of weight or something?

"No, no I didn't. I think just becoming called that name gave me a chance to break away from the person I'd been before. I mean there's no doubt that when people change their names, they actually do change”.

There is quite a lot of the interview there. I am interested in the conversation. Whilst the audio, apparently, is not too clear, one can get a sense of the vibe. There is a genuine curiosity and interest in Kate Bush and the songs on The Dreaming. We also get to find out about Bush and working with the musicians. I like the fact that, unlike print interviews, you get this casual conversational style. It is quite scattershot and punctuated with some pauses and misheard responses. With an album like The Dreaming under her belt, I can only imagine the sort of response and interest people felt – knowing Kate Bush and her music but noticing that The Dreaming was something very different for her. When it comes to the interviews with Kate Bush from 1982, the one above…

IS one of the most unusual and intriguing.

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Thirty-One: The Stooges

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

IN THIS PHOTO: The Stooges in 1969/PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Brodsky 

Part Thirty-One: The Stooges

___________

IN this edition of Inspired By…

I want to highlight one of the most influential bands ever. The Stooges, led by the incredible Iggy Pop, helped to herald in Punk and compelled a generation of artists. I can still hear their impact and D.N.A. in artists today. It is hardly surprising. I am ending with a playlist of artists influenced by the iconic Michigan band. Prior to that, here is some biography:

“During the psychedelic haze of the late '60s, the grimy, noisy, and relentlessly bleak rock & roll of the Stooges was conspicuously out of place. Like the Velvet Underground, the Stooges revealed the underside of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, showing all the grime beneath the myth. The Stooges, however, weren't nearly as cerebral as the Velvets. Taking their cue from the over-amplified pounding of British blues, the primal raunch of American garage rock, and the psychedelic rock (as well as the audience-baiting) of the Doors, the Stooges were raw, immediate, and vulgar. Iggy Pop became notorious for performing smeared in blood or peanut butter and diving into the audience. Ron and Scott Asheton formed a ridiculously primitive rhythm section, pounding out chords with no finesse; in essence, the Stooges were the first rock & roll band completely stripped of the swinging beat that epitomized R&B and early rock & roll. During the late '60s and early '70s, the group was an underground sensation, yet the band was too weird, and too dangerous, to break into the mainstream. Following three albums, the Stooges disbanded, but the group's legacy grew over the next two decades as legions of underground bands used their sludgy grind as a foundation for a variety of indie rock styles, and as Iggy Pop became a pop culture icon.

After playing in several local bands in Ann Arbor, Michigan, including the blues band the Prime Movers and the Iguanas, Iggy Pop (born James Osterberg) formed the Stooges in 1967 after witnessing a Doors concert on the University of Michigan campus. Adopting the name Iggy Stooge, he rounded up brothers Ron and Scott Asheton (guitar and drums, respectively) and bassist Dave Alexander, and the group debuted at a house party in 1967. For the next year, they played the Midwest relentlessly, earning a reputation for wild, primitive performances, which were largely reviled. In particular, Iggy gained attention for his bizarre on-stage behavior. Performing shirtless, he would smear steaks and peanut butter on his body, cut himself with glass, and dive into the audience. The Stooges were infamous, not famous -- while they had a rabidly devoted core audience, even more people detested their shock tactics. Nevertheless, the group lucked into a major-label record contract in 1968 when an Elektra talent scout went to Detroit to see the MC5 and wound up signing their opening act, the Stooges, as well.

Produced by John Cale, the Stooges' primitive eponymous debut was released in 1969, and while it generated some attention in the underground press, it barely sold any copies. During the recording of the Stooges' second album, members of the band were introduced to heroin, which quickly took a heavy toll on them. As the Stooges prepared to release their sophomore album, every member sank deeper into substance abuse (except for Ron Asheton, who became increasingly frustrated with his bandmates as instruments and gear were pawned to pay for drugs), and their excess eventually surfaced in their concerts, not only by Iggy's antics, but also in the fact that the band could barely keep a simple, two-chord riff afloat. Fun House, an atonal barrage of avant-noise, appeared in 1970 and, if it was even noticed, earned generally negative reviews and sold even fewer copies than the debut, though it was belatedly hailed as a masterpiece. Following the commercial failure of Fun House, the Stooges essentially disintegrated as Iggy sank deep into heroin addiction. At first, he did try to keep the Stooges afloat. Dave Alexander was fired after a lackluster performance at the 1970 Goose Lake Rock Festival, and Zeke Zettner took his place. In 1971, a new lineup of the Stooges emerged, with Ron Asheton and Bill Cheatham sharing duties on guitar, Zettner on bass, Scott Asheton on drums, and Iggy on vocals. Several months later, Cheatham and Zettner quit the band, and James Williamson became the new Stooges guitarist, while Jimmy Recca joined as bassist. While live recordings exist of the Asheton/Williamson lineup, they never went into the studio, and for a spell the Stooges went dormant.

Early in 1972, Pop happened to run into David Bowie, then at the height of his Ziggy Stardust popularity and an avowed Stooges fan. Bowie made it his mission to resuscitate Iggy & the Stooges, as the band was then billed. Iggy and Williamson were signed to a management deal with MainMan, the firm guiding Bowie's career, and the new edition of the band scored a deal with Columbia Records. Temporarily based in London and unable to find a suitable rhythm section in the U.K., Iggy and Williamson invited the Asheton brothers to join the new group, with Scott on drums and Ron moved to bass. Iggy produced the third Stooges album, Raw Power, and Bowie handled the mix. Released in 1973 to surprisingly strong reviews, Raw Power had a weird, thin sound due to various technical problems. Although this would be the cause of much controversy later on -- many Stooges purists blamed Bowie for the brittle mix -- its razor-thin audio and fierce attack helped kick-start the punk revolution. At the time, however, Raw Power flopped, essentially bringing the Stooges' career to a halt, with the band's disastrous final gig in Detroit in February 1974 captured on the live album Metallic K.O.

In 1976, Bowie once again came to Iggy's rescue, helping him establish himself as a solo act by producing the albums The Idiot and Lust for Life, and playing keyboards in Iggy's road band. In time, Iggy established an international following as one of rock's great renegades, but the other Stooges didn't fare quite as well. Dave Alexander died of pneumonia in 1975, aggravated by an inflamed pancreas. James Williamson returned to Iggy's circle as a songwriter and producer on the albums New Values (1979) and Soldier (1980), but in the '80s he dropped out of music and began a successful career in electronics. Ron Asheton launched a band called the New Order (no relation to the successful British group), but it didn't fare well and soon split up. In 1981, Ron Asheton was recruited to join New Race, a short-lived side project formed by Radio Birdman guitarist Deniz Tek that also featured MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson and Radio Birdman alumni Rob Younger and Warwick Gilbert. However, the group (as intended) split after a single Australian tour and album. After returning to Michigan, Ron gigged periodically with Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival, acted in a handful of low-budget films, and in 1998 he recorded with the ad hoc band Wylde Ratttz, featuring Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, Mark Arm from Mudhoney, and Mike Watt, ex-Minutemen and fIREHOSE. Wylde Ratttz's cover of "TV Eye" appeared on the soundtrack of the film Velvet Goldmine, but the group's album remained unreleased. Following the Stooges breakup, Scott Asheton played with a few local groups in Detroit before joining Sonic's Rendezvous Band in 1974, with Fred "Sonic" Smith of the MC5, Scott Morgan of the Rationals, and Gary Rasmussen of the Up; the band earned a potent reputation as a live act, but record labels were wary and the group slowly faded out by the end of the decade.

In 2002, Ron Asheton and Scott Asheton joined J Mascis + the Fog for a tour in which they performed a handful of Stooges classics from the group's first two albums. The shows were enthusiastically received, especially in Europe, and word got back to Iggy Pop, who had been talking with Ron Asheton on and off for several years about a possible Stooges reunion. In 2003, Iggy was recording the album Skull Ring, which featured contributions from a number of noteworthy bands, and he decided to add the Stooges to the roster; the Asheton brothers backed Iggy on four cuts (with Ron handling both guitar and bass), and on April 27, 2003, the Stooges played their first concert in 30 years at California's Coachella Festival, with Mike Watt sitting in for the late Dave Alexander. The reunited Stooges began hitting the road on a semi-regular basis for the next three years, playing major festivals in Europe and the United States, and in the fall of 2006 the group entered Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago, Illinois with engineer Steve Albini to record The Weirdness, an album culled from 22 new songs written by Pop and the Ashetons. The Weirdness was released in March 2007, followed by a major world tour.

The Weirdness was greeted with mixed reviews but the accompanying tour was warmly received. Sadly, Ron Asheton was found dead in his Ann Arbor home on January 6, 2009.

 

By May of that year, Iggy began talking about continuing the Stooges with Raw Power-era guitarist James Williamson replacing Ron. In November of 2009, this newly revamped Stooges debuted, and they kept going strong into the new millennium, beginning with their 2010 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, running through a deluxe 2010 reissue of Raw Power, and continuing into 2013, when the Williamson-fueled Stooges released a new album called Ready to Die in April. Scott Asheton played on Ready to Die, but he soon dropped out of the Stooges' touring lineup due to health problems, with Toby Dammit (aka Larry Mullins) taking over on drums. Sadly, Ready to Die would be Scott Asheton's last hurrah; he died on March 15, 2014. 2020 brought a remarkable archaeological find for Stooges fans -- a stereo soundboard recording of the band's full set at the Goose Lake International Music Festival in 1970, performing the Fun House album in full. Third Man Records gave the recording an official release as Live at Goose Lake, August 8th, 1970”.

In honour of a hugely important band who helped change the course of music, I wanted to spotlight artists who either cite The Stooges as an influence or have clearly followed them in terms of their sound. If you are not sure just how many artists are beholden to The Stooges, then this playlist…

GIVES you some idea.

FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Sixty-Nine: Poppy

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern Heroines

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Rutherford for PAPER

Part Sixty-Nine: Poppy

___________

DESPITE the fact that…

PHOTO CREDIT: Jenn Five for NME

her new album, Flux, is out now, I am writing this on 19th September (the album came out on Friday). It is a good time to focus on the brilliant Poppy. Go and get Flux on C.D. if you have not done so already. It is out on vinyl in November. Flux follows her third studio album, I Disagree (2020). I feel Poppy (Moriah Rose Pereira) is one of the most fascinating and exceptional women in music. She is someone who will go on to inspire so many others. I am going to drop in a review for last year’s I Disagree. There will be reviews online for Flux in the coming days, but I am a bit eager to write this feature, so many people would have already read what the press think. Poppy, is a Boston-born singer, songwriter, musician and YouTuber. In 2014, she began starring in performance art videos that presented her as an uncanny Valley-like android entity who commented on and satirised Internet culture and modern society. Jump to 2015, where she signed a recording contract with Island Records and released Bubblebath, her debut E.P., in 2016. I am going to skip ahead and focus on her recent work. Before bringing in a few interviews with Poppy, an NME review for I Disagree caught my eye:

“The opening back-and-forth of ‘Concrete’ represents nu-metal for a new generation and sees her sing about wanting to kill off an older version of herself amid musical breakdowns, harmonies and a crowd chanting her name. Months after it was released as the first single from ‘I Disagree’, it’s still a joyful shock to the system.

The pop-metal title track sees Poppy stand her ground and refuse to settle for less than she deserves: “I disagree with the way you continue to pressure me / I disagree with the way you are failing to pleasure me.” Later she offers a hope for the world: “If only all of you could see the world I see / Then maybe everyone could live in harmony.” Skipping between fury and optimism, ‘I Disagree’ sees Poppy wrestle with destruction, new beginnings and how those two different visions fit together.

The Nine Inch Nails-inspired industrial rage of ‘BLOODMONEY’ is an abrasive push back at the industry Poppy finds herself surrounded by. “Never forget the excess of a man,” she roars, “because the grabbing hands always grab what they can.” This is followed by the surprisingly serene ‘Anything Like Me’, which finds menace in the quietest of places

In amongst the anger, the shock and the bubbling melting pot of influences, ‘I Disagree’ is a record about finding pride in who you are. It’s a journey Poppy knows all too well.

“I’ll never ask permission,” she promises on the dreamy escape of ‘Nothing I Need’. “You can be anyone you want to be,” she encourages on the Marilyn Manson-influenced ‘Fill The Crown’. Full of fizzing energy and delivered with clenched fists, closing epic ‘Don’t Go Outside’ sees Poppy wage war with the idea that we should be scared. We’re not doomed. We’re not hopeless. “Everything will be ok,” she argues, defiant and fearless.

Poppy is the living embodiment that change is a good thing. ‘I Disagree’ is her most accomplished record, full of daring theatre and snarling forward motion. While all our favourite rock bands are going pop, Poppy is unapologetically embracing her desire to go heavy. It might be inspired by the bands she grew up listening to, but there’s not a moment on ‘I Disagree’ that feels like a throwback. Try and keep up with her”.

I am going to put in some videos and songs through this feature. I will end with a playlist containing the best tracks from Poppy so far. Ahead of the release of Flux, I have been listening back to her work and noticing the changes and evolution. It is worth sourcing some recent interviews. Before that, I am going back to 2019. NME featured in an extensive interview. We discover more about Poppy’s ‘character’ and what her experience of growing up was like:

“‘Am I A Girl?’ – and the preceding ‘Poppy.Computer’, from 2017 – were seemingly targeted at people who fetishise Japanese kawaii culture and futurism equally. Her forthcoming album, ‘I Disagree’, due on January 10 next year, promises to be a different beast: specifically, one with devil horns. It finds Poppy embracing the tinnitus-inducing thrash of heavy metal alongside those cute, catchy choruses.

It’s a stylistic shift that follows testing times, including a lawsuit, a high profile beef, and a second bad record deal – more of which later. This, then, is heavy metal as catharsis. “I try to channel all of my anger steam into my art and maintain some form of composure, even when I feel I want to end everything,” she says, troublingly. End herself or end the world? “The world.”

So you were feeling quite angry about some things? “Yeah, but I would say it feels natural too. When we were making ‘Am I A Girl?’ we were driving to the studio and listening to a lot of heavier music. I would go in and write a rainbows and butterflies song and I was like, ‘OK, there’s a disconnect here’…” 

PHOTO CREDIT: Jenn Five for NME

Previous interviewers – particularly the infamous US ‘shock-jock’ Howard Stern – have made a sport of trying to get Poppy to break character, or even simply to laugh. Even out of the public eye, Poppy carries herself with an air of almost supernatural composure. She sits bolt upright, doesn’t slouch, and speaks carefully and with great consideration in a soft, southern American accent. She’s fiercely intelligent and quietly assured. She drinks black coffee and frequently cracks her knuckles, which snap so loudly you wonder if there’s a metal skeleton in there after all.

An exaggeration of this emotionally guarded person is the one that Poppy’s fans have become obsessed with. In some of her YouTube videos, she asks endless questions of the viewer about their relationship with social media, and whether they validate themselves through followers. In others, she experiences crises about the nature of her own existence. In some, black goo oozes from her mouth. They’re videos that challenge the viewer in a number of ways: not much happens, it happens very slowly, and – though they’re absolutely PG rated – you probably wouldn’t want to be caught watching them at work. They’re much like the trend for ASMR videos, in which people whisper and click and generally make the viewer feel a bit strange in a way they can’t quite put their finger on.

When previous interviewers have asked where Poppy lives, the reply would be “the internet”. Actually, she confirms, she grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and lives, not-quite-alone, in Los Angeles, California. “I have a Sphynx cat. He’s the demon man of my home. His name is Pi and he I think he was sent to ruin my life,” she says.

It’s easy to imagine Poppy being an outsider in Nashville, typically the home of country music and cowboys rather than robots, and a place she describes as having “that small town feeling”. It’s equally easy to see her being on the fringes in Hollywood. She describes her life there as feeling like “I’m in the middle of a lot of things, but with my journal out, just watching.” So you’re an anthropologist? “I guess so,” she says. “I think everybody would say that about me. When I’m in a room, I’m looking everywhere. I think I would be a spy if I wasn’t a singer.”

Though a keen dancer, Poppy spent much of her childhood alone in her bedroom. “I would intentionally isolate myself from a lot of things,” she says. She did half of her education in public school, where she was bullied, and completed her studies early in homeschool. “I didn’t have a positive experience [at public school],” says Poppy. “I barely said any words, so that kind of opened me up, in a way, to be the target of everyone’s teasing.”

For what things?

“Being skinny and quiet.”

Homeschool conjures images of a parent playing the teacher role. Actually, says Poppy, she did her studies alone in her bedroom, where “the internet was my teacher.” When you consider that image – a slight, quiet girl, sat alone in a room with only the internet for company, diligently racing through the curriculum – it’s not too difficult to join the dots to Poppy’s character on YouTube. “Yeah, it does actually make sense when you think about it,” she says, as if this might, improbably, be a fresh thought. “I like that. If I could just have that be my legacy – famous for being alone in a white room – I’d be happy with that”.

There is a bit more I want to highlight before wrapping up. In July of this year, The Forty-Five interviewed Poppy. It is clear that Poppy’s music and style has changed through the years. Flux seems like a new era for her:

“Persona or not, we’re certainly in a very different era of Poppy these days –  last month saw the release of a grunge-flecked new single. While previous releases toyed playfully with rock influences and set them against crisp, glimmering pop melodies, ‘Her’ goes full pelt, and wouldn’t sound out of place on a Hole record. Produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen – known for his work with Paramore, Wolf Alice and Nine Inch Nails, among others – the spiky comeback moment is accompanied by a dystopian stop-motion video in which robotic singers are cranked out of a production line and forced to perform. It’s the first glimpse of a forthcoming new album which takes influence from the heavier end of the sonic spectrum, and explores the idea of “accepting uncertainty in your life and not being afraid of the unknown.” Though there are no featured collaborations “there are people who have lent their skills to making some of the album,” Poppy hints cryptically.

Arguably, Poppy has always done a similar thing with her music – drawing listeners in with swathes of pastel candy floss, before gripping them with strange, blooping pop music. “Get up, put my makeup on, I know it’s time to go,” she sings on ‘Make A Video’ from her 2017 debut album ‘Poppy.Computer’, “sing along to a dumb pop song that they play on the radio”. The following year, ‘Am I A Girl?’ explored similar themes with a more menacing bite – while 2020’s ‘I Disagree’ pulled from heavier metal and alternative rock. On that record’s opener ‘Concrete’ Poppy appears to kill off her previous era atop overwrought, squalling guitar solos and flowery, orchestral interludes: “bury me six-foot deep,” she deadpans, “cover me in concrete”.  Though Poppy insists that this tension between lightness and darkness is instinctive – ”I don’t set out to be like ‘I’m going to do this’ she says – she admits that she’s drawn in these directions on a “subconscious” level. “I’m very aware of how I perceive or consume or digest things from other people, and I think subconsciously people that are attracted to my works view it similarly as well,” she says. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Frank W Ockenfels III

Poppy’s home state of Tennessee has the highest number of megachurches per capita in the entire US – these mammoth places of worship often have thousands in their congregations, and often broadcast their sermons on TV in a practice known as Televangelism. Growing up in a city woven with religious threads eventually led Poppy to found her own Poppy Church – a virtual world for fans.

“It’s always been a topic that has been multi-layered for me,” she says. “It’s never something that can be black and white, and it’s always something that I struggled finding my interpretation and meaning with. I always found it kind of ironic that some of the people who hurt me the most in my life were people that were extremely religious. It has always been a frustration – there’s something perverse about someone who portrays themselves as being pure, and the contradiction, the juxtaposition and the thought that there’s always something darker underneath something that looks so concise and pristine… that’s what I think about often.”

Poppy’s new album is also her first since parting ways with her former collaborator Titanic Sinclair – in a statement on social media, the artist claimed she was subjected to “manipulative patterns” of behaviour. Though she doesn’t refer to him by name during our conversation, she pointedly mentions the idea of breaking free from “people that have been like a ball and chain or a negative force,” and seems liberated by the freedom of this new chapter.

The visuals for new single ‘Her’ certainly seem to allude to these past events; a devilish figure sits on a throne and claps as a series of identikit puppets roll off a musical conveyor belt. “Give her a face, give her a name, that isn’t hers, then make her yours,” she snarls on the song. “It’s based on people’s perspective of how things were,” she says of the song. “Did I feel like I was controlled? Or did people perceive me as being controlled?”.

Two more interviews before closing this up. I want to bring together as much information about Poppy as possible, as she is such a compelling artist and person. Numéro interviewed her back in April. Among other subjects, the dangers of social media was discussed:

“Have you been hurt by digital platforms and social media?

In the past, yes. I’ve felt upset by opinions published on social media. At the time, I wasn’t yet using those platforms to promote my music. A lot of people think that simply having an opinion is enough to allow them to share it with the whole world. I think you’ll agree it’s pretty frightening to see the consequences a simple Tweet can have. I’m not really sure if I trust my generation. As for the cultural industry, I’m not sure we can really talk about trust. Let’s look on the bright side: today we’re moving towards greater acceptance of otherness. Before, people were quickly put in boxes.

Are you frightened of ageing?

For a long time I was, yes. But I think those fears were related to an anxiety, that of not managing to be more fully what I really am. They’ve faded a bit with time, particularly when I realized that I was working hard every day to become what I really wanted to be. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello

Are there mistakes you’ve made since starting your music career?

Of course! Everyone makes mistakes. Mine include working with people who weren’t able to point me in the right direction, particularly when I was in the wrong and incapable of seeing it. But the word “mistake” is too strong, particularly in our business, because it’s very negative and doesn’t take into account the idea of experience. Paradoxically, keeping the wrong company can sometimes trigger a reaction that allows you to emancipate yourself. I don’t make decisions the way I used to anymore.

Journalists often class your music as “nu metal,” but I don’t think you agree with that categorization...

No, nu metal isn’t a genre I’d like to be assimilated with. [Laughs.] What’s more I never felt my music could be classed in any one category or another. Contemporary music has emancipated itself from the old classifications. Let’s say “contemporary metal” instead.

Rumour has it that metal fans are nicer and more open-minded, and yet it wasn’t until 2021 that a woman was nominated in the category at the Grammy Awards...

Metal fans are open-minded? No, I wouldn’t say that. [Laughs.] I think that those who make metal music are often very open-minded, adorable and extremely inspiring. They’ve given me a lot of advice and shown me a lot of love. But metal fans are the guardians of the creative temple, which they defend jealously, and they can sometimes be rather conservative. They’re definitely not as conciliatory as those they adulate! There are many women in the world of metal, so clearly it’s wonderful that I was nominated in that category”.

The last interview I am mentioning is from Vanity Fair . Although it is from 2020, it is a really interesting chat that I enjoyed reading. I have selected a few excerpts:

“At the same time, the Poppy character itself began to feel like a straitjacket—creative anathema to someone with a constant need to move forward. “One of my biggest fears is regressing,” she said. “I don’t want to ever be moving backwards. I need to always be going forward. I even have a problem when I have a layover.” Not only that, but Poppy was realizing that the internet and social media, her chosen venue for artistic expression, was becoming an increasingly ugly and toxic place.

Poppy wrote I Disagree with Sinclair, but also, apparently unbeknownst to Sinclair himself, some of the record’s lyrics, she now says, were about him. It was a small but symbolic act of defiance. Of the whole period, Poppy said, “It just got to a point…when the air just felt very heavy. I felt like there was a shift coming.”

The shift happened, finally, at the end of last year. In December, she took to social media to announce the professional breakup with Sinclair, with then uncharacteristic candor. It was not an amicable split. “I was trapped in a mess that I needed to dig my way out of,” she wrote, “and like I always do, I figured out how to handle it. I encourage those of you who feel trapped in a situation whether it be similar to my previous one or not—to take the first step, because that is the most difficult one.” 

During our interview in February, Poppy did not mention Sinclair by name, instead referring to a “previous collaborative partner” and “certain people.”

Not long after the split, in May, Poppy released a statement in a since-deleted tweet saying that an unnamed ex-boyfriend had leaked photos of her sans makeup online, along with unreleased material. “This is an attempt to make me feel small, insecure and exposed,” she wrote. “Those tactics aren’t going to work.”

Recently given the opportunity to respond to the statement, Sinclair didn’t deny such accusations. “Poppy is a true living enigma,” he wrote in an email. “She was my best friend, my business partner, and my lover for half a decade and not once did I call her by her legal name.”

“I’m disappointed with how she decided to treat me in the end,” he added. “And I have to live with how I reacted to accepting (and ultimately respecting) why she did it in the first place.”

An hour after our interview back in February, Poppy, or a version of her at least, lay in a casket at Brooklyn Steel, her eyes closed, arms across her chest. Around her, a small gathering paid their respects, taking turns at saying a few words each. The funeral ceremony was Poppy’s characteristically twisted way of killing off her famed former self once and for all, closing a chapter and beginning a new one.

Poppy’s longtime fans—her “Poppy seeds”—remain devoted. She’s grateful for that, but also excited about reaching a whole new audience. As much as it was for the fans, the ceremony was for her too, a way of laying a version of herself to rest and letting go. She talked about her old persona, and what was known as the Poppy project, with an epitaphic finality. “She had her life.… I don’t think there’s a part of me that will miss it,” she said. “I feel like it served its purpose”.

With a new album out, there is a lot of eyes on Poppy. She is a sensational artist who will continue to make incredible music. Flux is her latest offering. An innovative, consistent and striking artist, Poppy is most definitely…

ONE of the absolute best.

FEATURE: The Line-Up with Shaun Keaveny: Building Your Own Dream Festival

FEATURE:

 

 

The Line-Up with Shaun Keaveny 

Building Your Own Dream Festival

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I was spending a lot of time…

PHOTO CREDIT: Jade Masri/Unsplash

with podcasts during the pandemic. We are still in the pandemic though, when it first started, there was this sense that this thing will go on and we are not sure when it will get better. Now that there is a little bit of movement and a little less fear, I am still listening to podcasts a lot. As festivals are coming back, it has got me thinking about live music. So many artists have been living off hardly anything for over a year and a half. It will take a while before the live economy has been restored and we see the same amount of gigs as we did in 2019. It is good to see artists and fans come back to festivals. Scenes of revellers united is something we were unsure would return so soon. It is great that people can make plans in this area. It was a tragedy when Shaun Keaveny left BBC Radio 6 Music last month (or, as he said in his farewell speech, the decision was sort of taken out of his hands). He had been at the station for fourteen years and amassed legions of loyal listeners! It was an emotional day when he said goodbye to a station that he helped get to where it is today. Happily, he is keeping busy outside of radio – though we hope he gets his own show again very soon! Even though his podcast, The Line-Up with Shaun Keaveny, has been going for a few weeks now, I wanted to draw attention to it.

This Sony Music release explains more about what the podcast entails:

“The Line-Up is a new podcast created in collaboration with Sony Music Commercial Group and Cup & Nuzzle, where music-loving guests get the chance to curate their very own dream festival alongside veteran broadcaster Shaun Keaveny.

Each episode will see Shaun and his guest discussing their favourite festival memories, who tops the bill on their dream line-up, their food and drink of choice and the all-important question – are they brave enough to face the infamous portaloos?

“The Line-Up is a chance for me to essentially play God to all manner of great guests and grant them their ultimate festival wishes,” said Shaun. “Whatever they do desire – be it Hendrix jamming with Taylor swift, or a helicopter on site delivering their favourite curry. All I ask for in return, like any god worth their salt, is total eternal devotion!”

With no anecdote off limits, The Line-Up will showcase each guest’s true passions and musical spirit. People in the hot seat include artists Manic Street Preachers and Tom Grennan, actor Jodie Whittaker and comedian Shaparak Khorsandi.

Shaun was an instrumental part of the BBC 6 Music family for nearly 15 years, interviewing the most prestigious names in the music industry and further afield. Later this month he is co-hosting live coverage of the Isle of Wight Festival 2021 for Sky Arts, and he recently announced he is joining Absolute Radio for their comedy show, Rockanory.

Produced by Natalie Jamieson, The Line-Up kicks off on 15th September with Imagine Dragons and will be available weekly across all podcast providers – subscribe here”.

I have loved the episodes so far. The guests have been really interesting and different. I hope that there are many more series of Keaveny’s podcast, as the idea is one that has a lot of room for expansion. The series has the legs to run for a long time. I love the fact that a guest can assemble their own music festival. This is something we have all dreamed of at some point. You can name it, say where it is to be located and what sort of vibe there will be – in terms of ambience, food and the general look/feel. Keaveny’s guests get to choose five acts, living or dead, that will be in the line-up. Going from the dawn through to the night, it is a tantalising opportunity to construct the best festivals ever. It has been interesting seeing which direction each guest goes in. I like the fact Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds (in the first episode) chose Paul Simon and Alanis Morissette – though the former could only play Graceland, whilst the latter had to perform Jagged Little Pill. Joy Crookes explained how, as she has anxiety and likes being close to home, her festival would be in South London. She opted for Billie Holiday and Prince in her line-up (who, she said, would play the entire festival; seemingly shredding and gyrating for the whole day!). There is a long way to go for The Line-Up with Shaun Keaveny. I don’t recall hearing many podcasts like this.

IN THIS PHOTO: San Diego, U.S.A./PHOTO CREDIT: Ameer Basheer/Unsplash

Whilst anyone can set up their own music festival, the cost, logistics and sheer scale of demand would put many off. In this podcast, music lovers can construct their dream festival without having to worry about red tape and expenses. Keaveny, as the host, would handle all of that. Rather than this being me getting a chance to pitch my own dream line-up, it is a recommendation for people to catch the podcast. Also, have a think about how your festival would go. For me, I would have a festival set in California. It might put off some British and international acts, but the wide-ranging and ideal landscape would be perfect. Perhaps setting it in Pasadena or San Diego. Calling it The Love Below Festival (as I really like the name; The Love Below was part of an Outkast double album (with Speakerboxxx) in 2003). With some great backdrops and plenty of entertainment and good food on site, it would be quite a cool and original festival. For food and drink, it would mix summer drinks like milkshakes and cocktails with international cuisine. There would be something for everyone. I would hold it in August. There would be a Glastonbury-like vibe to the site. So many different stalls and forms of entertainment. It is quite hard when it comes to narrowing down to five acts. In The Line-Up with Shaun Keaveny, our host has this great rapport with the guests. He helps mould their festival and provide this tangible joy – like you are part of the crowd and are ready to see the acts!

 IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney/PHOTO CREDIT: Mary McCartney

I would have to open the festival with an artist who could do mellow and upbeat. Dan Reynolds has already picked The Beatles. I would have Paul McCartney open. I would get him to (as much as you force Macca to do anything!) play solo stuff, The Beatles and Wings tracks. There would be a moment when Ringo Starr would join him. Possibly at the very end, the drummer could hook up with his former bandmate for a great finale. Maybe they could play Paperback Writer (The Beatles) or Band of the Run (Wings). It would get plenty of people in early. I would probably keep my line-up quite classic. I like new artists, though one would go with their all-time favourites if there were no limits. I never got to see Freddie Mercury perform with Queen. To hear that in a live setting would be amazing. They would have free reign over which songs were played. I think this would be a nice boost as we head into the afternoon. Following Queen would be Madonna. Ideally, one would like to see a 1990-Madonna perform (when she was on her The Blond Ambition World Tour). In terms of her fame and energy levels, this would be a good period. Not to say she lacks something as a live performer now. One feels that she is winding down her touring days. Few artists have such an illustrious and famous back catalogue!

 IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna/PHOTO CREDIT: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for A+E

I would insist that she plays songs from her debut, Madonna (1983) to 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor. I don’t mind her work after that, but she has so many big hits that she would need to cram in! I guess there would be a lot of costume changes, so it might be quite a long set! Honourable mentions go to Radiohead, Michael Jackson, Björk and so many others that I could not include. The penultimate act would be Beyoncé. Again, I have not seen her perform live. She has headlined Glastonbury and turned in an iconic set at Coachella a few years back. I would have her perform with JAY-Z, her former Destiny’s Child group-mates (Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland). I think that this would be a perfect way to get the crowd going and up as we head to the final act. Whilst it would never happen in any situation and she has never played a festival before (although she did briefly appear at a Japanese music festival in 1978), Kate Bush would close the festival (as you might expect I’d say!). Able to keep the energy going but also take us down as we head into the night, it would be a special closer! I would ask if she could put together a special set uniting her albums, Never for Ever (1980), The Dreaming (1982), The Sensual World (1989) and 50 Words for Snow (2011). These are albums that have either never been performed live or have only had a song or two played.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

It would be a live set like no other. With great sets, costumes and effects, the icon would be playing tracks that she has never taken to the stage. Lasting about three hours, it would be an epic set that would definitely get the crowd crying and cheering! As she takes a bow and the set ends, there would be a visual display. Rather than fireworks (which are fuck*ng awful and noisy), there would be a spectacular display of lightning and visuals that would set people on their way. That is my desirable festival line-up. Every episode I hear of The Line-Up with Shaun Keaveny makes me wonder and imagine. I am sure, days from now, I will think of another artist that I would have at my festival – the temptation to move things around and fiddle! A great podcast series at a time when so many festivals are resuming (whilst others are planning their return next year), I hope that many more tune in and give it nice reviews. Although Shaun Keaveny is no longer at BBC Radio 6 Music, he is doing podcasts and other projects. He is definitely going to be kept busy for a long while yet! If you are a music lover who has always thought about what their dream festival line-up would be, then I can recommend you check out the excellent podcast from…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn/PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay

THE inimitable Shaun Keaveny.

FEATURE: The September Playlist: Vol. 4: A Royal Morning Blue Tint in the Hall of Mirrors

FEATURE:

 

 

The September Playlist  

IN THIS PHOTO: Let’s Eat Grandma/PHOTO CREDIT: El Hardwick

Vol. 4: A Royal Morning Blue Tint in the Hall of Mirrors

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THIS week’s Playlist…

IN THIS PHOTO: Damon Albarn

is packed with great tunes. Alongside new material from Let’s Eat Grandma is Damon Albarn, Alessia Cara, Nao, Poppy, Guns N' Roses, The Lathums, Elton John/Charlie Puth, Little Boots, GRACEY, and L Devine. Joining them is Public Service Broadcasting (ft. Blixa Bargeld), Amber Mark, Bess Turner, Parquet Courts, and Eels. If you need a boost to get you into the weekend, make sure that you check out the songs below. It is another big and varied week that should give you the lift that you need. Sit back and enjoy some great tunes from…

IN THIS PHOTO: GRACEY

AN eclectic week.   

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

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Let’s Eat Grandma – Hall of Mirrors

Damon Albarn - Royal Morning Blue 

Alessia Cara – Best Days

Nao – Burn Out

Poppy – As Strange As It Seems

Guns N' Roses - Hard Skool

The Lathums – I Won’t Lie

Little Boots – Silver Balloons

Elton John, Charlie Puth – After All

PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Almeida

GRACEY – the internet

L Devine – Die on the Dancefloor

PHOITO CREDIT: Sequoia Ziff

Bess Atwell – How Do You Leave

Public Service Broadcasting (ft. Blixa Bargeld) - Der Rhythmus der Maschinen

v

Amber Mark – What It Is

Delilah Holliday - Dimension 

PHOTO CREDIT: Lily Brown

Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard – You 

alt-j - U&ME 

Pixey – Take Me On

PHOTO CREDIT: Carlos Gonzalez

Kadhja Bonet – For You 

Oh Wonder – 22 Break

Porij – Divine

PHOTO CREDIT: Colin Medley

Andy Shauf – Jaywalker 

PHOTO CREDIT: Pooneh Ghana

Parquet Courts - Black Widow Spider 

PHOTO CREDIT: Cal McIntyre

Orlando Weeks - Look Who’s Talking Now 

Eels - Good Night on Earth 

Jaz Karis – Motions

Nina Nesbitt - Life’s a Bitch (L.A.B)

Erica Cody – Queen

Carrie Baxter – You

M(h)aol – Gender Studies 

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex de Brabant

Lotic – Emergency

PHOTO CREDIT: Cam Whaley

The Ophelias – Crocus

Eiza Murphy – Movies

Amy Allen – A Woman’s World

Georgia Greene – Have You Thought About Me with Someone Else

v

FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential October Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

IN THIS PHOTO: Lana De Rey

Essential October Releases

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WITH there being some seriously good albums…

due next month, I am going to suggest the best that you will want to own. If you have some pennies set aside for records, I feel the suggestions below are for you. This year has seen so many terrific albums released. I think one or two due next month could rank alongside the very best of 2021. The first week is actually 1st October. There are a few big albums out that you will want to own. Brandi Carlile’s In These Silent Days is out on 1st October. It is an album that you need to pre-order. In this article from SPIN, we discover more about a much-anticipated album from the Washington-born songwriter:

“Carlile crafted the 10 songs that comprise In These Silent Days with longtime co-conspirators Tim and Phil Hanseroth. The songs were written while Carlile was quarantined at home and chronicle acceptance, faith, loss and love.

Here’s what she had to say about the record:

Never before have the twins and I written an album during a time of such uncertainty and quiet solitude. I never imagined that I’d feel so exposed and weird as an artist without the armor of a costume, the thrill of an applause and the platform of the sacred stage.

Despite all this, the songs flowed through—pure and unperformed, loud and proud, joyful and mournful. Written in my barn during a time of deep and personal reckoning.

There’s plenty reflection…but mostly it’s a celebration.

This album is what drama mixed with joy sounds like. It’s resistance and gratitude, righteous anger and radical forgiveness.

It’s the sound of these silent days”.

Another album that is due on 1st October is Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett’s Love for Sale. Even if you are not a big fan of either artist, it is going to be such a beautiful album – you will want to grab a copy. Go and pre-order Love for Sale (“The follow up to 2014's Grammy Award-winning Cheek To Cheek, Bennett and Gaga's latest collaborative album is a celebration of the Cole Porter songbook and a testament to the pair's enduring friendship and love for one another”). Recently, Bennett and Lady Gaga performed together at Radio City Music Hall. This is what Vulture observed:

“Though unused for the past 18 months, Radio City Music Hall’s 6,105 red velvet chairs will likely need a tune-up by the end of this week thanks to Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, and the 27 standing ovations the pair received during their miraculous, magnificent concert there on Thursday night (August 5).

It was the second and final performance of “One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga,” and the sold-out audience had come to pay their respects — and in their sequined, bedazzled best. Many dressed for the occasion in ball gowns, tuxedos, and gemstone-drenched smoking jackets; masks were sparse (though attendees were required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter the venue), but there were even a few rhinestone-studded face coverings spotted in Radio City’s teeming lobby beforehand.

When Gaga made her entrance just after 9 p.m., in a sparkling white ball gown, and struck a pose, the crowd — which included Hillary and Bill Clinton, who received a shout-out from the mistress of ceremonies — leapt to their feet and cheered. When the curtain rose an hour later to reveal Bennett for the first time, standing by the piano with his arms outstretched in elated greeting, they stood — clapping and waving, this time as if facing an old friend for the first time in years — until he picked up his microphone and began to sing. The vast majority of those present for Bennett’s final performance at Radio City Music Hall understood the assignment: We were here to watch a beloved New York icon say good-bye to the stage, with his decorated protégé giving him a proper send-off”.

I really love the collaborative work between Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. They are such a perfect fit and, although Bennett is ninety-five, I hope that the two work together on a further album. I am definitely going to check out Love for Sale. I am excited to see what the album offers and what the highlights will be. Definitely, one of the biggest albums due next month!

Staying with 1st October, and the final album that I will recommend from this week is Tirzah’s Colourgrade. This is an album that every music fan should order. Rough Trade provide us some more details about an L.P. that is going to get a lot of love and focus. Tirzah is such a wonderful artist making music that is so resonant and instant:

“Colourgrade follows on from 2018’s immediate cult classic LP, Devotion. It forms a subconscious snapshot from across a year when Tirzah was playing live regularly for the first time, in the depths of promoting Devotion and recorded soon after the birth of her first child and shortly before her second child was born. The album explores recovery, gratitude and new beginnings, presenting a singer having discovered the type of love that is shared between a mother and a child for the first time, whilst simultaneously working as an artist. Capturing both the great and the scary, the exhaustion and the recovery, Colourgrade is a listless amble through the innermost feelings, an intoxicating presentation of a full time mother and artist. As always, a Tirzah record is a family affair. That doesn’t just mean grandmum and granddad, but the extended CURL crew that includes long term collaborators, Mica Levi and Coby Sey, the younger brother of producer Kwes who mixes on Colourgrade. It’s this natural, collaborative energy that keeps Tirzah’s music fresh and progressive”.

As the rest of October is busy, I will move things to 8th. There is one album from this week that I want to source. It is Pip Blom’s Welcome Break. This is an album that I am really excited to hear. Do go and pre-order and album that is going to be among this year’s very finest:

“Actively seeking out moments of creative-authenticity, be it via a slightly- out-of-tune guitar or proudly-fuzzed vocals, Pip Blom take us back full circle and introduce us to their Welcome Break- an eleven-track release which resonates with about as much decisive allure as it’s Boat precursor, but this time with a bit more contemporary chaos to boot. Where Boat reckoned as a fresh-faced, yet gloriously fearless game- changer, Welcome Break is the self-assured older sibling who, with an additional year or two behind themselves, isn’t afraid to speak out, take lead, and instigate a liberated revolution-come-bliss-out.

Following an extensive touring schedule which saw the Dutch 4-piece roam over field, oceans, and Glastonbury’s John Peel stage following the release of their debut record Boat, any such cool-cat would be forgiven for wanting to kick back, and indulge in some very appreciated, time off. As is often the way, such timely-abandon cannot be said for Pip Blom however, who immediately began to gather up all her soaked-up inspirations taken from the road, and manifest a re-energised sense of self, and ritualistic songwriting. It’s at this stage in our indie-fairy-tale that things start to get ever so 2020. Whilst the world was suddenly put on hold as a result of Covid-19, Pip Blom, who’d made plans to return to their favourite ‘Big Jelly Studios’ in Ramsgate, England, were suddenly faced with a very sticky, kind of dilemma. “We’d scheduled to go into the studio in September but summer started moving and there were a couple of countries not allowed to go to the UK anymore... a week before we had to go, the Netherlands was one of those countries”- notes Pip.

In total, three weeks were spent recording what would become the groups sophomore release; a Al Harle engineered love-affair which was self- produced entirely by the band and culminated in a legally intimate, fully- seated album play-back, to six, of Ramsgate’s most chorus-savvy and ‘in- the-know’ residents. Getting out of their hometown and into an environment which removed all notions of “normality” or personal space, was an atmospheric godsend in terms of motivation; an act which encouraged Pip Blom to re-adjust and buckle down as a unit again, after spending so long in mandatory isolation”.

The following week, 15th is a pretty packed one! I shall narrow it down to three albums from that week (as there are a few from 22nd and 29th that are also worth getting). The first I am going to suggest is Hayden Thorpe’s Moondust For My Diamond. The former Wild Beasts lead is one of my favourite artists. His second solo album is shaping up to be very special indeed. I would recommend that everyone set aside some money so that they can pre-order the album:

“In contrast to Diviner, a record that very much favoured the inner world, Moondust For My Diamound sees Hayden Thorpe moving into a more natural visual and sonic palette, gazing outward on the world. Produced by Richard Formby and Nathan Jenkins (Bullion), Thorpe has made an album that is galvanising, reassuring, elegant, seductive: it oozes Big Cosmic Energy”.

Make sure that you invest in Thorpe’s upcoming album. He is someone that always provides such incredible music. I am going to move on and concentrate on 22nd in a minute. There are a couple of other albums due out on 15th October that I think are going to be worth checking out – October is an especially busy month, as it has five Fridays!

Johnny Marr’s Fever Dreams, Pt. 1 is another great album that you will want to go and get. The former legendary guitarist with The Smiths, Marr has proved himself to be one of the most consistently brilliant and astonishing artists. I love his solo work, so I am really keen to see what we get from Fever Dreams Pt. 1. It is going to be another wonderful and memorable album from the incredible Marr. It is an album that I can definitely recommend people go and get. Pre-order your copy to ensure that you do not miss out on one of the biggest releases from next month:

“Informed by the kind of powerful, anthemic and direct approach to words instantly present in Spirit, Power And Soul, the songs on the ‘Fever Dreams Pt 1’ EP arrive with an emotional potency. Fusing the language of soul music with his roots as a “Mancunian glam rocker”, lyrics that could be simultaneously personal, universal, and subtly political, with a fantastically expansive sound. The new EP reflects Johnny’s multifaceted past, but takes his music somewhere startlingly new”.

Although there are a lot of other great albums out on 15th October, I am going to keep it quite simple and finish with another that I feel everyone should set aside some money for. Remi Wolf is a brilliant new artist everyone should know and investigate. Juno is an album I am excited about. I am not sure whether there is a vinyl release, but one can pre-order it on C.D. now. If you need a bit more insight into Juno, NME provided some news and further exploration recently:  

“Remi Wolf is preparing to release Juno on 15th October. This is a new artist that is primed to become a huge success. I am going to follow her career to see where she heads. Wolf is someone that everyone needs to spend some time with.

“In a press release, Wolf described ‘Quiet On Set’ as “full on psycho”, saying that “as much as the song is silly and fun, it really does reflect my life and feelings at the time… overworked, manic, reckless, and childish”.

She noted that ‘Grumpy Old Man’ came from a more vulnerable place than she usually taps into with her songwriting, with the number inspired by “some of the most benign things [that] can make me irritated and defensive, which makes me feel old, fragile, and careless”.

Both tracks will appear on ‘Juno’, set for release on October 15 via Island. The LP will also feature last month’s single ‘Liquor Store’, and is named after her dog, which she adopted during lockdown.

“Creating my debut album ‘Juno’ was like a fever dream,” Wolf said. “So many changes were happening in my life while I was creating these songs and I think my album really reflects the feelings of tension and release that these changes provoked in me.

“Every song on this record is a vivid snapshot into what was going on in my life and mindset the day I wrote each one. I hope my Remjobs can hear my honesty and passion come through and, if not, I just hope they think each song is a banger!”

‘Juno’ comes as the follow-up to Wolf’s 2020 EP, ‘I’m Allergic To Dogs!’. NME declared the record one of the best releases of the year, with writer Charlotte Krol calling it “a flamboyant collage of pop that sticks together vignettes of her love life, hedonism and humdrum hindrances”.

There are a few albums out on 29th October I am keen to point people in the direction of. Before that, 22nd October is promising a lot of gold! I am going to narrow it down to five from that week. That might not sound like narrowing; there are a lot of great albums out that week! The first on the radar is Duran Duran’s FUTURE PAST. Go and pre-order your copy as I think the legendary band are producing some of their best music in years. The band spoke with The Guardian earlier in the year about FUTURE PAST:

“The band are all far-flung now, with families, side projects, lives that span from Los Angeles to Chelsea. But they refer to an almost gravitational force that Simon Le Bon, sitting next to John Taylor in hoodie and blue jeans, says he felt right from his very first audition. The band started playing the track Sound of Thunder, and he stood up and invented a verse on the spot. “I thought: ‘God, this is the real thing, this is how it’s supposed to be,’” he remembers. “And I knew that I had to hold on to it as a job, and I had to hold on to those melodies, and I had to hold on to these guys because I knew there would never be anything in my life that was more creative and more immediate and more absolute than being in Duran Duran.”

“There was a certain inevitability about the new album,” John Taylor continues. “We get to the end of a touring cycle and we know we need time away from each other – but it’s like a chemical thing, it’s a pull that happens, almost like a mission; we have to go back!”

“I wasn’t into making a new album at all,” counters Le Bon. “I was like: ‘Let’s just do a single’, because I thought nobody’s going to listen to a whole album, people just listen to singles now. But I think I was on my own in that camp and it was a band decision. That’s how we work: four people and no leader.”

Arriving at the studio, “we show up with no ideas whatsoever and run up at it like a lump of clay in the middle of the room”, says John Taylor. Invisible began with a Le Bon lyric, “a personal thing about a relationship where one person is not listening, and the other person starts to think: maybe I’m just not here”. Soon it grew into something broader, “about being human, and realising there’s a lot of us and we don’t all get heard”. It is a year since it was recorded, but Taylor notes that in that time, as the world has weathered isolation, upheaval and political protest, the song has acquired new layers of meaning. “It’s become enormously resonant,” he says. “And I’m glad that we are not coming back with a party song. That would feel tone deaf”.

Moving on to Elton John’s The Lockdown Sessions. Make sure you pre-order. As the title suggests, it is the icon recording songs with a range of artists through lockdown. Here are some more details:

“Elton John releases a collaborations album The Lockdown Sessions. The singer's 32nd studio LP features tracks with Miley Cyrus, Lil Nas X, Gorillaz, Young Thug, Dua Lipa, Andrew Watt, Stevie Wonder and more.

1. Elton John and Dua Lipa – Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)

2. Elton John, Young Thug and Nicki Minaj – Always Love You

3. Surfaces feat. Elton John – Learn To Fly

4. Elton John and Charlie Puth – After All

5. Rina Sawayama and Elton John – Chosen Family

6. Gorillaz feat. Elton John and 6LACK – The Pink Phantom

7. Elton John and Years and Years – It's a sin (global reach mix)

8. Miley Cyrus feat. WATT, Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo and Chad Smith – Nothing Else Matters

9. Elton John and SG Lewis – Orbit

10. Elton John and Brandi Carlile – Simple Things

11. Jimmie Allen and Elton John – Beauty In The Bones

12. Lil Nas X feat. Elton John – One Of Me

13. Elton John and Eddie Vedder – E-Ticket

14. Elton John and Stevie Wonder – Finish Line

15. Elton John and Stevie Nicks – Stolen Car

16. Glen Campbell and Elton John – I’m Not Gonna Miss You”.

Lana Del Rey’s Blue Banisters is another huge album next month that you will want to own. Go and pre-order another treasure from a modern great. So soon after Chemtrails Over the Country Club, it is great to have more music from her. This Pitchfork article provides more details:

“Lana Del Rey has detailed her next studio album Blue Banisters, which finally arrives October 22. She has also shared the LP’s latest single. This one’s titled “Arcadia,” and Del Rey wrote and produced it with Drew Erickson. Watch Del Rey’s self-directed “Arcadia” video below.

“Arcadia” follows three other singles the singer-songwriter released together in May: “Blue Banisters,” “Wildflower Wildfire,” and “Text Book.” All three songs, as well as “Arcadia,” are featured on Blue Banisters. Find the album’s tracklist and artwork below.

Lana Del Rey announced Blue Banisters in late April and originally suggested it would come out July 4. She had also teased something called Rock Candy Sweet, but no other details followed.

Between 2019’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! and the more recent Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Lana Del Rey published Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass, her first collection of poetry, along with an audiobook counterpart she produced with Antonoff.

01 Textbook

02 Blue Banisters

03 Arcadia

04 Interlude - The Trio

05 Black Bathing Suit

06 If You Lie Down With Me

07 Beautiful

08 Violets for Roses

09 Dealer

10 Thunder

11 Wildflower Wildfire

12 Nectar of the Gods

13 Living Legend

14 Cherry Blossom

15 Sweet Carolina”.

Parquet Courts’ Sympathy for Life is a great album you will want to own. This is the seventh album from the New York band. They always deliver such exceptional music. It will be intriguing to discover what Sympathy for Life contains:

“Parquet Courts’ thought-provoking rock is dancing to a new tune. Sympathy For Life finds the Brooklyn band at both their most instinctive and electronic, spinning their bewitching, psychedelic storytelling into fresh territory, yet maintaining their unique identity.

Built largely from improvised jams, inspired by New York clubs, Primal Scream and Pink Floyd and produced in league with Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, Hot Chip, David Byrne), Sympathy For Life was always destined to be dancey. Unlike its globally adored predecessor, 2018’s Wide Awake! the focus fell on grooves rather than rhythm.

“Wide Awake! was a record you could put on at a party,” says co-frontman Austin Brown. “Sympathy For Life is influenced by the party itself. Historically, some amazing rock records been made from mingling in dance music culture – from Talking Heads to Screamadelica. Our goal was to bring that into our own music”.

The final album from 22nd October that you will want to own is Self Esteem’s Prioritise Pleasure. This is an album that many people are looking forward to. The work of Rebecca Lucy Taylor, she is going to scoop huge reviews for Prioritise Pleasure. Go and pre-order it:

“The follow up to Self Esteem’s acclaimed 2019 debut album Compliments Please, Prioritise Pleasure is a record that reminds us all of the importance of being our unapologetic selves, putting your insecurities out there in the hope that it can be the first step towards healing them. Honest disclosure has always been Self Esteem’s forte, and so each track on Prioritise Pleasure handles difficult themes with nuanced perspective, comforted and counter-balanced with an array of rhythmic flourishes that speak to the eclecticism of her experience and influence.

Having allowed itself grace, Prioritise Pleasure is also a record of great joy. Working again with trusted producer Johan Karlberg [of afro-fusion trio The Very Best], it was stitched together throughout the pandemic in chunked sessions, the time between each batch encouraging Taylor to fully flesh out her ideas. With Prioritise Pleasure, Self Esteem comes one step closer to reminding listeners – and herself – that true success begins and ends with self-acceptance, telling your story in the way that only you can”.

There are four albums from 29th October that you will want to seek out and spend some time with. Lotic’s Water is the first one I would advise people to pre-order. It is shaping up to be a fantastic album you will not want to miss out on:

“J’Kerian Morgan, the artist known as Lotic releases her new album Water. Water, for Houndstooth, is a stunning revelation; a tender meditation on love’s losses and lifeforce, timelines, bloodlines and resilience. Arriving at the end of a period Morgan recalls as, “having to be adaptable, while being dragged through the trenches,” Water adds the haunting quality of siren song to a career already marked by its engaging emotionality.

To arrive at Water meant to become like water. Lotic dedicated two years to a deep, intentional process of surrendering to softness, welcoming impermanence, embracing intimate relationships with her environment and self. Yet, to embrace vulnerability is to welcome its totality.

Water is the complete embodiment of Lotic’s dedicated praxis; one which unpicks a certain narrative about corrosive angst and outlier musicality. Compositions curve around the sub bass of an 808, with vibrations and hums superseding clarity and separation. Drums are softened to a powdery warmth, and each chapter unfolds as a symphonic sound poem. Heartful depictions of love relationships to others and the self, to ancestry and identity, are marked by stunning new expressions of ecstatic voices.

Water heals, and it harms. It can sharpen, scald or silently consume. Water is a conduit for human corruption, such as the wrenching cruelty of forced Middle Passage crossings, yet water remains a site of ritual and absolution, a source of constant renewal”.

Marissa Nadler’s The Path of the Clouds is one I am excited about. Many people might not know about her music. This is a stunning forthcoming album that I would encourage people to pre-order:

“The Path of the Clouds, Marissa Nadler’s ninth solo album, is the most stylistically adventurous, lyrically transfixing, and melodically sophisticated collection of songs in her already rich discography. Gripped by wanderlust while suddenly housebound at the start of the pandemic in 2020, Nadler escaped into writing, and came back with a stunning set of songs about metamorphosis, love, mysticism, and murder. Blurring the line between reality and fantasy and moving freely between past and present, these 11 deeply personal, self-produced songs find Nadler exploring new landscapes, both sonic and emotional.

Nadler tracked the skeletons of the songs at home and then sent them to some choice collaborators, including experimental harpist Mary Lattimore and Simon Raymonde, the Cocteau Twins bassist and her Lost Horizons collaborator. Multi-instrumentalist Milky Burgess, having recently worked on the soundtrack to the film Mandy, adds intricate melodic power throughout the album. Jesse Chandler, Nadler’s piano teacher (as well as a member of Mercury Rev and Midlake), plays winding woodwinds and plaintive piano to luminous effect. Fellow singer-songwriter Emma Ruth Rundle contributes a slinky guitar solo on “Turned Into Air,” while Black Mountain’s Amber Webber steps in as a vocal foil to Nadler, a ghostly apparition in the distance of “Elegy.”

The Path of the Clouds showcases the power of an artist at the peak of her powers nearly 20 years into an acclaimed career as a songwriter and singer. Coming a long way from the spare dream folk of her earlier work, she has remained inspired and continues to evolve, open to new ideas and directions. The proof is right here, in Nadler’s most ambitious and complex album yet”.

The War on Drugs’ I Don’t Live Here Anymore is an album that, again, I am looking ahead to. The first album in four years, you will want to pre-order it:

“The War On Drugs first studio album in four years, I Don’t Live Here Anymore. Over the last 15 years, The War on Drugs have steadily emerged as one of this century’s great rock and roll synthesists, removing the gaps between the underground and the mainstream, between the obtuse and the anthemic, making records that wrestle a fractured past into a unified and engrossing present. The War On Drugs have never done that as well as they do with their fifth studio album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, an uncommon rock album about one of our most common but daunting processes—resilience in the face of despair.

Just a month after The War On Drugs’ A Deeper Understanding received the 2018 Grammy for Best Rock Album, the core of Granduciel, bassist Dave Hartley, and multi-instrumentalist Anthony LaMarca retreated to upstate New York to jam and cut new demos, working outside of the predetermined roles each member plays in the live setting. These sessions proved highly productive, turning out early versions of some of the most immediate songs on I Don’t Live Here Anymore. It was the start of a dozen-plus session odyssey that spanned three years and seven studios, including some of rock’s greatest sonic workshops like Electric Lady in New York and Los Angeles’ Sound City. Band leader Adam Granduciel and trusted co-producer/engineer Shawn Everett spent untold hours peeling back every piece of these songs and rebuilding them.

One of the most memorable sessions occurred in May 2019 at Electro-Vox, in which the band’s entire line-up — rounded out by keyboardist Robbie Bennett, drummer Charlie Hall, and saxophonist Jon Natchez — convened to record the affecting album opener “Living Proof.” Typically, Granduciel assembles The War On Drugs records from reams of overdubs, like a kind of rock ‘n’ roll jigsaw puzzle. But for “Living Proof,” the track came together in real time, as the musicians drew on their chemistry as a live unit to summon some extemporaneous magic. The immediacy of the performance was appropriate for one of the most personal songs Granduciel has ever written.

The War On Drugs’ particular combination of intricacy and imagination animates the 10 songs of I Don’t Live Here Anymore, buttressing the feelings of Granduciel’s personal odyssey. It’s an expression of rock ’n’ roll’s power to translate our own experience into songs we can share and words that direct our gaze toward the possibility of what is to come”.

I am actually going to wrap it up there I think, as I have recommended quite a few albums and I am aware that most people will not have the budget for all of them! There are some options for the record buyer if they are looking for guides and tips for next month’s best. If you needed an insight into which October albums you should own, I hope that the above…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Self Esteem

IS of assistance.

FEATURE: A Missed Opportunity: Kate Bush: The Getty Files

FEATURE:

 

 

A Missed Opportunity

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Kate Bush: The Getty Files

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I am excited…

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that there is a new Kate Bush photobook out. Finding Kate is an illustrated history and look at her music and songs. We get her songs represented by unique and incredible illustrations. It is a book that every Kate Bush fan will want to own:

“In 1978 a then totally unknown teenage girl topped the UK Singles Chart with her debut single Wuthering Heights and in doing so became the first female artist to achieve a UK number one hit with a self-penned song. In 1980, aged 20 she was also the first British female solo artist to to enter the album charts at number one with Never For Ever, her third studio album. Her career currently spans five decades and she has had twenty five UK Top 40 singles in that time. As a singer, songwriter, musician, dancer and record producer she has been a groundbreaking artist in the truest sense of the word, often laying bare her soul in her songwriting and she is someone who has never been afraid to take risks creatively.

Finding Kate is a large, beautifully produced coffee table book that sets out to visually and textually explore her eclectic and often experimental musical style, her unconventional lyrics and in doing so celebrate the genius of one of the true icons of British music – Ms. Kate Bush”.

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I am going to keep this relatively short. I have been researching a lot recently for a possible Kate Bush podcast. In the course of reading, I have been looking at photos. There are a few from 1993 that are magnificent. There is a series by John Stoddart (search ‘Kate Bush 1993 John Stoddart’), and you will see these great shots. Bush looks gorgeous! They are quite simple, yet she looks such classy and enigmatic. 1993 was a year where she released The Red Shoes. I like a lot of the photos from that time. There are many others that have not been presented in features or made available in books as they are owned by Getty Images. This is a press agency that owns all these great photos of Kate Bush. One can buy them individually, though they are very expensive - you can use certain ones with the credit/watermark on. The seven shots I can see that were taken in October 1993 are among the best I have seen. There are also some great shots of Bush in 1985 when she was promoting Hounds of Love. Taken by Dave Hogan, Bush, again, looks wonderful! It is a shame that I cannot put any of these images into the feature without watermarks, though I have been able to embed them. I can understand how the photographers and Getty do not want the images used by anyone for free. The public would love to see these images that have not seen the light of day for many years. I especially love the 1993 images, though there are some from as early as 1978 that are hugely interesting. We have photobooks by the likes of John Carder Bush (her brother) that we can buy. These are his shots that are very personal. In contrast, the ones we see from Getty Images have been used in newspapers and magazines.

Looking back after all of these years, they do provide snapshots of Bush at various points in her career. I am not sure how many are available, but looking at shots like this makes you wonder why they are not readily available. I hope that there is some way a book can be created and published so that Getty Images can be readily available so that the photographers earn a cut and they are credited. Fans can see the images online, though there is something about having them available in a book that makes it that much more special. So many great images that the public might not be aware of. Kate Bush fans would definitely buy the book! I do wonder where a lot of these Getty Images photos ended up. I guess some were for interviews, though many might have ended up not being used. One cannot say that there are too many photobooks of Kate Bush available. I think it is an area that should be exploited more. We have only really scratched the surface when it comes to all of the beautiful and really interesting photos of her out there. Maybe there would be too many legal issues though, seeing the Getty Images shots of her, it makes me feel there is a book in it. Some classic shots that will otherwise languish, it is a shame if they were only reserved for media use and did not get collected in a handsome volume. Even if a hardback book costed quite a bit, I do feel that it would…

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BE well worth the money

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Nirvana’s Nevermind at Thirty: Songs from the Best Albums of 1991

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Nirvana (Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl) in 1991/PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn

Nirvana’s Nevermind at Thirty: Songs from the Best Albums of 1991

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SINCE I have already put out…

a feature regarding the thirtieth anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind, I am going to approach the album from a different angle. The iconic second studio album from the Seattle band, Nevermind was released on 24th September, 1991. Produced by Butch Vig, it was Nirvana's first release to feature drummer Dave Grohl – who, to me, instantly transforms their sound and elevates the music significantly to what we heard on 1989’s Bleach. Nevermind is noted for a more polished, radio-friendly sound than the band's prior work. Some people say that, unlike Bleach and Nevermind’s follow-up, In Utero, Nevermind is less representative of the band and more commercial. Reaching number one on the U.S. album chart and kicking off with the decade-defining single, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nevermind is a masterpiece. I am going to round this feature off by uniting songs from the best albums of 1991. Although Nevermind helped define the year and shook musical foundations, there were some other phenomenal albums released that year. I think I have done a 1991 playlist before but, as I am thinking of a legendary album from that year, I will do a deeper dive and combine deep cuts from year-ruling albums. First, I want to bring in a review of Nevermind from NME.

“NIRVANA DO here what Sonic Youth did so emphatically with 'Goo' last year - making the move from cult indie to major label with not as much as a hiccup. In fact, just as the Sonics impressed and outstripped the sceptics' expectations, Nirvana have made an LP which is not only better than anything they've done before, it'll stand up as a new reference point for the future post-hardcore generation.

For starters, this makes a refreshing change from the recent crop of groups - both British and American - who've used the Dinosaur Jr/Husker Du sound as their base starting point. Nirvana's rawk, instead, draws upon their roots in Sub Pop grunge, but also takes in chunks of heavy '70s bass/guitars and ideology.

Normally, this would spell the sort of appalling disaster you'd usually associate with ITV's autumn schedules, but Nirvana, in their defence, have attacked rock and changed the format. This is monstrous in the sense of a good drama series, rather than a cheap US thriller. While various American grunge bands seem content to slosh around in their respective hardcore genres - albeit with some success and lucidity - Nirvana have opted out of the underground without wimping out of the creative process.

'Nevermind' is a record for people who'd like to like Metallica, but can't stomach their lack of melody; while on the other hand it takes some of the Pixies' nous with tunes, and gives the idea new muscle. A shock to the system. Tracks like the excellent 'In Bloom' and best of the lot, 'Come As You Are', show a dexterity that combines both a tension and a laid-back vibe that work off each other to produce some cool, constructed twists and turns.

'Come As You Are' has something eerie about it, while opening track (and forthcoming single) 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' has a 'Goo'ey feeling inherent in its lurching structure. At other times, the threesome lean into thrashier territory with the berserk 'Territorial Pissings' and screaming-pop of 'Breed'.

This is the natural progression from their debut LP 'Bleach', exploring different avenues. They are less specific lyrically than SY, sometimes annoyingly so, but yet they still produce these vivid moods with 'Drain You', 'Polly' and the closing, quieter 'Something In The Way'.

'Nevermind' is the big American alternative record of the autumn. But better still, it'll last well into next year”.

To mark thirty years of one of the best albums ever, the playlist below takes two deeper cuts from Nevermind, joined by tracks from the very best albums of 1991. One hell of a year for music, you can get a good sense of the sounds, bands and artists who defined 1991. Happy thirtieth to Nirvana’s Nevermind! It is an album that still resounds and influences many…

TO this day.

FEATURE: Love Is a Good Thing: Sheryl Crow at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

Love Is a Good Thing

Sheryl Crow at Twenty-Five

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I have put together…

quite a few album anniversary features recently, as there are these classics that are worth highlighting. Including records from Primal Scream, Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers, it is a busy time for anniversaries! One album turning twenty-five on 24th September is Sheryl Crow’s eponymous release. Among the artists I followed and loved during the 1990s, Crow was near the very top. I love her music. Her debut, Tuesday Night Music Club of 1993, is one of my favourites. I think that Sheryl Crow is even stronger. It is more rounded and varied than her debut. Noticeably more confident as a singer and songwriter on Sheryl Crow, one can hear the differences. Sheryl Crow was a commercial success, being certified 3× platinum by the RIAA and 3× platinum by the BPI. It is one of these albums where the deeper cuts are as rich and rewarding as the singles. For anyone growing up in the 1990s, we would have heard singles from Sheryl Crow on the radio in 1996/1997. If It Makes You Happy, Everyday Is a Winding Road and A Change Would Do You Good are all-time classics. I also really like the innovation of her videos. She is an artist who put so much into her music. Whilst I have a particular soft spot for her third album, The Globe Sessions (1998), Sheryl Crow is still very dear in my heart. It is hard to believe that it is twenty-five! Such an important soundtrack during my childhood, I know there will be celebration and commemoration of an important album.

Before coming to a couple of reviews for Sheryl Crow, I am leaning on Wikipedia for some background regarding the recording. By all accounts, there was this period of tension following the release and success of Tuesday Night Music Club:

“Sheryl Crow is the follow-up to Sheryl Crow's 1993 album Tuesday Night Music Club, which was written by a group of musicians known as the "Tuesday Music Club". The group existed as a casual collective formed by Crow and musicians Bill Bottrell, David Baerwald, Kevin Gilbert, Brian MacLeod, David Ricketts, and Dan Schwartz. The album was a commercial success and produced several hit singles, including "All I Wanna Do", "Strong Enough", and "Leaving Las Vegas". It was certified 7× Platinum in the United States and 2× Platinum in the United Kingdom. Crow was also awarded Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Record of the Year at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards.

Tensions between Crow and other members of the group began to arise following Crow's performance of "Leaving Las Vegas" on the Late Show with David Letterman in March 1994. Crow offhandedly agreed with the host when she was asked if the track was autobiographical, even though it was primarily written by Baerwald and based on the book of the same name by his friend John O'Brien. As a result, several members of the Tuesday Music Club group felt betrayed, and O'Brien himself committed suicide three weeks later. Nevertheless, O'Brien's parents insisted that Crow had nothing to do with the tragedy, noting that he "was just mad about it [...] But the problems that drove him toward the end were – you know, that's a long, long bloody trip."

After Tuesday Night Music Club, Crow wanted to prove her authority as a musician. According to her, "My only objective on this record was to get under people's skin, because I was feeling like I had so much shit to hurl at the tape." Work on the new album began at Toad Hall in Pasadena, California, the same studio where Tuesday Night Music Club was recorded, but sessions were then relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana because Crow "was feeling ghosts in that room". Bottrell was designated to produce the record and co-wrote three songs that would appear on the album, but eventually left because he could not sort out his differences with Crow. As a result, Crow took over production duties and wrote most of the songs alone or with only one collaborator. She also played most of the instruments on the album, including bass and guitar work and nearly all the keyboard parts. Most of the album was recorded at Kingsway Studios in New Orleans, although Crow would later return to Los Angeles to complete work at The Sound Factory and Sunset Sound. Audio mastering took place at Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine”.

There is so much in the way of sound, texture and range through Sheryl Crow. It is such a broad and diverse album when it comes to genres and lyrical themes. Some critics have noted how the final third of the album is the weakest – it starts amazingly strong but loses momentum towards the end. I think Sheryl Crow is sequenced superbly. It is not the case of the singles all at the top. A Change Would Do You Good is track two; If It Makes You Happy is five; Everyday Is a Winding Road is eight. You get this nice distribution of the big songs alongside the rest of the album.

I feel there has been a lot of retrospective acclaim and respect for Sherly Crow. Maybe, in 1996, it was not seen as overly-hip or relevant. Having proven herself as a promising artist on Tuesday Night Music Club, Sheryl Crow is Crow as this accomplished and mature songwriter who delivered some of the best tracks of the decade. This is what AllMusic had to say in their review:

“Hiring noted roots experimentalists Tchad Blake and Mitchell Froom as engineer and consultant, respectively, Sheryl Crow took a cue from their Latin Playboys project for her second album -- she kept her roots rock foundation and added all sorts of noises, weird instruments, percussion loops, and off-balance production to give Sheryl Crow a distinctly modern flavor. And, even with the Stonesy grind of "Sweet Rosalyn" or hippie spirits of "Love Is a Good Thing," it is an album that couldn't have been made any other time than the '90s. As strange as it may sound, Sheryl Crow is a postmodern masterpiece of sorts -- albeit a mainstream, post-alternative, postmodern masterpiece. It may not be as hip or innovative as, say, the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, but it is as self-referential, pop culture obsessed, and musically eclectic. Throughout the record, Crow spins out wild, nearly incomprehensible stream-of-consciousness lyrics, dropping celebrity names and products every chance she gets ("drinking Falstaff beer/Mercedes Ruehl and a rented Leer"). Often, these litanies don't necessarily add up to anything specific, but they're a perfect match for the mess of rock, blues, alt-rock, country, folk, and lite hip-hop loops that dominate the record. At her core, she remains a traditionalist -- the songcraft behind the infectious "Change Would Do You Good," the bubbly "Everyday Is a Winding Road," and the weary "If It Makes You Happy" helped get the singles on the radio -- but the production and lyrics are often at odds with those instincts, creating for a fascinating and compelling (and occasionally humorous) listen and one of the most individual albums of its era”.

I will finish off soon. I was keen to mark twenty-five years of Sheryl Crow, as I believe it is one of these albums that is underrated. Maybe it will take a few years more before those who are unsure about it to come on board. The other review that I want to source is Entertainment Weekly. This is a review from 1996. It captures the feelings that many felt about Crow when her eponymous album was unveiled:

“On her new album, Sheryl Crow, she continues the Clinton connection: She yearns to be all things to all people. In hard-luck stories like ”Sweet Rosalyn” and ”Oh Marie,” Crow’s an empathetic chronicler of the underbelly of American life — call her Tom Waitress. On ”Home,” a tenderhearted ballad that has the hushed intimacy of a phone call between lovers, she’s the lovelorn folkie. On funky boppers like ”A Change” and ”Superstar,” she’s a boho hipster, singing out of the side of her mouth and ready for a night with the guys at the town’s tawdriest pool hall. And in ”Love Is a Good Thing” and ”Redemption Day,” she’s a finger-pointing moralist, warning us against corrupt politicians and riots in the streets, and touting the ”train that’s heading straight to heaven’s gate.” Moralism, in fact, links many of these songs. From the strung-out has-beens in ”A Change” to the morning-after doubts in ”Home,” Crow suggests that any and all good times will be followed by personal or political payback. (Indeed, the heretofore untarnished pop star has taken a blow from retail giant Wal-Mart, which refuses to carry the new album because ”Love Is a Good Thing” contains the lyric ”Watch our children while they kill each other/With a gun they bought at Wal-Mart discount stores.”).

In more self-righteous hands, the results could have been insufferable. Yet Crow, who produced the album herself, and her half dozen co-songwriters (including Tuesday Night Music Club collaborator Bill Bottrell) never forget they’re making pop music, and they’ve concocted a loose, freewheeling yet remarkably robust album that tugs at your heart and feet — sometimes within the same tune. The songs chug along, often kick-started by slinky wah-wah guitars, scrappy, bump-in-the-night percussion, and pedal steel guitars that sound even more lonesome than they do in country music. If there’s such a thing as a professional lo-fi album, Sheryl Crow is it.

Singing more assuredly (and often louder) than on Tuesday Night Music Club, Crow invests clever lyrics like ”I thought you were singing your heart out to me/Your lips were synching and now I see” or ”Well, okay, I still get stoned/I’m not the kind of girl you’d take home” — yes, she has more than inhaled — with the knowingness of a reformed bad girl. Her bandwagon streak rears its curly head in ”Maybe Angels,” a cryptic ode to UFOs and government conspiracies that plays like an X-Files theme song. But she’s also shrewd enough to tuck the album’s two weakest tracks at the very end.

If Crow has a shortcoming, it’s her elusiveness. For all her craft, there’s still something undefined about her; she’s a confessional singer-songwriter who tends to hide behind her characters. Again, this might be a sign of the times. Crow’s soul-searching predecessors attracted fans eager to gobble up their every unguarded feeling. But in these more cynical days, that may no longer be the case — witness the backlash against neophyte Lisa Loeb in the wake of her heart-on-both-sleeves hit ”Stay.” Crow doesn’t expose that much of herself on Sheryl Crow — she’s an emotional centrist. But at the very least, she’s building a bridge to a lasting career. A-“.

There is no doubting the credentials of Sheryl Crow and the fact that it has polled high when it comes to the best albums ever (As Wikipedia outline: “In 1999, Rolling Stone selected Sheryl Crow as one of the essential albums of the decade. In 2002, the magazine also ranked it at number 44 in its list of Women in Rock: The 50 Essential Albums. In 2003, the album was featured in the Vital Pop: 50 Essential Pop Albums list by Slant Magazine. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly magazine placed the album at number 39 in their list of Top 100 Best Albums of the past 25 years. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Sheryl Crow at number 475 in its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time). A happy twenty-fifth anniversary to an album from…

AN iconic songwriter and artist.

FEATURE: If You Have to Ask: Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

If You Have to Ask

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik at Thirty

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QUITE a few classic albums…

have a release date of 24th September. 1991 is a year where several arrived on that day. Among them is Red Hot Chili Peppers’ fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. With production by Rick Rubin, its musical style differed notably from the band's previous album, Mother's Milk (1989). The biggest differences are a software sound and greater songwriting input from guitarist John Frusciante. To me, Blood Sugar Sex Magik is the best album from the legendary Los Angeles band. It contains many of their greatest tracks – including Under the Bridge, Give It Away, Suck My Kiss, Breaking  the Girl and If You Have to Ask. Chili fans may argue as to where Blood Sugar Sex Magik ranks in their discography. I would put it at the top because it has the most memorable songs. I think the band are at their peak in terms of inspiration, chemistry and consistency. Thirty years from its release, Blood Sugar Sex Magik remains fascinating and utterly compelling. I am keen to drop in a couple of reviews for the 1991 album. So many critics have provided glowing commentary (though there are a few mixed reviews). Before I get there, CLASH wrote about Blood Sugar Sex Magik in 2016. I have selected a few passages. I am also interested knowing the inspiration behind my favourite song from the album, Under the Bridge:  

“As founder of Def Jam Records, Rick Rubin was a producer that effortlessly and effectively straddled a broad spectrum of tastes, as competent with Public Enemy, Beastie Boys and Run-D.M.C. as he was with Slayer, The Cult and Danzig. His own predilection for musical amalgamation was most notably fulfilled in the pioneering fusion of rap and rock that saw the pairing of Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith revitalise the latter’s career with an innovative reworking of their ‘Walk This Way’ hit. Having long been aware and a fan of the Chili Peppers - especially their shared musicianship - Rubin was keen to work with them, while the band themselves appreciated not only Rubin’s esteemed discography to date, but his instinctive working methods that suggested he could be the conducive and considerate conductor they were looking for. “If Baron von Münchhausen had ejaculated the four of us, being the Red Hot Chili Peppers, onto a chess board,” Anthony Kiedis would say during the recording of ‘BSSM’, “I think Rick Rubin would be the perfect chess player for that particular board.”

Though the songs themselves had been written during recent tours, Rick and the band gathered for preliminary sessions to focus the ideas for what would be destined for the next album; the impact of Rubin’s constructive role was immediately apparent in Flea’s economy of notes - playing for the song, rather than flaunting his four-string dexterity - and the growing confidence and advancing capabilities of Frusciante. “John really found himself as a musician during that era,” Kiedis told Clash. “He was always this kind of uncontained storm of intelligence and talent and desire. No one worked more hours in the day at practising their instrument and learning about music than John, but he was kind of undefined during ‘Mother’s Milk’, and I think that experience of working with a producer who wanted him to be a certain way, that wasn’t necessarily who he felt he was, drove him even deeper into wanting to express the true nature of his music. And I think that sort of blossomed deeply in ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’, where he just found his voice as a guitar player and a singer; he let it show.”

The band decamped with Rubin to a mansion in the Hollywood hills, which was turned into a giant live-in studio. Reportedly haunted, it’s also supposed to have housed The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix; a perfect setting, therefore, to channel the gods and create music in. “Where we recorded really relieved a lot of the tension that usually happens when you do a record,” Flea admitted in 1991. “When we recorded in this house we were also living together, which made for a really relaxed environment, and that was the key to the album. The key to being a great band or a great musician is to be able to relax enough so you can be aware of what’s going on around you and it can flow through you and you can pick up all the energy.”

It was in this familial atmosphere that the songs for ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’ were put to tape. Footage from the sessions, filmed by Flea’s brother-in-law, was eventually released as a short film (or “cockumentary,” as Kiedis once quipped) called Funky Monks. It reveals, in black and white, the evident camaraderie of the quartet (and crew), the individual contributions of each member to different tracks, their listening habits (including Led Zeppelin and The Velvet Underground) and the inner thoughts of each Pepper, courtesy of intimate interviews, which reveal their feelings throughout the whole creative process. “We’re making an amazing, ground-breaking, revolutionary, beautiful, artistically-heightened, incredible record,” John enthuses to camera, his positivity reflected by all throughout.

For over 30 days, the band ensconced themselves in the studio (with Chad opting to commute from home), putting together the songs that would fill the album. The 17 tracks that made the cut, borne from closeness and friendship, and enhanced by recent and relentless touring, convey every facet of the Chili Peppers’ musical and personal characters”.

“The tender admissions that became ‘Under The Bridge’ were never written with the intention of being recorded by the Chili Peppers; Anthony’s distressed ruminations were a private study of the solitude and despair he found himself immersed in during the period of sobriety, prompted by the death of Hillel, that curtailed his own persistent drug habit, and was considered too candid for public consumption.

Finding the poem in Anthony’s notebook, Rick Rubin urged him to develop it with the group, insisting he introduce it to the very people that were partly responsible for his feelings of isolation.

Abstaining completely from anything that might prove a temptation, Anthony withheld a “militant” stance about his friends refraining from indulging in his company and, given Flea and John’s closeness was enhanced by their predilection for getting stoned together, Anthony felt himself almost being ostracized from his most immediate group of friends. “One day I showed up to rehearsal,” Anthony recalled in Scar Tissue, “and Flea and John were blazing on pot and in a ‘Let’s ignore Anthony’ state of mind, and I experienced this melancholy sense of loss that John was no longer in my world. I could tell from the way he was looking at me that we weren’t really friends anymore, other than the fact that we were in a band together and respected each other on that level.”

Dejected and downcast, Anthony drove home from that rehearsal with his mind reeling through other relationships that were broken or ruined by his addiction, with one particular regret deepening his misery; that he’d neglected and taken for granted the keen affections of ex-girlfriend, Ione Skye. “[I] had this beautiful angel of a girl who was willing of give me all of her love, and instead of embracing that, I was downtown with fucking gangsters shooting speedballs under a bridge.”

“What I was referring to in the song,” he would reveal in Funky Monks, “was a point in my life about five years ago. All I had was this connection named Mario, who was Mexican mafia, ex-convict. And one particular afternoon, it was very hot in the middle of the summer, and I’d been up for days, and he and I found what we’d been looking for. We went to this bridge that was downtown in the middle of Los Angeles in this ghetto, this freeway bridge, and a little passageway you had to go through to get under the bridge, and only certain members of this Mexican gang were allowed to go in there. And we lied just so we could get in there and do what we wanted to do… And that’s always stuck in my brain as a low point in my life.”

Wallowing in this alienation, he sought solace in the comfort and company he found in Los Angeles, personifying the city to render it his best - and only - friend. “Even if I was a loner in my own band, at least I still felt the presence of the city I lived in,” he wrote, acknowledging these sentiments impeccably in the first verse: “Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner / Sometimes I feel like my only friend / Is the city I live in / The City of Angels / Lonely as I am / Together we cry.”

More than just a harrowing flashback, by recognising his rock bottom, Anthony turns ‘Under The Bridge’ into a determined statement of resolve to never again sink to depths of depravity that would endanger not only his own life, but affect the lives of his loved ones. “I don’t ever want to feel / Like I did that day,” he affirms.

Once presented to John, the guitarist attempted to apply a heartening major-chord sequence to counter and juxtapose the somber tone of the lyrics. The resulting intro, now considered a classic piece of guitar work in its own right, was inspired by David Bowie’s ‘Andy Warhol’, while the song’s pensive E-major-7th that rings off each verse was ripped off, quite appropriately, from ‘Rip Off’, by T-Rex. Here’s John revealing his sources:

John Frusciante on the guitar inspirations for ‘Under The Bridge’

Throughout ‘Under The Bridge’, each musician is respectful of the song’s introspective nature; Flea is understated yet warm and rounded, while Chad’s rimshots are gentle yet insistent. As the song reaches its climax, a choir - John’s mum and her friends - echo the chilling refrain, “Under the bridge downtown / Is where I drew some blood,” their heavenly sound punctuating Anthony’s spiritual awakening and suggesting salvation is close at hand”.

I have great affection for Blood Sugar Sex Magik. It is one of the greatest albums of the 1990s for sure. Although a few critics were a little mixed towards the album, most were very positive. With the weight and quality of material on the L.P., it is small wonder Blood Sugar Sex Magik is seen as a classic. This is what AllMusic said in their review:

“The Red Hot Chili Peppers' best album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik benefits immensely from Rick Rubin's production -- John Frusciante's guitar is less overpoweringly noisy, leaving room for differing textures and clearer lines, while the band overall is more focused and less indulgent, even if some of the grooves drag on too long. Lyrically, Anthony Kiedis is as preoccupied with sex as ever, whether invoking it as his muse, begging for it, or boasting in great detail about his prowess, best showcased on the infectiously funky singles "Give It Away" and "Suck My Kiss." However, he tempers his testosterone with a more sensitive side, writing about the emotional side of failed relationships ("Breaking the Girl," "I Could Have Lied"), his drug addictions ("Under the Bridge" and an elegy for Hillel Slovak, "My Lovely Man"), and some hippie-ish calls for a peaceful utopia. Three of those last four songs (excluding "My Lovely Man") mark the band's first consistent embrace of lilting acoustic balladry, and while it's not what Kiedis does best as a vocalist, these are some of the album's finest moments, varying and expanding the group's musical and emotional range. Frusciante departed after the supporting tour, leaving Blood Sugar Sex Magik as probably the best album the Chili Peppers will ever make”.

Prior to rounding up, I want to highlight one more review. The BBC provided a detailed review of an album that, thirty years after its release, remains hugely important and impressive:

“These days, admitting to liking the latest Red Hot Chili Peppers release is akin to holding your hands up and saying "Yes, I love the new Maroon 5 album, what of it?". Consider if you will their last album offering - 2006's Stadium Arcadium. The title alone should have been more than enough to put us off. But chuck a bunch of mediocre 'radio-friendly' tracks into the mix, and the whole affair is disappointingly average. In recent years then, it's been easy to forget just how flipping good the Chilis used to be.

But cast your minds back to 1991 and the release of the band's fifth album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The line up had changed prior to recording commenced following deaths and departures from the band, and Rick Rubin had been brought in on production duties. The result is an album that is frequently heralded as one of the defining albums of the 90s and one which far exceeds anything else the band have ever produced.

The funk/punk style and Keidis's 'rapping' that had permeated previous RHCP album's is most definitely still there, but mixed with it is a strong melodic feel which adds a different dimension to the tracks. There's a structure and thought process to the songs that hadn't existed before. And even at a just-about-fittable-onto-a-CDR duration, the quality of "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" doesn't waver for a single one of it’s 74 minutes.

The album is largely about sex - as the title might suggest. Tracks such as Suck My Kiss, Sir Psycho Sexy and Give It Away are dripping with not just innuendo, but out and out, unadulterated sexual imagery. And it's this raw, straight up, no holds barred sexuality that gives the album such impact and distinctiveness - more so than any of their subsequent works. OK, so maybe it would sound weird now to have a 45-year-old Keidis asking you to suck his kiss (although arguably, there are many who would still like to). But when he did it in 1991, it really did hold such an irresistible clout. And despite being cited as an inspiration to countless artists since its release, the brilliance of Blood Sugar Sex Magik is that no-one else has managed to do anything quite like it – and frankly, that’s just the way it should be”.

A happy thirtieth anniversary to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Also on 24th September, 1991, Nirvana released Nevermind. It was a terrific day for music fans. Maybe there was something in the air, or it might have been a particular time when bands were summoning this timeless music! In terms of the gold from the 1990s, there is no denying that Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik of 1991 is one of the…

BEST of the decade.