FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Morcheeba – Big Calm

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Morcheeba – Big Calm

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I don’t think that…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Morcheeba in 2013

I have included a Morcheeba album on my site before. One that I have been listening to a lot recently is Big Calm. Their second studio album, it begins with the gorgeous track, The Sea. Made irresistible by the vocals of Skye Edwards, I think that this is the group’s best album. The recording of Big Calm started on Christmas Day 1995, as Morcheeba members Paul and Ross Godfrey as they were awaiting the release of Who Can You Trust?. After demos had been laid down at their home studio, the Godfreys brought in vocalist Skye Edwards and a number of guest performers to complete the record. I think that one of the secret ingredients of Big Calm’s sensuality and hypnotic nature is Edwards’ voice. Although she featured on the 1996 debut, Who Can You Trust?, I think her voice is richer and more impressive on Big Calm. It is a terrific album that you should get on vinyl if you can. Big Calm reached the top twenty in the U.K. and won a raft of positive reviews upon its release. I will get to one of those reviews at the end. Prior to getting to a review, Music Radar published a feature about Morcheeba’s Big Calm in 2014. They spoke to Paul Godfrey about the making of the album. He gives a track-by-track recollection. I have selected The Sea because it is my favourite song from Big Calm:

“It's Christmas Day 1995, and Morcheeba brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey are sacking off any idea of a follow-up course of mince pies, and instead heading to the studio right next to the bedsit they share, pissed as newts, to make their second album. In one day. Sozzled. Before the first album has even come out. Hic!

The two bros headed up the garden path, armed with the Christmas booze, to fire up the samplers. All they needed now was a plan of attack...

"Let's make a song every five minutes!" shouted Paul, thrusting a triumphant finger in the air to further signal the drama of the idea. It's at that point that a brother is legally allowed to slap you firmly across your chops and demand that you "get a grip". But no, the drink makes you the king of the world and, in good company, these types of demented brain children are given permission to run riot.

So, they looped up beats, waffled lyrics into a dictaphone and laid down the foundations for what would be a trip-hop masterpiece and a massive worldwide commercial success. From little pissed up acorns, eh?

"My main memories from that period are just ones of intense panic. We were out of our minds all the time on various things, and the fact that we were making such peaceful music was bizarre."

Paul Godfrey

"We had to do something," says Paul Godfrey, the beats and lyrics guy from Morcheeba. "We were waiting for our first album to drop, and we'd worked really hard on it and got the record deal and everything, but we were just sat there in limbo, panicking about the whirlwind that was about to follow..."

Paul and his more musically-inclined guitar-strumming, slightly younger brother Ross hadn't been

in London that long before they suddenly got a record deal, you see. "Before we knew it we were out in Hollywood playing to celebrities," says Paul. "We really kind of lost our minds a little bit. There was no kind of 'big calm' surrounding our lives at all. My main memories from that period are just ones of intense panic. We were out of our minds all the time on various things, and the fact that we were making such peaceful music was bizarre. It's probably because we were so hungover most of the time."

The album was a runaway success - their little drunken Christmas present to us all and, more importantly, themselves. It was the album that shook off the Portishead comparisons from their debut, and set out a stall for the more intricate and mature sound (AOR-cheeba?) that they would further develop across the early 2000s with the next three long players. What was to follow may have stormed further up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, but they owe everything to this one Big Calm that came before it.

The Sea

"This was one we wrote in five minutes on that drunken Christmas Day. It was just drums to start with, then we added a guitar after we came back from the pub. We used to go to the pub every night. We came back hammered and Ross put it down in one take. Then we DI-ed it into the Mackie desk through a wah-wah peddle, and when we mixed it I rolled all the top off it to give it that smooth sound.

"The strings were arranged after by Steve Bentley-Klein, who I met when I was DJing at a party his string quartet were playing at. I didn't know anything about strings in those days so just said, 'Err, can you do some strings for us?'

"[Morcheeba main vocalist] Skye Edwards came up with the melody and gave it that blissed-out feel. The Sea went on to be our biggest song".

A Trip-Hop classic that still sounds amazing and engrossing to this day, I have a lot of affection for Big Calm. Morcheeba are one of these groups that many know about, but I don’t think they got the mainstream attention that their music deserved. Their latest album, Blackest Blue, was released last year. The A.V. Club provided their take on Big Calm in 2002:

“It's amazing how just a few years differentiate innovation from imitation. As soon as Portishead made "trip-hop" a part of pop-music parlance, sneaky slow-beated neophytes began to sprout up like weeds, unable to resist the lure of the cool new cash cow. Morcheeba initially seemed like one of those pale copycat usurpers, but listening to the band's 1996 debut Who Can You Trust? made you quickly realize that it's the real deal. In fact, in some ways, Morcheeba is superior to Portishead: Where Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons create bloodless, gothic soundtracks, Morcheeba (brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey and singer Skye Edwards) approaches its music from an acoustic standpoint, utilizing samplers and turntables as embellishment, but primarily building upon a bed of live instrumentation. In this way, Morcheeba isn't worlds apart from the silky soul of Sade; it's just hipped up for contemporary consumption. The group's new Big Calm is even more song-oriented than its debut. "Shoulder Holster" uses sitar and Indian percussion to great effect, bolstering an already sublime hook, while "Blindfold" explores the darker side of Morcheeba's quiet storm. "Friction" is a nice take on reggae that refuses to be pigeonholed as such, and "Over & Over"—a subdued folk song far more reminiscent of Nick Drake than Sneaker Pimps—even abandons beats entirely. All these songs reveal Morcheeba's impressive versatility, stressing songwriting over DJing, and thus ensuring its continued creative success beyond passing fads”.

An album that I was keen to include in Vinyl Corner, the brilliant Big Calm is one that you should own. I was fourteen when the album came out and I remember loving it right away. Aside from The Sea, tracks like Part of the Process stuck in my mind. I listen to the album in its entirety today and it still elicits reactions and emotions. Morcheeba’s 1998 gem of an album is one you need to hear if you are not familiar with it. Just put it on, drop the needle and…

SWIM inside of it.

FEATURE: Pour Some Sugar on Me: Def Leppard’s Hysteria at Thirty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Pour Some Sugar on Me

Def Leppard’s Hysteria at Thirty-Five

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A classic album…

that is coming up to its thirty-fifth anniversary, Def Leppard’s Hysteria is in my thoughts. The fourth studio album from the Yorkshire band, it was released on 3rd August, 1987. Def Leppard's best-selling album to date, it went on to sell over twenty million copies worldwide, including 12 million in the U.S. It hit number one in the U.S. and U.K. It is good that Hysteria did sell so many copies as it was an incredibly expensive album to make! Running in at over an hour, Hysteria is a long album. Not that one gets bored listening to it. I feel it is a rightful classics whose singles – such as Animal and Pour Some Sugar on Me – rank alongside some of the best from the 1980s. I will get to a couple of reviews for Hysteria. Before that, there are features that explain and explore the making of the album. Loudwire investigated Hysteria on its thirty-fourth anniversary on 3rd August, 2021:

“They were one of the first bands the British press categorized as part of the NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) movement, but by the time Def Leppard released their fourth record, Hysteria, on Aug. 3, 1987, they had completely shattered the mold and discovered a sound based on catchy melodies, heavily processed drums, layered, shimmery walls of guitar and clean, crisp vocals. If 1983’s Pyromania marked Def Leppard’s toe-dip into pop, Hysteria was a cannonball off the deep end. Then again, guitarist Phil Collen says they never liked being categorized with British metal bands.

“Even when we were grouped as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, we didn’t think we were at all like the other bands people were talking about [including Iron Maiden and Diamond Head],” he told me in 1999. “We never wanted to be a metal band, ever. We're about as close to metal as we are to Madonna.”

Despite their disenchantment with metal, Def Leppard still had a slew of commercial metal fans and glam rock fans who didn’t bail on them, and with radio hits like “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” “Love Bites,” “Animal” and “Rocket,” Def Leppard attracted a new fan base from fans of U2 and Prince to kids who had just one or two hard-rock records in their collections.

“We’ve always wanted to be a band for the people,” Collen says. “When we started working on Hysteria we had just sold eight million records with Pyromania so we knew we had a fanbase. We weren’t necessarily trying to top that because you can’t go into something saying, ‘Okay, yeah, this one’s going to sell more than 8million copies.’ That’s a lot of records. We just wanted to make a record with good songs that we really liked and that were maybe a little more polished and more modern sounding. Even when we finished Hysteria we had no idea how it was going to do, but it felt like a triumph for us.”

Within days of its release, it was clear that others viewed it as a triumph as well. Hysteria reached No. 1 on both U.S. and UK album charts and went on to sell over 12 million copies in the States and over 20 million copies worldwide. And it proved that after a four-year wait for a new album, the public was still eager to embrace Def Leppard’s heavily processed sound.

Hysteria wasn’t an easy record for the band to make, and came to life only after some serious drama and soul-searching. By the time it was released, Def Leppard’s drummer Rick Allen had lost his arm in a near-fatal car crash and the level of stress they were under while writing the songs made the band consider breaking up. Then, after they toured for Hysteria, guitarist Steve Clark died from an overdose.

“People talk about ‘The Curse of Def Leppard,” and that’s so strange to me,” Collen said. “We’ve been a band since 1977. We’ve been like a family, and things happen in any family. People have accidents, people die. You enjoy the good times, and you stick together and help each other through the bad times.”

There were both good and bad times while producer Mutt Lange -- who had been with Def Leppard since their second album, 1981’s High ‘n’ Dry -- worked on Hysteria. From the start, his goal was to help create the most commercial hard rock album of all time, and reaching that goal put everyone in a pressure chamber, from the engineers to the band members. “His blueprint for Hysteria was Thriller,” recalled Collen. “He figured, ‘Well, that album's got six or seven hit singles on it. Let’s make a rock version of that.’ Talk about a challenge. And to be honest, Hysteria was a difficult record to make. Nothing came easily. We worked on it for a long time and it cost lots of money, but eventually we got there.”

To give Hysteria a sound that would stand out from the rock records flooding the marketplace, Lange used a variety of technology. All of the guitars were recorded on a Rockman amplifier and dozens of tracks were recorded and layered for every take. Then the drums were sampled individually and played through a Fairlight digital sampling synthesizer. Finally, the takes were saturated with echoey reverb, giving the songs a stadium rock vibe, even without the low, booming tones of most hard rock”.

In a year where harder-edged acts like Gun N’ Roses were releasing sweaty and sleazy albums (Appetite for Destruction), Hysteria might have seemed a bit soft and effete in comparison! That is no bad thing. I actually respect and prefer albums like Hysteria compared to some of the so-called ‘best’ of 1987. Guitar World wrote about Hysteria in 2012 and its making of. Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen revealed and shared some of his thoughts:

“Not that everyone was receptive to it at first. “When Hysteria first came out, a lot of people went, ‘Dude, this is lame. This isn’t rock. It’s pop. It’s wussy,’ ” Collen recalls of the reaction from certain corners of the hard rock and metal world. “But actually it had the absolute effect it was supposed to have had. Because the point was to not just play to the rock audience but rather to play to everybody. And we achieved that.”

Indeed, Hysteria was a huge crossover success, and its cross-format appeal was due in large part to the creative vision of producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who had helmed Def Leppard’s two previous albums, High ‘n’ Dry and Pyromania, and entered into the new project with the band with the express intent of making what Collen calls “a hard rock version of [Michael Jackson’s] Thriller.” Says the guitarist, “The fact that with Thriller you had an R&B artist who crossed over not just into pop but into everything, even rock, with Eddie Van Halen playing on ‘Beat It,’ that really appealed to Mutt, and to us. But I think without Mutt’s vision the record would have been a more standard-sounding thing. He definitely pushed it.”

Just how far Lange and the band—which at the time also included singer Joe Elliot, bassist Rick Savage, drummer Rick Allen and guitarist Steve Clark, who passed away in 1991—would ultimately push things could not have been anticipated. Over the years, in fact, some of the more outlandish details of the recording sessions have seemingly passed into rock and roll mythology.

From the outset, did Mutt Lange explicitly state that with Hysteria he wanted to create something that could be as successful and have as much crossover appeal as Thriller?

Absolutely he did. That was it in a nutshell. But I think even more than that, Mutt wanted to make something that was unique. With rock bands in general, they’re usually not very open-minded; they’re kind of genre-specific and like to stay in their little boxes. I think the whole thing with Mutt was he wanted to open it up and do a hybrid thing, which obviously he’s amazing at. Just listen to all the stuff he did with Shania Twain later on, which basically brought country to the masses. It was the same with us: it was all about crossover appeal. Because, you know, I hear a lot of people say, “High ’n’ Dry is my favorite Def Leppard album.”

And it’s like, yeah, but that sound was kind of borrowed from AC/DC, which in some ways was a Mutt thing as well [Lange had produced three AC/DC albums, including Highway to Hell and Back in Black]. It very much had that vibe. To me, Def Leppard didn’t start to sound unique until Pyromania, which crossed over, and then Hysteria, which really crossed over.

Perhaps the most enduring guitar legend surrounding Hysteria is that Lange had you and Steve record many of your parts by breaking chords down into single notes and then building the chords back up by layering the tracks. But the truth is you only used this technique on the title song, correct?

Yes. I’ve heard the rumors taken as far as people saying we did the entire album one string at a time, which is crazy! [laughs] We really only did it on the bridge in “Hysteria”—the part that begins, [sings] “I gotta know tonight…” If I remember correctly it was just Mutt and me, sitting in a little jingle studio in Dublin, with me playing the part on one string, then stopping and doing it again on the next string and so on.

What was Mutt’s reasoning for having you do it this way?

He heard a certain sound in his head and he knew he wanted it to be a guitar and not a keyboard, but he also didn’t want there to be any sort of arpeggiation to it. And when you strum a chord on a guitar there’s always a certain amount of that. He wanted all the notes to hit right on the nose, so that everything about the sound hit the listener at the same time. And it worked.

What do you consider the legacy of Hysteria?

To me, it sounds like a classic rock album. And not classic in the sense of classic rock but in the sense of one of those albums that you put on and it takes you somewhere. People always talk about the production element and how long it took and all the tracks and all these things, but at its heart the music means something, and it achieves what it sets out to achieve. Even though it’s got all this stuff going on, it’s very real sounding. And I think over the years people have started to appreciate it for what it is. But you know, I remember when the record was just finished and Steve and I were first sitting there listening to the whole thing. We were so happy. We figured it was a masterpiece, and we felt that even if everyone else thought it sucked, that was okay. We said, “Even if only our mothers buy this album, we’ll be cool with it because we’re so proud of it.” [laughs] Of course, a few other people bought it, as well”.

I will round off with a couple of reviews for Hysteria. Press for the album has been largely positive. As it spawned a host of singles, there was no escaping Def Leppard’s fourth studio album! As Wikipedia explains, Hysteria has been placed high in critical ranking lists (“In 2005, Hysteria was ranked number 464 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. Hysteria got the same placement on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 best albums of all time, the magazine also ranked the album atop its list of the 50 greatest hair metal albums. Loudwire placed the album at No. 2 on their list of the top 30 hair metal albums”). This is what AllMusic had to offer about the hugely acclaimed Hysteria:

“Where Pyromania had set the standard for polished, catchy pop-metal, Hysteria only upped the ante. Pyromania's slick, layered Mutt Lange production turned into a painstaking obsession with dense sonic detail on Hysteria, with the result that some critics dismissed the record as a stiff, mechanized pop sellout (perhaps due in part to Rick Allen's new, partially electronic drum kit). But Def Leppard's music had always employed big, anthemic hooks, and few of the pop-metal bands who had hit the charts in the wake of Pyromania could compete with Leppard's sense of craft; certainly none had the pop songwriting savvy to produce seven chart singles from the same album, as the stunningly consistent Hysteria did. Joe Elliott's lyrics owe an obvious debt to his obsession with T. Rex, particularly on the playfully silly anthem "Pour Some Sugar on Me," and the British glam rock tribute "Rocket," while power ballads like "Love Bites" and the title track lack the histrionics or gooey sentimentality of many similar offerings. The strong pop hooks and "perfect"-sounding production of Hysteria may not appeal to die-hard heavy metal fans, but it isn't heavy metal -- it's pop-metal, and arguably the best pop-metal ever recorded. Its blockbuster success helped pave the way for a whole new second wave of hair metal bands, while proving that the late-'80s musical climate could also be very friendly to veteran hard rock acts, a lead many would follow in the next few years”.

I want to round up with Rolling Stone’s view on Hysteria. A big success in the U.S. and well as their native U.K., it was a worthy follow-up to their 1983 release, Pyromania. In fact, I think Hysteria might be Def Leppard’s defining statement. The band released their latest album, Diamond Star Halos, in May (which gained a load of love from critics):

“This album sounds terrific. Every track sparkles and burns. There is no filler. That is not to say, however, that the Leppards are actually great songwriters (as opposed to consummate riff-smiths). Because here, as on Pyromania, producer Mutt Lange gets full credit as a cocomposer. He is, in fact, the sixth Leppard — the one who takes their riffs and choruses and assembles them into spectacular tracks. A veteran producer of such metal superstars as AC/DC and Foreigner, Lange is a genre master, and this LP is thick with his trademarks: the deep, meaty bass sound; the fat, relentless drums; the dazzling guitar montages; the impeccable sense of structure and separation; the preternatural clarity. Lange also brings a certain ironic wit to the record: one suspects it was he who dreamed up the whispered intro to “Excitable” — an aural pun on an old Mothers of Invention track — although no doubt the band had a hand in fashioning the rap-chant vocals that turn “Pour Some Sugar on Me” from a good-natured Aerosmith salute into a more complexly admiring tribute to Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C.

None of which is to suggest that Lange could have made this album on his own. Def Leppard is a sharp, hot and dedicated stage band that really delivers live. Steve Clark and Phil Collen are a two-man guitar firestorm in the best metal — or any kind of rock — tradition (note the pulsing slabs of sound they pump into “Rocket” and the keening leads on “Don’t Shoot Shotgun” and “Love and Affection”). Drummer Allen (despite his accident) and bassist Rick Savage remain a formidable rhythm section, and singer Joe Elliott, this time out, has convincingly deepened his range (avoiding the castrato effect that so amuses most nonmetalheads).

So what’s wrong — or should we say, not quite right — with this picture? Def Leppard seems primed to burst out of the metal ghetto. The band has shed most of the genre’s more irritating stylistic tics, and it can rock with the best of today’s young bands, categories be damned. But in terms of songwriting — which is the key to any future growth — the Leppards remain trapped within metal’s tired old socio-sexual paradigm. It’s not simply that women are portrayed here as mere lifestyle accessories (“One part love, one part wild/One part lady, one part child” — or, as Elliott bluntly sings, “You got the peaches, I got the cream”). What’s most dismaying is that when the Leppards attempt to communicate more subtle emotion, as in “Love and Affection” or the title track, they inevitably fumble it. (The former tune actually boils down to “Don’t give me love and affection,” and “Hysteria” — a near ballad, despite its title — reduces love to mere carnal hysteria, then shrugs it off, lamely, as “such a magical mysteria.”) Is this all they want to say? Or is it, more sadly, all they’re capable of saying?

The lyrics throughout Hysteria are undistinguished at best. But nobody in his right mind ever assessed a metal album on the basis of its poetic integrity — it’s not the point. This is head-banging music of a very high sonic order, executed with great élan by what remains the most exciting metal-pop band on the scene. Where they’ll be able to go from here remains anybody’s guess. For now, here is a pretty impressive place to be”.

As it will be thirty-five on 3rd August, I wanted to spend a bit of time with the sensational Hysteria. Because the production and sound is quite dense at times, I think Hysteria is still revealing layers. It does not sound that dated to me, despite the fact it has some very ‘80s-sounding tracks – which, in a lesser producer’s (Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange) hands could have been overly-naff; as it is, Hysteria never comes off as weak, cheesy or too commercial. Because it is coming up to a big birthday, go and seek out Def Leppard’s Hysteria and…

TURN it all the way up!

FEATURE: Do You Remember the First Time? The 2023 Reformation of Pulp: Revisiting Three Iconic Studio Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

Do You Remember the First Time?

The 2023 Reformation of Pulp: Revisiting Three Iconic Studio Albums

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IN exciting news last week…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Christie Goodwin/Redferns

Jarvis Cocker announced that his band, Pulp, were hitting the road in 2023. Their debut album, It, came out in 1983. Maybe as a fortieth anniversary nod, I am not sure this reformation will lead to new material. That said, the sight of having Pulp back on stage and performing their classics is tantalising! This is how The Guardian reported news of a great reunion:

“Britpop legends Pulp are to reform and play gigs again in 2023, the band have announced.

After posting a cryptic caption to Instagram last week referencing their sixth album, This Is Hardcore, frontman Jarvis Cocker confirmed the reunion during a Guardian Live event on Monday night.

“Next year Pulp are going to play some concerts!” he said, to huge cheers from the audience.

Speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield on Tuesday, drummer Nick Banks – who confirmed the reunion was “a couple of months” into the planning stage – said the band had a list of “potential” dates and venues but that nothing was confirmed as yet.

He also posted about the reunion on Twitter, asking fans to “stay calm” and hug their Pulp records.

This isn’t the Sheffield band’s first reunion. After splitting in 2002, after the release of seventh album, We Love Life, the five-piece reunited in 2011 for a series of festival dates.

While new music was rumoured nothing emerged, with Cocker telling Q magazine the band were “cruising off into the sunset”. They split again in 2013”.

In order to celebrate news that a hugely important band are coming back to the stage, I am highlighting three of their albums that have stood the test of the time and are iconic. The band’s seventh studio album, We Love Life, was released in 2001. Although things are still in the planning stage, a 2023 Pulp series of gigs would be just what we need. It seems a long shot that we will get an eighth Pulp studio album, but you never know…

WHAT comes next.

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His 'n' Hers

Release Date: 18th April, 1994

Producer: Ed Buller

Label: Island

U.K. Chart Position: 9

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/pulp/his-n-hers-8d371b33-105d-406f-a2ba-61e0f9ce0b18

Key Cuts: Lipgloss/Have You Seen Her Lately?/Do You Remember the First Time?

Standout Track: Babies

Review:

“Pulp had been kicking around since 1981, but for all intents and purposes, their 1994 major-label debut, His 'n' Hers is their de facto debut: the album that established their musical and lyrical obsessions and, in turn, the album where the world at large became acquainted with their glassy, tightly wound synth pop and lead singer Jarvis Cocker's impeccably barbed wit. This was a sound that was carefully thought out, pieced together from old glam and post-punk records, assembled in so it had the immediacy (and hooks) of pop balanced by an artful obsession with moody, dark textures. It was a sound that perfectly fit the subject at hand: it was filled with contradictions -- it was sensual yet intellectual, cheap yet sophisticated, retro yet modern -- with each seeming paradox giving the music weight instead of weighing it down. Given Pulp's predilection for crawling mood pieces -- such effective set pieces as the tense "Acrylic Afternoons," or the closing "David's Last Summer" -- and their studied detachment, it might easy to over-intellectualize the band, particularly in these early days before they reached stardom, but for all of the chilliness of the old analog keyboards and the conscious geek stance of Cocker, this isn't music that aims for the head: its target is the gut and groin, and His 'n' Hers has an immediacy that's apparent as soon as "Joyriders" kicks the album into gear with its crashing guitars. It establishes Pulp not just as a pop band that will rock; it establishes an air of menace that hangs over this album like a talisman. As joyous as certain elements of the music are -- and there isn't just joy but transcendence here, on the fuzz guitars that power the chorus of "Lipgloss," or the dramatic release at the climax of "Babies" -- this isn't light, fizzy music, no matter how the album glistens on its waves of cold synths and echoed guitars, no matter how much sex drives the music here. Cocker doesn't tell tales of conquests: he tells tales of sexual obsession and betrayal, where the seemingly nostalgic question "Do You Remember the First Time?" is answered with the reply, "I can't remember a worst time." On earlier Pulp albums he explored similar stories of alienation, but on His 'n' Hers everything clicks: his lyrics are scalpel sharp, whether he's essaying pathos, passion, or wit, and his band -- driven by the rock-solid drummer Nick Banks and bassist Steve Mackey, along with the arty stylings of keyboardist Candida Doyle and violinist/guitarist Russell Senior -- gives this muscle and blood beneath its stylish exterior. The years etching out Joy Division-inspired goth twaddle in the mid-'80s pay off on the tense, dramatic epics that punctuate the glammy pop of the singles "Lipgloss," "Babies," and "Do You Remember the First Time?" And those years of struggle pay off in other ways too, particularly in Cocker's carefully rendered observations of life on the fringes of Sheffield, where desperation, sex, and crime are always just a kiss away, and Pulp vividly evokes this world with a startling lack of romanticism but an appropriate amount of drama and a surplus of flair. It's that sense of style coupled with their gut-level immediacy that gives His 'n' Hers its lasting power: this was Pulp's shot at the big time and they followed through with a record that so perfectly captured what they were and what they wanted to be, it retains its immediacy years later” – AllMusic

Different Class

Release Date: 30th October, 1995

Producer: Chris Thomas

Label: Island

U.K. Chart Position: 1

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/pulp/different-class-bd7678dd-9056-4be3-914d-6ed5cd083bf7

Key Cuts: Mis-Shapes/Common People/Sorted for E’s & Wizz

Standout Track: Disco 2000

Review:

“Class is far from the only theme bubbling away in this album, though. At least half the songs continue the love ‘n’ sex preoccupations of His ‘N’ Hers, tinged sometimes with the yearning nostalgia of earlier songs like “Babies.” The treatment on Different Class ranges from saucy (“Underwear”) to seedy (“Pencil Skirt,” the hoarsely panting confessional of a creepy lech who preys on his friend’s fiancé) to the sombre (“Live Bed Show” imagines the desolation of a bed that is not seeing any amorous action). “Something’s Changed,” conversely, is a straightforwardly romantic and gorgeously touching song about the unknown and unknowable turning points in anyone’s life: those trivial-on-the-surface decisions (to go out or stay in tonight, this pub or that club) that led to meetings and sometimes momentous transformations. Falling somewhere in between sublime and sordid, the epic “F.E.E.L.I.N.G. C.A.L.L.E.D. L.O.V.E” exalts romance as a messy interruption in business-as-usual: “it’s not convenient...it doesn’t fit my plans,” gasps Cocker, hilariously characterizing Desire as “like some small animal that only comes out at night.”

Sex and class converge in “I Spy”—a grandiose fantasy of Cocker as social saboteur whose covert (to the point of being unnoticed, perhaps existing only in his own head) campaign against the ruling classes involves literally sleeping with the enemy. “It’s not a case of woman v. man/It’s more a case of haves against haven’ts,” he offers, by way of explanation for one of his recent raids (“I’ve been sleeping with your wife for the past 16 weeks... Drinking your brandy/Messing up the bed that you chose together”). Looking back at Different Class many years later, Cocker recalled that in those days he thought “I was actually working undercover, trying to observe the world, taking notes for future reference, secretly subverting society.”

“I Spy” is probably the only song on Different Class that requires annotation, and even then, only barely. Crucial to Cocker’s democratic approach is that his lyrics are smart but accessible: He doesn’t go in for flowery or fussy wordplay, for poetically encrypted opacities posing as mystical depths. He belongs to that school of pop writing—which I find superior, by and large—where you say what you have to say as clearly and directly as possible. Not the lineage of Dylan/Costello/Stipe, in other words, but the tradition of Ray Davies, Ian Dury, the young Morrissey (as opposed to the willfully oblique later Morrissey).

Cocker’s songs on Different Class are such a rich text that you can go quite a long way into a review of the album before realizing you’ve barely mentioned how it sounds. Pulp aren’t an obviously innovative band, but on Different Class they almost never lapse into the overt retro-stylings of so many of their Britpop peers: Blur’s Kinks and new wave homages, Oasis’ flagrant Beatles-isms, Elastica’s Wire and Stranglers recycling. On Pulp’s ’90s records, there are usually a couple of examples of full-blown pastiche per album, like the Moroder-esque Eurodisco of “She’s a Lady” on His ‘N’ Hers. Here, “Disco 2000” bears an uncomfortable chorus resemblance to Laura Branigan’s “Gloria,” while “Live Bed Show” and “I Spy” hint at the Scott Walker admiration and aspiration that would blossom with We Love Life, which the venerable avant-balladeer produced.

Mostly though, it’s an original and ’90s-contemporary sound that Pulp work up on Different Class, characterized by a sort of shabby sumptuousness, a meagre maximalism. “Common People,” for instance, used all 48 studio tracks available, working in odd cheapo synth textures like the Stylophone and a last-minute overlay of acoustic guitar that, according to producer Chris Thomas, was “compressing so much, it just sunk it into the track.... glued the whole thing together. That was the whip on the horse that made it go” – Pitchfork

This Is Hardcore

Release Date: 30th March, 1998

Producer: Chris Thomas

Label: Island

U.K. Chart Position: 1

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/pulp/this-is-hardcore

Key Cuts: Party Hard/This Is Hardcore/A Little Soul

Standout Track: Help the Aged

Review:

“1995’s Different Class was Pulp’s breakthrough but a tough act to follow. After a three-year wait Pulp finally delivered, This Is Hardcore. Mercifully, frontman, Jarvis Cocker didn’t resort to the cliché of bitching about his newfound fame and celebrity. Instead, we got something far darker and deeper. While some may see Hardcore as a decline from the dizzying heights of Class, to these ears it bookmarks the end of their classic period which began with 1994’s His ‘n’ Hers.

More than anything, Hardcore is about addiction. Addiction in its many forms. Addiction to drugs. Addiction to sex. Addiction to adoration. Addiction to misery. Addiction to revenge. While it deals with more personal and dour subject matter, Hardcore perversely remains as irresistibly accessible as the two pithy albums that preceded it. For all its doomy guitars, confessional self-loathing and paranoia, ‘The Fear’, is still a damn fine Pop song with one hell of a catchy chorus. “This is the sound of someone losing the plot,” Cocker insists but Hardcore is the sound of anything but. ‘The Fear’ is a bold, grandiose start to a dark ride but one that is not devoid of Cocker’s sharp wit. “Now you all know the words to song, it won’t be long before you’re singing along.”

‘The Fear’ is offset by the kitchen sink drama of, ‘Dishes’. Its narrator a mousy wallflower whose sense of self-deprecation is deceptive. “I am not Jesus, though I have the same initials.” Here, no miracles happen and the simple soul we’re greeted with becomes increasingly more sinister as the song progresses. While Cocker is never explicit, I can't shake the nagging feeling the person he’s addressing might just be trussed up in the attic. “Aren’t you happy just to be alive?” He asks. Suddenly, the claims of not being Jesus hint at megalomania that is absolutely bone-chilling.

‘Party Hard’ finds Cocker sparring with drug use, wearing blood-stained kid gloves. Vocally, he's clearly channeling his hero, Scott Walker. Nor is Cocker’s tongue all that firmly in cheek with bon mots like, “I don’t need to hear your stories again, just get on the floor and show me what you’re made of.”  Musically, it bears warped traces of the last days of disco. And then, there’s Cocker’s asides, muttered under the influence of robotic vocal effects.

‘Help The Aged’ deftly mixes satire and genuine compassion. In terms of single cuts, it’s one of Hardcore’s finest offerings. “You can see where you’re heading and it’s such a lonely place oh, in meantime we try to forget nothing lasts forever.” Beneath any claims of altruism for the elderly, lies a jealous, aging lothario bitterly opining, “When did you realize its time to take another lover, baby?”

As for Hardcore’s title track, it manages to combine Burt Bacharach pastiche and chilling, cinematic strings. “I want to make a movie, let’s star in it together, don’t make a move until I say action.” Suddenly the mad swirl of cocaine and champagne fall like a curtain, revealing a bleak tenement world of isolation and obsession. “What exactly do you do for an encore? Cos’ this hardcore,” Cocker croons sarcastically.

In reply, Cocker strips things down to a battered acoustic guitar for the start of, ‘TV Movie’. “Without you, my life has become a hangover without end,” he confesses, “A TV movie with no story or sex”.  While one would suspect a dreary drama to follow, ‘TV Movie’ is irresistible Pop. In spite of being a rather sordid confessional of self-inflicted heartbreak and loss.

‘A Little Soul’ settles on the therapist’s couch for a session about parental abandonment. Suddenly a narrative begins to reveal itself. If what preceded is the rise and fall of addiction, here are the first steps of recovery. When Cocker finally tracks down the father who left, he's met with, “I got no wisdom that I want to pass on, just don’t hang round here, no, I’m telling you son, you don’t want to know me.” The party is indeed over. Time to bend down and pick up the pieces.

Just when you think Hardcore is going to be a bum trip, ‘I’m A Man’ jogs in to “Wonder what it takes to be a man.” A song that brings XTC to mind at their most infectious. It’s the album’s most buoyant and bittersweet moment.

If there’s one misstep on Hardcore it’s that the eight-plus- minute, ‘Seductive Barry’ overstays its welcome. If it’s a song about over-indulgence, it isn’t shy about imbibing. One of Hardcore’s B-sides (‘Cocaine Socialism’ or ‘Like A Friend’) would have made for a more concise album. It’s the one track I skip over. At the very least, it wastes some time before we’re hit with the album’s soaring, ‘Sylvia’. This is the power Pop anthem you’ve been waiting for. “Her beauty was her only crime,” Cocker laments.

‘Sylvia’ would have made for a magnificent send-off and yet Hardcore has two more parting shots. In ‘Glory Days’, if the present is slightly less than glorious, its at least stable. “If you want me, I’ll be sleeping in throughout these glory days,” Cocker quips. The credits roll, however, with the rousing, ‘The Day After The Revolution’. “No anger, no guilt, no sorrow, it sounds unlikely, I know, but tomorrow you’ll wake up to find your whole life changed, a revolution took place,” Cocker passionately bellows in parting. “The revolution was televised, now it’s over, bye bye” – Soundblab

ALBUM REVIEW: Fable - Shame

ALBUM REVIEW:

 

 

Fable

Shame

10/10

The album, Shame, is available from:

https://open.spotify.com/album/36q8JTWPQ2bAHMYUNtDxsk?si=1Q8g_FNuQzGQ8G5trl9VDA

RELEASE DATE:

29th July, 2022

LABEL:

Naim Records

WRITTEN BY:

Holly Cosgrove (Fable)/Jonas Persson

TRACKLIST:

Fall Away

Womb

Guilt of the Act

Sandcastle

Heal Yourself

Shame

Orbiting

The Reaper

Unequal

Thirsty

Swarm 

Onion Brain

__________

I have a few things…

to sort of get out of the way before coming to a review of, in my view, one of the finest albums of this year by any artist. Forgive any sloppiness or oversights in this review but, yesterday, BBC Two dedicated their evening schedule to shows about Kate Bush (or those featuring her music) on what was her sixty-fourth birthday. It was a joy to see so much love for an artist who is an iconic genius who commands such huge respect! I am an obviously massive fan of hers and, to the best of my knowledge, write about her more regularly than anyone else in the world. Not to say that as a way of patting myself on the back. The reason I am so compelled by and dedicated to Kate Bush is because her music keeps revealing new layers. There are always fascinating avenues unexplored that one can write about. It excites me when I see an artist come along that has elements of her, or I can see them reaching similar peaks. Fable is an artist who I am in awe of (and who I recently interviewed). The moniker of the phenomenal Holly Cosgrove, I predict so much success in her future. For a start, I think that she genuinely has an album inside her as mesmeric as Hounds of Love (incidentally, listen to this 2020 documentary about Hounds of Love at thirty-five). I feel she could pen a sweeping and spellbinding suite like The Ninth Wave. Someone who can project the same sort of beauty and awe, everyone needs to keep their eyes on her (I have put Fable’s social media links at the bottom so you can follow and support her). I also know she is a big fan of David Bowie. Like Bowie, I can also imagine Fable adopting new personas and recording albums that explore different sounds and genres. Bowie was masterful when it came to switching guises and landscapes. This is something that I can also see Fable doing. Even if it is hard (and practically impossible) to match legends like Bush and Bowie, there are artists today that can combine the two and add their own stamp and sound (St. Vincent springs to mind).

I am awed by Fable because I can see limitless potential. I am not sure whether she (Cosgrove) has considered it, but she has enormous presence. Many artists go into acting, whether on the small or big screen. I am writing a screenplay myself, and I am currently searching for musicians to act. Sorry to ramble slightly, but as I said to musician Iraina Mancini recently, she is someone who could have a drama or short film specifically written with her in mind. I could see Fable (or Holly Cosgrove) either acting in something phenomenal or putting together a short film. Also, she seems like someone who would compose an arresting, innovative and immerse soundtrack for a film. Not to put pressure on her, but there is this potential adjacent career that could see her head to America and be a success here. Undoubtedly stunning and blessed with a unique and huge talent, Shame is an album that she is very proud of – and rightfully so too! It has been a challenging past week or so for me with various things. Flat-hunting with little success in London, a spell (still ongoing) of quite bad depression, and a general feeling of being directionless and a bit lost has weighed very heavy on my shoulders. Music an act as a remedy and source of stability in our darkest and most unsure and frightening moments. If it simply provides carapace or escapism, that can balm us in the short-term; maybe long enough so we can get our feet back on solid ground. The most remarkable and affecting music can give us guidance, strength and a real sense of purpose and place in the world. One reason why Shame has affected me so deeply is because it sounds like a modern classic. There isn’t an award ceremony in place, but I feel there should be a Mercury equivalent where newer or growing artists only are selected. Shame is an album that would walk away with the prize!

If this all sounds a bit gushing and lovestruck, you only need to listen to Shame and know Fable even a tiny bit to realise what a special and wonderful person and artist she is. In that way, she reminds me of Kate Bush. With beauty of soul, sweetness of heart and almost inexplicable level of talent and ability, one is helpless but to fall for her. I can’t remember the last time I reviewed an album – I normally write single reviews -, but I am going to write a bit about each of the twelve tracks on Shame, in addition to a closing paragraph about the sensational, future-legend that is Fable. I have looked at press and reviews for Shame (and, as not to steal anyone else’s voice, I will not quote those reviews). Fable has been compared with the likes of Portishead (there are Trip-Hop sounds through Shame; though Portishead resented being called ‘Trip-Hop’), and Kate Bush. Set aside any comparisons and understand that Fable is so respected and promising because she has her influences, yet her sound and music is distinctly from her bones and mouth. This is someone who is behold or reliant on nobody! I am going to get down to reviewing soon. Before that, here is some information about Fable and the mighty, majestic, magnificent and moreish Shame:

“The Devon-born singer-songwriter will be performing songs from the twelve track collection at a headline show at London’s iconic venue The Lexington on 6th August - full tour listing below.

Shame is rooted in the present, but draws from the past, taking inspiration from the likes of Portishead and Kate Bush, whilst being acutely aware of the challenges Fable’s generation faces. “Being human is more complicated than it has ever been,” Fable explains.

“I’ve seen so many young people just spinning in information, feeling like they have all the knowledge but none of the power. I think I’m here to say 'Look, keep it simple, fuck all of this hype, delete your social media, empower your own experience, compare notes with your child self. What would they think? Being happy doesn’t make you ignorant to the world's problems. Love yourself and the everyday shit.’ It's all here.” 

Turbulent new single ‘Swarm’, also out today, began one grey-skied Welsh morning in lockdown, listening to Radiohead and strumming the same two chords for an hour. Speaking on the single, Fable says: “I had the lyric ‘Where do I end, where does the world begin?’ scrawled in my notepad. It’s making a stab at a difficult subject: What is I? These are the things that go through your mind when you start self-isolation, before the pandemic’s even begun.” 

Having last year relaunched an impressive fledgling career that had already included performing at Glastonbury and collaborating with Orbital, Fable’s second coming has been met with enthusiasm from tastemakers, including NME, 6 Music, CLASH and The Independent, notably for the trip hop and neo soul blending ‘Orbiting’, which has racked up over a million streams, the emotionally introspective ‘Womb’, and the 6 Music-playlisted  title track ‘Shame’. Signed to Naim Records, the label wing of the award-winning premium audio brand, and an ambassador for mental health charity My Black Dog, she has recorded a debut album of genre-fluid, searingly honest and darkly beautiful music that spans from urgent post punk to introspective electronica, whilst posing questions that are both timely and personal, yet timeless”.

On Facebook, Fable thanked Andy Hollis for being the world's most supportive manager; Jonas Persson for fire production and co-writing; Andy Baldwin and Metropolis insane mastering, and Kenny McCracken and Keith Davey for this beautiful artwork. She has a wonderful team around her. One that will see her share the stage with some of the biggest artists in the world before too long. There are two bits of housekeeping to do before starting. Tomorrow, Fable can be heard on Chris Hawkins’ BBC Radio 6 Music early-morning show. She provides an audio tour of her favourite place: her grandfather’s home in Torquay. Also, if you can get to London and see Fable play The Lexington on Saturday (6th August), then there are tickets available. A debut album to be truly proud of, I feel very touched to add to the incredible kudos (including some five-star reviews!).

Fall Away opens Shame. A gorgeous and tender piano line instantly hooks you in and gets into the head. Such a beautiful and passage is soon joined by Trip-Hop and Neo-Soul colours and layers. Fable’s vocals are extraordinary! From strong and resolute to quivering and emotional, you do actually go on a journey in the song. I love Fall Away’s composition. If it were not for the truly mesmeric vocals and the fact Fable can buckle the knees, you could provide an instrumental version of Shame. Such is the power and depth of them, they show she is an artist who cares about texture, resonance, nuance and every single facet of a song. I think that a lot of modern music puts the vocals to the front and there is not much consideration when it comes to writing an original and interesting composition. Something operatic, choral and almost classical, there is this modern symphony playing out. In fact, Fable has revealed the story behind the truly wonderful Fall Away:

“It’s always been important for me to live in the present, and to make peace with the idea of my own death, explains Fable. “Fall Away tries to accept that all things will come to an end, and that to resist this idea is like swimming upstream. The line ‘long may the grass grow’ is a recognition that even if humanity doesn’t survive, consciousness in other forms will continue,” Fable adds”.

I keep going back to the song for various reasons. I love Fable’s vocals and lyrics. Lines like “Hiding your heart from your head” resonate because they can mean something different to every listener, and yet everyone can relate and understand that line – even if it means something personal and unique to Fable herself.

Womb’s title instantly got me thinking about birth and bringing new life into the world. Maybe the birth of an idea or revolution. Showing her incredible vocal dexterity and emotional range, Fable’s voice is sultry and hugely soulful. Reminding me of Amy Winehouse and Adele, layered backing vocals and this great bass rumble gives Womb such richness and nuance. You come back to the song because it demands repeated listens. I normally try and interpret songs and dive deep but, as there are twelve tracks, the word count would be astronomical! Yet another phenomenal and multi-layered composition perfectly marries with a pure and chocolate-hued vocal that swims in the soul. A very different song to Fall Away, Fable ensures that Shame boasts this variation and sense of movement and journey. That said, each song is distinctly her. There are too many artists who are limited and struggle to find a singular voice. Fable’s incredible vocal and writing gifts fuse with magnificent production values. Womb is an early standout for me. I talked about Fable (Holly Cosgrove) acting very soon because her songs have this cinematic quality. You listen to the composition and it almost has its own life and promise. Whether something quite stirring or gentler, one could see Shame being turned into a short film. In any case, a video was released in May last year. It is a simply brilliant video directed by Matt Hutchings. Credit too to Jonas Persson for his co-writing. I especially admire and love the wordless vocal chant that takes the song down. After two songs, you are already stunned by Shame – excited to hear what comes next…!

One can hear some classic ‘90s Trip-Hop with the cutting-edge today on Guilt of the Act. Again, some marvellous bass gives the song such groove and push. If our heroine doesn’t wanna be selling any dreams to ya, my dream is actually that we get a music video for this song! An insanely catchy and awe-inspiring song, I would love to see what Fable and her team would do with this in video form. You almost get something classic and vintage with the backing vocals. Maybe a classic girl group like The Andrews Sisters. I have seen some media outlets mention the 1990s influences in Fable’s music. She was born in the middle of the decade – making me feel really old! -, so it is natural that music from that time were part of her growing up. She’ll forgive me (I hope) for misquoting any lyrics or misconstruing the inspiration behind tracks. With a lyric video online, the listener can read the words and get a sense of where Fable is coming from. Look what I mean about vocal dexterity and flexibility. Still able to be immensely powerful and soulful, this is a brighter and faster song that, again, keeps the sense of flow, evolution and change firm. “Can’t walk in these shoes, I’m giving them back” is another statement that can be understood by everyone but can mean different thing to different people. Not to compare an innovator and unique artist to anyone else, but I get pleasing tastes and notes of some of the great girl groups from the 1990s. Those who were superior to other artists because of the beauty of their vocals and their innate ability to  produce these life-affirmingly and bright choruses. Although you get the feeling of sunshine, the lyrics do point to something a little more anxious or darker (“But the money keeps holding us back”). It is a remarkable song. Possibly my favourite cut from Shame.

Sandcastle has this woozier and dreamier vibe. Taken us down from the buzz and rush of Guilt of the Act, this is one of the finest vocal turns from Fable! Whispered, sweet, soulful, strong, and so full of emotion, I know that artists will be lining up to have her feature on their songs very soon. Like when Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) collaborated with Massive Attack on Teardrop (from 1998’s Mezzanine), I can see Fable being drafted into a huge collab. That said, she is sort of Elizabeth Fraser and Cocteau Twins (and others) rolled into one extraordinary package, so she does not need anyone else! I do feel like, the more exposure Shame gets, the more attention she will garner from producers and other artists – realising this insane talent who has created an album where each song has a different palette, yet everything hangs together and connects seamlessly! “We want the same/Let’s walk together” Fable sings, her voice imbued with spirituality, a hugging heart and this beautiful smile. You get these visions when hearing a song like Sandcastle. A standalone song that could fit into a film, save someone’s day or soundtrack spontaneous passion, I would be interested to see how this song translates to the stage. Another addictive and memorable song you will be singing to yourself and spinning over and over again, it was at this point that it struck me just how strong and limitless Fable’s voice is. I am not sure how vast and eclectic Holly Cosgrove’s record collection was as a child and teen. I have been reading this about Cosgrove and what she has had to face in her past – and how inspiring she is now and what important work she’s doing. I bring that in here, because Sandcastle seems like a blend of this dream of someone gone or imagined and a call to a departed loved one. Maybe that is way off of the mark, but I get a sense of Fable calling out and reaching beyond the tangible here and now. Again, like all of her songs, everyone has their interpretation and takeaway.

We are about to get to two songs that are very well-known and loved already. Heal Yourself is a track many might not have heard. With a skiffling and almost skeletal beat teaming with moonlight electronics, I get visions of dusk on this song. Meditative and incredibly soulful (a word I have used a lot but applies here), the pace changes and a beat bounces in. Bassy and heartbeat-heavy, Fable’s voice rises. I have listened back to this song over and over. It grows more intriguing and stunning the more I hear it. Another modern classic, as I have said a few times, this could soundtrack a dramatic scene or some cinematic standout moment. Fable’s voice is near its peak. She never lets the heavy and growing beat drown her out. Instead, her voice seems to ride on top of it like a surfer cresting a wave. She doesn’t need to amplify her voice to be heard and make an impression. It is the conviction of her words; the prowess she displays, and the natural talent she has that means her voice is another instrument that can weave between the notes; contrast with the beat and also stand on its own. From the more twilight opening, we get this burst of light and heat. One of modern music’s greatest songwriters and voices adding another chapter to a genius debut album. I have not heard a finer debut album this year – nor do I expect to by the time 2023 hits. The two most-streamed songs from Shame appear in the middle of the running order. The title track comes next…

Shame has been written about a little bit. Its video is wonderful! I get visual vibes of Kate Bush and Lady Gaga (with a bit of Beyoncé) but, with Matt Hutchings directing once more, this is very much an original and incomparable video. I hope Fable won’t mind, but I got some tones (the chorus of, perhaps) of St. Vincent’s Pay Your Way in Pain (from her epic 2021 album, Daddy’s Home). Although, as wonderous as that song is, Shame is on a whole other level! The vocal trips and swaggers. This is one of the coolest and toughest vocals on the album. Almost like it is wearing a leather jacket and bossing the night, this song kicks and slaps! Woozy, weird, wonderful and utterly sh*t-hot, the backing vocals (which chime “shame” and “pain”) are almost ghostly and taunting. I think many have interpreted Shame as a lament of the modern day and what the young generations have to face in terms of reality and struggle. Rather than it being a gloomy and angry song, Fable manages to write such an evocative and stirring song that makes you think but also has this grooviness, ‘60s vibe and a trippy quality that feeds into its stunning and unbeatable video (which has scary similarities with Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun at times!). It is hard to distil the essence of the title track into a few words. This is a song that took my breath when I first heard it - as it continues to do so. I know BBC Radio 6 Music’s Chris Hawkins was a very early champion and lover of Shame. I heard the song on his show and, by the time the chorus came in, I followed Fable and was a confirmed fan!

As the song has been out there for a while, it is no shock that Orbiting has been streamed more than any other song that appears on Shame. Taking us into a different direction altogether, the video is another perfect accompaniment to the song. Matt Hutchings and Fable are a tight and natural creative partnership! Giving the Devon-raised artist the best visual platform for her songs, I love the mix of beats, bass and Fable’s voice on this track. Taking things down a bit into soulful and sensual territory, she can pretty do anything that she wants! The chorus struck me with these lines: “And we're isolated/But we're connected/Because we are one under the surface”. Snarling guitars and a wonderful blend of the old and new, you get invested in the lyrics. The second chorus is one of the most thought-provoking on the album: “It's a lonely life/But I'm still spellbound by the world/And all these lies/Are certain to blow up/So I'm gonna go where no one's ever been before/And it's time to go where you have never been before”. The fact I am writing fewer words about Orbiting than most of the other tracks is because I would recommend people simply listen to it. There is this mood and vibe that you get from the track that is hard to put down on the page. Now past the half-way point, the listener is transfixed and transformed by Shame! I was so hungry to hear what came next.

The Reaper is another song that many might not have heard about. I love the sequencing of Shame. The bigger songs are organised and distributed evenly so that you get this consistent listening experience. Neither top of bottom-heavy, Shame is such a balanced listen in terms of those tracks you know and the ones new. In terms of the best of the best, I think every song is so strong that it is impossible to rank them. Even so, the two most popular songs appear as tracks six and seven – reminding me of the fact that tracks five and six of Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside are The Man with the Child in His Eyes and Wuthering Heights. The Reaper sort of tiptoes and creeps. There are electronic beeps that mix with a thudding beat. Fable’s voice is almost hiding and watching from the shadows. It is an amazing song! You are caught my surprise by it almost. “It can’t stay the same” our heroine sings, as she knows that things are going to change. The composition pulls in ghostly electronics, different beat patterns and an orchestra of spirits, ghouls, clicks, rushes and waves that all swell together to score this head-spinning song. This is a cut that would sound amazing on vinyl. (More on that later). This is an album track whose video could be really interesting. I am not sure whether any further singles will come from Shame, but fans will definitely have one or two suggestions. Such is the – as I have said – cinematic quality of the song, you naturally project videos and all manner of visions!

Four tracks left on Shame. Once more, the mood and direction changes. A more consistent and faster beat fuses clicks and electronic pulses. Almost rising from a slump or the dead, Unequal is a gem that warrants a lot of love and investigation. An artist who can inhabit any song and set of lyrics and completely stun the listener, Fable sings of a sickness that is growing and pooled at her feet. Almost tribal-like, the chorus emphasises how we are not equal. Whether she is referring to our Government and how society is skewed to the rich and privileged, it is another one of those hypnotic songs where you almost lean into the speakers so you can sit inside of it. Unequal has this constant sense of rhythm and dance that swirls and sways. You nod your head, sing along and click your fingers with it. The shortest track on the album, Unequal packs so much in! There is some cool electronic guitar that is subtle to start with. We then get a pause before it comes back in with teeth and attack. Bouncing, bold and physical as hell, you are almost moved off your feet with its power! The guitar and beat stomp their feet as Fable leads a charge. One of the many things about Shame that impresses is how no two tracks sound the same. In terms of their lyrics and sound, you get a completely new experience. Even so, the way the album is programmed and ordered means that things naturally flow and take the story forward. I wonder whether Fable had an idea of making Shame a concept album. In a way one can feel a narrative arc and common thread. Two big songs appear in the final three.

The first is Thirsty (released back in October 2020). With another amazing Matt Hutchings video (that puts me in mind of Kate Bush and Bjork), I get sounds of Alanis Morissette and Jagged Little Pill here. Rather than it being overpowering, it is a nice side to Fable’s voice. Ruling all is her incredible personality and talent…that makes the song her own. One of the finest and biggest choruses on the album, she is utterly jaw-dropping in the video! This song deserves so many more views on YouTube. In all honesty, it is one of the best songs that I have heard in years! It reminds me of a ‘90s classic without it being too indebted. Not many modern songs can match the best of that decade. Thirsty can! Like the most seductive kiss, you will keep coming back for a taste. It is intoxicating and so irresistible in its brilliance. The choruses rises and rushes before a slight down and then another rise. A phat Trip-Hop beat backs Fable’s voice. She throws in so many different sounds and accents in this masterful number! The video helps bring the words to life. At around the 2:20 mark, when you expect the chorus to come back in, the song changes course and this rousing, epic and symphonic rise comes. The guitar claws and strikes; there are layered vocals and a spectral wind that bring the song to close. No shi**ing. This is a modern classic and song that I cannot shake! If Fable doesn’t think she has the same genius as artists like Kate Bush and David Bowie, Thirsty is early proof that she very much does!

I needed a bit of a break before Swarm arrived! Smiling, exhausted and almost post-coital after the sensation of Thirsty, Swarm does not start how you’d expect. A rare line of acoustic guitar delivers something tender and soft. Following a song that burst like fireworks, Swarm has this gentility and purity that shows Fable at her soothing and beautiful best. Of course, a simple acoustic layer would probably need something added to it. We get strings and a great beat that comes and goes. Not a crowded song at all, there is this sparseness and openness that takes the listener to the mountains and river. This is almost like the heroine, at this point of the story or short film, escaping into the wide-open morning. Embracing something more natural. Elegant strings play. I almost heard Swarm as a James Bond theme. Maybe a modern-day one similar to Billie Eilish’s for No Time to Die. I did hear the song with a Bond title sequence moving in my brain. It has that combination cocktail or the sexy and sensual together with the potent and pure. Apologies to Fable is she doesn’t want too many comparisons, but I think Swarm is a song that could have fitted onto Madonna’s 1998 album, Ray of Light. Not because they sound alike as artists – Fable is a much stronger writer and singer -, but I get that sort of vibe. Like William Orbit has produced the track. Shame is an album with variations and so many different types of songs. Even if you have particular tastes, you will find something to love on this album. Swarm does not repeat what goes before or tries to duplicate or mimic. Instead, it is the natural talent of Fable unfurling and shining bright once again. I got to the final track thinking about how others will perceive Shame. It is not an easy album to make. There are so many different ingredients added to each song, this is the result of tireless work and passion! Throw into the fact that the pandemic delayed and slowed things, and the fact that this wonderful artist would have been fearful, doubtful and stressful at times. Shame is out in the world, which means we can hear this debut which would have been in her mind for a very long time. I am very protective of it because of how much work and herself Holly Gosgrove has put into it.

Onion Brain is another recent release from the album. Shame’s swansong is a one that stands as a favourite for Fable. As you can read here, Onion Brain has a fascinating history:

“Onion brain’ came to be one of my personal favourite tracks on the album.” Fable says of the track. “The main theme is the acceptance of loss, and the inseparable relationship of life and death. I titled the track ‘Onion Brain’ with a hint to the Buddhist idea that the suffering we perceive is caused by there being a sufferer, a noun. We believe ourselves to be nouns, static and separate, but as we peel away the layers we realise we are but verbs – living, breathing, digesting our experience, always flowing and affected by the world around us.

“I wanted to capture a feeling of helplessness in the opening line, ‘tied to a lamppost barking at strangers’; a metaphor for how little free will we actually have in our lives. But it’s not about trying to fight this, instead the song breathes a sigh of contentment with the worst to come. Coupled with a musical nostalgia for the Beatles and maybe a little flash of Fiona Apple, I wanted the music to invoke a kind of lugubrious joy. I wrote the track on an upright piano in my producer’s second bedroom. If you listen closely you can hear an Amazon van reversing in one of the verses, but the take had so much truth in it, we kept it in”.

I wonder whether we will see a music video for Onion Brain. It is one of the best songs on Shame. A perfect way to end a pretty perfect debut album. Compare this song to something like Thirsty, and you would swear you were hearing another artist! With a gorgeous vocal that reminds me of Fiona Apple and Norah Jones, there is a nudity and vulnerability to the song which gets your heart racing. Fable’s voice is crystal and breathy. It also has this conversational aspect and so much nuance. A truly remarkable vocalist and interpreter, I love the fact that Onion Brain is quite stripped and leaves the album with a sort of calmer note. Such an intelligent and deep writer, you feel like every song on Shame is from Fable’s soul (I should say ‘Gosgrove’s’, but it is hard to separate artist and the person in some cases!). You close your eyes as you listen to Onion Brain. Almost imagining you are in a room with Fable and holding her as she sings this song, every listener will get that physical sensational and need for embrace. Almost up there with Jazz legends like Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, I am intrigued whether we might get more Jazz-influenced songs on the next album. I am thinking about Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett duetting classic tracks. Fable reinterpreting these standards maybe? She is such an amazingly versatile artist that she could do anything in music! I listen to Onion Brain and picture a smoky 1940s/1950s bar and this incredible singer holding the room in the palm of her hands. If Onion Brain does deal with some pretty tough themes, you do get this immaculate vocal performance that sort of lets you know that everything will be okay – and what more powerful message can a song deliver?!

I love Shame (if that wasn’t clear already!). I love Holly Cosgrove. She is an amazing and inspiring human who, through Fable, has gifted the world this very special debut. And I mean ‘gifted’. So many new artists come and go. Many release a debut album that is merely promising. Shame is a debut album impossible to improve upon! That is not to make things daunting and suggest she has peaked. Indeed, being such a wonderful talent who will continue to improve, I think her future material will be even stronger. If that is even possible! There are no boundaries to her limits and talent, so Fable will not have any problems writing (alongside Jonas Persson again, perhaps) a second studio album. Listen to her on Chris Hawkins’ BBC Radio 6 Music show tomorrow morning (you can listen back on BBC Sounds if it is too early for you); go and see her perform as soon as you can. I have reviewed these tracks listening through headphones. I have no idea how they sound live. Getting to experience Guilt of the Act, Thirty or Onion Brain surrounded by other fans; witnessing these songs up close and personal. That is going to be an incredible and unforgettable experience! I wonder whether we might get some new Fable merchandise. I would love to buy Shame on vinyl and cassette. I think you’d get this warmer and richer experience on a physical format. I am not sure if this is an option already, but I cannot see any links. Fable plays Bristol’s Golden Lion this evening; London’s The Lexington on 6th August. There will be so much love for her in those rooms! I would urge everyone to listen to the faultless Shame. Looking at Fable social media channels, and I know how proud she is of the album. She should be, as it is absolutely stunning! In a really crappy week for me (with no end in sight quite yet), I have been lifted and kept stable by Shame. It is an album that ranks alongside the best I have heard in many years. I cannot wait to see and hear what comes next from…

A future icon.

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FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Weekend Chillout Tunes

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

PHOTO CREDIT: @haleyephelps/Unsplash

Weekend Chillout Tunes

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A while back…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @cblack09/Unsplash

I put out a playlist of the best summer-ready songs. The weather was getting pretty hot! It is still at the moment. Rather than focus on something more upbeat and energised, I want to go into a more chilled territory. I am actually inspired by Angela Griffin’s new series on BBC Radio 2, where she selects the best tunes for connection, companionship, and positivity. Here, I have put together a weekend assortment of chill-out songs that will get you calmer and more serene. There is some energy in there to make sure that you are in the right frame and mood to approach whatever comes. Mixing some awesome tracks, this should set you into the weekend suitably chilled and on a great vibe. If it is hot where you are and you need some cool cuts to keep you going, then the playlist below…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @boxedwater/Unsplash

SHOULD help out.

FEATURE: Lee Mavers at Sixty: Revisiting The La’s’ Eponymous 1990 Masterpiece

FEATURE:

 

 

Lee Mavers at Sixty

Revisiting The La’s’ Eponymous 1990 Masterpiece

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EVEN though the band…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Clare Muller/Redferns

were unhappy about the version of the album that was released in 1990, The La’s’ eponymous debut is highly influential and phenomenal. I am going to spend some time with the album because The La’s’ leader and songwriter, Lee Mavers, is sixty on 2nd August. A controversial, perfectionist figure, he is also responsible for writing songs on one of the best albums ever. A great tragedy is that the band only released one album. The La’s went into a hiatus in 1992. The group later reformed briefly in the mid-1990s, 2005 and 2011. However, no new recordings have been released. I have tried to find a copy of The La’s on vinyl for a reasonable price. Let’s hope that it gets reissued soon. Mavers’ songwriting is genius. Most people associate The La’s with the single, There She Goes. The second released from the album (on 31st October, 1988), it is the album’s most-famous song. I want to introduce a few features and a couple of reviews for the incredible The La’s. In October last year, Udiscovermusic.com revisited an album with some of Indie’s most memorable melodies:

“A classic debut album

Attracting attention from major labels, The La’s signed with Go! Discs during 1987. By this time, Badger had left, leaving Mavers in sole charge center-stage, but with a pool of fantastic songs to draw upon – most of which had already been demoed to his satisfaction in local four-track studios during the latter half of 1986.

Over the next couple of years, The La’s cemented their reputation as one of the UK’s best live bands. They also released a couple of appetite-whetting singles, with the infectious, folk-flavored “Way Out” followed by the sublime jangly-pop classicism of “There She Goes.” Though only minor hits, both releases hinted at the quality of Lee Mavers’ songcraft and offered glimpses of a classic debut album that would surely arrive imminently.

Behind the scenes, however, Mavers’ attitude to his art meant that capturing The La’s’ album proved elusive and time-consuming. His obsessive desire to improve upon the magic of his band’s earliest demos resulted in the group limping away from aborted sessions with renowned producers such as John Leckie, Bob Andrews, and Mike Hedges between 1987 and ’89. To the frustration of all concerned, the Hedges-helmed sessions had even garnered well over an album’s worth of material, apparently to everyone’s satisfaction – until Mavers decided otherwise.

“The songs were absolute diamonds”

This ongoing uncertainty also affected the band’s personnel, with a string of lead guitarists and drummers (the latter including future Oasis sticksman Chris Sharrock) joining and then departing. The La’s’ line-up finally steadied in 1989, with Mavers and Power joined by guitarist Peter “Cammy” Camell and Mavers’ brother Neil on drums when they convened with Steve Lillywhite for the final attempt to record their album.

Lillywhite – whose production credits also include U2, The Pogues, and Siouxsie And The Banshees – teamed up with The La’s at London’s Eden Studios in late 1989. Looking back at these lengthy sessions which finally resulted in The La’s’ album, he now has mixed feelings.

“I knew the songs were absolute diamonds, but getting them on tape wasn’t so easy,” he told MusicRadar in 2011. “We’d record six songs that were fantastic, but if there was one thing wrong on the seventh song, [Lee] would be convinced that everything else was terrible and we’d have to start everything all over again.

“But that said,” he continued, “I would put Lee right up there with any of the singer-songwriters I’ve ever worked with. He’s an amazing talent, and the album we made is sort of timeless.”

Totally unique

Listening to The La’s now, one can only agree. Finally cracking the UK Top 20 on reissue, the band’s shimmering signature hit, “There She Goes,” is largely singled out as the album’s high point, but really it’s just one of the record’s many glistening pop gems. The La’s kicks off with an almighty hat trick courtesy of the wistful “Son Of A Gun,” the pile-driving rocker “I Can’t Sleep” and the aptly-titled “Timeless Melody,” and simply never looks back. Indeed, those with any lingering doubts in relation to Lee Mavers’ talent need just one listen to the audacious, Bertolt Brecht-esque “Freedom Song” or the record’s epic, psychedelic torch song, “Looking Glass,” to hear what really might have been.

Perplexingly, though, The La’s’ frontman was his own most hostile critic when the album was finally released, even famously describing it as “like a snake with a broken back” in a 1990 NME interview. Mavers’ negative reaction seems all the more mystifying as most critics heard nothing but genius when weighing up the album’s contents.

In a contemporary review, The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau wrote, “Once in a blue moon, somebody with the gift comes along, and [La’s] frontman Lee Mavers is that somebody,” while confirmed fan Noel Gallagher told The Quietus in 2011, “Even though [The La’s] is a standard form of guitar rhythm’n’blues, it’s totally unique – nobody has done it as good as him since”.

I am interested hugely in Mavers’ songwriting – as I am writing this to mark his sixtieth birthday -, but I am intrigued how the band came together and how their eponymous album came to be. Classic Pop also wrote about The La’s in 2021. They talked about the mythology of the album, the fact Lee Mavers was a perfectionist (who was quite hard to work with at times), and how, despite that, the band created a timeless album in 1990:

“The band were formed in 1983 by Liverpool songwriter Mike Badger, with Mavers joining a year later, the pair uniting over a love of Captain Beefheart. A full family tree would take up the remainder of this article, but the highlights are as follows: Bassist John Power and drummer John Timson arrived in 1986, the latter soon replaced by future Oasis member Chris Sharrock.

The band signed to Go! Discs in 1987, by which time Badger, too, had departed, leaving Mavers in charge.

Badger was replaced by guitarist Paul Hemmings, with Mavers’ brother Neil taking over from Sharrock on drums. Keeping up? With the core lineup settled, the band continued writing their debut album in a stable owned by the new guitarist’s mother.

“It was a wonderful time to be in the band,” remembers Hemmings, who went on to join The Lightning Seeds after lasting less than a year on the good ship Mavers, “because Lee had to write material and we had to finish it. There was no deliberating. Every single day there was me, John and Lee in the stables, working.”

Two singles on Go! Discs followed – the Stonesy waltz-time Way Out, produced by Gavin MacKillop, in November 1987, and the initial version of There She Goes, produced by Bob Andrews in October 1988, the latter reaching No.59 on the UK singles chart.

Mavers’ excruciating perfectionism was already causing widespread exasperation, though. Sessions with Smiths producer John Porter, John Leckie, Andrews and Mike Hedges all failed to meet the singer’s approval. Hedges alone claimed to have recorded 35 songs, the master tapes for which later went missing. At one point, Mavers even reportedly knocked on Pete Townshend’s door, hoping to persuade the legendary Who guitarist to take over.

Delicious urban myths surround Evertonian Mavers, with one tale having it that the songwriter vetoed a studio because the console wasn’t coated in the right “60s dust” – another, since debunked, claimed the perma-stoned songwriter carried round a bag of the genuine article that he’d harvested from vintage guitar amplifiers.

“At some point you have to say, ‘That’s it, I’m finished!’ and move on to something else,” says Hedges. “I’ve never been 100 per cent on anything I’ve ever done. I don’t think you ever can be, because how do you measure perfection?”

The band’s door continued to revolve, guitarist Peter “Cammy” Cammell joining the lineup that recorded what would prove to be the finished album in 1989. Steve Lillywhite, who’d produced The Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York and worked with U2, Siouxsie And The Banshees and The Chameleons, was entrusted with seeing the project over the line, a last roll of the dice from Go! Discs. The La’s entered London’s Eden Studios in December 1989, but things inevitably began to unravel.

“I knew the songs were absolute diamonds, but getting them on tape wasn’t so easy,” Lillywhite told MusicRadar. “We’d record six songs that were fantastic, but if there was one thing wrong on the seventh, [Mavers] would be convinced that everything else was terrible and we’d have to start everything all over again”.

Before coming to a couple of positive reviews, there is another feature that I want to source from. In 2020, PASTE discussed a contrast. The fact that the band hated their only album, and yet they released something that was loved, commercially successful and has influenced countless other groups. It would be interesting to think what The La’s would sound like had Mavers, John Power and the rest of the band got their way and released the album that they wanted:

“The album itself was just as important to the Britpop movement as records like The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society or My Generation. Their songs were rooted in the British Invasion’s tuneful pop, as well as that era’s burgeoning psychedelia and even its skiffle origins. Some of their music, especially b-sides and rarities, also evoke Jamaican, Indian and African music. Veering between dramatically straightforward and fascinatingly offbeat, Mavers’ songs were melodically intuitive and easy on the ears. Even in live performances, Mavers would introduce ticks of brilliance like vocalizing guitar solos, which sounded better than the actual guitar playing. “There She Goes” was the obvious pop hit that still shows up in movies and commercials (even though there’s a lyric about heroin), but other songs were haunting like a sad Irish pub tune (“Freedom Song”), utterly hypnotizing (“Looking Glass”) and almost punk-esque (“I Can’t Sleep”).

The La’s might not have been crucial influences to bands like Suede or Pulp, but their spirit and pop structures certainly resemble songs from groups like Oasis, Supergrass, The Coral and Ocean Colour Scene. And their reach goes beyond Britpop—you can even hear Mavers’ textured, snarling vocals and their classic guitar lines in the catalogue of experimental rock artist Amen Dunes.

Although album sessions from previous producers have since come to light, the band never released another original album and eventually split. Years later, notable musicians and producers like Johnny Marr tried to convince Mavers to work on new material with them, but Mavers was still hellbent on re-recording his 1990 album before moving on to something new. Though according to Matthew Macefield’s book In Search of the La’s, Mavers does apparently have new songs laying around, including one called “Raindance,” which he played for Macefield, who described it as “one of the best I have ever heard.” Marr also told Q about the existence of other Mavers originals, “Coco Daddy” and “On The Rebound,” but neither have seen the light of day. No matter how many additional collaborators or longtime fans think they can crack the code, no one can decide whether the elusive Mavers returns besides the man himself. However, The La’s did reform for several shows over the years, including a 2005 set at Glastonbury, and Mavers has occasionally come out from under his rock to perform solo, most notably a surprise gig under the name Lee Rude & The Velcro Underpants”.

A flawless album that, over thirty years since its release, is influencing new bands and being played around the world, I wonder what Lee Mavers thinks of it now. He turns sixty on 2nd August, so I wanted to celebrate The La’s and his phenomenal gift for melody and hugely nuanced and compelling music. The reviews for The La’s are tremendously positive. It made a big impression on the media and music fans alike in 1990. In their 1991 review, this is what Entertainment Weekly wrote about an album that is now considered a classic:

“If you asked average Americans what kind of rock music they like best in all this world, nine-tenths of them would reply without hesitation, ”The Beatles.” Why that very same audience has subsequently rejected the overtures of every band that has successfully aped the Beatles since 1970 remains a total mystery. Big Star, the dBs, the Shoes: all Beatlesque beyond belief, all unknown beyond a tiny smattering of true believers. Honestly, it seems as if the world would rather listen to rap, disco, opera, punk — anything, so long as it’s not mere pop music full of pretty melodies, clean rock guitars, and Liverpudlian accents. That’s why the La’s, a Liverpool band whose sound closely mimics all the best bits of the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Who (check out ”There She Goes” for an earful of the most exquisite pop you’re likely to hear this side of ”Penny Lane”) haven’t got a chance. A+”.

I will end with AllMusic’s take on the genius The La’s. Although There She Goes is the best-known track, there are many other songs on the album that reach the same heights. I think that we will be discussing this rare and complicated one-off for decades more. It is such a pity that we will never get a follow-up:

“Some albums exist outside of time or place, gently floating on their own style and sensibility. Of those, the La's lone album may be the most beguiling, a record that consciously calls upon the hooks and harmonies of 1964 without seeming fussily retro, a trick that anticipated the cheerful classicism of the Brit-pop '90s. But where their sons Oasis and Blur were all too eager to carry the torch of the past, Lee Mavers and the La's exist outside of time, suggesting the '60s in their simple, tuneful, acoustic-driven arrangements but seeming modern in their open, spacy approach, sometimes as ethereal as anything coming out of the 4AD stable but brought down to earth by their lean, no-nonsense attack, almost as sinewy as any unaffected British Invasion band. But where so many guitar pop bands seem inhibited by tradition, the La's were liberated by it, using basic elements to construct their own identity, one that's propulsive and tuneful, or sweetly seductive, as it is on the band's best-known song, "There She Goes." That song is indicative of the La's material in its melodic pull; the rest of the album has a bit more muscle, whether the group is bashing out a modern-day Merseybeat on "Liberty Ship" and bouncing two-step "Doledrum," or alluding to Morrissey's elliptical phrasing on "Timeless Melody." This force gives the La's some distinction, separating them from nostalgic revivalists even as their dedication to unadorned acoustic arrangements separates them from their contemporaries, but it's this wildly willful sensibility -- so respectful of the past it can't imagine not following its own path -- that turns The La's into its own unique entity, indebted to the past and pointing toward the future, yet not belonging to either”.

I hope that a lot of people mark Lee Mavers’ sixtieth birthday on 2nd August. It is the perfect excuse – if one were needed! – to play The La’s’ eponymous (and sole) album. Let’s hope that a new vinyl pressing does occur in the future, as it would introduce the album to a whole new generation. Whilst it was revolutionary and instantly popular back in 1990, The La’s sounds…

SO fresh today.

FEATURE: The Peerless Skin at Fifty-Five: Her Best Skunk Anansie and Solo Cuts

FEATURE:

 

 

The Peerless Skin at Fifty-Five

Her Best Skunk Anansie and Solo Cuts

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WITHOUT doubt…

one of the most powerful and commanding group leaders there has ever been in music, the incredible Skin celebrates her birthday on 3rd August. As she will be turning fifty-five, I wanted to use the occasion to collate the best of her Skunk Anansie and solo tracks. A pioneering and remarkable songwriter and performer, I discovered Skunk Anansie when they released their 1995 debut, Paranoid & Sunburnt. It featured Charity and Weak. I was instantly hooked. I also bought 1996’s Stoosh which has, arguably, the band’s best song on it. The incredible Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good) was a high school anthem for me. I also love 1999’a Post Orgasmic Chill. The band’s latest album, Anarchytecture, was released in 2016. I hope that we hear more from them. The band actually played this year’s Glastonbury, so that shows that they are still incredibly popular and relevant. They have also released two singles in 2022: Piggy and Can’t Take You Anywhere. If you have not bought the 2020 book, It Takes Blood and Guts, that Skin co-wrote with Lucy O’Brien, then it is well worth getting. Here are some details about it:

“Charting the Skunk Anansie singer’s fascinating musical journey as well as her role as a trail-blazing social and cultural activist and a champion of LGBTQ+ rights, It Takes Blood and Guts is an extraordinary read from a unique talent.

'It's been a very difficult thing being a lead singer of a rock band looking like me and it still is. I have to say it's been a fight and it will always be a fight. That fight drives you and makes you want to work harder . . . It's not supposed to be easy, particularly if you're a woman, you're black or you are gay like me. You've got to keep moving forward, keep striving for everything you want to be. It's been a fight, and there has been a personal cost, but I wouldn't have done it any other way.'

Skin, the trail-blazing lead singer of multi-million-selling rock band Skunk Anansie, is a global female icon. As an incendiary live performer, she shatters preconceptions about race and gender. As an activist and inspirational role model she has been smashing through stereotypes for over twenty-five years. With her striking visual image and savagely poetic songs, Skin has been a groundbreaking influence both with Skunk Anansie and as a solo artist.

From her difficult childhood growing up in Brixton to forming Skunk Anansie in the sweat-drenched backrooms of London's pubs in the '90s, from the highs of headlining Glastonbury to the toll her solo career took on her personal life, Skin's life has been extraordinary. She also talks powerfully about her work as social and cultural activist, championing LGBTQ+ rights at a time when few artists were out and gay. Told with honesty and passion, this is the story of how a black, working-class girl with a vision fought poverty and prejudice to write songs, produce and front her own band, and become one of the most influential women in British rock”.

Such a remarkable songwriter and voice, I know that a lot of artists are inspired by Skin. Having been responsible for some huge anthems and incredible songs, it is only right that I salute Skin on her birthday. From the big hits with Skunk Anansie to some deeper cuts, these are songs either written by or performed (as lead vocalist) her. As you can tell below, whether she is solo or with Skunk Anansie, Skin has created such…

AN amazing catalogue.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five: The Exquisite and Heartbreaking Title Track: A Perfect Ending

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five

The Exquisite and Heartbreaking Title Track: A Perfect Ending

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BECAUSE Kate Bush’s…

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

debut album, The Kick Inside, was recorded in August 1977, I am marking its forty-fifth anniversary with a series of features. I could not continue the series without mentioning its remarkable title track. The Kick Inside is one of the album tracks that I think could have been released as a single. It is also a track that could not appear anywhere else on The Kick Inside but the very end. The song is heartbreaking and tragic. Bush reads the lyrics almost like a suicide note. At the end, there is this ellipsis where her voice hangs in the air and the listener fears the worse. Based on a traditional Folk ballad, Lucy Wan, Kate Bush’s brother Paddy said there were experiments in the recording where they were using actual sections from the song. They were deploying it in quite an unusual way. It would have been interesting to hear that version on the album! Before continuing on, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia collected interviews where Bush discussed the origins of 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)”.

I wonder whether Bush thought of the album title before writing the song, or whether she wrote the title track and then used it as the album name. A few tracks on The Kick Inside discuss childbirth and procreation. As a teenager, it would have been unusual for an artist to write about that in 1978. The Kick Inside is an album that explores themes that other musicians were not at the time. Mature, bold, honest, deeply feminine but also (an album) that has a lot of sympathy and empathy for men, I think the title track is among the very strongest cuts. Incredibly beautiful and sad at the same time, I feel it could have been a success if it had been released as a single. Like every song on The Kick Inside, the lyrics are wonderfully idiosyncratic and original. My favourite passage from the title track is this: “You and me on the bobbing knee/Didn't we cry at that old mythology he'd read!/I will come home again, but not until/The sun and the moon meet on yon hill”. Bush’s performance is so tender and powerful throughout. A stirring and memorable song that lingers in the mind when the album has ended, go and listen to the song if you have never heard it. In my view, The Kick Inside is a perfect ending to…

A deeply impressive debut album.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Dire Straits – Money for Nothing

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Dire Straits – Money for Nothing

__________

I have not included…

Dire Straits on my site for a while now. I wanted to spotlight one of their biggest hits, Money for Nothing, as it has a significance regarding MTV Europe. On 1st August, 1987, MTV Europe was launched. The first video played being Money For Nothing. It contained the appropriate line “I want my MTV”. The song itself was released on 28th June, 1985. Taken from the band’s legendary fifth studio album, Brothers in Arms (1985), it is a song that will go down in history. Although there are some problematic lyrics (even though it is from the point of view of a character in the song, the word ‘faggot’ is said three times), the song cannot really be faulted easily. Some might feel the track is overproduced (it was produced by Neil Dorfsman and Mark Knopfler). I feel it sounds perfect for what is this big anthem that was very much made for MTV. From its largely animated video (as Knopfler did not like appearing in videos) to the incredible riff by Knopfler, Money for Nothing is a gem! The track is Dire Straits' most commercially successful single. It reached number one for three weeks on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Top Rock Tracks chart and number four in the U.K. I have seen footage of Dire Straits perform Money for Nothing with Sting (who features on the song delivering the iconic MTV line) at Live Aid. At the 28th Annual Grammy Awards in 1986, Money for Nothing won Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year as well. At the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, the music video received eleven nominations, winning Video of the Year and Best Group Video.

I want to go a little deeper into the song before rounding up. It does divide people. Money for Nothing is viewed by some diehard Dire Straits fans as being too commercial or lacking the sound of their earlier work. Yes, the song is a little overproduced and it does sound more mainstream than a lot of the earlier tracks. What is the story behind the classic Money for Nothing? How were the more controversial lyrics perceived? There are a couple of articles I want to source that reveal the details and history of Dire Straits’ 1985 track. Ultimate Classic Rock wrote about Money for Nothing in 2020:

“The tune originally began with the guitar riff,” the song’s producer, Neil Dorfsman, explained to Sound on Sound, admitting that the band was “going for a sort of ZZ Top sound.” Still, the “Money for Nothing” guitar part ended up taking on its own life by accident.

"One mic was pointing down at the floor, another was not quite on the speaker, another was somewhere else,” Dorfsman recalled of the recording session. “It wasn't how I would want to set things up — it was probably just left from the night before, when I'd been preparing things for the next day and had not really finished the setup. Nevertheless, whether it was the phase of the mics or the out-of-phaseness, what we heard was exactly what ended up on the record. There was no additional processing on that tune during the mix.”

Dorfsman loved the guitar sound so much, he suggested Knopfler embrace more solos. “He wasn't into that idea,” the producer revealed. “I remember him asking 'Do you mean like a rock guy?' I think he's one of the greatest soloists ever, so I really wanted to hear more of that. He'd kept saying 'ZZ Top, ZZ Top,' and in my mind I imagined that we hadn't nailed the part he was after on the basic track.”

It turns out, Knopfler had actually gone directly to the source for advice. In a 1986 interview with Musician magazine, Billy Gibbons admitted the Dire Straits frontman had asked how to replicate the ZZ Top guitar sound. "He didn't do a half-bad job, considering that I didn't tell him a thing!" the bearded rocker joked.

For lyrics, Knopfler took the perspective of a blue-collar worker. The words were inspired by an actual appliance store employee who was making off-color remarks while staring at a wall of televisions playing MTV.

“I wrote the song when I was actually in the store,” the Dire Straits singer confessed to Bill Flanagan in the book Written in My Soul. “I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real. It just went better with the song, it was more muscular.”

Exactly what video the store employee happened to be watching has never been revealed, though at least one rocker believes it was about his band. “Dire Straits’ ‘Money for Nothing’ was about Motley Crue,” bassist Nikki Sixx insisted to Blender magazine in 2007. “‘Money for nothing and the chicks for free … that little faggot got his own jet airplane.’ They were in a store that sells televisions, and there was a row of TVs all playing Motley Crue — and that’s where it came from.”

Knopfler decided to drive home the MTV-ness of his song by actually incorporating the network’s jingle into its lyrics. For the part, he recruited friend and fellow rocker Sting.

“Mark asked him to sing on 'Money for Nothing,' lifting the tune from 'Don't Stand So Close to Me,’ Dorfsman recalled. “I knew Mark had already written the line 'I want my MTV,' but I wasn't sure if he had the melody of 'Don't Stand So Close to Me' in mind. It was one of those things where Sting just sort of did it in three passes, I comped the thing, and then I walked around thinking 'There's something amazing about this.' It was done in about an hour”.

I will wrap up with a feature from Society of Rock. They looked at the song from a couple of angles. Whilst it was a commercial hit (a number one in America is not too shabby!), it is also a controversial songs. Some of its lyrics would not be accepted today, that is for sure! Regardless, Money for Nothing has endured and will continue to be played and celebrated for many decades more:

“Commercially Successful But Controversial

The Dire Straits single “Money for Nothing” was a huge success for the band. It topped several charts in the US and was also a hit in the UK and other countries. It earned them a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and MTV VMAs Video of the Year.

In 1985, ZZ Top’s music videos received heavy airplay on MTV and Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler drew inspiration from Billy Gibbons’ trademark guitar tone. In fact, Knopfler actually sought Gibbons’ help. In 1986, Gibbons admitted, “He didn’t do a half-bad job, considering that I didn’t tell him a thing!”

The lyrics were from the POV of two working-class men who watched videos and gave their commentaries. Knopfler got the idea while he was at an appliance store in New York City. They had a bunch of TVs displayed on a wall and tuned in to one channel – MTV. As he stood there and watched, another man dressed in work clothes stood beside him and started commenting on what they saw. Knopfler immediately grabbed a pen and paper to write some of the things he said and used them for the song.

Knopfler told Bill Flanagan in 1984: “The lead character in “Money for Nothing” is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/​custom kitchen/​refrigerator/​microwave appliance store. He’s singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real…”

While they were recording in the studio, Sting came to visit and listened to the demo. He was immediately impressed and so Knopfler challenged him to add something. Sting ended up contributing the line “I want my MTV.”

While “Money for Nothing” was commercially successful, it wasn’t without its share of controversy. The lyrics were deemed homophobic and so when they performed it live, Dire Straits would replace some of the words with something less vulgar.

Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine in 1985, Knopfler addressed the issue and said: “I got an objection from the editor of a gay newspaper in London – he actually said it was below the belt. Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can’t let it have so many meanings – you have to be direct. In fact, I’m still in two minds as to whether it’s a good idea to write songs that aren’t in the first person, to take on other characters. The singer in “Money for Nothing” is a real ignoramus, hard hat mentality – somebody who sees everything in financial terms. I mean, this guy has a grudging respect for rock stars. He sees it in terms of, well, that’s not working and yet the guy’s rich: that’s a good scam. He isn’t sneering”.

In spite of its more controversial aspects and, maybe, the fact it is a bit overplayed, Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing is a brilliant track that launched MTV Europe on 1st August, 1987. It must have been thrilling to see the video thirty-five years ago! From its singalong lyrics and mighty introduction riff to its relevance to MTV, Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing is…

IMPOSSIBLE to resist.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) at Thirty-Seven: Her Most Iconic Video?

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) at Thirty-Seven

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush and Michael Hervieu in the video for Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush 

Her Most Iconic Video?

__________

I have covered…

the video for Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) in a feature before but, as 5th August marks thirty-seven years since the single was released, I wanted to return to it. Of course, the original release saw the song reach number three in the U.K. This year, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) went to number one. The song has topped one hundred million views on YouTube. I think one reason because of this is the video itself. Regardless of the exposure the song has got because of Stranger Things – the Netflix show featured the song prominently -, what makes Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is the video is so outstanding! I think it may be one of Bush’s very best. I did want to return to it, in small part because of that YouTube milestone. I have seen the video countless times, but I am always impacted. Before getting into the video a bit more, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia (who I will reference again when it comes to the video itself) collected interviews where Bush talked about the meaning behind Hounds of Love’s first (and most successful) singles:

“I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman, can't understand each other because we are a man and a woman. And if we could actually swap each others roles, if we could actually be in each others place for a while, I think we'd both be very surprised! [Laughs] And I think it would be lead to a greater understanding. And really the only way I could think it could be done was either... you know, I thought a deal with the devil, you know. And I thought, "well, no, why not a deal with God!" You know, because in a way it's so much more powerful the whole idea of asking God to make a deal with you. You see, for me it is still called "A Deal With God", that was its title. But we were told that if we kept this title that it wouldn't be played in any of the religious countries, Italy wouldn't play it, France wouldn't play it, and Australia wouldn't play it! Ireland wouldn't play it, and that generally we might get it blacked purely because it had "God" in the title. Now, I couldn't believe this, this seemed completely ridiculous to me and the title was such a part of the song's entity. I just couldn't understand it. But none the less, although I was very unhappy about it, I felt unless I compromised that I was going to be cutting my own throat, you know, I'd just spent two, three years making an album and we weren't gonna get this record played on the radio, if I was stubborn. So I felt I had to be grown up about this, so we changed it to 'Running Up That Hill'. But it's always something I've regretted doing, I must say. And normally I always regret any compromises that I make. (Richard Skinner, 'Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love. Radio 1 (UK), aired 26 January 1992)”.

There are so many brilliant Kate Bush videos. From her debut single, Wuthering Heights, to Babooshka (Never for Ever) to Experiment IV (The Whole Story), she has helped create more than her fair share of timeless vids. There is something about the hypnotic dance of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) that stays in the mind. Not only has it helped propel the song on YouTube. It stands the test of time and will remains adored and watched for generations more. In its simplicity and power, it beautifully conveys the messages of the song. I always love watching Kate Bush videos where she is dancing. More physical and sensual than, say, the video for Wuthering Heights, David Garfath’s direction for Running Up the Hill (A Deal with God) is wonderful. Here is what the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia said:

“Music video

'Running Up That Hill' was intended as a fond farewell to dance, at least as far as Kate's video appearances were concerned. The music video, directed by David Garfath, featured Bush and dancer Michael Hervieu (who won an audition after Stewart Avon-Arnold was not available due to other commitments) in a performance choreographed by Diane Grey. The pair are wearing grey Japanese hakamas. The choreography draws upon contemporary dance with a repeated gesture suggestive of drawing a bow and arrow (the gesture was made literal on the image for the single in which Bush poses with a real bow and arrow), intercut with surreal sequences of Bush and Hervieu searching through crowds of masked strangers. At the climax of the song, Bush's partner withdraws from her and the two are then swept away from each other and down a long hall in opposite directions by an endless stream of anonymous figures wearing masks made from pictures of Bush and Hervieu's faces. MTV chose not to show this video (at the time of its original release) and instead used a live performance of the song recorded at a promotional appearance on the BBC TV show Wogan. According to Paddy Bush, 'MTV weren't particularly interested in broadcasting videos that didn't have synchronized lip movements in them. They liked the idea of people singing songs'”.

I wanted to nod to one of Kate Bush’s greatest songs ahead of its anniversary on 5th August. It is hard to believe that, nearly thirty-seven years ago, people were hearing Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) for the first time! Now, it seems almost synonymous with Bush. Now her most popular and streamed/viewed songs, many people have gravitated towards YouTube to see the truly iconic video. I wonder whether there is going to be a visual documentary about the song. There might be some rehearsal footage for the video you would imagine. People would love to discuss the song and, as it has been covered so many times, artists could discuss why the song means so much to them. I also think that an HD version of the video could come to YouTube. Also, it surely shows there is a demand for Bush’s videos. Could a long-awaited DVD of her videos see the light of the day?! As the song has taken on new life, there would be an audience waiting if there was to be a documentary. The video we have on YouTube looks great, but many artists re-release HD/remastered versions. I think Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) could benefit from that. For one thing, Bush and Michael Hervieu are transfixing and wonderfully in-sync through the video. Great videos perfectly represent a song and bring new things from the lyrics. That is the case with Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Is its video the most iconic Kate Bush ever released? I used to think that Wuthering Heights is the best and most iconic but, the more I watch Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), the more it…

INCHES towards the top spot.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: I’m Like a Bird: The Best of Nelly Furtado

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Graf

I’m Like a Bird: The Best of Nelly Furtado

__________

I have been listening…

to Nelly Furtado’s amazing 2000 debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, a lot recently - and also dipping further into her catalogue. The Canadian artist is someone with few equals in terms of her songwriting and vocal prowess. An amazing talent who I have been a fan of since her debut arrived, I wanted to put out a playlist featuring her best cuts. Before I get to that, I am keen to include some biography about the wonderful Furtado. For that, I turn to AllMusic:

“When Nelly Furtado appeared with her neo-hippie, multiculti debut Whoa, Nelly! in 2001, a dance-diva makeover seemed like an impossibility, but the singer/songwriter revived and sustained her career with the sexually charged Loose in 2006, and in the process, consolidated her position as one of the most unpredictable artists of her decade. Furtado always proudly displayed her Portuguese heritage, a distinction that separated her from legions of emerging female singer/songwriters in the early days of the new millennium, but her uniqueness didn’t end there: she had an ear for elliptical yet memorable melodies, and a taste for Brit-pop balanced by an immersion in modern R&B and hip-hop. All this surfaced on Whoa, Nelly! and its hits "Turn Off the Light" and "I'm Like a Bird," but she really pushed her rhythmic influences to the forefront on Loose, resulting in "Promiscuous" and "Maneater," her biggest hits yet, suggesting that Furtado had many avenues yet to explore.

A native of the Canadian city of Victoria, Furtado was a musically precocious child, learning to play a variety of instruments and singing in choirs, spending as much time listening to modern R&B like Mariah Carey and TLC as she did Brit-pop, eventually winding her way toward hip-hop and Brazilian music. Upon her high school graduation, she headed to Toronto, soon joining the hip-hop duo Nelstar. Not long afterward, the duo of Brian West and Gerald Eaton, core members of the Philosopher Kings, produced the Furtado demo that led to her contract with DreamWorks.

Whoa, Nelly!, her first album, appeared in late 2000 and DreamWorks built the album gradually, capitalizing on strong reviews and a supporting slot for Moby, with the record truly taking off when "I'm Like a Bird" turned into a hit on a road that led to a Grammy for Song of the Year. This was one of four Grammy nominations and several hits including "Turn Off the Light," which displayed her rhythmic roots in a way "I'm Like a Bird" did not.

Furtado had a daughter as she was working on her second album, and her new role as a mother was evident on Folklore. Released in November 2003, it was an ambitious album with a world music aesthetic that garnered some good reviews along with some negative notices, and it failed to generate a hit. The album also suffered from under-promotion due to DreamWorks' acquisition by Universal Music Group, a situation that eventually led to Furtado landing at Geffen Records. Nonetheless, Folklore garnered some positive attention, with the single "Força" used as the theme to the 2004 European Football Championship.

Perhaps the under-performance and troubled release of that album pushed Furtado toward the musical makeover of Loose, the 2006 effort produced largely by hip-hop superstar Timbaland. Heavy on grooves and overtly sexual, Loose had a pair of smash singles: "Promiscuous," which was a chart-topper in the U.S., and "Maneater," which performed the same feat in the U.K. Both singles set the soundtrack for 2006 around the world, helping the album shift seven million copies internationally. Her star status fortified, Furtado took her time delivering a follow-up, releasing her first Spanish-language album, Mi Plan, in September 2009. A collection of remixes from Mi Plan appeared a year later, followed just a few weeks later by The Best of Nelly Furtado.

Her fifth studio album, the largely positive and upbeat The Spirit Indestructible, was released in fall 2012. Executive produced by Furtado, the album also showcased collaborations with a bevy of studio heavy weights, including Darkchild, Salaam Remi, Bob Rock, Fraser T. Smith, John Shanks, Tiësto, and others. The album produced several singles, including "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)," and while it failed to match the commercial success of Loose, it garnered favorable attention, including a nomination for Pop Album of the Year at the Juno Awards in 2013.

Furtado continued to make live concert appearances over the next several years, including singing the Canadian National Anthem at the 2016 NBA All-Star Game in Toronto. Also in 2016, she severed ties with Interscope, announced her sixth studio album The Ride, and released the moody, synth-inflected single "Pipe Dreams." Produced by John Congleton, The Ride appeared in early 2017”.

To show my appreciation and love for Nelly Furtado’s music, below is a playlist featuring her best tracks. From her incredible 2000 debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, to 2017’s The Ride, she has given thew world so much great music! I hope that she has another album coming along soon. Such an accomplished and amazing artist, Nelly Furtado is…

A true treasure.

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Midnight Oil – Diesel and Dust

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Midnight Oil – Diesel and Dust

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AS Midnight Oil’s…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Midnight Oil on 29th May, 1988 in Ghent, Belgium (from left: Rob Hirst, Peter Garrett, Martin Rotsey, Bones Hillman and Jim Moginie/PHOTO CREDIT: Gie Knaeps/Getty Images

sixth studio album, Diesel and Dust, turns thirty-five on 2nd August, I am featuring it here in Vinyl Corner. You can buy it here. I would recommend that you do pick up a copy, as it is a classic album that everyone needs to hear! The Australian band (Peter Garrett – vocals, Peter Gifford – bass, vocals, Robert Hirst – drums, vocals, Jim Moginie – guitars, keyboards, vocals, string arrangements and Martin Rotsey – guitars) delivered a hugely important work. Diesel and Dust is a concept album about the struggles of Indigenous Australians and environmental causes. These issues were very important to the band. I am going to come to a couple of reviews for the mighty and supreme Diesel and Dust. Undoubtedly one of the greatest albums ever, it will soon celebrate its thirty-fifth anniversary. HAPPY wrote an article last year as to why Diesel and Dust matters:

“The band sacrificed nuance yet maintained authenticity, so social concerns like the government’s mistreatment of Indigenous Australians could spark conversation. This is exactly what they achieved on Diesel and Dust, also fulfilling drummer Rob Hirst’s vision to “write Australian music that people overseas could get into and understand, which would enlarge their whole vision of Australia past Vegemite sandwiches and kangaroo hops”.

The LP kicks off with the band’s biggest track to date, Beds Are Burning, a song that was colossal in every conceivable way. The jarring subject matter, the percussive, metallic instrumentation, the silhouetted film clip, Garret’s sporadic dance moves.

The track saw the band break their way into the US charts, an incredible feat for any Australian act at the time, especially one that didn’t pander. From the opening brass to the chugging bassline, a sense of urgency engulfs the listener, perfectly soundtracking Garret’s plea: “It belongs to them. Let’s give it back.”

The anthem’s lyrics have become unanimous with First Australian land rights. Sovereignty is yet to be seeded. The Oils didn’t shroud these lyrics in mysticism, like other political performers of the past, such as Dylan. Instead, they made their intentions crystal clear, performing the hit at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, donning shirts spelling out the cardinal word John Howard wouldn’t say: “Sorry”.

The Dead Heart was another huge moment for the Oils. Its guitar/vocal call and response was pop hook magic, grabbing ears all around the globe. They were commissioned to pen the track for a documentary about Uluru being handed back to the local Pitjantjatjara Aboriginals.

Once more, the band used their musical talents to raise awareness of Australia’s Stolen Generation. The ethereal gallop of Dreamworld was another standout on the record, as the band mourned the loss of Cloudland Dance Hall, a Queensland cultural hotspot that was demolished in favour of an apartment complex.

What do all these tracks (and the rest of Diesel and Dust) have in common? They’re about cultural preservation. The Oils particularly focused on spotlighting the Government’s negligence of First Australians. It didn’t sound out of touch, because it wasn’t. For most of 1986, the band toured the Northern Territory, performing in remote towns for Aboriginal Australians. They explored these settlements with open ears and hearts, learning and listening to the locals.

The band observed harrowing poverty, determination from elders, freezing desert nights, and everything in between. They carried these experiences with them into the studio, resulting in 11 tangible, direct songs straight from the outback.

That’s why Diesel and Dust matters. A practised rock band took their musical strengths and made it a mouthpiece for the neglected. Midnight Oil’s messages still ring true today, stronger than ever”.

I want to finish up with a couple of reviews. An album that raised such important issues, it does so in such a compelling and intelligent way, it is no surprise that Diesel and Dust won huge critical acclaim and went to number one in Australia. A chart success in the U.K. and U.S., Midnight Oil’s 1987 masterpiece remains such a moving listen. Pop Matters wrote this in their review of Diesel and Dust:

“In 1987, you simply couldn’t escape U2’s The Joshua Tree. Bono’s croon poured out of college dorm rooms, the band’s videos camped out on MTV, and the album’s songs took turns nesting on the charts, propelling The Joshua Tree to sales of more than ten million copies in the United States and more than twenty million worldwide. It was also, up to that time, the band’s least strident album. Gone was the flag-waving militancy of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” or “New Year’s Day” in favor of soul-searching introspection like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Running to Stand Still”.

Midnight Oil’s Diesel and Dust, however, easily filled the void that, at the time, we didn’t know U2 was permanently leaving. Diesel and Dust found Midnight Oil, like U2, dropping the harder edges from its sound, but without diluting the lyrical venom. So while U2 explored the politics of the self, Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett roared about reparations and labor injustice in his native Australia. While U2 added elements of Americana to their sound and dressed like turn-of-the-century immigrants, Midnight Oil looked out across the Australian landscape and saw exploitation so profound that it permeated the soil. It wasn’t just for show, either. By this time, lead singer Peter Garrett had already begun his political career with a Nuclear Disarmament Party bid for a seat in the Australian Senate. Many years later, he’s now Minister for Environment, Heritage and Arts, although the apparent softening (in what some have called a pragmatic compromise, and others have called a betrayal) of his beliefs as a member of the Labor Party has earned him criticism.

Back in ’87, however, there was nothing soft about Garrett’s opinions. Diesel and Dust, inspired by the band’s Blackfella/Whitefella tour of indigenous areas with the Warumpi Band, bluntly calls for reconciliation and reparations over the land rights of indigenous Aborigines. The album’s flagship song, “Beds Are Burning”, immediately establishes itself as an anthem with dirt road rhythms, blaring horns, Garrett’s pointed vocals, and a top-notch singalong chorus. “Sell My Soul” tackles the issue of involvement with America through lyrics like “America’s great now / If you don’t talk back / You hide your face / Crawl in rubble and smile and scorn / At that snail-paced creature / Going up and down walls”. “The Dead Heart”, like much of the album, conveys sentiments that feel all too relevant in today’s globalized economy: “Mining companies, pastoral companies / Uranium companies / Collected companies / Got more right than people / Got more say than people”. In fact, despite the album’s deep Australian roots, much of it comes across like a very modern protest record, applicable to pretty much any modernized country. This Deluxe Edition‘s inclusion of “Gunbarrel Highway”, left off of prior American and Canadian pressings, closes the album with an ominous sense of apocalypse.

It’s all delivered with a punk-informed fire (by way of a little R.E.M. jangle and incredibly catchy choruses) that bears little, if any, hint of the often dated decade from which it came. On this Deluxe Edition, celebrating the album’s 20th anniversary, the songs and the band sound as fresh and vibrant as ever. Garrett’s nasal sneer would seem to offer a sharp counterpoint to the pop sensibilities that Midnight Oil integrated into their sound (the guitar interplay on “Sell My Soul” is worthy of the Church), but the combination actually works to convey the message more effectively than ever.

In addition to restoring “Gunbarrel Highway”, this reissue also includes the Blackfella/Whitefella documentary. The film, which captures the band on their tour of Aboriginal settlements, mixes performance footage with powerful scenes of modern Aboriginal life marked by poverty. More than just a Midnight Oil concert film, Blackfella/Whitefella gives the Warumpi band nearly equal time, presenting them as a bridge between the Aboriginal listeners and the modern rock ‘n’ roll that accompanies Midnight Oil. At a little more than an hour, it’s not able to go into any real detail about the issues at hand, but does convey a sense of how the band came face to face with the realities of the Aboriginal villages. Those experiences and realities would become the lifeblood of Diesel and Dust, which still stands as a watershed moment in the band’s career”.

I am going to end with a review from AllMusic. I hope that Midnight Oil’s Diesel and Dust gets a lot of new coverage on its anniversary on 2nd August. It is an album that I have loved for many years now. It is one I will love for many years to come:

“Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett has long been active in elective politics in Australia, and like any good politician, he knows that sometimes the most important thing is to get your message out to the masses, even it means speaking with a bit less force than might be your custom. While the hard edges and challenging angles of 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and Red Sails in the Sunset made Midnight Oil bona fide superstars in Australia, they were little more than a rumor in most of the rest of the world, and for their sixth album, Diesel and Dust, Midnight Oil made some changes in their approach. On Diesel and Dust, there's less in the way of bruising hard rock like "Best of Both Worlds," nothing as eccentric as "Outside World," and very little as esoterically regional as "Jimmy Sharman's Boxers," while the production favors the tuneful side of the band's songwriting (which, truth to tell, was always there) and buffs away some of the group's harsher edges. As a result, Diesel and Dust isn't an album for hardcore Oils fans, but as a bid for a larger audience, it was both shrewd and well executed -- it was the group's first real worldwide success, going platinum in America and spawning a massive hit single, "Beds Are Burning."

While the album lacks the kick-in-the-head impact of their earlier work, Diesel and Dust also makes clear that the bandmembers could apply their intelligence and passion to less aggressive material and still come up with forceful, compelling music, as on the haunting "The Dead Heart" and the poppy but emphatic "Dreamworld." And as always, there was no compromise in the band's forceful political stance -- most of the album's songs deal openly with the issues of Aboriginal rights (hardly an issue pertinent only to Australians), and one of Midnight Oil's greatest victories may well be writing a song explicitly demanding reparations for indigenous peoples, and seeing it top the charts around the world. And the closer, "Sometimes," may be the finest and most moving anthem the band ever wrote ("Sometimes you're beaten to the core/Sometimes you're taken to the wall/But you don't give in"). Diesel and Dust is that rarity, a bid for the larger audience that's also an artistic success and a triumph for leftist politics -- even the Clash never managed that hat trick this well”.

I was keen to include Diesel and Dust in Vinyl Corner because of the approaching thirty-fifth anniversary. Not only one of the best albums of the 1980s, but this is also one of the very best albums ever. If you have never heard Diesel and Dust, then it is the perfect moment to go and explore it. With classic tracks like Beds Are Burning together with exceptional songwriting and performances from the entire band, this is a classic that needs to be cherished! There is no doubt that Midnight Oil’s Diesel and Dust will be preserved and loved…

THROUGH the ages.

FEATURE: It's You and Me Won't Be Unhappy: Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) at Thirty-Seven

FEATURE:

 

 

It's You and Me Won't Be Unhappy

PHOTO CREDIT: United Archives GmbH/Alamy

Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) at Thirty-Seven

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RELEASED as a single on 5th August, 1985…

it was the first to be taken from Hounds of Love. Now, arguably, Kate Bush’s most famous song, it originally entered the U.K. chart at number nine, before peaking at three. The single also reached thirty in the United States. This year, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) became Bush’s second U.K. number one. I think that this is the song of hers that has had the most covers. Given its new chart records, more and more artists are covering the song. Whilst none can match the original and I sort of wish people would cover and expose some of her lesser-known tracks, at least people are interacting with the song. The Guardian report how a Brisbane choir recently received congratulations from Kate Bush after covering Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God):

“Brisbane’s Pub Choir founder and director Astrid Jorgensen is used to getting fan mail about the mass amateur choir’s covers of hit songs – but when she was told on Thursday that Kate Bush had emailed about their rendition of Running Up That Hill, she had to call her morning run short and head straight home.

“My manager called me and said, you’ve got to get home, Kate Bush has emailed. I ran straight back – I was literally running up that hill,” she laughs.

“Dear Brisbane Pub Choir,” the message began. “I’ve been so busy that I’ve only just had the chance to watch you all singing RUTH. It’s utterly, utterly wonderful! I love it so much! Thank you everyone. You sing it really beautifully. I’m incredibly touched by your warmth and all your smiling faces. Thank you!”

It was signed: “With lots of love, Kate”.

On its anniversary, I am sure there will be new inspection. Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) continues to succeed and stay on the charts. It is a hugely popular song on Spotify, and there are going to be even more cover versions of it through the year. If you do not know the story and influence behind the song, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia combines information and interviews with Kate Bush:

“Song written by Kate Bush. The song was reportedly written in one evening in the summer of 1983. It was the first song recorded for the subsequent fifth studio album Hounds Of Love. The electronic drums, programmed by Del Palmer, and the Fairlight part were present from the first recording of the song. The lyrics speak of Bush's impossible wish to become her lover, and he her, so that they could know what the other felt. Kate played the first versions of the songs to Paul Hardiman on 6 October 1983. He commented later: "The first time I heard 'Running Up That Hill' it wasn't a demo, it was a working start. We carried on working on Kate and Del's original. Del had programmed the Linn drum  part, the basis of which we kept. I know we spent time working on the Fairlight melody/hook but the idea was there plus guide vocals."

It seems that the more you get to know a person, the greater the scope there is for misunderstanding. Sometimes you can hurt somebody purely accidentally or be afraid to tell them something because you think they might be hurt when really they'll understand. So what that song is about is making a deal with God to let two people swap place so they'll be able to see things from one another's perspective. (Mike Nicholls, 'The Girl Who Reached Wuthering Heights'. The London Times, 27 August 1985)

I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman, can't understand each other because we are a man and a woman. And if we could actually swap each others roles, if we could actually be in each others place for a while, I think we'd both be very surprised! [Laughs] And I think it would be lead to a greater understanding. And really the only way I could think it could be done was either... you know, I thought a deal with the devil, you know. And I thought, "well, no, why not a deal with God!" You know, because in a way it's so much more powerful the whole idea of asking God to make a deal with you. You see, for me it is still called "A Deal With God", that was its title. But we were told that if we kept this title that it wouldn't be played in any of the religious countries, Italy wouldn't play it, France wouldn't play it, and Australia wouldn't play it! Ireland wouldn't play it, and that generally we might get it blacked purely because it had "God" in the title. Now, I couldn't believe this, this seemed completely ridiculous to me and the title was such a part of the song's entity. I just couldn't understand it. But none the less, although I was very unhappy about it, I felt unless I compromised that I was going to be cutting my own throat, you know, I'd just spent two, three years making an album and we weren't gonna get this record played on the radio, if I was stubborn. So I felt I had to be grown up about this, so we changed it to 'Running Up That Hill'. But it's always something I've regretted doing, I must say. And normally I always regret any compromises that I make. (Richard Skinner, 'Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love. Radio 1 (UK), aired 26 January 1992)”.

Not only has the fact Stranger Things featured Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) meant it has reached a younger audience. The song has always been played on the radio, so it is hardly that obscure and unknown. I think the series gave it a boost and showed how powerful the song is. I think it is the relatability and power of the lyrics that has affected so many people. That idea that there can be hate and misunderstanding in relationships but, if men and women could switch shoes and places, that understanding would make things so much easier and better. Ever since 1985, this amazing track has captivated people. The Quietus discussed Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) last month. There were some interesting points made that I wanted to highlight:

“She performed 'RUTH' on Wogan, bow on back, standing before a lectern, Terry visibly awed. It featured repeatedly on Smash Hits' singles page, entrancing reviewer Ian Cranna. It sailed to No.3 in the UK singles chart, her biggest hit since 'Wuthering Heights'. The video, shot at Hammer Horror HQ, Bray Studios (directed by Terry Gilliam's cameraman, David Garfield), blended modern dance – Bush and partner Michael Hervieu, clad in Japanese Hakama trouser-skirts – and surreal sci-fi.

In September, Hounds Of Love was released to rave reviews, peaking at the summit of the UK albums chart. Bush had managed to have her finger firmly on pop's pulse while serenely floating above it with this music, its silvery, multi-dimensional sonics tailor-made for the beckoning CD age. While others – Billy Bragg, The Smiths, The Style Council, directly challenged Thatcher/Murdoch's Britain, Hounds Of Love circumvented it altogether. It was an unabashedly romantic refuge from the awful, materialist '80s, worming its way into the homes of yuppies and hippies, beloved by everyone from Mel & Kim to John Lydon. Throughout, 'RUTH' is easily matched, from title track to 'Cloudbusting' to the side-long suite 'The Ninth Wave'.

One of the many levels to Bush's genius was a knack of shedding positive light on the darkest of places, turning traditionally negative material inside out. On 'The Ninth Wave', the female archetype of the doomed tragic heroine drowning became a survivor. Bush too, had weathered the stormy seas of the music business and was, at 27, art-pop's eternal grand dame.

It was with 'RUTH' that Bush finally broke America. She'd acquired an ever-growing cult following Stateside; The Dreaming received some of its best reviews there, Lionheart and Never For Ever had finally been released, in January 1984; all groundwork for 'Running Up That Hill''s entry into the top 30. Hounds Of Love did likewise in the album charts. In November 1985, she took a promotional trip to the States, and found lines around the block at Tower Records, on NYC's 4th and Broadway. 'Hello Earth''s choral passages even found their way onto Miami Vice the following year, for the Cold War-themed 'Bushido' episode. Bush had been considered too arty and English for American audiences, and resistant to its radio formats. Yet this was also the home of fellow female outliers; Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks, and Laurie Anderson. As far back as 1979, Pat Benatar had covered 'Wuthering Heights'.

Prince was a fan of Hounds Of Love, and future collaborator; in him she even found another male kindred spirit after Peter Gabriel. Like 'RUTH', 'When Doves Cry' had made pop simultaneously eerie and erotic. Like Bush, Prince also sought an artistic omniscience that eroded gender boundaries, speeding his voice up on 'If I Was Your Girlfriend', where Bush would pitch hers down and frequently sing from a man's POV.

'RUTH' and Hounds Of Love’s influence travelled right to the heart of American rock. With Stevie Nicks, she may have shared a witchy romanticism, but it was the wide-open ears of Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham that took notes. It's all over 1987's textured, tech-pop classic, Tango In The Night (bigger in the UK than the US) – 'Big Love' virtually sped up 'RUTH''s man/machine-made rhythms; he even sounds like he's trying to sing like her on the title track's demo ("I kept the dream in my pocket" could be a line from 'Cloudbusting').

'Running Up That Hill' has been covered multiple times, by Blue Pearl, Placebo and, recently, Halsey. As with all Bush songs, the original is unbeatable, because like Bowie, Gabriel and Prince, the performance, composition and production are all so impeccably woven into one ecstatic whole.

In 1986, years before Stranger Things, grown-up kids TV embraced 'RUTH' when the BBC's Running Scared not only used it as a theme tune, but featured a title sequence which re-enacted the video. Now, years later, thanks almost entirely to the fourth season of the popular Netflix show, 'RUTH' has climbed higher than ever reaching No.1 in multiple countries, including the UK, and the top 5 in the US. The show oddly mirrors Bush's universe, especially around Hounds Of Love, her fascination with the terror created by scary films, childhood's land of lost content and "grotesque beauty" (a favourite painting of hers at the time updated Millais' Ophelia as a cracked doll floating in a sewer). In the video for 1986's 'Experiment IV', that underrated, final, lone new track for her first ever compilation album The Whole Story, she even became a monster that looked like it could have come straight from the series. If 'RUTH' is, in Bush's words, "a talisman" for the Stranger Things character Max, its creator has long been a life-support for many of us.

This song once more finds itself dropping into a bitterly divided world. But in this world polarised by misunderstanding and division, it's unsurprising that 'Running Up That Hill''s searing pursuit of empathy and understanding still cuts so deep, and resonates so powerfully”.

A hugely popular song that has grown ever bigger this year, I know a lot of Kate Bush fans will be playing and celebrating Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) on 5th August. I don’t think this amazing track will fade or lose relevance. There will be more cover versions and, who knows, it may well appear on another T.V. series or film. As much as anything, the connection between Stranger Things and Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) has meant we have heard from Bush in the form of updates on her website and an interview with Woman’s Hour. That has been amazing! All of her fans around the world hope that we…

HEAR a lot more from her.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Big Joanie

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Big Joanie

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FOLLOWING the release…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ellie Smith

of their 2018 debut album, Sistahs, there was a lot of excitement and anticipating around a second album from the marvellous Big Joanie. One of the most important and inspiring groups in the country, Big Joanie are a sensational Punk trio formed in London in 2013. Its members are Stephanie Phillips (guitar and vocals), Estella Adeyeri (bass guitar and vocals), and Chardine Taylor-Stone (drums and vocals). The reason I have not spotlighted Big Joanie before is because I was waiting for some new (2021/2022) interviews to surface online. This week, they announced a new album, Back Home. They put out a brilliant new single, In My Arms. I am going to finish with a couple from this year. First, I want to go back to 2019, when the trio were already turning heads. Being Black, female, and queer, Big Joanie tackled this in their music and personal politics. Prior to me discovering Big Joanie back in 2018, I was not aware of many acts like them. Formed because of a real lack of intersectionality in the scene, a sensational and vital musical force was formed. The Quietus spoke with the trio back in 2019:

“Big Joanie formed in London in 2013 around the core of Stephanie Phillips, Chardine Taylor-Stone and original bassist Kiera Coward-Deyell (Estella Adeyeri joined in 2017), in order to play the self-explanatory First Timers gig event.

They have since dropped the SistahPunk EP (2014) and their 2018 debut studio album Sistahs on the Daydream Library series. Merging funk tendencies, with grunge power chords, Sistahs has a range of political, feminist messages. Being your third and fourth generation of black Brits, Big Joanie are reclaiming the ideologies surrounding the means of punk.

Individually putting a shift in their involvement with political poc activism, drummer Chardine Taylor-Stone has been keeping busy with herself established movement London Stop Racism Campaign. While vocalists Stephanie Phillips and Estella both devote free time to panel talks, articles and staying very much involved with today's media coverage.

Is black feminism something that’s always been a part of your lives?

Stephanie Phillips: I don’t know, I think I’ve always thought about feminism but I wasn’t brought up knowing about what it was. I thought about those different aspects [of life] and didn’t really realise there was a word for it. It wasn’t till I was a teenager and learnt about riot grrrl that I learnt about feminism. Then later when I was in my late 20s, I joined a black feminist group, I learnt about the wider ideas about black feminism and what that meant, and how it was a proper practice and what it involved. But I think it takes a while to learn those histories because it was never really taught in the UK, or anywhere else.

Chardine Taylor-Stone: I think I'm sort of the same really. I mean I’ve been involved with activist stuff since I was very young. It’s an interesting question, because you’re aware of yourself and your status as a black woman anyway, so then, when you start reading black feminist work, it’s just articulating what you already know. So, I think in that sense, yes? Because we’ve always had that thing in black women's empowerment in our culture.

Estella Adeyeri: it’s very much the same for me. When I came across black feminist texts, that was when I found there were a lot of women who had written extensively and put names to things that maybe were experiences, I’d recognised but hadn’t really known how to talk about. But I don’t think I came across the term or the concept until I was about 18 and went to uni. I was studying politics and philosophy and we did a module on women’s movements, we looked at a movement that was about women in Nigeria, that was the first thing that got me into looking at other texts in the library. At the same time, it was around the time black feminists were becoming prominent on Twitter. I started following people and learning that way, and reading these discussions of issues that I hadn't heard before, it was kind of putting a name to something I [only] knew a bit about.

What movements other than punk do you think are giving people of colour a place of freedom of expression?

SP: I think there are a lot! I think there are a lot of different ways [for us] to express ourselves and express our politics. I think a lot of people are being more political, a lot more honest about what’s going on in our lives. Big Joanie isn’t one band in a scene, it’s a lot of different bands. Also, it only started because there was [an absence of that type of voice] in black feminism so we thought we have a right to do something about this. There was a lot happening in the black feminist scene so we thought, 'Oh why can’t we have this in punk?'

CT-S: Well it happens in waves doesn’t it? What’s necessary at that time to express ourselves in that way. We’ve always done different genres of music, jungle, grime, etc. But I think what tends to happen is things get commercialised, then they get lost and next thing you know we’ve got some white version of Dizzee Rascal, or something.

SP: I won’t name names, but there’s a very popular white rapper that’s basically Dizzee Rascal.

CT-S: Exactly! You know I think it’s just the time for black punk at the moment and there’s plenty of reasons for that. You know we’re like third or fourth generation black Brits, so in terms of what we’ve grown up around and what we can claim as ours is quite significant.

Has punk always been something apart of your lives?

EA: I got turned onto alternative music when I was around 12 or 13, I got my first guitar at 13 because I had been introduced to that music by my older sister. I had always been into music because there was music being played by my family. But since then it’s just been ten years, getting interested into different alternative scenes, identifying with something angsty or rebellious as you’re growing up.

SP: Yeah, I had a similar upbringing from going from Destiny’s Child to riot grrrl and feminist punk... but obviously not in one week.

Yeah from a time period you explored these different angles?

SP: Yeah, I didn’t understand why no one else was listening to punk, at that time I felt like I really needed it, I really needed that mode of expression. Now looking back, growing up as a black girl going to a very white school and having to use punk to express myself so I could let things out in that way. Since then It’s kind of continuedly stayed in my life for those reasons.

CT-S: Yeah, I feel very much the same really, I think I went to a French exchange or something and someone was playing Nirvana, I remember being like, “Oh what is this?” It was literally a week, we went away and came back and was like, I don’t want this anymore, this thing of being dressed in black all the time.

At point did you realise you could mix the principles of punk with feminism?

SP: It was just a shining moment. It wasn’t an immediate idea, it was a slow progress of thinking, maybe this is something that should happen, maybe it’s something I should do. I guess you’re always thinking someone will do it before you. But yeah, it was suddenly realising, if we wanted that space to happen, I’d have to do what I want to do. But when we saw the advert for First Timers (the event we played our first gig in) It was Rachel Aggs from Sacred Paws, and Trash Kit that shared it, then I thought, why not? Give it a go, you can only fail.

The group’s most recent single is absolutely brilliant. I am looking forward to hearing the new album, Back Home, in November. I did wonder whether we would get a Big Joanie album this year. As you can see from when The Rodeo spoke with them in March, they were putting the finishing touches to their highly-anticipated sophomore album:

“So Big Joanie have just finished recording their second album. What can you tell us about it? What can you give away?

S: Oo, what can I give away…I think it sounds really different to our first album, is what I’d say.

E: I think it sounds bigger. If that’s any sort of clue. It’s a bit more ambitious than the last record. We’re experimenting more in terms of our set-up for particular songs, and with different instruments that people maybe haven’t heard us play before. But yeah, “big” seems to make sense to me, haha.

Really putting the “big” in Big Joanie?

E: Yeah, we’re putting the “big” in Big Joanie haha.

S: Yeah, we wanted to have a sound that matched our live sound. We recorded Sistahs like a year before it came out, so even in that year, before the album came out, our sound changed. Throughout the last couple of years of touring, our sound has completely changed and got a lot bigger and more dense and aggressive, I think? That’s something that we really wanted to put into the new album. We want to make people feel a bit scared. You don’t want to be liked, I think haha.

You’ve cited people like Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, and FKA twigs as artists you admire and are inspired by because of the way they approach the album as being an entire, complete body of work. I wondered if when you approach the writing of your own albums, whether you go into it with an initial concept, but perhaps key components that you wanted to achieve so that by the end of it you’re like “Yeah, that is the record there.”

S: So our latest album is made up of a lot of songs written across completely different periods. Some songs were written quite a few years ago and developed recently, whereas some songs were written during the pandemic. So there is that kind of claustrophobic vibe, you know, talking about isolation and that feeling of being separated. But I think when we were bringing the songs together, for me, one of the most important feelings that came from it was any feeling of wanting to be safer at home. That was a big idea that I kept trying to link from each song to another. We don’t always start with a big, expansive plan, but it builds along the way, I think. Would you say that, Estella?

E: Yeah, definitely. Having experienced writing and recording the first album, we realised that we weren’t limited to just our own specific instruments; being in the studio there’s almost limitless possibilities. Therefore we were thinking more broadly in terms of instrumentation, songs, and even structure, being a bit more experimental with it all.

It’s as though the claustrophobia, and the dense and compact place we found ourselves in has resulted in quite the opposite.

S: Yeah, because I guess the last couple of years has taken over every aspect of the way we think about things. You couldn’t not have these thoughts about being confined and being restricted. I think we want to find big, big ways to let it out. We don’t want to have our voices dulled in any way. Even if it’s a sad song, it should be a big sad song.

You just announced that you’re playing Grace Jones’ Meltdown in June at Southbank Centre. How did it feel when you first found out that you were playing a lineup curated by Grace Jones?

S: It’s really amazing that she wanted to bring us along for this festival. I’ve been following Meltdown for years and seeing the different people they bring in so it’s amazing to see a Grace Jones created one.  I mean, it looks so amazing they’ve got Peaches and Skunk Anansie playing. There’s so many amazing artists, it’s just like a bit surreal to be part of that as well.

E: My sister and I actually got tickets for Skunk Anansie so I was planning to go anyway, so it’s quite nice we ended up being on the bill as well! The idea of Grace Jones even having us on her radar is quite exciting, especially for something we’d be wanting to attend anyway. It’s just really exciting!”.

I have dropped a few Big Joanie songs into the mix. I am ending with their social media links etc. I wanted to source some interviews, as it gives more context about them and how they have progressed. Having gained support from stations like BBC Radio 6 Music, their music is reaching a large and very supportive audience. Even though they have been playing together for a while, they are one of my big recommendations and tips for this year. I want to finish with this interesting interview from last month. Big Joanie were interviewed ahead of their appearance at Grace Jones’ Meltdown Festival at London’s Southbank Centre:

“Tell us about your newly released song ‘Happier Still’ and its relation to depression. What does it mean to you?

Steph: To me ‘Happier Still’ is like a chant or a mantra you can repeat to yourself when you feel unhappy or if something goes wrong. Repetitively saying “I’ll feel fine” seems like it could do something in the moment. It also seems kind of funny to me to be so desperate to feel happier that you try and trick yourself into it by saying you feel fine.

You have lots of gigs coming up in iconic UK venues including at Southbank Centre, Eventim Apollo and De La Warr Pavilion. What are your favourite venues and crowds to play to?

Estella: We really enjoy playing at Brixton Academy as Brixton is the area where the band formed, where we rehearsed for many years, has been Chardine’s home for years, and Brixton Academy is the venue I grew up going to see some of my favourite bands in. The crowd always seems pretty interactive and welcoming there whichever artist we’re playing with there, though our favourite crowds to play to will of course be those who come to our headline shows – it’s always a diverse audience in terms of gender, race, sexuality and age, and they usually share similar values in terms of looking after each other while still enjoying the show.

What message do you want your audiences to take away with them?

Steph: I think I want our audiences to be inspired to make their own music by watching us. The band started at an event called First Timers that encouraged people to play new instruments and perform their first gig together to encourage more marginalized people into music. I really hope that when people leave our shows they feel like they could do what we do, because they definitely could”.

Go and follow Big Joanie and listen to their music. The rest of this year, no doubt, will see them play more gigs and put out this incredible and anticipated album. It is an exciting time for, genuinely, one of Britain’s most important groups. They are going to be talked about for many more years to come! In spite of the fact their careers started years ago it is clear that, when it comes to their music and dreams, it has only…

JUST begun.

________________

Follow Big Joanie

Official:

https://bigjoanie.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/big_joanie

Bandcamp:

https://bigjoanie.bandcamp.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/bigjoanieband/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/39cxr26gqrCiUgIkz4lA8j?si=1fuDQ9qdSKmR_W0fba1a8Q&nd=1

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS7LgioxIJ5_qcuqRySSxAQ

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/bigjoanie

FEATURE: Second Spin: Jennifer Lopez - On the 6

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Jennifer Lopez - On the 6

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BECAUSE Jennifer Lopez recently married…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Jennifer Lopez at her debut album release party in 1999/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Ben Affleck in Las Vegas, I wanted to revisit her debut album. The reason is that it is one that did not get all the love it deserved first time around. The fact Lopez and Affleck were previously engaged and are now married has got me a bit nostalgic back to the 1990s. Lopez’s albums have never truly been embraced and accepted wholly by critics. There is no denying the fact that On the 6 is a superb introduction. Released on 1st June, 1999, this was an album that came towards the end of a magnificent decade. Many new about Lopez prior to the release of her debut album, but this was a full project where she could expand and build upon the promise of singles like If You Had My Love. It is no surprise that On the 6 was a chart success. As this amazing Latin/Pop artist mixing Spanish and English into her work, Lopez’s audience was large and adoring. It is a shame that critics wee not more on board with On the 6. If You Had My Love is the best track on the album, and maybe there were hoping for more songs the same. Singles Let’s Get Loud and Waiting for Tonight come close. But rather than look for an album of ready-made singles, On the 6 exploits and utilises Lopez’s full personality and range of expressions and sides. Deeper cuts like Should've Never and It's Not That Serious are just as interesting and listenable as the singles.

I am going to finish with a positive review of On the 6. It is interesting learning more about a hugely anticipated debut album. Maybe Lopez was seen more of a celebrity of rich artist trying to enter music. There was a lot of cynicism and criticism levied at her. Lopez proved that she was (and is) a serious artist with a talent and voice very much her own! Even if there are some talented and respected producers who contribute to 1999’s On the 6, t is Lopez’s captivating, sultry, powerful and versatile talent that makes every song come alive. In 2019, on its twentieth anniversary, Billboard looked back at On the 6 and spoke with some of the people involved with it, including Jenifer Lopez. There are a few parts from the feature that particularly caught my eye. I love what Lopez had to say about If You Had My Love:

“When former Fly Girl Jennifer Lopez decided she wanted to pursue a proper music career, she was just coming off her starring role as Selena Quintanilla-Pérez in the 1997 musical biopic Selena. But she faced plenty of skeptics — even after landing a record deal with Sony. “She wasn’t hearing it, though,” says longtime manager Benny Medina. “It would be like, wait a minute, don’t you understand? This is a girl that popped off In Living Color to become Selena — why would you ever second guess she couldn’t step out there and be J.Lo?”

Although some were wary, there were early believers – and influential ones. Once former Sony Music Entertainment chief executive Tommy Mottola heard her demo, he immediately brought her in to sign a contract. “I didn’t know what to ask for,” Lopez says now, speaking from a rehearsal in Los Angeles for her upcoming hits-filled It’s My Party summer tour (it kicks off at the Forum on June 7). “I was so young and clueless at the time, so I said, ‘I want an A-list deal like all the big stars,'” she recalls. “There’s something about being that young — there’s a little bit of ignorance that goes with it, because you don’t know what’s going to happen and so you have all these lofty ideas.”

Her naivete paid off. She inked a deal with Mottola at Sony, and her debut album, On the 6 — released 20 years ago this June 1 — was an immediate smash. “We had everybody who was anybody writing for the project,” says Mottola. “It was every great producer and hot writer at the time.”

That included songwriter and producer Rodney Jerkins, fresh off the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash “The Boy Is Mine” by Brandy & Monica. “I didn’t sense any fear in her,” Jerkins recalls. “We knew that if we delivered the right song she could bring it home.”

And she did. J.Lo’s debut single “If You Had My Love” shot to No. 1 on the Hot 100 one month after its release and stayed on top for five weeks. It was also the No. 2 contender for Song of Summer in 1999, behind only Christina Aguilera’s “Genie In A Bottle.” “The whole experience was like a fairytale, watching the princess become a queen,” says “Love” co-writer and On the 6 co-executive producer Cory Rooney. “And I felt like her knight.”

“If You Had My Love” wasn’t the only hit off the album. Her Spanish-language duet with future husband Marc Anthony, “No Me Ames,” topped the Hot Latin Songs chart, and her club classic “Waiting for Tonight” hit the Hot 100’s top 10. On the 6 itself moved 1.9 million units in the U.S. in 1999, according to Nielsen Music, and has since sold another million. “[The album] showed us that Jennifer was going to go way past what our expectations were,” Mottola says. “She was relentless as a worker. Always on time, always pleasant, and unlike a lot of people, very grateful and thankful.”

“The combination of Jennifer Lopez and what was the Sony powerhouse machinery then and the quality of that music — it all hit the marks,” Medina says. “You felt it instantly. Every time she walked on a video set, it felt so magical. The truth of the matter is we’re in a business of magic, and that period in time and that group of people and the intensity and effort were magic. All the stars lined up.”

As for Lopez herself, there was never a doubt in her mind that it would work out. “I just followed my gut,” she says. “It is exactly what it was supposed to be for that moment. I’m proud of it and it set off an amazing journey for me musically that I’m still on today, and I couldn’t be more grateful”.

“If You Had My Love”

Sultry, confident yet vulnerable, the alluring “If You Had My Love” was Jennifer Lopez’s debut single, and a Hot 100 chart-topper. But before it established Lopez as a rising star to watch, the song’s writers almost accidentally gave it to the King of Pop.

Jerkins: [Mottola told me], “I have this artist who I believe will be a superstar really soon,” and he was looking for that breakthrough first single record. And me, at the time, it was like, “I get it. Let me go to the studio and create what I feel.” After studying a little bit and talking to him about it, and him playing me other songs she’d already recorded with Cory, I went into the studio and created. And myself and my team and Cory Rooney wrote this song called “If You Had My Love.”

Lopez: They would play me songs and I would say which ones I like. And luckily, I had an ear for good pop music. The minute I heard “If You Had My Love,” I knew, “I love that, I want to do that.” It was simple.

Jerkins: I started with the music first, because I wanted to make sure Tommy and everyone liked the music first. From what I understand, I wasn’t in that meeting, but the day I sent the track in to Tommy and Cory Rooney, they were in the office with Michael [Jackson].

Rooney: Michael’s listening to [various] tracks, and when he gets to that track I’m crossing my fingers going, “oh my god, I hope he doesn’t like it.” But instead – Rodney wasn’t in the room – but Michael starts going, “Oh, I like this one.” I’m glad because he likes it, but I felt it wasn’t a good Michael song — it was a great Jennifer song. So my heart is sinking. He goes, “Man, I like this one,” but then he looks at me, “But not for me! But man, this will be a great record for somebody.” And I just, I celebrated to myself quietly. Then we ran back to the studio, immediately, and LaShawn Daniels, he and I were in the studio, Jennifer met us that day, and we started putting together those lyrics.

Jerkins: It was always meant for Jennifer. It wasn’t meant for anyone else but Jennifer.

Mottola: We wanted everything to be perfect. I think we did a pretty good job.

Jerkins: It’s a song that forever will be played”.

A truly individual and impressive debut album from Jennifer Lopez, its singles are played on the radio a fair bit. Not many people talk about the album as a whole or explore many of the deeper cuts. I hope that changes. Albumism provided a retrospective take for On the 6 in 2019 too. Whereas many have given little credit and love to the ballads and slower numbers, Lopez is a very accomplished and eclectic singer. She gives her all to every song on her 1999 debut:

“Yet, On the 6 excels best when it embraces its composite pop ethos as heard on the electronica and Latin pop fusion of “Waiting for Tonight” or the quirky coalescence of bossa nova accents and light hip-hop rhythms on “Open Off My Love.”

Sweetly tuneful on these songs and throughout the mass of On the 6, Lopez acquits herself accordingly as a singer. In fact, it is a diverse clutch of downtempo compositions—“Should’ve Never,” “(Theme From Mahogany) Do You Know Where You’re Going To?,” and “No Me Ames”—that showcase Lopez’s charismatic and emotive vocal range.

Smooth, amorously charged, but ultimately understated, “Should’ve Never” is a canon highlight for Lopez that could have found wider visibility had it been elected as a single. Whereas “Should’ve Never” is an original cut, “(Theme from Mahogany) Do You Know Where You’re Going To?” and “No Me Ames” are audacious covers Lopez makes her own while remaining respectful to their roots. The former chart-topping selection was firstly rendered by soul icon Diana Ross in 1976 for her second feature film, Mahogany. Only included on the Japanese pressing of On the 6 as its concluding track, Lopez strips her version down and sparsely dresses it in Latin jazz and AC pop effects. Within this arrangement, Lopez’s sensitive reading is the focal point.

The latter track—“No Me Ames” (Don’t Love Me)—began as a duet (“Non Amarmi”) in 1993 courtesy of Italian vocalists Aleandro Baldi and Francesca Alotta. The selection came up in a friendly conversation between Lopez and powerhouse singer (and her eventual third husband) Marc Anthony as a suggestion to partner together on a rendition of the song for Lopez’s first set. She accepted Anthony’s offer and he subsequently assigned Ignacio Ballesteros to translate the lyrics from Italian to Spanish. Recorded in both ballad and uptempo configurations, Lopez and Anthony’s chemistry is obviously apparent on “No Me Ames.” Wildly popular when serviced as a single from On the 6, “No Me Ames” went on to receive two Latin Grammy nominations in 2000 for Best Pop Performance by a Duo/Group with Vocals and Best Music Video.

On June 1, 1999, On the 6 arrived in stores and Lopez was triumphant. Buoyed by its five singles—“If You Had My Love,” “No Me Ames,” “Waiting for Tonight,” “Feelin’ So Good,” and “Let’s Get Loud”—On the 6 instantly established Lopez as a competitive presence in popular music domestically and abroad. In total, On the 6 shifted over eight million copies worldwide and put Lopez on track to release eight more albums over two decades that have collectively moved over 80 million copies globally.

Today, Lopez’s pop culture permanence is so strong that one assumes that it wasn’t a risk for a promising young actress of color to try and branch into another vocation so vastly different than the one she occupied at the time. It was most certainly a risk, but Lopez’s commitment to her music led On the 6 to connect with audiences and level any barrier she might have encountered.  Years later, people still love that vibrant enthusiasm contained within the contents of On the 6, an album that confirmed Lopez’s continued rise as a superstar of her own making”.

Prior to concluding, I wanted to highlight one of the positive reviews for On the 6. A lot of sites and sources gave it a three-star review and were a little mixed with their praise. I think that Jenifer Lopez’s debut is far stronger than many would have you believe. It still stands up in 2022. This is what AllMusic offered in their review for the brilliant On the 6:

“Jennifer Lopez's debut album, On the 6, showcases the actress' sultry, versatile voice in a number of settings, including pop ballads, Latin pop, and R&B. Star producers like Sean "Puffy" Combs, Trackmasters, and Emilio Estefan, Jr. lend their talents to the album, making On the 6 a perfectly polished and varied album, which features a musical blend Lopez calls "Latin soul." Smooth ballads such as "Should've Never," "Too Late," "Could This Be Love," and "No Me Ames," a duet with Latin superstar Marc Anthony, dominate the album's first half; while these songs show off the gentler side of Lopez's vocal gifts, they tend to sound too similar. It's on the R&B and Latin-tinged tracks where Lopez really shines. Along with the insistent first single "If You Had My Love," cuts like "Feelin' So Good" and "Let's Get Loud" have a fiery, soulful sound more in keeping with Lopez's public persona. On the 6's second half capitalizes on this spicy, upbeat side, particularly on "Waiting for Tonight" and "Open off My Love," which draws inspiration from rap, R&B, and Latin styles with its sparse arrangement of horns, keyboards, and beats. The tropical remix of "No Me Ames" and "Una Noche Mas," the Spanish version of "Waiting for Tonight," emphasize Lopez's distinctive heritage, which elevates On the 6 from a star's vanity project to an individual but accessible work of pop songcraft by a widely talented performer”.

Even if you are not a big fan of Jennifer Lopez’s music, I would urge you to give some time to her 1999 debut, On the 6. I think a lot of people have cast their mind back to her early career and relationships given her recent marriage to Ben Affleck. I do hope that Lopez’s music career has not ended. Her most recent album, A.K.A., was released in 2014. There would definitely be demand for a nineth studio album. I have been casting my mind back to 1999 and experiencing On the 6. I was aware of songs like If You Had My Love, and I was a little hesitant to buy and dive into the album. I am glad that I overcame that! Twenty-three years later, Jennifer Lopez’s On the 6 remains a…

BRILLIANT album.

FEATURE: Kate Bush at Sixty-Four: Kate Bush at the BBC: Honouring One of the Most Innovative and Important Artists Ever

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush at Sixty-Four

PHOTO CREDIT: Alamy

Kate Bush at the BBC: Honouring One of the Most Innovative and Important Artists Ever

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THIS Saturday (30th July)…

is the sixty-fourth birthday of the one and only Kate Bush. I have been racking my brains to think of a feature that I could write to celebrate that. Rather than repeat myself, I wanted to look ahead to Saturday and a very exciting evening of television. For a long time, I (and many fans) have been asking when the BBC will dedicate a night to the magnificent and hugely loved Bush. Some might say that Kate Bush is not worthy of a whole evening about her. I would disagree. As an artist she has influenced so many others. She has touched millions of fans around the world and made a huge difference to so many. In terms of her music, it is like nothing else. Given the fact Stranger Things helped propel Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) to the top of the charts, she is being introduced to a new audience. This line of programmes is a perfect opportunity for new fans to dive deeper into Bush’s work and live performances, in addition to it being a long-overdue tribute and salute to someone who has shaped the music world enormously. The festivities and celebration begin at 7 p.m. on BBC Two when there is a Top of the Pops 1978: Big Hits special. It includes a lot of artists, but it will also include Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights. This is a good start, as it takes us back to the start of her career and her debut single. From her very first performances on the series, she was captivating and hugely engaging! At a time when performances were quite ordinary and routine, Bush was so different, memorable, and refreshing.

Then there is the must-see Kate Bush at the BBC. In terms of what you can expect, the Radio Times describe it thus: “A compilation of the singer's performances at the BBC's studios between 1978 and 1994. Bush appeared on a variety of programmes, including Top of the Pops, Wogan, Ask Aspel, Saturday Night at the Mill and the Leo Sayer Show. Featuring the hits Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, Running Up That Hill and Hounds of Love, as well as intriguing and lesser-known material”. Spanning quite a few years of her career, it will be fascinating to see those interviews and performances. Bush has been interviewed on BBC shows a lot through her career. It is going to be a great one-hour show. A compilation of her most brilliant moments at the BBC, it is one of these shows that will live through the years. I have seen all of the interviews, but it is going to be awesome seeing them all together. This is something that you will want to watch and get involved with. From the Top of the Pops performances to a collection of chats at the BBC, a perfect introduction to a very busy night for Kate Bush fans!

A documentary that was originally broadcast in 2014, The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill, is on at 9 p.m. Here is the synopsis: “Documentary exploring the singer-songwriter's career and music from her 1978 debut single Wuthering Heights to her 2011 album 50 Words for Snow with testimony from collaborators, fellow artists inspired by her work and fans. Featuring David Gilmour, the guitarist who discovered Bush, as well as Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Stephen Fry, Outkast's Big Boi and Steve Coogan”. I have provided my thoughts on the documentary. I like the fact that it was made, yet it is to short at only an hour. I also think we could do with an updated documentary about her. This being said, the documentary fits nicely into the range of shows featuring Kate Bush. A chance to hear musicians and celebrity fans talk bout Kate Bush and the impact that she has made on her. Importantly, we get to discover more about Bush’s career and what makes her so special. Even if there is not enough depth and expansive investigation of her career, The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill is a great starting point for new fans – and it may well encourage the BBC to commission another documentary about Bush!

The final show about her is Bush’s 1979 Christmas Special. Kate Bush at the BBC 1979 was a Christmas ‘live’ (the vocals were pre-recorded and then mimed during the performances) event in the same year that The Tour of Life brought this new artists to the masses around the U.K. and Europe. This is what we can expect: “A Christmas special from 1979 in which the musician performs songs including Gymnopedie No 1, Symphony in Blue, Them Heavy People, Madrigal, December, Wedding List, Egypt, Ran Tan Waltz, Man with the Child in His Eyes and Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbreak. Peter Gabriel joins Kate for a rendition of Another Day and sings Here Comes the Flood”. It is a great show that includes some memorable performances from her friend, Peter Gabriel. The routines are brilliant, and it is always so captivating watching Kate Bush perform live. Including songs that would appear on her 1980 album, Never for Ever, it would have been tantalising to watch in 1979! Getting these new songs and renditions of better-known ones was such a treat for fans. Maybe not as striking and essential as The Tour of Life, Bush’s Christmas show is a rare and unique insight into an artist who, so soon into her career was already commanding such respect. This is something that you will need to tune into, as it provides some brilliant moments!  Saturday (30th July) is the sixty-fourth birthday of one of music’s beloved and incredibly special artists. I am glad that there are these shows specially dedicated to her on her birthday. After a year where she has gained new resurgence and fans, it is a perfect time to spotlight her on the BBC. These programmes give great variety and understanding of an amazing human being! Whether you are a new convert to Kate Bush or have been a fan from the very start, cancel any other plans for this Saturday! For her sixty-fourth birthday, the BBC is honouring…

THE Queen of music.

FEATURE: Twelve of the Best… The Mercury Prize Shortlist Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

Twelve of the Best…

The Mercury Prize Shortlist Playlist

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TODAY…

we found out which twelve albums made the Mercury Prize shortlist. Because of that, I have put together a playlist with a track from each of the dozen albums. Here is some more information about the shortlist and the event itself:

“The 2022 Mercury Prize with FREE NOW ‘Albums of the Year’ were announced on Tuesday 26 July.

The 2022 Mercury Prize with FREE NOW ‘Albums of the Year’ are:

Fergus McCreadie: ‘Forest Floor’

Gwenno: ‘Tresor’

Harry Styles: ‘Harry’s House’

Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler: ‘For All Our Days That Tear the Heart’

Joy Crookes: ‘Skin’

Kojey Radical: ‘Reason to Smile’

Little Simz: ‘Sometimes I Might be Introvert’

Nova Twins: ‘Supernova’

Sam Fender: ‘Seventeen Going Under’

Self Esteem: ‘Prioritise Pleasure’

Wet Leg: ‘Wet Leg’

Yard Act: ‘The Overload’

The Mercury Prize with FREE NOW ‘Albums of the Year’ celebrate and promote the best of British & Irish music recognising artistic achievement across a range of contemporary music genres. The shortlist was chosen by an independent judging panel and was revealed at a launch event, hosted by BBC Music’s Huw Stephens on Tuesday, 26 July 2022.

The shortlist was also announced live at 11am by Nemone on BBC Radio 6 Music as part of a 2022 Mercury Prize shortlist special.

The 2022 Mercury Prize with FREE NOW judges are: Anna Calvi – Musician & Songwriter; Annie MacManus – Broadcaster & DJ; Danielle Perry – Broadcaster & Writer; Hazel Wilde (from Lanterns on the Lake) - Musician & Songwriter; Jamie Cullum - Musician & Broadcaster; Jamz Supernova – Broadcaster & DJ; Jeff Smith - Head of Music, 6 Music & Radio 2; Lea Stonhill – Music Programmer, Radio X; Loyle Carner – Musician & Songwriter; Phil Alexander – Creative Director, Kerrang!/Contributing Editor, Mojo; Tshepo Mokoena – Music Writer & Author; Will Hodgkinson - Chief Rock & Pop Critic, The Times. The Chair of the judging panel is Jeff Smith.

The judges said 'Getting down to 12 albums this year was not easy, simply because there were so many remarkable ones to choose from. That serves as proof that British & Irish music thrives during unsettled periods in history, with the albums chosen covering everything from imaginative pop to pioneering rap to Cornish language folk-rock. We feel that these 12 amazing albums each have something to say artistically and socially, all in their own unique, enriching ways. Now comes the really hard part... choosing only one overall winner’.

The 2022 Awards Show will take place on Thursday 8 September at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith. The event will feature live performances from many of the shortlisted artists and the evening will culminate in the announcement of the overall winner of the 2022 Mercury Prize with FREE NOW ‘Album of the Year’. Tickets are available from www.eventimapollo.com

The Prize’s broadcast partner, BBC Music, will be providing coverage of the event across BBC TV, BBC Radio 6 Music, online & social media”.

Below is a playlist of twelve tracks One song from each of the brilliant albums shortlisted. It is hard to be sure when it comes to a winner, but there are albums that are going to be among the favourites. I think Self Esteem and Little Simz will be the two to beat! If you need a taste of each of the albums shortlisted, then below is a song…

FROM a golden twelve.

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Gomez – Bring It On (Twentieth Anniversary Edition)

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Gomez – Bring It On (Twentieth Anniversary Edition)

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AN album that is very well known…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Gomez in 2006

but people might not have on vinyl, I wanted to highlight Gomez’s brilliant and adored 1998 debut, Bring It On. Rather than the standard release, I am recommending people spend a little more to get the twentieth anniversary from 2018. Originally released on 13th April, 1998, Gomez entered a very eclectic and fascinating British music scene. Consider the fact it won the 1998 Mercury Music Prize, beating favourites such as Massive Attack's Mezzanine and The Verve's Urban Hymns! Prior to coming to a bit of praise and documentation for Bring It On, Rough Trade have the twentieth anniversary release in stock:

“To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Gomez’s Mercury Music Prize winning debut album, Bring It On is re-mastered and reissued. Bring It On is Gomez's half a million selling debut album (UK) that was recently voted the all-time best Mercury Music Prize winner by BBC 6 Music listeners. Twenty years on, the debut album by Gomez sounds not of its time, but ahead of its time. You can hear its echoes in so much of the music that followed it: not just in Elbow, but in any artist who heard Bring it On and realised the possibilities of combining indie and roots music with lo-fidelity electronics: a modern experimental sensibility with a love of the past. Bring It On was an album that synthesised styles in a way that seemed remarkable then, and now sounds utterly unforced and contemporary. Where so many of its contemporaries sound completely of their time, Bring It On sounds as if it could have come out to equal acclaim at any point over the past 20 years”.

Just before arriving at some reviews for one of the defining debuts of the 1990s, NME spoke with guitarist and keyboard player Tom Gray during the band’s tour that celebrated twenty years of Bring It On:

“What are your memories of making ‘Bring It On’?

“We were just kids mucking around with tape machines. We were just a group of mates who played music for fun. That’s what we did. We were nerds who liked making music and mucking around with song form and having a laugh really. My memories of it are being in a big social group of friends in which we would just nip off, go and record some music, come back and carry on the party really.”

What were the songs about?

“They were songs about running away, having nights out, going to Mexico. It was pure escapism. It was about 20-year-old kids desperately trying to get out of their small town mentality.”

A lot of my friends have told me over the years that an old school mate of mine inspired the single ‘Whippin’ Piccadilly’. Is it possible we know the same person?

“Ha no way. The story goes, we all went to see Beck at Manchester Academy in 1995 on the ‘Odelay’ tour. Beck was ruling the world at that point in time, he was just incredible and his band were the best band I’d ever seen. The person that was ‘dressed in a suit looking like a lunatic’ in that song was Beck and the other person was our mate who took the string out of the bottom of his coat and he was literally whipping the floor of Piccadilly station that night. He was completely on one that night.”

You won the Mercury Prize for ‘Bring It On’ in 1998 ahead of Massive Attack’s ‘Mezzanine’ and The Verve’s ‘Urban Hymns’. Was that ultimately responsible for the record reaching Number 11 in the UK album chart and selling nearly half a million copies?

“To a degree yeah, but the first big thing that happened to us was when we first appeared on Later…With Jools Holland. That was when we were like ‘Oh Lord!’. People leaped on to it very quickly. And then we had two sets at Glastonbury that year. We played in a tent and the gig went so well that we were asked to fill a set on the Main Stage (after Beth Orton pulled out) as well. So on a whim we did a second set on the Main Stage at Glastonbury in the pouring rain and managed to cheer a whole lot of people up. That set off a bit of a fire really and then in September when we won the Mercury Prize it was like a perfect storm. The word of mouth was out there and ready and everyone was excited about it but then when it got this big stamp of approval, it was like boom. Then the record was just flying out. It was crazy”.

If you still need a bit of prodding to go and get a truly brilliant album on vinyl, then perhaps a couple of positive reviews might tip the scales. This is what AllMusic had to say in their review for the mighty and simply perfect Bring It On:

“On their debut album, Bring It On, England's Gomez introduce their original take on bluesy roots rock. Unlike Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, this isn't amphetamine-fueled freak-out music but similar at times to Beck's acoustic-based work (One Foot in the Grave), with more going on vocally. The band has a total of three strong vocalists, who can switch from pretty harmonies to gutsy blues outpourings in the blink of an eye. The band manages to cover a lot of ground convincingly on Bring It On, which is unusual, since it commonly takes bands the course of a few releases to hone their sound. The three British singles released from the album are definite highlights -- "Get Myself Arrested," "Whippin' Piccadilly," and "78 Stone Wobble," the latter containing a beautifully haunting acoustic guitar riff similar to Nirvana's unplugged version of the Meat Puppets' "Plateau." All the praise that Gomez's debut received is definitely not hype. The album is consistently great, as proven by such tracks as "Tijuana Lady," "Love Is Better Than a Warm Trombone," and "Get Myself Arrested”.

I am going to wrap it up with an in-depth investigation and love letter from Drowned in Sound. In 2018, they revisited Bring It On as the anniversary edition of the album came out. It makes for pretty interesting reading. I found a new appreciation for Gomez’s debut following my reading of the Drowned in Sound feature/review:

“It was an album that didn’t fit the zeitgeist, but that was part of what made it so appealing. It emerged at the fag-end of Britpop, with This is Hardcore atop the albums chart, another fine record that seems, in retrospect, to have been an antidote to the dominant indie music of the time, rather than a product of it. For one curious 15-year old in small-town Ireland at least, Bring It On represented something completely new. Over the years, conversations amidst the dying embers of many house parties revealed that others also saw Bring It On (along with the likes of the Beta Band’s Three EPs, Radiohead’s OK Computer, which came out the previous year, and the Flaming Lips’ Soft Bulletin (released a year later) as a gateway album of sorts – one that suggested there was more to indie music than the tired, formulaic pastiche that Britpop had become.

Bring It On is endlessly inventive. It fuses delta blues with mariachi guitar, rollicking drinking anthems with paeans to small-time weed dealers. It’s loose in its structure (having three vocalists seemed revelatory at the time) and loaded with ideas, a jam album that arrived fully formed. The crux of the record was seven tracks recorded on an old four-track recorder, in one of the band’s father’s garage. A tape of the tracks had been circulated among the band’s group of friends, finding its way into the hands of numerous A&R men.

As the tape circulated (these were essentially pre-internet days), a minor buzz ensued and Gomez signed to Hut. Because the equipment they’d used to record the songs broke down, the label had to use the garage recordings, with “a little bit of mixing and embellishment”. Had the songs been rerecorded, perhaps this effortless and casual sound would have been lost.

Yet despite this breeziness, Bring It On it is also accomplished beyond its makers’ years. From the hammer-on intro to ‘Here Comes The Breeze’, to the finger-picked outro to ‘Free To Run’, there are moments of real musical beauty. Add to that the dashes of imaginative production (the lo-fi crackles of ‘Tijuana Lady’, the grinding synth that ushers the record in with ‘Get Miles’) and you’ve got a heady brew of sounds.

That it was written and recorded by a bunch of skinny teenagers from Southport was considered phenomenal. The contemporary reviews were glowing, but there was also a general air of bemusement: how could these youngsters come up with something so heterogeneous and “real”? (At the time, much of the media coverage focused on Ben Ottewell’s gravelly drawl.

Bring It On was not a product of its time, rather the crate-digging, audiophilia of its creators. Perhaps for that reason, it has aged remarkably well – better than many of its contemporaries. These songs could have been recorded at any point in the past 30-odd years, but they still sound fresh today. A 20th-anniversary reissue is a chance to toast a record that – if not maligned – doesn’t get the attention it deserves. For those who found this record a formative part of their musical upbringing, take the time to rekindle some old memories, it sounds just as good as you remember. For others, enjoy it for what it is: a melting pot of escapism, stoner jams, and melodies so on point, you could hang your sombrero on them”.

Even if you are new to Gomez or not a superfan, Bring It On is an album that you will find truly engaging and nuanced. You will come back to it with fresh appreciation of various songs. Next year marks twenty-five years of a phenomenal album from Southport’s Gomez. It made a big impression in 1998, especially in the U.K. I am shocked that there are doubting and slightly muted reviews for an album many consider a classic! I wonder whether opinions have changed since then. Regardless, go out and own the twentieth anniversary release of Bring It On…

AND cherish its brilliance.

FEATURE: Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.), Sunday Girl: Celebrating Some New Additions to the BBC Radio 2 Schedule

FEATURE:

 

 

Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.), Sunday Girl

IN THIS PHOTO: DJ Spoony/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

Celebrating Some New Additions to the BBC Radio 2 Schedule

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I love to listen to…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Michelle Visage/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

Friday evenings and nights on BBC Radio 2. Previously, Gary Davies’ Sounds of the 80s was on Fridays. Fearne Cotton’s Sounds of the 90s was also on Fridays. Both have been moved to Saturdays. Now, on Fridays, there is a new line-up. Sara Cox gets the party started from 5 p.m. with her all-request show. It is the two new D.J.s that follow her that have some great shows that have their own mood. I am going to come onto a great new Sunday night show but, on Friday evenings, Michelle Visage presents her Michelle’s Fabulous Friday at 7 p.m. The first couple of episodes have been fantastic. A mixture of Dance, R&B, Club, and Disco mixes with great Pop. She then follows this with Michelle Visage’s Handbag Hits. The idea is to keep the mood up and uplift the listener. Her stint finishes at 9 p.m. That is what you want on a Friday evening. Other stations have similar things, but Visage has really settled into her role quickly and sounds a natural at the station. Although I listen to a lot of BBC Radio 6 Music, I tune into BBC Radio 2 for Zoe Ball, Ken Bruce, and Sara Cox. I am also now tuning in specifically for the news shows (I also listen to Fearne Cotton’s Saturday show about the ‘90s). Visage’s double is the perfect way to kickstart the weekend!

Keeping the torch lit on a Friday is the brilliant DJ Spoony. He presents The Good Groove. Running until 11 p.m., he has a great selection of uplifting tracks that very much keep the energy going. Similar to Michelle Visage’s shows, there are familiar tunes with a few deeper cuts. Mixing deeper grooves, party tunes and feelgood floor-fillers, it is not just classics that Spoony plays. There are modern tracks and great remixes that provide this brilliant blend. I loved his first show with a 1990s mixture. He then kept the good vibes flowing with a wonderful assortment of the new and classic. Topping it off with his deeper cuts, you would not want to be anywhere else but BBC Radio 2 on a Friday! A couple of weeks in, all the signs show that DJ Spoony, like Michelle Visage, will be on the station for years. Whereas Fearne Cotton and Gary Davies have their decades-specific shows, the two Friday additions are broader and give that great contrast. Such a charismatic and popular personality, DJ Spoony is someone who fits very easily into the BBC Radio 2 line-up. I hope that he continues strong for years to come. Friday is very much about the party and the happy. You need that end of week sensation that gives you a boost into the weekend. It means that you get this in full force with Michelle Visage and DJ Spoony.

There is plenty of energy and mood-boosting music on BBC Radio 2 very much designed to give you a rejuvenating kick. On Sunday, you are unwinding and preparing to face the new week. Angela Griffin is another welcomer addition to the station. Radio 2 Unwinds with Angela Griffin. Is pretty self-explanatory. She is charged with bosting the mood, but doing so in a relaxing, connective and more holistic way. Between 10 and midnight, you can hear Griffin select some great modern-day and older songs that will definitely help you both relax and recharge. I think of Radio 1’s Sian Elleri and her Chilliest Show. It is good to have these themed shows where you get a dedicated mixture of songs that guarantees a certain mood or objective. Many radio playlists are random, and you get pulled and pushed in terms of the happy-sad balance. By having the likes of Angela Griffin ensure that our Sunday nights are going to be the perfect preparation for the new working week, we are in safe hands. Again, I do hope that she is at BBC Radio 2 for years. After a couple of weeks, she sounds comfortable and in her element. I wonder how BBC Radio 2 decided upon the three presenters for its new shows. Whatever metric or method they employed, it has definitely paid off!

 IMAGE CREDIT: BBC

Although many of us will be aware of the songs Michelle Visage, DJ Spoony and Angela Griffin play on their shows, many won’t. That is particularly true of the newer cuts. Not only do you get these great shows that are full of life and joy. There is the more unwinding and, with each of the three broadcasters, they bring so much enthusiasm, passion, and knowledge. You get to find music you might not have been aware of, plus there is that reliance and security that you get the classics. Line-up changes can be quite risky and fail, but BBC Radio 2 have luckily not lost their shows from Gary Davies and Fearne Cotton or banished them to a bad timeslot. Instead, they have added in three presenters who each bring their own style and musical choices to Friday and Sunday evenings/night. Whether you want some Dance and Disco or prefer some remixes and Club classics, or you just need some smoother or softer tracks to ease the stress, then you are covered. Whether you are an exiting fan and listener of BBC Radio 2 or go for other stations, I would advise you to dip into BBC Sounds and catch up on Michelle Visage, DJ Spoony, and Angela Griffin’s shows. Presented by people who really love their music and are naturally suited to their roles, Friday and Sundays have been given fresh injection! Given the recent hot weather and everything else going on in the world, we do need something uplifting and positive. Radio is providing that. I am listening more to BBC Radio 2 now because of their new shows. In my view, these are…

Get ready to sit back, relax and enjoy some chilled out tunes 🎶

Unwinds with @Angela_Griffin launches tonight at 10pm on @BBCSounds! pic.twitter.com/H8DEGLOcMe

— BBC Radio 2 (@BBCRadio2) July 17, 2022

JUST what we need.

FEATURE: No One Does It Better… Why Salt-N-Pepa’s Very Necessary Needs to Be Reissued on Vinyl

FEATURE:

 

 

No One Does It Better…

Why Salt-N-Pepa’s Very Necessary Needs to Be Reissued on Vinyl

 __________

WHILST you can get…

Salt-N-Pepa’s 1993 album, Very Necessary, on vinyl, it is very expensive and will probably be out of most people’s reach. Maybe not as known and celebrated as its predecessor, 1990’s Blacks’ Magic, Very Necessary lives up to its title. Salt (Cheryl James), Pepa (Sandra Denton) and DJ Spinderella (Deidra Roper) are phenomenal throughout! Featuring some of Salt-N-Pepa’s best tracks – including Shoop and the cover, Whatta Man, that featured En Vogue - , this is an album that ranks alongside my favourite of the 1990s. I know it is expensive and not viable to put every great album onto vinyl, but it would be great to see Salt-N-Pepa’s full catalogue in record shops. As much as anything, the sheer quality of the Very Necessary album is amazing. Even deeper cuts like No One Does It Better and Big Shot show what an amazing group Salt-N-Pepa are. The importance of Very Necessary should mean it gets a new vinyl pressing. Very Necessary peaked at number four on the Billboard 200. It has been certified five-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting sales in excess of five million copies in the United States. Just before coming to a couple of positive reviews for the legendary Very Necessary, I want to bring in parts of a feature Udiscovermusic.com published last year. They wrote why Salt-N-Pepa are such an important Hip-Hop trio:

“There are few hip-hop acts who have maintained the kind of longevity and stamina as Salt-N-Pepa did throughout their career. Cheryl James and Sandra Denton started off as the duo Super Nature and recorded a single called “The Showstopper,” which garnered attention from local New York radio stations. Before long, listeners were calling in to request the track. By 1987, the duo recruited Deidre Roper to join as Spinderella, and the three women were prepared to pounce on the hip-hop industry with a new name: Salt-N-Pepa. The same year, they released “Push It,” their first big hit. The single was certified platinum, reaching No. 19 on Billboard, and wrote the group into history as the first female hip-hop act to hit platinum status. Their path to hip-hop royalty had been laid. By the time they released their fourth album, Very Necessary, Salt-N-Pepa had become the most successful hip-hop album by a female act.

Creating a cultural legacy

“Shoop” was the album’s first single. While the group tasted hits before, this became one of their biggest to date. The single sold 1.2 million copies, already indicating that the forthcoming album would be a chart-topper. “Whatta Man,” the album’s second single, featured R&B group En Vogue and boasted lyrics describing various versions of an ideal man. Meanwhile, “None Of Your Business” found the ladies chanting about their sexual agency and won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group.

Very Necessary had no shortage of head-spinning, snarky lyrics about sexuality, and loyal fans ate it up. But Salt-N-Pepa’s range didn’t stop there. Though many of the tracks off Very Necessary favored more salacious lyrics, others, like “Heaven Or Hell,” found the MCs delivering verses about police brutality, drugs, and other threats against the black community. “I’ve Got AIDS,” the last track on the album, is a PSA skit from Weatoc, a non-profit in Boston that sought to inform youth about physical and sexual health in black communities.

Salt-N-Pepa are pioneers, undoubtedly influencing many of the acts that followed, including Missy Elliott and Trina. These first ladies of hip-hop created a cultural legacy with Very Necessary and pushed the genre forward when many music critics shrugged off hip-hop as a trend that would soon lose its steam. Instead of losing momentum, however, hip-hop dominated, with Salt-N-Pepa holding the reins”.

In order to back up my assertion that Very Necessary needs to come to vinyl soon, it is worth dropping in a couple of reviews. I want to start with AllMusic’s take on an album that, in 1993, made an impression on my young ears:

“Salt-N-Pepa exhibited a lot of growth on Blacks' Magic (1990), their third album and, by far, best to date. For their follow-up, Very Necessary, released a long three and a half years later, in 1993, the ladies delivered a fairly similar album. Like its predecessor, Very Necessary boasts a pair of major hits ("Whatta Man," "Shoop") and a lot of fine album tracks. Also like Blacks' Magic, Very Necessary is filled with strong, prideful rhetoric: femininity, sex, relationships, romance, respect, love -- these are the key topics, and they're a world apart from those of the gangsta rap that was so popular circa 1993. And as always, the productions are dance-oriented, with a contemporary R&B edge. Most tracks were produced by Hurby "Luvbug" Azor, though Salt is credited on a few, chief among them "Shoop." Very Necessary is just as impressive as Blacks' Magic, if not more so. The key difference is, Blacks' Magic was a striking leap forward for Salt-N-Pepa, who were somewhat of a novelty act up to that point, whereas Very Necessary is a consolidation of everything that had worked so well for the duo previously. Hence the lack of surprises here. Still, the raised expectations don't change the fact that Very Necessary is one of the standout -- and, for sure, one of the most refreshingly unique -- rap albums of its era”.

Before round off, I am interested in Pitchfork’s assessment of the spectacular Very Necessary. Such a hugely influential group, Salt-N-Pepa’s albums are a thing of beauty and huge power. They have inspired so many artists - and they will continue to do for a very long time:

“So much of the first decade of Salt-N-Pepa forged a path for women to follow for the next twenty years, both in rap and pop music, as well with social and sexual mores. The whole map of their conquest is laid out on their 1993 album Very Necessary. The confidence of “Push It”—which Pepa has insisted is about dancing, not about sex—and the emotional intelligence of “Let’s Talk About Sex” are present, but the womanly conviction here is far more plentiful than it had been in their music before. It was a palliative to the hyper-misogyny spewing from their male contemporaries. If Snoop Dogg and friends were going to harangue hoes, then in Salt-N-Pepa’s world, words like “hoe” and “hooker” were just as applicable to men. They maintained their themes of sexuality and empowerment—and were in good company with Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.” and TLC’s “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”—but it got a new look. Whether in combat boots or pum pum shorts, their message was still clear: women need to have agency over their sexuality and, if she’s safe, she can express it however the hell she wants.

On top of the beats, it was Salt-N-Pepa’s relentless campaign for social and sexual agency that drove the album. “Sexy Noises Turn Me On” may sound a little bit dated in 2017, but the frankness with which the women express their needs is anything but. It is the precursor to so many Foxy Brown one-liners and songs like Rasheeda’s “My Bubble Gum” and Nicki Minaj’s “Get on Your Knees.” There are calls elsewhere on *Very Necessary *for reciprocity, like when Salt raps: “You’re under my control/I got your heart and soul/Go down and take your time” on opener “Groove Me” but they were pushing to do even more than just smash the insidious taboo that women can only perform oral sex, not receive it that many of their descendants have rallied for (see: Lil’ Kim’s entire 1996 debut album Hard Core).

This attitude bleeds through to tracks like “Step,” which uses a hefty sample of Hank Crawford’s jazzy “It’s a Funky Thing to Do” and comes off optimally unbothered. “Somma Time Man” is reproachful of male promiscuity (just like their 1986 Otis Redding-interpolating song “Tramp”), but so much of the critique is about infidelity and the lack of safety. Ultimately, Salt-N-Pepa’s mantra when it came to AIDS was, “If you don’t get it, you can’t spread it.” It is their entire ethos: sex is happening everywhere and it cannot be ignored because like all other thrills there are risks—risks you take with your heart and risks you take with health. If you’re doing it right, there’s no shame attached to it. It’s why they wrote “None of Your Business,” but also why they spent many of their television appearances talking about how easy it is to put on a condom.

Salt-N-Pepa, however, do not explicitly call themselves activists or even feminists. In the same interview with Mary Wilson from the Supremes, Salt also said: “I think we’re feminists to a certain degree. But I have no problem with the man being the man, as long as the man knows how to be a man.” The biggest song of their career, “Whatta Man,” is a paean to good-looking respectful guys. Peaking at No. 3, the track united the trio with En Vogue, who were still riding high off of their star-making sophomore album Funky Divas, released the year before. Although the song’s ballast may be “good men are hard to find,” the use of Linda Lyndell’s classic “What a Man” and Spinderella referencing Whitney Houston deep cut “My Name is Not Susan” in her verse still keeps it a celebration of womanhood. The video co-starred Naughty By Nature’s Treach, Pep’s IRL man at the time, and remains one of their fluffier offerings. In the context of the album, however, it rounds out the robust portrait of women’s romantic interiors: Not all love is fleeting and when it is good, it is so good”.

Although you can get it on streaming services, it would be better to have an affordable version of Very Necessary on vinyl. Such an essential album does deserve a reissue. Maybe that will happen on its thirtieth anniversary next year. I love Salt-N-Pepa a lot, and Very Necessary ranks right up there with their absolute best work. So many people would love to hear this classic album…

ON vinyl.