Monday, 26 January 2015

92.  The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. (L.P). The Black Crowes. 1992.
Their successful Stones via Faces debut, 'Shake Your Money Maker', appeared in the twilight zone between '80s Glam Metal and '90s alternative rock. The following two years of stardom resulted in this complex, profound and elegant follow up. Darker, haunted and delving much deeper into their Southern rock heritage. (S.S) (Mojo).
This album is one of those "glad I took the gamble" purchases. I'd heard The Black Crowes version of 'Hard To Handle' from their first album and recognised their affinity with Faces era Rod Stewart and the bluesier side of The Stones. It was my kind of album and I still listen to The Black Crowes to this day. C.B.
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91.  Screamadelica. (L.P). Primal Scream. 1991.
The song titles on the album, 'Moving On Up', 'I'm Coming Down', 'Loaded', mapping a raver's trajectory, this pioneering rock and acid house infused album (Primal Scream's third) was not only a milestone of their career, but one of the cultural events of the '90s. With Andrew Weatherall and erstwhile Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller at the controls the Scream settle into a hedonistic groove and soar, well, Higher Than The Sun. Essential. (J McN) (Mojo)
I got into this album after hearing Primal Scream's version of the 13th Floor Elevators classic 'Slip Inside This House'. The Jimmy Miller production credit also sold it to me. The album achieved lasting recognition in the early 2000's when it was featured on a series of stamps recognising the great British albums. C.B.
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Friday, 23 January 2015

90.  Three Feet High And Rising. (L.P). De La Soul. 1989.
De La Soul came out of the New York suburbs, all designer sports wear and bling, just like all the other rap acts that were around at the time. Their first record 'Plug Tuning' was not a triumph, sounding more like a bad demo than a serious attempt at cashing in on the 'hip hop' market. A rethink of style, both musical and sartorial was called for. Out went the designer sports wear and sexist lyrics, replaced by baggy T's in tie dye and floral print. Humour was added to the mix and the 'Daisy Age' was born.
'Three Feet High And Rising' is a great record, critically acclaimed by the music press and the record buying public alike. In 2010 it was chosen by America's Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry and is on The Rolling Stone list of 200 Essential Rock Records and also their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The humour is all pervading, in the irony of the lyrics, the performance by the band and the construct of the album, presented as a weird TV game show, the type of which can only exist in your dreams. Songs about squirrels digging up the garden, 'Potholes On My Lawn', personal hygiene, 'A Little Bit of Soap' make Three Feet High And Rising a delight to listen to even a quarter of a century on.
Can you tell, I love this album.
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89.  Graceland. (L.P) Paul Simon. 1986.
With 'Graceland' Paul Simon pulled off the biggest comeback since Lazarus. His previous album, 1983's 'Hearts & Bones' had been the poorest selling album of his career. He had been listening to bootleg tapes of African music and decided to write songs inspired by what he was now hearing. With 'Graceland' Simon brought "World Music" to the mainstream
Whether it was an altruistic act on Simon's part is open to argument. Some believed that Simon had ripped off the sounds he had assimilated within his own music, The Specials' Jerry Dammers famously picketed Simon's Albert Hall gigs the following year. Others saw it as Simon bringing "World Music" into 6 million homes via 'Graceland'. Indeed, Simon's record label went on to release big selling albums by "World" artists such as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makebo, Blacksmith Black Mambazo and The Bhundu Boys.
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88.  Walk This Way. Run DMC. 1986.
Just when the average rock & pop fan thought he/she had Rap music sussed, along came a game changer such as 'Walk This Way'. No longer confined to the ghetto 'Rap' reached out to the wider world by assimilating its rock music rival and found itself a place on MTV.
'Rap' had borrowed from 'Rock' before, but never with as much success as Run DMC's version of 'Walk This Way'. The Aerosmith original was virtually rap itself given the quick-fire lyrics as sung by Steven Tyler. Run DMC added a little 'black attitude' to the song and scored a world wide hit with it, taking Tyler and Aerosmith along for the ride via the spoof video that became a MTV staple for years afterwards.
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87.  A History of Popular Music
Psychocandy. (L.P) The Jesus & Mary Chain. 1985.
Just when rock had been buried under an avalanche of synth-pop and the boots and leather trousers/pants had been shed for baggies and designer trainers, along came The Jesus & Mary Chain with 'Psychocandy'. The band, all back-combed hair and sullen faces eschewed image in favour of isolation and determination. A determination to drag rock music back to its nucleus of distorted guitars and doom laden vocals. They were apostles of noise in a world of noise abators, sworn enemies of the swarm of pop-poodles especially bred by Saturday morning kid's TV. Their gigs were never more than 15 minutes long, a wall of tooth-drilling feedback, concluded by a burst of violence. In the event it was triumphal, as complete a rock noise as the eighties produced. 'Never Understand', 'Just Like Honey', 'You Trip Me Up' and 'In A Hole' were huge noble cliffs of sound, brooding and brilliant...
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86.  New Years Day. U2, 1982.
Echo & The Bunnymen, Simple Minds, Big Country, The Waterboys and U2, all started out as punk bands and each came to the same conclusion, that the way forward was to explore the alternative route to stardom. Instead of playing in fast and steady, two minute spurts, the way forward was to slow it down (especially the guitars) to a majestic gait. In doing so, these bands and their acolytes (The Alarm and Silent Running) created a decidedly non American style that was Big, Cold, Calculating. It was Northern Glacial rock with epic pretensions, and deeply rooted in local traditions, the most notable being Celtic. this was New Era stadium rock, all swagger and spiritually uplifting. Trouble was that it could very easily be construed as patronising and escalate into a laying-on-of-hands proportions. (adapted from Vox).
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