FEATURE: Inspired By… Part One Hundred and One: Paul McCartney

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney in 2021/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Part One Hundred and One: Paul McCartney

_________

I am not sure whether I have…

 IN THIS PHOTO: From left: Heather, Paul, and Linda McCartney, with Stella, aged four, and Mary, six, at home in London on 4th April, 1976/PHOTO CREDIT: David Montgomery/Getty Images

included Paul McCartney in Inspired By… I have definitely featured The Beatles, but maybe not Paul McCartney. In any case, if I have, he is getting another outing! The reason behind this is the fact that his birthday falls on 18th June. The legend is worth celebrating, so I have put together a playlist of songs from artists definitely influenced by Paul McCartney. That or they have been compared to him. Before that, and as I do in these features, it is to AllMusic for detailed biography about the extraordinary and peerless Paul McCartney:

“Out of all the former Beatles, Paul McCartney by far had the most successful solo career, maintaining a constant presence in the British and American charts during the 1970s and '80s. In America alone, he had nine number one singles and seven number one albums during the first 12 years of his solo career, and in his native United Kingdom, his record was nearly as impressive. McCartney's hot streak began in 1970, when he became the first Beatle to leave the group. A little more than a year after the Beatles' breakup, McCartney formed Wings with his wife Linda and Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine, and the group remained active for the next ten years, racking up a string of hit albums, singles, and tours in the meantime. Wings disbanded in 1980, but McCartney stayed near the top of the charts over the next five years, thanks in part to a couple big duets with Michael Jackson. McCartney revived his solo career in 1989 via Flowers in the Dirt and its accompanying international tour, setting a template he would follow into the new millennium, when he'd support his records by playing concerts around the world. Between these massive endeavors, McCartney pursued other projects, including classical compositions, an electronica outfit with Youth called the Fireman, and overseeing archival projects such as the Beatles' Anthology series. As the 21st century rolled on, McCartney continued to take risks, including recording an album of standards from the Great American Songbook and collaborating with rapper Kanye West, proving that there was no area of popular music he couldn't touch.

Like John Lennon and George Harrison, McCartney began exploring creative avenues outside the Beatles during the late '60s, but where his bandmates released their own experimental records, McCartney confined himself to writing and producing for other artists, with the exception of his 1966 soundtrack to The Family Way. Following his marriage to Linda Eastman on March 12, 1969, McCartney began working at his home studio on his first solo album. He released McCartney in April 1970, two weeks before the Beatles' Let It Be was scheduled to hit the stores. Prior to the album's release, he'd announced that the Beatles were breaking up, against the wishes of the other members. As a result, the tensions between him and the other three members, particularly Harrison and Lennon, increased and he earned the ill will of many critics. Nevertheless, McCartney became a hit, spending three weeks at the top of the American charts. Early in 1971, he returned with "Another Day," which became his first hit single as a solo artist. It was followed several months later by Ram, another homemade collection, this time featuring the contributions of his wife, Linda.

By the end of 1971, the McCartneys had formed Wings, which was intended to be a full-fledged recording and touring band. Former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell became the group's other members, and Wings released their first album, Wild Life, in December 1971. Wild Life was greeted with poor reviews and was a relative flop. McCartney and Wings, which now featured former Grease Band guitarist Henry McCullough, spent 1972 as a working band, releasing three singles -- the protest "Give Ireland Back to the Irish," the reggae-fied "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and the rocking "Hi Hi Hi." Red Rose Speedway followed in the spring of 1973, and while it received weak reviews, it became his second American number one album. Later in 1973, Wings embarked on their first British tour, at the conclusion of which McCullough and Seiwell left the band. Prior to their departure, McCartney's theme to the James Bond movie Live and Let Die became a Top Ten hit in the U.S. and U.K. That summer, the remaining Wings proceeded to record a new album in Nigeria. Released late in 1973, Band on the Run was simultaneously McCartney's best-reviewed album and his most successful, spending four weeks at the top of the U.S. charts and eventually going triple-platinum.

Following the success of Band on the Run, McCartney formed a new version of Wings with guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton. The new lineup was showcased on the 1974 British single "Junior's Farm" and the 1975 hit album Venus and Mars. At the Speed of Sound followed in 1976; it was the first Wings record to feature songwriting contributions by the other bandmembers. Nevertheless, the album became a monster success on the basis of two McCartney songs, "Silly Love Songs" and "Let 'Em In." Wings supported the album with their first international tour, which broke many attendance records and was captured on the live triple-album Wings Over America (1976). After the tour was completed, Wings rested a bit during 1977, as McCartney released an instrumental version of Ram under the name Thrillington, and produced Denny Laine's solo album Holly Days. Later that year, Wings released "Mull of Kintyre," which became the biggest-selling British single of all time, selling over two million copies. Wings followed "Mull of Kintyre" with London Town in 1978, which became another platinum record. After its release, McCulloch left the band to join the re-formed Small Faces, and Wings released Back to the Egg in 1979. Though the record went platinum, it failed to produce any big hits. Early in 1980, McCartney was arrested for marijuana possession at the beginning of a Japanese tour; he was imprisoned for ten days and then released, without any charges being pressed.

Wings effectively broke up in the wake of McCartney's Japanese bust, although its official dissolution was not announced until April 27, 1981, when Denny Laine left the band. Back in England, McCartney recorded McCartney II, which was a one-man band effort like his solo debut. Ironically, the hit single associated with the album was a live take of the song "Coming Up" that had been recorded in Glasgow with Wings in December 1979 and was intended to be the B-side of the 45, with the solo studio recording as the A-side. DJs preferred the live version, however, and it went on to hit number one. Later in 1980, McCartney entered the studio with Beatles producer George Martin to make Tug of War.

Released in the spring of 1982, Tug of War received the best reviews of any McCartney record since Band on the Run and spawned the number one single with "Ebony and Ivory," a duet with Stevie Wonder that became McCartney's biggest American hit. In 1983, McCartney sang on "The Girl Is Mine," the first single from Michael Jackson's blockbuster album Thriller. In return, Jackson duetted with McCartney on "Say Say Say," the first single from McCartney's 1983 album Pipes of Peace and the last number one single of his career. The relationship between Jackson and McCartney soured considerably when Jackson bought the publishing rights to the Beatles' songs out from underneath McCartney in 1985.

McCartney directed his first feature film in 1984 with Give My Regards to Broad Street. While the soundtrack, which featured new songs and re-recorded Beatles tunes, was a hit, generating the hit single "No More Lonely Nights," the film was a flop, earning terrible reviews. The following year, he had his last American Top Ten with the theme to the Chevy Chase/Dan Aykroyd comedy Spies Like Us. Press to Play (1986) received some strong reviews but was another flop. In 1988, he recorded a collection of rock & roll oldies called Choba B CCCP for release in the U.S.S.R.; it was given official release in the U.S. and U.K. in 1991. For 1989's Flowers in the Dirt, McCartney co-wrote several songs with Elvis Costello; the pair also wrote songs for Costello's Spike, including the hit "Veronica." Flowers in the Dirt received the strongest reviews of any McCartney release since Tug of War, and was supported by an extensive international tour, which was captured on the live double-album Tripping the Live Fantastic (1990). For the tour, McCartney hired guitarist Robbie McIntosh and bassist Hamish Stuart, who would form the core of his band through the remainder of the '90s.

Early in 1991, McCartney released another live album in the form of Unplugged, which was taken from his appearance on MTV's acoustic concert program of the same name; it was the first Unplugged album to be released. Later that year, he unveiled Liverpool Oratorio, his first classical work. Another pop album, Off the Ground, followed in 1993, but failed to generate any big hits, despite McCartney's successful supporting tour. Following the completion of the New World tour, he released another live album, Paul Is Live, in December 1993. In 1994, he released an ambient techno album under the pseudonym the Fireman. McCartney premiered his second classical piece, The Leaf, early in 1995 and then began hosting a Westwood One radio series called Oobu Joobu. But his primary activity in 1995, as well as 1996, was the Beatles' Anthology, which encompassed a lengthy video documentary of the band and the multi-volume release of Beatles outtakes and rarities. After Anthology was completed, he released Flaming Pie in summer 1997. A low-key, largely acoustic affair that had some of the same charm of his debut, Flaming Pie was given the strongest reviews McCartney had received in years and was a modest commercial success, debuting at number two on the U.S. and U.K. charts; it was his highest American chart placing since he left the Beatles. Flaming Pie certainly benefited from the success of Anthology, as did McCartney himself -- only a few months before the release of the album in 1997, he received a Knighthood.

On April 17, 1998, Linda McCartney died after a three-year struggle with breast cancer. A grieving Paul kept a low profile in the months to follow, but finally returned in fall 1999 with Run Devil Run, a collection that primarily included cover songs. The electronica-based Liverpool Sound Collage followed a year later, and the pop album Driving Rain -- a successor, of sorts, to Flaming Pie -- came a year after that. The live album Back in the U.S. appeared in America in 2002 with the slightly different international edition, Back in the World, following soon after.

McCartney's next studio project included sessions with super-producer Nigel Godrich, the results of which appeared on the mellow Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard, released in late 2005. The album reached the Top Ten in more than a dozen countries, including the U.S. and U.K. McCartney performed every instrument (not including the strings) on 2007's David Kahne-produced Memory Almost Full, a bold but whimsical collection of new songs, some of which had been recorded before the Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard sessions. It too reached the Top Ten across the world. A live CD/DVD set, Good Evening New York City, appeared in 2009. The following year, McCartney kicked off an extensive reissue campaign with a box set of Band on the Run, and he supported the reissue with an American tour in the summer of 2011.

Later in 2011, McCartney released his first ballet, Ocean's Kingdom, and less than a year later followed with another first -- his first collection of pre-WWII standards. The latter work, titled Kisses on the Bottom, topped the U.S. jazz charts and reached the Top Five in seven different countries. His busy year continued during the summer, when he ended the opening ceremony of London's 2012 Olympics with a set that included a customary extended version of "Hey Jude." A surprising cap to 2012 came that December when he appeared on-stage with the surviving ex-members of Nirvana as part of a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

The year 2013 brought recording sessions with four of McCartney's favorite producers: Paul Epworth, Ethan Johns, Giles Martin, and Mark Ronson. His initial intention had been to hold trial sessions with each producer, aiming to select one of them to oversee the whole of his next album. However, each of them had a hand in producing New, his first album of original material in six years, which appeared that October. New debuted in the Top Ten in more than a dozen countries and McCartney supported the album over the next two years with a series of international tours. In 2015, he continued his ongoing Paul McCartney Archive Collection with deluxe reissues of Tug of War and Pipes of Peace. The next summer, he released Pure McCartney, a personally curated overview of his solo career available in two separate incarnations: a double-disc set and a four-disc box. Flowers in the Dirt arrived in early 2017 as part of the singer's Archive Collection. In September 2018, he delivered the Greg Kurstin-produced Egypt Station, his 17th solo album; it was preceded by the singles "I Don't Know," "Come on to Me," and "Fuh You." Egypt Station became McCartney's first number one album in the U.S. since Tug of War; in the U.K. it debuted at three.

A couple of non-LP tracks from the Egypt Station sessions appeared in 2019, then McCartney released an Archive edition of Flaming Pie in July 2020. The bigger news for 2020 was the recording and release of McCartney III, an album McCartney wrote and recorded on his own during the global lockdown of 2020. McCartney III appeared on December 18, 2020, giving McCartney his first number one album in the U.K. since Flowers in the Dirt; it debuted at two in the U.S. and spawned a 2021 album of "reinterpretations, remixes, and covers" called McCartney III Imagined”.

To mark the upcoming eighty-first birthday of Paul McCartney on 18th June, below are songs from artists who have been influenced by him. McCartney’s impact and importance will continue for generations more. He is the greatest musician ever, so it is no wonder artists have been linked to him. Whether part of The Beatles, Wings or as a solo act, his catalogue is the finest and most diverse in all of music. It only leaves me to wish Paul McCartney…

A very happy birthday.

FEATURE: George Michael at Sixty: Three Essential Solo Albums from the Icon

FEATURE:

 

 

George Michael at Sixty

Three Essential Solo Albums from the Icon

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I am going to do…

 IN THIS PHOTO: George Michael in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: John Swannell

a career-spanning playlist nearer the time. George Michael is sixty 25th June. We lost the legend on Christmas Day, 2016. As a member of Wham! and a solo artist, he left behind so much magnificent music! Undoubtably one of the most important artists ever,  his voice was beyond compare. There was nobody in the music industry quite like him! I know there will be a lot of celebration and remembrance of Michael when we mark his sixtieth birthday on 25th June. In the first feature, I highlight three essential George Michael albums everyone needs to own. I will include some Wham! music in the playlist feature, but for now, I am turning my attention to Michael’s solo work. His fifth and final solo album, Patience, was released in 2004. It is a shame that we did not get a sixth album from the master! To mark his upcoming sixtieth birthday, below are three solo albums from George Michael that…

EVERYONE needs to own and play.

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Faith

Release Date: 30th October, 1987

Producer: George Michael

Labels: Columbia/Epic

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/413315?ev=rb

Standout Tracks: Father Figure/I Want Your Sex (Parts 1 & 2)/Monkey

Review:

“In 1986, George Michael wandered deep into himself. He realized that, at some point in the five years he had recorded and toured with his bandmate Andrew Ridgeley in Wham!, he had completely lost track of who he was. With Wham!, Michael had achieved his childhood dream of becoming unreasonably famous; he glided across stages, and fans’ eyes waded in his direction. His enormous blonde hair looked like a work of relief sculpture, and his voice pulsed with brightness, like a lightbulb about to burst in its socket. He was one of the world’s biggest pop stars by the time his retro-pop duo fell apart; he was also 23, only just beginning to figure out who he was and what kind of music he wanted to make.

Michael felt isolated, anxious over what to do next—the future seemed elusive and unstable, as precarious as a song’s placement on the pop charts. He was sinking into what he would later characterize as an eight-month long-depression, wondering if he even wanted to return to music. In the spring of ’86, two months before the final Wham! Show at London’s Wembley Stadium, Michael released a solo single called “A Different Corner.” Accompanied by a stark, black-and-white video, it was a sad and strange song that seemed to disappear as it happened, the brief snowflakes of synth and Michael’s tenor evaporating into air. It’s as gorgeous as it is uncertain of itself, quietly stealing back every emotion it offers, leaving behind a crumpled blankness. “The problem was just that I had developed a character for the outside world that wasn’t me,” he said. “So I made the decision to uncreate the person I had created and become more real.”

A little over a year later, he drew a thick, Princely scribble in empty space. It would become the first single for his solo debut, 1987’s Faith, a song called “I Want Your Sex.” A near-total photonegative of “A Different Corner”’s lustless vacuum, built out of the boiling dark of the clubs Michael loved to dance in, “I Want Your Sex” employed a sudden fluency with sexuality to define his post-boy band maturity. He fastidiously programmed every detail of the song—even the mummified sub-rhythms that kick like pistons underneath it, which were produced by an error in a synthesizer pattern from a different track. Michael was so charmed by the accidental thicket of snares and kicks that he built “I Want Your Sex” directly on top of it. “I’ve danced to records like this for years and I buy records like this all the time but I’ve never really had the courage to make one,” he said.

The song was immediately banned by the BBC and strategically suppressed by radio, but it eventually blossomed as a single on MTV once Michael added a safe sex disclaimer to the beginning of the video. The clip focused almost inflexibly on Michael’s face, shadowed by an unfocused haze of stubble, singing in a frayed sub-frequency of his former boyish tenor, all interchanged with shots of body parts: legs walking in a garter belt, water cascading over feet and torsos, Michael writing “EXPLORE MONOGAMY” in lipstick on his then-girlfriend Kathy Jeung’s thigh and back.

In interviews about “I Want Your Sex” and its video, Michael always redirected the subject toward monogamy. He didn’t want the song to be misconstrued as an untamed celebration of casual sex in the midst of the AIDS epidemic; at the time, monogamy seemed to Michael not only a thoughtful response to AIDS but dimensionally sexy in and of itself. “I wanted to write a song which sounded dirty but which was applicable to someone that I really cared about,” he told Interview in 1988. “I mean, it is the perfect situation to really love someone to death and to want to rip their clothes off at the same time, isn’t it?” But it’s a song so sunken into its desire for someone that Michael’s cautious exploration of safe sex gets lost among the chorus’ seductive synth wobbles and the liquid blend of lust and angst with which he sings the word “sex.”

Michael himself seemed unable to glimpse “I Want Your Sex” beyond its controversy, already looking to exchange it for a different song, a different impression, a different corner of himself to exhibit to the world. In the video for his next single, Faith’s title track, a jukebox needle skates away from “Sex” and gently lowers onto the surface of a new disc. The chorus of an old Wham! single, “Freedom,” bruises slowly into the silence, played on a Yamaha DX7 synth tuned to its “cathedral organ” setting.

The melody is funereal instead of flourescent, as if Michael were entombing his teen-pop past in the bellows of a vast pipe organ. It’s among the first instances of Michael commenting on his music as he made it, embedding his songs with footnotes and reprised themes that connected with his early career. Michael became fascinated with continuity, with how things could change when they were revisited, sometimes revising his songs whole-cloth (“Freedom ’90”) or lightly modernizing them for a new decade (“I’m Your Man ’96”), making his form of pop music a rich and intertextual network of references and repeating motifs.

Out of the deep mournful glow of the organ, emerges… an acoustic guitar? Strumming the Bo Diddley beat? It sounds almost frail playing against a rhythmic skeleton of snaps, handclaps, and whispers across the snare rim. The camera drifts over Michael’s new image: leather jacket shrugging loosely from his shoulders, his gaze buried somewhere beneath impenetrable sunglasses, pretending to strum a sunburst archtop guitar.

In 1987, popular rock music was trying fill arenas with enormous waves of echo; “Faith”’s chords sounded crisp as the blue jeans pasted to Michael’s ass in the video. He was employing rock as a texture, as a signifier of history and depth, absorbing the guitar rhythms of the ’50s and ’60s just as he embedded the drums of the Motown songs from his youth in tracks like Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” It made Michael’s work as serious as it was playful, taking established songforms and converting them into modern pop.

The rest of Faith embodies this approach, a montage of different colors and tempos from pop’s unabridged past—the fluttering rockabilly of the title track, the deluxe synthetic bath of “Father Figure,” and the hardboiled synth funk of “I Want Your Sex” all occur on the same side of an album, like alternate histories talking to each other through time, all before “One More Try” wafts in like wind through an empty cathedral” – Pitchfork

Key Cut: Faith

Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

Release Date: 3rd September, 1990

Producer: George Michael

Labels: Columbia/Epic (U.K.)

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/george-michael/listen-without-prejudice-volume-1#vinyl-lp?channable=409d92696400313032303830302d47429b&gclid=CjwKCAjwsvujBhAXEiwA_UXnAGX9O0rjiLDbJwBFKFRHr3Gfhr_ZRheYnVA1uQlwpNKZci6HyB3KjBoCdSQQAvD_BwE

Standout Tracks: Praying for Time/Cowboys and Angels/Mothers Pride

Review:

“AMONG THE DISTINCTIONS he has gathered along the slick road to pop superstardom, George Michael found himself the object of a funny Saturday Night Live skit a while back, when Dana Carvey lampooned the famous hip shakes in Michael’s “Faith” video. It was a parody that stuck. Picking up his Grammy for Faith, which sold 15 million copies, Michael tried to be a sport about it — and about the idea that his videos and his ubiquitous butt had rendered his recordings moot. Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (Vol. 2, said to be more dance oriented, will follow next June) is designed to turn this impression around. For the most part the album succeeds in its effort to establish Michael’s seriouness and deliver him from caricature.

“Everybody’s got to sell/But when you shake your ass/They notice fast,” Michael sings on “Freedom 90.” This is a far cry from the George Michael who, with sidekick Andrew Ridgeley, unabashedly titled a Wham! album Make It Big and scored a Number One U.S. single in 1985 with “Careless Whisper,” a danceable ballad dying to sound soulful. By the time he released Faith, in 1987, Michael seemed to want more from his music than just sales. So, for his crisp productions of “Faith” and “Father Figure,” for example, he concocted silken rockabilly riffs and very simple, effective Middle Eastern bridges in such a way that both white and black kids couldn’t miss — or resist — them.

He was a pop-craft natural, even though memories of “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” — Wham!’s first U.S. smash hit and a savage test of one’s sense of humor — clung to Faith, as well as to the hit “I Want Your Sex,” his provocateur move. Even if his strong, smooth voice sometimes seemed as concerned with set decoration as with the dramatic situations in his songs, Michael proved on his first solo album that he could write and produce music — specifically, a deceptively simple kind of professional, hummable pop.

Michael, like Lionel Richie, has a definitive Eighties pop sensibility — Sixties-style virtuosity or Seventies studio obsessiveness isn’t for him — and on Listen Without Prejudice he broadens and refines it. With his opening songs — “Praying for Time,” the lead single and a distraught look at the world’s astounding woundedness, and “Freedom 90,” which buoys dance beats with revitalizing gospel choruses — Michael challenges and shares confessional secrets with his audience.

In “Praying for Time,” testifying against slow descending chords, Michael offers the healing passage of time as the only balm for physical and emotional hunger, poverty, hypocrisy and hatred. In “Freedom 90,” as the accumulation of syncopated accents signals compulsion as much as it spices the groove, Michael wonders whether, in the past, “it was enough for me/To win the race?/A prettier face/Brand new clothes and a big fat place/On your rock and roll TV.” The tune, in which Michael eventually asserts that “today the way I play the game is not the same,” tumbles out as the dramatic shoptalk of a pop idol ready to trade in his sunglasses for some manner of rock & roll respect.

The rest of Listen Without Prejudice demonstrates exactly what Michael has in mind. Although his bigger ballads, like “Mothers Pride,” a portrayal of sons perpetually learning the ways of war from their fathers, and a live, churchy version of Stevie Wonder’s “They Won’t Go When I Go,” push too hard for momentousness, Michael shines when he puts his new attitude into more modest practice. “Cowboys and Angels,” a dreamy, if blue, romantic affair that glides along on international rhythms, and “Soul Free,” an uptempo groove that uses Motown woodwinds, are as seamless, balanced and complete in themselves as Michael wants them to be. This is also true of his singing on the album, at its best. When, to a straightforward bass line and simple guitar strumming, Michael assumes the passion of Bono and engages the hypnotic melody of “Waiting for That Day” — a song with a brokenhearted narrator who finds that his memory serves him “far too well” — he fashions just the kind of bold pop with rock and soul overtones that Listen Without Prejudice aims for.

And that Michael now seems completely committed to. This time around, George Michael has begun to think that he should provide something to his fans beyond fun and games. Fun and games at Michael’s level needn’t be underrated — as he sings on “Freedom 90,” such stratagems happened to yield a captivating sound for millions of people who like to listen to the radio. On this anxiously titled album, though, he’s operating from the proposition that a damn good sound is only the starting point for how much pop music can achieve. If Listen Without Prejudice starts a trend among Michael’s pop generation to move beyond image to integrity, it could make “rock and roll TV” sound more consistently and convincingly like music” – Rolling Stone

Key Cut: Freedom! '90

Older

Release Date: 13th May, 1996

Producers: George Michael/Jon Douglas

Labels: Virgin/Aegean/DreamWorks

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/george-michael/older

Standout Tracks: Jesus to a Child/Older/You Have Been Loved

Review:

“THERE'S DANGER in emotional ties. George should know that. After all, he was the one who told us so in the first place, way back when life was one big swimming pool full of bleach-blonde soul girls desperate to get their hands on the shuttlecock lurking within those shorts of his.

How times change. Six years and one gruelling court case on from the largely fab 'Listen Without Prejudice Volume One' (home of the almighty 'Freedom '90', remember), and George is more downbeat than ever. The sleeve, a sombre silver'n'grey affair, has one side of George's face swathed in shadow like a man deprived of one eye, while the music, aside from the occasional commercial glitz, is bedtime sophisto-soul; the sort of thing that could convince any pretty girl from Hollywood to High Wycombe to slip between the sheets should the evening have exuded the necessary amount of, erm, sophistication.

There it is, that word again. Because George, for all the angst he so brazenly wears on his sleeve, remains the embodiment of suburban wish-fulfilment. Times may have changed, and his fans may have dipped into the real world, full of the dreary stuff ­ responsibilities, families, getting older ­ but the music still fits the mood like a glove; air-conditioned, gossamer-lite, upwardly mobile.

Lyrically, George is still fighting off maturity with all (young) guns blazing. "My friends got their ladies/They're all having babies/But I just want to have some fun!" he declares on the impeccable 'Fast Love'. On 'Move On' he even invokes the chinking-glass intro of 'Club Tropicana', but makes sure that it leads into a gorgeous, jazz club schmooze, just what his audience are after these days. No more passing out under tables at Club 18-Dirty, George seems to be saying. Let's do it the classier way; dining out at Mezzo, a cool-eyed seduction at his place and then, well, breakfast at Tiffany's.

Upbeat the rest of it is not. 'Jesus To A Child' we know about, while the eerily arabesque 'The Strangest Thing' and 'To Be Forgiven' find George lost in a flood of distant, mystical flutes and even the faint twang of sitar. Cool.

He has his customary dig at the fame game in 'Star People' ("Who gives a f­­ about your problems, darling?" George growls cattily, the victim of one too many glittery ligs) while the final track, 'Free', shimmers to a close wordless, before George, the sweetie, whispers, "It feels good to be free" in its dying seconds.

What more could you ask for? Simply Red may go for the jugular every time with their unnervingly upbeat pop razzle, but George is just too much of an old soul boy smoothie for that. He knows that the art is to never look like you're trying; no matter what the provocation, no matter how frustrating the six-year hiatus might have been.

The real return of the mack then, despite the beardy haircut and the fact he's still so touchy about bad press, NME had to buy their own copy of 'Older' to hear it.

He really needn't have worried. 9/10” – NME

Key Cut: Fastlove, Pt. 1

FEATURE: Second Spin: Dannii Minogue - Neon Nights

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Dannii Minogue - Neon Nights

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THIS album choice is quite relevant…

and timely, as Dannii Minogue’s 2003 album, Neon Nights, is twenty. There is an anniversary/reissue release that you can order. Originally released on 17th March, 2003, this was Minogue’s fourth studio album. Reaching the top ten in the U.K. and the top twenty-five in her native Australia, it seems like a good moment to put it back int eh spotlight! I would urge people to buy a vinyl copy of this album and give it a spin. Although it was applauded and celebrated in 2003, I am not sure how much it is played today. Do you hear tracks from this excellent album on the radio?! Maybe you will more now. Dannii Minogue has recently released We Could Be the One. A chart success that has sat alongside her sister Kylie’s Padam Padam, the Minogue sisters are in peak form! Dannii Minogue also presents the reality dating show, I Kissed a Boy. I always hear Dannii Minogue spoken about in comparison to her sister, but she is her own artist that does not copy or replicate what Kylie does. There is a difference. Neon Nights is an album that everyone should check out. This is what Rough Trade say about the new reissue of one of the best albums of 2003:

“First released in 2003, Neon Nights perfectly captured the dance-pop zeitgeist of its time. Propelled by a veritable pick and mix of the European dance production scene, the album spawned four UK Top 10 smashes with 'Who Do You Love Now?' (No.3), 'Put A Needle On It' (No.7), 'I Begin To Wonder’' (No.2) and 'Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling' (No.5). The album debuted at No.8 on the UK Official Albums Chart and was certified Gold, and in Dannii’s native Australia it was nominated for Best Pop Release at the 2003 ARIA Music Awards.

After Dannii’s previous album Girl had paved a blueprint for pop dance crossovers of the noughties, Dannii had parted ways with her label, and had not released music for almost half a decade. Dannii was philosophical then and now, “I knew the crazy world of music was not always fair, but I also knew I’d had amazing experiences and done a lot of awesome stuff. I didn’t think my music career was going to come back, and that was fine. I just thought: ‘Well, that was it.’”

Out of the blue, an invite from Pete Tong would provide an unexpected catalyst. As A&R at London Records, Tong asked Dannii to collaborate with Dutch duo Riva on a rework of their club hit ‘Stringer’. The resultant single ‘Who Do You Love Now?’, would be a worldwide smash.

The single’s success was infused with the dance energy of Ibiza, with many live gigs at iconic venues that were the start of great friendships with the mega Summer Residence DJs, Carl Cox and Roger Sanchez. Dannii was once again upfront and centre in both pop and club culture.

Dannii was signed up by London Records for an album deal and work on Neon Nights commenced. “With Girl, I was given wings,” Dannii says now of the recording process. “With Neon Nights, I was allowed to fly”.

There are a couple of features that I want to highlight before wrapping things up. Albumism recently marked twenty years of a wonderful album that is perhaps Dannii Minogue’s best work. She has not really lost a step or put a foot wrong since her Danniii /Love and Kisses of 1991. 2007’s Club Disco is her latest album. Let’s hope that there are more studio albums from her. Even if you are not familiar with Dannii Minogue., Neon Nights is a great starting point:

“At the time of its release in 1997, Girl presented Australian vocalist Dannii Minogue in top form. An energizing mix of dance and pop, her third studio album was meant to reposition Minogue commercially and critically. Though its reviews were promising, its sales were tepid. Still, Girl gave the singer many opportunities, touring and otherwise.

One such opportunity presented itself to Minogue in 2001. Approached by the Dutch disc jockey duo Zki and Dobri, also known collectively as Riva, Minogue was invited to provide vocals for a hot and heavy dancefloor track they had put together. Minogue took the gentlemen up on their offer and “Who Do You Love Now?” followed shortly thereafter in that same year. Audiences in Europe and beyond, both mainstream and underground, went crazy for the track.

Minogue's partnership with Riva was, without a doubt, enduring proof of her credibility—and marketability—in dance music circles. Minogue could have stayed comfortably nestled in that environment, but she was ready for the next step. With an acute working knowledge of dance genre principles cultivated over three albums, Minogue sought to plot a record that could bring these components together—but with a pop perspective.

Not long after “Who Do You Love Now?,” brainstorming for Neon Nights, Minogue's fourth studio long player, had gone into high gear. On Girl, the force behind its power was personal, but ironically, Minogue had relinquished its content construction to her creative team. Neon Nights saw Minogue put her hands back into shaping the songs, which were daring, indulging a side of Minogue that had previously only peeked around the corner of certain selections in her canon for those paying attention.

Now, given an entire album to express itself, this area of Minogue's performance psyche embraced the totality of her ego and her sexuality. She would wield these two aspects of herself through the album's assembled material. The songwriting and production personnel—notables including Ian Masterson, Terry Ronald, Hannah Robinson, Savan Kotecha, Henrik Korpi, Matthias “Blackcell” Johansson, Karen Poole and Jean-Claude Ades—were pivotal in working with Minogue to draft canvases suitable for this persona to come to life.

Neon Nights is a retro-contemporaneous fantasia, showcasing Minogue's encyclopedic awareness of dance music devices to incredible effect. Euro-disco, in a juicy assortment of colors and flavors, displays itself on “I Begin to Wonder” and “Come and Get It,” the latter a sly hidden track within the album's closing piece, the lone cool down number, “It Won't Work Out.” Minogue's enduring fascination with American aestheticism, as politely harvested from electro-funk, R&B and hip-hop origins, are accounted for on “Put the Needle on It” and “Creep.”

And while there are plenty of original sonics to feast upon here, Minogue's love of previously established jams is not disguised on Neon Nights. From the mesmeric interpolations of funk/jazz maestro Tom Browne's “Thighs High (Grip Your Hips and Move)” (on “Mighty Fine”) and avant garde futurists Laidback's “White Horse” (on “Push”), Minogue's tastes are first-rate.

Minogue, ensconced within her record's glowing rhythms and grooves, enjoyed her club siren transformation. The set's verses, bridges and hooks are dressed to the nines on “For the Record” and “Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling,” affirming Minogue's ability to integrate the finer points of pop lyricism into discothèque oriented song structures. Collectively recalling the floor filling vibes of Ibiza, London and New York City—in either 1985 or 2002—Neon Nights was ready to take club culture to the general public like never before.

Racking up three hits—“Put the Needle on It,” “I Begin to Wonder,” “Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling”—Neon Nights achieved gold certification in the United Kingdom. Sweetening her chart jackpot was the LP's critical consensus. Almost unanimously, the music press showed support in their assessment of Neon Nights as Minogue's breakout moment. Neon Nights was gorgeously reissued in 2007, packaged with a bountiful supply of B-sides, outtakes and remixes.

Twenty years later, Neon Nights remains a distinct dance-pop marker, its influence apparent to the discerning ear. Nowhere else could one come in contact with such a glamorously assembled gaggle of influences that cross decades and sounds to unite the hedonism of the dance floor with the accessibility of pop radio”.

I am going to wrap up with a review from AllMusic. Neon Nights has won plenty of adoration. Comparable with early/mid-2000s albums from Kylie Minogue and Madonna, Dannii Minogue’s strong and versatile vocals and songwriting is evident throughout. The sequencing is great too, so that the singles and bigger songs are nicely distributed and not all at the top or bottom:

“There's something about those Minogue sisters. No matter how many times they seem to be down for the count, a surprise comeback hit is always just around the corner. Dannii has never quite achieved the level of superstardom that sister Kylie has attained, but she has shown equal tenacity. Released in 1997, Girl may have been a commercial failure, but it succeeded in repositioning her as a sophisticated club artist rather than a B-list pop singer. That album caught on in the burgeoning trance scene of the mid-'90s, and Neon Nights partially follows that trend into the 2000s on tracks such as "Who Do You Love Now?," the out-of-nowhere comeback collaboration with Riva that gave Dannii the biggest hit of her career. However, Neon Nights is a more varied collection, a veritable pick and mix of the European dance scene at the turn of the century. Songs such as the sleazy "Put the Needle on It" and the pulsating "A Piece of Time" are pure electroclash, whereas the bouncy "For the Record" and "Mystified" caught on at the beginning of the major '80s revival that took off in a big way over the next few years. Despite the variety of influences, the album flows better than any of Dannii's albums have before, with only the overly crass "Vibe On" even approaching filler status.

Minogue is no faceless vocalist either; she infuses the tracks with her persona, sexually charged but smart and slightly aloof. There is a revelatory performance on the album's closing track and only ballad, "It Won't Work Out." Against a chilly, spare musical backing, Dannii delivers a heartfelt, unadorned vocal somewhat reminiscent of the best moments of Everything But the Girl. Although the album contains no cover versions, the success of the singles was augmented by the bootlegging craze. "I Begin to Wonder" was mashed with Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record") for the clubs, and "Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling" became the first track ever to be granted permission to sample from Madonna's "Into the Groove." These mixes helped these songs reach the widest audience of Minogue's career, topping U.S. club charts as well as those in the U.K. and Europe. Without a doubt the most confident and forward-thinking release yet for Dannii, it didn't quite make her the major star it should have, but it did give her the best run of hits of her career, and continued to show she was much more than the sum of her family name”.

Go and listen to the awesome Neon Nights. I always urge people to get the album on C.D. or vinyl is they can actually spin the thing and get that physical experience! Dannii Minogue’s 2003 album is perfect for these summer days and warm nights. With a reissue version about to come out, it will put this album right back in the spotlight. It is exactly where…

IT deserves to be.

FEATURE: Time & Place: The Queens of the Stone Age Buyer’s Guide

FEATURE:

 

 

Time & Place

PHOTO CREDIT: Andreas Neumann

The Queens of the Stone Age Buyer’s Guide

_________

TOMORROW sees the release…

of Queens of the Stone Age’s eighth studio album, In Times New Roman… It is a great title for an album that sort of refers to the old Roman Empire, and how it is very much modernised and present in modern-day America. Also named after a particularly boring font type, there is something exciting, personal, powerful and emphatic about In Times New Roman… It is a sensational album from Queens of the Stone Age. It ranks alongside their very best. Because a new album is out, I want to go back and provide a buyer’s guide to Queens of the Stone Age. People may be new to them, so I will suggest the essential albums, an underrated one, plus the very best one (in my view). Before that, here is more detail about In Times New Roman…

“Queens of the Stone Age release their long-awaited 8th studio album, In Times New Roman... on Matador.

In Times New Roman... is raw, at times brutal and not recommended for the faint of heart. And yet, it’s perhaps the most beautiful and definitely the most rewarding album in their epic discography. Founder Joshua Homme's most acerbic lyrics to date are buoyed by the instantly identifiable QOTSA sonic signature, expanded and embellished with new and unprecedented twists in virtually every song. With In Times New Roman… we see that sometimes one needs to look beneath scars and scabs to see beauty, and sometimes the scabs and scars are the beauty.

Feeling a bit out of place, and having difficulty finding music they could relate to, the members of QOTSA did as they are wont to do:  In Times New Roman… is the sound of a band creating the music its own members want to hear, while giving the rest of us a sonic forum in which to congregate. “The world’s gonna end in a month or two," sings Homme, begging the question: What do you want to do to with the time you’ve got left? Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen, Dean Fertita, Michael Shuman and Jon Theodore may not be able to save us, but they’re giving us a place to ride it out.

In Times New Roman… was recorded and mixed at Homme’s own Pink Duck (RIP), with additional recording at Shangri-La. The album was produced by Queens of the Stone Age and mixed by Mark Rankin. Artwork and double LP gatefold packaging designed by long time collaborator Boneface”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Andreas Neumann

Before getting to a review for In Times New Roman…, NME recently visited Queens of the Stone Age’s lead Josh Homme in California. He spoke about his personal struggles (including a divorce) and what we can expect from the new album. One of the most frank and refreshingly open artists out there gave insight into the band’s new phase and album:

“NME: Were there times when you thought you might not make another album?

Homme: “Kinda. I think when you’re dealing with the extreme ups and downs of life, you don’t stop and go: ‘I should really make a record.’ Those things don’t exist in that moment. If your roof is flooding, you don’t say: ‘We should make a record about this!’ You have to stop yourself drowning in a flood. We recorded it probably two-and-a-half years ago, but it just sat there waiting to be finished. I didn’t sing it until last November. I wasn’t done living. Honestly, I was probably afraid. I wasn’t ready. You need the flood to be over, and then you can decide whether you can accept the flood. I think with this being a record about acceptance, you need to actually get there yourself.”

NME: This record feels as direct and as personal as anything you’ve ever written, is that fair?

Homme: “Yeah, of course. That’s what this is. You start dropping the armour that protects you from your insecurities, and once you drop a piece of that armour you can’t put it back on. I think on this journey of Queens of the Stone Age, there’s no armour left. It’s only about walking deeper into the darkness. That’s the way it should be. Kowtowing to my own insecurities or fears at my age is not a good look. It should be more vulnerable, not less. I also think that a lot of people are making these tuned, to-the-click records that are trying to blend in with pop music. ‘We’re rock, but we’re kind of pop too, are you okay with that?’ We wanted to be like: ‘No, we’re going to make something that sounds as brutal as it feels to be alive right now.’”

NME: The title ‘In Times New Roman’ comes from closing track ‘Straight Jacket Fitting’, which alludes to similarities between modern-day America and the fall of Rome…

Homme: “There are so many reasons that it’s funny to me too. The most boring font being named after one of the greatest empires of all time! The place that brought you the vomitorium, the orgy and the vomitorium in the orgy! I also think it’s OK to acknowledge that Rome is burning and the Titanic is sinking. I don’t see a problem with that. In dealing with the concept of acceptance, you have to acknowledge reality. You can’t be kidding yourself.”

NME: On ‘Made To Parade’ you sing: “Give your best years away/To a bloated corporation/Who’ll work you like a slave/Best think twice”. Another relatable comment on our times?

Homme: “Selling you fear, to make you afraid, to box you in, so you’ll do what other people want – I’ve always despised that so much. Everyone’s selling it so hard now. My old man is always like: ‘I know you’re afraid, what does that have to do with it?’ Being afraid should be the thing that starts you doing something, not the thing that stops you from doing it. You run the gauntlet, but you do come out the other side. As long as you keep going.

“I kind of got obsessed with merry-go-rounds on this. Those keyboard parts. Did the merry really go round? Aren’t you really stuck on some wheel that’s telling you: ‘We’re having fun’, but after a while you’re like: ‘No I want to fucking barf, let’s get off this thing’? There’s a lot of sonic references to merry-go-round shit all over this record.”

NME: That sense of acceptance comes through on ‘Emotion Sickness’. Why was that the lead single?

Homme: “It’s a strange single. I don’t pick those, because I don’t care, but I was surprised because it’s such a Frankenstein’s monster of a song. The verse parts are all so grounded, and then the chorus is like taking a hang-glider and running off this cliff. We’ve never done a Crosby, Stills and Nash three-part harmony before. Again, that’s about as much about acceptance as you can get.”

You sing: “People come & go on the breeze/For a whole life? Possibly”

Homme: “I’m admitting I don’t fucking know. Are they going to be there forever? I don’t know. Some will, I guess? Once I realised it was about acceptance it was such a relief. ‘Lullabies to Paralyze’ is the Brothers Grimm fairytales, as a way of explaining things through that sort of eye. With [supergroup Them Crooked] Vultures it was all animals: elephants, lions, vultures, leeches. I get sort of fixated like that. I need to know what it’s about. It has to mean something. When I sang this, it was all by candlelight. Trying stuff and being like: ‘I’m afraid. I’m afraid to write this. I’m terrified.’”

NME: Why?

Homme: “Just because it’s so harsh. So much has gone on. It’s like… how’s this going to go? But then realising: ‘Oh shit, it’s about acceptance, no matter what it is.’ I was so relieved”.

Northern Transmissions provided their take on the new one from the mighty Queens of the Stone Age. Maybe not their absolute best, it is still an important and big album from a band who have remained inventive, forward-moving and excellent since their debut. I would suggest every Queens of the Stone Age fan goes and get this album:

There was and always will be a devilishness to Queens of the Stone Age’s grubby desert rock and their long-awaited 8th LP ‘In Times New Roman…’ maintains the group’s proclivity for the dark and macabre, with a liberal dose of catchiness. 6 years on from the Mark Ronson produced ‘Villains’, the Joshua Homme-fronted gang are back with a muscular stomp through the shadier enclaves of rock ‘n’ roll, that according to the outfit explores the blemishes and imperfections of life “with ‘In Times New Roman…’ we see that sometimes one needs to look beneath the scars and scabs to see beauty, and sometimes the scabs and scars are the beauty.”

Stylish, primal and sinister ‘In Times New Roman…’ is QOTSA embracing a raw brutality that’s not only represented by their sonic signature but the record’s artwork. A bequiffed rockabilly character is depicted with a leather jacket and slicked back hair that’s been possessed by a rabid wolf-like creature, as demonic hands with razor sharp claws encircle the album’s titular focal point. It’s as wicked and as sinful as you’d expect from a unit of outlaws peddling sleazy tunes that walk a fine line between good and evil.

If ‘Villans’ was the group’s embracing a rock ‘n’ roll playfulness, ‘In Times New Roman…’ is the fivesome ratcheting up the attitude for something altogether denser and meaner but not without a decent helping of hip-wiggling sassiness. Thematically, Homme’s lyrics appear to be left open to interpretation but with that, they reveal themselves to be, at times, personal barbs aimed at toxic behaviours and self-inflicted wounds. Opener ‘Obscenery’, with its thick, meaty sound has the totem pole-like frontman direct his ire at someone with self-destructive tendencies “self-help but you won’t help yourself/you must be pleased with the misery you’ve designed”. Notably, the record’s first track comes in hard with its full-bodied riffs and thunderous drums but it’s not a straight forward A to B rock song, as it meanders into a cinematic mid-section before circling back to a cacophonous din. With Homme as the record’s preacher, you’re guided through the world of ‘In Times New Roman…’ by his astute observations and cutting commentary; ‘Negative Space’s slow, guttural stomp captures the frontman in a reflective mood as he ruminates “we’ll never get back to where we were/starring into oblivion/oooo/it hurts” with a bellowed delivery.

‘What The Peephole Say’ comes out swinging with a shimmy and shake that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ‘Villains’ and amongst the toe-tapping frivolity a message of impending doom pokes out between the cracks like weeds in a perfectly manicured flowerbed “I don’t care what the people know/the world’s gonna end in a month or so”. Then there’s the menacing rumble of ‘Made to Parade’ that depicts a subservient culture and seemingly a disparaging side eye aimed at life in the corporate machine “climb that ladder/you gotta hold your tongue” and “a bloated corporation/they work you like a slave” sound all too relatable for the cubicle, desk jockeys among us. ‘Time and Place’ is another track that showcases the band’s virtuosity, as the song evolves from stunted staccato to woozy psychedelia with a touch of the wild west as Homme observes a ne’er-do-well who’s rotten to the core “the space in your heart baby/it generates your hate” while describing this figure as someone who’d better watch their back “you’ve got a lot of nerve coming round this place/if you’re a pretty boy/you’ve got to save face”. ‘In Times New Roman…’ comes to a head via the sprawling nine-minute odyssey of ‘Straight Jacket Fitting’ which on the surface sounds eerie and demonic. It’s here where Homme exposes his fleshy vulnerabilities during the record’s final throes “hold me close/I’m confused and I wanna go out”. Sonically again, this is where the band switch multiple gears from beefed up rock to something the resembles medieval.

Times New Roman might be one of the most vanilla of font choices but make no mistake, the QOTSA LP of the same name is anything but ordinary. In fact, it’s a spicy sucker waiting tantalise your musical taste buds.

To celebrate some much-needed music from Queens of the Stone Age, below are the albums of theirs you need to know about. From their debut of 1998 (which is twenty-five in September), through to their latest, it is clear there is nobody in the music world…

QUITE like them!

______________

The Debut

 

Queens of the Stone Age

Release Date: 22nd September, 1998

Labels: Loosegroove/Roadrunner/Man's Ruin

Producers: Joe Barresi/Josh Homme

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/queens-of-the-stone-age/queens-of-the-stone-age

U.S. Chart Position: 122

Standout Tracks: Walkin on the Sidewalks/Mexicola/I Was a Teenage Hand Model

Review (Reissue):

“Well, first off this album was put out by three labels on its initial release, and now isn’t on any of them. Man’s Ruin, the label of poster artist Frank Kozik (whose sleeve design has been preserved for this reissue, and still looks godawful), and Stone Gossard’s Loosegroove have both since folded; Roadrunner, who released the CD outside of the States, have been inexplicably unfussed about keeping Queens Of The Stone Age in print, and have now ceded copyright to Homme’s own imprint, Rekords Rekords, in collaboration with Domino. (Another entity who look very different now than in 1998, when they probably never envisaged putting out a record by any American band who weren’t on first-name terms with Will Oldham, let alone this one.) So now you know.

Other changes of note are a full remaster, which has actually made a palpable difference to the plumpness of the bass in songs like ‘Hispanic Impressions’, and three extra tracks, all released on split EPs prior to this album coming out. They haven’t ruined it or anything daft, but also aren’t cooking at the level of most of the actual album, and would have been better placed on one of Homme’s jam-heavy and ‘zany’ Desert Sessions releases from the time.

Various ex-Kyuss types taking that band’s gargantuan, retro-metal foundations and building on them.

No, not really: even ‘various’, which implies more Kyuss personnel than Homme and drummer Alfredo Hernandez (Nick Oliveri wouldn’t become a member until 2000’s Rated R). The guitarist’s thick, valve-massaging tone didn’t radically alter from one band to the next, but QOTSA was evidently an outlet for him to play with structure, form and influence in a way Kyuss didn’t. A sly jangle amidst the semi-romantic psych-rock of ‘You Can’t Quit Me Baby’; ‘You Would Know’, as dually surreal and resigned as the Meat Puppets. Meanwhile, the songs you could see as a poppier redux of his old band – ‘Walkin’ On The Sidewalks’, ‘How To Handle A Rope’ – are just great, unfussy open-road hard rock burnups.

In amongst the massed banks of superheavy guitar is ‘Regular John’, which sounds like Black Sabbath covering Stereolab (honest!),

Basically, the above is saying that this kid hasn’t listened to Neu! yet, and not much Sabbath either for that matter, but if you can figure out that it means a super-strict motorik beat and some chuggy metal riffs, it’s done its job, as ‘Regular John’ features both those things. For my money, it’s still the best thing Queens have ever done, and the fact that it didn’t usher in a new and recognisable subset of heavy rock is no fault of theirs; more likely the fact that in the late Nineties, every town in Europe and North America had its own band gamely, fruitlessly trying to be as good as Kyuss by aping them.

and the dreamy tomfoolery and terrifying FX of ‘I Was A Teenage Hand Model’.

‘Terrifying’ might be stretching a point, but there is some dead loud Moog-y noise at the end of this song, the album’s closer, which might make you jump slightly if you’re not expecting it. Otherwise, matters are fairly dreamy, if only because Homme sings like he’s just woken up, and the electric piano and hand percussion wheeling him along isn’t much more energetic. It occupies the same position on the album as ‘I Think I Lost My Headache’ on Rated R, and is cut from a similar cloth.

Mmm, lovely.

Mmm, insightful. Circa 1998, though, Queens Of The Stone Age was a breed apart from almost everything else, as much as the year yielded scads of fine records. The fact it’s been frequently tricky to actually buy the thing makes it look a mite, how you say, Ipreferredtheearlierstuff to suggest it’s their career highpoint, but at the very least it contains several individual moments of outstanding achievement. It’s probably also helped by the fact that it recalls a time when to see a band list Queens Of The Stone Age as an influence wouldn’t have told you they were going to be shit, as it now does” – Drowned in Sound

Key Cut: Regular John

The Three Essential Albums

 

Rated R

Release Date: 6th June, 2000

Label: Interscope

Producers: Chris Goss/Josh Homme

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/queens-of-the-stone-age/rated-r-2

U.S. Chart Position: 16

Standout Tracks: Feel Good Hit of the Summer/Monsters in the Parasol/Tension Head

Review (Deluxe Edition):

“Everyone needs a mantra. For Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri, and the rotating cast of Queens of the Stone Age, it was short, catchy, debauched: "Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy, and alcohol." And for good measure: "C-c-c-c-c-cocaine." Over and over again. Sixteen times. For the first song on their second album it was a rallying cry, the perfect chorus, a clever verse, and a sort of philosophical exposition. But it was also a misnomer.

Rated R was tagged as stoner rock almost immediately upon release in 2000, in part because of those seven substances, but mostly because the band rose from the ashes of early-1990s Palm Desert sun gods Kyuss. Homme, a plangent, riff-obsessed guitarist, and Oliveri, a manic golem of a man and a mighty bass player, formed the backbone of that band with a mechanized sense of bang-and-smash structure. Studied repetition and precision are unlikely virtues for weedheads, but then these are unlikely musicians. When Homme formed the Queens after Kyuss disbanded, he carried that sense of exacting musculature with him but also brought a surprisingly seductive croon-- able to burrow low and also swing high into falsetto. After a modest, chugging self-titled debut, his frantic pal Oliveri joined the band.

What they forged was familiar but also wildly different from that stoner rock-- a term Homme has always rejected. In turn, they made one of the last great modern hard rock records and something deceptively tuneful, groove-bitten, and even melancholic. As soon as the mantra is laid bare, QOTSA begin to dance away, with things like "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret", which amounts to a really great Blue Öyster Cult song, and the funk stroll of "Leg of Lamb". Suddenly a pattern, from mellow grace notes to head-smash riffs, sometimes colliding into each other, begins to set in.

Homme has never been much of a lyricist, preferring to weave in fragments of thought and word puzzles. Rated R is rarely about things, more often about feelings-- a chest-beating energy, a confusing head trip, or a dissipating sadness. Former Screaming Trees frontman and longtime Homme buddy Mark Lanegan began his relationship with the band on "In the Fade", an intoxicating and solemn song that has gone a bit unnoticed as the years have passed. Lanegan eventually became a full-time member of the band, but he was never better than the first time. When the song concludes, a reprise of the mantra kicks back in, a fitful reminder to shake the melodrama and remember the cocaine.

Ten years later, Rated R sounds vital, if a bit unusual. Credible hard rock is a tough sell these days. It's been three years since Queens released their last album, Era Vulgaris, and six years since Homme fired his old friend Oliveri-- a notorious party monster who consumed with vigor and often performed in the nude, his bass strapped across his crotch like a phallic totem. They grew bigger, recruiting Dave Grohl to play drummer and writing more riff beasts, but they've never been as fearless. To celebrate the decade since, the band has included the perfunctory bonus disc, with seven B-sides, including a goofy cover the Kinks' "Who'll Be the Next in Line", an even sillier Carly Simon parody called "You're So Vague", and a surprisingly sly take on Romeo Void's new wave classic, "Never Say Never". They've also tacked on a nine-song live set from the 2000 Reading Festival that features Homme hilariously saying, "This is a song for you," to the audience before four consecutive songs. Stoners.

But it's the unlikely things about Rated R that stick with you: The bongos that open "Better Living Through Chemistry"; Lanegan's existential wail on "In the Fade"; Rob Halford's backing vocals on "Feel Good Hit of the Summer". The gentle, acoustic interlude "Lightning Song" feels like a cold splash of sea water after Oliveri's scorched-earth demon screech on "Tension Head". There are no down or off moments here. "I Think I Lost My Headache" closes things with a squealing three-minute brass outro; it's a typically unexpected move from a band making a surprising leap. Rated R didn't defy convention because it didn't seem to have a working text. Only a mantra” – Pitchfork

Key Cut: The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret

Lullabies to Paralyze

Release Date: 22nd March, 2005

Label: Interscope

Producers: Joe Barresi/Josh Homme

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/queens-of-the-stone-age/lullabies-to-paralyze-1

U.S. Chart Position: 5

Standout Tracks: Everybody Knows That You’re Insane/Someone's in the Wolf/The Blood Is Love

Review:

“Before heading into the studio in early 2004 to record the fourth Queens of the Stone Age album, Lullabies to Paralyze, the band's guitarist/vocalist/chief songwriter, Josh Homme, kicked out bassist Nick Oliveri for undisclosed reasons. Since Homme and Oliveri were longtime collaborators, dating back to the 1990 formation of their previous band, Kyuss, this could have been a cause for concern, but QOTSA is not an ordinary band, so ordinary rules do not apply. Throughout their history, from Kyuss through Queens of the Stone Age's 2002 breakthrough Songs for the Deaf, Homme and Oliveri have been in bands whose lineups were as steady as quicksand; their projects were designed to have a revolving lineup of musicians, so they can withstand the departure of key musicians, even one as seemingly integral to the grand scheme as Oliveri -- after all, he left Kyuss in 1994 and the band carried on without him. Truth is, the mastermind behind QOTSA has always been Josh Homme -- he's the common thread through the Kyuss and QOTSA albums, the guy who has explored a similar musical vision on his side project the Desert Sessions -- and since he's wildly indulging his obsessions on Lullabies to Paralyze, even hardcore fans will be hard-pressed to notice the absence of Oliveri here. Sure, there are some differences -- most notably, Lullabies lacks the manic metallic flourishes of their earlier work, and the gonzo humor and gimmicks, such as the radio DJ banter on Deaf, are gone -- but it all sounds like an assured, natural progression from the tightly wound, relentless Songs for the Deaf. That album contained genuine crossover pop tunes in "No One Knows" and "Go With the Flow," songs that retained QOTSA's fuzzy, heavy neo-psychedelic hard rock and were channeled through an irresistible melodic filter that gave the music a serious sexiness that was nearly as foreign to the band as the undeniable pop hooks. Homme has pulled off a surprise of a similar magnitude on Lullabies to Paralyze -- he doesn't walk away from these breakthroughs but marries them to the widescreen art rock of R and dark, foreboding metal of Kyuss, resulting in a rich, late-night cinematic masterpiece. One of the reasons QOTSA have always been considered a musician's band is that they are masters of mood, either sustaining tension over the course of a six-minute epic or ratcheting up excitement in the course of a two-minute blast, all while using a familiar palette of warm, fuzz-toned guitars, ghostly harmonies, and minor-key melodies. While Lullabies is hardly a concept album, its songs play off each other as if it were a song cycle, progressing from the somber Mark Lanegan-sung opening salvo of "This Lullaby" and steadily growing spookier with each track, culminating in the scary centerpiece "Someone's in the Wolf." The key to QOTSA's darkness is that it's delivered seductively -- this isn't an exercise in shallow nihilism, there's pleasure in succumbing to its eerie, sexy fantasies -- and that seductiveness is all musical. Specific lyrics don't matter as much as how Homme's voice blends into the band as all the instruments bleed together as one, creating an elastic, hypnotic force that finds endless, fascinating variations on a seemingly simple sound. Simply put, there is no other rock band in 2005 that is as pleasurable to hear play as QOTSA -- others may rock harder or take more risks, but no one has the command and authority of Queens at their peak, which they certainly are here. They are so good, so natural on Lullabies to Paralyze that it's easy to forget that they just lost Oliveri, but that just makes Homme's triumph here all the more remarkable. He's not only proven that he is the driving force of Queens of the Stone Age, but he's made an addictive album that begs listeners to get lost in its ever-shifting moods and slyly sinister sensuality” – AllMusic

Key Cut: Burn the Witch

...Like Clockwork

Release Date: 3rd June, 2013

Label: Matador

Producers: Josh Homme/James Lavelle/Queens of the Stone Age

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/queens-of-the-stone-age/like-clockwork

U.S. Chart Position: 1

Standout Tracks: Fairweather Friends/Smooth Sailing/I Appear Missing

Review:

“Josh Homme and his all-star pals prove the virtue of taking your sweet time on a record that’s as self-assured as it is damn sexy. Most bands don’t leave their fans waiting six long years for a new album. They don’t then promote said record by getting a creepy robot to leave their fans unsettling voicemails. And they definitely don’t enlist a chef to write the album notes. But Queens Of The Stone Age aren’t most bands. As badass menu maverick Anthony Bourdain says in ‘…Like Clockwork’’s accompanying bumf: “[Josh] Homme has consistently demonstrated a business plan of not giving a shit.” The heroic frontman and kingpin of these desert titans might not care about industry whys and wherefores, but Josh Homme gives every single last fuck when it comes to crafting blow-your-mind-and-incinerate-your-crotch rock’n’roll.

As contemporary hard-as-nails guitar music’s most imposing figure – and not just because he stands at 6 foot 4, has a fondness for triple denim and looks like a pre-Raphaelite, Triumph-straddling Elvis – Josh has earned the right to do what the hell he wants. Thankfully, that’s gathering his world-beating buddies in his Pink Duck studio in LA and laying down an unrelenting juggernaut.

Much has been made already of the high-end guests. The core collaborators from QOTSA’s classic ‘Songs For The Deaf’ are scattered across the release, Josh once again motoring across the crest of Dave Grohl’s brutal drums with Mark Lanegan and Nick Oliveri popping up briefly to ride sidecar. Then there’s turns from Arctic Monkey Alex Turner, Scissor Sister Jake Shears, Nine Inch Nail Trent Reznor and, bafflingly, brilliantly, Sir Elton John. Not that you’d know any of this unless you were told. Their restrained assistance means there’s no danger of this turning into a sprawling, unfocused ‘Josh and friends’ record.

Considering their lengthy absence, to return with a double album would have been more than acceptable, but ‘…Like Clockwork’ comes in at a mere 10 tracks. The crap filter has been whacked up to 11 and the groove-o-tron set to interstellar for the band’s slickest offering to date. Al Turner slinks through the saloon doors for ‘If I Had A Tail’, a track predatory enough to warrant a restraining order. “I wanna suck/I wanna lick/

I wanna cry/I wanna spit”, growls Josh, against a grimy strip-bar swagger. It’s the perv-funk sound of drunkenly sinking into sticky leather couches for steamy make-out sessions in dimly lit Hollywood smut-pits.

The same filthy feeling abounds on the ferocious but perfectly polished ‘Smooth Sailing’. “I’m in flagrante/In every way”, confesses Josh, before adding, almost as an afterthought, “I blow my load over the status quo”. Quite. Yet there’s also a more meditative flipside to ‘…Like Clockwork’. ‘The Vampyre Of Time And Memory’ is a startlingly low-key piano hymnal, even with its flashes of Giorgio Moroder synths and cocaine-soul guitar solo. Its confessional lyrics, set against a twisted power ballad melody, come on like an even more fucked-up Fleetwood Mac. “Does anyone ever get this right?/I feel no love”, purrs Josh. ‘Kalopsia’, featuring Reznor, is another haunting slow jam, but pulls a flick-knife chorus on you, amping up the menace with eerie backing vocals that echo the melancholy “sha-bop- sha-bop”s of The Flamingos’ version of skulking doo-wop ode ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’.

‘…Like Clockwork’ closes with the title track, perhaps the least QOTSA-sounding song ever. If MGM are hunting the next Bond movie theme creator, this should swing it for Josh, as he indulges his dexterous falsetto, channelling the sweeping, string-laden ’60s scores of John Barry, with production help with the man from UNKLE, James Lavelle. Last year, Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil praised Queens Of The Stone Age for their ability to make sexy records. “Which I think is hard to do in a rock band,” he said. That’s because Queens Of The Stone Age aren’t most rock bands – they’re the rock band” – NME

Key Cut: My God Is the Sun

The Classic

 

Songs for the Deaf

Release Date: 27th August, 2002

Label: Interscope

Producers: Josh Homme/Adam Kasper/Eric Valentine

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/queens-of-the-stone-age/songs-for-the-deaf

U.S. Chart Position: 17

Standout Tracks: Go with the Flow/Do It Again/God Is in the Radio

Review:

 “On their third album, Songs for the Deaf, Queens of the Stone Age are so concerned with pleasing themselves with what they play that they don't give a damn for the audience. This extends to the production, with the entire album framed as a broadcast from a left-of-the-dial AM radio station, the sonics compressed so every instrument is flattened. It’s a joke run wild, punctuated by an ironic mock DJ, and it fits an album where the players run wild. As usual, Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri have brought in a number of guests, including Mark Lanegan on vocals and Dean Ween on guitar, but they’ve anchored themselves with the drumming of the mighty Dave Grohl, who helps give the band the muscle sorely missing from most guitar rock these days, whether it's indie rock or insipid alt-metal. QOTSA may be a muso band -- a band for musicians and those who have listened to too much music; why else did the greatest drummer and greatest guitarist in '90s alt-rock (Grohl and Ween, respectively) anxiously join this ever-shifting collective? -- but that’s the pleasure of the band, and Songs for the Deaf in particular: it’s restless and pummeling in its imagination and power” - AllMusic

Key Cut: No One Knows

The Underrated Gem/For the Diehards

 

Era Vulgaris

Release Date: 12th June, 2007

Labels: Interscope/Rekords

Producers: The Fififf Teeners (Chris Goss and Josh Homme)

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/queens-of-the-stone-age/era-vulgaris-1

U.S. Chart Position: 14

Standout Tracks: Into the Hollow/Misfit Love/Suture Up Your Future

Review:

“I’M ONE OF a kind,” Josh Homme boasts on the new Queens of the Stone Age album. “I’m designer!” Well, that’s one way to put it. There aren’t any others like him, that’s for sure, and he’s never been an easy one to figure out. Here’s a rock star who seems to shuffle his band’s lineup as often as he shaves his back, yet who always sounds like himself, making fun of solemn art types but working harder than any of them. He manages to be the token metal dude for indie kids and the token punk for headbangers, without compromising for either camp. Homme makes music in all kinds of incarnations — the Queens, Eagles of Death Metal, his endless Desert Sessions projects. But he always seems to inhabit his own musical world, a zone where lost kids chase the desert acid-trip vibe of classic Seventies midnight movies like Vanishing Point and Two-Lane Blacktop. Really, the scene in Vanishing Point where the naked hippie chick cruises across the desert sand on her Harley, blasting Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen,” could be the starting point for every song on this album.

Era Vulgaris is Homme’s fifth Queens album, and like the others, it’s intricately crafted, meticulously polished and ruthlessly efficient in its pursuit of depraved rock thrills, with robotic rhythm machines like “Turning on the Screw” and “I’m Designer.” Last time, Homme got slept on with the excellent but underrated Lullabies to Paralyze — people were thrown off initially by its down-in-the-dumps mood, which may be why the music took longer to kick in for some fans. But Era Vulgaris is a lot cockier than Lullabies, clobbering you instantly with guitars louder and uglier than a psychedelic biker party at Joshua Tree’s Skull Rock. “Misfit Love” is the ultimate Queens anthem, all low-register guitar crunch, with a percussion track that sounds like tennis balls the size of Betelgeuse crashing into a Moog factory. Homme snarls, “I wanna see my past in flames,” and he gets his wish.

Supposedly, his party buddies at the Era Vulgaris sessions included Trent Reznor, the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas and regular guest Mark Lanegan. But none of them are really audible — are you surprised? Instead, we get the many moods of Josh Homme, most of which concern the miracle of physical love and the procurement thereof. He’s always said he wanted the Queens to be a band for the ladies, not the menfolk, and from the vocals to the bass lines this is his most crotch-tensive music. “Make It Wit Chu” is an old Desert Sessions song, revamped into a ridiculous lover-boy plaint, with Homme doing his sleaziest falsetto over a lounge-lizard cousin of Neil Young’s “Southern Man.” “Into the Hollow” is a surprisingly tender purple-haze ballad, with Homme’s vibrato amid a gently quivering wah-wah and the usual assload of bass. “Run Pig Run” is staccato jackhammer blues metal, “3’s and 7’s” sounds like prime Nirvana and “Sick, Sick, Sick” is manic punk riffing, offering “a lick on the lips and a grip on your hips.” All excellent news for Brody Dalle.

Homme is a man of many surprises. Here’s something you wouldn’t expect about Era Vulgaris: the influence of New Wave synth geek Gary Numan is all over this record. Even rave-ups like “Battery Acid,” “Suture Up Your Future” and “3’s and 7’s” have vintage-synth hooks copped from The Pleasure Principle — it may sound crazy, but if there’s one thing you should have learned about Homme by now, he’ll heist a badass riff from anywhere. In “I’m Designer,” he sings about his “generation” and means it, his fey falsetto a parody of hippie cosmic aspirations. But even though the joke is a great one, you hear that falsetto, and you realize it’s here for one main reason, just like every other sonic flourish on Era Vulgaris: Josh Homme loves how it sounds” – Rolling Stone

Key Cut: Sick, Sick, Sick

…The One Before In Times New Roman…

 

Villains

Release Date: 25th August, 2017

Label: Matador

Producer: Mark Ronson

Buy: https://hmv.com/store/music/vinyl/villains-coloured-2lp?gclid=CjwKCAjwp6CkBhB_EiwAlQVyxTibmy-rUKThwhPgebQ8lz2yUoG2lNvr5BsnDuzhp9ZxhqKzBiHAnhoCaWUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

U.S. Chart Position: 3

Standout Tracks: Feet Don't Fail Me/The Way You Used to Do/Head Like a Haunted House

Review:

“Queens of the Stone Age’s new album opens with a spot of self-mythologising. “I was born in the desert, May 17, in 73,” croons Josh Homme on Feet Don’t Fail Me. “When the needle hit the groove, I commence to moving / I was chasing what’s calling me.” Since the departure of frequently nude bassist Nick Oliveri 13 years ago, Queens have had a largely stable lineup, familiar to most listeners as Homme and some other blokes who could have “I’m in Queens of the Stone Age” tattooed on their foreheads and still provoke the question: “I’m sorry, what band are you in?” The myth-making is likely all Homme’s.

Over the course of Queens of the Stone Age’s 20-year career, he has been adept at making it clear what the band represent, and manipulating perceptions. Their breakout song, 2000’s Feelgood Hit of the Summer – whose entire lyrics were repetitions of “Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol, c-c-c-c-c-cocaine” – helped create the image of chemsex desert vikings, riding out of the mountains on choppers to set up generator parties at which all attendees swallowed kilos of pills and had it off with anything that moved: man, woman or motorcycle.

Yet, for all the machismo of their image, Queens of the Stone Age have rarely actually sounded like that. “Rock should be heavy enough for the boys and sweet enough for the girls,” Homme once said, and there has always been something strikingly feminine about Homme himself. He might be tall, and undeniably less lithe than the average rock star, but his voice never snaps into the traditional rock snarl. He frequently ascends to a falsetto to supplement the croon; he sounds more like a glass of Baileys than a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, the only hard rock singer who audibly owes more to Mel Tormé than Rob Halford.

There’s also the fact that Homme would be be unable to maintain his insane work rate if he actually were spending all his time having it off. This is the seventh Queens album, and there have been four Eagles of Death Metal records, one with Them Crooked Vultures, 10 Desert Sessions EPs, a collaboration with Iggy Pop, assorted production jobs and more: 31 other collaborations of varying degrees of seriousness. Perhaps, then, “what’s calling me” is actually a strict Protestant work ethic rather than the open road, a woman and a bag of drugs.

Though QOTSA never employ the single-minded focus of Status Quo or the Ramones or AC/DC, you can be fairly sure that certain elements will recur, as they do on Villains. There will be robotic boogie (The Way You Used To), there will be a riff reduced to the point of barely existing (Domesticated Animals), there will be something doomily psychedelic (Hideaway). There will be nods to old heroes too, though this time it seems they weren’t summoned to the studio – they content themselves with briefly nabbing the guitar hook from Neil Young’s Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black), on Fortress.

The presence of Mark Ronson as producer hasn’t made a whole lot of difference (regular engineer Mark Rankin is in place anyway, and one suspects his contribution is substantial). There are bursts of synthesiser, but Queens of the Stone Age were always funky, so Ronson didn’t have to draft in horn sections and samples and attempt some grisly cut-and-shut of Uptown Funk and Regular John. Feet Don’t Fail Me, in particular, sounds like it could work on a dancefloor, a less brutish iteration of the kind of choppy minimalism that gave No One Knows such force.

The nearest Homme and co come to sounding unlike Queens of the Stone Age is on the closer, Villains of Circumstance, which erupts from a brooding, subdued verse into a sunlit shuffle of a chorus that recalls a beefed-up version of Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World. That reference alone provides the reason a Queens of the Stone Age album is of interest outside the worlds of denim and leather: they rarely see a song to completion for reasons of heaviness alone. There has to be melody, and Homme has the voice to support melodies substantially sweeter and more supple than hard rock normally deals with.

Queens of the Stone Age will never regain the shock value they had when Rated R came out, 17 years ago. But they don’t need to. Despite Homme’s self-mythologising, they long since ceased to be a desert rock band; they’re simply a great rock’n’roll group” – The Guardian

Key Cut: Domesticated Animals

FEATURE: The Foundation of Hounds of Love: 15th June, 1983: With Failure Comes Opportunity…

FEATURE:

 

 

The Foundation of Hounds of Love

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed in 1983, in a shoot where she wanted to replicate the cover of Depeche Mode’s A Broken Frame/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Griffin

15th June, 1983: With Failure Comes Opportunity…

_________

JULY is a busy month…

for music. You get some of the best albums released this month. I am looking ahead and excited about that. When it comes to Kate Bush, she had some eventful and important Julys in her career. When looking at that timeline, I found an important June date I wanted to discuss more. On 15th June, 1983, something quite important happened. I am going to look back forty years at a key date in Bush’s career. For a bit of context, her fourth studio album, The Dreaming, was released in September 1982. It was a chart success and did earn some positive reviews, though some were confused and befuddled by a denser and more experimental sound. Maybe expecting something more accessible and radio-friendly, some were not sure what to make of the phenomenal The Dreaming. Bush rested a bit after the album, but there was the business of promotional interviews and appearances. It was asked whether Bush – who solo produced The Dreaming – would produce her next studio album. EMI were not happy The Dreaming took a while to complete, and they were hoping for bigger album sales and chart plaudit. As I discussed in previous features, 1983 was a pivotal and important year for Bush. She was finishing promotion of The Dreaming and looking ahead for her next album. Even if she was pleased with the results, she knew something needed to change going forward. Long working hours, very little outside time and a poor diet meant, when she emerged from recording, she was perhaps not in the best state of mind and body. 1983 provided this chance to revitalise, retune and recharge.

1983 was a year of transition and releases. I will come to the releases. After The Dreaming did succeed on the charts and arrived a few years after her first tour, there was pressure on her to tour again. I think a lot of the pressure arose when one considers that only one single, Sat in Your Lap, was a success. All other single releases were a disappointment. Bush has always said she enjoyed 1979’s The Tour of Life. But maybe she needed another album under her belt so that she had more options regarding setlist and concepts. Rather wonderfully, I guess also as a way of getting Kate Bush’s music to new people, there were plans for a memoir. Leaving My Tracks was planned and then scrapped. Some say that was scrapped in 1984, but I think it was as early as May 1983 when she sat that aside. It makes me wonder whether there were moments after that when she thought about picking up pen and paper – though her career sort of got in the way of that I guess! Bush did some writing and demo work for the album that would become 1985’s Hounds of Love. The rest of 1983 was busy with plans of expanding her impact and popularity. In November '83, EMI came up with the idea of touring the Live at Hammersmith Odeon video around the American colleges. It went as far as thirty-two venues being set up. There was a competition for the college radio programmers for the best presentation. The prize was a trip to the U.K. to interview Kate. It was a bit of a nuts idea! I think there was this desire for Bush to connect more with American audiences.

Her music was starting to touch audiences, but I think college-aged music lovers were a particularly key demographics that might not have been fully on board. The Dreaming did get into the US Billboard 200, and there was growing awareness of Bush and her music. Although Bush did not tour and play in America, she did do promotion there. She would be over there in 1985 to talk about Hounds of Love (though some of the interviewees were not that informed or up on her music, causing some awkward moments and facial poses!). Forward to November 1983, and Night of the Swallow is released as a single in EIRE (with very little success). As a way of both completing the promotional cycle for The Dreaming and packaging what she had done so far, The Single File video compilation was released in November '83. Bush did some personal appearances in London and Greater London. There was a lot happening early in 1984. I will cover that in a future feature. Although many in the media asked, mere weeks before the arrival of Hounds of Love was announced, whether Kate Bush has disappeared or gone mad, it was clear that she was very busy and on the radar! Even though she was not releasing albums, there was music out there. Bush was both finishing with The Dreaming, promoting The Single File, discussing plans with America. There was also this look towards making album number fifth birth successful and less strenuous and draining than The Dreaming.

Slap bang in the middle of a very interesting and busy 1983, something happening overseas directly impacted her plans at home. There was a bit of personal hesitation when it came to releasing the Kate Bush E.P. in the U.S. On 15th June, 1983, it was released there. Still relatively unknown, the E.P. peaked at No. 148 in the US Billboard Pop Albums chart. It was also released in Canada too. Bush was better known and loved there (arguably, it took until 2022 for America to fully embrace and get Kate Bush!). The cover, not the very best, I think was designed to be striking and eye-grabbing – and it depicts Bush in a still from the video of Babooshka (from 1980’s Never for Ever). Bush wanted Sat in Your Lap to be included (and it was), but she was not overly-happy with the track selections. You can see that it is a bit random and not concerned with quality. More about the range of her material. She did like that Un baiser d'enfant (the French recording of The Infant Kiss from Never for Ever). Both The Rolling Stone Album Guide and Spin Alternative Record Guide gave it mixed reviews. The Single File box set came in 1984, whilst her first and only greatest hits album, The Whole Story, was released in 1986. It was quite new, in June 1983, for Bush to see her music in a compilation. Maybe dubious of the fact it was a cash-in or a last-ditch attempt to win territory and make her more visible, the thought of promoting the E.P. in the U.S. would have been a bit shoulder-shrugging and ill-timed!

Bush did have to promote her albums, but as this was an E.P., it did seem a bit excessive. After a busy 1982, she was thinking about having some downtime and chance to focus on a new album. After a U.S. tour was booked in promotion of Kate Bush, it was cancelled at the last moment because of engine failure on the Queen Elizabeth II. Kate Bush and the late Queen didn’t always have the best of luck and connection! Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that her ship was grounded. In April 2013, Bush met The Queen when she was awarded a CBE. Years before, in 2005, she met The Queen for the first time and asked her for an autograph that she would give to her son, Bertie. Breaking protocol, she was politely told that this was not possible! Bush took it in good humour but admitted she had made a tit of herself. Bush and The Queen had this interesting and eventful history. Anyway, the fact Bush could not get to the U.S. – she had a fear of flying and guess a flight there was not an appealing prospect! -, that gave her opportunity to focus on her music. I think that she was relieved she could not get to the U.S. during a busy time. She loved her fans there, but priorities closer to home were at the front of her mind. As we mark forty years (15th June) of the Kate Bush E.P., we also mark forty years of a moment when the foundations of Hounds of Love were being built. Quite literally.

Following that tour cancellation, the realisation of a long-planned project begins with the construction of Kate Bush’s own home studio. Initially equipped with 24 tracks, then expanded to 48. Construction and equipping would take six months (an Early Christmas present!). Right near her East Wickham Farm family home, I can imagine Bush discussing American plans and going there for a tour, before being told it was not happening due to the Queen Elizabeth II. She could then use that bit of luck to push ahead with something she had in her mind for a while. Bush did like the idea of working in different studios and getting that experience, though the fatigue and cost of recording ta multiple studios for The Dreaming was a moment of clarity. It was clear, as she wanted to produce her fifth album and not compromise that, recording across expensive studios for months was not happening. Instead, as she had earned a bit of money and had the means to get her bespoke home studio constructed, this was instrumental regarding Hounds of Love’s sound and success. I don’t think the songs and album would have been the same or hit as hard if it were recorded at professional studios where Bush was going through the same experiences and endless hours whilst recording The Dreaming. She needed to make some big personal and professional decisions. Having the blueprints handed over and work started on this studio, it would be this great recording space with a dance studio/area where she could re-focus on one of her great loves.

Rather than heading to the U.S. and spending time on the road pushing an E.P., instead Bush could watch as her idea of a home studio was coming to life! It would take until the end of the year to fully take shape, but she was busy in the second half of 1983. There would have been ideas and seeds of songs. I think that the concept for The Ninth Wave (the conceptual second side of Hounds of Love) was in her mind. I love the fact that summer 1983 saw Bush able to find some personal time and space. The studio was more or less completed by January 1984, so it was a mixture of seeing it grow and become more real by the day, combined with some time with her family and boyfriend. A few months prior to ideas and demos coming about for her to disconnect. 15th June, 1983 was an important moment. If Bush went to the U.S., it would have put on hold the studio. Not that it would have changed the course and success of Hounds of Love, but it would have pushed things back. Would Bush appearing in America have boosted her profile and made Hounds of Love more successful there? As it was, the album reached thirty on the US Billboard 200, in spite of a few less than kind reviews there (Hounds of Love was a number one album in the U.K.). I don’t think Bush promoting in the U.S. would have changed things too much! Let’s celebrate the fortieth anniversary of a fortuitous event that is one of the earliest moments of Hounds of Love: the home studio going from conception to fully being committed to. On behalf of all Kate Bush fans, I felt that this event and important date was…

SOMETHING worth marking!

FEATURE: Fast Out of the Gates: Five Incredible 2023 Debut Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

Fast Out of the Gates

IN THIS PHOTO: Kara Jackson/PHOTO CREDIT: Lawrence Agyei for The New Yorker 

Five Incredible 2023 Debut Albums

_________

AS we are half-way through 2023…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Blondshell (Sabrina Teitelbaum)/PHOTO CREDIT: Jonathan Weiner for NME

I wanted to put out a few features that collates the best work so far. I have done features regarding albums and singles. There have been some incredible debut albums released this year. The debut is one of the hardest releases, as you need to get attention right away - though it can take artists a few albums to really hit their peak. However, there are those debut albums that are instantly magnificent! It sort of takes a bit of the pressure off when it comes to a follow-up. This year has been a good one when it comes to new artists, but we have also seen some brilliant debut albums. I want to focus on five that you need to know about. These are artists/bands who have put out debuts that are going to stand the test of time. I don’t think it will be a case of eyes being on them to see if they can top the debut. Instead, it will be the excitement of hearing new music from incredible artists who hit the ground running! Below are five tremendous albums from this year. They are all…

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Waeve (Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall)/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Gullick

AMAZING opening statements!

__________

Blondshell – Blondshell

Release Date: 7th April

Producer: Yves Rothman

Label: Partisan

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/blondshell/blondshell

Standout Tracks: Olympus/Sepsis/Tarmac

Review:

“That lead single – “Olympus” – introduced the foundations of the project’s songwriting: diaristic confession, caustic lyricism, and 90s alt-rock hooks in the vein of bands like Hole. Since that first single, she’s quickly become an exciting rising star on the indie scene, releasing a series of tracks all leading up to her debut self-titled record. Those who have been listening likely know the contours of the record going in, especially since five of its nine tracks have already been released as singles. Still, it’s a testament to the songwriting on display that Teitelbaum largely delivers on the hyped promise of her debut.

The album opens in explosive fashion with the grunge-tinged edges of “Veronica Mars”, which quickly builds from a tense, thrumming opening into a searing guitar-laden finale. Those quiet-loud builds that once were a staple of alt-rock radio come out in full force throughout the record, delivering captivating bursts of angst, anger, and longing on tracks like “Kiss City” and “Tarmac”. Meanwhile, other tracks find Teitelbaum crafting tightly written pop-rock gems. “Sepsis” and “Salad” layer on the sharp hooks and biting lyrics in equal measure, while the sun-dappled sheen of “Joiner” makes for a gentler sonic detour, full of crystalline beauty.

The record feels thoroughly steeped in these 90s influences, evoking Gen X’s generational touchstones like Live Through This and Exile in Guyville. However, Teitelbaum avoids sounding like a mere imitator. She isn’t simply trying on an aesthetic but instead finding where her songwriting voice lies. Before Blondshell, Teitelbaum had been building momentum under the moniker Baum, leaning far more heavily into the indie pop zeitgeist of the pre-pandemic years. In contrast, the songs on Blondshell came together during the lockdown era, when Teitelbaum had the chance to retreat inward, reconnect with her musical roots, and make the music she truly wanted to hear.

If there is a single throughline that connects Baum and Blondshell, it is Teitelbaum’s talent for searing and brutally honest lyrics. As an album, Blondshell is relentlessly confessional, full of moments of unflinching self-examination and withering fury. Through much of the album, Teitelbaum is angry – at herself, at her partners, at patriarchy, and at men writ large. She leads the listener through a dense maze of complicated emotions, exorcising her hurt, fear, and anger in songs that feel like a glimpse into the thoughts that keep her up at night.

She sneers on “Sepsis”, “He wears a front-facing cap / The sex is almost always bad / I don’t care cause I’m in love / I don’t know him well enough / What am I projecting / He’s gonna start infecting my life / It’ll hit all at once / Like sepsis.” Elsewhere, “Sober Together” reflects on watching someone you love get pulled back into addiction, while “Kiss City” deals with the desire to be desired, finding witty poetry in Teitelbaum’s longing (“Kiss city / I think my kink is when you tell me that you think I'm pretty”). Finally, the record closes with the shimmering balladry of “Dangerous,” encapsulating the record’s themes in a final confession: “And it’s so dangerous forming an attachment to something / Now that every time I love it might pull the rug out / And I know when I leave the house / Anything can take me down.”

As Teitelbaum has described, Blondshell was written in the midst of a particularly painful and chaotic era for her. Songwriting acted as her lifeline, and years later she was left with Blondshell, the album she has said she always wanted to make. More than any sing-along chorus, that personal touch and sense of relentless honesty are what shine through most on the record. It is the sound of an artist finally getting to let loose and say the things that have stayed locked up inside for too long. In turn, Teitelbaum offers an exciting introduction to a talented songwriter and a thoroughly rewarding debut” – The Line of Best Fit

Key Cut: Veronica Mars

The Waeve – The Waeve

Release Date: 3rd February

Producers: Graham Coxon/Rose Elinor Dougall (The Waeve)/James Ford

Label: Transgressive

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/the-waeve/the-waeve

Standout Tracks: Can I Call You/Kill Me Again/All Along

Review:

“’The WAEVE’, this self-titled debut from the pairing of Blur guitarist Graham Coxon and journeywoman songwriter Rose Elinor Dougall is a curious collection of contrasts. Most notably, that between the protagonists’ own voices; Rose’s a strong, smooth and often deep one with an almost RP accent; Graham’s his signature twang, faltering and vulnerable. The rough and the smooth rub up against each other - the squall of Graham’s guitar juxtaposed against slick brass, soaring strings or - in the case of ‘Undine’ - appearing just as the lyrical content threatens to veer into soppy territory. A contrast between Graham’s perceived persona - spiky, contrary, a man who refused to participate once Blur’s exploration of pop culture’s depths went too far - and the lyrics he’s boldly presenting here (“Find the right dream / Taking a chance on forever”). That said, the duo know when to complement each other, too: ‘Drowning’ makes like its title, its layered cacophony creating aural overwhelm. And the clear highlight, ‘Someone Up There’, revels in its convergence: whirring guitars, a punkish bassline and an ‘ooh ooh ooh’ chorus refrain of “You’ve lost your power / It’s all gone sour.” Cinematic in scope, often luscious in its arrangements, it’s a singular gem” – DIY

Key Cut: Drowning

RAYE - My 21st Century Blues

Release Date: 3rd February

Producers: Rachel Keen (RAYE)/Mike Sabath/Punctual/BloodPop/Di Genius

Label: Human Re Sources

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/raye/my-21st-century-blues

Standout Tracks: Hard Out Here./Black Mascara./Body Dysmorphia.

Review:

“RAYE closes her debut album by thanking her nearest and dearest. Celebrating the friends, family and collaborators who supported the making of the record, she explains on ‘Fin’: “I’ve waited seven years for this moment, and finally ‘My 21st Century Blues’ is now out forever.”

It also marks the culmination of the arduous battle the 25-year-old has faced to release her first full-length album. After releasing her debut EP ‘Welcome To The Winter’ in 2014, RAYE penned a deal with Polydor the same year aged 17. Since then, there have been further solo releases (including several EPs and 2020 mini-album ‘Euphoric Sad Songs’), collaborations with chart-dominating dance whizzes (Jax Jones, David Guetta, Disclosure) and co-writes for the likes of Beyoncé and Mabel. Yet RAYE’s own debut album failed to materialise, and, by June 2021, she’d had enough. “I have been on a FOUR-ALBUM RECORD DEAL since 2014! And [I] haven’t been allowed to put out one album,” she tweeted. “I’m done being a polite pop star. I want to make my album now, please that is all I want.” Three weeks later, she got her wish: “Today, I am speaking to you as an independent artist,” she told her Twitter followers.

Since then, RAYE has been releasing music that feels unapologetically her own. There’s the electrifying, affirmative ‘Hard Out Here’, which sees the singer take aim at the patriarchal music industry: “All the white men CEOs, fuck your privilege / Get your pink chubby hands off my mouth, fuck you think this is?” The euphoric ‘Black Mascara’, meanwhile, demonstrates RAYE’s knack for penning floor-filling dance hits, albeit by switching things up from her previous club anthems by coupling darker, bubbling beats with devastating lyrics (“I’m here now fucked up, thinking this why I’m out here sinking in these dark nights“).

The album’s real triumph, though, is the trip-hop-influenced, 070 Shake-featuring ‘Escapism’. The slinky single first dropped in October before gradually climbing the charts, hitting the summit last month to give RAYE her first UK Number One single. “As tough as it’s been, in the darkest of times, it’s the ultimate validation,” she told NME of the victory.

The rest of ‘My 21st Century Blues’ follows suit from these lead singles. Gritty, honest lyrics, delivered by RAYE’s gorgeous voice, are paired with weird and wonderful genre-spanning instrumentals. ‘Oscar Winning Tears’ is a searing takedown of a crumbling, toxic relationship that’s built upon swooning strings and cinematic piano licks that support its creator’s powerhouse voice. The stripped-back ‘Mary Jane’ transports you to a jazzy speakeasy through its biting guitar riffs and subtle rhythm section, while the funk-laced ‘Worth It’ could be a lost Silk Sonic track. The brass-heavy ‘The Thrill Is Gone’ is an excellent modern soul offering, its lush instrumental arrangements evoking Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back To Black’.

Lyrically, RAYE doesn’t pull any punches. ‘Environmental Anxiety’, which borrows spaced-out production tricks from Coldplay, sees her sing: “Come on kids, it’s time to vote / Boris Johnson’s sniffing coke / All the children are depressed / Not the future we had hoped.” ‘Body Dysmorphia’ tackles her own difficult relationship with her body, while ballad ‘Ice Cream Man’ is a brutally honest account of an abuse of power where RAYE recounts her experience of sexual assault at the hands of a producer: “And I was 7, was 21, was 17, and was 11 / It took a while to understand what my consent means.”

RAYE recently said that such bold and brave declarations wouldn’t have been released had she still been signed to a major label. Granted her creative independence, though, the hard-fought ‘My 21st Century Blues’ is unequivocally RAYE from start to finish” – DIY

Key Cut: The Thrill Is Gone.

Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?

Release Date: 14th April

Producers: Kara Jackson/Kaina Castillo/Sen Morimoto/Nnamdi Ogbonnaya

Label: September Recordings

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/kara-jackson/why-does-the-earth-give-us-people-to-love

Standout Tracks: no fun/party /therapy/why does the earth give us people to love?

Review:

“Although she began collecting awards for her poetry as a teen, including being named National Youth Poet Laureate in 2019, Chicagoland's Kara Jackson is far from a writer who dabbles in music. She started piano lessons as early as age five, has referred to singing as her first love, and released her debut singer/songwriter EP within weeks of the laureate designation. Even though the EP, a spare acoustic-guitar outing, garnered positive attention for its blunt observations and turns of phrase as well as Jackson's husky, authoritative voice, it may have done little to prepare the music world for the stark theatricality and poignancy of her first album, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? Parts Daniel Johnston and avant-cabaret show, it demands attention from the opening clatter of a cassette recorder and ensuing dinked-out piano and spoke-sung rhymes of the one-minute "recognized." ("Some people roll dice...Some people look nice...Some people snort lines...Some people tell lies to be recognized.") In an almost sharp contrast but for its continuation of the album's unrelenting starkness, the episodic "no fun/party" adds intermittent swooping strings and ghostly synths to its opening section's broken guitar chords. It then changes tempo, mode, and mood for a mournful B section that interrupts with thoughts like "Every person that I've dated/Tells me I'm intimidating" with a sinking melody. When the more tuneful A part returns, additional instruments, multi-tracked vocals, and effects are used sparingly for spacey, sometimes startling emphasis rather than band-like accompaniment. From there, the album's unpredictability is another defining trait. As Jackson continues in similar fashion through songs with titles like "dickhead blues," "therapy," and "rat" (featuring Ohmme's Macie Stewart on violin), she continues to reveal intimate details of her own struggles while painting memorable scenes and characters. Appearing relatively late in the track list, the showstopping title track was reportedly the first song Jackson wrote for the album, after a mentor received an identical cancer diagnosis to a friend who had recently died. Alongside the nearly hour-long record's most haunting melody, it begins with the eternal question, "Why does the earth give us people to love, then take them away out of reach?" In true theatric fashion, the album closes with a reprise (of "recognized") and a brief parting song, "liquor," whose mocking, rising-and-falling tune considers self-medicating after being discarded for someone deemed better looking” – AllMusic

Key Cut: pawnshop

boygenius – the record

Release Date: 31st March

Producers: boygenius/Catherine Marks

Label: Interscope

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/boygenius/the-record-5

Standout Tracks: $20/Cool About It/Leonard Cohen

Review:

“With You Without Them” is a kitchen hymn sung under soft morning light; it is a song about history, inheritance, and in that spirit carries on with the swooning folk harmonies last heard on the EP’s closer, “Ketchum, ID.” Dacus, Baker, and Bridgers express gratitude to the preceding generations who shaped the people they love—their father, their father’s mother—and ask to take part in this lineage, sharing storylines until they and their intimates become a kind of family too. “Give me everything you’ve got/I’ll take what I can get,” the trio sings a capella, then reciprocates the request: “I’ll give everything I’ve got/Please take what I can give.” The first four tracks of The Record were written independently, and “With You Without Them” is so evidently by Dacus, a ditty she’d sing while washing dishes; it shares a bloodline with her Historian cut “Pillar of Truth.” Here and elsewhere, her voice provides a warm and sturdy foundation, cradling the others’ like a well-loved rocking chair.

Being a touring musician might mean only a brief layover at home, and so the next song drags you out the front door into the Sprinter, Converse laces untied. Led by Baker, the rabble-rousing idealist who was railing against George W. Bush as a 10-year-old, “$20” is a madcap adventure that invokes the spirit of a famous Vietnam protest photo as it tells a story of youthful recklessness. The Tennessee singer taps into her past as a hardcore frontwoman, fulfilling her wish for More Sick Riffs; she also activates a combustive, daredevil streak in her bandmates, who ditch the refined patience of their EP to scream like hell. Later on, the three trade verses on the headbanging “Satanist,” in which they play adrift kids scrounging for shady ecstasy and trying on renegade poses. “Will you be an anarchist with me?/Sleep in cars and kill the bourgeoisie,” Bridgers sings—then a minute later unleashes wails that sound both like the victim trapped in a burning building and the fire engine racing to the rescue.

Banter flies while Baker is at the wheel, and at other parts of the ride, it’s like the passengers have lapsed quietly into their own thoughts. Guided by the cashmere fog of Bridgers’ voice, “Revolution 0” and “Emily I’m Sorry” exist less within the Boygenius milieu than the rippling, snow-lined headspace of Punisher; the other band members seem only to enter in the form of graceful backing harmonies. Bridgers alludes to real-life incidents whose details remain obscured, former lovers who occupy an uncertain position in her life. The backdrop to the hushed, crumbling apologia “Emily I’m Sorry” seems to be a defamation lawsuit that strained an already-fraught relationship; Bridgers’ mind wanders to apocryphal wastelands, to Montreal, as she entreats the person she loves to forgive her for going astray. “I’m 27 and I don’t know who I am,” she confesses.

The closer you get to somebody, the more you can fail them, and The Record recoils with the humiliating reminder of our own insufficiency: Surely, we imagine, they can do better than us. On the skydiving country-pop song “Not Strong Enough,” the trio offers a rejoinder to Sheryl Crow as they profess to lack the toughness, the solidity, to be what another person needs: “I tried, I can’t/Stop staring at the ceiling fan.” It’s a cowardly and relatable strategy, preemptively curbing disappointment by shrinking away. Elsewhere, they wonder whether distance would have been better in the first place. The Simon & Garfunkel redux and album highlight “Cool About It” explores the anxious, conciliatory phase after a breakup when you emerge from a relationship into a wilderness of pleasantries and deceptions. Friendliness is its own agony: “Wishing you were kind enough to be cruel about it,” Baker sings.

To be wounded, actually and acutely: this is the price of real intimacy. And real intimacy is what you find on The Record, the melding of what’s yours and mine—a favorite Joan Didion quote, songs by Iron & Wine and the Cure, passages from Ecclesiastes—until what’s left is something greater than the sum. Reimagining the EP standout “Me & My Dog” from a new and wiser vantage point, the album closer “Letter to an Old Poet” is, in one sense, an account of Bridgers moving on from a terrible crush. But it’s also subtle testament to the influence of our friends as we carry on in life. The song alludes to Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, a Dacus staple, as it seems to actualize a wish in one of her best-known lyrics: “In five years I hope the songs feel like covers/Dedicated to new lovers.” As we evolve into new versions of ourselves, our friends accompany us into the unknown, bearing witness to and taking part in our transformations. They may hurt us sometimes, but it’s worth it; in the end, better than anything is being understood” – Pitchfork

Key Cut: Without You Without Them

FEATURE: Pride and Prejudice: Do Enough Modern Artists Discuss and Support the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ Community and Women’s Rights?

FEATURE:

 

 

Pride and Prejudice

IMAGE CREDIT: Freepik

Do Enough Modern Artists Discuss and Support the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ Community and Women’s Rights?

_________

IT is Pride Month…

IN THIS PHOTO: Janelle Monáe/PHOTO CREDIT: Mason Rose

and it has been great hearing new Pride songs and these big anthems. The pride of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community have been showing their colours and love in wonderful songs. Alongside these positive and celebratory songs, there is still a lot of hate aimed against the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. If artists such as Janelle Monáe are celebrating gender fluidity, sexuality, and diversity, there is a lot of vitriol and ignorance on social media and beyond. I love that artists today are free and encouraged to discuss and sing about different sexual orientation and bigger issues. I do wonder, alongside this, whether there are enough songs that both strike against those that are misinformed and hateful, alongside a broader spectrum. Political songs of the past struck against those who held us back and created this sense of division. Are songs now doing the same against those who attack and marginalise the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community?! I follow transgender artists and people on Twitter. I find that they often have to defend themselves against so much hate! Information and educating those who spout nonsense and inaccurate figures and portrayal, it is always impressive the trans community have such patience and strength. I have not really heard many songs that discuss trans rights and sexuality. Also ones that fight back against the discriminators and trolls. There are wonderful trans artists such as Kim Petras - but I think there should be support from other artists. There is this incredible platform right now.

I can understand why artists want to be personal and talk about their lives and relationships. Are there as many political, socially active, and L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+-supporting songs as there should be?! At a time when there is more attacks against the community as there have ever been, we need this wave of music that celebrates the community but also features L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ people and stories in the lyrics. Artists such as Christine and the Queens, Taylor Swift, and Sam Smith are dealing with these issues and conversations in their music. Should it just be down to Pride/L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists to do this?! Whether it is a Steely Dan-inspired song that included a trans person who has to navigate hostility but comes out superior, or a great Pop song that educates those closed minds, it would be a revolution that the music industry needs! There is plenty of debate and discourse online at the moment regarding anti-trans/gay rights, but I am not sure how much of this translates and seeps into music. One does not read too many interviews where artists have their say. Again, the same sort of artists come up – whether it is Taylor Swift or Madonna. I am not sure whether there is too much to risk when artists take a stance when it comes to defending the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists and tackling anti-trans laws and legislation. In the same way Hip-Hop artists of the past produced these amazing and timeless albums that spoke against racism, police brutality and a lack of visibility of the Black popularity, I feel like there could be this movement and continued series of songs and albums where L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+.

It is not only the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community and their rights that should be on the radar of most artists. The wider political spectrum needs more addressment and coverage. Again, I can understand why personal insights about an artist’s own experience might outweigh that of the wider world, but there are these important and pressing subjects that need to assimilate more naturally into modern music. We do have some artists documenting and spotlighting sexual abuse, gender inequality and consent. One does not hear too many artists – especially men – who are discussing it in interviews. With, sadly, stories about men in music being accused of sexual misconduct (including Rammstein’s Till Lindemann), it seems like music is the perfect forum to discuss this.  don’t think that these subjects should be off limits. I don’t think it is only women who should be talking about it. You don’t see too many male artists addressing sexual assault, gender issues and inequality (including the fact festival bills are still not equal and featuring male women as headline acts) through the industry. Fewer still actually bring this into their music. I do not know why. Women need allies and support when it comes to highlighting ongoing problems and abuses. Similar to songs that emphasis L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ rights and tackle a false narrative many hold regarding them, is there a big commercial and label risk if artists did say something?! That in itself would create controversy!

We live at a time when the Internet and social media provides this platform for some wonderful things. We can share songs, information and stories from L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists and members of the community. We also give voice to those who attack them and show this real lack of empathy and humanity. The same goes for women’s rights and protection. Vital statements, reports and stories can be shared so that people are aware and informed. Again, there are those who will abuse and harass women – whether it is sexually explicit images, misogynistic remarks or the most vile comments and threats. I am thinking ahead to Hip-Hop’s fiftieth anniversary later in the year. I have written about this before, but Hip-Hop’s greats used their voice to protect their rights, discuss the discrimination and injustice they faced, creating this music that has inspired and resonated through the decades. An alternative movement really needs to happen now. Some of the best albums from this year have come from L.G.B.T.Q.I.A. artists – including boygenius, and Chris from Christine and the Queens -, but there is relatively little conversation and representation of the positivity and love from the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community and the way they are perceived and de-humanised by many people. There is a lot of work that needs to happen in society in general. From trans rights and Black rights, so many people are being impacted. Great artists like Janelle Monáe are fighting the fight, but the music community at large should mobilise, join together and weaponise their words to show love, support and, when it comes to the bigots and morally corrupt, defence and education. It is important to be celebratory and loving, although there also needs to be that seriousness and darker moments where some big conversations are tackled. It is not only down to those in the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ to celebrate and defend themselves. Not only women who should be raising awareness of some of the issues and abuses they face. These incredible, brave and essential people need to be fully…

HEARD and supported.

FEATURE: Every Second Counts: Why Artists Like Kylie Minogue Are Finding Success Through TikTok

FEATURE:

 

 

Every Second Counts

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Muller

Why Artists Like Kylie Minogue Are Finding Success Through TikTok

_________

EVEN if…

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

I have written about Kylie Minogue a bit over the past few weeks or so, I wanted to return to her now. Her new single, Padam Padam, is a top ten smash in the U.K. This is her highest-charting song in years. It has a modern sound and relatability that has resonated with younger listeners, in addition to many of Minogue’s established fanbase. Not that Padam Padam was a calculated attempt to make a song that was perfect for a younger audience. Instead, it is Kylie Minogue working with the right producers and writers. Having an instinct when it comes to her music. Always evolving and staying fresh, it may be a red herring in terms of what her forthcoming album, TENSION, offers. She has been performing the song live. Currently in the U.K. (I Minogue is now based in Australia), it was a chance for fans here to show their appreciation to a music legend. Minogue made a surprise appearance at the incredible Capital Summertime Ball yesterday. I suspect that, when the next single comes out, it is going to be do well in the charts too. I think one of the reasons Padam Padam succeeded was because it has a sound that is both modern and chart-ready; it also nods back to Kylie Minogue’s sound on two of her most successful albums, Light Years and Fever. The song has this enormous success and legacy now. I think that it will eventually leave the charts, but it is definitely here for many years to come. Padam Padam is a track that has succeeded in spite of a relatively lack of radio attention.

Kylie Minogue has reached a stage in her career where stations such as BBC Radio 1 are not playing her. They are a massive station that could have got Padam Padam even higher up the charts. I have written about this before, but the ageism at the station is baffling and insulting. It impacts and relates to female artists more, but their seeming policy of not featuring an artist when they reach a certain age is insulting! If the songs were quite slow and not the right sound for the station then one could understand. As I have said before, Padam Padam seems designed so that it would be played by BBC Radio 1. Instead, it has not featured on their playlists. People have highlighted this and struck out against the station – and quite rightly too! It is not down to any station to decide what their audience would like to hear. In the case of BBC Radio 1, the listeners would have loved Padam Padam! It needs to be a teachable moment for them and other stations regarding the question of age an artist’s worth. Why is an artist in their teens, twenties or thirties deemed cooler, more contemporary and worthy than an older artist? If the song fits into the station and what they are looking for, how come age is this unnecessary barrier?! Regardless, Kylie Minogue’s chart triumph is a compelling middle finger to any station that has not put Padam Padam on their playlist.

Another reason why Padam Padam has been a success is because of social media. Twitter has helped a lot, because the song has been shared countless times. With every bit of news regarding its chart positions, that news complex people to listen to the song. It is being featured on the news, so there are all these factors that have contributed to the success Padam Padam has enjoyed. As we speak (11th June), the track is in the top ten of the U.K. chart. It may go even higher in the coming days! Kylie Minogue is a major artist, so there was always a chance that the single would do well. That said, look at her chart positions previous to that. The three singles from DISCO, Say Something, Magic, and Real Groove, all placed low on the official U.K. chart. Look back, and 2014’s Into the Blue was the highest-charting single before Padam Padam. That reached twelve in the U.K. Other singles since have either not charted or not done well. It is a sign that some of the most influential radio stations are neglecting artists of a certain age! Many of the songs Minogue has released since 2014 deserved to chart high. It calls into question the validity and influence of radio stations now. They are still important when it comes to championing new artists, but this idea of having set demographics and some artists being too old or irrelevant. This is something that needs tackling. It is bad enough that there is still gender imbalance across most major stations. Throw into the mix clear ageism, and you have this real and concerning problem! It is as well we have a platform like TikTok. This is a social media platform where users can post short videos. It is a case of every second counts. I guess, given the name of the site, that makes sense!

@loreenofficial Padam Padam at Attitude Magazine✨ #padampadam #kylieminogue #transition #fashiontok #behindthescenes ♬ Padam Padam - Kylie Minogue

TikTok is especially useful when it comes to music. Many artists use TikTok to promote their music. Kylie Minogue is on TikTok. She is able to get her music across that way. So many fans have used clips of Padam Padam in their videos. This is a brief and effective way of getting a song into someone’s head. Minogue’s latest single is really catchy, so it is not a surprise that people have latched onto it. TikTok is particularly influential when it comes to new artists. So many young and aspiring artists are using TikTok to get their music noticed. There are so-called ‘TikTok artists’ who seem to have been discovered via the site. Their music has this similar Pop sound. I think the term implies these artists are perfect for the platform when it comes to their sound. Whereas most artists are discovered and made popular through gigs and radio play, TikTok artists use this platform and have a distinct sound and feel. Kylie Minogue cannot be lumped in this category. She is a decades-running success who has found new life and fans on TikTok. It is a big thanks to that site and those who have shared clips of Padam Padam that it has charted to high. There have been some recent articles relating to TikTok and how important it has been for Kylie Minogue. Unfortunately paywalled, The Telegraph wrote why artists are bypassing broadcasters and radio stations and heading to TikTok. Whether that is because they feel radio stations are limited and will pass them by - though it might be because TikTok has this wide user base and can blow up a song instantly. Whatever it is, it should cause concern for radio stations!

@kylieminogue When you’re about to ❤️ PADAM PADAM ❤️ at WEMBLEY STAAAAADIUUUM! What a treat to surprise you all at @Capital ‘s Summertime Ball! 😘😘😘 #CapitalSTB ♬ Padam Padam

I am going to finish by quoting from the Sydney Morning Herald. They wrote about Kylie Minogue and the success of Padam Padam. A whole new generation are discovering her music through the site. It means, with every future release she has this willing and growing fanbase that can ensure her music charts. I do hope that radio stations like BBC Radio 1 do change their ways and ridiculous age-related policies:

“All too often, Australia’s most extraordinary and enduring cultural exports only receive the kudos they so richly deserve when they’re no longer around to hear or see it for themselves.

With a showbiz career spanning some 45 years (her first acting gig was a small role in The Sullivans as a 10-year-old), Kylie Minogue certainly fits the criteria among our pantheon of Australia’s greatest global entertainment exports, up there with AC/DC, Olivia Newton-John and Dame Edna, but her story is far from over.

Last Sunday, Minogue pulled off the seemingly impossible, landing a No.6 spot in the UK’s official charts with her latest song Padam Padam. Combining physical sales, downloads and streams, the result is Minogue’s highest chart peak in the UK since All The Lovers hit No. 3 in 2010. She is also the oldest person on the chart by a couple of decades.

This is no mean feat. She has survived vinyl, music videos, cassettes, CDs and now digital streams.

Even her old mate Nicole Kidman posted on Instagram about her love of the song, which appears to be in high rotation inside the household she shares in Nashville with country crooner Keith Urban and their two daughters. On Monday Kidman shared the track with her 9.4 million followers on the platform, revealing: “on repeat all weekend”

@kylieminogue ❤️Padam Padam❤️ is Number One on The Big Top 40 for a second week in a row! 😝 Thank you lovers, THANK YOU!!! #kylieminogue #newmusic #padampadam #pride ♬ Padam Padam - Kylie Minogue

Minogue’s latest success has been largely attributed to the TikTok generation, many of whom are old enough to be Minogue’s grandchildren. Countless memes have been created on the social media platform using the electro-pop ditty.

Even when her music career appeared to be taking a back seat, she sold us her own range of perfumes, homewares and wine. Now Minogue is back in the spotlight and has gone viral, which in the digital download era of modern pop music is what counts.

At last count, the hashtag #padampadam has been used more than ten million times on TikTok.

In America, a market that has not been her strongest, she topped the Billboard Dance/Electronic Music sales chart. She also performed the song last month on the finale of American Idol to an audience of 5.7 million television viewers.

In Australia, where Minogue has based herself for the past year, her new song has also done well, making a debut at number 39 on the ARIA Singles Chart. It was Minogue’s first top-40 hit in Australia since Timebomb in 2012.

In September, she will release her 16th studio album titled Tension. According to her music label BMG she has sold over 80 million records worldwide. Her biggest selling album was 2001’s Fever, which racked up 6 million sales”.

It is interesting talking about TikTok and how influential it is. Radio stations will never lose their influence regarding new music. When it comes to artists like Kylie Minogue, they have this opportunity and ear on TikTok. It means they will remains relevant and popular! They will also reach new generations. Padam Padam is a success story that will give encouragement, heart and strength to ‘older’ artists (though that word seems so insulting and wrong!). I mean legends and popular artists who are still making incredible music. Kylie Minogue’s fanbase, a.k.a. ‘Lovers’, have stood by their queen and given Padam Padam a lot of love and support. It proves that the radio stations that disregarded this amazing song and artist are compelled to…

DO better next time!

FEATURE: Birdie: Why 2023 Is Another Year In Which Women are Dominating and Deserve Equality and Respect

FEATURE:

 

 

Birdie

IN THIS PHOTO: Phoebe Bridgers (who is part of boygenius with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker) in an outtake from a photoshoot with The Guardian in 2022/PHOTO CREDIT: Davis Bates

Why 2023 Is Another Year In Which Women are Dominating and Deserve Equality and Respect

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I have written a similar feature…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Caroline Polachek performing in Tilburg, Netherlands in June 2023

a few times now but, as each passing week seemingly reveals another remarkable album or single by a female artist/band, it seems ever-strange and insulting that this brilliance is not being rewarded by equality and opportunities. I might return to this feature again later in the year but, as we are half-way through 2023 and the festival season is starting, it is very much worth highlighting an issue and asking a question – off of the back of such remarkable work from female artists. Aside from male, non-binary and gender-fluid artists including Paul Simon, and Christine and the Queens, the strongest and most compelling albums have come from women. I am exploring this area again a a half-way point report. There are going to be some figures posted soon regarding the gender breakdown of radio playlists. I am not sure what it is like in the U.S. but, here, most major radio stations struggle to balance the playlists when it comes to gender. Women are substantially underrepresented and included – in spite of the multitude of choice. You cannot say there is a lack of female artists who would be able to added to playlists. Maybe I have mentioned this a lot but, when you think of the best albums from the year so far, most of them are from women. I have already mentioned how much I love boygenius’ (Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Bakers) debut, the record. Throw into the mix That! Feels Good! From Jessie Ware, together with Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want to Turn into You, and you have three of the biggest albums of the year. Aside from Christine and the Queens’ PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE – which might be the best-reviewed album of the year -, most of the very best are from female artists (or those identifying as such). Kara Jackson, Hayley Williams-led Paramore, and Lana Del Rey are other artists who have given 2023 some truly tremendous albums.

I think most of the truly captivating and original rising artists emerging are women. Whether it is Samara Joy, Iraina Mancini, Bully, or Maisie Peters, I do think that so many legends of the future are coming through at the moment – and, with a few exceptions, they are women. I am not discounting or discrediting male artists for a second. There are more than a few year-defining albums from them. Plenty of great and ambitious young artists emerging. I just thinking, looking back on the first half of the year, that the same patterns emerge. Women are creating the best music. The female wave of talent is so exciting and fresh. That is not being rewarded with festival headline slots, or even an equal billing across many festivals for that matter (even Glastonbury have not had a fifty-fifty gender split for this year’s festival). You do not really read too many articles where the queens and great women of music are given respect and nods. I am always aware of the fact there are small steps of progress being made every year. Greater awareness of problems through the industry, and pledges from many to tackle them. Regardless of the sheer quality right in front of people’s faces, there are still massive issues when it comes to everything from playlist and festival bills through to producers in a studios and even award ceremonies. It is something I have covered before but, as 2023 has been made so arresting and fascinating by some incredible albums from female artists, how long will that take to translate to recognition and equality?!

Kylie Minogue has released perhaps the biggest and most discussed single of the year with Padam Padam. A top twenty chart success – one that was not playlisted by BBC Radio 1 –, it comes ahead (in September) of the Australian icon releasing her new studio album, TENSION. So much excellence and innovation has come from women. Apologies if I do sound like a broken record. It is frustrating reading the same headlines when it comes to equality! People having to do better. Making excuses or really not given a plausible account of their dereliction of duty. Regardless of any probable pipeline issues regarding festival or radio-ready female artists, there are still enough in our midst, both established and rising, who are more than ready to go. There is imbalance right across the industry! There is an appalling imbalance when it comes to women in music tech. Having more female role models might be a step forward that could be a solution regarding imbalance. There are positive signs of life and improvement. As this recent article reports, a needed and impressive about a key initiative is taking place (“Musician Jessie Maryon Davies is trying to do something about it. She is co-founder and co-director of Hackney-based charity Girls Rock London (GRL), an initiative which provides a high-quality music and industry training programme for women, girls, transgender, and non-binary musicians, and for people with other marginalised gendered experiences”). How much is being done by men to help things? How many male artists are speaking out against gender inequality and the fact that women deserve greater opportunities and respect?! I know a few are but, as they have such a big platform, you would think there’d be more allies that are shining a light on an ongoing and depressing reality!

I will come back to the subject of gender equality in music soon enough. As I say, reports are due regarding playlists and how women are represented across tech, studios and festivals. I don’t think we are going to see much positive news or massive change this year, sadly. What I do know is that the first half of this year has been dominated by brilliant albums from women. The singles market has likewise seen them make their mark. Some of this year’s festivals will have an equal bill and contain female headliners, through they are still in the minority – especially when it comes to talking about the major festivals. Some big radio stations are still sexist and ageist against female artists, and there is not enough activation from male artists and men in the industry. There needs to be a joined and proactive campaign so that questions can be asked. Given the embarrassment of riches women in music are giving us, why are we seeing the other end of the production line clogged?! This great music gets fed in, something happens in the middle, and hardly anything comes out. It may be clumsy, but what I mean is that there are not those opportunities and recognition that is more than warranted. If the industry is going to provide an attractive and prosperous platform for female artists coming through, they need to do a lot more to strike equality. Treat women with more respect and dues! It is a conversation that has been going on for so many years. With some incredible women fighting to change things, there is a relative lack of support from men. Let’s hope that this changes and they…

DO what is required.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On

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FOR this Groovelines…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Marvin Gaye at Golden West Studios, Los Angeles, in 1973/PHOTO CREDIT: Jim Britt/Getty Images

I want to highlight one of the most sensuous songs in music history. The great Marvin Gaye released the title track from his Let’s Get It On album on 15th June, 1973. As the song is about to turn fifty, it is worth exploring both the album and that incredible and hugely erotic title cut. A song dedicated to love and sex; a plea for sexual liberation, Gaye wrote and produced the song with Ed Townsend. Released on the legendary Tamla label, it reached number one in the U.S. Such a huge-selling and timeless gem, it is one of Gaye greatest recordings. I am going to come to the song Let’s Get It On in a minute. The album of the same name is a late-career masterpiece. Two years after the seminal What’s Going On was released, a very different-sounding album was released. What’s Going On strikes more because of its politics and messages. The mood and electricity that you get from Let’s Get It On is the biggest takeaway. This feature from last August explored and spotlighted the impact and importance of the 1973 album:

“Gaye fans were primed and ready for this sensuous celebration via the title track lead single, which hit the charts in July that year and was in the second of a six-week run atop the Billboard Hot 100 when the album charted. Easily the longest-running pop No.1 of the year in America, it was the perfect teaser for Marvin’s 13th studio LP.

Music critics purred with satisfaction at the new release. “Gaye uses his voice (in both lead and background) to create a dreamlike quality only slightly less surreal than he did on What’s Going On, his very best record to date,” wrote Jon Landau in Rolling Stone.

“But while on the earlier work he sang of the difference between his vision of God’s will and man’s life,” he continued, “he is currently preoccupied with matters purely secular — love and sex. And yet he continues to transmit that same degree of intensity, sending out near cosmic overtones while eloquently phrasing the sometimes simplistic lyrics.”

Record buyers agreed. Motown promoted the album in new ways and to a younger audience than its traditional base, taking out advertising space for it in National Lampoon magazine and the college edition of Time. The Let’s Get It On LP shipped gold, and debuted at No.28, by far the highest new entry of the week.

In the US, it went platinum within three weeks, and went on to spend a week at No.2, held off the top spot only by The Rolling Stones’ Goats Head Soup. Outdoing the No.6 peak of What’s Going On, it also managed eight weeks more than its predecessor on the Billboard chart, with a 61-week stay”.

The impact of the Let’s Get It On album cannot be understated! It led to barriers coming down. Sex and sexual freedom being explored more fully in music. It was a real watershed moment, - but not just for Soul music. Relatively contemporary albums such as D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000) and Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun (2000) were impacted and influenced by 1973’s Let Get It On. I would urge people to investigate the legacy of Let’s Get It On. One of the most important albums ever. I shall come to that incredible title track soon. First, GRAMMY wrote about Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On. The much-missed legend (Gaye was killed in 1984) was at the peak of his powers in 1973:

“In 1973, the Marvin Gaye album Let's Get It On brought new dimensions to R&B/soul music, expanding the genre's boundaries musically as well as delivering a sexual-liberation message that gelled with the youth "love-in" philosophy in full force at the time.

Many elements came together to build the album's creative success. U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War had ended earlier that year. Gaye's previous socially conscious album What's Going On had been followed by his soundtrack to the movie Trouble Man, and the intimate, slow seductiveness of Let's Get It On was embraced by America as a message that felt just right. As an artist, Gaye's previous sales earned him creative control he took full advantage of, blending previously recorded tracks with new ideas, layering passionate background vocals of his own including moaning vocals, which were daring for the time. This was a turning point for the Berry Gordy music empire as well. He had started the album's Tamla label even before Motown and was expanding to the West Coast.

Let's Get It On features the influential collective of studio musicians known as the Funk Brothers, who helped create a musical platform for Gaye. The album is among their earliest credits, and they went on to win GRAMMY Awards and receive the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

On a more personal side, Gaye's marriage to Gordy's sister Anna was heading toward divorce and some of the romantic impulses captured by the microphone were reportedly directed toward his future wife, Janis Hunter, who producer/co-writer Ed Townsend had brought to the recording studio”.

Let’s get to the song in question. The masterful and hugely charged Let’s Get It On. There was controversy in August 2016, when the family of Ed Townsend sued Ed Sheeran over his song, Thinking Out Loud. They claimed the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic compositions were very similar. It was brought back to court in 2018. This May, the Townsend family claim was rejected in a jury trial. Even though it would be a stretch to say Sheeran plagiarised the song, there are similarities between Let’s Get It On and Thinking Out Loud. Sheeran took inspiration from the 1973 track and created a similar vibe for his 2014 song. The New Yorker recently wrote about the court case and how hard it is to navigate the property lines in Pop. So many other artists have been affected and moved by this enormously powerful and important song. This article from last September goes deep with the phenomenal Let’s Get It On:

“One of the most sensual records in chart history became an American No.1 on September 8, 1973. Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” hit the top to become the second of his three US pop chart-toppers, and got listeners hot under the collar with its subject matter.

On that Billboard Hot 100, “Let’s Get It On” completed its climb to No.1, taking over from Stories’ “Brother Louie.” A week later, Gaye was replaced at the top by Helen Reddy’s “Delta Dawn.” Seven days from then, he had regained the crown for a second week at the summit.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ron Galella/WireImage

The song was written and produced by Gaye with Ed Townsend, who would later contend that his initial idea with the lyric was not about sex, but about overcoming addiction, and getting on with the business of life. But Gaye was pretty clear-cut about the subject matter on the sleeve notes of the Let’s Get It On album, which reached No.2. “I can’t see anything wrong with sex between consenting anybodies,” he wrote.

Keep gettin’ it on

The groove of “Let’s Get It On” was so infectious that, on the album of the same name, it was revisited for “Keep Gettin’ It On.” The sessions, recorded at Motown’s Hitsville West Studios in March 1973, featured such celebrated players as horn men Plas Johnson and Ernie Watts and the Crusaders’ duo of Joe Sample and Wilton Felder, as well as Gaye himself on piano.

Townsend, who had known Gaye through the 1960s, wrote in the liner notes for the 2001 deluxe edition of the album: “I have been blessed to work with many great vocalists in my career, but none quite like Marvin Gaye. The sessions for ‘Let’s Get It On’ were the first time I was overwhelmed by a singer’s ability to understand and interpret the true meaning of a song”.

I am going to finish up referencing a Wikipedia section that collated critical reaction to the sensational Let’s Get It On. The single is fifty 15th June. I still think that its influence is being felt to this day. It was definitely a real and much-needed shockwave in 1973. It was clear that the song resonated with the public given he massive sales and chart success:

“Let's Get It On" became, and remains to this day, one of Gaye's as well Motown Records' most successful singles, as it reached number 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart on September 8, 1973. The single remained at number 1 for two weeks, while also remaining at the top of the Billboard Soul Singles chart for eight weeks. In its first week at the top of the chart, "Let's Get It On" replaced "Brother Louie" by Stories, and was replaced by "Delta Dawn" by Helen Reddy; it later replaced "Delta Dawn" and was finally knocked off the top of the chart by Grand Funk Railroad's "We're an American Band". The single stayed inside the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 for 13 weeks, 10 of those weeks inside the top five. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song for 1973.

The song became the biggest selling Motown release in the United States at the time, selling over two million copies within the first six weeks of following its release. "Let's Get It On" also became the second best-selling single of 1973, only surpassed in sales by Tony Orlando & Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree". At the time, the single was Motown's largest-selling recording ever, selling over four-million copies in 1973 and 1974. The single has gone on to sell over 10 million copies in the United States, and, on June 25, 2007, was certified diamond in sales by the RIAA.

Cash Box said that the song was different from Gaye's previous songs and a "very accomplished effort a la Otis Redding or Al Green." Record World called it a "lovely laid-back number" and said that "this tune gets it on."

A bluegrass version of the song was later recorded by Shannon Lawson on his 2002 album Chase the Sun. "Let's Get It On" was given a remix in 2004, when producers mixed Gaye's vocals with a different musical production labeled as "stepper's music". Released in 2005 as a single, "Let's Get it On (The Producers Mix)" returned the song to the Billboard R&B charts, thirty years after its original release. The re-released version of "Let's Get It On" was certified as a gold single with sales in excess of 500,000 copies in 2005 by the RIAA. In 2004, the song was ranked number 167 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time; in a revised 2012 list, the song was ranked at number 168. In 2008, "Let's Get It On" was ranked #32 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs list”.

It was a no-brainer when it came to the song that I wanted to feature for Groovelines this week! Marvin Gaye’s sensual masterpiece Let’s Get It On is fifty. The iconic Soul king created this masterpiece that changed the face of Soul and popular music. I don’t think that would be too much of an exaggeration! Fifty years from its release, and you can see just how many artists have been influenced by it. Spend some time out to experience Let’s Get It On. Make sure that you play it loud and…

PLAY it long!

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Some Incredible Singles from 2023

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Caroline Polachek

Some Incredible Singles from 2023

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THIS year…

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

has given us some fabulous albums. I think people concentrate on albums a lot, but not necessarily terrific singles. I think that the single is such an important format. There have been some awesome ones released so far this year. I wanted to use this opportunity to collate some of the very best. I am aware I will not be able to feature all the very best singles from this year – though I will try and include most of them. From legends in music to some wonderful newcomers, below is an example of the tremendous music that has been released this year. I know, as we head through June and the rest of 2023, we are going to get some other top singles. If you have any thoughts as to singles that I have missed, I can definitely include them in the playlist below. In the same way I will revise and add to my feature about the best albums of the year so far, I will do the same with singles closer to the end of the year. In the playlist below is a combination of singles from…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Sparks/PHOTO CREDIT: Anna Webber

SOME our best artists.

FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential July Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

IN THIS PHOTO: Rita Ora photographed for Wonderland./PHOTO CREDIT: Bartek Szmigulski

Essential July Releases

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JULY is a busy month for new albums…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Blur in 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Reuben Bastienne-Lewis

so I want to include as many as I can here. With the summer in full swing, it is a great time for artists to release their work. I will start with the albums due out on 7th July. There are some huge albums out that week that you need to look into. I would recommend people pre-order a copy of ANOHNI and the Johnsons’ My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross. Her first album since 2016’s Hopelessness, this is going to be an exciting, revealing, and extraordinary listen.

“My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, Anohni’s sixth studio album, expresses a world view by shape-shifting through a broad range of subject matter. Through a personal lens, Anohni addresses loss of loved ones, inequality, alienation, acceptance, cruelty, ecocide, devastation wrought by Abrahamic theologies, Future Feminism, and the possibility that we might yet transform our ways of thinking, our spiritual ideas, our societal structures, and our relationships with the rest of nature.

On her first full album since 2016’s Hopelessness, she explains the creative process was painstaking, yet also inspired, joyful, and intimate, a renewal and a renaming of her response to the world as she sees it. “Some of these songs respond to global and environmental concerns first voiced in popular music over 50 years ago.” Anohni’s approach since her last record has shifted from someone tasked with challenging global denial, to an artist seeking to support others on the front lines. “I learned with Hopelessness that I can provide a soundtrack that might fortify people in their work, in their activism, in their dreaming and decision-making. I can sing of an awareness that makes others feel less alone, people for whom the frank articulation of these frightening times is not a source of discomfort but a cause for identification and relief.

On “It Must Change,” Anohni soulfully describes systems in collapse with a note of compassion for humanity: “The truth is I always thought you were beautiful in your own way // That’s why this is so sad.” Anohni’s voice is sensual and smoothed, selectively reaching to the edges of what it can contain. “We’re not getting out of here // No one’s getting out of here // This is our world,” she murmurs.A portrait of legendary human rights activist Marsha P. Johnson taken by Alvin Baltrop features on the cover, reflecting a 25-year relationship with the memory of Johnson that Anohni has held space for in the presentation of her own work. Elsewhere, the album artwork states  ”It's Time to Feel What's Really Happening". In some ways it feels as if she is reaching across her life’s expression, and has found a moment of unique composure, wearing her long exploration of disarming intensity, with the maturity of a painter carefully choosing her colours. “I want the work to be useful, to help others move through these conversations we are now facing, to move with dignity and resilience through this bitter dawning”.

Another 7th July album that I want to point people in the direction of is Julie Byrne’s The Greater Wings. A terrific songwriter, Byrne’s upcoming album is one that you will want to pre-order. If you have not heard of Byrne or know what The Greater Wings holds in store, Rough Trade provide some more background and details:

“The first album in over six years from American songwriter Julie Byrne is a testament to patience and determination, the willingness to transform through the desolation of loss, the vitality of renewal, and the courage to rise, forever changed. For nearly a decade, Byrne has moved through the world as a characteristically private artist largely outside the public eye. A self-taught musician that has committed her life to her work, she now emerges from a deeply trying and generative period with the most powerful, lustrous, and life-affirming music of her career, The Greater Wings. While they hold the plasticity of grief and trauma, the songs are universally resonant, unbridled in their devotion and joy, held up by the love and alliance of a chosen family. Byrne leans further into atmospheres both expansive and intimate; the lush, evocative songcraft flows between her signature fingerpicked guitar, synthesizer, and a newly adopted piano, made wider by flourishes of harp and strings. It is the transcendent sound of resource, of friendship that was never without romance, of loyalty that burns from within like a heart on fire, and the life force summoned in unrepeatable moments — raw, gorgeous, and wild.

The Greater Wings was written across several seasons, pulling imagery from nights on tour, periods of isolation, and the drives cross-country for its various collaborations between Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Recording started with the late Eric Littmann, her longtime creative partner and Not Even Happiness producer, and finished in the Catskills of New York with producer Alex Somers (Sigur Rós, Julianna Barwick).

“My hope for The Greater Wings is that it lives as a love letter to my chosen family and as an expression of the depth of my commitment to our shared future. Being reshaped by grief also has me more aware of what death does not take from me. I commit that to heart, to words, to sound. Music is not bound to any kind of linear time, so in the capacity to record and speak to the future: this is what it felt like to me, when we were simultaneous, alive, occurring all at once. What it has felt like to go up against my edge and push, the love that has made it worth all this fight. These memories are my values, they belong with me”.

One of the biggest albums of the year comes from PJ Harvey on 7th July. I Inside the Old Year Dying is an album that I think will be among this year’s very best. The lead single from the album, A Child's Question, August, has been released, and it shows that the always-incredible Harvey is an artist that is peerless. I think that people need to pre-order I Inside the Old Year Dying. Not to jump the gun or get ahead of things, but I think that this album could be award-nominated. Here are some more details about an upcoming gem from the magnificent PJ Harvey:

“PJ Harvey’s tenth studio album I Inside the Old Year Dying marks her first release in seven years, following UK number 1 album The Hope Six Demolition Project. On this album, which was recorded with long-time creative collaborators John Parish and Flood, PJ Harvey builds a sonic universe somehow located in a space between life’s opposites, and between recent history and the ancient past. Scattered with biblical imagery and references to Shakespeare, all of these distinctions ultimately dissolve into something profoundly uplifting and redemptive. I Inside the Old Year Dying is released on  Partisan Records”.

Before moving to some big albums out on 14th July, there is another from 7th July that I want to point people in the direction of. Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is going to be tremendous. This article from Pitchfork reveals some of the guests who will appear on the album:

“Taylor Swift has revealed the tracklist for her new album, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). Along with the re-recorded tracks from her 2010 album, the new release includes “From the Vault” songs featuring Fall Out Boy and Paramore’s Hayley Williams. “Since Speak Now was all about my songwriting, I decided to go to the artists who I feel influenced me most powerfully as a lyricist at that time and ask them to sing on the album,” Swift explained on social media. “They’re so cool and generous for agreeing to support my version of Speak Now. I recorded this album when I was 32 (and still growing up, now) and can’t wait to unveil it all to you on July 7th.”

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is Swift’s third re-recorded full-length, following Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version). Since releasing the latter LP, Swift has also dropped off the new full-length Midnights. She is also now in the midst of her Eras Tour, which has featured guests like Phoebe Bridgers, Aaron Dessner, Maren Morris, and more.

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version):

01 Mine (Taylor’s Version)
02 Sparks Fly (Taylor’s Version)
03 Back to December (Taylor’s Version)
04 Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
05 Dear John (Taylor’s Version)
06 Mean (Taylor’s Version)
07 The Story of Us (Taylor’s Version)
08 Never Grow Up (Taylor’s Version)
09 Enchanted (Taylor’s Version)
10 Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version)
11 Innocent (Taylor’s Version)
12 Haunted (Taylor’s Version)
13 Last Kiss (Taylor’s Version)
14 Long Live (Taylor’s Version)
15 Ours (Taylor’s Version)
16 Superman (Taylor’s Version)
17 Electric Touch (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault) [ft. Fall Out Boy]
18 When Emma Falls in Love (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)
19 I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)
20 Castles Crumbling (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault) [ft. Hayley Williams]
21 Foolish One (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)
22 Timeless (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”.

Claud’s Supermodels is out on 14th July. If this is an artist new to you, I would suggest that you check out their new album. Rough Trade provide more information about a record that is going to resonate with so many different listeners. It is an album that I am looking forward to hearing more about:

“No matter your age or station, Supermodels is the sort of record you can hear yourself in. Claud’s engrossing and poignant second album is a confident diary of the mercury of life and love in one’s early 20s, whether it’s the self-doubt that creeps through its tunes or the place of compromise they try to find. It’s an exacting map of the emotional and logistical vicissitudes they’d encountered in their early 20s. Fissures in romances and friendships, pressures of recording careers, the casualties of growing up: Each of these 13 songs is another articulated diary entry, threaded together with scant regard for genre and with the roller-coaster of feeling that gives each tune such specific gravity. These are familiar topics for Claud, covering some of the same terrain as 2021’s Super Monster. But there is a newfound confidence to the ideas here, rendered in structures and hooks that do not equivocate as they move from frowning folk to boisterous pop to twisted piano curios. Where Supermodels was rendered mostly in their childhood bedroom, this was cut in a place of their own, with a team of confidants and collaborators building them into resplendent productions. Supermodels takes its name from “Screwdriver.” “You caught me looking at photographs of supermodels,” they sing, voice rising slowly over the elegiac line penned on that free and broken piano. “Trying not to cry when I look back at myself.” It’s a staggering moment, a reminder of the ways we’re all working to stop seeing ourselves as less than and not equal to, to beat back a dozen different insecurities that we try to store in the deepest recesses of our facade. But Claud doesn’t hide anything on Supermodels. They are kernels of despair, redemption, and, ultimately, insight, here to remind us we’re neither the first nor the last to face these blues and keep going”.

I am going to move onto 21st July soon. Before that, there is another album that I would recommend people check out. Palehound’s Eye on the Bat is an album that I would urge people to pre-order. It is going to be a terrific release that is going to be among the best of this year. If you are a Palehound fan or not, I would advise you to have a listen to Eye of the Bat. It is shaping up to be an intriguing and wonderful album:

“With their latest album, Eye On The Bat, Palehound have unleashed a sonic tour de force that cements their status as one of the most exciting and forwardthinking artists in indie rock. Recorded with Sam Owens (Big Thief, Cass McCombs) at Flying Cloud Recordings in the Catskill Mountains, the album is a breathtaking showcase of artistic growth and evolution, with primary songwriter El Kempner (as well as multi-instrumentalist Larz Brogan) delivering a stunning batch of new songs that brim with energy, vulnerability, and raw emotion. From the explosive guitar riffs to the thunderous drumming and Kempner's signature vocals, Eye On The Bat is the most thrilling and exhilarating album Palehound has made to date. The album's sharp and introspective lyrics explore themes of selfdiscovery, anxiety, and empowerment, adding a layer of depth and nuance to the album’s uncompromising vision.

In addition to Kempner’s recent work with Bachelor (a collaborative project with Jay Som's Melina Duterte), Palehound has earned widespread critical acclaim in outlets such as The New York Times, Pitchfork, and NPR, which praised their unique sound and fearless artistic direction. Palehound's long and storied touring history has seen them play shows around the world alongside some of the biggest names in indie rock, including Big Thief, Sylvan Esso, Lucy Dacus, PUP and more. And it's not just other artists who have been inspired by their music - Kempner’s passionate and introspective songwriting has struck a chord with fans around the world, cementing Palehound’s status as a deeply admired and widely influential artist”.

There is another album out on 14th July that people need to pre-order. Rita Ora’s You and I. One of the music world’s biggest names is going to deliver an album that is among the most anticipated of the year. It has been five years since Phoenix came out. It seems that Ora has lost none of her power and step. You & I is also going to feature among the best of 2023. She is someone who deserves as much airplay and attention as possible. You do not need to be a huge fan of hers to appreciate the album and get something from it. Go and pre-order a fantastic and exciting new release from a modern-day icon:

“Following on from her 2018 album Phoenix, Rita Ora returns with her brand new album You and I featuring singles 'You Only Love Me' and 'Praising You'. With a co-writing credit on every track, this album is Rita’s most diaristic project yet and pays homage to her own eclectic tastes. At its core, You and I is a high-spirited record about what it feels like to fall in love and enter a new stage of life”.

There are a few must-own albums from 28th July that you need to get behind. Before that, there are some from 21st July that are well worth a look. Perhaps the year’s most important album comes from Blur. Few expected them to release an album this year! The Ballad of Darren is one that everyone will want to get. Make sure that you pre-order an album that follows 2015’s The Magic Whip. With the lead single, The Narcissist, out in the world, it seems that this upcoming Blur album is going to be among their best. It shows that you can never predict or write off a legendary band. I am not sure whether they have plans for more albums after that. We are fortunate that they are still recording together and touring. The band have some big dates coming up next month. Here are some details about an album that you will definitely want to pre-order and grab a copy of. I am looking forward to hearing what The Ballad of Darren has in store:

“One of the most successful British bands of the last 3 decades, Blur are back with their first new album in over 8 years: The Ballad of Darren. The album was produced by James Ford and recorded in Studio 13, London and Devon, and is the sound of a band at the very top of their game.

The Ballad of Darren is the band’s ninth studio album, their first since the chart-topping The Magic Whip in 2015, with artwork featuring an image by British photographer Martin Parr”.

Before moving onto the final release week of July, there is one more from 21st that I want to highlight. Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway’s City of Gold is an album that I would recommend people go and pre-order. It is a beautiful and compelling album that you will not want to miss out on. Even if Singer-Songwriter and Bluegrass are genres and styles that you are not normally enamoured of, I would still say to and spend some time with City of Gold. It is an album well worth adding to your collection. Here are some more details about an album that you will want to pre-order:

“Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Molly Tuttle and her band, Golden Highway, release their new album, City of Gold, following Tuttle’s acclaimed 2022 record, Crooked Tree, which won Best Bluegrass Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards and led NPR Music to call her, ‘a female flat picker extraordinaire with agility, speed and elegance who distinctively brings American roots music into the spotlight’, adding that the album ‘marries the improvisatory solos of traditional bluegrass with singer-songwriter sophistication.’

Produced by Tuttle and Jerry Douglas and recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios, City of Gold was inspired by Tuttle’s constant touring with Golden Highway these past few years, during which they have grown together as musicians and performers, cohering as a band.  These 13 tracks – mostly written by Tuttle and Ketch Secor (Old Crow Medicine Show) – capture the electric energy of band’s live shows by highlighting each members’ musical strengths.  In addition to Tuttle and Secor, Mason Via also co-wrote ‘Down Home Dispensary’, while Melody Walker and Shelby Means co-wrote ‘Next Rodeo’”.

Let’s get to 28th July albums. One that I am very much looking forward to comes from Dot Allison. This incredible artist releases Consciousology. Following 2021’s exceptional Heart-Shaped Scars, it seems that Consciousology is going to be another terrific and must-hear album from a very special artist. I would invite people to pre-order an album that is going to get a lot of love from fans and critics alike. Here is the details that you need to know:

“Dot Allison returns with a new solo album, Consciousology. After over a decade away, the former One Dove singer and songwriter broke cover in 2021 with Heart-Shaped Scars and this new album follows just two years later, as she hits a purple patch of songwriting. It’s also her first full release for Sonic Cathedral after contributing to Mark Peters’ acclaimed Red Sunset Dreams last year. Consciousology finds multi-instrumentalist Dot joined by the London Contemporary Orchestra, her new labelmate Andy Bell from Ride, who plays guitar on two tracks, and Hannah Peel, who is responsible for some of the string arrangements with both the LCO and a stellar group of Scottish string players. It expands on the styles and themes of the previous album, all while pushing everything just that little bit further – the songs sound bigger, more avant-garde and experimental and, occasionally, properly out-there and psychedelic.

“I wanted to make some albums that felt like a set, exploring love, what lies beyond the visible and how all these aspects dovetail together,” explains Dot. “I see Consciousology a more psych Heart-Shaped Scars with a far fuller, more immersive sound and so, in that sense, it’s a more wayward, bolder, rule-breaking partner.” Right from the eye-catching artwork by PJ Harvey collaborator Maria Mochnacz it definitely does not play it safe. It veers from the techno-played-as-folk of opener ‘Shyness Of Crowns’ and ‘220Hz’ and the Linda Perhacs-meets-The Velvet Underground chug of the first single ‘Unchanged’ to the Mercury Rev-style fantasia of ‘Bleached By The Sun’, the Brian Wilson-esque harmonies of ‘Moon Flowers’ and the kaleidoscopic colour trip of ‘Double Rainbow’. Elsewhere there are echoes of Desertshore-era Nico, Jack Nitzsche’s work with Neil Young, Karen Dalton and Anne Briggs before the relative simplicity of the Tim Hardin-inspired closer ‘Weeping Roses’. It’s a brilliant, breathtaking record”.

There are a few more albums that I want to bring in here. The first is Anne-Marie’s Unhealthy. The third album from the Essex-born artist is going to be her very best, I think. Following 2021’s Therapy, this new release is going to be among the best of the year. Anne-Marie is an incredible artist, so do make sure that you pre-order her upcoming album:

“Anne-Marie releases her new album, Unhealthy through Major Toms / Asylum.

Pulling from all parts of her life, Anne-Marie’s third album Unhealthy offers us a sneak peek into her perfectly imperfect world. Penned over a period when she felt ready to revisit and try and make sense of raw, past relationships, whilst also learning to process positive new ones, Unhealthy takes us on a journey from chaos to contentment; this is Anne-Marie standing tall, embracing an all-new version of herself that’s fiercer, bolder, and more blissfully happy than ever before.

To date, Anne-Marie has reached seven UK top 10 singles (including album track ‘Psycho’ feat. Aitch), two top 3 albums and reached over seven billion global streams. Most recently, she collaborated with David Guetta and Coi Leray on ‘Baby Don’t Hurt Me’”.

An artist that is among our very best, Georgia brings Euphoric out on 28th July. This is definitely an album that you will want to pre-order. I am looking forward to hearing what the album has in store. On the evidence of what we have heard so far, it is going to be one of 2023’s most extraordinary and enduring. I am going to check out Euphoric. I would suggest that everyone else does too. It seems like Euphoric is a very personal and important one for Georgia:

“Euphoric follows Georgia’s club-coercing last record, the universally adored and critically acclaimed Seeking Thrills which well and truly cemented her as one of the UK’s premier producers and songwriters. Since then, Georgia has collaborated with the likes of Mura Masa, Gorillaz, Shygirl, Baby Tate, Dan Carey and David Jackson, most recently writing with Years and Years’ Olly Alexander and on Shania Twain’s #1 album Queen Of Me. All of this experience has been poured into her forthcoming album.

After 10 years of being her own main collaborator, a crucial part of the writing process was learning to relinquish control. And for Georgia, this record is a surrender, “To my issues, to my past, to my flaws and to the healing process” and through it she was able to guide herself to a new healthy form of unconstrained liberation. Euphoric sees Georgia stepping out from behind the recording desk and establishing herself as a unique left-field pop artist. It’s the sound of life and of living in the now rather than escaping it”.

The final album from July that I want to recommend is Jessy Lanza’s Love Hallucination. Again, this might be an artist that you are not familiar with - but you will definitely want to be! I can confidently suggest people go and pre-order this album. It sounds like that there are some cracking and truly memorable songs on this album. I am excited to see what we might get from Love Hallucination. I am also interested to see what critics make of Lanza’s upcoming album:

“On Love Hallucination Jessy Lanza is in control as a songwriter and producer, flexing her skills in the studio and rebuilding her sound, taking chances with production and energy in all directions, from club-ready, to downbeat and sultry, with the theme of trusting yourself in the moment and using intuition as a compass driving the record forward.

Love Hallucination is the sound of an artist in bloom, an album of big emotions and big songs, with direct, personal lyrics, such as the upbeat but panicked opener 'Don't Leave Me Now' and the 2-step drama of 'Midnight Ontario', or 'Limbo', an ear worm disco stomper about produced with Marco 'Tensnake' Niermeski.

Also featured as co-producers are David Kennedy (Pearson Sound), adding slick arrangements for the club, long-time collaborator Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys), and Paul White.

Love Hallucination is a bold and immediate record from Jessy Lanza, her most clear, authentic and best to date”.

These are the album due next month that I would suggest everyone pre-order and add to their collection. Of course, there will only be a couple that people can afford – so I hope that there the choice is not too hard! Alongside big names are albums from artists that some might be unaware of. With the weather hotting up, there is plenty to look forward to. As the albums above show, we get some of the finest albums at this time of year. It will be interesting to see what is due in August. 2023 already has given us so much gold. That is going to continue as we…

LOOK ahead to July.

FEATURE: Revisiting... Hatchie - Keepsake

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting...

Hatchie - Keepsake

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FOR this outing…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Joe Agius

of Revisiting…, I wanted to spend a bit of time with one of the best albums of 2019. Hatchie (Harriette Pilbeam) released the fantastic Keepsake on 21st June, 2019. Her debut album, I don’t feel it is talked about enough now. She put out the incredible Giving the World Away last year – again, another album that you do not hear much about. The reason I want to focus on Keepsake, is because it is so strong. Such an individual and magnificent debut! I might have heard a couple of songs from the album when the album came out but, almost four years later, it is rare that you hear stuff from it played on the radio. It is an album that I would urge people to seek out and hear. Before I come to a couple of the positive reviews for Keepsake, there is an interview from Rolling Stone that I wanted to drop in. It seems that inspiration was not instantly forthcoming. One song and idea lit a fuse that led to the album being created:

“HARRIETTE PILBEAM WAS struggling to write songs for her new album when, one day last year, she suddenly had an idea.

“I was like, ‘I want to write a song that’s super simple, really repetitive, just a straight-up compressed New Order pop song,’” says the singer-songwriter better known as Hatchie. “And that’s what happened.”

The result, “Obsessed,” is a riff-driven highlight off Keepsake, Hatchie’s thrilling new debut. The album arrives a year after the sugar-rush pop of Sugar & Spice, an EP that introduced her as a songwriter with a preternatural knack for earworm melodies and swooping hooks. During the past year, she’s opened for everyone from Kylie Minogue to Snail Mail, a testament to her ability to present as pop, indie, or electronic, depending on the setting.

On Keepsake, Hatchie widens both her emotional and musical palette, exploring darker territory and flirting with a harsh industrial sound on songs like “Without a Blush.”

During the past year or two, Pilbeam became acutely aware that her music was being viewed primarily as a vehicle for expressing romantic infatuation. Early songs like “Sugar & Spice” and “Sleep” were bright, synth-heavy depictions of the near-delirious early rush of love. “Just come see me in my dreams,” she sang in the latter, “No wonder I’m smiling in my sleep.”

But when she began writing Keepsake, Hathchie knew she wanted to change course.

“As a young woman, I was like, ‘What is this saying about me that all my songs are about this?'” she says. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but I put a lot of pressure on myself to not write about that, which is silly because it’s what everyone writes about.”

At first listen, some of her new songs sound more in line than ever with the type of love fixation Pilbeam was trying to avoid, despite being about other subjects entirely. “Obsessed” chronicles a platonic friendship so intoxicating and intimate it can border on crazed; “Unwanted Guest” is the story of “someone dragging you to a party and being really pissed off and wanting to leave the party,” she says. “So I was like, even if that’s about a guy, it’s not about being infatuated with and at the mercy of a guy,” Pilbeam says. “It’s about being really angry at a guy.”

Pilbeam hails from Brisbane, Australia, and she credits the local indie scene there as playing an instrumental part in her early formation as an artist. “I met all my friends and my boyfriend and all the people in my band through that scene,” she says, but “today, my music feels pretty separate from it.” When she has time at home these days, she prefers to do laundry and hang out with family.

Pilbeam describes her upbringing as stable and drama-free, which, she speculates today, might be the reason why she found herself gravitating toward writing about love and heartbreak early on in her career. “It was just the most emotional thing I’d ever been through,” the 26-year-old says, “because I had kind of had an easy life.”

Some of the best songs on Keepsake make explicit Hatchie’s ongoing process of sorting out the parameters of her own work. “You can call it an obsession/Call it anything you want to,” she sings on the opening standout “Not That Kind.” It’s a line of winking self-awareness for an artist who’s become increasingly aware of the importance of self-definition, even as she’s realized that her creative persona is ever-evolving.

“I feel like I’m changing so much every six months,” says Pilbeam. “Even this new album feels like a past version of myself.” Since the recording of Keepsake, she’s found herself writing unadulterated dance-pop. She enjoys these early stages of writing, before she needs to conceive of her work within the framework of her career to date”.

Hatchie is one of these artists that deserves a lot of love and attention. The Brisbane-born artist followed her 2018 E.P., Sugar & Spice, with an incredible debut album. Keepsake should be revived and played a lot more. It was definitely one of the albums of 2019. A potent and memorable debut from a very special artist. This is what AllMusic wrote in their four-star review for the stunning Keepsake:

“On her debut EP, Sugar & Spice, Hatchie's ultra-catchy take on dream pop was so perfectly realized that it was hard to tell how she could improve -- or expand -- on it. Though her approach isn't as novel as it was before, Harriette Pillbeam's music sounds better than ever on Keepsake. She spends the first half of her debut album showing just how much she can change things up while keeping the honeyed melodies and soaring choruses that are vital to the Hatchie sound. On "Not That Kind," she strips away some of Sugar & Spice's hazy guitars in favor of distorted drums and wide-open spaces that add drama to its candy-coated yearning; later, "Unwanted Guest" proves her music isn't all sweetness and light, with a hefty rhythm section and towering, shimmering riffs providing an unexpected and welcome edge.

On the album's luminous second half, Hatchie returns to the more familiar terrain of Sugar & Spice with the strummy ballads "When I Get Out" and "Kiss the Stars" as well as the irresistible finale "Keep." She also finds new nuances within her blend of dream pop and pop with a capital P -- somehow, "Without a Blush"'s swooning guitars and vocals have as much in common with Curve's "Coast Is Clear" as they do with Taylor Swift's "Wildest Dreams," while "Stay with Me" proves she's as capable of epic emotional climaxes as any chart-topping artist. Throughout Keepsake, Pillbeam develops the flair for pairing widescreen sounds with down-to-earth lyrics that she hinted at on Sugar & Spice. "Obsessed" is a standout, not only for its nagging arpeggiated synth hook, but for the clever way she dismisses her feelings while hinting at how deep they run. By contrast, "Her Own Heart" is unabashedly earnest and, with its clouds of guitars and piles of harmonies, one of the album's prettiest moments. As Hatchie exceeds the expectations set by Sugar & Spice, Keepsake reflects her growth into an even more confident and varied artist”.

I am going to round off with a review from The Line of Best Fit. They awarded it 8.5/10 when they sat down with it. I have been a fan of Hatchie since Keepsake came out in 2019. Her follow-up, Giving the World Away, is another album that people should definitely give some time to. The confident and very distinct debut from Hatchie has lyrics that could readily apply to her and her life - but they also speak to the listener. There is that mix of the universal and personal that makes Keepsake so rich and compelling:

“Reflections of our younger selves grappling with life, winning and losing tiny daily battles. Everyone's past is unique unto themselves but invariably each contains within it some degree of happiness and heartbreak, hard lessons and bad decisions, and often a confidence we forgot we once had. This tunnel to past times is often accompanied by songs, though seldom those of our choosing; nights lost in bars or on dance floors drowning in the current tastes of the time. Hearing these songs can takes us back although more often than not they are not the ones we opt to revisit.

Hatchie makes exactly the type of music that, if we could choose, would be a fitting soundtrack to this nostalgic recollection of our youth. Keepsake, her debut album, revolves around a formative period in her life within which we can hear echoes of our own. It is not just in the message but in the music itself. A trance like ecstasy and optimism grips even the darkest of moments as if to rejoice in the fact that they are in the past and can be moved on from.

Hatchie’s debut EP Sugar & Spice was a robust statement of intent, glistening with washes of indie-pop. Keepsake goes one step beyond. Building on the energy and confidence of that first release we find the Australian flexing her songwriting prowess, carving channels into previously unchartered waters.

Hatchie has from the outset displayed a knowing ability to weave stealthy pop hooks into her sound. This unashamed embrace of big pop moments explodes on opener “Not That Kind” as the vacuum of ‘80s synths and star dusting of disco channels Kylie at her best. The sawing crush of “Without A Blush” pulsates with a rugged heartbeat reminiscent of Chvrches. As the chorus drops there is a palpable surge of strobe lights, throwing light into shaded corners.

As much as there is to love about the straight-up pop songs on Keepsake, it’s the contrast between them and the darker moments that will keep you coming back. The dazzling shoegaze of “Her Own Heart” leaves a lump in the throat as Hatchie sings with reassuring optimism “Stop giving it time / Time waits for none / It’s never too late / But don’t waste a day”. On “Obsessed”, one of the records highlights, a distorted strum of guitar is soon swallowed up in a swarm of synths as it shuffles from baggy Britpop to the jangle pop of Alvvays.

“Secret”, a song about talking to a friend about mental health, feels like just its title; a private, intimate memory. As the song gradually builds from a whisper to its euphoric closing minute it gives shape to the memory of the friends we all needed to lean on at some point.

Adopting a Smashing Pumpkins approach to overdubs the tracks here are layered into towering behemoths. That could be one of the reasons they evoke such a nostalgia. There is a depth and sense of time to the record that absorbs you and draws you closer, stilling time. Periods of reflection often accompany times in our life when something causes us to pause, even for the briefest of moments.

There is often no logic to the memories we collect, why we remember some things so vividly, or why seemingly new experiences remind us of our past. The same is true of music. Keepsake has an inexplicable familiarity even as it bursts with new ideas. It is a document capable of throwing us into our own pasts, the perfect score for the movies we make in our minds”,

A brilliant debut album from Hatchie, Keepsake is one that everyone should hear! Let’s hope that she keeps on putting out wonderful music for years to come. If you have not heard Keepsake, spend a little time out and investigate. It is such a fine debut from…

THE amazing Hatchie.

FEATURE: Me, Myself and I: Beyoncé’s Dangerously in Love at Twenty

FEATURE:

 

 

Me, Myself and I

Beyoncé’s Dangerously in Love at Twenty

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ON 24th June…

 IMAGE CREDIT: Behance

the world marks twenty years since Beyoncé released her astonishing and much-anticipated debut studio album, Dangerously in Love. I remember that day and the album coming out. Beyoncé was still a member of Destiny’s Child – they released their final album, Destiny Fulfilled, in 2004, though there are rumours of a new album in the future, perhaps -, but it was only a matter of time before she struck out solo. The final, classic incarnation of the group featured Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland (her debut album, Simply Deep, came out in 2002), and Michelle Williams (her debut solo album, Heart to Yours, also came out in 2002). Even if Rowland and Williams put out solo albums before Beyoncé, I think that all three of them are incredible. Williams and Rowland have not put out new albums for at least a decade – which I hope is rectified! -, but Beyoncé has enjoyed this long and garlanded solo career. I think that Dangerously in Love, whilst not her finest album (I would give that honour to 2016’s Lemonade), was a confident and very strong debut. Hooking up with some incredible producers and songwriters (including Missy Elliott, and The Neptunes), perhaps it is most associated with the lead single and anthem, Crazy in Love (ft. JAY-Z). Four further singles were released from the album – among them, the sensuous and beautiful Me, Myself and I -, and Dangerously in Love reached the top spot in the U.S. and U.K. (and several other countries around the world).

I don’t think that was purely to do with Beyoncé’s star power and her association with Destiny’s Child. It is clear from the opening, brassy bars of Crazy in Love that she meant business! This was an album very much with her voice at the centre – rather than it being a hodgepodge of other producers’ ideas and visions. Dangerously in Love is wonderfully sequenced, so that it starts with a blast and huge track, and the strongest songs are spread evenly throughout the album. Maybe there are one or two filler songs, but for the most part we get this nuanced, eclectic and cohesive statement from an artist who would soon go on to become one of the biggest and most influential in the world. Queen Bey, in her early-twenties when Dangerously in Love was released, is phenomenal throughout. Proving that she could go out alone and succeed – I think the group were a bigger force and priority than solo albums at that time -, there was a lot of love for her debut. If some gave it a mixed review, many did all at least have something positive to say about Dangerously in Love. I wanted to dive into it ahead of the twentieth anniversary on 24th June. I am going to get to some reviews and features relating to Dangerously in Love.

In 2013, Billboard celebrated the tenth anniversary of an impressive and singular debut album. They provided their thoughts on each of the tracks from Dangerously in Love. I have picked a few that are among my favourites – to see what Billboard had to say about them.

“Ten years ago, Beyoncé decided to make a move that would ultimately help her become one the most accomplished artists in music. The singer, while the R&B group Destiny’s Child was on a hiatus, ventured out as a solo artist.

Beyoncé launched her solo career with her studio debut album, “Dangerously in Love,” which turns 10 years old today (June 22).

Co-executive produced by herself, “Dangerously in Love” explores the singer’s range both in musical influences and vocally. Fused with hip-hop (Jay-Z, Big Boi, Sean Paul), soul (later Luther Vandross feature, Shuggie Otis, DeBarge samples), funk, pop and with relatable lyrical content — all while centered around a thriving romance — the album was embraced across a spectrum of fans.

“Dangerously in Love” propelled Beyoncé into superstardom, and foreshadowed the vibrancy of her 10-years-and-counting solo career.

The singer proved to her own label record, Columbia Records, that she could hold her own as a solo artist with “Dangerously In Love.” “They told me I didn’t have one single on my album. Yep,” she shared during her 4-day concert series NYC in 2011. “I guess they were kind of right. I had five.”

Her solo effort not only debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 317,000 copies according to Nielsen Soundscan, but it spawned multiple classic hits, including “Crazy in Love,” “Baby Boy,” “Naughty Girl” and “Me, Myself & I.”

1. “Crazy in Love” (feat. Jay-Z)

Beyoncé comes blazing straight out the gate with her first “Dangerously In Love” single, also the first song on the track list. “Crazy In Love” features her now-husband, Jay-Z,  and a wildly addictive hook (which samples instrumentation from The Chi-Lite’s “Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)”).  The song quickly became her first No. 1 off the album, staying at its peak position for eight weeks, and set a precedent of success.

3. “Baby Boy” (feat. Sean Paul)

Bey’ topped her first “Dangerously In Love” No. 1 by following it up with a longer-lasting one. The mid-tempo cut, in which Bey’ continues to stride in self-assurance, bridges the gap between several genres such as R&B, dancehall, reggae (with the help of rapper Sean Paul) and as “Naughty Girl,” Arabian music. “Baby Boy” is the singer’s second longest running No. 1 as a lead artist, staying at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for nine weeks.

6. “Me, Myself and I”

The album’s third single was a change from her preceding uptempo hits. This earnest, personal song features Bey’ as a scorned woman still possessing the power to win on her own after heartbreak. The song peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became her fourth consecutive top 5 single.

12. “Dangerously In Love 2”

The title track, which is a modified rendition of the version on Destiny’s Child’s “Surivor” album, is written and co-produced by Bey’ herself. The singer’s impassioned vocals amplifies love’s obsession”.

If there is one drawback or weakness one can apply to Dangerously in Love, it is that it feels fairly similar to a Destiny’s Child album. Given that Beyoncé was still with the group and this was her first solo outing, that could be forgiven! It would be later in her career that her palette broadened and she formed this more individual and personal voice. That said, I think that she very much puts her stamp on her debut. Determined that this would not be another Destiny’s Child album: instead, it is her opening salvo in a career that is among music’s most important and remarkable. In 2020, The Young Folks revisited Dangerously in Love. They pointed out the similarities to Destiny’s Child, but they had also understand how significant the album is on its own merits:

“Not many musical artists, past or present, can say they’ve had the same success and cultural impact through music than that of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.  Sure, there are acts that successfully carved their place, and rightfully so, in the mix of pop and hip-hop culture, but Beyoncé is arguably the most powerful pop star in the music business. So much so that it’s hard to even imagine a music culture without the businesswoman that she’s become.  Newer generations often fail to realize, while the older sometimes forget, that Beyoncé’s career spans the entirety of three decades, first arriving to the scene in 1992 with an R&B group that would later become Destiny’s Child.

In 2001, Destiny’s Child released Survivor, their third studio album, which reached number one on the Billboard charts as well as earning a Grammy award. During the album’s recording, the group, now made up of Beyoncé, Michelle, and Kelly, announced that they will take a hiatus to work on solo projects.  Beyoncé was the last of them to record a solo album so it’s easy to imagine the insurmountable pressure that sat atop the lead singer’s shoulders to prove to the music industry that her own two feet are strong enough for her to stand on.

Dangerously In Love erupts as you would expect any pop star to make a debut – loud and in-your-face. The blaring horn section of the opening track, “Crazy In Love,” featuring Jay-Z, initially grabs the attention of the listener but is quickly accompanied by a jumpy beat and the all too commanding voice of the then 22-year old. “Crazy In Love” offers nothing special lyrically outside of making the repetitiveness of “uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh, no, no” seem not so…irritating. The lyrics are simple and catchy enough that most of the song can be memorized throughout the first listen.  Even with plain lyrics, the obsessive love that had Beyoncé “looking so crazy right now,” won 2 Grammys, and was commonly referred to as the “summer anthem of 2003.

Prior to the album, she released “03’ Bonnie and Clyde,” which served as a catalyst to the rumors surrounding her relationship with her now husband and rap mogul, Jay-Z, who is featured on two of the album’s tracks.  Although never explicitly confirmed through the lyrics of the album, Dangerously In Love serves as a tinted window into the early stages of their relationship. So universal are the topics that the opening of “Me, Myself, and I” features a call for listeners to help sing through Beyoncé’s relationship issue.  In the oddly placed track, “Be With you,” there is an inseparable feeling of attachment towards her lover over a funk-infused groove.  Despite the feel-good lyrics, you can’t help making a “stank” face as the familiar power in her voice wraps around the bobbing bass line.

Even with the success of Destiny’s Child and two films under her belt, Beyoncé made sure to let the world know just who she is in “Hip-Hop Star,” which features Big Boi of Outkast and Sleepy Brown. Musically, this is the most imaginative addition to the album. The southern drawl in Big Boi’s flow serves as a stark contrast to the breathy tease in Beyoncé’s vocals as she seductively calls for all attention to be on her. An unnatural amalgamation of heavy metal rock, hip-hop, and the blues carries the overall vibe deep into a grimy basement club in the middle of nowhere – a place where men and woman alike can come and indulge in society’s forbidden pleasures.  Even with genres not yet developed in the 20s, you can’t help but imagine that if the underground world of speakeasies were to re-emerge featuring modern musical offerings, this song would fit right in.

Beyoncé collaborated with several different songwriters and producers but made sure to have a hand in every aspect of the creation of her debut.  The selection of talent that she worked with encouraged a creative environment that helped her incorporate different music styles and cultures into her work.  Both “Signs” and “Baby Boy” feature the free-form rhythmic structures of music found in Middle Eastern cultures, while the latter takes it a step further by adding dancehall elements as well as a verse from heavy-hitter, Sean Paul.

Given that this was Beyoncé’s opportunity to set herself apart from Destiny’s Child, Dangerously In Love is quite similar lyrically and in production. In her later work, it’s laughable to imagine anyone but Beyoncé singing her music, but the voices of Kelly and Michelle would feel right at home anywhere within Dangerously In Love. In fact, the title track was released on Destiny’s Child’s Survivor before Beyoncé added it to her own selection. Listening retrospectively, her introduction as a solo artist is a timid, yet sufficient, offering compared to what we’re used to from the Beyoncé of today.  Still, Dangerously in Love is the foundation for her solo career, and it was throughout its development and release that Beyoncé re-introduces herself to the world”.

I want to get to a review. It is surprising that there have not been many features about Dangerously in Love, the story behind it etc. It would be good to shine a spotlight on this hugely important album ahead of its twentieth anniversary. Entertainment Weekly sat down with the album in June 2003. Fresh in the minds of Beyoncé fans, this is what they had to say about an a work that I still think is underrated – and in need of some fresh spins and assesments:

“With the pop-diva pantheon so painfully congested, you might have wondered how Destiny’s Child doyenne Beyoncé Knowles would distinguish herself. Babygirl scored silver-screen time costarring alongside Austin Powers, but rival J. Lo opens movies, and her Hollywood-boyfriend buzz trumps Beyoncé’s low-key affair with Jay-Z. Avril’s got her angst. Pink too. Both Mariah and Xtina boast bigger pipes, and Britney is, well, blond. Ms. Knowles didn’t seem to have an angle until — ”Uh-oh, uh-oh” — your local DJ threw on ”Crazy in Love,” backspinning that blazing horn intro 20 times until it was beaten into your brain.

See, Beyoncé’s not really thinking ’bout those other honeys. Whether or not she got the credit, the slick-tongue style she per-fected on ”Say My Name” was a minirevolution in R&B. And Dangerously in Love, her solo debut, confirms her taste for innovation. ”Dangerously,” which the singer coproduced and almost entirely cowrote, is more about moving on from Destiny’s Child’s frothy aesthetic than competing with the current crop of singing sensations. Eschewing high-profile hitmakers like the Matrix and the Neptunes, Beyoncé collaborates with under-the-radar minds like Rich Harrison and Dr. Dre’s secret weapon, Scott Storch, exploring, albeit hesitantly, new directions in contemporary black music.

The results are not half bad — certainly not the first half. The disc opens with ”Crazy in Love,” coproduced by Harrison, who gave Mary J. Blige-ish upstart Amerie a hit single last year. Then Storch flirts with the increasingly familiar mingling of Eastern sounds and dancehall reggae, as Beyoncé portrays, not quite convincingly, a ”Naughty Girl.” The next cut, ”Baby Boy,” goes full-tilt Bollywood ‘n da hood, with Sean Paul ripping a pulsing tabla raga. Here, when Beyoncé coos, ”In our own little world, the music is the sun/The dance floor becomes the sea,” you kinda wish she’d launch into her old acrobatic scat tactics to challenge Sean Paul’s rude-boy chat. But this isn’t THAT Beyoncé.

This Beyoncé flexes a different kind of muscle on ”Hip Hop Star,” a distorted guitar-screeching foray into the rock-meets-funk-eats-hip-hop genre that’s more Neptunes than the Neptunes. Her racy, raspy ”undress me” refrain — a bit Kelis, a bit Marilyn Monroe — is shocking but not unwelcome. Guest Big Boi of OutKast sums it up nicely: ”Never can tell these days, everybody’s got a little Rick James in they veins.”

”Be With You” is a ballad with deliciously big drums that recalls Faith Evans’ ’95 single ”You Used to Love Me” and rips off a few other R&B classics you used to love. ”Me, Myself, and I” rides Storch’s signature gangsta guitar, mellowed for Beyoncé’s lovesick lament — a warm-up for the CD’s sweet spot: ”Yes,” a damn-near-Björk-like bit of trip-hop, that could, if we’re lucky, set off a new age of snap-crackle pop. The song’s staticky situation — Beyoncé defending her chastity ‘gainst some greedy boy — resembles ”Say My Name” in its specificity and earnestness.

Most of the disc’s missteps follow. The gimmicky, Missy Elliot-produced ”Signs” is soggy, synth-drenched cosmic slop. ”That’s How I Like It,” also featuring Jay-Z, is ”Jumpin’ Jumpin”’-era jive that only reminds you how fresh ”Crazy in Love” is. A remake of ”The Closer I Get to You” with Luther Vandross also sounds, sadly, a little dated. But for the most part, Ms. Knowles does more reinventing than revisiting — a dangerous prospect, but hey, that’s love”.

I am going to finish with a review from AllMusic. They observe how Beyoncé, on the strength of Dangerously in Love, might be better going solo rather than reuniting with Destiny’s Child. The fact that the group released an album in 2004 might have been a final statement rather than an attempt to reignite a new phase of their careers. With all three members now solo artists, it was a goodbye I think (though you cannot rule out another album from Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams):

“Beyoncé Knowles was always presented as the star of Destiny's Child -- which probably shouldn't be a big surprise since her father managed the group. So it was a natural step for her to step into the diva spotlight with a solo album in 2003, particularly since it followed on the heels of her co-starring role in Mike Myers' 2002 comedy hit, Austin Powers in Goldmember. Still, a singer takes a risk when going solo, as there's no guarantee that her/his star will still shine as bright when there's nobody to reflect upon. Plus, Survivor often sounded labored, as Knowles struggled to sound real. The Knowles clan -- Beyoncé and her father Mathew, that is (regrettably, Harry Knowles of "Ain't It Cool" is no relation) -- were apparently aware of these two pitfalls since they pull off a nifty trick of making her debut album, Dangerously in Love, appeal to a broad audience while making it sound relatively easy. Sometimes that ease can translate into carelessness (at least with regard to the final stretch of the album), with a prolonged sequence of ballads that get stuck in their own treacle, capped off by the unbearably mawkish closer, "Gift from Virgo," where she wishes her unborn child and her husband to be like her daddy. (Mind you, she's not pregnant or married, she's just planning ahead, although she gets tripped up in her wishes since there's "no one else like my daddy.")

Although these are a little formless -- and perhaps would have been more digestible if spread throughout the record -- they are impeccably produced and showcase Knowles' new relaxed and smooth delivery, which is a most welcome development after the overworked Survivor. Knowles doesn't save this voice just for the ballads -- she sounds assured and sexy on the dance numbers, particularly when she has a male counterpart, as on the deliriously catchy "Crazy in Love" with her man Jay-Z or on "Baby Boy" with 2003's dancehall superstar, Sean Paul. These are the moments when Dangerously in Love not only works, but sounds like Knowles has fulfilled her potential and risen to the top of the pack of contemporary R&B divas. It's just too bad that momentum is not sustained throughout the rest of the record. About halfway through, around the astrological ode "Signs" with Missy Elliott, it starts crawling through its ballads and, while listenable, it's not as exciting as the first part of the record. Still, the first half is good enough to make Dangerously in Love one of the best mainstream urban R&B records released in 2003, and makes a strong case that Knowles might be better off fulfilling this destiny instead of reuniting with Destiny”.

Released on 24th June, 2003 (though some sources say 22nd June, I think 24th is correct), Beyoncé launched a solo career that even the biggest fans would not imagine lasting twenty years or more! She is currently touring her latest album, RENAISSANCE (2022), and there is plenty more albums to come for sure! Maybe her first real peak was on the 2013 Beyoncé album - but Dangerously in Love is a remarkable debut. It would be three more years before she followed that with B’Day. That is a surprisingly long time (though Destiny’s Child did not disband until 2006) but, when you look at when her other albums were released, there is usually at least a two-year gap between them (RENAISSANCE arrived six years after Lemonade). Her fabulous 2003 debut, Dangerously in Love, introduced the world to…

A modern icon and queen.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Voice of Baceprot

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Ismael

Voice of Baceprot

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EVEN though…

PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Ismael

this group have been around and getting some positive buzz for a while now, there are many who might not know about Voice of Baceprot. There are a number of aspects that stand the group out. I have not featured any Indonesian artists before I don’t think. The trio from Garut, West Java, formed in 2014. The group consists of Firda Marsya Kurnia, Widi Rahmawati, and Euis Siti Aisyah. Voice of Baceprot sing in English as well as Sundanese. The word ‘baceprot’ means ‘noisy’ in Sundanese. I think that press in the U.K. have connected with them relatively recently. Thanks to a fantastic singles like God, Allow Me (Please) to Play My Music and PMS, they have captured a wide audience. Definitely one of the most inspiring groups around, I hope they get a bigger foothold and fanbase across the world, as they are definitely ones to watch. If you need some biography about Voice of Baceprot:

“Young, Indonesian, hijab-wearing, female metal trio Voice Of Baceprot (VOB) have been covering the members’ favourite metal songs since they learned to play their instruments.  Their prowess at playing these covers got them attention from fans and media worldwide and enabled them to develop to the point where they could, as a band, create original songs.

Consisting of Marsya (vocals and guitar), Widi (bass), and Sitti (drums), the trio first met when they were still junior high school students in their hometown of Singajaya, a small village two hours’ drive away from the city of Garut, West Java. The word “baceprot” from their band name comes from the Sundanese language meaning “noisy”. It was chosen to represent the type of music that they play.

Since their formation, VOB have become a point of discussion for a host of renowned global media, including The New York Times, NPR, BBC, DW and The Guardian, featuring them in the pages of their online publication. VOB were recently named by heavy metal and rock magazine Metal Hammer as “the Metal Band the World Needs Right Now”.

I was interesting finding out what it was like for them getting together and how that happened. I can’t imagine there were many women in Indonesia playing Metal when Voice of Baceprot started life. Maybe there are relatively few now, but the young trio have definitely opened doors and changed the conversation when it comes to Metal. Not only because of gender – Metal has often struggled to embrace women -, but because they wear hijabs. This is something that has not really been seen in the mainstream. I think that Voice of Baceprot will get worldwide acclaim and demand when they release an album. Louder Sound featured Voice of Baceprot back in 2021. They were a sound of rebellion that the world needed – and that is needed even more now:

“In 2014, in a classroom in rural Indonesia, three schoolgirls fell in love with metal. During an extra-curricular arts programme at their school in Garut, West Java, Firdda Marsya Kurnia (vocals and guitar), Widi Rahmawati (bass), and Euis Siti Aisyah (drums), then aged 14, were introduced to metal by their school guidance counsellor, Ahba Erza.

Immediately, the teenagers were drawn to the “unique and beautiful” lyricism of System Of A Down, and “rebellious” spirit of bands such as Rage Against The Machine, Lamb Of God and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Before long, they had formed Voice Of Baceprot, (the word ‘Baceprot’ means ‘loud’ in Sundanese) and were making their own incendiary racket. Their 2018 single, School Revolution, is a fiery blend of elastic bass and furious RATM-indebted thrash.

Emerging as an all-female, Muslim metal band in a conservative community in West Java has posed its own challenges however. The girls have received death threats, while Ahba, who is now their manager, has received calls pressuring him to break up the band. The trio spoke to Metal Hammer about overcoming these challenges and demolishing cultural and gender norms.

What’s the scene like in Indonesia for metal and are there many women playing in bands?

Marsya [lead guitar / vocals]: “Every year the metal scene in Indonesia keeps on developing and growing. There’s a bunch of bands all genders and ages, a lot of Indonesians are familiar with metal music and there are a lot of local metal bands in Indonesia.

Euis [drummer]: “There are women that play rock and metal. It’s there, the amount is relative, but there are more and more women playing in Indonesia.”

Can you remember your first gig?

“The first performance was a school event, a farewell concert and it was the first time our parents saw us perform. They school we went to was a pretty religious Islamic school, when we performed, everyone was pretty shocked.”

Shocked in what sense?

Marsya: “[Our parents] didn’t explicitly show their support or forbid us from playing music. Deep down, we knew that they were actually proud of us. Perhaps a little bit worried. They did prohibit us from playing music after [our first show], but we carried on regardless and didn’t think too much of it. [The band practised in secret for a year after their first gig following reservations from their parents.] We never thought about packing it in or taking a step back. As time went by, we realised that the lack of support from our parents and community played a huge role in fortifying our mental strength, and the resolve that we have in proving that our music does not negatively affect our morals.”

You have faced challenges in your own country, and even death threats for playing metal. How did you deal with that?

“They were just comments made on social media. We were a bit scared at first, but we just put our heads down and focused back on our music. As the cliché goes, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. We get a lot of curse words and people saying you should stop playing. They want us to stop playing music. For the most part, people are saying that stuff because we’re women, but we’re not scared to say what’s on our mind. A lot of people don’t like that. If we were men maybe we wouldn’t get such a hard time. Music gives us such a great joy that’s why we want to continue to play. So we are focusing on our music and screw the others!”.

I am going to bring in a couple of other interviews before wrapping things up. SPIN chatted with Voice of Baceprot last year. Recognising the fact that they are delivering their feminist worldview in a world and through a genre where it is very much needed, it is great that they were getting so much love and respect from the media in 2022. I think that this amazing trio will be making music for many more years to come. Their sound is so compelling and powerful. I would urge people to keep their eyes on Voice of Baceprot:

“When this writer was 15, his passions and obsessions were limited to obscure prog music, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and where to get some of that magical elixir known as beer. When the young women of Indonesian metal band Voice of Baceprot started playing at that age, they honed their abilities and found fans on both sides of the rock ‘n’ roll stage. Now in their early 20s, they’re learning firsthand how having the temerity to play hard rock can be a crash course in having to deal with inequality and patriarchy. It helps that they can throw down a stomping cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” in front of any assembled multitude at a festival like they wrote it themselves.

Not even the most-polished Magic 8-Ball could have predicted Indonesia as being a flashpoint for one of metal’s most promising new outfits. Metal is something that is genuinely celebrated in Indonesia, a social bacchanal for riffs and shredding. Hell, Indonesian president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has been livin’ la vida metallic for a while now. (Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe described Widodo as “the world’s first heavy metal president,” citing the leader’s love of Metallica, Napalm Death and LoG amongst many others.) The young women of Voice of Baceprot were introduced to each other by the guidance counselor from the school in their village of Garut, assisting in everything from gear acquisition to songwriting assistance.

But Voice of Baceprot (“baceprot” is the Sundanese word for “noisy”) are adding a new dimension to their art. The band—guitarist/vocalist Marsya Kurnia, bassist Widi Rahmawati and drummer Sitti Aisyah—routinely deliver the driving riffage that conjures synovial headbanging and some old-fashioned metal-thrashing-mad sweat. And they still do it wearing hijab, the head coverings worn by Muslim women. But forget about the music: When the band traveled to France, it seemed as though dullard Muslim male and female journalists had an agenda. While the girls say they found the predictable ranting of hardliners both laughable (“Girls are not supposed to play metal music. You should stay at home and cook instead”) and vengeful (“You are going to hell because music is haram [forbidden]”), the frequent, most tiresome question was always centered on their hijab, the Muslim headdress. The follow-up question usually asked if Voice of Baceprot were “being oppressed” and forced to wear them.

Instead of letting the queries slide and sharing eyerolls and laughs about it later, a consciousness was created. What are you people thinking? Why the fuck would you think that? This dovetailed nicely with the news of the U.S. Supreme Court gearing up to repeal Roe vs Wade, the landmark decision legalizing abortion—which also had the band examining everything from body issues to discussion of exactly who owns women’s bodies.

These discussions manifested into a new track, “[Not] Public Property,” the first song the girls wrote as a trio. As a prelude to the single, the video features brief interview clips with women who have been marginalized for everything from lacking the outmoded notions of “ideal appearance” to their own experiences regarding what choices they made about their bodies. (An American delegation of Butcher Babies singer Carla Harvey and Eva Under Fire’s Amanda Lyberg appear in the clip.) Voice of Baceprot backs it up with a lyrical sentiment that no one should have trouble understanding. “This is how the fight will be remembered/and this is how the voice gets louder and stronger,” Marsya sings as the band generates a loping groove that defies both calendars and passports of origin”.

The group are about using their platform to spread messages of peace. They look at humanitarian and environmental issues. There is this importance in their music that needs to be heard. They have also raised money for victims of sexual violence and abuse. One of the most important bands in the world, they are helping to change the face and sound of Metal. Not that I have anything against the, but I don’t think we have seen and heard anyone like Voice of Baceprot. At first, the band’s parents were not too keen on them going into music. Firda Marsya Kurnia, Widi Rahmawati, and Euis Siti Aisyah told Kerrang! last year why they are supportive now, and how life is different from when they were starting out:

“Yes, because we were able to make money playing this kind of music,” adds Sitti and the trio dissolve into laughter. They laugh a lot, both throughout the interview and, you suspect, as they go through life. This still young band have talked previously about receiving abuse and even death threats for the temerity of wanting to start a band and play shows. They’ve encountered a range of negative reactions but prefer to focus on the far more common waves of positivity and generosity that have helped them along the way.

“At first we were treated differently [for being a female band] because it’s maybe not a common thing, especially where we live,” shrugs Marsya. “But when we got to big cities like Jakarta, people are kind and we got a lot of support from local musicians. We met a lot of metalheads and learned a lot more about metal and had a great experience.” She’s also proud of the fact that people are now starting to reach out to the band, often saying that they’ve found them to be an inspiration. “We get a lot of messages like that, especially from the girls. They say before they knew us, they were afraid to play music, but when VOB got a little bit popular, they had the courage to start a band themselves,” she beams.

This giggly sense of positivity doesn’t mean that things don’t piss them off, however – although they almost certainly wouldn’t phrase it like that. When they first came to Europe, for example, the press honed in on a single aspect: the fact that these were three girls playing metal in hijab. In December the band shared a video from their set at the Trans Musicales festival in France. “There’s one thing that made me shocked,” Marsya told the crowd. “All of them mostly asked me about our hijab. And you know what, it makes me feel like I’m coming here for a fashion show. They focus only on our appearance.”

They also display a righteous anger on their latest single, the incendiary yet infectiously grooving [NOT] Public Property. “This song is born of our concern for women’s issues, especially regarding bodily autonomy which, in our opinion, is quite urgent to be voiced. Because we are sick of hearing how people talk about women’s bodies, even when sexual violence happens to us – our bodies and actions are still to blame. And we don’t want interference in deciding what we should wear, what we should do and how we are in public. It makes our bodies public property. And honestly, we don’t like it".

An essential and hugely important group that everyone needs to get behind, Voice of Baceprot are primed for very big things. With such a remarkable backstory and road to prominence, they have definitely captured the ears of the media and fans across the word. I think we will be hearing their music for years more. Years ago, one did not really see many female groups in Metal who wore hijabs. Not that there was necessarily a barrier, but there was a sense of the genre being quite white and male. Now, with Voice of Baceprot leading a charge, this will inspire into the music scene…

OTHERS like them.

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Follow Voice of Baceprot

PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Ismael

Official:

https://www.voiceofbaceprot.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/voiceofbaceprot/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/baceprotvoices

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/32rI2a65NqHEnTAewmPNEC?si=GUgJY1v9TBOLHm3m_aBd6w

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/VoiceofBaceprot

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/voiceofbaceprot

FEATURE: Madonna’s Eponymous Debut Album at Forty: Will We Get an Expanded Anniversary Release?

FEATURE:

 

 

Madonna’s Eponymous Debut Album at Forty

IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna photographed by Gary Heery in 1983

Will We Get an Expanded Anniversary Release?

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WHEN Madonna’s…

ALBUM COVER PHOTO: Gary Heery

True Blue (her third studio album) turned thirty-five in 2021, it got an expanded release. That being said, I don’t think that Ray of Light got a special twenty-fifth anniversary reissue this year. I guess it depends how Madonna and the label feel, and whether it is worth the financial risk of releasing the album again and hoping that it sells. I think that things need to be considered for the approaching fortieth anniversary of her eponymous debut album. Madonna came out on 27th July, 1983. Even though there is a way to go yet, that date will come around soon enough! I recently wrote a feature that asks whether the book featuring Richard Corman’s photos of Madonna pre-fame in 1983 will be reissued. Thinking about the album and a possible fortieth anniversary, there are a number of photos that could be included. If you had a double vinyl that has this amazing new sleeve design, accompanied by some incredible album notes, lyrics, together with a selection of photos by Richard Corman - and, of course, some remixes, rarities, and some live versions of the album’s songs. Gary Heery is responsible for the cover image. i feel there could be outtakes included as part of that package. There are some wonderful photos of Madonna from 1983 and before that could see their way onto an anniversary reissue of her wonderful debut album. I think that this is one of the most important Madonna anniversaries. Even if her debut is not ranked alongside Ray of Light and Like a Prayer (1989), it is definitely one of her strongest albums. It got good reviews in 1983, but there has been this retrospective drive and extra appreciation. Madonna wrote or most of the songs on the album. She wanted to make it her work and not be another Pop star where other writers and producers were speaking for her. Even if there were collaborators from 1984’s Like a Virgin onwards, Madonna is an album where the future Queen of Pop was showing this confidence and faith in her music!

As such, you do hear this original and relatable artist who was soon primed for worldwide fame. I guess Madonna does fit into the sounds that were around in 1983. Her albums would become bigger and more experimental in future years, but there is so much to love about her debut. Containing gems like Burning Up, Borderline and Holiday, this is an album that will stand the test of time and inspire people for decades to come. I am going to round up with thoughts around an anniversary reissue of Madonna. Before that, there are a couple of pieces to bring in. One, from CLASH in 2018 (twenty-five years after Madonna’s release) highlights how this phenomenal debut is a masterpiece that changed the face of Pop:

“It's 1983. Punk is dead. Post-punk is on it's last limbs. According to those in the know, disco is dead also, although that proved not to be the case. Indie and alternative is in it's infancy and pop music seems as varied and sparse in it's tastes as it ever has done. Prince was working up to his career's pinnacle, Talking Heads were about to descend from theirs and, in that climate, it seemed that very few would enjoy more than their fifteen minutes of fame, in a sector of the industry that now felt more immediate than ever before.

Recovering from it's biggest shake up since the emergence of The Beatles in the early 1960s, pop music also felt boundless in what it now had to offer the world. MTV blew the entertainment world wide open in 1981, turning former child star Michael Jackson into The King Of Pop in the process. The industry needed a Queen to share his throne.

Step forward a 25-year-old Michigan native who now worked the restaurants of New York City, following after her move to the big apple, pursuing her dream of making a career in modern dance, fell flat on it’s face. Her name? Madonna Louise Ciccone, although the world would come to know her by only one name.

PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corman

In 1982, bed-stricken by a recurrent heart condition, Sire Records' founder Seymour Stein pressed play on her demo for ‘Everybody’, the song that was to become Madonna's first single, as well as the closing track on the eventual debut record. Within hours of hearing it for the first time, and calling over to Danceteria DJ Mark Kamis (who had given Stein the tape in the first place), Madonna was by his bedside, signing the contract that would see her career begin with one of the most fabulously realised debut albums in music history.

It's now 2018 and Madonna is celebrating her 60th birthday. It's also 35 years since that eponymous debut album and subject of this spotlight review hit the shelves in record stores all over the world and, as I drop the needle on my newly acquired vinyl copy, I get a sense of just how exciting it must have been for someone in my position to be doing just that, more than three decades ago.

As the shimmering intro to ‘Lucky Star’ begins to play and is replaced by that prime 80s mix of synth beats, choppy guitars and a funky bass line, I find myself transfixed by her timeless, thousand yard stare, one half of which shoes an angelic, young adult, the other a hardened, tortured soul. She had the look of a woman both frustrated by her past and determined to ensure her future is markedly different. More endearingly, she has the look of someone who's completely unaware of how different that future would prove to be, for both herself, and the rest of the entire world.

It's difficult to think of many more debut albums that, in retrospect, hint so boldly at the career that an artist would grow into and the reputation that they would subsequently cultivate – the only one that springs immediately to mind is U2's ‘Boy’, an album made in Dublin kitchens but destined to be played in the world's biggest, best arenas.

Whilst nowhere near as daring sonically or visually as Madonna’s later works would prove to be, her debut album is, nonetheless, a masterpiece. Offering something for everyone without ever selling her talents short, to say it’s a tone setter for the themes that she would come to personify throughout the rest of the decade would be a huge understatement.

It’s a record of immense power and longevity that feels as impressive today as it would have done upon first release and the contrarians who say otherwise are the kind of people that you’d never really want to bump into at a party.

Considering she’d return less than a year later with ‘Like A Virgin’ and, before the decade finished, would release ‘True Blue’ and ‘Like A Prayer’, it’s easy to see why this album can be overlooked, but do so at your peril, as within this magnificent 41-or-so minutes is some of the finest, most relevant, most enduring and most danceable music, ever put to tape”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in New York in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corman

The reviews for Madonna have been largely positive. Although Rolling Stone and a few others were not entirely totally sold on the 1983 album, everyone recognises it for what it is: one of the most important and influential ever. If some dismissed Madonna as a Minnie Mouse soundalike and someone who was a one-hit wonder, those who were listening hard enough saw the potential. Madonna introduced this star who was getting into households around the world. In 1983, there was not a lot of Disco music around. Many felt that the genre had died a few years previous. Madonna was bringing it back to the mainstream. In years since, so many artists have been influenced by Madonna’s exceptional debut. In their retrospective review, this is what Pitchfork observed about the mighty Madonna:

“Sire Records founder Seymour Stein was lying in a hospital bed the first time he heard Madonna. It was 1982, and the man who’d signed the Ramones, Talking Heads, and the Pretenders had one of his usual heart infections. Listening to his Walkman, Stein perked up when he heard a bass-heavy demo of Madonna’s first single, “Everybody.” He called the DJ who’d given him the tape, Mark Kamins of New York’s anti-Studio 54 utopia Danceteria, and asked to meet Madonna, a Danceteria regular and waitress. Hours later, the 24-year-old dancer-turned-musician from Bay City, Mich. was in that hospital room, hoping Stein was well enough to draw up a contract.

Stein did sign her, and the following year put out Madonna, a cool and cohesive debut that helped resituate electronic dance-pop at Top 40’s apex with hits like “Holiday,” “Lucky Star,” and “Borderline.” But the suits at Warner Bros., which had acquired Sire a few years earlier, didn’t quite know what to do with the former punk who was writing and performing muscular R&B for the club. Their early inclination was to work her at black radio stations, favoring a cartoonish urban collage for the “Everybody” cover instead of Madonna’s already perfected thousand-yard stare. Listeners weren’t sure what to make of the singer cooing those pleading vocals on the rising dance hit, but it wouldn’t be long before Madonna did something about that too.

At Madonna’s convincing, the label let her shoot a chintzy performance video for “Everybody,” followed by a more polished video for her striking second single “Burning Up.” In it, she tugs at a thick chain looped around her neck and rolls around in the street while singing lines like, “I’m not the others, I’d do anything/I’m not the same, I have no shame,” her panting underscored by Hi-NRG beats and raunchy rock guitar solos. A man drives towards Madonna, but at the end, it’s her behind the wheel—the first great wink to her signature subversion of power through sex. Though her 1984 MTV Music Video Awards performance is now considered erotic lore on the level of Elvis’ censored hips, that writhing set to “Like a Virgin” would have had little context without the slow, sensual burn of Madonna throughout ’83 and ’84. It was a record that seemed quirky but innocuous enough based on the feel-good wiggle of its initial crossover hit, “Holiday,” but the driving force of Madonna remains its palpable physicality—a mandate to move your body, in ways both public and private.

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

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

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

I do not know whether Madonna herself will have the time to promote the fortieth anniversary of her debut. On 27th July, the day Madonna turns forty, she has a gig in Tulsa, Oklahoma as part of her Celebration Tour. She is going to be fully immersed in her first big live tour for a few years! I am sure that there will be some announcement or event around the anniversary. There are these gaps in the Madonna universe that you’d love to see filled. There have been documentaries in the past but, as she is looking ahead to a tour and back on the debut album, something that captures this would be interesting (though she may record a tour documentary anyway and release that). No single book dedicated to her debut album and the period leading up to that has been published so far as I can tell. Also, you would love to see new articles and examinations of Madonna. Before the fortieth anniversary, I am going to do a few other features around Madonna. In addition to this tour and the anniversary, the Queen of Pop is sixty-five in August. It is a busy, eventful and important year for an artist who is still in a league of her own! The importance of Madonna’s debut album turning forty is pretty huge. Even if she will be readying herself for a gig on 27th July, I hope she can post something to social media. It makes me wonder whether there will be a reissue of the album. Maybe remastered HD videos on YouTube of the album’s singles (though Borderline has already had that treatment - and it looks really fantastic for it!). As I said at the start, seeing photos shot around 1982/1983 would add context and dimensions to one of the all-time great debut albums. The opening track from Madonna might be called Lucky Star. Not necessarily referring to her break in music, there is no doubt about the fact there was no luck involved! When it comes to the brilliance of Madonna’s debut album and the success that she enjoyed following its release in 1983, it was drive, determination and raw talent that got her there! This year, we get to celebrate forty years since Madonna arrived into the world and, with it, soon made her…

ONE of the most important artists in the world.

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part One Hundred: JAY-Z

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Reform Alliance

Part One Hundred: JAY-Z

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TAKING this feature…

 IN THIS PHOTO: JAY-Z and Beyoncé (who have been married since 2008)/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

into triple figures, I am long overdue including JAY-Z into Inspired By… One of the most influential rappers ever, his latest studio album, 4:44, came out in 2017. He released an album with Beyoncé, EVERYTHING IS LOVE, as The Carters. one of the most powerful couples in music, they have each released these incredibly important and powerful albums. There is no doubting the fact that JAY-Z is one of the most influential artists ever. I will come to a playlist of songs from artists who have either been influenced by him or have been mentioned in the same breath. Before that, AllMusic provide a biography of the legendary Brooklyn-born legend:

“From the projects to the throne, New York rapper, producer, and entrepreneur Jay-Z embodied the quintessential rags-to-riches dream, becoming one of the most successful MCs of his generation while creating an empire that made him one of the richest artists of the era. After debuting in the late '90s with Reasonable Doubt and In My Lifetime, Vol 1, he began a chart run that notched over a dozen number one albums spread over two decades, including the multi-platinum, Grammy-winning Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life (1999), the Blueprint series (2001, 2002, 2009), and The Black Album (2003). In addition to his solo work, Jay-Z also found mainstream crossover success with pop, R&B, and rock artists, notably collaborating with protege Rihanna on their Grammy-winning "Umbrella" (2008); alternative metal outfit Linkin Park on 2004's genre mash-up Collision Course; Alicia Keys on New York City's unofficial anthem, the chart-topping "Empire State of Mind" (2011); frequent foil Kanye West on Watch the Throne (2012); and wife Beyoncé on numerous hit singles, international tours, and the joint album Everything Is Love (2018). He also contributed the song "What It Feels Like" to the soundtrack of the Oscar-nominated 2021 drama Judas and The Black Messiah. In addition to rapping, Jay-Z has also served as a label head (Roc-A-Fella/Roc Nation/Def Jam), team owner (NBA's Brooklyn Nets), real-estate mogul, and fashion designer.

Born in 1969 and raised in the rough Marcy Projects of Brooklyn, New York, Jay-Z was raised by his mother and turned to the streets, where he made a name for himself as a fledging rapper and drug dealer. Known as "Jazzy" in his neighborhood, he soon shortened his nickname to Jay-Z and did all he could to break into the rap game. As he vividly discusses in his lyrics, Jay-Z also became a street hustler around this time, doing what needed to be done to make money. For a while, he ran around with rapper Jaz-O, aka Big Jaz. From Jaz he learned how to navigate the rap industry and what moves to make. He also participated in the group Original Flavor for a short time. Jay-Z subsequently decided to make an untraditional decision and start his own label rather than sign with an established one as Jaz had done. Together with friends Damon Dash and Kareem "Biggs" Burke, he created Roc-a-Fella Records. Once he found a reputable distributor, Priority Records (and later Def Jam), Jay-Z finally had everything in place, including a debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996).

Though Reasonable Doubt reached only number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart, Jay-Z's debut eventually became recognized as an undisputed classic among fans, many of whom consider it his crowning achievement. Led by the hit single "Ain't No Nigga," a duet featuring Foxy Brown, Reasonable Doubt slowly spread through New York; some listeners were drawn in because of big names like DJ Premier and the Notorious B.I.G., others by the gangsta motifs very much in style at the time, still others by Jay-Z himself. By the end of its steady run, Reasonable Doubt generated three more charting singles -- "Can't Knock the Hustle," "Dead Presidents," and "Feelin' It" -- and set the stage for the follow-up, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1997).

Peaking at number three on the Billboard 200, In My Lifetime sold much more strongly than its predecessor. The album boasted pop-crossover producers such as Puff Daddy and Teddy Riley, and singles such as "Sunshine" and "The City Is Mine" indeed showcased a newfound embrace of pop crossover. Yet there were still plenty of hard-hitting songs, such as "Streets Is Watching" and "Rap Game/Crack Game" to lace In My Lifetime with gangsta rap as well as pop crossover. Jay-Z's next album, Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life (1998), released a year after In My Lifetime, was laden with hit singles: "Can I Get A..." and "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" broke the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, while "Cash, Money, Hoes" and "Nigga What, Nigga Who" also charted. Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life ended up winning a Grammy for Best Rap Album.

Like clockwork, Jay-Z returned a year later with another album, Vol. 3: Life and Times of S. Carter (1999), which topped the Billboard 200 and spawned two hits: "Big Pimpin'" and "Do It Again (Put Ya Hands Up)." The album was Jay-Z's most collaborative to date, featuring ten guest vocalists and a roll call of in-demand producers such as Dr. Dre and Timbaland. Jay-Z then scaled back a bit for Dynasty Roc la Familia (2000), his fifth album in as many years. The album showcased Roc-a-Fella's in-house rappers, such as Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, and Freeway. On Dynasty Roc la Familia, Jay-Z also began working with a few new producers: the Neptunes, Kanye West, and Just Blaze. The Neptunes-produced "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" became a particularly huge hit single this go-round.

Jay-Z's next album, The Blueprint (2001), solidified his position atop the New York rap scene. Prior to its release, the rapper had caused a stir in New York following his headlining performance at Hot 97's Summer Jam 2001, where he debuted the song "Takeover." The song features a harsh verse ridiculing Prodigy of Mobb Deep, and Jay-Z accentuated his verbal assault by showcasing gigantic photos of an adolescent Prodigy in a dance outfit. The version of "Takeover" that later appeared on The Blueprint includes a third verse, this one dissing Nas, who, in response to the Summer Jam performance, had called out Jay-Z, "the fake king of New York," in a freestyle known as "Stillmatic." As expected, "Takeover" ignited a sparring match with Nas, who responded with "Ether." Jay-Z accordingly returned with a comeback, "Super Ugly," where he rapped over the beats to Nas' "Get Ur Self A..." on the first verse and Dr. Dre's "Bad Intentions" on the second. The back-and-forth bout created massive publicity for both Jay-Z and Nas. In addition to "Takeover," The Blueprint also featured "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," one of the year's biggest hit songs, and the album topped many year-end best-of charts.

Jay-Z capitalized on the runaway success of The Blueprint with a number of follow-up projects. He collaborated with the Roots for the Unplugged album (2001) and with R. Kelly for Best of Both Worlds (2002). He then went on to record, over the course of the year, 40 or so new tracks, 25 of which appeared on his next record, the double album The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse (2002). Though billed as a sequel, The Blueprint² was considerably different from its predecessor. Whereas the first volume had been personal, considered, and focused, the second instead offered an unapologetically sprawling double-disc extravaganza showcasing remarkable scope. As usual, it spawned a stream of singles, led by his 2Pac cover "'03 Bonnie & Clyde," featuring his future wife Beyoncé. Furthermore, Jay-Z guested on a pair of summer 2003 hits: Beyoncé's chart-topping "Crazy in Love" and Pharrell Williams' Top Five hit "Frontin'."

It was then that Jay-Z announced his imminent retirement after the release of one more album. That LP, The Black Album (2003), was rush-released by Def Jam and soared to the top Billboard spot at the end of the year. It spawned a couple big hits -- "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" and "99 Problems" -- and inspired a popular mash-up bootleg, The Grey Album, by Danger Mouse. The subsequent year (2004) was a whirlwind for the retiring Jay-Z. He embarked on a farewell tour that was topped off by an extravagant Madison Square Garden performance documented on the Fade to Black DVD, and he also embarked on an arena tour with the embattled R. Kelly.

With his reputation bigger than ever, Jay-Z accepted an offer to assume the role of president at Def Jam. The seminal rap label was struggling and needed someone to guide it through a rocky transitional phase. Jay-Z accepted the challenge and took over the company begun by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin roughly 20 years earlier. (As part of its deal with Jay-Z, Def Jam's parent company, Universal, bought Roc-a-Fella.) Considerable fanfare met the presidential inauguration, as Jay-Z became one of the few African-American major-label executives in the business. Numerous rappers owned or operated their own boutique labels, but none had ever risen to such major-label heights. The rapper-turned-president didn't take his job lightly, either, at least judging by his initial year at the helm. Within months of assuming his position, he fostered a string of newfound talents, including Young Jeezy and Rihanna.

In 2005, Jay-Z came out of retirement for the I Declare War concert in New York City. The ambitious show featured a parade of high-profile guest stars, including Diddy and Kanye West, and in a peacemaking move, Nas. With this longstanding beef squashed, Jay-Z announced he was coming out of retirement for good. He made it official when Kingdom Come (2006) hit shelves. Jay-Z kept firing with American Gangster (2007), inspired by the concurrent film of the same name. After he left Def Jam and established Roc Nation -- a label, music publisher, and talent agency through Live Nation -- he released a third installment in the Blueprint series, The Blueprint 3 (2009). Announced with the single "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)," the album featured productions from Kanye West and Timbaland, plus guest features for West, Rihanna, and Alicia Keys, the latter of whom appeared on "Empire State of Mind," one of the biggest hits of Jay-Z's career. At various points during the next two years, Jay-Z and West, joined by numerous associates, worked on Watch the Throne (2011). The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, supported by the smash hits "Otis" and "Niggas in Paris."

On January 7, 2012, Beyoncé gave birth to Blue Ivy Carter. Jay-Z quickly released "Glory," featuring his daughter as B.I.C.; she became the youngest person to appear on a Billboard-charting single. High-profile television a few months later announced Jay-Z's 12th solo album, Magna Carta...Holy Grail (2012). Released that July 4, it featured production from Timbaland and partner Jerome "J. Roc" Harmon, while the lead song involved Justin Timberlake, with whom Jay-Z toured that summer. During the next few years, Jay-Z was involved primarily with assorted business and philanthropic ventures, as well as the production of the documentary Time: The Kalief Browder Story. He appeared on a handful of tracks headlined by other artists, including Drake's "Pop Style" and DJ Khaled's "I Got the Keys." Further collaborations, such as his and Beyoncé's appearances on Khaled's "Shining," along with an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (as the first rap artist), and the addition of newborn twins to the Carter family, all preceded the album 4:44 (2017). His 13th full-length, the critically acclaimed, platinum-certified set debuted atop the Billboard 200 and was nominated for Album of the Year and Song of the Year (for single "The Story of O.J.") at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018. Later that year, he embarked on an international stadium tour with Beyonce dubbed On the Run II. To coincide with the trek, the pair released the surprise album Everything Is Love as the Carters. Including the Migos-assisted lead single "Apeshit" -- which was promoted with a music video shot at the Louvre -- Everything Is Love debuted at number two and featured production by Pharrell Williams, Mike Dean, Cool & Dre, Boi-1da, and more. In 2021, Jay-Z contributed the track "What It Feels Like" (featuring the late-Nipsey Hussle) to the soundtrack to the Oscar-nominated film Judas and The Black Messiah”.

On this one hundredth edition of Inspired By…, I wanted to focus on the impact and important of JAY-Z. He will continue to influence artists for years to come. Below is a playlist of songs from those who have either cited him as an influence or have been compared to him. As you can hear and see, he has been responsible for sparking a fuse for…

SOME huge names.

FEATURE: Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars' Farewell Gig at Fifty

FEATURE:

 

 

Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide

IMAGE CREDIT: davidbowie.com

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars' Farewell Gig at Fifty

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ON 3rd July, 1973…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Masayoshi Sukita

one of the most iconic and important gigs ever took place. That was the day that David Bowie retired Ziggy Stardust - his most celebrated alter-ego - in front of 5,000 fans on stage at London's Hammersmith Odeon. I shall come to a special screening that marks fifty years of that landmark and unforgettable night. Among the audience, it is said, was a then-fourteen-year-old Kate Bush. I think it is a big reason why she played tour dates at the then-Hammersmith Odeon in 1979. A big reason why, in 2014, that is where she held her sold-out Before the Dawn residency (though, by this point, the venue was renamed to the Eventim Apollo). On Caroline Street, W6, David Bowie brought this iconic alter ego to the stage back in July 1973. Could those who were in attendance that night have imagined that this was a farewell gig for Ziggy Stardust and his Spiders from Mars – the last time this persona would be seen on the stage. There was a fear that this would be David Bowie’s final gig. As we know, he would perform for decades more. But you can see why there was some truth to that particular rumour. Perhaps burned-out or unsure where he would go next, many in that audience on 3rd July, 1973 were fearful that this genius would not return to the stage. Earlier in 1973, on 19th April in fact, Bowie released his sixth studio album, Aladdin Sane. There was something about Ziggy Stardust in the cover for that album. I think Bowie was looking at other inspirations and thinking of other directions. To appease the record label, he released Pin Ups later in 1973. A stop-gap album, it was covers of songs from artists who inspired him as a teen. In 1974, the shift and new Diamond Dogs album showed that Bowie truly shed the skin of Ziggy Stardust! Bowie would not abandon personas after the stage death of Ziggy Stardust – that it remains his most loved, famous and iconic creation.

The reason I am revisiting this gig is because there is an album release of that final night. There will be a global premiere screening in Hammersmith of the final Ziggy gig fifty years to the date. I shall come to that soon. Let’s take you inside a gig that, by all accounts, contained more than its share of excess and eventfulness! The Evening Standard, in 2019, told the story of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ final gig on 3rd July, 1973:

“Everybody, this has been one of the greatest tours of our life,” said David Bowie, standing on stage at the Hammersmith Odeon, clad in a sheer mesh top and glittery trousers, panting like a man on the brink.

“I’d like to thank the band, I’d like to thank our road crew and I’d like to thank our lighting people,” he added, prompting a roar of appreciation from the 3,500-strong crowd.

“Of all the shows on this tour, this particular show will remain with us the longest,” he said, to an even louder cheer. “Because not only is it the last show of the tour, but it’s the last show that we’ll ever do. Thank you.”

With the frenzied screams that followed, you would have thought Bowie had disembowelled himself right there on stage. Even as the gentle piano of the next song began to ring out, yelps of disbelief pierced the music.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

It was July 3 1973 and, with all that had just happened, it really seemed as if that night would be the last time Bowie ever performed live. As it happened, it was just the final outing of his Ziggy Stardust persona — something which, with the worldwide fame Bowie had achieved as this unearthly, androgynous being, seemed just as implausible.

It was Ziggy Stardust that had transformed Bowie from cult figure to global pin-up, dressed in eye-popping costumes and exuding a charisma that really did seem to be from another planet. His unprecedented success in this guise meant that by the time he got to the Odeon, he had been touring almost solidly for well over a year. Stardust the legend was at its zenith, but Bowie the man was at breaking point. He needed change and, without barely telling a soul – not even some of his bandmates – he decided to bring things to an abrupt end in west London.

Even before this announcement, the crowd was in a state of hysteria. It was a spellbinding show, caught in all its glory by a film crew and later released as a live album in 1983. Bowie and his rambunctious band stormed through an 18-song setlist, joined by virtuoso guitarist Jeff Beck wailing over covers of the Beatles (Love Me Do coming off the back of a thundering Jean Genie) and Chuck Berry (Round and Round, which was eventually cut from the live album).

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Seemingly, it had an irresistible effect on those in the crowd. Audience members were seen taking their off clothes en masse, while some engaged in rather more explicit acts: according to eye-witness accounts, it descended to the point of orgy. As one attendee later recalled: "I thought it was so extraordinary, because nobody had any inhibitions... a lot of fluid was flying about."

It seems like the stuff of rock music folklore, but was backed up by Mike Garson, Bowie's pianist, who later said: "I heard all those stories about what was going on in the audience and I tend to believe them. I remember seeing crazy stuff.”

Whatever really happened in the stalls of the Odeon that night, any promiscuity soon gave way to grief. Malcolm Green, who was at the gig that night, told the Guardian that once the gig was over, "people were crying outside, distraught.”

The song that closed the gig in Hammersmith, the one that came immediately after his declaration, was Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide — seemingly tailor-made for Ziggy’s grand departure. In the footage from the gig, Bowie struts and staggers around the stage, clasping outstretched hands from the crowd as if he was a preacher. Once the music stops, a rabid fan runs onto the stage, lunges at Bowie and is only allowed one glorious second of contact before the security guard yanks him away. “Thank you very much,” Bowie then says, addressing the crowd. “Bye bye, we love you”.

Prior to coming to the anniversary releases, there is another feature that I want to source from. Tom Doyle, writing for MOJO earlier this year, looked at the excess and memorable night that thousands witnesses that final Spiders from Mars show. Alongside the electricity and emotions running through the Hammersmith Apollo, there was the wild and unforgettable backstage revelry. What was the real reason behind the retirement of Ziggy Stardust? Many say it was a musical decision, or David Bowie growing tired of touring. A long-time friend and collaborator of Bowie’s, Geoff MacCormack (a.k.a Warren Peace), revealed some truths:

“In 1973, David Bowie’s glam rock alter ego Ziggy Stardust had finally catapulted him to the fame he had craved for so long. However, success and a spiralling drug habit were beginning to reveal the madness behind Bowie’s beguiling new mask. In this extract from MOJO’s exclusive David Bowie cover story, band members and friends recall Bowie’s decision to kill off his famous creation and the night of the final Spiders From Mars show…

Aladdin Sane was released on April 20, 1973, and went straight to UK Number 1 on its 100,000 pre-sales alone – an advance orders tally not seen since Abbey Road. But, from manager Tony Defries’s perspective, it was in this first half of 1973 that Bowie first began to feel uneasy with stardom.

“Basically, I think success wasn’t the ideal situation for David,” he says now. “When Aladdin Sane was selling enormous quantities and crowds were shutting down railway stations, just to get a glance of him, I think that’s when it all began to sink in, that he was no longer an ordinary person. The Ziggy effect was taking hold and he couldn’t cope with it, really.”

Geoff MacCormack, who had joined the Ziggy tour as backing vocalist/percussionist and become Bowie’s closest friend and travelling companion, disagrees.

IN THIS PHOTO: Songwriter and producer Geoff MacCormack met Bowie as a primary school companion, but their shared love for music made them a lifelong inseparable pair. In this excerpt from his recent photographic memoir, David Bowie: Rock ‘n’ Roll with Me, published by ACC Art Books, MacCormack revisits the particular period in the late-’60s, when Bowie’s march to fame began/PHOTO CREDIT: Geoff MacCormack/Interview Magazine

“I think he was ready for fame,” he says. “I don’t think it fazed him that much. He very cleverly kind of ducked away from it. He kept himself at arm’s length, and he slowed his pace down. Y’know, not travelling by plane and travelling very sedately by boat and whatever.”

When the nine-date Japanese leg of the tour finished in Tokyo at the end of April, the increasingly aviophobic Bowie elected to travel back to Europe with MacCormack, first via ship (the Felix Dzerzhinsky, sailing from Yokohama to Nadhodka) and then train: the Trans-Siberian Express to Moscow, and onwards to Paris. “I think that downtime gave him time to draw breath and take his mind off what was happening,” MacCormack says.

En route, on the Trans-Siberian Express, Bowie picked up his acoustic guitar and gave an impromptu performance in his and MacCormack’s twin cabin for a handful of their fellow travellers. “Maybe seven people, but that’s a lot in this small room,” MacCormack remembers. “There’s David with his guitar doing the smallest concert in the world.”

We were like, What the hell just happened?

 PHOTO CREDIT: Masayoshi Sukita

Back in the UK, and in secret, Defries and Bowie began to formulate a retirement plan for Ziggy. The former now says that the inspiration for the scheme came from Frank Sinatra’s 1971 announcement of his retirement. By 1973, anticipation was building for his dramatic comeback with Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back.

“David was a big Sinatra fan,” says Defries. “Making the comeback is the key thing. We tried and failed to get promoters in America to book David into large arenas as a headliner. So, that was a real reason for retiring Ziggy, to be honest with you… nothing to do with music or style or anything else.”

“A lot of it was based around finance,” MacCormack says. “How much the management could get out of the record companies to pay for even bigger and better plans. But the whole thing about managing David in David’s situation… he was kind of a moving target. This was the plan this day, then this was the plan the other day.”

MacCormack was one of the few people close to Bowie who knew that he planned to announce Ziggy and The Spiders’ retirement at the last Hammersmith Odeon show in London on July 3. “Because I hung with David, I would have been in earshot of meetings. I wasn’t a paid musician as such. So, it wasn’t, ‘Oh where’s my next gig?’ It was more, ‘Well, this is fun, for as long as it lasts.’”

“Mick [Ronson] knew that we were doing our last Ziggy,” Defries says, “whereas Woody and Trevor didn’t. I didn’t want too many people to know. Where’s the publicity value if you tell too many people? So, tell as few people as possible”.

Before coming to a theatrical release of that final Ziggy Stardust gig, there is an accompanying album/DVD release. A special anniversary edition is available on 11th August. Here are some further details about an album that every David Bowie fan will want to add to their collection! A night where this innovator and incredible artist shed his skin. The death of an alter ego that opened up a new phase in his career. It will be magnificent and hugely evocative hearing that final gig in all of its glory (there is also a Blu-ray release of the gig):

“The ‘Motion Picture Soundtrack’ to David Bowie’s last gig as Ziggy Stardust will be reissued for the 50th anniversary in July.

Bowie retired his alter-ego on 3 July 1973, at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, and the show was filmed by D.A. Pennebaker who captured the evening’s events, including Bowie’s famous speech just before the final encore, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’, where he revealed that he was retiring the Ziggy Stardust persona. The announcement shocked and surprised everyone, including members of his own band!

The film and the audio recording were mothballed for a decade as Bowie was keen to leave Ziggy behind, but once he left RCA for EMI in 1982 the label (RCA) were free to release it without worrying about was David did or didn’t want to do, and that’s exactly what happened in 1983. Suspecting this would happen, Tony Visconti and Bowie mixed the audio in 1981 so they at least had some input on how it would sound when released.

David Bowie / Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture 50th anniversary 2CD+blu-ray edition for 2023.

 It took almost another decade for this live album to be released on CD, when Rykodisc issued it towards the end of their Sound + Vision reissue campaign of the early Nineties. Unlike most of Ryko’s other Bowie reissues, there were no bonus tracks.

Ten years after that EMI released what was then a 30th anniversary 2CD set, with audio newly mixed by Visconti. The concert film was also issued on DVD with a 5.1 surround sound mix.

For this new 50th anniversary reissue, the soundtrack has been newly remastered and finally includes the medley of ‘The Jean Genie/Love Me Do’ and ‘Round And Round’ featuring Jeff Beck. These additions have been newly mixed by Tony Visconti. The film has also been digitally restored by D.A.’s son, Frazer Pennebaker and will be issued on blu-ray and will be shown at over 1000 cinemas worldwide during July 2023.

2LP pressed on gold-coloured vinyl (click image to enlarge)

In terms of formats, a 2CD+blu-ray edition brings together film and audio, while a 2LP set is pressed on gold-coloured vinyl. There’s a 2CD set (without the blu-ray) as well. The 5.1 mix on the blu-ray is the same as the 2003 DVD except for the two new tracks which are obviously newly mixed”.

I would urge anyone who wants to go and see that final gig to book a ticket. The global premiere will take place on 3rd July at the Eventim Apollo. You can go to that website and final details of a cinema near you that is showing the Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars last gig. It will be amazing and unforgettable viewing experience that you cannot really afford to miss! I suspect that there will be a transfer to a streaming platform at some point in the future (though this has not been confirmed):

“July 3, 1973 - David Bowie retired Ziggy Stardust, his most celebrated alter-ego, in front of 5000 disbelieving fans onstage at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. 50 years later, Ziggy will finally go global with a digitally restored version of ‘Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture’ showing at over 1000 cinemas worldwide.

The original Ziggy Stardust tour in 1972/73 only visited the UK, USA and Japan, making this new uncut version of the film the first chance for European fans to finally see Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars up close – and in 4K HD with 5.1 sound.

Original Spiders drummer Woody Woodmansey: “In hindsight, there are so many places that we didn’t get to, and there were some places that were totally into us. Germany was particularly strong and we had an underground type of following in France. People needed to see the live show for things to properly kick off and we didn’t manage that. But our schedule was so rammed, I can’t see how we could’ve done that.”

July 3, 2023 - The Eventim Apollo Hammersmith (formerly the Odeon) will host the global premiere of the newly restored version of the film 50 years to the day. The evening will also include an on-stage conversation with Bowie collaborators and contemporary musicians that will precede the film screening. They will address the original show’s legacy and Ziggy’s pan-generational resonance.  The Q&A at Eventim Apollo will be hosted by award-winning editor, Mercury Music Prize judge and Echo Velvet’s Creative Director Phil Alexander who said: “It’s rare that you can pin-point a precise moment in music where culture genuinely changes. The night of July 3, 1973, when David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars played Hammersmith Odeon, is one of those moments. The impact of David’s decision to retire Ziggy onstage and split the Spiders was an act  that led to creative rebirth and whole lot more. The idea of Ziggy and the band returning to that same stage, allows Bowie fans to unite and enjoy a once in lifetime experience. It will be the closest anyone has come to being there back in ’73, and we intend to make sure we celebrate the events of that fateful night with a good few surprises.”

The newly restored film will allow fans to finally see the complete set that was played on that fateful night that July night for the first time and features the performance of legendary guitarist Jeff Beck whose performance was cut from the original version of the film.

Renowned filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker (Monterey Pop, Bob Dylan Don’t Look Back, Depeche Mode 101) captured the momentous event back in ’73 filming Bowie and The Spiders From Mars backstage and onstage. The digital restoration of the new version of the film has been overseen by his son, Frazer Pennebaker. ‘Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture’ provides Bowie fans with the opportunity to unite and relive the iconic moment that changed popular culture forever”.

I am a big David Bowie fan, and so I wanted to look ahead to 3rd July, and the fiftieth anniversary of that legendary final gig as Ziggy Stardust. The mixture of emotions that adoring audience must have felt in Hammersmith. Going in thinking that this was an ordinary gig, only to be told that this was a final one for Ziggy Stardust – and, as it seems, there was a horrid feeling that this may be David Bowie’s final gig! With a cinematic release and album of the last-ever Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars gig, it is a real treat for all David Bowie fans. When thinking about the history of music and the most important gigs, do many outrank that night back in 1973…

WHEN Ziggy Stardust was laid to rest?!

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Babooshka at Forty-Three: Her Most Intriguing Character?

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s Babooshka at Forty-Three

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during a performance of Babooshka in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Adrian Boot 

Her Most Intriguing Character?

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THIS this feature…

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

sort of follows on from my recent piece about Kate Bush’s songs and the various characters that appear in them. She has a way of drawing these original and incredibly fascinating figures. Whether they are named, like James from James and the Cold Gun, Joanni, Mrs. Bartolozzi, or Lily, or anonymous and mysterious, it is clear she has a fascination for all sorts of human beings. I think that is one of the things that defines Bush’s work. Perhaps less personal than other songwriters – in the sense she does not put herself/her problems in the songs -, I do love how we get to meet these wonderful and different figures. One of the best alter egos/characters is in Babooshka. The song consists of a husband and wife. The wife disguises herself as ‘Babooshka’ to try and fool him. Thinking he is unfaithful; she uses this pseudonym to try and make him slip up. Whether you refer to her as ‘The Wife’ or ‘Babooshka’ – or, indeed, both -, I think that this is one of Bush’s most interesting characters. Someone who feels very real, I wanted to explore Babooshka, as the song was released as a single on 27th June, 1980. From Bush’s third studio album, Never for Ever, this was the second single. Breathing was released on 14th April, 1980. I will talk about that album to end. Babooshka is about a wife disguising herself as a younger woman, to test her husband’s faith. The fact is that her husband is attracted to this younger version. In essence, she is a victim of her own paranoia and mistrust! It is a wonderfully original theme to explore in music; something hardly surprising when you think of Kate Bush’s catalogue and how she approaches people and relationships. Rather than it being personal to her, Bush invents these characters that feel well-drawn and rich. You end of sympathising with the wife and wondering how the story ends – and whether the two go their separate ways.

Before carrying on, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia collated interviews where Bush spoke about Babooshka. I kind of like how the song’s title’s second syllable is similar to ‘Bush’. Is there anything of the songwriter in the song?! Maybe she was in a relationship before and was unsure whether her boyfriend was faithful. Wanting to test the strength of the relationship. It makes me wonder how someone in their twenties could come up with something so different and unconventional! It is incredible how Bush’s creative mind works:

“Apparently it is grandmother, it's also a headdress that people wear. But when I wrote the song it was just a name that literally came into my mind, I've presumed I've got it from a fairy story I'd read when I was a child. And after having written the song a series of incredible coincidences happened where I'd turned on the television and there was Donald Swan singing about Babooshka. So I thought, "Well, there's got to be someone who's actually called Babooshka." So I was looking through Radio Times and there, another coincidence, there was an opera called Babooshka. Apparently she was the lady that the three kings went to see because the star stopped over her house and they thought "Jesus is in there".' So they went in and he wasn't. And they wouldn't let her come with them to find the baby and she spent the rest of her life looking for him and she never found him. And also a friend of mine had a cat called Babooshka. So these really extraordinary things that kept coming up when in fact it was just a name that came into my head at the time purely because it fitted. (Peter Powell interview, Radio 1 (UK), 11 October 1980)”.

“It was really a theme that has fascinated me for some time. It's based on a theme that is often used in folk songs, which is where the wife of the husband begins to feel that perhaps he's not faithful. And there's no real strength in her feelings, it's just more or less paranoia suspicions, and so she starts thinking that she's going to test him, just to see if he's faithful. So what she does is she gets herself a pseudonym, which happens to be Babooshka, and she sends him a letter. And he responds very well to the letter, because as he reads it, he recognises the wife that he had a couple of years ago, who was happy, in the letter. And so he likes it, and she decides to take it even further and get a meeting together to see how he reacts to this Babooshka lady instead of her. When he meets her, again because she is so similar to his wife, the one that he loves, he's very attracted to her. Of course she is very annoyed and the break in the song is just throwing the restaurant at him...  (...) The whole idea of the song is really the futility and the stupidness of humans and how by our own thinking, spinning around in our own ideas we come up with completely paranoid facts. So in her situation she was in fact suspicious of a man who was doing nothing wrong, he loved her very much indeed. Through her own suspicions and evil thoughts she's really ruining the relationship. (Countdown Australia, 1980)”.

Kate Bush performed Babooshka for different European programmes, including Collaro (France), Countdown (Netherlands) and Rock Pop (Germany). The standout performance is from the Dr. Hook television special. That was the first live performance. It is notable for a number of reasons, but the costume she wore stands out. It is a wonderful combination: on her the right side she resembles a staid Victorian lady in mourning dress; on the left side a glittering young woman in a silvery jumpsuit, complete with bright lightning-streaks painted down the left side of her face. Her figure is lit so that only the ‘repressed’ side of her costume is visible during the verses of the song, and mainly the ‘free’ side during the choruses (thanks again to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia for that information, which I have paraphrased here). I think that Babooshka is Bush’s most confident song to that point. You can hear that throughout Never for Ever. In fact, two of the hardest-driving and most atmospheric tracks bookend the album. The magnificent Breathing ends the album. As co-producer (with Jon Kelly) on the album, you can feel this sense of new freedom and experimentation. Her sound was broader than on her first two albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart (both 1978). One of her best singles ever, Babooshka spent ten weeks in the U.K. chart, peaking at number five. Oddly, it was even more successful in Australia, where it was the twentieth-best-selling single of the year. Her second top five hit (after Wuthering Heights), it is no surprise that she wanted to put this out into the world. I think the three single choices – Breathing and Army Dreamers being the others – signalled a more serious Kate Bush. Maybe affected by press criticism and prejudice about her voice and music, Never for Ever is a big and assured statement from an artist who was not going to be defined or pigeonholed.

I really love Babooshka! With one of her most memorable videos accompanying it (directed by Keef (Keith McMillan), this is a song that will endure and amaze for generations more. Aside from the unnamed heroine that features through Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave, I think that Babooshka/The Wife is her most interesting character. You are caught between sympathising for her plight, but also a little sympathetic towards her husband. Almost trying to trap him and catch him out, you get these two sides to the woman. As a wife character, she seems quite ordinary (if bored and frustrated). She really comes to life as this younger alter ego. I am not sure why Bush chose that title and name - yet it seems perfect for the song. Never for Ever is full of these arresting songs with wonderful characters and stories. Ahead of its forty-third anniversary on 27th June, I wanted to revisit Babooshka. One of her finest album-opening songs, it remains one of the most popular of Bush’s singles. You can see why people love it! With the peculiar, delightful and quite explicit Ran Tan Waltz as the B-side (Bush explained how she felt the sun was good, silly, naughty fun), no wonder it was a successful single! The lyrics and story is among Bush’s best. Filled with so many great lines and suspense. My favourite verse is this: “She sent him scented letters/And he received them with a strange delight/Just like his wife/But how she was before the tears/And how she was before the years flew by/And how she was when she was beautiful/She signed the letter…”. Whereas Babooshka’s lyrics state that the wife in the song, when going incognito and trying to trick her husband, could not have made a worse move, the fact that Bush released this incredible single that was a successful chart entry meant that she…

COULDN’T have made a better move.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Frost Children

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Frost Children

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ONE of the acts defining the music of New York in 2023…

PHOTO CREDIT: Cruz Valdez

Frost Children consist of siblings Angel and Lulu Prost. Originally from Missouri, they are now based in one of the busiest and most vibrant music hubs in all of the world. I am going to come to a series of interviews with Frost Children. DAZED spoke with the sisters in November last year. They started the interview with a rather intriguing fact:

“St Louis, Missouri is home to the longest outlet mall in the world. Situated just off Route 370, it was once a beacon of commerce: a multi-level metropolis of fast food and fashion chains, an antidote to the bleakness of suburban life. But, like thousands of malls across the country, decades of economic decline forced its closure in 2019. “There wasn’t anything to do,” says Angel Prost, “so we stayed indoors.” She’s referring to Lulu, her younger sibling and the other half of pop duo Frost Children. Together they were raised in St Louis, nicknamed by locals as the shopping outlet suburb of Missouri. But while other kids hung out at the mall, Frost Children found a new, spiritual home: the internet.

PHOTO CREDIT: Cruz Valdez

Speaking over Zoom from their shared apartment in Ridgewood, Queens – “we use Lulu’s room as a studio”, they say – the pair are part of a new cohort of artists to come out of New York’s downtown scene. Emerging out of the pandemic, these extremely online creatives and tastemakers span the worlds of fashion, art and media, with savvy internet personalities that spill out across Substacks, podcasts and meme accounts. “I’m definitely a hyper-online person,” Angel says. “I’m really posting a lot on my story on Instagram these days; it’s almost like I live-journal every thought I have. I honestly don’t see any problem with it.” Her TikTok is also an extension of these daily reflections, laced with the sort of based and irony-pilled musings that flourish online. “These are real thoughts I’m having, it’s not like I’m being tarnished and my brain is dying from hyper-posting. It’s just a medium, like writing in a journal, but it’s going on to the internet.”

Balancing on the cusp of the underground electronic scene and the burgeoning indie revival, Frost Children’s music is hard to pin down. It’s the sort of terminally online, remix culture- influenced sound that in 2020 would have been labelled as hyperpop, but has since mutated into a fluid style that spans everything from synth pop to punk rock and hardstyle. “Lately when we’ve been asked what kind of music we make we just say it’s confidential,” says Angel, “but other times we’ll just say that we’re emerging pop artists.” Inspired in equal parts by golden-era YouTube and 00s kids’ TV shows like iCarly, their tracks are imbued with a playful Web 1.0 earnestness, with glitched-out soundbites and YouTube poop samples hurtling the listener into disorientating states of digital disarray”.

I am really excited about Frost Children. Whilst I still think they are finding their sound and will hit their peak an album or two from now, they are already offering up glimpses of what could come. This is evident on their new album, SPEED RUN. I shall end with a review of that album. It was released in April, and it highlights their eclectic and uplifting nature. There are a few more bits I want to get to before then. i-D spotlighted Angel and Lulu Prost in April. Forming the remarkable Frost Children, there are a few bits of the interview that are especially interesting and worth highlighting. It is revealed in the interview how they have some ardent and dedicated fans – often travelling miles city to city to see Frost Children play! It is testament to the quality of their music and the connection they have with their fans:

“Frost Children became a band in 2019. Before then, the pair were in different locations, “doing our own things”. Lulu was in Nashville studying music and producing for pop singers and songwriters around campus. Angel was in the Bronx, New York, studying neuroscience. She dropped out to pursue the band life instead. “Brain surgery during the day, music at night. They’re similar when you think about it,” Angel says half-joking, tucking her blonde hair behind her ear. “I guess I had the realisation that, like… it’s risky to put yourself out there and do music. But it’s also risky to go to medical school. You might fail. So you may as well do the thing that you want to fail at.” They moved in together shortly afterwards, making tracks from their NYC apartment, quickly becoming well known in the Downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn creative scenes.

Frost Children’s early music leant towards maximalism and chaos. Scroll back two years on their YouTube channel, for example, and you’ll come across songs like “Sonic” and “Bl!nk” which sound like candy-coloured fever dreams pushed through arcade machines. Now, on third album Speed Run, their sound has become tighter, glossier and more refined, while still retaining their wild, idiosyncratic flavour. On album-opener “COUP”, their voices float, ice-clear and angelic over colourful, synth-cushioned beats: “Like, oh my god, what the fuck, who are you?” Later, on “LET IT BE (feat. EXUM)”, they talk-rap in a drawling vocal fry over hardcore techno. “It’s a club record,” Lulu says. “You could play the whole record front to back at a club if you wanted to.” Angel agrees: “The more music we make, the more we think about how it’s going to be performed.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Avery Norman

To that end, Angel offers to give me a “bracelet tour”. Each one of her bracelets was given to her by fans after shows. They’re odd – typical of the band’s heavily ironic humour. One bracelet simply reads “hehehehe” (“It’s based on our song ‘LAUGHINGLAUGHING’,” she says). Another one reads “Life be simpler when you nonchalant, as soon as you start chalanting, shit goes left,” alongside a cartoon of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy drinking a can of Monster Energy. Another one reads “Pony”. On her index finger is an enormous plastic green ring, princess style, like what you’d find in a toy shop. “It’s so vibrant – more vibrant than a real gem,” she says, sitting back proudly. “And that’s the whole set.”

Frost Children leave you feeling invigorated. They’re exciting – like all the more playful, creative, weirder corners of the internet smushed together into music that pulls you into its expansive sugary macrocosm. They’ve made a truly energetic club record, too. The kind of post-lockdown music that’ll make you want to log off and find somewhere with neon strobe lights and huge speakers and sweaty bodies to dance with. With Speed Run, it seems, they’ve created a mega-online soundtrack to their ultimate fantasy party – and everyone’s invited”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Cruz Valdez

I will come to the review of SPEED RUN next. There is another interview I’ll cover prior to that. This is a punchier one from The Face. Even if this is their third studio album, I still think Frost Children are building their sound and strengthening. The Face asked Frost Children ten questions. I have picked a few of them. It is clear that this duo have a very bright future ahead. They are one of the most captivating and colourful acts in New York right now:

“It’s been an eventful morning for Lulu and Angel Prost, the siblings who make up Frost Children, the hyperpop duo setting New York’s underground music scene ablaze.

“I just had to move our van for street cleaning and I had a freaking heart attack because I thought it had been stolen,” Angel says, breathlessly, over Zoom from the pair’s apartment in Ridgewood, Queens. ​“I called to see if it was towed and they said no, so I called 911. Then I saw the van was parked, like, two blocks away. But 1,000 per cent, I did not park it there. It makes no sense – I’m still rattled.”

“You must have just remembered it wrong,” Lulu replies dubiously, before they and Angel snap back into interview mode. ​“Anyway! At least there was a happy ending, right?” Angel says.

Fresh off the back of releasing their third album Speed Run, Lulu and Angel are riding high. Filled with DJ-friendly club tracks, the occasional burst of screamo and video-game samples, they started making it last May, right after they dropped the critically acclaimed Spiral.

“We started writing pop songs for dancing, specifically,” Angel says. ​“Then we linked up with our uncle, who used to make pop music back in the ​’70s, and he gave us a ton of advice. We learned a lot from him and it really set us in motion.”

“10% Where were you born, where were you raised and where are you now based?

Angel: We grew up in St Louis, Missouri.

Lulu: And we’ve been in New York for about two years. 

20% What would you like for listeners to get out of your new album?

L: I hope they have fun with it. It’s a club record, just us having fun.

A: I hope they listen to it on their phone and plug it into the aux in their car, then they show it to their parents, and their parents are like: ​“I hate this.”

50% You rule the world for a day. What went down?

L: I’d make everyone take a nap.

A: That sounds like Big Brother. Forced passivity.

L: Not like that. I just mean for people to rest! A universal day off.

A: I would give every trans girl a gun to defend themselves. I would make producing meat, in the way that it is right now, illegal. I would make Elon Musk pay a bunch of money to the government. Maybe I’d make the White House look really cool. In this scenario, I live there, so I’d deck it out – put some CDJs [mixing decks] in there. Open up the lawn to people so they can hang out”.

I shall come to a review of SPEED RUN. If some have said that the album is a little scattershot and there is too much happening – and there is a need for clarity and focus -, I feel it is a perfect club record that has something for everyone. Small wonder Frost Children have such a passionate and loyal fanbase! This is what Ones to Watch wrote in their review of one of this year’s most exciting and dancefloor-ready albums:

“Hyperpop wunderkind duo Frost Children, comprised of siblings Angel and Lulu Prost, continue to get our blood pumping with the release of their new album, SPEED RUN. The adrenaline-infused 11-track body of work is a barrage of endorphin-releasing music that explores the highs and lows of love and life wrapped in avant-garde pop sonics.

The record opener, "COUP," begins with an almost ethereal instrumental intro. Then, Angel's vocals usher the listener into a world of otherworldly synths before launching them into a complex plane of sonic existence. Beats and instrumentation drenched in glitter and oxytocin hook us in and demand our attention, prepping us for an acid trip of an album-listening experience.

The foundation of the previously released "FLATLINE" is built on a pounding, squelching house beat and vocals that oscillate between misty bedroom-pop and quasi-rap chanting. In addition, there's an assortment of racing alien drums, police sirens, and short-circuiting buzzes. Between the track's pulsating bass signals, mechanical production, and harmonious vocal layers, "FLATLINE" is simultaneously high-energy, hypnotic, and oozing with personality... and Yoshi sounds. As the track enters its final act, synth patterns briefly take center stage before Frost Children erupt, screaming their lyrics with fiery rage. "Cut the shit, are you fucking with me?" I hope not, Frost Children. "Step away, I can feel your disease!"

"SICK TRIP" and "ALL I GOT" are perfect for new listeners of the pair who are dipping their toes into club-ready hyperpop. With pulsing beats and addictive vocals that inspire dancing like no one is watching, the glossy tunes pull the listener further into a world of experimental soundscapes the duo craft with reckless and gleeful abandon. "'ALL I GOT' is Frost Children's radio-ready single designed for maximum listenability," Lulu and Angel Prost shared in a statement. "At this moment, 'ALL I GOT' is the Universal Tune, and you should be comforted by its all-encompassing ubiquity. It's everything you want and everything you need."

"HI 5" is a gorgeous, hi-fi track that blends the world of hyperpop and rap into a radio-friendly beat reminiscent of everything Y2K. Filled with memorable lyrics like, "I'll sing this shit 'til you sing along," and "I don't even give a fuck if you get it wrong," the track is a bright-eyed effort that scratches your brain in the best way. The siblings shared in a statement, "'HI 5' is like breathing, a simple exercise, an internal victory lap in which all your cells congratulate each other in unison."

Other notable tracks on the album include the raging "OBSESSED" and "SERPENT," both of which feature mosh-inducing guitar riffs, crashing percussion, and face-melting screams. Listeners should also take a moment to appreciate the craftsmanship of "LET IT BE" featuring EXUM and "ANGEL'S THOUGHTS." Both are, for lack of a better word, simply mind-blowing.

The album's focus track, "WONDERLAND," is a sweetly whimsical love song full of soft vocals and adoring lyrics. Angel sings of her "babydoll," hoping to "hold her hand" and "take it slow." The tender tune also features the talents of Blaketheman1000 and May Rio, adding texture to the breezy ballad, making it a dynamic breath of fresh air in a high-octane record full of intricate layers of Alice In Wonderland-themed lyrics, lilting piano lines, and head-bobbing beats. The album's closer, "NOTICE ME," featuring 8485, is a five-minute magnum opus that finishes the listener's journey through the proverbial rabbit hole with passionate, iridescent vocals, celestial synths, and delicate instrumentation, ending on one hell of a chaotic, angst-fueled mind trip.

SPEED RUN, and by proxy Frost Children, are the future of hyperpop and whatever comes next. The album is omnivorous in its influences, slinging the listener between the worlds of pop, screamo, glitchcore, and even video game samples. Later this month, the duo begin a string of US tour dates. This includes headlining dates, co-headlines with labelmates Model/Actriz, and supporting slots for Yves Tumor”.

If you have not discovered Frost Children yet, I hope you spend some time with their music. They are coming to the U.K. on 12th July and playing Corsica Studios in London. Before then, they have North American dates, and I am sure that they will have other dates in the calendar soon. Go and explore their work and experience their wonderful sound. I think that Frost Children are going to go very far, so it is a perfect time to…

GET behind them.

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Follow Frost Children

PHOTO CREDIT: Avery Norman

Official:

https://www.frostchildren.xyz/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/thefrostchildren/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/FrostChildren

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@frostchildren

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6R1kfr0GIWnwxY4zW11Vag

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIfMtvBbD-D34HEtC2ezeJw