FEATURE: Paul McCartney at Eighty: Twenty-Three: Tug of War at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

Paul McCartney at Eighty

Twenty-Three: Tug of War at Forty

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PART of a run of Paul McCartney features…

ahead of his eightieth birthday in June, I am concentrating on some of his solo albums and big anniversaries. I have looked at Flaming Pie and its upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary. I wanted to also look to his third studio album, Tug of War, turning forty. His third studio album, it was his first album released after the dissolution of Wings the previous year. It was also McCartney's first album after the murder (in 1980) of John Lennon. The album was produced by former Beatles producer George Martin. There is a lot to unpick about an album that carries quite a lot of weight. Because of the fact it was released not long after Lennon’s death, one can detect him in most of the songs – McCartney writing about his former close friend. I think Tug of War is an underrated album that definitely requires some reinspection. I think Tug of War contains some of McCartney’s best work. Take It Away, Tug of War and Ebony and Ivory are fantastic tracks. Maybe there are a couple of weaker tracks towards the end of the album, though the album as a whole is very strong! One of his best and most important solo works, I think Here Today is the standout. Written very much with John Lennon in mind, it is one of the most emotional songs McCartney ever composed. Listening to it now, it still affects you; a man talking about someone who he was extremely close to and had a complex relationship with.

I am going to come to a positive review for Tug of War soon enough. Before that, Ultimate Classic Rock discussed how Tug of War followed the break-up of Wings and the reality of John Lennon’s death:

“It was a somewhat trying time for him: Wings, the hit-making band he put together a few years after the Beatles broke up, just called it quits themselves. More significantly, the album's sessions started in October 1980 but were put on hold after the murder of his former bandmate John Lennon two months later.

So McCartney's will to carry on following these two life-shaking events could have resulted in another tossed-off experimental oddity like his previous solo work, 1980's McCartney II, or a worn rehash of what he accomplished with Wings for most of the '70s. Instead, Tug of War turned out to be his best album since 1973's Band on the Run, the one undisputed masterpiece of his post-Beatles career.

It helped that he was working with producer George Martin for the first time since the Beatles' swan song, Abbey Road. Martin knew McCartney better than he knew himself in the studio. McCartney produced (or co-produced, in a couple rare cases) all of his previous solo records and Wings albums, and the finished material often steered all over the place in search of a direction.

Martin was a pro who knew what made McCartney sound good. That included ace musicians to back the star, including jazz bassist Stanley Clarke, Stevie Wonder (who sang Tug of War's No. 1 hit, "Ebony and Ivory," with McCartney, and played various instruments), former Wings bandmate Denny Laine and, for two songs, old Beatles pal Ringo Starr.

McCartney's last album with a band, Wings' 1979 finale Back to the Egg, was messy and unfocused. When he emerged a year later with his second solo record, he was entirely on his own, producing and playing every instrument himself. Tug of War was supposed to be – and, indeed, turned out to be – a rebirth of sorts for McCartney, who lost his way creatively over the previous few years.

Even though Lennon's death was a turbulent blow, when he and Martin regrouped in February 1981 to resume sessions, the mood was light, professional and prolific. For the next several months they hopped continents and studios (mostly recording in the Caribbean and London), picking up guest musicians, along the way.

Two songs were recorded with Wonder, "Ebony and Ivory" and the way funkier "What's That You're Doing"; Starr played drums on another pair, "Take It Away," the album's second single, and "Wanderlust"; and old friends like Laine, Beatles inspiration Carl Perkins and wife Linda showed up throughout.

From the opening title track (a mournful meditation that could be interpreted as commentary on McCartney's splintered relationship with Lennon) to "Ebony and Ivory" (his eighth No. 1 as a solo artist), Tug of War played like an equal balance of his career: good songs, sappy songs, commercially targeted songs and some adventurous songs.

It all paid off with another No. 1 album, his first since 1976's Wings at the Speed of Sound and last until 2018's Egypt Station hurtled McCartney back to the top. The sessions were so productive that several of its leftover songs (which didn't become B-sides) ended up on his next record, the following year's Pipes of Peace.

Tug of War marked the moment where McCartney was at his most Beatlesque since the group's breakup more than a decade earlier – from Martin's shimmering production and Starr's participation to the mix of pop, rock and R&B and the reflective nature of some of the songs. ("Here Today" is a moving eulogy for Lennon.)”.

Even though some in 1982 did mark down Tug of War and felt that it was not up to McCartney’s very best work, I feel a lot were just piling onto him or could not accept anything from him post-Beatles. He did get a lot of stick and negativity after the end of The Beatles in 1970. Retrospective reviews have been kinder and more considered – people concentrating on the quality and breadth of music, rather than writing the album off before they heard it. This is what AllMusic had to say in their review for Tug of War:

“Like 1970's McCartney, 1980's McCartney II functioned as a way for Paul McCartney to clear the decks: to experiment and recalibrate in the aftermath of his band falling apart. This means 1982's Tug of War is, in many ways, the very first Paul McCartney solo album, a record recorded not at home but in a studio, a record made without Wings and not co-credited to Linda, who nevertheless is present as a backing vocalist. McCartney recognized this album as something of a major opportunity, so he revived his relationship with Beatles producer George Martin and brought in several heavy-hitters as guests, including his hero Carl Perkins, his Motown counterpart Stevie Wonder, fusion star Stanley Clarke, prog rock refugees Eric Stewart and Andy Mackay, and his old bandmate Ringo Starr, whose presence was overshadowed by "Here Today," an elegy written for the murdered John Lennon.

 Tucked away at the end of the first side, "Here Today" is bittersweet and small when compared to all the show pieces elbowing each other for attention throughout Tug of War: the grave march of the title track, the vaudevillian "Ballroom Dancing," the stately drama of "Wanderlust," and sincere schmaltz of "Ebony and Ivory," the Wonder duet that helped turn this album into the blockbuster it was intended to be. As good as some of these numbers are -- and they are, bearing an ambition and execution that outstrips latter-day Wings -- much of the charm of Tug of War lies in the excess around the edges, whether it's the rockabilly lark of the Perkins duet "Get It," the later-period Beatles whimsy of '"The Pound Is Sinking," the electro-throwaway "Dress Me Up as a Robber," or the long, electro-funk workout of "What's That You're Doing?," a track that's a fuller collaboration between Paul and Stevie than "Ebony and Ivory." Such crowd-pleasing genre-hopping finds its apotheosis on "Take It Away," a salute to eager performers and the crowds who love them, which means it summarizes not only the appeal of Tug of War in general -- it is, by design, a record that gives the people old Beatle Paul -- but McCartney in general”.

One of Paul McCartney’s essential albums, Tug of War turns forty on 26th April. I think that it has been viewed differently through the years. Maybe it got some flack in 1982 because of some people’s impressions of McCartney. Maybe some were reacting to John Lennon’s 1980 murder and thinking negatively about Paul McCartney. In terms of the material, Tug of War is incredibly strong. Considering the emotions McCartney would have been processing, he released one of his most consistent and enduring albums. I listen to it today, and so many songs pop out. From the Stevie Wonder duet, Ebony and Ivory, through to the devastating Here Today and the underrated The Pound Is Sinking, I wanted to celebrate Tug of War. It sounds amazing and so incredibly strong…

FORTY years later.

FEATURE: Revisiting… Run the Jewels – RTJ4

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

Run the Jewels – RTJ4

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THIS time out in Revisiting…

I recommend people listen back to one of the best albums of 2020. Sometimes, in this feature, I revisit albums from the past five years that were overlooked. That is not the case with Run the Jewels’ RTJ4. A monumental release from El-P and Killer Mike, I hope that people pick it up. I don’t think radio stations examine and spin the album as much as they should. I am going to finish with a couple of reviews for the album. 2020 was an incredible year for music. Albums from Taylor Swift (folklore), Rina Sawayama (SAWAYAMA), and Dua Lipa (Future Nostalgia) arrived in the first year of the pandemic. It is amazing that such amazing music came out at a very difficult time. There was something potent and important about RTJ4 arriving when it did. The album was released in June 2020, only a month after the murder of George Floyd in the U.S. Such a charged, sensational and essential album, this is one for the ages! I want to source one of a number of interviews Run the Jewels provided to promote RTJ4. COMPLEX spoke with them about, perhaps, their greatest album – one that may well be their last:

“On your website, there’s a message to the fans for RTJ4. It reads: "We never thought that when we were doing the first one that RTJ would become our whole lives and honestly we're so grateful that it did." Can you elaborate on why you posted that message and the sentiment behind it?

Killer Mike: I was just going to say I'm very proud to be defined as a part of two different partnerships. There's my marriage with my wife Shay and there's the marriage that is Run the Jewels.

El-P: Run the Jewels was born out of a moment of us hanging out with our friends and making some music. We really didn't have any idea what it would become. Writing that to our supporters was just us acknowledging how grateful we are, and I think that a lot of people try and present everything that happens to them as like, “Oh yeah my plan worked.” The truth is is that we would be fucking lying if we were saying our plan worked. We didn't have a fucking plan. We just reacted to our friendship, then to the music, and then to the impact the music was having.

I think that me and Mike both sensed there was some greatness in it. There was something that we could do together that I don't think either of us would have pulled off or could possibly pull off on our own. Just know that when you're fucking with us, you're fucking with two guys who are excited that this is even happening still and are grateful for this and therefore grateful for people who let us do it.

You've mentioned the magic that happens with you guys. You guys have made your own exceptional solo work, but something is just different when you two come together. RTJ4 is the clearest evidence of that. What is that?

Killer Mike: Who knows why strawberry lemonade got invented? You know, the shit you get at the The Cheesecake Factory? Who the fuck was sitting around stoned like, “You know what? I need to put strawberry puree in a already fucking classic?" So I have no idea why the magic happens. What I do think and I do give myself credit for this: I recognized we had magic within the first three hours of knowing each other. Within the first three hours, I literally was calling my manager like, "Hey, man, I am Ice Cube who's just found his Bomb Squad.”

I knew El and I were supposed to be making music together. I knew R.A.P. Music was supposed to be produced entirely by him, but when we went on the road and we performed as Run the Jewels, I knew that it was something special and magical and I knew that I didn't have responsibility for knowing why people like strawberry lemonade. It was my responsibility to make sure they kept getting strawberry lemonade. I wanted to make sure that through it all Run the Jewels became the prominent driving force because it allowed me to be as creative as I ever wanted to be.

It allows me to be as creative as a 15-year-old who wants to make a record about angst and what I'm angry about with society just to get it off my chest so I don't implode. At the same time, I get to rap about shooting an old lady or a poodle if they don't meet my demands. There's something very freeing about having a partner to balance yourself with. As a solo artist you get locked into a character. Not that the character isn't you or based on you or who you are. I'm just as much as Killer Mike as I ever was, but Run the Jewels enhances the ability for that to be fully me in a lot of ways. I can be both the Michael that smokes weed and doesn't give a fuck on one record, and the Michael that gives a shit on the next record and no one says, "Oh, he's contradicting himself." They simply say, "What El and Mike managed to do is magic.” I don't know why it's magic, but I do know that it's our job to keep making magic as long as we aspire to.

El-P: Me and Mike are very different people. We have very different ways of getting to our points. We have very different ways of expressing ourselves, but there's this fundamental agreement that we have on a lot of things and we agree on allowing ourselves room to be who we are and no matter what that may be. From being silly and jokey to stupid, serious or sad, there's a safety and an agreement between us that we got each other's backs.

The solo stuff I was doing when I met Mike was important to me, and I'm proud of those records. I think that they had their own voice. That's very different from what I do at Run the Jewels, if you were to ask me what's more fun, I would say getting high and rapping with my friend is a lot more fucking fun. Inspiration has to come out of fun, and when you get that you don't want to turn away. Sometimes it's not fun, but even when the hard moments come it just means that we are actually humans and that we're voices that are constantly trying to learn how to work with each other. The result of that shit is something that neither of us can replicate on our own. It's just the truth.

There was chatter about this being the last RTJ album, but you’re both saying there’s too much fun being had to stop now. What does that fun look like?

El-P: Yeah, it was really weird, motherfuckers started being like, "Will Run the Jewels continue?" It's like why wouldn't we? It always baffled me. Like do you hear this shit that we're making? This shit's great!

Killer Mike: When you say, "What's your idea of fun?" Walking in a room to a dope-ass, jamming-ass beat with a joint in your hand having to figure out how to make this motherfucker doper so that you aren't so in awe that you just sit there and listen to it. When you walk in a room and El has just laid the most cutthroat, killer verse ever, you're sitting there like, “Oh I got to fucking step up!” That's fun. That's Michael Jordan's pregame. That's Kobe Bryant shooting a hundred shots after the game. When we say fun we're not talking about doing a dilly dally—we're talking about the work, but the work is satisfying”.

The reviews for RTJ4 were overwhelmingly positive. It is an album that is impossible not to be moved and affected by. This is what AllMusic wrote in their review of one of 2020’s best albums:

“Arriving earlier than expected as both a global pandemic and a nationwide movement against police brutality gripped the United States, RTJ4 distills the anger and frustration of the people through Run the Jewels' hard-hitting, no-nonsense revolution anthems. Trim with no filler, this fourth set from the outspoken duo provides relevant history lessons that are more useful than a classroom textbook. Rousing and lyrically dexterous, Killer Mike and El-P deliver their densest collection yet, balancing clever bon mots with tongue-twisting screeds decrying police brutality, systemic racism, class injustice, and a litany of other ills plaguing the nation. RTJ4 rarely strays from the intensely political; when it does, the duo shine with boastful quips and chest-thumping bravado, loosely weaving their "Yankee and the Brave" personas -- alluding to the baseball teams from their respective home bases -- with production that merges old-school hip-hop nostalgia with aggressively sharp contemporary stylings. BOOTS and Dave Sitek return for the very RTJ-titled "Holy Calamafuck," a menacing attack that's bested only by the clattering "Goonies vs. E.T.," which sounds like a Prodigy

Additional guests include 2 Chainz on the breathless "Out of Sight"; DJ Premier and Greg Nice on the "DWYCK"-sampling "Ooh La La"; and Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire on the neon dystopia of "Never Look Back." Meanwhile, an unlikely pair join forces on the swirling "Pulling the Pin," with Josh Homme's ghostly wails and Mavis Staples' pained cries creating an RTJ-meets-...Like Clockwork doomscape that pushes back against a power structure that allows for "filthy criminals...at the pinnacle." On album highlight "JU$T," "poet pugilist" Zack de la Rocha and Pharrell Williams join the fight by contributing popping production and a condensed socio-economic lecture, pulling back the curtain to reveal "murderous chokehold cops still earning a living" and "all these slave masters posing on your dollars." On "Walking in the Snow," Mike, El-P and Gangsta Boo tackle the American school-to-prison pipeline and those "chokehold cops," directly invoking the spirit of Eric Garner -- who was killed by Staten Island police in 2014 as he pleaded, "I can't breathe" -- and unwittingly honoring George Floyd, whose murder under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer prompted protests across the globe and pushed RTJ4's early release. Bringing the past and present full circle, Mike reminds listeners to "never forget in the story of Jesus, the hero was killed by the state." Much like reality, the raw and unflinching RTJ4 is a lot to take in, both a balm for the rage and fuel to keep the fire burning. Although eerily prescient, RTJ4 is less prophetic and more a case of deja vu, addressing the endemic issues of a broken country that sadly continue. This has all happened before and, as El-P laments, this is the "same point in history back to haunt us”.

The final review I want to source is from CLASH. As mentioned, the reaction to RTJ4 was enormously impassioned and positive. I think that the album still sounds as powerful and earth-moving nearly two years later:

 “Back at it like a crack addict, / Mr. Black Magic” announces Killer Mike, kicking off the album with ‘Yankee And The Brave (Ep. 4)’. A two-and-a-half-minute reintroduction to the unmistakable sound of Run The Jewels. From the offset it’s obvious: the boys are back; this is Trump’s America and they aren’t taking it lightly. The drum beat pounds the track with maliciousness as both rappers growl aggressively over the Schwartz brothers and El-P produced beat.

‘RTJ4’ dropped ahead of its expected release date. Pushed forward by the rappers themselves in wake of the recent murder of George Floyd. The early release was announced on social media along with a download link to access the 11-track digital album for free. The message read:

F-ck it, why wait.

The world is infested with bullshit so here’s something raw to listen to while you deal with it all. We hope it brings you some joy. Stay safe and hopeful out there and thank you for giving 2 friends the chance to be heard and do what they love.

Run The Jewels is a legendary combination of two highly skilled MCs. Atlanta, Georgia’s Killer Mike and Brooklyn, New York’s El-P, who also produces RTJ cuts. Both are veterans of the rap game. Separately, they are masters of wordplay. Together they are a hip-hop supergroup. This, their consecutively titled fourth album, is a welcome return for the duo. Featuring appearances by 2 Chainz, Pharrell Williams, Zack De La Rocha, Greg Nice, DJ Premier, Mavis Staples and Josh Homme. Those wanting a physical copy will have to wait until September.

‘Ooh La La’ sets the scene for us. Featuring renowned producer and one half of Gang Starr, DJ Premier, and Greg Nice of late 80s rap group Nice & Smooth. Introducing the video with the text “One day the long fought battle between humanity and the forces of greed and division will end, and on that day, finally free, we will throw a motherf-ing party...” the visuals feature the artists in the midst of a crowd of revellers who are dumping bags of money and credit cards onto a street bonfire before setting them alight.

Indeed, El-P spits fire behind the literal flames: “I used to be a munchkin / Wasn’t ‘posed to be nothin’ / Ya’ll f-ckers corrupted / Or up to somethin’ disgustin...” The boom-bap is strong in this one and it was hard not to feel the energy within.

2 Chainz joins the party in Out of Sight. As Mike and EL playfully exchange rhymes back and forth over a sample of Foster Sylvers’ ‘Misdemeanor’, co-produced by Little Shalimar and Wilder Zoby. I sense echoes of Run-DMC throughout the first verse. Was that a subtle sample of The Sugarhill Gang’s version of ‘Apache’, I could hear buried in there?

‘RTJ4’ gets darker as it progresses. Holy Calamaf-ck strikes hard with the ragga dancehall inspired beat as EL-P boasts: “I’m the decider / You evil eyers / A pile driver provider for liars / The sleep depriver...” before the beat switches as the New Yorker continues: “Ayo, one for mayhem / Two for mischief / Now aim for the drones in your zoning district / Hindenburg ‘em, / get ‘em / burn ‘em / Can’t give the ghost up / No resistance.” The contrasting styles of the rappers are apparent here, with Mike’s southern drawl holding steady against EL’s flow, not too dissimilar from late fellow New Yorker, Big Pun.

‘Walking In The Snow’, the album’s sixth track features a guest appearance by one time Three 6 Mafia member Gangsta Boo. The beat is heavy and the lyrics are eerily all too close for comfort as Mike takes us back to the 2014 death of Eric Garner at the hands of the police: “And every day on evening news, they feed you fear for free / And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me / And 'til my voice goes from a shriek to whisper / ‘I can't breathe’ / And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV / The most you give's a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy.” Such lyrics are hard to listen to, especially in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a police officer.

‘RTJ4’ is a must listen. It is diverse enough to appeal to even the hardest crowds. Many genres are represented here, but lyrical hip-hop is at the forefront of all that Run The Jewels is. They stand out from the crowd, whilst invoking the people to stand up for themselves. There is not a bad song on the entire album and the production and features are second to none. I kept rewinding the tracks, not just from a reviewer’s perspective, but to hear the how well combined Mike and El-P are.

As the album’s finale builds up with a saxophone crescendo, the track fades out before we are once again introduced to the mock TV show Yankee And The Brave. As I pressed play once more on the album, I realised I cannot wait to hear what Run The Jewels 5 will bring”.

An album that will rank alongside the best of this decade when we look back years from now, Run the Jewels’ RTJ4, let’s hope, is not their last! One of the most powerful albums I have heard, maybe its songs are not played and discussed as much today as they were back in 2020. Let’s hope that this changes…

VERY soon.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Latto

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Latto

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ONE of the most amazing and compelling…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Scrill Davis for Inked

artists coming through is Latto. Although she has been releasing music a while, I feel 2022 is a breakthrough year. With her new album, 777, out in the world (it came out on 25th March), this is an artist that everyone needs to know about. I will finish off with a review of 777. I want to start with a bit of background on Latto. I want to get to some interviews soon. First, from her website, here is what you need to know about Latto:

“Raised in Atlanta, GA, 22-year-old rising rapper Latto has been making a name for herself since she was 10 years old. The Rap Game Season One winner has continually released music since 2016 and signed with RCA Records in 2020. In June 2019, Latto released her EP Big Latto, which included her breakout-hit song “Bitch From Da Souf.” The December 2019 release of her follow-up project, Hit The Latto, contained the remix version of the track featuring Saweetie & Trina. The accompanying video has been viewed nearly 82 million times. Combined, both versions of “Bitch From Da Souf” have over 200 million streams on Spotify and Apple alone. Prior to the aforementioned, her impressive catalog of music includes Miss Mulatto (2016), Latto Let ‘Em Know (2017) and Mulatto (2018).

Latto has proven that her pen game, replete with witty and raw verses, is unmatched. The “Bitch From Da Souf (Remix)” went RIAA-certified Platinum, making Latto the first solo female rapper from Atlanta to accomplish this feat. The 22-year-old was also one of only two women inducted into the XXL 2020 Freshman Class, earning her another major milestone in her burgeoning career. In August 2020, Latto released her major label debut project Queen of Da Souf, and later that year released the extended version of the project. Combined, both versions garnered over 300 million streams worldwide and had multiple standout tracks including “In n Out” feat. City Girls, “Sex Lies” featuring Lil Baby, and the now RIAA-certified Gold track “Muwop” feat. Gucci Mane. In addition to her own music, Latto has been inescapable; from her cameo in Cardi B’s iconic “WAP” video featuring Megan Thee Stallion, to countless features including Chris Brown & Young Thug’s “Go Crazy (Remix)” with Future and Lil Durk, Chloe& Halle’s “Do It” (Remix) with Doja Cat and City Girls, NLE Choppa’s “Make Em Say”and Hitmaka’s “Thot Box (Remix),”she’s proven that Big Latto is bigger and better than ever before”.

Such a young artist showing such ability, confidence and promise, I think Latto is going to be a rapping icon! Someone who inspires the next wave. An impassioned and hugely talented artist, I was keen to know more about her earlier life. This recent UPROXX interview gives us some background regarding her build-up to acclaim and success:

“Growing up in Atlanta, Alyssa Michelle Stephens was pushed into rap early after showing both interest and impressive aptitude for the craft. Dubbed Miss Mulatto for her mixed heritage (her father is Black, while her mom is white), she quickly developed as an artist thanks to a near relentless schedule that found her learning multiple facets of entertainment from as young as eight years old, including rapping, DJing, promoting events, and even hosting a podcast, resulting in practiced ease in dealing with media – as well as an advantage over the competition when she appeared on the Lifetime reality show, The Rap Game, at just 16 years old.

Hosted by So So Def founder and veteran hip-hop hitmaker Jermaine Dupri, the show offered the polished teen what some would call the opportunity of a lifetime when she won the inaugural season — an opportunity she eventually turned down. In our prior interview ahead of the release of Queen Of Da Souf, Latto explained why she left the deal on the table in favor of a strenuous independent grind. “It wasn't something that I was comfortable doing yet,” she admitted. “I was 16 when we filmed the show, I was 17 by the time it aired and I was offered the contract. I'm a baby at 17. I don't want to get myself into no record deal to where I don't even fully understand the terms, or be locked down for years to come, and I was fresh off of a hit television show. So I didn't even get to see the outcome of the show and receive other offers.”

That gamble paid off. After dropping the “Miss” from her nom de plume and releasing a string of mixtapes throughout her teens, she got her big break — and laid the groundwork for her future name change — after releasing the EP Big Latto, which contained her first charting hit, “Bitch From Da Souf.” Released in January that year, the track peaked at No. 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, spawning a well-received remix featuring the original Southern rap queen Trina and pop-rap upstart Saweetie. It also led to her major deal with RCA Records and placement on XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class just weeks before the release of her debut album. The album reached No. 44 on the Billboard 200, solidifying her status and justifying her boldness in holding off on signing at 16.

However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing; as she received greater acclaim, she also garnered more intense scrutiny for her rap name. After all, in today’s increasingly socially conscious landscape, there was simply too much room to misinterpret the reference — both deliberate and inadvertent — even despite her insistence that her name was meant only to pay homage to her parents, reclaiming an insult that had been levied against her as a child. Under intense pressure from fans on social media, she relented, opting to shorten the name to Latto, comparing it to “lotto” or lottery. She even has a tattoo that reads “777,” a jackpot on a slot machine, so the new name works. And she freely admits that the old name was never the best and attributes the delay in changing it to the vagaries of business.

PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Donaghy  

“I did not name myself originally Miss Mulatto,” she recalls. “I was eight years old. So, how could an eight-year-old even name themself that? But as my career blossomed and continued to develop, I feel like those things were brought to my attention. And as I'm getting older, I'm having my own train of thought, I'm having my own perspective and opinions and morals and values. So I feel like, my name just didn't align with those so that's when I changed my name…. I think people need to give me more credit for even being open-minded to changing it because it's a lot of different factors that went into changing it. I got the label involved. I got management. I got lawyers.” Now that the name controversy is behind her, though, she’s set about the business of building her new brand, with her new sound, while sticking to that deeply ingrained philosophy of remaining true to herself.

Latto’s been outspoken about the competition among women in the field before, as well as questioning the higher standards to which women are held in the first place — especially compared to men who rap. “Don't get me started on that because I'll go all day,” she winds up when the subject is broached. “They criticize us so hard, but these boys get up there with they shirt off grabbing they nuts and jump up and down and they the hottest thing ever. We got to be four hours in glam. Make sure your nails match your outfit, your hair, makeup everything matches. And don't sound out of breath. Make sure you have choreography. And then we doing it in heels!”

Speaking of glam and heels, back at the shoot, I catch up with Latto’s sister Brooklyn as Latto changes into a new ensemble consisting of a Marni coat, Ottol Inger pants, and McQueen shoes. Much shier than her sister, Brooke has become something of a fixture at the rapper’s side while on tour and at shoots like this one, faithfully documenting their adventures for TikTok, where once again, that dynamic, down-to-earth personality is on full display.

PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Donaghy 

We watch a video that features the siblings playing a common question-and-answer game on the platform. The questions wonder which of the two “got the most whoopings growing up,” prompting both sisters to point emphatically toward Latto. When asked about her sister’s supposed rebellious streak, Brooke explains, “She don’t like being told what to do. She don’t like you to tell her the rules. She just does whatever she wants to do.”

Latto confirms this was the case, even in that early stage that laid the foundation for her later success. “I used to hate it when I was young,” she says. “I used to be like, 'I want to go to the skating rink.' At times, I'd be like, 'Man, my friend having a sleepover on Saturday.' And my daddy would be like, 'You got a show on Saturday. You going to appreciate me for this when you get older.' Now, I understand what he was saying, but I think it just gave me an overall advantage. I'm not scared of the camera.”

That rebellious streak means she’s not afraid of the criticisms or taking risks, as she did with the release of “Big Energy” and its departure from her established sound. It also shines through in the defiance she projected throughout her recent freestyle for the LA Leakers radio show, where she laid the “Beatbox” controversy to rest for good. “How you big can't name a track,” she wondered. “How you big but can't hang a plaque?” Of course, with all that ferocity, it helps to remain anchored, which she has by keeping a little piece of her hometown close at hand”.

A few years from her introduction onto the scene, you can hear and feel this growth in her music. Almost re-establishing and reintroducing herself to the world, COMPLEX interviewed Latto around the release of 777. It has been a busy and exciting past three years for the Atlanta rapper:

“It’s been nearly three years since Latto broke through with her anthem “Bitch from da Souf,” and a lot has changed since then. In March 2020, the Atlanta native signed a deal with RCA Records, before dropping her debut studio album Queen of da Souf, which peaked in the top 50 of the Billboard 200 and included two platinum-certified singles. She also changed her name from Mulatto to Latto, and grew a massive following.

Now, Latto is walking into the release week for her second studio album with a lot more experience and knowledge. “I’m really growing as a woman, and it just reflects in the music,” she says.

Latto’s forthcoming album, 777, will be the first full-length project she’s dropped under her new name, and with it, she says she’s “reintroducing” herself to the world and hoping to make a statement. While she opted for a pop-leaning sound with “Big Energy,” she says the album will showcase her versatility, with all different types of vibes.

“I wanted to solidify myself and where I fit in the industry,” she tells Complex. “This is just the first introduction. ‘Big Energy’ is the pop sound from this project. I got an R&B sound.

 I got the rap trap sound. I got some rhythmic stuff that I did with Pharrell, just different swaggy stuff.” The album also includes features from major collaborators like Lil Wayne, 21 Savage, Childish Gambino, and more.

Ahead of Latto’s album release, she revealed that an artist featured on her album made it difficult to clear the collaboration when she denied their advances. Her comments shed light on what women in the music industry are constantly faced with. “People have always told us, ‘It’s better not to speak on that,’ or we’re burning bridges or we’re problematic if we do,” she explains. “But it really shouldn’t be how the game is.” Latto did not explicitly name the artist, noting, “It is something that you just got to tread lightly on when you do speak on those subjects, because sometimes people get invested for the drama of the situation rather than the fact that female rappers are being silenced in the industry and bullied behind closed doors.”

Latto is confident about where she is at in her career and what fans will hear on her new album. She declares herself the “female face for Atlanta,” and suggests 777 will further stamp her name in the history books. Complex spoke with Latto about making the album, navigating the music industry as a woman, and more. The interview, lightly edited for clarity, is below.

It’s been two years since you released Queen of da Souf. How have you grown as an artist over that time? 
I tried more things. I’m really growing as a woman, and it just reflects in the music. I have new experiences as a woman to talk about. And being an artist, I’m going to naturally talk about my experiences growing up and becoming a woman. So it shows my evolution in life through music. 

Did you feel any pressure going into this music cycle? 

Yes, for sure. I think after “Big Energy” and its success, I knew how many eyes I had on me—new eyes at that. A new audience tuned in, and I feel like this album is my chance to reel them in as fans.

What was your biggest goal going into this album cycle? 

I really wanted to solidify my place in this industry. I wanted to get my bars off and let people know that I do songs like “Big Energy” and showcase my versatility, but let them know where the passion started in the first place. And that was rapping—just getting the bars off, no hook freestyles. So I’m definitely rapping my ass off and showcasing the versatility at the same time.

What separates you from other artists? 

I’m a female face for Atlanta and that’s never been done before on a mainstream massive scale. That alone is my lane. And then, my Southern open flow with the bars, that separates me. And my authenticity. I don’t put too much thought into anything. I really just be myself.

What does the album title 777 personally mean to you? 

Seven is God’s number, so it just started with that. From a younger age, seven has always been my favorite number. And then triple—it triumphs 666, or overcomes 666. It became a part of my brand when I changed my name to Latto in reference to the lottery and casino, hitting the jackpot is 777. But it already had a meaning to me. It just somehow aligned with my career”.

I will end with a  review of 777. Receiving a lot of praise, it is an album that you need to get involved with! This is NME’s take on the incredible 777:

“I’m from the Southside / Bougie bitches and dope boys,” the artist born Alyssa Stephens raps on last year’s single ‘Soufside’, emphasising the distance she’s travelled as a Platinum-certified star who has overcome stinging controversy and the music industry’s glass ceiling to become one of the most exciting rappers in the world. And with album two, Georgia-raised Latto peels back the layers of her larger-than-life persona.

It’s a record that meets Stephens on the other side of criticism that has dogged her since she introduced her unintentionally offensive former moniker, Mulatto, as an eventual winner of reality show The Rap Game in 2016. Last year, she told NME: “The negative definition of Mulatto might have been holding me back.” She explained that her then-new abbreviation meant “lottery” and that she hoped it would “be forthcoming of good fortune – financially, spiritually, emotionally”. On the hard-boiled ‘Trust No Bitch’, the 23-year-old puts it more boldly: “Big Latto – short for lottery / So ‘fuck I look like losing?”. No wonder this album’s title references the jackpot on a slot machine.

For the most part, the mood is fittingly buoyant, the album’s trappy percussion variously slathered in blaring horns, crisp acoustic guitar and – in the case of the 21 Savage-featuring ‘Wheelie’ – a buzzing syntheziser that would put a swagger in Mario’s 8-bit step. Perhaps inevitably, the feel-good highpoint arrives in the form of the mega-hit (almost 64 million Spotify streams and counting) ‘Big Energy’, a dumb, fun summer anthem wrapped up in a squelchy sample of ‘80s new-wavers Tom Tom Club’s ‘Genius of Love’.

Away from the Billboard chart-bothering singles, however, Stephens dials down the braggadocio and dials up the introspection. If there was a criticism of her 2020 debut ‘Queen of Da Souf’, it was that the “rich bitch shit” (as she defined her lyrical preoccupations on the clenched ‘He Say She Say’) and steely production could seem a little one-note. With this second round, Latto is utterly compelling when she slows things down.

Take the foe-forgiving Lil Wayne and Childish Gambino collaboration ‘Sunshine’, or the Kodak Black team-up ‘Bussdown’, on which she demands respect: “Got it out the mud without no handouts”. In that NME interview, Stephens insisted it would be “ignorant” not to acknowledge the stigma that female rappers still face, adding: “it’s flat-out in our face every day”. Here is proof, once again, that Latto could go toe-to-toe with the best of ‘em”.

An amazing artist who will keep growing and getting stronger, Latto is someone who needs to be on everybody’s radar! Go and follow her (all the links are below) and check out her music. There is no doubt that you will continue to put out incredible music…

FOR many years more.

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Follow Latto

FEATURE: Spotlight: Alex Amor

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Alex Amor

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AN artist I would love to interview one day…

Alex Amor is a stunning talent who is going to be among our very best artists. Her Love Language E.P, released last year, is tremendous. I predict that, as she releases more E.P.s and an album, we will see her tour the world and hook up with some of the biggest artists of the time. It would be reductive to label Amor’s music simply as Pop. Although there is an accessibility and spirit to the music that lifts you up, she is an artist who has so much depth and variety. There are a lot of terrific artists rising and coming through right now. The Glasgow-raised, London-based artist is one of the strongest and most promising I have heard in a very long time. I am doing things a little roundabout. Before coming to a few interviews – where we can discover more about the wonderful Alex Amor -, there was a lot of love (rightfully so!) for her E.P., Love Language. SNACK provided their impressions on a remarkable E.P. that stands up to repeated listens:

“Perfectly produced with swagger and sincerity to match, Alex Amor’s Love Language is an ode to the romantic tribulations of youth. Amor, who is 23 and from Glasgow, worked alongside Derbyshire-based DJ Karma Kid to craft this ethereal and majestic piece of alt-pop.

Love Language explores the progression of relationships, from their blissful beginnings to their fractious ends – it’s as relatable as it is playful. The EP’s title track – a reference to Gary Chapman’s book The Five Love Languages, which discusses how humans can show affection in relationships – sees Amor dissect her own failed romance through a series of light-hearted juxtapositions. It is fun and familiar, but with an RnB twist; a style which clearly comes naturally as a result of Amor’s background in poetry, as does her love for the syncopation of rap.

The coming-of-age narrative which predominates on Love Language relates as much to Amor herself as it does her relationships with others. ‘I am a woman struggling for autonomy’, she states. ‘I’m moving into adulthood and desperately trying to make sense of its complexities’.

This inner struggle is particularly apparent on ‘Motion’. Great care is taken to ensure that the instrumentation is kept minimal so as not to overwhelm the delicate lyric. ‘It’s me who got it wrong / I don’t know when to let things go’, Amor laments, before coming to terms with her situation. It’s not all doom and gloom.

Amor expresses personal experiences and feelings using her songs as vehicles of connection. It’s almost uncanny for someone so young. She says: ‘I am speaking directly to people from the heart. There’s an overarching theme of positivity in my music, the idea that it’s okay if things aren’t okay but there’s always hope that things will get better’. This sentiment extends far beyond the literal subject matter of Love Language and appeals to the more general human condition: we want to be loved, we want to be reassured, and we want to be excited. It’s safe to say Alex Amor is capable of creating moods where the listener is free to feel all three.

Love Language, much like a fleeting adolescent romance, is short but oh so sweet. It packs in everything from effect-laden soundscapes to sparse, airy ballads, and even includes some contextual swearing for good measure. At times it feels a little like poetry set to music, but this and its conversational feel are also what makes it fresh.

In an international pop world brimming with opulent, exclusionary, bourgeoise bluster, Alex Amor is speaking an engaging and honest modern language”.

Even though she is young and making her first statements, the promising is definitely there. Launching into the music world at a time when the pandemic was gripping, I am not sure what Alex Amor would have thought about the future and whether her music would get the audience it deserves! It must have been strange and stressful releasing an E.P. during the pandemic. Though things are not over. Gigs are returning, and she is able to get her music to the masses. Her fanbase online is growing. Whilst most of her following is on Instagram, her Twitter numbers are growing. If you have not followed Alex Amor, go and do so! It is worth getting some background and information about a wonderful artist. NOTION chatted with Amor in December 2020. We learn about some of her first musical loves and experiences:

“23-year-old Glaswegian newcomer Alex Amor has only released three songs to date and she’s already secured a spot at next year’s Great Escape Festival.

Debut single “The Part With Each Other”, an airy, harmonised alt-pop number about the first flush of romance, only dropped this year, and was then followed up by “Prove Me Right”, a more cynical number about modern dating. Now, Alex has shared her new single “Motion”, another tune reflecting on her life’s experiences, wrapped up in a foot-tapping beat.

All three songs will be featured on Alex’s upcoming debut EP, ‘Love Language’, set for release in January next year.

Produced with Karma Kid, the EP documents the highs and lows of a relationship as it progresses from the first youthful infatuation to the inevitable demise. “This EP reflects a recent time of my life where I am a woman struggling for autonomy. I’m moving into adulthood and I’m desperately trying to make sense of its complexities. Though there’s no happy resolve at the end of the EP, I feel more self-assured than ever, more me than

I’ve ever been”, Alex said of the project.

PHOTO CREDIT: James O'Donohoe 

First song you wrote?

I reckon I was around 11 when the songwriting curiosity kicked in. The first song I wrote, I never actually wrote down because the lyrics changed every time I sang it. It was called ‘Take me on a Trip’ and the highlight of the song’s short life span was performing it at my annual flute camp, at the end of the week talent show.

First CD you owned?

I can quite vividly remember pressing play on my baby pink CD player and rocking out to “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne. ‘Folklore’ by Nelly Furtado was the first CD I bought with pocket money.

First time you were starstruck?

The closest I’ve been to being starstruck was when I saw Lana Del Rey live in concert when I was 15. There was a full orchestra and the whole concert felt quite otherworldly, as did she

First time you wanted to give up?

I guess I’ve never really given up. I did stop taking music as seriously when I went to university to study textile design. I tried to do the whole normal life thing but it didn’t last long. Music was always there in the back of my mind even when I wasn’t doing it. I got a lot of life experience during those years that I still take inspiration from to this day so I don’t regret it at all. When I started fully committing to pursuing music, that was when things started to align”.

There are a couple of other interviews that I want to explore before wrapping up. I love the fact Alex Amor set up a studio in a cupboard under the stairs at her parents’ house in 2018. She spent two months in creative self-isolation and used technology to work remotely with producers. That determination and focus is paying off. Such a memorable talent with a very long future ahead, there are albums and artists that inspire her. When she spoke with Beats Per Minute in 2021, Amor discussed some records that are important to her. I have chosen a couple of them as a highlight:

“Scottish indie-pop artist Alex Amor releases her debut EP Love Language today; a five-track set that shows a surprisingly defined musical personality and bravery for someone on their first body of music. Diving headlong into emotional entanglements, dating disappointments and intimate trails of thought, Amor makes a captivating and amusing singer and lyricist. Aided by simply stylish production, Love Language heralds an artist who should be slipping her way into many people’s playlists this year.

Of course, we wanted to know about her influences, those songwriters who’ve helped guide her path to this point. In her On Deck, Amor tells us about four particularly luminary artists that have helped her escape, provoked new ideas and, ultimately, been there for her when she needed them.

Corinne Bailey Rae – Corinne Bailey Rae

[Capitol; 2006]

One of my favourite albums from childhood is Corinne Bailey Rae’s self-titled album. The songwriting on every song is nothing short of exquisite. I remember as a young girl getting lost in her world of calming vocals and raw production that perfectly complimented the music. It’s an album that pushes your emotions to either end of the scale – there’s moments of elation and then times of desperate longing and melancholy like on “Choux Pastry Heart”. I was 10 when I heard this record, daydreaming of what it was like to fall for a boy and perplexed at the emotional rollercoaster that is love.

Kali Uchis – Isolation

[Rinse/Virgin EMI; 2018]

Isolation is one of my favourite albums of the past five years. Kali Uchis has a way of shape shifting genres on every track yet manages to sound entirely like herself. I love artists that merge old with new and Uchis does just that. The track “After The Storm” seems to fit the current feeling of the moment too. Her feel good futuristic nostalgia is at its best on this track, where she motivates us not to give up even though “we’ve been struggling endless days.” Her unapologetic self love is infectious too, which is a thread throughout all of her music”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Elsie Matilda

I will round off with an interview from LOCK. Although the last couple of years have not been ideal in terms of venues open and restrictions, Alex Amor’s music has got out there and connected with a lot of people. She is definitely one of the names to watch closely this year. Among the live dates she has coming up, she will play Brighton’s The Great Escape. When she spoke with LOCK late last year, she was asked where that amazing sound comes from:

“You’ve recently shared your new double single project “Summer Is Sweet With You”, can you tell us more about the project?

The project came from a genuine place during the pandemic. I was finding freedom in a relationship when it felt like the whole world was literally locked down. I’m not really the type of person to throw caution to the wind, but sometimes you just have to say ‘fuck it’ and go with your intuition, do something drastic and ride the rollercoaster. The music has an uplifting feeling to it and a sense of possibility, which is ultimately what I wanted to convey with this project.

Really loving your hazy indie-pop sound, where do you draw the most inspiration from?

I listen to a lot of dream pop bands from the west coast and Canada like Men I Trust,  Alvvays, Wild Nothing and Beach Fossils. There’s a sense of warmth in the music I’m inspired by, that puts your mind at ease. I’m naturally quite an anxious person, so I like music to calm my nervous system down. My producer for the ‘Summer is Sweet with You’ singles owns a lot of analog gear, which was so much fun to experiment with over the past year. I’ve wanted to experiment with synths for such a long time and I’m finally managing to translate the sounds I hear in my head into the music.

What does your creative process look like?

Recently I’ve been inspired by movies. There’s something about listening to a monologue at a pivotal scene that always makes me want to write afterwards. Yesterday I wrote a poem after watching ‘IT: Chapter 2’. It’s about how us humans seem to always forget the good memories while we never seem to be able to get rid of the bad ones. It’s hard to let go of things that hurt us in the past but it’s so easy to forget all the great things that have happened to us. So yeah, I’ll probably bring that poem into a session and make a song out of it. If I’m lucky, I’ll pick the right chords for the song, and improvise the right melodies to go with the lyrics. That would be a good day in the studio!”.

I know that Alex Amor is going to go a very long way. The more she performs and with every song, here is someone who is standing out from the crowd! At a time when so many artists are emerging, I don’t think there is anyone quite like Amor. It will be fascinating to see how her career develops and blossoms through the next few years. I wonder when her debut album will come out. With an impressive string of singles already out there, small wonder so many people are buzzing about her music! Go and check out the brilliant Alex Amor. She is a young artist who is…

A mighty talent.

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Follow Alex Amor

FEATURE: Hills, Hounds and Skies: Ranking Kate Bush’s Albums: The Best Opening Three Songs

FEATURE:

 

 

Hills, Hounds and Skies

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush shot in 1979 by Gered Mankowitz 

Ranking Kate Bush’s Albums: The Best Opening Three Songs

__________

ALTHOUGH I have already…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2011 in a promotional photo depicting 50 Words for Snow’s Misty

ranked Kate Bush’s album tracks (the best opening and closing tracks. In addition to the best side one ender), I have looked through the archives and I cannot find a feature where I have ranked the albums in terms of the best opening three tracks. The reason I want to focus on this is because, according to many, the first three tracks are the most important. Scoring a great one-two-three hooks you in and announces a damn fine album! Bush’s opening and closing tracks are always excellent, but which of her ten studio albums has the finest opening trio of songs? Actually, I will omit Director’s Cut (2011) as, essentially, it as reworking of tracks from The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993), so I think the results will be predictable enough – and it is an album that I think stands on its own because of its unique place in her catalogue. In terms of the remaining nine albums, here are my rankings as to which…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985 in an on-set promotional photo for the Running Up That Hill (from Hounds of Love) music video alongside dancer Michael Hervieu/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

HAVE the best opening three songs.

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9. Aerial

Release Date: 7th November, 2005

Label: EMI

Producer: Kate Bush

Opening Three Tracks: King of the Mountain/Pi/Bertie

Review:

“Domestic contentment runs through Aerial's 90-minute duration. Recent Bush albums have been filled with songs in which the extraordinary happened: people snogged Hitler, or were arrested for building machines that controlled the weather. Aerial, however, is packed with songs that make commonplace events sound extraordinary. It calls upon Renaissance musicians to serenade her son. Viols are bowed, arcane stringed instruments plucked, Bush sings beatifically of smiles and kisses and "luvv-er-ly Bertie". You can't help feeling that this song is going to cause a lot of door slamming and shouts of "oh-God-mum-you're-so-embarrassing" when Bertie reaches the less luvv-er-ly age of 15, but it's still delightful.

The second CD is devoted to a concept piece called A Sky of Honey in which virtually nothing happens, albeit very beautifully, with delicious string arrangements, hymnal piano chords, joyous choruses and bursts of flamenco guitar: the sun comes up, birds sing, Bush watches a pavement artist at work, it rains, Bush has a moonlight swim and watches the sun come up again. The pavement artist is played by Rolf Harris. This casting demonstrates Bush's admirable disregard for accepted notions of cool, but it's tough on anyone who grew up watching him daubing away on Rolf's Cartoon Club. "A little bit lighter there, maybe with some accents," he mutters. You keep expecting him to ask if you can guess what it is yet.

Domestic contentment even gets into the staple Bush topic of sex. Ever since her debut, The Kick Inside, with its lyrics about incest and "sticky love", Bush has given good filth: striking, often disturbing songs that, excitingly, suggest a wildly inventive approach to having it off. Here, on the lovely and moving piano ballad Mrs Bartolozzi, she turns watching a washing machine into a thing of quivering erotic wonder. "My blouse wrapping around your trousers," she sings. "Oh, and the waves are going out/ my skirt floating up around my waist." Laundry day in the Bush household must be an absolute hoot.

Aerial sounds like an album made in isolation. On the down side, that means some of it seems dated. You can't help feeling she might have thought twice about the lumpy funk of Joanni and the preponderance of fretless bass if she got out a bit more. But, on the plus side, it also means Aerial is literally incomparable. You catch a faint whiff of Pink Floyd and her old mentor Dave Gilmour on the title track, but otherwise it sounds like nothing other than Bush's own back catalogue. It is filled with things only Kate Bush would do. Some of them you rather wish she wouldn't, including imitating bird calls and doing funny voices: King of the Mountain features a passable impersonation of its subject, Elvis, which is at least less disastrous than the strewth-cobber Aussie accent she adopted on 1982's The Dreaming. But then, daring to walk the line between the sublime and the demented is the point of Kate Bush's entire oeuvre. On Aerial she achieves far, far more of the former than the latter. When she does, there is nothing you can do but willingly succumb” – The Guardian

8. The Red Shoes

Release Date: 2nd November, 1993

Label: EMI

Producer: Kate Bush

Opening Three Tracks: Rubberband Girl/And So Is Love/Eat the Music

Review:

“The album is a continuation of Bush's multi-layered and multiple musical pursuits and interests. If not her strongest work -- a number of songs sound okay without being particularly stellar, especially given Bush's past heights -- Red Shoes is still an enjoyable listen with a number of diversions. The guest performer list is worthy of note alone, ranging from Procol Harum pianist Gary Brooker and Eric Clapton to Prince, but this is very much a Kate Bush album straight up as opposed to a collaborative work like, say, Santana's Supernatural. Opening song "Rubberband Girl" is actually one of her strongest singles in years, a big and punchy song served well with a horn section, though slightly let down by the stiff percussion. "Eat the Music," another smart choice for a single, mixes calypso and other Caribbean musical touches with a great, classically Bush lyric mixing up sexuality, romance, and various earthy food-based metaphors. Another highlight of Bush's frank embrace of the lustier side of life is "The Song of Solomon," a celebratory piece about the Bible's openly erotic piece. Those who prefer her predominantly piano and vocal pieces will enjoy "Moments of Pleasure" with a strong string arrangement courtesy of Michael Kamen. Other standouts include "Why Should I Love You?" with Prince creating a very Prince-like arrangement and backing chorus for Bush (and doing quite well at that) and the concluding "You're the One," featuring Brooker” – AllMusic

7. The Sensual World

Release Date: 16th October, 1989

Label: EMI

Producer: Kate Bush

Opening Three Tracks: The Sensual World/Love and Anger/The Fog

Review:

“It’s more fanciful than most of The Sensual World’s little secrets. To hear someone recall formative childhood truths (the lush grandeur of “Reaching Out”) and lingering romantic pipedreams (the longing of “Never Be Mine”) is like being given a reel of their memory tapes and discovering what makes them tick. On “The Fog,” she’s paralyzed by fear until she remembers the childhood swimming lessons her father gave her, his voice cutting through the misty harps like an old ghost. Relationships on the album can be sticky and thorny. “Between a Man and a Woman” is half-dangerous and half-sultry, its snaking rhythms mirroring the round-in-circles squabbling of a couple. When a third party tries to interfere, they’re told to back off. This time, unlike on “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” there’s no point wishing for a helping hand from God.

But if there are no miracles, there are at least songs that sound like them. For “Rocket’s Tail,” Bush enlisted the help of Trio Bulgarka, who she fell in love with after hearing them on a tape Paddy gave her. The three Bulgarian women didn’t speak English and had no idea what they were singing about, but it didn’t matter. They sound more like mystics during its a capella first half, and when it eventually blows up into a glammy stomper with Dave Gilmour’s electric guitar caterwauling like a Catherine wheel, their vocals still come out on top: cackling like gleeful witches, whooping like they’re watching sparks explode in the night sky. Its weird, wonderful magic offered a simple message: Life is short, so enjoy moments of pleasure before they fizzle out

Perhaps that’s why there are glimmers of hope even in the album’s most desperate circumstances. “Deeper Understanding” is a bleak sci-fi tale about a lonely person who turns to their computer for comfort, and in doing so isolates themselves even more. But while there’s an icy chill to the verses, Trio Bulgarka imbue the computer’s voice with golden warmth. Bush wanted it to sound like the “visitation of angels,” and hearing the chorus is like being wrapped in a celestial hug. She pulls off a similar trick on “This Woman’s Work,” which she wrote for John Hughes’ film She’s Having a Baby, although her vivid, devastating interpretation of its script has taken on a far greater life of its own. It captures a moment of crisis: a man about to be walloped with the sledgehammer of parental responsibilities, frozen by terror as he waits for his pregnant wife outside the delivery room, his brain a messy spiral of regrets and guilty thoughts. Yet Bush softens the song’s building panic attack with soft musical touches so it rushes and swirls like a dream, even as reality becomes a waking nightmare. “It’s the point where has to grow up,” said Bush. “He’d been such a wally.”

She didn’t need to prove her own steeliness to anyone, especially the male journalists who patronized her and harped on her childishness as a way of cutting her down to size. Instead, The Sensual World is the sound of someone deciding for themselves what growing up and grown-up pop should be, without being beholden to anyone else’s tedious definitions. It gave her a new template for the next two decades, inspiring both the smooth, stylish art-rock of 1993’s The Red Shoes and the picturesque beauty of 2005’s Aerial. Like Molly Bloom, Bush had set herself free into a world that wasn’t mundane, but alive with new, fertile possibility” – Pitchfork

6. The Dreaming

Release Date: 13th September, 1982

Label: EMI

Producer: Kate Bush

Opening Three Tracks: Sat in Your Lap/There Goes a Tenner/Pull Out the Pin

Review:

“Four albums into her burgeoning career, Kate Bush's The Dreaming is a theatrical and abstract piece of work, as well as Bush's first effort in the production seat. She throws herself in head first, incorporating various vocal loops, sometimes campy, but always romantic and inquisitive of emotion. She's angry and pensive throughout the entire album, typically poetic while pushing around the notions of a male-dominated world. However, Kate Bush is a daydreamer. Unfortunately, The Dreaming, with all it's intricate mystical beauty, isn't fully embraced compared to her later work. Album opener "Sat in Your Lap" is a frightening slight on individual intellect, with a booming chorus echoing over throbbing percussion and a butchered brass section. "Leave It Open" is goth-like with Bush's dark brooding, which is a suspending scale of vocalic laments, but it's the vivacious and moody "Get Out of My House" that truly brings Bush's many talents for art and music to the forefront. It prances with dripping piano drops and gritty guitar, and the violent rage felt as she screams "Slamming," sparking a fury similar to what Tori Amos later ignited during her inception throughout the '90s. Not one to be in fear of fear, The Dreaming is one of Kate Bush's underrated achievements in depicting her own visions of love, relationships, and role play, not to mention a brilliant predecessor to the charming beauty of 1985's Hounds of Love” – AllMusic

5. The Kick Inside

Release Date: 17th February, 1978

Labels: EMI (U.K.)/Harvest (U.S.)

Producers: Andrew Powell/David Gilmour (co-producer)

Opening Three Tracks: Moving/The Saxophone Song/Strange Phenomena

Review:

“Besides, Bush had always felt that she had male musical urges, drawing distinctions between herself and the female songwriters of the 1960s. “That sort of stuff is sweet and lyrical,” Bush said of Carole King and co. in 1978, “but it doesn’t push it on you, and most male music—not all of it, but the good stuff—really lays it on you. It’s like an interrogation. It really puts you against the wall and that’s what I’d like my music to do. I’d like my music to intrude.” (Evidently, she had not been listening to enough Laura Nyro.) That reasoning underpinned Bush’s first battle with EMI, who wanted to release the romp “James and the Cold Gun” as her first single. Bush knew it had to be the randy metaphysical torch song “Wuthering Heights,” and she was right: It knocked ABBA off the UK No. 1 spot. She soon intruded on British life to the degree that she was subject to unkind TV parodies.

But provocation for its own sake wasn’t Bush’s project. EMI not pushing her to make an album at 15 was a blessing: The Kick Inside arrived the year after punk broke, which Bush knew served her well. “People were waiting for something new to come out—something with feeling,” she said in 1978. For anyone who scoffed at her punk affiliation—given her teenage mentorship at the hands of Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour and her taste for the baroque—she indisputably subverted wanky prog with her explicit desire and sexuality: Here was how she might intrude. The limited presence of women in prog tended to orgasmic moaning that amplified the supposed sexual potency of the group’s playing. Bush demanded pleasure, grew impatient when she had to wait for it, and ignored the issue of male climax—rock’s founding pleasure principle—to focus on how sex might transform her. “I won’t pull away,” she sings almost as a threat on “Feel It,” alone with the piano. “My passion always wins” – Pitchfork

4. Never for Ever

Release Date: 8th September, 1980

Label: EMI

Producers: Kate Bush and Jon Kelly

Opening Three Tracks: Babooshka/Delius/Blow Away

Review:

“You listen to all of these records in sequence and good as The Kick Inside is, it’s just very apparent that the songwriting has gone up a gear with Never Forever. Strident, diverse, and intense Never Forever is the last Bush album with batshit mental prog art, the last album with an outside producer (though she co-produced with Jon Kelly), and the last record before she started using her beloved Fairlight synthesiser/sampler. It was also her third album in three years, that preempted the first meaningful gap in her career - you could point at the ways in which it predicts The Dreaming and call it a transitional album, but the truth is Never for Ever feels like the [apotheosis] of Leotard-era Kate Bush. The songs are just dazzlingly strong and distinctive. There are singles: ‘Babooska’ is a lot of fun, and the closing one-two of the eerie ‘Army Dreamers’ and the apocalyptic ‘Breathing’ is remarkable. But there’s a hell of a lot of little-remembered gold amongst the album tracks: the breakneck ‘Violin’ and tongue-in-cheek murder ballad ‘The Wedding List’ are really extraordinarily good pieces of songwriting. (8)” – Drowned in Sound

3. Hounds of Love

Release Date: 16th September, 1985

Label: EMI

Producer: Kate Bush

Opening Three Tracks: Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)/Hounds of Love/The Big Sky

Review:

“Hello Earth bleeds into The Morning Fog. There has been some disagreement among fans as to whether the narrator survives. The question is whether this is a praise song upon rescue or does the narrator perish and this is a song of rebirth? I lean toward survival and Kate Bush has stated the narrator survives and not to take the lyric, “being born again” literally but figuratively. My conclusion is that the heroine after her harrowing experience has acquired a treasure trove of wisdom and is completely changed i.e. reborn. The song conveys a completely different feeling: the fear, threat, anxiety and madness have given way to ecstasy and joy. This is mirrored by the chimes and sheer beauty of the accompaniment. We and the narrator have travelled through this harrowing ordeal and she has survived. It is an understatement to say the Ninth Wave is completely enveloping and emotionally cathartic.

Hounds of Love delivered a masterpiece for Kate Bush and would guarantee artistic independence for her now long career. This exquisite, idiosyncratic album would pave the way for many female artists to follow. She would singlehandedly create the personage of the enchanting songstress that Bjork, Florence Welsh, Natasha Khan and Catherine Davies to name just a few would emulate. Bush would with “Hounds of Love” deservingly win at the 1986 Brit Awards, Best Album, Best Producer, Best Female Artist and Best Single for Running Up That Hill. Her vision and determination along with her breathtaking musical abilities make her a living legend. The songs off of “Hounds of Love” have had such an enduring potency that 29 years later Bush would return to live performance to present Before the Dawn. Bush would perform all of the songs from Hounds of Love except The Big Sky and Mother Stands for Comfort in front of sell-out crowds. Before the Dawn would dramatically flesh out visually the story of The Ninth Wave. As this retro review goes to press Bush has announced the live recorded release of the Before the Dawn performance. In the end “Hounds of Love” is a masterwork because it is still as fresh and engaging as the first day it was released. Hounds of Love has an unfathomable emotion impact on listeners with a beauty that is breathtaking. It is a true example of an essential album and listening experience” – xz noise

2. Lionheart

Release Date: 13th November, 1978

Label: EMI

Producer: Andrew Powell (assisted by Kate Bush)

Opening Three Tracks: Symphony in Blue/In Search of Peter Pan/Wow

Review:

“One of the funny things about The Before Time when you had to buy music to listen to it is that ropey critical reputations could really put you off ever listing to certain records, even by artists you loved. It took me years to get around to Lionheart. And you know, sure, it’s the weakest Kate Bush record but that doesn’t make it bad. If anything the fact it’s routinely dismissed as a rushed follow up to The Kick Inside means it doesn’t have the pressure to compete with the stronger later records. The luminous ‘Wow’ is obviously the best and most memorable song, but seriously, check out those elaborately layered vocals on opener ‘Symphony in Blue’. The songwriting is a bit hazy compared to the laser-definition of later albums, but musically and texturally it’s a really beautiful record - the only Kate Bush album that is content to be pretty and not ask you to commit to it, and there’s something to be said for that, I think. (7)” – Drowned in Sound

1. 50 Words for Snow

Release Date: 21st November, 2011

Label: Fish People

Producer: Kate Bush

Opening Three Tracks: Snowflake/Lake Tahoe/Misty

Review:

“But in one sense, these peculiarities aren't really that peculiar, given that this is an album by Bush. She has form in releasing Christmas records, thanks to 1980's December Will Be Magic Again, on which she imagined herself falling softly from the sky on a winter's evening. She does it again here on opener Snowflake, although anyone looking for evidence of her artistic development might note that 30 years ago she employed her bug-eyed Heeeath-CLIFF! voice and plonking lyrical references to Bing Crosby and "old St Nicholas up the chimney" to conjure the requisite sense of wonder. Today, she gets there far more successfully using only a gently insistent piano figure, soft flurries of strings and percussion and the voice of her son Bertie.

Meanwhile, Fry's is merely the latest unlikely guest appearance – Bush has previously employed Lenny Henry, Rolf Harris (twice) and the late animal imitator Percy Edwards, the latter to make sheep noises on the title track of 1982's The Dreaming. Equally, Fairweather Low is not the first person called upon to pretend to be someone else on a Bush album, although she usually takes that upon herself, doing impersonations to prove the point: Elvis on Aerial's King of the Mountain, a gorblimey bank robber on There Goes a Tenner. Finally, in song at least, Bush has always displayed a remarkably omnivorous sexual appetite: long before the Yeti and old Snow Balls showed up, her lustful gaze had variously fixed on Adolf Hitler, a baby and Harry Houdini.

No, the really peculiar thing is that 50 Words for Snow is the second album in little over six months from a woman who took six years to make its predecessor and 12 to make the one before that. If it's perhaps stretching it to say you can tell it's been made quickly – no one is ever going to call an album that features Lake Tahoe's operatic duet between a tenor and a counter-tenor a rough-and-ready lo-fi experience – it certainly feels more intuitive than, say, Aerial, on which a lot of time and effort had clearly been expended in the pursuit of effortlessness. For all the subtle beauty of the orchestrations, there's an organic, live feel, the sense of musicians huddled together in a room, not something that's happened on a Bush album before.

That aside, 50 Words for Snow is extraordinary business as usual for Bush, meaning it's packed with the kind of ideas you can't imagine anyone else in rock having. Taking notions that look entirely daft on paper and rendering them into astonishing music is very much Bush's signature move. There's something utterly inscrutable and unknowable about how she does it that has nothing to do with her famous aversion to publicity. Better not to worry, to just listen to an album that, like the weather it celebrates, gets under your skin and into your bones” – The Guardian

FEATURE: Feels Like a Different Thing: Confidence Man’s TILT and the Need for a Dance Revival

FEATURE:

 

 

Feels Like a Different Thing

Confidence Man’s TILT and the Need for a Dance Revival

__________

ALTHOUGH this is a not a review…

of Confidence Man’s new album, TILT, I did want to make it the focal point of this feature. I am going to get to a couple of reviews for TILT. The reason I want to focus on it is because of the nature of the album. Harking back to the big Dance albums of the 1990s, I have not heard too many modern albums like it. Sure, there are Pop albums that are quite energetic and have anthems, though I have bemoaned the lack of Dance music that nods back to the past. Not to say modern examples are weak, yet there isn’t the same sort of innovation and resonance. When it comes to TILT, the Brisbane group (with Janet Planet and Sugar Bones at the centre) are leading a new charge. They spoke with EUPHORIA. about the sound and nature of their second album:

“They say the second album can be a “difficult” one to make. Have you felt his statement to be true?

In the lead-up to the pandemic, we had been touring non stop for like five years. The first album had popped off and we were just kind of riding it. People started asking about the second album and we freaked out cause we were about to go on another big tour and there just wasn’t any time. Then COVID happened. It was a silver lining for us because we all moved in together and suddenly had endless days with literally nothing to do but write. We all went a little crazy at times but overall, we worked our asses off day in day out, found the sweet spot, and didn’t stop until we knew we had something really strong. It all came pretty naturally.

Who and what was the inspiration behind the record, sonically and lyrically?

We just wanted to keep making party tracks to get people moving and feeling good. We also wanted to maintain the message of empowerment while adding some depth and new dimension. Musically we wanted to make it bigger and more expansive. Grace Jones is a massive inspiration for us.

Was there a particular track that was most challenging to create that almost didn’t make the cut?

“Luvin U Is Easy” was a tough one to nail down. We had a breakthrough when we sped it up by 20 bpm, the only problem then was that Janet had to sing this nice cruisey chorus double time. It can really mess with your head when you’ve learnt a song one way then you’ve got to re-learn it all over again in a new format. One year later and we got the perfect take.

“Holiday” is such a big tune and moment on the album and a favorite of mine. What are your favorites and why?

I really love “Relieve the Pressure.” It’s the album closer and encapsulates the entire album. A solid pop body with an extended off-the-wall outro. “Holiday” is also a fave, it just came to us so complete, barely needed anything after conception, a rarity.

What are you hoping listeners will take away from the album once they’ve heard it?

We want them to dance out the door with a swagger in their step, a smile on their face, and love in their hearts.

What is Confidence Man’s main goal for 2022? Is there something you want to achieve before the year is over

Just destroy as many dance floors/minds as possible. Oh, and maybe kiss Bono”.

Confidence Man’s 2018 debut, Confident Music for Confident People, was masterful when it came to humour, colour and these amazing songs that over-spilled with life, wit and character. Maybe a different sort of album to their debut, in Janet Planet, there is this voice and Dance icon that reminds me of the women who sung some of the biggest anthems of the ‘90s. It makes me wonder whether we will get more albums that are like TILT in the coming year. This is what NME had to say in their review:

“Confidence Man’s first record, ‘Confident Music For Confident People’, was a masterclass in hyper-charged, over-the-top pop, fizzing with in-your-face grooves and hilarious lyrics about shit boyfriends, delivered with razor-sharp deadpan by the commanding Janet Planet and her himbo foil Sugar Bones. Live, it was more preposterous still: a chaotic, out of time kaleidoscope of goofy dance moves and LED lights. In other words: a complete blast.

On its follow-up, ‘TILT’, the Brisbane electro-poppers are still anything but subtle. The beats are still blaring, the grooves immediate and direct. Most of the songs are still about partying and fucking. Nevertheless, it’s a decidedly different experience to its predecessor. It’s less silly but more assured, happy to let pumping ’90s-indebted rave instrumentals take centre stage as often as Planet and Bones’ storytelling.

It’s still silly in places, mind. “Living life on the wild side just like a bear / We’re alive – we’re just animals with beautiful hair” Sugar Bones gurns like a third-rate playboy in an unplaceable accent on the deranged ‘What I Like’. Their appropriation of ’90s aesthetics is so full-hearted that they’re unafraid to occasionally drift into full-on Eurodance territory. Yet at other points the group reveal hitherto unheard aspects of their personality. ‘Luvin U Is Easy’ is a tender expression of blossoming love over a smooth Balearic instrumental. The gently psychedelic ‘Holiday’ is bewitching escapism, stripped of irony or overthought”.

I will round off with a few thoughts after another review. AllMusic were among those keen to share their thoughts about the mesmeric TILT:

“Four years after their painfully hip debut, Confident Music for Confident People, Australia's Confidence Man amassed even more of their titular surety, letting their guard down and fully embracing their dance roots on the celebratory Tilt. While the devastating cool of their first album made it feel like trying to get into a club with a high cover charge, Tilt throws the doors open and invites everyone to the party, going full-bore on a collection of '90s house-indebted thrills that uplift listeners to another plane of pure euphoria. Stylish and swaggering, sibling vocalists Janet Planet and Sugar Bones and producers Reggie Goodchild and Clarence McGuffie execute like seasoned veterans, recalling 2000s dance-revivalist favorites like Hercules & Love Affair, Scissor Sisters, CSS, and LCD Soundsystem. Naturally, they also dig deeper into their own influences, channeling pre-millennial forebears such as Madonna, Haddaway, CeCe Peniston, Deee-Lite, and Ace of Base. Exuberant cuts like "Feels Like a Different Thing" and "Relieve the Pressure" build to unbearable heights, inspiring rapturous release like a church service on the dance floor. The infectious disco of "What I Like" injects playful horns and cowbell into one of the better gang vocal performances on the set, just as expertly as "Holiday" hypnotizes with synth stabs and swirling atmospherics. Fans of Confidence Man's debut might even feel a surge of nostalgia on the throbbing, defiant "Angry Girl" and "Break It Bought It," a glittering glam throbber fit for runways and ballrooms. The cathartic release is absolutely joyous on this stylish party album, a heaping dose of maximalist escapism from a quartet that just wants you to dance your cares away”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: @samar0103/Unsplash

The reception to the album gets me thinking widely about Dance and modern Pop. There are a lot of artists who nod to decades like the 1980s and 1990s, and the sound and result can be quite watered-down or muddled. There are others who do not like genre and, as such, they produce music that is lacking in identity and focus. One of the saddest things about music of the past couple of decade is how we do not hear strong music that could have been in the clubs of the 1990s. Often fronted by women, epic tracks that had incredible choruses and big beats have struck in our heads for decades! I can appreciate how it is hard for artists to show huge enthusiasm and energy at such a draining time. Confidence Man, being based in Australia, are in a glorious landscape and nation that I think it more inspiring then the U.K. or U.S. at the moment. I think they will help to kick a wave of albums that have this energy, campiness, lack of restraint, yet there is depth and layers that keep revealing themselves with every listen. After such a rough couple of years, festivals and gigs are starting to return. TILT is an album that demands a willing and lively audience. Whether you were alive in the 1990s or not, one cannot deny the beauty and power of those songs that made you feel free and unshackled. Everybody's Free (To Feel Good) by Rozalla and The Key, The Secret by Urban Cookie Collective are two classic examples.

Not to say anything from modern Pop is lacking, yet one does not hear fifth gear activated all that often. Maybe some feel that overtness and huge energy risks trampling on personal lyrics or a certain subtleness. There have been some dancefloor fillers released since the pandemic started yet, as Confidence Man have shown throughout TILT, turning the volume up and unleashing these big and neon declarations is so powerful and cathartic! I am not suggesting we all immerse ourselves in nostalgia and want things to be like they were in the past, though there is a dearth of music that grabs you and really gets you moving. As the summer approaches, let’s hope that things are in a better position regarding the pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine and other things that are depressing us at the moment. I have asked whether we will get a third Summer of Love. The Second Summer of Love happened in 1988-1989, and I think a third one would react to the British Government’s incompetence and a need to come together – though, with the pandemic rising again, maybe that will not be possible. Perfect mood-lifting music is what we need more of. With the likes of Confidence Man putting out albums like TILT, it is really helping. Let’s hope (from them and other artists) there is…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @juantures12/Unsplash

MORE to come!

FEATURE: You're a Bird of Paradise: Duran Duran's Rio at Forty

FEATURE:

 

You're a Bird of Paradise

Duran Duran's Rio at Forty

__________

IT is amazing that an album…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Duran Duran in NYC in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Lynn Goldsmith

with Rio, Hungry Like the Wolf and Save a Prayer could ever be seen as forgettable or average! That is how some felt when Duran Duran’s second studio album, Rio, arrived on 10th May, 1982. Still their greatest album, it was recording at AIR in London between January and February 1982. I think a lot of the negative reviews were coming out of America. Rio peaked at number two in the U.K. on the second week of its release. I think Rio still sounds fresh today, and not like an album that can only exist in 1982. Produced by Colin Thurston, there is a freshness and sense of the timeless about it. Ahead of its fortieth anniversary, Rio has got some new attention in the form of a 33 ⅓ series book by Annie Zaleski. It came out last year, and it has introduced a phenomenal album to many who were not aware of it. PopMatters discussed the book around its release:

“It’s easy to dismiss Duran Duran. When they blew up in 1982 and 1983 with their second album, Rio, they were all over MTV in impeccable suits and perfectly coiffed hair. Their music was full of danceable beats streaked with fashionable keyboard riffs. They dominated teenybopper magazines. Girls screamed.

What those who failed to look beyond the superficialities didn’t realize was that Duran Duran — who went their separate ways after Live Aid 1985 — made sophisticated, meticulous, deeply felt music — and continued to do so for decades. Rio may have been their apex, but they were hardly a flash in the pan. What’s more, anyone who dives into Rio will be rewarded many times over with an album that may be an iconic statement of its times but also resonates to this day.

As part of Bloomsbury’s 33 ⅓ series, journalist and critic Annie Zaleski dissects Rio, places it in its proper cultural context, and makes a strong case for its present-day relevance. This is an album released nearly 40 years ago but it still merits repeated listens. Zaleski follows the band from their initial formation in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s by way of a local Birmingham [England] club, the Rum Runner. Bassist John Taylor and keyboardist Nick Rhodes, both rabid fans of glam rock, were looking to form “a cross between Chic and the Sex Pistols.” Eventually, guitarist Andy Taylor, drummer Roger Taylor (none of the three Taylors are related), and vocalist Simon Le Bon were added, and the band was off and running.

Zaleski’s book often underscores the fact that Duran Duran — a band with a relatively fast trajectory — became successful largely due to hard work and talent. While often lumped in with the early ‘80s “New Romantics” such as Spandau Ballet and Human League, they set themselves apart through sheer tenacity and dedication. What’s more, the glitterati style they perfected on Rio (mainly through the iconic music videos) was hard-won. “While recording the album,” Zaleski explains, “the band members weren’t jaded jetsetters, but hopeful dreamers. The cosmopolitan and escapist vibe permeating the Rio LP is aspirational, rooted in sincerity and earnestness.”-

After the modest success of their self-titled 1981 debut album — which includes the singles “Planet Earth” and “Girls on Film” — Duran Duran was hard at work on the follow-up, using the band members’ disparate styles to their advantage. Rhodes’ adventurous, forward-thinking keyboards worked well against Andy Taylor’s more rock-leaning guitar work, and the combination of John Taylor’s fluid bass work and Roger Taylor’s danceable beats made them a unique rhythm section. Le Bon’s occasionally surreal lyrics were the cherry on top.

“We had an open-mindedness with each other musically about anything we created at that time,” Rhodes quotes. “Really, it was a free-for-all. You had to pass the board of everybody else. But if you wanted to try something out, everybody would just step aside and say, ‘Go for it. Let’s see what we get.’” This type of professionalism and easy creativity will likely come as a shock to anyone with the mistaken notion that Duran Duran were a band of models assembled by record company executives looking to profit off their good looks.

While Zaleski chronicles the making of the Rio album in great detail, the book’s longest chapter, “Duran Duran, Video Pioneers”, was inevitable. Musically, Duran Duran may have rock-solid bona fides, but their popularity was aided in part by MTV, which was officially launched between the release of the band’s first and second albums. Duran Duran hooked up with now-legendary music video director Russell Mulcahy and headed off to Sri Lanka in the Spring of 1982 (between the recording and release of Rio) to shoot videos for “Hungry Like the Wolf”, “Save a Prayer”, and the album’s title track. These videos were crucial in helping sell the Rio album, established the band’s cosmopolitan “look”, and aided in the legitimization of music videos as an art form. The making of these music videos also helped bond friendships amongst the band proved their desire to work hard to attain artistic and commercial success”.

As I do with big album anniversaries, I want to bring a combination of features and reviews in. Undoubtedly one of the most prominent and popular albums of the 1980s, Rio is an album where the deep cuts are as excellent and worthwhile as the singles. Albuism revisited the classic on its thirty-fifth anniversary in 2017:

“On May 10th, 1982, Duran Duran released their second long player Rio. Their world―and ours―was irrevocably changed. The sensation that swept the world and propelled five English lads―Taylors John (bass guitar), Roger (drums), and Andy (guitar), along with Nick Rhodes (synthesizers, keyboards) and Simon Le Bon (vocals)―into the international public consciousness was just that, a sensation. Rio went on to become the definitive LP of the New Romantic period, the British born movement that combined post-punk salt, synth-pop style, a touch of latent disco swing and a flair for theatricality.

The platinum busting album launched four commercial singles between November 1981 and November 1982: “My Own Way” (UK #14), “Hungry Like the Wolf” (UK #5, US #3), “Save a Prayer” (UK #2, US #16) and the title track (UK #9, US #14). The corresponding music videos secured Duran Duran's legacy as visual auteurs. And, on top of monopolizing MTV and conquering the charts, there were the screaming teenage girls (and boys). Pop hysteria to be sure, but, there was more to Rio than just frenzied fans or the plentiful spread of accolades it earned.

The genius of Rio was that it was a logical step forward for a group that would show favor to modernity over nostalgia, always. But prior to the record's world dominance, it all began with Duran Duran (1981). Their eponymous debut record met success at home in Britain, whereas listeners in the United States dismissed it upon its initial launch there. Plucked from the mind of a band enthralled with the glam and art rock of Bowie and Roxy Music, they wrote (and played) with gusto. Production focus was lent to them from the departed Colin Thurston who had already tasked behind records for Magazine and The Human League.

But how to elevate themselves further from an already eclectic, competitive debut? Simple, they unleashed their collective creative imagination with no limitations. Duran Duran hunkered down to script and play on what was to become Rio. Thurston resumed production duties on the record as well.

Across its nine tracks, Rio is an upscale affair, lyrically and musically. Their rock musicianship sinew snaps and sneers on the acidic “My Own Way” and “Last Chance on the Stairway,” but conversely balances pop guile on the title track with its synaptic shattering synths, guitar and drumming patterns per Rhodes, Taylor and Taylor. This path between the refinement and nerve of pop and rock, Duran Duran repaved enthusiastically―Rhodes and Thurston's keen programming and production made this possible.

The songwriting, initially, painted opulent visions of Brazilian shores, European airshows, British dancefloors and endless New York City skylines where seductive trysts were infinite. Closer listening revealed stormier narratives underneath these pseudo-escapist songs. Nowhere was this more apparent than on the creeping gloom of “The Chauffeur” which closes the record.

But if the words compelled, it was in due part to their delivery via the unmistakable Simon Le Bon. Le Bon's range and color, equally human and alien, could transfix audiences. Not only did his singing establish him as an indisputable peer to his accomplished contemporaries Tony Hadley (of Spandau Ballet), (Boy) George O'Dowd (of Culture Club), and Martin Fry (of ABC), it made him one of the most vital vocalists in British music history.

Deeper album cuts mixed comfortably with the mammoth hits as heard on the chilly “Lonely in Your Nightmare” and the light proto-funk of “New Religion.” The latter had all three Taylors bringing buoyant rhythm to the Duran Duran sound. The song was a harbinger for the steamier funk Duran Duran served up with their groovy Notorious LP four years later”.

Shocking that it was slated by some critics back in May 1982, retrospective acclaim has settled that score. Maybe it took a few years to see the influence Rio would have and the popularity it would accrue. Singles like Rio and Hungry Like the Wolf are radio staples. Songs that will passed through the generations. I am not a massive Duran Duran fan, though I love Rio and how astonishing it is. Arriving a year after Duran Duran’s eponymous debut, this was a step up from the Birmingham band (Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor). To end, I want to quote a sample review. This is what AllMusic observed about the wonderful Rio:

“From its Nagel cover to the haircuts and overall design -- and first and foremost the music -- Rio is as representative of the '80s at its best as it gets. The original Duran Duran's high point, and just as likely the band's as a whole, its fusion of style and substance ensures that even two decades after its release it remains as listenable and danceable as ever. The quintet integrates its sound near-perfectly throughout, the John and Roger Taylor rhythm section providing both driving propulsion and subtle pacing. For the latter, consider the lush, semi-tropical sway of "Save a Prayer," or the closing paranoid creep of "The Chauffeur," a descendant of Roxy Music's equally affecting dark groover "The Bogus Man." Andy Taylor's muscular riffs provide fine rock crunch throughout, Rhodes' synth wash adds perfect sheen, and Le Bon tops it off with sometimes overly cryptic lyrics that still always sound just fine in context, courtesy of his strong delivery. Rio's two biggest smashes burst open the door in America for the New Romantic/synth rock crossover. "Hungry Like the Wolf" blended a tight, guitar-heavy groove with electronic production and a series of instant hooks, while the title track was even more anthemic, with a great sax break from guest Andy Hamilton adding to the soaring atmosphere. Lesser known cuts like "Lonely in Your Nightmare" and "Last Chance on the Stairway" still have pop thrills a-plenty, while "Hold Back the Rain" is the sleeper hit on Rio, an invigorating blast of feedback, keyboards and beat that doesn't let up. From start to finish, a great album that has outlasted its era”.

On 10th May, the world will celebrate forty years of Duran Duran’s Rio. An album that is overflowing with standout songs and incredible band performances. The group are wonderful together, and they each add these elements and layers that make Rio such a nuanced and stunning album. A New Wave classic with some of the biggest and more recognisable hits of the 1980s, Rio will only continue to grow in its importance. I love everything about the album, maybe except for the video for the title track. However, like everything else on the album…

I shall come around soon enough!

FEATURE: Nothing Can Stop Us: The Iconic Sarah Cracknell at Fifty-Five: The Best of Saint Etienne

FEATURE:

 

 

Nothing Can Stop Us

The Iconic Sarah Cracknell at Fifty-Five: The Best of Saint Etienne

__________

ON 12th April…

the wonderful Sarah Cracknell turns fifty-five. The lead singer of the phenomenal group, Saint Etienne, I wanted to mark her upcoming birthday by compiling a playlist of the best cuts from them. Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs formed the band in London in 1990. Their remarkable debut, Foxbase Alpha, turned thirty last year. Their most-recent album, last year’s I've Been Trying to Tell You, shows they have lost none of their genius! Prior to coming to a fulsome Saint Etienne playlist, here is some biography from AllMusic about the Sarah Cracknell-led band:

“Formed at a time when acid house was booming and Brit-pop was just starting, Saint Etienne offered a sophisticated, lush, and tuneful alternative. Initially designed by the duo of Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs as a project with revolving vocalists, they set that notion aside once vocalist Sarah Cracknell joined. They built songs around odd samples, balanced goofy dancefloor tracks with heartbreaking ballads, and had a hit right away with 1991's Foxbase Alpha LP. Further albums and singles showed the group had a magpie eye towards pop culture and musical trends, picking up shiny pieces of sound and combining them in fascinating ways. 1994's Tiger Bay delved into British folk melancholy, thick dubby bass, and real orchestras, 1998's Good Humor eschewed electronics in favor of warm Swedish indie pop sounds, and they delivered a harmony pop concept album with 2005's Tales From Turnpike House. By this time, Saint Etienne were well established as arbiters of style and taste, as Stanley and Wiggs pursued side careers as DJs and curators of compilations. The band settled into a groove of issuing top-notch albums made up equally of nostalgia and futuristic sounds, then in 2021 took a left turn into ambient pop with the surprising I've Been Trying to Tell You. Throughout the group's career, they have delivered on their version of pop music with style, grace, and enough memorable songs to fill a multi-volume greatest-hits collection.

The origins of Saint Etienne date back to the early '80s, when childhood friends Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs began making party tapes together in their hometown of Croydon, Surrey, England. After completing school, the pair worked various jobs -- most notably, Stanley was a music journalist -- before deciding to concentrate on a musical career in 1988. Adopting the name Saint Etienne from the French football team of the same name, the duo moved to Camden, where they began recording with the help of producer/engineer Ian Catt. By the beginning of 1990, the pair had signed a record contract with the indie label Heavenly. In the spring of 1990, Saint Etienne released their first single, a house-tinged cover of Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," which featured lead vocals from Moira Lambert of the indie pop band Faith Over Reason. The song became an underground hit, getting a fair amount of airplay in nightclubs across England, especially after receiving a coveted Andrew Weatherall remix. Later in the year, Saint Etienne released their second single, a cover of the indie pop group Field Mice's "Let's Kiss and Make Up," which was sung by Donna Savage of the New Zealand band Dead Famous People. Like its predecessor, "Kiss and Make Up" was an underground hit, helping set the stage for "Nothing Can Stop Us." Released in the spring of 1991, the song was the first Saint Etienne single sung by Sarah Cracknell, who had been in a number of indie bands and sang on a track by Lovecut DB.

After Stanley and Wiggs abandoned the idea of using a rotating cast of singers, they chose Cracknell as the main vocalist on the group's debut effort, Fox Base Alpha, which was issued in the fall of 1991. Following that release, Cracknell officially became a member of Saint Etienne. The album was well-received and the trio gained a strong fan base not only in England but all over Europe. Throughout 1992, the group released a series of singles -- "Join Our Club," "People Get Real," and "Avenue" -- which maintained their popularity and began to stretch the boundaries of their established sound. In addition to writing and recording music for Saint Etienne, Stanley and Wiggs became active producers, songwriters, remixers, and label heads as well. In 1989, Stanley founded Caff Records, which issued limited-edition 7" singles of bands as diverse as Pulp and the Manic Street Preachers, as well as a number of other lesser-known acts like World of Twist. In 1992, Stanley and Wiggs founded Icerink, which intended to put out records by pop groups, not rock groups. The label released singles from several artists -- including Oval, Sensurround, Elizabeth City State, and Golden -- and a compilation CD titled We Are Icerink.

Preceded by the single "You're in a Bad Way," Saint Etienne's second album, the sample-heavy So Tough, appeared in the spring of 1993 to generally positive reviews and sales. Over the course of 1993, the group released three more singles -- "Who Do You Think You Are," "Hobart Paving," and "I Was Born on Christmas Day" -- which all charted well. The band's third album, 1994's Tiger Bay, combined sleek dancefloor tracks with British folk melodies, dub excursions, and real orchestration to become their most expansive release to date. They returned the next year with a Euro-disco-influenced collaboration starring French singer Etienne Daho, "He's on the Phone," then decided to take an extended break during 1996, only releasing a remix album titled Casino Classics.

Sarah Cracknell pursued a solo project, releasing a single titled "Anymore" in the fall of the year. Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs began a record label for EMI Records, with the intention of releasing music from young developing bands. When they decided to make more music together as a group, they decamped to Sweden with producer Tore Johansson, who had worked previously with the Cardigans. Sporting an organic sound with nary a sample in sight, 1998's Good Humor was their first album to be issued by Sub Pop; the label also released a collection of EP tracks titled Places to Visit in 1999. The experience of recording in another country went so well that Saint Etienne headed to Germany to work with To Rococo Rot at their studio. Sound of Water was released in 2000 and also featured production by their new mate Gerard Johnson and arrangements by Sean O'Hagan of the High Llamas. After a U.S. tour in support of the album, Sub Pop issued Interlude -- a collection of new tracks, instrumentals, and B-sides -- in early 2001. The band's 2002 album Finisterre was recorded once again with Ian Catt and featured a less sonically focused approach than their previous two records, instead following various strands of sample-based and electronic music, much as their early albums had done.

After a couple of years spent raising families and working on the 2005 Finisterre: A Film About London, the trio returned to the studio with Ian Catt to record Tales from Turnpike House, their first crack at a loosely constructed concept album. With lush backing vocals from legendary British singer Tony Rivers and his son Anthony, a guest appearance by David Essex, and some glitter provided by Xenomania, the album is an oft-overlooked high point of their discography.

Following a seven-year break during which the bandmembers worked on making films, doing remixes, and various solo projects, musical and otherwise, the group resurfaced in 2012 with Words and Music by Saint Etienne, an album loosely based on the concept of how music can affect and shape lives unexpectedly, both positively and negatively. It would be another five years before they released new music, but, as ever, the bandmembers kept themselves busy with other projects in the meantime. Cracknell signed to Cherry Records and released the solo album Red Kite in 2015; Stanley's second book, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé, was published in 2014; and Wiggs contributed the soundtrack to the film Year 7.

After Saint Etienne played a series of shows in 2016 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Foxbase Alpha, they decided it was time to record some new tunes. The band selected producer Shawn Lee and began writing songs inspired by the counties in the southeast of England, where each of the bandmembers spent their teenage years. Working quickly with Lee and his studio full of vintage instruments, the group finished the record, titled Home Counties, in three weeks, and it was released in June 2017 by Heavenly. The band set off on a tour of the U.K., then headed to America for a rare string of appearances. They returned not too much later for a short tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of Good Humour. Nostalgia struck again when they performed Tiger Bay in full with the London Contemporary Orchestra in 2019, just before a short U.K. tour and a box set reissue of the album itself. Along with their work for the band, Stanley and Wiggs also become known as prolific curators of compilations of all sorts of obscure sounds for the Ace label.

In 2020, finding it impossible to work together on music, the bandmembers recorded in their respective homes, with Stanley digging up samples in Bradford, Wiggs providing music in Hove, and Cracknell adding vocals in Oxford. They were assisted on a number of tracks by film music producer Gus Bousfield, who is also in the band Gurgles. Released in late 2021, I've Been Trying to Tell You set forth a melancholy, dub-influenced alternative pop universe circa the late '90s with the assist of samples culled from songs by Natalie Imbruglia, Tasmin Archer, the Lighthouse Family, and Honeyz, among others”.

To celebrate the approaching fifty-fifth birthday of the amazing Sarah Cracknell, this playlist is a demonstration of the wonder and consistency of Saint Etienne – and what Cracknell specifically brings to the group (whether that is her wonderful vocal turns or her songwriting). I shall end by wishing the iconic lead…

A very happy birthday.

FEATURE: Paul McCartney at Eighty: Twenty-Two: Flaming Pie at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Paul McCartney at Eighty

Twenty-Two: Flaming Pie at Twenty-Five

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DURING this run…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Jeff Lynne and Paul McCartney in 1997/PHOTO CREDIT: Linda McCartney/Press

of forty features to mark Paul McCartney’s upcoming eightieth birthday in June, I am concentrating on various songs and albums that are very special. As his tenth solo album, Flaming Pie, is twenty-five on 5th May, I thought it was a great opportunity to spotlight what was his first studio album in over four years. Following the underrated and less-strong Off the Ground (1993), Flaming Pie was a solid and emphatic return to form. I think McCartney did have mixed fortunes during the 1980s and 1990s regarding his albums. Flaming Pie was mostly recorded after McCartney's involvement in the highly successful Beatles Anthology project. With several friends and family of McCartney on the album, there is a warmth and sense of family connection that comes through in the songs. I guess it was working on The Beatles’ Anthology project that reminded Macca of the songwriting standard they were held to. Maybe because of this, that sharpened his skillset and kicked him up a gear! I am not sure whether there are plans for a twenty-fifth anniversary release. There was a reissue release from 2020 that I would urge people to get.  Like I do with album anniversaries, I want to bring in a couple of reviews and features. Some of McCartney’s all-time best solo songs are on Flaming Pie. The World Tonight and Calico Skies are him at his absolute peak. A beautiful album that ranks alongside his very best offerings, Flaming Pie is a masterful album from an artist who, so far into his career, was writing the most astonishing music!

With production from Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne, George Martin and a host of remarkable musicians featuring, Flaming Pie is a triumph. The reissue is well worth checking out and owning. One of the absolutely essential Paul McCartney solo albums, Flaming Pie is one that I have loved ever since it came out in 1997. You can find out who played what on each song. Before coming to reviews, Udiscovermusic.com looked back at Flaming Pie in a piece from last year:

“I think I’ve given the Anthology a decent interval,” McCartney told Mojo as the album was being released. “My stuff is suddenly ready, asked Linda if she had any photos, she had a great little selection, banged it together and it all suddenly seemed to work and it was, ‘Oh, there you go…’”

The apparently improbable title was something of a Beatles in-joke, which went to the very heart of their transformation into the group we knew and loved. In an article in the Liverpool beat music magazine Mersey Beat in 1961, John Lennon said with his customary irreverence: “It came in a vision – a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, ‘From this day forward you are Beatles with an A.’ Thank you Mister Man, they said, thanking him.”

The new album had McCartney collaborating with two of the key protagonists of the Anthology series, producer-artist Jeff Lynne and Beatles mentor George Martin, among many other interesting guests. Paul’s longtime friend Steve Miller, on whose “My Dark Hour” he had appeared “anonymously” while still a Beatle, played guitar and sang, even taking a lead on “Used To Be Bad.”

Friends and family

Paul’s constant companion Linda McCartney provided backing vocals as ever, on a record that appeared just under a year before her tragic death. Their son James added to the friends-and-family ambience with some electric guitar, as did Ringo Starr on drums. He was prominent on the greatly underrated “Beautiful Night,” elegantly orchestrated by Martin at Abbey Road.

That track became the last of three UK singles from the set, after “Young Boy” and “The World Tonight.” There was also a first-ever McCartney-Starkey co-writing credit, as Paul and Ringo collaborated on “Really Love You.” Another highlight was “Calico Skies,” written in the early 1990s, even before the release of Paul’s previous solo album, 1993’s Off The Ground.

Flaming Pie performed more than respectably in the worldwide charts, reaching No.2 in both the UK and the US, with gold certifications in each country. It was also gold in Japan and Norway, and a Top 5 album around much of Europe”.

Even though there are one or two mixed reviews for Flaming Pie (NME among them), the overall vibe and reaction was one of positivity. After 1993’s Off the Ground, there was more critical support on Paul McCartney’s shoulders. This is what CLASH wrote when they reviewed Flaming Pie in 2020:

“Honestly, it’s tough sometimes, being a hardcore Paul McCartney stan in 2020. Obviously we know Macca is the foremost artistic genius of his generation, but it’s not as if the great man makes it easy for us, out here in the trenches, defending his honour against those tiresome pub bores who reckon they’re sophisticated for pretending John or, heaven help us, fucking George was the best Beatle.

Fucking shut up about the Frog’s Chorus – it’s a children song, get over it.

Anyway, there we’ll be, arguing the toss about the relative merits of ‘Live And Let Die’ compared with, fucking, ‘You’re Sixteen You’re Beautiful And You’re Mine’, when bang, here he is again, cringeing up the place on telly, undermining all our good work, like a croaky old dear off an Age Concern fundraising ad.

So yeah, loving sir Paul McCartney is frustrating as hell, except when a tidy little archive gem resurfaces on the radar of public consciousness to remind everybody who the motherfucking king is.

Is 'Flaming Pie' (1997) Paul McCartney’s greatest masterpiece? No, of course it isn’t. His greatest masterpieces are towering cultural touchstones to rival the pyramids.

What you have here instead, in this handsome reissue, see, is a snapshot of 55-year-old Macca – the elder statesman, the wizened old artisan, humbly proffering a suite of songs that would easily sit at the apex of literally any other cunt’s career.

Opening number ’The Song We Were Singing’ says it all, really – a timeless fingerpicked McCartney waltz, all languid choppy rhythms and poetic imagery. It’s about John Lennon, I think, and weed – what’s not to like – over a bracingly unusual outing of what I will argue to my grave is a hip-hop-inspired flow.

Some context, for what it’s worth – in 1997 Sir Paul had just finished filming The Beatles Anthology, marinating in reminiscences of his Fab Four heyday. This set a lofty artistic bar, while in the background a dispiriting cancer diagnosis for his soon-to-be-deceased partner Linda lends an irresistible tragi-romantic poignancy to the slow numbers.

And the slow numbers are really where it’s at on this record – ‘Calico Skies’ and ‘Great Day’ especially wouldn’t sound at all out of place mid-White Album.

History’s foremost balladeer also smashes it out the park on light-touch lament 'Little Willow' – penned in tribute to Ringo’s ex-wife Maureen, who herself not long ago succumbed to leukaemia – and the achingly sad ‘Souvenir’.

“I go back so far / I’m in front of me” on 'The World Tonight' is probably the LP’s standout lyric. Here is a man bitterly conscious of his advancing years and declining relevance – two solid decades before James Corden took him for a spin and broke the internet. All the while, bashing out top-drawer melodies with a master-craftsman’s panache.

Sure, boomers are gonna boomer, and Paul boomers the fuck out the gaff here, especially on dumb cod-blues jam 'Used To Be Bad' and the execrable 'Really Love You', on which Ringo plays drums, apparently, woo.

But man alive, if you do nothing else today give the title track a spin and marvel at Sir Paul McCartney’s deftness of touch, his impish sense of glee, his preternatural knack for a toe-tapping pop hook.

Take heart, and hang in there, fellow McCartney truthers – soon enough he’ll kick the bucket and everyone will realise we’ve been right the whole time. Until then, enjoy this stellar mid-career effort; perfect for slipping on next time you're engaged in a vain struggle to convince some knobhead that Harrison actually sucked”.

I am going to round up with a review from AllMusic. Other McCartney albums have big anniversaries this year (Tug of War is forty on 26th April; I am going to cover that separately). Flaming Pie is a very important album in the Macca cannon:  

“According to Paul McCartney, working on the Beatles Anthology project inspired him to record an album that was stripped-back, immediate, and fun, one less studied and produced than most of his recent work. In many ways, Flaming Pie fulfills those goals. A largely acoustic collection of simple songs, Flaming Pie is direct and unassuming, and at its best, it recalls the homely charm of McCartney and Ram. McCartney still has a tendency to wallow in trite sentiment, and his more ambitious numbers, like the string-drenched epic "Beautiful Night" or the silly Beatlesque psychedelia of "Flaming Pie," fall a little flat. But when he works on a small scale, as on the waltzing "The Song We Were Singing," "Calico Skies," "Great Day," and "Little Willow," he's gently affecting, and the moderately rocking pop of "The World Tonight" and "Young Boy" is more ingratiating than the pair of aimless bluesy jams with Steve Miller. Even with the filler, which should be expected on any McCartney album, Flaming Pie is one of his most successful latter-day efforts, mainly because McCartney is at his best when he doesn't try so hard and lets his effortless melodic gifts rise to the surface”.

Ahead of its twenty-fifth anniversary on 5th May, I wanted to use this feature to discuss and dissect an incredible album. It sounds as good and powerful now as it did back in 1997. If you are a McCartney fan, but have not listened back to Flaming Pie for a while, then I would definitely urge you to…

GIVE it another spin.

FEATURE: The Kate Bush Interview Archive: 1986 Beth Fishkind (The Island Ear)

FEATURE:

 

 

The Kate Bush Interview Archive

1986 Beth Fishkind (The Island Ear)

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THERE are not that many interviews…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985 in a photo used on the back cover of Hounds of Love to illustrate The Ninth Wave

left that I can quote for the Kate Bush Interview Archive. A New York music paper, Bush spoke with The Island Ear in 1986. Beth Fishkind conducted the interview. Thanks to this website for providing a link to a great and rare U.S. interview from 1986! That was a year when Bush was promoting Hounds of Love (1985) and her greatest hits album, The Whole Story, was released that year. It is fascinating reading her responses in this interview:

“Is Kate Bush news to you?

Despite well-known status since the late 70's in her English homeland, Kate Bush has had only a cult following - albeit a devoted one - in America. But this fall, when the single "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" paced its way on to the U.S. charts and with her sixth [fifth] album, Hounds of Love hunting out lots of American Homes, her relative obscurity in these former colonies seems to be on the decline.

In England, success came early. So the story unfolds... At 16, she was "discovered" by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. She spent the next few years honing her talents, which culminated in her debut single "Wuthering Heights" hitting the top of the U.K. charts in 1978. (The song was later covered by Pat Benatar on her Crimes of Passion album.)

For singer, songwriter, keyboardist and producer Kate Bush, Hounds of Love appears to be serving two purposes: One, attracting new fans, and Two, for all her devotees, a welcome return from a few years silence.

I: Your music contains a lot of very strong emotions. For example, the hit "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" is intense in that manner. Can you explain the emotions behind this song.

K: It's very much about two people who are in love, a man and a woman, and the idea of it is they could swap places... The man being the woman and vice versa and they'd understand each other better. In some ways talking about the fundamental differences between men and women, I suppose trying to remove those obstacles, being in someone else's place; understanding how they see it, and; hoping that would remove problems in the relationship.

I think emotion is really what music's all about. It's trying to emote to the listener, in some way that is effective, either to make them happy or sad. To me as a listener to other people's music, that's what it does for me though. There are pieces of music that just make me go "Ohh...," they're just so good. They make you feel great or they make you feel very sad and nostalgic, and i think everyone has some kind of music that really makes them feel good. Does something for them. So I think that's the purpose, to emote the listener. So it's got to be about emotion, really, and expression.

I: Your music and lyrics do show you as a very emotional person. Like you're always thinking... there's always something churning inside of you. I would describe you as a serious person on that account. Is this correct?

K: I think I'm quite analytical and I think that's definitely what comes out in a lot of the songs. It's the analyzing of emotional situations. I think I"m an emotional person - I think that's what motivates me. Definitely from some writing point of view, even in political situations when people say, "You've written this. This is quite political." But for me, it's the emotional content of the political situation that effects me. I think that most people that are sort of intrigued by writing or creating on some level are sensitive to the emotional side of things. That's in a way perhaps what makes them write... A kind of insecurity.

I: Listening to the background vocals on Hounds of Love, they sound agonized, plaintive, and sometimes they're screams. The whole second side of the album, which you call "The Ninth Wave," reminds me of waking at night in a cold sweat, you know, always thinking, "What is the meaning of life?" Seems like you tend to ponder on that.

K: I think that side is about that and that's great if you feel that. It's not what I experience myself, thank God, but it is very much about someone trying to make it through the night in the water - alone, scared, and not really knowing what's happening, but going through the experience and hopefully coming out the other side with an appreciation of what's really going on. So it's quite good if you get that image.

I: What songs on this album, or parts of songs, were inspirational flashes. You know, a lightning bolt hit you. What took work?

K: It's very much like that. You get a big burst and then it will all slow down and it gets very slow. And then you get... Uh, let me think... Well, "Watching You Without Me" was very quick. That was all done in two days, I'd say, the whole thing except for the orchestra that we put on during an extra session. But all the songs were put straight to master. I was actually writing in the studio, so there was no demo in the process. It was all being written straight onto master tape. So if that initial thing was good enough, it would be taken from there. It was incredibly quick. Some songs were written on the piano, so again they were quite quick, instead of me having to round up [a line was repeated here so their appears to be missing line here] the slow processes were technical. Technical things that slowed you down, or just trying to make ideas work that you thought could but didn't happen as quickly as you hoped, and you just had to be patient.

I: Your songwriting is self-taught. I've read where you went to the library to find books that would try to teach you how to put word to music. How did you finally learn, just by doing? Trial and error?

K: Well, I think from the word "go" it's been just a gradual process of teaching myself what worked and what didn't. It's just through practice, really. Any time you're writing a song, you're learning about some aspect of songwriting.

I: Regarding the types of sounds you get, how did you get that little part on "Running Up That Hill" that comes in first at the start of the song, after the drums and before the vocals?

K: That's the Fairlight and that was actually what I wrote the song with. That was what the song was written around.

I: And what about the altered voice at the end of the song, where you're singing, "If only I could, keep [she actually says "be"] Running Up That Hill"? How was that done?

K: That's just a heavy effect.

I: What effect is on there? Do you remember?

K: I guess I'll put "I won't say."

I: You won't say?

K: No. It was just a combination of the engineer and myself. I think it's part of the thing of recording and there are so many limitations to what we do, to discover something interesting that perhaps people aren't really using... It's so quickly that people imitate things. You've got to hand onto them, I suppose. If you want to use them again.

I: Can you explain to me, as non-technical as possible, what the Fairlight is and how you use it?

K: For me, what is so good about it, is it's a machine you can sample any sound you want into it. Say, you can sample a car horn or a violin, and then just play it on the keyboard. It's useful not only for when you're writing a song, but also for any arrangements. For instance, if I want a brass arrangement in a song, I can play around on the Fairlight and get an idea of what I want by actually using a sound like brass.

I: I can see how it helps a composer, particularly you, you've got a studio in your home and you just go right in... but what do you think this technology will do to the recording industry and the making of albums in general?

K: I think it's a good thing and I think it's going to develop very much in the next couple of years. I think everything really is advancing to get superior sounding things so that there's as little noise as possible. I think it's probably going to have quite an effect. But I think synthesizer did. When synthesizer were introduced, music was so inspired by it, that the synthesizers were over everything. IT was quite a stampede, because yo have the medium, and I think probably the same thing will happen with the Fairlight.

I: Technology is certainly bringing good sounds and sophisticated features to keyboards in an affordable range. Do you see this as a whole big revolution? I mean, it's started now, but...

K: Yes. I think technically right across the board, not just in music, we're going into another stage. There's no doubt that things are just gonna go... You know, you think even in the last ten years things have really developed, that I think we're actually just on the front of a whole new world of technology”.

Another great interview from the iconic and magnificent Kate Bush, I think she gave some of her best chats around the release of Hounds of Love and the following year. Bringing so much to every interview she ever was involved with; it is no wonder that so many journalists and fans around the world…

WANTED to speak with her.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Niko Rubio

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Niko Rubio

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A phenomenal and hugely talented...

young artist, Niko Rubio is someone that people should follow. Her debut E.P. of last year, Wish You Were Here, is a remarkable release. Her latest single, Dream Girl, shows how stunningly consistently Rubio is. Before getting to a couple of interviews from last year, here is some biography about the incredible American artist:

“When creating her debut project, 21-year-old singer/songwriter Niko Rubio found a never-ending muse in the Pacific Coast Highway: the iconic stretch of road that runs along the ocean for nearly the entire length of California, including the Southern California South Bay area where she grew up. Expansive and euphoric, Niko's radiant form of songwriting perfectly echoes the pure sense of possibility that accompanies driving down the PCH, all while channeling the intense emotion typical of any Pisces. The result is an immediately absorbing collection of songs, introducing the 20-year-old artist as an undeniable new voice with a highly original vision.

"My whole goal with this project was to create something true to my experience; being from California and taking this path that not many women of color I knew had taken before, probably because the space was never open to them. I look up to someone like Linda Ronstadt, who is this strong female songwriter and storyteller, and is a pioneer for Hispanic women," says Niko, whose heritage is Mexican and Salvadoran. "At the same time I was just writing from my heart about everything I've gone through in the past year -- falling in love and out of love and then back into love -- and creating this very real story of love and lust and heartbreak."

Made in collaboration with producers/songwriters like Andy Seltzer (Maggie Rogers, IAN SWEET) and Nick Long (K.Flay, BØRNS), Niko's debut EP centers on a free-flowing sound she partly attributes to the easygoing nature of her creative process. "Everything we did was built from guitar and drums and good love and good heartbreak," she says. "I let go of any pressure I might've felt, and let the writing and production happen naturally." On the EP's lead single "You Could Be the One," Niko brings that untamed energy to a brightly shimmering track capturing the wild rush of new love ("Breathing never had me too excited/Now I get to just enjoy my youth"). "I wrote that song about my boyfriend, who I met in Joshua Tree in the middle of quarantine," she says. "I came back from that trip feeling so inspired to write a song that's hopeful about love, and it ended up being so freeing for me."

With its effervescent melodies and unpredictable textures, "You Could Be the One" reveals Niko's affinity for early-'00s indie-rock, a genre she first discovered thanks to an aunt fairly close to her in age. "My aunt was in high school when I was in elementary school, and I thought anything she did was so cool," Niko recalls. "I remember tagging along to go get frozen yogurt with her friends -- this little kid sitting in the back while they listened to Vampire Weekend and Two Door Cinema Club and Lana Del Rey. Pretty soon I started listening to that music on my own, and became completely obsessed with it."

PHOTO CREDIT: Lauren Dunn 

Although she also names Erykah Badu, Tyler, the Creator, and twenty one pilots among her main influences -- and even has the number 21 tattooed on her hand -- Niko was mostly raised on the mariachi and banda music that her grandparents played at home in Palos Verdes. At the age of 12, she began performing on a series of Spanish-language TV shows, spotlighting the magnetic vocal presence that continues to infuse her music. Within two years she'd started playing guitar and writing her own material, and at age 15 had a major breakthrough with a song called "Rolling Stone." "I wrote 'Rolling Stone' sitting on my bed at my grandma's house, and it was the first time I ever came up with something that felt fully like me," she says. "It was a really happy moment where I knew that I could actually do something with my music." Over the coming years, Niko worked with a number of producers as she shaped her musical identity, and in fall 2019 put out an alt-R&B-leaning song called "I Dreamt About You Again Last Night." That track soon caught the attention of songwriter J Kash and, in turn, paved the way for her signing to Atlantic Records.

Mostly recorded remotely over the course of quarantine, Niko's debut project never fails to illuminate the effortless complexity within her artistry. On "Amor," for instance, she delivers a tenderhearted love song in Spanish, merging her ethereal vocals with intricate percussion and gently cascading guitar tones. One of the EP's most vulnerable tracks, "Can't Pretend I'm Just a Friend" conveys the heavy-hearted longing that comes with not knowing where you stand in a relationship, while "Bed" unfolds in sultry grooves and snarling guitar riffs as Niko slips into a state of feverish infatuation ("I like it when you say my name/Tastes like candy on my brain/I'm so dumb for you, love"). And on "Saving Me," the EP achieves a moment of blissful transcendence. "I wrote 'Saving Me' about being in love and wanting to express to your partner how much they mean to you, but it can also be a song to yourself," Niko points out. "At the end of the day, the only person who can save you is you."

With its cinematically detailed reference to a fantasy road trip up the PCH, "Saving Me" marks the EP's boldest reflection of Niko's Californian sensibilities and endless love for her homeland. "When you're driving from Palos Verdes, it's the most gorgeous view you've ever seen -- it looks like mermaids are jumping from the ocean every time the sun glistens on the water," she says. "I got to see that almost every day of my life on the drive to school, and it was always so beautiful. I hope my EP feels like that drive, and gives people some kind of an escape. I want it to take them on a whole journey that brings them a feeling of nostalgia and happiness and hope that stays with them a long time”.

Amplify Her Voice spoke with Niko Rubio late last year. She is someone who I predict will continue to rise and get massive attention. Her music and story is like nothing I have encountered before:

“Rising singer-songwriter, Niko Rubio grew up on the mariachi and banda music that her grandparents played for her as a child i Palos Verdes, California. She looked up to artists like Linda Ronstadt who she names a “strong female songwriter and storyteller, and a pioneer for Hispanic women,” and at the same time she obsessed over Erykah Badu, Tyler the Creator, and 21 Pilots – the number “21” tattooed on her hand and all. Add in a soft edge and authentic spirit, and what you’ll get is Rubio’s new EP, Wish You Were Here - an alluring intimate look at the artist’s love life, family life, and Californian inspirations.

Created with executive producer Andy Seltzer (Maggie Rogers, Chelsea Cutler, LILHUDDY), John Debold (Katy Perry, HAIM, Wallows) and Nick Long (Machine Gun Kelly, blackbear, Weezer), Rubio’s EP was recorded remotely during quarantine, but the magic in the record is that its song stories bring themselves to life, despite being recorded during a lockdown. The artist’s talent for storytelling, music-making, and most of all, image-capturing shines through on each of the EP’s songs. “Amor” is a soft-hearted track dedicated to her family and recorded in Spanish, while a song like “Saving Me” transports its listeners through a road trip up and down the California coast. The EP itself is blissful, sweet, and full of love, with hints of all of Rubio’s musical idols laced in between lyrical testaments to family heritage and the quiet yet hypnotic grace of falling head over heels.

You’ve opened up about how 2020 was a difficult year, emotionally for you. What about writing music helped you navigate through tough emotions like depression in a year of lockdown? Is creating music often cathartic for you?

2020 was a hard year for everyone. I think most would agree that it’s hard to navigate the many deep traumas that have resurfaced during our times at home. I mean what else is there to do but work and think about your darkest deepest insecurities. Is that just me?

I loved reading about how the creation for this EP came about by you driving up and down the coast of Southern California. It was so easy for me to visualize you doing that. You wrote that you “would jump in the ocean and cry” finding inspiration for your music at the beach. Is your new visualizer for “Can’t Pretend” a reflection of these moments or is it something entirely it’s own?

The “Can’t Pretend” visualizer is so special because we did it in one take. It was getting dark. We had 20 minutes of sun before the sun set and it was cold. It is so cathartic for me to be in water or the forest or lake I just feel so at peace. I wanted the video to have that sense of peace.

Can you tell us a little bit more about how your culture and ancestors have inspired this EP?

My Mexican culture inspires everything I do including this EP. Even when I write in English, the sonics of the songs I write are based on American and Mexican rock stars like Linda and Blondie. The braids in my hair for the “Amor” video inspired by the braids I wore horseback riding with my grandfather. It’s all connected in small ways.

Do you have any advice for young women, especially women of color, who are aspiring to be musicians?

My advice to women of color in music is do not let anyone take your shine away. Opposition is normal and, a lot of the time, your biggest competitor is yourself. Make friends with everyone, especially the young women end people coming up with you. Everyone can win”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Natalia Mantini

To round off, there is an interview from LATINA that I feel is worth highlighting. I feel connecting with her Mexican roots is very important to Rubio:

“Growing up, did you always know you wanted to be a singer-songwriter?

I always knew I was going to be a singer. I guess technically when I was ten I thought I was going to be a chef. I asked for a food processor for Christmas and when I got it, I started crying. I wanted a real food processor because the Barefoot Contessa had one — she used it for all her, you know, whatever, purees, and I was like, “I’ll be a real chef if I get one of these!” And then I realized, you get really hot cooking; I don’t think this is right for me.

So I started writing. Because I just loved school, and I couldn’t cook anymore. That probably swayed me into, ‘Oh music is amazing. I love writing. Let’s just do that — forever.’

Was your family supportive of that dream?

Surprisingly, yes. I’m first-generation Mexican. My grandma wanted to be a singer growing up. So I think, for her, when she found out that her nieta could sing, she was like, “Okay what can we do with this?” You know what I mean? She was schemin’ on how to make it work, like Selena’s family [who rallied around Selena’s dreams].

She told me, ‘We can’t make you a family van, but we can do something.” *Laughs* And so she’d come home from work and take me to vocal lessons. That’s just kinda how it started. They were super, super, super, super, super receptive. And believing. It’s very rare.

What would you say your connection to your Mexican roots is like right now?

I mean, very strong. My mom didn’t really teach me how to speak Spanish because she came from the time of ‘We need to acclimate.’ And ‘We don’t teach our kids how to speak Spanish. We need to become American.’ And my grandma and grandpa were like, “I don’t believe in that. At all. We are proud Mexicans, here in America, and we’re gonna do our shit, and you’re gonna learn how to speak Spanish.”

So it was actually one of the rules of me doing music. Grandpa said, “I’ll take you to singing lessons. But you have to sing in Spanish. And you’re moving into grandma and grandpa’s house. No more this whole, mom, white-washing thing.”

What does success look like to you? Where do you hope Niko Rubio is in five, ten years?

It’s the constant question of, what is enough? Because I could say [win] five Grammy’s and that’s great, but I think, internally, I’m starting to understand and feel where my threshold is gonna be. Is it a McMansion in the Hills? Or is it being able to live? And be happy?

I think that I imagine myself being able to support my family. And, whether or not it’s with a Grammy, I really want to do, in five years, my own solo tour. I really want to have a clothing line. And at least be in Vogue, twice. *Laughs* Those are my goals”.

An amazing artist that everyone should follow, go and check out the amazing Niko Rubio. She is someone who is going to go very far indeed. Her music is among the best I have heard from any new artist. She is a wonderful talent…

TO celebrate.

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Follow Niko Rubio

FEATURE: Reel-to-Real: Stephen R. Johnson: Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer (1986)

FEATURE:

 

 

Reel-to-Real

Stephen R. Johnson: Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer (1986)

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MAYBE an obvious choice…

but I wanted to spend a moment with a real classic. The first single from his masterful 1986 album, So, Sledgehammer has one of the greatest and most innovative music videos ever. Its stop motion and meticulous filming and concept must have taken so long to come together! Peter Gabriel was very patient when being filmed. It looks rapid and seamless when you watch the video, but it consists of so many different scenes, tiny movements and eye-catching visions! Directed by Stephen R. Johnson and commissioned by Tessa Watts at Virgin Records, it was oroduced by Adam Dowd. Aardman Animations and the Brothers Quay provided claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song. It is fantastical, mind-bending and utterly innovative. I am not sure how many videos prior to 1986 were as groundbreaking! Sledgehammer’s video nine MTV Video Music Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, in addition to Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards. Even today, it has been unsurpassed. Nowadays, you would be able to film a similar video more quickly. Not many modern artists tackle claymation and stop motion for videos! So original and iconic, I have written about the video before. For a series that celebrates and illuminates the best and most captivating music videos, I could not pass by Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer!  Sort of repeating himself with the video for Steam (from the 1992 album, Us), nothing beats the wonder and awe one gets from watching Sledgehammer. Although a great team put it together, I do especially love Stephen R. Johnson’s direction.

During a decade where MTV was born (in 1981), so many songs were defined by the power of their videos. From Madonna and Michael Jackson to Peter Gabriel, we got some of the most remarkable videos ever in the 1980s. Maybe there was this ambition to get a video seen. Artists and directors pushing the form to lengths that had never been seen. Whilst music videos are used today, I can’t see the same sort of pioneering clips and genius as back then. Maybe it is very hard to reinvent the wheel or blow people’s minds. I want to use this moment to introduce a feature from Stereogum. One of the rare occasions where a video is so good that it eclipses a song that is phenomenal, Sledgehammer’s video will be remembered and adored for generations. Stereogum discussed the making of one of the best music videos ever:

“Sledgehammer,” Peter Gabriel’s big hit, is one of the many, many songs that owes a great deal of its success to its music video. That’s another thing that Peter Gabriel embraced early: The warping, convulsive possibilities of music videos as an art form. Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” video is one of the all-time masterpieces of the medium. The year after its release, “Sledgehammer” went Titanic on MTV’s Video Music Awards. It won nine trophies, the most ever for a single video. By some estimates, “Sledgehammer” is the most-played video in the entire history of MTV. So before we talk about “Sledgehammer” itself, we need to talk about the video.

Here’s the thing about the “Sledgehammer” video: It’s the fucking best. It rules so hard. It’s an experimental short and a Bugs Bunny cartoon at the same damn time. In its five minutes, the clip veers in all sorts of wonderfully weird and goofy directions. It turns Peter Gabriel’s face into a jittery glitched-out mirage, a blue sky, an ice sculpture, a sentient fruit garden, and a claymation hallucination that kicks itself in the face, along with who knows what else. I love it.

Before making that “Sledgehammer” video, director Stephen R. Johnson had made the similarly wild clip for the 1985 Talking Heads song “Road To Nowhere.” That video, in particular its stop-motion sequences, were what attracted Gabriel to Johnson. Johnson, in the oral history I Want My MTV: “I didn’t even like [‘Sledgehammer’], frankly. I thought it was just another white boy trying to sound Black. But Peter Gabriel took me to dinner, got me drunk on wine, and I agreed to do it.” With the “Sledgehammer” video, Johnson just went nuts, and Gabriel did everything necessary to bring Johnson’s visions to life.

In making the video, Johnson enlisted the help of the groundbreaking experimental stop-motion animators the Brothers Quay. At Gabriel’s behest, he also brought in Aardman Animations, the British production house that would later make the Wallace & Gromit films. Nick Park, who went on to create Wallace & Gromit, personally animated the bit in the “Sledgehammer” video where the two chickens dance. Park used real chicken carcasses, and they started to rot and stink while he was working on them. (Later on, Park co-directed the 2000 hit Chicken Run, so the experience apparently didn’t put him off working with chickens.) In working on the video, Gabriel himself had to spend 16 hours laying underneath a sheet of glass, and he got a bunch of electric shocks while wearing a Christmas tree costume. It all worked out. Gabriel, Johnson, and all their collaborators made something immortal.

A spectacle as outsized and surreal and popular as the “Sledgehammer” video makes for a fitting peak of Peter Gabriel’s career”.

A video that I first saw as a child, it has lost none of its magic. Sledgehammer broke ground in 1986, and it is regarded (rightly) as one of the best music videos of all time. To hear the song and come up with a video like that is amazing! Credit to director Stephen R. Johnson and everyone who made it happen. Credit also to Peter Gabriel, who would have given so much time and energy to a single music video! It is testament to his belief in the concept and potential of the Sledgehammer video. Even if you have seen it hundreds of times or see it for the first time today, the video for Sledgehammer will hit you with…

AN almighty wallop.

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Fifty-Eight: Otis Redding

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

Part Fifty-Nine: Otis Redding

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ONE of the greatest Soul singers…

who ever lived, I was keen to include Otis Redding in this feature. We lost the legend at the young age of twenty-six in 1967 following a plane crash. It is tragic when you think of how far he could have gone. I am going to come to a playlist of songs from artists who take a lead from Redding, or they definitely have been influenced by him. First, here is some biography from AllMusic:

“Otis Redding was one of the most powerful and influential artists to emerge from the Southern Soul music community in the '60s. A bold, physically imposing performer whose rough but expressive voice was equally capable of communicating joy, confidence, or heartache, Redding brought a passion and gravity to his vocals that was matched by few of his peers. He was also a gifted songwriter with a keen understanding of the creative possibilities of the recording process. Redding was born in 1941, and he hit the road in 1958 to sing with an R&B combo, Johnny Jenkins & the Pinetoppers. In 1962, Redding traveled to Memphis, Tennessee with Jenkins when the latter scheduled a recording session for Stax Records. When Jenkins wrapped up early, Redding cut a song of his own, "These Arms of Mine," in 40 minutes; Stax released it as a single in May 1963, and the song became a major R&B hit and a modest success on the Pop charts. Over the next four years, Redding would cut a handful of soul classics: "Mr. Pitiful," "That's How Strong My Love Is," "I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)," "Respect," "Tramp" (a duet with Carla Thomas), and "Shake." In 1967, Redding seemed poised for a major breakthrough with a legendary set at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival that solidified his status with hip rock & roll fans. Sadly, Redding would not live to see his greatest triumph: his most ambitious single, "(Sittin' on The) Dock of the Bay," was released little over a month after his death in a place crash, becoming his first number one Pop hit and his signature tune. Redding would become a bigger star in death than in life, and his recordings would be regularly re-released and repackaged in the years to come, as his legend and his influence lived on into the 21st century.

Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was born on September 9, 1941 in Dawson, Georgia. His father was a sharecropper and part-time preacher who also worked at Robins Air Force Base near Macon. When Otis was three, his family moved to Macon, settling into the Tindall Heights housing project. He got his first experience as a musician singing in the choir at Macon's Vineville Baptist Church, and as a pre-teen, he learned to play guitar, piano, and drums. By the time Redding was in high school, he was a member of the school band, and was regularly performing as part of a Sunday Morning gospel broadcast on Macon's WIBB-AM. When he was 17, Redding signed up to compete in a weekly teen talent show at Macon's Douglass Theater; he ended up winning the $5.00 grand prize 15 times in a row before he was barred from competition. Around the same time, Redding dropped out of school and joined the Upsetters, the band that had backed up Little Richard before the flamboyant piano man quit rock & roll to sing the gospel. Hoping to advance his career, Redding moved to Los Angeles in 1960, where he honed his songwriting chops and hooked up with a band called the Shooters. "She's Alright," credited to the Shooters featuring Otis, was Redding's first single release, but he soon returned to Macon, where he teamed up with guitarist Johnny Jenkins and his group the Pinetoppers; Redding sang lead with the group and also served as Jenkins' chauffeur, since the guitarist lacked a license to drive.

In early 1962, Otis Redding & the Pinetoppers issued a small label single, "Fat Gal" b/w "Shout Bamalama," and a few months later, Jenkins was invited to record some material for Stax Records, the up-and-coming R&B label based in Memphis, Tennessee. Redding drove Jenkins to the studio and tagged along for the session; Jenkins wasn't having a good day and ended up calling it quits early. With 40 minutes left on the session clock, Redding suggested they give one of his songs a try, and with Jenkins on guitar, Otis and the studio band quickly completed a take of "These Arms of Mine." Stax wasted no time signing Redding to their Volt Records subsidiary, and "These Arms of Mine" was released in November 1962; the single rose to number 20 on the R&B charts, and crossed over to the pop charts, peaking at number 85. Redding's follow-up, "That's What My Heart Needs," arrived the following October, and peaked at 27 on the R&B charts, but a stretch of singles released in 1964 failed to make much of impression.

Redding's luck changed in 1965. In January of that year, he released "That's How Strong My Love Is," which hit number 2 R&B and 71 Pop, while the B-side, "Mr. Pitiful," also earned airplay, with the song going to 10 R&B and just missed hitting the Pop Top 40, stalling at 41. Redding's masterful "I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)," issued in May 1965, shot to number 2 R&B, and became his first single to make the Pop Top 40, peaking at 21. Redding landed another crossover hit in September 1965, as his song "Respect" hit number four R&B and 35 Pop. By this time, Redding was becoming more ambitious as an artist, focusing on his songwriting skills, learning to play guitar, and becoming more involved with the arrangements and production on his sessions, helping to craft horn arrangements even though he couldn't write sheet music. He was also a tireless live performer, touring frequently and making sure he upstaged the other artists on the bill, as well as a savvy businessman, operating a successful music publishing concern and successfully investing in real estate and the stock market. In 1966, Redding also released two albums, The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads and Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul; he miraculously wrote and recorded most of the latter in a single day.

In 1966, Redding released a bold, impassioned cover of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" that was yet another R&B and Pop hit and led some to speculate that perhaps Redding was the true author of the song. That same year, he was honored by the NAACP, and played an extended engagement at the Whisky A Go Go on Hollywood's Sunset Strip; he was the first major soul artist to play the historic venue, and the buzz over his appearances helped boost his reputation with white rock & roll fans. Later that year, Redding and several other Stax and Volt Records artists were booked for a package tour of Europe and the United Kingdom, where they were greeted as conquering heroes; the Beatles famously sent a limousine to pick Redding up when he arrived at the airport for his London gig. The British music magazine Melody Maker named Redding the Best Vocalist of 1966, an honor that had previously gone to Elvis Presley for ten consecutive years. Redding released two strong and eclectic albums in 1966, The Soul Album and Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul, which found him exploring contemporary pop tunes and old standards in his trademark soulful style, and a cut from Dictionary of Soul, an impassioned interpretation of "Try a Little Tenderness," became one of his biggest hits to date and a highlight of his live shows.

In early 1967, Redding headed into the studio with fellow soul star Carla Thomas to record a duet album, King & Queen, which spawned a pair of hits, "Tramp" and "Knock on Wood." Redding also introduced a protege, vocalist Arthur Conley, and a tune Redding produced for Conley, "Sweet Soul Music," became a million-selling hit. After the release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band took psychedelia to the top of the charts and became a clarion call for the burgeoning hippie movement, Redding was inspired to write more thematically and musically ambitious material, and he solidified his reputation with what he called "the love crowd" with an electrifying performance at the Monterey Pop Festival, where he handily won over the crowd despite being the only deep soul artist on the bill. He next returned to Europe for more touring, and upon returning began work on new material, including a song he regarded as a creative breakthrough, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay." Redding recorded the song at the Stax Studio in December 1967, and a few days later he and his band set out to play a string of dates in the Midwest. On December 10, 1967, Redding and his band boarded his Beechcraft H18 airplane en route to Madison, Wisconsin for another club date; the plane struggled in bad weather and crashed into Lake Monona in Wisconsin's Dane County. The crash claimed the lives of Redding and everyone else on board, except for Ben Cauley of the Bar-Kays. Redding was only 26 when he died.

"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was released in January 1968 and quickly became Redding's biggest hit, topping both the Pop and R&B charts, earning two Grammy awards, and maturing into a much-covered standard. An LP collection of single sides and unreleased cuts, titled The Dock of the Bay, followed in February 1968, and it was the first of a long string of albums compiled from the material Redding cut in his seven-year recording career. In 1989, Redding was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he was granted membership into the BMI Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994, and he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999”.

To remember and acknowledge the enormous talent and influence of the late, great Otis Redding, the playlist below has songs from artists who you can tell were impacted by the great man. We live in an age where you do not really get terrific Soul artists like him or Aretha Franklin. I am not sure anyone can match their talent and power. Whether a classic act or a newer artist, there are many who have helped to keep Otis Redding’s…

SPIRIT alive.

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Ninety-Eight: Lionel Richie

FEATURE:

 

A Buyer’s Guide

Part Ninety-Eight: Lionel Richie

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NEARING in…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

on the hundredth edition of this feature, I am including the legendary Lionel Richie in A Buyer’s Guide. Rather than concentrate on his work with The Commodores, I am recommending his best solo work. I will highlighting his four best studio albums, an underrated album that deserves more love, and his latest studio album. I will also include a Lionel Richie book. Before getting to those recommendations, here is some biography about the iconic Lionel Richie:

“Although rooted in soul and R&B, Lionel Richie became a global superstar of the pop charts, blurring musical borders in the 1980s with solo hits like "All Night Long (All Night)," "Hello," and "Stuck on You," as well as chart-topping collaborations like the Diana Ross duet "Endless Love" and the star-studded charity single "We Are the World" which he co-wrote with Michael Jackson. A consummate singer, songwriter, and producer, Richie steered the Commodores into their most successful period, fronting the band on late-'70s hits like "Easy" and "Three Times a Lady" before making himself a household name as one of the most dominant male solo acts of the following decade. During his commercial peak, he proved himself a master of smooth romantic balladry, sending songs like "Truly" and the Oscar-winning "Say You, Say Me," to the top of the pop charts, though he also had a knack for more uptempo fare like 1986's "Dancing on the Ceiling." Richie also forged a unique crossover connection to country music, writing and producing for Kenny Rogers and collaborating with Alabama. Although his popularity faded during the '90s and early-2000s, Richie updated his sound with 2006's Coming Home and was rewarded with his first Top Ten LP in 20 years. The singer's renaissance continued over the next decade with 2012's country-driven Tuskegee returning him to the top of the pop charts. Beginning in 2018, Richie began a new high-profile role as a judge on American Idol, introducing him to younger generations of fans.

Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. was born on June 20, 1949 in Tuskegee, Alabama, and grew up on the campus of the Tuskegee Institute, where most of his family had worked for two generations. While attending college there, Richie joined the Commodores, who went on to become the most successful act on the Motown label during the latter half of the '70s. Richie served as a saxophonist, sometime-vocalist, and songwriter, penning ballads like "Easy," "Three Times a Lady," and "Still" (the latter two became the group's only number one pop hits). Although the Commodores maintained a democratic band structure through most of their chart run, things began to change when the '70s became the '80s. In 1980, Richie wrote and produced country-pop singer Kenny Rogers' across-the-board number one smash "Lady," and the following year, Richie's duet with Diana Ross, "Endless Love" (recorded for the Brooke Shields film of the same title), became the most successful single in Motown history, topping the charts for a stunning nine weeks. With the media's attention now focused exclusively on Richie, tensions within the Commodores began to mount, and before the end of 1981, Richie decided to embark on a solo career.

He immediately set about recording his solo debut for Motown. Titled simply Lionel Richie, the album was released in late 1982 and was an immediate smash, reaching number three on the pop charts on its way to multi-platinum status. It spun off three Top Five pop hits, including the first single, "Truly," which became Richie's first solo number one. If Lionel Richie made its creator a star, the follow-up, Can't Slow Down, made him a superstar. Boasting five Top Ten singles, including the number ones "All Night Long (All Night)" and "Hello," Can't Slow Down hit number one, eventually reached diamond status, and won the 1984 Grammy for Album of the Year. Such was Richie's stature that he was invited to perform at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, a spectacular stage event that was broadcast worldwide.

In 1985, Richie put his superstar status to work for a greater good, joining Michael Jackson in co-writing the USA for Africa charity single "We Are the World"; the all-star recording helped raise millions of dollars for famine relief. By the end of the year, he was on top of the charts again with "Say You, Say Me," a ballad recorded for the film White Nights but not included on the soundtrack album. The song was slated to be the title track on Richie's upcoming album, but delays in the recording process prevented the record from being released until August 1986, by which time the title was changed to Dancing on the Ceiling (in order to promote Richie's next single release). Three more Top Tens followed "Say You, Say Me," as did "Se La," which became the first of Richie's solo singles not to reach the pop Top Ten. Overall, Dancing on the Ceiling didn't reach the commercial heights of Can't Slow Down, though it was by any means a significant success.

Richie's nine-year streak of writing at least one number one single (a feat matched only by Irving Berlin) came to an end in 1987. As a matter of fact, Richie all but disappeared from the music business, exhausted after two decades of recording and performing, and also occupied with taking care of his ailing father. Richie's silence was broken in 1992, when Motown released a compilation titled Back to Front; in addition to some of his solo hits and a few Commodores tracks, Back to Front also featured three new songs, including the number one R&B hit "Do It to Me." Finally, in 1996, Richie returned to the studio with his first album or new material in a decade. With a sound updated for the era, Louder Than Words, was a moderate success, reaching the Top 30 and going gold. Appearing two years later, Time found Richie in a more familiar element, relying on his signature sound with only slight musical updates. However, it marked a commercial nadir for the veteran artist, spending only a few weeks in the lower reaches of the charts.

Richie's next album, Renaissance, was released to a favorable reception in Europe in late 2000; it was issued in the U.S. in early 2001. It fared best in the U.K., where it went platinum. Three years later Richie released Just for You, another album that was most successful in the U.K. The 2006 album Coming Home -- released the same year his popularity in certain Arab states was covered by mainstream media outlets -- found him working with an all-star cast of collaborators including Jermaine Dupri, Raphael Saadiq, Sean Garrett, and Dallas Austin. In the U.S., it reached the Top 10 of the pop and R&B charts. The wholly modern Just Go, released in 2009, featured assistance from Stargate, Terius "The-Dream" Nash, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, and Akon. His next release was much different: 2012's Tuskegee featured fully countrified updates of hits from his past, including "Easy" (with Willie Nelson), "Hello" (with Jennifer Nettles), and "Dancing on the Ceiling" (with Rascal Flatts). The album reached the top of the U.S. pop and country charts.

The following year, Richie embarked on his first North American tour in a decade. The All the Hits, All Night Long show took in some 18 different cities, before being extended over the next two years, with dates taking in cities across the world including a performance at the 2015 Glastonbury Festival. In 2016, Richie took the show to Vegas and performed a residency at the Planet Hollywood Zappos Theater. Over the next few years, Richie acted as a judge for the revived talent show American Idol, as well as playing more dates in Vegas. A recording of his show, Hello: Live from Las Vegas, was released in 2019 -- it debuted at two on Billboard -- while Richie once again embarked on a mammoth 33-date tour of North America. Heading into the next decade, he retained his role on American Idol, serving through the show's 2021 season”.

If you need a guide regarding the best Lionel Richie albums to own, I hope the suggestions below are of use. I am not sure if we will get another studio album. His most recent, Tuskegee, was released in 2012. Let’s hope there is more to come from the legend! Here are the albums that you need to get from…

THE one and only Lionel Richie.

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The Four Essential Albums

 

Lionel Richie

Release Date: 8th October, 1982

Label: Motown

Producers: James Anthony Carmichael/ Lionel Richie

Standout Tracks: Tell Me/My Love/Truly

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=45720&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5R8J87WpdqO4t4pB4F4LNJ?si=x1V-bWsqSdOCOKTp8dBOxA

Review:

“Lionel Richie's solo career began while he was still in the Commodores, as he wrote and sang (as a duet with Diana Ross) the theme to the Brooke Shields romance Endless Love, which became a bigger hit than any of the group's singles, thereby setting the stage for his departure and his 1982 self-titled solo debut. He wasn't working in unfamiliar territory, or with new musicians. The Commodores decided to work as their own band, so their producer, James Anthony Carmichael, was able to devote his energy to working on Richie's album. Using the pop-crossover ballad style of "Endless Love," "Three Times a Lady," and "Easy" as their template, the duo turned Lionel Richie into a sleek, state-of-the-art record that, at its best, provides some irresistible pop pleasures. The key to its success -- and the reason it was scorned by some Commodores fans -- is that Richie doesn't even make a pretense of funk here, leaving behind the loose, elastic grooves of his previous bands (a move that makes sense, since his voice never suited that style particularly well), choosing to concentrate on ballads and sparkly mid-tempo pop, peppered with a few stylish dance grooves. The ballads, of course, provided two big hits with "My Love" and "Truly," two numbers that illustrate that he was moving ever-closer to mainstream pop, since these are unapologetic AOR slow-dance tunes. The other big hit, "You Are," is an effervescent, wonderful pop tune that showcases Richie at his sunniest; it's one of his greatest singles. Throughout the first part of the record, the dance numbers are served up and they're very good -- "Serves You Right" has a shiny, propulsive groove, while "Tell Me" jams nicely. After "You Are," the record bogs down with a couple of ballads that are on the wrong side of adult contemporary -- too formless, too hookless to really catch hold -- but they don't hurt the first seven songs, which form a dynamic mainstream pop-soul record, one of the best the early '80s had to offer. It's the sound of Lionel Richie finding his solo voice, and, the next time out, he knew how to use it even better than he does here. [The 2003 reissue of Lionel Richie includes two bonus tracks: a solo demo of "Endless Love" which not only fits perfectly with this record, but is less cloying, and an instrumental of "You Are" whose primary worth is to hear the detail and expertise in the production Richie and Carmichael assembled.]” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: You Are

Can't Slow Down

Release Date: 11th October, 1983

Label: Motown

Producers: James Anthony Carmichael/Lionel Richie/David Foster

Standout Tracks: Stuck on You/Running with the Night/Hello

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=45794&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/609oTPBaxPzZUCHzQikOtC?si=5ZROANMsQQihjtnLRrRqTg

Review:

“By 1983, Lionel Richie had become Motown’s biggest star almost by default. With Stevie Wonder always a law unto himself when it came to releasing albums and Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson all departing the imprint, a significant release was needed in the label’s much-lauded 25th year.

Jackson’s Thriller was the new high water-mark in commercial pop/soul. Richie, arguably Jackson’s nearest rival at that point, had seen Jackson return to his old label for one night only on Motown’s 25th Anniversary in May that year and upstage everybody with his version of Billie Jean. Although his self-titled debut solo album from 1982 had been a confident step away from the Commodores, Richie knew that the bar had been raised for his second album on which he was currently working.

Richie stepped up to the challenge and created Can’t Slow Down, an album that became almost as ubiquitous as Jackson’s landmark. Made by around 50 people, it is one of the smoothest, most closely produced albums of the 80s.

Can’t Slow Down is very good indeed, Richie’s last true moment as a cutting-edge balladeer. Stuck on You is in the line of Commodores love songs Sail On and Easy; Penny Lover and The Only One are sweet and beguiling. Although it became a laughing stock in some quarters because of its video with the blind girl making a statue of the singer’s head out of modelling clay, album closer Hello showcased the craft that Richie had made his mark of quality.

And although virtually all of his old Commodores grit had been worn smooth, there was still a modicum of spikiness in the title-track, Running with the Night and the late night soul of Love Will Find a Way, is like the musical equivalent of cooking a gourmet meal – a drizzle of piano here, a pinch of synthesizer, there; tasteful, and sweet.

Released just ahead of the album, All Night Long (All Night) is one of the last great Motown singles. Using a lilting, infectious rhythm and a mumbo-jumbo breakdown, Richie created a dance masterpiece.

Can’t Slow Down was, of course, a huge hit, and went on to sell over eight million copies and garnered sundry Grammys. It further established Lionel Richie as the go-to ballad singer for millions, and, unlike many other records made in the mid-80s, is still very listenable” – BBC

Choice Cut: All Night Long (All Night)

Dancing on the Ceiling

Release Date: 15th July, 1986

Label: Motown

Producers: Lionel Richie/James Anthony Carmichael/Narada Michael Walden for Perfection Light Productions

Standout Tracks: Se La/Ballerina Girl/Say You, Say Me

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=41732&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5IvqScO5vIXQ2zrxtpCVHf?si=tY5Mot-lQL2J15OWqlU7Fg

Review:

“Lionel Richie will never surprise you. His triumph has been his ability to turn conservative dependability into a commercial, and at times even an aesthetic, virtue. If he's rarely galvanizing, he's never less than accomplished, and Dancing on the Ceiling sets an impressive standard for mainstream pop craft in the Eighties.

Following the massively successful formula defined by 1983's Can't Slow Down, Dancing on the Ceiling assembles a tasteful sampler of established musical styles. Among the most satisfying of these are the insinuating reggae groove of "Se La" and the Marvin Gaye-in-spired Motown sensuality of "Don't Stop." On these tracks, Richie and coproducer James Anthony Carmichael blend elegant rhythmic and percussive figures with synthesizer atmospherics to create alluring, sonically complex musical statements. The gritty roots of these songs inspire Richie to give committed vocal performances, toughening his phrasing and roughening the grain in his voice's timbre.

The title track flashes Richie's signature buppie funk, and "Love Will Conquer All" is a smart, bouncy pop duet with Marva King. The LP's two modest stretches are "Tonight Will Be Alright," a polished heartland rocker that features Eric Clapton's stinging guitar, and "Deep River Woman," an easy-listening country ballad on which Alabama provides rich background vocals. "Ballerina Girl," unfortunately, provides a virtual anthology of Richie's worst saccharine excesses.

Richie's musical brilliance, however, reveals itself on "Say You, Say Me," the bracing, Beatlesque pop classic that closes the album. That song's stirring arrangement, affirmative message and gentle expansiveness embody Richie's finest qualities – qualities in abundant supply on Dancing on the Ceiling” – Rolling Stone

Choice Cut: Dancing on the Ceiling

Just Go

Release Date: 13th March, 2009

Label: Island

Producers: Akon/JB & Corron/John Ewbank/Nando Eweg/David Foster/Clayton Haraba/Martin K./Sean K./Stargate/Tricky Stewart

Standout Tracks: Forever/Forever and a Day/Good Morning

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=369227&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0SF4YWvJFsZBXublew4PsF?si=z69IZoUERHCh7iZBs0hCtw

Review:

“Lionel Richie is a one-man service economy through much of “Just Go,” his solicitous new album. He wants to make sure you’re comfortable, fulfilled and secure in his devotion. “I am not okay/Unless you’re okay,” he declares in one ballad, “I’m Not Okay.” On the lightly Caribbean-flavored title track — produced by Akon and now on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart — he sings, “I’m here to take that stress from you.” Then he offers to cook a meal, make the bed and spirit you by sailboat to the Bahamas, where he’ll make good on the promise of a massage.

“You” in this case is a placeholder for Mr. Richie’s core demographic, which skews overwhelmingly female, and generally older than any of his kids. But if that makes “Just Go” a textbook adult-contemporary album, it also lends credible emotional footing to the songs. It’s one reason that Mr. Richie doesn’t sound out of his element singing on tracks provided by contemporary R&B hit makers, complete with up-to-the-minute production.

In that sense Mr. Richie is expanding on a formula that brought success a few years ago, when he released “I Call It Love,” a ballad produced by the Norwegian duo Stargate. “Just Go” features five songs apiece by Stargate and another bankable team, Christopher Stewart, known as Tricky, and Terius Nash, known as The-Dream. Mr. Richie has inspired both camps, and maybe sparked some competition: Stargate writes a song called “Forever,” and the other duo comes up with “Forever and a Day.”

Mr. Richie’s most relaxed moment occurs during “I’m in Love,” a Stargate song written with Ne-Yo. As for his weirdest moment: “Into You Deep,” by Mr. Stewart and Mr. Nash, weighs guilt-stricken pleas against a stark, thumping beat, with compellingly creepy results.

Then there’s “Eternity,” a utopian hymn arranged by David Foster, and a distinctly grown-up valediction. Mr. Richie sounds fine there, but he’s even better singing, “Party like there’s nothing left to give,” his refrain from a second track produced by Akon. Never mind the hint of exhaustion in those lyrics; your host is here to please” – The New York Times

Choice Cut: Just Go (featuring Akon)

The Underrated Gem

 

Louder Than Words

Release Date: 16th April, 1996

Label: Mercury

Producers: James Anthony Carmichael/David Foster/Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis/Lionel Richie

Standout Tracks: Still in Love/Don't Wanna Lose You/Climbing

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=257865&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3DSci5KKdb4imJa66kVRf4?si=yY7K8FqnTZqrhbvSK9RyZA

Review:

“Remember when Lionel Richie was one of the biggest names in R&B? When Dancing on the Ceiling topped the charts in 1986, Richie was second only to Michael Jackson in crossover appeal, thanks to an impressive run of top 10 singles — ”All Night Long,” ”Hello,” and the Oscar-winning ”Say You, Say Me,” among them. These weren’t mere commercial successes, either; there was a melodic ingenuity to Richie’s work that put him on par with Motown’s finest songwriters. At the time, his career momentum seemed unstoppable.

But stop it did. Between writer’s block, an embarrassing divorce, and a record company dispute, it took six years for Richie to deliver his next album, and even then the best he could manage was the greatest hits collection Back to Front. When that slid off the charts after barely cracking the top 20, even his fans filed Richie under ”has-been.”

Let’s not be hasty, though. Richie’s career may be colder than a Minnesota winter, but with Louder Than Words, his first album of new material in a decade, he makes it clear that he hasn’t lost his touch. From the singalong charm of ”Ordinary Girl” to the slow-boil balladry of ”Piece of Love,” these songs are very much in the vein of his ’80s output. In fact, the soulful ”Don’t Wanna Lose You” sounds as if he were back with the Commodores.

But that’s the trouble. Though it’s only been 10 years since he dominated the charts, Richie’s middle-of-the-road rhythm & blues may as well be from another century. It isn’t that he can’t work a groove; what makes Richie seem so old-fashioned is that he doesn’t understand that these days the groove is everything.

Richie does strive for something contemporary. But it’s hard to be convinced by the sinuous synth-funk (courtesy of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) of ”I Wanna Take You Down” when it’s immediately preceded by the countrified ballad ”Still in Love.” Even the space shuttle couldn’t get from Nashville to Minneapolis that quickly.

Still, Richie is only partly to blame. With the rise of rap, and R&B’s movement toward a street sensibility and harder beats, crossover became a dirty word. Compared to tough-lovers R. Kelly, Mary J. Blige, or Jodeci, Richie comes across as a fuddy-duddy.

A pity, because even if he hasn’t kept up with the times, he has grown. There’s a complexity to ”Can’t Get Over You” that wasn’t there a decade ago, as Richie’s protagonist tries to bridge the gap between what he knows and how he feels. Unlike the simple sentimentality of an early-’80s hit like ”Still,” Richie goes for emotional ambiguity here, relying on pacing and dynamics to convey the anger and regret mere words could never capture. It’s a subtle piece of work, but totally convincing.

Then there’s his singing. Where Richie’s older hits evoked Barry Manilow, Louder Than Words finds him sounding more like Marvin Gaye, bringing a lush sensuality to the loping rhythms of ”I Wanna Take You Down” and evoking the jazzy confidence of ”What’s Going On” in ”Change.” Even better is the sultry ”Piece of Love,” which finds Richie wading into the sort of soulful backwaters his music hasn’t visited since the Commodores left Tuskegee.

Just as ”Piece of Love” reminds us of Richie’s roots, the gutsy delivery he gives ”Say I Do” defines his new maturity. Had it been left to, say, Janet Jackson, this Jam & Lewis ballad would have been predictable Top 40 fare. But in Richie’s hands ”Say I Do” strikes a deeper chord, begging for commitment in a way that makes the chorus seem less like a melodic ploy than the sort of dramatic payoff his performance demands.

Whether that can convince contemporary radio that Richie is as dope as Janet Jackson remains to be seen. But even if Louder Than Words doesn’t put him back on top of the charts, it’s proof that Richie is on top of his game” – Entertainment Weekly

Choice Cut: Ordinary Girl

The Latest Album

 

Tuskegee

Release Date: 5th March, 2012

Label: Mercury

Producers: Tony Brown/Buddy Cannon/Nathan Chapman/Kenny Chesney/Dann Huff/Dirk Vanoucek (assoc.)

Standout Tracks: My Love (with Kenny Chesney)/Hello (with Jennifer Nettles)/Endless Love (with Shania Twain)

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=434599&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5FnNO3IO6veN62ZdaV7j3z?si=GpNg2E4ZRy2JVHAbtCEaJw

Review:

“From Tuskegee, Alabama, Lionel Richie was always a county boy at heart: that much was implicit by the narrative-heavy ballads that pepper his back catalogue and the countless countrified covers of Three Times a Lady. Here, his Stetson is truly out of the closet as he gives a collection of his classic numbers a pronounced rural makeover, duet-style as he brings in some of the genre’s biggest names. Shrewd choices too, running from the legendary to the contemporary, meaning Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson and Shania Twain put in appearances, as do Rascal Flatts, Darius Rucker and Rasmus Seebach – but this isn’t simply a sales pitch. Richie constantly crops up at the Country Music Association Awards and is probably as marketable to the lighter end of the country music audience as most of his guests. And this album won’t have affected such a status quo.

With the exception of a couple of ill-advised collaborations – Hello, with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles, is even more mawkish than the original; Angel, featuring Pixie Lott, becomes a bland power ballad – it all works with total synchronicity. The tempos, sentiments and story-telling centres of these songs are perfect country fodder, and Richie’s light touch with the vocals and the instrumentation has long been established. Dancing on the Ceiling becomes a mildly raucous banjo-fest; Say You Say Me adopts a pedal steel guitar; Deep River Woman, featuring Little Big Town’s delicate harmonising, is rural gospel personified; Easy has a creeping organ that’s pure Memphis, while the harmonica and Willie Nelson’s singing give it nearly an outlaw quality; and Jimmy Buffett fits perfectly with the restrained island pulse of All Night Long. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about these hayride makeovers is the music and the vocal interactions seem so natural, in quite a few cases you have to go back to the originals to check something has actually been changed.

Whether Tuskegee, the album, is enough to please hard core country fans is not really the point here – Richie’s post-Commodores output was largely ignored by soul fans. He’s a pop artist of substance, and as such brings a touch of class and sufficient flavour of another genre to the mainstream to make music that’s interesting and lasting” – BBC

Choice Cut: Stuck on You (with Darius Rucker)

The Lionel Richie Book

Lionel Richie: Hello

Author: Sharon Davis

Publication Date: 1st March, 2009

Publishers: Equinox Publishing Ltd,SW11

Synopsis:

“For nearly thirty years Lionel Richie has never looked back as a performer. From fronting his group the Commodores - the premier R&B pop unit of the seventies - he became the most popular singer/songwriter in the world by the eighties. A decade later he was the ultimate star entertainer with a 'nice guy' image. The "Lionel Richie" story is about a five-time Grammy winner who has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. For nine consecutive years he had no 1 singles in America, a feat matched only by Irving Berlin. It is also the story of two broken marriages, personal insecurities, near-death experiences and an insight into the man behind a success story that broke the rules. "Lionel Richie" is the first book written about Lionel Richie and the Commodores and draws on Sharon Davis' unique access to the Motown archive, her numerous in depth interviews with Richie as well as her time as the Comodores' publicist” – Amazon.co.uk

Order: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lionel-Richie-Hello-Popular-History/dp/184553185X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=BGPZ8AA5SVHO&keywords=lionel+richie&qid=1648018359&s=books&sprefix=lionel+richie%2Cstripbooks%2C50&sr=1-2

FEATURE: Everybody's Crazy for You: Looking Ahead to the Fortieth Anniversary of Madonna’s Debut Single: Time for a New Covers Album?

FEATURE:

 

 

Everybody’s Crazy for You

IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Lynn Goldsmith 

Looking Ahead to the Fortieth Anniversary of Madonna’s Debut Single: Time for a New Covers Album?

__________

NOT that every legendary artist or band...

gets their own tribute or covers album, but there are a load of other artists who want to pay tribute to another. Whether it is The Beatles or Prince, cover versions can give well-known songs by legends new light. I am not sure how many cover albums there have been relating to Madonna, but I do feel that this October marks a big moment. In October 1982, her debut single, Everybody, was released. To mark forty years of that important and historic moment, there should be a tribute album. As part of BBC Radio 6 Music’s festival in Cardiff, Manic Street Preachers performed a cover of Madonna’s track, Borderline. From her eponymous debut album of 1983, it was a great cover! It got me thinking about a whole range of artists who have either tackled a Madonna cut in the studio or performed it live. The positive reaction to Manic Street Preachers’ Madonna turn made me wonder whether they will take that song into the studio. I speculated how a cheeky cover of Material Girl (from 1984’s Like a Virgin) would be a great idea. There are a few Madonna anniversaries this year (the thirtieth anniversary of Erotica for instance), and I feel that, as her debut single is forty in October, maybe a forty-track tribute album would do full justice.

I know her 1990 greatest hits compilation was called The Immaculate Collection. Maybe a tribute album should be something similar to that in terms of title. As her debut single is called Everybody, something that nods to that. At forty tracks, it would allow a whole range of artists a chance to provide their take on her material. It is impossible to say just how many of Madonna’s tracks have been covered through the years. There has not been a Madonna-endorsed tribute album - or at least not one for a while. As her biopic is due at some point this year – which she is also directing -, it is a perfect time to think about it. Maybe it could be a charity fundraising album. Available on double cassette, two CDs and a vinyl set, perhaps it would be reserved for bigger fans who have the money to invest. That said, it could be available via streaming, so fans would not be priced out. It would also be a way for younger listeners the chance to connect with Madonna. Maybe hearing some of her lesser-known tracks for the first time. Think of artists who have been inspired by Madonna. From Beyoncé and Britney Spears through to Lady Gaga and Gwen Stefani. From huge artists to new acts, combining them all for one album would be a real tribute to the Queen of Pop.

I am not sure which of her songs could make up the forty. I don’t think that it should be just her studio album songs. She has contributed to film soundtracks; there are B-sides and rarer songs that are worth exploring. If I had to choose forty for artists to cover, they would be Borderline, Holiday and Everybody from her debut album; Material Girl and Angel from Like a Virgin; Papa Don’t Preach, Live to Tell and La Isla Bonita from True Blue; Erotica and Bad Girl from Erotica; Secret, Human Nature and Bedtime Story from Bedtime Stories; Swim, Ray of Light and Frozen from Ray of Light. There is Vogue from I’m Breathless; Who’s That Girl from the soundtrack of the same name. It would take sufficient time to assort the songs and artists and get it all recorded…so it may be tight to get it done by October. That said, one feels something of this nature must be planned ahead of the anniversary. As Everybody was her first single, there will be other features, projects and celebrations of the moment when a future Pop queen launched a great debut. Maybe not her best track, it is very underrated. It is extremely important. As the Manic Street Preachers showed on Thursday in Cardiff when they provided their take on Borderline, there are intriguing possibilities! Disparate and varied artists going into studios to cover Madonna songs from 1982 to present (or her latest album, 2019’s Madame X). There is a lot of love out there from Madonna from so many corners of the music landscape. A 2022 tribute album would show that so many artists are…

CRAZY for her.

FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Eighty-Eight: Normani

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern Heroines

Part Eighty-Eight: Normani

___________

FOR this eighty-eighth…

edition of Modern Heroines, I am featuring one of the Pop and R&B world’s hottest, most talented and greatest artists. Normani auditioned as a solo act for the American television series The X Factor in 2012, after which she became a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony. Never really given a chance to step into the spotlight and spread her wings, she seems a lot happier and stronger as a solo artist. Her long-awaited debut studio album is due this year. I shall come to that soon. There are a few interviews that I want to collate, just to give an impression of how far Normani has come and where she is heading. Allure chatted with her back in September:

“Over the past year and a half, a lot of truths have come to light for Normani. The pandemic mandated a change of pace that gave her the space to breathe and go inward. There had been no time to process the trauma she was left feeling after the Fifth Harmony breakup and the pause let Normani finally put her all into being a solo phenomenon. In 2018, she had released a massive single, “Love Lies” with Khalid, and left mouths gaping while she ate up her live performance of the song at the Billboard Music Awards. Then there was the EP collaboration with Calvin Harris, and successful tracks with 6lack (“Waves”) and Sam Smith (“Dancing With a Stranger”). For 2019’s “Motivation,” Normani opted not to have a featured artist and the single gained even more traction than its predecessors, thanks to the nostalgic, bubblegum-pink music video that zoomed in on her athleticism and dance talents.

Coming out as a new artist for the second time is a challenge, but Normani returned on fire. Now, the star in bloom is in the final stages of producing her debut solo album, reveling in her grown womanhood, and at home with so much more of who she is. “A lot of breakthroughs are happening these days,” she says proudly.

Laurel DeWitt cabbage top. Chanel earrings and necklace. To create a similar look: Naked Cherry Eyeshadow Palette, 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion, Vice Lipstick in Big Bang, and Stay Naked Threesome in Fly by Urban Decay. Photographed by: Adrienne Raquel. Cover illustration: Andreea Robescu. Fashion stylist: Nicola Formichetti. Hair: Ursula Stephen. Makeup: Sarah Tanno. Production: Viewfinders.

Normani Kordei Hamilton was born in Atlanta in 1996 and raised in New Orleans, an only child. Her mom and dad worked incredibly hard, and for young Normani, witnessing their work ethic was an early foreshadowing of her own grit and ambition. In the midst of traveling frequently for their jobs, her parents balanced long shifts with keeping Normani enrolled in gymnastics, dance, and later, pageants. When they were away, she was raised by her grandmother, who Normani says is the “real star of the family.” It was in her car where Normani would belt out the words to Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” She laughs as she remembers her grandmother’s commitment to her own Tina Turner fandom, like the time she went to a Halloween party dressed as the icon — wig and all. Their intergenerational bond is cosmic: “She’s really my best friend. She’s my soul mate, for real,” Normani says of her grandma.

As a young brown-skinned Black girl in the South, affirming spaces were crucial as they weren’t everywhere in Normani’s orbit. “I grew up feeling beautiful. My mom, my dad, my grandmother instilled in me at a very early age that I was beautiful,” she says, smiling. “The fact that my skin was chocolate was a beautiful thing. My kinky hair was beautiful. I don’t need to straighten it. I can rock my braids to my all-white school.”

Normani’s white classmates doled out microaggressions and racist comments about her skin and hair that she knows would’ve been more detrimental without the encouragement she received from her loved ones.

“I did get bullied a lot. Not feeling like I had that representation at school was very hard,” she says. Eventually, after moving to Houston following Hurricane Katrina and switching schools a few more times, Normani and her parents decided when she was in sixth grade that homeschooling was best for her.

The rejection Normani felt from her peers lingers even now that she’s in her mid 20s. She still has to quell thoughts that tell her she doesn’t belong. To stand out, Normani has given her everything to be the best. “I’ve always felt like the underdog in anything that I’ve ever done,” she tells me.

The stakes are high for Black girls from the day we’re born. We aren’t allotted an infinite number of opportunities to show that we’re talented, and that is coupled with the looming expectation that we be so. There is little margin for our trials and errors. For Normani, who is obviously very gifted, her presence was seen as too strong and, in turn, she has often been disregarded. She has touched success, but the recognition can seem like a farce. Impostor syndrome can override everything that is true and prompt the question: Are the wins real and deserved if you’ve had to work harder than everyone else for the recognition?

The answer is not only in her artist’s résumé, but also in the battles she’s won. At this point in her career, Normani has talked about her negative experiences in Fifth Harmony more times than she should have to. While part of one of the biggest girl groups of the 2010s, she navigated racist trolls, a problematic group member, and the recommendation that she repress her star power to blend in.

“I didn’t get to really sing in the group. I felt like I was overlooked,” Normani says. “That idea has been projected on me. Like, this is your place.”

Historically, the term “pop” has come with the notion that the artist and/or product has been carefully packaged. There must be something highly sellable, an element of mass appeal, along with the ability to traverse styles. But the tides continue to turn as Black female artists attain mainstream status with authenticity and experimentation. Normani checks all the boxes, but she also wants to create outside of those lines.

“My purpose in this work that I do is for other people that feel like they have Black women figured out. There’s so many layers to us, there’s so many textures, there’s so much that we’re capable of doing,” Normani says. “Yes, I can throw ass. But I can also give you a proper eight-count, and I can do ballet, and I can do contemporary dance. If I want to sing this pop ballad, then you’re going to love it! While you see my Black face!” Period.

Normani’s grateful for the blueprints of the artists who’ve paved the way, but she’s clear about one thing: Her only formula is her work ethic. Normani puts in the hours of an outlier — studying her craft, getting in after-hours rehearsals — and she doesn’t rest until whatever she’s working on is right. “When I show up, I’m ready,” she says. “You can’t point the finger at me”.

Last July, Harper’s BAZAAR published an interview where they celebrated a new era for Normani’s music. They noted that there was one bog obstacle that she has overcome: herself:

“For Normani, her return to the public eye is about more than just the music, though; it's about finding her voice as an artist, a performer, and a woman. While "Motivation" was a bubblegum-pop track that echoed her career beginnings as a member of the popular girl group Fifth Harmony, "Wild Side" showcases a more complex, sensual, and aware Normani. Getting to this point, the singer says, meant getting out of her own head when it came to public expectations of what her music should sound like.

"The new music is a lot darker and edgier sonically," Normani explains. "I think that's just because I grew up listening to a lot of '90s R&B—and I love pop as well—but I think for me, a main goal is really not to be limited [musically] and really wanting to be genre-less. A lot of the music that I've released even before my solo endeavors, I wasn't completely fulfilled. And I always say that this is a rebirth and a chance for me to have a second go-around and do things my way. My main goal is also just to show people that I'm grown now."

PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Swales 

Part of embracing a more mature and sexier sound included bringing Cardi B along for the ride. Normani only praises the rapper when asked about her experience collaborating on their new hit.

"[Her support] means everything, because she's been so consistent—since the beginning, to be completely honest. She's such a genuine spirit, and not only do I respect her as an artist and everything that she's had to go through [to get where she is now]," Normani says. "Sometimes people forget that we're human beings and that we've endured a lot. I respect that she knows who she is and she really genuinely believes in me. I was on the phone with her yesterday and the night before, and she was just like, 'You got to be excited! Why are you scared?' Just encouraging me and telling me that I'm that bitch and reminding me of that, because sometimes I tend to forget. Imagine having her as your hype woman!".

Before coming to news of her debut solo album, I want to get to an interview with W. If some of Normani’s songs suggest a more bubblegum sound, her debut album is going to offer something for everyone:

“How would you describe the sound of your next project?

I naturally gravitate toward eerier, darker sounds. Sound selection is my favorite part of the production process, especially when you get in with a producer who is willing to break barriers. We just go in there and play by no rules. I come from a super pop girl group, but I grew up listening to ’90s R&B, which is pretty much what I still listen to every single day. There’s so much space in between, it gives me the opportunity to really play.

Will there be a darker visual aesthetic that goes along with that?

I’m not always as bubblegum as “Motivation” was, or as bubblegum as how people have perceived me to be from looking at that music video. So just imagine the flip side of that. It’s still going to be palatable for a wide audience. Nobody is going to feel left out.

For six years, you were primarily known as a member of the pop girl group Fifth Harmony. But in 2018, you released “Love Lies,” a duet with Khalid, and the following year came “Motivation,” a chart-topping, upbeat single, with a music video filled with ’90s and ’00s pop references. How have you been preparing for your next project, out this summer?

Honestly, 2020 was a tough year for me, because my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I couldn’t travel home to Houston because of Covid. But then I kind of had to shift my perspective and just know that finishing my album really helped her get through it, and helped me get through it.

What do your parents think of the new music you’ve been working on?

Oh my goodness. Honestly, I could put out trash, and my mom and dad would literally be like, “This is a hit, this is a smash, how dare y’all not love it the way we love it.” They swear they are my A&R”.

I think Normani is going to be a music icon of the future. A tremendous talent whose debut album should be stunning, it will be exciting to see how her solo career blossoms. NME featured news of the album at the end of December:

“The news came during Ciara’s stint guest-hosting The Ellen DeGeneres Show yesterday (December 30), when Normani opened up about the challenges she’s faced in making a name for herself outside of Fifth Harmony. “Coming out of a girl group,” she explained, “there was a lot that I had to figure out about myself and fears that I had to deal with head-on.

“I was always so safe being in a girl group. I remember my mom when I was little, she was like, ‘Why do you want to be in a girl group so bad? Is it so you can hide?’ And I think that that was pretty much the answer. But God had other plans for me, and by his faithfulness and his grace… Oh, he’s really, really kept me. Because what we do is not easy, guys, I’m telling you.”

The singer noted that she’s found working on her solo album much harder than it was to mint a Fifth Harmony record, telling Ciara: “I think people really underestimate how hard it is and how much effort we put into one project, one body of work”.

She also touched on the way confidence plays a big role in any release. “When you give your baby out to the world – which is, y’know, our music – that’s the deepest part of me,” she said, “[and] you give people the opportunity to kind of pick it apart and have an opinion on it; but I believe in what I’m doing now, for sure”.

A remarkable talent who is going to be putting out a debut album very soon, I love the work of the awesome Normani. If you have not heard her music or are aware of her talent, then make sure you check her out. I am ending this feature with a playlist of some of her tracks, to show you…

WHAT an amazing artist she is.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Super Furry Animals – Hey Venus!

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Super Furry Animals – Hey Venus!

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WHEN it comes to bands…

who have had this sort of near-faultless run through their careers, they do not come a lot better than the Super Furry Animals! The Welsh band’s ninth and final album, Dark Days/Light Years, was released in 2009. Looking at the reviews for all of their albums makes for impressive reading! Almost all of them have won huge acclaim. There are a couple that I feel did not scoop the amount of praise warranted. One such album is their penultimate, Hey Venus! Released in 2007, this is an album that did get acclaim, though there were a few reviews not quite as positive as they could have been. I guess that is always going to happen. The reason I am highlighting Hey Venus! Is that it is one of the Super Furry Animals’ best albums. You do not hear the songs from it played on the radio as much as you do from, say, the tracks on Fuzzy Logic (their 1996 debut) or Radiator (the 1997 follow-up). Hey Venus! Contains classic slices like Run-Away and Show Your Hand. It is an album that I would recommend everyone check out today. It is remarkable that any band could release nine albums that have almost received nothing but positivity and love! I am trying to think how many others can claim that! In any case, Hey Venus! is one of the nine Super Furry Animals albums that should have got even more praise.

It is underrated I feel. The tracks on the album warrant wider appreciation today. This is what AllMusic said in their review:

“Sometime after Radiator, Super Furry Animals began exploring a wide sonic world, eventually drifting far out into orbit with albums like Rings Around the World and Phantom Power, albums so ambitious and so packed with celeb cameos that they brought the band attention from the respectable press. As accomplished as those albums were, they found SFA losing their divine gift of suggesting that anything could happen, the very thing that made their first four albums so divine. While they didn't get as overstuffed and lethargic as Mercury Rev or Flaming Lips did when they turned all serious -- an impish sense of humor always pulsated underneath their music -- Super Furry Animals did turn a bit ponderous, which made the relative levity of Love Kraft welcome even if the album was uneven, but that warm, hazy record in no way suggested the full-fledged return to pop power that is 2007's Hey Venus! By far the tightest record SFA has released since Radiator -- boasting no song over five minutes and four clocking in under three -- this is a concise, song-oriented record, which is somewhat ironic since it began its life as something as a concept album.

The narrative was ditched during the recording as the group culled together 11 songs that hold together as an intensely colorful, insanely catchy pop album. Such a claim may suggest that this is the return of the frenzied rush of Fuzzy Logic, which isn't exactly true, because after a flurry of hooks at the outset -- "Run-Away," "Show Your Hand," and even the cleverly tossed-off opener, "The Gateway Song," all hold their own with "God! Show Me Magic" and "Herman Loves Pauline" -- the record settles into softer territory, trading on the lush Beach Boys, Bacharach, and ELO of their turn-of-the-century records. But if those albums were gauzy, as much about the texture as about the tune, here the focus is solely on the song, with each of the 11 tracks standing on its own yet working together to create an addictive 37-minute pop album. And just because this is disciplined in a way that Super Furry Animals haven't been in years doesn't mean they've ceased to progress -- they've never had songs as lazily soulful as the closing "Let the Wolves Howl at the Moon" or "The Gift That Keeps Giving" with its electric sitars, and "Baby Ate My Eightball" threads their electronic fascinations into a lean rocker, the kinds of subtle innovations that prove that the Furries can still surprise as they enter their second decade. That reclaimed sense of unpredictability is as easy to embrace as the simple pop pleasures of Hey Venus! as a whole”.

With their lead, Gruff Rhys, providing some of his best vocals to date, Hey Venus! is a treasure trove. It is also a good introduction to anyone new to the Welsh wonders. Although there is oddity and experimentation, there is nothing on Hey Venus! that would put people off. I will finish off with the BBC’s take on the 2007 album:

“And the award for most innovative band of our time goes to.... the Super Furry Animals. OK there's no such thing but if there was, the Furries would be a good outside bet to snatch this one away from the likes of Radiohead and The Flaming Lips. You see the wacky Welsh wizards are currently on album number eight and once again they have served up a record that both baffles and inspires.

Produced by David Newfield (Broken Social Scene), Hey Venus! is part one of a two-chapter epic. Like 2003's Phantom Power, the latest instalment in Furrymania - which follows the adventures of a young woman who flees her small town for the big metropolis - fires out pop gems at every turn. Only this time they're both shorter and sweeter.

Kicking off with the band's ‘shortest song ever’ at just 43 seconds, the stomping "Gateway Song" sounds like Chas And Dave covering Status Quo. Then comes five minutes of pure pop bliss in the form of the heartfelt "Run-Away" and jangling lead-off single 'Show Your Hand'. It's a shrewd trick and one that works brilliantly elsewhere especially on stand-out track "Into The Night", a huge pop belter, served up with calypso beats, fuzzy guitars and an Indian twist.

But a Super Furries album wouldn't be complete without their usual dollop of wackiness. "Baby Ate My Eightball" is as bonkers as its title suggests as is piano driven closer "Let The Wolves Howl At The Moon". But the award for most mental track on the album unashamedly goes to psychedelic brass beast 'Battersey Odyssey'. Here guitarist Huw Bunford sounds like his head's been shoved underwater as he warbles: "Battersey Odyssey/Battersey Odyssey" while the rest of the band pull out every instrument under the sea.

You can always rely on the Furries to deliver a brilliant album and Hey Venus! is right up there with some of their best material (Radiator, Guerrilla, Phantom Power). Let's hope part two is just as bonkers”.

A magnificent album from a band who called it quits when they were still on a high and producing phenomenal work, Hey Venus! is a masterful and stunning album. Go and investigate the fine work of Super Furry Animals. Despite most critics latching onto and loving Hey Venus!, it is an album that deserves even…

MORE love than it got.

FEATURE: A Long Term Effect: The Cure's Pornography at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

A Long Term Effect

The Cure’s Pornography at Forty

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THE fourth studio album from The Cure…

Pornography was released on 4th May, 1982. Ahead of its fortieth anniversary, I wanted to spend a bit of time with an album that was not given great reception when it was released. It is still not seen necessarily as one of The Cure’s best. Maybe people could sense the darkness and fracture that was present within the band. The fact they survived and managed to keep on recording is amazing in itself! The album sessions saw the band on the brink of collapse, with heavy drug use, band in-fighting. Their lead, Robert Smith, was in a huge depressive state. That influenced a lot of the lyrical content. The band would go on to record more uplifting music, but I feel Pornography is a dark masterpiece that should be written about in the lead-up to its fortieth anniversary. I want to collate some articles that have explored Pornography through the years. Udiscovermusic.com told the story of The Cure’s underrated album on its thirty-ninth anniversary last year:

“A proto-goth masterpiece, The Cure’s ‘Pornography’ is one of the darkest and most extreme records

Battered by personal bereavements, exhaustion from playing 200 gigs a year, and debilitating depression, The Cure’s Robert Smith was at a very low ebb early in 1982. “I had every intention of signing off,” he admitted in Jeff Apter’s Never Enough: The Story Of The Cure. “I wanted to make the ultimate ‘f__k off’ record and then sign off.” Artistically, Smith achieved his aim with The Cure’s fourth album, the controversially titled Pornography. Released in May 1982 – and later hailed as a proto-goth masterpiece – the album remains one of the darkest and most extreme records known to rock, though it rightly ranks highly among the most essential platters in Smith and co’s illustrious canon.

Pornography is regarded as the third and final installment in the original three-piece Cure’s early “gloom trilogy”, which began with their sparse, pessimistic sophomore LP, Seventeen Seconds, and continued with 1981’s unremittingly bleak Faith: the latter recorded in mourning after Smith’s grandparents both passed away.

In retrospect, though, it’s astonishing that Pornography was even completed. Not only was the pervasive mood of nihilism in London’s RAK Studio further exacerbated by LSD and heavy alcohol consumption, but The Cure also incurred the wrath of the studio’s cleaners by expressly forbidding them to touch the mountainous beercan sculpture they constructed during the sessions.

Opening with the oppressively dense “One Hundred Years” (wherein Smith sneered “It doesn’t matter if we all die”), Pornography was harsh and brutal, but while its creators may have been on the brink of collapse they were still capable of innovation. For example, Lol Tolhurst’s monumental drum sound was captured through a (then) radical approach where all the acoustic dividers were removed from RAK’s main room, leaving him to play his parts in a huge open space. Elsewhere, to create the weird, claustrophobic titular song, the band and co-producer Phil Thornalley used a proto-sampling technique (akin to David Byrne and Brian Eno on My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts) whereby they dropped in snatches of commentary recorded from a TV documentary about sex.

Though dominated by relentless, hypnotic dirges such as “The Figurehead” and the icy, keyboard-swathed “Cold,” Pornography nonetheless yielded one minor hit single courtesy of the insistent, drum-heavy “The Hanging Garden.” Its parent LP’s unyielding darkness ensured it was received coldly by the critics on release, yet, commercially, Pornography still out-performed the band’s previous LPs, peaking at No.8 in the UK Top 40.

Replicating the record’s sleeve, The Cure sported their soon-to-be trademark big hair and lipstick for the first time when they embarked on their ill-fated Fourteen Explicit Moments tour across Europe. Smith, Tolhurst, and bassist Simon Gallup, however, split after inter-band tensions came to a head during the jaunt. When Smith later reanimated The Cure, he radically changed direction, steering the band towards pop success with quirky, radio-friendly hits including “The Walk” and “The Love Cats”.

Although not the most accessible and easy-going album from The Cure, Pornography is a fascinating album that is well worth hearing! Like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, The Cure were falling apart and there was so much disruption. Although not quite on the same level as Rumours, Pornography is a remarkable album. This is what Drowned in Sound:

“The Cure didn't fit in with any scene back then and probably never have. They existed on their own terms, impossible to pigeonhole, although many have tried. Even prior to Pornography their appearances on Top Of The Pops stood out like proverbial sore thumbs. Having made their debut on the show in April 1980 with 'A Forest' and followed it up almost twelve months to the day with 'Primary', both minor hits with the former briefly bothering the lower end of the Top 40 while the latter stalled just outside, no one could have predicted they'd go onto become one of the most influential bands of their generation.

Having already undergone several line-up changes during their brief career prior to commencing work on Pornography, it seemed like The Cure's star had shone as brightly as it was ever likely to. Their status as a "cult band" seemingly assured - indeed they'd released a single under a pseudonym entitled 'I'm A Cult Hero' three years earlier - they were a band in limbo, unsure of their next move or indeed if they had one left in them. Their last release 'Charlotte Sometimes' preceded Pornography by seven months, a single that undoubtedly heralded a new direction between the oblique soundscapes of third album Faith and the bleak narrative of its forthcoming successor. Produced by Mike Hedges who'd worked on both Faith and second album Seventeen Seconds, 'Charlotte Sometimes' signified the end of an era in one way and the dawning of a new one in another.

Fuelled by depression and anxiety that resulted in a lot of self-medication, vocalist, guitar player and songwriter in chief Robert Smith (in 1982 he wasn't the icon he's since gone on to become) and his two cohorts at the time - Simon Gallop (bass) and Lol Tolhurst (drums) - wanted to make a record representative of the band's mood at the time. In fact, Pornography could very well have been the last Cure record, so fraught were the sessions which culminated in Gallop leaving the group once the album was finished. Recorded over a three month period at the start of 1982, played back now it sounds like something of a chilling epitaph. Those opening lines of 'One Hundred Years' reading like a self-referencing suicide note that gets even darker throughout the song's six and a half minutes.

Comprising eight songs in total, each telling its own story of misery, despair and desolation, it's remarkable to think that just two years later The Cure would go on to become one of the biggest bands in the world, releasing happy-go-lucky pop songs such as 'The Caterpillar' and 'The Lovecats'. Yet back in 1982, their ethos was anything but. "Derange and disengage everything" declares Smith at the end of 'Short Term Effect', a song that deals with the fantasy of death from the perspective of natural elements while on 'The Figurehead', he ominously intones "I will lose myself tomorrow" as if all hope has gone.

The sentiment of helplessness continues throughout the record. An inquisitive "Can no one save you?" punctuates 'Cold's errant emptiness while 'Siamese Twins' declares "everything falls apart", its melody inspired by Low-era Bowie rather than any of The Cure's current contemporaries. Astoundingly, the one 45 lifted off Pornography gave them their biggest chart hit for two years. Driven by a coarse drum sound inspired by Siouxsie And The Banshees drummer Budgie, 'The Hanging Garden' perpetuated The Cure as a mainstream anomaly in sounding like nothing else on the radio or in the singles charts at the time. Reaching the dizzy heights of number 32, it only stayed in the Top 40 for one week before dropping like a stone but its impact would remain omnipresent, not least by way of boosting Pornography's album sales which saw them embark on new territory in reaching the Top 10, an achievement they'd repeat throughout their existence to this day.

Ending with the title track, another six and a half minutes of disconsolate melancholy that closes with the words "I must fight this sickness." Pornography remains one of the most poignant albums of its or any other generation, an album that will never grow old or become dated. Interestingly, this was also the album which saw The Cure reinvent themselves aesthetically too, Smith adopting the now trademark spider's mop, smeared lipstick and uniform black from head to toe.

Even today it sounds like nothing else on earth, yet still demands to be heard as a full body of work rather than broken down into individual segments. The band may have been at their lowest ebb during the making of Pornography but this is perfunctory greatness personified”.

I want to feature a piece from The Quietus from 2017. Although Pornography is not forty until May, I wanted to look ahead. I may explore it again before 4th May:

“John Robb, fromtman of the Membranes and author of the forthcoming history of goth The Art of Darkness, agrees. "We used to have our own acid tests where we would take lots of mushrooms and put records through their paces," he recalls. "Never Mind the Bollocks … was a brilliant psychedelic record; it was like having a head full of fire. Trout Mask Replica, which is a genius album, of course, was nightmare [when you were] tripping; it was like having your brain tied up in knots."

But what of the contemporary sounds of the early 1980s? "We did test Pornography as well and it was fantastically dense but full of texture which is perfect for tripping; there's so much to trip you out," Robb says. "Lots of great records are 3D and psychedelia is so much more than paisley shirts and the swinging 60s. Even punk was tinged with psychedelia, and music in the north west of England has always had a trip glow to it. The so-called goth period was laced with the lysergic - it was flipped to the black. I know for a fact that the Banshees were immersed in that world but created an early-80s trip narrative that really suited them, and The Cure had been building up to literally and psychically blowing their minds."

Robb hits the nail on the head when he places Pornography in the context of the contemporary psychedelia of the late 70s and early 80s and the environment in which it was created.

"Pornography is a magnificent record - a stark landscape of a record that, for us, was the Part Two to The Stranglers' Black And White, another psychedelic record in a then-modern sense that ate into the bleak times but in imaginative musical shapes. We used to love tripping to those bleak landscapes. Joy Division fitted this world as well, and their debut album is a very tripped out work, as was Section 25's magnificent Always Now."

If the much of the first generation of British psychedelia in the late 60s had harked back to the innocence of childhood, then Pornography was something altogether darker and nightmarish. A world of deception, paranoia and mortality, The Cure's fourth album is, at times, the sound of abject misery.

For Robb, it was a continuation of a lineage that's rooted in the darker variant of the psychedelia that emerged from the other side of the Atlantic in the 1960s. "There's so much crap talked about hippies and the Year Zero of punk but it all merged really; it was the counter culture but with a sharper edge, and more in a 70s focus," he says. "I'm not sure how much peace and love there had been in the 60s anyway. Every band from that time always claims they were the ones who defined peace and love, but the music in the late 60s had darkness and violence around it. The Doors, The Velvet Underground and The Stooges were all in the same spirit as the period we're talking about, and in many ways The Doors were the alpha 'goth' band - all Baudelaire in leather kecks, romantic poets dressed in black. Looking back, punk didn't end this stuff - it sparked it into life again."

"People started to reference the 60s again," agrees Youth. "The Doors were very popular again in the 80s as was The Doors' biography No One Here Gets Out Alive. Certainly if you listen to The Cure and bands of their ilk, they definitely dabbled with a kind of psychedelia."

Having worked relentlessly since the release of their debut album, Three Imaginary Boys in 1979, the recording of Pornography was made at the end of an intense four-year period that saw them working under a punishing schedule. Opening with 'One Hundred Years', The Cure set out their stall. At surface level, the song may well seem like a series of disconnected images thrown together at random but there's something much deeper at play here. Whether consciously or not, this is a damning critique of the 20th century, a period of time that saw huge scientific leaps while at the same time industrialising the slaughter of humanity. Factor in images of post-war alienation and meaningless existence, and this is an howl of existential anguish that's fuelled by Robert Smith's whining and dizzying guitar lines, Simon Gallup's two-note bass drones and Lol Tolhurst's relentless drumming. Alice In Wonderland this ain't.

"Over the period of about a thousand days, we played a show every other day as well as making three albums," Tolhurst recalls. "We were absolutely blasted, really. We operated at that level of intensity anyway as a matter of course because we wanted to feel connected to what we were doing. We were very committed and we were a three-piece. A three-piece is a cauldron of intensity. To me, The Cure is two separate bands; you've got the three-piece of which the pinnacle is Pornography and then you have the five- or six-piece band of Kiss Me.

"If you have a bigger band you have not so much of the vision necessarily but you have the opportunity and if one person flags then someone can help and it becomes that much more easy to navigate. But a three-piece is a triangle and my position was to facilitate the communication between [the other two]. In terms of the intensity of making something that hard together, by its very nature, then the emotional intensity is going to be ramped up”.

A remarkable album from 1982, Pornography arrived a year after the brilliant Faith. Although the Crawley-formed band are still going (though the line-up has changed through the years), Pornography almost ended them! A lot of critics were quite middling about the album, through it has gained acclaim and new recognition. Though it is hard-going and dark, it is well worth investing some time in ahead of its fortieth anniversary. The mighty Pornography ranks alongside The Cure’s…

BEST and most interesting work.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street

___________

ONE reason why I am…

including Baker Street into Groovelines is that its writer, Gerry Rafferty, would have been seventy-five on 16th April (he died in 2011). Released in February, 1978, it is a classic track that is seen as one of his greatest songs. It spent four weeks at number one in Canada, number one in Australia and South Africa. It went to number three in the United Kingdom. Rafferty received the 1978 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. The legendary Scottish artist, with Baker Street, created a song that has this gorgeous saxophone riff (played by Raphael Ravenscroft). Released as the second single from his magnificent 1978 album, City to City, Baker Street is one of the all-time classics! There are a couple of articles that I want to explore relating to the song. The second looks at the iconic saxophone part, in addition to Baker Street’s searing and fabulous guitar part. First, this blog celebrated Baker Street’s fortieth anniversary back in 2018:

“Sung in second-person, “Baker Street” was a melancholic reflection of Rafferty’s then-recent past, inspired by his own break from a previous business relationship (during his post-Stealers Wheel days) and his subsequent regular commute from a town outside Glasgow to a friend’s flat on an actual Baker St. in London.

In just two thoughtfully crafted verses, Rafferty conveyed the despair of being tired, wasted and depressed in a city with “no soul,” the solace one finds in connecting with a trusted friend, and the hope offered by the prospect of a new morning and the euphoria of finally “going home.”

“Baker Street” was as unlikely a big hit as there could be in mid-1978.  At a time when disco was dominating and most songs followed a typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus vocal pattern, Rafferty crafted a mid-tempo, mostly instrumental tune (nearly four of its six minutes are sans vocals) that couldn’t have been less danceable and less conforming.

Most notably, Rafferty replaced what would normally be the chorus (i.e., the vocal hook) with that now-famous sax lead, the origins of which are nearly as controversial as the song’s ultimate chart fate (which I’ll get to momentarily).

But first, the sax.

By virtue of having sole songwriting credits for “Baker Street,” Rafferty is also credited for writing the sax part (despite claims to the contrary by Ravenscroft, who died three years after Rafferty in 2014).  According to some accounts, Ravenscroft once claimed he not only played but created the sax part to “fill a gap” in Rafferty’s demo.  However, a demo of the song has since surfaced where Rafferty plays the sax part with his guitar, suggesting that Rafferty had already created the part when Ravenscroft was called in to work his saxophone magic.

Then in more recent years, to further fuel the controversy surrounding the sax solo’s origins, tapes surfaced of a different song from a decade earlier with a similar sounding sax riff, leading some to speculate that neither Rafferty nor his erstwhile sax player, Ravenscroft, created the famous section, having instead interpolated it from the earlier tune”.

There is a sense of escape on Baker Street. Rafferty wrote the song at a time when he was trying to free himself  from his Stealers Wheel (his former band) contracts. Staying at his friend’s house in Baker Street, there is a feeling of coldness to the song. Being sued and having to travel to his lawyer, there is no wonder that Baker Street contains a bit of dread. One listens to the song and it has this romance and smoothness. Look at the first couple of verses, and you get a sense of where Gerry Rafferty’s head was when writing this classic: “Winding your way down on Baker Street/Light in your head and dead on your feet/Well, another crazy day/You'll drink the night away/And forget about ev'rything/This city desert makes you feel so cold/It's got so many people, but it's got no soul/And it's taken you so long/To find out you were wrong/When you thought it held everything”. Although it is a second-person song, it is hard to ignore Rafferty describing the hard situation he was in: “Another year and then you'd be happy/Just one more year and then you'd be happy/But you're cryin', you're cryin' now”. I want to finish off with a piece from The Atlantic from 2015. Hugh Burns discussed lending incredible guitar to Baker Street:

“The guitarist Hugh Burns has scored movies like Die Another Day and The Hobbit, and played with the likes of Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Jack Bruce, and George Michael throughout his storied career. Burns is responsible for the blistering guitar solo on “Baker Street ” and considers working with Gerry Rafferty one of his life’s great honors.

“Quite frankly, I loved his songs. I regard it as a great good fortune that I was able to meet and contribute something to Gerry’s music,” he told me over the phone from England. “I did six albums with him. I probably did more music with him than any other musician.” He was also friends with Ravenscroft and toured with him.

Burns was performing on the road with Jack Bruce in 1978 when he made arrangements to visit the London studio where Rafferty’s album City to City was being recorded. “I went to the studio after I played the gig and I think one of the first songs we played was ‘Baker Street.’ And I said, ‘This is fantastic. This is a great song.’”

Burns told me that there’s no question that Rafferty came up with the music that became the famous riff line on “Baker Street.” After Burns laid down the solo, Rafferty asked him to “have a go at what obviously became very famous, which was the sax line.” Burns tried it on guitar, but the two men agreed that it would be better on the saxophone. “That’s the way I always saw it,” he remembers Rafferty telling him at the time”.

Although there is a myth around how much Ralphael Ravescroft (who died in 2014) was paid - according to legend, he was only paid £27 for his contribution, while Rafferty was said to have made £80,000 in annual royalties until his death in 2011 -, Baker Street is an iconic song. Ahead of what would have been Gerry Rafferty’s seventy-fifth birthday on 16th April, I wanted to investigate and salute his most-famous song. It still sounds remarkable and hypnotic after nearly forty-five years. With its personal, fascinating and memorable lyrics alongside the brilliant saxophone and guitar (in addition to the brilliant work of the other musicians on the song), Baker Street is…

AN absolute classic.

FEATURE: For Your Pleasure: Ranking Roxy Music’s Studio Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

For Your Pleasure

Ranking Roxy Music’s Studio Albums

__________

FEW would have thought…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Virgin Records

that Roxy Music would go back on tour! Announced recently, they are marking fifty years of their debut album. That is fifty in June. To mark that, I want to rank their incredible eight studio albums. I am not sure whether the tour will tempt them to release a ninth album! With Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera and Paul Thompson in the original line-up (Brian Eno since left the band), they were a band with no equals! Pitchfork were among those who announced the good news:

“Roxy Music are heading out on tour for the first time in 11 years, celebrating the 50th anniversary of their debut album. The current lineup of Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera, and Paul Thompson will play across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in September and October, supported on most of the North American dates by St. Vincent. (Support for shows in Boston and the United Kingdom has not yet been announced.) Check out the dates below.

Roxy Music recently announced an anniversary-themed vinyl reissue campaign for all eight of their albums.

Read Pitchfork’s Sunday Review of For Your Pleasure and the rundown of “The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s.” In 2013, Bryan Ferry spoke to Pitchfork about the soundtrack to his life for a “5-10-15-20” feature”.

To celebrate the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of Roxy Music and the fact they are touring to mark that album release, here are their eight studio albums ranked. I feel they are all fantastic, though there are some that have that extra touch of class and gold. Maybe you have your own views. See what you think about my views on which…

ROXY Music album goes where!

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8. Flesh and Blood

Release Date: 23rd May, 1980

Labels: E.G./Atco/Reprise (U.S.)

Producers: Rhett Davies and Roxy Music

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/1442813?ev=rb

Standout Tracks: Flesh and Blood/My Only Love/Over You

Review:

“It featured not one but three classic singles (‘Oh Yeah’, ‘Same Old Scene’, ‘Over You’), two distinctive cover versions, and was arguably one of the most influential collections of the 1980s.

It also perfectly compliments such contemporary new-wave/disco work from Blondie, Duran Duran and Japan (also sharing with those acts a reliance on the Roland CR-78 rhythm box, heard prominently in the intro of the below).

Flesh + Blood is the last Roxy studio album where Andy Mackay (sax) and Phil Manzanera (guitar) were major players if not songwriters (all tracks were written by Ferry apart from the covers, though Manzanera had a hand in ‘Over You’, ‘No Strange Delight’ and ‘Running Wild’). Both add memorable solos and nice ensemble work throughout.

It’s also a classic early-’80s bass album: reliably excellent Alan Spenner and Neil Jason joined new boy Gary Tibbs, fresh from his acting role in Hazel O’Connor’s ‘Breaking Glass’ movie and about to become one of Adam’s Ants.

The great Andy Newmark piled in on drums, having just completed work on Lennon/Ono’s Double Fantasy, alongside fellow NYC sessionman Allan Schwartzberg (who plays a blinder on ‘Same Old Scene’).

Londoner Rhett Davies was on board as co-producer, fresh from groundbreaking work with Brian Eno (both are apparent influences on the psychedelic/ambient outros to ‘My Only Love’ and ‘Eight Miles High’, and atmospheric overdubbing throughout), working with the band at his favourite Basing Street Studios (later Sarm) in London’s Notting Hill. There were also occasional sessions at Manzanera’s Gallery Studios in Chertsey, Surrey.

Burgeoning star NYC mixing engineer Bob Clearmountain took time off his work with Chic to add some hefty bottom-end and fat drums at the fabled Power Station studios. Bob Ludwig’s ‘definitive’ 1999 CD remaster is one of the loudest, bassiest re-releases of the last few decades (but not a patch on the original cassette!).

But basically Flesh + Blood is very much Ferry’s show, layering Yamaha CP-80 piano (in his trademark ‘no thirds’ style) and synths to great effect, and even adding some amusingly sleazy guitar on the title track. He also sings superbly, delivering a particularly impassioned performance on ‘Running Wild’” – Moving the River.com

Key Cut: Same Old Scene

7. Manifesto

Release Date: 16th March, 1979

Labels: E.G./Polydor/Atco

Producers: Roxy Music

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/223314?ev=rb

Standout Tracks: Manifesto/Trash/Angel Eyes

Review:

“Returning to action after four years of solo projects, Roxy Music redefined its sound and agenda on Manifesto. More than ever, Roxy sounds like Bryan Ferry's backing band, as the group strips away its art rock influences, edits out the instrumental interludes in favor of concise pop songs, and adds layers of stylish disco rhythms. Although the songwriting is distressingly inconsistent, there are a number of wonderful moments on the record, particularly in the sighing "Angel Eyes" and the heartbroken "Dance Away." Still, trading sonic adventure for lush, accessible disco-pop isn't entirely satisfactory, even if it is momentarily seductive” – AllMusic

Key Cut: Dance Away

6. Siren

Release Date: 24th October, 1975

Labels: Island/Atco

Producer: Chris Thomas

Buy: https://store.hmv.com/store/music/vinyl/siren?gclid=CjwKCAjwuYWSBhByEiwAKd_n_iFXwPSRVo-UuD_c93xDmNmxxhwB_NjWOuz2_5qe9yUHCHobM0KW5BoCICsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Standout Tracks: Sentimental Fool/Both Ends Burning/Just Another High

Review:

“Abandoning the intoxicating blend of art rock and glam-pop that distinguished Stranded and Country Life, Roxy Music concentrate on Bryan Ferry's suave, charming crooner persona for the elegantly modern Siren. As the disco-fied opener "Love Is the Drug" makes clear, Roxy embrace dance and unabashed pop on Siren, weaving them into their sleek, arty sound. It does come at the expense of their artier inclinations, which is part of what distinguished Roxy, but the end result is captivating. Lacking the consistently amazing songs of its predecessor, Siren has a thematic consistency that works in its favor, and helps elevate its best songs -- "Sentimental Fool," "Both Ends Burning," "Just Another High" -- as well as the album itself into the realm of classics” – AllMusic

Key Cut: Love Is the Drug

5. Avalon

Release Date: 28th May, 1982

Labels: E.G. Records/Polydor

Producers: Rhett Davies/Roxy Music

Buy: https://store.hmv.com/store/music/vinyl/avalon?gclid=Cj0KCQjw3IqSBhCoARIsAMBkTb2K-W8TAxcbkXWSZi9LpWw1ppLpuvSoeimJjJCW5Xqfz8yoK08azV8aAkcZEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Standout Tracks: Avalon/While My Heart Is Still Beating/Take a Chance on Me

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

Key Cut: More Than This

4. Stranded

Release Date: 1st November, 1973

Labels: Island/Atco

Producer: Chris Thomas

Pre-Order: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/roxy-music/stranded-half-speed-remaster

Standout Tracks: Amazona/Psalm/A Song for Europe

Review:

“Two British bands are genuinely stretching the dimensions of pop music. One, 10 c.c., has already found a degree of popularity in the States. Roxy Music has been unable to cross the Atlantic so far, but that should change with this album. Stranded is one of the most exciting and entertaining British LPs of the Seventies.

Roxy has constructed the modern English equivalent of the wall-of-sound. One instrument, either the guitar or a keyboard, will sustain or repeat a note, and the other instruments will build on top of it. Added to the thick mix is the unique voice of Bryan Ferry, who sounds alternately tormented (“Psalm”), frantic (“Street Life”), or about to sink his teeth into your neck (“Mother Of Pearl”). He delivers his consistently clever lyrics in the most disquieting baritone in pop. Everywhere there is menace.

Andy Mackay, whose searing sax made Mott the Hoople’s “All the Way from Memphis” an American favorite, has written the tune for “A Song for Europe” — the most impressive track on the album. It’s an awesome example of self-disciplined hard rock. Instead of flailing frantically away, the musicians, including Ferry on piano, limit themselves to maintaining musical tension. Here is emotion without lack of control. Ferry’s tortured recitation is supported by an eerie, pained musical backing. Mackay’s sax is mournful, Phil Manzanera’s guitar lines are expressive, and the drumming of Paul Thompson is dramatic.

Like “Street Life,” “Psalm” fades in, with an organ swelling slightly to introduce Ferry’s half-intoned, half-sung ode to the Divine. As the group slowly joins in and increases volume, there’s a bolero effect, and toward the end of the extended piece a Welsh male choir enters. Soon, the group sounds frenzied, yet not irreligiously so. Ferry is a possessed man offering a prayer, and this exceptional “Psalm” sounds like a wily demon’s prostration before God.

“Street Life,” a highly enjoyable entry (and British hit single), opens with what sounds like a UFO coming in for a landing and ends with fading finger-snapping. Ferry spits out his literate lyrics to chaotic uptempo support. The reference to “pointless passing through Harvard or Yale” as “only window shopping … strictly no sale” may draw a few Ivy League smiles.

Only on “Amazona” does Ferry’s cleverness get the better of him — a couple of puns provoke groans. But the intriguing instrumental track, with its several shifts of mood, dynamics and tempo, helps save it.

Roxy Music can no longer be ignored by Americans. They may not achieve the commercial success they have in Britain, where Stranded reached Number One, but their artistic performance must be recognized. Stranded is an eloquent statement that there are still frontiers which American pop has not explored” – Rolling Stone

Key Cut: Street Life

3. Roxy Music

Release Date: 16th June, 1972

Labels: Island/Reprise

Producer: Peter Sinfield

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/roxy-music/roxy-music-half-speed-remaster

Standout Tracks: Re-Make / Re-Model/2HB/Bitters End

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

Key Cut: Ladytron

2. Country Life

Release Date: 15th November, 1974

Labels: Island/aTCO

Producers: John Punte/Roxy Music

Pre-Order: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/roxy-music/country-life-half-speed-remaster

Standout Tracks: The Thrill of It All/Out of the Blue/Casanova

Review:

“If there's a note-perfect song on a note-perfect album, though, it might have to be 'All I Want Is You', three songs into the whole thing and so perfect it's no surprise Country Life almost feels front-loaded. Manzanera's introduction is a fanfare for six-string and feedback; and from there it's another quick stomper, fast and fun without being ponderous or simply skipping by, Ferry splitting the difference between main verses and breaks and making both equally memorable and immediate. There is a full instrumental section that lets everyone show off collectively, while still wrapping it up in three minutes. And all the while Ferry deliciously - there's no other word for it, he sounds like he's savouring every last syllable as he delivers it - seems to just throw out lines like, "If you ever change your mind/ I've a certain cure/ An old refrain, it lingers on/ L'amour, toujours l'amour" and "Don't want to know/ About one-night-stands/ Cut-price souvenirs/ All I want is/ The real thing/ And a night that lasts/ For years." Take it at face value, read it all as a ploy, or both, it all works, and when he bows out with "Ooo-oo, I'm all cracked up over you!" there could be no finer flourish; his heart, or something close to it, worn on his sleeve.

And speaking of sleeves, I can't not mention the actual cover art itself. Appropriate given that the album specifically referencing a British magazine of the same name, all veddy English and proper about rural life, another bit of aspiration that Ferry and company proceeded to pulverize and celebrate all at once. The result: the male gaze and then some, one year before Laura Mulvey coined the term. Not that Roxy hadn't already been associated with this kind of idea given their three previous covers, of course, but when you have two women on the front, one woman using her hands in place of a bra, looking directly out at the viewer, another with a bra that leaves little to the imagination but while holding a hand in front of her panties just so, also giving you a direct look back as she holds her other arm to her forehead, it's a little hard to miss. Ferry met Constanze Karoli and Eveline Grunwald on a Portuguese trip, persuaded them to do the cover, British Vogue photographer Eric Boman did the shot and the rest was fairly notorious history, ranging from alternate cover shots of just the background trees following refusals to stock the album to innumerable parodies and references from other bands and publications in later years and more from there.

Saying everyone involved knew exactly what they were doing might be too much for anyone to claim - but then again, the shot used did have them both looking right out at any viewer, and their look was not so much inviting as challenging, even cold. One other detail too: Karoli and Grunwald are both specifically credited on the album's inner sleeve with helping Ferry on translating the German verses for 'Bitter-Sweet'. That Ferry's son became famous - or infamous - in later years with the kind of talk about fox hunting that might as well have come from the actual Country Life magazine being referenced seems perfect irony, but that's the danger of aspiration and subversion in the end, when everything becomes heritage history, even when it still works on a late night evening out on the town thousands of miles and two decades away” – The Quietus

Key Cut: All I Want Is You

1. For Your Pleasure

Release Date: 23rd March, 1972

Labels: Island/Warner Bros.

Producers: Chris Thomas/John AnthonyRoxy Music

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/roxy-music/for-your-pleasure-half-speed-remaster

Standout Tracks: Beauty Queen/Strictly Confidential/In Every Dream Home a Heartache

Review:

“For Your Pleasure’s two longest songs, “The Bogus Man” and the album-closing title track, leave plenty of time for Eno’s deviations. This first sketches out a musical design for trance, years ahead of it, with a long, minimalist break that confirms Eno’s mantra, “Repetition is a form of change.” Each instrument mutates, minutely transmogrified, on some mysterious cycle. On “For Your Pleasure,” Ferry makes only a brief vocal appearance. Over the last four and a half minutes, producer Chris Thomas and Eno are playing the recording studio as though it’s an instrument, conducting the song at a mixing board, and building a panoramic disorientation. They add more echo on the electric piano, more reverb on the guitar, phasing, tremolo, the drums slip away, and it gently becomes hazy and puzzling: Chopped-up bits of “Chance Meeting” from Roxy’s first album come in—Roxy are sampling themselves—then Judi Dench murmurs, “You don’t ask why,” and almost randomly, la fin. An album that began with Ferry’s request for your attention ends with Eno placing you in the strange new world you were promised. A new sensation has delivered new sensations of arousal and uncertainty.

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

Key Cut: Do the Strand