FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Seventy-One: Tears for Fears

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

Part Seventy-One: Tears for Fears

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A hugely influential duo…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Frank W. Ockenfels

Tears for Fears were formed in Bath in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. Tears for Fears were associated with the New Wave synthesizer bands of the early-1980s. They soon attained international chart success. They have been touring the U.K. recently (unfortunately, they had to cancel the rest of the dates due to an injury Smith sustained). I have been a fan of theirs since childhood. Their 1983 debut, The Hurting, is one of the best of the 1980s. This year’s The Tipping Point ranks alongside their finest albums. Such a remarkable and consistently impressive group, Tears for Fears have been responsible for inspiring a lot of other artists. I am going to finish with a playlist of songs from artists who either are influenced by Tears for Fears or carry some of their sound and vibe. Before getting to the playlist, AllMusic provide a detailed biography of the remarkable Tears for Fears:

“Tears for Fears were always more ambitious than the average synth pop group. From the beginning, the duo of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith were tackling big subjects -- their very name derived from Arthur Janov's primal scream therapy, and his theories were evident throughout their debut, The Hurting. Driven by catchy, infectious synth pop, The Hurting became a big hit in their native England, setting the stage for international stardom with their second album, 1985's Songs from the Big Chair. On the strength of the singles "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and "Shout," the record became a major hit, establishing the duo as one of the leading acts of the second generation of MTV stars. Instead of quickly recording a follow-up, Tears for Fears labored over their third album, the psychedelic and jazz-rock-tinged The Seeds of Love. Smith left the group in the early '90s while Orzabal continued with Tears for Fears as a solo project for several years, issuing a pair of albums. They reunited briefly for 2004's Everybody Loves a Happy Ending and permanently to tour and record 2022's The Tipping Point.

Orzabal and Smith met as children in Bath, England. Both boys came from broken homes, and Smith was leaning toward juvenile delinquency. Orzabal, however, turned toward books, eventually discovering Arthur Janov's primal scream therapy, a way of confronting childhood fears that John Lennon embraced after the Beatles disbanded. Orzabal turned Smith on to Janov, but before the duo explored this theory further, they formed the ska revival band Graduate in the late '70s. After releasing a handful of singles, including "Elvis Should Play Ska," Graduate dissolved in the early '80s, and the duo went on to form Tears for Fears, a synth pop outfit directly inspired by Janov's writings.

Riding in on the tail-end of new wave and new romantic, Tears for Fears -- which featured musical contributions from former Graduate keyboardist Ian Stanley on early albums -- landed a record contract with Polygram in 1982. The following year, the band released its debut, The Hurting, which became a major hit in Britain, generating no less than three Top Five hit singles. Two years later, the group released Songs from the Big Chair, which demonstrated a more streamlined and soul-influenced sound. Songs from the Big Chair became a huge hit in America, rocketing to the top of the charts on the strength of the singles "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and "Shout," which both hit number one, and the number three "Head Over Heels," which were all supported by clever, stylish videos that received heavy MTV airplay.

Instead of quickly following Songs from the Big Chair with a new record, Tears for Fears labored over their new record, eventually delivering the layered, Beatlesque The Seeds of Love in 1989. Featuring soulful vocals from Oleta Adams, who dominated the hit "Woman in Chains," the album became a hit, reaching number eight, while the single, "Sowing the Seeds of Love," reached number two in the U.S. Again, Tears for Fears spent several years working on the follow-up to Seeds of Love, during which time they released the collection Tears Roll Down: Greatest Hits 82-92. Smith and Orzabal began to quarrel heavily, and Smith left the group in 1992, making Tears for Fears' 1993 comeback Elemental essentially a solo record from Orzabal. On the strength of the adult contemporary hit "Break It Down Again," Elemental became a modest hit, reaching gold status in the U.S., yet was hardly up to the group's previous levels. Smith, meanwhile, released a solo album in 1993, Soul on Board, which went ignored. Orzabal returned with another Tears for Fears album, Raoul and the Kings of Spain, in 1995, which failed to make much of an impact. In late 1996, they released a rarities collection. In 2004, Orzabal reunited with Smith for the colorful Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, their first collaboration in over a decade.

It wouldn't be until 2013 that newly recorded material would surface, although the duo had been active on the live circuit, with dates in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. A three-track EP, released especially for Record Store Day, appeared that year and featured covers of Arcade Fire's "Ready to Start," Animal Collective's "My Girls," and Hot Chip's "Boy from School." Used as a springboard for writing and recording new music, Tears for Fears inked a deal with Warner Records the following year and continued to work on their seventh album.

During this time, Orzabal spent time caring for his wife, who passed away in 2017; her death profoundly influenced his songwriting. After a few false starts, mainly due to additional songwriters being brought in, Smith and Orzabal sat down together to write in a manner inspired by the world around them, resulting in songs that poignantly dealt with everything from the climate crisis to political upheaval. They spent a summer touring and in 2021 entered the studio and completed The Tipping Point for Craft Records. It arrived in February 2022 as their first full-length studio recording of original material in 18 years, and marked their return to touring”.

Let us hope that Tears for Fears keep releasing music for years to come! One of the all-time great groups/duos, they will continue to impact and influence musicians for a very long time. To finish things up, the playlist below collects artists who have followed Tears for Fears or have definitely been impacted by them. It goes to show that their legacy…

IS huge.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five: Five Great Deep Cuts from the Album

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five

Five Great Deep Cuts from the Album

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COMPLETED in August 1977…

I wanted to mark forty-five years of Kate Bush’s debut, The Kick Inside, with a run of features. Of course, I am going to pick them back up on the actual forty-fifth anniversary on 17th February. Featuring musicians such as Duncan Mackay, Ian Bairnson, David Paton, Andrew Powell, and Stuart Elliott of The Alan Parsons Project, The Kick Inside is a mix a teenage artist who was new and writing in a very original, bold, and fresh way, combined with a band who were experienced and brought their joint talents to the studio. It is a fascinating record that boasts two incredible U.K. singles in the form of Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes. Although Strange Phenomena, Moving and Them Heavy People were released in other countries, I consider them to be deep cuts, owing to the fact they are not tracks played often here. Many in the U.K. may not be aware of them. For this feature, I am selecting five deep cuts from The Kick Inside people need to hear. Of course, listen to the entire album! This is a more a prompt to radio stations who either play nothing from The Kick Inside – Hounds of Love is the album that gets heaviest airplay – or they play the two U.K. singles. Below are five deep cuts that I think should be played more and known widely. Many Kate Bush fans will know these tracks already, though a lot of people will be new to them. Whilst they might not be my favourite deep cuts (Moving and Them Heavy People would be in there), these are the ones that need more exposure and have probably not been played on radio for many years (thanks to the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia for their resources and information about the songs). Here are five great deep cuts…

FROM a remarkable debut album.

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The Saxophone Song 

“Song written by Kate Bush, released on her debut album The Kick Inside. Originally the song was recorded as a demo produced by David Gilmour in June 1975.

Kate about 'Saxophone Song'

I wrote 'The Saxophone Song' because, for me, the saxophone is a truly amazing instrument. Its sound is very exciting - rich and mellow. It sounds like a female. (Dreaming: The Kick Inside, 1978)

The song isn't about David Bowie. I wrote it about the instrument, not the player, at a time when I really loved the sound of the saxophone - I still do. No, I don't know him personally, though I went to his "Farewell to Ziggy Stardust" concert and cried, and so did he. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, November 1979)”.

Strange Phenomena

“Formats

'Strange Phenomena' was released as a single (in Brazil only) on a 4 track EP called '4 Succesos' in June 1979, also featuring the songs Wow, Symphony In Blue and Hammer Horror.

Kate about 'Strange Phenomena'

['Strange Phenomena' is] all about the coincidences that happen to all of us all of the time. Like maybe you're listening to the radio and a certain thing will come up, you go outside and it will happen again. It's just how similar things seem to attract together, like the saying ``birds of a feather flock together'' and how these things do happen to us all the time. Just strange coincidences that we're only occasionally aware of. And maybe you'll think how strange that is, but it happens all the time. (Self Portrait, 1978)

"Strange Phenomena'' is about how coincidences cluster together. We can all recall instances when we have been thinking about a particular person and then have met a mutual friend who - totally unprompted - will begin talking about that person. That's a very basic way of explaining what I mean, but these ``clusters of coincidence'' occur all the time. We are surrounded by strange phenomena, but very few people are aware of it. Most take it as being part of everyday life. (Music Talk, 1978)”.

Feel It

“Song written by Kate Bush. Three voice and piano tracks were recorded on one day for Kate's debut album The Kick Inside, of which only 'Feel It' made it onto the final selection.

Versions

There are two officially released versions of 'Kite': the album version and the live version from Hammersmith Odeon. However, a demo version from 1977 has also surfaced and was released on various bootleg cd's.

Kate about 'Feel It'

A song about a woman who is looking forward to enjoying a relationship with a man she has not yet explored. (Music Talk, 1978)”.

L'Amour Looks Something Like You 

“Song written by Kate Bush in 1977, released on Kate's debut album The Kick Inside.

A "goose moon" or "goose month", mentioned in the song lyric, is a Native American term for the month (late March to late April) when the Canada goose returns from the south. Alternatively, the term refers to the full moon which appears during that period.

Versions

There are two officially released versions of 'L'amour Looks Something Like You': the studio album and the live version on the On Stage EP. However, a demo version from 1977 has also surfaced and was released on various bootleg cd's.

Credits (studio version)

Drums: Stuart Elliott

Bass: David Paton

Guitars: Ian Bairnson

Organ: Duncan Mackay

Credits (live version)

Drums: Preston Heyman

Bass: Del Palmer

Guitar: Brian Bath

Keyboards: Kevin McAlea

Synthesizer: Ben Barson

Electric guitar: Al Murphy

Backing vocals: Liz Pearson and Glenys Groves”.

The Kick Inside

“Song written by Kate Bush. First released on Kate's debut album The Kick Inside. The lyrics were inspired by a traditional folk song called "Lucy Wan". According to Paddy Bush, at the time of recording the song there were some experiments where actual sections from "Lucy Wan" were taken and processed and used in a very unusual way.

Kate about 'The Kick Inside'

The song The Kick Inside, the title track, was inspired by a traditional folk song and it was an area that I wanted to explore because it's one that is really untouched and that is one of incest. There are so many songs about love, but they are always on such an obvious level. This song is about a brother and a sister who are in love, and the sister becomes pregnant by her brother. And because it is so taboo and unheard of, she kills herself in order to preserve her brother's name in the family. The actual song is in fact the suicide note. The sister is saying 'I'm doing it for you' and 'Don't worry, I'll come back to you someday.' (Self Portrait, 1978)

That's inspired by an old traditional song called 'Lucy Wan.' It's about a young girl and her brother who fall desperately in love. It's an incredibly taboo thing. She becomes pregnant by her brother and it's completely against all morals. She doesn't want him to be hurt, she doesn't want her family to be ashamed or disgusted, so she kills herself. The song is a suicide note. She says to her brother, 'Don't worry. I'm doing it for you.' (Jon Young, Kate Bush gets her kicks. Trouser Press, July 1978)”.

FEATURE: Physical Attraction: Madonna’s Incredible Eponymous Debut Album at Thirty-Nine

FEATURE:

 

 

Physical Attraction

Madonna’s Incredible Eponymous Debut Album at Thirty-Nine

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I usually mark Madonna anniversaries…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: George Holz

when it comes to albums and singles. On 27th July, 1983, Madonna released her eponymous debut. I have written about the album before, but I think it is important to remember it each year. Although Madonna’s debut single, Everybody (which was included on the album), came out in 1982, she put her debut out in 1983. That was the year I was born. It is exciting to think the debut album of a future Pop queen came out a couple of months after I was born! I wanted to push people towards it and get it on vinyl as it is a sensational and underrated debut. It sounds remarkable on vinyl and, when it turns forty next year, let’s hope it gets a reissue. We have the thirtieth anniversary of Erotica later in the year, so I am not sure whether there are plans to reissue that album. Madonna is an L.P. that contains songs that have stood the test of time. Maybe the production sound is dated to a degree, but the fact Madonna composed most of the songs on her debut shows the talent and ambition she had in 1983 – at a time when many of her Pop peers were mot writing their own music.

I am going to come on to a couple of reviews for Madonna soon. I want to start with some information and background about the album from Today in Madonna History. It is surprising to hear that Madonna was originally disappointing by the album and was not happy with the overall sound:

“On July 27 1983, Madonna’s eponymous debut album was released by Sire Records. The record was renamed Madonna: The First Album for the 1985 international re-release of the album.

The album was released with 8 tracks (produced by John “Jellybean” Benitez, Mark Kamins and Reggie Lucas):

1.       Lucky Star

2.       Borderline

3.       Burning Up

4.       I Know It

5.       Holiday

6.       Think of Me

7.       Physical Attraction

8.       Everybody

Five singles were released from The First Album:

1.       Everybody (October 6 1982)

2.       Burning Up (March 9 1983)

3.       Holiday (September 7 1983 – UK)

4.       Lucky Star (September 8 1983)

5.       Borderline (February 15 1984)

“Madonna was unhappy with the whole album, so I went in and sweetened up a lot of music for her, adding some guitars to ‘Lucky Star’, some voices, some magic… I just wanted to do the best job I could do for her. When we would playback ‘Holiday’ or ‘Lucky Star’, you could see that she was overwhelmed by how great it all sounded. You wanted to help her, you know? As much as she could be a bitch, when you were in a groove with her, it was very cool, very creative.”

— John “Jellybean” Benitez talking about Madonna and the album”.

Even though she went on to record stronger, more varied, personal and acclaimed albums, Madonna does deserve a lot more respect than some people give it credit for. There were a lot of positive reviews for it upon its release, but many assess it now as a promising debut…albeit one that had flaws and only had one or two good songs. Madonna’s voice was still developing, and her lyrical voice would embolden, expand and strengthen on subsequent albums. Madonna is one of the most important debuts ever, as it introduced her to a wider audience. How many people in 1983 would predict where her career would go?! Would they imagine we’d be talking about her in 2022?! Before I get to some reviews, This Is Dig! wrote about Madonna on its thirty-eight anniversary last year:

“A SEEMINGLY ENDLESS SUCCESS

Sharing that addictive intensity of her early years, these three quite different cuts remain the highlights from Madonna’s self-titled debut album. Meanwhile, other songs position themselves closer to the club-soul market of the day. That debut single, Everybody, had featured on the demo tape that persuaded legendary impresario Seymour Stein to sign the ambitious young singer to Sire Records in the first place. A starker electro-pop nugget, it became a decent-sized dance hit and was supported by a simpler in-performance video. Burning Up was the second single to get issued ahead of the Holiday breakthrough and was an urgent pop-rock number that became the singer’s first hit in Australia, where it landed at No.13.

The album was rounded off by I Know It (urgent and melodic), Think Of Me (the record’s most obvious R&B shuffler) and Physical Attraction (a spikier dance cut that almost sits at the sweet-spot of a Burning Up and Everybody Venn diagram), and Madonna’s reputation built over the course of the following year, as each single release did better than the last. By the time Lucky Star had peaked stateside, however, it was causing problems. Madonna’s second album, Like A Virgin, was in the can but found itself delayed by the seemingly endless success of the music she had recorded many months earlier.

“SHE WAS A TRUE PROFESSIONAL”

As was her way, Madonna was eager to move on. But her debut album’s singles just wouldn’t be silenced. Holiday became a hit all over again in Europe in 1984, and, by August 1985, Madonna was at No.1 in the UK with Into The Groove, with a reissued Holiday sitting just one place behind it in the charts. The following year, Borderline would re-enter the British charts and climb to No.2, while, in 1991, Holiday would yet again reach the UK Top 5.

Also in 1985, the Madonna album itself would be reissued, with new artwork, in Europe as The First Album, but the original Gary Heery sleeve shot is a masterpiece among Madonna’s album covers. Designer Carin Goldberg recalls: “She came in with a lot of bracelets on… that was the one iconic thing about her outfit, besides the rag in her hair… Madonna was probably the easiest job I ever had… She was a true professional, even at that young age.”

Madonna’s unique look, provocative agenda, assured self-confidence and the evocative energy of her records and videos quickly made her an MTV titan. Following her debut album’s release, on 27 July 1983, first the US, then the rest of the world, was gripped by Madonna-mania, and the album that launched her would sell more than ten million copies globally and enjoy 168 weeks on the Billboard charts. Madonna’s pop-theatre would scale higher creative peaks, but nothing would beat the charming energy of her self-titled debut album”.

Even if the production is typical of the 1980s and might seem dated to some, Madonna is a timeless album that will be inspiring and moving people for decades to come. I want to highlight AllMusic’s review of the biggest and most important (in my view) album of 1983. It must have been really exciting for Madonna fans that year to get her talked-about and incredible debut album:

“Although she never left it behind, it's been easy to overlook that Madonna began her career as a disco diva in an era that didn't have disco divas. It was an era where disco was anathema to the mainstream pop, and she had a huge role in popularizing dance music as a popular music again, crashing through the door Michael Jackson opened with Thriller. Certainly, her undeniable charisma, chutzpah, and sex appeal had a lot to do with that -- it always did, throughout her career -- but she wouldn't have broken through if the music wasn't so good. And her eponymous debut isn't simply good, it set the standard for dance-pop for the next 20 years. Why did it do so? Because it cleverly incorporated great pop songs with stylish, state-of-the-art beats, and it shrewdly walked a line between being a rush of sound and a showcase for a dynamic lead singer. This is music where all of the elements may not particularly impressive on their own -- the arrangement, synth, and drum programming are fairly rudimentary; Madonna's singing isn't particularly strong; the songs, while hooky and memorable, couldn't necessarily hold up on their own without the production -- but taken together, it's utterly irresistible. And that's the hallmark of dance-pop: every element blends together into an intoxicating sound, where the hooks and rhythms are so hooky, the shallowness is something to celebrate. And there are some great songs here, whether it's the effervescent "Lucky Star," "Borderline," and "Holiday" or the darker, carnal urgency of "Burning Up" and "Physical Attraction." And if Madonna would later sing better, she illustrates here that a good voice is secondary to dance-pop. What's really necessary is personality, since that sells a song where there are no instruments that sound real. Here, Madonna is on fire, and that's the reason why it launched her career, launched dance-pop, and remains a terrific, nearly timeless, listen”.

One of my favourite Madonna albums, her debut is thirty-nine tomorrow (27th July). I do hope that there are plans to reissue it one day, as it is hugely relevant to this day. I listen to modern Pop, and so much of it nods back to Madonna. I am going to end with a review from Pitchfork and their thoughts about a masterful and hugely accomplished work:

“Part of what gives Madonna such affecting rhythm is its use of electronic instruments that sounded like the future then and typify the ’80s sound now—instruments like the LinnDrum and the Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. Disco had brought dance music to pop’s forefront, where producers like Giorgio Moroder traded its saccharine strings for robotic instrumentation, but by the early ’80s, the genre had cooled off. People still danced to synthesizers, but their positioning was crucial—both within culture and musical compositions. The Human League and Soft Cell scored two of 1982’s biggest and most synthetic smashes, but back then the gulf between punk-derived new wave and bygone disco seemed wider than it ever really was. Disco and disco-adjacent stars like Donna Summer and Michael Jackson still were programming their hits, but the overall focus was back on a full-band sound. There’s no shortage of organic instruments on Madonna’s debut—“Borderline” wouldn’t be the same without the piano’s melodic underscoring, standout album cut “Physical Attraction” without its funky little guitar line—but the slinky digital grooves often take center stage. Through this, Madonna is able to achieve an almost aggressive twinkling that still feels fresh: the effervescent fizz at the start of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut to the Feeling” seems cribbed straight from “Lucky Star.”

Madonna vaguely criticized her debut’s sonic palette while promoting its follow-up, 1984’s Like a Virgin, but its focus is part of what makes the album so memorable, so of a time and place. She would soon become known for ritual pop star metamorphosis, but with a clearly defined musical backdrop, Madonna was able to let shine her biggest asset: herself. The way Madonna’s early collaborators talk about her—even the ones who take issue with her, like Reggie Lucas, who wrote “Borderline” and “Physical Attraction” and produced the bulk of the album—often revolves around her decisiveness, her style, the undeniability of her star quality. Some of these songs, like the self-penned workout “Think of Me,” aren’t all that special, but Madonna telling a lover to appreciate before she vacates is so self-assured, the message carries over to the listener. And when the material’s even better, like on “Borderline,” the passionate performance takes it over the top.

Maybe the New York cool kids rolled their eyes at the Midwest transplant after she blew up, but she had effectively bottled their attitude and open-mindedness and sold it to the MTV generation (sleeve of bangles and crucifix earrings not included). Innocent as it may look now, compared to the banned bondage videos and butt-naked books that followed, Madonna was a sexy, forward-thinking record that took pop in a new direction. Its success showed that, with the right diva at the helm, music similar to disco could find a place in the white mainstream—a call to the dance floor answered by everyone from Kylie to Robyn to Gaga to Madonna herself. After venturing out into various genre experiments and film projects, when Madonna needs a hit, the longtime queen of the Dance Songs chart often returns to the club. This approach doesn’t always work, as her last three records have shown, but you can’t fault her for trying to get back to that place where heavenly bodies shine for a night”.

Truly a magnificent, exciting, and fresh album from Madonna, the then-twenty-four-year-old made her first big step into the music world. It is hard to believe her debut single is forty this year. There is an ageless quality to Madonna’s music that is one reason why it has endured for so long. I don’t think Madonna sounds like a dated or average debut. Some do. In fact, I would echo the positive reviews regarding its influence and importance. Her debut introduced her star power. It also helped bring Dance and Disco more to the mainstream, in a year (1983) when very few artists were performing these genres. A talent with a distinct and authentic personality and unique abilities, those who dismissed her voice and work were eating their words pretty soon! After the release of Madonna on 27th July, 1983, it would not be long until Madonna was crowned…

THE Queen of Pop.

FEATURE: Revisiting...: Zara Larsson – Poster Girl

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

Zara Larsson – Poster Girl

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BECAUSE she is working…

on her fourth studio album, I wanted to include Zara Larsson’s current album, Poster Girl, in Revisiting... Even though it did reach number twelve in the U.K. and three in her native Sweden, it charted low in the U.S. - and some critics did not give it a huge review. That said, many others did. I do wonder what Larsson’s new album will sound like. Poster Girl is a terrific Pop album that should be heard more now. I know songs from it are spun now and then but, as it only came out in March last year, it is deserving of more focus. Despite – as I say a lot with Pop albums – the fact there are a lot of names in the  mix when it comes to producers and writers, Poster Girl is very much Zara Larsson’s work. Before coming to reviews for the album, NME report how the twenty-four-year-old is working on her fourth album (her third internationally):

“Zara Larsson has given an update on her third international album, telling NME that it’s “pretty much done”.

Speaking backstage at Mad Cool Festival 2022, the Swedish artist explained that she only had “some production stuff left” to take care of on the follow-up to 2021’s ‘Poster Girl’. “I shouldn’t say that [it’s almost done] because now people will expect [new music]; but it is,” she said. Watch our interview with Larsson above.

Having previously told fans that she was back in the studio writing on her third album following the release of ‘Poster Girl’, Larsson explained that she has worked on the majority of the record with Rick Nowels (Lana Del Rey, Dua Lipa) “who is just a legend”, alongside super-producer Danja (Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake).

“The fact that I’m in the studio with them [and am] working with them long term, it’s something that I’ve appreciated a lot,” Larsson said of her collaborators. “I’ve been really lucky to be in the studio with great writers, but it’s been kind of like speed dating a little bit.” Working with just Nowels, for the most part, gave the sessions a new feeling. “It’s like ‘it’s you and me’; like ‘you’re looking into my eyes, and we’re writing this song’, which is great. I feel like it’s authentic and brings out something else.”

Larsson also said that sonically this album is “a little harder”. “The drums are a little harder, the vocals are vocalling a little bit more. I would just say I’ve been taking it up a notch, which is hopefully what I would like to do for every album, just step it up; but this one is really fucking good”.

Before coming to a couple of positive reviews, there were a few interviews conducted with Larsson around the release of Poster Girl. An exciting and important album from a rising artist, it was out at a time when the pandemic was still very much raging. It must have been quite an odd time to put out an album that had been brewing for quite some time. The Guardian chatted with Larsson about Poster Girl. We learn more about her upbringing and what Poster Girl represents:

“Larsson always knew she would be a star. Her parents – mother Agnetha is a nurse while her dad, Anders, was an officer in the navy – supported her early desire to perform, enrolling her in ballet lessons, but never expected she would be famous. A natural attention-seeker, Larsson would often perform a mini-concert at meal times, followed, at her dad’s behest, by the family debating the day’s big topics.“My dad thinks it’s important that everyone is heard, even if you don’t agree,” she says. “It gets scary when people are like: ‘This is the right opinion and if you have the wrong opinion you can’t say it.’” She pauses, something she does rarely. “I mean, in my opinion I’m always right.”

Beyoncé was an early musical idol and the pair met in 2013 after Larsson begged Beyoncé’s label to let her backstage after her concert in Stockholm. “I died,” she says. “When she came in the room I just laid on the floor and sobbed.” That one encounter was enough, however. “I’m not sure I want to meet her again,” she says. “I enjoy her being on a pedestal because she’s unreachable to me, like a mythical creature. I wouldn’t want her to be my friend … ” She roars with laughter at the audacity of the statement. “As if that would be an option!”

Poster Girl’s cover art, a neon pink fantasia featuring a bedroom wall covered in torn-out pictures, plays with this idea of Larsson as both the untouchable superstar idol and the everyday pop fan dreaming of stardom. “This is what I usually look like,” she says glancing at her dressing gown, “and I love that, but I also love the show. I love the glitter, the glamour, the lights, the big hair, and that’s also part of who I am.” Like Beyoncé, Larsson had been laser-focused in achieving her dreams. After she won Talang in 2008, she went to the US to take meetings with record labels. “I was like: ‘Boom, when are we doing the album? When are we shooting the videos?’ But I didn’t get signed and I was fucking devastated.” Two years later, still only 14, she signed her first deal – “I thought that was 14 years too late!” she laughs – and enjoyed homegrown success with her Sweden-only debut album, 1, an endearing collection of youthful pop that hinted at what was to come.

After Lush Life made her a superstar in 2016 (it currently sits on 945m global Spotify plays), Larsson found herself undermining her own success. “I’m a very dissatisfied person, which is a blessing and a curse; it makes me push for better things but it also means I can never be in the moment and enjoy something,” she says. “For example, I thought I’d be doing stadiums by now.” This constant strive for perfection can lead to second guessing, which is one of the reasons for Poster Girl’s protracted gestation.

Last year, Little Mix released Sweet Melody, a song Larsson had originally recorded for the album. Her frustrating flip-flopping on whether or not to keep it eventually saw its songwriters take it back and the song slip from her grasp. In January, it topped the UK chart. When I point out that Little Mix have blitzed through two albums in that same four-year timeframe, Larsson gets downcast for the first time in our interview. “It’s easy to sit and think: ‘Ah, fuck, I could have done more albums in this time,’ but it just didn’t feel right at that point,” she says.

Besides, Larsson doesn’t want to have the time to sit around debating people on Twitter all day. While she’s “super-proud” of Poster Girl, and teases a forthcoming deluxe version that may include a long-discussed Ariana Grande collaboration, she is also keen to move on. “Mentally, this album is something that I need to get over and done with, in a way,” she says. “It’s been around for such a long time and I feel a lot of pressure. I want to get it out there, have people say: ‘Yay, it’s good,’ and be like: ‘Phew, I’m back.’” In fact, she has already started recording the next one. “We’re on a roll, baby. I’m not stopping”.

I am going to round off with a couple of reviews. Despite the fact there was some mixed reception, for the most part there was acclaim for Larsson’s Poster Girl. I think this is an album that should be heard more and ranked alongside the best of 2021. Not fully embraced in the same way as Pop mainstream artists like Dua Lipa, her upcoming album should (I hope) change this. In their review, this is what AllMusic said about Poster Girl:

“Following an extended rollout that reached back to 2018, Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson returned in 2021 with her third solo effort, Poster Girl. A generous dose of buoyant dance pop, the set builds upon a formula similar to its 2017 predecessor, the chart-topping, multi-platinum international hit So Good, home to a quartet of Swedish number one singles. Here, she continues to dole out infectious R&B-influenced pop gems with ease, from the pulsing, string-backed "Love Me Land" -- an exuberant earworm that would make both Rihanna and Robyn proud -- to the sensual throbber "FFF," which falls somewhere between Kylie Minogue's Body Language and Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia. Other highlights include the sparkling summer jam "Need Someone," which packs piano twinkle and funky bass into a nostalgic disco throwback; the booming "WOW," a dramatic electronic journey courtesy of Marshmello; and the disco-kissed "Look What You've Done," a sonic sibling to Larsson's hit collaboration with Clean Bandit, "Symphony." That latter track recalls contemporary radio hits by Ava Max, while elsewhere the spirit of Ariana Grande slides up next to Larsson's Young Thug duet "Talk About Love" and album closer "What Happens Here." Tighter than So Good and packed with just as many catchy tunes, Poster Girl is yet another big step forward for the artist, adding a dozen fresh anthems to her catalog and maintaining her position as one of Sweden's finest pop exports”.

The second review that I want to include is from CLASH. They note how Larsson has been well-known since she was a child. Is it possible to have any mystery or hide anything when you have been famous for so many years? Maybe this is something that will be explored further. What I love is how upbeat and enriching Poster Girl is. CLASH also noted how uplifting Larsson’s 2021 album is:

“There’s scarcely been a time when Zara Larsson wasn’t famous. First reaching television screens in her native Sweden as a precocious 10 year old, it took second album ‘So Good’ to push her to an international level. Broadly speaking, she’s grown up in the public eye, yet she owns this – her mistakes are her mistakes, and her achievements are her achievements.

‘Poster Girl’ is her first full length project for four years, and it’s a work that strikes the balance between aesthetic evolution and retaining the playful pop element that has made her so successful. The arena-level production contains more than its fair share of fireworks, but there’s subtlety, too – not least of all in the lyrics, a non-gendered approach to love that works as an open-minded and future-facing gesture in its own right.

A relentless upbeat symphonic dance record, ‘Poster Girl’ writhes with energy. Matching potent Scandi-pop to pizzicato strings on lush opener ‘Love Me Land’, Zara then segues into her unexpected but actually-damn-good Young Thug hook up ‘Talk About Love’.

Indeed, matters of the heart dominate ‘Poster Girl’ – feelings are worn on the sleeve, and there’s a directness that moves from her vocals to the final master. ‘Need Someone’ opens with those delicate Nyman-esque piano trills, and it contrasts perfectly with summer-fresh pop monster ‘I’m Right Here’ and it’s stunning, colour-soaked chorus.

‘I Need Love’ is a muscular, arena-level bout of tropical pop, and it’s in-your-face approach leads into the multi-faceted ‘Look What You’ve Done’, and it’s intriguing use of vintage disco strings as a contrast to the nostalgic lyrical motif. A tale of love and loss, it’s one of the album’s most effective blends of light and shade, a supremely contoured Swedish pop construction.

But it’s not all colour and daring. ‘Stick With You’ charms with its guitar intro, while there’s a slight country twang to Zara Larsson’s vocal, as if she’s exploring the hitherto unclaimed Nordic roots of Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.

‘FFF’ is playful but explicit, while mighty closing statement ‘What Happens Here’ is a punchy closer, a race to the finishing line that finds Zara Larsson operating at Olympic levels.

It’s not all perfect – no pop record that takes as much chances as this could ever hope to hit 10/10 home runs – but it’s certainly entertaining. Direct, up-front, and completely unabashed, ‘Poster Girl’ finds Zara Larsson living up to the fame that has surrounded her for more than a decade. Grappling with responsibilities towards fans and familiars, it’s a treatise on love, hurt, and self-growth, one that finds the Swedish icon revelling in an exuberant creativity.

8/10”.

An artist who is priming a new album for this year, Zara Larsson’s Poster Girl boasts terrific songs, great songwriting and production. At the centre is the incredible pull and potency of Larsson. She is such a captivating presence and wonderful artist! Poster Girl is an album that, whilst celebrated, was perhaps not as covered and acclaimed as it deserved. If you have not heard it for a long time – or not heard it at all -, then I would definitely suggest that you…

GIVE it a deeper listen.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: A Summer-Ready Cocktail Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

PHOTO CREDIT: Atikh Bana/Unsplash

A Summer-Ready Cocktail Playlist

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AS summer is well and truly here…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Öberg/Unsplash

and we have just experienced record temperatures in the U.K., I wanted to put together a playlist of songs perfect for the season. From Disco and Dance through to classic Pop and everything else, this is a bit of a sonic cocktail. The weather is still extremely warm so, to capture those vibes and the good weather, these songs should provoke energy and something more upbeat. Spanning the decades, this is a blend of sounds – some classic and some a bit rarer – that should keep the sun shining without taking the temperature too high. If you need some tunes that are going to get the summer mood going and the body moving, then the tracks in the playlist below…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Elizeu Dias/Unsplash

SHOULD do the job.

FEATURE: A Kate Bush Single That Should Have Charted Higher… The Dreaming’s Title Track at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

A Kate Bush Single That Should Have Charted Higher…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the photoshoot for The Dreaming/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

The Dreaming’s Title Track at Forty

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ONE thing I have noted about…

Kate Bush’s track, The Dreaming, is that is only reached ninety-one In Australia. A song very much about the plight of the Australian Aborigines, I am not sure why the nation did not embrace it more. Released on 26th July, 1982 – a couple of months before the album of the same name -, The Dreaming got to number forty-eight in the U.K. Considered to be a disappointing position for an artist who was more used to scoring inside the top forty – and would do when the next album, Hounds of Love, came out in 1985 -, I do feel The Dreaming should have got higher. Before expanding on this point, the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia provides interviews where Bush talked about The Dreaming. This one caught my eye:

“We started with the drums, working to a basic Linn drum machine pattern, making them sound as tribal and deep as possible. This song had to try and convey the wide open bush, the Aborigines - it had to roll around in mud and dirt, try to become a part of the earth. "Earthy" was the word used most to explain the sounds. There was a flood of imagery sitting waiting to be painted into the song. The Aborigines move away as the digging machines move in, mining for ore and plutonium. Their sacred grounds are destroyed and their beliefs in Dreamtime grow blurred through the influence of civilization and alcohol. Beautiful people from a most ancient race are found lying in the roads and gutters. Thank God the young Australians can see what's happening.

The piano plays sparse chords, just to mark every few bars and the chord changes. With the help of one of Nick Launay's magic sounds, the piano became wide and deep, effected to the point of becoming voices in a choir. The wide open space is painted on the tape, and it's time to paint the sound that connects the humans to the earth, the dijeridu. The dijeridu took the place of the bass guitar and formed a constant drone, a hypnotic sound that seems to travel in circles.

None of us had met Rolf (Harris) before and we were very excited at the idea of working with him. He arrived with his daughter, a friend and an armful of dijeridus. He is a very warm man, full of smiles and interesting stories. I explained the subject matter of the song and we sat down and listened to the basic track a couple of times to get the feel. He picked up a dijeridu, placing one end of it right next to my ear and the other at his lips, and began to play.

I've never experienced a sound quite like it before. It was like a swarm of tiny velvet bees circling down the shaft of the dijeridu and dancing around in my ear. It made me laugh, but there was something very strange about it, something of an age a long, long time ago.

Women are never supposed to play a dijeridu, according to Aboriginal laws; in fact there is a dijeridu used for special ceremonies, and if this was ever looked upon by a woman before the ceremony could take place, she was taken away and killed, so it's not surprising that the laws were rarely disobeyed. After the ceremony, the instrument became worthless, its purpose over. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, October 1982)”.

There are controversial aspects of the records, no less the inclusion of Rolf Harris. Whilst a respected artist at the time, his involvement does taint The Dreaming now (even though he is on didgeridoo and not vocals). One of Bush’s most interesting and important songs, I don’t think it was a case of her jumping on a cause or trying to write something social or political to break away from this idea of (her being) kooky and lacking in depth. I really like the track! Whilst not an obvious single, it does convey important messages and it should have done better. I am not sure whether her fans expected something a bit more akin to Babooshka (Never for Ever) or Wow (Lionheart). Bush is an artist who was always going to change and not stick to the same sound. If not particularly commercial, The Dreaming did highlight the fact that she was a serious artist who could not be pigeon-holed. You do hear the track played on the radio now and then, though it gets far less airplay than Bush’s more popular singles. Ahead of its fortieth anniversary on 26th July, I wanted to write another feature about a terrific song. I have already highlighted it lyrics and the way Bush deploys her words to create such vivid and tangible scenes. With incredible sounds and voice all in the mix, The Dreaming is a song that I think was ahead of its time. If audiences were not too embracing of The Dreaming back in 1982, I feel it would fair much better forty years later. To me, The Dreaming should have been…

A top forty success.

FEATURE: D’You Know What I Mean? Oasis' Be Here Now at Twenty-Five

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D’You Know What I Mean?

Oasis' Be Here Now at Twenty-Five

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I remember the sense of anticipation…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Oasis pictured in London in 1997/PHOTO CREDIT: Jill Furmanovsky

and excitement there was in the air when Oasis announced their third studio album, Be Here Now. Released on 21st August, 1997, I want to look ahead to its twenty-fifth anniversary. Upon its released, there were so many emphatic, huge and glowing reviews. I think a lot of the media was reacting to what they were expecting, or the fact Be Here Now was so hyped. After their incredible first two albums, Definitely Maybe (1994) and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), maybe they thought it would be this faultless hat-trick. Running in at 71:33, Oasis’ third studio album was over-long. In need of an edit – one feels the band’s confidence and popularity meant they were writing long tracks -, Be Here Now has had a reassessment. Many now grade it down because of this reason, and the fact it does not contain as many classics as their first two albums. Regardless, Be Here Now in an important album that created such a buzz in 1997. A commercial success, Be Here Now topping the albums chart in fifteen countries. It was the biggest-selling album of 1997 in the U.K., with 1.47 million units sold that year. I am going to bring together a couple of contrasting reviews. I think that Be Here Now deserves celebration. I would recommend people pre-order the upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the album.

Before coming to a more positive review for Be Here Now, Drowned in Sound gave their balanced take. Definitely, when it came out in 1997, it seemed like an event – rather than a traditional album release. Be Here Now contains some classics like D’You Know What I Mean?, Stand By Me and All Around the World:

“A lot has been said - not least by Oasis themselves - about why the Mancunian titans' third album Be Here Now went so 'wrong'.

It is, for sure, a less good album than Definitely Maybe and (What's the Story) Morning Glory, being in large part the sound of a band who'd made their name writing three-to-four-minute-long indie rock songs now trying to write seven-to-nine-minute-long indie rock songs, with indie-rock not being a genre especially supportive of that sort of length, especially from a group that were hardly virtuoso musicians. It also mostly lacks the aspirational rock'n'roll swagger that had defined their early work.

The obvious exception to both these rules was the awesome lead single 'D'You Know What I Mean?', on which the gargantuan running time was justified by the fantastically bombastic deployment of FX - morse code! Backwards vocals! - and lyrics that (insofar as they meant anything) seemed to exist as monument to the scale of the band's success ("all my people right here right now, d'you know what I mean?" - millions of people did). But it's the peak of the album by a long shot, and the generally accepted wisdom is that fame and its attendant drugs had buggered up songwriter Noel Gallagher’s muse.

But in many ways the absolute last thing that you should really blame Be Here Now's 'failure' on is the efforts of the musicians involved. Essentially Oasis turned in a third album less good than their first two albums. It may have been a disappointment, but if they hadn’t been so outlandishly massive it wouldn’t have been that a big deal. But Oasis had sold 5m copies of Morning Glory, and a substantial enough portion of the nation felt so invested in a third Oasis record being good that it convinced itself it was a masterpiece. Pretty much everyone was complicit: in the pre-digital era, music hacks who'd had weeks to listen to the record bestowed top marks upon it, almost across the board. When the 'D'You Know What I Mean?' single arrived at Radio One, it wasn't just played hourly - its B-sides were played hourly. National newspapers ran endless articles on the band, earnestly attempting to 'decode' the cover art as if there was some great hidden meaning. And while the public may or may not have been been given helping push into making it the fastest-selling album of all time (until last year), from what I observed of school friends' reactions, people seemed to love the record for a good few weeks, maybe months, before they realised they might not be playing it quite as much as its predecessors. Eventually the backlash emerged and the record was written off, but it gave people genuine pleasure for a summer, at least.

Though they would continue for another 12 years, Be Here Now essentially broke Oasis. While Pulp and Blur ran away from their Britpop-era success, Oasis never stopped trying to appease the multitudes that had bought their first two records. Though they would continue to be a big band, they would effectively become a nostalgia act from this point on - at their last ever gig, 12 of the 19 songs played were from the first two records and accompanying b-sides.

Nowadays this all feels like a distant tale from another age, and it should be easier to listen to the record with something like objectivity. But the truth is that it's hard to imagine it being made by a band not in their weird, impossible position. 'D'You Know What I Mean?' opens it in bombastically brilliant fashion. 'All Around the World' closes it interminably, a Beatles-y plodder far far far too enamoured of its expensive, cokey orchestra. In between there are definite moments, but the preponderance of very long songs makes it a slog to this day. That all accepted, it’s not like Noel had totally lost it: if you liked the early stuff, there’s no real reason why you’d have a problem with ‘Stand By Me’, ‘Don’t Go Away’, ‘The Girl in the Dirty Shirt’ et al, they just lack the romance of the early stuff”.

I want to finish by sourcing CLASH’s assessment of Be Here Now. When it turns twenty-five on 21st August, there will be a lot of new reviews and opinions about an album that definitely was met with praise in 1997:

“With new Oasis flick Supersonic currently taking us back to marvel at the mayhem of mid-’90s Britpop, this re-issue of the band’s third album couldn’t come at a more apt and inspirational time. At the time of its creation, Oasis were experiencing mammoth tabloid shit-storms, wayward band members and partying so hard at Supernova Heights (and beyond) they were temporarily banned from Abbey Road while recording ‘Be Here Now’.

Following up two of the greatest records of the ’90s is no easy task, but at the time it seemed Noel possessed the superhuman ability to toss away B-sides better than most bands can muster in their careers. The signs ‘Be Here Now’ would sound huge were all there at the end of extraordinary B-side ‘The Masterplan’, its outro and colossal string section signalling a new dawn for Oasis MKIII.

So when ‘Be Here Now’ did finally arrive, the public thirst for more Oasis couldn’t have been greater (yours truly queued outside Woolworths rocking a Parka jacket to bag a copy, along with everyone else of similar attire, thanks to Liam).

And so it begins, the slow-burning Tannoy crackles and chopper whirls of ‘D’yer Know What I Mean?’ – over-long for sure, but still excites to this day. As with Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ and Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Chinese Democracy’, there was so much surrounding ‘Be Here Now’, it almost felt like people forgot this was merely a 12-track album. But can you imagine an Oasis set without the swirling Beatles homage ‘All Around The World’, ‘Stand By Me’ or the bruised beauty of ‘Don’t Go Away’? Us neither. It’s a bombastic, overblown and perhaps over-produced album, but it’s also what makes ‘Be Here Now’ great. Tracks like ‘I Hope I Think I Know’ still sound timeless, Noel’s squealing guitar lines skyrocketing, and you can almost hear producer Owen Morris’ eardrums exploding.

Loaded with fan-focused extras, this three-disc box set comes with all the extra demos, B-sides and alternate versions you could ever need (Disk two’s ‘(I Got) The Fever’ and the remastered ‘Flashbax’ are especially great). If anything, it’s a timely reminder of just how many tunes Oasis had at their disposal. A salute, then, to great times gone by, and – coupled with the Supersonic documentary – most fans will be hoping for more to come.

8/10”.

An album that, although not up there with Definitely Maybe or (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? is a very important one. A bit over-long, it did at least spawn some terrific singles and showed that the Manchester band were full of conviction. Be Here Now caused mass queuing and hysteria when it was unveiled to the world back in August 1997. Almost twenty-five years later, songs from it are still being played regularly on radio. Even if some hit against Be Here Now or feel it is a bit overinflated, the third studio album from Oasis is…

MORE than worthy of love.

FEATURE: Revisiting… Selena Gomez - Rare

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

Selena Gomez - Rare

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BECAUSE today (22nd July)…

PHOTO CREDIT: Micaiah Carter for allure

is the thirtieth birthday of the wonderful artist and actor Selena Gomez, I wanted to use this opportunity feature her most recent studio album in Revisiting… The superb Rare was released on 10th January, 2020. Although it got quite a few positive reviews, I don’t think, it got the full acclaim it deserves. With its tracks reserved to certain radio stations, Rare warrants wider listenership and acknowledgment. Coming five years after her second studio album, Revival, Rare was an album that was hugely anticipated. Even though (and as is quite common with a lot of Pop albums from mainstream artists) Rare boasts a lot of songwritrers and producers, the sheer wonder and force of Selena Gomez comes through. Her voice is very much at the center. Released just before the pandemic started, Gomez did not really have too much opportunity to tour the album. There were quite a few interesting interviews conducted around the release of Rare. I wanted to highlight one from NRP. In the interview, Gomez talked about, among other things, her public image and mental health:

“You've said this album is your diary from the past few years, and it does sound like it's a diary that was full of a lot of hurt. I want to talk about one of the songs, "Fun" — there are a couple on this album that reference your struggles with mental health. You've spoken about suffering from anxiety and depression, and you took a break in 2018 for your mental health. It sounds like you're doing a lot better now. How'd you get there?

I feel great, yeah. I'm on the proper medication that I need to be on, even as far as my mental health. I fully believe in just making sure you check in with your doctors or therapist. [Taking care of mental health — ] that's forever. That's something I will have to continue to work on. Yes, I don't think I just magically feel better. I have days where it is hard for me to get out of bed, or I have major anxiety attacks. All of that still happens. I think "Fun," in that particular way, was that I do like learning about it. When I was a kid, I was terrified of thunderstorms; it would freak me out. I was in Texas, so I would assumethat thunder and lightning would mean "tornado." And so my mom, she would give me these books — and they're the little thin books for kids to know about "What's rain?" and "What's this?" and she just said "The more you learn about it and how it works, the less you're going to be afraid of it." I think that took so much work for me.

But the way I find these moments in my life that are pretty difficult, I think the only way it's helped me is that I can use that for good. So yeah, I can sit down with somebody who's gone through a lot of health issues, I can sit down with someone who has had their heart completely broken, or a family that's broken, fighting for their right to stay in this country, or kids who are going through things they shouldn't even be worrying about at that age. I want to live in a world where an 11-year-old is not committing suicide because of bullying on social media. That's what I think my real mission is; I think that I have such big dreams and ideas for ways that I can give back. And right now I know that this is something that will be for life.

I want to go out on the song "Vulnerable," because to me the idea of staying vulnerable represents the ability to move forward. What does that song mean to you?

That means to me that vulnerability — and I've said this before — is a strength. And as I grew up in this chaotic space, I did have to learn how to be tough, and to be strong, but I'm not this hard person. And I have every right to be: From 7-years-old to 27, I've been working, and I've had the most horrible things said to me, said about me, and being exposed to way too much. One of my issues is that I always felt like I was this weak person because I would cry, or I would get emotional, or I hated when people were rude. I just started getting to the place, definitely a few years ago, where I understood that vulnerability is actually such a strength. I shine the most within when I'm sharing my story with someone, or when I'm there for a friend, or when I do meet someone, I'm not bitter and sarcastic — I mean sometimes I am, but I'm proud that I'm okay with speaking about my heart. And the whole song is saying "Hey if I give this to you, If I give myself to you, are you strong enough to be there for me?" If not, I'll let go of the situation but I'm still going to be vulnerable to what's next”.

A number one album in the U.S., Rare was a big commercial success. Gomez co-wrote all thirteen tracks on the album, and you can hear her lyrical voice come through. A sophisticated, memorable, and uplifting Pop album, Rare is one that more people should investigate. This is what AllMusic wrote in their review:

“The big news for Selena Gomez before the release of her sixth album, Rare, is that she finally had a number one single after years of getting close. The introspective and emotionally raw ballad "Lose You to Love Me" surrounded Gomez's aching vocals with sparse piano, swirling strings, and lush background vocals, and connected instantly with her fans and anyone who ever had to ditch someone in order to save themselves. That song, and the record it appears on, mark something of a turning point in her career. Where in the past she focused mostly on breezy sentiments, playful frothy pop, and more recently sexy come-ons, now she's digging deeper and mining her own life and loves for subject matter in more obvious and revealing ways. It may not be totally confessional -- and each song is helped to the finish line by teams of professional songwriters -- but within the realm of mainstream modern pop, Rare is surprisingly honest lyrically and Gomez sounds more open and invested in the songs than ever before.

Lyrically they range from stripped bare ("Lose You," "Vulnerable") to empowered (the title track, "Look at Her Now") with stops along the way at freedom (the sparkly, French disco-inspired "Dance Again"), realization ("Kinda Crazy"), and slyly moving on ("Fun"). The team pair the words with hooky choruses that are easy to imagine being sung along with really loud and some sure-handed production that's never boring and strays happily into odd territory now and again -- the junky drum sound on "Rare," "Look at Her Now"'s chopped-up vocals, the computer-tweaked vocals of "People You Know," and the wobbly synths and arrangements of "A Sweeter Place" crafted by Kid Cudi. Gomez's albums work best when they don't chase trends, or do obvious things, and there is precious little of that here; only the very "Havana"-esque "Ring" falls victim to that particular problem. It's highly unlikely that Gomez will ever venture to the cutting edge of pop, but Rare proves that when she has strong songs and the producers get a little weird, she's just enough outside the mainstream to sound fresh. Add in some deeply felt and real emotion like she does here, and it verges on being something special, maybe her best record yet. If it isn't that, it's at least her most interesting one yet, and that's something fans of the homogenized pop scene of the era should celebrate”.

Before wrapping things up, there is another positive review that warrants highlighting. Entertainment Weekly went deep with an album that I feel was not given enough love by some critics. If you have not heard it, then I would recommend you spend some time with Rare:

“How could Selena Gomez not be tired? She was, until recently, the most followed human on Instagram; an ambassador for UNICEF, Pantene, Coca-Cola, Coach, and Louis Vuitton; an actress appearing regularly in indie films and animated franchises alike; paramour to equally famous men — Justin Bieber, the Weeknd —and source, over the past decade-plus, of six studio albums, numerous collaborations, and some two dozen gold and platinum singles.

So when the singer canceled extended tour legs in 2014 and 2016, pleading exhaustion and ill health, it felt like a breach of the modern celebrity contract: Show up, share everything. (She shared a lot, eventually; it turned out she suffered from anxiety and depression brought on by the autoimmune disease lupus, for which she also underwent a kidney transplant.)

Now 27 and apparently in a steadier place, the Texas native has settled into the role of Relatable Superstar —exuding a calculated but somehow still tender vulnerability with every goofy spaghetti selfie and real-talk radio interview. For Rare’s lead single, she chose “Lose You to Love Me,” a sparse, striking piano ballad that seemed to explicitly call out her ex, Bieber, for crimes against Selena-nity; it also became her first to top the Billboard Hot 100.

Nearly every song here spells out some lesson in self-love and acceptance, triumph over hardship and haters, and the harsh critic within — from the loping title track’s plea for a partner’s consideration (“I’m not getting enough from you/ Didn’t you know I’m hard to find?”) to the lite–Daft Punk funk of “Dance Again” (“All the drama’s in remission/I don’t need permission to dance again”) and airy-urgent “Let Me Get Me” (“No self-sabotage, no letting my thoughts run/Me and this spiral are done”). There’s even a sweet little slab of whisper-disco literally called “Vulnerable,” in which the line “I stay vulnerable” loops and shimmers like a strobe-lit mantra — earnest bathroom-mirror affirmations shot through an Ibiza glitter cannon.

There’s a different kind of playful defiance in the syncopated strut of tracks like “Ring” and the sinuous kiss-off “Kinda Crazy” and the nonsense chorus of “mm-mmmmmms” in “Look at Her Now,” which works like a sort of giddy hypnosis, repeating until it becomes the pure sound of post-breakup freedom. For all its heavy messaging, lightness actually feels like the album’s hallmark: an anti-weighted blanket of breathy vocals and zero-gravity synths that consistently float above pop’s sonic slipstream. A varsity-squad production team, including various Max Martin-affiliated Swedes and the ace songwriting duo of Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels, bring their considerable contributions — though their job, of course, is to make Gomez sound like nothing less than her own woman: a girl interrupted but now returned, in Rare form. B+”.

I don’t think you need to be a fan of Pop or even be familiar with Selena Gomez’s previous work to understand and connect with Rare. One of 2020’s best albums, it is one that I missed at the time. I have been listening lately and really getting something from it. A tremendous actor, I think Gomez brings those disciplines, emotions, and skills into her music (and vice versa). If Rare is a new album to you, then I would urge you to…

PLAY it today.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Don Henley - The Boys of Summer

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Don Henley - The Boys of Summer

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TAKEN from his 1984 album…

Building the Perfect Beast, I wanted to go a bit deeper with The Boys of Summer. Reaching number twenty in the U.S. upon its release, this single (released, somewhat ironically, on 26th October) has grown hugely in popularity and stature since 1984. Almost synonymous with this time of year, The Boys of Summer boasts one of the most memorable choruses ever. Actually, The Boys of Summer is more about looking back at a better time or dealing with ageing. It is one of those songs that speaks to all generations because of its instantly accessible sound. Even though the lyrics are quite personal and particular to Don Henley, the sheer singalong quality means that the track has been taken to heart by so many others through the years. American Songwriter looked back at the classic track in 2109. A sense of letting go of the past looms quite large. The Boys of Summer is definitely a track that has been close to my heart since I was a child:

“The Boys of Summer” – Written by Don Henley and Mike Campbel

While you may think that we chose Don Henley’s “The Boys Of Summer” to dissect this week due to its ties to the hottest season, a closer listen to this #5 hit from 1984 reveals that it is in many ways an anti-summer song. Indeed, one of the first lines out of Henley’s mouth is “The summer’s out of reach.”

Instead of a treatise on sun, surf, and all the rest, “The Boys Of Summer” presents a wistful portrait of a man clinging to a lover who has left him in the cold for the titular flavors of the season. Henley borrowed the title from Roger Kahn’s famous book about the Brooklyn Dodgers and used it to represent everything youthful and vibrant with which the narrator can no longer compete.

Henley got an unlikely writing assist on the song from Heartbreaker Mike Campbell. Campbell often wrote the music for Tom Petty songs and then let Petty add in the lyrics and melody. He demoed the track that would become “The Boys Of Summer,” but Petty, ever the rock traditionalist, balked at the heavy use of synthesizers.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as they say, and Henley gladly scooped up the dynamic track, adding lyrics that dovetailed perfectly with the icy beauty of Campbell’s music. Ironically, Petty would try to catch the same kind of magic a few years later with “Runaway Train,” a similarly synthesizer-heavy Campbell composition, but it failed to make much of a dent in the charts.

As for the lyrics, the most memorable line in the song is the narrator’s damning observation in the final verse: “Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.” For those who were wondering, yes, it actually happened to Henley, as he recounted in a 1985 interview with NME: “I was driving down the San Diego freeway and just got passed by a $21,000 Cadillac Seville, the status symbol of the Right-wing upper-middle class…and there was this Grateful Dead ‘Deadhead’ bumper sticker on it!”.

If you listen to The Boys of Summer and feel it would have sounded perfect for Tom Petty, he was actually offered the demo of the song but turned it down. Ultimate Classic Rock told the story of this now-classic song that was rejected by one of the legendary and most important songwriters ever:

“Tom Petty's rejection of a demo made by Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell paved the way for Don Henley to record one of his biggest solo hits, 1984's "The Boys of Summer."

On Brian Koppelman's podcast The Moment, Campbell said he had created the demo with a new Linn drum machine, complete with all the chords and the guitar parts but no words. He played it at his house for Petty and producer Jimmy Iovine, both of whom were underwhelmed.

"In Tom's defense, when I got to the chorus, I went to a different chord," Campbell said. "It was kind of like a minor chord. As the song ended up, on the chorus it goes to that big major chord. You know, it lifts up. And so he heard a slightly inferior version. And I remember when it went by, we were kind of grooving to it, and it got to that chord and Jimmy Iovine goes, 'Eh, it sounds like jazz.'"

Campbell was "completely deflated" by the response, but he also realized Iovine was right. So he changed the chords on the chorus and dropped them onto the demo. Then Iovine called him and suggested he play it for Henley, who was looking for music for what would become Building the Perfect Beast. Figuring that Petty, even with the new chords, was "probably fed up with it" and had plenty of other music to work with, Campbell agreed and took the tape to the former Eagles drummer's house.

"It was just me and him," Campbell noted. "We sat at a big table. He sat at the other end like the judge, totally quiet and didn't bat an eye - just listened with his eyes closed. And then he said, 'Okay, maybe I can do something with that.'"

Campbell, who'd never met Henley before, said the drummer was so serious that he couldn't tell if he liked it. Then he got a phone call from Henley. "He's like, 'Oh, I just wrote the best song of my life to your music,'" Campbell remembered. "'Really? I'd like to hear that.'"

But the demo was in a key ill-suited for Henley's voice. So, when it came time to track the song in the studio, Campbell had to re-learn all the guitar parts he had improvised on the demo, which was in a higher key. He was able to get it all down, but he made one spontaneous change: the song's classic outro solo.

Campbell also recalled that during the sessions for Southern Accents, he and Petty went out to a car to listen to a mix of "Don't Come Around Here No More," only to turn on the ignition and hear the radio playing "The Boys of Summer." Thinking it might upset Petty, Campbell immediately changed the station, only to hear another station playing the song, too.

"'Boy, you know, you were really lucky with that,'" Campbell remembered his partner as saying. "'I wish I would have had the presence of mind to not let that get away.' That was a real 'brother' moment we had".

I am going to finish off with a Wikipedia article that tells of the success and accolades The Boys of Summer has accrued. It is a song that will never age. You just know radio stations around the world will spin The Boys of Summer for decades to come:

“The Boys of Summer" reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart for five weeks. It was his most successful hit in the United Kingdom, reaching No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart. A re-release of the single in 1998 also reached No. 12.

In 1986, Henley won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the song. "The Boys of Summer" was ranked No. 416 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. "The Boys of Summer" is included in The Pitchfork 500, Pitchfork Media's "Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to Present."

Tom Petty was astounded by the track's success. One day, he and Campbell were out on a car drive to listen to a mix of their song "Don't Come Around Here No More", but turned on the ignition and heard "The Boys of Summer". Campbell changed the station in case the song would upset Petty, but another station was also playing the song. Petty enjoyed listening to it and regretted initially turning it down”.

If you have not heard Don Henley’s The Boys of Summer for quite a while, got and spin it now. The black-and-white video for it is pretty amazing too! A song perfect for this hot weather, its lyrics and sense of looking back at the past with caution is a reason why it has endured and touched so many people. This 1984 diamond will continue to shine brightly…

FOR generations.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five: The U.K. Cover Design and a Worthy Alternative

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five

The U.K. Cover Design and a Worthy Alternative

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EVEN though I have written about…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during a trip to Japan in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images

its cover before, I am doing a run of features to mark forty-five years since The Kick Inside was recorded. It is my favourite album and, as such, I love almost everything about it. One of the things that has always split me about the album is the cover. In different countries a different image was used. For the U.K. release, there is Kate Bush in the background mounted on a kite. The colour scheme and lettering give the album an Oriental vibe, whilst its star seems to be too far in the distance. Alongside Aerial and 50 Words for Snow, it is my least favourite cover. From her quick follow-up, 1978’s Lionheart, Kate was more at the centre with a concept that was more relevant and interesting. That is not to say that The Kick Inside’s U.K. cover is all bad or there were no alternatives at all. Before speaking about that, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia has interviews from Bush about The Kick Inside. The first interview snippet actually mentions the cover for her debut album:

“I think it went a bit over the top [In being orientally influenced], actually. We had the kite, and as there is a song on the album by that name, and as the kite is traditionally Oriental, we painted the dragon on. But I think the lettering was just a bit too much. On the whole I was surprised at the amount of control I actually had with the album production. Though I didn't choose the musicians. I thought they were terrific.

I was lucky to be able to express myself as much as I did, especially with this being a debut album. Andrew was really into working together, rather than pushing everyone around. I basically chose which tracks went on, put harmonies where I wanted them...

I was there throughout the entire mix. I feel that's very important. Ideally, I would like to learn enough of the technical side of things to be able to produce my own stuff eventually. (The Blossoming Ms. Bush, 1978)

As far as I know, it was mainly Andrew Powell who chose the musicians, he'd worked with them before and they were all sort of tied in with Alan Parsons. There was Stuart Elliot on drums, Ian Bairnson on guitar, David Paton on bass, and Duncan Mackay on electric keyboards. And, on that first album, I had no say, so I was very lucky really to be given such good musicians to start with. And they were lovely, 'cause they were all very concerned about what I thought of the treatment of each of the songs. And if I was unhappy with anything, they were more than willing to re-do their parts. So they were very concerned about what I thought, which was very nice. And they were really nice guys, eager to know what the songs were about and all that sort of thing. I don't honestly see how anyone can play with feeling unless you know what the song is about. You know, you might be feeling this really positive vibe, yet the song might be something weird and heavy and sad. So I think that's always been very important for me, to sit down and tell the musicians what the song is about. (Musician, 1985)”.

I do like the fact that the cover for The Kick Inside is quite adventurous and not merely a very simple and unengaging portrait. It is hard to put a portrait of an artist on a debut album that conveys all the emotions and intentions within. Gered Mankowitz took a series of images of Bush intended for the cover of Wuthering Heights (Bush’s first single). Because of controversy around one photo where you could see her nipples, that idea was scrapped. One of the photos that has not been given wider attention and celebration adorns the cover of the Japanese version of The Kick Inside (above). I love that Mankowitz shot and I think, had Bush took a step back and considered both images, she would have come around to the fact that a single image of her is a lot more striking and better than a design which is quite misleading when it comes to The Kick Inside and its sound/themes. In any case, Kate Bush’s 1978 debut album is a remarkable and hugely important work. Across the thirteen tracks, she announced herself as a songwriter with no equals. Gaining criticism, sexism and misogyny for a lot of different sources, few back in 1978 could have predicted we would see Bush hitting number one nearly forty-five after The Kick Inside.

In future features, I am going to examine various songs and sides to The Kick Inside. It does turn forty-five next month in terms of the fact it finished recording in August 1977. In February, fans mark forty-five years since its release. Even if the U.K. cover is a little bit of a missed opportunity, it did at least signal Bush was a very original and unpredictable artist in terms of her vision. Consider the cover of The Kick Inside with other Pop artists of the day. Other countries use different images. If you look hard enough, you will find a cover that suits you. Not as stunning as the covers for Never for Ever (1980), The Dreaming (1978) or Hounds of Love (1985), The Kick Inside’s British cover neither put its star at the front clearly visible, nor did it create something that sticks in the mind. Even so, I have come to like the U.K. cover, as it from my favourite ever album. I do wonder what the reaction would have been if the Gered Mankowitz shot of Bush in a pink leotard with a hugely mature, beautiful, and multi-layered look on her face was used. I know some people who really love the cover for The Kick Inside. Clearly, at the time, there was a feeling that it was a good representation of Kate Bush as an artist. Whichever cover you prefer, there is no doubting that 1978’s The Kick Inside is…

A truly spectacular album.

FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential August Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

IN THIS PHOTO: Julia Jacklin

Essential August Releases

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I am going to recommend…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Lauran Hibberd/PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles for DIY

ten albums due next month that are worth some pennies. Although you may not be able to afford all of them, there is a variety of albums due that will give you options. I am going to start with 12th August. The first album from that week that I want to highlight is Hudson Mohawke’s Cry Sugar. This is an album that I would recommend people pre-order, as it is sounding like it will be terrific and must-hear:

“Hudson Mohawke returns with a new album Cry Sugar. His third album, Cry Sugar, deepens his practice of producing motivational music for club goers-uplifting the debauchery and inspiring many through his own brand of anthemic maximalism. Trading in his lineage in dark UK back-alleys filled with Glaswegian antipathy for studio sessions with blazed Pavarotti-inspired tenors and drunk string quartets, Mohawke has dialed in an ongoing fascination with melding high and low culture. After all, he is indeed the architect for the high peaks of high-definition trap production that became embellished in the 2010s-a style that has been appropriated in everything from beer can littered college parties to Arby's commercials. American decadence, then, becomes a stage for his music to thrive-where the DJ booth becomes a composer's podium for him to conduct the tense drama between debauchery and apocalypse, the "mise-en-scene" of club culture in 2022.

Cry Sugar, serves as Hudson Mohawke's first work deeply informed by apocalyptic film scores and soundtracks by everyone from the late Vangelis to the goofy major-chord pomp of 90s John Williams. Cry Sugar also serves as Mohawke's own demented OST to score the twilight of our cultural meltdown. As the album's artwork (by Wayne horse Willehad Eilers) depicts-we are arm-in-arm with the Ghostbusters marshmallow man, returning home while swinging a bottle of Jack only to gaze out at the gray tempest of a coming catastrophe.

Despite the apocalyptic undercurrent, Mohawke foregrounds the iridescent vibrattos of gospel choirs, soul samples, and scat-sampling throughout Cry Sugar-scaling our bright human drama in the tumult. Known for his deft uses of fragmentation and deconstruction, Mohawke presents our fraught cultural moment as set against the quintessential backdrop of late capitalism-a tightrope walking between chaos and the unashamedly euphoric, between the erratic and the bold, the noisy and anthemic, the saccharine with the devastating. Cry Sugar becomes a testament of its namesake. In our most intimate, melancholic moments, something sweet and twisted emerges. A wry smile beneath the malice. In 2022, we cry sugar”.

The second album from 12th August that I want to spotlight is Pale Waves’ Unwanted. A band that has never really got the acclaim and airplay that they deserve, their third studio album is shaping up to be their best. An urgent, inclusive, and incredible album that will leave its mark, go and pre-order it if you can. Led by the fantastic Heather Baron-Grace, Pale Waves are a group that possess this great chemistry and bond. I think that Unwanted will get a lot of positive reviews when it comes out on 12th August:

“A fiery, confident kick-back against convention, Pale Waves’ third record Unwanted sees the group building on the promise of last year’s UK Top 3 album Who Am I?, and staking their claim as British rock’s most dynamic young group. “It’s bold and unapologetic, and that’s what the Pale Waves community is about,” says frontwoman Heather Baron-Gracie herself. “We don’t need to fit a perfect mould, we don’t need to apologise for being ourselves, and we won’t change for anyone. That acceptance is what connects us.” Led by riotous lead single “Lies”, Unwanted is a record that reaches out to the passionate community of misfits and LGBTQI+ fans around the band, tapping into darker emotions than ever before while also striking a fresh tone of defiance”.

Let’s go to 19th August. That is the week when Hot Chip release Freakout/Release. One of Britain’s best bands, they are constantly pushing their sound and improving. They have a very loyal and growing fanbase around the world. I am looking forward to seeing what comes about with their latest album. On the evidence we have heard so far, it is looking like business as usual for Hot Chip! This is an album that I would point people in the direction of regarding pre-ordering. Freakout/Release is going to be an amazing release that will rank alongside the best of this year:

“Freakout/Release is another dizzying high in a multi-decade career that’s seen Hot Chip continuing to innovate and develop a rich, resonant songcraft. And while they continue to operate at peak form, the album also feels like a new chapter for the group - a collection of flesh-and-blood songs that finds the band reaching into the darkness to emerge as a true creative unit, their gazes fixed positively on the future ahead. The album features Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon, British DJ and musician Lou Hayter and production work from Soulwax”.

The next album from 19th August that you may want to investigate is Viva Las Vengeance by Panic! At the Disco. Go and pre-order the album. It seems like the seventh studio album from Panic! At the Disco is going to see them take a slightly different course. Another band that has never quite gained the embrace and full approval that is deserved, I am going to be curious seeing how critics perceive Viva Las Vengeance. If you have some spare pennies for next month, it is well worth investing in the new album from Panic! At the Disco:

“Panic! At The Disco release their seventh studio album, Viva Las Vengeance. The upbeat, driving, anthemic title track, kicks off the new era of Panic! At The Disco.

Viva Las Vengeance shows a change in process for frontman / songwriter Brendon Urie, having cut everything live to tape in Los Angeles alongside his friends and production partners, Jake Sinclair and Mike Viola. The cinematic musical journey is about the fine line between taking advantage of youryouth, seizing the day and burning out. The songs take an introspective look into his relationship with his decade plus career including growing up in Las Vegas, love, and fame”.

There are a couple of other albums from 19th August that I want to direct you towards. The brilliant Lauran Hibberd prepares to release Garageband Superstar. An artist that I have known about for a while now, she is one of our very best and most promising artists. A unique and potent songwriter who is consistently stunning, her album is going to be one that will introduce her music to a wider audience. I would urge people to pre-order what is likely to be a simply brilliant album from the Isle of Wight wonder. I reckon Hibberd is going to be a massive star of the future. I have a lot of affection and respect for everything that she does:

“Isle Of Wight’s resident slacker pop queen. Lauran Hibberd’s rise towards the forefront of the emerging indie elite shows no signs of slowing, with her charismatic, tongue-in-cheek songwriting already attracting widespread press attention (The Guardian, NME, The Line Of Best Fit, Dork, DIY, Billboard, NYLON, Clash, Gigwise, Upset), and significant praise across BBC Radio 1 airwaves (Clara Amfo, Jack Saunders, Jordan North). With her eagerly anticipated debut album on the way later this year, and tour dates galore lined up, the indie sensation is primed for a thrilling twelve months”.

Prior to finishing with a crop of albums out on 26th August worth some money, 19th August also sees Phoebe Green’s Lucky Me come into the world. An album that you will want to pre-order, do go and check this out. She is another fabulous young artist who has her own vibe and is among the very best artists this country has produced in years. Like Lauran Hibberd, Phoebe Green is shaping up to be a legend of the future. I am a fan of hers for sure! Lucky Me is an album that everyone will want to check out and listen to, as Green is a magnificent songwriter and talent that you should not pass by:

“24 year old Mancunian alt-pop star Phoebe Green's debut studio album Lucky Me is released on Chess Club. Produced by Alex Robertshaw of multi time Mercy Award nominated outfit, Everything Everything and his production partner Tom Fuller, the album comes off the back of supporting Self Esteem, Everything Everything and Baby Queen in one month alone, a BBC Radio 1 Maida Vale session and a Killing Eve sync. For fans of New Order, Ladytron and Big Moon”.

Let’s get to 26th August, as there are a few albums form that week which you will want to check out. The first that you need to be aware of is Ezra Furman’s All of Us Flames. Her new album is going to be one that will get a lot of love and positive reaction. Go and pre-order All of Us Flames if you can:

“A singer, songwriter, and author whose incendiary music has soundtracked all three seasons of the Netflix show Sex Education, Ezra Furman has for years woven together stories of queer discontent and unlikely, fragile intimacies. Her new album All of Us Flames widens that focus to a communal scope, painting transformative connections among people who unsettle the stories power tells to sustain itself.

Produced by John Congleton in L.A., All of Us Flames unleashes Furman's songwriting in an open, vivid sound world whose boldness heightens the music's urgency. The record arrives as the third instalment in a trilogy of albums, beginning with 2018's Springsteen-inflected road saga Transangelic Exodus and continuing with the punk rock fury of 2019's Twelve Nudes.

"This is a first person plural album," Furman says. "It's a queer album for the stage of life when you start to understand that you are not a lone wolf, but depend on finding your family, your people, how you work as part of a larger whole. I wanted to make songs for use by threatened communities, and particularly the ones I belong to: trans people and Jews”.

A few other great albums are due on 26th August. One that I am especially excited to hearing is Julia Jacklin’s PRE PLEASURE. The Australian artist’s third studio album follow’s 2019’s Crushing. Jacklin is a magnificent songwriter who always delivers brilliant work. PRE PLEASURE is an album that everyone needs to pre-order, as it is going to be among the absolute best of 2022. I am a big fan of Julia Jacklin, so I am looking forward to listening to her latest effort. Again, if you have some spare pennies for next month, I can recommend the brilliant Jacklin and PRE PLEASURE:

“Pre Pleasure is the breath-taking third album from Australian singer-songwriter, Julia Jacklin. Co-produced with Marcus Paquin (The Weather Station, The National), Pre Pleasure sees Jacklin as her most authentic self, delivering the most intimate, raw and devastating ten songs of her career to date. An uncompromising and masterful lyricist, always willing to mine the depths of her own life experience, and singular in translating it into deeply personal, timeless songs”.

One of the big albums of this year comes from Muse in the form of Will of the People. Their ninth studio album, this is one that you will want to pre-order. Listening to the singles from the album they have put out already makes have shown that this is going to be a very strong album from the Devon band:

“Grammy Award winning band Muse release their long-awaited ninth studio album Will Of The People via Warner Records. Of the album, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy says, “Will Of The People was created in Los Angeles and London and is influenced by the increasing uncertainty and instability in the world. A pandemic, new wars in Europe, massive protests and riots, an attempted insurrection, Western democracy wavering, rising authoritarianism, wildfires and natural disasters and the destabilization of the global order all informed Will Of The People. It has been a worrying and scary time for all of us as the Western empire and the natural world, which have cradled us for so long are genuinely threatened. This album is a personal navigation through those fears and preparation for what comes next.”

With Muse being Muse, there is NO bowing to any singular genre. The album’s title track “Will Of The People” brings playful provocation to a dystopian glam-rocker while there is an innocence and a purity to the nostalgic electronic textures of “Verona.” From the visceral thrill of “Won’t Stand Down,” to the industrial-tinged, granite heavy riffs of “Kill Or Be Killed,” or the lightning-bolt rush of “Euphoria,” the album concludes with the frenetic finale of the brutally honest “We Are Fucking Fucked.” On the band’s new single “Compliance,” Bellamy says, “

Will Of The People was produced by Muse. Key collaborators include mixing on eight tracks by the multiple Grammy Award winner Serban Ghenea; mixing from Dan Lancaster on “Won’t Stand Down,” and additional mixing on “Kill Or Be Killed” from Aleks von Korff”.

Let’s round off with Stella Donnelly’s Flood. An album that people need to pre-order, she is an artist that many might not know about. I hope that this changes with the release of an album that is sounding really fascinating and compelling. Donnelly is an artist sure to go very far indeed:

“Like the many Banded Stilts that spread across the cover of her newest album Flood, Stella Donnelly is wading into uncharted territory. Here, she finds herself discovering who she is as an artist among the flock, and how abundant one individual can be. Flood is Donnelly’s record of this rediscovery: the product of months of risky experimentation, hard moments of introspection, and a lot of moving around.

Donnelly’s early reflections on the relationship between the individual and the many can be traced back to her time in the rainforests of Bellingen, where she took to birdwatching as both a hobby and an escape in a border-restricted world. By paying closer attention to the natural world around her, Donnelly recalls “I was able to lose that feeling of anyone’s reaction to me. I forgot who I was as a musician, which was a humbling experience of just being; being my small self.”

Reconnecting with this ‘small self’ allowed Donnelly to tap into creative wells she didn’t know existed. Soon songs were coming to her in a way she could not control and over the coming months, Donnelly accumulated 43 tracks as she moved out of Bellingen and around the country, often finding herself displaced due to border restrictions and a tough rental market.

Though the writing of Flood was an intensely personal undertaking, Donnelly still saw the recording process as one of her most collaborative projects yet. Along with her band members, co-producing the record beside Anna Laverty and Methyl Ethyl’s Jake Webb helped to foster an important spontaneity in the studio. With Webb, Donnelly could “dig in” and discover a “forward-leaning sound” she’d been searching for, while Laverty’s ability to “capture the piano” and discern the “perfect take” allowed the songwriter to take risks, many of which have clearly paid off.

Looking back at the Banded Stilt, Donnelly ultimately appreciates how when “seen in a crowd they create an optical illusion, but on its own it’s this singular piece of art.” While each song in Flood is a singular artwork unto itself, the collective shares all of Stella Donnelly in abundance: her inner child, her nurturing self, her nightmare self; all of herself has gone into the making of this record, and although it would take an ocean to fathom everything she feels, it’s well worth diving in”.

That is ten albums due next month that I would recommend to people. Of course, there are many others that you can get. From Muse and Julia Jacklin through to Lauran Hibberd and Phoebe Green, there is a great variety of albums for you to choose from. If you are looking for some guidance as to which August-due albums are worth your money, then I hope that the above…

IS of some help.

FEATURE: Second Spin: The Beatles - Beatles for Sale

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

The Beatles - Beatles for Sale

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THE fourth album from The Beatles…

Beatles for Sale was released on 4th December, 1964. It was a bit of a departure from the more upbeat tone that had characterised their previous work. At this point, The Beatles were exhausted because of touring schedules and constant work. I think a lot of people overlook this as a classic or do not rank it highly. Whilst I normally highlight underrated albums here that are not seen as universally great but have strengths, it seems a bit ridiculous to suggest that Beatles for Sale has weaknesses and needs my backing! In terms of the band, I do not hear that many people discuss Beatles for Sale. It contains one of The Beatles’ most popular songs in the form of Eight Days a Week. 1965’s Help! saw another shift, as the album contains mostly original compositions by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Beatles for Sale features a balance of great cover versions and some originals. Although some of the covers (such as Carl Perkins’ Honey Don’t) are not that great and one or two originals are promising but not at the band’s peak (What You’re Doing springs to mind), Beatles for Sale is a wonderful album that does not show fatigue or any of the tiredness the band were facing when recording through 1964. I love the powerful and spine-tingling vocals from Lennon on I’m a Loser and Mr. Moonlight. McCartney’s I’ll Follow the Sun is a beautiful short number, whilst songs like No Reply and I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party are great cuts that you do not hear of much.

Although there is a little more anger in The Beatles’ songs here (especially from Lennon) than previous albums, their innate and unmatched compositional and songwriting abilities makes Beatles for Sale a triumph. It is filled with electricity, variety and quality. I want to bring together a couple of reviews. The first, from Pitchfork, hints at a slightly messy album. They were still impressed by what they heard:

“The Beatles themselves were changing how the business worked, but Beatles For Sale, of all the British records, bears the stamp of these business realities. It's a mess.

But it's a really good mess. Taylor's sleevenotes are also interesting because they go out of the way to reassure listeners that everything they're hearing can be reproduced live. Studio experimentation was becoming more important to the band and producer George Martin, but clearly someone viewed it with a little nervousness. You can understand why: The Lennon-McCartney originals on Beatles For Sale are often full of curious arrangements, drones, jagged transitions, and lashings of aggression. Blame pot, or the inspiration of Bob Dylan, or just the pressure-cooker environment the group was in, but the record hits a seam of angry creativity.

This is particularly true of Lennon's amazing first three songs. "No Reply" shatters itself with waves of jealous rage, taking the menace that had flecked Beatles music and bringing it up in the mix: his dangerously quiet "that's a lie" is the most chilling moment in their catalogue. "I'm a Loser" turns that anger inward with just as much brutality. And "Baby's in Black" curdles a nursery rhyme, transforms the group's crisp pop sound into an off-kilter clang, and uses John and Paul McCartney's double vocal to thicken the soupy sound even further. This run of tracks marries the direct attack of their earliest material and the boundary-pushing of their later albums, and stands with the best of both.

Even so it's a relief when "Rock and Roll Music" breaks the tension, especially when you notice that the band are playing their best rock'n'roll since "Twist and Shout". Perhaps the workrate had pushed them back into the Hamburg hot zone, but the uptempo covers on Beatles For Sale are fiercely good-- as ragged, loud and immediate as the songs needed to be. Even "Mr. Moonlight" fits the aggressive mood, the ugliness of its organ solo surely deliberate

McCartney's songs on Beatles For Sale are more thoughtful than moody, though on his splendid "Every Little Thing"-- given melodramatic thrust by Shangri-Las-style piano and bass drum-- he's distinctly melancholy, his "yes, I know I'm a lucky guy" sounding like an attempt to convince himself of that. But Lennon's anger and the band's rediscovery of rock'n'roll mean For Sale's reputation as the group's meanest album is deserved, even if it has "Eight Days a Week" as its breezy centerpiece. The lumpiest and least welcoming of their early records, it's also one of the most rewarding”.

I am going to finish with a review from AllMusic. Awarding it five stars, they made some interesting points about Beatles for Sale. I definitely think it is an underrated album in their cannon that more people should give a listen to:

“It was inevitable that the constant grind of touring, writing, promoting, and recording would grate on the Beatles, but the weariness of Beatles for Sale comes as something of a shock. Only five months before, the group released the joyous A Hard Day's Night. Now, they sound beaten, worn, and, in Lennon's case, bitter and self-loathing. His opening trilogy ("No Reply," "I'm a Loser," "Baby's in Black") is the darkest sequence on any Beatles record, setting the tone for the album. Moments of joy pop up now and again, mainly in the forms of covers and the dynamic "Eight Days a Week," but the very presence of six covers after the triumphant all-original A Hard Day's Night feels like an admission of defeat or at least a regression. (It doesn't help that Lennon's cover of his beloved obscurity "Mr. Moonlight" winds up as arguably the worst thing the group ever recorded.) Beneath those surface suspicions, however, there are some important changes on Beatles for Sale, most notably Lennon's discovery of Bob Dylan and folk-rock. The opening three songs, along with "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party," are implicitly confessional and all quite bleak, which is a new development. This spirit winds up overshadowing McCartney's cheery "I'll Follow the Sun" or the thundering covers of "Rock & Roll Music," "Honey Don't," and "Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!," and the weariness creeps up in unexpected places -- "Every Little Thing," "What You're Doing," even George's cover of Carl Perkins' "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" -- leaving the impression that Beatlemania may have been fun but now the group is exhausted. That exhaustion results in the group's most uneven album, but its best moments find them moving from Merseybeat to the sophisticated pop/rock they developed in mid-career”.

Even though there are a couple of tracks on Beatles for Sale that are not as strong as they could have been, The Beatles are not uninspiring or lacking energy. The cover (shot by Robert Freeman) depicts the band slightly bedraggled and drained. If you listen to Beatles for Sale, there is a great mix of cynicism, downbeat, Rock and Roll explosion and amazingly inspired originals. Although Eight Days a Week is the best-known song on Beatles for Sale, there is more than enough away from that song that is up there with their best stuff. Not talked about as much as Beatles albums such as Revolver (1966) and Abbey Road (1969), the superb Beatles for Sale…

IS an incredible listen.

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Seventy: Fugees

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

Part Seventy: Fugees

__________

A group that released…

two albums (their second, 1996’s The Score, is their best I think), Fugees consists of Ms. Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel. A Hip-Hop group who are iconic and adored, there is new talk that they might perform together. It does seem like they will tour again at some point in time. To show how many artists they have inspired, I am ending with a playlist of songs from those who are definitely indebted to Fugees. Before that, AllMusic provide a biography about the New Jersey-formed trio:

“The Fugees translated a seamless blend of jazz-rap, R&B, and reggae into huge success during the mid-'90s, when the New Jersey-area trio's seminal sophomore album The Score hit number one on the pop charts and sold over five million copies before winning a pair of Grammy Awards in 1997. Featuring the songs "Killing Me Softly" and "Ready or Not," the effort became a '90s classic, while each member went on to pursue solo careers that extended into the 2000s.

The trio formed in the late '80s in South Orange, New Jersey, where high school friends Lauryn Hill and Prakazrel Michel ("Pras") began working together. Michel's cousin Wyclef Jean joined the group, dubbed the Tranzlator Crew, and they signed to Ruffhouse/Columbia in 1993. After renaming themselves the Fugees (a term of derision, short for refugees, which was usually used to describe Haitian immigrants), they entered the studio to record their first official full-length, Blunted on Reality. Issued in early 1994, the album showcased a beat-driven, hip-hop crew vibe, with Hill, Jean, and Michel trading verses in a fashion similar to A Tribe Called Quest, Poor Righteous Teachers, and Digable Planets. While an underground favorite, the album didn't make much of a dent on the charts and they veered in a different, but ultimately more successful, direction on their follow-up.

The Score arrived in 1996 and was an instant hit. Retaining some of their earlier jazz-rap spirit, while incorporating traditional R&B that showcased Hill's singing abilities, the album topped charts across the globe and was certified multi-platinum around Europe and in the U.S. Featuring the soulful, chart-topping single "Killing Me Softly" and a top 40 cover of Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry," The Score made significant dents in the commercial mainstream while retaining their existing fan base, becoming one of the surprise hits of 1996. At the 1997 Grammy Awards, the Fugees won Best Rap Album and Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Killing Me Softly."

Following the success of The Score, the Fugees took a break, pursuing solo endeavors that eventually made the hiatus permanent. Jean issued his first solo album, 1997's The Carnival Featuring the Refugee Allstars, while Michel joined Mya and Ol' Dirty Bastard for the hit single "Ghetto Superstar (That Is What You Are)." In 1998, Hill released her chart-topping, neo-soul opus The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which went on to outsell The Score and win five Grammy Awards in 1999. While Hill bowed out while on top of her game, Pras continued rapping and also pursued acting and film production. Meanwhile, Jean continued to release solo material -- issuing over a dozen albums -- and produced for artists, working with the likes of Destiny's Child, Santana, Shakira, Young Thug, and many more.

Almost a decade after peaking with The Score, they reconvened in 2005, performing together on a European tour and releasing the single "Take It Easy." However, the reunion was brief, and the trio disbanded once again. While their overall time together was short, The Score endures as one of the most critically acclaimed albums of all time and each Fugee remained active -- both musically and politically -- for decades to come”.

To commemorate and recognise the immense influence of Fugees, the playlist below are songs from artists who cite the group as important – either that or they have been compared with them. Let’s hope that there is more touring from Fugees. Even though the trio are unlikely to release a third studio album, we have not seen the last of them. Here are tracks from artists who count Fugees…

AS an influence.

FEATURE: Vibes in the Sky Invite You to Dine: Returning to Kate Bush’s Blow Away (For Bill)

FEATURE:

 

 

Vibes in the Sky Invite You to Dine

Returning to Kate Bush’s Blow Away (For Bill)

 __________

A song considered to be…

one of the weakest on her third studio album, Never for Ever, I wanted to come back to the brilliant Blow Away (For Bill). Whilst it is not my favourite song from the album, it is a beautiful song that gets overlooked. The song has quite a sad backstory. Dedicated to lighting director Bill Duffield, he worked with Kate Bush and her team for The Tour of Life. On 2nd April, 1979, following a show at the Poole Arts Centre in Dorset, the equipment had been loaded up for the next date, and Duffield was having a last look around the stage area to make sure nothing had been left behind. An open panel was left in the flooring so, as Duffield crossed the stage, he fell seventeen feet onto a concrete floor under the stage. He was put on life support but died a week later. Barely in his twenties, it was a tragic loss and hit Bush hard. On 12th May, 1979, there was an In Aid of Bill Duffield concert in Hammersmith that included contributions from Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley. Before going into a bit more detail, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia collected some interviews where Bush discussed Blow Away (For Bill):

“'Blow Away' is a comfort for the fear of dying and for those of us who believe that music is perhaps an exception to the 'Never For Ever' rule. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, September 1980)

So there's comfort for the guy in my band, as when he dies, he'll go "Hi, Jimi!" It's very tongue-in-cheek, but it's a great thought that if a musician dies, his soul will join all the other musicians and a poet will join all the Dylan Thomases and all that.

None of those people [who have had near-death experiences] are frightened by death anymore. It's almost something they're looking forward to. All of us have such a deep fear of death. It's the ultimate unknown, at the same time it's our ultimate purpose. That's what we're here for. So I thought this thing about the death-fear. I like to think I'm coming to terms with it, and other people are too. The song was really written after someone very special died.

Although the song had been formulating before and had to be written as a comfort to those people who are afraid of dying, there was also this idea of the music, energies in us that aren't physical: art, the love in people. It can't die, because where does it go? It seems really that music could carry on in radio form, radio waves... There are people who swear they can pick up symphonies from Chopin, Schubert. We're really transient, everything to do with us is transient, except for these non-physical things that we don't even control... (Kris Needs, 'Lassie'. Zigzag (UK), November 1985)”.

When it comes to Never for Ever, Blow Away (For Bill) is not often discussed. I think the song boasts one of Bush’s best vocal performances on the album. The fact that she dedicated a song to Bill Duffield shows how much he meant to her. More than anything, the song is this unusual and fascinating glimpse into a musical afterlife.

The lyrics name-check departed musicians such as Sanny Denny and Marc Bolan. Bush debuted the song on 18th November, 1979 during a gig at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate seventy-five years of the London Symphony Orchestra. This was the first and only performance of the song. The lyrics draw you in. You can picture these musicians together in Heaven (or another place) joined by the young Bill Duffield. Maybe Bush wanted to feel like her friend was being looked after following death or had this reward and company: “Our engineer had a different idea/From people who nearly died but survived/Feeling no fear of leaving their bodies here/And went to a room that was soon full of visitors/Hello. Minnie/Moony, Vicious/Vicious, Buddy Holly/Sandy Denny”. I can’t think of too many songs since Blow Away (For Bill) when it comes to the story and lyrics. I love the song and feel that it should be better regarded and played more. The third track on Never for Ever, it follows Delius (Song of Summer) and All We Ever Look For. A beautiful run of songs, they are ethereal and memorable. Never for Ever is a Kate Bush album that definitely should be heard by more people, as a lot of attention still surrounds other albums like Hounds of Love. Perhaps not as strong as Babooshka, Army Dreamers and Breathing, Blow Away (For Bill) is a brilliant song for Bill Duffield. It is definitely a moving and…

FITTING tribute.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Ciara - Ciara

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Ciara - Ciara

 __________

AN artists whose albums…

have never quite got the credit they deserve, I think that Ciara’s eponymous album maybe won critics around. Released on 5th July, 2013, Ciara entered the US Billboard 200 at number two. Some critics felt there was a lack of identity and memorability. That the album didn’t remain with you after you have done listening. I would disagree. I feel it is an album that does not get played as much as it should. With a new Ciara song out there, JUMP, maybe she is getting ready to announce an eighth studio album (her seventh, Beauty Marks, was released in 2019). An album that takes risks and does not stand still, her fifth studio album was definitely a step up in terms of its quality and breadth. One of the most underrated artists there is, there is a lot to love when it comes to Ciara’s eponymous album. Incredible successful singles such as Body Party and I’m Out, this is an album that warrants new respect and airplay. I am not sure what direction a new Ciara album might take. If you have not heard the Texan R&B artist before, then definitely check out Ciara and her other studio releases. I can’t find too many interviews with Ciara from 2013. Instead, I am going to get to a couple of positive reviews for the album. It makes me wonder whether there will be a tenth anniversary release for Ciara next year.

The first review that I want to bring in is from AllMusic. Although some were mixed or had some negative things to say about Ciara,  many were very positive when it came to highlighting the album’s strengths and terrific songs:

“Whether she was dropped, released, or merely shifted away from her deal with LaFace parent Jive, Ciara was displeased with the lack of support given to Fantasy Ride and Basic Instinct. Her self-titled fifth album sees her back with LaFace co-founder L.A. Reid, president of Epic, whose roster added several LaFace artists due to distributor Sony's consolidation of labels. Ciara took plenty of time to develop the album -- long enough for delays, a scrapped lead single ("Sweat"), the release of various non-album cuts, and even a change of title (originally One Woman Army). The result isn't a muddled mess but another lean and focused set, despite the involvement of several writers and producers. A full-length partnership with fellow Atlanta native Mike Will, specialist in woozy and entrancing trunk rattlers, would have been ideal -- if perhaps too obvious -- but they do connect on "Body Party," one of Ciara's most attractive slow jams, as hot as "Promise" and "Speechless." Slinking and slightly predatory or confrontational content courses throughout the album, including the booming "Sophomore" ("So you say that you a bachelor/Well step your game up and get your master's), the winding "Keep on Lookin'" ("Keep on lookin', keep on lookin' with your lookin' ass), and the steamier, more gleaming likes of "Super Turnt Up" and "DUI." Those are the highlights, while the more energetic and/or pop-oriented material -- "Overdose," the Kid 'N Play-quoting "Livin' It Up," the mature and middling Future duet "Where You Go" -- is functional if not as memorable”.

Just before round off, there is another review that I want to bring into the mix. The Guardian were among those who had lots of good things to note about the remarkable Ciara. The more I listen to the album, the more that I bond with it and dive deep:

“One of the most heartening moments on Ciara's fifth album comes when Nicki Minaj – with whom the R&B singer has built up a welcome chemistry of late, with three superb collaborations during the past year – devotes half her guest rap on Livin' It Up to affirming her partner's greatness. It's a sisterly riposte to Ciara's name having become a byword for commercial failure, which is a reflection less of her talent than of mismanagement and fickle pop trends. In fact, Ciara has quietly built up a formidable discography, and this eponymous set maintains the high quality. It finds Ciara at her most tender (the reverie of DUI; the voluptuous, My Boo-sampling Body Party) and authoritative (Keep on Lookin', a taunting repudiation of the male gaze; the hedonism-as-vengeance anthem I'm Out). At times she's both, as on the hypnotic, organ-underpinned Sophomore and the magnificent Super Turnt Up, on which she coos prettily over twinkling synths before contorting her delivery into a ferocious screwface. The infinitely more successful Rihanna has occasionally mocked her underperforming rival; in light of their recent artistic output, it's hard not to feel that in a more just parallel universe, their careers would be exchanged”.

A brilliant album that I would point everyone in the direction in, I was compelled to feature Ciara in this Second Spin. Perhaps her best-reviewed album to date, it gets me guessing what happens next and where her music might take her. With so much great music under her belt, I know we will be enjoying albums from her for years more. 2013’s Ciara proves that the Fort Hood-born artist is…

A truly amazing proposition.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Yaya Bey

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Lawrence Agyei 

Yaya Bey

__________

HAVING released one of this year’s…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Lawrence Agyei

best albums in the form of Remember Your North Star, Yaya Bey is an artist that people need to know about. The Brooklyn R&B artist is an extraordinary talent. Someone I have recently discovered and am loving, I was compelled to write about Bey. Before getting to some interviews from her, Ninja Tune provide some great and detailed biography about an artist who is among the most promising around. A rising artist with a tremendous talent and sound, Yaya Bey should definitely be on your radar:

“Yaya Bey is one of R&B’s most exciting storytellers. Using a combination of ancestral forces and her own self-actualization, the singer/songwriter seamlessly navigates life’s hardships and joyful moments through music. Bey’s new album, ‘Remember Your North Star’ (out June 17), captures this emotional rollercoaster with a fusion of soul, jazz, reggae, afrobeat and hip-hop that feeds the soul. The artist’s knack for storytelling is best displayed in the album’s lead single, “keisha”. It’s an anthemic embodiment of fed-up women everywhere who have given their all in a relationship, yet their physical body nor spiritual mind could never be enough.

Bey’s ability to tap into the emotionally kaleidoscopic nature of women, specifically Black women, is the essence of the entire album. With themes of misogynoir, unpacking generational trauma, carefree romance, parental relationships, women empowerment and self-love, Remember Your North Star proves that the road to healing isn’t a linear one – there are many lessons to gather along the journey.

“I saw a tweet that said, ‘Black women have never seen healthy love or have been loved in a healthy way.’ That's a deep wound for us. Then I started to think about our responses to that as Black women,” Bey says of ‘Remember Your North Star’s title inspiration, an entirely self-written project featuring key production from Bey herself, with assists from Phony Ppl’s Aja Grant and DJ Nativesun. “So this album is kind of my thesis. Even though we need to be all these different types of women, ultimately we do want love: love of self and love from our community. The album is a reminder of that goal.”

The artist’s raw, unfiltered approach threads ‘Remember Your North Star’. “big daddy ya” finds the artist tapping into her inner rapper, channeling the too-cool and confident factor that artists like Megan Thee Stallion and City Girls are well-known for. “reprise” captures women’s exhaustion everywhere, with its lyrical tug-of-war of bettering oneself while trying to cut yourself off from toxic relationships. There’s also “alright” (co-produced by Aja Grant), a soothing, jazz-inspired ditty that showcases Bey’s love for the genre’s icons like Billie Holiday, while the carefree “pour up” highlights the artist’s friendship with DJ Nativesun (the song’s producer) and will immediately rush hips to the dancefloor.

There is no fakeness when it comes to Bey’s music, and her authenticity can be partly attributed to her upbringing in Jamaica, Queens. Early childhood memories included watching her father (pioneering ‘90s rapper Grand Daddy I.U) record in his studio – which also doubled as Bey’s bedroom – and listening to records by soul legends Donny Hathaway and Ohio Players around the house. Beginning at age nine, the artist’s father would leave space for her to write hooks to his beats, using her favorite artists like Mary J. Blige and JAY-Z as inspirations.

Bey quickly grew out of New York City and moved to D.C. at age 18. Calling it her second home, the city further ignited the artist’s creativity as she worked at museums and libraries, as well as tapping into poetry and attending protests. Her first release ‘The Many Alter - Egos of Trill’eta Brown’ in 2016 that  incorporated a digital collage and a book, was praised by FADER, Essence, and many more. Bey followed up with fellow critically acclaimed projects like 2020’s ‘Madison Tapes’ album and 2021’s ‘The Things I Can’t Take With Me’ EP – the first release on Big Dada’s relaunch as a label run by Black, POC and minority ethnic people for Black, POC and minority ethnic artists – that received support from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NPR, Harper’s Bazaar, FADER, HotNewHipHop, Dazed, Clash, FACT, Crack Magazine, The Line of Best Fit and Mixmag.

In 2021, Bey was also profiled by Rolling Stone for their print magazine, contributed to the publication’s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, and curated a playlist for Document Journal. The artist’s “september 13th (DJ Nativesun Remix)” and “made this on the spot” singles received strong radio support from BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC 1 Xtra’s Jamz Supernova. Last May, Bey was interviewed on BBC 1Xtra and performed three tracks for Jamz Supernova’s “Festival Jamz” including The Things I Can’t Take With Me’s “fxck it then” and “september 13th” that December.

Bey is also a critically acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and art curator, creating the artwork for her music through collages of intimate photos and self-portraits. In 2019, her work was featured  in the District of Columbia Arts Center’s “Reparations Realized” exhibit and Brooklyn’s Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA)’s “Let the Circle Be Unbroken” exhibit. She also completed multiple fine art residencies with MoCADA, curating programs that reflect the same theme that drives her music: the Black woman's experience.

‘Remember Your North Star’ continues Bey’s personal and artistic evolution as she strives to be a soundboard for Black women everywhere. “I feel empowered in music because I can transform anything that happens to me into something that is valuable. Music helps me to see the value in what's going on in my life,” she explains. “There’s a spirit in music. It’s a culture and I'm in that community, contributing my story which keeps us connected”.

The first interview is from Okayplayer. With their headline stating Yaya Bey is creating healing music for Black Women, Remember Your North Star is an album that is even more than that. It is a work that can provoke so many different emotions and sensations. A brilliant voice and songwriter, it is no surprise that there were so many positive reviews for her latest album. I will come to one of them at the end:

“Yaya Bey’s newest R&B album is a healing balm she created for herself as she navigated the past few years of the pandemic. Aptly titled Remember Your North Star, Bey said that the 18-track project is a product of her trying to find her own sound after years of creating music under the strict vision of men (specifically her ex-husband and her ex-boyfriend) she was involved with. The end result is a full-length produced by Bey, Phony Ppl’s Aja Grant, and DJ Nativesun, that fuses R&B, jazz, soul, and hip-hop to soundtrack Bey’s love letter to herself and Black women like her.

On Remember Your North Star, Bey is lyrically thoughtful, sprinkling each track with soliloquies about a former lover or sharing her thoughts on double standards. She utilizes her alto voice on this album alongside funky, rhythmic beats to get her thoughts across in a distinct manner, evoking Erykah Badu’s intricate debut Baduizm, but with a modern touch.

The vulnerability she offers up on this record stems from the time she’s been spending in therapy. She credited her therapist as a source that has allowed her to understand the road she’s been on to “repair herself,” and shared that, as a Black woman, hyper-masculinity and misogyny are the core of what she believes her music career and life were led by up until two years ago — whether it was the misogyny of family figures like her father or romantic interests. This pivotal choice to disengage from these sources of power shifted things for her.

 “I got divorced and then had a breakup after the divorce and [began] realizing I had a lot to unpack,” she said. “Even now I think I’m still unpacking it. I think in the album process I was in the muck of it.” Bey adds, “[Creating music] is sort of raw, but I do it because music is what I’m good at. It’s not always fun but I’m grateful for it.”

Beginning in September 2020, the Queens native toyed with creating an album as she navigated what it was like being divorced in her early thirties. A lot of the feelings she was grappling with ended up on The Things I Can’t Take With Me, an EP that she released last year. Completed in January this year in New Jersey, Remember Your North Star was created during a time when she was balancing making music while paying her bills.

“I work really hard, work a day job, and then my music is a full-time job,” Yaya said. “By the time I get home I’m dead tired.”

She added that COVID-19 eviscerated sources of income she’d previously relied on (like touring and playing local shows), saying: “Money is in the shows, and not having that [was] rough.”

Still, Bey managed to create an album that reflects the major transformation she’s experienced both musically and personally.

“Everything I make is about my life,” she said. “I was in a seven-year partnership, and then I got married and I got divorced. My ex-husband was the producer behind a lot of my older stuff…I think I sound like me now”.

Prior to a final interview and a review for Remember Your North Star, Yaya Bey was interviewed by Bandcamp. It is clear that she has had to overcome and deal with so much negativity and challenge over the past few years. This is all channeled into a truly remarkable album:

“While creating her music over the last few years. Bey faced many personal challenges including the ending of a romantic relationship with her then-manager. The impact of misogyny is firmly the theme of the Remember Your North Star. “When you look at Black women, we’re all responding to misogyny. There are different brands and genres of us; there’s the City Girls, who are like ‘fuck n—as,” she says, describing the archetype of women rappers. “Then there are women who zen out, and are like ‘Nothing will disturb my peace.’ All of this is because they haven’t seen women be loved properly. It’s a process, and we’re all trying to survive a really violent social system.

With Remember Your North Star, Bey wants to manifest some joy for herself. On the track, “don’t fucking call me,” she sings, “It’s OK to cry if you need to.” Many of the songs are vulnerable and honest about heartache. On the flip side, opening track “intro,” channels a no-nonsense Bey: “Fuck you n—a, I need my rent paid,” she says. Throughout the album, Bey is a chameleon, and she walks listeners through every step of her journey. The second track is an interlude that includes a poem called “libation,” where Bey says: “Some girls remind us so much of god that when they go missing, we don’t look so hard/ The wells in our eyes dry up, and there’s no libation left to pour/ When this happens, we never talk about it/ We just hide.”

Remember Your North Star represents a time when Bey tried to find herself while running dry—offering her all to those willing to take but not reciprocate. On lead single “keisha,” Bey wonders why her love isn’t enough for the relationship. “Why don’t you like nice things? Why do you complain about the joy I bring? Why would you front like we just a season and double back like what was the reason,” she sings.

“The process of making the album was less about the art and more about the life that I was living,” Bey says. “Everything was happening in real-time. Which is why I needed this to be the last album about misogyny and write about other things. I’m in a place where I don’t want to make another album about misogyny anymore. I had to walk myself through all of it and my last final hurrah”.

Pitchfork also spoke to Yaya Bey about Remember Your North Star. It is interesting reading what she had to say about relationships and what it takes to form and maintain one that is healthy. I would compel anyone who has not yet heard Bey’s new album to give it a decent listen and invest yourself in. It is definitely one of my favourite albums of this year so far:

“Pitchfork: You’ve said the thesis of this album is about Black women wanting and needing love. People expect us to give all the time, and we’re the least loved.

Yaya Bey: We all know that Black women have a wound around not knowing love or being loved, and that just hit home for me. My stepmom grew up watching her mom really desperate for love, and she was like that with me—she would compete with me for attention from my dad. I was processing that idea while making the album. At this point, I’m like, all my life, misogyny has been the star of the show.

In relationships or in general?

In everything. Although I love my dad, he’s gravely sexist. [laughs] And my stepmom had so much internalized misogyny. I’ve seen women be desperate for men. And all of that has shaped and colored how I move through the world. I went through a stage of like, “Fuck these niggas.” Women, period, are having varying responses to that. You have City Girls and Megan Thee Stallion, and they’re responding to a lack of love and understanding that men are most likely not going to meet your emotional needs, but they can meet your financial needs. There’s songs on the album that take on that perspective and reflect on the shame that I felt in not having firm boundaries in my relationships.

PHOTO CREDIT: Eric McNatt 

What have you learned about what it takes to have a healthy relationship in love and with yourself?

Anything that’s for me, I don’t have to chase it. And it doesn’t have to be that hard. And my worth isn’t measured by how much I can endure—I don’t have to endure anything, actually. I had always seen women be congratulated for putting up with shit, that was the system that they were valued by. Especially in the hood. Like the “down ass bitch,” that whole narrative is what I had seen. I got tired of being sad. And it’s OK to want more. And maybe more is not gonna come from this place where I’m trying to get it. That was a hard pill to swallow. But I feel relieved that I don’t have that cloud over me.

What do you hope for this summer?

I’m really excited. I’m trying not to have expectations and to make the most of whatever happens. I don’t want to get invested in outcomes. I just want to be able to do anything in any space but not necessarily live in that space. I want to float in and out. I would do a song with a mainstream artist, but I don’t want to be, like, gang-gang with anyone. I think that’s limiting. It’s a lotta pressure right now. Am I gonna make a living off my art? I’m in that place where it’s very possible. It’s right there. It’s a lot of faith. It’s a process. I think it’s happening”.

I am going to close with a review for Remember Your North Star. Sticking with Pitchfork, and they were incredibly positive and effusive when it came to Bey’s latest triumph. I am not sure what my favourite track from the album is, but it may well be the beautiful meet me in brooklyn. Remember Your North Star is an album overflowing with gems and gold:

“Bey’s focus on the past adds depth and context to Remember Your North Star’s stories about the relationships in her life today. Vacillating between come-ons and teardowns, her stances are always moving. On the woozy “don’t fucking call me,” as she ruminates on post-breakup loneliness in an airy upper register, she describes a toughened sense of adoration for a challenging lover: “​​Love you like cooked food, baby, you’s a meal,” her pitch-shifted voice chants, “Only cost a few gray hairs/That’s a steal.” She constantly shifts into different modes of lyrical and vocal expression, each one more poetic and surprising than the last. “keisha” is a masterclass in melody, adopting the swagger of R&B’s greatest shit-talkers while retaining Bey’s coolheaded style. The song’s washed-out guitar melody and drums open up into a sunny beat for the instantly memorable, sprightly chorus: “The pussy so, so good and you still don’t love me,” she sings, braiding confidence and vulnerability into one.

The oscillation between moods reflects Bey’s mind, jumping from one thought to the next as quickly as she changes flows. Even the album’s sparer elements—a looseness of form and structure, the textural and lo-fi production on songs like “street fighter blues” and the dubby “meet me in brooklyn”—are in service of amplifying her words. Bey's approach to creating a thesis is freeform and conversational; she doesn’t hand you a roadmap, instead establishing a mutual trust that her listeners will understand her more deeply than that.

For all of the hardships and complexities she’s working through, Bey also knows there’s no pain without joy. The album expands her scope toward more upbeat production, turning Remember Your North Star into an engaging, shapeshifting listen that places it among other recent R&B albums that pull from neo-soul and hip-hop for experimental spare parts. “Pour Up” takes her to the dancefloor, where she and Washington, D.C. producer DJ Nativesun envision a hedonistic night out with a thick bassline and a thudding beat. She sounds as natural in a raucous setting as she does on the smoky standout “alright,” where her tempestuous modulations attain a dreamy weightlessness. Here, her message snaps into focus, creating a mantra-like salve over breezy, rolling percussion and keys. “Don’t it feel like love is on the way?” Bey ponders, turning the question into a passionate affirmation for Black women in every walk of life. Remember Your North Star assures that working through messy emotions and behaviors—whether inherited or learned—is integral to receiving and giving love. With her deft voice and casual rhythms, Bey makes the process sound freeing”.

A wonderful artist who is going to enjoy a very long and interesting career, go and follow Yaya Bey. Remember Your North Star is her finest work yet, though I think we will hear albums even strong and more compelling from her in years to come. Truly brilliant, accomplished and fascinating, the stunning Yaya Bey is…

AN artist who we all need to keep an eye on.

____________

Follow Yaya Bey

PHOTO CREDIT: Lawrence Agyei 

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/yayabeybay/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/yayabeybay

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6tpaMMCs8X6o8j9H5OmWmT

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3kZ4X0nBZqG1AfaYHRUcew

FEATURE: Driven By You: Brian May at Seventy-Five: His Greatest Tracks

FEATURE:

 

 

Driven By You

Brian May at Seventy-Five: His Greatest Tracks

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ON Tuesday (19th)…

the legendary Brian May is seventy-five. Known for his guitar work with Queen, there are few who have a style and power like May. A phenomenal player and songwriter, he wrote classic Queen songs like We Will Rock You and I Want It All. To mark his upcoming seventy-fifth birthday, I have put together a playlist featuring some great Brian May solo tracks, songs he wrote for Queen, in addition to some of his best guitar performances with the band. Before coming to that playlist, AllMusic’s biography of Brian May provides details about a music colossus:

“Few rock guitarists possess a playing style as instantly recognizable as Queen's Brian May. With his orchestrated guitar armies (multi-tracked guitar lines overdubbed on top of each other) and instantly memorable, well-constructed melodic leads, May is in a class all by himself. Born in Hampton, Middlesex, in July 1947, May showed an interest in music at a very early age -- learning to play the ukulele and piano before receiving his first guitar as a present on his seventh birthday. Shortly thereafter, May and his father began to build a custom guitar from scratch. Completed two years later, the one-of-a-kind instrument would become known as the Red Special, a guitar that would later become May's sonic and visual trademark throughout his career.

It wasn't long until May began to pick up a thing or two from such popular rock guitarists as the Shadows' Hank Marvin, Elvis Presley's sideman Scotty Moore, and Buddy Holly. As a student at secondary school, May formed his first group, the instrumental band 1984, playing around London and even opening a 1967 show at the Olympia Theatre for such soon-to-be big names as Jimi Hendrix, Traffic, Pink Floyd, and Tyrannosaurus Rex (later T. Rex). After beginning studies at Imperial College (in the physics/infrared astronomy field) and growing weary of their musical direction, May left 1984 in the spring of 1968.

During his college career, May hooked up with drummer Roger Taylor (via an ad placed on a college noteboard) and a fellow ex-1984 member, bassist/vocalist Tim Staffell, forming the rock trio Smile. Shortly after graduating from college with an honors degree in physics and math, May focused full-time on music when Smile signed to Mercury Records. Despite great promise, Smile only managed to issue one single (titled "Earth") and a few unreleased tracks before Staffell left the group. But it was a friend of Staffell's who would offer his services as the group's new singer -- Freddie Mercury. With the lineup change came a new name, Queen, and a new musical direction -- heavy rock mixed with grand ballads and a flamboyantly glam look.

After going through numerous bassists, Queen found a permanent member in John Deacon -- resulting in a recording contract with EMI/Elektra and a self-titled debut following in 1973. With each successive release (1974's Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack), Queen's musical direction and stage show grew stronger and more popular, until they were one of the world's biggest acts by the mid- to late '70s, due to such mega-hit albums as Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, News of the World, and Jazz. Unlike other groups where a single member supplied all the songwriting, all four of Queen's members had their own songwriting credits equally, with May writing some of the group's most identifiable hits -- "We Will Rock You," "Fat Bottomed Girls," "Now I'm Here," and "Tie Your Mother Down," among others.

During a short break in 1983, May issued his first solo release, the four-track EP Star Fleet Project (which featured an all-star cast backing him -- Eddie Van Halen, REO Speedwagon drummer Alan Gratzer, and session bassist Phil Chen), and co-produced the debut recording from the obscure heavy metal outfit Heavy Pettin, titled Lettin Loose. Around the same time, an exact duplicate of May's Red Special guitar was issued to the public via the Guild guitar company, and May recorded a video guitar lesson as part of the Star Licks series.

Queen would continue issuing hit albums and sold-out tours throughout the late '80s (as they experimented with a wide range of musical styles), until they became solely a "studio band" during their later years, 1989's The Miracle and 1991's Innuendo (the reason for this was kept under wraps at the time, but it later became known that it was due to health reasons -- Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS). With Mercury's death in 1991, Queen went their separate ways, with May focusing on a solo career and other projects (including hosting and playing at a 1991 Guitar Legends concert alongside Steve Vai and Joe Satriani).

May's first full-length solo album was preceded by the single "Driven by You," which reached the Top Ten in England and was featured in a Ford car commercial -- winning an Ivor Novello Award for Best Theme from a TV/Radio Commercial. 1993 finally saw the release of Back to the Light, an album that was a sizeable hit in Europe, and led to May's first solo tour (which included members Cozy Powell on drums, Neil Murray on bass, longtime Queen sideman Spike Edney on keyboards, Jamie Moses on guitar, plus backing vocalists Shelley Preston and Cathy Porter). A year later, a live document of the tour, Live at the Brixton Academy, was issued, mixing new solo material with Queen classics. It wasn't until 1998 that May would issue a proper studio follow-up, Another World.

In addition to rock music, May retained his interest in astronomy, and in 2006 he returned to his studies in astrophysics, completing his doctoral thesis and earning his PhD from Imperial College London in 2007. May also has a keen interest in 3-D photography, and wrote a A Village Lost and Found, a study of T.R. Williams, a famous stereo photographer of the 1850s, as well as a book on French Diableries.

May has also tried his hand at penning original music for movies (the 1996 version of The Adventures of Pinocchio) and a radio series (a BBC radio special on the Amazing Spiderman), as well as recording the soundtrack for the Red and Gold Theatre Company's production of Macbeth, which was staged at London's Riverside Theatre in the late '90s.

In 2017 May collaborated with Kerry Ellis for the first time since their 2013 record Acoustic by Candlelight. Golden Days was an album of original compositions and cover versions, including a take on Gary Moore's "Parisienne Ways."

May's contribution to rock guitar remains great as his playing has proven to be a huge influence on other renowned rock guitarists past and present, including Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Ty Tabor (King's X), Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme), and Phil Collen (Def Leppard), to name but a few”.

Member of the iconic Queen and one of the greatest guitarists ever, a happy seventy-fifth birthday for 19th July. Still touring with the band (Adam Lambert is their lead), I am not sure whether there will ever be any more studio albums from Queen. Regardless, Brian May has been responsible for some of the greatest and most timeless music ever. As a guitarist and songwriter, there is nobody like him! Below is a playlist of solo and Queen work that May either wrote or showed off his phenomenal guitar work. Ahead of his seventy-fifth birthday, I was keen to collect together…

HIS very best work.

FEATURE: You’re Gonna Need Someone on Your Side: Morrissey’s Your Arsenal at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

You’re Gonna Need Someone on Your Side

Morrissey’s Your Arsenal at Thirty

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ALTHOUGH he is a controversial figure…

and his political views have got him into trouble a lot, I am concentrating on the positive side of Morrissey. After The Smiths broke up in the 1980s, Morrissey embarked on a successful solo career. Whilst some may say his best solo album is 1994’s Vauxhall and I, its predecessor, Your Arsenal, is my favourite. It turns thirty on 27th July. In spite of one very controversial song, The National Front Disco, and one that may come across as very un-P.C. in today’s scene (You’re the One for Me, Fatty), Morrissey’s third studio album is a hugely strong work that vastly improved upon 1991’s Kill Uncle. With band members like Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer offering more range, a harder sound and swagger, there is a lot of life, depth, and variation across Moz’s 1992 release. Whilst the line of “England for the English” on The National Front Disco can either be seen as Morrissey writing about a misguided character or projecting his own political ideals, I am not too sure. It does slightly sour the album. Elsewhere, there is plenty to love. The confident and swinging opener, You’re Gonna Need Someone on Your Side, races from the gates and announces Your Arsenal as this emphatic and vital album. Whilst his former Smiths songwriting partner Johnny Marr is notably absent in terms of the melodic and musical gifts he brought to the band, there is a consistency on Your Arsenal that keeps you hooked and brings you back for repeated listens. My favourite tracks include Certain People I Know and I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday. The latter is one of two songs co-written (by Morrissey) with Mark E. Nevin (the other being You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side).

At the moment, Morrissey is performing his residency in Las Vegas. Maybe it signals that he is nearing the end of his recording career or is slowing down. His more recent work has yielded mixed results, though there was this period from Your Arsenal in 1992 through to Vauxhall and I in 1994 where he was near his peak with The Smiths. Albumism looked back at the magnificent Your Arsenal in 2017:

“Produced by Mick Ronson, Your Arsenal was the debut of Moz's new lineup, including former Polecats guitarist Boz Boorer and Alain Whyte, both of whom had toured with him in conjunction with Kill Uncle (1991). Boorer would go on to produce Morrissey's albums from there on out, as well as write several songs alongside Moz. But coming from a rockabilly background, both Boorer and Whyte added a harder sound to Morrissey's music, kicking right off with "You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side." If you listen closely, you can hear a little bit of "Handsome Devil" in the guitars. But despite the brutal melodies, it's quite a romantic song, an ode to the necessities of friendship (I know, I'm as surprised as you are): "Day or night, there is no difference / You're gonna need someone on your side."

Similarly, the penultimate "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" heads into the heartbreak anthem "Tomorrow," and I'm never quite sure if this is a love song or if it's Morrissey being Morrissey, the sarcastic bastard we all love. This also makes use of the sampling that we saw previously on "Rubber Ring" and others.

"I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday" was covered by David Bowie on 1993's "Black Tie White Noise." Morrissey idolized Bowie, appearing on stage with him in 1991. But during appearances on a tour in 1995, the two had a falling out, which left a bitter taste even after Bowie's untimely death last year.

All of the opening track's generosity is immediately dismissed on "Glamorous Glue," with the House-esque refrain, "Everyone lies, everyone lies" and a heavy-handed slap at both L.A. and London. At his best, Morrissey has always been a cheeky, clever poet. But at his worst, as we see here, he is lazy and dull, repeating the same worn tropes many more before him have used to greater effect. We get it, Morrissey, California is full of polished ugliness. But geez, can't you find something else to bitch about?

And of course, "The National Front Disco" has new, horrifying relevance in the era of Trump and Brexit and the rise of the alt-right. This song, about a young man joining a far-right group, remains controversial—does the anthem warn or celebrate? Of course, Morrissey says it isn't racist, but everyone knows Morrissey is kind of a racist prick and we only let it sort of slide because The Smiths are just so damn good. "England for the English" sounds a little bit like "America First," doesn’t it?

Nevertheless, there are still some remnants of the Morrissey we love, as best evidenced in the bwang-twang lick that opens "Certain People I Know" and even the guilty pleasure "You're The One For Me, Fatty" (I know I should hate this song, but I don't, which makes me feel like a total jerk and I'm sorry)”.

Prior to wrapping things up, I want to bring together a couple of reviews for 1992’s Your Arsenal. Although some were mixed and a bit critical – many highlighting songs like The National Front Disco as a worrying or too-controversial inclusion -, there was ample praise for a extremely solid and enjoyable album. This is what CLASH wrote back in 2014:

“Four years into an unwanted solo career, and lacking the kind of melodies such a wordsmith needs to hang his withered gladioli upon, a reboot was required.

Having assembled a youthful and far-from-virtuoso group around him in order to tour 1991’s limply polished and lyrically unfocused ‘Kill Uncle’, Morrissey wanted that band dynamic on record. With legendary guitarist Mick Ronson on production duties, the glam world the artist had studied and his producer had lived was brought back to life.

Several songs inhabit the personae of challenging characters in typically provocative fashion, whether football hooligans or members of the National Front. The latter is more pitied than condemned across one of the album’s strongest melodies, ‘The National Front Disco’.

‘Certain People I Know’ may be a shameless T. Rex rip off, but it does features a gloriously mannered Moz vocal, while ‘I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday’ is a grandiose ballad with more than a nod to Bowie’s ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide’.

As is his want, Morrissey has tinkered with the 1992 original record for this reissue, subbing out closing track ‘Tomorrow’ (original video below) for its mildly more muscular American mix, but otherwise it’s business as usual. The accompanying DVD features an early performance by this line-up, which is a mildly diverting if sonically unspectacular curio alongside a still largely splendid record”.

I am not sure whether there will be much in the way of celebration and coverage on the thirtieth anniversary of Your Arsenal. It is an album that definitely should be explored more. I hear the odd song played here and there. Featuring some of Morrissey’s best lines and vocals, go and listen to the album if you have not heard it. This is Rolling Stone’s take on Your Arsenal from 1992:

“Mope no more. forsaking the cozy glow of cult-hero worship on his fourth solo album, Morrissey hurls himself into the cold cruel rock mainstream. Your Arsenal is the most direct — and outwardly directed — statement he’s made since disbanding the Smiths. Buoyed by the conversational grace of his lyric writing, Morrissey rides high atop this album’s rip-roaring guitar tide.

Just last year, the meticulously obscure Kill Uncle positioned Morrissey as the postpunk scene’s answer to Elvis Costello: an eccentric major talent perfectly content to bask in a stuffy hothouse atmosphere. Your Arsenal admits a blast or two of less rarefied musical air, and it works wonders. “You’re Gonna Need Someone on Your Side” is not only one blitzkrieg bop of an opening cut, it aggressively sets Morrissey’s new interpersonal agenda. The onetime poet-recluse boldly approaches a fellow neurotic (“with the world’s fate resting on your shoulders”), offering pointed and hard-won counsel: “Give yourself a break before you break down.” All the while, two blunt and fuzzy guitars cough up a glam-metal variation on the Bo Diddley beat.

Onetime Bowie foil Mick Ronson produces Your Arsenal to stunning effect. For all the sonic thunder, he imposes a much-needed pop discipline on Morrissey’s grander instincts. His penchant for maudlin balladry held firmly in check by taut arrangements and riff-driven melodies, Morrissey turns his sharp eye to the crumbling world outside his window. This time, the moody slow songs (“I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday,” “We’ll Let You Know”) really do linger and haunt. The deeply affecting “We’ll Let You Know” (“We are the last truly English people you will ever know”) and the disarmingly uptempo “National Front Disco” peek into the sad, sick world of Britain’s neo-fascist youth movement; Morrissey probes this twisted mind-set with psychological depth and deftness. Rather than preach against the general evils of racism, as most topical rockers would, he puts us inside this hopeless situation for a few revealing minutes.

Not that Morrissey’s a Brit isolationist, by any means. “We look to L.A. for the language we use,” he insists on the raucous media-age anthem “Glamorous Glue.” Spitting out the line “London is dead” a half-dozen times after that, punctuating the psychedelic groan with his own croons and hoots, Morrissey faces down the wildly uncertain New World Order with dark humor and a clear head. Your Arsenal is stockpiled with the rock & roll equivalent of smart bombs: compact missives that zoom in on their targets with devastating precision. The repercussions last long after the rubble is cleared”.

Humorous, edgy, tough, controversial at times, beautiful at others, it is fascinating diving into Your Arsenal. I wanted to shine a light on Moz’s second solo studio album ahead of its thirtieth anniversary on 27th July. There is no denying that it is…

ONE of his greatest solo albums.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five: My Five Favourite Songs from My Favourite Album Ever

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five

My Five Favourite Songs from My Favourite Album Ever

__________

REACHING number three in the U.K…

and one in a couple of others, Kate Bush’s debut album, The Kick Inside, was released in February 1978. It was recorded in August 1977. Because the latter date is forty-five years ago, I am running a few features to celebrate the anniversary. The first one will be simple: me selecting my favourite five songs from the thirteen. Produced by Andrew Powell, The Kick Inside is a phenomenal debut from the then-teenager. Bush’s performances and songwriting are spectacular throughout. So original and accomplished at such a young age, people are still listening to and mentioning The Kick Inside. Before I select the five tracks from the album (in chronological order rather than quality ranking), here are a couple of interview snippets of interviews where Bush discussed her debut:

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

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz 

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

My favourite album ever, it is hard drilling down to the best five tracks. The selection below includes some obvious choices, but there are also a few songs that people may not be aware of (thanks go to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia for providing information about the album and songs). I am excited to think back forty-five years when Kate Bush and her band were putting down these incredible tracks. Below are my five favourites from…

A musical icon.

______________

Moving

 “Song written by Kate Bush, included on her debut album The Kick Inside. The song is a tribute to Lindsay Kemp, who was her mime teacher in the mid-Seventies. She explained in an interview, "He needed a song written to him. He opened up my eyes to the meanings of movement. He makes you feel so good. If you've got two left feet it's 'you dance like an angel darling.' He fills people up, you're an empty glass and glug, glug, glug, he's filled you with champagne."

'Moving' opens with a whale song sampled from 'Songs of the Humpback Whale', an LP including recordings of whale vocalizations made by Dr. Roger S. Payne.

Formats

On 6 February 1978, 'Moving' was released as a 7" single in Japan only, featuring Wuthering Heights on the B-side.

Versions

There are two officially released versions of 'Kite': the album version and the live version from Hammersmith Odeon. However, a demo version from 1977 has also surfaced and was released on various bootleg cd's”.

Strange Phenomena

“Kate about 'Strange Phenomena'

['Strange Phenomena' is] all about the coincidences that happen to all of us all of the time. Like maybe you're listening to the radio and a certain thing will come up, you go outside and it will happen again. It's just how similar things seem to attract together, like the saying ``birds of a feather flock together'' and how these things do happen to us all the time. Just strange coincidences that we're only occasionally aware of. And maybe you'll think how strange that is, but it happens all the time. (Self Portrait, 1978)

"Strange Phenomena'' is about how coincidences cluster together. We can all recall instances when we have been thinking about a particular person and then have met a mutual friend who - totally unprompted - will begin talking about that person. That's a very basic way of explaining what I mean, but these ``clusters of coincidence'' occur all the time. We are surrounded by strange phenomena, but very few people are aware of it. Most take it as being part of everyday life. (Music Talk, 1978)”.

The Man with the Child in His Eyes

 “Song written by Kate Bush, released on her debut album The Kick Inside. Bush wrote the song when she was 13 and recorded it at the age of 16. It was recorded at Air Studios, London in June 1975 under the guidance of David Gilmour. She has said that recording with a large orchestra at that age terrified her. The song received the Ivor Novello Award for "Outstanding British Lyric" in 1979.

Kate about 'The Man With The Child In His Eyes'

The inspiration for 'The Man With the Child in His Eyes' was really just a particular thing that happened when I went to the piano. The piano just started speaking to me. It was a theory that I had had for a while that I just observed in most of the men that I know: the fact that they just are little boys inside and how wonderful it is that they manage to retain this magic. I, myself, am attracted to older men, I guess, but I think that's the same with every female. I think it's a very natural, basic instinct that you look continually for your father for the rest of your life, as do men continually look for their mother in the women that they meet. I don't think we're all aware of it, but I think it is basically true. You look for that security that the opposite sex in your parenthood gave you as a child. (Self Portrait, 1978)

I just noticed that men retain a capacity to enjoy childish games throughout their lives, and women don't seem to be able to do that. ('Bird In The Bush', Ritz (UK), September 1978)

Oh, well it's something that I feel about men generally. [Looks around at cameramen] Sorry about this folks. [Cameramen laugh] That a lot of men have got a child inside them, you know I think they are more or less just grown up kids. And that it's a... [Cameramen laugh] No, no, it's a very good quality, it's really good, because a lot of women go out and get far too responsible. And it's really nice to keep that delight in wonderful things that children have. And that's what I was trying to say. That this man could communicate with a younger girl, because he's on the same level. (Swap Shop, 1979)”.

Wuthering Heights

“Song written by Kate Bush, released as her debut single in January 1978. She wrote the song after seeing the last ten minutes of the 1967 BBC mini-series based on the book ‘Wuthering Heights’, written by Emily Brontë. Reportedly, she wrote the song within the space of just a few hours late at night. The actual date of writing is estimated to be March 5, 1977.

Lyrically, "Wuthering Heights" uses several quotations from Catherine Earnshaw, most notably in the chorus - "Let me in! I'm so cold!" - as well as in the verses, with Catherine's confession to her servant of "bad dreams in the night." It is sung from Catherine's point of view, as she pleads at Heathcliff's window to be allowed in. This romantic scene takes a sinister turn if one has read Chapter 3 of the original book, as Catherine is in fact a ghost, calling lovingly to Heathcliff from beyond the grave. Catherine's "icy" ghost grabs the hand of the Narrator, Mr Lockwood, through the bedroom window, asking him to let her in, so she can be forgiven by her lover Heathcliff, and freed from her own personal purgatory.

The song was recorded with Andrew Powell producing. According to him, the vocal performance was done in one take, "a complete perfomance" with no overdubs. "There was no compiling," engineer Kelly said. “We started the mix at around midnight and Kate was there the whole time, encouraging us… we got on with the job and finished at about five or six that morning." The guitar solo that fades away with the track in the outro was recorded by Edinburgh musician Ian Bairnson, a session guitarist.

Originally, record company EMI's Bob Mercer had chosen another track, James And The Cold Gun as the lead single, but Kate Bush was determined that ‘Wuthering Heights’ would be her first release.  She won out eventually in a surprising show of determination for a young musician against a major record company, and this would not be the only time she took a stand against them to control her career.

The release date for the single was initially scheduled to be 4 November 1977. However, Bush was unhappy with the picture being used for the single's cover and insisted it be replaced. Some copies of the single had already been sent out to radio stations, but EMI relented and put back the single's launch until the New Year. Ultimately, this proved to be a wise choice, as the earlier release would have had to compete with Wings' latest release, ‘Mull of Kintyre’, which became the biggest-selling single in UK history up to this point in December 1977.

‘Wuthering Heights’ was finally released on 20 January 1978, was immediately playlisted by Capital Radio and entered their chart at no. 39 on 27 January. It crept into the national Top 50 in week ending 11 February at No.42. The following week it rose to No.27 and Bush made her first appearance on Top of the Pops ("It was like watching myself die", recalls Bush), The song was finally added to Radio One's playlist the following week and became one of the most played records on radio. When the song reached number 1, it was the first UK number 1 written and performed by a female artist”.

Them Heavy People

“Formats

'Them Heavy People' was released as a single in Japan only. This single featured The Man With The Child In His Eyes on the B-side. A Seiko logo appears on the insert's back side, which makes it Bush's only commercial release featuring any kind of product endorsement. A live recording of this song was the lead track on the On Stage EP.

Kate about 'Them Heavy People’

The idea for 'Heavy People' came when I was just sitting one day in my parents' house. I heard the phrase "Rolling the ball" in my head, and I thought that it would be a good way to start a song, so I ran in to the piano and played it and got the chords down. I then worked on it from there. It has lots of different people and ideas and things like that in it, and they came to me amazingly easily - it was a bit like 'Oh England', because in a way so much of it was what was happening at home at the time. My brother and my father were very much involved in talking about Gurdjieff and whirling Dervishes, and I was really getting into it, too. It was just like plucking out a bit of that and putting it into something that rhymed. And it happened so easily - in a way, too easily. I say that because normally it's difficult to get it all to happen at once, but sometimes it does, and that can seem sort of wrong. Usually you have to work hard for things to happen, but it seems that the better you get at them the more likely you are to do something that is good without any effort. And because of that it's always a surprise when something comes easily. I thought it was important not to be narrow-minded just because we talked about Gurdjieff. I knew that I didn't mean his system was the only way, and that was why it was important to include whirling Dervishes and Jesus, because they are strong, too. Anyway, in the long run, although somebody might be into all of them, it's really you that does it - they're just the vehicle to get you there.

I always felt that 'Heavy People' should be a single, but I just had a feeling that it shouldn't be a second single, although a lot of people wanted that. Maybe that's why I had the feeling - because it was to happen a little later, and in fact I never really liked the album version much because it should be quite loose, you know: it's a very human song. And I think, in fact, every time I do it, it gets even looser. I've danced and sung that song so many times now, but it's still like a hymn to me when I sing it. I do sometimes get bored with the actual words I'm singing, but the meaning I put into them is still a comfort. It's like a prayer, and it reminds me of direction. And it can't help but help me when I'm singing those words. Subconsciously they must go in. (Kate Bush Club newsletter number 3, November 1979)”.

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Santana - Abraxas

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Santana - Abraxas

__________

FOR this Vinyl Corner…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Carlos Santana/PHOTO CREDIT: Tucker Ransom/Getty Images

I am including a legendary artist that I have not spoken about much. The legendary Carlos Santana is renowned as one of the most influential and important artists and guitarists ever. His band, Santana, have released some sensational albums. Carlos Santana turns seventy-five on 20th July. To honour that, I am featuring the band’s 1970 masterpiece, Abraxas. Go and get the album on vinyl if you can. It is a sublime and extraordinary album that features songs like Oye Cómo Va and Black Magic Woman (a Fleetwood Mac cover). It is an album that I would encourage everyone to listen to. I am going to come to a review of Abraxas soon. Before that, Consequence took a dive into the band’s second studio album in a feature from 2020:

“To fully appreciate Abraxas — that is, to believe it’s some portended, almost-mystical force of nature … or at least a longshot to have topped the charts for six weeks back in 1970 — requires a brief look at how the planets aligned for Carlos Santana and the band’s classic lineup: Gregg Rolie (lead vocals, Hammond organ), Michael Shrieve (drums), Michael Carabello (congas, percussion), and José “Chepito” Areas (timbales, congas, and percussion). A mere two years after famed promoter Chet Helms had told Santana that a Latin-infused rock band couldn’t succeed and that the guitarist should return to his day job as a dishwasher, the band had scored a record deal, cut their self-titled debut, and catapulted into the public’s imagination with an appearance at Woodstock. The now-iconic documentary Woodstock even features an infomercial-length jam session as the band jubilantly sync rhythms with the masses during a sprawling rendition of “Soul Sacrifice”. It’s one of the weekend’s most memorable moments and part of the reason audiences were both hip and open to Santana when their largely instrumental debut came out just two weeks later.

A little more than a year later, Santana found themselves about to release their sophomore album, Abraxas. Their debut, which would go platinum twice over, had been a top-five album, and their hypnotic cover of jazz percussionist Willie Bobo’s “Evil Ways” had scored them a top-10 single and would go on to become a founding staple of modern classic-rock radio. All of a sudden, the unlikely Latin-blues collective from San Francisco were internationally known and sought after. Santana now had to worry about blisters on his fingers rather than dishpan hands, but also how to follow up such unexpected success and handle new levels of expectation. The answers to that dilemma seemed to flow through the guitarist himself.

Abraxas would be its own beast (as the opening track’s title might suggest), flesh adhering to bone through a mix of Carlos Santana’s interests, influences, and a series of serendipitous moments. For instance, the cover art of Abraxas features the 1961 painting “Annunciation” by German-French artist Mati Klarwein. Santana had just happened to have seen the painting in a magazine and made an inquiry. Not only has the album cover gone down as one of the most iconic in rock and roll history, but Klarwein would go on to design for many other artists, including one of Santana’s personal heroes, Miles Davis. These types of whims that turn into the stuff of legend seemed to pile up around Santana in those early years. It makes one begin thinking that we were somehow always destined to be talking about Abraxas 50 years later.

Like so much of Santana’s best work, Abraxas finds its way into our bloodstream. In a band with three percussionists and one of the most innovative blues guitarists of all time, reason stands that the music’s entry point might be to tap into our pulse as it does in the opening, dance-inducing drumming on Santana or to strike a nerve via a melodic guitar groove that manages to be infectiously sweet one moment and sharply penetrating the next. Neither is the case here, though. As Abraxas stirs, and “Singing Winds / Crying Beasts” slowly awakens, the opening song’s titular winds pass through chimes and find passage into our lungs. It’s everything that opener “Waiting” wasn’t just an album earlier. Gone is Gregg Rolie’s swirling, hurricane organ; the percussion’s locked-in, insistent throb; and the incendiary sprint to the finish. Instead we have menacing keys that wander, hushed percussion that sounds like thunder rolling in the distance, instruments mingling and fading out like guests making rounds at a cocktail party, and a tension that builds from restraint rather than a rising. It’s Santana and band breathing through us, demonstrating that they have more than one way to commune with an audience”.

It is worth wrapping up with a review from Rolling Stone. An undeniably huge and vastly impressive albums, I don’t think one needs to be a fan of Latin and Chicano music to vibe to and get involved with Santana’s brilliance. Abraxas is an album that every person can feel something for. The impact of the songs will be felt instantly:

“Carlos Santana is one of the three new guitarists who border on B. B. King's cleanliness. His only two contemporaries are Eric Clapton and Michael Bloomfield, but Santana is playing Latin music and there are no other Latin bands using lead guitars. The paradoxical thing about Santana has been their acceptance by a teenybop audience that digs Grand Funk and Ten Years After when they should be enjoyed by people who are into Chicago and John Mayall.

The heart of Santana is organist Gregg Roli and bassist Dave Brown, who hold the rhythm together over which the percussion unit can jam and bounce. Timbales, congas (Puerto Rican) and drums take off on Brown's rhythm and then Santana himself comes in to make his statements on lead guitar.

Carlos Santana is a Chicano and he loves the guitar, which has always been used heavily in Mexican music. He has perfected a style associated with blues and cool jazz and crossed it with Latin music. It works well, because the band is one of the tightest units ever to walk into a recording studio. Of white bands, only Chicago can equal their percussion, but Chicago is held together by horns, while Santana is held together by timbales and congas.

"Oye Como Va" is the highlight of the album. It's only weakness is that Roli's fine organ has been mixed too low. This is a different trip for Santana, much more into the styles of the younger Puerto Rican musicians in New York, like Orchestra DJ and Ray Olan, and farther from the Sly trip that dominated their first album. Unless you really dig Latin music or some of the middle period work of Herbie Mann and the Jazz Messengers, you may not enjoy this cut or the album at all.

Abraxas is one of the new independent productions for Columbia done at Wally Heider's studio, and bass player Dave Brown did much of the engineering. The album he has helped to come up with may lose Santana some of their younger audience, but is bound to win them respect from people interested in Latin jazz music. On Abraxas, Santana is a popularized Mono Santamaria and they might do for Latin music what Chuck Berry did for the blues.

The major Latin bands in this country gig for $100 a night, and when you see them, you can't sit still. If Santana can reach the pop audience with Abraxas, then perhaps there will be room for the old masters like La Lupe and Puente to work it on out at the ballrooms. But for now, Abraxas is a total boogie and the music is right from start to finish. (RS 73)”.

One of the very finest albums ever, Abraxas is one that sounds brilliant on vinyl. It is one I remember first hearing when I was a child. I adore the songs and the performances from the whole band (though it is Carlos Santana’s guitar work that particularly sticks with me!). If you do not own this on vinyl, then I would steer you towards it, as it is…

WORTH the money.