Direction-less Decision Making Remains A Factor in Mercurial Prize

The Mercury Prize has received its fair share of criticism throughout the years. Years when the shortlist has been criticised for its focus on big-name stars like Arctic Monkeys, David Bowie, Foals and Jake Bugg in 2013, though this argument seems to have been turned on its head for 2014. Apart from Brit-rock royalty Damon Albarn and genre-jumping Londoners Bombay Bicycle Club, the list is pretty bereft of big names. On the one hand you might be tempted to argue that quality should rise to the surface, though, on the other side of the argument, you can say that it is more important to nurture the talent of young, up-and-coming artists like FKA Twigs or East India Youth.

Bombay Bicycle Club – So Long, See You Tomorrow:

Probably the best known name on the list apart from Damon Albarn, it’s kind of surprising that BBC hadn’t been nominated for one of their three previous albums, all of which are very different. It seems like BBC has taken a world-music route on this album, using Indian infused music and synthesizers to create a really exultant album

When I look back at some of the nominees from the early nineties I’m at a loss to judge whether the correct winner was picked that year or if there was some outstanding outsider who got fucked by the mainstream. This might sound like a bad thing but it’s not really. I get to listen to what was critically acclaimed in England in 1994 or 1997, during the Brit Pop boom, or nearing the end of the Slacker/Madchester days, you can see the effect bands like Oasis and Radiohead have made on certain generations as you hear imitations come through in the early 2000’s. The Mercury Prize may be a prestigious award for certain artists, but its most important function is to act like a Time Capsule or archive, documenting the musical tastes of a generation for perpetuity.

Royal Blood – Royal Blood:

It wasn’t a huge year for Blues-Rock, with artists like Mac DeMarco and Real Estate leaving The Black Keys and Jack White in the background as their drawling-sunburst-slacker-rock gained traction. Royal Blood, however, managed to gain considerable attention for their debut and with plenty of similarities to one-time British Rock Royalty Muse, they look set to enjoy further acclaim. Probably one of the favourites.

It’s really odd to look back at the list in 1994 and see Take That’s name alongside Blur and Paul Weller. Did the Mercury Panel just decide to go with the popular acts that year or were Take That genuinely talented at one point in time? Who can tell? Even more shocking is the inclusion of The Spice Girls in 1997. I may sometimes look back on The Spice Girls’ music with disdain but it’s undoubtable that they left their mark on my childhood as I was forced to listen to their songs, living with a teenage sister while they were still together. In that sense it seems right to say that popular bands, even if I might dislike their music, must be remembered too. They must go down as the promising acts of the year even if just to communicate a sense of the time, a way of describing a Zeitgeist almost.

Polar Bear – In Each and Every One:

It’s tempting to designate Polar Bear as the outsider, included as the obligatory Jazz inclusion of the year, but, alas, GoGo Penguin have also gotten the nod, along with spoken-word artist Kate Tempest, making it a year for diversity. Perhaps a little too distanced from lighter acts on the list, like Bombay Bicycle Club and East India Youth, but there shouldn’t be any doubts about their inclusion. Creating a concatenation of Jazz, Jazz Fusion and Electronica and sounding like Miles Davis meets Burial, Polar Bear should be listened to in their own right and not just because they are on this list.

1992, the awards’ first year, saw Simply Red nominated for Stars. I want to laugh, Simply Red used to be my mother’s favourite singer. We’d have to listen to his music, along with The Eagles and multiple X-factor winners, in the car as we drove my sister to Irish Dancing competitions. So much so that I imagine the inside of the car whenever I hear any of his songs.

Nick Mulvey – First Mind:

Mulvey was nominated for the prize with former band Portico Quartet in 2008. He played the Hang (similar to a steelpan but with more resonance/droning, like a helmholtz resonator.) First Mind is Mulvey’s first solo studio album, following on from the release of two Eps; The Trellis and Fever to the Form. Mulvey’s solo work is in a similar vein to the pleasing, stripped-back folk of previous nominees like Villagers and Ben Howard.

Cornership, the genius’ who gave ‘Brimful of Asha’ to the world, were nominated in 1998 for When I Was Born for the 7^th Time. Coldplay got the nod in 2000 when their debut album, Parachutes, came out. Ms Dynamite won the award in 2002, a year with a pretty urban-heavy shortlist, showing the explosion of Garage and R&B music at the time.

Young Fathers – Dead:

Young fathers are a multicultural hip/hop group from Scotland, they’re one of the older groups on the list having formed in 2008. Dead is their first album, however, and it’s a great showcase of what Young Fathers can do; make danceable music that does not necessarily always sound upbeat as the band do experiments with atmospherics.

Klaxons, who recently announced that they will be splitting up after their next tour, won in 2007 for their debut Myths of the Near Future which seemed like the definitive album of the Nu-Rave/Skins era that seems so long ago now. Speech Debelle won it two years later for her forthright and principled type of rap, in the form of the Meshell Ndegeocelle. Speech winning was probably the biggest shock in recent history, unless you count James Blake’s triumph over David Bowie and Arctic Monkeys last year.

Kate Tempest – Everybody Down:

Originally a spoken word artist, Kate Tempest sounds perfectly comfortable as she raps on Everybody Down, channelling a fair amount attitude while doing so. She helps the listener remember what is great about rap; it’s realistic tone. She doesn’t shirk away or overly emphasize the aphorisms that she seems to stumble across rather than seek. Really good but unlikely to win.

There were a few years when The Mercury Prize went completely mainstream, about the time when Q Magazine was really big. In 2004 a pretty drastic shift in tastes occurred. I can only think that this must have been planned and talked about, there could be no other reason for such a large overhaul, unless the whole panel was replaced in just one year. Keane, Jamelia, Joss Stone and The Zutons were nominated in 2004. If you want to think of the modern equivalent maybe try Kodaline, Rita Ora, Jessie J and Ed Sheeran. How weird would that be? To see FKA Twigs alongside Kodaline on the night would be ludicrous wouldn’t it? That’s because there has been another shift in tastes. It’s obvious that the public has pressured the panel to focus their attention farther afield than the fringes of Pop and Rock Music. With two Jazz albums, one soul album, a spoken word album, a blues album amongst others, this year’s selection caters for a wide variety of tastes. Priorities seem to have changed as the growth of home-grown and independently disseminated music has coincided with a boom in internet consumption, which also provides a lot more access to music for fans.

Jungle – Jungle:

Jungle seem to be everybody’s favourite soul collective at the minute. Their success reminds me of that enjoyed by Rudimental not so long ago, with songs full of energy and movement. They’ve also been nominated for BBC’s Sound of 2014 prize. Formed by friends Tom McFarland and Josh Lloyd Watson last year and have been going from strength to strength since. Probably unlikely to win but definitely a band to look out for in the future.

It’s a good time for the Mercury Prize, it seems, they are no longer trying to provide what they think people want, It seems that there is no doubt as to what music fans want and it relies on an ideal rather than a specific genre; diversity. With continued positive attitudes music may continue to progress and grow more complicated and elaborate, with twists and turns of a variety of different cultures or sounds thrown together.

GoGo Penguin – v2.0:

The second jazz band on the list, GoGo Penguin combine Jazz and Electronica to create a kind of comfortable urbaneness. Their music reminds me of Destroyer or Antlers, though with more pace and deviations. V2.0 is the band’s second album after 2012’s Fanfares. Another band unlikely to win but still really great at creating an interesting ambience.

Does this mean that there should be a limit to the amount that a band can win or be nominated? Maybe something similar to the Nobel Prize, though without the extensive waits. Last year Arctic Monkeys were heavily tipped to become the second act to win the award twice, after PJ Harvey. Five other bands were being nominated for the second time in 2013. Foals with Holy Fire, Laura Marling with Once I Was an Eagle, David Bowie with The Next Day, Villagers with Awayland and eventual winner James Blake with Overgrown. Debuting bands who may have fared better from the attention might have been The 1975 with their eponymous debut or King Krule who released 6 Feet Beneath The Moon. It’s important to give recognition to great artists who encompass generations and different genres, but beyond reacting to a new trend or creating one themselves it might be of more benefit to leave names like Radiohead and Pj Harvey off the list, though they produce brilliance. Awards are not really for prestige, deep down, they are more like historical documents that record the attitudes of a country. I don’t want to be a downer but Award lists have real social importance and, in this sense, it is important to care and to argue for a better system.

FKA Twigs – LP1:

FKA Twigs has been touted as the odds on favourite to win the prize this year. This is a pretty deceptive view of how these things go, however. There’s no doubt that FKA Twigs makes fantastically odd and alien music, similar to Canadian Jane-of-all-trades Grimes, but I feel that she may be at the top of the list because of the media attention her relationship with Robert Pattinson is getting. Still a favourite, but don’t be surprised if she doesn’t win.

But, at the same time, it’s really difficult to tell who will win the prize this year. This is exciting, maybe FKA Twigs will emulate James Blake and produce an album as brilliant as Overgrown, East Indie Youth could go down the same road, Nick Mulvey sounds great and has the potential to overshadow his folksy predecessors, Bombay Bicycle Cub are quickly becoming one of the most exciting bands around as they continue to change directions drastically and Damon Albarn shows no sign of slowing down, which is good considering the impending comeback of Gorillaz.

East India Youth – Total Strife Forever:

Using bedroom ambience and lush production, East India Youth reminds me of an extroverted Balam Acab. Relatively new to the music scene, starting out just two years ago, William Doyle has managed to build on previous trends, adding his own ideas to create a very new and unique sound, and even manages to sound like an old sage in the process.

So all in all I’m pretty excited to find out the winner tonight, but to a larger extent I’m excited for the future of music, especially if you consider the albums released recently that might have made the list, like Jessie Ware’s Tough Love or Thom Yorke’s Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes or even Johnny Marr’s Playland. It seems like music has acquired a new freedom in the modern age, with a multitude of artists vying to bring attention to the music that moves them.

Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots:

Albarn stands as sole representative of the old guard in 2014. Thom Yorke’s new album came out too late to be included, while other regularly tipped artists like PJ Harvey and Primal Scream have remained silent for the past few years. On Everyday Robots he remains as innovative as he ever was while criticising our increasing dependence on electronic devices.

Anna Calvi – One Breath:

Calvi’s second nomination after she got the nod in 2011 for her eponymous debut. Her music oozes a kind of intensity and self-assurance that can be frightening or entertaining and always a bit enervating. Maybe unsurprising that she has already joined the list of artists nominated for multiple prizes as she seems to be made in the likeness of PJ Harvey or, previously, Patti Smith.

Misting Over: Interesting Soundtracks

So I watched The Mist last night and apart from having a surprisingly interesting plotline, which appears to be a cross between Lord of the Flies and Jurassic Park, it was pretty hilarious to sit back and listen to the ludicrously over the top score.

Like falling into a confusing vortex, I found myself imagining a Lord of the Rings type setting, on the top of some mountain, listening to this music although five seconds later I’m crossing an Arabian desert on a camel. I found it slightly ironic, too, that there was such a feeling of spirituality in the score, considering the events that occur in the film. Are we being told that an open spirituality is better than a religious feeling?  Aren’t they two different mind-sets and thus incomparable? It’s odd though, how significantly a soundtrack can affect the atmosphere of a film. I automatically began trying to think of soundtracks that I could listen to, with some coming automatically and others taking a bit more work.

1. Donnie Darko:

The first sounds we hear in this film are Echo and the Bunnymen playing The Killing Moon as Donnie cycles home after sleepwalking. This pretty much sets the mood for the film. Seasonally it’s autumn, the film’s climax takes place on Halloween and it’s sometimes just very eerily scary. Joy Division’s classic Love Will Tear Us Apart plays during a costume party, just before everything comes to a head. Head over heels by Tears for Fears is delightfully over exaggerated and unbelievably indulgent, while Mad World remains a moody classic.

2. I’m Not There:

Of course a film with just Bob Dylan songs is going to be absolutely fantastic. But a film that splits Dylan into six different personas and invited a host of different artists to cover Dylan’s music, making it almost like a microscopic investigation of Dylan’s mind and music. You get to hear all the different sides of Dylan, which inevitably leads to some odd, psychotropic moments, with bands like Jim James, Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth adding the atmosphere. You come away from this film with a notion of Dylan as an idea, but an inability to correlate this to Dylan the man.

3. The Royal Tenenbaums:

More of a personal choice than anything else. This film has helped to define my musical tastes over the past few years. We follow three miserable siblings and hear singers expressing as much if not more desolation than the cast of characters, each of whom has a voice whose volume seems to have been muted slightly. Tragic folk singer Nick Drake’s Fly plays as Richie climbs in the window of his house after escaping from hospital following a suicide attempt. Elliott Smith’s Needle in the Hay plays while he is in the act. Nico’s painfully rococo voice is heard throughout. A kind of sub-genre is created in this film, almost as interesting as the films plot itself.

4. Somewhere:

Sofia Coppola is married to Phoenix’s Thomas Mars. Phoenix are pretty good, quite trendy I guess, so it’s understandable that Coppola would have the same kind of taste. She did use an Air song on Lost in Translation in fairness. Phoenix feature in the film as Sick for The Big Sun plays near the end, with Dorff’s character nearing a breaking point. Creating the mood that everything is going to change for Dorff, this song creates the sense of a clean break, a life rediscovered. A demo version of The Strokes You Only Live One is played as Dorff and his daughter, played by Elle Fanning, have a game of Table Tennis. Casablancas moody voice is great at creating a delicate atmosphere with a very precarious position. Coppola seems to use music that falls in line with her characters mood and way of thinking, much in evidence in this film.

5. Jackie Brown:

The soundtrack to Jackie Brown helps Quentin Tarantino crystallise a dangerous type of cosmopolitanism, in a place where crime is just part of the environment. Bobby Womack’s Across 110^th Street is probably the most used song in the film, it acts as a kind of leitmotif for both Jackie, who associates the song with her younger years, and Max for whom it eventually becomes a reminder of Jackie. Tarantino is pretty good when it comes to compiling soundtracks, he has a taste for classic hits and a talent for building stories out of a song’s atmosphere.

6. Good Will Hunting:

To me this is the perfect soundtrack. Gus Van Sant has excellent taste in music and he chose well when he got Elliott Smith to supply the lion’s share of the soundtrack to this film. He was nominated for an Oscar for Miss Misery, which appears in the end credits as we watch Will drive away. Elliott Smith’s voice is like butter, his mellow tones lend an air of realism, which is a talent of Van Sant’s, to the film’s plot and characters. Sentimentality  pervade’s Smith’s voice, helping to polish the rough edges of the characters as they are draped in intimacy.

Grouper’s Ambient Idiosyncracies Leave Us In Ruins

At one point while listening to Grouper’s new album, Ruins, I felt capable of imagining the fear of losing the rhythm of your heartbeat. At another I seemed to get the sense of complete disorientation, as if my interpretation of events had been skewed for years, or that my self-awareness had always been far lower than I had thought.

It’s not usual that ambient music can be so easy to interpret but also communicate some insightful and powerful ideas. Grouper has a knack for this, however. Ruins sounds like an odyssey from broken recluse to rehabilitated optimist, from jungle back to the society, kind of like an anti-Heart of Darkness.

The album begins with a very spare line of melody. Liz Harris’ voice is very repressed, though also quite intimate. She puts enough music into her voice to make it feel conversational. She sounds quite sorry to begin with, as if she has been hurt irremediably and with no hope of recovery.

At this point I can predict the way the album will go, but I’m excited to continue listening. The beginning is so compellingly individual that I am more than willing to listen to Harris’ interpretation. As the album goes on she begins to introduce new adornments to the melody, layering her voice to create a rhythm on Labyrinth and then adding a further edge on Lighthouse, to give the music a comfortable basis that had been missing until that point.

Harris makes use, throughout the album, of an effect that is akin to clearing your ear of water. It feels like a whole other dimension of atmosphere appears when she does this, making us doubt the legitimacy of our interpretations, the songs becoming almost insidious or fantastical as they seem to be lulling us into a daze.

We eventually end the album with a group of ambient songs, without instrument or vocals, which have the sound of a kind of duality of the heartbeat or the Yin and Yang. This duality is manipulated and rearranged in different ways as Harris seems to be describing the life of some sort of being.

With some of the most thought-provoking music that I’ve heard in a long time, Ruins is fantastic, not only in relation to its themes. With a voice and sound similar to Lykke Li, Harris seems to maintain a hold on her exultation. This may be a bad thing in certain ways, but we are also allowed a very frugal and frightened view of nature, which is very, very interesting.

Les Sins of Chaz Bundick

Chaz Bundick’s music has a very distinctive sound. With Toro Y Moi he makes chilled but personal songs that you can listen to at any time. Les Sins on the other hand seems to be a very club-based, experimental side-project in the same sense as Dan Snaith’s Daphni.

‘Michael’ is the first full-length studio album released under the Les Sins moniker. You can hear the bedrock of Bundick’s Toro Y Moi project throughout most of the album, though it is usually buried beneath a host of different sounds, from mid-90’s House to Funk and onwards to Jazz.

Talk About, the album’s opening track begins with a voice asking for a description of the album, before moving into heart-straining beats that build towards exhilaration in the form of an all-encompassing atmosphere of contentment, while also sampling Nas.

The step from Talk About to Past is a disorienting one as an autotune vocal is pasted over insidiously high-pitched piano keys. This is just the beginning of the many twists and turns that this album takes.

Bother’s vocal sample (Don’t bother me, I’m working) is cut together to provide most of the songs’ rhythm, as we hear a distracting wildtrack argument underneath. At times Bundick uses vocals to provide a focus for his songs, though at others he uses them as a rhythmic device, similar in a way to Nosaj Thing.

We can hear this on Minato, which ends up sounding like an intensified version of Jai Paul’s Jasmine. With a heavy bass-line and an airy and light rhythm, there is the sense that the song is an experiment in incongruities as the two melt together to make something outlandishly enjoyable.

Sticky makes use of glacial, machinated funk and a soft vocal, reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield, before a complete overhaul that steps into meditative, artificial instrumentation with barely a hint of a beat. Drop, possibly the most distinctive track on the album, is incredibly creepy, as a harpsichord gives us the feeling that we’ve stepped into a rave in a haunted mansion.

While I love Toro Y Moi, I think that Bundick’s intentions on Les Sins provide more entertainment. He seems more inclined to make use of the music that he loves, creating music that shouldn’t work but which ends up giving the listener a sense of the contentment attainable in exultation.

Restoring Old Influences

Restorations’ new album ‘LP3’ is the kind of throwback that resides in a world defined by spatial limitations. Lyrically they sound similar to the wanderlust infused rock of The Replacements, Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan. So much so that I’m waiting for some mention of a brakeman or hitchhikers for the majority of the album.

Singer Jon Loudon’s voice is raspy and gruff, very similar to The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon, giving Restorations’ music the whiskey-drenched worldiness of an American anthem. Restorations are not American, however. Surprisingly, for everyone except the band, they’re British.

They do a good job of sounding like an arena-rock band like The Foo Fighters. Accompanied by muscular guitar lines and bouncy, boisterous drums, they channel emotions encompassing such things as loneliness, detachment and home-sickness.

On Separate Songs Loudon addresses the turbulence of love as he sings “Said you might be leaving/ I fear I’m already gone.” There is the sense that he’s struggling with the obligatory travelling that goes with making music. We can hear the same sort of sentiment on Future with lines like “I know it’s been wild for a while now/ the things they say on TV, that ain’t me.”

Loudon also seems to be concerned that he has left an old life to dissolve while he’s away. On All My Home he says “Spent far too much time this year scouring old photo books,” giving the sense that he is stuck in a sort of unforgiving interzone, yearning for a life that he can only remember.

Producer John Low returns on LP3 to tie everything together, after working with The National on Trouble Will Find Me. I found it kind of surprising, on my first listen, that Future has an introduction that is so explicitly similar to Don’t Swallow the Cap by the New Yorkers. It’s just one signpost amongst many on this album, however.

Restorations may not be everybody’s cup of tea, sonically, but with lyrics that confront personal issues without alienating their listeners, LP3 is certainly worth forty minutes of your life.

A Taylor Swift/Aphex Twin Mash-Up? Lush, Listenable Lunacy

AphexSwift is a mash-up album made by David Rees, possibly most famous as the cartoonist who made Get Your War On. In a move that can only be described as incredibly brilliant and really odd, at the same time, Rees decided to combine the otherworldy electronica of Aphex Twin and the accusatory, biting lyrics of Taylor Swift.

The result is an album that actually makes me want to listen to Taylor Swift, which is something I never thought would happen. Fair play to David Rees for what might be one of the most innovative mash-ups I’ve ever heard.

https://soundcloud.com/david_rees/sets/aphex-swift

Moore Solo Output, But No Sign Of Sonic Youth

As the possibility that Sonic Youth might never make another album continues to hang in the air, it is nice to see that the band’s members, in this case Thurston Moore, are still making music individually.

The Best Day is Moore’s second album since he split with wife and colleague Kim Gordon. At such a period of crisis and with media scrutiny at an all-time high it is understandable for him to communicate the mind set and feelings that led to his divorce.

It is sometimes difficult to think of Moore as a middle-aged man. When I listen to Daydream Nation or hear some of the noisier, provocative songs that Sonic Youth have released down through the years, I imagine him as a floppy haired anarchist purposefully going against the grain.

But make no mistake, he has definitely aged, both physically and psychologically. There is a contentment on The Best Day that defies listener’s expectations, preferring to speak and make significant sounds only when necessary.

The album is no huge leap from Moore’s previous material, under The Sonic Youth banner and otherwise. There are, however, certain influences inherent throughout that give us the sense that Moore is moving forward with his life and music, picking up new tastes along the way.

The Best Day relies heavily on instrumental portions although the vocals, however spare, are potentially the most important part of this album. Moore communicates his love for women on Forevermore. Through metaphorical allusions to figures like Mary Magdalene he outlines an elitist version of love. Speak to the Wild acts like an anti-Heart Of Darkness, revelling in the unknown rather than opposing it.

The album’s title track is a bit more difficult to understand. There is the sense that Moore is talking about himself as he says “Here’s a man who does it all,” but he employs another religious reference, alluding to John the Baptist, at which point it becomes difficult to discern the difference between the two.

Sonically the album is a collection of tastes. Early Sonic Youth influences, like Krautrock and Punk, are given brief airings. Songs like Germs Burn and Grace Lake sound unsure as they seem to split, amoeba-like, into separate organisms. I found myself thinking that Moore played out his subconscious emotions in quiet, melodic music before allowing his thoughts to gather in stormy interludes, with the guitars and drums picking up gusto.

Although this album doesn’t reinvent the wheel as far as Moore’s music goes, there is plenty on The Best Day to cater for long-time fans. Slightly lighter than some of his other output, it is also an easy introduction to some of the sounds around which Moore has built his career.

The Most Difficult But Worthwhile Albums Ever

There are plenty of times when I’ve tried to listen to an album, supposedly brilliant, innovative etc and ended up thinking “This is fucking shite.” I’ve always been kind of snobby when it comes to music, but even after copious listens there are some artists and albums that I just can’t get my head around.

Here’s a list of some of the more difficult albums I’ve encountered, mainly in terms of sound qualities, but also incoherence, specifically eschewing the idea of rhythm or for being so futuristic that it takes a lot of time to assimilate to its new idea of music.

                                                               

Captain Beefheart – Trout Mask Replica:

I’m still trying to work my way into this album. Similar in terms of sound to Tom Waits, Beefheart was notoriously difficult to work with as he sought to bring the wacky sounds in his head to life. His dulcet tones remind us that anyone can become a musician and that there is a huge variety in tastes out there.

Tom Waits – Blue Valentine:

You could say that Waits’ music in general is a pretty difficult listen but I found Blue Valentine, more than any of his other albums, particularly tough. After trying for what seems like months, by which time I had actually come to enjoy the gravel throated musicians weary, half-hungover music, I moved on to this album. There are some great stories on the album, but the drunken, bombastic brass is so bleak at times that you might forget you’re listening to music.

The Velvet Underground – White Light/White Heat:

The essence of this album can be summed up by the free-form distortion of 17 and a half minute track, Sister Ray. To date, I haven’t been tenacious enough to listen to it in full. Usually I throw on White Light/White Heat and leave it at that, though The Gift is surprisingly good despite basically being a scored reading of a Lou Reed short story.

The Cure – Disintegration:

Probably The Cure’s most critically acclaimed album, if not their most famous. Disintegration seems to encapsulate the angst and creepy solitude associated with Goth. Most of the songs extend to more than six minutes and seem to channel an overcast, miserable atmosphere. Love Song and Lullaby amongst the band’s most beloved songs, but give The Same Deep Water As You a listen and you might decide to stick to their hits.

Suicide – Suicide:

Their name alone is imposing but wait until you hear their industrial-lite sound, incorporating some random yelping, gradually fatiguing vocals and a landscape of despair. A key influence for Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, which seems like upbeat bubble pop by comparison, Suicide helped to innovate the British punk ethos of the time, bringing relevance to the growing American scene.

The Fall – This Nations Saving Grace:

I downloaded The Fall’s discography about four or five years ago, not aware of the longevity of the band’s career or the half bland, half lyrical, tongue in cheek tone that Mark E. Smith employs. Granted there are a lot of songs that I’d happily listen to individually, but the whole thing in one go can be soul-crushing.

Can – Ege Bamyasi:

Krautrock is a beautiful genre of music, seemingly exotic but also metropolitan with the coolness of Jazz thrown in. Can were extreme practitioners of this German-based genre. Darker than Neu! And less polished than Kraftwerk, Can channelled a stream-of-consciousness sound throughout their career, in this case Ege Bamyasi. Iconic singer Damo Suzuki uses more than one language, his voice sounding like it’s made out of elastic making it kind of hard to latch onto anything on this album.

Miles Davis – Bitches Brew:

Bitches Brew was one of Davis’ earliest experiments with Jazz Fusion. The album influenced scores of artists and helped establish countless genres since as the alien sounds that Davis produced continue to mystify. On the other hand it can be hard appreciate the brilliance of this album on the first few listens. At over a half an hour long, it can be hard to digest the full thing in one go.

Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Airplane Over The Sea:

To be honest, I loved this album the first time I heard it. I can, however, empathise with those who didn’t. Including a range of instruments from the Zanzithophone to the Wandering Genie Organ and with lyrics that make literally no sense to anyone but Jeff Mangum, it can be difficult to hear the rhythm for the noise on this Anne Frank inspired masterpiece.

Blog Post #6 17/09/2014

Another blog entry means another immense struggle to get it finished. I was pretty excited to write this blog, given that Interpol released El Pintor during the process, though I was left a bit disappointed by that particular album. I did enjoy Tricky’s Adrian Thaws and Ty Segall’s Manipulator, both of which are quite pictorial and transporting. I’m also pretty much awaiting the release of Caribou’s new album, Our Love, and getting ready to give Alt-J’s This is all Yours a listen so there is certainly no dearth of new music to absorb at the minute. As a repercussion of the large volume of music to be released in the coming weeks, there has been a lot of news, both interesting and impertinent.

First up, it has been reported that Grimes has scrapped what would have been her fourth album after it was received negatively by fans, especially with regard to her recent single ‘Go’. I’m a bit confused as to what kind of fans gave feedback on the songs. The whole idea of fandom really seems to have spiralled out of control, though I doubt it’s a whole lot different from the naysayers who slammed Bob Dylan in the 1960’s. I hope that she can get back to writing music without self-consciousness, seeing as that is what art is all about, expressing oneself honestly. That people seem to be annoyed at the possibility that she might sell out seems ludicrous to me. There is such a thing as good pop music, and I don’t think Grimes has kept her admiration for artists like Beyonce and Rihanna under wraps so it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that she has aspirations towards a sound that can be collectively appreciated. At the same time I don’t think she should feel like she has to live up to some brand. She is not a commodity and shouldn’t be treated like one. Of course this can be hard to remember when it comes to artists in the limelight. We should remember to be open to new things and to celebrate artistic evolution, no matter what form.

On a more innocuous note, Ariel Pink has been in the news recently. He told a story about an encounter with a date which had definite misogynistic undertones. Watching as news agencies scampered to report this piece of “news” made me very wary of the artist, but also quite bemused by the sites, like Stereogum and Pitchfork, who felt like people needed to know. Whatever Pink’s point of view in regard to women and Baptist Church is, I don’t think that, just because he is a famous musician, this story warrants inclusion on popular sites like these. He may be famous, but that does not mean that we have to make him more famous. Yes, I realise the seeming irony of this paragraph. On the other hand, Ariel Pink has released a new song, the psychedelic ‘Put your Number in My Phone’ and announced that his new album, ‘Pom Pom’, will be released on November 17^th. I’ve been listening to Haunted Graffiti’s first album, Before Today, and found myself comparing it to this new song. Whereas Before Today is quite infectious and full of playful pastiches, ‘Put Your Number in My Phone’ is quite flaccid and almost bereft of melody. Hopefully the album in full will live up to the high expectations his previous material has come to be regarded by.

Kendrick Lamar has revealed that the first single off his new album will be called “I”. There have been rumours that the single will be out on September 23^rd, though nothing has been confirmed yet. Kendrick also appears on Flying Lotus’ new album You’re Dead, which will be released on October 6^th.

Interpol – El Pintor:

I’ve been waiting for Interpol to release a new album pretty much since I listened to their last, 2010’s self-titled effort. That’s a long time to wait and I fear that the expectation might have left me hoping for too much, something like a return to form in the shape of Turn On The Bright Lights or Antics.

This is the band’s first album since iconic bass player Carlos Dengler departed. Whether or not this had an effect on the band’s style is impossible to know, though there are definite differences on El Pintor, things that were not apparent on other albums. Interpol (2010) was widely received with disappointment. It seemed like the band had run out of ideas and were losing the stormy creativity that has endeared their fans to their previous three albums. El Pintor, in many ways, sounds quite similar to this previous album. Firstly, Paul Banks’ vocals are still the most apparent thing in most songs. It seems that his dulcet tones, with each album, become more and more pronounced, something I’m kind of torn about. It’s like he has taken elocution lessons that have allowed him to pronounce every syllable of every word with utmost precision, giving a rigid feel to lyrics that are, as usual, surreal and enigmatic. He also has a habit of accentuating the song titles when they appear, making it seem like he thinks it may be necessary to draw attention back to the song’s banner, such as on My Desire. His voice does, however, retain the kind of textured sleaze that saturates Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down.

The most prominent aspect of this album, instrumentally, is the guitar. From the first track we can hear the guitar-lines swirl around our heads like weather. We’re given the sense of a huge amount of energy and frustration. All The Rage Back Home starts off like The New, quite slow and melodic, before the song changes and begins to channel this youthful energy. My Desire can sometimes sound like a quickened version of Always Malaise, though there is some unheard of high-pitched falsetto from Banks. Same Town, New Story has a bit of a Spanish sound about it, with an acoustic guitar that twangs and resonates with plenty of colour, although my head may have been turned by the album title, as if I was expecting something of the sort to appear. Same Town.. takes the tempo down a bit, like a kind of interlude. The guitar is quite strong but also lilting, if that’s the right word, making it seem almost delicate. There are some pauses in the music on Breaker 1 which seem to be in place in order to communicate a certain emotion or realisation. These pauses seem quite forced, almost like the band were running out of ideas.

By the end I found myself quite exhausted. This is not an album that should be analysed but rather, listened to. It’s quite obvious the band has lost something they might never get back (Carlos Dengler?). That doesn’t mean that the songs aren’t enjoyable, they’re just different, less textured and layered, without a certain moodiness, which seems to have been replaced by the raucous energy of Daniel Kessler’s guitar. A disappointment maybe, but that’s my problem not Interpol’s. If nothing else it’s good to see them making music again.

Ty Segall – Manipulator:

Ty Segall, with every new musical direction he takes, makes it feel like he has stumbled on the epitome of a zeitgeist that occurred long before his birth. This is pretty much the case on Manipulator. Though it takes in a wide range of musical influences from the 60’s and 70’s, he melds everything together to establish an interpretation of an atmosphere which seems both incredibly enjoyable and extremely accurate.

It’s been well documented that Segall is very prodigious and quick when it comes to making music. Manipulator, as opposed to previous albums, was more of a concerted effort, taking 14 months to make. It is his longest album to date and perhaps his most layered. Not only is the album like a group of short stories relating to the time-period which he has decided to focus on, it is also a pretty all-encompassing record musically. We can hear plenty of Glam-rock references, bits of British invasion infusions, Psychedelia of early Pink Floyd, Lo-Fi and even some Pop-Rock. His voice, as well, has undergone a change. He sometimes sounds like Jake Bugg, other times he sounds, inconceivably, like Heart’s Ann Wilson and at others, again, like Sid Barrett. There is the sense that his vocals are over-compensating for his lack of British-ness. There is a nasal quality that sounds almost like an indulgence on his part, like he is really enjoying playing a part.

Of course the album is not just a group of imitative songs, there are also aspects of Segall’s usual output which shine through. His use of distortion is just as melodic, especially on The Singer, which also includes falsetto vocals and some pretty accomplished guitar solos, and Susie Thumb. Segall has stated that he wants to make a glam-rock record infused with heavy metal or Satanic Space Rock. Some of the songs on this album come pretty close to achieving this ideal. The Faker sounds like he is chasing the Devil, trying to keep up with his exploits and presenting a very infectious sound that makes ‘sin’ sound extremely fun. The Connection Man starts with electronic passages before moving into a gawping guitar that seems to swallow everything up. Feel is another track with a hugely bombastic guitar. His guitar solos provide great accompaniment to his vocals, which can veer towards falsetto a lot of the time. It’s like his guitar is a shield that allows him the confidence to let out a softer side.

Generally this album is incredibly enjoyable. He does not sound pretentious as he dares to attempt iconoclastic guitar solos, he gives great credit to the artists that he dares to imitate, updating and praising their work at the same time. A really fun album that I can see myself listening to in years to come.

Tricky – Adrian Thaws:

Ever since Tricky’s first solo album, Maxinquaye, he’s been on the edge, channelling a quite insidious idea of an urban landscape with music that undoubtedly influenced a whole generation of artists the likes of Burial, Flying Lotus and Mount Kimbie amongst others. He is an enigma, someone who is not prone to taking advice or complying with any perceived image of his music. In a turn of irony, he decided to name his new album Adrian Thawes, his given name, stating that it was not out of sentimentality but rather because he is still an unknown and pretty mercurial person to the critics who try to analyse him.

There are a host of appearances from female vocalists on Adrian Thawes, most notably Francesca Belmonte who sings on four of eleven tracks. Her voice suits Tricky’s sound quite well. There is a beauty in her vocals that remains contained and almost passive. It’s almost like she has undergone some trauma that keeps her from being really pronounced, something that could easily be metaphorical or symbolic of Tricky’s sensibilities, like a dusty flower.

Tricky has said that the album is a mixture of club and hip/hop music. The beats are quite stripped back, very minimalist. There is a very cool atmosphere throughout, as if Tricky is very aware of his environment and is unwilling to be flamboyant, avoiding anything that might attract attention. At the same time there are hints of early influences. Lonnie Listen bears similarities to late 80’s hip/hop collectives like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, I Had a Dream is infused with a kind of Jazzy undercurrent while there is a sped up sample of the vocal on Massive Attack’s track Unfinished Sympathy on Gangster Chronicles.

Lyrically and thematically the album confronts a lot of social issues. Two stories that diverge but remain on the same terrain come together on Lonnie Listen. Crime and an invulnerable attitude contrast with the plight of a mother who has to care for hungry children while the city air seems to be drawing all her energy away; “Exercise every day but I’m still not fit/My kids are hungry and I ain’t got shit.” Palestine Girl seems to romanticise a person’s ability to get by in an extremely harsh environment, while drawing our attention to the worldview that this might establish. There is the sense that many songs are seeking a kind of self-determination in which judgement has been done away with, while also calling for an end to social injustices.

Not only is this album quite musically fulfilling and interesting, there are also plenty of intelligent arguments put forth, both insightful and honest. Tricky draws attention to certain aspects of an ignored part of life, but also establishes the requisite amount of ambiguity, with beauty, harshness and self-awareness put forth in a pretty fantastic way.

Zammuto – Anchor:

Zammuto is the band of former The Books member Nick Zammuto. Anchor is their second album, after their eponymous debut in 2012.

Just as The Books were well-known for their songs that incorporated a wide variety of sounds, creating a collage that was, almost inconceivably, easy on the ear, Zammuto are just as original. Whereas The Books sounded very DIY and under-produced, Zammuto are quite polished, very electric in their sensibilities. There is also quite a bit of ambience and space in evidence on Anchor. Great Equator dwells mostly on a very syncopated rhythm that upholds a reverberating tension, inundated by an ambience which gives us the sense that the singer is overawed by space. Electric Ant incorporates a huge range of sounds. It can sound quite computerised and cluttered, perhaps spelling out the confusion of the technological age. The use of minor notes also adds depth to sounds that may not typically conform to emotional music.

There are some remnants of the arcade-ish, Lo-fi recordings that The Books were prone to use. The album starts with what sounds like an aquatic broadcast news report, 10 has the under-pixelated sound of Tokyo Song, a kind of intentional minimisation. At times I’m reminded of Air’s Moon Safari, the electronic sounds of which are almost ludicrously computerised. The keyboard/organ on the album’s opener Good Graces has that feeling, though it succeeds in establishing a kind of ephemeral and eery distance.

Basically Anchor is completely unpredictable. Hegemony, the third song on the album, is pretty much a repetition of the word hegemony over and over again, with deviations on the singer’s key only. There is the sense that Zammuto want to give the impression that music can be made of anything, that there is poesy in even the most garish of tones. Apart from being really artistically engaging, the album is very listenable, quite transporting and worthwhile.

Retrospect:

Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes:

I was watching Grosse Point Blank when I heard Violent Femmes’ Blister in the Sun. I recognised it without identifying it, but liked it almost immediately. There is something playful and laid back in the band’s lyrics and sound. It almost seems like they are mocking the feelings that led to the inception of certain songs, which can be quite relieving, especially if you want an easy listen.

Violent Femmes are the kind of band that gets swept under the mat in the course of history. They are allowed to be forgotten as bands like The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen or The Cure come to epitomize a certain kind of sound associated with the 80’s. It’s a gross injustice that this should be the case, considering this, the band’s first album, which seems like an early faux-punk effort, with a rhythmic elasticated bass-line, similar in tempo to The Specials. Lead Singer Gordon Gano’s vocals also stand out. His voice has an odd timbre, quite high-pitched and almost adolescent but capable of stretching to jagged regions when the notion takes him.

Blister in the Sun is the first track on the album. I’m fairly certain that the song is the band’s most famous. It was the first English-language track allowed on Raidio na Gaeltacta in 2005 after a listener poll was taken. Despite an undercurrent of gentle-punk and lyrics that are fairly personal, it has become a pop classic, the bridge of which always sounds quite familiar. Confessions is the last song on side 1. At 5:32 minutes it is the longest track on the album. Confessions relies on a bass-line to carry the song along, as Gano slowly, sometimes in spoken word, spins a love-song that can be quite solipsistic. Drums undercut the bass-line at times, with palpable similarities to Joy Division’s Atrocity Exhibition, though not nearly as insidious. For the most part Gano’s lyrics tend to focus on repulsive aspects of himself or others characters. Like Bukowski or Fante he lays it all bare, usually in songs about love, allowing the listener a pretty objective view of whoever he is talking about.

Generally speaking this album is pretty fantastic. It shows just one degree of difference in the vast strata of punk/rock music that was almost the predominant genre at the time. It is sad that the band may go down in history for just the one song, especially as their output includes eight albums, but, for those who are interested, there is plenty of material to satiate a thirst for a different emotional and musical landscape.

Liz Phair – Exile in Guyville:

This kind of album has become a rarity in modern times. Its magic lies in its lyrics, whereas a lot of music released now is very sonically driven with lyrics providing sparse accompaniment. Exile in Guyville is now seen as a classic album, reveling in a feminist attitude that helped to break down barriers. It may seem presumptuous but I’d prefer to think of this album as a confessional, drenched with Phair’s ideas and feelings rather than label it as feminist. Feminism is one of those words that has become synonymous with its negative aspersions, such as Hippy or Liberal. The philosophical import is lost almost immediately.

Exile in Guyville was Liz Phair’s first album, she didn’t even release an EP beforehand. Phair has said that the album was not about her own life, but rather a collection of fictionalised fantasies that she was yearning to be a part of. That this is the fact is pretty easily recognisable from 6’1”, the first track on the album, onwards. Exile in Guyville makes use of quite a bit of frustration alongside these personalised projections. The album is quite a mixture of tones. We start with a couple of high-tempo, rocky songs before being brought back to Earth with soulful turns on Glory and Dance of the Seven Veils before catching back up with time and impatience on Never Said, which sounds like a pretty straightforward type of rock song, with twanging guitars and huge emphasis on the chorus line. I suspect that the power of certain songs, especially in reference to the guitars, and Phair’s ability to make her voice quite natural within certain situations, alongside the straight rock and roll sound (with the hint of something very much opposed to the overt masculinity of popular rock music) brought about the success of this album. It is this mixture that makes the album sound alternative, despite being very guitar-driven.

There are times, when reading a book or watching a film, that I notice that intellectuals or artists have an inordinate amount of stories devoted to their work and struggles. This takes a little bit of the realism out of the situation, where somebody with an unidentified job or role wold work much better. Exile in Guyville is an example of a story with a diverse cast. There are characters who exude confidence, whereas Liz Phair has had to struggle with stage fright, and those with a host of complicated relationship problems, whereas Phair wanted this album to communicate some kind of idea of herself to her friends. In twisting her own feelings around, moving towards the opposite pole, she managed to create a vital landscape with characters that intrigue rather than bore.

Liz Phair, with her droll voice and affluence of stories about dysfunctional relationships, creates a pretty interesting landscape. She creates an atmosphere which is quite cooled-off. She has a distinct persona that was an undeniable factor in making the album successful and nuanced in the catchiest of ways.

 

Blog Post #5 28/07/2014

Summer holidays have made me very, very lazy. It’s taken me a month and literally all the willpower I have to finish this post, but it’s done now and I feel fantastic.

I’ve decided that, instead of writing a scattering of news stories, I’ll pick my five favourite bits of news from the past week or so.

#5 – Keith Urban is a country singer. When you take this into account it seems pretty ludicrous that almost 50 people were injured at the Australian’s show in Mansfield, England due to ‘alcohol-related issues. I don’t find this funny because I enjoy other peoples pain, I just enjoy a good dose of surrealism every now and then.

#4 – Kendrick Lamar, the man accused of being a member of the Illuminati in a very interesting and ridiculous video on Youtube, will have an album ready for fans by the end of this year. He says that he has around 40 songs recorded and that he will be collaborating with Dr Dre.

#3 – British electronic musician SBTRKT and Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig recently teamed up on a track posted on Soundcloud called New Dorp New York. He also announced the release of his follow up to his widely acclaimed self-titled debut. It’s called Wonder Where We Land and will be out on 22^nd September and will feature Jessie Ware (who seems to be everywhere at the minute), A$AP Ferg and Sampha.

#2 – Another album announcement: Johnny Marr is releasing his second solo album, Playland on October 7^th. The former Modest Mouse guitarist has been pretty busy of late after contributing to the soundtrack of the 2^nd Amazing Spiderman film.

#1 – Flying Lotus, one of the most influential electronic musicians in modern times, has announced that he’ll have a new album out this year. The follow-up to Until the Quiet Comes will be called You’re Dead! and will be out on October 6^th.

New Albums:

Jenny Lewis – The Voyager:

How do you describe an emotion without sounding clichéd? It seems like Jenny Lewis has been trying to figure this out on her latest album, The Voyager. There are some cringe-worthy moments when she prefers to use metaphors to get her point across. There is a line on the first song on the album, Head Underwater, that goes “There’s a little bit of magic, everybody has it / there’s a little bit of sand in the hourglass”. This sort of sentimental kitsch is in abundance throughout the album, but, alongside Lewis’ very deadpan vocals, they sound quite natural.

Her lyrics seem to follow the same pattern as usual. She is not averse to singing about very personal themes, making them seem almost innocuous as her voice soars with very little self-consciousness in evidence. I think that she is so used to feeling alienated and singing about it that she can’t talk about much else. If she succeeds in attaining more popularity or success, as this album seems to be an attempt at, I think it would be great because there aren’t enough artists that are willing to risk discussing social anxiety, an unwilling misanthropy or aspects of their individuality. Jenny Lewis is and does so continually.

This, Lewis’ 2^nd solo album, is much different from the material she recorded with Rilo Kiley. Her voice remains the same, capable of communicating pain very effectively, but the accompanying music does not adhere to the indie-rock lite that her former band was loved for. She seems to have become mixed up in pop-music, or a hybrid of that genre and easy listening. There is no doubt that the album is very good, lyrically at least, but the instrumentation seems to be lacking throughout. It’s almost like she added music as an afterthought. There are few exceptions to this rule. You Can’t Outrun ‘Em sounds like a country ballad that brings the listener towards a kind of darkness. The Voyager begins with strings that sound similar to some kind of alternation on Pachelbel’s Canon, with her voice growing increasingly emotional as she tries to come to terms with the overall message of the album, which seems to be a basically cynical outlook on society.

I feel a bit conflicted about this album but, for a pop record that may crack the charts, it is some kind of progress.

Shabazz Palaces – Lese Majesty:

Shabazz Palaces don’t seem to fit with your usual idea of a hip/hop collective. Instead of using a strong bass undercurrent to prop up the rhythm of the vocals, synthesizers provide a little bit more substance.

Lese Majesty is the Seattle band’s 3^rd album. It is broken up into 7 parts, or suites, each of which seems to address a different idea or theme. The band’s vocalist, Ishmael Butler, addresses racism, money fuelled manipulation, advancing technology and the effects that all these things can have on the mind. There seems to be a certain amount of erudition inherent in Butler’s vocals. He sounds quite comfortable talking about his role as part of the mass media, stating that the responsibility for possible harmful influences does not lie with him but rather the listener. There seems to be quite a bit of this concept within the album, that is, the problem of interpretation.

Musically, this album is all over the place in the best possible way. They delve into electronic music, summoning sounds similar to iconic bands such as Kraftwerk, Manuel Gottsching, Burial and Kanye West in a way that almost seems like they are trying to chart the history of the genre. I feel like this album is loosely conceptual in that it combines the music and lyrics in a way that provides a doubly effective meaning allowing the listener to grasp the concept in the lyrics, but also attain a sense of the atmosphere that Butler is trying to emote. He uses a host of instruments and sonic effects to portray peaceful landscapes, an idealisation of trendiness and gruesome realities like an amoral government.

I really liked this album, mostly because it’s a great listen that doesn’t hold to one specific genre but is pretty much content changing with almost every song. It is, as well as this, a really brave take on an assortment of topical issues.

Bear In Heaven – Time is Over One Day Old:

Jon Philpot’s voice has the type of sound that makes me extremely anxious. It’s so delicate and pristine that I can’t help but grit my teeth and await what seems to be an inevitable faltering note. It doesn’t arrive, however. He maintains his high-pitched falsetto with a certain ease that gives the songs a sense of effortlessness.

I’ve been wondering recently about what kind of impact visual arts, like films and TV, have had on emotive or internally preoccupied arts like Literature and Music. It seems to me that the latter kind have become much more cognisant of the need to place oneself within a landscape in order to really communicate an epiphanic moment or feeling. This seems to be the case with this album, especially the fourth song, They Dream. The first three songs on the album seem to be imitating a Lo-Fi kind of sound, despite the excellent production, with a droning noise providing accompaniment to vocals and instrumentation. This is also the case for the first half of They Dream, before the music seems to disappear into the background, allowing the sense of abounding openness to become apparent. I feel like this is an attempt to show the difference between nature and artifice, most specifically in the case of the opposition between an urban landscape and the Wilderness.

There are certain songs on this album that threaten to reach stormy heights but which remain patient and chilled-out. This seems to show the realism of the band’s music, on songs like You Don’t Need the World and Memory Heart. There are, however, times when the band communicates a kind of impressionism that is very unique. Also significant is the use of minor progressions. It seems like these are used to effect a sense of a strange idea or landscape, something that I found pretty interesting.

Overall I think this album is another quite civilised attempt at an ambient and layered record, in the same way as Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah’s recent album Only Run . There are some interesting aspects to the music but nothing that is going to set the world on fire.

Retrospect:

Otis Redding – Otis Blue:

Otis Redding is undoubtedly one of the greatest soul singers of all time. His influence can still be felt today with Paolo Nutini seeming to channel the very raw intensity of Redding’s voice. Otis Blue is probably his best known album, despite the fact that he wrote only three of the songs that appear on it; Ole Man Troubles, Respect and I’ve Been Loving You Too Long. Amazingly, it was recorded over two days and was released in September 1965, two years before his death.

You get the sense that Redding was particularly occupied with finding peace in his life when you listen to this album. The album is made up mainly of covers, but the selection of certain songs seems somewhat pointed. It kicks off with Ole Man Troubles which sounds distinctly soulful, with a considerable emphasis on the bass-line and trumpet. It could be said that the instrumentation is quite indicative of a kind of anxiety. The trumpets stop and start, giving the sense of a moody atmosphere. The lyrics address the fear of growing older, becoming laden with obligations and worries so that it turns out as a lament. Respect, on the other hand, is quite demanding. I feel like Redding’s initial intentions with this song have been overshadowed by Aretha Franklin’s 1967 cover version of the song. It’s tempting to say that the song is mildly sexist, something which Franklin’s version seemed to underline. I won’t say that, however. I think that it expresses an idea about a relationship being a safe harbour away from the tribulations of the world, perhaps to the detriment of the other person involved. Maybe Respect is just the wrong word, making it seem as if there is a dominant role within the relationship being discussed. The last of Redding’s original songs on the album is possibly his best. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long is a beautiful soul ballad with a pretty nice sentiment. It’s the type of song that would work well in an unrealistic romantic scene in a film, the type that the quirky intellectual plays so as to show his/her cultured taste.

The rest of the album features covers of songs by Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones and Smokey Robinson amongst others. Some, like My Girl and Satisfaction, are well known classics. Redding’s voice is so distinctive and has such texture that he gives each song an alternate feel. His rendition of My Girl, which, in its original form, is quite smooth and sleek, is turned on its head as Redding’s powerful and jagged vocals take over.

Throughout Redding’s career he seems to have maintained an artistic focus on certain topics. There are not many instances in which he became political or the symbol of a revolution. Instead he seems to have been more occupied with emotional turmoil, lending a deeply resonant voice to listeners and fans. There is a line on a Bobby Womack album where he describes his musical intentions as being “all about feeling”. I think this description is quite apt for Otis Redding too. There are few musicians who you can listen to at any time. Many musicians seem to have a specific world-view, whether it be nihilistic, existentialist or anything else that inhibits their adaptability. Redding’s music does not seem to have this problem. His eyes were open and his worries were those that all people have, especially so on Otis Blue.

The Feelies – Crazy Rhythms:

Released in April 1980, the debut album by Post-punk New Jersey natives The Feelies has received critical acclaim without ever attaining popular recognition. Crazy Rhythms is widely accepted as influencing hugely successful 80’s bands like R.E.M and The Smiths, their use of “jangly guitars” paving the way for Peter Buck and Johnny Marr.

The first and probably best-known song on the album, The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness, seems to signal the bands disenchantment with the punk music that they were trying to remould. It has none of the attitude which, all throughout the 70’s, was almost a necessary ingredient for rock music. The song begins slowly with a real tight and jittering rhythm eventually coming to the fore. Glenn Mercer’s high pitched, nasal tones are indicative of the theme being discussed. He sounds typically nerdy, if you’ll excuse the term, as he sings about the recluse next door. There is a certain kind of alienation described in this song that hadn’t really been talked about before Crazy Rhythms. This kind of openness may have been a precursor for songs like Nirvana’s Lithium, Beck’s Loser or Radiohead’s Creep.

Lead Singer Glenn Mercer’s voice takes two different tones throughout the album. When he is describing a feeling that is very much related to himself his voice is high-pitched and undulating. When he talks about love he sounds a bit like Ian Curtis. He adopts a baritone register that is quite chesty and reverberating. I tried to come up with a theory for this but ended up with four or five ideas, all of which are equally likely, though I feel the source may be a sort of reprimanding misery as his love songs are pretty much indictments of the other person in the relationship he is talking about. This kind of individual attitude is a predominant theme on Crazy Rhythms. Moscow Nights considers escape and a life of solitary movement while Crazy Rhythms recoils from over talkative people and propounds a severe self-sufficiency.

Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey, a cover of The Beatles song from The White Album, sounds much tighter than the original. The Feelies have a distinctly infectious sound, borne out of the up-tempo and upbeat guitar and drum-lines. Their indefatigable sound reaches heights on Forces at Work, as the vocals slowly fade and the lyrics turn to extended vowels. For a Post-Punk band they feel no need to react against the faltering dream of youthful and political self-determination that was so much associated with punk. They are an alternate take on the genre, while also foreshadowing alternative rock, similar to The Replacements. This album is pretty much a landmark in rock music, certainly American rock music and, despite being grievously little-known, has spread its influence in a very vital way.