FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street

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FOR this Vinyl Corner…

I want to spend some time with a duo who I hope will release some new music very soon. Kings of Convenience released Declaration of Dependence in 2009. Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe are sensational when they blend their voices together! Maybe it is their Norwegian accents or the affinity they have for the music that makes what they do so affecting and moving. I loved their 2001 debut, Quiet Is the new Loud, but I think Riot on an Empty Street afforded them greater critical acclaim and widespread focus. In terms of the songwriting, maybe they were broader and more focused. Even though the album only reached number forty-nine in the U.K., I feel it is a beautiful album that people should get on vinyl. Despite it not being widely available, there are websites like this where you can pick it up for a reasonable rate. I realise that the past two Vinyl Corners have featured albums that are either not widely available or are only available from fairly obscure places! Next week, I am bringing in an album from the last few years that everyone will be able to buy from a range of sites! I think raising the issue, hopefully, should compel Kings of Convenience and Astralwerks to reprint the album or to redistribute it. As I also say in these features, if you cannot find it on vinyl for an affordable price then go and stream the album or buy the C.D. Although the idea of this feature is to highlight albums that sound perfect on vinyl, the real intent is to get people to listen to the album! One reason why I love Riot on an Empty Street is that it features two song collaborations with the amazing Canadian musician, Feist. Her gorgeous voice adds something special to Know-How, and The Build-Up.

I am going to finish up soon, but I want to highlight a couple of reviews for Kings of Convenience’s second album. This is what AllMusic wrote when they reviewed Riot on an Empty Street:

“Riot on an Empty Street ends a long period of inactivity for Kings of Convenience. During their three-year layoff Erlend Øye could be found making solo records and DJing while Eirik Glambek Boe was finishing his psychology degree. Luckily for fans of beautiful vocals and thoughtful indie pop, they decided to get back together. What this band is all about is the sound of Boe and Øye's voices blended together in harmony. Their first album (in both incarnations) erred on the side of consistency. Here the band seems to have learned the all-important lesson of pace and variety. The arrangements are fuller too with pianos, strings, the occasional electric guitar, and lovely guest vocals on two tracks from Broken Social Scene member Leslie Feist. Not to say that they have gone crazy with change. They still stick pretty closely to the acoustic guitars and vocals path, and the tone of the album is autumnal and restrained as before. They have just added more songs like the gently driving "Misread," the lilting waltz "Stay Out of Trouble," and the downright peppy "I'd Rather Dance With You." Øye's side trip into electronica only rears its head on the non-electronic but modern-sounding "Love Is No Big Truth." No matter what the song, though, when their tender, fragile voices harmonize it can be breathtaking. And heartbreaking. The moment in "Surprise Ice" when Eirik is joined by Erland will raise goose bumps. There are many others like that on Riot, and they are what sells the record. If you sort of liked the first record but wished it was more interesting, that it had more punch of both the sonic and emotional variety, then your wishes have come true”.

There are whispers that the duo might release new music soon, though I think these might be rumours. There is a definite absence at the moment; a desire for their particular brand of stunning music. The second review I want to bring in is from Pitchfork. They made some interesting comments:

“Of course, Riot might have left a bigger impression if that last song title had served as the album's mission statement; the only dancing appropriate to most of these 12 tracks is a slow sway while sitting Indian-style. Indeed, the Kings of Convenience would do well to assimilate more of Øye's electronic leanings into their original sound, rather than merely mining sad troubadours past for inspiration and leaving these tracks as sparse source material for the obligatory remix album. Only "Love Is No Big Truth" appears to take a hack at translating a club bangah into the Kings' delicate language, combining an insistent bass drum, crisp little electric guitar figures, and banjo to construct a passable folk-bred techno.

More experiments of this sort would help the Kings of Convenience update their harmonies-and-fingerpicking sound for a modern world, rather than continuing to exist as a museum piece profiling musicians who like "The Boxer" way too much.

It would also build a bridge to listeners drawn in by Øye's extracurricular activities but who might not be willing to make the leap to as rhythmless an environment as is found in most of Riot on an Empty Street. Should the duo ever decide to cut out the professional remixer middlemen and create the hybrid sound their backgrounds suggest, Kings of Convenience might finally become the rare 6am comedown band that actually sounds like it recorded during this century”.

If you can get hold of Riot on an Empty Street on vinyl then treat yourself – as it is a remarkable album that demands that kind of format. Failing that, listen to the album below and lose yourself in its wonderful songs. From the incredible opening tracks, Homesick, and Misread, through to the hypnotic I'd Rather Dance with You, there is so much to enjoy on the album! Maybe it is lockdown and the way we are perceiving and interpreting music at the moment, but I find myself drawn to the songs in a way I perhaps was not the last time I heard Riot on an Empty Street. I have loved it since its release in 2004 and, in 2021, it still manages to seduce me and infuse the senses. I think that every music fan should surrender to the charms of the magical…

RIOT on an Empty Street.

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part One: Prince

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

Part One: Prince

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IN a new feature…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives

I am starting off with an artist who I have written about a lot over the past couple of weeks. Because we mark five years since Prince died in April, I wanted to kick off Inspired By… with him. This feature looks at a great artist/band and, at the end, I compile a playlist of artists who have been influenced by them. In the case of Prince, there are articles that list artists who wouldn’t be where they are without him. NME put out an article, as did GQ (they focused more on style). Articles like this and this highlight artists or songs that owe a debt to Prince. Because of that, this playlist is stuffed with eclectic musicians who have an element of The Purple One. This playlist includes artists who are inspired by Prince in addition to songs that have more than a droplet of his sound. Enjoy this playlist that shows that Prince’s genius and legacy…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Lester Cohen/WireImage

WILL continue strong for decades.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: The Best of Babyface

FEATURE:

 

The Lockdown Playlist

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jenna Watson/Indystar

The Best of Babyface

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EVEN though his birthday…

is not until 10th April, I wanted to do a Lockdown Playlist about Babyface and the awesome songs he has written or produced. If you do not know about him, here is some information:

“Kenneth Brian Edmonds (born April 10, 1959), better known by his stage name Babyface, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has written and produced over 26 number-one R&B hits throughout his career and has won 11 Grammy Awards. He was ranked number 20 on NME's 50 of The Greatest Producers Ever list”.

I am taking a selection of song that he wrote/co-wrote or produced. It is amazing to think about the array of tracks he has been involved with and the fact that a lot of people do not know about him. I guess producers and songwriters do not get the same sort of focus and media attention as the artists themselves. In honour of a great and hugely original songwriter/producer/artist, this Lockdown Playlist is all about…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Babyface and Toni Braxton/PHOTO CREDIT: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

THE amazing Babyface.

FEATURE: The Fine Purple: Kate Bush and Prince

FEATURE:

 

 

The Fine Purple

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993

Kate Bush and Prince

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I am doing a run of Prince features…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Prince in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Lynn Goldsmith

through March and into April. On 21st April, it will be five years since the world lost Prince. Although that date is quite a way off, I though that a feature or two a week would just about get close to exploring the man’s genius and why he is so influential. Rather than focus on Prince solely, I want to mention him alongside Kate Bush. I think it is one of the great missed opportunities that Kate Bush and Prince did not work together more. There are these collaborations that you hear and wonder what could have been if more songs had come from those artists. I am going to get to the song from Kate Bush’s The Red Shoes where Prince features. I think the two are sort of kindred in a way, in terms of their talent and musical diversity. Bush did joke, when she was interviewed by Matt Everitt in 2016 (she was reflecting on the loss of Prince) how, by the time she had got an album together, Prince would have been on world tours, had a film or two out and an album! Maybe the two were different in terms of the speed in which they worked - though there was a clear respect and affection between them that would have been fascinating to hear exploited and explored more. I will come to the song, Why Should I Love You?, where one can hear Prince’s touch and direction in spades.

Just before then, I want to bring in a feature from Far Out Magazine from last December. They compared the differences in productivity and working practices – and how Bush felt when Prince died:

“Of course, their approach to music was another huge difference between the two. Prince was tirelessly prolific, relentlessly slaving away in the studio or, if not, he was out on tour with the band. Bush, however, famously works at her own pace and is more than happy to take her time making sure her creations are perfect before letting out into the universe. Due to the contrasting working methods, when Kate Bush and Prince did end up working together in 1991, the chances of the collaboration ending in success felt relatively slim. The result of their time together was the track ‘Why Should I Love You’ which, depending on who you speak to, is either the definition of mercurial artistry or a song that you try your hardest to forget in order to retain your love for Prince and Kate Bush. To say the material splits the audience is an understatement.

On reflection, Bush certainly stepped more into the world of Prince more than he entered hers. Prince had been an ardent admirer of the work of Kate Bush for years but the two had never crossed paths before 1990, a time when he was in London Town to takeover Wembley Arena and two of music’s truest artists would finally meet backstage. After blowing the roof off the arena, Bush and Prince bonded over a mutual respect for one another’s music and the meeting went so well that Bush asked him to collaborate almost instantaneously. Putting her pitch forward, all she requested was for Prince to provide a few backing vocals to a song she had already created. Bush had, at the time, recently recorded the track in full at Abbey Road Studios and hoped Prince could add that special touch to take it up a notch.

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

Following his tragic death in 2016, Bush was left devastated and painfully wrote: “He was the most incredibly talented artist. A man in complete control of his work from writer and musician to producer and director. He was such an inspiration. Playful and mind-blowingly gifted. He was the most inventive and extraordinary live act I’ve seen. The world has lost someone truly magical. Goodnight dear Prince.”

She later opened up further to BBC 6 Music’s Matt Everitt, saying: “He was really playful and really sweet. What a talented man, what an artist. I think it’s a terrible loss that he should go at such a young age, it’s incredibly sad. He was so prolific, he used to make me laugh because whilst I was working on an album, he would have done 2 world tours, a couple of albums and a film”.

The story of Why Should I Love You? is an interesting one. The demo that Bush produced is very different to the one that we hear on The Red Shoes! There are some who are dissenting when it comes to their opinion and whether Prince spoiled the track or added too much. Others look at how, after receiving a lot of layers from Prince when the track was sent to him, Bush has to mould the song that sounded more like her. I think that there was clear trust and friendship between the two. The fact two such huge artists collaborated on a song is amazing!

It is an interesting story regarding how Kate Bush came to meet and work with Prince. VICE explored the story in a feature from 2016 (not long after Prince died):

“Bush was in a strange place when she met the Purple One. Her close friend and guitarist Alan Murphy had just died of AIDS-related pneumonia, she was going through the motions of a relationship breakdown, and was teetering on the cusp of a break from music, which, when it came, would actually last for 12 years. Prince, on the other hand, was going through one of his many spiritual rebirths. He had just emerged from the murky shadows of The Black Album, a creation he withdrew a week after release because he was convinced it was an evil, omnipotent force. He vaulted out of that hole, into a period of making music that was upbeat, pop-tinged and pumped up. In essence, the two artists’ headspaces could not really have been in more opposite places; Prince, artistically baptised and ready to change the world, and Kate Bush, surrounded by a fog of melancholia and disarray.

Prince had been a huge Kate Bush admirer for years. In emails exchanged in 1995 between Prince’s then-engineer Michael Koppelman and Bush’s then-engineer Del Palmer, Koppelman says that Prince described her as his “favourite woman”. But despite both artists being active since the 70s, it wasn’t until 1990 that they actually met in real life. Bush attended a Prince gig at Wembley during his monumental Nude Tour, asked to meet him backstage, and the rest is God-like genius collaboration history.

Perhaps it was the sheer distance between their headspaces at the time that led to what happened. Bush asked Prince to contribute a few background vocals to a song called “Why Should I Love You”, which she had just recorded in full at Abbey Road Studios. But when Prince received the track, he ignored the intructions and dismantled the entire thing like a crazed mechanic taking apart old cars on his backyard. He wanted to inject himself into the very heart of it, weaving his sound amongst her sound, giving it a new soul entirely. As Koppelman explains, “We essentially created a new song on a new piece of tape and then flew all of Kate's tracks back on top of it… Prince stacked a bunch of keys, guitars, bass, etc, on it, and then went to sing background vocals.”

Even today, the track is divisive, with some heralding it as a slice of profound art, and others filling fan forums with long rants that essentially boil down to: “It’s tripe.” But two decades later, we can look upon the final version with something resembling objectivity. It’s an endlessly fascinating creation that continues to sparkle with strangeness, forever flitting between blissfulness and an almost painful sadness upon every listen. Even the lyrics reveal an inner turmoil: “Have you ever seen a picture of Jesus laughing? Mmm, do you think he had a beautiful smile?” Kate Bush’s soaring voice wavers, as if she’s asking Prince to convince her”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari 

As this insightful article outlines, there was a member of the Kate Bush camp who was a big fan of Why Should I Love You? and the songs/vocals that appear:  

“Del Palmer, Kate’s former partner and longtime engineer and bass player, spoke about the track to Future Music in 1993:

“This one actually was recorded in collaboration with Prince – Kate went to see him at a gig and was flattered to be asked to meet him after the show, when they discussed a collaboration. Unable to physically get together in the same room, they swapped multi-track tapes, with a slave reel returning from Prince’s Paisley Park studio covered in vocals, guitar solos and keyboards. The problem then was to put the track back together into something resembling its original form while retaining the best of what Prince had done. He hadn’t added one of the vocal parts which would have been particularly good for him, so it basically took two years to put it back together. What’s left is his lead guitar, some digital synths and some chorus vocals. Then Lenny Henry came in to do a vocal on the end – he’s really got a great voice and ought to be doing a serious record of his own“.

IN THIS PHOTO: Prince in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Lynn Goldsmith 

Like when Prince worked with Madonna (on the track, Love Song, from her 1989 album, Like a Prayer), I think there was more life in the Bush-Prince collaboration sphere. Bush did ‘return the favour’ and provided vocals for Prince later, but it would have been awesome hearing Prince and Bush on a more sensual or less fulsome track. I feel he could have been perfect on a 50 Words for Snow track. I sort of wonder whether an approach was made or, as the songs on that record are not as spirited and funky as some we hear on The Red Shoes, whether Bush felt that Prince would not be a great fit. I want to end with another snippet from the feature I have just sourced from. Maybe it should not be a surprise that the Prince camp were blown away getting to work with Kate Bush. Such is her reputation and quality, even artists like Prince are honoured! Prince’s engineer Michael Koppelman recalled his experience:

“It’s funny because Prince knew I was a huge KB fan. He was too, but not like me. The first time I asked him if he liked Kate Bush he said, she’s my favorite woman. I also made him a tape of all the KB b-sides, which fucking rule. When The Sensual World came out he had someone go get it and we listened to it in the studio. He didn’t dig it that much, but I knew you can’t always tell right away with a Kate album. TSW grew on me, but it is still not her best effort. This Woman’s Work is a masterpiece, though, and makes the whole album worth it. But I digress. Prince is weird, and a couple stories in this post prove it. I may be tooting my own horn here, but Prince has a weird ego. I think *part* of his motivation to work with Kate was the fact that I worshipped her, and he knew it would impress me that he could call her on the phone and work on her music and shit.

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

ANYWAY, what led up to the phone conversation above: one day Prince’s assistant, Therese, told me as we were talking on the phone that Kate Bush had called. Therese also knew I was a big Kate fan. Then, in the studio that day, Prince said, guess who I talked to today. Me, being stupid and unable to keep my mouth shut, said, Kate Bush? Prince got a little miffed, and said How did you know that? And I said Therese told me, and he said, hmm, I should dock here for that. At that point I knew I fucked up and tried to say, no, she just knew I’m a big fan. As a side note, I told Therese that Prince was a little pissed that she had told me that, and she apologized to him. Therese is a really cool person. So, Prince tells me that he and Kate are going to work on a tune together. He also told me that while they were talking he told her that his engineer would rather work with her than him. (I thought, wow, Prince and Kate Bush talking about me!)”.

I think that Why Should I Love You? sounds great as a demo, but Prince’s input and aura does inject and sprinkle it with his particular magic. Some of the song’s lyrics are really interesting: “The fine purple/The purest gold/The red of the Sacred Heart/The grey of a ghost/The "L" of the lips are open/To the "O" of the Host/The "V" of the velvet/Of all of the people in the world/Why should I love you?/There's just something 'bout you/There's just something 'bout you/Of all the people in the world/Why should I love you?”. Maybe it is not the best cut from The Red Shoes, but I just love the fact that The Purple One, Prince, and Kate Bush shared an audio space! It brings me back to what could have come after 1993 (or 1996, when you consider Bush worked with Prince again then) and, if he were alive now, whether the two would be joining forces. On a brilliant (and underrated) album from Kate Bush, Prince added…

A touch of purple, red and gold.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Guns N' Roses -  Chinese Democracy

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BY the time…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses/PHOTO CREDIT: Martin Philbey/Getty Images

Guns N’ Roses got to their sixth studio album, the band were vastly different to the ones who wowed fans and critics on their 1987 debut, Appetite for Destruction. Fortunately, it seems like there is more harmony and a sense of hope in the band’s camp. I suspect that, when lockdown is through, they will tour and there will be new music. When Chinese Democracy was released in 2008, it arrived after a huge delay and strife. It was the first Guns N' Roses album since the 1993 covers album, "The Spaghetti Incident?", and the first album of original studio material since Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, of 1991. Chinese Democracy is an album that was delayed by personnel and legal problems. As we can tell from Wikipedia, the classic line-up of Guns N’ Roses was way in the past:

“In the mid-1990s, amid creative and personal differences, guitarists Slash and Gilby Clarke, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Matt Sorum all had departed. Only Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed remained. In 1997, they began work on the album with guitarists Robin Finck and Paul Tobias, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Josh Freese, and keyboardist Chris Pitman. The lineup shifted several times, incorporating guitarists Buckethead, Richard Fortus and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and drummers Bryan "Brain" Mantia and Frank Ferrer. Guitarists Brian May and Dave Navarro, vocalist Sebastian Bach, and producers including Mike Clink, Youth, Sean Beavan, Eric Caudieux, Roy Thomas Baker and Caram Costanzo worked on the album across 15 studios. The band recorded dozens of songs, and suggested they could release them across multiple albums”.

There is a huge history and a lot of backstory to Chinese Democracy that is probably not that relevant. I wanted people to see the album less of a mess and disaster – as many have – and see the quality that is in there. I think the title track, Better, Street of Dreams, and I.R.S. are brilliant. There are at least half a dozen (of fourteen tracks) that are superb. I would say there are a few weak tracks but the remainder is solid. I will bring in two contrasting reviews to end things. Before bringing in some critical opinion, it is worth noting how Chinese Democracy fared in terms of sales:

“Best Buy purchased 1.3 million copies of Chinese Democracy from UMG before release and pledged not to return unsold copies. The album was released on November 22, 2008, in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. It was released the following day worldwide, except for the United Kingdom, where it was released on November 24.

Chinese Democracy debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 261,000 copies in its first week, well below expectations. It debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart. Second-week US sales dropped significantly and it fell from #3 to #18 on the Billboard chart: a 78% drop. The programming director at KLOS-FM said the low sales were due to the holiday season release and lackluster lead single. Critics also cited Rose's lack of promotional appearances as a factor.

After selling 21,000 copies in its sixth week and charting at #30, Chinese Democracy was certified Gold, passing the 500,000-shipped mark on January 7, 2009. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA on February 3, 2009, having shipped one million copies in the United States. It placed 55th on the 2009 Billboard 200 Year End charts”.

From that, it would appear that this hyped album was a bit of a disaster. I actually think the fact many critics put Chinese Democracy in their top-fifty albums of 2008 shows that there was love for it. I would not place the album near the band’s very best work; I do feel that it is a solid album that has plenty to appreciate. If Chinese Democracy was not near the gold standard Guns N’ Roses reached in the late-1980s and early-1990s then it was an impressive release none the less. I am not sure whether the band have plans to release any more material. Since 2016, Slash and Duff McKagan have been back in the fold – so one can never rule out a new album from the guys. In a rather mixed review, Pitchfork wrote the following about Chinese Democracy:

“Perhaps the most striking aspect of Chinese Democracy is that it's about the fifth-most shocking Guns N' Roses album. Sure, it's difficult to endure both Use Your Illusions in one sitting, but there's something fascinating about how the bombastically lonely "Estranged" could share disc space with the junior-high politicking of "Civil War", "Yesterdays"' concise, sepia-toned pop, and the critic-baiting tantrum "Get in the Ring". Had that record been a career-ender, it would've been a fitting finale. Instead, Axl took 17 years to, we hoped, explore new textures, manipulate songwriting conventions, seek out challenging collaborators, or delve into unfamiliar genres for inspiration. Yet on the way to being this decade's Sgt. Peppers, Chinese Democracy became its Be Here Now-- a record of relatively simple, similar songs overdubbed into a false sense of complexity in a horrorshow of modern production values.

It's that flaw which ultimately delivers the fatal blow. Even if Chinese Democracy had dropped a decade previous, it would still sound dated. 1996 appears to be the cut-off point for sonic inspiration, a time when the height of electronic and rock synergy in pop music involved having an acoustic guitar and a drum machine on the same track. Fans deserve better than hearing Axl trying to fight with post-NIN nobodies like Stabbing Westward and Gravity Kills for ideas. "Better" and the closing "Prostitute" feature memorable, fluid melodies, but are tied to rudimentary Roland tracks that Steven Adler could've replicated in his sleep, and while "I.R.S." sports an Illusion-sized chorus, it's dampened by empty conspiracy theorizing.

To that point, Chinese Democracy is inevitably and sadly limited in scope to the actual making of Chinese Democracy. Apart from a handful of appropriately vague love songs, Axl seems convinced that the only thing that's mattered to us over the past 17 years was anticipating whether "Riad and the Bedouins" might ever see its proper release. Anyone outside of Axl's inner circle appears lumped into some royal "you" and thrust into a meta exercise to be held up as evidence of a defiantly achieved victory: "All things are possible/ I am unstoppable," "No one ever told me when I was alone/ They just thought I'd know better," and most pointedly, "It was a long time for you/ It was a long time for me/ It'd be a long time for anyone/ But looks like it was meant to be”.

Although AllMusic did not rave about Chinese Democracy, they did highlight how it is good. It is an album that is more of a grower compared to some of the band’s earlier work. I really like Chinese Democracy and I think it has received some slating that it does not deserve. I want to bring in a few passages of AllMusic’s extensive review:

“Such maniacal indulgence is ridiculous but strangely understandable: Rose received unlimited time and money to create this album, so why not take full advantage and obsess over every last detail? The odd thing is, he spent all this time and money on an album that is deliberately not a grand masterpiece -- a record that pushes limits or digs deep -- but merely a set of 14 songs. Compared to the chaotic Use Your Illusion, Chinese Democracy feels strangely modest, but that's because it's a single polished album, not a double album so overstuffed that it duplicates songs. Modest is an odd word for an album a decade-plus in the making, but Axl's intent is oddly simple: he sees GNR not as a gutter-rock band but as a pomp-rock vehicle for him to lash out against all those who don't trust him, whether it's failed friends, lapsed fans, ex-lovers, former managers, fired bandmates, or rock critics. Chinese Democracy is the best articulation of this megalomania as could be possible, so the only thing to quibble about is his execution, which occasionally is perplexing, particularly when Rose slides into hammy vocal inflections or encourages complicated guitar that only guitarists appreciate (it's telling that the only memorable phrases from Robin Finck, Buckethead, or Bumblefoot or whoever are ones that mimic Slash's full-throated melodic growl). Even with these odd flourishes, it's hard not to marvel, either in respect or bewilderment, at the dense, immaculate wall of god knows how many guitars, synthesizers, vocals, and strings.

The production is so dense that it's hard to warm to, but it fits the music. These aren't songs that grab and hold; they're songs that unfold, so much so that Chinese Democracy may seem a little underwhelming upon its first listen. It's not just the years of pent-up anticipation, it's that Axl spent so much time creating the music -- constructing the structure and then filling out the frame -- that there's no easy way into the album. That, combined with the realization that Axl isn't trying to reinvent GNR, but just finishing what he started on the Illusions, can make Chinese Democracy seem mildly anticlimactic, but Rose spent a decade-plus working on this -- he deserves to not have it dismissed on a cursory listen. Give it time, listening like it was 1998 and not 2008, and the album does give up some terrific music -- music that is overblown but not overdone.

True, those good moments are the songs that have kicked around the Internet for the entirety of the new millennium: the slinky, spiteful "Better," slowly building into its fury; the quite gorgeous if heavy-handed "Street of Dreams"; "There Was a Time," which overcomes its acronym and lack of chorus on its sheer drama; "Catcher in the Rye," the lightest, brightest moment here; the slow, grinding "I.R.S."; and "Madagascar," a ludicrous rueful rumination that finds space for quotations from Martin Luther King amidst its trip-hop pulse. These aren't innovations; they're extensions of "Breakdown" and "Estranged," epics that require some work to decode because Axl forces the listener to meet him on his own terms. This all-consuming artistic narcissism has become Rose's defining trait, not letting him move forward, but only to relentlessly explore the same territory over and over again. And this solipsism turns Chinese Democracy into something strangely, surprisingly simple: it won't change music, it won't change any lives, it's just 14 more songs about loneliness and persecution. Or as Axl put it in an apology for canceled concerts in 2006, "In the end, it's just an album." And it's a good album, no less and no more”.

If you are a Guns N’ Roses fan and put Chinese Democracy aside, give it another listen as there are some great songs on it. If you have never heard the album or wrote it off when it was released, spend a bit of time with it. It is not perfect by any means, but it is a very interesting album. I do not usually put out two Second Spin features of a weekend, but I have come across some solid albums that have not received their just acclaim. In spite of some weaker tracks, Chinese Democracy offers up…

MORE than a few treasures.

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Forty-Six: James Taylor

FEATURE:

 

 

A Buyer’s Guide

PHOTO CREDIT: Dan Hallman/Invision/AP 

Part Forty-Six: James Taylor

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FOR this week’s A Buyer’s Guide…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

I wanted to throw some attention the way of James Taylor. I think that he remains quite underrated, despite the fact that he is a hugely successful artist. I have been listening to his music since childhood and I really love his vocal style and his phenomenal lyrics. Here is some more information regarding the phenomenal James Taylor:

“James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the No. 3 single "Fire and Rain" and had his first No. 1 hit in 1971 with his recording of "You've Got a Friend", written by Carole King in the same year. His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album JT, he has retained a large audience over the decades. Every album that he released from 1977 to 2007 sold over 1 million copies. He enjoyed a resurgence in chart performance during the late 1990s and 2000s, when he recorded some of his most-awarded work (including Hourglass, October Road, and Covers). He achieved his first number-one album in the US in 2015 with his recording Before This World.

He is known for his covers, such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" and "Handy Man", as well as originals such as "Sweet Baby James”.

In order to help provide some guidance regarding his work, I have recommended his best four albums, one that is underrated, his latest album – there is also a James Taylor-related book that should provide some useful reading. Here are the James Taylor albums…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Joby Sessions - Guitarist Magazine/Future/Getty Images

THAT you need to own.

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The Four Essential Albums

 

James Taylor

Release Date: 6th December, 1968

Label: Apple

Producer: Peter Asher

Standout Tracks: Knocking 'Round the Zoo/Carolina on My Mind/Night Owl

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=68205&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/67zzo0nNsK1dR94u5lhH3C?si=E3AuMdtSQs2v-PitiZTQsQ

Review:

“James Taylor was the first artist to be signed to record on the Beatles' short-lived vanity Apple label. In late 1968, Taylor's sophisticated self-titled disc foreshadowed the introspective singer/songwriter genre that dominated pop music in the early and mid-'70s. Although often touted as his debut, this release is chronologically Taylor's second studio outing. James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine -- an EP recorded a year earlier -- contains rudimentary versions of much of the same original material found here. The album is presented with two distinct sides. The first, in essence, presents a unified multi-song suite incorporating several distinctly Baroque-flavored links connecting the larger compositions. The second is a more traditional collection of individual tunes. This unique juxtaposition highlights Taylor's highly personal and worldly lyrics within a multidimensional layer of surreal and otherwise ethereal instrumentation. According to Taylor, much of the album's subject matter draws upon personal experience. This is a doubled-edged blessing because the emphasis placed on the pseudo-blues "Knocking 'Round the Zoo" and the numerous other references made to Taylor's brief sojourn in a mental institution actually do a disservice to the absolutely breathtaking beauty inherent in every composition. Several pieces debuted on this release would eventually be reworked by Taylor several years later. Among the notable inclusions are "Rainy Day Man," "Night Owl," "Something in the Way She Moves," and "Carolina in My Mind." Musically, Taylor's decidedly acoustic-based tunes are augmented by several familiar names. Among them are former King Bees member Joel "Bishop" O'Brien (drums) -- who had joined Taylor and Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar in the Original Flying Machine -- as well as Paul McCartney (bass), who lends support to the seminal version of "Carolina in My Mind." The album's complex production efforts fell to Peter Asher -- formerly of Peter and Gordon and concurrent head of Apple Records A&R department. The absolute conviction that runs throughout this music takes the listener into its confidence and with equal measures of wit, candor, and sophistication, James Taylor created a minor masterpiece that is sadly eclipsed by his later more popular works” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Something in the Way She Moves

Sweet Baby James

Release Date: February 1970

Label: Warner Bros.

Producer: Peter Asher

Standout Tracks: Sweet Baby James/Sunny Skies/Country Road

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/1708761

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1HiG0ukRmFPN13EVcf98Jx?si=1zF4YJjBQBSDjvILUQx4Yw

Review:

“Peter Asher (formerly at Apple with Taylor) produced this album, as well as Taylor’s first, and, one can hear, let Taylor have free rein this time. Echoes of the Band, the Byrds, country Dylan and folksified Dion abound, yet somehow Taylor pulls through it all with a very listenable record that is all his own. The gentle, intelligent manipulation of piano, steel guitar, fiddle and a few brass arrangements alone deserve a close listening to by any erstwhile producers.

And it is hard to fault Taylor’s lyrics. “Sweet Baby James,” with its “cowboys waiting for summer/his pastures to change” and “Fire and Rain” with its “Sweet dreams and fire machines in pieces on the ground” are just a few of the images that Taylor develops. Throughout, his vocal stance is low-key and perfectly matched to the country-styled guitar work. No acute solos or overstressed melodies appear as musicians and vocalist together manage to mandala their way through Taylor’s persistent lonely prairie/lovely Heaven visions that, at times, work their way up to the intensity of a haiku or the complexity of a parable

Taylor only shifts from this stance a couple of times. “Oh Baby, Don’t You Loose Your Lip On Me” is less than two minutes long; bluesy yet random, it sounds like studio hi-jinks used to fill out an album. But the other exception, “Steam Roller,” is a different story. Here Taylor is earthy and lowdown with definitely crude electric guitar behind him as he moans “I’m gonna inject your soul with some sweet rock and roll and shoot you full of rhythm and blues.” Then a miasmic, brass riff to make sure things stay tough, followed by a particularly timely and potent couple of verses: “I’m a napalm bomb for you baby/stone guaranteed to blow your mind/ and if I can’t have your love for my own sweet child/there won’t be nothing left behind.” A double-entendre tour-de-force pulled off effortlessly.

This is a hard album to argue with; it does a good job of proving that his first effort was no fluke. This one gets off the ground just as nicely, as Taylor seems to have found the ideal musical vehicle to say what he has to say” – Rolling Stone

Choice Cut: Fire and Rain

Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon

Release Date: April 1971

Label: Warner Bros.

Producer: Peter Asher

Standout Tracks: Love Has Brought Me Around/You Can Close Your Eyes/Long Ago and Far Away

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=68209&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0h8hazllDADHsrSpcQCltk?si=6z7jBZFQR_mXEy4crlGWeg

Review:

“James Taylor's commercial breakthrough in 1970 was predicated on the relationship between the private concerns expressed in his songs and the larger philosophical mood of his audience. He was going through depression, heartbreak, and addiction; they were recovering from the political and cultural storms of the '60s. On his follow-up to the landmark Sweet Baby James, Taylor brought his listeners up to date, wisely trying to step beyond the cultural, if not the personal, markers he had established. Despite affirming romance in songs like "Love Has Brought Me Around" and the moving "You Can Close Your Eyes" as well as companionship in "You've Got a Friend," the record still came as a defense against the world, not an embrace of it; Taylor was unable to forget the past or trust the present. The songs were full of references to the road and the highway, and he was uncomfortable with his new role as spokesman. The confessional songwriter was now, necessarily, writing about what it was like to be a confessional songwriter: Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon served the valuable function of beginning to move James Taylor away from the genre he had defined, which ultimately would give him a more long-lasting appeal” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: You’ve Got a Friend

October Road

Release Date: 13th August, 2002

Label: Columbia

Producer: Russ Titelman

Standout Tracks: On the 4th of July/Belfast to Boston/Caroline I See You

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/October-Road-180-gm-vinyl/dp/B00TGJ6JE2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=R5TD42Z0ZERK&dchild=1&keywords=james+taylor+october+road+vinyl&qid=1614757784&sprefix=October+Road+james%2Caps%2C159&sr=8-1

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3RHJNmuwD0fnwccBv2HTif?si=I2-TOs7FRfqgMXGoq14EDg

Review:

“Even during his well-documented years of excess, the saccharine sweetness of James Taylor's voice served him well. Now 54 and as mellow as his music, Taylor's first album since 1997's Grammy-winning Hourglass (its progress was halted by his third marriage and the theft of his original lyrics) finds him thoroughly reinvigorated. That voice is in fine fettle, Ry Cooder guests on the title track, and Taylor's morose version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas was an American hit post-September 11. Relaxed as he sounds, Taylor is a hard worker, too. He whistles away at the close of Whenever I'm Ready, creates a weird backing to Mean Old Man and dissects gun running and tribal feuds on the penny whistle-infused Belfast to Boston. He can even do pop: Carry Me on My Way has a chorus so huge and obvious that Westlife could cover it and neither party would lose face” – The Guardian

Choice Cut: October Road

The Underrated Gem

 

Gorilla

Release Date: May 1975

Label: Warner Bros.

Producer: Russ Titelman/Lenny Waronker

Standout Tracks: Mexico/How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)/Sarah Maria

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=68234&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0x491s63vRDvG25x2Fzrny?si=c4hGyFYzRkahUM19JZpLoQ

Review:

“A radical improvement on its predecessor, Gorilla – helmed by Russ Titelman and Lenny Waronker – turns out to be Taylor’s finest album since Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, even if it’s never quite as interesting overall as that album. Gorilla would also revive Taylor’s fortunes on pop radio, giving him his first Top 40 solo single in nearly three years (not counting his turn as wife Carly Simon’s duet partner on her Hotcakes single “Mockingbird’) with its breezy Top Five remake of Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” which unexpectedly reveals Taylor to be a surprisingly effective lite-soul crooner. The disc also sports a second Taylor classic in the Jimmy Buffett-like tropical pop of “Mexico,” with guest harmonies from Graham Nash and David Crosby. (The song would surprisingly only peak at #49, missing the Top 40, but remains one of Taylor’s most beloved lesser hits, as well as his one of his best up-tempo outings.) But there are other highlights here as well among the album cuts, including “Lighthouse,” the funky “Angry Blues” (featuring a guest appearance from Little Feat’s Lowell George), the torchy “You Make It Easy,” the mellow “Music,” and the catchy yet sparse ballad “Wandering,” featuring James backed only by his guitar and Nick DeCaro’s accordion” – The Great Albums

Choice Cut: I Was a Fool to Care

The Latest Album

 

American Standard

Release Date: 28th February, 2020

Label: Fantasy

Producers: Dave O'Donnell/John Pizzarelli/James Taylor

Standout Tracks: Moon River/God Bless the Child/Ol’ Man River

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Standard-James-Taylor/dp/B0833VRR3T/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=james+taylor+American+Standard&qid=1614758698&quartzVehicle=1550-1368&replacementKeywords=james+taylor+american&sr=8-2

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0wwpYXYdn6MSrWHZv4nyFh?si=640gOaQvQKCVNUVVKz_OZw

Review:

“The kindly demeanour and treacle soft voice – not to mention the lofty honours in art and culture bestowed on him to celebrate 50 years of plucking heartstrings clean out of our chests – belie James Taylor’s troubled history. There have been heroin addictions, serious mental illness and no shortage of heartbreak in this 100-million-selling story, so it’s perhaps little wonder he finds difficulty in pouring himself into new material. 2015’s Before This World was his first album of original material in 13 years, and that took a stint of intense self-isolation to complete. Instead, he’s largely spent the millennium lending his pastoral folk tones to cover songs, from Christmas classics to the evergreens of Motown, soul and Fifties rock’n’roll. He’s become the Michael Buble it’s OK to get married to.

His 19th album turns his acclaimed arpeggios to the world of music theatre, raiding the likes of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Guys and Dolls and Show Boat for tracks he can make swoon or swing. For Taylor, it’s like building an open goal out of cast recording albums – his “Moon River” drifts languidly by on dappled eddies of acoustic and reed, his “Ol’ Man River” is all supine Dixie delicacy, his “Almost Like Being in Love” (from Brigadoon) is the sort of Mississippi folk hammock of a tune that Mark Twain, had he been a man of notes rather than letters, might have writ.

The ballads are bread and butter; it’s when Taylor reinterprets the livelier – and cheesier – showtunes that his artistry shines. “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” shifts between Boston blues verses and choruses of gentle ragtime, “Pennies From Heaven” becomes a rat pack swing-along and Oklahoma!’s “The Surrey With The Fringe On Top” suddenly oozes folk class. The album’s highlight is Taylor’s gossamer take on South Pacific’s “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught”, bringing a 21st-century poignancy and warning to a story of inherited prejudice: “You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late/ Before you are six, or seven, or eight/To hate all the people your relatives hate."

Beyond the musicals of his youth, Taylor dips into jazz age classics made famous by names such as Billie Holiday and Glenn Miller – “Nearness Of You”, “Teach Me Tonight”, “God Bless The Child”, “My Heart Stood Still” – which he uses as interludes of sunset samba, draped with Bacharach horns and Carmen Miranda bongos. They’d give the record a cruise ship pallor, if Taylor didn’t exude such ineffable charm throughout. Expect reassurance rather than revelation and you’ll find the lesser-worn pages of the American songbook elegantly traced” – The Independent

Choice Cut: Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat

The James Taylor Book

 

Long Ago and Far Away: James Taylor His Life and Music: Long Ago and Far Away: His Life and Music

Author: Timothy White

Publication Date: 3rd May, 2011

Publisher: Omnibus Press

Synopsis:

“Rich with insights from Paul McCartney, Carly Simon, Sting, Danny Kootch Kortchmar, the entire Taylor family and many other key figures around James Taylor and his music.

Dispelling myth and rumour, Long Ago and Far Away examines the roots of Taylor's mental anguish and his recurring battles with heroin and alcohol. This is an epic family history, an exploration of the real stories behind Fire and Rain and the rest of the songs, as well as a frank account of Taylor's days on the Apple record label, the financial disaster of his Greatest Hits album deal and the deaths and divorces that have haunted his life” – Amazon.co.uk

Buy:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Ago-Far-Away-Taylor/dp/1849387737/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=james+taylor+book&qid=1614758900&s=books&sr=1-1

FEATURE: Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure: Natasha Bedingfield – Unwritten

FEATURE:

 

 

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

Natasha Bedingfield – Unwritten

___________

AS I say with all songs…

that I include in this feature, I do not buy the notion of a guilty pleasure: a song that one cannot really happily admit to loving. Taken from her 2004 album of the same name, Unwritten was a big hit for Natasha Bedingfield. I was not a massive fan of a lot of the Pop music being made in 2004. It was sort of past the peak of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. There were some interesting new acts, but I think Pop has enjoyed stronger periods. I liked the Unwritten album, as it was a lot of personality throughout. Bedingfield wrote all of the tracks on the albums; helping to give it a natural sense of truth and conviction. This is what AllMusic said about Unwritten:

“In September 2004 Natasha Bedingfield debuted smashingly in the United Kingdom. Her first record, Unwritten, went to number one almost immediately and the glowing response established her as an instant pop star. Her ascent mirrored the sudden popularity of brother Daniel Bedingfield in 2001, when his bedroom production "Gotta Get Through This" rocketed similarly up the charts. For Natasha, it's "Single" and the near-perfect "These Words (I Love You, I Love You)" -- tracks that merge the rhythms and flavors of hip-hop and R&B with unique melodies and Bedingfield's vocal confidence -- "Single," for example, suggests Kelly Clarkson's 2003 single "Miss Independent." Bedingfield co-writes all but one song on Unwritten, working with songwriters like Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams), Andrew Frampton (S Club 7), and Danielle Brisebois. And she stays remarkably poised throughout, selling some of the album's weaker arrangements with the dusky grain at the top end of her vocal. "Silent Movie" and "Piece of Me" make moves typical of pop in the 21st century -- the former actually sounds like a Williams song, while the latter tries to energize its chorus with blaring guitars. But it's Bedingfield who does the energizing, intersecting Pink's knowing swagger with the confessional exuberance of youth (typified in the blurted "I love you I love you/I love you I love you!"'s of "These Words"). Even when Unwritten emulates the trends, its tendency to play out like a personal diary put to beats and keys saves it from the soundalike pile”.

I don’t think one should think of a song like Unwritten as a guilty pleasure.  In 2019, Bedingfield released her fourth studio album, Roll with Me - and I hope there is more music to come. Maybe there are slightly stronger songs on Unwritten – such as another big hit, These Words -, but the title cut is a great and memorable song. The third single from her debut album, Unwritten is catchy and stands up to repeated listens. The song reached number-five in the U.S. and it was very popular across U.S. radio. Although Unwritten did not fare as well in the U.K. as These Words, the song did get to number-six. It is amazing that Bedingfield did better in the U.S. than the U.K. It is clear that Unwritten took on a new life and has made a big impact:

“Bedingfield performed this song at the Concert for Diana. Bedingfield performed this, along with "Pocketful of Sunshine" in the season 7 finale of Degrassi: The Next Generation. It is the theme song to the globally popular MTV series, The Hills. Bedingfield later re-recorded another, slower version of "Unwritten" with production team Carney for use in the final episode of The Hills. A 2019 remix version appears as the theme song in The Hills sequel series, The Hills: New Beginnings. "Unwritten" has been featured in the following motion pictures: Ice Princess, Because I Said So and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. 2006 World Champion figure skater Kimmie Meissner has done multiple exhibition programs to the song as well.[citation needed] It is featured on the episode "Welcome to the Dollhouse", from the series Pretty Little Liars. In 2006, the Bratz released a cover of the song on a special edition of their soundtrack album, Bratz: Forever Diamondz.

The song appears in the video games Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Thrillville: Off the Rails and as downloadable content for Rock Band 4, while the Johnny Vicious remix appears in Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2 along with its original video. The song was used for the Pantene television and radio advertisements[3] in English-speaking and other markets between 2006 and 2008, and in France, Spain, Poland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Unwritten has become a common song used to celebrate graduation due to its uplifting message about the future.

It is amazing that Unwritten was released seventeen years ago! I remember the song coming out when I was at university, and I liked it from the moment I heard it. I am not a massive Natasha Bedingfield fan, but I do appreciate her debut album and I think that her songwriting is accomplished. I think her voice has that nice mix of power and tenderness, and a lot of people can find strength and inspiration from Unwritten. As the song has appeared on more than one list of guilty pleasures songs, I thought I would rewrite things in that sense and spotlight a good song. For those who maintain a song like Unwritten is a guilty pleasure, I would say that the Natasha Bedingfield hit is…

MUCH better than that.

TRACK REVIEW: Gwen Stefani - Slow Clap

TRACK REVIEW:

 

 

Gwen Stefani

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Nelson

Slow Clap

9.5/10

The track, Slow Clap, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p__QQG6lrwQ

GENRES:

Ska/Reggae/Pop

ORIGIN:

California, U.S.A.

RELEASE DATE:

11th March, 2021

LABEL:

Interscope Records

__________

BEFORE I get to the solo work…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Nelson

of Gwen Stefani, I do want to spend some time discussing her band, No Doubt. I think Stefani is one of the greatest-ever Rock voices and, as lead of the band, she definitely got me into similar bands. I was a big No Doubt fan, and, to this day, I listen back to the older material. Whilst there has been no announcement as to whether we will get another No Doubt album, it is great that the band are still together after all of these years (they formed in 1986). If you are unfamiliar with Gwen Stefani as an artist, then her bio section on her website explains more:

“A three-time GRAMMY® Award winner, Gwen Stefani has achieved global success as a performer, songwriter, frontwoman for iconic rock band No Doubt, and multi-platinum solo artist. To date, she’s sold more than 50 million units worldwide, including her four-times-platinum debut solo album Love.Angel.Music.Baby. — a 2004 release delivering the hit singles “Rich Girl,” “What You Waiting For?”, and the Pharrell Williams-produced No. 1 hit “Hollaback Girl.” With her 2006 sophomore album The Sweet Escape featuring the Billboard Hot 100 top-ten smash “Wind It Up,” Stefani most recently released her third solo effort This Is What The Truth Feels Like. Debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the critically praised album includes her powerful No. 1 single “Used To Love You.”

In addition to her three GRAMMY® Awards, Stefani’s honors include four MTV Video Music Awards, two Billboard Awards, an American Music Award, and a Brit Award. In 2014, she channeled her tremendous musical passion into empowering young singers as their coach on the seventh season of NBC’s musical competition series “The Voice.” Stefani now returns for her fourth season as a coach on “The Voice,” with the 17th season of the four-time Emmy Award-winning show arriving in September 2019.

Known for her wildly charismatic stage presence, Stefani premiered her exclusive Las Vegas headlining residency “Gwen Stefani – Just A Girl” in June 2018 at Zappos Theatre at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. With its setlist comprised of fan favorites and iconic hits, the two-hour show unfolds as an eye-popping spectacular, putting a fresh twist on classic Vegas theatrics. But despite the elaborate stage production — and wardrobe changes showcasing her legendary fashion sense — Stefani offers up an undeniably intimate performance, ultimately forging an unforgettable connection with the crowd.

One of pop culture’s most magnetic style icons, Gwen Stefani has also emerged as the first global celebrity artist to translate music stardom into a series of massively successful lifestyle brands. Through her fashion line L.A.M.B., its sister label Harajuku Lovers, and her eyewear line gx by Gwen Stefani, the designer and entrepreneur has brilliantly merged modern glamour with fashion-forward streetwear.  L.A.M.B. and gx eyewear is available in over 3000+ doors in the United States.  Harajuku Lovers, the pop-art-inspired apparel and accessories brand has had broad appeal with collaborations including the award-winning Harajuku Mini for Target and beauty accessories for Sephora.  Target is celebrating 20 years of their groundbreaking Design For All program and are bringing back 20 of their favorite and most iconic designer partnerships including Harajuku Mini.  The Limited Edition Harajuku Mini Anniversary Collection will be available at Target stores and Target.com beginning September 14, 2019”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Cuffaro

I am going to head back in time in terms of Stefani talking about her career. I feel she is such an interesting and accomplished artist that, even when discussing her latest single, it is valid to travel back and learn more about her. When she spoke with GQ this month, she was asked about those early years - and when she felt that she had achieved her goals and realised when she was a great:

“The first time you felt like you made it…

It was doing a noontime concert at the college I was studying at, a Cal State College, where big bands such as Fishbone and Red Hot Chili Peppers had played previously. So many people had come from all over the place that the grass was torn up afterwards and I remember thinking, “Holy crap, we’re huge.” I went to class the next day and people were passing their notebooks down asking for my autograph. It was weird, being in two roles – a student and then also being in the band that played yesterday.

The first time you realised you were actually any good…

When I was a little girl, I liked to sing but I didn’t think I was good at it. I could mimic singers that I liked stylistically, but the furthest my dream extended was to jingles – I used to hope for a KFC commercial. The songwriting is what really changed my life, because once I had a problem and I could channel it. I wasn’t good at school: I was super naive and very sheltered. When I started to write I felt like I was dying, my older brother who was everything to me was quitting the band and the boyfriend who I depended on quit me, so I felt, “What do I do?” I wrote one song and then they just kept coming. Another milestone was playing our first show at a club as the only singer. This confidence just came out of me that night, I could control the audience and I just knew how to do it. I remember going into the parking lot after and thinking, “I might be good at this.” Performing became an instinct, a power that I had”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Cuffaro

I want to spend a bit of time with No Doubt. I think it is important that the band are celebrating thirty-five years and they are still together. I might do a feature about that anniversary in some form. It has been almost a decade since the Californian band released their last album, Push and Shove. I loved 2001’s Rock Steady but, when there was this gap and the band seemed like they would not record again, it was a big relief to have another album out in there! Stefani spoke with The Guardian in 2012 about the band’s return and how it felt to put out Push and Shove:

“The announcement that No Doubt are about to release a new album, the first since 2001's Rock Steady, prompts a similar sensation of pleasant surprise. In the year that even Chumbawamba have given up the noble fight, one has to ask whether a band so much associated with the 1990s really has a place in 2012. No Doubt have always had their hardcore fans, dating back to their formation in 1986 when they were a popular ska band that venerated Madness in their home state of California. They broke out of that pond three albums into their career with the then ubiquitous single Don't Speak on 1995's Tragic Kingdom and, while they never quite matched that success again, ska-inflected pop-based songs such as Hey, Baby and Just a Girl burst through the grunge landscape of their time to become part of the backing music of the decade. Yet even then, the band's success felt more like an anomaly than the establishment of something long-lasting. When Stefani, always the band's most charismatic performer, broke away to pursue a solo career, focusing more on dance music with 2004's hugely successful Love Angel Music Baby and 2006's The Sweet Escape, as well as starting up a fashion line and pairing up with hip-hop collaborators such as Eve (Let Me Blow Ya Mind, Rich Girl) and Ludacris (Luxurious), this seemed like both a natural progression and an inevitable end.

"It just feels so much more natural being back in this mode. The solo records allowed me to indulge my girly side but it was never meant to be taken seriously," says Stefani, casually disowning several million record sales and a slew of Grammy nominations. "It was just like an art project that kept going longer than I expected. The group never ended – we always knew we'd come back to make this album"

 PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Cuffaro

I want to look at a couple of No Doubt album anniversaries. I feel albums such as Tragic Kingdom (their breakthrough third album) are among the best of the 1990s. Tragic Kingdom turned twenty-five last year and, to me, it has not aged at all. Gwen Stefani’s songwriting and vocals are at their peak; the band, despite the fact there were some tensions and personal issues, are incredible and committed throughout. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly from late last year, Stefani was asked about the big anniversary:

“This year marked the 25th anniversary of No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom. How has that record changed meaning for you over the years?

I don't really like anniversaries. I don't really celebrate like, “Oh, I wore that in 1995. Now it's 10 years later, woo!” But then when it actually happened and I started seeing everyone posting and seeing all the stuff that we had done — things I don't remember, until I see the image — I was just overwhelmed, like, "Oh my god, we did that?" It was a really emotional couple of days. I really enjoyed hearing just how much that record impacted people. It really is truly mind-blowing to me that I get to do music, let alone to be part of people's lives in that way. It's hard to wrap my head around it.

I'm really proud of Tragic Kingdom. It was a very weird album. I was so naive. I didn't even know how to write a song. I don't know how I wrote those songs because I didn’t know anything back then. But doing the Vegas show was a really reflective time, because doing a song like “Just a Girl” every night felt more relevant than ever, especially in the last couple of years with the rise of the #MeToo movement. It feels like history repeating itself. We've come far, but we haven't. I always thought that I would outgrow that song and be a woman and not be able to sing the words “I'm just a girl” anymore, but it felt more relevant than it ever felt in my whole life. It was bizarre”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: POP Magazine

Of course, many people associate Tragic Kingdom with the huge single, Don’t Speak. It is a song that so many people can relate to and, as a piece of music, it is among the best songs in the No Doubt cannon. I want to mention it because I feel it was a pivotal moment in the band’s career. Despite the song being written at a time of division, they are still together; Gwen Stefani is still recording and understands how important the track is. In that interview of 2012 from The Guardian, the subject of the song came up:

“Of course, No Doubt's most famous song, Don't Speak, was about one of the band's most personal struggles: the end of Stefani and Kanal's long-term relationship. Yet while the lyrics, coupled with Stefani's pained vocals, made for a classic breakup song, it must have been pretty weird for Kanal to be standing behind his heartbroken girlfriend every night on tour while she belted out how miserable she was without him.

"Oh definitely," replies Kanal while Stefani nods eagerly beside him. "We were on tour for Tragic Kingdom for 28 months. We were going through the breakup, and in every interview we were talking about it so we were opening this wound on an hourly basis. It was so brutal but I don't know how we made it through."

This breakup nearly broke Stefani. Even today, nearly 43 and with a hugely successful career, she gives off the air of a woman who loves to devote herself with girlish enthusiasm to the man in her life. She positively radiates when she talks about husband Rossdale's "beautiful lyrics" and she can still recall, with painful candour, the devastation she felt when Kanal ended their seven-year relationship when she had been dreaming of marriage and babies. Yet this episode gave her not just a hit single but a career; it wasn't until the breakup that she dared to try songwriting”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Joseph Cultice

Forgive the No Doubt backstory and history! I am coming to discuss Stefani as a solo artist soon. Rock Steady turns twenty in December. I feel it is a very underrated album that has some huge songs on it. Hey Baby, for instance, is a classic No Doubt cut! It is interesting reading an interview from Stereogum this month. Stefani looked back on the Rock Steady period:

“As you mentioned, that last non-Christmas solo album came out of tumultuous times in those early Voice days. Now you’re gearing up for a new one while there are some big anniversaries — Return Of Saturn turned 20 last year, and Rock Steady turns 20 this year. It seems like it must be a weird time to look back on. Rock Steady has all these songs I remember hearing all the time when I was young and first noticing music, but it’s also towards the end of the band in that initial era.

Now, Rock Steady, that was a different story. That was freedom. That was, OK, everyone agrees we’re going to work outside the band. We’re going to work with our heroes. We’re going to go out dancing all night long. We didn’t have kids yet. It was self-indulgence. We were working with the coolest producers. It was our time, and it was a great memory. But then going into the solo records, it was a different kind of freedom. There was no voting, no family, no democracy, no compromising. It was all indulgence. I could indulge not just my cheesy side but all the music that was the backdrop to my life. I could make music that was guilty pleasure. There were no rules, and I got to be the most creative I’ve probably been in my life, because I got to create a world and I had endless ideas and energy”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Universal Music Group

Looking at Gwen Stefani’s personal life and music. It is interesting learning about (in an interview with Today) how Stefani handled her divorce from Gavin Rossdale and how faith played a role in recovery:

“But I feel like it's the way you handle things, you never know," she continued. "You're gonna be blessed. You got to ask for the blessings. You got to keep engaged. That's how I believe. That's how I live my life. I'm getting better at it. It's something you have to work on. It's like a spiritual exercise every single day."

Hoda Kotb said that was the most beautiful sentiment, before asking Stefani how she has stayed open to life experiences despite trying circumstances in her past, like her divorce from singer Gavin Rossdale.

"I had all those fetal positions for a while," Stefani recalled. "I know that everything that happens in my life isn't happening in time with what people see. That's what people forget, although we are close to that these days with the Internet and the platforms that we all have.

"For me, I was turning to my faith right away. That was a seed that my mom planted in me when I was a little girl ... it's a journey. It's almost like you get lost, it's like you get lost on your journey. We all do and we all will and I will again at some point I'm sure."

"I tried to find what was my gift and my purpose," she said. "In that horrible moment, I just said to myself, 'This is happening to me for a purpose ... a reason.' I tried to go right into the studio. I knew that was the only thing I know how to do good, is write songs and I wrote the 'Truth' record," Stefani added, referring to her 2016 album "This Is What the Truth Feels Like”.

Now, she has a new love in her life. I wonder whether she will work with Blake Shelton. The U.S. Country singer would sound great on a Gwen Stefani album but, so far as I know, there are no plans for them to collaborate heavily in the future. It does seem like Gwen Stefani is in a much better place now. I would not normally discuss a relationship in the context of reviewing a song, but I feel that it is quite important in relation to her new lease of life and the fact she is looking ahead fondly. In this article from She Knows, we discover when Stefani and Shelton met:

“Stefani met Shelton before 2015 from working together on The Voice, but when they first met, he was married to ex Miranda Lambert and she was married to Rossdale. Both marriages dissolved in quick succession as Shelton filed for divorce in July 2015 and Stefani followed suit in August 2015, and while suspicions of their closeness lingered, they weren’t publicly an item until many months later, first commenting on the relationship in November 2015.

This Is What The Truth Feels Like came out in March 2016, and here’s what she told Lowe about the process of writing it: “What was really I think really significant about that This Is What The Truth Feels Like record for me was the miracle in it, which was, you talked about having to write music when you have to write music, the button doesn’t always work if you press it. And when I was going through the worst part of my life, I was running to go write songs. I knew that’s what I had to do. I knew that that’s my purpose.”

“But then halfway through the project, to my surprise, I start falling in love and I start writing these songs about Blake,” she continued. “So the first half of writing it, and it was written over a very short amount of time, a couple months, I think the record is just a very interesting record because a lot, of the darker, darker songs didn’t make it onto the record”.

Let’s move on to lockdown and how Stefani came to release her previous single, Let Me Reintroduce Myself. Apart from some Christmas songs over the past few years, she did record with Blake Shelton on Nobody But You last year on one of his albums. This track, Let Me Reintroduce Myself, seemed like a bit of a return from a hugely popular and influential artist. Stefani was asked about writing in lockdown and that single in an interview with Vogue from January:

“You’ve been busy writing and recording new music during lockdown. How has that been?

“Honestly, a dream. I had written one song, “Cry Happy”, in February and it felt really good. After that, people were like, ‘Everyone’s writing on Zoom.’ I was like, ‘That sounds horrifying.’ It’s already horrifying to go in a room with a 28-year-old [producer] who wants to write with you and you’re like, ‘I’m like your mom, let’s write a song.’ It’s weird. We ended up doing it and the first one I wrote on Zoom was with [producer] Greg Kurstin and [songwriter] Mozella. He was in Hawaii, she was in Los Angeles, and I was in Oklahoma — we wrote a damn song on a damn phone.”

The title of the new single is pretty self-explanatory — it’s about reintroducing yourself to the world. Do you feel like that’s something you need to do? You’re quite famous.

“[Laughs] I was working with this young producer called Luke Niccoli, and he introduced me to his [songwriter] friend Ross [Golan]. I was like, ‘I know that you know I’m Gwen Stefani and I’ve done all these things, but right now let’s try to be intimate and I’ll tell you how I’m feeling about being my age.’ He really got in my head — he’s the one that threw out the line, “Let me reintroduce myself.” Once he said that, the tone for the song was there”.

One reason why I loved Let Me Reintroduce Myself is because it has a Reggae/Ska feel. I always associate those genres with No Doubt and some of their best work. Stefani, having worked as a judge on The Voice (more on that later) could have gone more mainstream Pop or changed direction. Returning to that Entertainment Weekly interview, Stefani stated how Let Me Reintroduce allowed her to dig into the roots of Ska and discover something truly moving:

“Let Me Reintroduce Myself,” released Monday, is a feel-good return to the ska/pop/reggae hybrid — record-scratching, horns, a walking bass line — that Stefani perfected during her time fronting No Doubt. Using her downtime in Oklahoma during the pandemic to dig back into ska’s roots, she immersed herself in the history of the genre, leading her to feel like now was the right moment to return to the sounds that first put her on the map 30 years ago. “All of the riots had happened, and I just started thinking so much about when I started loving music and why,” she says. “It was eighth grade when I learned about ska and Madness and the Selecter and all those bands that started to define the kind of music that I felt like I fit into; here I was, this Catholic girl from Anaheim doing reggae music! But that music was all about unity and anti-racism, and that was in the '70s. Then we were doing it in the '90s. And now here we are, again, in the same old mess.”

You felt inspiration again?

I felt all kinds of inspirations and ideas. It's like God saying, "You’ve got to do this now." When I get that urgency, you can't stop me. I'm like, “I’ve got to go write songs. That's what I need right now. And I don't even care if anyone hears them, or if they think they suck, I'm doing it, now.”

When I got back to L.A., I went into the studio. Everything was plastic-guarded. You get your temperature taken. Everybody's wearing masks. By then, all of the riots had happened. I started to go back and investigate ska and reggae, and I found all these documentaries about how ska was born in the 1960s, how that was linked to the Jubilee when Jamaica was being freed from England. Starting No Doubt, we were the third-wave imitating the 1960s.Then I found this documentary on a school in Jamaica called the Alpha Boys School, which was run by Catholic nuns. There's this little white Catholic nun called Sister Mary Ignatius Davies who helped nurture reggae music. You can see all these pictures of her with these little boys and they're learning these brass instruments. The first ska band that was ever born was these kids out of Alpha Boys School, the Skatalites. No Doubt used to listen to them. Doing my research, it all just felt so full-circle.

So this music was born out of that. I wanted to go back and make something that was joyful and back to my roots, where it all started. [Pre-pandemic] I’d been in the studio with Luke Niccoli and he's the one that said you really should work with my friend Ross, who turned out to be someone who really gets my sarcasm, and the fun side of my lyrics. We really hit it off.

With Luke, we taught each other a lot, especially when it came to ska and reggae, because I kept saying, "Dude, no, listen to Sublime. It has to have scratching in it. It has to be '90s." So he was discovering all this stuff that he didn't know, but bringing his technology and youth to the sound. It was a perfect kind of combination between the three of us. And we wrote a bunch of songs together and I know we're going to write more”.

I am going to get to my review of her new track, Slow Clap, in a bit. There are a few more things that I want to cover before moving along.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Nelson

As Stefani revealed in the interview with Stereogum, she was not planning on putting out new material or looking at making a record during a pandemic and after all of these years:

“GWEN STEFANI: I guess to talk about this song I have to talk about writing for this record, because I wasn’t planning to. When you get to be my age and have this wake of work behind you and you are a mother to three boys and you’re in a pandemic…

You know, the last record I did was a Christmas record, which was probably one of my favorite records I’ve ever done. Writing Christmas music, there was something so freeing to it. You’re writing for a period of time that’s hopefully going to be the memories to people’s families growing up. It’s a different thing, and I really enjoyed it. This record, it was like, “There’s no way I’m going to be able to do a record.” And why would I? If I did, what kind of music would I do? I’ve had so many genres I’ve bounced in and out of — I just had two country hits with a country guy, what the hell am I doing these days? I was all over the map. I was feeling a lot of insecurities about it to be honest. I don’t go and buy the new record of the band I liked in high school. I don’t. I listen to the one I liked in high school. So why would someone want to buy a new Gwen Stefani album? That’s just how I was feeling. But at the same time, I had written one song, and if it’s good you know it’s good. It’s addictive, you want to share it. By just doing that one session — right before the pandemic — I thought I needed to do some more songs”.

The intention of this whole album was to write music that was nostalgic to the people who actually did follow me all these years, that they could listen to it and it’d be new but it’d be familiar. I thought about them. If they didn’t listen to it, why else would I do it? So I’m doing it for them, too, you know what I mean? But yeah, I feel like that song is fun, uptempo, not serious but it has serious things in it. It’s all about saying, “Are you rooting for me like I’m rooting for you?” I’m really happy I got to write this song with Ross. The fact that the label wants to put out such a weird song, I’m clapping for them. [Laughs]”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Art Streiber/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images

Although I have not seen any announcement regarding an album and when that may be released, it seems like she is gearing up to release one soon. In that article from She Knows, they mentioned how Stefani was being interviewed by Zane Lowe and, when she was making Let Me Reintroduce Myself, it brought her back to an album that arrived at a particularly tumultuous time of her life:

“Gwen Stefani’s new album Let Me Reintroduce Myself has the former No Doubt star feeling nostalgic for another studio album of hers — 2016’s This Is What The Truth Feels Like, written in the tumultuous year that she both filed for divorce from husband Gavin Rossdale and began dating current fiancé Blake Shelton. In a new Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe, Stefani talks about the process of writing that album five years ago, which was originally slated for December 2014 but delayed due to Stefani’s ongoing issues with the material. She’s hinted in the past about the sudden burst of inspiration in late 2015 that brought this album to life, but she tells Lowe even more explicitly now that she was falling in love and that’s why she was able to write the songs she did. She details the “couple months” in which the album came together, and we looked back at the album release’s timing to see what that means for her relationship with Shelton. Spoiler alert: These two got serious even sooner than we expected”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Nelson 

One gets definite Reggae and Ska vibes on the hypnotic and twisting Slow Clap. It opens with “Clap, clap/Clap, clap, clap, clap/Clap de-clap de-clap clap/Slow clap” and, even though we have not had any story revealed, one wonders what the background of the song is and what the title refers to. The beat is quite tight and taut. Riding a wave, Stefani delivers one of her most confident and catchy vocals. You can tell she is having a great time on the song! I wonder whether there is a personal story behind Slow Clap or whether it is a general observation. I really like the rhymes on the first verse: “I'll be David, you Goliath/Set the rule and I'll defy it/You be angry, I'll be quiet/You be purple, I'm the violet/Take a ride 'cause I'm the co-pilot/I'm the ice cream, you're just the diet/Be the captain, I'll be the pirate/You're Billy the Kid, and I'll be the Wyatt”. Not standing in one spot, Slow Clap moves through different sounds and paces. From the fast and commanding verse, there is a passage where the sound goes a bit more Gospel. It is interesting hearing Gwen Stefani singing “Are you rooting for me like I'm rooting for you?/Let me hear you get loud like surround sound” and what she is referring to. I get the impression Stefani is talking about a relationship and supporting someone. Maybe the two are contrasting and have very different personalities. The first verse has that snappy and Ska sound that gets you motivated and moving. It is clear that, despite Stefani offering backing and compassion, she is very much on control and has plenty of confidence: “Clap, clap/Clap, clap, clap, clap/Clap de-clap de-clap clap/Slow clap/Walk into the room like a boss/Slow Clap/Putting on a little extra sauce/Slow clap”. It is classic Stefani as she delivers her words with so much panache and conviction: “Clap, clap/Clap, clap, clap, clap/Clap de-clap de-clap clap/Slow clap/Side stepping people down the hall/Slow Clap/Winter, spring or summer or the fall/Slow Clap”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: SHAPE Magazine

I think, when it comes to the lyrics, there is that nice oblique aspect…so you wonder whether Stefani is referring to a broken relationship or conflict or whether this is a fictional angle. I do really like the lyrics and the images they provoke: “Been the champion, rang the bell/Rocked the bottom, been through hell/Climbed the mountain, now I'm well/I just feel like coming back for the belt/I've been slipping and slipping/But now I'm back for double dipping/Who'm I kidding, I'm winning/My gentleman is for myself/I'm throwin' a Hail Mary to no one else/That's why I'm cheering for myself”. It is evident that Stefani has won a battle and, perhaps, she is referring to her relationship and happiness with Blake Shelton? I tried to look for interviews where Stefani talked about Slow Clap and its story. There is a touch of M.I.A. at times (when she sings “Clap, clap/Clap, clap, clap, clap/Clap de-clap de-clap clap/Slow clap”, one gets elements of Galang). We get a passage of new lyrics where Stefani gives us more story. That is sandwiched between the chorus. That becomes more relevant and powerful the more you hear it. I would be interested to see an official video for the song and how Stefani approaches the visuals. Whereas I started off by thinking about Slow Clap as a relationship song and about marriage, perhaps, some lines later in the song make me feel like this is Stefani mounting a new solo phase and wanting to be heard: “I don't wanna go to the back of the line/No, no, I put in my time/From the garage to the penthouse girls/Underdog to the top of the world”. Stefani keeps the energy and pace up to the end. One gets carried by the wave of the chorus and the conviction that Stefani delivers: “Clap, clap/Clap, clap, clap, clap/Clap de-clap de-clap clap/Slow clap/Side stepping people down the hall /Slow Clap/Winter, Spring or Summer or the Fall/Slow Clap”. I am interested to see what single comes next and whether there is an official announcement regarding an album release date. Slow Clap is another terrific single from one of my favourite artists – someone who is constantly evolving and huge engaging.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Gwen Stefani on the set of The Voice/PHOTO CREDIT: Trae Patton/NBC

Before ending the review, there are a few other things that I want to note. I mentioned how Gwen Stefani was a judge on the U.S. version of The Voice. Not only was it important for her to lend her expertise and guidance; I think she also learned a lot from that experience and brought that to her new material. Stefani was asked about that by Stereogum:

“I feel like I’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about this a bit more, since it’s now such a big part of your career. Now that you’re putting out this album on the other side of this TV era, I’m curious if you learned certain lessons about yourself being a coach on The Voice and then going back to your own music. Obviously with everything we’re talking about today, there have been some wild opportunities in your life. But the arc from Anaheim ska-punk filming a video in your grandparents’ old house to being a household name on The Voice is probably one of the crazier arcs within your story.

STEFANI: I was super naive when I said I’d do it. I don’t think I’d even watched the show. My parents had watched it. I had literally just given birth. Five weeks out of having this baby. My lawyer, my mom and dad, my niece, they were over to see the baby. I got the call. Basically, Irving Azoff — who was not my manager at the time, but I’d known him and his wife for 14 years — his wife called me and said “Christina [Aguilera]’s pregnant, do you think you’d want to do The Voice?” I hung up and said, “I just got the craziest call.” My parents were huge fans and were like, “Oh my God!” It was a hard period in my life before that. A lot of stuff had gone down. I had done that record with No Doubt, which was really hard. I had been really depleted in a lot of ways. To do [The Voice], I just never thought I could, but I was going to go for it.

You ask me how it helped me? I learned so much on that show. I think it was the perfect time for me to play the role as mentor or coach. It helped me with my confidence, and also took away some of my confidence. It was so intimidating to watch these unbelievably gifted, regular people that just one after another were coming through and going through unbelievable pressure, just to get onstage and do a blind audition. Then everything that comes after that — I could’ve never done it. I could never sing like that. You start to judge yourself: “I’m not very good, how did I make it, how did they let me out of my mom’s house?” All these insecurities”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Emily Berl for The New York Times

I guess we assume that Gwen Stefani has influenced a lot of artists herself (which is true) but is not necessarily compelled by any new artists. Going back to the Stereogum interview I have sourced from a fair bit, she was asked about that subject:

“I’m curious about how this came about, but I’m also curious based on how you’re talking about going into the new album: Dua Lipa is of this new generation. Are there other younger pop stars you look at and get inspired by?

STEFANI: That’s a good question. I’m at a really weird place in my life because of the different roles that I play. We all play different roles through our lifetime. You get to a place where you’re sort of out of touch a bit because… you are a mom, and you’re on a TV show, and you’re not touring, and you’re older. To have Dua Lipa even know who I am and want me to be a part of that was super flattering. When she asked me it was during that summer when that big song was out that the whole world was listening to — including Blake Shelton! Dancing around the backyard. We were all listening to that song. So it was really exciting, and it’s always flattering when someone wants to work with you. She’s such a good singer. It’s super rare — I’m just going to be honest — that I’m impressed by somebody. I can’t help it. I’m stuck up, and I like what I like. At the same time, on something like The Voice, people come through with this talent where you’re like, “Why did anyone even let me be onstage? How is it fair I have any success, I am so not talented compared to these people”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Wonderland. Magazine

A couple of other things, I feel, need to be addressed before finishing up. The last part I want to take from the Stereogum interview is her memories of Prince. It may sound random but, as we mark five years since he died in April, it is interesting discovering how Prince impacted and touched various people:

“So I’ve heard. When Prince passed, people had so many bizarre and hilarious, or surprisingly heart-warming, stories about him. Do you have a particular memory you return to?

STEFANI: I was in London. They said, “The Arist…” The Artist. At that time you didn’t say Prince. “The Artist wants to speak with you.” Basically, Tony [Kanal] — my best friend at the time, my former boyfriend, my bandmate — worshipped him. That was his guy. The fact that Prince would even know who I am and would want to speak with me was terrifying and crazy. In high school I was ska, I wasn’t a huge Prince fan. It wasn’t until afterwards that I rediscovered all the dance music and popular music that was happening in the backdrop of my life. But yeah, he called me on the phone. His voice was exactly Prince. He was very quiet. “I want to talk to you, I want you to be on my song, ‘So Far, So Pleased.'” It was like a deal: “In return I’ll help you with your song.”

We had this song we’d been working on called “Waiting Room.” The way that No Doubt would write is I would write it and they’d have the chords and we’d never get anywhere, and everything took us so long because we never knew what we were doing. Sometimes we’d just get stuck. That was during the Rock Steady album, and we were actually in a good flow in that time period, and working outside of the band — like working with Ric Ocasek or Sly & Robbie. I said [to Prince], “I have this song I can’t finish called ‘Waiting Room.'” He said to send it to him. When I landed in Minneapolis, I’m walking through the airport and his people come to get us and this guy’s like, “The Artist wants to speak to you.” He hands over his cellphone, and Prince says, “I had to rewrite your song.” I was like, “OK, great.” Just dying to hear what it was”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Emily Berl for The New York Times

All this new music makes me interested whether an album will arrive in the coming months. It is clear Gwen Stefani has lost none of her power and potency! Slow Clap is another terrific song that has earned her a lot of praise. In the Vogue interview I sourced from earlier, the subject of Stefani’s legacy was brought up:

“Do you think about your legacy? Do you see your influence in new acts today?

“Sometimes I can see my style, especially right now because it feels like there’s ’90s nostalgia in terms of fashion. I have a 14-year-old son, so he had a lot to do with me reinvestigating myself and taking me back to when I discovered ska music. It’s weird how time can go so quickly, especially when you’re a mother of three boys — I went from that horrible time in my life [her 2015 divorce from Gavin Rossdale], and that was when I wrote that last record. My life was falling apart. [Writing the 2016 album] wasn’t to do with anything other than saving my own life. That’s a completely different place to be. Then halfway through [recording], I fall in love with this cowboy guy — like, what the hell?”.

It is clear that Gwen Stefani has influenced a lot of artists and we can see quite a few from today have D.N.A. of her and No Doubt. I do hope that the band are not done and have more albums in them. I really like Gwen Stefani’s solo material, so I am going to keep my eyes open to see what comes next. Slow Clap is a terrific new single that deserves…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Gwen Stefani with Blake Shelton/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Granitz/WireImage

HUGE and passionate applause.

___________

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FEATURE: I’m Not the Only One: Is It Time for the BRITs to Change Its Gendered Categories?

FEATURE:

 

 

I’m Not the Only One

IN THIS PHOTO: Sam Smith, who identifies as non-binary, has been excluded from the gendered categories at this year’s BRIT Awards 

Is It Time for the BRITs to Change Its Gendered Categories?

___________

ALTHOUGH there has been some progression…

at music award ceremonies in terms of gender and racial balance (in terms of who is nominated), there are still areas where improvement is required. The GRAMMYs were criticised for years because of a lack of women and BAME artists being nominated. They have made some big steps over the past year or two but, with The Weeknd boycotting them after being snubbed, they still have to deal with fallout and blowback. The BRITs has faced some problems this week as Sam Smith has been excluded. This article from The Guardian explains more:

“Sam Smith, the pop singer whose gender identity is non-binary, has been excluded from the gendered categories at the 2021 Brit awards.

The awards system has maintained its usual artist categories, with prizes for British solo male and British solo female. That means there is no room for Smith, who uses they and them as their pronouns since coming out as non-binary in September 2019. They said at the time: “After a lifetime of being at war with my gender I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out.”

Their album Love Goes is eligible for the British album of the year award. It reached No 2 in the UK chart on release in October 2020, and remained in the Top 40 until last week.

In a statement on Instagram, Smith said: “The Brits have been an important part of my career … Music for me has always been about unification not division. I look forward to a time where awards shows can be reflective of the society we live in. Let’s celebrate everybody, regardless of gender, race, age, ability, sexuality and class.”

A Brit awards spokesperson later responded, saying: “Sam is an extraordinary British artist and we agree with what they have said today. The Brits are committed to evolving the show and the gendered categories are very much under review. But any changes made to be more inclusive need to be just that - if a change unintentionally leads to less inclusion then it risks being counterproductive to diversity and equality. We need to consult more widely before changes are made to make sure we get it right”.

The awards have made changes to the eligibility criteria this year, allowing non-British citizens to be nominated in British categories providing they have been a permanent resident for more than five years.

The change means that pop singer Rina Sawayama, who holds Japanese citizenship but has lived in the UK for more than 25 years, is eligible, and has been nominated for the rising star award alongside rapper Pa Salieu and pop singer Griff. She was deemed ineligible for the 2020 Mercury prize on citizenship grounds, a decision she described as “very upsetting”. The Mercury prize has also now updated its eligibility criteria to match that of the Brits”.

It sounds like there will be changes in the next couple of years. Whether it means the BRITs organisers will a Best Non-Binary Artist category or dispense with the gendered categories, I don’t know. It does seem strange that, at a time when there are so many non-binary/gender-fluid artists, award ceremonies do need to adapt.

Maybe it is outdated to separate male and female artists when there could be a single category. Some say that, if that were the case, then there is a danger of women being under-represented and overlooked. The BRITs has faced a problem with a lack of female artists being nominated in the past. Last year, The Guardian detailed a serious oversight and issue:

“Because Brits eligibility doesn’t just depend on artists releasing music during the previous 12 months, but Top 40 success. This disadvantages female performers, who are being signed and promoted at an inferior rate: as industry reporter Rhian Jones identifies in her assessment of this year’s Brits, 2019 analysis by former Basca CEO Vick Bain of UK labels’ public-facing rosters found that fewer than 20% of actively promoted current signings were women. Unlike rap, in which DIY paths to the mainstream are de rigueur, pop as an art form relies on scale and infrastructure that an individual can’t create for herself.

The Brits could change its rules so that any British music released over the past 12 months might be considered – an opportunity to recognise our considerable creative influence over the bottom line – but as is often the case with music’s power brokers, they are shifting the blame, stating that the longlist was pulled from Official Charts Company data. This amounts to passing the buck from left hand to right: major labels produce the bulk of what goes in the charts. They also take turns running the Brits (this year, it’s Universal). Their voting representatives almost always tip their own product. And so the pool shrinks”.

 

The BRITs faced a #BritsSoWhite controversy of 2016 when it failed to nominate any Black artists. They then diversified its voting committee. In 2020, its 1,445 members comprise 49% female and 24.5% BAME voters. The BRITs Rising Star 2021 trio is the most diverse – and I think, interesting – for years. It is going to be a hotly-contested category and, whilst I think Rina Sawayama will win, the fact all the nominees are non-white artists is a move in the right direct - and the artists are all very different and primed for big things in the future. We can see how the BRITs has reacted to negative press and clear lack of diversity. Let’s hopes that Sam Smith’s snub compels the award committee to make some alternations. Some would argue that Smith’s latest album, Love Goes, of last year was not going to be in the running for nominations. I do think that last year’s BRITs was a triumph, in the sense that we saw more BAME and female artists nominated and winning awards. Non-binary artists are not a silent voice and reserved to a few people. Perhaps Sam Smith is one of the most high-profile. One has to ask that, if there are changes regarding gender categories, then what about trans artists. Maybe it is complex to change the entire system and overhaul things but, as there are so many important non-binary artists, it is clear that the BRITs (and all other award ceremonies) need to…

RESPOND proactively.

FEATURE: Music Technology Breakthroughs: Part Thirteen: MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)

FEATURE:

 

 

Music Technology Breakthroughs

Part Thirteen: MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)

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I might wrap this feature up…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

in a few weeks, as there are only a certain number of technological breakthroughs that have occurred in music history! So far, I have covered music software, instruments and technology that has changed the industry and the way we enjoy music. Today, I am featuring a breakthrough that, despite some flaws and criticism, has made a big impact through the years. MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface) is a fascinating conception. If you are unfamiliar with MIDI, here is some useful history and information:

“MIDI (/ˈmɪdi/; an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing and recording music.The specification originates in a paper titled Universal Synthesizer Interface, published by Dave Smith and Chet Wood, then of Sequential Circuits, at the October 1981 Audio Engineering Society conference in New York City.

A single MIDI link through a MIDI cable can carry up to sixteen channels of information, each of which can be routed to a separate device or instrument. This could be sixteen different digital instruments, for example. MIDI carries event messages; data that specify the instructions for music, including a note's notation, pitch, velocity (which is heard typically as loudness or softness of volume); vibrato; panning to the right or left of stereo; and clock signals (which set tempo). When a musician plays a MIDI instrument, all of the key presses, button presses, knob turns and slider changes are converted into MIDI data. One common MIDI application is to play a MIDI keyboard or other controller and use it to trigger a digital sound module (which contains synthesized musical sounds) to generate sounds, which the audience hears produced by a keyboard amplifier. MIDI data can be transferred via MIDI or USB cable, or recorded to a sequencer or digital audio workstation to be edited or played back.

A file format that stores and exchanges the data is also defined. Advantages of MIDI include small file size, ease of modification and manipulation and a wide choice of electronic instruments and synthesizer or digitally-sampled sounds. A MIDI recording of a performance on a keyboard could sound like a piano or other keyboard instrument; however, since MIDI records the messages and information about their notes and not the specific sounds, this recording could be changed to many other sounds, ranging from synthesized or sampled guitar or flute to full orchestra. A MIDI recording is not an audio signal, as with a sound recording made with a microphone.

Prior to the development of MIDI, electronic musical instruments from different manufacturers could generally not communicate with each other. This meant that a musician could not, for example, plug a Roland keyboard into a Yamaha synthesizer module. With MIDI, any MIDI-compatible keyboard (or other controller device) can be connected to any other MIDI-compatible sequencer, sound module, drum machine, synthesizer, or computer, even if they are made by different manufacturers.

MIDI technology was standardized in 1983 by a panel of music industry representatives, and is maintained by the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA). All official MIDI standards are jointly developed and published by the MMA in Los Angeles, and the MIDI Committee of the Association of Musical Electronics Industry (AMEI) in Tokyo. In 2016, the MMA established The MIDI Association (TMA) to support a global community of people who work, play, or create with MIDI”.

I am always curious to do some background reading and research regarding innovations and wonderful inventions that have changed music. I was a little unfamiliar when it came to MIDI and how it started out. In terms of history, Music Radar wrote a brilliant feature on the thirtieth anniversary of MIDI in 2012. As it turns forty next year, it is fascinating going back to its humble beginnings:

“Absolutely no sound is sent via MIDI, just digital signals known as event messages, which instruct pieces of equipment. The most basic example of this can be illustrated by considering a controller keyboard and a sound module. When you push a key on the keyboard, the controller sends an event message which corresponds to that pitch and tells the sound module to start playing the note. When you let go of the key, the controller sends a message to stop playing the note.

Of course, the MIDI protocol allows for control over more than just when a note should be played. Essentially, a message is sent each time some variable changes, whether it be note-on/off (including, of course, exactly which note it is), velocity (determined by how hard you hit the key), aftertouch (how hard the key is held down), pitchbend, pan, modulation, volume or any other MIDI-controllable function.

The key feature of MIDI when it was launched was its efficiency: it allowed a relatively significant amount of information to be transmitted using only a small amount of data. Given the limitations of early '80s digital data transmission methods, this was essential to ensure that the reproduction of musical timing was sufficiently accurate.

 Manufacturers quickly adopted MIDI and its popularity was cemented by the arrival of MIDI-compatible computer hardware (most notably the built-in MIDI ports of the Atari ST, which was released in 1985). As weaknesses or potential extra features were identified, the MIDI Manufacturers Association updated the standard regularly following its first publication.

The most common criticisms of the MIDI protocol relate to timing issues. Although MIDI was efficient by the standards of the early '80s, it is still undeniably flawed to some extent. There is some degree of jitter (variation in timing) present in MIDI, resulting in discernible sloppiness in recording and playback.

Perhaps even more obvious to most of us is latency, the delay between triggering a function (such as a sound) via MIDI and the function being carried out (in this case the sound being reproduced). The more information sent via MIDI, the more latency is created. It may only be in the order of milliseconds, but it's enough to become noticeable to the listener”.

Whilst I have sourced a part of the feature that signalled weaknesses of MIDI and its limitations, there are many more pluses than negatives. I want to end up with a BBC feature that highlights how important MIDI was.

I think we will see more features next year on the fortieth anniversary. In 2012, the BBC were keen to explore the history and legacy of MIDI:

“It's 30 years since the development of technology that allowed synthesisers and drum machines to be connected to computers - and since then MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) has revolutionised the world of music recording.

If you really want to appreciate Pink Floyd's track Shine on You Crazy Diamond, aficionados claim, it's best to have it on vinyl.

The sounds of the synthesisers burst through the crackle on the record as the guitar and drums set a heavy, rolling rhythm.

But despite the awesome creativity of the music, the sound betrays a major limitation to the way electronic musical instruments were controlled at the time.

"You could play one keyboard with your right hand and another keyboard with your left hand," says Dave Smith, a synthesiser manufacturer from California who was working on the issue back then.

"But [musicians] couldn't play more than one at the same time because there was no way of electrically interconnecting them," he remembers.

What Smith did next would transform the way recording studios worked, and create a revolution in music and recording production.

 He persuaded manufacturers to adopt a common format which allowed their synthesisers to be controlled externally - by another keyboard potentially made by a rival manufacturer, or even by a computer.

It was called Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) and would soon become the industry standard for connecting different makes of synthesisers, drum machines, samplers and computers.

The development opened up a "whole new era of music processing", as Dave Smith puts it.

"What MIDI did is it allowed the first home studios to be born," he says.

"The computers were fast enough to be able to sequence notes, control the number of keyboards and drum machines at the same time… it kind of opened up a whole new industry."

It was a breakthrough that would have the same kind of impact on popular music as the electrification of guitars decades earlier.

The wide availability of the format and its ease of use helped redefine pop music in the 1980s - giving it a strong electronic feel and spawning many of the contemporary music genres that followed.

Alex Paterson's co-producer Dom Beken remembers how MIDI allowed anyone to create "massive soundscapes".

"Those electronic pioneers and those people who might have been punks before could now just make stuff that people would go mad to on the dance floor," he says.

For Dave Smith, MIDI could only become a success if every manufacturer adopted it - "we had to give it away", he says.

The universality of the format was perhaps an early example of what now gets called "open source" technology - MIDI's backers intended it to be a free gift to the world which allowed anyone access.

Three decades on, and MIDI is still going strong - remaining one of the core components of professional recording and music production”.

I shall end things there but, as I look to the coming weeks and what can be included in Music Technology Breakthroughs, I was keen to spotlight MIDI and its beginnings. There are some weaknesses to MIDI, but it has transformed music technology over the decades. Given all MIDI has given to the music world, I feel it was more than worthy of…

A fond salute.

FEATURE: Kickstarting Something Beautiful… Why We Need to See the Finding Kate Coffee Table-Style Book in the World

FEATURE:

 

 

Kickstarting Something Beautiful…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Byrne and Marius Herbert

Why We Need to See the Finding Kate Coffee Table-Style Book in the World

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I was not going to do so many Kate Bush features…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Byrne and Marius Herbert

this past week but, as there has been a high degree of activity in terms of news, I could not hold back! Every time I publish a feature regarding a new Kate Bush book/magazine spread, another one comes to light! Maybe it is the demand for new music from her, or fans wanting to pay tribute to a remarkable artist…whatever it is, it is brilliant to see exciting new books come to the fore. As Kate Bush News have hardly taken breath this past year because of all of the various books, magazines and Kate Bush-related titbits, I shall let them reveal an exciting project in Finding Kate:

“A pair of creative collaborators from Ireland, Michael Byrne and Marius Herbert, have today launched a Kickstarter campaign to realise their goal of publishing a rather unique and beautiful book which “visually and textually celebrates the genius and the music of Kate”. The book is titled: Finding Kate and is described as a visual celebration of the music of Kate Bush. This is an unofficial book, not associated with Kate herself, but Michael has been a long time fan and admirer of both Kate’s music – I’ve seen some pieces from the book and the writing is strong, obviously written with care and from a fan’s perspective. The illustrations promise to be “exciting illustrated visuals that will be new to her fans.” As with book crowdfunding campaigns of this sort, rewards for backers include having your name printed inside the book as a funder.

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Byrne and Marius Herbert 

From the launch site: “Michael has been a long time fan and admirer of both Kate Bush’s music and creative spirit and in this book ‘Finding Kate’ he picks a selection of his own particular favourite ‘Kate’ songs, each one visually conceptualised as double page spreads with accompanying text detailing some song facts, together with his own personal insights into the music – all beautifully digitally illustrated by Marius. Plus there will be other interesting Kate related content and also a history by decade of her recorded work to date.”

“This will be a large coffee table style book with a page size of 300mm x 300mm (12 inches square). It will be a premium production and will contain 96 pages + cover of text and lavishly produced illustrations of different styles to the following spec:

·        Casebound (hardback)

·        Size 300mm x 300mm

·        Threadsewn

·        Laminated picture wrap cover

·        Head & tail bands

·        Printed end sheets

·        Printed throughout on top quality 170gsm Gardamatt Silk paper.

It will be printed & produced to the highest standards by one of Europe’s leading book printers based in Italy and will ship worldwide”.

I am going to keep this short because, as much as anything, I want people to support the book. As of writing this (13th March, 14:34), the book has received £1,124 of its £19,149 goal. I am going to pledge and, if you are a new Kate Bush fan or a diehard, this is a book that sounds awesome - one that you definitely need to own. The rewards for those who pledge are attractive:

“To try reach our funding target we have come up with a series of 4 personalised and inspiring tiered REWARD PACKAGES aimed at fans of Kate, all of which will be exclusive to backers at the Kickstarter stage, with the ultimate being an opportunity for two people to feature individually in a spread with the lady herself!

All prices quoted for the Rewards packages INCLUDE cost of delivery to you if you live in Ireland, United Kingdom and the European Union. Backers outside of these destinations will be charged an extra €10 at the checkout to cover additional delivery costs”.

I have said – when writing about Kate Bush books and gaps in the market – how there are areas that should be filled. I would like to see a book that explores her albums in a beautiful hardback where we have detailed looks at the tracks, chart positions; pictographic representation of the instruments used and little illustrations that brings her music to life in a new way. Similarly, there has been a relative absence of photobooks through the years.

In fact, the excellent KATE: Inside the Rainbow by her brother, John Carder Bush, was published over five years ago (in 2015). There has not been a good photobook since then and, given the amount of great photographs there are of Bush and the photographers she has worked with, it seems like there needs to be something happen in that area. Two exciting coffee table books, WOW! by Gered Mankowitz, and The Kate Inside by Guido Harari are excellent. They are both quite expensive…so I wonder whether Finding Kate will be closer in price to the John Carder Bush book (£35-£40) or the coffee table books (over £100 for the standard edition of The Kate Inside; nearly £400 for WOW!). 2020 and this year has seen several books and magazine features dedicated to Bush. That is going to grow this year, and, to my mind, I don’t think there has been as much fervent passion and representation of the enormous love that is held for her for many years! Her fanbase continues to grow and, with the Dubliners Michael Byrne and Marius Herbert giving us a glimpse into a beautiful book they have clearly passionately worked on for a long time, more people will pick up Kate Bush’s music after picking up that book - I guess that is one of their aims at least. Let’s hope it can reach its target in the next fifty-nine days (it seems like it will!), as I would love to grab a copy. I would say that we will not see another Kate Bush book or magazine feature published in the coming weeks but, as I have made that proclamation before, I shall happily stay quiet and…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

HOPE that I am wrong!

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: The Brilliance of Quincy Jones

FEATURE:

 

The Lockdown Playlist

PHOTO CREDT: Art Streiber/AUGUST 

The Brilliance of Quincy Jones

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I will include some female artists…

in my birthday Lockdown Playlists. I had to mark Quincy Jones’ eighty-eight birthday tomorrow (14th March). There is virtually no corner of music that has not been lifted by Jones and his magic touch. I wanted to bring in some biography regarding an iconic producer and musicians:

“Quincy Jones, in full Quincy Delight Jones, Jr., byname “Q”, (born March 14, 1933, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), American musical performer, producer, arranger, and composer whose work encompasses virtually all forms of popular music.

Jones was born in Chicago and reared in Bremerton, Washington, where he studied the trumpet and worked locally with the then-unknown pianist-singer Ray Charles. In the early 1950s Jones studied briefly at the prestigious Schillinger House (now Berklee College of Music) in Boston before touring with Lionel Hampton as a trumpeter and arranger. He soon became a prolific freelance arranger, working with Clifford Brown, Gigi Gryce, Oscar Pettiford, Cannonball Adderley, Count Basie, Dinah Washington, and many others. He toured with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band in 1956, recorded his first album as a leader in the same year, worked in Paris for the Barclay label as an arranger and producer in the late 1950s, and continued to compose. Some of his more successful compositions from this period include “Stockholm Sweetnin’,” “For Lena and Lennie,” and “Jessica’s Day.”

Back in the United States in 1961, Jones became an artists-and-repertoire (or “A&R” in trade jargon) director for Mercury Records. In 1964 he was named a vice president at Mercury, thereby becoming one of the first African Americans to hold a top executive position at a major American record label.

In the 1960s Jones recorded occasional jazz dates, arranged albums for many singers (including Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Billy Eckstine), and composed music for several films, including The Pawnbroker (1964), In the Heat of the Night (1967), and In Cold Blood (1967). Jones next worked for the A&M label from 1969 to 1981 (with a brief hiatus as he recovered from a brain aneurysm in 1974) and moved increasingly away from jazz toward pop music. During this time he became one of the most famous producers in the world, his success enabling him to start his own record label, Qwest, in 1980.

Jones’s best-known work includes producing an all-time best-selling album, Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1982), organizing the all-star charity recording “We Are the World” (1985), and producing the film The Color Purple (1985) and the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–96). In 1993 he founded the magazine Vibe, which he sold in 2006.

Throughout the years, Jones worked with a “who’s who” of figures from all fields of popular music. He was nominated for more than 75 Grammy Awards (winning more than 25) and seven Academy Awards and received an Emmy Award for the theme music he wrote for the television miniseries Roots (1977). He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001 and the National Medal of Arts in 2010. In 2013 Jones was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”.

To mark the eighty-eighth birthday of a titan of music, the Lockdown Playlist is a selection of songs where Quincy Jones has a credit (either as composer, conductor, arranger or producer). As you will see, he worked with some enormous artists through the decades. Here is a selection of…

SOME of the very best.

FEATURE: And the Award Goes to… A Look at Four Big GRAMMY Categories

FEATURE:

 

 

And the Award Goes to…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Brittany Howard is nominated for five GRAMMYs, including Best Rock Performance for Stay High/PHOTO CREDIT: David McClister 

A Look at Four Big GRAMMY Categories

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THIS coming Sunday (14th)…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Coldplay are nominated for Album of the Year for 2019’s Everyday Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Atlantic Records

the GRAMMYs will take place. It is another year where things are very strange. Although it is going to be a ceremony where a lot of the nominees are remotely connected, the music nominated this year is phenomenal. I am not going to include all categories in this feature (as there are so many!). I wanted to feature four of the biggest categories, say a little about each album/artist and then predict my winner – how accurate I will be is yet to be seen! Looking at the Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best New Artist, and Best Rock Performance, I think we will see female talent clean up. In fact, this year is especially positive when it comes to female representation and balance. I am interested to see who will win across the broad; I think the hotly-contested award for song and album will be intense. I think that the Rock nominees are especially intriguing. Ahead of the GRAMMYs on Monday, here is a brief rundown of the exceptional talent in…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa is nominated for six GRAMMYs, including Record of the Year for Don’t Start Now/PHOTO CREDIT: Hugo Comte

FOUR important and privileged categories.

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Album of the year

Jhené Aiko – Chilombo

Release Date: 6th March, 2020

Labels: ArtClub/ARTium/Def Jam

Producers: Jhené Aiko/Fisticuffs/Lejkeys/Micah Powell/Heavy Mellow

Review:

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

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

Standout Tracks: Triggered (freestyle)/ B.S. (ft. H.E.R.)/Pray for You

Choice Cut: None of Your Concern

Black Pumas – Black Pumas (Deluxe Edition)

Release Date: 21st June, 2019

Label: ATO

Producers: Jon Kaplan/Adrian Quesada

Review (Standard Edition):

“Possessing a voice that can slide into the slipstream with ease, Burton lends an elegant elasticity to Quesada’s tightly layered productions. Occasionally the producer/guitarist performs this trick in reverse—“Sweet Conversations,” the album’s dreamy denouement, draws upon a demo Burton recorded at home—but the core of the album lies in how the singer helps shape aural paintings into songs, providing them with warmth and a slight trace of spaciness.

Burton may command attention with his sweet, plaintive voice, but Quesada’s densely woven tapestries are the key to Black Pumas. Inspired by RZA’s crate-digging productions for the Wu-Tang Clan extended universe, Quesada relies on scratchy drum loops, hits of strings, funky electronic pianos, and fuzz guitar. Actual samples may be rare but the fact that the guitarist cobbled together all of this on his own is admirable, particularly when he marshals all of his skill on one cut. The minor-key march “Fire” gains gravity from its blend of ghostly organs and guitar twang, “Stay Gold” shimmers with the sultriness of a heat wave, and “Black Moon Rising” unfurls with a hushed sense of spectacle.

At these moments, which are the best Black Pumas has to offer, the duo’s flair for drama is so stirring, they can seem acutely cinematic. As appealing as this Technicolor sound may be, it can’t quite hide the seams created when the duo stitched their two sensibilities together in the studio. Burton’s misty introspection can give Quesada’s soulful prowess an ethereal edge, yet it can sometimes suggest the whole enterprise is little more than snazzy pastiche. While there may be pleasure in such a patchwork of sound, particularly when it’s done with such style and verve, the assemblage bears a pointed sense of insularity. Burton sings about interior voyages and the tracks were usually constructed by no more than two musicians; it’s music made at home, for home listening. That’s all well and good, since the duo has considerable skill, but this existential lonerism underscores a chasm between the pair and their influences. Unlike the icons of the era they find so inspiring, Black Pumas rarely look outside of themselves” – Rolling Stone

Standout Tracks: Colors/Fire/Old Man

Choice Cut: Black Moon Rising

Coldplay – Everyday Life

Release Date: 22nd November, 2019

Labels: Parlophone/Atlantic

Producers: Rik Simpson/Dan Green/Bill Rahko/Angel Lopez/Federico Vindver/Max Martin

Review:

“The song’s accompanying A-side single – and the record’s centrepiece – ‘Orphans’, details hope amid the bleak narrative of the Syrian civil war. It’s the album’s obvious lead single, thrust with a slinky bassline, syncopated Afrobeat percussion and spirited choral sing-a-longs. We’ve had our fill of “woops” and “woo-hoos” across the band’s ‘A Head Full of Dreams’ though. You’re tempted to think: Please, no more.

Thankfully, penultimate track ‘Champion of the World’ (which uses the emotive guitar hook from ‘Los Angeles, Be Kind’, the work of the late Scott Huchison’s Owl John side project) rescues an otherwise trailing part two of ‘Everyday Life’. It’s a slow-burning ballad dedicated to believing in yourself, replete with the widescreen indie rock flair reminiscent of Doves’ ‘There Goes The Fear’. The closing title track, with its blooming strings and repeated chants of “Hallelujah”, sets you up for a ‘Fix You’-style cry fest but slightly short-circuits the whole thing. Still, it’s an interesting decision for a band that trades in build-and-release euphoric pop – and maybe that’s the point.

Ultimately, ‘Everyday Life’ is something of a confounding experiment. On the one hand it’s full of eclectic sounds and ideas – an Iranian poem interlude here (‘Bani Adam’), a country-blues musing on gun control there (‘Guns’) – that offer a welcome respite from Coldplay tropes. True, these songs are sometimes more exciting in theory than in practise (not something you’d have said of, for instance, the Brian Eno-assisted ‘Viva La Vida’), but ‘Everyday Life’ regularly steps to the left-field, proving that Coldplay are more adventurous than they’re often given credit for” – NME

Standout Tracks: Daddy/Orphans/Everyday Life

Choice Cut: Champion of the World

Jacob Collier – Djesse Vol. 3

Release Date: 14th August, 2020

Label: Hajanga Records

Producer: Jacob Collier

Review:

“The third album in Jacob Collier's ambitious Djesse series, 2020's Djesse, Vol. 3 finds the acclaimed British singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist exploring a vibrant mix of contemporary R&B, vintage-inspired funk, and hip-hop, all woven together by his kaleidoscopic electronic-based production. The set follows Collier's previous Djesse albums and again features a bevy of guest artists. This time out, he joins forces with Jessie Reyez and T-Pain on the kinetic "Count the People," Mahalia and Ty Dolla $ign on the lushly emotive "All I Need," and Tori Kelly on the swaggeringly soulful "Running Outta Love." We also get equally compelling contributions by Kimbra, Daniel Caesar, and Kiana Ledé. These are all gorgeously rendered songs that again underline Collier's reputation as a pop virtuoso, ably bringing together his love of '70s soul, jazz, EDM, and hooky pop” – AllMusic

Standout Tracks: In My Bones (ft. Kimbra and Tank and the Bangas)/All I Need (ft. Mahalia and Ty Dolla Sign)/Running Outta Love (ft. Tori Kelly)

Choice Cut: Time Alone with You (ft. Daniel Caesar)

Haim – Women in Music Pt. III

Release Date: 26th June, 2020

Label: Columbia

Producers: Danielle Haim/Rostam Batmanglij/Ariel Rechtshaid

Review:

“When their lengthy tour supporting Something to Tell You ended, the women of HAIM found themselves in inescapable crises. Alana's best friend died; Este struggled with her health- and career-threatening Type 1 diabetes; and Danielle had the double whammy of post-tour depression and her partner Ariel Rechtshaid's cancer diagnosis. They confronted these issues head-on in their life and in their music, and the directness -- and genuine emotion -- of Women in Music Pt. III adds welcome depth to their catchy, genre-mashing songs. On "The Steps," a portrait of partners who go from crashing into each other to taking it all in stride, the roaring guitar lick and honeyed harmonies can't hide the poignancy when Danielle sings "I can't understand/Why you don't understand me." "Don't Wanna," a slick blend of warm '70s atmosphere and peppy brass hits straight out of late-'80s pop, is just as vulnerable as "FUBT," which strips its fears and devotion down to just Danielle's voice and guitar. HAIM document every step of their journey on Women in Music Pt. III with an unflinching honesty that reaps rich rewards. They sound intimately familiar with depression in all its states, whether they're turning away from the wearying, pointless challenge to prove themselves to men in media and the music industry on "Man from the Magazine," sinking into isolation on the oddly comforting standout "I Know Alone," or emerging from the darkness on "Now I'm in It," a slow-building anthem that could be the album's statement of purpose. Women in Music Pt. III's creative process echoes its feeling of growing agency. For the first time, Danielle took on production duties alongside Rechtshaid and Rostam Batmanglij, and impressionistic touches like the seagulls and alarm clocks that embellish "Up from a Dream" or the way the guitar and saxophones drift through "Los Angeles" echo Batmanglij's dreamy musical memoir Half-Light. HAIM let each song and each mood be exactly what it needs to be, making for a collection of moments that are more interesting and real than if they'd attempted a more uniform sound across the album. The band's love for the '90s is as strong as ever on the Roxette-like "Another Try" and "3 AM"'s flirty homage to the era's R&B. Their singer/songwriter and folk-pop roots get their due on "Hallelujah" and the gorgeous "Leaning on You," a pair of songs that unite the sisters' voices and struggles in perfect harmony. The lightness HAIM use to combat the heavy things going on in their lives reaches its peak at the album's end: Written in the wake of Rechtshaid's diagnosis, "Summer Girl," taps into memories of the good times to get through the bad ones and borrows the effortlessness of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side," but trades that song's aloofness for unconditional love. Sprawling and intimate, breezy and affecting, Women in Music Pt. III is a low-key triumph” – AllMusic

Standout Tracks: Los Angeles/Gasoline/3 AM

Choice Cut: The Steps

Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

Release Date: 27th March, 2020

Label: Warner

Producers: Jeff Bhasker/Jason Evigan/KozIan Kirkpatrick/SG Lewis/Lindgren/The Monsters & Strangerz/Stuart Price/Take a Daytrip/TMS/Andrew Watt

Review:

“The likes of Prince, Moloko and Chic have their fingerprints all over these 11 songs. It’s peak disco-revivalism, with “Levitating” feeling right at home in a roller disco. But it never feels like she’s copying other people’s homework. Even when she’s sampling INXS on “Break My Heart” or White Town on “Love Again”, her creative voice is always at the forefront, building fantastic bangers.

“Pretty Please” is a stripped-back slow burner that lets the thumping bass and shimmering guitars take you to a dancefloor right before the lights come up. “Hallucinate”, meanwhile, is a blissful early ‘00s club floor-filler. The kind that gets limbs and sweat flying everywhere with abandon. “Cool” is the only real misstep. It lacks that Dua Lipa personality; as though you could quite easily paste someone else’s vocals in and it’d still be a perfectly fine summer bop.

It’s the kind of unabashed frankness of tunes like “Good In Bed”, featuring a line about getting the “good pipe in the moonlight”, that drives a great Dua Lipa song. From the title track's “I know you ain’t used to a female alpha” to the dismantling of the patriarchy on “Boys Will Be Boys”, it’s this approach that makes her tunes more than just club bangers. Even when she swings to socio-political issues, it fits seamlessly.

Bores argue that all pop music is copy-paste manufactured, but if that’s true, then why doesn't all pop music sound this incredible? Future Nostalgia is an artist in total control. It’s built on such an addictive carefree spirit that it’s hard not to let loose and go with it. The greatest pop star of this generation? That’s for you to decide. But Future Nostalgia makes a very convincing argument that Dua Lipa just might be” – The Line of Best Fit

Standout Tracks: Don’t Star Now/Physical/Levitating

Choice Cut: Break My Heart

Post Malone – Hollywood’s Bleeding

Release Date: 6th September, 2019

Label: Republic

Producers: Andrew Watt/BloodPop/Brian Lee/Carter Lang/DJ Dahi/Emile Haynie/Frank Dukes/Happy Perez/Jahaan Sweet/Louis Bell/Matt Tavares/Nick Mira/Post Malone/Wallis Lane

Review:

“Post Malone, post breakup, brought us his new single ‘Circle’ just last week, appearing as a promise that he would not disappoint on his third studio album ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’.

Refusing to remain bound by genre, he collaborated with Tame Impala’s leading man Kevin Parker to create a lethargic yet serene sounding track which presets the albums recurring theme of an unresting love.

Unsurprisingly, with the bold range which Post Malone wishes to exhibit on this record, this is simply one of the 10 features in this 17 track galore, which includes the likes of Da Baby, Future, Halsey, Meek Mill, Lil Baby, SZA, Swae Lee and Young Thug.

When anticipating an onset of kicks, snares, and high hats, his acoustic vocal start to the album feels somewhat unsettling; it isn't until a minute in when he gives us what we want, or rather what we expect. ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’ is an inverted ode to the city, which as Post Malone describes it, inhibits “vampires that want to suck the life from you”.

Beginning the album in a realm familiar to the listener, allows for a more exciting adventure into the unfamiliar parts of the rest of the album. A tip of the hat to the good, moving on to the great.

Heavy pop punk with a light 50’s influence is an uncommon pairing done seamlessly in song ‘Allergic’, the meaning of which accompanies the albums more vengeful tone, however camouflaged in a light hearted and wistful production. It is a style which seems to reflect the imagery of the album cover itself - that at the end of it all, Post manages to rise above it.

What takes the album on a bit of a disappointing turn is ‘Internet’. Composed and written by Kanye West, its oddly placed string accompaniment and lyrics boasts the sentiment of apathy and ignorance. The strings by themselves? Moving, inspiring and touching. However, set against the lyrics it becomes disjointed, unusual and strange.

It’s a two minute interlude which can be easily forgotten in order to enjoy the rest. The most thrilling parts of the album come from its experimental nature, pushed furthest in ‘Take What You Want’ which features both Ozzy Ozbourne and Travis Scott. A collaboration which proves to be an explosive track featuring some insane guitar shredding.

Of course, among this, Post Malone still provides us with a sprinkling of the classics: bitches, butts and Millie on wrists, it’s appeasing. But for the most part, he created an insightful and eclectic record which is a testament to his versatility and willingness to do exactly what he wants” – CLASH

Standout Tracks: Saint-Tropez/Goodbyes (ft. Young Thug)/Wow

Choice Cut: Circles

My Predicted Winner

Taylor Swift – folklore

Release Date: 24th July, 2020

Label: Republic

Producers: Aaron Dessner/Jack Antonoff/Taylor Swift

Review:

“Swift’s longest lyrical obsession is the loss of innocence, a theme she makes fairly devastating here. Set to high piano flurries, Seven switches between hopscotch-rhyme verses about childhood rituals, and pleading, choral depictions of herself at seven, “in the weeds, before I learned civility,” she sings. “I used to scream ferociously / Any time I wanted.” What conditioning beat out of her as a girl, it beat back in decades later: the tense, slippery Mad Woman traces the self-perpetuating cycle of women being angered by being labelled angry – both massively improve on Lover’s slightly facile gender inequality treatise, The Man, because they’re personal, not projections. Later she recalls naive young love, “back when we were still changing for the better”, then, on Illicit Affairs, willingly entering into a deceitful relationship with someone who “showed me colours you know I can’t see with anyone else”.

The self-awareness that Swift displayed on Lover deepens in Folklore, where she subtly considers the murky line between corruption and complicity, between being a victim and a catalyst. The recriminations are fewer, the fights fairer, and her sense of responsibility in them greater. The seismic shocks of her Reputation-era rude awakening about her public image are still felt: “I can change everything about me to fit in,” she sings on Mirrorball, a gorgeous pedal steel wooze made with Jack Antonoff. Yet she tentatively asserts what’s at her core: the deep dedication she sings about on the resonant, minimalist Peace, and the abiding romanticism of Invisible String.

Lockdown has been a fruitful time for this sort of soul-searching, the absence of much in the way of new memory-formation triggering nostalgic reveries and regrets. This strange summer of arrested development is steadily ending. Folklore will endure long beyond it: as fragmented as Swift is across her eighth album – and much as you hope it doesn’t mark the end of her pop ambitions – her emotional acuity has never been more assured” - The Guardian

Standout Tracks: the 1/the last great american dynasty/betty

Choice Cut: cardigan

Record of the Year

Beyoncé – Black Parade

Release Date: 19th June, 2020

Label: Parkwood

Producers: Beyoncé/Derek Dixie

Black Pumas – Colors

Release Date: 16th April, 2019

Label: ATO

Producers: Jon Kaplan/Adrian Quesada

DaBaby – Rockstar (feat Roddy Ricch)

Release Date: 17th April, 2020

Labels: Interscvope/SCMG

Producer: SethInTheKitchen

Doja Cat – Say So

Release Date: 24th January, 2020

Labels: Kemosabe/RCA

Producer: Tyson Trax

Dua Lipa – Don’t Start Now

Release Date: 31st October, 2019

Label: Warner

Producer: Ian Kirkpatrick

Post Malone – Circles

Release Date: 30th August, 2019

Label: Republic

Producers: Post Malone/Louis Bell/Frank Dukes

Megan Thee Stallion – Savage (feat Beyoncé)

Release Date: 7th April, 2020

Labels: 1501 Certified/300

Producer: J. White Did It

My Predicted Winner

 

Billie Eilish – everything i wanted

Release Date: 13th November, 2019

Labels: Darkroom/Interscope

Producer: Finneas O'Connell

Best New Artist

Ingrid Andress

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0jPnVIasXzBYjrlpO5irii

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ingridandress

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IngridAndress

Phoebe Bridgers

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1r1uxoy19fzMxunt3ONAkG

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phoebebridgers/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/phoebe_bridgers

Noah Cyrus

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/55fhWPvDiMpLnE4ZzNXZyW

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noahcyrus/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/noahcyrus  

D Smoke

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/23rK0hajv5ix2yPM4IIgOo

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dsmoke7/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DSmoke7

Doja Cat

PHOTO CREDIT; Jabari Jacobs 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5cj0lLjcoR7YOSnhnX0Po5

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dojacat/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DojaCat

KAYTRANADA

PHOTO CREDIT: Vicky Grout 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6qgnBH6iDM91ipVXv28OMu

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaytranada/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KAYTRANADA

Megan Thee Stallion

PHOTO CREDIT: Josh Aronson for Allure

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/181bsRPaVXVlUKXrxwZfHK

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theestallion/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theestallion

My Predicted Winner

CHIKA

PHOTO CREDIT: Leeor Wild, courtesy Chika 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6UtYvUtXnmg5EtllDFlWp8

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chikalogy/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/oranicuhh

 

Best Rock Performance

Fiona Apple – Shameika

Release Date: 17th April, 2020

Label: Epic/Clean Slate

From the Album: Fetch the Bolt Cutters (2020)

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

Big Thief – Not

Release Date: 13th August, 2019

Label: 4AD

From the Album: Two Hands (2019)

Producer: Andrew Sarlo

Phoebe Bridgers – Kyoto

Release Date: 9th April, 2020

Label: Dead Oceans

From the Album: Punisher (2020)

Producers: Tony Berg/Ethan Gruska/Phoebe Bridgers

Haim – The Steps

PHOTO CREDIT: Reto Schmid

Release Date: 3rd March, 2020

Label: Columbia

From the Album: Women in Music Pt. III (2020)

Producers: Danielle Haim/Rostam Batmanglij/Ariel Rechtshaid

Grace Potter – Daylight

Release Date: 25th October 2019 (Album)

Label: Fantasy

From the Album: Daylight (2019)

My Predicted Winner

Brittany Howard – Stay High

Release Date: 16th July, 2019

Label: ATO

From the Album: Jaime (2019)

Producer: Brittany Howard

FEATURE: Groovelines: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

 Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

___________

I am not going to put too much…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Atlantic Records 

of my own words into this Groovelines, as Strange Fruit is a song that has been written about my various different sources. I am just about to bring in a feature that mentions how the song plays a pivotal role in a film that has just earned its lead, Andra Day, a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Billie Holiday. I am a huge fan of the Jazz icon, and many consider Strange Fruit to be her finest moment and most haunting song. Holiday was imbued with such range as a singer; I don’t think she managed to strike such a chord as she did with Strange Fruit. I will quote from USA Today and their feature about a song that, eighty-two years after its release, remains relevant and stirring:

“In March 1939, a then-23-year-old Billie Holiday closed out her set at New York's Cafe Society with a song she hadn't performed before: "Strange Fruit."

Written by Jewish schoolteacher Abel Meeropol, the song was a mournful dirge for Black victims of lynchings in the Jim Crow-era South, vividly likening their bodies to fruit "hanging from the poplar trees."

"The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth," she sung slowly and deliberately. "Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh / then the sudden smell of burning flesh."

At first, Holiday was worried about how it'd be received. "As she should have been – audiences out for an evening of fun suddenly found themselves confronted by a highly dramatic performance of a song that was by all accounts shocking and painful," says John Szwed, author of "Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth." "As time went by, she came to see the song as a test for her audiences."

'United States vs. Billie Holiday': Andra Day tapped into jazz legend's 'trauma'

"Strange Fruit" is central to Lee Daniels' new drama "The United States vs. Billie Holiday" (now streaming on Hulu), which traces the FBI's efforts to silence Holiday (Andra Day) because of the song. For more than a decade, Federal Bureau of Narcotics chief Harry Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund) targeted her with drug arrests and effectively barred her from the nightclub circuit after an 18-month prison term. She died of liver disease in 1959 at age 44.

"Jazz already had a reputation for being incendiary but then you have this incredible singer who is performing a song that makes people leave the club shaken, where people were either bursting into rapturous applause or into racist heckling," says arts and culture writer Aida Amoako. "The potential to be a powerful song that highlighted racial injustice was a potential recognized both by Holiday and the authorities, so whereas Holiday wanted to grow that potential, the FBI wanted to squash it."

"Strange Fruit" struck a chord with the singer, says music journalist J'na Jefferson. "A few years before recording the song, her father died after being denied medical care for a serious illness. It could have been prevented had he been white. So for her to sing about Black people being killed for being who they are adds another layer of personal context to the song as a whole. I’m sure it was incredibly cathartic in addition to being brave."

Weeks after she first played the song live, Holiday approached her label, Columbia Records, about recording it. Fearing backlash, they declined, but she soon found a home for it at independent label Commodore Records.

"For mainstream institutions – record labels, radio stations – the song was too hot to touch," says David Margolick, author of "Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Biography of a Song." "Beyond a group of left-wing progressives, largely white, most people wouldn't have known the song. The Black press barely mentioned it: It was too radioactive even for them."

And the song continues to resonate today. "We may not be witnessing 'Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze,' but we have camera phones that prove that Black people are still dying for simply existing," Jefferson says. "We still have to march and protest in order to make a point that things are still unfair for people who look like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain and Nina Pop and Tony McDade. The issue remains the same and it’s unfortunate that this is still the reality of our country, but hopefully with greater awareness of social and racial injustices, we can move toward a more tolerant future.

"I hope to one day live in a world where I can listen to 'Strange Fruit' and say, 'I’m glad this doesn’t keep happening”.

I want to source from another feature that cover similar ground in a second. It must have been very odd for radio stations and listeners to hear a song like Strange Fruit in 1939. I can understand why radio stations felt the song was a bit shocking. In many ways, Strange Fruit is as powerful as any speech by civil rights leaders of the 1950s and 1960s. Not to take anything away from Dr. Martin Luther King or any the key figures from the movement; Strange Fruit has this staggering resonance and emotional hit that affects everyone who hears it.

It is interesting hearing about the inspiration behind the Billie Holiday classic. In this interesting feature, we hear about the song’s humble beginning and how there was some mixed reaction to Strange Fruit in some sectors:

“Holiday may have popularized "Strange Fruit" and turned it into a work of art, but it was a Jewish communist teacher and civil rights activist from the Bronx, Abel Meeropol, who wrote it, first as a poem, then later as a song.

His inspiration? Meeropol came across a 1930 photo that captured the lynching of two Black men in Indiana. The visceral image haunted him for days and prompted him to put pen to paper.

After he published "Strange Fruit" in a teachers union publication, Meeropol composed it into a song and passed it onto a nightclub owner, who then introduced it to Holiday.

When Holiday heard the lyrics, she was deeply moved by them — not only because she was a Black American but also because the song reminded her of her father, who died at 39 from a fatal lung disorder, after being turned away from a hospital because he was a Black man.

Because of the painful memories it conjured, Holiday didn't enjoy performing "Strange Fruit," but knew she had to. “It reminds me of how Pop died,” she said of the song in her autobiography. “But I have to keep singing it, not only because people ask for it, but because 20 years after Pop died, the things that killed him are still happening in the South.”

While civil rights activists and Black America embraced "Strange Fruit," the nightclub scene, which was primarily composed of white patrons, had mixed reactions. At witnessing Holiday's performance, audience members would applaud until their hands hurt, while those less sympathetic would bitterly walk out the door”.

It is not only amazing to read what impact Strange Fruit had when its release. Think about the ensuing years and decades, and the song’s messages and performance is still being discussed. In a deep article from 2019, the BBC talked about the legacy of Strange Fruit:

“Strange Fruit was not the first popular song to deal with race. Fats Waller’s Black and Blue had come out 10 years earlier, and Lead Belly recorded The Bourgeois Blues in the same month Holiday recorded Strange Fruit. But Strange Fruit stands out among protest songs for its graphic content and subsequent commercial success. Tad Hershorn, an archivist at the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies, tells BBC Culture: “It was such an in-your-face type of protest song [that it] really gained her fame outside of Harlem … it did really leave both the singer and the audience no place to hide.”

This bold confrontation helped galvanise a movement that would eventually alter the course of US history. Anti-lynching campaigners sent Strange Fruit to congressmen to encourage them to propose a viable anti-lynching bill. A review in Time Magazine referred to the song as “a prime piece of musical propaganda for the NAACP”. Ahmet Ertegun, who later co-founded Atlantic Records, called it “a declaration of war … the beginning of the civil rights movement”. Strange Fruit also brought its creators unwanted attention. In 1940 Meeropol, a socialist, was called to testify before a committee investigating communism and asked whether the US Communist Party had paid him to write Strange Fruit. Journalist Johann Hari suggests that while stories of Holiday’s drug use had already been circling, her first performance of Strange Fruit put her firmly on the radar of Harry Anslinger, the notorious head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

For some, Strange Fruit and Holiday’s personal life are inextricable: the aspects of her biography that made her the embodiment of a tragic jazz heroine are the source of the haunting quality of her voice. Despite the fact that Holiday never witnessed a lynching (contrary to what the 1972 Diana Ross film Lady Sings the Blues shows), Strange Fruit still evoked the racial injustice that she felt killed her father, Clarence, who was refused medical treatment at a Texas hospital.

But as Strange Fruit has become separated from Holiday’s personal life over the decades, it has also become distanced from the specific horror of lynching. “It's come to sort of represent racism generally,” Margolick tells BBC Culture. “Every once in a while there’s some horrific moment but lynching has become kind of a metaphor and, in that sense, the song has become more metaphorical than literal over the decades.”

Many musicians have covered, sampled, adapted Strange Fruit, the most famous being Nina Simone in 1965, while Kanye West sampled Simone’s cover for his 2013 track Blood on the Leaves. In 2017, British singer Rebecca Ferguson announced she would only accept the invitation to sing at then President-elect Trump’s inauguration if she could sing Strange Fruit. For Lordi, its unending power lies in the way it “distills the fact of racial violence so unmistakably. It’s shorthand for ‘What is a song I can think of that most powerfully indicts the ongoing legacy of racial violence in this country and across the world?’”

In 2002, Strange Fruit was added to the National Registry of the Library of Congress, immortalising it as a song of great significance to the musical heritage of the US. Holiday died in 1959 and Meeropol in 1986 – but their collaboration has endured, its capacity to shock never waning. It has inspired musicians since to sing about injustice with candour and the awareness that a song can be a timeless impetus for social change.

“There’s something that’s still very radioactive about the song.” says Margolick. “It’s still relevant because race is still relevant. It’s on the front pages of our newspapers every day. The impulses that [Meeropol] was talking about are still very much with us”.

From its beginnings with Jewish schoolteacher Abel Meeropol to Billie Holiday translating the incredible work into this civil rights anthem, Strange Fruit is such a fascinating and hugely impactful song. Given the fact that Holiday has just been portrayed on screen by Andra Day and Strange Fruit plays an important part, I had to include it in this feature.  Maybe there was some mixed reception to the song in the late-1950s/early-1960s, but I think we can all agree now that Strange Fruit is…

A mesmeric work of genius.

FEATURE: Keep Groovin’ Love Record Stores and the Continuing Vinyl Explosion

FEATURE:

 

 

Keep Groovin’

IN THIS PHOTO: Georgia is the Love Record Stores 2021 Ambassador/PHOTO CREDIT: Wendy Barrett/Press 

Love Record Stores and the Continuing Vinyl Explosion

___________

A lot of the news that we are receiving…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @amartino20/Unsplash

regarding music is negative or uncertain. When it comes to festivals, there is good news in the sense that many might be able to restart this year. Let’s hope that the pandemic does not disturb some optimistic ambitions. One thing that is not being temporised or disrupted by the pandemic is vinyl sales. I will come to that soon but, to tie in with that, earlier this week, we learned that the Love Record Stores day campaign is back for its second year. This NME article explains more:

“The Love Record Stores campaign is returning for a second year in September following last year’s hugely successful fundraising drive for independent record stores across the UK.

Over £1 million in sales was taken during the inaugural Love Record Stores Day in June 2020, with the initiative being launched to support record stores who, like many other businesses, have faced difficult trading conditions throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Love Record Stores 2021 will be held on September 4, its organisers have confirmed today (March 11). It’s hoped that given the UK government’s recent announcement of its ‘roadmap’ out of coronavirus lockdown – which could see a total lifting of restrictions by June 21 at the very earliest – music fans will be able to visit and support their local or favourite record stores in-person for this year’s fundraising event.

Georgia has been appointed as this year’s Love Record Stores ambassador, taking over the role from Tim Burgess.

“I’m not just a fan of records: I’ve bought them, sold them, swapped them and collected them. Records and record shops have always been such a significant part of my life,” the London-based artist, producer and former record store employee said in a statement.

“I couldn’t be more excited to be an ambassador for Love Record Stores 2021 – I can’t wait to celebrate and honour the history of record shops and get the next generation into buying records.”

You can find out more about Love Record Stores 2021 here”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: @rocinante_11/Unsplash

There is exciting stuff happening regarding record stores this year. This year’s Record Store Day takes place on 12th June. Let’s hope that shops can open to full capacity and, just a couple of weeks shy of all social restrictions being lifted (let’s hope), it will be a bigger turnout than last year’s. I have written a lot about vinyl because I feel that it is important to note when there is something positive or a development that warrants attention. One may imagine that restricted physical shopping would haemorrhage the success of vinyl. Conversely, there seems to be no end to the popularity of vinyl! Maybe it is the tactile nature of a record and the fact that one gets a different listening experience compared to digital. It is good that Love Record Stores 2021 has been green-lit, as many smaller record shops have struggled to keep going. Online shopping has helped but, like many, that has only slightly helped them to stay afloat. Music Week published an article this week that discussed the latest positive news regarding vinyl sales:

“While the pandemic has clearly hurt CD sales in the last year as HMV and record shops were forced to close, multiple lockdowns have not reduced vinyl sales. Far from it: according to exclusive Official Charts Company data, vinyl album sales for the year to date (chart week nine) stand at 748,077 units, an increase of 7.8% compared to the same period last year.

The growth has continued in tandem with digital consumption – year-to-date audio streams hit 20.7 billion last week (up 5.4% year-on-year).

Looking back to the momentum in 2020, Q4 vinyl sales were up 25% year-on-year. The annual increase for 2020 was 11.5% (4.8 million units) amid an overall physical decline of 24.6% to 21.1m units.

PHOTO CREDIT: @victrola/Unsplash 

According to major label execs interviewed for our 2020 analysis feature in the all-new monthly Music Week, the continued growth in vinyl last year suggests an increase in the number of people now playing LPs.

“I think people were spending more time at home and investing in a turntable,” said Charles Wood, Sony Music UK’s VP of market planning and media. “Vinyl had a great year last year – it would have been even better if we were able to get more of it. Across all majors, there are relatively long lead times now to replenish stock.”

“With people being at home, vinyl is certainly one of the things they have turned to for pleasure and enjoyment,” added David Hawkes, MD of Universal Music UK’s Commercial Division. “So it doesn’t surprise me at all that the magic of vinyl has played a big part [during the pandemic].”

“As the streaming market’s matured, you’re starting to see some of the consumption change,” said Derek Allen SVP, commercial at Warner Music. “It is possibly a lockdown phenomenon, with people just becoming nostalgic and listening to music they used to listen to.

“This whole ownership culture that has been discovered by the younger generation is what is driving vinyl consumption, alongside the diehards who used to have their record collection sat in the corner gathering dust. The vital thing is that it's a massive opportunity for catalogue divisions across the industry. That is partly what's driving it – people are filling all the gaps [in their collections]. These are the opportunities, and the demand is there.”

Warner Music’s Rhino label had the No.1 vinyl album last year with Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. There were also strong new or recent releases in the Top 10 vinyl chart for the year, including Harry Styles, Kylie Minogue, AC/DC, Idles and Arctic Monkeys.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kylie Minogue/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Benett 

“The kind of people that are still buying records are hardcore music fans,” said Proper Music MD Drew Hill. “The casual music fan has probably moved to become a streaming consumer. The people buying physical probably went to a lot of gigs. The fact that no one's been able to spend any money on buying a gig ticket for a year now, it means that there’s more money coming into the recorded music business.

“So maybe someone who bought one record a week or two records a month is buying twice what they were buying before, just because they've got more money to spend. Lockdown has been a disaster for the live side of the business, but the physical side has potentially been protected by the fact that those hardcore music fans have got a little bit more money and a lot more time. If you can't go out in the evening and go to the pub or go to a gig, then maybe you want to listen to some more records”.

This is all very heartening and encouraging! I think that compact discs will struggle to succeed and resonate when many people are relying on streaming services and others prefer vinyl. It can be hard to compete against the digital tide. For that reason, discovering news that vinyl is in good shape should give heart to the industry and record stores. With Love Record Stores and Record Store Day highlighting the importance of our local vinyl vendor, I would not be surprised if there was even better news to report later in the year. I myself prefer vinyl to digital, as you feel like you have this real and precious thing in your possession. Putting a record on the turntable and dropping the needle is a pleasure I will never tire of! Some record shops are battling for survival but, across the country, many are reporting good news. Whether people are ordering online or they are participating in a click-and-collect service, music lovers are not turning their back on vinyl. At a strange and difficult time, this is…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @priscilladupreez/Unsplash

REALLY inspiring to hear.

FEATURE: By the Cover of Darkness: Kate Bush’s Interpretation of Lord of the Reedy River

FEATURE:

 

 

By the Cover of Darkness

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1981/PHOTO CREDIT: Janette Beckman 

Kate Bush’s Interpretation of Lord of the Reedy River

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WHEN I did a feature…

about Kate Bush’s B-sides, rarer tracks and gems, I did look at Lord of the Reedy River then. I want to go into a bit more depth, as it is a cover version – I don’t think her interpretative qualities are highlighted enough! One of my favourite B-sides/covers is this pearl. It was recorded in May/June 1981 at Townhouse Studios, London as the B-side to Sat in Your Lap. That single is forty later in the year, so I felt it was important to discuss its very different-sounding B-side. This article from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia provides more information:

“Song written by Donovan Leitch. Originally recorded by Donovan, it was released on his 1971 studio album 'H.M.S. Donovan'. Kate Bush covered the song on the B-side of her 1981 single Sat In Your Lap.

Kate about 'Lord Of The Reedy River'

I've always wanted to do one of his songs because I've admired his music and his voice for years. I decided to do this song and through a coincidence it started happening. Someone asked me what I was doing for the B side while we were watching a Crystal Gayle show on TV. I was telling them I was going to do this Donovan song and all of a sudden Crystal Gayle said "...and now my very special guest is Donovan" and you know we hadn't seen him on TV for years and years. It was really like it was right. (...) And he came into the studio and did some backing vocals which is really great because I've always wanted to work with him. (Sally James, Almost Legendary Pop Interviews, cop. 1981. ISBN 090600828X”.

I am a big fan of Kate Bush’s B-sides. I think it shows as much curiosity and variety as her studio tracks. I have argued why people do not play the B-sides. I know many have been put onto a remastered album that was released a few years back, but I think there is so much brilliance in her B-sides and covers – that is before you have even got to the music we are all much more familiar with! I love Lord of the Reedy River, as Bush’s voice sound so still and emotional. It is a beautiful performance without much backing at all. One places themselves by a river or out in the open air. One is powerless to let the song swim over them! I will draw things to a close in a bit. Before then, I want to source from an article on the Songs of Orgonon website regarding Lord of the Reedy River. Some interesting observations were made:

“And yet the song works as a unit of Bush’s Dreaming era. The sensuous, place-centered ethos of “Lord of the Reedy River” is the sort of thing Bush explores throughout her four albums we’ve read about. The mythical aspect of Bush’s work has never departed, nor has her tendency to explore complex subjects through a perspective of searing childlike simplicity (one of the most useful critical tools for exploring the endemic truths of myth). Simplicity isn’t inherently equivalent to reductivism — simple truths have fractal implications. Certainly “Lord of the Reedy River” is both unostentatious and unnerving. Creeping into the senses through such channels of voice and harmony is as erotic as folk songs get.

 

 In keeping with Bush’s explorations of psychological emancipation, “Lord of the Reedy River” fits in with Bush’s recent musings on transformations and desire. Who amongst us doesn’t at some point get so horny they turn into a swan? (I’ve read your posts, Kate Bush Forums.) It’s a treatment of childhood fantasy as a realization of deep-rooted desires.

Bush niftily makes the song hers. She appears to be the only performer on the track, whose only instrumentation appears to be Bush’s Fairlight. Bush’s vocal is soft and throaty at once — she recorded it by the Townhouse’s disused swimming pool so her voice could “reflect” the water. Perhaps most crucial to the cover’s functionality is Bush’s change of pronouns from third person to first person — “she fell in love with a swan” becomes “I fell in love with a swan.” The result is Kate Bush singing about getting topped by a swan, the sort of surreal psychosexuality that appears in her later snowman-fucking song “Misty.” Nonetheless, Bush’s cover makes it feel like Leda’s story has come full circle, shaping her narrative into a love story of the sublime and the authorial presence of a woman”.

I will leave it there. I wanted to spotlight a Kate Bush song that not many people have heard. I think it is among her most beautiful and haunting vocal performances. It is a stunning thing and, if you have not heard it, go and check it out. Lord of the Reedy River demonstrates how broad Bush was as an artist (and still is). You listen to the song, close your eyes and imagine yourself with her…

IN a very special place.

FEATURE: The March Playlist: Vol. 2: How Does It Feel to Be Addicted?

FEATURE:

 

 

The March Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Jorja Smith 

Vol. 2: How Does It Feel to Be Addicted?

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HERE is another big week…

 IN THIS PHOTO: London Grammar

that is packed with interesting music. There is new music from Jorja Smith, London Grammar, Paul Weller, Gwen Stefani, and YONAKA. There are excellent reworkings of songs by IDLES, and Dominic Fike; some tops cuts from The Anchoress (ft. James Dean Bradfield), and Gretta Ray. We also have music from Everything Everything, Phoebe Bridgers, Hannah Peel, Aldous Harding, and Kele. It is a week where some seriously awesome tunes have come to the fore. If you need a kick and appropriate impetus to get you into the weekend, then this packed Playlist should do the job! Have a listen to the best…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dominick Fike

OF this week.

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

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Jorja Smith – Addicted

London Grammar – How Does It Feel

Gwen Stefani – Slow Clap

YONAKA - Ordinary

PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Ockenfels 3

Phoebe Bridgers – Summer’s End – Spotify Singles

PHOTO CREDIT: Autumn de Wilde

Jenny Lewis, Serengeti - Idiot

Sharon Van Etten – Peace Signs (BY IDLES)

Paul McCartney - The Kiss of Venus III Imagined: Dominic Fike

The Anchoress (ft. James Dean Bradfield) - The Exchange

Tony Allen, Ben Okri, Skepta - Cosmosis

Paul Weller – Glad Times

Noah Cyrus – July - Spotify Singles

Gretta Ray – Bigger Than Me

Hiss Golden Messenger - If It Comes in the Morning

Everything Everything – SUPERNORMAL

Kele - The Heart of the Wave

Selena Gomez (ft. Myke Towers) - Dámelo To’

Hannah Peel – Carbon Cycle

Lucy Dacus - Thumbs

Darius Rucker – My Masterpiece

Rochelle Jordan - NEXT 2 YOU

Low Island – I Do It for You

Mollie Collins, Ruth Royall - Remedies

Ibeyi - Recurring Dream

Tiggs Da Author – Suitcase of Sins

Ingrid Andress - Lady Like

Jacob Banks – Found

Lauren Faith – It’s All a Blur

AJ Mitchell - CAMERAS ON

Valerie June – Smile

Nubiyan Twist, Ria Moran – Morning Light

Matilda Cole – Stay Awake

Lula Wiles – Television

Savannah Conley – Not Where I’m Going

Dylan Cartlidge - Anything Could Happen

Matt Berry – Aboard

spill tab – PISTOLWHIP

PHOTO CREDIT: Adrian Vitelleschi Cook

Do Nothing – Knives

Amber Burgoyne – Only to You

Kasai - Drunk Diary, Weed & Liquor

D Smoke – Sade – Spotify Singles

Wild Youth – Can’t Say No

Lilly Ahlberg – Young Forever

Allison Ponthier – Cowboy

Leyla Blue – Gasoline

Aldous Harding - Revival

PHOTO CREDIT: Colin Medley

U.S. Girls - Junkyard

Jordan Rakei - Lover, You Should’ve Come Over

PHOTO CREDIT: Ellyn Jameson

Johanna Samuels - Single File

Gengahr - Under the Skin

Naomi Banks - Moving On

PHOTO CREDIT: David Cortes

Crumb - Trophy

FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Thirty-Six: Halsey

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern Heroines

Part Thirty-Six: Halsey

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I like to keep quite…

a broad spread when it comes to Modern Heroines. In terms of genres, there are so many great female artists that are shaping up to be iconic. Either that, or they are hugely influential and important. I am including Halsey as I have been revisiting her 2020 album, Manic. I will get to a review of that album soon. I also want to bring in a few interviews so that we can learn more about a great artist. Before that, here is some background information about Halsey:

“Ashley Nicolette Frangipane born September 29, 1994), known professionally as Halsey (/ˈhɔːlzi/ HAWL-zee), is an American singer and songwriter. Gaining attention from self-released music on social media platforms, she was signed by Astralwerks in 2014 and released her debut EP, Room 93, later that year.

Halsey's debut studio album Badlands (2015) reached no. 2 on the US Billboard 200. Her second album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (2017) topped the chart, and her third album Manic (2020) peaked at number two. She has had two no. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, "Closer", a collaboration with The Chainsmokers, and "Without Me". The single "Bad at Love" reached the top-five. 

Halsey has sold over one million albums. She is noted for her distinctive singing voice. Her awards and nominations include four Billboard Music Awards, one American Music Award, one GLAAD Media Award, an MTV Video Music Award, and two Grammy Award nominations. She was included on Time magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020. Aside from music, she has been involved in suicide prevention awareness, sexual assault victim advocacy, and racial justice protests”.

I loved last year’s Manic, and songs such as clementine, You should be sad, and Without Me are still in my mind. It is a fantastic third album from Halsey; showing that she gets stronger and more explorative with each release. I love how stirring and impactful the album is, even after the first listen. This is what The Line of Best Fit observed in their review:

“Powerhouse singles; the ghostly and empowering heartbreak ode "Without Me", and the tribal lament of "Graveyard", all pitch into the romantic side of Halsey's life, but it's the moments that edge away from heartbreak and instead focus upon just who she is and where she's been that offer the most.

More specifically, the diamond in the beautiful rough closer, "9:29". The most brazen in its admission of the world through Halsey's eyes, it's a listing of her life to date, apt given the title, as per the intro studio talk of her joking, her birthday. The perfect bookend to a story that's refused to sugar-coat any truth, it cleverly twists vitriolic statements that refuse to let the world take any more of her.

Perfectly attuning the musical accompaniment to the sentiment, "3am" is the kind of alt-rock number that sinks into your head with the ease of idea of that last pint, lamenting the lonely point of a difficult night. At the same time, "You Should Be Sad" trots in a country number, sticking close to the frameworks of what the hollering voice of a broken heart the genre has always been.

Strategically placed throughout are interlude appearances from a spectrum of artists; up-and-coming Floridian rapper Dominic Fike, '90s icon Alanis Morrisette and one-fifth of K-Pop behemoths BTS, Suga, singing in his native tongue. Unspeakably few artists could string together all the above facets together. There's deep honesty, generation-spanning genre-hoping, guest appearances, and an unlikely sense of cohesion: that's all just part of who Halsey is.

Even the use of pop culture references (quotes from films Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and Jennifer's Body create the cinematic drama, befitting a story rife with truth) and samples, adds to the flowing spine that underpins the album with a wild charm. Manic revels in the explorative genre-pop bombast, letting the delicates twinkle, and the snarls bare their teeth; yet it's the soul that shines dominantly. It's her most complete work to date”.

Not to ignore Halsey’s work pre-Manic – I will put out a playlist at the end which is career-spanning -, but it is her most-recent album and I think that it signals a very big future. It is such a rich and interesting album that does have some tough moments and songs that take you aback. There is also a lot of light and variation.

As a songwriter, I think that Halsey is one of the most accomplished and underrated in modern music. In an interview with The Times, we learn more about a curious and fascinating artist:

““I think of myself as obnoxious and reckless and spontaneous and loud,” she says. “But I’ve made some different friends in the past year, and they’re, like, ‘Actually, you’re pretty quiet and thoughtful.’ And I’m, like, ‘I am?’ I think that’s why I became a musician, in an attempt to become the person I was convinced I was.”

A seriously big deal in America, Halsey has made slower progress here, though she is upgrading to arenas for the British leg of her world tour next February. Back home, she has topped both the singles and album charts, and emerged as a force to be reckoned with. The daughter of an African-American father and a mother of Italian, Irish and Hungarian descent, she is bisexual, has openly discussed mental health issues and is a passionate advocate of women’s and LBGT rights. This has, predictably, got her in trouble. But trouble tends to seek her out, she says, and always has.

“In third grade, I did my summer reading project on The Green Mile by Stephen King, and wrote a book report about rape and convicts, racism and the criminal justice system. And other kids were doing Narnia! I got in so much trouble. The teacher was, like, ‘I can’t let you present this to the class.’”

A self-confessed “empathy bomber” who in her songs addresses her sexuality, drug use, relationships and depression with no filter, Halsey now has hundreds of thousands of young fans indirectly calling on her services. Unsurprisingly, there are drawbacks, as she discovered when she read her poem about her own and others’ experience of violence and sexual assault at the 2018 Women’s March in New York. “When I did it, there were 2,000 people in front of me, and no one was listening or paying attention — if you watch it, there was barely even a cheer at the end. I felt defeated. I had written this poem, I thought it was going to matter.

“I definitely flip-flop between disassociatedness and being hyper-present. There’s really no in-between. But if I’m guarded and give you nothing, and you need something, you’re going to go and find it somewhere else — and I have no control over it. It becomes about digging up old clickbait, and I’ve then created that problem for myself”.

I do not think one has to be a fan of Pop music to appreciate Halsey. There are artists who get labelled as ‘Pop’ acts, but they are much broader and harder to define. Whether you have had the same experiences as Halsey or are new to the music, it does not take long for the songs to resonate – and they will linger in the mind.

I want to grab from another couple of interviews or so before wrapping up. When Halsey spoke with The Guardian last year, we learn more about Manic in addition to Halsey’s (Ashley Nicolette Frangipane) upbringing:

“Manic is more than a breakup record, then – it is the aftermath of years of feeling beholden to lovers, collaborators and the public. It was made while Halsey, who has bipolar disorder, was in a manic state. (“That’s not a punchline,” she quips.) On Clementine, she sings: “I’m constantly having a breakthrough, or a breakdown.” The song is named after Kate Winslet’s character in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a key example of the manic pixie dream girl movie trope in which a free-spirited woman loosens up an emotionally stunted man. It samples the line: “I’m just a fucked-up girl looking for my own peace of mind. Don’t assign me yours.”

Halsey’s story often exists adjacent to the men in her orbit. Her first album, Badlands, was made with her producer boyfriend, Lido; her second, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom was about their breakup. She started dating G-Eazy in 2017. They made their love official in joint single Him & I, now G-Eazy’s second-most streamed song, but not even in Halsey’s Top 10. After they split the following year, Halsey released Without Me, in which she seems to take the credit for his success – the chorus goes: “You know I’m the one who put you up there.” She says: “As writers, we have this habit of waiting until something doesn’t hurt any more. On Without Me, I ran into a burning building to find whatever I could before I felt too afraid to speak. I’d gone from being a 19-year-old activist, a sexual badass, to this girl who’s someone’s partner.”

She worries that being a firebrand pushes people away. “It’s hard to figure out when being an activist deflects attention from my art,” she frets. “Sometimes when you’re the centre of ‘having something to say’ you start losing your agency. People don’t wanna hear it.”

She reckons her lack of Grammy nominations this year is because she spoke out against former president Neil Portnow’s comments two years ago, when he said it was women’s responsibility to “step up” if they wanted to excel in the music industry. “I had a lot to say about that, and I am nowhere to be seen on any of those acknowledgments.” Post #MeToo, she has been disappointed by the lack of camaraderie between female pop stars. “Nobody wants to be my friend. They’re scared I’m gonna pop off about something. I’m drama by association. I put myself out there with my peers; I don’t know if people really ever wanted to do the same with me. So I stopped wasting my energy.”

She isn’t coming from the same place as many of those peers. Halsey grew up Ashley Nicolette Frangipane in New Jersey to a white Italian family on her mother’s side and an African-American family on her father’s. Her parents were teenagers when she was conceived. She addresses her dad on Manic’s final song 929 – “the most uncensored song I’ve ever written” – about a lonely night on tour when her dad promised to call and didn’t. After she wrote it, she called him. “We need to make more of an effort to connect,” she says. “It’s hard to have a traditional relationship with your parents when you’re …” The parent? She nods reluctantly. “Kinda. I don’t mean to discredit my parents. I was five when they were my age”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Masha Mel for CLASH

I want to grab from a great interview in CLASH . Halsey spoke about Manic’s upcoming release (the interview was from January 2020):

“It’s been two years since your last album, how are you feeling about the upcoming release?

In terms of the album coming out, it’s been a long lead, which is rare for me; I usually like to announce things and put them out right away - I’m not the type to keep a secret for six months, but here we are! It’s definitely very cathartic.

I’m comforted by the fact that I’ve been sitting with this body of work for so long and I still feel so strong about it and connected to it. You always love the work you did most recently the best, but just because it’s the thing will care about the most doesn’t mean it’s what everybody else will. That can be kind of hard - seeing through that illusion. With this album, though, I do feel really good. It had a very clear identity once it revealed itself.

At first I was intending to write something that was really angry and volatile and angsty and self-deprecating and unreliable. I wanted to write an album about mania, and that’s what my understanding of it was at the time. And I kept sitting down to write like that, but it felt kind of performative. I did some greater self-inventory and self-forgiveness, and then the faucet opened. The writing became easier upon my discovery that I actually get on with my manic self a lot more than I thought I did.

What came out of that process? What did you find yourself writing about?

The album isn’t a commentary on mental health - the reason I called it ‘Manic’ is because I wrote it manic. Which I’ve never really done before - usually I’m too distracted or too impulsive to wrangle myself into a room and do something productive. It was my first time ‘off’ in a while, and usually I vent a lot of that [energy] into the chaos of my lifestyle and the chaos of my schedule; it brings me comfort because it gives me a way to exhaust that energy.

Having time off - even though I was out promoting ‘Without Me’, which is pretty demanding, but not on tour - I bought a house in LA and built a studio, and surrounded myself with a grand piano, guitars, mandolins, violins, all this accessibility, so that when that behaviour and state of mind came I had something to do with it. Sometimes I’m unable to harness it, but this time I was in the perfect position to do that.

It had been two years since I put out an album and I felt like the public narrative about me was built around me and other people - people I’d dated or people I’d collaborated with. I had very little narrative, zeitgeist presence on my own, because it’d been so long since I’d spoken singularly. I thought it was time to do this sort of re-introduction to me.

How do you handle having so many sides to yourself as an artist?

I don’t do anything but this. I have very few personal relationships, I don’t have many hobbies, I don’t really take vacations; I don’t really do anything but this, all the time. So I’ve committed myself to being two people. I do all the work of the pop star and I do all the work of the alternative homegrown ‘fan relationship’ artist. I do two people’s amount of work.

Most people choose to do the pop star thing or they chose to be the homegrown, touring, fan-connection, base level artist. They pick one and then save the rest of their energy for like having a boyfriend and playing fucking soccer. I don’t really do that, so that’s been quite a task; balancing all of that, and reminding myself and evaluating myself every day, asking: ‘Are you still doing all this because you want to?”.

With news that Halsey is to become a mother soon, I am sure that will shift focus - not just in terms of her work commitment and schedule but her music and lyrical concentration. Not to say that she will completely change approach, though I feel maternity will have an impact for sure. I want to end with a fairly recent interview from late last year. Vogue spoke with Halsey about a new collection of poetry, I Would Leave Me If I Could:

“In January, after the release of Halsey’s third album, Manic, she was slated to hit the road for one of her biggest tours yet. But instead, the pop singer, born Ashley Frangipane, found her plans on pause. Like much of the world, she has spent most of this year at home—and she’s embraced the coziness. In fact, when we speak in the days leading up to the presidential election, Halsey is peak hygge, flaunting her newly shaved head, wearing a Barbie-esque Biden-Harris sweatshirt, and bundled in a giant plush blanket. “I look like, I don't know, a gym teacher or something,” Halsey quips on Zoom from an office in Los Angeles, where she lives.

Yet the multi-hyphenate never gets too comfortable. Halsey has remained quite busy: She has been on the front lines of the Black Lives Matter protests, landed her first acting gig in the forthcoming Sydney Sweeney–produced series The Players Table, performed alongside Bruce Springsteen for a remote COVID-19 benefit for her home state of New Jersey, and filmed a conversation series with Senator Bernie Sanders. Tomorrow, she releases her debut collection of poems, I Would Leave Me If I Could.

Earlier this year you announced that you were going to do a press blackout. Has it ended?

Oh, I’m barely doing interviews again. You’re just special. I’m only doing interviews when I have something very specific to talk about. I’m not doing interviews just purely for the intention of having a larger profile: I don’t want a larger profile. I’m not saying that I don’t want one at all. I love what I do. I can’t control [my profile] sometimes—it grows out of proportion and makes me feel really, really helpless. I gave a lot away in the beginning, and it didn’t help me. So I’ve got to take care of me now. Also, I sound like an asshole in print, and I don’t mean to. All the YouTube comments on my video interviews are like, “Oh my gosh, she’s so nice. I thought she was such an asshole.” I’m like, “It’s because you read something!” That’s probably just the Jersey in me.

You’re about to release your debut poetry collection, I Would Leave Me If I Could. How did you come up with its title?

It’s from a really old poem that I wrote when I was 18. The title comes from the idea of feeling trapped with yourself, the idea that most people who are in your life are there because of obligation or convenience, and that everyone will leave eventually. And that reflective moment of, “Yeah, I get it. I’d probably leave me, too, if I could.”

In the book, there are a lot of allusions to sexual misconduct and assault. How difficult was it for you to be able to revisit those experiences? Why did you think it was important to write about them?

Well, I definitely cut a lot of shit out, that’s for sure, because I do have to create boundaries for myself. A lot of this book is about relationships, betrayal, abandonment, and interpersonal communication. When you read a poem about something that happened to me when I was eight, maybe it’ll help you better understand the poem about something that happened to me when I was 24. Also, ever since I did the Women’s March speech, I’m not afraid of talking about sexual assault or misconduct. It’s far more common than any of us realize. So I do think it’s important to include it.

Have you started working on a follow-up to Manic, or do you plan to release a new body of work next year?

I’m kind of just taking some time. This is the longest I’ve ever spent at home, so I’m always making stuff. With albums, it’s like I wake up one day and all of a sudden, I know 16 songs I want to write. Then I start them, and it’s done. I’m doing what I do before I make an album—I call it “collecting.” I’m watching movies, reading books, and collecting inspiration”.

I shall leave it here, but I wanted to highlight an incredible artist who is going to be making amazing music for years to come! From 2015’s impressive debut album, Badlands, to now, it has been one hell of a career so far! Although the incredible Halsey has already accomplished so much, I feel that…

THE very best is yet to come.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Toni Braxton – Toni Braxton

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Toni Braxton – Toni Braxton

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I am doing a Lockdown Playlist about Babyface…

very soon, as people do not realise how many tremendous songs he has written or produced! I have been spinning the amazing Breathe Again a lot lately. Written by Babyface, it was the second single from 1993’s Toni Braxton. Of course, a lot of the song’s success is because of the awesome vocal performance by Braxton herself. Before getting down to the album itself, I want to set aside some space to highlight how Breathe Again was received by critics:

“Breathe Again" received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Ron Wynn of AllMusic picked the song as a highlight from the album, writing that "Braxton's husky, enticing voice sounds hypnotic on the track." According to Daryl Easlea of BBC Music, the song "fully established Braxton," calling it "a delicate ballad that refused to resort wholly to cliché, it is brought to life by Braxton’s dreamy, breathy delivery." Larry Flick from Billboard described it as "a yearning, R&B-framed ballad." He added, "Once again, her vocal is expressive and moving—mostly due to an unusual willingness to let some rough-edged notes mingle with the sweet diva-like tones. Braxton's earthy personality makes her seem more accessible than a lot of other chest-pounding singers." Also Mitchell May of Chicago Tribune was very positive, writing that "the way her voice throbs when she sings, 'I can't stop thinking about you,' conveys a sense of despair and longing that is rare." John Martinucci from Gavin Report described it as "melancholy". People magazine called the song "haunting", writing that, "The quaver in her voice says more about love's promise and deceit than many singers manage in a career.” John McAlley of Rolling Stone called it "the album's best material", writing that "Braxton's love hangover has reached ludicrously epic proportions." Steve Pick from St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted that "here's another sad love song from a sultry alto singer who seems to be getting the best of the LaFace production team's work this year. This pretty tune benefits greatly from Braxton's ability to hint at the over-the-top histrionics she never quite falls into. As a result, it's both smooth and edgy." James Hunter from Vibe said that Babyface's writing on "Breathe Again" "gives the deserving future star melodic peaks and valleys to explore with her gorgeously detailed, unconceited voice".

I love that song, and I feel Toni Braxton has many other tracks that have the same sort of power and memorability. Another Sad Love Song, Seven Whole Days, Love Affair, and I Belong to You are tremendous tracks. I don’t feel there are many weak spots on the album. Released on 13th July, 1993, Toni Braxton’s debut studio album was one that I remember fondly. Breathe Again is my favourite song from the album, though there are so many gems throughout. In terms of its success and sales, the album did really well:

“Toni Braxton debuted at number 36 on the Billboard 200 and later spent two non-consecutive weeks atop the chart as well as three non-consecutive weeks atop the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It has sold 5,135,000 copies in the United States and 10 million copies worldwide. The album was primarily produced by L.A. Reid, Babyface, and Daryl Simmons. The first single, "Another Sad Love Song", peaked at numbers seven and two on the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B Singles charts, respectively. The album's second single, "Breathe Again", peaked in the top five of both the Hot 100 and R&B charts and at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Other singles were released from Toni Braxton in 1994, including "You Mean the World to Me", "Seven Whole Days", and the double A-side "I Belong to You"/"How Many Ways".

The album received positive reviews and earned Braxton several awards, including three Grammy Awards (for Best New Artist and two consecutive awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 1994 and 1995). She also won two American Music Awards (for Favorite Soul/R&B New Artist and Favorite New Adult Contemporary Artist) in 1994 and another one in 1995 (for Favorite Soul/R&B Album)”.

What gets to me is how mixed the reviews are. Her 1996 follow-up, Secrets, was received better (thanks in small part because of the megahit, Un-Break My Heart), but I feel many overlooked Toni Braxton as a merely ‘promising’ album. The album is solid, full of personality and variation. This is what Rolling Stone wrote in their 1993 review:

“Braxton had her coming out with "Love Shoulda Brought You Home," a modest hit from last year's Boomerang soundtrack. A slow-groove saga of betrayal and infidelity, the song revealed Braxton's vocal promise and established her image as a feisty survivor in the face of heartbreak. Its popularity did not, however, prefigure the explosive success of Toni Braxton, her debut album. Credit that to the album's skyrocketing first single. "Another Sad Love Song" – with its dynamic vocal, gargantuan hook and clever song-with-in-a-song lyric – surely ranks with "The End of the Road," "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and "Every Little Step" as one of LaFace's greatest triumphs. "Another Sad Love Song" reinforces Braxton's lovelorn persona, as do several other midtempo ballads that L.A., Babyface and Daryl Simmons have front-loaded into Toni Braxton. Indeed, by the time you've gotten through the album's best material – "Breathe Again" (the second single), "Seven Whole Days" and "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" – Braxton's love hangover has reached ludicrously epic proportions.

Certainly, Braxton has got chops and spunk ("I ain't down with o.p.p.," she snaps on "Love Affair"). And, yes, there are a handful of songs in which she gets to do the do. But there's not a poet in the house among LaFace's family of writer-producers – no Smokey Robinson, no Linda Creed. And for all its polish, too much of the music on Toni Braxton mistakes melodrama for passion and set pieces for soul”.

I feel that, all these years later, people should reinspect Toni Braxton’s amazing debut. Last year’s Spell My Name received positive reviews. It shows that, almost three decades since her debut album, Braxton has plenty of life, lease and purpose. I think she will be making albums for many years more. I have a lot of love for her 1993 debut. In a positive review, this is what AllMusic noted:

“Toni Braxton is both an elegant and earthy songstress, nicely balancing those seemingly divergent sentiments on her self-titled debut disc. Braxton's husky, enticing voice sounds hypnotic on "Breathe Again," dismayed on "Another Sad Love Song," and disillusioned on "Love Shoulda Brought You Home." But she's never out of control, indignant, or so anguished and hurt that she fails to retain her dignity. It's a sign of how great the Babyface/L.A. Reid production team was that they didn't settle for a defining mood; they presented Braxton with enough diverse emotional settings to hold the interest of urban contemporary males and females”.

I shall leave it there, though I would advise people to check out Toni Braxton and play the album through. It is an amazing album that has so much to enjoy! From the sultry and emotional Breathe Again to the sexy and powerful How Many Ways, I think the album offers up a lot to enjoy. Toni Braxton has received more acclaimed albums since her debut, but I feel that people should give this amazing introduction…

ANOTHER spin.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Tracks with Fairly Long, Incredible Outros

FEATURE:

 

The Lockdown Playlist

PHOTO CREDIT: @justdushawn/Unsplash

Tracks with Fairly Long, Incredible Outros

___________

FOR this Lockdown Playlist…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @nate_dumlao/Unsplash 

I want to focus on songs whose intros are quite long but awesome. I have looked at outros in general, but not those that allow the song to breathe (or keep the energy) up to the end. I think intros and outos are really difficult, so it can be quite tricky deciding whether you should keep them short or stretch them out a bit (I am counting outros from over a minute long for this feature). Some of my favourite songs have quite long outros so, in a bit of a change, this Lockdown Playlist is a celebration of those artists who were not afraid to let a song run past the point most people were expecting! Sit back and enjoy a playlist of songs whose intros are…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @icons8/Unsplash

PRETTY memorable ones .