FEATURE: The Beatles at Fifty-Five: Revolutions, Re-evaluation and Reduction: Why a Single Album Would Not Have Worked

FEATURE:

The Beatles at Fifty-Five

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles during the ‘Mad Day Out’ shoot on 28th July, 1968/PHOTO CREDIT: Stephen Goldblatt

Revolutions, Re-evaluation and Reduction: Why a Single Album Would Not Have Worked

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AT thirty tracks…

and a running time of about ninety minutes, you definitely get your money’s worth from The Beatles. The 1968 eponymous album from the Fab Four, there was a lot of division and disagreement within the once-tight ranks. Not as close and connected as they once were, often songs were recorded in different studios by different members of the band. In spite of that, there was this incredible creativity and prolificacy! If George Harrison did not quite hit the strides he did on Abbey Road, he did produce two of The Beatles’ best tracks: Long, Long, Long and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. John Lennon produced more than his fair share of gems – among them, Happiness Is a Warm Gun. Paul McCartney’s Blackbird is among his very best works. Ringo Starr wrote Don’t Pass Me By. Whilst many of us have out favourite tracks, I don’t think that there is a lot of agreement regarding the best ten or so songs! You might get some similarities, yet most of us favour different cuts. There are double albums that are quite bloated and have more than their share of filler. There are classics like Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti (1975) that, whilst not constantly brilliant and up to their peak, is regarded highly because everything works together. You embrace the tracks that are not quite as strong as the others because everything fits. You would not separate the songs and try and slim things down to a single album! That would take something away and ruin the flow. Also, even if you do not like some songs on a double album, the fact that you get all of these songs and the group/artist goes to so much trouble is to be commended. A double album can be a very risky thing! Not that many are as celebrated as a more focused single album.

Maybe people were expecting something different to The Beatles in 1968. The band produced the epochal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. Quite a bit had changed since then. Cracks were starting to form – at least more visibly than there were previously. They could have released a single album and be done with it. It is clear their trip to Rishikesh was instrumental. In terms of strains forming and intensifying between the group. Also, in terms of providing a creative backdrop and outlet. It was a pivotal trip that would start the process of one of their best albums. The Beatles is always placed alongside the very best of the band’s work. Even if some people discount various songs and think there is filler, the history and backdrop of the album create an impact. The legacy and importance of it. Even the less-strong songs work when you hear them in context. You get a fuller flavour and feel of The Beatles and where they were in 1968. A broader and deeper feeling of what the album is trying to say. The Beatles turns fifty-five soon. Released on 22nd November, 1968, a debate has been raging since that date. People always ask whether The Beatles would work better as a single album. Maybe cutting a thirty-track album down to, say, fifteen. You could definitely have a leaner experience. One where you could include fifteen of the stronger songs and make them work. If you do that, there are going to be a fair few classics lefty aside. You might not get Back in the U.S.S.R. or Long, Long, Long. The charm of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da or the beautiful Honey Pie. Objectively, at least two-thirds of the album is either very strong or superb. That would be longer than a single album. Perhaps thirty tracks is a lot…though I don’t think it is possible to realistically cut it to a singe and say that everything left out is not worthy.

It is the sprawling nature of The Beatles that makes it is a genius piece of work. All four members contributing so much. The objective nature of music means that every conceivable single album – fifteen tracks – would mean many would be angered. You would never lose the fifteen ‘worse’ tracks, as there are going to be wonderful songs not in the mix that should be. Look at this poll from 2018:

“Though I've presented on The White Album several times, I had never done so collaboratively before yesterday. With its 30 stylistically diverse tracks, it is particularly well-suited to multiple interpretations and perspectives. And last night at the Arthur J. Miller library in Warren, MI, I paired up with Beatles expert Bob Koski to discuss and debate the merits of all 30 songs, before letting the audience decide by vote which half to keep and which half to discard.

When it was all said and done, here are the 15 tracks the audience voted to keep:

Back in the USSR

Dear Prudence

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

I'm So Tired

Blackbird

Rocky Raccoon

I Will

Julia

Yer Blues

Mother Nature's Son

Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey

Helter Skelter

Revolution 1

Cry Baby Cry

That means they threw out these 15:

Glass Onion

Wild Honey Pie

The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Martha My Dear

Piggies

Don't Pass Me By

Why Don't We Do It In The Road?

Birthday

Sexy Sadie

Long, Long, Long

Honey Pie

Savoy Truffle

Revolution 9

Good Night”.

Look there. Three of the album’s best tracks are left on the cutting room floor: Long, Long, Long, Happiness Is a Warm Gun, and Revolution 9. Maybe Wild Honey Pie, Piggies and The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill could go. Though I do like the latter, as it was the song I first hard as a child. The one that introduced me to The Beatles. Also, a few tracks that would be in many people’s top ten of The Beatles are in the rejected pile. The wonderful Sexy Sadie, Martha My Dear and Glass Onion. You see the issues we come up against! I would also say you could swap Yer Blues and even While My Guitar Gently Weeps out and take a couple of the discarded songs and make a stronger single album. Think about where those ‘dud’ tracks fit on the original album and how they work. A bridge between other songs. I think those songs left out of the single album are worthy because they add to the story. They make tracks around them stronger – not in an insulting way! -, in addition to adding gorgeous and rich texture. I think you would get a colder and more rigid single album. One that seemed like a greatest hits collection and not a fully-fledged story.

In 2008, MOJO had their say on what would be an ideal single-disc The Beatles. They left out both Revolution 1 and Revolution 9! No Why Don’t We Do It in the Road (to me, one of the most underrated songs on The Beatles). Again, a different opinion and some inexcusable omissions:

“Sequence a single-disc version of the album, in keeping with producer George Martin’s famous complaint that it should not have been stretched to two records. Mojo offers several such suggested versions.

Of course, Paul McCartney’s equally famous defense of the double album, as heard in The Beatles Anthology, was “It’s the bloody Beatles White Album. Shut up!” Certainly one of the charms of the White Album is how sprawling it is, though there are certain songs I never again need to hear.

Still, whittling the White Album down to 15 tracks, as instructed, is pretty tough.

Here’s my best stab at the single-album version of the White Album, with Side 1 and Side 2 designated because this was a classic record long before CDs came along:

Side 1

Back in the U.S.S.R.

Dear Prudence

Glass Onion

Birthday

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Mother Nature’s Son

Happiness Is a Warm Gun

Side 2

Blackbird

Piggies

Everybody’s Got Something To Hide (Except for Me and My Monkey)

Sexy Sadie

I Will

Julia

Helter Skelter

Long Long Long

Toughest deletions: “Cry Baby Cry,” “Yer Blues,” “Savoy Truffle,” “I’m So Tired”

Next tier: “Martha My Dear,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” “Revolution 1,” “Wild Honey Pie,” “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road”

Easiest deletions: “Honey Pie,” “Rocky Raccoon,” “Revolution 9,” “Good Night,” “Don’t Pass Me By” (sorry, Ringo)

This exercise confirms that my two favorite sides of the original album are Side 1 (which I always liked) and Side 3 (which grew on me as an adult). Paul’s cutesy material doesn’t hold up nearly as well as John’s harder-edged songs, though the toughest rocker remains Paul’s (“Helter Skelter”).

I’m tempted to substitute “Yer Blues” for “Birthday” or to put “Sexy Sadie” in that spot on Side 1 and add “Cry Baby Cry” or “I’m So Tired” to Side 2 but the “Birthday” riff and drumming just can’t be denied, even if the song is slight.

I also almost dropped “I Will” but just couldn’t; it’s an especially sweet song to sing to your kids. Then again, so are “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and “Good Night,” and those didn’t make my cut.

Paul was right: A single album just loses too much essential material.

Here’s the real solution: The Beatles should have added “Hey Jude” and the harder-rocking single version of “Revolution”—both of which were recorded during the White Album sessions but released separately as a single—and removed “Honey Pie,” “Rocky Raccoon” and the pokier “Revolution 1.” You’d still have the divisive 8-minute sound collage that is “Revolution 9,” but, hey, it’s the bloody Beatles White Album. Shut up!”.

To prove the inconsistency and futility of deciding on a single album for The Beatles that would trim any fat, Far Out Magazine gave their take in 2021. They kept lesser tracks like Piggies and Not Guilty (which is a track that was not included on the original album):

“For full disclosure, I already disagree with the premise I’ve set for myself. I’m one of the people that defends the album, through thick and thin, as a piece of art that should be kept whole. Every piece of filler, every ridiculous song, every moment of the album creates a very specific feeling, and listening to the record in its entirety is a completely unique experience that is felt differently by anyone who takes the time. There are plenty of reasons why ‘Wild Honey Pie’ should not have been included on this LP, but taking it off ruins the spirit of the recording, which is that of a warts-and-all expression of artistic discontent. The Beatles were so dysfunctional during this period that Ringo Starr quit during recordings and was replaced by Paul McCartney’s drumming on the first two songs. The Beatles starts off with only 3/4ths of The Beatles!

Much has been said regarding the band dynamic at this time: Paul McCartney, unwilling to yield his artistic vision, would create whole songs in solitude, playing all the instruments himself. John Lennon, largely uninterested in his own recordings, much less anybody else’s, threw out half baked ideas along with genuinely good songs as if to mess with the group. George Harrison, struggling to show his prominence as an equal contributor to the band, was only allotted a few songs to express his own growth as a musician and songwriter. Ringo Starr, constantly feeling underused and underappreciated, mainly waited around the studio while the others tried to pull their pieces together. Often, the band members would be working in separate studios.

The atmosphere was tense and territorial, something that would worsen to the point of eroding the band’s working relationship on later projects. George Martin, once the master organiser and instrumental contributor to ideas and compositions, would now try to organise four disparate artists. Personnel would sometimes simply not show up for sessions or spontaneously go on holiday. The strain of recording under frayed relationships led longtime recording engineer Geoff Emerick to cease his partnership with the group. The once tight-knit working unit was infiltrated with wives – most prominently Yoko Ono – whose from then-on constant presence in the studio only further strained relationships (although it did not cause the breakup of the group, as is commonly misconstrued). Morale was at a low, but that led to a creative hotbed of ideas, some of which received extensive polishing, and some of which were left raw and uncut.

The results speak for themselves: a bizarre, brazen, unconventional collection of rock, pop, music hall, blues, hard rock, exe will never be another White Album, and there’s always something new to take away when you listen to it. Its legacy is set, so now all we can do is ponder what maybe could have been, for better or for worse.

The Beatles (Single Album)

‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’

‘Dear Prudence’

‘Savoy Truffle’*

‘Martha My Dear’

‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’*

‘Yer Blues’

‘Blackbird’

‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun’

‘Birthday’

‘Julia’

‘Not Guilty’*

‘Glass Onion’

‘Helter Skelter’

‘Long, Long, Long’*

‘I’m So Tired’

‘Good Night’

All songs written by Lennon-McCartney, except * written by Harrison.

So there it is! Not bad, huh? OK, chances are very good that you disagree with at least one, if not some or most, of my decisions. Yes, I did include ‘Good Night’. No, I didn’t include any ‘Revolutions’, or any ‘Honey Pies’. Yes, I did include ‘Not Guilty’, a song that wasn’t even on the original double album. Yes, most of the ridiculous songs that I previously said made the album what it is are gone, but give me the chance to explain.

First, some statistics: the length of this single album is 49:52, reducing the original 93-minute cut by about 44 minutes. Lennon has six songs with ‘Dear Prudence’, ‘Yer Blues’, ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun’, ‘Julia’, ‘Glass Onion’, and ‘I’m So Tired’ all making the cut, giving him a 37.5% stake.

McCartney, meanwhile, has five songs with ‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’, ‘Martha My Dear’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘Birthday’, and ‘Helter Skelter’ all included, giving him a 31.25% stake. Harrison has four songs with his creations of ‘Savoy Truffle’, ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, ‘Not Guilty’, and ‘Long, Long, Long’, allowing him a 25% stake. Starr has one song (‘Good Night’), giving him a 6.25% stake in the album.

While ‘Good Night’ was written by Lennon and arranged by Martin, Starr sings lead and is therefore given credit as his song. Even though songs written by either Lennon or McCartney are given the Lennon-McCartney tag, the lead singer is the one who wrote most or all of the song, so they’re given credit appropriately”.

The fact that everyone has their own order and opinion when it comes to that theoretical single-disc The Beatles just goes to show that it would be a crazy thing! I can see why some find thirty tracks too much. Maybe not favouring some of the tracks. Feeling they are filler and not really crucial. There are songs on The Beatles that I am not keen on. As I say, I feel they all have their place. Wild Honey Pie and The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill form this odd filing between Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and While My Guitar Gentle Weeps. They give the first side a bit of eccentricity and playfulness. Levity and different colours that are required. I think Blackbird and Piggies as a one-two work well. It is crucial the second side has Ringo Starr’s Don't Pass Me By. He definitely could not be left off the album as a songwriter! I think the third side is the strongest. Even if it opens with Birthday and Yer Blues, these songs offer different sides to the band. Sonic variety that compliments the rest. Placing the heavy and brutal Helter Skelter right before the gorgeous and serene Long, Long, Long showed that The Beatles were very much leaning into an unorthodox way of sequencing! Cresting different moods and shifts. Reduce the thirty songs to fifteen and you get something lacking and far emptier. The fourth and final side finishes with the odd-yet-perfect one-two of Revolution 9 and Good Night. For argument’s sake – and to offer my view… -, I have included my single album. Fifteen songs from The Beatles that I feel are very strong. Maybe not my favourite fifteen, mind. They are the ones I think would hang together best in a single album. As I have said, it is wrong to cut this incredible double album down to one. It is what people have been debating for decades. Ever since 1968 I guess! On 22nd November, The Beatles is fifty-five. The fact that no two people can agree on an ideal single album goes to show…

WHAT a masterpiece it truly is.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Jalen Ngonda

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Rosie Cohe

 Jalen Ngonda

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UNDENIABLY one of the greatest voices…

of his generation, Jalen Ngonda’s debut album, Come Around and Love Me, is among this year’s very best. Such a soulful, powerful and memorable live performer, there is so much to admire about the U.S.-born, U.K.-based artist. Born in Maryland, Jalen Ngonda chose the city of Liverpool as the place in which he would flourish as a musician. He has just been touring in the U.S. He is back in the U.K. and will play King Tuts Wah Wah Hut on 1st November. I am going to come to some interviews with him. A review too for his spectacular album, Come Around and Love Me. I have arrived at his feet after the love wave that greeted his stunning debut. I feel I am late to the party though, as he has received such buzz and so much admiration far and wide, I wanted to point anyone unaware of his talents in the direction of an artist who could rank alongside the Soul greats. This, from his official website, gives you a sense of what Jalen Ngonda is all about:

“Truly life-enriching soul music is an indomitable force of nature. No matter what sub-genre our current crop of musicologists may cite in the very near future to describe Jalen Ngonda’s riveting nu-soul approach, he’s unequivocally the real deal, blending classic and contemporary soul influences to create a sound that’s all his own.

Clearly a keen student of the genre’s revered pioneers, Jalen possesses a rich, nuanced voice that sets him miles apart from the crowd. Yet Ngonda is as fresh and contemporary as anyone gracing today’s scene. Inspiration for his compositions derives from a variety of places. “Everyday life. Anything, really,” he says. “To a stranger, I would say my music is soul/R&B, while trying to fit in the Beach Boys and the Beatles somewhere in between.” Recently having joined the mighty Daptone Records roster new music is imminent!”.

If you have not heard of Jalen Ngonda’s debut album, I would urge everyone to check it out. It is not an understatement to say that he is a revelation! One of those voices that seems to define a generation. Much like Amy Winehouse did with Frank in 2003. It is amazing to see how people are reacting to his music. Rough Trade gives us some more details:

“Artists like Jalen Ngonda come around once in a lifetime, so it is our privilege and distinct pleasure to announce the release of his debut album Come Around and Love Me. Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing Jalen perform live knows that he is one of the most captivating performers on today's soul scene. His voice, equal parts raw feeling and elegance, exudes confidence and charm - disarming packed rooms of rowdy concert goers, leaving them silent as they hold fast to every syllable sung. Now it's your turn to come around and love one of the finest soul albums of the decade.

Plans for the album were struck just months before the COVID 19 pandemic shut the world down. Notwithstanding, Jalen eventually made it to Hive Mind Studios in Brooklyn, NY where he began writing and recording with the help of producer/arrangers Mike Buckley and Vincent Chiarito (both members of Charles Bradley's Extraordinaires) and a crack team of a-list musicians from the Daptone family. The team skillfully blends heavy arrangements and introspective lyrics with motown sophistication, leaving the listener in a blissful wash of wonderment. Jalen has been writing songs since he was 14, and his compositions are also very much of these times.

He explains, “I love music from the 20th century— I listen to it all the time, but Iʼm in this world and the 21st century. ...to a stranger, Iʼd describe my music as modern soul and R&B, while trying to fit in the Beach Boys and the Beatles somewhere in between.” Come Around and Love Me reveals how he creates a classic approach that is rooted in the sounds of revered pioneers, without falling into imitation–leaving no doubt that Jalen will continue to shine within the superlative, timeless musical tradition that is Daptoneʼs hallmark”.

Jalen Ngonda has been on the scene and on the radar for a little while now. Even though Come Around and Love Me came out recently, he has been supplying wonderful music for a fair few years now. In fact, The Mind Map spoke to the rising artist in 2018:

“Originally from Maryland in the US, Jalen N’Gonda moved to Liverpool to study at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. Recalling James Brown and modern days acts such as Leon Bridges, his music fuses the best elements of soul, rock ‘n’ roll and jazz. We chatted to him about moving to Liverpool, Marvin Gaye and taking a deep breath when the good times go bad.

Hello Jalen, what are you working on at the moment?

Hello, I’m currently working on new music with fellow songwriters in London and Liverpool.

What are you listening to, reading and watching at the moment?

I’m listening to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Burt Bacharach, The Beach Boys. Just loads of 60s early 70s stuff. I’m not really reading at the moment, but I should! And I’m watching Mad Men TV series. I love it!

You hail from Maryland in the US, but moved to study in Liverpool. Did it take a while to settle in your new surroundings?

I quickly grew accustomed to living here actually, with a little help of new friends.

What do you like about Liverpool, and what do you miss about home?

I like the parks, nightlife, neighbourhood pubs and the cheap taxis. But I do miss the food from home and the TV shows there.

Do you have any advice for those who are living away from friends and family?

My advice would be to keep in touch with friends and family from home and embrace the new friends and family at the same time.

What would constitute a ‘perfect’ day for you?

Waking up on a warm sunny day with the smell of a full cooked breakfast waiting for me. Then going outside with friends and family to a trip to the pub for a few drinks. Then we go to a record store and discover a copy of a record called Guess I’m Dumb by Glen Campbell in mint condition sold cheap. Then we all go back to mine to dance to the record several times. Soon afterwards we order loads of food together while watching Mad Men.

For what in your life do you feel most grateful?

My friends and family.

Complete this sentence: “Ace mental health for me means…”

Not having to look in the mirror too long.

What do you eat to stay healthy?

Fruit. Tomatoes, the occasional salad.

Do you have a daily routine of exercise or do you make it up as you go along?

I get up and do 20 push ups before jumping in the shower then 20 push ups before going to bed.

Here at The Mind Map we remember playing football and ‘tag’ – running around the playground everyday and loving it – can you share a similar memory?

I did the exact same thing as a child but played American football and basketball.

What three songs lift your spirits?

What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times  – The Beach Boys, Guess I’m Dumb – Glen Campbell”.

I am going to come to interviews from this year. Before coming to an interview from DIY, I want to drop in some excerpts from NPR. Scott Simon spoke with an artist who has been compared (quite rightly) to the Soul legends of the 1970s. I think that you can hear some of the pioneers in the bones and blood of Ngonda – though he very much puts his own stamp on the genre:

“SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Jalen Ngonda's music brings us back to a time when pop tunes were filled with soul. His songs teem with longing and appreciation for that special human being that's at the center of a song.

JALEN NGONDA: (Singing) Please give a sign that I am yours and you are mine. Don't keep me guessin' about others before. Oh, come 'round and love me.

SIMON: The native of Washington, D.C., is out with his debut album. It's called "Come Around And Love Me." Jalen Ngonda now lives in Liverpool. He came back home to join us in the studio. Thank you so much for being with us.

NGONDA: Thank you.

SIMON: How did you develop your sound?

NGONDA: Well, you always develop something when you don't know you're developing it, you know?

SIMON: Yeah.

NGONDA: I didn't wake up and say, I'm going to develop this sound. I just grew up, ages 11 till to this day - I've been living as someone who just loves all types of music, but particularly music from the '60s. And as I'm growing as a person and a musician and writing, you know, I - that sound and everything's going to reflect on my writing.

SIMON: Well, I love the way it sounds. Let me ask you about the song and title track...

NGONDA: Yeah.

SIMON: ..."Come Around And Love Me." All of us come around and love you? What?

NGONDA: No. You know, this song is not aimed at anyone specifically. It's just rhyming schemes, you know? It's like - you know, like, when you write, you just try to find rhymes.

SIMON: The album begins with a song about a singer interested in someone else. And then the song seemed to follow a storyline of two people who - not giving anything away - do become involved. You're trying to put together a kind of - start to finish - an endurance love story...

NGONDA: Not really.

SIMON: ...On this album?

NGONDA: No structure, you know? It's - a lot of those records that you hear now, like, you know, the - from trap to rap to rock to EDM, they're all love songs, too, unless they're just talking about money.

SIMON: That's a kind of love song for some people. But I take your point.

NGONDA: Yeah, which is a love song for a lot of people. But...

SIMON: Yeah.

NGONDA: ...You know, they all write - we all write of the same thing. We write about who we're into, whether they are there and if they're going to call you again. I think it's just paid attention more with soul music 'cause of the sort of image it has, you know, like Otis Redding and Sam Cooke and the Marvin Gayes. They wrote the most beautiful love songs. So when you think of soul, you think of love songs. So I'm really just writing a song. And I think love is a topic because we all - not all of us have money and riches, and not all of us have, say, problems that are significant, but we all have love. And I think that's why it's so easy to write a love song.

SIMON: Yeah. Let's listen to a little of your song "If You Don't Want My Love."

NGONDA: (Singing) Keeps us close and keep us dear, not just today but every year. You were made to be a focus in my mind. But if you don't want my love and if you want somethin' more, said if you never wanted my love, let me know, oh.

SIMON: If you don't want my love, let me know. Boy. Very much classical soul here. Is that what songs can do sometimes, give us the way to say things that are difficult to bring out of ourselves?

NGONDA: I think so, yeah. Depends on the person in the situation. I think when it comes to something, if it's a deep love or a deep feeling, it's hard to bring it out because you treasure and you hold it so much, because if you feel like if you let it out and show someone else that side of you, you could get hurt.

SIMON: I've got to tell you, if my opinion's worth anything, I do hear a suggestion of Sam Cooke - which, by the way, no higher compliment - and Mary Wells.

NGONDA: Sam Cooke and Mary Wells, they both grew up in church...

SIMON: Yeah.

NGONDA: ...In the Black church. So, like, Mary Wells, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield to Marvin Gaye to - there's hundreds of singers to list - Percy Sledge - they all grew up in the church where they were singing in a certain way and a certain style. And so I think you can compare all those soul singers together because it's a - it's just a way of singing. But that's the way of singing that I've listened to the most. I'm going to sound like that, too, probably, just in my own way.

SIMON: What do you think you learned from some of your listening to great artists of the past?

NGONDA: Well, I mean, I've just learned how these songs get crafted. I feel like in terms of in life, like, if I learned anything from my own peace of mind and well-being, I feel like a song can show you the ways of love or whatever, but you learn that stuff in real life. I was not equipped for heartache by listening to heartbreak songs, you know? It was because I got my heart broken by someone in the past. But what I've learned from these songs is it's - we keep saying it's a universal language - and I guess I learned that it's these love songs that make hits”.

Let’s come to the U.K. and some love from DIY. If some feel his soul and spirit is based in 1970s Soul, others feel it goes back a decade further. It is clear that his parents’ music and Soul greats are a big source of inspiration to him:

“The last thing Jalen Ngonda’s father thought he was doing when he bought his 10-year-old son a DVD copy of the landmark TV series Roots was starting him on a path towards a life in music. However, it just so happened that the disc included adverts for other titles in the production company’s catalogue - one of which was a documentary about The Temptations.

“I was glued to the screen,” he recalls. “For the next couple of months, I would put on Roots just for that preview. It changed my world. My dad then bought a CD of theirs and I haven’t been the same since.”

The young video game nerd from Maryland soon became transfixed by the soul, R&B and psychedelic rock of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, voraciously consuming and learning the cultural history of the art form. Performing, beyond the occasional solo in front of a church congregation, was limited to his bedroom, however, and he claims not to have seen any potential in himself as a vocalist.

Anyone listening to ‘Come Around and Love Me’ - Jalen's debut album, released this month - will find this hard to believe. The record is a pristine iteration of the styles with which his teenage self became obsessed; his mellifluous, limitlessly rich vocals soaring above a Funk Brothers-flavoured backing, courtesy of the legendary Daptone Records. If the label had claimed to have unearthed an unreleased 1972 demo, you’d have believed them.

PHOTO CREDIT: Rosie Cohe

“It’s jarring to call it old music,” he notes, however, about his sound. “It’s just the music that I like. People have often wanted to make me sound more contemporary, but I am contemporary. I’m alive and I’m making music that hasn’t existed before.” By the age of 19, Jalen had developed an interest in songwriting, citing Burt Bacharach as a career model that he admired. A chance application to the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts resulted in a surprise offer, and he made the huge decision to accept. “I’d never left the country, I didn’t have a passport,” he says. “Most of life before that was just unfilled promises, so it was like, this isn’t going to happen. Even when I was accepted, I thought there was going to be something to prevent it. No one leaves where I’m from; I was convinced I was just one of those people that would always stay in the area.”He soon settled in Liverpool and, after releasing some of his own songs on SoundCloud, began to play local shows. Within a couple of years, he had multiple label offers, was playing London’s Royal Festival Hall, and supporting bona fide legends Martha Reeves and Lauryn Hill.

Left to his own devices, Jalen's instincts are to push his music into the margins, embracing his love of ‘Sgt. Pepper’-like tremolo and wah pedal effects. But for this debut, he was conscious not to scare listeners away. “I try not to be too stubborn,” he explains. “But if I did go down that route, I’m pretty sure the album would’ve been very psychy. I don’t want to make it too avant-garde, especially for the first thing that people hear. We’ll see what happens in the future”.

I will round off with a review for an album that has blown people away. No doubt among the most essential and mesmerising debuts of this year, NME had this to say about Come Around and Love Me: an album that will honestly move the senses and stay long in the mind and heart:

“Jalen Ngonda’s music is inextricably linked to the soul records of his childhood, but doesn’t want to be chained to them. The Washington DC-raised, UK-based artist takes his cues from traditional and much-loved records from the scene, but says he’s determined to push them into something fresh.

“To a stranger, I would say my music is soul/R&B, while trying to fit in The Beach Boys and The Beatles somewhere in between,” Ngonda has said of his sound, and the prioritisation of melody from the music of both of those reference points is also written all over his debut album, ‘Come Around And Love Me’.

Released via the legendary Daptone label, ‘Come Around And Love Me’ is a wonderfully smooth, dramatic album of modern soul and R&B, all brought together by an exhilarating, hair-raising voice. Sometimes, like at the start of the shuffling ‘That’s All I Wanted From You’, he’s stretching his voice into an almost shout with superb power. Elsewhere, ‘Lost’ sees him swing effortlessly between near-spoken word and soft, melodic singing.

Other highlights come in the form of the irresistibly smooth ‘It Takes A Fool’ and comparably energetic closer ‘Rapture’, all bound together by a voice that’s constantly surprising, fresh and technically superb.

It’s this virtuosic singing and the pure charisma bursting out of every sinew that sets the album, and Ngonda, apart. With the music staying at a largely similar tempo across the album, it’s his voice that provides the power, variety and a focal point. Some of the singer’s reported contemporary influences, such as Angel Olsen, Fleet Foxes and Arctic Monkeys, don’t cut through quite enough into the album’s sound, and furthering the experimentation on future projects is an exciting prospect.

The future for Ngonda is unknown, but if ‘Come Around And Love Me’ shows – with expert precision and huge reverence – where he came from and the music he fell in love with as a child, album two might be the one to push things forward into new territories. As it is, the debut album sets the table for a vibrant new soul singer with the world at his feet”.

A British-based artist with a heavenly voice and a singular talent, expect to hear a lot more about the wonderful Jalen Ngonda! He has been highlighted and tipped by the likes of The Guardian. I would love to see him live soon. Playing the Jazz Café in Camden on 7th November, that is a show that will get a lot of London bouncing and vibing! A spectacular talent that everyone needs to be across, make sure that Jalen Ngonda is…

ON your radar.

__________

Follow Jalen Ngonda

Official:

https://jngonda.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/jalen_ngonda/

TikTok:

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

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/JalenNgonda

Bandcamp:

https://jalenngonda.bandcamp.com/album/come-around-and-love-me

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2kEDso93O2hDgCbnuiSkkZ?si=RpGSghPZR9i5QPX7NZiGOw

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy0K2V1duAqq7K8mDJA5C0g

FEATURE: Washing Machines and a Small Brown Jug: The Domestic and Homely: Kate Bush’s Aerial at Eighteen

FEATURE:

 

 

Washing Machines and a Small Brown Jug

The Domestic and Homely: Kate Bush’s Aerial at Eighteen

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I may have touched on this…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2005

when writing about Kate Bush’s Aerial before. It turns eighteen on 7th November. Her only double album, it arrived twelve years after The Red Shoes. If that album was sort of personal but had flaws in terms of the sound and consistency – it is a great album but there are a couple of filler songs -, then Aerial was a mighty return. More revitalised and refreshed, it is one of Bush’s most celebrated and finest albums. What always strikes name about Aerial is how close to home it is. That thread of domesticity and the home seeps through all the songs. It is like Kate Bush opening her house and garden. If there are few explicitly personal songs, you do get more of her than in other albums. I will highlight a few songs in particular where that is true. It is a masterful work from an artist who announced her eighth studio album when few expected her to. After twelve years with no album, to get this double gem was a real pleasure! Produced by Kate Bush and reaching three in the U.K., Aerial still sounds remarkable and so accomplished. With its first disc, A Sea of Honey, providing tracks like the single, King of the Mountain, plus real highlights such as How to Be Invisible, it is an album that stands up to repeated listens. A Sky of Honey is Bush utilising a concept. Like she did with Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave, Aerial’s (conceptual suite) pertains to something less dramatic and tense. We get the joys and varieties of a full summer’s  day. That may sound boring, though when you immerse yourself in the suite and really let the music take you over, it is very powerful and beautiful!

I want to spotlight a few songs that have a domestic heart. That relate to family and the home. I think that Bertie is the most personal and pure song on Aerial. Bush’s son was a toddler when Aerial came out. It is a paen to him. I think that a lot of Aerial is Bush reflecting on the simplicity, importance and pleasure of being at home. Surrounded by loved ones and the comfort of a garden and nice home. There is a more fantastical domesticity on the album. Bertie is a lot more direct. The Kate Bush Encyclopedia has sourced part of an interview where Bush discussed a song that obviously has great weight and personal significance to her:

“He's such a big part of my life so, you know, he's a very big part of my work. It's such a great thing, being able to spend as much time with him as I can. And, you know, he won't be young for very long. And already he's starting to grow up and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss out on that, that I spent as much time with his as I could.

So, the idea was that he would come first, and then the record would come next, which is also one reasons why it's taken a long time (laughs). It always takes me a long time anyway, but trying to fit that in around the edges that were left over from the time that I wanted to spend with him.

It's a wonderful thing, having such a lovely son. Really, you know with a song like that, you could never be special enough from my point of view, and I wanted to try and give it an arrangement that wasn't terribly obvious, so I went for the sort of early music... (Ken Bruce show, BBC Radio 2, 3 November 2005)”.

Maybe others will see Aerial as a less clear-cut album in terms of themes and an arc. I think this was Kate Bush reacting to past albums that were a little less open. Maybe more experimental and broad in lyrical terms. Whilst there is some of that through Aerial (π and Joanni spring to mind), even the single and lead-off track, King of the Mountain, seems to be as much about Kate Bush and this so-called reclusiveness that the media tag onto her. Less about Elvis Presley and more about her as this mythical figure who has sort of returned from the mountain and was perhaps assumed to be past or disappeared. One song that does have a familial connection is A Coral Room. In fact, there is a lyric about a little brown jug that belonged to her late mother (who died in 1992). A lot of the songs on The Red Shoes were written before Hannah Bush became ill and died. Maybe A Coral Room was an important side closer. A song that would end that first half/disc with something a bit weighty and heavier in a sense. Even so, the imagery and imagination through the song is amazing! Once more, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia collected part of an interview where Kate Bush revealed more about the song:

“There was a little brown jug actually, yeah. The song is really about the passing of time. I like the idea of coming from this big expansive, outside world of sea and cities into, again, this very small space where, er, it's talking about a memory of my mother and this little brown jug. I always remember hearing years ago this thing about a sort of Zen approach to life, where, you would hold something in your hand, knowing that, at some point, it would break, it would no longer be there. (Front Row, BBC4, 4 November 2005)”.

I feel a general mood of contentment and the security of being at home runs right through A Sky of Honey. There is a lot of home and domesticity in various forms. Whether that is admiring family of new and those lost, or simply revelling in a sense of happiness from being at home, Aerial is quite an uplifting and nuanced album. The songs might seem quite straightforward on the surface, though I feel they offer so much richness and detail. My favourite song on the album, like King of the Mountain, seems to be about someone else. I think there is a bit of Kate Bush in there. Mrs. Bartolozzi is a woman doing the housework. Cleaning the floor and the laundry. Looking out of the window at clothes blowing in the breeze from the line. Maybe drifting ingo fantasy as she watches the clothes entwine and dance in the washing machine. A quintessential line of inspiration for Kate Bush, I do picture her as this new mum attending to all the things that need to be done around the house. If A Sky of Honey is about summer and the garden and nature, A Sea of Honey seems more spring-like perhaps? Perhaps the build-up to this glorious summer’s day we experience later. Anyway, again, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia give us some interview insight where Bush talked about one of her most fascinating songs:

“Is it about a washing machine? I think it's a song about Mrs. Bartolozzi. She's this lady in the song who...does a lot of washing (laughs). It's not me, but I wouldn't have written the song if I didn't spend a lot of time doing washing. But, um, it's fictitious. I suppose, as soon as you have a child, the washing suddenly increases. And uh, what I like too is that a lot of people think it's funny. I think that's great, because I think that actually, it's one of the heaviest songs I've ever written! (laughs)

Clothes are...very interesting things, aren't they? Because they say such an enormous amount about the person that wears them. They have a little bit of that person all over them, little bits of skin cells and...what you wear says a lot about who you are, and who you think you are...

So I think clothes, in themselves are very interesting. And then it was the idea of this woman, who's kind of sitting there looking at all the washing going around, and she's got this new washing machine, and the idea of these clothes, sort of tumbling around in the water, and then the water becomes the sea and the clothes...and the sea...and the washing machine and the kitchen... I just thought it was an interesting idea to play with.

What I wanted to get was the sense of this journey, where you're sitting in front of this washing machine, and then almost as if in a daydream, you're suddenly standing in the sea. (Ken Bruce show, BBC Radio 2, 1 November 2005)

Well, I do do a lot of washing [chuckles]. I'm sure I would never have written the song if I didn't... You know, just this woman, in her house, with her washing. And then the idea of taking the water in the washing machine with all the clothes, and the water then becoming the sea... and I also think there's something very interesting about clothes. They're kind of people without the people in them, if you know what I mean? [Kate laughs] They all have our scent, and pieces of us on them, somehow. (Front Row, BBC4, 4 November 2005)”.

It is only natural that family should inspire a lot of what goes into Aerial. Life has changed substantially for Kate Bush since 1993. King of the Mountain was written around 1998, so she had ideas and intentions long before the album was released. Whereas some songs that are not about family or home, there are quite a few where I can see family, memories and daily duties infused into the lyrics. It is one of the most warming and memorable aspects of Aerial. Throw in some superb and stunning compositions. The always-fantastic production from Kate Bush, together with that extraordinary voice of hers. Sounding wonderful and full of emotions. On 7th November, it will be eighteen years since Bush released Aerial. The final album to be solely released through EMI – she set up her label, Fish People, and released her albums through that after -, I can imagine the combination of excitement, intrigue and a sense of tension from the label. Wondering when this much-needed album was going to arrive! What we did get was worth the wait. We are almost in the same situation as were in back in 2005. Another twelve-year wait between albums. No worries. We have heard from Kate Bush a lot over the past year or two, so we can be thankful of that! One of her most adored albums, I would say that new fans and old alike should listen. Maybe you will get the elements from the songs though, to me, family and her heart being at home is a dominant aspect. It is one which makes the album not only personal to her but relatable to the listeners. How things have changed once more since 2005! Older, wiser and in a slightly different frame of mind, I hope that Bush thinks about Aerial on 7th November and smiles. She gifted the world…

SOMETHING very special indeed.

FEATURE: Imposer Syndrome: The Challenges and Doubts Around Monetising My Music Writing

FEATURE:

 

 

Imposer Syndrome

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay/Pexels

The Challenges and Doubts Around Monetising My Music Writing

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I suppose anyone who provides a service…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

should be compensated for their work. That is obviously true of anyone in the music industry. Though I do not consider I am ‘in the industry’, I am adjacent to it – in the sense that I am a journalist and write about music and artists. We all know that most artists are underpaid. Having to gig endlessly to make any sort of money, there is hardly any money to be made through streaming. So many have to rely on merchandise sales and physical sales. In addition to many artists struggling to make ends meet or running at a loss – especially when they go on tour -, they also have to face mental health challenges and the sort of stress that comes with a career in music. It is really tough. For journalists, the situation is a little different. I follow and regularly read a lot of music blogs and websites. I am forever indebted to so many that I get a lot of information and news from. Whether using a feature from a website to put into one I am writing or sharing posts that I want to show my followers on social media, they are a really vital source of inspiration and information. They all have to incur costs. Not the same as artists, there is still the cost of going to gigs and employing people. Even smaller websites and blogs have operating costs. One thing that I have been wrestling with for a long time is whether it is possible to monetise what I do – and, indeed, whether it is the right thing to do.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay/Pexels

I have been a music journalist for around about twelve years now. Although I have not spoken to any massive artists or had that sort of exposure and opportunity yet, I have been writing consistently and hard through that time. I have featured a great many artists on my site. In terms of workload, I am going seven days a week. Thousands of posts have been shared. I never get paid for anything I do. In total, the ‘loss’ incurred running the website has been in four figures. This is a reality that many face. I am lucky that I have a full-time job though, as so much of my free time is spent doing something I actually enjoy doing, there is that balance between work and ‘passion’. Again, something that afflicts so many of us. I never get too angry about websites where there is a paywall. It can be frustrating at times, as if you only want to read an article and they do not give you one free one, that does seem excess. Also, if you subscribe to a few music websites already, it can be steep having to subscribe to others. I have a subscription with The New York Times and The Guardian. I regularly use free sites like NME and The Line of Best Fit. Most of the more independent music websites are free. I also regularly read Pitchfork. A big website that could monetise what they do but choose not to. On the other hand, there are plenty of sites – such as Rolling Stone and The New Yorker – where you need to pay to read.

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

I can understand why people would balk at paying for content. As I said, if you want to read a feature and see if this is the sort of writing you want to invest in and read long-term, that option is not often provided. Every site has costs that they need to cover. For the huge sites, unfortunately they have to rely on a lot of advertising. This could mean people get a lot of spam mail or navigate a website and are bombarded with adverts and distractions. It is the cost of operating a website now. Those in music are always told it is a gamble. That you cannot make a living out of it. Whilst there is not that regular paycheck and safety you might get from most jobs, most in the industry can do what they love and just about make a living of some sort. Even so, with many artists having to take second jobs or it not being sustainable to stay in the industry, one feels if they cannot make it and there is not enough money in it, what is the future of music journalism? I guess, if you can make your work free and not make too much of a loss, then that is kind of okay. I have been doing it since I started in 2011. It is not ideal by any means. I never really get to many gigs, as the cost of going is quite a bit. I also have no budget for something more ambitious like a filmed series of regular podcast. Throw into the mix the lack of time to really deciare to something like that and it is a bit of a head-scratcher. The thing is, as I put in so many hours a week and a lot of content is shared (and, in my view, quite good for the most part), there is that tussle in my head and heart. Do you find a way to monetise what you do, or do you give people open and free access to my journalism?!

 PHOTO CREDIT: Keira Burton/Pexels

If I was commanded big numbers in terms of people who interacted and read what I do, I could get some numbers together and figure out some sort of scheme. Some of my posts do get a good reaction and a lot of views. That is usually when I write about an artist with a lot of followers or someone within music who shares my post on Twitter and that then leads to a lot of people opening and reading that piece. That is quite rare! Most of what I write gets some engagement and maybe the odd link click or two. Some stuff gets nothing at all! That can be disheartening. I suppose you cannot force people to open your stuff, yet when you put in the effort, do the research and share a good feature, it is frustrating when nobody looks at it! That makes the whole debate around charging complex. If very few people relatively speaking are interacting as much as I would like, how profitable and valuable is it asking people to pay? I could set up something on Patreon, although that could be risky. If nobody signs up or there are only a few, it does seem like a wasted venture. If people have been getting content for free until now, why then pay?! I would have to offer videos, regular updates; things that are extra to what I usually do. Exclusive content for subscribers. As my music journalism does not use video interviews, podcasts or anything that interactive, it would be a case of adapting and expanding what I do. I know you have to spend money to make money through, as I would need to invest quite a bit of my own money and find a regular quiet space where I can film and record content, would I be running at a loss?!

 PHOTO CREDIT: Eli Sommer/Pexels

I have over three thousand followers on Twitter. If most do not engage with my journalism most of the time, the chances of getting a big following or any notable revenue from charging would be very low. I don’t buy that every penny makes a difference and that it all counts. At a time when the cost of living is sky-high and journalists like me want to make an actual living on what we do, the time spent and personal cost incurred to make a little bit of money – or even not break-even! – does not seem worth it. I do feel that people should be able to use Patreon or Substack, so that they can give content to people for a small fee. Many of us in music who dream of working for a big publication or website and being able to make a living from that have their hopes dashed pretty early on! This whole feature came about when I considered how much I actually do. I do like that I can give people stuff for free and there is not that responsibility of having to subscribe and be tied down. Even so, as I share over a dozen features/articles a week and there is consistent and varied content, there is that niggle. That battle between wanting to earn something from journalism but, realistically, it amounting to probably about a tenner or so a month. In an ideal world I would charge my 3,000 or so followers a quid a month and I would have enough money to make a living and really expand what I do. That sounds like a dream. It is unfeasible and unrealistic! It is a shame really - though I do appreciate that times are tough for everyone. I also do not actually know how many of my followers have active accounts, regularly are online, or even keep abreast of what I do. There are so many things to consider when you make a pitch to set up on Patreon and ask whether it is ‘doable’.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Godisable Jacob/Pexels

It is a lot to weigh up. If, in theory, there was a £2 charge every six months for my followers/subscribers, that would be more than affordable. How much realistically would that earn me?! Would it be worth it?! There is no magic number or way of knowing who would want to pay for my journalism and whether it would be incentive enough to be more ambitious. Many websites struggle to stay afloat because they cannot get revenue and subscribers, or they are spending a lot making sure the content is consistently, varied and engaging. I know many artists face these same problems. At the same time as all of this, if I did in the future think about asking for subscribers, that might elevate me. Make me think I am worthy of doing that. I am in position where I feel like an imposer. You get Imposter Syndrome: people who make it feel like they are frauds and not who people think they are. I guess, if you had Imposer Syndrome, that would be getting in the way of ‘real’ and popular journalists. I do have that feeling a lot! I know I shouldn’t though, if you stack up what I do against a bigger name and how good their features are and how they write, it seems like a different world! If they can operate for free – or not have to rely on paywalls – then surely I cannot complain?! I am most likely going to keep everything free going forward, as I do feel that access and availability will help me get more followers and traction – so, years from now, I may have enough cause and readership to make charging worthwhile. I was compelled to write to discuss and unpack a difficult position so many of us in the music industry – again, if you can say I am ‘in the industry’! -face on a daily basis. That guarantee and stability of regular payments from people who want to read your work and can afford to support you. This is an ambition that so many of us hold. Although there is a bit of guilt associated with charging people for reading my stuff, it would mean I have the means to at least do a bit more than I do now without losing too much of my own money. It would be a dream and honour to…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Min An/Pexels

GET that promise in writing.

FEATURE: Long Play, Long Stay… Is It Purely Nostalgia Driving the Chart-Topping Stamina of Classic Albums?

FEATURE:

 

 

Long Play, Long Stay…

IN THIS PHOTO: Adele in 2011/PHOTO CREDIT: Solve Sundsbo for British Vogue

Is It Purely Nostalgia Driving the Chart-Topping Stamina of Classic Albums?

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I have written a fair few features…

around vinyl sales and how the market continues to boom. The growing success of vinyl means that not only are new albums being bought. Classic albums are being snapped up. Classics that seemingly have been in the album charts forever include Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. That 1977 album always pops up when we see the vinyl charts and the best-selling examples! Even if classic albums are featuring high in the all-time best-selling vinyl albums, new albums are definitely in the mix. Before moving to a recent article which reveals the staying power of classic albums which remain on the Billboard 200 after so many years, I want to turn to this recent feature. It reveals the biggest albums on vinyl from this year:

“Lana Del Rey’s Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd is the best-selling vinyl album of 2023 so far, Official Charts can confirm today.

The self-analytical ninth studio LP from the alt-pop icon, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. became Lana’s sixth UK Number 1 album earlier this year. To date, it’s sold 34,000 copies on vinyl. Upon its debut, Did you know… provided Lana with her strongest opening week in nearly a decade, since Ultraviolence in 2014. 

A brand-new showing in second place is Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), which extended Taylor’s record-setting run of 10 consecutive UK Number 1 albums. Still the only female artist to achieve this feat this century, Taylor is the female artist with the second-most Number 1 albums in UK chart history. Only Madonna, with 12 in total, has more. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) has now sold over 29,000 vinyl copies to date. 

IN THIS PHOTO: Kylie Minogue/PHOTO CREDIT: Erik Melvin

Blur’s The Ballad of Darren earns the title of the third-biggest vinyl album of 2023 so far, while the Top 5 is completed by Lewis Capaldi’s Broken by Desire to be Heavenly Sent (4), which still boasts the biggest opening week of any album this year, and Kylie Minogue’s Tension (5) proving one to keep an eye on as it enters the vinyl best sellers list after just one week on sale.  

Also ranking in the Top 10 are Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ Council Skies (7) and the Gorillaz’s second Number 1 LP Cracker Island (9).  

Elsewhere, other 2023 Number 1 albums to make the list include Foo Fighters’ But Here We Are (11), Boygenius’s the record (12), Olivia Rodrigo’s recent chart-topper GUTS (13), Ed Sheeran’s – (21), Niall Horan’s The Show (22), Paramore’s This is Why (25) and Metallica’s 72 Seasons (28). 

Thanks to celebratory re-releases, several hit albums from yesteryear have returned to relevance, including Courteeners’ St Jude (16) which hit Number 1 for the first time ever last year, De La Soul’s 1989 debut 3 Feet High And Rising (18), David Bowie’s revelatory 1972 record The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust celebrating its 50th anniversary (30) and The 1975’s self-titled debut (35) one of the most quietly-influential albums in modern pop”.

New research from Luminate highlights which classic albums have been on the Billboard 200 for a long time. How people are hearing and consuming these albums. The report suggests that nostalgia is a big reason when it comes to driving these sales and longevity. I will end by asking if that is the only contributing factor as to why certain albums remain desired and successful:

“If you’ve studied the Billboard 200 albums chart week-to-week you may have noticed that there are some titles that never seem to drop off the list. Classic albums like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Nirvana’s Nevermind or Drake’s Nothing Was The Same consistently rank on the Billboard 200, but what albums have spent the most weeks on the chart and what insights can we learn from these perennial favorites?

In the past year, the number of albums that have been on the Billboard 200 for over eight years in total nonconsecutive weeks jumped from 4 to 15. In Week 39 of 2021 (week ending 9/30/21), albums that had been on the chart for more than 4 years occupied 22% of the 200 slots. This number increased to 27% in week 39 of 2022, and this year is now at 33% for week 39.

IMAGE CREDIT: Luminate Insights

Adele’s 21 takes the top spot in longevity: it has been on the Billboard 200 for 583 weeks, 88% of the time since the album was released in January 2011. In the past year, the album ranked consistently in the #150 to #200 range, earning roughly 8.1k units per week in activity. Otherwise, the range of long-staying albums is vast: everything from Kendrick Lamar (Good Kid M.A.A.D City; 568 weeks) to Bob Marley, Journey, Eminem, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Lana Del Rey. Eighteen of the albums on the Billboard 200 this week were “greatest hits” compilations, which collectively averaged 263 weeks on the chart, or just over five years.

Each week, new albums have to compete with these long-tenured players in order to make it in the Billboard 200. But what type of consumption is most important in making it onto the chart?

The longest-charting albums have consistently high consumption from streaming. The top 10 longest-running albums on the Billboard 200 each earned over 78% of their units from streaming last week, and in particular Drake’s Take Care (on the chart now for just under 9 years) had a much higher streaming ratio, at 98%. Album sales are important –on average, these albums sold 1.5k units last week– but streaming is critical. If an album is going to stay in the top 200, then it needs to be streamed week over week to do so.

Using Luminate Insights consumer research data, we can see that nostalgia plays a part in older generations’ music streaming habits. US Baby Boomers that stream music are the generation most likely to report agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement, “I listen to music from my past to remind me of that period in my life,” compared to other music streamers (index 109). But, while nostalgia doesn’t play as big a role in younger streamers’ listening habits, Gen Z is the most likely to report listening to songs on repeat, indicating that once a song becomes a favorite it stands a good chance to be listened to over and over again.

In the streaming age, activity week-to-week can keep an older album buoyant on the Billboard 200. Before streaming, there was no way to know how often someone listened to an album that they bought. Now, the Billboard 200 illustrates not only how popular an album is at the time of its release, but how much it continues to be streamed week over week. We can see which albums are lasting with consumers as new albums try to compete with them for a spot on the chart”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Oz Art/Pexels

I think that it is the case that many people are buying or streaming certain albums because they are classics. They take people back to the past. We might see this even more. As the news grows even more grim and dystopian, many people will immerse themselves in classic albums. Not a particularly new trend, many older albums have been reissued on vinyl and provide opportunities to bring them to the turntable. Even works from artists such as Taylor Swift are getting new versions - compelling fans to keep the ‘original’ album on the chart. When it comes to classic albums doing well, it may be the case that there were previously unavailable. Nostalgia would be one explanation behind this new report. Long play albums enduring and staying on the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S. for so long. I think that new listeners will also be getting these albums. Maybe not around when these albums were originally released, perhaps the sheer quality of the material is a huge reason why classic albums are kept alive. There is a coolness to owning certain older albums. Any time a big anniversary happens, that drives a new wave of sales. Also, as many radio stations play famous cuts from beloved albums of the past, that will also get people streaming and buying them. I think the vinyl market is one that is more accessible to bigger artists. It can be expensive releasing our album on vinyl and making sure it gets heard. For that reason, there is always going to be a skew towards huge artists. A lot of the legendary albums are coming down in price, so that makes it more affordable to people.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Taylor Swift in 2014 (the year her fifth studio album, 1989, was released (1989 (Taylor's Version) is out on 27th October)/PHOTO CREDIT: Mario Testino for British Vogue

Of course, one cannot rule out nostalgia as the main reason why the same old albums are hanging around the Billboard 200 chart. I find it funny that there is still this big demand for them. I know that albums such Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours are phenomenal and offer something for all generations. There is that security of hearing music from the past that evokes fond memories and rushes of protection and happiness. Perhaps there is something else at play. Some buying classic albums as art. The iconic covers! Owning a classic album is also pretty fashionable. People might expect you to own that album. People streaming iconic and decades-long albums might be younger listeners who have not heard them before. They might have heard them discussed - though they may not be familiar with the songs. Why do certain classic albums endure and stay in the mindset whereas others may well not?! I am not sure whether it is a simple case of word of mouth and songs being featured on the radio. There is a depth and originality of some of these albums that you do not get today. Whether it is coming-of-age sounds of Adele’s soulful and powerful 21 and Taylor Swift’s 1989; the cinema and beauty of Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die. In a few cases, the albums are creative peaks for those artists.

People owning the album because of the importance and excellence of them. Of course, when we think of artists like Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey, they are still making music today. It is only natural that fans would investigate their previous albums. It is an interesting thing. That Luminate report that shows people are still buying and streaming albums such as Nirvana’s Nevermind from 1991. Aside from the nostalgia for those who bought it the first time, there is also an implied or artificial nostalgia from younger listeners. Those who may not remember or been around in the ‘90s getting this second-hand hit. More discussion and investigation should take place as that idea of nostalgia driving music tastes is interesting. In any case, it is clear that a select iconic albums are being kept very much relevant and alive! I guess Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours will always be on the chart. Will artists like Nirvana and Adele fall out in years to come?! Are we going to see new albums more at the fore?! Fewer legacy and legendary albums making the headlines?! I am not too sure. All I know that it is encouraging and fascinating to see some well-known long players enjoying…

SUCH commercial longevity.

FEATURE: For #BlackHistoryMonth 2023… The Most Important and Influential Black Artists Ever

FEATURE:

 

 

For #BlackHistoryMonth 2023…

IN THIS PHOTO: Ms. Lauryn Hill/PHOTO CREDIT: Marc Baptiste

The Most Important and Influential Black Artists Ever

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IN my final feature…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Marvin Gaye

for #BlackHistoryMonth, I am going to come to a playlist with songs from the most influential, important and iconic Black artists ever. Even though Black History Month is marked in February in the U.S., it happens in October in the U.K. and Ireland. I wanted to celebrate and spotlight some legendary kings and queens who have helped change the face of music and influence so many other artists. From Jazz, Soul, Pop, Hip-Hop and beyond, there are so many historically important Black artists who have left a huge and distinct footprint on the music landscape. I was eager to compile a playlist that shows that. From the greats of the past to some modern-day heroes and heroines, below is a selection of simply…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Nina Simone

AWEOME music.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Tracks from Pitchfork’s ‘The Best Music of 2023 So Far’

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS IMAGE: The album cover of Victoria Monét’s JAGUAR II

Tracks from Pitchfork’s ‘The Best Music of 2023 So Far’

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WE will get more of these lists…

when we get to December. Those that celebrate the best albums of the year. I am interested in Pitchfork’s ongoing and rolling list of the best music/albums of 2023. They are notoriously hard to please, so it is interesting looking at their suggestions! I have already declared my favourite albums of the year in a feature or two. I will revise and update that in December. For now, I wanted to compile a playlist featuring songs from the albums (they have picked a few E.P.s too) that Pitchfork feel are the strongest and most interesting of this year. There is one album, SZA’s SOS, that I have not included, as it was released last December. I am also not including any albums not available on Spotify (just the one) - though the vast majority of albums are represented. Below are some wonderful cuts from the best albums of a very strong year for music! Maybe you will own quite a few of them; others you may not be aware of. Every site and source has their own views when it comes to the best of the best. At the end of this feature is Pitchfork’s…

BEST of 2023 picks.

FEATURE: Joni Mitchell at Eighty: The Historic and Modern Relevance of Big Yellow Taxi

FEATURE:

 

 

Joni Mitchell at Eighty

The Historic and Modern Relevance of Big Yellow Taxi

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ARRIVING a year before…

 IMAGE CREDIT: ToddAlcottGraphics

her best-reviewed and seminal album, Blue, Joni Mitchell released Ladies of the Canyon. That album arrived in April 1970. At the start of a new decade, there was a lot of desire for social and political change. I think many of us associate the best protest and political songs as belonging to the 1960s. Perhaps that is true. However, one that ranks alongside the most important and remains extremely relevant to this day, Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi is the tenth track of Ladies of the Canyon. Many albums open with an incredible trio of songs. In the case of Ladies of the Canyon, it ends with three extraordinary songs: Big Yellow Taxi, Woodstock and The Circle Game. The title of the album refers to Laurel Canyon - an epicentre and thriving hub of popular music culture in Los Angeles during the 1960s. This is where Mitchell lived while she was writing the album. In fact, Mitchell lived and wrote at 8217 Lookout Mountain Avenue. This is the house which is the subject of Graham Nash's Our House. There are a couple of reasons why I want to spotlight Big Yellow Taxi. I will come to its environmental messages and why they seem more urgent and impactful today. I also want to explore one of Joni Mitchell’s greatest and most profound songs. In spite of its serious messages, it is one of her most jaunty songs. Also, as Mitchell turns eighty on 7th November, I am writing a run of features to mark that occasion.

Written and produced by Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi was released as a single in July 1970. I want to reference some sources that explains the meaning behind the song. Some facts about a classic. How it has impacted and influenced culture and artists. I am going to start with Wikipedia and their section about the composition and recording of Big Yellow Taxi:

“In 1996, speaking to journalist Robert Hilburn, Mitchell said this about writing the song:

I wrote 'Big Yellow Taxi' on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart […] this blight on paradise. That's when I sat down and wrote the song.

IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell at home in Laurel Canyon, 1970/PHOTO CREDIT: Henry Diltz/Corbis

The song is known for its environmental concern – "They paved paradise to put up a parking lot" and "Hey farmer, farmer, put away that DDT now" – and sentimental sound. The line "They took all the trees, and put 'em in a tree museum / And charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em" refers to Foster Botanical Garden in downtown Honolulu, which is a living museum of tropical plants, some rare and endangered.

In the song's final verse, the political gives way to the personal. Mitchell recounts the departure of her "old man" in the eponymous "big yellow taxi", which may refer to the old Metro Toronto Police patrol cars, which until 1986 were painted yellow. In many covers the departed one may be interpreted as variously a boyfriend, a husband or a father. The literal interpretation is that he is walking out on the singer by taking a taxi; otherwise it is assumed he is being taken away by the authorities.

Mitchell's original recording was first released as a single and then, as stated above, included on her 1970 album Ladies of the Canyon. A later live version was released in 1974 (1975 in France and Spain) on Miles of Aisles and reached No. 24 on the U.S. charts. Billboard regarded the live version as "more full of life" than any of the singles Mitchell released in a long time. Cash Box called the live version "a great rendition of this excellent lyrical song”.

Apologies if I repeat myself here. I saw a new article from American Songwriter. They looked inside a track that sent out warnings and messages – protecting ecology and the environment and respecting nature – that have almost been ignored for over fifty years. I wonder how Joni Mitchell feels about the song and how she wanted Big Yellow Taxi to impact and resonate:

“Meaning of the Song

They paved paradise to put up a parking lot. Through this line, Mitchell highlights the casual destruction of natural beauty in the face of urban development. Mitchell emphasizes how often we overlook the importance of things, especially nature, until they’re irrevocably lost: Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

How exactly did Mitchell come to these profound conclusions? A trip to Hawaii offered Mitchell the stark contrast between pristine natural beauty and creeping urban sprawl. The view from her Waikiki hotel room—green mountains beyond, parking lot below—sparked the song’s essence. Melding personal anecdotes with broader societal observations, Mitchell’s poetic approach to songwriting shines through in “Big Yellow Taxi.”

They paved paradise, put up a parking lot

With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin’ hot spot

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone

They paved paradise, put up a parking lot

(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)

They took all the trees, put ’em in a tree museum

And they charged the people a dollar an’ a half just to see ’em

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone

They paved paradise, put up a parking lot

(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)

Writer of the Song

Mitchell, one of the most influential songwriters of her generation, possessed a knack for weaving intricate narratives from her personal experiences, observations, and deep-seated beliefs. Since her emergence in the late 1960s, she has achieved numerous chart successes and etched her mark as a distinctive voice of her era.

“Big Yellow Taxi” typified Mitchell’s propensity to combine catchy melodies with profound messages—this time addressing the threat of unchecked urbanization on nature’s beauty. Driven by her introspective songwriting approach, Mitchell often channeled her environmental concerns, painting vivid pictures of a world where nature’s essence was often realized only when it was absent or under threat.

Facts About the Song

Mitchell penned the initial lines of the song during her cab ride from a hotel.

The original recording of “Big Yellow Taxi” ends with Mitchell’s distinct laugh. It wasn’t joy, but a response to a studio mistake, left in the track to add a touch of spontaneity.

Mitchell’s environmental concerns weren’t limited to “Big Yellow Taxi.” Her song “Shine” from 2007 also touches on similar themes.

Impact of the Song

“Big Yellow Taxi” resonated with many in the ’70s, an era marked by rising environmental activism, making it both timely and timeless. Covered by artists from Bob Dylan to Counting Crows, Mitchell’s version charted globally, solidifying it as one of her most iconic tracks”.

I will end by bringing things up to date and how Big Yellow Taxi should be heeded today. Also, as it has been covered a few times, I will pop one or two versions in this feature. Even though it addresses environmental and climate considerations in addition to nature and preservation in general, I like the fact that something a bit more modest and unusual influenced Big Yellow Taxi’s title. This article discusses an interview where Joni Mitchell discussed getting the idea for Big Yellow Taxi and how she got it down:

“In a 1996 interview with Robert Hilburn, Joni Mitchell said, “I wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song.”

In addition to singing about how “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” Mitchell also addresses the use of the insecticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT, in her lyrics.  Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring focused on the impacts of the compound on eggs and the resulting die off of birds as well as its carcinogenic behavior in humans.  The book contributed to the burgeoning environmental movement in the United States.  DDT was banned nationally in 1972 and internationally in 2004, though its use continues in some areas”.

As the Financial Times wrote in 2019, Big Yellow Taxi has been covered a huge amount of times. I think we are in an era where songs are coming through that discuss the environment and call for awareness and activation regarding climate change. That said, there is less attention and visibility as in 1970. A year when artists were keen to put in the spotlight the dangers afflicting the environment and natural world:

“There was something in the air in 1970 — and songwriters did not like it. The year produced a stream of environmental protest songs, all of which have proved sustainable. “Apeman” by The Kinks, Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” and Cat Stevens’ “Where Do the Children Play?” all captured the mood of ecological concern.

The most renewable of all, however, has been Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”, which has become the indisputable environmental anthem. According to Mitchell’s own website, at least 456 artists have recorded the song, and since 1990 someone has recorded it virtually every year. She herself has recorded it three times, the second, live version in 1974 proving a bigger hit than the original.

There were specific reasons for environmental angst at the time. A massive oil spill off Santa Barbara, California, in 1969, then the worst in American history, caused widespread shock and outrage. The oil platform explosion, which released some 3m gallons of crude in a 35-mile slick along the Pacific coast, proved formative in the birth of the modern environmental movement. 

The year also included the sight of the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River in Ohio catching fire, with the flames soaring five storeys high as oil and chemical waste slicks were ignited by sparks from a passing train. This prompted the US Congress to pass the The National Environmental Policy Act in 1970”.

As Joni Mitchell is eighty on 7th November, I wanted to spotlight one of her finest songs. I definitely think that Big Yellow Taxi is a song that should act as a warning for modern artists. We need that same wave of movement regarding putting the climate and environment at the front. There are a few songs at the moment that tackle the issue, though not as many as there should be. One of the pearls in the phenomenal Ladies of the Canyon, Big Yellow Taxi has been tackled by everyone from Amy Grant to Bob Dylan. It is a remarkably affecting and potent song! Made all the more affecting by the rather upbeat and almost teenager-like delivery. A sense of the innocent, relaxed and cheery when highlighting the environment. I think that, if Joni Mitchell attempted to write a similar song today, she would produce something as seismic. We are in a position, fifty-three years after Big Yellow Taxi was released, where the climate crisis is now an emergency. One that everyone in music needs to be speak about! For that reason alone, I wanted to spend time getting to the bottom of and exploring…

THE seismic Big Yellow Taxi.

FEATURE: Unafraid of Heights: Queens on Top: Focusing on Three Very Special New Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

Unafraid of Heights

IN THIS PHOTO: Irish sensation CMAT (Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson)/PHOTO CREDIT: Ellius Grace for The New York Times 

Queens on Top: Focusing on Three Very Special New Releases

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I was going to review…

 IN THIS PHOTO: boygenius (Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus)/PHOTO CREDIT: Shervin Lainez via them

separately the new E.P. from boygenius, the rest, the album by Mitski, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, and the fantastic CMAT’s Crazymad, For Me. As my reviews are usually quite expansive, instead, I am going to highlight these three incredible works. They are amazing releases by phenomenal women in music. Proof, again, that the very best and most impactful music of the moment is from women. That is not to discount music from anyone else! I just feel, when we think about the best-reviewed and stunning albums, they are made by women. I am especially interested in new work from Mitski, CMAT, and boygenius, but they are just the latest examples of the sheer brilliance that is around at the moment. Artists that are legends in their own right, yet you feel like they are going to get huge opportunities in 2024. I want to bring in some promotion around these three works, in addition reviews for each. I will start with Mitski’s The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We. A track from that album, My Love Mine All Mine, is a global chart smash. Her recent live performance at Union Chapel won high praise from the likes of The Telegraph, and The Guardian. A modern great whose seventh studio album is yet another work of genius. The Japanese-American artist is one of the most consistent and extraordinary of the modern age. You can get The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We here.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Mitski/PHOTO CREDIT: Ebru Yildiz

Prior to getting to a review for The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We – in lieu of any promotional interviews -, there is an article from The Ringer that says how Mitski is fighting for her privacy. In the sense that she would prefer that fans refrained from recording entire sets or song. Gigs like the recent one at London’s Union Chapel, in a more intimate setting, is a way of getting a little more connection and attention. A major modern artist who wants fans to connect with her and be present in the moment:

“But as that audience grew bigger, her attempts to corral them seemed less successful. In 2022, she tweeted a lengthy thread requesting that fans not record video at length during her shows. “Sometimes when I see people filming entire songs or whole sets, it makes me feel as though we are not here together,” she wrote. “When I’m on stage and look to you but you are gazing into a screen, it makes me feel as though those of us on stage are being taken from and consumed as content.”

What had obviously seemed to Mitski and her team like a relatively reasonable request soon transformed into an online furor. People replied to her tweet arguing that dissociation, ADHD, and depression meant they couldn’t be present at her shows, and needed to take videos to process the experience later. Eventually, the tweets disappeared.

In part because of her music’s sudden popularity on TikTok, as Mitski’s fame has grown, so has the generational gap between herself and her audience. Songs like “Nobody,” “Washing Machine Heart,” and erstwhile deep cut “Strawberry Blond” off her second album have soundtracked thousands of TikToks, boiling down angst, loneliness, and unrequited love into a few quick seconds. When I saw her play in Milwaukee during her Laurel Hell tour in March 2022, I felt like a comparative crone at 26, surrounded by Zoomers in bedazzled cowboy hats.

Mitski is a millennial and earlier in her career used the internet like one, tweeting quips and blogging on Tumblr. But her fans’ engagement with the boundaries between the digital and the physical suggest a demographic shift; if you first heard a song when you used it in your own TikTok, maybe you felt a kind of ownership over not just the music but the position of performing it. In 2020, Jason Parham wrote in Wired about TikTok’s “digital blackface,” the phenomenon where white users lip-synch to Black voices. This is just one particularly egregious example of the platform’s encouragement of blurring the boundaries between self and other; a different kind of appropriation happens when a fan makes a video lip-synching to Mitski’s “Nobody.” You can imagine how, having embodied Mitski by pretending her words are coming out of your mouth, a person might feel less like they love her and more like they are her. This phenomenon isn’t limited to Mitski, of course; it happens to any artist whose music blows up on the app. But not every artist is as committed to creating distance between themselves and their audience as she is.

In an interview after the Twitter furor over her request for less filming at concerts, Mitski remarked, “It does feel sad to be told directly by people I’m hoping to share my heart with, that to them I’m a product they have bought for the night, and they will do what they want with me while they have me. It is sad to go onstage and now be conscious of the fact that, to some of the people in front of me, I am a dancing monkey, and I better start dancing quick so they can get the content they’re paying for.”

Her recognition of the link between the work of music and the access to her people expect is no surprise, given how often references to the labor of trying to make it in the industry show up in her music. Mitski sings about living with her parents while she tries to break through in “Class of 2013”; her second album is called Retired From Sad, New Career in Business. One track in particular off The Land Is Inhospitable offers some insight into her difficult relationship with the job of music. On “I Don’t Like My Mind,” she sings about working herself to the bone in order to avoid being left alone with herself. In the wailing chorus, she pleads, “Please don’t take / Take this job from me.”

It’s true that without an audience Mitski wouldn’t have this job. But perhaps she also means to communicate that her audience, who needs too much, who tries to cross the boundaries she’s so carefully erected onstage and on her records, is also taking her dream job from her.

Mitski is promoting The Land Is Inhospitable with a series of concerts she’s calling Amateur Mistakes. These small, acoustic performances are mostly in Europe; the only North American dates are in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Toronto. Surely not every fan who wants one will get a ticket. But maybe these shows are Mitski’s way of getting the job she wants: a little crowd, an acoustic guitar, and a night where she might cut the bathroom line unrecognized”.

There are so many five-star reviews for The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We. The Guardian were full of praise and admiration for Mitski and her seventh studio album. One of the best albums of the year, she is someone who will be ranked alongside the all-time greats. I think that everyone needs to check out the fabulous The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We:

“Mitski Miyawaki has a complicated relationship with fame. She withholds intimate details in interviews – one journalist was requested not to reveal the name of her cat – and retreated from social media in 2019. The same year, she announced her retirement onstage. She subsequently reconsidered, although a persistent online rumour suggested the ensuing album, her sixth, was another farewell. Pop-facing, trailed by Working for the Knife, a single that seemed to be about not really wanting to return to music, and packaged in a sleeve that depicted her trapped by lines meant to represent her own songs, Laurel Hell was held to be a contractual obligation that, once fulfilled, spelled the end.

We are hardly talking about Taylor Swift levels of stardom here: in 11 years, Mitski has released just one big-selling album – 2018’s Be the Cowboy – and has never had a traditional hit single. But hers is a resolutely 21st-century kind of success, involving TikTok virality – by 2022, her music had soundtracked more than 2.5m videos on the platform – memes and hashtags, tracks that go gold and platinum without grazing the charts, indicative of being streamed obsessively over a long period. That a lot of the memes and hashtags suggest her music is a replacement for therapy perhaps says something about the intensity of her fanbase. You could see why she might consider beating a permanent retreat.

But here she is, back with her record label and another album, albeit one that carries an aura of reset about it. The first thing you hear on The Land Is Inhospitable is tape hiss, followed by nylon-stringed acoustic guitar, redolent of the instruments on which people usually learn to play: the sounds of someone tentatively trying out recording in their bedroom. The whole album feels noticeably different from anything she has released before. Its sound sometimes leans towards shoegazing – as on Buffalo Replaced, which pulls off the trick of seeming simultaneously forceful and lethargic – but its main currency is country, or rather the country-inflected pop that came out of Los Angeles studios in the late 60s and early 70s, the realm of Glen Campbell’s collaborations with Jimmy Webb or the Nashville-tinted end of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood’s oeuvre. There are weeping pedal steel guitars, ballads in waltz time, brushes pattering against snare drums, shimmering reverb, choral backing vocals and epic orchestrations: the arrangement of When Memories Snow reaches Phil Spector levels of lavishness.

This is classic songwriter territory, the better to show off Mitski’s considerable songwriting chops. The album’s 32 minutes are filled with melodies; she can write straightforward love songs, filled with beautiful imagery – “I bend like a willow thinking of you / Like a murmuring brook curving about you / As I sip on the rest of the coffee you left / A kiss left of you,” runs one verse of Heaven – but what tends to get lost amid the earnest discussion of her lyrics is how darkly funny they are. You could, if you wished, characterise I Don’t Like My Mind as a song about loneliness, its protagonist attempting to silence unpleasant memories through overwork and sensory indulgence. Yet it feels a lot lighter on its feet than that description suggests. “A whole cake! All for me!” she wails, melodramatically elongating the vowel sounds. “Then I get sick and throw up.” Similarly, you could read Bug Like an Angel as a confessional about alcohol, but it somehow doesn’t seem as if it wants you to. “Sometimes a drink feels like family,” she sings, before a massed chorus suddenly and incongruously bursts in: “FAMILY!”

Mitski’s voice is usually tender and intimate, but has another mode, one suggestive of a woman raising her eyes skyward as she sings. She deploys it during I’m Your Man, leavening a song about the insidious destructive power of patriarchy: it’s leavened further by its conclusion, which features airy, wordless backing vocals and snarling dogs, like the Swingle Singers being savaged to death.

Perhaps it is intended to diffuse some of the intense seriousness with which fans greet her work. Either way, Lee Hazlewood feels like an apposite comparison and not merely because of the album’s sound: The Land Is Inhospitable shares his ability to slip between the heartfelt and the sardonic without ever losing its grip on the listener. It ends with the singer alone on I Love Me After You – rather than heartbroken, she is celebrating her freedom by walking around the house naked (“don’t even care that the curtains are open”) – which feels about right. There are an awful lot of singer-songwriters around exploring the kind of subjects Mitski touches on here: disillusionment, isolation, broken relationships, overindulgence. But it is questionable whether anyone else is doing it with this much skill, this lightness of touch or indeed, straightforward melodic power: in the best possible sense, Mitski feels out on her own”.

The second album I am focusing on is from the wonderous CMAT. The Dublin-born songwriter also made her challenge for album of the year Wirth Crazymad, For Me. You can buy it here. Whereas Mitski’s new album was released in September, CMAT released Crazymad, For Me on Friday (13th October). I will get to a review of CMAT’s second studio album soon. Real name Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, she spoke with DIY recently about her career and what it feels like to put out an album that will put her in the spotlight:

“Born in 1996 in Dublin, Thompson spent the majority of her youth in the tiny commuter town of Dunboyne before moving back to the Irish capital to study, and then across to Manchester with her then-boyfriend to pursue music. Throughout these periods, the constant thread was a feeling of frustration at the lack of opportunity afforded to her. “A lot of loneliness came from feeling like I was trapped in poverty, in the sense that I felt I was really talented and good at writing songs, but no one fucking listened to me because I was working in a TK Maxx,” she says. “Nobody had any time of day for me. I wrote 75 million songs and a lot of them were good, and I’d be bringing them back and forth to London but no one cared because I wasn’t interesting enough because I didn’t have any resources to be interesting.

“I felt like, for a lot of years, there was a thing I wanted to do but I literally couldn’t see a way of executing it. I had two jobs - I was also a sexy shots lady - because I just wanted enough money to get the Megabus to London to do writing sessions and gigs, and all of my spare time and effort and energy went into trying to be a musician and a pop star. I was so angry and frustrated all the time that no one was paying attention to me because I didn’t have any money. And that was how it felt, that there was no way to get my foot in the door because I didn’t have any connections or resources.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Jenn Five

Eventually, she would crack the door open by leaving her old band Bad Sea, splitting with her partner, moving back to Dublin and beginning to put her songs on YouTube where she was scouted by a management team. The flights of fantasy coupled with feelings of extreme isolation that populated last year’s full-length debut ‘If My Wife New I’d Be Dead’ capture the intensity of this time, while October’s forthcoming follow-up ‘CrazyMad, For Me’ acts as a potted document of that breakup and the years of anger, questioning and resentment that would follow. However, where CMAT’s poetic leanings and tendency for the swooning epic might lend a romantic hue to many of these offerings on record, the reality was far less rosy.

“I find it funny, because I get a lot of people telling me I should write a book but my life was not fucking interesting,” she explains. “I didn’t do anything. All my drug-taking was sad and weird and not that social, and that’s another thing - that entrapment directly leads to substance abuse and that was very much the same for me. I was stonked out of my brain on hash the whole time that I lived in Manchester because I did not want to be in my reality. So temporarily getting out of it for a bit was like, ‘Great, love it’.”

Still, however, Ciara wouldn’t let herself give up. Upon leaving Manchester, she remembers landing her dream proper job as an auctioneer’s assistant but acknowledging that, if she was ever going to make an album, she would have to turn it down for fear of being “too content”. “In an alternate universe, I’m itemising Tupperware from the 1960s - I could have been a contender!” she laughs. “But even when I was working in a shop, and had no money, and was a normal girl by textbook definition, I also wasn’t relatable because I was a fucking freak. I was selling cigarettes and scratchcards on the till and in my head I was like, ‘None of these people know how good I am at writing songs…’ I’ve never been humble in my life.”

In conversation, it is easy to spot the difference between CMAT and Ciara. Where her pop star persona is a fun-loving rhinestone cowgirl, slaying her way across the stage and popping out choreography and splits at every turn, Thompson is a fast-talking overthinker with an intriguing mix of supreme confidence and ready self-criticism. The two are both sides of the same coin, but they’re also fundamentally separate. “The way I’ve always thought about it is, CMAT is singing songs about a girl called Ciara, but CMAT is not Ciara,” she begins. “When CMAT is on an Instagram Live it’s all, ‘Hey girl, slay’ and you have to do that so people find you pleasant. I don’t want people to come into contact with me outside of me singing and be put off immediately.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Jenn Five

Do you think you’re off-putting? “Oh 100%. I’m really annoying,” she answers immediately. “I’m not saying this to rag on myself, but I know I’m off-putting because I had a difficult time until I became a pop star and I would regularly meet people who just did not like me because I talk so much all of the time. People find loud women off-putting and I am as loud as they fucking come, and I’m very much a woman - I’m very girly - but I don’t do the demure thing. I’m the opposite of chic.

“I’m very selfish, and I know that about myself, and it’s hard not to be selfish and self-centred when the thing that brings me the most joy and fulfilment and peace is just me talking about myself, which is what my music is,” she continues. “I watched that Wham! documentary the other day, and George Michael is one of the nicest men ever to work in music - so talented and so brilliant - but when I watched that doc I really related to the bit when he cried because ‘Last Christmas’ didn’t go to UK Number One because he wanted four Number Ones in a year, and instead Live Aid went to Number One. He’s fucking fuming even though he also sings on that, but he didn’t write the song so it wasn’t good enough. I really related to that.”

It’s rare to find a burgeoning pop star in 2023 that’s ready to be truly candid, and far far rarer to find one that’s willing to own and admit their flaws in such an open-book way. Thompson’s lack of artifice might be polarising for some (even her bandmates, she says, sometimes won’t talk to her in rehearsals for fear of incurring the brunt of her ambitious criticisms), but it’s also undoubtedly part of what’s got her this far. There’s a hustle mentality to the singer that knows if you want to make it, you’d better buckle up, strap in for the ride and keep your skin thick. It’s an ambition that also comes through in spades on ‘CrazyMad…’ - an album that takes the melodic bones of her debut and bulks it up into a concise portrait that balances granular lyrical detail and widescreen sonic ambition.

“Objectively I know that this second album is probably going to be the best album I ever make,” she shrugs. “I think it’s the best collection of songs, and they’re really instinctive, and it’s about something really real and raw and quite simple, so on some level I think it’s gonna be the one that everyone likes the most. I wanted to make something that people could say was objectively really good. I don’t know how close someone like me can get to the George Michael thing of being omnipresent, I obviously can’t get anywhere close to that, but I’d like to think this would be my version of an attempt at doing something big: that’s why I’m excited”.

One of the most-acclaimed albums of the year already, there is a lot of love out there for Crazymad, For Me. It has received a wave of affection and respect. This is what The Line of Best Fit wrote about a monumental album from a unique artist. One of modern music’s absolute finest and most talented:

“She’s an artist who has hit a creative purple patch on album number two; imagining, and delivering, a story worthy of its creator’s prowess.

While addressing themes not unheard of on a pop record, Crazymad, For Me is still a unique piece of work; creating a psychedelic soundscape with a foundation of country-influenced chord progressions. Its themes of heartbreak and regret meanwhile are, of course, commonly walked paths but its the presentation of such themes that give the album its edge.

Set 20 years in the future, the album revolves around its protagonist, presumably CMAT, travelling back in time to prevent her past self from entering into a damaging relationship. Following CMAT’s journey from anger to heartbreak and eventually acceptance, the record’s story is put centre stage and is delivered with a relatability not often associated with concept albums.

Crazymad, For Me’s grandeur is found in its imaginative delivery, which combines the alternate realities of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love with the sci-fi worlds of Bowie’s Aladdin Sane. Such magic moments are seen on reflective tracks like the Bush-drenched “I…Hate Who I Am When I’m Horny” which sees CMAT interrogating her reflection and “Whatever’s Inconvenient” (the LP’s lead single) which explores her unhelpful tendency to gravitate towards damaging situations. These tracks form the album’s pointed edge and push Crazymad, For Me into symbolising a new chapter in CMAT’s development.

Elsewhere there’s nods in the direction of The Cure (“Where Are Your Kids Tonight”), Patsy Cline (“Can’t Make Up My Mind”) and Angel Olson (“Torn Apart”); three influences that have perhaps never shared an inspiration board before. Nods are also cast in the direction of Irish Trad music, which gets somewhat of a spotlight on the album’s closer “Have Fun!”.

While such abstract concepts require perseverance, and do run the risk of coming off as pretentious, CMAT succeeds in making each track individually compelling, while simultaneously excelling in exploring her more abstract side.

Crazymad, For Me shows CMAT to be in a world of her own, one that’s way ahead of the pack”.

These may seem like random and unrelated works. I am using three recent examples as demonstration that the most captivating and adored music of the year is from female artists. Again, I am not writing off male artists! We are in a time when there is inequality and imbalance still. Every time an artist like CMAT or Mitski releases an album that gets this explosion of praise, you wonder why we still need to talk about gender equality. Why there is this thing about ‘women in music’. Like they need highlighting! I am doing it because it shows that equality and representation across the industry needs to happen quicker. That the wonderful music year in year out is not translating into parity. I know that Mitski, CMAT and my next spotlight act, boygenius, will get big festival bookings next year. Following the release of the record earlier in the year, the group (Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker) have released the E.P., the rest. Produced with Catherine Marks, the record is one of the best albums of this year. Rather than the rest being a case of scarping together tracks that did not make it onto the album, it is another brilliant chapter from the trio. You can buy the rest here. I am going to end this feature with a couple of reviews for the rest. This is what Pitchfork noted in their take:

“Friendship, famously, is Boygenius’ raison d’être and a key part of its value proposition. Kindred spirits who first met while making the rounds with their respective solo projects, Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus were eventually booked on a joint tour, precipitating their first EP together. Almost immediately, their union accumulated extramusical significance. Initially, it felt like wish fulfillment for those eager to pass off women playing rock as a newsworthy event; ultimately, it settled into an extended counterpoint to heteropatriarchal ideas about feminine friendship and cooperation, and to the notion of genius as an attribute of erratic (male) individualists. (When a prominent contemporary embodiment of that idea recently used Boygenius as the setup for a cheap joke, Dacus minced no words.)

Over the pandemic, seeking companionship and a creative outlet, the band got back together to write and record a proper debut—The Record, released this March. Six months later, they’re following it with The Rest, a four-song companion EP aglow with the sense of triumph that has haloed the group’s recent history. Boygenius are about as big as a rock band can be in 2023: They’ve landed an album in Billboard’s Top 10, received second-line billing at Coachella (“I’ve never played a festival when the sun was down,” Baker quipped), and, earlier this month, sold out Madison Square Garden. Their shows incite rapture; all three women are queer, a clear subtext and surtext of their performances, which has solidified their tour’s reputation as a welcoming space for sapphic expression.

With Boygenius’ tour wrapping at the end of the month, The Rest bookends this period of transcendence, its title containing a note of finality as well as of respite. The songs feel unwound; on the cover, the boys are faceless figures before a misty sea, soaking in the sublime, like in a Caspar David Friedrich painting. Unlike many post-album clearing-house EPs, this material is brand new, produced in May with returning collaborators (Tony Berg, Ethan Gruska, Collin Pastore) along with affiliates of the members’ solo projects. The songs revisit old themes, like Bridgers’ lunar voyage, with clear eyes and renewed spirits. Baker reconsiders the black hole that appeared on The Record’s “Not Strong Enough”—there, a symbol of domestic unrest; here, one of unexpected potential. “You can see the stars/The ones the headlines said this morning/Were being spat out /By what we thought was just/Destroying everything for good,” she sings over a steady pedal point, referencing a recently discovered supermassive black hole that mysteriously produces new stars instead of obliterating old ones. This cosmic twist on the notion that destructive forces can be generative calls to mind another lyric from The Record. To quote Dacus quoting Leonard Cohen: “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

The Rest closes its fist around the ideas that Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus have been reaching toward—that values are more worth living than dying for, that our feelings of difference and dysfunction can be fonts of power. When an idealogue with a death drive appeals to Dacus’ narrator on “Afraid of Heights,” she voices her skepticism: “Not everybody gets the chance to live a life that isn’t dangerous.” As usual, the members take turns up front, each leading songs that bear the hallmarks of their own writing, and “Afraid of Heights” is classic Dacus—a writer first and musician second, by her own estimation. In her hands, steady, soft acoustic strums and pedal steel are like pale blue lines on loose leaf, waiting to be filled. She spreads her ideas across pages rich with dialogue and imagery, including the tidy, perfect couplet, “The black water ate you up/Like a sugarcube in a teacup.” It’s part of a parable about hope: “Oh, it hurts to hope the future/Will be better than before,” she sings. Expect nothing and the worst you’ll get is validation; expect more, and you’ll be crushed.

Boygenius is sometimes billed as “sad girl” music, a dubious classification born of Spotify playlists and social media’s bad habit of aestheticizing mental illness. It’s only marketing, but it still threatens to sand down the contours of the band’s music, which is full of emotions not so easily parceled and labeled (nor managed) as “sadness”—and, often, not so sad after all. As Bridgers has observed, this reductive interpretation involves a certain amount of projection on the part of fans. Such is the nature of producing art for public consumption: Songs are made, released, and then made into something else in the ears of their listeners.

The band’s relationship to its ballooning audience is not uncomplicated, but certainly Boygenius respect the power of their platform. Anyone in their position would be grappling with the question of what they mean, to whom—a line of inquiry that can give way to self-mythologizing. This instinct has always been present in a band that’s styled itself as both Crosby, Stills & Nash and Nirvana, but in these songs, it starts to feel less self-conscious, more sincere. It’s in the internal references, the leitmotifs—an emergent iconography of Boygenius. It’s definitely in The Rest’s closer, “powers,” a Baker-led superhero origin story set to sonorous brass and ambient texture. She sings about crawling out of a nuclear reactor, about supercolliders and fission, invoking the invisible, unknowable forces that govern our universe as a metaphor for profound transformation. “The hum of our contact,” she concludes, summarizing the Boygenius ethos, “The sound of our collision.” Her words suggest preciousness, but also ephemerality: When particles collide in an accelerator, they erupt into ultra-rare bits of matter that linger for only a split second before breaking down. We are called to look closely while they last”.

I will end up with NME’s review of the rest. Such a kindred and close-knit group, boygenius have rounded off 2023 in fine style. Their powerful and beautiful music is something that everyone needs to hear. It is transformative and arresting:

“When Boygenius – composed of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus – released their debut album earlier this year, NME gushed that it was an “instant classic”. Released in March, ‘The Record’ saw the trio “elevate their songwriting by combining the best parts of their artistry” after years as solo artists, operating in the same musical orbit.

It was the kind of purple patch where you knew magic was in the air, the kind where every scrap of music – completed or otherwise – would be illuminating and important to the Boygenius canon. So arrives ‘The Rest’, a four-track EP that bookends a mammoth run of shows throughout the year, and a release well timed for Grammy consideration. The members each now stand on the precipice of continued success as a unit or as solo artists.

Ignore the flippant title, there’s material on ‘The Rest’ that could have fought hard for space on their debut album. When the band played a triumphant headline show at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden this past weekend, they performed the four songs that make up this EP in their entirety.

On ‘Black Hole’, one of the most expansive tracks in their catalogue, the melody remains the only constant amidst a cacophony of conflicting drums. Baker is feeling contemplative but also strangely at peace in the wilderness (“out here it gets so dark / You can see the stars for once”) while Dacus and Bridgers splice in sentimentality: “Sometimes, I need to hear your voice” they whisper at the conclusion. On ‘Afraid Of Heights’, Dacus muses on mortality with a reckless subject: “I wanna live a vibrant life / But I wanna die a boring death”, she sighs, adding that “not everybody gets the chance to live / A life that isn’t dangerous”.

‘Power’ has links to ‘The Record’’s penultimate song ‘Anti-Curse’. On the latter, what begins with a gentle strum builds with tension before chasing a showy sonic rush, but on ‘Power’, the band allows the song to implode on itself. After singing of the “tail of a comet burned up in an instant ” and the “light flashin’ before the eye of whatever comes after”, the trio pull back and cede space to horns that see the song home. Whatever comes after this era is still a mystery, but it’ll no doubt be equally compelling”.

I wanted to highlight three remarkable recent releases from some incredible women in music. Showcasing, again, that modern-day queens are well and truly in a league of their own. I was going to review CMAT and boygenius’ new work. Instead, joining them together with Mitski in this feature felt better. I may do it more regularly. Instead of a single review, looking at the best albums from a month and going into detail. In the case of CMAT’s Crazymad, For Me, Mitski’s The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We and boygenius’ the rest, we have three very strong contenders for the…

BEST releases of 2023.

FEATURE: Nineteen Hundred and Seventy Three: Looking Ahead to the Fiftieth Anniversary of Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run

FEATURE:

 

 

Nineteen Hundred and Seventy Three

Looking Ahead to the Fiftieth Anniversary of Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run

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EVEN though…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Wings - Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Jimmy McCulloch, Denny Laine and Geoff Britton - in 1974/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Putland/Getty Images

you can get Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run on vinyl, I wonder whether there is going to be a fiftieth anniversary release. Maybe it is still a bit early to tell, though I have seen some discussions on Reddit and other platform wondering what is going to happen. Reaching number one in the U.S. and U.K., Band on the Run arrived later in a year that saw the band release Red Rose Speedway. That album was acclaimed, though it did have a few weaker tracks. Band on the Run is, in my view, the greatest album from Paul McCartney and Wings. It is them at their very peak. Although sales were modest initially, its commercial performance was boosted by two huge singles: Jet and Band on the Run. It became the top-selling studio album of 1974 in the United Kingdom and Australia, in addition to reviving and augmenting McCartney's critical standing. Few would have seen or predicted anything like Band on the Run would come from Paul McCartney in 1973! Not as revered by critics as he was in The Beatles, it was a moment when many doubted his commercial power and songwriting brilliance. He had nothing to prove. Alongside Denny Laine and Linda McCartney, this reduced band produced something remarkable on 5th December, 1973. I really love this album! It was in my house growing up. I remember the tracks from childhood. Maybe Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five is the track that took my longest to come round to – but it is now one of my favourites from Band on the Run. The epic title track, Jet, Mrs Vanderbilt and Let Me Roll It are Paul and Linda McCartney at their songwriting peak.

I am going to bring in a couple of features and reviews so we can get a better understanding of Band on the Run in terms of its background and impact. Best Classic Bands wrote about Band on the Run in 2017. They discussed the lead-up to recording the album. Now a trio, Wings had a task on their hands creating an album that would keep them relevant and together:

“The monumental troubles that plagued McCartney and Wings during the making of Band on the Run could easily serve as fodder for a Hollywood film epic. The difficulties originated with McCartney’s desire to work in an exotic environment, far off the beaten path. His record company, EMI, had an international presence, with recording facilities based in Bombay, Rio de Janeiro, Peking and the Nigerian city of Lagos. Enchanted by visions of sunning on the beach by day and recording by night, McCartney opted for the African locale, nestled on that continent’s west coast.

Booking studio time in Lagos for September, the former Beatle first gathered his fellow Wings bandmates together for some rehearsal work in Scotland. Tensions ensued, and just one week prior to departure, guitarist Henry McCullough and drummer Denny Seiwell resigned from the group. Wings was suddenly down to just three members: McCartney, his wife Linda and guitarist Denny Laine. Undeterred, McCartney opted to forge ahead with the original recording plans.

“That was like a bombshell,” the former Beatle later told Clash Music, recalling the defections. “It was like, ‘Ah, OK. Try and hold your nerve, try and keep it together.’ At that moment [I thought], ‘I’ll show you. I will make the best album I’ve ever made now.’”

Arriving in Lagos, the trio discovered that the EMI studio was in serious disrepair. Microphones had been stashed away in a cupboard, the mixing board was faulty and acoustic baffles used for sound separation were nowhere to be found. Heroically, engineer Geoff Emerick pulled together the necessary equipment to push ahead.

Soon enough, a daily routine was established. Weekday mornings were spent swimming at a local country club, while afternoons saw the band making the hour-long drive to the recording facility, where work often lasted until the wee hours of the morning. Weekends were reserved for rest and recreation, in keeping with McCartney’s reasons for choosing to record in Lagos in the first place.

Throughout the sessions, McCartney, Linda and Laine remained galvanized and motivated by the defections of Seiwell and McCullough. McCartney himself assumed most of the lead guitar and drumming duties, reprising the roles he had often taken on his previous solo albums. Notwithstanding the technical difficulties, recording was moving along relatively smoothly until one evening when the McCartneys decided to take a leisurely stroll. Seemingly out of nowhere, a car shot up beside them, five men jumped out and, at knifepoint, McCartney was forced to relinquish all valuables in his possession. Among the items taken were cassettes of demo recordings of potential material for the new album.

“It was all the stuff we did,” McCartney later recalled. “The tapes [contained] the original demo of ‘Band on the Run.’ If [the thieves] had known, they could have held onto them and made themselves a little fortune. But they didn’t know, and we reckoned they would probably record over them”.

I am going to get to some reviews soon. I would advise anyone with an interest in Paul McCartney and Wings and Band on the Run to do a bit of reading and research. It is a really interesting time for a band who would release their excellent fourth studio album, Venus and Mars, in 1975. I think that Band on the Run is in the top-five Paul McCartney albums – that includes Wings and his solo work. Udiscovermusic.com told the story behind Band on the Run for their feature in December 2022:

“Band On The Run entered the US chart just before Christmas 1973, and was propelled not just by approving reviews, but by the huge success of the “Jet” single. Then came the release – by popular demand, as the press advertising said – of the title track. With its five-minute duration and tempo changes, it was perhaps an unlikely contender to be a 45. But radio stations lapped it up, and so did consumers. The single topped the Hot 100 and sold a million copies in America alone.

Seven months to make No.1

You might assume that the 1973 release was an immediate UK chart-topper. Released on December 5, not only did it enter at a very modest No.45 just before Christmas, it didn’t reach the summit until its 32nd week, in July 1974. Then Band On The Run made up for lost time with a seven-week run before it ceded the No.1 berth to the Mike Oldfield album Hergest Ridge.

The Wings LP enjoyed another ten weeks in the UK Top 10, and went on to complete an extraordinary unbroken run of almost two years on the British charts. It remained there until November 1975.

Two years on the US charts

The album’s US chart debut was at a relatively lowly No.33, but it continued to build during the opening months of 1974. On April 13, with the title song newly unveiled as a single, Band On The Run took over from John Denver’s Greatest Hits as America’s favorite album. It spent four non-consecutive weeks at the summit, and went on to amass more than two years – 116 weeks – on the bestsellers, by far the longest run of any post-Beatles McCartney recording.

“Paul’s Grooves Will Grab You,” said the New York Times’ headline for Loraine Alterman’s review. “Obviously Band On The Run is a carefully produced album,” she wrote. “Yet McCartney has managed to make the complexities of multi-track recording sound as natural and fresh as tomorrow.” Rolling Stone’s Jon Landau admired the lyrical sharpness of the album. Paul’s “distinctive British sensibility now touches on things without belaboring them,” he noted”.

Prior to getting to two reviews, I will collect together some reviews from Wikipedia. It was clear that you could never doubt or write off Band on the Run. You could never doubt Paul McCartney’s ability as a songwriter to come up with something, alongside Linda, that is world-class! Critics were overly-doubtful and dismissive when Wings had a bump or two. Maybe it was fair to assume Wings would not deliver something quite as good as Band on the Run. They were still capable of genius. They proved it here:

“Upon release, Band on the Run received mostly favourable reviews. Author Robert Rodriguez writes that, after the disappointment of McCartney's previous work since the Beatles, "It was exactly the record fans and critics had long hoped he would make …"

In a combined review for Starr's concurrently released Ringo album, Charles Shaar Murray of the NME wrote: "The ex-Beatle least likely to re-establish his credibility and lead the field has pulled it off with a positive master-stroke of an album entitled Band On The Run." In addition to praising McCartney for using synthesizer "like an instrument, and not like an electric whoopee cushion", Shaar Murray concluded: "Band On The Run is a great album. If anybody ever puts down McCartney in your presence, bust him in the snoot and play him this. He will thank you for it afterwards."

Writing in The New York Times, Loraine Alterman considered the album to be "bursting with a great deal of compelling music even if the lyrics at times make as much sense as that cover photo" and admired the "fascinating range of sounds" offered in the title track, as well as the "lovely, romantic aura" of "Bluebird". While noting the importance of studio production on the overall effect, Alterman wrote: "McCartney has managed to make the complexities of multi-track recording sound as natural and fresh as tomorrow." Jon Landau of Rolling Stone described the album as "with the possible exception of John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, the finest record yet released by any of the four musicians who were once called the Beatles". Rolling Stone named Band on the Run one of the Best Albums of the Year for 1973”.

Rolling Stone reviewed Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run in 1974. In fact, Jon Landau was given the assignment of putting into words the impact and importance of this phenomenal album. One that is ranked alongside the all-time best:

“EVERYONE EVENTUALLY WINDS up writing about themselves — the problem is finding the best way to go about it. To write about oneself literally, in the first person, presumes a more interesting personal life and philosophy than most rock lyricists possess. John Lennon was good for one great album based on musical direct address, Plastic Ono Band. Ten years from now he may have accumulated enough personal data on which to base another as provocative. In the meantime, he has cut himself off from all the other ways in which lyrics can be used — most importantly, to create imaginative worlds in which characters, ideas, fantasies and illusions are invented and appreciated apart from our interest in the artist’s private life, per se.

The best rock lyricists have always used words in just those ways. They have been defining and redefining myths and icons, symbols that can stand for both their private feelings and those that transcend their personal point of view and speak to the audience’s collective consciousness. Among the more obvious recent examples, culled from American artists: Dylan’s interpretations of John Wesley Hardin and Billy the Kid; the Eagles’ underrated parable of a rock band as an aging group of obsolete outlaws, Desperado, and Steve Miller’s attempts to unify new and old myths through the creation of personas like the Gangster of Love and the Space Cowboy.

The Band, the most self-conscious American band, have transformed everything they’ve touched into a permanent image of the past as it was supposed to have been, which is as good a definition of mythologizing as rock requires. On one album they appear as survivors of a forgotten era and culture (The Band) and on another define their and our rock & roll past (Moondog Matinee).

Moondog Matinee freezes in time our image of a scuffling North American bar band in the early Sixties. The Who, England’s most self-conscious band, have released Quadrophenia, which in turn freezes in time our image of the mid-Sixties Mod sensibility. Their album will become a definitive reference point for interpreting the recent rock experience as we necessarily come to rely more on interpretations of the past than on our ever-changing memories of it. Quadrophenia is both autobiography and mythology, the one dimension continually enhancing the impact of the other.

The Beatles assumed a sustained fictitious identity only once, on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. By making themselves over as the disciples of Billy Shears, just another vaudeville revue, they could perform material that might have been rejected coming from the Beatles qua Beatles — songs like “When I’m 64,” “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” and the title cut.

Of the four former Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison have gone on to write exclusively in the first person, their lyrics, both good and bad, never more or less than simple statements of their ideas and feelings. Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney have moved in the other direction, expressing themselves no less personally but through more inventive means. Starr has released an album whose subject is the myth of his own stardom, an extension of one of Sgt. Pepper‘s themes. (Producer Richard Perry has also been preoccupied with notions of stardom dating back to his Fats Is Back, an album with a theme and album cover that, like Ringo’s, centers around stars.)”.

I will finish with a review from AllMusic. They had their say about a true masterpiece. I know people will write about it closer to the fiftieth anniversary. Among the distinct and hugely varied and decades-long discography of Paul McCartney, his third studio album with Wings is among his absolute best and most enduring:

“Band on the Run is generally considered to be Paul McCartney's strongest solo effort. The album was also his most commercially successful, selling well and spawning two hit singles, the multi-part pop suite of the title track and the roaring rocker "Jet." On these cuts and elsewhere, McCartney's penchant for sophisticated, nuanced arrangements and irrepressibly catchy melodic hooks is up to the caliber he displayed in the Beatles, far surpassing the first two Wings releases, Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway. The focus found in Band on the Run may have to do with the circumstances of its creation: two former members quit the band prior to recording, leaving McCartney, wife Linda, and guitarist Denny Laine to complete the album alone (with Paul writing, producing, and playing most of the instruments himself). The album has the majestic, orchestral sweep of McCartney's Abbey Road-era ambition, with a wide range of style-dabbling, from the swaying, acoustic jazz-pop of "Bluebird" and the appealing, straightforward rock of "Helen Wheels" to the wiry blues of "Let Me Roll It" and the swaying, one-off pub sing-along "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)." Though it lacks the emotional resonance of contemporaneous releases by John Lennon and George Harrison, McCartney's infallible instinct for popcraft overflows on this excellent release”.

I hope that there are lots of articles and new interest in Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run ahead of 5th December. I am not sure whether there is any new anniversary release coming. I would love to hear an expanded edition or a new vinyl pressing in a variety of colours. It would introduce the album to new fans and a younger generation. Not only one of the best albums of 1973, Band on the Run is one of the finest albums ever. From the opening riff of Band on the Run to the closing notes of Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five, the Paul and Linda McCartney-penned album (Denny Laine wrote No Words with Paul McCartney) well and truly is…

IN a league of its own.

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady

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FOR this Vinyl Corner…

I wanted to look at a seminal Rap album. From one of the legends of Hip-Hop, Eve’s Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady came out on 14th September, 1999. It is an album I would recommend people get on vinyl. As a contributor and one of the focal points of the recent BBC series, First Ladies of Hip-Hop, we got to hear from one of the pioneers and icons of Hip-Hop. Eve recently selected her choice of the five female MCs who changed the game. I would definitely include Eve as one of the most influential Hip-Hop artists ever. With Eve writing the songs on the album and putting her personal touch and voice on it, this landmark sold over two million copies. it is a classic that has inspired so many other Hip-Hop and Rap artists. Produced by Swizz Beatz, P.K., DJ Shok and Jay ‘Icepick’ Jackson, it is one of the most important debuts ever I feel.

There was a lot of attention around Eve in 1999. Her astonishing debut album reached number one on the Billboard 200, making her the third female rapper to accomplish this feat. Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Prior to coming to some reviews of Eve’s debut, I want to look at an interview from Rolling Stone. Eve was chatting with them shortly after the release of Let There Be Eve... Ruff Ryders' First Lady. That title seems like a biblical statement. Eve was the first woman (according to the Bible). That connection for the first woman created to Eve, as a namesake, being the first woman of Hip-Hop. Or at least leading the new generation:

“OK, let’s play hip-hop “Love Connection.” Q-Tip vs. Snoop Dogg?

Oh, that’s hard. Q-Tip’s cute, but I’m always going to steer toward the thug – I need the excitement. And I like dogs. I can’t help it!

Barry White vs. Eminem?

Eminem. I would really like to experience his world. Plus, I’ve never been with a white boy, and I would like to one day. But it would have to be a crazy white boy — and he’s crazy! With our blond hair, we’re like twins.

Oh, God — do you have to ask? Rappers talk about drug dealing before they made it and it’s not a big thing, but me stripping is? Come on. That was a hustle, too; there’s a song about it on my album, “Heaven Only Knows.” But I don’t regret it — I was eighteen and confused, going through personal problems. I did it for about a month, and I was glad I did it. It helped me find Eve, helped me get serious. It was depressing — a lot of those girls have three or four kids. I’d sit there and be like, “Eve, you don’t belong here, this is not your world.”

What did you learn about men?

[Softly] That they can be totally disgusting toward women.

What are the struggles in the hip-hop game right now?

Whoo! To be accepted as a female as an MC. That’s always going to be it. It’s like, “Eve can rhyme, but look at her ass.”

Before you were a Ruff Ryder, you were signed to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath label. What happened?

Aftermath president Michael Lynn came to Philly to meet my managers. They were like, “Do you want to audition for this guy?” So I walk in, and he thought I was the weed girl.

The weed girl?

He thought he was buying weed from me! Anyway, I start rapping and he’s like, “Why is the weed girl rapping?” I thought I was never going to see that guy again. But then he signed me, but it just wasn’t the right situation. I know people are saying, “Dre, why did you let her go?” But there’s no love lost. It was a learning experience.

How long are you gonna be in the rap game?

As long as people still want to hear me. But I want to break into so many other things: movies, management, production. Acting I know I could do – ’cause I’m acting like I like you right now!

Oh, shit!

I’m just playing”.

I am going to come to some reviews. A hugely acclaimed album when it arrived in 1999, this was a statement of conviction and honesty. Eve at her best when the songs were personal and truer to her experiences. Here is what Pitchfork had to say when they reviewed Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady:

“Back in 1997, Eve’s promising career was almost derailed by a snarky, pill-popping, bleach-blond white boy from Detroit. She’d started messing around with music as a teen, but only began pursuing it in good faith after a chance encounter with Mase at the Bronx strip club where she briefly sojourned. “That night, he drove me around and we rapped all night until the sun came up,” she recalled recently. “And I never went back in the club.” After another fortuitous meeting, this one with an executive at Dr. Dre’s Aftermath records, Eve delivered an audition, flew to Los Angeles, and was signed pretty much on the spot. Eight months into the collaboration, Dre met Eminem, and Eve was sent packing to Philly.

But as with all the best origin stories, that failure gave Eve Jihan Jeffers resolve. An opportunity presented itself in the form of Ruff Ryders, a New York crew which, in the late ’90s, had made the transition from management company to label. Eve stood out with her platinum-blonde baldie and a pair of selectively-deployed paw prints on her chest. Her rap skills would soon become just as striking. “They made me write and recite, write and recite,” she said. “It was like boot camp. You had to prove yourself to them, and that’s what made me a better MC.”

In 1998, the same year Ruff Ryders’ principal rapper DMX released two platinum-selling albums, Eve got to work. By that point, the only credit to her name was a loosie on the Bulworth soundtrack, released as Eve of Destruction. But in 1999, she appeared (although uncredited) alongside Erykah Badu on the Roots’ breakout “You Got Me” and joined Blackstreet, Janet Jackson, and Ja Rule on the pastel “Girlfriend/Boyfriend.” She employed a different style on all of them: sly, seductive incense-rap here, no-nonsense wit there. Eve’s first proper release, the vaguely salsa-inspired “What Ya Want,” featuring Nokio of Dru Hill, was built around a rudimentary Latin preset on an E-MU synth, but it soon cracked the Top 40.

That fall, amid Y2K mania and vague collective fears about an uncertain future, Eve officially claimed her spot as Ruff Ryders’ self-described “pitbull in a skirt” and released Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady. It became the third rap album by a woman to crest the Billboard 200. She was 21, one of a handful of women who served in the token but compulsory role as the “first lady” of any given ascendant rap crew. Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown, Mia X, and Rah Digga, among others who had achieved name recognition within the genre, all had their own styles. And of course there was Lauryn Hill, who had managed to escape the tyranny of Wyclef and the Fugees to release an album that set records still standing today.

Like Eve, many of these women were more charismatic and skilled than their male counterparts, but often had less creative control of their own projects. You can hear that tension all over Let There Be Eve; across its 14 songs and four skits, the domineering energy of Ruff Ryders is palpable and weaselly. Eve isn’t even the first voice you hear on her own debut album, or the second, or third. The intro track, “First Lady,” is the equivalent of a red carpet being unfurled, a call-and-response chant delivered by Swizz Beatz and an anonymous male chorus: “When I say E-VAY, y’all say E/When I say RU-UFF, y’all say RYDERS.” The next track, the steel-tipped “Let’s Talk About,” opens with ad-libs from Ruff Ryders’ associate Drag-On. When Eve finally appears, a couple seconds in, it feels like the relief of a sunbeam.

Still, it’s very much a family affair throughout. Even when it feels like her ideas are retrofitted to preexisting, Swizz-produced morsels—on the frosty posse cut “Scenario 2000,” featuring DMX, Drag-On, and the Lox, for example, Swizz samples himself—Eve establishes breathing room for herself. One track, the chest-thumping skit “My Bitches,” is a direct response to DMX’s “My Niggas,” but is awesomely appropriated to act like something of a thesis statement for the entire project: “My bitches, my bitches that take care of they kids/My bitches, my bitches that you don’t respect/My bitches, my bitches that you always neglect/Y’all niggas ain’t real, y’all niggas ain’t shit.” Eve’s lyrics often appear simple in transcription, but they land with the heart and urgency Philly rap is celebrated for.

Despite the Ruff Ryders’ attempts at co-opting Let There Be Eve, it winds up being an album of self-determination, where she effortlessly bests the guys at what they think is their own game. There is little experimentation on the album—that would come later, with her blockbuster Scorpion album—but Eve bobs and weaves with dexterity, skillfully overcoming Swizz Beatz’s anemic production. At the time, collaborators and critics often attributed Eve’s success to her ability to hang with the guys without sacrificing her conventional femininity; the critic Touré, in a Rolling Stone review of the album, described her as “a thug with curves.” Her maneuvering required a kind of gender code-switching in which she had to be the “pitbull in a skirt,” years before the concept of the Cool Girl would become solidified in pop culture. It was an oppressive and offensive framework, mirrored across genres of all kinds, and Eve challenged it in part by using hardcore, “masculine” rap to sculpt her own power”.

I will end with a review from AllMusic. They celebrated and spotlighted a rapper who was very much on the cusp of something great. Putting out such a varied and strong debut, there were a lot of eyes on her. Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady still sounds so vital and stunning today:

“The full title of Eve's full-length debut is Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady for a reason. The Philadelphia rapper sets out to prove she's earned her place in the Ruff Ryders crew, matching rhymes, raunch, and rounds with the hardest hardass. Minimal beats laced with synthesized strings and keyboards back traditional hip-hop brag fests like "Let's Talk About." Eve shows up guests Drag-on, DMX, and others with boasts of sexual prowess, withering insults to inadequately endowed brothers, and violent sister-centered anthems like "My Bitches." A few short skits offer snapshots of Eve's beloved hometown. The irresistible party anthem "We on That Shit!," reminiscent of Coolio's "Fantastic Voyage," chronicles a night of clubbing and rounds out the street picture. "Ain't Got No Dough," a fabulous collaboration with Missy Elliott, is a fiery bridge between street-centered raps and the more interesting tracks. Purring and pissed, it's an edgier alternative to TLC's hit "No Scrubs." Eve's conviction and passion make her noticeable no matter what the subject, but she truly stands out when the stories become personal, examining the cost of the hard life she champions in other songs. "Love Is Blind" is a painful look at domestic violence. Self-respect and positivity are the moral of "Heaven Only Knows." Both tracks are backed by beautiful arrangements with acoustic guitar and lush vocals. Eve maintains her hardcore image in these tracks, but with a subtle vulnerability that promise lots of interesting things to come from this Philly prodigy”.

Perfect on vinyl (or streaming), I think that it should be reissued and come back in stock. Scorpion is readily available, but Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady is a little less available. It is truly a masterpiece. If you have not heard it before, spend a little time experiencing…

A Hip-Hop debut like no other.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Maple Glider

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Bridgette Winten

Maple Glider

_________

ONE thing I love about…

Maple Glider (Tori Zietsch) is that her two studio albums feature beautiful covers where she is set in nature. Peaceful and playful, her new album, I Get Into Trouble, follows 2021’s To Enjoy Is the Only Thing. Released yesterday, you can grab a copy here. I Get Into Trouble already ranks alongside the best albums of this year. Receiving a collection of great reviews already, I will be interested to see if Glider tours the album over here in the U.K. She does have some dates in her native Australia and then the U.S. Signed to Partisan Records, the Melbourne-born artist was raised in a religious household in Lismore, New South Wales. She moved to Melbourne to be feel more comfortable and ensconced in the music community. She does discuss her religious upbringing and environment on her latest album. Before I get to some recent interviews and a couple of reviews for I Get Into Trouble, here is some background regarding the wonderful Maple Glider:

“For Tori Zietsch, who records emotionally direct and woozily romantic songs under the moniker Maple Glider, music has been an escape from a series of oppressive institutions: religion, enervating relationships, her own brain. Zietsch’s music has formed new pathways both literal and metaphorical; physical and neural, that have allowed her to step outside herself, and shake you—yes, you, the listener—by the hand.

I Get Into Trouble is a thematic expansion of her debut, going into greater and clearer detail, as she delves back into her Christian childhood while deconstructing her relationship to her body and her sexuality, alongside concepts of consent and shame. “Dinah,” a deceptively whimsical ditty, is the album’s entry-point to these themes, and it’s as infectious as an earworm wriggling through Eve’s apple. “I’ve been in the church making sure no one’s looking up my skirt,” she sings, on one of the poppiest songs she’s ever recorded”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Bridgette Winten

I am going to bring in a few interviews. The first, from 15 Questions is Glider, as you can guess, answering fifteen questions. I have chosen a few which are relevant regarding I Get Into Trouble and the creative process. If you have not heard of Maple Glider yet, make sure that you rectify this. She is a very special artist who will go a long way:

“Name: Tori Zietsch aka Maple Glider
Nationality: Australian
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: Maple Glider's new album I Get Into Trouble is out October 13th 2023 via Partisan.

If you enjoyed this Maple Glider interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

All of my songs are inspired by personal relationships and personal experience. My song ‘Dinah’ taken from my new album I Get Into Trouble was inspired by a children’s version of a Bible story that I was read as a kid where a woman named Dinah is sexually assaulted, and then her brother murder’s her attacker
The story states that Dinah is to blame because she was associating with people who don’t believe in the same God that she does. The story also states that the only reason the assault is wrong is because her and her attacker are not married.

When I re-read the story as an adult I was horrified. It inspired me to write a lot of songs, it probably also fuelled me to write ‘Don’t Kiss Me’, which is also on my new record.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

It’s all chance, baby. I have to sit down and play. I don’t spend too much time trying to finish anything before I’ve even started, I prefer to drag it out from start to end!

I usually don’t know what’s going to come, so I just arrive and begin. I guess in a sense, once I know what I’m writing about, I feel like the direction is a lot clearer.

So I guess my ‘visualisation’ of the finished work is more often thematic than sonic.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

I love the ritual of having coffee so I’ll often make a coffee, have plenty of water and make myself comfortable. Most of the time I write it’s on my bed, on the floor, or outside.

I wrote most of ‘You At The Top Of The Driveway’ and ‘Baby You’re Gonna Be A Daddy’ in a backyard under a mulberry tree that reminded me of a mulberry tree we had on my street when I was a kid.

If I feel stuck, I usually make progress after I’ve had a walk or sat outside for a moment.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

It’s different every time. Sometimes it’s the opening line and sometimes it’s a chorus or just something that pieces the song together. The first idea is usually something I get when I’m doing something else, and I make a point of stopping to record a voice memo.

I actually get a lot of inspiration when I’m in the studio recording other songs, or driving, or camping. I always want the first line to be strong though.

Sometimes it’s nice to tap into a sense. My song ‘Swimming’ starts with me sitting and watching surfers at Birling Gap at Seven Sisters near Brighton in the UK.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Lyrics are a big part of what makes my music what it is so they are usually one of the first elements that come into view, though very rarely they arrive without a melody.

I’ll often get a lyric locked into a melody immediately, and then I build around it and make changes if it feels right to as I’m moving through the song. The melody and the lyrics kind of feed each other.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I’m not really sure whether I can really create ideas? But I can find them if I’m looking. I guess by looking I mean by writing as a practice.

I believe all songwriters are just searching really”.

I am going to come to a really deep and interesting interview from Headliner Magazine. Maple Glider discussed her childhood. She also revealed why I Get Into Trouble feels like her true debut. Something she is very proud about. It is not to say To Enjoy Is the Only Thing is a lesser work or one she is not happy with. It is most definitely worth checking out:

“On October 13, Melbourne-based artist Tori Zietsch, better known as Maple Glider, releases her second album I Get Into Trouble. Here she tells Headliner about escaping an oppressive childhood to pursue a career in music, and why her latest outing feels like a new beginning…

There’s a beguiling quality to Tori Zietsch’s music that is immediately detectable in conversation with the artist herself. Her 2021 debut To Enjoy Is The Only Thing and new album I Get Into Trouble are each possessed of intimate vignettes that explore themes of sexuality, shame, and a damaged childhood. Over gently plucked acoustic guitar, her delicate yet deceptively powerful voice channels personal experiences into songs that feel simultaneously fragile and cast in stone. Both the weight of the stories she tells and the strength she exerts to carry them are palpable.

Brought up in a deeply religious community in Naarm, Melbourne, a career in music isn’t something the young Zietsch could ever have predicted for herself. Indeed, many years after escaping the confines of her upbringing, it wasn’t until the release of her debut that she fully understood the path she was on.

“My first album was written mostly in Brighton in the UK when I was living there, and it was during a break in music,” she says, explaining her origins as a solo artist. She’s joining us from Granada, Spain, where she is taking a short break before playing a handful of European shows ahead the album’s release. Her tone is suitably bright and relaxed. “I’d just come out of a collaborative project and wasn’t really sure if I wanted to continue pursuing a career in music. But making that debut was the first time I’d ever really acknowledged I was pursuing a career in music [laughs]. I was just sort of doing it for ages without realising!

“I wanted a bit of space to figure out if it was really what I wanted to do, and I just wrote a heap of music and got obsessed with songwriting again. And I ended up accidentally recording an entire album when I planned just to go in [the studio] for a few songs. That was the beginning of Maple Glider. The recording was in 2020 and the release was 2021. Then in November 2021 we were coming out of our seventh lockdown in Melbourne, and I entered into the recording of the second album, which was a whole heap of songs that had just followed the first album. So, this album covers quite a long period of time.”

While the subjects and experiences that informed her debut flow seamlessly into I Get Into Trouble, the manner in which Zietsch approached them this time around was quite different. Evidently, the release of To Enjoy Is The Only Thing brought with it the courage to open up further through her music.

“A lot of the songs on this new album are shadows of songs that existed on the first one,” she says. “On the first album I was very conscious of what I was recording and I was a lot more nervous about the content I was sharing. A couple of songs on this album were already written at that time, but I was in no space to record and share those songs yet. It seemed too hard, and I felt too vulnerable. So unintentionally I came to a place where I felt more confident and able to be more vulnerable and to share things that felt more difficult for me prior to releasing my own music.”

There was, however, a counterpoint to that new sense of confidence Zietsch felt when recording the songs that would make up I Get Into Trouble. Despite feeling freer to depict certain aspects of her life that she had previously felt unable to share with the world, Zietsch was also feeling the pressure of releasing a solo record more acutely. As she describes it, her debut never really felt like a ‘proper’ album.

PHOTO CREDIT: Bridgette Winten

“It was actually so much harder to make this album,” she reflects. “It was really difficult. With the first album I was just doing it because it was something I really wanted to do, but had no real awareness of what could potentially happen. I was recording it independently and was just so grateful to have the experience of recording and sharing my own music. But this time it was more like, oh my god, I’m recording an album’!

As she prepares to go out on tour in support of I Get Into Trouble, Zietsch finds herself in the unusual position of releasing her second album in the mindset of an artist about to unveil their first. It’s the first time she’s approached the recording, release, and subsequent tour of a record outside of lockdown restrictions. And given that her debut happened, as she puts it, almost by accident, this time there’s a drive and intent that was likely lacking to some degree before.

“In a lot of ways this does feel like my actual debut, because the feelings were so different,” she says. “I experienced it differently, and because the first album came out during lockdowns it took ages to perform the songs live. I was very apprehensive to tour internationally. Now, in many ways, it feels like a new beginning. I’m already in the releasing process and feeling fired up to record again. I remember this happened last time. After finishing the campaign for the first record I was ready to go again straight away. And I want to do that now. I feel like it’ll be different all over again”.

There are two more interviews that I want to approach before I come to the reviews. In an interview published yesterday, JUNKEE. discovered more about a wonderful artist and her latest album. I do think that Maple Glider is someone that should be on everyone’s playlist. I Get Into Trouble will be in the best albums of 2023 albums come December:

“One of the songs Tori felt the most anxiety in the lead-up to releasing was ‘Dinah’, a deceptively buoyant and poppy cut that invokes the story of its titular Bible figure — in which a woman is sexually assaulted, then victim-blamed because she ventured out to spend time with “non-believers” — to draw parallels with Tori’s own experience. “The same thing happened to me when I was only 17/Do you think I got what I deserved?” she sings. “I’ve been in the church making sure no one’s looking up my skirt/But I do not feel safe here.”

It’s Tori’s most direct song as Maple Glider yet, searing and incisive and cathartic. “It was explicit because it had to be explicit, for myself,” she says. “I just needed to say some of those things out loud, and I just needed to sing them, in order to acknowledge them.”

‘Dinah’, along with ‘Don’t Kiss Me’ — a slow-burning salvo against the predatory objectification of girls by men — sizzle with anger, harnessed here as a propulsive energy. “Anger was the reason those songs were made,” Tori explains. “I was so angry. I think I had been internally angry for a while. There was this period of just complete disassociation with my upbringing. Then there was awareness, slight acceptance, and then came the frustration and the anger.

“It was just suppressed feeling, sitting somewhere trapped inside my body, and coming out in other ways. [Those songs were] a good way to channel the anger and redistribute it, and let it all flow through my body in a different way. A good kind of sensation of energy everywhere. ”Playing the songs now feels like a “boost of energy”, she says, a release.

“That’s been a nice shift, to take that very concentrated and directed anger and push it into other places, so it doesn’t feel quite like that anymore.”

As severely as those songs burn with righteous fury, there are many moments on the album that ache with stark loneliness. Few artists capture the feeling of isolation like Maple Glider, and I Get Into Trouble is full of songs that — like the best songs about loneliness do — offer a portal to connection, a balm for others who might feel the same way”.

I will now include an interview from Get In Her Ears. Among other things, Maple Glider discussed how it is a little harder touring as an Australian artist. Quite cut off from the rest of the world, it can be a challenge. Even so, there are loads of people around the world who are very keen to see her come their way. Go and get a copy of I Get Into Trouble if you can. It is well worth it:

“How would you say the album as a whole differs from your 2021 debut, To Enjoy Is The Only Thing? 

I think it goes a bit deeper. It’s probably a bit less nice in some ways, and at times I think it could be more difficult to digest – there are definitely some uneasy themes and hard topics. At the same time, I think this new level of depth has been really important for me personally in the journey of making this album; I’ve felt within myself a release of a lot of tension and pain. They are also themes that are really relatable for a lot of people, which is quite sad, but also in many ways it has been a privilege to be able to see and acknowledge others through this honest and sometimes painful lens, and to feel seen and validated in return.

Having lived and performed live in both Australia and the UK, how would you compare the music scenes in both these places? 

I guess for me they felt somewhat similar – there’s a lot of great music coming out of both places. It feels like there are a lot more barriers for Australian artists in terms of touring, just because we are geographically so far away, and as a result it feels like a really big deal to tour internationally. When I lived in the UK, so many of my favourite artists were touring, I went to so many amazing shows. There are so many incredible First Nations musicians in Australia that really deserve all of the platforms, opportunities and funding – nothing can compensate for what has been stolen from them. In Australia there is so much work to be done in terms of colonisers taking accountability for the atrocities we have committed and continue to perpetuate, and not that I can speak for any First Nations person, but it’s been made clear that real action needs to be taken, including treaty, land back and justice for all the lives that have been taken. I think only when we liste to First Nations people and actually take action instead of pretending that nothing is wrong will the music industry and everything else have the opportunity to flourish.

And has there been a particular gig that you’ve planned, in any country, that stands out as a highlight for you over the years? 

I recently played a solo show in Paris that blew my mind. It’s the first time I’ve had to really focus on my singing because there were people in the crowd singing along to the lyrics so loudly that I could have easily confused their voices for my own – haha. It was just so weird to go to the other side of the world and meet people who knew my music so intimately.

When out on tour, are there any particular essentials that you like to take with you to keep you going when away from home? 

I find an eye mask is good for getting a nice sleep when I’m sleeping in different spaces all the time. In my little backpack I’ll always take a water bottle and a keep cup, a good book and a little diary and pen. Stop Everything is a good podcast to download for the plane, and Pukka Relax tea is a yum blend of marshmallow root, chamomile and fennel that is very soothing for the throat and good to have before a show.

How do you feel the industry is for new artists at the moment? And do you feel much has changed over the last few years in its treatment of female/gender non-conforming and queer artists? 

I think it’s really challenging for new artists at the moment. Everything is very expensive, and I think it can be really difficult to access a music career, even just based on the fact that it takes so much work to even be able to record music, whether that be accessing gear or producers/engineers. I’ve had the privilege of being signed to record labels, so I’ve had access to funds to be able to have the opportunity to create albums, but this is not true for a lot of incredibly talented and hard working artists. I certainly don’t do music full time. I also work two other jobs, and it can be really difficult trying to work out how to take time off to tour and record and make it all fit together. I definitely can’t speak for gender non-conforming and queer artists, but as a white cis-female artist I’ve noticed that there are a lot more spaces for my music now than there were when I was growing up. I remember most line-ups when I was growing up in Australia were all cis male indie-rock bands, and I specifically remember being told by a music manager around that time that they didn’t like female musicians, but for a woman my voice actually wasn’t so annoying. A lot of the time female artists were pitted up against each other by the industry as though they had to be in competition; it was so easy to feel small and devalued. Though there are still some festivals/people in Australia that adhere to these expired standards, there is so much more open conversation about it now. Abusive men in the industry are being exposed. Artists like Georgia Maq, Jaguar Jonze and Jen Cloher have really inspired me with their work in the music industry and how much they have contributed to change. I think the sheer fact that so many gender non-conforming and queer people are still subjected to so much violence and abuse in day to day life indicates that these experiences are also reflected in the music industry. If you are constantly fighting for your right to exist, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to muster the energy to persist in the music industry, one that can be extremely volatile and challenging even without added layers of prejudice and discrimination. And, though there are so many iconic queer and gender non-conforming artists that are rightfully celebrated and have incredible careers, there should be no doubt that these artists still have to work so much harder than cis white hetero artists just to experience the same level of recognition and reward”.

I will finish with some reviews. Most have given an effusive thumbs-up to the phenomenal I Get Into Trouble. This is what The Guardian said when they sat down with an album that is guaranteed to immerse and move every listener. It is music of the highest order from an artist with a very long career ahead of her:

“Violation and survival have become common themes in art by women over the last few years. By speaking truth to power and digging into personal, painful memories, an image emerges of what it means to exist in the world as a woman.

What about when patriarchy is not only in the physical world, but also the spiritual? It’s a question that the Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Tori Zietsch, who records as Maple Glider, tackles with her second album. Like Julia Jacklin’s excellent 2022 album Pre Pleasure, it explores the impact of a religious upbringing – and the accompanying surveillance, implied or actual – on a woman’s sexuality and sense of self. It is a logical successor to Zietsch’s stunning folksy debut, 2021’s To Enjoy Is the Only Thing, which tracked the seismic shifts of leaving both a religion and a relationship.

The single Dinah is this record’s centrepiece: its colourful music video and joyful, upbeat pop sound belies its devastating content. Based on the Bible story of a young woman who is raped and then blamed for it, Zietsch’s song unpacks the lifelong impact of hearing that tale as a child, and its effects on her own trauma. It’s a pointed finger at the victim-blaming tendencies that breed a culture of silence, and the lyrics slice like a knife: “The same thing happened to me when I was only 17 / Do you think I got what I deserved?”

Don’t Kiss Me, too, is a song about consent and agency – a moving staple of Maple Glider’s live shows prior to its official release here. “Sometimes my own body doesn’t feel like my body,” Zietsch sings over slow, sumptuous backing. It’s both shattering and enraging.

But among the hurt, there is joy to be found on this record too. On the back-to-back tracks You at the Top of the Driveway and You’re Gonna Be a Daddy, Zietsch reflects on watching her brother become a father. In true millennial fashion, she sings, “I really want to be the cool aunty like I am to my best friend’s dog.” There are hints of healing in these gentle songs.

Musically, the record picks up on where Zietsch’s first album left off on tracks such as Do You, which drifts atop a fingerpicked guitar refrain, and the piano-dotted Two Years. Elsewhere, on the haunting FOMO, Zietsch channels the ethereality of artists such as Marissa Nadler and Emiliana Torrini, showing off her higher register in a tale of very contemporary existential dread. “My bank account’s not healthy and neither is my sex life,” she sings – mood.

As an artist, Zietsch understands the impact of silence – the way negative space in songs can allow meaning to expand. On Surprises, she utilises silence to great effect, incorporating pauses and breaths to fully harness the quiet power of her vocals. Her voice is as beautiful unadorned as it is when drenched in rich harmony, whether doubled with her own vocals or accompanied by others – as on the simple and crushingly lovely For You and All the Songs We Loved.

I Get Into Trouble is a generous and deeply emotional record that embodies what Zietsch does so well: offering the listener a window into her most vulnerable thoughts, while also holding a mirror to the social structures that have led her there. Through this album, Zietsch bears witness to both herself and the world”.

Let’s end with The Line of Best Fit and their assessment of I Get Into Trouble. Awarding it 8 out of 10, they were very keen to show love the stunning Maple Glider and an album that you will not forget in a hurry! I am  fairly new to her work, though I am not resolved to stick with her and see how her career progresses:

“With her follow-up, I Get Into Trouble, the Australian tunesmith continues to revel in lush hooks, evocative textures, and sensual vocals. Additionally, Zietsch’s new songs address complex subjects such as abuse, religion, and relational ambivalence, never collapsing into easy truisms or comfortable stereotypes. The result is a sophomore release that is compelling from start to finish.

“Dinah” offers an anti-Rockwellian take on church life, including the story of a friend who was raped (“she said no but he did not listen”). Zietsch goes on to declare, “the same thing happened to me”. The track is a milestone for Zietsch, exemplifying how her melodic sense has deepened, how her vignettes are more fleshed-out and accessible. Also, Zietsch delivers her wry social critique via a buoyant melody that Karen Carpenter would envy. The creepiness of the tale, contrasted with a bubblegum-ish tune, is brought into stark relief.

“Two Years” is one of Zietsch’s more sultry vocal takes. The singer attempts to leave a relationship after a year but is talked into staying (“I tried to leave and you said / baby please let’s sink into this new thing”). The same thing happens at the two-year mark. Zietsch’s dreamy melody again aptly contrasts with her portrait of a person who is unable to marshal her energies, exit a relationship, and claim the life she wants. The song stands as a startling yet pop-inflected commentary on “settling”.

As with many of the tracks on I Get Into Trouble, “Don’t Kiss Me” lends itself to various interpretations. Zietsch’s narrative may address child abuse but may, on the other hand, more generally convey how PTSD can play a role in any romance. While Zietsch’s debut brimmed with intriguing images and insights, she rarely struck this level of refinement – capturing how desire and aversion can coexist, making for a psychologically (and sexually) complicated situation. Replete with a chorus that references dissociation vis a vis an earworm melody (“Sometimes my own body / doesn’t feel like my own body”), “Don’t Kiss Me” is one of 2023’s more riveting tracks.

On “You’re Gonna Be a Daddy”, Zietsch congratulates a friend or ex-lover on entering into fatherhood while questioning her own trajectory (“Lately I’ve had this worried feeling / like time is gaining meaning without you in my life”). The melody is laidback and lowkey yet enticing, supported by steamy back-up vocals. “I just want to get to know you”, Zietsch sings, though one has the feeling that this probably won’t happen. “Do You” similarly portrays a relationship that gravitates toward estrangement, Zietsch’s voice soaring above a foundation of light percussion and understated synths.

Zietsch taps into a Hollywood theme-song vibe on closer “Scream”, still exuding an outsider energy. When she reflects, “While everybody else is sleeping in their beds / I’m speaking to myself to get the words out of my head”, Midwife’s moribund diarism comes to mind. Zietsch, however, is less direct, more oblique, poetic. In terms of production, Weyes Blood’s recent mixes are a possible comparison, the cleaner, less murky soundscape lightening the mood, even as the lyrics point to an imminent crisis. The song serves as an ongoing reminder of Zietsch’s attunement to lyrical, energetic, and sonic paradoxes, her knack for forging fertile juxtapositions.

To Enjoy Is the Only Thing was an exciting introduction to Zietsch’s aesthetic. I Get Into Trouble, however, documents how in the course of two years Zietsch has evolved considerably, in terms of vision and craft. Alongside a natural tendency to sustain tensions and avoid convenient certainties – what the poet Keats called negative capability – is a sophisticated pop flair. With I Get Into Trouble, Zietsch emerges as one of the more eloquent singer-songwriters of her generation”.

A sensational and important artist who we need to follow and support, go and check out Maple Glider and listen to I Get Into Trouble. I am sure that she will be in the U.K. and beyond soon enough. There is a lot of love for her over here. No wonder! You only need to listen to a few minutes of I Get Into Trouble to see that it is one of this year’s very best. This is an artist who is…

SO admired and respected.

___________

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FEATURE: The Pride of Tyne and Wear: Celebrating the Stage Return of the Incomparable Queen Nadine Shah

FEATURE:

 

 

The Pride of Tyne and Wear

Celebrating the Stage Return of the Incomparable Queen Nadine Shah

_________

MAYBE the tickets…

will be sold out by the time this goes live but, if there are some left and you are near Brighton or Glasgow, you can see the divine Nadine Shah perform later this month. She is at Chalk, Brighton on 19th; King Tut’s, Glasgow on 29th. It is a chance to see one of our greatest artists back on stage after a bit of a time away. The Whitburn-born (Sunderland) artist is one of my absolute favourites. Her latest studio album, Kitchen Sink, came out in 2020. New music, Shah has posted, is coming along soon. I wanted to celebrate that fact. I will come to Kitchen Sink and a bit of publicity around that. I will also mention her 2022 debut acting turn in A Midsummer Night's Dream, where she won critical applause. It is fascinating seeing artists like Shah, Rebecca Lucy Taylor (Self Esteem), and even Cheryl (Cole) stepping into acting and getting this curiosity and acclaim. I don’t need much of an excuse to spotlight and spend time with Nadine Shah’s music. As she is an actress and is coming back to the musical stage, it is an exciting and different time! I am going to finish with a look at each of Shah’s four albums and reviews for them all. I am starting out with this interview that she gave late last year to promote her turn in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

“Imagine you’ve never acted before, but you’re on your way to rehearsals for a new production of a Shakespeare classic where you’ll be playing a central role.

Anyone else’s heart rate just gone up a notch?

Add to that the knowledge that the ‘riotous’ incarnation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream – where you’ll be playing Fairy Queen, Titania opposite the voice of Bafta Award-winning David Morrissey by the way – will be the first play to hit the stage at a spanking new Shakespeare-devoted venue, and I think anyone would forgiven for doing some kind of runner before they’d had time to hang up their coat.

Thankfully, Nadine Shah required no such forgiveness, having embraced the above opportunity with a big dollop of gusto.

Despite professing to be ‘absolutely knackered’ thanks to the demanding performance schedule she’s currently keeping, the joy she’s getting from the experience shines through as she Zooms in for a chat from her Liverpool digs.

“There’s something really special about the theatre. I love being a part of it, and I have a newfound respect for theatre actors, they work damn hard,” laughs the 36-year-old who hails from South Tyneside.

“The reason I love my job as a musician is that I love working really hard on something creative and delivering it to an audience to bring them joy. At its bare bones, that’s what my work is about. And that’s exactly what this play does,” she adds.

But back to the decision to take the role in the first place.

“I’d had a lot of time off work because I was very unwell. I don’t want to say too much about it, but I needed to take a few months off to mend,” she says.

IN THIS PHOTO: Nadine Shah in rehearsals for A Midsummer Night’s Dream

During this period of recovery, Nadine was contacted by director Matthew Dunster who was working with Jimmy Fairhurst, artistic director of ‘gig’ theatre company, Not Too Tame on a new production of Shakespeare’s dreamy comedy.

The play – a co-production with Northern Stage in Newcastle – would be the opening attraction for the Shakespeare North Playhouse (a new venue in Prescott, Merseyside) before coming for a two-week run on Tyneside.

“It was never something I was looking for – I’ve never acted in my life aside from possibly a couple of minor roles in school plays and had zero ambitions to do so,” says Nadine.

“But it transpired that Matthew – with his impeccable taste in music – had been a fan of mine for a long time and thought that I would be a good fit for Titania.”

Nadine says she couldn’t have considered taking the role before taking her much-needed time away… but the invitation came at exactly the right time.

IN THIS PHOTO: David Nellist as Theseus with Shah’s Titania/PHOTO CREDIT: Patch Dolan

“I wanted to challenge myself and this was something completely out of my comfort zone. I loved the idea of the structure of theatre and getting back into something that I had to work really hard on.”

Known for mining her own life experiences for her music, the chance to inhabit another character also appealed.

“As much as I might deny it, all my songs are about me and my life. It can be quite tiring and sometimes overwhelming exhibiting my personal life on stage night after night. That’s possibly why I got so poorly,” she says.

“There’s something really joyous about playing somebody else for a change… and have the permission to play.

“I was always very concerned with looking cool and never wanting to make myself look silly or daft. Theatre allows you to play – to be daft, to be silly, to explore all these different things within yourself. There’s a great freedom which comes with that and I love it.”

Billed as a ‘full tilt, full on night out’ the production, which opens at Northern Stage on Saturday (Oct 27) has had a lovely reception from reviewers and critics alike.

“Not Too Tame are my kind of theatre company,” says Nadine.

PHOTO CREDIT: Patch Dolan

“They don’t want the theatre to be intimidating and their focus is for people to enjoy themselves and have a great night out.

“But there’s no dumbing down of Shakespeare whatsoever. It’s a beautifully chaotic production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which has daft and silly and dark and harrowing… and so much beauty.”

And don’t forget the music. It would have been downright silly to have Nadine Shah in the cast and not ask her to sing something.

She laughs.

“There’s loads of me singing in it. Sometimes I’ll be leaving the theatre and an audience member will stop me and say ‘you have got an amazing voice’ and I just want to go, ‘yeah, I know, but what about my acting?’”.

Prior to coming to a review for Kitchen Sink, I wanted to drop in one of the many interviews around its release. I would advise people to look at some of the others. In a great questions-and-answers chat with Jude Rogers for Observer New Review, we get some great insights into the album – in addition to an order/shipment issue that could have destroyed Nadine Shah’s wrists!

“Nadine Shah, 34, was born in South Tyneside to a British-Norwegian mother and British-Pakistani father. Since her 2013 debut, Love Your Dum and Mad, her albums have explored mental health, Islamophobia, the refugee crisis and feminism through post-punk, gothic pop, and her blackly comic personality. Holiday Destination (2018) was nominated for the Mercury prize, and her fourth album, Kitchen Sink, is out 26 June.

What’s it like releasing an album in the time of Covid-19?

It’s strange, and I’m sad, obviously, as I was really looking forward to playing live to support it. I had a great slot at Glastonbury, this massive dream, on a great stage at a great time, and the idea of all those people who could have come to see me, or chanced upon me, not happening… I don’t want to think about, really. But being stuck at home means I’ve got social media at my fingertips, and I’ve been seeing who’s reacting to my songs. Lots of people have been tweeting about my singles. That’s been great.

PHOTO CREDIT: Katherine Anne Rose/The Observer

How are you finding lockdown?

I’m glad I’m in Ramsgate by the sea, where I live with my boyfriend, but I miss my band. We’ve all been on WhatsApp giving each other advice about emergency grants and musicians’ funds. I’m also sick of celebrities tweeting at us from their huge gardens reminding us to breathe, going [dreamy American accent] “this is the time to learn Italian, to do your sabbatical”. For most people, managing to maintain relationships and friendships and not bursting into tears all the time is enough, love.

You tweeted recently that you got 20,000 copies of Kitchen Sink sent to your flat to sign for your fans, instead of 200. What happened?

It was hilarious, not that my boyfriend thought so at 6.30am when there was a lorry driver at our door. I was pretending to be asleep [laughs]. There were actually only 8,000 when I counted them, but looking at all those records was interesting, thinking: “I’ve made this, I’m really proud of it, but how much money that people pay for it will actually come back to me?” Hardly anything. It made me want to sell them off the balcony! They’ve gone back to Germany now, though. We can get into our living room again.

Kitchen Sink’s cover art is of 70s party food, shot in Technicolor. What was its inspiration?

Abigail’s Party. I loved the idea of the bored housewife, all manic and vibrant, stuck at home while her husband was at work, going mad on the Blue Nun, feeding her frustrations into this outpouring of creativity. Women still feel those feelings. There’s this idea that the sexual revolution and 70s feminism changed everything for women, but it didn’t, especially in places outside trendy London. Oh, I must mention the 70s dinner party Twitter feed that influenced me too. It’s full of food in the shape of other food. Look! A salmon quiche in the shape of a pineapple!

The new album has lots of lyrics about being a woman, and getting older. Why make a pop album about that?

Because it’s something women have to think about all the time, but you never hear songs about it. You say your age to some people, and they’re already raising their eyebrows, going “tick-tock”. Don’t you think that’s already on my mind? Don’t you realise some people might not want kids? Or can’t? Or might have tried? Or might have lost babies already? I did a lot of research for this album last year, which was basically talking to female friends in pubs. It’s amazing how much shit we all put up with.

There are also songs about gaslighting, catcalling, and women being infantilised by men. The female protagonists often take back power. Was that important to you?

Yes. I really wanted to take back power in a celebratory way, and I wanted its sound to be joyous too, not dour or mournful, and good to dance to. I worried early on about alienating men with some of the songs, to be honest, then I realised all the men I knew were brilliant, and never would. If anyone takes offence to anything on Kitchen Sink, they’re the one with the problem, not me.

You’ve been tweeting a lot in recent weeks in support of the Black Lives Matter protests. What is like for you, living in this moment?

It’s made me think of the Asian community I grew up in, and some of the things people I knew said about black people, and the hierarchy of racism that exists. I’ve had some brilliant conversations with my father, who’s starting to realise the real weight of some of things he might have casually said about the black community. When I’ve spent the last week watching people I usually agree with calling others scumbags on Twitter – which is hypocritical, and perpetuates the hatred – these conversations [like the ones she had with her father] give me hope. They’re long overdue. I hope they don’t stop.

You presented the Q awards in 2019 to much fanfare, and you’ve also been doing a series of Instagram live interviews, Payback, in which you interview music critics. Was this purely out of devilment?

Yes! Not really. I’ve just always found it weird to be asked a lot of questions in an interview, and not be expected to ask any back. Quite often, I’ve had a drink with a journalist afterwards, and I’ve been so nosy: “Ooh, who’s the worst person you’ve interviewed, then?” That’s always great to hear. This isn’t going to be a new direction for me, though, unless something happens organically, or I get really skint. Actually, I probably will be after all this, so call me up, BBC Breakfast!”

I think that Kitchen Sink was the best album of 2020. I think it should have been shortlisted for the Mercury Prize! Regardless, the fourth studio album from Nadine Shah may be her very best. The reviews for Kitchen Sink were all hugely positive. It was massively acclaimed. This is what The Line of Best Fit noted about the sublime, powerful and hugely interesting Kitchen Sink:

“Intensity is the word that comes to mind when I think about Nadine Shah.

Intensity of purpose, of sound, of vision…everything about Nadine Shah screams intensity. Her humour is coal-black and morbid, her music is challenging and muscular, and her unique perspective on the human condition is incomparable. Nadine Shah is intensity, personified.

Her favourite artist of all time? Scott Walker. Her favourite Talking Heads album? Naked. The artists she’s frequently compared to? Nick Cave, PJ Harvey and other neo-noir hardboiled Goth-ites. These aren’t things one should take lightly, and although they’re clear indicators, these factoids can’t really prepare you for the onslaught Shah delivers on Kitchen Sink.

PHOTO CREDIT: Fraser Taylor

That Talking Heads album – frequently overlooked because of just how draining it is – informs the opening salvo, “Club Cougar”, with its blaring brass and thunderous rhythms. It’s the first sign that you need to strap yourself in, and Shah just increases the pressure relentlessly throughout this excellent record: the guitars throughout the album are aggressive and sharp-edged, the bass is consistently robust and roaring, and rhythms are serpentine and oppressive - barely a moment goes by that you aren’t feeling Shah’s own claustrophobia, the weight of her own aging bearing down on your shoulders. The haunting, open-sky, Wild West terror of “Kite” is one such track that just oozes existential doom, from its ringing synths to its dizzying guitar – it’s like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo, reimagined by Cormac McCarthy and brought to life by a Geordie goth. The demons you meet there on the prairie are real.

“Buckfast” is a loose Berlin blues, with dead eyes, open mouth and a lurching gait – this is “Sister Midnight” as written by Sylvia Plath or Shirley Jackson. 1977 Iggy informs the swinging rhythm of “Trad”, but this time the slack-jawed, sweat-slicked Lust for Life speed demon. Elsewhere, the chiming indie rock of “Ukrainian Wine” carries hints of the Velvet Underground, and the steamy, rubbery grooves of “Dillydally” instantly evoke Can, and David Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. All of these complementary flavours combine to a truly satisfying whole: this is Shah’s fourth, and best, album.

Earlier I said that intensity is the thing that comes to mind when you think about Nadine Shah, and in all seriousness, it’s probably just because she seems to feel things so intensely. Aging, and motherhood, and society, and femininity – all weaponised and handled with aggression and raw power. Shah isn’t angry, nor is she raging against anything in particular, but her clear-eyed sense of perception just skewers humanity, with all of our strengths, all of our flaws. Nadine Shah is an equal-opportunity misanthrope, and she’s coming for you, whether you like it or not”.

I am going to round off with a look at Nadine Shah’s stunning four studio albums. I wanted to wish her luck for her upcoming gigs! It is not an exaggeration to say that she is one of our most treasured and astonishing artists. A vital voice and incredible human. It is amazing that new music will come soon. Maybe a fifth studio album will be on the way in 2024. I also hope that Shah gets time to revive her interview series, Payback. It will be fascinating to see how her acting career develops and progresses after her triumphant stage debut! She is one of the country’s greatest artists. That excellent news yesterday (12th October) that that there are gigs and new music has been met with love and a sense of real relief and happiness. If you are new to Nadine Shah and wonder whether you should invest in her music (an absolute yes!), below are details about her four albums. It goes to show how she has developed as an artist over the past decade. Someone that holds so much respect in the music industry, the marvelous Ms. Shah is definitely…

A national treasure.

___________

Love Your Dum and Mad

Release Date: 22nd July, 2013

Producer: Ben Hillier

Label: Apollo Records

Buy: https://nadineshah.bandcamp.com/album/love-your-dum-and-mad

Standout Tracks: To Be a Young Man/Runaway/Floating

Review:

“Nadine Shah has already dealt two mortal wounds with her Aching Bones and Dreary Town EPs, but that’s not enough for the Whitburn (a quaint coastal village in Tyne & Wear for non-northerners) singer-songwriter. Her killing blow will be Love Your Dum and Mad, her full-length debut. Already various corners of the internet are palpably fizzing with anticipation, waiting for what’s sure to be a revolutionary, incendiary debut.

Shah’s Norwegian mother, the daughter of a sea captain, was swept off her feet by a gentleman from Pakistan. Shah grew up gazing upon the stony outcrops submerged in the North Sea from her precarious cliff-top home, and her father would sing Urdu ghazals and Sufi hymns, filling the house with music. It’s a mysterious, fantastical start to her story that could be penned by some golden-age of silver-screen romance peddler. It’s a colourful tale of origin, but it sort of explains her sound – as do her arm-length list of influences. She’s inspired by frequent comparison Nick Cave (she told us back in November that she’s not at all bothered by the oft-mentioned similarities), Frida Kahlo, PJ Harvey, Black Flag and Philip Larkin, to name a few.

Produced by Ben Hillier (Depeche Mode, The Horrors), Shah’s long-awaited debut is finally upon us. ‘Dreary Town’, from the EP of the same name, makes an appearance. Cyclic, waltzing piano forges with desolate guitar plucks, the two nervously harmonising underneath Shah’s tempestuous torrent of emotion. It’s like the soundtrack to a deranged fairground, executed by a sombre organ-grinder and a sulking monkey. There’s a Zola Jesus-y twang, minus the electronics, in that it’s operatic, haunting and performed with gusto. Also appearing is ‘Aching Bones’, again from the EP of the same name. The cut’s a post-industrial paean, throbbing bass and clanking metal provide a vital rhythm that provides a spine for Shah’s possessed wail. She sings like a woman on the brink of giving up, allowing herself to succumb to agony – it’s a visceral glimpse into her brooding world.

The other efforts on the record are just as stellar as what we’ve already heard. ‘The Devil’ creaks with macabre guitar hooks, warped beyond rescue. It’s a shadowy tango, seemingly flecked with Iberian influences and the passionate, forceful rhythm. Her voice, trembling as if performing at a Baudelairian cabaret, is the tangible river through what is otherwise a largely electronic cut. ‘To Be A Young Man’ is washed with a post-punk brush, bringing those Nick Cave references to the forefront via Gothic, hopeless lyrics: “Now we’re stalking nine to fives in monotonous routine/ and any hope we had seems distant and obscene.” It’s vaguely grunge-y; distortion-laded guitars and nerve-wracked acoustic six-stringers writhe in harmonious terror, and Shah’s shellshocked croon feels weighed down by ash and dust in her throat.

Nadine Shah’s first foray into the world of LPs is an aural siege. Her unrelenting bouts of emotion don’t leave much space for breathing, and quite frequently you’ll be sucked into a vortex of spiralling despair; in a way, her sounds are claustrophobic. What originally appears to be quite simple, basic instrumentation (voice, piano, occasional guitar or synth), soon reveals itself to be something quite different. There are thick textures and engorged melodies that swell and bloat until they begin to choke you; but Shah doesn’t let up the assault. Her smoky, emotional noxious smog struggles to clear. She’ll hold you under the water with her voice until the last bubble bursts. And you won’t even try to stop her.

It’s utterly magnetic. There are few albums that will make you experience so many emotions concurrently, and even fewer that will still give you chills hours later. Even though it may be tough to swallow some of the brutish feeling, it’s an exceptional record” – The Line of Best Fit

Key Cut: Dreary Town

Fast Food

Release Date: 6th April, 2015

Producer: Ben Hillier

Label: Apollo Records

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fast-Food-Nadine-Shah/dp/B00SHTH1P8

Standout Tracks: Fast Food/Matador/Stealing Cars

Review:

“Nadine Shah’s problem is not really a problem yet. At the moment, the fact that she imparts her songs with such stark believability doesn’t matter, as it’s easy enough to believe that her subject matter comes from first hand experience.

But if she does take her songwriting into realms away from biographical adventure, she’s going to run into the PJ Harvey effect, when people come up in and remark how well she looks for being a supercentenarian veteran of the Galliopli campaign.

For the moment though, her second album keeps things grounded. What doesn’t take long is for ‘Fast Food’ to remind you how good a voice Shah has: the kind of soulful, howling instrument that should you be sat on a rotating seat with a button in front and the wreckage of your career behind, you’d say helps to makes songs her own.

Not that Shah needs much help owning these tracks. Much like the debut, there’s an intensely personal slant to this album. Unlike the debut, there are a few more patches of light in and amongst the storm clouds.

‘Divided’ is subtle and folky, all acoustic strums and plaintive yearning. ‘Matador’ is hushed and restrained while still brooding dramatically. Even ‘Stealing Cars’, with Nick Webb’s clanging guitar battering away like an irate blacksmith on a short deadline has a certain romantic tenderness to it.

Although, this far from being a loved up, picnics and slow walks in the park record. Shah can still do spiteful with the best of them - ‘Fool’ in particular is a brilliantly scathing pinpoint character assassination.

So it’s sweet, it’s sour, it’s angry, it’s reflective, ‘Fast Food’ is pretty successful in capturing the ups and downs of complicated relationships. The fact it manages that in a way which is neither hackneyed or predictable is near miraculous” – DIY

Key Cut: Fool

Holiday Destination

Release Date: 25th August, 2017

Producer: Ben Hillier

Label: 1965

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/nadine-shah/holiday-destination

Standout Tracks: Out the Way/Evil/Ordinary

Review:

“Holiday Destination is Nadine Shah's third record, and it's the one that sees her emerge from the ubiquitous PJ Harvey and Nick Cave comparisons most fully. Certainly, as far as Harvey and Shah's music is compared, there are certain aesthetic and thematic crossovers, but the latter's political concerns feel acutely direct and personal compared to the more conceptual nature of Harvey's later work. With this latest record she tackles big and troubling issues apparent both in her native U.K. and around the world, yet those heavy themes are consistently met with a playful, limber, and imaginative musicality. Opener "A Place Like This" pairs funk rhythms with pro-refugee protest chants, and "2016" speaks of "Fascists in the Whitehouse" among nimble guitar riffs and a crisp, disjointed beat. The bracing lead single "Out the Way" is a frank cautionary tale about the rise of nationalism and the treatment of second generation immigrants -- "Where would you have me go?/I'm second generation/Don't you know?" -- and its jittery, marching rhythm, vibrating guitar, and lunging sax feed into the urgency and importance of the narrative. The title track was inspired by news footage of holiday makers in Greece complaining of the refugee crisis' effect on their break, and still its danceability doesn't detract from the troubling lyrical content, which warns, "Fatalities in the water/traffic jam by your side/feed your son, feed your daughter/how you gonna sleep tonight?/the bad guys they are winning." Unlike her previous records, which were recorded live, Shah has described Holiday Destination as a studio album. However, there is little to fear in terms of this record being too polished, as it's lost none of the character of her previous efforts. "Yes Men" is an example of light production touches serving the songs beautifully as Shah's vocal is repositioned to the fore. The pace is slowed, but not at the expense of impact -- her voice admonishes sycophants who peddle lies in service to their own agenda with a rich sensory power. It's an album filled with wonderful moments from the delicious grooves of "Evil" to "Mother Fighter's" entrancing hooks, and they only ever serve to deepen Shah's message. To have made this collection as musically grim as the problems she addresses could have left a sense of hopelessness ringing in the air. But this lively and spirited musical landscape celebrates music's ability to unite as much as it eloquently protests division” – AllMusic

Key Cut: Holiday Destination

Kitchen Sink

Release Date: 26th June, 2020

Producer: Ben Hillier

Label: Infectious

Buy: https://hmv.com/store/music/vinyl/kitchen-sink-limited-edition-orange-vinyl?gclid=Cj0KCQjw1aOpBhCOARIsACXYv-eylBMWtAA4iWFsg_f6FaI2BX2TXh4ZHYaHRTGYBMVg8x_EmM-LODQaAkbGEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Standout Tracks: Club Cougar/Ladies for Babies (Goats for Love)/Prayer Mat

Review:

“Nadine Shah’s last album, the Mercury-nominated ‘Holiday Destination’, was a searing response to the political turmoil caused by Brexit and Trump. This was a topic that Shah was perfectly suited to tackling, being an intelligent, outspoken and feminist songwriter, but it did often mean that her songs – while brilliant – were dark and brooding. Her new album, ‘Kitchen Sink’, is once again political, but is about women’s place in the world, the infinite different lives they lead, and the difficulties of being a strong female. While it goes to some dark places, Shah is able to have a lot more fun as she embodies all these different female experiences.

This is obvious right from the jump, as ‘Club Cougar’ places her out on the town, being chatted up by a young man whom she laughs off: “Your conversation makes me abhor ya.” Her band rises to match her sneering glee, providing swaggering brass fanfare to which she adds ironic catcalls – a truly superb opening to the record. This instrumental prowess remains through the majority of ‘Kitchen Sink’, the band revelling in the opportunity to be more expressive and outrageous in tandem with Shah’s stories.

‘Buckfast’ is a perfect example, as they back Shah’s story of a drunken man gaslighting his partner with a skronking and slightly lopsided jazz-rock, portraying his physical and mental instability. In ‘Trad’ Shah is embodying a woman who is desperate to please her man – “shave my legs / freeze my eggs” – and the band provide a lightly danceable rock bop, before the singer declares her readiness for holy matrimony in the chorus, the band giving the song a divine lift through a subtle layer of brass. ‘Walk’ has lightly dextrous percussion that puts us in the shoes of a woman who is simply out for a stroll, but finds herself “swerving perverts” and being watched by “prying eyes” – the rising discomfort and anger brilliantly reflected by buzzing synth textures, while flute animates her picking up the pace to get away.

Central to the whole album is the title track, where Shah takes up the traditional housewife role, bored of what her neighbours think – “Forget about the curtain twitchers / Gossiping boring bunch of bitches.” The band provide echoing jabs of guitar, like thoughts bouncing around her benumbed skull as she watches with pure apathy: “I just let them pass me by.”

The 11 tracks on ‘Kitchen Sink’ each take on an internal perspective of an entirely different life, made vivid through detailed instrumentation – and describing them in words is only scratching the surface. The very idea of a ‘kitchen sink drama’ is to reflect real life and offer some kind of understanding for the personalities within them. That’s exactly what Nadine Shah’s new album does, and the only way to earn that empathy for all the women she portrays is to invest some time in listening to it” - 8/10” – CLASH

Key Cut: Kitchen Sink

FEATURE: Smells Like Pre-Teen Spirit: Teachers Putting Grunge and Contemporary Rap in the Spotlight

FEATURE:

 

 

Smells Like Pre-Teen Spirit

Teachers Putting Grunge and Contemporary Rap in the Spotlight

_________

AT a time…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Soundgarden

when music is being faded off of the curriculum in schools and colleges, we need to take every opportunity we can to put it back in! It is vital that children get the chance to play an instrument and start a path that leads them into the music industry. The social impact of certain genres and albums is huge. Rather than see it as purely music, one could see these iconic and world-changing releases as part of history. Therefore, I think that there is so much to music that should be integrated throughout education. Not that it is only Grunge and Rap being brought into secondary schools. As The Guardian write in their feature, Oak National will introduce Grunge and Rap into new lesson aids:

“Any teacher who likes to sing along to Nirvana will soon be encouraged to get their pupils rocking to the Seattle grunge sound of the 1990s in lessons.

Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and other 90s bands could be included in the new lesson aids for teachers being issued by the Oak National Academy, the government-backed creator of curriculum resources for England’s schools.

The new English resources for secondary schools will also study a more diverse selection of works, including Andrea Levy’s award-winning novel Small Island, while the history curriculum includes units on “interpreting the British empire”.

Oak National grew out of online lessons developed for schools doing remote learning during the Covid pandemic, but has since bloomed, with the Department for Education (DfE) offering model teaching plans and other classroom resources such as slides, quizzes and worksheets, with the aim of reducing teacher workload.

In preparing its pop music resources to match the secondary school music curriculum, a spokesperson for Oak National said, “we decided to look in detail at some specific styles rather than take a generic approach, so we have looked at 80s pop and disco, 90s grunge and contemporary rap, for example”.

“Grunge was not only really popular in the 90s, it was influential both socially and musically,” the spokesperson added, with the impact of Nirvana and their lead singer, Kurt Cobain continuing to be felt in the following decades, despite his death in 1994.

The model curricula will also keep purists happy with detailed strands on the western classical tradition and music from other cultures, as well as music from influential video games, allowing teachers and schools to choose the repertoire they want to cover in class.

“We’ve tried to offer a diverse and balanced range of different styles covering different eras of music and show them an example of how we think they work together,” the spokesperson said.

The new English literature curriculum includes the work of Black British author Winsome Pinnock, whose play Leave Taking has this year been added to the GCSE syllabus, alongside more traditional choices such as Chaucer and Shakespeare, as part of an effort to ensure Oak’s English curricula represents the diversity of modern life.

In history, teachers will be able to access resources on controversial debates over decolonisation and perceptions of the British empire, with topics including “imperial decline” and “imperial anxiety and celebration of empire”, as well as commemoration and contestation of the British empire.

Matt Hood, the chief executive of Oak National, said: “We have selected topics that, when taken together, give pupils a rich understanding of the world and allow them to participate as educated citizens in modern society”.

Whilst there has been criticisms and doubts about these plans from Oak National and Department for Education (DfE), I do think it is especially important that any music is kept alive in schools. I hope that this plan rolls out to high schools. Many children in secondary schools might not know about genres like Grunge and why it is important. How bands like Nirvana were impactful when they were around. How they are still important now. If many people want a more traditional and classic lesson structure and way of education, times are changing. Things will be phased out whereas other things come through. I feel education needs to adapt and evolve through time. It is not going to be the case that teachers are playing Grunge and Rap tracks and using lessons to just play music and learn nothing from it. Artists like Pearl Jam will be used as aids. It is interesting that this has come in – and where it may well lead. I think that it is tragic that music as a standard lesson will be phased out! This comes at an interesting time. Since 2021, there has been a decline of students studying music at school. This article explains more:

“Although the numbers of students studying music at GCSE and A-Level in 2021 were pretty similar to 2020 – indeed, the number of students taking music GCSE went up slightly – figures for the last decade show a steady decline.

In its statement, UK Music compares 2021 figures to 2014. In that time there has been a 16.8% decline in the number of students taking music GCSE, despite an overall rise in the number of students taking GCSEs in general. In the same time period there was a 32.1% decline in students taking music A-Level.

In its review of the exam stats, ISM compares the 2021 figures with 2011, with declines over the full decade of 19% for GCSE and 44% for music A-Level.

The music community has long blamed the declines in students taking music at GCSE and A-Level on funding cuts and curriculum priorities in the country’s schools. And, in England in particular, the EBacc scheme used to assess the academic performance of English schools, which completely ignores creative subjects like music”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Pavel Danilyuk/Pexels

Rather than this being a tangent, I feel that incorporating music and certain genres into lessons through secondary schools in England shines a light on the role of music in education. State schools will see music fade away and phased out. There is a goldmine in the classroom when it comes to the next generation of artists and producers. Recently, Tom Watson, the Labour peer and UK Music chair, wrote for Huffington Post as to why we need to reverse the decline in music education:

“The precipitous decline in music education is fast reaching the point where learning a music instrument or how to sing professionally could soon become the preserve of the rich and the privileged.

There are some success stories such as that of Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the outstanding young cellist who played at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. He studied A-level music at a Nottingham comprehensive in a disadvantaged part of the city and defied the odds to become a BBC Young Musician of the Year and a global star.

The reality is very different for young people at most state schools. The uptake of A-level music has fallen by a catastrophic 45% in the UK since 2020 when the English Baccalaureate was introduced. It is a similarly worrying picture when it comes to those studying music for GCSE.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mikhail Nilov/Pexels

A big part of the problem is the big fall in the number of music teachers and funding cuts that have left many schools struggling to afford even the most basic of musical instruments.

There are now parts of the country where it is almost impossible for a budding musician to study A-level music.

According to a study by Birmingham City University, the rates of decline in entries are so severe that no one might be taking A-level music in just ten years.

That would be a tragedy for all the tens of thousands of children who will miss out on the joy music brings with all its benefits to health and wellbeing as well as the chance of a fulfilling career.

It would be a disaster for our cultural landscape if we are deprived of future stars that will never grace the stage at Glastonbury or join the orchestra at the Royal Opera House.

There is also the damage that it will cause to the talent pipeline of the UK music industry which has a reputation for producing performers, musicians and music professionals who contribute billions each year to our economy.

PHOTO CREDIT: Yan Krukau/Pexels

So many young people dream of singing or playing music for a career. They have the ambition, drive and talent. They just lack the opportunity.

As a first step, it is imperative we reverse the decline in music teaching in our state schools. Put simply, we need to train and recruit hundreds more music teachers with the passion and determination to make music lessons the best part of any child’s week.

Between 2010 and this year, the number of people starting initial teacher training for music has more than halved. The removal of the music teacher training bursary in 2020 means even fewer people can afford to train for the job.

As the chair of UK Music, the collective voice of the UK music industry, we are putting the need to train and hire more music teachers at the heart of UK Music’s ‘Music Manifesto’ which we will be delivering to the government tomorrow.

According to the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza, more than one in five children in England are now frequently missing school - double pre-Covid levels. Over the last academic year, Department for Education figures show 22.3% of pupils in England were persistently absent.

That’s deeply worrying. Yet we have a chance through the power of music to play a part in helping get children back in the classroom”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: PNW Production/Pexels

There is argument as to why Electronic music should be taught in schools. How Classical music should not be the preserve of the wealthy. A part of a rich and rounded education, the Department for Education set out plans as to how music education should look like in schools. It does seem there will be a decline in music education across all schools and colleges. The fact that we are talking about music being used in secondary schools in an interesting way should give hope. It provides diversity and a richness that was not there before. Same goes for the new literature they are bringing in and using as aids/for lessons. Talking about Rap and its artists past and present. Not only do children learn about the music and can connect with it. They can hear about a genre like that in a different context. The importance of learning about and celebrating Black artists. Learning about Grunge and how it was a cultural moment whose shockwaves are rippling today. Let’s hope that there is a concerted and joined-up effort to ensure music not only remains on the curriculum for students aged between, say, five and sixteen (and beyond). There needs to be assimilation of various periods of music to thew wider curriculum. Access to instruments and those resources. Using music more as a historical and social lesson. Hearing great music and making that direct connection with children. Forwarding and implementing new plans to bring Rap legends and Grunge bands like Nirvana into classes is really brilliant. I hope that it dopes happen and is not imposed. Ensuring children have this incredible resource without there being…

SOMETHING in the way.

FEATURE: The Woman in Me, The Icon in Them… Looking Ahead to a Must-Read Memoir from a Modern Pop Icon: Her Influence and Essential Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

The Woman in Me, The Icon in Them…

IMAGE CREDIT: Simon & Schuster

Looking Ahead to a Must-Read Memoir from a Modern Pop Icon: Her Influence and Essential Albums

_________

ON 24th October…

a truly fascinating and must-read memoir will be released. Britney Spears’s The Woman in Me is going to be an open and emotional read from a Pop icon! Talking about her career and conservatorship, I am interested to see how it is reviewed and what the fans think. As it stands, there are no immediate plans for her to release music and tour. It does seem like she will make that return. At the moment, with the memoir about to come out, it is a period of rest and reflect for Spears. To celebrate the book coming out, I am going to explore her legacy and status. How she is this icon whose power and appeal goes beyond her music. I will also select the three Britney Spears albums you will want to get. I will end with a definitive Britney Spears playlist. First, here are some details about a memoir that will set the record straight:

“Global megastar Britney Spears reveals all in her candid and heartfelt memoir, covering her incredible, tumultuous career, her controversial conservatorship experience and more.

The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice-her truth-was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey-and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears's groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love-and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last”.

Actually, I think I will make two playlists before wrapping up. An ultimate Britney Spears playlist. One that collates artists influenced by her. I am going to highlight her three best albums.. The ones you need to add to your collection. I think it is important, when looking to The Woman in Me, to get some background to Britney Spears. Why she should be celebrated and honoured. Someone who has had to overcome so much through the years, she has given so much to the world. Medium, in 2013, charted the highs and lows of one of Pop music’s most important figures:

“Introduction: A Glimpse into the Phenomenon

In a whirlwind of stardom and setbacks, Britney Spears has remained an indelible figure in the music industry. From her rise to fame as a teenage pop sensation to her legal battles and personal struggles, her journey has been one of triumphs and tribulations.

Early Stardom: The Baby One More Time Era

The Innocent Girl Next Door Takes the Stage

At the tender age of 16, Britney burst onto the scene with her debut single “Baby One More Time.” The catchy tune and iconic schoolgirl outfit instantly captivated hearts, making her a global sensation overnight.

Conquering the Music Charts

Britney’s album “Baby One More Time” soared to the top of the charts, solidifying her as a pop phenomenon. Her infectious energy, combined with relatable lyrics, resonated with a generation, establishing her as a cultural icon.

The Evolution: From Teen Pop to Artistic Maturity

Rebellion and Transformation (H2)

As Britney matured, so did her music. With albums like “Oops!… I Did It Again” and “Britney,” she showcased a more mature and experimental sound, breaking away from her earlier image.

The Iconic Slave 4 U Performance

Britney’s electrifying performance at the MTV Video Music Awards with her hit “I’m a Slave 4 U” marked a pivotal moment in her career. The provocative choreography and edgy persona signaled her departure from the girl-next-door image.

Public Scrutiny and Personal Battles

Love Life and Relationships Under the Spotlight

Britney’s romantic relationships often made headlines, intensifying media scrutiny. Her high-profile romances and breakups were heavily documented, impacting both her personal life and public image.

The Infamous Head-Shaving Incident

In 2007, Britney made headlines for shaving her head — an act perceived as a symbol of rebellion and distress. This incident was a poignant portrayal of the intense pressure and personal struggles she was facing.

The #FreeBritney Movement: Fans Unite for Her Freedom

Guardianship Battle and Legal Constraints

The #FreeBritney movement gained momentum as fans expressed concerns about Britney’s conservatorship. Questions surrounding her autonomy and well-being led to widespread support for her legal rights.

Britney’s Emotional Plea

In a court address, Britney emotionally detailed the challenges she faced under the conservatorship. Her heartfelt plea sparked a renewed fervor within the #FreeBritney movement and prompted a reevaluation of her situation.

Resilience and the Road Ahead

A New Chapter Unfolds (H2)

Despite the obstacles, Britney’s resilience continues to shine. She embarked on new endeavors, including a successful Las Vegas residency, demonstrating her unwavering commitment to her craft.

The Power of the Human Spirit (H2)

Britney’s journey serves as a testament to the strength of the human spirit. Her ability to triumph over adversity resonates with fans worldwide, inspiring them to overcome their own challenges.

Conclusion: A Living Legend’s Legacy

In the ever-evolving narrative of Britney Spears, we witness not only the evolution of an artist but also the embodiment of perseverance. Her story is a poignant reminder that behind the glitz and glamour lies a person fighting to reclaim her life”.

We look at modern-day icons like Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Harry Styles and other titans. I think each of them, in some way, has been inspired by Britney Spears. She has helped shape the face of modern Pop! I think her influence will spread and endure for generations. Far Out Magazine write a feature in 2021 that explained and explored how Britney Spears became the defining icon of our age:

“When she was signed to Jive Records in 1997, they set about making her “another Madonna, another Debbie Gibson, or another Tiffany.” Shortly afterwards Spears met with the Swedish pop music mastermind Max Martin at the behest of Jive and soon after she travelled to Stockholm to begin making music with him. “I had been in the studio for about six months listening and recording material, but I hadn’t really heard a hit yet,” Britney recalled in an interview with Billboard.

Adding: “When I started working with Max Martin in Sweden, he played the demo for ‘Baby One More Time’ for me, and I knew from the start it [was one] of those songs you want to hear again and again. It just felt really right. I went into the studio and did my own thing with it, trying to give it a little more attitude than the demo. In 10 days, I never even saw Sweden. We were so busy.”

Indeed, the track was a catchy pop masterpiece and coupled with the provocative video that attracted the eyes as well as ears of millions while the media fuelled the fire, a reverse bonfire of the vanities was born. With the imitable knotted shirt, you had kids all over the world getting home from school and doing their best Britney impression in front of MTV. This was a craze the likes of which the world had never seen before.

It was a craze, however, that Britney’s label could ill-afford to put on ice and let their phenom settle into stardom. There was cash to be milked. At the heart of all of this was commercialism. Some of the early songs were hits with great musicological backing and Britney’s performative skill was clear, but even the most ardent fan would agree that artistry was second place.

This was something that David Bowie mused upon a few years after the dawn of Britney when he opined: “However arrogant and ambitious I think we were in my generation, I think the idea was that if you do something really good, you’ll become famous. The emphasis on fame itself is something new. Now it’s to be famous you should do what it takes, which is not the same thing at all. And it will leave many new artists with this empty feeling.”

There was a prescience to his thinking that Britney tragically embodied. It would seem that Britney was indeed interested in artistry, however, many of those around her were more interested in fame. As a result, the image of a troubled star pushed around by labels became a central part of her image, particularly in songs like ‘Lucky’. This was something that the kids who had grown up with ‘… Baby One More Time’ clung to, as they entered their angsty teenage years and Britney’s stardom endured into the next chapter.

However, the irony was that she was still heavily controlled by labels and management as a product and even this new angle of a troubled star was manufactured by them like some MTV Kafkaesque version of the Truman Show. She had tricky public breakups with other former Mickey Mouse Club stars in the form of Justin Timberlake and her plights were heavily publicised for profits. In an era where angst was fetishized with pop-punk and moody teen shows, this all seemed part of the appeal.

For years, the hits continued and as she got older the sexualised element of her act was less controversial and more readily at the forefront. During this period Britney embodied the prime entertainment that ran alongside the rather more questionable elements of the MTV pinnacle. She was, in short, a star. She had everything in her arsenal in an era where you didn’t just need to be able to tick every box but invent new ones or push the limits of existing ones as you went along. Tracks like ‘Toxic’ were not only rousing bops, but they had unforgettable videos to go along with them and the live TV Madonna snogs to keep them relevant.

As Britney got older and her continued success reached overwhelming heights, she grew more concerned with gaining control of her own life. This proved to be a fractious process and the first rumblings of controversy began. During this period, she became engaged with the dancer Kevin Federline in a whirlwind three-month romance. Even this process was broadcast for profits with the reality show Britney and Kevin: Chaotic. The star would later reflect on this in 2013 and call it “the worst thing I’ve done in my career.” The show and the sorry aftermath embodied the reality side of reality TV. This wasn’t merely chaotic entertainment; it was frenzied happenings of someone’s life.

Soon after Britney became pregnant and thereafter the stresses of motherhood only made matters worse for her. In the intervening months, she hit headlines for driving while holding her son in one arm and thereafter the infamous head-shaving moment occurred. The subsequent media attention gave very little thought to potential, if not highly probable, postnatal depression, indicative of the highly salacious nature of the press in the pre-phone tapping era. In fact, even 20 years prior, this almost would’ve been seen as standard reckless superstar behaviour and put down as a titbit on page nine.

Up until this point, Britney’s fame had proved unassailable, however, now the same forces that had built her up were happy to leave her behind and move on. Her stardom was saved by the ardent core fanbase that she had built up over the years. This legion of supporters not only loved her music and performances, but they identified with her struggles.

For years, Britney has since sustained this core fanbase without ever really rising to the top of the pop circles as new blood came through. Recently, however, she defined our cultural narrative once more as her conservatorship case unfurled publicly. More so than the case itself, what was most notable about the trial from a sociological point of view was how much of the impetus came from the internet and fan groups. The hashtag FreeBritney movement was a central force showing how the axis of power has switched towards social media in the modern age.

Hopefully, her recent success in court can bring some much need calm to a life that has been beleaguered by the grubby hands of commercialism that have pushed and pulled at the star since she was 14 years old, if not before. As a performer, she offered up a boon to millions who celebrated not only her music but her resilience amid an unforgiving society and as such, she became a true icon of our age like Marilyn Monroe before her. In an era where the notion of celebrity has almost outstripped conventional forms of social mobility and artistry, the buzzword for her life is undoubtedly: fame”.

If Britney Spears’s success and accomplishments have inspired a generation of artists who have followed, her struggles and battles have shown that it is a complex career. Being an artist is fraught with perils and personal invasions. Time wrote a feature about how her legacy goes beyond the music. In recent years, Spears has tried to put music out and engage with fans more. It seems that her label have been holding her back. Spears has been criticised for videos she posts on Instagram of her dancing (often with very little clothing). She slams those who criticise her but celebrate male artists whose music videos are provocative. How there are double standards, haters and those who will always been against her. Having to battle against so many people is taking its toll. Even so, I think that The Woman in Me is a rare opportunity for unfiltered and unchecked balance and honesty from Britney Spears:

“Pop songwriting is more laden with mythology than most entertainment products; credits can include people charged with writing toplines (vocal melodies), snatches of melody, or even bits that sound like already-existing hits (a la Right Said Fred’s credit for a borrowed cadence on Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do”). Run down the credits of Spears’ albums and you’ll see her name pop up under the lists of songwriters. What that actually might mean is fairly opaque; she could have written an entire song or just a line.

Still, Britney Spears wouldn’t be Britney Spears without the outsized, appealing personality at the megastar’s nucleus. Martin was onto something when he said he would “use [Spears’] qualities appropriately,” even if the phrasing does give one pause in the context of her present life under conservatorship. Over the years, her catalog has been studded with songs that reflect the facets of the singular traits at which she’s offered glimpses. Her 2011 comeback single “Hold It Against Me” pivots on a pickup line that sounded dated in the swingers’ era four decades prior–”If I said I want your body now, would you hold it against me?”–but her attitude, half-winking, half-serious, makes it work. Tracks like the defiant “Stronger” and the hip-shaking “Overprotected,” meanwhile, showed off her inner strength, presaging her recent courage in speaking out against her current situation. And other pieces of her catalog, particularly in the depths of special-edition bonus tracks, show off her personality’s quirks and depth, from the loopy 2016 track “If I’m Dancing” to the chilling video for her 2004 single “Everytime.”

This was why her performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, during which she sleepwalked through the brooding Blackout opener “Gimme More,” was such a blow for fans. That show, which followed a string of highly publicized personal challenges exacerbated by the cruel tabloid landscape of the era—felt like a sign that Spears’ spirit, which had propelled her into the American mainstream, had been if not snuffed out, at least misplaced.

Blackout, which contained production and songwriting contributions from the likes of Pharrell Williams (with his duo The Neptunes) and “Toxic” hitmakers Bloodshy & Avant, was hailed upon its release, presaging the synth-heavier, moodier sounds embraced by the likes of Kanye West on 808s & Heartbreak and Lady Gaga on The Fame. While Spears was reportedly more in control on that record than any other, Blackout succeeds in part because she’s a mysterious presence at its core, her signature wail refracted by effects and shrouded in synths. The shadowy vibe reflects the atmosphere surrounding her at the time, with songs like the glitchy paparazzi rebuke “Piece of Me” and the spare synth pop banger “Radar” feeling of the always-on digital age.

Since Blackout, Spears has released four albums, all of which have sold well; their reception, though, seems to parallel just how weird she can get on them. The lead single from 2013’s Britney Jean, the brittle “Work Bitch,” was shrug-worthy upon release, and lyrics like “You want a hot body, you want a Bugatti/ you want a Maserati? You better work, bitch” land uncomfortably after her conservatorship hearings. In contrast, her most recent full-length, 2016’s Glory, was hailed for its explorations of post-millennial pop’s fringes. It concludes with “Coupure Électrique,” an icily minimalist track in which Spears whisper-sings, in broken French, of love in the dark, a throwback to the Blackout era that also lets her display her playful side.

More than two decades after her debut, Spears’ legacy as a pop artist is complex, made up of dazzling musical heights and music-business-borne lows. This year, Olivia Rodrigo’s path from Disney stardom to pop-chart domination bears broad similarities to Spears’. The “drivers license” singer was born a few years into Spears’ era of TRL superiority, though, and in a recent interview with Nylon, her response to a question about Framing Britney Spears indicated that she sees the treatment of the elder pop supernova as a sign of how easily pop stardom can be undermined by supposed allies. “I just hope that this next generation of women don’t get asked [invasive] questions…. I hope reporters don’t think that that’s OK. It’s just disgusting,” she said in the interview.

The twists and turns in Spears’ story over recent years have fundamentally altered the dream of becoming a pop star, even as the appeal of finding one artist who can make a song that changes the world for five minutes remains. While Spears’ catalog is part of the canon that defines the first 20 years of this millennium, one hopes that her public struggles, and the strength she’s shown while enduring them, will lead to her cementing her true legacy: Reshaping the machine that turns those songs into cultural touchstones”.

I am going to come to a couple of essential playlists: one of Britney Spears’s great music; the other consists of artists who have definitely been influenced by her in some way. First, I am going to recommend three of her studio albums that you need in your life. Whether a big Spears fan or not, I feel these albums are still must-hear.

_______________

Oops!... I Did It Again

Release Date: 3rd May, 2000

Label: Jive

Producers: Barry J. Eastmond/David Kreuger/Eric Foster White/Jake/Kristian Lundin/Max Martin/Larry ‘Rock’ Campbell/Paul Umbach/Per Magnusson/Rami/Robert ‘Esmail’ Jazayeri/Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange/Darkchild/Steve Lunt/Timmy Allen

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/britney-spears/oops-i-did-it-again

U.S. Album Chart Position: 1

Key Cuts: Stronger/Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know/Lucky

Review:

“Given the phenomenal success of Britney Spears' debut, ...Baby One More Time, it should come as no surprise that its sequel offers more of the same. After all, she gives away the plot with the ingenious title of her second album, Oops!...I Did It Again, essentially admitting that the record is more of the same. It has the same combination of sweetly sentimental ballads and endearingly gaudy dance-pop that made One More Time. Fortunately, she and her production team not only have a stronger overall set of songs this time, but they also occasionally get carried away with the same bewildering magpie aesthetic that made the first album's "Sodapop" -- a combination of bubblegum, urban soul, and raga -- a gonzo teen pop classic. It doesn't happen all that often -- the clenched-funk revision of the Stones' deathless "Satisfaction" is the most obvious example -- but it helps give the album character apart from the well-crafted dance-pop and ballads that serve as its heart. In the end, it's what makes this an entertaining, satisfying listen” – AllMusic

Standout Track: Oops!... I Did It Again

In the Zone

Release Date: 1st November, 2003

Label: Jive

Producers: Bloodshy & Avant/Brian and Josh/Roy ‘Royalty’ Hamilton/Jimmy Harry/Penelope Magnet/Moby/The Matrix/Rishi Rich/Guy Sigsworth/Shep Soloman/Mark Taylor/Trixster

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/britney-spears/in-the-zone-htignk

U.S. Album Chart Position: 1

Key Cuts: Me Against the Music/Brave New Girl/Everytime

Review:

“With this, Britney Spears' fourth album, the former little girl diva of pop is desperate to prove that she is now a proper grown up. If her last offering saw the singer straddling the two worlds of girlhood and womanhood, then this one sees her announcing her distinctly adult intentions. She is twenty-two after all! Sadly, her attempts to prove her new-found maturity are what overwhelm and cloud all that is good about Into The Zone.

The album opens very confidently with "Me Against The Music" which,althugh it has more than a passing similarity to a Justin Timberlake production, still manages to sound fresh and as funky as hell. Cries of 'let me see you dance' and 'time to party all night long' emphasise our heroine's love of the good time. Britney clearly relishes her new role as nightclub siren, but she somehow doesn't quite convince.

"Showdown" and "Toxic" are produced by the Bloodshy & Avant team and, though hardly original, have the catchy hooks you'd expect from the duo. "Breathe On Me" is very reminiscent of Madonna during her Ray Of Light period, offering welcome relief after the overcrowded chanting of "(I Got That) Boom Boom".

The Moby produced "Early Morning" is the standout track on this collection. Its contagious, down-tempo groove and soaring string chorus all add up to make a brilliantly simple piece of pop. The other high point is "Touch Of My Hand", its sugary sweet harmonies can't help but impress. (It features Madonna, just in case you've been living on Mars).

"Shadow" is Spear's only return to the power ballad and it's a fairly lukewarm affair; it sounds more like a Pop Idol release than a Britney one. She should stick to the more adventurously upbeat formula. She should also place less emphasis on how self-fulfilled she has become, in repeatedly declaring this she simply draws attention to all the growing up she still has to do. Don't rush it girl! Enjoy being young!” – BBC

Standout Track: Toxic

Glory

Release Date: 26th August, 2016

Label: RCA

Producers: BloodPop/Burns/Cashmere Cat/DJ Mustard/Jason Evigan/Oak Felder/Andrew Goldstein/Oscar Görres/Ian Kirkpatrick/Mattman & Robin/Nick Monson/Alex Nice/Robopop/Lance Eric Shipp/Twice as Nice/Tramaine Winfrey

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/britney-spears/glory

U.S. Album Chart Position: 3

Key Cuts: Do You Wanna Come Over?/Private Show/Clumsy

Review:

“The soft commercial performance of 2013's Britney Jean made it clear that it was time for Britney Spears to shake up her recording career -- a move made somewhat less urgent due to the success of Britney: Piece of Me, the residency show she launched at Las Vegas' Planet Hollywood a few months after the release of Britney Jean. Sin City's influence can be heard within the splashiness of the arrangements of certain portions of Glory, the 2016 album designed to be Britney's return to the Top 40. To that end, Glory downplays the show biz glitz of Vegas in favor of modern dance-pop, one with EDM undercurrents and hip-hop overtones. Sometimes echoes of other stars can be heard -- Justin Bieber's Purpose appears to a primary text -- but despite this contemporary gloss, the album usually relies on sounds of Spears' past, trading heavily on the cloistered dance of Blackout and the shimmering neon of Femme Fatale. Glory is much lighter than either album, a reflection of Britney's maturation -- the softer nocturnal numbers make a play for Ellie Goulding territory, but they could slide onto adult contemporary -- and her willingness to be goofy. Some of the highlights are the silliest songs: the swinging "Clumsy," the overheated flamenco chorus of "Do You Wanna Come Over?," and "Private Show" and "Slumber Party," a pair of heavy-breathing come-ons that never manage to seem sexy despite the flood of innuendo. Such moments accentuate Britney's playfulness, an aspect of her persona that's been in hibernation for nearly a decade, and it's a welcome return, as is Glory as a whole: it feels as fun and frivolous as her earliest music while retaining the freshness of her best mature work” – AllMusic

Standout Track: Slumber Party

On 24th October, we will get to read The Woman in Me. Go and pre-order it. The first time Britney Spears has had opportunity and freedom to tell her own story, this is one that every music fan needs to read. It will be a fascinating thing! We will get an insight, not only into her careers and highs. There will also be revelations and stories about her fight for independence and an end to the conservatorship that was dragged into the public eye. I can only imagine how strange and upsetting things have been for Britney Spears for a long time now. Let’s hope that she finds happiness and can continue her career on her own terms! I think most people would love to hear new music as soon as she is ready. That would be really a relief to hear, when it comes about. I am going to end this feature with a playlist of songs from artists influenced by one of the all-time greats. As we look ahead to a new chapter (no pun intended!) for Britney Spears, we all wish her nothing but…

HEALTH and happiness.

FEATURE: The Beatles at Fifty-Five: Ranking the Thirty Tracks

FEATURE:

 

 

The Beatles at Fifty-Five

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles on 28th July, 1968 during their ’Mad Day Out’ photo session in locations all across London: Gray’s Inn Road, Notting Hill, Highgate, Old Street, St. Pancras, Wapping, and finally St. John’s Wood (where Paul lived)/PHOTO CREDIT: Don McCullin
 

Ranking the Thirty Tracks

_________

RELEASED on 22nd November, 1968…

I am doing a run of feature about The Beatles’ eponymous album. A sprawling and brilliant thirty-track release, it is seen as one of the band’s best albums. I am going to rank the tracks from The Beatles. Before getting there, from The Beatles Bible give us some background and personnel details. There is no doubting the quality, variety and legacy of The Beatles. There is something in there for everyone:

“Peronnel

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

Tracklisting

‘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”.

I am going to come to my view regarding the very best songs on The Beatles. This is not a new thing. The Independent ranked the songs in 2022. Far Out Magazine had their say a couple of years ago. Billboard gave their ranking in 2018 on the fiftieth anniversary of The Beatles. This feature gives an interesting top ten decision (they ranked all thirty tracks); Ultimate Classic Rock marked the fiftieth anniversary with their rankling. The Beatles Bible put a John Lennon classic in the top spot. Some argue that The Beatles would make a great single album. I think that it would be impossible to do. One reason why The Beatles is great is because of its range and lesser tracks. Prior to The Beatles’ fifty-fifth anniversary on 22nd November, I wanted to rank the thirty tracks (huge thanks to The Beatles Bible for track information). Many have got there before me, but here is my ranking of an iconic album’s…

INCREDIBLE thirty songs.

_____________

THIRTY: Wild Honey Pie

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 20 August 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

Paul McCartney: vocals, acoustic guitar, drums

A solo recording by Paul McCartney, ‘Wild Honey Pie’ was a singalong written in Rishikesh, India, and recorded at the end of the session for ‘Mother Nature’s Son’.

[‘Wild Honey Pie’] was just a fragment of an instrumental which we were not sure about, but Pattie Harrison liked it very much, so we decided to leave it on the album.

Paul McCartney

In the studio

‘Wild Honey Pie’ was recorded on 20 August 1968, during the second and final session for ‘Mother Nature’s Son’. McCartney also recorded another demo, ‘Etcetera’, during the same session, but the song remains unreleased.

We were in an experimental mode, and so I said, ‘Can I just make something up?’ I started off with the guitar and did a multitracking experiment in the control room or maybe in the little room next door. It was very home-made; it wasn’t a big production at all. I just made up this short piece and I multitracked a harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and built it up sculpturally with a lot of vibrato on the strings, really pulling the strings madly. Hence, ‘Wild Honey Pie’, which was a reference to the other song I had written called ‘Honey Pie’. It was a little experimental piece.

Paul McCartney

Many Years From Now, Barry Miles”.

TWENTY-NINE: Piggies

“Written by: Harrison
Recorded: 19, 20 September, 10 October 1968
Producers: Chris Thomas, George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

George Harrison: vocals, guitar
John Lennon: tape loops
Paul McCartney: bass
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
Chris Thomas: harpsichord
Henry Datyner, Eric Bowie, Norman Lederman, Ronald Thomas: violins
John Underwood, Keith Cummings: violas
Eldon Fox, Reginald Kilbey: cellos

George Harrison began writing ‘Piggies’ in 1966, the same year he composed the similarly ascerbic ‘Taxman’. Although musically quite different, both songs contain social commentary about financial greed and class differences.

‘Piggies’ wasn’t recorded by The Beatles until late 1968. The song underwent some revisions beforehand, with lyrical contributions from John Lennon and Harrison’s mother Louise.

‘Piggies’ is a social comment. I was stuck for one line in the middle until my mother came up with the lyric, ‘What they need is a damn good whacking’ which is a nice simple way of saying they need a good hiding. It needed to rhyme with ‘backing,’ ‘lacking,’ and had absolutely nothing to do with American policemen or Californian shagnasties!

George Harrison”.

TWENTY-EIGHT: Birthday

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney

Recorded: 18 September 1968

Producer: Chris Thomas

Engineer: Ken Scott

Paul McCartney: vocals, bass guitar, piano, handclaps

John Lennon: vocals, tambourine, lead guitar, handclaps

George Harrison: vocals, lead guitar, handclaps

Ringo Starr: drums, handclaps

Pattie Harrison, Yoko Ono: backing vocals, handclaps

Mal Evans: handclaps

The opening song in the second half of The Beatles’ White Album, ‘Birthday’ emerged from a jam in Abbey Road’s studio two.

The Beatles had scheduled an earlier start for their 18 September 1968 session, in order to watch the classic rock ‘n’ roll film The Girl Can’t Help It. It was showing that night for the first time on British TV, on BBC Two between 9.05 and 10.40pm.

I had mentioned to Paul a couple of days earlier about The Girl Can’t Help It being on television during this evening. The idea was to start the session earlier than usual, about five o’clock in the afternoon, and then all nip around the corner to Paul’s house in Cavendish Avenue, watch the film and go back to work.

So on the day Paul was the first one in, and he was playing the ‘Birthday’ riff. Eventually the others arrived, by which time Paul had literally written the song, right there in the studio. We had the backing track down by about 8.30, popped around to watch the film as arranged and then came back and actually finished the whole song. It was all done in a day!

Chris Thomas

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn”.

TWENTY-SEVEN: Savoy Truffle

“Written by: Harrison

Recorded: 3, 5, 11, 14 October 1968

Producer: George Martin

Engineers: Barry Sheffield, Ken Scott

George Harrison: vocals, lead guitar

Paul McCartney: harmony vocals, bass guitar, tambourine, bongos

Ringo Starr: drums

Chris Thomas: organ, electric piano

Art Ellefson, Danny Moss, Derek Collins: tenor saxophones

Ronnie Ross, Harry Klein, Bernard George: baritone saxophones

A lighthearted song written by George Harrison, ‘Savoy Truffle’ was inspired by his friend Eric Clapton’s gluttonous love of chocolate.

‘Savoy Truffle’ on the White Album was written for Eric. He’s got this real sweet tooth and he’d just had his mouth worked on. His dentist said he was through with candy. So as a tribute I wrote, ‘You’ll have to have them all pulled out after the Savoy Truffle’. The truffle was some kind of sweet, just like all the rest – cream tangerine, ginger sling – just candy, to tease Eric.

George Harrison, 1977

In his autobiography I Me Mine, Harrison explained that the song was inspired by a box of Mackintosh’s Good News chocolates. Many of the lines came directly from the varieties of chocolate in the boxes, although Cherry Cream and Coconut Fudge were Harrison’s own inventions”.

TWENTY-SIX: Yer Blues

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney

Recorded: 13, 14, 20 August 1968

Producer: George Martin

Engineer: Ken Scott

John Lennon: vocals, backing vocals, lead guitar

Paul McCartney: bass

George Harrison: lead guitar

Ringo Starr: drums

John Lennon’s most emotionally-revealing moment on the White Album, ‘Yer Blues’ was written in Rishikesh, India. Balanced deftly between parody and earnestness, the song anticipated the raw, revelatory and confessional spirit of Lennon’s solo work – most notable in ‘Cold Turkey’ and the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album.

‘Yer Blues’ was written in India, too. The same thing up there trying to reach God and feeling suicidal.

John Lennon

All We Are Saying, David Sheff

A cause of his anguish may have been Yoko Ono. Although their relationship had yet to begin, Ono wrote regularly to Lennon from England, and it is likely that she is the ‘girl’ the song is addressed to.

The funny thing about the [Maharishi’s] camp was that although it was very beautiful and I was meditating about eight hours a day, I was writing the most miserable songs on earth. In ‘Yer Blues’, when I wrote, ‘I’m so lonely I want to die,’ I’m not kidding. That’s how I felt.

John Lennon

Anthology”.

TWENTY-FIVE: Don't Pass Me By

“Written by: Starkey
Recorded: 5, 6 June, 12, 22 July 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott

Ringo Starr: vocals, piano, sleigh bells, percussion
Paul McCartney: piano, bass guitar, drums
Jack Fallon: violin

Ringo Starr’s first recorded composition, ‘Don’t Pass Me By’, was written several years before its 1968 release on the White Album.

‘Don’t Pass Me By’ was mentioned by the group way back on 14 July 1964, during an introduction to ‘And I Love Her’ for the first edition of the BBC radio music series Top Gear. Starr was asked if he had plans to write songs, and replied that he had written one. Paul McCartney then interjected by singing “Don’t pass me by, don’t make me cry, don’t make me blue”.

In June 1964, during a radio interview in New Zealand, Starr playfully urged the rest of the group to “sing the song I’ve written, just for a plug”. Other press reports from as early as 1963 mention the song”.

TWENTY-FOUR: Why Don't We Do It in the Road?

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 9, 10 October 1968
Producer: Paul McCartney
Engineer: Ken Townsend

Paul McCartney: vocals, acoustic guitar, lead guitar, piano, bass, handclaps
Ringo Starr: drums, handclaps

Recorded during the late stages of work on the White Album, ‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?’ was a spontaneous recording by Paul McCartney with assistance from Ringo Starr.

The song was recorded while John Lennon and George Harrison were working on other songs. Lennon later described McCartney’s decision as hurtful, explaining that it represented the fragmented way in which the group’s members had taken to recording songs in 1968.

That’s Paul. He even recorded it by himself in another room. That’s how it was getting in those days. We came in and he’d made the whole record. Him drumming. Him playing the piano. Him singing. But he couldn’t – he couldn’t – maybe he couldn’t make the break from The Beatles. I don’t know what it was, you know. I enjoyed the track. Still, I can’t speak for George, but I was always hurt when Paul would knock something off without involving us. But that’s just the way it was then.

John Lennon, 1980

All We Are Saying, David Sheff”.

TWENTY-THREE: Rocky Raccoon

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 15 August 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

Paul McCartney: vocals, acoustic guitar, bass guitar
John Lennon: backing vocals, harmonica, harmonium, six-string bass
George Harrison: backing vocals
Ringo Starr: drums
George Martin: piano

A jokey song about a cuckolded young American man seeking revenge against a love rival, ‘Rocky Raccoon’ was written in India by Paul McCartney in early 1968.

Paul [wrote it]. Couldn’t you guess? Would I go to all that trouble about Gideon’s Bible and all that stuff?

John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

McCartney wrote the song on the roof of the ashram in Rishikesh, with John Lennon and Donovan Leitch also helping out.

‘Rocky Raccoon’ is quirky, very me. I like talking blues so I started off like that, then I did my tongue-in-cheek parody of a western and threw in some amusing lines. I just tried to keep it amusing, really; it’s me writing a play, a little one-act play giving them most of the dialogue. Rocky Raccoon is the main character, then there’s the girl whose real name was Magill, who called herself Lil, but she was known as Nancy.

Paul McCartney

Many Years From Now, Barry Miles”.

TWENTY-TWO: Mother Nature's Son

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 9, 20 August 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

Paul McCartney: vocals, acoustic guitar, drums, timpani, bass
Uncredited: two trumpets, two trombones

Written by Paul McCartney, ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ was inspired by a lecture on nature given by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India, although the song was mostly completed in Liverpool.

I seem to remember writing ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ at my dad’s house in Liverpool. I often used to do that if I’d gone up to see him. Visiting my family I’d feel in a good mood, so it was often a good occasion to write songs. So this was me doing my mother nature’s son bit. I’ve always loved the [Nat King Cole] song called ‘Nature Boy’: ‘There was a boy, a very strange and gentle boy…’ He loves nature, and ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ was inspired by that song. I’d always loved nature, and when Linda and I got together we discovered we had this deep love of nature in common. There might have been a little help from John with some of the verses.

Paul McCartney

Many Years From Now, Barry Miles”.

TWENTY-ONE: While My Guitar Gently Weep

“Written by: Harrison
Recorded: 25 July; 16 August; 3, 5, 6 September 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

George Harrison: vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, Hammond organ
John Lennon: organ
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass guitar, piano, organ
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine, castanets
Eric Clapton: lead guitar

George Harrison’s most celebrated song on The Beatles’ White Album, ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ was inspired by the I Ching, and featured his friend Eric Clapton on lead guitar.

Harrison began writing the music for the song in India, although the lyrics were mostly completed upon his return to England.

I wrote ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ at my mother’s house in Warrington. I was thinking about the Chinese I Ching, the Book of Changes… The Eastern concept is that whatever happens is all meant to be, and that there’s no such thing as coincidence – every little item that’s going down has a purpose.

‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ was a simple study based on that theory. I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book – as it would be a relative to that moment, at that time. I picked up a book at random, opened it, saw ‘gently weeps’, then laid the book down again and started the song.

George Harrison

Anthology”.

TWENTY: Good Night

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney

Recorded: 28 June; 2, 22 July 1968

Producer: George Martin

Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Peter Bown, Ken Scott

Ringo Starr: vocals

George Martin: celesta

Ingrid Thomas, Pat Whitmore, Val Stockwell, Irene King, Ross Gilmour, Mike Redway, Ken Barrie, Fred Lucas: backing vocals

Uncredited: 12 violins, three violas, three cellos, three flutes, clarinet, horn, vibraphone, double bass, harp

‘Good Night’, the tender closing song on the White Album, was written by John Lennon as a lullaby for his son Julian, and sung by Ringo Starr.

After ending their previous two albums with the monumental ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘A Day In The Life’, the White Album too was brought to a close by another Lennon song. ‘Good Night’, however, couldn’t have been more different. With its almost-schmaltzy arrangement, it served as a necessary antidote to ‘Revolution 9’.

Everybody thinks Paul wrote ‘Good Night’ for me to sing, but it was John who wrote it for me. He’s got a lot of soul, John has.

Ringo Starr, 1968

No members of The Beatles other than Starr appear on the recording. Instead, a lavish orchestral arrangement was scored by George Martin, transporting listeners back to the golden age of Hollywood.

‘Good Night’ was written for Julian the way Beautiful Boy was written for Sean, but given to Ringo and possibly overlush.

John Lennon

All We Are Saying, David Sheff”.

NINETEEN: Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney

Recorded: 26, 27 June; 1, 23 July 1968

Producer: George Martin

Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott

John Lennon: vocals, guitar, percussion, handclaps

Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass, percussion, handclaps

George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar, percussion, handclaps

Ringo Starr: drums, percussion, handclaps

A bridge between the willful nonsense of ‘I Am The Walrus’ and the confessional songs of his early solo career, ‘Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey’ was written by John Lennon about his relationship with Yoko Ono.

That was just a sort of nice line that I made into a song. It was about me and Yoko. Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love. Everything is clear and open when you’re in love. Everybody was sort of tense around us: you know, ‘What is she doing here at the session? Why is she with him?’ All this sort of madness is going on around us because we just happened to want to be together all the time.

John Lennon

All We Are Saying, David Sheff”.

EIGHTEEN: Julia

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 13 October 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

John Lennon: vocals, acoustic guitar

‘Julia’ was written by John Lennon for his mother, who died in a road accident in 1958. It is the only solo Lennon recording in The Beatles’ canon.

The song was written in India. Like ‘Dear Prudence’ and ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’, it contained the fingerpicking guitar style taught to Lennon by Donovan

Some afternoons we would gather at one of our pads and play the acoustic guitars we had all brought with us. Paul Horn, the American flute wizard, was there. John was keen to learn the finger-style guitar I played and he was a good student. Paul already had a smattering of finger style. George preferred his Chet Atkins style. John wrote ‘Julia’ and ‘Dear Prudence’ based on the picking I taught him.

Donovan

Many Years From Now, Barry Miles”.

SEVENTEEN: The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 8 October 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

John Lennon: vocals, acoustic guitar, organ
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, acoustic guitar
Ringo Starr: backing vocals, drums, tambourine
Yoko Ono: vocals, backing vocals
Chris Thomas: Mellotron
Various others, including Maureen Starkey: backing vocals

‘The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill’ was written by John Lennon in 1968 in Rishikesh, India. It was inspired by an American visitor who departed for a tiger-killing spree before returning to the ashram to seek spiritual enlightenment.

That was written about a guy in Maharishi‘s meditation camp who took a short break to go shoot a few poor tigers, and then came back to commune with God. There used to be a character called Jungle Jim and I combined him with Buffalo Bill. It’s a sort of teenage social-comment song and a bit of a joke. Yoko’s on that one, I believe, singing along.

John Lennon

All We Are Saying, David Sheff

In light of Lennon’s antipathy towards Paul McCartney’s ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’, it may seem odd that he was responsible for this overly frivolous singalong that appeared on the White Album”.

SIXTEEN: Sexy Sadie

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 19, 24 July; 13, 21 August 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

John Lennon: vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, Hammond organ
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass, piano
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine

John Lennon’s most acerbic song on the White Album, ‘Sexy Sadie’ was a barbed tribute to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and was written during Lennon’s final hours in India.

That’s about the Maharishi, yes. I copped out and I wouldn’t write ‘Maharishi, what have you done? You made a fool of everyone.’ But now it can be told, Fab Listeners.

John Lennon
Rolling Stone, 1970

Shortly after Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr left India, Lennon’s friend Alexis Mardas, also known as Magic Alex, arrived.

Mardas had previously been known as Lennon’s ‘guru’, and was reportedly alarmed at seeing his influence upon Lennon waning. He is said to have started a rumour that Maharishi had made a sexual advance towards one of the women on the meditation course.

Alexis and a fellow female meditator began to sow the seeds of doubt into very open minds… Alexis’s statements about how the Maharishi had been indiscreet with a certain lady, and what a blackguard he had turned out to be gathered momentum. All, may I say, without a single shred of evidence or justification. It was obvious to me that Alexis wanted out and more than anything he wanted The Beatles out as well.

Cynthia Lennon”.

FIFTEEN: Helter Skelter

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 18 July; 9, 10 September 1968
Producer: Chris Thomas
Engineer: Ken Scott

Paul McCartney: vocals, electric guitar
John Lennon: backing vocals, bass guitar, tenor saxophone
George Harrison: backing vocals, electric guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Mal Evans: trumpet

Paul McCartney’s ‘Helter Skelter’ was an attempt to create a rock ‘n’ roll song as loud and dirty as possible. It later became one of The Beatles’ most notorious songs, after Charles Manson interpreted it as a symbol for Armageddon.

The sound, which has been described as a prototype for 1970s heavy metal sounds, was an attempt to outdo The Who; in an interview, Pete Townshend had described their single ‘I Can See For Miles’ as the group’s most extreme sound to date.

I was in Scotland and I read in Melody Maker that Pete Townshend had said: ‘We’ve just made the raunchiest, loudest, most ridiculous rock ‘n’ roll record you’ve ever heard.’ I never actually found out what track it was that The Who had made, but that got me going; just hearing him talk about it. So I said to the guys, ‘I think we should do a song like that; something really wild.’ And I wrote ‘Helter Skelter’.

You can hear the voices cracking, and we played it so long and so often that by the end of it you can hear Ringo saying,’I’ve got blisters on my fingers’. We just tried to get it louder: ‘Can’t we make the drums sound louder?’ That was really all I wanted to do – to make a very loud, raunchy rock ‘n’ roll record with The Beatles. And I think it’s a pretty good one.

Paul McCartney

Anthology”.

FOURTEEN: I Will

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 16, 17 September 1968
Producer: Chris Thomas
Engineer: Ken Scott

Paul McCartney: vocals, acoustic guitar
John Lennon: percussion
Ringo Starr: cymbals, bongos, maracas

A love song written by Paul McCartney, ‘I Will’ was one of the songs worked on by The Beatles and their associates while in Rishikesh, India.

Alan-a-Dale. The minstrel wandering around Sherwood Forest in the Robin Hood legend. That’s me. This song finds me in my troubadour mode…

Just because I was involved with Jane at the time doesn’t mean this song is addressed to, or about, Jane. When I’m writing, it’s as if I’m setting words and music to the film I’m watching in my head. It’s a declaration of love, yes, but not always to someone specific. Unless it’s to a person out there who’s listening to the song. And they have to be ready for it. It’s almost definitely not going to be a person who’s said, ‘There he goes again, writing another of those silly love songs.’ So, this is me in my troubadour more.

Paul McCartney

The Lyrics: 1956 To The Present”.

THIRTEEN: I'm So Tired

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 8 October 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

John Lennon: vocals, acoustic guitar, lead guitar, organ
Paul McCartney: harmony vocals, bass, electric piano
George Harrison: lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums

‘I’m So Tired’ was written by John Lennon three weeks into his stay in Rishikesh, India, where The Beatles had gone to study meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Free from drink and drugs for the first time in years, he found his thoughts abnormally focused, even if this meant suffering from temporary insomnia.

The song recounts Lennon’s difficulty in sleeping after meditation had absorbed his thoughts throughout much of the day. It also recounts his burgeoning obsessions with Yoko Ono (“My mind is set on you”) who remained in England while Lennon flew to India with his wife Cynthia.

‘I’m So Tired’ was me, in India again. I couldn’t sleep, I’m meditating all day and couldn’t sleep at night. The story is that. One of my favorite tracks. I just like the sound of it, and I sing it well.

John Lennon

All We Are Saying, David Sheff”.

TWELVE: Dear Prudence

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 28, 29, 30 August 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Barry Sheffield

John Lennon: vocals, backing vocals, electric guitar, tambourine
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass, piano, drums, flugelhorn, handclaps
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar, handclaps
Mal Evans: tambourine, backing vocals, handclaps
Jackie Lomax, John McCartney: backing vocals, handclaps

Written by John Lennon in India, ‘Dear Prudence’ was about Mia Farrow’s younger sister, who refused to leave her chalet at the meditation retreat in Rishikesh, and had to be coaxed out by Lennon and George Harrison.

Prudence Farrow had become infatuated with meditation, locking herself away from the rest of the group and falling into deep states against the advice of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

‘Dear Prudence’ is me. Written in India. A song about Mia Farrow’s sister, who seemed to go slightly barmy, meditating too long, and couldn’t come out of the little hut that we were livin’ in. They selected me and George to try and bring her out because she would trust us. If she’d been in the West, they would have put her away.

We got her out of the house. She’d been locked in for three weeks and wouldn’t come out, trying to reach God quicker than anybody else. That was the competition in Maharishi’s camp: who was going to get cosmic first. What I didn’t know was I was already cosmic. [Laughs.]

John Lennon

All We Are Saying, David Sheff”.

ELEVEN: Revolution 1

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 30, 31 May; 4, 21 June 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Peter Bown

John Lennon: vocals, acoustic guitar, lead guitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, piano, Hammond organ, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Francie Schwartz: backing vocals
Derek Watkins, Freddy Clayton: trumpets
Don Lang, Rex Morris, J Power, Bill Povey: trombones

The first song to be recorded for the White Album, ‘Revolution 1’ was written in India in early 1968. It was inspired by the 1968 student uprising in Paris, the Vietnam war and the assassination of Martin Luther King, and heralded a political awakening for John Lennon.

Early 1968 saw a profound shift from the hippy-era’s believe in peace and love, towards political turmoil, protest and struggle. An increasingly politicised and energised Lennon watched the unfolding events with interest, and decided to put his feelings into song, aware of the risk of alienating The Beatles’ fans.

I wanted to put out what I felt about revolution. I thought it was time we fucking spoke about it, the same as I thought it was about time we stopped not answering about the Vietnamese war when we were on tour with Brian Epstein and had to tell him, ‘We’re going to talk about the war this time, and we’re not going to just waffle.’ I wanted to say what I thought about revolution.

I had been thinking about it up in the hills in India. I still had this ‘God will save us’ feeling about it, that it’s going to be all right. That’s why I did it: I wanted to talk, I wanted to say my piece about revolution. I wanted to tell you, or whoever listens, to communicate, to say ‘What do you say? This is what I say.’

John Lennon

Rolling Stone, 1970”.

TEN: Honey Pie

“Paul McCartney: vocals, piano
John Lennon: lead guitar, rhythm guitar
George Harrison: bass
Ringo Starr: drums
Dennis Walton, Ronald Chamberlain, Jim Chester, Rex Morris, Harry Klein: saxophones
Raymond Newman, David Smith: clarinets

Sharing little more than a title with ‘Wild Honey Pie’, this pastiche of the British music hall style was written by Paul McCartney for the White Album.

Both John and I had a great love for music hall, what the Americans call vaudeville… I very much liked that old crooner style, the strange fruity voice that they used, so ‘Honey Pie’ was me writing one of them to an imaginary woman, across the ocean, on the silver screen, who was called Honey Pie. It’s another of my fantasy songs.

Paul McCartney

Many Years From Now, Barry Miles”.

NINE: Happiness Is a Warm Gun

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 23, 24, 25 September 1968
Producer: Chris Thomas
Engineer: Ken Scott

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

Featuring one of John Lennon‘s best vocals on the White Album, ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ was made up of four distinct song fragments, and took its title from a gun magazine, The American Rifleman, which Lennon saw in the studio at Abbey Road.

George Martin showed me the cover of a magazine that said, ‘Happiness is a warm gun’. I thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you’ve just shot something.

John Lennon
Anthology

The first section of the song was made up of phrases thought up by Lennon and Apple’s publicist Derek Taylor during an acid trip the pair experienced along with Neil Aspinall and Lennon’s childhood friend Pete Shotton.

The opening line was a Liverpudlian expression of approval, and the ‘velvet hand’ line was inspired by a fetishist Taylor and his wife met on the Isle of Man.

I told a story about a chap my wife Joan and I met in the Carrick Bay Hotel on the Isle of Man. It was late one night drinking in the bar and this local fellow who liked meeting holiday makers and rapping to them suddenly said to us, ‘I like wearing moleskin gloves you know. It gives me a little bit of an unusual sensation when I’m out with my girlfriend.’ He then said, ‘I don’t want to go into details.’ So we didn’t. But that provided the line, ‘She’s well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand’.

Derek Taylor

A Hard Day’s Write, Steve Turner”.

EIGHT: Martha My Dear

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 4, 5 October 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Barry Sheffield

Paul McCartney: vocals, piano, bass, lead guitar, handclaps
George Harrison: electric guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Bernard Miller, Dennis McConnell, Lou Sofier, Les Maddox: violins
Leo Birnbaum, Henry Myerscough: violas
Reginald Kilbey, Frederick Alexander: cellos
Leon Calvert, Stanley Reynolds, Ronnie Hughes: trumpets
Leon Calvert: flugelhorn
Tony Tunstall: French horn
Ted Barker: trombone
Alf Reece: tuba

When I taught myself piano I liked to see how far I could go, and this started life almost as a piece you’d learn as a piano lesson. It’s quite hard for me to play, it’s a two-handed thing, like a little set piece. In fact I remember one or two people being surprised that I’d played it because it’s slightly above my level or competence really, but I wrote it as that, something a bit more complex for me to play. Then while I was blocking out words – you just mouth out sounds and some things come – I found the words ‘Martha my dear’.

Paul McCartney

Many Years From Now, Barry Miles”.

SEVEN: Glass Onion

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 11, 12, 13, 16, 20 September; 10 October 1968
Producers: Chris Thomas, George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

John Lennon: vocals, acoustic guitar
Paul McCartney: bass, piano, recorder
George Harrison: lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
Henry Datyner, Eric Bowie, Norman Lederman, Ronald Thomas: violins
John Underwood, Keith Cummings: violas
Eldon Fox, Reginald Kilbey: cellos

‘Glass Onion’ was John Lennon’s answer to those who looked for hidden meanings in The Beatles’ music. It was a song deliberately filled with red herrings, obscure imagery and allusions to past works.

Fully aware of the power of The Beatles’ own mythology, and with a general dislike of those who over-interpreted his work, Lennon deliberately inserted references to ‘I Am The Walrus’, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, ‘Lady Madonna’, ‘The Fool On The Hill’, and ‘Fixing A Hole’.

The effect is a kaleidoscopic look through the group’s back pages. ‘Lady Madonna’, whose protagonist reappears in ‘Glass Onion’, contained a reference to ‘I Am The Walrus’ (“See how they run”).

That song, in turn, featured the line “See how they fly like Lucy in the sky”, a clear reference to Sgt Pepper’s psychedelic masterpiece. The effect is of a continual strand running through The Beatles’ works, even if such a strand was never intended in the first place”.

SIX: Blackbird

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 11 June 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick

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

Paul McCartney: vocals, acoustic guitar

A solo performance by Paul McCartney, ‘Blackbird’ was composed shortly after The Beatles’ stay in Rishikesh, India, and featured on the White Album.

The song was written on McCartney’s farm in Scotland. Shortly afterwards, on the first night his future wife Linda Eastman stayed at his house in London, McCartney performed the song to the fans waiting outside the gates.

A few of us were there. We had the feeling something was going to happen. Paul didn’t take the Mini inside the way he usually did – he parked it on the road and he and Linda walked right past us. They went inside and we stood there, watching different lights in the house go on and off.

In the end, the light went on in the Mad Room, at the top of the house, where he kept all his music stuff and his toys. Paul opened the window and called out to us, ‘Are you still down there?’ ‘Yes,’ we said. He must have been really happy that night. He sat on the window sill with his acoustic guitar and sang ‘Blackbird’ to us as we stood down there in the dark.

Margo Stevens

Shout!, Philip Norman”.

FIVE: Cry Baby Cry

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 15, 16, 18 July 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott

John Lennon: vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, organ
Paul McCartney: bass
George Harrison: lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
George Martin: harmonium

Written by John Lennon while in India, ‘Cry Baby Cry’ recalled the nursery rhymes of his childhood.

According to Hunter Davies’ authorised 1968 book on The Beatles, the song was, like ‘Good Morning Good Morning’, partly inspired by a television commercial.

I’ve got another one here, a few words, I think I got them from an advert – ‘Cry baby cry, make your mother buy’. I’ve been playing it over on the piano. I’ve let it go now. It’ll come back if I really want it. I do get up from the piano as if I have been in a trance. Sometimes I know I’ve let a few things slip away, which I could have caught if I’d been wanting something.

John Lennon

The Beatles, Hunter Davies”.

FOUR: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 15 July 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, handclaps
John Lennon: backing vocals, piano, handclaps
George Harrison: backing vocals, acoustic guitar, handclaps
Ringo Starr: drums, bongos, percussion, handclaps
James Gray, Rex Morris, Cyril Reuben: saxophone

Written by Paul McCartney in India in 1968, ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ was an attempt at a ska-influenced recording, although the title phrase came from a Nigerian friend.

We went to a cinema show in a village where a guy put up a mobile screen and all the villagers came along and loved it. I remember walking down a little jungle path with my guitar to get to the village from the camp. I was playing ‘Desmond has a barrow in the market place…’

Paul McCartney”.

THREE: Revolution 9

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 30 May; 6, 10, 11, 20, 21 June 1968
Producers: George Martin, John Lennon
Engineer: Geoff Emerick

John Lennon: vocals, tape loops, effects, samples
George Harrison: vocals, samples
Yoko Ono: vocals, effects, samples

Dividing audiences since late 1968, John Lennon’s sound collage ‘Revolution 9’ was an exercise in musique concrète influenced heavily by Yoko Ono and the avant-garde art world.

The recording emerged from ‘Revolution 1’, the final six minutes of which formed a lengthy, mostly instrumental jam. Lennon took the recording and added a range of vocals, tape loops and sound effects, creating ‘Revolution 9′, the longest track released during The Beatles’ career”.

TWO: Long, Long, Long

“Written by: Harrison
Recorded: 7, 8, 9 October 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

George Harrison: vocals, acoustic guitars
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, Hammond organ, bass
Ringo Starr: drums
Chris Thomas: piano

The spiritual heart of the White Album, ‘Long, Long, Long’ provided a moment of calm between the raucous ‘Helter Skelter’ and the politically-charged ‘Revolution 1’.

While it may outwardly appear to be an ode to a lover, ‘Long, Long, Long’ was actually written about George Harrison’s joy at having found God.

In his autobiography, Harrison spoke briefly about the song, describing how its music had been inspired by the final track on Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde album.

The ‘you’ in ‘Long, Long, Long’ is God. I can’t recall much about it except the chords, which I think were coming from ‘Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands’ – D to E minor, A, and D – those three chords and the way they moved.

George Harrison

I Me Mine, 1980”.

ONE: Back in the U.S.S.R.

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 22, 23 August 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

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

Paul McCartney: vocals, backing vocals, piano, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, handclaps, percussion
John Lennon: backing vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, handclaps, percussion
George Harrison: backing vocals, electric guitar, six-string bass guitar, drums, handclaps, percussion

The opening track on the White Album, ‘Back In The USSR’ was written by Paul McCartney and inspired by Chuck Berry’s ‘Back In The USA’ and the Beach Boys’ ‘California Girls’.

The song was intended by McCartney to be a parody of Chuck Berry’s 1959 hit.

It’s tongue in cheek. This is a travelling Russkie who has just flown in from Miami Beach; he’s come the other way. He can’t wait to get back to the Georgian mountains: ‘Georgia’s always on my mind’; there’s all sorts of little jokes in it… I remember trying to sing it in my Jerry Lee Lewis voice, to get my mind set on a particular feeling. We added Beach Boys style harmonies.

Paul McCartney

Many Years From Now, Barry Miles”.

FEATURE: Win Some, Lose Some, No Regrets: Robbie Williams’s I’ve Been Expecting You at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Win Some, Lose Some, No Regrets

Robbie Williams’s I’ve Been Expecting You at Twenty-Five

_________

I remember the singles from…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Sound on Sound

Robbie Williams’s second studio album, I’ve Been Expecting You, being played on the radio a lot in 1998 and 1999. This superb album came out on 26th October, 1998. I wanted to mark twenty-five years of an important album. I bought Strong when it came out as a single in 1999. Everyone knows about Williams leaving Take That and going solo. One of the most anticipated debut albums of the 1990s came in 1997 when he released Life Thru a Lens. Whilst a great album, I’ve Been Expecting You feels more accomplished and mature. The singles hit harder and stay in the mind longer. Less filler on this album. Co-writing most of the album with his writing partner Guy Chambers, there is a lot to appreciate. Aside from excellent singles like Strong, No Regret and Millennium, Williams’s deeper cuts such as Grace and Man Machine are pretty strong. I am not sure whether any twenty-fifth anniversary editions or celebrations are planned. If there was snobbishness around Williams and those who would always see him as immature and a bit clownish, it is to his credit he defied critics with an album that went for depth and memorability rather than laddish Pop or something quite shallow. By 1998, Britpop was over. Williams was reacting to the fact that the music he was making with Take That was also not really being bought.

As such, I’ve Bene Expecting You is an album that aims for longevity and endurance rather than a quick commercial hit. Even so, it did get to one in the U.K. The first single, Millennium, got to number one too. It was clear there was a lot of love out there for Robbie Williams – even from Take That fans who might have had to choose sides or they were angry at Williams for leaving. I think things have changed slightly when it comes to former boyband and girl group members releasing solo work. That assumption that they are a serious artist in their own right. If Gary Barlow was the main songwriter in Take That, Robbie Williams definitely proved his worth and strengths. His second studio album, I feel, is his best and most complete work. Even if you do not like his later work, many can agree that there are a few pearls to be found through I’ve Been Expecting You. I would recommend people check out a documentary on Netflix on 8th November. Williams looks back at the first twenty-five years of the professional solo career. It will be interesting to hear how he reflects on making I’ve Been Expecting You - and how it turned him into one of the country’s most popular solo male Pop artists.

Maybe a lot of the mainstream media were predisposed to sneer and slag off anything that came from Robbie Williams. For those listening to I’ve Been Expecting You, they were treated to an album where Williams (with Guy Chambers) had found a perfect balance with his songwriting. Focused and consistent, there is little to dislike about his second studio album. Its 2000 follow-up, Sing When You're Winning, did provide incredible songs such as Rock DJ, Kids and Supreme - though it lacks a little something in my view. Regardless, for those who want to witness Robbie Williams spread his wings as a songwriter and singer, I’ve Been Expecting You is where you need to head! This is what the BBC said in their 2009 review:

“Robbie Williams’ second solo long-player saw the one-time boyband singer stretch his creative wings in a fashion entirely unexpected, embracing not only sumptuous (read: overblown to some ears) string arrangements but also bruised pop-soul and boisterous, hook-heavy rock.

While his debut, the preceding year’s Life Thru a Lens, was an album typical of its type, full of missteps in pursuit of a sound guaranteed to maintain a long and successful career, I’ve Been Expecting You focused on the finest aspects of its predecessor to come across as a 12-track collection with emphasis on accessibility only through greater investment of attention. While it lacked a sing-along anthem in the mould of Angels – Millennium is a wholly different-of-mood piece – Williams and his songwriting partner Guy Chambers achieved a consistency that marks this record out as perhaps his strongest to date.

Granted, there’s no real single of memorable note beyond the aforementioned over-ubiquitous John Barry-sampling number, but the bitterness of Karma Killer – the line “I hope you choke on your Bacardi and Coke” may seem trite on paper, but Williams’ delivery confirms he means business – and the wonderful No Regrets, featuring subtle backing vocals from Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant and The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, are songs that keep the listener engaged with the narrative. And it’s here that I’ve Been Expecting You impresses – our once cocksure protagonist reveals a sensitive side, often sounding broken by the weight of emotion and expectation, and is all the more endearing for it. His stories seem real, believable, and sympathies are stirred.

“I don’t want to hate, but that’s all you’ve left me with / A bitter aftertaste and a fantasy of how we all could live”, from No Regrets, is a telling line. After the paparazzi-baiting and headlines-courting hi-jinx of his debut, Williams found the cheekiness had drained away somewhat for this often reserved and only intermittently energised set. Even Millennium, the record’s upbeat high, offers an idea of where Williams’ head was at: “Come and have a go, if you think you’re hard enough”.

Few critics dared to knock the man down a peg or two, as by being lyrically open like never before Williams scored his greatest album hit yet. That’s ten times platinum and counting, since you asked, and little he’s produced since has seemed quite so times-defining of content”.

Calculated and calibrated, I do hope there is some twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of I’ve Been Expecting You. There has not been a great deal written about it. A pity that a really good album was sort of mocked or seen as inferior when it came out. Granted, 1998 is one of the best music years ever. Even if Robbie Williams’s I’ve Been Expecting You might not get into the top ten of that year, it is still one of the best albums from a magnificent year. This is what AllMusic wrote for their review:

“A more mature, calculated album from a pop star who's often gloried in being immature and spontaneous, I've Been Expecting You may suffer from comparisons to its excellent predecessor, but it also finds Robbie Williams weathering the sophomore storm quite well. While Williams' debut was infectious and outrageous, the second is indeed a more studied album. The opener, "Strong," begins very well, with the spot-on lyrics: "My breath smells of a thousand fags/And when I'm drunk I dance like me Dad," and "Early morning when I wake up/I look like Kiss but without the makeup." Many of the tracks on I've Been Expecting You show an undeniable growth, both in songwriting and in artistic expression; two of the highlights, "No Regrets" and "Phoenix From the Flames," are sensitive, unapologetically emotional songs that may not be as immediately catchy as those on his debut, but pack a greater punch down the road. Williams does indulge his sense of fun occasionally, playing up James Bond during the transcontinental hand-waver "Millennium" (which samples Nancy Sinatra's theme for You Only Live Twice), and simply roaring through "Win Some Lose Some" and "Jesus in a Camper Van”.

You can’t ignore the success and legacy of I’ve Been Expecting You. For the writing of the album, Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers began in Jamaica in the spring of 1998 – not a bad place to get the juices flowing! I’ve Been Expecting You went on to become the U.K.'s best-selling album for 1998. According to Music Week, the album sold 2,582,016 copies in the U.K. as of November 2016. It has been certified 10× Platinum for shipments of 3 million copies, making it Williams' best-selling album in the country. Very much thrust into the limelight, Williams completed album promotion with a huge European tour in the autumn of 1999. In 2005, I've Been Expecting You was ranked 91st in a Channel 4 show celebrating the 100 greatest albums of all time. Boasting five singles and plenty of gold throughout the album, Robbie Williams’s I’ve Been Expecting You is twenty-five on 26th October. Some of the singles are still played on the radio, though I think this is an album that announced Williams as a serious songwriter and a fantastic artist. From the ego a go go of his 1997 debut, Life Thru a Lens, Williams stepped up a gear on 1998’s I’ve Been Expecting You and released an album that proved he was a musical…

PHOENIX from the flames.

FEATURE: When Numbers Get Serious: Paul Simon’s Hearts and Bones at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

When Numbers Get Serious

Paul Simon’s Hearts and Bones at Forty

_________

A little under three years before…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Paul Simon with Carrie Fisher circa 1983 (the pair married in August 1983)/PHOTO CREDIT: Jean Jacques Lapeyronnie/Getty Images

the mighty Graceland was released, Paul Simon gave us the amazing Hearts and Bones. His sixth solo studio album, I think it simultaneously one of his most underrated and one of his absolute best. If albums like Graceland and Still Crazy After All These Years (1975) find its songs get more airplay, one cannot deny the excellence of Hearts and Bones. Its standout track (in my view), René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War, shows the master was at his peak. This phenomenal album was produced by Roy Halee, Paul Simon, Russ Titelman and Lenny Waronker. I think one reason why Hearts and Bones gets overlooked to a degree is that it wasn’t a massive commercial success. That would change with 1986’s Graceland….yet Hearts and Bones just got into the top forty in the U.S. and U.K. Maybe the lack of real instant standout singles means it is more for those who want depth and nuance, rather than something instantly catchy or that lodges in your brain. A woe that all artists have to face. I am going to introduce some features that shine a light on a magnificent album. With plans to work on new material with Art Garfunkel and perhaps affect some sort of unexpected reunion, Hearts and Bones instead became a Paul Simon solo work. One that is among his most important. You can buy the vinyl of this essential work from one of the greatest ever songwriters. In 2015, Ultimate Classic Rock ran a feature on Hearts and Bones. A commercial slide, Hearts and Bones did not get the acclaim and respect it deserved:

“For a good long while, everything Paul Simon touched turned to gold or platinum, first during his years as one-half of Simon & Garfunkel, and continuing through a string of successful solo albums. But by the early '80s, he'd hit a bit of a rough spot.

The seeds of Simon's dissension were sown in the late '70s, when he left his longtime home at Columbia Records and headed to Warner Bros. as part of a wildly expensive deal (one which roughly coincided with Columbia's poaching of a high-profile Warners artist, James Taylor). With the pop world at his feet and limitless record company resources to work with, Simon set about creating his most ambitious project yet: 1980's One Trick Pony, an album as well as a film starring Simon.

Rather than continuing his incredible streak of success, Pony was met with middling reviews and consumer indifference, knocking Simon into a painful period of writer's block that presaged his decision to reunite with his former partner Art Garfunkel for 1981's historically attended concert in Central Park – which then became a full-fledged tour, and was supposed to lead into a reunion album.

That project went through a series of changes before it finally arrived in stores on Nov. 4, 1983. Originally titled Think Too Much, it eventually morphed into Simon's sixth solo effort, Hearts and Bones – and Garfunkel was nowhere to be found.

As it turned out, Garfunkel quit fairly early in the recording process. In a 1984 interview with Playboy, Simon professed to have had misgivings from the beginning, recalling, "At first I thought, 'I really can't do it: These new songs are too much about my life to have anybody else sing them.' He had, 'Look, these aren't the events of my life, but I understand the emotions you're dealing with. I understand what it is to be in love, to be in pain, to feel joy. I'm a singer. I'm able to interpret. That's what I do.' I said, 'All right. Let's try.'"

Ultimately, though, Simon's need for complete creative control drove a wedge between the two partners, with one of the final breaks coming when Garfunkel said he wanted to record his vocals without Simon in the studio. "I wanted to be there when it happened, because I knew that if what he did wasn't all right with me, I wasn't going to let it go," explained Simon. "And that was the difference from the '60s. What we didn't realize at first was how big a difference it was. It was huge."

As Hearts and Bones made clear, Simon had certainly evolved from the artist he'd been during the '60s, and not always in a way his fans were prepared to accept. While he'd always striven to avoid writing lyrics that were "too on the nose," as he'd put it, the songs on Bones found him drifting into more abstract territory. Although he was still addressing timeless subjects like love and death, he was doing so from angles that weren't always easy to discern. In the eyes of some listeners and critics, the onetime voice of a generation had lost sight of his muse.

The result was another commercial setback for Simon, albeit one that proved short-lived – and also crucial, because the resulting disinterest from the label afforded Simon the level of creative freedom he needed to travel to South Africa for the sessions that produced 1986's landmark Graceland LP. By the end of the decade, he was once again one of the biggest and most highly respected rock stars on the planet.

At the time, it may have seemed like one of his lesser efforts, but time's been good to Hearts and Bones. Today, it's not only regarded as the prelude to Simon's second wind, but one of the more finely crafted records in a catalog with no shortage of classic efforts. Like he pointed out on one of his earlier songs: "You got to learn how to fall / Before you learn to fly”.

I will come to a review soon. A few years ago, American Songwriter published the first part of a feature highlighting the underappreciated genius that is Hearts and Bones. I will not include it all, though there are elements and sections of the first part that I wanted to include. In the hope of highlighting what a vital thing Hearts and Bones is. Perhaps an album whose sound did not fit in with the landscape of 1983:

“Each of the songs included, coming as they did from the heart and mind of this songwriter, contained multitudes. It would have been easier to write a book about each one than to condense all of it into the liner note limits. There was ample space offered for this, printed in a long vertical book that came with the set. But it wasn’t limitless, essentially, which was a problem at first.

For example, “Rene and Georgette Magritte (With Their Dog After The War).” It’s a song which is a universe unto itself. Quickly I had amassed thirty pages all on this one song. All of which added up, admittedly, to what Dylan called “too much and not enough.” That with all this thinking, writing, analysis, reflection and certainty, I’d written circles around this thing without getting to the main point.

Yet one truth remains, which is that the greatness of this album has not diminished. But what has changed is the judgment of it in the world. I’ve since come to know so many great songwriters who revere Simon, and they love this album as much as any of them. And do so, usually, without any knowledge of its reputation.

And so the work continues, to explore, study, analyze, bask in its glories, obsess even, and continue to sing the praises of Hearts and Bones. And all those albums that were great and somehow fell prey to the Heaven’s Gate effect.

[This can also be called the Ishtar effect, another great movie that got rained on. For songwriters, especially, it is one of the best, and funniest movies about songwriters. Paul William’s intentionally bad songs for it are genius.)

Though overtly expressing personal reasons for loving an album is something I’ve avoided almost always through the decades, for this I must take a different route. Because how songs resonate in our own lives, and albums, has a lot to do with how they exist in our lives, and why they matter so much to us.

Writing about music, as has been famously said, is about as useful as dancing about architecture. Words alone can never entirely fully express that which is instrinsically beyond words. That is why music is so powerful, and why it’s been said that all arts aspire to the level of music.

So any attempt to truly touch that realm with words alone is bound to fail, Some get closer than others. Yet even this writer’s admitted use of intentional hyperbole, which is not phony but an accurate expression of my genuine reverence for miraculous songwriting has been perceived as “gushing.” As if it is phony. It isn’t. Yet those behind the words are expected to use more restraint, so as to be taken seriously. But never did I want to play that game, as that would be phony, to pretend I wasn’t in utter awe.

Certainly this deep reverence came from a lifelong hunger to hear new music, which would be received with much gratitude and joy. In my life growing up, few things were ever as inspirational or enriching as getting a new album. Back then we had no computers or cell phones or even TVs in our rooms. But we had record players, and that is what mattered to me. Any album at all that came into my life was momentous. It brings home the understanding that how much songs matter in our lives has to do entirely with how we receive them, and if we choose to keep them in our lives.

As Leonard Cohen said when I asked him about the concept of meaningful songs, that meaning is determined not be the song or the songwriter, but by the listener.

He said there will always be meaningful songs for those who attach them to meaningful moments in their own lives. Even those songs we might consider unworthy.

“Songs do not dignify human activity,” Leonard said. “Human activity dignifies the song.”

So that is an expansive introduction to the main subject, about why certain albums for us forever impact us. In Part 2 we will get to the heart of the thing, and yes, also the bones, of why Paul Simon’s greatest underappreciated album is great”.

I am going to round things off with a review from Music Aficionado. Quite an extensive review from 2017, I am going to include a fair bit from it. There will be a lot of people who might not know about Hearts and Bones. Not realise why it is so good and warrants acclaim. As it is forty on 4th November, I wanted to spend some time with it:

“Paul Simon often expressed his love and appreciation for 1950s music. Talking to Paul Zollo: “Early fifties music had a different kind of melody, more melodic. But then you’re closer to the age of melody. Because the big band era and post-war, what was still all about melody. The days of Irving Berlin and all those great songwriters was about melody. Nobody comes close to writing melodies like they did. Nobody.” To Playboy magazine in a 1984 interview: “Actually, I’m a rock-‘n’-roll kid. I grew up with rock’n’roll. My main influences in early music were Fifties R&B, Fifties doo-wop groups, Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers. But Simon and Garfunkel was a folkie act. I liked the blend of our voices, but a significant part of me just wasn’t a folkie. What we were doing was too sweet. I was too serious. When I began making my own albums, the songs became funkier. They were more about the streets.”

Like Hearts and Bones, The Late Great Johnny Ace offers interesting twists in the song structure. The part that starts with “and the music was flowing” is unexpected and adds additional drama to the lyrics. But even more unexpected is the coda at the end of the song written by Philip Glass and performed by a small ensemble conducted by Michael Reisman. Glass completed his soundtrack to Godfrey’s Reggio’s film Koyaanisqatsi not long before The Late Great Johnny Ace was recored, and you can hear similarities between the coda and Pruit Igoe, one of the tracks in the film. Paul Simon: “His use of what he calls an “end piece” — a short coda which does not recapitulate the melodic lines of the larger preceding piece — is an idea that he used beautifully to conclude my song “The Late Great Johnny Ace.” That end piece concept has found its way into my arrangements for live shows, as the band plays a related but original addition to a song, allowing me to shape endings to sequences of songs, or to set the environment for the next tune.”. A few years later the two would collaborate again on Philip Glass’s album Songs From Liquid Days, Simon contributing lyrics to the track Changing Opinion. After a while the coda becomes such a part of the song that you feel its absence in the demo version Simon recorded while working on the album:

If you stuck with my post thus far you reached the best part, for my favorite song on the album and in all of Paul Simon’s rich catalog of wonderful songs, is Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After The War. Simon is at the top of his game here with lyrics as surrealistic as Magritte’s paintings. When asked if his lyrics can stand alone, Simon told Playboy in 1984: “Maybe on this new album, where the lyrics are my best.” In the Cinemax 1984 TV special Simon talked about the song: “That was unusual for me in the way the song was formed. I was at a friend’s house, actually it was Joan Baez. We were rehearsing at her house and she had to take a phone call, and while she was on the phone I was leafing through this book on Magritte. There was a photo of Magritte and his wife Georgette and the caption of the photo said Georgette and Rene Magritte With Their Dog During The War. And I thought that is a very interesting title for a song. A few days later I was driving along in Montana and I was singing the title except I remembered it as Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War. I began to sing a melody that fit the syllabification.” A similar story in which a song title jumped at him is famously recalled in a Rolling Stone interview, where he sat in a Chinese restaurant and a menu item titled a chicken-and-egg dish as “Mother and Child Reunion”.

Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After The War may be the best example of the new quality and direction Simon took with his lyrics around that time. In a 1990 interview with SongTalk magazine he said: “The language starts to get more interesting in Hearts and Bones. The imagery started to get a little interesting. What I was trying to learn to do was to be able to write vernacular speech and then intersperse it with enriched language. And then go back to vernacular. So the thing would go along smoothly and then some image would come out that was interesting and then it would go back to this very smooth, conversational thing. By the time I got to Graceland, I was trying to let that kind of enriched language flow naturally, so that you wouldn’t really notice it as much. I think in Hearts and Bones you could feel it, that it was coming.” In the booklet that accompanies the box set 1964/1993 Simon mentions some of the lines from the song: “I consciously came up with the part about “all their personal belongings” becoming intertwined. But the line in the bridge, “decades gliding by like Indians,” just emerged from nowhere while I was running in Central Park.”

Simon added interesting insights into the writing process and how he picked the words to the song by analyzing a few lines in an interview with Bill Flanagan, featured in the book Written In My Soul:

Returned to their hotel suite and they unlocked the door. Well, it’s just the same rhythm and it’s a rhyme. War/door. And when they open the door, it opens the song. You can go anywhere now. They’ve unlocked the door! So what happens?

Easily losing their evening clothes. That’s a just the way that it sings – the EEE OOO EEE OOO sound. e-sily loo-sing e-v’ning clo. There’s a dreaminess to that sound. And the words are also evocative. I know it works because the sound is right and the picture is interesting. Where are we going from here?

They danced by the light of the moon. Here comes  the leap: To the Penguins, the Orioles, the Five Satins. I didn’t think people would know the groups I picked. Unless they are as old as I am. But the names of those groups have a surreal quality to them. You don’t even know if they are groups, but the sounds are right. And penguins and moonglows and orioles could all be in a Magritte painting.

The deep, forbidden music They’d been longing for. Well, that’s rock & roll, and the early feeling rock & roll touched in you, because it was real. Back then it was forbidden.

René and Georgette Magritte With their dog after the war Were strolling down  Christopher Street When they stopped in a men’s store. Well that’s a joke. What else is  there going to be on Christopher street? It’s the center of the gay community in the US. I thought it was as interesting as any other place for them to be.

The easy stream of laughter Flowing through the air. Then I must have thought, where’s my rhyme? Oh I have a good joke. I’ll go to the French.

René and Georgette Magritte With their dog après la guerre. So that’s nice and tidy and brings in their language and has a joke and turns things around and everything is nicely muddled up and can go anywhere. Now I change key. You jump a tone and things feel nice.

Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War is an endearing song, recalling the music Paul Simon loved to listen to as a teenager: “My first introduction to Rock n Roll was vocal groups in the mid fifties. I’ve always considered that to be the essential vocabulary of my songwriting. Even though I used more sophisticated forms, I always go back to that sound.” Doo wop bands ruled the airwaves and Paul Simon, like many young adults at the time, was captivated by the melodies and the vocal harmonies. The song is at its core a tribute to these bands, but the specific bands mentioned in the song were selected for a reason: “The groups like the Penguins and the Moonglows, the Five Satins and the Orioles, they were very popular at the time. They were not necessarily my favorites. I used them because the sound of the names. The Penguins, The Moonglows, the Orioles. The Five Satins – until I put it in that context you really don’t know if I’m talking about birds or rhythm and blues groups of the fifties”.

On 4th November, it will be forty years since Paul Simon followed 1980’s One-Trick Pony with the beautiful Hearts and Bones. Another three years later, one of his most famous and loved albums arrived: the phenomenal and hugely successful Graceland. I really love Hearts and Bones. Never quite afforded the focus it deserves, I wanted to show some love for it here. Still so sublime and vital after forty years, this minor Simon masterpiece is one that will endure for decades. A songwriter who is seen as one of the all-time greats, go and play Hearts and Bones and see exactly…

WHY that is the case.

FEATURE: New Waves: Changing the Dynamic and Face of Music to Put Women More in the Spotlight

FEATURE:

 

 

New Waves

PHOTO CREDIT: Andre Moura/Pexels

Changing the Dynamic and Face of Music to Put Women More in the Spotlight

_________

I am going to write other features…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Brett Sayles/Pexels

about women in music soon. Now, as I look online and still see that, in 2023, figures around equality show there is a big gap that needs filling, I wonder why we always assume that women are the ones who need to fight for that voice! Why equality is the best we can hope for. I know it has always been the way that men have been seen as dominant - and the target is to get equality. After decades of music being in the mainstream, why is the highest ambition only to get equality?! I wonder whether the narrative will ever shift so that women are the ones who lead – and it is the men who need to catch up. That may seem naive on my part, though it is always frustrating when women are not championed enough and fought for. In terms of the biggest modern tours, the best new music, and most of the effecting and incredible albums, it is the women leading. I would say out finest broadcasters are women. Look at the amazing songwriters out there and so many are women. I know there are areas of the music industry where equality and that needed parity will take longer to affect. Women in professional studies, as producers and engineers, is one example. Look at a subject I write about a lot and will come back to now: playlists and the gender make-up across the board. This is one area that can be fixed easily without compromise. If a recent Why Not Her? Report found that the statistic are moving in the right direction, one only need listen to modern commercial radio to see that there is still an issue. For stations who feature very few women or only women in collaboration with men, that is being addressed.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Sound On/Pexels

Again, there is this thing that equality is the stopping point. I think that women could and should be the dominant force on radio playlists. Why is it the thing, when so much of this year’s best music has been released by women, there still such a gulf?! The fact that many stations have no issue playing a block of male artists and having playlists that are nowhere near to fifty-fifty?! It is disheartening. The fact that men will be seen as the driving force. There are incredible forces and ceremonies like Music Week’s Women in Music Awards that do show the amazing women (including trans people who identify as women) who are changing the industry and doing great things. Women are still stereotypes and under-represented. If you think about the wealth of talent out there worthy of spotlighting, the industry is definitely not doing enough to redress things. This article from The Guardian shows that there is a bit of progress being made when it comes to women artists in the U.S. – though female songwriters are definitely still struggling to get fairness and exposure:

“The amount of top-selling female artists in the US increased in 2022, but the proportion of female songwriters making any commercial impact is still dismal, a new study has shown. The sixth annual University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report reveals that while the amount of women represented in Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart – which tallies the most commercially successful songs of the year – jumped 28.7% last year, to a total of 30%, only 14% of songwriters represented on the chart were women, a slight decrease from the 2021 statistic of 14.3%. Of the 232 producers represented on the year-end chart, only 3.4% were women, and one producer was non-binary.

IN THIS PHOTO: Nicki Minaj

“There is good news for women artists this year,” said Dr Stacy L Smith, who led the report, in a statement, “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves – there is still much work to be done before we can say that women have equal opportunity in the music industry.”

The 30% representation marks a new high for the amount of female artists on the year-end chart over the past decade, but the statistics for female songwriters and producers have largely stayed the same over the past 10 years. Since 2012 – the beginning of the reporting period for the Annenberg report – the amount of female songwriters represented in the Billboard year-end chart has never been higher than 14.4%, in 2019.

The peak amount of female producers represented on the chart also came in 2019, when 5% of producers on the year-end list were women. “Until women and men artists hire women songwriters and producers the numbers will not move,” said Smith. “It’s more than just allowing an artist to credit themselves on a song, it’s about identifying talent and hiring women in these roles. That’s the only way that we will see change occur.”

The majority of artists on the 2022 year-end chart were from an underrepresented racial background – a 6.6 percentage point decrease from 2021, and an 8.4 percentage point decline from 2020 – and 65% of artists from those backgrounds were women”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Blaz Erzetic/Pexels

It is going to be a long time until there is equality across the board, let alone a position where women are leading. It is angering that men still hold that dominance and it is assumed that this is okay. Figures through the industry not doing nearly enough to change this. I do hope we get to a day when women are the majority when it comes to radio playlists, chart successes, producers and on festival bills. In nearly every part of the industry, there are these figures that show more needs to be done. I don’t think it is the case that there is not the visibility of availability out there. That is the excuse we always hear! Whether it is festival line-ups, radio playlists, songwriters or artists who warrant celebration, it is perceived there are fewer viable women. The truth is actually, if you look around, the make-up of the music landscape is shifting. It has been for years. Why can’t radio stations instantly and effectively balance their playlists when there is an embarrassment of riches around?! Why do festivals struggle when there are headline-worthy women all around?! Why are those in power not doing more to ensure there is visibility of women producers and more done to ensure that studios are a more inclusive space?! Why are female songwriters and even artists not as prolific on charts and paid as much as their male equivalents?! There are a lot of questions to be answered. In some ways, things are going backwards. Perhaps there are not quick and simple answers. I just feel, when turning on the radio or looking around at festivals, award ceremonies and everywhere in music, there is this divide. Recognition that something needs to be done, yet those in a position to make big changes right away are not doing it. The industry needs to be one where women are not stereotypes, marginalised or seen as inferior. Change has got to come about…

AS soon as possible.

FEATURE: Spotlight: BIA

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

BIA

_________

I have recently watched…

the BBC’s First Ladies of Hip-Hop. Celebrating and highlighting the women who helped define and push Hip-Hop forward, these are icons who had to fight to heard and seen as equals. U.S. rapper Eve has selected her five Hip-Hop queens who changed the genre. I think the modern crop – including Little Simz and Mega Thee Stallion – show that the future of Hip-Hop is female. When you think about the wealth of female MCs and rappers, it is clear that they are leading the way. Even though the Massachusetts rapper BIA has been on the scene a little time now, she is someone may not be known to all. Perhaps a new name to those in the U.K. Her new E.P., REALLY HER, was released back in July. It is a supremely confident and compelling work from a huge voice in Hip-Hop. With elements of Trap added to the mix, there are few as commanding as BIA. I am going to finish off by sourcing a review for Really Her. There are a couple of interesting interviews I came across tied to the E.P. release. Before I get there, AllMusic provide some biography of a sensational voice in Hip-Hop:

“Multi-platinum hitmaker BIA's tough, confident flows meet with detailed production, resulting in sinister trap bangers with the occasional R&B hook. After getting started as an independent artist, she signed on with Epic in early 2020, issuing her EP For Certain and bringing in Nicki Minaj for a remix of one of its tracks, "Whole Lotta Money." After the song cracked the upper reaches of the Billboard chart, BIA expanded For Certain into an album-length deluxe version in 2021, and from there she continued releasing new music in the form of collaborations with J. Cole and Snakehips or singles of her own. Really Her, her first proper album, arrived in 2023.

BIA was born in 1991 in Medford, Massachusetts, and spent time early in life as a part of Boston's independent rap scene. She eventually began working on her solo music and relocated first to Miami and then to Los Angeles. In 2016, she added vocals to the J Balvin single "Safari" and opened select dates in support of Ariana Grande, all while releasing new singles of her own. The EP Nice Girls Finish Last: Cuidado surfaced in 2018 and included some of her previously released singles as well as new tracks featuring guest spots from Kodak Black and Kali Uchis.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Harper for Wonderland Magazine

In 2020, now signed to Epic, BIA released a few tracks that had a slightly harder edge, "Free BIA (First Day Out)" and the lurching, hypnotic "Cover Girl." Both songs were later featured on her second EP, For Certain, issued in December of that year. A video for the EP's "Whole Lotta Money" was released the next April, and following the song's viral success, a remix with Nicki Minaj appeared in July, reaching the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. The track earned her a nomination for Best Breakthrough Song at the 2021 MTV VMAs. In addition, BIA's reworked version of her track "Skate" was featured in the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs tune-in promotions.

In 2022, BIA teamed with rapper J. Cole for the single "London," which peaked at number 62 on the Billboard charts. That year, she also appeared on tracks with Tommy Genesis, Snakehips, and a remix of Minaj's number one hit "Super Freaky Girl" that also featured Katie Got Bandz, Akbar V, and others. In March 2023, BIA issued the solo single "Sixteen." "I'm That Bitch," a collaboration with Timbaland, soon followed, and the song arrived on the full-length Really Her, which also featured Juicy J and Swizz Beatz. An expanded International Deluxe edition included several more guests such as Fivio Foreign, Giggs, Pa Salieu, and Luciano”.

I will come to that review soon. There are some great interviews with BIA. Some cool video interviews too. Go check them out if her music sounds like it is your thing. Maybe it will be longer before there is transatlantic success and recognition - though she does have a footing and fanbase here. I was intrigued by an interview from NOTION from a few months or so back. Learning a little more the super-talented Bianca Miquela Landrau:

“What’s been your greatest blessing in the past two years?

To travel the world with my friends doing what I love.

What about your biggest lesson?

Staying grateful and having no expectations.

How would you say you’ve evolved musically since then with this new project?

I think I’ve evolved everywhere from bars to beat selections. I approach all my art from an authentic place. I want all my music to be timeless.

What was inspiring you lyrically writing ‘REALLY HER’?

My life and traveling.

You’ve said before that you want people to feel empowered – “like THAT girl or THAT boy” – is that the intention behind this new music?

Absolutely! I think that’s pretty much my theme whenever I’m in the booth.

Where do you envision people listening to the music, and how do you want it to make them feel?

Anywhere, everywhere, outside. I want them to feel motivated, empowered, beautiful and ready to get some money.

Do you have a track on the project that’s most meaningful to you, or that you’re most proud of?

I love them all, but “Four Seasons” has a special place in my heart.

What’s inspiring the visuals for the project? The videos for “MILLIONS” and “I’M THAT BITCH” went off… What was on your mood boards?

I feel like my visual aesthetic is very much my aesthetic in real life. It’s classy, it’s clean, it’s fashion. Those are all the things I want to give in my visuals. I use my friends in the videos, those are really my homegirls. I am blessed to work with incredible directors that help bring my vision to life. Also we love to pay homage to those who came before us and have opened the doors to allow me to do what I’m doing now.

You give off such positive energy and message – of strength, self-reliance, resilience – what would you like to represent and stand for as an artist with a platform?

That I am a testament of staying true to who you are and doing the work. When you stay true to who you are and put in the work, it pays off. I am really grateful for having this opportunity of making music and building my legacy.

Having dropped the full project now, what are you feeling inspired by looking forwards?

I am feeling really inspired by my fans. I’m excited about going on my first headlining tour, meeting my fans and making music for them.

And looking further into the future, what does success look like to you? What’s the big dream?

I’m living it. It only gets better everyday”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Shaun-Andru

Here is an interview from The Cut. Published next month, it is clear there is a lot of momentum behind BIA. Her music mat be new to some. One spin of REALLY HER and you will be hooked. I do think that it is the women of Rap and Hip-Hop that are taking it to new places:

“Her style — which the Massachusetts-born rapper describes as “edgy, sexy, electric” — has caught the eyes of legends throughout her career. BIA was discovered on YouTube and introduced to Pharrell early in her career, and she landed on Oxygen’s Sisterhood of Hip Hop for two seasons in 2014 and 2015. By 2016, she scored a feature on J Balvin’s “Safari,” which started her rise to Billboard chart placements. In 2018, she released her first EP, Nice Girls Finish Last: Cuidado, and her second EP, For Certain, came at the tail end of 2020. A year later, it was almost impossible to go outside without hearing her hit song “Whole Lotta Money” — especially the remix with Nicki Minaj.

BIA’s no stranger to collaboration with hip-hop legends, either. On her third EP, Really Her, she worked with J. Cole, Timbaland, and Swizz Beatz, and she collaborated with Busta Rhymes for a single called “Beach Ball” this summer. It’s in her DNA to create a legacy with co-signs of major producers and artists, and she is certain that she’s unfuckwitable. “I’m really her,” she repeatedly tells me, speaking in her signature cool-girl flow. “I’m for the girls.”

A few days before her birthday, BIA started to prepare for a long flight to Australia, where she was set to perform for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. She’s never been down under, and she knows the flight is extra long, but she tells me she doesn’t mind because she travels luxuriously. “We only do lay flats, baby,” she says through laughter, referring to the first-class beds on international flights. Could she get any more “It” girl than that?

What is an “It” girl?

An “It” girl to me is just a girl who’s superconfident. She’s authentic, she knows who she is, and she sets the trends. She really sets the bar when it comes to looks and fashion especially. She’s in the know.

Who are some musicians you would classify as an “It” girl? Do they inspire you?

I’ll take it all the way back to Aaliyah and Missy Elliott. I love Rihanna, too. She’s the biggest “It” girl to me. And Nicki sets the trends. Those are my “It” girls; they set it. Even when I think about my style, there is one person I always think of: Aaliyah. She made streetwear and sexy, cool, effortless fashion. She wore baggy stuff but still made it cute and girly. Then there’s Rihanna, who mixes high fashion with streetwear. It’s her own personal style — she wears whatever the fuck she wants. You know that person on TikTok who everybody’s killing for looks right now, the subway fashion? I feel like Rihanna could put on any of those. That’s what we all think we look like when we try to replicate a Rihanna look.

Your confidence already answers this question for me, but do you consider yourself an “It” girl?

Yes, I do. I’m definitely sure of myself. I might not have the most followers, but I have a lot of eyes. Nobody’s the first to do anything, so I feel like we all just take things and reinvent it and figure out how we can amplify it and make it bigger and better than the last time. I pay a lot of love and respect to a lot of the girls that I feel are “It,” too. I show them a lot of love, and they show me a lot of love. Sometimes we’ll be in the DMs, and I’ve had girls tell me, “Oh, girl, I’m going to copy this.” It’s all love. It’s like, “Okay, cool. That’s what we’re here for.” We’re here to push the culture forward and raise the bar.

Where do you shop?

I shop everywhere. Online, at boutiques, outside. Sometimes I’ll get a little vintage piece, I’ll thrift something, but it’s like, I really just love pieces. I love Ottolinger, Andersson Bell, Rick Owens, and Diesel, to name a few brands. I like to find up-and-coming designers, too. Designers that aren’t so mainstream yet, but they have pieces. I’m always searching for key pieces.

What about going out? Where do you like to go out?

I live in L.A., and my friends and I like to go out to eat. We’re classy girls. I love Catch and LAVO; I could eat at LAVO every day, girl. I love the Ivy, too. They have this lobster ravioli, and it is so good. We do the hookah scene every once in a while or a lounge; we like to just go there and dance.

What was your vision going into your most recent project?

I work on a lot of songs, and I wanted this to be an elevated version of what For Certain felt like. For me, that project was the first time in my life and my career where I really felt super-sure of myself, like a hundred percent about everything. I was like, You know what? I’m stepping into it. I don’t need validation from anyone. This is me. This is what and who I am. So with this project, Really Her, I struggled on finding a name that resonated with me, but I would always randomly say, “I’m really her,” or, “Oh, I woke up her again today. It’s me.” I would always say it and one day it just clicked. I had so many other names, but I felt like this was the next step of For Certain because for certain, I’m really her — now I’m really in it. You can’t take me out.

As for the songs, it’s for the girls. If you know me, I’m really a girl’s girl. People say they’re girl’s girls, but I’m really such a homegirl. I’ve got so many homegirls, and I want them to feel that. I want everybody that is my girl to get money; I want them to put themselves in a position to boss up and to feel good and to look good and to be happy. You need music and motivation to do that. You have to feel powerful and move powerfully”.

I will round it up with a review for REALLY HER. I hope that BIA makes some appearances in the U.K. soon enough. I think she will get some good traction and affection from some of our stations. This is what Respect My Religion noted when they took a trip through REALLY HER. I have heard it a few times now and am always struck and awed. Whilst quite new to my ears, BIA is a pretty big name in the U.S. She is someone who has a glittering future ahead:

“BIA, the 31-year-old Massachusetts rapper, has been making waves in the hip-hop scene since signing to Pharrell Williams’ I Am Other record label back in 2014. With a musical style characterized by swagger and bravado, BIA exudes confidence in every rhyme she spits. After a label change to Sony in 2020, BIA’s single “Whole Lotta Money” with Nicki Minaj went viral on TikTok the following year. With a viral single complete with impressive penmanship, BIA solidified her position as a name to remember in 2020s hip-hop. Now, with her newest album, REALLY HER, BIA emphasizes her standing as a true rapper’s rapper.

Clocking in at just over 20 minutes, REALLY HER is certainly a concise listen. The album’s production is dominated by nocturnal 808 beats, creating a dark and menacing atmosphere. While the soundscape occasionally tiptoes towards being one-dimensional, the album’s short length keeps it from becoming repetitive, ultimately leaving listeners craving more.

One of the strengths of REALLY HER lies in its collaborations. BIA enlists the talents of Juicy J, Swizz Beats, J. Cole, and producer Timbaland, which add some necessary layers to the project. The collaboration with J. Cole on “LONDON” is a standout track, with Cole demonstrating his lyrical prowess and even experimenting with an unexpected British accent. His impressive internal rhyme scheme makes this song instantly playlistable.

BIA’s own verses are marked by honesty and authenticity as she fearlessly delves into her personal perspectives and life experiences. On “FOUR SEASONS,” she addresses her role as a successful woman in hip-hop, confidently rejecting stereotypes and society’s sexual expectations.

One notable aspect of REALLY HER is the brevity of its tracks, with all but one being under three minutes. This reflects an understanding of Gen Z’s short attention span, as BIA keeps things moving constantly to avoid dull moments. While this approach allows for a quick and engaging listen, it also leaves room for growth in lengthier tracks in the future.

The album’s closing track, “I’M THAT BITCH,” featuring the legendary producer Timbaland, is another standout. BIA’s swagger takes center stage on this track, reaffirming the album’s title that she’s “REALLY HER.” However, the real gem here is Timbaland’s masterful production, blending contemporary drill elements with the bounce and playfulness of southern hip-hop from the early 2000s. The result is an irresistibly catchy and vibrant song.

BIA put out a really solid album in REALLY HER. She displays her talent as a rapper while leaving room for experimentation in future music. Her authenticity shines through every track, making it clear that what BIA does well, she does really well. While the album’s production occasionally flirts with bland repetitiveness, the project’s brevity and features keep the listener engaged. With her career still on the rise, REALLY HER cements BIA’s status as a legitimate artist with a beaming future ahead”.

With REALLY HER under her belt, there will be a lot of curious eyes the way of BIA. After signing a record deal with Epic Records in 2020, FOR CERTAIN, her second E.P., arrived in December 2020. I think that REALLY HER is BIA’s best work so far. It is going to be exciting seeing how her future unfolds. For anyone unfamiliar with her music, make sure that you…

INVESTIGATE it now.

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Follow BIA

 Official:

https://www.officialbia.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/BIABIA

TikTok:

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

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/bia

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6veh5zbFpm31XsPdjBgPER?si=0ROBlOKER3COUZMUb7OiyA

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzliE133pF8KhDiNKnIJ_dA