FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Forty-Eight: beadbadoobee

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern Heroines

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Curtis Hughes

Part Forty-Eight: beadbadoobee

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I know that I recently included…

beabadoobee in my Spotlight feature - though I think she is a definite superstar of the future and warrants a Modern Heroines spot. Ahead of her twenty-first birthday on 3rd June, I wanted to bring in a few interviews, in addition to a couple of reviews for her excellent debut album, Fake It Flowers. Having released several E.P.s prior to her debut album – including 2019’s Space Cadet -, there was already buzz around the Filipino-born British singer-songwriter, Beatrice Laus. I believe that her new E.P., Our Extended Play, is out very soon/the summer. It was announced alongside the launch of her latest single, Last Day on Earth. It is an infectious gem of a track! Back in March, CRACK (among others) reported on the forthcoming E.P.:

“Beabadoobee has released a new track titled Last Day On Earth. The tune offers fans their first glimpse into Beabadoobee’s next project Our Extended Play, which was also unveiled yesterday (24 March) alongside the lead single. The EP was co-written and produced by The 1975’s Matty Healy and George Daniel. It’s scheduled for release this spring.

Speaking on the new single, former Crack Magazine cover star Beabadoobee said: “Last Day On Earth is about all the things I would have done had I known we were going into a lockdown and the world was going to change the way it has. It was written shortly after the first main lockdown and lyrically it’s me reflecting on how it would feel if we all knew ahead of time what was going to happen. All the things I would have done if I knew it was the last day of our old normality.”

Our Extended Play was written and recorded on a farm in the Oxfordshire countryside, with Matty and George working with Beabadoobee – real name Bea Kristi – and her band on a slew of new songs. “It was really nice being able to create together, my first time writing and recording on a farm,” adds Kristi. “I wanted to experiment on the sounds and sonics even more and the EP to me has a feeling of togetherness to it… how we’re all in this joined as one”.

I shall keep my eyes out, as I really love beabadoobee’s previous E.P.s and Fake It Flowers. Before coming to a review or two of that album, it is worth discovering more about a sensational and hugely prolific young artist. I would advise people to follow beabadoobee and keep abreast of all the latest happenings. Later in the year, you should be able to catch her playing around the U.K. I think that beabadoobee (I shall refer to her by her artist name) is among the greatest young artists in Britain. I love her sound and how she can mix tones and shades of the 1990s and something more modern. Rather than replicating music from the decade, one hears something unique and personal. One can detect and identify this artist who wants to influence people and go far in music. In this 2020 interview with The Forty-Five, we learn more about a hungry and inspirational musician:

“Bea makes no bones about wanting to be an influential force – not a lofty entertainer that people cower at the feet of, but someone who girls can see themselves in. Introduced to female-fronted rock by her mother, Bea found particular comfort in the entertainment of yesteryear, a time before women were subject to the constant scrutiny and comparison of social media. “My Mum used to play Suzanne Vega and Alanis Morissette all the time, and I guess subconsciously you get inspired by that,” she says. “There is just something about 90s culture that is super cool and interesting – ‘But I’m A Cheerleader’ and ‘The Craft’ have the most amazing soundtracks. With ‘…Cheerleader’, every song on the soundtrack is a female singer in a band – that is just SO badass.”

Discovering the work of Kimya Dawson was also something of an awakening. “The first record that genuinely had me was ‘Remember That I Love You’. Her lyrics are just so genuine and funny, and sometimes quite childlike – it’s naive but in the best way possible. I really want to show that within my music.”

At the risk of psychologising, her desire to cocoon herself in the familiar sonics of young childhood feels logical when you consider Bea’s rocky adolescence. Raised in West London, school was far from ideal, and she hints at other struggles too, a ‘dark period’ that seems to link back to a feeling of placelessness, her Filipino heritage rendering her as something of an outsider in a classroom full of insecure teens looking for an easy target. Soon, she had fallen in with the ‘stoner crowd’, and just before starting her A-Levels, her teachers called time on her erratic attendance and attitude – she was asked to find a new school. Not the easiest conversation to have with your parents…

“Well, honestly, at first, I feel like any parent would be like, “er, what the fuck?” she remembers. “I wasn’t taking education seriously. I only got into music quite late in my life, and when my dad bought me a guitar at 17, it meant a lot that he understood that I needed something to distract myself from being so sad. He and my mum saw how hard it was growing up in a predominantly white, all-girls Catholic school – you know those backhanded compliments and snidey little remarks? Girls can be amazing, but for some reason, secondary school is just a shithole.”

Music didn’t cure Bea’s depression overnight, but it definitely helped. With a new outlet to express herself, things started moving fast. Uploading the first song she ever wrote –  ‘Coffee’ – to YouTube, she swiftly racked up 30,000 hits, and a genuine escape from the drudgery of formal education proffered itself in the form of a Dirty Hit record contract. It was an opportunity that even her parents knew she couldn’t pass up.

“I remember when I first got really into making music and ended up telling Dad that I didn’t think I wanted to go to University, and he was like “WHAAAAT”, she laughs. “But now he’s the most supportive person ever, as well as my mum. To be honest, I feel like my mom lives vicariously through me because she’s always wanted to play guitar, it’s super cute.”

“I just want to give a message that girls should be confident in who they are, and do whatever they want.” She reasons. “That doesn’t mean I’m saying “stay in school and be a good girl”, but I’m also not saying “go outside and do loads of fuckin’ drugs”. Do what you think is right, but do whatever you’re doing for yourself. All of the people that I looked up to didn’t look anything like me, and I felt really confused and alienated and shit. So I hope to think that I can inspire girls in some way, even if it’s like the tiniest amount, to just get out there and be passionate about something. And if they can find something that helps them come out of their shells and organise their brain a little…it can be a bit like therapy. Music really does help. If you feel shit, write it down”.

I am going to end by looking ahead to the E.P., Our Extended Play. E.P.s are become more popular and prolific. I think it allows artists a chance to put out songs that they could not fit on an album, or ones that offer a bridge between albums. For beabadoobee, songs like Last Day on Earth follow on from Fake It Flowers and shows that she is a musician who can provide something joyful and hypnotic. Even though a lot of her compositions are sunny and full of colour, her lyrics tackle something deeper and hard-hitting. When she spoke with Vulture last year, the nature of lyrics comes up. Vulture also asked why now (2020) was the time for an album – as beabadoobee was releasing E.P.s before that:

“Kristi has made ’90s-influenced rock music addressing young women for years, but Fake It Flowers is her clearest statement yet. Born, like her EPs, from her childhood bedroom in London, it’s an album of “everything I was supposed to tell someone but couldn’t,” Kristi says. Tracks reference and address her mental-health journey, past relationships, and her current longtime boyfriend, Soren Harrison. It sounds bigger than her past EPs, drawing deeper from the ’90s rock music she grew up with, from Alanis Morissette to the Cranberries. “I love that feeling of nostalgic-ness where it feels like a warm blanket,” Kristi explains, calling from Harrison’s West London house. And, unsurprisingly, people have been craving the comfort: The album comes off the heels of the first song she ever wrote, “coffee,” turning into a chart-topping TikTok hit as a sample in Powfu’s “death bed.” Kristi spoke to Vulture about the album, her TikTok stardom, and making rock music for young women.

What has it been like to be back at home? I know it’s been a really inspiring place for your music.

I love my bedroom. I always say this, but I feel like no one knows you better than your own bedroom. Your bedroom has seen you go through the worst and it’s seen you at your best, and I feel like that’s why I have such a close relationship with my bedroom. It’s the place where I’m most comfortable in. And that’s where I’m most creative.

For a while, you were just releasing EPs. What made you decide, Okay, now’s the time to do the album?

I feel like I had grown so much because of tour and through those EPs, and as a girl. I wanted to write something about everything I’ve been through in my life. I started doing therapy again, and I realized how a lot of things from my childhood have affected the way I act as a young woman today. I remember going on tour as well, thinking I knew myself; I didn’t know myself at all. I wrote about why I thought that, and it’s all in Fake It Flowers.

This album that has this really big, blown up rock sound. How did that fit into everything?

There are certain points in music where I want to pinpoint and pick and re-create in my music today, like a guitar sound in My Bloody Valentine. If I hear a really good guitar sound, I’m going to go copy it. You know, nothing’s really original these days. And I wanted something big. I’d just done an arena tour with the 1975, and I wanted music to fill that space. I just wanted to go crazy; I wanted to go big; I wanted to rock out”.

I want to put together a couple of reviews for Fake It Flowers. There was such a widespread and positive reaction to the album. I think that Fake It Flowers was the best debut album of last year. In their review, CLASH had this to say:

“Debut album ‘Fake It Flowers’ is much more than her story so far – it’s Bea in 360, the clearest, most honest depiction of her life, her thoughts that we’ve had to date. Moving from cute, coy indie pop through to screamo, it touches on the innocent melodies of OPM while betraying some of her darker emotions.

Lead single ‘Care’ sets the tone. The voice wrangles with conflicting statements, struggling not to care while being swept up in her emotions – as potent depictions of adolescent angst go, it’s up there with the best of ‘em.

‘Worth It’ and ‘Dye It Red’ crunch hard, the guitar tone and vocal techniques honed on those mammoth tours, moving from sweatpit venues to actual arenas. Throughout, beabadoobee displays incredible control – each note, each moment feels endlessly poised, pursued to the final degree of emotional worth.

The twists and turns of word play that fuel ‘Charlie Brown’ pluck at the heartstrings, treating your chest like a worn out Telecaster, while ‘Sorry’ and the love-lorn ‘Horen Sarrison’ pull down the divide between Bea’s life and listener.

At times glossy at others unadorned, beabadoobee seems to be in thrall to the inner needs of her songwriting. She’s chasing something, and it’s a real ride to move along with her – just check out the seismic difference between ‘Back To Mars’ for example, and DIY lockdown hymn ‘How Was Your Day?’, recorded in her boyfriend’s parents garden.

Indeed, the latter is a reminder that no matter how natural, how innate beabadoobee’s pop instincts are, she remains tied to outsider artists. First handed the guitar by her father as an attempt to shake her out of a teenage slump, it’s become the means for Bea to process and define her emotions – underneath the production, the drama, the sold out shows, her approach is akin to early hero Daniel Johnston, proffering cassette tapes to strangers in the street, asking them to listen.

There’s a purity to the way ‘Fake It Flowers’ unfolds that, well, can’t be faked. Ending with the delirious joy of ‘Yoshimi, Forest, Magdalene’ it’s a record that hauls together many different layers, colours, and hues, a subtle but extremely immediate project that displays beabadoobee’s songwriting in full bloom.

A real pearl of a record, ‘Fake It Flowers’ is a starting statement that runs on unmitigated confidence, a revealing, enthralling, enchanting debut record, one that finally finds beabadoobee throwing open the gates and letting the world into her life. It’s a joy to behold”.

The other review I want to bring in is from The Line of Best Fit. They had a lot of love and praise for Fake It Flowers. They made some excellent points:

“Delving into the track treasure trove of Beabadoobee (aka Bea Kristi if you prefer a formal introduction), you’ll find earworms galore – from lo-fi acoustic offerings such as 2017’s calm and comforting “Coffee” (the first song she ever wrote) to the juxtaposing saccharine scuzz of 2019’s “She Plays Bass”. Despite the slight disparity between these sounds, one thing stays the same; their infectious nature.

Fast-forward to 2020, and Beabadoobee is still producing binge-worthy tracks, this time on coming-of-age soundtrack, Fake It Flowers. Lead single "Care" is a hook-filled hoot with angst-addled lyrics to boot. “I don't want your sympathy” Bea coos “Stop saying you give a shit / 'Cause you don't really / Care, care, care, yeah” she repeats, uniting those who have struggled to get people to understand their past experiences.

Follow-up release, "Sorry", is an alt-rock slow jam, with ruffled guitar work to make way for heavily emotive string-assisted exclamations from Bea in the chorus “And it hurts me […] you stayed in the same dark place, that I adore / But, you stayed for more / I guess that's what happens to the best of us / The best of us”. It’s a step away from the bubblegum bops on the record such as "Dye It Red", which speaks of youthful impulses to feel empowered and in control but presents her story of growth – how inconsistent it can be and sound, as we continue to learn and evolve.

Bea is a beacon of nostalgia for '90s kids who wished they were born a decade or two earlier, donning their Walkman, listening to cassettes, swapping out one grunge gem for the next. Bea provides a much-needed trip down memory lane, but not so much that it’s a pastiche to the era, rather an ardent nod, an ode to.

Despite the uncertainty this year has brought, the true essence of who Beabadoobee is is here to stay, taking us back to simpler times, adorned with mohair knits and baggy jeans”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Beabadoobee in London on 13th August, 2020 photographed for The Forty-Five/PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Louise Bennett

Looking ahead, and we have a new E.P. to enjoy. Our Extended Play comes very soon after Fake It Flowers. On the strength of Last Day on Earth, it sounds like it is going to be a must-hear release. It is, as this interview from Stereogum reveals, an E.P. with a collaborative nature:

“Still, despite her bedroom beginnings, Bea had bigger, bolder plans for her debut. The choruses of Fake It Flowers practically beg to be screamed in a crowded arena or blasted at a music festival. The sugary punch of “Charlie Brown” is designed for a concert’s collective catharsis; the programmed strings of “Worth It” are meant for the exuberance of a good house party.

But Bea embraced the intimacy and closeness of her strangely restrained release: The sepia-toned video for “Worth It” was shot entirely in one motel bedroom. In the months following the album’s debut, she, like so many other burgeoning acts during the pandemic, virtually invited countless journalists and fans into the confidential confines of her room, performing concerts and teasing small glimpses of her upcoming projects.

That next endeavor, at least in part, will take the form of an EP out this spring, titled Our Extended Play. The EP’s plural pronoun might be a cheeky reference to the record’s collaborative nature: Whereas her previous releases were entirely written and composed by Bea, she created the EP along with Matty Healy and George Daniel, the production and songwriting wizards behind the 1975. “I already had a really nice relationship with Matty,” Bea adds. “You know, we were friends beforehand, and it was just such a comfortable atmosphere to work in.”

The first single from their collaboration, “Last Day On Earth,” combines the trademark styles of the two artists — somewhere between the familiar, breezy soft rock of mid-aughts romantic comedies and the ethereal, reverb-heavy indie pop that’s become a calling card for Dirty Hit releases. While the flourishes — a pitched-up backing vocal track adding “ahs” and “yeahs,” a chorus made up of nonsensical, sing-along ready “shoo doos” — are all Healy signatures, the verses’ easy rhythms are pure beabadoobee. “You made it,” she sings reassuringly. “Your last day on Earth.” As on Fake It Flowers, she has a knowing penchant for melodrama and an unmistakably honeyed voice. Only Bea could deliver the line “You killed someone last night/ You’ve been going to church” like it’s a childhood secret between two best friends.

Releasing “Last Day On Earth” now, as the world is precariously taking its first steps into a version of post-pandemic normalcy, is meant to be a palliative gesture: “I guess it just offers a positive distraction and kind of reminds people of togetherness and unity — you know, alluding to some type of hope,” Bea says. “Me and Matty both definitely wanted the chorus to be something easy that people can sing along to.” After a year of deferred gratification for Bea’s biggest musical endeavors, she sees that earworm of a chorus as a bit of wishful thinking: “If festivals do happen…” she starts, almost hesitant to wish for it too soon. “Sonically, I think that song would just be so nice to play live.” As it stands, she’s booked for several summer fests — including the UK’s Reading and Leeds, which announced they’re full speed ahead for late August — as well as a headlining tour of the UK and Ireland in September.

In many ways, working with the 1975 is a natural progression for beabadoobee — she signed to the group’s label Dirty Hit immediately after “Coffee” became a viral hit, and the two British groups share a similar penchant for technicolor nostalgia. At the 2020 NME Awards, Healy even passed his own Innovation Award to Bea, who he called “the most exciting thing I’ve seen in modern music” (Bea won the “Radar Award” for emerging artists that same night). And as Healy takes on a more active role in Dirty Hit, working with labelmates like No Rome and Pale Waves, Bea’s dayglo chords seem like an obvious choice as the next face for his second coming of Britpop.

For Bea, who’d barely written songs with a full band, let alone an outside producer, the transition to a shared songwriting environment was a bit more of an adjustment: “I find collaborating with art quite hard.” For some of the songs on Our Extended Play, she came into the process after the instrumentation had finished, which seemed alienating for her at first. “I always have the guitar with me,” she says casually, seeming almost surprised that some of these songs were written without it. But writing over Healy’s instrumentation allowed her to focus on her voice as an instrument, and on writing lyrics as an end within itself”.

I will leave things there. Having released some phenomenal E.P.s – with one on the way – and a marvellous album, I think we will see beabadoobee go from strength to strength. At only twenty, it is amazing to think of all she has achieved and how complete her music is – like she has been in the industry for decades! I love Last Day on Earth and looking ahead to what is to come. With beabadoobee in our midst, we have an incredible young artist who…

IS a legend of the future.

FEATURE: From Poole to London via Copenhagen: Bringing a Full Set of Kate Bush’s The Tour of Life to Physical Formats

FEATURE:

 

 

From Poole to London via Copenhagen

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

Bringing a Full Set of Kate Bush’s The Tour of Life to Physical Formats

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BEFORE I bring in…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in Amsterdam in 1979 for The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Redferns/Rob Verhorst

a lot of information from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia, I wanted to have a look around at the last year or two regarding Kate Bush-related products. Apart from a new book by photographer Max Browne of photos from The Tour of Life, there have been song-by-song books, one about The Kick Inside, in addition to an array of magazine features and articles about her. John Carder Bush (Kate’s broither) has annoucned that his photobook, KATE: Inside the Rainbow, is also being reprinted and will be back in stock. Music-wise, we have not seen any reissues or remasters. Bush put out her albums in remastered form in 2018, so it might be a bit soon for further revision. I have written about The Tour of Life before and how groundbreaking it is. Whilst Bush’s 2014 residency, Before the Dawn, is available on physical formats, one cannot get it on streaming. The E.P., On Stage, is a live recording of four songs performed on Bush's The Tour of Life in 1979. It was released on 31st August, 1979 with Them Heavy People as the lead track. It peaked at number-ten on the U.K. singles chart. I will get to why we need to hear a full set of The Tour of Life on physical formats soon. Coming to the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia article; the magnitude and detail of The Tour of Life is amazing:

“The Tour of Life, also known as the Lionheart Tour or even the Kate Bush Tour, was Kate Bush's first, and until recently only, series of live concerts. The name, 'Tour of Life', was not coined until after its completion, with all promotional material referring to it simply as the Kate Bush Tour.

Consisting of 24 performances from Bush's first two studio albums The Kick Inside and Lionheart, it was acclaimed for its incorporation of mime, magic, and readings during costume changes. The simple staging also involved rear-screen projection and the accompaniment of two male dancers. The tour was a critical and commercial success, with most dates selling out and additional shows being added due to high demand. Members of the Kate Bush Club were provided with a guaranteed ticket.

Rehearsals

The tour was to become not only a concert, but also incorporating dance, poetry, mime, burlesque, magic and theatre. The dance element was co-ordinated by Bush in conjunction with Anthony Van Laast – who later choreographed the Mamma Mia! movie and several West End smashes – and two young dancers, Stewart Avon Arnold and Gary Hurst. They held morning rehearsals for the tour at The Place in Euston, after which Bush spent afternoons in Greenwich drilling her band. Off stage, she was calling the shots on everything from the set design to the programme art.

Band

The band playing with Kate Bush on stage consisted of Preston Heyman (drums), Paddy Bush (mandolin. various strange instruments and vocal harmonies), Del Palmer (bass), Brian Bath (electric guitar, acoustic mandolin and vocal harmonies), Kevin McAlea (piano, keyboards, saxophone, 12 string guitar), Ben Barson (synthesizer and acoustic guitar), Al Murphy (electric guitar and whistles) and backing vocalists Liz Pearson and Glenys Groves.

Tragedy

The tour started on April 2 with a tragedy. The highly experienced lighting director Bill Duffield fell through an open panel high on the lighting gallery. He would die of his injuries a week later. Despite this, the tour still went on. A fundraising benefit concert was added to the schedule, taking place on 12 May 1979 to raise money for Bill's family and featured Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley, for whom Duffield had also worked.

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

Set list

The shows featured almost all the songs from Kate Bush's two albums, divided into three 'Acts', in the following order:

Act 1

Moving
Saxophone Song
Room For The Life
Them Heavy People
The Man With The Child In His Eyes
Egypt
L'amour Looks Something Like You
Violin
The Kick Inside

Act 2

In The Warm Room
Fullhouse
Strange Phenomena
Hammer Horror
Kashka From Baghdad
Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake

Act 3

Wow
Coffee Homeground
Symphony In Blue
Feel It
Kite
James And The Cold Gun

Encore

Oh England My Lionheart
Wuthering Heights

Tour dates

2 April 1979: Arts Centre, Poole (UK)
3 April 1979: Empire, Liverpool (UK)
4 April 1979: Hippodrome, Birmingham (UK)
5 April 1979: Hippodrome, Birmingham (UK)
6 April 1979: New Theatre, Oxford (UK)
7 April 1979: Gaumont, Southampton (UK)
9 April 1979: Hippodrom, Bristol (UK)
10 April 1979: Apollo Theatre, Manchester (UK)
11 April 1979: Apollo Theatre, Manchester (UK)
12 April 1979: Empire Theatre, Sunderland (UK)
13 April 1979: Usher Hall, Edinburgh (UK)
16 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
17 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
18 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
19 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
20 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
24 April 1979: Konserthuset, Stockholm (Sweden)
26 April 1979: Falkoner Theatre, Copenhagen (Denmark)
28 April 1979: Congress Centrum, Hamburg (Germany)
29 April 1979: Theater Carré, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
2 May 1979: Liederhalle, Stuttgart (Germany)
3 May 1979: Circus Krone, Munich (Germany)
6 May 1979: Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris (France)
7 May 1979: Mercatorhalle, Duisburg (Germany)
8 May 1979: Rosengarten, Mannheim (Germany)
10 May 1979: Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt (Germany)
12 May 1979: Hammersmith Odeon, London (UK)
13 May 1979: Hammersmith Odeon, London (UK)
14 May 1979: Hammersmith Odeon, London (UK)

On 24, 26, 28 and 29 April, In the Warm Room, Kite, Oh England My Lionheart, and Wuthering Heights were dropped from the set because Kate was suffering from a throat infection.
The 12 May concert had a very different setlist because this was a benefit performance 'In Aid Of Bill Duffield', featuring guest stars Steve Harley and Peter Gabriel.
'Fullhouse' was not performed on 13 and 14 May.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush receiving huge audience adulation/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne  

Critical reception

As the tour rolled out around the UK the reviews were euphoric: Melody Maker called the Birmingham show "the most magnificent spectacle ever encountered in the world of rock. (...) I hadn't expected to be impressed by her as a singer, both she and the band were nothing short of immaculate". According to Sounds, the show was "so finely realised that it's beyond criticism".

Recordings

Two official recordings were released from the tour, both recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in London: first, the On Stage EP was released in September, and some time thereafter a 60 minute video 'Live at the Hammersmith Odeon', featuring 12 songs from the set followed.

There are also numerous so-called 'Bootleg' recordings made available from various sources - although most of them are audience recordings of dubious quality”.

I think that it is great that Max Browne has released a book with his photos from The Tour of Life. It is important to mark and explore such an iconic and important part of Kate Bush’s career. I am sure there are fairly good recordings of a set from that tour. There are videos on YouTube, though the quality is not great (as you can see in this feature!). One feels that there must be something in the archives that has not yet seen the light of day. The fact an E.P. was released suggests that a longer set was available to pick from. Like Before the Dawn in 2014, hearing Bush on stage during such a huge show is spine-tingling and revealing.

I would love to hear her in 1979 and the buzz from the crowd. Maybe a full set would be a bit long for vinyl, so streaming is an option. I am not sure why Before the Dawn is unavailable on streaming services. Perhaps Bush feels that one needs to hear it on a physical form to get the best listening experience. It would be wonderful to buy a vinyl set where we get to experience what it must have been like to be in one of the audience as Bush travelled through the U.K. and Europe! Max Browne could lend some words and photos. It would be wonderful for a booklet/book to go alongside where people who were in the audience share their recollections. Perhaps quotes from members of Bush’s band and crew would add some depth and story. Most of Bush’s material can be bought, yet there is this live vacuum where we have very little out there from The Tour of Life or any T.V. live/recordings pre or post-1979. It would be interesting learning why there is no expansive package valuable regarding The Tour of Life. Over four decades since Bush hit the road and wowed adoring audiences, there is a new generation who would benefit from hearing her live performances from 1979. One can get a bit of the magic and atmosphere from the YouTube videos. A cleaner recording on vinyl would prove more powerful and popular. The Tour of Life remains a groundbreaking and near-peerless live experience…

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

AFTER all of these years.

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Fifty-Four: Roxy Music

FEATURE:

 

 

A Buyer’s Guide

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Cooke/Redferns/Getty Images

Part Fifty-Four: Roxy Music

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I gave this feature a rest last weekend…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Virgin Records

but I am back with another A Buyer’s Guide. This week, I am focusing on the best albums from Roxy Music. I am not going to put a full-career biography in here but, before getting to their essential albums, a little overview:

“Evolving from the late-'60s art-rock movement, Roxy Music had a fascination with fashion, glamour, cinema, pop art, and the avant-garde, which separated the band from their contemporaries. Dressed in bizarre, stylish costumes, the group played a defiantly experimental variation of art rock which vacillated between avant-rock and sleek pop hooks. During the early '70s, the group was driven by the creative tension between Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno, who each pulled the band in separate directions: Ferry had a fondness for American soul and Beatlesque art-pop, while Eno was intrigued by deconstructing rock with amateurish experimentalism inspired by the Velvet Underground. This incarnation of Roxy Music may have only recorded two albums, but it inspired a legion of imitators -- not only the glam-rockers of the early '70s, but art-rockers and new wave pop groups of the late '70s. Following Eno's departure, Roxy Music continued with its arty inclinations for a few albums before gradually working in elements of disco and soul. Within a few years, the group had developed a sophisticated, seductive soul-pop that relied on Ferry's stylish crooning. By the early '80s, the group had developed into a vehicle for Ferry, so it was no surprise that he disbanded the group at the height of its commercial success in the early '80s to pursue a solo career”.

Having released eight albums as a band, there are some that would argue all of them were critically acclaimed - though there are one or two that did not get the credit they deserved. I am highlighting the four best Roxy Music albums, the underrated gem, their final studio album together – in addition to a book about the band worth investigating. Here is a guide to the County Durham-formed band. If you are new to Roxy Music or not sure of the albums to get, then I hope that…

THIS guide is of use.

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The Four Essential Albums

 

Roxy Music

Release Date: 16th June, 1972

Labels: Island/Reprise

Producer: Peter Sinfield

Standout Tracks: Ladytron/If There Is Something/The Bob (Medley)

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58135&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4uUtkBGEiq357ts7HZYuYF?si=Gwo422PZR--yztK1_7cUjw

Review:

“Falling halfway between musical primitivism and art rock ambition, Roxy Music's eponymous debut remains a startling redefinition of rock's boundaries. Simultaneously embracing kitschy glamour and avant-pop, Roxy Music shimmers with seductive style and pulsates with disturbing synthetic textures. Although no musician demonstrates much technical skill at this point, they are driven by boundless imagination -- Brian Eno's synthesized "treatments" exploit electronic instruments as electronics, instead of trying to shoehorn them into conventional acoustic patterns. Similarly, Bryan Ferry finds that his vampiric croon is at its most effective when it twists conventional melodies, Phil Manzanera's guitar is terse and unpredictable, while Andy Mackay's saxophone subverts rock & roll clichés by alternating R&B honking with atonal flourishes. But what makes Roxy Music such a confident, astonishing debut is how these primitive avant-garde tendencies are married to full-fledged songs, whether it's the free-form, structure-bending "Re-Make/Re-Model" or the sleek glam of "Virginia Plain," the debut single added to later editions of the album. That was the trick that elevated Roxy Music from an art school project to the most adventurous rock band of the early '70s” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Re-Make/Re-Model

For Your Pleasure

Release Date: 23rd March, 1973

Labels: Island/Warner Bros.

Producers: Chris Thomas/John Anthony/Roxy Music

Standout Tracks: Do the Strand/Strictly Confidential/In Every Dream Home a Heartache

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58142&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6gKMWnGptVs6yT2MgCxw29?si=3cLF0ZwpQXOfDYKOxSXNUg

Review:

“Roxy aimed for a melding of American R&B and avant-garde European traditions (Mackay’s oboe on “For Your Pleasure” sounds like the last thing you’d hear before bees stung you to death). You don’t hear a struggle between Ferry and Eno, just two guys with similar ideas and a band juiced on its early success and acclaim, trying to get farther from earth while still holding on to the Marvelettes and the Shirelles. The playing is so adept and surprising, and Thompson and Manzanera do such strong jobs of grounding the music’s outlandish shifts, that you only slowly realize none of the album’s eight songs has a chorus.

A few months after For Your Pleasure was released, Eno left the band, quitting before he could be fired, and starting an unparalleled career as a solo artist and producer. Bryan and Brian were incompatible. Ferry was a neurotic—Woody Allen trapped in the body of Cary Grant—while Eno was a disruptor. In interviews, Ferry withdrew like a turtle; Eno excelled at them, and talked fluidly about Marshall McLuhan, Steve Reich, or his ample pornography collection. Eno most avidly pursued the band’s androgynous style, and dressed like he was Quentin Crisp’s glam nephew (leopard print top, ostrich feather jacket, bondage choker, turquoise eye shadow). Out of the chute, he was a cult hero, and Ferry grew tired of hearing punters yell “EEEEEE-NO!” in the middle of ballads, or seeing Eno credited as his co-equal.

The music had no immediate impact in the U.S., where it grazed the album chart at number 193. The band’s two-album deal with Warner Bros. had expired and the label happily left them go. American audiences, Ferry told a British interviewer, “are literally the dumbest in the world, bar none.”

But in England, it was the album of the moment, and Roxy returned to TV’s Old Grey Whistle Test, where Whispering Bob Harris, a stodgy presenter who was still stuck in the ’60s, sneered at them, as he had the previous year as well, dismissing them as great packaging with no substance.

The notion that style and substance were contradictory was a holdover from the ’60s, and it’s one that has never gone away, revived periodically by fans and critics who long for seeming authenticity. Years later, those Roxy TV appearances would start to feel almost as significant as the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Harris’ contempt was recommendation enough for lots of kids, of myriad genders and sexualities, who would soon come to Roxy shows dressed in sparkling tunics, glowing frocks, and immaculate dinner jackets, boys and girls both in drag. But glamor and self-invention were only part of the aftereffect: Within the next few years, plenty of future punks and new wavers went on to art school, where they immediately started acting, dressing, and playing like Roxy Music” – Pitchfork

Choice Cut: Beauty Queen

Country Life

Release Date: 15th November, 1974

Labels: Island/Atco

Producers: Chris Thomas/John Punter/Roxy Music

Standout Tracks: The Thrill of It All/If It Takes All Night/Casanova

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58320&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/59RclwjkzMJTJZNxrfGdLC?si=65-3Q737SkKdmP-14jdrrw

Review:

“Starting with the thrilling (pun intended) 'The Thrill of It All', the album just moves from strength to strength, switching styles and flavours at every juncture, never letting the fear of cohesion or boundary spoil its artistic excess. 'Country Life' moves from pure glam rock glory like on the opening track, to obscure, avant-garde speckles of noise like 'Triptych' and 'Bitter-Sweet', to almost anywhere else you could envision. In their finest moments Ferry and co. swap moods or genres in one single song, as evidenced by the fantastic 'Out of the Blue'. If anyone else changed direction so unexpectedly like Roxy did on said track, it would likely seem misguided and botched, but Roxy just had a knack for pleasantly surprising their listeners, not to mention the right tools for the job - the 'tools' being the wonderful musicians playing behind king crooner, Bryan Ferry’s voguish lyrics. It seemed everyone was just in tip-top shape - McKay’s sax work is gorgeous on numbers like 'Three and Nine', Manzanera’s guitar riffs are as inventive and splendid as expected throughout (but especially so on highlights like 'All I Want is You') and the rest of the band are consistent as ever, despite the succession of fresh bass players passing through Roxy’s ranks. The thing that makes 'Country Life' particularly enthralling is that, whatever the venture into different styles and moods, here, Roxy delivered the goods track after track, providing an eclectic swirl of stylish, arty glam rock that thrills and delights like few others.

'Country Life' also captures the final showing of the early Roxy style, i.e. before funk and soul elements seeped into the mix more and more until the group gradually became a vehicle for front-man Ferry’s seductive crooner persona to run wild with romantic glimmer and enticing, silky soft rock tunes (something that would become fully realised with Roxy‘s final outing, the brilliant 'Avalon'). As such, the record is simply all that was great about the art rock sound of early Roxy, but taken to the extreme and its natural, satisfying succession point. A truly phenomenal album, 'Country Life' enraptured and influenced an innumerable amount of listeners, and with glistening gems such as 'The Thrill Of It All', 'All I Want Is You', 'Out Of The Blue' and 'Prairie Rose' being just a few of the high points, its not very difficult to understand why. No matter the taste preference for a certain time period or style in the bands eclectic discography, 'Country Life' is undoubtedly one of the best Roxy albums, and some would say (with great reason), the best” – Sputnikmusic

Choice Cut: All I Want Is You

Siren

Release Date: 24th October, 1975

Labels: Island/Atco

Producer: Chris Thomas

Standout Tracks: Sentimental Fool/Both Ends Burning/Nightingale

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58352&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5Tpor3YZBVEJ9tWD5L31mH?si=W0ktCJ8BTNWVeiNEc3T87A

Review:

“But Siren, which was released on Oct. 24, 1975, was something different for the London-based sextet: an album of nervy art-rock swathed in what would be the start of the lush landscapes that would dominate their later work. Self-aware, clever and maybe a bit too arch for its own good at times, Siren is the sound of a band claiming a faraway corner of mid-'70s music as its very own.

On earlier albums like For Your Pleasure, Stranded and Country Life, Roxy Music developed a reputation as one of rock's most adventurous groups, with Brian Eno's oddball synth squalls colliding with Bryan Ferry's hotel-lounge-ready vocals. Eno was gone by the time of Siren, which gave Ferry even more room to play the oily crooner.

But that winking persona gives way to something more romantic, and even more genuine, on Siren. It's there in the tracks "Sentimental Fool" and "Nightingale," covered in sheets of artsy adornment, and it's there in the opening "Love Is a Drug," the band's first U.S. chart hit. Ferry lets down his guard, relatively speaking, here, giving the emotionally detached robot of past Roxy Music albums a heart for once. Though that may be part of the act too.

It doesn't really matter. Roxy Music were never stronger or more focused than they are on Siren. They recorded it in London during the summer of 1975, seven months after Country Life was released as their fourth album in a brief two-and-a-half-year period. And unlike those earlier records, which seemed to force the band's nutcase appeal at times (during Eno's two-album stay, for instance, synthesizer bombs would fall out of nowhere, often taking entire songs out of their grooves), Siren stays on course, leaving few gaping holes in the arrangements.

It wasn't necessarily a breakthrough moment for the group in its native U.K., where the album made it to No. 4 -- Stranded had hit No. 1 there in 1973, and predecessor Country Life reached No. 3. And in the U.S., Country Life climbed to No. 37 while Siren stopped at No. 50. But thanks to "Love Is the Drug," Roxy Music were reaching a whole new batch of fans. The song made it to No. 2 in the U.K., their highest showing at that point. In the U.S., it made it to No. 30, their only Top 40 appearance.

But on another level, Siren was a breakthrough moment. Freed from some of their past shackles (at least the ones that kept them from reaching a wider audience, particularly those music fans who might have been frightened away by some of their earlier, more experimental material), Roxy Music steered their art-rock into a brave new territory, one that infused some warmth into their inherent coolness. After this, they never looked back” – Ultimate Classic Rock

Choice Cut: Love Is the Drug

The Underrated Gem

 

Manifesto

Release Date: 16th March, 1979

Labels: E.G./Polydor/Atco

Producers: Roxy Music

Standout Tracks: Trash/Stronger Through the Years/Dance Away

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58340&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1LDD2nUQ17tm1WMchsevtp?si=rqP3q8g6TQ-3CHYtgDPF7g

Review:

“Manifesto is the band’s first release since it broke up after the obligatory lousy live LP in 1976. Though far more interesting than most such sets (Who can forget the Byrds’ numbing 1973 reunion album? Who can remember a thing that was on it?), it offers only embellishments on the Roxy sound and story. The new record is a lovely footnote, but it can lead nowhere.

That sound and story deserve a footnote: both were among the most glorious and eccentric of the Seventies. The band — especially guitarist Phil Manzanera, saxophonist Andy Mackay, drummer Paul Thompson and Eddie Jobson (missing on Manifesto) on synthesizer — produced railing hard rock or smoky dreamscapes; always the musicians played with precision, individuality and intelligence. Bryan Ferry sang as if he never noticed there was anyone behind him, so lost was he in a strange, abandoned theater of heartbreak, desperate longings and general post-Great Warangst. Roxy Music made it all funny and stirring at the same time, storming through Stranded and finishing up with Siren. Siren was perhaps the most perfectly crafted album of the decade, as well as Ferry’s heart-on-his-sleeve break with the cynicism of the confused hustler’s persona he’d carried so long.

Manifesto is bits and pieces of all that. The songs ending each side fade out with real grace and leave you hanging, wanting more — drenched in a romance out of reach. “Still Falls the Rain” is a quiet, forgiving ballad in the purest Roxy style, full of tiny touches that occur only once, teasing you to wait for a repetition that never comes. Manzanera’s four little notes, almost buried in the distant band sound, underline Ferry’s emotion: those notes are as surprising as anything Manzanera’s ever played, and they carry as strong an echo. “Cry, Cry, Cry” is a horrible piece of old-fashioned soul, and yet, as “Spin Me Round” takes over and closes out the set, you forget all about the mistakes and drift away, just like Dobie Gray said you could.

So the record has its moments — moments few bands even know about — but as with the brazenly (and meaninglessly) titled “Manifesto,” they add up to little. Ferry announces he’s for the guy “who’d rather die than be tied down”; he’s rarely traded on such banality, and he mouths the lyrics as if he hopes no one will hear them. The sound may be alive, but the story is almost silent” – Rolling Stone

Choice Cut: Angel Eyes

The Final Album

 

Avalon

Release Date: 28th May, 1982

Labels: E.G. Records/Polydor

Producers: Rhett Davies and Roxy Music

Standout Tracks: The Space Between/Avalon/Take a Chance with Me

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58313&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3JXODSjT9mUz2lIb4YIErw?si=GS2VyMXPSVuFm3xoliPgbQ

Review:

“Flesh + Blood suggested that Roxy Music were at the end of the line, but they regrouped and recorded the lovely Avalon, one of their finest albums. Certainly, the lush, elegant soundscapes of Avalon are far removed from the edgy avant-pop of their early records, yet it represents another landmark in their career. With its stylish, romantic washes of synthesizers and Bryan Ferry's elegant, seductive croon, Avalon simultaneously functioned as sophisticated make-out music for yuppies and as the maturation of synth pop. Ferry was never this romantic or seductive, either with Roxy or as a solo artist, and Avalon shimmers with elegance in both its music and its lyrics. "More Than This," "Take a Chance with Me," "While My Heart Is Still Beating," and the title track are immaculately crafted and subtle songs, where the shifting synthesizers and murmured vocals gradually reveal the melodies. It's a rich, textured album and a graceful way to end the band's career” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: More Than This

The Roxy Music Book

 

Roxy Music's Avalon - 33 1/3

Author: Simon A. Morrison

Publication Date: 1st July, 2021

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Synopsis:

“Having designed Roxy Music as an haute couture suit hand-stitched of punk and progressive music, Bryan Ferry redesigned it. He made Roxy Music ever dreamier and mellower-reaching back to sadly beautiful chivalric romances. Dadaist (punk) noise exited; a kind of ambient soft soul entered. Ferry parted ways with Eno, electric violinist Eddie Jobson, and drummer Paul Thompson, foreswearing the broken-sounding synthesizers played by kitchen utensils, the chance-based elements, and the maquillage of previous albums. The production and engineering imposed on Avalon confiscates emotion and replaces it with an acoustic simulacrum of courtliness, polished manners, and codes of etiquette. The seducer sings seductive music about seduction, but decorum is retained, as amour courtois insists. The backbeat cannot beat back nostalgia; it remains part of the architecture of Avalon, an album that creates an allusive sheen. Be nostalgic, by all means, but embrace that feeling's falseness, because nostalgia-whether inspired by medieval Arthuriana or 1940s film noir repartee or a 1980s drug-induced high-deceives. Nostalgia defines our fantasies and our (not Ferry's) essential artifice” – Waterstones

Pre-Order: https://www.waterstones.com/book/roxy-musics-avalon/simon-a-morrison/9781501355349

TRACK REVIEW: Laura Mvula - Got Me

TRACK REVIEW:

 

 

Laura Mvula

Got Me

9.4/10

The track, Got Me, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD7LMNCLbwA

GENRES:

R&B/Soul/Pop

ORIGIN:

Birmingham, U.K.

RELEASE DATE:

12th May, 2021

The album, Pink Noise, is available from 2nd July. Pre-order here:

https://atlanti.lnk.to/Pink-Noise

LABEL:

Atlantic

PRODUCERS:

Laura Mvula/Dan Hume

TRACKLIST:

Safe Passage

Conditional

Church Girl

Remedy

Magical

Pink Noise

Golden Ashes

What Matters

Got Me

Before the Dawn

__________

I am not sure why…

I have not reviewed Laura Mvula before. She is one of my favourite artists. With her album, Pink Noise, out on 2nd July, it is the perfect opportunity now! I am going to get to reviewing the latest track, Got Me, in a bit. There are a number of things that I need to explore and discuss before working up to that. Like I do with these reviews, I will sort of start as far back as I can go and then work my way forward. To start, I want to bring in this 2016 interview from The Guardian. In it, we discover details about Mvula’s earlier life and the importance of the Conservatoire:  

“I grew up in a very Christian household,” she begins. “The family unit was… tight. Our socialisation, mine and my siblings, was centred on family, church life, school.” It was “a house of love. But if I was to be critical, I would say that there was a lot of growing-up I wasn’t exposed to.” When she went to sixth form college in Solihull, aged 16, “it was the first time I took a bus”. She says that she enrolled at the Conservatoire, aged 18, with the chief intent of finding a musician to marry.

That can’t have been the reason.

“It was. I wanted a saxophonist.” Mvula shrugs: she was a child of the 90s, sax was cool. Her point, anyway, is that “I was sheltered. Massively sheltered.”

At the Conservatoire she met someone right away. “Themba. Just a stunning human being to look at. He had such presence.” She spotted him while they were singing in the same choir. “I literally said to myself, ‘Yes, thanks!’ Even without speaking to him.” They became friends, then a couple. “We had a lot in common. Fathers in the church. Two siblings. I felt a very instant connection. I wanted to spend all of my time with him – I did spend all of my time with him. Not a lot of studying in those years”.

Let’s track back to 2103, as it was then she released the extraordinary debut album, Sing to the Moon. There are many things that impress me about the album. The songwriting and arrangements are so strong and original. I listen to the album now and it does not ever sound dated or lacking in dynamic pull. Mvula’s voice is what grabs me most. It is strong and soulful, though it also has a certain vulnerability and tenderness. In this interview with FADER, we learn more about Mvula’s voice and why her music features, perhaps, unorthodox sounds – a palette that is unique to her:

“Mvula has a brilliant voice. It sounds effortlessly velvety, especially when she layers it on top of itself, something she learned to do when arranging for her aunt’s a cappella quintet, Black Voices. She continued working with the group until she graduated and was forced to earn a living. To stay close to music, she got a job as a receptionist at the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which was its own form of torture because the music was “literally all happening behind” her desk. Without the structure of school or Black Voices, she forced herself to use her free time to write. She formed a “neo soul jazz experiment” group that disbanded, and then took up GarageBand at home, recording the songs that would eventually appear on her debut EP, She, released late last year, and her first full-length, Sing to the Moon, which came out this March. “The songs that are on the EP and on my album come out of that time of profound frustration, because the job was one to six o’clock in the afternoon, so in the mornings I would be as proactive as possible, and I started doing these song sketches,” she says. “You know, using my laptop and a USB mic and a little MIDI keyboard, which at this point strangely felt like I had real space and real freedom just to do me.” The songs, which eventually led to a deal with RCA, are ebullient and classy takes on modern R&B.

Many of Mvula’s creations feature bells, harp and timpani, a serendipitous aesthetic born out of the fact that she found those built-in samples in GarageBand to be the most workable in the sound bank. “I was just trying to make the best of what was available to me,” she says. For the final versions, she made her way to a studio, upgrading from Apple’s stock sounds to the real thing. The orchestral bombast gives Mvula’s songs a brilliance that sounds straight out of old Hollywood. While her voice is clearly the star, her ability to envision such lush arrangements is what makes her songs so striking. It’s unusual when a newcomer has not just a totality of vision, but the talent to see it through”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Hollyoak for Interview Magazine

That debut, Sing to the Moon, announced Laura Mvula as a name to watch and cherish. The album is a remarkable debut. It is not necessarily commercial; the kind of songs one would normally hear on the radio. I think this is a good thing. That said, we find out in this interview from The Independent of 2016, Mvula felt apologetic because the songs were not necessarily ‘radio-friendly’:

“The success of Sing to the Moon took Mvula, who grew up in Birmingham and was classically-trained at the conservatoire, by surprise. “I hadn’t really needed to think about things like ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Am I happy?’ before,” she says. “It all happened so fast that there wasn’t really time for me to look at the art and feel anything.” For Mvula, 2013 was a time of wearing off-white clothing and smiling a lot out of fear of coming across too menacing. “I felt strangely apologetic for the kind of music I was making because it wasn’t radio music, but I wouldn’t express any of that in that context because I was trying to get people to be okay with me existing,” she says. Soon, she found herself looking inwards and questioning what she found: “It was important for me to break out and be comfortable with being uncomfortable, which is kind of what my little life has been like until this point”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Emma Hardy for FADER

I want to move things ahead one album to 2016’s The Dreaming Room. I think that many albums work up to a pretty epic final track. When I think of standout tracks, most of them are near the top of the running order. In the case of The Dreaming Room, one can argue the most special and potent track arrived at the end: Phenomenal Woman. This is a song that has huge personal significance to Mvula. Coming back to that interview from The Independent, we get an understand as to why this song is so meaningful and powerful:

“Mvula finally reached a point of metaphorical bladder relief with “Phenomenal Woman”, the fierce new song based on Maya Angelou’s uplifting poem of the same name that she unleashed on fans earlier this month. It was Angelou’s voice that helped free her from the shackles of “striving to be this f**king woman who was acceptable to everyone”, both in music and her personal life. “I was fed up of feeling that I didn’t have any sense of who I am without that, or that person,” she says. “He, or the music, can’t be my validation for existence, surely, because they change. I can’t rely on them.” Something about hearing Angelou reciting her famous poem of triumphant self-acceptance and confidence lifted her. “I had some kind of epiphany as soon as I heard that slow voice, that depth” she says, closing her eyes as if in a trance. “I was about to go into the shower and I was stood looking at myself in the mirror. It was a different kind of looking in the mirror. It was ‘This is She, outwards, inwardly’. Staring at myself and seeing everyone else as I look at myself.” Before long, “Phenomenal Woman” became her personal anthem, a musical protest against the seemingly inescapable stress and pressures of the modern world. “All of us, women and men, are dealing with so many things thrust upon us,” she says. “I wonder how we survive, let alone be fruitful human beings”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Julian Broad for The Observer 

One other thing that I want to source from that interview from The Independent relates to beauty. I think there is still a huge pressure of women (in music) to wear make-up and not look fresh-faced or too unadorned. Mvula is a naturally very beautiful woman - though there was a moment when there was a slight clash. As the interview explains, Mvula highlighted an issue that faces many women regarding natural beauty vs. being made-up and almost disguised:  

“Mvula too is “poisoned” by society’s dictation that women are unacceptable in their natural state. When filming her latest video for the poignant “Show Me Love”, she admits to telling the director that although it is a heartbreaking song, she did not want to look “too raw” for fear of how people might react to her without makeup on. “I showed some friends this video and they said ‘Oh, you’re so beautiful’, but all I wonder is whether the record label will think I look overweight,” she says. It is a sad admission, but Mvula is speaking a universal truth about life as a woman today. “I want a way in that doesn’t mean you have to plaster your face, alter the colour of your skin or change the shape of your body in order to convey a certain message,” she continues. “It’s an interesting journey that we’re on together as women, but we at least need to have the dialogue openly now, even if things don’t change overnight”.

Before focusing more on The Dreaming Room, I am going to stick with The Independent interview. It possess many fascinating passages and intriguing sections. There was an interesting portion of the interview that I wanted to drop in without too much exposition, explanation or context:

“When we meet she is sitting on a sofa in a cosy, quiet room at Sony HQ in London, dressed casually with her signature shaved head but lacking the bright, warrior-esque makeup of her latest marketing campaign. The first thing she tells me is that she is tired, before showing me the stunning visual essay she developed to accompany her new music and to help those working with her to capture a sense of authenticity. Striking photos that inspired her, mainly taken from magazines, are surrounded by scrawled snippets straight from her imagination: ‘This album will be truly dark and beautiful’, ‘Life is not clean-cut’, ‘All images must be glorious and vulnerable at once’. The last song on the tracklist is simply titled “Who I Am”. There is clearly a theme.

Mvula has always loved paper and pictures and scribbling. “There was something grown-up about it to me, as a kid,” she says in a calm, unintentionally majestic tone. “I’ve always enjoyed having something tangible that you can hold and see in front of you. It seems to be how my brain works.” A bigger sound was important to her on this album, she wanted everything to be much more stylised to make the songs come alive. “It’s a selfish thing really,” she admits. “It’s about wanting to be heard”.

  PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Hollyoak for Interview Magazine

I will get to Mvula’s new music in a minute. I feel her previous album, The Dreaming Room, is such an important release that warrants closer inspection and greater dissection. In 2016, Mvula spoke with Matt Mullen of Interview Magazine about the process and creation of a magnificent album:

“MULLEN: It’s been almost a year since, but tell me about the process for creating The Dreaming Room.

MVULA: It was a very different process from my first album in that I really had to take my time, and I’m really not good at taking that time, generally. So the first challenge was to be patient and not rush through writing something that I didn’t feel proud of, or wasn’t sure of. I also went on holiday, and then I was in New York, just hanging, going to friend’s shows, which helped me to create the energy to experience something outside of my own space, so that was good. And then when I felt ready, I started putting down words. Sometimes it would be 16 seconds of music, just because that was all I could manage. But it was a really good exercise in picking good ideas and running with them. Then I started thinking, “What kind of album do I want to make? What kind of sounds do I want to make?”

MULLEN: What kind of sounds did you want to make?

MVULA: I knew guitar was going to be a really big deal for me, because I wanted some of the energy of Fela Kuti, [who] I’ve been listening to a lot in the last couple years. I wanted that spirit to be in the music. I also was experimenting with synthesizers, like old analog synthesizers—I didn’t know what the hell I was doing—so that was an exciting experience, which again is different from the familiar process of writing these things, when I’d just sit at the piano. I think it was also new because of collaboration; I’ve never collaborated before, so when Nile Rodgers said, “I want to be on the album,” I thought it was some kind of sick joke. I didn’t think it was real.

MULLEN: How do you go about choosing collaborators? It sounds like sometimes they come to you, but what’s your thinking behind the kind of musicians you want to work with?

MVULA: Honestly, I must sound almost like an arrogant asshole, but when I say to you that people come to me I genuinely mean it. [both laugh] John Scofield, who plays guitar on the record, is another one. I didn’t realize that I have these resources at my fingertips”.

I will focus more on anxiety and how Mvula has battled it through the years. There is an interesting segment of the interview with The Guardian that I quoted from at the start - it explores the writing of The Dreaming Room and the importance of music:

“Mvula believes that she’s written “a beast of an album in The Dreaming Room. I never thought I’d be able to. I couldn’t be left in a room on my own. So how could I write?” She only got around this obstacle, she says, because for weeks on end Dionne and Mariama “found ways to be in the room with me, but not in the room”. They’ll have to do something similar again, soon, when Mvula takes to the road for a run of gigs. She feels guilty about this (“These are people who have lives of their own”), but at the same time she doesn’t feel ready to give up her career. Music has been “a way to grieve about my marriage, and make sense of what it means that my life has changed”.

With her computer open on the table, it suddenly occurs to Mvula that she can show me some of the curious processes that went into composing The Dreaming Room. While writing, she explains, she often recorded herself using her laptop’s camera – in case she should hit on a “moment in time thing” and later want to recapture it. Many of the videos Mvula shot are hours and hours long. We scroll through them. They tend to show her hunched over a keyboard in casual clothes or pyjamas. One video has her sitting in a desk chair, singing phrases into a microphone, when suddenly she whips off her headphones and disappears from view”.

There is a fascinating interview from the Evening Standard that was published this week. In addition to exploring the influence of the Eighties on her new album, we also get a sense of something that proved traumatic to Mvula: moving to a new label.

“There are a few lyrics on Laura Mvula’s forthcoming third album that will make the listener think she’s been through a nasty break-up. Take this, on Conditional: “I don’t cry no tears for you/I needed love unconditional.” Or this, from the comeback single, Safe Passage: “Never imagined I would ever be free from your story/Staring in the face of it, I finally see I’m everything I need.”

And they’d be right, but this isn’t necessarily romantic trauma. At the start of 2017, the Birmingham musician’s record label, Sony, told her they were dispensing with her services via a brief email. Both of her albums to date had received wide acclaim and prestigious Mercury Prize nominations, and the first, Sing to the Moon, had been a gold seller. Prince had messaged her to ask to be on a track on the second, The Dreaming Room, which he loved, but she had to turn him down because Nile Rodgers was already on it. Talk about a rock and a hard place. So this bad news came as no small surprise.

“I thought I was an important artist. I just remember feeling I’d been unfairly treated, not necessarily with the decision itself but with the manner in which it had been dealt with, which I thought was rude and careless,” she says. “I’d apologised so much for who I was right from the beginning. I’d tried to be the most palatable version of Laura that I could be, and played this game with real class and elegance, so to be let go in that way, I just felt, ‘Hold on a second!’ The least I could have had was a real conversation.”

She made the situation public straight away on Twitter, writing, “So sad Sony have dropped me today…” – an unusually honest way to put it given the tendency for musicians to reframe these situations more positively as their own decision, a regaining of creative control, a conscious uncoupling or similar. Witnessing the shocked public response must have felt a bit like attending your own funeral, a response to “my creative death,” as she puts it. Fellow musicians including Bastille, Charlotte Church and Hozier replied with encouraging words. Rag ‘n’ Bone Man said in the Guardian: “I can’t believe it… She’s by far my favourite songwriter in the UK at the moment”.

  PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Hollyoak for Interview Magazine 

Not to spend too much talking about something as severe and disruptive as anxiety…but I think that it is important. Mvula has lived with it for a long time. I feel it is worth highlighting. Many artists live with anxiety. So many interviews either skim past it or the artist does not feel comfortable discussing it. Going back to that interview from The Guardian, we get a sense of how it has affected Mvula – and how it initially manifested itself:

“At first it was the shortness of breath… Dizziness… Why do I want to run out of the house naked right now?” As time went on the attacks “began to manifest in different ways. It’s difficult to explain. My body starts spasming, I think I’m going to collapse… Difficulty swallowing sometimes… A feeling of struggling to stay in your skin.”

Episodes would occur most frequently when she was on her own. Mvula describes a common thing: “The freak-out in the shower. And I wish that was the term for something good – it’s not. When it happens I feel like my head’s about to explode. So I start shaking it violently, bang the door open, water spills out, this whole episode. When all I want is to have a fucking shower. After that, you have to deal with getting over the shame of calling for help.”

The sudden, disarming grin: “As you can imagine I was not in the greatest condition for what was about to happen in my life”.

Mvula was one of the domestic musical triumphs of 2013. She was everywhere, on chat shows, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, on M&S ads, at the Mercury Awards (odds-on with the bookies to take that prize before it went, in the end, to James Blake). She refers to all this as a period of “coming to terms with a new reality. Even to only have a foot in the door, it was a strange, ongoing sensation, one that I couldn’t make sense of quick enough. My anxiety shot up from what it was. It shifted gears.”

If the upset of her parents’ divorce was “the top off a bottle”, the sudden beginnings of life as a public figure brought “everything pouring out, rocket-fast”. Her anxiety – and in particular her difficulty with being left alone – got worse. In London for gigs or other engagements she had to be accompanied at all times by her younger sister, Dionne, who was then a student in the capital. Themba would be everywhere with her in Birmingham. People outside the immediate family were deliberately kept in the dark about her anxiety. “There’s a natural fear that nobody will understand,” Mvula says. “Or they’ll think you’re making it up, or you’ve become a diva. I was ashamed. Embarrassed. Also, at that point, I was so ignorant of what the industry was, I thought: ‘If they find out about that they’ll drop me.’”

As her music career got busier, Dionne and Themba stopped being able to cope. “Everything was moving so fast.” Mvula finally told her manager. He was “heartbroken”, she says, that she’d waited so long. An assistant, Mariama Abudulai, was employed, so that at least Mvula could lean on someone who was paid to be there, with a smaller measure of guilt. Her manager knew Mvula was more or less “debilitated” by anxiety, “but it didn’t go beyond management. And we all know the machine is huge – you have the record label, you have publishing, publicity, agents. You have the video team, stylists, all the people who are making your career move forward. None of those guys knew.” They still don’t.

Two years ago, things got extremely difficult. “Naturally, all this was a huge strain on mine and Themba’s marriage. Then, a year ago, we split. I don’t want to say too much more. This anxiety thing is something that has dictated my life. I know it was a factor in my marriage breaking down. I wish that life could be compartmentalised: ‘That was because of that, and that was because of that.’ Really, I’m not sure. It was a combination of lots of things. I would say… quite honestly, that I failed him. I failed him as a wife.”

  PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Hollyoak for Interview Magazine 

It is heartbreaking reading about Mvula’s battle with anxiety. I feel it helps us learn more about her as an artist and the creative process. Not that the songs are re-contextualised and we misconstrue them. Before moving on to a review of Mvula’s new song, I want to come back to that interview from the Evening Standard. They head back to 2017 and documentary that discussed and explored Mvula’s experiences of living with anxiety:

“She has been very open about those bad days. In 2017 she made a television programme for the BBC titled Generation Anxiety, in which she revealed that she had been living with “a support worker-slash-carer, somebody that could be in my house with me so that I wasn’t alone because of my struggles with anxiety.” In an interview with the Observer a year earlier she spoke of panic attacks in the shower and said that her anxiety disorder was a factor in the breakdown of her marriage to the opera singer Themba Mvula.

“To talk about it in this controlled, story-like manner felt boundaried and yet helpful, because of the reaction it got,” she says. “There were so many ‘Me too’s. People were really liberated by hearing a story similar to their own”.

With a bubbling beat and strut that is reminiscent of Billy Ocean’s When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going, one is instantly in Eighties territory (that song was released in 1985). There is also a little undercurrent of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean to the introduction. I really love the sound and how it is modern and fresh…though one can also think back to older tracks and get that brilliant, slightly nostalgic hit. There is something blissful and pure about the opening verse: “Woke up this morning with your touch on my mind/Your kisses take me on some heavenly ride/Go with me, go with you, no limit no/I don't regret nothing, with you I belong”. There is a deepness in Mvula’s voice that, I feel, gives the words greater urgency, soulfulness and importance. I love Mvula’s delivery and how beautiful her voice is. The composition races and has this insatiable rush. Bursting and fizzing with that Eighties vibe, the pre-chorus is one that is guaranteed to stick in your head: “Do what you want to do/Say what you want to say/Taking control of me/Don't make it too easy for me/Do what you want to do/Say what you want to say/Taking control of me/Don't make it too easy for me”. The biggest moment, as you would expect, comes in the chorus. I have mentioned how other artists this/last year have put the 1980s into the blend of their music. Jessie Ware and Dua Lipa have done it, as has Beabadoobee and many others. It is great that artists are affectionately nodding to the decade and doing so in an original way. Mvula’s Show Me is this instantly uplifting and hypnotic song that, I feel, is going to be one of the highlights of Pink Noise. The chorus finds Mvula enraptured and struck by something very special and powerful: “You got me/Tremblin' in the palm of your hand/You got me/I'm a slave to the sound of your command/You got me/Tremblin' in the palm of your hand/You got me/I'm a slave to the sound of your command”.

The verses provide something softer and more sensual than the bright and vivacious chorus. There is sexiness and tease. I get vibes of Prince and Madonna. Though, with everything she does, Laura Mvula is very much herself and not someone that is beholden to other artists. I am not sure who inspired the song, though it seems that they are both magnetic in their allure, but also trustworthy and have a real sense of reliability. The second verse finds the heroine losing herself and wanting to be immersed in this bond:  “You see right inside of me no need to hide/Want you to take all and leave nothing behind/Go with me, go with you/No limit no/Beyond this attraction I'm lost in your soul”. By the time the pre-chorus and chorus come back around, one feels bonded and addicted to the track. It is a passionate and colourful explosion that shows Mvula is a very special talent! I think a lot of modern music is too joyless and does not emphasise positivity. It is nice to hear a song that is joyous and makes one feel better. There seems to be no bitter sting or sharp tail to the song - which makes Got Me so much more appealing and unexpected. The compelling nature of the chorus means that it is, in my opinion, more memorable than the verses (which are pretty damn good!). I love Mvula’s voice at all stages, though it hard to ignore the catchiness of the chorus! The verses provide story and that deeper vocal. I like how it switches and we get this nice flow throughout. A song that you will want to come back to time and time again, Got Me is a bright, brilliant and soulful jam that seems to have huge personal relevance. This is a rejuvenated and awestruck songwriter who has created a wonderful song. Safe Passage and Church Girl have already been released as singles. I love then, though I think Got Me is the finest of the trio.

I am looking forward to the new album, Pink Noise. There are a couple of interviews/features I want to source from. It seems like Mvula’s third studio album is going to be a change in direction from The Dreaming Room. CLASH brought us some details and information from Mvula around the release of her recent single, Church Girl:

“Laura Mvula will release new album 'Pink Noise' on July 2nd.

The singer appeared lost to us - taking a step back after her previous major label deal evaporated, she even considered teaching posts in East London.

But then the muse returned. Signalling her return earlier this year, Laura Mvula has now outlined plans for a new album.

'Pink Noise' lands on July 2nd through Atlantic Records, with new single 'Church Girl' easing Laura into a fresh chapter.

Laura Mvula comments: “I am not my story. For so long I identified as the things that happen in my life, the things I do, good or bad. I’m letting go of this mind-made ‘me’. I’m coming home to myself beyond the realm of form. I am not the thoughts in my head, or the things I achieve, or the shape of my haircut. I no longer ‘dance with the devil’ on my back. I’m basking in the light of knowing my true self, the deeper ‘I’”.

A lot of artists are exploring the Eighties lately. There has been a bit of a revival of that decade. One can say that the 1980s has always been at the forefront and it has not gone away. I feel, it terms of Pop and R&B, the sounds of that decade have been making a real impact the past year or two. Going back to the interview with the Evening Standard and we get a sense, of what Pink Noise will offer – and what influenced and compelled this new chapter and stage for Mvula:

“She discovered the term because she wanted to be able to describe the sounds she was going for, which can be better summarised for the layperson by saying simply, “really really Eighties”. The processed boom of the drums opening Safe Passage reminded me of the beginning of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, though Mvula says she was going more for Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight. Weighty analogue synthesizers dominate the songs. The rolling bassline and artificial horn blasts of the brilliant Got Me have strong echoes of When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going by Billy Ocean, no less. The ballad What Matters would fit nicely on the end credits of a John Hughes film and features an unrecognisably smooth contribution from rocker Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro.

It was an invitation to support David Byrne on tour in 2018 that began this bright new chapter. She no longer had the budget for a full band, so she and her musical director Troy Miller did it as a duo with as many synths as possible. “Most importantly, I was not concerned at all with how this was going to be received,” she says. “It literally wasn’t in my thought process. I didn’t have room any more.”

To end, I want to discuss Mvula’s recent gig, Under a Pink Moon. During the pandemic, artists have been adapting and finding ways to reach people. As this article explores, Mvula’s Under a Pink Moon was a definite standout from the streamed gigs that have been happening:

“If what we need is a liberating blast of escapism, we couldn’t do much better than this short but incendiary performance from Laura Mvula. In her first live concert in three years, the musician showcased new songs as well as a bold updated sound to older gems.

When Mvula emerged on the scene with her jazz-classical-soul-fusion debut in 2013 she was showered with award nominations: the BBC Sound Poll, the Mercury Prize, the BRITs Critics’ Choice, two BRIT Awards and two MOBOs. It’s now nearly five years since the Birmingham Conservatoire graduate released her Ivor Novello-winning, Mercury-nominated second album The Dreaming Room.

Plaudits aside, Mvula has been through it: anxiety-fuelled panic attacks, divorce from her musician husband, and being dropped from her record label Sony – by email.

Under a Pink Moon showed her rejuvenated and ready to take on the pop world, under a new record deal with Atlantic. While other “live” streamed shows during lockdown have involved beautifully crafted cinematic experiences sometimes blended, documentary-style, with interviews, Mvula gave us a full-on pop concert, with lit-up stage and visuals, choreography, slinky dancers and striking costumes (mostly black leotards, stiletto boots and shoulder pads). Sparks flew from the moment she emerged, resplendent in a bright pink jacket with enormous shoulders, bursting out of the laptop screen into the living room with drama and emotion, from fragility to empowerment.

Channelling the spirit of her late mentor and fan Prince, a handful of thrilling new songs showed off a new 80s synth-pop vibe. “Safe Passage” shimmered with Aha synths and layers of choral backing vocals. 

The punchy “Conditional” told of relationship woes. “Another blow to the ego, a victim of conditional love”, she asserted rhythmically to driving drum beats and bassy synths. With eruptions of synthesised saxophones, she declared “I don’t cry no tears for you! I needed more. Unconditional!”

Under a glittering mirrorball, her duet “What Matters”, with Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil, was a seductive, romantic balm, the rock band’s smooth-voiced frontman proving a gorgeous accompaniment to her alternately tender and powerful vocals. The lively “Green Garden” had an 80s funk makeover, complete with pink keytar and exuberant synths.

When she put the pink jacket back on, her different body language had transformed. With eyes downcast and tender vocals laying bare her vulnerability, she began her second album’s heartbreaking “Show Me Love”, with softly pulsing synths and electronic beats in place of the original’s strings. It was moving, and followed by a similarly revamped “Sing to the Moon”, while her gloriously layered vocals remained. The promised news of an imminent album are more anticipated than ever – she dropped a four-track EP of reworked hits, 1/f, immediately after the show. What a comeback”.

I am looking forward to Pink Noise. The iconic Laura Mvula is someone I am keen to feature more, as she is such an interesting and inspiring artist. Got Me is a fantastic and memorable taste of what her new album is going to offer! Make sure that you pre-order it. I shall leave things there. It is always such a treat to receive new music from…

THE wonderful Laura Mvula.

___________

Follow Laura Mvula

Official:

https://www.lauramvula.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/lauramvula

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/lauramvulamusic

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lauramvula/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Dy94lW3txJhWQHqNXP1BT?si=4W9Ll3VITIuTE3vWcNLteQ

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE46a9u8GPKAf0V-_RBwvTQ

ALL UNCREDITED PHOTOS:

Laura Mvula

FEATURE: In Your Eyes: Peter Gabriel’s So at Thirty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

In Your Eyes

Peter Gabriel’s So at Thirty-Five

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BEFORE getting to a couple of reviews…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn

I want to bring together articles that look back at the incredible So. Released on 19th May, 1986, it was Gabriel’s fifth solo studio album. I think So was a more commercial move from Gabriel. Quite a sonic shift. His fourth eponymous album was put out in 1982. It completed a run of these quite experimental albums. On So, we can still hear some of that - though I think the fact he collaborates with artists (including Youssou N'Dour and Kate Bush) opened his music to a new audience. Producing alongside Daniel Lanois, I feel So is one of Gabriel’s finest albums. So turned Peter Gabriel from a cult artist to someone who was a mainstream star. It is his best-selling album, having been certified fivefold platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). It is an album that is absolutely packed with songwriting genius. I don’t think the album has really dated at all. I want to first bring in an article from Ultimate Classic Rock. In the article (among other things) they look at Gabriel’s life pre-solo career and what So did for his career and status:

“Between his years as the freaky frontman for Genesis and his early solo outings, Peter Gabriel was already a rock star before making So. But the 1986 album transformed him into something entirely different and completely unexpected — a full-fledged pop star.

After leaving Genesis in 1975, Gabriel reinvented his art-rock approach in a new context, incorporating influences from the burgeoning New Wave and world music scenes over the course of four self-titled albums between 1977 and 1982. But while the funky single “Shock the Monkey” from his fourth album had made the Top 40, it still didn’t prepare him for the heights he would reach next time around.

So was the first album to which Gabriel had ever given an official title. But he gave people a lot more than that to hang onto. Gabriel’s fifth solo record turned out to be his most accessible and radio-friendly without sacrificing an ounce of the artistry he’d displayed on his earlier outings. It earned not only the admiration of the masses and the critics alike, but also four hit singles.

Gabriel had been a soul fan since his youth, but this was the first time he really brought an R&B influence to bear in his music in an overt way. “Sledgehammer,” the first single from So, is a sassy, soulful strut that finds Gabriel with tongue firmly in cheek delivering a series of not-so-subtle sexual metaphors. Heavily informed by his love of Otis Redding, Gabriel drafted erstwhile Redding trumpeter Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns to add some old-school soul cred to the track, which still managed to sound completely contemporary. Besides becoming an enormous hit, the song had a distinct Claymation video that became one of the most-played music clips on MTV.

“Big Time,” another ironic hit single, deals with the materialistic, acquisitive more-is-more philosophy so prevalent in the mid-‘80s. It’s less retro-minded than “Sledgehammer,” having more in common with Prince or Robert Palmer than anybody from the Stax stable. The churning, funky groove is driven by bassist Tony Levin’s unconventional “drumstick bass” (a bass struck with sticks rather than plucked).

Though Gabriel would never reproduce the phenomenal success of So on any of his subsequent albums, the record turned him from a rather cultish thinking-man’s rock star into a bona fide celebrity. In addition to occupying the pages of music magazines, he started turning up in celeb gossip rags that dished out details about his romance with actress Rosanna Arquette. The media suddenly noticed that when he wasn’t hiding behind weird makeup and creepy album covers, Gabriel was quite the photogenic character”.

I love Gabriel’s eponymous albums, though there is something both accessible and experimental regarding So that makes it a more satisfying and enduring listen. I don’t think Gabriel consciously set out to make a record to crack America or one that was overly-mainstream. As we can see from his official website, some people assume that, as So is his most successful album, that was his attention when putting it together:

“The first of Peter’s studio albums to have a proper title So was a watershed release in his career. Its marriage of the artistic and the commercial made for an indisputable success, with the album quickly sitting atop the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Aside from some intriguing collaborations – with Laurie Anderson on This Is The Picture, Kate Bush on Don’t Give Up and Youssou N’Dour on In Your Eyes – it was the unity of singer, band and producer that made So such a crucial record in the Gabriel canon.

“There is always wisdom from hindsight. And because ‘So’ was my most successful record, I think that a lot of people, particularly in America, think that it was designed to be that.

You know certain songs have a better chance of getting on the radio when you do them, for sure, but I think part of the reason that ‘So’ works so well was that the band was really firing off each other and we had a great sound and production team. It was compact in the process and the way it was put together.

One of the things I learned with Daniel Lanois is a total respect for the magic of the moment. When you have some spine-tingling event musically, you’ve got to capture it. I remember talking to Brian Eno about the Talking Heads record ‘Remain In Light’ and ‘The Great Curve’, I believe, is a track which was recorded on cassette from a band rehearsal because the band were really cooking at that point. They tried it again and again in the studio and never got it to feel as good. I think all musicians know that process, and you never really know when it’s hitting and when it isn’t, and I think one of the things that makes Dan’s records very strong is that there’s a real consciousness of when the performance is good. It’s quite difficult to spot because, you sort of hear what’s good in any particular thing and you forget whether the one before was actually a lot better or a lot worse. Holding all that emotional memory is quite hard.

‘Red Rain’ is one of my favourite tracks from that record. It’s a good example of a band playing together with a lot of energy and again, I think from Daniel Lanois’ input, there’s a respect for the moment. So many times in studios you see people desperately trying to get the best possible sound, but they let the moment go because they want to get something right or fixed, or they know that this bit can be improved, but the moment is something instinctively that you feel and if you get that great performance everything else will bow to it. And you can fix a lot of things afterwards. But, if you get the best sound but you don’t get the great performance, you have nothing. And it’s so easy to forget that in the studio”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Key

I am going to wrap up in a bit. I have written about So before and its recording/legacy. Rather than tread over that ground, I thought it was important to nod to the album ahead of its thirty-fifth anniversary on 19th May, in addition to coming at it from a slightly different angle. Before finishing up, a couple of positive reviews are required. This is what AllMusic observed in their review:

“Peter Gabriel introduced his fifth studio album, So, with "Sledgehammer," an Otis Redding-inspired soul-pop raver that was easily his catchiest, happiest single to date. Needless to say, it was also his most accessible, and, in that sense it was a good introduction to So, the catchiest, happiest record he ever cut. "Sledgehammer" propelled the record toward blockbuster status, and Gabriel had enough songs with single potential to keep it there. There was "Big Time," another colorful dance number; "Don't Give Up," a moving duet with Kate Bush; "Red Rain," a stately anthem popular on album rock radio; and "In Your Eyes," Gabriel's greatest love song, which achieved genuine classic status after being featured in Cameron Crowe's classic Say Anything. These all illustrated the strengths of the album: Gabriel's increased melodicism and ability to blend African music, jangly pop, and soul into his moody art rock. Apart from these singles, plus the urgent "That Voice Again," the rest of the record is as quiet as the album tracks of Security. The difference is, the singles on that record were part of the overall fabric; here, the singles are the fabric, which can make the album seem top-heavy (a fault of many blockbuster albums, particularly those of the mid-'80s). Even so, those songs are so strong, finding Gabriel in a newfound confidence and accessibility, that it's hard not to be won over by them, even if So doesn't develop the unity of its two predecessors”.

Everyone is going to have different highlights from So. I love all the tracks, though I think Sledgehammer and Don’t Give Up, as obvious as it might seem, are the best tracks. There is not a weak moment on the album! It is testament to Gabriel’s consistency and talent that he was producing music of this quality nine years after his solo debut. Pitchfork were very positive in their review:

“In Your Eyes” is the moment where Gabriel fully fuses the personal, spiritual, and global impulses in his music. “On two recent trips to Senegal,” he told Spin, “it was explained to me that many of their love songs are left ambiguous so that they could refer to the love between man and woman or the love between man and God.” But on a platinum-selling album circulating through a global, billion-dollar pop industry, the primary reference of any song is always the star, and “In Your Eyes” is, at root, about Gabriel’s global voyage of self-discovery.

In 1986, N’Dour was already a living legend in his own country. A decade earlier, he was a primary force driving the creation of Mbalax, of the first truly Senegalese pop music. More recently, he’d shown his own willingness to engage in a trans-Atlantic dialogue, adapting the Spinners’ “Rubberband Man” into his own voice. But outside of West African music aficionados, N’Dour was still unknown. After So, that changed: Gabriel saw himself as not just N’Dour’s musical collaborator, but his promoter. He took N’Dour on tour with him and they collaborated several more times. There is no question that Gabriel made N’Dour a bigger star. The thornier question is what did N’Dour do for Gabriel? Was their relationship another example of pop and rock’s long legacy of colonialist absorption? An instance of music business market expansion exemplified by Gabriel starting his Virgin-distributed Real World label/studio in 1989? A simple act of earnest musical dialogue between kindred spirits? Yes. “I’m pleased to see that in most record stores…you see an African section now,” Gabriel said in 1986. “Maybe in another decade there’ll be a world-music section.”

In the mid-1980s, the intertwined forces of rapidly advancing communication technologies and the ever-expanding interests of capital had ushered in the era of “globalization.” To optimists like Gabriel and his pop peers Byrne, Sting, and Paul Simon, it was the dawn of a borderless, utopian era of cultural creativity and fluid identity. To critics, world music forwarded a notion of increased cultural diversity as a garish cover for the increasing centralization of Western economic power and expansion of global economic inequality. Like any popular music form that seeks to make a political statement, world music was founded on a contradiction. It was at once a marketing category designed to sell non-Western music to Western audiences, that also, at its best, could function as a form of cross-cultural diplomacy.

Gabriel fully understood his limits he was working within. “I don’t think we can change the world as directly as many people thought was once possible,” he told Spin. “What we can do is provide information and then let people make up their minds.” Gabriel’s focus on the individual’s role in global change reflected So’s twin fixations: psychological transformation and global communication. So became a blueprint for pop music do-goodery, a political statement executed through self-reflection, collaboration, and the best audio-visual experience money can buy”.

To honour one of the best albums ever turning thirty-five, I was keen to give a bit more information and some context. I wonder whether Gabriel will release another studio. 2011’s New Blood consists of orchestral re-recordings of various tracks from his career. I am sure he is keeping busy, though there are many who would love to hear another album from him (including me). It only leaves me to wish a happy thirty-fifth anniversary to…

A sensational and genius album.

FEATURE: Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure: Morrissey - Suedehead

FEATURE:

 

 

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

Morrissey - Suedehead

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THE reason why I am including…

Morrissey’s Suedehead in this feature is that some might feel embracing a Mozzer song is a bit controversial - what with his political views and the fact he divides people. I can understand that, though he has written some genius tracks (both with The Smiths and solo). Taken from his excellent debut album of 1988, Viva Hate, Suedehead was Morrissey’s first single. I think it is one of the best tracks in his catalogue. I like the fact that Suedehead is the seventh track on his debut album. It is quite unusual to release a debut single that is so far down the running order. I really love early-Morrissey. Whilst his stock and reputation has taken a hit through the years, I do not think people should see listening to his music as a guilty pleasure or something quite conflicting. I want to bring in a couple of articles regarding the song – one that discusses the symbolism and visuals in the song’s video. Before getting to the first one, a little overview on Suedehead from Wikipedia:

“Suedehead" is the debut solo single by English singer Morrissey, released in February 1988. The track was featured on Morrissey's debut album, Viva Hate, and the compilation album Bona Drag, the latter of which also featured the B-side "Hairdresser on Fire". The artwork of the single features a photo taken by Geri Caulfield during a Smiths gig at the London Palladium.

"Suedehead" charted higher than any of the singles released by Morrissey's former band the Smiths, peaking at No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart and reaching the top 10 in Ireland and New Zealand. The music video, directed by Tim Broad, features Morrissey walking through the streets of Fairmount, Indiana,[3] the hometown of actor James Dean, including shots of the school where Dean studied and the Park Cemetery, where he is buried. Other allusions to Dean in the video include a child (played by Sam Esty Rayner, Morrissey's nephew, who went on to direct the video for "Kiss Me a Lot" in 2015) delivering to Morrissey a copy of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, Dean's favourite book”.

The first feature that I want to spotlight is from Radio X. They remark that, whilst the lyrics are quite personal, Morrissey was not going to be too revealing and open at such an early stage of his solo career:

“The debut solo single by Morrissey was released on 27 February 1988. Suedehead was the warm up for the singer’s first post-Smiths album, Viva Hate, which hit record shops on 14 March that year. The video sees Moz touring the streets of Fairmount, Indiana where his hero James Dean grew up.

Suedehead was a make-or-break moment for Morrissey. The demise of the Smiths the previous autumn had caused ripples in the music industry and within fandom.

He needn’t have worried: his first release for major label EMI made Number 5 in the UK charts, which was higher than any Smiths single had achieved at that point.

One of their songs was Suedehead, which was to be the first glimpse of the post-Smiths Morrissey. The lyrics were obscure, apparently written about someone in Morrissey’s teenage years, but as he told the NME in February 1988 “I'd rather not give any addresses and phone numbers at this stage.”

The “suedehead” of the title refers to an offshoot of skinheads - the late 60s counterculture that was given a boost in the 1970s with the arrival of punk. They drew bad press by being associated with violence and racism, but the roots of the culture lay in music and fashion.

Suedehead was the title of a 1971 novel by Richard Allen, the follow-up to the successful Skinhead. However, Morrissey claimed that the song had nothing to do with the book: “I did happen to read the book when it came out and I was quite interested in the whole Richard Allen cult. But really I just like the word 'suedehead’.”

The song ends with the lines “It was a good lay, a good lay” - a very un-Morrissey sentiment at the time, for a man who claimed celibacy as a way of life: “ was never a sexual person,” he once said.

With sublime lyrics, a top Morrissey vocal and composition by producer Stephen Street, I think that this was a remarkable debut single. I know that some feel odd about liking Morrissey now. Do we separate the artist from their public persona? If some of his more recent albums have lacked his edge and humour, Viva Hate is a wonderfully quality-filled and rich album. Alongside Everyday Is Like Sunday, Suedehead is a classic! I really love the video for the track. It is so cinematic, simple and lush. I came across an interesting feature that talks about some of the scenes and nods in the video:

“Morrissey sits pensively in a bathtub, a poster of James Dean and Richard Davalos rising above him and the accoutrements of a writer—a typewriter, a fountain pen, a volume of Byron—about him. Lest there be any doubt about the subject of Moz’s contemplation, shots of a handwritten note signed “Jim {Brando Clift} Dean” and a 1955 copy of The Fairmount News bearing a report of Dean’s death flash by. All of this set the scene for Morrissey’s video for “Suedehead,” his 1988 debut solo single; and fitting for a song about obsessive love, it offers a portrait of the singer-songwriter in his element as a devoted, unqualified fan.

Moz’s existence as a fan began early, and ran deep and unabashed. His adolescence, when not spent in thrall to the transformative music and magic of T.Rex and David Bowie, and presiding over the England chapter of the New York Dolls fan club, saw him firing off letters to editors of music magazines, praising and defending his favorites from Sparks (“Today I bought the album of the year”) to The Cramps (“Back to the Cramps or perish”). His 2013 Autobiography, recounting his teenage fandom, contained swooning passages on Andy Warhol and Patti Smith, and unleashed rapturous homages to pop culture. “Loudly and wildly the music played,” went one, “always pointing to the light, to the way out, or the way in, to individualism, and to the remarkable if unsettling notion that life could possibly be lived as you might wish it to be lived.”

Appropriately, since he professed to be “more impressed with [Dean’s] life off the screen,” the video, directed by Tom Broad, sees Morrissey making a pilgrimage to his hero’s birthplace, Fairmount, Indiana. There, the singer walks the town’s snow-blown streets, snaps pictures, and visits Dean’s old hangouts from a cafe to a drugstore to his now-abandoned high school. “To [the town’s] locals, I must seem like a bit of nonsense from Montague Square,” he later wrote in Autobiography. He calls on the farm owned by Dean’s surviving relatives, Marcus and Ortense Winslow, and in the barn, does a bit of light reading—as a young Jimmy Dean used to do—before surveying the handprint and initials his idol left in the cement floor. (The film crew later departed the farm under some awkwardness, after Dean’s cousin Markie discovers Morrissey’s hand in James Dean is Not Dead.)

The film culminates with a beautifully shot segment at Park Cemetery, where Moz visits—and apparently, wept at—the graves of the fictitious Cal Dean (Dean played Cal Trask in East of Eden) and the real James Dean. As the video fades out, an image of Dean appears, floating above the proceedings, handsomely brooding over Moz’s vigil by his grave.

The subject of the “Suedehead” video, though, seems less James Dean than the act of homage itself. Note all the meditative gazes, for one. Here, Morrissey doesn’t just underscore his obsession with the actor right down to the minutest detail (Byron is Dean’s middle name; The Little Prince, which Morrissey brandishes, is Dean’s favorite book), but literally walks in his hero’s footsteps, reliving his “magnificently perfect” life. At one point, he’s pictured astride a motorbike, in a pose not at all different from Dean’s stance as depicted on the cover of “Bigmouth Strikes Again”.

If you have avoided Morrissey’s music because of his views and political allegiances, then I would say that you are missing out on so much great music. Rather than it being a guilty pleasure, Suedehead is a beautiful, witty and fascinating song that introduced the post-Smiths song to the world. One could forgive Morrissey for taking a while to get going after The Smiths split. There was no danger with his debut single. Suedehead is a confident and incredible track. It is one of those songs that you can listen to once and it will come back to mind…

OVER and over again.

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Ten: Joy Division

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

 Part Ten: Joy Division

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FOR the tenth part…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Collection Christophel/Alamy Stock Photo

of Inspired By…, I wanted to feature a legendary band who has influenced a generation of artists. Formed in Salford in 1976, I also wanted to mark forty-five years of Joy Division. In the playlist at the bottom of this feature, I have put together songs from artists either influenced by Joy Division or that have followed on from them – just to get a view of the range and depth of the band’s legacy. Prior to that, I wanted to bring in a biography of Joy Division from AllMusic:

“Formed in the wake of the punk explosion in England, Joy Division became the first band in the post-punk movement by later emphasizing not anger and energy but mood and expression, pointing ahead to the rise of melancholy alternative music in the '80s. Though the group's raw initial sides fit the bill for any punk band, Joy Division later incorporated synthesizers (taboo in the low-tech world of '70s punk) and more haunting melodies, emphasized by the isolated, tortured lyrics of its lead vocalist, Ian Curtis. While the British punk movement shocked the world during the late '70s, Joy Division's quiet storm of musical restraint and emotive power proved to be just as important to independent music in the 1980s.

The band was founded in 1976, soon after the Sex Pistols had made their first appearance in Manchester. Guitarist Bernard Albrecht (b. Bernard Dicken, January 4, 1956) and bassist Peter Hook (b. February 13, 1956) had met while at the show and later formed a band called the Stiff Kittens; after placing an ad through a Manchester record store, they added vocalist Ian Curtis (b. July 15, 1956) and drummer Steve Brotherdale. Renamed Warsaw (from David Bowie's "Warszawa"), the band made its live debut the following May, supporting the Buzzcocks and Penetration at Manchester's Electric Circus. After the recording of several demos, Brotherdale quit the group in August 1977, prompting the hire of Stephen Morris (b. October 28, 1957). A name change to Joy Division in late 1977 -- necessitated by the punk band Warsaw Pakt -- was inspired by Karol Cetinsky's World War II novel The House of Dolls. (In the book, the term "joy division" was used as slang for concentration camp units wherein female inmates were forced to prostitute themselves for the enjoyment of Nazi soldiers.).

Playing frequently in the north country during early 1978, the quartet gained the respect of several influential figures: Rob Gretton, a Manchester club DJ who became the group's manager; Tony Wilson, a TV/print journalist and owner of the Factory Records label; and Derek Branwood, a record executive with RCA Northwest, who recorded sessions in May 1978, for what was planned to be Joy Division's self-titled debut LP. Though several songs bounded with punk energy, the rest of the album showed at an early age the band's later trademarks: Curtis' themes of post-industrial restlessness and emotional despair, Hook's droning bass lines, and the jagged guitar riffs of Albrecht.

The album should have been hailed as a punk classic, but when a studio engineer added synthesizers to several tracks -- believing that the punk movement had to move on and embrace new sounds -- Joy Division scrapped the entire LP. (Titled Warsaw for a 1982 bootleg, the album was finally given wide issue ten years later.) The first actual Joy Division release came in June 1978, when the initial mid-1977 demos were released as the EP An Ideal for Living, on the band's own Enigma label. Early in 1979, the buzz surrounding Joy Division increased with a session recorded for John Peel's BBC radio show.

Unknown PleasuresThe group began recording with producer Martin Hannett and released Unknown Pleasures on old friend Tony Wilson's Factory label in July 1979. The album enjoyed immense critical acclaim and a long stay on the U.K.'s independent charts. Encouraged by the punk buzz, the American Warner Bros. label offered a large distribution contract that fall. The band ignored it but did record another radio session for John Peel on November 26th. (Both sessions were later collected on the Peel Sessions album.).

During late 1979, Joy Division's manic live show gained many converts, partly due to rumors of Curtis' ill health. An epilepsy sufferer, he was prone to breakdowns and seizures while on stage -- it soon grew difficult to distinguish the fits from his usual on-stage jerkiness and manic behavior. As the live dates continued and the new decade approached, Curtis grew weaker and more prone to seizures. After a short rest over the Christmas holiday, Joy Division embarked on a European tour during January, though several dates were cancelled because of Curtis. The group began recording its second LP after the tour ended (again with Hannett), and released "Love Will Tear Us Apart" in April. The single was again praised but failed to move beyond the independent charts. After one gig in early May, the members of Joy Division were given two weeks of rest before beginning the group's first U.S. tour. Two days before the scheduled flight, however, Curtis was found dead in his home, the victim of a self-inflicted hanging.

CloserBefore Curtis' death, the band had agreed that Joy Division would cease to exist if any member left, for any reason. Ironically though, the summer of 1980 proved to be the blooming of the band's commercial status, when a re-release of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" rose to number 13 on the British singles chart. In August, the release of Closer finally united critics' positivity with glowing sales, as the album peaked at number six. Before the end of the summer, Unknown Pleasures was charting as well.

Here is a playlist of songs from artists who are similar to Joy Division or have been inspired by them in some form. As you can see and hear, they cover quite…

A wide spectrum of sounds.

FEATURE: Station to Station: Part Ten: Zoe Ball (BBC Radio 2)

FEATURE:

 

 

Station to Station

Part Ten: Zoe Ball (BBC Radio 2)

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TAKING this feature into double digits…

 PHOTO CREDIT: David Gubert for Red

I am including the legendary Zoe Ball. The first female host of both BBC Radio 1 Breakfast and the Radio 2 breakfast show for the BBC, she also presented the 1990s children's show, Live & Kicking, alongside Jamie Theakston from 1996 to 1999. In 2018, Ball was announced as the Radio 2 Breakfast Show host. She replaced Chris Evans in January 2019. I think that The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show is one of the best of radio. Ball is a national broadcasting treasure and someone that we will hear for many years. There are a couple of features/interviews that I want to bring in soon. You can follow Ball on Instagram and Twitter. Such a funny, warm and talented broadcaster, I think that Zoe Ball is one of our very best. I want to first talk about Ball’s appearance on Desert Island Discs prior to the pandemic kicking in last year. I love listening to her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show. One can learn a lot about her from that. With relatively few interviews online, I think things like Desert Island Discs is useful when it comes to discovering more. Among things discussed with host Lauren Laverne, as this article from Stylist outlines, the sad loss of her partner, Billy Yates, was covered:

“There’s no right or wrong way to grieve the loss of a romantic partner, but listening to the experiences of other people who have been through it can offer comfort and understanding. That’s why Zoe Ball’s recent podcast interview about how she grieved for her partner Billy Yates – who died by suicide in 2018 – are such an important listen to anyone who relates.

Speaking to Lauren Laverne on Desert Island Discs, Ball explained the part that music can play while grieving, and how it helps to celebrate the lives of those who have passed.

After picking Frank Wilson’s Do I Love You as one of her discs, Ball told Laverne: “I wanted to play something for Billy. Billy was my partner, we’d been friends for a few years and we got together. He suffered with depression for a huge chunk of his life. And it’s so hard to sit and watch someone you love and care for struggle with mental health.

“Losing him was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my life.

“I think something that’s really important to share, having spoken now to lots of people who work within mental health support networks or people trying to make a difference, is that there is hope. There is help available. There are ways. We’re still learning.”

She then went on to describe depression, saying: “For some people the drugs work, for some people that isn’t the case. But it’s so isolating to be trapped like that, where you doubt everything you’ve ever known. You doubt if your family love you, you doubt that your friends care for you.”

She continued: “I think something else that happens if you lose someone in a situation like this is that I don’t want people to remember him for how he died. I want people to remember him for how he lived his life. He was so full of love. He would help anyone in need. He was always there for all his friends. He brought so much into my life, so much into his family and friends’ lives.

“And I wanted to play a piece of music that reflected him for who he was. He loved to dance and he loved to laugh. And this track will always remind me of him.”

After selecting another track, Kamasi Washington’s Truth, Ball went on to explain how listening to music has helped with her grief.

“It moved me to tears,” she said. “That’s something else I learned through grieving is how music can play such a role in that. And I’ll take some photographs, and pieces of music, and I can listen to that and help that little process. Sometimes you can make those tears come and think of somebody and take yourself through that little process and I think that’s really good for you. And you come out of the other side of that and you feel a little bit stronger again”.

I have been following Zoe Ball’s career since the 1990s. She is such an exceptional broadcaster and a hugely influential figure. I am not sure how many more years she will be in her current slot at BBC Radio 2 - though she has commanded a loyal and large audience. Ball definitely sounds very comfortable and happy at breakfast.

I shall wrap things up in a bit. Go and follow Ball and listen to her BBC Radio 2 show. Alongside her broadcasting career, she was a contestant in the third series of Strictly Come Dancing. Following this, in 2011, she took over from Claudia Winkleman as host of the BBC Two spin-off show, Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two. There was an interesting interview of quickfire questions published in The Guardian late last year. I have selected a few questions from it:

“What is your earliest memory?
My dad wrapping me up in his coat on a cold, rainy night in the 1970s when our car broke down and we had to wait by the road for help.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?
All the NHS workers, care home staff and teachers who are the real superheroes of 2020.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Telling people the ending of films, books or plays. I have to stop myself from letting slip spoilers on the radio.

What was your most embarrassing moment?
Having a menopausal hot flush while interviewing Al Pacino and Robert De Niro last year. My glasses steamed up and slowly slid down my nose.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Eating Christmas pudding when it’s not Christmas. Everything seems to taste better when you aren’t allowed it yet.

What do you owe your parents?

A strong back and gallows humour.

What is the worst job you’ve done?

The failed attempt at a home perm on myself in the 80s. I wanted to look like Kelly McGillis in Top Gun.

How do you relax?

Watching Gardeners’ World in front of the fire on a Friday night. There is nothing better than an evening with Monty Don and the gang. It’s pure “warm hug” TV.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Being mum to my awesome children, Woody and Nelly. They make my day, every day. I do joke with them that I’m happy to pay for the therapy they’ll inevitably need in later years due to my terrible parenting.

How would you like to be remembered?

As Naughty Grandma – you know, the one who is always causing mischief at Christmas.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

To hold those you love close, as we’re never sure how long we’re going to get on this crazy, beautiful planet.

Where would you most like to be right now?

At Glastonbury, singing and dancing with my kids and best friends. I have everything crossed for 2021”.

I shall leave things there. I am a big fan of Zoe Ball, and I think that she is one of our most enduring and popular broadcasters. She is inspiring so many people to get into radio - and, as the years go by, I feel Ball will take on new responsibilities and receive huge honours. The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show is the perfect way to wake up weekdays. She is an amazing and passionate host; someone people regard in high affection. I have so much respect and praise for…

A broadcasting legend.

FEATURE: “Judas!” Dylan Goes Electric

FEATURE:

 

 

“Judas!”

IN THIS PHOTO: Bob Dylan in 1965 with the Fender Telecaster owned by legendary guitarist Robbie Robertson (Dylan played this extensively as he ‘went electric’ in 1965)

Dylan Goes Electric

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ON 24th May…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Bob Dylan at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, on 17th May, 1966 (the night an audience member shouted “Judas!”)/PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Makin

the legendary Bob Dylan turns eighty. It is a big moment for the music world. We get to celebrate a songwriting genius who has inspired so many through the decades. I thought it would be interesting to go back fifty-five years to 17th May, 1966. During a tour of the U.K., at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, an audience member shouted “Judas!” - unhappy that the songwriter was seemingly abandoning his Folk roots. We wouldn’t get anything like that today is an acoustic artist like Laura Marling suddenly went electric! People wouldn’t have any issue – in fact, that sort of evolution and range is commonplace. For an artist who, perhaps, made his name as an acoustic artist who had built a fanbase on it, there would have been many who took a while to accept that, by 1966, Dylan was changing as an artist. In June 1966, Dylan put out Blonde on Blonde. There were songs in albums prior to that there used electric guitar (1965’s Highway 61 Revisited used one for sure), though it was becoming more common by 1966. One cannot say that, even as Dylan was going electric, it was the majority of his sound. This being said, Dylan’s hostile audience member in Newcastle was not the first time Dylan faced backlash. In 1965, as this article explains, Dylan went electric - and those at the Newport Folk Festival were not all on the same page:

“When Bob Dylan appeared at the Newport Folk Festival on the night of July 25, 1965, he had a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar around his neck. Three of his five backup musicians also took up electric instruments. Minutes into the first song, “Maggie’s Farm,” roughly a third of the 17,000 people in the audience began to boo. The media covered the rude reaction the next day.

Mr. Dylan couldn’t have wished for a better outcome. In the months ahead, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter was transformed from folk’s boy wonder into the poet equivalent of Elvis Presley. His newly released single “Like a Rolling Stone” would reach No. 2 on Billboard’s pop chart, while the album on which it appeared, “Highway 61 Revisited,” would climb to No. 3. For rock musicians, Mr. Dylan’s uncompromising lyrics and stripped-down delivery were a creative wake-up call.

By year’s end, the Beatles responded with “Rubber Soul,” and Mr. Dylan’s influence went viral. After 1965, the Beatles, Brian Wilson, Paul Simon, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed and dozens of other ’60s rock musicians found the courage to write songs that reflected their own perspectives and aesthetics. By plugging in, Mr. Dylan had put a pin in pop and started rock’s singer-songwriter revolution.

Fifty years later, it’s hard to imagine what all the fuss was about at Newport. In recent years, folk fans and artists who were there have insisted, almost out of embarrassment, that the boos were in response to the sound system’s high volume and distortion, not Mr. Dylan’s electric band. But in truth, the outrage was more complicated and deeply rooted in folk’s anti-materialism, the music’s orthodoxy, and a snooty belief that pop-rock of the early ’60s was mindless.

As evidenced in the 2005 documentary “No Direction Home,” Mr. Dylan was shaken when he left the Newport stage after cutting his set short after three songs. But months later, he shrugged off the reaction, telling a print interviewer, “I think there’s always a little boo in all of us.” Nevertheless, for many in the Newport audience, Mr. Dylan “going electric” was an act of betrayal by a misguided schemer trying to pass himself off as a British invader”.

A week before Dylan’s twenty-fifth birthday, in Newcastle, he had to face this unexpected year from an audience member. I think it is a fascinating incident that carries this significance. The fact that the audience member called Dylan by the name of a traitor from The Bible gives it extra sting and weight – like it was a betrayal of the highest order!

Five years ago, the BBC looked back on the incident. We get to learn about the man who shouted at Dylan that night on 17th May, 1966:

“Fifty years ago, Bob Dylan was at the centre of a storm, with arguments raging on both sides of the Atlantic about whether his decision to play electric sets meant he had sold out his folk roots.

The controversy began at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival in the US, where he was booed when he played electric and it came to a head, unexpectedly, towards the end of his 1966 world tour at a concert in Manchester on 17 May.

Frustrated by what he was hearing, one man decided to vent his fury as the sound ebbed before Dylan's final song of the set with a heckle that has become one of the most famous in musical history.

He shouted a single word - "Judas".

Musician and author Dr CP Lee was in the crowd that night and has since written a book about the world tour

He says it has been "reckoned to be one of the pivotal moments in popular music in the 20th Century, on a par with the riot at Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in Paris”.

At the time, he was a 16-year-old schoolboy, eager to see Dylan after missing his concert in the city the year before.

He says from the start, the gig had a distinct atmosphere and - with no pun intended - it was "electric".

"That night, standing outside, there were people arguing, lots of speculation and quite a sense of an impending event.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Makin 

"We'd read in 1965 about booing at Newport and the impression we got was that Dylan had come back on with an acoustic guitar and everything was alright.

"The side door opened and in we went. We could see amplifiers and a drum kit on the stage and people were going 'oh no'.

"Some of us had read Melody Maker that week, which said there had been booing in Dublin and people wondered what Dylan was going to do."

'Bewildered, shell-shocked'

Mark Makin, who "by chance" took the only known photographs of the show, remembers the sense of "trepidation" but adds that it "wasn't as if people didn't know what was about to happen".

"We had all read that this was going to be electric. They were all just hopeful that it might not."

The gig had two halves: the first saw Dylan taking the stage alone and acoustic, while in the second, he played with the backing of his band, The Hawks.

Makin, who was in the fourth row with his school friends, says the audience was "delighted" with the acoustic set.

"Everybody was whisper quiet. These days, everyone roars with the recognition of the first line. It never happened then. You didn't dare miss a second of it.

"I suppose there was an expectation that he might not [play electric], he just might carry on - because we had such a good first half, he might just do more of the same."

Makin points to a problem with the sound as the reason for the abuse Dylan received, an issue which it has also been claimed was behind the discord in Newport too.

"I think the problem was the Free Trade Hall's total lack of musicality - it was a square-sided building and when the sound was projected from a PA like that, it hit the wall at the back and came straight back at you with an echo and a reverb.

"All you could hear was this mush of sound. I think that was what hurt people.

"It wasn't that we didn't expect him to be electric, but if if he had just come in at three quarters of the decibels, it might have worked."

It is not known whether it was the electric set or the sound quality that vexed the famous heckler - in fact, as Lee explains, it is not even known for certain who shouted.

"Andy Kershaw and myself made a documentary for BBC Radio 1 in 1999 and were contacted by a guy who had emigrated to Canada called Keith Butler, who said 'yes, I shouted Judas'.

"But there was always an element of doubt. He had shouted something but I think he was confused about whether he had shouted that.

"After the broadcast, we got a call from a very irate person who said 'my husband shouted Judas and here he is now'.

"He was called John Cordwell. Andy and I met John and he had a lot of people who were with him who said 'yes, he shouted it out and we all applauded and thought he was great for having done it”.

There have been articles and investigations that go back to 1966 and ask why that incident happened. Whilst it was one man who shouted “Judas!”, it was clear other audience members ion Manchester were displeased with what their hero was doing and how he was undergoing this shift. I think that, in the same way The Beatles became more experimental and changed their sound by 1966, Dylan was growing as an artist and did not want to be limited. Since 1966, he has pushed his music even further but not completely abandoned that early acoustic sound. Fifty-five since a pretty memorable and big event in Dylan’s career, I wanted to look back on it. I wonder how Dylan reacts to it now and whether it impacted him in any way. I suppose artists get heckled from time to time, though Dylan was probably not expecting any trouble when he toured the U.K. in 1966 - though he had faced animosity in the U.S. the year previous. If there were some who were unhappy with Dylan’s sonic evolution in 1965/1966, there are many who were embracing what he was doing. Listen to his incredible albums since 1965 and…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Makin

FEW others could have any complaints!

FEATURE: Do Bears… Kate Bush and the Comedy Connection

FEATURE:

 

 

Do Bears…

IN THIS PHOTO: The late and iconic Terry Jones (Monty Python) appeared in the artwork to Kate Bush’s 2011 album, Director’s Cut, sitting beside Hazel Pethig and Remi Butler on a mysterious train journey/PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Walker

Kate Bush and the Comedy Connection

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I have talked about…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: David M. Benett/Getty Images

how Kate Bush is such a great actor in her videos. I often wonder what it would have been like if, like Madonna, Bush embarked on acting to go alongside her music. Maybe, like Madonna, there would have been some bad films; that might have affected her musical output negatively. She was offered a part in the 1986 film, Castaway, alongside Oliver Reed. Bush did appear in Les Dogs - it was a 1990 television film written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens (directed by Peter Richardson), and part of The Comic Strip Presents... series of programmes. I feel that Bush could have had a successful career as an actor given the fact that she comes across so powerfully in her video. Her range is excellent as well. Some felt that her acting in 1993’s The Line, the Cross and the Curve was not great (though it did feature a fine comedic actor, Miranda Richardson). I think that was a case of Bush taking on too much directing it. Under the guidance of a director, I reckon she could have turned in some great acting performances! I mention this because, as I have also alluded to before, Bush has a connection with the comedy world. I will bring in the 2014 documentary, The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill, later. In it, several comedians paid their respects to Bush and her music – among them was Jo Brand. I think Bush’s sense of humour and her comedic touches is a reason why many comics love her. I am trying to think whether Bush recorded anything comedic on one of her albums. Not an album track, though maybe Ran Tan Waltz comes close.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Comedian Jo Brand is a big fan of Kate Bush (and she contributed to the 2014 documentary, The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill)

In certain T.V. appearances and interviews, Bush has this natural and deft comedic touch that catches you by surprise. I love the way she can go from quite serious to laidback and funny. There seems to be this connection between Kate Bush and the world of comedy. I am going to come to Bush’s love of Monty Python. One example of Bush singing comedically is when she performed for Comic Relief alongside Rowan Atkinson in 1986 on the song, Do Bears… The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia explains more:

“Song written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson.

On 4, 5 and 6 April 1986 Kate Bush performed live for British charity event Comic Relief, singing 'Do Bears... ?', a humorous duet with comedian Rowan Atkinson, and a solo piano version of Breathing. The performances were filmed for a special edition of the BBC programme 'Omnibus', broadcast on 25 April 1986.

The song was eventually released on an LP called Utterly Utterly Live at the Shaftesbury Theatre: Comic Relief, which contained many songs from the live shows, including the two Kate Bush songs mentioned above”.

I do love how Bush performed at events like Comic Relief and she showed how she could do comedy. Bush supports a number of charities and has always had this altruistic and charitable nature. It is no surprise that she would lend her time and profile for such an important cause.

I will get to a couple of modern comedians who have a love of Kate Bush. In terms of who the songwriter adores herself, I think Monty Python is near the top of her list of comedy greats. Perhaps it is a stretch, but I think that Bush’s theatricality and her reinventions can be linked to comedy. This idea of adopting different guises, looks and characters. Of course, literature and cinema was hugely influential to her. I feel the accessibility and joy of comedy has aided and motivated her as a songwriter too. It definitely would be curious to explore that notion in greater detail. Bush has said in interviews how she has a love of Monty Python. The comedy troupe was very important to her. She got to work and interact with two members: Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. As this article from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia highlights, there is an important connection between Bush and Gilliam:

“Kate Bush recorded the classic standard Brazil for Terry Gilliam's movie of the same name. For the music video of Cloudbusting, Gilliam put Kate in touch with Julian Doyle, who directed the video, and provided some assistance. Gilliam also offered support and technical assistance on Kate's own directorial efforts, including The Line The Cross And The Curve.

Terry Gilliam about Kate

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

IN THIS PHOTO: Terry Gilliam/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images 

Terry Jones did play a small role in Bush’s career. It is sad that he is no longer with us. It is no surprise that Bush had a love of the great comedy legend. When Jones died last year, Kate Bush News revealed how Bush and he are connected:

“Sadly, today we say goodbye to a British comedy legend; actor, writer, comedian, screenwriter, film director and historian, Terry Jones, best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team. As we all know, Kate has had close friendships and collaborations with many luminaries in British comedy over the years and, rather delightfully, Terry appeared in the artwork to her 2011 album, Director’s Cut, sitting beside Hazel Pethig and Remi Butler on a mysterious train journey. He is credited as portraying “Professor Need”. Terry attended Kate’s Before the Dawn show in September 2014, but had been battling dementia in recent years. Rest in Peace, Terry – thank you for all the laughter!”.

This takes me to modern comedy. I think that Bush was subject to parody and teasing early in her career. In fact, Not the Nine O’ Clock News sent Bush up when Pamela Stephenson performed the song, England, My Leotard – a reference to Bush’s 1978 track, Oh England My Lionheart (from Lionheart). At the time, it might have been quite cruel and needless - though Bush has looked back on that with a degree of good humour and fondness. One genuine and compassionate nod to Bush was when Noel Fielding performed a version of Wuthering Heights for Comic Relief in 2011. Kate Bush News posted about this in the same year:

“A personal dream come true for me, the wonderful comedian Noel Fielding (The Mighty Boosh) has danced to Wuthering Heights in the BBC charity programme “Let’s Dance for Comic Relief.” The studio panel has rightly voted Noel’s performance as Kate through to the final on March 12th! We will be providing voting links for the final when they happen. There’s not much more to say except: enjoy the clip and please consider donating to Comic Relief, one of Kate’s favourite charities, here”.

I am going to finish by dropping in a song, 50 Words for Snow, that featured one of Kate Bush’s favourite people, Stephen Fry. It is another example of the comedy world bonding with the incredible Bush. In another comedic salute to her music, Steve Coogan performed a medley of Bush songs as Alan Partridge back in 1999. As the Irish Examiner reported in 2014, Coogan spoke fondly about Bush in the BBC documentary:

“Enigmatic star Kate Bush has remained tight-lipped about her reasons for her stage return 35 years after her only tour, but a new documentary reveals an unlikely possible inspiration – Steve Coogan’s comic creation Alan Partridge.

The actor, who performed a medley of the singer’s hits in character as the delusional DJ for Comic Relief and later incorporated the sketch into his stage show, revealed the Wuthering Heights singer was impressed by his performance.

Appearing on a BBC documentary, he said: “It was fun to do. People laughed and Kate Bush came to the last night of my show to see it when we performed in the West End, she said ’It’s so nice to hear all those songs again’.”

Coogan, who described Bush’s eccentric style as “a gift for satirists”, revealed he had tried to tempt her back to performing years ago but failed.

He said: “She rang me to tell me why and it turned into a long conversation about performing on stage, how terrifying it can be, and how she hadn’t done it for a long, long time and she felt just a bit scared by the prospect of going out there again.”

The tickets for Bush’s August comeback sold out in less than 15 minutes as fans went online in their thousands to buy them”.

It may sound like a minor and insignificant thing when we consider Kate Bush, though I am interested in how Bush has bonded with comedy through the years - and how her love of comedy has been reciprocated. As I said, I think Bush could have been a great actor with a comedy flair. Many of her routines and videos have comedic elements. She does raise more than a smile in many of her interviews. Legendary and modern comedians and comic actors love her work and can identify with her – many have been inspired by Kate Bush in a serious and affectionate way. I do love exploring Kate Bush from a number of different angles. Her relationship with comedy is one that fascinates me. She has a love of comedy and figures form the genre. In turn, the world of comedy…

LOVES her back.

FEATURE: A Design for Life: Manic Street Preachers’ Everything Must Go at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

A Design for Life

Manic Street Preachers’ Everything Must Go at Twenty-Five

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I am always keen to mark big album anniversaries…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Mitch Ikeda

so it is only natural that I would mark twenty-five years of the Manic Street Preachers’ Everything Must Go. The actual anniversary is on 20th May. I will come to mentioning the twentieth anniversary reissue that came out in 2016. Released two years after the acclaimed and extraordinary The Holy Bible, the follow-up came out when Britpop was raging in this country. Despite that, the album reached number-two in the U.K., and it earned the band awards at the 1997 BRITs. Everything Must Go is often ranked alongside the best albums of all-time. I think that it is a very powerful and moving listen. The fact their lyricist Richey Edwards disappeared before the album was completed means that Everything Must Go is the Welsh band having to adapt to the terrible news and processing life without their bandmate. Although No Surface All Feeling features Edwards on rhythm guitar and a few of his lyrics feature (including Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky, Kevin Carter and Removables), one can feel his absence. Other bands might crumble and release an album that is weak or aimless. Conversely, Manic Street Preachers delivered a sublime and accomplished album that acknowledge the loss they were feeling but also pushed them forward. The title track, Kevin Carter, A Design for Life and Australia are my favourite tracks from Everything Must Go. In spite of the fact I have heard the album the whole way through dozens of times, I still never tire of it.

  PHOTO CREDIT: Mitch Ikeda

I want to bring in a fascinating feature from The Line of Best Fit. They wrote about the twentieth anniversary reissue of Everything Must Go and provide background and context about an absolute classic:  

“Everything Must Go began its curious gestation in January 1995, when the band spent five industrious days in the House In The Woods studio near Surrey, in the south east of England. They had recorded demos for their debut record there some four years previous and it offered a comforting sense of familiarity. Their time together was fruitful, with early versions of "Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier" and "Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky" emerging and Edwards in good spirits. The claustrophobic intensity of the music eased a little, especially pleasing Bradfield, who would later recall, “after The Holy Bible, I worried that I couldn’t write any music that would please Richey and therefore this would have been an impasse in the band, for the first time born out of taste.”

As the brief sessions came to an end, Edwards distributed gifts to his three accomplices. James received a CD, Sean an unspecified personal item and Nicky was presented with a Daily Telegraph and a Mars bar. They were signs of gentle affection that have since taken on totemic significance, much like every little detail that is known about the days between that point and the discovery of the band’s silver Vauxhall Cavalier at the Aust motorway services just across the Severn Bridge from Wales on 14 February, 1995.

 In advance of a string of small American dates, designed to generate interest in a turbo-charged remix of The Holy Bible crafted for international audiences, Bradfield and Edwards were to head out early to undertake a round of interviews. An overnight stop at the Embassy Hotel in London on the final day of January provided whatever tipping point, opportunity or impulsive scenario the latter needed and, in withdrawing £200 of cash each day for the previous two weeks, had clearly been anticipating. At 7am the following morning, Richey Edwards exited reception and vanished. For months thereafter, generating bizarre sightings the length and breadth of the globe was a veritable cottage industry and the tabloid newspapers seized upon the chance to churn out some sensationalist headlines.

This is not the story of his disappearance though. It is the story of the aftermath and how three people used music to make sense of the most ambiguous grief imaginable. He still has a sizeable part to play in events, not least because five of the songs on Everything Must Go feature his lyrics, but idle speculation about his whereabouts shall be left to others.

The record’s first single, the song with which the band chose to step out into the public gaze once again, "A Design For Life", is built around only ten lines. That’s ‘only’ in the sense of size alone, for their impact is not to be underestimated. The boozy culture of Britpop had birthed an asinine notion that the working classes were stupid and driven by simple desires. The reclaiming of their status as those capable of intellectual insurgency resulted in the subsequently slightly misappropriated rallying cry of “we only want to get drunk.” Originally intended to highlight the media’s characterising of that section of society, even the band themselves later admitted that the quest for oblivion when eloquence alludes was a feeling with which they were all too familiar of late. It remains the final song in the band’s live sets, twenty years later.

Its title track remains one of the most grandiose and beautiful ways to tell people to fuck off politely, Nicky Wire conveying the band’s feelings that there was nothing more they could say to those who felt Manics mark 2 represented a betrayal. As for "A Design For Life", “everything had always been really theoretical with the Manics,” explains Wire, “there had always been an idea behind it, which had been great but could hold you back as well. I know it’s a terrible cliché, but it did seem for the first time that music was some kind of salvation.” The moment when Bradfield played it down the phone to Wire, they knew they had their starting point. It had emerged fully formed but now they had to do it justice in the studio and they surely couldn't have imagined what longevity it would possess. Listening back now, their elevation makes perfect sense. In the guitar fetishising Nineties, how could they fail? Even so, it came as something of a surprise. As Nicky Wire put it ten years later, “I don’t think we’d ever been comfortable being loved before, but for those twelve months we were.”

What is hard to imagine, listening to all of this stately, majestic music is the backlash that dominated the letters pages of the music weeklies. “I’m trying not to be elitist in this Manics debate,” wrote one fan at the time, before demonstrating that they weren’t trying all that hard, while another simply proclaimed that “the Manics are dead.” The aforementioned casual crowds may have altered the dynamic a little at the gigs but the transformation was not absolute. History doesn't record whether those irate scribblers returned to the fold, but it's hard to imagine those fans couldn't have found something to love even as recently as 2014’s Futurology”.

I don’t expect there will be any new releases of the album to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary. There will be a lot of conversation and celebration on 20th May. I am going to finish up with a couple of reviews. The first is from AllMusic. It relates to the original 1996 version of Everything Must Go:

“Months after the release of the harrowing The Holy Bible, Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey James disappeared, leaving no trace of his whereabouts or his well-being. Ultimately, the remaining trio decided to carry on, releasing their fourth album, Everything Must Go, in 1996. Considering the tragic circumstances that surrounded it, Everything Must Go is the strongest, most focused, and certainly the most optimistic album the Manics ever released. Five of the songs feature lyrics Richey left behind before his disappearance, and while offering no motivation for his actions, they do hint at the depths of his despair. Nicky Wire wrote the remaining lyrics, and his songs give the record its weight and balance, confronting the issue of Richey's disappearance in a roundabout way, never explicitly mentioning the topic but offering a gritty dose of realistic optimism offering the hope that things will get better; after the nihilism of The Holy Bible, the outlook is all the more inspiring. Furthermore, the Manics' musical attack has become leaner; their music still rages, but it's channeled into concise, anthemic rock songs that soar on their own belief. Above all, Everything Must Go is a cathartic experience -- it is genuinely moving to hear the Manics offering hope without sinking to mawkish sentimentality or collapsing under the weight of their situation”.

You can buy Everything Must Go at 20. It contains a lot of extras and goodies. Drowned in Sound sat down and provided their impressions about the anniversary release:

“Try to imagine yourself in the position in which Nicky Wire, James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore found themselves in 1995. Your entire adult life (and a bit before that) has been spent making music with your best mates. You’ve just made a gut-wrenchingly personal, career-defining album which tears open the soul and brain of your creative figurehead, leaving it bleeding all over a slightly bemused public’s headphones. And now, as sudden as it is cruel, this person is suddenly taken from you - Richey Edwards disappears, never to be seen again, leaving the remaining three Manic Street Preachers in the awful situation of having to grieve their lifelong friend and eventually figure out what the fuck to do next.

Of course, you probably know what they went on to do. Carrying on as a trio brought them a sustained period of commercial success, and at the time of writing they’ve made three times as many albums without Richey as they made with him. For the hardcore Manics fan it’s weird to consider the fact that he actually had a direct hand in a relatively small part of their discography. His shadow, however, unquestionably looms heavily over the band’s entire history.

More than enough has already been said about the first recorded taster of the Manics after Richey’s disappearance, but that’s simply because ‘A Design For Life’ is one of the most significant pieces of music that any British band has ever produced. Even 20 years on, it’s still jaw-dropping that their first piece of music after such unimaginable personal trauma could be this triumphantly undulating hymn to the working class, still one of the most gorgeous pieces of pop music in history.

Understandably, there’s nothing on Everything Must Go to quite match its wonder, but that’s not a denigration of the album. Indeed, it houses not only some of the best post-Richey music the Manics ever made, but some of their best songs full stop. The title track in particular is an exercise in pure catharsis, a painfully honest cards-on-the-table lyric about coming to terms with your past wrapped in a bombastic pop song, accompanied by an all-too symbolic video.

‘Enola/Alone’, meanwhile, is a pretty standard chunk of Everything Must Go musically, driven by some textbook melodic riffing, but it stands out primarily for some of Nicky’s most naked and affecting expressions of loss. The lines “I’ll take a picture of you / To remember how good you looked” place him in front of his wedding photos looking at two loved ones who are no longer in his life (Richey, of course, and the band’s former manager Philip Hall who died in 1993). The theme of defiance in the face of heartbreak is one which permeates the entire album, and it’s never more powerfully embodied than when James sings “All I wanna do is live / No matter how miserable it is”.

It’s not all late Nineties rock thrills, though. One of Richey’s five lyrical contributions to Everything Must Go, ‘Small Black Flowers That Grow In the Sky’ sticks out like a sore thumb at the album’s centre. A densely concise treatise about a caged animal is juxtaposed with a gorgeous harp arrangement to make one of the saddest songs the Manics ever produced. It’s without parallel as the darkest moment on Everything Must Go, and serves as something of a precursor to the macabre lyrics which would emerge in 2009 on Journal For Plague Lovers, the album which would make full use of the notebooks Richey left behind.

To paraphrase Everything Must Go’s title track, Manic Street Preachers have never been a band to escape from their history. As such, as galling as repeated reissues of records can sometimes be, at least this one brings some kind of new material to the table. A remaster of the studio recordings of the album is packaged with the full 20-song recording of their 1997 show at Manchester Nynex, including seven which didn’t make the cut of the gig’s VHS release Everything Live”.

Twenty-five years after it was released and Everything Must Go is still being discovered by new people. Whether you know the history of the band and the circumstances around Richey Edwards’ disappearance or not, you can put the album on and instantly connect with it. The songs that feature Richey Edwards are different to those written by bassist Nicky Wire. I like the fact that we get very Edwards-esque songs and Wire’s exceptional songwriting. Although there is a sense of tragedy about Everything Must Go, the songwriting and band performances are superb and timeless. On 20th May, the world will mark twenty-five years of…

A titanic and hugely important album.

FEATURE: The May Playlist: Vol. 3: The Orwellian Worrier

FEATURE:

 

 

The May Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Manic Street Preachers/PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Lake

 Vol. 3: The Orwellian Worrier

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THIS is another sizzling week for music…

 IN THIS PHOTO: St. Vincent/PHOTO CREDIT: Richie Davis

where there is a new track from the incredible Manic Street Preachers. Also in the mix is St. Vincent, Laura Mvula, Sleater-Kinney, Wolf Alice, Liz Phair. TORRES, Paul Weller, Leon Bridges, The Vaccines, Katy Perry, Crowded House, and Greentea Peng. Throw in some awesome Jorja Smith, Elton John/Years & Years, The Black Keys, Sylvan Esso, Olivia Rodrigo, and LAUREL, and there is something in there no matter what your tastes! It is a really solid week so, if you need that extra push to get you into the weekend, then I think this Playlist should do the job. Investigate these songs and I am sure that they will give you…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Sleater-Kinney

A real boost.   

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

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Manic Street Preachers – Orwellian

Sleater-Kinney – Worry with You

Laura Mvula - Got Me

St. Vincent – The Laughing Man

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Hemingway

Wolf Alice - No Hard Feelings

Liz Phair – In There

TORRES - Don’t Go Puttin Wishes in My Head

The Vaccines - Headphones Baby

Crowded House – Playing with Fire

Katy Perry – Electric

Greentea Peng – Dingaling

Leon Bridges – Motorbike

Elton John, Years & Years – It’s a sin

The Go! Team - Pow

PHOTO CREDIT: Gabriela Herman for The New York Times

Sylvan Esso – Numb

Martha Wainwright - Love Will Be Reborn

Paul Weller – In Better Times

Jorja Smith – Bussdown (ft. Shaybo)

The Black Keys - Poor Boy a Long Way From Home

Olivia Rodrigo - good 4 u

easy life - have a great day

Sugarbabes – Run for Cover (MNEK Remix)

Keaton Henson – Limb

LAUREL – Let Go

Pip Millett (ft. Ghetts) - Running

Oscar Lang – Are You Happy?

Wallice - Off the Rails

Au/Ra – Bite Marks

Priya Ragu - Forgot About

Millie Turner – Pull Me Under

Tones and I – Won’t Sleep

Margo Price - Long Live the King

Cautious Clay – Wildfire

Eli & Fur – Wild Skies

AUDREY NUNA – Blossom

Greta Isaac – How to Be a Woman

Alaina Castillo - Pocket Locket

Bella Poarch - Build a B*tch

FEATURE: Spotlight: Martha Skye Murphy

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Martha Skye Murphy

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THERE are a few good interviews…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ben Murphy

that I want to bring in when it comes to spotlighting the wonderful Martha Skye Murphy. She is a multidisciplinary talent who is among the most interesting and engaging artists in our midst. Having released two E.P.s last year, Heal and Yours Truly, I am keen to get Murphy’s thoughts and words on them. In 2018, she released her debut E.P., Heroides. It is a wonderful release, and one that signalled an incredible talent. There are a couple of interviews from 2019 that I want to source from first. When speaking with Fred Perry, a few questions in particular caught my eye:  

“What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?

Daniel Johnson at the Hollywood Bowl, L.A. I didn’t realise what I was going to see at the time, I didn’t know who he was. Instantly I was so completely enamoured by his songs, by him, his humble truth, his flamboyant unexpectedness. The memory still bewitches me. That I was in his presence fills me with joyous awe.

If you could be on the line up with any two musicians in history?

Delia Derbyshire and Tom Waits.
Delia Derbyshire’s contribution to experimental music is monumental yet, she remains a sort of unsung pioneer of electronic music. I like the idea that she has seeped into so many people’s childhoods with her original 1963 theme tune for Doctor Who.
Tom Waits’ theatricality is spectacular. I love the stubborn yet tender eccentricity of his stage character, his style, his voice, his wisdom, his honky tonk piano playing, him…

A song that defines the teenage you?

'Bonnie and Clyde' - Serge Gainsbourg

A song lyric that has inspired you?

"I’m In Love with a German Film Star"
'I’m In Love with a German Film Star' - The Passions

A song you wished you had written?

'Is That All There Is?' - Peggy Lee”.

In an interview with Loud and Quiet, we learn more about her debut E.P. There is a particular part of her musical life that I want to highlight soon. Before then, we understand more about an accomplished musician and actor:

“Despite the clear lines of sight these experiences gave her into the world of music, there’s still a refreshing absence of pressure in Martha’s approach to writing. She’s unhurried, and the vast expanse is a space that her songs are inhabiting beautifully, with an assured but skeletal confidence. “I think pace is – who cares? I mean, everyone has different methods of working. But I really respect people like Jason Spaceman from Spiritualized – you know, you’re lucky if you get an album in a decade. I really like that commitment to only releasing something once it’s ready.”

Somewhere between the duality of her life as a musician and her other life as an actor, Murphy’s also considering a job offer here. She teaches English and History of Art as a tutor and sells vintage clothes at trade fairs, if only to ease her own addiction to buying clothes. “Any job is kind of a compromise on everything else that you’re about,” she says, struggling with some of the social politics behind the various worlds she enters, “like, I don’t feel fully comfortable helping privileged children get into Oxbridge, but you’ve got to play the game somehow.”

Her debut EP, Heroides, was released last year on Slow Dance. A tolling piano grounds the heart of each track for Murphy’s ethereal vocals to dance with. It was recorded at Abbey Road, but she really doesn’t like The Beatles (“I mean, saying you like The Beatles literally means nothing”). It’s a world away from the music she made when she was 15, she tells me, all of which accidentally included the digital metronome in the back of GarageBand. Her work sits in good company with the likes of Amanda Palmer and PJ Harvey; there are hints of ‘Cloudbusting’-era Kate Bush on the melodramatic vocals of ‘Soaked’. There’s a dark theatricality to everything that makes it feel like you’re being toyed with slightly – laughed at in a teasing way, similar to Aldous Harding’s Paganist contortions on a song about a party, or Jessica Pratt’s heavy-lidded dirge about just how fucking in love she is. You’re compelled to keep coming back, if just to prove yourself worthy. Take Murphy’s cover of Bill Callahan’s ‘Rock Bottom Riser’, which accentuates the line “I bought this guitar to pledge my love to you,” as she plays it on piano.

It’s not ironic, though. You can hear her characters shifting deftly from the interior to exterior while still resonating with Amanda Palmer’s philosophy: stop pretending art is hard, just limit yourself to three chords and don’t practice daily”.

Just to jump ahead slightly. In this interview, Murphy was discussing the (at the time) forthcoming E.P., Yours Truly. I want to bring in this interview now because it is interesting learning about her collaborations with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis:  

“Martha Skye Murphy was just 9 years old when she first collaborated with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, recording vocals for the soundtrack to John Hillcoat’s 2005 Western The Proposition. In 2013, she contributed backing vocals to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ spacious and contemplative Push the Sky Away and accompanied them on their subsequent tour. These early experiences had a profound influence on Murphy, who grew up in an artistic environment in South East London before going on to study History of Art at Cambridge University. Like Cave, the singer-songwriter and actor has a penchant for combining a dark sense of theatricality with pure emotional expression, two creative modes that are often seen as mutually exclusive. Inspired by classical literature, and specifically Ovid’s Heroides, her 2018 debut EP of the same name showcased her ethereal vocals as they coiled around dramatic piano and string arrangements, while her first EP of 2020, Heal, is more minimal and abstract, invoking the haunting soundscapes of a Grouper album. She casts these hypnotic qualities in a new light on her forthcoming EP, Yours Truly, whose strikingly potent title track brims with slow-burning intensity before culminating in a hair-raising crescendo.

About your new EP, you’ve said that you found yourself resorting to the voice of a child as a way to “confront the topic of ‘dishonesty’.” What do you feel you took away from channelling that voice, and how do you think it might influence your songwriting process going into the future?

Children have a conflicting relationship to deception and truth. They can be excellent liars yet also have a profound skill in telling you how it is! On the one hand I was interested in how childish behaviour manifests and on the other, in how by adopting the voice of an innocent I was able to explore a method of expression that exemplified the human’s capacity to feel such an extreme range of contradictory emotions. When people play at being adults it’s interesting to spot when they’re suppressing, modifying or hiding behind a veneer of ‘self’; one that is projected and dishonest. This partly comes from an enforced societal expectation for people to ‘grow up’. So without parenting, disciplining or taming myself within the songs, writing instantaneously and not labouring over them too much, the unpredictable structures and sometimes incomplete and abstract narratives came to life.

In addition to being a musician, you’re also an actor. What role does that kind of multidisciplinarity play in your work?

It means that the music is both a parasite and a feeder, it’s a database and also a portal to access other mediums of expression and interests for me. The multidisciplinary approach is just part of my nature, I look for meaning, inspiration and art in everything around me whether it’s real or imagined.

Both of the E.P.s Martha Skye Murphy released last year are fantastic. I especially love Heal. It is an E.P. that I would recommend people investigate and spend some time with. Not only do we hear more about the E.P. from a 2020 interview from The Line of Best Fit; Murphy’s early life and childhood musical loves are explored:

“Nestled in Herne Hill, Murphy remembers her childhood as one of great creativity and artistic stimulation – one where music “was never dormant”; speaking with real verve reliving her early obsessions with Shirley Bassey, Diana Washington, and Nancy Sinatra and her insistence that her mother buys her Dare! by The Human League for her 10th birthday.

During secondary school, Murphy submerged herself in the post-punk of Josef K, PiL, Gang of Four, and The Gun Club and began worshipping at the altar of Serge Gainsbourg. All of this was to the eternal bafflement of her peers who scrolled through her iPod before asking: “Why do you listen to old music? Why don’t you listen to Drake?”

As Murphy further descended into music’s cavernous vaults (Drake included), Nick Cave continued to encourage her musically, and their paths would cross again when he invited her to record vocals for three tracks on his 2013 album Push the Sky Away. At this point, Murphy was only 17.

Heal, her freshly released second EP that is already casting ripples in London’s musical pond continues this chthonic conjuring: “Heal is meant to make you realise how the past makes you feel incredibly present. How the things in the past can haunt you and linger like leeches.”

The record, made up of three songs, unfurls like a sacred procession to a waiting chamber with Murphy’s vocals luring you along. It radiates a distinctly Egyptian otherness nestled within a Tricento trance echoing Dante’s Divine Comedy.

During the opener “Dung Beetle”, Murphy tempts us to become lost in her forest of hieroglyphics: “I have spent my day travelling and waiting / when I was lulled into a hazy boredom / stuck on a platform / I received a beetle / a sticky dung beetle / with nothing but juice to give”.

The centrepiece of the EP, the 7-minute track "Heal" is almost ceremonial with its gentle drumming guiding the listener forward; with Murphy’s equally airy and screeching vocals coaxing epiphanies through the looped ouroboros-like repetition of a handful of slippery koans embedded in meditative soundscapes like insects in amber.

Murphy is adamant that she wants the listener to emerge into the wondrously strange closer “Augustine” clutching onto their own singular revelations: “When I write lyrics, I want them to be able to be heard and read with many meanings. I am using the words to get people to think about truth and stories and lies and how lies and deception can reveal truth in many ways”.

I’d like to challenge the multi-disciplinary aspects of the work much further”.

  PHOTO CREDIT: Ben Murphy

I am going to wrap up with an interview from earlier this year. In her chat with God is in the TV, Murphy looks back on her second E.P. of 2020, Yours Truly. Every interview with the songwriter reveals something memorable and amazing:

“She released her excellent EP ‘Yours Truly’ at the end of 2020. It came off the back of the ‘Heal’ EP, and cemented a reputation for wonderful spectral and slightly unsettling songwriting invested with the kind of majestic, peeling back of the curtain of reality that the likes of PJ Harvey and Joanna Newsome can conjure. These sparse, piano-led arrangements ripple with Murphy’s exquisitely artful tone, sitting on the razor’s edge of beautiful and sinister.

Murphy describes her ‘Yours Truly‘ EP as “a children’s book for adults.” The narrator on ‘Yours Truly’ oscillates between the vocal character of a child, ruminating on the vulnerability of being an adult. Normalising the fluctuating emotions an adult’s perspective might deem unstable; and a thoughtful protagonist who alludes to Russian politics, Greek legend, the Mafia, contemporary psychoanalysis, digital ethics, profiling and surveillance capitalism.

She says, “The best way of disguising yourself is through the appearance of truth. These songs are my exploration of that. They are the raw skin underneath a scab”.

She describes a starkly ascending piano motif across ‘Outis’ as her ‘analogue inversion of a Shepard tone’.

“Shepherd tones are amazing. It’s that moment in a pop banger, or like a drum and bass song where it escalates and seemingly keeps going up and up and up, and up and up, and up and up.”

Above this Martha emotes surreal, existential fragments of poetry, her voice is reminiscent of Kate Bush or Jenny Hval in its artful improvisatory, hushed style that sounds like a whisper in the ear.

Murphy doesn’t want to be prescriptive. She doesn’t want to explain exactly what the songs are about. To allow the listener to sort of make up their own whatever their impression is.

“Well, I think the intention is really to engender meaning for someone else. Yeah. So for me to explain to you what I was thinking or writing specifically about is almost kind of pointless, because really, the point of my work is to trigger as many interpretations and ultimately kind of make people reflect on their inner sanctums”.

“It’s not necessarily me that I’m writing about. I write very briefly, using snippets of conversations that I’ve had, in a kind of cut-up fashion, like Bowie but hopefully not as cruelly as him,” she explains”.

I am going to round things up there. I would encourage people to follow Martha Skye Murphy on social media. She is a phenomenal young artist who has been in the industry since she was a child. That said, her best years are very much ahead. I think we are going to see a lot more amazing music from Murphy. Having recently appeared on the Squid single, Narrator, she is proving herself to be someone who can collaborate with a wide range of artists and produce her own unique music. Such a versatile talent should be recognised. I know we will hear this golden and brilliant music…

FOR many years more.

___________

Follow Martha Skye Murphy

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ceidra Moon Murphy

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/MarthaSkyeMurphy/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/martha_skye

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/marthaskye/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4riGlB4lkpPDgJscJid8FA

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpYBePjrEPWKIdAIXuwU7ww

Bandcamp:

https://marthaskyemurphy.bandcamp.com/

FEATURE: Second Spin: Ocean Colour Scene - Moseley Shoals

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Ocean Colour Scene - Moseley Shoals

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FOLLOWING their somewhat…

underwhelming eponymous debut came the confident and brilliant Moseley Shoals. Ocean Colour Scene’s terrific album of 1996, it celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary last month. This is an album I bought when it came out. As a twelve-year-old, it was quite an exciting album to get! Epic hits like The Riverboat Song and The Day We Caught the Train are among the very best of the 1990s. I have been writing a piece or two about Britpop lately. I am not sure whether one could say whether Birmingham’s Ocean Colour Scene were part of the scene’s elite - though Moseley Shoals was definitely part of the Britpop conversation. Even though, in 1998, Q magazine's readers voted Moseley Shoals the thirty-third-greatest album of all-time and it was ranked at forty-two in Pitchfork's 2017 poll of The 50 Best Britpop Albums, I think that many people have overlooked the album. In terms of critical response, it has certainly divided them. In 1996, maybe Ocean Colour Scene were viewed as being outsiders or not as strong as other Britpop bands. Some since have said the album is a little dated and only worthy because of its two biggest and best-known singles. I am going to bring in a couple of contrasting reviews. The first, from NME is from 1996:

“Ocean Colour Scene, the lucky buggers, are one of the chosen few (the others include the late (?) Stone Roses, Primal Scream and Cast, obviously. The main policy committee will be meeting to discuss the merits of The Bluetones shortly). OCS are in the firm because they sound like a mod Free with paisley shirts instead of stretch denim, because they make real blues explosion music that exists in a timewarp between '66 and '75, and because guitarist Steve Cradock is Weller's right-hand session man and bassist Damon Minchella has also done time with the Modfather. Actually, that's all a little unfair on OCS. You don't have to work in a guitar shop or rehearsal studios to dig their 'Scene (although it probably helps). There's plenty to be admired on 'Moseley Shoals', their follow-up to '92's House-Of-Love-gone-slightly-wonky eponymous debut. The musicianship, especially Cradock's fluid guitar, is immaculate. Simon Fowler sings with a rich and powerful, if overly-mannered, voice, and songs like 'Fleeting Mind', which sounds like Arthur Lee from Love in charge of an acoustic Cream, and the epic psychedelic finale 'Get Away' soothe with a warm, soft beauty.

But too often the push for musical authenticity grates. Why the repeated solos, why obscure decent tracks by shoving a dozen different guitar sounds into one song just to prove you can, why the constant preening and showing-off? We know you can play. It was the songwriting that people doubted.

Still, if you're looking for a progressive blues band in 1996, then rest assured that OCS would've punched their weight in the late-'60s when this stuff was regarded as almost cutting-edge.

Free and early Chicago (oh God, who's sadder? Those who imitate early Chicago, or those who notice it?) would've been proud to have produced 'Moseley Shoals', and for those still fascinated by the genre - Wellah! Wellah! - then this must represent some modern-day epitome. But, please, if you're playing with this stuff at home, remember there's more to excite you from music's vast canyon than '60s psychedelia and old rockin' blooze”.

It does seem a little unfair that Moseley Shoals received tepidness and some criticism. I think that it is a really solid and interesting album from a band who have split critics through the years. Go and listen to Moseley Shoals and I know that there is plenty in there for everyone.

There are those who hold love and time for Moseley Shoals. I’ll bring in another point of review. In their more considered, fairer and positive review, this is what AllMusic had to say a few years ago:

“By the time Ocean Colour Scene released their debut album in 1992, they were already considered has-beens. The band had formed during the height of Madchester, but they never released their first album until the scene was already dead, which left them without a following. But between their debut and their second album, 1996's Moseley Shoals, a strange thing happened -- the band was taken under the wings of two of Britain's biggest pop stars, Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher. The band suddenly catapulted back into the spotlight because of its superstar connections, but the music actually deserved the attention. Ocean Colour Scene had spent the time between their two albums improving their sound. On Moseley Shoals, they are looser, funkier, and have a strong, organic R&B vibe that was inherited from the Small Faces and Weller's solo recordings. They sprinkle Beatlesque and Stonesy flourishes throughout the album, as well as the odd prog rock flair, adding an even more eclectic flavor to their traditionalist pop/rock. Ocean Colour Scene are still developing their songwriting skills -- the sound is more impressive than the songs throughout Moseley Shoals -- but their second album is an unexpectedly enjoyable record”.

Moseley Shoals is by no means a perfect album. I would not rank it as one of the best of 1996, though it is far stronger and more appealing than it has been given credit for. I want to actually wrap up with an article from The Guardian. Published in 2016 (to mark the album’s twentieth anniversary), it is clear Ocean Colour Scene did not deserve so much flak:

“Today marks 20 years since Ocean Colour Scene’s Moseley Shoals entered the British charts. It was the band’s second stab at success: their self-titled 1992 debut sunk without trace and they’d been honing the follow-up for four penniless years. “We knew it was good,” said guitarist Steve Cradock. “We spent a lot of time working on it.” Championed by Radio 1’s Chris Evans – who loved The Riverboat Song so much he made it the theme tune to TFI Friday – it screamed in at No 2 and stayed in the top 10 all summer, buoyed by support from Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher. The real reason for its success, though, was simpler: it was an absolute gem of a record, by a brilliant group of musicians.

Nostalgia aside, though, how does Moseley Shoals stand up in 2016? Playing it again, I found the answer was: surprisingly well. There are a few obvious flaws. Some tracks, such as bangy piano rocker 40 Past Midnight, feel like filler, and I’ve never liked the droney You’ve Got It Bad. Then there are the lyrics, which – thanks to frontman Simon Fowler’s writing method of improvising into a cassette player – can be cryptic, to say the least. “Like a king who stalks the wings and shoots a dove and frees an eagle instead,” he sings on Riverboat. Quite! When the lines do make sense, they tend to reach for regulation Britpop images of suns, shadows, shoes and roads. Just thankfully no keys to any doors.

Musically, though, the album still prompts an all-out assault on nearby drummable surfaces. The Riverboat Song’s scalding riff – “It came from me being really pissed off one day,” says Cradock – still makes me lip-bite like David Brent and reach for my air Gibson. The Circle is a flat-out masterpiece, all the way from its feedback fade-in to its lovely, shredding outro. There’s depth, too: beyond encore favourite The Day We Caught the Train there’s the sorrowing One for the Road, the sweetly complex It’s My Shadow and Lining Your Pockets, with its pertinent lyrics about greed. Fowler’s achingly tuneful croon is light years ahead of anything his contemporaries offered: less laddy than Liam, less hammy than Damon, more sincere than Jarvis. This is still, I realise, an album I’d sooner put on than many of the others I loved in that era, including Different Class, Expecting to Fly, All Change, and even possibly Definitely Maybe.

On the 20th anniversary of this brilliant album, it seems a perfect time to pay tribute to a group who took more flak than they really deserved, and whose chief crime was probably only that they were a little too normal. “There is an edge missing from the band’s material that could perhaps be provided if these four unassuming guys hated each other more, or were suffering a bit more,” wrote one Telegraph journalist in 1998. Mmm. By way of contrast, I’ll leave you with a comment from a YouTube user, Andy, who wrote under the video for The Circle: “Brilliant song. Nothing fancy. Nothing pretentious. Nothing over the top. Just simple, beautiful music with lyrics that conjure up a thousand thoughts and situations”.

I have been reacquainting myself with Moseley Shoals after I saw a lot of social media posts on its twenty-fifth anniversary last month. I love the album in 1996 and, despite a few weaker tracks, there is plenty to appreciate and be captivated by on the band’s second album. In spite of some critical backlash and others who were not bothered, I think that the excellent Moseley Shoals…

WARRANTS a new look and listen.

FEATURE: Dutch Courage: Looking Back at the 1978 Efteling T.V. Special

FEATURE:

 

Dutch Courage

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at The Efteling, The Netherlands, in 1978

Looking Back at the 1978 Efteling T.V. Special

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FOR this feature…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on the Dutch T.V. show, TopPop, in 1978

I am going back to 1978. I write a lot about The Kick Inside and Kate Bush’s amazing debut of that year. The reason for going back to 1978 was to highlight a T.V. appearance from Bush that, I think, too quite a lot of courage. Although she did a series of T.V. interviews and performances around the world that year, I think that her appearance from the Efteling amusement park in The Netherlands was one of her biggest. Quite a long live performance and concept, maybe it planted the seeds for her 1979 extravaganza, The Tour of Life. Whilst the production values and sets are not as professional and exciting as we saw in that tour, I am interested in the TROS broadcast. Before going on, the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia gives us some details and breakdown:

“On 12 May 1978 at 7.12pm, the Dutch broadcaster TROS broadcast a 20 minute Kate Bush television special, recorded at the Dutch amusement park Efteling. On 10 May 1978, Efteling was ready to open the Haunted Castle, the most expensive attraction it had ever constructed, and they wanted to promote it as much as they could. Ton van der Ven, who designed the castle, appeared in a popular talk show and in April a documentary featuring the Haunted Castle was made by filmmaker Rien van Wijk, who was eager to shoot in the latest attraction before it officially opened. Kate, who just had a big hit with Wuthering Heights, was approached for a television special that would promote both Efteling and her songs. The special was filmed in April, a month before the official opening of the castle.

The special consists of six songs, each filmed in different locations:

Moving was filmed on the square in front of the castle.

Wuthering Heights has Kate dancing around inside the main show of the castle. A smoke machine is used for added effect.

Them heavy people was filmed on three locations: inside the main show in the attic; at the entrance of the main show with the oriental ghost; and outside before the entrance of the cave which is part of another attraction, the Indian Waterlillies.

The Man With The Child In His Eyes was recorded at the side of the lake with the gondolettas

Strange Phenomena has Kate walking around in the dark passages of the castle

The Kick Inside was filmed on the lake, with Kate lying in a death-barge. At the end of the song, she sails slowly down a placid river, evoking images of Elaine and The Lady of Shalott, classic poetical figures of Arthurian legend.

The special starts with a tombstone bearing the name Kate Bush. This tombstone was the subject of a lot of speculation among Dutch Kate Bush fans, since it disappeared from view between 1978 and 2003. The tombstone suddenly resurfaced in 2003 at the 25th anniversary of the Haunted Castle, and stood there at the entrance. Since 2007 the tombstone can be seen in the catacombs of the main show in the castle.

Light designer Bert Klos recounted about the recording of the special in 2014. "They were very heady days. There were so many different locations and I wanted to support the actions of Bush as well as possible with light. She was a short woman with a thin voice, but very professional. That woman couldn't be stopped, she just kept on going. When we wanted to sit down for a while, she already stood up and said: 'come on guys!'. I can even recall a soundman tripping across his own feet from sleep at 1am!" Henk Gulikers, who did camera during these days, recalled: "We didn't sleep until 3am and at 6.30am we were back around the table with Kate and a cup of tea. We stayed in Hotel De Swaen in Oisterwijk. I got an LP from her, on which she'd written: 'For dear Henk, the one who is very much alive behind the dead camera.' Very nice, I liked that. Apparently she felt very much at ease”.

I might do a feature down the line of Bush’s T.V. live appearances in 1978. She stopped performing on television many years ago. She featured on Top of the Pops through the years, though the last time was when she did a lipsynch performance of And So Is Love (The Red Shoes) in 1994, dressed in black, together with two female backing singers. I think that Bush probably tired of T.V. long before the 1990s - so I think that it is interesting looking back at the 1970s and 1980s.

During such an intense promotional campaign – The Kick Inside was released in February 1978 -, it is wonderful that she gave so much of her time in the middle of a tiring whirlwind of T.V. and media interviews. Whilst she was there to promote the Dutch amusement park, it was a chance for new audience members and viewers to discover Bush. I think that, in terms of ramping up the promotion of Bush and her debut album, the Efteling special was the first big step. That was in May 1978. On 18th June, Bush performed Moving to an audience of 11,000 people at the Nippon Budokan for the seventh Tokyo Music Festival. For someone who was not a fan of travelling and would have been exhausted come June, I think that Bush is captivating during her Efteling special. I am fascinated by the year 1978 and everything Kate Bush undertook! There must have been this tussle between wanting to get out to her fans and promote her music and the demands and intense itinerary of EMI. Keen to show off their young star and get her music to as many nations as possible, Bush is remarkably committed and professional through a hectic year – considering she turned twenty in July 1978, she was still incredibly young! Although the video quality is not overly-great, I have watched her ‘set’ from Efteling. It is one that is, in equal parts, fantastic, odd and entrancing! If you have not seen it then go and check it out. Her time in The Netherlands in 1978 definitely resulted in…

A really interesting television appearance.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Japanese Breakfast

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Jackie Lee Young 

Japanese Breakfast

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FOR this round of Spotlight…

I get to discuss one of my favourite artists right now. I have been following Japanese Breakfast for quite a while now.  Japanese Breakfast is the solo musical project of the U.S. musician Michelle Zauner. Zauner has released two studio albums: Psychopomp (2016) and Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017) - with a third, Jubilee, announced for release on 4th June. I am going to come to that album in a bit. Before anything musical, as Pitchfork recently wrote, Zauner’s (I shall refer to her by her real name just for this one article) memoir achieved a huge honour:

“Michelle Zauner, aka Japanese Breakfast, just released her memoir Crying in H Mart. Today it debuted at No. 2 on The New York Times’ Hardcover Nonfiction Best Seller List. “NOW I’M JUST CRYING,” Zauner wrote on Twitter. The book was outsold in its category only by George W. Bush’s art book Out of Many, One. Zauner wrote: “God damn George Bush and his dumb ass paintings!!!!”

Zauner will discuss the book at a virtual talk for Harvard Book Store tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern with Alyse Whitney. “I will be very drunk and happy at this event tonight,” Zauner tweeted.

The new Japanese Breakfast album Jubilee is out June 4 via Dead Oceans. It features “Be Sweet” and “Posing in Bondage.” She recently announced a tour”.

I am really looking forward to Jubilee coming out, as I have heard Japanese Breakfast’s previous two albums and I really love what she is doing.

I am keen to bring in a Pitchfork profile of Japanese Breakfast from back in March. I am not going to put the whole feature in this one. There are a few interesting sections and observations that I wanted to mention:

“Recorded in 2019 and initially slated for release last year, Jubilee was delayed again and again as the world stopped and then slowly came to terms with a new reality, one without touring. Zauner had imagined recruiting string and horn sections in every city, and for a long time, she couldn’t bear to sacrifice this dramatic vision for grainy, acoustic live-stream performances. She’d spent the previous few years studying music theory and piano. Encouraged by her bandmate and co-producer Craig Hendrix, she helped compose the string and horn arrangements for the first time.

Japanese Breakfast has always been good at simultaneous forms of musical homage, and Jubilee is reminiscent of multiple eras of indie touchstones: the regal arrangements of mid-’oos indie-folk groups; the dreamy chillwave of Wild Nothing, who co-wrote the first single, “Be Sweet”; a touch of pop extravagance à la Kate Bush, one of Zauner’s main influences; the extended, windswept indie-guitar-hero moment we’ve come to expect in the genre, that feels somehow indebted to Nels Cline. Through it all, she emanates an outward electricity and deep interiority. The dazzling opening number, “Paprika,” signals a new age, bursting open like the ripest of fruits. “How’s it feel to stand at the height of your powers/To captivate every heart? Projecting your visions to strangers who feel it, who listen, who linger on every word,” she wonders on the song, before proclaiming what that sensation feels like: “Oh, it’s a rush!”

Neither of the first two Japanese Breakfast albums, 2016’s Psychopomp and 2017’s Soft Sounds From Another Planet, aspired to quite these heights. Written in the wake of her mother’s death in 2014, both records sound insular compared to Jubilee. On the new album’s cover, Zauner sits in a cloud-like, duckling-colored gown surrounded by dangling persimmons, symbols of bitter fruit maturing into something sweet.

“Soft Sounds was about disassociating to preserve my mental health,” she explains. “After writing two albums and a book about grief, I feel very ready to embrace feeling.” She points to songs like “Kokomo, IN,” which finds a midwestern teenage boy “passing time just popping wheelies” as he waits for his young lover’s return, or the wistfully funky “Slide Tackle,” which imagines physically forcing mental darkness into submission. “I wanted to just explore a different part of me: I am capable of joy and I have experienced a lot of joy,” she says. “All the songs are different reminders of how to experience or carve out space for that.”

She lived in Seoul for her first year of life, until her parents relocated to Eugene, Oregon, which she describes as “a hippie town where everyone wears Birkenstocks and makes nut butter.” The Pacific Northwest was in the midst of yet another indie rock boom during Zauner’s childhood in the ’90s, and by her teenage years, she was a devout fan of artists like Modest Mouse, Joanna Newsom, and Mount Eerie. (Among her many tattoos is a drawing from Phil Elverum’s book Dawn, depicting the eternal struggle of social anxiety vs. loneliness.) She also discovered the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O, whose onstage theatrics and Korean-American heritage hugely inspired her. “The art that resonates with me the most is someone who feels so much just putting it all on display,” she says.

Under the name Little Girl, Big Spoon, a teenaged Zauner played her songs at school benefits, open-mic nights, and, eventually, legitimate venues around Eugene. In Crying in H Mart’s accounts of these early performances, she never once mentions being nervous, and she has no memories of shaky legs or forgetting the words to her sensitive songs. When I point this out, it’s almost as if the impulse to be frightened in front of a crowd has never registered to her. She explains that nerves are not really in her nature, before calling herself a lifelong “disruptive clown—I just loved to be the center of attention and make people laugh.”

Zauner has long harbored writerly ambitions, but she always figured that if she pursued a writing career, it would be in journalism. “I took every single creative writing course that was offered in college except for nonfiction,” she says. “I never felt like I could write about my own experiences because I would have to preface it with my identity and race. I couldn’t just be this neutral body. Suddenly, there was an urgency to tell this story largely as a way to figure out what I was feeling.” Writing from dressing rooms, tour vans, and an extended stay in Korea, Zauner excavated lost memories, like the way her mother lovingly broke in a pair of stiff leather cowboy boots before mailing them to her at college.

 Looking back now, Zauner’s workaholic tendencies intensified following her mother’s death. She suspects that she was unconsciously leaning into the version of herself that her mom had always encouraged. But on a more immediate level, she needed to throw herself into work to not fall “into a very dark place, one I wouldn’t be able to get out of.”

The side projects during the four years since Soft Sounds have spanned wide. Zauner’s been writing the soundtrack to Sable, an upcoming open-world video game about a young girl’s rite-of-passage quest, for the past three years; she describes her contributions as “sprawling, ambient-chill tracks.” Last September, she released an EP of pop songs with Crying’s Ryan Galloway, under the name BUMPER. She even dabbled in television, hosting her own Vice food series and appearing in an episode of the absurdist sitcom Search Party, in which she plays a wedding guitarist cursed to perform Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You” for a comically long time. “She’s always had a clear vision of what she wants,” says longtime friend Adam Kolodny, who’s worked with Zauner on every Japanese Breakfast video. “Michelle will eventually direct a feature film”.

Before ending up and looking ahead to the release of Jubilee next month, I wanted to take a quick glance back at the previous Japanese Breakfast album, Soft Sounds from Another Planet. It is an album that ranked alongside the very best of 2017. If you have not heard that album then I would urge you to have a listen to it.

I want to quote one positive review of that album – just to give a sense of how critics reacted to Soft Sounds from Another Planet. This is what AllMusic had to offer in their extensive review:

The first Japanese Breakfast album Psychopomp was the best kind of bedroom pop record; fragile, intimate, and slightly weird. It drew from various indie pop tributaries and was built around Michelle Zauner's achingly pure vocals and her unique pop vision. On Soft Sounds from Another Planet, she and producer Craig Hendrix take the project out of the bedroom and aim for something larger. Much slicker and less wonky, the songs have a spacious, expansive sound that envelops the listener in warmth (even when the synths get a little chilly.) In less capable hands, the jump to a more professional sound could have been a disaster. Zauner and Hendrix don't sacrifice much of the idiosyncratic appeal of the first album; it still comes across as Zauner's vision and not a bid for indie chart success. She doesn't tamp down on the wild edges of her voice, she still writes very personal lyrics, and even when the songs veer toward the same '80s synth pop territory in which everyone else seems hellbent on staking a claim, the album doesn't lose its distinct charm. What the duo add to the mix is greater than anything that was lost in the transition; the walls of fuzzy guitars, the Spector-sized echo, the impact her voice makes now that it is clearly recorded. While there are songs on the previous album that had some real emotional impact, there was some odd stuff that failed to connect. Now everything hits like a knockout punch. Tracks like the guitar-heavy, almost shoegaze "Diving Woman," the soft focus, soft rock lament "Til Death," and the epic girl-group-in-space "Boyish" are wonderful combinations of lyrical insight, evocative arrangements, and stunning vocal performances that show Zauner can go big and still sound down to earth. The slick synth pop of "Machinist," the acoustic folk balladry of "This House," and the rock & roll waltz of the title track prove that Zauner has range, too. Soft Sounds from Another Planet is a giant leap forward for Japanese Breakfast; the move to a bigger sound results in a sure-handed modern pop record full of memorable songs, heart-wrenching vocals, and bottomless emotional depth.

With a lot of eyes on Japanese Breakfast at the moment, I feel that we are going to get a cracker of an album with Jubilee. I also feel this is an artist that we will be hearing a lot more from in years to come. I would recommend people pre-order Jubilee. This is what Rough Trade have to say:

“From the moment she began writing her new album, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner knew that she wanted to call it Jubilee. After all, a jubilee is a celebration of the passage of time—a festival to usher in the hope of a new era in brilliant technicolor. Zauner’s first two albums garnered acclaim for the way they grappled with anguish; Psychopomp was written as her mother underwent cancer treatment, while Soft Sounds From Another Planet took the grief she held from her mother‘s death and used it as a conduit to explore the cosmos. Now, at the start of a new decade, Japanese Breakfast is ready to fight for happiness, an all-too-scarce resource in our seemingly crumbling world.

Jubilee finds Michelle Zauner embracing ambition and, with it, her boldest ideas and songs yet. Inspired by records like Bjork’s Homogenic, Zauner delivers bigness throughout - big ideas, big textures, colours, sounds and feelings. At a time when virtually everything feels extreme, Jubilee sets its sights on maximal joy, imagination, and exhilaration. It is, in Michelle Zauner’s words, “a record about fighting to feel. I wanted to re-experience the pure, unadulterated joy of creation...The songs are about recalling the optimism of youth and applying it to adulthood. They’re about making difficult choices, fighting ignominious impulses and honouring commitments, confronting the constant struggle we have with ourselves to be better people.”

Throughout Jubilee, Zauner pours her own life into the universe of each song to tell real stories, and allowing those universes, in turn, to fill in the details. Joy, change, evolution - these things take real time, and real effort. And Japanese Breakfast is here for it”.

I shall leave things there. The multi-talented Michelle Zauner is an artist that I have so much respect and time for. Keep your eyes out for her - and also listen to the work she has put out so far. In Japanese Breakfast, we have this extraordinary and rising artist who is going to be a big...

NAME of the future.

___________________

Follow Japanese Breakfast

PHOTO CREDIT: Jackie Lee Young  

Official:

http://japanesebreakfast.rocks/

Bandcamp:

https://michellezauner.bandcamp.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/jbrekkie

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/japanesebreakfast/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/jbrekkie/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RgHJCaozoM7mdjmJmca4Q

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/7MoIc5s9KXolCBH1fy9kkw 

FEATURE: Behind the Velvet Rope: Janet Jackson at Fifty-Five: Her Five Essential Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

Behind the Velvet Rope

Janet Jackson at Fifty-Five: Her Five Essential Albums

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THIS is sort of like A Buyer’s Guide…

but I feel, ahead of Janet Jackson’s fifty-fifth birthday on 16th May, it was a good idea to point people in the direction of her five finest albums. Her eleventh studio album, Unbreakable, was released in 2015. I am hopeful that we get another album from the brilliant and awe-inspiring Jackson. Before getting to the albums, it is worth bringing in some biography:

“Janet Jackson, in full Janet Damita Jo Jackson, (born May 16, 1966, Gary, Indiana, U.S.), American singer and actress whose increasingly mature version of dance-pop music made her one of the most popular recording artists of the 1980s and ’90s.

The youngest of nine siblings in Motown’s famed Jackson family, Janet Jackson parlayed her family’s success into an independent career that spanned recordings, television, and film. She appeared as a regular on the 1970s television comedy series Good Times and later as a teenager in the dance-oriented series Fame. Following an unremarkable recording debut in 1982 and a 1984 follow-up album, Jackson took control of her career, moved out on her own, and developed her own sound and influential style.

She reemerged in 1986 with her breakthrough record Control, which featured five singles that topped the rhythm-and-blues charts, including two Top Ten pop hits, “What Have You Done for Me Lately” and “Nasty.” Her fierce independence struck a chord with the youth of the day, and Jackson rose to a level of stardom that rivaled that of Michael Jackson, the most famous of her brothers. Her collaborations with the production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (based in Minneapolis, Minnesota) produced bold, beat-heavy, catchy songs that defined the punch and power of 1980s dance and pop music. Jackson returned in 1989 with her most diverse work, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814. The album delivered seven pop Top Ten hit singles, including “Miss You Much,” “Escapade,” and “Love Will Never Do (Without You).

Jackson continued to enjoy worldwide popularity and critical acclaim in the 1990s with the albums janet. (1993), Design of a Decade (1995), and The Velvet Rope (1997). Between the release of All for You (2001), which continued in the sensual vein of janet., and Damita Jo (2004), Jackson was at the centre of a debate on decency standards on television, when a “wardrobe malfunction” (that some argued was accidental and others said premeditated) caused a scandal during her live performance at halftime of the 2004 Super Bowl. Her later albums included 20 Y.O. (2006) and Discipline (2008). Unbreakable (2015), billed as a comeback album, used contemporary electronic arrangements to bolster the velvety vocals that had established Jackson as an R&B star. In 2019 Jackson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”.

To mark the upcoming fifty-fifth birthday of one of music’s legends and icons, I think people should dig into the catalogue of Janet Jackson. Do a deeper dive if you can but, if you need to drill to the essentials, I think the five below should give you a lot of gold and genius Jackson. I think that her more modern music is incredible - showing how consistent she is as an artist and creative force! Jackson keeps producing such awesome albums. Let’s hope that this does not stop…

ANYTIME soon.

______________

Control

Release Date: 4th February, 1986

Label: A&M

Producers: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis/Monte Moir

Standout Tracks: Control/Nasty/The Pleasure Principle

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/250716

Review:

“Although Janet Jackson had released two records in the early '80s, they were quickly forgotten, and notably shaped by her father's considerable influence. Janet's landmark third album, 1986's Control, changed all that. On the opening title track, Jackson, with passion and grace, declares her independence, moving out of the gargantuan shadow of her brother Michael and on to the business of making her own classic pop album. The true genius of Control lies in the marriage of her extremely self-assured vocals with the emphatic beats of R&B production wizards Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The duo was already well established in the music industry, but the practically flawless Control showcased Jam and Lewis' true studio mastery. For the better part of two years, Janet remained on the pop chart, with two-thirds of the album's tracks released as singles, including the ever-quotable "Nasty," the assertive "What Have You Done for Me Lately," the frenetically danceable "When I Think of You," and the smooth, message-oriented ballad "Let's Wait Awhile." Jackson achieved long-awaited superstar status and never looked back” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: What Have You Done for Me Lately

Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814

Release Date: 19th September, 1989

Label: A&M

Producers: James ‘Jimmy Jam’ Harris/Terry Lewis/Janet Jackson/Jellybean Johnson

Standout Tracks: State of the World/Escapade/Black Cat

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=92699&ev=mb

Review:

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

Choice Cut: Rhythm Nation

janet.

Release Date: 18th May, 1993

Label: Virgin

Producers: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis/Janet Jackson/Jellybean Johnson

Standout Tracks: You Want This/Because of Love/Whoops Now (hidden track)

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=92705&ev=mb

Review:

“Dignity firmly in pocket, Jackson is ready to try anything. You can view her various styles as a plethora of different positions. Janet. touches R&B, hip-hop, soul, funk, rock, house, jazz and opera with the singer’s pop sensibility. The mix may lack purity, but the ambitious choices and flexibility leave a bold impression.

Bold indeed are the juxtapositions of Jackson with opera star Kathleen Battle and Public Enemy’s Chuck D. Battle’s voice soars and sounds like an instrument imitating the human voice on “This Time,” while “New Agenda” finds Jackson gliding over hip-hop-inspired beats as Chuck bursts through. The lyrics of “Agenda” follow that same pattern: It fits a Jackson to write a song demanding a new program and leave the rapper to propose the plan.

On Control and Rhythm Nation, Jackson’s collaborators, producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, were hotter than a flame’s bright yellow center. Those albums are exemplary late-Eighties state-of-the-art R&B. But the Jam and Lewis fire no longer cracks and roars as it once did. Predictably, Janet shares the bill this time as coproducer, resulting in a less groundbreaking sound but a wider-ranging album.

The seventy-five minutes of Janet. are less long than long overdue. A significant, even revolutionary transition in the sexual history and popular iconography of black women — who have historically needed to do nothing to be considered overtly sexual — is struck as the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately? girl declares herself the what-I’ll-do-to-you-baby! woman. The princess of America’s black royal family has announced herself sexually mature and surrendered none of her crown’s luster in the process. Black women and their friends, lovers and children have a victory in Janet” – Rolling Stone

Choice Cut: That’s the Way Love Goes

The Velvet Rope

Release Date: 7th October, 1997

Label: Virgin

Producers: Janet Jackson/Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis

Standout Tracks: Velvet Rope (ft. Vanessa-Mae)/Got 'til It's Gone (ft. Q-Tip and Joni Mitchell)/Go Deep

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=100041&ev=mb

Review:

“If Janet Jackson made much ado of janet. being the Let’s Get It On to Rhythm Nation’s What’s Going On, then 1997’s The Velvet Rope is clearly her I Want You, respectively Jackson’s and Gaye’s best and least-heralded albums. (Both incidentally recognized at the end of their creators’ respective marriages.) The chief difference between The Velvet Rope, the least “perfect” album of Janet’s increasingly careful career and the one that most threatens to collapse at each turn, and all the albums that Janet has released since is that all the subsequent albums have been cheery, forcedly carefree collections of would-be singles without any cohesiveness behind them; they’re kiddie cocktails by someone old enough to know better. The reason none of them sound particularly convincing—like Jane Adams’s Joy from Happiness gamely grinning “I’m doing good” seconds before peeling into miserable, anti-cathartic tears—is because of The Velvet Rope, an album by a still very inexperienced person attempting to convey maturity and worldliness.

In every conceivable way the most “adult” album of Janet’s career, The Velvet Rope is also the most naïve. Its vitality owes almost nothing to its stabs at sexual frankness. Because, truthfully, a lot of the “naughty” material doesn’t exactly seem that much more convincing than the Prozac-fuelled aphorisms of the follow-ups, nor is it more politically intriguing than her advocacy of color-blindness in Rhythm Nation. The bisexuality of her cover of Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s the Night” never manages to convince that Miss Jackson has ever been so nasty as to even consider loosening pretty French gowns. “Rope Burn” isn’t so ribald that Janet doesn’t have to remind listeners that they’re supposed to take off her clothes first, though producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis’s Chinese water torture beat does approximate sonic bondage. It’s hardly surprising that when Janet uses the word “fuck” in “What About,” she’s not talking about it happening to her. For a sex album that also seems to aim at giving fans an unparalleled glance behind the fetish mask (literally, in the concert tour performance of “You”), Janet’s probably never been more cagey.

But behind the sex is something even more compelling, because it gradually dawns on you that Janet’s use of sexuality is an evasive tactic. That it’s easier for her to sing about cybersex (on the galvanizing drum n’ bass “Empty,” one of Jam and Lewis’s very finest moments, maybe even their last excepting Jordan Knight’s “Give It to You”) and to fret about her coochie falling apart than it is to admit that it’s her psyche and soul that are in greater danger of fracturing. Soul sister to Madonna’s Erotica (which, in turn, was her most daring performance), The Velvet Rope is a richly dark masterwork that illustrates that, amid the whips and chains, there is nothing sexier than emotional nakedness” – SLANT

Choice Cut: Together Again

Unbreakable

Release Date: 2nd October, 2015

Labels: Rhythm Nation/BMG

Producers: J. Cole/Dem Jointz/Missy Elliott/Janet Jackson/James ‘Jimmy Jam’ Harris/Terry Lewis/Thomas ‘Tommy McClendon’ Lumpkins

Standout Tracks: BURNITUP! (ft. Missy Elliott)/Dammn Baby/Black Eagle

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=892999&ev=mb

Review:

“Despite the shadow cast by her brother Michael, Janet Jackson has always been her own artist. And over 10 albums, most notably 1989’s Rhythm Nation 1814, the singer (along with production from fabled duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) has fused a unique version of R&B, dance, and pop that’s succeeded independently of Michael’s career.

But since the King of Pop’s premature passing in 2009, the press-shy Janet has largely avoided speaking out about him. So it’s a surprise that on her first album since his death—produced once again by Jam and Lewis—the 49-year-old delivers her most MJ-sounding release. There aren’t just a few nods, either—Michael has worked his way into all corners of his sister’s sound. She matches the timbre of his croon on multiple tracks (especially “Unbreakable”) and drops many of his signature breathing tics into “Broken Hearts Heal.” Janet, who has always flaunted her sexuality, is also more lyrically guarded here, eschewing confessions about relationships in favor of Michael-inspired pleas for peace and togetherness.

Janet makes up for that lack of intimacy with her most sonically diverse set since 1997’s quirky, hypersexual The Velvet Rope. She rounds all the R&B bases, and there’s a healthy dose of club adrenaline, particularly on the Missy Elliott-assisted “BURNITUP!” and the heady house jam “Night.” But perhaps the most thrilling aspect of Unbreakable is her willingness to experiment. “Gon’ B Alright” is a Sly Stone-style funk bomb, and “Well Traveled” swoops with stately arena-rock flourishes. Unlike contemporaries like Mariah Carey, Janet strikes a solid balance between innovation and dependability, bridging past and future better than most—including her legendary sibling. B+” – Entertainment Weekly

Choice Cut: Unbreakable

FEATURE: A Mid-Sixties Masterpiece: Bob Dylan at Eighty: The Majesty of Blonde on Blonde

FEATURE:

 

 

A Mid-Sixties Masterpiece

Bob Dylan at Eighty: The Majesty of Blonde on Blonde

___________

IT is quite timely…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Bob Dylan in London in 1966/PHOTO CREDIT: Barry Feinstein

that I mention Bob Dylan’s seventh studio album, Blonde on Blonde, ahead of the master’s eightieth birthday on 24th May. It was released as a double album on 20th June, 1966 by Columbia Records – its approaching fifty-fifth anniversary is one to celebrate. Recording sessions startyed in New York in October 1965. There were numerous backing musicians, including members of Dylan's live backing band, the Hawks. Only one track from the sessions made its way onto Blonde on Blonde: the terrific One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later). Taking a different approach producer Bob Johnston, Dylan, keyboardist Al Kooper, and guitarist Robbie Robertson relocated to the CBS studios in Nashville, Tennessee. It was then that the remaining tracks were laid down and completed. I think Blonde on Blonde is one of the great Dylan masterpiece. It arrived during a golden run of albums; the final of a trilogy of incredible albums from that time - Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited were released in 1965. Not only is Blonde on Blonde one of the best albums ever; it was one of Rock’s first double albums. Dylan’s lyrics range from the personal to the widescreen and fantastical. In terms of the compositions, I think it was Dylan’s broadest and most wide-ranging to that point. After introducing the electric guitar into his music from 1965, he was moving further away from the acoustic sound of his earliest albums. Three of my favourite Dylan songs appear on Blonde on Blonde. Visions of Johanna, I Want You and Just Like a Woman are classics. In fact, each of the fourteen tracks is superb and without fault! I am going to bring in a couple of reviews and articles regarding Blonde on Blonde – finishing with a section about the album’s legacy and importance.

Not to mangle it too much, but Rolling Stone produced a great article in 2016 ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of an iconic album from a songwriting genius. I am interested in the early sessions and how things started to come together in terms of pace and productivity:

“I was going at a tremendous speed… at the time of my Blonde on Blonde album,” Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone editor and publisher Jann S. Wenner in 1969. On Blonde on Blonde, all the tension and angst of Highway 61 Revisited and Bringing It All Back Home were blown wide open to reveal pure freedom. It’s rock’s first double-album monument, where the distance between Dylan’s imagination and his music collapsed entirely: “The closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind,” he famously said, “that thin, that wild mercury sound.” With its chain-lightning mix of rock & roll, novelty music, surrealist ballads, Chicago blues and psychedelic country, its peels of lyrical invention and epic song lengths, Blonde on Blonde might seem like the kind of work that involved long-term contemplation.

In fact, most of the album was knocked out between stints on the road during a historically intense bout of touring. In the fall of 1965, Dylan wanted to continue pushing his new sound, and tour with an electric band. A decision was made to split a series of upcoming concerts between an acoustic set and a plugged-in performance. At the suggestion of his manager Albert Grossman’s secretary, Dylan checked out Canadian band the Hawks, who had cut their teeth backing rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. Dylan was especially impressed by Robbie Robertson, the band’s 22-year-old guitarist, and asked the Hawks to play two shows, one in New York and one in L.A. At the New York show, held in front of a crowd of 14,000 at the Forest Hills tennis stadium in Queens, fans sat patiently through Dylan’s acoustic songs and then commenced booing during his electric set (some people sang along to “Like a Rolling Stone” and then booed when it was over). After they completed their West Coast date, the Hawks (soon to be renamed the Band) were hired for a year of shows that began in Texas in September 1965.

That October, just as the tour was beginning, Dylan and the Band went into Columbia Studios in New York and recorded the single “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?” a curt blast of “Like a Rolling Stone”-style acrimony Dylan was so pleased with that he once kicked folk-scene grandee Phil Ochs out of a limo for saying he didn’t like it. Surprisingly, though, more attempts by Dylan and the Band throughout the fall and winter produced only one song that made it onto Blonde on Blonde, “One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later),” a swirling haymaker that took 24 takes and had to be finished with the help of other musicians. “Oh, I was really down,” Dylan told writer Robert Shelton.

Salvation came from a surprising place. The previous summer, during the end of the at-times-difficult sessions for Highway 61 Revisited, producer Bob Johnston had introduced Dylan to multi-instrumentalist Charlie McCoy, a seasoned musician from Nashville who’d played with everyone from Elvis to Perry Como. After McCoy sat in on the recording of “Desolation Row,” Johnston suggested Dylan might like recording in Nashville. “See how easy that was,” Johnston said”.

When Dylan arrived in Nashville with his new wife, Sara,
 and their one-month-old son, Jesse, he had a few songs ready
 to go.” The elegant “Fourth Time Around” was a direct (albeit never acknowledged) reference to the Beatles’ Dylanesque classic “Norwegian Wood,” with the lyrics “I never asked for your crutch/Now don’t ask for mine” possibly serving as a warning to John Lennon to stop ripping him off. “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” was a hilarious snatch of 12-bar Chicago blues that has long been rumored to be about Edie Sedgwick, reigning starlet of Andy Warhol’s Factory scene, who Dylan had been spending time with recently (when asked about the song in 1969, Dylan said he “mighta seen a picture of one in a department-store window”).

The album’s first session would produce the epochal “Visions of Johanna,” which Dylan first debuted in 1965 at a Berkeley concert attended by Allen Ginsberg and Joan Baez (who insisted the song was about her). With Kooper’s organ and Robertson’s trebly guitar shadowing Dylan’s lyrics, which go on for five image-stuffed verses, the song turns a recollection of a hazy New York night into a liquid meditation on carnal obsession and spiritual desire. At seven minutes long, it also suggested this wasn’t going to be just another series of recording dates.

“It was really … ‘far out’ would be the term I would have used at the time,” said Bill Aikins, who played keyboards on the song. “And still today, it was a very out-there song.” As Dylan later said, “I’d never done anything like it before.”

The song set the tone for the rest of the sessions. Dylan got down to writing new songs and called the musicians in when it was time to record. For the crack team of players, this was an entirely new experience. Accustomed to Nashville’s sharp standards of professionalism and tight budgets, where a musician was rewarded for working quickly and the most efficient players might record a song an hour, they now found themselves being paid to be on call waiting for genius to strike. “There were some days when he would sit in the studio for six hours and work on the lyrics,” says Kooper. “We ended up getting there at 12 noon and going home at, like, five or six in the morning. We’d get there at 12 and wouldn’t record anything until four or five”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Bob Dylan in Scotland in 1966/PHOTO CREDIT: Barry Feinstein

When they were summoned, the songs that awaited were unlike anything they’d ever played on. The day after recording “Visions of Johanna,” Dylan laid down another landmark epic, “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” which ended up stretching out past 10 minutes in the studio and took up the entire final side of Blonde on Blonde. An ode to Sara Dylan, it “started out as a little thing,” as Dylan later recalled, “but I got carried away somewhere down the line.”

“We started ‘Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,’ a 14-minute ballad, at 4 a.m.,” McCoy recalls. “And concentration is tough at four in the morning, when you’ve been up all night, waiting to play, and nobody wanted to be that guy that messed up. But we did it, and then after that, everything went much smoother.”

With his creativity peaking, Dylan began entertaining the idea that the album might become a double LP. He left Nashville for some more concert dates and returned in mid-March to finish the record. The songs recorded during the March session were shorter and flowed faster than ever, with Dylan working on a piano in his hotel room and Kooper playing musical director, taking Dylan’s ideas to the session musicians to prep them so that when Dylan finally arrived with the finished song they’d be ready”.

I think it is worth bringing in a critical review for Blonde on Blonde. In their write-up, this is what AllMusic remarkable about one of Bob Dylan’s most-celebrated albums:

“If Highway 61 Revisited played as a garage rock record, the double album Blonde on Blonde inverted that sound, blending blues, country, rock, and folk into a wild, careening, and dense sound. Replacing the fiery Michael Bloomfield with the intense, weaving guitar of Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan led a group comprised of his touring band the Hawks and session musicians through his richest set of songs. Blonde on Blonde is an album of enormous depth, providing endless lyrical and musical revelations on each play. Leavening the edginess of Highway 61 with a sense of the absurd, Blonde on Blonde is comprised entirely of songs driven by inventive, surreal, and witty wordplay, not only on the rockers but also on winding, moving ballads like "Visions of Johanna," "Just Like a Woman," and "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Throughout the record, the music matches the inventiveness of the songs, filled with cutting guitar riffs, liquid organ riffs, crisp pianos, and even woozy brass bands ("Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"). It's the culmination of Dylan's electric rock & roll period -- he would never release a studio record that rocked this hard, or had such bizarre imagery, ever again”.

Before rounding off with a Wikipedia article that outlines the legacy and popularity of Blonde on Blonde, there is another article that I want to source from. Americana UK looked back on Blonde on Blonde in their feature from last year:

“But what about Dylan and Americana? Back in the Sixties practically nobody really spoke, considered, or tried to combine genres into something that currently bears that name. Practically nobody, except Dylan. And that is where one of his (and everybody else’s) masterpieces ‘Blonde on Blonde’ comes in.

No, it is not the fact that it was what quite a few critics considered the third part of his ‘electric’ trilogy, nor that it was one of the first double albums in modern music ( in some countries, Frank Zappa and his Mothers of Invention beat him to the punch with their ‘Freak Out’ album). It is the fact that on this 72-minute epic Dylan actually brought to the main music scene a combination of musical styles that was simply more than just what was named country rock, but moreover an intricate combination that now bears the name(s) of roots music and Americana.

Let’s mention a few facts here. Dylan began writing and demoing the songs that comprise ‘Blonde on Blonde’ at the time when he started rehearsing and playing live with a band that was then called The Hawks, later to become his staple (live) band – The Band. The cooperation came through Robbie Robertson, then Hawks guitarist instrumental on his previous two ‘electric’ albums (‘Bringing It All Back Home’ and ‘Highway 61 Revisited’), but it was also the moment when one of the musicians also instrumental for that electric Dylan sound, keyboardist Al Kooper, decided not to tour live with Dylan anymore. After ‘Blonde on Blonde,’  ‘New Morning‘ was the last studio album on which Kooper was to appear.

The problem was that Dylan and The Hawks gelled so well on stage, but the studio sessions not so much. Of course, that seemed to change when they went into a basement. But Dylan was always a restless character, who kept on immersing practically anything he would hear and liked and shaping it into not just something personal, but also unique and – magical.

To try and revitalize the sessions, then Dylan producer Bob Johnston sent Dylan, Kooper, and Robertson to Nashville, where they were joined by stellar session musicians, harmonica player, guitarist, and bassist Charlie McCoy, guitarist Wayne Moss, guitarist, and bassist Joe South, and drummer Kenny Buttrey. Kooper represented the link with the electric sound, Robertson was shaping himself into the link between rock and roots music, and the seasoned session musicians turned out to be that salt and pepper that gave the album the character of a true combination of rock, roots, country, blues – and you can add a few more genres there easily.

What we get is a set of truly sublime songs, both musically and lyrically. Take, just three as an example. The opening ‘Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35’ was probably a shock not only to his old folk fans but his relatively newly acquired rock fans. It plays out like a drunken Mardi Gras band walking down the streets of New Orleans at five in the morning (with a piano being pulled on one of the carts), but still being able to keep their composure, while Dylan, in a manner, that only he has, combines and weaves drug and Biblical metaphors into a unified whole.

Or, consider ‘I Want You.’ The session musicians, driven by Wayne Moss’ (later of Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry) guitar picking set into a slightly mutated bluegrass groove with Dylan crams in a list of at least seven characters into song’s three minutes.

And then there’s the concluding 11 minutes or so epic ‘Sad Eyed Lady of The Lowlands’. With its cyclical melody, that gains in intensity, Dylan spins an Appalachian -style fairy tale about a mystical woman, whoever she was. And it certainly does sound like Appalachia, but with a timeless quality – there’s no chance any listener can clearly say when this song or any on this album were recorded – in 1966, any decade that followed, or yesterday. A true classic in every sense of that word”.

Many of us know about how good Blonde and Blonde sounds and what its highlights are. This Wikipedia article outlines the cross-pollination of Blonde and Blonde and how it has been celebrated since its release:

“Dylan scholar Michael Gray wrote: "To have followed up one masterpiece with another was Dylan's history making achievement here ... Where Highway 61 Revisited has Dylan exposing and confronting like a laser beam in surgery, descending from outside the sickness, Blonde on Blonde offers a persona awash inside the chaos ... We're tossed from song to song ... The feel and the music are on a grand scale, and the language and delivery are a unique mixture of the visionary and the colloquial." Critic Tim Riley wrote: "A sprawling abstraction of eccentric blues revisionism, Blonde on Blonde confirms Dylan's stature as the greatest American rock presence since Elvis Presley." Biographer Robert Shelton saw the album as "a hallmark collection that completes his first major rock cycle, which began with Bringing It All Back Home". Summing up the album's achievement, Shelton wrote that Blonde on Blonde "begins with a joke and ends with a hymn; in between wit alternates with a dominant theme of entrapment by circumstances, love, society, and unrealized hope ... There's a remarkable marriage of funky, bluesy rock expressionism, and Rimbaud-like visions of discontinuity, chaos, emptiness, loss, being 'stuck'."

That sense of crossing cultural boundaries was, for Al Kooper, at the heart of Blonde on Blonde: "[Bob Dylan] was the quintessential New York hipster—what was he doing in Nashville? It didn't make any sense whatsoever. But you take those two elements, pour them into a test tube, and it just exploded." For Mike Marqusee, Dylan had succeeded in combining traditional blues material with modernist literary techniques: "[Dylan] took inherited idioms and boosted them into a modernist stratosphere. 'Pledging My Time' and 'Obviously 5 Believers' adhered to blues patterns that were venerable when Dylan first encountered them in the mid-fifties (both begin with the ritual Delta invocation of "early in the mornin"). Yet like 'Visions of Johanna' or 'Memphis Blues Again', these songs are beyond category. They are allusive, repetitive, jaggedly abstract compositions that defy reduction."

Blonde on Blonde has been consistently ranked high in critics' polls of the greatest albums of all time. According to Acclaimed Music, it is the 9th most ranked album on all-time lists In 1974, the writers of NME voted Blonde on Blonde the number-two album of all time. It was ranked second in the 1978 book Critic's Choice: Top 200 Albums and third in the 1987 edition. In 1997 the album was placed at number 16 in a "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 2006, TIME magazine included the record on their 100 All-TIME Albums list. In 2003, the album was ranked number nine on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list. In 2004, two songs from the album also appeared on the magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time": "Just Like a Woman" ranked number 230 and "Visions of Johanna" number 404. (When Rolling Stone updated this list in 2010, "Just Like a Woman" dropped to number 232 and "Visions of Johanna" to number 413.) The album was additionally included in Robert Christgau's "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings—published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981) - and in critic Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It was voted number 33 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999”.

Nearly fifty-five years since its release, Blonde on Blonde has moved and blown away so many people! At such a rich and fertile period for Dylan, it is perhaps no surprise he was so ambitious and productive on this double album. Many can argue which Dylan album is the best. I think Blonde and Blonde is right near the top! As the great man turns eighty on 24th May, I wanted to highlight one of his crowning achievements. There is no doubting the fact that Blonde on Blonde is...

A real masterpiece.

FEATURE: Lay All Your Love on Us: Might We Get Some New ABBA Music in 2021?

FEATURE:

 

 

Lay All Your Love on Us

IN THIS PHOTO: ABBA in 1974 (left to right) Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus/PHOTO CREDIT: Olle Lindeborg/AFP/Getty Images

Might We Get Some New ABBA Music in 2021?

___________

EARLY this week…

there was some tease that ABBA would be releasing new music later this year. There has been this rumour going around for a long time now. It has been forty years since the iconic Swedish band released an album. NME reported the welcome news:

“It will be the first time the Swedish group have released new music in 40 years. The last album the group released was ‘The Visitors’ in 1981.

Speaking to The Herald Sun, Ulvaeus said: “There will be new music this year, that is definite, it’s not a case anymore of it might happen, it will happen.”

He also went on to reveal more about the group’s time back in the studio.

He added: “We’re really, really good friends. The four of us stand in the studio for the first time in 40 years and there’s just something in knowing what we’ve been through. It’s hard to describe, but there are such strong, strong bonds between us.”

Back in April, Ulvaeus gave more information about the band’s forthcoming avatar tour, promising that it “still sounds very much ABBA”.

In 2017 it was announced that the band would reunite in digital form in 2019, performing as “Abbatars” for the first time since they split in 1982.

When the reunion tour was then delayed, the Swedish pop icons announced in 2018 that they would be sharing two new tracks: ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ and ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’, which was then expanded to five new tracks as a reward to fans waiting even longer for the reunion tour due to COVID-related delays”.

ABBA are one of these groups one cannot help but avoid loving! Their music is timeless and has such an infectious spirit about it. I love classics such as Lay All Your Love on Me, Super Trouper and The Winner Takes It All. Dancing Queen is a true classic! Whilst one would not expect ABBA to release anything like they did back in the 1970s and early-1980s, one also would not really feel a softer and more laidback sound is coming. Given the fact that there has been a resurgence of Disco over the past few years – with everyone from Jessie Ware and Kylie Minogue getting involved -, I feel many have been inspired by ABBA and it is only right that the originators show everyone how it is done! It is strange for any band coming back after so long. I think it is extra-odd for ABBA, as they have not really performed since they split - and there has been very little from them until relatively recently. They live quite private lives and, whilst ABBA Mania is coming back to London’s West End, there has not been many public appearances from all four members. This is quite a short feature, as I feel there will be buzz and development over the coming weeks. For those who grew up listening to ABBA or those who are coming to them fresh, the possibility of music – whether they are brand-new recordings or older songs that have not been heard – holds huge excitement and curiosity! I think the return of the Swedish legends is…

WHAT we all need to see and hear!

FEATURE: Family, Secrecy and a New Vocal Sound: Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut at Ten

FEATURE:

 

 

Family, Secrecy and a New Vocal Sound

Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut at Ten

___________

EVEN though…

 PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut does not turn ten until 16th May, this will be my final feature about it – I will post songs/links closer to the anniversary to make people aware of it. This feature sort of rounds things up and ties up any loose ends. I do want to quote from a review for the album, in addition to a segment of an interview Bush conducted to promote Director’s Cut. There are a few things that I specifically want to talk about. Some say that Director’s Cut is inessential and unnecessary in many ways. Bush reworked songs from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes. Why listen to an album where she re-recorded these songs when we can hear them in their original form?! That is a point, though Bush managed to transform a lot of the songs we hear on Director’s Cut. I think that both of the albums that she revisited have moments where they are slightly cold or intangible. Graeme Thomson noted, in his biography, Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush, that songs on The Red Shoes sound a little tinny. This was the 1990s, so Bush moved from analogue to digital recording. Although Bush, in 2011, was mixing digital and analogue, the songs that she reworked from The Red Shoes are warmer and much more physical in a sense – in that a listener feels part of the song and you are beckoned in.

Those who disliked The Red Shoes or felt that it was a little insubstantial will find new layers and improvements on Director’s Cut. That reason alone validates its existence – not that Bush would need approval or a reason to undertake the album, aside from the fact that it is something she had been meaning to do! Whilst The Sensual World did not suffer the same problems as The Red Shoes – in terms of the digital sound meaning the music was a little cold and tinny -, I think Bush’s voice in her fifties gave the tracks new insight, wisdom and maturity. Every singer’s voice undergoes change as they get older. When 2005’s Aerial arrived, one could not help but notice that Bush’s voice was noticeably different to what we heard in 1993 with The Red Shoes. In a weird way, as she was tackling older songs of hers, one focuses on the vocals more through Director’s Cut. Some reviewers picked up on the deeper tones and this ‘new’ vocal sound. My favourite album ever is The Kick Inside: an album where Bush’s voice, as a then-teenager, was quite high. I have a lot of affection for her vocals on Director’s Cut. It is the first complete album, in my view, where there is very little of the higher register and acrobatics. There is still some – Top of the City has plenty of kick; Lily is raucous and electrifying! -, though hearing Bush with a deeper voice makes these familiar songs sound completely new. I think her voice as it was in 2011 gives these tracks new depth and resonance. We would hear more of this in 2011’s 50 Words for Snow.

Director’s Cut had a smaller cast of musicians than her previous albums. First, Bush transferred the digital recordings to analogue tape. Bush had Pro-Tools in her studio, so she had the modern touches and convenience to ensure that she could record quite quickly and efficiently. Taking out the drum parts by Stuart Elliott and Charlie Morgan, she also took away the lead vocals and most of the backing. As Thomson notes in his biography, some songs required a little work; others had keyboard parts, bass lines and string arrangements removed. Now, she had all this space and much barer frameworks. Inviting hordes of musicians into the studio would risk her compromising her original vision regarding making these songs warmer – too many cooks in the kitchen could create overcrowded and dense tracks. Instead, she selected a few musicians and backing vocalists to help realise her vision. The recruitment of the legendary drummer Steve Gadd is crucial. He is someone who can be minimal and un-showy, yet he adds so much professionalism, feel and skill to a song. Gadd was contacted back in 2009, where Bush explained she wanted to revisit two older albums and did not want him to hear the originals. Thomson notes that, as usual, Bush was using a skeleton crew in the studio. However, look at the personnel for Aerial, The Red Shoes or The Sensual World, and one can see a lot of musicians, vocalists and technical staff listed in the credits. Director’s Cut was barer and more concise in terms of the people we see listed on the album. Del Palmer was there as usual. Her trusted engineer and friend, he was a key member of the team.  Danny Thompson and John Gilblin provided new bass lines; her partner, Danny McIntosh, laid down guitar.

I shall come to the backing vocals – in addition to an observation regarding Bush’s vocals – in a bit. I think it is great that her family were so involved! Her son, Bertie (who is credited as Albert), could be heard as a young child on Aerial. He provided backing vocals and programming for Director’s Cut - and he would appear on 50 Words for Snow. Her brother, Paddy, provided mandola, flute, whistle and backing vocals. He had played on his sister’s albums since the start…so it really was a family affair! One issue Bush faced was with her voice. It was deeper but less versatile than it once was. She found it hard to re-enter these songs with this new vocal sound. The key to unlocking that issue was to lower the key. Singing as she was then, in other words, rather than as she would have sounded in the 1980s and 1990s. Her new band and vocal approach gave all of the songs new skins and possibilities. The rhythm parts are more important and pronounced and, as she hoped, there is a lot more space to be heard on Director’s Cut. I do love how there was secrecy around the album. Bush has always been private about her work and did not want it announced. By 2011, social media and the Internet were much more powerful tools for spoilers and promotion as they would have been in 2005 (for Aerial). One of the backing vocalists, Mica Paris, was sworn to secrecy by Bush. Paris, alongside Ed Rowntree, Jacob Thorn, Michael Wood, Jevan Johnson Booth, add so much to the songs they appear on.

If there are one or two songs on Director’s Cut where the new vocal is throwaway or not as one would expect, Bush lowering her voice a tone or semitone really brought some songs to life. One example is Lily. Mica Paris is on backing vocals for that track and recounts – as I am still referencing Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush -, how Bush had this sharing energy and was open to suggestions. That said, she knew what she wanted and worked closely with Paris. Bush had already recorded her part so, when Paris arrived in 2010 for her day in the studio, it was a case of Bush working alongside Paris to get the backing nailed. There was also this sense that nobody could know about the album. Bush knew that information could easily slip regarding Director’s Cut, so Paris was very much asked not to say anything! Two particularly great reworkings came in the form of Moments of Pleasure and This Woman’s Work. The former was a song Bush had not played for twenty years. She wanted the song to be more of a narrative. A more snow-inflected and wintery song, the strings arrangements were gone. Now, the track was this tale of loss – something very different to the original. For This Woman’s Work, Bush extended the song and turned into something ambient and wintery. This sense of winter, as Thomson notes in his book, cleared a path for 50 Words for Snow. He also notes that, by revisiting older tracks, Bush sort of planted the seeds for her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn – another big reason why Director’s Cut is so important and undervalued!

It is debatable whether Bush would have returned to the stage in 2014 were it not for the experience of recording Director’s Cut. This is the first time she sat down with old material since, arguably, 1979. It would have been interesting if Bush brought these reworked songs to the stage in 2011 for, as Thomson moots, a one-off show for prosperity. There is a clear link between Director’s Cut and Before the Dawn. Thomson argues that Director’s Cut is not a classic. It has some flawed moments and cannot entirely be seen as a new collection of songs – as some are not great and Bush didn’t always succeed in her objectives. He did note how rare it was for Bush to wrestle with his legacy and revisit old material. Director’s Cut is a fascinating album. I think, as I have said a number of times, it is underrated and warrants new inspection and deliberation ahead of its tenth anniversary. Before bringing in a review for Director’s Cut, I want to quote a couple of question from a Pitchfork interview I have used before. I did not even mention how Bush set up her own label, Fish People. Director’s Cut was the first album released on the label (alongside EMI):

“Pitchfork: So you're still in the studio on a day-to-day basis?

KB: Yeah, I have been for a while now, because [Director's Cut] has been ready for quite some time. Although there were a lot of ongoing loose ends with this album, like the mastering and artwork, I went straight into making a new record when I finished it. I'm really enjoying working on new material. Director's Cut is kind of a one-off rather than a continuous revisiting of old stuff.

Pitchfork: Director's Cut is being released on your new imprint, Fish People. Why did you decide to start your own label now?

KB: Previously, I wasn't in a position to do so, but now I'm delighted with my own label because it means that I have more creative freedom, which is really what I want. Although I've always had a lot of creative freedom since my third album. But now, I don't have to refer to people at the record company for certain decisions that I might have before. In many ways, it's probably quite a subtle change. But with something like [the new "Deeper Understanding"] video, I really wanted to direct it without being in it and make it like a short film as opposed to a music video. That might have been something the record company would have questioned before”.

I will end with a review from The Guardian. Director’s Cut found some a little mixed; others were keen to praise various songs. There were more than enough wonderful and hugely positive reviews for the album. It is hard to place Alexis Petridis’ review – though I feel it makes for interesting reading:

“In 2011, with the whole nonpareil musical genius/dippy woman who says "wow" issue firmly sorted out in most people's minds, her behaviour seems to grow more inscrutable still. Her new album, which admittedly took only half as long to make as its predecessor, isn't actually a new album, despite Bush's insistence to the contrary: it consists entirely of new versions of songs from 1989's The Sensual World and 1993's The Red Shoes. In fairness, you can see why she's chosen to point them up. They tend to be overlooked in her oeuvre, more because they separate her twin masterpieces Hounds of Love and Aerial than because of their content, although The Red Shoes is perhaps more muddled than you might expect, given her legendary perfectionism. Nevertheless, the decision seems to have bamboozled even her diehard fans, whose trepidation was not much mollified by the single Deeper Understanding. Again, you can see why she wants to point it up: its lyric about abandoning social interaction in order to hunch over a computer seems very prescient in the age of Facebook and Twitter. But the new version's decision to overwhelm the haunting vocals of Trio Bulgarka with Kate Bush doing one of her patented Funny Voices through an Auto-Tune unit seems questionable at best.

In fact, it's the only moment when you can honestly say the rerecording pales next to the original. At worst, they sound as good as their predecessors, which leaves you wondering what the point is, even as you succumb to their manifold charms. It was obviously a bind that the Joyce estate refused permission to use Molly Bloom's concluding soliloquy from Ulysses as the lyrics to The Sensual World, but whether it's a vastly better song for finally having them in place of Bush's facsimile is rather a moot point. Song of Solomon, on which Bush finally abandoned her apparently bottomless store of metaphors for female sexuality in favour of a direct demand for a shag – "Don't want your bullshit," she cries, "I'll come in a hurricane for you" – is a fantastic song whether the rhythm track features pattering tom-toms or a lightly brushed snare. Occasionally, the changes genuinely add something, usually by taking things away. The force of The Red Shoes' depiction of Bush's troubled relationship with the creative impulse was always a little blunted by its presentation as a kind of perky Irish jig: with the Celtic pipes shifted to the background, it sounds sinister and more urgent. Moments of Pleasure's rumination on death is more introverted and affecting stripped of its dramatic orchestration, while This Woman's Work – the rerecording of which caused the most unease among fans – is amazing: emptier, darker and quieter than before, it's even more heart-rending. Given that the original was heart-rending enough to soundtrack a charity campaign against child abuse, that's no mean feat.

Is it worth spending six years making an emotionally wrenching song slightly more emotionally wrenching? Hmm. If Director's Cut really was a new album, if you were hearing these songs for the first time, then it probably would be considered among Kate Bush's masterpieces: certainly, the sheer quality of the songwriting makes every recent female artist who has been compared to her look pretty wan by comparison. But you're not, which means the Director's Cut ultimately amounts to faffing about, albeit faffing about of the most exquisite kind. Still, as anyone who's watched her putting up with Richard Stilgoe will tell you, Kate Bush has earned the right to do whatever she wants”.

I shall leave things there. Ahead of its tenth anniversary on 16th May, I wanted to do one more feature about something that, whilst not a new album in a sense, is full of wonderful moments. It is definitely fascinating to read about. From the musicians and vocalists she brought in, to the fact that she had her brother, son and partner on the record, it is a real treasure trove of an album! I love Bush’s deeper voice - and, as she lowered the key and could tackle these songs afresh, nearly all of the songs sound very different to the originals. She completely transformed Lily. On Flower of the Mountain, she got permission from the Joyce estate to use words from Ulysses that she was denied when she recorded The Sensual World’s title track (I am not sure why she renamed The Sensual World to Flower of the Mountain for Director’s Cut - maybe a sign of triumph that she had gained writes to use Joyce’s words, thus she felt this was a totally new song?). Hearing her finally using Molly Bloom’s soliloquy on Flower of the Mountain is a great highlight. There are other big Bush anniversaries I will mark later in the year. Sat in Your Lap (from The Dreaming) is forty in June. The greatest hits collection, The Whole Story, is thirty-five in November. 50 Words for Snow is ten the same month. It is hard to believe Director’s Cut has been out a decade! I remember Bush promoting it so clearly and the excitement I felt when it came out. Though some find flaws on the album, Bush wanted to re-record songs that she felt were a little compacted or lacked necessary space. In that sense, she achieved her aims - and, with it, she was open to revisionism and reinspection in the form of 2014’s Before the Dawn. Not to mention how some of the arrangements and vocals on 50 Words for Snow were inspired by Director’s Cut – her tenth studio album is hugely celebrated and considered one of her best releases. Tasking all that into consideration, few people can…

ARGUE with that.