FEATURE: The Long and the Short of It: The Scottish Album of the Year 2023 Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

The Long and the Short of It

The Scottish Album of the Year 2023 Playlist

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EARLIER this week…

IN THIS PHOTO: Becky Sikasa

the longlist for The Scottish Album of the Year was announced. When it comes to award ceremonies, there is not as much media coverage as there should be. I think it is vital that we shine a spotlight on the music coming out of nations like Scotland. With such a rich history of wonderful music, some future legends and established greats are in the running. If you have not heard of SAY and want to know more about how the shortlist process works, then below are all the details:

“Recognising an outstanding album from Scotland’s past which still inspires today.

• Winner announced in conjunction with The SAY Award Shortlist and the Sound of Young Scotland Award finalists.

• Winning album celebrated at The SAY Award 2023 Ceremony.

• Winner receives a bespoke art prize, created through The SAY Award Design Commission.

The Sound of Young Scotland Award

The Sound of Young Scotland Award – in association with Help Musicians, Youth Music Initiative and Youth Music – exists to drive Scottish music of the future; enabling a young and emerging artist to create their debut album.

• Winner chosen by a panel of previous SAY Award nominees.

• Winner announced at The SAY Award Ceremony.

• Winner given a performance slot to showcase at The SAY Award Ceremony 2024.

• Winner receives a funding package worth up to £8,000 to facilitate the creation of their debut album.

Applications for the Sound of Young Scotland Award 2023 open on Monday 24 July. More information (including eligibility criteria, selection process and application specifics) will be published in due course.

Key Dates

FRIDAY 30 JUNE – FRIDAY 21 JULY 2023

The SAY Award eligible albums submission period | Artists, industry professionals and music fans can submit eligible albums – for free – via sayaward.com

MONDAY 24 JULY – MONDAY 14 AUGUST 2023

The Sound of Young Scotland Award submission period | Young and emerging Scottish artists can apply to be considered for the Sound of Young Scotland Award 2023; offering a funding package worth up to £8,000 to facilitate the creation of their debut album

THURSDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2023

The SAY Award Longlist Announcement | 20 outstanding Scottish albums will be announced as The SAY Award Longlist for 2023

MONDAY 2 OCTOBER – WEDNESDAY 4 OCTOBER 2023

The SAY Award Public Vote | 72-hour public vote at sayaward.com, securing one Longlisted album’s place in the Shortlist along with a guaranteed minimum prize of £1,000.

THURSDAY 5 OCTOBER 2023

The SAY Award Shortlist Announcement / The Sound of Young Scotland Award Finalists Announcement / Modern Scottish Classic Award Winner Announcement | 10 SAY Award Shortlisted albums, 5 Sound of Young Scotland Award Finalists and the winner of 2023’s Modern Scottish Classic Award are revealed three weeks ahead of The SAY Award Ceremony.

THURSDAY 26 OCTOBER 2023

The SAY Award Ceremony 2023 @ The Albert Halls, Stirling | Winner announcements, live performances and more”.

Last year produced an impressive shortlist. The winner, Fergus McCreadie’s Forest Floor, was a worthy winner. I am marking the longlist for this year’s SAY by putting together a playlist with a song from each of the twenty nominated albums. I think all deserve to win the award…but only one can. This year’s selection if another very strong and eclectic list! It is vital that more eyes are trained the way of Scotland. Below is just a portion of the magnificent music…

COMING out of Scotland.

FEATURE: It’s a Miracle: Culture Club’s Colour by Numbers at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

It’s a Miracle

Culture Club’s Colour by Numbers at Forty

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ONE of the best albums of the '80s…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ebet Roberts/Redferns

arrived on 10th October, 1983. Culture Club’s seconds studio album, Colour By Numbers, went to number one in the U.K. and two in the U.S. I want to mark the upcoming fortieth anniversary. In 2019, Classic Pop discussed the upbeat and colourful music and delivery at times bellied painful and serious lyrics. Maybe one reason why Colour By Numbers is so accessible is because the songs have this catchiness. There is quite a broad range of sounds through Colour By Numbers. One thing that is consistent is the quality of the songwriting. With Boy George captivating in every song, it is no wonder Colour By Numbers has endured and resonated with critics. I will come to a couple of reviews. In terms of features, there are a couple worth bringing in. I shall start with Classic Pop:

“As the nation reeled in shock when David Bowie draped his arm around Mick Ronson’s shoulder during his infamous Top Of The Pops performance of Starman in July 1972, a spark was ignited in 11-year-old viewer George O’Dowd, who recognised a kindred spirit in Bowie and made the decision to follow in the platform-soled footsteps of his idol.

Immersing himself in the glam rock, punk and New Romantic scenes, he reinvented himself as a flamboyant entity in his own right.

A decade later, George’s own appearance on the same show to perform Do You Really Want To Hurt Me elicited an equally controversial reaction to that of Bowie’s – and the charismatic singer of indeterminate gender was baptised pop’s hottest property.

Although the initial reaction to Boy George’s androgynous look had shifted between negative (he was crowned ‘Wally Of The Week’ by renowned TV critic Nina Myskow) and bewildered, his talent was undeniable and the soulful reggae of Do You Really Want To Hurt Me made Culture Club a global phenomenon.

As the band relentlessly promoted the song, getting back in the studio to work on new material was at the forefront of their minds. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me had proved third-time lucky for them, following the flop of their first two singles White Boy and I’m Afraid Of Me and, feeling that their debut album Kissing To Be Clever lacked anything else worthy of being a single, the band was concerned about the prospect of becoming a one-hit wonder.

One of the first new tracks they recorded, Time (Clock Of The Heart) was rush-released in November 1982 and alleviated those fears, giving them a second Top 10 hit.

A sublime slice of blue-eyed soul, the track served its purpose of keeping the band in the public eye – and the charts – while they crafted their second album amidst one of the most competitive times in music, with Wham!, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet all vying for the attentions of Britain’s teenagers.

“With so many great bands around, people can forget about you really quickly – especially when you’re a new band,” George said at the time. “So for us, it’s important to just keep pushing the records out so that we don’t lose our momentum.”

Describing themselves as “an Irish transvestite, a Jew, a black man and an Anglo-Saxon”, the band’s name was an allusion to their differing ethnicities and it was the fusion of those different backgrounds and influences that gave them their signature sound.

With producer Steve Levine on hand to mould the varying styles into a cohesive sound, and support from powerhouse backing vocalist Helen Terry and keys player Phil Pickett among others, the sessions for the second album showed a marked progression from Kissing To Be Clever, which had been more a collection of demos recorded as the band found its identity than a body of work.

“This next album is going to prove that we’re very musical,” George said in an interview with The Tube in early 1983. “It’s a lot more mature and sophisticated than Kissing To Be Clever. We work very closely with Steve Levine, who is almost the fifth member of Culture Club. We all have the same idea of what we want the end result to be, which is essentially a well-structured pop song, and we have developed our own sound now. A lot of bands are wanting to work with Steve to achieve the ‘Culture Club sound’ but it’s not possible, because it’s a collaboration – it’s not a situation like a lot of bands who don’t know what they want to sound like, so the producer ends up taking over.

“Roy and Mikey love the new machines – the Fairlights, and the computers – while Jon and I prefer an acoustic sound, really rough and soulful. So we mix both to get a fine balance.”

Achieving that result had proved anything but smooth. “We’re very adult in our approach to the studio, but we fight a lot in the rehearsals,” George said. “There’s a lot of throwing coffee over each other and guitars being thrown, that sort of thing.”

Years later, an insight into the machinations of Culture Club at this time was revealed when a recording taken during the making of Victims, in which the band tore into each other, was leaked onto the internet. Finding it hilarious in retrospect, the argument was entitled Shirley Temple Moment and released as a track on the band’s 2002 career-retrospective boxset.

While Culture Club’s music was a collaborative effort, the song’s lyrics were strictly George’s domain. “I write all the lyrics,” he said. “I never sing anyone else’s lyrics – they all come from a very personal basis and are about what’s going on in my life, in my relationships at the time – they’re deeply personal.”

Although George and drummer Jon Moss’ relationship wasn’t public knowledge by this point, their tempestuous union was the basis for much of Culture Club’s material.

As millions of fans unwittingly sang along, their biggest hit, Karma Chameleon was a visceral depiction of a volatile relationship with lyrics such as: “I heard you say that my love was an addiction/ When we cling, our love is strong/When you go, you’re gone forever, you string along” and “Everyday is like survival, you’re my lover, not my rival”, a theme prevalent throughout the rest of the record.

On the surface, Colour By Numbers is a poppy, upbeat record fizzing with catchy melodies and sing-along choruses. Scrubbed free of its make-up of glossy production and soulful vocal stylings, it’s a tortured depiction of a dysfunctional relationship.

Following in the footsteps of Fleetwood Mac and ABBA, Culture Club turned their misery and melancholia into musical magic. Writing in his autobiography Take It Like A Man, George described the band’s output as: “Simple pop songs with blatant messages to the boy I loved – my pain was seeping into the songwriting.”

Preceded by No.2 hit Church Of The Poison Mind, and Karma Chameleon, which spent six weeks at No.1, Colour By Numbers was released in October 1983.

Critics praised the album’s mix of blue-eyed soul with pop, gospel, reggae and jazz, citing it as a huge musical progression from Culture Club’s debut, particularly on the epic ballad Victims (released as the third single in November 1983)”.

Before coming to some of the critical reviews for Colour By Numbers, there is a great feature from Albumism that discusses the impact and legacy of Colour By Numbers. They also discuss how Culture Club developed after their 1983 success. An undoubted classic, it has been certified triple platinum in the U.K. and quadruple platinum in the U.S. It was ranked number ninety-six on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s:

“Kissing to Be Clever was a critical and commercial triumph producing five charters overall. Out of those five singles, three of them—“Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?,” “Time (Clock of the Heart)” and “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya”—went on to become sizable singles on both sides of the Atlantic by the summer of 1983. At that junction, Culture Club had already begun work on their sophomore set, Colour By Numbers.

The group weren’t keen on their legacy resting on just one platinum record; their vision for Culture Club was much bigger than that. Particularly for O’Dowd, better known by his stage moniker Boy George, the quartet’s second outing was central to extending their longevity. O’Dowd had taken great care to incorporate a striking visual presence for himself and his bandmates; now, it was time to ensure the music continued to get that same attention to detail.

Culture Club once again enlisted the services of producer Steve Levine. Levine had worked closely with the band on Kissing to Be Clever and had a solid grasp of the outfit’s work ethic and creative autonomy. This element is core to Culture Club and Levine getting on the same page in relation to them flipping the heavier, funkier sonics of Kissing to Be Clever into something lighter and more melodically focused for Colour By Numbers.

This aural switch is immediately noticeable on the record’s opening piece—and second single—“Karma Chameleon.” The sprightly gem laden with catchy harmonica riffs (courtesy of Judd Lander) is beautifully understated on the whole, but still insistent with its irrepressible hook.

With exceptions issued to the sides “Miss Me Blind,” “Mister Man” and “Man-Shake”—the latter composition cast as a B-side to one of the LP’s eventual singles—much of the overt dance and reggae vibes were largely absent on the band’s sophomore collection. The awareness and intent in Culture Club’s usage or heightening of other music tones on Colour By Numbers is both striking and refreshing. Some of those tones include jazz-fusion (“Changing Every Day,” “Stormkeeper”), torch songs (“Black Money”) and classic soul (“Church of the Poison Mind”). All of them are expressively communicated by the superb playing of Craig, Hay and Moss with the additional augmentation of studio session musicians as needed.

What did stay unchanged were the lyrical thrusts of each song, with O’Dowd joined by his colleagues in the scripting of each track present on the long player. However, O’Dowd led as the primary songwriter in relation to setting the emotional mood for the compositions.

Much of O’Dowd’s tumultuous relationship with Jon Moss—then hidden from public view—supercharged nearly every cut on Colour By Numbers. Specifically, “Karma Chameleon,” “Black Money,” “Victims” and the title song (another alternate side to one of the project’s singles) possess a weighty romantic pathos partially masked by their impressive pop song structuring. Bringing the gravitas of the material home is O’Dowd’s soulful vocal delivery. On occasion, O’Dowd got some powerful support from the inimitable backing singer Helen Terry that yielded even more emotional energy to these already riveting pieces.

Released in early October of 1983, Colour By Numbers was a textbook critical, commercial and creative success. The LP in its entirety (as well as it singles) made Culture Club global ambassadors for the New Romantic guard overnight. Follow-ups were issued hastily in 1984 (Waking Up with the House on Fire) and 1986 (From Luxury to Heartache) before Culture Club disbanded acrimoniously to pursue separate career paths as has been well documented.

In the slipstream of their parting, Culture Club later embarked upon several (mostly) friendly reunions between 1998 and 2018. Don’t Mind If I Do (1999), their excellent fifth studio effort, was their first formal recording to result from their initial reunification. It preceded the 2003 reissue of Colour By Numbers that notably restored all of the B-sides from its corresponding singles onto the album proper for collectors.

And though the roots for their forthcoming sixth affair Life stretch back to their 2014 reformation, longtime fans eagerly anticipate yet another solid batch of pop-soul numbers from the group due for release in October this year. It’s a standard Culture Club set for themselves early on in their canon with Colour By Numbers. The album holds fast to a musical and lyrical timelessness that continues to thrive well past the era of its origin, something every recording artist often aspires to but doesn’t always achieve”.

I will finish off with a couple of reviews. I am going to start with AllMusic’s opinion on a New Wave classic. Produced by the legendary Steve Levine, key cuts like Karma Chameleon and Church of the Poison Mind are played regularly to this day. Colour By Numbers remains Culture Club’s defining statement. Boy George, Roy Hay, Mike Craig and Jon Moss created a masterpiece:

“Colour by Numbers was Culture Club's most successful album, and, undoubtedly, one of the most popular albums from the 1980s. Scoring no less than four U.S. hit singles (and five overseas), this set dominated the charts for a full year, both in the United States and in Europe. The songs were infectious, the videos were all over MTV, and the band was a media magnet. Boy George sounded as warm and soulful as ever, but one of the real stars on this set was backing vocalist Helen Terry, who really brought the house down on the album's unforgettable first single, "Church of the Poison Mind." This album also featured the band's biggest (and only number one) hit, the irresistibly catchy "Karma Chameleon," its more rock & roll Top Five follow-up "Miss Me Blind," and the fourth single (and big club hit), "It's a Miracle" (which also featured Helen Terry's unmistakable belting). Also here are "Victims," a big, dark, deep, and bombastic power ballad that was a huge hit overseas but never released in the U.S., and other soulful favorites such as "Black Money" and "That's the Way (I'm Only Trying to Help You)," where Boy George truly flexed his vocal muscles. In the 1980s music was, in many cases, flamboyant, fun, sexy, soulful, colorful, androgynous, and carefree, and this album captured that spirit perfectly. A must for any collector of 1980s music, and the artistic and commercial pinnacle of a band that still attracted new fans years later”.

I am going to end with a review from Rolling Stone. They reviewed Colour By Numbers in 2003 on its twentieth anniversary. Twenty years after that review, there is no doubt Culture Club’s second studio have survived the test of time:

“Culture Club's Colour by Numbers secures lead singer Boy George's place as a blue-eyed soul balladeer of the first rank. If he has yet to match the heights of the soul elite – the delicate refinement of Smokey Robinson or the rich gospel fervor of Gladys Knight, both of whom he sometimes resembles–Boy George is still artistically the real thing, a singer who continually and instinctively communicates passion in an era awash with cynical pseudosoul poseurs.

Colour by Numbers is by no means a weighty album. Like Kissing to Be Clever, Culture Club's second LP comes from the same school of trendy British pop that's produced ABC, Wham! U.K., Haircut One. Hundred and a dozen other brands of musical candy whose recipes blend synth-pop, Motown and third-world flavors. But unlike other albums of similar ilk, Colour by Numbers has gobs of emotion plastered as thickly as Boy George's makeup, and ten tunes that stick. And the band – drummer Jon Moss, keyboardist-guitarist Roy Hay and bassist Mikey Craig–cooks up a percolating brand of synth-pop that is more than just a quick, superficial ripoff.

Musically, "Karma Chameleon" recalls James Taylor's version of "Handy Man," though it's accelerated, synthed-up and frothed into a creamy sundae sprinkled with bluesy harmonica licks. The breezy pop-soul calypso "It's a Miracle" is one of several cuts in which Boy George faces off against backup singer Helen Terry. Theirs is a provocative match, rather like Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin, in which Terry's scat-singing tough mama responds to Boy George's imploring vulnerability with maternal strength. In the hauntingly lovely "Black Money," the relationship between the two is at its deepest and most mysterious. Boy George's repeated question, "Do you deal in black money?" provokes a gospel-style interchange that implies at least two different dialogues–one between a boy and a woman (possibly a prostitute), the other between whites and blacks.

Other songs gloss Latin dance music ("Changing Every Day"), Latin-inflected light funk ("Church of the Poison Mind," in which Terry growls like Patti LaBelle in a huff) and calypso-flavored pop-funk ("Stormkeeper," "Miss Me Blind"). In "Victims," a sprawling, churchy ballad, light symphonic orchestration replaces the silky, synthesized textures of the rest of the album. "Feel like a child on a dark night/Wishing there was some kind of heaven," Boy George muses. Both the vocals and the arrangement suggest that he is probing a deeper spiritual realm than the usual masochistic romantic delirium of dreams, love and emotions–words that course obsessively through the songs.

The rollicking calypso "Mister Man" politicizes the dark night of the soul that Boy George begins to approach in "Victims." The unpredictable, potentially murderous "man" of the title is a generalized enough symbol of fear and desire to be taken as a white oppressor, a street hustler or any macho bully. But while Culture Club's "we are all races, all sexes, all musics" pose is honorable, it's ultimately quite shallow. Smatterings of soul, calypso and funk in synth-pop packaging do not add up to a very significant musical cross-fertilization. Happily, Colour by Numbers makes less of this pose than did Kissing to Be Clever.

When Culture Club first appeared on these shores last year, it was difficult to imagine that Boy George would quickly become a bona-fide pop star and fashion plate with a legion of female admirers. With his lipstick, dreadlocks and hieroglyphic shmattes, he looked like an overweight, teenage sissy desperately trying to grab people's attention. And when he pleaded, "Do you really want to hurt me?" one could imagine that plenty of guys would be sufficiently provoked by his coy androgyny to do exactly that. For unlike David Bowie in his transvestite period, Boy George was no icy alien parading at a safe emotional distance. Instead of concealing his "girlish" feelings, he flaunted them, putting his heart on the line along with his fantasies.

But with all its dripping sweetness, Boy George's singing also contains a rich undercurrent of humor. While his sob is genuine, he is also wise enough to recognize the silliness of such teenage languishing. And it's that sense of humor–Boy George's knowingly excessive romanticism, his graceful acceptance of his own klutziness, his irrepressible pleasure at the foolishness and fun of pop – that redeems Culture Club from any pretentiousness.

Whether you like the band or not, Culture Club is one pop group that matters”.

With album tracks as strong as the singles, the colourful, flamboyant and mesmeric Colour By Numbers is going to find new fans for decades to come. One of the all-time great albums, Colour By Numbers turns forty on 10th October. If you have not heard the album for a while, then go and make sure that you…

SPEND some time with it.

FEATURE: Right Then, Right Now: Fatboy Slim’s You've Come a Long Way, Baby at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Right Then, Right Now

Fatboy Slim’s You've Come a Long Way, Baby at Twenty-Five

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ONE of the most important and popular albums…

of the 1990s turns twenty-five on 19th October. A number one hit here and a big success in the U.S., Fatboy Slim’s (Norman Cook) second studio album, You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, is one of those albums impossible to ignore. So epic and intricate, I love that there is bombast and House volume alongside intricate turns and twists. Details, colours and sensations mixing together in this feast for the senses! I want to highlight a couple of reviews to mark its upcoming, glorious twenty-fifth anniversary. I think that You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby is among the most celebrated albums of the 1990s. It arrived at a time when Big Beat music was ruling. Such an exciting time for British music, we had this incredible albums that were uniting people around clubs and dancefloors. Whilst some of the albums from that time sound dated, You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby still seems fresh and interesting. We do not really hear too many albums that have that blend of accessible House, Big Beat epicness and Techno joy. If we do, it does not hit as hard and endure as long as Fatboy Slim’s gold! I want to come to an article from Udiscovermusic.com. Earlier this year, they spotlighted an album that arrived on 19th October, 1998 - and made this instant and emphatic impression on the musical landscape:

“In the mid-to-late-1990s, Big Beat was dominating UK dance music, thanks to The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, and a Brighton-bred producer named Fatboy Slim who had begun tantalizing audiences with his sample-heavy, bombastic debut Better Living Through Chemistry. Each of these artists brought a little bit something different to Big Beat – a twist on acid house, techno, and rap breakbeats crammed into a traditional pop structure. But it was Fatboy Slim’s 1998 album, the massive, groundbreaking, discourse-shifting You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, that cemented the sound as the world’s most exciting party.

With You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, Fatboy Slim – born Norman Quentin Cook – blended ecstatic build-ups of the rave scene with the “guess the sample” playfulness of 90s rap. (At the time of the album’s release, websites like WhoSampled were still years away.) Some of the samples were relatively obvious. (“Praise You” nicked a guitar from “It’s a Small World” and an electric piano from Steve Miller Band.) Others were more obscure. (The iconic “funk soul brother” Lord Finesse sample was from the only release that ever bore the artist name Vinyl Dogs.) What united it all, however, was the overarching sense that Fatboy Slim was having tons of fun putting all this stuff together.

That extended to the videos that were created as part of the album. The Spike Jonze-directed clip for “Praise You” likely made You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby even more of a success in the United States, due to its constant airing on MTV. The one line script for “Gangster Trippin’”? “Blow stuff up.” Director Roman Coppola was happy to oblige. European Fatboy fans got an extra treat with the video for “Right Here, Right Now,” which referenced a beloved French children’s show from the late 1970s. (Not that you needed to know much to enjoy its hilarious race from the Big Bang to 1998.)

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby was a hit in both the US and the UK, a huge step up in commercial success from Fatboy’s 1996 debut Better Living Through Chemistry. That 1996 album was more in thrall to dance music, with songs like “Everybody Needs a 303.” What made You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby such a different beast was the in-your-face vocal samples and a relentless focus on merging pop music and electronic music structures. It became a turning point for Fatboy and electronic music as a whole, culminating a few years later with an iconic 2002 concert in Brighton Beach, in which an estimated 250,000 fans came to see him spin records. You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, though, is where everything started”.

There are a few things I want to throw in. Apologies if there is any repetition or overlapping. The Student Playlist celebrated and dissected a '90s classic for a feature marking twenty years of You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby (in 2018). This is an album that was almost ubiquitous when it came out. Accessible and yet not too commercial, you can see why so many other artists were influenced by it:

“By the mid-Nineties, off the back of his success as a member of The Housemartins (the band that spawned The Beautiful South), Norman Cook was an important figure in British underground and chart music, but who was absolutely not a celebrity. He had been the brains behind smash hits by the likes of Freak Power and Beats International, and was a resident DJ at the popular Big Beat Boutique in Brighton. The success of those club nights had spawned the Skint Records label, and Cook was then responsible for one of the imprint’s earliest successes with his debut Fatboy Slim album Better Living Through Chemistry in 1996. Label boss Damian Harris presently asked Cook to make an album that sounded like the music he played at post-Boutique after-parties – as Harris put it, “hip-hop at the wrong speed”.

One breakthrough that had signified the future for Fatboy Slim had been Cook’s totally wired remix of Wildchild’s ‘Renegade Master’ in 1997, which transformed the old-skool leanings of the original into something distinctively ‘big beat’, bringing the breakbeats and crazy vocal modulations typical of the sub-genre into the mainstream for the first time. He had done the same to Cornershop’s ‘Brimful Of Asha’, sending it to number one in the UK in remixed form at the start of 1998.

The Fatboy Slim guise seemed to be the vehicle that most suited Cook, though – one which gave him the freedom of his extensive and eclectic record collection. Recorded entirely on a beaten-up Atari ST computer, with just Creator software and a mass of floppy disks, You’ve Come A Long Way Baby seemed to entirely sum up Cook’s carefree, fun and DIY approach to music. It also allowed his personality to shine through in a way that Better Living Through Chemistry hadn’t, for all its hard-hitting consistency.

SUBSTANCE

It’s Cook’s brilliant eye for sampling, picking sonic material that could be both humorous and poignant, that makes You’ve Come A Long Way Baby such a compelling and refreshing listen. Vocal snippets looped and swooped around cut-up portions of old, obscure records from hip-hop, soul, gospel, funk, surf-pop and rock to create a fun, slightly scruffier and more accessible variant on the techno of the likes of Underworld and Orbital from earlier in the decade, and one which could appeal to the rock and pop mainstream. Thereby, Cook had hit upon an album with universal attraction, one which would appear in record collections alongside Oasis or Madonna and still make sense.

Strangely, for a record compiled in end-of-the-century Brighton, You’ve Come A Long Way Baby evokes a timeless and distinctly American sense of cool. Everything you need to know about the album is referenced in its packaging. The image on the back of the CD cover is of a lonely American desert highway stretching into the horizon; the vast musical galaxy from which the album is stitched together is seen in the stacks upon stacks of dusty vinyl on the inside cover; and of course, the front cover image of the obese, carefree young man taken at the 1983 Fat People’s Festival in Danville, Virginia – whose identity has never been revealed, despite lots of enquiries.

The American fixations are immediately apparent in ‘The Rockafeller Skank’, the album’s lead single released at the height of the World Cup summer of 1998, was nothing short of the most memorable pop song of that year. Based on a Northern Soul guitar sample (Just Brothers’ ‘Sliced Tomatoes’) and a chopped-up B-boy vocal, with a slowed-down and sped-up beat bridge in the middle, it’s a party-starter that stands for raw, undistilled fun even two decades later. It reached no.6, but each of its three subsequent singles registered a higher position in the UK Singles Chart over the next 12 months, marking the start of the success of its parent album. The deliriously loose, wrong-speed hip-hop of ‘Gangster Trippin’ took Fatboy Slim into the Top Three as You’ve Come A Long Way Baby entered the British Albums Chart at no.2 in late October, but it would be the following single that took it to the summit and then into the stratosphere.

Released in early January 1999, the bewitching ‘Praise You’ became Fatboy Slim’s signature song when it hit no.1, coupled with a superb award-winning budget video by Spike Jonze. Based around an a-cappella sample of Camille Yarbrough’s spiritual anthem ‘Take Yo’ Praise’ and set to a soulful, uplifting and beautifully simple piano figure, it became a gold-selling single in its own right, selling 400,000 copies. Around the same time You’ve Come A Long Way Baby took off properly, staying near the top of the British charts for most of the rest of 1999, vastly exceeding even the most optimistic projections for it.

One more single was released for good measure, with the transcendental, sweeping sense of occasion of ‘Right Here, Right Now’ hitting no.2 in April 1999. In its context as You’ve Come A Long Way Baby’s album opener, it’s a low-key house classic that soars and glides in its intensity before its beat drops. The magic comes with its repeated chant, that makes it seem like a mass exhortation to bliss, propaganda rather than mere pop. The spoken word segue that links it to ‘The Rockafeller Skank’ is still enjoyably silly!

But You’ve Come A Long Way Baby doesn’t begin and end with its four smash singles. The rest of the album is populated with maddeningly infectious juxtapositions of genres. ‘Soul Surfing’ is a hedonistic party starter; ‘Love Island’ is a rubbery house banger; while ‘Kalifornia’ and ‘You’re Not From Brighton’ strut and peacock with a sense of purpose. The delightfully gratuitous obscenity of ‘Fucking In Heaven’ gave the album a frisson of transgression for us as 12 year old fans at school. Again, while this wasn’t strictly groundbreaking in originality terms (DJ Shadow had already done all this on the massively influential …..Endtroducing in 1996), that’s really not the point – it’s the structuring, and the forcefulness of its execution, that’s so revelatory here”.

There is a special reissue coming in October to mark twenty-five years of a classic. In 2018, Long Live Vinyl wrote about You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby when a BMG reissued it as part of its Art of the Album series. I wanted to share some extracts from the feature:

“take yo’ praise

While other Fatboy tracks ring out with the dislocated rhymes of B-boys, the single Praise You is a far more seductive affair. Starting out with the intimate tones of 70s soul singer Camille Yarbrough as she near enough sings the name of the album, the song is another example of the record’s wicked way with obscure sounds of yore. A bar-room piano gets paired with the vocals, as baggy beats help to create a sound described by Vibe Magazine as “Manchester shambledelia”. Arguably, it’s the British influence which made the Fatboy Slim sound unique, a fact that often gets lost amidst all the very American vocal samples used on the record. The sound of the UK can be heard all over …Baby, from the horn-led climax to Praise You, which sounds like a marching Lonely Hearts Club band parading its way down Brighton Pier, to the updated glam-rock stomp of Build It Up – Tear It Down, making its way even onto unclassifiable B-sides such as Sho Nuff, which is built entirely around the soft-rock prance of a British telly jingle, no less.

Perhaps because of its dual-audio heritage, or the song’s ‘big beat with a big heart’ appeal, Praise You ended up a massive hit on both sides of the Atlantic, helping the album to go platinum in the US.

“It’s one of those tunes I’ll always have an affection for,” Cook admitted in the DJ Mag interview. “It’s the fact that the lyrics are so timeless, and one lyric fits all.”

Music site Thump recently suggested that Praise You “marked the pinnacle of big beat’s American crossover, and the genre’s zenith before its swift decline.” But that would be forgetting the majesty of next single Right Here, Right Now, a tune which sounds as epic today as it did 20 years ago. Like Praise You, the album opener is an anomaly of sorts on the LP, riding as it does on a swell of melodramatic strings. Its closest counterpart is the instrumental Love Island, which swoons near the end of the album with easy-listening strings beamed in straight from the 1950s.

The magic of Right Here, Right Now lies in the chant of its title. Once again, Cook reduces the human voice to another cog in the mix, with one voice turned into an indecipherable breakbeat section, and the other sloganeering somewhere in that grey area between pop and propaganda. Things reach an epic crescendo, before ending with a real-life phone-in as a Fatboy fanboy begs a US radio station for some “Rockafeller Skank”. From reverence to more British irreverence, all in under seven minutes.

So Why Try Harder?

Reverence, though, should be paid to the album, no matter how tongue-in-cheek things get. Consider its influence over the years, inspiring the likes of The Chemical Brothers to add more whimsy to their beats, and Basement Jaxx more unusual and in-your-face samples (as on 2001 single Where’s Your Head At). Newbies such as Mylo soon debuted with the cheeky house subversion of Destroy Rock & Roll, whose hit title track sampled an American preacher denouncing the 80s pop scene. Norman Cook no doubt approved.

Sample culture really did get a major boost from You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby, with fans taking as much delight in tracking down samples as from hearing them in the first place. Acts such as The Avalanches hit fame through such fervour, with their classic debut in 2000 not being a million miles away from the Fatboy sound. More recent counterparts, meanwhile, include acts such as Major Lazer, Duck Sauce and Skrillex, who raised similarly boisterous flags high on the 2010s dancefloor”.

I shall come to some reviews now. The vast majority of the ones I have come across are glowing. I want to begin with Entertainment Weekly’s take on You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby. They reviewed the album when it came out in 1998.

“What exactly is a DJ in 1998? Someone who spins at clubs and weddings – or an electronica act that stitches together bits of vintage records to form a new collage, which may be danceable? To Norman Cook, the British club-scene veteran who now records as Fatboy Slim, both definitions blend into an animated whole. “The Rockafeller Skank” – the Fatboy single released this summer and now on his second album, “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” – is Cook’s masterstroke of big-beat DJ culture. Underneath a looped vocal snippet from a rap record by Lord Finesse, Cook concocts a constantly morphing undercurrent – from spy-movie guitar to Zeppy drums to an eardrum-piercing squeal. It’s a block-rocking beat that deliciously subverts pop formula, in which lyrics change while the music remains the same.

Little on “Baby” is as extraordinary as that single, but it’s not as if Cook doesn’t try. Even on routine tracks, Cook adds splashy samples of rock guitars, electro-funk synths, or reggae licks – anything he can to pump…you…up. “Praise You,” the album’s other outright gem, lifts a languid snippet of soul-gospel singer (and kids’-book author) Camille Yarborough’s “Take Yo Praise” and makes it a techno mantra – Des’ree for the ecstasy crowd. Cook also loves to work soul oldies into his computer-generated raves: The riotous “Soul Surfing” is like a visit to a chitlin-circuit roadhouse along the Information Superhighway.

Other than the way it deftly blends obscure records, there’s nothing subtle about Fatboy Slim. “Baby” is clever, hectic, relentless – and very of its time. It’s music desperate to be noticed above the din of TV, movies, the Net, and the zillions of other records out there. Pop culture, meet your needy spawn”.

Similarly, NME had their say in 1998. I remember when You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby was released. I was in high school, and we all knew it was a big moment for music. Singles like The Rockerfella Skank and Right Here, Right Now were huge. There was this genuine feeling that music had peaked. Like something life-changing was with us. Of course, that might be the hyperbole that comes with youth. There is no denying the fact You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby was a hugely important release:

“A few short years ago, Quentin 'Norman' Cook was staring poverty, divorce and imminent nervous breakdown in the face. Despite a string of inspired chart-pop identities, the former Housemartin was out of luck and out of fashion. The solution, audaciously enough, was to reinvent himself once more, this time as the Noel Gallagher of '90s dance music.

No, really, hear me out. Both Norm and Noel share a Midas-like gift for populist sing-along anthems which tap directly into the national psyche. Both are bright sparks who have built their kingdoms on shamelessy dumb, angst-free hedonism. Take the analogy one step further and this second Fatboy album is surely the '(What's The Story) Morning Glory?' of big beat, right? Well, arguably, yes. After all, this is the huge, throbbing, timely pinnacle of a style which Cook himself pioneered and which can probably progress no further without imploding into self-parody.

It also contains at least two definitive late-'90s pop milestones - 'The Rockafeller Skank' and imminent 'Gangster Trippin' - plus a smattering of equally brazen candidates for immortality. Of course, the true test is what Cook delivers in addition to these platinum-plated hits. Even the Fatboy himself admits to being a singles specialist who generally loses it over the long haul. But here, for maybe the first time, he demonstrates commendable stamina. The best tracks don't aim to emulate the crowd-pleasers but veer off on their own tangents, like the belting '60s-meets-'90s rare groove of 'Soul Surfing' or the beatific 'Praise You', a melding of dreamy gospel and piano-powered beats with a warm 'Screamadelica' vibe. Magnificent.

Sure, there are throwaway one-liners like 'Fucking In Heaven' (loads of juvenile swearing set to a funky beat - genius!) plus functional club tracks like 'Build It Up, Tear It Down' (anyone remember SAW's 'Roadblock'?) but most are redeemed by Cook's saucy cheek and undeniable affection for his vintage source material. Crucially, there is an unforced and easy-going love of soul music evident here which contrasts starkly with the po-faced, anally 'authentic' checklist of cool references underpinning more 'serious' dance projects - the UNKLE album, say.

Ironically, the Fatboy even employs a DJ Shadow sample at one point, but he's equally likely to namecheck Pinky & Perky. This is not an album for old-skool trainerspotters. So has Norman Cook really made the '...Morning Glory' of big beat? He almost certainly doesn't care either way, which is entirely fitting, but you can't help suspecting he's too sussed to record a 'Be Here Now' for breakbeat kids. And even if the tides of fashion turn against his cheap-and-cheerful party style next week, you can be sure the Fatboy has the limitless joie de vivre and barefaced cheek to reinvent himself yet again, somewhere down the line. He's come a long way already, and this mighty album is his career peak to date. Check it out. Now.

8/10”.

I am going to wrap up with a 2010 review from the BBC. Not just a smash in its time, the magnificent You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby has inspired so many other artists and very much kept it alive. Songs from the album are played all across radio. It is a work of brilliance that will never lose any of its relevance and brilliance:

“Twelve years on from the release of this second album, some things have inevitably changed. A lifetime away from hard-partying origins, Norman Cook’s raised two kids, celebrated a celebrity marriage, reconciled a celebrity marriage, hit the bottle, beat the bottle and, when he had the time, released heady collections of genre-defining anthems. At times, Cook’s life has played out replete with typical DJ clichés. But his place in the dance music annals as Fatboy Slim has long been confirmed.

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby set the quintessential tone for Fatboy’s future; an album rich with the booming, easy-on-the-ear potential that would soundtrack dancefloors for over a decade. Packing in rave reminiscences, loops, breaks and an endless array of choice samples, the formula wasn’t a complicated one, but it was one used to superlative effect.

Take the rabid commercial success of The Rockafeller Skank, the uplifting gospel-tinged Praise You and the explosive Gangster Trippin’ (each ably supported by memorable videos), and the Fatboy blueprint is clear. And the holy trinity can be seen as the catalyst for a career of stellar success. By hook (and it was often an incessantly catchy one) or design, this was also an album that lit the torch paper for Cook’s biggest criticism: that he was merely a musical magpie, pilfering the shiniest, choice cuts to make his own creations glisten.

Attempts to relegate Cook to a petty music thief was always a disrespectful low blow, and one that looked to undermine, instead of celebrate, a penchant for recycling and absorbing a glut of disparate styles under the inimitable (at the time) Fatboy banner. But with the benefit of retrospect, it’s clear You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby wasn’t an album in the collective sense, more of a sparkling showcase; a flattering production line of instant, accessible songs that delivered almost every time.

It’s easy to overlook the hedonistic energy of Love Island; the expletive-ridden simplicity of F***ing in Heaven – which delighted a generation of potty-mouthed teenagers – and the bristling, adrenalin drip of Right Here, Right Now, simply because there was always the potential and intent for each track to usurp what preceded.

Undeniably this is an album that’s aged, but it reflects the buoyant excitement of pre-millennial times. Whether it’s held up as a contemporary guilty pleasure or an increasingly fond classic, or whatever the context, You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby has never failed to immediately delight”.

On 19th October, we will celebrate twenty-five years of a classic. I am as fond of You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby now than I was when it came out and I was fifteen. Even though Fatboy Slim did not reach the same heights on subsequent albums, that is not to take anything away from the importance and legacy of his remarkable second album. Rather than cast our minds back and talk about You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby as a thing of the past or relevant to its time, we need to realise how important it is to this day. We need to embrace and salute this album…

RIGHT here, right now.

FEATURE: Second Spin: PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?

_________

THERE are a couple of reasons…

 IN THIS PHOTO: PJ Harvey in 1998

why I am spotlighting PJ Harvey’s fourth studio album, Is This Desire? I think it may be her most underrated album. Whilst it did receive some acclaim upon its release, it is an album that still divides some. Not as celebrated as, say, Dry, or Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, Is This Desire? arrived three years after the superb To Bring You My Love. That album is often ranked alongside some of the best of all time. Is This Desire? is a different beast compared to To Bring You My Love. It was recorded during a particularly difficult time in Harvey’s life. If some critics place the album low on their ranking of PJ’s Harvey’s discography, she herself has said in interviews how this is her favourite. This is the one she is proudest of. Harvey put her all and everything into each song. It really shows! Released on 28th September, 1998, it is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary soon. You can grab the album on vinyl and give it a new spin. If you have never heard the album, then I think it is a good investment. There is also an album of demos from Is This Desire? that is a steal at this price. That gives more context and contours to the album and how the songs developed. No PJ Harvey album is overlooked or receives average reviews. I feel Is This Desire? warranted more huge reviews and bigger acclaim than some afforded it in 1998. Maybe retrospective reviews have been fairer – as Is This Desire? is now considered a classic. I will get to a couple of the positive reviews for Is This Desire? soon.

I would suggest people read recent reviews with PJ Harvey, as she is someone still producing magnificent music. Her tenth studio, album, I Inside the Old Year Dying, was released this year to enormous praise and love. A hypnotic and angry album with moments of beauty and tenderness, I think that some were shocked by a bit of a change of pace and lyrical agenda on Is This Desire? compared to 1995’s To Bring You My Love. Twenty-five years after its release, Is This Desire? sounds incredible and moving. It is one of my favourite PJ Harvey albums. In 2021, Beats Per Minute examined the new reissue of Is This Desire? and the Demos edition. I think that some critics didn’t appreciate the full depth and brilliance of PJ Harvey’s masterpiece. It is an album that warrants fresh ears and examination in 2023:

“In early 1997, Polly Jean Harvey was gearing up to record the songs that would form the follow-up to her 1995 LP To Bring You My Love. Within a few weeks, she had given up on them. “I wasn’t in the right place,” she later told Q Magazine. “It was a low time for me so I put the brake on. I said, ‘I don’t want to do these songs while I am like this.’ When I came back to the songs in 1998, they changed quite a lot. An important part of the creative process is knowing when it is the right time. The songs weren’t ready and nor was I.”

More than two decades on, the album that became Is This Desire? is the latest entry in Harvey’s 2020-21 reissues campaign, with an accompanying album of demos to boot. Out of a period of darkness came one of the key records of Harvey’s career, a beautiful, strange, queasy work of art. Where Dry and Rid of Me made virtue of Harvey’s brutal guitar playing and abrasive style, To Bring You My Love began to complement her punkish ferocity with slow-burning gothic blues and unsettling, atmospheric production. 

IN THIS PHOTO: PJ Harvey performing on stage at Lowlands, Biddinghuizen, Netherlands, on 28th August, 1998/PHOTO CREDIT: Niels Van Iperen/Getty Images

Is This Desire? takes it even further, replete with delicate production details, the songs rely as much on mood and texture (sometimes more so) than traditional structures. Of course the guitar is central, but so too are industrial drum machines, subtle electronics, mournful piano, and disquieting sub-bass. The effect is one to keep the listener off-balance; for every song of velvety, elegant beauty (“Catherine”) there’s another of claustrophobic desolation (“Joy”), and for an occasional verse/chorus jewel (“Angelene”) there’s an experimental mood piece (“My Beautiful Leah”). 

Yet somehow they all work together. I have always thought of Is This Desire? as a collection of short stories with different but interlinked characters – there’s Angelene, “prettiest mess you’ve ever seen”; Catherine de Barra, who leaves the narrator’s heart “stinking”; St. Catherine who “liked high places, high up on the hill… a place for making noises like whales”; the cloistered Joy, who at “30 years old, never danced a step”; the troubled and absent Leah, whose last words were “if I don’t find it this time, then I’m better off dead.”

Harvey told The Sunday Observer that she “wanted to write for [her]self, about [her]self. Like someone looking in on me.” Perhaps these characters, as much bearing the influences of the literature she was absorbing (including the stories of Flannery O’Connor), are stand-ins for her own state at the time, metaphorical other selves.

Harvey has always made plain that a lot of her work is fiction – no she didn’t drown her daughter, for instance – but part of the dark beauty of Is This Desire? is how personal it sounds. She later said: “The years between ’95 and ’97/’98 was probably the hardest time of my life. That album came out of that period, so it was a very difficult album to make, quite a painful album to make, and still not one I can listen to very easily at all.”

To add to its personal impression, it’s also filtered through the atmosphere of her home county of Dorset and its landscape and culture, from the photos displayed in the artwork to the folklore of St Catherine’s Chapel as explored in “The Wind”. Dorset looms large, or rather, looms low”.

In 2018, Annie Zaleski, writing for Stereogum, provided a fascinating take on Is This Desire? for its twentieth anniversary. Someone who clearly understands and connects with PJ Harvey’s music, it is interesting how it is perceived today (or 2018) compared to twenty/twenty-five years previous:

“Everything about Polly Jean Harvey was a revelation when she emerged in the early ’90s. Her first two albums with the trio PJ Harvey, 1992’s Dry and 1993’s Rid Of Me, were both as raw and tender as a newly scraped knee, all electric guitar fury and abrasive vocals. In 1995, Harvey stepped out on her own with the solo effort To Bring You My Love, an austere marvel steeped in blues and folk that smoldered and seethed as it reached the Top 40 on the US album charts and spawned a #2 modern rock hit, “Down By The Water.” This trilogy established Harvey as a formidable voice on both gender stereotypes and sexual expression, a powerhouse unafraid of aggressively confronting (and then upending) conventions.

As the decade progressed, this heightened profile came paired with increasingly loud stage-whispers that she had an eating disorder, along with lingering misconceptions about her mercurial moods. “I’m a mad bitch woman from hell. I can’t get enough sex or blood!” Harvey said, somewhat facetiously, when asked in a 1994 Q interview if she knew how the public considered her. She certainly wasn’t the only woman in the ’90s to be flattened into a caricature (just ask her Q interview mates, Tori Amos and Björk, who were also often side-eyed with unflattering assumptions) but in Harvey’s case, the pigeonholing felt particularly pernicious.

Perhaps because she didn’t shy away from anger or sexuality — and was a young woman expressing anger, at that — her persona was scrutinized more closely. “On the first couple of albums, I was finding a voice for the first time to say an awful lot of stuff that was stored up inside me,” Harvey told The Times in 1999. “I was very young and confused, so yes, those early albums are very angry. I was exploring that and finding a way to express it, and thought there is joy and a vibrant energy there, too. But you get categorized and it becomes rigid, and it doesn’t allow you space to develop and grow.”

Released on September 28, 1998, Is This Desire? didn’t quite reach the chart peaks of To Bring You My Love in most countries. However, commercial success was somewhat beside the point: The album obliterated expectations and found Harvey wresting control of her own narrative. Is This Desire? represents the culmination of her carving out time for self-care, emotional growth, and intense reflection — and channeling this into the lyrics. “I wanted to write for myself, about myself. Like someone looking in on me,” she explained to The Observer in 1999.

In some cases, this took the form of metaphorical concern. The lyrics of “The Wind,” a song inspired by the hillside St. Catherine’s Chapel in Harvey’s hometown of Dorset, England, envision the titular saint ensconced in the place of worship, where she “sits and moans.” However, the last verse features a child wishing Catherine could have a husband — and although the real saint was said to be devoted to Christianity rather than earthly desire, it’s a sweet, empathetic gesture underscoring that the melancholic woman isn’t alone.

But the title track — on which a man asks a woman, “Is this desire, enough, enough/ To lift us higher? To lift above?” — crystallizes the album’s central lines of questioning. Possessing desire is one thing, but what are the complications of expressing this desire? And is desire alone enough of a sustaining force — or can it also be a tool of destruction? These are thorny questions with no easy answers. “The Garden,” for example, envisions the tale of Adam and Eve unfolding between two men instead, but even a romantic encounter doesn’t change how lost the protagonist feels. In this case, having a taste of forbidden desire isn’t enough. Yet “The River” describes a relationship scorched by conflicting, greedy wants; it’s a case of too much desire having a negative effect.

Is This Desire? is particularly moving when it articulates how complicated desire affects women. The protagonist of “A Perfect Day Elise” witnesses the suicide of a beloved; “Catherine” is from the point of view of someone spurned by (and deeply jealous of) the titular character; “Joy” is consumed by “her own innocence” and feels so hopeless she’d rather go blind than remain in her current state.

It’s poignant (and pointed) that so many of the women on Is This Desire? have names: These aren’t abstract embodiments of femininity or womanhood, but relatable characters who are in various states of emotional disrepair, unmoored by forces beyond their control. Anyone listening to Is This Desire? could be a Joy or a Dawn or Elise; in fact, these named women feel like metaphorical selves representing Harvey’s own traumatic journeys. Accordingly, her vocal performances channel these different personas. “Catherine” has a regal, velvet-trimmed tone; “The Wind” alternates between conspiratorial whispers and a soaring falsetto; and the bruising “A Perfect Day Elise” contains notes of panic.

The period that produced Is This Desire? also gave Harvey valuable insights into her own psyche. As she told The Observer in 1999, hearing the playback of the song “My Beautiful Leah” — starring a sadness-wrecked woman who feels she’d be better off dead than remain alone — in particular, shook her. “I listened back to that song and I thought ‘No! This is enough! No more of this! I don’t want to be like this.’ Because it was all so black and white, and life just isn’t black and white. I knew I needed to get help. I wanted to get help.”

She went into therapy and, at some point, also moved into the basement flat of a house owned by her bandmate and collaborator John Parish, and video and art director Maria Mochnacz. The gesture represented more than just goodwill: “They basically saved me,” Harvey admitted to The Observer. “I needed to be rescued, and I was.” She recalled writing songs for Is This Desire? in this subterranean space, which was dark and cloistered, and focused on the demos her flatmates liked the most.

Unsurprisingly, Is This Desire? also sounds very different from Harvey’s prior work. Although there’s no shortage of abrasive moments (e.g., distorted vocals on “No Girl So Sweet”), Harvey de-emphasizes guitars in favor of stormy electronic programming with roiling rhythms and skeletal keyboards. Her collaborators aid and abet these gothic-dark soundscapes: The sparse “Angelene,” which boasts brooding piano and funereal organ, was arranged by long-time Nick Cave associate Mick Harvey. Marius de Vries, fresh off his work on U2’s Pop and the Romeo + Juliet movie score, also contributed additional programming, notably on the witchy shuffle “The Wind,” which boasts reedy percussion and haunted house-creepy electronic effects”.

I have one more feature to bring in before getting to a review. Is This Desire? features a range of characters. These intriguing personas almost allow Harvey this license to break free from constraints and any emotional barriers. That might suggest an album that is not personal. Quite the opposite! Udiscovermusic. wrote about Is This Desire? last year:

Reading between the lines

“I was doing a lot of emotional work [when she began studio sessions in 1997],” she shared on an interview disc that accompanied Desire. Her self-reflection reached the point where she had to abandon the sessions for a while: “I just wanted to stop, and start looking at my life as Polly, rather than my life as a songwriter.” By the time recording resumed in spring 1998, she’d devised a way to convey “life as Polly” without the danger of completely exposing herself.

Little of Is This Desire? is written in the first person; instead, Harvey used short stories by favorite authors for source material, finding characters and situations that mirrored her own. For instance, Joy Hopewell, the heroine of Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People, was reimagined as the betrayed-by-her-man protagonist of the track “Joy,” and the lyric vibrates with anger: “Joy was her name, a life unwed/Thirty years old, never danced a step.” And God, is that mirrored by the music. Harvey’s bellowing anguish is matched in intensity by a bed of grinding electronic noise, while two tracks later on “No Girl So Sweet,” another wronged O’Connor character, from the story The Life You Save May Be Your Own, sets off a firestorm of guitar-synth distortion.

Adopting electronic soundscapes

Along with the shockingly bleak “My Beautiful Leah,” which melds electro-brutalism and emotional despair, these are the harshest examples of the electronic textures that define the LP as a whole. Harvey had opened herself to the possibilities offered by machine-made sounds after singing on the Tricky track “Broken Homes” (from the trip-hop pioneer’s 1998 album, Angels With Dirty Faces).

“Broken Homes” is pure, midnight-blue trip-hop, and a touch of that genre made its way onto Is This Desire?, most notably on the dreamy, Portishead-inspired “Electric Light.” Also dreamy in their own way are “The Wind” and “Catherine,” written as a pair to honor the martyred St. Catherine of Alexandria, the patron saint of unmarried women. A 14th century chapel in her name still stands on a hill in Dorset, near Harvey’s birthplace, and the whispering loneliness of “The Wind” precisely captures the chapel’s isolation, and the torment of Catherine’s thoughts as she awaits execution by the emperor Maxentius (“She dreamt of children’s voices/And torture on the wheel”). “Catherine,” meanwhile, is set to a percussive pulse that sounds like a languidly beating heart.

The two tracks are deeply shivery, but darkest of all is “My Beautiful Leah.” It’s so grim that when Harvey listened back to it she thought, “This is enough! No more of this! I don’t want to be like this. I knew I needed to get help,” she told The Guardian the following year.

A turning point

“Leah” proved a turning point. She began therapy while continuing to work on the record, and her growing understanding of herself crept onto Is This Desire?. She composed on a keyboard rather than her usual guitar, which affected her process: hunched over a small portable keyboard, she found herself writing “more thoughtfully.”

If her singing sounds different – purer, perhaps – it’s because, instead of making demos of every song at home, then re-recording the vocals in the studio, she transferred all the four-track demos onto a multi-track recorder and used the original vocals on the final versions. The demos for all 12 tracks have just been issued for the first time as a standalone LP, Is This Desire? – Demos.

Harvey has said she finds Desire both difficult to listen to and a source of great pride. Referring to its cast of identity-masking characters, she told the NME, “Whatever I’ve written all comes from inside me and my experience. Whether I write about that in another person’s name or my own, there’s a lot of me in there. Because I finally feel comfortable saying ‘I am Polly.’” More than 20 years later, it stands as the record that set Polly free from emotional bondage”.

I am going to end by starting midway through an incredible review from 2014. I think there was a lack of understanding from critics in 1998. Maybe feeling PJ Harvey had to sound a certain way or was being too over-emotional and weird. Rather than allow a female artist license to create what she wants, there was a sense that Harvey was unusual and angry. I would like to see some modern reviews reverse that assessment and actually shine a very positive light on Is This Desire?:

“The question mark at the end of the album’s title becomes more important with the next two songs, both of which deal with twisted desire. “My Beautiful Leah” is the song that apparently pushed PJ over the edge for a while, a tale of a woman engaged in the perpetual search to find either meaning in her life, someone authentic who genuinely needs her, or both. PJ plays the role of hapless male lover in search of Leah, a woman with “her lovely face twisted” who is likely suffering from a form of bipolar disorder. The narrator emphasizes her neediness (“She was always so needing”), indicating that Leah is a psychological black hole and that he is likely a co-dependent participant. Some people consider this drum-kit-and-dark-synth track the highlight of the album, and while I’m not sure about that, I think the sickness of the narrator is effectively portrayed. Even more disturbing to me is the album’s single, “A Perfect Day, Elise,” a song about an obsessive male who believes he owns Elise after one roll in the hay and kills her to prevent anyone else from ruining his perfect day. Part of me wishes that the swaying rock rhythm here had been used for a song about pure desire, but PJ’s choice does make the piece much more impactful.

The middle section of this album definitely qualifies as a heart of darkness, and the song “Catherine” deals with the ugliness of obsessive, unrequited desire. PJ identifies the object of desire as one Catherine De Barra, and I’ve read a few different theories of this person’s identity. The author of the book Disruptive Divas suggests that it might be one of two Catherines who lived the island of Barra in the lower Outer Hebrides, but even she concedes it’s a mystery. It’s not a bad theory, as the essence of Catherine is her unattainability, and the image of a distant island complements the image. The bass on this song has the feel of a feverish heart, the muffled soundtrack mirrors the inner dialogue, and PJ’s lyrics graphically depict the corroding bitterness that consumes the narrator:

Catherine De Barra, you’ve murdered my thinkin’

I gave you my heart, you left the thing stinkin’

I’d shake from your spell if it weren’t for my drinkin’

The wind bites more bitter with each light of mornin’

I envy the road, the ground you tread under

I envy the wind, your hair ridin’ over

I envy the pillow your head rests and slumbers

I envy to murderous, envy your lover

‘Til the light shines on me

I damn to hell, every second you breathe

The meaning of “Electric Light” is more obscure; it all depends on how you interpret the word “siren.” Is it the image of a beautiful woman surrounded by neon lights or is it the sound of the police siren responding to a reported rape? The first interpretation makes the narrator a lonely soul in a two-bit room in the heart of the city yearning for the woman’s image to come to life; the latter implies he’s a murderous rapist admiring his work. Either interpretation raises questions of the meaning and realization of desire: the kind that languishes in neglect and the kind that kills. The bass-dominated arrangement could support either—it’s an eerie, mysterious and very compelling piece.

Even more compelling is “The Garden,” a poem set over a slow funk beat enhanced by well-timed appearances of organ, piano and strings. The build in the arrangement is exceptional—the shift to single piano notes in the later verses introduces a sense of foreboding, and the long lyrical pause before the last recitation of “And there was trouble” turns the line into something close to hair-raising. The lyrics appear to describe two men meeting in the garden for a moment of man-to-man intimacy:

And he was walking in the garden

And he was walking in the night

And he was singing a sad love song

And he was praying for his life

And the stars came out around him

He was thinking of his sins

And he’s looking at his songbird

And he’s looking at his wings

There, inside the garden

Came another with his lips

Said, “Won’t you come and be my lover?

Let me give you a little kiss”

And he came, knelt down before him

And fell upon his knees

“I will give you gold and mountains

If you stay a while with me”

And there was trouble

Taking place

At this point, we’re not sure if the trouble is due to the illicit love, the strangeness felt by two newbies to the gay scene or what. In the last sequence, PJ throws a wrench into that interpretation:

They kissed and the sun rose

And he walked a little further

And he found he was alone

And the wind it gathered ’round him

Now we’re looking at the possibility that the man was meeting with his Jungian shadow, the part of the self that is repressed. What I realized that both interpretations could be simultaneously true, making this a marvelously constructed tale of repressed desire. When PJ is on her game, her lyrics are akin to the experience of walking past the mirrors of the fun house—there are multiple interpretations possible, depending on your perspective. People who detest ambiguity will feel uncomfortable with such a poet, but I find PJ’s work endlessly fascinating.

“Joy” combines more than a touch of Bjork with a Patti Smith vocal, a combination that is distinctly difficult to listen to. I think that’s the point: it’s hard for people to think about or even look at people with disabilities. PJ gives a credible performance in the role of a woman without hope or the ability to change her circumstances. Here she’s dealing with the impossibility of manifesting desire, the bitter truth of permanent virginity expressed in the phrase “Innocence so suffocating.” This terribly ugly (understandably ugly) song is followed by the melancholy beauty of “The River,” where PJ works with the imagery of baptism and the belief that one can “throw your pain in the river.” This is a fascinating song on many levels, for a superficial read could lead you to believe that PJ is talking about the empty promise of Christian baptism, but she could also be talking about Lethe, the river of forgetfulness and the virtue of a life with no regrets. The image of washing is repeated here, indicating that the true theme of the song is probably closer to the guilt some people feel about desire itself. Again, whatever your interpretation, “The River” is a beautiful song and PJ’s natural voice, with its tone of weariness and doubt, is perfect for it.

“No Girl So Sweet” is the doppelgänger of “The River,” using the same chord combination but shifting to heavy electronics. This is the one song on the album that turns me off, probably due to its intensely Christian imagery. The album ends with the title track, also steeped in biblical references. The question posed here is whether or not desire can be transcendent, a question to which I would naturally respond, “Fuck yes!” I will admit that it is a question that has been debated for centuries, with Gautama coming down on the side of extinguishing desire and Blake on the side of letting it rip (“sooner murder an infant in his cradle than nurse an unacted desire”). I’m on Blake’s side; PJ is able to hold both truths simultaneously, and that’s why she’s the poet and I’m the admirer.

It’s regrettably understandable that the male-dominated field of music criticism didn’t get this album. The criticism that the album is “too sad” is such an obtuse perspective that it takes my breath away, but I’ve learned to accept male obliviousness as a fact of life. This is not to imply that all men have their heads up their asses, but our societies have a long way to go before they reach the tipping point where women are understood and accepted for who they are”.

A top twenty album in the U.K., I know there will be a lot of new spotlight and praise for PJ Harevy’s incredible Is This Desire? It is an album I remember back in 1998. Maybe not as big a fan of hers then as I am now, in years since, I listen to this album and feel it is as revelatory and extraordinary as anything she has ever produced! An album impossible to truly understand after one listen, this superb work is one that will continue to reveal layers and wonders…

FOR many years to come.

FEATURE: The Iconic '90s: Spotlighting National Album Day 2023

FEATURE:

 

 

The Iconic '90s

Spotlighting National Album Day 2023

_________

AN exciting time of year…

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

National Album Day takes place on 14th October. I guess, in line with a lot of nostalgia round the '90s and more of the decade’s sounds making their way into new music – either as samples or new artists inspired by that period. I think the past couple of years has been noted because of the rise of physical music sales. This is not people buying singles or E.P.s. Largely, these are music lovers getting albums – either on vinyl or C.D. It is great that we get to celebrate the album as a format. The 1990s is, arguably, the most diverse, important and greatest decade for music ever. Many might say the '70s and '80s are better. Those that say there were more revolutions and evolutions in the 1960s. It is a subjective measure, though there is truth in the fact the 1990s gave us some iconic, classic albums. National Album Day will celebrate this. I am going to get to a playlist where I have selected a track from each of the iconic '90s albums that are being re-issues as limited editions for 14th October. Here is some more news:

“National Album Day today announces the exclusive list of limited edition 90s albums that are being released for the annual event celebrating the art of the album on Saturday 14th October. The special titles will be available to purchase in retailers across the UK on NAD itself, and can also be pre-ordered from 9am on Wednesday 13th September.

Held on Saturday 14th October, National Album Day will celebrate the 90s and the milestone of 75 years of the album format. National Album Day is presented in association with official audio partner Bowers & Wilkins and official broadcast partner BBC Sounds. Last week, music icons Gabrielle, Declan McKenna, Tricky and Nuno Bettencourt were announced as this year’s NAD artist ambassadors.

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One of the UK’s most successful and beloved artists, National Album Day ambassador Gabrielle has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence in recent years. To mark the start of her huge ‘30 Years of Dreaming’ headline tour, Gabrielle’s No.1 third solo album Rise is being reissued on vinyl. A huge commercial success, the album spent three weeks at No.1 on the UK Albums Chart and  achieved 4× Platinum status, with the iconic title track also topping the UK Singles Chart.

You've Come a Long Way, Baby proved to be Fatboy Slim’s global breakthrough album on its release in October 1998, peaking at No.1 on the UK Albums Chart and earning him a Brit Award. To mark its 25th anniversary, the album has been remastered at half speed in the best available audio quality possible for National Album Day.

It’s been 30 years since the release of blur’s second studio album Modern Life Is Rubbish, regarded as one of the defining releases of the era which saw the band continue to revolutionise the sound of English popular music. This National Album Day, fans can get their hands on a special limited edition of the record on 2LP transparent orange vinyl.

R.E.M.’s eighth studio album Automatic for the People received widespread critical acclaim upon release in 1992, when it reached No. 1 in the UK and went on to top the UK Albums Chart a further three times the following year. The record produced some of the band’s best-known songs including ‘Everybody Hurts,’ ‘Man on the Moon,’ and ‘Nightswimming’. A limited edition 180-gram yellow LP reissue of the album will be released exclusively on National Album Day.

Originally released in 1997, Time Out of Mind is hailed as one of Bob Dylan's best albums, going on to win three Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year in 1998. The record will be re-released on limited edition 2LP clear gold vinyl.

Garbage’s second studio album Version 2.0 was heralded as a bold progression from their self-titled debut album upon its release in 1998, and went on to sell over four million copies worldwide, matching the success of its predecessor. This 2LP Gatefold Vinyl comes as an exclusive for National Album Day, and is the first time the record has been pressed on transparent blue coloured vinyl.

Dannii Minogue’s hit third studio album Girl, which featured the UK Dance Chart topping singles ‘All I Wanna Do’, ‘Everything I Wanted’ and ‘Disremembrance’, has been remastered and reissued for National Album Day, and will be available on 2LP and as an expanded CD box set, featuring a wealth of exclusive material.

Pop group S Club are releasing a picture disc edition of their platinum selling debut album ‘S Club’ on vinyl for the very first time, featuring the smash hit singles ‘Bring It All Back’, ‘S Club Party’ & ‘Two In A Million / You’re My Number One’.

Dinosaur Jr. celebrate the 30th anniversary of the indie rock classic Where You Been with an exclusive limited edition reissue on double splatter vinyl. It received widespread critical acclaim on release and was the band’s first UK Top 10 album.

Grace is the only studio album by American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, originally released on August 23, 1994. Frequently cited by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time, it features Buckley’s definitive cover of Hallelujah. The album will be reissued on lilac wine coloured vinyl.

Legendary hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan released their iconic debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) on November 9, 1993. Its gritty, distinctive sound created a blueprint for hardcore hip-hop during the 1990s and is regarded as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. The record is being pressed on limited edition gold marbled vinyl for its 30th anniversary,

Full list of National Album Day titles below:

808 state - ex:el (2LP)

Ace Of Base - Happy Nation (Picture Disc Vinyl)

Babybird - Ugly Beautiful (2LP)

Belinda Carlisle - Live Your Life Be Free (Picture Disc Vinyl)

Blur - Modern Life Is Rubbish (2LP Transparent Orange Vinyl)

Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind (2LP Clear Gold Vinyl)

Catatonia - International Velvet (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Dannii - Girl (2XLP / 4CD Box Set)

Dinosaur Jr. - Where You Been (Limited Edition Double Splatter Vinyl)

Duster - Stratosphere (25th Anniversary Edition) (1LP Clear & Black Splatter Vinyl)

Eternal - Always and Forever (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way Baby (2LP Half-Speed Remaster)

Gabrielle - Rise (1LP)

Garbage - Version 2.0 (2LP Blue Colour Vinyl)

Ginuwine - The Bachelor (2LP Red Vinyl)

Hole - Live Through This (1LP)

Idlewild - Captain (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

James - Laid (2LP)

James - Gold Mother (2LP)

Jeff Buckley - Grace (1LP Lilac Wine Vinyl)

Leftfield - Leftism (2LP White & Black Marbled Vinyl)

Lighthouse Family - Ocean Drive

Marc Almond - Tenement Symphony (2LP / Deluxe 6CD/DVD)

Melanie C - Northern Star (1LP)

Nas - It Was Written (2LP Gold & Black Vinyl)

Neneh Cherry - Man (1LP)

Paul Weller - Wild Wood (1LP)

REM - Automatic For The People (1LP Yellow Vinyl)

Robert Miles - Dreamland (2LP)

S Club - S Club (1LP)

Shola Ama - Much Love (2LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Simply Red - Blue (1LP Blue Vinyl)

Siouxsie - The Rapture (2LP)

Songs: Ohia - Songs: Ohia (Colour Vinyl)

Songs: Ohia - Axxess & Ace (Colour Vinyl)

Stereophonics - Performance & Cocktails (1LP)

Stone Temple Pilots - Purple (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Stone Temple Pilots - Core (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque (1LP Transparent Yellow Vinyl)

The Corrs - Forgiven, Not Forgotten (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

The Cranberries - Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? (1LP)

Tricky - Maxinquaye (3LP, 1LP & 2CD) *Released Friday 13th October*

Various Artists - The Virgin Suicides (Music From The Motion Picture) (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Various Artists - HELP (12”)

Various/V4 Visions - V4 Visions: Of Love & Androids (2LP Clear Smoke Vinyl)

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers) (1LP Gold Marbled Vinyl)

Now in its sixth edition, National Album Day sees the music community come together each year to celebrate and promote the art of the album. This year’s 90s theme will look to shine a light on a profoundly rich decade for music and album making that skipped between Britpop, Dance and Hip Hop; gave us national treasures Take That and global phenomenon the Spice Girls; and saw diverse genres ranging from dance, house and techno to R&B, rap and reggae and to grunge and industrial rock, among many others, rise to reach their full cultural expression –  in the UK and globally.

National Album Day is again presented in association with official audio partner Bowers & Wilkins and official broadcast partner BBC Sounds, and will pay tribute to artists who tell their stories behind these significant and influential bodies of work. Artist ambassadors tied into the theme – both those that came to the fore during the 1990s and current new and emerging talent that are inspired by its music; specially reissued albums and new releases; and promotional events and other activities will be announced in due course alongside further updates.

Since its launch in 2018, NAD has been supported by a broad range of artist ambassadors, including Kylie Minogue, Joy Crookes, Sharleen Spiteri, Lewis Capaldi, Mark Ronson, La Roux, Elbow, Paloma Faith, Blossoms, Alice Cooper, Novelist, Tom Odell, Mahalia, Toyah Willcox and Jazzie B. Last year Franz Ferdinand, India Arkin, KSI, The Mysterines, Sam Ryder, and The Staves were the latest talents to add their voices as passionate advocates of the long player.

Typically benefitting from around a week-long build up, NAD has hosted a variety of activities such as listening events with album platforms including Classic Album Sundays, Pitchblack Playback, The Record Club, Tape Notes and Tim’s Listening Party; live performances; in-store artist appearances and record store promotions, street art murals; and album sleeve artwork exhibitions.

Renowned audio brand, Bowers & Wilkins, continues its support for National Album Day as official audio partner. Built on a passion for music, Bowers & Wilkins has been on an unrelenting pursuit of the highest quality listening experiences for music fans for over 60 years, always delivering sound that remains true to how the artist intended their album to be heard”.

I am grabbing from the official website. It is important to highlight the Ambassadors for this year’s National Album Day. We will all embrace and look forward to National Album Day. Having some high-profile and respected artists backing the day and showing their support means that the news and excellence of this yearly celebration spreads further and wider:

“National Album Day today announces music icons Gabrielle, Declan McKenna, Tricky and Nuno Bettencourt as this year’s artist ambassadors. National Album Day, held on Saturday 14th October, will celebrate the 90s this year and 75 years of the album format. National Album Day is presented in association with official audio partner Bowers & Wilkins and official broadcast partner BBC Sounds.

From the early 90s, Gabrielle has been one of the UK’s most successful and beloved artists. With two unforgettable #1 smashes (‘Dreams’ and ‘Rise’), a back catalogue full of Top 10 hits, two albums which reached 4 x Platinum status, two BRIT Awards, two MOBOs and an Ivor Novello, everything she touched seemed to turn to gold. Gabrielle has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence in recent years, one that proves that timeless, empowering songwriting and a distinctive voice that is the very definition of soul will never go out of fashion. This autumn will see Gabrielle embark upon the ‘30 Years of Dreaming’ headline tour which has been extended to a phenomenal 33 dates following overwhelming public demand.

Gabrielle says: “I am thrilled to be an ambassador for National Album Day. I released my album Rise in the 90s and it is the one I am most proud of. I’ve recently started collecting albums on vinyl myself and really enjoy that they encourage you to listen to a body of work in its entirety.”

 Known for being the lead guitarist in Boston rock band, Extreme, Nuno Bettencourt has been making his mark on the music industry since 1985. Extreme released six studio albums, including the acclaimed ‘Pornograffitti’ in 1990, which featured the global smash, ‘More Than Words’. In 1997 Nuno shared his debut solo album ‘Schizophonic’, the band’s most recent album ‘Six’ was released in June of this year. Alongside Extreme, he has also played for some of the  world’s biggest music stars, including Rihanna.

Nuno says: “I never wanted to put any music out for the sake of putting music out. When you listen to an Extreme album, you’re getting something that we’re really proud of. Albums are a labour of love. They are a snapshot of a time in the artist’s life. A story needing to be told. When I think of my favourite artists, I think of the records that I wore out. The experience of getting lost in the music and taking a journey with the band. I’m excited to be an Official Ambassador for National Album Day because that is what rock is about. The body of work. The connection with the listener. Experimenting and taking chances. Expressing yourself and connecting with the listener.  So put on your favourite record, or put on something new and take that journey with the artist. The way it was meant to be.”

After winning the Glastonbury Festival's Emerging Talent Competition in 2015, Declan McKenna has made an unforgettable impression on the music industry with his creatively ambitious songwriting. Following his debut single ‘Brazil’, Declan has released two albums, including the best seller ‘Zeros’. Since then, the singer-songwriter has been out on the road across the US touring, and is ready for a late summer return to the UK for Reading & Leeds Festival.

 Declan says: “Albums are still the best way for fans to connect with the true intention of art, and to enjoy and understand the vision of an artist. They create true artists and in turn create true fans. The 90s was a time of huge change in the world of music, the recording process was evolving to something closer to the accessibility that exists today, and so it has a legacy containing many records that are completely timeless, and many others that feel at the least somewhat stuck in their time, this is what happens when artists push things forward and why the 90s has so many niches that belong to it. It’s a beautifully varied era of music.”

Tricky is one of the most groundbreaking UK artists of all time. Relentlessly creative, his career

started as part of Massive Attack before going solo and releasing ‘Maxinquaye’ - a peerless album seen as one of the most important and revolutionary of the past 40 years. Tricky has recently revisited the record, completely reworking six tracks. ‘Maxinquaye (Reincarnated)’ which features a remastered version of the album as well unreleased remixes and of course the ‘reincarnated’ tracks. With a career now spanning over 30 years, his hunger for creativity has not waned and he continues to perform live all over the world.

Tricky says: “I’m very happy to be an ambassador for National Album Day as the album holds such an important place in an artist’s career. In today's world where so much is designed around short form or bite size content the album format is an important antidote. It provides the artist with the opportunity to work without compromise and create something truly enduring.

IN THIS PHOTO: Spice Girls circa 1996/PHOTO CREDIT: Universal Music Group

Now in its sixth edition, National Album Day sees the music community come together each year to celebrate and promote the art of the album. This year’s 90s theme will look to shine a light on a profoundly rich decade for music and album making that skipped between Britpop, Dance and Hip Hop; gave us national treasures Take That and global phenomenon the Spice Girls; and saw diverse genres ranging from dance, house and techno to R&B, rap and reggae and to grunge and industrial rock, among many others, rise to reach their full cultural expression –  in the UK and globally.

National Album Day is again presented in association with official audio partner Bowers & Wilkins and official broadcast partner BBC Sounds, and will pay tribute to artists who tell their stories behind these significant and influential bodies of work. Artist ambassadors tied into the theme – both those that came to the fore during the 1990s and current new and emerging talent that are inspired by its music; specially reissued albums and new releases; and promotional events and other activities will be announced in due course alongside further updates.

Since its launch in 2018, NAD has been supported by a broad range of artist ambassadors, including Kylie Minogue, Joy Crookes, Sharleen Spiteri, Lewis Capaldi, Mark Ronson, La Roux, Elbow, Paloma Faith, Blossoms, Alice Cooper, Novelist, Tom Odell, Mahalia, Toyah Willcox and Jazzie B. Last year Franz Ferdinand, India Arkin, KSI, The Mysterines, Sam Ryder, and The Staves were the latest talents to add their voices as passionate advocates of the long player.

IN THIS PHOTO: The Staves (Emily, Jessica (centre), and Camilla Staveley-Taylor)/PHOTO CREDIT: Sequoia Ziff

Typically benefitting from around a week-long build up, NAD has hosted a variety of activities such as listening events with album platforms including Classic Album Sundays, Pitchblack Playback, The Record Club, Tape Notes and Tim’s Listening Party; live performances; in-store artist appearances and record store promotions, street art murals; and album sleeve artwork exhibitions.

Renowned audio brand, Bowers & Wilkins, continues its support for National Album Day as official audio partner. Built on a passion for music, Bowers & Wilkins has been on an unrelenting pursuit of the highest quality listening experiences for music fans for over 60 years, always delivering sound that remains true to how the artist intended their album to be heard.

National Album Day will announce an extensive list of exclusive 90s albums on 13th September that are being released or reissued on vinyl and CD to coincide with this annual event celebrating the art of the album”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alax Matias/Pexels

I am going to wrap things up in a bit. I do like National Album Day. Like Record Store Day, it brings more people into record shops. Sales go up, and it means people get to discover new albums – either by new or older artists – and they make some unexpected finds. I think that the theme of the 1990s is a good one for this year. There have been other decades marked before. Women in music. Debut albums. Great and interesting themes with plenty of scope and depth. Many people might be fed up with the '90s being mentioned at the moment. One cannot deny that it is vital and hugely influential to new artists. There are some iconic albums from that wonderful decade that people around at the time will want; those who are younger will connect with a great album. I will wrap up with some further thoughts. Here is a bit more from National Album Day about them saluting the '90s:

“National Album Day returns on Saturday 14th October and this year will be themed around The 90s, following previous celebrations that included The 80s, Women in Music, and, just last year, Debut Albums. It will also help to honour 75 years of the album LP format.

Now in its sixth edition, National Album Day sees the music community come together each year to celebrate and promote the art of the album. This year’s 90s theme will look to shine a light on a profoundly rich decade for music and album making that skipped between Britpop, Trip Hop and Hip Hop; gave us national treasures Take That and global phenomenon the Spice Girls; and saw diverse genres ranging from dance, house and techno to R&B, rap and reggae and to grunge and industrial rock, among many others, rise to reach their full cultural expression –  in the UK and globally”.

The 1990s was a time where certain genres were born or evolved to new heights. Not dated or selective, there is still a tonne of love for so much music of that time. Some of the truly great albums from the 1990s are inspiring artists today. It is important to recognise that time. Sophie Jones, BPI Chief Strategy Officer & Interim CEO talks about the art of the album and the pleasure of listening to that selection of songs as a single experience. Kim Bayley, Chief Executive ERA points out, as the album is seventy-five this year, it is a great celebration of classic albums from the 1990s, in addition to some lesser-heard gems. You can follow National Album Day and keep abreast of news via their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. With national and international politics weighing on our minds and creating a stress and sense of depression, music is a real outlet and source of comfort. Any celebration of music and albums is much needed. The brilliant National Album Day, taking place on 14th October, is…

SOMETHING to look forward to.

FEATURE: The Rise and Rise of Taylor Swift: Is She the Most Important and Influential Artist of Her Generation?

FEATURE:

 

 

The Rise and Rise of Taylor Swift

IN THIS PHOTO: Taylor Swift in a promotional photo for 2020’s evermore/PHOTO CREDIT: Beth Garrabrant

Is She the Most Important and Influential Artist of Her Generation?

_________

WHEN a young artist called Taylor Swift …

PHOTO CREDIT: Beth Garrabrant

released her debut single, Tim McGraw, in 2006, who thought that she would be this megastar and hugely popular artist seventeen years later?! From modest (but impressive) beginnings, Swift has grown into be this colossus! I think that she is the modern-day equivalent of Madonna. In the sense she is on a par now with the Madonna was in the 1980s. Her current Eras Tour has broken records. There is going to be a film of the tour that will hit the big screen soon. I know I have written about Taylor Swift a fair bit lately. One reason is that it is amazing to see this incredible young artist succeeding and doing so much good. You never begrudge any of her wealth and success, as she is such a philanthropic person. I am thinking about Madonna too, as she starts her Celebration Tour next month. One of the most important artists in history, I think Taylor Swift will go down in history in the same way. At a time when so much sexism and imbalance reigns through music, Taylor Swift is empowering so many women in the industry. Whether you like her music or not, one cannot deny how amazing she is! Someone who loves her fans and has this very caring and considerate heart. I am back at her feet once more as some news and stories have broken recently. I am going to end with thoughts about Taylor Swift and her place in history. A mix of celebration and caution.

There are a few features that I want to bring in. Her work ethic and the sheer love and energy she puts into every show of the long-running Eras Tour is to be applauded. Some might not like her dating choices or some things she says. Nobody can refute the fact she is one of the hardest working artists in history. Even if she is gaining considerable wealth from it, this is not an artist who is driven by money and fame. Wanting to connect with her fans and give them an unforgettable live experience, you can see Taylor Swift using her income to change so many people’s lives. Maybe, as a director, she will finance incredible films and help affect changes. We are definitely seeing a modern-day icon make her way to immortality. There are few artists that come along that are cemented into the history books so emphatically – Madonna, David Bowie, Prince, The Beatles are rarefied and eternally influential. I want to bring in a few features from The Guardian relating to Taylor Swift. Earlier this month, they explored how she is the world’s biggest Pop artist:

“Eras has generated an estimated $5bn boost to consumer spending in the US, forcing cities to ramp up underprepared public transport systems and world leaders to turn into reply guys: Justin Trudeau pleaded with her on Twitter to come to Canada. And fair enough: I saw the final US Eras show in August and found it to be one of the most euphoric concerts I’ve ever seen, a reminder of Swift’s singular generational talent.

When Eras concludes in November 2024 it is likely to be the highest-grossing tour of all time with an estimated $1.4bn in revenue – half a billion more than Elton John’s farewell tour, the current record holder. Even a filmed version of Eras being released in US cinemas in October brought in $37m the day that tickets went on sale. All told, the tour has re-established Swift as the most successful pop star in the world, after a few years in which a resurgence seemed far from likely.

IN THIS PHOTO: Taylor Swift performs onstage during Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at the SoFi Stadium on 3rd August, 2023 in Inglewood, California/PHOTO CREDIT: Emma McIntyre/TAS23/Getty Images

By the time the South American leg commences in November, Swift will have released her third album in 12 months, the re-recorded version of 1989. It’s the album that, on its original release in 2014, made her as omnipresent as Michael Jackson and Madonna had been in the 80s. Newspapers and blogs obsessed about “the squad” – the revolving clique of models, actors and musicians that surrounded her. But by the end of the attendant world tour she was being accused of self-serving and superficial “girl boss” feminism and there were public squabbles with Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj and Calvin Harris. A fierce backlash was soon under way.

But next month, when Swift releases 1989 (Taylor’s Version), it’s possible that it may debut with higher first-week sales than the album it’s recreating; her current cultural dominance makes the original 1989 era look small scale. How has Swift managed to restore her stature without succumbing to the pitfalls that felled her last time?

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A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

In the immediate aftermath of the 1989 fallout, Swift broke her pattern of releasing a new album every two years, instead waiting three to return in 2017 with Reputation, billed as her retort to the haters. Louis Mandelbaum, host of the pop music podcast Pop Pantheon, says that Reputation is “actually more interesting than that: it’s really about her finding refuge in a new relationship in the face of [being] ostracised”, but its presentation – she wiped her once effusive social media accounts and adopted gothic imagery – allowed Swift to play with her newly tarnished image. “She attempted to parlay the negative press about her into the narrative of the record; like, ‘I’m taking ownership over how you view me,’” he says.

Crisis publicist Lauren Beeching says that beyond the musical talent it’s Swift’s ability to recast her image that’s given her such longevity. “She is a snake in the most positive way,” she says, referring to an insult hurled at and then reclaimed by Swift during the Reputation era. “She sheds her skin and becomes a new version of herself to fit in with today’s culture. You never know what will come next, which is what keeps her fans so engaged.”

Now Swift is more famous than ever, fans and critics are wondering if another backlash is brewing. The Eras tour has become a huge story, not just for Swift’s performance but for its unprecedented cultural and political impact – Ticketmaster’s mishandling of the Eras tour rollout, criticised by Swift, has led to an antitrust investigation – while moments from the show constantly go viral online”.

Taylor Swift’s fandom is gigantic! There is so much devotion to her from fans around the world. It is hard to gauge the legacy of a modern artist. How they are impacting the world and whether they are going to endure for years to come. You know, with Taylor Swift, she will continue to make phenomenal music for decades more. Able to inspire such love and commitment from her fans, it is intriguing seeing some of the projects and events in her honour. A new Taylor Swift club night is sweeping the U.K. It is this safe space where people feel secure and with their tribe:

“It is barely 10pm in Limehouse, east London, when the first pyro goes off and a crowd of sequined, red-lipped Taylor Swift fans lose their minds: “I did something bad,” Swift is singing, “So why’s it feel so good?”

A man has ripped off his top, and is whirling it around his head. Every foot stomp, every ad lib is perfectly replicated by a sea of dancing fans and you can almost taste the euphoria in your warm can of White Claw. But Swift is thousands of miles away on tour in the US: this is Swiftogeddon, a club night dedicated to the singer’s music that started as a novelty one-off event and has snowballed into a UK-wide phenomenon.

The brainchild of Dave Fawbert, a DJ and former journalist who has been an unlikely fan of Swift since her 2010 album Speak Now, Swiftogeddon began in London in August 2019, weathered the pandemic and now takes place across the UK every weekend (it almost always sells out).

Fawbert is not the person you might picture as the mastermind behind a Swift club night. He gives off strong dad energy in his uniform of long baggy shorts and T-shirt, and often runs out from behind the decks to air drum and dance. He takes his job as master of vibes very seriously: “If you get out the front, sing along and make yourself look a bit of an idiot, then people feel free to do the same,” he says with a grin when we meet up before the event. He may have been the first to spot the potential in an all-Swift club night (there is now an unaffiliated night that tours the US), but even he had no idea how big it would become. “I thought, it’ll fizzle out at some point; it’s not a real job,” he says. “But it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.”

PHOTO CREDIT: David Jeffery-Hughes

Now, Swiftogeddon is a real job. Fawbert won’t be drawn on specifics, but he makes enough money running the night to support his young family without needing what he calls “sensible” work. He still DJs the London dates and has recruited and pays Swifties from around the UK to DJ elsewhere, in some cases training them up from scratch.

In the pub, I meet Hannah and Caitlin, two 19-year-old Swift fans having pre-drinks after travelling for more than an hour to get to Limehouse. They are sporting matching pink cowboy hats and have choreography planned for I’m Only Me When I’m With You. “It’s the nicest club night I’ve ever been to,” says Hannah. “Everyone’s just like, ‘I love your outfit!’ and taking pictures with each other.” Her only complaint is that the queues for the ladies are too long.

Swiftogeddon is a very feminine space. Most of those in the crowd are women or gay men, with the odd hetero boyfriend gamely trying to sing along. Everyone I speak to stresses how safe it feels, with no fear of judgment or harassment. “I feel like a lot of her music really captures the collective female experience,” Fran, an older Swiftie, tells me. “That’s what I love to be part of – singing those songs with a room full of people who feel the same”.

Taylor Swift’s stock and name is so high now, that there is a bespoke Taylor Swift role! Undoubtably seen not just as an artist, but this cultural and historic figure who is changing thew landscape and will go down as one of the most influential artists ever, there is this new and rare opportunity for a fan of Taylor Swift to have their dreams come true:

“While no journalism job is perfect, a new role posted by Gannett, the US media company, may just be a Taylor Swift fan’s wildest dream.

On Tuesday, a job simply titled “Taylor Swift reporter” appeared on the Gannett Careers’ Dayforce site. The desired reporter, who is being sought by both USA Today and the Tennessean, is to be “experienced, video-forward” and adept at capturing “the music and cultural impact of Taylor Swift”.

“Swift’s fanbase has grown to unprecedented heights, and so has the significance of her music and growing legacy,” the posting reads. “We are looking for an energetic writer, photographer and social media pro who can quench an undeniable thirst for all things Taylor Swift with a steady stream of content across multiple platforms.”

It added: “Seeing both the facts and the fury, the Taylor Swift reporter will identify why the pop star’s influence only expands, what her fanbase stands for in pop culture, and the effect she has across the music and business worlds.”

The role also requires the reporter to “chronicle the biggest moments on the next portions of Taylor Swift’s tour” and travel internationally.

Experienced journalists who have yet to see the Eras tour, perhaps this is your biggest break yet.

In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson for Gannett confirmed that the role was real, full-time and with benefits.

“Are you ready for it? Being essential to our readers means providing the content they crave and we have a blank space with Taylor’s name,” said Kristin Roberts, Gannett media chief content officer.

As most Swift-centric things tend to do, the role made the rounds on the website X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday afternoon. One person simply called the role “incredible”, while another quipped: “heaven help whoever has to review applications for that Taylor swift reporter job”.

Music critic Carl Wilson noted the unusual nature of the job and posed the question: “Has anyone ever heard of a single-artist reporter job before?”.

There are a couple of features I want to get to before rounding off. Together with the success of her Eras Tour, Taylor Swift recently swept the VMAs. It is hard to think of an artist ever who has had the same amount of success as her at such a young age. One can think of Madonna or Michael Jackson. Swift is thirty-three. There is something scary and sensational happening. Such an inspiring woman who is establishing herself as one of the most successful artists ever, I wonder how things are for Swift behind closed doors. Can she get downtimes and privacy? Her recent VMS success adds another golden layer to the huge monument that is her wonderful career:

“Taylor Swift once again dominated the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), winning for every televised category in which she was nominated, in a night that otherwise celebrated Latin music, including the pre-eminence of Shakira, as well as 50 years of hip-hop.

Swift, currently in the middle of the first billion-dollar stadium tour in history, took home the night’s top prize, video of the year, for her Midnights track Anti-Hero, as well as best direction, best pop video and song of the year.

The 33-year-old singer dedicated her wins to the art of songwriting as well as to presenters ‘NSync, who reunited for the first time in over a decade to give her one award, and her video editor Chancler Hanes and cinematographer Rina Yang, who spoke on Swift’s behalf for her video of the year win.

After splitting emcee duties with LL Cool J and Jack Harlow last year, Nicki Minaj took over as the sole host of the 40th annual VMAs at the Prudential Center in New Jersey, and won an award, best hip-hop, for her track Super Freaky Girl. “So often I joke around and play around and stuff, but tonight, I don’t know why, this morning I just woke up and I had this really strong sense of gratitude,” she said.

The performance-heavy, relatively chaos-free VMAs devoted a significant portion of its nearly four-hour ceremony to celebrating 50 years of hip-hop, from a night-opening performance by Lil Wayne to the VMA debut of Metro Boomin to a finale medley featuring Doug E Fresh, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, LL Cool J, Darryl McDaniels of Run DMC, Lil Wayne and Minaj herself”.

There will be books written about it – other than the ones that have already come out – and documentaries made. There is no doubt that we are seeing a music icon straddling the planet. This recent article talks about the legacy of Taylor Swift. What she means to the world. How she is this artist who looks out for other people and uses her fortune to support charities:

“Taylor Alison Swift, the singer-songwriter with multiple Grammy awards to her name, has left an indelible mark on the music industry. Her journey began with a collaboration with songwriter Liz Rose during two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school. She later became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV publishing house. From there, she evolved into a 12-time Grammy award-winning music artist,  embodying the essence of inspiration.

A Symbol of Empowerment & Inspiration

Swift has become an iconic symbol of empowerment for many young women from her generation and those that followed. She dominated the charts with a series of hit albums and challenged gender stereotypes. At times, she has faced criticism and backlash for crafting songs that delve into her past relationships and romantic experiences, raising valid questions about the double standards faced by male artists like Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran, who don't receive the same level of scrutiny for singing about their exes.

Swift's philanthropic efforts include supporting organizations that aid sexual assault victims, a cause she personally identifies with. She has vocally addressed unfair blame and responsibility placed on her for events in others' lives that result from their own choices. Her lyrics and activism have provided visibility and support to countless individuals.

Beyond her musical accomplishments, Taylor Swift, named Billboard's Woman of the Decade, should be recognized for her numerous charitable contributions.

This remarkable 33-year-old woman has changed the lives of many by donating to over 33 different charities. She even stepped up to help a 19-year-old fan whose mother was in a coma by contributing $15,500 towards her medical expenses. So, Taylor Swift is not just an artist favored by young girls; she has inspired millions of people and made a substantial positive impact on the world”.

In addition to her tour, Swift is releasing albums still. In terms of her forthcoming album, 1989 (Taylor's Version), that arrives on 27th October. There was a rumour that her ex, the odious Matty Healy, will feature on the album. Maybe one of the only black marks against Taylor Swift’s name is her association with The 1975’s lead. In any case, he will not appear on the album. We are seeing this artist go from strength to strength. Not someone drive by ego or this idea of their success and role in the world being manifested and always meant for glory, there is still an honesty, earnestness and modesty to Taylor Swift – as much as you can be with her fanbase and fame! Whilst she may not current hold the record, I think Swift will soon become the most successful female artist of all time. I do worry about the pressure and expectation. Reaching the stage she has, there is going to be increased expectation for her to tour longer and harder. She will want to record a new album soon enough. As the press takes an interest in her personal life, that is going to add yet another strain. Taylor Swift has her head firmly screwed on. She has a great team looking after her. Regardless of your relationship with Swift’s music or opinions of her, we are seeing this phenomenal artist achieve so much and make such an impact. When the Eras Tour concludes next year, there will be a necessity for Swift to take her foot off the gas for a little bit. Decompress and take some time out to live as normally and quietly as possible. When that time comes and she has had that time to reflect and breathe, it will be fascinating watching…

HER next steps.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Thom Yorke at Fifty-Five: A Selection of the Master’s Finest Work

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Lake

Thom Yorke at Fifty-Five: A Selection of the Master’s Finest Work

_________

AS the superb and supreme…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Radiohead in 1997 (Thom Yorke pictured front)/PHOTO CREDIT: Danny Clinch

Thom Yorke turns fifty-five on 7th October, it allows me a perfect opportunity to do something I love doing: listening to the music of this remarkable human. From his established and iconic work with Radiohead, through to his solo work and other band material – Atoms for Peace, The Smile -, there is no rest for this legend! Not only is Yorke a brilliant songwriter and singer. He is also an amazing composer – as his work on the 2018 Suspiria soundtrack proved. I am going to end this feature with a playlist that combines all of his incredible work. From the debut album with Radiohead in 1993 to the present day, there is so much gold to be found. I will throw in some deeper cuts too. Before we get there, and as I rely on them when it comes to this sort of feature – specially to flesh out the word count! – is AllMusic. They provide a detailed biography of the Northamptonshire-born genius:

“As the frontman for Radiohead, Thom Yorke provides the band with a humanistic focus: his keening, emphatic vocals balance even the group's chilliest moments. However, other than duets with similarly inclined artists (PJ Harvey, Björk), Yorke resisted venturing into solo recordings until 2006's The Eraser, which further plumbed the depths of Radiohead's most experimental electronic efforts. He has continued to maintain that focus in his work outside the band, whether it's through subsequent solo albums, soundtrack contributions, original scores such as 2018's Suspiria, or his Atoms for Peace project co-starring Flea and Nigel Godrich.

Yorke was born on October 7, 1968, in Wellingborough, England. His left eye was paralyzed from birth and remained shut until the age of six. He underwent a total of five operations; the last operation was botched and he almost lost all sight in that eye. Only after wearing an eye patch for a year was he able to see, albeit slightly. His family moved often since his father worked as a chemical-engineering instruments salesman, and by his teens, he had turned to music as an inspiration, namely Elvis Costello, Queen, and the Beatles. After his family finally settled down in Oxford, Yorke was sent to an all-boys school, where he met future Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien and bassist Colin Greenwood, soon after discovering such '80s alternative bands as the Smiths, R.E.M., and the Cure. The seeds of what became Radiohead were planted at this point, as the trio jammed with a drum machine before replacing it with another friend, drummer Phil Selway, and inviting Greenwood's younger multi-instrument-playing brother Jonny to join up, too.

The group's original name was On a Friday before being changed to Radiohead, which they'd swiped from the title of a song on Talking Heads' True Stories. By late 1991, the band was signed to Parlophone in the U.K. and Capitol in the U.S., as an EP, Drill, came and went without much fanfare. Released in 1993, the group's full-length debut, Pablo Honey, appeared to be suffering the same fate until American radio/MTV made a surprise hit out of the Nirvana-esque alternative anthem "Creep." Radiohead's fan base grew considerably over the course of their next two releases, 1995's The Bends and 1997's OK Computer, the latter being voted Greatest Album of All Time in the British magazine Q shortly after its release. One of the world's top rock bands by this time, Radiohead attempted to alienate their newly found Top 40 audience with their next release, 2000's abstract Kid A, but instead found it debuting at the top of the U.S. charts (despite the absence of a video or single being released from the album).

While Radiohead remained his top priority during the '90s, Yorke also found the time to guest on other bands' recordings. Some of these cameo appearances included the songs "El President" by Drugstore (off the album White Magic for Lovers), a cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" with Sparklehorse, "Rabbit in Your Headlights" by UNKLE (Psyence Fiction), Björk's "I've Seen It All" (Selmasongs), and PJ Harvey's "This Mess We're In" (Stories from the Cities). Yorke also appeared as part of the ad hoc alternative supergroup Venus in Furs for the soundtrack to the 1998 glam rock film Velvet Goldmine, lending his vocals to the tracks "2HB," "Ladytron," and "Bitter-Sweet."

In May 2006, Yorke announced an imminent solo album on Radiohead's blog. The Eraser, made with extensive assistance from Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, was released on XL in July. It debuted inside the Top Ten in the U.K. and U.S. and was also nominated for Britain's Mercury Prize and a Grammy Award in the category of Best Alternative Music Album. Radiohead also surprised fans with a new album when they announced the making of In Rainbows roughly a week before it was released in 2007.

A few years later, Yorke formed the band Atoms for Peace, recruiting Godrich on keyboards and production, Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass, Joey Waronker on drums, and Mauro Refosco on percussion. The group played several live dates around the U.S. during 2009 and 2010, and began recording for an album, Amok, that eventually appeared in 2013 (but not before another surprise Radiohead album, 2011's King of Limbs). Upon release, Amok performed well on charts across the world, although the members' more pressing commitments meant that a successor was not immediately forthcoming. Yorke also provided vocals for tracks by Flying Lotus and Modeselektor, and collaborated on recordings with Burial, Four Tet, and SBTRKT.

Yorke's second solo album arrived as a surprise, much like the first. Following a series of cryptic clues dispersed through social media, Yorke released Tomorrow's Modern Boxes in September 2014. Initially, it was distributed through the torrent service BitTorrent, and then it was made available on vinyl. The eight-song set was another concise, subdued, yet tense set from the Radiohead frontman. In 2015, Yorke performed with audiovisual artist Tarik Barri and Godrich at the Summer Sonic Festival in Japan and the Latitude Festival in the U.K.

2016 saw Yorke and Radiohead surprise fans with their ninth LP, A Moon Shaped Pool, after dropping cryptic hints across social media tied into elements featured in lead singles "Burn the Witch" and "Daydreaming." The band promoted the record with an international tour throughout 2016 and 2017. During the latter year, it was announced that the songwriter would be composing his first film score for Luca Guadagnino's remake of Dario Argento's 1977 horror classic Suspiria. Yorke revealed that during the writing process he had been inspired by various aspects of Krautrock as well as Vangelis' score for Blade Runner. The movie and its soundtrack arrived in late 2018, with the Suspiria album led by the track "Suspirium."

Yorke returned with ANIMA, his third solo album, in June 2019. Produced by Godrich, ANIMA was also accompanied by a short film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson”.

To honour the great Thom Yorke ahead of his fifty-fifth birthday on 7th October, it is only fair to present a career-spanning playlist to show just what a consistently brilliant songwriter he is. Whilst there are no immediate plans of a new Radiohead album, I am sure that we will hear more solo and The Smile albums in the next year or two. It is always a treat receiving music from Thom Yorke, as there is nobody in the music world…

QUITE like him.

FEATURE: In Search of the Kangchenjunga Demon: Kate Bush’s Wild Man at Twelve

FEATURE:

 

 

In Search of the Kangchenjunga Demon

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2011

Kate Bush’s Wild Man at Twelve

_________

ON 21st November, 2011 …

Kate Bush released her tenth (and most current) studio album, 50 Words for Snow. Instantly ranking alongside her very best stuff, the one and only single officially released from the album came out on 11th October, 2011. At 7:16, Wild Man is one of the shortest track on the album. At over sixty-five minutes across eight tracks, 50 Words for Snow is an epic album where you get these suites and huge pieces, as opposed to traditional songs. Wild Man premiered on BBC Radio 2 on Monday, 10th October, 2011. The 7:16-minute version was played on The Ken Bruce Show. A 4:16-minute ‘radio edit’ was made available for streaming on Kate Bush's official YouTube channel after the radio premiere. One of the standout songs from 50 Words for Snow, it was a perfect choice of single! Perhaps Bush would have favoured the closing track, Among Angels, but that song is the only one that has nothing to do with snow – it is the shortest song too, so choosing Wild Man seemed like a good alternative. There is a 2-minute-33-second animated segment for Wild Man that was posted on the Kate Bush official site and on YouTube. It was created by Finn and Patrick at Brandt Animation. I will get to some reviews of Wild Man soon enough. I will finish with a section from a particular interesting interview from 2011. Let’s actually start out with Billboard’s assessment on the beautiful and mysterious Wild Man:

“The weird and whimsical “Wild Man” serves as the first new single from British art-rock craftswoman Kate Bush in a whopping six years (not including the re-tooled tracks from this year’s “Director’s Cut”). A word of advice to first-time listeners: be sure to have an atlas and thesaurus handy. “From the Sherpas of Annapurna to the Rinpoche of Qinghai / Shepherds from Mount Kailash to Himachal Pradesh,” sings Bush in her breathy lisp, somehow sounding erotic while randomly referencing Indian provinces and Buddhist principles. For all of its impenetrable wordplay,”Wild Man” makes for a wicked headphone atmosphere, with Dan McIntosh’s expressionistic digital guitar curlicues wandering around a crisp Steve Gadd kit and John Giblin bass. As an announcement of Bush’s return, “Wild Man” is a tad off-kilter. But then again, when has the ever-singular Bush been anything but?”.

Of course, there is something special about Wild Man. Bush released Aerial’s King of the Mountain in 2005. After that, she released the track, Lyra, in 2007. That was for the film, The Golden Compass. Earlier in 2011, to promote Director’s Cut – where Bush re-recorded songs from The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993) -, she released a new version of Deeper Understanding (from The Sensual World). I think of Wild Man as her first original single since King of the Mountain. The two songs share similarities. King of the Mountain paints pictures of wild weather and mountaintop hideaway (“The wind is whistling/The wind is whistling/Through the house/Elvis, are you out there somewhere/Looking like a happy man?/In the snow with Rosebud/And king of the mountain/The wind, it blows/The wind, it blows the door closed”). The lyrics are a bit different on Wild Man. A more precise geographical examination of the surroundings and this fabled creature. This ‘wild man’ that may be a Yeti. Maybe not. Like King of the Mountain, you are transported somewhere more isolated and windswept (“They call you an animal, the Kangchenjunga Demon, Wild Man, Metoh-Kangmi/Lying in my tent, I can hear your cry echoing round the mountainside/You sound lonely/While crossing the Lhakpa-La something jumped down from the rocks/In the remote Garo Hills by Dipu Marak we found footprints in the snow/The schoolmaster of Darjeeling said he saw you by the Tengboche Monastery”). I want to bring in what Digital Spy had to say about the beguiling and beautiful Wild Man:

“They're like buses, Kate Bush albums. You wait years and years, and then, er, an old one with a flashy paint job comes along, quickly followed by a brand-spanking new one moments later! Hot on the heels of reworks project Director's Cut, Bush has driven up with 50 Words for Snow. 'Wild Man' trails the first proper new album in six years from one of England's most cherished songwriters, and in an internet age where 12 months out of the spotlight has people casually flinging around words like "comeback", Bush doesn't do herself any favours when it comes to damping down expectations. The truth is though, she doesn't really need to.

'Wild Man' starts with an insistent riff, simple-as-can-be click-drums, and Bush's understated, breathy, half-spoken vocals before her words twist and turn into a double-tracked self-harmony and off-the-rails chorus. The vivid lyrics are denser than most English A-Level texts ("The schoolmaster of Darjeeling said/ We saw you by the Tengboche monastery/ You were playing in the snow/ You were banging on the doors") and demand closer attention. It's nothing groundbreaking or world-changing, but the four-minute odd radio edit is a lush slice of beauty that the charts have been gagging for. The full seven minutes add a bit more atmosphere and, on this showing, 50 Words of Snow is threatening an avalanche of long-overdue loveliness”.

Even though Wild Man only got to number seventy-three in the U.K., it is by no means a disappointment. 50 Words for Snow reached five in the U.K. album chart. All of Bush’s studio albums have made the top ten here. Bush won an award for the album too.  It is testament to her enduring relevance and brilliance. It is the players in the mix that help bring those remarkable and strange lyrics to life. Andy Fairweather Low provides vocal support. Dan McIntosh’s guitar and John Giblin’s bass beautiful work with Steve Gadd’s legendary drumming. Together, they produce this wonderfully exotic and almost mythical sound! Something that lures you in and puts you in a trance. To promote 50 Words for Snow, Kate Bush gave quite a few interviews. Generous with her time, I do like to read and hear what she said. Chatting with John Doran for The Quietus, the subject of (and subjects around) Wild Man came up:

“So obviously looking at the artwork, the track listing, the title, and the lead single ‘Wild Man’ from your new album 50 Words For Snow, it's pretty clear what the theme is. Now culturally snow is really interesting stuff. It can symbolise birth, purity, old age, death, sterility… I was wondering what it means to you.

KB: [laughs derisively] Well, I’ve never heard of it in terms of old age or death… [laughs] That’s quite an opening line. Well, I think it’s really magical stuff. It’s a very unusual, evocative substance and I had really great fun making this record because I love snow.

What are your memories of snow like from childhood? Was playing in the snow something you really looked forward to?

KB: Well… yeah. Do you know any children who don’t look forward to playing in the snow?

I know what you’re saying but there are some who like it more than others…

KB: …

Er…

KB: … Are you knackered?

Yeah.

KB: Have you been up all night?

Yeah, I have.

KB: [laughs uproariously and good naturedly] Well John do you like snow? Don’t you think snow is a thing of wonder and beauty?

I think that if I lived outside of London, maybe in the countryside where it doesn’t turn to a mixture of slush and hazardous black ice, I might like it more. Also, I’m very tall and for whatever reason I just fall over when it’s icy, I always have done. It’s very dangerous I think.

KB: [laughs] Are you a kind of glass half empty kind of guy?

My glass used to be completely dry. Now it’s half empty but I’m working on making it half full… No, I’m joking, of course I like snow, it’s simply marvelous stuff. But obviously there’s been a great thematic shift between Aerial and this album.

KB: Yeah.

So Aerial is full of images of clear skies, still water, warm days and it’s full of the bustle of family life and an easy domesticity. 50 Words For Snow is a similarly beautiful album but there is a chill to it - it lacks the warmth of its predecessor. I wondered if it represented another switch from an autobiographical to a narrative song writing approach?

KB: Yeah, I think it’s much more a kind of narrative story-telling piece. I think one of the things I was playing with on the first three tracks was trying to allow the song structure to evolve the story telling process itself; so that it’s not just squashed into three or four minutes, so I could just let the story unfold.

I’ve only heard the album today so I can’t say I’m completely aware of every nuance but I have picked out a few narrative strands. Would it be fair enough to say that it starts with a birth and ends with a death?

KB: No, not at all. Not to my mind anyway. It may start with a birth but it’s the birth of a snowflake which takes its journey from the clouds to the ground or to this person’s hand. But it’s not really a conceptual piece; it’s more that the songs are loosely held together with this thread of snow.

Fair play. Now some of your fans may have been dismayed to read that there were only seven songs on the album but they should be reassured at this point that the album is 65 minutes long, which makes for fairly long tracks. How long did it take you to write these songs and in the course of writing them did you discard a lot of material?

KB: This has been quite an easy record to make actually and it’s been quite a quick process. And it’s been a lot of fun to make because the process was uninterrupted. What was really nice for me was I did it straight off the back of Director’s Cut, which was a really intense record to make. When I finished it I went straight into making this so I was very much still in that focussed space; still in that kind of studio mentality. And also there was a sense of elation that suddenly I was working from scratch and writing songs from scratch and the freedom that comes with that.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for 50 Words for Snow/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush (from his book, KATE: Inside the Rainbow)

Had you always wanted to do 50 Words For Snow or were you just on a roll after Director’s Cut?

KB: No, they were both records that I’d wanted to do for some time. But obviously I had to get Director’s Cut done before I could start this one... Well, I guess I could have waited until next year but this record had to come out at this time of year, it isn’t the sort of thing I could have put it out in the summer obviously.

Did the snow theme come from an epiphany or a particular grain or idea? Was there one particular day when you happened to be in the snow…

KB: No. I don’t think there was much snow going on through the writing of this… it was more to do with my memories of snow I suppose and the exploration of the images that come with it”.

Oh, it will be. Possibly even three quarters of the way full. Now I’m on firmer ground with ‘Wild Man’. Kangchenjunga is a Himalayan mountain; the third tallest peak in the world.

KB: Well, I’m impressed! And the Kangchenjunga Demon is another word for Yeti.

If I tell you an interesting story about that mountain will you tell me about the song?

KB: It would be my pleasure John!

Ok, the closest anyone got to conquering Kangchenjunga before the successful ascent, was an attempt led by occult writer Aleister Crowley. Now, at about 22,000 feet four of his party died in an avalanche. Their Sherpa said that the deaths had satisfied the demon and if they carried on they would get safely to the top. And Crowley said, 'Nah, you’re alright mate. I think we’ll just be off home now.'

KB: What a wimp! Well, the first verse of the song is just quickly going through some of the terms that the Yeti is known by and one of those names is the Kangchenjunga Demon. He’s also known as Wild Man and Abominable Snowman.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for 50 Words for Snow/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush (from his book, KATE: Inside the Rainbow) 

Have you worked with Andy Fairweather Low before, the [Amen Corner] vocalist who presumably plays the role of the hirsute gentleman of the mountains?

KB: [laughing] Hirsute? Well, no, Andy doesn’t play the hirsute beastie, he’s one of the people on the expedition into the Himalayas. But I think that Andy just has one of the greatest voices. I just love his voice. When I wrote the song I just thought, ‘I’ve got to get Andy to sing on this song because he sounds great.’ Which I think he does. He’s just got a fantastic voice.

This is a slight digression but my favourite non-fiction book is called Straw Dogs by John Gray. And in a nutshell he’s saying that all of man’s fundamental problems come from the fact that he sees himself as being somehow separate from the animals, superior to them and in control of his own destiny, when he's no more in control of his destiny than a polar bear or a squirrel. Do you see the Yeti as being like a man or an animal or is that really the same thing?

KB: Well, I don’t refer to the Yeti as a man in the song. But it is meant to be an empathetic view of a creature of great mystery really. And I suppose it’s the idea really that mankind wants to grab hold of something [like the Yeti] and stick it in a cage or a box and make money out of it. And to go back to your question, I think we’re very arrogant in our separation from the animal kingdom and generally as a species we are enormously arrogant and aggressive. Look at the way we treat the planet and animals and it’s pretty terrible isn’t it?

Well, I think you can learn a lot about a person or a group of people by looking at how they treat both children and animals. So, yes, I agree with that. Do you think of yourself as being ecologically concerned?

KB: Well, I wouldn’t put it that way but I do have a great love of nature and I do think it’s an incredibly beautiful planet if you get chance to go and see the good bits. And I think it’s very positive that there are such a lot people looking at the whole issue and trying to do something about it even though it’s perhaps got a bit of a fashion banner attached to it and it’s pretty late in the day. Let’s hope it’s not too late that something can’t be done”.

I am going to wrap it up there. It will be twelve years on 11th October since Kate Bush released a studio album single. If she does release any new music, I doubt it will be exactly like 50 Words for Snow - though there are going to be some similarities. Wild Man provided once more that Bush is one of the most innovative and surprising artists ever. Never repeating herself, this gem of a song deserves more air play and love (though its long running time hinders it in that sense!). If you have not played Wild Man for a while, then do so now…and be taking somewhere extraordinary. I have heard the song so many times now, yet it is something that…

MOVES me every time.

FEATURE: The Chemical Brothers at Thirty: For That Beautiful Feeling: Their Finest Albums, The Artists They Have Influenced, and Their Greatest Tracks

FEATURE:

 

 

The Chemical Brothers at Thirty

For That Beautiful Feeling: Their Finest Albums, The Artists They Have Influenced, and Their Greatest Tracks

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2023 is an important …

 IN THIS PHOTO: Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons of The Chemical Brothers perform during Field Day, as part of the All Points East festival at Victoria Park on 20th August, 2022 in London/PHOTO CREDIT: Jim Dyson/Getty Images

time for The Chemical Brothers. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons spoke with Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 6 Music on Thursday marking thirty years of their partnership. In fact, Rowlands and Simons first began DJ'ing and producing together over thirty years ago in the early-’90s under the name The Dust Brothers, releasing their first single, Song to The Siren, in 1992. By 1995, they were performing with the likes of Underworld and touring internationally - which is when they also changed their name to The Chemical Brothers, releasing their debut album, Exit Planet Dust, in July of that year. Their new album, For That Beautiful Feeling has been released to coincide with that big anniversary (just after). Earlier in the year, DJ Mag teased news of the as-then-untitled album and how it is a big year for Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. I remember first hearing The Chemical Brothers when Exit Planet Dust arrived in 1995:

“The Chemical Brothers have confirmed that their new album will be released this autumn.

The duo announced the news in social media post (which you can see below) with a photo of a billboard in the desert. It follows the release of 'No Reason' — their first single since 'The Darkness That You Fear', two years ago. ‘No Reason’ landed digitally in March, and is due on vinyl this month. Another unreleased tune, 'All Of A Sudden', features on the B-side.

The as-yet-untitled full length record will be the tenth studio album from The Chemical Brothers, AKA Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. The outing coincides with the pair's 30th anniversary as musical partners, first forming as the Dust Brothers around the turn of the 1990s after meeting at the University of Manchester.

Whilst that guise was short-lived, early work quickly found favour with luminaries like Andrew Weatherall and Justin Robertson, setting the stage of 1995's debut LP, 'Exit Planet Dust' — its title referencing their name change to The Chemical Brothers. In addition to the forthcoming album, the UK dance music veterans have also confirmed a six-date arena tour later this year, with shows in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, among other major cities”.

 PHOTO CRERDIT: White Rabbit

I want to do a bit of an anniversary feature. I am going to highlight five albums from the Chems that you need to get. I will put out a playlist at the end featuring some of their best tracks and deeper cuts. I also want to highlight some of the artists who have definitely been inspired by The Chemical Brothers. In addition to a new album, a book is coming next month. Rough Trade have more details:

“Paused in Cosmic Reflection is the definitive story of The Chemical Brothers. Told in the voices of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, with contributions from friends and collaborators, it is fully illustrated with 30 years of mind-bending visuals.

The Chemical Brothers are unquestionably one of the biggest electronic music acts in the world today. They emerged in the early 1990s in the afterglow of the Manchester acid house scene, an electronic music duo consisting of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. By 1995 they had made the leap from the underground, and their now legendarily influential residency at the Heavenly Social, into the mainstream as chief innovators of the;big beat; genre, with the million-selling success of their debut, Exit Planet Dust.  Their second album, Dig Your Own Hole went stratospheric in 1997 and they have since collectively, had half a dozen number one albums, headlined Glastonbury and Coachella and won six Grammys. They have collaborated with a host of internationally famous artists from Noel Gallagher to Beck, Q-Tip Beth Orton and Wayne Coyle.

Paused in Cosmic Reflection is a kaleidoscopic history of the band and the intoxicating world they have created, in their own words, with contributions from intimate friends and collaborators (aforementioned artists included) to Steve Dub, Adam Smith (the architect of their hallucinogenic live shows alongside Marcus Lyall), Kate Gibb and many other voices. The book is fully illustrated with photography and design work from the Chemical archives designed by Paul Kelly.

Authors Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons said: ‘Robin has been part of our extended family since 1994. When he came to us with the idea of Paused in Cosmic Reflection - a book that would join the dots between us and many of the people we've worked with over the years as well as tell the stories of clubs we've played, gigs, videos and live visuals - it made total sense. Through his relationship with designer Paul Kelly and with publishers White Rabbit, we've collectively made a book that brings you right inside the world of the Chemical Brothers - our world - for the first time ever.’”.

I want to now spotlight the five albums from The Chemical Brothers that are essential listening. The duo have just released their tenth studio album. Let’s hope that we hear a lot more from them for years to come! If you are new The Chemical Brothers or a committed fan, the albums below, I feel, contain some of their best work. I don’t think any of their ten albums can be described as anything other than excellent – making it a hard task narrowing things down!

Exit Planet Dust

Release Date: 26th June, 1995

Producers: Tom Rowlands/Ed Simons/Cheeky Paul

Labels: Junior Boy's Own/Freestyle Dust/Virgin/Astralwerks

Standout Tracks: In Dust We Trust/Song to the Siren/Life Is Sweet

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/the-chemical-brothers/exit-planet-dust

Review:

“The typical club dance floor in the early ‘90s was largely dominated by a simple and relentless bass thump, a few piano chords and some soulful vocals riffing on one trite sentiment or another. As the inevitable pop-crossover came into being, that predictable sound moved increasingly into the charts. It seemed as though electronic musicians who were pushing things forward with innovative approaches to getting butts out of seats were pushing deep underground, existing happily in the rave scene or moving on to less dance floor friendly subgenres.

But by the mid-‘90s, innovative electronic music began to enter the mainstream, whether through the release of a new wave of so-called trip hop paving the way for the big beat explosion by acts like the Crystal Method and the Prodigy later in the decade. On the other hand, artists like Massive Attack and Tricky pitched everything down to a dreamy, relaxed state while eschewing the stomping bassline in favor of lazy drum breaks and moody pads. In 1995, British producers Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons released their first album as the Chemical Brothers. Exit Planet Dust, bearing a title emblematic of leaving their former sound behind (as well as ditching the copycat Dust Brothers moniker they were threatened with legal action into changing), took a vastly different direction from the typical club-friendly house sound. Working as a catalyst for their crossover into the mainstream, this record doesn’t rely on overwrought soul samples, cheesy piano chords or predictable pop patterns. Instead, it tears down the uninspiring dance floor formula from that era and replaces the pop with a psychedelic and percussion-rich sample frenzy, making it one of the most unusual and catchiest dance music records of 1995.

The lead track “Leave Home” is the most iconic on the record. A looping bass note introduces the song under the hypnotic, echoing repetition of “The brothers gonna work it out.” A wah-wah guitar lick adds a layer of unexpected filthy funk to the rhythm, and from that point on the duo adds layers upon layers of slick breaks and synth patterns. What makes the record so compelling is the Chemical Brothers’ seemingly unrefined approach to shuffling loops, beats and warped sound effects as though there were no intended goal aside from keeping the party-goer engaged. With “Song to the Siren,” it’s easy to imagine the two of them in the studio, settling on a limited palette of awesome licks and then playing with them in experimental layers and effects until they’ve just passed the three minute mark—cut and master. It’s this dynamic approach that keeps Exit Planet Dust constantly in motion and perpetually sinking and rising in and out of a deep groove.

If there is a single song on the record that seems to at least make an attempt at traditional house music appeal, it’s “Three Little Birdies Down Beats.” Though weaker than usual, the bass drum is consistent but soon drowned out by another fresh funk breakbeat. Just as “Leave Home” had its signature sound, “Birdies” has a repeating acid worm that nearly crosses the line into over-repetition before falling away into a simple layered beat breakdown. The degree to which the duo failed to make a traditional dance floor thumper is a glorious mistake because they instead created something far more interesting and timeless in the process.

Exit Planet Dust also reveals the Chemical Brothers’ sentimental side, producing some beautifully arranged, reflective sample-based mood swings. The first six tracks all play as though they were a medley, running into each other in a style borrowed from the live DJ experience. Though a listener could pick out a dozen or so looping moments that constitute their personal favorites, the entire album also works as a complete end-to-end listening experience.

Meanwhile, “One Too Many Mornings” is as close to a ballad as the record comes. In applying the Chemical Brothers’ signature sound to a slower beat, and adding airy female vocal samples dubbed over a pad of angels to an organic meandering bassline, the album goes from being a simple dance music record to a complete music project worthy of entering the conversation for best records of 1995. Noted as the second best dance album of all time by the UK’s Muzik magazine, it continued to chart in the UK for the next five years.

Upon the appearance of the Charlatans’ lead singer Tim Burgess on “Life is Sweet,” the Chemical Brothers reach beyond their previously limited appeal in electronic music circles with an effort to pull in fans of the hugely popular Madchester sound of not only the Charlatans, but the likes of the Stone Roses and Inspiral Carpets as well. In another guest spot, British folktronica singer-songwriter Beth Orton adds a sonorous dynamism to the album’s closing track, “Alive Alone.”

Nearly two decades after its original release, Exit Planet Dust sits among that rare list of records that manage to retain a timeless appeal. An unfamiliar listener today could confuse this album for a new release. There’s a larger discussion to be had about the direction the Chemical Brothers took with later releases and their inability to measure up to Exit Planet Dust, but that’s to be expected when this mammoth debut set such a high bar” – Spectrum Culture

Key Cut: Leave Home

Dig Your Own Hole

Release Date: 7th April, 1997

Producers: Tom Rowlands/Ed Simons

Labels: Freestyle Dust/Virgin/Astralwerks

Standout Tracks: Dig Your Own Hole/Setting Sun/The Private Psychedelic Reel

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/the-chemical-brothers/dig-your-own-hole

Review:

“The list of ingredients reads like some techno nerd's record collection run amok. But the whole thing roars like the Massed Turntables of the Apocalypse: a high-stepping bass and drop-kick beats that sound like a speed-and-ecstasy spin on Sly and the Family Stone's wicked '69 jam "Sex Machine"; the reverb-and-percussion voodoo of reggae-dub wizard Lee Perry; a death-throe synth that howls like Jimi Hendrix's Strat in feedback purgatory; drum breaks that crack like Public Enemy DJ Terminator X doing a Buddy Rich at the decks; a call to party – "Back with another one of those block-rockin' beats!" – sampled from the 1989 track "Gucci Again," by the original gangsta rapper, Schoolly D.

And that's just the opening track on this album. You can dance to it until your limbs turn to tapioca or just sit, listen and have your mind blown inside out. Either way, "Block Rockin' Beats" will fry you alive. And along with the rest of Dig Your Own Hole, the genuinely explosive second LP by the British DJ and remix duo the Chemical Brothers, it burns the whole rock vs. techno argument into a fine, white ash.

This is a big season for taking sides. David Bowie cops some drum-and-bass licks for his latest album; U2 renounce ringing-guitar splendor for futuristic disco cheese; Prodigy rake in the long green from Madonna's record label. But don't believe the hype: Rock is not dead, and the DJ-generated, machine-driven aesthetic in late-'90s dance-floor culture is not the One True Bridge to the 21st century. Rock & roll, at its best and most basic, is dance music. And the greatest dance music, of any epoch or stripe, always rocks. A wild beauty of a record that thoroughly eclipses even the heavy-beats magic of Exit Planet Dust, the Chemicals' '95 full-length debut, Dig Your Own Hole rocks, rolls and surges without factionalist prejudice or fear of genre. Fuck tribalism and party to this.

The Chemicals – Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons – don't work with especially complex materials. With its robotic tempo and repetitive, yawning bass line, "Dig Your Own Hole" is maniacal in its relentless simplicity. In "It Doesn't Matter," Rowlands and Simons walk a perilously thin line between hypnotic and numbing, cranking up a Studio 54-style disco beat and freezing it in place with Kraftwerk-ian rigidity. At one point, the track drops down to nothing more than the rhythm, some bass hum and burbling electronics that sound like a coffee maker going postal.

But what the Chemicals may lack in variety of beats they make up for in textural and physical intensity. (Rowlands and Simons didn't call their '96 EP Loops of Fury for nothing.) "Elektro Bank" is fat, literally to the point of bursting, with hyperdrive beats, an air-raid-siren keyboard effect stuck on repeat and a sample of rapper Keith Murray breathlessly chanting, "Who is this doin' this type o' alpha-beta-psychedelic funkin'?" At times the interplay between sampled and synthesized effects – like the wild-style drums, choked wah-wah guitar and hovering ring of feedback in "Dig Your Own Hole" – feels like the real-time dynamics of a live, mad-dog funk band.

Two DJs do not make a band, conventionally speaking. And the Chemical Brothers aren't songwriters per se. They devise rhythm schemes, build tracks, generate atmospheres. But in a field dominated by solitary bedroom-studio auteurs and turntable cowboys content to cop licks from old jazz-funk and Moog-synthesizer records, Rowlands and Simons have a rare, empathic gift for picking collaborators, particularly vocalists, and wringing strange drama out of them.

In "Where Do I Begin?" the Chemicals gently tweak the stoic, mantralike singing of Beth Orton (who was also featured on Exit Planet Dust) so that her voice sounds like it's ringing around inside her head. "Setting Sun," written and recorded by the Chemicals with Noel Gallagher of Oasis, was the best single of 1996, hands down, and it appears on Dig Your Own Hole slightly remixed but with its Beatles-in-a-blender majesty intact. The acid-noir turbulence (garbled sitar, divebombing guitars) that buffets Gallagher's John Lennon-esque yelp is absolutely stunning – and just on the right side of overkill.

You also have to admire a DJ-remix act that isn't afraid of being remixed itself. "The Private Psychedelic Reel" is a Chemicals piece that Rowlands and Simons handed over to the brilliant American freak-rock band Mercury Rev for some instrumental garnish. The result is one long chord change – supercharged with sunrise guitars, exuberant drumming and whooping keyboards – that doesn't actually go anywhere melodically but ebbs and flows in its own prescribed place with irresistible force.

The track is definitely not techno music – there are too many guitars, and the beat is too weird. And it's not quite rock & roll – "The Private Psychedelic Reel" sounds more like Phil Spector conducting the Steve Reich Ensemble. But it is music for dancing, like everything else on Dig Your Own Hole. Put it on, turn it up and let yourself be moved” – Rolling Stone

Key Cut: Block Rockin' Beats

Surrender

Release Date: 21st June, 1999

Producers: The Chemical Brothers

Labels: Freestyle Dust/Virgin/Astralwerks

Standout Tracks: Under the Influence/Out of Control/Let Forever Be

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/the-chemical-brothers/surrender-8

Review:

“The poster boys of big beat, that hip amalgam of electronica and rock that has dug its way into the national consciousness via "The Rockafeller Skank," have been busy since their 1997 breakthrough, Dig Your Own Hole. Maybe last year's DJ mix album, the reasonably decent Brothers Gonna Work It Out, should have been the clue, but Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons have clearly been raiding a library- sized record collection since their last offering of "original" music.

"Music: Response," the album's leadoff, starts like a ride on the Autobahn with Kraftwerk circa the mid '70s, with its analog synth blips and monotone computerwelt voices, before tossing in some ferocious beats to bring Krautrock into the new millennium. The mood carries through on "Under the Influence" with more Kraftwerk- styled noodlings. Meanwhile, their best instrumental effort is "The Sunshine Underground," an eight- and- a- half minute ride through chiming tones, wafting flute- like sounds, and sputtering and gurgling synths that intertwine with the briefest of dreamy vocals. Actually, it wouldn't have been out of place on the last Orbital album.

Surrender will receive a ton of hype based on its superstar guest appearances, and none more historically relevant than "Out of Control" with New Order's Bernard Sumner on vocals. Being electronic dance music freaks from Manchester, New Order is like the holy grail to the Chemical Brothers and it's easy to see why. The Chemicals share with their Manchester predecessors an obsession with hypnotic, melodic, dance beats. "Out of Control" works so well it could be a lost track from Low Life. After his turn on "Setting Son" with the Chemicals in 1996, Oasis' terminally out- of- style Noel Gallagher returns for another psychedelic, Beatles-esque anthem on "Let Forever Be," again snagging the rhythm track from "Tomorrow Never Knows" off Revolver.

Surrender is both the Chemical Brothers most immediately satisfying work and, perhaps not coincidentally, the most like a rock album of their career. Unlike a fair share of techno, these songs feel like "songs," not a collection of clever samples and a race to the fastest BPM on the planet. Yeah, you can go out and buy your jungle, your trance, your trip-hop and your ambient, but why would you when you'd be sacrificing the greatest gift of all: Surrender's love and understanding” – Pitchfork

Key Cut: Hey Boy Hey Girl

No Geography

Release Date: 12th April, 2019

Producers: The Chemical Brothers

Labels: Virgin EMI/Astralwerks

Standout Tracks: Eve of Destruction/No Geography/We've Got to Try

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/the-chemical-brothers/no-geography

Review:

“The original masters of big electronic beats, Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, are back with their ninth album, a return of sorts to the idiosyncratic sound that rewrote the rules of dance and pushed it into the mainstream back in the ‘90s: rough edges and analogue sonics sculpted from psychedelic synths, carefully-curated vocal samples and rambunctious beats.

Far fewer guests appear here than on their 2015 installment, though it's Japanese rapper Nene and Norwegian artist Aurora that open proceedings with retro-edged ‘The Eve Of Destruction’. Title track ‘No Geography’ holds a nostalgic euphoria while liquid disco ‘Got To Keep On’ captures that trademark The Chemical Brothers hypnotic quality, building to a maddening climax.

The discordant sounds of ‘Gravity Drops’ disorientates before the haunting ‘The Universe Sent Me’ emerges as a cry of surrender to the beat, with the relentless refrain “I cave in”.

The massive ‘Free Yourself’ evokes images of festival crowds calling en masse for liberation via dance. ‘MAH’ seethes with a latent aggression that seems to epitomise the modern condition, but the soothing vocals and interplanetary soundscape of ‘Catch Me I’m Falling’ provides a much-needed soft landing back to earth.

Three decades after forming, hitting the reset button has unleashed this iconic duo afresh, demonstrating an insatiable ability to forge the perfect dance track, whatever the era. Go get your rave on.

9/10” – CLASH

Key Cut: Free Yourself

For That Beautiful Feeling

Release Date: 8th September, 2023

Producers: The Chemical Brothers

Label: Virgin EMI

Standout Tracks: Live Again/No Reason/For That Beautiful Feeling

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/the-chemical-brothers/for-that-beautiful-feeling

Review:

“Tom Rowland and Ed Simons have generally stuck to the template they set with the slew of singles they created in the early nineties after meeting at Manchester club Mecca, The Hacienda, and the sounds on their 1995 long-playing debut, Exit Planet Dust.

The blueprint set with their first three albums: the follow-up to their debut, 1997’s Dig Your Own Hole with Surrender coming two years later, has been steadily followed with subtle stylistic tweaks to remain contemporary, with strong album drops every four years, 2010’s spectacular Further being a particular late-career high point.

Here, as on Further, and their previous album, No Geography, they play to their strengths by looking inward and removing the clutter of featured guests which really lets the music shine. Their previous albums did suffer somewhat under the weight of a featured artist and this is exemplified on "Skipping Like A Stone" featuring a slightly nondescript turn from Beck whose vocals get in the way of the beautiful backing track which sounds like an imaginary Chems remix of a lost My Bloody Valentine track, and let’s face it, when your collaborations are as flawless as their work with legendary rapper Q-Tip on "Galvanize" in 2004, or "The Golden Path" featuring the vocal of Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, a year earlier, there really is nowhere else to take the featured artist thing because you’ve produced two of the all-time best.

All the established Chemical Brothers tropes are here; the storming techno track, the dumb acid pounders, the bumping Hip-Hop cum electro hybrid, and even though we’re familiar with these moves now, their exemplary production values mean they can still fascinate and thrill. By cutting up the vocals of Halo Maud and using them as additional instrumentation, "Live Again" is a euphoric piece of shoegaze-inflected electronica and total peak-time Chems. Sampling the voice of underrated post-punk singer Adrian Borland (The Sound) and stitching slices of it onto the block-party beats of "No Reason" is inspired, while the fusion of soulful vocals, against abrasive synth lines and clattering beats on "Goodbye" is another one of their euphoric excursions into new wave psychedelia.

Elsewhere, sinister dubstep-influenced workouts ("Magic Wand") collide with shuffling nineties-tinged R&B replete with Nile Rodgers-esque guitar work ("Fountains"). The reworked version of 2021 single "The Darkness You Fear" puts Jungle in their place when it comes to sumptuous 70s soul vibes reworked to come alive in dark nightclubs, and in "Feels Like I Am Dreaming" we have them revisiting the slow build into grinding techno they so masterfully excel in, the massive breakdown at the midpoint is purpose-built to get those rave uncles partying like it's 1995.

Of all the nineties electronic acts that reached out beyond the underground to achieve mainstream success; The Prodigy, Leftfield, Orbital, Fatboy Slim etc, looking back at each body of work, only Underworld have truly kept up with the consistency of The Chemical Brothers, and with the scintillating form shown on For That Beautiful Feeling, it’s going to take something really spectacular to catch up” – The Line of Best Fit

Key Cut: The Darkness That You Fear

Lauren Laverne spoke with The Chemical Brothers on Thursday (14th September). I am going to move things on and put out two playlists: one with their best work and great deep cuts; the other songs from those inspired by The Chemical Brothers. First, let’s get some biography from AllMusic:

“Grammy-winning English electronic duo the Chemical Brothers are one of dance music's biggest crossover successes, known for an arena-sized sound rooted in club culture, psychedelia, and hip-hop. Rising to prominence during the mid-'90s, they unite such varying influences as Public Enemy, Cabaret Voltaire, and My Bloody Valentine to create a dance-rock-rap fusion that rivaled the best old-school DJs on their own terms. They keep crowds on the dancefloor by working through any number of groove-oriented styles featuring unmistakable samples from familiar guitar riffs to vocal tags to various sound effects. When the duo (Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons) decided to supplement their DJ careers by turning their bedrooms into recording studios, they pioneered a style of music (later termed big beat) remarkable for its lack of energy loss from the dancefloor to the radio. From their seminal 1995 debut, Exit Planet Dust, Chemical Brothers albums are less collections of songs and more hour-long journeys chock-full of deep, bomb-studded beats, percussive breakdowns, and effects borrowed from a host of sources. All in all, the duo proved one of the few exceptions to the rule that intelligent dance music could never be bombastic nor truly satisfying to the seasoned rock fan, helping them become one of the few dance acts to enjoy simultaneous success in the British and American mainstream and in critical quarters with albums such as 1997's Dig Your Own Hole and 1999's Surrender. They have remained a fixture atop the U.K. album charts and collaborated with artists such as the Flaming Lips, Q-Tip (the 2005 smash "Galvanize"), Beck, and St. Vincent. 2019's No Geography brought their total Grammy wins to six, and their tenth studio album, For That Beautiful Feeling, arrived in 2023.

Growing up, both Rowlands and Simons grooved to an eclectic musical diet, ranging from the Smiths and Jesus and Mary Chain to Kraftwerk and Public Enemy. They met while taking the same history course at Manchester University, though neither was a native Mancunian -- Rowlands enrolled because of the legendary Haçienda nightclub nearby, while Simons acknowledged the city as birthplace to the Smiths and New Order. The pair began sampling Madchester's vibrant nightclub scene together during 1989 and 1990, just at the peak of Britain's fascination with a DJ'ing style named Balearic. Pioneered at the island hot spot of Ibiza during the mid-'80s, Balearic relied on a blend of early house music, Italian disco, rare-groove jazz and funk, Northern soul, hip-hop, and alternative dance. Original Balearic DJs like Trevor Fung, Paul Oakenfold, and Mike Pickering brought the sound back to indie clubs in London and Manchester, and the style proved very attractive to musical eclectics like Rowlands and Simons.

Though Rowlands was already performing in the alternative dance group Ariel, the pair began DJ'ing together at the Manchester club Naked Under Leather in 1991. Hardly believing that their weekend project would progress, they took the semi-serious handle Dust Brothers (a tribute to the American production team responsible for one of their favorite albums, the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique). Despite their doubts, Rowlands and Simons' club night did grow more popular, thanks to the duo's Balearic mix of rare house tracks flavored with hip-hop breakdowns, independent-dance fusions, and ancient secondhand discards. After deciding to try re-creating their unique sound in their tiny bedroom studio, the Dust Brothers emerged with "Song to the Siren," an intriguing example of the new alternative dance scene including sample sources Meat Beat Manifesto and This Mortal Coil.

After the single was pressed up on a limited release of 500 copies, it began getting attention from Britain's top DJs, initially including an old friend named Justin Robertson but later including Andrew Weatherall and Darren Emerson. Weatherall licensed the single to Junior Boy's Own Records, and after the pair had finished university, they moved back to London to work on another EP (14th Century Sky) and a residency at another club. After their third release, "My Mercury Mouth," the duo began to get more high-profile clients for remixing: besides Justin Robertson's Lionrock collective, Primal Scream, the Prodigy, and the Charlatans all received treatments.

When lawyers for the original Dust Brothers came calling in 1995, though, Rowlands and Simons were forced to change their name to the Chemical Brothers (the proposed Dust Brothers U.K. was turned down). Word on the street and nightclub scene was so good that it hardly mattered; their new residency at the Heavenly Sunday Social quickly became one of the hottest club nights in England -- documented on the mix disc Live at the Social, Vol. 1 -- and their debut album, Exit Planet Dust, was heavily praised by critics. Another fan of the record, Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher, agreed to lend his vocals to a future single named "Setting Sun," the Chemicals' tribute to one of their own favorites, the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." The single went to number one in late 1996, and the Chemical Brothers opened for the giant Oasis concert at Knebworth besides headlining their own shows all over the world.

The Chemical Brothers' second album, Dig Your Own Hole, took the top spot on the album charts upon its release in April 1997, and on the wings of America's growing electronica push, the album sailed to number 14 stateside and went gold. The duo released a mix album in 1998, Brothers Gonna Work It Out, and followed with their third studio LP, Surrender, in 1999. The album featured a second Gallagher collaboration, "Let Forever Be," as well as songs with Bernard Sumner and Hope Sandoval, and one of the duo's most well-known tracks, "Hey Boy Hey Girl." The duo continued their white-label Electronic Battle Weapon series with a 2001 single which would soon see widespread release as "It Began in Afrika." It appeared on the duo's fourth album, 2002's Come with Us, a sort of back-to-basics effort focusing on storming club tracks. Its only guests were the Verve's Richard Ashcroft and frequent collaborator Beth Orton. Singles 93-03 was issued the next year, including "The Golden Path" with the Flaming Lips (a U.K. Top 20 hit) and "Get Yourself High" featuring k-os.

Rowlands and Simons returned with their fifth album, 2005's Push the Button, with guest vocalists Tim Burgess, Kele Okereke, and the Magic Numbers. "Galvanize," featuring Q-Tip, became one of their biggest hits, reaching number three in the U.K. and even earning a gold certification in America. The music celebrity parade continued on 2007's We Are the Night, this time including the Klaxons, Willy Mason, Fatlip, and Midlake. A second singles collection, Brotherhood, appeared in 2008, including the first ten Electronic Battle Weapon tracks (most of which ended up on their albums or as B-sides) as a second disc.

In 2010 they released Further, their first album with no vocal collaborations, and in 2011 they released Hanna, their first film soundtrack. Sticking with film, they released Don't Think to select cinemas in early 2012, which combined a Chemical Brothers live show and a visual document from their longtime art director Adam Smith. The film and live show were made available for purchase in March 2012. Another film contribution followed in 2014, when the Chemical Brothers collaborated with Miguel and Lorde for a song on the Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Pt. 1 soundtrack. With 2015 came the first Chemical Brothers full-length in five years, Born in the Echoes, which featured guest appearances from Beck, St. Vincent, Cate Le Bon, and the returning Q-Tip. It debuted at number one in the U.K. and became the group's sixth chart-topping album.

As their global tour drew to a close, they returned to their studio to begin working on their ninth studio album, desiring to bring their sound back to basics. They tried a far more direct approach to crafting tracks, working closely with Norwegian singer Aurora and Japanese rapper Nene. The Grammy-winning No Geography was released in April 2019 and included the singles "MAH" and "Got to Keep On," the latter of which scored a Grammy for Best Dance Recording. Later that year, the pair celebrated the 20th anniversary of Surrender with a massive reissue that packaged the original album with discs of remixes, B-sides, music videos, and the concert video Live at Glastonbury 2000. A slightly haunting single titled "The Darkness That You Fear" arrived in 2021, and Dig Your Own Hole was given the 25th anniversary reissue treatment, including previously unreleased demos and alternate mixes, in addition to a recording of the duo's 1997 set at the Lowlands festival.

The Chemical Brothers released the funky, stuttering "No Reason" in 2023, followed by "Live Again" (featuring Halo Maud) and a second Beck collaboration, "Skipping Like a Stone." All three songs (plus a remix of "The Darkness That You Fear") were included on the duo's tenth album, For That Beautiful Feeling. They also released Paused in Cosmic Reflection, a career-spanning book featuring interviews with the duo as well as collaborators such as Noel Gallagher, Beth Orton, and video director Michel Gondry”.

It is clear that, in addition to being pioneers and this legendary duo who have made the most amazing music, the fact they are celebrating their thirtieth anniversary but also releasing new music means we can look back and forward at the same time. I wonder what The Chemical Brothers will produce for album eleven. The Chemical Brothers have some tour dates set, so do go and see them if you can. It leaves me to wish The Chemical Brothers a happy thirtieth anniversary and, on behalf of us all…

THANK you for the music.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Nell Mescal

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: David Reiss

Nell Mescal

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THERE are a fair few …

interesting interviews with the superb and must-hear Nell Mescal from this year. I am not going to mention her acting brother, Paul. That is where you mighty recognise the surname for. Make no mistake: the Irish songwriter should be spotlighted and applauded on her own merit and individuality. When you listen to Mescal’s music, you know this is someone born to play and sing. Born in Kildare, Ireland, I can imagine her household being filled with music and lively conversation. You can feel and hear this natural confidence in her voice! Indeed, Nell Mescal has been singing all of her life. Like so many of the best voices, she performed at school and in choirs. Although she has been writing songs since she was thirteen, it was when the pandemic struck that Mescal decided to pursue music as a career. I first experienced her music through the 2022 single, Graduating. Spurred and inspired by a huge amount of love from fans, this natural curiosity and passion, together with intrigue from the press, means that this year has been the most prolific yet. Singles In My Head and Homesick mark her out as a remarkable talent - and someone to keep your eye on closely. I predict Nell Mescal will headline stages very soon! Her latest single, Teeth, is in my top five singles of the year. She is someone I am very interesting in hearing an album from. That would be a remarkable listen. I want to come to some interviews from this year, so that you can find out about Nell Mescal and discover where she has come from – and where she wants her career to head. Links on how to follow her on social media are at the bottom of this feature. There are a load of tour dates for next month. Go and get a ticket if you can. Also go and listen to as much of her music as possible.

I’m going to drop in some text from five different interviews. First – and to get some background about her earlier years – The Line of Best Fit spoke with Nell Mescal earlier in the year. Proclaiming her an artist on the rise, it is evident that she has caught the eyes and ears of some of music’s most influential and prominent sources early on. Testament to her talent and how her music is impacting people:

“Originally from Maynooth, Ireland, Mescal made the call to quit school and head to London to pursue music full-time at 18. She’d tried the city out for the summer before her final year, and once she started school again in the fall, she knew she needed to leave home for good and get back as soon as possible. It’s been almost two years since then, and though she’s never looked back, it hasn’t always been easy—no big change ever is. As she tells, me it’s only recently that she feels she’s finally hit her stride. This is the journey she reflects on recent single, “Homesick.” Though sonically upbeat, the guitar-driven indie-pop track channels the feelings of discomfort that accompany living on your own for the first time.

“I mean, the song’s about being homesick and not wanting to tell anyone because they’ll just be like, ‘Oh, come on, there’s no shame in coming home,’” Mescal explains. “I think for me, personally, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to be like, ‘No, I can do it.’ And thank God I stuck it out.” In many ways, sticking it out is often the only option. After leaving and living through the kinds of transformational experiences Mescal has, trying to go back can feel futile. This is not necessarily because the place you came from is no longer there, but because you’re different enough that you won’t be able to exist in it quite the same way anymore.

As Mescal tells me, she grew up in a creative household. “My Dad would try and teach me to play the guitar," she tells me. "It didn’t work because we would fight. It was like him trying to teach me maths, like it wasn’t working. But they would always be listening to country music.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Brennan Bucannan

Mescal household names included the likes of Mary Chapin Carpenter, and even if the guitar lessons were at first a dead end, Nell still enrolled herself in other singing and music lessons for most of her young life. The possibility of being an artist in her own right, however, only occurred to her after she discovered British songwriter Birdy. “It really hit me that (music) was something I definitely needed to do when I started listening to Birdy and when I started finding my own music taste away from what my family would listen to in the car” Mescal says. “When I found Birdy, I would just listen to her on repeat. I have all of her albums. And I was like, ‘Oh, I want to be her.’”

Much of Mescal’s own musical and writing style she credits to her influences and peers. She cites early favorites as Taylor Swift and Hannah Montana, while more recent obsessions include Alex G and Ethel Cain. When I ask how she would describe her sound to new listeners, she struggles with the question not because of a lack of inspiration, but rather because, as a young musician, she feels open to drawing on and experimenting with as much as she can as quickly as possible. “I feel like I haven’t boxed myself in,” she says. “Every song I write feels like a totally different thing to me.” If she had to pick a genre now, though, she tells me she’d have to settle on indie-pop or alternative as her current label. “But I think it’s ever changing,” she adds.

This fluidity and openness sits in line with Mescal’s writing process as well. She usually has multiple songs on the go, taking any random moment that comes along to sit alone at her piano to try and get out certain verses or bridges to send to her manager. “I would say I’m a very impatient writer,” she notes. “I want to feel like I’ve tied up the loose ends as quickly as possible. It doesn’t need to be done, but I just need to know that it’s got its path and we can put it away and start again on a new one.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Brennan Bucannan

As of right now, much of her lyrical repertoire focuses on the hardships that come with friendships that have gone wrong. Another key area for her is writing about home and family. “I think,” she says, interrupting her own train of thought, “maybe I would like to start writing about things that are a bit nicer. Maybe the friendships that I really cherish. But at the moment, it’s been kind of that whole moving away thing.”

Between the ages of 13 and 15 was when Mescal got her proper start in songwriting. Using a voucher that her mom had given her as a Christmas present, she got some of her tracks recorded. From that early batch of work, she published “Crash” and “Déjà Vu” on streaming platforms, though she later took them down when she decided she wanted a fresh artistic start prior to releasing her song “Graduating” last July.

Still, it was through these songs that she made her first imprint on the music world and got connected with her now manager, Tara, and some of the other individuals with whom she maintains working relationships. “At the time when I was releasing those songs and not really understanding what the craft was, what my craft was,” Mescal says. “After meeting (Tara) I decided to come to London, so it was such a wild experience … Then I went in (to sessions) with people and learned about what it all meant. Then I decided I wanted to take those songs down and start fresh with ‘Graduating,’ which was, for me, the best choice”.

Before moving on – and apologies: I am sourcing interviews from different months and mixing them up, so the narrative and chronology might be out of sync -, i-D chatted with Nell Mescal in March, ahead of the release of the video for her massive and standout single, In My Head. It is another prime cut from an artist who keeps putting out musical gold:

“When she told her parents she wanted to pursue music full-time, she expected some pushback. Instead, they rallied behind her. “They’ve always been ridiculously supportive. I was the only sibling who was into the arts from a really young age. That came for Paul a bit later,” she says. “They were like, okay, let’s draft an email to the principal. I was like ‘Oh okay, I didn’t mean to do that!’”

If it happened quicker than Nell expected, the three years since, has been more of the same. She’s skyrocketed in social media popularity, and now has over 45k TikTok followers, and 60k on Instagram. The success of debut single “Graduating”, followed by indie thriller “Homesick”, had a hand in this. Since then, she’s performed her first live gig on Ireland’s The Late Late Show, performed with Phoebe Bridgers in Brixton (“one of the craziest moments of my life”) and is about to embark on a festival circuit tour. She’s also releasing her anticipated third single, “In My Head”, a moody, nostalgic track co-written with friend Kai Bosch, that ruminates on a universal experience: being drawn back to someone we know is bad for us, or the one person we can’t seem to shake out of our head or heart. It comes with a nostalgic, Cranberries-style video directed by Dora Paphides, which also drops today. “We always try and reach for nostalgia,” Nell says.

PHOTO CREDIT: Lewis Vorn

“It’s a step away from what I tend to write. I write about friendships a lot. And this is the first song about relationships. We all have that one person that we’ll go back to and continually fall into the loop of like, this is bad for us. But is it our fault? I definitely talk a lot about trying to criticise myself and trying to figure out and pinpoint all the bad stuff that I might be doing. I feel like the song is quite sad. The bridge feels like this revenge point, or the point where it's like, okay, it's not our fault. We're in this loop because of this person. And we need to break away from it. And so we kind of end the song on this high. It's all a lesson too. But it's nice when there's a bit of hope thrown in there, I think. And it's not just miserable for three minutes and 30 seconds of life.”

“In My Head” is very much sad girl music, there’s no escaping that, but with a hopeful surge in the bridge, Nell’s telling us we can break the pattern today so we won’t repeat it tomorrow. The sad girl influence comes from her own musical faves: Lucy Dacus, Gracie Abrams, Birdie, SZA and patron saint of the sad girls, Taylor Swift. Luckily, she’s also a huge musical theatre fan, which alleviates some of the ennui. It’s hard to be online without being exposed to sad-girl-jams though, especially on TikTok. “I don't feel well-known on those apps,” says Nell of her online and offline following. “It's very weird. I feel like the only time you kind of feel the effect of their eyes on you, or when you see them in the flesh, is in a show. When you go and see those people in person, it's like, oh, this makes a lot of sense. Looking at numbers on a phone is just draining. You can't be doing that all the time.”

“I definitely don't deal with burnout very well,” she adds. “I do need to get better at it. And I need to go away and figure that out. Because the song’s out on Friday, I've been on my phone all week, just making sure everything's right and perfect. Right now I can afford to do that. But like, I'll definitely need to stop and figure myself out soon.”

It’s possible though, that you might know Nell Mescal without knowing her music. Nell’s brother, after all, is Paul Mescal. It’s impossible to escape mentioning this, not least because she recently went viral for a video reacting to his Oscar nomination, and she’s just returned from LA — an experience she can only describe as “bizarre” — where she celebrated that nomination with the rest of the Mescal family. Her feelings on the presence of Paul in coverage of her own music career are clearly conflicted. “I mean, I can't be too mad at it, because it's been my fault,” she says. “Like, I can't hide how happy I was for my brother. I guess I didn't think [the video] was ever going to be as big as it was, and that very quickly changed. And I was like, oh, shit, I don't know what to do here. But I think that, when it comes to stuff like that, you kind of just have to grit your teeth a bit and just say, okay, it's fine. And hope that one day, people don’t use my brother's name as a headline. But people just don't really know what to do. They’ll be like, just pair them together. It's fine”.

There are a few more interviews that I want to pop in. In March, NYLON shot the breeze with an artist who was gaining serious momentum. Six months later, and Nell Mescal is at the stage where she is getting so much buzz. Many predicting she will headline stages and be in the mainstream before too long. I think that, as she is still so young (twenty), this is an artist who is happy putting out singles. Pleased to have this dedicated fanbase. That said, I can well see major artists like Taylor Swift heading her way for possible collaboration:

“Were there any artists at the time inspiring you to take that leap?

Birdy was that one, so getting to open for Birdy is incredible because all my early songs are very much Birdy, 1000 percent. She was a huge draw to the writing side of things. She was just so honest and was very much saying sentences that really made me feel something, but were also really beautiful. I feel like I hadn't really had an artist that did that for me up till that point. I didn't understand music enough to be like, “Oh, songs can actually mean something other than just you like listening to the song.” It's nice to have the escape of “I'm just listening to the song and I'm not going to really care too much about the meaning.” But I think Birdy was one of the first people that I was like, “Oh my God, this is actual poetry.”

When you decided to start in the industry, what were those steps for you?

It was weird, because I started in COVID and had my first song out literally February of 2020, and I did it myself through CD Baby, which I did for the next three songs. I just released the songs and was expecting it to just be my friends and family [listening]. And then that circle opened up a little bit, and I met the right people through it. I was very lucky that it happened quick enough, but not too quick… I was sweating for sure. I was absolutely like, “I need someone to email me,” or “I need to send more things out.” But I was very lucky that I also was kind of protected in the space of having that time to really just be putting stuff out by myself and trying to figure it out that way, and not having too much pressure. I was very glad when I got an email from Tara, my manager.

Do you have a process for writing?

When I'm writing with other people, it feels like there's a pressure that's kind of welcome to be like, “Okay, imposter syndrome has to stay away.” So you have to just hit them with something and keep going. I've been quite lucky. I haven't really been experiencing too much writer's book at the moment. I've been maybe too impatient where I'm just any lyric, just put on paper. When I'm writing by myself, it will be a much longer process, which is also very welcome because there are just certain songs need more time.

Have you gotten to the stage where you are starting to write specifically with the end goal of an album?

I think I'm always kind of writing for a bigger project. I don't know what project it is, but I think that there's certain songs that I'm like, “okay, this is going there, and I'm okay if this doesn't see daylight for two more years.” Other songs, I need to have its moment [immediately], mostly because I'm impatient. It's an exciting time right now, and I think that I'm writing songs that I'm really proud of, especially this one. “In My Head” is my favorite song I've ever released, so I'm really excited for it”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Lee Malone

A couple more interviews to go. In July, WhyNow spoke with Nell Mescal. In addition to comparing her sound to the likes of Margaret Glaspby and Maggie Rogers, they also asked about the darker side of the industry. Mescal has faced discrimination, misogyny, and sexism. It is something (sadly) most women in the industry have to deal with – and, in 2023, why should we still be having this discussion?! In any regard, the strong and massively accomplished Nell Mescal is ploughing forward and showing why she is going to be a massive name soon:

“As a young woman in music, Mescal says she’s seen the darker side of the industry, too, especially with the misogyny aimed at up-and-coming female artists. She says she’s not had much of it herself – on account of people being “too busy” accusing her of “being a nepo-baby” – but says she and other female artists are trying to support one another when that misogyny does arise.

“We’re all quite young and a lot of us are female, non-binary people that are just kind of coming up together. I think we’re all a shoulder to lean on,” Mescal explains. “It’s such an easy thing to do, to shit on women that are good. People love to fucking tear women down when we’re just trying to get a foot in the door.” Mescal says she’s determined not to be put off by any of it. “We’re women and we’re strong. We’ll just keep going… but people need to stop shitting on women that are really talented and work really hard for a living.”

One person who offered Mescal some early support was musician Phoebe Bridgers, who dated Mescal’s brother Paul (they’ve rumoured to have since split but have not commented on this publicly). It culminated in Bridgers asking Mescal to perform with her during a sold-out show at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. Mescal took to the stage to perform ‘Georgia’ from Bridgers’ 2017 album, Stranger in the Alps.

PHOTO CREDIT: David Reiss

“It was an incredible experience,” Mescal says, recalling the moment she nervously stepped out on stage with Bridgers. “I don’t think I was expecting the audience to be as receptive as they were. It’s always been one of my favourite songs since I first heard it. Getting to do that with that crowd… well, I think I started crying immediately, as soon as everyone cheered when I walked out,” she laughs at the memory. “It was probably one of the coolest moments of my life so far. It was just really fun,” she says of the “pinch yourself” moment.

On the flip side of moments like this, Mescal says she’s under no illusion about how hard it is for young artists to break through in the industry right now as they face more and more barriers to making music than ever before. It’s a difficult financial climate for new artists to make ends meet, she says, from the “merch cuts” – referring to venues taking a portion of artist’s merchandise sales – to “Spotify not really paying their artists.”

“Everything is so expensive too,” she says, talking about the increased cost of touring. “I just hope that I’m still doing it in the next 50 years and that I can still afford to do it. I hope I earn some money and that people still want to hear the songs that I’m singing. I think longevity is the key and [I want] to keep doing it for as long as I can”.

I am going to wrap up with one of the biggest and most prestigious interviews Nell Mescal has been involved with. I am going to go back to the February/March 2023 edition of Rolling Stone UK. I wanted to end with an older interview, as we can see how far Nell Mescal has come since then. She achieved all she set out to do, though she has exceeded all of that. She is now an artist who is primed for superstardom:

“In what Mescal admits to being her biggest pinch-me moment of the past 12 months, she joined Bridgers on stage at Brixton Academy last summer to perform her 2017 track ‘Georgia’. “I just got a text from Phoebe and immediately thought it was a joke. I called my mum and she started screaming,” she recalls. “I said yes immediately and then was frantically trying to convince myself I knew all the words and getting ready. It was a quick thing, but the best experience.”

Although that brief cameo with Bridgers marked one of Mescal’s biggest live experiences to date, she says that hitting the road with Phoebe Green has allowed her to work on the performance side of her craft while also changing the relationship she has with some of her more emotional songs.

“My drummer Meg was recently saying the difference between me on the first day of tour and [the] last day was just incredible. It’s been such a catalyst for me to just be like, ‘I wrote these for a reason and I’m singing them for a reason.’”In turn, it has also helped liberate her from the personal pain that inspired tracks like ‘Graduating’.“It does take a while but you feel that click eventually happen. It happened during this live tour, it stopped feeling like a chore and I could have more fun with it.”

 She is also under no illusion that some fans will attend her shows purely because of the Mescal name, but she is entirely confident that she’ll win them round as new members of her fanbase.

“I’ve been singing my whole life. Paul is incredible and it’s been amazing to see what’s happened for him in the past few years. People might come because of his name, but if they stay then it’s because they like the music.”

And although her brother might be carving out a career as a Hollywood regular, Mescal has conclusive proof that she —as the youngest of three talented siblings —is in fact their parents’ favourite.

“I’m on both my parents’ lock screen,” she jokingly admits. “I’m the baby girl.”

For 2023, Mescal promises more music and a string of buzzy performances —including slots at the industry-heavy Great Escape.“I’ve been listening to a lot of music that has been all over the place and I don’t want to be tied down,” she says.

“I just can’t wait to release ‘Homesick’ straight after ‘Graduating’, because it shows an entirely new spectrum to my sound. That’s what I’m aiming for”.

I really love – if it wasn’t clear! – Nell Mescal’s music. I have seen interviews she has given and she is so accessible and charming. A real professional, her music is unique but relatable. I think all of this means that she will be releasing superb music for many more years to come. I was intending to publish this feature next week. I couldn’t really wait to praise and spotlight the stunning Nell Mescal! If she is new to your ears, then do make sure you spend some time immersed…

IN her wonderful music.

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Follow Nell Mescal

Official:

https://www.nellmescal.com/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@nellmescal

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/nellmescal/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/nellmescal_

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7i5X816UIV5xa9QZ-eWJZw

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4jRq9On9S1F6JkTebaZHqE?si=b232d50fcd0042bf&nd=1

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/nellmescalofficial/

FEATURE: Inside A Book of Dreams: Kate Bush’s Supreme Cloudbusting at Thirty-Eight

FEATURE:

 

 

Inside A Book of Dreams

Kate Bush’s Supreme Cloudbusting at Thirty-Eight

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THIS is a single…

I did not get opportunity to celebrate when doing a run of Hounds of Love pieces. This is because the album’s second single, Cloudbusting, was released on 14th October, 1985 – almost a full month after Hounds of Love was released. I have covered this classic before. However, as Hounds of Love is back in my mind and this is an important song to mark, I am coming back to it briefly. I will bring in a few articles/interviews where Kate Bush spoke about the inspiration behind one of her most beloved singles. I want to spend some time with a video with a unique edge. Before I get more into Cloudbusting and its impact, here is Kate Bush discussing a truly phenomenal song:

“This was inspired by a book that I first found on a shelf nearly nine years ago. It was just calling me from the shelf, and when I read it I was very moved by the magic of it. It's about a special relationship between a young son and his father. The book was written from a child's point of view. His father is everything to him; he is the magic in his life, and he teaches him everything, teaching him to be open-minded and not to build up barriers. His father has built a machine that can make it rain, a 'cloudbuster'; and the son and his father go out together cloudbusting. They point big pipes up into the sky, and they make it rain. The song is very much taking a comparison with a yo-yo that glowed in the dark and which was given to the boy by a best friend. It was really special to him; he loved it.

But his father believed in things having positive and negative energy, and that fluorescent light was a very negative energy - as was the material they used to make glow-in-the-dark toys then - and his father told him he had to get rid of it, he wasn't allowed to keep it. But the boy, rather than throwing it away, buried it in the garden, so that he would placate his father but could also go and dig it up occasionally and play with it. It's a parallel in some ways between how much he loved the yo-yo - how special it was - and yet how dangerous it was considered to be. He loved his father (who was perhaps considered dangerous by some people); and he loved how he could bury his yo-yo and retrieve it whenever he wanted to play with it. But there's nothing he can do about his father being taken away, he is completely helpless. But it's very much more to do with how the son does begin to cope with the whole loneliness and pain of being without his father. It is the magic moments of a relationship through a child's eyes, but told by a sad adult. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, 1985)

'Cloudbusting' is a track that was very much inspired by a book called A Book Of Dreams. This book is written through a child's eyes, looking at his father and how much his father means to him in his world - he's everything. his father has a machine that can make it rain, amongst many other things, and there's a wonderful sense of magic as he and his father make it rain together on this machine. The book is full of imagery of an innocent child and yet it's being written by a sad adult, which gives it a strange kind of personal intimacy and magic that is quite extraordinary. The song is really about how much that father meant to the son and how much he misses him now he's gone. (Conversation Disc Series, ABCD 012, 1985)”.

I have said how it was a bit of a mystery and travesty that Cloudbusting only got to number twenty in the U.K. The first single from Hounds of Love, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) got to three. The fact that Donald Sutherland appeared in the video should have seen it get higher on the chart! Maybe there was that excitement in August 1985 that Kate Bush had ‘returned’ with this amazing song. Perhaps used to the Hounds of Love album by the time Cloudbusting arrived, it is a shame it only scraped the top twenty and hasn’t had the same resurgence Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) did – thanks to Netflix’s Stranger Things. I will get to the video for Cloudbusting and why, Tom Taylor of Far Out Magazine wrote a feature last year about the song. He also muses that the line “I still dream of Orgonon” means. What is Orgonon?! Actually, it was the home, laboratory and research centre of the Austrian-born psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957):

“There’s a pretentious argument out there that every song is from a true story or book in some shape or another, but if that’s the case, then it can be easily asserted that barely any capture the feel of the tale from which they are based as perfectly as Bush with her 1985 release ‘Cloudbusting’. It was the second single from the iconic Hounds of Love record, which somehow only peaked at a disappointing 20 in the UK charts.

Though the euphoric feeling of the cello-driven anthem could be experienced by a blade of grass, the question remains: What is it about, and what mystic tale does it draw upon? Although it might sound fantastical on the surface, and the meaning remains obscure as a result, Bush rather fatefully crafts a pastiche out of snippets from the Peter Reich memoir A Book of Dreams. In short, Bush’s anthem is a bittersweet collage of the loving relationship between a radical philosopher and his son.

Having trained in Vienna with Sigmund Freud, Peter’s father Wilhelm Reich, arrived in the US in 1939, where his books and ideas about human sexuality gained a substantial audience. Therein he set about making the world a better place by extolling the power of sexual liberation and the eternal force of Orgone Energy. However, his mission was viewed as subversive by many, and this threw up difficulties.

Nevertheless, the stress of surveillance and other issues only strengthened his bond with his son and at their rural home in Rangley, Maine, they set about world-changing experiments. In their vast open garden sat a Cloudbuster. This giant telescope-like construction was connected to little more than hollow pipes. Nevertheless, it was asserted that this machine could channel live-giving Orgone energy and that energy could break up clouds, influence weather and summon UFOs.

This might sound wild on the surface, but in Peter Reich’s emeber-glowing memories, it was little more the sort of loving bond that makes the world go around in a whirlwind of wonder. As Joan and Erik Erikson opine in an appraisal of the memoir: “Nature offered a wonderland of sensory stimuli, parents allowed freedom and gave devoted care, and other visiting adults supported his physical playfulness with amused appreciation.”

Continuing: “But as his father’s ally, he became enmeshed in a star wars fantasy too ‘far out’ to be reconciled with reality. Love, loyalty, and the loss of father and his guiding purposes demanded resolution. … But the much-loved land and tensely experienced sensory memories have endured and are described with such authentic simplicity. If more of us could remember childhood with such clarity of recall, adulthood could be both enriched and clarified.”

Reich’s works, once widely respected, were now viewed as obscene by some, but as Peter Reich says, “I loved my dreams more than reality.” Whether that was a good thing or not is something that he wrestles with throughout the book, but it never resides as a regret. After all, there is a call for wonderment in the world. Kate Bush’s art has always sought that same sense of primordial exultation—the book stirred that same feeling in her.

Sadly, the eudemonia of days spent dreaming by the cloudbuster would end in tragedy. Wilhelm Reich’s obsession that Orgone Energy could be a cure created issues. He crafted and sold energy harnessing devices that would improve your sex and cure all sorts of ailments. While many celebrities purchase these devices and Sean Connery and Norman Mailer swore by them (and there is even an argument that they were central to kickstarting liberation), the government were less keen on the philosopher asserting that could cure cancer”.

I want to move on to the video. I have sourced this feature before. It is important to highlight DAZED and their 2015 celebration of an iconic song and huge video. One of Kate Bush’s most important moments, Cloudbusting is cinematic, beautiful and paired with this staggering and wonderful video. DAZED collected together some key players - Donald Sutherland, director Julian Doyle and editor Terry Gilliam, with additional insights from Peter Reich:

“Kate Bush (excerpt from a Kate Bush Club newsletter, 1985): “I was inspired by a book that I first found on a shelf nearly nine years ago. It was just calling me from the shelf, and when I read it I was very moved by the magic of it. It’s about a special relationship between a young son and his father. The book was written from a child’s point of view. His father is everything to him; he is the magic in his life, and he teaches him everything, teaching him to be open-minded and not to build up barriers... But there’s nothing he can do about his father being taken away, he is completely helpless. But it’s very much more to do with how the son does begin to cope with the whole loneliness and pain of being without his father. It is the magic moments of a relationship through a child's eyes, but told by a sad adult.”

Terry Gilliam: “Kate called me to direct the video and I said, ‘No, how about Julian (Doyle)?’ They had a great time shooting, but somewhere in the editing a conflict developed and I became the mediator. Kate knows exactly what she’s doing, she knows what she wants. She’s the sweetest person on the planet but she’s absolute steel inside!”

Julian Doyle: “Kate came to me with a storyboard, which I remember had the sun coming up with a face on it. She was a lovely lady, with a great smile that she gave generously. I understood her influences – like, I knew immediately where ‘It’s coming through the trees’ (film sample on ‘The Hounds of Love’) came from and things like that. I also knew about Wilhelm Reich, because there was interest in him among the new women’s movement which was exploring the female orgasm and I was close to the women involved.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on the set of the video for Cloudbusting/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Donald Sutherland: “Barry Richardson, who was the hairdresser on Nic Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, asked me if I’d do a music video with Kate Bush. I told him no and we went on to other conversations. A couple of days later there was a knock on my door. I lived in the Savoy Hotel (in London). On the river. Suite 312. I loved it there. So cosseted. So private. Only the floor butler rang the door. I opened it. There was no one there. I heard a voice saying hello and I looked down. Standing down there was a very small Kate Bush. Barry had told her where I lived. What can you do? She wanted to explain what her video was about. I let her in. She sat down, said some stuff. All I heard was ‘Wilhelm Reich’. I’d taken an underground copy of his The Mass Psychology of Fascism with me when I went to film (Bernardo) Bertolucci’s Novecento in Parma. Reich’s work informed the psychological foundations of Attila Mellanchini, the character Bernardo had cast me to play. Everything about Reich echoed through me. He was there then and now he was here. Sitting across from me in the person of the very eloquent Kate Bush. Synchronicity. Perfect. She talked some more. I said OK and we made ‘Cloudbusting’. She’s wonderful, Kate Bush. Wonderful. I love that I did it. (What do I remember) about doing it? I remember being in the car and the hill and them taking me, taking Reich, away and looking back through the back window of the car and seeing her, seeing Reich’s son Peter, standing there. And I remember the first morning on set seeing her coming out of her trailer smoking a joint and I cautioned her, saying she shouldn’t smoke that, it’d affect her work, and she looked at me for a second and said she hadn’t been straight for nine years and I loved her.”

 Peter Reich: “At one point in the video, the federal agents in black suits pull from a file cabinet a newspaper article about a rainmaker. In fact, during a drought​ in 1953, blueberry growers hired Dr Reich to make it rain in blueberry country along the Maine coast. I was along for that rain-making operation in the summer of 1953 and helped crank the levers. No rain was forecast. A most vivid memory: being aroused in the early morning hours just before dawn and led to an open door to observe a steady rain.​ The incident with federal agents coming on our property occurred a couple of years later, that day in August 1956 when I ran up that hill.  That was the summer the government burned several tonnes of Wilhelm Reich’s books and equipment.”

Julian Doyle: “I thought it should look like a real story – like a film, not a pop video. I wanted to point out the story was real, which is why I had Kate take out the book. I also wanted more time so I doubled up a section of the music. Kate lengthened it even more, then she wanted to change the edit.  I thought they were mistakes – so in bringing in Terry (Gilliam) it stopped her making bad changes to the edit as she accepted what Terry said. The editing process is very difficult – as it goes on for some time you have to be quite stubborn in character, keeping a balance in being open but not changing (things) because you are bored with them. Someone like Eric Idle, who is extremely smart and quick-witted, is a disaster in the cutting room, because he gets bored quickly and soon wants to cut out every joke.

“I was pleased we got up early to get the (shot with the) sun rising behind Kate falling down. I was also pleased with the track to close-up (on Donald Sutherland) where he changes from smiling to worried and then I pan into light flare. (When Donald had finished shooting his scenes) I said to him, ‘We have finished with you, thanks – but I just want you to walk away down the hill towards the sun.’ He looked great taking off his jacket. The very last shot of the shoot was the very last shot of Kate punching the air. There are only seven frames before I cut.”

Peter Reich:  ​“Watching it for the first time, and ever since, not infrequently, the video’s emotional power is overwhelming and enduring, even after 30 years – or 60 years, for me. I did meet Kate once or twice.  She gave me a very British umbrella, how very appropriate, one rainmaker to another”.

@nurse_toughlove #duet with @nurse_toughlove #abortionisessentialhealthcare ♬ Cloudbusting - Kate Bush

I will round up now. 1985 was a hugely important one for Kate Bush. She released a new album after three years (1982’s The Dreaming was a success, yet EMI felt it was a little underwhelming commercially). She delivered a spine-tingling and wonderful lead single. Keeping the momentum going with Cloudbusting on 14th October, 1985, I am always shocked that this single did not get higher than it did! I feel there is this opportunity to use the track somewhere. Get it back in the charts. I know that Donald Sutherland has happy memories of the shoot. Kate Bush turned up outside his hotel room when he was staying in England for a film he was working on. The bravery and fortitude to stride up to this world-renowned actor and convince him to appear in her video! She knew what she wanted, and we witnessed this incredible tenderness between Bush and Sutherland. Clearly they respected one another and developed this friendship. Bush would have been twenty-seven when Cloudbusting was released, so it was almost like Sutherland was this alternate father figure. An amazing collaboration for this timeless classic. On its thirty-eight anniversary, I was keen to revisit it. Even though Cloudbusting was used in the eleventh episode of the third series of The Handmaid's Tale, it has not had the same sort of exposure and revival that Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) has. Almost thirty-eight years until Kate Bush released the truly wonderful and head-spinning Cloudbusting, I think that this ode to a rain-making device deserves its…

MOMENT in the sun.

FEATURE: The Wind Is Whistling… An Aerial View: Kate Bush’s King of the Mountain at Eighteen

FEATURE:

 

 

The Wind Is Whistling…

An Aerial View: Kate Bush’s King of the Mountain at Eighteen

_________

PERHAPS one of the most important …

Kate Bush songs, this was a massive return for her. Prior to 2005, there had been some interviews and public appearances. 1993 was when The Red Shoes came out. There was not this massive retreat and reclusive period for her like many in the media make out. Rather than recording much new music, she was spending time away from the spotlight. Giving birth to Bertie (her son) in 1998, it was not like Kate Bush was doing nothing! Even so, by the time the 1990s ended, not that many people were  holding hope a new Bush album would come out. Halfway through the new decade - 24th October, 2005 to be precise -, the first new Kate Bush single since 1994 (And So Is Love) arrived. There had been rumblings and rumours of a new album for years before, though this was the first official track to be released from her one and only double album, Aerial. Reaching number four in the U.K., King of the Mountain was a huge comeback. I don’t particularly like the word ‘comeback’, as it suggest someone has gone away or was presumed extinct. Instead, this was Kate Bush, in her forties now, bringing is this phenomenal single. King of the Mountain is the last video to feature Kate Bush fully. The music video was first aired on Channel 4 on 15th October, 2005. Directed by the late Jimmy Murakami, Bush was nervous that she didn’t look good. Being reassured that she looked fabulous, I can imagine it was a big deal putting herself on camera after quite a few years down the line.

Even though she did a 2014 residency and there were press photos post-2005, her videos after King of the Mountain would not feature her. I do hope that if we get another single, at least we see Kate Bush for a bit. Eighteen years ago, this was this sense of wondering and rumour. It was an amazing day on 24th October, 2005 when King of the Mountain was released and Kate Bush was with us again. In terms of the song, there are allusions to Elvis Pressley (the King of Rock & Roll), Citizen Kane, and Kate Bush’s life to a degree (those thinking she was living on a mountain or strange place and was hidden in the wilderness). One of the other great things the release of King of the Mountain afforded was new interviews. Bush didn’t give as many as she did for, say, 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, but there were some long and deep interviews where we got an insight into Aerial. Speaking with BBC Front Row’s John Wilson, her one and only single from Aerial was discussed:

“John Wilson: Where does it start? For instance, ‘King of the Mountain’, let's look at that as an example, do you start with the lyric, an idea, an image in your head, or even a chord progression?

Kate: It was just a kind of chord progression that I had, and, em, I just put this vocal down which was extremely throwaway, which is why it's so surprising that I ended up keeping most of it as the master vocal.

John Wilson: So that's almost, that’s the demo vocal?

Kate: Yeah it is, and I tried a few times to re-create it and I couldn't get the same feeling.

[The first few lines of "King of the Mountain" are played]

John Wilson: What’s interesting about that vocal, the delivery of the words, is the way you almost mumble them... I mean, in the past your diction has been so clear on record...

[Kate laughs]

John Wilson: ... and it sounds almost like you're masking the words... there’s a... a sort of, em...you slurred words, and, it's almost like you're making them up as you go along, but, which many people when they talk about writing songs, they say they just put the words in there and they come back to them later. You weren't doing that, but it's...

Kate: No, in fact it was meant to be my impersonation of Elvis Presley.

[both laugh]

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

John Wilson: Oh, that's the drawl is it?

Kate: Yeah, yeah...

[The ‘Why does a multi-millionaire’ line of "King of the Mountain" is played]

Kate: In fact, I heard this fantastic review on Front Row a few weeks ago with some guy who was saying he'd heard the single. He was saying [imitates geezer] "It's only 2 chords!" and then they were discussing it more and he was saying how "It's about Elvis Presley!". And it sounded really surprised I should have written a song about Elvis Presley. Which I love! I love the idea of doing something that isn't expected.

[The "..in the snow with rosebud" line of "King of the Mountain" is played]

John Wilson: And there's a sense of isolation, of remoteness, and Elvis is the key image... there's also a reference to Citizen Kane, isn't there?

Kate: Yes

John Wilson: Randolph Hearst... and about fame as well, I guess and people wanting to get at you. Was there a sense of autobiography in that song as well?

Kate: Well, I was very much writing about Elvis, because I think he's one of those people who...I mean that kind of fame that he must've been living with, must've been unbearable...I can't imagine what it must be like. I don't think human beings are really built to withstand that kind of fame.

John Wilson: But you had that, I mean you had that incredibly quick...

Kate: No no...

John Wilson: ...not to the extent he had obviously, but you had overnight fame. You must have identified, to an extent, with Elvis' situation about people clawing at you, wanting a part of you...

Kate: Well I suppose...yeah, I suppose there's an element of that. I think, em...the process is hard enough without taking on... em, other people's baggage as well.

John Wilson: You've always been a very private person though, haven't you? I mean even after you started out you did very few gigs and you did start doing fewer and fewer interviews... and yet the songs always been, on the first few albums at least, incredibly personal, or they seemed like they were personal...seemed like they were autobiographical, incredibly candid, and people get a sense of the sort of person you were. Have you stepped back, do you think, in this album? I mean, It's a very elemental album, isn't it? About sea, sky, wind, rain?

Kate: Yes. Well, yes, I am a private person but I don't think I'm obsessively so. It's more that I choose to try and have as normal a life as possible. And I don't like to live in a glare of publicity. A long time ago, when I kind of finished making my second record, I realized that it was all the wrong way round. I was spending all my time doing interviews, television, press... suddenly this was what my life had become. And my initial drive had never to be famous, it had been to make a record. So I turned it all around, so that my time was being spent writing, and then doing a little piece of promotion at the end. And to me, that was the way that the balance worked best because, the creative process is something that I find very time consuming, and you have to have a lot of focus, and it comes from a quiet place. So this is what I'm trying to keep that balance of, which people seem to find... very weird and strange, but to me it's completely...you know, it's common sense, surely.

John Wilson: What must make it even stranger is... that the world has changed, the music world, the music industry, has changed completely, since that last record. I bought "The Red Shoes" on vinyl, and when I bought that record, there was no such thing as an MP3 [ed: Yes, there was], the Internet hadn't been invented [ed: Yes, it had], now file sharing, music is downloaded... music is borrowed, almost, from the ether, and then sent back into space... does it feel like a very different world that you've re-entered?

[Kate laughs]

Kate: Well, you know, I still been a part of the world, it's just that I've not been...

John Wilson: I meant the music world, and the industry, and that sort of...

Kate: Well yeah, but I think the whole world is changed, very much so, very quickly, in the last ten years, but particularly the last five years. I mean, I remember when I was a little girl, if you saw people walking around on the street, laughing and talking to themselves, you thought they were mad. But now it just means they're on their mobile phone. [interviewer laughs] And you know, I think it would be a shame, amongst all this technology for us to lose our sense of humanity. And music is suffering greatly from the overuse of computers, and taking away the human element... which... art is about human expression. And I think machines and technology should be used by people, not... you shouldn't be a slave to them.

John Wilson: Does it worry you the way that music is delivered now, increasingly, down a wire?

Kate: It's not that delivering down the wire. I think the sound quality is something that...is a shame that that's deteriorating, really, but... it was a very conscious decision, with this record, that I didn't write through a computer. A lot of my friends write on computers so they, every time they hit a chorus in the structure of the song, you just have a repeat of the same chorus. Now for me that's not art because it should be something that is evolving, and developing as you move through song, and changing... not just the repetition of the same moments because... I think that what's so exciting about music is it is something that unfolds through the process of time, that's what music is, it's something that... if people get it right then you'll be whipped up into a trance frenzy or a state of prayer. Music is something very special and very emotive, and it's become very disposable.

[The end of "King of the Mountain" is played]

John Wilson: So you come up with a chord progression, as you say, with King of the Mountain, you get an idea of Elvis in your head and that's a sort of thematic idea...you work at home, of course though, don't you, you have the home studio, so...

Kate: Yes.

John Wilson: ...you're able to get everything down just as quickly as possible.

Kate: I think what's quite strange is that... a lot of the writing process is really quick. I do that very quickly! But then the arrangement of the songs can be incredibly drawn out, and long-winded and so frustrating.

John Wilson: Is that because you're our perfectionist in the studio?

Kate: I'm very opinionated. I'm horrible to work with, I'm so fussy and picky and... I think what's good is that I know what I want. And I think, actually that's the most important thing.

John Wilson: You know what you want in your head...

Kate: Yes”.

King of the Mountain came to public attention on 21st September, 2005. I sort of feel, as King of the Mountain was the first song written for Aerial and started life in the 1990s, there was this reaction and consideration of maybe how Bush was perceived by the media. Perhaps feeling she needed to hide away. That said, King of the Mountain features some of Bush’s most intriguing lyrics. She has always been a gifted lyricist. I love the scenes and possibilities she summons up from the start: “Could you see the aisles of women?/Could you see them screaming and weeping?/Could you see the storm rising?/Could you see the guy who was driving?/Could you climb higher and higher?/Could you climb right over the top?/Why does a multi-millionaire/Fill up his home with priceless junk?/The wind is whistling/The wind is whistling/Through the house”. The last verse is the one, I guess, that sort of confirms who is at the heart of this song: “Elvis are you out there somewhere/Looking like a happy man?/In the snow with Rosebud/And king of the mountain”. Released in October 2005, I wanted to look ahead at the eighteenth anniversary of one of Kate Bush’s best singles. I think it is her most important. Nobody quite new whether there would be new music from her in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Vastly different to what we heard on The Red Shoes, Bush gave us the first taste of a majestic double album. I will write about closer to its anniversary in November. Twelve years on from The Red Shoes, we were overjoyed new Kate Bush music was out! We are almost in the same position now. 50 Words for Snow turns twelve in November. Its single, Wild Man, was released on 11th October, 2011. I guess we will surpass the gap between The Red Shoes coming out in November 1993 and Aerial in November 2005. I know, if Kate Bush does release another single soon, that it will be met with…

ELATION and enormous appreciation.

FEATURE: little c, Big C: Turning Concept Albums Into Cinema

FEATURE:

 

 

little c, Big C

PHOTO CREDIT: Meo Fernando/Pexels

Turning Concept Albums Into Cinema

_________

TWO of the most dreaded words …

 IN THIS PHOTO: Even though Beyoncé's 2016 career-best Lemonade was presented as a visual album, it has not been turned into a film or drama series/PHOTO CREDIT: Parkwood Entertainment (via Vanity Fair)

in the musical lexicon is ‘concept album’! Maybe not so cursed and cringeworthy these days, there was a time when you’d get Prog bands putting out some cosmic, mythical suite of songs that went on for hours – or at least it seemed like it! There have been some really intelligent and original concept albums made through the years. Maybe not even a whole album. Consider the second side of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love (1985), The Ninth Wave. I have pitched that it should be made into a short film with Saoirse Ronan as the protagonist. This thought about concept albums being turned into films or a T.V. series is because I have just written about The Who’s 1973 concept album, Quadrophenia. I always though that the album came out to soundtrack the film! The film didn’t come out until 1979. It is obvious listening to Quadrophenia that it would be a remarkable film (and it is!)., I have been thinking about other concept albums and the fact that none/few have been brought to life for the screen. Next year is twenty since The Streets released their phenomenal second album, A Grand Don’t Come for Free (there was a short made about the album, but is pretty basic and lo-fi!). The album is about a protagonist who loses a grand and then tries to get it back. It sounds simple and straightforward on the page; when you hear the album unfold, there are so many details and twists. At a time when we have visual albums and artists like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé put out short films, why not take it a step further and make albums into films?! In Beyoncé’s case, an album like Lemonade would either be a great short of a full film. Maybe not strictly a concept album, it does have unifying themes. In terms of Lemonade’s themes:

“Melina Matsoukas, the director of the "Formation" music video, said that Beyoncé explained to her the concept behind Lemonade, stating: "She wanted to show the historical impact of slavery on black love, and what it has done to the black family, and black men and women—how we're almost socialized not to be together." Beyoncé wrote on this in a 2018 Vogue article about the "generational curses" in her family, explaining that she comes "from a lineage of broken male-female relationships, abuse of power, and mistrust", including a slave owner who married a slave. Beyoncé continues, writing "Only when I saw that clearly was I able to resolve those conflicts in my own relationship. Connecting to the past and knowing our history makes us both bruised and beautiful."

This theme is repeated throughout Lemonade, with Beyoncé's grief, trauma and struggle being connected to that of her family's ancestors. The sixth track "Daddy Lessons" acts as a turning point for the album, with Beyoncé linking Jay-Z cheating on her with her father Mathew Knowles cheating on her mother Tina. Towards the end of Lemonade, Beyoncé reveals the meaning behind the album title, showing Jay-Z's grandmother Hattie White saying "I had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade", and describing her own grandmother, Agnez Deréon, as an "alchemist" who "spun gold out of this hard life" with the instructions to overcome these challenges passed down through generations like a lemonade recipe”.

Maybe the concept albums of the 1970s would seem aged and not translate well to the big screen. Apart from Quadrophenia, I cannot think of too many concept albums that have become films. Again, I am aware of short films and music videos. In a way, that is the artist visually telling the story of that album – though it is fragmented and not a continuous thread. I think that a full narrative played out on screen would not only be wonderful as a standalone film: it would invest new listeners in a classic album and, thus, provide that twin gift. It is expensive to make films. Translating an album and a concept into a cohesive and popular film is a hard task. There are great concept albums that either big for a first-time film or a revision on an older one – and, as I say, not many concept albums have been brought to cinemas or the small screen. Rolling Stone and their countdown of the best concept albums ever. Of the ones they name that would look great as a film, I think The Avalanches’ Since I Left You, Halsey’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power (though that was made into a film and brought to IMAX), Marvin Gaye’s What's Going On, Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Green Day’s American Idiot, and (their number one choice) Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city. They could all have these magnificent and memorable films made about them! Whether an album has a loose concept or is strict to a storyline and characters, you’d be surprised how many there are out there! I was not aware of how many albums from the past five years or so are technically concept albums. I think the reputation of that dreaded c-word has altered. No longer about fantasy, science fiction and something pretentious and never-ending, they can be political, personal or something wholly original and captivating.

There are other lists regarding the best concept albums. Udiscovermusic. gave us their suggestions. Of the ones they list, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon and David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars seem to be classic albums that could have modern films made about them. Both have very interesting concepts. NME selected some mad and memorable concept albums that we need to listen to. There are ones on there that have not been made into films but probably should be. My personal pick is Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois. We do not even have to look at albums from years back: there are so many quite new albums that have concepts that would be terrific on film. Of course, like any film, that risk could backfire. Not all albums that have interesting concepts are going to resonate on the screen and translate well! I just feel that Quadrophenia seemed like a natural film when the album came out in 1973. It was only a matter of time before that was realised. Whether it is a Beyoncé modern classic, or a great album from nearly twenty years back, there is scope to bring some amazing concept albums to the screen. With more artists doing concept albums and tying them to short films, it would be nice to see that taken a step further. Visual albums are great, though the point of a film is to have plot and dialogue connecting the songs. Film and music are such natural bedfellows…so why have we not seen that many concept albums turned into films or T.V. dramas?! I think that bringing some wonderful concept albums to the screen would be…

HUGELY appreciated and applauded.

FEATURE: When Soft Voices Die: A Bleak and Unsustainable Reality for Many U.K. Music Makers Because of Brexit

FEATURE:

 

 

When Soft Voices Die

PHOTO CREDIT: Ruslan Zzaebok/Pexels

A Bleak and Unsustainable Reality for Many U.K. Music Makers Because of Brexit

_________

ANY bad news…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Lucas Craig/Pexels

involving the music industry and artists struggling to make a living seems more heartbreaking and infuriating than any other (type of story). Recently, a survey was shared that was designed to show how Brexit had affected U.K. music creators. I am not sure what, if any, benefits Brexit has had for the U.K. When it comes to the art world and music, there seems to be only disadvantage, fewer opportunities than before, plus more restrictions and fewer rights for European artists trying to play in the U.K. Music Week report what the first-ever UK Musicians’ Census found. An industry that we need desperately and have to fund as much as we can to ensure it remains strong and long-lasting, the figures and realities coming out are grim and incredibly bleak:

“Last week a survey revealed the impact of Brexit on UK music creators.

Now there’s a further series of insights in the first ever UK Musicians’ Census. The results are based on detailed information provided by nearly 6,000 UK musicians, making it the largest ever survey of its kind.

The report by Help Musicians and the Musicians’ Union covers the demographic make-up of UK musicians, the barriers to career progression and economic challenges. Read on for more details…

Earnings

The first Musicians’ Census found that 70% of professional musicians in the UK hold a degree or higher (50% have a music degree specifically), and 65% have been earning musicians for over 10 years.

Despite this, the Census found that UK musicians’ average annual income from music work is £20,700 – with 43% earning less than £14,000 a year from music, meaning many are left supplementing their income in other industries. The average income for those making 100% of their income from music is around £30,000, which compares to the average median income in the UK of £33,280 (ONS), and the average salary for a working-age person with a degree in the UK of £38,500.

Nearly a quarter (23%) of musicians stated they do not earn enough to support themselves or their families and for nearly half (44%), a lack of sustainable income is a barrier to their music career. Some 17% of musicians also reported being in debt, rising to 30% amongst those with a mental health condition and 28% for Black/Black British musicians.

Portfolio careers

As a result of the income distribution described above, many musicians now have a portfolio career, which has a significant impact on their ability to further develop their long-term musical careers and access to opportunity.

Over half (53%) sustain their career by sourcing other forms of income outside of music – two thirds (62%) of these generate additional funds from alternative employment, but other sources of financial support include support from family and friends (14%), and Universal Credit or other benefits (12%). Three quarters (75%) of those who have other income in addition to music report only seeking this work for financial reasons.

Naomi Pohl, Musicians’ Union general secretary, said: “The first Musicians’ Census highlights the challenges musicians face carving out and sustaining a career as a musician in 2023. As the UK’s trade union for musicians, this Census will help us be more effective at representing our members and tackling the nuanced challenges different communities of musicians face.

“Whether that is working with the industry to improve diversity, negotiating better pay and conditions, or lobbying governments to secure the support our members need and deserve, the Musicians' Census gives us the vital data to take on these challenges on behalf of our members”.

 IMAGE CREDIT: redgreystock via Freepik

There is a lot to get your head round…but the long and short of it is that musicians, whether very experienced or newer, are not in a strong financial situation. The most alarming passage of that article was: “43% earning less than £14,000 a year from music, meaning many are left supplementing their income in other industries”. What Sarah Woods, chief executive of Help Musicians, said about musicians needing their constant and continued support. Maybe more experienced musicians or those without dependants are in a better position than some, yet the entire outlook and all those statistics show that a sustainable career in music is beyond most people’s reach. It is devastating to think that many will drop out of music or they have to take extra jobs to support themselves. It comes back to that caution parents have had for decades when their children say they want to pursue music as a career. That they cannot earn enough money and it is just a dream. That shouldn’t be the message any parent tells their child, and yet reports and surveys highlighting the low earnings of many musicians, sadly, gives them that ammunition. U.K. music makers are so important. There has been a lot of angry online react to these findings. That is understandable! There are already so many obstacles facing artists at the moment. Many are either unable to get enough gigs to support themselves, or they have to play longer sets and travel further in order to break even. Merchandise and music sales do help, though low streaming rates – often there is more emphasis on selling your music digitally rather than physically – mean that they often have to rely on narrow channels of revenue.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Viktoria Slowikowska/Pexels

The whole picture right now is quite frightening. With the cost of living being a big issue, how are U.K. musicians meant to earn enough money to ensure their career is viable and sustainable? I am not sure whether our current government realises the realities of a musician’s lives and why music makers in this country need more financial support. I think the way that music demand is more geared to streaming then physical sales is hurting a lot of artists. That pittance they earn from streams of their songs is feeble. That means they have to tour more, yet the cost of touring can mean they are starting at a loss or break-even when they finish. I want to go back to an article from The Guardian that highlighted how many artists are touring merely for exposure and not profit in this post-Brexit landscape:

“Then came the pandemic, which stopped gigs and heightened the demand for artists to self-promote. Once restrictions lifted, musicians resumed touring rabidly. “You rush back out and everyone’s rushing out,” says Santigold. “So I had a tour that had me making no profit – and possibly a loss – and the only incentive was to stay in the public eye. And that’s the biggest fear for any musician: if you are not constantly in people’s faces you will not last.”

For years it has been apparent that stresses in the live music industry needed to be addressed. The constant gripes about ticket prices suggested the finances were not working for anyone: from fans feeling they were being taken advantage of, especially with the introduction of dynamic pricing, to artists seeing ticket spend lining the pockets of touts and resellers. During the pandemic, some promoters I spoke to hoped that the pause in live performance might lead to a conversation about lowering artists’ fees. No one is winning.

The situation now is even grimmer, given the lifting of restrictions and the current economic crisis. British acts are facing the costs of Brexit on European touring, while Britain, always the short straw of the international touring circuit, with its low fees and mediocre artist support, is less appealing than ever for visiting acts. Audiences are feeling the pinch and the cost of touring utilities and infrastructure has risen.

“The supply is much more limited because so many people went out of business during the pandemic,” says Sumit Bothra, managing director of ATC Management, Europe, which has PJ Harvey and Katie Melua among its roster. “On top of that, a lot of venues closed, and a lot of promoters went out of business, so there’s increased demand there. A 20-date tour might now have to be a 10-date tour. And you need talented crew to put a show together, and a lot of crew left the business during the pandemic.” (It’s impossible to overstate how deep the effects of the pandemic run: earlier this year, the head of one arena show production business told me there was a real problem with finding the correct-sized bolts to construct a stage.)

The bottleneck of artists returning to the road has also made it challenging to route tours sensibly, one key way to keep a tour viable. It’s not just about the geography making sense – driving from London to Glasgow via Manchester rather than Southampton – but ensuring that days off are minimal since the crew still have to be paid and the artists still need per diems. With venues booked up, that is much harder now, says Mike Malak, an agent with Wasserman Music, who books Billie Eilish, Kelis and Pusha T, among others. “If you’re trying to put together a tour in Europe, if you don’t plan a year in advance, you can’t get the beautiful routing you want. A lot of artists are now accepting they might have to go a couple of days off or go longer distances between shows, which might mean two drivers – another cost.”

Artists’ fees, meanwhile, have remained the same, or worse. Catherine Anne Davies, who tours and records as the Anchoress, says she has had offers that were half the pre-pandemic level, despite acclaim for her 2021 album The Art of Losing. “When I toured my first album, every show made a loss,” she says, “but you’re building something and you think, next year we might do better. We’re not even starting from zero now, though. We’re starting from minus 20.” Maybe she could make it up by working her merch table harder, she says, but then she exposes herself to an increased risk of catching Covid – which would mean cancelling more shows, with no insurance to make up the shortfall”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: V ZooS/Pexels

The inequalities and limitations of streaming is another big reason why artists are not making enough. If there is this emphasis to get people streaming music and this is a more accessible route, which means the artist is not earning a great deal, is that something that needs urgent assessment and tackling?! Maybe not entirely relevant to the survey about U.K. musicians, I wanted to bring in a feature from the Washington Post from this year. Songwriter Erika Nuri Taylor, in spite of her success, says that a streaming age makes a music career even more unsustainable and risky:

“Nuri Taylor became a professional writer as an 18-year-old in 1992. When “you wanted to buy music, you had to go to the record store,” she said.

Then came Napster, the file-sharing app that disrupted the music industry. ITunes soon followed. It wasn’t perfect, but users still needed to purchase songs, which translated into somewhat traditional royalties. Soon, though, streaming dominated the market, with Spotify leading the pack. And royalties plummeted.

For each dollar of revenue earned on Spotify, 58.5 cents go to the owner of a song’s sound recording (usually a record label), Spotify keeps 29.38 cents, 6.12 cents go to whoever owns publishing rights (usually the songwriter) and 6 cents goes to whoever owns the mechanical rights (usually the songwriter), according to 2016 research by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, a professional services firm.

IN THIS PHOTO: Nuri Taylor says, "I got my real estate license, because I thought I’m not going to be able to sustain being a creative person, a songwriter, for the next 10 to 15 years if nothing changes in the music industry/PHOTO CREDIT: Sean Scheidt for The Washington Post

For various complicated reasons — including Spotify’s cut, and the large number of streams it takes to get to that dollar — this scheme leads to less money for musicians, experts say. (A Spotify spokesperson said the figures in the 2016 study are roughly correct but did not respond when asked for further comment.)

Things worsened for all creatives, but they grew particularly dire for songwriters, who have long missed out on some potential sources of revenue available to performers, such as touring and merchandise. Then there’s the lag time between doing the work and getting paid for it. “If I write a song, it may take a year for that song to come out on an artist’s album,” Nuri Taylor said. Even then, the royalty payment isn’t instantaneous.

“We’re getting … the mechanical or streaming royalties, which is like nothing,” Nuri Taylor said. “At least before, we were getting paid when people bought an album or a vinyl record or a CD or they downloaded a song. But now that revenue has been cut drastically.”

“Five years ago, I started looking at my income,” she added. “I saw my royalty revenue pretty much cut in half.”

So, three years ago, “I got my real estate license, because I thought I’m not going to be able to sustain being a creative person, a songwriter, for the next 10 to 15 years if nothing changes in the music industry.” The job allows her the flexibility to write songs, which she does, but at this point, “I’m pretty much a full-time real estate agent”.

So many musicians are also producers and have many hats. They promote themselves and almost take on a whole team’s responsibility. Many artists play multiple instruments, which can mean more expense for them. These extra skills are not being rewarded with opportunity and financial security. The pandemic made things a lot worse than they were before. I think this has been a problem evident in the industry for years. Articles from 2018 highlighting how many musician don’t make money. There are guides as to how musicians can make money. For many, most of these avenues have been explored. You can only make so much from sales and touring. Throw in the costs involved with recording music and maybe a lack of opportunities in Europe. Exposure beyond the U.K. is crucial for longevity, and yet few artists can do this because of the travel costs and having to balance work-life. I think a lot of music media revolves around success stories and artists who are in the spotlight and riding high. There are comparatively few articles written and artists interviewed who are struggling and do not have the same fanbase and income as bigger acts. There does need to be this moment of realisation from the U.K. Government that music as a career is less sustainable and realistic than in years past. Maybe I am subjective. I think that an industry that brings so much joy and is so enriching should see rewards for those who make it what it is. Maybe that is over-simplifying things. It is clear that Brexit has been impactful. A census with a very important and noble aim, the first-ever UK Musicians’ Census has been very useful. Whether there are easy solution or it still take years before there is greater stability for U.K. musicians I am not sure. What it highlights, as we say every time we see reports of musicians struggling financially, is that…

PHOTO CREDIT: wayhomestudio via Freepik

MORE needs to be done by our Government.

FEATURE: All Quiet on the Suggestion Front: Is It Right for Artists to Impose Etiquette Rules at Gigs?

FEATURE:

 

 

All Quiet on the Suggestion Front

IMAGE CREDIT: Lucy May Walker

Is It Right for Artists to Impose Etiquette Rules at Gigs?

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IT is ironic that …

PHOTO CREDIT: Wendy Wei

there has been a swirling and exchange of anger, argument and debate around a topic and question that must have been present in music for decades. Can artists impose etiquette guidelines for its audience? I guess, depending on the genre and size of gig, there are going to be different concerns. For a more acoustic or quitter gig, talking might be more noticeable - or quieter songs during any type of gig. Audience members chatting between songs or during them. That irks so many people (myself included!). Filming gigs might seem intrusive, though it is not something that seems to be so noticeable at a stadium gig – seeing as so many people film and there is a massive amount of space. As we have seen quite a few artists performing being hit by objects from the crowd, I can understand why some might want to impose restrictions and politely ask their audience to adhere to some ground rules! I guess it all comes down the definition of etiquette and manners. For me, I dislike when you can hear people talking at a gig. It is about respecting the artist and paying attention to the music. It seems like the crowd are ignoring what is going on, so I get why some artists might feel angered or invisible. This has all come about because an artist, Lucy May Walker, has shared a post/list of etiquette rules for those attending her gigs. It has divided opinion and sparked arguments as to whether she was right. Can you really tell an audience how or how not they should act at gigs?! NME provided details of what has been happening:

“An artist who shared a poster of ‘gig etiquette’ they would like fans to abide by has gone viral and stirred a debate online.

Last week, singer-songwriter Lucy May Walker shared a photo of a series of rules she wanted fans to stick to on her upcoming tour of the UK.

“After my many interviews with various news outlets about gig etiquette, I’ve decided to print these off for my upcoming solo tour,” she wrote on X/Twitter.

 IMAGE CREDIT: Lucy May Walker

“I’ve not seen this done before (& I’m sad it’s come to this) but I’m hoping it will encourage people to behave. Thoughts?”

The stipulations include asking fans to “read the room” and not sing along too loudly if no-one else is, and to “keep your flash off” when taking photos, trying “not to watch the whole thing through your phone”.

In response, Walker has been widely criticised online and in the media. In an appearance on Good Morning Britain, Happy Mondays singer Rowetta hit out at the poster, saying: “To have a set of rules for a gig when they’re paying, I think that’s really awful, honestly. You should be a teacher or a prison officer.”

Others hit out at the poster for being entitled, and suggested that fans should enjoy live music however they wish.

The original tweet has been quote tweeted over 1,000 times, with one writing: “imagine someones having a panic attack in pit or something and they need to leave but lucy may wants u to wait until the end of the song to go.”

Another wrote: “you’re out of your goddamn mind if you think i’m paying to watch a show where i’m being treated like a damn toddler, if i want to scream my heart out i’m going to scream my heart out, if i want to record i’m going to record!!!! this new wave of concert “etiquette” is astonishing”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

Gig etiquette and the do’s and don’ts have been part of debate for years now. If you are attending a heavier-sounding gig then there may be some unique and rather extreme consideration. In 2012, The Guardian wrote their gig commandments. Seemingly obvious points like do onto others was a big one. Don’t throw beer around, act like you are at home, or generally be a bit of a lairy cu*t. A few points from this article back in July are sensible that should be applied to all gigs:

“3. TAKE CARE OF YOUR PERSONAL HYGIENE

A concert is most likely going to be full of people.

The more popular the band, the more people will attend a gig, and you might find that you are stood or sat quite close to complete strangers for a few hours.

Personal hygiene is always important but think about the other people at the gig and make sure your personal hygiene is at a good level.

This is even more important when going to a festival and camping over a long weekend.

4. DON’T STAND DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF PEOPLE DURING THE SHOW

Obviously, you can stand closer to the front than people who are choosing to stand further back but be aware of people around you and don’t go and stand right in front of someone who has been stood there for a while. It just comes across as rude and a little entitled.

We’d say the same goes for having people on your shoulders or going on someone’s shoulders, this is okay if it’s for one song, but you’re blocking people’s views behind you so don’t spend the whole concert doing it.

There is an unspoken rule about concert etiquette that every person finds their own spot whilst being mindful of everyone around them.

Obviously, not every person does this, but it will make for a more enjoyable experience.

PHOTO CREDIT: fxquadro via Freepik

5. DANCE WITHIN YOUR OWN SPACE

Most people want to dance at a gig, that is human nature as the whole point is to have fun and enjoy your favourite artist or band.

You should go and dance to your hearts content at the next concert you go to, but we would say that you should always be aware of everyone around you.

Dance away, but don’t encroach in another person’s space, so they have the room to dance and enjoy themselves as much as you do.

6. DON’T THROW DRINKS IN THE AIR

There are certain types of bands (we’re looking at your Indie guitar bands) that welcome a certain type of crowd.

Sometimes, you’ll be mid chorus singing along to the band’s anthem and you’ll feel the thud of a plastic glass on the top of your head and some remnants of lager all over you.

It’s gross, it’s sticky, disgusting, and more than anything else drinks are way too expensive at gig venues these days to be lashing half of it up in the air during your favourite song. Don’t be an idiot, actually drink your drink.

PHOTO CREDIT: Monstera Production/Pexels

7. BE RESPECTFUL OF THE ACTS

There is nothing worse than hearing loads of people talking when there is a quiet song being played during a gig, so don’t be one of those annoying people.

Be respectful of the acts, especially the support act, as they will be nervous enough as it is, playing in front of a load of people who are there to see the artist or band coming on after they have finished their set.

8. HELP OTHERS IN TROUBLE

Concert venues can be very hot places, especially if the music is lively.

Think about a gig where there is a ‘mosh pit’ for example, this can be a raucous, very fun place to be for a while.

However, always be careful that you are safe, and always keep an eye on your fellow concertgoers and if any person seems like they are in trouble, have fallen over, or look dazed, help them as best as you can to get out of there and to safety.

If you’re next to where water is being handed out, try to pass a cup back to those further behind you, or anyone who looks like they’re dehydrated”.

 The problem is, there is no set textbook or guide that apply to all gigs. All gigs are different when it comes to the type of crowd and the dynamic. Some might be more physical in terms of crowd involvement. A singer-songwriter might operate at a slightly less frantic and noisy environment…so they would want to keep it that way. I think it is down to the artist to say what they want from their audience. They are the ones who are performing and you have paid to see.

Why are people upset and angry about what Lucy May Walker posted when they have never seen her perform or do not intend to?! It does not impact them in any way! I feel many used this post to have a rant and generally get angry about someone who dared to ask for decency at a gig! Maybe some rules are a little strict but, again, you are there to see an artist who has rehearsed hard and worked a long time to get people to their gigs. Nothing that Lucy May Walker shared was extreme or something you might ask a child to do. If grown adults perceive it that way, then it says much more about them than what they are protesting against. Consider how hard it is for artists to get regular gigs and make money from what they are doing. Their earnings are typically pretty low, so they want their audience engaged so that they can share their experiences and perhaps get other people to go to future gigs. That word of mouth thing. Sure, it may seem a little harsh or like being at school in some cases, though I genuinely think artists want to focus and they want their crowd to be engaged. Many are happy for there to be interaction at appropriate times…but can anyone say that they need to talk during songs?! This does open up a debate about proper gig etiquette and how does an artist enforce it. As I say, there have been a worrying amount of cases of artists being attacked on stage and injured. It is understandable that there should be an industry-wide assessment of security, how audiences behave, and what happens to those who violate an artist’s safety. If someone feels affronted at the suggestion they should be able to talk freely at a gig and resent any sort of guideline that says otherwise than that…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Rahul Pandit/Pexels

SPEAKS volumes!

FEATURE: Jimmy and His Search for Self-Worth: The Who’s Quadrophenia at Fifty

FEATURE:

 

 

Jimmy and His Search for Self-Worth

The Who’s Quadrophenia at Fifty

_________

COMPOSED entirely by Pete Townshend …

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Who perform circa 1973/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

I wanted to celebrate the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of The Who’s Quadrophenia. this album came out at a time that was not among The Who’s most successful. With new inspiration and a fresh canvas, Quadrophenia ranks alongside the best albums by The Who. Reaching number two in the U.S. and U.K., Quadrophenia was revived for a film in 1979. On 26th October, 1973, The Who released one of their masterpieces. In terms of the album’s concept, it centres on a young working-class mod named Jimmy. Jimmy likes drugs, beach fights and romance. He becomes a fan of The Who after a concert in Brighton. Jimmy is adrift and struggling to find his place. He clashes with his parents over his usage of amphetamines. Struggling to find employment and any form of self-worthy, things start to unravel. After going back to Brighton to try and recapture some of that worth and value he felt running with Mods, he becomes disillusioned about how they have changed. The end of the album leaves it open-ended regarding Jimmy’s fate. To celebrate the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of this visionary work from The Who, there are a few features I want to include. Pop Matters considered The Who’s Quadrophenia for a feature in 2011:

“Quadrophenia is an album that has something for everyone and everything for some people. It concerns itself with virtually all the themes that have defined rock music through successive generations: alienation, rebellion, redemption. Sex. Drugs. And rock ‘n’ roll, as well as Mods, Rockers, punks, godfathers, bell boys, drunk mothers, distant fathers and fallen heroes. The sea, sand, surf and suicide. Rain, uppers, downers and drowning. Zoot suits, scooters, school and schizophrenia. Dirty jobs, helpless dancers, pills and gin. Stars falling, heat rising and, above all, love. Love of music, love of life and the love of possibility. Faith and the attempt to make a cohesive — not to mention coherent — statement on the meaning of all these things. And more.

Is that too much? More like it’s not enough.

Quadrophenia is, in no particular order, The Who album that has best defied time and fashion (one crucial criterion for measuring the ultimate impact of a successful work of art is how it fares over time), a guitar-playing tour de force, and Pete Townshend’s most realized conceptual effort. This is it: he was never this energized or inspired again; this is career-defining music. A double LP that is not as immediately approachable as Tommy, it takes a while but once you get it, it gets inside you — and never leaves.

The Who’s masterwork could almost be described as accidental beach music. Most of the narrative details the mercurial urgencies of young Jimmy, the disenchanted Mod who also could represent just about any teenager who has ever lived. As such, the words and sounds and feelings are alternately frantic (“Can You See The Real Me?”) and claustrophobic (“Almost Cut My Hair”): the story of a sensitive, chemically altered kid uncomfortable inside his skin. There are few releases, and even the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll can’t always be counted on.

The one place where he feels safe and free is at the beach. The album opens with crashing waves and ends with the electrified air of a summer storm. In between there are seagull chirps, scooters careening out of the city into open spaces, bass drum thunder and cymbal-splash raindrops. The album, like the protagonist’s mind, wrestles with itself, rising and falling like the moods of adolescence. Eventually, inevitably, the fever breaks, the skies open and the air is dark, cool and clear.

The genius of Quadrophenia (an album that manages to get name-checked by all the big names and seems universally admired but still not quite revered as much as it richly deserves to be) is certainly the sum of its parts, but also warrants, and welcomes, song-by-song scrutiny. Less flashy than the “rock opera” Tommy and less accessible than the FM-friendly Who’s Next (both masterpieces in their own right), Quadrophenia is, nonetheless, significantly more impressive (and indispensable) than both of those excellent albums.

Everything The Who did, in the studio and onstage, up until 1969 set the stage for Tommy: it was the consummation of Townshend’s obsessions and experimentations; a decade-closing magnum opus that managed to simultaneously celebrate the death and rebirth of the Hippie Dream. Everything Townshend did, in his entire life up until 1973 set the stage for Quadrophenia.

It’s all in there: the pre-teen angst, the teenage agonies and the post-teen despondency. Politicians and parents are gleefully skewered, prigs and clock punchers are mercilessly unmasked, and those who consider themselves less fortunate than everyone else (this, at times, is all of us) are serenaded with equal measures of empathy and exasperation.

And the songs? It’s like being in a shooting gallery, where Townshend picks off hypocrisy after misdeed after miniature tragedy all with a twinkling self-deprecation; this, after all, is a young misfit’s story, so the bathos and pathos is milked and articulated in ways that convey the earth-shattering urgency and comical banality that are part and parcel to the typical coming of age Cri de Coeur. And the band, certainly no slouch on its previous few efforts, is in top form throughout (isolating Moon and Entwistle on any track is a process that can yield ceaseless wonder and bewilderment, and provides a clinic for how multi-dimensional each player consistently managed to be).

From the extended workouts like the title track and “The Rock” (which sounds a bit like an updated and plugged-in version of Tommy’s “Underture”, to slash and burn mini epics like “Dr. Jimmy” to pre-punk (and post-Mod) anthems like “5:15”, the band is flexing rhythmic and textural muscles that are as big as any band’s ever got.

The attention to detail is striking and, for the time, remarkably innovative: consider the “found” sounds of the screeching scooters, the rain, the surf, the bus doors clanging open and, on “Bell Boy”, the sound of Keith Moon’s howl merging into the synthesizer (a technique later used to excellent effect on “Sheep” from Pink Floyd’s Animals).

There are the subtle yet masterful touches that are still capable of providing added pleasure after all these listens: the winking but ingenious meta of “My Generation” (in “The Punk and The Godfather”) and “The Kids are Alright” (in “Helpless Dancer”) as well as “I’m The Face” (in “Sea and Sand”). These are not just clever self-references, they are historical notes—from the history of The Who and, by extension and association, rock ‘n’ roll.

Being a double album (quite possibly the best one, and that is opined knowing that Electric Ladyland, Physical Graffiti and London Calling are also on the dance card), the combination of sheer quality and precision still manages to astonish, all these years later. Unlike most double albums that tend to drag a bit toward the end, this one gets better as it goes along, and none of the songs feel forced”.

Before coming onto a feature that investigates the legacy of Quadrophenia, it is worth getting to one of the many remarkably positive reviews for the 1973 album. Although not every critic raved, the majority definite did. This is what the BBC wrote in 2008, thirty-five years after the album came out:

“By 1973 Pete Townshend was courting disaster, fighting demons both interior and exterior. In 1971 the writer and guitarist had dealt with the blow of his second full rock opera, Lifehouse, being sunk by a falling out with friend and manager, Kit Lambert. An intense work schedule, combined with an inability to turn his ideas into reality (plus a hefty drink intake), drove him to a breakdown. Added to this was the constant battling between certain fellow band members. So in retrospect it looks like nothing short of a miracle that he not only salvaged the Lifehouse prime cuts to make the mighty Who's Next album, but that he then went on to channel all that sturm und drang into his greatest work: Quadrophenia.

Drawing on his experiences as a young mod-about-town as well as the spiritual quest that had lead him to the feet of his guru, Meher Baba, Townshend created the tale of Jimmy The Mod. A dispossessed youth whose psychological problems were rooted in home life, teenage relationship angst and plain old peer pressure; the anti-hero goes on a metaphorical journey from urban London to the rainswept beaches of Brighton in search of meaning. The concept was also shoe-horned into the group dynamic by using each member of the band as a signifier for the four personalities that inhabit Jimmy's double schizophrenia, with a recurring theme to match.

While the concept may be unwieldy, as a musical statement it's fabulous. The band could rock harder and looser than most others by this point. Moon's drums, always on the verge of chaos, drive the hit, 5'15 like a wild beast through the very heart of the double album. Entwistle's bass bubbles and restlessly explores all the empty corners of the arrangements while his french horn injects the 'is it me for a moment?' theme seamlessly. And Daltry's voice, having proven its maturity on Who's Next was here allowed to roar as Townshend could now write songs to fit his range. The closing, triumphant Love Reign O'er Me or the opening The Real Me remain amongst his finest moments. Meanwhile Pete's guitar work is at its most expressive and his use of early synths withstands the usual cheese-factor that blights so much music from this period.

Band egos, inflated by the dual pitfalls of fame and indulgence, led to the recording being fraught. There were reported fisticuffs between Pete and Roger. And any assuaging of the writer's inner turmoil was nixed by a gruelling tour (which saw Moon collapse mid-gig on one occasion) and pushed him even further into chemical overload. Yet, as Townshend now admits, and as all Who fans know, everything great about the Who is contained herein”.

I am going to end with a feature from Seat Unique. Earlier this year, they highlighted Quadrophenia’s themes of identity, rebellion, and societal pressure. I think so much of what The Who put out in 1973 is relevant today:

“Quadrophenia is a rock opera album by the British band The Who, released in 1973. The album tells the story of a young man named Jimmy, who is struggling to find his place in the world and dealing with issues of mental health and identity.

The project features themes of teenage angst, rebellion, and social alienation. It is considered one of The Who's greatest works and is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. For more info about The Who's best albums, check out or blog.

The album was later adapted into a film in 1979 directed by Franc Roddam.

Keep reading to get an in-depth look at Quadrophenia’s themes, musical elements and legacy, as well as finding out how you can secure VIP tickets to see the legendary London rockers live.

For more in-depth info about why you absolutely have to see The Who live, check out our blog about The Who's live legacy.

The Themes and Plot of The Who’s Quadrophenia

Quadrophenia is set in London and Brighton, England in the mid-1960s, and follows a young man named Jimmy as he navigates the challenges of being a teenager in a society that doesn't understand him.

Jimmy is a 17-year-old mod who feels disconnected from his family, peers and society. He is depicted as a confused, frustrated and lost teenager who is searching for a sense of self.

The album's other characters include Jimmy's friends, including the Ace Face, a charismatic mod leader, and his rival, the Rocker, who represents the opposite of the mod culture.

One of the main themes of Quadrophenia is identity. Jimmy is trying to figure out who he is and where he belongs in the world. He feels like an outsider and is searching for a sense of self-worth.

The album also explores themes of rebellion and societal pressure. Jimmy's struggles reflect the larger societal issues of the time, such as class struggles, and the changing attitudes of the youth.

The album's title, Quadrophenia, is a play on the word "schizophrenia" and the four distinct personalities of the main character. These four personalities are used to represent different aspects of Jimmy's psyche.

The album's protagonist is portrayed as a multi-faceted individual, who is struggling to find a balance between these different aspects of his personality. Quadrophenia is a powerful and timeless story that tells of a young man's struggles to find his place in the world and his search for identity.

The album explores themes of identity, rebellion, and societal pressure and uses the concept of multiple personalities to represent the protagonist's psyche.

The Musical Elements of The Who’s Quadrophenia

Quadrophenia's musical style is heavily influenced by the band's own brand of rock, as well as by other genres such as rhythm and blues, soul, and British music hall.

The album's opening track, ‘I Am the Sea’, sets the stage for the narrative with its powerful, driving guitar and drums. Other notable tracks include ‘The Real Me’, which showcases the band's signature power chord guitar sound, and ‘Love Reign O'er Me’, which features an emotionally charged vocal performance by lead singer Roger Daltrey.

The album also makes use of orchestral arrangements and sound effects to enhance the storytelling. For example, the track ‘5:15’ features a soaring string section that adds to the sense of drama, while ‘Drowned’ uses sound effects such as church bells and seagulls to create a sense of atmosphere.

Quadrophenia is a powerful and ambitious album that showcases The Who's iconic lyrics, musical talent and storytelling abilities. The combination of rock, R&B and orchestral arrangements and the use of sound effects, all contribute to the album's overall narrative and make it a classic of rock music.

The Impact and Legacy of The Who’s Quadrophenia

Upon its release, Quadrophenia received critical acclaim and is now considered a classic of the genre.

The ground-breaking project has had a significant influence on other rock operas and concept albums, particularly in its use of storytelling and its incorporation of diverse musical styles.

Many artists have cited the album as an inspiration, including Pete Townshend himself, who said that Quadrophenia was ‘the most complete expression’ of The Who's musical vision.

The album's enduring popularity can be attributed to its relatable themes and its ability to capture the spirit of youth and rebellion. The album's relevance in the present day is also due to the fact that the themes of identity, belonging and rebellion are still relevant today.

In summary, Quadrophenia is considered a classic and influential rock opera and concept album, with a legacy that continues to be celebrated today. Its themes of identity, belonging and rebellion, as well as its diverse musical styles, continue to resonate with listeners and make it a timeless favourite”.

I was keen to mark the approaching fiftieth anniversary of The Who’s Quadrophenia. It also got me thinking about concept albums and the fact some have not been made into films. There definitely is scope. The 1979 is a beloved British classic. On 26th October, a sweeping Rock opera from The Who celebrates fifty years. It is without doubt, one of the best albums…

OF the 1970s

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Tracks from the Incredible Film Scores of 2023

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio

Tracks from the Incredible Film Scores of 2023

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I occasionally talk about film scores …

 PHOTO CREDIT: Nathan Engel/Pexels

and great modern composers. It is something that you do not find in too many music blogs and websites. Rather than focus purely on music coming from the industry, there definitely should be more crossover into and consideration of film scores. They can be as majestic and memorable as any album. So much variety and scope. There have been some incredible scores recorded and released this year. I have a few favourites that I will include here. I am going to spotlight a couple of tracks from each. From the dramatic to the beautiful, there are some real treats here! If you concentrate on film scores or consider them part of the background, I hope that these amazing scores from films released this year changes your mind. Put this playlist on, turn the volume, and lose yourself…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Lizie Concepción/Pexels

IN this magical mix.

FEATURE: A Loaded Question: Can Music Help End America’s Disturbing Obsession with Guns?

FEATURE:

 

 

A Loaded Question

PHOTO CREDIT: Kindel Media/Pexels

Can Music Help End America’s Disturbing Obsession with Guns?

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ONE of the world’s impossible problems to solve…

PHOTO CREDIT: Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

might be gun control in the U.S. There is a gun issue in many nations, yet with the size of the population, the sheer number of people who own firearms across the country, coupled with the number of fatalities each year, America is leading a very unsettling race! Those with guns often see it as protection. The fact that everyone has the right to bear arms and protect themselves. That Constitutional right that seems irreversible and prehistoric. Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center presented some very worrying and alarming statistics when it came to guns-related injuries and deaths:

“More Americans died of gun-related injuries in 2021 than in any other year on record, according to the latest available statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That included record numbers of both gun murders and gun suicides. Despite the increase in such fatalities, the rate of gun deaths – a statistic that accounts for the nation’s growing population – remained below the levels of earlier decades.

Here’s a closer look at gun deaths in the United States, based on a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the CDC, the FBI and other sources. You can also read key public opinion findings about U.S. gun violence and gun policy.

How many people die from gun-related injuries in the U.S. each year?

In 2021, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the CDC. That figure includes gun murders and gun suicides, along with three less common types of gun-related deaths tracked by the CDC: those that were accidental, those that involved law enforcement and those whose circumstances could not be determined. The total excludes deaths in which gunshot injuries played a contributing, but not principal, role. (CDC fatality statistics are based on information contained in official death certificates, which identify a single cause of death.) 

What share of U.S. gun deaths are murders and what share are suicides?

Though they tend to get less public attention than gun-related murders, suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. In 2021, 54% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (26,328), while 43% were murders (20,958), according to the CDC. The remaining gun deaths that year were accidental (549), involved law enforcement (537) or had undetermined circumstances (458).

What share of all murders and suicides in the U.S. involve a gun?

About eight-in-ten U.S. murders in 2021 – 20,958 out of 26,031, or 81% – involved a firearm. That marked the highest percentage since at least 1968, the earliest year for which the CDC has online records. More than half of all suicides in 2021 – 26,328 out of 48,183, or 55% – also involved a gun, the highest percentage since 2001.

How has the number of U.S. gun deaths changed over time?

The record 48,830 total gun deaths in 2021 reflect a 23% increase since 2019, before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Gun murders, in particular, have climbed sharply during the pandemic, increasing 45% between 2019 and 2021, while the number of gun suicides rose 10% during that span.

The overall increase in U.S. gun deaths since the beginning of the pandemic includes an especially stark rise in such fatalities among children and teens under the age of 18. Gun deaths among children and teens rose 50% in just two years, from 1,732 in 2019 to 2,590 in 2021. 

How has the rate of U.S. gun deaths changed over time?

While 2021 saw the highest total number of gun deaths in the U.S., this statistic does not take into account the nation’s growing population. On a per capita basis, there were 14.6 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2021 – the highest rate since the early 1990s, but still well below the peak of 16.3 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 1974.

The gun murder rate in the U.S. remains below its peak level despite rising sharply during the pandemic. There were 6.7 gun murders per 100,000 people in 2021, below the 7.2 recorded in 1974.

The gun suicide rate, on the other hand, is now on par with its historical peak. There were 7.5 gun suicides per 100,000 people in 2021, statistically similar to the 7.7 measured in 1977. (One caveat when considering the 1970s figures: In the CDC’s database, gun murders and gun suicides between 1968 and 1978 are classified as those caused by firearms and explosives. In subsequent years, they are classified as deaths involving firearms only.)

 Which states have the highest and lowest gun death rates in the U.S.?

The rate of gun fatalities varies widely from state to state. In 2021, the states with the highest total rates of gun-related deaths – counting murders, suicides and all other categories tracked by the CDC – included Mississippi (33.9 per 100,000 people), Louisiana (29.1), New Mexico (27.8), Alabama (26.4) and Wyoming (26.1). The states with the lowest total rates included Massachusetts (3.4), Hawaii (4.8), New Jersey (5.2), New York (5.4) and Rhode Island (5.6)

The results are somewhat different when looking at gun murder and gun suicide rates separately. The places with the highest gun murder rates in 2021 included the District of Columbia (22.3 per 100,000 people), Mississippi (21.2), Louisiana (18.4), Alabama (13.9) and New Mexico (11.7). Those with the lowest gun murder rates included Massachusetts (1.5), Idaho (1.5), Hawaii (1.6), Utah (2.1) and Iowa (2.2). Rate estimates are not available for Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont or Wyoming.

The states with the highest gun suicide rates in 2021 included Wyoming (22.8 per 100,000 people), Montana (21.1), Alaska (19.9), New Mexico (13.9) and Oklahoma (13.7). The states with the lowest gun suicide rates were Massachusetts (1.7), New Jersey (1.9), New York (2.0), Hawaii (2.8) and Connecticut (2.9). Rate estimates are not available for the District of Columbia”.

It seems hardly a week goes by without the news reporting on a mass shooting or murder via firearm. This idea that people need to protect themselves. Even feeling that, if nobody else had guns, then they would still feel vulnerable. It is a horrible mindset that means we are seeing so many needless deaths each year. I am going to expand about music and how it can at least send messages out regarding gun violence and bringing it to an end (or nearer than it has been for many decades). The Guardian recently reported how a group of artists have formed a coalition against gun violence. It has come to a time when politicians are still unable to come to an agreement. A nation divided over an issue that should be simple to eradicate. So many unwilling to change the laws on gun ownership. It must be terrifying and infuriating living in the U.S. and feeling unsafe:

“Billie Eilish, Peter Gabriel, Sheryl Crow and a host of other artists have joined forces for a new coalition against gun violence.

Artist for Action to Prevent Gun Violence is a new “non-political” organisation aimed at inspiring Americans to act together through volunteering and ultimately voting to eliminate the epidemic that has already killed over 37,000 people in the US this year alone. Early estimates suggest that it could be the deadliest year yet.

“As a community of artists, we need to band together to make common sense change,” Eilish said in a statement. Gabriel added: “This needs to stop. So many needless deaths. So much suffering. It just needs a little common sense.”

Other artists also involved include Sheryl Crow, Nile Rodgers, Rufus Wainwright, Bootsy Collins, Sofi Tukker and The Pixies.

The official launch will roll out with a series of live events, kicking off with Bush and special guests in New York on 22 September.

IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Eilish performing at Leeds Festival in 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Matthew Baker/Getty Images for ABA

“As a father, I am staggered by the gun violence in America, and as a musician, I am fortunate enough to be able to take a stand against it,” Bush’s Gavin Rossdale said. “This is a human rights crisis out of control. There have been more than 400 mass shootings in the US in 2023 – from stores to football games to parades to schools. Every person, especially children, deserves the right to be and feel safe.”

It is led by Mark Barden, a musician and father of one of the 26 children murdered in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting. “After my son Daniel was murdered at Sandy Hook elementary school, I put my career as a professional guitarist on hold to devote myself to preventing gun violence,” Barden said. “Please join me and hundreds of other artists, musicians, actors, athletes and people like you to finally end this senseless violence.”

December will also see the release of a film, executive produced by Crow, which tells Barden’s story.

Eilish has often shown support for improved gun control, releasing a statement on Instagram in 2019 asking her followers to support gun safety non-profit Everytown”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Chuck D in London in 2017/PHOTO CREDIT: David Levene/The Guardian 

Music has an amazing power and influence. Popular artists have this platform whether they can reach millions of people. I hope that the new coalition gets social media support and more artists join. I will finish with the power of songs and whether music can lead to social and political change. Gun violence is an issue that also affects music. Rap and Hip-Hop especially. In another article from The Guardian, Public Enemy’s Chuck D talked about his new graphic novel and the madness of U.S. gun culture:

“And he interprets everything, from the raw pain of mass shootings to climate change, to the war in Ukraine to the Black Lives Matter movement.

It’s the “Disunited State of America” he decries in one of the images.

Some themes are depicted in portraits and feature prominent people such as Salman Rushdie, Jay-Z, even the Pope.

Urban backdrops sketched in black and white lines capture an apocalyptic-looking America, from the Bronx in New York to Jackson, Mississippi.

“People are confused and angry,” he says. “Only last week a black woman was shot down because she was shoplifting. She was just shoplifting! And it was the police!” he bawls.

As a rapper, gun violence is the issue that impacts Chuck D the most. “Too many rappers have been lost to shootings,” he says, recalling his friend Jam Master Jay in 2002 and Young Dolph in 2021. At least 75% of hip-hop deaths have been from guns, he says. “It’s a sickness and an epidemic that has permeated and come out through the music.”

He acknowledges the inevitability that hip-hop is cast as a sort of musical pariah whenever there is a shooting involving a rapper.

“That’s the danger,” he says.

Guns and hip-hop, guns and God, they are complicated, divisive subjects in America, he suggests, but that’s also the reason he’s tackling them in the new book”.

Music and the messages artists put out can be incredibly influential and powerful. Able to be political and inspire minds, can artists get America out of its centuries-long obsession with guns?! I found an article from earlier this year from The New York Times, where Ketch Secor, a founding member and the lead singer of Old Crow Medicine Show (and a Grammy-winning musician who lives in Nashville), wrote why Country music can lead the U.S. out of its quagmire and division:

“They say we love our guns down South, and it’s true they are part of the pageantry of our beloved Southland, in tune with the equally nostalgic heartstrings we pull for mother, God, freedom and country. Country music plays a central role in forming the South’s gun mythology, from songs like “Big Iron” to “A Country Boy Can Survive.” Seven nights a week in Nashville, you can hear any number of country upstarts remind the tourists in the honky-tonk bars on Lower Broad that Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno “just to watch him die.”

But all the parents in Nashville, including me, know what they were doing shortly after 10 a.m. on Monday, March 27. When shots rang out inside Nashville’s Covenant School and three adults and three children were murdered, the tragedy exposed the deep hypocrisy of a musical genre at once so beholden to Christian principles and yet so unwilling to stand for peace. The 377th school shooting since Columbine happened on a Christian campus in Nashville and, as a musician, writer and historian, I now believe that country music has a unique opportunity to shepherd conservative Southerners, a demographic essential to the passage of any meaningful legislation, to the table to negotiate gun reform. 

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Zisiga Mukulu/The New York Times; photographs by alxpin/Getty Images and The New York Public Library

My band, Old Crow Medicine Show, which first struck up a tune in Nashville 25 years ago and was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2013, has always played a fringe role on the country scene. Though we lean left politically, our signature song, “Wagon Wheel,” has become a mainstream anthem for audiences that consistently lean right. When I hear it blasting from a pickup truck, I often spy an N.R.A. sticker on the bumper. In my experience, country stars tend toward centrism. The right-wing groups we most often encounter are not our bandmates but our audiences.

What the South needs now is an anti-assault-weapons movement driven by voices from the center, by interdenominational faith leaders, by students — Nashville is called the Athens of the South because it is teeming with scholars at its many colleges — and by country singers who are tired of bending to the whims of fearmongers and who are ready to speak from their platforms to an impressionable audience.

Conservative musicians are always vocal when it comes to the culture wars, but stars with moderate views tend not to weigh in publicly. The motive is genuine: We don’t want to offend anyone. But in times as dire as these, silence is complicity. It’s time for country music makers to use their platforms to speak candidly to their conservative audiences. Our outrage needs to move from the green room to center stage.

Now that the tragedy of school gun violence has come to Nashville, our city is poised to help lead the nation toward effective regulations such as red-flag and safe-storage laws, a ban on military-grade weapons, stricter background checks and the repeal of permitless carry laws.

Exactly one week after the shooting at Covenant School, the students of Episcopal School of Nashville — a school I helped found eight years ago on the Judeo-Christian principles of peace, inclusivity and love — walked out of their classrooms, joining a longstanding tradition of peaceful demonstration in our city.

The street that runs past the Ryman Auditorium, the historic home of the Grand Ole Opry, was recently renamed Rep. John Lewis Way, after the civil rights leader who was arrested for the first time while protesting in Nashville. Many architects of the civil rights movement, such as James Lawson and Diane Nash, were active in this city, where the political climate made it more palatable than places further south. What might have gotten you lynched in Alabama or firebombed in Mississippi felt somehow safer in Nashville, a city of church spires and universities.

Nashville remains a bellwether city where right and left can conjoin, where musicians and artists test the boundaries of the South’s social strictures and where Christianity of both deeply evangelical and progressive varieties flourishes”.

With every shocking statistic regarding gun violence across America, the more important it is to highlight the problem and tackle it. There will always be that struggle between the Democrats and Republicans and their stance on gun ownership. Music can be a bigger and more unified force that could help to raise awareness of the problems and devastating impact of gun violence. Spreading messages as to why gun ownership in the U.S. needs to be limited. That we cannot see shockingly high figures of gun-related injuries and death year in year out. I think that, if the music industry joined together and there was this massive protest and musical decrying of gun ownership and the wake people up to the realities of gun violence, then that could help change things. Maybe we will never see a day when all gun violence ends and there is no gun ownership – though a big difference can be made. Many artists have protested in recent years, so there is this real desire from the community for change and peace. So often, gun violence impacts innocent people. There is this struggle between those who feel owning a gun is a right – so they can protect themselves – and those who feel guns breed more violence than they prevent. The staggeringly high number of gun-related deaths should open people’s eyes. And yet, year in year out, these go into the void. I think music can play a big role. Whether Country music, modern Pop icons or legends of the past, this shared desired to severely limit gun ownership and the deaths it causes could become a reality…

IN our lifetime.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The Welsh Music Prize 2023: The Shortlist

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The Digital Mixtape

The Welsh Music Prize 2023: The Shortlist

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I think certain award shows and ceremonies…

get acclaim and lots of media attention. That is all good, yet there are those that never quite get the spotlight and exposure from the mainstream. When it comes to musical countries that produce such excellent, unique and original music, you need not look much further than Wales. One of my favourite times of year is seeing the shortlist announced from the Welsh Music Prize. Every year offers up a banquet and bonanza of incredible albums. At a time when Welsh music is still not emphasised and spotlighted much by national stations and the music media, this year’s rich crop of entrants should help to redress that! In fact – and taking away nothing from the superb Mercury Prize -, so many award ceremonies are focused on London. Albums and artists from the capital scoop most of the accolades. Instead, with the Welsh Music Prize, you can feel and hear something genuinely brilliant and enduring without having to crown your eyes to London. Of this year’s selected fifteen albums, legends such as John Cale stand alongside Sister Wives. I know who I think will win this year, though you can never predict – so strong and diverse is the shortlist! Cath Holland writing for the good folk at God Is in the TV gives us all the news and nominated artists that we need to look out for. Ahead of Sian Eleri hosting the ceremony on 10th October, we have some time to listen to the shortlisted fifteen albums and revel in the brilliance of Welsh music:

“The 15-strong Welsh Music Prize shortlist was revealed by Adam Walton on BBC Radio Wales this weekend. The annual award is a celebration of releases over the past year, and seeks to highlight and increase the profile of Welsh music both in the country itself and across the globe.

The finalists offer much to choose from – cinematic nostalgic indie psych-pop via YNYS – shortlisted for our very own Neutron Prize last month – and gothic folklore feminism courtesy of Sister Wives; Minas‘s is a firey debut, boisterous psychedelic ensemble CVC‘s record suitably boisterous, we enjoy classy songwriting by Dafydd Owain, and classic indie pop from Hyll exploring growth into adulthood. Electronic duo Overmono make the list, as does triple Welsh harpist Cerys Hafana, and a deeply personal release from H Hawkline, plus beautiful delicacies shared by Ivan Moult. The legendary John Cale is in there, rapper Mace the Great as bracing as ever, Rogue Jones making a witty and warm return, Stella Donnelly is both biting and moving and Sŵnami entertain with highly melodic indie.

 Founded in 2011 and supported by Creative Wales, the prize is open to albums of all genres and past winners have included Kelly Lee Owens, Boy Azooga, Deyah, Gruff Rhys, Gwenno, Meilyr Jones and more. Last year’s award was given to Bato Mato by Adwaith who are the first artists to win the Welsh Music Prize twice, the band’s debut album Melyn taking home the gong in 2019.

The shortlisted albums have been whittled down from a longlist of 140 albums by the Welsh Music Prize jurors. The judges – Dave Acton (Larynx Entertainment), Huw Baines (The Guardian / NME / Kerrang), Tegwen Bruce Deans (music journalist), Mirain Iwerydd (BBC Radio Cymru), Nest Jenkins (ITV Cymru Wales Backstage), Eddy Temple Morris (Virgin Radio) now have the task of choosing one of the nominated albums for the coveted prize.

Winners will be announced at this years’ ceremony on 10 October at Wales Millennium Centre, presented by BBC Radio 1 presenter Sian Eleri. The event will welcome a live public audience as part of Llais, Cardiff’s flagship international arts festival which takes place 10– 15 October. This year the Welsh Music Prize will open Llais for the second year, and include performances by shortlisted performers Cerys Hafana, Mace the Great and Minas. Triskel Award winners Talulah, Dom & Lloyd and Half Happy who receive up to £5,000 worth of support each to assist their careers with advice and expert sessions from Help Musicians, will also play on the might along with PPL Momentum recipient Hana Lili.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Sian Eleri

Welsh Music Prize co-founder, Huw Stephens said: “This year’s shortlist is another great collection of albums from Wales. The Welsh Music Prize is a globally recognised award and an important part of Wales’ music calendar, and this year’s line up at the Welsh Music Prize promises to make it a very special night.”

The Welsh Music Prize 2023 finalists are:

Cerys Hafana – Edyf (Cerys Hafana / Self Released)

CVC – Get Real (CVC Recordings)

Dafydd Owain – Uwch Dros Y Pysgod (Recordiau I KA CHING)

H Hawkline – Milk For Flowers (Heavenly Recordings)

Hyll – Sŵn O’r Stafell Arall (Recordiau JigCal Records)

Ivan Moult – Songs From Severn Grove (Bubblewrap Records)

John Cale – Mercy (Domino Recording Co Ltd.)

Mace The Great – SplottWorld (SplottWorld Ent.)

Minas – All My Love Has Failed Me (Libertino Records)

Overmono – Good Lies (XL Recordings)

Rogue Jones – Dos Bebés (Libertino Records)

Sister Wives – Y Gawres (Libertino Records)

Stella Donnelly – Flood (Secretly Canadian)

Sŵnami – Sŵnamii (Recordiau Côsh Records)

YNYS – Ynys (Libertino Records)”.

Just before wrapping up, I have some more details about which of the fifteen nominated artists will be performing on the day on 10th October. If you want to grab tickets to see the Welsh Music Prize ceremony then al that information is below. You can also keep track of all the updates and news by following the Welsh Music Prize on social media:

“The Judges for Welsh Music Prize 2023 are:

Dave Acton (Larynx Entertainment)

Huw Baines (The Guardian / NME / Kerrang)

Tegwen Bruce Deans (music journalist)

Mirain Iwerydd (BBC Radio Cymru)

Nest Jenkins (ITV Cymru Wales Backstage)

Eddy Temple Morris (Virgin Radio)

IN THIS PHOTO: Sister Wives

Recipients of the Triskel Awards (with Help Musicians) are:

Half Happy

Dom & Lloyd

Talulah 

Live performances for WMP ’23 are:

Cerys Hafana (WMP ‘23 nominee)

Mace the Great (WMP ‘23 nominee)

Minas (WMP ‘23 nominee)

Talulah (Triskel Award Winner)

Dom & Lloyd (Triskel Award Winner)

Half Happy (Triskel Award Winner)

Hana Lili (PPL Momentum recipient)

Tickets for the event can be purchased here: https://www.wmc.org.uk/en/llais/events/welsh-music-prize

For more information about the Welsh Music Prize go to www.wmp.cymru or follow @welshmusicprize #WMP2023”.

Go and check out those fifteen albums before the ceremony takes place. I wanted to end this feature by picking two tracks from each of the shortlisted albums for this year’s Welsh Music Prize. You will see and hear so much music diversity. All of these artists need to be in your regular rotation. Once you hear this playlist, do yourself and a favour and listen in full to all of the albums from…

FIFTEEN Welsh Music Prize warriors.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road at Fifty: ‘Yellow’ Songs

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

PHOTO CREDIT: Minh Ngọc/Pexels

Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road at Fifty: ‘Yellow’ Songs

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ON 5th October, 1973…

Elton John released his seventh studio album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Perhaps one of his best-known and admired, its title song is a classic. I was going to write a full anniversary feature about the album, but I feel conflicted. On the one hand, it is a brilliant album that ranks alongside the best of the 1970s. Recently, as actor Kevin Spacey was acquitted on charges of sexual assault. Elton John gave evidence in his defence and enjoyed dinner with him. It does seem like a legendary artist siding with an actor who is not actually innocent of the charges. A powerful man in Hollywood, I doubt that Spacey got away with a lot of horrible stuff. For that reason, it doesn’t feel right giving too much oxygen to an artist and album that once would have been celebrated. Not that Elton John is no longer worthy of focus. His music is timeless and important, though I think he has sullied his reputation and good name by siding with Spacey. That said, I did want to mark Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’s fiftieth anniversary. More as a jumping-off point than the subject of a dedicated feature. Instead, below are songs featuring the word/colour yellow. Below are some ‘yellow’ songs (and one different from a similar playlist I made in 2021) that make for…

A diverse and interesting playlist.