FEATURE: The Tracks of My Years: My Favourite Singles of 2024 So Far

FEATURE:

 

 

The Tracks of My Years

IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz/PHOTO CREDIT: Karolina Wielocha

My Favourite Singles of 2024 So Far

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I have just put out…

IN THIS PHOTO: Laura Marling/PHOTO CREDIT: Tamsin Topolski

a playlist featuring songs from the best albums by women this year. I wanted to do another ‘best of’ compilation. This one is my favourite singles from this tear so far. Featuring those you know and others you might not, there is this eclectic mix of styles and artists. It has been a really strong and varied year for singles. I suspect that we will get more than our fair share of awesome singles before the year is done. It has been wonderful discovering new artists and their amazing tracks. Also hearing wonderful singles from legends and established artists. Such a rich year for music. To honour that, the playlist below sits them alongside one another. You might have your own views and opinions as to which singles are the best. I might have left some out, so suggestions and additions are always welcome! Here are singles released this year that have lingered…

IN THIS PHOTO: SARA/PHOTO CREDIT: Greta Larosa

LONG in the memory.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Tracks from the Best Albums By Female Artists of 2024

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The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé shot for ESSENCE March/April 2024/PHOTO CREDIT: Andre D. Wagner 

Tracks from the Best Albums By Female Artists of 2024

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I have done this a few times…

IN THIS PHOTO: The cover of Beth Gibbons’ album, Lives Outgrown

before, in the sense of compiling a playlist of songs from the best albums by women. I try and do it a couple of times a year. Highlighting the brilliant queens who are releasing the finest albums around. One cannot deny that for years now, the very best albums have been by women! Rather than dividing and labelling – ‘albums by women’ – or giving them their own genre, I wanted to spotlight the simply amazing work out there. The music industry is still hugely slow in creating balance and recognition of women. Right across the board. It is at odds with the hugely proliferation of awesome and original albums by women. This year has been no exception. The quality has been right up there! Maybe not quickly reflected in terms of playlists and festival bookings, one hopes that the kudos and acclaim that these albums have received means all of these artists get their reward and recognition very soon. That women throughout the industry are giving the respect and attention they deserve! There are some real gems in this playlist. Albums from some astonishing artists. Apologies for missing any out at all that should be in there. As we have four months left of the year, I will do another feature in December that looks at all the great albums from women in 2024. Now, as we are bidding farewell to summer, another opportunity to salute the queens. The songs below are from sensational albums…

BY some absolutely brilliant women.

FEATURE: Cross That Line: Segregation and Division in the Music Industry

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Cross That Line

IN THIS PHOTO: Tinashe

Segregation and Division in the Music Industry

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I often think about the music industry…

PHOTO CREDIT: Penda Kamati/Pexels

and whether it has improved rapidly and markedly as it should. In terms of interaction, battling discrimination and division. Thinking of women in the industry, there is still so much misogyny and sexism. Very slowly moving towards equality. I do hope I live to see a day when women feel safe, accepted and valued in the music industry. Get the opportunities they deserve in terms of equal pay and exposure. Get festival headline slots and as much time on radio playlists across the board. Are not subjected to harassment and abuse. I don’t think as much has been done as possible to tackle that from the government. Even if racism within the industry is not quite as extreme or widespread as it was in years past, it is clear there is still segregation and labelling. Black artists being divided and separated from white artists on playlists and in genres. I have been thinking this after reading a recent interview from Tinashe. Speaking with The Guardian, she was very frank and open about her career. How she had face misogyny and RCA forced her into working with R Kelly and Chris Brown. What a potentially poisonous move that could have been! The real lack of respect and appreciation for Tinashe. Something a lot of women in music have to endure. This very toxic environment. The fact that she was almost made to work with predatory and abusive men. Tinashe also noted how there is this segregation and racial division:

“Despite trying to ignore much of the music industry, Tinashe still has a strong handle on its mechanics, and feels that it wouldn’t know what to do with her – a Black artist looking to make genreless pop, not just R&B or rap – if she debuted today. “There’s still a lot of segregation in the industry,” she says. “When it comes to playlists, award shows, who works on your music, how they promote you, it’s very black and white, literally.”

And Tinashe still feels she’s fighting an uphill battle when it comes to her own career – despite the huge success of Nasty. “In terms of being able to build to a huge place, a real mainstream-machine type role, that still is very much gate-kept,” she says, letting out a withering laugh. “It’s hard to achieve as somebody who isn’t playing in those systems”.

It is very true that, when it comes to artists of colour, they are promoted and marketed very differently. In terms of who they work with too. Tinashe is living proof of that. You still see so many playlists on radio and streaming services where Black artists are compiled together and often separated. Especially when it comes to genre-specific playlists. Maybe unconscious racism, things are very much black and white. Very few Black artists given the same budget and attention as white counterparts. When it comes to the mainstream and getting the sort of focus and hype as other artists, there does seem to be this segregation there. Tinashe has hit on something that has been present in music for decades. If you look at the mainstream today and the artists getting the most attention and spotlight, you can see this division. There are amazing Black artists heralded and supported, though very few pushed to the top levels. So much more of a struggle for them to achieve the same sort of adulation and respect as other artists. Music charts especially have been segregated for so long. I was reading this 2021 articles from The Guardian, where Kelefa Sanneh (author of the book, Major Labels) talked about this more:

“The more a genre evolves and sprawls, the harder it is to define its essence. Disappointingly for anyone who cherishes border-crossing artists such as Sly Stone, Prince and the Specials, Sanneh shows that these distinctions usually come down to race: country and rock are deemed to be whatever white people like, while hip-hop and R&B are whatever Black people enjoy. Two years ago, there was furious debate about Billboard’s decision to remove Lil Nas X’s country-trap smash from its country chart because it lacked “enough elements of today’s country music in its current version”. Lil Nas X responded: “A black guy who raps comes along, and he’s on top of the country chart, it’s like, ‘What the fuck?’”

“Our music charts are still kind of segregated because our country is still kind of segregated,” Sanneh says. “There are upsides and downsides to this. In America, Black people are 12% of the population so if every genre was diverse in a way that reflected the population of the country, Black people would be a small minority of listeners in every genre. It’s easy to say that country music should be diversified but it’s harder when you look at R&B.”

Sanneh is adept at disrupting simple binaries; his typical argument is a supple chain of “but…”. He says: “It’s important to me not to reduce any music story to good guys and bad guys.” On the hot topic of cultural appropriation, the man for whom Paul Simon’s Graceland was a unifying family soundtrack questions what we mean by ownership of culture. “Once you start thinking about cultural appropriation in music, it’s hard to think where you would stop. Even if you grow up in hip-hop, there’s going to be stuff you hear later that is not part of your childhood. When Notorious BIG released Big Poppa he was borrowing from the sound of west coast hip-hop. Broadly defined, cultural appropriation is absolutely everywhere”.

Thinking about articles like this from 2020 and this in 2021, has there been much progress?! When you look at award ceremonies and there are entire genres defined by white artists. Black artists usually defined and labelled as Soul or R&B. Country music has been very slow in assimilating and accepting Black artists. The Pop mainstream still struggles. So many areas of music segregate and define. We live in a time when fewer Black artists are given headline slots. In terms of the artists that are given the most airplay and focus by the industry. If things are slowly improving, it is clear that it is a struggle for so many artists. Tinashe being an example. New artists coming through and looking at the landscape. How genres and playlists have this bias towards white artists or will often lazily label Black artists. What she said about gate-keeping and how it is also hard to get to the mainstream if you are genre-less or do not play he game or fit the ideal. With racism and discrimination still widespread in music how easy is it to change things effectively and quickly?! There is a lot to think about and tackle. Something that is so deep-rooted is hard to correct overnight. With artists calling it out, there does need to be action. Award shows accused of racial bias and tokenism, things are not really progressing and improving as fast as they should. It is a deep and challenging subject that deserves more investigation and discussion. Tinashe’s words about her experiences will resonate with so many of her peers. That feeling of segregation. Fewer opportunities to get to the mainstream. These barriers in place if you are an artist who is independent and does not want to compromise their sound and identity. For an industry still not doing enough for women and artists of colour, addressing the issues it still has around race and segregation should be…

A huge priority.

FEATURE: Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Green Day’s American Idiot at Twenty

FEATURE:

 

 

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Green Day’s American Idiot at Twenty

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EVEN if it doesn’t…

turns twenty until 21st September, I wanted to celebrate an important album. Green Day’s American Idiot might be their best work. The U.S. band’s seventh studio album, it came four years after Warning. It was quite a time away for them. Although there had been compilations in the gap, this was fresh material. Something much more charged and political. The terrorist attacks of 11th September in 2001 has altered a lot of the musical landscape in terms of what was being written. The presidency of George W. Bush. It was definitely a time that inspired something angry from Green Day. Although there are depths and different shades on American Idiot, the title refers to where their thoughts were. Reacting to the politics and consumerism of the time, there was another album due after Warning. Cigarettes and Valentines had its master tapes stolen. American Idiot was a career revival and transformation. Green Day reacting to the Iraq War and the growing disillusionment in the U.S. A concept album around Jesus of Suburbia, a lower-middle-class American adolescent anti-hero. The first time Green Day included transitions between songs. Joining two tracks into one and having longer tracks. It as an ambitious album that was met with critical acclaim. There will be debate as to which Green Day album is best. Many fans like the earlier work. Dookie (1994) or even Nimrod (1997). To me and many others, American Idiot is Green Day’s crowning achievement. I want to come to an article from Alternative Press. In 2016, they argued why American Idiot is the best Green Day album:

“Many people argue that Green Day’s greatest work is their 1994 hit Dookie.  It’s the record that put them on the map and hosts some of their most iconic songs, even to younger generations. (I once saw a 12-year-old get on stage during the band’s 99 Revolutions Tour and belt the entire third verse of “Longview,” a song about boredom and masturbation.) While Dookie is sonically a punk album, it was still incredibly commercial, dominating radio airwaves and MTV.  It’s a solid pop-punk record that will continue to affect generations to come. However, for the most part, Dookie is pretty static. It’s a surface card at best, whereas American Idiot hosts a lyrical depth that convinced me that breaking into a classroom at 2 a.m. was a good idea. I still think it was a good idea—there’s nothing more rock ‘n’ roll than rebellion.

American Idiot was Green Day’s first album that was truly rock ‘n’ roll, a characteristic that Dookie, Insomniac, Nimrod and even Warning lack.  Pulling from themes set forth by the Who’s Tommy and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Green Day embarked on their first rock opera concept record. It was also their first record to openly address and critique the politics of the time. This shift in sound and attitude allowed for a punk mentality told through a rock album more openly accessible to the public, a public who happened to be living in a post-9/11 era looking for a scapegoat.

People wanted to let loose from the stress of the day-to-day pressures presented in a time of mass paranoia and overwrought propaganda. A rock album with iconic, blasting riffs was a simple musical remedy that consumers could easily relate to. But it’s never been the politics in American Idiot that made it so great, though it definitely helped. In fact, there’s really only two politically charged tracks on the album: the title track and “Holiday.” That leaves 11 other movements to shape the story.

So what is this story that makes this release so substantial? It’s an outline of America during 2004. We meet the stereotypical “American idiot” trapped in a culture so invested in materialism, capitalism and war that the general public is seemingly blind to everything else. “Now everybody do the propaganda!” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong commands as if it were just another dance fad. We then meet the cliché suburban youth: the aptly named Jesus of Suburbia. During the huge five-part song of the same name, the album delivers its thesis statement: this is a coming of age story.  Jesus is tired of his humdrum life and seeks adventure by moving into the city, leaving his small, safe world behind. He travels to his metropolis only to be overwhelmed by this new lifestyle (“Holiday”). He endures the hangover and wants to find himself (“Boulevard Of Broken Dreams,” “Are We The Waiting”). He discovers his many vices (“St. Jimmy,” “Give Me Novacaine”). He finds love, or infatuation depending on how you view it, (“She’s A Rebel,” “Extraordinary Girl”) before realizing who he really is and decides to bring himself home (or at least back to reality) (“Homecoming”).  American Idiot is basically “SLC Punk! The Album” sans Heroin Bob.

And yet, this coming of age story we’ve heard “a million and one fucking times” resonates with listeners on a much different level than any Green Day record prior, because, unlike Dookie, it is progressive as well as timeless. American Idiot evolves in meaning and content with the listener as the listener works through his/her own life. It is relevant for the current generation, the one that consumed it in 2004 and the future listeners’ generation that will discover and grow up with the record as life carries on. Teen angst is a monumental part of maturing that is perfectly encapsulated in the first half of the record’s story through the origins of Jesus of Suburbia, but also captured sonically via the majority of the songs. As noted earlier, American Idiot fucking rocks. It hits hard and kids like their music loud, whether they understand the context or not.

In American Idiot, there’s a lyrical sophistication that Green Day taps into seldom seen in any of their other records. They take lines like “I’m not part of your elite/I’m just alright” (“Stuck With Me,” Insomniac) and turn them into “And there’s nothing wrong with me/This is how I’m supposed to be/In a land of make believe/That don’t believe in me” (“Jesus Of Suburbia”). The character St. Jimmy doesn’t just “get high high high/when he’s low low low” (“Misery,” Warning) he becomes “the needle in the vein of the establishment” and the “suicide commando that your momma talked about” (“St. Jimmy”). Problems extend past bored afternoons filled with porn and weed in the ‘90s to severe drug addiction, heartbreak, loss of self, cultural constraints and all the other bullshit today’s set society is forced to endure on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Green Day are snarky: They’re telling the listener welcome to reality, the real American dream, the land of the free while also asking, “Is that a possibility?”

This dichotomy of resolution and reflection has always been a key factor of the record. After you get dumped and get through the Taylor Swift stage where your whole world feels like it’s crashing down, go listen to “Whatsername.” It’s the perfect summary of the numb feeling you get thinking about your ex, vaguely remembering the good times you had and the void you’ve partially filled without them. The whole song itself becomes a metaphor for looking back on what you’ve done in life and accepting the bad, taking notes of the regrets but moving on and moving forward because you have to. When Armstrong says, “This is the dawning of the rest of our lives” (on “Holiday”) he means it. Once you set forth, there is no going back to the innocence you once had. And that (though it may not seem like it) is a damn good thing”.

I will end with a couple of reviews for the fantastic American Idiot. I am keen to highlight this feature Pop Matters. They took us inside the album. Exploring the tracks. Even if Holiday is my favourite from American Idiot, one cannot deny the potency and power of the title track. So iconic and truthful. One of Green Day’s best songs. I think American Idiot still sounds relevant today. It is an album that should have made us think and change. I wonder how much we actually learned:

“Before 2004, few people would classify Green Day’s music as particularly sophisticated, intellectual, or thematically mature. Sure, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” with its poignancy, fragility, and beautiful orchestration, quickly became the introspective acoustic ballad of a generation, and fun singles like “When I Come Around” and “Basket Case” were amongst the catchiest mainstream songs of their era. However, for the most part, the ’90s saw Green Day dominating the airwaves as little more than a premier punk rock group. The band emblemized a contemporary take on the rowdy counterculture retaliation of ’70s icons like the Clash. While it did an excellent job of it (don’t get me wrong), no one ever expected the trio to branch out of its preset genre limitations stylistically, conceptually, or technically.

But then came American Idiot, and everything changed. Part social commentary and part fictional narrative, the record came out of nowhere and blew everyone away with its biting political subversion, exploration of teenage angst, love, and uncertainty, and perhaps most importantly, brilliant structures, transitions, and overall cohesion. On the surface, it offered listeners a touchingly earnest and emotionally universal Bildungsroman about adolescent romance and rebellion that, combined with its multifaceted arrangements, earned it justified comparisons to the Who’s 1973 masterpiece, Quadrophenia. On a deeper level, though, it served as a scorching attack on the hypocrisy and evils of the Bush Administration (as well as the increasingly credulous and submissive nature of the American public). Combined, these achievements resulted in a wonderfully infectious, explosive, and profound work of art.

Although the album showcased astounding growth for the trio in every way, its greatest achievement was (and still is) exemplifying the truest purpose of art: to represent the struggles of the human condition and/or reflect on the injustices and illogicality of the age in which it exists. Upon its release, it received almost universal praise, with IGN arguably offering the most weighty conclusion (along with a perfect score):

“You will emerge from your experience with American Idiot physically tired, emotionally drained, and, quite possibly, changed forever. It is less an album than an experience that demands to be lived. It is a part of my life now, as well as the most satisfying hour of music I’ve ever heard. Nothing else even comes close. In short, American Idiot is flawless.”

“American Idiot”

Rather than jump right in with its story, American Idiot begins with its title track, an invigorating, catchy, and straightforward punk rock single that has almost nothing to do with the plot that follows. In a way, it acts as a bridge between the aesthetic of its predecessors and the sonic evolution that would follow. It starts with a razor-sharp chord progression that’s modest yet engrossing—naturally, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool providing a great rhythmic complement too. Musically, the track doesn’t stray too far from this foundation, although some impressive syncopation and a killer guitar solo help it kick ass. No, what makes “American Idiot” so powerful and affecting are its lyrics and vocals.

As usual, singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong bursts into the song with his characteristic tone and delivery, issuing his decrees with vigor and charming attitude. Cool’s isolated percussion leads the charge as Armstrong attacks the troubles of President George W. Bush’s reign, as well as the complacent and judgmental nature of Americans writ large. Every phrase, from its antagonistic opening—”Don’t wanna be an American idiot / Don’t want a nation under the new media / And can you hear the sound of hysteria / The subliminal mindfuck America”—to eventual jabs like “Well maybe I’m the faggot America / I’m not a part of a redneck agenda / Now everybody do the propaganda / And sing along to the age of paranoia”, suggests with pinpoint accuracy how hateful, impressionable, and just plain scared U.S. citizens were following the events of September 11th, 2001. People believed whatever the government and media suggested (such as the colorful “threat levels” that frightened us into limitless suspicion). As a result, they subscribed to a fear of the “Other” (as Freud would say).

Of course, the real question is, have we changed all that much since, or are we even more racist/sexist/homophobic and blindly patriotic since “American Idiot” first aimed to shatter our national security blanket? Regardless of the answer, it’s easy to see how impactful and necessary American Idiot was for its time, right from the start. The title track presented listeners with a blunt critique of the world around them, as well as a call of change, action, and self-reflection. At the same time, it stood as an exceptionally lively, dynamic, and appealing slice of punk anarchy”.

“Holiday”

Having properly set up both the social commentary and narrative construct of American Idiot with the album’s first two pieces (“American Idiot” and “Jesus of Suburbia”), Green Day chose the most logical option for the next track: fuse the two agendas into one wholly kickass amalgam. Indeed, “Holiday” is among the most overtly political songs on the record, which is probably why it was such a big hit back in 2004. Likewise, it followed up on the defiant departure of the album’s protagonist, showcasing the next chapter in his journey. A decade later, “Holiday” is still just as catchy, invigorating, and collectively powerful, igniting a rebellious fire in the soul of everyone who hears it, as well as sparking discussions about its meanings.

When we last heard from the main character (on March 3rd, according to the linear notes of the album), he was “running away from pain” and his “broken home”, so it makes sense that we now find him on holiday (vacation), traveling to wherever his destiny awaits. Specifically, it’s now April 1st, and he’s on the streets, reflecting on “the sound of falling rain / Coming down like an Armageddon flame” and declaring his independence. Other statements, such as “I beg to dream and differ / From the hall of lies / This is the dawning of the rest of our loves / This is our lives on holiday”, demonstrate this newfound enthusiasm for freedom, as well as a formal rejection of the corrupt government. Also, the fact that he uses “our” instead of “my” indicates that he’s inviting others to join him (and they do, eventually).

Interestingly, though, most of the lyrics to “Holiday” point the microscope outwardly, continuing the critical lens that “American Idiot” introduced. For example, the “Armageddon flame” signifies that he (and thus, Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong) is also commenting on the “War on Terror” that President Geroge W. Bush started. Essentially, Jesus is predicting that the end of the world will come from this international conflict. For example, “The ones who died without a name” likely relate to both literal casualties (soldiers and civilians alike) and, in a more figurative sense, anyone who’s fallen victim in the hysteria of political conflict. Later on, we’re told that “another protestor has crossed the line / To find the money’s on the other side”, a sentiment that illustrates how people will fight for the “right side” until they realize that perhaps everyone is in on the exploitation.

In the song’s most aggressive moment, the music forgoes most of its straightforward rock construction, allowing isolated percussion to stampede behind a punky “representative from California” as he “has the floor”. From there, he (along with backing chanters) utters bold proclamations, such as “Zieg Heil to the President Gasman / Bombs away is your punishment / Pulverize the Eiffel Towers / Who criticize your government”. Clearly, this is meant to connect the Iraq war to Nazism, as well as suggest destroying anyone who’s critical of the US. He goes on to profess, “Kill all the fags that don’t agree / Trials by fire / Setting fire / Is not a way that’s meant for me”, a statement that mocks both America’s enduring homophobia and its juvenile tendency to label anyone who disagrees with blind patriotism as a “fag” (which, in this context, means idiot, weakling, etc).

Although it’s not especially impressive musically (although it’s still very good, don’t get me wrong), “Holiday” still manages to stand out strongly due to its successful dichotomy, as it simultaneously moves the story along and further encapsulates the dense national critique that pervades underneath the surface of American Idiot. Our “hero” stands tall and free, refusing to buy into the deception and dishonor of both his hometown and country writ large. At this moment, he is content in his boldness and self-reliance, but that will change drastically once he begins traveling down the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.

Reaching number one in the U.K. and U.S., you can read more about American Idiot here. It won Best Rock Album at the 2005 Grammy Awards. It is considered one of the best albums of the decade ('00s). One of the best albums of all time. I would recommend people also check out this track-by-track review from Billboard. Before coming to an SLANT review of American Idiot, this is what AllMusic has to say in their review:

“It's a bit tempting to peg Green Day's sprawling, ambitious, brilliant seventh album, American Idiot, as their version of a Who album, the next logical step forward from the Kinks-inspired popcraft of their underrated 2000 effort, Warning, but things aren't quite that simple. American Idiot is an unapologetic, unabashed rock opera, a form that Pete Townshend pioneered with Tommy, but Green Day doesn't use that for a blueprint as much as they use the Who's mini-opera "A Quick One, While He's Away," whose whirlwind succession of 90-second songs isn't only emulated on two song suites here, but provides the template for the larger 13-song cycle. But the Who are only one of many inspirations on this audacious, immensely entertaining album. The story of St. Jimmy has an arc similar to Hüsker Dü's landmark punk-opera Zen Arcade, while the music has grandiose flourishes straight out of both Queen and Rocky Horror Picture Show (the '50s pastiche "Rock and Roll Girlfriend" is punk rock Meat Loaf), all tied together with a nervy urgency and a political passion reminiscent of the Clash, or all the anti-Reagan American hardcore bands of the '80s. These are just the clearest touchstones for American Idiot, but reducing the album to its influences gives the inaccurate impression that this is no more than a patchwork quilt of familiar sounds, when it's an idiosyncratic, visionary work in its own right. First of all, part of Green Day's appeal is how they have personalized the sounds of the past, making time-honored guitar rock traditions seem fresh, even vital. With their first albums, they styled themselves after first-generation punk they were too young to hear firsthand, and as their career progressed, the group not only synthesized these influences into something distinctive, but chief songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong turned into a muscular, versatile songwriter in his own right.

Warning illustrated their growing musical acumen quite impressively, but here, the music isn't only tougher, it's fluid and, better still, it fuels the anger, disillusionment, heartbreak, frustration, and scathing wit at the core of American Idiot. And one of the truly startling things about American Idiot is how the increased musicality of the band is matched by Armstrong's incisive, cutting lyrics, which effectively convey the paranoia and fear of living in American in days after 9/11, but also veer into moving, intimate small-scale character sketches. There's a lot to absorb here, and cynics might dismiss it after one listen as a bit of a mess when it's really a rich, multi-faceted work, one that is bracing upon the first spin and grows in stature and becomes more addictive with each repeated play. Like all great concept albums, American Idiot works on several different levels. It can be taken as a collection of great songs -- songs that are as visceral or as poignant as Green Day at their best, songs that resonate outside of the larger canvas of the story, as the fiery anti-Dubya title anthem proves -- but these songs have a different, more lasting impact when taken as a whole. While its breakneck, freewheeling musicality has many inspirations, there really aren't many records like American Idiot (bizarrely enough, the Fiery Furnaces' Blueberry Boat is one of the closest, at least on a sonic level, largely because both groups draw deeply from the kaleidoscopic "A Quick One"). In its musical muscle and sweeping, politically charged narrative, it's something of a masterpiece, and one of the few -- if not the only -- records of 2004 to convey what it feels like to live in the strange, bewildering America of the early 2000s”.

I am going to end with a review from SLANT. They noted how a band seen as slackers on previous work – who perhaps were not likely to be political or rally for change – had really changed things up and were now calling for action. An amazing transformation from Green Day. American Idiot still resounds and reverberates to this day:

“Of all the negative effects the Bush administration has had on the world (and unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand, then you know that there are many), the most unlikely bit of collateral damage has to be the return of the rock opera. Dissent has always been a fundamental tenet of punk rock, so it comes as no surprise that the forefathers of popular punk would take a stab at the not-quite-popular-enough sport of Bush-bashing. But an all-out punk musical? With American Idiot, their first studio album in four years, Green Day have resurrected the rock opera medium, and not only have they succeeded, they’ve managed to create a musical-political document that should remain relevant for years to come (possibly even longer if Bush actually gets elected this time).

The story begins on Presidents Day and follows two main characters, Jesus of Suburbia and St. Jimmy, who may or may not be the same person but who both stand on the same side of the political fence, with varying degrees of rage. Ultimately the narrative, which feels flimsy at times and ends with too many loose ends (perhaps the inevitable film or stage production will fill in the blanks), seems less important than Billy Joe Armstrong’s own story. “Maybe I am the faggot, America/I’m not part of a redneck agenda,” he sings on the title track. Billy Joe knows he (Jesus) is pretty much alone in his crusade (“Where have all the riots gone?” he begs in “Letterbomb”), but that doesn’t stop him from attacking both sides with equal vehemence on “Holiday,” one of American Idiot’s most potent tracks: “Another protester has crossed the line/To find the money’s on the other side,” and then, my personal favorite, “Zieg heil to the President Gasman!”

In the tradition of The Who and Pink Floyd, American Idiot is a pompous, overwrought, and, quite simply, glorious concept album. While it may be long on narrative and character skteches (Jesus’s muse is a girl named Whatsername, “the mother of all bombs”), it’s certainly not short on hooks. The guitars are stacked, the drums are big, and the message is crystal clear. There are hints of the more adult-skewed pop-punk of Green Day’s last album, 2000’s underappreciated Warning, on the power ballad “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Wake Me Up Before September,” a lament for Billy Joe’s late father, but American Idiot finds the band exploring new ground, drawing not only on classic Clash riffs but, yes, Broadway musicals for a few multi-part, key-shifting epics. In their attempt to reinvigorate themselves as a band (creatively and commercially), Green Day have managed to accomplish what record companies have failed to do with so many useless tacked-on DVDs and net portals to “exclusive” material: they’ve produced an album you’ll want to own, Kazaa be damned.

The cheeky press notes for the album, set sometime in the future, boldly declares that American Idiot is “the album that started a whole cult of people clutching their hand grenade hearts” and that it’s “neck and neck with Sgt. Pepper as the greatest album of all time.” That remains to be seen, but for a band who burst onto the scene 10 years ago with a record called Dookie, the boys of Green Day, now in their 30s, sure have come a long way. They are, in fact, the real Nirvana, their influence more widely felt than any other American band from the ’90s (sorry, Kurt). Ironically, it seems the slackers of yesterday—the ones who were bored of masturbation, smoking their inspiration, and disenfranchised by the politics of Reagan and Bush Sr.—are now the ones rallying for political change, and hopefully their influence will reach a little bit farther than Sum 41 and Good Charlotte come this November”.

On 21st September, American Idiot turns twenty. American Idiot was planned as a film. However, plans were scrapped. It is a shame. However, it did take on a new life as a stage musical. That premiered in 2009. A documentary, Heart Like a Hand Grenade, was released in 2015 film. It featured Green Day during the recording of American Idiot. Directed by John Roecker and filmed over the process of fifteen months between 2003 and 2004. An inflammatory and essential album, it arrived at a time with so much tension and disenfranchisement. I wonder, twenty years later, whether people…

HAVE truly wised up?

FEATURE: With a New Decade… Kate Bush’s Never for Ever at Forty-Four

FEATURE:

 

 

With a New Decade…

Kate Bush’s Never for Ever at Forty-Four

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ONE is of Kate Bush’s…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

best albums turns forty-four on 8th September. The wonderful Never for Ever might be known to many because of its three singles. There was Breathing, Babooshka and Army Dreamers. It was, in some ways, an album of transition for Kate Bush. If it was not quite a full move into the sort of layered and experimental production we would see from The Dreaming (1982) onwards, there was this bridge between the sort of sound and material that was present on her first two albums – 1978’s The Kick Inside and Lionheart – and what would come. Rather than it being unsatisfactory, it was a big step from her first two albums. Kate Bush was unhappy about working again with Andrew Powell (who produced the first two album) so worked with Jon Kelly. However, come The Dreaming, he would be let go. This being Kate Bush, she would cut ties in the nicest and most polite way possible! After 1979’s The Tour of Life, there was new energy and ambitious to be explored in the studio. For a usual and comprehensive guide, I am going to refer to Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush, as there are some great pages written about Never for Ever. As it is forty-four on 8th September, it is important to discuss the album.  Although AIR was still a studio in the mix, this was the first time Bush was recording at Abbey Road Studios. It was a fresh environment. This new decade meant that there was almost a new phase. Everything starting again. Though not quite. EMI were keen for Kate Bush to write four new songs before Christmas 1979. Rather than dip into her older songs, this was the first album where we were getting fresh songs. Bush writing new tracks and not dipping into her archive.

I guess there could have been a few songs where there were early sketches and this was them being built on, though Never for Ever is marked by this sense of a new chapter. Bush did not have a huge amount of time, though there was opportunity to write new material. The album’s title is a reference to conflicting emotions, good and bad, which pass. Bush stated that "we must tell our hearts that it is 'never for ever', and be happy that it's like that”. There was an interesting first revelation that is Babooshka. That song being written and shown to Jon Kelly. I shall come back to that. First, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia collated interviews where Bush spoke about Never for Ever. I have chosen some to highlight:

“Now, after all this waiting it is here. It’s strange when I think back to the first album. I thought it would never feel as new or as special again. This one has proved me wrong. It’s been the most exciting. Its name is Never For Ever, and I’ve called it this because I’ve tried to make it reflective of all that happens to you and me. Life, love, hate, we are all transient. All things pass, neither good [n]or evil lasts. So we must tell our hearts that it is “never for ever”, and be happy that it’s like that!
The album cover has been beautifully created by Nick Price (you may remember that he designed the front of the Tour programme). On the cover of Never For Ever Nick takes us on an intricate journey of our emotions: inside gets outside, as we flood people and things with our desires and problems. These black and white thoughts, these bats and doves, freeze-framed in flight, swoop into the album and out of your hi-fis. Then it’s for you to bring them to life.

Kate Bush Club newsletter, September 1980

Each song has a very different personality, and so much of the production was allowing the songs to speak with their own voices – not for them to be used purely as objects to decorate with “buttons and bows”. Choosing sounds is so like trying to be psychic, seeing into the future, looking in the “crystal ball of arrangements”, “scattering a little bit of stardust”, to quote the immortal words of the Troggs. Every time a musical vision comes true, it’s like having my feet tickled. When it works, it helps me to feel a bit braver. Of course, it doesn’t always work, but experiments and ideas in a studio are never wasted; they will always find a place sometime.
I never really felt like a producer, I just felt closer to my loves – felt good, free, although a little raw, and sometimes paranoia would pop up. But when working with emotion, which is what music is, really, it can be so unpredictable – the human element, that fire. But all my friends, the Jons, and now you will make all the pieces of the Never For Ever jigsaw slot together, and It will be born and It will begin Breathing.

Kate Bush Club newsletter, September 1980”.

Going back to the early sketches and ideas for Never for Ever. Just after Christmas 1979, Jon Kelly was invited to Kate Bush’s flat where she played him Babooshka. The first demo of the song dates back to that time. It is Kate Bush at a piano with her voice. A lead vocal and a harmony vocal. Quite Blues-like and (Bob) Dylan-esque, she would then add an electronic drum. Seeing that song in its infancy would have been fascinating. Jon Kelly heard the piano motif and knew that Babooshka was going to be a hit. That it has this potential. There was a bit of a conflict with this song. The fact it was a natural hit meant she might have to do Top of the Pops. Having endured it rather than enjoyed it when Wuthering Heights was top of the charts and she never really had a good experience, together with promotion and interviews, there was this fear. Recording at Abbey Road’s Studio 2 in January 1980, they spent days in there. Jon Kelly and Kate Bush, as producers, hunting for that perfect sound. Different bass players used. The first album where Bush was casting players and the production was different. Rather than someone saying that the sound was right and sticking with the one player, Bush was not in control and she wanted her songs to sound like she had imagined. Not sit back and let someone else shape then. I am going to explore other sides of Never for Ever in another feature.

However, this is a more general look at a really important and brilliant album. Richard Burgess, who was a player on Never for Ever, explained that Bush and Kelly would experiment and try ideas. Sometimes it did not work, but there was this sense of seeing where something would go. The Fairlight CMI, introduced to Kate Bush by Peter Gabriel, was used on Never for Ever. It was not the most user-friendly piece of kit. Although there were limitations and Bush would have liked to have used it more – a lot of the noises and affects were ‘flown in’ by Jon Kelly using a tape recorder -, it was a process where everyone took turns and used the Fairlight CMI. The noise of doors opening and closing. Vocal effects. It was brought into Abbey Road Studios on four occasions. Although a bit bruised in transportation, this fascinating portal of creativity opened Kate Bush’s mind. Bush could now add anything. Putting the future into nostalgia, to paraphrase her words. No longer having to manipulate her voice to her piano to get an effect, there was now this arsenal of options for her to explore. In the second feature for Never for Ever, I will look at some of the songs and the chart success the album enjoyed. One thing is notable about Never for Ever arriving in 1980. It was a time when many artists were brining politics into their music. Although Bush wrote Army Dreamers and Breathing – the former about a young man senselessly being killed in a war and this sense of it being so futile; the latter a foetus’s perspective of nuclear war incoming and that feeling of doom and maybe being protected in the womb -, Never for Ever was not a reactionary album. Danny Baker interviewed Bush in 1979 and there was this condescending attitude. Why she was not writing about politics. His take on her music was that it was hippy-dippy and insignificant.

Rather than react by filing the album with political themes and almost having this unnatural and knee-jerk reaction, Bush was busy working on what she wanted to write. When race riots happening during Margaret Thatcher’s rule of Britain, Bush was ensconced in the studio. Not that she was oblivious to the troubles. She was concerned, but she was not an artist looking out at the struggles – the Miners’ Strike and the Falklands War – and was putting all of that into the music. Her heart and imagination were still at the controls. Music that was much richer and more fascinating that a lot of the dead-ahead and straighter songs from 1980. That is what makes Never for Ever so special and unique As opposed to it being Bush cause-hopping or this being an album about what was happening in Britain at the time, which would have made it sound dated now, this was Bush doing what she wanted to do. As Graeme Thomson writes in Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush, Bush was a “metaphysical poet in a roomful of hollering three-chord revolutionaries”. The songs on Never for Ever are open and unguarded. They are different and at odds with what was around then. As such, Bush found herself open to press ridicule or some rather sniffy encounters. This got to her. The frustration of dealing with the press. The first album where Bush’s songs were for the whole world and not just for herself.

Never for Ever turns forty-four on 8th September. There is so much to explore and discuss. It is clear that this was a new step and move towards more of where Kate Bush wanted to go. Not quite a complete metamorphism, this was a shedding of the old way of working. Writing at the end of the 1970s and releasing the album in the first year of the 1980s, it could have been a failure. Some critics dismissed the albums and felt it was insignificant in the modern times. Never for Ever did get to number one and gained some amazing reviews. However, I still think that it has remained underrated and misunderstood. Not seen as important and substantial by many, we need to show Never for Ever some love. What I wanted to explore in this feature is how Bush had this new start. A new studio and technology. How it was a chance for her to take the reigns and make her work more personal and true. Not having to ally with a producer that shared a different vision. Forty-four years after its release, Never for Ever remains so impactful and fascinating. You can really hear the differences and evolution. Bush was still twenty-one when she started recording Never for Ever. It is amazing to hear her confidence and ambition! Abbey Road Studios and the Fairlight EMI had helped open up all worlds of possibilities for Kate Bush. Her third studio album changed how she worked. Her mind was now open. From 1980’s masterpiece onwards, there really was…

NO turning back.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Supergrass - Moving

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Supergrass - Moving

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THERE is no denying…

that Supergrass’ first two albums, 1995’s I Should Coco and 1997’s In It for the Money, are classics. A band that came straight out of the gate all guns blazing, there are comparisons with other bands. Rather than it being a difficult second album, they had a difficult third – sort of like Oasis, but for different reasons. I think that 1999’s Supergrass is a fantastic album, yet it does have a few filler tracks and is quite top/middle-heavy with a run of a few lesser tracks to end things. They showed they could not be written off. Their penultimate album, 2005’s Road to Rouen, is one of their best. I am not sure whether we will hear any more music from the band. However, their 1999 album is very special to me and I will mark that with a twenty-fifth anniversary feature closer to 20th September. A transformation and evolution from them, they went from the cheeky chaps and this perception of them and incorporated more elements into Supergrass. Perhaps a bit more maturity and grace. Tracks that build up and were more emotive. Of course, this being Suerpgrass, there was still some of their trademark charm, wit and fun! Songs such as Pumping on Your Stereo and Jesus Came From Outer Space. Many critics felt there were too many half-finished moments and not enough of the excellence heard on In It for the Money. Whilst there was little as raw and hypnotically brilliant as Richard III or Going Out, some of the band’s career-best was on Supergrass. Gaz Coombes, Danny Goffey and Mick Quinn produced a solid and impressive album. Ending the century with plenty of bang! Following Pumping on Your Stereo – the album’s first single, released on 24th May, 1999 – Supergrass’ second single and second most-popular song (and not by much) is the majestic, stirring and beautiful Moving. It is the song that opens Supergrass.

Moving is a sublime track! I agree that Supergrass is not sequenced that well. In the sense that two of the album’s weaker tracks – Your Love and Beautiful People – appear in the top third. Two of the weaker tracks, Far Away and Mama and Papa, end the album. Though Mary offer some mid-album brilliance, there are seven tracks between Moving and Pumping on Your Stereo. I often think that Pumping on Your Stereo should have closed Supergrass, as it would end it on such a high. Also, with their being applause and a humorous five final words (“Can we go home now?”), it would have been perfect. I digress! Moving turns twenty-five on 6th September. I think this was about the date I started at sixth-form college. The Supergrass album was a big fixture and I would hear it played in the social areas and lunch room. Moving was a track that was much-discussed. The band opened the album with, in my view, its strongest cut. Maybe a risk not opening with something like Pumping on Your Stereo or Mary, this was a more reflective band commenting on the rush and endless touring of the past few years. They also knew they could not really release Moving as the first single. That contrast between confidently opening the album with Moving but not feeling it was right as the lead single. Whereas Pumping on Your Stereo reached eleven in the U.K., Moving went to number nine. A triumphant and wonderful top ten single, I know that the band have played it a lot live. As they reformed and toured again fairly recently, I wonder how they feel about Moving. Maybe taking on new meaning. Lines like “Moving, just keep moving/Well I don't know why to stay/No ties to bind me/No reasons to remain” maybe about touring and the endless stop and start of life in the band at that point, now might seem at odds with who they became and how they endured. Those words perhaps less poignant and urgent as they were.

I wanted to spend some time with Moving. I love its slow-motion video. Directed by Nick Gordon, its pace and sense of somnambulism and sleepiness depicts the tedium and routine of touring. The weariness and the displacement. How they had no home. Many critics look at Moving as a reason why Supergrass feels less inspired or tired. Perhaps touring taking too much out. The band needing a kick and refresh. 2002’s Life on Other Planets – whilst not hugely acclaimed – went some way to returning in some ways to their former self. People dismiss Supergrass’ third album. It arrived after two adored albums and extensive touring. They needed to change pace and develop their music. Not repeat what they did before. The Moving video is large slow-motion, but there are sections sped up too. Bits repeated. It is that disorientation. Playing Moving at shows fairly recently – this review of a 2020 set not long before the COVID-19 lockdowns is an example -, I hope we get to hear it played live again by Supergrass. There are some features and reviews I want to come to. In 2017, this blog gave their opinion on the magnificent Moving:

“The people:
Written by Gaz Coombes, Rob Coombes, Danny Goffey & Mick Quinn.
Produced by Supergrass & John Cornfield.
Lead vocals by Gaz Coombes.
Backing vocals by Mick Quinn & Danny Goffey.
Guitar by Gaz Coombes.
Drums by Danny Goffey.
Bass by Mick Quinn.
Keyboards by Rob Coombes.

The opinion:
Every once in a while, Random.org gives me a britpop song to write about in this series. This week we get one of the most successful bands of the genre, but also one of the bands that seems to have faded from public consciousness the most. Not really deserved if you ask me, even if it is also somewhat understandable.

The core of their appeal might also have been their downfall in the long run: they made unpretentious songs that sound breezy. Especially their hit singles sound so effortless that you might forget they are secretly something special. Few bands can make a whole career out of music so giddy and upbeat (regardless if the lyrics are all that happy). Its’s a modus operandi that became a bit more prominent in indie rock during the 2000’s, though, but few acts were at the same time so unabashedly poppy as well as alternatively cool as Supergrass at the time. They had broad appeal.

IN THIS PHOTO: Supergrass in 1999/PHOTO CREDIT: Martyn Goodacre

Moving was one of the last real hits the band had; in fact it was the very last in many areas. Although it is one of the least ambitious songs they ever did it still deserves to be seen as a definite final hurrah. Though I’m aware that a case can be made of much subsequent work as being of equal quality, these mostly weren’t hits. Moving was the last big time in the limelight.

The lyrics are in some way about the downside of the limelight. For musicians it means touring, seemingly endlessly. Gaz Coombes essentially sings about the mental boredom and loneliness that comes from the travelling. He wasn’t exactly the first to do so. I don’t know which singer sung about this the first, but the oldest I’m aware of are Simon & Garfunkel on their classic Homeward Bound. Other notable songs about this subject are the popular Faithfully by Journey and the ode to roadies by Jackson Browne, named The Load-Out. There are happier examples too: the Ramones basically bring an ode to their travel schedule on Touring and John Foggerty celebrated “Rockin’ All Over the World”, which was also a hit for Status Quo.

The thing about Moving is that it has lyrics that sound rather sad on paper, but the song itself doesn’t feel that way. This is not a band given to sharing deep, painful feelings. The opening seems to become a honest-to-goodness ballad, but quickly the chorus sets in and everything becomes both up-tempo and upbeat. In fact, when that chorus hits it feels like an explosion, thanks to both a small second of silence before it and a change in volume. It might not be the most original thing ever, but for me it makes the song, as it is executed so satisfyingly.

That goes a long way in explaining the appeal of Moving and Supergrass. Among their Britpop contemporaries they never had the depth of The Verve, the sense of exploration of Blur, the swagger of Oasis and all of the above of Pulp. Yet on songs like this or the other hit of the album, Pumping On Your Stereo, they delivered shameless pop executed in such a way that it became cool, while still retaining its sense of fun. The handclaps, the hooky chorus, heck even the videoclip that turns boredom into something goofy: everything has an honest celebratory feeling that make all these potentially annoying elements glorious.

Of course, as said there was little depth to all this, musically of lyrically, which might in the long run be the reason people forget about them more easily than other britpop contemporaries. I know I can be dismissive of this kind of unassuming music every now and then, but I also have to acknowledge that there is definitely place for well-executed pop as this.
7/10”.

In fact, I will bring in this feature from Medium and then round off I think. There is a lot to dissect and discuss when it comes to Moving. In terms of its timing and its relevance to where Supergrass were at that point psychologically. Its position on the Supergrass album and its significance of a single release. For anyone new to Supergrass who were too young when the single came out in September 1999, I hope that they check it out:

“Time moves, man: sometimes slowly, sometimes sideways, sometimes with unbearable celerity. But its constant is always motion.

Moving, just keep moving
’til I don’t know what I’m saying
I’ve been moving so long
The days all feel the same

Through time, we are propelled through space. We go from Day 1 to Day Now, a specific place along the line we travel from birth to death. But how do we distinguish if this day is unlike any other? The peripheral landscape might be different: the colours are greener? — the birds are chirpier? — the strangers seem to smile more?

And how does gravity affect the movement? Can it bend time onto itself, to where present me can kiss the forehead of 14 year old me, and I can whisper solemnly, “this will pass, young sir — just keep on moving.”

Supergrass is phenomenal. I hold them up there with Radiohead, and Oasis, as my favorite bands from across the pond during the last couple decades. And honestly, I think their discography, as a whole, probably outdoes those other two bands, as I adore all their albums. Their debut, I Should Coco, is a raucous display of pop sensibilities through a filter of English punk attitude (you’re surely familiar with “Alright” — which to me is what I think Ray Davies would have written if he were born in the late 70s). The whole album is downright anthemic.

Moving, just keep moving
Well I don’t know why to stay
No ties to bind me
No reasons to remain

Though they also didn’t rest on that formula. Their third release, Supergrass, is a masterpiece. It’s more “Village Green” than “You Really Got Me,” with lovely songs that might evoke English meadows on rainy afternoons. “Moving” is the lead track, and it reveals the perfect voice of Gaz Coombes. The song starts with that voice over an acoustic and subtle synth, through the verse. The chorus bounces in, with the bass and drums and electric guitar. There’s a beautiful juxtaposition between the two sections, which comprise the whole song (the third “verse” plays out with no vocals, but rather an outro solo that mirrors the verse vocal melody). It’s a simple song construct that is executed brilliantly.

Moving, keep on moving
Where I feel I’m home again
And when it’s over
I’ll see you again

Time, man. It moves. And we go where the line takes us through space. And we can only anticipate what our future experiences might offer us.

Until then: there’s Supergrass. There’s Gaz Coombes. There’s symmetry as we wait to live, as we move forward”.

On 6th September, Moving turns twenty-five. A song that arrived at a moment of change for Supergrass, its lyrics can apply to modern touring. That grind and mundanity. One of their most revealing tracks to that moment, it was the second single from the brilliant Supergrass album – one that will remain underrated I fear. A tremendous single that I can’t believe is almost twenty-five, it will always be special to me. And, yes, as its title suggest, it is a song that will always move me! That is the power of Supergrass! For those who have not played Moving in a while, make sure that you play it now. It only takes one play through…

BEFORE it hits you!

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Songs from The Final Albums of Legendary Artists

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Songs from The Final Albums of Legendary Artists

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THIS Digital Mixtape…

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

is dedicated to Led Zeppelin, whose final album, In Through the Out Door, was released in the U.S. on 22nd August, 1969. Marking fifty years of the final chapter of one of the all-time great bands, I wanted to look at the final albums from legendary artists. Whether classic bands like Led Zeppelin or The Beatles or an amazing solo artist, it is quite sad knowing that this will be the end. That said, many bands get back together, so you can never say never! Even so, you can definitely say that about Led Zeppelin! Whilst not one of their finest studio albums, In Through the Out Door still has some brilliant moments. The band did not know it would be their final album. Their drummer John Bonham died in 1980. In Through the Out Door was a big commercial success. To celebrate that, below are tracks from the final albums of some huge artists. Whether for sad reasons or calling time on things, these cuts show you that, in many cases, there was still gas in the tank! The Digital Mixtape shining a spotlight on…

PHOTO CREDIT: Ivan Samkov/Pexels

SOME fine swansongs.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Tour of Life: From Big Stripey Lie to Hounds of Love: Inside the Greatest Tracks and Albums Lists

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Tour of Life

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing in Paris in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

From Big Stripey Lie to Hounds of Love: Inside the Greatest Tracks and Albums Lists

_________

BEFORE I dive into…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: John Stoddart

some anniversary features and start looking more at albums that were released in September, I wanted to spend a brief bit of time with the lists you see with Kate Bush’s greatest tracks ranked. It is not pertinent in the sense there has been debate or a new list published. I am thinking back and wondering whether these rankings make a difference on our listening. Definitely, you do notice the same tracks coming in the top ten or twenty. A few surprises through in here and there. I think the most recent one might have been from MOJO. With more than a hundred album tracks and some B-sides and covers, there is enough to choose from for a top fifty. I like the fact that MOJO included songs like Song of Solomon in their list – where they placed it at forty-eight:

“Kate swears! In her most R&B song ever.

Marmite, this one. To some “Don’t want your bullshit/Just want your sexuality” is too much information; they prefer their Kate crouched behind prettier metaphors. To others, the startling thrill of Bush’s most direct and demanding love song brooks no contest. It’s startling, but that’s the point: Bush is shocking the guy “who walks the path of the solitary heart” out of his aloof self-importance. And if that doesn’t work, how about “I’ll come in a hurricane for you”? That got his attention”.

Some might say that there are notable songs missed out. That is the thing with song rankings. You will always get some omissions. I am going to bring in some other rankings and lists. MOJO gave us some nice surprises in their ranking from earlier in the year. I like that more obscure songs get attention and people will discover them. I also think that it shows what variety you get from Kate Bush. Whether the same albums are mentioned in the top twenty. I think Hounds of Love will always have the majority vote when it comes to songs in the higher places. I might do a top fifty myself one day. I will discuss the albums and rankings later and what we can learn. I love looking at rankings and how people now perceive and judge songs released from years ago. Especially when it comes to Kate Bush and her earlier work. That period not getting enough attention. MOJO put The Kick Inside’s Feel It at forty-one – though they chose the live take from 1979’s The Tour of Life as the preferred version:

“Falling in lust and in public.

Only Kate Bush can do this: the nice, suburban, English girl, wafting away generations of social/cultural inhibitions – like diaphanous veils, rather than the brick walls many of us crash into as we grow up or try to. Horny sweetness, rampant joy, unbridled grace: song and performance are multifaceted oxymorons, dynamic self-contradictions, and that’s how she reaches so many of us. She asks the same questions we all ask time and again through life and, like Ulysses’ Molly Bloom, she answers: Yes. The live version from 1979’s Tour Of Life remains faithful to The Kick Inside’s simplicity – Kate at the piano, no phantasmagorical show going on around her – but it gains the different intimacy of performance in front of a couple of thousand people, the astonishing candour of sharing with so many, right there, absorbing every detail”.

Critical opinion might differ from the public’s, though it is interesting getting to that top twenty. The elite songs. Will many share the same top ten?! In terms of MOJO, they start with Never for Ever’s Breathing. Never for Ever gets three inclusions. You tend to find that Never for Ever, The Dreaming and Hounds of Love gets most inclusion. Those three consecutive albums that ran between 1980 to 1985. In their top five are two songs from The Kick Inside – Wuthering Heights (two) and The Man with the Child in His Eyes (five) – and Hounds of Love gets three songs in there: Cloudbusting at ten, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) at three and Hounds of Love at one:

“Kate runs headlong from love and right into its clutches.

No matter how refined the circumstances of its creation – built at leisure in Bush’s new 48-track studio – or how newfangled its production – still tangible in the hi-tech stabs and pads of Fairlight, and the crispness of Jonathan Williams’ cello – Hounds Of Love is red in tooth and claw, its breathless, atavistic fear of capture mixed with almost supernatural rapture. Love is thundering through the psychosexual woods, hunting down somebody terrified of what it means to surrender to another person. The song opens with a quote from British horror film Night Of The Demon but that’s the only moment it feels like theatre. From then on, Hounds Of Love maintains a dizzying emotional velocity, the relentless double drumming of Charlie Morgan and Stuart Elliott stamping down on the accelerator. Bush’s voice might dip and soften, but those drums are merciless, while the strident backing vocals, like a hunting horn call, goad her on if introspection threatens to slow her down. It never lets up, every line heightening the pitch, closing the distance between song and listener. It ends with a suddenness that makes it seem like she’s hit the ground and you’ve hit it with her, breathlessly waiting for an answer to the question: “Do you know what I really need?” The uncertainty, however, is not reflected in the confidence – the perfect, dazzling completeness – of the song’s execution. On Hounds Of Love, Kate Bush is going at full pelt, chasing the horizon, running her vision to ground. Not really the hunted, but the hunter all along”.

It is perhaps not surprising that the bigger songs and singles get into the top ten. I wonder whether there is too much risk putting deeper cuts into the top spots. MOJO did include Aerial’s Mrs. Bartolozzi at seven. Lionheart’s Wow came at nine. In fact, there were a couple of surprise entries in the top twenty: A Coral Room from Aerial at thirteen; a B-side, Under the Ivy, at seventeen…and even Waking the Witch being at sixteen is a nice high place. Do opinions change over time regarding which Kate Bush songs are best? It is clear that Hounds of Love has this dominance, though there are other albums getting a nod. When it comes to the highest places, it is a split between Hounds of Love and The Kick Inside. It is the surprises and new perspectives that compel us to dig deep. When What Hi-Fi? listed seventeen Kate Bush songs to test your stereo to, there were songs in there that never really get high up songs ranking lists. Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake (from 1978’s Lionheart), Rubberband Girl (The Red Shoes) and Hounds of Love’s Mother Stands for Comfort (the only song on the album never performed live; the only song from the album’s first side not released as a single). I like that you get the same songs coming high up. It shows that there is love for them. However, with every list and feature, you get some differences that are interesting. How various people view her work and the songs that are best. LOUDER named their top forty Kate Bush songs last year. There were at least six or seven big surprise. A song like The Infant Kiss being in the mix – though it does deserve to be!

“The Infant Kiss (Never For Ever, 1980)

This haunting track was inspired by the 1961 film The Innocents, based on Henry James’ The Turn Of The Screw, about a governess who suspects her charges may be possessed. The young boy flirts with the governess as Bush sings, ‘What is this? An infant kiss that sends my body tingling?’

Alice Lowe: “Kate Bush is such a consummate storyteller; her songs draw you in and take you on an emotional journey. The vulnerability is just astonishing, something about the glass tone of her voice and the unashamed femininity. The subject matter certainly had me fascinated, even scandalised – [it’s] one of her most controversial songs because many thought the lyrics were about paedophilia. But even as a child I was struck by how she was one of the few artists singing about children, childbirth, a child’s perspective, a mother’s perspective”.

Lionheart got a few inclusions. It is a magnificent album that never gets its fair credit. My favourite Kate Bush song, Houdini from The Dreaming, was also picked as one of her forty best songs. Once more, it gives these lesser-known tracks some oxygen and love:

“Houdini (The Dreaming, 1982)

Catherine Anne Davies, The Anchoress: “Kate herself has spoken about how ‘emotionally demanding’ Houdini was to write, and it really manages to capture that beautiful and strange relationship of Houdini and his wife. It’s like a small novel, unwrapped over the course of a single song. I find it so beautiful and epic in its range and depth trying to convey that relationship from beyond the grave.

“Kate’s voice on this stands out for me in terms of its emotional and tonal range: to go from the fragile tenderness of the verses, really conveying the emotion of the story she’s stepping into, and then the utter power of that almost death metal scream/cry in her voice: ‘With your spit still on my lip, you hit the water.’ Just devastating. The way that the fretless bass interweaves with her top line in verse two is stunning. I’m obsessed with the whole arrangement. It’s just perfection”.

Whilst some listings and rankings would overlook albums like The Red Shoes, there were some important inclusions in the LOUDER list. Celebrating songs that are ignored and seen as inessential. You’re the One is a classic example:

“You’re The One (The Red Shoes, 1993)

Anneke Van Giersbergen: “Kate’s lyrics are usually very poetical and sometimes mystical, but this song is so down-to-earth and honest: ‘I’m okay and will move on,’ but suddenly she gets really honest and confesses that she just misses her big love. That contradiction always gets me.

“The song has a long outro solo by Jeff Beck, which is breathtakingly beautiful. There’s a lot going on vocally. There’s this beautiful contrast both musically and lyrically between the verses – descriptive and practical – and the choruses, which are so very emotional and desperate.

“I love that Kate is so involved with every aspect of her music. Also, she doesn’t seem to care about fame or success, but wants to create on her own terms. She has taught me the importance of integrity and being honest as an artist”.

Stereogum did a top ten in 2022 and included the underrated Rubberband Girl in there. I think opinion and narrative does change through time. Obviously, there might be some subjectiveness and personal bias, though we can learn a few things from song rankings. What various people value in songs. Those who instantly go for the obvious tracks. Those who dig deeper. I think we would all debate every song ranking list and say that the order is wrong! The Guardian’s ranking of her singles from 2018 was especially surprising. Lyra (from the soundtrack album of the film, The Golden Compass, in 2007) is definitely not one of Bush’s best singles but was seen as her twenty-third-best. Love and Anger came in sixteenth. Again, not one of the strongest. It is good Rubberband Girl consistently gets some love, even if Kate Bush dismissed The Red Shoes version as a throwaway song. She revisited it for Director’s Cut and I get the feeling she was not overly-fond of that version. What I have noticed is that five songs in particular come in the top five or ten for most. You have Hounds of Love and Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), Wuthering Heights, The Man with the Child in His Eyes and This Woman’s Work. Again, known and big songs. You tend to find something from Hounds of Love comes top – though occasionally Wuthering Heights steals it. There is a whole psychologically behind the switch of number one. There was a time when Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) was always the favourite and, even though that song enjoyed a resurgence in 2022, Hounds of Love ranks higher and seen as better.

Like albums by The Beatles. Is it a case of various works revealing strength over time or something else affecting our opinions and perceptions?! It is interesting to explore it psychologically. Same with Kate Bush albums. Going back to the songs, and it is clear that albums like The Red Shoes, The Sensual World, 50 Words for Snow and Aerial don’t do too well. I wonder whether this is to do with the age of the person writing features or something in the songs that means they do not connect as hard. A lot the denser or more experimental tracks could make a top fifty but not so the much higher positions. When it comes to album rankings, Hounds of Love nearly always comes top. I can understand to an extent, though it is strange few have a different choice. If some rankings change, you tend to find the same patterns with album lists. Hounds of Love will be top. The Kick Inside is top three or four. In the bottom three positions will be Lionheart, The Red Shoes and Director’s Cut. Maybe mirroring critical opinion or the lack of exposure these albums get, I do worry that some worthy and brilliant albums will always be seen as runts and inferior. I will take four examples of album ranking features. Rough Trade put Hounds of Love top, through they shockingly put 50 Words for Snow at ten! Even so, Lionheart, Director’s Cut and The Red Shoes were low. SPIN following the same pattern. It is surprising that 50 Words for Snow comes so low. They put it in eighth. One of her most acclaimed albums, there must be something that puts off some critics. Strange. I would have 50 Words for Snow in the top five!

NME’s 2019 ranking is a standard pattern. Those predictable bottom three and Hounds of Love coming top. In 2022, The Pink News again put The Red Shoes, Lionheart, 50 Words for Snow and Director’s Cut in the bottom four. Not a lot connecting these albums. Two are from 2011, so I am curious whether it is a generational thing or people not loving the modern Kate Bush albums. Director’s Cut and 50 Words for Snow not getting the love they deserve. I always feel Lionheart should be higher up. How much of these albums do people listen to before voting?! Hounds of Love once again top. What we can see is that there is this favourite across the board and four albums that will sit in the bottom four. A bit of change and shift with the other five, though we tend to see The Kick Inside and The Dreaming high up and The Sensual World, Never for Ever and Aerial lower. The fact 2005’s Aerial much more regarded than 2011’s 50 Words for Snow. So much to discuss when it comes to album and track rankings. If I did my top ten Kate Bush albums, The Kick Inside would beat out Hounds of Love. Never for Ever in third. I would have The Red Shoes and Director’s Cut in the bottom two, though Lionheart and 50 Words for Snow would be higher. In terms of song rankings, I would have Houidini at one and my top-rated Hounds of Love track would be The Big Sky – a song that never really gets affection or a high placing. It would be good to get other people’s views on the best Kate Bush songs and albums. What they think about various rankings and if there is a reason why there is a shift in popularity for various songs and time period – and why 50 Words for Snow is so underrated! I do like the mix of surprising placings, odd choices, the usual favourites and how these lists might shift and adapt in years to come. However, it is always upsetting to see great Kate Bush songs and albums…

LEFT out in the cold.

FEATURE: Oasis’ Definitely Maybe at Thirty: Ranking the Tracks

FEATURE:

 

 

Oasis’ Definitely Maybe at Thirty

Ranking the Tracks

_________

EVEN if Oasis’…

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

debut album, Definitely Maybe, was a hugely promising start that was not necessarily sustained for too long, it was a really important album. Released on 29th August, 1994, you can get the album here. I am going to get to a sample review for Definitely Maybe. I am also going to rank the eleven tracks from Definitely Maybe. One of the best debut albums of the 1990s, it firmly introduced Oasis to the world. With the songwriting of Noel Gallagher and the vocals of Liam Gallagher, it is small wonder Definitely Maybe resonated. I think that the directness of the songs and the energy throughout captured a spirit and need of the time. When Grunge and darker sounds from the U.S. were more popular, Oasis wanted to create an album that was more jubilant, rousing and uplifting. They did that with Definitely Maybe. You can hear a brilliant podcast here that charts the rise and fall of Oasis. There is depth and detail about Definitely Maybe and the way it was reacted to by critics and fans. It was an exciting time. I will get to the tracks in a minute. First, in 2014, TIME looked inside the amazing Definitely Maybe:

“Despite the fact that they already thought of themselves as “the next Beatles” and made no bones about wanting to be one of the biggest, most successful bands in the world, Definitely Maybe was not a game-changer in making music the way Nevermind was or OK Computer would be. I firmly believe that Blur was the far more creative, technical, and original band of the two (especially after learning from the mistakes of their debut, Leisure), but when it came to making pop music that could find a footing on both sides of the pond, Oasis had it nailed down — for a few reasons.

The first was that in spite of Oasis being a firmly British band (their demo tape was a Union Jack image swirled), they didn’t let that consume them or become an identifying factor for the group, at least not in a way alienating to non-Britons. Oasis used British imagery as part of their schtick, but it didn’t dominate the music. Blur made no qualms about wanting to pursue a distinctly British feel on their albums, and they did so very successfully…in the UK. But like the Jam before them, one of the most important and influential bands post-‘76/’77, their devotion to their homeland would fail to resonate with the Yankees overseas, and as a result would fail to sell records in the numbers they were used to at home.

The second and perhaps main reason was the group’s use of guitars. It may not seem like much, or may seem too obvious to rest a lot of the band’s success on the guitar, but think about when Radiohead first appeared. There was such a lack of guitar-based rock in the UK at the time that the only thing people would talk about was how Radiohead had three guitarists, as if that was completely unheard of (which, at the time, it kind of was).

A third reason for Oasis’ success overseas, both in general and over Blur, could be tied to having to sign to Sony for worldwide distribution due to issues securing an American contract through their label, Creation, who actually had to pay license to Sony to distribute the band in the UK. So, in addition to the creative marketing that the band used at home, they also had the long reach courtesy of Sony. But, as that was out of the band’s actual control, as opposed to their image and music, this might very well be chalked up to being at the right place at the right time.

As implied in the beginning of this piece, 20 years ago also lands us in the middle of grunge and all that is associated with it. And, in the US at the time, grunge (and maybe G-funk) was the only thing that seemed to matter. Oasis’ ability to blend in the elements of psychedelia (both from the ’60s and the updated versions associated with baggy), the swirling haze of dream pop and shoegaze, the melodic tendencies of a dozen other bands, and the crunch of guitar (though certainly not as abrasive as grunge or post-grunge) let Oasis slip nicely into what was happening in both countries. In the UK, kids weaned on Manchester’s continually evolving sounds would feel right at home listening to a track like “Up in the Sky” (a song that, when slowed down, would probably fit nicely on Ride’s Nowhere) just as much as an American kid might gravitate towards the crunchy feedback-laden guitar work in a track like album opener “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”.When Definitely Maybe dropped in August of 1994, it wasn’t out of the blue. Oasis had steadily been releasing singles for a few months prior, beginning with “Supersonic” on April 11, 1994, six days after Cobain’s suicide. Though “Supersonic” was the first official single released by Oasis (and it even charted in the UK Top 40), the group had been passing around a ‘white label’ demo of their track “Columbia” for a few months prior, but with little interest generated. With the deluxe reissue of Definitely Maybe, that white label demo version has been included, as well as an alternate mix of “Columbia”. Not only does it show that the band was on to something, but also how easily the band could have been written off (especially when listening to the third version of the song included on disc three).

Usually I am not a fan of overloaded box sets with all sorts of multiple versions of songs that barely differ, but in this case I actually find it somewhat interesting to go back and hear what Oasis sounded like before they got a proper producer. For the most part, the demos represent a band that had good ideas and were on the right path, but that something was just not quite all the way there. In John Harris’ book Britpop!, Creation Records label head Tim Abbott summed it up perfectly: “[We] had a great sesh, and we listened to it over and over again. And all I could think was, ‘It ain’t got the attack.’ There was no immediacy.” Consider the two versions of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”, the album version and the demo. Though it is still filled with swagger, the demo lacks the braggadocio of the finalized product, yet in a weird twist, actually highlights Liam Gallagher’s voice better. I have never been one to idolize Liam or his style. In fact, I think his voice is rather lackluster, minimal in range; and though he has been heralded as a cross between John Lennon and John Lydon, he’s far more nasally than either (and when you consider how Noel stood in successfully for his brother during the group’s Unplugged performance, it almost relegates Liam to desired but not necessary for the band’s success). But listening to Liam on these demos, dare I say that there is a bit of range in his singing? It almost begs the question as to what happened to it in mixing.

The most obvious thing taken away from the demo versions of these songs is that though Noel had the songwriting chops and vision, he was missing the objectivity that comes with an outside producer, in this case Mark Coyle, Dave Batchelor (a friend of Noel’s from his days working with Inspiral Carpets), and Owen Morris, an associate of Johnny Marr and an engineer-turned-producer trained in the ways of Phil Spector and Tony Visconti. It was Morris who would be instrumental in putting the balls on Definitely Maybe. In fact, it would be fair to say that without Morris, there would be no Definitely Maybe; at least not in the way we’ve come to know. One of the first things he did was effectively ego-check Noel when he stripped off all the guitar overdubs that Gallagher had layered over the album’s material, and as John Harris stated, “remoulded [the album] into something positively pile-driving.” Morris would go on to produce the first four Oasis albums.

Think about the band’s third single, a song described by Noel as “the tune that changed everything,” and the first that really woke people up to Oasis’ potential: “Live Forever”. In addition to cutting out part of Noel’s guitar solo to tighten things up and make it sound less like what he described as “Slash from Guns n’ Roses,” Morris excised the demo’s acoustic guitar intro to give the song a bit more weight, and instead had drummer Tony McCarroll play a beat that not only solidifies the song but helps give it a boost in becoming the monumental track it would eventually become known as. It’s almost a twisted irony that McCarroll played a part that almost immediately identifies the song but was later fired from the band by Noel for not having the skills to do the job.

In spite of Noel’s objections to an album having five singles, if one were to include both the white label release of “Columbia” and the US single for “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”, Oasis plucked six songs out of 11 from their debut album, four of which were released before the album, and three rather successfully. And that certainly does not suggest that the non-singles were not worthy of release. “Slide Away”, the last rocker on the album, and a love song on par with “Wonderwall” but with more “grr” and less “ahh,” was originally slated for release until Noel objected. Easily one of the strongest tracks on the album, it has gone on to become a fan favorite and I can only imagine that it’s amazing live. Every time I hear Liam wail that refrain, I see pyrotechnics going off all around.

In spite of everything that Oasis would become on record, on stage, in the tabloids, Definitely Maybe stands above it all. It came before the drama and the bullshit that fed into the media’s desire for conflict. Be it the interpersonal conflict between the brothers Gallagher or the inter-band conflicts with Blur and others, this album remains unscathed. Yes, the brothers fought prior to and during this album’s creation, release, and tour, but not to the point that it was overwhelming or distracting to the fans. That would come later. As would the “Battle of Britpop,” so labeled by the press when Blur’s label intentionally released their single “Country House” the same day as Oasis was set to release “Roll With It”. (Blur may have won the battle, but Oasis most certainly won the war.) And of course, the press’ obsession with the band’s antics, especially Liam’s, rather than the group’s music, wouldn’t overtake everything for another couple of albums. At the time of Definitely Maybe, there was nothing but hope and promise for Oasis. For a band that set out to take over the world and be the greatest rock and roll group since the Beatles, they were well on their way”.

Of course, all of the tracks on Definitely Maybe at great. There are some stronger and more renowned than others. Eleven interesting and worthy songs, I did want to order them. The classics from those who warrant more listening and attention. I am taking from Billboard and their song-by-song feature from 2014. I know that:

ELEVEN

“Married With Children”: Although “Definitely Maybe” is a distinctly British record, it ends with an acoustic tune inspired by American sitcom heroes Al and Peg Bundy. As Noel told the NME, he was thinking about the travails of cohabitation when “Married With Children” happened to pop on the TV. “It’s another song that anybody could relate to,” he explained, “because if you live with a girlfriend or just a flatmate, there are always pretty things that you hate about them, and the song’s just about pettiness”.

TEN

“Digsy’s Dinner”: If Noel doesn’t woo you with his melodies or his winning personality, there’s always plan C: his totally amazing lasagna. Liam stretches the vowels like they’re strands of mozzarella, and yet despite the playful down-stroked guitar and music-hall piano, “Digsy’s” isn’t as cheesy as it seems. “These could be the best days of our lives,” Liam sings, “But I don’t’ think we’ve been living very wise.” Maybe the domesticity he disses two songs later isn’t such a bad thing”.

NINE

“Bring It On Down”: On the disc’s grungiest track, Liam takes aim at some loathsome “you” that sounds an awful lot like himself: “You’re the outcast / you’re the underclass / but you don’t care because you’re living fast.” Drummer Tony McCarroll gets a lot of gruff for being a rudimentary player, but it’s his bashing that anchors Noel’s wanking and turns this rather tuneless song into something memorable”.

EIGHT

“Up in the Sky”: Whether Liam has a clue what the lyrics are about, he sings each line with the same electricity heard in Noel’s scorching psych-rock guitar riff. Liam’s fired up by the mere idea of saying something profound, and when you’ve got a singer that keen, any old mumbo-jumbo will do”.

SEVEN

“Columbia”: Buried in the thick swirl of psychedelic guitars is one of the disc’s most honest lines: “I can’t tell you the way I feel / because the way I feel is oh so new to me.” Rather than try to articulate feelings he doesn’t even understand, Noel pours all of his energy into creating music that makes his confusion sound sexy”.

SIX

“Supersonic”: “No one’s gonna tell you what I’m on about,” Liam sings, and again, that hardly matters. From the opening drumbeat and moody guitar arpeggio, “Supersonic” is another terrific mix of youthful posturing — “I need to be myself / I can’t be no one else” — and pure nonsense. The line about “a girl called Elsa” who’s “into Alka Seltzer” refers to a farting dog, and the whole thing reportedly took 10 minutes to write”.

FIVE

“Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”: The ambition was there from the start, though Liam isn’t just singing about making loads of money and shagging supermodels. Music represents an escape from the monotony of the city, and if you can make a big glorious noise like this — check out the cacophony around the 4:00 mark — you’re at least halfway to a better life.

FOUR

“Shakermaker”: The Gallaghers may be rip-off artists, but at least they swipe from multiple sources at once. Here, they nick the verse melody from the 1971 Coca-Cola jingle “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)” — a bit of thievery that cost them dearly in court — and borrow the word “plasticine” from “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds,” an obvious reference point for this goofy neo-psychedelic pastiche. The characters of “Mr. Clean” and “Mr. Soft,” meanwhile, come from Jam and Cockney Rebel songs. Noel was lucky he only faced one lawsuit. There were grounds for a class action”

THREE

“Slide Away”: Similar in sound and feel to “Live Forever,” “Slide Away” is the album’s only real love song. It’s more “us against the world” rhetoric, though Noel says more with his soaring guitar licks — composed on a Les Paul borrowed from Johnny Marr — than he does with his lyrics”.

TWO

“Cigarettes and Alcohol”: You can’t go wrong with a T. Rex groove or lyrics about drugs and booze, and this song has both. It also has something resembling a political message: “Is it worth the aggravation / to find yourself a job when there’s nothing worth working for?” The short answer: no. Crack a can, light a match, bang a gong, get it on”.

ONE

“Live Forever”: If “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” is a late-night affirmation — something to scream at 2 a.m. after a few gin and tonics — “Live Forever” is the sober early-morning corollary. No one thinks of the Gallaghers as optimists, but here, Liam does a fine job of selling Noel’s “wanna live, don’t wanna die” hopefulness. It’s about young outsiders chasing immortality, and it’s Britpop’s national anthem”.

FEATURE: Amelia: This Flight Tonight: Putting Women at the Centre of Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

Amelia

This Flight Tonight: Putting Women at the Centre of Albums

_________

IT is a bit…

IN THIS PHOTO: Amelia Earhart

of a coincidence, but we have two albums about Amelia Earhart coming along. On 30th August, Laurie Anderson releases Amelia (“Amelia’ is due August 30. Laurie Anderson’s first new album since 2018’s Grammy-winning ‘Landfall,’ it comprises twenty-two tracks about renowned female aviator Amelia Earhart’s tragic last flight. Anderson wrote the music and lyrics. She is joined on the album by Filharmonie Brno, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, and Anohni, Gabriel Cabezas, Rob Moose, Ryan Kelly, Martha Mooke, Marc Ribot, Tony Scherr, Nadia Sirota, and Kenny Wolleson”). You can hear examples of Laurie Anderson speaking about the album. Here on BBC Radio 4 and with The Stranger. Anderson explained why she wanted to focus on Amelia Earhart:

“Why did you choose Amelia Earhart?

She was very badass. She decided, if I complete my flight around the world, I'm going to set up a situation so that girls can participate in shop class. There's still a stigma about women in technology—except in coding. How many women do you see doing other tech stuff? Or, for that matter, how many women are in government? I just thought that we’d be so much more advanced by now.

Things are going backward, like abortion rights. What time is it? I thought we did that in the '70s! We did do it; I was there. I remember our sense of achievement. We never thought it would start going backward like this. We never imagined that. The world is full of stuff that you can’t imagine. But, here we are”.

It is quite a risk perhaps focusing on a subject like a female aviator. Maybe most people do not know who is. Quite obscure in a way. It is important putting women at the front of albums. Making sure we highlight more incredible women. I will come to another album that is about Amelia Earhart. First, this is what Uncut said about Amelia:

“On Amelia, Laurie Anderson tells the story of Earhart’s life as she makes her fateful attempt, in 1937, to circumnavigate the world in a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra plane. It’s a riveting tale anyway, straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, but Anderson – who was first commissioned to work on this back in 2000 and has performed versions of it, on and off, since then – puts herself in Earhart’s position, right in the cockpit, so that we experience the journey as a daily diary inspired by Earhart’s own pilot entries. With Anderson at the controls, imagining what it’s like to fly, it flows as if in a dream state – part biography, part hallucinatory audiobook.

Having written about herself from an anthropological point of view for much of her career – most recently on 2018’s Landfall, with Kronos Quartet, about Hurricane Sandy, and 2015’s reflection on mortality, Heart Of A Dog – Amelia is Anderson’s first major work of biography. But she approaches Earhart with the same cool-headed mix of fascination and curiosity as any of her weightier subjects, looking for what made the woman tick and extracting the humanity in the story through her research. Of course, both Anderson and Earhart are pioneers in their respective fields, and you sense that Anderson sees something of herself in the way Earhart instinctively positioned herself at the forefront of communications, science and technology in the 1930s while breaking down barriers between the sexes. “She was the original blogger,” says Anderson, noting that had Earhart lived, she planned to open an engineering school for girls. As Earhart declares, in a broadcast excerpt Anderson uses for one track: “This modern world of science and invention is of particular interest to women, for the lives of women have been more affected by its new horizons that any other group.”

Anderson calls her first performance of Amelia, at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2000, “a train-wreck”, and so this final recorded version, propelled by an orchestral score that conjures the serenity and anxiety of flight, is the result of years of tweaks and improvements. She added a layer of electronics, guitar and percussion, as well as engine and external sounds for a more immersive listen, and presents each of the 22 tracks as a short diary entry, either a paragraph or page, narrated by Anderson in that calm, reassuring voice. “I remember going to the airfields at night in Los Angeles, and watching the daredevil pilots do loop de loops in the sky,” she says on “Flying At Night”, which Earhart would have done. As the custodian of her late husband Lou Reed’s archive, Anderson, who is 77, knows how difficult it is to assemble biography – Amelia can only be her interpretation of events, laced with that quality of magic realism Anderson brings to all her projects

On that final flight, Earhart set off eastwards from Oakland, California on May 20 with her navigator Fred Noonan, stopping off as planned in various countries on the route, where she would speak to local reporters to make sure her trip received as much publicity as possible. On July 2, they took off from Lae in Papua New Guinea for Howland Island, 2,000 miles away in the Pacific Ocean, but never made it. Radio communication was poor and the plane likely ran out of fuel, ditching in the sea – there have been various attempts to locate it. Earhart and Noonan were officially declared dead in 1939.

Anderson heightens the drama as Earhart’s flight nears its watery end. The music of “India And On Down To Australia” is melodious and dreamy as excitement builds, Anderson whispers and sings using Auto-tune. But as they head over Indonesia, the physical toll hits Earhart – “I’m tired, so tired” – she’s exhausted, almost hallucinating as the chintzy melody from Altered Images’ “Happy Birthday” appears on “Road To Mandalay”, curdling as she becomes disorientated. The titles tell the rest of the story – “Broken Chronometers”, “Nothing But Silt”, “The Wrong Way” – but Anderson’s admiration and affection for this feminist icon is such that you come away from Amelia with a greater respect for those who keep on taking risks”.

It is a case of you wait for an album about Amelia Earhart and then two come along! Public Service Broadcast release The Last Flight on 4th October. It is an album that I would recommend people go and get:

“The Last Flight is our version of the story of Amelia Earhart's final, ill-fated journey in 1937. Having successfully navigated over 20,000 miles and 5 continents on her round-the-world trip, her aircraft, the Electra, vanished without trace near Howland Island. Her whereabouts, and those of her navigator, Fred Noonan, remain a lingering mystery to this day.

Rather than focus exclusively on the flight itself, the record is as much an examination of Earhart's remarkable character. She was an extremely rare blend of grace, composure, technical aptitude and a fortitude that the rest of us mere mortals can barely dream of, all enveloped by the soul of a poet. She was possessed of a seemingly unquenchable thirst for life - in her words, 'to find beauty in living... to know the answer to why I’m alive... and feel its excitement every moment'. That thirst for the abundance of life, the sheer joy and privilege of living, long outlasts her disappearance and death. It should serve as an inspiration, almost an instruction, to the rest of us; this record is our attempt to translate that inspiration into music”.

It is great that a pioneer and this inspirational figure has a couple of albums made about her. That there will be this new awareness of who she was (and her incredible life). I don’t think that Laurie Anderson and Public Service Broadcast were aware of each other’s projects. It would be nice if they combined at some point, as they could create something magnificent. I hope that there is a collaboration down the line.

I am going to move on in a minute. Before I do, Louder spoke with Public Service Broadcast’s J. Wilgoose Esq. about The Last Flight and why the group are focusing on Amelia Earhart. It is going to be very interesting hearing what they offer on their new album. It makes me think more about Amelia Earhart and her importance. Someone who is deserving of more recognition and focus. Perhaps often assumed as being this tragic figure who failed to achieve her dreams and was unimportant. That is clearly not the truth:

“Conceptual pop proggers Public Service Broadcasting have announced that their brand new studio album, The Last Flight, will be based around the final doomed flight of pioneering female “aviatrix” Amelia Earhart.

The Last Flight is the band's first album since 2021's Berlin-based concept album Bright Magic and will be released through SO Recordings on October 4. The band have also shared the video for the first single from the album Electra, which you can watch below.

"The song is about Amelia Earhart's plane, the marvellously named Electra," explains J. Willgoose Esq. "To match the name, the vibrancy and the excitement of the aircraft, the track is full of pulsing electronics and interlocking, percussive melody lines, plus pace."

Aged 25, Earhart flew higher than any woman before her in 1922, and in the years that followed was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, setting multiple speed and distance records. In 1937 Earhart announced that she would circumnavigate the globe in her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra aircraft. She crossed the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. She left Papua New Guinea to fly to Howland Island in the Central Pacific but never made it.

"I wanted to do a woman-focused story, because most of the archive we have access to is overwhelmingly male. I was initially drawn in by Earhart’s final fight, rather than the successes that she had, but the more I read the more I became fascinated by her. Her bravery and her aeronautical achievements were extraordinary, but her philosophy and the dignity that she had… she was an outstanding person.

"The final flight is the spine of the journey: the story jumps off at different points, and examines different facets of her personality, her relationship with her husband, her attitude to flying, her attitude to existing. She gave herself, I think, less than a 50% chance of survival when she flew the Atlantic alone. To put yourself, willingly, in those situations… I think it says something about that drive at the heart of humanity.

"However The Last Flight isn’t doom-laden or covered in grief. There’s adventure, freedom, the joy of being alive. The reason why she wanted to fly was to find the beauty in living – ‘to know the reason why I’m alive, and to feel that every minute.’ The flight did fail, but she was right. Of all the people we’ve written about, I have the deepest respect and admiration for her."

Unlike previous PSB albums, The Last Flight does not feature does not feature original first-person testimony, but dialogue newly recorded by actors, including Kate Graham who read Amelia. The band used Earhart’s own writings including 1937’s Last Flight and her biography East To The Dawn by Susan Butler, as source material”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Vlada Karpovich/Pexels

I would love to think that this is the start of a renaissance regarding putting women at the front. It is true that a lot of albums are male-led. If they feature a subject or person. Most albums are quite personal. We do not have that many albums dedicated to women. So many incredible pioneers, trailblazers and warriors that could be committed to tape. I am thinking of heroines through history, politics, literature, music and beyond. Women like Margaret Atwood being commemorated in a song. Conceptual albums about incredible women through the ages. Whether the album focuses on one woman or takes its time to recognise multiple women, I hope that the two example of Amelia Earhart being celebrated and discussed opens up more conversation. Why more women are not the epicentre of albums. I know that a few artists have taken the time to commemorate women in their albums. Jamila Woods’ LEGACY! LEGACY! Even though the album is not entirely about famous women through time, it does mention quite a few. It was released in 2019. Woods discussed the songs here. There are not that many albums out there where women are highlighted. As I say, most albums are personal and about the self. Those artists talking about their lives and thoughts. When albums are less personal or conceptual, you don’t get much written about women. Think about all the amazing women who could be spotlighted through song.

Artists could write about iconic artists like Madonna, Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, Beyoncé or less exposed or lesser-known music innovators. Just consider the breadth and variety of female subjects. From throughout history to the modern day. There are countless examples who have not had their story told. I also think we need to put women more at the forefront when it comes to various subjects. Misogyny, sexual assault, sexism and discrimination they face. Not that many artists doing that at all. It will be nice to think that more albums will come through. That women will be in the middle. I do hope that there is this consideration. It is important so that future generations have this knowledge and exposure. I am not sure how many women through history are taught at school. Whether there is this understanding at school age. Music is a way of providing this history lesson. Telling stories about these amazing women in an accessible and interesting way. I feel their stories are not told often enough. That has to change. Let’s hope that Laurie Anderson and Public Service Broadcasting pique the interest of other artists. I would love to hear an album where women like Joni Mitchell are sung about. Amazing female politicians and women who have made a big difference through time. Modern-day icons and those who maybe have gone unrecognised. It is only right that incredible women…

GET their dues.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at Ten: What Do We Take From the Acclaimed and Beloved Residency?

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at Ten

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during her Before the Dawn residency in 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Gavin Bush/Rex

What Do We Take From the Acclaimed and Beloved Residency?

_________

THIS Monday (26th)…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush shooting the video for And Dream of Sheep (a song that is part of her suite, The Ninth Wave)/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

it will be ten years since Kate Bush stepped on stage to deliver the first of twenty-two dates at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith. I have already talked about the build-up and the preparation. For the final anniversary feature of Before the Dawn, I want to think about what we can take from the residency. I will drop in a couple of the reviews once more. Even though no high-profile name who attended one of the Before the Dawn dates took my up on an invitation to speak about their experiences and recollections of that wonderful experience, I did get a few interactions and replies on Twitter. A few of the people who were there:

“@sproutsfan

“I was lucky enough to get tickets after being a long time mailing list member so my brother and I flew from the USA and joined another friend  from London and his wife.  3 of us had been at the Sunderland empire show in 1979 so a Kate “reunion”. So many memories from the night”.

@timmonsdan

Another fan from the US.  When the email came announcing the tour I was shocked.  What was great was I had some issues with the ticket purchase for the second show I was buying. I sent an email providing feedback not expecting anything but I got access to tix again.

So I did see two night.  One with my wife and the second to a guy I sold the tix to on EBay  it helped pay for the trip..  amazing experience and we had Jimmy Page sitting in front of my wife and I.

I also am a taper and recorded both shows   I’ve only shared a copy with the guy who bought the ticket from me.   I know I will never experience anything like that anticipation again for the first night.

Sir: I read James Walton’s review of Kate Bush (Arts, 30 August) on the train home from London. As a hardcore fan, I can assure him it really was well worth the £150 ticket price, return trip from Glasgow, and overnight stay. My only regret was that I was looking down from the circle. I now wish I had shelled out the money for the stalls. They seemed to be having much more fun than my cohorts, who were comparatively restrained. Indeed, I only managed one ‘We love you Kate!’ before bowing to social pressure. A Glasgow audience would have raised the roof, circle or not. But this is to gripe. It was a thoroughly splendid evening, made all the better by the discovery that Kate is a devotee of Tennyson. I don’t think it too fanciful to suggest that in her own way she is every bit as accomplished an artist as the great man himself.

John-Paul Marney - Glasgow”.

Even though Before the Dawn ended on 1st October, 2014, its reverberations and impressions are still being felt ten years down the line. The combination of the anticipation and excitement, together with the explosive love and enormous buzz from the opening night, together with the wonderful reaction to all of the dates has made Before the Dawn one of the most acclaimed and important concert series ever. That is not an overstatement! We talk about modern-day concert phenomenon from the likes of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Those tours are incredible and inspiring. Modern-day spectacles. Whilst there is no denying their implant and brilliance, one has to think about Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn back in 2014. There are a few reasons why it was so talked about at the time and remains seismic. Consider the fact that her first and only big live commitment to that point was back in 1979. The Tour of Life was an exhausting yet groundbreaking tour. In some ways, I don’t think Bush could equal or top what she did thirty-five years previously. It is clear it was a really demanding and intensive tour. There were plans to your down the road. As early as The Dreaming (1982) she would have thought about it. I think it was in 1991 at a fan convention when she gave a big hint that she would do tour dates. In fact, when she saw Prince play at Wembley back in 1990, Bush was scoping out the venue. Attending that concert with her Del Palmer, Prince revealed her was a massive fan of hers. That would have ignited something in Kate Bush. The fact other things soon got in her way – the death of her mother in 1992; the release of an album and short film in 1993; the need to step away and start a family – meant touring and any major live work would have to wait.

The fact Bush was almost seen as reclusive or retired in the 1990s and many thought a stage return was impossible added to the surprise and wonder of Before the Dawn. Also, it was another ambitious and wonderfully immersive live experience. She could have sold out her dates doing a simpler set. Kate Bush really threw everything into it! Perhaps even eclipsing what she pulled off in 1979, Before the Dawn could have been a let-down. In the sense so many people built up what it would be. Kate Bush exceeded everyone’s wildest dreams! No hyperbole in the reviews and reaction, few tours have met the magic and wonder many saw in 2014. Also, the consistency and brilliance of Kate Bush. In her fifties and having not performed on a stage for some time, you can tell how much preparation and rehearsal she put in. Note perfect and up to her very best every date, I think that many modern-day artists looked at Before the Dawn for inspiration. There is no denying how influential and impactful that residency was. I think that it is one of the most important live tours/residencies of the past twenty-five years. The acclaim and words written about it is set in stone. I will round up with some takeaway and what we can learn from Before the Dawn. Before that, here is a review from Pop Matters. They were reviewing the 2016 live album, but they looked back at a sense of community togetherness in 2014:

“Bush’s brothers, Paddy and John Carder, are very much present in the live performance of an album on which they played an integral part. John Carder Bush reprises his riveting narration on a thunderous presentation of the Celtic flavored “Jig of Life”. Bush’s character, still lost at sea and spiraling further into delirium, imagines herself as an old woman who beseeches her younger self to stay alive so that the elder’s part of the lifeline is not cut from the future. The suite’s epic climax, “Hello Earth”, is majestic and thrilling. It’s masterfully arranged and performed, arguably the album’s highest point in an ocean of highs. The finale, “The Morning Fog”, which enacts Bush’s character awakening after being rescued, is as exuberant as one would expect. It concludes The Ninth Wave with a sense of joyous triumph and a deep appreciation for life.

The Ninth Wave alone is worth putting down the money for this collection, but Bush is far from finished. She tackles an even more elaborate piece with A Sky of Honey, a lengthy suite originally released as the entire second half of Aerial. This section may try the patience of some listeners who aren’t necessary die-hard Kate Bush fans. The third act has moments of spellbinding beauty, but also at times, there are lulls that were more effective for audience members who were able to experience the visuals on stage. Some of the interludes and longer pieces don’t translate particularly well to an audio-only presentation. Put more bluntly, portions of the hour-long suite are simply a bit dull.

That said, one cannot help but be impressed by the scope of the production and the power with which it is brought to fruition. Bush’s son, Albert McIntosh, who was an integral part of the show’s creative team, delivers a winsome vocal on “Tawny Moon”, a piece newly written for the show that is sequenced between the suite’s two highlights, “Somewhere in Between”, and the dazzling “Nocturne”. The nearly 10-minute “Aerial” closes the suite with a massive explosion of sound, drama and presumably, for the audience fortunate enough to have the chance to see her, enormous spectacle. It’s an ending worthy of a long and winding journey that is ultimately worth taking despite the occasional drifts into tedium.

Bush wraps up the show and album with a two-song encore: “Among Angels”, the only track present from her 2011 album 50 Words for Snow, and a dynamic performance of the majestic “Cloudbusting”. The audience reaction is ecstatic, and Bush’s gracious appreciation is touching and obviously heartfelt.

Before the Dawn is a bit of an enigma. Yes, it’s magical to hear the reclusive Kate Bush live on stage performing these songs, a musical event that few thought would ever happen. There are genuine moments of grandeur on this album, as befitting a project so elaborate and historic. While the album’s highs are very lofty indeed and The Ninth Wave works beautifully, it’s hard to shake the feeling that the entire experience would have been more profoundly entertaining had Bush refrained from performing the entire Sky of Honey set and instead focused on a couple key tracks as part of a sequence comprising a more varied selection from her catalog. It’s easy to imagine songs like “And So Is Love”, “Pull Out the Pin”, “Under the Ivy”, “This Woman’s Work”, “Love and Anger”, “How to Be Invisible” and “Wild Man” among many other Kate Bush gems performed on stage. The notion of a live performance of her duet “Don’t Give Up” (could she have snagged Peter Gabriel for some of the shows?) is spine-tingling to even contemplate.

Still, given the circumstances, it seems churlish to suggest that Bush should have structured her return after a 35-year absence from the stage in any way other than exactly how she wanted. She does it her way, as she always has, and while one may quibble with a few aspects of the album it’s still a remarkable listen. Perhaps now that Kate Bush has completed work on Before the Dawn — the residency and the deluxe live album — she will move on to new projects. It’s clear that nearly 40 years since her debut single, the creative prowess of one of popular music’s most valuable treasures is undiminished”.

In 2014, The Guardian revealed their passion and admiration for Kate Bush. Back on the stage after so long, they highlighted the note-perfect vocals and the thoroughly engaging performance from Bush. Someone showing no weakness or any sense of nerves – even though she was very nervous -, you can only imagine the pressure she would have felt! None of that seems to bleed into her performance. What people saw in London in 2014 will stay with them fore the rest of their lives:

“Backed by a band of musicians capable of navigating the endless twists and turns of her songwriting – from funk to folk to pastoral prog rock - the performances of Running Up That Hill and King of the Mountain sound almost identical to their recorded versions - but letting rip during a version of Top of the City, she sounds flatly incredible.

You suspect that even if she hadn't, the audience would have lapped it up. Audibly delighted to be in the same room as her, they spend the first part of the show clapping everything she does: no gesture is too insignificant to warrant a round of applause. It would be cloying, but for the fact that Bush genuinely gives them something to cheer about.

For someone who's spent the vast majority of her career shunning the stage, she's a hugely engaging live performer, confident enough to shun the hits that made her famous in the first place: she plays nothing from her first four albums.

The staging might look excessive on paper, but onstage it works to astonishing effect, bolstering rather than overwhelming the emotional impact of the songs. The Ninth Wave is disturbing, funny and so immersive that the crowd temporarily forget to applaud everything Bush does. As each scene bleeds into another, they seem genuinely rapt: at the show's interval, people look a little stunned. A Sky of Honey is less obviously dramatic – nothing much happens over the course of its nine tracks – but the live performance underlines how beautiful the actual music is.

Already widely acclaimed as the most influential and respected British female artist of the past 40 years, shrouded in the kind of endlessly intriguing mystique that is almost impossible to conjure in an internet age, Bush theoretically had a lot to lose by returning to the stage. Clearly, given how tightly she has controlled her own career since the early 80s, she would only have bothered because she felt she had something spectacular to offer. She was right: Before The Dawn is another remarkable achievement”.

What can we learn from the residency?! Before the Dawn showed we can never predict Kate Bush. When she announced her residency in March 2014, it blew people away! There were no quivers or rumours. It shows that actually not building things up and teasing endlessly actually creates a bigger surprise and bang. Actually, I guess the absence did do a lot of that work. Even if the set and whole production was large and hugely imaginative, the way in which the residency was announced should serve as a guide to a lot of modern artists who can take something out of the excitement with a lot of the traditional promotion. Also, whilst we can’t predict Kate Bush, we can’t write her off or be doubtful! Some might have been nervous Before the Dawn could fail or at least it might not be as good as we’d hoped. The effort and planning that went into Before the Dawn showed that Bush was still a master and groundbreaking live artist in her fifties. The famous faces and breadth of the fans there also proved how she is not only for the older generations. It doesn’t matter she released an album three years before. People were happy to wait. Bush also was in no mood to let anyone down or do anything less than world-class. Proof that an artist in her fifties could match the very best and most popular younger artists. The mix of the crowd also showed how her fanbase is among the most ardent, passionate and loving in the world! One of the broadest in terms of age and walks of life. The lack of phones and filming meant people were engaged and committed.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Somewhere in Between with her son Bertie during Before the Dawn/PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex Features

There was no sense of people holding phones up and distracted. Kate Bush wanted people to respect that rule. After all the work and effort, it would have tainted the performance if she stared out at a wall of phones and no eyes! I think that has inspired a lot of artists since. How their fans engage with them in the modern age. Bush helped design and popularise the wireless head microphone in 1979. She was still innovating in 2014! At a high-tech time, she wanted fans to return to basics. As such, people’s experience was so much more involved and direct. More moving, physical and together. Fans engaging and being in the moment! That sense of not being able to predict Bush. We can never say never and say she is retired. However, Before the Dawn felt like a final chapter…of sorts. In terms of live work, this seemed like a magnificent and unforgettable swansong. The result of years of what-ifs and half-abandoned tour plans and live work. I don’t think we will see her back on stage. Some feel Before the Dawn is the last project from her. No albums or anything else. Maybe Before the Dawn is the perfect way to say goodbye and thanks to her fans! The residency also showed how Bush could bring so many people together. So many people discuss being there. I opened with some reactions and testimony. Everyone who discusses Before the Dawn almost does it in religious and spiritual terms. How it transformed their lives. It was more than a live show. No regular gig. Instead, it was a dream come true and this almost transcendent experience! On 26th August, it is ten years since the first date of Before the Dawn. What everyone can agree on is that this truly spectacular and unforgettable residency was life-changing…

FOR everyone who was there.

FEATURE: Spotlight: NIKI

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Justin J Wee for The New York Times

NIKI

_________

MAYBE she would…

not want me to start off looking back a couple of years. Perhaps not as enamoured of this past music as her current work. In any case, it is important to look back and see where NIKI has come from. I wanted to start out with an NME interview from 2022. How the Indonesian-born, American-based Nicole Zefanya became NIKI. I wanted to spotlight NIKI as her new album, Buzz, was released this month. It follows on from 2022’s Nicole:

“When NIKI wrote ‘Every Summertime’, she didn’t expect it to go onto be the lead single from the soundtrack of Marvel epic Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings. Nor did she expect it to become a viral sensation and her biggest song to date. “It was just one of those last-minute songs that we created at the tail end of the process [of making the soundtrack],” she reflects on a Zoom call from LA. “It’s interesting that it was kind of the throwaway back burner song and now it’s taking off.”

And take off it has. The sunkissed, smooth slice of classic R&B has taken over TikTok and racked up more than 90 million streams on Spotify alone – and counting. While the life it’s taken on might be surprising to its creator, the song’s success won’t feel completely out of the blue to anyone who’s been following the Indonesian singer-songwriter’s journey so far. On it, she’s proven herself to be an imaginative and essential artist whose tracks lift you off into new worlds with each listen.

For the latest in NME’s In Conversation series, we caught up with NIKI to talk about ‘Every Summertime’, Shang-Chi, new music, what to expect from her upcoming Coachella performance and more.

‘Every Summertime’ was inspired by an unlikely artist

It isn’t often these days that Barry White is cited as an influence on a track that’s soaring in popularity; but that’s just who NIKI and her producer Jacob Ray looked to when they were writing her sleeper hit ‘Every Summertime’. Specifically, the balmy jam was inspired by White’s habit of talking in his songs.

“Nobody really talks in their songs anymore,” NIKI explains. “I feel like that trend died in the ‘90s – where it’d be music and just really low voices. We were listening to them just bewildered as to how people made music back then.” What started out as fun listening sessions quickly began to feed into the “magical” moment of writing the Shang-Chi soundtrack single, helping NIKI make a “total car jam” all of her own.

Moving to America has changed her relationship with her hometown of Jakarta

Late last year, NIKI blessed us with another beautiful single in ‘Split’, in which she detailed her feelings on having to adapt and assimilate between her hometown of Jakarta and her adopted home of LA. “Kinda wish I knew what I meant when I say I miss home,” she sings over a timeless, soulful foundation. “Guess I’m forever caught between two worlds / Right foot rock, left foot hard place, head and heart at war.”

“It’s really weird cos, coming to America, I experienced culture shock and now I live in America and I come back home to Indo and then I experience reverse culture shock,” she laughs. That takes the form of “very micro things” like the heat that hits when you first step out of the airport on arrival. “It’s been so long since I’ve adapted to that or been acclimated to that kind of weather, so I noticed it. There are all these things that I took for granted or didn’t notice because you acclimate to your environment, and then you step away and come back.”

Splitting her time between the US and Indonesia has changed the way she thinks about her hometown, the singer-songwriter explaining that the cliché “absence makes the heart grow fonder” has a lot of truth to it. “I view Jakarta in this new way where my love for it has grown,” she says. “My appreciation has deepened and changed. As a kid growing up in one place forever, you’re just like, ‘Yeah it’s home, whatever’ and then having that taken away from you and stepping out of your comfort zone tends to create an appreciation for where you’re from.”

NIKI’s new music goes back to her YouTube roots

Before she moved to the US and before she joined up with the 88Rising crew, NIKI got her start on YouTube, sharing acoustic covers and original songs in the indie-folk vein. Still a teenager at the time, she gained small success with that material, scoring tens of thousands of subscribers and, after winning a competition, opened for Taylor Swift when The Red Tour came through Jakarta in 2014.

While NIKI’s debut album ‘Moonchild’ and recent singles might have skewed towards more electronically produced R&B and pop, what’s coming next will see her picking up the six-string once again. “I’ve been working more guitar-based [songs],” she shares of what she’s been working on lately. “I’ve felt this beckoning call back towards my singer-songwriter roots, so I’ve been exploring and experimenting with that a lot.”

Writing on guitar will likely change the songs she’s writing in ways other than sound, she says, noting that the instrument tends to lead her to write lyrics that are “naturally deeper”: “It just has more substance to it emotionally. When you work with a beat, there’s a lot of things going on and the music guides you and guides what the song must be. But when you’re just with a guitar, it’s easier to dictate what the song could be”.

I want to move on to a few interview from this year. In this, from The New York Times, we learn how a 2010 Taylor Swift documentary, E! True Hollywood Story, set NIKI on a career in music. How it was a revelatory moment for her. Buzz is her third studio album. Moving towards West Cost Folk-Rock. A world away from what she was writing and releasing from the start. Perhaps understandable that she sees now as a fresh chapter and does not look back as fondly as some artists might:

“Zefanya was 15 when she won an online contest to open a Swift concert in Jakarta. In her dressing area before the show, Niki said, “I just see this slender arm poke through the curtain and just peel it back, and she goes, ‘Hi, I’m Taylor, nice to meet you.’ And I just froze, like, oh my gosh, I’m seeing Taylor Swift in the flesh. I remember not being able to say anything to her.” (They took a picture.)

Soon afterward, Zefanya — like countless musical teenagers in the 2010s — started her own YouTube channel, nzee24, singing covers and unveiling her own songs. English was her favorite subject at school, and she delighted in polysyllabic rhymes. Unlike many YouTube bedroom pop creators, she didn’t just strum and sing — she assembled multitrack productions.

Niki continues to produce or co-produce all of her songs. “She’s a great producer,” Ethan Gruska, who co-produced many of the songs on “Buzz,” said in a video interview from his Los Angeles studio. “My job usually, with her, is to take things that are well thought out and sounding really great and scale up. It’s almost like color correcting.”

Zefanya accepted a scholarship to Lipscomb University, a Christian school in Nashville, knowing the city is a music-business hub. During her freshman year, a song that she wrote and uploaded to YouTube at 16, “Little Souls,” caught the ear of the Indonesian rapper Rich Brian.

“I cringe whenever I hear that song,” Niki said. “It was too long. It had no coherent structure. And for some reason people really enjoyed it. I think it was the genuine honesty.”

Brian brought her music to 88rising, an American label and management company that cultivates Asian and Asian American songwriters performing English-language pop. When she signed with the company, she dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles to record as Niki. She took down her YouTube channel, and her early singles for 88rising positioned her as a pop-R&B songwriter, backed by electronics and eager for romance. One single, “Lowkey,” has racked up more than 468 million plays on Spotify. Her 2020 debut album, “Moonchild,” had more somber ambitions, with moody synthesized tracks and high-flown metaphors.

PHOTO CREDIT: Justin J Wee for The New York Times

In the isolation of the early pandemic, Niki reconsidered her teenage songs and decided — glancing toward Swift remaking her early albums — that some were worth reclaiming. In her bedroom she had sung, plainly but gracefully, about high-school insecurities and heartaches.

“I cringe whenever I hear that song,” Niki said of “Little Souls.” “It was too long. It had no coherent structure. And for some reason people really enjoyed it. I think it was the genuine honesty.”Credit...Justin J Wee for The New York Times

For her 2022 album, “Nicole,” she reworked some of her YouTube songs and wrote new ones in their spirit. The songs resonated worldwide; “Backburner,” “High School in Jakarta,” “Oceans & Engines” and “Take a Chance With Me” have each been streamed more than 100 million times. But Niki’s perspective was changing.

“‘Nicole’ is unapologetically just so saccharine,” she said. “When you’re 18, you think, ‘This breakup is cataclysmic,’ you know? I’m 25 now, and I was 17 then, and my frontal lobe is developing as we speak. I would hope I’m a lot more reasonable nowadays.”

Some songs on “Buzz” deal with a more recent breakup. Niki sings about a relationship that ended after “four full laps around the sun” in the intricately syncopated “Blue Moon.” In a chugging rocker named “Colossal Loss,” she vows to play “the blame game” and adds, “I’m happy to report that petty feels pretty awesome.” Niki reproaches, “Did You Like Her in the Morning?” in a delicate waltz.

“She’s very calm, very levelheaded,” Gruska said. “It’s cool to see that somebody who is so even can access the tempest of emotions in an artistic way.”

The sound of the new album downplays electronics in favor of hand-played instruments — guitars, drums, piano — as Niki looks back to West Coast music from before she was born: Fleetwood Mac, Sheryl Crow, Joni Mitchell. For Niki, Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” is “the best song ever written.” The dualities of that song echo through “Buzz,” as Niki seeks balance.

Many of the songs on “Buzz” are about turning endings into new beginnings. The album opens with its title track, a catalog of hopeful moments: “It’s the anticipation when the amps turn on/Just cables and crackle,” Niki sings. A prerelease single, “Too Much of a Good Thing,” sets a casual flirtation to a strutting bass line: “I get the feeling that this feeling isn’t one meant to last anyway/So what do you say?” And in “Tsunami,” Niki sings about an overwhelming, elemental infatuation.

If American pop is a musical language that has conquered the world, Niki still finds her Indonesian roots within it, and has delighted in playing to audiences of Asians and Asian Americans who have thanked her for representing them. “Take Care” is one of the songs on “Buzz” that she produced and played entirely on her own. It’s about a couple going separate ways; Niki sings, “You take someone’s clothes off/And someone takes me home.”

She came up with a bass line on her guitar, topped by chords that she played by strumming a paintbrush across an acoustic guitar, the essence of subtlety. After finishing the song, she realized that her vocal melody uses a scale from Indonesian gamelan music: pelog, a set of seven notes usually played on gongs.

“As I was writing it, I didn’t even think twice about it. It was just like, ‘This feels like the melody that I want in there,’” Niki said. “It just flows out of me”.

There are great interviews like this that I would recommend people read. I am going to end with a couple of NME feature. Well, an interview and a review. In this NME interview, it is said how Nicole Zefanya loosened up and took the reins for her third studio album following exhaustion from touring and career pressure. It was a very strained time. Out of the other side came this real musical revelation and evolution. You can feel it through Buzz:

“When I’m artistically stuck, I like looking to the past as a palate cleanser,” she says. “I had a lot of reservations about updating the songs but I wanted to stay true to the spirit of it. I feel like that schmaltz and saccharine drama was also kind of the charm and superpower of [‘Nicole’]. It’s very difficult, as a 25-year-old, to lean into that kind of honesty you have when you’re 17.”

‘Nicole’’s pivot to the personal was, as it turns out, necessary for NIKI. ‘Every Summertime’, her blithe, joyous love song released for the soundtrack of Marvel’s Shang-Chi, blew up far beyond the intended audience of the superhero film, trending on TikTok and racking up nearly 400million Spotify plays. It’s one of NIKI’s top streamed singles, but she admits that there was a “level of detachment” in writing it, as it was meant for “a larger project that was bigger than me and what I had to say”.

“‘Nicole’ was my attempt at sort of saying, ‘Hey, thank you for listening to that. But also, this is the more personal and diaristic side of me that essentially feels more like me in music form,’” NIKI says. “‘Nicole’ was a necessary stepping stone towards the kind of artist I want to be and the kind of music that really does feel satiating and fulfilling to my soul – I feel like I needed to put out ‘Nicole’ in order to put out ‘Buzz’,” she concludes.

Like ‘Strong Girl’, NIKI wrote the rest of the song on ‘Buzz’ while she toured ‘Nicole’, informing her decision to cut wordy verses and tweak chord progressions to maximise the songs’ live potential. One song that was tricky to perform prior was ‘High School In Jakarta’ – “I would genuinely be out of breath the first few shows, and it was no one else’s fault but my own,” NIKI laughs.

“[I dug] deep into the musicality of my songwriting, which I feel sometimes can be masked by a very pop formula”

In contrast, ‘Buzz’ is much more sparse, relaxed, and loose. “The goal was to just invite more chillness onstage.” NIKI took her songs to producers who worked with artists she carries torches for: ‘Nicole’ collaborator Ethan Gruska (who also worked on Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Punisher’) and Tyler Chester (who recently worked on Madison Cunningham’s ‘Revealer’).

Studio sessions with them were sometimes “nerve-wracking” for NIKI. Some songs were either recorded live, in one take, or without a metronome, in an environment that was “more organic, loose, and musical, which is what I’ve always kind of craved and dreamed of in terms of playing things live”.

The process was a double-edged sword: It “shone a light on: ‘how good a musician am I?’” but also allowed NIKI to “dig deep into the musicality of my songwriting, which I feel sometimes can be masked by a very pop formula of four-chord progressions and syllabic lyrical choices.”

By and large, ‘Buzz’ is filled with colourful flourishes on great loves chased and lost. NIKI astutely chronicles the prospect of a soulmate (‘Magnets’), a hookup (‘Too Much Of A Good Thing’) and that one crippling crush (‘Tsunami’). There’s room for grieving amicable partings (‘Take Care’), just as there is space to lash out at exes. On ‘Colossal Loss’, NIKI howls: “Is this what kids call petty? / I’m happy to report that petty feels pretty awesome….’cause you and I, we don’t talk / to my benefit and your colossal loss”.

The album closes quietly with the strangely hopeful standout ‘Nothing Can’, which is about being comfortable with the idea of saving yourself from pain and suffering because “no one and nothing can”. In keeping with the spirit of ‘Buzz’, she draws attention to what comes next: “But you still smile at a stranger / And you still make your weekend plans…But you’ll still write another song / And you’ll still get breakfast with the band.”

“There are still so many little moments of joy, hope, and freedom in between [that] sort of redeem suffering, which is just general human experience,” NIKI says. “T​​hat’s how ‘Buzz’ started. It was me learning to fall in love with touring and making music that resonated with me, not just this overwhelming sense of, I must be this thing that I guess everyone wants me to be early in my career.”

And who does NIKI want to be now as ‘Buzz’ season approaches? “I think the best way of describing it is I feel awake for the first time – ‘Buzz’ has really felt like me stepping into myself, my authenticity, and my own power, ​​the first odyssey where I have been completely steering the ship on my own. I feel a lot more confident about who I am as an artist”.

I want to end with a review of Buzz from NME. Such a remarkable album, you do not need to know about NIKI’s musical past to appreciate Buzz. It ranks alongside the best albums of this year. Someone who I hope gets a lot more attention here in the U.K. If you have not heard NIKI or know much about her, I would suggest you follow her on social media. Listen back to her previous music but also really explore Buzz and what she is putting into the world now:

“Since the Jakarta-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter signed with 88rising in 2017, she’s explored different expressions of her artistry. She tied up her stories in noirish R&B on her 2020 debut album ‘Moonchild’, and two years later, revisited some songs she’d written in her teen years via the saccharine pop of ‘Nicole’. At the beginning of 2024, she shared the standalone single ‘24’, reflecting on the first quarter-century of her life in a Joni Mitchell-indebted piece of hushed folk-pop.

Mitchell’s influence can be felt on ‘Buzz’ too – as well as that of Sheryl Crow, Liz Phair and Fleetwood Mac. Here, NIKI deals in hook-filled alt-rock, ‘Too Much Of A Good Thing’ strutting on a ’60s pop bassline that means business, shuffling drums and a swooning guitar line weaving around it like they’re in a flirtatious dance. The riff of ‘Colossal Loss’ offers a buzzsaw accompaniment to her devilish descent into petty games, while ‘Magnets’ strips things back to create a mesmerising glacial drift.

‘Buzz’ is the most advanced its creator has ever sounded musically and lyrically – even when NIKI keeps things simple, writing like she’s cornered you in the bathroom on a night out or is recapping dating tales with the girls over brunch. “No guys, I swear he’s not emotionally unavailable / He’s just traumatised,” she protests on ‘Focus’, her defensive tone suggesting she knows her friends are right.

The hum of romantic possibility might characterise much of NIKI’s third album, but it’s awash with heartbreak too. Between the coquetry and cool are wrenching vignettes from a wrecked relationship. ‘Take Care’ depicts the dividing up of a couple and their city, and ‘Blue Moon’ realising what’s been lost. ‘Paths’ is most devastating of all, though, NIKI torn between accepting her fate and holding onto hope for a future reunion: “My youth is in your past / You’ll always have that / And though it didn’t last / I hope our paths cross again.”

Whatever the future holds for NIKI and wherever her musical explorations take her next, ‘Buzz’ solidifies her place as one of music’s most incisive songwriters right now. It’s an album full of heady thrills and emotional lows that confirms, if you’ve been sleeping on NIKI so far, you can no longer do so without truly missing out”.

I am new to NIKI’s work. I think that she is a phenomenal artist that has a long future ahead of her. Her story is fascinating. I feel we will be hearing and seeing a lot more from her very soon. I only had to hear a couple of tracks from Buzz to really bond with the album and appreciate NIKI’s music. An artist who has taken big steps. It will be fascinating seeing where she goes from here. I am excited. There is no doubt that this Indonesian artist is someone who should be…

ON everyone’s radar.

___________

Follow NIKI

Official:

https://nikizefanya.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/nikizefanya/

TikTok:

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

Twitter:

https://x.com/nikizefanya

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2kxP07DLgs4xlWz8YHlvfh

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaAWRu53UW815hGTmxvHFbA

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/NIKIZefanya/

FEATURE: Tricks, Tracks and Takes: Kate Bush’s Mastery and Curiosity in the Studio

FEATURE:

 

 

Tricks, Tracks and Takes

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Aris

Kate Bush’s Mastery and Curiosity in the Studio

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THERE was a time in Kate Bush’s career…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at Abbey Road Studio 2 in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport

where she had the opportunity to take more control in the studio. I might talk about it more when I cover Never for Ever in more detail. That album is forty-four next month. It is worth highlighting the excellence of the album, in addition to how underrated it is. I think that Abbey Road was a bit of a turning point. Not that the studios for The Kick Inside and Lionheart were underwhelming. Bush, after Lionheart, definitely wanted to work alone more. Not have to follow another producer. Rather than being someone whose songs were directed by another person, Bush knew that the way to get what she wanted from her songs was to take the reins. She would solo produce from The Dreaming onwards, yet the experience of working on Never for Ever was pleasurable. I have written about it before. How there were laughs in the studio and the band and crew would hang out together and socialise. There was quite a heavy workload, though Bush as producer wanted people to be relaxed and together. By all accounts, it seems like it was a really warm and supportive environment. It also seems like Abbey Road was a benchmark or sacred ground. In terms of Bush as the studio perfectionist. If not a perfectionist, it was clear that she could not stay with a single take or two. Babooshka was one of the songs that was honed and performed over and over in Abbey Road. It was a studio that seems to connect Bush to some of the artists who played there. Maybe some of The Beatles’ studio inventiveness and curiosity. I always think of Steely Dan when I think of Bush in the studio. A fan of theirs, this was about the time she would have been hearing albums like Aja (1977). She named Gaucho (1980) as a favourite of hers in an interview around the time of Never for Ever’s release – or shortly after at least.

Steely Dan were famous for casting. Going through different players to get the right sound. If Bush was not quite as intense and perfectionist as Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, she did at least know that an expensive and illustrative studio was worthy of passion and focus. She knew that, as a producer with Jon Kelly, this was a moment to prove herself. There would have been reservations from EMI about Bush working with an inexperienced producer. Maybe not ready to step up and take command. The fact Never for Ever went to number one in the U.K. and set a record in doing so – it is the first studio album (not a greatest hits compilation) by any solo female artist to reach number one in the U.K. – was proof that Bush’s brilliance, production excellence and reputation was at a high. I do think critics that reacted rather mixed towards the album were slow to realise Bush was adapting and not wanting to repeat herself. I love the image of Kate Bush and Jon Kelly sitting in the control room listening to the band play. Hearing various players and calling them in. Asking if they would not mind sitting things out. Even Bush’s boyfriend, Del Palmer, was yanked off a sessions. It was during Babooshka when we saw Kate Bush’s real reserve and strength. Someone who, as a producer, could not be sentimental and biased, Palmer was replaced. He was not happy to say the least! It was proof that Bush was looking for something beyond what we heard on her first two albums. Never for Ever might be an album where she was still in flux and transition. Going from her previous life and how things used to work to what she really wanted to achieve. The Dreaming might have been an extreme example of independence and searching for the very best take and sound. This mix between budding experimentalism and a beautiful simplicity.

I would love if there were photos of Bush in the studio during this time! Rather than focus on Never for Ever too much – as I have a couple of anniversary features -, I am using it as a starting place. Technology was a big motivation when it came to multiple takes. The Fairlight CMI came in late during Never for Ever and was more of a fixture for the next two albums. It does seem like Kate Bush was striving for a quality and peak that could never be realised. Instead, because this was her music and she was not allowed too much production input in 1978, this was a way of righting that wrong. Players noted how Kate Bush was great at instructions and directions. Clear and helpful, she would sit in the control room – with Jon Kelly on Never for Ever – and chat about tracks with the musicians. Even if there was this sense of her taking risks and not having a definite plan on some tracks, Bush was keen to explore and experiment. Abbey Road Studio 2 did see some carnage and breakage when Bush was using objects and the environment to create new sounds and scenes. Look at 1977 and 1978 when she was recording her first two studio albums. Maybe not able to explain her vision to musicians who were new compatriots, it perhaps was not as seamless and smooth. A bit of translation breakdown. The communication thereafter was a lot more seamless and strong. It was clear technology was a real mind-opening revelation. Not only exciting as a producer, Bush as an artist could write in a more ambitious, visual and detailed way. Knowing that she would be able to create whatever sound she wanted. You can see how her music expanded and added in new layers from 1980 onwards. I love the fact she was a diligent and rigorous producer who was not afraid to try different musicians for parts.

It was not really until The Dreaming and Hounds of Love when Kate Bush and technology connected and coexisted calmly. A little bit new on Never for Ever, it was a learning process. Maybe explaining some of the longer sessions and multiple takes, the big difference between Never for Ever and The Dreaming was how technology was used. The latter saw Bush more used to it and pushing it for its potential. At the start, maybe a sense of learning the ropes and using the time to get something out of the Fairlight CMI rather than pushing it to its limits. As a naturally light sleeper, Bush was largely nocturnal. In terms of the sessions, they would often run into the night and early hours. Pretty tiring and exhaustive, she was someone who put her life into music. Especially true as a producer. There was socialising. Some did happen at studios like Abbey Road, though most of it would be away from the studio. Whether that was at Paddy Bush’s flat or somewhere else. You get the impression that Bush wanted to be in the studio as much as possible and that outside socialising was a distraction. Whether truly happy in the studio or not, Bush knew that is where she was best and needed to be. Where her new music and ideas came to life. If multiple takes suggest someone obsessive or not keen on fresh ideas, that was the point of her production and mastery. Each new take was something new. As such, the song became new and different each time. Imagine what her albums would sound like with other producers. It was Kate Bush’s instincts and passion that make them so enduring and original. So true to herself. She also hugely valued her musicians. Always communicating and never being ‘the boss’. Loving, maternal, professional and astonishing, this was an artist and producer who was always seeking…

THE very best take.

FEATURE: Strangers: Portishead’s Dummy and the Landscape of 1994

FEATURE:

 

 

Strangers

Portishead’s Dummy and the Landscape of 1994

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ONE of the most distinct and extraordinary…

debut albums of the 1990s turns thirty on 22nd August. In terms of what was around it, you can’t say there was anything like Portishead’s Dummy. It is hard to link Dummy to any other album from 1994. In many ways, 1994 was one of the most eclectic and weird years for music. Think about the chart songs that were around that year. Think about the best-selling and biggest singles of 1994. Wet Wet Wet, Whigfield, Doop and Mariah Carey are high in the mix. It was a big year for Pop music. Not just the more commercial variety that was in the mainstream and making the charts. In terms of what was happening away from the more commercial centre, you had Britpop growing and starting to form. Bands like Blur and Suede breaking through. Rock bands such as Oasis. Grunge and Alternative Rock were making a statement in the U.K. in addition to the U.S. Portishead’s Dummy received huge acclaim and won the 1995 Mercury Music Prize. It is often credited with popularising the Trip-Hop genre. In terms of British music, Dummy was a rarity. No real compatriots and competition like in mainstream Pop and Britpop. I think about bands like Green Day, Weezer, Soundgarden, Hole, Manic Street Preachers and Beastie Boys releasing incredible albums. You could say that there are fairly common threads or links between albums these groups released. Vastly different to most of the top forty, you also had this periphery bands and albums that could not really combine with what was happening elsewhere. In many ways, Dummy did not have a place.

Rather than it being alienated and this curious thing, it was a remarkable album that almost ignited a genre. A sound and sonic palette that few had heard or were used to, I think some were cynical and critical towards Portishead. However, there were so many glowing critical reviews. Recognising what an important and seismic debut it was. Introducing something new and exciting to British music. Much more cinematic, deep and interesting than a lot of what was seen as the ‘defining’ sound of 1994. Bands like Oasis. I guess one could say Massive Attack shared something in common with Portishead. Their album, Protection, was released a month or so after Dummy. Darker than Dummy, I feel that there is a bit of similar D.N.A. between Portishead and Massive Attack’s albums. Albums that are so individual and unusual can often be met with criticism or a lack of interest. That was not the case with Dummy. There are a couple of reviews I want to bring in before I round off. I am so pleased that Portishead’s debut album was greeted with acclaim and embrace. Critics recognising what a work of genius it is. This is how AllMusic assessed Dummy:

“Portishead's album debut is a brilliant, surprisingly natural synthesis of claustrophobic spy soundtracks, dark breakbeats inspired by frontman Geoff Barrow's love of hip-hop, and a vocalist (Beth Gibbons) in the classic confessional singer/songwriter mold. Beginning with the otherworldly theremin and martial beats of "Mysterons," Dummy hits an early high with "Sour Times," a post-modern torch song driven by a Lalo Schifrin sample. The chilling atmospheres conjured by Adrian Utley's excellent guitar work and Barrow's turntables and keyboards prove the perfect foil for Gibbons, who balances sultriness and melancholia in equal measure. Occasionally reminiscent of a torchier version of Sade, Gibbons provides a clear focus for these songs, with Barrow and company behind her laying down one of the best full-length productions ever heard in the dance world. Where previous acts like Massive Attack had attracted dance heads in the main, Portishead crossed over to an American, alternative audience, connecting with the legion of angst-ridden indie fans as well. Better than any album before it, Dummy merged the pinpoint-precise productions of the dance world with pop hallmarks like great songwriting and excellent vocal performances”.

I was eleven when Dummy came out. I definitely felt like it was a bolt from the blue. I guess I was aware of Portishead just before the debut. I knew about Massive Attack. In terms of what I was listening to, it was a combination of British Pop and Rock together with Dance and Pop from Europe. Mainly chart music and bands like Blur and Beastie Boys. Dummy was a real revelation. Some might say Dummy defined 1994 in some ways. I think that it really stands out as atypical and this real revelation. It arrived in August 1994. At this time, there was such a weird and wonderful blend of artists. Hard to imagine that we’d get anything quite like Dummy. We did have some warning. Numb arrived in June 1994. Sour Times at the start of August. Consider how Dummy won the 1995 Mercury Prize and saw off stiff competition from the likes of PJ Harvey and Tricky. You can see the accolades and positive reviews Dummy received. Even so, I do wonder whether today people see it as one of the best and most influential debut albums of the 1990s. There is a lot of talk about other bands and albums. Not as much attention on Dummy. It is an album that may not have been typical of what 1994 was about. Given the explosion of respect for it, I do think more features should be written. More podcasts recorded. I want to bring in a review from NME. Even though there is some questionable language and odd praise, the big takeaway from the NME review is how they recognise Dummy as ahead of its time. Like Björk (Debut) and Massive Attack (Blue Lines), Portishead released a debut that was very much of the future:

“POOR PORTISHEAD. The town, I man, not the slo-mo sound sculptors who have made this innocuous seaside hideaway sound so relentlessly tragic. For this is, without question, a sublime debut album. But so very, very sad.

'Dummy' unspools with melancholic majesty. From one angle, its languid slowbeat blues clearly occupy similar terrain to soulmates Massive Attack and all of Bristol hip-hop's extended family. But from another these are avant garde ambient moonscapes of a ferociously experimental nature. In other words, seriously spooky shit. But terrific shit all the same. Geoff Barrow's hugely evocative compositions earn constant comparisons with soundtrack gods Ennio Morricone and John Barry, although this is no smartarse spot-the-reference sample show. Most of these dislocating noises are played directly onto vinyl and then scratched back into the mix, creating deep and textured ambience instead of second-hand special effects.

Besides, it is Beth Gibbons' soulful sobs which really put Portishead on the emotional map. She can be Bjork or Billie Holliday, but the numb heartbreak is her recurring theme, culminating in the almost unbearable refrain "nobody loves me" from funereal current single 'Sour Times'. Both Barrow and Gibbons are products of lonely, loveless childhoods, so titles like 'Mysterons' and 'Wandering Star' as much products of other-wordly isolation knowing trash-culture obsessions - the shadowy underside of human behaviour distilled into weeping strings, spectral there vibrations and haunting silences.

Portishead's post-ambient, timelessly organ blues are probably too left-field introspective and downright Bristolian to grab short-term glory as some kind of Next Big Thing. But remember what radical departures 'Blue Lines' 'Ambient Works' and 'Debut' were for the times and make sure you hear this unmissable album. This may not be the future, but it is a future - one where Portishead is a desolate exquisitely beautiful place to visit.

9/10”.

I hope more is written about Portishead’s Dummy as it turns thirty. On 22nd August, we celebrate a truly awe-inspiring debut album from Beth Gibbons, Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow. I still think it sounds like nothing else. If acclaimed and a commercial success (Dummy reached two in the U.K.), it is clear that 1994 was such an unpredictable and inconsistent year. I often define it with Pop music. The start of Britpop and this influence from the U.S. All sounds tremendous and popular, though very little had the same sort of atmosphere and allure as Dummy. If you were not aware of Portishead before 1994, Dummy changed that. These perfect strangers created a masterpiece. A band respected because of their work and music rather than personalities, scenes and hype. Often cited as one of the best debuts of the 1990s and greatest albums ever, the magnificent, monumental, hugely smart and accomplished Dummy…

WAS no sucker!

FEATURE: A Career I Don’t Have. A Life I Don’t Lead: The Pains of Having a Visual and Ambitious Imagination

FEATURE:

 

 

A Career I Don’t Have. A Life I Don’t Lead

PHOTO CREDIT: ATC Comm Photo/Pexels

The Pains of Having a Visual and Ambitious Imagination

_________

THIS is a bit of a move away from…

PHOTO CREDIT: picjumbo.com/Pexels

focusing on music purely and other artists. I wanted to shift it to myself but also look out at the creative industry. That will include music and film. I realise that I am lucky get to write a blog and have access to all sorts of videos and photos. It is great to be able to illustrate features with aids like that. Bring them to life. I would hate it if I did Substack or just wrote and there was no option to bring words more to life. One of the most important parts of music journalism is photography and the music itself. I recently published a feature about music photography and how important it is. How it is an artform and integral aspect of the industry. How the professionals need to be valued. It is great that music photography flourishes at this time. I do think that a lot of music photography does lack imagination and concepts. A too busy photo can be a bit too much to take. Portraits are important, though it can be limited keeping it purely on the face and expression. I will never be a music photography, though I have so many ideas for photos and concepts, I wonder where that will go. Ideas that could go to waste. Maybe not just myself in the photo, I often scour clothing websites and imagine pairing this and this. Envisaging a room with some vinyl and some cool retro stuff in. A whole composition that would be eye-catching. Maybe a shot on the streets of New York with this chaotic rush going on behind but this calm in the forefront. A look that is intriguing and complex. I have ideas like this all the time and envy music photography. I think about album covers too and visualise what I would do. I have so many different concepts and images.

It is almost like a music video, albeit it one set to already-existing music. I can imagine the rest of the film, yet it is the opening titles that really excite me. That imaginative and ambitious split-screen. How the left and right then synch and we get this satisfying conclusion. I have another film idea which is a one-take. A dance number through the streets of New York. It is a film set during the last months of Disco. Around 1979. The songs, like the other film, would be more of a mixtape. Various songs from 1979, including Disco numbers merging and building. A colourful and growing dance routine. Dazzling and bright. The central character dancing to each track before ending with Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. Almost impossible to realise, we go through the streets and so many different locations with this incredible soundtrack. The sound builds and builds with the noises of the street and people. It then goes down and down right at the end. This idea of street sounds creating this urban symphony that sits with the soundtrack. The third and final filmed title sequence could be a music video. It starts with a close-up on a pair of eyes. There is this single take where the camera than move slowly upwards and sideways so that we uncover parts of this larger view.

Like a jigsaw being made. Revealing more and more of this unravelling and unnerving scene. Some beauty and horror alongside striking images. I am not sure of all the details, but I like this idea of panning up and wider bit by bit. The camera then comes back down and goes side to side and down so it closes back in. It is set to this one song – again, not sure what -, until we get back to a close-up of the eyes as they close. Not sure if it was a dream or they were on the ground. I guess this was more about me sort of getting things out. Airing stuff. It is a frustrating experiencing having ideas and visions that you cannot really put anywhere. I am a very visual thinker and that is one of the advantages of music journalism. However, if you extend that and have these ideas that are outside of journalism, what do you do?! It is a bit frustrating. I love imagining various photos, filmed things and even an album. I don’t think that they are worth forgetting about and being seen as rough sketches. Instead, they all have potential and roots that could grow into something bigger. It is what to do with them and how they will be realised. I am really keen for them all to…

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

COME to life.

FEATURE: Let It Be: Will We Get Another Documentary About the Beatles Soon?

FEATURE:

 

 

Let It Be

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles in 1969/PHOTO CREDIT: Apple Corps Ltd./Courtesy of The Beatles

Will We Get Another Documentary About the Beatles Soon?

_________

I guess there have been…

IN THIS PHOTO: Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison, circa 1965/PHOTO CREDIT: Bettmann

more than a fair share of documentaries about The Beatles through the years. In the past few years, we have seen more examples. The Beatles: Get Back was released in 2021. There have been audio documentaries and plenty of Beatles-related series and documentaries. In all, I think the band have been covered well in recent times. The thing is, most of the recent documentaries – say the past ten years – are of a particular time period or part of their career. I can’t remember the last time where there was a more career-spanning documentary. I think, whilst we still have Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr with us, it is a perfect time to plan ahead and consider something. Maybe one of the last Beatles documentaries with surviving members. Some may say that it is overkill. Sure, there have been plenty of Beatles activity and projects. Books and other bits. Now that the band are gaining new fans and attention after The Beatles: Get Back and its aftermath, there will be curiosity about their entire catalogue. From the start and period before the 1963 debut album, Please Please Me, right through to the final days. Maybe that late period has been more than covered, though there are large swathes without much recent representation and re-investigation. Making a stylish and fascinating documentary that takes apart albums, album covers, looks at live gigs. Speaking with various high-profile fans, long-time fans, people who worked in the studio with the band, plus podcasters and modern-day fans who are keeping their music and legacy alive. Maybe words from the world’s leading Beatles authority, Mark Lewisohn.

It would be easier getting it green-lit compared to documentaries about other artists. Paul McCartney especially would be interested and invested, as he is the world’s biggest Beatles fan. I guess it might be a hard task covering so much ground in a single documentary. What I was thinking was a multi-part documentary. Maybe something with the length of The Beatles: Get Back, though it would look through the years. Bringing in Paul McCartney photos, older interviews and new clips, together with a dive into their songs and albums. Bringing in Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, together other books about the band. Mixing filming techniques. A pictorial and graphical look at the albums and key moments. Rather than it being a general overview for fans, it would be an authoritative career-spanning documentary about a band who not only changed music in the 1960s – they changed popular culture forever. Maybe each episode in terms of themes. One about the albums and songs. Another dedicated to fans and touring. Stuff would have to be left out I guess. You literally cannot cover everything! I think we are very lucky having Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr with us. Not to be too morbid, but we maybe have a decade or so at the most with these two in the world. Having their recollections and words. Revealing things they might not have discussed before. It would be amazing to get them to look back on The Beatles’ lifespan this long after they broke up. Discussing the impact of the band. Also, The Beatles became popular again in the 1990s. This renewed interest perhaps after the 1995 documentary, Anthology. It is hard to find ways of streaming this essential series. Maybe a lot was covered back then. Nearly thirty years later, there is more to cover and discuss.

It is no coincidence that so many artists emulated and incorporated The Beatles into the music not long after that series came out. Many Britpop players – such as Blur, Oasis and their contemporaries – very much inspired by The Beatles. You had countless cases of artists nodding to the band. You can look around now and wonder whether The Beatles and impacting new artists. Maybe in a less obvious and prolific way as we say in the 1990s. Perhaps the Pop scene now does not have the same sort of wave and space for this representation. I would love to see a host of new artists and bands with The Beatles at their core. People might say we have cases of that today. I cannot name too many obvious examples. Since 1995, a lot has changed. We have seen album reissues by Giles Martin (son of the late Beatles producer George Martin). Discussing about that and doing animated videos and clips of different talks and demos. So many podcasters, actors, musicians and other people who are fans and want to discuss the band. Updates about their legacy. Fans who were there at the start. Mark Lewisohn taking us inside his expansive and authoritative Beatles book, Tune In. That was published in 2013. We have been treated to a continuation of Beatles projects and things for years and decades. A year does not go by without a book, series or something else. I have been thinking about Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. How important they are. If they have spoken extensively about The Beatles, maybe a final example of them coming together on film to talk about those great years would be more than nostalgia. A chance to get The Beatles out to new listeners and artists.

As much as anything, underlining how important they are. The cultural impact. So many areas to explore. Maybe there is something is in the works, though I fear most have the assumption that everything has been said and there has been a lot from the last few years – so why add anything else?! Is it a waste of money and time basically rehashing footage and covering the same ground. The thing is, as technology has advanced and there is so much more out there about The Beatles, there would be fairly little repetition. One could say Anthology is the definitive series/representation of The Beatles. I think there is room for more. It may be the last documentary we have to feature McCartney and Starr. Also, I wonder how many more album reissues will come. I guess 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night will be reissued at some point. I guess 1965’s Rubber Soul will be next. Following that, there is not really a lot else to come from the archives. Or maybe there is. Most of the best books have been written. Not to say that things will dry and we will search around for Beatles things years from now. However, after a certain point, there will be a natural drying up. Having this extensive documentary/series that ties almost everything together and would be a compendium with lots of archive footage plus valuable words from McCartney and Starr. People like Glyn Johns (chief engineer during The Beatles’ Get Back sessions) and Yoko Ono. Almost a desperation and acknowledgment of mortality. Capturing words and recollections whilst we have this incredible archive. People who were there at the start. Beatles children and tribute bands. I also like the idea of uncovering and diving into the studio albums.

It would take a lot of time together, but I can’t think of many reasons against the idea. There would definitely be a momentum and demand. If it did something new and was this attempt at something definitive, it would be worth investing in. It would take years to come together and complete, so I hope that something similar is being planned. I don’t think that there has been a recent documentary or series that has been broad and career-spanning. There are audio documentaries and podcasts, yet it is the visual aspect that is the key. Taking us inside album covers and the studio. Getting a real sense of what it was like being on the road with The Beatles. Importantly, and in terms of a unique selling point, discussing what their legacy is now and how that has shifted. Trying to inspire a new wave of artists to keep The Beatles’ sound alive. At a time when the scene is lacking that obvious influence. In any case, for fans and those in The Beatles’ world, it could be a celebration and final visual chapter. Something that can remain for decades and sit alongside the films, documentaries and series on The Beatles. Again, that chance to feature modern-day Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Who would have plenty more to say. The final words with them. What The Beatles meant to them and how they would like the band to be remembered. If some say it would be too ambitious or not new, I would argue against that. It is achievable, if time-consuming and a lot. It would definitely provide opportunity for lots of new information and angles. I am not sure what it would be called but, when considering a new Beatles documentary or series, just imagine…

WHAT could be.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: A Mariah Carey Celebration

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

A Mariah Carey Celebration

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ONE can only imagine how tough…

IN THIS PHOTO: Mariah Carey in 1994/PHOTO CREDIT: Uli Weber

it is for any artist to perform and commit to that sort of life. Not only is it so exhausting performing so often and committing so much of yourself to that life. You also have to do so much promotion and other work away from the stage. The toll is takes on them can be quite severe indeed. I have been thinking about high-profile artists and how it is for them. Such is the intensity of the performances, I do worry about their wellbeing. If an artist is doing a residency or huge and long concert, the accumulative impact of that can be really huge. It brings me to Mariah Carey and news that she has been to the point of tears during her Las Vegas residency. A legend who is performing night after night and doing these incredible shows, it is only natural that she would come to a point where she needs to take some time away from the stage. It does raise bigger questions around artists’ mental and physical happiness. How there is this desire to see them live for many dates. If you think about what effect that can have on them, we sort of need to address live performance and how much of a sacrifice it is. We all wish Mariah Carey the best and hope she will be okay and have time to spend some time away from the stage to rest. I am keen to celebrate her career with an ultimate playlist. In October, her album, Merry Christmas, turns thirty. Rainbow turns twenty-five in November. Her latest album, 2018’s Caution, is her fifteenth. I hope that we get more music from her. Wishing her love and happiness, below is a mixtape of Mariah Carey hits and some deep cuts. Showing that there is nobody quite like her. The New York-born icon is someone who is beyond comparison. She is a truly…

PEERLESS talent.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Artists Who Have Changed Their Names

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Gretel (formerly Gretel Hänlyn)

Artists Who Have Changed Their Names

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FOR various reasons…

IN THIS PHOTO: Radiohead (formerly known as On a Friday)

you get artists who change their name. It might be for legal reasons or the need to alter identity or enter a new phase of their career. Some bands change their names before they get into the public eye. Radiohead used to be On a Friday. Blur were Seymour. Even The Beatles went through various incarnations before they became The Beatles – including The Quarrymen, Johnny & the Moon Dogs, and The Silver Beetles. I often wonder how it affects their catalogue. Being listed under more than one name. Whether a new name means a new artist. If you can discount material before. I guess it can depend on the act. I can understand if an artist has to change their name of their feel their old one needs to be updated. Maybe it can be harder for fans of the future to find them or discover all of their work. I am compelled to do this playlist because the amazing London artist Gretel Hänlyn has dropped the second name. Going now be that one-word forename – whose real name is Maddy Haenlein -, is now trading as Gretel. Maybe less distinct in terms of setting her aside from the crowd, I think that it signifies a new stage of her career. Perhaps not wanting to be associated with the past, or perhaps fancying shortening the name. More Google-proof but perhaps more true to her music now, Far Out is her latest track. CLASH provide more details:

“Alt-pop voice Gretel returns with new single ‘Far Out’.

The singer made waves as Gretel Hänlyn, before opting to shorten her name. The reinvigorated Gretel launches a new chapter in her life with a headline show at London’s Omeara on Thursday (June 11th).

New single ‘Far Out’ is a window into her world, with Gretel opting to write in her “sarcastic, rebellious” voice. Co-produced by pop wunderkind mura masa, it’s an instantly catchy track, with her biting lyrics offset by some super melodies.

Released via her own imprint Breadcrumb Records, in partnership with AWAL Recordings, ‘Far Out’ presents Gretel in her fully independent era.

She comments…

‘Far Out’ is a big window into my personality and my favourite bits of the writing process; it’s aloof and came from a kinda sarcastic, rebellious place. There’s elements in the song that I never thought would make the Final Cut, like the loud, constant beeping, but once I started conceptualising the deadpan dancing in the music video, I realised those elements only added more personality.

I had an idea a long time ago that I wanted to do a weird dance for a music video but I was waiting for a suitable song to whip out my moves. Alex was actually the one to show me the iconic Bob Fosse club dance scene in his film ‘Sweet Charity’, said it looked like something I’d do, and I was dazzled. The music video pays homage to that scene, and I used styling as a direct nod to Suzanne Charny’s character. This song is the first of many more”.

To honour both Gretel and the other artists who have changed their name and, as such, signified this evolution and new identity/part of their career, I am going to end with a playlist of songs from artists who have changed their name. Whether it was before they became publicly known and embraced or later in their careers, there are a lot of famous cases. You will hear some songs from some legends and modern greats. All brilliant and interesting tracks. Artists we might know previously as someone else. Or maybe unaware that they changed their name. A mixtape dedicated to…

THE game of the name.

FEATURE: The Nation’s Favourite: Why BBC Radio 2 Remains the U.K.’s Most Popular Radio Station

FEATURE:

 

 

The Nation’s Favourite

PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

Why BBC Radio 2 Remains the U.K.’s Most Popular Radio Station

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THERE is a good reason…

PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

why BBC Radio 2 is the most popular station in the U.K. A title I don’t think will ever be taken from them. You can follow the station on Instagram and Twitter. There were some interesting findings from the recent RAJAR figures. It seems, regardless of how much time passes, you cannot dent and deny the role BBC Radio 2 plays. How it remains so popular. This fixture for millions of listeners:

“BBC Radio 2 remains the UK’s favourite radio station with Vernon Kay presenting the UK’s biggest radio show and Zoe Ball presenting the most popular breakfast show.

According to RAJAR, podcast listening is at an all-time high with 12.3 million people in the UK (15+) now listening to podcasts each week, a new record. This reflects evolving listener habits, with an increased appetite for podcasts and on-demand content, as digital audience figures continue to grow.

BBC Radio 2 had 13.3m listeners with 6.4m tuning in for The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. Vernon Kay has the biggest UK radio show with 6.7m listeners”.

Even though I am a devotee of BBC Radio 6 Music, I have listened to BBC Radio 2 since I was a child. Even if I do not listen as much now, there are still reasons to tune in. Zoe Ball is a wonderful breakfast host and worth everything she earns. A source of constant joy and energy, I love the fact that she and the team have this infectious and brilliant bond that makes you part of the family. She is a legendary broadcaster and someone I hope remains at the station for years and years more. In addition to the live shows are incredible weekly edition of Dance Sounds of the 90s with Vernon Kay, Sounds of the 90s with Fearne Cotton, and Eras. We have Pick of the Pops, Rylan on Saturday, Liza Tarbuck, Vernon Kay, Sara Cox, and Jo Whiley. I tune into the excellent Radio 2 Unwinds with Angela Griffin (Sunday at 11 p.m.).

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There is so much variety and range on BBC Radio 2. I do not agree that any station has a set demographic in terms of age and musical tastes. BBC Radio 2 plays a lot of modern music in addition to looking back through the decades. If you want something a bit more Indie, deeper-diving or off-the-beaten-track, then BBC Radio 6 Music provides that. BBC Radio 1 perhaps more concerned with the contemporary rather than classic (though they do nod back quite a bit). BBC Radio 2 is not a station for archived music or an older listenership. Instead, it caters to pretty much anyone. You will find something to love. Every presenter so committed to their role. Part of this family rather than some faceless, corporate organisation. I guess the station still has a bit of an issue with gender and racial balance in terms of its playlist. Look across their entire playlist and it is still balanced very much in favour of male artists. Quite heavily on some shows and days. This needs to be addressed. Same goes with artists of colour. However, there have been some improvements when it comes to the most played songs on the station. Much better balance there. I want to come to a recent feature from Music Week. They spoke with Helen Thomas, Jeff Smith, Jo Whiley and Trevor Nelson on the station's role in the industry. This was an interview from August 2023. The interview has been shared as, next month, BBC Radio 2 in the Park returns (and will be held in Preston) for the first time since 2019, where Kylie Minogue and Tears For Fears lead a star-studded line-up. After a turbulent period, it’s set to be a celebration of the station’s dominance over U.K. radio:

“To continue that analogy, Radio 2 head of station Helen Thomas and longstanding head of music Jeff Smith have shown themselves to be chancellors of distinction. Radio 2 was still top of the class in the RAJAR results for the first three months of 2023, with its ratings down just 0.8% year-on-year to 14.46 million and up 1.2% on the prior quarter.

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It seems an opportune time, then, for Music Week to check in with the team over Zoom – especially with the imminent return of Radio 2 In The Park for the first time since 2019. Taking place in Leicester’s Victoria Park from September 16-17 and headlined by Kylie Minogue and Tears For Fears, the expanded event will be the station’s biggest ever gathering held outside London.

“All roads lead to Leicester right now, that is absolutely where our focus is,” says Thomas. “It’s our flagship live music event, so we can’t wait. This is like year one for us really, because we got so close with Leeds last year, which would have been our first two-day event.”

The 2022 show was cancelled following the death of the Queen.

“It couldn’t be more important because it’s a chance for us to see our listeners face to face and for all our presenters to come together,” Thomas continues. “It’s all available on iPlayer, BBC Sounds and, of course, on Radio 2 as well, so it’s a hugely significant live music moment for us.”

Jeff Smith, too, foresees a landmark moment.

“We achieved an awful lot with our festival in a day, so it’s brilliant to be able to have two days and also take it around the UK,” suggests Smith. “We saw with Glastonbury and the response to Elton that there is such an appetite for live music, and I think we’re going to see that again.”

Bananarama, Texas, James Blunt, Deacon Blue, Beverley Knight, Busted, Soft Cell, Pretenders, Shalamar, Rick Astley, Jessie Ware, Lemar, Sam Ryder and Simply Red are also on the bill, with all of the 70,000 tickets available selling out in under eight hours.

“No other radio station could put that bill on, because it is an authentic reflection of what we do at Radio 2,” says Thomas. “To have everyone from Tears For Fears to Jessie Ware, who has also presented on Radio 2, is such a brilliant statement of our music policy made real.”

Thomas took up the reins in 2020, succeeding Lewis Carnie, whereas radio veteran Smith has held his title since joining the Beeb from Napster in 2007. The pair are highly complimentary of each other’s qualities.

“Jeff is amazing,” says Thomas. “I genuinely feel blessed to have someone of his experience and wisdom. He’s excellent counsel for me. We’ve got an amazing team at Radio 2 and when you’ve got people who share the vision, you can achieve a lot – and we have. We’ve been through so much since I got this job: we’ve had two royal deaths and a pandemic, and that’s just for starters.”

“I’ve never worked with a better boss,” beams Smith. “We get on so well because we understand each other perfectly. To Helen’s credit, she’s brought this station together more than I’ve ever known it.”

Presenter Trevor Nelson, who has hosted Rhythm Nation on the station since 2016, believes the numbers speak for themselves.

“The audience figures tell you why the industry needs Radio 2,” he laughs. “I think we’ve offered something that clearly no one else has. Number one, we just offer that comfort. In lockdown, the audience reacted to all these known voices they’d trusted every year, so there is that assurance.”

Nelson suggests Radio 2’s balance of entertainment and music is something few of its peers can match.

“We have our specialists and we have our massive mainstream personalities, and it’s that balance that makes it,” he says. “The number one word I always get from listeners is – and it’s so cheesy – is friendship. There’s that companionship and familiarity in a changing world, without it being ‘Hitsville USA.’”

Nelson, who appeared on stage with Thomas to collect the Radio Station honour at the 2021 Music Week Awards, says new music is among his top priorities.

“I don’t stick to the tried and trusted all the time,” he says. “And I’m trying to drive people who might have slightly musically checked out to stream music, make their own playlists and have a bit more interest in new music, as well as rediscovering old music.”

Nelson has upped his workload further still of late, delving into his interview archive for the Trevor Nelson’s Divas series on BBC Sounds, hosting an orchestral reimagining of Bob Marley’s greatest hits from Birmingham Town Hall and presenting a one-off concert at the Royal Albert Hall to mark the 75th anniversary of Windrush. He is also curating Trevor Nelson’s Soul Christmas at the London venue this December. As one of the few diverse voices on Radio 2, he is willing and able to utilise his platform to make a difference.

 “I feel a huge responsibility,” he says. “I do four shows a week on Radio 2 and they let me playlist my own show, which is brilliant for musical diversity. My old cohort [DJ] Spoony joined recently; he started depping for me and then they gave him a show. And Angela Griffin has a late night show, so there are diverse voices. I’m not standing here saying we 100% need more, the audience that are listening to the station reflect the DJs on the station. But bit by bit, over the years to come, I expect that to change and I want it to.”

Nelson also says that he can help drive the shift.

“The fact that I’m Black and am on the biggest station is great for my culture, because it proves that if someone else comes along, there isn’t a perception that they can’t be successful on Radio 2,” he says. “So I do take the responsibility. It’s a question I would have avoided years ago, because I always wanted to be judged on merit, not the colour of my skin, but I accept the challenge at Radio 2 and so far, so good. I’ve got nothing but love for the audience.”

Of course, BBC Radio 2 is seeking to impact the industry in other ways.

Chief among its innovations is the Piano Room, which has been a hit with listeners since launching in January 2022. The format sees each artist perform three tracks – a new song, one of their well-known tracks and a classic cover accompanied by an orchestra – during the morning show and has welcomed acts such as U2’s Bono & The Edge, Depeche Mode and Cat Burns.

In February, Piano Room Month featured Stormzy, Pink, Sugababes, Suede, Haircut 100 and Jake Shears featuring Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys, each of whom performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra live from Maida Vale studios.

“We’ve created an opportunity whereby artists like Pink can expand that whole arrangement with us and deliver a longer piece to TV or iPlayer,” points out Smith. “Clearly, what we’re all about is value for the licence fee payer, but also the music industry and I think the value it can get out of that content is incalculable. And it’s another way of getting new music through to daytime.”

Smith considers R2’s relationship with record labels to be “brilliant”, but is keen to encourage even closer cooperation.

“I’d say to the music industry, talk to me more about what we can do with the Piano Room to expose your artist’s music to a wider audience than ever before with the sheer scale and scope that we can offer,” he says. “Pink was a great example of that, but also Depeche Mode, who had never done anything with an orchestra before. I was talking to their manager and he was saying it’s one of the best things they’ve done for decades. And they did a million views on each of those tracks on YouTube.”

Blur, meanwhile, recently became the latest big name act to star in BBC Radio 2 In Concert, performing an exclusive show in front of a small audience of listeners at BBC Radio Theatre in July.

While Smith believes the extent to which radio can claim credit for breaking acts in 2023 is a matter of opinion, he is convinced it remains a vital piece of the jigsaw.

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“I’m not too sure it necessarily begins within mainstream daytime radio,” he muses. “Nowadays, all sorts of people could claim they’ve given birth to these hits. But if you want to be successful, ultimately, I believe you’ve got to be on the radio. That is a level you have to attain and it has to be the ambition for many artists, even now. If you want to be successful why wouldn’t you want to be on the biggest radio station in the UK? The biggest radio station in Europe? It’s not going to work for everybody and not all artists are going to work for us, but radio is still so important to breaking new music.”

Smith accepts that the advent of streaming and platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have impacted the medium – just not in the way many would assume. He cites the resurgence of Kate Bush’s 1985 classic Running Up That Hill on the back of featuring in Netflix’s Stranger Things to flesh out his point.

“Generations are coming together through consumption of music and it’s happenstance that we now find ourselves in a world where that is celebrated,” he surmises. “People aren’t as tribal now. They love a broad range of music and Radio 2, as a one-stop shop, is a great place to find that.”

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Smith says that Radio 2 stands apart due to its “full-service nature”.

“If one of the platforms we just talked about started to try to be something like Radio 2 that would be interesting, that would be a threat. I’m not arrogant enough to say there’s not competition out there, but those are very much on-demand experiences.”

Sharing her delight at the statistic that one in four adults who listen to UK radio are listening to Radio 2, Thomas points to the open-mindedness of the station’s audience.

“Whatever their age, they don’t just want to listen to the music of their youth, they also want to hear what their kids or grandkids are listening to,” she insists. “We are a proud station aimed at everyone over the age of 35, and that feeds through every aspect of our schedule. There is no other radio station like it on the planet and I want it to continue to tower above all others.”

Even so, the past 12 months have not been without their challenges. Vernon Kay became the new host of the mid-morning show after Ken Bruce, who presented the slot for more than three decades, departed for Bauer Audio UK’s Greatest Hits Radio. Bruce, who had also hosted Radio 2’s Eurovision coverage since 1988, could claim to be the UK’s most popular DJ based on RAJAR figures released in February, with 8.2 million listeners.

“Ken is an amazing broadcaster, who was here at the BBC for 45 years and 31 years on mid-mornings, and he chose to leave,” says Thomas. “It wasn’t a change that I was looking to make, but he had an offer and he decided to go.”

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Helen Thomas views the passion of the station’s listenership as an overwhelming positive.

“The listeners of Radio 2 love the station and they tell us what they think, and I value that,” she says. “I would rather have that relationship with our audience because they’re grown-ups as well. I’ve been doing this a long time and Jeff has been doing it even longer, and you know in your gut if something sounds right. You feel it, you can hear it and you can see the response from the listeners.”

As she looks ahead, Thomas says that she wants to keep pushing boundaries.

“Post-Radio 2 In The Park, where are we going next year? Who are we going to get on the bill?” she says. “Hilariously, I was asking Jeff who we’d got for the Piano Room next February, literally the day after selling out 70,000 tickets for Leicester, because it never stops. So I feel like the future is going to be all right.”

Before we leave Thomas and her team to it, we ask whether, amidst all the positivity, there is anything that keeps her awake at night.

“Well, to be honest with you, everything,” she answers. “I’m a terribly light sleeper!”.

I was keen to include as much as that feature as possible. Still dominating the U.K. airwaves, BBC Radio 2 is this institution. What role does it have going forward? I feel, even in a streaming age, the station can remain relatable and contemporary. Showcasing so many incredible new artists but also playing plenty of legacy artists, there is this broad playlist that speaks to listeners across the age demographic. I think there will be new faces coming to the station in years to come. Maybe some younger blood, we will still see icons like Zoe Ball remain. It is great that the station remains so popular. Soi many reasons as to why that is. I have listened to the station since I was very young. I will continue to do so. You get something very special from BBC Radio 2 that you cannot…

GET anywhere else.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

 IN THIS PHOTO: Jeff Buckley during the Grace shoot, Arcadia Studios, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Merri Cyr

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

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I do not include…

many cover versions in Groovelines. There is a special reason why I want to focus on Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Not only is it a definitive and beautiful reading of a song that, upon its original release, was not as adored and raved about as Buckley’s version. Included on Cohen’s 1984 album, Various Positions, it is still a brilliant song. Those incredible and vivid lyrics. Poetic and timeless. I think that Jeff Buckley brought something special from the song. His celebration of the orgasm, as he said. Cohen’s original version is deep-voiced and a little plodding. Not as evocative and hymnal as Buckley’s rendition. Of course, Buckley’s vocal was partly inspired by John Cale. His version of the song was included on the 1991 album, I'm Your Fan: The Songs of Leonard Cohen. Hearing this tribute album, Buckley saw new potential in Hallelujah. A song he must have known about originally, John Cale definitely inspired him to tackle Hallelujah. Buckley’s version remains the finest and definitive version. It is sad how the song was murdered and drained of any beauty and meaning but endless cover versions! The overwrought and horrible versions that are comfortably into double figures. I hear buskers sing the song in London and it is always horribly over-dramatic and irritating. St. Vincent recently said how American Idol cover versions of the song were the “worst thing in the world”. She has a point! Artists have seen how people responded to Jeff Buckley’s version of felt compelled to have a go. Not that you can distil or eradicate the moving version Buckley performed. I just hope artists stop covering it, as it has been done too much and nobody will match Buckley’s take. All the ghastly and needless covers will not change the fact!

Another reason to focus on Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah is that the album it is from, Grace, turns thirty soon. Even though it was released in the U.S. on 23rd August, it was released in Europe the week before. So, on 15th August, we mark thirty years of Grace. You do get occasions where promising original songs are given new life and meaning by other artists. Doing something to the song that the author could not imagine. Buckley did that with Hallelujah. Taking Leonard Cohen’s perfect words and adding the needed tenderness and passion to the piece, we see this song in a different light. If Leonard Cohen’s original vocal was about the complexities of life and called for something more grave or darker, there is this sense of light and beauty from Buckley’s reading. Sadly, again, the version is overused on T.V. and film. Used almost as a sad and death song. Deployed when characters are dying or dead. It has never suggested itself as being about that. I am not sure why people think it is appropriate in that context! It goes to show that producers and filmmakers really need to learn what the song is about; what Jeff Buckley’s rendition is about and not lazily and incorrectly think it is this sombre and depressing. Listen to Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah and you will find so much more than that. I want to bring in a few features about Buckley’s cover of Hallelujah. Far Out Magazine took us inside the cover in 2020:

“Hallelujah’ is a definitive rarity for its ability to make people feel and truly emote in a way that other songs can’t. Buckley’s Gen-X crowds were often rowdy throughout his sets and he always used to make sure to leave this track until last. As soon as he sang the first note of ‘Hallelujah’, you could hear a pin drop as the audience was silenced by the emotion emitted from the stage. Cohen’s version has the ability to stop someone dead in their tracks and, although Buckley tackled the song from a different perspective, he manages to make listeners feel the very same raw emotions as the legendary Canadian does with his version.

Leonard Cohen later explained the meaning behind the song whilst leaving it open to interpretation in his trademark poetic fashion: “Hallelujah is a Hebrew word which means ‘Glory to the Lord,” he explained. “The song explains that many kinds of Hallelujahs do exist. I say: All the perfect and broken Hallelujahs have an equal value. It’s a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way but with enthusiasm, with emotion.”

 Whereas Buckley interpreted the lyrics in his own way, the late singer referred to his voluptuous rendition of the track as being a homage to “the hallelujah of the orgasm.” He explained in a Dutch magazine OOR: “Whoever listens carefully to ‘Hallelujah’ will discover that it is a song about sex, about love, about life on earth.

“The hallelujah is not a homage to a worshipped person, idol or god, but the hallelujah of the orgasm. It’s an ode to life and love,” he added. Buckley also admitted to hoping that Cohen wouldn’t get to hear his version in case he was upset at his interpretation of the classic.

Buckley’s close friend Glen Hansard, who moved to New York with the singer, praised his friend’s effort to The Atlantic, stating: “He gave us the version we hoped Leonard would emote, and he wasn’t afraid to sing it with absolute reverence. Jeff sang it back to Leonard as a love song to what he achieved, and in doing so, Jeff made it his own.” It was this transition which saw Buckley’s version of the track be counted as a true masterpiece and, at the very least, on a level footing with the original, if not better”.

Prior to coming to a feature from Classic Rock, I want to introduce this feature. They write how the potential of Hallelujah was not really seen and explored until Jeff Buckley covered it. Grace, sadly, an album many did not discover until after his death in 1997. An artist well ahead of his time. It is a shame that Buckley was never really as embraced, understood and celebrated in his life as he should have been. Hallelujah gained a whole new lease after Buckley died. As I say, it has been covered so many times. Used and played far and wide. Perhaps one of the greatest cover versions of all time:

“The most famous cover song on Grace (and probably Jeff Buckley’s most well-known song overall) opens up side two of the record, giving the backing band a break and putting the spotlight solely on Buckley’s voice and electric guitar. The song itself probably needs no introduction – it’s easily one of the best ever written, with its iconic opening lines (“I heard there was a secret chord/That David played, and it pleased the Lord/But you don’t really care for music, do ya?”) and its swaying melody being immediately recognizable along with its simple but effective one-word chorus. If you didn’t know this from Leonard Cohen’s original or John Cale‘s cover from 1991 (which directly inspired Buckley’s version), then you might be one of those folks like me who first heard it in the movie Shrek (which used Cale’s version in the actual film, even though Rufus Wainwright‘s version appears on the soundtrack album). Or else you heard someone attempt it on a reality singing show or cover it in concert. Suffice to say, it’s one of those songs that has reached near-total cultural saturation by now, to the point where it’s becoming a bit of a cliché to cover it.

While Buckley’s version helped to popularize the song, it’s notable that his version is quite stark in comparison to Cohen’s original, given the complete lack of accompaniment that allows his watery guitar chords to ring out against a backdrop of utter silence. There are several seconds before, between, and after the verses where he deviates from the rhythm entirely and just sort of noodles on his guitar and croons a bit, giving it the feel of a stripped-down live performance. (I don’t know this for sure, but it seems like the sort of thing that might have been recorded in a single take.) This track runs for nearly seven minutes as a result, yet none of it seems wasted, because Buckley is so utterly lost in the moment that it’s hard not to get swept up in the sheer passion of his performance. I’m sure many essays have been written on the possible interpretations of this song, which uses different characters from the Bible as analogies for a present-day relationship that is utterly broken, recasting the central refrain in more of a context of crying out to God in the midst of grief and helplessness, rather than the usual “praise the Lord”-type context you might hear in Christian music. I think that’s what makes the song so striking to such a wide variety of listeners, regardless of their own religious or non-religious inclinations. There’s no way I’d ever come up with anything innovative to say about it, but I know I’ve loved it from the first time I heard it, and it’s easy to see why Buckley’s version (along with Cale’s) is now seen as definitive.

Grade: A+”.

I am going to end with a feature from Classic Rock. I did not know that there have been hundreds of covers of Hallelujah. It is both touching and depressing. What I really love is that people can recognise Jeff Buckley’s version. How it has and will never be bettered. Even though the endless string of covers has been a bit annoying and needless, you have to concentre on the oriignal version and Jeff Buckley’s cover:

“But in the end only two versions really matter: the original, on its writer Leonard Cohen’s Various Positions album of 1984, that gave the song life, and Jeff Buckley’s spellbinding one-man tour de force, released a decade later on Grace. Both still force all else into the background.

Hallelujah was obviously an itch to scratch for Cohen, who drafted 80-some verses and tortured himself over the lyrics, famously sitting in his underwear at New York’s Royalton Hotel, notebook in hand, banging his head on the floor.

It paid off. Up to a point. While the Hallelujah lyrics evolved with every tour, Cohen’s original studio version remains a powerful piece of writing, steeped in the scriptures and full of indelible lines (‘Your faith was strong but you needed proof/You saw her bathing on the roof/Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you’). But the track suffers, almost terminally, from its dated synth and dour lead vocal, further dwarfed by the gospel choir.

Buckley had a bolder plan. In early days, the singer-songwriter had made New York’s Sin-e club shiver with a reading that he said nodded to “the hallelujah of the orgasm”. And in late 1993, when Grace was recorded, he hammered home that sensual treatment (the track even begins with an audible sigh).

“Whoever listens closely to Hallelujah will discover that it is a song about sex, about love, about life on earth,” Buckley once said. “It’s an ode to life and love.”

There was a little of the Cale version (from 1991’s I’m Your Fan) here, but whereas the Velvet Underground man had led with the piano, Buckley elevated the song with a showcase of solo electric guitar, starting out rich, sad and slow, then blossoming into a shimmering instrumental passage that stopped all the clocks.

“I hope Leonard doesn’t hear it,” he once said – but that could only have been to spare the older songwriter the ignominy of hearing his own song perfected and wrestled away from him.

Released between grunge and Britrock, Buckley’s Hallelujah seemed a fragile anomaly, too good for this world. So too, it transpired, was Buckley. By the time the 30-year-old’s body was dredged from the choppy waters of Tennessee’s Wolf River in May 1997, the song had taken on an almost unbearable poignancy.

“There’s a spiritual quality in Hallelujah that touches people,” Buckley’s one-time collaborator Gary Lucas once told this writer. “There’s a holy quality in that song. But it’s like they said about Sinatra: Jeff could have sung the phone book and made it sound great”.

On 15th August, it will be thirty years since the sensational Grace was released in Europe. It came to the U.S. on 23rd August. I wanted to spend some time with Hallelujah. Perhaps the centrepiece and focal point of Grace, it has this huge power and meaning today. I don’t see it as sad and maudlin. It is this celebration and incredible stirring song, performed with such beauty and, yes, grace! No matter how many people – from the streets to studios – tackle Hallelujah, nobody will ever come remotely close to matching. Jeff Buckley’s version. It buckles the knees and makes the heart stop. Surely one of the most astonishing cover…

EVER committed to tape.