FEATURE: Second Spin: Kylie Minogue – Body Language

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Kylie Minogue – Body Language

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EVEN though…

I have written about Kylie Minogue a lot in the past couple of months because her new album, Tension, was released and is a chart smash, I like to cover great albums coming up for a big anniversary. I am a Kylie Minogue fan, so I am looking at all of her album anniversaries. Second Spin is about me advising people to seek out an album that is underrated and warrants a new look. As her ninth studio album, Body Language, was released on 10th November (in Japan; 17th October in the U.K.), it is also a twentieth anniversary salute. Whilst not poorly reviewed, I don’t think it has received all the acclaim it warrants. I cannot find a new vinyl copy, though you can get the album on C.D. I cannot see any announcement there is going to be a twentieth anniversary edition of Body Language. It is a great work by Minogue I am putting back under the spotlight. I will end with a couple of the positive takes on her 2003 success. Number six in the U.K., it spawned terrific singles like Slow, Chocolate and Red Bloodied Woman. One of the issues might be that Minogue released two career-best albums not long before Body Language. A great renaissance and ‘comeback’, 2000’s Light Years and 2001’s Fever is one of the great one-twos in music history! In 2002, unsurprisingly, a new greatest hits album came out. There was a sense of expectation by 2003 to equal the success of Light Years and Fever. Maybe take things to a new high. Although that didn’t necessarily happen, I think too many were comparing Body Language to those huge albums – rather than judging them it on its own merit.

Prior to getting to a couple of reviews, I want to bring in a feature from 2018. Celebrating fifteen years of Body Language’s release, Albumism, they celebrated the highs of the album. How it has endured and still sounds great now. For Body Language, Kylie Minogue wanted to create a Dance-Pop album inspired by Electronic music from the 1980s. She enlisted the support of collaborators such as Cathy Dennis, Dan Carey, Emiliana Torrini, Johnny Douglas and Mantronix:

“On November 15, 2003, two days prior to its UK release, Kylie Minogue gave a “one-night only” live showcase for her ninth studio affair, Body Language. Housed for the evening within the prestigious halls of the Hammersmith Apollo in London, the audience for the “Money Can’t Buy” concert was made up of journalists, colleagues, family and die-hard fans. Never had Minogue put on such a grand exhibition for the disclosure of a record, then again, Body Language was a unique collection of compositions as exciting now as it was then. But, Body Language had not happened by accident or by design. Rather, it was actualized by several different career events.

Later to be rightfully canonized as pioneering, Minogue’s deConstruction Records epoch was seen, by and large, as a commercial misstep when it concluded. So, when she inked a deal with Parlophone Records in 1999, her mission was to make long players with a thoughtful, but mainstream appeal. Light Years (2000) and Fever (2001) followed making good on this intention and they triumphed.

Outwardly, Minogue was content with her newfound power. However, one could assume that the itch to create in a less constricted way hadn’t completely left her. Closer listens to Light Years and Fever gave credence to this theory as there was a markedly subversive current running beneath both albums. In 2003, as Minogue began to plot and plan her ninth recording, she tapped back into the artistic abandon of her deConstruction expanse, but tempered it tactfully with a chart consciousness gained from her recent experiences.

The past and the present became sources that Minogue aurally drew from for Body Language—initially titled City Games—as it took shape. The former aspect looked to a specific stretch in popular music (1985 to 1987) when freestyle, synth-funk and electro-hop reigned. The latter aspect had its eye “on the moment” as it related to tonally variegated electro-pop and dance music. Minogue sent out the call for collaboration to help her whisk these disparate elements into one groovy gestalt.

Cathy Dennis, Johnny Douglas, Green Gartside (of Scritti Politti), Kurtis Mantronik, Karen Poole, Richard Stannard and Ash Thomas were only some of the songwriting/production/cooperative luminaries to answer Minogue’s hails. The appearance of Gartside and Mantronik is significant, each were prominent figures from the halcyon ’85 to ’87 period Minogue was referencing. Having them present on Body Language brought legitimacy to the sessions; Gartside gifted his vocals to “Someday,” while Mantronik gifted Minogue with “Promises” and “Obsession”—all three cuts were highlights. Of all the Body Language entries across its assorted international pressings—and the B-sides earmarked for the record’s three singles—Minogue features as a co-writer on nine of them.

As the song cycle developed, it became a curiously compelling study in supposed musical contrasts that, with Minogue’s supervision, found itself convincingly blended into an esoterically charged set. Body Language’s introductory number, the simmering, midtempo synth jam “Slow” unabashedly displays Minogue’s affection for (and command of) modish electro-pop. The track’s snake-like bassline, however, yielded an irrepressible rhythm and blues vibe that felt more pronounced than ever before. R&B wasn’t completely new for Minogue; it had contributed handsomely to certain sides of Minogue’s last two antecedent albums and been a major factor in the innovative air of Kylie Minogue (1994). Yet, the urban-pop immersion of Body Language rendered those past interactions with the genre demure in comparison.

And so, in this way, the record strikingly carries on in mixing digitized soul with crisp live instrumentation—as heard best on “Still Standing”—or taming the sample savvy hip-hop beats of “Secret (Take You Home).” The two cuts blow reverent kisses to the likes of “Skin Trade” era Duran Duran and early Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam with Full Force. Still, Body Language doesn’t restrict itself to retro-modernist fusion strategies. Layered noir ballads (“Chocolate”) and ambient song pieces in a wealth of organic (“After Dark”) and inorganic (“You Make Me Feel”) textures are spread out throughout the LP making it uniform in tone, but diverse in function.

Vocally, Minogue uses the upper range of her voice to aesthetically color the engrossing lyrical pictures on the record of romance either for her craft (“Sweet Music”) or for an individual (“Loving Days”). While this may not be to everyone’s tastes, it does evince one of the many risks Minogue willingly embraced on Body Language and grants it the distinction of being her most sensual project to date.

Preceded on November 3, 2003 by its first smash single “Slow,” Body Language manifested in nearly all global markets two weeks later. America received the record a few months later in February of 2004. Even though Body Language had enough of a general commercial surface to make it chart accessible, the LP did not bow to the unspoken demand that Minogue recreate what had come before. As such, sales and notices for it were respectable, but lacked the enthusiasm that greeted Fever. Two further singles emerged during the lifespan of Body Language in “Red Blooded Woman” and Chocolate,” both yielding healthy returns in numerous singles charts around the world.

Accordingly, with the passage of time, Body Language has outstripped all of the hurdles that initially impeded it. Besides its singles becoming perennial performance pieces in Minogue’s concerts years afterward, the album’s experimental heart now finds favor and complementary comparisons to the peaks of her deConstruction phase. Written, recorded and released at a time when Minogue could have done a textbook redux of her most successful album, the ever-enterprising pop vocalist instead drafted one of the subtlest and most creatively defiant vehicles within her canon”.

One of Kylie Minogue’s talents is working with a range of collaborators who can take her music to the next level. Always remaining fresh and compelling, it would have been tempting to give the world another Fever. Instead, she moved her work forward by bringing in other influences and ideas. This is what AllMusic said in their review of the brilliant Body Language:

“If Light Years was the comeback, and Fever the confirmation, then Body Language can best be described as Kylie's "big step forward." Sure it's still simple dance-pop, but this time she (and a team of producers and writers -- including Kurtis Mantronik -- it must be said) has put together an album that works as a piece. It's stylish without being smarmy, retro without being ironic, and its energy never gets annoying. In other words: a near perfect pop record. Instead of opting for more of the light dance- and disco-pop of the last two releases, Kylie has sought to expand her horizons. Adding elements of electroclash, '80s synth pop, bouncy club beats -- even a dash of Eminem-style raps! -- she's found the formula that not only makes her vocal shortcomings irrelevant but gives her the edge on the rest of the divas on their newfound quest: maturity. While Madonna, Xtina, and Britney have attempted to achieve maturity through trashiness and not really all that shocking behavior (i.e., that MTV Awards kiss), Kylie maintained a low profile, retained a sense of class, and put together what may well be the best album of her career. Simply, Body Language is what happens when a dance-pop diva takes the high road and focuses on what's important instead of trying to shock herself into continued relevance”.

I will finish with a review from Entertainment Weekly. Although some have it more mixed assessment, there were those that saw the depths and relevance of Body Language. Not instantly assuming that Minogue should have repackaged her past work. As Tension shows, one can never predict or write off someone as innovative and forward-thinking as her:

“You ready for the change?” Kylie Minogue inquires a few numbers into her ninth album, and you think, At last — the first dance tune about menopause! It’s not to be, sadly; the legendarily cellulite-free Aussie songbird is a mere lass of 35. But that’s plenty old enough to harbor firsthand affections for a certain celebrated decade. So when she calls one new song ”I Feel for You”; enlists Scritti Politti’s erstwhile singer on ”Someday”; incorporates bits of the Lisa Lisa oldie ”I Wonder If I Take You Home” in the Ms. Dynamite-copenned ”Secret”; and liberally quotes from Janet Jackson, Chic, INXS, and Dead or Alive, one might reasonably wonder if Minogue is, as they say, livin’ in the ’80s.

Yes and — mostly — no. Body Language‘s opening single, ”Slow,” remains firmly within the realm of contemporary low-throb electro-pop, and the rest of the album is subtle and thoroughly synthetic enough that it’s easy to initially assume she’s just making her Madonna-meets-Mirwais move. That is, until you notice all those retro vocal riffs creeping in amid the electronica. On the cover, she’s striking a Nancy Sinatra-esque, ”These StairMasters are made for walkin”’ pose, but it turns out she’s less kitten with a whip than just whip-smart about creating a none-too-obvious alchemy between ’80s pop-funk and ’00s chill-out. The results are ludicrously enjoyable, and somewhere Nile Rodgers is smiling. You should be too”.

As it is twenty on 10th November, I wanted to mark that in its own right. An important album from Kylie Minogue, Body Language is also quite underrated. One that truly deserves some new praise. You hear Slow on some radio stations. Not many other tracks giving an airing. Great deep cuts such as Promises and After Dark. If you are a Minogue fan or not, take a bit of time to dive inside 2003’s…

SUPERB Body Language.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Spotify at Fifteen: The U.K.’s Most Streamed Artists and Songs

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

PHOTO CREDIT: Vlada Karpovich/Pexels

Spotify at Fifteen: The U.K.’s Most Streamed Artists and Songs

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BECAUSE Spotify was launched…

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Killers

in October 2008 (on 7th by founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon), they have compiled statistics of the most streamed artists and songs on that platform from U.K. users. Rather than only focus on U.K. artists, it is the preference of music from users here. I was interested seeing the tracks that made the list. I am going to get to a playlist with the artists and tracks that have proved most popular to U.K. users of Spotify since 2008. Music Week give us full details about what Spotify found when it came to tastes of U.K. streamers:

“To mark its 15th anniversary this month, Spotify has revealed the biggest artists and songs during that period in the UK.

Following its launch in October 2008, streaming has gone on to become dominant in terms of music consumption with Spotify as market leader. The Swedish streaming platform was first available on an invite-only basis and became fully accessible to the public in 2009 as both an ad-funded and subscription service.

According to UK data, Mr Brightside by The Killers is the most streamed song on Spotify in the UK during the past 15 years (October 2008 to August 2023).

The single was first released 20 years ago (September 29, 2003) and has become a true perennial. Two decades since its release, Mr Brightside was No.27 in the biggest singles of the year (Official Charts Company) up to the end of Q3 in 2023.

Although it is not the biggest hit in terms of chart position for The Killers (No.10 on debut in May 2004 – its only week inside the Top 20), Mr Brightside has had incredible staying power with 382 weeks in the Top 100, which is more than seven years. It has spent six weeks in the Top 40 and 130 weeks in the Top 75.

In 2021, Mr Brightside reached five years (260 non-consecutive weeks) in the Top 100, a record-breaking result which has since been consolidated thanks to consistent streaming consumption.

Mr Brightside (Vertigo/EMI) has chart sales to date of 5,146,333 (Official Charts Company), including 4,083,702 from sales-equivalent streams, 1,040,115 downloads and 22,516 physical copies. It was the lead single from The Killers’ 2004 debut album, Hot Fuss, which peaked at No.1 and has sales to date of 2,460,124.

Spotify doesn’t reveal the UK-only streams for Mr Brightside, which has a global Spotify streaming count of 1,881,261,446 (as of October 9, 2023).

According to OCC data, The Killers’ single has 446,450,174 audio streams across all DSPs in the UK. That puts it at No.4 in terms of the most streamed tracks ever in the UK, behind Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved at No.1 (547,203,306 audio streams), Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You at No.2 (539,804,486) and Sheeran’s Perfect at No.3 (475,746,011).

However, the Official Charts Company only began counting streams as part of its charts calculations in June 2014, so Mr Brightside had several years to establish its lead on Spotify. Its main streaming rivals are more recent singles by Capaldi (2018) and Sheeran (2017).

Speaking to Music Week in late 2017, The Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers pondered whether the track would have made as big of a splash had it been released in the current era.

“I just don’t think it would be as certain of a home run as it was,” said Brandon Flowers. “There’s not a home for traditional rock music - guitar, bass, drums and vocals - and I see a lot of people catering to a certain listener to try and get on the radio.

“A lot of rock is getting enthused with hip-hop and urban sentiments, feelings and tones, and so I don’t know that [Mr Brightside] would have been as easily taken into people’s hearts as it was.”

Even five years ago, the power of Mr Brightside on DSPs was undeniable.

“The band talk about Mr Brightside taking a life of its own,” the band’s manager Robert Reynolds, of Reynolds Management, told Music Week at the time. “Mr Brightside has become an anthem for a generation and you kind of surrender a little bit of ownership and let that song do what it does. We’re all happy to have it in the catalogue.”

Spotify’s 15th anniversary streaming charts

While many of the most streamed Spotify songs of the last 15 years are long-running No.1 singles, there are others tracks – like Mr Brightside – which have earned their place thanks to long-term, consistent consumption over years rather than a high chart placing.

Riptide by Vance Joy is the sixth biggest song in Spotify history in the UK (No.10 chart peak in January 2014 – 3,475,431 sales to date), while Arctic Monkeys’  Do I Wanna Know? didn’t even need to breach the Top 10 of the singles chart to make Spotify’s anniversary rundown at No.7. It peaked at No.11 on the weekly chart in June 2013 and has sales to date of 3,043,054.

Ed Sheeran is the most streamed UK artist globally on Spotify over the last 15 years and he’s the holder of the most streamed UK track globally with Shape of You, ahead of Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved and Glass Animals’ Heat Waves.

According to Spotify’s 15th birthday data drop, Dua Lipa is the most streamed female artist from the UK on Spotify. Two of her songs – Don’t Start Now and New Rules – make the Top 15 tracks by UK artists of all time on the platform.

Linkin Park’s Shadow Of The Day was the most streamed track on launch day in 2008, while Coldplay became the first UK artist to reach one million monthly streams in January 2009.

Click here to read Music Week’s 2020 cover feature on The Killers.

IN THIS PHOTO: Adele/PHOTO CREDIT: Samir Hussein/Getty Images

Spotify Top 15 Artists from the UK by global streams:

1 Ed Sheeran

2 Coldplay

3 Dua Lipa

4 Calvin Harris

5 Queen

6 Sam Smith

7 Harry Styles

8 One Direction

9 Adele

10 The Beatles

11 Arctic Monkeys

12 Elton John

13 Ellie Goulding

14 James Arthur

15 Lewis Capaldi

IN THIS PHOTO: Harry Styles

The biggest tracks on Spotify by UK artists from the past 15 years by global streams:

1 Ed Sheeran - Shape of You

2 Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved

3 Glass Animals - Heat Waves

4 Harry Styles - As It Was

5 Ed Sheeran - Perfect

6 James Arthur - Say You Won't Let Go

7 Harry Styles - Watermelon Sugar

8 Dua Lipa - Don’t Start Now

9 Ed Sheeran - Thinking out Loud

10 Ed Sheeran - Photograph

11 Coldplay, The Chainsmokers - Something Just Like This

12 Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody - Remastered 2011

13 Passenger - Let Her Go

14 Calvin Harris, Dua Lipa - One Kiss

15 Dua Lipa - New Rules

The UK's 15 most streamed songs of the past 15 years on Spotify:

1 The Killers - Mr Brightside

2 Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved

3 Ed Sheeran - Shape of You

4 Drake, Kyla, Wizkid - One Dance

5 The Weeknd - Blinding Lights

6 Vance Joy - Riptide

7 Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?

8 James Arthur - Say You Won't Let Go

9 Ed Sheeran - Thinking out Loud

10 21 Savage, Post Malone - Rockstar

11 Hozier - Take Me To Church

12 Burna Boy, Dave - Location

13 Oasis - Wonderwall

14 George Ezra - Shotgun

15 French Montana, Swae Lee – Unforgettable”.

Fifteen years since Spotify launched. It has changed the way we experience music. There were digital options prior to 2008. Spotify opened things up and gave us the entire music universe. Even though I am not a fan of the most-streamed song, Mr Brightside by The Killers, I respect that it has endured and is so popular after all of these years! I wonder how tastes will change through the years. Fifteen years from now, which artist and genres will be most popular?! It is exciting to think. Below is a playlist with the tracks and artists that U.K. Spotify users have loved the most…

THIS past fifteen years.

FEATURE: Sing It Again: Beck's Mutations at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Sing It Again

Beck's Mutations at Twenty-Five

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ONE I of my favourite artists ever…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Beck in Los Angeles in 1996/PHOTO CREDIT: Joseph Cultice

no two Beck albums are the same! I first came across his music when he released Odelay in 1996. I was mesmerised by his experimentation and the sheer range of sounds in his albums. I have followed him pretty loyally since then. The way he can make these eclectic and genre-jumping albums that are quite wild and unpredictable. He can then change tracks altogether and release something beautiful and personal! An album that is among the most celebrated from the maestro is Mutations. Released on 3rd November, 1998, I am looking ahead to the twenty-fifth anniversary of a classic. One of the best albums of the 1990s – from a man responsible for more than a couple! -, I have previously covered Mutations. I want to revisit it ahead of its twenty-fifth anniversary. I will come to some reviews. Beck is, as I said, someone who can make a very bright and crazy album. The very next one might be tuneful and serious. There is no telling what direction he will head in! After 1996’s Odelay and the success that garnered, many might have assumed Beck would continue in that manner. Release another album that had the same spirit and sounds. Instead, Mutations is more comforting and melodic. Last November, Udiscovermusic. highlighted an album recorded in just two weeks. More personal than Odelay, many got to see a new side to Beck on Mutations:

“In the award-winning afterglow of Odelay, Beck Hansen travelled the world, with adventures in the 1997-98 season that took him from the cover of Rolling Stone to the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival. Then it was time for another sonic shift that manifested itself in Mutations.

The reception to 1996’s Odelay had been passionate, both critically and commercially. In the UK, he was feted with BRIT and NME Awards; in the US, five MTV Video Music Awards came his way in September 1997. That event was one of many high-profile performance settings that also included the 1997 Mount Fuji Rock Festival near Tokyo and the H.O.R.D.E. Festival, in which he moved across America with Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Morphine, Primus and others.

Beck was an increasing influence on TV and cinema screens, too. That year also had him as a featured guest on Saturday Night Live and performing with Willie Nelson on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. He ventured into film work: the new song “Feather In Your Cap” appeared alongside music by Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips et al on DGC’s soundtrack of SubUrbia, with a script by Eric Bogosian and adapted from his eponymous play. Then came “Deadweight,” included on the score album of A Life Less Ordinary and nominated for Best Song from a Movie at the 1998 MTV Movie Awards.

A new production collaborator

As Odelay rolled over towards a US double platinum circulation, it was time to get back on record, with a new production collaborator. Beck now teamed with Nigel Godrich, the British producer who had come to the fore with his brilliant coordination of the talents of Oxford, England tastemakers Radiohead. Far from any extended studio contemplation, they recorded Mutations in two weeks.

Working at Ocean Way, the Hollywood studio that proudly declares sales from records made there at one billion units, Beck, Godrich and a crack team of musicians started recording on March 19, 1998 and wrapped on April 3. What emerged was as confident, concise and cutting-edge as one had come to expect, no mere Odelay doppelganger but an even deeper, joyfully melodious exploration of Beck’s individuality.

Immediately after completion and before release, he was on to new challenges that included the premiere of a performance art piece featuring his grandfather, Beck and Al Hansen: Playing With Matches, at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in California. On May 24, on his only UK date of the year, a remarkable triple bill combination saw Beck and John Martyn playing at the homecoming show, at Haigh Hall in Wigan, by the British modern rock champions of the time The Verve.

Beck’s own summer tour of North America began on June 1, on shows that featured the additional attractions of Sean Lennon and Elliott Smith. On a massive show in New Jersey, this writer had the privilege of seeing Beck, on a bill that also featured Ben Folds Five, playing a triumphant set opening for the all-conquering Dave Matthews Band.

An album of exotic instrumentation

When it was released, on November 3, 1998, Mutations unveiled arrangements by Beck’s father, David Campbell and exotic instrumentation including tamboura, sitar, and the cuica drum. There were also contributions from distinguished players who remain with Hansen to this day, such as keyboard player Roger Manning, bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and drummer Joey Waronker.

The album went straight into the US chart at its No.13 peak, and was gold inside a month. Even if it didn’t go on to mirror the commercial achievements of Odelay, the record overflowed with evidence that Beck was now firmly established as one of the most innovative artists in the world. The following February, Mutations beat Fatboy Slim, Tori Amos, Moby, and Nine Inch Nails to the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance.

Gone was the sample-heavy hip-hop veneer of his previous triumph, and critics were united in their admiration of Beck’s refusal to take the easy option of repeating himself. “A collection of psychedelic folk-rock and country waltzes that couldn’t have wandered much further from Odelay,” purred the Los Angeles Times in its year-end round-up. “Another fully formed creative facet of Beck we haven’t seen before.”

The NME, meanwhile, advised: “You’d better sit down. Mutations sees Beck replacing the spinning turntable with the acid-rock lightwheel, the concrete streets with the long and winding road, retreating further from glaring expectation into the complex little universe between those fluffy sideburns.

“‘Nobody’s Fault But My Own’ strings its nerves out across those Wichita telegraph poles; ‘Sing It Again‘ is ‘Norwegian Wood’ tinged with rabbit-skinning pedal steel, while the deceptively cheery honky-tonk of ‘O Maria’ casts Beck as saloon showgirl, playfully chucking grizzled cowboys under the chin.”

Beck’s prettiest record?

Rolling Stone’s Nathan Brackett observed the album’s distinctive juxtaposition of dark lyricism (“the night is useless and so are we,” declared ‘O Maria’) and attractive melodies. “The twenty-eight-year-old Beck Hansen’s new album…brims with death, decay and decrepitude,” he wrote. “But in its own peculiar way, it’s also his prettiest record to date.

“On Mutations – recorded in two weeks last spring – Beck stops talking down to his tuneful side. Compared with the funk collage of 1996’s Odelay or the raw anti-folk of 1994’s One Foot in the Grave, this is an album of comfort songs.”

We’ll conclude this entry with David Browne’s appreciation in Entertainment Weekly. “Mutations fulfills Beck’s need to chill out, take things down a notch, and avoid pigeonholing as the white-rap geek with the weird suits,” he said. “To say those goals are admirable is an understatement”.

I guess Beck is impossible to define. He is whatever he writes. With his albums switching between cool and quite out-there, to something much more restrained and heartfelt, it can be hard to pin who this person is. Beck keeps things fresh - and he is someone not necessarily eager to be defined! That is great. Taking people by surprise on 3rd November, 1998, he released this albums that was almost a polar opposite of Odelay. That said, though Mutations does have its madder and more eccentric moments. Stereogum celebrated twenty years of Mutations back in 2018:

“Beck Hansen has had one of the most interesting and singular career arcs of any musician of his generation, and his sixth album, Mutations, marked a turning point in a catalog filled with turning points. It is the album that solidified the idea that Beck is prone to do whatever he wants. Is it also possible this is where we first saw a glimpse of the real Beck, and therefore every time he was chasing down some sort of impulse, the expectation is that this is the mean to which he would inevitably return. Maybe. It is also possible that “real Beck” is yet another guise this chameleon of a performer decided to put on, in the process making us question if “real” really means anything at all.

By 1998, Beck was in the rare position of being both unimpeachably cool and absolutely huge. His 1996 everything-at-once album Odelay was an era-defining smash. He lodged alt-rock radio hits in an era where that still mattered, performed at the Grammys, losing Album Of The Year to Celine Dion. He swept the 1996 Village Voice Pazz & Jop Awards, made the cover of Rolling Stone, and was named the Most Important Artist In Music by Spin. He had become such a shorthand for “Smart But Accessible Alt-Culture Figure” that MillerCoors even shamelessly ripped off his whole steez for a beer campaign based around a slacker character named Dick.

Of course, no one stays in their imperial period forever, and one can only imagine how Beck felt, watching as the wildly free-flowing sound he and the Dust Brothers created on Odelay was immediately turned into frat-boy fodder by the likes of Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray. So with Mutations — which turns 20 tomorrow — he made a hard pivot, setting aside his free-associative hip-hop sensibilities for a series of cosmic folk songs that saw him trading Irony for Feelings.

After the tour for Odelay wound down, Beck recruited Nigel Godrich for his major work after helming Radiohead’s OK Computer, the other huge era-defining alt-rock album of the late ’90s. Beck and his crack live band cut a song a day for 14 days, for an off-the-cuff feel that Godrich would soak in his trademark antiseptic, Kubrikian sheen. The original plan was that Bong Load Records, the tiny Los Angeles label that first released Beck’s breakout “Loser” would also release Mutations.

Beck had worked out an unprecedented deal with Geffen Records that would allow him, in theory, to release albums with smaller labels, which is how K Records was able to release his collection of early lo-fi recordings One Foot In The Grave and Flipside released his hodgepodge Stereopathetic Soulmanure the same year as Geffen released his official debut Mellow Gold. But after hearing Mutations, Geffen pulled rank and insisted on releasing the album, marketing it as a detour for hardcore Beck fans while he stayed hard at work on the “real” follow-up to Odelay. No videos were made for the album, and aside from appearing on Saturday Night Live, Beck did little to promote it, but such was his stature at the time that the album eventually went platinum and won Best Alternative Music Album Grammy.

I get the sense that amongst critics and fans, Mutations is often considered Beck’s dress rehearsal for his 2002 heartbreaker Sea Change, trying sadness on for size before later going Full Desolation. But honestly, this is probably because of the album highlight “Nobody’s Fault But My Own,” which finds Beck beating himself up over unspecified mistakes over a sea of psychedelic strings that could have been sampled from Rubber Soul. It was a startling turn at the time, the effortlessly cool guy from “Where It’s At” asking aloud, “Pointing a finger, throw the book at you/ And who would want to dance with you?”

But listening to Mutations today, I think what the album tells us is that even when he’s trying to be serious, Beck is still a playful guy. “Cancelled Check” and “Bottle Of Blues” have a light, Hank Williams-worthy sway to them, complete with some light piano rolls on the former; you can practically see Beck copping a sheepish grin while tinkling the ivories at a frontier barroom for a bunch of prospectors during happy hour. “O Maria” might revolve around an oddly moving couplet that signifies the need to grow up already (“Everybody knows/ the circus is closed”) but it glides by on a ’60s melody that feels cloned from Donovan.

There’s enough fingerprints of classic rock songwriters, from the Lennon-ish melodies and chord changes on “Dead Melodies” through the Bob Dylan worthy whines of “Lazy Flies” that it sometimes feels like Beck’s aim was to make an album that if you found it in a dusty vinyl pile, you might mistake as a lost prize from the ’60s, à la Inside Dave Van Ronk. But while Beck is a scholar of music, he’s never been content with merely reproducing his record collection. Mutations is filled with dozens of tiny little Beckisms, choices only he would make, be it contrasting a wheezing harmonica with sci-fi synth wiggles on “Cold Brains,” undercutting the Beatles-like reverie of “We Live Again” with dread-inducing negative space or spicing his Brazilian-music homage “Tropicalia” with post-modern lyrics about isolation and a noisy sound collage.

Mutations would prove that Beck could do sincerity, or at least Sincerity, just fine thank you very much, and the woozy, operatic country rock he summons here in many ways feels like a blueprint that Mike Mogis and Conor Oberst would follow with Bright Eyes, where the slowly unraveling ballad “Static,” tucked all the way at the end of the album, feels like Beck’s big budget answer to the delicate balladry Cat Power and Elliott Smith were getting up to, declaring “it’s a perfect day to lock yourself inside” as the guitar solo shrugs and the keyboard lines evaporates”.

I am going to end with a couple of reviews. This is what Rolling Stone said in their review in November 1998. Mutations is unobjectively one of the most important albums of the 1990s. An artist who was huge and regarded as super-cool by 1996, it was quite a commercial risk releasing something like Mutations! Only hitting thirteen in the U.S. and twenty-four in the U.K., it was less of a chart success than Odelay. The same is true of the sales. Even so, Mutations was provided with lots of love:

“LET’S CALL THIS song “Where it’s Not”: “There is no one, nothing to see,” sings Beck. “The night is useless, and so are we.” “Night birds will cackle,” he intones on another track, “rotting like apples on trees.” The twenty-eight-year-old Beck Hansen’s new album, Mutations, brims with death, decay and decrepitude. But in its own peculiar way, it’s also his prettiest record to date.

On Mutations – recorded in two weeks last spring – Beck stops talking down to his tuneful side. Compared with the funk collage of 1996’s Odelay or the raw anti-folk of 1994’s One Foot in the Grave, this is an album of comfort songs. Assisted by Nigel Godrich (who co-produced Radiohead‘s OK Computer), Beck finally gives his melodies – some of them, like “Cancelled Check” and “Static,” as old as his first demo tapes – the full studio treatment, letting them seep into pellucid Sixties folk-pop arrangements.

The most gorgeous example of this is “Nobody’s Fault but My Own,” a wise, dreamy song traced by sitars and strings arranged by Beck’s father, David Campbell. “When the moon is a counterfeit,” sings Beck, “better find the one that fits/Better find the one that lights the way for you.” It sounds like he’s singing about a bad relationship, but he might as well be delivering a personal manifesto; he’s doffed the rhinestone suit and James Brown schtick for a new costume.

Mutations is a highly mannered album that references vintage psychedelic folk and rock as overtly as Odelay sampled Schubert. “Lazy Flies” has the same arch, carousel-like tone as the Beatles’ “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”; “Bottle of Blues” rolls along like the Kinks at their Muswell Hillbillies rootsiest. The album’s affectations can be overpowering: “Lazy Flies” is a Hieronymus Boschpainting populated by “dead horses” and “shadows of sulphur.” “We Live Again” is comically dreary; “Oh, I grow weary of the end,” Beck moans. Amid the track’s harpsichords and elevator-music slothfulness, Beck’s insincerity-which we can forgive or enjoy in other contexts – doesn’t quite fit; it seems a bit cold and removed.

But even if he doesn’t find exactly the right pitch every time, Beck has entered his prime as a songwriter, which is exciting. Few lyricists of his generation are coming up with lines as good as “Doldrums are pounding/Cheapskates are clowning this town” (“Dead Melodies”). It’s also a testament to his talent that he has so effortlessly assimilated bossa nova into his repertoire, as he did last year on the single “Deadweight” and as he does here with the wonderful “Tropicalia,” a tribute to the progressive Brazilian music of the same name from the Sixties and Seventies. Like Brazilian musicians such as Caetano Veloso and Jorge Ben (who was sampled on “Deadweight”), Beck is a singer-songwriter with a sophisticated sense of rhythm. Here, a silvery, uplifting groove brings to life a macabre carnival in which “tourists snore and decay” and people “dance in a reptile blaze.”

It’s that combination of the straight for ward and the surreal that Beck has always pursued, and on Mutations he’s found some kind of balance. Like the blues singer he once wanted to be, he broods, moans and frets – but there’s joy in the music”.

I am going to end with a review from NME. The press in the U.K. were suitably impressed by the sixth studio album from the California-born genius. Producing alongside Nigel Godrich (who then had recently produced Radiohead’s OK Computer), this was two incredible creatives working on a wonderous album. One that endures twenty-five years later:

“SO YOU'VE HAD ENOUGH FROM the all-you-can-wear trainer buffet, kicked a soda can moodily round the old-skool yard, and whatever the game is, you're pretty damn sure you know the score. Ready for the next round, you genuflect in the direction of the hipsters' Mount Rushmore, from where Yauch, Horowitz, Diamond, and there on the end, young Mr Hansen, stare down unimpeachably. You won't, however, be expecting their winter collection to include velvet tabards and incense, and as for the cacti and spittoons, well, you'd rather eat plaid.

You'd better sit down. 'Mutations' sees Beck replacing the spinning turntable with the acid-rock lightwheel, the concrete streets with the long and winding road, retreating further from glaring expectation into the complex little universe between those fluffy sideburns.

To be fair, Beck insists 'Mutations' isn't the official follow-up to 'Odelay' - that should hit the planet some time next year - but a continuation of the wax-cylinder folk unearthed on 1994's 'One Foot In The Grave'. There's no white-suited, jewel-fingered pirouetting possible here, the singer retreating to a massively unfashionable time where consciousness was peeled raw by hallucinogens, where psychedelia toppled into psychosis and the open spaces of country rock offered fresh air amid the patchouli fumes.

More 'Ohdearlay' than a joyous whoop from a cultural swinger, it's a bleak and gentle record - the opening 'Cold Brains' wobbles like a nervous breakdown on a plate, while the disillusioned 'We Live Again' suggests a man weary of the hip hype. "Dredging the night, drunk libertines", he croons, desolate, "I grow weary of the end". Only cocktail-shaker single 'Tropicalia' fits his now-established image, Antonio Carlos Jobim hanging in the 'hood while preposterous synth scrunching suggests a guest appearance by Ross from Friends. Yet as Beck's ancient voice becomes all the more intimate, the mischievous angel takes a turn for the worse, tapping into a timeless mythology of melancholy. 'Nobody's Fault But My Own' strings its nerves out across those Wichita telegraph poles; 'Sing It Again' is 'Norwegian Wood' tinged with rabbit-skinning pedal steel, while the deceptively cheery honky-tonk of 'O Maria' casts Beck as saloon showgirl, playfully chucking grizzled cowboys under the chin.

Once out on the road, though, Beck soon reins himself back into inner space, passed out on the floor of the Fillmore Ballroom watching his brain go by. The beautiful medieval whimsy of 'Lazy Flies' sounds like Beck was surrounded by jesters and maidens playing finger-cymbals. 'We Live Again' steps back even further to the days when Pink Floyd still had a definite article, but most terrifying is freakout, 'Diamond Bollocks' where booted fairies stomp out the peace-and-love embers. From fly irony to Iron Butterfly is one hell of a leap, and Beck makes it like Neil Armstrong on a helium bender.

You would expect nothing less. 'Mutations' might be the inveterate individualist's way of keeping ahead, but more gladdeningly, it swerves the style diktats and mint-condition rareties in favour of pure emotion. Sure, Beck remains the Midas Of Cool, but most importantly, it's his heart that's made of gold.

8/10”.

A stunning work that opened a more sensitive and open side to Beck, he would go on to mix more experimental and multifarious albums – see 2005’s Guero – with something deeper and more heartfelt (2002’s Sea Change). I like how he can go from Odelay in 1996 to Mutations in 1998. He would do similar with the one-two of 1999’s Midnight Vultures and 2002’s Sea Change! Someone always keeping people guessing, Mutations ranks alongside the best of Beck. Turning twenty-five on 3rd November, this is a beautiful and consistently brilliant album that will always be…

VERY dear to my heart.

FEATURE: Spotlight: mary in the junkyard

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

mary in the junkyard

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LIKE I did fairly recently…

when writing about The Last Dinner Party for Spotlight, I am capturing mary in the junkyard on their debut single. It is always interesting expressing your feelings and impressions of a group from the very first song. Things will change and evolve with the trio. Comprising guitarist and vocalist Clari Freeman-Taylor, bassist and viola player Saya Barbaglia, and drummer David Addison, I think that there are big things ahead for mary in the junkyard. Whether they remain as a trio, or Freeman-Taylor and Barbaglia remain as a duo, I am not too sure. The group’s debut single, Tuesday, has been getting quite a bit of buzz. It is a song that announced them as one of the most interesting and promising new bands around! Seeing where they go from here and how they develop will be compelling. I will get to that song soon. First, in August, Loud and Quiet spent time with the group. This was even before they released their debut single. Spotlighting them on the cusp of stepping into the music industry! There is an originality and high standard to their music and lyrics that have already seen them acquire a loyal fanbase:

“While they’re yet to release music, their DIY punk riffs, accented by Joni Mitchell-inspired poeticism and Björk’s whimsy, see them regularly draw in crowds at much-loved South London venue The Windmill – a second home to them. “I like that other people see us and associate us with it because it’s such a wonderful place,” she says. “It’s very authentic. Tim [Perry – head booker and promoter] doesn’t care about profit, he just cares about putting really great music on and he’s been really nurturing. We owe him a lot.” A fertile community that has fostered a new generation of guitar bands, the DIY label is one that Mary as a group wear proudly. “I think we’re quite unprofessional,” says Clari. “I don’t really feel like a guitarist, I play with my hand rather than a pick.” Preferring to give way to happy accidents rather than a deeply methodical approach, there is a beautiful rawness not only to their sound but also the writing. “We don’t try to be anything. We just do what feels good.”

And what feels good to them is just about everything. That’s the beauty of Mary. “Everything we do feels very chaotic. I think we all have a lot of energy to give to it,” Clari chuckles. “It’s pretty sporadic, but it kind of works. Sometimes it feels just like everything is falling into place.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Walton

Clari and Saya both having classical backgrounds, and while symphonic parallels aren’t what first come to mind when you think of angsty rock bands, the expansiveness of the classical genre is apparent in their creative approach, with Saya sometimes adding viola parts to their performances. “It’s a really cool layer,” Clari says. “We’re a trio but we’re trying to figure out how much we can do with that. It’s probably good for us creatively to have to figure out how to do things just with us.”

They are sometimes accompanied by Brian, too – a large paper mache head, who is also lurking around during our interview today. He’s yet to earn his stripes as an officially christened fourth member of a band, but his presence is indicative of the playfulness that underpins Mary as a collective. “I just think he’s funny,” Clari laughs. “We want to have a bare bones kind of vibe, like paper mache. But the main reason he’s here today is because he was in Saya’s room for a while. She wants me to take him home!”

It’s unclear if Brian will remain a constant, but one thing Clari is sure of is that Mary In The Junkyard are set to release music soon; yet part of her is reluctant. “It’s nice to not have music out, it makes us kind of mysterious and cool,” she laughs. “I’ll be sad to lose that.” Pointing to the loyal fanbase that has already been built, the mild trepidation is understandable. “Because people can’t listen to our music really easily, they have to work a bit harder. They’ve got to seek us out”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Walton

Played and championed by the likes of BBC Radio 6 Music, it is clear that mary in the junkyard have the promise and potential to go a very long way. I really love what they are doing! Their experimental sound means you can never predict where a song goes. Tuesday starts in one place. It winds and mutates into something different. NME recently put the trio under their radar. They can definitely detect something amazing in them. Expect mary in the junkyard to be suitably huge very soon:

“On a cloudless August afternoon, the fields of Glanusk Estate – home to Green Man Festival – look like a picture of bliss. As they prepare for their NME photoshoot, the members of Mary In The Junkyard attempt to scale a small oak tree while discussing the festival’s vast and eccentric activity offerings, from willow weaving to charcoal making. The harmony of the scene is spoiled only by dozens of muddy puddles, the last remaining evidence of the weekend’s heavy rainfall.

The music of this experimental rock trio – comprising guitarist and vocalist Clari Freeman-Taylor, bassist and viola player Saya Barbaglia and drummer David Addison – would find a fitting backdrop in this sprawling and dramatic festival site. Their debut single ‘Tuesday’ plays like a slowburn to a frenzied finale: staccato guitar and Freeman-Taylor’s whisper-like vocal meld with a careening intensity before reaching a two-minute crescendo. The track is both fragile and fearless at once, swooping between devastating new depths with the same quiet ferocity of caroline‘s self-titled debut or Crack Cloud’s ‘Pain Olympics’.

For Freeman-Taylor and Addison, ‘Tuesday’ represents a “new era” of their lives. Prior to forming Mary In The Junkyard with Barbaglia, whom Freeman-Taylor met at a youth orchestra, the pair were part of Second Thoughts and had garnered a devoted social media following during those long, desolate days of lockdown. With a Discord channel and multiple meme accounts dedicated to the indie-rock group, plus a 100,000-strong TikTok audience, the online attention often overshadowed the music itself, Freeman-Taylor says today. “The TikTok stuff felt like hysteria,” she adds, twiddling with a handful of leaves as she speaks. “What we’re doing here is trying to be the complete opposite of that. Because we fucking hated it.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Marieke Macklon

Your music has a real sense of spontaneity. Does it feel like a bit of an escape from the classical worlds you grew up in?

Clari: “Totally, but Saya is also an incredibly talented classical musician. She can play beautifully over anything I write. The bassline at the end of ‘Tuesday’ is really honky-tonky, and I wasn’t expecting it! Saya and I used to play in string quartets together, and a massive part of that is about being able to read each other – it helped us to bond in such a special way. I think being a three-piece allows us to keep that focus.”

Saya: “I don’t play classical music often anymore, but the passion – in the same way a lot of people may feel about sports – will always be there. When we play live, as I don’t sing, I’m often jumping around the stage, which is new for me. It’s been freeing.”

What does being in Mary In The Junkyard offer you that your previous projects didn’t?

Clari: “We were just like, ‘We have to do this or we’ll explode.’ David and I were really young when we were in the other band and I think we did a lot of stuff that we didn’t really want to do. All the numbers popped up on social media and they didn’t mean anything to us.”

David: “I think now we are really learning how to play live and be there for each other. I love these guys and feel excited by what we are making. Looking back at what happened before, and that tricky period of time, feels really weird”.

I will finish with a feature that spotlights Tuesday. Loud Women are already fans of mary in the junkyard. I am not sure what sure what the situation is relating to live dates. Keep an eye on their Instagram feed for details and their next moves. There is going to be so much demand around the country follow the release of the amazing Tuesday:

“mary in the junkyard emerge today with their anticipated debut single and video ‘Tuesday’ on AMF Records.

The band is guitarist and vocalist Clari Freeman-Taylor, bassist and viola player Saya Barbaglia and drummer David Addison.

‘Tuesday’ – written by the band, produced by Yuri Shibuichi and mixed and mastered by Nathan Boddy – is a mesmerising first statement from mary in the junkyard which delivers on the promise of their live shows and then some. Accompanied by a characterful and visually striking music video – directed by the band themselves – ‘Tuesday’ conveys chaotic feelings induced by city loneliness and climaxes in positively Lynchian fashion.

True to the band’s boundless creative vision, the ‘Tuesday’ artwork – featuring the video’s lead character, a Yeti – was hand-painted by Freeman-Taylor. The video itself stems from her initial concept, too. Speaking about ‘Tuesday’, Freeman-Taylor said:

“I wrote ‘Tuesday’ when I was first experiencing life in a city and was feeling very small. It’s so easy to be swept along with the bustle and noise and feel like a worker ant amidst thousands of others.  I wanted to write about my yearning for chaos and realness – we all have wildness within us that we might be suppressing and we shouldn’t feel like aliens because of it”.

A fascinating trio that have made such a clear impact with Tuesday, there are going to be a load of eyes on them. I can see them being very much in demand at festivals next year. How they move from here is up to the trio. I suspect there will be more singles and an E.P. at some point. Right now, with Tuesday in the ether, they have made this incredible first move! If you have not heard of mandy in the junkyard, then I would urge you to…

HEAD their way.

___________

Follow mary in the junkyard

PHOTO CREDIT: Marieke Macklon

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/maryinthejunkyrd/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@mary-inthejunkyard

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/48Kc3HRodbvm5ropMf9B6M?si=11R_jeCtQNWcnbSBChw3Uw

FEATURE: Revisiting... Martina Topley-Bird – Forever I Wait

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting...

Martina Topley-Bird – Forever I Wait

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RELEASED on 10th September, 2021…

PHOTO CREDIT: Eva Vermandel

the legendary Martina Topley-Bird released Forever I Wait. Produced by Topley-Bird, it is a magnificent album that has not got the sort of press and adulation I feel it deserves. Featuring collaborations and arrangements from Robert Del Naja (of Massive Attack), Euan Dickinson, Rich Morel, Christoffer Berg, Benjamin Boeldt and Tiadiad, I want to spend a bit of time with this album. Before getting to some reviews for Forever I Wait, here is what Topley-Bird’s Bandcamp page says about an album that I feel everyone should check out:

“'Forever I Wait' is Topley-Bird’s fourth long awaited studio album and her very first self-produced and curated piece of work to date. The album, set for a digital release on September 10th with a special “marble” vinyl edition, available to pre-order now, captures an extensive journey confronting, exploring, analysing and reflecting on the devastating fragilities of life as it ultimately seeks to make peace with what life is.

A sentient and sensual presence framed Tricky’s trip-hop pioneering white label debut release, Aftermath. Hauntingly unique and immediately recognisable, that voice became the defining timbre of a new music movement. Behind this voice was mysteriously soft-spoken, London-born Martina Topley-Bird, whose exquisite voice came to inspire and infuse other pioneering artists across all genres.

“It’s a trip through different emotional states and frequencies from insecurity and desire, all the way through to serenity and acceptance with themes that resonate from my young teens all the way through till today. Things that I’ve seen and things I’ve felt and worked through, although sometimes I sense them trying to return”

“Forever I Wait”, as the title alludes, was written and re-written over a long period of time.

“I had to change my way of relating to music and the music industry in order to make the record I wanted to make.…and that took time. And I took the time I needed. I started in London, moved and lived in America for the first time in my life, then briefly moved back to London and finished the record in Spain.”

“After trying to work on a new record for a couple of years, I came to a realisation that in order to move forward I had to separate the concept and vision I had for this record from me as a person. I had to shift my perspective. That was a big personal win and the beginning of “Forever I Wait.”

'Forever I Wait' leans on a multitude of tense sounds, dubby atmospherics and natural instrumentation to demand the listeners attention leading to over two decades of observations, experiences and musical sacrifices. It is a bi-product of the new perspective featuring carefully selected and tailored supporting arrangements from a handful of collaborators including Robert del Naja (Massive Attack), Rich Morel (Deep Dish), Christoffer Berg (Fever Ray) and Benjamin Boeldt (Adventure).

A truthful expression of desire and heartache “Forever I Wait “Is Topley Bird’s most precise and accurate album to date”.

Many might know her instantly from her work with Tricky. She is an accomplished solo artist in her own right. Perhaps her finest work is 2008’s The Blue God. I wanted to revisit her 2021 fourth studio album - as it is one I have recently passed through and taken a lot away from. An astonishing artist who has collaborated with everyone from Gorillaz to Massive Attack to David Holmes, Martina Topley-Bird is someone that everyone would have heard of at some time. Before getting to sopped reviews, I want to bring in parts of a few interviews she did to promote the album. I will start with her chat with CLASH from September 2021:

“As soon as the conversation moves on to her brand new album ‘Forever I Wait’, Martina becomes more chipper and animated. One of the long term collaborators on the new album is Robert del Naja, or D, as he’s referred to by friends, produced ‘Collide’, ‘Rain’, ‘Hunt’ and ‘Your Heart’. It turns out there is a crucial link between them. “Coming from Bristol and the mix culture, reggae and sound systems and punk, I know that Robert’s got that. There is an unspoken checklist of signatory motifs, an identity of the songs that both of us agree on,” she explains. “We don’t make punk music but there is a soul of that represented somewhere.”

Between the three previous solo albums and ‘Forever I Wait’, a seismic shift has taken place. In hindsight, the first and only clue as to what this would entail was a bittersweet, heart-wrenching single ‘Solitude’ in 2018. Seeing as the space previously reserved for nylon strings, harmonicas and a Fender Rhodes has now been snatched by drum machines, synths and midi controllers, the deal here is very much out with the old, in with the new, a fresh start rather than a comeback.

If Martina preferred to steer well clear of big names in the past to preserve her artistic integrity, now her skin has grown thick enough to take them on all at once. Enter Christoffer Berg, the Swedish whizz-kid behind Fever Ray, and Richard Morel, a hyphenate who has worked with New Order, Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys, well-versed on toplines and packed dancefloors. “I was aware that Rich came from a more commercial background. What ended up on the record was ‘Wanted’, this melodically beautiful song, and ‘Game’, a fun, upbeat track. He brought an open, light sensibility and contrast to the rest of the record, which is moody, edgy.”

More to the point, this time around there she’s had a coherent vision, there’s no two ways about it. “I wanted to make an album with a broad appeal. I was trying to mash the abrasive, organic with electronic and synthesizers,” she sumps up. “I wanted synths on this record. That was my thing. If someone put them in, they were not taking them out again. They had the tension and texture and melody. They were my signature sound. If anyone had a problem with the synths, then they had a problem with me!” she quips, pointing both index fingers at herself, laughing.

But it’s obvious there is a lot more at stake here than winning a straightforward argument over the instrumentation. “It was my evolution, the sound that wasn’t there before, and it was my decision. On previous records, 'Some Place Simple', 'The Blue God' and 'Quixotic', these weren’t necessary my ideas how the tracks would start or evolve,” she contemplates. “I think it makes a lot of sense… Not as a solo artist but my whole history, my roots and my subsequent collaborations”.

There are different parts of an interview with The Guardian that I want to source. One where Martina Topley-Bird talks about Forever I Wait, working with Tricky on Maxinquaye, and their relationship together. Topley-Bird’s daughter, Mazy, died in 2019 aged only twenty-four. The album was almost completed when Mazy died. How gruelling and challenging it must have been for Topley-Bird to return to it:

“Forever I Wait was almost complete when Mazy died. I ask if it was difficult to return to the project. “Actually, connecting with the record was helpful,” she says. “And just going through the process of getting to my desk and making lists and doing a lot of computer work helped. Because I’ve always found that if there’s difficult emotions going on, doing things that are rote or mechanical can be helpful.”

I sense a weariness in her voice so ask if she’s OK to talk about her daughter. She lets out a big exhale. “I don’t know. Generally I’m not. I get a feeling of a ball in my stomach and it’s still very unpredictable how I’ll feel.” With a suddenness that seems to take her by surprise she starts to cry. “I’d like to be able to comfort other people that are affected by it, too,” she says after a while. “But I don’t even know how to talk about it. It was just the two of us for a very long time, and…” She trails off again and I suggest we move on.

“I’m sorry this has turned into a jolty ride,” she says with a laugh through the tears.

I’m sorry for making you cry, I say.

“It’s still unpredictable,” she says. “Nobody asks me on a day-to-day basis, so it’s not something I deal with. And so if I do go anywhere near it then, yeah, that starts happening and I’m not used to it.”

Martina Topley-Bird was born in London in 1975, growing up in a large family with five siblings and three step-siblings. Her father, Martin Topley, died before she was born; her surname combines his with that of her stepfather. After moving to Bristol, she studied at the prestigious boarding school Clifton College. But a chance meeting with Tricky – he heard her singing outside his house – sent her life down a more musical path. Was she a rebellious teen?

“I had quite a lot of attitude and was a tiny bit maybe arrogant, yeah,” she says. “I mean… yeah!”

What did her family make of the sudden change in her life?

“It wasn’t like a one-day thing. I did Aftermath but that didn’t get released for two years. It was kinda fun, people were calling to say that Björk liked the track and it sounded like Sade, but I was studying still. I’m not sure I told my parents about it.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Martina Fornace

It was later, while resitting some of her exams, that Topley-Bird embarked on a romantic relationship, worked on Maxinquaye and, as she puts it, her “life began to drift. I started to lose form, as it were.” She had sung in the school choir and in her piano teacher’s jazz band, but she had no recording experience when Tricky enlisted her as the record’s main vocalist. To make matters more confusing, it was one of the most unconventional records ever made: many of the vocals you hear are first takes, with Topley-Bird having never even heard the backing track before she recorded.

And she’s found a sense of fulfilment in working out how to express herself differently in her music. “Because I’m a lot more open. Maybe there’s some catharsis but I think it’s more an evolution, a growth. I’ve let go of some immature, restricting ideas. Bullshit beliefs that were not helping me achieve what I wanted to achieve or really be doing what I want to do.”

In April last year, Topley-Bird travelled to the mountains by the sea south of Valencia to decide on the tracklisting. The album ends with Rain, which sees her singing over a string quartet: “One day while walking in the rain/ I found my path along the way.” It speaks of acceptance, of living in the present. It feels like a moment of cleansing and spiritual rejuvenation.

The song’s lyric was written not by her but Nat. “It’s funny because she works in international development, she has never written lyrics before. But she thought she’d have a go. And I saw them and thought, ‘This is so not me. I would be cryptic and vague and I don’t know if I would be that person. But then I found a way to sing it.’”

She’s beaming with pride now. And a sense that, despite everything, she’s finally arrived at what she wants to say”.

Prior to the reviews, there is an interview I found that is relevant. There is a nice smattering of interviews. All really interesting to see. It is a pity that there were not more reviews for the stunning Forever I Wait. Juno Daily spoke with Martina Topley-Bird in October about one of her strongest albums yet:

“Forever I Wait could well be Topley-Bird’s strongest and most coherent album to date. Factor in how long it took to conceive and the elongated production process (although largely recorded between 2015 and 2018, it was only completed earlier this year), and you can only marvel at the results.

“Thank you,” Topley-Bird responds when Juno Daily offers its assessment of the album. “I think I now know how to make things work better together, and I deliberately didn’t work with a lot of elements. The producers I chose to work with, I did so because I thought I knew what they would come up with, and if that didn’t work, I had Benny [Benjamin Boeldt], who I knew could make it work.”

Although Topley-Bird is credited as the producer  of Forever I Wait – a role she’s keen to define as “a courtesy of choice role”, in line with a traditional producer rather than an always hands-on one – Boedlt undeniably played a key role in the album’s creation, alongside a number of other producers and beat-makers whose sounds can be heard across the set’s 12 tracks (Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, Richard Morel, Depeche Mode collaborator Christopher Berg and California-based Tradiad all contributed).

 “Benny was like the glue that held the project together,” Topley-Bird enthuses. “He worked with me on tracks I’d started myself, beefed up things I really loved but weren’t hitting hard enough in the low-end, and added really fascinating things to arrangements. He was able to take direction in that he made tracks that were nothing like his own music, but with pinpointed reference points. I think that’s the way for me to work.”

It was not always this easy, though. Topley-Bird admits that she has enjoyed mixed relations with some producers she’s worked with and in the past sometimes struggled to take on board constructive criticism from those she worked with. “I had to get over the idea that my ideas were precious and needed respecting and protecting,” she says candidly. “I realised that ideas were just that, but they were my ideas and that’s what we were doing – it’s about the ideas, not me and my feelings. If an idea works for the record I’m making, it stays, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. A ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is better than, ‘I don’t know’, ‘maybe’, or just being too uncomfortable to tell you what I really think.”

At several times during our conversation, Topley-Bird refers to having a specific vision for the album. While she doesn’t elaborate on that, Forever I Wait – and the Pure Heart EP that precedes it – certainly sound like a coherent musical statement. The LP starts with a blast of murky, guitar-laden Bristol soul that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Massive Attack’s Mezzanine and ends with the string-drenched poignance of ‘Rain’; in between, you’ll find a mixture of stirring soundscapes, thickset trip-hop, gritty grooves, bustling electro-pop, dubbed-out heaviness and lo-fi headiness. Throughout, the album is held together by her trademark voice, thought-provoking lyrics (all of which were written before the tragic death of her and Tricky’s daughter two years ago) and a distinctive aural atmosphere that recalls her musical roots in the Bristol scene of the 1990s.

“What I wanted to do is reclaim my entire history and make a coherent body of work that was an actual piece of art,” Topley-Bird asserts. “A real artistic statement, with an emotional arc and a beginning, a middle and an end. That’s in contrast to other things I’ve done in the past, which had beautiful and rather wonderful things within them, but had something about them that felt like exercises. That’s a terrible word to use because it sounds kind of reductive, like there wasn’t emotion and creativity that went into them, but I think it’s accurate.”

The idea of reclaiming her history, and specifically embracing the role she played in the darker and murkier end of the Bristol sound, is something she returns to a few times while talking about the album. “Sonically, claiming my history was important, because when I started making solo records, I was being reactive,” she admits. “It was like, ‘I’m not going to do everything I just did’. When you’re younger, you try things out. With a bit of distance, it’s easier to realise what’s yours.”

Topley-Bird admits that she’s not been back to Bristol for many years, but she now understands how much the city shaped her personal and musical DNA. “It’s still part of me and I do claim that Bristol sound as mine as well,” she muses. “I know why things from Bristol sound the way they do and that represents me. Growing up as a mixed-race person, it was much easier in Bristol than anywhere else in England because it’s very mixed, socio-economically as well as racially. That’s why there’s reggae, soul, hip-hop and punk all mixed together. The people I make music with, it’s part of their DNA and it’s part of mine as well.”

With that, our time is almost up. So how has the interview-shy Topley-Bird found our encounter. “I really enjoyed it actually,” she chuckles. “I haven’t been to England in ages and even talking to English people is a rarity for me. It’s been good”.

The first of two reviews I want to bring in is from Spectrum Culture. It is obvious that Forever I Wait’s title is apt. This is like her debut album. Where she had had control and released something that is meaningful to and representative of her. That makes it even more important that people check out this incredible work and appreciate its significance. How personal it is to Martina Topley-Bird:

“Forever I Wait may be Martina Topley-Bird’s fourth solo album but she recently told The Guardian that she regards it as her debut. Her reasoning is that it’s the first time she’s taken full control of a release, carefully choosing who she worked with and piecing together the tracks over several years.

Written largely before the death of Mazy, the daughter she had with former partner Tricky, it’s also her first album in a decade (2010’s Some Place Simple, which reworked her earlier material). She wasn’t entirely absent from music during this time, being an in-demand collaborator and appearing with the likes of Gorillaz and Diplo.

It’s a fortuitous time to officially resurface given that the downtempo trip-hop she helped to pioneer is having a moment again, influencing Brit Awards winner Arlo Parks and being sampled by The Weeknd. It’s a sound she’s doubled down on across these twelve tracks. Where previous albums had a rag-bag approach to styles – dabbling in rock, soul and jazz – here she’s largely confined herself to one mood.

It would be easy to interpret this dark atmosphere in the light of her personal tragedy. Opening track “Pure Heart” finds her waiting for her heart “to heal so I can have a fresh start,” over grungy, low-slung guitars. It’s an emotional arc that closes on the final track, “Rain,” when she accepts she has to “let go of things and live in the now,” while the lightness of the strings speak of optimism for the future. This tone is an anomaly, with the song being quite unlike anything else on the release.

The vast majority of the album instead bears the unmistakable hallmarks of her collaborators, which include Massive Attack’s Robert “3D” Del Naja, Fever Ray producer Christoffer Berg, and Depeche Mode remixer Rich Morel. “Hunt” has the creeping unease of those artists, with its rumbling bass noises, while “Free” could have been cut from the same cloth as Tricky’s Maxinquaye, its production being superficially sparse but an entire soundscape appearing when heard through headphones.

The way in which these tracks contrast disconcerting bass notes with icy synths and scuzzy guitars taps into the mid-’90s. Some of the production and lyrical concerns – including the crystal meth epidemic – nonetheless help to pull her soulful trip-hop into the newer territories that it always promised before it faded too fast. The album could have lost a couple of songs in this vein, the tone lacking in variation, but it also features some sparkling surprises.

“Wanted” drifts towards Zero 7 coffeehouse politeness with its dreamlike passages but “Love” has a gorgeous sleepy blues haze and “Collide,” a put down of “corporate greed” is a hiss of hi-hats and drum and bass rhythms. Best of all is “Game,” which leaps out of the speakers with its playfulness and barely disguised debt to Gorillaz.

In returning to her first musical home – having recorded with Tricky when she was still a teenager – Topley-Bird’s given the genre a partial rebirth. The album lacks the musical variety of her earlier recordings, but it rarely feels comfortable, her soulful and husky vocals carrying emotional depth that makes it worth the wait”.

I will end with a review from The Arts Desk. Many gave Forever I Wait the equivalent of three-and-a-half/four stars. Pretty respectable though, the more you listen, the more you realise that it is a minimum of four stars! A very strong album from one of music’s most distinctive voices:

“Martina Topley-Bird, who started out doing vocals for Tricky’s first single "Aftermath" aged 15, has matured.

On her fourth solo album, self-produced, she builds confidently on the dreamy vocal lines that were essential to the Bristol sound of the '90s.

On her previous solo ventures, it seemed as if she were in search of an identity, a rock chick one moment and a trance-weaver the next. She has definitely found herself: bathed in soft-edged dubby sounds that suit a sensual voice that makes a virtue of reverb, this is music that floats and supports Martina’s naked expression of vulnerability.

There are collaborations with Robert del Naja that could be outtakes from a Massive Attack album not yet made, Martina having worked as a live and studio vocalist for the Bristol band for half a dozen years. She has chosen her other collaborators with all the right intuitions – Christoffer Berg, Rich Morel, Benjamin Boeldt and Tialdia – all of them perfectly attuned to her breathy and soulful vocals.

Martina is a master of introversion, creating chiaroscuro songs that explore her inner states, playing darkly with existential angst and an ever-present sense of foreboding. All of this was present in Tricky’s first album Maxinquaye (1997), and it could be said that this classic and ground-breaking album was as much Martina as Tricky’s. Back then, she was thought to be Tricky’s muse, or the voice of his mother who wrote poetry and committed suicide when he was a child. Tricky and Martina’s daughter Mina committed suicide herself in 2019. The new album was mostly finished before Mina's tragic death, but it’s almost as if Martina were navigating a life haunted by self-destruction and suicidal tendencies born of excessive sensitivity and creative talent – fates shared in an uncanny way within the constellation of her intimate relationships.

The mood is somewhat relentless. There's little variation from a sound born of Bristol in the '90s, including the lilting beat of what was known as trip-hop,  the nervous energy of drum’n’bass and the dreamscapes of dub. This is a mature album though, nourished by darkness and passion. Martina has dared face her demons, and her work has a depth well beyond her earlier solo work. “Sand” finds her with a sharper voice, ringed with the edge of an anger that has never been part of her palette. The closing song on the album, ”Rain”, bewitchingly lyrical with string quartet accompaniment, is a gem, and suggests another way forward into new and exciting territory”.

One of 2021’s best – and yet under-reviewed albums -, Martina Topley-Bird’s Forever I Wait is one that I would recommend to everyone. I hope the interviews and reviews have given you context and impetus to check the album out. Songs from it should get a peek onto radio playlists now and then. It is another essential listen from the London-born icon. If you have some time spare today, go and spend some of it with…

A truly excellent album.

FEATURE: #BlackHistoryMonth 2023: The Upcoming Documentary Concert Film, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé

FEATURE:

 

 

#BlackHistoryMonth 2023

IMAGE CREDIT: Parkwood Entertainment 

The Upcoming Documentary Concert Film, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé

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AS I have written before…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé performing during her Renaissance World Tour in London on 30th June, 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood Entertainment

there are a couple of very big concert films coming out. Taylor Swift releases her concert film, TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR, today (14th October). One of the biggest and most successful tours in history, the concert film already broke records before it was released. For those who did not go to see her on tour – or cannot do whilst it is on at the moment -, this concert film gives you an insight into the preparation and spectacle of a tour from one of the world’s most important artists. Tomorrow (15th), Madonna is at the 02 Arena in London to start her delayed Celebration Tour. Coming back from serious illness, she is starting an epic tour that arrives forty years after her debut album and her breakthrough hit, Holiday. You know there will be a concert film from that. Maybe one that will outdo Taylor Swift’s in terms of its impact and popularity. It is a time when amazing women are mounting these extraordinary tours. I will talk more about that for another feature. As it is #BlackHistoryMonth, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to look at another epic concert film that is about to be released. The iconic Beyoncé’s RENAISSANCE was one of the biggest albums of last year – and one of the very best of her career.

An early Christmas treat comes in the form of Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé. It is distributed by AMC Theatres. It is scheduled to premiere on 1st December, 2023. It will reportedly be an amalgamation of the creation of RENAISSANCE (2022), Beyoncé's seventh studio album; the record's accompanying visual album; the recorded footage from the Renaissance World Tour and its development. Like concert films from Taylor Swift – and a presumed one from Madonna – it shines a light on how much involvement artists like Beyoncé have in their tours. From the choreography and production through the visuals, there is so much work put in by the artist! A visionary artists who is a queen and Black icon, this film is going to empower so many people. Someone who is a source of strength for the Black community and her L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ fans, I wanted to spend some time with the tour and concert film. I will come to a recent article from NPR announcing details of the film. It is the sheer size and scale of these tours that amazes me. So much that could possibly go wrong. Instead, they are flawless and memorable. By all accounts, this is the pinnacle of Beyoncé’s live career. The Renaissance World Tour ended on 1st October, though it will go down in history! Even if there seems to be more media attention on Taylor Swift’s achievements this year and her tour, it seems like the Renaissance Tour is on another level. Maybe one of the finest and most captivating live experiences in history. As Esquire’s Bria McNeal wrote in August when she caught the show, the feats of athleticism, visual excellence and production is outstanding to behold:

“Forbes predicts that the Renaissance Tour could earn around $2.1 billion by the time it wraps in September. If Beyoncé pulls it off, that will make her the highest-grossing female act of all time. That title currently belongs to Madonna, who—in July 2022—had earned $1.4 billion from her shows. Taylor Swift is next in line with a projected $1.9 billion in sales from her currently-running Eras Tour. According to Billboard, Beyoncé is well on her way to nabbing the top spot, earning more than $154 million from her European tour dates alone.

You know that moment at a family party, when you see someone you don’t recognize, but feel an intrinsic connection to them? That’s what attending Renaissance is like.

Like everyone else in the crowd, I attended the Renaissance Tour as a fan. But I was a fan on a nearly 20-year-long mission. We all know Beyoncé is Beyoncé (you don’t earn $154 million on a whim), but I wondered what I'd learn from seeing her live—dancing and singing along with her, plus, of course, mingling with the Beyhivee.

One of the first people I run into is Zahir, who is proudly donning a sequined top. I simply ask why he loves Beyoncé. He says, “Her Blackness. She’s so in tune with her womanhood and voice.” The next person I talk to is Rickey Mile, a self-proclaimed superfan. He gives a dumbfounded look, as if any questions about Beyoncé's greatness go without asking. “She’s timeless,” he explains. According to Mile, it doesn’t matter when you see Beyoncé, what’s going on in her personal life, or which era of her career she’s in—the woman always puts on a good show.

After seeing the Renaissance Tour, I have to agree. The concert (and the album) is a homage to Beyoncé’s uncle, Johnny—a gay man who introduced her to house music. To say Renaissance would make him proud is an understatement. It’s one giant, queer party, filled with references to drag icons Kevin Aviance and Moi Renee, along with a cameo from viral ballroom dancer Honey Balenciaga. The stadium shook for three straight hours, with fans bouncing and rocking along to each song.

Given Beyoncé’s expansive catalog, there is a smattering of oldies woven throughout the show. But don’t be fooled. This isn't anything like Swift's Eras Tour. Instead of selecting songs chronologically, Beyoncé presents a mix of her favorite hits. The show opens with a powerful rendition of “Dangerously in Love,” which bleeds into the yearning ballad “1+1.” Then, just when you’re ready to profess your love to someone in the crowd, Beyoncé switches gears, performing the self-assured Renaissance track, “I’m That Girl.” The whole thing exudes rich aunt energy. Pure fun. No rules. And the atmosphere? Well, it’s like a reunion. After all, the last time the Beyhive convened was during 2016's Formation Tour. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood Entertainment

You know that moment at a family party, when you see someone you don’t recognize, but feel an intrinsic connection to? That’s what attending Renaissance is like. Everyone is a stranger, yet also a cousin. I suppose that makes Beyoncé our matriarch. Just ask the troves of fans yelling “Mother!” during her set.

Perhaps that maternal energy stems from Beyoncé’s dedication to lifting others up. Along with the references to the aforementioned queer icons, Beyoncé uses Renaissance to celebrate Black women. During the show, she sings, “Break My Soul (The Queen's Version), featuring Madonna. The remix praises every Black performer who inspired them: Bessie Smith, Lauryn Hill, and Nina Simone, among many others. Later on, Beyoncé brings her daughter, Blue Ivy, on stage to celebrate their heritage, with the songs “My Power” and “Black Parade.” The Renaissance Tour feels like one giant love letter to Beyoncé's community—and because of that, every moment has a purpose.

Though the Renaissance Tour is art, and even a pseudo-communion, it's also an athletic feat. Any time you think Beyoncé has reached her peak, she surprises you with something else. At one point, she’s singing riffs you’ve never heard. In the next moment, she’s dancing in stilettos. If you look away for a second, you'll miss a surprise costume change or an exciting set design. It’s magic.

After the concert, I see a teenage girl dab her eyes with her sleeve. “‘Formation’ broke me for some reason,” she tells her friend. “I continued to cry for the rest of the show”.

It is hard for her fans to see her show. With unparalleled demand and fairly expensive ticket prices, many couldn’t afford or seize that chance to see their idol. That is why the concert film coming in December is so important. It will be a cinematic experience that will unite Queen Bey fans around the globe. I will come to that NPR feature soon. First, I want to bring another perspective in regarding the wonder of her Renaissance World Tour. There is the divine, human and otherworldly in this live extravaganza. The New York Times’ Lindsay Zoladz provided her take when she saw Beyoncé conquer Toronto, Canada:

“The show’s look — as projected in diamond-sharp definition onto a panoramic screen — conjured Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” by way of the 1990 drag ball documentary “Paris Is Burning.” After a lengthy video introduction, Beyoncé emerged from a chrome cocoon and vamped through a thrilling stretch of the first suite of “Renaissance” songs; during “Cozy,” most strikingly, a pair of hydraulic robotic arms centered her body in industrial picture frames, like a post-human Mona Lisa.

In May, when Beyoncé began the European leg of the Renaissance World Tour, rumors swirled that she may have been recovering from a foot injury, since her choreography was a bit more static and less stomp-heavy than usual. The Toronto show did nothing to dispel that chatter, but it also showed that it doesn’t matter much. Perhaps because of some constraints, Beyoncé has embraced new means of bodily expression. She brought the flavor of ball movements into the show and served face all night, curling her lip like a hungry predator, widening her eyes in mock surprise, scrunching her features in exaggerated disgust.

PHOTO CREDIT: The New York Times

Few seats in the stadium provided a legible view of Beyoncé’s face, of course, though the screen took care of that. She played expertly to the cameras that followed her every choreographed move, aware of how she’d appear to the majority of the audience and — perhaps just as crucially — in FOMO-inducing social media videos. The stage itself was breathtaking, featuring an arced cutout section of the screen that made for playful visuals, but its full grandeur was not visible from many of the side seats, making the band and sometimes the dancers difficult to see.

The screen, though, was the point. Beyoncé’s two solo releases before “Renaissance” — her 2013 self-titled album and “Lemonade,” from 2016 — were billed as “visual albums,” featuring a fully realized music video for each track. Again toying with her fans’ anticipation, she has still not released any videos from “Renaissance,” giving the previously unseen graphics that filled her expansive backdrop an added impact, and making them feel more weighty than a convenient way to pass time between costume changes.

Many of the tour’s outfits struck a balance between Beyoncé’s signature styles — megawatt sparkles, high-cut bodysuits — and the futuristic bent of “Renaissance.” She played haute couture bee in custom Mugler by Casey Cadwallader and glimmered in a Gucci corset draped with crystals. But the night’s most memorable look — so instantly iconic that a few fans had already tried to replicate it, from photos of the European shows — was a flesh-tone catsuit by the Spanish label Loewe, embellished with a few suggestively placed, red-fingernailed hands.

Throughout the set, Beyoncé wove interpolations of her predecessors’ songs throughout her own, as if to place her music in a larger continuum. The grandiose “I Care” segued into a bit of “River Deep, Mountain High,” in honor of Tina Turner, who died in May. The cheery throwback “Love on Top” contained elements of the Jackson 5’s “Want You Back.” Most effective was the “Queens Remix” she performed of “Break My Soul,” which mashes up the “Renaissance” leadoff single with Madonna’s “Vogue,” paying homage to the mainstream pop star who brought queer ball culture to the masses before her. (The merch on sale at a Renaissance Tour pop-up shop in the days before the show included a hand-held fan emblazoned with the song title “Heated” for $40. It sold out.)

The show contained moments that sometimes felt conceptually cluttered and at odds with the “Renaissance” album’s sharp vision, like dorm-room-poster quotes from Albert Einstein and Jim Morrison that filled the screen during video montages. The middle stretch, arriving with a lively “Formation,” featured Beyoncé and her dancers clad in camo print, riding and occasionally writhing atop a prop military vehicle. There was a wordless, gestural power in the moment she and her entourage held their fists in the air, referencing a salute that had rankled some easily rankle-able viewers of the 2016 Super Bowl Halftime Show. But if Beyoncé was calling for any more specific forms of protest or political awareness — especially in a moment when drag culture and queer expression are being threatened at home and throughout the world — those went unarticulated.

PHOTO CREDIT: The New York Times

Beyoncé’s endurance as a world-class performer remained the show’s raison d’être; she is the rare major pop star who prizes live vocal prowess. By the end of the long night — and especially during the striking closing number, the disco reverie “Summer Renaissance,” when she floated above the crowd like a deity on a glittering horse — she extended the microphone to lend out some of the high notes to her eager and adoring fans. “Until next time,” she said, keeping the stage banter relatively minimal and pat. “Drive home safe!”

Even when Beyoncé embraces styles and cultures known for their improvisational looseness, she still seems to be striving toward perfection — a pageant smile always threatens to break through the stank face. Commanding a stadium-sized audience, she was an introvert wearing an extrovert’s armor. That tension is part of both her boundless charm and her occasional limitations as a performer. And it makes moments of genuine spontaneity all the more prized.

Naturally, #RenaissanceWorldTour was trending on Twitter long after the show, but one of the clips that went viral was unplanned. During a rousing performance of her early hit “Diva,” Beyoncé accidentally dropped her sunglasses. She fumbled them for a second, mouthed an expletive as they fell to the ground, and gave a sincere, shrugging grin before snapping back into the choreography’s formation. For a fleeting moment, she seemed human after all”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé accepts the Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for RENAISSANCE during the 65th Grammy Awards/PHOTO CREDIT: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

With the reviews in and it being clear that the Renaissance World Tour has taken live performance to new heights, the cinematic released is going to be something else. This is what NPR wrote about the upcoming documentary concert film:

“Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé is an upcoming American documentary concert film by American singer Beyoncé. It is distributed by AMC Theatres, scheduled to premiere on December 1, 2023.[2] The film will reportedly be an amalgamation of the creation of Renaissance (2022), Beyoncé's seventh studio album; the record's accompanying visual album; and the recorded footage from the Renaissance World Tour and its development.

“The Beyhive will be getting in formation once again, as a concert film of Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour is coming to theaters.

Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé will be in theaters on Dec. 1 in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. More international dates will be listed later, according to the film's distributor, AMC Theatres Distribution.

It "accentuates the journey of RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR, from its inception to the opening show in Stockholm, Sweden, to the grand finale in Kansas City, Missouri," AMC said in a Monday release. "It is about Beyoncé's intention, hard work, involvement in every aspect of the production, her creative mind and purpose to create her legacy, and master her craft."

The trailer shows moments from her performances, as well as documentary-style footage of the singer with her dancers, husband Jay-Z, and children — including her daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, who joined her onstage for a dance number during several dates of the tour.

Reaction to news of the movie was quick and enthusiastic, as fans have been asking for yet-to-be-released music videos to accompany the album, after Beyoncé released a teaser with her in different looks shortly after the album came out in July 2022.

She posted the trailer for the film to her Instagram with the caption, "Be careful what you ask for, 'cause I just might comply," a lyric from one of the album's songs, "ALL

Beyoncé performed 56 times in 39 cities for the tour, which sold more than 2.7 million tickets. In total, it earned $579 million, which has made history as the highest-grossing tour by a female artist and the seventh highest-grossing tour of all time.

Tickets start at $22 and have already gone on sale, AMC said. The movie will also show at Cinemark, Regal, Cinepolis and Cineplex locations across North America.

Back in August, AMC also announced a concert film of Taylor Swift's Eras tour. Presale revenues have surpassed $100 million for that movie, the company said.

It has not publicly released presale amounts for the Renaissance film, an AMC spokesperson told NPR”.

There is no doubting the influence of Beyoncé. One of the most important and inspiring Black artists ever, I wanted to mention her Renaissance World Tour and approaching concert film in the context of #BlackHistoryMonth. I hope that the sheer wave of love and respect for her live feat means there is more appreciation from some corners of the industry. It was a shock that her RENAISSANCE album was overlooked by the Grammys earlier this year:

“If you tuned into the Grammys last night without realizing what you were watching, you might have mistaken the program for a three-and-a-half hour Beyoncé tribute. Seemingly every celebrity in the Crypto.com Arena basked in her presence, fawned over her, and thanked her for being the artist of their lifetime in their speeches. But the Recording Academy has long ignored Beyoncé when it comes to the Big Four Categories—Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Album of the Year. She’s only won once in these categories—in 2010, for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)”—and has lost all four times she was nominated for the coveted Album of the Year trophy, including last night.

At Sunday night’s ceremony, Beyoncé was expected by many to win with her incredible sonic masterpiece Renaissance, her 2022 album that topped many a best-of-year list. Earlier in the night, she had broken a major record, becoming the artist with the most Grammy awards ever after bringing her total up to 32 trophies with four new wins. There was a noticeable hush in the room right after host Trevor Noah announced the nominees for the night’s biggest award. When Harry Styles was announced as the winner, there was what appeared to be a brief pause before the room erupted into applause. Over on Twitter, meanwhile, things immediately devolved into chaos as critics and fans expressed a range of reactions to the perceived snub for Beyoncé and Renaissance”.

As cultural figures and iconic artists, there are few like Beyoncé. One of the most important and respected Black artists in history, the songwriter, producer, businesswoman, philanthropist and filmmaker is also this incredible pillar of strength for her L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ fans. Out on 1st December, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé is going to be…

SOMETHING unforgettable.

FEATURE: Gods and Robbers: Kate Bush’s There Goes a Tenner and Suspended in Gaffa at Forty-One

FEATURE:

 

 

Gods and Robbers

IN THIS IMAGE: Kate Bush in the Suspended in Gaffa video/ART CREDIT: iniminiemoo via Deviant Art

Kate Bush’s There Goes a Tenner and Suspended in Gaffa at Forty-One

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SLIGHTLY breaking away…

from my Kate Bush album anniversary features, it is an opportunity to talk about two singles that were released on 2nd November, 1982. The penultimate released from her album – after Sat in Your Lap and The Dreaming -, these two very different songs were released in different parts of the world. As an experimental and not instantly accessible album, it was difficult getting singles out and them riding high in the charts. I don’t suppose Bush was thinking about singles and getting chart success. The Dreaming was very much about the whole. How the album sounded. Although this was reversed to a degree on 1985’s Hounds of Love,  1982’s The Dreaming was very much a chance for her to show she was a serious artist. Not one who like her Pop peers or easy to define. Instead, The Dreaming is a collection of songs that reveal themselves over multiple listens. That said, on 2nd November, 1982, Bush did launch her newest singles. After Sat in Your Lap fared well on the charts and The Dreaming was considered a comparative failure, there was probably a feeling that, if two different singles were released in different areas of the world, then that would be a gamble worth taking (?). One could say two other songs on The Dreaming would have been successful singles – perhaps All the Love and Houdini. Bush released the jaunty crime caper, There Goes a Tenner, in the U.K. and Ireland. Suspended in Gaffa was released in Australia and the continental Europe. There Goes a Tenner reached ninety-three. It is a song that gained no interest from any radio stations. There Goes a Tenner’s video gained little attention on music television programmes. Suspended in Gaffa got top-forty in some countries. Even if the chart position do neither song justice, they are worth highlighting and celebrating!

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush and an extra during the rehearsals for the There Goes a Tenner video in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Coming up to the forty-first anniversary of their release, these tracks still sound like nothing else! Distinctly the work of Kate Bush. Kate Bush Encyclopedia gives us some information about There Goes a Tenner. It is one that miffed critics. Perhaps wanting Kate Bush to be more accessible - and release songs that were more traditional -, it was clear her work was ahead of its time. The perception that women considered as Pop artists should be releasing certain types of music. I think There Goes a Tenner is a really interesting song that should have done better on the charts. It has quite a nice backstory. Another assuredly Kate Bush type of song. She explained in interviews where she got the idea for a terrific track:

“It's about amateur robbers who have only done small things, and this is quite a big robbery that they've been planning for months, and when it actually starts happening, they start freaking out. They're really scared, and they're so aware of the fact that something could go wrong that they just freaked out, and paranoid and want to go home. (...) It's sort of all the films I've seen with robberies in, the crooks have always been incredibly in control and calm, and I always thought that if I ever did a robbery, I'd be really scared, you know, I'd be really worried. So I thought I'm sure that's a much more human point of view. (The Dreaming interview, CBAK 4011 CD)

That was written on the piano. I had an idea for the tune and just knocked out the chords for the first verse. The words and everything just came together. It was quite a struggle from there on to try to keep things together. The lyrics are quite difficult on that one, because there are a lot of words in quite a short space of time. They had to be phrased right and everything. That was very difficult. Actually the writing went hand-in-hand with the CS-80. (John Diliberto, Interview. Keyboard/Totally Wired/Songwriter (USA), 1985)”.

I suppose Suspended in Gaffa would have been a successful single in the U.K. I think it is close in tone and inspiration to Sat in Your Lap. Whereas There Goes a Tenner has Bush adopting a Cockney accent and there is no real chorus, Suspended in Gaffa seems more familiar and accessible in some ways. Something that could have got radio play. I love There Goes a Tenner and think that it was let down by radio stations and the media. No fault of Kate Bush and EMI! Suspended in Gaffa is an intriguing song that should be played more today. This is what Kate Bush said about a beauty of a song:

“I could explain some of it, if you want me to: Suspended in Gaffa is reasonably autobiographical, which most of my songs aren’t.  It’s about seeing something that you want–on any level–and not being able to get that thing unless you work hard and in the right way towards it. When I do that I become aware of so many obstacles, and then I want the thing without the work. And then when you achieve it you enter…a different level–everything will slightly change. It’s like going into a time warp which otherwise wouldn’t have existed. (Richard Cook, 'My music sophisticated?...'. NME (UK), October 1982)

'Suspended In Gaffa' is, I suppose, similar in some ways to 'Sat In Your Lap' - the idea of someone seeking something, wanting something. I was brought up as a Roman Catholic and had the imagery of purgatory and of the idea that when you were taken there that you would be given a glimpse of God and then you wouldn't see him again until you were let into heaven. And we were told that in Hell it was even worse because you got to see God but then you knew that you would never see him again. And it's sorta using that as the parallel. And the idea of seeing something incredibly beautiful, having a religious experience as such, but not being able to get back there. And it was playing musically with the idea of the verses being sorta real time and someone happily jumping through life [Makes happy motion with head] and then you hit the chorus and it like everything sorta goes into slow mo and they're reaching [Makes slow reaching motion with arm] for that thing that they want and they can't get there. [Laughs] (Interview for MTV, November 1985)”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush embraced by her mother, Hannah, in the video for Suspended in Gaffa/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Wiseman

I don’t think many people dove into There Goes a Tenner and deeper meaning. Hearing the composition and vocal and writing it off as a novelty or strange song, Bush had created something socially aware and political. On an album with a few political moments – not least Pull Out the Pin and The Dreaming -, this was a song that had its heart in British society under Margaret Thatcher. This is what Dreams of Orgonon wrote in their feature:

“Yet even with her classism, there’s some worth to her attempts here. Fundamentally, “There Goes a Tenner” channels the heist movie through a children’s panto. It treats poverty and crime with the tropes and language available to Bush through English popular culture. “Ooh, there’s a tenner/hey look, there’s a fiver” interpolates British currency onto the trope of money exploding in the middle of a robbery, as seen in such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There are some hat tips to old gangster films, like when Bush observes her partners’ conduct in the middle of their robbery: “both my partners/act like actors/you are Bogart/he is George Raft/that leaves Cagney and me.” Clumsy, to be sure, but distinct in its aesthetics, and in a better song, Bush’s dive into British class politics with crime film tropes might be enlightening.

There’s something more going on here though. Bush asserted that her robbers were incompetents with limited experience: “It’s about amateur robbers who have only done small things, and this is quite a big robbery that they’ve been planning for months, and when it actually starts happening, they start freaking out.” She goes on to cite Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as an example of hypercompetence in cinematic criminals, objecting to the composure of the genre’s heroes, observing “the crooks have always been incredibly in control and calm, and I always thought that if I ever did a robbery, I’d be really scared.”

Certainly the heist genre is populated by “chill” paragons of masculinity. It’s how you get lead actors like Paul Newman, Al Pacino, or George Clooney as top notch criminals. The genre offers the pleasures of breaking with the decorum of civil society while still keeping a layer of masculine authority in the mix, and its films tend to conclude with major punitive measures for the culprits (see Bonnie & Clyde, Dog Day Afternoon, etc).

Bush’s resulting bemusement at this is almost quaintly middle-class. “But don’t people who’ve robbed hundreds of banks get scared when they rob a bank” is the sort of question your childhood friend who’s horrified by shoplifting would pose. The pantheon of confident men in her early work is broadly absent from The Dreaming, which abounds with self-destructive masculinity. Moving beyond the bourgeois fantasy of domestic bliss between a man and a woman shakes up Bush’s faith in men. Femininity and masculinity become fluctuant, throttled by patriarchy, colonialism, trauma, and poverty. Bush could feasibly be writing a character of any gender here, but to have a woman’s voice leading the charge and vocalizing the anxiety that might pervade a robbery is canny.

  IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in the There Goes a Tenner video/PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Henry

Bush also taps into a tradition of British comedy which pivots on woefully incompetent characters issued a societal role or occupation completely unsuited to them. The likes of Python or Fawlty Towers spring to mind, and doubtless Bush saw some Ealing comedies. The children’s panto delivery of “There Goes a Tenner” infers a stylistic awareness of Bush’s debt to this tradition. The music video certainly tips the viewer off to what kind of song this is, with its frankly adorable deployment of Bush and Gary Hurst in black jumpsuits and soot on their faces, its dutch angles depicting the Very Scary robbery, and the explosion of a safe full of money. Its stars are the major aberration among these cliches; a woman and people of color aren’t supposed to be the daring stars of a heist film. This isn’t the heroic act of white men showing up the rest of the world; it’s women and minorities acting out of desperation.

For its vexed class dynamics, “There Goes a Tenner” does acknowledge poverty as a motivation for its characters. “Pockets floating in the breeze” indicates impoverishment, and the final line of the song “there’s a ten-shilling note/remember them?/that’s when we used to vote for him” is a weirdly subtle political critique for “Tenner.” When the single dropped in 1982, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government was enjoying a 51% approval rating in the wake of the Falklands War and Thatcher’s craven sinking of the retreating Argentinian battleship the ARA General Belgrano, killing 323 people. By the 22nd of September, 9 days after the release of The Dreaming, 14% of the United Kingdom’s workforce was reported to be unemployed. As the Tory government waged a war on inflation in its slow establishment of neoliberalism, it caused a glut of unemployment that lost 1,500,000 people their jobs. “When we used to vote for him” is an odd phrase — but clearly the robbers have turned to crime because alternatives are unavailable (one merely has to point out that poverty is a major contributor to crime).

“There Goes a Tenner’s” death on the charts was not a tragedy. Bush’s decision to release it as a single is one of her oddest choices as a public figure. Yet even if by accident, she’s tapped into the zeitgeist of early neoliberalism and Thatcherite austerity. How come we’re not getting paid any more? Because Margaret fucking Thatcher ruined everything”.

One great thing about Suspended in Gaffa is that Bush’s mother, Hannah, appears. It is a tender moment where they embrace! With Bush dancing in a barn in a purple jumpsuit and then going into the woods, there is something strange, child-like and a bit mysterious about the video. I guess that reflects the nature and meaning of the song to a degree. Again, Christine Kelley’s Dreams of Orgonon raise some interesting observations about a classic Kate Bush song. How many critics gave Suspended in Gaffa that much time and listened closely? Perhaps those in Europe and Australia were not expecting a track like this from Kate Bush:

“Yet at the core of this excess, there’s a simplicity to “Suspended in Gaffa.” It has the same expansive and consumptive obsessions as its sister songs — youthful aporia, an obsession with an unreachable god, a desire to unite with the subconscious. Yet it filters this through a childlike, somewhat Carrollian filter, with a surfeit of internal rhymes, abstract nouns, and ambiguous pronouns like “out in the garden/there’s half of a heaven/and we’re only bluffing,” “I try to get nearer/but as it gets clearer/there’s something appears in the way,” “I pull out the plank and say/thankee for yanking me back/to the fact that there’s always something to distract.”

The lyric is an endless series of prevarications, often relating to knowledge, or the unattainability of it (see “Sat in Your Lap”). The refrain’s “not till I’m ready for you,” “can I have it all now?/we can’t have it all,” “but they’ve told us/unless we can prove that we’re doing it/we can’t have it all” speak to an “all or nothing” approach, not identifying exactly what’s at stake so much as its urgency. Desire gets codified as an end in itself, often for a god (“I caught a glimpse of a god/all shining and bright”) — “until I’m ready for you” gives away the game (constructive spiritual union with a deity is impossible if one is unready to consent). “The idea of the song is that of being given a glimpse of ‘God’ — something that we dearly want — but being told that unless we work for it, we will never see it again, and even then, we might not be worthy of it,” Bush explained to her fan club. Tapping into the subconscious is a difficulty — when one has a glimpse of something wondrous, there’s a desperation to retrieve the feelings associated with it. “Everything or nothing” can be a neurodivergent impulse, but it’s also how a taste of the sublime works.

The nature of aporia in “Suspended in Gaffa” is cinematic. There’s the title, obviously, referring to the line “am I suspended in gaffa?,” itself a reference to gaffer (or “gaffa”) tape, which is commonly used in film and stage productions. The laboriousness of cinema is inferred a few times (“it all goes slo-mo”), as reflections and manipulation, staples of cinema, get pulled into the mix. Bush even goes quasi-Lacanian at one point; nudging herself with “that girl in the mirror/between you and me/she don’t stand a chance of getting anywhere at all,” a moment of amusing self-deprecation”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982

I am going to wrap up now. On 2nd November, it is forty-one years since There Goes a Tenner was unleashed in the U.K. and Ireland to follow from The Dreaming (that single was released on 26th July, 1982). If it was a chart bomb, the song itself is great and deserves a lot more love. Bush’s singles from Hounds of Love fared much better. Lighter, with distinct choruses and subjects/lyrics more relatable, there was this deliberate move from her to connect with the charts and put out music that was more accessible to many. Suspended in Gaffa is a terrific song that was vastly different to anything that was around in 1982. I like them both. They are very different. I will look at the final single released from The Dreaming, Night of the Swallow, closer to its anniversary on 21st November. I wanted to look ahead to 2nd November and forty-one years of the single release of There Goes a Tenner and Suspended in Gaffa. The Dreaming is an album that has always divided people. At the very least, it has not gained the appreciation and respect it deserves! From 1980’s Never for Ever, there was a distinct change. Bush solo producing for the first time. Music very much in her image. She did make another big change with Hounds of Love. Perhaps there was this move to make an artistic statement. Reacting to people who defined her by a particular sound. Felt that she was a middle-class girl who was making twee Pop music. A very serious and hugely accomplished album, many critics still couldn’t shake off those image. Accept her as a serious producer and artist. All these years later, I feel more people have more fully embraced songs like There Goes a Tenner and Suspended in Gaffa. I, for one, have a lot of good things to say about these…

TWO awesome songs.

FEATURE: National Album Day 2023: From Stores to Radio…How to Get Involved in the '90s Action

FEATURE:

 

 

National Album Day 2023

From Stores to Radio…How to Get Involved in the '90s Action

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ON Saturday (14th October)…

 IMAGE CREDIT: ekaterinaku via Freepik

it is National Album Day. A day that celebrates the importance of the album, there is a lot to look forward to. On BBC Sounds, you will be able to access the National Album Day-related episodes of Sounds of the 90s with Fearne Cotton. Even if you have never heard the show, you will get a great double-bill where Fearne Cotton and fellow broadcasters Vernon Kaye and Dermot O’Leary (who both present their own '90s shows on the BBC) will mark the special day. The theme of National Album Day this year is the 1990s. The iconic and diverse nature of the decade. I am going to repeat some things I put in a previous National Album Day feature recently. It is an important day. I will end with ways to get involved; why the album is booming, and the fact that the 1990s is very much in vogue at the moment. First, in terms of some great reissues and rarities, this article from the official website of the National Album Day discusses what you can get:

“National Album Day today announces the exclusive list of limited edition 90s albums that are being released for the annual event celebrating the art of the album on Saturday 14th October. The special titles will be available to purchase in retailers across the UK on NAD itself, and can also be pre-ordered from 9am on Wednesday 13th September.

Held on Saturday 14th October, National Album Day will celebrate the 90s and the milestone of 75 years of the album format. National Album Day is presented in association with official audio partner Bowers & Wilkins and official broadcast partner BBC Sounds. Last week, music icons Gabrielle, Declan McKenna, Tricky and Nuno Bettencourt were announced as this year’s NAD artist ambassadors.

Albums being reissued or released for National Album Day (See full list at end)

One of the UK’s most successful and beloved artists, National Album Day ambassador Gabrielle has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence in recent years. To mark the start of her huge ‘30 Years of Dreaming’ headline tour, Gabrielle’s No.1 third solo album Rise is being reissued on vinyl. A huge commercial success, the album spent three weeks at No.1 on the UK Albums Chart and  achieved 4× Platinum status, with the iconic title track also topping the UK Singles Chart.

You've Come a Long Way, Baby proved to be Fatboy Slim’s global breakthrough album on its release in October 1998, peaking at No.1 on the UK Albums Chart and earning him a Brit Award. To mark its 25th anniversary, the album has been remastered at half speed in the best available audio quality possible for National Album Day.

It’s been 30 years since the release of blur’s second studio album Modern Life Is Rubbish, regarded as one of the defining releases of the era which saw the band continue to revolutionise the sound of English popular music. This National Album Day, fans can get their hands on a special limited edition of the record on 2LP transparent orange vinyl.

R.E.M.’s eighth studio album Automatic for the People received widespread critical acclaim upon release in 1992, when it reached No. 1 in the UK and went on to top the UK Albums Chart a further three times the following year. The record produced some of the band’s best-known songs including ‘Everybody Hurts,’ ‘Man on the Moon,’ and ‘Nightswimming’. A limited edition 180-gram yellow LP reissue of the album will be released exclusively on National Album Day

Originally released in 1997, Time Out of Mind is hailed as one of Bob Dylan's best albums, going on to win three Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year in 1998. The record will be re-released on limited edition 2LP clear gold vinyl.

Garbage’s second studio album Version 2.0 was heralded as a bold progression from their self-titled debut album upon its release in 1998, and went on to sell over four million copies worldwide, matching the success of its predecessor. This 2LP Gatefold Vinyl comes as an exclusive for National Album Day, and is the first time the record has been pressed on transparent blue coloured vinyl.

Dannii Minogue’s hit third studio album Girl, which featured the UK Dance Chart topping singles ‘All I Wanna Do’, ‘Everything I Wanted’ and ‘Disremembrance’, has been remastered and reissued for National Album Day, and will be available on 2LP and as an expanded CD box set, featuring a wealth of exclusive material.

Pop group S Club are releasing a picture disc edition of their platinum selling debut album ‘S Club’ on vinyl for the very first time, featuring the smash hit singles ‘Bring It All Back’, ‘S Club Party’ & ‘Two In A Million / You’re My Number One’.

Dinosaur Jr. celebrate the 30th anniversary of the indie rock classic Where You Been with an exclusive limited edition reissue on double splatter vinyl. It received widespread critical acclaim on release and was the band’s first UK Top 10 album.

Grace is the only studio album by American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, originally released on August 23, 1994. Frequently cited by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time, it features Buckley’s definitive cover of Hallelujah. The album will be reissued on lilac wine coloured vinyl.

Legendary hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan released their iconic debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) on November 9, 1993. Its gritty, distinctive sound created a blueprint for hardcore hip-hop during the 1990s and is regarded as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. The record is being pressed on limited edition gold marbled vinyl for its 30th anniversary,

Full list of National Album Day titles below:

808 state - ex:el (2LP)

Ace Of Base - Happy Nation (Picture Disc Vinyl)

Babybird - Ugly Beautiful (2LP)

Belinda Carlisle - Live Your Life Be Free (Picture Disc Vinyl)

Blur - Modern Life Is Rubbish (2LP Transparent Orange Vinyl)

Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind (2LP Clear Gold Vinyl)

Catatonia - International Velvet (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Dannii - Girl (2XLP / 4CD Box Set)

Dinosaur Jr. - Where You Been (Limited Edition Double Splatter Vinyl)

Duster - Stratosphere (25th Anniversary Edition) (1LP Clear & Black Splatter Vinyl)

Eternal - Always and Forever (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way Baby (2LP Half-Speed Remaster)

Gabrielle - Rise (1LP)

Garbage - Version 2.0 (2LP Blue Colour Vinyl)

Ginuwine - The Bachelor (2LP Red Vinyl)

Hole - Live Through This (1LP)

Idlewild - Captain (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

James - Laid (2LP)

James - Gold Mother (2LP)

Jeff Buckley - Grace (1LP Lilac Wine Vinyl)

Leftfield - Leftism (2LP White & Black Marbled Vinyl)

Lighthouse Family - Ocean Drive

Marc Almond - Tenement Symphony (2LP / Deluxe 6CD/DVD)

Melanie C - Northern Star (1LP)

Nas - It Was Written (2LP Gold & Black Vinyl)

Neneh Cherry - Man (1LP)

Paul Weller - Wild Wood (1LP)

REM - Automatic For The People (1LP Yellow Vinyl)

Robert Miles - Dreamland (2LP)

S Club - S Club (1LP)

Shola Ama - Much Love (2LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Simply Red - Blue (1LP Blue Vinyl)

Siouxsie - The Rapture (2LP)

Songs: Ohia - Songs: Ohia (Colour Vinyl)

Songs: Ohia - Axxess & Ace (Colour Vinyl)

Stereophonics - Performance & Cocktails (1LP)

Stone Temple Pilots - Purple (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Stone Temple Pilots - Core (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque (1LP Transparent Yellow Vinyl)

The Corrs - Forgiven, Not Forgotten (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

The Cranberries - Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? (1LP)

Tricky - Maxinquaye (3LP, 1LP & 2CD) *Released Friday 13th October*

Various Artists - The Virgin Suicides (Music From The Motion Picture) (1LP Recycled Colour Vinyl)

Various Artists - HELP (12”)

Various/V4 Visions - V4 Visions: Of Love & Androids (2LP Clear Smoke Vinyl)

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers) (1LP Gold Marbled Vinyl)

Now in its sixth edition, National Album Day sees the music community come together each year to celebrate and promote the art of the album. This year’s 90s theme will look to shine a light on a profoundly rich decade for music and album making that skipped between Britpop, Dance and Hip Hop; gave us national treasures Take That and global phenomenon the Spice Girls; and saw diverse genres ranging from dance, house and techno to R&B, rap and reggae and to grunge and industrial rock, among many others, rise to reach their full cultural expression –  in the UK and globally”.

Each year, some chosen ambassadors are nominated. They act as a sort of face and voice of the theme. An artist relevant to what is being themed and represented. As it is about the '90s, we have legends like Shola Amo and The Corrs lending their support. Here are some more details:

“National Album Day today announces music legends Shola Ama and The Corrs as the two new artist ambassadors, alongside Gabrielle, Declan McKenna, Tricky and Nuno Bettencourt. National Album Day, held on Saturday 14th October, will celebrate the 90s this year and 75 years of the album format. National Album Day is presented in association with official audio partner Bowers & Wilkins and official broadcast partner BBC Sounds.

BRIT Award winner, Shola Ama is known for her soul and R&B sound. Making herself known in the industry in 1995, Shola released her biggest single ‘You Might Need Somebody’ in 1997 and followed with her debut album ‘Much Love’ that year. Shola has also earned various prestigious accolades throughout her career including a Brit Award for Best British Female and two MOBO Awards. Since then, Shola has created three more albums and recently released her newest R&B single ‘Not Us’.

Shola Ama says “Overjoyed to be an ambassador for NAD celebrating the 90’s. The late 90’s was Such a great time for British music, especially for UK Soul and R&B , and now just over 25 years since the release of my album “ much love “ it’s been really nice to get the chance to revisit some songs and memories from that time and celebrate the album with a vinyl release - I love that vinyl is coming back into fashion”.

Originally from Dundalk, County Louth in Ireland, The Corrs are a Irish family band that combine pop rock with traditional Irish themes. Starting their career gigging in local pubs around Ireland in 1990, the renowned band has gone on to release seven albums, including their platinum selling album ‘Talk on Corners’. After performing all over the world, the band is now sharing their pop rock and folk tunes with thousands as they tour Australia and New Zealand later this year.

The Corrs say “We're delighted to be ambassadors for this year's National Album Day to celebrate the art of the album! Forgiven, Not Forgotten was our debut album originally released 28 years ago back in 1995. Its release came at such a special moment in time for us and it's been a real pleasure revisiting the memories as we've put together this special limited edition recycled colour vinyl.”

Now in its sixth edition, National Album Day sees the music community come together each year to celebrate and promote the art of the album. This year’s 90s theme will look to shine a light on a profoundly rich decade for music and album making that skipped between Britpop, Dance and Hip Hop; gave us national treasures Take That and global phenomenon the Spice Girls; and saw diverse genres ranging from dance, house and techno to R&B, rap and reggae and to grunge and industrial rock, among many others, rise to reach their full cultural expression – in the UK and globally.

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National Album Day is again presented in association with official audio partner Bowers & Wilkins and official broadcast partner BBC Sounds, and will pay tribute to artists who tell their stories behind these significant and influential bodies of work. Artist ambassadors tied into the theme – both those that came to the fore during the 1990s and current new and emerging talent that are inspired by its music; specially reissued albums and new releases; and promotional events and other activities will be announced in due course alongside further updates.

Since its launch in 2018, NAD has been supported by a broad range of artist ambassadors, including Kylie Minogue, Joy Crookes, Sharleen Spiteri, Lewis Capaldi, Mark Ronson, La Roux, Elbow, Paloma Faith, Blossoms, Alice Cooper, Novelist, Tom Odell, Mahalia, Toyah Willcox and Jazzie B. Last year Franz Ferdinand, India Arkin, KSI, The Mysterines, Sam Ryder, and The Staves were the latest talents to add their voices as passionate advocates of the long player. Typically benefitting from around a week-long build up, NAD has hosted a variety of activities such as listening events with album platforms including Classic Album Sundays, Pitchblack Playback, The Record Club, Tape Notes and Tim’s Listening Party; live performances; in-store artist appearances and record store promotions, street art murals; and album sleeve artwork exhibitions.

Renowned audio brand, Bowers & Wilkins, continues its support for National Album Day as official audio partner. Built on a passion for music, Bowers & Wilkins has been on an unrelenting pursuit of the highest quality listening experiences for music fans for over 60 years, always delivering sound that remains true to how the artist intended their album to be heard. National Album Day will announce an extensive list of exclusive 90s albums on 13th September that are being released or reissued on vinyl and CD to coincide with this annual event celebrating the art of the album”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

Album sales are doing terrific business in the U.S. More and more people are buying albums on format like vinyl, C.D. and cassette. Vinyl sales are going up in the U.K. The first six months of this year saw a rise - which continued recently. There is a great appetite for vinyl. The fact that National Album Day marks a decade where people were buying albums on physical forms means that there will be a lot of sales of '90s vinyl released to mark the day. I hope that the embrace of the decade also sees a revival in cassette and C.D. sales. Both formats are still alive, though they still to keep up with vinyl. Maybe they do not have the same appeal, though there are less expensive and, therefore, really accessible to many. I think that this is one of the very best and most exciting National Album Days. I will round off with advice for people who want to get involved locally. You can check them out yourself. There are numerous articles arguing why the 1990s was the greatest music decade. It is an opinion I share myself. However, that could be the fact I was a teenager in the decade and, therefore, had those formative experiences and exposure! New genres were born; others were taken to new places. From the hardware formats like cassette and C.D., portable devices like the Discman, through to the music T.V. and all the music shows we had to choose from, it was a verdant and hugely exciting time! Also, as the article below states, the 1990s is very much back now. It has never gone away…yet you can hear so many modern artists nod to the '90s. Colossal mainstream queens like Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama have elements in their music. Artists such as beabadoobee and Dua Lipa were growing up in that time, so that music is relevant to them.

I think that is a fair point. One that is also covered by a second article I will bring in. Artists in their twenties and thirties now were either experiencing the 1990s' music first-hand, or they were young in the early-'00s - and getting exposure from older friends. Maybe their parents handed down and played 1990s music. Sounds of the decade played a lot on radio no doubt inspired them. This is why National Album Day’s '90s salute is perfectly timed! As this feature highlights, there are clear and understandable why the music and sounds of that wonderful time are very much fresh and current now:

“There are several reasons why ’90s music is still popular nowadays. Firstly, the theme of the ’90s was highly influential and innovative. In addition, it was a time when created many new genres and sub-genres. This meant that there was a lot of variety in the music of the time and still appreciated today.

Secondly, the artists of the ’90s were highly talented and charismatic. They connected with their fans in a way that is still rare today. This connection made their music even more special to those who listened.

Thirdly, the lyrics of 90’s songs were often very relatable and personal. This made them resonate with listeners in a way that is still relevant today. Fourthly, the production values of 90’s music were often very high. This made the songs sound fresh and exciting years after they were first released.

Finally, we cannot underestimate the nostalgia factor. For many people, the music of the 90s brings back happy memories of their youth. This nostalgia can make people appreciate the music even more.

The different genres of 90’s music

It’s no secret that music from the 90s is still popular today. Many of the different genres of music that were popular back then are still going strong. Here are just a few examples:

Hip hop – This genre of music was huge in the 90s and is still strong today. There are many different sub-genres of hip hop, but the overall sound is still the same.

R&B – Another massive genre in the 90s, R&B is still popular today. Many of the biggest names in music started in this genre, and it continues to be among the most popular genres.

Pop – Pop music was also trendy in the 90s, and it’s still going strong today. Many of the biggest hits from that decade are still played on the radio today.

Rock – While rock music wasn’t as prominent in the 90s as in previous decades, many great bands and artists still made music in this genre. Today, rock is still strong, and there are many different sub-genres to choose from.

Metal – Metal was another genre

The influence of 90s music

The influence of ’90s music can still be seen and heard today, even though some people may not realize it. Today’s famous artists and bands started in the 90s or have been heavily influenced by the music of that decade.

The 90s was a time when various genres of music were starting to become more popular. Grunge and alternative rock were rising, while hip hop and R&B were also becoming mainstream. This diversity in music led to many different sounds and styles being created, which are still present in today’s music.

One of the biggest reasons why ’90s music is still popular is because it was a time when anyone could make it big. There were no rules or specific genre requirements that artists had to follow. This allowed for creativity and experimentation, which today’s music scene lacks.

If you’re a fan of ’90s music or just curious about what made it so special, there are plenty of ways to enjoy it today. You can listen to radio stations that play only 90’s hits, or you can find online streaming services that specialize in this type of music. You can even find some great 90’s

IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa

The rise of streaming services

In recent years, there has been a significant shift in the way people consume music. The rise of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music has made it easier for people to listen to their favorite songs. This has led to a resurgence in popularity for many older artists and new artists who can reach a wider audience than ever before.

One of the biggest reasons for its continued popularity is that they have been able to adapt to the changing landscape of the music industry. They were one of the first artists to embrace streaming services, and they continue to release new music that resonates with their fans. In addition, they have maintained a strong presence on social media, which has helped them stay relevant in the modern era.

Music is still popular because they have been able to evolve with the times. They have remained relevant by releasing new music and staying active on social media. In addition, their willingness to embrace new technologies has helped them reach a wider audience.

Conclusion

There are many reasons why ’90s music is still popular today:

The 90s was a time of change and experimentation in the music industry, which led to the development of new genres and sub-genres.

The technology of the time allowed for greater access to music and made it easier to produce and distribute.

Artists from the 90s remained popular thanks to their dedication and willingness to evolve with the times”.

The more we celebrate and play music from the 1990s, the more contemporary artists will utilise and harness that. Even Beyoncé, whose music career started in the 1990s, owes a debt to the decade (if you listen to a lot of the songs on her latest album, Renaissance). I will finish off in a second. First, The New York Times published a feature in 2020 that argued that, for artists in their twenties, the modern time is like the 1990s all over again:

“Artists like Ariana Grande (b. 1993), Normani (b. 1996), Charli XCX (b. 1992), Troye Sivan (b. 1995), Summer Walker (b. 1996) and SZA (b. 1990), among others, have in various ways begun to riff on the Y2K-era pop of their childhoods, creating songs and music videos that feel like they are recalling and subsequently rewriting their earliest musical memories.

Nineties nostalgia is of course nothing new — the pop-cultural landscape has long been littered with hallmarks of the early part of that decade, like flannel and “Jock Jams”-worthy athleisure, and the revivalist sounds to match. But time marches on, and so, too, does that roughly 20-year cycle of the old becoming stylishly new again. And now the halcyon, almost-forgotten pop artifacts of the late ’90s — boy bands, winking futurism, inordinate amounts of glitter — are being dusted off and refurbished by today’s younger stars.

The fashion and design worlds got to this future nostalgia first. In 2016, Evan Collins started a popular Tumblr called the Institute for Y2K Aesthetics, which one write-up described as a compendium of “Baby G watches, Britney Spears cradling a robot dog, a shimmering pink bean-shaped Walkman, [and] inflatable backpacks.” Last July, GQ ran a piece about why, suddenly, “Y2K-era gear became the hottest thing in the vintage-clothing world.” Bold, label-obsessed and often future-fixated, the style of that window of time between 1995 and 2001 was the result of, as the writer Erin Schwartz noted, a “jumble of excitement and anxiety about the spread of technology at the turn of the millennium.”

So was the music. The Y2K era coincided with the rise of the glistening, Swedish-engineered, factory-efficient teen pop of Britney Spears, ’N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, as well as the futuristic R&B of TLC, Destiny’s Child and Aaliyah. What united all these sounds was a cyborgian fusion of the “artificial” and the “real”: the acoustic guitar lick trapped beneath the frosty digital sheen of TLC’s “No Scrubs,” the hammering piano riff that underscored Spears’s digitally processed “oh-baby-baby.” (Rest assured; though not a girl, she was not yet a robot.)

Back then the music industry was still heedlessly optimistic and flush with cash — not yet stymied by streaming services or even fully feeling the effects of file sharing. (Napster debuted in June 1999 and shut down in July 2001.) So many labels were happy to make bets on potential new stars or shell out money for high-concept music videos. Everything was, to quote the longest-running No. 1 song on MTV’s popular early-aughts video countdown “TRL,” larger than life.

It can be surreal to process nostalgia for eras that feel like they just happened — for so long (perhaps because we never settled on a decent thing to call them), “the 2000s” were simply the present. But if aesthetics are easier to see in hindsight, so, too, are their expiration dates. The Y2K bug certainly didn’t send us retreating into our canned-good-stocked bunkers — we’d only have to wait 20 years for a pandemic to take care of that — but two very different unforeseen events would burst the music industry’s maximalist, techno-utopian bubble instead: the rise of file sharing, followed by the solemn shock of 9/11. Suddenly the future didn’t seem as bright.

But the music of the Y2K moment remains, a glorious, extravagantly budgeted, neon-hued dream forever frozen in that moment right before the alarm clock brrrrring-ed it back to reality. And as the internet makes it easier than ever to revisit the pasts we yearn for, millennium-pop will continue to hold an escapist allure. In the YouTube comments section for the 2001 Jennifer Lopez video “I’m Real,” one viewer writes, wistfully, “I came here for the late 90s early 00s sparkle sound”.

Not to stay too far away from the point and focus of this feature – celebrating National Album Day on 14th October -, it is important to give context. Rather than this '90s nostalgia in modern music being a fad or very new thing, it has been building and evolving over the past few years - or maybe even before that some would say. I seriously love it! I also hope that artists look to other periods. I guess, if you grew up around '90s music and that is your generation, you may not be that aware of music from the 1960s. Even so, there is so much gold to be extracted from that time! Artists are keeping 1990s music fresh and adding their own spin. There are events taking place for National Album Day; ways too you can share your celebrations. Follow National Album Day on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. I hope they brand out in years to come to TikTok and YouTube. Maybe doing their own Spotify playlists and podcasts. In any case, it is a day where we can celebrate the 1990s and albums from the time. People who remember getting those albums in the 1990s, or those who are younger and are new top it. It will be a wonderful celebration of…

A magic decade!

FEATURE: Long, Long, Long: The Beatles' The Beatles at Fifty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Long, Long, Long

The Beatles' The Beatles at Fifty-Five

_________

OTHERWISE known as the ‘White Album’…

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles (John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison) on 28th July, 1968 during the famous ‘Mad Day Out’ shoot/PHOTO CREDIT: Stephen Goldblatt via The Beatles

I am going to bring in some features and details around The Beatles’ 1968 eponymous album. Released on 22nd November that year, it was a sprawling and wonderfully eclectic double album from the band. Whereas there were splits starting to form – various members would use different spaces and studios at Abbey Road (then-EMI) to get tracks down -, I don’t think there was as much tension between Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison as has been documented. Starr did leave when Paul McCartney criticised his tom-tom playing on one track (I think Back in the U.S.S.R.). He returned soon after, only to find his drum kit garlanded in flowers. John Lennon got proper stressed with McCartney playing Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da over and over. That frantic piano coda that you hear at the start was Lennon’s abgry (yet inspired) response! There were times when Lennon would listen to a McCartney recording and make suggestions. They were still very much invested and friends - though that idea of them recording in the same studio was not broken. For anyone who saw Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back, the guys did start to jam and perform together when writing Let It Be (released in 1970). I am going to do some other features about The Beatles ahead of its fifty-fifth anniversary next month. I will talk about their spiritual retreat to Rishikesh and what impact that had on their relationships and music. I will also rank the thirty tracks. I might also discuss the impact and legacy of The Beatles and where it fits in their canon – and how critics have reviewed it through the years. I am going to come to some reviews for the album. I want to do some housekeeping before moving on. Recommend podcasts, videos, books and sources where one needs to go to learn more about The Beatles. In terms of its making and impact, there is so much to discuss – that I cannot accomplish in this first feature.

You can own The Beatles on vinyl here. There are also options here. In terms of podcasts, I can thoroughly recommend the two-part chat David Quantick had for I am the EggPod (part 1 is here; part 2 is here). You should also get Quantick’s book about the album, Revolution: The Making of The Beatles’ White Album. Another book worth owning is Brian Southall’s The White Album: The Album, The Beatles and the World in 1968. I am going to get to some features that explore the story behind and recording of The Beatles. First, The Beatles Bible go into detail about the band’s ninth studio album. I have selected the sections that discuss the background to the album, in addition to some of the events and atmosphere in the studio when the band were recording:

“Recorded: 30, 31 May 1968
4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28 June 1968
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25 July 1968
9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30 August 1968
3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25 September 1968
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14 October 1968

Producers: George Martin, Chris Thomas, John Lennon, Paul McCartney

Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Peter Bown, Ken Scott, Barry Sheffield, Ken Townsend

Released: 22 November 1968 (UK), 25 November 1968 (US)

John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, piano, organ, Hammond organ, harmonium, harmonica, tenor saxophone, drums, timpani, percussion, tape loops, effects, samples, handclaps

Paul McCartney: vocals, bass guitar, six-string bass guitar, piano, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, organ, Hammond organ, electric piano, flügelhorn, recorder, drums, tambourine, bongos, percussion, handclaps

George Harrison: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, Hammond organ, drums, percussion, samples, handclaps

Ringo Starr: vocals, drums, tambourine, bongos, castanets, sleigh bell, maracas, percussion, effects, handclaps

George Martin: piano, celesta, harmonium

Eric Clapton: lead guitar

Chris Thomas: piano, Mellotron, harpsichord, organ, electric piano

Yoko Ono: vocals, effects, samples, handclaps

Mal Evans: backing vocals, trumpet, handclaps

Pattie Harrison, Jackie Lomax, John McCartney: backing vocals, handclaps

Maureen Starkey, Francie Schwartz, Ingrid Thomas, Pat Whitmore, Val Stockwell, Irene King, Ross Gilmour, Mike Redway, Ken Barrie, Fred Lucas, various others: backing vocals

Jack Fallon, Henry Datyner, Eric Bowie, Norman Lederman, Ronald Thomas, Bernard Miller, Dennis McConnell, Lou Sofier, Les Maddox: violin

John Underwood, Keith Cummings, Leo Birnbaum, Henry Myerscough: viola

Eldon Fox, Reginald Kilbey, Frederick Alexander: cello

Leon Calvert, Stanley Reynolds, Ronnie Hughes, Derek Watkins, Freddy Clayton: trumpet

Leon Calvert: flügelhorn

Tony Tunstall: French horn

Ted Barker, Don Lang, Rex Morris, J Power, Bill Povey: trombone

Alf Reece: tuba

Dennis Walton, Ronald Chamberlain, Jim Chester, Rex Morris, Harry Klein: saxophone

Art Ellefson, Danny Moss, Derek Collins: tenor saxophone

Ronnie Ross, Harry Klein, Bernard George: baritone saxophone

Raymond Newman, David Smith: clarinet

ncredited: 12 violins, three violas, three cellos, three flutes, clarinet, three saxophones, two trumpets, two trombones, horn, vibraphone, double bass, harp

‘Back In The USSR’
‘Dear Prudence’
‘Glass Onion’
‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’
‘Wild Honey Pie’
‘The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill’
‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’
‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’
‘Martha My Dear’
‘I’m So Tired’
‘Blackbird’
‘Piggies’
‘Rocky Raccoon’
‘Don’t Pass Me By’
‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?’
‘I Will’
‘Julia’

‘Birthday’
‘Yer Blues’
‘Mother Nature’s Son’
‘Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey’
‘Sexy Sadie’
‘Helter Skelter’
‘Long, Long, Long’
‘Revolution 1’
‘Honey Pie’
‘Savoy Truffle’
‘Cry Baby Cry’
‘Revolution 9’
‘Good Night’

The Beatles’ ninth original UK album, and their 15th in the United States, was their first double-length release. Commonly known as the White Album, the self-titled collection of 30 songs stands as a majestic cornucopia of styles, born from one of the group’s most creative periods.

The background

Although financially secure, critically and commercially acclaimed, and assured as figureheads of popular music, by the summer of 1968 The Beatles were in a degree of turmoil. The previous year they’d achieved possibly their crowning glory in Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and suffered their first major artistic failure in the Magical Mystery Tour television film.

By 1968 The Beatles’ world had changed immeasurably from their early days. Having stopped touring in 1966, they were set free to explore the possibilities from inside the studio, and began enjoying the time that their fortunes allowed. Their musical output may have slowed from the mid-1960s, but their creativity was as strong as ever.

After Sgt Pepper changed the world, the world keenly awaited The Beatles’ next step. They had released just the six-track Magical Mystery Tour EP and the ‘Lady Madonna’ single since then, and there was widespread speculation in the press that they were a spent force.

While recording the album, the group was in the process of launching the multimedia business Apple Corps, while coping with various upheavals including drug busts, changing relationships and substance abuse.

The Beatles were old hands at dealing with such pressure. They turned away from the elaborate excesses of Sgt Pepper, recording instead a simple collection of 30 songs under an even simpler name: The Beatles.

George Martin later claimed he had wanted the group to omit the album’s weaker songs and focused instead on producing a solid single-disc release.

I thought we should probably have made a very, very good single album rather than a double. But they insisted. I think it could have been made fantastically good if it had been compressed a bit and condensed. A lot of people I know think it’s still the best album they made. I later learnt that by recording all those songs they were getting rid of their contract with EMI more quickly.

George Martin
Anthology

Ringo Starr agreed with the sentiment.

There was a lot of information on the double album, but I agree that we should have put it out as two separate albums: the ‘White’ and the ‘Whiter’ albums.

Ringo Starr
Anthology

Despite its faults as a collection, Paul McCartney stood by the album, saying that the wide variety of songs was a major part of its appeal.

I think it was a very good album. It stood up, but it wasn’t a pleasant one to make. Then again, sometimes those things work for your art. The fact that it’s got so much on it is one of the things that’s cool about it. The songs are very varied. I think it’s a fine album.

I don’t remember the reaction. Now I release records and I watch to see who likes it and how it does. But with The Beatles, I can’t ever remember scouring the charts to see what number it had come in at. I assume we hoped that people would like it. We just put it out and got on with life. A lot of our friends liked it and that was mainly what we were concerned with. If your mates liked it, the boutiques played it and it was played wherever you went – that was a sign of success for us.

Paul McCartney
Anthology”.

The Beatles began recording the White Album on 30 May 1968, shortly after Apple Records was set up. The first song to be attempted was ‘Revolution 1’, at the time just known as ‘Revolution’.

Recording continued througout the summer of 1968. The Beatles also recorded the single ‘Hey Jude’/‘Revolution’ in July 1968, although neither song was ever considered for inclusion on the album.

Although the early sessions were harmonious, with The Beatles working together to make the best of each others’ compositions, by the third month tensions began to rise. While recording the album, the group was in the process of launching the multimedia business Apple Corps, while coping with various upheavals including drug busts, changing relationships and substance abuse.

While not all of the White Album recording sessions were strained, there were frequent conflicts and disagreements within the group. The authority of George Martin, who had closely steered The Beatles during their formative years, began to wane during the sessions, and he was still much in demand by other recording artists.

At one point Martin spontaneously left to go on holiday, leaving his assistant Chris Thomas to produce the group. Often The Beatles found themselves essentially working alone with EMI’s engineers.

For the first time I had to split myself three ways because at any one time we were recording in different studios. It became very fragmented, and that was where my assistant Chris Thomas did a lot of work, which made him into a very good producer.

George Martin
Anthology

On 16 July the group’s engineer Geoff Emerick, who had played a key role in developing The Beatles’ recordings since Revolver, quit the sessions, announcing that he was no longer willing to work with the group.

With no-one taking overall control, the sessions often drifted without direction, with The Beatles recording numerous takes in an attempt to find inspiration. Among these was a 27-minute version of ‘Helter Skelter’. Another song, George Harrison’s ‘Not Guilty’, had more than 100 takes before it was abandoned; it remained unreleased until Anthology 3 in 1996.

Many of the songs were recorded as mostly solo efforts, with different Beatles occupying separate studios at the same time. Paul McCartney became used to working alone, although since Sgt Pepper he had taken a dominant role in recordings and was often happy to work on ideas without the rest of the group.

I remember having three studios operating at the same time: Paul was doing some overdubs in one, John was in another and I was recording some horns or something in a third. Maybe it was because EMI had set a release date and time was running out.

George Harrison
Anthology

On the White Album McCartney’s ‘Wild Honey Pie’, ‘Mother Nature’s Son’, and ‘Blackbird’ were all recorded without the other Beatles, and ‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?’ was a spontaneous recording produced by McCartney and recorded with a little help from Ringo Starr.

On 20 August, McCartney was working on the brass overdub for ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ when John Lennon and Ringo Starr entered, as engineer Ken Scott later recalled:

Paul was downstairs going through the arrangement with George [Martin] and the brass players. Everything was great, everyone was in great spirits. Suddenly, half way through, John and Ringo walked in and you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. An instant change. It was like that for ten minutes and then as soon as they left it felt great again. It was very bizarre.

Ken Scott
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn

Two days later Starr walked out of the band. Although he rejoined within a fortnight, for a while it was intended as a permanent departure. The Beatles recorded ‘Back In The USSR’ and ‘Dear Prudence’ without him.

I left because I felt two things: I felt I wasn’t playing great, and I also felt that the other three were really happy and I was an outsider… I had a rest and the holiday was great. I knew we were all in a messed-up stage. It wasn’t just me; the whole thing was going down. I had definitely left, I couldn’t take it any more. There was no magic and the relationships were terrible. I’d come to a bad spot in life. It could have been paranoia, but I just didn’t feel good – I felt like an outsider. But then I realised that we were all feeling like outsiders, and it just needed me to go around knocking to bring it to a head.

I got a telegram saying, ‘You’re the best rock’n’roll drummer in the world. Come on home, we love you.’ And so I came back. We all needed that little shake-up. When I got back to the studio I found George had had it decked out with flowers – there were flowers everywhere. I felt good about myself again, we’d got through that little crisis and it was great. And then the ‘White’ album really took off – we all left the studio and went to a little room so there was no separation and lots of group activity going down.

Ringo Starr
Anthology”.

Listen to "100a: The Beatles - The Beatles, Disc 1 (1968)" on Spreaker.

Recorded between Abbey Road Studios and Trident, London, The Beatles went to number one around the world upon its release in 1968. Before the anniversary on 22nd November, I want to take a moment to properly get inside a fascinating work! Whilst many say the album is variable in quality, one cannot deny that some of the band’s classics can be found. From George Harrison’s Long, Long, Long to Paul McCartney’s Blackbird and Back in the U.S.S.R. to John Lennon’s Happiness Is a Warm Gun and Revolution 9. Before getting to a couple of reviews, there are three features I want to source from – the last of which argues The Beatles is the band’s best albums. I am going to start out with a feature from The New Yorker from 2018. They talk about this “accidental perfection” of the album. I want to bring in their words regarding the album’s background. From when The Beatles arrived back in the U.K. from India. Those first stages:

“Upon returning to England from Rishikesh, India, in April, 1968, John Lennon and George Harrison stripped and sanded the psychedelic paintwork off of their Gibson J-160E and Casino guitars; Donovan, one of the many musicians who had accompanied them to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram for an advanced transcendental-meditation course, had told them that this would improve the sound. “If you take the paint and varnish off and get the bare wood,” Harrison explained later, “it seems to sort of breathe.” This stripping away of psychedelic symbolism was part of a larger campaign that the band undertook to remove the layers of Beatles mythology, habit, and convention that had accumulated since their beginnings, as Liverpool teen-agers—before Germany and America, before Astrid Kirchherr’s arty portraits had fetishized their mop-top haircuts, before Ed Sullivan and “A Hard Day’s Night,” and Shea Stadium, and the rest of it. Psychedelia, and the Beatles’ influential participation in it, had peaked with the release of their landmark 1967 album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the surrealist tracks on which had beguiled the world and, many said, inspired the Summer of Love. The American political theorist Langdon Winner observed, “The closest Western Civilization has come to unity since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was the week the ‘Sgt. Pepper’ album was released. . . . At the time I happened to be driving across the country on Interstate 80; in each city where I stopped for gas or food—Laramie, Ogallala, Moline, South Bend—the melodies wafted in from some far-off transistor radio or portable hi-fi. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Sgt. Pepper” had its detractors: the British critic Nik Cohn complained that “it wasn’t much like pop. . . . It wasn’t fast, flash, sexual, loud, vulgar, monstrous or violent. . . . Without pop, without its image and its flash and its myths, [the Beatles] don’t add up to much. They lose their magic boots, and then they’re human like anyone else; they become updated Cole Porters, smooth and sophisticated, boring as hell.” “ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ is called the first concept album, but it doesn’t go anywhere,” Lennon observed years later; the next record, he believed, would be a chance “to forget about ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and get back to making music.” Brian Epstein, the record-store manager who discovered and managed the Beatles, had died unexpectedly in August of 1967; without Epstein, without the pressures and demands of touring (which they had stopped after 1966), and having reached this apparently historic peak of artistic and worldly success and fame, the Beatles were finally free from all constraints and paternal influences. When they eventually soured on meditation and the ashram culture—as Lennon would relate in his savage renunciation, “Maharishi” (eventually renamed “Sexy Sadie”)—there were, finally, no father figures left at all.

The sojourn in India, led by Harrison, had been an attempt to start over, accelerating the stripping-away process that would culminate in their most ambitious musical project. “I remember talking about the next album, and George was quite strict,” McCartney said. “He’d say, ‘We’re not here to talk music—we’re here to meditate.’ ” But the songwriting—inspired by the locale, the Maharishi’s lectures, and, especially, the impromptu celebrity community there—had accelerated, and Lennon soon sent a postcard to Ringo Starr (who had tired of meditation sooner than the others and returned to London), saying, “We’ve got about two LPs worth of songs now, so get your drums out.”

The Beatles’ transition from performance to studio work, and the atomized process it allowed and encouraged, now reached its apotheosis. George Martin, who was the Beatles’ Maxwell Perkins, producing all but one of their albums, explained, “The ultimate aim of everybody [had been] to try and recreate on records a live performance as accurately as possible. . . . We realized that we could do something other than that.” “Sgt. Pepper” is a simulacrum of a performance, the concert crowds replaced by recorded cheering, but the new record would remove this narrative crutch. Also gone was the picturesque subject matter: the street landscapes and polite courtships, the elderly couples and fumbling suitors and office workers trapped in suburban patterns, intruded upon by surrealism, like figures in Magritte paintings. In their place would be a clear, raw vision of an unsafe, chaotic world.

 PHOTO CREDIT: David Refern/Getty Images

As McCartney recounts in his notes accompanying the new edition, “We had left Sgt. Pepper’s band to play in his sunny Elysian Fields and were now striding out in new directions without a map.” The Abbey Road studios became the Beatles’ safe space, where, as McCartney writes,“the tensions arising in the world around us—and in our own world—had their effect on our music but, the moment we sat down to play, all that vanished and the magic circle within a square that was The Beatles was created.” Fitting together like a novel or a painter’s canvas, “The Beatles” abandons psychedelia for a more sophisticated set of aesthetic principles, embracing the avant-garde: Lennon had begun spending time with a new girlfriend, the conceptual artist Yoko Ono, who had been associated with the Fluxus movement, a group that pledged in its manifesto to “purge the world of dead art, imitation, artificial art, illusionistic art, mathematical art . . . promote a revolutionary flood and tide in art, promote living art, anti-art, promote non art reality to be fully grasped by all peoples, not only critics, dilettantes and professionals [and] Fuse the cadres of cultural, social & political revolutionaries into united front and action.”

“The Beatles” is as much a concept album as “Sgt. Pepper,” and the concept is, again, right in the title: a top-to-bottom reinvention of the band as pure abstraction, the two discs, like stone tablets, delivering a new order. (“By packaging 30 new songs in a plain white jacket, so sparsely decorated as to suggest censorship,” Richard Goldstein wrote in his New York Times review, “the 
Beatles ask us to drop our preconceptions about their ‘evolution’ and to hark back.”) The songs progress through a spectral, mystical, and romantic dimension, the soundscape itself becoming fluid and associative. The Beatles’ ability to conjure orchestras and horns and sound effects and choirs out of thin air imbues the tracks with a dream logic. The juxtaposition of order and disorder, of the ragged and the smooth, of the sublime and the mundane, of the meticulously arranged and the carelessly misplayed, provides what the critic John Harris called “the sense of a world moving beyond rational explanation.” The music seemed to absorb the panic and violence of 1968, the “year of the barricades.” As the Sunday Times critic commented, “Musically, there is beauty, horror, surprise, chaos, order; and that is the world, and that is what the Beatles are on about: created by, creating for, their age”.

PopMatters tackled the ”glorious, quixotic” mess that is The Beatles’ 1968 album. The fact that so many reviews and features call the album a ‘mess’ is not really an insult! It is a thirty-track album with all sorts of genres and sounds put together. Lord knows how much of a headache is must have been to sequenced the album to ensure that it was gripping from start to finish?! Is there one or two of the four sides that is imbalanced and a little stronger than the rest?! These are questions fans have been having since The Beatles arrived:

“Blackbird” is another solo recording by McCartney, a beautiful piece about the civil rights movement. It’s deceptively complex, with multiple signature changes as McCartney finger-picks his guitar and taps his foot for the beat. With its charming melody, McCartney’s sweet vocal and the uplifting nature of the lyrics, a strong argument could be made that “Blackbird” is McCartney’s strongest piece on the album.

Not quite so nice is Harrison’s snide “Piggies”, a bitter diatribe against society’s greed. Chris Thomas plays the harpsichord, which happened to be in the studio for a classical recording set to take place the next day. The Baroque string section arranged by Martin was added later. The classical pretensions only render the juvenile lyrics all the more jarring — it’s a thin joke of a song. Too bad Harrison’s “Not Guilty”, a track the band attempted to record numerous times before ultimately setting aside, didn’t fill this slot — it’s far superior.

The third animal-song in a row finds McCartney continuing his survey of every musical style possible with his wonderfully ridiculous country and western adventure “Rocky Raccoon”, a folk parody that even features a lively barrelhouse piano solo (played by Martin and sped up). The whole thing is rather absurd, from the exaggerated Western accent McCartney affects in the spoken-word intro, to the lyrics: “Her name was Magill and she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy”. Despite all that, or perhaps because of it, “Rocky Raccoon” has a certain goofy charm.

The first composition by Ringo to appear on a Beatles’ album is the countrified “Don’t Pass Me By”, a shambolic novelty that adds another layer to the White Album’s idiosyncratic weirdness. With awkward lyrics (“You were in a car crash, and you lost your hair”) and clunky piano (amplified through a Leslie speaker to give it that Hammond organ feel) that plods away laboriously, “Don’t Pass Me By” is a bit of a mess — and yet it’s endearing all the same. Starr recorded the song with the always-willing McCartney’s help — Lennon and Harrison don’t seem to have participated. The wily fiddle busking over-top of the chaos is played by respected jazz musician Jack Fallon.

Hastily recorded near the end of the album’s sessions, McCartney’s quirky blues shouter “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” is another figure in the White Album’s collection of curios. The idea apparently sprung from McCartney witnessing two monkeys casually copulating while the band was in India. He delivers a killer rock vocal over the rumbling piano and Ringo’s rock-steady rhythm.

The band mischievously sequences a song about rutting in a roadway alongside an absolutely lovely romantic ballad, “I Will”. Airily brief at under two minutes, “I Will” harkens back to the Beatles’ earlier days, especially with the vibrant acoustic guitar riff that blooms between verses. McCartney uses his voice instead of his guitar for the bass part, giving the track a charming homespun feel.

Lennon’s stunning “Julia” occupies the final slot on Side Two. A poignant ode to his late mother (and also to Yoko Ono), “Julia” was the final song recorded for the album. It’s dreamy and deeply felt, just Lennon over a finger-picked acoustic guitar. As “Martha My Dear” offers a glimpse into McCartney’s future solo career, so does “Julia” for Lennon. It could easily have fit on either Plastic Ono Band or Imagine. Indeed, one of the key tracks on Imagine, “Jealous Guy”, is a similar piece also written around this time and demoed for the White Album as “Child of Nature”.

Disc Two begins with another McCartney blues-rocker, “Birthday”. Built on a ferocious guitar riff that originated in a jam session, McCartney wrote it quickly in the studio and the band recorded it the same evening. Given its simplistic lyrics “Birthday” really should be a throwaway but it works thanks to one of the band’s better group performances on the album. Although never a single, “Birthday” has become something of a standard over the years and is arguably the most widely-known track on the album. It’s followed by Lennon’s ragged “Yer Blues”, which the band perversely recorded jammed together in a tiny storage room adjacent to the main studio. The result is a sloppy mess, with a piercingly shrill guitar solo and a jarring edit at the 3:17 mark. The track seems at least partly a satirical stab at some of the white-boy blues that was percolating in England at the time, but despite this Lennon’s vocal has some genuine feeling and it hints of things to come (“Cold Turkey”, in particular).

We go from Lennon’s haywire suicidal blues to McCartney’s tranquil “Mother Nature’s Son”, a lovely acoustic guitar ballad that had no involvement from the rest of the band. “Mother Nature’s Son” is folksy, prosaic, and another stylistic notch on McCartney’s musical bedpost. Martin arranged the four-piece brass section which adds a warm glow of color to the otherwise stark acoustic recording.

After the nice lull, things heat up quickly with Lennon’s electrifying rocker “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey”. Lennon’s vocal is particularly manic, Harrison’s guitar work is blistering, the rhythm is kinetic, and there are shouts of exuberance audible in the background. McCartney madly clangs a fireman handbell through much of the song, adding to the general cacophony and excitement.

Another track, another trip. This one is world-weary cynicism and disillusionment. “Sexy Sadie” is Lennon’s bitter repudiation of the Maharishi over unfounded rumours that he made a pass at one of his sexy young adherents. Musically the slow grooving piano-based number is at least partially inspired by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and ends up as one of the White Album’s more polished productions.

There’s nothing polished at all about “Helter Skelter”, however, McCartney’s attempt to record the loudest song he possibly could. John, Paul and George all bash away madly on their guitars, and Ringo slams into his kit with reckless abandon. The track has been much mythologized, thanks in large part to Charles Manson’s violent delusions. “Helter Skelter” is certainly a blunt force trauma to the head of a song, the most extreme rock the Beatles ever recorded. It’s oddly off-kilter and out of tune, a hurricane of irreverent messiness that exemplifies the ethos of the White Album perfectly.

As with many pieces on the White Album, there seems to be a parodic aspect to it, as McCartney tries to out-Who the Who, whose guitarist Pete Townshend was famous for smashing his guitar at the end of a gig. After the long fade out, it fades back in, before Ringo lets rip with a drum roll and that famous ad-libbed shout, “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!”

In keeping with the White Album’s gloriously perverse nature, the Beatles follow the loudest song with the softest, Harrison’s whispery “Long Long Long”, a lovely waltz infused with palpable spiritual longing. Harrison gently strums an acoustic guitar, McCartney handles the bass and the beautifully whirring Hammond organ, and Ringo displays some deft drum-work — Lennon isn’t on the recording at all. “Long Long Long” is perhaps most notable for its weird spectral ending, with Harrison wailing like a wounded ghost while the band members rattle their instruments ominously”.

In 2018, the BBC argued why you could make a case that The Beatles is the band’s best work. The Fab Four released something too epic, wide-ranging and good to be refuted. I think the weaker songs help in a way. It makes the album more human and interesting:

“The White Album’s working title was A Doll’s House, and it could be compared to a shambling mansion, with ballrooms, bedrooms, nurseries, cellars, and rooms full of junk that are rarely visited. It starts with a joke and ends with a lullaby. Between those two points, this omnivorous record takes bites out of folk, blues, rock’n’roll, ska, country, doo-wop, psychedelia, Tin Pan Alley, musique concrete and easy listening, while offering previsions of prog-rock and heavy metal. Happiness is a Warm Gun alone is three songs in one. Songwriting inspirations include a box of chocolates, a gun magazine, a Little Richard movie, Mia Farrow’s sister, monkey sex and, on the barbed wind-up Glass Onion, The Beatles’ own history.

The White Album was the first major release to deploy incoherence as a deliberate artistic strategy. It contains space-fillers even though there’s no space that needs filling, and is sequenced in such a way as to accentuate its jumbling together of the archaic and the avant-garde, the meaningless and the profound, the generous and the toxic, the ragged and the luminous, the spiritual and the profane, the desperately moving and the too silly for words. Many of John Lennon’s cryptic contributions are an assault on rationality itself. To be an editor is to presume that somehow The Beatles got it wrong and would rather have released 45 minutes of bangers. To be a sprawler is to embrace that rare, intoxicating quality that you might call everythingness. Perhaps that is why they called it The Beatles. This is what The Beatles is in 1968, the title implied. All of it. The whole damn mess.

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles entered Abbey Road Studios to start recording on 30th May, and administered the finishing touches on 14th October (1968)/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Over the years we’ve learned almost everything there is to know about the circumstances of its creation. We know that due to various rows, sulks and walkouts, the first stage of the band’s disintegration, all four Beatles appear on fewer than half the songs. We know about Yoko Ono’s contentious presence, Ringo’s huffy absence from Back in the USSR, John’s contempt for Paul’s “granny music shit”, and so on. We know that they were less than a year away from the last time that they all stood in a studio together, although in the newly released demos we can also hear that there was still plenty of fun to be had, despite those fissures. Even at the time, I imagine, one could hear pop’s quintessential gang of mates splintering into four individuals, and their musical fusions unravelling into discrete genre exercises. Listening to it is like watching an explosion in slow motion.

‘Wild, whirling spirit’

The White Album therefore made a fitting capstone for one of the most wildly eventful years of the 20th Century. The Beatles entered Abbey Road Studios to start recording on 30 May, and administered the finishing touches on 14 October. During that period, Charles de Gaulle quelled the student protests in Paris; Warsaw Pact tanks rolled into Prague; Robert F Kennedy was shot dead in Los Angeles; James Earl Ray was arrested for the murder of Martin Luther King; the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was marked by violence and chaos to the delight of Republican candidate Richard Nixon; the Ba’ath Party seized power in Iraq; the Tet Offensive concluded in Vietnam; the Troubles began in Northern Ireland; Andy Warhol mounted his first exhibition in Britain (and survived an assassination attempt); feminists protested the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City; censorship in British theatres came to an end, prompting the cast of Hair to take to the stage naked; Britain’s first abortion clinic opened its doors; and Nasa launched the first manned Apollo mission (Apollo 7). And that was just the 20 weeks while the Beatles were in the studio.It was an everything-at-once kind of year.

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles on their Transcendental Meditation course in India/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

The White Album explicitly acknowledges almost none of this. On the rare occasions that it is political, it is muddled, petty or vague. John Lennon was so conflicted about that spring’s wave of protests that he hedged his bets on Revolution 1 (“Don’t you know that you can count me out… in”), and his inscrutable Stockhausen-inspired sample collage Revolution 9 obscured more than it revealed. Only decades later did Paul McCartney reveal that Blackbird was meant to be an ode to the women of the civil rights movement. George Harrison’s Piggies is a sour pellet of misanthropy fired at anyone foolish enough to be ordinary. Most of the songs were written during a Transcendental Meditation course in India, a long way from the barricades of Paris or Prague.

Some ‘68 radicals resented The Beatles’ distance from the frontlines (and scolded Lennon to his face) but The White Album didn’t need to describe the year’s events in order to capture its wild, whirling spirit. Like Radiohead’s OK Computer or the Specials’ Ghost Town, it is one of those records where a band’s internal turmoil mingled with the unrest of the wider world: by being true to their own tensions and insecurities, The Beatles connected powerfully with those of their listeners. To many people, 1968 felt exciting, infuriating, liberating, terrifying, funny, sad, depressing, exhausting and bewildering.

Between the tumbling madness of Helter Skelter, the helpless spectatorism of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, the suicidal grind of Yer Blues, the macabre whimsy of Rocky Raccoon, the defeated sigh of I’m So Tired, the hallucinatory swoon of Dear Prudence, the sonic maelstrom of Revolution 9, and the gentle stoicism of I Will, here was an album that expressed every emotion and its opposite. If you felt that things were falling apart and the centre could not hold, then, boy, did The Beatles have the perfect record for you. In the Sunday Times newspaper, Derek Jewell wrote that The Beatles were “created by, created for, their age”.

In a far less enduring review, New York Times critic Mike Jahn dismissed the album as “hip Muzak, a soundtrack for head shops, parties and discotheques,” and unfavourably compared it to jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat and Tears. Oops. But I can sympathise with anyone tasked with reviewing The White Album the week it came out, because even now it’s impossible to summarise. That’s what keeps it alive. Its illustrious predecessor Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band can feel, decades later, like a snow globe of 1967: exquisite, of course, but sealed tight, impermeable to new interpretations. The White Album feels roomy, unguarded and, in some peculiar way, malleable. Every time I hear it, there’s always something I’ve forgotten or can’t pin down.

On the face of it, one of the busy, dissonant Pop Art collages that made Richard Hamilton famous might have been a more apt sleeve design for such a teeming album, but his blank-slate minimalism sends a different message: make of this what you will. As EM Forster said of Herman Melville’s novel, “Moby-Dick is full of meanings: its meaning is a different problem.” Fifty years later, in another era of upheaval, dislocation, paranoia and confusion, The White Album remains pop music’s great white whale: forever enthralling, forever elusive”.

I will finish up with a couple of reviews. As you can imagine, The Beatles received near-perfect reviews from many upon its release. It is one of those albums where most of the reviews give it five stars. AllMusic were appropriately impressed by a staggering work from a band heading in different directions:

“Each song on the sprawling double album The Beatles is an entity to itself, as the band touches on anything and everything it can. This makes for a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view, but what makes the so-called White Album interesting is its mess. Never before had a rock record been so self-reflective, or so ironic; the Beach Boys send-up "Back in the U.S.S.R." and the British blooze parody "Yer Blues" are delivered straight-faced, so it's never clear if these are affectionate tributes or wicked satires. Lennon turns in two of his best ballads with "Dear Prudence" and "Julia"; scours the Abbey Road vaults for the musique concrète collage "Revolution 9"; pours on the schmaltz for Ringo's closing number, "Good Night"; celebrates the Beatles cult with "Glass Onion"; and, with "Cry Baby Cry," rivals Syd Barrett. McCartney doesn't reach quite as far, yet his songs are stunning -- the music hall romp "Honey Pie," the mock country of "Rocky Raccoon," the ska-inflected "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," and the proto-metal roar of "Helter Skelter." Clearly, the Beatles' two main songwriting forces were no longer on the same page, but neither were George and Ringo. Harrison still had just two songs per LP, but it's clear from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," the canned soul of "Savoy Truffle," the haunting "Long, Long, Long," and even the silly "Piggies" that he had developed into a songwriter who deserved wider exposure. And Ringo turns in a delight with his first original, the lumbering country-carnival stomp "Don't Pass Me By." None of it sounds like it was meant to share album space together, but somehow The Beatles creates its own style and sound through its mess”.

I will end with Pitchfork’s deep review in 2009. They awarded it a perfect ten when they provided their thoughts. Many share that sort of passion and praise for the album. The Beatles still sounds truly breathtaking fifty-five years after its release:

“The Beatles, the band's complex and wide-ranging double album from 1968, is all of these things. It's a glorious and flawed mess, and its failings are as essential to its character as its triumphs. People love this album not because every song is a masterpiece, but because even the throwaways have their place. Even so, for the Beatles, being all over the place was a sign of trouble. The disintegration of the group as one "thing" is reflected in every aspect of the record, from its recording history (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison sometimes worked in separate studios on their own songs) to its production (generally spare and tending to shapeshift from one song to the next) to the arrangements of the songs (which tend to emphasize the solo voice above all). Visual changes were also apparent. Until The Beatles, the group's album artwork tended to depict the band as a unit: same haircuts, same jackets, same costumes, same artist's rendering. But The Beatles was packaged with separate individual color photos of John, Paul, George and Ringo, and they now appear almost forebodingly distinct. All of a sudden, the Beatles neither looked nor sounded like a monolith. So soon after Pepper and the death of manager Brian Epstein in 1967, the writing was on the wall.

But the backstory of The Beatles, while fascinating, is inessential to the album's appeal. Yes, they wrote most of it in India on acoustic guitar, while on a pilgrimage of sorts in early 1968 to see the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Some of Lennon's songs, including "Sexy Sadie" and "Dear Prudence", are based directly on the group's disillusioning experiences there. But it's the spectral, floating mood of "Prudence" and Lennon's playful, faintly condescending vocal in "Sadie" that stay with you. And while we know that Lennon's new love, Yoko Ono, was a regular presence during the session, much to the rest of the band's chagrin (McCartney has claimed that she would sometimes sit on his bass amp during a take, and he'd have to ask her to scoot over to adjust the volume), and that her influence on him led to the tape collage "Revolution 9", the more important detail is the final one, that the biggest pop band in the world exposed millions of fans to a really great and certainly frightening piece of avant-garde art.

In one sense, "Revolution 9" almost seems like The Beatles in microcosm: audacious, repetitive, silly, and intermittently dull, but also pulsing with life. If the individual Beatles hadn't been on such a songwriting roll during this time or if the album hadn't been sequenced and edited so well, The Beatles could easily have been an overlong slog, a Let It Be x2, say. But somehow, almost in spite of itself, it flows. The iffy jokes ("Rocky Raccoon", "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", "Piggies") and genre exercises (Lennon's aggro "Yer Blues", McCartney's pre-war pop confection "Honey Pie") are enjoyable, even without knowing that another gem is lurking around the next corner.

If The Beatles feels more like a collection of songs by solo artists, they've also each got more going on than we'd realized. John is even more hilarious than we'd imagined, wanting nothing more than to puncture the Beatles' myth ("Glass Onion"), but he's also displaying a disconcerting willingness to deal with painful autobiography in a direct way ("Julia"). Paul's getting disarmingly soft and fluffy ("Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "I Will"), while simultaneously writing the roughest, rawest tunes in his Beatles oeuvre ("Back in the U.S.S.R.", "Helter Skelter"). George is finding a better way to channel his new Eastern-influenced spiritual concerns into a rock context, while his songwriting toolkit continues to expand ("While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Long Long Long"). And even Ringo Starr writes a decent song, a country & western number with weirdly thick and heavy production ("Don't Pass Me By"). Listening as the tracks scroll by, there's a constant feeling of discovery.

But ultimately, the thing about this record is that the Beatles sound human on it. You feel like you're really getting to know them, just as they're starting to get to know themselves. Their amazing run between the latter part of 1965 through 1967 made them seem like a band apart, infallible musical geniuses always looking for another boundary to break. Here, they fail, and pretty often, too. But by allowing for that, they somehow achieve more. White Albums come when you surrender to inspiration: you're feeling so much, so intensely, that you're not sure what it all means, and you know you'll never be able to squeeze it all in”.

On 22nd November (25th November in the U.S.), 1968, The Beatles arrived and created a bang. A year after the planet-conquering Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, we were hearing a very different band. A thirty-track album where they were pushing sonic and lyrically boundaries like never before, what they released was a masterpiece! Last year, The Independent ranked The Beatles as the fourth-best from the band. Far Out Magazine put it in the same position a few years ago. Ultimate Classic Rock put it third in 2015. NME ranked it in fifth in their 2012 feature. No matter where you place it in relation to the other album, one cannot deny the sheer gravity and importance of the album. You can read more here in regards how The Beatles was received at the time and in the years since. It is a long, long, long album…though it is one that will…

STAY in the memory forever.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Dorian Electra

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Dorian Electra

_________

THERE are those artists…

making consistently interesting and amazing music who maybe do not get the exposure that they deserve. That is certainly the case when it comes to Dorian Electra. They are a Houston-born singer and songwriter. Their debut studio album, Flamboyant, was released in 2019. That was followed by their second studio album, My Agenda, in 2020. The stunning Electra is known for their non-conforming fashion, Queer aesthetics, and original and memorable Pop sound. Electra is genderfluid and uses they/them pronouns. I am going to get to some recent press around the album, Fanfare. That was released on 6th October (the vinyl is available to pre-order). Whilst it has won a smattering of very positive reviews, I feel more people need to hear the album and offer their thoughts. Before that, I feel it is important to go to that debut album and some of the interviews around that. In fact, I will bring in The Guardian’s talk with Dorian Electra from July 2019. They had released their amazing debut. Getting a lot of people talking. Quite right too. Flamboyant was definitely one of the key debut albums from 2019:

“Invariably, queer pop stars worship David Bowie, and Dorian Electra is no different. “My dad got me into Bowie from a really young age,” they say. “I looked up to androgynous rock stars.” What’s less common is worshipping Bono. “He was one of my heroes as a kid. I know, funny: everyone hates him. But I really loved him, and used to dress up as him. That was one of my first experiences in what I guess you could call drag, but I would call dressing up. I performed the song Vertigo, just for my family – I drew on a little beard with my stepmom’s eyeliner.”

And so, with a home performance of a U2 song, Electra set off on the way to becoming the most lively and witty new pop star of 2019. Assigned female at birth but now defining as gender-fluid, they are about to release their debut album: a brilliant collection of ultra-synthetic, cartoonishly masculine pop, delivered wearing a perfect pencil moustache.

Dorian and Electra are the first two names on their birth certificate, along with two more that they ask me not to divulge (along with their age). “I’ll tell all about everything else!” And boy, do they – their diagnosed attention deficit disorder triggers more than 10,000 words down the phone during our conversation, sentences constantly interrupted with a newer, even more interesting thought.

Electra grew up in Houston to an artist mother and a father who performed covers in a rock band after work: “He’s not the best singer, but he’s got the moves.” The couple split when Electra was five; after that, their mother dated women. “When I was eight, I was like: ‘So this friend of yours is always staying over, are you a lesbian?’ She was like: ‘Yeah, honey, I am.’ And I was like: ‘That’s OK.’ I knew those other options were open to me.”

As a kid, they felt “really androgynous: I wasn’t into the things girls were into, but I hated sports, or playing with GI Joe. I always identified with the word kid more than girl or boy.” In high school, they would have crushes on boys, “but I didn’t feel like a girl liking a guy. Love stories in movies were very alienating to me.”

One of their teachers, an out, “Oscar Wilde type figure” who also worked as the coach of the debating team, beguiled Dorian and the group of “nerdy boys” they fell in with. “We were … I’m hesitant to say the word brainwashed, because that takes away my agency, and he did come from a good place. But basically I was brainwashed to think the state was evil, that you can’t use government to do anything good, because it is an institution of force.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Dorian Electra in concert at Elsewhere, New York, May 2018/PHOTO CREDIT: Adela Loconte/REX/Shutterstock

The teacher was a libertarian, and his politics shaped Electra’s whole youth: one of their earliest viral hits was a song called I’m In Love With Friedrich Hayek, a ballad to the economist who influenced Reagan and Thatcher’s free-market ideology. “I watch a lot of documentaries about people coming out of cults, because I really relate to that,” Electra says. “Where it’s a charismatic leader, of young impressionable people, who are all very passionate and want to change the world. And then being led by this charisma into these ideas that now I’m really embarrassed by.”

For Electra, flamboyance is a symptom of camp, an “inherently queer” state. “Camp sees outside of the status quo, and also has a sense of humour, to cope with it, that’s knowing but also sincere.” No wonder they are about to go on tour with Charli XCX, another pop star who walks that line. Electra recently appeared in a music video by one of the masters of modern camp, Paris Hilton, and they celebrate Hilton’s “over-the-top self-awareness, in a camp way: her being a parody of herself, but a really savvy businessperson in her branding. The coolest thing about her is that she still has the finger on the pulse of where she stands culturally, whereas you see a lot of people like that lose touch, and think they are still perceived as the person they were back then.”

Like a vaping Freud, it is tempting to do some armchair psychology: when Electra dresses up as a matador, a gladiator and a boxer for the song Man to Man, is it to hide their vulnerability? “I wonder how much of me loving these masculine things – dressing up like a knight or a cowboy – how much of these things are not good, and maybe a product of my own internalised misogyny,” they ponder. “But I do feel very empowered and strong. I’m always so grateful for the support system I’ve had emotionally, and being able to be who I am. Maybe my work offers that to other people – maybe it resonates because they are finding strength in reclaiming the things they were bullied by, or were told they couldn’t be a part of. I can be a gladiator in a cultural sense.” In that sense at least, Dorian Electra is slaying”.

Before coming to a review for Fanfare, I want to look at one interview that was released in 2020. Dorian Electra was talking about their second album, My Agenda. Someone who was on a lot more people’s radar – compared to their debut a couple of years before -, this METAL interview is really interesting. We learn some really interesting things about Electra. I have selected some parts of the interview that particularly caught my eye:

“You are an artist who has seen great success in this digital era thanks to your playful hyperpop and immersive music video worlds. How has the Internet influenced the birth and life of Dorian Electra?

I started making music videos online in high school and uploading them to YouTube. It was really on MySpace that I first felt I could make music videos, have an audience and online community. Having that audience and connection to people through the Internet gave me a sense of purpose. Otherwise, it was just making a video on my dad’s camera with some friends when I was in middle school or earlier.
Audience and purpose play a large part in the work that I do and in feeling like it’s connected to a community. The Internet absolutely has been a huge part of that. As an independent artist too, the Internet has been so powerful to get my work out there totally independently, to distribute it, have it reach people, and for them to share it.

Awesome. Watching your videos, I felt like you expressed a political activist side from when you were very young. I guess you are tired of talking about the “I’m in love with Friedrich Hayek” video that launched your career. But I can see your opinions have changed a lot since then, and I’d love to hear you talk about that.

I don’t believe in a lot of the same politics that I used to believe in. I used to identify as libertarian and I was brainwashed by a teacher in high school into that ideology. Since then, I went to college, read Karl Marx and a whole bunch of books that opened my mind. Now I identify as a leftist, and the educational aspect is still something that’s core to my work as an artist. That’s something that’s always interested me: how to take complex ideas and put them into a catchy, accessible format that is potentially accessible to anybody. My work about the history of the clitoris, sexuality, gender – all of those videos were also early work that I think of as ‘before,’ but it was influential for me. I still think about my music in a lot of the same ways even though it’s not as explicitly educational.

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Rutherford (SN37 Agency)

That’s cool. So, your new deluxe version of the album My Agenda made me think of this linguistic slip, a mistake, that cisgender people make when they’re talking about trans and non-binary people’s gender by saying agenda rather than gender, which I find really funny. I don’t know if that was something that you’re referencing, but I want to move our conversation towards talking about whether this album is potentially a response to anti-trans discourses, despite the fact your music and art go far beyond gender identity. I want to know more about this activist side of you that comes out in the new album.

Definitely, this album is about a lot of things, but it is also about gender, sexuality, and particularly masculinity, like my previous album, Flamboyant. It also extends beyond that and goes more political. It explores the manosphere that includes men’s rights, incels, men going their own way – those kinds of online communities that reject modern feminism and want to see a return to traditional gender roles and traditional masculinity, who feel like their identities are somehow under attack. That often gets coupled with other forms of reactionary politics. These things are present in our culture but are often swept under the rug, misunderstood or written off rather than analysed. Yet, those strange political strains helped allow Donald Trump to be elected.

These cis white heterosexual men feel disenfranchised, disempowered, and like the world is against them. The solution is to stop and think why those people feel that way, what is causing them to take on hateful ideas like anti-immigration or racism, or other forms of right-wing populism. The left could be better at this. We need to look at the causes of those ideologies in order to be able to combat them. It has to start from a place of empathy and understanding in order to be able to reach out and ultimately hope to heal, or convert people. I think that it’s actually very important to face head-on the things we don’t agree with rather than staying in echo chambers. Right now we’re seeing increasing political polarisation and social atomisation, where we all feel separate and fractured as a culture.

So, I think that that’s my political calling – to look at things critically but also with empathy, even towards something that is hateful and you don’t agree with. We have to understand the causes to be able to combat it.

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Rutherford (SN37 Agency)

That’s so important. Thank you so much for going into detail about that. I’m going to try and intersperse slightly more light-hearted questions as we also cover the more political side of your work. So, do you think that humour is a good way to introduce change?

Absolutely, I think humour is one of the most powerful political tools. It can be used for good and for bad. And it’s very important to be aware of how we’re wielding that irony. It can be used as a political tool on a personal level to talk about gender identity, sort of poking fun at things that have been viewed as sacred, and sort of showing the historical social contingency of some of these things that are thought to be natural or permanent, like gender identity and so forth. I think humour is a healthy way to challenge people with the same ideas and introduce them to new ones.

There is a lot of ambiguity around the similarities and differences between you as a person and the characters you perform. Talking about your song Career Boy, you admitted you can overwork yourself to some extent. Did the pandemic aggravate that?

Yes, I think that my relationship with work has changed a lot in the past year and a half. When you’re forced to slow down and your work is reduced to what’s on the computer screen in front of you, it makes you look at it in a different way. Particularly when your work includes running around, travelling, doing errands, etc. – all of those were cut out of everyday life. I’m still feeling the effects of it and readjusting whilst also trying to find ways that I can relax and do things that are good for me that I didn’t do before the pandemic. But I was extremely busy for the majority of 2020, I didn’t take any time off. I was working on getting my album out and doing music videos. So, I definitely still relate to the stuff I said about Career Boy. But I’m trying to change that and challenge myself to look at things in a healthier way.

What are the things that you’re finding useful to unplug and relax at the moment?

I started listening to audiobooks, which is funny – I never did that before. I’ve joined a reading group but I keep questioning what I did with my time before.

I read recently that young people, my age, in their early twenties, are starting to get botox because of the way it is talked about on TikTok. It made me think of the conflation of youth, rebellion and the future – these contemporary ideas make it appear so normal. Where do you stand?

It’s a hard one to say. I think people should have the freedom to do whatever they want with their bodies. But also, the mounting pressure can be unhealthy. I’ve thought about the same things. To me, trans people undergoing feminisation surgery put it in perspective. You should have the power to use technology to shape your body but do it with an awareness of the social pressures. Josh just wrote an amazing article. He’s been doing an experiment on himself that’s very 4Chan, to boost testosterone levels. He chews this gum and does exercises to define his jaw called mewing. It’s like he’s transitioning, but he’s transitioning to be more masculine as a cis male. He’s mansitioning.

I wholeheartedly support all of my trans friends who make use of those services. I am lucky I can disconnect from those social pressures, particularly because my face is not on my work. My final question is: I love the artistic trajectory of the film director Jean-Luc Godard, who started by renewing the art form and then went incredibly experimental aged 80. Is this what we can expect from you?

I hope that I am always changing and evolving as an artist and pushing myself forward. I want to try my hand at more pop before delving into the more experimental, although to me that is a false dichotomy. Personally, I find [myself in] that happy medium. Pop is catchy or memorable – it can be experimental production-wise, but it’s more of an ethos than a sound. I want to break down the dichotomy”.

I can’t find any print interviews with Dorian Electra about their new album. In any case, the reviews are all very positive – and they give you an idea of what the album is about. This is what The Line of Best Fit noted in their review of the fabulous Fanfare:

“Though, to be fair, their first two albums had already made that pretty clear. 2019’s Flamboyant was a thumping, glittering pickaxe to masculinity, paving the way for the opulent absurdity of 2020’s My Agenda. Their eclectic sound earned them the slightly ham-fisted term ‘hyperpop’ alongside the likes of Charli XCX and SOPHIE, but really their sound is resistant to any such labelling. Spanning time, space, and several sticky dance floors, their music offers a cutting social commentary set to a miscellanea of noise cranked up high. On Fanfare, it is parasocial relationships and internet-inflicted brain rot on the chopping block for dissection.

One thing that’s always been impressive about Electra is their range: their discography is a racket of oscillating vocal contortions thrashing against snarling guitars, glitching production and stomach-punching bass. Fanfare is much the same story, with Electra able to keep a strong enough grip on all the disparate parts to stop true chaos ensuing. “Sodom and Gomorrah” is the undeniable standout, channelling all the sultry power of Spearsian 00s pop with added guitar crunch. Inspired by the divine destruction of two sinful cities, the track is a hymn to queer reclamation – or, in Electra’s words, “a bratty, slutty, sexy song.”

It’s followed by “Puppet”: a characteristically bawdy cut, its acutely left-of-field instrumental burying a slightly mangled rendition of Beethoven’s “Für Elise” that, somehow, actually works. Later, the five and a half minute epic “Yes Man” laments the blind, mindless praise feeding parasocial relationships. At the outset it appears comparatively stripped back – but fear not, it soon descends into a bouncing echo chamber of sinister laughter and Electra’s pleads to “cut the fucking fanfare.”

Lyrically, Electra has an established practice of running sentiments of various sincerity through a Gen Z translator. It’s how we’re left with “touch grass / shake that ass” on their anthem for the chronically online (“Touch Grass”); on “Manmade Horrors,” the ruin of man is summarised with similar derision (“bought a Che Guevara shirt from Zara / on sale”). While, for the most part, Electra has happily rejected the trend for putting a thousand fried voice notes on an album, “Lifetime” does offer an aggrieved tip on the most ecologically conscious way to dispose of coffee grounds.

Their satirical, ludicrous sense of humour runs throughout the record, informing more than just the lyrics. For instance, the outro on the otherwise swaggering “anon” bravely asks the question, “what would happen if you put a drum beat in a blender?” Elsewhere, “Warning Signs” ends with Electra singing in the round over a building instrumental and marching drums, an unexpected recall to the emo classics. At almost every turn this record has a new surprise to offer, showing off an artist that can truly turn their hand to anything.

Fanfare is technically a matured sound from Electra’s sophomore outing, if only because there’s less literal screaming this time round. Nothing quite reaches the visceral, brain-rattling energy of “Ram It Down,” for instance, but that still leaves more than enough scope for Electra’s kaleidoscopic vision. Their third album is a triumph of creativity and organised chaos, confirming their status as a cult sensation”.

A truly remarkable album from an artist that everyone should know about. I am going to keep an eye on Dorian Electra, as I think they are primed for mainstream success! It is hard for gender-fluid artists to get as much visibility at the front as other artists. It is quite difficult to break through in that sense. The media not paying as much attention to gender-fluid and non-binary artists as they perhaps should. Let’s hope that this changes! I only recently discovered Dorian Electra. I have been hooked on their music. I love the interviews and live performances. I know they have an L.A. show soon. After that, or into next year, maybe Electra will come visit the U.K. There are fans over here that would love to see them! One of the most compelling artists of the modern times, more focus needs to be on them. Fanfare is one of the best albums of this year without a doubt. One that you are hit by on the first visit. When you pass through after that, different moments and songs reveal treasures and new layers. In any case, the wonderful Dorian Electra is a sensation that is very much…

WORTHY of your time.

___________

Follow Dorian Electra

 PHOTO CREDIT: Tyre Thwaites

Official:

https://dorianelectra.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/dorianelectra/

TikTok:

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

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/DORIANELECTRA

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/202HZzqKvPsMHcbwnDZx7u?si=Tols2AVOSymkmGqW3yu4_A

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsR4LtDt0kYyLwKT9cYyQbg

FEATURE: #BlackHistoryMonth 2023: Songs from the Best Black British Albums of the Past Twenty Years

FEATURE:

 

#BlackHistoryMonth 2023

IN THIS PHOTO: Laura Mvula/PHOTO CREDIT: Danny Kasirye

Songs from the Best Black British Albums of the Past Twenty Years

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FOR this feature…

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

around Black History Month (#BlackHistoryMonth), I wanted to put together a playlist of songs from the best Black British albums of the past twenty years. These are the acclaimed albums that have highlighted some of the most extraordinary artists of our time. These modern icons whose albums will go down in music history. I am writing a few more features around Black History Month. Delving more into this year in music, alongside a feature around Beyoncé and her upcoming concert film. I am also going to spend some time saluting great Black British talent coming through. Here, I have assorted an extensive playlist with a prime cut from albums released in the past two decades from some exceptional Black British talent. I may have missed some important artists. If anyone does notice any, I will definitely add them to the playlist. With modern British leaders like Little Simz and Stormzy inspiring the next generation, let’s hope that the industry reacts to this. In the past, there have been surveys and findings that show Black creators have been discriminated against or find they need to change their appearance to get noticed. This is something that happens today! Something that impacts even more Black women. To celebrate the extraordinary Black British talent we have in this country, I am pleased to share a playlist of some truly amazing songs – from some world-class albums. These are artists that simply…

CAN’T be ignored. 

FEATURE: Live Support: Aside from the Main Act, Why Gigs Offer So Much More

FEATURE:

 

 

Live Support

 PHOTO CREDIT: Laura Stanley/Pexels

Aside from the Main Act, Why Gigs Offer So Much More

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I have been to a few gigs recently…

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Anchoress/PHOTO CREDIT: Lily Warring

and three very different brilliant venues. Perhaps the biggest gig I went to is when The Anchoress played Union Chapel, London on 6th October. It was the final night of her autumn tour. She played songs from her 2021 album, The Art of Losing. A few from the new covers album (or ‘album 2.5’ as she said on stage), Versions. I don’t get to many gigs because of budgeting and being quite busy, but when I do I usually go to those in small venues (not in arenas). I usually find that there is a lot to love beyond the main act. You get more of an experience. This all enforces the importance of preserving venues and assuring that we do not lose the incredible variety that we have in this country. In the case of The Anchoress gig, there was a great support artist, Leoni Jane Kennedy. She was also part of The Anchoress’s band. Also brought in for one song was Eaves Wilder. In a fantastic set, not only did I get to see the splendour of The Anchoress. I also got to see so much more. In a historic venue, it was a real experience. It was a great social experience too. Meeting and interacting with fans of hers I had never met. Sharing great stories and musical tastes. I tend to find that louder gigs at larger venues tends to offer fewer social opportunities. The sheer noise and scale of the spaces means it is quite intimidating and lacks something.

That said, you still get a new dynamic when you see mainstream artists on big tours. In addition to the set itself and any support acts, there are visuals and bespoke sets. A real visual and audio experience. What I also think is great about gigs is that they can be a vital outlet for those who might not otherwise be sociable or go out. High ticket prices and travel considerations can mean it is a limited activity - though it something many people look forward to. When it comes to live music, many assume that it is all about that artist and the music they play. I find that there is so much more to going to a gig. Even queuing to get into the venue can provide a lot of connections and conversations. The merchandise stands allow you the chance to support the artist and, in some cases, meet them personally. Less common with huge acts, it is always quite humbling that many acts stay behind after a gig to sign stuff and staff the merchandise table. I do like that gigs offer the chance for people to back and discover a support act. I have seen Iraina Mancini a few times this year and those who have supported her. It is always exciting watching the support artist play and hearing music that you might not have already considered. In addition to the unique and personal benefits and rewards of live music, whether that is discovering new bonds with fans and artists, in addition to the joys of going to a new venue and somewhere that provides real character. It is a chance for fans to hear an artist talk about their songs and personal experiences in a very direct and moving way. You get the music in its most primal and direct way too. There is not the filter of streaming and devices. Music as the great and communal communicator!

 PHOTO CREDIT: Vishnu R Nair/Pexels

There are psychological and physical benefits with live music. Some of which I have experienced recently. At such a stressful time, I have found going to gigs has been a great release and rewarding break. I am going to bring in a couple of features to finish that discuss why live music is so important – and why we really need to support it. A real life support, In 2021,  The Conversation wrote about the magic behind live music:

“For months, fans were relegated to watching their favorite singers and musicians over Zoom or via webcasts. Now, live shows – from festivals like Lollapalooza to Broadway musicals – are officially back.

The songs that beamed into living rooms during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic may have featured an artist’s hits. But there’s just something magical about seeing music surrounded by other people. Some fans reported being so moved by their first live shows in nearly two years that they wept with joy.

As a music theorist, I’ve spent my career trying to figure out just what that “magic” is. And part of understanding this requires thinking about music as more than simply sounds washing over a listener.

Music as more than communication

Music is often thought of as a twin sister to language. Whereas words tend to convey ideas and knowledge, music transmits emotions.

According to this view, performers broadcast their messages – the music – to their audience. Listeners decode the messages on the basis of their own listening habits, and that’s how they interpret the emotions the performers hope to communicate.

But if all music did was communicate emotions, watching an online concert should’ve been no different than going to a live show. After all, in both cases, listeners heard the same melodies, the same harmonies and the same rhythms.

So what couldn’t be experienced through a computer screen?

The short answer is that music does far more than communicate. When witnessed in person, with other people, it can create powerful physical and emotional bonds”.

The pandemic and lockdown really changed how we experienced live music. With most venues closed and artists anchored, they turned to online gigs and trying to deliver something as close to ‘the real thing’ as they could. It was needed and essential – for their financial stability and a way to keep their music out there -, though it made it very clear that you could not replicate all the layers and nuances of a live gig online. It reinforced then and now why live music is so essential. Not only for venues and artists but for society as a whole. This multi-part experience I have talked about witnessing recently is one that thousands have at different gigs. Fly Paper also wrote about the vitality and vitalness of live music for their feature in 2021:

“As live events came to a screeching halt over the past year and half, the benefits of these events and interactions have become more and more apparent. In fact, research shows that regularly attending live music events provides much-needed social encounters, lowers stress hormones, contributes to positive mental feelings at even higher levels than activities like yoga or walking your dog and can even increase your life expectancy by up to nine years.

In this article, we’ll explore the social and physical benefits of seeing live music, and why it’s such an important part of many of our lives.

Social Benefits of Live Music

Live music is, by nature, a shared experience. When you enter a venue to see an artist, you automatically find yourself in a group of people you have something in common with. The lights and the noise of the world outside the venue dim and for that moment, all that matters is you and the people in this room, singing and dancing along to your favorite songs.

Think about the feeling you get when the band or DJ plays the first few notes of your favorite song at a show. The excitement and energy in the air are palpable for everyone in the room. Your sense of self starts to slip away, and for a few moments, you become one with the crowd. You feel energetic and almost giddy as you sing and dance with complete strangers. This contagious sense of euphoric connectedness is called “collective effervescence,” a term coined a century ago by the French sociologist Émile Durkheim.

PHOTO CREDIT: Laura Stanley/Pexels

These effervescent experiences fill a human need for belonging in a way that we tend to overlook. Historically, humans met this need for connectedness with groups of others through events like feasts or celebrations, many of which included live music or entertainment. There’s just something about being in a space where art is being created and enjoyed by others that allows one to connect with others on a different level.

Of course, live music is just one example of the ways humans meet this need, some others include protests, attending professional sports events, or interest-based conferences such as ComicCon or DragCon. From ancient customs such as pilgrimages and feasts to more modern methods such as concerts and pro sports, these collective effervescence events help people to lead happier, connected, and more personally meaningful lives by connecting with others.

PHOTO CREDIT: luizclas/Pexels

Physical and Mental Health Benefits of Live Music

Live music helps us to connect with others, but it also improves our physical and mental health in some pretty surprising ways. A scientific study by O2 and a behavioral science expert from Goldsmith’s University revealed that just 20 minutes at a concert resulted in a significant 21% increase in feelings of well-being. Since scholarly research directly links high levels of well-being with an increased lifespan, that means that attending gigs regularly has the potential to increase your life expectancy.

In the same study from O2, they found some key markers that were drastically improved included increases in feelings of self-worth (+25%), closeness to others (+25%), and mental stimulation (+75%). Accompanying research also showed a positive correlation between the frequency of concert attendance and well-being.

Those who attend live concerts more frequently were the most likely to score their happiness, contentment, productivity and self-esteem at the highest levels. This suggests that regularly attending live music events could be key to improving our well-being.

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

Another study by researchers Daisy Fancourt and Aaron Williamon from Imperial College London found that attending a concert lowers stress hormones like Cortisol. Cortisol is produced when the body is under physical or mental stress, and prolonged exposure to this hormone has been associated with an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and impotency.

So, lowering these levels is pretty important. Interestingly, researchers found that it didn’t seem to matter how musical the participants were, or what their background was — the concert appeared to have a pretty similar effect on everyone. They all saw the same show, and regardless of age, experience or whether they were familiar with the content or not, nearly everyone saw decreases in their stress hormones.

Why We Need Live Music

From sold-out stadium tours to an acoustic artist at the farmer’s market, live music allows us to feel connected to others in a unique and beautiful way while lowering our stress hormones and making us feel good about ourselves.

The truth is, we need live music because it’s good for us. It’s good for our communities and relationships with others. It makes us happier, healthier, and more connected people. All of which makes our world a better place to be. So, the next time you’re feeling guilty about indulging in a show, remember you’re just doing your part to make the world a better place”.

If not an activity that I undertake as much as I’d like, the clear and long-lasting benefits of live music are multiple and deep. Away from the obvious satisfaction of watching the artist that you came to see, you also get the social interactions; the chance to explore a new area and discovery a venue you have not been to before. There are also those mental health and physical benefits. More and more, we hear that grassroot venues especially are under threat. Think of all the memories they hold and how many people they have housed through the years. Losing those is a tragedy. The importance of live music is not only about the music. The whole experience can be…

TRULY life-giving.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Electric Ladyland at Fifty-Five: ‘Electric’ Songs

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Electric Ladyland at Fifty-Five: ‘Electric’ Songs

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I wanted to mark…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Jimi Hendrix in 1968/PHOTO CREDIT: Barrie Wentzell

the upcoming fifty-fifth anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland. This masterpiece is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released before Hendrix's death in 1970. A wonderous double album, it was the only record from the Experience with production solely credited to Hendrix. Including classic cuts such as Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland), Crosstown Traffic, All Along the Watchtower and Voodoo Child (Slight Return), it is one of the greatest albums ever released. Before getting to a playlist where the songs all have an electric connection, Albumism marked the fiftieth anniversary of Electric Ladyland on 14th October, 2018 – two days before the actual anniversary (it was released on 16th October, 1968 in the U.S. and 25th October in the U.K.):

“Electric Ladyland is the third studio album released by The Jimi Hendrix Experience in a 14-month span. Sadly, it was their last as well.

Time has been very kind to Electric Ladyland. It has consistently ranked high on many greatest albums of all time lists including Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time (it ranked 55th). Upon its release, music critics were confused by the Hendrix and engineer Eddie Kramer experimentation. Melody Maker called the album a muddled mess.

When I first heard Electric Ladyland, I must confess, I didn’t get it either. I’d skip to “All Along the Watchtower” and call it a day. When I eventually did a deep dive, I was mesmerized. Hendrix fused psychedelic rock together with some Delta blues and groundbreaking use of effect to create his best work.

What often goes overlooked when referring to Electric Ladyland is Hendrix’s intense work ethic in the studio. His dedication was akin to that of a gym rat who constantly works on his game on the basketball court. As you can imagine, life with Hendrix was nothing short of chaotic. The band had to record album tracks in between gigs because of their frenetic tour schedule that did not allow for any downtime. It was a surefire way to burn out a band. With Hendrix’s popularity skyrocketing, there was no shortage of people coming along for the ride, whether it be on the road or in the studio.

Recording for Electric Ladyland initially began in July of 1967 at several different studios. In April of 1968, the band finally settled in at Record Plant Studios in New York City with their manager (and former Animals bassist) Chas Chandler at the helm. The chaos spilled over into the recording sessions as Hendrix started to regularly invite friends to hang out and even sit in. Unlike the previous two albums, Are You Experienced (1967) and Axis: Bold as Love (1967), Chandler began to lose his firm grip on the band. The last straw for him was Hendrix’s constant demand for repeated takes.

Hendrix’s perfectionism along with his invited guests in the studio led to Chandler eventually ending their relationship. He wasn’t the only one with an eye towards the door. Bassist Noel Redding stated "There were tons of people in the studio; you couldn't move. It was a party, not a session." Redding formed his own band, Fat Mattress, so he became less available for the recording sessions. This prompted Hendrix to take over on bass for much of the album.

With Hendrix now in full command, he was able to see his vision come to life and on his terms. It was a preparation for the next phase of his career. During these sessions Hendrix became enamored with using echo, backwards masking and tape loops. One of the results of this experimentation is the lead track “…And the Gods Made Love.” Hendrix once explained why he chose this track to lead off the album. He said, “we knew people will jump on to criticize (this track), so I put it first to get it over with.” It serves as a nice intro to “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland),” which features Hendrix on guitar, bass and all vocals. The song is beautiful, trippy and mystical without ever being on the verge of sounding cliché. It also serves as preamble for what’s about to go down. Hendrix is about to take you on a trip.

“Oh, (I want to show you) the different emotions / (I want to run to) the sounds and motions / Electric woman waits for you and me / So it's time we take a ride, we can cast all of your hang-ups over the seaside.

“Crosstown Traffic” is one of the few tracks on the album that features all three members of The Experience. It was the first time Hendrix played an instrument other than guitar on a record. In addition to playing piano, he also played a makeshift kazoo using paper and a comb. One of the many in-studio guests was Traffic’s Dave Mason, who wound up singing backing vocals on the track.

The song was a source of contention between Hendrix and Reprise Records. He never meant for it to be released as a single at all. Hendrix told Rolling Stone, “You have the whole planned-out LP, and all of a sudden they’ll make ‘Crosstown Traffic,’ for instance, a single, and that’s coming out of a whole other set.” Hendrix was no longer this guitar prodigy whose fate and musical direction was in the hands of his manager. He knew exactly what he wanted Electric Ladyland to sound like and in the process, drove everyone around him crazy with his need to get everything right. Case in point, and much to the consternation of drummer Mitch Mitchell, it took over fifty takes to record the track “Gypsy Eyes.” Much of the delays that plagued the album were due to Hendrix’s insecurity about his singing voice. He often recorded his vocals hidden behind a screen.

Inspired by a jam session with B.B. King, Al Kooper and Elvin Bishop, Hendrix’s 15-minute “Voodoo Chile” captures the mood and spirit of the album. While some have viewed this track as self-indulgent, the excellent musicianship by Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady and Traffic's Steve Winwood (organ) on the track cannot be disputed. This bluesy jam session combined elements of Hendrix’s days backing The Isley Brothers and Little Richard with psychedelic rock making you feel like you’re in a tiny little club after midnight watching this ensemble just play and jam.

Arguably, the two most popular tracks on Electric Ladyland are the previously mentioned “All Along the Watchtower” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return).” These songs have been staples on classic rock radio stations for decades. Hendrix’s take on Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” has been praised by Dylan and in some circles, remains the preferred version. It was the band’s one and only top 40 hit, peaking at number 20.

“Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” is a fitting close to Electric Ladyland. It was developed from “Voodoo Chile” and recorded the day after with The Experience lineup instead of Winwood and Casady. While filming a segment in the studio for a short documentary, the band just started playing the song. Guitarist Joe Satriani remarked to MusicRadar, "It's just the greatest piece of electric guitar work ever recorded. In fact, the whole song could be considered the holy grail of guitar expression and technique. It is a beacon of humanity.”

Pulling together Electric Ladyland, amid all of the chaos surrounding him may be Hendrix’s greatest feat. From what appeared to be one long extended jam session and party came a meticulous, well-crafted collection of songs that bounced between psychedelic rock, funk and blues. Hendrix created a groundbreaking LP that allows the listener to expand their musical palate, and there’s no doubt in my mind that Electric Ladyland is his finest achievement”.

If you need some more facts about Electric Ladyland, there are some great articles out there. A seminal Rock album from a virtuosic guitarist and one of the more underrated songwriters and singers, there was nobody in music like Jimi Hendrix – and there never will be! Ahead of the fifty-fifth anniversary of a genius album that is among the greatest ever released, below are some Electric Ladyland-inspired songs. Songs that are the word ‘electric’, or bands and albums that feature that word. It means that these eclectic tracks are….

VERY much electric.

FEATURE: Spotlight: V V Brown

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

V V Brown

_________

THERE are a few reasons…

why I am spotlighting V V Brown. Although she is an icon and has been in the industry a  while now, I do feel like there are stations and avenues that should be spotlighting her music. Someone who should be dominating festival line-ups next year, her new single, History, is among her most remarkable. I have been a fan of Brown’s for a while. Also, as this month is #BlackHistoryMonth in the U.K., I wanted to celebrate one of our most important artists. Later this month, V V Brown celebrates her birthday. I am excited to see what comes next for her. One thing we do know is that her album, Am I British Yet?, is out on 27th October. You really do need to pre-order it now! At a time when we are living under such a corrupt and morally reprehensible government, Brown’s words seem even more potent and truthful. An artist who I know how such a strong and admiring fanbase, here are some words about her forthcoming album:

“Multi-platinum musician, Grammy®-Nominated songwriter, and multi-faceted artist. V V Brown is back with her fourth studio album Am I Black British Yet? This is a groundbreaking exploration of black identity. This cutting edge project features influences from James Baldwin, Erykah Badu, Soul to Soul, Roots Manoeuvre, and Windrush generation poets. Showcasing her Jamaican and Black British heritage through genre blurring soundscapes, V V Brown has crafted an innovative musical experience that refuses the status quo.

PHOTO CREDIT: Tom Brown via Interview Magazine

This collaborative masterpiece was meticulously crafted between two musical powerhouses from opposite sides of the globe - J Sensible, hailing from the land down under, and Milton Keynes representing the UK. Despite being miles apart, they've managed to create a breathtaking album that sounds as if they were in the same room.The music is more than just sound; It's a cultural and sociological exploration into Black Britishness that transcends time and generations. A fusion of artists young and old come together to share their experiences with V V Brown leading the charge with her stunning vocals.

This album marks a pivotal moment for Black British music, forging a deep connection to history while exuding a present-day feel that will certainly stand the test of time. Get ready to be mesmerised by this musical journey that you won't want to miss adding to your music collection”.

I am going to lead up to some fairly recent interviews V V Brown has been involved with. You can search yourself. Through the years, this amazing artist has been under the spotlight in the hearts and minds of the masses. Her third studio album, Glitch, was released in 2015. Despite the fact her second studio album, Samson & Delilah, is her strongest so far, Am I British Yet? Is going to eclipse that. Before getting to any interviews, this biography feature provides some useful background to a music legend:

“Vanessa Brown (born 24 October 1983), known by her stage names V V Brown and V V, is a British singer-songwriter, model and producer, best known for her 2009 single “Shark in the Water”.

Vanessa Brown was born in Northampton, England. She is the eldest of six siblings. Her mother is Jamaican and her father is Puerto Rican. She attended Overstone Park School near Northampton, which her parents own and work at. Brown learned to play the piano, developed her vocals and took classical and jazz piano lessons at a musical arts school. Brown was given her name “V V” from her peers as an MC nickname when she attended her middle school. Her love for hip hop and artists such as J Dilla and Q-Tip still exists. Brown studied violin at the age of 9 but gave it up because she found she was better at the piano and trumpet. She completed her grade 8 jazz trumpet at the age of 16 and went on to play in jazz bands up to the age of 21.

Growing up, V V listened to jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie. Brown earned four “A” grade A-Levels, studying at Kingsthorpe Upper School (now Kingsthorpe Community College) a year early; she was offered places at five top UK universities to study law including Oxford, King’s College London, LSE and York. She declined the offers to follow a career in music. V V Brown was first offered a deal by Gut records when she was 14 but due to educational commitments she decided to finish her studies. She was then offered a deal by Danny Simms, the manager and mogul associated with Bob Marley. Brown declined to finish her studies. She joined a punk band at 15 and had the opportunity to tour Japan. Subsequently, P. Diddy attempted to sign her to his record label Bad Boy Records.

At 18, Brown was invited to an open audition for “VH1 Divas” by friends and was stopped outside the venue by an executive from London Records. Brown was offered a development deal by London records. The development soon came to an end and, at 19, Brown was offered a deal by Polydor records in the UK and A&M records in the US. She left her deal with Polydor and A&M in 2006, with just one single – “Whipped” – officially being released, and a planned album titled “Back to the Music” never materialising.

Brown moved back to London and began performing in bars and clubs around London. She was rediscovered by executive Darcus Beese and signed to Island Records. “Traveling Like the Light” was then recorded in 2007-2008. Brown said that most of the lyrics on the album were about a failed affair Brown endured. The album was promoted by four singles: “Crying Blood”, “LEAVE!”, “Shark in the Water” and “Game Over”. “Shark in the Water” charted in the British, French and American charts, and was certified gold in America and France in 2009.

On September 14 2011, Brown announced that the first single from her then untitled sophomore album would be “Children” featuring Chiddy of Chiddy Bang. The song was released digitally on September 20 2011 (the release was limited to the US, Canada and Mexico as her UK deal with Island Records expired). On October 4 2011, Brown announced that the album would be titled “Lollipops & Politics” and released on February 7 of the following year.

PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel King/Getty Images

Weeks before its planned release, a digital preorder for the album on Amazon was removed, leading to Brown announcing that the LP would be pushed back in order for a worldwide release to occur and to add more songs. However, she eventually confirmed that the entire release would be scrapped and a new album released in its place, with news also emerging that Brown had left Capitol Records and set up her own label, YOY Records (You Own You).

“Samson” was released as her second album proper’s lead single on July 14 2013. Brown announced that the LP would be called “Samson & Delilah” and released on October 8 in the US and September 9 in the UK. The second single, “The Apple”, was released on August 25 in the UK, with a third single, a remixed version of album track “Faith” featuring Bloc Party’s Kele, following in March 2014.

Brown commenced recording of her third album in mid-2014 exclusively with producer Nearly Native (James Leggett), who she had found on SoundCloud. The project, initially planned to be an EP, expanded into an album, with a planned release date of March 2015 being pushed back. Brown filmed 3 music videos for the songs “Shift”, “Instincts” and “Lazarus” in March, with the former song’s video leaking in June.

The next month, Brown announced that she would be adopting a new stage name, V V, made her album available for preorder on Pledge Music, and shared the video for “Instincts”. “Shift” was released officially on August 7 exclusively to streaming services, with its parent album “Glitch” expected in autumn”.

As she states in a recent interview Black artists are being under-represented. Whilst some like RAYE have great power and are going independent, there are so many being overlooked. Discussing the fact that Black artists seem to be a trend or on a conveyor belt of brief attention where Brown, Cat Burns, Laura Mvula or RAYE is spotlighted – and maybe Little Simz too – there does need to be more focus given to amazing Black talent throughout the industry. Before keeping things up to date, I want to look back. V V Brown is a terrific musician. She is also an entrepreneur. In this 2021 interview with The Guardian Brown was working on the Black Girl Magic festival - supporting Black women in music:

“I remember the first time my music was played on the radio. I’d made it into the top 10 of the BBC Music Sound poll – which predicts who might be successful – and it was common for a national radio station to play the music of each artist. So there I was, huddled on the sofa with my family.

But the excitement was short-lived. Immediately after the radio presenter played my song, she took a phone-in call from a guy who said, on air, that I was ugly and stupid. Their discussion then led to a lazy comparison with another black artist, and the presenter concluded the call by going close to the mic and whispering quite smugly that she thought Janelle Monáe was much better than VV Brown.

My sisters and I were in tears. I felt so humiliated: the comments about my looks; the kneejerk dismissal of music I had taken two years to put together with everything in me. My ego had taken a beating.

That call took place in 2008, and I have battled with it throughout my career. It knocked my self-esteem for six. Despite this, I told myself to stop being so sensitive and just concentrate on the music.

I tried to move on from it, but one of the things that stayed on my mind was that, during the show, I didn’t remember any of my white counterparts being compared to any other white artists in such a polarised way – being pulled apart for their looks, intelligence or sound. I understood that this criticism might come from the public, but I did not expect it to be encouraged by my industry.

Throughout my career I’ve noticed many other examples where the UK music industry pits black women against each other, making us believe there is only room for one of us. We are not seen or heard in the same way as white artists.

Approaching radio stations for airplay would regularly lead to responses such as, “There isn’t any room on the playlists because we already have that black female artist. It might be best to try 1Xtra.” And it was common for the press to perpetuate competitive language as if black artists were rivals with each other. The genre of music didn’t matter; it was only based on the colour of our skin. I hated being immediately categorised as R&B even though I had written a pop punk song, and it was frustrating to never be regarded as a songwriter or a producer despite writing and producing 70% of my first album.

In 2020 I checked myself into therapy because of the countless experiences that had severely damaged my self-esteem during my time in the industry. I related to the experience of Laura Mvula being dropped from her record label via an email. She said last month that, four years on, she “still feel[s] this kind of resentment. And, you know, my ego suffered a lot.”

It was exhausting having to prove to the industry that I wasn’t some sassy, aggressive diva. I was tired of worrying about feeling isolated and ridiculed on photoshoots for having afro hair. I was tired of being stereotyped, I was tired of journalists assuming I was a soul singer and never a producer. I was tired of white so-called feminists playing a huge part in the racism towards black women within my music industry and feeling unable to talk about it.

I would see countless images on social media of “UK women in music” conferences championing the progress on gender within the industry, yet with no black women to be seen. I would notice tight cliquey networks of white women in the industry supporting other white artists but ignoring black artists. It was unconscious, unintentional, packaged politely – and was never done in a way that meant to cause harm. However, it was deeply rooted in the industry.

Black female artists are used, abused, discarded and mistreated. The patterns of disparity are undeniable. Our careers have quicker expiry dates than our white counterparts and we are not promoted or treated with the same intent. There sometimes seems to be a one-in, one-out rule so rampant it can feel like a factory line of disposable blackness.

As I took my headphones off after listening to Laura Mvula’s latest album, Pink Noise, I almost wept because of her brilliance. I was so frustrated that her previous label had treated such a genius with such disrespect and I hope that she will receive the high praise she deserves. I thought about the British black female musicians who have come and gone over the years, and how their talents have never come to light in the same way as their white counterparts.

Artist Raye has spoken out about not being allowed to release her music, and throughout my years in the business there have been countless black artists in exactly the same position. I experienced it myself. For two years I was unable to release music and was completely neglected. I negotiated myself out of my first record deal in a 24-hour web cafe at 1am.

We musicians are trained to be silent about our experiences because there is a heavy stigma that our rebellion will be categorised as aggressive, bitter or ungrateful. We are supposed to accept what we are given because to be black in this industry is thought to be even more of a privilege for us than for white artists.

Why hasn’t the UK music industry produced a black pop star like Rihanna, and why do so many of us instead make our success overseas? I sold more than a million records in the US and had a strong fan base, but my album was derided as music for a children’s party by NME, and it spoke of “sass” as if I was a soul singer who’d just picked up a mic and danced.

Black female artists don’t lack talent, it’s the white infrastructure that stops them from fulfilling their potential. Our careers are in the hands of people who take from our culture and package it for the masses through a white gaze, whereas success stories of black individuals often arise from independent, grassroots, progressive platforms.

The next time you see a white female British artist on television, count the number of black women who stand behind them, supporting the continuation of white female artists singing music from our culture. The next time you see anything to do with championing women in arts, count how many black women are speaking. The next time you see an article in a music magazine, think of how few black women in the industry have the power to make executive creative decisions. The disparity is obvious and it needs to change.

Today, with Spotify and independent artists having more power, it’s exciting to see black female artists such as Little Simz taking control. However, unless we go independent or bang down the doors forcing the industry to embrace us, the UK music world will not allow black women to reach their true potentials. It’s obvious to see that the music industry leaves black women behind”.

Back in June, when highlighting her single, Twisted, Wonderland. asked about her return (as her previous studio album was more than a decade ago), in addition to how her sound has changed since she started out. It is always compelling and moving reading and hearing interviews from the sensational V V Brown:

“Off of her forthcoming album, Am I British Yet?, VV Brown shares a second single. Following the success of “Black British”, “Twisted” offers another glimpse into the meaningful project. The track reflects the artist’s multitude of mediums, weaving together research, journalistic styles, and sociology studies to paint a comprehensive, emotional, and empowering picture. Inspired by James Baldwin’s I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, as well as Erykah Badu’s music, VV Brown tackles the complex subject of cultural appropriation in a clear, direct manner. Touching on the implications of the offence and what it truly means to steal from black culture, she brings awareness to the magnitude of the threat.

We had the honour of speaking with VV Brown about her time away from the industry and what this new body of work means to her.

Now for the interview…

Congratulations on your forthcoming album, Am I British Yet?! The last time you released new music was around 10 years ago, what provoked your hiatus and what has it been like re-entering the industry?

Yes, I released GLITCH 8 years ago which was an album inspired by the vogueing movement and the documentary Paris is Burning. I love that album and we had plans to do a voguing ball but things dramatically changed and we didn’t tour in the end. Wow…. how 8 years have whizzed by so fast. My hiatus was triggered by being pregnant. Motherhood induced a wonderful stillness. Motherhood grounded and challenged me in new ways and it was nice to be surrounded by wholesome feelings and things.

I was incredibly nervous to come back into the industry. It has changed so much. I was releasing records independently from 2013 and everyone thought I was mad when I chose to distribute alone and now the landscape is one where everyone is releasing independently. It is a powerful time which moves between music being like water, incredibly accessible and almost too available, yet propelling a strong freedom and a democracy which can only be a good thing for art and culture in some way.

How would you say the industry has changed in the past 10 years?

Artists are releasing independently and unafraid to know their worth. Black artists are being heard a lot more and given more space to express their creative visions. Music is fragmented so you can be more successful in your own world and connect with your fans. Despite this, music has become more hybrid. This is cool but it can make it feel a little lost at times as young artists make music that doesn’t feel as authentic. Gosh, I may be turning into the person who says…”Oh I remember in my day…”

What were some key reflections of your career as an artist during your time away?

Life is short.
Fame is delusional
There is nothing better than laughing with my kids
There is more to life than music
I am proud to be black and will never compromise my blackness or identity ever again.
You define your happiness
Invest your money
Respect each season
Always be kind
I can’t believe I had a number 1 album in France
We really did well in America
Why was I so worried and desperate to be validated by cool taste makers? They are only people.
Geez I didn’t stay present. I was always worried about the future.
Damn “Shark In The Water” is a good pop song and when I hear it in Tesco’s I always feel proud how long it has lived.

How has your sound developed since first starting out?

Each album is a photograph of my life. I used to be ashamed of my messy catalogue which is plagued with many different genres but I have come to love my catalogue. It represents a conviction that I won’t ever be boxed. My development is a representation of me evolving and changing and being true to that change unafraid of commercial strategy. This album is looking deep into the child like Vanessa who fell in love with music because of gospel, Hip Hop and Neo Soul. This album is about my Black British identity”.

When speaking with The Line of Best Fit earlier in the year, V V Brown explored her roots and talked about what sort of Black role models and representation there was when she was growing up. It does seem that, though some things have improved, British culture and the music industry hasn’t changed that much. In the sense that Black artists are still not celebrated and seen as role models by quite as many people as they should. Maybe not deemed essential when it comes to the heroes and heroines we need to look up to. If artists like Stormzy and RAYE are hugely important role models, more focus is on other artists in the industry. Maybe Beyoncé is an exception. Still, there needs to be more conversation around Black artists and their contribution to music:

“Growing up, Brown was an avid hip hop fan, played trumpet in jazz bands, sang gospel songs at church, and headbanged to punk songs in her spare time. She also loved neo-soul, especially Erykah Badu, and at age 21 was briefly signed to Polydor Records as Vanessa Brown, R&B star in waiting. Shipped out to LA, she made an album with big-name writers and producers, but was ill-equipped for the experience. Finding her own vision crowded out by the egos of others, she spiralled into a deep depression and a sleeping pill addiction. It was only after ending a disastrous relationship and selling her keyboard for plane fare that she was able to go home.

Determined to try again, she played every London venue that would have her, and by age 25 she was back on a major label and a star on her own terms. Or at least some of them. Her debut album Travelling Like the Light was originally meant to be a punk record, rather than the fizzy, retro-styled ‘musical mashed potatoes’ that sold by the truckload in 2009. “Obviously it ended up sounding very different, but if I played you my demos you would be shocked,” she says, laughing. “I mean, thank god for ‘Shark in the Water’ because it’s still paying the mortgage, but at heart I was still that girl who was out there playing shows, barefoot and rolling on the floor of pubs in Camden.”

Now a mother of two young girls, aged seven and four, Brown is more likely to be collapsing into a sofa at the end of the day than channelling her inner Poly Styrene. But the punk spirit is still there. When we meet at her manager’s flat, she’s keen for me to know she’s made an effort. “I wore these just for you,” she says, grinning and wiggling her feet to show off some chunky, blue-soled boots she’d bought especially for the trip to London. “I’m normally rocking up to the school run looking like a nightmare in Crocs with saggy tits and joggers with holes in, covered in paint.”

Brown left London in 2016, moving closer to her family in Northampton, and shortly after decided she was done with music altogether. After 15 years at the grist mill of the music industry, motherhood had given her an out and she grabbed it. Posting on Instagram to “put a peace sign up and say thanks for the ride”, she bowed out with love. Looking back now, Brown knows that part of it was the post-partum depression speaking, and that what she meant was not an ending but a pause.

“In the six years since then, I really feel like I've found my most authentic self, psychologically speaking,” she says, explaining how she used the time to reconnect with all the music she loved as a child. “I was going to the studio, but only sporadically. Obviously I didn’t have much time, but also I didn’t think I was good enough. I thought everything I made was so shit. But I kept going every now and then, more for the therapy of it than anything else.”

It was only when she stopped breastfeeding her youngest daughter that studio time became more of a need than a want. She called up a friend for advice, which led to her being introduced to Australian hip hop producer Sensible J, who sent her a bundle of bed tracks that he’d been working on. She lived with them “for ages,” listening while doing household chores and letting her mind wander and eventually something clicked.

“Suddenly I tilted my head and thought, ‘Right, okay,’ then sat down with my laptop and wrote the whole song ‘Black British’ in 25 minutes,” she says. “I listened back to it in the car on the way to pick up the children and was playing it really loudly outside the school gates, with all these very middle-class parents walking past. Then I called my husband and told him, ‘I feel like this is it!’”

In many ways, the Am I British Yet? project picks up where Brown’s last single “Sacrifice” from 2016 left off. In the self-directed video for that song, Brown used whiteface to make a bold statement about how being Black in Britain can feel performative. “I’ve always wanted to be an activist in my music,” she says. “I remember when I was making Travelling Like the Light, I went into a label meeting with four songs, and one was about slavery. The all-male A&R team were like, ‘This cannot go out.’”

And you are working on a documentary as well?

Yes! There have been a lot of documentaries about Black Britishness, but I really want to shine a light on the Black alternative scene and the people who are out there shattering stereotypes in Black British culture.

I remember having a massive argument on Twitter with one Black commentator. She was saying that to be Black you have to be a certain way, and that made me really angry because there are so many young Black artists who are in their rooms making punk records, electronic records, classical records, everything! Things that aren’t necessarily ‘urban’ – ugh, I hate that word – and I want to speak for them.

When we were growing up, pretty much the only visible Black woman in British alternative music was Skin from Skunk Anansie.

Yeah, she was it. I think she’s brilliant. She has so many interesting things to say about her experiences. It was fascinating when they announced Stormzy as the first Black person to headline Glastonbury, and she was like, ‘Well, actually it was me.’ Unbelievable! I didn’t even know that!

I feel like what we are talking about now is very much part of the current conversation. We had Arlo Parks speaking out recently about people trying to keep her in one artistic box. We have Rachel Chinouriri constantly having to fight to be recognised for the artist she is and not the artist people think she should be. And Laura Mvula, too.

There’s a lot of talent out there, and I love it when people are actively challenging the status quo. We can’t move forward as a culture unless we challenge our limiting ideas of Blackness. Art and culture are supposed to penetrate a sense of feeling comfortable by putting up a mirror to things that aren’t quite right. Taking the box and shaking it up! Because we’ve got to move past and shatter all these social constructs that are preventing people from just being themselves.

Going back to “Black British” and the lyrics, you say you're just vomiting them out but there’s a lot of food for thought there. I keep thinking about the line “navigating through the beautiful and terrifying life of Black British,” which I think sums up the album – or what I’ve heard of it so far – incredibly well. Do you feel like, since having your kids, that the world is even scarier than ever?

In a lot of ways, yes. Becoming a mother, the first thing that changed was a huge shift in my priorities. When I was in my twenties, I was worried and anxious about myself. And now I have children I am worried and anxious about them. It’s like I exist but I don’t really. Because I’m living for them, in a way. The things I was worrying about in my early days feel like nothing now. I am more terrified and more aware of this world, because of them. And I am constantly navigating through the beautiful and terrifying life, for them.

At the same time, I do feel a calmness now that I never had before. And there’s a beauty to that, but it’s scary too. And the world is looking scarier, just in general. We’re moving away from nature and into an age of narcissism on crack. I feel so blessed to have learned to think about others more. I wouldn’t say I was a selfish person beforehand, but being a parent is a whole new level of self-sacrifice and that gives you humility and perspective. It grounds you and makes you think about the things that are important.

Honestly, I think this is the healthiest place I’ve ever been in my life. For years the music industry has told me what I should define as happiness and success, and it was always attached to toxic things that don’t mean anything and don’t really exist. Now I’ve learned to define what I think is successful, what I think is peace, and what I think is joy. And those things are nature and my family, and creating a real connection with people like the one we are having right now. If anyone loves my music, I’m so grateful. But at the end of the day, I’ll still be going home to my husband and my kids. I’ll still be sitting in the garden and listening to the birds”

I am going to finish now. V V Brown’s Am I British Yet? Is going to be one of the most discussed and admired albums of this year. Her most direct and powerful musical statement to date, I wanted to spotlight this remarkable artist ahead of the release. Go and follow her on social media and buy her music. There is no doubt that one of the jewels in music’s crown is going to inspire people…

FOR generations to come.

___________

Follow V V Brown

 Official:

https://www.vvbrown.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/vvbrownofficial

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/vvbrown

TikTok:

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

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/39ZHUueufhIdbW4yu9uODG?si=PAzWTVevQTejmnzmg_geDg

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBzV5Xd_lGnbBgH64UQTbAg

FEATURE: Among Angels: The Beauty and the Divine: Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow at Twelve

FEATURE:

 

 

Among Angels

The Beauty and the Divine: Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow at Twelve

_________

HER most recent album…

 PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow came out on 21st November, 2011. I am going to talk about the album generally, bring in a few reviews, and write why 2011 was a year like no other for Bush. This is one of her very best albums. Reaching five in the U.K., it was the first where she was taking a more Steely Dan approach to the tracks. Deeper, layered songs that were longer. Only seven tracks on the album, but each is quite deep and immersive. Maybe not exclusively Steely Dan, though I feel she was channelling them in some way. I wonder whether, if she releases another album, we get something similar. With no weak spots on the album, you get this complete and wonderful listening experience. My personal favourite tracks are Misty, 50 Words for Snow – and the one song not about snow - and Among Angels. I think that there is a lot to recommend about Bush’s tenth and most current studio album. Although the compositions are the most piano-led since her 1978 debut, The Kick Inside, it is great there are other musicians in the mix. Even though Paddy Bush (her brother) is absent, Del Palmer (her engineer), Dan McIntosh (her partner), Danny Thompson, Steve Gadd (his iconic drumming is all over the album) and John Giblin john guest vocalists Andy Fairweather-Low, Stephen Fry and Elton John – and her then-child son, Bertie (Albert McIntosh). This is what Kate Bush said about her remarkable 2011 album:

“It may start with a birth but it’s the birth of a snowflake which takes its journey from the clouds to the ground or to this person’s hand. But it’s not really a conceptual piece; it’s more that the songs are loosely held together with this thread of snow. (John Doran, 'A Demon In The Drift: Kate Bush Interviewed'. The Quietus, 2011)

Actually, this is one of my quickest albums. It took me about a year, which for me is really quick. (South Bank Sky Arts Award, 2012)”.

I think one reason why 50 Words for Snow resonated and got some a great reaction is that there is this child-like quality to the songs. Even though her son would have been about thirteen when the album was released, you get the feeling this was Bush writing songs for her son. Similar to some that she wrote for 2005’s Aerial, this was more of an album with Bertie in mind. Maybe I am over-reaching. In any case, I feel like 50 Words for Snow is underrated. It got terrific reviews, so that might be a strange thing to say! I feel those who awarded it three or even four stars might think differently if they passed through it now. This is what Pitchfork wrote in their review:

“On "Wild Man", the first single from Kate Bush's winterized 10th album, the singer tells of an expedition searching for the elusive Abominable Snowman. "They want to know you," she coos, "They will hunt you down, then they will kill you/ Run away, run away, run away." Of course, when it comes to modern popular figures-- who often court fame and adulation with an obsessiveness that can be fascinating or just plain sad-- Bush herself is something of a mythical beast. 50 Words for Snow is only her second album of original material in the last 17 years, and she hasn't performed a full concert since her groundbreaking and theatrical Tour of Life wrapped up its six-week run in 1979. So it's no surprise that she readily sympathizes with the misunderstood monster at the center of "Wild Man": "Lying in my tent, I can hear your cry echoing round the mountainside/ You sound lonely."

50 Words for Snow is teeming with classic Bush-ian characterizations and stories-- fantasies, personifications, ghosts, mysteries, angels, immortals. As quoted in Graeme Thomson's thorough, thoughtful recent biography Under the Ivy, she explained her attraction to such songwriting: "[Songs] are just like a little story: you are in a situation, you are this character. This is what happens. End. That's what human beings want desperately. We all love being read stories, and none of us get it anymore." She's onto something; in our postmodern era, the idea of a tale can seem quaint and simple.

But Bush continues to infuse her narratives with a beguiling complexity while retaining some old-school directness. Because while most of this album's songs can be easily summarized-- "Snowflake" chronicles the journey of a piece of snow falling to the ground; "Lake Tahoe" tells of a watery spirit searching for her dog; "Misty" is the one about the woman who sleeps with a lusty snowman (!)-- they contain wondrous multitudes thanks to the singer's still-expressive voice and knack for uncanny arrangements. And mood. There's an appealing creepiness that runs through this album, one that recalls the atmospheric and conceptual back half of her 1985 masterpiece Hounds of Love. Indeed, when considering this singular artist in 2011, it's difficult to think of worthy points of reference aside from Bush herself; her onetime art-rock compatriots David Bowie and Peter Gabriel are currently MIA and in rehash mode, respectively. And while current acts including Florence and the Machine are heavily inspired by Bush's early career and spiritual preoccupations, none are quite able to match their idol's particular brand of heart-on-sleeve mysticism. In an interview earlier this year, the 53-year-old Bush told me she doesn't listen to much new music, and after listening to the stunningly subtle and understated sounds on Snow, it's easy to believe her.

The album's shortest song, the gorgeous closing piano ballad "Among Angels", clocks in at almost seven minutes. "Misty" rolls out its brilliant, funny, and bizarrely touching tale across nearly a quarter of an hour. It's not one second too long. During the 12-year gap between 1993's The Red Shoes and 2005's Aerial when she was raising her son Bertie, Bush gained a new level of compositional patience. She's now allowing her songs to breathe more than ever-- a fact reinforced by this year's Director's Cut, which found her classing-up and often stretching out songs from 1989's The Sensual World and The Red Shoes via re-recordings. So while "Misty" is an eyebrow-raiser about getting very intimate with a cold and white being with a "crooked mouth full of dead leaves," it hardly calls attention to its own eccentricities. Propelled by Bush's languid piano and the jazzy, pitter-pattering drums of veteran stick man (but relatively new Bush recruit) Steve Gadd, the song is about as appealingly grown-up as a song about having sex with a snowman can possibly be. In her early career, Bush sometimes let her zaniness get the better of her, highlighting her tales of sexual taboo and bizarre yarns with look-at-me musical accompaniment and videos. Those days are long gone. And her heightened sophistication works wonders here. So when the song's titular being is nowhere to be found the following morning-- "the sheets are soaking," she sings-- there is nothing gimmicky about her desperation: "Oh please, can you help me?/ He must be somewhere."

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

The ending of that song brings up another common thread through Snow, aside from its blizzard-y climate. This is an album about trying, oftentimes futilely, to find connections-- between Bush and her characters, reality and surreality, love and death. "Snowflake" is a duet with her 13-year-old son, where he plays the small fleck of white falling down from the sky, his high-pitched, choir-boy voice hitting the kind of notes his mom was originally famous for. On the track, Bush encourages her son-- "The world is so loud/ Keep falling/ I'll find you"-- and yet the plaintive piano that steers things is seemingly aware that, once the flake arrives, it'll either melt or disappear among millions of other icy bits. Similarly, while the lake-bound ghost of "Lake Tahoe" is overjoyed to find her long-lost dog-- coincidentally named Snowflake-- at the end of the song, the reunion comes with its own specter of bittersweet afterlife. The same sort of disconnect defines "Snowed in at Wheeler Street", an eerie duet with Bush's teenage idol Elton John about a star-crossed pair who have "been in love forever"-- literally. The time-traveling track finds its leads going from ancient Rome to World War II to 9/11, always losing each other along the way. It acts as something of a sequel to Bush's "Running Up that Hill", another tale of pained co-dependence. There's no happy ending. "When we got to the top of the hill/ We saw Rome burning," sings Elton.

While much of 50 Words for Snow conjures a whited-out, dream-like state of disbelief, it's important to note that Bush does everything in her power to make all the shadowy phantoms here feel real. Her best music, this album included, has the effect of putting one in the kind of treasured, child-like space-- not so much innocent as open to imagination-- that never gets old. "I have a theory that there are parts of our mental worlds that are still based around the age between five and eight, and we just kind of pretend to be grown-up," she recently told The Independent. "Our essence is there in a much more powerful way when we're children, and if you're lucky enough to... hang onto who you are, you do have that at your core for the rest of your life." Snow isn't a blissful retreat to simpler times, though. It's fraught with endings, loss, quiet-- adult things. This is more than pure fantasy. When faced with her unlikely guest on "Misty", Bush pinches herself: "Should be a dream, but I'm not sleepy”.

What made 2011 extraordinary is that 50 Words for Snow was Bush’s second album that year! She released Director’s Cut in May. Wanting to get that out so she could clear the way for new work, it is remarkable she managed to get her second 2011 album out in time – it was a struggle but, as she said in interviews, she couldn’t wait another year to put out 50 Words for Snow. I want to source an interview from The Quietus, where John Doran spoke with Bush (in 2011) about this exciting new album:

“Had you always wanted to do 50 Words For Snow or were you just on a roll after Director’s Cut?

KB: No, they were both records that I’d wanted to do for some time. But obviously I had to get Director’s Cut done before I could start this one... Well, I guess I could have waited until next year but this record had to come out at this time of year, it isn’t the sort of thing I could have put it out in the summer obviously.

Did the snow theme come from an epiphany or a particular grain or idea? Was there one particular day when you happened to be in the snow…

KB: No. I don’t think there was much snow going on through the writing of this… it was more to do with my memories of snow I suppose and the exploration of the images that come with it.

Now the cover art features a snowman kissing a girl and I was worried that her lips might get stuck to his. Do you know like when you’re young and you get your lips stuck to a lolly ice straight out of the freezer?

KB: [giggles]

And what about the carrot getting stuck in her eye? It’s a health and safety issue.

KB: Well she doesn’t look too worried does she?

Yeah, she looks like she's quite into it to be honest. Well, this leads me onto a serious question. Sometimes when I listen to your albums I think of Angela Carter. Sure there may well be a fantastical, almost fairy tale piece of story-telling going on here but just out of reach there is a quite torrid, sexual undercurrent. I mean, I’m right to read this sexuality into this album aren’t I? I’m not just being a pervert.

KB: Well, I think in that particular song obviously there is a sexual encounter going on… you are referring to that song aren’t you?

Yeah, ‘Misty’, which has the reference to the girl's affair with a snowman, the wet sheets, the idea of him melting in her hands and on her bed.

KB: Yeah. [massive pause] I’m sorry John, did you ask me a question? What was the question?

I asked if there was a sexual undercurrent to this record, which is ostensibly quite childlike and innocent?

KB: To that song, yeah. Yeah, because of the story that’s being told. But with the other tracks… I don’t know…

The song ‘Lake Tahoe’ has the feel of Michael Nyman about it to me, now I don’t know if that’s the fact it has the choirboys Stefan Roberts and Michael Wood, and maybe it's reminding me of 'Miserere' from The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover or not… But anyway, why Lake Tahoe?

KB: It was because a friend told me about the story that goes with Lake Tahoe so it had to be set there. Apparently people occasionally see a woman who fell into the lake in the Victorian era who rises up and then disappears again. It is an incredibly cold lake so the idea, as I understand it, is that she fell in and is still kind of preserved. Do you know what I mean?

…yeah.

KB: [laughing uproariously] Oh John! I’m so sorry! Are you OK? I have this image that you just want to go to sleep and not listen to me! Are you sure you’re OK?

Yeah! Yeah! I’m fine… this is just the way I sound. [flapping] I’m going to treat myself to a very large cup of coffee as soon as I put the phone down.

KB: Well, that sounds like a good idea. And make sure it’s half full.

Oh, it will be. Possibly even three quarters of the way full. Now I’m on firmer ground with ‘Wild Man’. Kangchenjunga is a Himalayan mountain; the third tallest peak in the world.

KB: Well, I’m impressed! And the Kangchenjunga Demon is another word for Yeti.

If I tell you an interesting story about that mountain will you tell me about the song?

KB: It would be my pleasure John!

Ok, the closest anyone got to conquering Kangchenjunga before the successful ascent, was an attempt led by occult writer Aleister Crowley. Now, at about 22,000 feet four of his party died in an avalanche. Their Sherpa said that the deaths had satisfied the demon and if they carried on they would get safely to the top. And Crowley said, 'Nah, you’re alright mate. I think we’ll just be off home now.'

KB: What a wimp! Well, the first verse of the song is just quickly going through some of the terms that the Yeti is known by and one of those names is the Kangchenjunga Demon. He’s also known as Wild Man and Abominable Snowman.

Have you worked with Andy Fairweather Low before, the [Amen Corner] vocalist who presumably plays the role of the hirsute gentleman of the mountains?

KB: [laughing] Hirsute? Well, no, Andy doesn’t play the hirsute beastie, he’s one of the people on the expedition into the Himalayas. But I think that Andy just has one of the greatest voices. I just love his voice. When I wrote the song I just thought, ‘I’ve got to get Andy to sing on this song because he sounds great.’ Which I think he does. He’s just got a fantastic voice.

This is a slight digression but my favourite non-fiction book is called Straw Dogs by John Gray. And in a nutshell he’s saying that all of man’s fundamental problems come from the fact that he sees himself as being somehow separate from the animals, superior to them and in control of his own destiny, when he's no more in control of his destiny than a polar bear or a squirrel. Do you see the Yeti as being like a man or an animal or is that really the same thing?

KB: Well, I don’t refer to the Yeti as a man in the song. But it is meant to be an empathetic view of a creature of great mystery really. And I suppose it’s the idea really that mankind wants to grab hold of something [like the Yeti] and stick it in a cage or a box and make money out of it. And to go back to your question, I think we’re very arrogant in our separation from the animal kingdom and generally as a species we are enormously arrogant and aggressive. Look at the way we treat the planet and animals and it’s pretty terrible isn’t it?

Well, I think you can learn a lot about a person or a group of people by looking at how they treat both children and animals. So, yes, I agree with that. Do you think of yourself as being ecologically concerned?

KB: Well, I wouldn’t put it that way but I do have a great love of nature and I do think it’s an incredibly beautiful planet if you get chance to go and see the good bits. And I think it’s very positive that there are such a lot people looking at the whole issue and trying to do something about it even though it’s perhaps got a bit of a fashion banner attached to it and it’s pretty late in the day. Let’s hope it’s not too late that something can’t be done. 

Now, ‘Snowed In At Wheeler Street’ features the vocal talents of Sir Elton John and I was wondering, was the track written with him in mind?

KB: Yes. Absolutely.

How long have you known him?

KB: Oooh. I’ve known him for a long time. He used to be one of my greatest musical heroes. He was such an inspiration to me when I was starting to write songs. I just adored him. I suppose at that time a lot of the well-known performers and writers were quite guitar based but he could play really hot piano. And I’ve always loved his stuff. I’ve always been a fan so I kind of wrote the song with him in mind. And I’m just blown away by his performance on it. Don’t you think it’s great?

Yeah, he really gives it his all.

KB: He sings with pure emotion.

It’s good to hear him belting it out. Back when you were 13 years old and practicing playing the organ in your parents’ house and just starting to write your own songs and lyrics, what was the Elton John album that inspired you?

KB: Well, I love them all and I worked my way through them but my absolute favourite was Madman Across The Water. I just loved that record. I loved the songs on it and the production. It’s a really beautiful album.

Now please correct me if I’m wrong but this song, in my mind at least, seems to hark back to ‘The Man With The Child In His Eyes’ because it’s about a fantasy – almost idealised - lover.

KB: No it isn’t. It’s nothing to do with that at all. The idea is that there are two lovers, two souls who keep on meeting up in different periods of time. So they meet in Ancient Rome and then they meet again walking through time. But each time something happens to tear them apart.

So it’s more like a metaphysical love story between two spirits who span time by the occupation of different bodies?

KB: Yeah. It’s like two old souls that keep on meeting up”.

I am going to round up in a second. I will do another 50 Words for Snow feature closer to 21st November. Maybe ranking the songs on the album. That will be a hard job! I wanted to start off more generally. Many will look at the album as a moment when it seemed like Kate Bush was firmly back into releasing albums. Now it is almost twelve years since her last studio album, eyes will be her way to see whether she will bless us with some new material. We can’t rush her, mind! 50 Words for Snow showed that, over thirty years after her debut album was released, Bush was still at the top of her game! I want to end with a feature I have sourced previously. As Dig! noted last year, if there aren’t really fifty words for snow, it is also obvious there are not enough words to describe the beauty of Kate Bush’s 2011 masterpiece:

“Over the years, Kate Bush fans have become accustomed to the gentle pace at which she works. You can’t hurry genius, and when the double album Aerial emerged in all its radiance in 2005, 12 years after its predecessor, The Red Shoes, the world was as surprised as it was grateful. Six years later came Director’s Cut, a reworking of material from The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes – an unusual move that worked as a creative catalyst for Bush and led to a brand-new studio album, 2011’s icily beautiful 50 Words For Snow.

Bush reflected on the circumstances around the recording of the album in an interview with The Quietus. “This has been quite an easy record to make, actually, and it’s been quite a quick process,” she revealed. “What was really nice for me was I did it straight off the back of Director’s Cut, which was a really intense record to make. When I finished it, I went straight into making this, so I was very much still in that focused space; still in that kind of studio mentality. And also, there was a sense of elation that suddenly I was working from scratch and writing songs from scratch, and the freedom that comes with that.”

 

Bush admitted to a sense of urgency when interviewed by pianist Jamie Cullum for BBC Radio’s The Jazz Show. “I really had to pull my finger out at certain points because otherwise it was gonna have to wait until next winter, because you can’t bring a record like this out in the summer,” she explained, adding that the speed at which she was now working had amused her: “I also thought it was really funny, because people are always going on all the time about how long I take to make my albums, and I thought it would be so funny if I brought two out in one year.”

Speaking to the Irish Independent on the release of 50 Words For Snow, Bush emphasised how important she felt it was to balance her work with family commitments, something that home recording had allowed her to do ever since she built her own studio prior to beginning work on the Hounds Of Love album.

“It’s difficult explaining to myself why some albums take so long,” Bush said, revealing that the actual recording process wasn’t as protracted as it seemed to the outside world. “If you’ve had a five-year gap, people assumed that it took you five years to do an album, which is simply not true. I take a few years to do other things in life… It’s great because I’m able to work at home and have a family life. I couldn’t work in a commercial-studio environment. Most of the time the process is quite elongated for me, so it would end up being quite expensive, too. That’s really why I set up a home studio. I realised I’d have to if I wanted to continue working experimentally.” 

Released on 21 November 2011, 50 Words For Snow represented one of Bush’s most daring and experimental albums to date – a collection of long, ruminative and subtle songs with a wintry thread running throughout, which helped it find a place in fans’ hearts as one of the best Christmas albums of all time. The album’s opening track, Snowflake, sets the scene with flurries of meditative piano and sparing, hushed percussion and strings. Written from the perspective of a falling snowflake, it features a vocal from Bush’s then 13-year-old son, Albert McIntosh.

50 Words For Snow ends with Among Angels, a spare and celestially beautiful solo performance that was the first song written for the album. Immediately ranking among the best Kate Bush songs, it’s also the only track from the record to be performed live, during encores for her 22-night Before The Dawn residency at London’s Hammersmith Apollo in 2014.

Over a decade on from its release, 50 Words For Snow is the last collection of new music we’ve heard from the pioneering singer, songwriter and producer, who remains one of the most influential female musicians of all time. There are still not enough words to describe its beauty”.

I am glad that we soon get to celebrate the anniversary of Kate Bush’s sublime 50 Words for Snow. It is an album everyone needs to get. As Kate Bush recently announced that her studio albums are being reissued you can pre-order. It is quite expensive, though you can get a more affordable version now. Go and spend time listening to 50 Words for Snow, as it is such a moving listening experience. I definitely will be! On 21st November, we mark twelve years of one of Kate Bush’s…

FINEST works.

FEATURE: A Hammersmith Spectacular: Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at Seven

FEATURE:

 

 

A Hammersmith Spectacular

Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at Seven

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I have already…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex Features

discussed the Before the Dawn live residency. I have covered the 2014 spectacular that consisted of twenty-two nights at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo. The live album came out on 25th November, 2016. I wanted to mark the upcoming seventh anniversary of the magnificent live album. Technically, this is the most recent original album from Kate Bush. Whilst not a studio album, it is Bush providing these entrancing performances of some of her remarkable songs. As I said in the residency features, most of the Before the Dawn set was fusing Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave alongside Aerial’s A Sky of Honey. The two very different suites were on albums released twenty years apart (Hounds of Love, 1985; Aerial, 2005). I am going to get to some reviews for the album. My impressions and feelings about it. This is my only feature about Before the Dawn, so I am going to pack a bit in! First, here is what Bush remarked about the live album and performing in her first and only residency (and her first huge live undertaking since 1979):

“It was an extraordinary experience putting the show together. It was a huge amount of work, a lot of fun and an enormous privilege to work with such an incredibly talented team. This is the audio document. I hope that this can stand alone as a piece of music in its own right and that it can be enjoyed by people who knew nothing about the shows as well as those who were there.

I never expected the overwhelming response of the audiences, every night filling the show with life and excitement. They are there in every beat of the recorded music. Even when you can’t hear them, you can feel them. Nothing at all has been re-recorded or overdubbed on this live album, just two or three sound FX added to help with the atmosphere.

On the first disc the track, Never Be Mine, is the only take that exists, and was recorded when the show was being filmed without an audience. It was cut because the show was too long but is now back in its original position. Everything else runs as was, with only a few edits to help the flow of the music.

On stage, the main feature of The Ninth Wave was a woman lost at sea, floating in the water, projected onto a large oval screen - the idea being that this pre-recorded film was reality. The lead vocals for these sequences were sung live at the time of filming in a deep water tank at Pinewood. A lot of research went into how to mic this vocal. As far as we know it had never been done before. I hoped that the vocals would sound more realistic and emotive by being sung in this difficult environment. (You can see the boom mic in the photo on the back of the booklet. This had to be painted out of every shot in post-production although very little of the boom mic recording was used. The main mic was on the life jacket disguised as an inflator tube!) The rest of the lead vocals on this disc were sung live on stage as part of the dream sequences. The only way to make this story work as an audio piece was to present it more like a radio play and subdue the applause until the last track when the story is over and we are all back in the theatre again with the audience response.

Unlike The Ninth Wave which was about the struggle to stay alive in a dark, terrifying ocean, A Sky Of Honey is about the passing of a summer’s day. The original idea behind this piece was to explore the connection between birdsong and light, and why the light triggers the birds to sing. It begins with a lovely afternoon in golden sunlight, surrounded by birdsong. As night falls, the music slowly builds until the break of dawn.

This show was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever been involved in. Thank you to everyone who made it happen and who embraced the process of allowing it to continually evolve. (Album liner notes)”.

I might have included quite a bit of this feature in others about the live album. Apologies, though it is important to cover the basis and ensure that there are annual nods to a remarkable thing. I want to get to a couple of the reviews for the album. Pitchfork. I have Before the Dawn on vinyl. It is this extraordinary experience. Whilst it does not replicate being in the Eventim Apollo and among all the fans, we do a lot of the atmosphere and wonder that would have been felt in 2014:

“Kate Bush always exploited technological advancement. In 1979, from just coathangers and Blu-Tack, the trailblazing British pop auteur pioneered the head mic for her vanguard Tour of Life. Her subsequent albums made her one of the earliest adopters of the Fairlight synthesizer that would define the ’80s. Before the Dawn, then, is a surprising throwback: the unexpurgated live album, a document of her 2014 live shows, her first in 35 years. There are no retakes or overdubs bar a few atmospheric FX. No apps, no virtual reality, no interactivity. She’s also said there won’t be a DVD, which is surprising given the show’s spectacular theatrics, conceived by the former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a host of designers, puppeteers, and illusionists. The show, and this release, aren’t credited to Kate Bush but the KT Fellowship, in recognition of the vast ensemble effort. Yet in shucking off half the production, this hefty 155-minute, three-disc set (one per “act”) is also the best way that Before the Dawn could have been preserved, allowing it to tell its own story uninhibited by the busy staging.

I went to a show towards the end of the 22-date run, and was overwhelmed by how physically moving it was to see Bush in real life, since for most of mine she’s only existed in videos and BBC clip-show documentaries. The staging didn’t always have the same impact. The sublime Act One, as close to a greatest hits as we got, was stripped back—just Bush at the piano backed by her crack band.

PHOTO CREDIT: Gavin Bush

In Act Two, Bush realized her long-held desire to dramatize “The Ninth Wave,” the conceptual B-side of 1985’s Hounds of Love, which documents a woman’s dark night of the soul as she fights for life while lost at sea. While her “husband” and real-life son Bertie McIntosh blithely carried on with domestic life inside a tiny, sloping living room set, a video depicted Bush stranded in dark, choppy waters (now released as the “And Dream of Sheep” video). Moments later, the real Bush reappeared on stage to fight sinister “fish people” who carried her body off through the aisles. The whirring blades and desperate search lights of a rescue helicopter descended from the Hammersmith Apollo’s ceiling, illuminating and buffeting the crowd. Despite some hammy dialogue, it was staggering, and in sharp contrast to Act Three, which focused on Aerial’s second side, “A Sky of Honey.” McIntosh played a landscape painter from ye olden times while a life-size marionette of a jointed-doll simpered around the stage, embracing Bush, who looked on in raptures. At 75 minutes long, it was a sickly, trying accompaniment to one of the subtler achievements in her catalogue.

With the visuals stripped away, some confusing vestiges of the live show remain on the record—mostly the stilted dialogue (McIntosh’s lines as the painter are cringeworthy). But otherwise it flows remarkably well: the prog grooves and piano ballads of the first act setting up the gothic tumult of “The Ninth Wave,” which comes down into the sun-dappled ambience of “A Sky of Honey.” The sound is rich and warm, but rough, too: imperfectly mic’d and properly live-sounding. The arrangements are largely faithful, even down to the synth presets, though sometimes the veteran session musicians form an overwhelming battalion. “Lily” comes out sounding a bit like Christian goth rock, and “King of the Mountain” is a victim of breadth over depth, its dynamics drowned out by every band member playing at once. It’s a shame that the terror of “Hounds of Love” gets swapped for sentimental optimism, but the band recreate that album’s second half to sound as avant-garde and bracing as any current young outsider.

Live albums are meant to capture performers at their rawest and least inhibited, which doesn’t really apply to Before the Dawn. Bush is a noted perfectionist best known for her synthesizer experiments and love of obscure Bulgarian choirs, but her recent work has skewed towards traditional setups that reunite her with the prog community that fostered her early career. With marks to hit and tableaux to paint, the 2014 shows were more War of the Worlds (or an extension of 2011’s Director’s Cut) than Live at Leeds. But never mind balls-out revamps of Bush’s best known songs; with the exception of tracks from Hounds of Love, none of the rest of the setlist had ever been done live—not even on TV, which became Bush’s primary stage after she initially retired from touring. These songs weren’t written to be performed, but internalized. Occupying Bush’s imagination for an hour, and letting it fuse with your own, formed the entirety of the experience. Hearing this aspic-preserved material come to life feels like going to sleep and waking up decades later to see how the world has changed.

Rather than deliver a copper-bottomed greatest hits set, Bush reckons with her legacy through what might initially seem like an obscure choice of material. Both Acts Two and Three take place in transcendent thresholds: “The Ninth Wave”’s drowning woman is beset by anxiety and untold pressures, with no idea of where to turn, mirroring the limbo that Bush experienced after 1982’s The Dreaming. That suite’s last song, the cheery “The Morning Fog,” transitions into Aerial’s “Prelude,” all beatific bird call and dawn-light piano. The euphoric, tender “A Sky of Honey” is meant to represent a perfect day from start to finish, filled with family and beautiful imperfections. “Somewhere in Between” finds them atop “the highest hill,” looking out onto a stilling view, and Bush’s eerie jazz ensemble anticipates the liminal peace of Bowie’s Blackstar. “Not one of us would dare to break the silence,” she sings. “Oh how we have longed for something that would make us feel so… somewhere in between.”

Purgatory has become heaven, and in the narrative Bush constructs through her setlist, “A Sky of Honey” represents the grown-up, domestic happiness that staves off the youthful fears explored on Hounds of Love. For her final song, she closes with a rendition of “Cloudbusting,” a song about living with the memory of a forbidden love, which is even more glorious for all the hope that it’s accumulated in the past 30-odd years. Bush’s recent life as a “reclusive” mother is often used to undermine her, to “prove” she was the kook that sexist critics had pegged her as all along. These performances and this record are a generous reveal of why she’s chosen to retreat, where Bush shows she won’t disturb her hard-won peace to sustain the myth of the troubled artistic genius. Between the dangerous waters of “The Ninth Wave” and the celestial heavens of “A Sky of Honey,” Before the Dawn demystifies what we’ve fetishized in her absence. Without draining her magic, it lets Bush exist back down on Earth”.

I am going to hop to another review. There was a lot of love and interest around the live album. Many who reviewed it saw Bush perform these songs. Others – like myself, sadly – were not lucky enough to get to see her. I wonder whether having seen her performance impacted the way the live album was perceived. Produced by Kate Bush – who spend a lot of time with the mix and getting it to sound as good as possible -, Before the Dawn is a magnificent album. This is what The Guardian offered in their (in parts of) review:

“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.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

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”.

I am going to leave it there. Most people won’t write about Before the Dawn ahead of its seventh anniversary on 25th November. I only mention it because, recently, Kate Bush said her studio albums are being reissued in new colours – each album has a different colour/design by Kate Bush – exclusively for independent record stores. It makes me wonder whether Bush will do anything with this album/residency in the future. Maybe a DVD release on the tenth anniversary next year. I would love to hear a documentary about Before the Dawn and intersperse interviews and recollections with songs from the album. Whether you were there or not, listen to Before the Dawn and…

BE blown away.

FEATURE: Goldy Locks and Snowy White… With Her Studio Albums Being Reissued Exclusively for Indie Stores, Is This a Sign Kate Bush Is Clearing the Way for New Work

FEATURE:

 

 

Goldy Locks and Snowy White…

IMAGE CREDIT: The state51 Conspiracy/Kate Bush (Fish People) 

With Her Studio Albums Being Reissued Exclusively for Indie Stores, Is This a Sign Kate Bush Is Clearing the Way for New Work?

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THIS week…

 IMAGE CREDIT: The state51 Conspiracy/Kate Bush (Fish People)

we got a treat from Kate Bush. To be fair, she has been quite active when it comes to engagement with fans. Even though there has been no new music since 2011 – more on that soon -, we got news that she has reissued her ten studio albums exclusively for Indie music stores. The U.K. will not get the first three albums – The Kick Inside, Lionheart and Never for Ever -, due to ownership/rights issues (I think EMI still have ownership of those albums). Bush’s Fish People label has the rights to her remaining seven albums – though you can get a U.S. import easily enough. On  20th November, there will be the studio albums with new vinyl colour designs from Bush herself. There are different colour names. I am not sure about the first three albums though, among the pack, we have ‘Dracula’ (The Red Shoes), ‘Goldy Locks’ (Aerial) and ‘Snowy White’ (50 Words for Snow). There are popular culture references. From Disney and fairytales, to Prince (Hounds of Love is ‘Raspberry Beret’). There is also ‘Smoky’ (The Dreaming) and ‘Ash Grey’ (The Sensual World) that, to me, seems to just be about smoking! I do love the titles and the fact the albums have come out. You have options of where to pre-order from. I have put the pre-link to Rough Trade above. In February, Rough Trade did a ranking and exploration of Kate Bush’s albums on vinyl. I think there are some big positives to the new announcement and reissues. Released through the independent music house, The state51 Conspiracy, I am going to discuss the pros and cons of Bush announcing her reissues – so close to Christmas too!

 IMAGE CREDIT: The state51 Conspiracy/Kate Bush (Fish People)

I am not sure whether there are official nicknames and titles for The Kick Inside, Lionheart and Never for Ever. The Kick Inside is in orange, so I think it should be ‘Satsuma Sun’. The official listing says the vinyl colour is ‘Mango Chutney’, so either or! Lionheart is listed as ‘Dirty Pink’, but the vinyl itself is more off-pink-slash-brown. I think ‘Mahogony Mane’ is more fitting. Finally, Never for Ever is ‘Blade Bullett’ on Rough Trade. I think that is a cool title! In any case, fans around the world can get a hold of these essential and classic very soon. You can also buy them on black vinyl and C.D. - so there are a range of lovely options available. I shall come to some of the debates. Given the fact Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) passed a billion streams on Spotify and was number one in many countries meant Bush made a lot of money. Millions indeed! Also, as her music is reaching new people, increased album sales and streams means her wealth has skyrocketed! That is great. I am pleased that she is earning a lot of money. At sixty-five, she is not someone who is going to buy flashy cars and big mansions. She can invest that money or use it to launch her music or do a project of some sort. I know there have been debates online as to whether the new reissues is a grab for cash. Bush did remaster and reissue her albums in 2018. Five years later, we get another set! For one, there is that added bonus of a new design. People who got her albums in 2018 might well splash out for the new editions. I think most of the sales for the 2023 releases are for newer fans and those who do not have the 2018 versions.

Kate Bush is at the stage of her career where she does not need the money and is not motivated by money purely. She allowed Stranger Things to use R.U.T.H. as it was used beautifully and was beneficial for the show – and she must turn down countless requests from filmmakers! Also, Bush could make a tonne of money by gong ever deeper and reissuing live albums and other bits and pieces. Even if the new vinyl albums are a little pricey, if you are a diehard or new fans, you can get this cool edition of The Red Shoes or Hounds of Love. U.S. fans might not know her first few albums, so grabbing The Kick Inside is a treat! Also, plenty of other artists and estates have raised the vaults and done anniversary reissues. Bush is not someone who has reissued her albums on their anniversaries, so three editions of an album is not that excessive. I do feel like the timing is perfect for the Christmas market. The downside is that many people feel that, as she has already reissued her studio albums, why not put out a DVD for Before the Dawn?! What about an album of The Tour of Life?! There will be rarities, demos and stuff people have not heard in the vaults. Documentaries that could be remastered. Many of her videos that deserve a 4K, HD remastering. Perhaps putting out something unique. Instead, we get the studio albums again…

 IMAGE CREDIT: The state51 Conspiracy/Kate Bush (Fish People)

Prior to 1986, when her greatest hits album, The Whole Story, came out, Bush had not really dabbled in retrospection. 50 Words for Snow came out in 2011. Before that – earlier in 2011 – she released Director’s Cut. An album with reworked versions of songs originally on 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes, she went on to bring Before the Dawn to stage in 2014 – Bush mainly performing songs from Hounds of Love and Aerial. In 2018, she released her albums back onto vinyl/C.D. remastered. A book of lyrics, How to Be Invisible, has been released twice now! There has been a lot of retrospection since her latest studio album. I also think that it would have been cool to reissue her studio albums to cassette. Even if the vinyl copies are expensive, you get something special and they range from £30 or so upwards. It is a lot of money but, if it is the only version of the album you have, it is worth the cost! Also, as people are gagging for a new album, perhaps some sign that there is new work coming. Many say Bush does not owe people any news or update. I do think that some sort of sign that this is not Bush clearing up and getting things out of the way before retirement would be okay. She does not need to give specifics. Instead, a hint that things are bubbling. That is what people want: a new album from the legendary Kate Bush! I have theories as to why Bush has been really into ‘looking back’ mode. Taking these well-known albums and really making the most of it. I am not cynical into thinking that The state51 Conspiracy reissue for the independent record stores is for fortune and cashing in. As I said, Bush has all the money and success she could want! Instead, using her new fanbase and popularity to get these albums bought. It means that independent stores get people in and they see the tills ringing loud!

  IMAGE CREDIT: Kate Bush (Fish People)

The really good news is that people will get something unique. You can also hear an entire album. So many people still listen to individual tracks and stream albums. Bush said, when announcing the reissues: "It’s very exciting to see people appreciating the physical presence of an album released on vinyl. It’s how it’s always been for me, especially when I was a teenager. The whole buzz of the record store was part of the experience. Buying an album was an event”. She knows that so many new fans have discovered her work. This is a chance for them to own a vinyl and experience an album in its purest form. We all really need to do that if we want to understand Kate Bush and get a feel for her incredible talent and production skill. I also feel that Bush is clearing a path for new music. Many artists will use the break between albums to release older stuff and have a bit of retrospection. Even though it will be twelve years in November since Bush favoured us with an album, I feel all this activity in the past five years or so has been her engaging with her older work and making sure the fans have plenty of options. At Christmas, with these new albums out and reaching new and loyal ears, it gives her chance to look to the next chapter. It is inevitable that songs have been written. I do feel that an album will come soon enough.

 IMAGE CREDIT: The state51 Conspiracy/Kate Bush (Fish People)

The fans admire Bush for engaging and putting out her albums. Many artists do not look back and feel that once an album is out then that is it! Bush understands the importance of ensuring her fans know about her albums. If you are someone who already owns these studio albums, you are unlikely to go and get the full ten! Instead, you can pick your favourites – maybe ask for one for Christmas and buy another yourself. As Lionheart is forty-five in November and The Red Shoes is thirty in November, it is a good time for these newly-pressed editions to arrive. It means that these underrated and under-appreciate albums get some new love and plays – one hopes anyway! Not to be a vinyl snob, but I always prefer coloured vinyl. They seem more interesting and collectable. There is plenty of black vinyl. When you get these new designs and colours, it looks a lot better on the turntable. The bottom line is that these new words and reissues from Kate Bush are important. The fact that she is active and engaging. Sure, it would be nice to get new work and some light that an eleventh studio album is on its way. Maybe Before the Dawn being made available on DVD. We live in hope that these independent store-only albums compels her to release another album and reward this dedication to her music. Who quite knows…

WHAT will come next year.

FEATURE: You Can't Hurry Love… Now That's What I Call Music! at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

You Can't Hurry Love…

Now That's What I Call Music! at Forty

_________

THIS 28th November…

we celebrate the fortieth birthday of a legendary compilation series. It seems somehow wrong that the Now That’s What I Call Music! series is forty! One always associates it with our teenage year. Iconic and unmissable, it is still going strong today. You can check out the official website for all the latest news and releases. Whilst the series, for a long time, released yearly/bi-yearly compilations with the best music from that year, now it has expanded and it more thematic and broad – whilst still doing its annual releases of the best from the year. 28th November will be a big date for many who grew up collecting the Now That’s What I Call Music! series. With the initial pressings on vinyl and audio cassette, most people get the compilations now on C.D./digitally. There have been anniversary celebrations for big Now That’s What I Call Music! years. I wonder, on its fortieth, whether anything special has been planned. Follow their Twitter page and Instagram. You can also check them out on YouTube. Released in July, we are now up to 115. Looking back on that first release from 1983. I was only six months old, so I was not conscious of what was unveiled. It must have seemed quite exciting at the time. I am not sure if people had access to Pop compilation then. The first track on that first release was Phil Collins’s You Can't Hurry Love. The chance to buy a single album where you got all of these chart hits! Before carrying on, there is a little more housekeeping to do. Follow and support the Pop Rambler podcast, Back to NOW!. I am going to drop in some podcast episodes from various sources, a few of the tracks from the first Now That’s What I Call Music!, the advert that went alongside it, plus the album itself (which was compiled by a fan).

In December 1983, the compilation debuted at number seven on album chart in the U.K. It got to number one a week later, staying at the top for five non-consecutive weeks. I want to start by dropping in the entirety of a great feature The Guardian published back in 2018. They marked the one-hundredth release with a terrific insight into the making and history of the serries. Among those interviewed was Peter Duckworth, one of the directors of the Now That’s What I Call Music! brand:

“Peter Duckworth, one of the directors of the Now That’s What I Call Music brand, is a bespectacled man in his 50s who has helped put together the famed pop compilations for about half his life. That’s since 1990, if you measure things by the regular calendar, or “since 18”, if you go by what Duckworth and his collaborators Steve Pritchard and Jenny Fisher call “Now-time”, in which recent history is marked out entirely by the release of the numbered, three-a-year disc sets. The trio, who work out of the Sony Music offices in London, are about to celebrate the release of Now That’s What I Call Music 100, and in the buildup to this landmark, I shadowed them in their work. I wanted to learn how Nows are made and try to understand why the anthologies, on the shelves since 1983 and still selling well, have had such staying power.

It is February when we first meet. Months to go until the July release of their 100th edition, and in fact the team still have the Easter-time Now 99 to compile and master. In a corner of the Sony office that’s busy with coffee cups, branded mouse mats and a Guinness World Record naming Now the longest-running music album series, they set to work.

Any new Now starts with Fisher – the hoodied, soft-spoken fortysomething director of the brand – and her clutchbag full of loose, clacking memory sticks. For weeks, Fisher has been collecting songs for possible inclusion, which are sent to her by email. It all used to be more glamorous, she admits, back in the analogue era, when labels sent over individual songs on massive DAT tapes by courier. But what can you do?

My first Now was 23. It ran deliriously from Erasure to Abba to Billy Ray Cyrus

Across the office from Fisher, Pritchard, a 58-year-old motorcyclist who occasionally shows up for work in leathers, crunches commercial data, scowling at his iPad as it notes chart positions and streaming counts. At a facing desk, Duckworth, who is the savant to Pritchard’s metrics guy, immerses himself in pop culture in a more general way, trying to work out what tracks will be popular by the time their next Now comes out. Duckworth has a party trick that he demonstrates to me. “What was the first Now you owned?” he asks.

“Now 23,” I say. (A Christmas present in 1992, double-tape edition. Even the name of this record still gives me a little tickle of pleasure.)

“So you’re... 35 years old.”

I blink. “How did you do that?”

Duckworth shrugs. “Everyone gets their first Now between nine and 10. I only hesitated because I couldn’t remember if that one came out in ’92 or ’93.” Meanwhile, Pritchard has found the old tracklist for Now 23 and asks if I can name the first song.

But it’s a silly question. Can’t we all? Nows tend to land at a particular moment in your young listening life. Some time after the realisation that the pop playing on the radio and out of Chinese restaurant speakers isn’t all indistinguishable mulch, but some time before you learn what albums really are and turn obsessive about track arrangement and liner notes, bearing choices of favourites like a coat of arms and self-defining by your dislikes as much as your likes. The Nows scooped up whatever was charting at the time – so that Now 23 could run deliriously from Erasure to Abba to Billy Ray Cyrus to the song from the video game Tetris. I must have played it a thousand times. Of course I can remember track one, I tell Pritchard. “Tasmin Archer, Sleeping Satellite.”

He nods. Oh, they had high hopes for Archer, he recalls, but she was never included on another Now. So many acts have come and gone in this way that the trio admit blocks of Now-time are a bit of a blur. To refresh their memories, they refer to a book, published a couple of years ago, that lists all the tracks on all the compilations from the early 1980s onwards. Flicking through, they purr with delight at the memory of a recent high point, Now 85, which began with what they see as an unbeatable two-track punch, Get Lucky by Daft Punk, then Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke. Then Justin Timberlake! Taylor Swift! Jason Derulo! The gang sigh. It was one of their biggest sellers. 

I ask how they come up with the running order and they invite me to the mixing day for Now 99. By 35-year tradition, the mixing takes place in a small upstairs room at Abbey Road Studios. Fisher brings her bag of memory sticks and printouts of a spreadsheet that lists about 65 songs for possible inclusion. There’s room on a double-disc comp for about 45. The cull starts at 10am, after the trio are joined in the studio by an engineer, Alex Wharton, who has “been doing this since the late 70s or early 80s, in Now-time”. 

Wharton uploads a couple of gigabytes of songs to a PC attached to a mixing board. He has to crawl in behind the computer tower and thunk in each memory stick. Beside Fisher on a sofa, Pritchard has an iPad, waiting for the midweek chart numbers to come in. Duckworth, on an office chair, twirls a Biro. It’s 10.17am when they start to compile Now 99 and by 10.19am Fisher’s pitch for the first track on disc one – These Days by Rudimental – has been agreed to.

Easy. The song’s ubiquitous. Its sales and streams are unarguable. “We try to get that opening section to be familiar with as wide a section of the population as possible,” Duckworth says. Tracks two and three don’t take long either. Dua Lipa? Portugal. The Man? They do a lot of “top-and-tailing”, as Duckworth calls it, repeatedly listening to the first and last 15 seconds of each song to see how they segue into each other. The process will be familiar to anyone who’s obsessed over the momentum of a homemade mixtape.

Soon, decisions about track ordering get harder, paths leading from paths. The trio confer nonstop. “Can Justin go next to Marshmallow? There’s something attractive about the two of them together... Taylor next? Where’s Bruno in today’s chart? Taylor to Bruno! They’re made for each other... Sigrid’s sales have dropped a lot since Sunday. Craig David instead? The Craig David features Bastille. Two names for the price of one! Jax Jones? Try Derulo after Bruno… We haven’t done Kylie yet.” I ask the gang if, in the work they do, they’re essentially wedding DJs, fiddling around with the order of bankable hits. Or is there more to it?

“Being a good wedding DJ is important,” Duckworth says. “You don’t want to put a heavy metal track next to a Celine Dion ballad. But, yeah, there’s more to it.” Often, they’re trying to freeze a pop moment a little earlier than it wants to be frozen. They might be working against their own tastes, or prejudices. “You have to leave your own feelings at the studio door,” Pritchard says. “You can’t judge a generation’s tastes.”

Phil Collins! Duran Duran! UB40! The guy from Kajagoogoo! And so it began – disc one, side one, Now 1. It was 1983. A poster of a kitschy old ad for Danish bacon hung on the walls of the Virgin Records office in Notting Hill. It showed a singing chicken next to a frowning pig, with the pig thinking, “Now. That’s what I call music.” Virgin founder Richard Branson had brought in the poster on a whim, and when a team of his A&R chiefs, working with executives from EMI, were trying to drum up a name for a compilation of the two labels’ biggest pop acts, they decided to pinch the poster’s slogan.

Out on vinyl and tape a month before Christmas 1983, Now That’s What I Call Music was a hit, at the top of the album chart until the new year. Three more Nows were released through 1984 and a release pattern established – new Nows before Christmas, Easter and the summer. Polygram and Universal were contributing tracks to Now, while other labels, including Sony, set up a rival compilation brand called Hits. Because Hits tended to get the exclusives on big American acts such as Michael Jackson and Madonna, Now’s flavour was more domestic. Cosier. A bit twee.

Probably this helped create affection. Though the Nows featured European and American acts, what threaded through these anthologies was a relentless, grinning, slightly frayed Britishness. Now 2 and Now 6 began with a one-two of Queen and Nik Kershaw. Now 7 had a divine run of Bananarama-Bucks Fizz-A-ha-Simply Red back to Queen. After a decade, Now 1 veterans UB40 kicked off Now 26, only the Birmingham band were among eurodance and cheeky California rap, as well as mid-career Take That, early Jamiroquai, late Belinda Carlisle and... Radiohead?

Pritchard smiles when I ask how Radiohead wound up on a Now. “People will do things, early on, that you don’t remember later.” Duckworth adds: “And I know there are Now buyers for whom this became their lead-in to Radiohead. So, having these more interesting songs on there, even if they are tucked away, they sometimes lead people to musical discovery.”

This pair used to handle the marketing of the Nows and theirs was the dynamite decision in the early 20s – I remember this – to give the records a 3D-rendered logo. As the Nows progressed (flush with Britpop through the 30s, lots of Robbie in the 40s and Black Eyed Peas in the 50s and 60s), Duckworth and Pritchard took on more responsibility for the brand. Tape and vinyl went. A foray into MiniDisc-formatted compilations did not last. The Now brand moved into the hands of Sony, in partnership with Universal. By the mid-70s, Pritchard and Duckworth, with Fisher, had pretty much full control.

There have been strange decisions, this trio will admit. “Does anybody remember Mattafix?” Duckworth asks. “I do!” Fisher says. “I think!” But it is the ephemeral stuff that makes old Nows so special – these bizarre time capsules of a cultural moment, for instance the spring of 2003, when t.A.T.u. could sit next to Timberlake, next to Nelly, next to Liberty X on Now 54.

There are said to be about 2,000 Now superfans around the world, who have made themselves known as owners of all the editions released to date. “These are smörgåsbords of popular music!” says Patrick Kelly, a 61-year-old Canadian bank employee. “These treasure troves! I was in from the beginning, as soon as I found Now 2 in an import shop. Later, I found Now 1 on tape in a remainder bin, and I nearly cried.”

Claudia Lucatelli-Cutter, who works in a school in the north-east of England, is chasing the full set: “The early ones are so difficult.” Apparently there’s a thriving underground market in the single-digit Nows. And Pritchard tells me about a strange week when Now 48 shot up in resale value from 50p to £50, after its appearance in the Peter Kay sitcom Car Share.

In terms of tangible purchases, I bowed out of the Now scene in the mid-30s. It was Now 30 that put me on to Oasis, and after that it was only a matter of time before I was too much of a snob to buy a compilation. When I find out that in this modern era of boundless, costless music to stream the Now CDs are selling well, I admit my amazement to the trio. Nows were the biggest-selling CDs every year from 2010 through to 2017, beaten only by Adele in 2015. How come?

Duckworth gives his honest take. “It’s the car – the last bastion of the CD. People like to listen in their car. Plus, the CDs are gift-y. At Easter, when people don’t want to give more chocolate, they give a Now.” Pritchard says that, for customers in their 30s and above, the Nows are a relatively unstressful way of keeping up with the churn of global pop. Need to catch up on how it sounds when Iggy Azalea features on an Ariana Grande song, and when Charli XCX features on an Iggy? Get thee to disc one of Now 88. Curious about the difference between a track credited to “Mabel & Not3s”, and another to “Not3s x Mabel”? That’ll be Now 99.

IN THIS PHOTO: Steve Pritchard/PHOTO CREDIT: Leonie Morse/The Guardian

In the mastering suite, they’re on to disc two, traditionally a place for the more niche hits of the day. In the Now 20s, this meant leather-clad Europeans who made frisky techno, and in the mid-40s it meant the trance crossing over out of Ibiza. In the latter Nows, disc two has tended to mean rap. A track by Stormzy goes first on disc two, followed by the American rapper Post Malone and then 10 more tracks that would categorise roughly as grime or hip-hop.

I wonder if the compilers aren’t ring-fencing a genre that might be ready to grow even larger if it weren’t kept in check by industry decision-makers in this way. But the Now compilers insist it’s all about “flow” – what sounds good with what, that wedding-DJ instinct not to create a sound-collision between tracks – and I take them at their word. From my observation of them in the studio, there’s more pernickety fanboy care put into ordering and reordering the rappers on disc two than into arranging the cheesy boy balladeers at the end of disc one.

There are minor crises to be overcome, Fisher fretting about missing .wav files (“I’ll call and see if Radio 1 can help us”), and Duckworth about swearing. “We imagine kids in the back of a car, singing along…” The biggest dramas are over whether songs have been cleared for inclusion with their owners. A song by Hailee Steinfeld goes close to the wire. Ed Sheeran’s people have said no this time. “There have always been the non-clearers,” Pritchard says in the voice of somebody recalling old, lost loves. Rihanna’s people never say yes, which Duckworth puts down to the mindset of the US music industry. “They think that if people buy the Now albums, they might not buy their artist’s album, too.” In fact, the trio point out, inclusion on these compilations patently favours the artists, who get royalties and a big bump to their overall streaming numbers via Now’s popular Spotify page.

And so to the last track of disc two, which according to Now custom will attempt to pack a little emotional punch. Charity singles go here, or a major artist who has died since the last instalment. “We’ll try to pay tribute,” Pritchard says. (That’s why Freddie Mercury was last on my old Now 23, I learn: Christmas 1992 was the first anniversary of his death.) To acknowledge the anniversary of the Manchester Arena bombing, Oasis conclude Now 99. One last play of the package, tracks one through 45, and the trio are done. “Nice, isn’t it?” Duckworth says. They finish their coffees and head back to the office.

The next morning, Fisher writes the liner notes and finalises the album artwork: psychedelic multicolour bubbles swirling around the famous 3D logo. (Now 1 pictured individual artists, including a flat-capped Phil Collins, but due to the spectre of last-minute “non-clearers”, the compilers don’t dare do that any more.) A day’s more fiddling and then Now 99 is gone, away for pressing and printing. They won’t see it again for about 10 days, until it’s a shrink-wrapped product.

One day in May, I sit with the trio in the office, surrounded by the plastic glitter of Now 99s. We catch up on their progress on the 100th instalment. Because production happens so close to release, by the time you read this they won’t have mastered it; when we meet, they’re in the clacking-memory-stick phase. It’s looking like Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa for the opening track, they say. Meanwhile, they’ve decided to break their own conventions and make a special disc two that is ring-fenced for nostalgia. It’ll be a greatest hits, a meta-Now, with one artist plucked from every decade in Now time.

I ask, hopefully, if Tasmin Archer has made the cut. Pritchard checks his list and says, sadly no. “It’s Wet Wet Wet. I’m sorry.”

They’ll master Now 100 in early July, they say, before a late-July release. And then what, I ask.

“101,” Fisher says. “101,” Duckworth says. How long do they think the brand can survive? Surely even car drivers will leave CDs behind eventually?

“Even in an age of streams,” Duckworth says, “people need a curator. It’s a vast forest of songs out there.”

“And we’ve got an app,” Pritchard says (this is like a Now-only Spotify).

“And we’ve got an app,” Duckworth agrees. “But I take your point. Reaching 100, it’s a good moment for reflection.” He says they see themselves only as “custodians of Now”. Maybe there’s value in keeping it as unchanged as they can for as long as they can.

And I see what he means. All these curiosities that bob by on pop’s current, the good and the mediocre and the deeply regrettable. We need somewhere to put this stuff and keep it pristine, if only to remember how brilliantly ridiculous we were, those few months around Now 23, when we could like Enya and East 17, Roy Orbison and the plinky song from Tetris, all at once.

Now that’s what I call nostalgia - fans look back

Clara Amfo, Radio 1 DJ and presenter Whoever had the Now in my class would be the most popular person of the day. My stand-out one is album 54. It had Jay-Z and Beyonce’s 03 Bonnie & Clyde on disc one, and Camron’s Hey Ma on disc two: two of my favourite music videos at the time.

It reminds me of the corny hip-hop and R&B club nights I used to go to, as well as fun times staying in with my girlfriends, whose parents kept up with the collection. The albums made you think you were getting the very best of the chart at the time, even though now, looking back, they all missed out key songs (I’m sure due to pesky record label politics). I can empathise: making mixtapes was basically my job at school. I made a really good girlband one that I wish I still had.

Alexis Petridis, music critic I never bought a Now compilation when I was a kid. I’ve no idea why – I was 12 in 1983, the ideal age. Then, a few years ago, I was researching a feature about compilations, and ended up listening to Now 5. Somewhere between Simple Minds’ Don’t You Forget About Me and The Commentators’ N-n-nineteen Not Out, I found myself fully transported back to 1985. It happened because the albums were, and are, compiled without discrimination: if it’s a hit, it’s in, regardless of whether it’s good or bad, built to last for ever or destined to be forgotten in a flash. It offered pop’s past not seen through the distorting lens of nostalgia, but as it really was: a perfect time capsule.

Dan Smith, lead singer, Bastille The CDs are these markers of time. Often a quite mad and eclectic jumble of songs – whose only common link was that they were massive (until you reached the later end of each disc) – that would live on and be replayed in car CD players for what felt like way too long. From novelty songs about being horny or literally being the colour blue, to world music trends that would temporarily invade chart pop music, they’re a collection of tunes that don’t belong together on an actual album elsewhere. Stumbling upon an old issue can be the most surreal time warp back to school rides and family trips”.

I was born in 1983, and the first Now That’s What I Call Music! was in 1993. That was 24. This was a huge introduction to Pop! Aged ten, I was opened to the eclectic possibilities of modern music. Although it was mainly chart-based and did not dig into Grunge or anything too heavy, it did allow me this access into a world of music that I would not have had access to. In 1993, pre-Internet, you had to rely on the radio and the charts. Having an album with all these hits in one places was mind-blowing! Even if I have not bought a new Now That’s What I Call Music! in many years, I still keep track. It is testament to its popularity that it is still being made. The empire is expanding by the year! I like that people want a compilation of the best hits of the year. They could stream them. Instead, they keep an album that is almost a yearbook of the best music from a given time. One of the biggest talking points is this: Which number in the series is the best?! Which year was strongest for Pop, I guess? I am subjective when I say 24, as many other people would disagree! There seems to be some crossover and consensus when you look at features that rank the series and declare the very best. Many would say that the late-'90s was a particularly fertile time. That may be because the person who wrote the feature is of the age where they were a teen when that album came out. That said, people of different generations argue that the end of the 1990s was a great time for chart gold! If some prefer the 2010s, there are those who love 44 – a year (1999) when Britney Spears was breaking through. Many stick within the late-1990s/early-2000s when it comes to their faves. This feature recommends we avoid the ‘best’ of 2014. This 2018 feature marked the one-hundredth Now That’s What I Call Music!:

“Now That's What I call Music albums – known as Now! to its fans – has been collecting the biggest contemporary chart hits since December 1983, when the very first edition topped everyone's Christmas list and spent five weeks at the top of the Official Albums Chart.

Although Now! is one of the most well-known hits collections, they didn't invent the format: compilations by various artists had been around in some form or another for a couple of decades, usually released by a record label wanting to showcase their own artists.

Tamla Motown, for example, had a successful Motown Chartbusters brand which gave them three chart-topping albums and telemarketing companies K-Tel and Ronco released collections featuring tracks licensed from record labels. Ronco managed a couple of Number 1s on the Official Albums Chart with various artists' albums – the That'll Be The Day movie soundtrack in 1973, and the amazingly titled Raiders of the Pop Charts in 1983. But you weren't guaranteed a record full of actual hits.

Michael Mulligan, who spent twenty-five years in music retail - including ten as Head of Music for Tesco - details the evolution of the compilation in his upcoming book, The Story of NOW That’s What I Call Music In 100 Artists, released to coincide with the release of Now's upcoming 100th compilation. In the foreword, he recalls of the Raiders albums: "It featured seven songs from the Virgin vaults, one of which was the compilation's only Number 1, Do You Really Want To Hurt Me by Culture Club; customers scanning through the rest of ‘Raiders’ thirty strong track-listing would have scratched their heads at the non-chart padding provided by The Chaps rendition of ‘Rawhide’, ‘The On And On Song’ by Precious Little, and a jazz-funk workout of the ‘Bladerunner’ theme by Morrissey-Mullen."

The compilations' success was due in part to the huge inconvenience of listening to a variety of singles by different artists – back in the vinyl days, you'd have to race over to the turntable every three minutes or so to change the song. Compilation albums, then, gave you a good half-hour of interrupted tunes – perfect for a party. And when CDs came along, you could have hours! Who needs DJs, eh?

But what if you wanted to get your hands on hits and the label hadn't released it on a comp? One weird quirk of the pre-Now! era were cut-price albums of covers by session singers. Yep, proving that the song was the star, among the shameless copycats was the Top of the Pops series – nothing to do with the long-running BBC TV show – which was hugely successful. The series, known for its slightly pervy covers featuring women models, scored a couple of Number 1s in 1971, before "budget" albums were disqualified from the chart because their lower price gave them an advantage. Listeners of early editions were hearing a future superstar, however – Elton John was known to have started his career appearing on anonymous covers. Says Michael Mulligan: "While TV advertised compilation albums were nothing new [when Now! launched] it was still necessary to reassure potential buyers these were ‘Original Songs, Original Artists’ and ‘Full Length Versions’ – not the imitations of variable quality."

So the Now! series wasn't a pioneer, but they had a distinct advantage that two huge record labels – Virgin and EMI – were behind them. Now! came about when the two label bosses, irked at quality of some compilations featuring their artists, decided to join forces rather than put out rival albums, enlisting songs from 12 other labels too to ensure a bigger collection of popular hits and, of course, more sales. The first edition, a double album, boasted eleven Number 1s including Duran Duran, Phil Collins, Culture Club, and New Edition. The deal was said to have been inked on Richard Branson's boat, at Little Venice in Paddington, London.

The comp's iconic name came from an antique poster bought by Branson for his cousin Simon Draper and hung over his desk at Virgin Records. The poster, featuring a pig listening to a chicken singing and saying yes, you, guessed it "Now. That's What I Call Music" was a joke as Draper was notoriously grumpy in the morning. The pig himself was the mascot of the first few albums before the covers became more arty and the visual feast we know and love today, although he does make a guest appearance on the 100th edition, released on July 26.

Now! was a runaway success and all but one of the first 13 editions topped the Official Albums Chart – poor old Now 4 got trapped at Number 2 behind a rival compilation The Hits Album. By 1989, hits collections and other compilations by various artists, like soundtracks or charity albums, were quite a dominant force on the Official Albums Chart. It was decided to create a chart especially for them, the Official Compilations Chart, and have the Official Albums Chart reserved for albums by a credited artist”.

I have said in previous features how there should be some anniversary events of the big fortieth on 28th November. I know you can get some of the Now That’s What I Call Music! albums on vinyl and cassette. Maybe it would be expensive to do it! I would love to be able to order any of the editions on vinyl or cassette! I am keen to get a new cassette version of 24. In any case, we should promote the podcasts, write new features, and get people together to discuss what Now That’s What I Call Music! means to them. Forty years on, and this legendary and essential compilation king is showing no signs of sagging or a mid-life crisis! In fact, as there are yearbook editions and genre-specific Now That’s What I Call Music! albums, it is growing stronger and more powerful. I look back to 1983 and wonder what it was like seeing that advert for an album where you could get the chart-troubling artists who you only heard before on the radio. Like a selection box, you could buy Now That’s What I Call Music! and hear a song by Culture Club or Duran Duran. If you liked that song, you could then get the studio album it was from. The joy  of discussing the latest Now That’s What I Call Music! album and saving your pocket money so you could get it! I think I bought them up until about 1999 - though I still have a huge interest in the series and how it has evolved. You can buy the first Now That’s What I Call Music!. Many fans of the complications are primed and ready to see what is coming from the makers prior to 28th November. A very special day, it will spark off new debate as to which of the one-hundred-and-fifteen numbered albums is best. We will flash back to childhood and our teenage years and say why particular Now That’s What I Call Music!  albums resonated – and why they still do to this day. I cannot understate how important they were to me. How seismic Now That’s What I Call Music! 24 was (and still is!). Once heard, it opened my mind and changed how I saw and connected with music. For that reason alone, the mighty Now That’s What I Call Music! deserves…

HUGE love and respect.

FEATURE: Waxing Empirical… With Another Rise in Vinyl Sales, Will This Lead to a More Widespread Physical Music Renaissance and Reassessment?

FEATURE:

 

 

Waxing Empirical…

PHOTO CREDIT: Alana Sousa/Pexels

With Another Rise in Vinyl Sales, Will This Lead to a More Widespread Physical Music Renaissance and Reassessment?

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SOME more good news came in this week…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Yelena Odintsova/Pexels

relating to vinyl and increased sales. In fact, rather than classic albums driving sales and being the go-to, new albums are leading a lot of people to the format. In fact, Lana Del Rey’s Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd has seen massive vinyl sales. With the choice available online and the communal aspect of going to record shops and browsing, it does mean that we will continue to see steady sales. Events like National Album Day have raised interest in the classic format. Vinyl is very much a go-to for many. I will spread this out and ask about whether this new heigh for vinyl sales will impact other physical formats – in the sense that there is a revival and resurgence of physical music in general. Streaming is still popular, though there is a clear affection and desire for viny. Music Week explained more in their feature from yesterday:

“Vinyl sales have surged by 13.2% year-on-year for the first nine months of 2023.

According to data from the BPI, 3,952,262 vinyl LPs were sold during the year to the end of September. The year-on-year increase was ahead of the 12.4% growth for the first half of 2023.

At 15.1%, the year-on-year increase was even bigger during the three months of the Q3 period. A total of 1,237,620 vinyl LPs were sold in the quarter.

Vinyl sales increased by a fairly modest 2.9% in 2022, but double-digit growth for the format looks likely to return for 2023. With a potential blockbuster Q4 line-up – including albums from Take That, the Rolling Stones and Taylor Swift – vinyl is set for another strong quarter during the gifting season.

Black Friday, Record Store Day’s sister event, will take place on November 24. More than 90 artists, including De La Soul, Sia, Joni Mitchell, Prince, Rilo Kiley, The Doors and Post Malone, will release limited edition vinyl editions.

The indie retail sector spoke to Music Week for a feature in our current edition – you can read insights from Rough Trade, Crash Records, Banquet and Drift.

 Speaking about the impact of Record Store Day as part of the feature, ERA CEO Kim Bayley said that the annual event “stands alongside the invention of streaming as a landmark moment for music” and became “the single most important catalyst” for the vinyl revival.

Record Store Day stands alongside the invention of streaming as a landmark moment for music

Kim Bayley

“Are there wrinkles in it? Are there challenges? Of course,” she told Music Week. “That is why we tweak the day every year and take feedback from the entire industry as to ways to shape the day. But the big picture is that it has been and continues to be a resounding success.”

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift was the biggest-selling vinyl release during Q3 with 29,649 sales (Official Charts Company), followed by Blur’s The Ballad Of Darren (26,894), Kylie Minogue’s Tension (19,160), Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts (14,611) and Wham!’s The Singles: Echoes From The Edge Of Heaven (10,782).

The biggest vinyl release for the year to date is Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, which has sales of 33,568 on the format.

With CD sales down 6.3% year-on-year so far in 2023 (to 7,270,654), physical sales are flat overall (down just 0.5% to 11,365,554).

Streaming is of course the dominant means of music consumption now, taking an 88.5% share of the recorded music market. Streaming growth remains in double digits with an 11.6% increase in Streaming Equivalent Albums (SEA) to the end of Q3 (118,914,835 units), according to the BPI.

Overall music consumption (AES) is up 9.8% year-on-year so far in 2023 at 133,914,835 equivalent album units.

IN THIS PHOTO: Taylor Swift/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

2023’s biggest albums & singles

According to Official Charts Company data, The Weeknd’s The Highlights is the most consumed album of the year so far (304,923 chart sales in 2023). It has been out in front since Q1.

The Highlights is one of six catalogue titles in the Top 10 for the year to date.

Taylor Swift’s Midnights is at No.2 overall (264,260 sales in 2023) for the year to date, followed by Harry Styles’ Harry’s House (230,927).

The biggest week one sale so far remains the 95,882 for Lewis Capaldi’s Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent.

In the artist album rankings, Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) was the biggest album of Q3 (131,471), followed by Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts (100,848), which achieved that gold certification in just three weeks.

The biggest UK breakthrough in the album rankings so far this year is Polydor-signed Clavish, whose mixtape Rap Game Awful makes the overall Top 100 to the end of Q3 (No.94, 59,092 sales).

Miley Cyrus’ Flowers, which spent 10 weeks at No.1, is the biggest single with 1,496,859 sales, followed by UK star Raye’s smash Escapism (feat. 070 Shake) on 997,024 chart sales in 2023 (the No.1 for Raye has 1,228,614 sales including those at the end of last year).

During Q3, Sprinter by Dave & Central Cee – which spent 10 weeks at No.1 – emerged as the quarter’s biggest single (612,888 sales).

Olivia Rodrigo was at No.2 with Vampire (498,407), followed by Dua Lipa’s Dance The Night at No.3 (402,282).

Dance The Night is taken from The Barbie Album soundtrack, which would have made No.2 in Q3 (127,152 sales) but for its inclusion on the compilations chart.

Subscribers can click here to read our feature on independent retail as the sector prepares for the busy Q4 period”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alina Vilchenko/Pexels

Some might say that younger listeners buying vinyl is to be trendy or have the artwork. As I have said in previous features when reacting to the ongoing popularity of vinyl, there is this need for ownership and having something tangible. You get a different relationship with and reaction from an album if you play it on vinyl. Something that can be prized and passed to friends or future generations, there are modern albums that will be future classics. In the same way our parents bought vinyl and have kept them alive, we will see many albums bought this year that are going to be in record collections for decades to come! Maybe the fact C.D.s are stalling and no real boom is happening leads us back to cassettes and alternative physical formats. I think a reason C.D.s are not played as much is because of the lack of devices. Fewer people have C.D. players in their cars. Older systems and Hi-Fis where you could play C.D.s are more reserved to older listeners. For younger fans of physical music, it is great that vinyl is healthy. Despite the fact the cost of a single album on vinyl can cost anywhere between £15-25, there is still this demand. Artists such as Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift are helping bring vinyl to a new generation. Also, as this report lays out, the effect of increased vinyl sales means the turntable market is growing:

“The Turntables Market is a thriving industry that caters to audiophiles, music enthusiasts, and professionals in the music production sector. This report offers a comprehensive overview of the market, presenting key market insights, the impact of COVID-19, latest trends, driving and restraining factors, segmentation, regional insights, key industry players, industry developments, report coverage, and frequently asked questions.

“According to the Market Research Report, the Turntables market is expected to surpass USD 569 by 2027, which is an increase from its current value of USD 395 in 2022. This growth is projected to have a compound annual growth rate (5.4%) between 2023 and 2027.” Ask for a Sample Report

KEY MARKET INSIGHTS: Turntables Market

The Turntables Market is witnessing steady growth due to the resurgence of vinyl records and the revival of analog audio equipment. Key market insights reveal that direct-drive turntables are gaining popularity among DJs and music producers for their precise speed control and quick startup. Additionally, belt-drive turntables are favored by audiophiles for their smoother rotation and reduced motor noise.

COVID-19 IMPACT: Turntables Market

The COVID-19 pandemic had a mixed impact on the Turntables Market. While the initial lockdowns and restrictions disrupted supply chains and sales, there was an increase in demand for turntables from consumers seeking home entertainment options during quarantine. The market experienced a surge in vinyl record sales, benefiting the turntables market”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Matthias Groeneveld/Pexels

I have said this before, but I do feel that to encourage physical sales wider than the vinyl market, there needs to be the same availability of other technologies to go alongside turntables. I am not sure what bizarre hybrid it could be. Manufacturing new turntables so there is a playing option/compatibility for C.D.s and cassettes. A new line of players and Hi-Fis for cassettes and C.D.s. Of course, one can still buy older models, though I am not sure how many people buying vinyl who also would necessarily have space or budget for a Hi-Fi. It takes me back to the debate around portable players and reviving them. Again, there are options out there, yet they can be expensive or old-fashioned. A turntable does not necessarily need to adapt in the modern age. I do feel the price of vinyl needs to come down a bit to make it more accessible to all. There are issues and hurdles regarding shipping, the number of vinyl plants, together with the cost of producing a vinyl record to start. I know I am repeating myself from features earlier in the year. The new good news regarding vinyl sales is reason to reinstall and highlight those points. I think that there does need to be focus given to other physical formats and ensuring that there are affordable and convenient options - that means we do not solely rely on vinyl. People still want to listen to albums on the go. The vast majority of people doing that do so through their phones.

PHOTO CREDIT: Car Girl/Pexels

Even if the overall sales of vinyl are high so far this year, as has been pointed out, sales of new albums have slightly declined. Perhaps classic albums are still favoured or obtainable to a different (maybe older) demographic. I wonder whether a younger audience who might want to buy a vinyl copy of a new album do not have the disposable income. That, or they are being given too many reissues and deluxe editions. It is a hard thing bringing down the cost of a vinyl album, given all the costs and logistics involved from pressing to manufacturing. If we celebrate the vinyl market in general, at such a tough and cash-poor time where fans still want to show to own physical music, there does need to be serious thought given to C.D.s, cassettes, and even relaunching a bygone option like MiniDisc. Few of us felt that, by 2023, physical music sales would be hampered by outdated hardware formats or the discontinuation of others. With so many new artists struggling to make a living and relying on album sales to do anything, it is imperative that we make it an affordable as possible. Sites like Bandcamp are really great if someone wants a digital copy. If you are in a shop or want to get a new album, often the vinyl copy can be expensive. You may buy that and decide not to buy a further one (to budget). That, or people are not buying vinyl at all. It would be interesting to see an age demographic and types of albums that each bought.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Feist/PHOTO CREDIT: Mary Rozzi via The New York Times

One of the best albums of this year is Feist’s Multitudes. I was sorely tempted to own it on vinyl but, as you can see, it is quite pricey. Maybe the sheer weight of vinyl makes it harder to produce at a lower cost. Even so, I see different websites and stores quoting different prices for albums. Artists want to sell as many as they can, and yet they have no influence when it comes to setting the price. With so many offering album bundles where you can get a C.D. and cassette, there are options. As I have said many times, fewer people have the devices on which to play them. It is an awkward situation where the fuller picture needs to be represented. Yes, vinyl sales look brilliant, though they do not really highlight how few non-mainstream artists see big vinyl sales. I suspect a lot of teens and people in their twenties do not have the income and option to buy many vinyl albums. Also, there does seem to be this assumption that C.D.s are cassettes are irrelevant and shouldn’t be highlighted. Maybe they have disadvantages that will require major restructuring and remodelling (the vulnerability of the cassette; the fact people don’t have C.D. players). A few things are clear. Vinyl is growing and sales suggest, whether older or new albums are being bought, there are encouraging signs. We also know that fans want physical music and to have that balance with streaming. That means, if vinyl prices are high or there are reasons why fewer new albums are selling huge number, cost and accessibility is considered. Whether uncool or flawed, I still feel there is value and that cheaper option by making C.D.s and cassettes available to play portably – which might mean reissuing a new-style version of the classic Discman/Walkman. Regardless, those sales figures at the top are reason to be cheerful at least! I hope that this pleasing trend continues…

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

RIGHT through 2024.

FEATURE: Summertime Sadness: The Increasing Cost of Attending Music Festivals

FEATURE:

 

 

Summertime Sadness

PHOTO CREDIT: Wendy Wei/Pexels

The Increasing Cost of Attending Music Festivals

_________

MANY people are looking forward…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Lana Del Rey at Glastonbury Festival earlier this year/PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Green/Getty Images

to next year’s Glastonbury Festival. Organisers Emily and Michael Eavis have promised there will be two female headliners in 2024. This year saw another all-male line-up. With the likes of Lana Del Rey already on the bill and more than headline-worthy, excuses around ‘pipeline issues’ – one reason why few women are booked as headliners – did not hold water. The Debbie Harry-fronted Blondie could also have headlined. Reacting to this by ensuring that there are women headlining is long overdue. It is something all festivals need to follow! Quit making poor excuses and recognise the talent that is out there and ready to headline! I hope that all festivals get a fifty-fifty gender balance across their bills. With very few major festivals achieving that this year, things need to change next year. That all said, music festivals are a lifeline at a time when many smaller venues are closing. With COVID cases back on the rise, let’s hope that we are not in a position in the summer where we are isolating and not able to mingle! There are a terrific range of festivals that are available to a variety of tastes. One of the main problems with larger festivals is the cost of tickets. Even a one-day pass can be very steep. News broke recently that highlighted some climbs in festivals passes/tickets next year:

“Ticket prices for Glastonbury Festival next year will rise to £360.

It is a £20 increase from this year's event, which cost £335 plus a £5 booking fee - and a £75 hike from the price in 2022.

Fans will be able to buy ticket and coach travel packages on 2 November, and standard tickets on 5 November.

Festival goers will be charged £355 plus a £5 booking fee for standard tickets, with £75 as a deposit and the balance due by the first week of April.

 These standard tickets will not include additional perks like glamping accommodation, paid for separately after tickets are obtained.

Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis made the pricing announcement on social media and said people would need to register in advance on the festival's website.

To purchase a ticket, members of the public must register on the Glastonbury's website by 17:00 GMT on 30 October.

Several major UK festivals have released prices for standard tickets next year - all of which are cheaper than Glastonbury:

• Download - £275

• Wireless - £259.25 (plus £3.25 booking fee)

• Isle of Wight - £190 (plus £19 booking fee)

But Glastonbury is by far the biggest festival in the UK - hosted across the 900-acre site of Worthy Farm in Somerset.

Around 200,000 people attended concerts at this year's event, and a record 21.6 million watched TV coverage on the BBC.

It was headlined by Arctic Monkeys, Guns N' Roses, and Sir Elton John, who all took to Glastonbury's iconic Pyramid Stage.

Other top artists filled the line-up, including rock band Queens of the Stone Age, and rapper Skepta.

Stages also hosted film screenings, speeches by politicians, and circus and theatre performances.

Despite a price increase of £70 between 2019, when tickets were sold for the 2020 concert, and last year, tickets for the 2023 event sold out in 61 minutes”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Wendy Wei/Pexels

Despite the fact festivals are an essential release and community for music fans, I don’t think they are being supported and backed by the Government. Same goes for independent venues. As costs rise and it is getting more expensive to stage festivals, it will means ticket prices need to rise. What is the solution? It is clear that many will be squeezed out. With the cost of living going up and people having to ration and budget hard, it will be quite a sacrifice for people going to large festivals in 2024. Even if demand will mean festivals sell out, I think that this comes at a loss for so many. Once on site, there is the cost of food and drink. Throw in travel to get to an event and it makes for a very expensive experience! With rent prices rising heavily, it is going to be even more difficult for many to go to festivals. It is not the fault of organisers. Last year, this article highlighted the fact that rising festival ticket prices are almost unavoidable. There is no safety net in place at all:

“British music fans expressed dismay this week as Glastonbury announced that the cost of tickets for next year’s event will rise from £265 to £335.

Emily Eavis, co-organiser of the not-for-profit festival, said: “We have tried very hard to minimise the increase in price on the ticket but we’re facing enormous rises in the costs of running this vast show, while still recovering from the huge financial impact of two years without a festival because of Covid.”

It is likely that Glastonbury is the canary in the coalmine, as many festival organisers grapple with increasing financial challenges.

Paul Reed, CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), said the concern over transferring the financial burden to the consumer was shared across the sector: “Organisers are very mindful that there is a cost of living crisis. I think festivals by their very nature want to be inclusive of all parts of society, but they run with incredibly tight margins at the best of times – it can be 10% or less in terms of your potential profit margin – and costs are going up by 25%-30%, so ultimately something has to give.”

PHOTO CREDIT: freestocks.org/Pexels

Many of the rising costs stem from the ongoing effects of Brexit and the pandemic. Supply chain issues continue; many events professionals retrained throughout the lockdown periods, meaning the available workforce is far smaller than at the beginning of 2020. With demand increasing as the festival market grows, labour costs have swelled. Even so, many festivals honoured their 2020 prices for ticketholders returning in 2021 and 2022, despite a dramatic rise in inflation in the interim.

New challenges, such as an increase in artist fees to account for higher post-pandemic touring costs, add to the financial strain. Meanwhile, fluctuating fuel prices mean that the cost of operating generators and transporting infrastructure to sites is unpredictable.

“This is something that is unique to festivals because you build the entire thing from scratch,” says Marina Blake, creative director of Brainchild, an independent festival that had to cancel this year due to a combination of increased costs and slow ticket sales. “In the past, there’d be a quote including hire fee and transport costs right at the start. Now, they’ll give you the quote for the equipment but not the transport costs until the week of the event, which means you don’t know what it’s going to cost you, but you know it’s going to be more than you’re expecting.”

The risks, she says, are too much to bear during a time in which consumers’ financial habits are changing constantly: “We’d sold out every year for the last four years; I felt as if our demand was the only thing I could count on. Now, the people who usually buy tickets are going out less and spending less money”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Caio/Pexels

I think the latest news of yet more ticket price rises for U.K. festivals needs to send a message to the Government that they need to be supported and backed. Many artists are having to pull out of festivals because of the rising cost of touring. The Guardian published a feature earlier this year that underlines how many artists are paying more than they are earning for playing at festivals. Even though I do not buy the fact there is a pipeline issue that means fewer women are visible as potential headliners, it is clear that so many potential festival names are simply unavailable to perform:

“Musicians are dropping out of festivals because huge rises in the cost of performing are outstripping their fees. Artists told the Observer they have had to turn down offers to play or cut out elements of their live shows, while others have revealed they have lost as much as £17,000 for a single performance.

Although ticket prices have risen by 15% on average, the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) warned that the costs of staging a show are up by 30%, and that gap is costing both artists and promoters.

More than 100 UK festivals – one in six – have closed permanently since the start of the Covid pandemic, three in the last week alone, due to staffing shortages and the high costs of energy and equipment such as fencing, toilets and stages.

Maxïmo Park were due to play Chagstock in Devon this month but the organisers cancelled it, blaming escalating costs and lower than expected ticket sales.

“It’s a real shame,” said Paul Smith, Maxïmo Park’s lead singer. “I think a lot of festivals are wondering whether it’s worth putting it on, and a lot of smaller acts are wondering if it’s worth the small fees to get there.” The indie rock band are known for their lively stage shows and were unable to tour with their 2020 album, Nature Always Wins, because of lockdown. This summer they have just a handful of dates planned, including Hartlepool’s Tall Ships festival.

IN THIS PHOTO: Elkka

“We’ve stripped back because of the costs – we didn’t take a lighting engineer on our recent European tour,” Smith said. Brexit rules have also made touring more expensive due to the cost of visas and cabotage rules on tour buses.

The Newcastle singer is also part of Unthank : Smith, a collaboration with folk singer Rachel Unthank. “We put a record out this year,” he said. “We looked at a few logistical things. It would have cost us a lot of money to do festival dates, and our fees would have been minimal. So we didn’t.”

Elkka, the electronic artist whose 2021 club hit Burnt Orange helped get her a Radio 1 residency, played a DJ set at this year’s Glastonbury. “I have to be really, really selective about what I do and whether it’s possible financially,” said the musician, whose real name is Emma Kirby. “I’m a DJ as well, so sometimes I look at something and think that I can’t afford to take a show because it’s too expensive to take my show there. So I DJ instead – but I’m lucky to have that option.”

Even as an emerging solo artist, Elkka needs a tech expert to maintain her synthesisers and drum machinesso they don’t fail during a performance, a live sound engineer and a tour manager. Sometimes she will just accept a loss-making trip. “I’m a queer artist. I like to play in spaces where I’m with my allies, and those parties don’t always have the money to take you there. But I can’t keep doing things at a great loss,” said Kirby”.

 IMAGE CREDIT: All Points East

Our economy and position on Brexit means that festivals are struggling to keep costs down. As Time Out showed in their feature that was published before the announcement of price rises in 2024, it does appear that the U.K. is in a unique position. Our festival prices are rising faster than festivals in other parts of the world:

“And not unsuprisingly, it seems that the cost of UK festivals is rising faster than anywhere else. Out of the world’s top ten festivals to see the biggest price surges, seven were based in Britain. Revellers at Reading and Leeds this year have paid 34.4 percent more to attend than last year, making it the second highest increase worldwide after Open’er in Poland (which inflated by 42.1 percent in sterling terms).

London's All Points East didn’t fall far behind, with tickets to see Stormzy et al rising from £68 to £91 from 2022 to 2023 – a 33.8 percent increase. Then came Cornish surfing and music fest Boardmasters, for which attendees have paid 30.3 percent more than last year.

Despite being one of the country’s most spenny weekenders, Glastonbury only came fourth on the list of UK events, with a 19.6 percent increase in ticket prices. Creamfields and Wireless followed with an 18.2 percent and 17 percent increase respectively.

These are the percentage increases of ten UK festivals between summer 2022 and 2023, according to No1 Currency:

1. Reading and Leeds (34.4 percent)

2. All Points East (33.8 percent)

3. Boardmasters (30.3 percent)

4. Glastonbury (19.6 percent)

5. Creamfields (18.2 percent)

6. Wireless (17.0 percent)

7. Latitude (12.2 percent)

8. Isle of White (10.3 percent)

9. Download (2.6 percent)

10. Parklife (0 percent)”.

If some festivals are not raising prices – or only by a small percentage –, it does appear that our biggest are having to incur massive costs - and, as such, it means an average ticket price is almost beyond the reach of many. That is a shame. Attending festivals like Glastonbury or Boardmasters provided these incredible memories. An essential live music experience, it is disappointing that it is so expensive. I hope that there is more funding for music festivals.

 IMAGE CREDIT: Reading Festival

Brexit means that fewer EU musicians are able to play in the U.K. That means that artists from wider afield are being booked. This article highlights a real issue when it comes to artists from the EU being able to come to Britain. This access restriction is causing big damage for music festivals. Something that is not going to be solved next year:

“Figures published today by internationalist campaign group Best for Britain show that, on average, the number of European musicians scheduled to take to the stage at major festivals across the UK this summer has fallen by 40% compared to 2017-19.

The findings mark a slight improvement on 2022 figures where in the first festival season after Brexit and Covid restrictions, European musicians booked to play British festivals had fallen by 53% compared to the years 2017-19. Industry leaders have attributed the improvement to festival organisers and musicians having some experience with new restrictions and paperwork in the second post-Brexit Festival season.

However, this year the number of European musicians playing at Britain’s most iconic festival, Glastonbury, has decreased even further, down 50% this year compared to 42% in 2022.

These new figures have reinforced concerns around the impact that Brexit is having on the diversity of the music scene in the UK. Earlier this year, Best for Britain published research suggesting that the number of UK musicians playing EU festivals had fallen by a third since Brexit.

Industry leaders have confirmed that the government’s Brexit deal continues to make touring much more difficult with new rules on visas and cabotage, and is incompatible with common industry practice where musicians are often asked to fill last-minute vacancies in a festival line-up”.

It is a real problem. The cost of buying a ticket to a major festival. That article I opened with shows what a problem we have. Costs will only rise each year, to the point where people hoping to attend festivals are going to be spending an inordinate amount. I know many will make that sacrifice. They shouldn’t have to! It is an issue reflected across live music. So many big artists are putting their ticket prices up. The cost of seeing your favourite artist on the stage is rising ever higher. Live music should be something everyone is able to access! Festivals especially. Let’s hope there is a solution and price hike freeze soon. Festivals in the sun should not be about stress, sadness and financial strains: they are all about…

HAPPINESS and togetherness.