FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential September Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

IN THIS PHOTO: Rina Sawayama

Essential September Releases

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LOOKING ahead to September…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Sampa the Great

and there are a load of great albums due out. Starting with the week ending 2nd September, and there is a cracker coming. It is YUNGBLUD by YUNGBLUD. Go and pre-order it if you can, as Dominic Harrison is an amazing artist with a very bright future. NME conducted an extensive interview with him back in June. We learn more about the recording of YUNGBLUD:

“When it came to recording ‘Yungblud’, the commercial success of ‘Weird!’ – which has been certified Silver in the UK – afforded Harrison with the opportunity to “get in any studio, with any writers I could have wanted”. But when he started the album in LA last summer, the pressure of being surrounded by a big team quickly got to him; he instead chose to decamp to his London apartment, and work on the record with close collaborators Chris Greatti and Jordan Gable.

The album was eventually recorded at the capital’s legendary Eastcote Studios, which have been used by The 1975 and Arctic Monkeys in the past. It was here where Harrison teamed up with a fellow Gen Z icon, groundbreaking artist and actress Willow Smith – daughter of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith – to work on collaborative single, ‘Memories’, which sees their soaring vocals blaze through industrial riffs. “She’s a wildfire spirit,” he says of his friend. “We couldn’t contain our energy together – it was bonkers, but we made a perfect match.” What were they doing to cause such chaos in the studio? Running laps around the vocal booth, naturally.

Working with Willow also enlightened Harrison to a similarity between the pair. “We started to realise that growing up in the public eye, like she and I did, is absolutely crazy,” he says. “But Willow is totally defiant. People need to realise that she hasn’t had it easy [in life], either. Yet she’s grown into a brilliant musician; I think she speaks completely from the heart, but she’s naughty, too. She’s got a bit of bite about her.”

Harrison is keen to explain how he has recently befriended other musicians that he has idolised for years. During lockdown, he was texting Grian Chatten – yet he understands that the reaction from the public towards his friendship with the Fontaines D.C. frontman will be one of surprise.

“All the BBC Radio 6 dads that hate me won’t like the fact that I’m in touch [with Fontaines D.C.]. But I think they are phenomenal. They’re very refreshing and are making exactly the type of music we need to be hearing now,” he says. “People wouldn’t expect us to know each other as we are completely different types of artists; it’s the same with me and Wolf Alice, too. There’s no tension between us – there’s conflict in fandoms instead.”

It’s almost a wonder that Harrison had time to record ‘Yungblud’, as he has been working on a bevy of extra-curricular projects over the past year. At the MTV EMAs last November, he acknowledged rumours that he’d auditioned to play Boy George in an upcoming Culture Club biopic named after the band’s 1983 hit, ‘Karma Chameleon’. Today, he won’t be pushed on details, but with a knowing grin, he hints that said film is “in the works”.

Looking at the week ending 9th September, The Amazons’ How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? is an album that I would recommend you pre-order. A terrific band indeed, I am interested to see what their upcoming album will offer. If you have not caught onto The Amazons’ sound, I would suggest you pick up their forthcoming album:

“Following two huge Top 10 records and sold out shows across the globe, one of the UK’s most exciting bands, The Amazons, release their stratospheric, anthem-packed new album How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? - on Fiction Records.

The third record is both a love letter and a rallying cry. Expansive, uplifting, sun-drenched singalongs produced by Jim Abbiss (Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Adele), and featuring co-writing collaborations with the likes of Maggie Rogers and Jamie Hartmann, find the Reading 4-piece emerging from the darkness of 2019’s Future Dust full of lust for life and post-pandemic hope”.

An album that might not get as much attention as it deserves, George Riley’s Running in Waves is one that you need to pre-order. Riley is an amazing London-based talent who I predict is going to be very big soon enough. There is something about her music that touches you deep. Last month, DJ announced news of Riley’s new project:

“George Riley has announced a new project, 'Running In Waves', and shared the first single, 'Time'.

Due to be released on 9th September via PLZ Make It Ruins, the full eight-track outing sees Riley once again working with Frank Ocean and Kali Uchis collaborator Vegyn.

The song 'Time' arrived this week, and comes with an accompanying visual directed by interdisciplinary artist Siam Coy. Check it out below.

This marks the latest in a fast stream of work by Riley. Earlier this year, her tracks 'Jealousy' and 'Sacrifice', which also feature Vegyn, landed to critical acclaim, building on the momentum of last year's breakout mix, 'interest rates, a tape' and her appearance on Anz's Ninja Tune anthem, 'You Could Be'”.

There are quite a few other albums due on 9th September that I want to direct people towards. One is Jockstrap’s I Love You Jennifer B. Go and pre-order this gem from one of this country’s most individual and experimental duos:

“London-based duo Jockstrap (Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye) release their hotly-anticipated debut full-length record I Love You Jennifer B via Rough Trade Records.

Jockstrap previously hinted at I Love You Jennifer B’s impending release with their previous singles ‘50/50’ and ‘Concrete Over Water’. Both of which were playlisted by BBC Radio 6 Music and were subject of universal acclaim at national and international press. The cosmic accompanying video for ‘Concrete Over Water’ was premiered at an exclusive screening at The Castle Cinema, Hackney, followed by another of Jockstrap’s iconic parties at The Glove That Fits.

Commenting on the impending album release, Jockstrap’s Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye said: “I Love You Jennifer B is a collection of Jockstrap tracks that have been 3 years in the making. Everything on it is pretty singular sounding so we hope there is a track on there for everyone and something that speaks to you and says ‘I’m a banger.’” Skye added of ‘Glasgow’ (their new single): “‘Glasgow’ is our coming of age, moving forward, long-distance, travelling, beautiful bosk, wonderful thicket song.” And Ellery said of the song’s subject: “Glasgow is a great city, perhaps my favourite in the UK! Only downside is that it’s so damn cold all the time.”

When Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye make music as Jockstrap, the process and result has one definition: pure modern pop alchemy. With their debut album I Love You Jennifer B, Jockstrap will cement themselves as one of the most vital young groups to emerge from London’s melting pot of musical cultures in years”.

Another terrific album out this week is Oliver Sims’ Hideous Bastard. A member of The xx, Sims is a wonderful solo artist whose music needs to be experienced by all. His debut solo album is guaranteed to win a lot of very positive and favourable reviews. If you can afford it, I would encourage you to grab a copy on vinyl:

“The debut solo album from Oliver Sim - vocalist and bassist of The xx, Hideous Bastard is a deeply self-confessional journey of fear and shame inspired by the queer horror films he loves. Oliver is joined by Jamie xx, who produces Hideous Bastard with an elegant touch, and Jimmy Somerville (Bronski Beat/Communards), an angel, who takes us to the heavens. Full of surreal pop sounds that escape into the ether and break free, Hideous Bastard is a bold and ambitious debut that sees Oliver explore his voice and his capacity to evoke emotion, melding masculinity and tenderness, beauty with a baritone”.

There are there more 9th September-due albums that I am going to highlight. All three albums are from amazing acts beginning with the letter S. Santigold’s Spirituals is an album that you definitely need to get behind and order:

“Spirituals is Santigold’s first full-length album since 2016’s 99¢, and was mostly recorded during the 2020 lockdown. “All of a sudden there I was with three small children out of school—just-turned-two-year-old twins and a six-year-old—I was cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and changing diapers from morning to night, with three little kids coming in and out of my bed throughout each night like musical chairs. I was losing touch with the artist me, stuck in a part of myself that was too small. I felt the other parts of me were shrinking, disappearing.”

Santigold struggled but succeeded in defining a space in which she could center herself and collaborate virtually with producers and contributors: Rostam, Boys Noize, Dre Skull, P2J, Nick Zinner, SBTRKT, JakeOne, Illangelo, Doc McKinney, Psymun, Ricky Blaze, Lido, Ray Brady, and Ryan Olson. “Recording this album was a way back to myself after being stuck in survival mode. It wasn’t until I made the space to create that I realized I wasn’t only creating music but a lifeline,” she says. California was on fire, we were hiding from a plague, the social justice protests were unfolding. “I’d never written lyrics faster in my life. After having total writer’s block, they started pouring out. I decided to create the future, to look towards where we are going, to create beauty and pull towards that beauty. I need that for myself, but it’s also there for whoever else needs it”.

The second of the trio comes from the amazing Sampa the Great. As Above, So Below is among this year’s most exciting and exceptional releases. If you can pre-order it, then you will definitely find much to love in this incredible album:

“The latest masterpiece is a celebration of family and heritage, taking inspiration from Zamrock, Zambia's fusion genre.

Relocating home to Zambia during the pandemic, Sampa sought to reconnect with a different side of herself, a side that is freer and closer in resemblance to the younger artistry she cultivated growing up in Africa. This process of discovery would become the gateway to revealing her highest version of self. Choosing to collaborate with creatives Rochelle Nembhard and Imraan Christian from South Africa, As Above, So Below introduces us to a 360 Sampa, unveiling her many sides for the first time. From the funny to the serious to the sensual, As Above is Sampa outside’s self, and So Below, is the Sampa within, together uniting to reveal the most authentic version of Sampa, without a mask, or role to play.

As Above, So Below is anchored by spoken word in Bemba. The record delves into Sampa’s memories of Africa, Africa’s relationship to the world and what womanhood in Africa means to the world. We are also introduced to the persona of Eve, the highest version of Sampa that speaks to all facets of her womanhood.

The musical styles of As Above, So Below reflect the hybridity of Sampa’s upbringing. Raised in Botswana (a different country to her birthplace in Zambia), and then going on to attend school in different countries again, Sampa picked up varied musical influences along the way. Each style has attached itself to her own musical encyclopedia, and finds a new mode for expression throughout the record”.

Rounding off 9th September is Sudan Archives’ Brown Prom Queen. An artist I have a lot of love and respect for, I can recommend this album. She is a simply stunning force in music. There is not much information about the album. This is what Rough Trade say about it:

“Natural Brown Prom Queen is Sudan Archives’ second album following her widely celebrated 2019 debut Athena. Over its 18 epic and ambitious tracks, Natural Brown Prom Queen shows a new side to Sudan Archives: Brittney Parks or Britt, the girl-next-door. On this album, Sudan explores themes of race, womanhood and family. Natural Brown Prom Queen features the singles “Home Maker” and “Selfish Soul”.

Let’s move onto the week ending 16th September, as this week boasts a few albums that you will want to investigate. One album that you will want to pre-order is Jesca Hoop’s Order of Romance. The creator of such gorgeous music, do not miss this one:

“Jesca Hoop returns with her sixth album, Order of Romance, a record that fortifies her position as one of the most striking and original voices in contemporary music. Order of Romance is Hoop's most intricate and finely balanced album to date, one that draws on classic song writing, recalling anything from Gershwin to Paul Simon, but creating something that is unmistakably, indelibly Jesca Hoop. It is a deep dive into craft.

In the summer of 2021, Hoop once again ventured south from her adopted home of Manchester to Bristol to team up with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding), her collaborator for 2019’s Stonechild. This time additional assistance came from in Jess Vernon (This is the Kit) to arrange for a four-piece horn and woodwind quintet. Legendary drummer Seb Rochford lent his skills, John Thorne plays the bass and Chloe Foy and Rachel Rimmer were enlisted to deliver Hoop’s signature vocal arrangements. The result is a fruitful marriage of song craft and arrangement, brimming with a cinematic charm and lyrical wit that signify a new chapter full of new life for an artist who knows her mind, her heart and voice well enough to trust them in uncharted territory.

Order of Romance then is a complete work that demands close attention, an active listen, a filagree that’s apparent lightness of touch belies a serious intent. Themes of empathy and friendship, intertwine with a clear eyed and moralistic poetry on subjects such as gun control, religious and political cults, and climate change.

Order of Romance is perhaps ultimately an exploration of the endless balance act of being a ‘Human Being’, an approach and examination of some of the biggest theme and issues of our time through the doorway of the personal, a way finding meaning and some kind of faith in a world where so much is disconnected and discordant”.

Although some sites are giving pre-order dates of 2nd September, it seems the biggest album of the month comes out on 16th September. It arrives in the form of Rina Sawayama’s Hold the Girl. This is an album that everyone needs to pre-order. Sawayama is one of our finest and most innovative artists. Her second album is looking like it will equal or top the mighty SAWAYAMA of 2020. This is what Rough Trade write:

“Following on from her critically acclaimed debut SAWAYAMA, Rina Sawayama’s highly anticipated new record Hold The Girl sees Rina once again juxtapose intimate storytelling with arena-sized songs, creating another ambitious and original album to excite fans and critics alike.

Written and recorded over the last ​​year and a half, Rina once again teamed up with longterm collaborators Clarence Clarity and Lauren Aquilina as well as enlisting help from the likes of the legendary Paul Epworth (Adele, Florence and the Machine), Stuart Price (Dua Lipa, The Killers, Madonna) and Marcus Andersson (Demi Lovato, Ashnikko) for their magic touch.

The product of Rina and these collective minds coming together is an album which melds influences from across the pop spectrum and is a bold and honest statement of Rina’s personal evolution; coming to terms with her own past and the jubilation of turning to the future”.

Although they are a band more under the radar, The Beths’ Expert in a Dying Field is an album that you need to have in your life! Go and pre-order it, as this is going to be a very special album indeed from the New Zealand band:

“On The Beths’ new album Expert In A Dying Field, Elizabeth Stokes’ songwriting positions her somewhere between being a novelist and a documentarian. The songs collected here are autobiographical, but they’re also character sketches of relationships – platonic, familial, romantic – and more importantly, their aftermaths. The shapes and ghosts left in absences. The question that hangs in the air: what do you do with how intimately versed you’ve become in a person, once they’re gone from your life?

The third LP from the New Zealand quartet houses 12 jewels of tight, guitar-heavy songs that worm their way into your head, an incandescent collision of power-pop and skuzz. With Expert, The Beths wanted to make an album meant to be experienced live, for both the listeners and themselves. They wanted it to be fun - to hear, to play - in spite of the prickling anxiety throughout the lyrics, the fear of change and struggle to cope.

Most of Expert was recorded at guitarist Jonathan Pearce’s studio on Karangahape Road in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand) - and sometimes in the building's cavernous stairwell at 1am - toward the end of 2021, until they were interrupted by a four-month national lockdown. They traded notes remotely for months, songwriting from afar and fleshing out the arrangements alone, the first time they’d written together in such a way. The following February, The Beths left the country for the first time in more than two years to tour across the US, and simultaneously finish mixing the album on the road. That latter half felt more collaborative, with everyone on-hand to trade notes in real time, until it all culminated in a chaotic three-day studio mad-dash in Los Angeles. There, Expert finally became the record they were hearing in their heads.

Expert is an extension of the same skuzzy palette the band has built across their catalog, pop hooks embedded in incisive indie rock. The album’s title track “Expert In A Dying Field” introduces the thesis for the record: “How does it feel to be an expert in a dying field? How do you know it’s over when you can’t let go?” Stokes asks. “Love is learned over time ‘til you’re an expert in a dying field.”

The rest is a capsule of The Beths’ most electrifying and exciting output, a sonic spectrum: “Your Side” is a forlorn and sincere love song, emotive; while “Silence is Golden,” with its propulsive drum line and stop-start staccato of a guitar line winding up and down, is one of the band’s sharpest and most driving. “When You Know You Know” skews a bit groovier, pure pop and a natural addition to the band’s live set. “Knees Deep” was written last minute, but yields one of the best guitar lines on Expert. There’s a certain chaos across the 12 tracks, the palpable joy of playing music with long-time friends colliding with the raw nerves of pain.

Stokes strings it all together through her singular songwriting lens, earnest and self-effacing, zeroing in on the granules of doubt and how they snowball. Did I do the wrong thing? Or did you? And are we still good people at the end of it? She isn’t interested in villains, but instead interested in just telling the story. That insecurity and thoughtfulness, translated into universality and understanding, has been the guiding light of The Beths’ output since 2016. In the face of pain, there’s no dwelling on internal anguish - instead, through The Beths’ music, our shortcomings are met with acceptance. And Expert In A Dying Field is the most tactile that tenderness has been”.

The penultimate album from this week I want to point you in the direction of is Whitney’s Spark. You may not be conscious of Whitney, but they are an act that you need to follow. Spark is an album that should be in your mind to pre-order:

“Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek could hear the staggering differences in the songs they were writing for their third album as Whitney, Spark —the buoyant drum loops, the effortless falsetto hooks, the coruscant keyboard lines. They suddenly sounded like a band reimagined, their once-ramshackle folk-pop now brimming with unprecedented gusto and sheen. But could they see it, too?

So in the ad hoc studio the Chicago duo built in the living room of their rented Portland bungalow, a shared 2020 escape hatch amid breakups and lockdowns, Julien and Max decided to find out. Somewhere between midnight and dawn every night, their brains refracted by the late hour and light psychedelics, they’d play their latest creations while a hardware store disco ball spun overhead and slowed-down music videos from megastars spooled silently on YouTube. Did their own pop songs—so much more immediate and modern than their hazy origins—fit such big-budget reels? “We’d come to the conclusion we weren’t going to be filming Super 8 videos to this stuff anymore,” Julien remembers with a grin. “How about something more hi-fi, cinematic?” When the footage and the tunes linked, Julien and Max knew they had done it, that they’d finally found Whitney’s sound.

Spark reintroduces Whitney as a contemporary syndicate of classic pop, its dozen imaginative and endearing tracks wrapping fetching melodies around paisley-print Dilla beats and luxuriant electronics. What’s more, Whitney reduces three years of extreme emotional highs and lows into 38 brisk but deep minutes, each of these 12 tracks a singable lesson in what it is they (and, really, we) have all survived. The recalcitrant ennui of opener “Nothing Remains,” the devastating loss of “Terminal,” the sun-streaked renewal of “Real Love”: However surprising it may sound, Spark is less a radical reinvention for Whitney than an honest accounting of how it feels when you move out of your past and into your present, when you take the next steps of your lives and careers at once and without apology. Spark maintains the warmth and ease of Whitney’s early work; these songs glow with the newness of now.

Listen closely, and you’ll notice frequent references to smoke and fire throughout Spark, itself a double entendre for inspiring something new or burning down the old. Max and Julien were indeed in Portland for the Fall of 2020, when smoke from nearby fires choked the city at record levels. It was terrifying and tragic, but they pressed on. “We found a way to live while the world was burning/Real life was caving in,” Julien sings almost merrily during “Back Then,” an anthem for finding out what’s on the other side of hardship.

In these dire days, scientists speak increasingly of serotiny, an evolutionary miracle that causes some trees to release seeds only amid a season of fire. That is how Spark often feels— Whitney’s circumstances were so fraught on so many levels that they hung “the past...out to dry” and began again, finding a fresh version of themselves, their relationship, and their band after the blaze. Max and Julien are back in Chicago now, sharing a cozy walkup with a little studio, where they’re already building songs for the next Whitney album. They’re both in happy romances, too. Now that they let the past burn, everything is new for Max and Julien. Spark is not only Whitney’s best album; it is an inspiring testament to perseverance and renewal, to best friends trusting each another enough to carry one another to the other side of this season of woe”.

Let’s round off the week ending 16th September with Suede’s Autofiction. Boasting a great title and cover, the ninth album from the legendary band is going to be a must-hear. Even if you are not a major fan of theirs, go and pre-order this mighty work:

“Suede return with their ninth studio album Autofiction. As Suede began work on the songs that would become Autofiction, they decided to go back to basics. In a move that recalled their most formative days, Brett Anderson, Mat Osman, Simon Gilbert, Richard Oakes and Neil Codling schlepped to a rehearsal studio in deserted Kings Cross to collect a key, hump their own gear, set up and start playing.

Speaking about it, Brett Anderson said: "Autofiction is our punk record. No whistles and bells. Just the five of us in a room with all the glitches and fuck-ups revealed; the band themselves exposed in all their primal mess." First single ‘She Still Leads Me On’ is the track that reconfigured what the album could be. A beautiful song written from Brett to his late mother. As its title suggests, Autofiction is one of Anderson’s most personal records yet. Reflecting on the process of writing acclaimed works of memoir Coal Black Mornings and Afternoons With The Blinds Drawn helped Brett get a newfound perspective on himself as a performer and singer in the public eye, much of which has bled into the lyricism of Autofiction”.

Let’s move to the week ending 23rd September. There are a selection from this week that I want to underline. The first, Beth Orton’s Weather Alive, is an album that you certainly will want to pre-order and make part of your September collection:

“Through the writing of these songs and the making of this music, I found my way back to the world around me – a way to reach nature and the people I love and care about. This record is a sensory exploration that allowed for a connection to a consciousness that I was searching for. Through the resonance of sound and a beaten up old piano I bought in Camden Market while living in a city I had no intention of staying in, I found acceptance and a way of healing.” - Beth Orton

Many musicians turn inward when the world around them seems chaotic and unreliable. Reframing one’s perception of self can often reveal new personal truths both uncomfortable and profound, and for Beth Orton, music re-emerged in the past several years as a tethering force even when her own life felt more tumultuous than ever. Indeed, the foundations of the songs on Orton’s stunning new album, Weather Alive, are nothing more than her voice and a “cheap, crappy” upright piano installed in a shed in her garden, conjuring a deeply meditative atmosphere that remains long after the final note has evaporated.

“I am known as a collaborator and I’m very good at it. I’m very open to it. Sometimes, I’ve been obscured by it,” says Orton, who rose to prominence through ‘90s-era collaborations with William Orbit, Red Snapper and The Chemical Brothers before striking out on her own with a series of acclaimed, award-winning solo releases. “I think what’s happened with this record is that through being cornered by life, I got to reveal myself to myself and to collaborate with myself, actually”.

There are four more from this week I want to mention. One album that we do not have a load of information about is Christine and the Queens’ Redcar les adorables étoiles. We do know a lot about the new album. He is a sensational and always-evolving artist. This new album is one you should not let slip you by, as it is guaranteed not to disappoint:

“Redcar is only the beginning. This is all an opera. It will take some time to unveil, the same way it is unveiling to Redcar, as he acknowledges his crazy freedom. Angels and stars, the sovereign verb, the heart at its centre. Redcar is not really there to affirm anything but the need to say who we are and what we pray for every day”.

A few more worth checking out. Go and pre-order Maya Hawke’s MOSS. The upcoming album from the incredible actor and songwriter is one you will want in your collection. I could not find too much information about it, but Wikipedia do provide some details:

“Moss is the upcoming second studio album by American singer-songwriter and actress Maya Hawke, set to be released on September 23, 2022. It is the follow up to her positively received debut album Blush (2020).

On June 29, 2022, Hawke announced Moss alongside the release of the first single "Thérèse". "Thérèse" was inspired by a Balthus painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called "Thérèse Dreaming". Hawke has identified with the girl in the "Thérèse Dreaming" painting "who in my head is me" in the track. Hawke cited Taylor Swift's album Folklore (2020) as an inspiration for the sound of Moss.

According to a press release from Mom + Pop, Moss serves as "Hawke’s meditation on rebirth and acceptance".

Release

Moss is set to be released on September 23, 2022, in digital download, streaming, CD and vinyl LP formats. An exclusive release of Moss will be available from Urban Outfitters as a translucent pink vinyl LP. A translucent orange LP is available from Maya Hawke's official website”.

The penultimate album due on 23rd September is Tim Burgess’ Typical Music. Burgess always releases such interesting music, so you will want to pre-order. It is going to be quite the listen:

“Has there been a busier musician over the last two years? A more prolific artist? More creative? More heroic?

Tim Burgess – as self-effacing a band leader, solo star, label runner, repeat memoirist and all-round caffeinated can-do kid as you’ll find – would certainly shrink from the latter accolade. “A hero??” he’d likely mutter with a shake of his boyish mop. “For playing some records?” Yes, Tim, we would say that. And not just because with the May 2020, mid-lockdown appearance of I Love The New Sky, his fifth solo album, he undauntedly pushed on with releasing an album that brought much-needed sunshine to a world enveloped in gloom.

Over the course of the first year of the pandemic, Tim’s Twitter Listening Parties were a lifeline to many. At a time when the world shut down, we all retreated indoors, alone, and cancelled gigs were the least of our worries, the North Country Boy’s idea of utilising social media to unite us round a digital turntable was inspired. Meanwhile, Burgess was writing. And writing. And writing. From September 2020 to summer 2021, ideas poured out of Burgess. He’d been encouraged by Simon Raymonde, boss of his record label Bella Union ¬– and, of course, a former Cocteau Twin. He applied a musician’s logic: if you can’t tour your last album, write a new one. Then, when you can tour again, you’ll have two albums’ worth of songs to play.

Well, now, arguably, Burgess has three albums’ worth of songs to perform live. Typical Music is a 22-track double, a blockbuster set of songs that are as expansive and diverse as they are rich. As fun as they are funky. That embrace heartache and love. That run the gamut, from ABBA (in the shape of guest vocalist Pearl Charles, whose own brilliant Magic Mirror album is the sound of the magic Swedes doin' disco) to Zappa (free-form studio experimentation is go!)”.

Let’s finish off this week with WILLOW’s COPINGMECHANISM. It is hard to believe that this will be her sixth studio album! An artist that a lot of people still do not know about, go and rectify this by pre-ordering her new album. She is a wonderful artist who is so prolific and consistent:

“Willow returns with her sixth album. The new album follows swiftly on from last year's lately I feel EVERYTHING. That album blended a resurgent '00s emo and pop-punk sound with Willow's alt-RnB and hip hop roots, but CopingMechanism is more focused on the heavier side of her sound”.

There are a couple of albums due on 30th September worth your pennies. Pixies’ Doggerel might share the title with a recent Fontaines D.C. album (which I would have thought they’d have wanted to avoid!), but it is going to be very different indeed. I would encourage people to go and pre-order a gem from an iconic band:

“The iconic Pixies forged an influential path for alt-rock during their first era, while their post 2004 reunion has seen them alchemize more sophisticated dark arts - a return which has them add another three UK Top 10 albums to the three they achieved on their first run. Now as fired up as ever before, Pixies release their eighth studio album Doggerel via BMG, including lead single ‘There’s a Moon On’.

Doggerel is a mature yet visceral record of gruesome folk, ballroom pop and brutal rock, haunted by the ghosts of affairs and indulgences, driven wild by cosmic forces and envisioning digital afterlives where no God has provided one. And all the while, right there on the news, another distant storm approaches”.

The final album I am going to suggest you is Shygirl’s Nymph. One of the most amazing artists you will hear, go and pre-order an album that is sure to leave its impression on you! She is going to release a lot of albums through her career:

“Experimental pop artist Shygirl releases her debut full-length album Nymph via Because Music. The 12-track album was created with a close-knit group of friends and previous collaborators including Mura Masa, Sega Bodega, Karma Kid, Arca and Cosha along with the producers Noah Goldstein, Danny L Harle, BloodPop, Vegyn and Kingdom. Nymph reveals Shygirl’s inner self-reflection in experimental vocal tones and deconstructed dance melodies and exhibits a new level of intimacy and emotional depth in her songwriting. Simultaneously asserting her power and freedom and yet still longing for love, she delivers us lyrical harmonies and catchy hooks telling stories of relationships, sexual desires and romantic frustrations. Over lush production, Shygirl brings us on the journey of what intimacy is like for a woman who’s seen as ‘too hot to handle’, someone sought after and overlooked at the same time. Shygirl’s melodies intertwine with the sounds of bassline, garage, dancehall and hip hop, all seamlessly flowing together like an artful ribbon dance”.

There are other albums you might want to get in September. I have chosen those albums that I particularly like and think will satisfy your tastes. I hope that they do. It is clear that there are many wonderful albums coming out during…

SUCH a busy month.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Honey Dijon

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Honey Dijon

__________

A world-class and iconic…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Louie Banks for GQ

D.J., producer, artist, and fashion queen, many may already be aware of Honey Dijon. The New York legend is someone who I wanted to spotlight today. Her incredible work should be known by everyone. Having recently remixed for Beyoncé, the undeniable gifts and talents of Honey Dijon are coming to a wider audience. I am going to reach a couple of recent interviews with her, because there is a lot of fascination and interest around her – and singles like Love Is a State of Mind are awesome and signal we may get an album or E.P. soon. Before coming to that, I want to start by dropping in some biography about the amazing Honey Dijon:

“Honey Dijon (formerly known as Miss Honey Dijon, legal name: Honey Redmond), is an American DJ, producer, electronic musician, and fashion icon. She was born in Chicago and is based out of New York City. She has performed at clubs, art fairs, galleries and fashion events worldwide. Renowned for not adhering to any particular genre, Honey Dijon is known for curating cross-genre sets.

Miss Honey Dijon grew up on the south side of Chicago, in a family that she describes as very musical. She began clubbing during her mid-teens with her parents’ acceptance as long as her academics did not suffer. During her time in Chicago she met and was mentored by DJs and producers such as Derrick Carter, Mark Farina and Greenskeepers. Later on, Honey Dijon moved to New York, where she was introduced to Maxi Records and Danny Tenaglia. Honey Dijon is transgender. She has been a vocal advocate for trans rights and awareness, speaking from her experience as a black trans woman DJ in dance music. She has been interviewed by the British television channel Channel4 on the issue of trans visibility, and she has participated in an extensive roundtable discussion with DJ Sprinkles / Terre Thaemlitz on ‘remixing gender’ in electronic music”.

Just prior to getting to some interviews, Rolling Stone were among those who covered Beyoncé’s decision to release an E.P. featuring remixes of the RENAISSANCE single, BREAK MY SOUL. Honey Dijon was among those selected:

“Beyoncé tapped Will.i.am, Honey Dijon, and more to remix her Renaissance single “Break My Soul” for a new EP.

Beyoncé dropped the the four remixes digitally Tuesday night, Aug. 2. Along with Will.i.am and Honey Dijon, there are contributions from Chicago house great Terry Hunter and the multitalented DJ/producer/percussionist/singer Nita Aviance.

On Twitter, Nita celebrated the new remix, writing, “anyone comin @Beyonce for this moment not bein bout real house music, CATCH, they got ya girl involved! this one is for the queens, dancefloor divas & all the late-night revelers. see u at the club.”

Honey Dijon — who also helped produce two Renaissance tracks, “Cozy” and “Alien Superstar” — previously spoke about getting to work with Beyoncé on her new album, writing, “Your elegance, beauty, talent, work ethic, and vision is truly inspirational. To share my Chicago house music roots and black queer and trans culture with you and the world is profound and emotional. I am honored, humbled, delirious with joy, and proud.”

Renaissance, which dropped last Friday, July 29, marks Beyoncé’s first proper solo album since 2016’s Lemonade. In between she released a collaborative album with Jay-Z, Everything Is Love, and spearheaded the soundtrack album, The Lion King: The Gift”.

There are a couple of great and insightful interviews from earlier in the year where we get a look inside Honey Dijon’s world. An extraordinary talent who everyone should know about and connect with, SSENSE chatted with her recently. It is an extraordinary interview that everyone should read in full:

“Born in Chicago, Honey has been DJing since she was a child. “My parents were pretty young when they had me,” she explains, “and I would play music at their parties before I had to go to bed. I get excited about sharing music with people—it’s just how I was wired.” Honey began going out in her early teens and came of age in the clubs that birthed house music, which gives her an important perspective on the genre’s oft-ignored origins: “This is a 30-year-old subculture that’s now above ground, and I try to convey that music from where I come from—queer, black culture. This music was started by queer people of color.”

Honey moved to New York City in the late-90s, and it was there that her career as a DJ took off. Her style is powered by a borderless intuition. She slides smoothly between disco, house, and techno, and she is as comfortable playing Berlin club mecca Panorama Bar, where she’s a regular, as she is at Art Basel or a Rick Owens afterparty.

Her work behind the decks carried her into the world of fashion, attracting figures like Nicolas Ghesquière, Riccardo Tisci, the aforementioned Owens, and Kim Jones, whose admiration gave way to collaborative friendships. For the past six years, Honey has worked with Jones to develop the soundtracks for Louis Vuitton’s men’s shows. The most recent one made waves with a brand new Drake tune written just for Jones (Drake actually offered two originals, Honey later tells me over email). She has also found time to take on speaking engagements, sharing her experiences via lectures at MoMA PS1 and King’s College London. Her calendar full as it is, she reckons things are about to get even more intense—she’ll soon release her debut full-length on Classic, the label started by her mentor and OG house legend Derrick Carter.

Over tequila cocktails and french fries, Honey and I discuss the changing demographics of dance music, dissociating in the DJ booth, fashion’s appropriation of trans culture, and the records that changed her life. Later, in Berlin—her second home—Benjamin Huseby styled and photographed her in clothes from GmBH, the label he designs with his partner Serhat Isik.

PHOTO CREDIT: Benjamin Huseby

Given that you’re playing constantly, how do you challenge yourself and keep it fresh?

I’m still excited about the music! I approach DJing as an art form or craft. For me it’s like someone painting a picture, or writing music, or designing something. The hard part is that it’s not every day I have something to say as an artist. You can’t force inspiration, and when you play so much, it’s not like you get as many great records as you do gigs. So it’s about reshuffling these records that I’ve been hearing for the last three weeks over and over again so that I’m still excited. Frankie Knuckles always said the moment you become more important than the music, you’re done. And I live by that.

In house music’s early days, the DJ was not necessarily the focal point of the party, and at some point that changed. Is that something that you consider when you’re playing? Are you thinking about how you look while you’re performing?

Yes. And I relate that back to bands—the look is important. I’ve always had a relationship to style. When I discovered the first musicians that I loved, I would sit and look at what they wore and what the album cover credits were—who took their picture, who did their hair. I love the whole idea of approaching DJing and music as a cohesive project, as an art thing. This isn’t anything new, it’s just that now DJ culture is more visible than it was before. DJing and DJ culture is becoming a lifestyle thing, whereas before it was really just a subculture.

Do you feel like the culture of dance music has shifted towards consumption?

No one is bringing anything to the party! You go to the club and no one’s wearing color, no one’s bringing attitude. They’re all standing there, wearing these bland clothes, looking at the DJ—who gives a fuck? I remember when I started going out I actually had to have a look or an attitude to get into the party. I was there because I was creating part of the atmosphere, not taking something away from it. I wanted to contribute to this music and I wanted to contribute to this culture. I come from that school of thought where art, music, fashion, clubbing, all of it was a cultural center. This was where people—I have a saying: meet, mate, and create.

And a record that changed your life?

There are so many—you can’t do that! “Bostich" by Yello. “Join in the Chant” by Nitzer Ebb. “Mesopotamia” by The B-52s. Oh my god, like, “Relax” by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. “Brighter Days” by Cajmere. “One More Round” by Kasso. “Cherry Pie” by Sade. A Seat at the Table, the entire album by Solange—that album is a masterpiece. Marvin Gaye’s “After the Dance.” Are you kidding me? Like, fuck. “A City That Never Sleeps,” The Eurythmics. “Julia,” The Eurythmics. I could go on, and on, and on, and on. “White Boy” by Culture Club. Kissing to Be Clever is one of my favorite albums. That changed my life. I’ll tell you a funny story—I never talk about this. I remember when I was a kid, before I knew what trans was, I went to the mall and I saw Kissing to be Clever, and I just kept staring at it, and staring at it, and staring at it. I didn’t know why I was staring at it, because, like everyone, when I first saw Boy George I thought he was a girl. Something inside me was like, “There’s something different.” I couldn’t put my hand on it because I didn’t have the language to define it. For many years, I thought I was androgynous, until I started to find out more about that. So, that album cover was probably what changed my life. Crazy”.

Prior to wrapping up, I want to bring in an interview from NOTION. If some have not experienced Honey Dijon’s work or know much about her, there are many more who hold her in the highest esteem. One gets a sense of this when reading NOTION’s thoughts:

“The word ‘icon’ gets thrown around a lot these days, but no one wears the title better than Honey Dijon.

A DJ, producer, and musician, Honey Dijon has left an indelible mark on the electronic music scene after decades of spinning house, disco, techno, and other feasts for the ears. Born in Chicago, Honey started her disc jockey career spinning tunes at her parents’ basement parties, regularly scouring for tracks in the city’s record stores. In one such store, she met DJ and record producer, Derrick Carter, who introduced her to the underground Chicago club scene, where she was exposed to jacking house and Detroit techno.

Honey later moved to New York City, where she now splits her time with electronic music mecca, Berlin. To date, Honey has played some of the biggest and most legendary clubs around the world, from Space in Ibiza to Panorama Bar in Berlin, Sub Club in Glasgow, The Block in Tel Aviv, Output in NYC, The Warehouse Project in Manchester, and Smart Bar in Chicago, as well as tons of festivals. Later this month, Honey Dijon brings her signature sound to London.

Notion caught up with Honey ahead of her Pandora’s Box show at the newly refurbished KOKO on 19th May to hear about her insatiable love for books, the rising DJs she’s excited about, and what she wants her legacy to be.

Many would call you an icon of the dance and electronic music circuit, but how do you define success and quantify it on your own terms?

I would define my success as just being a working artist. I don’t get too caught in compliments, be it positive or negative. Of course, it’s nice to hear nice things about my work, but I just focus on bringing joy to people through my music, DJing and being good at my craft. Also just surviving in the world as a trans woman of colour in music, fashion, and on a daily basis, is a success within itself.

 You’re set to play an immersive show called Pandora’s Box at the renovated London venue KOKO on 19th May. How did the show all come together? What can people expect?

I love London! It’s a place where I can express myself fully. When I found out KOKO had been refurbished, I loved the thought of combining its legendary reputation with the journey into the unknown within a new venue.

We love to see Pxssy Palace on the line-up. What is your relationship like with the collective? How did you come across them?

I love what they are doing. This is the second time we’ve worked together. House music has always been deeply sexual but less so nowadays. I admire what Pxssy Palace brings to the party and the inclusive community they have built.

Having played sets around the world at some of the most renowned clubs, can you tell us about a show that will always stand out for you?

I am a proponent of joy, so it’s not so much the venue but the people inside of it. Clubs have always been a place for people to lose their inhibitions and leave their troubles at the door even if it’s for a couple of hours. If I am a facilitator of celebration and happiness through music then that’s what always stands out for me. I am so lucky to have this as a career”.

With stunning new music out, I am excited to see whether an album will come later in the year. I have not heard anything at the moment. An established and hugely respected DJ and producer,  wanted to use this opportunity to highlight Honey Dijon to anyone who may not know about her. One hit of her incredible work and you…

WILL be a confirmed fan.

______________

Follow Honey Dijon

PHOTO CREDIT: Benjamin Huseby 

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/honeydijon/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/honeydijon

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0XfQBWgzisaS9ltDV9bXAS

SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/honeydijon

Facebook:

https://en-gb.facebook.com/HoneyDijon

FEATURE: A Wonderful Year for Music… My Ten Favourite Albums of 2022 (So Far)

FEATURE:

 

 

A Wonderful Year for Music…

IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé/PHOTO CREDIT: Mason Poole for Parkwood Entertainment

My Ten Favourite Albums of 2022 (So Far)

__________

WE are over eight months…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kendrick Lamar

into 2022. It has already been a great year for music. With some amazing albums due before the end of the year, I wanted to use this opportunity to reveal my ten favourite of the year so far. Spanning a range of different genres, I have been really impressed by what 2022 has had to offer! From some lesser-known artists putting out great albums to some mainstream acts delivering some of their best work, there has been plenty of variation and surprise. You might disagree with my choices but here are the ten albums that I consider to be..

 IN THIS PHOTO: Gwenno/PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Sharp for Loud and Quiet

THE best of the year.

_____________

Fable – Shame

Release Date: 29th July, 2022

Label: Naim Records

Standout Tracks: Guilt of the Act/Shame/Swarm

Review:

“Holly Cosgrove, known as Fable is an English musician and singer born in Paignton, Devon, and is best known for her work with Archive and Paul Hartnoll from Orbital. Fable is now based in Brighton and releases her debut album `Shame` this month.

The album opens with `Fall Away` with initially piano keys and the singer`s expansive vocals before some orchestrated strings add a fairly cinematic texture to the number. The song is a gentle dreamy  introduction to this artist and closes with a piano refrain as it fades. We have in `Womb` a song talks about cycles of emotional states, the repetitive highs and lows that the singer experiences throughout the month. Musically it`s a trippy affair that reminded me of Morcheeba with a quite atmospheric soundscape in the latter section where it really erupts.

`Guilt Of The Act` has a deep bass line and tapped drum skin that lead us along this more breezy pop like offering  with harmonies adding to the vocal approach. A track that flourishes and becomes more challenging but not aggressive. The gentle vocals on `Sandcastle` have at times an echoey feel and with the addition of the accompanying backing harmonies become quite mesmeric.

`Heal Yourself` is fairly stripped back which allows Fable to reveal a rich and quite spellbinding vocal range on this initial ethereal offering which bursts into life in the last couple of minutes and takes on a kind of drum and bass sensibility. The title track `Shame` has a rolling groovy soulful openness while the lyrics I read laments the state of the world and the uphill battle this generation faces,

`Orbiting` has that trip-hop, neo soul vibe of bands like Portishead with an almost vulnerability running throughout the vocals. A composition that had a constant back beat with brushed drum cymbals and shuffled along quite dreamily. The number mourns the outward disconnection and isolation of our modern society. A sound similar to wind chimes introduces us to `The Reaper` with vocals that are deep and enticing and leads us along on a journey that you feel is going to explode but doesn`t. The orchestrated strings and aural soundscapes throughout give it a quite futuristic sense and wouldn`t have been out of place in a sci-fi film such as Bladerunner.

`Thirsty`  is about taking the beauty of life for granted and begins quietly before emerging into a erratic pop-rock questioning belligerent submission which wouldn`t have been out of place in an Alanis Morrissette set back in her heyday. We have a similar sentiment shared on `Unequal` but with an added disco rhythm, where the  lyrical content is shared rapidly and almost robotically.

`Swarm` has a strummed guitar with vocals that evolves with strings and a steady beat joining on this voyage that ebbs and flows as it progresses. The final track `Onion Brain` is more of a jazzy offering with piano, drum and breathy vocals. A gentle number to ease us out with

Fable has a rich and varied vocal range and `Shame` allows her a platform to highlight what she can offer across a variety of tracks that would be classed as trip-hop neo soul. This is a delightful submission for a debut release and it`ll be interesting to follow this artist`s future development” – Maximum Volume Music

Key Cut: Thirsty

Suki Waterhouse – I Can’t Let Go

Release Date: 6th May, 2022

Label: Sub Pop

Standout Tracks: Melrose Meltdown/My Mind/Blessed

Review:

“Every vignette Waterhouse shares is simultaneously stripped-back and sumptuously deep, stunningly put together to focus on the storytelling. Each track is a tale in the same mode as the likes of Lana Del Rey’s Hollywood visions – an easy, seemingly obvious comparison, given the poetry of Waterhouse’s lyrics and the familiar, immersive sprawl of her musicality. It’s there in “Melrose Meltdown”’s polaroid moment of Malibu dreams in a metaphorical getaway car, “Wild Side”’s almost-but-not-quite idealism of a relationship’s moments of turmoil, “Put Me Through It”’s wistful stratospheric beauty.

But hone in closer, looking for specific points to draw comparison between Waterhouse and her contemporaries, the red threads fray a little – this is diaristic and personal on every level, and though comparisons are inevitable, they find themselves feeling defunct in the fact of the humanity that saturates I Can’t Let Go. Because as personal and sometimes painful as it is, it’s also really playful. Waterhouse explores her internal world with a wry smile here and there (“Bullshit On The Internet” is as self-awarely self-indulgent as you can get, and excellently, dreamily so), and isn’t really bothered if people are following, or enraptured, or enchanted. As striking and silky as the lyricism is, Waterhouse isn’t seeking poetic accolades for it, she’s just weaving her words to vocalise a state of being, and then the music to set it to.

Each moment deftly distinguishes itself from what came before, on an album that when you’re not listening to it, shimmers into a continuous ride of smooth, hazy undulations. There’s just enough of a line between cohesion and repetition that leaves I Can’t Let Go feeling like a world of its own without losing precision. “Devil I Know” is a standout, an early moment of sultry punctuation in basslines and hooks; “Slip” closes the album off like a segue into a synthy sunshine-pop, Jack Antonoff-esque production. Waterhouse isn’t just playful with her themes, she’s playful with her communication too.

If I Can’t Let Go does anything, it proves that Waterhouse deserves a spot in the romantic, Tumblr it-girl canon she firmly occupies as a model and an actress, as a musician. Her lyrics are snippets of beauty, her voice is intoxicating, her songwriting is immaculate. But, begrudgingly, I Can’t Let Go proves that Waterhouse may have no inclination to take up her spot in that canon, because this album isn’t for us to dissect and project – it’s a personal soundtrack, a mixtape of years that straddles the gorgeous and the gloomy sides” – The Line of Best Fit

Key Cut: Moves

Beyoncé - RENAISSANCE

Release Date: 29th July

Labels: Parkwood/Columbia

Standout Tracks: ALIEN SUPERSTAR/CHURCH GIRL/AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM

Review:

"Break My Soul" offered much to dissect as the preliminary single off Renaissance, Beyoncé's first solo studio album since Lemonade and part one of a promised three-act project. Integrating a flashback to early-'90s crossover house hit "Show Me Love," the resilience anthem -- reinforced with an echoing gospel choir and sampled Big Freedia exhortations -- came across like a nostalgic dance remix preceding the original version. Instead, it slid neatly into place on the parent LP not only as an accurate representation but also as a foreshock to an hour-long housequake filled with irrepressible exuberance in celebration of self and sisterhood. Among those to whom Beyoncé dedicates Renaissance is her late gay cousin and godmother, Uncle Jonny, credited for introducing her "to a lot of the music and culture that serve as inspiration for this album." The multitude of dancefloor sounds cultivated and celebrated since the late '60s in underground clubs by liberation-seeking gay, Black, and Latino dancers has been a natural ingredient in Beyoncé's recordings since the birth of Destiny's Child (take the use of the Love Unlimited Orchestra's proto-disco exemplar "Strange Games & Things" in "No, No, No, Pt. 2"), but it is the basis of Renaissance. The LP is top-to-bottom danceable and sequenced with each track setting up the next, through the ecstatic finale, where Beyoncé most potently mixes sensuality and aggression, claiming her man with nods to Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Patrick Cowley, and Larry Heard. "Cuff It" is a disco-funk burner with Nile Rodgers' inimitable rhythm guitar and a slick quote from Teena Marie's biggest ballad, though it has all the vigor of Lady T's uptempo classics. The more relaxed "Virgo's Groove" is designed for circling the rink with its delectably plump bassline and handclaps, and moves to a private room where Beyoncé commands, in one of the set's many memorable turns of phrase, "Motorboat, baby, spin around." Renaissance pulls from the more recent and present sonic developments with equal guile. Dancehall-derived dembow is stretched out for the strutting opener "I'm That Girl." "Heated" works a chugging Afrobeats rhythm, and is keenly trailed by the swollen dubstep pulsations of "Thique." The most exciting moments fearlessly blend and switch eras. "Pure/Honey" alternates between a duly vulgar ballroom brush-off and pop-funk rapture, and "Church Girl," a rousing gospel-bounce marvel, weaves the Clark Sisters with the decidedly less-reverent DJ Jimi and the Showboys. Beyoncé is vocally up to the challenge of juggling the almost-innumerable quantity of styles and references, sighing, purring, beaming, belting, and spitting fire with all the required conviction and attitude. Her congregation of fellow writers, producers, and vocalists is a formidable assembly of close collaborators (the-Dream, Tricky Stewart, Mike Dean, NOVA Wav), younger trailblazers (Honey Dijon, Kelman Duran, Tems), and legends (Grace Jones, Raphael Saadiq). Act II will presumably have at least one ballad. They're not missed here” – AllMusic

Key Cut: I’M THAT GIRL

Kelly Lee Owens - LP.8

Release Date: 29th April

Label: Smalltown Supersound

Standout Tracks: Release/Voice/Sonic 8

Review:

"Kelly Lee Owens has called her third album an “outlier”, reflecting ‘LP. 8’s sonic shift towards bracing, industrial sounds. In contrast, her second album, the magnificent ‘Inner Song’, offered club-ready techno-pop for the head and heart and was created after the artist experienced a period of personal loss.

Having travelled to Oslo in the winter of 2020 when her world tour was cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Welsh singer, producer and songwriter got in the studio with Norwegian avant-noise artist Lasse Marhaug (known for her work with drone metal band Sunn O)))). The pair envisioned making music somewhere in between Throbbing Gristle and Enya and, with the record’s tougher moments further sharpened by studio heads Cherif Hashizume (who’s worked with Jon Hopkins) and Beau Thomas (Aphex Twin), they created an album both beautiful and challenging.

Techno-leaning opener ‘Release’ gradually builds tension with metronomic pounding and Owens’ repeated instruction to “release” as she exhales heavily over shivery whispers. It all adds up to an ethereal, slightly unsettling five minutes – a fitting introduction to the ominous, nine-track record. ‘Voice’, meanwhile, sees Owens’ faint voice float across an intricate soundscape of mystic, celestial noise and hippie-twangs, conjuring a psychedelic trip.

Time and again, Owens creates intricate and emotive world-building through patient instrumental layering. Built on fire-like crackles and a buzzing synth, ‘S.O (2)’ sees Owens’ heavenly choral-style vocal really take flight, soaring over beautiful chords, while the intimate ‘Nana Piano’ strips things back to five-and-a-half minutes of moving piano keys.

‘LP. 8’s final three tracks carry a strong message: the desperate need to take action on climate change. At first built on static fuzzes and a distorted vocal, ‘Quickening’ sees Owens deliver a typically thought-provoking spoken-word call to arms: “Your business is to keep it yours, clearly, and directly / To keep the channel open,” before letting out a pained cry that could be interpreted as Earth’s final gasp for breath” – NME

Key Cut: Quickening

Nova Twins – Supernova

Release Date: 17th June

Label: Marshall Records

Standout Tracks: Antagonist/Puzzles/Choose Your Fighter

Review:

"Nova Twins’ 2020 debut Who Are The Girls? was something of a noisy origin story. A cataclysmic fusion of punk swagger and attitude, Amy Love and Georgia South emerged as sonic-shifting future rock stars. Now, on their second record , they are no longer the fringe bad bitch baddies hoping to be heard – they’re ready to be worshipped.

There’s plenty of spirit in Supernova. Intro track Power is a punchy precursor to the record. Kitted out with gut-thumping drums and slick harmonies, it’s a beefed-up forewarning of what’s to come: ‘Welcome to the end / And your new beginning.’ It’s clear from the get-go that Nova Twins mean business. Frontrunner Antagonist is a polished maximalist rap-rock anthem, while Cleopatra crashes in oozing confidence and attitude. It’s a statement of due worth, and rightfully so. The Twins transform into boot-stomping monarchs soundtracked against glitchy punk electronica and guitars backed by a mantra of inclusivity: ‘Blacker than the leather, that’s holding our boots together,’ Amy raps, with razor-sharp flow. ‘If you rock a different shade, we come under the same umbrella.’

Elsewhere, Nova Twins have notably finessed their textured, joyously unkept sound, but it’s amongst the punkish mayhem they really thrive. Kicking off with an Eminem-style mischievous intro, K.M.B (Kill My Boyfriend) is a Disney-esque dark-rap fantasy that would easily please the Brothers Grimm. Splattered with pitched vocals and Jennifer’s Body-inspired storytelling it’s a quirky, playful song showcasing their range for more than a monster beat.

Latter tracks Enemy, Toolbox and Choose Your Fighter are ferociously tied together as the duo survey their prey and get ready to strike. A Dark Place For Something Beautiful digs deep into the talent of Amy and Georgia’s songwriting. Briefly, we see the duo armourless and letting their guard down as vulnerability washes. ‘Sink or swim there’s no peace of mind / Promise I’ll be stronger next time,’ Amy sings.

It’s the final puzzle piece that supports Supernova’s flow as a fully-fledged emotional portrait of the Twins. Closeout track Sleep Paralysis snuffs out the noise as we drift off into a menacing electronica lullaby. Straddling between daydreams and nightmares, they pull off a convincing otherworldly exit track.

Aptly titled, Supernova sees Nova Twins burning brighter than ever with their gloriously self-made sound. It’s no surprise that the English duo have supported fellow trailblazers Bring Me The Horizon and Little Simz during their reign as one of the UK’s most ingenious new rock bands. Supernova basks in its own raw originality and kicks any naysayers to the curb with its unforgettable impact” – KERRANG!

Key Cut: Cleopatra

Wet Leg – Wet Leg

Release Date: 8th April

Label: Domino

Standout Tracks: Chaise Longue/Wet Dream/Supermarket

Review:

"‘Chaise Longue’ kicked it all off, and it remains as riveting, perplexing, and addictive as the first time we heard it. The half-spoken lyrics tumble out of the stereo – “excuse me?” – leading to post-punk comparison points, with Wet Leg often aligned against groups such as Yard Act, say. Taken a whole, however, their debut album proves this to be reductive – they’ve got more in common with Jarvis Cocker and Franz Ferdinand – or the songwriting, but not the actual sound, of Pet Shop Boys – sitting in that vein of artful British pop, renewing older ideas by viewing them from fresh perspectives.

Indeed, album highlight ‘Anjelica’ isn’t a post-punk song at all – the nagging guitar riff nods towards vibrant ’67 psych-pop, while the oh-so-cute vocal could sit on a Sarah Records 45. As mystifying as some of the in-jokes can be, the album is often staggeringly blunt – witness the rubbish boyfriend diss ‘Ur Mum’ or the self-explanatory ‘Piece Of Shit’, which blends Breeders-esque guitar pop with the hazy glow of 2k22 production.

A staggering effective 12 shot volley, Wet Leg’s debut album scarcely lets the pace drop. ‘Wet Dream’ teases out the psychology behind a “just thinking of you…” text, while ‘Loving You’ drops the angular guitars and the neat lyrical about-turns for something rather more heart-on-sleeve, but no less effective. An album that often wraps it emotions in self-effacing humour and oblique reference points, Wet Leg end their debut with the sparkling ‘Too Late Now’, in which spacious production – if anything it’s more Explosions In The Sky post-rock than the dry intensity of post-punk – blends with endless self-questioning, each spark of introversion piled up on the next. To cite another psychedelic reference, it’s akin to the implosion of Syd Barrett on the Pink Floyd’s ‘Jugband Blues; “I’m not sure if this the kind of life that I see myself leading…”

Refreshing and totally natural, it’s been curious to watch a nascent backlash form against Wet Leg. TikTok – a hub for cynicism and trolls – has dubbed them an ‘industry plant’, and this framework has begun to seep into the music press. Looking online, some question the duo’s standout styling, as if wearing half-decent clothes was such a character flaw. Yes, their rise has been sudden, but some groups really are that good. Put aside your cynicism, and dial into the fireworks: ‘Wet Leg’ is an exceptional debut album. 9/10” – CLASH

Key Cut: Angelica

Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers

Release Date: 13th May

Labels: PGLang/TDE/Aftermath/Interscope

Standout Tracks: N95/We Cry Together (with Taylour Paige)/Mr. Morale (with Tanna Leone)

Review:

"There are various reasons why Kendrick Lamar has established himself as the best rapper of the 21st century: the ultra-smooth flow, the ability to be challenging yet accessible, the political engagement, the social conscience that led him to becoming a key voice of the Black Lives Matter movement. There is also the feeling that he’s trying to do something bigger than himself, compounded on his latest album by quotes from the German spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle popping up here and there. There is another reason that doesn’t get talked about so much, however: the quality of the music.

Rap is primarily a word form driven by rhythm, but the music Lamar engages with is so rich and varied, so exploratory yet also filled with hooks and melodies, that even people who thought they hated rap can get pulled in. Take Mother I Sober, a plaintive piano ballad featuring a woman rarely associated with the tough world of hip-hop: Beth Gibbons of the Bristol trip-hop pioneers Portishead. After Lamar raps in sombre tones about sexual abuse, making mistakes, his relationship with Christianity and the need for ego death in the face of fame, Gibbons provides the most delicate vocal delivery ever found on a rap album, ever. It’s beautiful.

Lamar broke through to the world stage with 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly, an album that embraced a new generation of jazz musicians blossoming in America. The hard-hitting Damn followed in 2017, and became the first nonclassical or jazz album to win a Pulitzer prize. Mr Morale . . . is more reflective and troubled than both, with the personal becoming the political as Lamar faces up to himself and weighs the cost of becoming a public figure on both his family and his psychology. We Cry Together features a furious (and filthy) argument between his wife (played by the actress Taylour Paige) against a discordant piano, with Paige screaming, “You love a pity party!” before ending up blaming him for Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and pretty much every other ill of modern America.

The profane goes up against the spiritual throughout. United in Grief puts a frantic, skittering beat against soaring strings for a tale of Lamar wondering what on earth his material success is for — “I bought infinity pools I never swimmed in” — in the face of the violent deaths of people from his old neighbourhood. Worldwide Steppers even puts a new-found interest in reincarnation, past-life regression and praying “to the flowers and trees” against memories of sleeping with wealthy white women and wondering if the simmering resentment and self-hatred it brought was a product of his own racism. Given that Lamar is a huge name and a soon-to-be Glastonbury headliner, this is uncompromising, brave material: Purple Hearts — with Summer Walker and Ghostface Killah — even goes into psychedelic jazz territory. When a radio hit of sorts, Die Hard, comes along, complete with a sugary R&B vocal spot from Amanda Reifer, it sticks out as the least interesting song on here.

The main feeling you get from Mr Morale & the Big Steppers, beyond its musical adventurousness, is that Kendrick Lamar is constantly checking himself. Any seeming boast comes with a caveat; every statement of aggression is turned on its head. This is a masterpiece, but a complicated, troubled one. (Top Dawg)” – The Sunday Times

Key Cut: Mother I Sober (featuring Beth Gibbons)

Florence + The Machine – Dance Fever

Release Date: 13th May

Label: Polydor

Standout Tracks: Free/Back in Town/Prayer Factory

Review:

"It’s very easy to pick at Florence + The Machine’s trademark dynamics. Witchy, earthy, fairytale vibes delivered with a voice that could level a city block, being iconic should never be seen as a bad thing.

Opener ‘King’ sees Welch putting it all on the table, like the forced restraint of pandemic era lockdowns has left her with an excess of raw power to expel at the first possible opportunity. Follow up ‘Free’ runs like a jackhammer, pounding at the walls as it smashes through to open fields. Though working with two ‘name’ producers – the now ubiquitous Jack Antonoff and Glass Animals’ Dave Bayley – there’s no doubt as to who is in control here. Both get the opportunity to add flourish or guide the path, but Welch is the one with her foot on the accelerator.

That’s not to say everything is all the way up to eleven. ‘Choreomania’ builds to its climax, questioning “you said rock and roll is dead, but is that just because it has not been resurrected in your image?” as it ascends into near-religious euphoria. ‘Back In Town’ and ‘Girls Against God’ take a more serene route, but even they yearn for escape – the former based around a post-pandemic trip to New York, the latter promising “if they ever left me out, I’m gonna really let it out”. Even those quieter moments yearn for the bigger ones. Proof that absence can make the heart grow fonder, ‘Dance Fever’ is an album straining at its leash, dreaming of the freedom of the dancefloor. Now it’s here, there’s no holding back” – DORK

Key Cut: King

Gwenno – Tresor

Release Date: 1st July

Label: Heavenly

Standout Tracks: Anima/N.Y.C.A.W./Kan Me

Review:

"Gwenno Saunders’ new album Tresor is her second record sung almost entirely in Cornish, a Celtic language that bloomed around 600 C.E., and which the mothers of Cornwall passed down to their daughters for over a thousand years before the English more or less forced them to stop. Dolly Pentreath, purportedly the last fluent native speaker, died in 1777. But in 2010, the United Nations upgraded the status of Cornish from “extinct” to merely “critically endangered,” reflecting the work of the Cornish Language Partnership in standardizing written and spoken grammar for a community of about 300 speakers. The CLP also contributed to the opening of a Cornish-language nursery school, where, according to a news report, toddlers learn “to share their tegennow and play nicely in the polltewas.” Tresor, says Gwenno, is a record about her experience of becoming a mother, as well as a follow-up to her 2018 LP Le Kov, lauded for bringing Cornish to wider attention. It’s as though, having turned to face the public and taught them all she knows of this new-old language, she is relishing the opportunity once denied to Dolly Pentreath: to pass her linguistic heritage to her child.

The daughter of a Welsh mother and a Cornish father, Gwenno rose from the ashes of the retro-pop girl group the Pipettes to become an esoteric experimentalist. Every lyric on her solo albums, even the ones that cite Jung or obscure science fiction authors, is written in Cornish or Welsh. She records with close friends in rustic seaside cottages, and her artistic and activist goals are one: “Nid yw Cymru ar werth,” she sings, which translates as “Wales is not for sale.”

But Gwenno is in the business of pop artistry, not broccoli-boiling, so Tresor’s touch is light and breezy, even as its songs dive into analytical psychology, the patriarchy, the colonizer lurking up and to the right. Her richly layered instrumentation in “Anima” calls to mind Cate Le Bon, with a few more chimes and woodwinds, and a bit more space for Gwenno’s ghostly backing vocal to linger behind her melody. The riffs of “N.Y.C.A.W.” would be at home on U2’s October, as would the righteous insistence of its militant chanting.

Other moments are gentler, and more tender. The beautiful, ethereal opener “An Stevel Nowydh” begins with Gwenno welcoming listeners into her home, and singing, in Cornish: “Welcome, sit down/Fancy a cuppa?/How are you?” What a rare thing, to be welcomed so warmly into a world one knows little about, and to be won over. “When will you hear me?” Gwenno sings, in “Ardamm,” in a language spoken by, at most, a few hundred people. “When will you understand me?” In technical terms, very few listeners can understand her—but on some more vital, human level, anyone who spends time with Tresor will require no translation at all” – Pitchfork

Key Cut: Tresor

Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler – For All Our Days That Tear the Heart

Release Date: 10th June

Label: EMI Records

Standout Tracks: The Eagle & the Dove/Footnotes on the Map/I Cried Your Tears

Review:

"Is pain the most valuable of all feelings? This is a question that underpins Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler’s collaboration. Both artists have come to this record with singular histories — Buckley as an Oscar-nominated actor, and Butler, formerly of Suede, then a solo star — yet there is a cogent sensibility.

Part of this collaboration is down to Butler’s manager, who introduced the pair, feeling that there might be a sympathy. It is perhaps to be found in the Irish connection, but also a shared love of artists from Nina Simone to Pentangle to Talk Talk. They have previously spoken of wanting people to discover the record “as if they have tripped across a box of photographs in the back of their closet”, and there is certainly something mysterious and fundamental at work.

The Eagle and the Dove opens with fierce intention, a work that seems to dance on a kind of musical tension, with Buckley’s impressive vocal sweeping and soaring, interrogating darkly lit corners, and Butler’s playing at once complex and understated. The album folds in so many elements — elevated folk, classical, blues and rock — and there are lovely moments everywhere. From the lonely-sounding trumpet and piano melody in For All Our Days That Tear the Heart that frames Buckley’s assertion that “we want to be things we’re not”, it is all orchestral intimacy. The sea-shanty folk of 20 Years A-Growing (inspired by Maurice O’Sullivan’s 1933 memoir) mirrors the elegant sadness of Shallow the Water, and The beautiful Seven Red Rose Tattoos is built upon a sense of contradiction, where “sunbathing in the rain” is posited as a natural state of affairs.

Contradiction is everywhere, going back to that central question about the value of pain. How do we know if it has been worth it? Babylon Days tries to answer, as Buckley’s supple voice flies optimistically around Butler’s evocative guitar, and the softness of the reedy fiddle on Footnotes on the Map complements its strident male choir. A bluesy sway adorns We’ve Run the Distance and I Cried Your Tears, and Beautiful Regret shows the range of Buckley’s voice, where she is reminiscent of Karen Carpenter, or on We Haven’t Spoken About the Weather, where perhaps Feist fronts Kings of Convenience. But the doleful vocal intelligence is all her own.

Catch the Dust is an affectingly wheezing prayer to “catch the dust of a memory from a photograph”, that dust evocative of a time once-lived, that life is a precious, fleeting gift, and even amid pain, still remains compelling” – The Irish Times

Key Cut: For All Our Days That Tear the Heart

FEATURE: Madonna at Sixty-Four: Future Lovers: An Upcoming Biopic and Two Big Anniversaries

FEATURE:

 

 

Madonna at Sixty-Four

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

Future Lovers: An Upcoming Biopic and Two Big Anniversaries

__________

I keep adding…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Julia Garner

different features to this run about Madonna. I have finished now, but there is always something happening in her world! With various bits of news around her remixing Beyoncé’s BREAK MY SOUL, and the Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones album, there is no stopping the Queen of Pop. I am not a superfan, though I am fascinated by her work, legacy and how she has earned respect and success on her terms. I wanted to nod to the rest of the year. There is a biopic in the works. Julia Garner has been cast to play Madonna. As it will be helmed and directed by Madonna, she is in control of the narrative. Bustle explain more in this article:

“When you think of women who are unapologetically themselves, Madonna’s name comes straight to mind. The 63-year-old’s career spans decades, and she still very much on top. In fact, just recently, Madonna and Beyoncé collaborated on a remix of the latter’s new single, “Break My Soul.” Up next for the Queen of Pop is a biopic on her life. And it just so happens that she’ll be at the helm of the project.

In a recent interview, Madonna told Variety: “I’ve had an extraordinary life, I must make an extraordinary film. It was also a preemptive strike because a lot of people were trying to make movies about me. Mostly misogynistic men. So I put my foot in the door and said, ‘No one’s going to tell my story, but me.’”

Madonna announced the biopic on her website back in 2020, where she said: “I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer, and a human being trying to make her way in this world.” Relaying her plans, she continued: “The focus of this film will always be music. Music has kept me going and art has kept me alive.”

In 2021, Madonna addressed the story of her life once more during a chat with talkshow host Jimmy Fallon. She exclaimed: “The reason I’m doing it is because a bunch of people have tried to write movies about me, but they’re always men.”

“I read that Universal was doing a script… they wanted my blessing, and I read it. It was the most hideous, superficial crap I’ve ever read. This [has] happened a couple of times. So, finally, I just threw down the gauntlet.”

Madonna has been hands-on throughout the casting process for her biopic, too. She reportedly had actors Julia Garner and Florence Pugh go through an 11-hour choreography boot camp during a lengthy audition process, before giving the role to Inventing Anna actor Garner”.

I am not sure what the biopic is called. Maybe Blond Ambition (that was the name of her hugely successful 1990 tour). Now that an actress has been chosen to play her, it seems like it will be a close working relationship between Madonna and Julia Garner. There have been attempts to put Madonna’s life on the screen, but never that truthful or with the right narrative. It is risky Madonna directing the biopic, as there is a lack of subjectivity and editorial interference. It may be a little self-serving, but one hopes it is candid and is truthful. In terms of periods of her career, Garner is the spitting image of Madonna around 1986/1987! Maybe there will be a focus on the 1980s. Whatever she decides to do, it is going to be one of the most scrutinised biopics ever. It is shaping up to be very interesting indeed! As she approaches her sixty-fourth birthday, it is clear that there is nobody else in the music world like Madonna! Rather than the biopic signalling the end of her career, it is a long-overdue filmic representation of one of the most influential artists ever. It does beg the question as to whether it will spur her to record new material or do another tour. So many eyes will train Madonna’s way after the biopic is released. What might we get from a future fifteenth studio album?

Two anniversaries this year look back at very different points of her career. On 20th October, 1992, Madonna released Erotica. Her fifth studio album, it courted an amount of controversy because of its subject matter. The album was released simultaneously with Madonna's first book publication, Sex. It is a coffee table book containing explicit photographs featuring the singer. Maybe there was a feeling that there was an overload of explicitness and flesh. I guess Erotica is a bit chillier than previous Madonna albums, but it is a classic that contains some of her best material. The thirtieth anniversary is one that should be marked. I am not sure whether a thirtieth anniversary edition is planned. I would love it if there was and, on the same day, the Sex book was reissued! Also celebrating a big anniversary is Madonna’s debut single, Everybody. That turns forty on 6th August. A couple of weeks before Erotica’s thirtieth, we look back to 1982. That moment when a future Pop icon put her debut single into the world. Again, I am not sure whether there is an anniversary vinyl release or anything tied around Everybody’s fortieth. It is a great single that maybe a lot of people have not heard. I know Madonna will post something about both anniversaries closer to the time. On 16th  August she turns sixty-four. Just under forty years since her debut single came out, Madonna is still going strong and there are so many possibilities for the future. The biopic will introduce her music to a new generation. I hope there is another greatest hits collection and maybe a new book or autobiography coming along. A maverick idol and icon, there is no doubt that the brilliant Madonna is…

A truly unique artist.

FEATURE Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five: Selections from Three Great Promotional Interviews

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five

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

Selections from Three Great Promotional Interviews

 __________

I may have used these…

as part of my Kate Bush Interview Archive series but, as her debut album The Kick Inside was completed in August 1977, I am using this opportunity to celebrate forty-five years since it was laid to tape. It would come out in February 1978, but the final song was recorded forty-five years ago this month. One of the most astonishing and original debut albums in music history, there was a massive amount of interest around Kate Bush. With the number one success of Wuthering Heights (her debut single) catapulting her into the public consciousness, Bush found herself traveling around the world performing and promoting. It must have bee tiring to undertake so much at a young age (she was still a teenager when the album came out!). Rather than drop in three entire interviews, I have chosen portions of three that are especially interesting. There is a mass of print, radio and T.V. interviews from 1978 where Bush was charged with promoting herself and her debut album. Always composed, professional and charming, it is incredibly mature and impressive of Bush to be able to not show any frayed nerves or fatigue! Below are portion of three interviews where the world wanted to know more about the stunning Kate Bush and her remarkable debut album, The Kick Inside.

The first, from New Musical Express in March 1978, was conducted by Steve Clarke. Kate Bush is very open and honest throughout the interview. I don’t think anyone in the media had met or experienced anyone like her before:

“The Kate Bush sitting opposite me bears scant resemblance to the doe-eyed female currently plastered all over London in poster form.

She looks out from the top of double-decker buses, peers at the weary commuter from in-between the tube ads for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Dalton's Weekly"--omnipresent, Kate Bush certainly is.

On the posters it's a coy, soft-focused Kate showing enough breast to--well, at least titillate the passing passengers. Face to face Kate Bush is an impish hippy girl who belies her much touted nineteen years.

Her debut "Top of the Pops" appearance gave rise to Kate being described as "a dark-haired Lyndsay De Paul," but she is neither doll-like nor petite, though hardly tall. Her faded jeans are mostly concealed under a pair of sheepskin-lined thigh-high reddish suede boots, and are in marked contrast to her very feminine fringed top.

Without much time to scurry home to the South East London house she shares with her two brothers to wash her carefully dishevelled hair for an appearance on BBC's "Tonight," Kate's in a hurry. Still, she remains charming and unflustered.

For a girl still in her teens, she's exceptionally self-possessed--especially since in recent weeks she's shot from nowhere to becoming a household name, courtesy of "Wuthering Heights", her first single. The song was inspired by Emily Bronte's romantic novel of the same name and is sung in a voice not unlike that of a newly-neutered cat letting the world know of his predicament.

To compound her mercurial success, her first album "The Kick Inside" is also high on the chart. Kate is amazed at the way things gone. "If you think of it in terms of people and not the money--'cause that's not relevant--it makes me feel very humble," she squeaks in her sing-song voice.

She was signed to EMI three years ago, given a 3,000-Pound advance and a four-year contract with options after the second and third years; i.e., if EMI wanted to drop Kate after either two or three years they could. Last year they re-signed her and it seems certain the company will retain her throughout this year too.

Amongst the credits on "The Kick Inside" is the Floyd's guitarist Dave Gilmour. It was, she says, largely because of Gilmour that she got a record deal. Kate had played piano since she was eleven, starting to write her own songs shortly after. A friend of the Bushes had offered to take some home-made tapes she'd recorded during her early teens round the record companies, but his endeavours were abortive--until he contacted Gilmour, an old friend from Cambridge.

Gilmour liked what he heard and offered to finance the recording of some professional demo tapes. It was also Gilmour who introduced Kate to arranger Andrew Powell (known for his work with Alan Parsons), who subsequently produced "The Kick Inside". The Gilmour-sponsored tapes received a warm welcome at EMI's A&R department. <This was after an earlier (second) demo tape, recorded at Gilmour's house, was submitted to EMI without success.>

Things couldn't have worked out more perfectly for the sixteen-year-old doctor's daughter. Fresh out of school with an armful of O levels, 3,000 Pounds in her bin and with no immediate pressures from EMI, Kate was free to pursue her ambition to dance. She applied to an ad in London's "Time Out" magazine and enrolled at Lindsay Kemp's mime school.

So why did EMI keep you under covers for so long?

"They were worried about me not being able to cope with things. And I was worried 'cause I didn't feel capable of coping with it either."

So Kate spent her days at Kemp's school with barely an interruption from her record company. "Oh, it was great," chirps Kate."I really got into the discipline. I had so much time and I could use it. For an artist that's such a delightful situation to be in.

"I came in to EMI on a friendly basis and that was good for me, because it meant that I could meet people there as people, and not as a big vulture business where they're all coming in and pulling your arm out. Also, I could learn about the business, which is so important, because it *is* a business."

The daily lessons with Kemp--50p a throw--were very informal. "He taught me that you can express with your body--and when your body is awake so is your mind. He'd put you into emotional situations, some of them very heavy. Like he'd say, 'Right, you're all now going to become sailors drowning, and there are waves curling up around you.' And everyone would just start screaming.

"Or maybe he'd turn you into a little piece of flame..."

Waiting for EMI to click its fingers did have its drawbacks, though. "Artistically, I was getting so frustrated at not being able to get my art to people."

Kate says that EMI did have a go at image-building and at persuading her to write more commercial songs ("Not so heavy--more hook lines"), but when Kate finally went into the studio last summer with half of Pilot and half of Cockney Rebel as her backing band, it was on her own terms. "Wuthering Heights" was originally scheduled for release last November, but was shelved at the very last moment because of--according to her--delays with artwork. By the time everything was right, the Christmas rush was on so Kate's debut was stalled a second time.

EMI had, however, already mailed out some copies of the single, one of which reached Capital Radio's Tony Myatt. Despite EMI's requests to the contrary, Myatt played the record before it was actually on sale. Ironically, Kate feels that Capital's championing "Wuthering Heights" is the key reason for its success.

So is it natural to sing that high, Kate?

"Actually, it is. I've always enjoyed reaching notes that I can't quite reach. A week later you'll be on top of that note and trying to reach the one above it.

"I always feel that you can continually expand your senses if you try. The voice is like an instrument. The reason I sang that song so high is 'cause I felt it called for it. The book has a mood of mystery and I wanted the song to reflect that."

That she sings in different voices on her album is not, claims Kate, due to an identity crisis--to evoke each song's particular mood she has to alter her pitch.

Kate insists that she isn't exploiting her sexuality: "That's a very obvious image. I suppose the poster is reasonably sexy just 'cause you can see my tits, but I think the vibe from the face is there. The main thing about a picture is that it should create a vibe. Often you get pictures of females showing their legs with a very plastic face. I think that poster projects a mood”.

The second interview I want to drop in here is from Melody Marker. Harry Doherty spoke with Kate Bush in June 1978. The first passage I have snipped concerns Bush’s determination when it came to single releases. We all know EMI wanted James and the Cold Gun to be the first single. She opted for Wuthering Heights and, as they say, the rest is history. There was contention when EMI considered what the second single should be. Bush also discussed working on her second album (Lionheart, 1978):

“EMI had wanted to go with another track, "James and the Cold Gun," a more traditional rock'n'roll song. But Kate was reluctant, just as they were with the new single, "The Man With the Child In His Eyes," which, musically, is a complete contrast to her first hit. The record company would have opted for a more obvious follow-up in "Them Heavy People."

"I so want "The Man With the Child In His Eyes" to do well. I'd like people to listen to it as a songwriting song, as opposed to something weird, which was the reaction to 'Wuthering Heights.' That's why it's important. If the next song had been similar, straight away I would have been labeled, and that's something I really don't want. As soon as you've got a label, you can't do anything. I prefer to take a risk."

The relationship with EMI has been good. Kate has been astonished that they've allowed her so much say. But she was very insistent that she should be involved in every facet of her career, to the point where, at such a young age, she had almost been self-managed, with help from friends and family.

"I've always had an attitude about managers. Unless they're really needed, they just confuse matters. They obviously have their own impressions of a direction and an image that is theirs, and surely it should come from within the actual structure rather than from outside. I often think that generally they're more of a hindrance than a help."

Ideally, she would like to exert control over every area to ensure that she is projected as she wants to be. Strangely, very strangely, the pressure and frightening newness of the music business hasn't upset her at all, and she reveals shyly that she somehow feels she has been through it all before. "I wonder if it has to do with the concept of time in some way, in that everything you do, you've done before." (Refer to "Strange Phenomena," on "The Kick Inside.")

For her, there is an unreal aspect to all that's happened. That she has had a number one single, a gold album, television appearances, interviews, attention . She has held a reasonable balance throughout and generally got through all the hub-bub as she would have liked. Disasters were her first television appearances in Germany and England, on Top of the Pops. "It was like watching myself...die. It was a bloody awful performance."

I remember watching with some shock when she appeared on Saturday Night at the Mill, hardly the most inspiring rock programme, and thinking those people didn't have a clue what she was about. To them she was a curvey little girl who contorted her figure erotically to a song they didn't give a damn about. Another weird programme to do was Tonight. Both, Kate points out, were at peak viewing time.

She doesn't know how ended up on them. They probably phoned EMI, but there was no way she would be averse to appearing on programmes like that.

"I was reaching an audience that was a little wider-spread, and that's incredible. That's what I'm really into. I'm into reaching more than the ordinary market because I think it's very...not snobby, but something similar, when you're choosing your public, and I think your public should choose you and you should get to as many people as you can, so that as many people as possible can choose you.

"I'm reaching people that have maybe had a totally different life from me and are well ahead of me in many standards, but yet they're accepting me. A lot of older people won't listen to pop music because they have a biased idea of what it is, and that's wrong because a lot of them would really get into some of the music that's around. It's not all punk, and if you can get music to them that they like, then you're achieving something. You're getting into people's homes who have been shut off from that sort of music for years. They're into their Bach...'Bach is wonderful, but I don't like that pop music.'

"Maybe they do, but they're never given the option. They're always given the music that people might think they like. But I think they're really into exploring."

She would, then, like to be more than just a young people's musician?

"I'd really like to think that there is no age barrier because that's a shame, and I'd like to think that there's a message in my music for everyone. That's the greatest reward I could get -- to get different people getting into different tracks.

"It really means a lot to think that I'm not just hitting on an area that may be just identified with me, that people are actually identifying with what the songs are about. I'm really not sure where my music is hitting, although I think it is mainly hitting younger people."

All of this involvement -- she'd also like to learn to produce -- mounts up. At times, the pressure must be unbearable, especially as all Kate's successes have come so fast. But no, she assures me again, the pressures don't come from the hits. She feels more pressure from the future, the fact that she has another album to do and there is so much to live up to.

"It's a great challenge. There's always something good in whatever pressure is around. There's an incredible challenge, and if you can do it and if you come out the other side and even if you lose, you've done it. I think that makes you stronger.

"The songs for the first album were written over a two-to-three year period, and now I've got a two-to-three month period for this one. It's ridiculous, and my admiration for people like David Bowie and Elton John, and Queen -- although I'm not into their music -- grows all the time. It's incredible how they do it. They do it all. They record and tour and promote.

"That's awesome to me. Incredibly so. I mean, I'm on a little level compared to that. It amazes me that they can keep their brains in a logical order without their speech getting all tangled because there's so much going on."

So what happens when you reach that situation? (There are plans to tour next year.)

"I don't know how I'll cope, but when you're in the situation it's very different. I would have thought it impossible to do what I'm doing now a few years ago, but now I'm here, it doesn't seem that amazing because, really, it's just doing your work on whichever level it is, and I'm really lucky for all the work I've been given."

But you've not had to struggle?

"Yeah, that's true, and it's a little frightening. There was only a struggle within myself. But even if your work is so important to you, it's not actually your life. It's only part of your life, so if your work goes, you're still a human being. You're still living. You can always get a job in Woolworth's or something.

"I suppose I would find it very hard to let go because for me it's the only thing that I'm here to do. I don't really know what else I could do that I would be particularly good at. I could take a typing course, loads of things, but I wouldn't actually feel that I'd be giving anything.

"I think you can kid yourself into destiny. I have never done another job. It's a little frightening, because it's the only thing I've really explored, but then again, so many things are similar. They all tie in. I really feel that what I'm doing is what everyone else is doing in their jobs.

"It's really sad that pressures are put on some musicians. It's essential for them to be human beings, because that's where all the creativity comes from, and if it's taken away from them and everybody starts kneeling and kissing their feet and that, they're gonna grow in the wrong areas”.

The final interview takes us to Trouser Press. They featured Kate Bush in July 1978. The Kick Inside had been out for five months. She was known around the world, but many only knew about Wuthering Heights and what everyone else was reporting. Many were curious about her upbringing and tastes. They correctly observed how Bush clearly had a lot of staying power and promise:

“Enough ranting. When Kate Bush sat down to talk, I was curious to know her roots.

Born in Kent in 1958, she said she'd started out taking violin lessons, but "couldn't get on with being taught it." So the rebellious 11-year-old began fooling around with the family piano, writing songs. That turned out much better.

"Every night for a couple of hours I'd sing and play. When I was 15 my family thought it would be a good idea to maybe meet some people in the music business and see if I could get some response from my songs... I think they were pleased to see I had something I could release myself in. They neither encouraged me or discouraged me, they just let me be myself, which is something I'll always thank them for."

Sounds like progressive parents to me. Enter Kate's brother, who "had a friend who'd been in the record business for a couple of years. He came around to listen to me. I put twenty to thirty of my songs on a tape and he'd take it to record companies. Of course there was no response; you wouldn't be able to hear a thing, just this little girl with a piano going 'yaaaa yaaaa' for hours on end... [The songs] weren't that good. They were OK, but..."

Usually the only musicians who will disparage themselves are the vets who have had the time to acquire sufficient self-confidence. I wondered how the artiste of the early days differed from the current one.

"I could sing in key but there was nothing there. It was awful noise, it was really something terrible. My tunes were more morbid and more negative. That was a lot of people's comment: they were too heavy. But then a lot of people are saying that about my current songs. The old ones were quite different musically, vocally, and lyrically. You're younger and you get into murders..."

Rejection was merely a small delay, though. Along came David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. "Dave was doing his guardian angel bit and scouting for talent. He'd already found a band called Unicorn in a pub and was helping them. He came along to see me and he was great, such a human, kind person - and genuine. He said, 'It looks as if the only way you can do it is to put at most three songs on a tape and we'll get them properly arranged.' He put up the money for me to do that, which is amazing. No way could I have afforded to do anything like that. EMI heard it and I got the contract."

Indeed, so good were the Gilmour demos cut in 1975 that two of them ended up unchanged on the LP. Remember that in '75 Kate Bush was 17.

The Kick Inside was produced by Andrew Powell in the summer of 1977, showcasing really hot-slick playing from some then Cockney Rebels and Pilots. The rest is chart history; chart history that would seem to have happened a little too quickly. In response to a question about future plans, Kate sounded weary: "I'm actually pretty heavily committed until late autumn. The trouble is that the records moved so quickly and I don't think anyone expected it. I found there are commitments already that are going on and on." Or, when asked about her reception here in the US: "The only people I can talk about are the people in the company and the interviewers. They're all great. I figured they would be anyway, because when you're talking to someone about themself you're usually nice." Jaundiced so early on?

The last three songs on Kick seem the most personal. "Room for the Life" comes across as a sort of "I Am Woman" glorifying childbirth. She feels women have a much stronger survival unit then men," since they can bear children, and thus should use their advantage to help men rather then play games with them. I don't really understand what she's talking about, but it can be dismissed as a Heavy Philosophical Matter, since she admitted to being in no hurry for a baby herself.

When we turned to spiritual matter, she seemed to be on firmer ground. "Strange Phenomena" suggest that she believes in Other forces.

"Oh yes, I do. The thing about us humans is that we consider ourselves it, that we know everything. I think we're abusing our power and are guided by things we don't know about that are much stronger then us. But you can't label them if you don't know what they are. Also, it tends to sound a bit trendy like 'the cosmic forces' and it's cruel to do that because most religions have been exploited. As long as they're not misinterpreted they're good because they give the individual something to hold onto."

A cynical view of faith for someone who regards herself as a believer. Later she would make a similar response when describing Gurdjieff as "the only religion I've been able to relate to" and then quickly ending her sketchy account with, "I don't really want to say much because I don't really have the knowledge to say it." At no time did she feel the need to justify herself to anyone else; she must get enough moral support from her own instincts.

The last song on the album is the title cut, which contains opaque lines like "Your sister I was born - you must lose me/Like an arrow shot into the killer storm." Que pasa, KB?

"That's inspired by an old traditional song called 'Lucy Wan.' It's about a young girl and her brother who fall desperately in love. It's an incredibly taboo thing. She becomes pregnant by her brother and it's completely against all morals. She doesn't want him to be hurt, she doesn't want her family to be ashamed or disgusted, so she kills herself. The song is a suicide note. She says to her brother, 'Don't worry. I'm doing it for you.'"

One of the best ways to look silly is to make predictions. Still, I suspect Kate Bush will have a lot of staying power. Her LP is so fully realized, and so distinctive that if her music progresses at all, she may well come to be one of those creative voices that everyone, pro and con, must take into account. Her unapologetic self-assurance never wanes and looks like the thing that will allow continued exploration

Musicians can reveal a lot about themselves when giving their opinion of the new wave, but Kate Bush did so intentionally. Professing an admiration for the Stranglers and Pistols, and the way the status quo had been shaken up, she went on to say:

"Maybe it's ironic, but I think punk has actually done a lot for me in England. People were waiting for something new to come out - something with feeling. If you've got something to tell people, you should lay it on them”.

Kate Bush is a fascinating artist who was thrust into the limelight and had to tackle so many different interviews and promotional duties. I was keen to include three interesting 1978 interviews published in promotion of The Kick Inside. That incredible debut is forty-five in February. I am running anniversary features to mark forty-five years since it was recorded. Although many interviews could see a future for Kate Bush, I am sure nobody could have any idea she would be hugely popular and talked about…

ALMOST forty-five years later!

FEATURE: Dancing Queens: Why a Beloved Genre Needs to Address Its Gender Imbalance

FEATURE:

 

Dancing Queens

IN THIS PHOTO: RAYE is an artist who has scored her biggest hits as the featured vocalist on a song by a male producer (such as Jax Jones), rather than on her own merit

Why a Beloved Genre Needs to Address Its Gender Imbalance

__________

THERE is a bit of an odd split…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna recently provided a terrific remix for Beyoncé song, BREAK MY SOUL/PHOTO CREDIT: Madonna

happening in Dance music at the moment concerning women. On the one hand, Dance is offering women over the age of forty an opportunity to enter the charts. I will come to it more in a while but, if you look at artists like Madonna and Beyoncé and D.J.s like Honey Dijon, they are getting their work onto ‘younger’ stations because of the genre. Whether it is an original song or a remix, artists who might otherwise have been ignore by stations are being played. I am not sure what the situation is like in the U.S. and other countries. Here, stations such as BBC Radio 1 have an age demographic. They play Pop, Dance, and other styles, but most of their playlist consists of artists under the age of forty. It is different for BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music but, even then, they can be strict regarding genre – I think this is more common with BBC Radio 2. With a lot of young listeners tuned into BBC Radio 1, they are only really hearing from artists their age. Whilst some may feel that Dance music is for the young and, therefore, artists of their age are easier to identify with, this is not the case. I am going to come to an issue when it comes to featuring female Dance acts on radio. Maybe the news is a couple of weeks old, but I wanted to cover it now…

I find it frustrating that there is an age limit that specifically seems to apply to women and non-binary artists! It does not only apply to Dance. If you have a Folk or Pop artist releasing a new track, how much airplay are they going to receive if they are over the age of forty!? Maybe the age limit is lower than that! When I think back to my childhood, the most evocative and memorable music was Dance. I was not at the clubs (obviously), but songs from the likes of Snap!, Urban Cookie Collective, and N-Trance were led by women. It was their impassioned performances that brought these songs to life! If there is ageism happening when it comes to other genres, maybe there is more flexibility when it comes to Dance. Perhaps it is a genre not beholden to algorithms and demographic. I still think Pop is a younger genre – the same with Hip-Hop and Grime -, whereas Folk and similar sounds are traditionally seen as for slightly more mature audiences (though this is not necessarily true today, radio stations do not play this genre as much as they should!). Music bound for the clubs is designed to be embraced by all. I think, because of that, age is not such a massive issue. A recent Billboard article attests to the fact that Dance music is not beholden to the rules and age limits of the charts and the Pop market. That is giving new possibility and airplay to legendary female artists who are otherwise finding it harder to get mainstream and wider airplay:

“Break My Soul,” the lead single from Renaissance, commenced the music icon’s latest reinvention. A raucously blissful ode to building a “new foundation,” “Break My Soul,” situated Beyoncé in a rather intriguing pop music lineage. From Aretha Franklin and Eartha Kitt to Madonna – and now, Beyoncé – once female pop stars hit 40, they seem to always deliver an undeniable anthem rooted in dance music. These songs simultaneously innovate each artist’s core sounds and use the queer history of dance music and the genre’s unique avenues of consumption to catalyze commercial success – in the face of ageism in the music industry and pop culture, at large.

Ageism in pop music is hardly a new phenomenon. A look at Billboard’s 2021 Year-End Radio Songs chart, which ranks the 75 most played songs on radio for that year, reveals a stark age cutoff for female artists vying to get a record in regular radio rotation. Just one song, Taylor Swift’s “Willow” (No. 45), sung by a woman over 30 landed on the 2021 chart. As for the 2021 Year-End Pop Airplay chart, just one woman over 30 appears on the 50-spot ranking: SZA, as a featured artist on Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” (No. 4). Nevertheless, plenty of male artists and acts over 30 – including Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Charlie Puth, Masked Wolf, Maroon 5, Machine Gun Kelly, Blackbear, Chris Brown, and Ed Sheeran – all had songs make the Year-End list.

In 2015, perennial pop titan Madonna, who recently blessed “Break My Soul” with her appearance on the song’s “Queens Remix,” took on BBC Radio 1 after a programmer refused to play her Rebel Heart lead single “Living for Love” in an effort to lower the age of the station’s demographic. “My manager said to me, ‘If you’re not in your twenties, it’s hard. You might get your record played in your thirties. There’s a handful of people who do – Pharrell got lucky. But if you’re in your fifties, you can forget it,’” Madonna said. “I was like, ‘Wait a second. Shouldn’t it have to do with whether you wrote a good, catchy pop song?’”

In a 2017 New York Times interview, P!nk expressed similar sentiments. The “Just Give Me A Reason” singer said that she was told, “Just be prepared, they don’t play girls over 35 on top 40 radio. There are exceptions, but they’re songs, not artists — unless you’re Beyoncé.” But even that last exception wasn’t necessarily warranted: “Break My Soul,” which as of press time, has peaked at No. 4 on Billboard‘s Radio Songs chart, is the first song from a Beyoncé album to hit the chart’s top 10 since her self-titled set’s “Drunk In Love” rose to No. 6 in 2014. “Soul” is also Beyoncé’s first solo song to hit the top 10 on the Pop Airplay listing since “Sweet Dreams” in 2009.

The beauty of dance music, in terms of general consumption, is that while the genre has had its mainstream periods – particularly in the ‘90s diva house era “Soul” calls back to – it is not inherently reliant on the politics of radio. Dance music pulses and percolates in nightclubs, raves, and balls that stretch into the twinkling wee hours of the morning. From the underground queer subcultures that informed the disco movement to house music’s foundation of chosen families, dance music has always thrived outside of the mainstream. (Dance also had an undeniable top 40 moment at the beginning of the 2010s, with the commercial dominance of dubstep and progressive house, but it was a phenomenon that largely sanitized the history of dance music and prioritized straight white male artists and voices over the genre’s queer Black roots.)

The left-of-mainstream legacy has evolved in the digital age, with queer pop music fans often finding community in the fan bases of their favorite artists. These are often the most devoted and dedicated fans these artists have, so forays into a genre that is inextricably tied to queerness is an understandable move – as these artists’ commercial success becomes increasingly dictated by their core audience as opposed to the fleeting adoration of the general public.

DJ and music scholar Lynée Denise writes of the late 1980s club scene in cities like Chicago and Detroit, “DJs and house music producers, some queer and some straight, were calling on witnesses of the AIDS crisis to grieve and groove.” These were records that didn’t have to rely on massive radio conglomerates and callout scores to determine success. Instead, these records relied on their ability to bring people to the dancefloor and enrapture a crowd. In the same way, when pop divas turn to dance for late-career musical shifts, the songs are now reliant on both club play and radio. Sometimes, their dominance in the club scene can transcend any tepid reaction from traditional radio. (Many of the biggest stars also regularly rely on dance remixes of their hits from popular DJs to continue to get even their non-floor-ready hits club play, a practice established in the ‘90s by the likes of Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, and Madonna.)”.

If there is a bit of light peeking through that means women over the age of forty in Dance are being heard more, it does raise questions. Why do other genres not have the same opportunities and flexibility? Why, in 2022, is age such an issue? One only needs to look at the recent resurgence of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) to know that a good song, regardless of the artist’s age (Bush is sixty-four) is a great song! It does not matter how old the artist is. It is still a problem that applies to women and non-binary artists. I feel that male artists and D.J.s do not have the same struggle. There does need to be quick change, because so many incredible artists and D.J.s are being overlooked and defined by their age. If Dance music is providing more established artists over the age of forty exposure they might not have got in other genres, there is a problem with Dance music as a whole. A recent report (as the BBC report) found that female Dance acts/D.J.s are largely being ignored by radio. I have said how, in the 1980s, 1990s and early/mid-2000s how Dance music led by female voices was very much embraced. It was so important to me. These women were responsible for some of the most memorable music ever! Now, when you think that stations would offer a wider spectrum and voices to women and non-binary Dance acts, it seems like there is a rigidness that is causing damage to the scene. The new report, which covered the years 2020-2021, was conducted by the Jaguar Foundation (the brainchild of Radio 1 DJ Jaguar Bingham).

 IN THIS PHOTO: Jaguar

She wrote for The Guardian earlier this month about how Dance music is out of step when it comes to women and non-binary D.J.s:

“In the 1970s and 80s, dance music was born from minorities – the LGBTQ+ communities and Black and Brown people in Chicago, New York and Detroit – as a means of escapism and freedom from a world that was not built for them. The disfranchised created a microcosm to express themselves and feel safe. If you look at top-tier DJs and festival lineups in the UK in 2022, however, this doesn’t add up. Calvin Harris, Fatboy Slim, David Guetta – white men dominate the modern electronic scene, mirroring the world we live in, and those not part of the canon face many challenges.

My report, Progressing Gender Representation in UK Dance Music, is a deep dive into the gender disparity among artists within the UK electronic music scene. The seeds of the report were sown during the pandemic, when I became a DJ with no gigs. In a period of reflection, inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests, I questioned what I really wanted from my career.

I found my purpose. On my BBC Radio 1 shows, championing minorities was already a priority, but I wanted to do more to make UK dance music a more equal place for the next generation. In 2020, I launched Future1000 with Virtuoso, a free, online initiative where women, trans and non-binary people aged 12 to 18 can learn to DJ, in an accessible way. While researching the report I couldn’t find many official resources with data about gender in dance music, so the Jaguar Foundation was born and we decided to create our own research and provide solutions to gender inequality.

Through interviews with UK dance music artists, industry heavyweights, and those already lobbying for change in this area, we put together a strong narrative around what the challenges are, and what we can do to accelerate existing progress. This was backed up by plenty of data analysis, looking at festival lineups, radio airplay and the gender of ticket buyers at club nights.

There are other challenges for women and non-binary people too, such as the added pressure of how they look. Too often I’ve read comments referring to the success of some women DJs being down to their attractiveness. I have friends who dress androgynously when they DJ – or do anything front-facing – because they’re afraid to oversexualise themselves and be judged. During a DJ live stream my friend didn’t wear a bra and all the comments were about her nipples, rather than her performance. It negatively affected her mental health and confidence. It’s exhausting to have to battle through all this every day. When I did my first Boiler Room session this year, I was so nervous – not about the gig, but about what trolls were going to say in the comments”.

Whereas female and non-binary Dance artists might appear as featured artists and find a chart route that way, how many Dance tracks now do you hear played and rule the charts with women at the front!? Maybe mainstream artists like Dua Lipa are an exception, but I would consider her to be more Pop-based. I keep drawing a comparison between past decades. One can argue that a lot of the classic Dance tracks did feature female voices at the front, but the act themselves were male. Also, when it came to credit, do we remember the names of the women who sung the song, or is it still only about the acts they performed for? Maybe there is some truth in that but, from Lady Miss Kier’s memorable and timeless vocal for Deee-Lite’s Groove Is in the Heart to Heather Small’s vocal on Black Box’s Ride on Time, right through to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s performance on Spiller’s Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love), we have examples of songs that will inspire for generations – led by amazing women and non-binary artists. In Dance and Electronica, there are so many superb women and non-binary artists who are not getting fair due and equality. This is a moment when ageism against women and non-binary artists is less of an issue in Dance compared with other genres. On the flipside, the genre as a whole is championing male artists. Radio playlists are still being dominated by them. It is baffling! There are so many incredible and varied women and non-binary Dance artists and D.J.s that warrant a platform and parity. Gender inequality continues to rear its head! Dance music should be ageless; for all genders, peoples and walks of life. It is music that has never judged; one that opens its heart and doors and welcomes people in. That’s how it should be anyway! When it comes to women and non-binary artists, stations who should be featuring more Dance music from them…

KEEP putting them second.

FEATURE: Madonna at Sixty-Four: The Artists She Has Inspired: A Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

Madonna at Sixty-Four

The Artists She Has Inspired: A Playlist

 __________

AHEAD of Madonna’s sixty-fourth birthday…

on 16th August, I have written a few features about her. The final one is about the artists that she has influenced. The best way to represent this wide-ranging influence is through a playlist. I will end with songs from those who have followed Madonna’s lead. Recently, she hooked up with Beyonce for Break My Soul (The Queens Remix). This article from Variety explains more:

“Beyoncé’s critically acclaimed “Renaissance” album has only been out a week, but the pop titan is already gifting fans with more to dance to.

On Wednesday, the singer released an EP of “Break My Soul” remixes by Will.I.Am, Terry Hunter, Honey Dijon and Nita Aviance. Today, Beyoncé dropped yet another spin on the disco-inspired single, featuring none other than Madonna. However, it appears that Madonna did not record anything new for the remix beyond (possibly) a few spoken words, but rather had snippets of previously released, decades-old songs, particularly “Vogue,” dropped in.

As of now, “Break My Soul (The Queens Remix)” is only available on Bey’s online shop for $1.29. The song will land in fans’ emails in upon purchase. There is no current indication whether the remix will hit streaming services.

This marks the first official collaboration between the two queens of pop. Emulating Madonna’s classic spoken-word section of “Vogue,” Bey name-drops iconic Black women in music, from Aaliyah to Nina Simone to her sister, Solange Knowles. Of course, Beyoncé also shouts out Madonna, who doesn’t seem to appear on the track other than in the form of a “Vogue” sample.

“Queen Mother Madonna, Aaliyah, Rosetta Tharpe, Santigold, Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, Betty Davis, Solange Knowles,” Beyoncé sings. “Lauryn Hill, Roberta Flack, Toni, Janet, Tierra Whack. Missy, Diana, Grace Jones, Aretha, Anita, Grace Jones.”

In Variety’s review of “Renaissance,” Ilana Kaplan described “Break My Soul” as “a necessary balm and ‘hot girl summer’ anthem to usher in this new era. But it was also an ideal track to showcase the experimental, retro-futuristic terrain bursting from the album’s 16 tracks. You can hear the influence of ‘70s and early ‘80s disco as it melds with trap, soul, Afrobeats, soul-funk, thotty rap, hyperpop, dancehall”.

There is no doubting the fact that Madonna has had a huge cultural impact. She has also made an enormous impact on so many other artists. There is a lists here that gives you a sense of those who follow Madonna. Prior to her sixty-fourth birthday on 16th August, I wanted to end a run of features with a playlist of great songs from artists who nod to…

THE Queen of Pop.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Question Songs

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

PHOTO CREDIT: @chne_/Unsplash

Question Songs

 __________

WHETHER written with a question mark…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Emily Morter

or without (which really bugs me), many songs have asked questions. To be fair, some of those without question marks that starts with a ‘what’, ‘why’ or ‘when’ are debatably statements more than questions. Even so, I wanted to compile a playlist of songs where the title asks a question. There are a few classics I might have missed but, even if they are one-word questions or queries, I have included them. It has been interesting doing a bit of research and discovering the songs that I might not have otherwise considered. For a bit of fun, enjoy the songs before that do ponder a question…whether they have a question mark…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @jontyson

OR not.

FEATURE: Another Part of Me: Following The Mighty Thriller: Michael Jackson’s Bad at Thirty-Five

FEATURE:

 

Another Part of Me

Following The Mighty Thriller: Michael Jackson’s Bad at Thirty-Five

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IT might be controversial…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Michael Jackson performs during his Bad world tour at Madison Square Garden in New York in March 1988/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

covering Michael Jackson’s albums now but, as one classic (Thriller) is forty later in the year, many people will. On 31st August, 1987, Jackson released his seventh studio album, Bad. I wanted to mark its upcoming thirty-fifth anniversary. If you do not own this classic on vinyl, go and get a copy. Released almost five years after the historic and peerless Thriller (1982), there was this sense of expectation. Many hoping for an album just as good. Maybe an impossible task, Bad is an album that comes mighty close. Written and recorded between January 1985 and July 1987, Bad was the third and final collaboration between Jackson and producer Quincy Jones. Bad is an edgier and harder album than Thriller. Jackson wanted to evolve and change things up. Although there aren’t the Disco and R&B touches that defined some of the best songs from Thriller and 1979’s Off the Wall, I think the sound of Bad is incredible. Tackling the media, paranoia, racial profiling, self-improvement, and the state of the world, Bad is an important album where the personal mix with the bigger issues in society. The album featured fantastic appearances from Siedah Garrett and Stevie Wonder. I can only imagine how much excitement there was in the air in 1987. After releasing Thriller, the expectation and anticipation would have been beyond compare! Bad reached number one on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. It sold ion excess of 2.25 million copies in its first week alone in the United States! A huge chart monster around the world, Bad also spawned five number one singles :I Just Can't Stop Loving You, Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Man in the Mirror and Dirty Diana.

There is a fascinating feature and a couple of reviews that I want to bring in to contextualise and celebrate one of the biggest albums of Michael Jackson’s career. Michael Jackson’s official website provides some background to the amazing Bad:

“‘Bad’ is Michael Jackson’s third solo album on Epic Records, released on August 31st, 1987. Nominated for six Grammy Awards (winner of two), and selling an estimated 45 million copies worldwide, it is cited as one of the best-selling albums of all time, and was hailed by Time Magazine as “A state-of-the-art dance record”.

‘Bad’ is the first album in the history of recorded music to have five of its singles consecutively peak at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart: “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”, “Bad”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Man in the Mirror” and “Dirty Diana” – all charted at #1.

The final 11-song tracklist contained 9 compositions written solely by Michael, and Michael served as co-producer for the album with Quincy Jones, who served as producer. This was the last of Michael’s albums which Quincy worked on.

In all, ‘Bad’ took more than a year to record. The album earned Michael the first-ever Video Vanguard Award at the MTV VMA awards.

Michael Jackson: “For two and a half years, I devoted most of my time to recording the follow-up to ‘Thriller’, the album that came to be titled Bad. Why did it take so long to make Bad? The answer is that Quincy and I decided that this album should be as close to perfect as humanly possible. A perfectionist has to take his time; he shapes and he molds and he sculpts that thing until it’s perfect. He can’t let it go before he’s satisfied; he can’t. We worked on ‘Bad’ for a long time. Years. In the end, it was worth it because we were satisfied with what we had achieved, but it was difficult too. There was a lot of tension because we felt we were competing with ourselves. It’s very hard to create something when you feel like you’re in competition with yourself because no matter how you look at it, people are always going to compare ‘Bad’ to ‘Thriller’….I think I have a slight advantage in all of this because I always do my best work under pressure.” – Michael Jackson, 1988.

Michael Jackson Estate Co-Executor John Branca: “Michael was very involved creatively with ‘Off The Wall’ and ‘Thriller’, but he was even more involved on ‘Bad’. He did write nine of the 11 songs. Michael would create demos in his studio at Hayvenurst. That would be the model for what was on the album. He was the architect of the album in every sense of the word.”.

Keyboardist Greg Phillinganes: “[‘Bad’] was arguably the most transitional point in establishing his musical independence. And the songs speak for themselves. It was just a well-rounded collection of great songs”.

There is so much to explore when it comes to the recording and legacy of Bad. In 2012, to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the album and a new release, TIME spoke to some people who worked on Bad. It makes me enlightening and insightful reading

“On Aug. 31, 1987, almost exactly 25 years ago, Michael Jackson released the album Bad. It had been five years since Thriller, the album that had arguably established the well-known pop star as a visionary—and that would go on to set the record for the most copies sold of a single album.

The quest to match Thriller would be a hard one. But despite (or perhaps because of) that burden, Jackson was more involved than ever in Bad‘s artistic process. “When you would work with him you could just see the way his mind worked,” says Matt Forger, who engineered the record. “He knew exactly what he was looking for.” Under the shadow of Thriller, and despite the backlash against his personal eccentricities that came to light around that time, Bad set records of its own. It was the first album to ever send five consecutive singles to the top of the Billboard charts, and it held that record until 2011.

Bad’s quarter-century milestone will be marked with due pomp. Jackson’s estate and Epic/Legacy Recordings are collaborating on a three-CD release (BAD25, out Sept. 18), which includes the remastered original album, plus an album of additional tracks, including demos and remixes, and a live album. The package also includes a DVD of never-before-seen concert footage—Jackson’s own review copy of a July 16, 1988 concert at Wembley Stadium. In addition, a Spike-Lee-helmed documentary about the album, the similarly-titled Bad25, will debut Aug. 31 at the Venice Film Festival. And starting this spring, Jackson has even found his way onto 1 billion Bad-themed Pepsi cans.

“In honor of the seminal album’s anniversary, TIME spoke (in separate interviews, with the exception of Phillinganes and Forger) to people who were there and people living out the album’s legacy:

Greg Phillinganes, a musician who worked on the record and music-directed the Bad tour

Matt Forger, a music engineer and producer who worked on Bad

Spike Lee, who directed Bad25 as well as Jackson’s short film for the song “They Don’t Care About Us”

John Branca, Jackson’s lawyer and co-executor of his estate

Nick van der Wall, a.k.a Afrojack , the DJ who remixed a new version of “Bad” for the anniversary release.

Bad was crafted at Westlake Studio in Los Angeles and at Michael Jackson’s personal studio, Hayvenhurst.  The formal recording process began at Westlake on Jan. 5, 1987.

Forger: After the experience of Thriller, I think that was something that really reinforced Michael’s confidence. He had written four of the songs off the Thriller album, and those songs turned into hit songs. Michael knew he was on the right track. By the time Bad came around it was just ready for him to step up and take a much larger role because it was his time. He was ready.

Branca: I remember having a conversation with him, we were in Hong Kong, and I was kind of kidding, and I said, “Michael, maybe for the next album, instead of trying to top yourself and compete with yourself, maybe you should go a little left of center and think about something a little different, like making an album of the songs that inspired you to become an artist. Songs by James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, and others.” He looked at me like I was from Mars. He was intent on topping himself and he put a lot of pressure on himself to do that.

Lee: The greatest people, the greatest artists, whatever you want to call that category, they work at their craft for years and years and years. So often we think it comes, we don’t see the hard work that goes into all that. We see the creation, we see the beauty of the hard work but we don’t see the hard work, the blood, sweat and tears.

Phillinganes: There was the pressure mostly on Michael. We just were happy to know that we’d be in the studio all together again to have more fun. It’s not like we sat around like “We’ve got to do better!” It wasn’t that cinematic, “we’ve got to do one more for the Gipper” kind of thing. Just like with Thriller it was all predicated on getting the best songs possible.

Forger: We knew we were in the studio and we were going to have fun because that was the vibe, especially working with Michael and working with Quincy [Jones, who produced the album], too. You’ve got to realize that when you devote your life to making records you do it because you love being there. You love the experience. It’s one of those things where you get in the studio and [you think], “Oh my gosh, where did the last eight hours go?”

Phillinganes: We had family pet day, where he brought down Muscles the Boa and Bubbles the Chimp and we took pictures. There’s a group picture I have a couple shots of, it’s Studio D of Westlake and we’re all standing in a long row to accommodate Muscles. How long was he?

Forger: Well, he grew. I first met Muscles on Thriller and he was probably about 10 or 12 feet long, so he must have been at least 16 feet by the time Bad rolled around. He was a very nice snake.

Phillinganes: And during some downtime in the studio—there was a technical problem so we couldn’t go on until that was sorted out—Mike was getting restless and he asked me if I felt like going across the street to do a little shopping. What was across the street was a major, major, huge shopping mall called the Beverly Center. He puts on this wig and dark sunglasses and crooked teeth and we come out of the studio, just the two of us, no security no cops nobody, on La Cienega Boulevard and I remember thinking that time as we were crossing, “I’m crossing La Cienega with Michael Jackson and nobody knows.” We went all over the place and did a bit of shopping and he had slightly puzzled looks from cashiers. He looked like Sly Stone on crack and then he gets out the credit card and they go, “No!”

Forger: When you were with Michael you always had this sense of enjoyment, of energy and whatever it is Michael wanted to do he wanted to enjoy himself when he was doing it.

Branca: Michael was very involved creatively with Off the Wall and Thriller but he was even more involved on Bad. He did write nine of the 11 songs. Michael would create demos in his studio at Hayvenhurst. That would be the model for what was on the album. He was the architect of the album in every sense of the word.

Forger: Michael said “We’re going to start some new songs.” I never knew when we were going to do a song what the song was for, but the first song I started on with Michael was Dirty Diana. We started on Dirty Diana at Westlake Studios and then his home studio was completed, which was the Hayvenhurst studio, then we went into Al Capone, which transitioned later into Smooth Criminal and the next song after that I think was Hot Fever, which became The Way You Make Me Feel.

Phillinganes: By the time we were working on Bad, Mike’s ideas became stronger and clearer. Songs like Al Capone, titles like that, even as working titles, show that Mike had a tremendous cinematic approach to the making of his music.

Forger: Michael always wanted to be a storyteller. He wanted a beginning, a middle and an end, and he wanted it to be a story and it could be translated not only into a song but a terrific—what Michael always called “film shorts,” as opposed to “music videos.”

Afrojack: The sonic professionalism on the original Bad album was just next level. Nowadays they do it a lot but back then this was the newest of the newest, like crazy stereo effects, on a technical level of engineering and music production.

Lee: When it came to work, he was a perfectionist. He had a tremendous work ethic. He’s not going to say, “I’m tired,” he’s not going to say anything. Until it’s done, he’s like, “Let’s go, let’s get it done, let’s do the best we can, let’s not cut any corners.” Whether it’s creatively or financially, he was not cutting any corners.

Afrojack: You have a lot of music coming out and if you want to be the best everything has to be the best, including the technical production and the technical aspects of music production.

Forger: It wouldn’t be uncommon that a track would be recorded several times, either the tempo or the key or the arrangement, until you absolutely got the exact right thing. When you’re working with people of this caliber and you’re adjusting these parameters and when you get the right one it just feels like that’s it. Everyone understands right away when you’ve got the right formula”.

Nine months and two weeks after the album’s release, five songs from Bad—”I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” (with Siedah Garrett), “Bad,” “The Way You Make Me Feel,” Man in the Mirror” and “Dirty Diana”— had reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100, for a collective seven weeks at the top, setting a new world record.

Lee: The legacy of the album is you have two legacies. It has something that Thriller doesn’t have: five No. 1 consecutive singles. But, number two is that it was the album that followed up Thriller, the biggest-selling album of all time.

Branca: Bad was an enormously influential album. It had an enormous impact on many of today’s biggest artists, stars, who point to that album and those videos as being influential in their careers.

Afrojack: All music has always been inspired by the next level of producing. This is a long time later. It’s fun to see how it’s still inspiring.

PHOTO CREDIT: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Branca: Like I said, I remember that conversation with Michael where I tried to take the pressure off of him and he said no, he put the pressure right back on his shoulders. I just remember how driven he was. I think he had a great time on the Bad tour. When you see that footage you can see that he’s having a really good time. He stepped out on his own; he was completely in control. I think it was a great time in Michael’s life.

Phillinganes: It was a wild ride. I do remember [the concerts at] Wembley. Princess Di showed up and Michael, that lucky dog, got to be in the receiving line. We could see her pretty well in her bright yellow dress, sitting in her box. Tons of people showed up. Naomi Campbell. Buddies of mine that I had toured with showed up. Eric Clapton. Phil Collins. Barry Gibb. They were all there. We did three at Wembley, and it’s Wembley Stadium, not arena, so that’s like at least 70,000 people. You can never imagine the feeling of watching 70,000 people light torches during “Man in the Mirror.”

Branca: [The concert footage on the BAD25 DVD is] one concert start to finish. There are no edits and piecing together of different concerts. It’s one concert, Michael Jackson at Wembley Stadium in the presence of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. He actually refers to them at the beginning and at the end of the show. We had high-quality footage of other concerts, but the audio wasn’t very good. For Wembley we had great audio but all we had visually was Michael’s VHS copy of the monitor feed.

Phillinganes: I wasn’t with him when he [watched the VHS tapes of his shows], but it was always to improve. He was very meticulous about every aspect of the show, particularly choreography, lighting. He just always strived to maintain that basis that he set for himself.

Forger: For me, it really was that point in time when Michael took the reins of his solo career and you could understand Michael’s personality musically. It’s not that you couldn’t before that, it’s just that in his solo career now he had taken all the encouragement that Quincy [Jones] had given him, and it was just that extension. This was it happening.

Phillinganes: It was arguably the most transitional point in establishing his musical independence. And the songs speak for themselves. It was just a well-rounded collection of great songs.

Forger: To me what I come away with from the Bad album is, ironically, one of the songs that Michael did not write, and that’s Man in the Mirror. Man in the Mirror to me totally represents that place that Michael started directing his energy to. You start to really see where Michael’s heart is, where his soul is, what his intent was for what he would like to accomplish with his music, and that’s a thing that in much later material is clearly evident, and this is the time when you see that coming to the forefront I think, so strongly.

Branca: Clearly Michael is an artist whose popularity will live on for generations. It’s funny, I was talking to Spike Lee about this, some artists are great singers but they don’t write their songs, and some artists are great songwriters but they’re not excellent vocalists or they can’t dance. You look at Michael, and he could write the songs, he could produce them, he could sing them, he could get out and perform and dance them, and then his sense of style sort of changed fashion trends. He’s a unique artist in that respect.

Lee: To be honest, over the years, Bad has grown in stature… Sometimes you don’t get s–t when it comes out right away. We cannot overemphasize: Bad was a follow-up to the greatest single selling album in the history of human civilization. You cannot overemphasize that”.

I am going to end with a couple of reviews. The first, from Roiling Stone is from 1987. I think that there was an expectation that we’d get a second Thriller. Although some might have been disappointed that Bad is a different beast, there was a lot of respect and praise for an artist who was doing what was true to him. Blossoming and growing as a songwriter and artist, Bad is a stunning album:

“Bad is the work of a gifted singer-songwriter with his own skewed aesthetic agenda and the technical prowess to pursue it. Let the paid Encinologists comb through the small print for clues to understanding Jackson’s complicated world. Does “God, I need you” in the carnal duet “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” constitute blasphemy in the wake of his departure from the Witnesses? Is the liner note to “Mother & Joseph Jackson” a tea leaf of familial discord or a casual term of address? Does anyone really care?

Nor should it matter to anyone but the beneficiaries of its anticipated sales whether Bad moves 4 or 12 or 50 million units. Comparisons with Thriller are unimportant, except this one: even without a milestone recording like “Billie Jean,” Bad is a better record. The filler — “Speed Demon,” “Dirty Diana,” arguably “Liberian Girl” — is Michael’s filler, which makes it richer, sexier, better than Thriller‘s forgettables: “Baby Be Mine,” “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing),” “Lady in My Life.”

Leaving the muddy banks of conjecture — as to sales, as to facial surgery, as to religion, as to, Is he getting it, and if so, from whom or what? — we can soar into the heart of a nifty piece of work. Bad offers two songs, its title cut and “Man in the Mirror,” that stand among the half dozen best things Jackson has done. A third, “The Way You Make Me Feel,” is nearly as good. The only mediocrity is “Just Good Friends” (one of two songs not written by M.J.), a Stevie Wonder pairing that starts well but devolves into a chin-bobbing cheerfulness that is unforced but also, sadly, unearned.

Churls may bemoan “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” Jackson’s duet with the often indistinguishable Siedah Garrett, as a second unworthy entry. Without descending to musical McCarthyism and questioning the honor of anyone who can fault a record with both finger snaps and timpani, it need only be asked, Who, having heard the song at least twice, can fail to remember that chorus?

Bad is not only product but also a cohesive anthology of its maker’s perceptions. Where “Lady in My Life” was as believable as Abba’s phonetic re-recording of its hits in Spanish, “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” quivers with the kind of desire that makes men walk bent at the waist. “Liberian Girl” glistens with gratitude for the existence of a loved one.

Once again, Jackson has written songs as dreams, and once again he has the unselfconsciousness to present them without interpretation. “Speed Demon,” the car song, is a fun little power tale, in which Jackson’s superego gives his id a ticket; “Smooth Criminal” may be the result of retiring too soon after a Brian de Palma picture. It’s gory, but almost in the popcorn-chomping manner of “Thriller.” As in his best songs, Jackson’s free-form language keeps us aware that we are on the edge of several realities: the film, the dream it inspires, the waking world it illuminates.

If these songs — even “Smooth Criminal,” with its incessant “Annie, are you okay?” — seem less threatening than previous dream songs, like “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” it’s because Jackson’s perspective has changed. He is no longer the victim, the vegetable they want to eat up, but a concerned observer or a participant with power. For example, “Dirty Diana,” the wisp of a song about a sexual predator, does not aim for the darkness of “Billie Jean”; instead, Jackson sounds equally intrigued by and apprehensive of a sexual challenge, but he feels free to accept or resist it. As on many of the sketchier songs, producer Quincy Jones marshals his most flamboyant strokes — crowd noise, Steve Stevens guitar and John Barnes string arrangement — to make a substantial recording out of an insubstantial melody.

“Bad” needs no defense. Jackson revives the “Hit the Road, Jack” progression and proves (with a lyric beginning with “Your butt is mine” and ending with the answered question “Who’s bad?”) that he can outfunk anybody any time. When Jackson declares that “the whole world has to answer right now,” he is not boasting but making a statement of fact regarding his extraordinary stardom. If anything, he is scorning the self-coronation of lesser funk royals and inviting his fickle public to spurn him if it dare. Not since the “Is it good, ya?” of Godfather Brown has a more rhetorical question been posed in funk.

Michael Jackson deserves the rewards due to those who tell their truth, who admit complexity when simplifications are at hand and who can funk in the valley of the gods. On “Man in the Mirror,” a song he did not write, Jackson goes a step further and offers a straightforward homily of personal commitment: “I’m starting with the man in the mirror/I’m asking him to change his ways/And no message could have been clearer/If you wanna make the world a better place/Take a look at yourself and then make a change.”

Snipers have dismissed this as a solipsistic, Eighties view of political engagement, but no one since Dylan has written an anthem of community action that has moved so many as Michael’s (and Lionel’s) “We Are the World.” And no such grandiose plans can succeed without the first, private steps that Jackson describes here.

The best way to view Bad is not as the sequel to Thriller. Rather, imagine an album made up of “Style of Life,” “Blues Away,” “Bless His Soul,” “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground),” “That’s What You Get (for Being Polite),” “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Can You Feel It,” from the Jacksons’ LPs, and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” “Working Day and Night,” “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” from Michael’s solo records. View that phenomenal album’s worth of music as the opening statement of Michael Jackson the autonomous”.

The final thing I want to reference is AllMusic’s review. More current than Rolling Stone’s review, it is interesting to see how perception of Bad and Michael Jackson has altered through the years:

“The downside to a success like Thriller is that it's nearly impossible to follow, but Michael Jackson approached Bad much the same way he approached Thriller -- take the basic formula of the predecessor, expand it slightly, and move it outward. This meant that he moved deeper into hard rock, deeper into schmaltzy adult contemporary, deeper into hard dance -- essentially taking each portion of Thriller to an extreme, while increasing the quotient of immaculate studiocraft. He wound up with a sleeker, slicker Thriller, which isn't a bad thing, but it's not a rousing success, either. For one thing, the material just isn't as good. Look at the singles: only three can stand alongside album tracks from its predecessor ("Bad," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "I Just Can't Stop Loving You"), another is simply OK ("Smooth Criminal"), with the other two showcasing Jackson at his worst (the saccharine "Man in the Mirror," the misogynistic "Dirty Diana"). Then, there are the album tracks themselves, something that virtually didn't exist on Thriller but bog down Bad not just because they're bad, but because they reveal that Jackson's state of the art is not hip. And they constitute a near-fatal dead spot on the record -- songs three through six, from "Speed Demon" to "Another Part of Me," a sequence that's utterly faceless, lacking memorable hooks and melodies, even when Stevie Wonder steps in for "Just Good Friends," relying on nothing but studiocraft. Part of the joy of Off the Wall and Thriller was that craft was enhanced with tremendous songs, performances, and fresh, vivacious beats. For this dreadful stretch, everything is mechanical, and while the album rebounds with songs that prove mechanical can be tolerable if delivered with hooks and panache, it still makes Bad feel like an artifact of its time instead a piece of music that transcends it”.

On 31st August, we mark thirty-five years of Bad. I know Jackson has a more complex legacy and reputation today. In light of allegations of abuse, many are conflicted as to how they approach his music – and whether they listen at all. Many have blacklisted and banished his name. Radio stations still play his songs. It is a complex ethical issue. I wanted to cover Bad because it was the album that introduced me to Michael Jackson. I was born in 1983, and I must have heard Bad for the first time at the end of the 1980s. It instantly hit me! The songs are catchy and memorable, but there is so much variety. The production by Quincey Jones (and Jackson) is reliably brilliant, whilst Michael Jackson’s songwriting and vocals are more varied and nuanced than on Thriller I think (though songs her wrote for that album, including Billie Jean and Beat It, are among his very best). I can understand people who want to steer clear of Michael Jackson, but he is an artist who has inspired so many people. Albums like Bad, Thriller and Off the Wall are classics from an iconic Pop superstar. From the urgent and thrilling title track to the accusatory and angered Leave Me Alone, Bad is a masterpiece. I think that the album is…

AMONG the very best ever released.

FEATURE: A Deal with God: Kate Bush: Will She Be Nominated for a Grammy This Year, or Is There Another Opportunity Out There?

FEATURE:

 

 

A Deal with God

Kate Bush: Will She Be Nominated for a Grammy This Year, or Is There Another Opportunity Out There?

__________

I have written about Kate Bush…

and the fact that she has not really been recognised fully in America. After her song, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), was used on Stranger Things and reached number one around the world, she is being discovered by a young generation. The U.S. Netflix show has helped get her more acclaim and awareness in the U.S. Things are better now than they were in the 1970s and 1980s. So many other artists and fans have discussed Bush through the years, so you can’t exactly say she is unknown ore underground in America. It is true they do not understand her like they should or hold her in the same esteem as the U.K. and other nations. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has nominated Bush three times (including this year), and she has not made it in. There are no genre limits when it comes to entry. It is shocking and strange that Bush has been overlooked. Some say the reason why is because she has not really gained the same popularity in America. Maybe not enough people are aware of her work. I think that this is hard to believe. Now, with the Stranger Things exposure, there are n real excuses. The Grammy Awards announce the nominees in November. A Billboard article asked the question whether Bush will be nominated:

“Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” is one of the biggest hits of the summer. It holds at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, just behind monster hits by Lizzo and Harry Styles.

Fans want to know if there’s any way it could get some attention when the nominations for the 65th Annual Grammy Awards are announced on Nov. 15. In addition to being a major hit, “Running Up That Hill” is the kind of record that Grammy voters often respond to – both classy and accessible.

Bush first released the recording in 1985, so it won’t be eligible for record of the year, though a live or alternate recording of it could be. The Recording Academy’s current Grammy rule book explains: “A song…must have been released on a recording for the first time, or achieved prominence for the first time, during the current eligibility year.”

How did the song fare with Grammy voters in 1985? It wasn’t even nominated, though it came out fairly late in the eligibility year (on Aug. 5, 1985, less than two months before the eligibility year closed on Sept. 30). It peaked at No. 30 on the Hot 100 on Nov. 30. That’s not bad, but it’s below the level that a record generally needed back then for a nomination in a marquee category.

All five of the 1985 nominees for record of the year were top 10 hits on the Hot 100; three of them were No. 1 hits. Four of the five nominees that year for best pop vocal performance, female were top five hits on the Hot 100. (Long-time Grammy favorite Linda Ronstadt rounded out the category with Lush Life, her follow-up to her smash album What’s New.)

Bush has never been a Grammy favorite. She has received just three nominations and has never won. Moreover, just one of her nominations was for a recording. The other two were for music videos.

Of her 10 studio albums, the only one to receive a Grammy nomination was her sixth album, The Sensual World, which received a 1990 nod for best alternative music performance. In that, the first year of that category, Bush lost to Sinéad O’Connor for I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.

Bush’s other two nominations were for music videos. “The Whole Story” was nominated for best concept music video (1987), but lost to Genesis’ “Land of Confusion.” “The Line, The Cross & The Curve” was nominated for best music video, long-form (1995), but lost to Peter Gabriel’s Secret World Live”.

Billboard noted how the categories that would include Bush relate to the Stranger Things soundtrack. She herself would not win a Grammy if there was success for Stranger Things. I do feel like there should be some aware recognition after all the success she has had this year. Maybe the Recording Academy will give her a lifetime achievement award. I have speculated how NME could create a category or give her a new lifetime achievement award. She has won quite a few awards through her career, but there needs to be some coming her way in 2002 or 2023. A category could be created for her. It is right that America recognises her this way, as she someone who is an icon and has affected so many people there. At this year’s Billboard Music Awards, Mary J. Blige won the Icon Award. I feel it should go to Kate Bush next year. The chances of her turning up are non-existent, but that is not to say she should be excluded. What about beyond the U.S.? There is plenty of opportunity at the BRIT Awards and the NME Awards. Being recognised at one of those ceremonies with an Icon nod or similar category might see Bush turn up to collect the award! That would be her first public appearance in years. Although awards are not everything, recognising the massive success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) this year and Bush’s continuing and vital legacy warrants an award. Whether she is dubbed an icon or Hounds of Love wins an award, both the U.S. and U.K. have chances to salute one of the most important artists in the world. Bush herself would not object to an award. Recognising such a legend would put her music into the hands of new fans (in the same way Stranger Things has done recently). To be honest, it is…

WHAT the fans really want.

FEATURE: Madonna at Sixty-Four: The Legacy of the Pop Icon

FEATURE:

 

Madonna at Sixty-Four

PHOTO CREDIT: The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images 

The Legacy of the Pop Icon

__________

AS 16th August…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Demarchelier

marks Madonna’s sixty-fourth birthday, I have decided to put together a few features that explore her work. In this one, I am thinking about her legacy. At the moment, she is finding new ways to introduce her work to the new generation. In fact, before getting to an article where she spoke about that, this New York Times feature from 2018 (when Madonna turned sixty) lists sixty ways she has changed the world and culture. Recently, it was reported that Madonna wants to keep their rights to her music. Whereas many artists (including Bob Dylan) have sold theirs, Madonna wants to keep control and ensure that her music and legacy is protected:

“Madonna remains staunch on the importance of owning the rights to her own music, saying in a new interview that she has no plans to sell her sprawling back catalogue.

Speaking to Variety, the pop superstar vouched for claims made by her longtime manager Guy Oseary that Madonna would never sell her stake in the rights to her lengthy discography.

When asked why she wouldn’t consider offloading the rights – as the likes of Justin Timberlake, Sting, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes and the estate of David Bowie have done in recent months – she responded bluntly: “Because they’re my songs. Ownership is everything isn’t it? I mean, that’s why [Oseary is] buying apes.” That last line refers to the NFT company Bored Ape Yacht Club, for whom Oseary signed on to represent last year.

Though she still retains ownership over her catalogue, Madonna did sign a new publishing deal with the Warner Music Group last August. Announcing the news, the singer asserted that Warner had been “amazing partners”, and confirmed that she would have an executive say in what sorts of ways her older material would be reissued.

Keeping in theme with her adamancy on retaining ownership of her art, Madonna said last week that she had decided to make her own biopic in order to stop “misogynistic men” from taking over the project.

As announced back in 2020, Madonna is directing and co-writing the film – which is yet to receive a title or release window – with Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody. In June, it was reported that Ozark actor Julia Garner had been offered the lead role,  after she “emerged the favourite” from over a dozen candidates.

Madonna’s last studio album was her 14th, ‘Madame X’, which arrived in June of 2019 and earned a four-star review from NME. Last December, she teased that new music could be released in 2022, sharing a photo of herself recording vocals in a studio. “So great to be back in the studio making Music again,” she captioned a post on social media, promising “suprises [sic] in the New Year”.

On what to expect from her future releases, Madonna told Variety this week that she’s “just looking for interesting, fun ways to rerelease my catalog and introduce my music to a new generation”.

So, what is Madonna’s legacy? There are some who say she is an artist of the 1980s and has been irrelevant since. Others see her as someone who merely changed music. Her legacy and influence stretches far and wide. I am going to share some thoughts. Prior to Madonna releasing Madame X in 2019, MTV discussed Madonna’s legacy:

“Through the countless albums that followed, Madonna has maintained her status as one of the prototypical inventors of pop reinvention, refusing to, as one might say, stay in her lane. On 1992’s sexually-charged Erotica, she introduced Mistress Dita, her dominating alter ego, while embracing the club-friendly new jack swing and house music of the time. Six years later, she emerged as an enlightened earth mother amid the effervescent trip-hop of Ray of Light. In 2005, she ventured back into the glare of the discotheque lights on her critically acclaimed electronic opus, Confessions on a Dance Floor. Every album released between and since has seen Madonna wholly transform herself.

Over the span of her game-changing career, Madonna has both defined and redefined what it means to be a pop star, a performer, and an icon. She topped charts, broke records, and, most importantly, railed against the rules previously set for female mainstream musicians in the industry, voraciously fighting for control over her production and image while simultaneously ushering in new norms for women’s self-empowered sexual exhibition in music, injecting the pop machine with a much-necessary punk spirit. She set a revolutionary precedent that nearly every pop artist who has emerged since has acknowledged, whether overtly or subtly within their own art. Even in 2019, nearly 40 years after her debut, contemporary pop’s biggest players are still taking notes.

Madonna’s continued acts of public reinvention, for example, both within her art and her persona, have left a lasting mark on the culture of pop music, normalizing it for artists to reinvent their image, sound, and creative themes upon each new “era,” or album release. In the 2010s, Miley Cyrus twerked her way from the post-Disney dance-pop of Can’t Be Tamed to the controversial hip-hop of Bangerz, before switching things up again with the sunny country-tinged pop-rock of Younger Now. Similarly, across her albums, Katy Perry transformed from rebellious pin-up girl next door to electro-pop teenage dream to prismatic princess of love and light, among other personas. Stars like Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, and Gwen Stefani have all reinvented themselves. And Britney Spears, Madonna protégé and pop heir, is similarly no stranger to reinvention — or dutiful homage, for that matter. (Just compare Spears’ performance of “Breathe On Me” during her 2004 Onyx Hotel Tour to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” performance from the 1990 Blond Ambition Tour.)

On a broader scale, Madonna also helped shape the way pop artists release music. After the decline of the rock-oriented concept album in the 1980s — thanks in part to the rise of MTV and the increased focus on singles-driven music video releases — Madonna helped reignite interest in the art of the concept album within mainstream pop with thematic albums like Erotica and American Life. Her blueprint can be seen all over modern popular albums, from Halsey’s Hopeless Fountain Kingdom to Marina and the Diamonds’ Electra Heart; Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid to Lorde’s Melodrama.

Of course, it would be heresy to wax on Madonna’s legacy without addressing her penchant for flirting with all manner of controversy, a skill she elevated to an impressive art form. From sharing a steamy kiss with Spears at the 2003 VMAs to dangling from a disco ball crucifix during her 2006 Confessions Tour — not to mention the burning crosses featured in her “Like a Prayer” music video, which was at one point banned from MTV — Madonna has scandalized and titillated in equal measure, pushing the boundaries with her signature embracement of hyper-sexual and religious themes.

Without her early pioneering in unapologetic pop provocation, Christina Aguilera may never have gotten quite so “Dirrty,” Lady Gaga may not have danced with “Judas,” and Rihanna may not have dabbled in “S&M.” Madonna’s assertive omnipresence can be felt in the work of provocative artists like Billie Eilish, Lauren Jauregui, Grimes, and Lana Del Rey, to name a few. Even Beyoncé has cited her as an influence.

“Is Madonna still relevant?” From misogynistic critiques to ageist diatribes as to why she’s supposedly “too old” to express herself in the way she wants to, a quick Google search yields an aggravating insight into why her presence is necessary. So no, Madonna’s relevancy doesn’t hinge on the success of her albums, or whether or not she still quite shocks the public as she did back in 1984, or if her new music is sonically groundbreaking. Rather, she remains relevant because, quite frankly, she’s still here; still uncompromising and still reinventing; still flipping off a culture that seeks to push her out. And still breaking new ground for the artists who came after her”.

I am thinking about Madonna’s music ahead of her birthday on 16th August. I was born the same year (1983) her debut album came out, and I must have heard it first when I was about four or five. It was exciting following Madonna’s work and evolutions. In terms of music, it is almost impossible to say what her true legacy is. The artists she has influenced is immense! From Britney Spears to Lady Gaga, one can hear her genius and importance in so many other artists. An icon who gave voice and place to so many communities and people, she is one of the most important cultural figures ever. The strength of her music alone means she will endure and influence for generations more. I am going to squeeze in a bit of Wikipedia information about her legacy – and then I will conclude this feature:

“Spin writer Bianca Gracie stated that "the 'Queen of Pop' isn't enough to describe Madonna—she is Pop. [She] formulated the blueprint of what a pop star should be." According to Sclafani, "It's worth noting that before Madonna, most music mega-stars were guy rockers; after her, almost all would be female singers ... When the Beatles hit America, they changed the paradigm of performer from solo act to band. Madonna changed it back—with an emphasis on the female." Howard Kramer, curatorial director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, asserted that "Madonna and the career she carved out for herself made possible virtually every other female pop singer to follow ... She certainly raised the standards of all of them ... She redefined what the parameters were for female performers." Andy Bennett and Steve Waksman, authors of The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music (2014), noted that "almost all female pop stars of recent years—Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and others—acknowledge the important influence of Madonna on their own careers." Madonna has also influenced male artists, inspiring rock frontmen Liam Gallagher of Oasis and Chester Bennington of Linkin Park to become musicians.

Madonna's use of sexual imagery has benefited her career and catalyzed public discourse on sexuality and feminism. As Roger Chapman documents in Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices, Volume 1 (2010), she has drawn frequent condemnation from religious organizations, social conservatives, and parental watchdog groups for her use of explicit, sexual imagery and lyrics, religious symbolism, and otherwise "irreverent" behavior in her live performances. The Times wrote that she had "started a revolution amongst women in music ... Her attitudes and opinions on sex, nudity, style, and sexuality forced the public to sit up and take notice." Professor John Fiske noted that the sense of empowerment that Madonna offers is inextricably connected with the pleasure of exerting some control over the meanings of self, of sexuality, and of one's social relations. In Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture (2009), the authors noted that Madonna, as a female celebrity, performer, and pop icon, can unsettle standing feminist reflections and debates. According to lesbian feminist Sheila Jeffreys, Madonna represents woman's occupancy of what Monique Wittig calls the category of sex, as powerful, and appears to gleefully embrace the performance of the sexual corvée allotted to women. Professor Sut Jhally has referred to Madonna as "an almost sacred feminist icon."

Madonna has consistently been a staunch advocate for the LGBT community throughout her career. She has given multiple surprise performances at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement. At NYC Pride 2022, Madonna stated metaphorically that New York City was "the best place in the world because of the queer people here. Let me tell you something, if you can make it here, then you must be queer".

There are some important Madonna anniversaries this year. Erotica is thirty in October. Her debut single, Everybody, is forty in the same month. Although there have been no announcements about a new album or tour, you know she will be putting something into the world soon. As someone who is active on Instagram and Twitter, Madonna has that connection with her fans. She is one of the most acclaimed artists ever. An inspiration to businesswomen, Madonna has been the subject of scholarly studies! A phenomenon who has transcended the boundaries of music, she will be discussed and dissected forever. Her music is timeless. I have no time for those who write her off or feel she was only important during the 1980s. She is as relevant and important today than ever. I know that there will be a lot of new love headed the way of Madonna on her birthday on 16th August. It is interesting to think what comes next and how long her recorded career will last. She has already produced one of the most essential, varied, and admired catalogues in all of Pop. To label her as a Pop artist ignores the range and innovation of her music. It is not just her look that evolves with each album. She embraces new sonic territory too. From her music to the videos, through to the groundbreaking tours, the fashion and how she has lifted and spoken for the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community, there are so many sides to Madonna! A producer, actor, director, businesswoman, innovator, exceptional songwriter, and cultural icon, I wish her the happiest sixty-fourth birthday for 16th August. The world has not seen anyone quite like her. This is a fact that is…

NEVER going to change.

FEATURE: Revisiting... Lady Blackbird – Black Acid Soul

FEATURE:

 

Revisiting...

Lady Blackbird – Black Acid Soul

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PERHAPS an artist…

most people do not know about, Lady Blackbird has already been compared with legendary Soul and Jazz singers like Nina Simone. Her debut album, Black Acid Soul, was released last year. You can get it here…but I wanted to introduce the incredible moniker of Marley Munroe. One of the best albums of last year, I feel many people have not heard it. Black Acid Soul definitely did not get a great deal of coverage from big music magazines and websites. The reviews that there are available are hugely positive! The conviction and command of Lady Blackbird’s voice makes every song seem so powerful and urgent. You will be struck and moved by Black Acid Soul the first time you hear it. When you come back, you will still be transfixed and stunned. Jazz Revelations interviewed Lady Blackbird in October 2020:

“If you haven’t already heard of Lady Blackbird, you’ll know her name soon. The LA-based vocalist is making the jazz and music community turn their collective heads with her distinguisably powerful and raw vocals. Thinking about the success and attention she’s had so far, Lady Blackbird (Marley Munroe) jubilantly exclaims “It’s been amazing! It’s been such a long road and process”.

There’s been some pretty remarkable influences and parallels drawn to Lady Blackbird, with Gilles Peterson labelling her “the Grace Jones of Jazz” and others pointing towards Amy Winehouse as well as many more timeless vocalists. Hearing these names and comparisons, she pensively comments that “they shock me ever time. They make me so happy…some of these people are my biggest influences. So, it’s your fantasy and dream to be like them. To have my name with theirs in the same sentence is remarkable”.

Before starting her career as Lady Blackbird, Marley Munroe trod an utterly different musical path. The vocalist's past career saw her exploring the realms of alt-rock and alternative music before finding her new jazz-tinged calling as Lady Blackbird. Reminiscing about this period, she muses that “I’ve gone through different phases and styles…I don’t ever think I’ll move away from anything because it’s all in me. It’s all music. I’m a true lover of music. All these different genres shape who I am as an artist”.

It’s difficult not to compare these two very different musical incarnations, but this latest project has had the oversight of Grammy-nominated producer Chris Seefried to help guide her journey into becoming Lady Blackbird. Tracing this transition, Lady Blackbird tells me that “With this record, the idea my producer and I had was just to strip everything down, making a vulnerable, raw album. The album was designed to really showcase my voice…[So] right now, Lady Blackbird is here to stay.”

The heightened critical attention surrounding Lady Blackbird has been present ever since she dropped her debut single ‘Blackbird’ back in May, a soul-stirring song written by Nina Simone which sketches the struggles of being a black woman. Nina’s songs are notoriously difficult to cover, but Lady Blackbird's rendition is sublime. It's impossible not to be intoxicated by the vocalist's dark tones which are met with trickling keys and understated strings. Recalling her draw to the song, she tells me “I’ve known this song for years, I always knew that something needed to be done, that I wanted to do with it. But, the moment just showed itself”.

By some twist of fate, the song happened to drop two days after George Floyd’s murder and the reactionary rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, giving it even more meaning in our contemporary context. “It’s disgusting” that those lyrics ring "so true about the current state,” she tells me. “Unfortunately, lyrically and what the song is about, it rolls onto everything that still goes on today. It didn’t start with recording it anything like that. It’s a beautiful piece of work that has really, always, tapped at me”.

Building up to the release of her debut album Black Acid Soul, Lady Blackbird has released a creative reimagining of the Leroy Hutson and Curtis Mayfield produced tune ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ by The Krystal Generation. “When we approached the song, I knew I liked it, but we thought… ‘what are we going to do with it?’ How are we going to turn it into what we need?’” she tells me. “We started transforming this whole song. We slowed it completely down, we changed gender. We kind of did our own take on it”. The result of this experimentation was ‘Beware the Stranger’, another tender song which crescendos and builds throughout, climaxing with a bold choir-inspired outro”.

It is exciting to see what comes next from an American artist with limitless potential. Possessing a voice that astonishing and experienced, I think she will continue to wow fans and critics alike. I hope more people pick this album up. This is what The Guardian observed in their review:

“From the title, you might think you know what to expect from LA musician Marley Munroe’s debut album as Lady Blackbird. It conjures up thoughts of Hendrix-ish guitars, P-Funk grandiloquence, Afrofuturism. But the old one about judging a book by its cover remains as true as ever.

There are moments of intensity here: rumbling drums and cinematic strings underpin her version of the James Gang’s Collage; the title track, a self-styled “Jackson Pollock jam”, is certainly atmospheric, closing the record with mantric massed vocals, lo-fi organ and an echoing percussive clatter that faintly recalls the sound of Dr John’s Gris-Gris.

But for the most part, Black Acid Soul is musically understated, stark and rooted in jazz: bass, piano or guitar, occasional drums and Munroe’s extraordinary voice, devoid of affectation, filled with ease and growling power. It’s all you need: whether she’s essaying an impossibly beautiful version of Tim Hardin’s It’ll Never Happen Again, performing producer Chris Seefried’s ballad Nobody’s Sweetheart or turning the Voices of East Harlem’s exuberant funk track Wanted Dead or Alive on its head – reworking it as a sparse, eerie ballad called Beware the Stranger – the results are utterly haunting.

Before she became Lady Blackbird, Munroe tried her hand at alt-rock and R&B: listening to Black Acid Soul, you’re struck by the sense of an artist who’s finally found her calling. It takes serious cojones to take on Nina Simone’s Blackbird, but her version is raw and sublime. Maybe the “acid” in the title makes perfect sense after all: these are songs and performances that burn deep into you”.

I will finish off with Loud and Quiet’s take on an album that deserves to be heard by as many people as is possible. It announced an artist who is primed to become a legend. Lady Blackbird already sounds like a legend. Just watcher grow and fly:

“There is very little about Black Acid Soul that is identifiably 2021, nor any other year. Marley Munroe, the woman behind the Lady Blackbird moniker, announces her arrival with a debut album that is difficult to believe is not the culmination of a six-decade career, such is the depth of wisdom, expression and control in her voice.

Coming nominally from a jazz background, this album does not belong to a genre, but to a singer with the scope to oversee where different genres meet. She takes a set of eleven tracks – seven of them cover versions – and finds truths that apply to her, so that in turn they may apply to us too. ‘Beware the Stranger’ is a version of a 1973 track by The Voices of East Harlem, and while Munroe’s version channels just a taste of the song’s gospel funk roots with its choral backing, all accompaniment is powerless in the shadow of Lady Blackbird’s towering vocal. ‘Collage’, meanwhile, is a track with a rock history (penned in 1969 by the James Gang) and yes, there is a driving momentum to this arrangement that points to where Munroe could move in the future should such conventions be of interest to her, but what is clear is she will not be knocked off course before she has even begun.

It is not just that Munroe has a powerful vocal, or that she can convey great, centuries-old pain and struggle, but that she can eke out nuance from every turn of phrase; it is often possible to read her delivery of a single word in multiple ways, she layers such meaning into her performance. Munroe realises that there is more to be said by someone who can tear the house down with ease, when they choose not to”.

If you have not heard of Lady Blackbird or Black Acid Soul, then you really need to do so. Her debut album gained widespread acclaim, but it was still not given all of the exposure and love that it should have. It is an album that I can thoroughly recommend and suggest everyone…

LISTENS to.

FEATURE: The Big Blue Sky: The Summer of ’83 and Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love

FEATURE:

 

 

The Big Blue Sky

The Summer of ’83 and Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love

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THE October edition…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in the studio in October 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Alamy

of MOJO takes a deep dive into Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love. Because of Stranger Things putting the album back in the spotlight, they have taken a closer look at the recording and legacy of the album. I would strongly recommend that everyone grabs a hold of MOJO if you have even a passing interest in Kate Bush ad Hounds of Love. Before coming to a particular time around the recording of the album, I want to come to some quotes from Bush about Hounds of Love. Thanks to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia for their resources:

“Many hours were spent on tiny vocal ideas that perhaps only last half a minute. Many hours went on writing lyrics - one of the most difficult parts in the process for me, in that it's so time-consuming and so frustrating, and it just always seems to take far too long for something that seems as though it should come so naturally. One of the difficult things about the lyrics is that when I initially write the song, perhaps half of the lyrics come with it but it's almost more difficult fitting in the other half to make it match than it would be perhaps to start from scratch, where, for instance, you might have just hummed the tune; or where, in some cases, I wrote them as instrumentals, and then the tunes were written over the top of this. Many times I ring up Paddy and ask him to come over to the studio immediately, to bring in that string-driven thing - to hit that note and let it float.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Griffin 

One of the most positive things is now having our own recording studio where we can experiment freely, and it's definitely one of the best decisions I've made since I've been recording albums. We've put a lot of hard work into this album, so we've been waiting for it to be finished and ready, and I know you've been waiting. I hope that after this time, and after all the snippets of information we've been giving you, you don't find it disappointing, but that you enjoy it, and that you enjoy listening to it in different ways again and again.

This album could never have happened without some very special people. Many thanks to Julian Mendelsohn, and especially Haydn Bendall and Brian Tench, who put a lot of hard work into this project, to all the musicians, who are a constant inspiration, to Ma who helps with every little thing, to Paddy and Jay for all their inspiration and influences, and again to Del for all those moments we've captured on tape together. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, 1985)

On this album I wanted to get away from the energy of the last one - at the time I was very unhappy, I felt that mankind was really screwing things up. Having expressed all that, I wanted this album to be different - a positive album, just as personal but more about the good things. A lot depends on how you feel at any given time - it all comes out in the music. (James Marck, 'Kate Bush Breaks Out: Bush's Bridges'. Now - Toronto Weekly, 28 November 1985)

The first in my own studio. Another step closer to getting the work as direct as possible. You cut all the crap, don't have all these people around and don't have expensive studio time mounting up. A clean way of working. ('Love, Trust and Hitler'. Tracks (UK), November 1989)

I never was so pleased to finish anything if my life. There were times I never thought it would be finished. It was just such a lot of work, all of it was so much work, you know, the lyrics, trying to piece the thing together. But I did love it, I did enjoy it and everyone that worked on the album was wonderful. And it was really, in some ways, I think, the happiest I've been when I'd been writing and making an album. And I know there's a big theory that goes 'round that you must suffer for your art, you know, ``it's not real art unless you suffer.'' And I don't believe this, because I think in some ways this is the most complete work that I've done, in some ways it is the best and I was the happiest that I'd been compared to making other albums. ('Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love, with Richard Skinner. BBC Radio 1 (UK), 26 January 1992)”.

Things started to happen in the summer of 1983. After spending so long recording and perfecting 1982’s The Dreaming, Bush was wiped out. With so much promotion too, she was due a rest! I think she previously liked working at various studios (as she did on The Dreaming), but things had to change. Moving away from the tight and confined spaces and endless days she was working before, she needed more countryside, family, and space. She did record at Windmill Lane (Dublin) and Abbey Road (London), but most of the album was completed at Wickham Farm Home Studio (Welling, England). Five years after her debut album, The Kick Inside, was released, Bush returned home. I think the previous years were pretty intense. I am not sure how long after The Dreaming Bush had the idea for Hounds of Love and its sound. You can hear so much of the landscape and home in the album, from the water and wild of its conceptual suite, The Ninth Wave, to The Big Sky, Cloudbusting and Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Despite some tenser and darker moments, Hounds of Love is a warmer album compared to The Dreaming. It was not a case of jumping straight into building a home studio and getting right down the work. After suffering stress and nervous exhaustion because of The Dreaming, Bush did take some time to go to the cinema, hang out with her boyfriend, so some gardening and just be normal. Whilst she was having the studio built to her specifications, preliminary work did start on Hounds of Love. Rather than re-record music, Bush took original recordings and built upon them during the sessions. That started in November 1983.

Before carrying on, this brilliant article from 2020 tells the story of Hounds of Love. It does include a section about the summer of 1983 and what Bush was working on. It may sound expensive but, compared to the financial pressure associated with The Dreaming – long hours and a lot of busy days mixing and getting the album to sound just right -, building a home-built studio eased pressures and also gave Bush freedom in terms of time constraints and schedule:

“In 1983 Kate Bush was in need of a change in her personal and professional life. Her last album, The Dreaming, released in September the previous year, took a heavy toll and considerable amounts of energy to complete. Ensconced within the confines of a recording studio for hours on end during the many months it took to complete the record, the result was what many saw as an experimental and difficult album. Bush said of that album: “It was very dark and about pain and negativity and the way people treat each other badly. It was a sort of cry really.” While the album climbed to #3 in the UK album charts, it did not do that well in sales numbers, and the singles it produced did not fare well either. A change was in order, and it took a three-pronged approach: new house, new studio, new dance teacher. All three contributed to her next album in varied ways, and the result was the classic, fantastic and timeless album Hounds of Love.

Kate Bush experienced a period of deep fatigue after the release of The Dreaming: “I was just a complete wreck, physically and mentally. I’d wake up in the morning and find I couldn’t move.” Taking a U turn from the hustle and bustle of promotion activities, photo shoots, interviews and life in the media, she purchased a house in Kent and retired to domestic bliss in the country. Song writing became a very different experience: “The stimulus of the countryside is fantastic. I sit at my piano and watch skies moving and trees blowing and that’s far more exciting than buildings and roads and millions of people.”

Musically, the most important contribution of the new house on her next album was a newly built recording studio. Her style of work, ever experimental and in seek of unique ways of expression, was tough on the wallet when using commercial studios. At £90, the going rate for one hour of recording at Abbey Road, The Dreaming cost her and EMI an arm and a leg. Her wish to self-produce her albums and control her artistic destiny with no compromise was another reason for the new studio. In an interview at the time she talked enthusiastically and quite proficiently about her new recording space: “We have a Soundcraft mixing deck, a Studer A-80 tape machine, lots of outboard gear, and Q-lock. We normally use 48 tracks now, even if it’s for a vocal idea or something. 24 tracks doesn’t seem to go anywhere with me. And the Fairlight, of course. We have a room simulator called a Quantec, which is my favorite. It would be lovely to be able to draw the sort of room you wanted your voice to be in. I think that’s the next step.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with Eberhard Weber (who played double bass on Mother Stands for Comfort and Hello Earth)

That Fairlight she mentioned was possibly the most important piece of gear in that studio. Developed in Sydney, Australia, the Fairlight CMI was an innovative synthesizer, sampler and a digital audio workstation that once released in 1979 was famously adopted by Peter Gabriel. Bush first used it on the album Never for Ever, making it world-famous with the sound of breaking glass on the single Babooshka. During the work on The Dreaming she used the instrument a lot more, and by 1983 she decided to purchase one of her own and make it her go-to tool for music writing: “Most of the songs were written on Fairlight and synths and not piano, which was moving away really from the earlier albums, where all my material was written on piano. And there is something about the character of a sound – you hear a sound and it has a whole quality of its own, that it can be sad or happy or… And that immediately conjures up images, which can of course help you to think of ideas that lead you on to a song.”

One of the first songs Kate Bush worked on in her studio was Deal With God, the title she intended to give that song. The lyrics propose the idea of a man and a woman swapping roles in a relationship, the result a greater understanding between them: “And really the only way I could think it could be done was either… you know, I thought a deal with the devil, you know. And I thought, ‘well, no, why not a deal with God!'” But a deal with God proved to be too daring a title, God forbid: “We were told that if we kept this title that it wouldn’t be played in any of the religious countries, Italy wouldn’t play it, France wouldn’t play it, and Australia wouldn’t play it! Ireland wouldn’t play it.” The compromise was to release it as Running Up That Hill in the single version, and Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) on the album”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in an outtake from the Hounds of Love cover session/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

We talk about Hounds of Love in terms of its reception, resurgence, and legacy. Many of the songs are well-known and help define who Kate Bush is as an artist. I don’t think we go back to the roots. MOJO do in their latest edition. It was nice to trace the timeline back to when Bush had impetus for a new album, but she knew that she could not carry on as she did before. I can appreciate why Bush worked the way she did for The Dreaming. Because of the eclectic and varied themes, sounds and production styles, she needed to use various studios. She liked that method, and I think it was conducive to creativity and a useful learning experience. Because she was producing solo, she did drive herself hard and did not have a lot of free time. Knowing that she had to work in a different way, moving home and building her own studio was a great idea. You can feel that environment and setting infuse the album and affect and influence every track. It accounts for how freer Bush sounds. A more relaxed and inspired artist, she had that room and warmth around her to make something truly special. I love The Dreaming to death, but one does worry about Bush and sympathise with how tired and stressed she was at times. Of course, there were difficult moments during Hounds of Love. Certain songs and sections came together slowly. There were long days and some disagreements, but things were a lot different to The Dreaming’s recording.

I was born in May 1983, and I like the idea of being so small when, not that far away from where I lived at the time, Kate Bush was putting together the blueprints and beginning the foundations for Hounds of Love. Many people are not aware of summer 1983 and that this is when she started work on the album. I know she would have written songs and ideas before then but, as she was constructing a home studio, sketches and basic versions of tracks came together. Sessions then started in November 1983; the final touches for this album were put in place in June 1985. It was a fairly long process but, when you consider the quality and ambition that goes into the album, that isn’t long at all. I guess EMI might have been a bit concerned that Hounds of Love would cost too much. They were not sure what to expect after The Dreaming. The album did well, but it was not as big a commercial success as was hoped. Bush’s instinct to relocate and create her own studio helped her realise a follow-up album that nobody could have predicted. It is fascinating studying the shift in her music and personal life between 1982 and 1985. That short period between The Dreaming coming out on 13th September, 1982 and Bush beginning the bones of Hounds of Love the following summer is such a revival and wonderful resurrection! I don’t know of many artists who have managed to make such two very different albums back-to-back. In the summer of 1983, something wonderful was starting to happen. Did Bush and the outside world realise that two years later, this album we are talking about to this day…

WOULD launch into the world!?

FEATURE: Madonna at Sixty-Four: My Favourite Track from the Queen of Pop: The Majestic Take a Bow

FEATURE:

 

Madonna at Sixty-Four

My Favourite Track from the Queen of Pop: The Majestic Take a Bow

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I didn’t intent…

to do a series of features about Madonna ahead of her sixty-fourth birthday on 16th August. I am not doing many, but there were a few things I wanted to explore. One of them is my favourite song of hers. From the 1994 album, Bedtime Stories – one that isn’t considered her best or most essential -, Take a Bow is a sophisticated, emotional, and accomplished song from an artist sounding a million miles away from what we heard in 1992’s Erotica. Many feel her 1994 album was an apology to people after the more explicit and sexual Erotica and the book, Sex. Not that she needed to apologise to anyone. There was a need to create a more commercial album that had hits and was less evocative and provocative than its predecessor. It would take until the follow-up album, 1998’s Ray of Light, until Madonna released something both challenging, deep and true to who she was. Not that Bedtime Stories is a compromise or an album where we do not hear the Queen of Pop shine. It contains some of her best material. My favourite song closes the album. A stunning swansong, Take a Bow is only really marred by its video (where Madonna, looking like a prototype for Eva Perón (who she would play in the 1996 film Evita) is involved in a rough break-up with a bullfighter). I am not sure whether the video was meant to depict Madonna like a bull: something being played with and teased before being tortured and killed. I am a bit uncomfortable that a real bull was used, but the song itself is beyond fault. Stunning songwriting from Madonna and Babyface (who also provides vocals and co-produced with Madonna) has turned Take a Bow into an ageless and sublime song.

Although Stereogum did not rate Take a Bow among Madonna’s best songs when they covered it for their The Number Ones (the single, released in December 1994, went to number one for seven weeks) feature earlier this year, they did provide some interesting context:

“Madonna could tell which way the wind was blowing. For the longest time, this was her superpower. Part of the reason that Madonna maintained her place near the top of the hierarchy for so long was that she could recognize shifts in fashion and aesthetic. She could see those changes coming in real time, and she could adjust her style to meet those changes. Often, Madonna made those adjustments artfully. Sometimes, though, you just need to go out and get yourself a hit. That’s what Madonna did when she made “Take A Bow.”

Bedtime Stories, the album that Madonna released in 1994, was Madonna’s version of a clear, unambiguous commercial move, a blatant attempt to get back in the good graces of the American record-buying public. In the years before Bedtime Stories, Madonna had tested our collective patience. After she reached #1 with the soundtrack ballad “This Used To Be My Playground,” Madonna’s next few artistic statements — the Erotica album, the Sex book, the movie Body Of Evidence — all came off as try-hard attempts to be risqué. Erotica is a pretty good album, but that didn’t really matter at the time. Erotica sold half as much as Like A Prayer, Madonna’s previous album, and it yielded no chart-topping singles. That’s not a career-killing reception, but it’s not great, either.

But the big hit from Bedtime Stories was the one that Madonna made with Babyface, who was the final boss of the Hot 100 in 1994. That’s when Babyface wrote and produced Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You,” an absolute monster record that happened to be sitting comfortably at #1 when Bedtime Stories came out. That year was also when Babyface reached his peak as a solo artist, getting to #4 with his tender ballad “When Can I See You.” (It’s an 8.) Madonna loved that song.

When Babyface got the call to meet with Madonna, he was surprised to find that she was a relatively low-key presence with no big entourage. Madonna and Babyface were both pros, and they had a relatively easy time working together. Maybe that was a mutual-respect thing. Madonna had made a lot of songs with a lot of collaborators, but she hadn’t worked with a superstar producer on a #1 hit since she and Nile Rodgers made “Like A Virgin” together a decade earlier. Madonna drove to Babyface’s house, and they wrote a couple of songs together.

Madonna wrote most of the “Take A Bow” lyrics to a track that Babyface had already written. The song is all about an affair with an actor who blows a relationship by taking Madonna’s narrator for granted: “All the world is a stage/ And everyone has their part/ But how was I to know which way the story’d go?/ How was I to know you’d break my heart?” The whole actor bit isn’t necessarily literal; it could be a metaphor for a partner who’s way too concerned with personal image. But given Madonna’s own dating history, there’s always been speculation that the song is about a particular movie star.

Specifically, rumor has it that “Take A Bow” is a song for Madonna’s ex Warren Beatty. At least in theory, this could mean that Beatty directly inspired two #1 hits that came out decades apart from each other, “Take A Bow” and Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain.” That’s a pretty wild swing for one man. Of course, by the time “Take A Bow” came out, Madonna’s dating life had taken its own twists and turns; she’d already had public flings with Dennis Rodman and future Number Ones artist Tupac Shakur. That’s some serious range. Madonna ain’t got no type.

Although Take a Bow only reached sixteen in the U.K., the chart success she experienced in the U.S. and around the world turned her into a record-breaking artist. Why I love Take a Bow is that it is a different sound. A sweeping and mature ballad with Madonna’s voice near its peak, this was a perfect response to anyone who had written her off, condemned her as being too explicit and controversial or felt that she was too attention-seeking. Showing her heart and soul throughout Take a Bow, it ended an album that deserves more praise. Indeed, the next studio album (four years later) opened with Drowned World/Substitute for Love. Both are bookends that have this sort of core of Madonna embracing and wanting love rather than fame and attention. An artist who was not to be taken for granted or written off. I want to end with a Wikipedia article that combined critical reaction to Take a Bow. Her strongest single since, arguably, Like a Prayer in 1989, Take a Bow was met with a lot of respect:

“Upon release, "Take a Bow" received general acclaim from critics. Peter Calvin from The Advocate praised the lyrical flow of the song, saying that the "effect is truly heartbreaking. The song... shows that ultimately Madonna... is just like you and me". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic referred to "Take a Bow" as "tremendous", listing it as one of the best songs from Bedtime Stories and stating that it "slowly works its melodies into the subconscious as the bass pulses". He goes on to say that it "offer[s] an antidote to Erotica, which was filled with deep but cold grooves". Louis Virtel, from TheBacklot.com, placed "Take a Bow" at number 27 of his list "The 100 Greatest Madonna Songs". 

 He wrote; "Madonna's most successful single to date is a melancholic evisceration of a lover's artifice, and its hopeless plain-spokenness makes it one of the finest examples of 90s balladry". J. D. Considine of The Baltimore Sun stated that the song, about "innocent romance" has a "gently cascading melody". In his review of Bedtime Stories, Billboard's Paul Verna called it a "holiday feast for Top 40, rhythm crossover, and AC". Reviewing the single, Billboard gave the single a particularly positive review; "The follow-up to the top five smash 'Secret' [...] is as perfect as top 40 fare gets. This single has a delightful, immediately memorable melody and chorus, engaging romance-novel lyrics and a lead vocal that is both sweet and quietly soulful. A lovely way for [Madonna] to kick out '95".

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Demarchelier

In his 2011 review of Bedtime Stories, Brett Callwood of the Detroit Metro Times called the song "spectacular". Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Chuck Arnold called it "one of the most elegant, most un-Madonna-sounding things she’s ever done". While ranking Madonna's singles in honor of her 60th birthday, Jude Rogers from The Guardian placed the track at number 38, calling it a "compellingly cinematic orchestral drama". Matthew Jacobs, from The Huffington Post, placed it at number 19 of his list "The Definitive Ranking Of Madonna Singles", calling it her "most poetic ballad". Bianca Gracie from Idolator noted it as a "timeless ballad", adding that it "has warm strings and soaring harmonies with a hint of tragedy from Madonna’s somber vocals, which makes the end result all the more beautiful."

Music writer James Masterton said it is "arguably one of Madonna's best records for ages". Pan-European magazine Music & Media deemed it "an elegant ballad, a perfect alternative to prosaic lullabies." They added, "The intro could be mistaken for jingle bells and fits in well with the season." A reviewer from Music Week gave it five out of five, calling it "an old-fashioned ballad, full of sweeping violin and vaguely oriental sounds. A natural single for Christmas." John Kilgo from The Network Forty described it as "sexy and smooth”. NME's Alex Needham, opined it was a "gorgeously constructed song by any standards". NPR Multimedia senior producer Keith Jenkins gave a positive review of the song, stating that it "washes over you and gets your blood boiling. You may not walk on water after hearing it, but you may want to get your focus back by walking on broken glass".

Ahead of her sixty-fourth birthday on 16th August, I wanted to feature Madonna in a few pieces. Take a Bow, released in 1994, arrived in the world when Britpop was raging here, and orchestral Pop/R&B was perhaps not as dominant as other genres. A lot of people did not expect a song like this to come from an artist who, a couple of years previously, was stirring up a lot of attention because of more sexually challenging and risqué songs. It is the mark of a true great that she weathered undue criticism and judgement and reacted with a song as beautiful as this (from an album that more than holds its own). Bedtime Stories has many highlights. I don’t think there is a finer song than Take a Bow. A song whose title could very much apply to Madonna. Such a gorgeous and heartbreaking gem, Take a Bow is a song that always elicits a reaction from me. It is a phenomenal Madonna track that proves…

WHAT talent she has!

FEATURE: Revisiting… Jenevieve - Division

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

Jenevieve - Division

__________

AN album…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Universal Music Group

that passed a lot of people by, Jenevieve’s debut album, Division, is well worth another spin. Released on 3rd September last year, it is an album that signals a promising and bright new artist. The Miami artist has an incredible sound that fuses R&B and Soul. Although she has a diverse range of influences, her music and sound is very much her own. I am going to end with a review of Division. Before that, okayplayer. spoke with Jenevieve last year about her amazing debut album:

“In 2020, the LA-based rising artist garnered traction when she dropped her first single “Medallion,” an emo cut that prepared new listeners for the expansive sound that was set to come. A month after dropping her debut single she shared “Baby Powder,” a track that showcased the singer’s knack for crafting catchy choruses. Both tracks reveal Jenevieve’s fixation with creating music that relies on themes. She isn’t afraid to address past relationships, lost love, gun violence, and other moments of her life through her music. For that reason, her fanbase remains loyal and unwavering.

After spending some time adjusting to a new record deal with Universal, Jenevieve unleashed Division on Friday. Executive produced by her frequent collaborator Jean Benz, the 11-track album has a retrospective feel throughout. It’s also majorly influenced by neo-soul, a genre of music Jenevieve has an affinity for.

Her taste in music stems directly from her mother, who constantly played artists like Erykah Badu, India Arie, Joe, and Zhane in their home during Jenevieve’s younger years.

“Watching their videos and seeing how cool they looked, and the catchy melodies and sound always made me feel good,” she shared in an email. “Their vibe alone was so cool to me and that inspired me as a child.”

Division, her first full-length, derives from her creative partnership with Jean Benz. The two met in 2019 after she picked up her life and moved to Los Angeles. She shared that the duo started creating music for fun upon meeting and that their chemistry was instant, so much so that not even a hot summer day working in a tiny room with no AC could deter them”.

Jenevieve is hopeful that fans leave their listening experience of Division feeling encouraged.

“I hope people find joy in the music,” she said. “If it inspires or motivates someone to follow their dreams or do good, then that would be my most rewarding feeling. I just want to make music that people can connect with and make them feel good.”

Division is an impressive debut, and if Jenevieve continues staying true to herself, the sky is the limit for the singer”.

I am new to Jenevieve, but I am impressed and hooked on Division. I am looking ahead to see what comes next. She has released music recently, so it does seem like we may get another album before too long. It is a shame that her debut album did not get more focus and reviews. Maybe people do not know about her in the U.K. Her music definitely warrants more exposure here. SPIN chatted with Jenevieve early this year about the reaction to her album and how things were getting on:

“I’ve heard my songs enough in stores, just shopping. There was somebody driving and then they were playing it,” she recalls. “But you know, just the fact that people are listening, that’s great. But radio’s like, you know, that’s like a whole other thing.”

Radio may very well become the next home for Jenevieve’s vast musical IQ, which is thanks in part due to her childhood roots and early love for dance, in no time. As she’s shared, she began dancing the moment she could walk and credits much of her music taste–which began with a draw to acts like Sade–to those formative years surrounded by everything from flamenco to hip-hop.

“There was a lot of Cuban music around me growing up,” Jenevieve says. “So it was like the live music and feeling of music with dance as well. It was just a mixture of like, you know, hip-hop, Britney Spears, or like Michael Jackson. And then like, I’ll go to salsa class, or just hear the instrumental flamenco music.”

As for the Jacksons, the comparisons have certainly been tossed around over the last couple of years. Some of the poppier cuts off Division have seen nods to Michael or Janet, and Jenevieve’s music video for “No Sympathy” has a similar pop-arty animated flair as Jackson’s 1987 track “Leave Me Alone.” She credits Al Jarreau for inspiring that visual in particular, too, and says plenty of what you see on the screen is also a reflection of her admiration of cinema.

“A movie definitely has inspired me to get emotional to write a song. Or, like, sometimes a song will remind me of a movie,” she says. “And I’m trapped in the feeling that maybe that movie reminded me of something in my life or like. If I’m watching a movie, and I’m feeling a certain way, maybe I’d want to put that feeling that I felt in a song.”

Visuals aside, Jenevieve’s future is looking bright in the months ahead. Not just in terms of her upcoming headlining gigs, but for her own artistic growth following the release of her debut. Division may have established her as a hidden gem of sorts for some fans this past year, but for her, it’s time for more listeners to discover that box in the park.

“I still feel like I have more to show,” she says. “So it is a good introduction. But I still feel like I

have more to introduce”.

Before wrapping up, I would say that people need to check out Jenevieve’s Division. One of the best debut albums of last year, go and check it out! Pitchfork were among the few who had their say. Although they hinted at some minor flaws, they were positive about Division:

“Division, her debut album, plays out like a tribute to her parents’ collection of burned CD mixes, time-traveling through decades of music with carefully selected references filtered through producer Jean Benz, who also serves as Jenevieve’s songwriting partner. “Medallion” is a slinky hip-hop soul vow of protection; the walking bass of the swooning “No Sympathy” recalls an ’80s Whitney Houston; the aqueous “Exit Wounds” might sound indebted to Miguel or Marvin Gaye depending on the age of whoever’s listening. Rather than aesthetic-scraping gestures, these songs come off as modernized interpretations of the music the Miami singer grew up idolizing. R&B artists continue to mine the late ’90s and early 2000s for inspiration when they aren’t making smoky Trap&B or sliding on slick Soulection-inspired production. Division doesn’t completely escape those trappings, but by looking beyond that timespan, Jenevieve finds a set of sonic textures that shake things up.

Jenevieve learned how to talk about love from the past, but she finds ways to add modern flourishes to her songs and tweak established formulas. On the swaying post-chorus of “No Sympathy,” flashes of Doja Cat appear when she coos “Don’t cry.” When she cuts herself off from rhyming “over” with “Rover” on “Nxwhere,” it’s done with a rapper’s mischievous smirk—she doesn’t want her writing to be that predictable. Mainly, her vocal tone is reminiscent of Syd’s untempered cool. The album opens in the middle of a misty daydream where she sings of a sky on fire, riding into Atlantis, and eternal love. Then the grooving bassline of “Midnight Charm” breaks that dream sequence to talk about something more realistic, like “celestial vibes.”

Jenevieve moves through her satisfyingly consistent debut album with a sense of self-assurance that doesn’t allow her to look into the rearview at missteps. Following up a song as arresting as “Baby Powder” has to be a little intimidating, but Jenevieve doesn’t seem to be fazed by it. Her whimsical songwriting isn’t as interested in replicating that moment as it is in creating new ones. She sees doves in bright black skies, soulless souls, and mellow eyes that hypnotize, not exes she’s lovesick over. “I have emotions/I can’t describe,” she laments on the lullaby-like closing track, which functions as a sort of ode to the misunderstood and ignored. “It’s hard to see it through these eyes.” Jenevieve spends much of Division lost in her own mind, writing about emotions she’s experiencing at the same time she’s processing them. When given enough time to wipe her eyes, Jenevieve leaves no room for misinterpretation”.

If you have not heard Division, I would say Jenevieve is an artist that is well worth backing and getting invested in. I love her debut album, and it is one that I have spun a few times lately. An artist with a long future ahead, let’s hope more critical eyes and ears turn her way for album number two. Jenevieve is someone that…

EVERYONE should get behind.

FEATURE: Madonna at Sixty-Four: Celebrating the Queen of Pop: The Ultimate Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

Madonna at Sixty-Four

IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1987

Celebrating the Queen of Pop: The Ultimate Playlist

__________

ONE of the most influential artists ever…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Madonna

who changed the face of Pop music, this year marks forty since Madonna was signed (to Sire Records). Forty years since her debut, Everybody, was released. On 16th August, Madonna turns sixty-four. Many other people will write about her to celebrate that fact. I am going to cheat a bit and put out an ultimate playlist. I also have a few other Madonna features coming out before her birthday. I don’t think there has been a greatest hits collection released for a while. I have assembled a playlist with hits and deeper cuts. Before I get to that, I wanted to source AllMusic’s biography of the Queen of Pop:

“Madonna changed the trajectory of popular music not long after "Borderline" became her first Top Ten hit in 1984. Fusing post-disco dance with effervescent pop, "Borderline" seemed unexpected and fresh, a trick that soon became her signature. Over a career that lasted for decades, Madonna ushered underground sounds into the mainstream, specializing in trends percolating in dance clubs. As she arrived at the dawn of the MTV era, she seized the possibilities of music videos, creating a series of sexy, stylish clips that earned her the reputation of a provocateur while also establishing the network as the bastion for hip culture in the 1980s. Madonna recorded many of the pop anthems that defined that decade -- "Like a Virgin," "Material Girl," "Live to Tell," "Papa Don't Preach," "Open Your Heart," "Like a Prayer," "Express Yourself" -- and, in the process, she created the archetype of a modern pop star: one whose music was inextricably tied with its visual representation, and one who was loathe to trade upon past glories. As Madonna entered her second decade of stardom, she continued to take artistic risks; she delved into modern R&B for 1994's Bedtime Stories and electronica for 1998's Ray of Light. During the 2000s and 2010s, Madonna continued to be driven by that restless artistic spirit, a move that may not have resulted in as many hits, but helped put the entirety of her body of work into perspective, emphasizing the common threads and consistency that run throughout her music.

She moved from her native Michigan to New York in 1977 with dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. She studied with choreographer Alvin Ailey and modeled. In 1979, she became part of the Patrick Hernandez Revue, a disco outfit that had the hit "Born to Be Alive." She traveled to Paris with Hernandez, and it was there that she met Dan Gilroy, who would soon become her boyfriend. Upon returning to New York, the pair formed the Breakfast Club, a pop/dance group. Madonna originally played drums for the band, but she soon became the lead singer. In 1980, she left the band and formed Emmy with her former boyfriend, drummer Stephen Bray. Soon, Bray and Madonna broke off from the group and began working on some dance/disco-oriented tracks. A demo tape of these tracks worked its way to Mark Kamins, a New York-based DJ/producer. Kamins directed the tape to Sire Records, which signed the singer in 1982.

Kamins produced Madonna's first single, "Everybody," which became a club and dance hit at the end of 1982; her second single, 1983's "Physical Attraction," was another club hit. In June of 1983, she had her third club hit with the bubbly "Holiday," which was produced by Jellybean Benitez. Madonna's self-titled debut album was released in September of 1983; "Holiday" became her first Top 40 hit the following month. "Borderline" became her first Top Ten hit in March of 1984, beginning a remarkable string of 17 consecutive Top Ten hits. While "Lucky Star" was climbing to number four, Madonna began working on her first starring role in a feature film, Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan.

Madonna's second album, the Nile Rodgers-produced Like a Virgin, was released at the end of 1984. The title track hit number one in December, staying at the top of the charts for six weeks; it was the start of a whirlwind year for the singer. During 1985, Madonna became an international celebrity, selling millions of records on the strength of her stylish, sexy videos and forceful personality. After "Material Girl" became a number two hit in March, Madonna began her first tour, supported by the Beastie Boys. "Crazy for You" became her second number one single in May. Desperately Seeking Susan was released in July, becoming a box office hit; it also prompted a planned video release of A Certain Sacrifice, a low-budget erotic drama she filmed in 1979. A Certain Sacrifice wasn't the only embarrassing skeleton in the closet dragged into the light during the summer of 1985 -- both Playboy and Penthouse published nude photos of Madonna that she'd posed for in 1977. Nevertheless, her popularity continued unabated, with thousands of teenage girls adopting her sexy appearance, being dubbed "Madonna wannabes." In August, she married actor Sean Penn.

Madonna began collaborating with Patrick Leonard at the beginning of 1986; Leonard would co-write most of her biggest hits in the '80s, including "Live to Tell," which hit number one in June of 1986. A more ambitious and accomplished record than her two previous albums, True Blue was released the following month, to both more massive commercial success (it was a number one in both the U.S. and the U.K., selling over five million copies in America alone) and critical acclaim. "Papa Don't Preach" became her fourth number one hit in the U.S. While her musical career was thriving, her film career took a savage hit with the November release of Shanghai Surprise. Starring Madonna and Penn, the comedy received terrible reviews, which translated into disastrous box office returns.

At the beginning of 1987, she had her fifth number one single with "Open Your Heart," the third number one from True Blue alone. The title cut from the soundtrack of her third feature film, Who's That Girl?, was another chart-topping hit, although the film itself was another box office bomb. The year 1988 was relatively quiet for Madonna as she spent the first half of the year acting in David Mamet's Speed the Plow on Broadway. In the meantime, she released the remix album You Can Dance. After withdrawing the divorce papers she filed at the beginning of 1988, she divorced Penn at the beginning of 1989.

Like a Prayer, released in the spring of 1989, was her most ambitious and far-reaching album, incorporating elements of pop, rock, and dance. It was another number one hit and launched the number one title track as well as "Express Yourself," "Cherish," and "Keep It Together," three more Top Ten hits. In April 1990, she began her massive Blonde Ambition tour, which ran throughout the entire year. "Vogue" became a number one hit in May, setting the stage for her co-starring role in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy; it was her most successful film appearance since Desperately Seeking Susan. Madonna released a greatest-hits album, The Immaculate Collection, at the end of the year. It featured two new songs, including the number one single "Justify My Love," which sparked another controversy with its sexy video; the second new song, "Rescue Me," became the highest-debuting single by a female artist in U.S. chart history, entering the charts at number 15. Truth or Dare, a documentary of the Blonde Ambition tour, was released to positive reviews and strong ticket sales in the spring of 1991.

Madonna returned to the charts in the summer of 1992 with the number one "This Used to Be My Playground," a single featured in the film A League of Their Own, which featured the singer in a small part. Later that year, Madonna released Sex, an expensive, steel-bound soft-core pornographic book that featured hundreds of erotic photographs of herself, several models, and other celebrities -- including Isabella Rossellini, Big Daddy Kane, Naomi Campbell, and Vanilla Ice -- as well as selected prose. Sex received scathing reviews and enormous negative publicity, yet that didn't stop the accompanying album, Erotica, from selling over two million copies. Bedtime Stories, released two years later, was a more subdued affair than Erotica. Initially, it didn't chart as impressively, prompting some critics to label her a has-been, yet the album spawned her biggest hit, "Take a Bow," which spent seven weeks at number one. It also featured the Björk-penned "Bedtime Stories," which became her first single not to make the Top 40; its follow-up, "Human Nature," also failed to crack the Top 40. Nevertheless, Bedtime Stories marked her seventh album to go multi-platinum.

Beginning in 1995, Madonna began one of her most subtle image makeovers as she lobbied for the title role in the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita. Backing away from the overt sexuality of Erotica and Bedtime Stories, Madonna recast herself as an upscale sophisticate, and the compilation Something to Remember fit into the plan nicely. Released in the fall of 1995, around the same time she won the coveted role of Evita Peron, the album was comprised entirely of ballads, designed to appeal to the mature audience that would also be the target of Evita. As the filming was completed, Madonna announced she was pregnant and her daughter, Lourdes, was born late in 1996, just as Evita was scheduled for release. The movie was greeted with generally positive reviews and Madonna began a campaign for an Oscar nomination that resulted in her winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress (Musical or Comedy), but not the coveted Academy Award nomination. The soundtrack for Evita, however, was a modest hit, with a dance remix of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and the newly written "You Must Love Me" both becoming hits.

During 1997, she worked with producer William Orbit on her first album of new material since 1994's Bedtime Stories. The resulting release, Ray of Light, was heavily influenced by electronica, techno, and trip-hop, thereby updating her classic dance-pop sound for the late '90s. Ray of Light received uniformly excellent reviews upon its March 1998 release and debuted at number two on the charts. Within a month, the record was shaping up to be her biggest album since Like a Prayer. Two years later she returned with Music, which reunited her with Orbit and also featured production work from Mark "Spike" Stent and Mirwais, a French electropop producer/musician in the vein of Daft Punk and Air.

The year 2000 also saw the birth of Madonna's second child, Rocco, whom she had with filmmaker Guy Ritchie; the two married at the very end of the year. With Ritchie as director and Madonna as star, the pair released a remake of the film Swept Away in 2002; the movie didn't fare well with critics or at the box office. Her sober 2003 album, American Life, debuted at number one on the Billboard charts but it didn't generate any hit singles in America; it did produce two hit singles in the U.K., "Nothing Fails" and "Love Profusion." That same year also saw the release of Madonna's successful children's book, The English Roses, which was followed by several more novels in future years.

Confessions on a Dance Floor marked her return to music, specifically to the dance-oriented material that had made her a star. Released in late 2005, the album topped the Billboard 200 chart and was accompanied by a worldwide tour in 2006, the same year that I'm Going to Tell You a Secret, a CD/DVD made during her Re-Invention Tour, came out. In 2007, Madonna released another CD/DVD set, The Confessions Tour, this time chronicling her tour of the same name.

She inched closer to the completion of her Warner Bros. contract with 2008's Hard Candy, featuring collaborations with the Neptunes and Timbaland. As poorly received as it was, the bold album boasted a Top Five hit in "4 Minutes," and it was supported with the Sticky & Sweet Tour, which concluded in September 2009 (a month prior to her filing for divorce from Ritchie) and produced yet another CD/DVD package, released in 2010. It was her final Warner Bros. release and set the stage for her long-term recording deal with Live Nation.

Madonna began work on her 12th album midway through 2011, with the goal of releasing it early in 2012. The subsequent full-length, MDNA, featured production from French electronic musician and DJ Martin Solveig, as well as longtime collaborator Orbit. The album's title, an abbreviation of Madonna's name, appeared on the heels of her performance at the 2012 Super Bowl. Preceded by the Top Ten single "Give Me All Your Luvin'" (featuring Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.), MDNA debuted at number one across the world, including the U.S. and U.K. Her MDNA Tour took up the rest of the year, as she performed in Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America. She filmed a concert special, and also released the live album MDNA World Tour in September 2013. At the beginning of 2014, Madonna announced that she was starting work on her 13th studio album. Taking to social media to capture the process, she revealed that recording sessions with the likes of Avicii, Diplo, and Kanye West had taken place. Excerpts from the sessions leaked toward the end of 2014, forcing Madonna to release a digital teaser EP by the end of the year. The full release of Rebel Heart came in March 2015; the album peaked at number two in the U.S. and U.K. She toured from the fall of 2015 to the spring of 2016, playing more than 75 dates in North America, Europe, and Asia.

In April 2019, Madonna began to issue singles leading up to the June release of her 14th album, Madame X, starting with "Medellín," a collaboration with Colombian reggaeton singer Maluma. The album featured co-production by Mirwais, Mike Dean, Diplo, and Jason Evigan, as well as collaborations with guest artists including Brazilian singer Anitta and rappers Swae Lee and Quavo.

Upon its June 14, 2019 release, Madame X debuted at number one in the U.S. and number two in the U.K.”.

Sill without peers when it comes to Pop music and sheer innovation in the field, let’s hope there are more albums from Madonna. Her most-recent, 2019’s Madame X, ranks alongside one of her best latter-day efforts. Maybe it is unlikely she will perform big tours like she has done before, but we will hear more music from her for sure. An icon who has inspired countless artists through the decades, there is a biopic in the works (Madonna is directing and Julia Garner plays her). Who knows what comes next. All I do know is that Madonna has given the world…

A stunning body of work.

FEATURE: I Traded Fame for Love Without a Second Thought… Madonna’s Drowned World / Substitute for Love at Twenty-Four: Ray of Light’s Perfect Opening Track

FEATURE:

 

 

I Traded Fame for Love Without a Second Thought…

 Madonna’s Drowned World / Substitute for Love at Twenty-Four: Ray of Light’s Perfect Opening Track

__________

WHEN I feature…

a Madonna song or album, it is usually on a big anniversary. There are a few smaller anniversaries in August. One of them, on 24th, is the twenty-fourth anniversary of Ray of Light’s opening track, Drowned World / Substitute for Love. Written by Madonna, William Orbit, Rod McKuen, Anita Kerr and David Collins, it is one of Madonna’s best opening tracks. It is the perfect way to introduce Ray of Light – an album that stunned critics and saw a huge evolution (after 1994’s Bedtime Stories, the Electronica and Trip-Hop was unexpected!). On 16th August, it will be Madonna’s sixty-fourth birthday. I am writing other features around that. I wanted to do a sort of double bill and mark the anniversary of this track – one that many might not be aware of. I am going to come to some Wikipedia information about its critical reception. Drowned World / Substitute for Love was the third single from Ray of Light. It reached number ten in the U.K. It is a fantastic song but maybe a surprise single. I love the video for the song, where Madonna is seen running from the paparazzi until she gets home. Maybe referencing her fame and how she can get no privacy or respect, maybe it is about running from an old way of life and embracing motherhood and spirituality. Since 1996, Madonna’s life changed hugely. She gave birth to her daughter Lourdes, invested herself in Eastern mysticism and Kabbalah, and was enlisted for the title role on the film adaptation of the musical, Evita (1996). It is only natural that she would want the opening song of this new album – which was a huge return and massive change of direction – to reflect her spirituality and new life. Drowned World / Substitute for Love was produced by Madonna and William Orbit. Madonna had been a fan of Orbit's work for a while. It is an inspired hook-up. You can hear Orbit’s magic touch throughout Ray of Light.

Frozen was the first song released from Ray of Light. That came out in January 1998, a month before Ray of Light. Rather than this being an upbeat or Pop-orientated opening track that we may have seen on earlier Madonna albums, it is clear that there was a lot of re-evaluation and growth following albums like Erotica (1992) and Bedtime Stories. The former courted attention from the press because of its sexual nature. The book, Sex, was released with the album and raised more than a few eyebrows. Whilst Bedtime Stories was not a reversal or a retreat into a safer sound and set of lyrics, Ray of Light was a rebirth and redirection. More positive, spiritual, and less sex/relationship-based than previous albums, this was a Pop queen who was a mother, embracing something different. Mixing something deeper with a real rush and sense of occasion, Drowned World / Substitute for Love earned positive press. Wikipedia collated some of the response:

“Kenneth Bielen, author of The Lyrics of Civility declared the record as a "slice of Madonna's autobiography", praising the lyrics for forecasting what the singer's life could become. Allen Metz wrote in the book, The Madonna Companion, that the lyrics did not give an impression of "sophisticated wordplay", but was commendable for telling the truth about Madonna's life and career. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic labelled the song as a "swirling" and "meditative opener". David Browne from Entertainment Weekly described the track, along with "Frozen" from the album, as "breathtaking", complimenting its beats. Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine found Madonna's belting to be the most "emotionally candid" she has been since Like a Prayer (1989).

Other critics complimented the different nature of the song and its production. Reviewing the album for The Michigan Daily, Lark said, "['Drowned World/Substitute for Love'] [creates] a brilliant, ecstatic pop catharsis that all but eclipses every mistake she's ever made, including the virginal writhing, gold-tooth sporting and naked hitchhiking of her sordid past", the last part referring to Madonna's antics during her fifth studio album, Erotica (1992) era. Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone found it to be the "perfect opener" for Ray of Light and its various contradiction filled tracks. Noting the different musical elements, including drum loops, strings, computer bleeping as well as jungle snares, Sheffield compared them to a person's shopping experience and unpacking of the bags after the activity ends. The reviewer ended by saying that the track came off as "loud, tacky and ridiculous", but still exuded emotion in the music. In a review of Madonna's hits album GHV2 (2001), Charlotte Robinson from PopMatters commended Orbit's production work on the track along with others from Ray of Light. She added that the songs are "a testament to his ability to use gadgets and electronic wizardry not to alienate listeners, but to draw them in".

'Substitute for Love', Stuart Maconie wrote in a Q review of Ray of Light, "emerges languorously from a fog of enigmatic samples and the low-key burbling that are Orbit's forte… prayer bells tinkle and snare fills skim the surface tension of the song in a nod to drum 'n' bass." In 2003, fans voted for their top 20 Madonna singles in Q, and awarded "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" the number 17 spot. In a retrospective review of Ray of Light, Idolator's Stephen Sears described the track as "the first chapter of a great novel" setting the tone for rest of the record. Rolling Stone placed the track at number 20, on their ranking of Madonna's 50 Greatest Song in 2016, describing it as "a ballad exploring epiphanies about fame and family". While ranking Madonna's singles in honor of her 60th birthday, The Guardian's Jude Rogers placed the song at number 12, calling it "majestic, reflective and sung in a subdued style for Madonna [...] this meditation on fame with a Ballardian reference in its title soars quietly and gorgeously".

A brilliant song from Madonna, I was eager to explore ahead of its anniversary on 24th August, Drowned World / Substitute for Love opened one of her finest and most important albums. It announced an artist who was not only back, but one who was near the peak of her creative powers! Not talked about as much as other Ray of Light songs like Frozen, Ray of Light, The Power of Good-Bye and Nothing Really Matters, the majestic, uplifting, and evocative Drowned World / Substitute for Love is...

A masterful song.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five: An Album That Deserves Much Greater Respect and Retrospection

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five

An Album That Deserves Much Greater Respect and Retrospection

__________

EVEN though…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Walter—WireImage/Getty Images

I have covered this topic before, because Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside was completed in August 1977, I am using the opportunity to mark its forty-fifth anniversary. The subject I am referring to is the fact that Kate Bush’s 1978 debut album is underrated and sort of overlooked in favour of others. I will produce other features about the album but, if you have not heard The Kick Inside, then make sure that you do! I have been thinking why Bush might have felt a little disappointed by the album in years since its release. She would probably have preferred to choose her own band and have more of a say in how the songs were produced and performed. The sheer quality and originality of the songwriting makes it an essential listen. It is where it all started for one of the most remarkable artists the world has ever seen. I am going to bring in a couple of reviews for The Kick Inside, to try and get people who don’t like it much to rethink. When it comes to ranking Bush’s albums, whilst The Kick Inside is often placed high, I still think it does not get the credit it deserves. Before moving on, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia sourced interviews where Bush spoke about The Kick Inside. I have chosen a couple:

“Hello everyone. This is Kate Bush and I'm here with my new album The Kick Inside and I hope you enjoy it. The album is something that has not just suddenly happened. It's been years of work because since I was a kid, I've always been writing songs and it was really just collecting together all the best songs that I had and putting them on the album, really years of preparation and inspiration that got it together. As a girl, really, I've always been into words as a form of communication. And even at school I was really into poetry and English and it just seemed to turn into music with the lyrics, that you can make poetry go with music so well. That it can actually become something more than just words; it can become something special. (Self Portrait, 1978)

There are thirteen tracks on this album. When we were getting it together, one of the most important things that was on all our mind was, that because there were so many, we wanted to try and get as much variation as we could. To a certain extent, the actual songs allowed this because of the tempo changes, but there were certain songs that had to have a funky rhythm and there were others that had to be very subtle. I was very greatly helped by my producer and arranger Andrew Powell, who really is quite incredible at tuning in to my songs. We made sure that there was one of the tracks, just me and the piano, to, again, give the variation. We've got a rock 'n' roll number in there, which again was important. And all the others there are just really the moods of the songs set with instruments, which for me is the most important thing, because you can so often get a beautiful song, but the arrangements can completely spoil it - they have to really work together. (Self Portrait, 1978)

I think it was probably the least experimental of all the albums. I'd written, say, two hundred songs from which we chose the thirteen songs that went on that. And it was recorded very quickly, there was very little time for experimentation. It was something that had a lot of forethought gone into it. (Profile 6, 1985)”.

What doesn’t help is how the media perceived her back in 1978. People focused on her image and sexuality. Perhaps trying to define her by Wuthering Heights. The feeling that she was witch-like, high-pitched or someone trying to be strange. In truth, this was just a song and the way she needed to express it. Although this NME interview from March 1978 has a lot of positives, there is this fixation on her looks:

“On the posters it's a coy, soft-focused Kate showing enough breast to--well, at least titillate the passing passengers. Face to face Kate Bush is an impish hippy girl who belies her much touted nineteen years.

Her debut "Top of the Pops" appearance gave rise to Kate being described as "a dark-haired Lyndsay De Paul," but she is neither doll-like nor petite, though hardly tall. Her faded jeans are mostly concealed under a pair of sheepskin-lined thigh-high reddish suede boots, and are in marked contrast to her very feminine fringed top.

Without much time to scurry home to the South East London house she shares with her two brothers to wash her carefully dishevelled hair for an appearance on BBC's "Tonight," Kate's in a hurry. Still, she remains charming and unflustered.

For a girl still in her teens, she's exceptionally self-possessed--especially since in recent weeks she's shot from nowhere to becoming a household name, courtesy of "Wuthering Heights", her first single. The song was inspired by Emily Bronte's romantic novel of the same name and is sung in a voice not unlike that of a newly-neutered cat letting the world know of his predicament.

To compound her mercurial success, her first album "The Kick Inside" is also high on the chart. Kate is amazed at the way things gone. "If you think of it in terms of people and not the money--'cause that's not relevant--it makes me feel very humble," she squeaks in her sing-song voice.

She was signed to EMI three years ago, given a 3,000-Pound advance and a four-year contract with options after the second and third years; i.e., if EMI wanted to drop Kate after either two or three years they could. Last year they re-signed her and it seems certain the company will retain her throughout this year too.

Amongst the credits on "The Kick Inside" is the Floyd's guitarist Dave Gilmour. It was, she says, largely because of Gilmour that she got a record deal. Kate had played piano since she was eleven, starting to write her own songs shortly after. A friend of the Bushes had offered to take some home-made tapes she'd recorded during her early teens round the record companies, but his endeavours were abortive--until he contacted Gilmour, an old friend from Cambridge.

<Note: Each of these tapes are described by Peter FitzGerald-Morris as containing "thirty songs." The friend was Ricky Hopper.>

Gilmour liked what he heard and offered to finance the recording of some professional demo tapes. It was also Gilmour who introduced Kate to arranger Andrew Powell (known for his work with Alan Parsons), who subsequently produced "The Kick Inside". The Gilmour-sponsored tapes received a warm welcome at EMI's A&R department. <This was after an earlier (second) demo tape, recorded at Gilmour's house, was submitted to EMI without success.>

Things couldn't have worked out more perfectly for the sixteen-year-old doctor's daughter. Fresh out of school with an armful of O levels, 3,000 Pounds in her bin and with no immediate pressures from EMI, Kate was free to pursue her ambition to dance. She applied to an ad in London's "Time Out" magazine and enrolled at Lindsay Kemp's mime school.

So why did EMI keep you under covers for so long?

"They were worried about me not being able to cope with things. And I was worried 'cause I didn't feel capable of coping with it either."

So Kate spent her days at Kemp's school with barely an interruption from her record company. "Oh, it was great," chirps Kate."I really got into the discipline. I had so much time and I could use it. For an artist that's such a delightful situation to be in.

"I came in to EMI on a friendly basis and that was good for me, because it meant that I could meet people there as people, and not as a big vulture business where they're all coming in and pulling your arm out. Also, I could learn about the business, which is so important, because it *is* a business."

The daily lessons with Kemp--50p a throw--were very informal. "He taught me that you can express with your body--and when your body is awake so is your mind. He'd put you into emotional situations, some of them very heavy. Like he'd say, 'Right, you're all now going to become sailors drowning, and there are waves curling up around you.' And everyone would just start screaming.

"Or maybe he'd turn you into a little piece of flame..."

Waiting for EMI to click its fingers did have its drawbacks, though. "Artistically, I was getting so frustrated at not being able to get my art to people."

Kate says that EMI did have a go at image-building and at persuading her to write more commercial songs ("Not so heavy--more hook lines"), but when Kate finally went into the studio last summer with half of Pilot and half of Cockney Rebel as her backing band, it was on her own terms. "Wuthering Heights" was originally scheduled for release last November, but was shelved at the very last moment because of--according to her--delays with artwork. By the time everything was right, the Christmas rush was on so Kate's debut was stalled a second time.

EMI had, however, already mailed out some copies of the single, one of which reached Capital Radio's Tony Myatt. Despite EMI's requests to the contrary, Myatt played the record before it was actually on sale. Ironically, Kate feels that Capital's championing "Wuthering Heights" is the key reason for its success.

So is it natural to sing that high, Kate?

"Actually, it is. I've always enjoyed reaching notes that I can't quite reach. A week later you'll be on top of that note and trying to reach the one above it.

"I always feel that you can continually expand your senses if you try. The voice is like an instrument. The reason I sang that song so high is 'cause I felt it called for it. The book has a mood of mystery and I wanted the song to reflect that."

That she sings in different voices on her album is not, claims Kate, due to an identity crisis--to evoke each song's particular mood she has to alter her pitch.

Kate insists that she isn't exploiting her sexuality: "That's a very obvious image. I suppose the poster is reasonably sexy just 'cause you can see my tits, but I think the vibe from the face is there. The main thing about a picture is that it should create a vibe. Often you get pictures of females showing their legs with a very plastic face. I think that poster projects a mood”.

I don’t think The Kick Inside got the true respect and love it was due. It got to three in the U.K. and was a chart success around the world. Although America did not take to Kate Bush or understand her, I think that there was this split between fans and critics. The album was a success and made her a star. It seems a pity that Bush herself created some distance from The Kick Inside. That media perception of Bush did not change for many years. I feel, as such, many people know The Kick Inside for a couple of songs and nothing else. Forty-five years after the album was recorded, there needs to be this celebration. I want to source a couple of positive reviews. The Young Folks wrote this on the album’s fortieth anniversary (2018):

“That primitive quality to her music is foreshadowed in the first few seconds of the album, which feature a selection of whale song. The song that follows, “Moving,” is written in tribute to the emotion and freedom Bush felt through her interpretive dance and mime lessons with Lindsay Kemp. As Bush described in a 1980 Sounds magazine interview, Kemp “fills people up, you’re an empty glass and glug, glug, glug, he’s filled you with champagne.” In the same interview Bush explained her reasoning for including the whale song, claiming that whales “say everything about ‘moving’… [they] are pure movement and pure sound, calling for something, so lonely and sad.” The song works as a good introduction to the rest of her album, and to Bush as an artist that we’re getting to know on her debut album. Here her voice cuts above the surprisingly bold piano and drums, while moving in a way that feels flexible and rhythmic.

The follow-up track, “Saxophone Song,” is simple but in a way that indicates Bush knows how to efficiently communicate an idea without meandering unnecessarily. It’s a song from a fan of a musician – who plays the titular instrument –singing about how she is moved by his music. This track, as well as “Moving” and several others illustrate how Bush can write about things in her life, that are true to her young experience such as taking dance lessons, reading Brontë, and being an awed fan of a musician, and she can turn them into songs that feel adult and general enough to appeal to a listener of any age, as well as stand the test of time.

The next track “Strange Phenomena,” ponders the odd coincidences and synchronicities of life that make you feel connected to something larger and part of a powerful intuitive system. It’s an introduction to Bush’s tendency to write about relatively intellectual subjects, which comes up a few times on this album alone.

Bush’s most conventional tracks are “Kite” and “James and the Cold Gun.” They’re the most pop-rock and boisterous sounding of the 13 songs, and relatively conventional in their lyrics and delivery. Sandwiched between those two songs, however, are the first two singles and two of Bush’s biggest hits, “The Man with the Child in His Eyes” and “Wuthering Heights.” The former song was written by Bush at age 13, and recorded at age 16. The music on the track is straightforward, and Bush’s vocals are the most clear and unaffected here, allowing us to hear every word. The “child” in the title can simultaneously be applied to who the man is looking at and, as Bush has said, the “little boy within” most men. It’s an astonishingly mature song to imagine a 13-year-old writing, which adds a sort of haunted quality to it. The single made it to #6 in the UK, and won Bush the 1979 Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding British Lyric.

“Wuthering Heights,” the album’s first single at Bush’s insistence, went to #1 on the UK charts, making it the first time a female singer-songwriter topped the charts with a self-penned song – and it remains Bush’s only number one single. The song was written at age 18 after Bush watched a mini-series adapted from the Emily Brontë novel of the same name. In the song she sings from the dead character Cathy’s perspective as a ghost, begging to be let inside and back into her love Heathcliff’s arms, perfectly capturing the wild and uncontainable emotions depicted in the novel. This song and its videos also brought to a wider audience Bush’s incorporation of movement to her performances. The UK video features Bush in a white dress surrounded by white mist and other dancing projections of herself. The more well-known video was made for the US and has Bush in a bright red dress, dancing among the woods and hills.

The second half of the album features a trilogy of songs about sex and sensuality – “Feel It,” “Oh to Be in Love” and “L’Amour Looks Something Like You.” They’re great examples of Bush’s ability to evoke mood and imagery through her voice, such as when her voice soars in the second half of the phrase “oh to be in love – and never get out again” to mimic the euphoric mindset the singer is in.

The final songs return to the more intellectual and metaphysical inspirations. “Them Heavy People” is about Bush enjoying the opportunity to learn as much as possible to expand her mind, extolling the pains and joys of pushing yourself and “opening doors you thought shut for good” to become the best version of yourself and find the “heaven inside.” “Room for Life,” is an appreciation of the power of women. Bush sings “like it or not, we keep bouncing back, because we’re woman.” The final track “The Kick Inside,” is similar to “Wuthering Heights,” in that it’s an adaptation of an existing work – in this case a “murder ballad” called Lizie Wan – and sung from the perspective of the female character. In this case, however, it’s a girl who is impregnated by her brother who then kills her because of it. It’s a bitterly ironic song to come after “Room for the Life,” which celebrates how woman has “room for a life… in your womb.” It’s a dark end to a strange album, but it’s a fitting end. It underlines that Bush is a fresh talent who is interested in plumbing the depths of human experience and psychology in her music and is not afraid of any source of inspiration”.

The BBC shared their thoughts about Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside in 2008. It does seem odd that The Kick Inside is not talked about more and ranked alongside Bush’s best work. Forty-five years later and it still sounds like nothing else in the world:

“The tale's been oft-told, but bears repeating: Discovered by a mutual friend of the Bush family as well as Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Bush was signed on Gilmour's advice to EMI at 16. Given a large advance and three years, The Kick Inside was her extraordinary debut. To this day (unless you count the less palatable warblings of Tori Amos) nothing sounds like it.

Using mainly session musicians, The Kick Inside was the result of a record company actually allowing a young talent to blossom. Some of these songs were written when she was 13! Helmed by Gilmour's friend, Andrew Powell, it's a lush blend of piano grandiosity, vaguely uncomfortable reggae and intricate, intelligent, wonderful songs. All delivered in a voice that had no precedents. Even so, EMI wanted the dullest, most conventional track, James And The Cold Gun as the lead single, but Kate was no push over. At 19 she knew that the startling whoops and Bronte-influenced narrative of Wuthering Heights would be her make or break moment. Luckily she was allowed her head.

Of course not only did Wuthering Heights give her the first self-written number one by a female artist in the UK, (a stereotype-busting fact of huge proportions, sadly undermined by EMI's subsequent decision to market Bush as lycra-clad cheesecake), but it represented a level of articulacy, or at least literacy, that was unknown to the charts up until then. In fact, the whole album reads like a the product of a young, liberally-educated mind, trying to cram as much esoterica in as possible. Them Heavy People, the album's second hit may be a bouncy, reggae-lite confection, but it still manages to mention new age philosopher and teacher G I Gurdjieff. In interviews she was already dropping names like Kafka and Joyce, while she peppered her act with dance moves taught by Linsdsay Kemp. Showaddywaddy, this was not.

And this isn't to mention the sexual content. Ignoring the album's title itself, we have the full on expression of erotic joy in Feel It and L'Amour Looks Something Like You. Only in France had 19-year olds got away with this kind of stuff. A true child of the 60s vanguard in feminism, Strange Phenomena even concerns menstruation: Another first. Of course such density was decidedly English and middle class. Only the mushy, orchestral Man With The Child In His Eyes, was to make a mark in the US, but like all true artists, you always felt that Bush didn't really care about the commercial rewards. She was soon to abandon touring completely and steer her own fabulous course into rock history”.

Forty-five years since it was recorded, I feel The Kick Inside has yet to find a massive audience. It resonated and was a success in 1978 but, in the years since, it has not gained the sort of traction as Hounds of Love (1985) or other albums from her. On the forty-fifth anniversary of its release in February, more people will be become aware of The Kick Inside. I hope that this month, some forty-five years since Kate Bush and her band completed recording of the album, that is talked about more. The Kick Inside is loved by many, but many others have not really embraced it. I hope that more exposure and attention of The Kick Inside…

RECTIFIES that.

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Dusty Springfield – Dusty in Memphis

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Dusty Springfield – Dusty in Memphis

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AS I say…

PHOTO CREDIT: Redferns

on a few of these Vinyl Corner features, there are some albums that will cost a little bit more on the format. You can buy it more cheaply but, if you are a fan of Dusty Springfield, then I would urge you to get her classic album, Dusty in Memphis, on vinyl. It is an all-time great album that sounds as astonishing and moving now as it always has. It is hard to believe that an album as timeless and astonishing as Dusty in Memphis only reached ninety-nine in the U.S. Springfield’s fifth studio album, the early sessions were recorded at American Sound Studio in Memphis; Springfield's final vocals and the album's orchestral parts were recorded at Atlantic Records' New York City studios. Even though the album did feature one of her best cuts, Son of a Preacher Man, Dusty in Memphis sold poorly. In 2020, the album was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. It is a case of an album growing over time and getting recognition long after it was released. It was released on 18th January, 1969. I am not sure why record buyers did not show Dusty in Memphis more love. It is an album that everyone needs to own and, if you can get it on vinyl, then it is well worth the money! There are a couple of reviews that I want to highlight.

First, back in March, Udiscovermusic.com told the strange story of an undeniable classic album that has been ranked as one of the best albums ever by so many different sources. It has not aged a day since it was released:

“The record that’s widely held to be the greatest album in the distinguished catalog of Dusty Springfield – in fact, for many, one of the greatest albums, period – was released on March 31, 1969. Despite being surprisingly unsuccessful at the time, Dusty In Memphis has thankfully become a monument to the unique soulfulness of one of Britain’s finest-ever voices.

The album was Dusty’s fifth, some five years into her hitmaking career. It marked a new era, as it was the first time that she had recorded an LP outside the UK. Masterfully overseen by three of the all-time giants of American soul and rock music production, Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, and Tom Dowd, it had a famously difficult birth. Happily, what endures is the brilliant quality of the songs and performances.

After massive international success for Dusty in 1966 with “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me,” and despite her beloved status with her audience, the following year produced a blank in terms of UK Top 10 singles or albums. Dusty had been known for years as a vociferous UK champion of soul music, and of Wexler’s work at Atlantic in particular. Now she and her friend and future manager, Vicki Wickham, agreed that the time was right for a change of direction, both creatively and geographically.

And so to Memphis

Dusty remained on on Philips in the UK, but signed her dream deal for the US with Atlantic, and travelled to “Chips” Moman’s American Studios in Memphis. This was one of the two southern locations that Atlantic had been using, along with Muscle Shoals, in its great soul output of the day.

With Dusty’s usual meticulous attention to detail, a bespoke song list was drawn up. It included material from such A-list songwriters as Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil (“Just A Little Lovin’”), Randy Newman (“Just One Smile”), Burt Bacharach & Hal David (“In The Land Of Make Believe”), and no fewer than four songs by Gerry Goffin & Carole King (“So Much Love,” “Don’t Forget About Me,” “No Easy Way Down,” and “I Can’t Make It Alone”).

Recordings got under way with Wexler, Dowd and Mardin all in the control room at American. The great session players known collectively as the Memphis Cats added their studio expertise. But for all her vocal greatness, Springfield’s insecurities (and a certain uneasiness in these new surroundings) made the Memphis sessions difficult for all concerned. Notwithstanding the authentic Southern flavour of the tracks, the album’s title belied the fact that Dusty’s final vocals for it were recorded at later sessions in New York.

The upcoming LP release appeared to be given a great early boost by the release in November 1968 of the first single “Son Of A Preacher Man.” The fine lyric and memorable melody of writers John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins were matched by a great, slow-burning groove and suitably sensual vocals by Dusty. The result was a Top 10 single on both sides of the Atlantic.

An inexplicable anti-climax

Then came the album release — and a huge anti-climax. Dusty In Memphis struggled to No.99 on the US chart and, almost unimaginably, didn’t make the bestsellers back in her own country at all. One of its subsequent American singles, “The Windmills Of Your Mind,” did become a US Top 3 adult contemporary hit, but Noel Harrison had already bagged the UK glory with his version of this theme from the movie The Thomas Crown Affair the year before”.

I want to bring in Rolling Stone’s review of Dusty in Memphis. The reviewed the album in November 1969. It must have been quite an experience hearing the album fresh in a year that didn’t really have anything else like this:

“Dusty started out with a nice little rocker called “I Only Want to Dance With You,” her first hit, riding in on the heels of Beatle boots in 1964, and then scored with, some of us anyway, a monster, “Wishin’ and Hopin.'” As opposed to Leslie Gore’s great single, “You Don’t Own Me,” Dusty’s song was the ultimate anti-Women’s Liberation ballad: “Wear your hair, just for him …” We used to turn it up loud on double-dates. Dusty had this way with words, a soft, sensual box (voice) that allowed her to combine syllables until they turned into pure cream. “AnIvrything’inboutH’greeeaaate true love is …” And then a couple of years later she hit the top with “The Look of Love” and seemed destined to join that crowd of big-bosomed, low-necked lady singers that play what Lenny Bruce called “the class rooms” and always encore with “Born Free.”

It didn’t happen, and Dusty in Memphis is the reason why. This album was constructed with the help of some of the best musicians in Memphis and with the use of superb material written by, among others, Jerry Goffin & Carol King, Randy Newman, and Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil. Now Dusty is not a soul singer, and she makes no effort to “sound black” — rather she is singing songs that ordinarily would have been offered by their writers to black vocalists. Most of the songs, then, have a great deal of depth while presenting extremely direct and simple statements about love. Unlike Aretha, who takes possession of whatever she does, Dusty sings around her material, creating music that’s evocative rather than overwhelming. Listening to this album will not change your life, but it’ll add to it.

There are three hits on this LP, and they are representative of the rest of it. “Son of a Preacher Man” is as down-home as Dusty gets; it has an intro that’s funky, a vocal that’s almost dirty. The bass gives the song presence and Dusty doesn’t have to strain to carry it off. No one has topped her version of this yet and no one’s likely to. “Don’t Forget About Me” is to my ears the best cut here — it opens with a counterpoint between bass and vibrating guitar that’s tremendously exciting, and then Dusty enters, her voice almost like another instrument. The song picks up Gene Chrisman’s woodblock and the Sweet Inspirations and it’s a fast race home. Piano cues Reggie Young’s sizzling guitar (and it’s a crime that Atlantic mixed Young down from the version used on the single) toward the end, and it’s his show from then on. Better musicianship is not to be found, and I include Dusty as one of those musicians.

Finally, there’s “The Windmills of Your Mind,” a slick song that served as the soundtrack for the slickest movie of recent years, The Thomas Crown Affair. The rest of the album falls somewhere in between this cut and the other hits, but not to be missed are superb versions of “No Easy Way Down,” “So Much Love,” and “Just a Little Lovin”.

I will round off with the BBC’s take on an album with very few equals. Even if you are not a fan of her work or know too much about it, then Dusty in Memphis will still wow you. It is such a strong album that one cannot help but be affected and stunned by it:

“Despite its status as a classic record, Dusty in Memphis had less than auspicious beginnings. By 1968 La Springfield had scored a string of chart successes with what she called 'big ballady things' and her decision to make an album in Memphis, home of hard edged R 'n' B grooves, was viewed with puzzlement by many.

Teaming up with the crack production/arrangement team of Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin (responsible for Aretha Franklin's Atlantic classics) also proved a bit much initially for Springfield, whose confidence in her vocal abilities was never very high. Worried that the session musicians would think she was a sham and unnerved by singing in the same vocal booth as used by Wilson Pickett, Dusty's relationship with her producers became strained, with Wexler claiming he never got a note out of her during the initial sessions in Memphis.

You'd never know this from the recorded evidence though. Springfield unsurprisingly resists any temptation to do an Aretha, instead relying on understatement, timing and delivery rather than vocal firepower. The songs (all by Brill building denizens) are all top notch, and Springfield's interpretation of them is peerless, almost to the point that it's tempting to slap a preservation order on them to stop any attempts at future covers from the likes of Sharleen Spiteri. Likewise Mardin's sensitive blend of Bacharach poise and Memphis funk provides the perfect frame for Dusty's blue eyed soul.

'Son of A Preacher Man' and 'Breakfast in Bed' hum with a potent mix of vulnerability and knowing desire; though both songs are pretty much ingrained in the psyche of anyone of a certain age, they still retain a hefty emotional charge. On the other hand, Randy Newman's 'I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore' and 'I Can't Make It Alone' must rank amongst the finest ballad performances you're likely to hear, and Springfield even makes the cod psychedelic inanities of Michel Legrand's 'The Windmills of Your Mind" seem almost meaningful.

The cover boasts a sticker proclaiming that this record made it into Rolling Stone's Coolest records of All Time Top 10. Don't let that put you off; if you have ears, you need this album…”.

I hope that younger generations know about Dusty Springfield and albums like Dusty in Memphis. It is an essential purchase that everyone should have. If you are not familiar with the album or only listen via streaming, consider spending some money and getting this 1969 diamond release on vinyl! From start to finish, it is…

A breathtaking listen!

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Seventy-Three: Sam Cooke

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

Part Seventy-Three: Sam Cooke

__________

AN artist…

that I have overlooked in Inspired…, few artists are as influential and important as Sam Cooke. If we talk about Soul music, its forefather and pioneer, I feel, is Cooke. He is definitely one of the most important Soul artists ever. I am going to end with a playlist of songs from artists that are inspired by Sam Cooke or they have been compared with him. Before then, AllMusic provide a deep and detailed biography of the iconic Cooke:

“Sam Cooke was the most important soul singer in history, its primary inventor, and its most popular and beloved performer in both the Black and white communities. Equally important, he was among the first Black performers and composers to attend to the business side of the music business, founding both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. Still, business interests never prevented him from engaging in topical issues, including the struggle over civil rights. The pitch and intensity of that battle followed an arc which paralleled Cooke's emergence as a star; his career bridged gaps between Black and white audiences that few had tried to surmount, much less succeeded at doing. Much like Chuck Berry or Little Richard bringin Black and white teenagers together, James Brown selling records to white teenagers and Black listeners of all ages, and Muddy Waters getting young white folkies and older Black transplants from the South onto the same page, Cooke appealed to all of the above, and the parents of those white teenagers as well -- yet he never lost his credibility with his core Black audience. In a sense, his appeal anticipated that of the Beatles, in breadth and depth.

He was born Sam Cook in Clarksdale, Mississippi, on January 22, 1931, one of eight children of a Baptist minister and his wife. Even as a young boy, he showed an extraordinary voice and frequently sang in the choir in his father's church. During the middle of the decade, the Cook family moved to Chicago's South Side, where the Reverend Charles Cook quickly established himself as a major figure in the religious community. Sam and three of his siblings also formed a group of their own, the Singing Children, in the 1930s. Although his own singing was confined to gospel music, he was aware and appreciative of the popular music of the period, particularly the melodious, harmony-based sounds of the Ink Spots, whose influence was later heard in songs such as "You Send Me" and "For Sentimental Reasons." As a teenager, he was a member of the Teen Highway QCs, a gospel group that performed in churches and at religious gatherings. His membership in that group led to his introduction to the Soul Stirrers, one of the top gospel groups in the country, and in 1950 he joined them.

If Cooke had never recorded a note of music on his own, he would still be remembered today in gospel circles for his work with the Soul Stirrers. Over the next six years, his role within the group and his prominence in the Black community rose to the point where he became a star, possessing his own fiercely admiring and devoted audience, through his performances on "Touch the Hem of His Garment," "Nearer to Thee," and "That's Heaven to Me." The group was one of the top acts on Art Rupe's Specialty Records label, and he might have gone on for years as their most popular singer, but Cooke's goal was to reach audiences beyond the religious community, and beyond the Black population, with his voice. This was a tall order at the time, as the mere act of recording a popular song could alienate the gospel listenership in an instant. Singing for God was regarded in those circles as a gift and a responsibility, while popular music, rock & roll, and R&B were to be abhorred, at least coming from the mouth of a gospel singer. (The gap was so great that when blues singer Blind Gary Davis became "sanctified" -- that is, found religion -- as the Rev. Gary Davis, he had to devise new words for his old blues melodies, and never sang the blues words again.).

He tested the waters of popular music in 1956 with the single "Lovable," produced by Bumps Blackwell and credited under the name Dale Cooke so as not to attract too much attention from his existing audience. It was enough, however, to get Cooke dropped by the Soul Stirrers and their record label. Granted, that freed him to record under his real name. The result was one of the biggest selling singles of the 1950s, a Cooke original entitled "You Send Me," which sold over two million copies on the tiny Keen Records label and hit number one on both the pop and R&B charts. Although it seems like a tame record today, "You Send Me" was a pioneering soul record in its time, melding elements of R&B, gospel, and pop into a sound that was new and still coalescing at the time.

Cooke was with Keen for the next two years, a period in which he delivered some of the prettiest romantic ballads and teen pop singles of the era, including "For Sentimental Reasons," "Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha," "Only Sixteen," and "(What A) Wonderful World." These were extraordinarily beautiful records, and in between the singles came some early album efforts, most notably Tribute to the Lady, his album of songs associated with Billie Holiday. He was unhappy, however, with both the business arrangement that he had with Keen and the limitations inherent with recording for a small label. Equally to the point, major labels were knocking on Cooke's door, including Atlantic and RCA Records. Atlantic was the top R&B-oriented label in the country, and Cooke could have signed there and found a happy home, except they wanted his publishing, and Cooke was well aware of the importance of owning his copyrights.

Thus, he signed with RCA Records, then one of the three biggest labels in the world (the others being Columbia and Decca), even as he organized his own publishing company (Kags Music) and a record label (SAR), through which he would produce other artists' records. Among those signed to SAR were the Soul Stirrers, Bobby Womack (late of the Valentinos, who were also signed to the label), former Soul Stirrers member Johnny Taylor, Billy Preston, Johnnie Morisette, and the Sims Twins.

Cooke's RCA sides were a schizophrenic body of work, at least for the first two years. He broke new ground in pop and soul with the single "Chain Gang," a mix of sweet melodies and gritty, sweaty sensibilities that also introduced something of a social conscience to his work. A number two hit on both the pop and R&B charts, it was his biggest hit since "You Send Me" and heralded a bolder phase in his career. Singles like the bluesy, romantic "Sad Mood"; the idyllic romantic soul of "Cupid"; the straight-ahead dance tune "Twistin' the Night Away" (a pop Top Ten and a number one R&B hit); and "Bring It on Home to Me" all lived up to this promise, and also sold in huge numbers. But the first two albums that RCA had him do, Hits of the Fifties and Cooke's Tour, were among the lamest LPs ever recorded by any soul or R&B singer, comprised of washed-out pop tunes in arrangements that showed almost none of Cooke's gifts to their advantage.

In 1962, Cooke issued Twistin' the Night Away, a somewhat belated "twist" album that became one of his biggest-selling LPs. He didn't really hit his stride as an LP artist, however, until 1963 with the release of Night Beat, a beautifully self-contained, dark, moody assembly of blues-oriented songs that were among the best and most challenging numbers that Cooke had recorded up to that time. By the time of its release, he was mostly identified through his singles, which were among the best work of their era, and had developed two separate audiences, among white teen and post-teen listeners and Black audiences of all ages. It was Cooke's hope to cross over to the white audience more thoroughly, and open up doors for Black performers that, up to that time, had mostly been closed. He had tried playing The Copa in New York as early as 1957 and failed at the time, mostly owing to his inexperience, but in 1964 he returned to the club in triumph, an event that also yielded one of the most finely recorded live performances of its period. The problem with The Copa performance was that it didn't really represent what Sam Cooke was about in full; it was Cooke at his most genial and non-confrontational, doing his safest repertory for a largely middle-aged, middle-class white audience. They responded enthusiastically, to be sure, but only to Cooke's tamest persona.

In mid-1963, however, Cooke had done a show at The Harlem Square Club in Miami that had been recorded. Working in front of a Black audience and doing his real show, he delivered a sweaty, spellbinding performance built on the same elements found in his singles and his best album tracks, combining achingly beautiful melodies and gritty soul sensibilities. The two live albums sum up the split in Cooke's career and the sheer range of his talent, the rewards of which he'd finally begun to realize more fully in 1963 and 1964.

The drowning death of his infant son in mid-1963 had made it impossible for Cooke to work in the studio until the end of that year. During that time, however, with Allen Klein now managing his business affairs, Cooke did achieve the financial and creative independence that he'd wanted, including more money than any Black performer had ever been advanced before, and the eventual ownership of his recordings beginning in November of 1963; he had achieved creative control of his recordings as well, and seemed poised for a breakthrough. It came when he resumed making records, amid the musical ferment of the early '60s. Cooke was keenly aware of the music around him, and was particularly entranced by Bob Dylan's song "Blowin' in the Wind," its treatment of the plight of Black Americans and other politically oppressed minorities, and its success in the hands of Peter, Paul & Mary. All of these factors convinced him that the time was right for songs that dealt with more than twisting the night away.

The result was "A Change Is Gonna Come," perhaps the greatest song to come out of the civil rights struggle, and one that seemed to close and seal the gap between the two directions of Cooke's career, from gospel to pop. Arguably his greatest and his most important song, it was an artistic apotheosis for Cooke. During this same period, he had also devised a newer, more advanced dance-oriented soul sound in the form of the song "Shake." These two recordings heralded a new era for Cooke and a new phase of his career, with seemingly the whole world open to him.

None of it was to be. Early in the day on December 11, 1964, while in Los Angeles, Cooke became involved in an altercation at a motel, with a female guest and the motel's night manager, and he was shot to death while allegedly trying to attack the manager. The case is still shrouded in doubt and mystery, and was never investigated the way the murder of a star of his stature would be today. Cooke's death shocked the Black community and reverberated far beyond; his single "Shake" was a posthumous Top Ten hit, as were "A Change Is Gonna Come" and the At the Copa album, released in 1965. Otis Redding, Al Green, and Solomon Burke, among others, picked up key parts of Cooke's repertory, as did white performers including the Animals and the Rolling Stones. Even the Supremes recorded a memorial album of his songs, which later became one of the most sought-after of their original recordings.

His reputation survived, at least among those who were smart enough to look behind the songs, to hear Redding's performance of "Shake" at The Monterey Pop Festival, for example, and see where it came from. Cooke's own records were a little tougher to appreciate, however. Listeners who heard those first two RCA albums, Hits of the Fifties and Cooke's Tour, could only wonder what the big deal was about, and several of the albums that followed were uneven enough to give potential fans pause. Meanwhile, the contractual situation surrounding Cooke's recordings greatly complicated the reissue of his work. Cooke's business manager, Allen Klein, exerted a good deal of control, especially over the songs cut during that last year of the singer's life. By the 1970s, there were some fairly poor, mostly budget-priced compilations available, consisting of the hits up through early 1963, and for a time there was even a television compilation, but that was it. The movie National Lampoon's Animal House made use of a pair of Cooke songs, "(What A) Wonderful World" and "Twistin' the Night Away," which greatly raised his profile among college students and younger baby-boomers, and Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes made almost a mini-career out of reviving Cooke's songs (most notably "Having a Party," and even part of "A Change Is Gonna Come") in concert. In 1986, The Man and His Music went some way to correcting the absence of all but the early hits in a career-spanning compilation, but during the mid-'90s, Cooke's final year's worth of releases were separated from the earlier RCA and Keen material, and was in the hands of Klein's ABKCO label. Finally, in the late '90s and beyond, RCA, ABKCO, and even Specialty (which still owns Cooke's gospel sides with the Soul Stirrers) issued combined and comprehensive collections of their portions of Cooke's catalog”.

In order to show how influential Sam Cooke is, I am finishing up with a long playlist of tracks from artists who have been linked with him. A Soul master who has made such an impact on generations of artists, he will always be remembered as one of the all-time greats. This playlist certainly shows just how many great artists…

OWE a lot to Sam Cooke.