FEATURE: Stick or Twist? Kylie Minogue’s Confide in Me at Twenty-Nine

FEATURE:

 

 

Stick or Twist?

PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Boyd

Kylie Minogue’s Confide in Me at Twenty-Nine

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BECAUSE this song turns twenty-nine….

 PHOTO CREDIT: RANKIN

on 29th August, I wanted to highlight Kylie Minogue’s best song. That may be controversial given the other songs people could name – Can’t Get You Out of My Head for one! -, but I think that she has not eclipsed the drama, mood and impact of the 1994 hit single. Actually, as BBC Radio 2 are counting down listeners’ top forty Kylie Minogue songs on 28th August, they have declared that Can’t Get You Out of My Head is the best. Confide in Me was placed fourth. I think it is her best song. I am going to get to some reaction and reception to the incredible tracks. From her Kylie Minogue album, the album itself remains underrated. This was a more experimental and different-sounding album compared to her previous ones. I am not sure whether many people – bedside the big Kylie Minogue fans – have listened to it. Its undeniable highlight is Confide in Me. There is a lot to discuss. It is quite timely given the celebration of Minogue’s work by BBC Radio 2. Listeners voted Confide in Me her fourth-best song. Not a bad result to be fair - though, I feel it should have been the champion. It is phenomenal! I have recently covered this track for my Groovelines feature. I felt compelled to return to it because of the anniversary – and the fact it is clearly a beloved Minogue cut. A song that went to number two in the U.K. chart, it was definitely an unexpected move from Minogue. If most were pleasantly surprised by this twist and hit, some felt a little less warm towards it.

This inedible feature took a closer look at the lead up to the song’s release and where Kylie Minogue was in her career. I think it is among my favourite tracks ever. It has that epic sweep and stir of a James Bond theme, with this uniquely Kylie Minogue delivery. After twenty-nine years, Confide in Me does not sound dated at all:

“Nobody had heard from Kylie Minogue in two years.  After the release of her 1992 Greatest Hits collection, Kylie split from long-time production and songwriting partners Stock-Aitkin-Waterman.  They had given the Australian former-soap star her music career, turning what was expected to be a flash-in-the-pan novelty by an actress who fluked her way into a record deal – her breakout performance at a benefit concert for beloved Australian football team Fitzroy Football Club with her fellow Neighbours cast singing “I Got You Babe” fast-tracked into a deal with Mushroom Records and then her mega-hit cover of “The Locomotion” – into a consistent hit parade throughout the late-80s.  She was primed for crossover success in the UK, Neighbours had become a ratings juggernaut as an import and her character’s relationship with Jason Donovan’s Scott Robinson eventually culminated in a wedding episode that logged almost 20 million viewers, but it definitely didn’t hurt none that she did so off the back of tracks like “I Should Be So Lucky” and “Better the Devil You Know.”

But Kylie was becoming restless and unfulfilled.  She was growing tired of singing empty high-energy bubblegum pop and, more importantly, tired of Stock-Aitkin-Waterman not letting her have a say in the music.  In the early days, she’d go along with what they wanted because she didn’t know what kind of musician she wanted to be yet.  By 1992, she was more confident of herself and knew that the songs she was singing weren’t up to snuff after the 1991 album Let’s Get to It flopped worldwide.  S-A-W, meanwhile, had fallen on hard times and become easy punching bags for the rest of the music industry.  Their formula for hitmaking craven, their sound dated and grating, their songs interchangeable, their flashes of genuine brilliance vanishing, their hits drying up and their artists being left behind in the previous decade.  Matt Aitkin had left the trio in 1991 citing that their records had started to sound the same even to him, and Kylie’s Let’s Get to It saw Matt Stock and Pete Waterman trying extremely badly to move with the times.  Overwrought adult contemporary ballads, Janet Jackson bites, embarrassing appropriations of New Jack Swing.  None of it worked, the songs weren’t there and the duo’s production suffocated any life there might have been through dated effects and shrill tones.  The chart-conquering partnership would officially dissolve in 1993, a year after Kylie left Waterman’s label.

During her time with S-A-W, Kylie had become entranced by club music.  Kylie had always made dance music, but the cheese and teeny-bop nature of S-A-W’s typical production and songwriting meant that cooler non-commercial clubs, the kind of clubs you think of when you envision “clubs,” pretty much turned their noses up at playing her songs.  But by the time she split with S-A-W, her music wasn’t all that far removed from the trendy downtempo club grooves of the time, so long as a savvy enough pair of hands could realise and tease out that fact.

Enter: Brothers in Rhythm.  Steve Anderson, Dave Seaman and Alan Bremner were a DJ collective making waves on the underground club scene who had scored an unlikely crossover hit in September of ‘91 with “Such a Good Feeling” when they were charged with remixing Kylie’s “Finer Feelings” for the single release and their efforts demonstrate a night-and-day effect between the then-modern sound of the pop-adjacent underground and S-A-W’s clumsy efforts to replicate it for themselves.  The album version aims for Soul II Soul but can’t help crowding the mix with blaring chorus vocals, tinny compressed drums that negate the groove, and crushing the space so every aspect of the track is forced to shout over each other in an effort to be heard.  The Brothers’ remix does not fundamentally change the song, structurally it is damn-near identical, but by opening up the track – mixing the chorus harmonies significantly deeper so as not to overpower Kylie, replacing the synthetic drums with a cleaner and punchier loop, dirtying up the bass burble to create a proper groove, and giving every element of the track room to breathe – they turn a missed opportunity into one of Kylie’s most underrated treasures.  (Seriously, I’ve listened to this thing at least 20 times during the course of writing today’s piece.  It slaps.)

“Finer Feelings” stalled out at #11 and only spent four weeks total in the Top 40, but it evidently galvanised Kylie because the Brothers in Rhythm were one of her first ports of call when putting together her fifth studio album, first away from S-A-W, and her first new music in two years (having otherwise released something every few months between 1987 and 1992).  Whilst still signed to Mushroom in her native Australia, Kylie chose to shirk all major labels in the UK and make her new home DeConstruction, a house music label then best-known for K-Klass, Bassheads, M People, and Felix whose groundbreaking “Don’t You Want Me” had gone to #6 in 1992 and launched the hardbag movement.  Such a move was unheard of at the time and was undeniably a statement of intent.  The last music anyone had heard from her was an utterly lifeless cover of Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration” done up in the signature S-A-W production style and which she sounded audibly disinterested and downright miserable on.  As later revealed in her 2002 biography Kylie Naked, upon signing with DeConstruction she had a meeting with the label that laid out her career as such: “We had two choices–to record pop songs that would sell, or to experiment, let me loose in a field and see what happens.”  Over a strenuous near-two-year recording process, she went with the latter.

“Confide in Me” was released on the 29th August 1994, almost exactly two years to the day after the release of the Greatest Hits album with that “Celebration” cover on it, as both the first single from her upcoming self-titled record and the opening song on its track list.  It is five minutes and fifty-two seconds long.  For almost the first minute of that runtime, there is no beat, no lyric; instead devoted to scene-setting orchestration by Will Malone akin to that of a film score.  It took until 2004’s greatest hits compilation Ultimate Kylie for the release of an officially-labelled “Radio Edit.”  It was the first proper collaboration that Kylie would have with the Brothers in Rhythm – although they had put in remixed work on the version of “Automatic Love” that would end up on the album, a hold-over from Kylie’s aborted work with Saint Ettienne and The Rapino Brothers at the production’s outset.  It is a statement record if there ever was one, designed to be a firm line in the sand dividing Kylie’s prior frothy teeny-bop career beforehand from her new mature reinvention.

With such reinventions, the pop music story typically goes (and would go for artists like Kylie in the future) that we are now supposed to be seeing the pop star’s true self, that they have thrown off the shackles of the suits and hit-men who got them through the door and “gave” them their careers and are finally free to present themselves as they really are.  “Confide in Me…” really doesn’t do that.  In fact, if anything, the song, both musically and lyrically, sees Kylie slide further than ever into playing a character.  The ornate Middle Eastern orchestration that provides the main hook and garnishes the rest of the song with a mysticism and opulence, right down to the sitar-like guitar that occupies the fringes of the verse, combines with trip hop drum loops and a subtle underlying stop-start bassline to craft a soundscape more befitting a James Bond movie than what pop radio at the time was playing.  (In fact, I’m shocked it took until Garbage did “The World is Not Enough” for a Bond theme composer to start blatantly cribbing notes from this.)

Lyrically, Kylie is a seductress, a deceptress, a stranger on the prowl looking for men to invest themselves emotionally in her but reticent to do the same herself.  Is she a trustworthy shoulder to lean on?  A sociopathic voyeur who gets off on touristing other people’s pain?  An empty vessel dream-girl for men to dump their problems on, or is that just who she wants you to think of her as in an effort to lower your guard?  It’s all intentionally vague and unsettling.  The music is undoubtedly a major component of that effect, but Kylie’s vocals play a vital part as well.  By her own admission, she had never sung like this before – breathy, seductive, studied and restrained, even hitting a series of piercing falsettos during the final chorus run as a firm-ass rebuke to anyone who criticised her supposed lack of vocal range and ability – and the effect is extraordinary.  The bridge where she breaks off into French pop-style innuendo-laden spoken word is surprisingly unsettling when it should theoretically be theatrical”.

There is not a great deal of further features about Confide in Me. This is a very good article if you want some more detail about the track’s composition and lyrics. I am going to wrap in a second. First, Wikipedia collated some of the press reaction to one of Kylie Minogue’s most singular and enduring songs:

“Confide in Me" received universal acclaim from music critics. Sean Smith labelled the track a "classic" to Minogue's discography, as similar to how William Baker viewed it.  Larry Flick from Billboard complimented "the gorgeously atmospheric, downtempo album cut". Nick Levine from Digital Spy selected it as the standout, and commented "How can we plump for anything other than 'Confide in Me'? Fifteen years on, this sumptuous, string-swathed dance-pop epic still caresses the ears like a flirty hair stylist." Caroline Sullivan from The Guardian noted that it "has a classical violin overture that unfolds into a snake-charming Eastern melody. Kylie sounds delightfully woebegone." Mike Wass from Idolator wrote that "the Brothers In Rhythm-produced gem was the stepping stone that took her from the glorious pop of "Better The Devil You Know" to collaborating with Nick Cave on "Where The Wild Roses Grow"." He added that it was "a vehicle to showcase a then-hugely-underrated voice." Music writer James Masterton deemed it a "exotic, string-laden single". Alan Jones from Music Week gave it five out of five, noting that "a widescreen string-driven shuffle which allows her to deliver a soft and polished vocal." Tim Jeffery from the magazine's RM Dance Update said, "Very Madonna-ish, in fact, even down to the giggly chuckle thrown in occasionally. Huge.". Another editor, James Hamilton deemed it a "Madonna-ishly moaned and muttered Brothers In Rhythm creation".

IN THIS PHOTO: Kylie Minogue in 1994/PHOTO CREDIT: Uli Weber

Quentin Harrison from PopMatters highlighted the track from the parent album, and said "Minogue's international perspective lent her canvas precision, not iciness as witnessed with 'Confide in Me'. The cut played like a lost spy film accompaniment, its grandiose strings and rumbling groove enthralled. 'Confide in Me' let Minogue become the vocalist cynics sneered she'd never be ...". British author and critic Adrian Denning enjoyed the track and called it "truly timeless and absolutely wonderful." He declared the track "Arguably still her finest musical moment to this date," and found the production and lyrical delivery "classy". Billboard's Jason Lipshutz wrote of the track.

Deeply flirtatious and as knowingly dramatic as a James Bond theme song, "Confide in Me" continued Minogue on her path away from simplistic pop atop a swath of strings and Middle Eastern influences. The deadpanned bridge -- "Stick or twist, the choice is yours/Hit or miss, what's mine is yours" -- is delivered in a murmur that yearns for a Serious Artiste label.

Chris True at AllMusic described the song as "slicker, more stylish, and less hooky than anything she had previously recorded." He also highlighted the track as one of the album standouts. Similarly, Marc Andrews from DNA Magazine reviewed the remastered vinyl of the parent album and pointed it as the best track on the album. Mike Wass from Idolator said "the Australian diva switched labels and reemerged with a haunting Brothers in Rhythm-produced indie-pop anthem that still seethes and seduces 20 years later." Writing for the Herald Sun, Cameron Adams placed it at number two on his list of the singer's best songs, in honor of her 50th birthday, calling it: "THE one that changed everything – where Kylie became instantly cool [...] a lush, six-minute experimental epic with middle eastern vibes and modern dance beats, it automatically drew a line in the sand to reboot Kylie". Stephen Meade from The Network Forty described it as a "haunting dance-friendly sound". A negative review came from Hot Press editor Craig Fitzsimons; he criticized the "boring" production, saying "'Confide in Me' is exactly what you would expect; a boring, nothingy post-Stock Aiken Waterman piece of dance fluff enlivened only by Kylie's breathy exhortations to "Stick or twist/The choice is yours/Hit or miss/What's mine is yours”.

On 29th August, the mesmeric Confide in Me is twenty-nine. With incredible B-sides, Nothing Can Stop Us and If You Don't Love Me, Confide in Me was an amazing single that rightly was a chart success. It still elicits chills and smiles in me every time I hear it. One of her first major evolution in terms of sound and new direction, we mark the 29th anniversary of a classic, appropriately, on 29th August. If the BBC Radio 2 listeners voted Confide in Me fourth, I think that this Kylie Minogue anthem should be…

Original work in progress lyrics from the session written by @daveseaman - @kylieminogue #confide20yearsoldtoday pic.twitter.com/izIkvv9sTA

— Steve Anderson (@MrSteveAnderson) August 29, 2014

AT number one.

FEATURE: The Excitement and Speculation on That First Night… Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at Nine

FEATURE:

 

 

The Excitement and Speculation on That First Night…

PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX 

Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at Nine

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ON 26th August, 2014…

PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX

Kate Bush stepped back on the stage in Hammersmith for the first night of her Before the Dawn residency. This was something fairly new for an artist. There are residencies in Las Vegas but, as hard as I try to think, not too many artists have been able to book a venue for so might consecutive nights for a residency. In Kate Bush’s case, there was always going to be massive demand. Bush performed twenty-two nights in total. The final was on 1st October. At Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo, there was this feverish and excited chatter before her first performance. I must put a caveat on this: I was not at any of the twenty-two nights. In my eternal naivety, I assumed I would get a ticket for one of the nights if I left it a few days after the announcement that she was coming back to the stage! It is one of the great regrets that I will not get to see Bush perform live. In any case, thousands did go and see her on one of the twenty-two nights in London. She had performed live between 1979 and 2014, though Before the Dawn was her first extensive live experience since 1979’s The Tour of Life. Before coming to the sense of anticipation and the reaction to that first night, I have to return to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia. They  provide details about the announcement, band, and which celebrities were spotted in attendance:

“Announced on 21 March 2014, Before The Dawn was the first set of live dates by Kate Bush since the Tour Of Life in 1979. Originally, 15 live dates were announced. A pre-sale ticket allocation took place on 26 March for fans who had signed up to her website in previous months (and years). After this pre-sale, a further seven dates were added due to the high demand. Tickets went on sale to the general public on 28 March and most of them were sold out within 15 minutes. All dates took place at the Eventim Apollo in London (UK). The tour was a critical and commercial success, with all shows sold out.

Before The Dawn was a multi-media performance involving standard rock music performance, dancers, puppets, shadows, maskwork, conceptual staging, 3D animation and an illusionist. Bush spent three days in a flotation tank for filmed scenes that were played during the performance and featured dialogue written by novelist David Mitchell. Also involved with the production were Adrian Noble, former artistic director and chief executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company, lighting designer Mark Henderson and Italian Shadows Theatre company Controluce Teatro d'Ombre. The illusionist was Paul Kieve, the puppeteer Basil Twist, the movement director Sian Williams and the designer Dick Bird. The video and projection design was by Jon Driscoll.

Band

The band playing with Kate Bush on stage consisted of David Rhodes (guitar), Friðrik Karlsson (guitar, bouzouki, charango), John Giblin (bass guitar, double bass), Jon Carin (keyboards, guitar, vocals, programming), Kevin McAlea (keyboards, accordion, uilleann pipes). Omar Hakim (drums), Mino Cinélu (percussion). Backing vocalists were Sandra Marvin, Jacqui DuBois, Jo Servi, Bob Harms and Albert McIntosh. Some actors were involved as well: Ben Thompson played Lord of the Waves, Stuart Angell played Lord of the Waves and the painter's apprentice, Christian Jenner played the blackbird's spirit, Jo Servi played witchfinder and Albert McIntosh appeared as painter. Supporting actors were Sean Myatt, Richard Booth, Emily Cooper, Lane Paul Stewart and Charlotte Williams”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Annie Lennox

Attending celebrities

During the run of the show, several celebrities were spotted in the audience, while others took to social media to confirm they saw the show. Some of the names of celebrities that have seen the live show are Lily Allen, Marc Almond, Gemma Arterton, Bjork, Peter Gabriel, Dave Gilmour, Guido Harari, Holly Johnson, Lauren Laverne, Annie Lennox, Paul McCartney, Caitlin Moran, Frank Skinner and Ricky Wilde.

Recordings

While Kate requested there was to be no photographing or filming during the evenings, many members of the audience have recorded the sound of the concert instead. Sound recordings from the audience exist from 10 of the 22 dates. On September 16 and 17, some seats were moved in order "to film the show for a DVD release", according to an e-mail to some fans who had bought tickets for these two shows. In 2016, the album Before The Dawn was released, with live recordings from the shows”.

On Tuesday, 26th August, 2014, there was so much electricity and chatter surrounding the Eventim Appollo! I can only imagine how busy the Tube was and the sort of crowds that were packing in! Whether wearing a Kate Bush T-shirt or not, fans from around the world descended on this iconic venue – the one where Kate Bush ended The Tour of Life back in 1979 – to see something they thought would never happen. I don’t think any fan expected Kate Bush to do more live shows, not least a residency! It was a pleasant shock that then turned into reality. Of course, as she is an icon, there was a lot of interest around that first night. The Guardian live-blogged the first night with all the observations and news from the venue. From rumours and celebrities piling in, to the general feeling among the crowd, it was a monumental opening night. I can only imagine how nervous Kate Bush was feeling backstage waiting to go on. A massive sense of expectation coupled with the fact she had not done anything like this in over three decades must have been very daunting. Even if she was nervous during the first song, Lily, by the time  Hounds of Love followed it, she was more in her step – having absorbed the love and positive vibes from the thousands packed in there! I want to bring in a few observations from The Guardian on that opening night. I will start with the initial build-up and that pre-show reporting:

“Yes, you read the headline correctly: This here is the Guardian music Kate Bush Before The Dawn live blog. Tonight is the artist’s first show in 35 years. Her last tour took place back in 1979 and featured 17 costume changes, 6 dancers dressed as violins, 1 large egg, loads of fake blood and 24 songs packed with pure, celestial majesty. Hopefully her opening night at London’s Eventim Apollo will follow an even more elaborate set up, but unfortunately I won’t be there to witness it. Instead, will be sat in the Guardian building trying to piece together as much information as possible in order to bring this very special show straight to you at home.

Aside from my observations, we have other means of collecting information from the show:

·       Tim Jonze is at the gig and if he happens to visit the toilet at any point there is a slight possibility that he may well feed us back some information

·       Hannah Ellis-Petersen is outside the venue speaking to some of the fans and generally soaking up some of Hammersmith’s giddy atmosphere

·       Alexis Petridis will also be telling us his thoughts at the end of the night.

“As a tribute to our friend Darren from LA (still no guesses as to which band he’s in guys. No guesses, no eggs!) here’s a lovely piece from the New York Times about American fans travelling to London to watch their idol play. There are some great stories in An Encore 35 Years in the Making.

Mr. Twomey will attend the opening-night concert. “I’m quite prepared to take a ferry or swim over if I need to,” he said. He has been obsessed with Ms. Bush since he was a teenager, bewitched by her idiosyncratic vision, literary references and vocal ability.

“When she sings the song ‘Pi,’ ” whose chorus is a recitation of the mathematical digits, “she really brings the emotion to it,” he said. “She’s able to deliver things that on the surface seem odd.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX

“26 Aug 2014  19.53 BST

As the show begins, here’s Hannah Ellis-Petersen’s report from the venue so far:

They lined up quietly and obediently in the rain, a mood of hushed anticipation hanging in the air. No-one jostled, no-one pushed in, no-one even really spoke. After all, for the hundreds of Kate Bush fans gathered outside Hammersmith Apollo for her opening show, this was simply the final moments of what has been a 35-year wait.

Returning to the same venue where she played her first and last shows in 1979, aged just 20, Bush, now 56, will perform 22 dates over the next month. Yet what the thousands of fans, many of whom have travelled from as far as the USA and Australia, can expect from the enigmatic performer remained a mystery, even as the ticket-holders began filing into the venue.

For Chad Siwek, 30, who flew over from Los Angeles, California, for the concerts and has ticket for all three of Bush’s opening nights, described standing at the venue on Tuesday night as “like a dream.”

“Kate Bush just means everything to me, she cares more about her work and pleasing her fans than the commercial value or just making money off it” he says, stopping as his voice breaks with emotion. “I’m sorry, i’m getting choked up but it’s just my whole life I’ve been a huge Kate Bush fan. I’ll cry when she comes out and I think i’ll just be in awe that it’s really her as I’ve never seen her in person. It’s going to be really special and to be here means more than any other moment of my life.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Noble & Bright/REX

Siwek was not the only member of the patiently-waiting crowd who had flown from Los Angeles, with Daren Taylor, drummer for band The Airborne Toxic Event, among those right at the front of the queue.

He said: “I’ve flown in from Los Angeles, California today just to see Kate Bush. It’s not easy to express what Kate Bush means to me. Her music touches me, and I’m sure everybody here, in very unique ways. I don’t think any two people will tell you the same thing that her music means to them.”

The setlist for the show has been kept completely under wraps, though the performance itself is expected by many to include similar theatrics to her 1979 show, which included 17 costume changes as well as combination of mime, flamboyant dancing and poetry. For this series of shows, the influential singer is reported to have spent three days in a flotation tank at Pinewood Studios to create the special effects.

While some many fans have speculated the show will include include The Ninth Wave, a seven-track concept piece from her bestselling 1985 album Hounds of Love about a woman drifting alone in the sea, others said they would be content even with something low key.

“It’s not going to be a straight up gig is it?” said Susie Martin, 28, a teacher from Barnsley and lifelong Bush fan who said she had cried when she heard that the singer was ending her 35-year moratorium on touring. “But equally I’d like to just see her up on stage, one piano, one spotlight, Moments of Please and Under the Ivy, This Woman’s work. Because I think she’s at her absolute best, she’s peerless, when it’s just her and a piano and that voice. Today is quite overwhelming.”

Asked what Bush meant to her, Martin added: “Her music is so original, so stunning, so beautiful but it’s not just the music it’s the visual aspect of it, it’s the lyrics, she puts everything into it and never compromises. Every emotion in your life, whatever you are feeling there’s a Kate Bush song for it to help you get through things or dance wildly round your bedroom.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Journalist, writer, broadcaster, and The Guardian's resident beauty columnist, Sali Hughes, was in attendance to see Kate Bush on 26th August, 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Lake for The Guardian

There was an enormous amount of excitement from The Guardian. Almost like a historic event, there were eyes everywhere. Which famous people were there, what Bush was performing, what the general vibe was like, whether there were any rumours or unexpected surprises. It was one of the most exhilarating and unifying nights in music in decades:

26 Aug 2014 20.02 BST

This Madonna fansite is claiming that the singer and W.E. director is currently at the Kate Bush show. Other people attending include Lauren Laverne, Darren Taylor, Caitlin Moran, Darcey Bussell*, Sali Hughes and Sophie Heawood. Some of which arrived at the Eventim Apollo together

* Darcy’s not there. Does anyone know where she is?

26 Aug 2014 20.28 BST

Seems like a good time to mention that currently, eleven Kate Bush albums are in the top 100 albums chart, according to the Official Charts Company.

26 Aug 2014 20.45 BST

Breaking Bush update: One man claims that Kate stopped the set to eject someone using a camera. Grace Jones and Bjork are also apparently in attendance. There is a very strong rumour going around my desk mainly that Harriet Gibsone has cracked open her second can of sparkling apple and blueberry juice. She is feeling optimistic and nauseous.

26 Aug 2014 21.35 BST

After we last spoke to Tim Jonze, the show went from stripped back and simple to a full onslaught of theatrics. As previously speculated, Bush has performed The Ninth Wave, the conceptual suite from her 1985 classic album Hounds of Love. Here’s Tim’s account...

She created sea scenes through using bits of cloth, she was on video in a life jacket, there was one bit where a lounge was wheeled on stage, and you got to watch a conversation between her husband [Danny McIntosh] and son [Bertie] who are watching Liverpool v Chelsea on the TV. She disappears behind them as if she is haunting them. There’s a sea horse skeleton walking around the stage.

...And that’s it so far. It makes about as much sense as the half-awake ramblings of Noel Fielding.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX

26 Aug 2014 22.04 BST

Everyone’s favourite Before the Dawn roving reporter Hannah Ellis-Petersen been speaking to some fans during the interval:

Ben McMullen:

“It’s been fantastic. I was quite nervous. I’ve never come to a gig feeling nervous before but I was just thinking, ‘Oh no, this is going to be a letdown because the hype was so huge.’ But actually, it really was fabulous. What was really interesting I thought was the tribute she paid to her son. In the programme there’s a passage where she talks about how he’s really pushed her to do this and how without his support she couldn’t have done it. He’s been on stage with her the whole time as a backing singer and has been involved in some of the acting as well. There’s been a helicopter flying overhead and there’s been a huge sea-buoy on stage which she climbed onto to be rescued. They’ve not held back in terms of staging. But it’s completely worth it. You kind of think, ‘I should have booked a second night’”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX

I want to get to Alexis Petridis’s review for The Guardian. He was in that position of trying to enjoy the show as a fan, but also get down his impressions and paint a picture for the readers! An impossible balancing act, I hope he got to go for a second time and just enjoy it without having to constantly jot down notes:

“A pressing question looms over Kate Bush’s new live release, her first since Live at Hammersmith Odeon in 1994, an album drawn from her then most recent live shows, some 15 years before. That question being: what’s the point? Live albums can only ever hope to give the faintest flavour of the multi-sensory experience of attending a gig, and Bush’s 2014 shows at the Hammersmith Odeon were about as multi-sensory an experience as gigs get. The subsequent album isn’t credited to Bush but the K Fellowship, presumably in recognition of the vast ancillary cast of musicians, technicians and actors required to bring Before the Dawn to fruition – but it obviously doesn’t capture most of the results of their work. You get a vague sense of the crackling excitement in the audience, but despite the plentiful photos in the CD booklet (“Note the parked helicopter at the top,” reads one caption) it can’t give you any real sense of the overwhelming visual spectacle of the shows, which the DVD that was mooted to appear last year, but never did, might have done. There are moments on the album when the audience break into spontaneous applause during a song. If you were there, you find yourself scrolling through your memory to work out what provoked it – not an easy task, given that audiences frequently seemed to be so overwhelmed to be in Bush’s presence that they applauded pretty much everything she did. If you weren’t, it’s doubtless even more frustrating.

Meanwhile, it’s hard to work out whether the original show’s solitary misstep – the clunky, ostensibly comedic playlet by novelist David Mitchell inserted in the middle of The Ninth Wave – is amplified or minimised by appearing on an album. Divested of the accompanying action, its dialogue sounds even more laboured, even more like a particularly spirit-sapping scene from perennially unfunny BBC1 sitcom My Family. On the other, well, there’s always the fast-forward button, although long-term fans might suggest that it wouldn’t really be a Kate Bush project unless an array of dazzling brilliance and original thinking was offset by at least one moment where she felt impelled to follow her muse somewhere you rather wish she hadn’t. You can file the playlet alongside The Dreaming’s Australian accent, dressing up as a bat on the back cover of Never for Ever, and The Line, The Cross and the Curve, the short film that accompanied The Red Shoes, later appraised by its author as “a load of bollocks”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Hannah Ellis-Petersen

Clearly a degree of tinkering has gone on with the music. A beautiful take on Never Be Mine, from 1989’s The Sensual World, seems to have mysteriously appeared in the middle of the initial act, which never happened during the actual concerts, raising the tantalising prospect that far more material was prepared than made it to the final show. Perhaps they were off in a rehearsal studio somewhere, trying out versions of Suspended in Gaffa and Them Heavy People after all. But the really arresting thing about Before the Dawn – given that Bush is an artist whose perfectionism has led her to make a grand total of three albums in the last 22 years, one of them consisting of pernickety rerecordings of old songs – is how raw it sounds.

Of course, raw is an adjective one uses relatively, when considering an album that features a band of blue-chip sessioneers, celebrated jazz-fusion musicians and former Miles Davis sidemen: you’re not going to mistake the contents of Before the Dawn for those of, say, Conflict’s Live Woolwich Poly ’86. But, unlike most latterday live albums, it actually sounds like a band playing live. There’s a sibilance about the vocals, a sort of echoey, booming quality to the sound, the occasional hint of unevenness: it doesn’t feel like a recording that’s been overdubbed and Auto-Tuned into sterility. Given their pedigree, you’d expect the musicians involved to be incredibly nimble and adept, but more startling is how propulsive and exciting they sound, even when dealing with Bush’s more hazy and dreamlike material. It’s a state of affairs amplified by Bush’s voice, which is in fantastic shape. On King of the Mountain or Hounds of Love, she has a way of suddenly shifting into a primal, throaty roar – not the vocal style you’d most closely associate with Kate Bush – that sounds all the more effective for clearly being recorded live. Furthermore, there’s a vividness about the emotional twists and turns of A Sea of Honey, A Sky of Honey – from the beatific, sun-dappled contentment associated with Balearic music to brooding sadness and back again – that just isn’t there on the studio version, great though that is.

That answers the question about what the point of Before the Dawn is: like 2011’s Director’s Cut, it’s an album that shows Bush’s back catalogue off in a different light. And perhaps it’s better, or at least more fitting, that her 2014 shows are commemorated with an album rather than a film or a Blu-ray or whatever it is that you play inside those virtual reality headsets people are getting so excited about. They were a huge pop cultural event, as the first gigs in four decades by one of rock’s tiny handful of real elusive geniuses were always bound to be, but they were shrouded in a sense of enigma: almost uniquely, hardly anyone who attended the first night had any real idea what was going to happen. Even more unusually, that air of mystery clung to the shows after the 22-date run ended: virtually everyone present complied with Bush’s request not to film anything on their phones, and the handful that didn’t saw their footage quickly removed from YouTube. Before the Dawn provides a memento for those who were there and a vague indication of what went on for those who weren’t, without compromising the shows’ appealingly mysterious air: a quality you suspect the woman behind it realises is in very short supply in rock music these days”.

It seems like each night of the twenty-two was spectacular! Pete Paphides was there on the third night. It seems that he suitably enthralled and blown away by something we will never see again. Alongside her K Fellowship, Kate Bush proved that, then aged fifty-six, that she was still at her absolute peak. This was going to go down in music’s history books.

I guess the fact that she spent so much time ensuring that everything was perfect. From the concept and the band’s performances, right through to the costumes and the feel of the show, it was like being back in 1979 - where she was overseeing the coming together for The Tour of Life. I don’t think we will see another live show from Kate Bush, though I guess you can never rule out a one-off or something unexpected. I am gutted I wasn’t there! As Before the Dawn did start on 26th August, 2014, this Saturday will be the ninth anniversary. Since then, Bush has released two studio albums, a book of lyrics…and she has also gone to number one with Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). She has packed more into the past nine years than she did in the nine years prior to Before the Dawn – one double album and some bits here and there, I guess preparation for the residency took up quite a lot of her creative energy and focus. The live album for Before the Dawn came out in 2016. I will cover that in the second feature about the amazing 2014 residency. To have been there on that first night nine years ago (has it really been that long?!). I don’t think that Hammersmith had witnessed anything like that! Other legends have performed in that venue – including David Bowie who, sadly, died less than two years after the start of Before the Dawn -, though few with the sort of adoring fanbase as Kate Bush. She may have been nervous going on stage that first night – and, as she told Matt Everitt in a 2016 interview, that was the feeling every night; a sense of relief ending the show knowing she didn’t mess anything up -, but that soon turned to confidence as the audience got behind her and showed their love. By the time Cloudbusting ended the encore, twenty-five songs/pieces had been performed. When she took her bows and left the stage, everybody in attendance at the Eventim Apollo…

DIDN’T want her to leave!

FEATURE: Frank's Wild Years: Tom Waits’s Extraordinary and Iconic Swordfishtrombones at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

Frank's Wild Years

Tom Waits’s Extraordinary and Iconic Swordfishtrombones at Forty

_________

EVEN if the album…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Tom Waits in NYC in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Lynn Goldsmith

charted low and was not raved about by all critics at the time, Tom Waits eighth studio album, Swordfishtrombones, is now considered a classic. Released on on 1st September, 1983 (though some sites say it was later in September), It was a move away from the more piano-driven albums. Embracing something altogether unconventional, abstract and weird, it was a brilliant blend that makes this album one that everyone needs to hear. I shall celebrate its upcoming fortieth anniversary with some features and reviews. Before that, The Guardian wrote a feature that highlighted the fact Swordfishtrombones was the beginning of a wonderful trilogy for the U.S. legend – Frank’s wild years, as it was (a song on Swordfishtrombones, it was the title of his tenth studio album – albeit with the apostrophe in ‘Frank’s’ removed). His most recent album, Bad As Me, came out in 2011. We all hope there is more work from the singular genius that is Tom Waits. I have selected some parts of The Guardian’s feature, as it highlights how Swordfishtrombones started this wonderful mid-career trilogy that continued with Wild Dogs (1985) and Franks Wild Years (1987):

“On Tom Waits’s 1983 album, Swordfishtrombones, there is, in among a lot of fabulously unhinged musical experimentation (Tony Bennett described the record as “a guy in an ashcan sending messages”), a 90-second ballad of such tender beauty that it explains all the rest. The song was written for Waits’s wife, Kathleen Brennan – “She’s my only true love/ She’s all that I think of, look here/In my wallet/That’s her” – and named after the town, Johnsburg, Illinois, in which Brennan grew up. The pair had got together on the set of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1981 film One from the Heart, for which Waits was writing the music and Brennan editing the script, and had married a couple of months later at 1am at the 24-hour Always Forever Yours Wedding Chapel in Los Angeles.

The union liberated Waits from what may have appeared his inevitable fate: of the ultimate bar-room balladeer who descends into dissolution and obscurity. The singer had spent the first decade or so of his career toying with that possibility, living partly in the Tropicana motel on Sunset Boulevard, or in his car, a 1955 Buick, writing and singing about dereliction and doomed love, and playing up to a reputation for “wasted and wounded” chaos. For the first time, having met Brennan, he said: “I now believe in happy endings.” The experimentation of Swordfishtrombones was the first expression of that faith. “My life was getting more settled,” Waits recalled. “I was staying out of bars. But my work was becoming more scary.”

It was Brennan who gave Waits the courage to retire some of the seductive “piano has been drinking” myths of his own creation and to follow his restless musical intelligence, wherever it might take him. That album came out not long before the arrival of their first child. Two more albums (and two more children) followed in quick succession in the mid-1980s, Rain Dogs and Franks Wild Years. These are records of startling originality and playfulness, of cacophonous discord and sudden heartbreaking melody, in which it seemed the artist was trying to incorporate the whole history of American song into his loose-limbed poetic storytelling. To mark the 40th anniversary of Swordfishtrombones, that trilogy of albums has been remastered and will be rereleased next month.

Over the past week or so I’ve been talking to a few of the people who played on those remarkable records, and a few of the many listeners on whom they had an astonishing effect first time around (what Radiohead’s Thom Yorke calls that sense of having “an entire universe revealed to me for a few minutes only to drop me at the other end of the block [with] no idea how I’d got there”). To find the sounds he was looking for, the singer assembled around him a fearless collection of virtuoso musicians – the guitarists alone included Keith Richards and Marc Ribot. As Waits once told me in an interview, his band were required to do more than just keep up. “It’s like Charlemagne or one of those old guys said,” he noted. “You want soldiers who, when they get to a river after a long march, don’t start rooting for their canteen in their pack, but just dive right in.”

For the second album of his trilogy, Rain Dogs, Waits and Brennan had moved from the west coast to New York, into a loft apartment in Little Spain, not far from Union Square, which Waits furnished with stuff he found on the streets. He was, he said at the time, completely overwhelmed with the immersive noise and talk of the city. “For the most part it’s like an aquarium,” he told one interviewer. “Words are everywhere. You look out of the window and there’s a thousand words.” That clamour of found poetry made its way into his songs, just as the skip-reclaimed furniture found its way into the apartment. He had a sense, he told David Letterman at the time, that living in lower Manhattan was like “being aboard a sinking ship. And the ocean is on fire.” That feeling ran through Rain Dogs (the name is a reference to the city’s rough sleepers, “people who sleep in doorways… who don’t have credit cards… who fly in this whole plane by the seat of their pants”).

Marc Ribot recalled last week the first day of recording. “We were in the old RCA Studios, which harkens back to a time when the labels owned studios,” he said. “This was a historic place, high ceilings, wood panels, a huge room, which could record an orchestra; we set up in a clump in the middle. There was a lot of amazing old equipment and amplifiers from something called the guitar society and a lot of unusual instruments”.

 Ian Rankin

Novelist

I already knew Tom Waits’s music, those soulful communications from the louche underbelly of the American dream, but nothing had prepared me for Swordfishtrombones. I first heard it on a friend’s stereo system, the pair of us transfixed by what was happening in front of our ears. It felt to me as if a vaudeville show was taking place in a scrapyard, the music whirling and clanging, Waits presiding over it all like a bruised but keen-eyed master of ceremonies. Rain Dogs added extra textures and refinements, laying its (marked) cards on the table with its opening track, Singapore, a novel contained within two and a half minutes of controlled musical mayhem. By the time of its release I had left university and was trying to shape myself into a writer. I admired Waits’s lyrical vision and concision – the man was a born storyteller, stopping travellers who had wandered into the wrong part of town and compelling them with his words.

Jim Jarmusch

Film director

I met Tom in 1984 just after Swordfishtrombones came along and everything opened up. He was invigorated by New York, and obviously his wife Kathleen was a big part of that change. When I cast him in Down By Law, there was no trepidation. Some musicians are just very good at translating into character and Tom is one of the best of those.

He knows about a lot of different things in the world, but songs are his religion. On those records he is a blender and bender of genres: R&B and blues and ballads and spoken word and Stockhausen and jazz, Kurt Weill, Louis Armstrong, Serge Gainsbourg and death metal. He has a very experimental side. He showed me this instrument that he made that runs tape loops using bicycle chains. He subscribes to a newsletter of people who make their own one-off instruments and corresponds under one pseudonym or another. I heard him doing his voice exercises once, which was kind of hilarious. I have always seen Kathleen as a reliable kind of navigator, but she is always taking the ship further out into space. What they have is not going to get broken, not in this lifetime at least”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Jim Jarmusch with Waits/PHOTO CREDIT: Deborah Feingold/Corbis/Getty Images

I am taking 1st September as the anniversary, even though a lot of sites simply say ‘September 1983’ as the release date. It seems a bit of a mystery as to when the album was definitely released! If I am a little early in celebration, then you will have to forgive me! You should go and grab this album on vinyl, as it is a definite release and one of the all-time best. Released in September 1983 (we know for sure the month and year at least!), people have examined Swordfishtrombones years later. At the time, Swordfishtrombones was seen as an odd diversion or new direction for Waits. Looking back all these years later, we can see it as the start of a golden trilogy. For The Quietus, Tristan Bath shared her thoughts in 2013 (for the thirtieth anniversary):

“Swordfishtrombones is not an influential album in the strictest sense. It did little to expand the aural palettes of popular music, it triggered no major movement to speak of, and if anything lost Tom Waits a sizeable chunk of his own dedicated (if rather dull) following. However, it’s also a near perfect masterpiece; a 40-minute magical realist portrait of the human condition, and a missive from a sonically parallel universe. Its most lasting impact has most certainly been on Waits himself, for whom it represents both the high point and fulcrum of his entire career. The songs, instrumentals and monologues that lie therein paint a Brueghelian picture of an underground world of misfits and freaks, massively darker and more compelling than the jazz cafes of his previous work. If Small Change sounded like Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, then Swordfishtrombones is Tod Browning’s Freaks (which also, and far more literally, inspired the album’s iconic mutant cover art by Michael A. Russ).

The first two tracks both open with brief descending figures, dimly bugling the album’s overarching theme of descent into the opening track’s titular ‘Underground’, which - as an opening statement - summarises the album perfectly.

Swordfishtrombones is essentially composed of fifteen differing and yet related vignettes, detailing fifteen disparate tales from the real world. Servicemen’s tales crop up most often, whether it’s a letter home from the dank streets of Hong Kong (‘Shore Leave’), a veteran’s descent into madness upon the unwelcome return to reality (‘Swordfishtrombone’) or an itinerary from the treasure chest of an old war hero (‘Soldier’s Things’).

Elsewhere Waits’ weary eyes fall on banality of small town life, highlighting a murky Australian ‘Town With No Cheer’, and the previously unsung images from life in the suburbia of Frank Capra’s America (‘In the Neighbourhood’).

Most telling is perhaps the mighty ’16 Shells From A 30.6’, a tale of a bounty hunt in turn of the century America, which unsubtly mentions making “a ladder from a pawn shop marimba”, aggressively parodying Waits’ own victorious battle with either his own inability to deliver as an artist, or more literally a fight with labels and producers.

Musically, the album hops timbres and styles as often as it does character or setting. ‘Underground’ is a sick reimagining of a Slavic march, while ‘Down, Down, Down’ and ‘Gin Soaked Boy’ are both the work of some only slightly twisted version of a dime-a-dozen blues band. ‘Shore Leave’ is perhaps the most Partchian offering. Listen to CRI’s release of several homemade Partch recordings dating from the tale end of the 1940s. Partch’s near-atonal bass marimba setting for spoken lyrics extracted from African-American novelist, Willard Motley’s Knock On Any Door (aptly entitled ‘The Street’) almost sounds like some childish demo tape for Waits’ ‘Shore Leave’”.

Before getting to a review from Rolling Stone, David Smay wrote for Salon in 2018. They are exerts from his 33 1/3 book on the album. There are some fascinating observations and comments regarding the sound influences and mixes that go into the heady brew of Swordfishtrombones - and Waits’s essential work after that:

“In an otherwise favorable review, Robert Christgau accused Tom’s post-"Swordfishtrombones" songwriting of an overrated “American grotesquerie.” This charge is easily refuted since Tom’s freak show has an international flair as often as it features two-headed snakes bobbing in a murky jar in a Kansas sideshow. Despite [his wife] Kathleen’s complaint that he compulsively subtracts body parts from his characters, Tom doesn’t exploit the grotesque so much as inhabit it.

Anybody who’s had to endure a creative writing class knows the tedium of workshopping somebody’s exercise in Southern Gothic Lite. Without something like Flannery O’Connor’s mordant wit or moral clarity, trotting out a parade of dwarves, cripples and the occasional holy idiot just substitutes easy color and sensation for plot and character.

I’m going to take a bold critical stance here and argue that fiction and songs are discrete cultural expressions with distinct formal elements. (Though it is a common enough mistake, which can be disastrous when Motörhead fans show up at an Alice Munro reading. Frankly, I blame Lemmy and his New Yorker subscription; “Ace of Spades” is laced with allusions to Munro’s "Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You.") Let me posit it this way. Fiction enters the eye and takes a circuitous route through the brain, which only gets to the heart after sustaining an almost dreamlike immersion. Whereas songs enter the ear and start jerking around with your heart or hips immediately, only rarely bothering to engage the brain. A poorly written story will just bore you, but a bad song inspires real ire and resentment that something so stupid is affecting you. It’s not so strange that cheap music is potent; that’s what cheap music does.

I emphasize this point because I think Tom’s grotesques work differently in song than they would in fiction. Certainly the outré imagery helps conjure some bizarre and freaky landscapes, but they don’t inflate the music the way they can in fiction. What they allow him, though, is another layer of metaphor, a point of personal insertion into the songs that isn’t dependent on confessional lyrics or reportage. There’s a reason why the Eyeball Kid has Tom’s birthday. The carnival air, the foreign backdrops, the dwarven and the misshapen have less to do with how he sees the world than how he sees himself.

In “Shore Leave” Tom stretches just beyond the lyrical territory that he’d established with his Asylum albums, but musically, vocally, even emotionally, this song marks a change. There’s a beautiful turn in the lyric after he’s set the scene when he says, “And I sat down and wrote a letter to my wife.”

I like to think I got more angry with "Swordfish" . . . More fractured. I sorta reached an impasse, y’know. Lookin’ back I can see I had governors on a lotta the things in my head. Had to shake ’em off. Uh, be a little more honest with myself. I sorta provided a commentary on things in my old songs now I kinda escape into the song more. More extreme I guess.

That’s it exactly. He enters the song in a way he didn’t before. And on the coda, when he shifts into a previously unimaginable falsetto to howl “Shore leave! Shore leave!” like a wounded animal, you know you’re hearing a new Tom Waits.

When Tom wants to conjure a mood that’s when he reaches for his boo bams. When they began to work on "Swordfishtrombones" Victor Feldman took Tom to meet Emil Richards, a veteran session percussionist who had worked on innumerable tiki music albums of the fifties and sixties, as well as Hollywood soundtracks. They wandered through Emil’s huge collection of instruments from around the world, selecting African talking drums, and aunglongs and bell plates. Tom had already had a chance to see and hear a junkyard orchestra in the “Used Carlotta” section of "One from the Heart" and he wanted to go further. He wanted each song to sound like a little soundtrack—not just the score but the sound effects too”.

I am going to finish off with a Rolling Stone review from 1983. The reaction and reception to Swordfishtrombones has been incredible. It is an album that so many people were seduced by. It still sounds like nothing else, forty years later! I hope on its anniversary – whatever day next month that falls! -, people play it fresh and all the way through. It is an album that demands full attention and focus I think:

“TOM WAITS’ NEW album is so weird that Asylum Records decided not to release it, but it’s so good that Island was smart enough to pick it up. Half of the fifteen cuts — the dirty blues, poetry recitals and odd instrumentals — would not sound out of place on a Captain Beefheart album. The rest of the record consists of gorgeous Waitsian melodies, which haven’t been collected in such quantity since his ten-year-old debut album.

It’s easy to forget that Tom Waits is one of the great American pop songwriters. His voice is so ravaged that his albums have often been cluttered and overproduced in order to compensate. On the self-produced Swordfish trombones, Waits wisely sticks to spare accompaniment, which allows his rough-hewn voice to achieve a real tenderness. As for the songs, many of them feature men who are caught up, broken down or separated from loved ones by war. In “Soldier’s Things,” the saddest song on the album and Waits’ most stunning composition in years, a mother is having a yard sale: “A tinker, a tailor/A soldier’s things/His rifle, his boots full of rocks/And this one is for bravery, and this one is for me/Everything’s a dollar in this box.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Tom Waits album without the rhymes (“He got twenty years for lovin’ her/From some Oklahoma governor”) and deadbeat humor. “Frank’s Wild Years” contains a hilarious monologue about a guy cutting out on his wife, “a spent piece of used jet trash [with] a little Chihuahua named Carlos/That had some kind of skin disease/And was totally blind.” The combination of weirdness, heartfelt lyrics and haunting instrumentals adds up to a superior LP and an opportunity to rediscover Tom Waits”.

Next month will be forty years since Swordfishtrombones was released into the world. Pitchfork ranked Swordfishtrombones at number eleven in its 2002 list of the best albums of the 1980s. Slant Magazine listed it as the decade's twenty-sixth-best best album. It is an undeniable classic that will reach a new generation of fans. As to the questions as to whether Tom Waits will follow 2011’s Bad As Me. It seems only…

TIME will tell.

FEATURE: It’ll Make You Smile: The Divine Comedy’s Fin De Siècle at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

It’ll Make You Smile

The Divine Comedy’s Fin De Siècle at Twenty-Five

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MAYBE not the…

most celebrated and finest album from Neil Hannon’s The Divine Comedy, Fin De Siècle is an album I still think is underrated. I argued that it deserves a second spin back in 2021. I am going to update that feature and bring one or two new things in. As the album turns twenty-five on 31st August, it is a good time to explore it once more. The sixth studio album from The Divine Comedy was a commercial success in the U.K. Arriving a year after the more acclaimed A Short Album About Love, I think most people know Fin De Siècle because of the fantastic single, National Express. That single was released in January 1999. I always wonder why it was not the lead single. Maybe it would have meant that the album charted even higher. The first single from the album, Generation Sex, came out a month after Fin De Siècle. Produced by Jon Jacobs and Neil Hannon, I have a lot of love for Fin De Siècle. After the release of A Short Album About Love, Hannon started to demo new material at his flat in south London. It was a tense time, as relationships between The Divine Comedy and their label, Setanta Records, were stained. There were arguments around studio time and touring costs. An album about life in the twentieth century. I think Hannon was in a mood to shift away from anything The Divine Comedy had done. Fin De Siècle was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry in 1998. National Express was certified silver in 2021. Neil Hannon was listening to Jacques Brel’s which he thought had "ten perfect tracks". That inspired the start of Fin De Siècle. I want to get to a few articles and reviews of an excellent album that has never quite got the credit it deserves. Because it is twenty-five soon, I would urge people to check it out.

I am going to start with We Are Cult. They wrote about the mighty and magnificent Fin De Siècle for its twentieth anniversary in 2018. I think that it should be held in higher esteem. It is not simply a case of the album being about National Express and nothing else. There is so much brilliance to be found on The Divine Comedy’s final studio album of the 1990s:

“The manifesto of combining the arcane with the topical is established instantly as Generation Sex opens with a harpsichord accompanying the voice of Katie Puckrik.  Quoting a guest from The Jerry Springer Show, a cheerful but damning examination of modern superficiality is launched with the phrase, ‘I mean, it’s the ‘90s!’

Minor controversy was also stirred by the song also making reference to the death of Princess Diana, whose fatal accident took place exactly a year before the album’s release.

The album exhilaratingly cracks on with the hymn to hedonism that is Thrillseeker, before slowing down with the sweeping and heart-wrenching Commuter Love.  Here, the orchestral arrangement of long-term Hannon collaborator Joby Talbot transports the listener from a Waterloo platform to a Viennese ballroom, where our protagonist imagines his epochal romance with the unknowing object of his gaze.  For me this is the stand-out track of the album, one of Hannon’s all-time greatest, and why it was not released as a single I will never understand.

After the Wagnerian and Pythonesque Sweden, the album comes to a thoughtful interlude with the sleepy ‘Eric the Gardener’ before launching into Hannon’s singalong hit, National Express.  It was this song which gave The Divine Comedy their top-ten single, one of what Hannon would later describe as, ‘Not so much a one-hit wonder as [part of] a series of one-hit wonders.’

The album’s second half returns to those lavish drawing rooms of Vienna with the stirring Life on Earth.  After which, the haunting The Certainty of Chance leaves the listener horrified for the future as Hannon contemplates the undirected chaos of our world while Talbot’s orchestration evokes a freezing, post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Here Comes the Flood does not give respite, as ‘the race to end all races’ is announced in a narration from Dexter Fletcher.  A West Side Story-style choral piece, the only question that remains for a media-fixated humanity is which factor will be that which finally destroys us?

And yet, finally, we are reminded that there is hope.  In Sunrise, Hannon ends the album on a joyous, uplifting and contemporary note, marking the long-awaited emergence of peace in his native Northern Ireland.

As well as marking the end of an historical era, Fin de Siècle would also signal a new age for The Divine Comedy.  After releasing A Secret History: The Best of The Divine Comedy the following year, Hannon would part ways with Setanta Records and move to Parlophone.  A more contemporary indie sound and casual look – the band until now had always performed in suits – was experimented with in 2002’s Regeneration, but subsequent releases returned to the formula which had been most successful.

Happy in his self-made niche and with a dedicated fanbase, Hannon continues to tour and should definitely be caught if possible.  An affable, shy and funny frontman, his voice and manner can never fail to bring cheer.

Looking back at Fin de Siècle from our vantage point now, deep into the twenty-first century, we can appreciate its unease at what lay ahead.  We may no longer worry about the Millennium Bug or El Niño as the harbingers of our destruction but our fear of disaster, fuelled by a new and even more pervasive media, has only been heightened since that time.  Perhaps the cycle of change has not yet been completed”.

Back Seat Mafia have a Not Forgotten feature. They shine new light on an album that others might have overlooked. I feel that twenty-five years after its release, people need to listen to Fin De Siècle:

“Foppish, louche and possessing a more sophisticated musical mind than his more straight-forward peers, Hannon had built himself a career by stealth. Every studio album was just a little better than the last, with a few more sales and with his minor coup of getting the job of writing the theme music for Father Ted, Hannon’s music had found it’s way into the hearts and minds of music fans who recognised a classy tune when they heard one.

Yet still a proper ‘hit’ single eluded The Divine Comedy. When Fin de Siècle was released in 1998, there were the usual modest sales, but it looked as though they were still as far away from mainstream success as ever. Then came the freak (some would say ‘novelty’) hit that was “National Express” and suddenly The Divine Comedy were enjoying airplay and top-ten singles.

As it happens, though it’s a fine pop-tune, “National Express” is one of the lesser tracks on Fin de Siècle. From the majesty of “Life on Earth” and “The Certainty of Chance” to the admire-from-afar style romance of “Commuter Love”, to the social commentary of “Generation Sex”, Fin de Siècle is a well rounded and mature album, a world away from those that were making guitar singalongs for the hard-of-thinking. Particularly impressive is the faux-Bond Theme that is “Thrillseeker”, which finds Hannon in particularly bombastic vocal form and the strangely compelling “Sweden”. The weak point of the album is the over-stretched “Eric the Gardener”, which could have been a cracking tune, if only it’s duration had been halved.

In many ways, Fin de Siècle is The Divine Comedy’s most diverse and fully-realised album. After this they had a big hit with a compilation, national embarrassment Robbie Williams claimed they were his favourite band for a full week, they lost their way a little and have been spending the last five years trying to regain the heady heights of 1998 and 1999.

The best album for the Divine Comedy novice is still the brilliant A Secret History: Best of the Divine Comedy, but once you’ve had chance to digest and come to love The Divine Comedy for the brilliant act that they were, Fin de Siècle should be your next port of call”.

I am going to finish with a positive review. Assessing the album in 2019, Sputnikmusic wrote why Fin De Siecle is an incredible work that deserves some respect and greater affection. They make some interesting observations in their review. I heard the album when it came out in 1998. I still think that it is as good as the day it came out:

“1998 saw Neil Hannon at the peak of his fame. The success of the Casanova LP, collaborations with Robbie Williams and his witty interactions with the British press had made him into a notable popstar. The release of the comedic sing-along anthem 'The National Express' had even given the band their first top ten UK single. Sadly, it was to be the only top ten single of The Divine Comedy's career.

The pressure was also on to deliver a worthy successor to the breakout smash that was Casanova. Generally speaking, people wanted more of the same foppish comedy that had made that record so much fun. Unfortunately, the subsequent album Fin De Siecle rarely played for laughs, supplanting them instead with a loose concept of pre-millennial angst. This confused a lot of the casual Britpop fans and hastened the band's decent down the ever fickle popularity ladder.

That's a real shame because Fin De Siecle is an excellent record. Keeping the huge orchestral flourishes featured on their previous release, A Short Album About Love, most of the songs feel properly epic and bombastic. This bombast is at it's best and funniest during the mid album 'Sweden'. Neil Hannon recounts a laundry list of reasons why he would like to retire in Sweden as the orchestra thunders around him, playing something akin to a desperate hell march. The simple subject matter of the lyrics and the overblown backing are completely at odds with each other, which makes it absolutely hilarious. The orchestra is used to great effect elsewhere too, with the singles 'Generation Sex' and 'The Certainty Of Chance' both featuring impressive closing instrumental sections.

Another non-orchestral highlight comes in the form of the truly beautiful ballad 'Commuter Love'. Over a slowly intesifying guitar buildup, Hannon tells of his secret obsession with a girl who rides on the same train to work as he does. As his fantasy for them reaches it's cressendo ("We could be prince and princess in my dreams") so does the music, suddenly erupting in an achingly emotional guitar solo. During a triumphant final chorus Hannon bellows the conclusion to his tale of secret passion; "She doesn't know I exist / I'm going to keep it like this / Not going to take any risks this time". It's a truly brilliant track and one of the band's greatest ballads.

However, the best song on the LP is the album's heart wrenching closer 'Sunrise'. Over a sublime harpsicord and guitar backing, Neil takes you on a tour of his experience growing up in the politically troubled Northern Ireland. lyrics like "I was born in Londonderry / I was born in Derry City too / Oh what a special child / To see such things and still to smile" and "I grew up in Enniskillen / I grew up Innis Ceithleann too / Oh what a clever boy / To see your hometown be destroyed" really hit hard as the beautiful backing music gains momentum. The saddest moment comes as Hannon forlornly comments on his own childhood innocence; "I knew that there was something wrong / But I kept my head down and carried on". It makes for an absolutely stunning closing track.

There isn't much to say in the way of negative criticism about Fin De Siecle. 'Life On Earth' comes the closest to being filler, with it's Parisian café vibes feeling pleasant yet inconsequential in the grander scheme of things. Also, the extended instrumental outro on the rather eccentric 'Eric The Gardner' doesn't really go anywhere. But that's about it.

Ultimately, Fin De Siecle is a superb addition to The Divine Comedy's discography. it captures the band at their peak of popularity and classical bombast. The record is filled with memorable lyrics, sweeping compositions, catchy choruses and has a cohesive artistic concept behind it. If intelligent chamber pop is your cup of tea, you really can't afford to miss out on this fantastic record”.

Twenty-five on 31st August, Fin De Siecle demonstrates Neil Hannon’s unique and wonderful songwriting. One of the most expressive, fascinating and witty voices in music, the way he observes and documents modern life is always memorable and powerful. Take a moment to take a trip on Fin De Siecle. I guarantee that it…

IT will make you smile.

FEATURE: Growing Up in Public: Billie Eilish and Young Artists Developing and Changing Between Their Teens and Early Twenties

FEATURE:

 

 

Growing Up in Public

IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Eilish in 2022

Billie Eilish and Young Artists Developing and Changing Between Their Teens and Early Twenties

_________

SOMETHING interesting came about…

when I was listening to Dua Lipa’s podcast, At Your Service, and her chat with fellow artist Billie Eilish. Last week, NME published an article reacting to the conversation and something that was raised. Eilish is now twenty-one, but her career started in her teens. Her debut album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, was released in 2019. Eilish was seventeen when that came out. Her second album, Happier Than Ever, was released in 2021. Eilish was nineteen. Most of her professional career has been conducted and lived out when she was in her teens. In fact, Eilish (or Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell to give her full name) was credited as Billie Eilish O'Connell on her 2017 debut E.P., Don’t Smile at Me. She was fifteen at the time. Now in her twenties, Eilish is looking ahead to her third studio album. She is also in that strange position of, as a young woman, asking if she is still worth it. At her best. Her voice is changing too, so that impacts the music and possible lyrical direction. That maturation in the public eye is something artists have faced for decades. I will look at that phenomenon – artists who enter music in their teens and then reassess and reflect when they are in their twenties – in a second. This is what NME wrote about Billie Eilish’s recent conversation with Dua Lipa:

“Eilish’s debut album ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?‘ came out in 2019, followed up by ‘Happier Than Ever‘ in 2021. She’s now working on her third, confirming back in November that she and her brother/collaborator Finneas had recently “started the process of making an album”.

“Everything is different about it,” she said of the music making process. “I’ve been trying to compare recently, just because I’m getting used to doing it in a different way. And trying to be like, ‘It’s OK to do that. I’m OK. I’m still able to do that; I’m capable still.’”

The singer also reflected on the shift from making music in her childhood home to working out of Finneas’ basement studio for ‘Happier Than Ever’, feeling like they had “figured out” their process after the last album.

“We were like, ‘We’ve got it all figured out, this is how we’re going to do it from now on, and it works really well’,” Eilish said. “And, you know, touring for a year-and-a-half, then coming back to it, and being way older – and not even much older, but again, the jump between 18 and 21 is a big jump. Just mentally and physically, and realistically. It’s just been completely different.”

The singer went on that she had been trying to “convince myself that it’s OK and that I haven’t lost it, it’s just different”.

She elaborated on exactly what’s changed, explaining: “The way that I exist in the room is different, my voice has completely changed since then…The voice-changing thing is a trip! It’s all kind of shocking.”

“I’ve gotten a little bit more like, ‘OK, it’s just change and I’m figuring that out.’ It’s hard to accept change, it’s hard to get over, ‘But I did it this way for so long, and it worked so well!’ Well, you can’t anymore.”

Eilish also said she appreciated the “fearlessness” of her younger self, adding: “When you’re a teenager and so much of your career is based around the fact that you’re young, and then you get older and people are used to you being young, it’s hard for you even.”

“But nobody told me that when you grow up you stop recognising your younger self”.

The Los Angeles-born icon – I think she has already achieved that status! – is getting more remarkable with every song. Her latest, What Was I Made For?, not only showcases her incredible voice at its most emotional and impactful. Having directed the video (Eilish has been directing a while), she is growing even stronger in that department. I did write about that song. As Eilish has talked about age and doing something older people would do – when it comes to assessing progress and weighing up their success and whether they are still at their peak – I wanted to go into that more. I never thought before about artists in the past who became famed and successful in their teens but also missed out on a lot of ordinary experiences. Eilish has been schooled and has friends, yet music has taken her away from a sort of life that many of us experience. That normal perspective on growth and what it means to age from your teens into your twenties is measured differently in music. Billie Eilish’s fashion tastes have changed – from baggier clothes, I think she is changing that -, so too has her perspective on the world. Her body and voice have changed, and a lot of that is processed through music and the media. It must be a very strange experience for artists so young to grow up in the public eye. What caught my ear most from Billie Eilish’s conversation with our very own Dua Lipa was that sense of her feeling free and it being quite high-energy and whirlwind in her teens. That sense of going in at the deep end and everything being hectic. She questions whether she has that special edge and she is as good as she was on her first or second albums.

It must be mad having to process how much she achieved as a teen! In addition to number one albums, she also headlined Glastonbury. I guess contemporaries such as Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears are among those whose music life started in their teens and there was this change and dynamic shift when they entered their twenties. Harry Styles too. Artists like Billie Eilish have decades ahead as artists. Her music will change dramatically when she enters her forties and fifties. It is natural for a young artist hitting their twenties and seeing how things have changed since their teens. We do it as adults. Graduating from university, many look back at their high school and college days and realise things were a bit more care-free and fun then. Maybe it is that sense of now having accomplished a lot and entered a new decade of life. I guess there is a certain expectation now that artists who release music in their teens tour a lot and try and get as many streams and sales as possible. Articles like this mention artists such as Ángela Aguilar and Ayra Starr. They are all under twenty-one. Maybe things like that provides pressure. These twenty-one under twenty-one who are names to watch. Now Eilish is twenty-one – she is twenty-two in December -, she might look at those kind of articles and wonder if she has peaked or seen as valid.

One of the advantages of being in her twenties is that Eilish has accomplished enough and can take more control of her career. She has proven herself and is one of the most influential artists of her generation. I look at her and artists like Olivia Rodrigo and what they have achieved so young. Rodrigo is twenty. Her second album, GUTS, is out next month. Maybe a scary thing of artists coming from their teens to their twenties is a certain naivety. Maybe that initial fun of being new and learning as you go. Things being a bit more learned, routine. Some of those peaks are gone. Also, the lyrical perspective changes. Maybe less inward-focused, artists tend to think more outwardly at the world out of their teens. Eilish is an artist still looking at herself – What Was I Made For? seems to suggest that, but there is that sense of society in a wider sense  -, though I get a feeling her as-yet-untiled third studio album will be more about the state of the world she is currently living in. One of my biggest fears for young artists is how much pressure is on them so young. If they become huge and dominate, how easy is it to switch off and be ‘normal’?! I wanted to highlight Billie Eilish’s interview with Dua Lipa and what she noted about her age and looking back at her teens – now that she is twenty-one. It makes me wonder if many people are writing about teen artists and how difficult and different it is compared to the past. Not only in terms of that pressure to hit big streaming numbers. They also reveal a lot of their lives through social media. The wonder, oddness, eventfulness and excitement of…

GROWING up in public.

FEATURE: The Iconic Tori Amos at Sixty: Her Six Essential Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

The Iconic Tori Amos at Sixty

IN THIS PHOTO: Tori Amos in 1992

Her Six Essential Albums

_________

AS Tuesday (22nd August)…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Tori Amos in 2002/PHOTO CREDIT: Suki Dhanda/The Observer

is the sixtieth birthday of the iconic and legendary queen Tori Amos, I wanted to put in another feature – I previously shared a playlist of her hits and deep cuts – celebrating this big birthday. Her latest studio album, ocean to ocean, was released in 2021. That was her sixteenth studio album. Since her mesmeric and enormously important debut, 1992’2 Little Earthquakes, Amos has put her stamp on the industry. An enormously influential artist who has inspired everyone from Florence + The Machine, Caroline Polachek, Fiona Apple, and Regina Spektor, it is only right to give her a proper salute. The Guardian recently ranked her twenty best songs. In recognition of her amazing contribution to music, they wanted to deliver this rundown of her essential songs and great deep cuts. I am selecting six of her studio albums that I think are not only my favourite/the best. They are also great starting places if you want a sense of Tori Amos’ incredible gifts and songwriting brilliance. One of her best albums, From the Choirgirl Hotel (spoiler alert: it is one of the six I have selected!), was twenty-five in May. I would urge everyone to explore the full extend of Tori Amos’ unique and phenomenal career. Because she is sixty on Tuesday, here is six gold Amos albums you need to be acquainted with. It leaves me to tip my cap and wish a very happy birthday to…

PHOTO CREDIT: Press

THIS utterly wonderful and loved artist.

_________

Little Earthquakes

Release Date: 6th January, 1992

Labels: Atlantic (U.S.)/East West (Europe)

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/tori-amos/little-earthquakes

Producers: Tori Amos/Eric Rosse/Davitt Sigerson/Ian Stanley

Review:

“NEWCOMER TORI AMOS’S songs are smart, melodic and dramatic; the deeper you listen, the hotter they get. Amos shares common ground with artfolk songstresses like Kate Bush and Jane Siberry, but while they often deal in abstruse, poetic terms, Amos has a tendency to cut to the quick, to face facts, to call a rape a rape.

Little Earthquakes is an often pretty, subtly progressive song cycle that reflects darkly on sexual alienation and personal struggles. Aiming for a delicate balance between the earthy and the ethereal, Amos shifts from a whispering coyness to full-throated earnestness (overearnestness, at times) and a quivery vibrato-laden holler — akin to Siouxsie Sioux’s.

From the outset, all is not roses. In the opening tune, “Crucify,” Amos sings, “I’ve been looking for a savior in these dirty streets/Looking for a savior in between these dirty sheets.” The difficulty of asserting one’s own voice is the subject of “Silent All These Years.” Rage often bubbles below the sensuous surface.

On the subject of sex, Amos is ambivalent and ultimately poignant. The teasing Kurt Weill-meets-Queen cabaret act of “Leather” sets up a marked contrast to the album’s most chilling track, “Me and a Gun.” After the denser production approaches on the rest of the album — with strings, creamy electric guitars and fanciful arrangements caressing her piano foundation — we hear the stark sound of her unadorned voice taking the role of a rape victim, who endures the attack while desperately rationalizing that “I haven’t seen Barbados, so I must get out of this.”

By the time the refrain in the closing title track comes around (“Give me life give me pain/Give me myself again”), we feel as though we’ve been through some peculiar therapy session, half-cleansed and half-stirred. That artful paradox is part of what makes Little Earthquakes a gripping debut” – Rolling Stone

Standout Tracks: Crucify/Winter/Me and a Gun

Key Cut: Silent All These Years

Under the Pink

Release Date: 31st January, 1994

Labels: Atlantic (U.S.)/East West (Europe)

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/tori-amos/under-the-pink

Producers: Tori Amos/Eric Rosse

Review:

“Tori Amos'second full-length solo effort has often been considered a transitional album, a building on the success of Little Earthquakes that enabled her to pursue increasingly more adventurous releases in later years. As such, it has been unfairly neglected when in fact it has as good a claim as any to be one of the strongest, and maybe even the strongest, record she has put out. Able to appeal to a mass audience without being shoehorned into the incipient "adult album alternative" format that sprang to life in the mid-1990s, Amos combines some of her strongest melodies and lyrics with especially haunting and powerful arrangements to create an artistic success that stands on its own two feet. The best-known tracks are the two contemporaneous singles "God," a wicked critique of the deity armed with a stiff, heavy funk-rock arrangement, and "Cornflake Girl," a waltz-paced number with an unnerving whistle and stuttering vocal hook. While both memorable, they're actually among the weaker tracks when compared to some of the great numbers elsewhere on Under the Pink (other numbers that more openly misfire are "The Waitress," a strident and slightly bizarre rant at such a figure, and "Yes, Anastasia," which starts off nicely but runs a little too long). Opening number "Pretty Good Year" captures nostalgia and drama perfectly, a simple piano with light strings suddenly exploding into full orchestration before calming again. "Bells for Her" and "Icicle" both showcase what Amos can do with prepared piano, and "Past the Mission," with Trent Reznor guesting on gentle, affecting backing vocals, shifts between loping country and a beautifully arranged chorus. The secret winner, though, would have to be "Baker Baker," just Amos and piano, detailing the story of a departed love and working its cooking metaphor in just the right way” – AllMusic

Standout Tracks: Pretty Good Year/God/The Waitress

Key Cut: Cornflake Girl

From the Choirgirl Hotel

Release Date: 5th May, 1998

Label: Atlantic

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Choirgirl-Hotel-Tori-Amos/dp/B00000I3JC

Producer: Toris Amos

Review:

“IN 1991, AS Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” recharged rock & roll, Tori Amos and her piano appeared. She was a North Carolinian conservatory dropout with a whole lotta love on the brain. A veteran of one failed rock album, a spandex debacle titled Y Kant Tori Read, Amos recharged herself on Little Earthquakes, emerging as a hennaed adventuress, the rare art-rock communicator who could flawlessly drop difficult bits of Béla Bartók into a tasty home-brew of the classical and the lowdown. Old enough to have worshiped Led Zeppelin as a Seventies kid — and bold enough to seize “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as her own (on 1992’s Crucify EP) — she recognized that grunge’s uneasy blend of emotional distress and sonic kicks represented a state of mind as well as a guitar sound.

On From the Choirgirl Hotel, Amos comes clean with the rock & roll that’s always driven her, from as far back as when she stormed out of her rehearsal room at the Peabody Conservatory. Whereas 1994’s Under the Pink and 1996’s Boys for Pele strove to extend Amos’ voice-and-piano foundation into different areas — R&B and dance — From the Choirgirl Hotel closes up shop and starts over with a live-band recording. A woolly jam dynamic pervades Hotel, from the paisley metallicism that kicks off “Spark” (the current single) to the grooving dream world of “Liquid Diamonds.” Throughout the album, Amos throws herself and her various keyboards into bass-drum-guitar ensembles augmented by percussion loops and string sections. In the past, all elements of her arrangements answered to Amos and her keyboards; now, she replaces that hierarchy with rock interaction. On From the Choirgirl Hotel, she’s just one of several tenders of her own sound garden.

But for all of her new material’s bracing accessibility, very little is very straight-up. Amos remains the girl whose background in European piano literature encouraged her to hear the unforgiving structures of the Baroque era, the vast spiritual and melodic vistas of the Romantic period, and the knotty imperatives of twentieth-century experimentalism as one ongoing compositional story — not a bad basis, thank you, for art rock with guts. And although these mixes don’t hesitate to occasionally bury her voice, Amos often still sings like the coloratura president of Robert Plant’s fan club. On songs like the technoish “Hotel” and the beat-happy “Raspberry Swirl,” moreover, she screws with timbre, lyrics and meter in the proud pop-collage tradition of Nineties artists like My Bloody Valentine, the Smashing Pumpkins, Björk, U2 and Garbage. Other times, Amos is more nostalgic, as on “She’s Your Cocaine,” which feels like the music of the hardest-working bar band — on Saturn.

Amos hasn’t completely abandoned ballads, not with showpieces like “Northern Lad,” as well as “Jackie’s Strength,” the center of this consistently alive album. That song, softly offset with clean guitar repetitions, relies on a magnificent string arrangement by Los Angeles hotshot John Philip Shenale. Amos begins as someone remembering the J.F.K. assassination, focusing on how an entire generation of American women immediately spun the event into a story about his abandoned wife. During this meditation, Amos’ character remembers a friend’s David Cassidy lunch box and sings the following hilarious, deeply Tori line: “Yeah, I mooned him once on Donna’s box.” It’s her fluid answer to the Pumpkins’ masterpiece “1979,” a perfect memory of pop-energy past.

From the Choirgirl Hotel offers chewy tales like the tough sway of “Playboy Mommy,” in which a mother never quite apologizes to her dead daughter for not being a squeaky-clean Carol Brady mom; and “Black-Dove (January),” an interiorized ballad about abuse and escape that breaks into rousing choruses of “But I have to get to Texas/Said I have to get to Texas.” What the album is so unfailingly good at, though, is capturing the exact geography of one woman’s imagination. In dashing rhythmic interpolations, a song titled “Iieee” intercuts different meters and moods — suspended piano landscapes, straightforward rock 4/4 beats, gnarled industrial wastelands and a floating symphonic soundtrack from a film that has opened only in Amos’ head. “We scream in cathedrals,” Amos sings, phrasing with an awesome gravitational pull. “Why can’t it be beautiful?” What the hell is rock & roll these days, anyway? Loud guitars? Transgressive hairstyles? Samples? Electric beats? Platform shoes? At any given time, it’s all or none of these things. But right now, From the Choirgirl Hotel qualifies. It’s a logical outcome of what Tori Amos has been doing this whole decade: In more ways than one, she screams in cathedrals” – Rolling Stone

Standout Tracks: Spark/Raspberry Swirl/Hotel

Key Cut: Cruel

Scarlet's Walk

Release Date: 28th October, 2002

Label: Epic

Pre-order: https://hmv.com/store/music/vinyl/scarlet-s-walk

Producer: Tori Amos

Review:

“One of the inevitable results of the period following the attacks of September 11, 2001 was that artists of all stripes would come out with pieces that reflected their reactions to the disastrous events. Whether as an attempt to express the emotional horror, the tragedy, or the need for hope, such expressions are a part of the cathartic process when such an impact has been felt.

For Tori Amos, the events of 9/11 and their aftermath were a call for re-examination, both of what it meant to be an American, and what our nation’s particular history held. Essentially, the roots of the United States’ very peculiar mythology were exposed as we threw flags and solidarity and values and mores and shock into one large suture to cover the wound. But such wounds also reveal the meat beneath the surface of the skin, and while it can be a strange and sickening feeling, it’s impossible not too look and ask questions of it and explore the nature of that which is typically hidden away. In other words, one of the results of September 11 is that people everywhere were forced to question what it means to be an “American”.

These questions merged with a more personal history in Amos, whose direct lineage to the Cherokee people through he grandfather has always been a part of her personal definition. The understanding of the US’s aggressive history, in particular the experience of the Trail of Tears, sat uneasily next to the version of post-9/11 America that pretended innocence. So, in order to rediscover America for herself and directly confront its myths, Tori took a walk, a very long walk. For a year, Amos took to the road, crisscrossing the United States on an extended road trip and personal exploration. As a travelogue, a novel told through song, an expose of myth and personal relationships, and a concept album, Scarlet’s Walk is a record of these experiences.

In fact, Scarlet’s Walk is an incredible idea, and as ambitious as anything in recent pop music memory. Amos has distilled her own real-life road trip into a succession of stories, told through the eyes of a semi-autobiographical character named Scarlet. As Scarlet moves through her life, falling in and out of relationships with friends, lovers, and traveling companions, her commentary ranges from the intensely personal to the complexly abstract. America, both the physical land and the conceptual space, are explored in the context of a wild, scarred, and open free spirit’s own journey through herself. Scarlet and her attendant cast of characters come to represent a unique story of adventure, Amos’s own conflicted feelings, and the American landscape itself. To accentuate this complex narrative, the Scarlet’s Walk CD implements ConnecteD technology which unlocks a special website, called Scarlet’s Web, through Amos’s homepage. On this site you can trace Scarlet’s path across the US with extra details including photos, a fictional travel diary, and geographical information. The same site also includes a running document of Amos’s current tour as well as information on the various Native American tribes that were originally indigenous to each region of the country. In addition, the content of Scarlet’s Web is continually updated with new information, giving the listener an ongoing, lived interaction with Scarlet’s Walk. It’s truly a multimedia experience.

For all that, what makes Scarlet’s Walk truly exceptional is that it is probably Amos’s finest work since Under the Pink. While Boys for Pele and From the Choirgirl Hotel had their definite moments, they were complicated albums, and at times only barely accessible. Last year’s Strange Little Girls album, a disc completely comprised of reworked covers of songs about women originally recorded by men, seemed like a conceit and a stumble. While some praised the idea as genius, the execution failed on a number of levels. Scarlet’s Walk might have gone the same route, a brilliant concept lost to poor implementation, but it does not. Instead, Amos has produced one of the most invigorating and arresting works of her career. It may have something to do with her recent move from the Atlantic label, where she has admitted the relationship was strained, to the Epic label and greater freedom, but whatever the case the results are phenomenal.

Scarlet’s Walk is alternately delicate, lush, soft, gritty, beautiful, painful, wistful and joyous — in short, all the things that devotees of Tori have come to expect. However, with Scarlet’s Walk, Amos doesn’t deliver in spots, she delivers in spades, maintaining a consistent strength throughout the album that supports, or is supported by, the core story at the heart of the album. There’s also a palpable sense of maturity in this disc, which translates to an expansive but commanding songcraft ability. The brash and confrontational Tori of Little Earthquakes seems to have become an introspective and confident woman here, yet another reflection of the Scarlet persona’s growth throughout the album.

Musically, Scarlet’s Walk may actually be the most complete and approachable Amos album yet released. The piano remains front and center, sometimes replaced with organs but essentially the heart of Amos’s sound, and her claim to mastery of the instrument is only reinforced by this album. But while the older musical references of Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell as forebears are still strongly in evidence, Amos seems to have gained a sense of mainstream pop from those whom she herself has influenced. This is nowhere more evident than on “A Sorta Fairytale”, the album’s first and most obvious single, which finds Tori sounding not unlike a combination of Jewel and Vanessa Carlton. Elsewhere she seems to invoke the spirit of Stevie Nicks (not surprisingly, as Tori’s live version of “Landslide” remains the best cover of that song I’ve ever heard), particularly on “Pancake”. This is not to say that Amos has changed her tune. Fans of her older material won’t cry “sell-out”, and the powerful back-to-back combo of “Carbon” and “Crazy” will instantly appeal to her die-hard audience.

Lyrically, Amos hasn’t changed all that much at all. Her lyrics remain cryptic and obtuse here, but the focus of a long storytelling gives these songs a greater readability. Many of these songs can be read as individual explorations of relationships, and the uncanny ability that Amos has cultivated in turning her weird, dream-like ramblings into coded messages that appeal to individual and highly personal interpretation hasn’t diminished. However, in the greater context of describing Scarlet’s journey, these songs take on a larger significance that adds to their weight. Even the gorgeous “Your Cloud”, which is possibly the most straightforward song in Amos’s collection, has added relevance in this context. But this is undeniably a Tori Amos joint (to steal from Spike Lee). Even the obligatory reference to her friend, author Neil Gaiman, works its way onto Scarlet’s Walk in an off-kilter line in “Carbon”. This seems especially relevant considering the similar work Gaiman recently did in his fabulous novel, American Gods, itself an exploration of mythology in America (Amos-Gaiman watchers might also note the song “Wednesday”, the name of one of the characters in American Gods, but that might be stretching things a bit).

If anything keeps Scarlet’s Walk from completely succeeding, it might be Amos’s ambition itself. The disc clocks in at over 74 minutes of music, and makes for a long, involved listen. The rewards for investing the time are certainly great, but by the time the last few songs play through it’s hard to maintain focus, which is a shame considering “Scarlet’s Walk” and “Gold Dust” are both great songs. A part of the problem is that as Scarlet matures over the course of the album, the music becomes softer, more lush and orchestrated, and it causes a bit of a lull. The other problem is that the story of Scarlet itself is incredibly complicated, while Amos is not one to spell things out in bold letters. The lyrics are typically cryptic, and even with the addition of the Scarlet’s Web information, it’s a slightly puzzling story to work out. The fact that the press kit for the album includes a track-by-track description of how each song progresses in the story makes it slightly easier for critics to appreciate than it does for listeners.

But for these small problems, Scarlet’s Walk is an amazing album. The concept alone is worth mention, and is an ambitious and thought-provoking project. One thing that this disc seems to highlight is that America is a land of change, and we are constantly rediscovering it, and ourselves within it. But even as a straight collection of songs, all connections aside, this is some of Amos’s best work. Scarlet’s Walk cements Amos’s reputation, but it also seems like a homecoming from the more contrived work of her recent past. Complex, weighty, often brilliant, Scarlet’s Walk is the album that many a fan has been waiting for” – PopMatters

Standout Tracks: Amber Waves/Don't Make Me Come to Vegas/Your Cloud

Key Cut: A Sorta Fairytale

Unrepentant Geraldines

Release Date: 9th May, 2014

Label: Mercury Classics

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/5679715?ev=rb

Producer: Tori Amos

Review:

“In the last 15 years, Tori Amos’ pop albums have gravitated toward two distinct categories: those where she utilizes elaborate characters and extended metaphors to illustrate her points, and those where she uses more straightforward, subjective inspirations for her lyrics. For fans, this has been somewhat frustrating, as Amos has always been a confessional commentator—especially at the intersection of the personal and political—and deriving emotional attachment from her intricate fictions has often been challenging.

The engaging Unrepentant Geraldines, however, splits the difference between these categories perfectly—mainly because this time, Amos’ muse led her into a variety of deeply personal, vulnerable places. An affinity for visual art is clear in an affecting treatise about the unique struggles women face while they age (the Cézanne-inspired “16 Shades Of Blue”) and a powerful song about not being spiritually oppressed by government or religion (the title track, inspired by an etching from Irish artist Daniel Maclise). A talented trio of bakers Amos knows in real life is the backdrop for a scathing attack on the NSA and unfair taxation in “Giant’s Rolling Pin,” while her daughter Tash inspired “Rose Dover”—which stresses that growing up doesn’t mean having to lose whimsy—and “Promise,” a simple proclamation of love and support.

The latter is also one of the record’s most interesting songs: A mild-mannered duet, the song seamlessly pairs Amos’ ethereal tones with Tash’s soulful, R&B-influenced delivery. Such subtle stylistic nods are everywhere on Unrepentant Geraldines—from the dusty Americana flickering through “Trouble’s Lament,” the flute-augmented pastoral classic-rock vibe of “Wedding Day,” or the electrified rock opera and gothic lullaby tint of “Rose Dover.” Yet the album’s strongest moments are also its simplest ones: Highlights such as “Selkie” and “Oysters” are unadorned piano-and-voice compositions reminiscent of the ones Amos focused on in the early ’90s. (Fitting, considering the latter song is about reclaiming a more innocent self despite rough times, what with lyrics such as “I’m working my way back to me again.”)” – The A.V. Club

Standout Tracks: Wedding Day/Selkie/Oysters

Key Cut: Trouble's Lament

ocean to ocean

Release Date: 29th October, 2021

Label: Decca

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/tori-amos/ocean-to-ocean

Producer: Tori Amos

Review:

“Amos’s newest LP, Ocean to Ocean, arrives four years after it’s predecessor Native Insider. In that time, the world has changed beyond recognition and Amos, like the rest of us, has been forced to battle with trauma resulting from the pandemic and ensuing isolation - but has also had to deal with the personal trauma of losing both her mother and best friend in 2019. The emotional centrepiece of this album - lead single “Speaking With Trees” - explores both simultaneously; referencing the ashes of Amos’s mother, which she hid in a treehouse in Florida (and was unable to visit during lockdown). Like her best songs, it features mystical lyricism alongside left-field arrangements and instrumentation (most notably an addictive guitar lick during the pre-chorus). However, it’s most affecting moment occurs in the song’s most sincere, wounded line: “Don’t be surprised / I cannot let you go”.

Much of Ocean to Ocean opts for this style of forthright song-writing, over the surreal world-building that has traditionally defined her work. Album highlight “Swim To New York State” deals with the aftermath of a friend moving away; capturing the pain of rootlessness but also the enduring beauty of a relationship that transcends physical distance. Amos cycles through all the places she’d like to go to with the person in question (“There’s a rockpool we can dive in”, “meet at that cafe”), but ultimately comes to peace with the separation (“I had to face / Life just wasn’t the same”). The song captures the same mixture of heart-break and resilience that made her early work so captivating.

But whereas Amos’s early work felt unmoored by time, Ocean to Ocean feels like it could only have been made now; “I know, dear, it has been a brutal year” she sings on “Metal Water Wood”; the album’s most explicit reference to the pandemic. “29 years”, as it’s title suggests, seems to reference the 29 years between her debut album and now. Meanwhile, the title track offers the most politically charged and unmistakably of-our-time statement. “Ocean to Ocean” demonstrates, once again, why Amos is such a powerful writer; “There are those who don’t give a Goddamn / That we’re near mass extinction” she sings at one point, referencing the role of uncaring elites in the current climate crisis. But, within the course of one line, she expands her sights: “There are those who never give a Goddamn for anything they are breaking”. What was just seconds ago a relatively straightforward examination of the climate crisis, has now turned into a takedown of all of society’s breakers; all the way from the rich and powerful inflicting environmental destruction to all the exploitative men (who have long been the subject of her songs) who think they can violate women in pursuit of their own desires.

Ocean to Ocean ends up being Amos’s best album in recent memory for the way it manages to combine the strengths of her early music while incorporating newfound restraint and perspective. Even if there’s nothing here as utterly devastating as “Me & A Gun”, or as piercing as “God”, it’s a joy that Amos can at once be as mystifying and inscrutable as ever (singing of “anonymous” hippopotamus and, aardvarks on the London Underground on “Spies”) while finding newfound comfort and understanding on tracks like “Speaking With Trees”. 29 years on from Little Earthquakes, Amos remains an unrivaled talent, capable of discussing and dissecting the very best and worst elements of humanity without ever collapsing under the heaviness of such themes” – The Line of Best Fit

Standout Tracks: Devil's Bane/Spies/Metal Water Wood

Key Cut: Speaking with Trees

FEATURE: Spotlight: Stella Talpo

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Stella Talpo

_________

I have included the music…

of the brilliant Stella Talpo in playlists before, yet I have never spotlighted her. That is an oversight on my part! Talpo was born in a small town outside Milan and raised in Singapore. Now based in London, Talpo has a wide range of musical influences -  artists from Billie Holiday to Nirvana. Bringing something unique and exciting to British Soul and R&B, her alluring, soulful and transcendent music takes you somewhere sublime. I am keen to know more about the wonderful artist who, for a while now, has left my knees buckled. Her music is sensational. I am going to come to details about a forthcoming album. Before that, a nod back to previous interviews. A chance to discover more about the brilliant Stella Talpo. I am going to start with an interview from 202. During lockdown – at a time when we were all shut away -, Talpo spoke with PRS for Music about her music, in addition to what she had been doing such a strange time:

“What have been your golden rules for staying creative in lockdown?

1. Being patient and compassionate with yourself. It goes a long way.

2. Giving myself the luxury of time and not being so demanding with my productivity. I’ve been reminding myself it's okay to not feel this constant desire to be creative right now given everything that’s going on but rather be like, ‘Okay, this is really happening, how can I nurture myself so that I can be of service to the community, what do I really feel good about doing right now with my time.’

3. Creativity comes when you least expect it, not when you most want it so another golden rule is to be generous with yourself. You can afford a day off, in fact I’ve found the days off are when the songs and words actually start a-flowing. I spent too many years playing the tortured artist, the nature of creativity is not born out of struggle, which kind of leads onto next golden rule…

4. Playfulness and not scrutinising everything so much but just letting what comes come and ultimately having fun, which is why I fell in love with music to begin with. It’s been nice to have more time to just muck about rather than being so regimented in order to squeeze a London day into 24 hours.

Have you found any unexpected sources of inspiration?

Funnily enough, since slowing down I’ve been finding a lot more gratification from the repetitiveness and mundanity of practising an instrument - something I thought would never come over me. I’ve been able to listen to more music and read more books and articles as well as spend more time in nature (I love trees), which have all been feeding the ticking writer in my mind. It’ll be interesting to see how all the different elements manifest themselves into songs or lyrics soon but I must admit I’ve found it challenging to sit still and face the page since this global emergency began. I like to think of it as gathering inspiration and information for when the time comes to enter create mode.

'I think the lack of roots and sense of alienation that moving around a lot can give you comes across in my lyrics.'

You were born in Italy and raised in Singapore. How much would you say your varied background influences the music you make?

I think sonically, the cultures that I grew up in and with are yet to make their grand debut in my music, although I have finally visited my Italian-ness in mona. I like to think that the variety and the transience of my upbringing shows up in the ambiguity of my ’sound’ and my curiosity to try new things or visit and tap into different subcultures.

I think the lack of roots and sense of alienation that moving around a lot can give you comes across in my lyrics. I feel like I can’t own a narrative or a story because I’m Italian but I’m not, I’m Singaporean but I’m not, I’m English but I’m not, so in a way I guess I’m as fluid and impermanent musically and lyrically as I have been geographically and culturally.

One thing I’m certain of is how much I owe my romanticism and nostalgia, which have both hugely influenced my music and writing, to my very emotive Italian parents”.

If you are new to Stella Talpo – which many may well be -, then I hope these interviews are of use and resource. I want to bring things up to 2022. In an interview for Secret Eclectic, Talpo discussed her brilliant then-new single, Water, and the meaning behind it. This was a year when she was beginning to pick up more traction and focus:

“Describe your sound in 3 words

seductive, self-reflective, evolving / fluid

Tell us a few things about your new single Water. What is the story behind it?

‘Water’ is a playful, tongue-in-cheek track about my inner saboteur. It was born out of a frustration with my tendency to keep going back to things and behaviours I knew weren’t good for me, ‘falling into temptation’ for the instant gratification, avoiding the unavoidable. It references my struggles with mental health in my twenties and this half of me that just wanted to forget everything and just have fun, thinking it would be easier than to facing my issues head on. Guess the best way to put it is if you are a smoker trying to quit and you think, “oh, go on then”… that’s Water. It’s about the cyclical nature of that, 10 steps back for every 2 steps forward – of course, the bridge offers the self-reflection and shame that follows “giving in”, when you think, that’s the last time, no more…

Why are some people addicted to self-sabotage?

Isn’t that the golden question. I mean, it depends on the person and it depends on the context. I don’t think there’s one reason and there’s certainly many nuances and complexities within any one reason that anything I conclude in a short paragraph would be reductive. I think in my experience, it’s just learned behaviour. If we’re used to a certain kind of emotion or experience, a certain result, being conditioned with limiting beliefs in what is possible etc, we tend to unfortunately play those out unconsciously. I think low self-worth, a lack of self-belief and ultimately, fear, are huge factors for why we sabotage ourselves… fear is paralysing and we’d much rather stay in the comfort zone of the toxic cycles we’re familiar with then abandon ship and risk feeling vulnerable, unsafe or God forbid, prove to ourselves that we’re not good enough. “You can’t fail if you don’t try”, as they say. I think the misconception about self-sabotage is that if we can’t take ourselves out of it, there’s something wrong with us. It’s simply not down to willpower or lack of wanting to… we’re up against years of learnt behaviours so really until we can get to the root of why we’re afraid or why we feel a certain type of way, why we keep going back to those things / people, we’re kind of setting ourselves up for failure. Blaming ourselves for not being strong enough is another part of the cycle so it just feeds the self-sabotage to do so.

Which is your most personal and honest lyric?

That’s a tough question. They’ve all been the most personal and honest at the point of writing but I guess if I had to choose one right now… probably the first verse of ‘Water’ or the chorus to my next single, ‘Where Did I Go’, which goes: “Tell me where you want me, where you go I’ll follow. What do you think cos I’m nobody till you tell me so. Afraid of saying the wrong thing I say nothing at all… Wonder who I would have been”.

Your music is characterised by your lovely vocal delivery. Which vocalist do you admire?

Thank you 🙂 I admire so so many vocalists, it’s hard to narrow them down. I guess the vocalists I am totally in awe of are the ones you can tell are just so real and free, so present and yet ethereal that they make you feel some type of way that feels out of body. For me, they include Billie Holiday, Billie Eilish (they’re intimacy is unparalleled), Donny Hathaway, Rosalia, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse, Sam Cooke. I’ve missed out loads but those are some of the vocalists who’ve really affected me.

Born in Milan, raised in Singapore, currently based in London. What do you love/hate for each place?

Oooooo, toughie. I can’t speak to Milan to be honest, because I left Italy when I was 1. If I had to hazard a guess from going back a couple times a year then I’d say, love: food, hate: being worst dressed. For Londonnnnn, love: the people, hate: the price. And Singapore, love: the food, hate: the humidity.

When did you decide to become a musician yourself?

To be honest, I wanted to be a musician / performer since I was very small, about 3. I used to walk around with one of those tape recorders just making up songs all day and learn all my favourite dances and tunes to perform to my parents’ friends when they had dinner parties (bless them for sitting through it every time). I was about 13 when I wrote my first song with a guitar. I had my whole career arc planned out because it was always, since childhood, an unwavering decision. Of course things never go to plan but if you knew how indecisive I am, you’d know how big a deal that was haha!

Your biggest fear?

Sharks and upsetting people”.

Prior to getting to details of an album that needs to be in your thoughts, I will source an interview from earlier this month. Raydar chatted with Stella Talpo about a great new song, DUST, in addition to an album that is highly anticipated and will display the full range of her emotions, talents and sonic brilliance. I think that we are all in for a real treat:

“Hailing from a small Italian town but now a well-established fixture in South London’s music scene, Stella Talpo serves up her newest track, “DUST.” The record teems with the primal energy that the singer borrowed from her previous singles “GOOD GIRLS” and “QUICKSAND,” but cranks up the intensity just a nudge. With mythological motifs setting the stage for her forthcoming debut album MEDUSA, the song serves as a raw anthem of resilience and transformation.

Talpo explains, “‘DUST’ is a call to action and a celebration of the human spirit’s resilience and ability to rise above adversity. It’s an Invitation to rise, and refers to the energy surge when a woman feels the monster within her come alive.” Elsewhere, the songstress employs an engaging narrative, painting an exhilarating journey to visit Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and revelry, creating a palpable sense of power and exhilaration in every note.

Slated for October, her debut album MEDUSA represents a fearless exploration of societal constraints and oppressive ideals. Throughout the 11-track compilation, Stella incorporates primal and visceral imagery to confront and normalize parts of life deemed too ugly or brutal by our sanitized society. The LP weaves a rich tapestry of darkness and light, soul and electronica, realism and myth, taking inspiration from feminist literature such as the works of Gillian Alban and Clarissa Pinkola Estés.

Having spent years experimenting with different records, Stella Talpo has concocted a soulful blend of R&B that’s been laced with a hint of ethereal darkness, creating a new alt-pop sound. Below, we spoke with the singer-songwriter about her introduction to music, “DUST,” her bucket list, and more.

 How did your journey begin? What first made you fall in love with music?

I suppose it was quite an elusive starting point, it happened gradually but also not at all because it was almost always just a knowing, if that makes sense. I don’t remember not wanting to be a performer, and I started to show that inclination as young as 3, putting on shows for my parents and their friends. Bless them all for their patience. As I entered my pre-teens, music became more of an escape, and I think that’s when I started to take the path more seriously, teaching myself to write songs to express myself and what I was going through.

I don’t remember a day where I was like, “Right, I’ve decided performing is going to be my career.” I just remember there never being an alternative, although I was conflicted for a while about whether to go into musical theatre or contemporary music. I think because songwriting was such a non-negotiable for me, and contemporary music had saved my life on so many occasions, that’s how I ended up picking this road.

Tracking back to some of your early work in 2016, you’ve experienced a lot of growth as an artist. How did you get to where you are today and how do you feel you’ve grown as an artist?

Oof, this would take a long time to answer. I got to where I am today with a lot of facing the music (pun intended) and my fears. I had to go through a lot of personal growth to understand where I was still playing small and feeling self-conscious about being totally myself and also trusting my own sense of what I like or don’t like. I was really lost in 2016, and in many ways, that was when this process of ‘unbecoming’, if you will began in my personal life, and naturally, that bled into my creative life.

I’ve grown as an artist because I’ve learned to be my own voice of reason and compass. I used to be so afraid of getting something wrong or just being wrong generally that I didn’t have the capacity to ask myself what it is that I wanted or enjoyed. I was just in a hurricane of emotional s**t frankly, and I had stopped trusting myself as a writer, and there was a lot of shame around who I was. I felt like I always had to prove myself, had this unnerving sense that if I wasn’t a multi-instrumentalist or the best at everything, then I wasn’t a worthy artist.

That’s definitely taken years to shake off, but I feel that growing into a more confident and unapologetic women has meant growing into a more confident and unapologetic artist.

Your latest release is the gorgeous single “DUST,” which serves as a celebration of the human spirit’s resilience. Can you dive into what inspired the song?

You know when you see someone who just has lost their faith in themselves or just doesn’t see their power the way that you can? And you just want to shake them awake and be like, look at how fucking amazing you are, you were born for greater things? I really wanted to write a song that was like the wake-up call, the “on” switch, that would help someone breathe the truth of themselves in and kind of kick them into gear to feel they are capable of anything. I wanted to write something that I could play myself when I was feeling despondent or powerless to remind myself that that primal strength is in me, and I got this.

Pivoting back into music, what else is on your bucket list?

The top thing on my bucket list my whole life was completing an album, so that feels amazing. I would say next on would be a tour or to film a live video with Colours”.

Let’s end with that album. MEDUSA is the debut album from the simply magnificent Stella Talpo. On her Bandcamp site, we find out more regarding this amazing work. It is out on 13th October. I would seriously recommend people buy it is they can. If not, go and stream the album and support Stella Talpo by getting the sord out and sharing the music:

“After spending the last few months hunkered down and tapped into a creative stream of literature and art, Stella Talpo returns with the support of PRS’ ‘Women Make Music Fund’ for her debut album ‘MEDUSA’.

Immediately marking a grittier, primal turn in Stella’s R&B sound, ‘GOOD GIRLS’ brings in elements of leftfield alt-pop and a wild edge that sets the tone for the upcoming record. The track holds no prisoners, adopting visceral, gory imagery to comment upon oppression experienced by women under patriarchal structures. The message is double-edged, with lyrics discussing the importance of solidarity and the power in numbers needed to break barriers and enact change.

"GOOD GIRLS is about empowerment and solidarity. It urges listeners to be strong and fight for freedom, rather than being a ‘good girl’ who follows the rules and stays in the shadows. I set out to describe the struggles of being a woman in a male-dominated world and the ways in which women have been held back and manipulated.”

 Across the 11 tracks that make up her debut album ‘MEDUSA’, Stella challenges societal ideals and oppressive frameworks. A central thread of mythological, primal & visceral imagery is used to normalise elements of life that are part of the ugly (but real) human experience, contrasting with the sterilised society we occupy, where we’ve been detached from our primal nature. “Initially, the concept was inspired by the ‘Chimera’, a creature villainised for its grotesque form, which paralleled the story I wanted to tell about our inner darkness & imperfections, the things that make us animals that we’ve hidden away, particularly from a woman’s point of view.”

A result of years of musical experimentation and growth with producer Lewis Moody (30/70, Cherise), the project marks an injection of ethereal darkness and alt-pop sound design into Stella’s soulful R&B songwriting. Influences range from the leftfield electronics of Gazelle Twin and the

cinematic soul of SAULT, through to engagement with contemporary feminist literature by the likes of Gillian Alban and Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Their writings acted as a springboard for many of the lyrical motifs explored by Stella, as she explains; “Women Who Run With Wolves unlocked so much for me creatively, inspiring a lot of the purpose, metaphors and repeated literary motifs on the album.”

Born in a small town in Italy, but now firmly rooted in South London by way of Singapore, Spain and America, Stella has released a trilogy of EPs in the lead-up to her debut album. Finding widespread critical support from the likes of The Line of Best Fit, CLASH and New Wave Magazine, as well as BBC Introducing, Reprezent Radio and Rinse FM, she’s now ready to share a body of work that truly represents her eclectic musical tastes and travelled upbringing. Also a keen reader of literature and poetry, her evocative, insightful lyricism is at the centre of her alluring, boundary-pushing work”.

I was keen to highlight and celebrate the phenomenal Stella Talpo. An artist that I have known for a while, she thoroughly deserves mainstream success. With each song and interview, we get different sides to an amazing musician and human. I am excited to see where her career will take her. An artist that everyone needs to look out for, Stella Talpo is…

SURE to go very far.

____________

Follow Stella Talpo

 Official:

https://www.deepmatter.co.uk/stella-talpo

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/stellatalpo

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/stellatalpo

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@StellaTalpo

TikTok:

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

Bandcamp:

https://stellatalpo.bandcamp.com/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/50CephN65HHaMX5mhL8DYr?si=igRLytbxTB--v8mKaaATzw&nd=1

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part One Hundred and Two: T. Rex

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

Part One Hundred and Two: T. Rex

_________

I dip in and out of this feature…

that brings in a playlist of songs from artists influenced by a legendary artist or group. Looking through previous playlists, I have not included the mighty T. Rex. Led by Marc Bolan, they are a hugely influential group that popularised Glam and Rock in the early-1970s. Even through the band started as Tyrannosaurus Rex and then became T. Rex and had this life in the 1960s, I always feel they were at their peak between 1970 and 1973. Compelling so many other artists that came after them, I will end with a selection of those. Before that, and as I do for these features, AllMusic provide some biography about the wonderful T. Rex. In September, it will be forty-six years since we lost Marc Bolan. Sad to think:

“The most iconic band of the glam rock scene of the '70s, T. Rex were the creation of Marc Bolan and played amped-up rock & roll with boogie rhythms and a splashy fashion sense. Beginning with the 1970 single "Ride a White Swan," the group tapped into the basics of rock and pop while dressing them up in equal amounts of mystical silliness and down-to-earth raunch. Songs like "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" and the album Electric Warrior defined the T. Rex sound, The Slider perfected it, and each album that followed took a big swing and, more often than not, especially on 1974's funk- and soul-influenced Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow, connected. The band, and Bolan's, lifespans were tragically short, but it was massively influential and inspired many of the best metal, punk, new wave, and alternative rock bands who followed in their glittery wake.

Marc Bolan was born Mark Feld on September 30, 1947 in Stoke Newington, London, England. The youngster seemed cut out for a career in show biz nearly from the start; he started playing guitar at the age of nine when he and some friends formed a skiffle band, and he made his professional acting debut in 1963, playing a minor role on the children's television series Orlando. After a brief run as a child model, Bolan dove into music and released his first single, "The Wizard," in November 1965, shortly after he signed a deal with Decca Records. After cutting a few more singles, which found Bolan moving into a direction clearly inspired by Dylan and Donovan, the Yardbirds' manager Simon Napier-Bell took over stewardship of his career, and in 1967 Bolan was added to the lineup of the freakbeat eccentrics John's Children. While he was in the group long enough to write and sing lead on their single "Desdemona" and tour Europe as the Who's opening act, Bolan left after a mere four months, and began writing songs for his next project.

Before 1967 was out, Bolan had launched Tyrannosaurus Rex, with a show at London's Electric Garden. After a less than stellar experience as a full band, he reworked Tyrannosaurus Rex into an acoustic duo, adding Steve Peregrin Took on percussion. Bolan's loopily engaging lyrical sensibility and Eastern-influenced melodies, coupled with Took's unconventional style, helped to earn the group a loyal following in London's hippie community, and they were championed by John Peel on his influential BBC radio show. The duo scored a deal with Regal Zonophone Records, and their debut album, My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows, was released in July 1968. It was the first to be produced by long-time Bolan collaborator Tony Visconti, who would go on to helm nearly all of Bolan's subsequent work. The second Tyrannosaurus Rex album, Prophets, Seers & Sages: The Angels of the Ages, appeared just three months later, and the third, Unicorn, came out in May 1969, shortly after the publication of The Warlock of Love, a book of poems written by Bolan. Soon afterward, Took was fired from the band and Mickey Finn took over as the duo's percussionist. In 1970 they recorded A Beard of Stars as well as the single "Ride a White Swan," and both saw the band moving in a new direction, venturing away from the fading U.K. hippie scene. Bolan had begun playing electric guitar, giving the songs a bigger, rougher sound, and Finn's handclaps and percussion provided a backbeat that turned Tyrannosaurus Rex from a folk act into a rock band. The duo acknowledged their shift in direction with a trimmed-down name and a self-titled album, T. Rex, on which Bolan doubled down on the group's new proto-boogie sound by expanding to a quartet with the addition of drummer Bill Legend and bassist Steve Currie. He also took to sporting top hats, feather boas, and glittery outfits on-stage, giving their shows a welcome sense of flash, and while some of Bolan's older fans blanched at his abandonment of his elfin hippy image, the release of Electric Warrior in September 1971 was all the consolation he needed. The album, which featured production from Visconti and backing vocals courtesy of Flo & Eddie, was a major hit, rising to the top of the U.K. album charts and establishing T. Rex as one of Britain's biggest bands, while also helping to launch the glam rock era that would dominate the country for the next several years. The album also spawned two U.K. hit singles, "Jeepster" and "Get It On."

The latter, retitled "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" cracked the American Top 40, and T. Rex developed a cult following in the United States, especially on the West Coast.

As "T. Rexstasy" took hold in the U.K. and Europe, the band released The Slider in July 1972, which offered more of the group's crunchy hard rock boogie and Bolan's sly, playful lyrics, while also showing off a deeply emotional, almost melancholy, side to the band. At the same time the album was being recorded, a film was being made about Bolan and T. Rex, Born to Boogie, directed by Ringo Starr. After the film's release, Bolan began work on an album that leaned more toward the hard rock and soul music coming out of America. Featuring lushly layered production, Mellotrons, massed backing vocals, and heavier guitars, 1973's Tanx took a step away from the classic T. Rex sound while still retaining much of its flash. Non-LP singles "20th Century Boy" and "Metal Guru" were issued concurrently and proved to be the last two T. Rex singles to reach the U.K. Top Ten. The band continued to tour heavily, with an eye toward breaking big in America. Recording for the next album took place during breaks in touring, and 1974's Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow reflected the sounds of America even more than their previous album, and vocalists Gloria Jones and Pat Hall loomed large in the album's mix. Though the album wasn't a huge departure from the classic T. Rex approach, there was a great deal of change in the ranks. Visconti exited the creative team, and the remaining members of the band did too, while Bolan and Jones relocated to California. 1975's Bolan's Zip Gun was recorded in Hollywood and followed a similar funk-inflected path as its predecessor.

After that album's less than enthusiastic reception, Bolan rebounded in early 1976 with the release of Futuristic Dragon, an ambitious set that featured a bigger sound than T. Rex's last few albums, incorporating stylistic elements borrowed from doo wop, '60s girl groups, and disco. Bolan also became a father as he and Jones welcomed a son, Rolan Bolan, and the family returned to England, where he became the host of a pop music show, Marc. The program featured performances by Bolan, artists from the height of the glam rock days (including David Bowie), and rising stars on the punk rock scene, including the Jam, Generation X, and the Boomtown Rats. Buoyed by the show's success, he returned to the studio to record the 1977 album Dandy in the Underworld. The stripped-down and direct rock rhythms conjured up favorable comparisons to the band's early sound and the single "I Love to Boogie" was a fun rock & roll pastiche the likes of which only Bolan could deliver. Sadly, it was the last album released during his lifetime as he died in an auto accident in September of 1977. Marc Bolan and T. Rex's legacies have been kept alive through numerous reissues of their albums and archival collections of rarities. Edsel is one of the record labels involved in the effort, reissuing each T. Rex album along with an alternate version made up of different takes and demos. In the 2020s they began releasing box sets that cover T. Rex's career year-by-year. Both 1972 and 1973: Whatever Happened to the Teenage Dream? collect studio albums, singles, demos, and rare tracks, weaving them into a comprehensive whole. Marc Bolan and T. Rex deserve nothing less than such treatment -- over their short career they helped change the landscape of both pop and rock music, making it a little shinier and more fun”.

To salute T. Rex and their amazing legacy and influence, below is a playlist of songs from artists who have been inspired by the band – whether that is as T. Rex or the original Tyrannosaurus Rex incarnation. There is such a wide and impressive array of musicians. It just goes to show…

HOW important they were!

FEATURE: Sixty Years of the Portable Cassette: Reelin’ in the Years: A Time to Revive the Sony Walkman?

FEATURE:

 

 

Sixty Years of the Portable Cassette

PHOTO CREDIT: Bruno Castrioto/Pexels

Reelin’ in the Years: A Time to Revive the Sony Walkman?

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I shall come to it in a minute…

 PHOTO CREDIT: drobotdean via Freepik

but there has been a rise in the success of cassette sales. You can buy boomboxes, so you can play any cassettes. Even though these boomboxes are not especially portable, you have a device you can play them on. I think one of the main reasons for buying cassettes is having a portable device so you can listen to an album on the go. That ties in nicely to an important anniversary – more on that soon. There are examples of portable devices where you can play cassettes. They are very cool indeed, though I wonder how accessible and affordable they are for most people. A Sony Walkman-style device that was around £50-£70 and had some digital capability and compatibility – you could link to your phone and play through there; a choice of maybe transferring a playlist direct onto a cassette somehow too? That price range is important, because cassette albums sell for about £10 or just under, so it would be steep to charge over £100 for a device. If a portable device was made of rubber and metal, it came in a range of colours and did link the retro with the modern, that would inspire people to buy more cassettes. I am not sure if you could physically blend CD compatibility too, but that is what boomboxes are for – and it also makes me wonder whether a modern Sony Discman is a possibility.

Thanks to Gozer Goodspeed for making me aware of that portable cassette player I linked to, and the boombox one too. I assumed there was nothing out there, but there is still not a modern and affordable portable device that you can play cassettes on. I want to celebrate a big anniversary. 30th August, 1963 was when the portable cassette was launched in Germany. This feature from 2013 - celebrating fifty years of the cassette - gives us an authoritative history:

“FEATURE On 30 August, 1963, a new bit of sound recording tech that was to change the lifestyle of millions was revealed at the Berlin Radio Show.

The adoption of the standard that followed led to a huge swath of related technological applications that had not been envisaged by its maker; for Philips, the unveiling of its new Compact Cassette tape and accompanying recorder was about enticing people to buy a fuss-free portable recording system.

Sonically, the Compact Cassette recorder was no hi-fi and, from the start, was never meant to be. Instead, the company had succeeded in putting together a format for recording, storing and playing back audio that immediately made sense - and delivered so many convenient improvements over existing systems that its success was assured.

Although the Compact Cassette tape (now just known as the cassette tape) was a new design for handling tape media, what Philips had produced was an innovative approach to existing technologies rather than an out-and-out invention. Having decided on the format specifications of tape width, track width and tape speed, the firm's engineers went about designing the circuitry and physical mechanisms that would deliver acceptable results for dictation, among other tasks, and eventually music playback akin to a decent portable radio. 

Indeed, the emphasis was very much on portability, and Philips had no intention of trying to match the fidelity of reel-to-reel recorders that had marker-pen-thick track widths and fast tape speeds. If you needed superlative sound quality, then those tape machines were there and would continue to be for many decades more in pro audio circles.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sony

Hyper threading in the 1960s

Admittedly, with few exceptions, pro audio gear of the time wasn’t very portable as the tape reels were sizeable, and so was circuitry and motors required. Using smaller reels limited recording times and while slower speeds would extend this, their use did affect the overall sound quality. Also simply threading a tape into the gear could become quite problematic in challenging conditions such as, for instance, radio reporting on the move in a war zone. And to consider reel-to-reel tape as in-car entertainment was impractical at best.

Given a lack of alternatives, people took what was available and Philips made a portable reel-to-reel system for ordinary folk in the late 1950s, the EL 3585, which did exceptionally well. Buoyed by its success, Philips focused on portability, rather than high fidelity, as it considered how to package tape in a new format.

The company didn’t have to look far either, as RCA Victor was already touting its own Sound Tape Cartridge which had a 0.25in-wide tape, but as it ran at 3.75 inches per second (IPS), it needed to be fairly large to hold enough tape to run for 30 minutes per side – on some models the head moved laterally, rather than requiring the tape to be flipped.

The Sound Tape Cartridge could hold stereo audio; alternatively, one could record in mono on all four tracks independently to get two hours out of it. Punters could drop down to 1.875 IPS to double the capacity, but the quality wasn’t particularly impressive. An archive RCA Victor advertisement from 1958 demonstrating the cartridge is embedded below. The fun starts at 7 minutes, 47 seconds.

In an interview with El Reg published here, Lou Ottens, the Compact Cassette team leader at Philips, noted that Peter Goldmark from US broadcaster CBS had proposed a single-reel cartridge with 0.15in width (3.81mm). Philips recognised that this narrower tape width was the way forward. It’s actually slightly larger than the eighth-of-an-inch that many people assume cassette tape to be.

IN THIS PHOTO: The popularity of its EL 3585 portable recorder led Philips to consider more competition/PHOTO CREDIT: Johan's Old Radios

Playing for reel

Despite being originally intended as a dictation machine, the free licensing of the Compact Cassette standard sparked widespread adoption by electronics manufacturers, particularly in Japan. In a relatively short time, technical advances in the recorder components and magnetic media led to a steady improvement in the performance of the format.

Consequently, the Musicassette - cassette tapes prerecorded with music - increased in popularity as the sound reproduction improved. Admittedly, some companies with interests in other formats held off mass production of Musicassettes of their artists’ catalogues, but they would be won over in the end.

The actual production of Musicassettes was done on machines running 32 times faster than normal playback. Cassette tape would be reeled over four heads recording what would be both sides at once at 60 IPS. The master tape that was source of the original music had been recorded at 7.5 IPS and this would also run 32 times faster, clocking up a playback speed of 240 IPS for duplication purposes.

A 1,500m reel of cassette tape was used for each run from which multiple Musicassettes would be made. Tones separating the programme material were used to identify the beginning and end of each completed Musicassettes album to aid splicing and packaging.

IN THIS PHOTO: Philips Musicassettes and other tape media from 1965/PHOTO CREDIT: Philips Company Archives

This super-fast tape transport also required the circuitry to follow suit. So instead of the bias frequency being around 80kHz, it was now 2.4MHz; the amplifiers also needed to work over a frequency range of 200kHz to 500kHz. The head gap was also enlarged to 4µm. This fast tape copying was the only way to knock out cassettes to production deadlines.

Yet for the consumer, taping and sharing music was a way of discovering new bands and for many artists, this was acceptable because it was a way of growing their fan base. Fans that would soon enough buy their records and probably attend concerts with their mates.

The pros and cons of copying is an argument that still rages to this day. Certainly, Philips had no idea that the introduction of a dictation machine some two decades earlier would lead to such strife.

There were other reasons for recording vinyl which many felt were perfectly legitimate. Why not have a recording of the album you bought to play in the car? What about those favourite tracks of yours? Mix tapes for parties, romance and just sheer pleasure were recordings young and old alike would painstakingly piece together from their music collections, manually taping each track. And it wasn’t just for use in the car.

IN THIS ILLUSTRATION: The Sony Walkman TPS-L2 was the world's first low-cost portable stereo and went on sale for the first time on 1st July, 1979/ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Moritz Adam Schmitt

The Sony Walkman was a game changer for the Compact Cassette, arriving in 1979, and sported headphones rather than a loudspeaker. Its portability triggered a craze for music on the move. A distinctive feature of Walkmans and its me-too rivals that followed was that they were playback only. Recording Walkmans were offered for more professional uses and became popular with reporters. Other brands would follow suit with some even including a radio in this portable package.

Twin cassette decks appeared too, enabling tape-to-tape copying and dubbing with some consumer models featuring a Walkman-style player that would dock in the main unit that contained the recorder. The genie was definitely out of the bottle as far as making copies of recordings was concerned.

It’s worth remembering that we’re well and truly in the analogue domain here and so tape copying would always bring with it the baggage of tape hiss. Unlike the world of digital audio that we are immersed in today, the signal would degrade markedly with repeated tape copying generations beyond the original source.

Even so, as the cassette recorder evolved, so did the media with chromium dioxide and eventually Type IV (metal) tapes offering improved dynamic range and frequency response. These new formulations required different bias frequencies which led to additions to the Compact Cassette standard. Hence, switches for ferric, chromium dioxide and metal that would adorn many Compact Cassette machines would all conform to their respective equalisation settings.

IN THIS PHOTO: A Philips DCC 900 digital compact cassette deck

Going digital

Other improvements appeared such as Dolby C noise reduction along with HX Pro, the latter tweaked the bias for a "headroom extension" (increasing the dynamic range) but neither really took off. However, the enhancements in recording media and signal processing, together with the arrival of the Compact Disc, did mean that home recording was sounding better than ever. Another way of looking at it, though, was that this pristine digital disc format revealed the shortcomings in using cassette tape, particularly in its high-frequency range.

As vinyl took a backseat and the crackle-free fidelity of the Compact Disc made its presence felt, it was inevitable that a consumer digital recording format would emerge. Recording studios had been blessed with a number of options for some time, none affordable for the mass market.

While Sony pondered on what would become the MiniDisc, Philips hit upon the idea of the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC). It would support a resolution up to 18 bits and sample rates of 32kHz, 44.1kHz and 48kHz. The killer feature would be backwards compatibility with your existing analogue cassette library. The technical aspects of DCC are discussed in more detail here.

DCC worked, but the massive DCC 900 machine that was debuted wasn’t the in-car digital tape system that the dealers had been promised. That would come later along with the portable DCC 170 ‘walkman’. DCC failed not because it was technically lacking – it allowed track naming and sounded superior to early Sony MiniDisc models – but because the idea of fast-forward and rewinding tape was now dated in the minds of its target market.

These people were used to the instant access convenience of CD and were looking for the same in a digital recorder. Sony’s MiniDisc delivered this and won the day as a consumer digital recording format. That is until Apple’s iPod and iTunes promoted the concept of rip, mix and burn.

PHOTO CREDIT: Dan Cristian Pădureț via Freepik

Fast-forward, eject

Philips claims that about three billion Compact Cassettes were sold in the 25 years between 1963 and 1988. Beyond that period, other formats ate away at sales: in the US alone, sales of Musicassettes dropped from about 450 million in 1990 to just over quarter of a million in 2007, according to Billboard. Yes, you can still buy tapes and cassette recorders remain in production too, but the choice is fairly limited.

Many of us continue to encounter cassette recorders as the equipment endures in car stereos, decades-old boom boxes that never die, and fully functioning hi-fi separates that we haven't the heart to bin. Whether this equipment is ever used to play a cassette is another matter, but I confess to owning a DCC 900 (I couldn't afford a DAT) and fire it up from time to time for both analogue and digital playback. It’s still going strong”.

IMAGE CREDIT: Dan Cristian Pădureț via Freepik

It is exciting and momentous that we are marking sixty years of the cassette. It seems like cassette sales are rising and it will stay that way. If some playfully ask listeners to dust off their Walkmans, the opportunity to revive that has not been taken! Boomboxes do not allow the sort of portability that we really demand. Once thought obsolete, there is a lot of fun to be had with a cassette. It means you listen to an album without skipping, and it also means young music fans who might only know digital get to experience a physical music format more affordable and easy to store and play than vinyl. Of course, many major modern artists releasing albums on cassette – or part of a bundle – are responsible, in a big part, for this boom and pleasing revival. I will wrap up in a second. Before that, the BPI examined and celebrated the iconic cassette in a year when sales hit a two-decade high:

“Artists including Arctic Monkeys, Florence + The Machine and Harry Styles lifted UK cassette sales to their highest level in nearly two decades last year, according to new analysis from the BPI, the representative voice for the UK’s world-leading record labels and music companies.

Based on Official Charts Company data, sales of the retro format grew for a tenth consecutive year in 2022, reaching annual totals not seen since 2003, when the year’s two most popular titles were Now That’s What I Call Music compilations and Daniel O’Donnell had the top artist album.

The revival of the audio cassette market is highlighted, among many other fascinating trends and stats, in All About The Music 2023 – the 44th edition of the BPI Yearbook, which is out now1.

While sales of cassettes remain quite a bit lower than vinyl, having grown by 5.2% year-on-year to 195,000 units in 2022, the format is playing a significant role in the sales mix of some brand new album releases. On 10 occasions last year, the format accounted for over 10% of the chart sales of the No.1 album on the weekly Official Albums Chart. Some of these chart-topping albums sold more copies on cassette than on vinyl when they debuted at No.1, including Florence + The Machine’s Dance Fever and 5SOS5 by 5 Seconds of Summer. More than a fifth of each album’s first-week chart sales were claimed by cassette. For some new albums, a cassette version went on sale when a vinyl release was not available, as was the case with Central Cee’s 23, Digga D’s Noughty By Nature and Blackpink’s Born Pink, which all reached No.1 last year.

IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine)

OFFICIAL CASSETTE ARTIST ALBUMS CHART 2022 – © Official Charts Company

1. Arctic Monkeys – The Car

2. Harry Styles – Harry’s House

3. Florence + The Machine – Dance Fever

4. Muse – Will Of The People

5. Central Cee– 23

6. Robbie Williams – XXV

7. 5 Seconds of Summer – 5SOS5

8. Blackpink – Born Pink

9. The 1975 – Being Funny In A Foreign Language

10. Machine Gun Kelly – Mainstream Sellout

Sophie Jones, BPI Chief Strategy Officer and Interim CEO, said: “For many of us growing up, cassettes were a rite of passage as we listened to our favourite artists. So it’s heartening that this once much-loved format is back in vogue, even if still a tiny part of music consumption overall. Like vinyl, a number of contemporary artists are warmly embracing the cassette as another way to reach audiences and on occasions it has even helped them to achieve a No.1 album. While streaming is by far the leading format, the renewed popularity of cassettes and vinyl highlights the continuing importance of the physical market and the many ways fans have to consume music.”

Arctic Monkeys had the year’s biggest-selling cassette with The Car, finishing ahead of Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, which was the top album across all formats. The top five cassette sellers were completed by releases from Florence + The Machine (Dance Fever), Muse (Will Of The People) and Central Cee (23), while artists including Blackpink (Born Pink), Machine Gun Kelly (Mainstream Sellout), Robbie Williams (XXV) and The 1975 (Being Funny In A Foreign Language) also finished in the year’s Top 10. All but two of the Top 10 sellers sold more than 5,000 cassettes during the year, while there were 40 occasions in 2022 when an album sold over 1,000 cassettes over the course of a week. This compares to 34 titles doing the same the year before.

 Every one of the Top 10 cassette sellers was released in 2022, as were the entire Top 20, which included releases by Avril Lavigne (Love Sux), Jamie T (The Theory Of Whatever), Knucks (Alpha Place) and Blossoms (Ribbon Around The Bomb). The top catalogue seller was Iron Maiden’s The Number Of The Beast, which was reissued on cassette in March last year to mark its 40th anniversary. Another popular catalogue title was the original soundtrack to the 2014 Marvel Studios film Guardians Of The Galaxy, which includes vintage tracks by 10cc, David Bowie and Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell. Sub-titled Awesome Mix Vol. 1, the album was one of the earliest titles to be released on cassette since the format’s revival and is one of the biggest sellers over the last ten years.

A decade of growth for cassettes marks a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for a format which between 1985 and 1992 led the UK albums market before being overtaken by CD. However, by 2012 its total annual sales had dropped below 4,000 units. Since then purchases have risen every year, but its revival picked up markedly in 2020 when it grew from just over 80,000 units the year before to nearly 160,000 units, almost doubling in size in a single year. It surpassed 185,000 units in 2021, while the 195,000 units it sold last year took it to a level not seen since before Apple launched its iTunes Music download store in the UK.

Drew Hill, MD Proper Music Group and VP Distribution at Utopia Music, said: “While cassettes comprise only a small percentage of the UK album market, the format’s continuous growth over the last decade speaks to the ongoing fan demand for a myriad of ways to listen, collect and value music. We reside in a golden era of choice, where music fans are looking to labels and artists to offer a broad spectrum of physical options to complement digital streaming”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Andras Stefuca/Pexels

All of this news is very encouraging. With chains like HMV surviving and in fact flourishing, I hope that they will stock cassettes soon. Most of them being bought are online. That is fine, but browsing options would encourage people to buy new and classic albums on the format. If they went alongside a new, sleek, retro-nodding and affordable – realistically, few can afford anything beyond £70 for something that like that -, this would mean the cassette sales rise is not a novelty or brief rush of nostalgia. Music lovers are showing that you only get so much from streamed music. They long for that physical experience. If vinyl will always be portable, we need to enable people to listen to cassette (and CD) albums on the move. Sales are going up; it looks like this will not slow soon. Manufacturers around the world really need to respond to this demand and activate a new line of cassette players – something like the Sony Walkman. On 30th August, the cassette turns sixty. Once (recently) thought bygone, it is now back in fashion. Ironically, to ensure that this oldskool format is sustainable in the modern age, we need to go back to basics. We need to ensure that an ocean of cassettes are not confined to…

 PHOTO CREDIT: rawpixel.com via Freepik

COLLECTING dust and memories.

FEATURE: Darkest Days: Sexual Violence and Abuse Against Women in Music, and Bringing Men Into the Conversation

FEATURE:

 

 

Darkest Days

PHOTO CREDIT: MART PRODUCTION

Sexual Violence and Abuse Against Women in Music, and Bringing Men Into the Conversation

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I have written about this…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Something Something

quite recently but, to be honest, it is something that needs to be discussed more. I was going to use this feature to talk about feminism in music and whether enough men identify as such. They might support women and their music, but how active and proactive are they in that regard?! Beyond simply nodding to their music. Taking efforts – if they are an artist – to use their platform and speak about inequalities and why the industry needs to do better. Those who are journalists; do they write about subjects such as equal rights and sexual assault perpetrated against women?! I don’t think there are too many men who, beyond identifying as feminists, actually consistently write about subjects relating to women in the industry. That might be for another feature. The reason why I am compelled to return to the subject of sexual assault and violence against women in music, is because an amazing new collaboration between Georgie Riot, Something Something and Ruth Royall. It has a vital and powerful message that, as I will end with, should activate men in the industry and lead to new campaigns. Before getting to an interview where these amazing women discussed their collaboration, in an interview with UFK, the brilliant Georgie Riot spoke about how the track came together – in addition to her experience in the Drum and Bass scene, how her sound has evolved, and what the scene is like over in New Zealand and Australia:

“Let’s talk about the latest track ‘Dark Days’. An all-female team was behind this. Give us an insight into how it came about.

It started about a year ago. I was trying to make a tune and I asked Ruth Royall if she wanted to sing on it. She wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals, she sent me the demo and it was great. She came up with the concept and fitted it to the track I’d already made. The song kind of progressed from there, I kept going back to it then leaving it for a bit. I was at the point where I’d made something but couldn’t fully vibe with the track because I felt something was missing. After a lot of uncertainty, I eventually spoke to Steffie (Something Something) who was going through a really hard time and she really liked the concept of the track so was immediately on board. When we were deciding where to release it label-wise we wanted to make sure it was the right one. We decided on my label because we thought it would be nice to release it all as women”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Georgie Riot

I was really struck by an interview that I read yesterday. The incredible 1 More Thing brought together Dark Days’ Georgie Riot, Something Something and Ruth Royall to talk about the track. They also ask about their experiences when it comes to sexual violence and assault against women. Even though things are slightly improving – in the sense that there is a lot more conversation online, coupled with the ability to call out those people (mostly men) who commit violence against women – there is still a way to go. Even if most men in the industry (and those who attend D.J. sets and live music) are respectful and not the main issue, most men do also not speak up against this sort of thing and show their support for women - and disgust and condemnation against those who are guilty. I am going to offer some thoughts at the end. First, I want to drop in a few parts of the interview that particular caught my eye:

“The track in question is Dark Days, a commanding dancefloor missive that reminds us that violence against women, and those who identify as women, is still tragically rife. Urgent and heavyweight, Georgie Riot and Something Something’s beats carry Ruth’s poignant message with clarity.

“The intention of the track was to spark conversations,” says Ruth. “I feel like we’ve done that and I’m proud that three women have been able to put out such a powerful message together.”

How did Dark Days evolve and were there any interesting or unique aspects to its creative process?

Something Something: Georgie and I wanted to collab for ages. A few months ago I reached out to her and just asked when we should finally make that song we’ve been talking about for years… Not even an hour later she sent me Dark Days.

Georgie Riot: The track didn’t feel quite right to me, so I asked my good friend Steffi to join the gang. We were all going through our own “dark days” at the time so it just felt right having the three of us work on this together. Steffi worked on the track at home, sent the stems back to me, then she made the trip up to the Midlands from London and we worked on the track together in my studio.

Something Something: When I listened to it for the first time, I’m not gonna lie, the lyrics hit home. It felt perfect in every way. Fast forward a trip to Coventry and not even a month later – the track was finished and ready for the world to hear. I’m really proud of sending such a strong message.

It’s absolutely gutting you’ve had to address such an awful topic as the message. What was it that led you to deciding this would be the message of the track?

Ruth Royall: The song was a bit of a word vomit. The words just kind of came out, my friend had recently had an awful experience at a club in Bristol so I think it was on my mind. I myself had a pretty horrific experience of sexual assault as a child which has very much shaped my adult experience and sense of fear in certain situations. Myself and most women I know can relate on some level, which sucks and shouldn’t be the case. This song highlights violence against women and also the fact that it’s still there. One very short experience can change your whole life, it did for me.

That’s awful. I worry society is getting worse in many grubby, self-serving ways. The fact you still have to call out any type of predatory or abusive behaviour this day in age backs up this feeling.

Ruth Royall: I disagree. I think it’s getting better in lots of ways, I think it’s easier to call this stuff out and be heard. Yes there are still lots of situations where we feel unsafe but the general sense of having back up is better than it ever used to be.

Georgie Riot: It’s a shame that most women, and those identifying as women, still feel unsafe and often uncomfortable in both the music scene and life in general. I feel there is still a long way to go to make things safer, equal and fairer. It’s not something that one song or one article can change, and it’s not something that will happen overnight, it’s so much bigger than that, and this is why we feel strongly about spreading the message of unity.

Ruth Royall: I think what I wanted to get at in this song is how the fear of violence and the act of violence can stay with you forever. Victims of sexual assault carry trauma with them for the rest of their lives and the highest percent of these people are often women or female identifying. I don’t know a single women who hasn’t walked home with their keys between their fingers because they feel unsafe. It may actually be getting safer but the fear doesn’t go away.

IN THIS PHOTO: Ruth Royall

 How can we moved forward?

Ruth Royall: Give space. I had an amazing experience when I was out in New Zealand. I was touring with an all-male touring group (fairly common in D&B), they were the loveliest and most gentle men may I add. We were out for a drink with the promoter of one of the shows and his lovely partner.

We had all had a few beers and got on to the subject of violence against women, intense I know for a few beers down the pub! I started getting quite impassioned and my voice started raising as I spoke on the subject. I realised after a few minutes of gesticulating that the whole table was silent and listening, they were respectful of my lived experience, they didn’t interrupt or give their opinion and I realised I didn’t need to shout. I felt like I was being listened to and this made a massive difference. Stuff like this helps, it gives victims who carry trauma and who often feel like they are being ‘too much’ or ‘dramatic’ when they talk about their experience space.

Is the track raising awareness or funds for a particular charity or can we highlight one as part of your message?

Georgie Riot: The track is to raise awareness for women in the scene, and most importantly the important message of promoting unity. Dark Days can be interpreted and related to in many ways, and I think everyone will interpret this song in a different way. As well as the important message of feeling unsafe or unheard, the track also is relatable in that we all have dark days.

We all have days where we feel sad. Whether that’s in regards to our careers as musicians, our relationships with others, or just life in general – everyone has those days where we don’t feel good, and it’s so important to stick together, to just be as kind as possible, especially in this day-and-age where it is so easy to make others feel bad about themselves now that social media exists! I know that Dark Days has a different meaning for each of us – myself, Steffi and Ruth”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Odin Reyna/Pexels

That is, essentially, most of the interview I know! I am aware of so many issues affecting women in the music scene that are, for the most part, discussed and challenged by women. Whether that is inequality at festivals, unequal pay, sexual harassment or discrimination, I wonder whether we read their words and hear their experiences without men in the industry also speaking up. Even if there are a lot of decent men within the industry and beyond who abhor sexual violence and violence in general against women, a lot of this outrage and sympathy is silent. I will write about allies and proactive male feminism in the industry at a separate juncture. Kudos and massive respect for the bravery and strength it took for Georgie Riot, Something Something and Ruth Royall to discuss their experience and be very open. In researching previous features around sexual violence and assault against women, that song title, Dark Days, seems very apt! If there has been mobilisation of the conversation and some #MeToo-style justice against men in the industry who have been found guilty of sexually assaulting women, then there are still so many out there not brought to justice. Where those seeing live music or men within the industry, the problem very much exists! I read about so many women experiencing sexual assault and acts of violence against them. Many are seen as over-reacting or ‘making a fuss about nothing’ when it comes to them calling for greater safety; bigger spaces so they feel more protected and less vulnerable.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Pavel Danilyuk/Pexels

It is clear there is still a long way to go. The brilliant women on Dark Days - Georgie Riot: Facebook > Instagram > Soundcloud; Ruth Royall: Facebook > Instagram > Soundcloud; Something Something: Facebook > Instagram > Soundcloud. Calling All Crows - provides a great resource when it comes to advocating against sexual violence and becoming better informed about the issue. Safe Gigs for Women are essential too, in the sense they go to gigs and festivals. They are a resource that one can approach if they want to know more about how to do their part. Spotting people who might assault a woman and how best to tackle that. Education and tips for men too who want to get involved to ensure they are equipped and also do not step over the line themselves. Safe Gigs Ireland are also determined to make live gigs safe for everyone. There might be people out there who say that they have been at so many gigs and not seen anything like this. Ignorance or a lack of awareness is not an excuse. They have not heard of any women being assaulted and abused. UN Women UK have already written an open letter that asks for music spaces to be safe for everyone – especially women and non-binary people. In 2022, statistics showed that a third of women had been sexually harassed at music festivals. The Conversation wrote earlier this year about, over on Melbourne (Australia), 60% of women and non-binary punters feel unsafe in music spaces there, through fear of sexual violence. Sexual violence and harassment are endemic today. As festival season is in full swing, there are articles such as this which state that big and unwieldy sites can redesign to ensure it is easy to monitor and make women feel safe. In smaller spaces, there does need to be greater surveillance without the atmosphere feeling repressive and over-policed.

 PHOTO CREDIT: rawpixel.com via Freepik

There is a lot of great resources out there. Women in music alongside Georgie Riot, Something Something, Ruth Royall have written about sexual violence. RAYE’s Ice Cream Man. tackles and explores this more. It is about her experience of being assaulted by an A-list music producer. The lines really hit hard: “I wish I could say how I feel, how I felt/And explain why I'm silently blaming myself/'Cause I put on these faces pretending I'm fine/Then I go to the bathroom and I press rewind/In my head, always going round and round in my head/Your fingerprints stuck a stain on my skin/You made me frame myself for your sins/You pathetic, dead excuse of a man”. Maybe many men feel that, if they speak out against sexual violence against women, then people think they are guilty of it themselves. Maybe they do not feel qualified to discuss it.

PHOTO CREDIT: Seven 7/Pexels

Even if you have not experienced violence or sexual assault, the statistics and information is out there. Highlighting that and asking the industry to do more is a big step forward. Asking men to do more to educate themselves and realise the severity of the situation. That goes for artists too. I am not sure how many male musicians have written a song that highlights the real and relatively unshrinking issue – sexual violence and harassment against women runs right through every corner of the industry and live music. Ensuring that women (and non-binary people) feel both safe and included is paramount. Women are speaking about their experiences without too much support from men. Many others are not speaking through fear of consequences. Whether that is they feel they would not be believed; feeling like they would be blamed for it somehow. It is a horrible situation! More men definitely need to join the discussion. If they are silent allies at the moment, speaking up and starting a conversation incentivised wider activation. Venues and spaces can only do so much. The impetus is on men to get informed, access these resources and ensure they are not part of the alarming statics coming out (regarding the high number of sexual assault cases reported each year). Sadly, there will always be a degree of sexual violence against women. Harassment too. As things stand, there are far far too many incidents of it happening. We need to get to a place – preferably very soon – where widespread and shocking sexual violence against women is…

A thing of the past.

FEATURE: A Musical Explosion and Revolution: The Beatles’ She Loves You at Sixty

FEATURE:

 

 

A Musical Explosion and Revolution

The Beatles’ She Loves You at Sixty

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I know I wrote about…

PHOTO CREDIT: Apple Corps

The Beatles’ Hey Jude recently (as it is fifty-five this month), but I couldn’t pass by the sixtieth anniversary of She Loves You. It was released in the U.K. on 23rd August, 1963. Possibly their most important and defining song, there is no doubt this track changed the face of Pop music. It was a Pop revolution and explosion! In 1963, nothing as thrilling and exciting had come along. Some may say Little Richard and Elvis Presley were equal, but in terms of a single song changing things and seemingly coming out of nowhere - I don’t think music will ever see the like again! The Beatles singles up to that point were great. They seemed to improve with every release. As an original composition, they had not released into the world anything as wild and hugely impactful. Instantly one of the most memorable and greatest songs ever, you can hear influences of Rock & Roll legends and artists The Beatles grew up around. Parts Little Richard with some elements of girl groups of the 1950s, this is a joyous call! I am going to bring in a few features that explore the seismic 1963 song.  The single set and surpassed several sales records in the United Kingdom, in the process setting a record in the United States as one of the five Beatles songs that held the top five positions in the charts simultaneously (on 4th April, 1964). It was the top-selling single of the 1960s there by any artist.  She Loves You has appeared in lists of the greatest sons ever. Here are more details:

“She Loves You" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and recorded by the Beatles for release as a single in 1963. The single set and surpassed several records in the United Kingdom charts, and set a record in the United States as one of the five Beatles songs that held the top five positions in the American charts simultaneously on 4 April 1964. It is their best-selling single in the United Kingdom, and was the best selling single there in 1963.

In November 2004, Rolling Stone ranked "She Loves You" number 64 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In August 2009, at the end of its "Beatles Weekend", BBC Radio 2 announced that "She Loves You" was the Beatles' all-time best-selling single in the UK based on information compiled by The Official Charts Company”.

I am going to go to an authoritative source on all things The Beatles. The Beatles Bible give us the background and details about a song that, sixty years after its release, remains this thing of utter wonder. Every time I hear it – and I have listened to it hundreds of times – it hits me and physically moves me:

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 1 July 1963
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith

Released: 23 August 1963 (UK), 16 September 1963 (US)

Available on:
Past Masters
1 (One)
Anthology 1
On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2
Live At The Hollywood Bowl

Personnel

John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass guitar
George Harrison: lead guitar, vocals
Ringo Starr: drums

The song with which Beatlemania truly began, ‘She Loves You’ was released as a single on 23 August 1963. It remains their best selling single in the UK.

It was again a she, you, me, I, personal preposition song. I suppose the most interesting thing about it was that it was a message song, it was someone bringing a message. It wasn’t us any more, it was moving off the ‘I love you, girl’ or ‘Love me do’, it was a third person, which was a shift away. ‘I saw her, and she said to me, to tell you, that she loves you, so there’s a little distance we managed to put in it which was quite interesting.

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9th February, 1964

The song was mostly written on 26 June 1963, in a room in the Turk’s Hotel in Newcastle, prior to The Beatles’ second performance at the city’s Majestic Ballroom. A true collaboration between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, ‘She Loves You’ distilled the essence of excitement in their music, and became a defining moment of their early career.

I remember it was Paul’s idea: instead of singing ‘I love you’ again, we’d have a third party. That kind of little detail is apparently in his work now where he will write a story about someone and I’m more inclined to just write about myself.

John Lennon, 1980
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

McCartney’s original idea was to have a call-and-response song, with him singing the title line and the others answering with “yeah, yeah, yeah”. Lennon, however, persuaded him otherwise.

John and I wrote ‘She Loves You’ together. There was a Bobby Rydell song [‘Forget Him’] out at the time and, as often happens, you think of one song when you write another.

We were in a van up in Newcastle. I’d planned an ‘answering song’ where a couple of us would sing ‘She loves you…’ and the other one answers, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ We decided that that was a crummy idea as it was, but at least we then had the idea for a song called ‘She Loves You’. So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it.

Paul McCartney
Anthology

They finished writing ‘She Loves You’ the following day, at McCartney’s family home in Forthlin Road, Liverpool.

We sat in there one evening, just beavering away while my dad was watching TV and smoking his Players cigarettes, and we wrote ‘She Loves You’. We actually finished it there because we’d started it in the hotel room. We went into the living room – ‘Dad, listen to this. What do you think?” So we played it to my dad and he said, ‘That’s very nice, son, but there’s enough of these Americanisms around. Couldn’t you sing, “She loves you. Yes! Yes! Yes!”‘ At which point we collapsed in a heap and said, ‘No, Dad, you don’t quite get it!’ That’s my classic story about my dad. For a working-class guy that was rather a middle-class thing to say, really. But he was like that.

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

In the studio

The Beatles recorded ‘She Loves You’ five days after it was written, during a five-hour session in Abbey Road’s studio two.

Documentation for the session no longer exists, but it was taped on 1 July 1963, the same day as its b-side, ‘I’ll Get You’.

They were especially proud of the final chord, which was previously undiscovered territory for them. As producer George Martin explained to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn:

I was siting in my usual place on a high stool in studio two when John and Paul first ran through the songs, George joining in on the choruses.

I thought it was great but was intrigued by the final chord, an odd sort of major sixth, with George doing the sixth and John and Paul the third and fifths, like a Glenn Miller arrangement. They were saying, ‘It’s a great chord! Nobody’s ever heard it before!’ Of course I knew that wasn’t quite true.

George Martin
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn

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I am surprised more documentaries and podcasts have not been made specifically about She Loves You. It is undeniably one of the most important songs ever. It was a tidal wave that blew up Pop music and announced The Beatles as a band who were in a league of their own. Maybe not seen as the very best Beatles song ever – there is incredibly tough competition! -, it is undoubtably one of their most loved and vital. A track that saw them claim a number one spot and, in the process, properly and definitively ignite Beatlemania. I can only imagine what it was like hearing She Loves You first-hand in 1963! Far Out Magazine, in a feature from in 2021, discussed how She Loves You was this seismic revolution. That is not overstating it at all:

“The Beatles were already sizzling hot property before they released ‘She Loves You’ in 1963. Still, the song elevated them from being the flavour of the month into an unavoidable institution that were more than just a pop group. The Beatles were the only force in music that mattered. More importantly, on an artistic level, the song elevated their songwriting to an unprecedented degree and transformed pop music in the process.

It was only their fourth single, yet, they’d already had one number one hit to their name before ‘She Loves You’ became their second, and the view from the top of the apple tree is a sight that they soon became comfortable looking out from.

The track is a fixture embedded in every one of our minds; whether you were one of those who lived through the swinging ’60s or it soundtracked car journeys throughout your childhood, the song carries a universal appeal that awards it an undeniable classic status. Despite the thousands of times we’ve all heard ‘She Loves You’, those sweet harmonies still sound equally graceful as they did all those years ago.

On a wider level, the track modified how John Lennon and Paul McCartney approached songwriting in general, sparking a revolution that can still be felt within the arena of pop today. As Macca told Barry Miles: “It was again a she, you, me, I, personal preposition song. I suppose the most interesting thing about it was that it was a message song, it was someone bringing a message.”

Adding: “It wasn’t us anymore, it was moving off the ‘I love you, girl’ or ‘Love me do’, it was a third person, which was a shift away. ‘I saw her, and she said to me, to tell you, that she loves you, so there’s a little distance we managed to put in it which was quite interesting.”

Furthermore, in Anthology, McCartney elaborated on his point: “John and I wrote ‘She Loves You’ together. There was a Bobby Rydell song [‘Forget Him’] out at the time and, as often happens, you think of one song when you write another. We were in a van up in Newcastle. I’d planned an ‘answering song’ where a couple of us would sing ‘She loves you…’ and the other one answers, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ We decided that that was a crummy idea as it was, but at least we then had the idea for a song called ‘She Loves You’. So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it.”

After getting the bones of the song together, the band took it to McCartney’s home, and that’s where ‘She Loves You’ came to life. “We sat in there one evening,” McCartney recalled, “Just beavering away while my dad was watching TV and smoking his Players cigarettes, and we wrote ‘She Loves You’. We actually finished it there because we’d started it in the hotel room.

“We went into the living room – ‘Dad, listen to this. What do you think?” So we played it to my dad and he said, ‘That’s very nice, son, but there’s enough of these Americanisms around. Couldn’t you sing, “She loves you. Yes! Yes! Yes!” ‘At which point we collapsed in a heap and said, ‘No, Dad, you don’t quite get it!’ That’s my classic story about my dad. For a working-class guy that was rather a middle-class thing to say, really. But he was like that.”

Writing from somebody else’s eyes would change how The Beatles created music forever, propelling them lightyears ahead of any other beat band. It showed progression, and it was an early evolution from a band that only kept on enhancing with each pressing release”.

I am going to end with a feature from The Guardian. In 2020, they ran down their one hundred greatest U.K. number one singles. Coming in at number three – you would think it would be number one! – was the iconic and timeless She Loves You:

“To hear She Loves You bursting out of a radio in the last week of August 1963 was to recognise a shout of triumph. Everything the Beatles had promised through the first half of the year found its focus in their fourth single, an explosion of exuberance that forced the world, not just their teenage fans, to acknowledge their existence.

The double-jolt of Ringo Starr’s drums kicked off a record that, unusually, began with the song’s chorus: “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.” Straight away that Americanised triple “yeah” (Paul McCartney’s father, the first to hear the completed song, asked if they could change it to “yes, yes, yes”) offered a fanfare for a culture on the brink of irreversible change. It marked the moment when the Beatles moved from being just another pop sensation to a national obsession: misquoted by prime ministers, cursed by barbers, viewed by schoolteachers as the vanguard of a revolution that must be stopped. And before long, almost universally adored.

Sharp ears had detected its pre-echo in Love Me Do, their first single, released the previous October: the unfamiliar northern rawness of the two matched lead voices and a plaintive bluesy harmonica over a slouching rhythm. It had scraped into the top 20. Three months later, in January 1963, the mounting interest in this group from Liverpool was answered by the urgency of the follow-up. On Please Please Me, the harmony vocals were more adventurous, the lead guitar and drums filled the gaps in the tune with syncopated phrases and the harmonica was imaginatively embedded rather than highlighted in the overall sound. With young listeners now recognising the Mersey sound when they heard it, the record went to No 1 in the NME and Melody Maker charts. From Me to You arrived in April, a bit of a disappointment in terms of adventurousness – it was a song with a sweet tooth – but catchy and driving enough to foment their increasing popularity and stay at No 1 for seven weeks.

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles backstage at The Regal in Cambridgeshire on 26th November, 1963/PHOTO CREDIT: Mirrorpix

It was still at the top when Lennon and McCartney started writing She Loves You in their hotel room after a concert at the Majestic theatre in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 8 June, the penultimate night of a 21-date UK tour in which they shared the bill with Roy Orbison and their fellow Liverpudlians Gerry and the Pacemakers. (Orbison had been the original headline act, but such was the response to the Beatles that they were promoted to share top billing and close the show.) The following day, before setting off for the tour finale in Blackburn, they finished it at McCartney’s family home, 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, south Liverpool, a terraced red-brick council house owned by the National Trust since 1995 (and later viewed by a YouTube audience of 52m in the episode of Carpool Karaoke featuring McCartney).

This one had a new confidence, beginning with the bold move of getting away from a first-person narrative and starting with the chorus before leading into the memorable opening lines of the first verse: “You think you’ve lost your love / Well I saw her yesterday / It’s you she’s thinking of / And she told me what to say” Apart from the indelible yeah-yeah-yeah (which gave its name to France’s yé-yé youth culture), the principle attraction was the moment at which the singers sang a falsetto “Oooooh!” and shook their mop tops, triggering screams of ecstasy that wouldd make their way around the globe.

The playing also showed an increased sureness, particularly in George Harrison’s lead guitar and the imaginative drum fills that were all the evidence required to demolish the opinion of anyone who ever dismissed Starr as a hod-carrier. They all benefited from the way the song was recorded at Abbey Road. Producer George Martin and studio engineer Geoff Emerick had found a way of surrounding a four-piece beat group with a corona of reverb that matched the sound of American studios. They pushed the instruments higher in the mix, challenging the voices and creating a new intensity. The instruments were no longer the “rhythm accompaniment” of earlier forms of British popular music. She Loves You presented an integrated whole, a sound of collective creativity that demolished the supremacy of solo artists, setting a trend that would dominate pop music for a generation.

Four years later, in the summer of 67, the song would provide one of the most poignant moments in the group’s entire output when McCartney’s voice materialised through the random collage of sound on the long fade-out of All You Need Is Love, singing that simple phrase: “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.” Already they were looking back, with a hint of wistfulness, at the time when history was being made and no one could imagine what lay ahead”.

I recently attended I Am the EggPod live at Opera Holland Park. Samira Ahmed (who has interviewed Paul McCartney and is a huge Beatles fan) was asked by host Chris Shaw what her favourite Beatles song was. She said She Loves You. That got applause from the audience. Shaw noted how unusual it is for a song to get applause! That is the power and importance of She Loves You. It turns sixty on 23rd August. I hope Pual McCartney and Ringo Starr reflect on a song that took them worldwide. I think it is one of the most important songs ever. I know there are other Beatles things going on – the 1962-1966 (The Red Album) and 1967-1970 (The Blue Album) albums are being reissued with more tracks -; the final song from the band to be released, Now and Then, is out soon…but this anniversary is really important. The song changed culture, threw the Pop rulebook out, and it is one of the most celebrated and important songs ever. It is often voted as one of the best songs ever. Sixty years later, and there is nothing like this explosive and utterly invigorating and soul-moving song. She loves you and…

YOU know you should be glad!

FEATURE: Hot Like a Cannonball: The Breeders’ Last Splash at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

Hot Like a Cannonball

The Breeders’ Last Splash at Thirty

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A few of these features….

PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Westenberg

may overlap and repeat themselves, but I wanted to include quite a bit of information about The Breeders’ Last Splash. The second studio album from the band (Kim Deal – lead vocals, guitar, Moog, Casiotone, Kelley Deal – guitar, Kenmore 12-stitch, lap steel, mandolin, vocals, Jim MacPherson – drums, and Josephine Wiggs – bass guitar, double bass, vocals, cello) turns thirty on 30th August. What was originally a side project for Pixies bassist Kim Deal, the band soon took off and was her main focus. Last Splash remains their greatest and most revered work. Considered one of the best and most important albums of the'90s, its approaching thirtieth anniversary deserves recognition. If Cannonball is the standout track from Last Splash, there is plenty of gold to be found throughout. Alongside singles such as Divine Hammer are amazing and worthy deep cuts such as Roi and Mad Lucas. I will come to a couple of reviews for Last Splash soon. Before then, there are some interesting features that explain the history of Last Splash and how The Breeders put together their greatest work. Guitar.com discussed the genius of Last Splash for a feature last year:

“It was naive of Pixies’ Kim Deal to think her side hustle wouldn’t hit the indie scene like a cannonball. From its opening seconds’ wailing guitars and throbbing bass, New Year announced the Breeders’ sophomore album Last Splash as a rival to Pixies’ 1988 classic Surfer Rosa.

Pixies’ DNA is entwined with that of the Breeders, evident in both band’s rollicking, throbbing multi-guitar approach, squealing reverb and joyfully smartass lyrics. Deal had already established her reputation in Pixies by the time she released the Breeders’ debut, Pod in 1990. Deal had begun writing for it during Pixies’ Surfer Rosa tour. That record’s hooky, reeling melodies infused both Pod and Last Splash. When Pixies took a break in mid-1992, Deal suddenly had the time and justification to focus entirely on the Breeders. Nirvana recruited them as support on their 1992 European tour and their 1993 In Utero tour, exposing them to much wider audiences and all but ensuring commercial success.

Released in 1993, Last Splash features surfer-garage guitar rock driven by Jim Macpherson’s pummelling drums and Deal’s dreamy, half-dazed harmonies. Deal established her bass chops in Pixies but it was Black Francis who got more of the spotlight.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

In the Breeders, Deal on rhythm guitar and lead vocals was, well, a big deal. But not the whole deal. Backing her up was twin sister Kelley Deal on lead guitar (as well as lap steel and mandolin) and Josephine Wiggs of the Perfect Disaster and Dusty Trails on bass.

Listening to Last Splash is to work through a twisting thicket of rhythm and lead melodies, sometimes in sync and sometimes not. It’s wild and untamed in the true spirit of garage rock: musicians hanging out in the basement, bouncing along to contagious amped-up guitar mantras.

Lead single Cannonball remains the band’s biggest commercial success. It kicks off with the distinctive drone of Deal’s voice into a harmonica microphone before she repeats “check, check”. There’s the tap, tap, tap of Macpherson’s count-in and then, boom, the bass rumbles in duelling with Deal’s rhythm. The demo version had been titled Grunggae in honour of its melding of vibey reggae with raw grunge, and it’s a label that might well define the Breeders sound.

The lo-fi Cannonball video was directed by Spike Jonze and Sonic Youth royalty Kim Gordon. In it, the camera trails a cannonball rolling on its own mysterious trajectory through neighbourhood streets, cutting to the band performing in a garage. It epitomises the droll humour that characterised the Breeders and their lyrics.

While Pixies’ Black Francis is considered the master of oblique, quirky and downright often obscene lyrics, in the Breeders, Deal proves she has a knack for them too. Even the band’s name reflects their satirical nature and penchant for skewering political commentary”.

I am going to come to Albumism and their assessment of Last Splash on its twenty-fifth anniversary. They explored and dissected a terrific album back in 2018. I think that The Breeders’ second studio album still sounds essential to this day. Definitely influencing artists across multiple genres:

“The opening bassline of “Cannonball” was catchier than anything Deal had done before, a statement she could back up with the assertion that Last Splash had outsold all previous Pixies records (and Frank Black’s solo projects, too). The Breeders’ sharper pop aesthetic fit into the zeitgeist, a slightly more mature companion to the riot grrrl and grunge movements of the early ‘90s. After the messy break-up of the Pixies, Deal was able to put all her effort into her own band, creating a loud manifesto of artistic freedom.

The slow, deliberate start of “Cannonball” feels like friends showing to a party. Everyone is carefully introduced and polite enough, until chaos erupts. At points the track, swinging between swagger and thrash, is indecipherable, lyrics fuzzed past recognition. “I’ll be your whatever you want,” sung in the iconic Kim Deal whisper, is a crystallizing point, a self-aware nod at being an operator in a sleazy industry.

While The Breeders have serious musical chops, as evident from the masterful performances all around, Deal’s singing truly sets them apart. “Invisible Man” has the lusty vocals that can color a song with just a sigh. “I Just Wanna Get Along” is pissed off, the chorus dripping with contempt. “No Aloha” sounds shockingly current 25 years later, and would fit into a new Waxahatchee or Mitski album easily. The contrast of Deal’s girlish sound and punk temperament set off a blessedly long-lasting trend.

The end of Last Splash is where the real feminist gems live. The country twang of “Drivin’ on 9” slyly buries lines like, “Does Daddy have a shotgun? He said he’d never need one,” a wink at those desperate for the women of The Breeders to be younger and sexier. The same sentiment is expressed in a more forward manner on “Hag.” “You’re just like a woman,” is lobbed around with the titular slur, each line sneered and spit out.

The giddy bop of “Divine Hammer” is a bright spot on the album, resplendent with good vibes. The never-ending search for inspiration becomes material for a sweet little pop song, a moment of levity before the hard-rocking instrumental “S.O.S.” Alternatively, “Roi” is a beautiful mess of textures, a smoothed out and shined up Sonic Youth-style noise collage, but without the intellectual heavy lifting.

Certain elements of Last Splash have, in retrospect, outed Kim Deal as a much larger artistic force in the Pixies than originally portrayed. Pixies trademarks appear all over Last Splash, several on “Cannonball” alone. Both the “quiet then loud” pattern and unedited commotion play out with the same drama as “Gigantic” or “Where Is My Mind?” Similarities aside, the effect is never derivative but energetic, like someone excited to get their point across.

Kim Deal understands the pleasure of music, how satisfying a chugging guitar riff or potent basslines can be to the aural palette. Last Splash was a surprising, but not undeserved, success. A stylish music video for an attention-grabbing single (directed by Kim Gordon and a very young Spike Jonze, nonetheless) launched them to MTV-fame. By doing it themselves, the Deal sisters inadvertently positioned themselves as folk heroes to any woman in a band being eclipsed. With Last Splash, they not only moved out from the shadows, they totally changed orbit”.

I am going to round off with some reviews. Highly commending the stunning Last Splash, this is what Pitchfork remarked when they sat down with an Alternative Rock masterpiece in 2013. They were reviewing the twentieth anniversary of the album, LSXX:

“The Breeders began in earnest when Pixies and Throwing Muses came off that first European tour, at some point during which Kim and Donelly decided they wanted to make a record together. They recruited a British bassist they'd met on the road, Josephine Wiggs, and their Boston friend Carrie Bradley would play violin. In 1990, they released the great, eerily primal Pod, which Kurt Cobain loved, cited as an inspiration on Nirvana, and later dubbed, "an epic that will never let you forget your ex-girlfriend." After that, Donelly left to form Belly, Dayton's Jim Macpherson became their permanent drummer, and the Breeders found themselves in search of a new guitarist so they could go back into the studio with the bouncy, grungy demos they'd been writing in 1992. Kim knew somebody back in Dayton. Could she play well? Well, the thing was that she couldn't play at all. But she figured she could teach her pretty quickly, because she was her twin.

That's some of the psychic energy fueling one of alternative rock's most unlikely platinum records and most enduring masterpieces, the Breeders' Last Splash: an indie-famous frontwoman who'd spent the last couple of years feeling increasingly fed up and creatively muzzled at her high-profile day job; an untrained lead guitarist joyriding up and down the fretboard and riding high on the freedom of please, no chops; and maybe above all else a decade-delayed bar band family reunion. It's no wonder that 20 years later, Last Splash still sounds as sloppy and beguiling and warm as the day it was pressed. Although the songs were meticulously crafted and revised, and although the post-Nevermind boom had made the audience for a record this singularly weird suddenly visible, in the end the Breeders sound like a couple of kids from Dayton (and one like-minded Brit) making up their own fun.

Last Splash is a noise-pop record in the fullest sense of both of those words: It is a symphony of feedback but the melodies holding it all together are sweet enough to rot your teeth. From the squalling, rhythmic dissonance of "Roi" to the melodic Lynchian lullaby "Mad Lucas", the record is full of warm, damaged beauty. Fresh off a tour with Nirvana, the Breeders drove to San Francisco in a blizzard to record Last Splash with veteran producer Mark Freegard in the winter of 1993, and the reissue’s liner notes describe the process as a series of sonic experiments. What's that corrosive whir that opens "S.O.S."? It's Kelley's sewing machine fed directly through a Marshall amp, because why not. The distorted vocal on "Cannonball" happened because Kim (who shares a producer’s credit with Freegard) wondered what it'd sound like to sing through a harmonica mic and when they play the song live, they still get that particular tone of the iconic opening vocal ("Ahhhhhoooo-oooh/Ahhhhhoooo-oooh") not through some custom pedal, but by putting a styrofoam cup over the mic. At times they resorted to measures even more DIY than that. The best take of Bradley's warbling strings on "Mad Lucas" was the one where, by her account, "Kim and Kelley grabbed me on each side and shook me and quaked me while I played”.

I will finish with AllMusic’s views regarding Last Splash. I hope that this staggering album gets some new celebration and spotlight closer to its thirtieth anniversary on 30th August. I was ten when Last Splash came out. I think I first heard the album a year or two after its release, though it had an immediate impact on me:

“Thanks to good timing and some great singles, the Breeders' second album, Last Splash, turned them into the alternative rock stars that Kim Deal's former band, the Pixies, always seemed on the verge of becoming. Joined by Deal's twin sister Kelley -- with whom Kim started the band while they were still in their teens -- the group expanded on the driving, polished sound of the Safari EP, surrounding its (plentiful) moments of brilliance with nearly as many unfinished ideas. When Last Splash is good, it's great: "Cannonball"'s instantly catchy collage of bouncy bass, rhythmic stops and starts, and singsong vocals became one of the definitive alt-pop singles of the '90s. Likewise, the sweetly sexy "Divine Hammer" and swaggering "Saints" are among the Breeders' finest moments, and deserved all of the airplay they received. Similarly, the charming twang of "Drivin' on 9," "I Just Wanna Get Along"'s spiky punk-pop, and the bittersweet "Invisible Man" added depth that recalled the eclectic turns the band took on Pod while maintaining the slick allure of Last Splash's hits. However, underdeveloped snippets such as "Roi" and "No Aloha" drag down the album's momentum, and when the band tries to stretch its range on the rambling, cryptic "Mad Lucas" and "Hag," it tends to fall flat. The addition of playful but slight instrumentals such as "S.O.S" and "Flipside" and a version of "Do You Love Me Now?" that doesn't quite match the original's appeal reflect Last Splash's overall unevenness. Still, its best moments -- and the Deal sisters' megawatt charm -- end up outweighing its inconsistencies to make it one of the alternative rock era's defining albums”.

It is not s shock that The Breeders’ Last Splash gets played on the radio. What seems a shame is it is usually only Cannonball. The album has so many incredible songs on it so, as it is thirty on 30th August, maybe this is a chance to explore this wonderful work in greater detail. It still packs a huge punch after three decades. If you have never heard the album, then do make sure you spend some time with. Not only is Last Splash one of the'90s' best albums; this phenomenal offering is one of the best…

THAT there’s ever been.

FEATURE: The Doom of Eternity Balms: Fifty Years of Kate Bush’s Passing Through Air

FEATURE:

 

 

The Doom of Eternity Balms.

Fifty Years of Kate Bush’s Passing Through Air

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IT almost slipped my mind…

but I was reminded by a Twitter friend that Kate Bush’s Passing Through Air was recorded in August 1973. Not long after Bush turned fifteen, this is the earliest of her recordings to be released officially. The band on that song played consisted of Pat Martin (bass), Pete Perrier (drums) and David Gilmour (guitar). At the time of recording, Kate had never played with other musicians before or played her music in front of anyone except her family. It might not have been considered for her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside, but the song was released as a B-side of the single Army Dreamers in 1980. Rather than discuss this as a deep cut, I want to mark fifty years of an important song. I am not sure the exact day in August it was recorded. However, fifty years ago, laid to tape was a recording that would be the start of the career of one of music’s all-time best. Prior to this, Bush has written plenty of songs. She penned The Man with the Child in His Eyes when she was thirteen. By 1973, she had a considerable amount of songs that could be considered for recording. I will come to the lyrics of Passing Through Air. Prior to that, there are two great features that explore a Kate Bush song many might not be aware of. Passing Through Air was also released for The Other Sides a few years back. Sitting alongside other rarities like Ran Tan Waltz and Humming. As this momentous song was recorded fifty years ago, it is worthy of celebration and focus. Dreams of Orgonon dove into a sublime song back in 2018:

“Having a professionally recorded song makes our job much easier. What nuances are lost in the lo-fi recordings of, say, “Queen Eddie” or “Sunsi” are picked up in the clean sound of “Passing Through Air.” This is largely due to Cathy recording with professional equipment for the first time. She didn’t need it to shine before, of course—she’s simply honing her best work to date for a really, really important moment.

Artists rarely get a big break. A 15-year-old artist’s home demos getting picked up for professional recording was pretty much unheard of in the pre-Soundcloud age. For a young artist to be discovered by a musician coming off the back of releasing one of the bestselling albums of all time seems colossally unlikely. Yet this is an exaggeration—plenty of people had heard Cathy’s demos by this point, and she wasn’t the only artist David Gilmour had taken under his wing at the time. Coming off The Dark Side of the Moon’s massive success, Gilmour was nurturing about eight protégés, the luckiest of whom would hit #1 on the UK singles charts five years later. He’d found Kate via her brother Jay’s friend Ricky Hopper, who played Gilmour some tapes which struck him. Maybe it was the undercurrent of ethereal strangeness in Kate’s songs or her musical aptitude which struck him. After he’d worked on “The Great Gig in the Sky,” no wonder he was into this sort of thing.

Another Gilmour ward was the band Unicorn, featuring the rhythm section of bassist Pat Martin and drummer Pete Perrier. The two musicians readily agreed to record the Bush sessions (they did so without immediate payment, although they’d receive royalties when the song was released seven years later.) They proceeded to play a number of songs (the exact song count is lost to history), including “Maybe” and “Passing Through Air.” The accompaniment of Gilmour, Martin, and Perrier, while not daring or spectacular by any means, lends some musical texture to “Passing Through Air.” To date, Cathy’s songs have sounded like they were recorded in a vacuum, not just because of their sound quality, but in how they’re completely isolated from any human contact. Gilmour’s home studio is a huge step up for her—being able to work with an 8-track recorder, a 16-channel mixing desk, an upright piano, and a Wurlitzer electric piano must have been thrilling for her. She immediately takes advantage of the equipment—she seems to record her vocal with automatic double-tracking (two tracks of audio will be recorded simultaneously, but one will have a slight delay, giving the recording a thick, rich sound. John Lennon used this technique often). Cathy steps into the world of professional recording with impressive ease, and so she makes our job a little easier as well. Not only do we know the exact circumstances under which “Passing Through Air” was recorded and have a high-quality recording of the song—there’s even sheet music for it.

Lyrically, “Passing” isn’t a great departure from the demoed songs. Its subject is much the same as “Something Like a Song” or “Queen Eddie”—an elusive figure who makes things magical and exciting. Yet Cathy has honed her skills as a wordsmith to write her best lyric yet. The verses seem to take a spiritual walk through a green moor—Cathy spins poignant phrases like “you mix the stars with your arms” and rhymes them with stuff like “the doom of eternity balms.” The song briefly walks through phrases like this before exploding into G and realizing that what Cathy needs to write is a pop song. “Oh, don’t you throw my love away/I need your loving, I need your loving” is the remedy to the lugubrious tunes she’s composed to date. Finally she’s allowing herself to have fun within a song”.

In 2020, The Traveling Red included Passing Through Air in a feature. Even though it is a professional demo – so it has that quality and sustainability -, it is capturing a teenage Kate Bush before she recorded The Man with the Child in His Eyes. Many assume that June 1975 session at AIR Studios was her first professional recording. Passing Through Air, produced by David Gilmour, beat it by almost two years. The period between 1973 and 1975 is fascinating! Maybe an academic route was sought by her parents. This prodigy was destined for bigger things:

“Besides “Passing Through Air” a second version of “Maybe” was recorded. Kate later recalled, “And we went to Dave’s for a day, basically. And the bass player and drummer from Unicorn sat down and we just kind of put a few songs together. I remember it was the first time I’d ever done an overdub with the keyboard – I put this little electric piano thing down, and I remember thinking: ‘Ooh! [laughing] I like this!’ And, well, I mean really it was because of those tracks that I then went on to do the tracks which were then used – two of which were used to go on the first album. As far as I remember the tracks we did with this session in ’73… There was a track called “Passing Through Air”, which I think went on a b-side…” [“Passing Through Air appeared as the b-side to “Army Dreamers”.] A portion of the version of “Maybe” recorded at this session was played by Kate on the radio program “Personal Call”, BBC Radio 1, in 1979.

After the bit was played the announcer remarked: “Kate had a very wistful look on her face. Why was that?” Kate: “I was waiting for the flat note in the middle (laughs).

Announcer: “Ah, you mean we faded it just in time!” Kate: “No, you caught it actually, I’m sure.…” She later said the song was “pretty awful.

In June, 1975, Gilmour booked a professional studio (AIR London), brought Andrew Powell to arrange and produce the songs, and hired top musicians to back Kate. They recorded “The Man With the Child In His Eyes”, “The Saxophone Song”, and “Maybe”. This tape led to Kate’s breakthrough at EMI. The first two songs from this session appeared on her first album, “The Kick Inside”. Kate recalled, “Gilmour said: ‘It looks as if the only way you can do it is to put at most three songs on a tape and we’ll get them properly arranged.’ He put up the money for me to do that, which is amazing. No way could I have afforded to do anything like that. I think he liked the songs sufficiently to feel that it was worth him actually putting up money for me to go in and professionally record the tracks, because all my demos were just piano vocals and I had, say like 50 songs that were all piano vocals. And he felt, quite rightly, that the record company would relate to the music much in a more real way if it was produced rather than being demoed. So he put up the money, we went into the studio, recorded three tracks…”

The recording deal was discussed among Kate, her family, Gilmour and EMI and by July, 1976, it was finalized. During the first year of the EMI contract Kate made two further demo tapes. These are quite possibly the songs played during the infamous Phoenix radio broadcast (see below) and later from the various bootlegs”.

It is weird to think that fifty years ago, a very young Kate Bush (surely referred to as Catherine still by many) was laying down a song that was this professional thing. Overseen by a member of Pink Floyd, there must have been this belief she would go on to have a long career. In 2023, she is one of the most respected and loved artists in the world. The lyrics are among her most poetic and beautiful: “Passing through air/You mix the stars with your arms/Walking through there/The doom of eternity balms/Skies of gray are not today/Oh! Don't you throw my love away/I need your loving, I need your loving/Oh! Don't you pour down rain today/I need your love, I need your care/So much, so much, so much!/Laughing through smiles/You lick my love with the years/Walking for miles/You cool my brow with your tears/Skies of gray are not today”. That is the start of the song, but the rest is as sublime and gorgeous. The fifteen-year-old genius, in August 1973, created something very special with Passing Through Air. Even if we know she went on to great things, she could not have known…

WHERE it would lead.

FEATURE: Another Brick in the Wall: A Major Breakthrough That Could Restore Musicality of Natural Speech in Patients with Disabling Neurological Conditions

FEATURE:

 

 

Another Brick in the Wall

IMAGE CREDIT: Freepik

A Major Breakthrough That Could Restore Musicality of Natural Speech in Patients with Disabling Neurological Conditions

_________

A particular Pink Floyd song…

was in the news recently, as it has provided a major breakthrough. I am not sure whether you saw it, but Another Brick in the Wall – even though the song is a protest against abusive school practices, it seems apt given that this wall is being built that is forming something promising and strong -, is at the root of a discovery and finding that could mean great things for those with disabling neurological conditions such as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). It must be unimaginably scary having something like this and almost being trapped inside your own body.  This is what The Guardian reported about the findings earlier this week:

“Scientists have reconstructed Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall by eavesdropping on people’s brainwaves – the first time a recognisable song has been decoded from recordings of electrical brain activity.

The hope is that doing so could ultimately help to restore the musicality of natural speech in patients who struggle to communicate because of disabling neurological conditions such as stroke or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – the neurodegenerative disease that Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with.

Although members of the same laboratory had previously managed to decipher speech – and even silently imagined words – from brain recordings, “in general, all of these reconstruction attempts have had a robotic quality”, said Prof Robert Knight, a neurologist at the University of California in Berkeley, US, who conducted the study with the postdoctoral fellow Ludovic Bellier.

“Music, by its very nature, is emotional and prosodic – it has rhythm, stress, accent and intonation. It contains a much bigger spectrum of things than limited phonemes in whatever language, that could add another dimension to an implantable speech decoder.”

Whereas previous work has decoded electrical activity from the brain’s speech motor cortex – an area that controls the tiny muscle movements of the lips, jaw, tongue and larynx that form words – the current study utilised recordings from the brain’s auditory regions of the brain, where all aspects of sound are processed.

The team analysed brain recordings from 29 patients as they were played an approximately three-minute segment of the Pink Floyd song, taken from their 1979 album The Wall. The volunteers’ brain activity was detected by placing electrodes directly on the surface of their brains as they underwent surgery for epilepsy.

Artificial intelligence was then used to decode the recordings and then encode a reproduction of the sounds and words. Though very muffled, the phrase “All in all, it’s just another brick in the wall” comes through recognisably in the reconstructed song – with its rhythms and melody intact.

“It sounds a bit like they’re speaking underwater, but it’s our first shot at this,” said Knight.

He believes that using a higher density of electrodes might improve the quality of their reconstructions: “The average separation of the electrodes was about 5mm, but we had a couple of patients with 3mm [separations] and they were the best performers in terms of reconstruction,” Knight said.

“Now that we know how to do this, I think if we had electrodes that were like a millimetre and a half apart, the sound quality would be much better.”

PHOTO CREDIT: vecstock via Freepik

As brain recording techniques improve, it may also become possible to make such recordings without the need for surgery – perhaps using sensitive electrodes attached to the scalp.

This year, researchers led by Dr Alexander Huth at the University of Texas in Austin announced that they had managed to translate brain activity into a continuous stream of text using non-invasive MRI scan data. The system was not accurate enough to decode the exact words but could detect the gist of sentences.

“This [new study] is a really nice demonstration that a lot of the same techniques that have been developed for speech decoding can also be applied to music – — an under-appreciated domain in our field, given how important musical experience is in our lives,” Huth said.

“While they didn’t record brain responses while subjects were imagining music, this could be one of the things brain machine interfaces are used for in the future: translating imagined music into the real thing. It’s an exciting time”.

The research, published in PLoS Biology, also pinpointed new areas of the brain involved in detecting rhythm, and confirmed the right side of the brain was more attuned to music than the left.

A better understanding of how music and language is processed could also have practical applications, such as helping to shed light on the mystery of why people with Broca’s aphasia, who struggle to find and say the right words, can often sing words with no difficulty”.

 IMAGE CREDIT: kjpargeter via Freepik

It got me thinking about the amazing power of music when tackling neurological diseases. It is reported how musical memories are stored in a part of the brain that is easier to recall than other memories for patients living with dementia and Parkinson’s. That is a real revelation, as music can act as therapy and help recovery – though not a cure – and it is that essential bond that is otherwise missing. Heartbreaking for relatives seeing their loved ones unable to remember details and memories. Not knowing who they are. Music can allow access to windows of times and time periods. This astonishing and hopeful new research shows that music is again at the forefront of progress regarding serious neurological disorders and discovery. In the sense that this new finding suggests that patients with conditions such as ALS might have a new way of communicating. Ot at least a vocal musicality of speech. At a time when AI is being feared and criticised because it seems imposing and replacing humans, in settings like this, it is very much doing what it is intended for. That inability to communicate is something most of us take for granted. It is neat to think that a Pink Floyd song has been at the core of a revolution that could lead to breakthroughs and even more developments like the one at the University of California in Berkeley. I think that there should be some new documentary or series that explores music and how it is being used in medicine and the sciences. Even though there are not cures for illnesses like ALS and Alzheimer’s, together with drug discoveries that are improving the quality of life and offering hope, we are seeing studies and news where patients are getting access to speech and memory in a way that was not possible before. This breakthrough could be the start of a chain of many other discoveries and positive findings. Who quite knows…

WHAT might come next.

FEATURE: Excess Denied: Why Modern Artists Are Eschewing the Recklessness and Vices of the Past

FEATURE:

 

 

Excess Denied

PHOTO CREDIT: Jakayla Toney/Pexels

Why Modern Artists Are Eschewing the Recklessness and Vices of the Past

_________

I do not think that we have…

 PHOTO CREDIT: MART PRODUCTION/Pexels

completely eradicated and suppressed something that was seen as desired and cool a while ago. Definitely from the 1960s to the 1990s even, that sense that Rock & Roll was about sex and drugs. I am going to come to an article from The Guardian. I wouldn’t ever say that Rock music has lost its edge and dominance. It is still an inventive and hugely important genre. It has become more cross-pollinating and diverse in recent years, which has led many to assume that a perceived lack of explosion and resonance is due to a lack of talent or people not living up to gods and goddesses of the past. I think what they really mean is that we do not see those figures – mainly men – who were known for heavy drinking, drug-taking and escapades. Unfortunately, even in recent history, there have been cases of male artists having sex with some of their fans. Not quite the same as the groupie culture that was almost promulgated and seen as a cool thing, I know that (luckily) this is rare now – although some groups still ensure that this rather poisonous and toxic practice carries on. You only need to think for a brief moment about some of the bands famed for their excess and sleeping with fans to know that a lot of that sex was with underage girls. As quite a few artists have been put under the spotlight due to sexual assault/harassment and rape allegations, there has been this intense focus on the industry.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin in Los Angeles in 1973/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

It is a good thing that there is greater awareness and retaliation against artists that are accused. I do think that there is this small sector that longs for the days of a more excess-laden and destructive music scene. Whilst it was usually confined to certain genres, I think that this idea of being a Rock artist involved a certain degree of recklessness and unsettling behaviour. I was compelled by an article from The Guardian - where it seems like there is not the desire in most artists to party and risk the safety and health of fans and themselves. I am going to expand more on what they wrote and add some new directions and thoughts:

“For years, a concert tour was seen as the ultimate expression of the “rock’n’roll lifestyle”: a months-long bacchanal during which bands would sniff and swig their way across a continent, often leaving a trail of wreckage behind them. Oasis famously once split up on the road after Noel Gallagher went awol, the rest of the band having been supposedly supplied crystal meth by the Brian Jonestown Massacre; Led Zeppelin rampaged through groupies and hotel rooms on their infamous world tours, while In Bed With Madonna, the star’s wild 1991 tour documentary, culminates with a game of truth or dare in which she fellates a bottle and goads a dancer to show his penis.

In recent years – as conversations around substance abuse, consent and mental health have forced those in the music industry to consider the damaging nature of a lot of accepted rock tradition – that kind of touring-life debauchery has supposedly gone further and further out of fashion, replaced by a safer, more enlightened music culture. Which made it all the more shocking when, this month, Lizzo was sued by former dancers who alleged that, among other toxic workplace practices, the American singer encouraged them to dance with and touch naked strippers at a club while on tour in Amsterdam. (Lizzo denies all the accusations.) So has the culture really changed? Or has an ever-PR-driven industry just found better ways to hide all the shagging, drinking and drug-taking that still goes on behind the scenes?

IN THIS PHOTO: Bethany Cosentino/PHOTO CREDIT: Shervin Lainez

Best Coast singer Bethany Cosentino, who recently struck out as a solo artist under her own name, says that the election of Donald Trump in 2016, as well as the #MeToo movement, forced a lot of people she knew to “reckon with the idea that this machismo, toxic, masculine attitude has very much been applauded [in a way that let] men get away with anything”. When she first began touring with Best Coast at 23, she felt that touring culture was still very much geared towards the hard-partying lifestyle. “I’m from America, where our culture is very much like, you get wasted and you drink and you party,” she says. “There’s kind of a joke where people say like, ‘Every backstage is an open bar’, and it’s true – you get a rider and you get drink tickets and you can live this fantasy of what it would be like to be a quote-unquote rock star.”

She describes touring as “summer camp for adults”. “You play a show, and then you go out to bars and you hang out with fans and they buy you shots and you see where the night takes you, and then you wake up wildly hungover and do it all over again.” As she entered her early 30s, she began to take stock of the role drugs and alcohol had in her life, and realised that she didn’t really enjoy partying so hard any more. “I started to really acknowledge that maybe I did drink a little too much, maybe I was abusing my prescription medications – I wasn’t taking care of myself.”

In general, it would seem that sobriety is more common among touring musicians than it’s ever been, with indie stars such as Waxahatchee, Florence Welch and Cosentino herself all becoming drink and drug-free in the past few years. Lisa Larson, an American tour manager who works with bands such as Snail Mail, Bully and Boy Harsher, says that in the time she’s been touring she’s seen a lot of people “getting sober, going through some crazy shit in their lives that makes them rethink their choices and their nightlife behaviour”.

Maybe there was something about the time period and culture that saw artists party until late and engage in sex and drug-taking. Now that a lot of promotion and press is done on social media, they do not need to court the focus on the newspapers. It is going to be more damaging being perceived as a Rock rebel and hellraiser/caner than it is being responsible and measured. Some might find this more detox and adulty approach is a little boring and takes the spark and rebelliousness out of Rock. Whilst it is beneficial that artists are taking better care of themselves, that is not to say they cannot create excitement and be bold. It goes without saying that drugs and excessive drinking is something we do not need or want to see in music! With artists touring harder and longer than before, that endurance can only be achieved through self-discipline and sensible decisions. There is this problem with mental health too. Many artists have reported feeling drained and unable to continue. It has nothing to do with artists having less stamina than those in the past. It is a brutal game and routine of travelling between places and delivering these long sets. If artists before used to self-medicate and drink/take drugs to cover that tiredness or perk themselves up, a more holistic and self-preserving stance has come in. Of course, given the fact that there is still a problem where (mainly women) are subjected to sexual assault and harassment, we need to get out of our heads that the groupie lifestyle and artists inviting fans into their beds was ever cool or acceptable. It casts in quite a dark and negative light many bands we lionise and put on a pedestal.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Radu Florin/Pexels

In a larger sense, I think that the music scene now is more defined by the music and not necessarily lifestyles and celebrity culture. If there are artists who still keep up that 24-7 routine of partying all night and never stopping, thankfully we are seeing less and less of it. One of the most disturbing and worrying elements of that culture of excess was the sex and drugs. Too deep and complex an issue to completely cover, but it is positive that artists right across the board are committing to a healthier and less cleaner (in all senses) way of living. That artists are saying that things are hard when sober. Touring and committing so much energy is gruelling. Alcohol and drugs makes that much harder and even more destructive. The seediness that was prevalent and almost expected of many bands has faded through the years. In a time when artists are being named for alleged assaults and abuses, that unsavoury and hugely irresponsible behaviour is almost gone – but, as I say, it exists still in some corners. It leaves me thinking about live music now. If it seemed like artists of the past had limitless energy and acts now seem to have less stamina and gas in the tank, I don’t think this is true. I feel even smaller and rising artists are touring and traveling as much as many famed bands from back in the day.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Omnibus Press

There is a greater awareness and crisis of poor mental health. With artists knowing this and trying to maintain a healthier and more self-caring routine to try and keep going, I do feel questions need to be asked of the industry. Books like Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual are available for artists. I would thoroughly recommend anyone in the music industry to buy it:

“It’s encouraging to see mental health become part of the mainstream conversation across every industry, and it’s a priority to Live Nation to help create tools for artists and crew working in live entertainment. It’s so valuable to have a resource built by people who understand the industry and unique dynamics of touring, which is why we jumped at the opportunity to support what Tamsin was building with the Touring and Mental Health manual.” Michael Rapino, CEO & President, Live Nation

“[it’s] like having a therapist in your back pocket. It helped deepen my understanding of myself as a performer and how the demands of the music business can take a toll.”  Siobhan Donaghy, Sugababes

“I wish this book had been around when I first started touring. Touring and Mental Health can really help us all navigate the darker moments and the bumps in the road out on tour. The insights, wisdom and strategies from the mental health and medical experts, the tour crew, and musicians in this book are invaluable. It should be the first thing we all pack when we head out on the road.” Philip Selway, Radiohead

Edited by psychotherapist and ex music booker Tamsin Embleton and published by Omnibus Press on 23rd March, Touring and Mental Health – The Music Industry Manual will help musicians and those working in live music to identify, process and manage the physical and psychological difficulties that can occur on the road or as a result of touring. Touring and Mental Health - The Music Industry Manual - is supported by Live Nation.

Covering topics including: emotional intelligence, depression, trauma, crisis management, anger, conflict, stress, addiction, eating disorders, anxiety, group dynamics, mindset, exercise, physical health, optimal performance, diversity and inclusion, romantic relationships, nutrition, sleep science, breathwork, meditation, mental capacity, psychological safety and post-tour recovery, Touring and Mental Health – The Music Industry Manual is written by health and performing arts medicine professionals to provide robust clinical advice, cutting edge research, practical strategies and resources.  Each chapter is underpinned with personal recollections from artists and professionals including Nile Rodgers, Justin Hawkins, Philip Selway, Charles Thompson, Katie Melua, Kieran Hebden, Jake Berry, Tina Farris, Taylor Hanson, Trevor Williams, Lauren Mayberry, Pharoahe Monch, Jim Digby, Neil Barnes, Stephanie Phillips, Will Young, Erol Alkan, Angie Warner, Suzi Green, Debbie Taylor and Dale ‘Opie’ Skjerseth, among others.

Praise for Touring and Mental Health – The Music Industry Manual

“This book should be a compulsory purchase for anyone who spends time on the road (or sends others out there). It can add decades to a career, give wisdom to the most exhausted mind, and offer encouragement to every burdened heart.”

James Ainscough, CEO Help Musicians UK

“The perfect book at the perfect time.” Marty Hom, tour manager for Fleetwood Mac, Shakira, Beyoncé

“A remarkable encyclopaedia of wisdom...  this impressive book needs to be read by every single artist and every single psychological worker as well.”

Professor Brett Kahr, Senior Fellow, Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology

“An essential must-read for absolutely everyone involved with the music industry. At last, an honest and revelatory document that highlights the complexities with life on the road and existing as an artist in the public eye, capturing all the highs, lows and in-betweens.” Toby L, Founder Transgressive Records

IN THIS PHOTO: Tamsin Embleton

About the author:

Tamsin Embleton is an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist based in London. She trained at the Bowlby Centre, the Anna Freud Centre, Regent’s University and the Adult Attachment Institute and consults for a variety of entertainment companies and charities. Embleton is the founder of the Music Industry Therapist Collective (MITC), a global group of specialist health clinicians who combine their unique experience of working in the music business prior to retraining as health professionals. MITC have delivered workshops to Warner Music Group and Kobalt among others, and are hosting panels and workshops at SXSW and the International Live Music Conference later this year. Previously Embleton worked as a booker for the Mean Fiddler Group, Killer B Music, Standon Calling Festival and Metropolis Studios. She has also worked in artist and tour management and for the PRS Foundation as a grants advisor.

Connect here:

touringmanual.com

embletonpsychotherapy.com

musicindustrytherapists.com

https://twitter.com/tamsinembleton

https://twitter.com/weareMITC”.

Long gone (let’s hope) of lionised bands immersed in a revered and seemingly idolised groupie culture. The fights, scandal, drugs and excessive drinking is less rampant for sure and glorified. As artists today have to face more pressures and have less disposable income – so they have to tour longer and further -, it is good that they are speaking and letting their fans know when they need a break. More needs to be done by the industry to ensure that artists can tour and play; that their mental and physical health and safety is paramount. Even if the music of the Rock heroes of the past was exceptional and legendary, when it comes to that lifestyle and its values, it is clear that we do not want to…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Maria Pop/Pexels

GO back there…ever!

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Tori Amos at Sixty: The Best Songs and Deep Cuts from the Icon

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

PHOT CREDIT: Desmond Murray

Tori Amos at Sixty: The Best Songs and Deep Cuts from the Icon

_________

ON 22nd August…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Tori Amos in 1996/PHOTO CREDIT: Michel Linssen

we celebrate Tori Amos’ birthday. She will turn sixty on that day. It is a great chance to celebrate her work and pay tribute to an artist like no other. I am going to end this feature with a playlist featuring her best-known songs and a collection of deeper cuts. Before I get there, I want to reuse a source that I have referenced before. It is a great biography about Amos. For that, AllMusic provide a compressive career rundown for an artist who is still releasing phenomenal music (her most recent album, Oceans to Oceans, came out in 2021):

“American singer/songwriter Tori Amos was one of several female artists who combined the stark, lyrical attack of '90s alternative rock with a distinctly '70s musical approach, creating music that fell between the orchestrated meditations of Kate Bush and the stripped-down poetics of Joni Mitchell. In addition to reviving those singer/songwriter traditions of the '70s, she also reestablished the piano as a rock & roll instrument, commanding the keys with both intimacy and aggression. After a late-'80s critical stumble with her glam rock-inspired project Y Kant Tori Read, she paused to realign, following her instincts as she returned her focus to piano-based compositions. The resulting album -- 1992's landmark classic Little Earthquakes -- set her on a path to a decades-spanning legacy that also established one of the most dedicated fan bases in popular music. Expanding on her debut's deep confessionals and unflinching, provocative perspective, she soon achieved platinum success with chart hits with the seminal Under the Pink (1994) and experimental Boys for Pele (1996). With each successive album, Amos and her piano remained at the core, even as she expanded her scope with forays into electronica on 1998's From the Choirgirl Hotel and 1999's To Venus and Back. Hopping from Atlantic to Epic, her albums began to swell in both length and storytelling, delving into concepts like American identity (2002's Scarlet's Walk and 2007's American Doll Posse) and life and death (2005's The Beekeeper). At the turn of the 2010s, she took a detour from pop with a holiday album (Midwinter Graces) and classical crossovers with Deutsche Grammophon (Night of Hunters and Gold Dust) before returning to her trademark style on 2014's Unrepentant Geraldines and 2017's Native Invader. In 2021, she continued a late-era streak with her 16th album Ocean to Ocean.

The daughter of a Methodist preacher, Myra Ellen Amos was born in North Carolina but raised in Maryland. She began singing and playing piano in the church choir at the age of four, and songwriting followed shortly afterward. Amos proved to be a quick learner, and her instrumental prowess earned her a scholarship to the preparatory school at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory. While studying at Peabody, she became infatuated with rock & roll, particularly the music of Led Zeppelin. She lost her scholarship at the age of 11 -- quite possibly due to her interest in popular music -- but continued writing songs nevertheless, eventually moving to Los Angeles in her late teens to become a pop singer. Atlantic Records signed her in 1987, and Amos recorded a pop-metal album called Y Kant Tori Read the following year. The record was a failure, attracting no attention from radio or press and selling very few copies; nevertheless, she didn't lose her record contract. By 1990, Amos had adopted a new approach, singing spare, haunting, confessional piano ballads that were arranged like Kate Bush but had the melodies and lyrical approach of Joni Mitchell. Atlantic sponsored a trip to England in 1991, where she played a series of concerts in support of an EP, Me and a Gun. The harrowing "Me and a Gun" was an autobiographical song, telling the tale of Amos' own experience with rape. It gained positive reviews throughout the media, and both the EP and the supporting concerts sold well. Little Earthquakes, Amos' first album as a singer/songwriter, was released in 1992 and fared well in both the U.S. and the U.K. Earthquakes featured some of the most enduring songs in her catalog, including "Silent All These Years," "Precious Things," "Winter," and "Crucify." The same year, she released the Crucify EP, which featured cover songs like Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Led Zeppelin's "Thank You."

Delivered in early 1994, Under the Pink -- the proper follow-up to Little Earthquakes -- was an even bigger hit, selling over a million copies and launching the iconic singles "God" and "Cornflake Girl." Pink also included a duet with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor on "Past the Mission."

Two years later, Amos delivered her third album, Boys for Pele. The LP was her most ambitious and difficult record to date, adding harpsichord, gospel touches, and jazzy overtones to her piano-driven style. Pele debuted at number two and quickly went platinum. The Hey Jupiter EP arrived later that summer and featured live versions of B-sides "Honey" and "Sugar."

Amos spent much of 1997 dealing with personal matters, including a devastating miscarriage and a new marriage. These events would shape the entire tone of her fourth album, From the Choirgirl Hotel. Released in the spring of 1998, Choirgirl debuted in the Top Five and was certified platinum. After years of Amos flirting with the dance world -- she sang on BT's "Blue Skies" and hit number one on the dance chart with Armand van Helden's remix of "Professional Widow" -- Choirgirl was notable for the inclusion of dark electronic textures and synth programming. The album also provided the backdrop for her first tour backed by supporting musicians. The Plugged '98 trek featured Steve Caton on guitar, Jon Evans on bass, and Matt Chamberlain on drums. Selections from the journey were preserved on the two-disc To Venus and Back, which was released in September 1999. In addition to the transformed live versions of songs from her early era, Venus included a disc of new material like the Grammy-nominated single "Bliss." In 2001, Amos returned with the covers album Strange Little Girls, which featured her takes on songs by acts like Depeche Mode, Lou Reed, Slayer, Neil Young, the Beatles, and Eminem. The collection also marked her last release of new material for Atlantic.

The next year, she found a new label home with Epic and unveiled her sprawling conceptual post-9/11 epic, Scarlet's Walk. Home to hit single "A Sorta Fairytale," it was eventually certified gold i the U.S. A retrospective best-of collection, Tales of a Librarian, was issued on Atlantic in 2003. Librarian compiled notable hits and deep cuts from the first five albums of her solo career, as well as two new tracks and re-recorded B-sides.

Her eighth studio album, The Beekeeper, was released in 2005. Her fifth Top Ten debut, it was later certified gold. In conjunction with the LP release, Amos also published her first book, the New York Times best-selling autobiography Piece by Piece, written with Ann Powers. The massive five-disc Piano collection arrived in 2006, boasting a cornucopia of album cuts, B-sides, unedited and alternate versions, demos, and seven previously unissued tracks.

Amos issued the eclectic and hard-rocking American Doll Posse in 2007, a sprawling group of songs that found the artist assuming five archetypal personalities, all of whom were based on feminine gods in Greek and Roman mythology. As she toured in support of the album, Amos released live digital recordings of each concert as part of the Legs and Boots concert series, which grew to encompass 27 albums. Although each release was made available to fans, Amos also released a "best-of" Legs and Boots compilation in March 2009, creating its track list from various recordings during the tour.

Meanwhile, she also focused on writing new material during the tour. Those songs would find their way onto her tenth studio album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin. Released in May 2009, it was the first with Amos' new label, Universal Republic. It marked her seventh Top Ten debut on the charts. A holiday album, Midwinter Graces, followed closely behind, appearing before the end of 2009 and garnering warm reviews.

Afterward, Amos began a period in her career where she delved headlong into the world of classical music. In September 2011, she unveiled her 12th album, the classically based song cycle Night of Hunters, on Deutsche Grammophon. A conceptual work based on familiar motifs by composers like Satie, Chopin, Schubert, and Bach, Amos' recording centered on a couple torn apart by life's difficulties and monotonies, and the female protagonist's journey to find wholeness within herself. In addition to featuring her daughter Natashya Hawley and niece Kelsey Dobyns on vocals, Amos also collaborated with the string quartet Apollon Musagete, arranger John Philip Shenale, and clarinetist Ernst Ottensamer. While Night of Hunters only peaked at 24 on the Billboard 200, it helped Amos become the first female artist to simultaneously chart in the Top Ten on the rock, alternative, and classical charts. An instrumental version of the album -- Sin Palabras -- was also released that year.

Inspired by her classical foray, Amos' next move was to re-record some of her older songs, newly arranged by John Philip Shenale with the Metropole Orchestra. The resulting set, 2012's Gold Dust, appeared almost exactly a year after Night of Hunters; it debuted at 63 on the Billboard 200. Amos continued her creative exploration in 2013. After several years in gestation, the musical The Light Princess -- based on the fairy tale by Scottish fantasy writer George MacDonald and with music and lyrics by Amos -- premiered at the National Theatre in London to wild critical acclaim and was nominated for best musical in the prestigious Evening Standard Theatre Awards. The original cast recording would be released in 2015.

In May 2014, Amos announced her return to pop with her 14th studio album, Unrepentant Geraldines (Mercury Classics). Heavily inspired by her marriage and love of fine art, the album returned Amos to the Top Ten for the first time in five years. A world tour in support of Geraldines saw Amos return to performing solo on her piano without accompanying musicians. Deluxe reissues of the seminal Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink arrived in 2015, including a disc of the remastered album and a second that featured B-sides and other rarities. Boys for Pele received the same treatment for its 20th anniversary in 2016. The following year, Amos returned in September with the self-produced Native Invader. Her 15th full-length, Native Invader was heavily influenced by nature, the sociopolitical turmoil following the 2016 U.S. election, and her mother's failing health. The album included the singles "Reindeer King" and "Up the Creek," which once again featured her daughter on vocals.

Closing out the decade, Amos penned another memoir that was released in 2020. Resistance: A Songwriter's Story of Hope, Change, and Courage chronicled her own personal history through specific songs and their placement in American history. At the end of the year, she returned to holiday music with the seasonal EP Christmastide, which reunited her with her 2000s bandmates, drummer Matt Chamberlain and bassist Jon Evans. The rhythmic pair later joined Amos for her 16th set, Ocean to Ocean, which arrived in October 2021”.

The wonderful and spellbinding Tori Amos turns sixty on 22nd August. I love her music,. so it is a pleasure revisiting her wonderful catalogue and making a playlist. I hope we see many more years where Amos is releasing such captivating and brilliant albums. Ahead of her birthday, here is a career-spanning playlist that you…

NEED to hear.

INTERVIEW: Antony Szmierek

INTERVIEW:

Antony Szmierek

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AN incredible artist who I tipped for big success…

it has been a mighty pleasure finding out more about the incredible Antony Szmierek. I think I first heard the Manchester-based artist’s music via Laurene Laverne on BBC Radio 6 Music. She is a champion of his talent - and the station in general have spotlighted and raved about someone with a very long and golden career ahead. His new E.P., Poems to Dance To, I think, is his finest work. Szmierek seems to grow in confidence and wonder with each new pearl he releases! If you are new to this prime talent, then here is some background to a very special and distinct voice in music. Someone who is very much primed and ready for some of the world’s biggest stages:

“Antony Szmierek is a spoken word and indie hip-hop artist making unique moves by blending his poetic, often introspective lyricism with undeniably smooth riffs and nostalgic beats. Hailed by Lauren Laverne as "the best thing I've heard all year" and described as "Mike Skinner spliced with Simon Armitage" - his track 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Fallacy' spent 4 weeks on the 6 Music B-list, as well as being featured on Jack Saunders' 'Future Artists' show on Radio 1. The same track also bagged the high score on Steve Lamacq's legendary Round Table. Support continues to pour in from the likes of Craig Charles, Steve Lamacq, Nemone, Mary Anne Hobbs and Chris Hawkins”.

If you are near anywhere Szmierek is playing soon, do make sure you grab a ticket! He is a live performer who has earned big reviews, and he has this very special bond with the audience. In addition to discussing his latest E.P., I ask whether there is more music ahead, who he’d like to collaborate with given the chance, what sort of music he grew up on and around, in addition to what it has been like playing his songs to a loving and receptive crowd. It has been a real treat to interviewing a magnificent artist who…

SHOULD be on everyone’s minds!

________________

Hi Antony. How are you? How has your week been?

I’m good thank you! In a brief respite between festivals and looking after some kids in a Guide Hut over the holidays. Double life.

Your debut album, Giving Up for Beginners, came out in 2021. Since then, you have released a series of singles and an incredible E.P., Poems to Dance To. Looking back at where you started and where you are now, how do you feel you have evolved and changed as an artist?

Thanks so much! It does all seem to have happened quite quickly. I think even looking back at P2D2, I can hear myself finding my feet as an artist, but I think I’ve landed now. It’s really helped me find the sound I’ve been looking for playing with the band this summer. I’ve been writing a lot, trusting the spaces between my words, and trying to push that honesty further than I have before in the songwriting. The more people trust me, the more I seem to be able to trust myself. It’s a nice feeling.

“I found lockdown very difficult as everybody did, and this was what I needed to do to keep myself afloat”

How strange or difficult was it sort of being a ‘lockdown musician’? At such a strange time, was it quite cathartic being able to put music out?

It wasn’t really a conscious choice; I just had a lot of writing, and music is sort of what I do for a hobby - that being finding new music and experiencing it live. I didn’t overthink it or make it with an audience in mind (I blame this for some very local references and not adopting a pseudonym!) I found lockdown very difficult as everybody did, and this was what I needed to do to keep myself afloat. So, very cathartic indeed.

Take me back to the start – right to the start. What sort of music did you grow up listening to as a child and teen?

My first love was Arctic Monkeys. The lyrics and the storytelling and the identity they gave me as a teen. On the bus, I’d listen to lots of Hip-Hop; some U.K. stuff like Kano, as Grime was taking hold. And loads of unreleased Kanye West demos that my friend and I were convinced was a ‘leak’ of his next album. They were not.

The title of your E.P., Poems to Dance To, seems like apt. The songs do seem like poems with music accompanying them. Do the words come first and the composition builds around that? What is your songwriting process like?

Words first always, but now there’s a feeling as well. When it’s good, the songs - the genre and the mood and even the tempo - come to me all at once. Sometimes I adapt old notes, and sometimes I work on a rough sketch that Robin or Luis send me - those being the producers I’ve had help me along thus far. But I almost always at least have a title. That’s how ‘Hitchhiker’ started.

Your music has received acclaim from websites, and radio stations alike. BBC Radio 6 Music especially have championed your music. I have heard you interviewed by Lauren Laverne. How important and encouraging is it having someone like her recognising your talent and giving your music love?

I’ve said probably dozens of times now that I’m a big Radio Head. I’ve been listening to Lauren for years, alongside Craig (Charles) and Lammo (Steve Lamacq), and just 6 in general. It really is a big club, and on tour I’ve met so many of the ‘6 Music family’. Lauren has been so encouraging and has approached everything as a friend would - she’s so warm, and I feel incredibly lucky to have her in my corner.

“Honestly, I’m so thankful for the difficult lessons I’ve taught over the years!”

In addition to music you are also a teacher. Do you think your training and experience as a teacher goes into your music? What do your students make of your songs?

Performing is so so similar to teaching. You’ve got a group of people watching you who you want to feel safe and welcome and included. Honestly, I’m so thankful for the difficult lessons I’ve taught over the years! And the admin stuff, the social media, the artwork, the press - just prioritising and keeping your head - is something that I wouldn’t have managed without teaching first.

The Words to Auld Lang Syne is your latest track. I especially love the video – which looked very cool to shoot! What was the particular inspiration behind the song?

Everybody starts the year with these resolutions and false promises, and then we all sing this song we barely know the words to kick it all off. We’re all just pretending and mumbling and masking all the time but we rarely admit it. I just loved that metaphor, and I wanted to make a song that felt like New Years’ Eve without actually mentioning it explicitly.

You have some great gigs coming up – including spots at Reading and Leeds! How crazy is it that you are playing such huge festivals, and what has the reaction been like from the crowds you have played to so far?

Yeah, we were really thrown in at the deep end! It’s been the perfect festival season, but it’s been very emotional and overwhelming too. The crowds have recently started singing the words back at me, and as everybody says, there is absolutely nothing like that feeling.

Every artist has a wish list in terms of people they’d like to collaborate with. Who is on your list?

I’d love to work with Jarvis Cocker! I’ve got a song that he’d be great on. I’d also love to do something with Arlo Parks, and maybe a collab with Barry Can’t Swim. Let’s put those out into the ether and see what happens.

Finally, and for being a good sport, you can choose any song you like (from another artist) and I will play it here.

Let’s go with ‘Telephobia’ by Baby Dave and Kate Nash. A bit Spoken Word, lots of longing, and a proper little groove to it.

_____________

Follow Antony Szmierek

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/antonyszmierek

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/antonyszmierek

TikTok:

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

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1odn2oz1bEsGWugQ8W3zhn

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-VwXR6M4HD4Wo1UpTBi4SA

FEATURE: Spotlight: Art School Girlfriend

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Art School Girlfriend

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I hope that we…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Nathan Barnes for The Line of Best Fit

get some more current interviews with Art School Girlfriend. The moniker of Polly Mackey, even though she has been on the scene a few years now and actually started to get a lot of buzz from 2019 and 2020, there are many who do not know about the incredible music – including the new album, Soft Landing. It follows her 2020 debut album, Is It Light Where You Are?. There are quite a few interviews from 2020 and 2021, but there are very few from this year. Instead, I am going to start with an older interview that introduced us to Art School Girlfriend. I will then get to reviews for the amazing Soft Landing. The Line of Best Fit spoke with Art School Girlfriend in 2019 about her (Mackey’s) decision to produce and take ownership of her music:

“Having cut her teeth as a member of shoegaze outfit Deaf Club who parted ways back in 2014, Mackey found herself in a position where she nearly left music altogether, as she explains “I really had just got completely dismayed with music in general. I was working in the music industry at the same time and I was working for labels and magazines at the same time and getting really dismayed with the whole thing. So, when the band split up I kind of just ignored music for a bit and was only listening to whatever was on the radio.”

It was around this time that Mackey decided to pack up her bags and leave London for the seaside town of Margate, “I just got to the point in London where I was so broke, I couldn’t do anything. I had this sprawling metropolis in front of me and couldn’t access any of it.” Ultimately, this was a move that proved to serve Mackey well.

In the past few years, Margate has become something of a hub for creatives, but when describing the move, Mackey makes it clear that Margate was a different place when she originally made the decision to leave “I realised I was 24, which is quite young to move to one city and move to another one and start a new life. It was also terrifying, as Margate three years ago isn’t what it is now… There was nothing to do, and now it’s like the London ex-pat community and I’m so pleased I did it, because I’m surrounded by so many creative people, it’s like a little village.”

Her last EP, Into The Blue Hour, saw her team together a group of songs that were all tinged with the beauty and mystery of the night. “They are linked by a sense of malaise or feeling out of sync and were quite icy,” explains Mackey of the current that runs through the songs. “I don’t make them deliberately that way, but they tend to be quite sad and melancholy which then informs the lyrics quite a bit.” Despite that melancholy, Mackey is now ready to venture further afield and has begun to push the boundaries of her song-writing, and she has even returned to her teenage habit of keeping a diary.

“I decided to keep a journal. I used to keep one when I was younger, and I used to keep all my lyrics and notes separate, but I’m kind of keeping it altogether, so that is kind of changing how I’m working on the lyrical side as well.” It appears that the act of documenting her everyday activities has enabled Mackey to slow down and take stock, as she says “I remember I had one when I was eighteen and finished It and taped it up and when I was moving I cut the tape on it, and I read it and found it really interesting. Not just because I was seeing how I was feeling at the time, but also the everyday, humdrum things I was doing and you forget what sequence you had things in life, and actually I thought I could keep a diary and not be anxious about describing things completely it accurately or using poetic words but just writing what I’d done that day and that actually there’s actually something quite nice about that and keeping a record of that.”

This act of slowing down and taking it in has had a direct effect on how Mackey writes, which was exactly the effect she was looking for. “I wanted the track to be different to my last EP and to have a different theme and this one is basically like a booty call” explains Mackey of her latest sonic offering, a track that is fuelled by lust and experimentation with what the structure of a song should be”.

Prior to getting to some reviews, AllMusic Magazine introduced an album that ranks alongside the best of this year. Soft Landing has won plenty of acclaim from critics. If you have not heard it or discovered Art School Girlfriend, then make sure that you check out her wonderful music:

“Soft Landing follows Mackey’s 2020 debut album, Is It Light Where You Are? an album made in the wake of a tumultuous time and released during one. Soft Landing feels like Mackey’s true debut, a record of curiosity and playfulness with songs that sound like they are falling effortlessly into place. Stay tuned for more news.

Tracklist

1. A Place To Lie

2. Close To The Clouds

3. Real Life

4. Waves

5. Blue Sky feat. Tony Njoku

6. The Weeks

7. Laugh My Head Off

8. Out There

9. Heaven Hanging Low

10. How Do You Do It

11. Too Bright

When Polly Mackey – AKA Art School Girlfriend – released her first album Is It Light Where You Are in 2021, what was a shimmering debut felt to her more like a sublime denouement.

The Welsh producer and multi-instrumentalist’s record revelled in expansive dreamscape sounds and diaristic writing that stretched deep into the emotional peripheries of a then very recent heartbreak. A protracted two years later, Polly was able to tour the record – then, embarking on a new relationship, and reconsidering her creative mode. While the album garnered critical celebration for its visceral aural textures and lucid themes, for Polly, it was inflected with alienation. “By the time it was out in the world, I felt unattached to it,” she shares. “This new record truly feels like my debut.”

Soft Landing is the culmination of Art School Girlfriend’s contemporary artistic testament. It represents a tonal shift and tenure in a much more contented and philosophical state of being. The title presented itself to her through the frequency illusion: a turn of phrase thrown up in overheard conversation, and mentioned on the news. “‘Soft landing’ showed up to strike me when things were falling into place,” Polly says. “I was at that typical moment where you’re leaving your 20s and realising you don’t have to work toward this concept of future happiness. Going to the pub with your mates can be the ultimate. Lying beside the person you love, watching the sun come in, can be it.”

This album percolates in these “small euphorias”; elations of life you don’t have to reach far for. “It captures what a lot of people coming out of COVID have felt, looking for joy closer to home, in your immediate surroundings,” Polly says. “I am much more interested in capturing a time and feeling, than getting it perfectly right.”

Polly decided in April 2022 that she’d have a record by the end of summer: she booked in sessions and mixing before she started, and wrote a creative manifesto. “I really wanted to commit to a new energy,” she says. “Before, I was so worried about fixing things as I went along. That doesn’t allow for being instinctive, or staying true to how I feel in the moment. I wanted this to feel pure, energetic, instant.”

The manifesto for Soft Landing outlined a divergent style for recording and decision-making. It meant resisting the “infinite space” of the first album, which led to agonising re-records and rewrites. Plug-ins and perfectly programmed drums were shirked for instrumental improvisation, tape machines and effects performed live, and stream of consciousness writing. “How Do You Do It…” was totally improvised, played on a keyboard and sung into a tape machine in Polly’s bedroom. “It’s very different from how I worked previously. I’d have spent the year trying to find the right snare,” she says. It’s about being more curious, playful, and “getting back to the reason I started making music as a kid in my bedroom”.

The sonic palette combines Polly’s more leftfield, lo-fi electronic influences (that you’ll hear resplendent on her ambient Foundation FM radio show) with the music that first inspired her, like Pixies, early Caribou, and Warpaint: artists with electrifying energy that elegantly oscillate from electronic to instrument. “Out There” – an homage to LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends”, written the day after she saw them live last summer in Brixton – propels itself with the dark atmospherics of Burial, and “Heaven Hanging Low” has the sun-breaking-through-the-clouds clarity of a trance anthem. “Waves” undulates with the sinewy avant-rock turns of PJ Harvey.

Most of the album was recorded at home, the rest at Crouch End’s Church Studios with friend and co-producer Riley MacIntyre, where Polly has recorded since 2016. Six of 11 tracks were written within two weeks, after she wrote “A Place To Lie”. “One track will pin the butterfly of what the record is going to be,” she says. “‘A Place To Lie’ was that. Everything flowed through it.” The track reflects Polly’s technical skills and a prowess for creating processed sounding sonics by organic means: “I didn’t want to look at a computer much.” Synths are replaced by manipulated nylon string guitars; live drums, guitars, and strings are played throughout the record; “Real Life” features birdsong and church bells from a memorable camping trip. Throughout, Polly deftly traces dance music’s spinal nodules, its crescendos and euphoria sweeps, and the shoegaze influence of her youth with gauzy, pensive tendrils of drones.

The sound design parallels deeply poetic and visual lyrics, a skill that was lauded on her previous record and EPs. “I tell people this is my joyful album, and they laugh – it still feels pretty fucking moody,” she says. “I like the light and shade, the joy can’t come without the melancholic – the queer trope of crying on the dancefloor.” Simple concepts and experiences are made sumptuous: “A Place To Lie” swells with the contentedness of waking up next to a lover, while “The Weeks” takes place in the summer lockdown at her girlfriend’s parent’s house in Devon, delicately threading the undercurrent of worldwide threat with the lush, hushed local surroundings. Folk and shoegaze arise again in lyrics with hazy, yet precise finality – ”I understand, I understand”, a willowy alto refrain on “Close to the Clouds”.

With crystallised focus, Polly’s favourite place has become the studio. In 2020, she scored for friend and visual collaborator Tom Dream’s film Shy Radicals. “In the last few years I’ve seen some changes for women in the studio space. I’m now engineering for myself and others,” she says. Polly intends to experiment beyond her ASG moniker, by producing for people outside of genres she works within, playing in bands again, finishing her Creative Practice MA, and scoring more films.

The words of poet Lucien Stryk, describing the work of Japanese haiku master Basho, resonate deeply with Polly and the record’s themes: “The poet presents an observation of a natural, often commonplace event, in plainest diction, without verbal trickery. The effect is one of spareness, yet the reader is aware of a microcosm related to transcendental unity. A moment, crystallised, distilled, snatched from time’s flow, and that is enough.”

An artist that once made music from the serrated edges of her wounds, Art School Girlfriend now sutures them with her small, intimate joys: Soft Landing yields soft power. “I had such a nice time making the record,” Polly says. “I’m at the age now that I know it doesn’t have to be loved or heard by everyone. I just want someone out there to find their personal euphorias with it”.

I am going to go back to The Line of Best Fit. They had a lot of positive things to say about Soft Landing. It is an impressive step forward for an artist who is going to be in the industry for many more years to come. Take some time out to explore and experience a tremendous album that should put Art School Girlfriend on everyone’s radar:

“Though she released her first record two years prior, the Welsh producer and multi-instrumentalist has already expressed a distinct feeling of detachment to those tracks, instead naming Soft Landing as a record that “truly feels like my debut”. Instead, she leans into the electronic explorations of earlier projects, and in turn, creates an intricate world of textures for the listener to feast upon.

Soft Landing is a product of two halves, a culmination of the interior world of Mackey’s solitary creativity at home and the formal collaboration of recording studios based in Crouch End. As a result, it seamlessly balances explorations in both expansive sound and intimate lyrics, evidenced on the track that started it all, "A Place To Live". An exercise in creative production, it’s also remarkably deceptive – components that appear on the surface as electronic transpire to be a product of live recordings, creating a tangible depth to its sonics.

Mackey further displays her progression on album highlight, "How Do You Do It". Though entirely improvised in the four walls of Mackey’s bedroom, it’s imbued with the feeling of infinite space, full of sweeping soundscapes and echoing vocals that stretch for miles. Other notable excursions include the 80s drum-machines and eerie distortion on "Heaven Hanging Low", and "Waves" with its shoegazing guitars that gently shimmer on the surface.

Upon reaching its final stretch, the distinction between tracks begins to blur, overlapping over one another. This doesn’t appear to be a fault of its repetitive nature, but rather a purposefully immersive twist, producing a soundtrack to a night-out that seemingly never ends. And soon enough, reality begins to split at the seams and Mackey has transported us to a surreal world entirely unfamiliar, as she sings, “Sliding through paradise / I was caught in the light / Pulling planets out of the sky / taking a bite.”

However, the record doesn’t anticipate a crash back down to earth but offers slow descent, just as the title suggests. Mirroring the realisations made in her own life, Mackey asks us to find these moments of other-worldly ecstasy in our everyday existence, noting that “I just want someone out there to find their personal euphorias with it.” For Mackey, these arrive in the simplest of moments; “Lying beside the person you love, watching the sun come in, can be it.” And instead of striving towards a perceived notion of happiness, Soft Landing is simply the crescendoing finale of a journey towards contentment”.

Just before rounding things off, there is one more review that I want to bring in. Although some gave Soft Landing a more mixed reaction., most noted how it was an evolution and confident release from Art School Girlfriend. The London artist is someone who everybody needs to know about. Someone who is going to keep on releasing incredible music:

“The effects of the pandemic are in many cases well documented, but in most not well understood.

One of the recurring ideas to emerge for musicians has been the return to old ground, of going home, being in isolation from their audience, the industry and the confirmatory aspects of their art.

Polley Mackey released the first Art School Girlfriend album Is It Light Where You Are? in 2021, but by then it felt like it had come from a different place, a sensation only magnified when the time came to perform the songs live, to the point she now admits that, ‘By the time it was out in the world, I felt unattached to it’.

Soft Landing arrives from a different headspace, one centered on accepting that little euphoria is still more than good enough: “I am much more interested in capturing a time and feeling, than getting it perfectly right.”

This willingness to mess with things also led to a more organic approach to composition, as out went plug-ins and software in favour of real instruments, tape loops and live effects. The result is an album of greater texture than its predecessor, mixing synth pop, electronica and occasional shoegaze into the kind of finished product that recalls Braids or Virginia Wing.

Mood wise, the general feeling was inspired by the contentment of a new relationship (Mackey’s partner is fellow musician Marika Hackman), but emotions are often dealt with obliquely, opener A Place To Lie’s skittering pads and airy sounding washes a continual source of motion that belies its theme of place and happiness.

The first to be completed, it was a piece which anchored the new record’s attitude, homing in on the simple contentment of waking up next to a lover whilst bathed in sunlight.

The edges of this new reality are never rough, Heaven Hanging Low’s graceful introspection circling round to religious imagery (‘Slide through paradise, I was caught in the light/Pulling planets out the sky, taking a bite’) followed by a devotional chorus of, ‘Pray and I Pray’.

Other references are more nuanced, even if the notions of desire and dependency swap places on Real Life, its strings impressing a sense of austerity whilst the subject is lost willingly or otherwise (‘Hands on the pane of a ceiling/Yeah, I’m coming upside-down to a real, to a real life’).

It was one of the first instances in modern memory, but the pandemic also brought a feeling of time standing still, of losing its meaning entirely; this smudged confusion is echoed in The Weeks, surreal experiences framing isolation in an otherwise idyllic house in Devon, the languorous patterns giving way to a rare, grunge-lite conclusion/collision of light and darkness.

If that feels like trauma getting some way in, by the foggy closer Too Bright a protective boundary has been fortified. It’s in Waves however that the most obvious sense of connection is offered; built on a languid patter of beats, the heavily retro-leaning chorus offers supreme, lovelorn pop.

There were no boundaries, no entry or exit signs to how the last three years has made us feel. Some went through the corridors unscathed, some didn’t, some may never have the tools for a true personal reconciliation.

Polly Mackey has made her peace with that, and accordingly produced a record about being in love with the spectre of guilt and disconnection as a rear horizon.

Soft Landing bravely doesn’t look back, a record whose layers take time to fully peel away and, even then, feels like not all its secrets will ever be yours to know”.

I normally spotlight new and rising artists for this feature. I feel Art School Girlfriend is entering a new stage of her career - and is someone that many do not know about. To correct that, I wanted to highlight her brilliance. Soft Landing may be an album that has passed you by. Make sure you catch up and give it a dive. I would urge people to…

DO so now.

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FEATURE: Eternal Life: Thirty Years Ago: Jeff Buckley’s Remarkable Time at Sin-é, New York City

FEATURE:

 

 

Eternal Life

Thirty Years Ago: Jeff Buckley’s Remarkable Time at Sin-é, New York City

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WHEN it was originally released…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Jeff Buckley in New York City in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Merri Cyr

on 23rd November, 1993, it was as an E.P. With performances taken from 19th July and 17th August, 1993, Jeff Buckley’s Live at Sin-é was his first commercial release. It would not be until later in the 1993 that Jeff Buckley would step into Bearsville Studios, Woodstock to record his only studio album, Grace. Of course, Buckley was not new to live performance when he released Live at Sin-é. He had performed at this particular venue/coffeehouse in New York City’s East Village quite a bit. The crowds eventually grew bigger and bigger. On the four track E.P. that went into the world in November 1993 – when he was just starting to record Grace – was Mojo Pin, Eternal Life, Je n'en connais pas la fin (I Don't Know the End of It) and The Way Young Lovers Do. With those two originals – which were close to the album versions but were still taking shape – sat alongside a couple of covers, it was ca chance to see Buckley’s incredible interpretive skills take flight. He also put out two incredible original songs that highlighted his songwriting brilliance. Accompanying himself on a Fender Telecaster, Buckley was playing and jamming in a great neighbourhood where he had made his home. I will get to a review of the expanded version of his sets at Sin-é soon. The reason I wanted to write about the E.P. and his performances at Sin-é is because of a big anniversary. The E.P. captures him playing songs from two different nights at the coffeehouse – the second of which happened on 17th August, 1993 (the first was on 19th July, 1993).

Thirty years ago, Buckley was playing out to a small but receptive crowd who were listening to this young artist taking his first steps in professional music. Buckley had signed to Columbia on 29th October, 1992. The deal was already done. One big reason why he was signed is because he was doing such spectacular live performances. Including his multiple gigs at Sin-é, Buckley was gaining buzz around New York City. Even though he was born in California, he seemed to find greater opportunity, excitement and comfort in N.Y.C. The Greenwich Village was once a haven for Folk artists back in the 1960s and ‘70s. The nearby (just under two miles away) East Village would also have seen and experienced a lot of great Folk music at this time. I think that is a factor in Buckley playing there. Perhaps less enamoured and attracted to the Punk scene of the city, you feel Folk artists such as Bob Dylan were more firmly in his mind. A chance to walk in the same neighbourhoods they would once have done. Artists, back in the day, would have just played with a guitar in some club or coffeehouse. Buckley’s 1993 sets at Sin-é remind me of the Folk artists in the '60s and '70s. If one is to compare him to Bob Dylan, Jeff Buckley is more like the genius going electric. I am sure Buckley played acoustic guitar, but he was thrilling the locals with his Fender Telecaster.

Maybe trying to marry some of the strands of Punk and Rock together with a more Folk setting. Whatever the reasoning and plan, this was a young man playing his music to those who showed. I can imagine the audiences at Sin-é in the earliest days were quite modest. Eventually, more and more people showed up, so that some gigs would see record label bosses’ cars and limos lining the streets; people maybe hanging outside the door, trying to hear what was going on inside. I don’t think Buckley had any idea that, thirty years since that incredible second night set that would go into his Live at Sin-é. E.P., would be talked about to this day. Before getting to a review for the expanded version Live at Sin-é., it is interesting contextualising his August 1993 performance. As this Uncut feature from 2017 illustrates, this was a time when Jeff Buckley was still honing his craft. The feature discusses Buckley’s early Columbia recordings and the time he was at Shelter Island Sounds – a small studio in New York’s Chelsea district –, where he had a handful of other people’ songs. Those records were released into the world. In fact, as this article explains, they appear on the You & I (Expanded Edition):

“February 1993. JEFF BUCKLEY, a hyperactive music junkie just finding his feet in the New York clubs, enters Shelter Island Studios and records 40 songs in three days. As the session’s highlights are finally released, Uncut hears the inside story of how a genius singer-songwriter learned his craft via an eclectic songbook. “The goal,” says his A&R man, “was to allow him the time and space to find out which Jeff Buckley he was going to be…”

Steve Berkowitz likens Jeff Buckley’s first solo recordings to a journey undertaken without any map or clear destination.

“It was a musical exercise in self-discovery,” says Berkowitz, who signed Buckley to Columbia in the autumn of 1992. “There was no plan. It was very loose, like a conversation in someone’s living room. Jeff would move around. Start, stop, start again. I remember he played a Curtis Mayfield song, and then I said, ‘Know any Sly?’ He sighed and said, ‘I don’t really know any Sly,’ but even as he’s saying it he’s forming chords and, I swear to God, what comes out is the ‘Everyday People’ that’s on this record. It was breathtaking.”

Almost a quarter of a century after the private “conversation” that took place at New York’s Shelter Island Sound studios in February 1993, some choice extracts are being made public. The third LP of archive recordings to emerge since his death in May ’97, You And I captures Buckley when he was 26, living in a “crappy walk-up apartment” in the Lower East Side with girlfriend Rebecca Moore, consuming music by day and performing in the city’s cafés, clubs and bars by night. “The creativity was just pouring out of him at that point,” says his manager, Dave Lory”.

“STEVE BERKOWITZ (A&R executive at Columbia): We signed Jeff in the autumn of 1992 with the understanding that he would have complete control of his music. That was in the contract. He was capable of doing so much, the initial goal was to allow him the time and space to find out which Jeff Buckley he was going to be: are we going to wait for this flower to bloom, or are we going to cut it off? My job was to give him time to bloom.

MICHAEL TIGHE (friend; guitarist in Buckley’s live band, 1994-1996): I can remember Jeff holding this thick record contract in his hand on the night he was doing a show at [Brooklyn arts venue] PS1. He was a little scared, but it was also pretty exciting. He knew Columbia could get his music out there, but he also knew he was very green as far as songwriting and developing his sound went.

BERKOWITZ: By early ’93, the record company is asking, “So, what are you doing?” Not much! We hang around a lot. He comes to my house for Christmas, he mimes Warner Bros cartoons with my son. We go to a lot of gigs, play a lot of music, drink a lot of coffee. He’s playing every bump and hole in the wall in the city, but four, five, six months after he signed, there are no plans to record. So I suggest to Jeff, “Why don’t we go into this nice studio with this guy I know, relax for a couple of days, play everything you know, and at the end you can pick out three or four things that can be the beginnings of an idea for an album?” And he said, “OK, let’s do that”.

That gives you some background and lead-up to his sets at Sin-é. He was definitely a known musicians around New York City, though he was still largely unknown to the wider world. August 1993 was that period where he had done a lot of live gigs and been in a studio. He was about to – or he might have already spent time in Bearsville – head into Woodstock to record his debut album. It was such an important and wonderful time. Being in the audience when Buckley was on stage and performing these covers and originals in a small coffeehouse! SLANT reviewed the Legacy Edition of Live at Sin-é:

“Jeff Buckley was much more than the tragic rock god he has become. He was a soul singer who incorporated a passion for the blues and jazz into his folky brand of rock music. No Buckley release since his death in 1997 has captured this soulful essence the way his 1993 EP, Live at Sin-é, did (and does). Reissued by Legacy Recordings with an additional 17 tracks, Live at Sin-é, in its new form, is what 2000’s Mystery White Boy (and the second disc of Sketches: For My Sweetheart the Drunk, for that matter) should have been: a private yet very public glimpse into the evolution of one of the most promising artists of the ’90s. The album captures the folk movement of the East Village that was still flourishing in the early part of the decade—it’s an artifact left over from when there were more artists on St. Mark’s than fast food joints. The performances found here—recorded at the Sin-é Café in the summer of 1993—find Buckley disarmed, challenged, inspired and, above all, graceful.

Only a handful of songs on the album are original compositions (“Mojo Pin” and “Eternal Life,” both of which appeared on the original release, along with “Grace” and an early version of “Last Goodbye”), but the covers Buckley chose to perform seem tailor-made for him. He makes Dylan his own (“Just Like a Woman,” “I Shall Be Released”) and even manages to fit his little white-boy feet into Billy and Nina’s shoes (“Strange Fruit,” “Twelfth of Never”). And, of course, there’s Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” a song he transformed into something wholly unique on his landmark full-length debut Grace. The listening experience is at once disturbing and comforting—the double-disc set includes many amusing interludes, one of which is an impromptu impersonation of Jim Morrison while another nods to one of Buckley’s contemporaries, Kurt Cobain. For fans of Buckley (both casual and hardcore), this new version of Live at Sin-é will be nothing short of a treasure. The album’s liner notes read: “He was the Montgomery Clift of singer-songwriters, beautiful and bruised, struggling so hard to communicate you could feel it.” One might call communication you can feel “music.” And Live at Sin-é is beautiful communication indeed”.

I will wrap up with my impressions and feelings around the thirtieth anniversary of the August 1993 set he delivered at Sin-é. First, from Jeff Buckley’s official website, we get to hear what happened in the period after the E.P. was released into the world:

“By the time of the EP’s release during the fall of 1993, Buckley had already entered the studio with Mick Grondahl (bass), Matt Johnson (drummer), and producer Andy Wallace and recorded seven original songs (including “Grace” and “Last Goodbye”) and three covers (among them Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, Benjamin Britten’s “Corpus Christi Carol”) that comprised his debut album Grace. Guitarist Michael Tighe became a permanent member of Jeff Buckley’s ensemble and went on to co-write and perform on Grace’s “So Real” just prior to the release of the album.

In early 1994, not long after Live At Sin-é appeared in stores, Jeff Buckley toured clubs, lounges, and coffeehouses in North America as a solo artist from January 15-March 5 as well as in Europe from March 11-22. Following extensive rehearsals in April-May 1994, Buckley’s “Peyote Radio Theatre Tour” found him on the road with his band from June 2-August 16. His full-length full-band album, Grace, was released in the United States on August 23, 1994, the same day Buckley and band kicked off a European tour in Dublin, Ireland; the 1994 European Tour ran through September 22, with Buckley and Ensemble performing at the CMJ convention at New York’s Supper Club on September 24. The group headed back into America’s clublands for a Fall Tour lasting from October 19-December 18.

On New Year’s Eve 1994-95, Buckley returned to Sin-é to perform a solo set; on New Year’s Day, he read an original poem at the annual St. Mark’s Church Marathon Poetry Reading. Two weeks later, he and his band were back in Europe for gigs in Dublin, Bristol, and London before launching an extensive tour of Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium, and the United Kingdom which lasted from January 29-March 5. On April 13 1995, it was announced that Jeff Buckley’s Grace had earned him France’s prestigious “Gran Prix International Du Disque — Academie Charles CROS — 1995”; an award given by a jury of producers, journalists, the president of France Culture, and music industry professionals, it had previously been given to Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Yves Montand, Georges Brassens, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Joni Mitchell, among other musical luminaries. France also awarded Buckley a gold record certification for Grace”.

I remember my first time hearing the Live at Sin-é (Legacy Edition). When I heard that, I was compelled to find out more. I discovered Jeff Buckley when I was a teenager. I had already bought and fallen for Grace. That 1994 album has its anniversary later this month. The Live at Sin-é release was one I got when it came out in 2003. Marking ten years since Buckley delivered those incredible songs to patrons in the East Village, I was casting my mind back and wondering what it must have been like watching Jeff Buckley play in the summer of '93. You listen to the 1993 E.P./2003 expended reissue and you can feel and hear that brilliance. This was someone still largely unknown to the world. Almost a local secret, the Legacy Edition gives us more insight and context. His interaction with the audience is great! So charming, silly and sharp, there is this tangible aspect. You imagine yourself sat there at the back, watching the man blow people away with his incredible talent.

That between-songs chat where he would do impressions, talk to the crowd or just riff and see what came out It is said that, after sets, he would hang around and make coffee. He felt comfortable in this space. I always feel like Buckley assumed big tours and fame was what was needed so he could be remembered and endure. Whilst he might not have ever been known worldwide if he just played smaller venues, it is clear he yearned to return to them later in his career. He died in May 1997 at the age of thirty. In the final months of his life, he was still trying to put together his second studio album – My Sweetheart the Drunk was never completed; a posthumous album, Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk came out in 1998. Rather than mourn and feel sad, I wanted to mark thirty years since Jeff Buckley performed a second taped night at Sin-é. That would go into an E.P. (in November 1993) that was many people’s first experience of Buckley’s music. It is the sound of a remarkably talented young artist just about to head into the studio to record his debut album. We were so lucky to have Jeff Buckley in the world! His legacy and influence will live forever. We are all so grateful for…

ALL of the incredible music he left us.

FEATURE: A Shared Deeper Understanding: Kate Bush’s Attitudes Towards and Relationships with Men

FEATURE:

 

 

A Shared Deeper Understanding

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

Kate Bush’s Attitudes Towards and Relationships with Men

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WHEN writing about Kate Bush…

 IN THIS PHOTO: An outtake from the Army Dreamers video shoot/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

I usually focus on her albums and songs. I also describe how she has impacted people around the world; the enormous legacy her music has. I am not sure whether I have written too much about this, but I wanted to look at her relationship with men and her attitudes towards them. In terms of the fact most of her interviews were men. Nearly every musician she has included on her albums has been a man. Not all the vocalists have been but, when you look at her discography and everything written about it, there is a lot of perception and interpretation from men. This may sound like Bush was avoiding women. From a musical stance, I think Bush was raised more around male sounds. By that, I mean she gravitated towards artists who were men. I guess, as an aspiring artist from a very young age, perhaps hearing too many women would have influenced her voice too much. She is a rare case in music of being this feminist icon and source of inspiration for women everywhere, without her actually embodying too many influences from other women. I shall come to the fact that, yes, Bush has worked with other women on her albums - though most of her collaborators were men. Some may say, during a sexist time when men were considered superior and got more attention, that this was a calculated move. I think, as I will also explore, it is Bush’s positive attitudes towards men and the depth of understanding she had about their complexities and depths that is a reason. Even if Bush, in decades past, did not actively identify herself as a feminist, she is someone who has influenced countless women in all areas of the arts and society. She is a huge role model - and someone who broke barriers and opened conversations.

I will break this up into two. I want to start out by discussing her peers and those she associated with. There was that division between her inner circle of friends and musicians and members of the press. Bush had plenty of female friends, though I think that she was more used to associating with men. When it comes to musical influences, maybe the media and industry were not promoting, highlighting and celebrating enough women. The Beatles, Steely Dan, and Peter Gabriel were among her influence – as were David Bowie, and Elton John. How many contemporary female musical role models were in her life during the 1960s and 1970s?! With the industry still very sexist and male-dominated, it is no surprise that Bush worked with male musicians, engineers and crew. When Bush started producing her own work (from 1980’s Never for Ever onwards), she was one of the few women producing their own music. She definitely gave inspiration to so many women in the industry. From setting records (Never for Ever was the first album by a British female artist to reach number one) to the way she was this unique voice who maintained such a long and successful career is a massive achievement and legacy. I feel Bush’s positivity towards men, in her personal life and through music, is a combination of her being in the studio with male personnel. Her homelife was also a factor. With two older brothers – Paddy and John (Jay) -, she did not have a sister or that similar-aged female presence at home; she felt bored or unchallenged at school.

If she listened more to male artists and bands during her career, I think that Bush’s music and career must rank alongside the most compelling and inspiring ever. In terms of how she is this incredible producer and singular voice that succeeded in a male-dominated landscape. As I say, if her relationship with the word ‘feminist’ or ‘feminism’ was not obvious or a little problematic at times – a young Bush once naively had a rather outdated visual interpretation on what a feminist looks like -,  she is no doubt a pioneering and groundbreaking woman who paved the way for those who followed her. I feel Kate Bush literally worked with more male musicians to a point because there were more available. I don’t know whether there was a great visibility of female musicians as opposed to the singers. Also, when it came to backing vocalists, she wanted the attention to be on her voice. Maybe another female voice would distract or the blend would not be right. Up until The Sensual World in 1989 – where the amazing Trio Bulgarka were beautifully brought into her music (they also appeared on 1993’s The Red Shoes)  -, she was singing all the ‘female’ parts and roles. She wanted to ensure her voice was the talking point, and she did that whilst maintaining a very positive attitude towards women.

There have been articles saying Bush had a calculated or colder approach to female journalists. She was interviewed more by men because the music media landscape was dominated by men. I don’t think it was a case of Bush trying to manipulate or seduce in any way. Maybe that is what some men were trying to do to her. Bush did have some awkward encounters with some female journalists - including this 1993 hatchet job. Some of the most interesting and heartwarming interviews I have seen or heard have been between Bush and another woman. Maybe, again, there was a case of Bush wanting to slightly control a narrative. Would other women see her in a colder or more condescending light than men?! It was definitely the case that she experienced plenty of sexism from male journalists. It has been an impossible situation. In spite of the fact that other songwriters wrote about love in a slightly angry or accusative way – in terms of placing blame on the other -, Bush was very positive. That is what I wanted to come to now. In addition to being a trailblazer and musicians who influenced a lot of women, I think her fanbase is  so dedicated and large is because of the positivity in her songs. I have recently written about her song, Eat the Music. That is thirty years old. Bush uses fruit as metaphors for men and how they express themselves. They bleed too. They can be opened and reveal something sweet and nourishing. Consider these lyrics: “Does he conceal/What he really feels?/He's a woman at heart/And I love him for that/Let's split him open/Like a pomegranate/Insides out/All is revealed/Not only women bleed”.

Right from the start of her career, Bush’s attitude towards men has been one of respect, understanding and affection. If a relationship goes bad or she is hurt by a man, there is that ability and desire to see the story from both sides and display patience. This extended to her interviews. Often asked insulting or personal questions, Bush would never lose her temper or be unprofessional – replying in a very considered and impressively calm manner. Think about The Man with the Child in His Eyes. Bush feeling, with the title, that men have this child-like wonder and innocence to them. If many of Bush’s songs between 1978’s Lionheart and 1989’s The Sensual World were relating to fictional scenes, inspired by film/literature or were more fantastical, she was still not portraying men as nasty or vindictive. From her sympathy towards young soldiers sent to war in Army Dreamers (Never for Ever), or the compromise, mutual understanding and iconic Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) from Hounds of Love. That is literally about men and women swapping places so they can better understand one another. Not blaming men or casting them in a negative light, Bush highlights a more calm and diplomatic way that conflicts can be resolved and relationships can be bettered. Some of Bush’s most devastating, beautiful, remarkable and memorable songs put men at the heart of them.

Many think that The Sensual World’s This Woman’s Work is around a mother and the woman’s role. In fact, it is sort of the end of the sentence. You could put a parenthesis in there that says (Now Starts the Craft of the Father). Never belittling the man or being insincere, I feel This Woman’s Work is both encouraging the father to grow up and take responsibility. There is a lot of sympathy placed on him: “I stand outside this woman's work/This woman's world/Ooh, it's hard on the man/Now his part is over/Now starts the craft of the father”. He is going through a tough time in the song – his wife/the mother suffers a breach and the pregnancy means they could lose their baby -, and he now has to be the tough one and step up. It is understanding - though it also highlights how strong women are and, in times like this where there is potential loss and tragedy, they have to carry a lot of that hurt and responsibility. In Love and Anger (The Sensual World), the chorus is about the heroine. Bush wanting this anger to be taken away. Maybe it reflects a love breaking down. There might be something less personal. I feel there could be something acrimonious and blame-shifting. Instead, the whole song does seem to be about making things better and an extension of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – swapping places or trying to create harmony and a common mindset: “To let go of these feeling/Like a bell to a Southerly wind?/We could be like two strings beating/Speaking in sympathy/What would we do without you? “.

There is great compassion and tolerance through her music. Think about The Red Shoes’ And So Is Love (“All you're doin' tonight/All for love (life is sad and so is love)/Just for the sake of love/(Life is sad and so is love)/You set me free, I set you free/(Life is sad and so is love)”) and You’re the One (“The only trouble is/He's not you/He can't do what you do/He can't make me laugh and cry/At the same time/Let's change things/Let's danger it up/We're crazy enough/I just can't take it”). On one of her most personal albums, Bush does show this need to see things from a man’s point of view – never submissively – and not leap to blame and anger. That positivity towards the men in her lyrics bled into the studio and the wider world. I think we often feel love songs or ones where one is hurt need to cast blame at the other party. Whatever the gender of the anti-hero, there is still so many songs where an element of vengeance and intolerance is displayed. Maybe that is earned - though I think many could take a lesson from Bush’s writing. Perhaps that need to swap places and see the world from each other’s view not only enriches and strengthens bonds; it makes fall-out and fracturing of hearts easier to cope with. That positivity and strength of heart she showed towards men, I feel, is a big argument as to why she is a feminist icon and someone who has inspired many other women – even if Bush herself would have a very different take. When so many of her peers wrote songs castigating lovers or angrily lashing out when things ended, Bush always maintained this ability to be understanding without compromising her strength and dignity. One of the great defining features of her work, career and personality, you have to salute her for possessing…

A hugely admirable quality.