FEATURE: Rock ‘n’ Roll Star: Oasis’ Definitely Maybe at Thirty: The Greatest Debut of the 1990s?

FEATURE:

 

 

Rock ‘n’ Roll Star

Oasis’ Definitely Maybe at Thirty: The Greatest Debut of the 1990s?

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IT is quite a big claim…

IN THIS PHOTO: Tony McCarroll, Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs, Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan photographed in 1994/PHOTO CREDIT: Michel Linssen/Redferns

but Definitely Maybe might be the best debut album of the 1990s. In a year where there was stellar competition, how many made as big an impact as Oasis’ Definitely Maybe?! On 29th August, Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs, Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan and Tony McCaroll laid down one of the biggest statements of the decade. Oasis booked Monnow Valley Studio in late 1993 to record Definitely Maybe. They initially worked with producer Dave Batchelor. It didn’t amount to much, as the sessions were unsatisfactory (Batchelor was subsequently fired). In January 1994, Oasis set about re-recording the album at Sawmills Studio in Cornwall. These sessions were produced by Noel Gallagher and Mark Coyle. It was still not an ideal outcome. Creation's Marcus Russell contacted engineer and producer Owen Morris. He then worked on mixing the album at Johnny Marr's studio in Manchester. It sounds like the album would be a mess. Given the producer changes and disruption, what we have is a consistent and brilliant album. You cannot really tell that it has a few different producers. It is confidence and timeliness of Definitely Maybe that makes it among the best albums of the 1990s. Opening with the magnificent Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, Definitely Maybe captures your attention right away. Released on 29th August, 1994, I wanted to look inside the album ahead of its thirtieth anniversary. As Supersonic and Shakemaker were successful singles, it was no surprise that Definitely Maybe was a chart smash. Live Forever was released three weeks before the album. I remember when Definitely Maybe came out. The sheer excitement and anticipation of it. At the time, there was not really this rivalry with Blur that would be stoked by the media. The Manchester band came onto the scene with a distinct sound and ambition. Not trying to fit into any scene or compete.

There is that swagger and confidence. A band fully formed and ambitious. Some might argue there are stronger and more important debut albums in the 1990s. Consider the impact Definitely Maybe made and how acclaimed it is. So many artists influenced by it. In terms of defining the sound of the 1990s in British music, few other albums made as big an impression as Oasis’ debut. It is amazing how little is written about Definitely Maybe. Considering it is seen as one of the best albums of the 1990s, there are not that many reviews. Not that many long ones anyway. Fairly few features about its making. It is a real pity. One hopes that this will be rectified ahead of the thirtieth anniversary. One cannot deny the consistency and potency of Definitely Maybe. How many songs from the album are anthems of today. As someone who can pick at flaws with the album – Noel Gallagher pinching riffs and sounds from other artists quite blatantly; the second half of Definitely Maybe loses some momentum -, it was such an important part of my musical childhood. I was eleven when the album came out. In terms of what Deifnitely Maybe did for British Rock. With U.S. Grunge and Pop being more important and popular prior, Definitely Maybe definitely helped shake things up and open doors. Rather than it being downbeat or angry, there was this celebratory and uplifting mood that was much needed. Not that this album was solely responsible for Britpop – Suede arguably got there first -, though you can trace a line back to Definitely Maybe and how it helped define this movement. I am going to close with a couple of reviews. Before 29th August, I will write at least one more feature about Definitely Maybe. There are many reasons to love it. There is that sense that, perhaps, Oasis never better it. Such was the quality of the music and the sense of importance about Definitely Maybe. Definitely among the best debut albums ever. The best debut of the 1990s? It is quite a declaration, yet consider all the album has done and how popular it is.

I am going to end with a couple of reviews for Definitely Maybe. Dead Good Music had their say on Definitely Maybe in 2021. It was clear that, thirty years ago British music saw this transformation and revolution. Oasis were very much at the forefront of that movement:

“1994: a year that saw the landscape of music change in Britain. It was a time to be proud to be British after so long embracing American culture.

By the time Oasis bulldozed their way onto the scene, other British bands were already starting to achieve mainstream success. Acts such as Suede and Blur were scoring their highest charting singles to date. As a young lad getting into guitar music at that time, I definitely felt a movement was beginning to take place.

In April, Oasis would release their debut single “Supersonic”. Although it would only reach a modest 31 in the UK charts, there was already a statement of intent “I need to be myself, I can’t be no one else” – a motto certainly to live by.

“Shakermaker” and “Live Forever” would quickly follow as singles in June and August that year, with songwriter Noel Gallagher already trying to emulate The Beatles by releasing singles every few months.

August 29th was the date Definitely Maybe was unleashed on the UK and it was the day I walked into Music Zone record shop in Stockport to purchase the CD. The album commences with the perfect opener to any album: “Rock n Roll Star”. Chin out and in your face. “I live my life for the stars that shine”, “Tonight I’m a rock n roll star” – You can imagine kids singing that in their bedrooms hoping one day that could be them. A song about dreams of escaping the hum drum life on a council estate.

That to me was the definition of early Oasis songs. Filled with hope about how good your life could actually be. Singing about subjects any kid could relate to. “Live Forever” relates to friendship, when you have two friends who get the jokes that no one else does, “Cigarettes and Alcohol”, a song about, well Cigarettes and Alcohol, and “Slide Away”, a song about love.

Ranking albums as the greatest is always a matter of opinion and is always based on your own personal experiences. For me, as a lad just leaving his teenage years, this album is special for so many reasons. It’s the album that got me into guitar music after the charts being dominated by blandness.

It’s cliche to say it but it’s also an album that made me think differently as an individual, took me on a different path musically and definitely changed my lifestyle both socially and culturally. I discovered so many different bands and went to so many gigs from that day forward.

To me that’s the sign of an era-defining album. Other people probably cite The Jam, The Smiths and The Stone Roses for the same reasons but they were before my time. Definitely Maybe was right here, right now for me.

With front man Liam Gallagher now playing to audiences as big as Oasis played to and Noel Gallagher also achieving great success, the iconic band are still relevant to kids not even born when Definitely Maybe was released. A definite sign of a crossover in eras showing the long-term legacy of Oasis”.

I shall end with a review from AllMusic. A number one success in the U.K., there is no denying how Definitely Maybe captured a mood. It really shook of the scene here. This new band coming through and releasing an album that was so immediate and rich. Not just mindless anthems and noise. It is that blend of anger and depth. With Liam Gallagher pouring his heart out in every song, you can feel the authenticity:

“Definitely Maybe begins with a statement of aspiration, as Liam Gallagher sneers that "tonight, I'm a rock & roll star" -- the words of a bedsit dreamer hoping he'd break out of those four walls and find something greater. Maybe all he could muster is a fleeting moment of stardom as he sings in front of a fleet of amps pushing out power chords, or perhaps he'd really become a rock & roll star; all that matters is he makes the leap. This dream echoes throughout Oasis' debut, a record which takes the dreams of its listeners every bit as seriously as those of its creators. Both the artist and audience desire something greater than their surroundings, and that yearning gives Definitely Maybe a restlessness that resonates. Certainly, Oasis aren't looking to redefine rock & roll here; they'd rather inhabit it. They scour through the remnants of the past three decades to come up with a quintessentially British rock & roll record, one that swaggers with the defiance of the Rolling Stones, roars with the sneer of the Sex Pistols, thieves from the past like the Happy Mondays, and ties it all together with a melodicism as natural as Paul McCartney, even if Definitely Maybe never quite sounds like the Beatles. All the Fab Four comparisons trumpeted by the brothers Gallagher were a feint, a way to get their group considered as part of the major leagues. Soon enough, these affirmations became a self-fulfilling prophecy -- act the way you'd like to be and soon you'll be the way you act, as it were -- but that bravado hardly diminishes the accomplishment of Definitely Maybe.

It is a furious, inspiring record, a rallying cry for the downtrodden to rise above and seize their day but, most of all, it's a blast of potent, incendiary rock & roll. Soon after its release, Noel Gallagher would be hailed as the finest songwriter of his generation, an odd designation for a guy drawn to moon/June rhymes, but his brilliance lies in his bold strokes. He never shied away from the obvious, and his confidence in his reappropriation of cliches lends these bromides a new power, as do his strong, sinewy melodies -- so powerful, it doesn't matter if they were snatched from elsewhere (as they were on "Shakermaker" or the B-side "Fade Away"). The other secret is of course Noel's brother, Liam, the greatest rock & roll vocalist of his generation, a force of nature who never seems to consider either the past or the present but rather exists in an ever-present now. He sometimes sighs but usually sneers, shaking off any doubt and acting like the rock & roll star Noel so wanted to be. This tension would soon rip the group apart but here on Oasis' debut, this chemistry is an addictive energy, so Definitely Maybe winds up a rare thing: it has the foundation of a classic album wrapped in the energy of a band who can't conceive a future beyond the sunset”.

There is so much to say about Definitely Maybe. A debut album that proudly can sit alongside the absolute best ever. I think about the 1990s and Oasis’ 1994 debut springs to mind. It was this massive release. This revolutionary working-class band from Manchester striking against decades of political strife. Songs about aspirations, youth and freedom. It offered something hopeful and relatable for the youth of Britain in 1994. The reason it sustained and was so enduring is because it did give people something to cling to. Britain was under Tory rule until 1997. In the three years before government change and the release of Definitely Maybe, this album spoke more truth than any politician.

I want to bring in a final section about Definitely Maybe and its impact. I know Liam Gallagher has said he is going to tour and perform the album. Wikipedia have collated polls where Definitely Maybe has ranked high. How it has won such acclaim. There is no denying the place it has in music history. If you have not dug into the album in a while, then you really need to sit down with and experience this majestic run of songs:

“In 1997, Definitely Maybe was named the 14th greatest album of all time in a "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian, and Classic FM. On Channel 4's "100 Greatest Albums" countdown in 2005, the album was placed at No. 6. In 2006, NME placed the album at No. 3 on its list of the greatest British albums ever, behind the Stone Roses' self-titled debut album and the Smiths' The Queen Is Dead. In a 2006 British poll run by NME and the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, the album was voted the best album of all time, with the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band finishing second. Q placed it at No. 5 on its greatest albums of all time list in 2006, and NME hailed it as the greatest album of all time that same year.

In a 2008 poll conducted by Q and HMV of the greatest British albums of all time, Definitely Maybe placed at No. 1. Rolling Stone ranked the album at No. 217 on its 2020 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", No. 78 on its 2011 list of the "100 Best Albums of the Nineties", as well as No. 42 on its 2013 list of the "100 Best Debut Albums of All Time". The German edition of Rolling Stone ranked the album at No. 156 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.

On 29th August, we mark thirty years of Definitely Maybe. It is this album that still resonates to this day. There is a thirtieth anniversary edition you can pre-order. With relatively few working-class Rock bands at the forefront, I think that we need to look to Definitely Maybe and the influence it had. How it can kickstart something today. Alongside the singles and anthems from the album, there is so many other gems to be discovered. A debut like no other. There is no…

MAYBE about it!

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Remembering Chris Cornell at Sixty

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Remembering Chris Cornell at Sixty

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ON 20th July…

IN THIS PHOTO: Soundgarden

it will be a bittersweet day. We sadly lost the amazing Chris Cornell in 2017. On 20th July, it would have been his sixtieth birthday. Leaving us far too soon, he was the lead of Soundgarden. Also part of Temple of the Dog and Audioslave, he possessed one of the most potent and powerful voices in music. A wonderful songwriter and incredible live performer, it is worth celebrating his brilliance and legacy. We should salute Chris Cornell and all he gave to music. I am going to end this feature with a collection of songs from Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of the Dog, in addition to his solo work. Before that, AllMusic provide a biography of ana amazing and much-missed pioneer:

“The singer and frontman for Soundgarden, Chris Cornell also forged his own career after the band's initial break-up in 1997. Soundgarden had rightfully become one of rock's most popular bands on the strength of such albums as Badmotorfinger and Superunknown. And with each album, Cornell's vocals grew stronger -- farther away from heavy metal screaming and toward a true singing style. Euphoria Morning, his first solo album, was in the singer/songwriter mold, but he also pursued true pop music on 2009's Scream, with help from producer Timbaland. Cornell also joined forces with former Rage Against the Machine members as Audioslave, and continued recording and performing -- both as a solo artist and with a resurgent Soundgarden -- until his death in 2017. Posthumous releases like 2020's No One Sings Like You Anymore, Vol. 1 continued to celebrate his legacy as a powerful and expressive vocalist.

Born in Seattle on July 20, 1964, his music career didn't take shape until he was a teenager when he began playing drums in a local cover band. Although he spent most of his teenage years as a loner, rock music helped Cornell overcome his uneasiness around others. After dropping out of high school and working as a cook, Cornell laid the foundation for what would become the influential grunge band Soundgarden by the mid-'80s. Cornell assumed vocal duties for the group, with friend Hiro Yamamoto on bass, Kim Thayil on guitar, and eventually Matt Cameron on drums.

Along with the Melvins, Soundgarden was one of the first rock bands to slow down punk's youthful energy to a Black Sabbath-like crawl. Following the release of several recordings on various independent labels, Soundgarden also became one of the first bands of the Seattle underground to sign with a major label, A&M, which issued Louder Than Love in 1989. After the album's release, however, Yamamoto left and was first replaced by ex-Nirvana member Jason Everman, who was later ousted by Ben Shepherd. With Soundgarden's quintessential lineup in place, the group became one of rock's most popular bands on the strength of such albums as 1991's Badmotorfinger, 1994's Superunknown, and 1996's Down on the Upside. With each album, Cornell's singing grew stronger as he demonstrated a growing mastery of his multi-octave range.

From the start, however, Cornell's talents weren't limited to his work with Soundgarden. He organized a tribute for late Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood in the form of 1990's Temple of the Dog project, which featured a stripped-down sound and yielded the enduring hit "Hunger Strike."

Cornell's first officially released solo composition, the acoustic "Seasons," was the highlight of the 1992 motion picture soundtrack Singles. His bluesy voice also helmed a superb cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)" on the 1993 Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix compilation (under the pseudonym M.A.C.C.). Meanwhile, he found time to pen songs for other acts (including Flotsam & Jetsam and Alice Cooper) while also producing the Screaming Trees' 1991 release, Uncle Anesthesia. After Soundgarden's demise in April 1997, Cornell slowly but surely began to assemble a solo album with his friends from the band Eleven.

Issued in 1999, Euphoria Morning was a departure from his former band's sound, emphasizing Cornell's vocals and lyrics rather than meaty guitar riffs. Shortly after its release, Cornell launched his first solo tour, mixing songs from all eras of his career. After the tour's conclusion in early 2000, a tepid remix of the Euphoria Morning track "Mission" (retitled "Mission 2000") was included on the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack. It appeared as though Cornell would take a break from music for a while, as his wife gave birth to the couple's first child in June of the same year, but by late 2000, Cornell found himself involved in a project that promised to be a classic hard rock collaboration.

Rage Against the Machine had decided not to break up after longtime vocalist Zack de la Rocha left the band, opting instead to find another singer and carry on under a different name. Cornell accepted an invitation to jam and pen a few songs (which former Rage guitarist Tom Morello described as "really groundbreaking") and, shortly thereafter, officially joined forces with the former Rage members under the moniker Audioslave. Produced by Rick Rubin, the band's self-titled debut arrived in November 2002 and went multi-platinum. The follow-up effort, 2005's Out of Exile, debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and was followed by the platinum-selling Revelations in 2006. Despite such success, Cornell left the band that same year, citing the usual "irreconcilable differences" for his departure.

Cornell returned to his solo career with 2007's Carry On. Although the album was largely biographical, it also featured a cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" (a rendition made famous one year later by American Idol contender David Cook) and a song from the James Bond movie Casino Royale. Two new singles, "Ground Zero" and "Watch Out," were offered as digital downloads one year later, featuring a newfound emphasis on electronics and studio trickery. The tracks had been recorded with producer Timbaland, with whom Cornell partnered for the creation of his third solo album. Stocked with drum machines and R&B melodies, Scream arrived in March 2009, heralded by Timbaland as "the best work I've done in my career" but received poorly by several critics.

The following year, Soundgarden joined the many popular '90s alternative bands who reunited in the 2000s and 2010s, headlining that year's Lollapalooza festival and releasing the retrospectives Telephantasm and Live on I-5, which documented the group's 1996 tour, as well as recording new songs. The following spring, however, Cornell returned to his solo career with the solo acoustic Songbook tour, from which came two EPs and the Songbook album, all of which were released in 2011. That September, Cornell contributed a song to the Machine Gun Preacher soundtrack. King Animal, Soundgarden's first album since Down on the Upside, appeared in November 2012 and the group supported the record with a tour. Cornell returned to his solo work in 2015, teaming with producer Brendan O'Brien to record Higher Truth, his first collection of original solo songs since 2009's Scream.

Cornell returned to Soundgarden in 2016, and the band began work on a new album. In the meantime, the group released a deluxe reissue of Ultramega OK in March 2017 and began an American tour that April. On May 17, following the band's concert at Detroit's Fox Theater, Cornell was found dead in his hotel room; he had taken his own life at the age of 52. The following year, a legacy compilation chronicling Cornell's career arrived in the form of Chris Cornell, which included key tracks from his Soundgarden and Audioslave eras, as well as touchstones from his decades-spanning solo career and a previously unreleased song. One of those tracks, "When Bad Does Good," won Best Rock Performance at the 61st Grammy Awards.

Posthumous projects from Cornell began to arrive in 2019, when the Soundgarden album Live from the Artists Den arrived that summer. In 2020, a covers album called No One Sings Like You Anymore, Vol. 1 that Cornell completed prior to his death was released digitally; a physical version followed in early 2021. The set and single "Nothing Compares 2 U" were both nominated for Grammy Awards in 2021”.

I remember hearing news of Chris Cornell’s death in 2017. It was such a shock! Having grown up listening to Soundgarden, it felt very personal. Rather than feel sad, I wanted to celebrate his music. On 20th July, it would have been his sixtieth birthday. I want to use this opportunity highlight one of the finest songwriters and voices ever. Someone who has influenced so many other artists, Chris Cornell’s brilliance will shine…

FOR generations more.

FEATURE: So Real: Jeff Buckley’s Grace at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

So Real

Jeff Buckley’s Grace at Thirty

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MANY consider this album…

IN THIS PHOTO: Jeff Buckley in Milan in 1994/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

to be one of the finest debuts ever. I could not argue against it. Sadly, it was the only album Jeff Buckley would release before his death in 1997 at the age of thirty. Grace was released on 23rd August, 1994. I am looking ahead to its thirtieth anniversary. It is so sad that we do not have Jeff Buckley with us to celebrate Grace. It was a minor success in his native U.S. in 1994. More acclaimed and know here in the U.K. and Europe. In years since, Grace is seen as one of the most influential albums ever. A masterpiece from the Californian songwriter who, sadly, left us before his full potential was revealed. Many might associate Grace with Buckley’s transcendent cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. I think it is his original songwriting that stands out. Tracks like Grace, So Real, Dream Brother and Last Goodbye. His interpretative skill and range on show for Lilac Wine and Corpus Christi Carol. A Legacy Edition was released in 2004 on its tenth anniversary. It is shocking to think that Grace received mixed reviews and poor sales upon its release. In 1994, the music landscape was maybe set up more for other types of music. There was more of an Alternative threads in U.S. music. Britpop starting in the U.K. Grace maybe nodding back to artists like Joni Mitchell or those from the East Village in New York. Perhaps Grace more familiar with albums of the 1960s and 1970s. Of course, we now recognise Grace as a stunning and faultless album from one of the greatest voices ever. I wonder whether there will be any reissue or anything special happening for the thirtieth anniversary of Jeff Buckley’s debut album. It has influenced so many artists.

I will bring in a couple of reviews for Grace to finish off. Before that, there are some features I want to bring in. In 2019, Consequence of Sound looked back at Grace. How it arrived in 1994 in a music scene where other sounds and artists were fashionable. Grace had all this hype and buzz behind it. Seen as a bit disappointing when it arrived on 23rd August, 1994. Now we herald this album. Such a pity Jeff Buckley could not see the impact his debut album would make:

“Buckley had only one album to his name when he died, but my word, what an album it was. Grace hit shelves in 1994, arguably alternative rock’s single greatest year; its contemporaries included Soundgarden’s Superunknown, Beck’s Mellow Gold, Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral, Hole’s Live Through This, Green Day’s Dookie, and Weezer’s (first) self-titled album, to name just a few. The question isn’t whether or not Grace was superior to them — you can decide that one for yourself — but it sounded so fundamentally unlike those other albums that it might as well have come from another era. American alternative rock (as opposed to Britpop) was iconoclastic, disdainful of the hubris and hedonism of classic rock; moreover, it sounded ugly, and it dealt with ugly emotions.

Grace, on the other hand, was so … pretty. Compared with the blunt force riffage of Cobain, Kim Thayil (of Soundgarden), and other grunge guitarists, Buckley’s guitarwork was nimbler and more melodic and made much greater use of reverb than distortion. But prettiest of all remains Buckley’s voice — an instrument that has been described as “angelic” and “ethereal” so many times that it baits exasperation until you listen to it again and realize holy shit, it really is that special. The range and clarity of Buckley’s voice enabled him to not just cover but reinterpret seemingly every corner of the classic rock canon, which he had obvious respect for; filtered through Buckley’s voice box, the likes of Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Nina Simone, Van Morrison, and Leonard Cohen became something else entirely.

Speaking of Cohen, it’s impossible to write about Grace without setting aside at least a paragraph for Buckley’s cover of “Hallelujah”. Going into this review, I was tempted to put off the song for as long as possible, or to not select it as one of the album’s essential tracks, but it couldn’t be done. There’s just no way to imagine Grace without “Hallelujah”. Like Johnny Cash’s take on Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”, Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” is so complete a transformation that it effectively steals the song for himself. For better or worse, it may be his definitive song: for better, because it really does demonstrate what was so remarkable about him — how pristine his singing and guitar playing were — and for worse, because its overuse in movies and television as a sort of emotional shorthand threatens to eclipse the other nine tracks on Grace.

While Cohen’s song wouldn’t loom over Buckley until long after he died, he entered the music industry under the shadow of another artist: his late father, Tim Buckley. The elder Buckley — a similarly gifted vocalist whose work spanned folk, jazz and funk (and is worth hearing in its own right) — had no relationship with his son, meeting him only once before his own accidental death in 1975. Jeff, then eight years old, wasn’t invited to the funeral. He’d get the chance to pay his last respects in 1991, singing a few of his father’s songs at the “Greetings from Tim Buckley” tribute concert. He didn’t intend to use his appearance as a breakthrough into the music industry (he requested that his name be left off the lineup), but it certainly put his foot in the door. (If you want to hear what Buckley was doing between the tribute concert and Grace, check out the expanded edition of Live at Sin-é.)

But on the rest of Grace, Buckley really only sounds like himself. The dreamy (some might say druggy) “Mojo Pin” has some of the most creative and unexpected musical transitions outside of progressive rock, deftly switching between delicate fingerpicking, soft strumming, and rapid strumming. “Last Goodbye”, likely the second-best-known song on the album (after “Hallelujah”, of course), is such a soaring tune that you just might forget it’s a breakup song, using strings in a way that sounds splendid as opposed to syrupy. Bookending “Hallelujah” on the album are the hypnotic “So Real”, which repeats itself over and over again like a spiral staircase to the sky, and “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over”, a slow-burning, yearning ballad. All of these songs serve as reminders that Buckley was making some of the most unique and unabashedly beautiful music of the ’90s.

After Grace, he’d grow more reluctant to record beauty for beauty’s sake. He also started to chafe under increased pressure from his label; Columbia had indulged Buckley in the studio and sent him on a year and a half of near-constant touring, but Grace was a slow seller and met with reviews that were favorable but not effusive. The label urged Buckley to release “Forget Her”, a bluesy lament that might have been a hit if Buckley hadn’t left it off Grace as a single — a request that Buckley, who had grown tired of the song, refused. (Some posthumous editions of Grace tacked the song onto the end after “Dream Brother”.) Going into Grace’s follow-up, then titled My Sweetheart the Drunk, Buckley seemed determined to make a record that was thornier and less commercial, enlisting Tom Verlaine (formerly of Television) to produce the initial sessions and eschewing its predecessor’s dalliances with folk and jazz. Where Buckley genuflected to the classics on Grace, My Sweetheart the Drunk seemed to be his bid for indie cred — and it probably would have gotten him a lot of it had he lived to finish the record the way he wanted. It’s impossible to know what it would have sounded like.

It’s also impossible to know what the reputation of Grace would be if Buckley were still alive today. In the years after Buckley’s passing, Grace drew praise from many of his idols: Bob Dylan called Buckley “one of the great songwriters of this decade”; David Bowie once claimed Grace to be among his favorite albums ever made; even Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, whose music Buckley had fallen in love with so long ago, paid their respects. The death of an artist changes the way we see their art as the loss of what we could have had forces us to reevaluate what we do have. There’s no doubt that Buckley wanted his debut album to stand the test of time, and it’s a shame that it’s the only classic he lived to complete. But it speaks to the musician that he could have been — the musician that he was — that Grace has left such a lasting legacy”.

Prior to getting to reviews, it is worth sourcing from No Depression. They celebrated the emotional lightning rod of Grace at twenty-five. Writing about it in 2019, it is amazing to think that there was not this massive excitement and celebration of Grace. It must have been heartbreaking for Jeff Buckley to read some of those reviews. Having poured his hearth and soul into every song, the press and public were not as receptive as hoped. With core band members Michael Tighe, Matt Johnson and Mick Grøndahl, something magic was released in 1994:

“Grace is 25 years old. Jeff Buckley’s debut is gorgeous and heartbreaking, ambitious, daring and eclectic, and, as the sole studio album released during his short life, the only fully realized vision of the artistic brilliance he possessed.

With the expectation that his first LP was the starting point of an iconic recording career, Columbia Records released Grace on Aug. 23, 1994. Entertainment Weekly deemed it “stunningly original” and “too good to be true.” Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune heralded Buckley’s voice as having “a soulful intensity that sends chills.” Peers and legends such as Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Chris Cornell were effusive in their praise of the album and of Buckley’s tremendous gifts as a singer, guitarist, and composer.

Others were not so kind. Rolling Stone lauded his ambition, but gave Grace a three-star review that featured the one of the poorest-aging opinions in the magazine’s history: “The young Buckley’s vocals don’t always stand up: He doesn’t sound battered or desperate enough to carry off Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah.’” And Robert Christgau, the “Dean of American Rock Critics,” gave it a C rating and lampooned the hoopla surrounding Buckley by writing, “Let us pray the force of hype blows him all the way to Uranus.”

A Vessel

The son of prodigiously talented folk-jazz singer/cult icon Tim Buckley and Mary Guibert, Jeff arrived at music without the guidance of the father he met only once before Tim’s death in 1975 from a drug overdose. While a cornerstone of his legacy is his gorgeous, multi-octave voice, Buckley’s first passion and pursuit in music was the guitar, where he was drawn to the sounds of Led Zeppelin and jazz fusion.

After spending the latter half of the 1980s kicking around as a guitarist in various jazz, metal, punk, funk, reggae, and R&B bands, Buckley began to pursue his own songs. In 1991 he attracted industry attention when, accompanied by guitarist Gary Lucas, he made his public singing debut at a tribute show for his father.

From there, Buckley’s career trajectory changed. After collaborating with Lucas for a year, he went out on his own and became part of the New York City café scene. These shows, later documented on Live at Sin-é, became part of his legend, featuring both his original tunes and an eclectic mix of fare made popular by Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, and Bad Brains.

These café shows regularly attracted record executives and power players, and in October 1992 Buckley signed a three-album deal with Columbia Records. The label had high hopes that Buckley’s brilliance would quickly reveal itself to a wider range of fans. The thinking was that he’d succeed labelmates Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen as someone who would flourish into the finest singer-songwriter of his generation and compile a legendary body of work.

For the band that helped record Grace and toured with him in support, that brilliance was apparent from the beginning.

“This might sound stupid, but I don’t give a shit,” his former drummer Matt Johnson says. “But one time when we were playing, something about his voice went through my body. It was an entirely metaphysical moment where something supernatural happened.

“The man was one of the most extraordinary musicians to ever live,” he adds. “Jeff was this lightning rod of the tone and tenor of all the human emotion in a room. He had this ability to act as an emotional lightning rod, and I always thought he’d hopefully become a vessel for that.” 

Saving ‘Grace’

Johnson first met Buckley in summer 1993 and within a couple of months was recruited to be the drummer for the Grace recording sessions. Though the then-23-year-old had had some session and recording experience, Johnson had never worked on a project of this scale before. As he looks back on the experience, Johnson thinks his youth and relative inexperience played a large part in why Buckley wanted him in the band.

“Jeff seemed to be confident he could get what he needed from this ensemble,” he says. “We were young and, in my case, had a lot of insecurities. I think he wanted that — he didn’t want session musicians, he wanted the transformation younger players would bring and create a snapshot of that.”

While Johnson recalls that “the stakes felt high” and there was a “sense of importance of Jeff” to Columbia, he doesn’t remember the process of creating Grace as particularly laborious or fraught. Part of this can be attributed to the calming nature of producer Andy Wallace, who had previously worked on Nirvana’s Nevermind, Run-DMC’s Raising Hell, and multiple albums by Slayer, and his ability to nurture the creative process.

Johnson also attributes a large part of that to Buckley’s multi-instrumental capabilities, uncanny ear, instincts, and efficiency. Because of that, it only took about a day per song to lay down the non-vocal elements.

“I thought he was a very good collaborator, bandleader, and mentor,” Johnson says. “Jeff understood how to both be an individual musician, while also still keenly aware of how to be part of an ensemble.

“His listening was a very powerful thing to be present for,” Johnson continues, comparing Buckley’s auditory capacity to that of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. “It could be textures, entry points, Jeff just knew how stuff should be held together. He could get a pairing of two basic opposites and it’d sound idiosyncratic and perfect.”

While Johnson was there for the entirety of the recording process, Michael Tighe came into Buckley’s band at the tail end of the sessions. The guitarist had met Buckley through a mutual friend in high school and the two had jammed on and off. As Buckley closed in on completing Grace and was putting together his touring band, he reached out to his friend.

Much like Johnson, Tighe was impressed by Buckley’s ability to absorb so many influences and styles, then translate it into his own work.

“He would ruminate on the music a lot and when it came time for recording, he’d really focus,” Tighe says. “He’d usually come in very quickly or he’d obsess on it and get into a perfectionist mindset. But he wouldn’t release something until it was perfect.

“He was really taken with a lot of music,” Tighe says. “He could cast this spell and create a space that was quite meditative. We would sit or stand in a circle and drone on something. We all had very good chemistry; it’s why he put the band together.”

That natural chemistry Buckley had with Tighe and the rest of the group came in handy and allowed Tighe to come in with a late contribution that changed the complexion of Grace.

“One day I played him the chords to ‘So Real.’ It was something I played him in my room (back in high school),” he recalls. “This was after, like, most of the album was done. During rehearsals he said, ‘Hey, remember that song you played in your room?’”

Thus, “So Real” came to be. To make room for it on Grace, Buckley bumped “Forget Her” off the album. This move came much to the chagrin of Columbia Records, which had planned to issue “Forget Her” as the lead single. Neither Johnson nor Tighe can recall quite why Buckley held such disdain for “Forget Her,” a tune of his own composition, but both vividly remember his adamance in replacing it.

“‘So Real’ saved the record for him,” Johnson says. “And it points toward the sound he was going for, it’s the sound of a door opening to the future.”

A Cult Hero

When Grace was finally released, grunge rock, hip-hop, and The Lion King soundtrack dominated the charts. There weren’t many acts out there simultaneously channeling Nina Simone, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Smiths, and Led Zeppelin. As such, it took a long time for the record to take hold and capture the imagination of listeners: It peaked at 149 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart that year and didn’t reaching platinum-selling status until 2006.

“You can go back now and think about the production and the mix from that time period, but I think it’s perfect in its own way,” Tighe notes. “I think Jeff was very aware of how good the album was, but I think it bothered him slightly the album wasn’t more successful. But he was already a cult hero. We all thought it’d be a longer career and that would change.

“The zeitgeist was so different back then. There weren’t bands like Coldplay, Radiohead had just started,” Tighe says. “When I play it now for people, I love watching the glaze that comes over their eyes. Ultimately, it’s his voice, people just have an immediate emotional reaction to his voice.”

Johnson’s feelings on Grace are tied strongly to the recording sessions, that moment in time they captured and what it all meant personally. The fact that it connected with people well after the fact is an added bonus.

“When it comes to Grace, I feel very, very lucky. I’m never in a position to look at it like anything but a fuckin’ penny from heaven,” he says. “There isn’t one song I don’t like. When I hear it, it’s like I made this amazing best image of me that could be captured in any scenario.

“I can’t find fault with it and it’s not like I haven’t heard criticism,” Johnson continues. “But the feeling I got recording it was absolutely spine-chilling. I did not ever more feel what the drive of my life was, and it could not have borne better fruits. To have Rolling Stone or whoever now praise it is icing on the fucking cake. I don’t ever feel like, ‘What the fuck took you so long?’”

Musical Echoes

It took a few years for Buckley’s influence on fellow artists to be heard. By Tighe’s estimation, it was around the early 2000s that he started hearing Buckley-esque melodies on the radio, including from bands such as Coldplay and Radiohead, who drew inspiration from Buckley’s chord progressions and structures.

“Now you just hear it all the time,” he says. “There was that moment a while back someone did ‘Hallelujah’ on one of those shows like American Idol. The zeitgeist has changed a lot”.

Let’s end with a couple of reviews. Grace: Legacy Edition was reviewed by Pitchfork  in 2004. They note how Jeff Buckley was more of a songbird than a Rock artist. Maybe the mainstream and media not quite sure what to make of him. An artist that stood out in 1994. The raw emotion and heart-baring songs were perhaps jarring or unusual against the sounds of the time:

“1993's Live at Sin-e EP gives the best idea of what Columbia's A&R; rep must have seen in Buckley at the time. At shows, he was the picture of a high diva: sprawling, boundless and with more than a pinch of self-conscious glitter. However, as he revealed in The Making of Grace, the behind-the-scenes feature that leads off the third disc DVD in Columbia's new "Legacy" edition reissue of his debut full-length, he needed a band. He already had Grondhal, met drummer Matt Johnson through Grace executive producer Steve Berkowitz, and, midway through recording the album, brought in guitarist Michael Tighe (who eventually contributed "So Real", to which Buckley added a chorus and put on the record in place of the bluesy "Forget Her"). Producer Andy Wallace speaks on the documentary about his concerns over how much of the record should reflect Buckley's solo performances, but true to form, the singer wanted it all.

Somehow, despite an overflow of ideas-- they needed three different band setups available at all times to accommodate Buckley's various moods-- the record got done. And it was released. And thousands of open-heart romantics heard their ship come in. As it happened, Grace was received with mixed feelings from critics who probably thought they were getting the next great alt-rock savior, and instead felt they'd received dinner theater for the moody crowd. They had a point: For all its swells of emotion and midnight dynamics, Grace was not a record to rally the post-grunge alternation. It made a jazz noise where a rock one was expected and a classical one where a pop one might have sold more records. MTV snagged "Last Goodbye", Grace's most radio-friendly song by a considerable margin, but Buckley was predestined for a cult stardom.

Grace's strengths have been well-documented over the years: The flawless choice of cover songs, including the definitive reading of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (that we learn on the documentary was actually chosen based on John Cale's 1991 version from the Cohen tribute I'm Your Fan); the mystic, blue textures of "Mojo Pin", "So Real" and "Dream Brother" that seemed as related to Led Zeppelin as to Scott Walker as to Buckley's father; Wallace's sympathetic, intimate production and the band's equally sensitive following of Buckley's lead. And of course, he sang the hell out of those songs. His voice turned upward songs that naturally leaned inward; his reading of Nina Simone's "Lilac Wine" transformed from misty cocktail lament into transcendental experience, and the unlikely recasting of English composer Benjamin Britten's "Corpus Christi Carol" into ambient lullaby.

And, as this reissue proves, for every bit of lightning trapped in a jar, Buckley was willing to try his hand at many songs with which he held a weaker grasp. Firstly, he fancied himself a rock star, and the second disc of this set includes endearing, but ultimately inessential readings of the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams", a pretty silly Screamin' Jay Hawkins impersonation on Leiber & Stoller's "Alligator Wine", and a speed-metal take on "Eternal Life". His version of Big Star's "Kanga-Roo" nails its weary grandeur, but goes overboard on the ensuing 11-minute jam session, effectively transforming it from intimidating wall of drone into a meandering, albeit unfinished and tentative giant. He sounds best interpreting songs like Bukka White's "Parchman Farm Blues", Simone's "The Other Woman", and Bob Dylan's "Mama, You Been On My Mind", though his own take on the blues-- the previously unreleased "Forget Her"-- sounds comparatively pedestrian.

So, the question becomes how frustrated you are willing to be with Buckley. His posthumous releases suggest what Grace did: that he was one of the most talented musicians of his generation, while also being one of the most impulsive and, often, maddeningly inconsistent. Is he really being served by the uncovering of outtakes, B-sides and live performances? Fans certainly think so, but I won't cop to listening very beyond his lone completed record these days. And it bears emphasizing that its rewards have lost nothing in 10 years. Grace remains one of the most engaging, inspired records ever made, and its 10 original songs serve as the best possible portrait of Buckley as a diva, songwriter and artist”.

There are other features and reviews that are well worth exploring. I am going to end with a review from Sputnik Music. They heralded an essential Rock album that has changed music in years since. Thirty years after its release, you can feel and see the impact it has had. So many artists owe a huge debt to Jeff Buckley’s dazzling, distinct, pure and moving debut. The artistry and passion that goes into the tracks. It is so captivating all these years later:

“Displaying a blend of warm folky ballads, alternative rockers, and even gospel touches here and there, Grace's music is pretty diverse and serves as a great backdrop for Buckley's vocals which, let's face it, are still the main focus here. Among the most impressive things the record manages to accomplish is establishing a powerful chemistry between Jeff's singing and the instrumentation, which intertwine in a variety of interesting ways. The way the singer's vocal work and guitar playing combine in a song like the warm chord-centric Leonard Cohen cover "Hallelujah" creates an intimate atmosphere that makes for an extremely passionate performance. You'll be able to hear a pin drop during that stunning instrumental break in the middle as the guitar work quietly modulates through multiple keys with some absolutely gorgeous finger-picking. "Lilac Wine" follows a similar path, albeit in a more melancholic fashion, before transforming into a soulful ballad that, despite repeating its main motif quite a bit, never seems to grow old. There are, however, many times in which Buckley completely overpowers the instrumentation 100%, such as in the title track's stunning climax near its conclusion. Jeff holds a note with his head-voice that lasts for over ten seconds, along with actually going up a few notes in the process; it is at this point that you realize that he is in full control of this entire record. While "Mojo Pin" serves as a nice somber opener, the title track raises the stakes and displays just how large Jeff's vocal range is and the plethora of techniques he knows. Between his falsettos, high head-voice notes, quiet and intimate near-whispers, etc., he reveals his proverbial "hand" quite early on and yet continues to impress anyway.

One of the most important facts considering this record's acclaim is how it's not at all a product of the times (1994 in this case), and that is what makes it so great. In fact, songs like "Hallelujah," "Lover, You Should've Come Over," and bittersweet closer "Dream Brother" sound like they'd be special and out of place (in a good way) in any time period because of how genuinely timeless they sound. The same could be said of most of the record, although some songs such as "Last Goodbye" and loud rocker "Eternal Life" are a bit more on the conventional side; in that case, Buckley's vocals and little compositional subtleties elevate them beyond being generic or unmemorable. Also, perhaps one of Grace's biggest strengths is how many of its songs create crystal-clear mental images; musical environments, if you will. The intro to "Lover, You Should've Come Over" is one such song, using the harmonium (aka pump organ) to create an airy and melancholic landscape that somehow seems hopeful because of the use of some beautiful major chords in the mix. "Mojo Pin" uses extensive note-bending on the guitar, creating what sounds like a new age-inspired vibe even as the louder moments take hold of the overall song. Perhaps the most sadly fitting is "Dream Brother," which conveys a brooding, somber sound that seems almost desolate and empty, the album's dark conclusion almost seeming like a foreshadowing of Buckley's own demise.

In the end, Jeff Buckley could be considered the 90s version of 60/70s folk legend Nick Drake, releasing a small amount of material before dying way too early. But luckily, he also shared the distinction of having his work being some of the most acclaimed music of his generation, and it garnered him a posthumous fanbase beyond what anybody would've expected. Grace is one of the most essential records of rock music, not just of the 90s but all rock (and folk, for that matter) in general; it wasn't just a promising debut, but a miracle of a record in its own right”.

On 23rd August, it will be thirty years since the release of Grace. There will be celebration. Rather than the more muted reaction back in 1994, there will be more love and respect for Jeff Buckley’s debut. Produced by Andy Wallace and, with songs that have stood the test of time, there is no doubting how important Grace is. If Jeff Buckley were still with is, he would be touched and love…

HOW people have taken Grace to heart.

FEATURE: It’s a Fire: Portishead’s Dummy at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

It’s a Fire

Portishead’s Dummy at Thirty

_________

ONE of the greatest albums…

of the 1990s celebrates a big anniversary next month. Released on 22nd August, 1994, it went on to win the 1995 Mercury Prize. That album is Portishead’s Dummy. Their amazing and timeless debut, it ranks alongside the best debuts ever. It is amazing how few articles there are about Dummy and its story. Given that it is such a huge and acclaimed album, one would think there would be more! I will come to some reviews soon. I want to start off by highlighting some features that have been written about Dummy. Classic Album Sundays told the story and gave some history about the epic and hugely original Dummy:

“Portishead released their first album, “Dummy”, in 1994. At the time their music did not sound like much else out there although it did draw upon the Bristol sound popularised by The Wild Bunch and Massive Attack. However, Portishead pushed the sound further with the sultry, folky vocal style of singer Beth Gibbons and breakologist Geoff Barrow’s unique sampling choices.

Trip Hop

In the mid-eighties in Bristol The Wild Bunch sound system started to fuse together hip hop, house, soul, R&B, reggae, ambient and jazz at their events.  Later three of the members went on to form Massive Attack and drew together these influences with their debut album “Blue Lines”. The label Mo’Wax were inspired by the sound and in 1994 Mixmag journo Andy Pemberton reviewed Mo’Wax artists R.P.M. and DJ Shadow and coined the term “Trip Hop”. The sound was then an omniscient presence in a host of backroom club lounges and dinner parties.

Crossover

Later that same year, Bristol act Portishead’s debut album “Dummy” pushed the sound further in yet another direction as Gibbon’s vocal style lent more toward folk rather than soul. Barrow also pushed the envelope with his sampling choices which included jazz, soundtracks and Berlin cabaret songs. Their distinctive blend enabled them cross over from a club fanbase to an indie audience which helped them win the coveted Mercury Music Prize. It most likely encouraged Massive Attack to explore new territories on their subsequent albums and it has since helped set the stage for contemporary acts like The xx.

Hip Hop

In an interview from 1997, Barrow explained how Portishead were massively influenced by American Hip Hop: ” I was in rock and could have stayed with the drums and stuff, but when hip-hop first hit suburban England, it kind of took over and was massively exciting. It was a real thing you could get into. It’s difficult to describe, but to a younger generation of sixteen-year-old kids it was that you wouldn’t go out and have a fight; you’d go out and dance against each other. We were like, ‘Well, what the hell?'”

To Kill a Dead Man

The cover of “Dummy” features a still from a short film made by Portishead called “To Kill a Dead Man”. It is an eleven minute black and white movie about an assassination which stars and is scored by the band. Although he appreciated the opportunities that ensued from doing the film, Geoff Barrow was later disappointed by film itself, “When I look at ‘To Kill a Dead Man’, I can’t stand it. I think it was a dreadful piece of film. Basically, it was done so that we could write some film music. Not to put down anyone involved with the film, but we should have done it with pure images, rather than having us in it. It was misunderstood, what we wanted to get out of it. It created an image, and the whole idea was for it not to”.

In 2017, XS Noize wrote about Dummy. I am not going to quote the entire feature, though it is wonderful piece that offers up a lot of insight into Portishead’s debut. I first heard it not long after it came out in 1994. It has been with me ever since. The more I listen to it the more I get:

“Portishead was formed in 1991 and was named for the nearby town eight miles away. Initially the band was formed as a duo with Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons. Adrian Utley who was initially credited as a co producer on “Dummy” would become an official member after the debut making them a trio. They would eventually add as a fourth member David McDonald who had been the engineer on “Dummy” along with session drummer Clive Deamer also frequently orbiting in their atmosphere.

“Dummy” would be recorded between 1993 and 1994 at State of Art and Coach House Studios in Bristol. There were additional musicians used to flesh out the sound of the recording, most prominently drummer Clive Deamer. During the period in the studio the band would invent their own way of creating music, mixing master musicianship, technology and mood. Barrow, Deamer and Utley would jam in the studio, then engineer the tunes onto a 24 track tape, feed it back through sequencers and press the sounds on vinyl to manipulate them even further. From there Beth Gibbons’ would spin her alchemy providing a center for the music; adding sorrow, a certain knowingness, allure and grimness all in their turn. She had the singular ability to morph her performance vocally into whatever the sonics demanded producing a compelling allure. The songs that came out of this process were unique. The tracks would harken to the ambiance of Bristol, an ambiguous neon lit form reflected in dark puddles of ennui.

There was little sense of warning in advance of Portishead’s emergence. They had not gigged before the “Dummy” release and were not operating like a traditional band in any sense of the definition. The band was positively allergic to press coverage but somehow managed to be revered critically and become commercially successful. “Dummy” produced three singles “Numb, Sour Times, and Glory Box” all of which would climb the charts. “Dummy” would win a Mercury Music Prize in 1995. It would go to #2 on the UK Album Charts, reach #5 on the Alternative Charts in the States, and be certified gold in 1997. The album would go on to sell 2 million copies and counting and be certified double Platinum. That is an awfully good showing for an album that was the definition of Alternative; weaving together strands of Blues, Funk, and Hip Hop infusing them with icy ennui and a blast of cool. ‘Dummy” is filled with the disquieting brilliance of claustrophobia, emotional numbness and dark dread. When all is said and done, “Dummy” is cited as one of the greatest Trip Hop albums to date and a definitive milestone for the genre.

Dummy opens with “Mysterons” which is like music created for a Noir film yet to be made. The dreamy distorted accompaniment is loaded with spectacular drums, scratch effects and Gibbon’s emotional keening pleas. Those pleas come forth like a letting loose of emotions in a most arresting non British way. There is a steady “stream of consciousness” flow that speaks to the suppression to the unconscious of various crimes and violations. “Inside your pretending, crimes have been swept aside, somewhere where they can forget”. All the while the underlying motivations and intents are judged. “Mysterons” is a spectacular opener just giving a taste of what is to follow.

Probably the best know song of the release; “Sour Times” is like a drug infecting the senses with the ennui of forlorn lust and desire. In an era of sampling, Portishead provided seamless samplings in this case from; Lalo Schifrin, Otis Turner and Henry Brooks. But the track is not just about the samples and more about the samples blending in to enhance the fantastic James Bondesque guitar, hurdy gurdy/balalaika effects and a bass that nails the song. There is an ethereal existential ethos to the lyrics, “end the vows, no need to lie, enjoy, take a ride, take a shot now…cause nobody love me, it’s true, not like you do.” Gibbons delivers a spot on come hither coyness that heightens the sensuous allure making the sexual potency of the track palpable. “Sour Times” is a simply gorgeous concoction and it is easy to understand why it lodged in the public’s ear.

“Strangers” is delicious quintessential Portishead. It is suave and sophisticated all the while conveying isolation and individuality. The jazzy intro head fakes for a moment then breaks out into an outrageous blend of Trip Hop sound with jaw dropping percussion. Gibbons’ knowing vocal delivery is enchanting as she lays out the lyrical gems, “Did you realize, no one can see inside your view, did you realize, for why this sight belongs to you.” Here is a song that beckons to be loved. “It Could Be Sweet” is a torch song with that special proprietary blend of cool thrown into the mix. Presented is an exhibition of restraint and minimalism with simple percussive effects and a light touch producing a wondrous work. The jazz blend brings out the evocative feel of Gibbons’ vocal as it takes front and center. The lyrics play on the idea of what ifs. What if that one thing could be added or taken away to make something perfect or sweet? Identified is that the problem is all too often with ourselves, our fear and cowardice, “You don’t get something for nothing, turn now; mmmm you gotta try a little harder.”

The double whammy of “Wandering Star” resides in the great marriage of insistent bass and drums producing that plodding effect that is a beat line to die for. Additionally stellar is the horn usage and that diddle of a guitar riff. Numerous samplings were also utilized to perfect the song, with the sum being greater than any one part on the instrumentation. The topic was depression and how its monotony descends like a cloud blocking out all the joy of living, “Please could you stay awhile to share my grief for it’s such a lovely day to have to always feel this way.” The track is probably one of my favorites of the release.

“It’s a Fire” contains some fantastic droning keyboards and again marries many genres. It begins like a Kate Bush ballad and then slides into a funky Trip Hop testimonial with gospel stylings. There is great pathos as the lyrics consider whether or not life is some kind of great cosmic joke. “Cos this life is a farce, I can’t breathe through this mask like a fool.” In the end the realization is that humanity and the individual persevere no matter how foolish that may seem. From the questioning of life’s intent the song “Numb” moves on to examining loneliness and isolation. Conveyed is a feeling of being lost in a crowd, unable to relate or feel. Gibbons’ delivery is charged with sexual electricity that attempts to mask the true sadness of the lyric and her vulnerability. “Try to reveal what I could feel but this loneliness it just won’t leave me alone”. The alluring Trip Hop beat and Hammond organ along side that rain drop drum create a fantastic backdrop for the vocals to sail overtop. For all of song’s outward armor it puts on display the soulful nakedness of the inner person.

“Roads” is the song that most reflects Massive Attack’s influences. There is an unmade movie somewhere that belongs to this song. The wavery intro keyboards produce the moody panorama for the track. Many of the same elements found in the other tracks are arranged beautifully to make for a truly outstanding selection. The soaring strings drip with emotions as Gibbons gives what in my opinion is her most touching vocal performance of the release. Addressed is the fight within ourselves and the overall fight for civilization; “I got nobody on my side and surely that ain’t right… oh, can’t anybody see we got a war to fight.” It is an expansive and ever revealing song that lodges into your soul not letting go.

In hindsight what really wows on “Dummy” is the sustained freshness and consistent quality of the tracks. There is no settling for the subpar as “Pedestal” again stuns. Its brilliant beats throb along with the sly cymbal work making for a sinuous track that is oh so appealing. The lyrics show someone placed on a pedestal or is it a pillory platform alone and abandoned to the whims of judgment and ridicule with nowhere to hide, “You abandoned me how I suffer, ridicule breathes a sigh”. As to Gibbons’ presentation, her stilted delivery is cunningly apt when compared to the expected over emoting that would be the usual approach. Beautifully placed horns add the icing on this magnificent creation, I hate for this song to end”.

I am going to finish with a feature from The Guardian. In 2019, they interviewed Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley about how the album came together. It is a majestic and hugely affecting album that is like nothing else. Even if some say that Dummy is not Portishead’s absolute peak, few can argue against its importance and impact. Considered one of the best albums of the 1990s and ever, you need to hear Dummy. Ahead of its thirtieth anniversary, I hope that more people write about the immaculate masterpiece:

“When the two men met, Barrow was a ponytailed 19-year-old making demos with the 26-year-old Gibbons at the city’s Coach House Studios (Barrow and Gibbons had met at an Enterprise Allowance training day at the dole office in 1990: “She was a grown-up in my eyes,” he says). Utley was 34, a bored jazz session guitarist finishing yet another job in a room downstairs. “And I remember somebody opening the door upstairs and me hearing It Could Be Sweet [one of the first tracks written for Dummy]. I was all, ‘Fuck me, what is that?’ Just hearing the sub-bass and Beth’s voice – it was unbelievable. Like a whole new world that was really exciting and vital.”

The three bonded quickly. Utley mined Barrow for his knowledge of sampling (“Tell me everything! How are they making that Queen track go on and off?”), while Utley’s collection of TV-recorded spy films introduced his bandmates to unusual sounds from instruments such as cimbaloms and theremins. “It was a really exciting time, because there was this amalgamation of ideas and a lifetime of separate discovery with all of us. And the fact that we brought it to each other…” Utley beams. “It was like a new love.”

Barrow and Gibbons’s first ideas for songs had been recorded in Neneh Cherry’s kitchen in London (Barrow had been hired by Cherry’s husband and manager, Cameron McVey, to work on her second album, Homebrew, on which he co-wrote and co-produced the song Somedays; McVey spotted Barrow’s talent when he worked as a trainee tape operator on Massive Attack’s groundbreaking 1991 album Blue Lines). That working relationship had fallen apart. Barrow’s mental health had also declined. “I was in a terrible place. Through the Gulf war, I was really quite sick, physically and mentally. Mental stuff. I thought the war was the end of the world. I’d never had a breakdown before – I think it was just the pressure of the Portishead stuff – I didn’t know I was having it. And no one ever talked to me about mental health in any way.” “You’re able to hide mental health issues within the music industry,” Utley chips in. “It’s completely acceptable to be a little bit crazy, drink too much or take too many drugs. It’s like: ‘Yeah, man, he was fucked last night’. No one asks, ‘why was he fucked?’ I think that ignorance has been going on for ever.”

Dummy motored on after Portishead, now a trio, moved to the Bristol district of Easton to record. “That was grim too,” Barrow laughs. “The only place to eat was Iceland or this horrible pub called Granny’s where your beans and chips would arrive with Granny’s thumb in it.” The lush soundscapes of Dummy rose from that bleakness. “But the process is never romantic, is it?” Barrow continues. “Listen to how New Order made their first records, or whoever, and it’s always going to be the same story. You’re in some shithole somewhere that you’ve made into something OK.”

Bristol has changed since then, but not in a good way, the men say. Homelessness and drugs problems are even bigger issues. “Plus you go somewhere like St Pauls – which was very much a community of Caribbean people – and there’s some posh student in a onesie,” Utley says. “Really privileged kids that have taken that area over.” In 2017, Bristol was named the most desirable British city to live in by one survey, but also the most racially segregated by another. Its past has always been unpleasantly divided, says Barrow, citing a book called A Darker History of Bristol, which recounts its history with slavery. “And still, lots of Bristol people only give a fuck about themselves,” he adds. “But there’s been an anti-establishment arts scene here too, for years, with a massive tongue in its cheek. It was there in the Pop Group, Smith and Mighty, the Wild Bunch, and Banksy [Barrow was music supervisor for Banksy’s 2010 exhibition, Exit Through the Gift Shop]. It’s always found itself.” A note of hope, then? He shrugs, still unsure.

Portishead have always been a political band on their own terms. A quote from Jo Cox (“We have far more in common than that which divides us”) was featured in their 2016 video for SOS; it still sits on their website’s landing page. Barrow and Utley also rant about Brexit, Trump and the Tories on Twitter feeds constantly; we meet four days after the new PM arrives, which Barrow calls “an absolute fucking disaster” (he later retweets Jeremy Corbyn’s plan to stop a no-deal Brexit).

Utley also mentions Gibbons’s lyrics being “very visceral and political” about gender and the politics of relationships, despite their abstract nature. He recalls Gibbons pointed out a “mansplaining” incident in a restaurant, and it reflecting one of her songs (they don’t mention the song, adding they don’t discuss her lyrics in detail). Barrow also recalls sexist record company A&Rs from their early days. “This real meat and veg vibe. Men going: ‘What’s this moaning bird on about?’”

By winter 1994, Dummy was everywhere. And in January it went to No 3 in the charts, behind Celine Dion and the Beautiful South. Sour Times and Glory Box became top 15 singles. Then came the Mercury win, at which Barrow ranted about prizes being preposterous (“I still agree with that”). He also recalls his mum being cross with Paul Morley (“he’d dissed us a bit”) and chatting amiably to Noel Gallagher. “I remember thinking, Oh, most musicians are dead normal. Or at least as mad as you.”

Barrow and Utley’s main beef is that Dummy is remembered as a sexy, chillout record in the UK. “When people say that, I find it bizarre.” He says Portishead had far more in common with Nirvana than any dance or chillout acts. “I know that sounds ridiculous – but they also had these visceral chord changes, never being harmonically correct.” He has a theory though: that the dance culture that happened in Britain didn’t happen elsewhere on the same scale, “so when everyone was partying and taking pills and coming down, the attitudes were different.” Portishead are just seen as a vocal-led band elsewhere, he adds, with Gibbons as a Polly Harvey or Hope Sandoval figure. They’re huge in France, Switzerland and the US, where Third entered the charts at No 7, and in Latin America: they played to 80,000 in Mexico City. Despite their recent silence, every Portishead musician remains busy. Barrow makes film scores with composer Ben Salisbury (his latest for the Octavia Spencer and Naomi Watts film Luce, is released in the UK this November) and “really loves” playing live with his Krautrock-influenced band Beak. Utley has made a soundtrack with artist Gillian Wearing for a George Eliot documentary recently, worked on Anna Calvi’s latest LP, and with the Paraorchestra of Great Britain on several projects.

They’re still passionate about new music. Both fathers, they like “that great gothy woman the kids like who makes stuff on Logic on her laptop” (we work out it’s Billie Eilish), James Holden, Idles, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Sharon Van Etten (Barrow), Kate Tempest, Thurston Moore and Perfume Genius (Utley). Things they don’t like include composer Nils Frahm, about whom they rant for five hilarious minutes. Barrow: “He’ll change his scarf half way through to prove how important he is.” Utley: “He’s grade 3 piano. He’s fucking Richard Clayderman.”

That joyous railing against everyone else, that sticking to one’s guns, makes you wish for Portishead to return as a musical entity even sooner. Utley confirms he was the last to see Gibbons: “The other week for lunch. It was great. We slagged everything off!” Will we see them back together soon? The men look at each other for a moment too long – moments later, as I start to leave, they’re talking about the photographs again. “It’s all up in the air, really,” Utley says. “If the wind blows hard enough, you never know”.

I am going to end with a couple of reviews. In 2010, BBC recognised how Dummy is one of the best debut albums of the 1990s. No doubt about that. In a month where titanic debuts from the likes of Jeff Buckey and Oasis were released, Portishead’s introduction stood out:

“Portishead’s Mercury Prize-winning debut takes just seconds to spook its audience. An eerie drone, scratches that sound like alien chatter, a snapping beat that cracks with hip hop attitude but treads cautiously for fear of stepping on a crack and tumbling into whatever unholy chasm music like this is capable of opening. Mysterons’ title is apt – named after the Martian race from Captain Scarlett, it’s an emission from a faraway planet of secrets and shadows. It opens the group’s singular soundworld in a way that’s exquisitely discomforting.

True, the constituents that make up much of this collection are easily traced – back to dub, to soul, and especially to hip hop; the array of scratch effects, loops and samples (the best being the slurry use of Johnnie Ray’s version of I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, on Biscuit) betraying its makers’ affections for very terrestrial traits. But it’s the manner in which the pieces come together that makes Dummy special to this day. While 16 years old, it sounds remarkably fresh – perhaps because its minimalist design has been recently returned to the Mercury winners circle by The xx; perhaps because the mixture of this backdrop with the vocals of Beth Gibbons remains one of pop music’s most compelling combinations.

While producer Geoff Barrow is the heart of Dummy, and Adrian Utley another just-as-vital organ, the soul is Gibbons. It’s her presence that made Portishead truly stand out from the post-Blue Lines crowd, a group of artists loosely categorised as trip hop. It’s important not to exaggerate her role in taking the group from their West Country roots to worldwide acclaim, to the detriment of her bandmates, but her voice – a ghostly, fractured wail that sounds as if it’s crept from an Edwardian closet that’s been sealed since 1902 – plays a vital part in ensuring this set side-steps convention. Hers is a voice that can’t be copied, coming from the back of her mouth, shaped by throat rather than tongue and lips; it creaks and moans like Mary Celeste decking, every bit as shivers-down-the-spine inducing as Barrow’s off-kilter turntable work and unsettling electronics.

And it’s not Gibbons’ words that do the damage – it’s how they’re said. Roads – the sort of contemporary masterpiece that in a parallel universe is being wheeled out on The X Factor and reducing Simon Cowell to floods of tears – is the best example of how Gibbons’ technique surpasses any lyrical content. The tone is familiar, an unspecified collapse, potential or assured but surely emotional, is spoken of; but the way she signs off a repeated line with a certain pronunciation of "wrong" is utterly arresting. It’s a shapeless sigh of beaten-down anguish, and there’s more heartache and pain in this single second than a whole rack of by-the-book balladeers.

Imitators have come and gone, but no act has reproduced the disquieting magnificence conjured here except Portishead themselves. The band’s next album, an eponymous effort of 1997, distanced them from the coffee tables that (wholly unexpectedly) had made room for Dummy; to some it’s a superior listen, though a lot colder and harder than its predecessor. And their overdue comeback of 2008, Third, embraced krautrock motifs to take an established sound into a new dimension. But to many, Dummy is the group’s defining work – and even if you disagree with that, what can’t be doubted is that this is one of the greatest debuts of the 1990s”.

I am going to wrap up with this review from Pitchfork. The final parts of it. In their 2017 review, Pitchfork stated how Portishead created their own virtuosity and aura. A combination of technology, musicianship and passion:

“Their sense of contrast is particularly noticeable in the album’s rhythms. Barrow’s lickety-split vinyl scratching helps counterbalance the uniformly sluggish tempos, but the real action is in their breakbeats. In “Mysterons,” the looped snare rolls sound like a steel trap snapping shut and being pried back open in quick succession. The “Sour Times” beat resembles James Brown’s iconic “Funky Drummer” break, but transposed for a planet with only half of Earth’s gravity. “Wandering Star” and “Numb,” on the other hand, push forward as though running underwater, every beat a struggle against an overwhelming force. Track after track, the album toggles between crisp steppers and deadweight friction, between ping-ponging ricochets and Sisyphus’ last stand.

This groove was their invention, and theirs alone. Unlike most of their peers, Portishead didn’t rely on the same hoary Ultimate Breaks and Beats bootlegs that fueled the majority of the era’s club tracks. Their music may sound like the work of a couple of obsessive vinyl connoisseurs, but the irony is that they made most of it themselves. Some musicians speak of soundtracks to imaginary films; they created an imaginary soundtrack to use as their source material. Assisted by the drummer Clive Deamer, Barrow and Utley would jam in the studio, creating their own approximations of the ’60s music that inspired them. Once they had their songs engineered on 24-track tape, they’d take the final product and feed it back into their samplers; some material they even pressed onto vinyl dubplates, to manipulate the way a hip-hop producer would cut up breakbeats. Not quite a band, hardly a strictly electronic project, they had to invent their own kind of virtuosity, one that encompassed musicianship, technology, and aura. “It’s the air around the thing,” Barrow told The Wire. “What we are trying to do is create this air, this atmosphere: It’s the stuff that’s in between the hi-hat and the snare that you can’t hear, but if it wasn’t there you would notice it, it would be wrong.”

This air was the medium through which Gibbons’ voice soared. Would Portishead have been one-tenth the band they turned out to be had Barrow and Utley contented themselves with instrumentals, or hired session singers to lend a soulful patina at freelance rates? Not on your life. Gibbons’ voice is the center of the music; she elevates the recordings from tracks to songs, from mere head-nodders to forlorn lullabies.

She follows the contours of her voice along its breathy edge, cutting sharply through the meat of a glissando, falling back on the catch in her throat. Despite her convincing air of sorrow, she’s a knowing, playful singer, capable of shifting emotional registers on a dime, cycling through moods—jazzy and coquettish, grimly resigned, wild with grief—like a housefly tracing squares in empty space. In “Wandering Star,” her tone sounds almost flirtatious, despite the overwhelming vastness of her subject matter: “Wandering stars/For whom it is reserved/The blackness, the darkness, forever.” In the closing “Glory Box,” on the other hand, she is as incendiary as Utley’s overdriven guitar riffs, and when she sings, “This is the beginning/Of forever and ever, oh,” her sigh feels like a hole torn in the fabric of the universe.

And her occasional obliqueness frequently gives way to the album's real emotional payoff: out-and-out dejection. Some lines stand out as clearly as dog-eared diary entries: “Give me a reason to love you/Give me a reason to be a woman”; “Nobody loves me, it’s true/Not like you do”; “How can it feel this wrong?” When her words are hazy, her diction tricky, it might as well be part of a grand and treacherous strategy, like a boxer’s footwork catching you off guard before the knockout punch lands.

Without a public persona to measure Gibbons’ performance against, her presence within the songs was, and remains, that much more formidable. Pop fans typically like to know who is singing to them and why, even if it's an invented character. But that central mystery only makes Dummy that much more compelling. Who is this lovelorn woman marching off to war on “Roads,” her broken pleas part sigh, part icicle? Who will she become on the far side of forever and ever—the promised land of “Glory Box,” an uncharted territory that she makes sound both liberating and terrifying? Dummy arrived at a moment when young people were craving soundtracks for the comedown—but what happens when you follow Portishead all the way down, as far as they want to take us? These questions keep you coming back, trying to puzzle out its intimidating balance between bleakness and blankness.

It’s possible to hear in Dummy a collection of gratifyingly sad-but-sexy gestures, and plenty of Portishead’s followers—Lamb, Morcheeba, Olive, Alpha, Mono, Hooverphonic, Sneaker Pimps, and dozens of other acts forever lost to the cut-out bin of history—did just that. Whole retail empires flourished and collapsed while Portishead and their ilk were piped through the in-store speakers. Is Dummy stylish? Of course it is; you don’t evoke ’60s spy flicks without some deep-seated feelings about aesthetics, panache, the proper cut of a suit. But style, stylishness, is only the beginning. None of Portishead’s imitators understood that it’s not the blue notes or the mood lighting that make it tick—it’s the pockets of emptiness inside. Like Barrow once said, it’s the air”.

On 22nd August, Dummy turns thirty. A staggering and iconic debut album from the trio of Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley, Portishead would go on to record two more albums – 1997’s Portishead and 2008’s Third. I wonder whether they will ever release a fourth. In any case, Dummy was a huge statement of a debut. It turns thirty very soon, so I was keen to explore it. If you have not heard Dummy for a while then take some time out. It is an album that will…

TAKE your breath away.

FEATURE: Watching You With Me: A Kate Bush Hounds of Love Get-Together in 2025

FEATURE:

 

 

Watching You With Me

A Kate Bush Hounds of Love Get-Together in 2025

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IT may be a long way away…

but I am thinking about next year. A chance to get Kate Bush fans and experts together. I have talked about it before and speculated that, someday, it would be nice to get people together to salute Kate Bush. Rather than it being about her career as a whole, tying the event into an anniversary might be a better idea. There are a few big anniversaries next year. Never for Ever turns forty-five. Aerial turns twenty. The biggest anniversary happens on 16th September. That is when Kate Bush’s fifth studio album, Hounds of Love, turns forty. The more this album gets exposure, the more people discover it. I have said how we need to go deep with Bush’s music and not focus on Hounds of Love. I still stand by that. If we want to get a full view and whole story of Kate Bush, it can’t be about the one album. It threatens to distil her essence and worth into an album. Not even that. A few songs. It is a shame that, now, Kate Bush is still associated mainly with Hounds of Love. Even so, one cannot deny the facts. It is her most famous, acclaimed and popular albums. On streaming sites like Spotify, it is not the case of Hounds of Love dominance. The top ten songs take from five or her ten studio albums. There are three songs from Hounds of Love, three from The Kick Inside, two from Never for Ever. Even so, look on radio and in the media, and the story is different. Most new listeners associate Kate Bush with her 1985 masterpiece. Their reference point is Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Sometimes the only song they know. In future, we do need to make a concerted effort to ensure that the full range and breadth of Kate Bush’s work is discussed and appreciated.

Even though it sounds like I am talking myself out of the idea, one cannot underestimate the importance of Hounds of Love. It has connected with so many new and young listeners. Many who did not know about Kate Bush found her through this album. I think that, on its fortieth anniversary, it would be awesome getting people together. There have not really been any big Kate Bush get-togethers and events. In terms of conventions and anything like that. There are tribute gigs and smaller events. This would be an evening where Hounds of Love is celebrated. Holding it on its fortieth anniversary on 16th September, 2025. I know there will be celebration around the time. In terms of magazine articles and writing. I am not sure what else people can write that has not been said already. It would be good to get some new perspective and discussion. Even so, later this year, we have a 33 1/3 book on Hounds of Love. Written by Leah Kardos, I would recommend everyone order their copy. It comes out in November. We are sure to learn more about this fabulous album. Kardos is a guest I would love to have at this anniversary event. I have not thought about the guests – those who would be talking and discussing Hounds of Love and Kate Bush -, but I would also want Graeme Thomson (author of Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush), Seán Twomey (Kate Bush News and the Kate Bush Fan Podcast), Tom Doyle (author of Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush), and Sinéad Gleeson (author of This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music). Bringing in musicians, journalists and other fans together. Mixing the ‘experts’ and fans of all generations.

In terms of location, I instantly thought of the London Planetarium. That is where Kate Bush launched Hounds of Love on 9th September, 1985. Maybe quite expensive, there are other options. Abbey Road Studio 2 (possibly more expensive). I am looking for locations at the moment. How much I can afford and what I might need to raise. In addition to fans and writers/musicians, having songs from the album performed would be great. A few unique cover versions. Players and those who were present on Hounds of Love. Getting their contributions. There has not been a specific Hounds of Love documentary made. It may be a stretch, but family members like John Carder Bush (who shot the iconic cover of the album). Videos from the album could be shown. There would be a mix of in-location chat and some clips/archive. It is exciting to think that we could get everyone together in a great venue. That might have to come later. Perhaps there will be a podcasts and some media around the fortieth anniversary. Maybe a station like BBC Radio 6 Music will play the album in full. To ensure that there is this celebration and chance to pay tribute to Hounds of Love, I wanted to float the idea now. As I said, there has not been anything like this. There are tribute shows, cabarets, little events here and there all the time. In terms of really going all-out for an album anniversary, it seems that Hounds of Love’s fortieth is the one. Of course, Never for Ever turns forty-five next year. Hounds of Love will be the big one. I have said how we need a Kate Bush documentary. That should happen. Something that is a wider overview. A bigger budget with many more contributors. I have been thinking about Hounds of Love and how there is this big anniversary next year. Working up to it. Getting a host of fans all in the same space to discuss and enjoy the seminal album. Would people be interested? What about a venue? What would people like to see included? It would likely be a two-hour event. So much to think about in the meantime. I am pumped to think what could be. I just know that…

SOMETHING good is gonna happen.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Lip Critic

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Griffin Lotz

Lip Critic

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THERE are a lot of great interviews…

PHOTO CREDIT: Jake Kenny

and features about Lip Critic. The New York Noise quartet are being tipped as one of the best young bands around. At the moment, they are completing some tour dates in the U.S. In August, they are coming to the U.K. It will be exciting for fans here to embrace their incredible live set. With more attention from the U.K. press aimed their way, we are seeing this amazing group grow into something special. Loved and respected here and in the U.S. In fact, they have right around the world. I will get to some reviews of their amazing new album, Hex Dealer. It is a stunning follow-up to their 2020 debut, Lip Critic II. I am going to start with an interview from Loud and Quiet. Published earlier this year, the band were in London on their first visit:

“Formed in 2019, in the past four years the band has gone from conquering their neighborhood venues to becoming one of NYC’s most talked about acts, and they are now poised to branch out to a global audience. By all accounts, the last year has been their busiest yet, with the band hitting the road supporting Screaming Females and sharing the stage with IDLES on some of their recent US dates, and recently they signed with Partisan Records. They’ve done all this while confusing the hell out of everyone. Their sound is so hard to define that they’ve found the band playing hip hop nights, punk all-dayers and even the occasional techno club.

Everything has been happening so fast that it’s left Lip Critic still trying to process it. Asking them about their recent signing with Partisan, the band stares at each other and puff out their cheeks in disbelief. “I mean, it’s crazy, right?” Drummer Ilan Natter asks me. “It’s like PJ Harvey’s label!”

It’s not bad going for a bunch of kids just out of college. “Connor, Ilan, and I were studying music. Danny was studying anthropology and journalism,” explains frontman Bret Kasner, recounting Lip Critic’s early days. “Danny and Ilan were in another band who had a show, and the bassist couldn’t show up, so they tried to salvage the gig by having Connor play bass and asking me to sing. I guess they thought it was funny. They had me just say stuff over the music; we were improvising; that was sort of like the start..”

PHOTO CREDIT: Jake Kenny

These haphazard beginnings have evolved into their defining strength. Everyone brings something different to the table. Drummers Eberle and Natter hail from a raw hardcore foundation, reminiscing enthusiastically about their formative years playing high-school parties and gritty dive bars. Connor Kleitz, the primary sampler operator, subtly raises an inquisitive eyebrow at their anecdotes. Rooted in an art school background, his solo music on Bandcamp hints at a love for sparse techno and expansive electronica.

Kasner, on the other hand, occupies a space between these influences. A self proclaimed lover of Deerhoof and Skrillex, his primary goal appears to be igniting dance floors. “Why would you even play a show if people didn’t move around?” he shoots back when I ask him about his influences. “The whole point of music is to give people that feeling.”

Watching Lip Critic perform live, you can see what Kasner’s getting at. The band are unlike any other punk or metal act out there. Drawing from their foundation as an improv act, almost none of their songs follow an established blueprint or pattern. Some tracks have the dual drummers managing to sound like bass players and the synths sounding like percussion; others see the band playing off each other, like some weird jam band. The only thing that stays consistent is Kasner’s vocals of bizarre slogans and ironic statements barked out seemingly at random, turning every song into a hybrid of industrial noise, party-boy dubstep and the soundtrack to a Dance Dance Revolution game. Written down, it sounds more like a recipe for disaster than instructions for high-energy dance music”.

Formed in 2018, the New York quartet of Danny Eberle, Ilan Natter, Bret Kaser and producer Connor Kleitz are ones to watch. A band that need to be on your radar. The Line of Best Fit spoke to the band in February. Again engaging with the British press, it is great that they are getting some seriously exposure here. When they return in August, they are sure to be met with fevered and passionate audiences:

“Satirical mavericks with just a hint of nihilism, the genre-defying and aesthetically amorphous Lip Critic challenge – even to their own disadvantage. Playing live with two drummers, they actively chose a setup that constantly proves a logistical and practical nightmare. “Alex Cameron, he wrote this Facebook post when I was in college; ‘Get Your Good Ideas Away From Me’ was the headline. He was saying, all my good ideas have failed me forever. They've cost me endless amounts of money and time and all this stuff. He’s like, any time I've had the worst idea and I've tried to do it, it's always been very fruitful. It's the one that always works out,” explains Kaser.

Named as ones to watch across the board, the quartet recently signed with fellow New York upstarts Partisan Records, the internationally renown label heralded with breaking the likes of Idles and Blondshell. Fresh from dates supporting Screaming Females on their farewell tour and a slot at Pitchfork Paris, it seems Cameron’s advice has been paying off. “It's so funny because this is the worst idea ever and it's been the most fun, opportunity-opening thing where we've gotten to play with so many groups that we love. We've gotten to travel and play shows and all this stuff when it's like, this one that’s working? It's so sick,” Kaser laughs.

Announcing their debut album proper, Hex Dealer, today, it’s a record that’s ready to sucker punch any unwitting music fan. A raw and abrasive collection of carefully conducted chaos, it grips for every second of its brief play time. It’s not a relaxing listen, but is thrilling, progressive and ferociously addictive. Getting a release on 17 May, it primes the band for a summer of festival stages where they’re guaranteed to obliterate audiences with the dizzying spectacle they’ve become known for calling a live show.

PHOTO CREDIT: Elyza Reinhart

Completed by producer/sampler-firer Connor Kleitz and drummers Ilan Natter and Daniel Eberle — who joins the call from a non-descript New York bedroom, the four members had fairly pedestrian starts.

Kaser grew up in Connecticut. His parents taught high school and would commute daily into New York. While they weren’t explicitly musical, their tastes and approach had a big influence on him. “They were super exploratory listeners. That was the big thing, they would listen to new stuff all the time,” he says. “They were just very open to stuff, so I always have had this relationship with music where I'm obsessively listening to new stuff. If you have the choice to repeat or try something new, I'd always go with the new thing.”

His mum loved Motown, while his dad was a big Talking Heads fan, taking Kaser to his first proper gig - David Bryne and Brian Eno on their Everything That Happens Will Happen Today tour. “That was the first show I ever went to that was something I actually wanted to go see,” he smiles.

Eberle grew up on Staten Island, his formative influences tidily crossing over with Kaser’s. “My dad's two favourite bands are the Talking Heads and The Cure,” he says. “We were listening to a lot of alternative radio, so The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys were new at the time when I was very young. My dad showed me The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, anything like that.”

In likely teenage fashion, it was Green Day that opened the door for Eberle to discover a world of heavier music. “It kind of put me into a world of punk-rock and soon that became hardcore, and soon that became metal,” he says. “That was my gateway, when I was around thirteen, into a lot of punk and hardcore music and then hip-hop as well.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Elyza Reinhart

Sharing a similar musical history to Eberle, Natter grew up in Manhattan. “I know his parents were huge Grateful Dead people, and that was kind of like the thing until he started to listen to this pop-punk, alt sort of genre of music that pulled an entire generation into heavier music,” says Kaser.

Kleitz was raised in Rockland County, Upstate New York, his formative influences aligning closer to those of Kaser. “We were listening to a lot of really internet-focused rap groups; Raider Klan and a lot of the Chief Keef stuff that was coming out at the time. His whole family was very musical, loved listening to stuff and going to a lot of shows and everything,” Kaser says.

With all members of Lip Critic now in their twenties, their teenage years were defined by the decade when the blogosphere exploded, bedroom producers were propelled to infamy, disappearing just as quickly, and a niche, DIY approach was not just accessible but acclaimed. “So much of this stuff I listen to now is just a result of things that I was digging around on the internet for and discovered,” says Kaser. “We grew up on the internet where you could look at anything at any time and listen to stuff from every corner of the world and from any era”.

I have a few more features to spotlight. In April, Stereogum named Lip Critics as a band to watch. Spotlighting their amazing music and chemistry, I know a lot of people might not be aware of Lip Critic. They are a band that are going to be around for many more years. Hex Dealer is one of the best albums of this year. You really do need to check it out and give it a good listen:

“Now, Lip Critic are near perfecting their highly curated kind of chaos. Their setup feels deceptively simple. Eberle and Natter man their drum sets (yes, two drum sets) while Kaser and Kleitz man their samplers. Eberle and Natter grew up playing music together, the latter on guitar and the former on drums. Their creative chemistry has evolved over the years. “I feel like what we’re doing in the live session almost plays like two guitars,” Eberle says, explaining how the double drum kit setup works. “I always think of the album Marquee Moon by Television. As far as that they reworked two guitars to almost sound not like conventional guitar parts. They’re both bouncing off of each other in such a unique way. In my own perception, I want to transfer that to drum performance.”

Kleitz and Kaser go a bit more in depth on their digital setup. Kleitz offers: “I’m using an Elektron Octatrack, sample-chaining the production that we do in the studio. I’m chopping that up, retiming some of it or applying effects to some of it, modulating it live and playing it rhythmically to the drums. We’re not using a click. I’m pressing buttons in time with Danny’s snare.” Kaser continues, “I’m just playing bass. I have bass notes on an MPD, a MIDI controller that’s structured like an MPC. So it’s got like 16 pads and a few knobs and sliders. I’ll have some granular delay effects but other than that it’s just bass.”

While talking to the band, it’s clear they thrive off open-minded ambition and the thrill of amusing each other. It’s why you might never hear a song played the same live more than once. Actually, you won’t experience anything live verbatim the way it’s recorded either. “The record feels like the Gen one in Pokemon, the base Pokemon. It feels like we’ve evolved a lot of these songs like three times and the record is the base version of that,” Kaser says. “I always think we’re a two-for-one band. We sound like one band on the record and we sound like another one live. You know,” he adds. “It’s a pretty good deal.”

Since their live setup is mostly remixed and improvised, Lip Critic joke they’ve been doing things a bit backwards at the moment. They’ve been living with Hex Dealer for over two years, initially thinking it would come out in 2022. They saw this album as a jumping-off point where they, as Kaser puts it, would go “pedal to metal, being super self-critical, absolutely no fat on it and then we’ll go and make the next thing.” But things changed when their now label home Partisan Records expressed interest. So if you hear a new song from Lip Critic on the road, it is an original but it isn’t the original. “We’ve already remixed everything ourselves and now we’re playing the remixed versions and putting out the original,” Kaser says. “It’s putting out the Skrillex ‘Cinema’ and then ‘Cinema‘ comes out. Where’s the fucking massive dubstep drop?”.

NME heralded the unconventional stage set-up and incredible live energy of Lip Critic. The quartet have already blown away the U.K. press. I think they are going to have a very warm and open home here. Apologies if any information is repeated. There is a lot of exciting press around the band. So many people wanting to salute and embrace the wonderful Lip Critic:

“Their shows have since expanded over the years, leading to that aforementioned UK debut last autumn, which they remember fondly. “We went as hard as we possibly could,” remembers Kaser. “I was sweating so much, I felt like I had stepped in a shower with all my clothes on. I spilled a bottle of water directly over a power strip, and somehow it kept going. It really was a fun show.”

It is the plight of most great new bands to be lumbered with comparisons with pre-existing artists, and much of the early hype about Lip Critic has seen them linked inextricably with Death Grips. While the band are eager to point out their countless other influences – Melt-Banana, Soul Coughing and Deerhoof included – they do accept that the Sacramento band looms large in their collective psyche.

“It’s hard to deny that Death Grips are one of the most influential bands for all of us,” says Kaser. “The stuff they’ve achieved is pretty astounding. They are a symbol of a lot of the things that we believe in – and musical and creative freedom – that feeling of putting your all into stuff. It’s comforting to know they exist.”

The same anarchic chaos that is synonymous with Death Grips seems destined to follow Lip Critic around, too. After a run of shows opening for the likes of IDLES and Screaming Females in 2023, and with the prospect of an extensive international headline tour on the horizon to support their forthcoming record, they are hungrier than ever.

“This album is the most unified piece of work we’ve made,” says Kaser. “It is the sound of us trying to make the most visceral, poppy, sweet candy moments and the most dark, disgusting, viscerally gross moments too. It’s the heaviest and the fastest stuff we’ve done – we tried to hit on every single cylinder that we could”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Keeler

Before moving to a couple of reviews for Hex Dealer, there is another interview I want to get to. Rolling Stone asked this question last month: “Is Lip Critic the Wildest Band in New York?”. It is a bold claim, yet one that they may be able to live up to. You can really sense this anticipation and electricity around them. The same sort of excitement and hype that New York bands like The Strokes got early this century. Maybe not on their level yet, you would bet against them achieving the same recognition and acclaim:

“They recorded Hex Dealer across a year of dedicated work, trading files back and forth, cutting and manipulating and mixing and remixing as they went. “It’s like that question of if you have a boat and you replace every part of the boat, is it still the same boat anymore?” Kaser muses. “Is this even the original song we started with? There’s nothing left from it.”

As wildly unorthodox as it sounds in your headphones, most of the album was recorded using entry-level software. “If you have a copy of Ableton Live, you could probably recreate 40 percent of the songs without any extra plugins,” Natter says. “It was an extremely cheap record to make in terms of recording setup,” Kaser adds. “It’s a fun limitation to be like, I’ve gotta use something that’s kind of bad to try and make something good.” 

PHOTO CREDIT: Griffin Lotz

Lyrics are the last part of the Lip Critic process, drawing on an archive of thousands of notes on Kaser’s phone. (“What did I do before this?” he cracks. “Was I carrying around some kind of a quill and papyrus?”) His disjointed words are the final ingredient that brings it all together, frequently tapping into a funhouse-mirror vision of modern masculinity. “In he walks, with his hands behind his back/He’s that Barbie-movie Ken/He seems to have all that I lack,” he raps over the metallic bounce of “Milky Max.” On another bizarrely catchy banger that made Rolling Stone’s list of the best songs of 2024 so far, he shouts like someone who’s moments away from getting kicked out of a convenience store: “Standing in the Wawa, convinced I’m a god/So I’m gonna get any sandwich I want.”

Like many of their peers, Lip Critic cut their teeth at venues like TV Eye in Ridgewood, Market Hotel in Bushwick, and the late, lamented Saint Vitus in Greenpoint. Eberle was there this February when the city’s Department of Buildings shut down Vitus in the middle of a show by the hardcore band Mindforce, citing a laundry list of alleged violations. “They made us line up on the wall,” he says. “It looked like we were all getting arrested.”

Even after signing with Partisan Records, the indie label behind recent triumphs by Blondshell and Fontaines D.C., Lip Critic have retained a notable DIY spirit. At the release party, Kaser manned a screenprinting station, scrubbing white ink onto the dark-hued shirts brought by fans. He makes much of the band’s merch the same way, printing his own designs in the living room of the apartment he shares with his girlfriend in Sunset Park. “We print for other bands as well now,” he says. “The visual stuff is half the fun to me”.

I will end with a couple of reviews. Pitchfork admire the almost child-like abandon you get from the band. How they mix genres like Noise and Hip-Hop together to create something exciting and fresh. There are not many bands like them around. If you do get a chance to see them live then definitely do so. Lip Critic are going to be around for many more years to come:

“The band officially came together while studying at SUNY Purchase in 2018. The Westchester school boasts alumni like Mitski, so Lip Critic’s harsher sound immediately clashed with their more indie rock-oriented cohorts, sometimes literally; frontman Bret Kaser recalls an online post complaining about noise from their band practices traveling across campus. Lip Critic’s ethos resembles Death Grips in their raw, uninhibited performances, but their thematic interests also approximate a more raucous iteration of fellow Brooklynites Model/Actriz. On opener “It’s the Magic,” where Death Grips’ influence is most evident, blown-out percussion pounds against Kaser’s vocals, echoing DG multi-instrumentalist Zach Hill’s uncompromising, primal drumming on “No Love,” one of their most recognizable tracks.

Hex Dealer is a loose concept album about predatory preacher-types who resort to snake oil tactics to fulfill their craving for control. In this world, everything is a means to gain power, a façade to mask these characters’ true depravity. They numb their emptiness with overconsumption; whether that’s brand new jeans on “It’s the Magic,” trips to the butcher’s shop on “Bork Pelly,” or creating the ultimate gas station hoagie on “In the Wawa.”

The album is a master class in genre-hopping, running the gamut of drum’n’bass, hip-hop, and ska. It feels as though Hex Dealer is a litmus test; take Lip Critic as they are or not at all. When “Love Will Redeem You” breaks out of the gate with pitched-up vocals and anxious percussion, it seems things can’t get any more abrasive—and yet there are still 10 songs to come. “The Heart” immediately follows, the tempo accelerates, the drums get harder, and the noise gets thicker and more suffocating. The con man at the center of the song grapples with his vices, and punctuated by Kaser’s rapid yelps, he convinces himself that he hasn’t succumbed to corruption.

Hex Dealer is as frenzied as it is hilarious. On “Bork Pelly,” the band hands over duties to the now-dissolved Philly grime duo Ghösh for a verse that sounds like something Baby Billy Freeman of The Righteous Gemstones would market to you: “Take this flesh and take this wine/It will all be yours/And you’ll all be mine/For three easy payments of $19.99.”

The record starts cautious and distrustful, but ends with a smug shrug. “I never seem to win/I’m losing every day,” Kaser sings on “Toxin Dodger.” “So I’ll become the problem/That I refuse to change.” Like Frankenstein’s monster, Hex Dealer’s encyclopedic curation and roots might sound like a disaster. But that’s half the fun of it, and even when everything has gone to shit, Lip Critic still makes it sound like a party”.

Hex Dealer is one of the most innovative albums of this year. Filled with so many wonderful moments, you get the feeling this band could top that. Reach dizzying heights. NME. Even though they call Hex Dealer the band’s debut – their 2020 Lip Critic II was self-released -, it is their second album. It is their best work yet. NME underlined how the album is bold, energetic and blisteringly smart. I pick up new layers and highs every time I pass through the album:

“2024 has been a big year for Lip Critic, who are well on their way to becoming one of the next great New York bands. The quartet – comprising Bret Kaser, Connor Kleitz, Daniel Eberle and Ilan Natter – have spent the past half-decade building a loyal and sizeable hometown following that has, in recent months, caught the attention of music fans across the other side of the Atlantic.

Lip Critic make music that is both freewheeling and fun – with a thrillingly dark, Frankenstein-esque edge to their sound and aesthetic. They have played alongside rappers, hardcore bands and dance acts – and toured with IDLES and Geese – with NME describing their live show as “a pulsating rush of energy” in a five-star review last November. “You never know what sound is going to pop up next – our focus is to not get pinned down into a set of aesthetics, but to stay nimble” Kaser previously told us.

 and their blistering EP ‘Lip Critic: The Truth Revealed’. Since then, they have found a home at Partisan Records [Geese, Blondshell] and are now making their label debut with ‘Hex Dealer’ – a collection of 12 weird, brilliant, erratic tracks that showcase Lip Critic’s unique genius. Booming beats, boisterous samples and Kaser’s charging yet playful vocals all dominate the LP.  It feels like the soundtrack to a fun acid trip while you’re storming the streets downtown.

Opener ‘It’s The Magic’ bursts into life with a set of heavy 808s followed by contrasting rhythms. “I told them take their grace / And send it where it came / Only the generous get to live another day,” Kaser sings, evoking a sense of danger. ‘The Heart’ follows, diving headfirst dives into skittish, almost anxiety-inducing drum patterns – it’s wild and brilliantly unnerving.

’Bork Pelly (featuring Gösh and ID.Sus)’ is a perfect fusion of The Prodigy and ’90s hip-hop influences. ‘Death Lurking’ (featuring Izzy Da Fonseca), meanwhile, offers a change of pace, an atmospheric number that builds into a skippy beat fit for headbanging.

Throughout ‘Hex Dealer’, Lip Critic prove why they are the band of the moment. A full-on, disruptive force emerging from their city’s underground scene – their music rides high on a bolt of infectious energy”.

Go and follow Lip Critic on social media. After the release of Hex Dealer, they are going to keep that momentum going. Currently in North America, they have dates in Europe and the U.K. ahead. Some very different but equally adoring crowds. I have not seen the band live, though I am tempted to check them out when they are in the U.K. in August. A truly special band. If you have not heard of the mighty Lip Critic, then make sure that you…

DO so now.

___________

Follow Lip Critic

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Keeler

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lipcritic

Twitter:

https://x.com/lipcritic

TikTok:

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

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4ABuKdLlVyzLztIFR8ETX9?si=3EjRCZUOQXaZf0q1_xlDRw

YouTube:

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

Bandcamp:

https://lipcritic.bandcamp.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/lipcritic

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Songs from the Twenty Best Mercury Prize-Nominated Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

PHOTO CREDIT: Diana Onfilm/Pexels

Songs from the Twenty Best Mercury Prize-Nominated Albums

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TOWARDS the end of the month…

IN THIS PHOTO: Ezra Collective with their 2023 Mercury Prize/PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

we will find out which twelve albums have been shortlisted for this year’s Mercury Prize. Taking in the best from British and Irish artists, we are sure to see a mix of established talent and some newer acts. A mixture of genres. Last month, I predicted artists and albums that I feel will be in the shortlist. I hope that we see music from Scotland and Ireland in addition to England and Wales. Whereas the vast majority of Mercury Prize winners the past decade are either from or based in London, I wonder if that will change. I have predicted Nadine Shah’s Filthy Underneath will win. She is from the North East, though she now lives in London. Maybe we will see a new trend of the prize going outside of the capital. Even though I have compiled a playlist of shortlisted albums from the past, I am going to narrow it down for this playlist. Rather than it being quite sprawling and all-encompassing, I have narrowed down to the absolute best twenty shortlisted albums ever. Taking a song from each. It is a hard task consider the Mercury Prize has run for over thirty years now. I think, as with every year, we will see some surprises on the shortlist. Maybe a winner that you did not predict. In any case, ahead of us discovering which twelve albums will be shortlisted for the Mercury Prize 2024, I am going back and thinking about past shortlisted albums – rather than the ones that won the prize. Below is my selection of songs from the best twenty shortlisted albums. It will be fascinating to see which incredible albums from British and Irish artists…

MAKES the dozen.

FEATURE: Exit Music (for a T.V. Series): The Importance of Music on the Small Screen

FEATURE:

 

Exit Music (for a T.V. Series)

The Importance of Music on the Small Screen

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I think a lot of people…

PHOTO CREDIT: JESHOOTS.com/Pexels

think music and evocative tracks are probably reserved for cinema. The big screen. I think it is hard for any creator to get music featured on the screen. It can cost a lot of money getting rights and clearance. Labels and estates can charge a lot of money for even a few seconds of a song being used. As such, there does seem to be this divide between what smaller productions can afford compared to multi-million-dollar/pound films. It is a real struggle to get music integrated and a big part of a film. I think that eyes should be more on television. Few people talk about drama and comedy-drama series in terms of the music used. I know that dialogue and direction is important. Creating an atmosphere and bringing viewers into the story. I raise this point and feature because the third season of The Bear recently premiered on Disney+. Even though the critical reviews were less positive than the first two seasons – many saying they were repeating themselves and character arcs and stories were not played out and given room to breathe -, there was plenty to recommend. Perhaps the most striking and impactful aspect of the season, in my view, was the music. How it elevated some of the scenes. How, in place of dialogue, music said so much. It summoned up silent dialogue. Even though the first episode was mainly reserved for classical music and composition, there were more songs deployed as we moved through the ten episodes. Radiohead, Taylor Swift, Beastie Boys, Carole King, Refused and Talking Heads were among the artists who featured. To me, it was the use of Kate Bush that really struck a chord. Her song, The Morning Fog, was especially powerful in its full glory during episode six.

I had not thought about it too much before. I have written features about film scores and incredible soundtracks. How films can be defined and made epic by the right choice of music. How, at a time when it is so expensive using music in film, those who can achieve it should do so wisely. The music makes such a difference. For a T.V. series, the effect can be even greater. I was watching The Bear and really noticing the music. How there was this sense of movement, evolution and different colours being projected by the songs. As the scenery changed and stories developed, there were these distinct tracks playing. There are huge advantages when it comes to picking amazing and varied tracks to use in T.V. series. For a start, you are able to discover a new artist. Or a legendary and established one you may not have known about. Even one you did but a song you had not heard. We have seen series where a single song can get chart success and a new lease of life because of its placement. Artists can enjoy this resurgence and new life. Maybe it is the luxury of a successful T.V. series who can afford quite a few tracks in their episodes. The final episode of The Bear’s third season included everyone from Susannah Hoffs, James, David Bowie, and Weezer. Not just showing off or flexing financial muscles, each track played its part. It made me reflect on other T.V. series and how the soundtrack of an episode can really define it. A perfect or appropriate song can do as much work and as brilliant dialogue and anything you will get in a script. The power of music definitely can be seen on the small screen.

There are articles that discuss the power of music on the screen. More people should discuss why, in a streaming age, music can play such a big part on T.V. shows. As a storytelling device. It can substitute or heighten emotions. Rather than it being producers dropping in songs to be cool or popular, there is this consideration matching musical mood to what is happening on the screen. It is the case that, now, shows might struggle for attention. Even if you are on a channel like Disney+, Netflix or Paramount+, there is a lot of money being injected into the show. This sense of expectation. Shows have to compete against others. Maybe people less invested in streaming sites than there used to be. One acclaimed series losing momentum and maybe shedding fans. It really is a hard challenge getting noticed and gaining traction. Not that music is the saving grace. It can make a big difference in regards a show’s impact and memorability. The Bear has finished its third season. It is back for a fourth season fairly soon. Such evocative and brilliant music choices throughout. And not just this series. There are so many examples of music playing a huge part in so many situations. Whether a more comedically-toned series, something dramatic, thrilling, historic or modern-day, we need to talk about how vital music is on the small screen. How it can really turn good scenes into something great. A series like The Bear proved that. In terms of music discovery, of artists both new and older, T.V. series can be hugely important. The role of music on the small screen is…

PHOTO CREDIT: Moose Photos/Pexels

SO very important.

FEATURE: Training Season: The Public Perceptions Versus Critical Regarding Female Headliners

FEATURE:

 

 

Training Season

IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury on 29th June, 2024/PHOTO CREDIT: PA

The Public Perceptions Versus Critical Regarding Female Headliners

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THIS may seem like a generalisation…

and, I know, opinion is subjective, but there does seem to be a divide in opinion when it comes to female headliners at festivals. For instance, Dua Lipa headlined Glastonbury on Friday (28th). The general reaction from critics was one of positivity. Whilst her set did not garner five-star reviews, she was getting solid four-star acclaim across the board. People noting how accomplished and hook-laden (the set) was. I will get to a review of her set soon. Maybe it afflicts male artists too but, when it comes to women headlining festivals, there is still an attitude and negativity. They always say: “Don’t read beneath the line”. That is, when you get a review of opinion piece, it is generally not a good idea to read the comments. You will get some positivity and support but, for the most part, there will be criticism and some awful feedback. It is the way of people. Among those who are nice are also plenty who are only too happy to be nasty. Reading, for instance, the comments of The Guardian’s review of Dua Lipa’s Glastonbury set, you can see that there are people who hark back to when Glastonbury was more Rock-based and male. many people accused Lipa of miming during her set. Others stating that she (Dua Lipa) was not as epic as she should have been. There is this gap between what critics write and what the public think. There were incredible reviews for SZA’s headline set on Sunday, but also some mixed reviews too. Many questioning whether she was headline-worthy or the right person to close Glastonbury.. Even so, once more, a divide between critical and public opinion. I am not saying that critics know best and they have greater musical knowledge. This is the first time Glastonbury has had more than one female headliner on the Pyramid Stage. I think that both artists delivered incredible sets. Sure, not the absolute greatest ever, though ample proof and demonstration that we need more women headlining. Long overdue.

Compared to Coldplay and their set, we saw that fresher and first-time headliners were a lot better and exciting than the more tired and over-familiar acts. I wonder whether there is this persistent prejudice when it comes to women as headliners. One could say that there is this discrimination against Pop music. People still not willing to accept that festivals have moved on and are not just for Rock and Alternative acts. I hope that there is now this realisation things are changing for the best. I saw criticism of Lana Del Rey when she performed at Glastonbury last year. Many who were against Billie Eilish when she headlined Glastonbury in 2022. Looking through some past year and the way female headliners are perceived, there does seem to be this division. One might say it is about genre and not gender. I don’t feel that is the case. Certainly, for those reviewing Dua Lipa, there was this sense that she delivered an amazing set. This is what Independent wrote in their review:

“Dua Lipa saw it coming. The fireworks and flags and pulsing purple lights, the teenagers on tiptoes scowling at strange adults as they fling their arms in the air like money. When she was a girl, the 28-year-old born to Albanian-Kosovan parents, tells us midway into her debut Glastonbury headline show, she wrote it down – “I will headline Glastonbury” – manifesting the sleeper hits and critical acclaim and now routine awards and No 1s that made this moment inevitable.

“I was really specific,” she adds after a shy laugh. “I said I wanted to headline the Pyramid Stage on a Friday night, because then I knew I could party for the next two days.” Her voice cracks as she describes the magic – “the power” – of commanding this seemingly infinite crowd. “Little me would just be beside herself right now.”

The growing Dua Lipa empire – now encompassing an acting career, a book club, a burgeoning media platform and a podcast featuring giants of high and low culture – shows no signs of slowing, particularly now she has bought back the rights to her music catalogue. Yet behind the cultural dominance, Dua Lipa is as enigmatic as she is ubiquitous. Her arrestingly vague persona (along, perhaps, with her admirable support for geopolitical causes) has stopped her transcending bankable fame to become a true nation’s sweetheart.

Which may be just how she likes it. More than a straight pop spectacle, Lipa intersperses tonight’s set with nods to underground culture. As a martial drum solo opens the show, leather-clad dancers fling themselves across a pair of metal bridges, like a Swat team sent undercover into a Seventies New York meatpacking district. In a chain-lined leather dress of her own, Lipa zips to centre stage as if propelled by the roller-skates favoured on her last arena tour, barrelling into a party-starting “Training Season”.

Though the performance is tightly drilled – even the confetti deployment seems studied – passion rings through in moments of cheeky theatricality. Midway into the second verse, she flings back her head with revulsion at the inept exes she has made her muse.

It is no contradiction that many such boyfriends are no doubt in this field screaming along: the gospel of Dua holds that, while guys often suck, that is often fine, and kind of funny. Her mastery is in pairing these tales of woe and self-redemption with music that sounds like accidentally having the best night of your life at the worst club in your hometown.

Her celebration of alternative culture is most readily apparent on “One Kiss” – given a house breakdown worthy of Glastonbury’s wonderfully lurid queer nightlife haunt, NYC Downlow – and “Pretty Please”, revitalised with deliciously dirty funk swing and a breakdancing interlude that squeezes homages to her house, disco and rave roots into two breathtaking minutes of helter-shelter beat switches.

Between all this she finds time to introduce a comically low-key guest appearance: not one of her celeb buddies but an unassuming Kevin Parker – better known as the Australian psych-rock darling Tame Impala – who looks every bit the slacker boyfriend brought home to disappointed parents after their beloved daughter’s gap year. In honour of his contributions to her latest album, Radical Optimism, Parker mooches out in a T-shirt and jeans for an endearingly clumsy duet of his song “The Less I Know the Better”.

Aside from the electrifying opener, new album cuts such as “These Walls“ and “Falling Forever” feel like stodgy, almost defensive inclusions – even closer “Houdini” can’t help but feel anticlimactic after a sensational one-two of “Physical” and “Don’t Start Now”. I can believe, even hope, that Dua Lipa will endure to headline Glastonbury again, but it is harder to imagine these songs surviving as setlist musts.

“Guys, you’re making my dreams come true,” she declares during “Be the One”, a cliche that, despite the dips in momentum, makes clear that Lipa understood the assignment: Glastonbury is not just another show, just another festival – it is the moment we have been waiting for, all day, all year, perhaps all our lives. The best headline sets turn this into a reality, even among the sceptical. Dua Lipa does something almost as special: by bearing out her childhood premonition, she makes us witnesses to her own sweetest fantasy”.

As Glastonbury is now finished for another year, there is a lot to reflect on. Another triumphant year. It is not only about Glastonbury. It applies to all festivals. The tide is turning. Women, through slowly, being booked as headliners. Not just tokenism anymore: organisers including them on their merit. I do feel that there is slow progress. We need to be further along than we are. One would hope that all the public would be on board with how festivals are evolving and improving. I know comments left after reviews represent a distinctly small pool. Though, when you look online, there is a lot more of it. A sense that female headliners are less important and authoritative. Dua Lipa, SZA on the Pyramid Stage. Shania Twain on the legends slot. They all showed that women are on top. It is saddening and angering to see rather muted and over-critical reaction to their sets. It is important that women are embraced. This year’s Glastonbury was a sign of the future: that women are here to stay. They will – Let’s hope anyway – be headline fixtures going forward. I hope that there is more of an awareness of their brilliance and value. Critics seem to be on the page for the most part. I feel this wider sense of old values remaining. People not quite willing to bend and accept change. The more that women are booked as headliners, the better things will become. I know that people are entitled to their opinions and music is definitely subjective. I have no issue with that. There does appear to be this gender-based bias. Maybe not misogyny as such. Sexism certainly. Disappointing when these amazing women produce affirmative and stunning sets. There is a lot to reflect on and discuss further. Not least how we are in a year where there is progress. It needs to keep happening – and at a faster rate. Think about Glastonbury and how Sugababes got a huge crowd. They could have been headliners. You can see there is demand for wonderful women in music. When they are at that headline level, there is this barrier in complete acceptance and embrace. A feeling that the highest level should be for male artists. I hope that this changes. People reacting harshly or flatly to an artist like SZA or Dua Lipa. This year’s Glastonbury should be viewed as…

THEIR training season.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night at Sixty: A 1964 Mix

FEATURE:

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles (Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon) in 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night

The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night at Sixty: A 1964 Mix

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ON 7th July, 1964…

The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night film was released in cinemas. Their first feature film, it was at the time of Beatlemania. Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr on the big screen. Directed by Richard Lester, it is a magnificent film. Capturing the band at the first peak of their powers, A Hard Day’s Night is a sort of part-fictional insight into their lives and relationships with one another. Showing different sides to each band member, is it a hugely entertaining and charming film. One that was a critical and commercial success. An Academy Award-nominated film no less. Perhaps the finest film The Beatles appeared in. A few days after the cinematic release, on 10th July, 1964, the album of the same name came out. A Hard Day’s Night features songs from the film and other original compositions. An incredible album, and the first with all original songs from Lennon and McCartney, it is amazing that it still sounds so potent and evocative sixty years later. Surely one of the greatest albums of the 1960s. I am interested what was happening around The Beatles’ music in 1964. Other acts that were there. Even if it was a year very much about them conquering America and the globe, their music and fame grew in a year that boasted some other fantastic music. Those acts that they were almost in competition with. Some fellow legends and bands sort of coming through. To mark sixty years of A Hard Day’s Night film and album, I have compiled a mixtape of cuts from 1964. A wonderful and varied year for music, I think a lot of people overlook it. In celebration of a milestone anniversary for a tremendous Beatles film and album, here are some fellow artists who were releasing brilliant music…

IN 1964.

FEATURE: Paradise in Trouble: Checking in on a Wonderful and Inspiring Club

FEATURE:

 

Paradise in Trouble

IN THIS PHOTO: Rosie Holt will be hosted by The Trouble Club on 22nd July at The Groucho Club, London

Checking in on a Wonderful and Inspiring Club

_________

THE last time I published…

IN THIS PHOTO: Elizabeth Uviebinené spoke at Darmouth House for The Trouble Club on 17th June

a feature about The Trouble Club, it was back on 23rd March. I have a bit to catch up on now. I am going to take us as far as 22nd July. I am writing this on 30th June. Regardless, before I get to the events from 23rd March through to 22nd July, I wanted to do some housekeeping. You can follow The Trouble Club on Twitter and Instagram. Since the last feature, the club has now expanded. It holds events in Manchester in addition to London. Whereas Director Ellie Newton usually hosts (with Francesca Edmondson, Marketing & Events Coordinator, also hosting), we also have journalist Lara Olszowska. I am going to discuss the events I have attended and what I am going to between now and a few weeks from now. You can check out the schedule here. On 24th March, I attended Monarchs, Mistresses & More. A Guided Her-story Tour of Mayfair. A tour through Mayfair, it is led by the brilliant Mandy Morrow. Few tour guides offer up history with this perspective. She discusses the amazing and overlooked women who lived, worked and died in Mayfair. From the trailblazers to the rebels! It was an a stunning and illuminating tour. Not only did we get to learn about some important and fascinating women. It was also an opportunity to discover sites, alleys and corners of Mayfair I had never visited! If you are interested, you can book to go on one of these walks/tours here.

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Moving into 26th March. This was a Neurodiversity Discussion with Jess & Mia. As The Trouble Club wrote: “Dynamic neurodivergent duo, Jess and Mia are the founders of the fast-growing Instagram platform I Am Paying Attention and they are on a mission to make work more neurodivergent-friendly”. As someone – like most who were on that Zoom event – who is neurodivergent, it was really helpful, and almost de-stigmatising hearing from Charlotte Mia and Jess Joy. Sharing their experiences of autism and ADHD,  their book, How Not to Fit In: An Unapologetic Guide to Navigating Autism and ADHD is essential reading. I want to come to an interview from March, where they talked about the book and subjects it addresses:

“After meeting at university ten years ago and being each other’s rock for so many years, How Not to Fit In by best-friends Charlotte Mia and Jess Joy is the vital accompaniment for anyone trying to navigate their neurodivergence or simply anyone interested in these experiences. This book takes readers through all aspects of autism and ADHD and is hugely affirming, inspiring, and encouraging in what life can be like for people and how much society still needs to change. The debut gives real hope for a better understanding of neurodivergence.

Mia and Jess’s engaging, warm nature shines through in their book and upon meeting them. Their desire for change is palpable and they really stand out as people with inclusion and equality at the very heart of how they think and everything they do.

Is there anything that other ADHD and autistic resources sometimes don’t get quite right that you’ve tried to do differently in your book?

Mia: We’re very visual people and lots of the resources felt overly simplified or childlike or just used massive blocks of inaccessible text.

Jess: Lots of online resources are also information for parents about parenting their young children, but obviously as a woman in my late twenties how can I relate to this? Neurodivergence shows up in so many ways. In the book we’ve tried to break off text with bold writing, big quotes and have notes acknowledging the often-heavy nature of discussion. We want people to take breaks and process.

IN THIS PHOTO: Jess Joy and Charlotte Mia/PHOTO CREDIT: Tom Jackson for The Times Magazine

Has writing this book been transformative for you in any different ways than your social media platform?

Jess: I think the way we have navigated social media has been more aligned with where we currently have been on our journey, sharing quite in the moment experiences. But the book has had more in-depth reflection and looking at things like trauma and how that can play into our experiences.

Mia: We weren’t ready for the trauma that the book was going to bring up, were we?

Jess: Definitely not! We had to think about what is going to serve the person reading this? How do we encapsulate everything we’ve learned?

Mia: We had to drag up things that we haven’t spoken about on social media. It’s been tough in that way but also healing. I think people who read the book will get a more well-rounded view of us as people compared to the snippets of social media.

Your inclusion of stories from other people really made it feel like a community driven book. How did you come to the decision to do this and choosing what stories to include?

Jess: While our conversation needs to take place about being neurodivergent in adulthood, we also have a level of privilege. Emmanuel Fru is a young Black autistic man from Sweden who was detained for having an autistic meltdown. We’re very aware that unmasking isn’t always possible or safe, especially when you are already being discriminated against in various ways. We never want to only centre our experience.

Mia: It was probably one of the biggest tasks of the book. Not only figuring out who to include but also how to do it in an ethical way, as we were restrained by our publishers in terms of navigating paying people for their time and stories. If we’re going to hear from minorities, we can’t and don’t expect free labour. I think both us and our publishers have learnt a lot from that process of questioning how things work.

You note in the book that autism referrals have tripled since 2019! What would you say to narratives that “suddenly everyone is autistic or has ADHD” ?

Jess: I honestly don’t see how it could possibly be a negative thing that more people are in tune with what they might be struggling with and what they need. I think whatever label or lack of label people use, everyone deserves to navigate their existence with peace. So what if everyone is autistic and ADHD? Why don’t we just create an environment that works for everyone a little better?”.

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Moving to 9th April, that is when I attended AllBright to see How Men Came to Rule with Angela Saini. The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule by Angela Saini is another book I would urge people to check out. I learned so much from the talk. How patriarchy and male dominance has been imbedded in culture and society from as far back as we can remember. Here are some more details:

“SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2023

A WATERSTONES BOOK OF YEAR FOR POLITICS 2023

‘I learned something new on every page of this totally essential book’ Sathnam Sanghera

‘By thinking about gendered inequality as rooted in something unalterable within us, we fail to see it for what it is: something more fragile that has had to be constantly remade and reasserted.’

In this bold and radical book, award-winning science journalist Angela Saini goes in search of the true roots of gendered oppression, uncovering a complex history of how male domination became embedded in societies and spread across the globe from prehistory into the present.

Travelling to the world’s earliest known human settlements, analysing the latest research findings in science and archaeology, and tracing cultural and political histories from the Americas to Asia, she overturns simplistic universal theories to show that what patriarchy is and how far it goes back really depends on where you are.

Despite the push back against sexism and exploitation in our own time, even revolutionary efforts to bring about equality have often ended in failure and backlash. Saini ends by asking what part we all play – women included – in keeping patriarchal structures alive, and why we need to look beyond the old narratives to understand why it persists in the present”.

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Good Girls with Hadley Freeman happened on 12th April at Century Club. She was talking about Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia. It was a very honest and raw talk from the journalist. I think everyone who was there at the talk went away moved and informed. For those who do not know about her book, here are some more details:

“A searing memoir from Hadley Freeman, bestselling author of House of Glass, about one of the most misunderstood mental illnesses.

From the ages of fourteen to seventeen, Freeman lived in psychiatric wards after developing anorexia nervosa. For the next twenty years, she grappled with various forms of self-destructive behaviour as the anorexia mutated and persisted. Combining personal experience with deep reporting, this profoundly honest and hopeful story details Freeman's long journey to recovery”.

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The Price of Life with Jenny Kleeman was one of the most interesting talks for The Trouble Club. At Home Grown, it was really intriguing. A book that explores the value of a human life in many different situations and forms, I would urge people to check it out. It was a really funny and brilliant evening on 17th April. The reviews for The Price of Life have been positive. Here is what The Guardian noted about a thought-provoking book:

“Kleeman shows how prices are contingent on social status, where you live, market conditions and pure chance. While some of the variations reveal injustice, others are less meaningful and harder to compare. As Kleeman acknowledges, £200 to hire a killer or the $500 paid for a child bride in Afghanistan are really measures of desperation. It is when we get to the more abstract top-down allocation of resources, the necessary weighing of one life against another, that this book provides the most satisfying answers to the philosophical questions posed with such thoughtful clarity at the start.

Followers of the philanthropic movement known as effective altruism believe charitable donations should be determined by cool-headed quantification of the benefits, rather than a leaflet through the letterbox with a picture of an injured puppy. Effective altruists will prioritise helping a stranger on the other side of the world over a homeless person on your street if it represents more bang for your buck. They will tell you how to save a life for just $4,500 – as long as it’s a life in Africa, because those are deemed the least expensive. One advocate ruminates on the optimum age to save a person’s life. “I think my peak value is the death of an eight-year-old,” he says.

England and Wales’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) must also be dispassionate, but in the service of a cash-strapped NHS rather than billionaires’ consciences. Its deliberations are fascinating, and take place largely out of public view. Nice uses a measure called a Qaly: a quality-adjusted life year. One Qaly means one year in good health, and is worth £20,000-30,000. If a drug costs that much or less for each additional year of good health it provides for a patient, then Nice will approve it.

Kleeman meets the mother of a child with a rare genetic disease who was just over the age limit for access to the world’s most expensive medicine. She appealed to Nice through the media and it relented, showing its human face. The organisation has to reconcile the competing interests of the individual and the collective – as the mother put it, “I appreciate that there isn’t a never-ending supply of money, but when it’s your child … ” This tension is vastly exacerbated by market capitalism. “As long as pharmaceutical companies are run for profit,” Kleeman notes, “there will be a price on life.”

Her book is a mind-bending exploration of intrinsic and fungible value, recalling Shylock’s pound of flesh and his muddling of ducats and daughters. First you deplore the imposition of rigid metrics on tender human beings, then you remember that monetary worth is itself elastic. Kleeman has picked an illuminating lens through which to explore the quantification of everything in a data-driven society, and the pros and cons of cost-benefit analysis. Surprisingly, Nice’s Qaly figure was pretty much plucked from the air: it’s a relative measure, an arbitrary tool for comparison. “The danger comes,” Kleeman observes, “when people treat tokens as if they truly represent the real price of a human life.”

Having mooted a cost-benefit analysis for lockdowns, Cuomo bottled it. “To me, I say, the cost of  a human life … is priceless, period,” he declared. The then chancellor Rishi Sunak promised, likewise, to “do whatever it takes”. But “whatever it takes” has a price tag. Divide the cost of lockdown by the number of life years it saved, and you get £300,000: 10 times the Qaly threshold. If you piously dismiss these sums as cold calculation, Kleeman points out, more people might die, now or in the future. Putting a price on life can amount to exploitation, but sometimes it’s a way of being fair”.

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Before heading into May’s Trouble Club event, there was one on 25th April, at The Hearth. The Trouble Club x Intact Creatives STORY SLAM! Was extraordinary. A chance for people to take the mic and share their stories, poems, notes or whatever they want to say, it is always a very emotive and connective experience. Story Slam, hosted by Ciara Charteris, was magnificent. I hope that they collaborate with The Trouble Club more in the future. There are a few May events I want to get to. The first, An Evening With Lucy Worsley, took place on 7th May at The Conduit in Covent Garden. She was discussing her book, Agatha Christie, and her history with and love of the famed author. A fascinating book that is worth ordering, I did not know about Worsley’s love and passion for Agatha Christie:

“Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was 'just' an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn't? As Lucy Worsley says, 'She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern'. She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness.

So why - despite all the evidence to the contrary - did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure?

She was born in 1890 into a world which had its own rules about what women could and couldn't do. Lucy Worsley's biography is not just of an internationally renowned bestselling writer. It's also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman.

With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley's biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realise what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was - truly a woman who wrote the twentieth century”.

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There are a couple of other events from May I will not expand on. One is An Evening with MP Claire Coutinho, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. That happened on 21st May at Century Club. Also, the brilliant Breaking Free From Old Patterns with Dr Annie Zimmerman. Hosted by Lara Olszowska, it was a wonderful talk. The History Lessons with Shalina Patel took place on 22nd May at The Hearth. As a history graduate, it was engrossing hearing Patel talk so passionately about teaching history and bringing different times and events to life. Discussing what history curriculum is taught to students now – one more expansive and deeper than years before -, it was a wonderful and illuminating evening. Her book is definitely one people should think about getting:

“Taking the reader on a tour through history, from the Romans to the Second World War via Tudor courts, medieval castles and more, this hugely entertaining debut from an award-winning history teacher explores a variety of historical topics in a thoughtful and engaging way. Written in an approachable and accessible style, Shalina Patel will be your guide on an eye-opening and jaw-dropping journey back in time.

The History Lessons invites readers to reclaim our history education, and is a treat for curious minds keen to look beyond the usual narratives. This is a book that celebrates stories and people that may be less familiar - but no less remarkable or fascinating”.

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There are four past events and five future ones I will highlight before wrapping things up. Exhausted with Anna Katharina Schaffner was really moving and resonated. Burnout is something that we all experience at some point. Scaffner investigated and explored why we feel burnout. On 5th June at AllBright, we witnessed a really interesting talk. Schaffner is an exhaustion coach. Her book provides a lot of answers and reasons why we go through burnout. Ways we can identify and manage it:

“Burnout is said to be the defining feeling of the post-pandemic world - but why are we all so exhausted? Some of us struggle with perfectionism, while others are simply overwhelmed by the demands of modern life. But whatever you're feeling, you are not alone - and this liberating, enlightening guide to exhaustion in all its forms will help you find the energy to beat burnout and weariness. From confronting our inner critics to how our desire to be productive stops us from being free, I bring together science, medicine, literature and philosophy to explore the causes and history of exhaustion and burnout, revealing new ways to combat stress and negativity. Inventive and freewheeling, full of comfort, solace and practical advice, Exhausted is an inspiring guide to getting control of your own exhaustion - and rediscovering happiness along the way”.

The View From Down Here with Lucy Webster was extremely powerful. The View from Down Here is a memoir about sexism, ableism and disabled womanhood. Talking at The Hearth on 6th June, hearing Webster speak about her experiences and daily life. The ignorance and prejudice she faces. It was shocking to hear. She is resilient and defiant in the face of such discrimination. If you don’t know about the book, then it is well worth a read. The talk was extremely important and affecting:

“Women's lives are shaped by sexism and expectations. Disabled people's lives are shaped by ableism and a complete lack of expectations. But what happens when you're subjected to both sets of rules?

This powerful, honest, hilarious and furious memoir from journalist and advocate Lucy Webster looks at life at the intersection; the struggles, the joys and the unseen realities of being a disabled woman. From navigating the worlds of education and work, dating and friendship; to managing care; contemplating motherhood; and learning to accept your body against a pervasive narrative that it is somehow broken and in need of fixing, The View From Down Here shines a light on what it really means to move through the world as a disabled woman”.

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Two more June events before moving into this month. How to Find Your Inner Voice with Elizabeth Uviebinené was very helpful to me. As a journalist, hearing about her app, Storia, was inspiring. Elizabeth Uviebinené is the award-winning author of five books, including the phenomenon, Slay In Your Lane. She was at Dartmouth House on 17th June. You can find out more about Storia here:

“Our minds have never been so active, processing everything from content to conversations, the mundane to cherished memories, aspirations, and worries. Basically, we’re overstimulated and living on autopilot.

Consequently, the modern world is now a feedback device; it seeks to tell us who we are, what we should be, and what we should dream about. And it is loud. So loud, in fact, most of us have lost sight of our true, authentic selves.

But our inner voice is the engine room of our lives. It requires nurturing. So I'm building Storia to help you separate the signal from the noise. Welcome”.

One of the funniest and most entertaining events I have been in attendance for The Trouble Club was The Revenge Club with Kathy Lette on 19th June at The Hearth. The amazing Australian travel writer, author and T.V. presenter discussed her must-read book, The Revenge Club. A book that focused on middle-aged woman as leads is rare. It is rare on screen and beyond. A very necessary book, it is currently being discussed as a T.V. series. Lette was in superb form as she talked about the book and her profile career. I am very interested in The Revenge Club:

“Matilda, Jo, Penny and Cressy are all women at the top of their game; so imagine their surprise when they start to be personally overlooked and professionally pushed aside by less-qualified men.

Only they’re not going down without a fight.

Society might think the women have passed their amuse-by dates but the Revenge Club have other plans.

After all, why go to bed angry when you could stay up and plot diabolical retribution? Let the games begin…”.

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On 4th July, there is a very important Trouble event. Trouble's Election Night Special featuring Coco Khan! Happening at Kindred in Hammersmith, Trouble members will congreagate to see the Election results come in. It is shaping up to be a big event:

“It’s happening! Britain is going to the polls on the 4th of July and we want you to join us for a drinks, talks and networking evening to watch the results as they roll in.

We’ll have a large screen showing coverage, speakers throughout the evening such as Pod Save the UK host, Coco Khan and political commentator Marina Purkiss (tbc). There will also be drinks and grazing boards.

We’ll watch the exit poll come through at 10pm and see the first official results trickle in. Join us for the biggest political night of the year!”.

I am really looking forward to A Truly, Madly, Funny Evening with the sensational Helen Lederer at AllBright on 18th July. I think this is the next live event I am going to. The legendary comedian, I know, will talk about her new memoir, Not That I’m Bitter. She will also reflect on her amazing career:

“What was it like as one of a handful of women at the heart of the right-on alternative comedy scene in the 1980s? Piece of cake? Bit of a laugh? Well, yes, and no. It had its ups - but also its downs. Helen Lederer was a regular on the stand-up circuit and new-wave sketch shows in the decade that launched the careers of today's comedy household names and national treasures.

She shared stages with comedy pioneers like Ben Elton and John Hegley, and TV screens with Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Harry Enfield, and many others. From the iconic Absolutely Fabulous, to Bottom, Happy Families, Naked Video, French and Saunders and Girls on Top, it is difficult to think of a comedy show that Helen wasn't a part of. So, plain sailing then? Well, not really. Even in those ground-breaking, anti-Thatcher days, there was only room at top for so many women. For the rest, it was as much a struggle to be seen and heard in the world of comedy as in any boardroom or workplace, and just as difficult to avoid the predators.

Helen will join us to talk about her phenomenal, rollercoaster of a career as well as the Comedy Women in Print Prize which Helen founded in 2018 in response to the low number of women awarded the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. Three women in 18 years. Come along to learn more and hear from one of the greatest comedy legends in Britain”.

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Happening at The Groucho Club on 22nd July, Why We Were Right with Rosie Holt MP(ish) is going to be quite the event! Her political spoofs and videos might take on a new angle and relevance after the General Election. Her new book, Why We Were Right makes for brilliant reading. I would suggest you try and get a ticket for the upcoming Trouble Club event:

“This event could not have come at a better time. Rosie Holt is an MP....sort of.....well not at all actually but she does do an incredible job of taking the mickey out of our elected representatives, especially the ones in blue.

Rosie is best known to her >300k followers for her viral internet ‘interviews’ on Twitter in character as a hapless, desperately loyal Conservative MP. Her MP alter ego often creates chaos and conversation online, as she reacts to the news agenda and proudly defends the last 14 years of Conservative government.

To accompany her viral interviews, Rosie's written and entire book from the perspective of Rosie Holt MP, taking us through the triumphs of the last decade - from getting Brexit done and bending the Ministerial Code, to rowing back on climate change policies and voting in Liz Truss as leader. Why We Were Right explains why the so called ‘scandals’ or ‘controversial’ decisions of the government that have been derided by the Left and the ‘woke’ media were completely right – and intentional – all along.

Join us for a night of laughter and tears as we look back at many years of Tory leadership with their greatest troll”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Olivia Petter/PHOTO CREDIT: Alexandra Cameron

The final event I want to throw ahead to is The Power of Celebrity with Olivia Petter. Taking place on 24th July at AllBright, I am really excited about this talk. It sounds like it is going to be a must-attend evening. Her debut novel is available from 18th July:

“We give celebrities a power they don’t deserve. Power they haven’t earned. What happens when they exploit it?

Imagine you’ve just spent the night with the most famous man on the planet. Except you don’t quite remember it. That is what happens to Rose, a twenty-something woman in Olivia Petter's new book, Gold Rush.

Gold Rush is a story about consent, celebrity culture, and trying to figure out where women fit in a world that consistently devalues and disrespects their bodies.

Join us as we meet Olivia to discuss the book, her phenomenal articles (which cover everything from Bridgerton sex scenes to Paul Mescal's shorts) and the celebrities that we love to loathe.

As a journalist, Olivia specialises in violence against women, pop culture, relationships, mental health, sexual health, travel, fashion, and beauty. Her writing has been published in The Sunday Times, British Vogue, British GQ, Grazia, Stylist, Refinery29, The Independent, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Sun, and The Huffington Post”.

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Check out all the wonderful events upcoming for The Trouble Club. The fact that the club has expanded to Manchester and is growing is testament to its reputation and popularity. I am looking forward to attending some incredible talks. I have been a member of The Trouble Club for over a year and have got so much from it. Some amazing people, a welcoming and inspiring community together at some beautiful, unique and incredible spaces across London. Hosting some empowering and wonderful women. I would advise anyone who is even slightly interested in The Trouble Club to join. In addition to talks, there are members dinners, coffee mornings, social events, book clubs and much more. It is a very varied and rewarding experience. I have been so fulfilled being immersed in…

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PARADISE in Trouble.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Ricky Martin - Livin' la Vida Loca

FEATURE:

 

Groovelines

Ricky Martin - Livin' la Vida Loca

_________

THERE is a starting point and inspiration…

behind me writing about Ricky Martin’s Livin’ la Vida Loca. Apparently, on 11th July, 1999, the song hit number one in the U.K. It may be a throwaway song for many people. Quite odd for people young now who never heard it in the 1990s. There is no doubting how important it is in pushing Latin artists to the forefront. The likes of Jennifer Lopez (her debut album, On the 6, was released in June 1999) swiftly followed and broke through. On 11th July, 1999, Ricky Martin became the first Puerto Rican artist to top the U.K. chart with this Pop classic. Livin’ la Vida Loca reached number one in twenty nations, including the U.S. One of the biggest songs of the 1990s, Livin’ la Vida Loca was also crucial in helping Latin music cross over to the mainstream. There are a couple of features I want to bring in that take us inside the song. What it means and the impact it had on the wider music culture. I will end with an interview with Ricky Martin from 2011 where he discussed the impact and importance of his best-known song. First, American Songwriter wrote about Livin’ la Vida Loca for a feature earlier this year:

“When the Latin pop music explosion took hold in America starting in 1999, former Menudo singer Ricky Martin was at the forefront of the movement. He had released four Spanish language albums prior and had sold out stadiums throughout Mexico and South America. His Grammy Awards performance of “La Copa De La Vida” (“The Cup Of Life”) in February 1999 was this country’s introduction to a man who would soon crossover into the English language market and become a superstar in his own right.

Finding The Right Hit

Sony Music executives already knew they had a star on their hands, and this was a well-planned Grammy introduction to Martin as the debut single from his first English language album was arriving a month later in March 1999. Draco “Robi” Rosa (who had worked with Ricky Martin before and sung with Menudo) and Desmond Child (hit writer for Bon Jovi and KISS) were brought in to craft “Livin’ La Vida Loca” which featured big brass sounds and a twangy guitar melody. The duo wanted to come up with “The Millennium Party Song from Hell,” and they helped create an international sensation that kicked off the 2000s Latin pop craze. (They co-wrote other songs for the album as well.)

“The mandate was, you know, I had [to write] pop with some authenticity,” Rosa told NPR in 2021. “Push to be honest, push to be as real as possible. But make sure it’s pop. That it’s, you know, commercially — that there’s a potential. … I was channeling [Jim] Morrison. I mean, there’s elements of big band [and] a little bit of surf guitar.”]

In 2012, Child, who is half-Cuban, told Songfacts, “His [Martin’s] manager, Angelo Medina, thought there was a market in radio stations that were doing songs that were going back and forth between English and Spanish. He said, ‘Well, what if you do one song that’s kind of both?’ If you look at ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca,’ there really is very little Spanish in it. But when we presented it to the record company, one of the top executives came back to me and said, ‘Could you write that song in English now?’ I said, ‘It is in English.’ And in fact, when the first ads came out, he insisted that underneath ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca,’ in parentheses, it said, ‘Livin’ the Crazy Life.’ We were scratching our heads, like, Come on now, anyone who has ever gone to Pollo Loco knows what the word ‘loco’ is.

“That particular song had parts that sound like Spanish but aren’t. Like, ‘skin the color of mocha.’ ‘Mocha’ is an American term – we don’t say that in Spanish. But it sounded like Spanish. It took three days to work out the right combination of sounds and words. That’s pretty much the longest I had ever worked on a song before. That was before I started working in theater. These days it takes me three or four days to write a proper song.” 

A Global Smash and Lasting Impact

“Livin’ La Vida Loca” broke big across all borders. It went No. 1 in America, Canada, the UK, Mexico, and 13 other countries, and it went Top 10 in over 15 more. Global sales of the single surpassed 4 million units. Ricky Martin’s self-titled, English language debut, which also featured two songs written by Diane Warren, would spawn two more hits and go on to sell 7 million copies by January 2000. Martin had arrived in a big way.

In the wake of Martin’s success, other artists like Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, Marc Antony, and Jennifer Lopez also joined the chart-topping party. It was something new and refreshing, and it was a boost to Latin pop music worldwide. Since the 1980s the two big Latin crossovers had been Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine as well as Selena, but now the market had expanded considerably. There are those who would contend that the Latin pop trend then was nothing more than a marketing gimmick, but it did expose mainstream listeners to artists they might not have paid attention to before.

Today, “Livin’ La Vida Loca” has racked up a half billion views on YouTube and nearly 400 million plays on Spotify. The video features a ballroom full of sexy Latin dancers and an exuberant, hip-swiveling performance from Martin. It’s easy to see why his star rose so quickly”.

I am going to move to a large feature. One that dives into Livin’ la Vida Loca. A real framing of its creation. What was happening to Rickly Martin at the time. The impact of his smash hit. We have just past through Pride Month. Ricky Martin, as a gay man, was writing about heterosexual relations through most of his career. It must have been quite strange and tough for him to project this image that was seen as more acceptable and commercial. Not really able to come out in the 1990s and write more honestly. Rather than tainting Livin’ la Vida Loca, it is an observation. The song is not really about his lust and attraction. It is more about this entrancing and slightly ominous woman who lures you in and then leaves you reeling. A situation that many men might have been led into. Anyway, for their The Number Ones feature, Stereogum gave Livin’ la Vida Loca an 8/10 score:

“The Latin pop explosion of 1999 was a fake thing that became real. It was a marketing strategy that worked well enough to evolve into a cultural phenomenon. To even talk about it, you need to get a few things out of the way right out front, like the fact that “Latin music” is not a genre. It’s a web of different sounds — some connected to one another, some not — that really only have a language in common. The Latinx artists who blew up and made hits in 1999 came from vastly different places and circumstances. Most of them were just making straight-up English-language pop music with occasional nods to the performers’ different heritages. But a lot of those stars did have one big thing in common: They were signed to the various different subsidiaries of Sony Music.

Tommy Mottola, a man who’s appeared in a bunch of these columns because of his marriage to Mariah Carey, is an Italian baby boomer from the Bronx, but if there’s any one figure most responsible for that boom, it’s him. Mottola found ways to push his artists, using their ethnicities as a marketing hook. A few years after the big boom year, Mottola admitted as much to Billboard: “There never really was a Latin explosion, but we used it to take gigantic advantage of it, and lots of our stars benefited from that.” (In 2000, while that whole boom was still happening, Mottola, by then divorced from Mariah, married another one of the artists he’d signed, the Mexican singer Thalía. Thalía’s only Hot 100 hit, the 2003 Fat Joe collab “I Want You,” peaked at #22.)

For Mottola’s strategy to pay off, he needed to open things up with the right performer and the right song. He had both. Ricky Martin had everything a record-label exec could possibly want. He had an intriguing backstory, and his boy-band past was especially attractive during the high boy-band era. Martin was talented, hard-working, and insanely good-looking. His acting career made him a familiar face in America, and his music had already made him a star around the world. A big-deal Grammy performance early in 1999 gained Martin a tremendous industry buzz. Martin also had “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” a goofy, eager-to-please earworm too immediate to be denied. Empires are built on songs like that.

There’s a whole lot of right-place/right-time in Ricky Martin’s story, but there’s also a ton of hard work. Few performers have been quite so driven to the spotlight, and few have soaked up quite so much attention without letting it drive them insane. Enrique Martín Morales grew up comfortably middle-class in San Juan. (When Martin was born, the #1 song in America was Sly & The Family Stone’s “Family Affair.”) Before Martin was 10, he was already starring in Puerto Rican TV commercials.

As a kid, Ricky Martin loved English-language arena rock, and he also loved the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, a strange institution first founded in 1977. The producer Edgardo Díaz had an idea: He would collect a bunch of adorable kids, and he would keep that lineup of kids forever unstable. Menudo membership was always temporary. In a Logan’s Run twist, the members of Menudo would be asked to leave when they turned 16 or 17. This kept any of them from becoming famous enough to take control from Díaz, and it also made boy-band membership oddly attainable. Menudo were hugely popular around the Spanish-speaking world, but a good-looking Puerto Rican kid could become a member of the group. That’s what Ricky Martin did. 

Ricky Martin auditioned for Menudo a few times, and he got shot down for being too short, but he finally got to join the group in 1984, when he was 12. As a member of Menudo, Martin had to work tirelessly, pretty much forgoing his adolescent years. But Martin also got to travel and perform in front of vast audiences. Martin was a part of Menudo when the group released the 1985 English-language single “Hold Me,” which became their only Hot 100 hit, peaking at #62.

In grand Menudo tradition, Ricky Martin left the group at 17, and he moved to New York to study at NYU. Before classes even started, though, Martin dropped out. He was offered a role in a stage musical in Mexico City, and he took it. From there, he spent the next few years acting in telenovelas. While in Mexico, Martin started off his solo recording career, releasing a self-titled Spanish album. His first solo single, the 1991 ballad “Fuego Contra Fuego,” reached #3 on Billboard‘s Latin chart.

In 1994, after he’d released a couple of albums, Martin landed a guest-role on the short-lived NBC sitcom Getting By. From there, he was cast as a singing bartender on General Hospital. Martin kept that gig for about a year, but he didn’t like it much, so he went back into music. On his 1995 album A Medio Vivir, Martin moved away from sentimental balladry and into percussive dance jams, and that choice proved hugely successful. The album took off in places that didn’t typically go for Spanish-language music, like France and the UK. In America, A Medio Vivir went gold, and the banger “Maria” became the first Ricky Martin song to crack the Hot 100, where it peaked at #88.

Funny thing about “Livin’ La Vida Loca”: It’s not really a Latin pop song at all. It doesn’t come from any Latin tradition. Other than the title, the song doesn’t even involve the Spanish language. Desmond Child, who co-wrote the song with Ricky Martin’s old friend Robi Rosa, later told Songfacts that the two of them worked hard to give the song a flavor that might seem Spanish to people who had no experience with any kind of Spanish culture: “That particular song had parts that sound like Spanish but aren’t. Like, ‘skin the color of mocha.’ ‘Mocha’ is an American term — we don’t say that in Spanish. But it sounded like Spanish.” (One clueless label exec still asked Child if he could write a version of the song in English.)

But while those lyrics don’t make much use of the Spanish language, they do go pretty hard on Latin stereotypes. Ricky Martin crows about a temptress who intoxicate you to the point where you don’t even notice that she’s ruining your life. This image of the girl who will make you take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain has everything to do with fucked-up ideas about delirious passion that Americans love to ascribe to people from neighboring countries, though maybe it’s notable that the woman playing the role in the “Livin’ La Vida Loca” video was a Croatian model.

Musically, “Livin’ La Vida Loca” sounds awfully close to the big, bright, sunny ska-punk that was all over alt-rock radio in the late ’90s. The busy horn-stabs work as constant adrenaline-shots, and the baritone guitar owes something to instrumental surf-rock. The mix is jammed full of elements, these digital layers of sound that are almost overwhelming in their grandeur. (“Livin’ La Vida Loca,” it turns out, was the first #1 hit to be entirely recorded on ProTools.) One of the only moments where things get even remotely quiet — the bit about waking up in New York City in a funky cheap motel — is pure Warped Tour ska. (I wonder if New York City still has any funky cheap motels. Probably not.)

In Fred Bronson’s Billboard Book Of Number 1 Hits, Desmond Child says that “Livin’ La Vida Loca” is his attempt to channel the spirits of a couple of the 20th century’s most grandly glitzy entertainers: “We hired Randy Cantor to be our arranger and coaxed him to throwing in the kitchen sink. We added everything from whistles to gongs and horns and rock guitar and Spanish piano. At the time, Frank Sinatra had just passed away, so we were listening to Frank and swing. And I had this inspiration because Ricky reminded me of a Latin Elvis. So I had this vision of Ricky dressed like Elvis in a Las Vegas performance in all black, really moving and shaking.” This makes sense. “Livin’ La Vida Loca” is a song desperate to grab your attention, to entertain. That impulse isn’t native to any one particular culture. If it’s anything, it’s just plain ol’ American.

A song as wild and energetic as “Livin’ La Vida Loca” demands a singer who can really sell it, and Ricky Martin is up to the job. Martin’s enthusiasm is genuine and infectious. He never gets much of a chance to sing on the song. Instead, he just belts everything with a hammy flair that’s just perfect. In his overcharged gusto, Martin evokes no less a Vegas showman than Tom Jones. Even Martin’s ad-libs add to the atmosphere; every “come aaaown!” pushes the track that much harder. As the song reaches its climax, Martin is just whooping and bellowing and roaring, and it’s awesome. “Livin’ La Vida Loca” became so big that its canned enthusiasm came to seem a little oppressive, but when it hit at the right moment, it was glorious.

For the “Livin’ La Vida Loca” video, Ricky Martin worked with Wayne Isham, the guy who’d established the visual language of ’80s glam metal in his clips for Mötley Crüe and Bon Jovi. The “Vida Loca” video tweaks and updates that language, but it’s mostly the same — going for pure energy overcharge, just like the song. The video’s first shot is a car screeching around a corner and decimating a fire hydrant, and Isham smash-cuts from there into a club full of ridiculously hot dancers. The rest of the clip is a riot of bodies moving and cameras whirling. At the center of it all, Ricky Martin radiates the plastic handsomeness of a Ken doll, but he’s right in there, jumping around with the same enthusiasm as everyone else while bringing enough presence to hold the spectacle together. You couldn’t resist this guy, and you couldn’t resist this song, either.

Ricky Martin’s self-titled English-language album was a huge success. It sold seven million copies in the US alone, and it kicked open the door for the Latin pop explosion that Tommy Mottola envisioned, as we’ll see in this column in the days ahead. But Ricky Martin hasn’t been back in the top 10 of the Hot 100 since “She’s All I Ever Had.” Many of Martin’s later singles seemed like attempts to recapture the lightning of “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” The delightfully goofy “Shake Your Bon-Bon,” another single from the self-titled album, peaked at #22, while “She Bangs,” the lead single from Martin’s 2000 follow-up Sound Loaded, landed just outside the top 10, getting to #12. These days, too many of us sadly remember “She Bangs” as the William Hung song.

Sound Loaded was nowhere near as big as Ricky Martin, but it still went double platinum. While he was out promoting that album, Martin danced with George W. Bush at Bush’s 2001 inauguration, a moment that Jon Stewart memorably clowned on The Daily Show. (Since then, Martin has campaigned for every Democratic presidential candidate from Obama on.) After Sound Loaded, Martin largely went back to singing in Spanish, which made his presence on the American charts a whole lot more sparse but which probably helped keep his star bright around the world. Martin has kept recording ever since, and he’s done some acting, too — in Evita on Broadway, on The Assassination Of Gianni Versace on FX. For many years, Martin refused to answer persistent questions about his sexuality, but he came out as gay in 2010, and he got married in 2017. 

Ricky Martin remains hugely important as an inspiration to future generations of Latin pop artists. That’s how he made his most recent appearance on the Hot 100. The reggaeton star Wisin collaborated with Martin and with Jennifer Lopez, an artist who will appear in this column very soon, on “Adrenalina,” a clubby 2014 single that peaked at #94. (Wisin’s highest-charting single as lead artist, the 2017 Ozuna collab “Escapate Conmigo,” peaked at #63.) Martin has also worked with Bad Bunny, quite possibly the biggest artist in the world right now, and he’ll spend this fall on a co-headlining arena tour with Enrique Iglesias, another artist who will soon appear in this column.

In 1999, the hype surrounding Ricky Martin was deafening. “Livin’ La Vida Loca” was a single that lived up to that hype, one that very nearly translated all that manufactured excitement into tangible musical form. That kind of hype can totally derail a career. Fortunately, Martin never seemed to worry too much about keeping that high going. Instead, Martin has maintained relevance without desperately chasing it. We probably won’t see Ricky Martin in this column again, but he seems like he’s doing great these days, even as his life has presumably gotten significantly less crazy”.

I am going to end with an interview from 2011. Life definitely changed radically for Ricky Martin in 1999. Ending the decade with a massive chart success, it would have been a hit-spinning and mad time. In the interview, Martin explained how Livin’ la Vida Loca has this fun sound. Fusing horns, Latin rhythms and Pop sensibilities, it is a fun and insatiable cut. One that stands up to this day. A radio staple that is impossible to dismiss:

“Since waking up in New York City "in a funky cheap hotel" back in '99, Puerto Rican-born Ricky Martin - or Enrique Martin Morales to his mates - has kept the Latin-pop fever alive for over 15 years with countless international chart-toppers to his name. Bringing together all of his hip-shaking hits for the first time for a UK audience, we caught up with Ricky to chat about his upcoming one-off show in London and what he plans to do next.

What can we expect from your UK show in July?
"It's a very international show musically speaking - it's influenced by every culture. It is provocative and it's erotic, but very beautifully done. Giogio Armani has been a very important part of the tour and he's not going to put his name to something that is not well done. It's very theatrical. It's deep, profound and it'll make you think."

What has the reaction been like from the crowds so far?
"It's like they're rediscovering me. I'm even rediscovering me! I'm still the same entertainer with the same passion and the same hunger for an audience to have a good time. It's a really cool frequency between the audience and the stage right now - the audience really want to be a part of the show."

Have you re-swizzled any of your hits for the show?
"There are some songs that must not be touched because the audience really appreciates hearing them the way they were born. I just want to discover and rediscover a sound - it's not changing a melody, it would be just trying a new arrangement. 'Livin' la Vida Loca' has gone from heavy hardcore rock to being exclusively influenced by ska and it's been urban as well! Right now it's back to the beginning."

Why do you think 'Livin' la Vida Loca' was a worldwide hit?
"Well, musically speaking it's rich. It has a fantastic fusion of cultures from rock to ska to Latin, with the horns. During my sabbatical I spent two years not listening to my songs at all. Then one day I walked into my studio and I just pressed play and 'Livin la Vida Loca' came on and I was like, 'What the f**k is up with this track?' - I don't want to sound arrogant, but I thought, 'This is perfect'. The multi-cultural influence, the harmonies, the story - it's a really fun track. The timing of it all was really good too - Latin sounds at the turn of the year 2000 were of the moment. The cosmos was manifesting in a very powerful way for that track to be a success."

When working on new music do you strive for another 'Livin' la Vida Loca'?
"Oh man, that is too painful! Yeah, of course you jump into that mode every once and while, but you can't get too caught up with it because you start to limit yourself. My goal is to think of nothing when I'm writing a song because too many influences could sabotage a potentially amazing song. When I'm working I think, 'If something like that comes, fantastic - hopefully something better will show up - but most importantly let's just do music in the moment when the keys and the melodies are blending”.

I was just  leaving high school when Livin’ la Vida Loca hit the top of the U.K. chart. It was a great year for Pop music. 1999 was full of interesting and innovative sounds. Some really great breakthroughs. You had everyone from Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears. These legendary artists making their first big steps. A song that, twenty-five years ago, was critical in ensuring that Latin artists broke into the mainstream, you have to commend Ricky Martin. All these years later, it is impossible to shake the allure of the track. Still sounding so fresh and colourful. A worldwide chart success, I think that it thoroughly deserved…

ALL of its plaudits.

FEATURE: There Goes a Tenner: Highlighting My Favourite Kate Bush Moments

FEATURE:

 

There Goes a Tenner

IN THIS PHOTO: Del Palmer and Kate Bush at the London Planetarium on 9th September, 1985, for the launch of Hounds of Love/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Hogan/Getty Images 

Highlighting My Favourite Kate Bush Moments

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I have not done a feature about this before…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with Tom Jones at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards in 2012, where 50 Words for Snow won for Best Pop/Pop Music (Bush posted a message to her website about the event)/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Young/Rex Features

so I thought it was time to reveal my ten favourite Kate Bush moments. Rather than discussing albums, singles or anything like that, I am talking more about what she has done outside of the studio. Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of studio moments that I think should be treasured and spotlighted. From Wuthering Heights to her donkey braying on Get Out of My House, this is something I might explore in the next feature. There are some key moments that stick in the mind. Some are funny and weird, the others are more normal. For some reason, these are ones I recall when I think about Kate Bush. They can be short and sweet or longer and more dramatic. I feel every Kate Bush fan would have their ten iconic/standout Kate Bush moments. The ones they call to mind when we think of her. I am going to discuss them in no particular order. That said, the first I want to bring up is the most recent of the list. I covered this for a recent feature. It is her 2022 interview with Woman’s Hour. This came after Bush hit number one with Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). The track, which features on Hounds of Love and was originally released in 1985, was used in Netflix’s Stranger Things. There are multiple reasons why this moment is so special. Nobody really expected an interview at all. Bush communicated some messages through her official website. Prior to that, we had not heard an interview about her music since 2016. It was a long wait. One that was worth it. Bush, speaking from her home on a landline, chatted to Woman’s Hour’s Emma Barnett. They chatted about the success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), what she (Bush) is doing at the moment – gardening, mostly -, and how long Kate Bush had been watching Stranger Things (prescription viewing in the Bush household). No doubt one of the very best and most heartwarming moments in Kate Bush’s career. For the fans like me at least.

Next in the list is one of the interviews I am going to source. There are many memorable ones to choose from. One of the absolute best is very early on. In 1978, when Kate Bush was starting out and people were struggling to define her and what to make of the music, there were a lot of interviews that where Bush was belittled or patronised. Almost treated like a girl or someone who didn’t believe in music. This interview from March 1978 is an example of an interviewer treating Kate Bush with respect. A serious and warm conversation about her music. Kate Bush is very mature and intelligent. She can handle odd and offensive interviews. On this occasion, there was no need for any shields or defensiveness. Instead, we got a real feeling that she was being treated as a serious artist doing something very special. There are a lot of wonderful interviews with her. Ones that stand in the mind. I wanted to highlight this one, as it comes so early in her career. In fact, only a month after her debut album came out. So many people were confused by The Kick Inside. The world had not really heard anything like it. Maybe it is understandable it would be difficult to digest an artist so original and different to everything around her. The interviewer, whose name I can’t seem to find online, is professional and respectful. This March 1978 interview has been highlighted across the media. A real test of Kate Bush’s nerves and maturity, it always comes to mind when I think of her.

I will get to another interview soon. Breaking away from that, it is worth thinking about award ceremonies. No stranger to them at all, Bush has collected a few awards through her career. One of the most recent is when she attended the South Bank Sky Arts Pop Award ceremony in 2012. 50 Words for Snow (2011) won for Best Album that year. Rightfully scooping the prize, it is one of the most recent public appearances from Kate Bush. Aside from 2014’s Before the Dawn, there was not that many occasions where she was out in the public eye. Not since the 1990s anyway. It is always nice seeing Kate Bush out there and being celebrated. I can understand that she may want to avoid this sort of limelight. We have not really seen her pick up awards recently. Someone needs to give her one pronto! There is another award ceremony, in 2014, when Bush won an award for Before the Dawn. That was at the Editor’s Award from the Evening Standard. In the space of a couple of years, two examples of Kate Bush being recognised for her pioneering work. Two cases of her being humbling and very sweet. Quite shy and overwhelmed. I chose the 2012 acceptance speech because of the crowd reaction. So much love and affection in the room that night! Presented to her by Tom Jones, you can see the joy on her face. Perhaps a little taken aback by the whole thing. This is why I hope that we again see Kate Bush take to the stage and collect an award. She is long overdue some sort of recognition. Again, I might well explore this in a feature.

Coming later, I will return to videos and the audio. I am going to include one more audio nugget. In fact, it is a feast for the eyes. Transmitted on the BBC in 1980, Deliah Smith spoke with Kate Bush about vegetarianism. This interview might also make it onto many people’s top ten Kate Bush moments. For a start, it has nothing to do with her music. Not really. It is a rare occasion when things shifted away from music. It is an interview that hits all the senses. In an idyllic and peaceful setting (the Bush family home of East Wickham Farm) and this almost tangible taste and smell. We get to see all these amazing dishes. In many ways, this interview was ahead of its time. An artist discussing the benefits of a vegetarian diet. There is also this wonderful mix of Kate Bush’s various sides. When she said she didn’t like the thought of harming animals. In a different interview, Kate Bush said how she felt vegetables almost had souls. Bush revealed how, when she first became a vegetarian, she lived a little bit on tea and chocolate. Realising this was not a healthy alternative, she then discovered these vegetarian dishes. How she could eat well on that diet. When she was eating meat, Bush explained how she did not realty eat vegetables. That changed when she became a vegetarian.

I am going to move away to a slightly different area. More of a photographic memory. In fact, it is in 1985. When Kate Bush premiered Hounds of Love. On 9th September, 1985, she promoted the album at a very special place. This is more of a deep-cut Kate Bush highlight. Rather than mention the album itself, I wanted to single in on this event. A few reasons why it is in my top ten Kate Bush moments. For one, it did seem like a career high. There is another photographic moment that will be mentioned soon. The photo of Kate Bush and Del Palmer (her then-boyfriend, we sadly lost him last year) together. It is the one at the very top of this feature. They looked incredible. So fashionable and cool, it was a very big moment. Kate Bush, possibly at her most chic, beautiful and captivating. Del Palmer looked so sharp and amazing. I can only imagine how incredible it was for those who were around Kate Bush that night. It was such a great time for her. A week later (16th September, 1985), her masterpiece was released. Capturing this very time of change, the photo I have included and feel is among the most beautiful. There is another shot of her at the Planetarium with her jacket off and she is leaning against some sort of rigging. Holding onto it with a smile on her face. Dave Hogan is the one who shot Kate Bush that night. Bush is relaxed and full of joy. Perhaps knowing she had made this timeless album, we got to see her shine and radiate. A wonderful moment in her career that so many fans cherish!

Keeping in 1985, one of my favourite Kate Bush moments is when she performed Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) on Wogan. She performed on his show more than once.. Always so memorably. I feel this performance is her best on the show. The promotion Bush did in 1985 was insane! So many outings, interviews and appearances. She travelled all around and barely got a time to sit and relax. I love the Wogan performance. The aesthetics of the set makes the performance so memorable. Kate Bush and her backing band (including Del Palmer and her brother, Paddy) looking like druids. Dressed in brown robes, it was a contrast to the purples of Hounds of Love. That is the colour I associate with the album. Not only because of the album cover design and lettering. The video shows Kate Bush dressed in purple. One might expect that when she performed in live for Terry Wogan in 1985. Instead, we get this brown. A palette that maybe contrasts from many people’s visions of the song. A muddier and murkier colour for such a vibrant song. The performance is wonderful too. Even though it is mimed, there is this sense of theatre and effort. Not another artist phoning-in a performance. So arresting and memorable, I think that this performance is one of the best from Kate Bush.

Four more to go. I could not let the first night of Before the Dawn go by. I was not there at all – and did not get to any of the twenty-two dates -, though it was historic and seismic. On 26th August, 2014, Kate Bush stepped onto the stage for this residency. At Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo, she was met with awe and rapture from thousands of fans. Many who had travelled from very far away. This real congregation. A mix of lifelong fans. Celebrity newbies and everyone in-between. I remember that first night and all the media attention. This real sense of it being an event. The speculation of what the show would be like. People did not know. What they were met with was something life-changing. One of the highlights was Kate Bush performing Hounds of Love’s second side, The Ninth Wave. It was the first time she performed it in full. A realisation of this wonderful suite. Something cinematic and epic. I would loved to have been at that concert. I have heard from people who were there and they all say the same thing: it was one of the best moments of their lives. Objectively one of the greatest Kate Bush moments, I think about it a lot. We are coming up to the tenth anniversary  of a major event. That opening night for Before the Dawn. Even though I was not there, I felt this palpable sense of wonder and excitement through social media and wider. Reflecting now, almost a decade later, the shockwaves and reverberations are still going.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing during 2014’s Before the Dawn residency/PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex Features

There are countless Kate Bush photos I could select that stand in the mind. Many of them shot either by John Carder Bush (her brother), Guido Harari or Gered Mankowitz. Again, repeating myself here, I could dedicate a feature to the best photos. The one I have selected is so eye-catching and memorable. Photographed by Clive Arrowsmith in 1981, there are two reasons why I have chosen this photo. One of Bush wrapped in ivy. She would release a track, Under the Ivy, as a B-side to Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) four years later. She looks majestic and beguiling in the photo. The expression on her face is one of slight sadness. Arrowsmith explained how Bush was in a bad mood and downcast when she was photographed. It was not an instruction. You have this photo taken at a very interesting point in her career. There is a lot of mystique coming from the photo. Also, why was Kate Bush unhappy that day?! In 1981, after she had released Never for Ever (1980) but before The Dreaming (1982), there is this transition. A growth and evolution of an artist. Perhaps burnt out with recording and stress, we get a moment that shows the young Kate Bush perhaps at her most human. Not having to affect a smile or not wanting to, there is also this ethereal and almost artistic vibe to the photo. This slightly tired and unhappy subject looking gorgeous and almost like an art exhibition. It is a photo that I think about. What the atmosphere was like in the studio. If Kate Bush said much. How things were left. What we do get is a couple of wonderful and evocative shots. Some of the bets ever taken of her.

PHOTO CREDIT: Clive Arrowsmith

Two more choices to go. It was hard whittling them down. The final one relates to a message on her website. The penultimate moment I want to choose and discuss is an interview. Again, there are loads that I have missed out. I am going back to 2005. This is the year Aerial was released. It was seen as a big return. Kate Bush’s interview with Mark Radcliffe sticks in the mind. For a start, it was a chance to hear Bush speak about her new album. Her only double album. One we waited twelve years for. Any interviews from that time are precious and to be studied. Allowing Radcliffe a lot of time, I love the interview because there is that respect being paid. Mark Radcliffe had this campaign where he dreamed of interviewing Kate Bush. Almost like a personal aim. Something he talked about on radio. This interview was broadcast on BBC Radio 2. There are some nice and affectionate moments. Bush questioning some of Radcliffe’s remarks or observations. Allowing so much time for the interview to breathe, we got a real insight into Aerial. It was a wonderful and deep interview. Fans might have other choices they would put above this. For me, it stands out as a really important interview. One of a few long ones she did in 2005 – her chat with John Wilson also comes to mind. At this time when we welcomed her back (after 1993, we did not think there would be a twelve-year gap!), it was like she never left. The same amazing and incredible artist. Someone making music of the highest order. Just hearing her voice. Go and listen to the whole interview if you can (I cannot see one single YouTube video for it; it is divided into multiple parts).

The final selection in my top ten favourite Kate Bush moments might seem mundane and unspectacular. I include it because it is the most recent post from her website. The newest communication from fans. Some look at her messages for clues that she is recording new music. That she may grace us with something big. In fact, it is technically isn’t the latest message. It is the latest written by Kate Bush herself. A poignant one. It relates to the death if Del Palmer. He died on 5th January this year. Kate Bush posted a message on 10th January. We have not had another one since then. The final words, “I’m going to miss him terribly”, seem like an understatement. Losing her friend and former partner, Palmer was also on many of her studio albums as a player. He was there for The Tour of Life in 1979. Her sidekick and confidante for many years. Someone very special for her. It may seem like a rather sombre note to end on. It is tender and sincere. Rather than saying nothing or writing this long message, Bush kept it short but meaningful. It is always brilliant when we hear from her. I know that the next message will be more optimistic and music-based. I love this message because we wondered if Kate Bush would react to the death of Del Palmer or say nothing. It must have been impossible for her to process the news. I shall leave it there. Maybe you have your own top ten Kate Bush moments. I’d love to hear them. So many possibilities to choose from! I was keen to share mine. Thinking about them makes me want to dig deep and explore more. It shows that, when it comes to Kate Bush, that there is always…

SO much to discover.

FEATURE: Encore: Recognising the Stamina and Resilience of Modern Day Touring Artists

FEATURE:

 

Encore

IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé during her Renaissance World Tour

Recognising the Stamina and Resilience of Modern Day Touring Artists

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IT might have always been the way…

IN THIS PHOTO: Taylor Swift during her Eras Tour/PHOTO CREDIT: John Shearer

yet I feel it is more obvious how intense and hard touring is. Artists are in competition with each other to get attention. With most artists’ revenue coming from touring, it does seem that they are pushing themselves to the limit. This has negative and positive repercussions. On the one hand, you have artists who are delivering the most amazing sets. More ambitious and wide-scale. There is also the effect on mental health. This important book is a guide for artists. Surviving life on and off of the road; putting mental health first is paramount. I think that the mental effects of touring can be as severe as the physical ones. Maybe there is something inbuilt with artists. They seem to have this resilience and energy that means they can go on stage and captivate in such an effortless way. I am thinking about artists like Taylor Swift. Say what you want about her music and the negatives – the use of private jets is not the best message to send out – but her stamina is unbelievable! Think about all the shows she does. How long they last. How far she has to travel. It is the same for icons like Madonna and Beyoncé. One could say some of the old guard like The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney are still at their peak. Taylor Swift is a good example. The way she can perform on this gigantic tour and really deliver night in night out. She doesn’t even pick up a cold! That is the thing with artists. If they get ill, it can be almost impossible to perform. Having to weight up what toll it will take on them and how many gigs they might have to cancel, it can be scary stepping onto the stage. Testament to their strength, it is inspiring seeing artists keep going and stay strong.

One never knows how much is going on beneath the surface. What toll touring takes on their minds. If you think about huge bands and solo artists, they have to go through rehearsals. That whole preparation side can be draining. They also have to promote on social media in addition to promoting through the media. All the components of a tour is overwhelming. This has always been the way, yet there seems to be this extra pressure. Ticket prices are rising. Artists feeling like they need to justify this. Maybe not something smaller artists have to consider, I know that life for them is still hard. Staying fit and healthy so that they can give fans a top quality show. So that they can remain on the road and fulfil their commitments. If the likes of you or me can make it into work with a cold or a real lack of energy, we can also consider taking a few days off. I do think that, in such a competitive time, that any day off or one down because of illness, can make an artist feel stressed. That makes things worse. Others maybe soldiering on because they feel like they’ll let their fans down. Every time I see a festival headliner or an artist touring the world during this really long sets, I wonder how they do it. It seems almost superhuman that they can do that once, let alone dozens of times. I think that we need to remember this whenever we criticise someone or talk about ticket prices. Sure, things can get extortionate when you get to the major artists. Even so, with the length of shows and everything that goes in, it doesn’t seem as unreasonable. I do like the fact that we get these world-class live spectacles today. It is also brilliant that smaller venues are hosting the stars of the future. It makes it even more important that they remain open and profitable. At a moment when many are closing and struggling, their vitalness needs to be underlined and financed.

PHOTO CREDIT: Polina Tankilevitch/Pexels

I know that some people prefer live sets that are more sparse and just about the music. Not any big sets, lightning and concepts. However you prefer your live music, there is no denying how essential it is. How it is brings people together. I am not sure whether we understand just what artists put into a live show. How tiring it is touring. When you see an artist on the stage doing a twenty-song set or more, consider what that does to their body and system. To do that for one night would take most of us down. The way they need to be in peak physical condition. Even if a set is less about movement and more about the vocals, there can be vocal strain and dangers. Artists risking that every time they get onto the stage. I love how artists are able to give fans such a spectacular show every night. Not many of us truly appreciate how much stamina and strength is required. From a globe-straddling Taylor Swift to a new band coming through plying their trade at local venues, artists should be commended for their passion and ability. I have had a cold for a month now and could barely function in an office job. They have to go on stage and really push their bodies each night. I know that nobody is perfect. Artists can turn up late or not be at their best. There can be problems and cancellations but, by and large, you are lucky enough to be at this transformative and unifying experience. All of this should definitely…

NOT be taken for granted.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Imelda May – 11 Past the Hour

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Imelda May – 11 Past the Hour

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THERE are a couple of reasons…

why I want to include Imelda May’s latest studio album in Second Spin. The Irish songwriter turns fifty on 10th July. An incredible artist who I don’t think gets enough credit and airplay, the phenomenal 11 Past the Hour is among her best work. Released on 16th April, 2021, the album features collaborations with, among others, Ronnie Wood, Gina Martin and Shola Mos-Shogbamimu. I don’t know how many people know about the album. You can buy it here. I do think that Imelda May is one of the most astonishing and multitalented artists of her generation. I am going to get to some reviews of the wonderful 11 Past the Hour. Some reviewers felt the album distilled May’s talents. It was a bid for commercial appeal at the expensive of her authenticity and personality. Others felt the album had some songs that sounded like they were from other artists. Perhaps not as sharp and defined as albums like 2010’s Mayhem or even 2017’s Life. Love. Flesh. Blood. I think that 11 Past the Hour is a rewarding and rich album. There are one or two weaker tracks through, for the most part, it is a very strong and memorable release. Before getting onto some positive reviews, I am going to start with an interview from HMV. It seems like 11 Past the Hour was a chance for Imelda May to break away from a narrative. To explore new ground and possibilities:

“When did you start work on the songs for this album? Were you writing on tour?

“I need to wind down after tours, I can’t just set the wheels straight in motion. It was lovely this time. I didn’t give myself a timetable, I just wrote for myself, as and when I wanted to. I mostly finished before the lockdown, but I added a couple of extra bits. I ended up with a lot of songs.”

How did you find streamlining that down for what became the final album?

“There were a few songs that I really wanted to keep, but I don’t like long albums. I don’t like overstaying my welcome, I want to leave people wanting just a little bit more. These are my absolute favourites and the songs I knew would work alongside them.”

Did you have a goal of how you wanted this album to move on from Life Love Flesh Blood?

“No, I just write as I feel. If I let myself move and progress on a personal level then I know my writing will follow. I was happy with where I was in my life. I didn’t need to feel like I was driving at something, I knew I’d progress in my own way.”

You’ve got some great guests on there. Noel Gallagher, Ronnie Wood, Miles Kane, how did those collaborations come about?

“I knew each of them. I don’t believe in things being set up by labels or management, things are better unfolding naturally. I’ve known Miles for a long time and I was delighted when he said yes. I don’t know if ‘What We Did In The Dark’ would have made the record without him. I just knew he’d be perfect, we had so much fun. It was the same with Ronnie and Noel, they liked the songs and we went from there.”

Were you able to physically be there with any of them? Or did it have to be done remotely?

“No, I was there with each of them. It was done within all the rules, hardly anybody in the studio, all the doors opened, separated appropriately. I like to be in the room with people I’m working with, the vibe is so important to the song.”

Must have made for a different experience, having to be careful when you’re used to being free in those scenarios…

“Recording was done all before lockdown and I was able to get the bones down with the musicians. It is weird. Of course, it is. But the vibe is still there and that transcends everything. The vibe of the songs was bigger than the Covid-19 guidelines.”

Would the album have come out sooner if it wasn’t for the pandemic?

“Oh yes. Much sooner. I think everything was just figuring out how to go about putting out an album in the midst of all this. I’ve had three tours cancelled now. In the end, I’ve just decided I want this album out. Normally it’d coincide with a big live plan, but I just want it out. The tour isn’t until next April now, but I can’t wait another year. I feel like we need new music. People are gasping for new music. The love I’ve felt from these latest singles has been more than for anything else I’ve ever done. That convinced me. I love this album, I want people to have it.”

You’ve talked in other interviews about it being an album with a lot of love. Is that something you were aware of during the writing or something you’ve only discovered after it was all done?

“That was definitely afterwards. In other interviews, they’ve been trying to make me nail down a theme. I don’t know. I love letting the song lead me. I’ve restricted myself in the past and I’ve made myself stick to a narrative and I don’t want to do that anymore. It kept coming up, so I thought about it, I was lying in bed going over the songs and it’s love, all kinds of love. Romantic love, lustful love, fighting for love, acceptance and opening yourself to love. There’s even a song written from the perspective of Mother Earth, written during the bushfires and laying waste to the Amazon. ‘Made To Love’ is from love’s own perspective. Now I know it’s the theme, I’m very happy about it, I just didn’t know it beforehand.”

If a song needs to lead you, does that mean you discard songs very quickly if they’re proving difficult?

“Not necessarily. I do during the writing process. I co-wrote with a few different people, mostly with Tim Bran and Davide Rossi, but also with Pedro Vito and Sebastian Sternberg. I’m a lyricist. I write lyrics and poems daily. I need people for the arrangement who can lead me somewhere I wouldn’t go myself. Every session they’d come along and play me things they’d been working on, then we’d take it on. That takes you in all kinds of different directions. You have to wait for something to move you, then my hand can’t keep up with my head. That’s in the writing, but if a song makes it through that and into recording, sometimes it’s tricky.”

Do you lose something?

“Something just doesn’t sit with it. That’s when you have to decide, is it worth working on or should I let you? If I know I’ve written a good song, I’ll stick with it, I’ll try and find a way. I won’t give up easily when you’ve got that far.”

Is there a track on the album that’s a particular example of that?

“‘Made To Love’, I almost let it go. I was happy with the song and what Tim and Davide had done. It moved me from the start and I came up with the lyrics and melody quite quickly. We had the bones of it down, but when it came to recording, something really didn’t gel. Everyone had done everything right, but it didn’t gel with me, it didn’t feel like it had enough rawness.”

How did you fix it?

“Everybody needs people who are very, very honest. People who will be straight with you. Bono is one of those people for me. I don’t talk to him a lot, but he’s there when I need him, especially if I’m really stuck. I told him what was happening and he said ‘Send to me and I’ll have a listen’. I asked him what he thought and if I should get rid of it? He said: “Absolutely not! Keep working on the chorus. You have something”. It was ‘Don’t Be Afraid To Love’ and he suggested flipping it and giving it a positive spin and he was right. It changed the song completely.”

It’s a messy, unpredictable process…

“It is, but it helps to have people who know what they’re doing and who’ll be straight with you. If you play it to family and friends, it’s difficult for them to disassociate from you personally. I just couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong. I’m so glad Bono told me to stick with it and keep going.”

He’s written a hit or two in his time…

“He knows his s**t for sure. Sometimes if you have a negative lyric with a positive chord sequence, if you flip that on its head and have a positive sequence with a negative sequence, it turns the song around. Gives it a new balance.”

When did you decide that 11 Past The Hour was the right title for the album?

“It had been in my head for a while. ‘Breathe’ was the first song I wrote for the album, I’d just met Tim and Davide, it was the first day we wrote together and that was what came out and I was so happy. And I kept seeing the number 11 everywhere. It was weird. I started looking up some things and it turns out it’s a call in lots of different cultures over time. It’s a call for intuition and awakening and it’s led me down this path that includes paganism and pre-Christian Ireland."

"I started to dig into my heritage and it went into astrology and numerology. In Ireland, there’s this place called Newgrange, it’s 2,000 years older than the pyramids, it’s 5,000 years old! You can go inside and put your fingers in the grooves that somebody chipped away at 5,000 years ago. People who were creating art that they knew would last, art that they knew they would never see the end of, leaving things for future generations."

"That was all because of seeing 11:11. I wanted to tell a story with that song. I wanted to write a song that tells people it’s okay to still feel like a child and want to be scooped up and comforted and told it’s all going to be okay. That’s the perspective I wanted. Somebody to tell you ‘Dance with me, darling, everything’s going to be fine’. And, if you look on the album cover, I got this perspex piece of artwork made, it’s beside me on the bed. The reflection reflects off the headboard of my bed and it says 11:11. No planning at all!”

Among some of the more mixed reviews, there were plenty that were positive. Really dug into the album. This is what Irish Times had to say when they sat down with 11 Past the Hour. An album that I would very much advise people to listen to when they get the time. One worth buying:

“The days of pigeonholing Imelda May as “the Irish rockabilly singer” are well and truly over. The Dubliner’s stylistic reinvention – kick-started with her 2017 album Life Love Flesh Blood – continues apace with her sixth album. Here, May sounds completely at ease with both the musician and the woman she has become, and that acceptance brings a soulfulness to songs such as Diamonds and swoonsome lullaby Solace.

Many of these songs address the intoxicating rush of new love. The seductive title track and Can’t Say nod to Dusty Springfield and Burt Bacharach’s songbook, respectively. Others take a more determinedly independent line, such as Different Kinds of Love and Made to Love, an anthem for acceptance.

In between, May mixes it up with some forthright contemporary pop-rock numbers. Just One Kiss, featuring Noel Gallagher on vocals and Ronnie Wood on guitar, is fine, thought a duet with Miles Kane on the brisk, seedy What We Did in the Dark sounds too out of step with the album’s tone.

Her collaboration with partner Niall McNamee on the lush Don’t Let Me Stand on My Own is altogether better, but the poppy stomp, dramatic strings and decisive air of menace on Never Look Back, the closing track, say it all: the old Imelda may not be completely gone, but this new era leaves no room for nostalgia”.

There are a couple of further reviews I want to spotlight, to argue the case for this brilliant album. If 11 Past the Hour passed you by the first time, then that is understandable. Released in April 2021, it was a very strange time. How willing people were to embrace music. In terms of buying it anyway. That is why I think that we need to re-investigate 11 Past the Hour. In their review, Hot Press found plenty to like when it came to Imelda May’s sixth studio album:

“11 Past The Hour marks Imelda May’s first new full-length album in over three years, and it offers fans much to unpack.

The opening title-track delivers a more accessible spin on the literary style of Tom Waits or Nick Cave, employing visceral poetry over a musical backdrop that harks further back, to the music of Jacques Brel. It moves seamlessly into ‘Breathe’, another vivid tune – replete with sweeping strings – that finds May showcasing her superb vocal chops.

After the smooth, sultry openers, ‘Made To Love’ marks a notable departure. Over an uptempo arrangement not dissimilar to an ABBA-style Eurovision banger, May takes on the persona of universal love, as she sings about love as the antithesis of prejudice. When we arrive at the bridge, which is reminiscent of Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’, May declares: “I’m every refugee, you see/ I’m every bum on every street/ I’m bi, I’m trans… I’m Africa, I’m Pakistan… I’m Irish, Palestinian...” There may be listeners who’ll see it as over-earnest, but May won’t care. With the help of activists Gina Martiin and Dr. Shola Ros-Shogbamimu on backing vocals, ‘Made To Love’ aims to both embrace and embody the inclusiveness that is – or should be – at the heart of the very idea of love.

The record picks up momentum again with ‘Don’t Let Me Stand On My Own’, a folk-tinged ballad drawing on May’s Irish roots. Another highlight is ‘Can’t Say’, which sees the singer’s husky voice at its most compelling. ‘Never Look Back’ bookends the record nicely, returning to the dark, creeping strings of the opening tracks.

In its big and generous heart, 11 Past The Hour is a fascinating, creative, and resonant offering from one of Ireland’s most renowned rock ‘n’ roll artists”.

I am going to wrap up with a review from AllMusic. It is clear that, from her fifth studio album, Life. Love. Flesh. Blood, there was this yearning (from May) for growth and change. An artist who was pushing her music to new places. This really comes through on 11 Past the Hour. It is an eclectic and arresting album with many highlight:

“Having transformed her sound with 2017's empowered Life. Love. Flesh. Blood, Ireland's Imelda May continues her bold artistic metamorphosis with her sixth studio album, 2021's 11 Past the Hour. At turns dusky and ebullient, 11 Past the Hour builds nicely upon May's past work as she continues to move away from the twangy retro-rockabilly of her early years and fully embrace the anthemic, yet still organic pop/rock she showcased on Life. Love. Flesh. Blood. Co-produced by Tim Bran (James Morrison, London Grammar), the album finds May joined by an elite cadre of special guests, all of whom add their distinctive pop charisma to the proceedings. Early in her career, May's vintage-inspired Chuck Berry-esque rock caught the ear of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, who then brought her on tour with him in 2019. Here, Wood continues the goodwill, applying his crunchy electric guitar riffs to several tracks, including "Just One Kiss," a very Stonesy duet with another special guest, Oasis' Noel Gallagher. Wood also plays on "Made to Love" a soulful pop anthem featuring backing vocals by noted women's rights activists Gina Martin and Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu. That May, who has worked on charities dealing with homelessness and domestic abuse, chooses to spotlight two nonprofessional singers with strong activist voices speaks to the deeper messages at play in her work here. Equally uplifting is "Don't Let Me Stand on My Own," a folky and soulful Celtic duet with singer Niall McNamee that brings to mind Rod Stewart's '70s work with the Faces. May also brings along Last Shadow Puppets' Miles Kane for the wicked, Berlin-esque post-punk anthem "What We Did in the Dark." Thankfully, none of the guest choices seem overly calculated and primarily feel like natural additions to the album. Furthermore, while the duets are a highlight, May's solo work also shines here as she delves into the Johnnie Ray-meets-Portishead-sounding title track and proves her diva mettle on the rousing piano ballad "Diamonds." With 11 Past the Hour, May has crafted a generous, collaborative album that feels like she's lifting others up, just as they are lifting her”.

On 10th July, Imelda May turns fifty. I was thinking of celebrating that with a playlist. Mixing together her best album tracks. Instead, I wanted to focus on album of hers that did not get the love and true respect it deserves. Her latest, 11 Past the Hour, is well worth seeking out. I am not sure whether Imelda May has another album coming soon. Let’s hope so. This amazing artist is someone…

YOU should better acquaint yourself with.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Always on My Mind: Neil Tennant at Seventy

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Always on My Mind: Neil Tennant at Seventy

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ONE of music’s true legends…

IN THIS PHOTO: Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant in 1987/PHOTO CREDIT: Cindy Palmano

turns seventy on 10th July. One half of Pet Shop Boys, I wanted to salute the magnificent Neil Tennant. I am keen to get to a playlist of incredible Pet Shop Boys hits and deep cuts. There are interviews with Pet Shop Boys from this year such as this and this. The duo (Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe) released Nonetheless in April. One of their best albums to date, it is their fifteenth studio album. It shows the consistency and brilliance of the duo. Here is some brief biography about Neil Tennant:

“Neil Tennant is a British singer and songwriter most famous for being part of the synthpop duo the Pet Shop Boys. Born in Newcastle in 1954, he moved to London in the 1970s to study and soon became part of the popular music world through music journalism. In 1981 he formed the Pet Shop Boys with Chris Lowe. They topped the charts with their re-released debut song "West End Girls" in numerous countries in 1985-6. Since then, they have released 65 singles, 14 studio albums and 3 soundtracks. Tennant has also done solo and other collaborative projects. In 1994 he came out as gay in Attitude magazine and has advocated on behalf of gay rights. He is patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation”.

It is a shame there is not more in-depth biography about Neil Tennant. Considering he is such an iconic and beloved songwriter and lead, there will be more written about him as he approaches his seventieth anniversary. Whether you are a Pet Shop Boys fan or not, there are scores of songs in their catalogue impossible to ignore. From West End Girls to It’s a Sin, they have created some classics! I hope that the mixtape reveals some depths to the duo. You will get a lot of the classics, together with some deeper cuts. Alongside Chris Lowe, Neil Tennant has been responsible for some of the most memorable songs of all time. It is a collection of incredible gems from…

THE amazing Pet Shop Boys.

FEATURE: Army Dreamers: Revisiting the Thought of Two Different Kate Bush Projects

FEATURE:

 

 

Army Dreamers

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

Revisiting the Thought of Two Different Kate Bush Projects

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I have written about…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985

two different and distinct Kate Bush projects. Well, not ‘projects’ as such. Albums that would be welcomed. I am not sure whether we will get a new Kate Bush album anytime soon – or at all. It is always a risk and guessing game. I know that people bemoan the reissuing of her albums. She has done this a couple of times in the past five or six years. It is great that fans have access to her work. There is a desperation for something new from. I have stated how it would be great to have a DVD for Before the Dawn. The tenth anniversary of the start of the residency happens in August. I think a new documentary would be good. I do feel that there are two possibilities that fans would welcome. The first relates to a greatest hits or new collection. It would not be like reissuing albums. There has been a reissue of her rarities and B-sides. Rather than this being another retread, it would be a perfect chance and time for some of her best tracks, alongside a few unreleased or less-known numbers to sit alongside one another. We have not had a greatest hits collection since 1986. In terms of introducing new fans and pleasing existing ones, I do think that an album dedicated solely to her work is overdue. It would have its own title. The reason I bring this up is because the increased interest in Kate Bush’s music. It would not be an expansive album. Maybe a double vinyl and a version available on cassette and C.D., this would provide entry point for new fans. A chance to go beyond the big hits. Some would push back and say that this would be a bit too much. Considering the album reissues. Right now, we have so many people paying their respect to an artist who is still very much in the mix. Many might not be able to afford all the studio albums. Price is a factor. Re-releasing the same thing is not going to win everyone over. I don’t think we will see her studio albums get reintroduced and repackaged. I feel that a new album is a gamble. We can never say for sure either way.

I like the thought of this new greatest hits. Maybe a collection. Maybe it would offer little to those who have the albums and know her work. Even so, there could be this big market among those coming to Kate Bush fresh. Perhaps the song choices would be contentious. How would you limit it down?! I don’t feel it would be exploiting fans. Instead, so much has happened since The Whole Story came out in 1986. This is a new era for Kate Bush. A new generation have come on board. I still think there is a problem with younger listeners streaming Kate Bush rather than buying her music. Maybe they naturally go for Hounds of Love when thinking of a studio album. Sure, they could get a taster of her other studio albums from streaming sites. I do think that an anthology or slimmer greater hits collection would prove popular. Perhaps the last time there would be some retrospection. Clearing the path for new work. Or maybe a full stop to Kate Bush bringing out her music. That would be a sad thing. You know how many artists love Kate Bush. Are influenced by her. As I have written before, everyone from legends and music icons like St. Vincent and Björk take inspiration from her. Newer artists coming through such as The Last Dinner Party definitely have shades of Kate Bush. I know I am repeating myself to an extent. Great acts like The Anchoress are fans of Kate Bush. If you think far and wide, there is a wealth and world of artists who look up to her. I am heading ever closer to a documentary and getting them all together!

That is a feature and thought that I will explore later on. I do still believe there is a new documentary possibility. One where we do not need to see Kate Bush appear in. In terms of tribute albums, now more than ever seems like a  time to discuss it. It has not happened before. Uniting major artists and newcomers, maybe with poetry or spoken word, there is an album idea. One that would surely not find objection in the Kate Bush household. She knows how many artists are influenced by her. There have been minor collections of Kate Bush songs covered by other artists. Nothing especially memorable or authoritative. There was this wave of Running Up This Hill (A Deal with God) covers following its inclusion in Stranger Things and chart success. Ranging from the slightly good to the abysmal, I do think there is opportunity for a genuine reimagining of the song. Think of bigger tracks of hers that could be covered by an artist you would not expect to sing it. The most appealing reason to consider a tribute album is those lesser songs. The deeper cuts. Together with an anthology or greatest hits albums, an opportunity to bring perhaps a couple of dozen musical Kate Bush fans – and, you know, maybe others who could recite her songs or are not necessarily artists – together would be amazing. I am not sure what you would call it. DO NOT call it This Woman’s Work! Or Running Up That Hill. There are more interesting and original naming opportunities! Many might say that this could not happen because Kate Bush would not allow it. For a start, she would not have to. People can cover her songs and I don’t think that EMI or Fish People would necessarily need to give sign off. If there was a stricter route where Kate Bush would need to sign off, I think that she would not object. Touched by so many artists covering her work. There have been plenty of Kate Bush covers through the years. She is not that strict when it comes to allowing people to interpret her work. Maybe recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios. Amazing possibilities and combinations spring to mind!

There is a lot to be said for both ideas. In terms of drawing together existing work into a collection or single album, it is a step away from the studio albums purely. A chance to collect together single releases but also some different and deeper songs. At a time when so many major artists reissue their studio albums so shortly after they first come out, nobody could begrudge a Kate Bush greatest hits collection. I think that the collections that have come out – The Whole Story in 1986; This Woman's Work: Anthology 1978–1990 in 1990; The Other Sides in 2019 – are perfectly fine. There is room and justification to have something new in the world. A beautiful thing that could be kept by fans for so many years. I know it is not the same as a new album. I fear so many people are missing out on her work. Its full extent. Perhaps not a greatest hits, then: more a deeper dive from 1978 (her debut, The Kick Inside) to 2011 (her latest studio album, 50 Words for Snow). In terms of a tribute album. It does not signal an end of her career or some grizzly eulogy. It is also not opportunistic. It is a beautiful way of combining artists one might love to see collaborate with Kate Bush but may never. Those who have but have not tackled one of her songs. A fascinating glimpse into some of her beloved songs and some that people might not know. Who knows, seeing this love and demand for her music might well compel Kate Bush to at least think of the possibility of gifting the world with new music in the future. I can understand people’s reticence with what they might see as reworking old work or slightly repackaging it. I definitely don’t see that. Definitely when it comes to a tribute album. Instead, as there are magazine articles and books published about her, there is room and many valid reasons why we should have an anthology/greatest hits and a tribute album. When it comes to the amazing and hugely influential Kate Bush, we can never be done celebrating…

THIS woman’s work (bugger!).

FEATURE: Cosmic Love: Florence + The Machine’s Lungs at Fifteen

FEATURE:

 

 

Cosmic Love

Florence + The Machine’s Lungs at Fifteen

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A hugely impressive and important…

PHOTO CREDIT: Immo Klink

debut album turns fifteen on 3rd July. Fronted by Florence Welch, Florence + The Machine featured, in 2009, Christopher Lloyd Hayden, Isabella Summers, Rob Ackroyd and Tom Monger. Lungs is the amazing and epic debut from the group. Recorded across several studios – including The Smokehouse in London -, it featured incredible singles like Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), Dog Days Are Over and Kiss with a Fist. Even though I really like all of Florence + The Machine’s five studio albums, I think that Lungs is still the best. Exhilarating, urgent but also full of layers and nuance. I wanted to mark the fifteenth anniversary of one of the most essential and important debut albums of this century. Lungs features production from James Ford, Paul Epworth, Stephen Mackey, Eg White and Charlie Hugall, with additional production by Isabella Summers. Lungs has been reissued several times: an expanded version, Between Two Lungs (2010), a digital E.P. subtitled The B-Sides (2011), and a Tenth Anniversary Edition (2019). I am going to get to features and reviews for Lungs. There are not that many press interviews with Florence Welch from 2009. I found one, from DMY, that I want to start out with:

“Momentum has been building in earnest since the start of the year, with the debut album ‘Lungs’ hitting number two when it was released back in June. This summer’s slew of festival dates and a recent Mercury Music Prize nomination suggests the pace looks set to continue.

Despite the critical acclaim however, spend a few minutes with Florence and her music and you’ll find that she’s an odd candidate for mainstream approbation. Underneath the glossy production, ‘Lungs’ is full of witchy-woman weirdness and demented gothic fantasies: there’s something wonderfully vivid and violent about the noise she makes, most evident in the gleeful savagery of “Kiss With A Fist” and “Girl With One Eye”. She’s far more willowy and slight in the flesh than one would imagine, even having seen her on stage, and it’s hard to equate the soulful bellow with the porcelain girl perched on the sofa.

We get off to a guarded start – she seems a little aloof and polished, with a whiff of media-training, but she brightens up as the interview moves from small talk to art and angst. Once the conversation flows, she reveals an enthusiastic and scattershot brain, her mind wandering mid-sentence, gesticulating at random as she jumps from top to topic. By the time we’ve finished she’s bursting into spontaneous song sprawled on the pub floor. Her exuberance is infectious, and, as she leaves the room, I get the feeling that, at her very core, Florence cannot help but make music.

I know this sounds obvious, but I want to talk to you about the music. I think there is a really epic quality to the album…

Yeah, I think that’s a good word to use!

It’s not trivial kitchen sink observations, it seems to be far grander…

Y’know what, I think I have always had trouble writing – I can’t even write a diary – I’ve always found it hard to document real life. I try to remember things by items of clothing or strange things that happen. I think it comes from reading a lot – reading a lot of poetry and being interested in language and phrasing and things like that. I think I wanted to make things that wouldn’t stick out as a point in time, d’you know what I mean? Something that was more all-encompassing, more trying to create a landscape or feeling, or a nightmare that someone could walk through.

Something that would stand the test of time?

Yeah I think so. I wanted to make something that was classic rather than of the moment.

Self-doubt is obviously universal, but the violent imagery is something that’s often associated with male artists – like Nick Cave or Tom Waits. Are you conscious of being a ‘female singer’ at all?

Well, I think that throughout history there has been something really intoxicating about female performers. I know from having watched and being really inspired by them. I think it’s that mix of being really powerful and very vulnerable which is I think something that women can convey perhaps better, or perhaps it comes across better in women because we’re more emotional creatures. But that strength and fragility in one package, which I think is wonderful. I mean, going all the way back to Ma Rainey and early blues singers, I think people have always been interested in female singers.

Are there particular female singers that you’ve been inspired by?

Well, vocally Etta James and Eva Cassidy. I think Alice Glass from Crystal Castles, like, her performances just blow me away! It’s like this tiny little creature with such demonic presence. She’s completely mesmerising; terrifying and wonderful. I really though she was incredible. She seems like this really strong female presence and again it’s like that masculine and feminine conflict – taking yourself apart. The thing is a lot of my performance comes from watching male artists and like punk bands; that sense of domination, of controlling the stage and it being your domain. So it’s a real mix. It’s like an internal battle onstage, an exorcism thing.

These are obviously your musical influences, but on a wider artistic scale, where do you draw inspiration from?

I think it’s things that are beautiful and sad. Like the model for Millais’ Ophelia – what was her name? She died of pneumonia from modelling in the bathtub. [PR, helpfully: “Lizzie Siddal”] Lizzie Siddal! Thank you! I’ve been trying to remember that for as long as I have been talking about her. It’s a really great back-story to that – she was like a muse for a lot of the pre-Raphaelites and they were all really into lithium, and she was doped up in the bath and the candle went out and she didn’t want to move because he was so into his painting, and she got pneumonia and died. And it’s just that sense of beauty and sadness behind everything.

If you were trying to describe the feel of your music to someone who couldn’t hear it, is there a particular painting or image that you could point them towards that best describes the atmosphere you’re trying to create?

Oh… um…[pauses for thought] probably a mix of that woman who did the Exploding Shed , Millais’ Ophelia and that Jenny Holzer painting. Have you ever seen that one where it’s like “Don’t talk down to me. Don’t try to be nice to me. Don’t…”

Yeah, I know the one.

It’s just a bright pink painting – I’ve got a postcard of it – but it’s just so amazingly aggressive. It’s great!

Is there a particular track on the album that you’re most proud of?

I think probably “Cosmic Love” is my favourite. I think that one feels like it just happened so naturally out of half an hour. I wasn’t even thinking about it. I mean it didn’t even exist before that half an hour; none of it existed. Not on the piano, or going round in my head. It just suddenly appeared and it was perfect. Well, I thought it was perfect. At first I thought it was a bit too romantic even; but it’s not that romantic, it’s quite dark. But yeah, that’s my favourite one.

Are you working on anything new at the moment, or are you still just processing the album?

I’ve sort of started. I’ve written some other stuff. I’m just looking forward to getting back in the studio. I feel like this album’s out there, it’s doing its job and I’m getting to play it, which is really fun. But there’s this ‘dissatisfaction with self’ – “must create” – “I’m unsatisfied, I must make something, I must verify myself!” I feel like every time I come on stage those two sides of myself get put back together and it all makes sense. For a minute.

Can you be creative on demand? Do you think, “right I’m going to sit down and write an album over the next three months”, or is it a continuous process?

I think sometimes in my life I was most creative when I was doing other stuff, y’know, when I had a job, and went to Art College. It’s quite good to have it as a sideline I think. I might go and get a job! You get inspired by daily life more. This [the attendant PR and make-up artist and the back-to-back interviews she has already done this morning] can be a circus…

I imagine the process can be a bit too cerebral otherwise…

Yeah. It’s like, hmm, inspiration…[twiddles her thumbs]

Our photographer, Mikael, then proceeds to lie her on the carpet, where she looks suitably dead and tragic, and we continue the interview with intermittent breaks to accommodate Mikael’s directions and Florence’s spontaneous outbursts of song.

Mikael: Has anyone every told you that you look like Kate Bush?

[lying on her back] A couple of times, yeah.

Me: Do you get annoyed by comparisons to other people?

No. I mean, I think it’s just a way for people to understand it, and determinate if you like this you might like that… Thing is, my voice isn’t anything like Kate Bush’s. I think it’s the… well, she uses a lot of drums.

Perhaps it’s the persona. She’s got this whole – I hate to use the word – kooky thing going on…

Ah, the [mock American accent] ‘K word’… I’ll be like serious one day and not serious the next and everyone’s the same. Some days you’ll be tired and some days you’ll be… no-one’s ever one thing all the time, so it’s strange to be put into one persona.

Following a break in which she and Mikael compare tattoos, Florence is now posing for photos in front of a mirror on the wall

You said you couldn’t play any instruments when you first started out. Was it frustrating trying to communicate what you wanted to your band?

Well, I think because I can sing, it wasn’t frustrating. Making music was more like improvising, so it was such a rush when I found something that worked. So it was all about the feeling, and I think that comes across in the music. You can hear this absolute joy at being able to make sound. And building things out of my own ideas of what a song should be like was exciting. It was like building and experiments, y’know? With rhythms and chords. That’s why everything’s like “bang, bang. Stop, start.” It’s because I have no skill, I just have [theatrical whisper] enthusiasm!

So you try to convey your enthusiasm to the band and they interpret it?

Well yeah, but it’s kind of hard because you tell a really skilled drummer “well, you know, I want you to play the drums worse. Play it more like I play it!”. And then there’s no guitar on the album, so my guitarist has to make all these pedals to play like cello, or make a big weird electronic noise. But yeah, I think they understand it. They understand the passion…”.

I will move to an anniversary feature from Albumism. In 2019, they marked ten years of Lungs. I know there was some division among the press regarding Florence + The Machine. Many heralded them and Lungs, whereas others were a little less kind. Many writing them off. Lungs is still powerful fifteen years later. Even deeper cuts like Girl with One Eye and My Boy Builds Coffins are fascinating and should be played more:

“Debut albums can be incredibly tricky things to navigate. On one hand, you have the freedom to completely be yourself and deliver something that is true to you. There are no proverbial chains restricting your process or tying you to your past. Your voice, should you have discovered its purpose at this early stage of the game, is completely yours to own and to do with what you want. If your newfound audience love it, then you have succeeded in gaining more than you previously had.

On the other hand, if for some reason they don’t take to what you are offering, then that will not only be your debut album, but it may also prove to be your final LP. The price of this untrodden path, it would seem, is somewhat unattainable, and just may be a one-off musical experience.

Luckily for us, Florence + The Machine were able to bless the world with their debut album Lungs—a thirteen-track affair (with eleven of the tracks co-written by Florence Welch herself) that delves into everything from rock, soul and a whole lot of indie pop. And whilst Welch is in a unique league of her own vocally, it would be hard not to draw inspiration, comparison if you must, from those that came before her, part Kate Bush, part Annie Lennox, and yet utterly Florence Welch. Not bad work for a then-fledgling singer-songwriter who at the time, was all of just 22 years of age.

The lead single “Kiss With A Fist” created some controversy at the time with the lyrics speaking to what appears to be domestic violence. Coupled with the somber tone of the lyrics, and a slightly aggressive sound deeply rooted in garage rock and elements of punk pop, Welch explained that the song was indeed not about domestic violence, but rather the strength and force that love can sometimes find two people engrossed in. The psychological aspect over the physical, a binding of emotions that firmly sits in fantasy, not reality. Whilst the song was a solid first single, both lyrically and musically, it failed to chart well.

Following in the footsteps of “Kiss With A Fist” was the second single “Dog Days Are Over,” a beautiful track that draws on the richness of indie pop, blues and even folk, which in turn, allows the vocal prowess and beauty of Welch’s voice to be placed on full display. The unexpected explosion of notes and sounds throughout the song also paved the way for a sound that would soon be firmly associated with the band. This single was the first time that the audience got to truly hear the ethereal, almost whimsical component to Welch’s voice, two qualities that would also stand in contradiction with her tone, a commanding force in its own right.

Upon closer listen to the album’s third single “Rabbit Heart (Praise it Up),” it is impossible to ignore the multi-layering of Welch’s vocals, giving the effect of a mass choir rolled into one hauntingly beautiful voice. Although the lyrics are shrouded in darkness (“This is a gift / it comes with a price / Who is the lamb / and who is the knife?”, it is again the contradiction of these lyrics, which are steeped in fear and coupled with an uptempo sound, that managed to prime the way for the band’s first bit of solid chart success, reaching # 12 in the UK charts.

Florence + The Machine were a welcome, if not slightly frenetic, change from the tabloid fodder that was engulfing fellow Brits like Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse at the time. Whilst both singers were delivering profound work even with all the turmoil that fame and the like was bestowing upon them, it was Florence Welch, the self-proclaimed geek with red hair and porcelain white skin, that was forging a path for a type of voice that had not been heard in quite some time. Hers is a voice that seems to call upon the past and yet is entirely entrenched in the present.

This maturity in her voice was never more evident than on the songs “Drumming Song” and the cover of Candi Staton’s “You’ve Got The Love,” both also released as singles from the album. With “Drumming Song,” a love song that swims in the awkwardness that love sometimes makes us feel, Welch conveys an intensity and desire that belied her two decades on this earth. “You’ve Got the Love,” a song of empowerment, again allows the then-novice Welch another opportunity to bring her voice and vulnerability to a well-loved, timeless classic, something that she does to perfection.

Given that nearly half the songs on the album were released as singles, it would be criminal to ignore the beauty and complexity of songs like “I’m Not Calling You A Liar,” “Cosmic Love” and the loss of love which “Hurricane Drunk” so painfully demonstrates. It is incredibly hard to imagine that someone so young was able to write about so much loss; loss of love, loss of one’s self, and yet still convey a type of positivity. The loss is temporary, but the love is for a lifetime, or so we are somehow led to believe if we look and listen a little deeper.

At first glance, it could have been easy to dismiss Lungs as yet another British band delivering the stock standard indie pop of the time, along with splashes of rock and punk wrapped up in a neatly produced album. In some ways, that isn’t such a far-fetched idea. With a production team that consisted of accomplished soundsmiths like Paul Epworth (Bloc Party), James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco, Arctic Monkeys), Stephen Mackey (Pulp) and Charlie Hugall (Halsey, Ed Sheeran) who also offered writing support, Lungs ensured that the group became something far greater than just another one-hit wonder. Both Ford and Mackey also brought invaluable experience as band members, giving way for both the technical and artistic perspectives to meet, creating an organic approach which guaranteed that this album was only going to ever be considered nothing short of superb”.

I am going to end with a few reviews for the spectacular Lungs. The first is from DIY. They stated how, with so much hype surrounding Florence + The Machine leading up to Lungs, that it could have been a disappointment. Critics were very much forced to eat their words and sneers when the album did come out:

“After the sheer amount of hype (including a Brit Award!) that Florence and the Machine has been receiving for the past six months or so we were convinced that debut album ‘Lungs’ stood not a cat in hells chance of living up to it. We were spectacularly wrong. ‘Lungs’ is an extraordinary contemporary pop triumph. A fresh, new, individual and exciting record. It makes us tempted to put money on the Mercury already.

Overall ‘Lungs’ is best described as transcending. It blends its creators influences of everything from classic pop (Kate Bush is often cited as a predecessor) to gospel music, and if the closing ‘bonus’ track (a cover of ‘You’ve Got The Love’) is to be believed, dance music. Forthcoming single ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’, with it’s gentle yet striking harp parts sounds exotic whereas the already ubiquitous ‘Kiss With A Fist’ is a rocky blues number like Jack White used to write before he started messing around with bagpipes. There’s many touchstones here (fans of Guillemots ‘Through The Windowpane’ will probably enjoy this for it’s orchestral splendour) but overall there’s nothing that this album sounds exactly like, as is its beauty.

Overall it’s hard to pick out highlights from this album as it works so well as a whole. At the same time it’s not impenetrable and there’s plenty that could and has worked as a single. ‘Dog Days Are Over’ is a fantastic example of this. It opens the record, yet as a stand-alone single is a triumph in itself. ‘My Boy Builds Coffins’ due to it’s subject matter should come off as some deliberate attempt at quirky, but as it’s delivered with such gusto it’s captivating. This brings us to our favourite song here, ‘Howl’. Only four seconds over what is traditionally considered to be the perfect length of a pop song it’s stunning in its depth and builds spectacularly to a euphoric climax.

Not helped by the fact that the album is called ‘Lungs’, more has been made of Florence Welch’s voice than any other aspect of the music. And yes, her voice is stunning but if this were to be the only attraction to the music then this would not be the record that it is. Her cast of supporting musicians, The Machine that is, all pull more than the weight of mere session players. A solo artist Florence may be, but there’s some great musicianship on display here and it more than compliments the delicate, yet powerful arrangements.

‘Lungs’ isn’t a record for everyone, it needs to be said. Those who favour a more stripped down, or ‘lo-fi’ approach will more than likely baulk at the shiny epic-ness of this. It’s understandable, but this is their loss. We’re sure that Florence and the Machine will live up to the expectations thrust upon them, and with this only being the debut album there’s still time for Ms Welch to get even better”.

There are a couple more reviews worth bringing in. The BBC had their say on a magnificent album. Even though Lungs missed out on a Mercury Prize in 2009 - Speech Debelle’s Speech Therapy won that year -, the critical acclaim and success it acquired – reaching number one on the U.K. album chart – means that it was this ground-shaking debut from the group. Led by the phenomenon that is Florence Welch, Lungs still has plenty of life and wonder fifteen years later:

“Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock since the beginning of the year, you’ll be aware of Florence and the Machine. Before even releasing an album, the first lady and her revolving band have been championed by BBC Introducing, invited to play Glastonbury and support Blur at Hyde Park, and won the Critic's Choice Award at this year’s BRITs. Now they're being tipped for Mercury Prize glory. How can an album possibly live up to the pressure of all that expectation? I don't quite know… but it does by the gallon.

Florence Welch's distinctive voice intertwines beautifully with harps, strings and drums as she sings her inimitable 'soul inspired indie' and 'Tim Burton-style fairytales'. The gothic pop of Lungs has been excellently produced by a crack team - Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Jack Penate, Maximo Park), James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons, Last Shadow Puppets) and Steve Mackey (Pulp, M.I.A.).

There's so much brilliant stuff it's difficult to know where to begin. The soaring crescendo of new single Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), the achingly beautiful Howl and a breathtaking cover of The Source classic You Got The Love. Drumming is a fabulous nail-on-the-head song about what it feels like to be in love.

There are touches of Mama Cass on happy clappy debut single Dogs Days Are Over and at the other end of the energy scale, the twinkly loveliness of Hurricane Drunk. The low points are few – perhaps that I'm Not Calling You A Liar falls a bit flat between choruses, and the lyrics to Girl With One Eye are closer to disturbing than kooky. But mostly it's sheer gleeful bliss listening to Lungs.

Florence says music is, ''at best a kind of magic that lifts you up and takes you somewhere else''. With vocals building from breathy almost-nothings to soaring, arching crescendos and the accompanying harps, strings, hopes and dreams, this album takes you somewhere you'll never want to come back from. When news gets out that she writes her best stuff, ''when drunk or hungover'', Florence's transition from unknown to British classic will be complete”.

The final review I want to spotlight is from SLANT. They were full of praise for a debut album from a group like nothing on the scene in 2009. I remember when Lungs came out. I was blown away by it. I was familiar with Florence + The Machine, though I was not quite prepared for the scope and power of Lungs:

“Amid the ecstasies of praise for her songwriting, one of the less generous comments made this year about Florence Welch, frontwoman of Florence and the Machine, was journalist Miranda Sawyer’s description of her as “big-boned.” It was a surprisingly revealing inaccuracy. Although in fact physically slight, Florence—with her pre-Raphaelite tumble of russet hair and strong jaw—is a dramatic beauty given an illusory voluptuousness by the gossamer folds of her stage costumes. She has a powerful voice (a chorister’s range perverted by gothic cadences) and a feverish stage presence, dangling from lighting rigs and intermittently launching herself into the audience at her shows. She might be svelte, but in her music Florence certainly gives a full-bodied performance.

The opening number of the band’s Lungs, “Dog Days Are Over,” begins yearningly: Harp strings gently buffet Florence’s fluttery vocals as she describes how “happiness hit her like a train on a track/Coming towards her, stuck still, no turning back” before a swell of drum beats and handclaps lift the song to its exultant chorus. Florence urgently proclaims, “Leave all your love and your longing behind/You can’t carry it with you if you want to survive,” and for an exquisite moment it feels as though any heartbreak could be so easily surmounted. Inevitably, the momentum of the album slows after the impassioned rush of such an opener, but it remains a compellingly eccentric work. “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up),” for instance, is a swirling coloratura about ritual sacrifice, and when Florence, her voice somewhere between terror and junked-up rapture, sings, “This is a gift, it comes with a price/Who is the lamb and who is the knife?,” she gives the scenario a frightening beauty.

Despite the album’s morbid overtones (“Girl with One Eye” reaches a new extreme in schoolgirl viciousness) Florence and the Machine is a less somber outfit than Bat for Lashes, with whom Florence is frequently compared. If Bat’s Natasha Khan prefers to go on a spooky midnight ramble to decide a boyfriend’s fate, Florence is more apt to sock him one: “Kiss with a Fist” is a wildly impolitic ditty about mutual domestic violence (“A kick in the teeth is good for some/A kiss with a fist is better than none”). It doesn’t quite work. Although there’s something slightly churlish in unfavorably comparing a finished song with its demo, “Kiss” worked considerably better in draft form, the roughness which made it seem like gutsy slapstick, rather than simple provocation, somewhat lost in the finessed album version.

Florence’s music is particularly sensitive to studio gloss; her singing is a fine balance between elegance and frenzy. Indeed, with a voice that is both soaring and ragged, Florence is perhaps offering tribute to her respiratory system in the album’s title. But if her lungs let her hold those high notes (or even better, as on “Between Two Lungs,” enable a first intimate moment between two lovers), Florence’s body also rankles in its ability to betray her feelings.

On the fittingly titled “Drumming Song,” Florence’s pounding head and heart in the presence of an ex reaches an audible volume, the dissonance amplifying until it becomes her puppeteer: “I swallow the sound and it swallows me whole.” While she can command her swooping vocals, her body rebels, wracked by fear, grief, and desire. She is made bestial by a relationship’s decay in “Howl,” her transformation a lycanthropic fantasy possibly too overtly sensual and bloodthirsty to find favor with Stephenie Meyer devotees, not least when she promises to “drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart.” Only when she gets utterly soused on “Hurricane Drunk” does the free-fall from control seem pleasurable. Catching sight of her lover with another girl, she’s now sufficiently unmoored from her feelings to be wry about her heartache: “I brace myself, ‘cause I know it’s gonna hurt/But I like to think at least things can’t get any worse.”

Appropriately for a collection of songs where uncontrollable emotion develops into a kind of dyspraxia, the album stumbles in places. However earnest the attempt, Candi Staton’s “You Got the Love” surely doesn’t need any more reinterpretations, even if Florence cutely reintroduces good grammar into the title by changing “You” to “You’ve.” As that small gesture implies, Florence is still punctilious even when life beats her down; when it raises her up, she is magical”.

 On 3rd July, the immense Lungs turns fifteen. I hope that more people write about it. Certified six-times platinum, it was a remarkable success. Introducing the world to this exceptional group, Lungs was much more than its six singles. It is a complete and compelling album where every track hits. If you have not heard Lungs for a while, then go and do so now. It is a pleasure writing about it ahead of…

ITS fifteenth anniversary.

FEATURE: Groovelines: London Grammar – Wasting My Young Years

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

 

London Grammar – Wasting My Young Years

_________

I am thinking about London Grammar…

as their third studio album, The Greatest Love, is out soon. It comes eleven years after their remarkable debut album, If You Wait (2013). You can order The Greatest Love here or here. We have to wait until 13th September to get that album. A lot has changed in the past few years for Hannah Reid, Dan Rothman and Dominic ‘Dot’ Major. Reid has become a mother. The group’s inspirations have changed and expanded. I wonder how Hannah Reid feels about the trio’s greatest song – in my mind anyway. A song that deals with maybe some misspent youth and regrets, she is now a bit older and wiser. A new addition to her family. Their second single, Wasting My Young Years, followed Metal & Dust. Released in June 2013, Wasting My Young Years peaked at thirty-one in the U.K. It is an impressive chart position, though it was worthy of so much more. That debut album, If You Wait, was acclaimed. I don’t think that we had really heard anything quite like London Grammar. I am surprised that the album was not shortlisted for a Mercury Prize in 2014 - as it could have been in with a shot of winning. The songwriting throughout is incredible. Even though each of the trio has their strengths, it is depth and power of Hannah’s Reid’s vocals that really make every song go deep. Her lyrics too. On that 2013 debut, we get such maturity and impact from her words. Her stunning vocal range is something to behold! Perhaps the finest and purest distillation of her vocal wonder is on Wasting My Young Years. I think more people should talk about this song. As London Grammar have a new album coming along, I wanted to go back over eleven years to a very important time. A single that got a lot of praise. I am going to bring in a couple of reviews.

I would love for there more to be out there about Wasting My Young Years. Such is the potency of the song. How affecting it is. Testament to Hannah Reid’s songwriting – Wasting My Young Years, Interlude (live) and If You Wait are the other solo-written tracks on If You Wait -, I would love to see London Grammar live to see how this song sounds now. They have performed it live this year. The relationship with the track has shifted. The trio have grown and changed. Across the Ocean had their say on the song back in 2014:

“Cinematic in scope, ‘Wasting My Young Years’ serves a worthy successor to their breakthrough smash hit ‘Strong’ – a track now boasting in excess of 7 million views on YouTube.

Since receiving its first play on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show, ‘Wasting My Young Years’ has garnered strong support at UK radio not to mention more than 8 million plays online.

The track is taken from London Grammar’s #2 ARIA Chart debut album If You Wait – a release that saw the band awarded iTunes UK Album Of The Year and nominated for Best Breakthrough Artist at this year’s Brit Awards, as well as most recently taking home the converted Best Song Musically and Lyrically award for ‘Strong‘ at the Ivor Novello awards.

Their first trip to Australian shores culminated in a host of rave reviews from three SOLD OUT headline shows, whilst in the country for The Falls & Southbound Festivals; landing not one, but three coveted spots in triple j’s inaugural Hottest 100, including a Top 10 placing with ‘Strong’”.

I am going to wrap up soon. I remember when Wasting My Young Years came out. I was thirty at the time. It was quite an eye-opening song. I could relate to many of the lyrics. Hannah Reid was only twenty-two when the song was released. There is this mantra-like quality to the lyrics. Certain lines and phrases reiterated and repeated. My favourite section is: “Don't you know that it's only fear/I wouldn't worry, you have all your life/I've heard it takes some time to get it right/I'm wasting my young years/It doesn't matter if/I'm chasing old ideas/It doesn't matter…”. It can be interpreted as Hannah Reid being more general or oblique. You get the feeling that she is discussing maybe a slow start to a music career. Spending time not perusing her dreams or making some errors when it came to priorities. In September 2013, The Guardian interviewed London Grammar. There was a bit of context and explanation around Wasting My Young Years:

“The band met while at Nottingham University, where Reid and guitarist Dan Rothman drafted in Dot Major from the year below to add percussion (at their first gig as a three-piece, this involved him playing the djembe) to their sound. After just a handful of shows, they were signed to Ministry. The label, best known for its rave compilations, seems an unlikely fit but, says Reid, "the fact they were independent gave us a chance to go away, work on the songs and wait until we were ready."

The song that got them noticed – Wasting My Young Years – is a chilling look at the despondency of youth. Reid says it was written after a breakup and is about the pain of investing time in someone who squanders it. But at a time when young people feel entirely at sea – unable to find work or afford rents, forced back into their childhood homes – the song takes on a generational eeriness.

"I have a lot of friends now who are really lost," says Reid. "We got to go to university and have a good education, but we're finding ourselves in a position where it's impossible to get jobs, and we're terrified. So many people I know don't know what to do with their lives."

Though written mostly from experiences in Reid's personal life, If You Wait speaks to inauspicious beginnings of adulthood. It is often said that there are no angry young bands any more, but demoralisation rarely manifests itself in rage. In your 20s, anger gets taken out on your relationships and your self-esteem. This is a record that whispers with the pain of "a life that is cold" and being left "to the wayside, like you do". Perhaps it is the first quarter-life-crisis album.

For a group of middle-class kids such as these, finishing university and trying to make it as a pop band is a risky endeavour that almost always ends in failure and puts you years behind your peers. But the irony is, that London Grammar are neither the middle-of-the-road group they appear to be nor in the precarious state of youth they describe.

When most university graduates are staring into the unknown, being in this band might just have been the smartest move these three young people could have made. This is not just a record that speaks to mid-20s despondency, it offers a way out of it”.

I want to bring in a final review/feature about Wasting My Young Years. A song that still sounds utterly beautiful and affecting. Such an amazingly realised and confident song from a new group. Proof that Hannah Reid is among the most distinct voices – lyrical and vocal – of her generation. This is what CLASH said of Wasting My Young Years in May 2013:

“Youth is such a precious commodity.

Fragile, compact, limited to such a short time frame, youth has all the splendour, innocence and promise you care to mention.

Which is what makes London Grammar such an odd proposition. Formed at university, the band are still fresh out of their teens yet have become one of the most heavily dropped names in the music industry.

And their new single? 'Wasting My Young Years'. A beautifully executed piece of heartbroken pop music, this is languid, melancholic, anthemic in a way Lana Dey Rey can only dream of.

Yet for some reason, London Grammar still believe that they're wasting their young years… Strange”.

A song I was keen to explore for Groovelines, the atmospheric, epic and gorgeous Wasting My Young Years is, in my view, still the best thing London Grammar have recorded. Ahead of the release of the release of The Greatest Love – which one feels will include meditations on motherhood and fulfilment -, it is worth looking back at where it started. Hannah Reid pouring out her heart and veins in a moving song. There is still nothing out there…

QUITE like Wasting My Young Years.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Arooj Aftab

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Sterlin

Arooj Aftab

_________

AN album released recently that I hope…

more people pick up and listen to, Night Reign by Arooj Aftab is gorgeous. The Pakistani-American composer, artist and producer is someone who should be on your radar. This GRAMMY-winning artist is someone who everyone needs to hear. On the seventy-fifth diamond jubilee anniversary of Pakistan, President Arif Alvi awarded Aftab the Pride of Performance Award. This is Pakistan's most prestigious award for excellence in the field of art and music. I am going to end with a review for Night Reign. Prior to that, so we can learn more about Arooj Aftab, I am going to combine some fairly recent interviews. There are quite a few interviews from this year from Arooj Aftab. That is great, as we get to discover multiple sides of her magnificent music and personality. I am going to quote from four of the interviews. Actually, thinking about it, I will include three interviews – as it will be quite a lot of information and words I am putting out. I would urge everyone to do more digging and reading to discover as much as you can concerning Arooj Aftab. Anyway, let’s start out with Rolling Stone and their recent interview with this amazing and multi-talented artist:

“ARE DOING stuff that is indicative of fun,” Arooj Aftab says, quite seriously, in the flat staccato cadence of a test proctor.

The Pakistani-born, Berklee-trained, Brooklyn-based musician is talking about the singing on her new album, Night Reign, out May 31: the doubled vocals, the fresh harmonies, and especially the Auto-Tune that envelops her voice on lead single “Raat Ki Rani” and lends it that spectral pop aura. Aftab remembers asking the mix engineer, “Can you please put, like, T-Pain amounts of Auto-Tune on this and let’s see how it sounds?”

Vulture Prince propelled Aftab from professional-artist-with-a-day-job to Grammy-winner — she was the first ever Pakistani artist to win one — with prominent placement on Barack Obama’s summer playlist. Her team grew with her stature; she signed to Verve, and spent the next few years touring the world in support of both Vulture Prince and her 2023 collaboration with Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily, Love in Exile. In the midst of all this came the inevitable rumblings from everyone around her: “Oh my god, the follow-up!”

PHOTO CREDIT: Quyn Duong

“I was really worried about this being the Vulture Prince follow-up, and it needing to be better, or at least the same… or at least it really needs to not suck,” Aftab says with a laugh. “You know, when you have a record that people really love, you’re kind of fucked, because the next one has to be equally good or better. And that’s really scary. My mind was preoccupied with how to take the sound further.”

She continues: “When you blow up, your cute art becomes a small business. You’re not just writing about your feelings anymore. It means a lot more, the stakes are higher. The artist employs pretty much everybody from the managers to the bookers — you’re responsible to then continue to create something good. I wanted to escape it, but then I just got real with it.”

Aftab originally planned to make an album centered around the poetry of Mah Laqa Bai Chanda, an 18th/19th-century courtesan, political advisor, and warrior, who was also the first female Urdu poet to publish a collection of her own work. No one had set her poems to music before, and Aftab was up for the challenge, until it began to feel more like a creative imposition than a stimulating prompt. So she ditched the larger concept, kept what made sense (Chanda’s poems form the basis of two songs, “Na Gul” and “Saaqi”), and opened herself up to everything.

Night Reign includes interpolations of the jazz standard “Autumn Leaves” and Shamim Jaipuri’s ghazal “Zameen,” made famous by the great Indian singer Begum Akhtar. (“She’s like my Billie Holiday, so I gotta have my girl in there,” Aftab says.) Opener “Aey Nehin” is based on an impromptu poem Aftab saw her friend, the Pakistani actress Yasra Rizvi, recite on Instagram. “There’s a looseness, a fun, and a non-seriousness about it that actually ends up being very beautiful — it’s not contrived at all,” Aftab says. “It’s one of my favorite songs on the record.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Quyn Duong

Aftab is maybe most animated when discussing the thrills and sonic possibilities that come from putting different musicians, with different skill sets and personalities, into a room together — something she came to embrace as a major part of overcoming the pressures of following up Vulture Prince. “People are not going to say ‘No’ if you pick up the phone and call,” she says. “You can expand your sound, you have the access.”

Embracing this kind of confidence in community makes total sense for an extrovert like Aftab. “I love hanging out, meeting new people, and that fuels my creativity,” she says. And there’s no time better for all of that than the night — especially if you’re a musician on tour. “The touring nightlife, even though it’s so chaotic, so hectic, so full of people, I feel there’s a stillness in all of that,” she adds. “I can be alone with my thoughts, I can write, I can be creative somehow. Less than when I’m just back in Brooklyn doing interviews and going to the dentist.”

Three years of intense touring behind Vulture Prince and Love in Exile has changed that a bit. After performing, Aftab now heads straight for the hotel, not because she’s ready to conk out — she’s likely still “so juiced” from the show — but because she knows herself so well: “No one get in my way with a beer, don’t even look at me, because then I’ll hang out and suddenly it’ll be four in the morning, and the next day is gonna suck”.

I am going to move on to a fantastic interview from The Quietus. They salute and spend time with the peerless New York musician. You do not need to know about Arooj Aftab to appreciate her album, Night Reign. It is one of the most immersive and nuanced albums of this year. You will come back and discover new layers and highlights:

“The thing she wanted it to do was bridge the gap between the traditional (influences of Pakistani classical, jazz and minimalism sung predominantly in Urdu verse) and the contemporary. When the record was released, Aftab told the Los Angeles Times that she hoped Vulture Prince would “transcend boundaries.” In doing so, her innovation also garnered her new fans and accolades. She became the first-ever Pakistani woman to win a Grammy Award for her song ‘Mohabbat’ (meaning ‘love’) in 2022, a yearning ballad inspired by a well-known ghazal (an ancient form of Arabic poetry) penned by Hafeez Hoshiarpuri. Barack Obama even selected the dew-dappled song as one of his summer playlist favourites in 2021.

All this was, it’s fair to say, “a huge surprise” for a musician who taught herself the guitar as a teenager in Lahore, Pakistan, listening to Billie Holiday and “the Queen of Ghazals” Begum Akhtar. No longer bound to a corporate nine-to-five, she could finally be the musician she wanted to be: a critically-acclaimed artist in New York – the city she’s called home for well over a decade. “When your project becomes successful, people start gravitating towards you in a particular way, and I was experiencing this in the evenings at parties,” she says. Which is how the darkness of night came to be her muse on this new record. Not simply a period of time, she emphasises, but a protagonist in its own right, personified through vignettes and melody. “Once I honed in on that, it just took off.”

When talking about boundaries with Aftab, it’s impossible not to acknowledge the geographical ones, too. “I was born in Saudi Arabia and it has felt strange for the longest time,” she says as we discuss movement and heritage. Aftab was born to Pakistani parents in what she describes as “a closed place, a desert, the pinnacle of reserved religion” and the strangeness she feels is partly to do with this expatriated disconnection. Growing up there, its barrenness didn’t match up with the fertility of home which was guided by parents she describes as “seventies liberals”. Bearing this in mind, her move to Lahore in Pakistan, when she was eleven years old, changed everything. It’s a tangible place, she tells me. “I’m really glad that my parents decided to leave and go to their home country. There was a lot of celebration of language and culture. It’s woven into the fabric there – art, music, poetry, dance – and I fell in love with all these things.”

Although often described as a genre-defying artist, many like to genre-define her on a micro level anyway. From “jazz fusion” and “Hindustani classical” to “neo-Sufism” – a term Aftab herself came up with in her younger years when asked what her first record was all about. Does she regret coining it, I wonder? She laughs. “I was just a baby, you know? I should’ve been like, it’s new! I’m making something that I want to hear that I’m not finding in the music scene.” When it came to an east-to-west crossover in 2014 nothing she was listening to quite hit the mark. “Yeah, someone can play tablas and put a saxophone over it but that’s not contemporary. You’re just putting blocks together. Where’s the next step?” One gets the sense that this is a question Aftab has asked herself from the very beginning. In 2014, the then-29-year-old released her soulful debut, Bird Under Water, blending trumpets, accordion, sitar and bansuri (an ancient side-blown bamboo flute originating from India and Nepal) with qawwali, a form of Sufi Islamic devotional singing, to mesmerising effect. Three years later, she fearlessly mutated with her follow-up Siren Islands, an aqueous underworld of synthesised sound, ghostly and chimerical, that took us to the three rocky islands where the sirens of Greek mythology lured sailors to their deaths.

And then came Vulture Prince in 2021, a record that metamorphosed of its own accord, reshaped and reformed by the eddy and flow of her grief. The record is dedicated to the memory of her younger brother, Maher, who died while she was making it. Lost voices, and lost moments. In the accompanying promotional material for Night Reign there is talk of “stepping away from, though never forgetting, the grief and loss that animated” the last record. I wonder how her grief has evolved as she embraces this new iteration of blossoming songs – something she calls an “unfurling”. There is a dynamism to Night Reign that feels like she’s treading new ground. And yet I get the sense that there is a continuation of remembrance, too. “It’s come together as grief does, right?” she replies. “I was really sad when I was writing Vulture Prince. In the last couple of years, that sadness has been embraced and has evolved. And I feel joy, I feel the sultriness, I feel the celebration of life. I don’t want to be associated with sad lament-y stuff just because the last record was that. Night Reign is almost fun. It’s an honest representation of where I’m at.”

With the American poet, musician, and activist Moor Mother, however, comes a different kind of sentiment – and one that also helps define Night Reign. “We’ve been waiting for this moment, and the right song,” Aftab tells me when I ask her about their pairing on ‘Bolo Na’: an elemental call with burning lyrics that seem to nudge us into darker waters. “I want to believe in a love, in a future, I want to believe,” Moor Mother repeats over a skulking bassline. It’s a line that feels pertinent to where we find ourselves in 2024. On the morning that I meet Aftab, Donald Trump’s trial is reconvening in Manhattan, and abortion rights advocates and opponents are clashing outside the US Supreme Court. A lot has happened globally since Aftab’s last record came out in the midst of the pandemic – and the anger isn’t lost in this follow-up. ‘Bolo Na’ began as a love song, she tells me, written when she was a teenager about a non-committal entanglement. “Like, do you love me or not?” Aftab summarises. Deemed “too corny” by the young singer, it was soon shelved – until the bassline returned to her recently and she realised it signalled to something far greater. “This is a resistance song now,” she says. “It’s no longer a love story.” When she sent the track to Moor Mother she said, “We can be mad, we can be upset about stuff.” And Moor Mother delivered. “This insanely hard shit,” she laughs.  “Moor Mother is crazy, she’s so good.” What began as a “lame” ballad full of questions transformed into a powerful awakening. “I don’t need to know if you love me or not,” she circles back to her teen-lyric. “I know you’re lying.” In this sense, the toxic relationship is no longer with a former love interest but with the current structures that claim to hold us. “The world is lying to us,” she says with an impassioned voice, “they don’t love us.” When she put down her vocals there was, she says, a righteous feeling – almost of happiness. “Because this mopey love song turned into my feeling of right now. This is how we feel right now. We feel like establishments that were put in place to protect us aren’t doing that. And we’re stuck.”

It’s a sentiment that is reflected in her cover of the old jazz standard ‘Autumn Leaves’ based on the French song ‘Les Feuilles Mortes’ (‘The Dead Leaves’). When it was written in 1945, its composer, the Hungarian Joseph Kosma, was under house arrest in occupied France. “The falling leaves drift by my window,” Aftab sings on a cavernous rendition that teeters on the edge of something. It is, she agrees, another kind of resistance song: “Jazz is a deeply resistant music and it’s been a part of my world forever.” As has her love of singing in Urdu, another lifeline that runs through her records. A question she always asks herself is how she can tell a story through music while also minimising the lyrics so that we can “just feel.” I wonder if there is a kind of freedom for non-Urdu-speaking listeners like myself with only her music as my guide. On a midsummer’s evening in 2022, I watched thousands of people coalesce in enthralled rapture as Aftab sang against the majestic silhouette of the Welsh Brecon Beacons. It’s a stillness that could have rivalled a great cathedral. And yet, for many, the lyrics were a mystery to them – absorbed, as if by osmosis”.

Prior to coming to a review for Neigh Reign, this SPIN interview is worth bringing in. They note how Arooj Aftab keeps charting new musical territory. In doing so, she is providing a compass to the listener. She could have copied Vulture Prince or done something similar. Instead, her latest album is a new direction and fresh piece of work. Something that pushes her work to the next level:

“SPIN: You’ve pushed back on being considered a “world music” artist and you won the Best Global Music Performance Grammy. How do you feel about that?

Arooj Aftab: There are a lot of (Grammy) categories, and they’re there to have your peers vote, and the people who know the particular genre the best decide which should win. There’s a legitimate strategy behind the way it’s laid out. Music is just not that simple in that way.

World music is considered something that is very rooted in tradition, and it is less contemporary, less modern, and more classical. And I’m not. Just because I’m brown and it’s in a different language doesn’t mean it’s qawwalis like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Because of Vulture Prince’s success, did you feel extra pressure when you were working on Night Reign?

Vulture Prince was something that I was chasing. Not everybody listens to music in such compartmentalized ways. The world has become cross-cultural and not segregated in the way that it used to be. And so where is the music that shows that? There’s been a gap in the music conversation and in the actual music.

I had been thinking about that, conceptualizing it, and trying to execute it. But Vulture Prince was a big breakthrough. That was the goal of my life up until then. And it set me free. Now that I’ve had three years of talking to the press and training them in this new form of music, I’m free to expand on it. It’s just fun. And so the pressure of the follow-up album being good or not isn’t so relevant.

What inspires you about the nighttime?

We know already as a universal fact that musicians love the night. The night is our friend. For me, there is a night or two where things come together and creativity blossoms. The night provides this canopy where you don’t have to be so direct. You can gracefully move from one place to another, from person to person. It’s not so exposed. That’s so beautiful. Also, as a woman in any fucking place, at night we’re scared. The night is not just all fun or healing. It’s a scary place where things are not that visible. Once I landed on the album theme being not about me or someone else who I have feelings towards – like, Vulture Prince was about my brother and my friend who passed away. As soon as it became clear that it should be the night, it set me free. 

On “Raat Ki Rani,” you use AutoTune. I saw someone on Twitter dug up some old tweets where you were talking shit about AutoTune.

When AutoTune came out, it was introduced to the music industry as a corrective device. And so of course, as a 23-year-old vocalist, I was like, “Fuck AutoTune!” But since then it’s evolved so much with artists like James Blake and Imogen Heap and Cher and T-Pain and Snoop and Kanye and Kid Cudi. They have innovated how vocals can be presented while still remaining soulful and non-destructive of the actual essence of the voice.

There was a feeling on Night Reign about not being so formal or sad or precious, and I think “Raat Ki Rani” is really playful. It’s sultry and inviting. And when I put AutoTune on that, it fit the mood of the song and nudged audiences into feeling a little lighthearted.

Tessa Thompson directed the “Raat Ki Rani” video. You also worked with her dad [Chocolate Genius] on the album. How did you connect?

I’ve been a fan of her work for a really long time. And then we became friends over the course of the last few years. Tessa was in London, and I had a show, and she came to that, and we hung out after. We realized that we really like each other, and there’s a genuineness that is rare in our industries. I had thought of her while I was writing the album. I was like, “Hey, I think you should be in the music video because you’ve been a muse for some of this music,” and then it was her idea to direct it instead. That’s an honor.

I think because your music is “serious music,” people think of you as a very serious person. People think artists are exactly like what their music sounds like.

I’m still conditioning people to move away from their surface level prejudice of what they think this is and who they think the followers are and the collaborators are. So many responses were like, “Wow, what a crossover! Penn Badgley likes Arooj Aftab’s music?” Welcome to the new world. Where people are not boxing everybody in in this way, and these crossovers are very natural and very New York, and this is just what the music does to people.

From Penn to Tessa to Obama to Elvis Costello, people are gravitating towards this music. Even in the way that I choose who to invite to collaborate with me, these are subtle ways in which I’m teaching everybody to chill out and be cool and just let music take you where it needs to go and not worry about my ethnicity or your own ethnicity. And that’s something to celebrate.

Does it feel different singing in different languages? You use English more on an everyday basis, but the majority of your music is in Urdu.

I’m pretty purely bilingual. But I like Urdu because it is a minimalist language in the way that I use it, where it’s phrases and sentences that are more metaphoric. The name of the flower is not jasmine, it’s “queen of the night.” The Urdu language is not so wordy, because the words already have so much meaning.

One phrase that you’ve used to describe your music is “hopeful disdain.” What does that mean to you?

The state of the world is awful and upsetting, and there’s a lot of melancholy there, but it’s also beautiful. The emphasis is that there’s still hope. There are these glimmers of sunshine in all the music. The world-building never gets really dark. It’s always still hopeful while acknowledging how fucked up things are”.

It is almost time to get to one of the many positive reviews for Night Reign. Surely among the very best albums of this year, I do genuinely think that it will enrich everyone’s life. You need to hear it! On 9th July, Arooj Aftab plays OMEARA in London. I would urge people to get a ticket if they can. An artist who really needs to be seen in the flesh.

I will finish with a review from Pitchfork. It is brilliant seeing all the wonderful reviews for an essential and powerful work. Arooj Aftab is a truly exceptional artist and composer. She should be known by the world. I can see her releasing many more albums in the future. She seems to grow stronger with each release. That is why I want to highlight her here:

“It isn’t easy to say something new with “Autumn Leaves.” The 1945 torch song is surely one of the most performed standards in the jazz repertoire, not only by the likes of Miles Davis and Nat King Cole, but also by the beginners taking lessons in the back rooms of your local store music store: sitting down at a piano to play its wistful minor-key melody is a bit like the jazz version of picking up an electric guitar and going straight for “Smoke on the Water.” Putting your rendition on a new album in 2024 is either a conservative move or a bold one. For Arooj Aftab, the Brooklyn-via-Lahore singer and composer who moves freely between jazz, folk, and Hindustani and Western classical music, it is decidedly the latter.

Aftab’s “Autumn Leaves” comes early on Night Reign, her fourth solo album, and renders it as a ghostly incantation. Metallic percussion clatters in the background. Linda May Han Oh’s upright bass lines follow Aftab’s vocal like an elongated shadow follows the protagonist of a noir film. Without a chordal instrument to support it, the familiar tune becomes skeletal and spooky; Aftab’s chromatic embellishments make it spookier. Her take on “Autumn Leaves” is emblematic of the way she works: drawing from tradition while at the same time estranging it, stripping away clichés and stock devices to reveal the mysterious longing that gives the old poems and songs their lasting power.

Two of Night Reign’s songs take their words from Mah Laqa Bai Chanda, the 18th-century poet who was the first woman to publish a collection of work in Urdu. Other lyrics are Aftab originals, in both English and Urdu. Still another is based on an offhanded poem that the singer’s friend, the Pakistani actress Yasra Rizvi, posted to Instagram. Aftab unites her source material’s mix of the centuries-old and the ephemeral with her wondrous voice, sometimes soaring but just as potent in its husky lower register. And with her compositions, which patiently gather and dissolve, favoring long arcs of development over sudden dynamic shifts. Though Night Reign has plenty of distinct zones—grungy bass guitar takes the lead on “Bolo Na”; Auto-Tune drapes Aftab’s voice on “Raat Ki Kai”—as a whole it can have the feeling of a single sweeping piece of music.

Aftab, who produces her albums herself, deserves as much credit for her composing and arranging as she does for her singing. Night Reign’s palette is similar to Vulture Prince, her 2021 breakout album, and features many of the same players along with a few new ones: harpist Maeve Gilchrist, whose instrument is second only to Aftab’s singing as the signature sound of her music; Aftab’s Love in Exile bandmates, jazz piano star Vijay Iyer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily; guitarists Kaki King and Gyan Riley; flautist Cautious Clay; percussionist Jamey Haddad; an unlikely Wurlitzer cameo from Elvis Costello. Their instruments drift like a breeze of dandelion seeds, in the same general direction but with independent and unpredictable paths between one point and another. Even Moor Mother, whose stentorian spoken-word is one of the most distinctive sounds in left-of-center music, becomes just another element of the melange when she arrives to deliver a guest verse on “Bolo Na,” the percussive edges of her delivery swept up in the song’s half-time rhythmic churn.

Though actual percussion remains sparse, Night Reign grooves harder than its predecessor, which featured almost no drums. Even when the rhythm instruments sit back, there’s almost always a sense of an insistent pulse, an effect that’s especially pronounced on opener “Aey Nehin”: an acoustic guitar carries it, then a harp, then some hand percussion—all sharing the responsibility for keeping up momentum, tossing it back and forth, and dancing a little more freely when it’s someone else’s turn to hold it down. (Whether or not he’s a direct influence on Aftab, Gyan Riley’s father Terry, the master minimalist composer, sometimes comes to mind in moments like these.) On “Last Night Reprise,” a setting of an English translation of a poem by Rumi, Petros Klampanis’ bass is the lone pace-keeper, pressing on with a simple ostinato as the rest of the players wander into clamorous free improv during the instrumental middle section. They cohere again behind Aftab when she returns to the mic for the thrilling finale. “Last night my beloved was like the moon,” she sings, alternating between heroic long tones and frantic rushes of syllables. “So beautiful like the moon.”

Vulture Prince, which Aftab recorded in the aftermath of her younger brother’s death, is an album haunted by grief. Night Reign is less tethered to a single theme: Aftab originally conceived it as a collection of settings of Mah Laqa Bai Chanda’s work, then abandoned the idea when it began to feel constrictive. But if there’s one situation or emotion that persists across its songs—even “Autumn Leaves”—it is loving someone who isn’t there. It’s in the words, whether adapted from 18th-century poetry or an Instagram post, and in the mixture of tenderness and tough resolve that characterizes Aftab’s singing. It’s also in the music itself, in the vaporous way the instruments hover around some unspoken center, drawing as much attention to the negative space as the sound, and in the pulse that seems to keep going even when you can’t actually hear it. Almost anyone can relate to the feeling Night Reign renders in sound: the object of your affection may be gone, but the memories and desire that linger on are just as real”.

Such a sensational and sublime composer, producer and artist, the New York-based Pakistani genius is a fairly new discovery to me. Arooj Aftab’s Night Reign is an album that will stay with you long after you have heard it. I have passed through it a few times. If you are not familiar with Arooj Aftab than make sure that you acquaint yourself with her work. She is an artist that truly…

HAS to be heard.

_________

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