There's More to Life Than Music You Know. But Not Much More.
 

Hello all. Welcome to my journal thingie. I apologise for the pathetic title (a twist on a Smiths lyric). I wanted to call it Talk About The Passion but that's already been used (dam him/her!). This is good for me, as I find writing about music quite therapeutic, plus it's nice to do something more proactive with all this music I surround myself with. Occasionally you might find me ranting and rambling about something. In this case just bear with me!

Aaaaaaaanyway . . . lets look at an album.

Album Review



http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Bk08k-CuuO...+-+Green+1.jpg

R.E.M. - Green
Warner Bros, 1988

Best tracks; 'Stand', 'You Are The Everything', 'Orange Crush', 'Get Up', 'The Wrong Child'.

For no rational reason I can think of, I stuck this on the other night and was surprised to find that it was hitting all the senses that only a new record you haven't heard before usually does. I'm a huge R.E.M. fan. Have been for donkeys. But I only really listen to their jangly, Byrd's inspired, folk - punk early stuff. What I have discovered is that this is the only R.E.M album that sees me repeatedly grinning like a buffoon, be it the beguiling beauty of' 'You are Everything' or the musical jokes played on 'Stand' (cheesy fairground organ intro, impromptu slap bass- BAMM! "stand in the place where you are", cue Beach Boys pastiche harmonies, wah-wah wanky solo... key change!).

Fully shaking off their cult college rock days and confident in their non ambiguous, non mumbley direction, also with a nice new major label deal, this is the sound of a band having fun, before they grew too wise and too stinking rich. On 'Orange Crush' and 'Turn You Inside Out' they rock out in their restrained trad way, but it's alright cos the chorus to 'Orange Crush'- which is a song about the herbicide, Agent Orange, used in the Vietnam war- is immense. It's only singer Micheal Stipe yelling something nonsensical into a megaphone, and bassist Mike Mills going "Oooooo", but it's powerful; partly because of the killer rhythm sections backbone, partly because Stipe sounds so full of irritation, and mainly because of the androgynous beauty of Mill's voice. 'Pop song 89' is a goofy throwaway that wears it name on its sleeve. 'Get Up' thwacks you from under the duvet with its chugging verses, giddy harmonies and a solo played on music boxes.

The more serious moments pack a hefty punch. 'World Leader Pretend' is ripe with images of weaponry and conflict, and the opening line, "I sit at this table and wage war on myself, it seems like its all . . . its all for nothing", hits me hardest, as Stipe goes to battle with his very being. The song is sung in a sombre, almost intimidating tone that I've never heard in any other R.E.M song. The band seemed to acknowledge the relevance of the words as it was the only song lyrics they printed on sleeve until 1998s 'Up'.

For years Stipe was used to mumbling 'enigmatic' stuff into his fringe, but his burgeoning confidence as a vocalist and lyricist is obvious, especially on 'You Are Everything', where he finds comfort in the mundane with lines like "here's a scene, your in the back seat laying down, the windows wrap around to the sound of the travel and the engine". In the background, crickets chirp and an accordion drifts lazily on the breeze. The second verse is even better,"'I think about this world a lot and i cry and I've seen the films and the eyes, and I'm in this kitchen, everything is beautiful and she is so beautiful". When he does go cryptic, on 'Hairshirt', his vocals carry the emotional weight. Only Stipe can sing guff like "and i can hang my hair shirt away up high in the attic of the wrong dogs like chest" and produce a wee lump in my throat.

And I haven't even mentioned the mandolins! A couple of these tracks have dated poorly, but Peter Buck's chords and beatific plucking on 'The Wrong Child', the aforementioned 'Hairshirt' and 'You are the Everything' is stunning, lending some of this album a timeless quality.

After this R.E.M embarked on a big stadium tour - the natural conclusion to this record, and took an unprecedented (for them) two years break before recording their next album. In that time they lost some of their hunger and never quite regained their verve. But If your curious about this once great band, this is probably the album I'd recommend; it's more accessible than their early 80s stuff, and less of a sedative than their later records. Yeah, save yourself some energy. Choose to go Green.

8/10

Might have to rock out these dance moves next time I'm in town.

Nice review Badlittlekitten! It's great to see a promising new journal in here. I'm looking forward to reading more. :)

Not my favorite REM stuff but you made up for it with good review and great thread title.

Thanks peeps :)

Glad at least one person likes the thread title. Was debating that for ages ha.
Next up I'm gonna write up a Badlittle overview of the best albums from 1994. I have a few albums I need to listen to first but hopefully it will be up sometime tonight (yeah I get up to some CRAZY business on Friday nights :yeah:)

Over the course of my journalistic blabbering I intend to look at albums from certain years, and highlight the good, the bad and the ugly. My reviews will be kept short as I will save the rambles for individual reviews. The best albums are highly recommended, and there should be something here for everyone. “Why am you doing this?” I hear you murmur. Well cos it’s fun, and it cures some ocd symptoms and cos I love you dear humble reader.

I shall start with the year 1994, for no other reason than that the numbers were floating around inside my skullbox.

Pictures Of Me
Badlittlekittens Significant Albums Of A Randomly Picked Year - 1st Edition.

Kurt Cobain shot his brains to death in 1994. This was quite a significant event, especially in the UK, as not only was a hero to many now gone for good, but it signalled grunges death knell. Throughout the early 90s the British rock charts were cluttered with grungey misery merchants and charisma free, post-shoegaze bands. Now the grunge poster boy was gone, new rules could be written, and kids started looking closer to home for their musical nourishment. Groups like Suede and Blur’s reaction to the wounded grunge scene was to revel in their Englishness. And so begat Britpop. . . which was **** really wasn’t it? A few good bands, and a landfill of pub-rock, retro dullards. It was a lame press term for anything white, English and sporting a bowl cut. I mean groups like Massive Attack and The Prodigy meant more to the average kid on the street than most of the rock dinosaurs. But heaven forbid we class multi-racial acts as British pop.

America had its own strain of retro dullards in the form of Guided By Voices etc. But there were some interesting noises about too, especially in the Slint inspired post-rock of Tortoise. Outside of Britpop there were also a handful of lost British post-rock acts like Pram, Bark Psychosis and Laika sticking at it, despite knowing that the Britpop obsessed press/public/major labels weren't interested.

In hip-hop land, Dr. Dre’s sleazy, stoned G-funk sound was ubiquitous and peaked with Warren G’s superb ‘Renegade’ single. Nas ensured that the east coast scene stopped receiving a bitch slapping from the west in commercial terms, with the classic Illmatic. Actually, the most interesting hip-hop record, sonically, in 1994, isn’t really a hip-hop record at all – Portishead’s Dummy.

Henceforth, the pleasantries . . . .

Honourable Mentions:
Notorious BIG – Ready to Die
Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Vol 2
The Prodigy – Music For The Jilted Generation
Pavement – Crooked Crooked Rain
Nick Cave – Let Love In

Best Albums Of 1994

(In order of letters)


I only very recently, ahem, ‘acquired’ this album. A post–rock master class in the Talk Talk vain. A good album to go to sleep to. Its atmosphere and deep bass tones will creep up and consume you and send you into a dreamy, meditative state.




There was never any doubt in Parklife’s placing. After all, it was Blur that got me obsessed with music in the first place. What strikes me after all these years is how much depth it has. From the sneering satire of ‘Girls and Boys’ and ‘Tracey Jacks’ to the emotional sincerity of ‘This Is A Low’ and ‘Badhead’, to the daft radio jingles of ‘Debt Collector’ and ‘Lot 101. The diversity in Damon Albarn’s songwriting skills became apparent with this album, yet it sounds de-fragmented and ornate. Blur revived a British pop tradition that went something like Beatles>Kinks>Barret>Bowie>XTC>Smiths and injected cheery, sharp and snappy songs back into rocks veins. Musically it’s exquisite, a ****tail of strings, sax, horns, keyboards, a flute, and of course Grahams Coxon’s frantic guitar, making things that little bit messier. Finally, the lyrics are a classic evocation of Brit escapism in lottery tickets, cheap holidays, cheap sex, binge-drinking, casual violence and err . . . cross dressing. Maybe that’s just me then.




A delightful sampledelic fusion of pirate radio sounds (jungle, drum and bass) and Future Days era Can. With added chanteuse vocals and flutes. What more could you possibly want?







Tight, concise and a perfect artefact of street poetry. One of the best albums of any genre, and one its maker couldn’t live up to. It’s got everything you could want from a hip-hop record – articulate lyrics and imagery, killer jazz/soul/funk beats (courtesy of DJ Premier, Pete Rock and Q tip) and some of the greatest rapping ever recorded. Honourable mention has to go to A.Z, whose verse on ‘Life’s A Bitch’ is magical in its head spinning complexity. Also ‘Halftime’ is one of my favourite songs of all time; funky, sexy, mean and hilarious.





I’ve seen this described as “Hip-hop on life support”, which is great but overlooks the tortured ghostly vocals of Beth Gibbons. She’s like a lady Thom Yorke. I’m sure, humble reader, that you’ve heard this album by now. If not, what are you thinking?? Dummy.


Yes, retro pub-rock dullards perhaps, but oooh! what a noise! And what a thrill. Because for fifty minutes, lightning was captured in a bottle and the Gallagher’s and co’s hunger burns bright for the one and only time. The excitement, the agro, and the working class ennui is neatly summed up with the line, “Is is worth the aggrevatiiiiiiioonnn to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth working for”. The fact that the rhythm section’s crap and that most of their riffs have been nicked from Berry/Keef/Bolan is irrelevant, because when Liam sings “You make me laaaaf, give me ya autograaaf”, and Noel plays a stoopid, bleeding, swaggering hooligan guitar solo to end ‘Supersonic’, you feel like the coolest, meanest, sexiest son of a bitch alive. And that’s good rock n’ rolls job.


For me, the pinnacle of modern RnB. A treasure trove of treats, from the lush and sensual ‘Digging On You’, to the bubbly, ‘controlled frenzy’ beats of anti-gangsta classic ‘Waterfalls’ and infidelity anthem ‘Creep’. Smooth, funky and sexual in all the right places.

Tortoise – Tortoise

Jazz and dub tinged post-rock classic. Like Spiderland but even quieter. Allmusic.com's Glenn Swan will do this album better justice than me with his description; “Tortoise sounds like a dark and wonderful garage full of dusty instruments. It's like looking at Avedon photographs -- the crevices and quirky imperfections are so richly explored that they become things of beauty”. That’s it in a eggshell. Its minimalism and subtlety will bind you in a spell, until closing track ‘Cornpone Brunch’ rises to a crescendo and launches you into the stratosphere.

Dishonorable Mentions

I don’t know you, but I think I hate you . . .

Green Day – Dookie
So basically Green Day made a ‘punk’ album that airbrushed away any challenging/interesting/disturbing bits and coated it with inane teen angst lyrics and sold billions. Cue record companies signing up every Tom, Dick and Harry with a punk riff, dumbing down their sound, and cynically marketing it to every bullied middle class geek in town until this trash was now what was considered ‘punk’.
But do you want to know what really makes Dookie such an evil record? (deep breath) It’s enjoyable! How can you resist the hooks of ‘Burnout’, ‘The She’ or ‘Pulling Teeth.’ How can you not relate to lyrics like ‘Masturbations lost its fun and I’m fucking lazy!!” That was the point of course, and they did their job well, them evil bastards.

I Swear To Ya Son, They Were Good Back In The Day!

The Stone Roses - Second Comming
The Roses sink into the pub-rock puddle that they were partly responsible for. 'Daybreak' is mega though.

R.E.M. - Monster
They sound knackered already. I wish they gave it up around this point. Mike Mills would make a great bank clerk.

Frankly, My Dear, I Don’t Give A Damn . . . .

Nirvana – Unplugged In New York

Jeff Buckley – Grace
I know some people that would literally die for this record, but it’s never done it for me. There’s the odd flash of guitar brilliance from Jeff but it doesn’t compensate for the session muso dullness and the choir boy mewling. He's old man was better.

Nine Inch Nails – Downward Spiral
Just a slick version of what the Young Gods/Big Black had done so much better. Also I despise Trent whatever his name is and his faux-angst, misery-for-a-profit persona.

.................................................. .................................................. ....


And that’s it chaps and chapettes, my significant albums of the randomly picked year of 1994! (must change title). Hope you'll join us next time on this rollercoaster ride of pain and pleasure, praise and damnation.

Feel free to let us know if I’ve missed anything, or to recommend something I haven’t mentioned, or to call me a dick head. :D

I'm currently playing through Zelda Link To The Past (first time none the less!). It's a hard but bloody good game. Anyway, when I went into the Dersert dungeon, my ten year old brother sitting beside me tensed up and said, "this is gonna be scary". And I agreed, such is the ghostly power of the first couple of bars of the dungeon music. It reminded me of all the spooky drag/witch house stuff thats about at the moment from the likes of White Ring and oOoOO etc.





Compare.







Ok, their not quite the same. But you get the point.

Thanks for the review!!

Album Review

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iw_Er81VX6.../homogenic.jpg

Bjork -Homogenic
1997 One Little Indian.


Key tracks; 'Unravel', 'Alarm Call', 'Joga', '5 Years', 'Hunter'.


After spending several years in the fast lane, enjoying the trendiest clubs London had to offer, and happy to cooperate with the incessant attention of the British press, Bjork discovered that fame wasn't worth her life. After some mentalist fan had failed in his attempt to blow our sweet pixie goddess's brains out, Bjork fled back to her homeland with new found appreciation for Iceland's nature and geometry and took to a mountain top "with a radio and good batteries", to "play a joyous tune, and free the human race from suffering".

'Hunter', is a perfect opener, it's transfixing military beats underlining her mission statement of home bound comfort after limelight regret, and she memorable sings, "I thought I could organise freedom, how Scandinavian of me"
For much of Homogenic, her third album, Bjork envisioned a auditory version of the landscapes that surrounded her - erupting volcanoes as beats, shimmering glaciers as strings. Impossible perhaps, but something best exemplified by 'Joga', where she sings, "Emotional landscapes they puzzle me and push me up to this state of emergency" while the music backing her sounds as if it's constantly on the rise, until producer Mark Bell's (of LFO) bass line comes in and we find ourselves at the peak of the mountain, "how beautiful to be!". I'm gonna get all music geeky on ya for a moment cos, for me, the moment in this song is that ascending B chord played on a violin at 2:54. It only lasts a second, but the timing and the context and its space within the song lend it some kind of majestic power - adoration, melancholia, Utopia, sense of relief - some of the various feelings that this haunting, mysterious note has somehow transmitted to me. The closing seconds to the track are extraordinary too. There's some reverbed keyboard notes ripping at the fabric as Bjork lays on the mountain top, relaxed and relieved, wailing sensually, and a weeping accordion brings us back to Earth.
Beneath the bumbling lava and jagged rocks of distorted percussion, there's a lot of heart in this album. Bjork had just had a messy break up from a famous relationship with Tricky, and the remaining scars penetrate '5 Years', 'Immature' and the albums watery core 'Unravel'. Over a beat that sounds like it's drowning in an ocean, a doleful, sighing synth chord lurks like a whale around the emotional wreckage, and threatens to swallow it whole. Bjork pores every bit of herself into the words of the verse only to find a smiling devil thieving her heart and that, "he'll never return it". 'Unravel' is Bjorks finest song, and from front to back it's a perfect expression of dead hope and love beyond grasp. On the brighter side, the gleeful 'Alarm Call', is a great elastic pop song. Bjork sounds over the moon, especially during those lovely Icelandic/nonsense ad libs she likes to do. And the bit where Bjork turns into Tracy from Dagenham and goes' "I'm no fackin' Buddhist, but this is enlightenment", is one of the greatest music moments ever.

Say what you want about them two Sgt Pepper omissions, for me the greatest misjudgement and musical tragedy is the inclusion of the legless Howie Bernstein version of "All Is Full Of Love" to close this album. It's so dull that the stop button has usually been pressed already, and Bjork's beautiful take on the 'love is all around' cliché gathers moss. When you put this album onto your I Pod, do yourself a favour and stick on the remixed single version of 'All Is Full Of Love' as a replacement, and marvel in awe at what could've been.

(8/10)

Talk about syncronicity... I had just posted this (below) Sonos cover of Björk's song, Jóga on my YouTube channel & then surfed over to Music Banter and the first music diary I selected contained your newly posted review of Homogenic. While Sonos is no match for Björk's original recording, I think Sonos adds their own unique perspective to the original with the 6 person acappella interpretation without any musical instruments.



Thanks for the review of Homogenic which along with Debut, Post and Vespertine are as brilliant a quartet of albums as any pop music artist of the '90s eras.

Björk was one of a handful of visionary artists & groups that brought electronica to the musical mainstream in the early '90s. After seeing Björk & Saint Etienne at the 1994 Glastonbury festival & then traveling to London to see Massive Attack & Portishead perform live in separate concerts, I became a true believer in the emerging European electronica movement. I think a lot of the current indie artists are just now catching up with some of the bold ideas of the early '90s, second generation of electronic music artists.

'kin yes on the Bark Psychosis mention, Hex gets nowhere near the credit it deserves.

The Jesus And Mary Chain
April Skies
Darklands 1987
http://static.rateyourmusic.com/albu...495/134596.jpg

This is a little section where I talk about the songs that hold me together like musical glue. My favourite songs of all time basically.

Over the last couple of days the weather in old Blighty has warmed up, the early signs of the English summer. As the sunshine warms my bones and a soft breeze clambers upon my spine, I yearn for the perfect soundtrack to make my smile that little bit wider, and it's 'April Skies'. It has become a ritual for me over the last few years to obsess over this song come April because it works so well. Of course it's the feedback thuggery of Psychocandy that gets all the praise, but the undervalued Darklands is a nice warm record in its own right and 'April Skies' is its best moment, blessed with the Reid brothers ability to squeeze out as many lovely sun kissed melodies as time will allow.
In their earlier days the Mary Chains melodies - always stolen from The Shangri La's, Beach Boys, Ramones and The Velvet Undies - were buried beneath a heap of screeching white noise and sonic terror, like a true underground pop noise. But by now they had cleaned up their sound with a more commercial bent (this was there biggest hit), and it worked for them, so strong is their sense of classic rock/pop songcraft. In fact it's the accessibility, as well as the April sun, that makes this the Chain song I'm most likely to give a spin.
The song begins with chugging power chords as Jim Reid sternly says in his sexiest Lou Reed impression "Hey honey what you trying to say, as you stand there don't you walk away. And the world comes tumbling down." This is followed by a lovely guitar lick that confirms summertime is here, if only in my head. The next line "hand in hand in a violent life, making love on the edge of a knife" has the violent undercurrent that most Mary Chain lyrics have. As their earlier material shows, the Brothers Grim like their masochism and that hasn't disappeared along with the harsh feedback, for what would a girl be if she didn't want to kick your head in? Not in between their sheets that's for sure.
The song then slides into the third chord to complete the three chord trick that this band pulls off so well and it sounds as though the saucy relastionship's on the rocks, but Jim is defiant and he memorably sings; "If there's one thing I couldn't do, sacrifice myself to you". It's this feeling of independence that makes this the ideal soundtrack for days with nothing to do, wondering lost in a town full of frowns seeking some kind of unknown bliss, "going down to be by myself . . . . for the good of my health"

Lyrically, nothing much else of interest happens until the end where there is a case of be - careful - for - what - you - wish - for as Jim is now alone and can't get his baby back.

Sun grow cold
Sky gets black
And you broke me up
And you won't come back

I find this last line especially affecting as Jim sounds sulky and mournful, as you would do if the girl that once slashed you left you stranded. Thinking of their lyrics I get the impression that the Reid brothers have been through depression and this song is not an exception, despite being so uplifting. That's what I love about it - as someone prone to depression myself, it's nice to occasionally see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is only for four minutes - it's the life affirming result of the friction caused between despairing lyrics and gleeful melodies. This brings me to the moment which comes at 2.30. Those Chuck Berry chords chug away and Jim simply sings "oooooo oooooo", and thanks to it's spacing in the song between the louder choruses it holds some strong mystical sense of purpose to me. It's so dewy eyed and leaves me with a sense of wiping the slate clean and thinking that this will be the summer where stuff falls into place. You're probably reading this like I'm mad in the nogging for getting that from this particular part of the song, but you'll have to except my quirks as it's these deceptively little parts of records that make me love music so. The track then soars as the chorus is song again with the "ooooo"'s in the background and I hope I spend this summer away from those dark lands.

Well **** I just discovered this journal but you need to keep it up I'll be watching now. That post about 1994 shows that you have a very similar musical taste to my own. You managed to say what I feel about early Green Day, who albeit I openly like, perfectly, and besides the fact that you don't like Massive Attack, Nine Inch Nails, and Guided By Voices that post is like reading my mind about music. Oh and I like Nirvana, which I'm not sure if you do, but I'm with you on the acoustic set... where the **** is the fun in a noisy grunge band when they go acoustic?

No no no! I like Massive Attack, just think Protection is there weakest 90's album.
I like Nirvana too but unplugged sounds like a dirge fest to me.

In my last Pictures Of Me I said I would cover random years. This as it turns out was a lie, because it's much easier to write about the best and most momentous years in music. 1987 is both.
By now hip hop had grown up from a curious street novelty and developed into a scowling, gold toothed, bicep bound beast. Gangsta rap - spawned from Shoolly D, the cartoon thuggery of the Beastie Boys first LP and the very real danger in the first Public Enemy album - started about here. Hip hoppers realised the extent in which they could get away with macho posturing and willy waving and 1987 saw the first rap album to have it's stars brandishing guns on the sleeve with Boogie Down Productions Criminal Minded. Sadly BDP's Scot La Rock would make another first, being the first rap star to be shot dead. With the sonic invention and liberal baiting that defined rap, the former rebellion music, rock, could not compete and would give up trying by the next decade. Still, in 1987 some rockers attempted to compete with the scary black men, with the devil noise of Big Black and The Young Gods and more pathetically Guns n' Roses. But at the same time alternative rock continued its baby steps into extinction as REM had their first chart hits, Sonic Youth became that little bit less noisy and Husker Du released their most commercial album yet on Warner Bros.

Roll the disses . . . .

Dishonourable Mentions
U2 - The Joshua Tree
Guns n' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Because millions of people can be wrong.

Honourable Mentions
Arthur Russell - World Of Echo
Bad Brains - I Against I
Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded
REM - Document
Swans - Children Of God
Sonic Youth - Sister
Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing

My Bestest Albums Of 1987
(In ascending order of goodness)


11.

Dead Can Dance - Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun

A gorgeous meld of gothic tones and eastern flavers, Dead Can Dance’s third LP shimmers by with grace. The crooner vocals of Brendan Perry and the Indian style warbling of Lisa Gerrard make a nice pair, especially when Perry's lyrics are so wise and reflective and Gerrard's singing so full of mystical power, at once euphoric and hysterical in a land fading to darkness. With a touch of classical here and a smidgen of Gaelic folk there, this album takes you on a journey across the world as well as through different periods of time, all from the comfort of your own bedroom. You might not want to return.



10.
M.J's neurosis through metallic white noise. I gone did a full review for this very site here

09.

Big Black - Songs About ****ing

A sadistic study into the art of noise, which happens to sound like Steve Albini throwing a fit inside your radiator. ‘Bad Penny’ in particular is a glorious hateful racket. Blasphemy for some maybe, but the militantly funky cover of Kraftwork’s ‘Model’ is better than the original.


08.
So here they come, swaggering from their council tower blocks, full of bad vibes and badder drugs, bringing their northern street slang and dodgy house parties and a smart street urchin named Shaun Ryder whose voice seems to express all the beauty and decay and recklessness of British society. For me, no other band has evoked the experience of the English underclass as acutely as the Happy Mondays. And I’m a Londoner! But the hustle bustle, the aggro, the blunt wit, the poverty and the sleaze, the need to “get out of this place”, get loaded and escape reality with 24 hour part people, is tangible. And it’s all backed with a funky rhythm section, Stones/Byrds guitar riffs and Ryder’s bruised voice guiding us through this tour of trash. The Mondays would improve with next years Bummed album. But this is 1987 and this LP is more than satisfactory.




07.

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Darklands

By this, their second album, The Mary Chain had already abandoned the white noise that made the classic Psychocandy so striking. With former drummer Bobby Gillespie doing his thang with Primal Scream, the Reed brothers employed a drum machine and wrote some sunny pop gems. To me Darklands has always sounded like an album about struggling with depression and a “chaotic soul”, inside a “world that keeps turning the screws into my mind”, but ultimately overcoming all that nasty stuff with bubble gum melodies and red cherry kisses. I’ve already talked about the joy that is ‘April Skies’, ‘Happy When It Rains’ is pretty much the same thing but with different words. And that’s a huge compliment by the way. 'Cherry Came Too' features those timeless Beach Boy melodies, and a girl who will slice you till your heart bleeds. The albums ‘dark’ track ‘Fall’ has daft and funny lyrics like “Everybody’s falling on me. I’m as dead as a . . . . Christmas tree!” The closing track 'About You' features an acoustic guitar and Jim Reid's voice, which already sounds older and wiser, brushing away those dark days and finding that “there’s something warm about the rain, there’s something warm in everything”. Most touching of all is the line “You and me. Will win, you’ll see”, which gives you the sense that love conquers all. But maybe the Reid brothers are terminally miserable buggers and I’m misreading all this, who knows. After all, heaven, I think, is too close to hell.




06.

Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription

"It's 1987 and all I wanna do is get stoned".
Where's Darklands evoked depression and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, The Perfect Prescription was about shutting yourself away, filling yourself up with hard junk and blasting off into the blackness. Spacemen 3 are always teetering on the edge, unafraid to look death in the eye, walking with Jesus. The best tracks here, 'Walking with Jesus' and 'Ecstasy Symphony/Transparen Radiation' are lush, mountiness soundscapes. Or to justly use an overused word, 'ethereal'. I've never taken heroin but these tracks emit a transcending quality, one of inner peace and a feeling that sense has been made of this strange world and all that one needs from it is another fix. Smack might be nothing like that, but I wouldn't doubt the conviction in the Spacemen's performance. Also Jason Pierce needs more props as a vocalist. He invents a new kind of blue-eyed soul, a voice of torment that yearns for the heavens but is destined to be keeping the devil company. On 'Come Down Easy' he sings "Lord I I'm gonna shake it, lord I'm gonna make it, sure I'm gonna take it, cos I feel alright", though really he feels anything but. Spacemen 3's music has the same oscillating, catatonic trance- like qualities of fellow druggers The Silver Apples and The Stooges, sounding as they want to reach beyond their own skin.

A couple of the louder tracks have dated poorly and Pierce would make better records as Spiritualized. But if anyone has an interest in 80's indie, as well as the darker side of the human spirit - the side that doesn't even attempt to resist temptation - then this is the perfect prescription.




05.

Prince - Sign Of The Times

Masterful double album from the pocket dandy. One or two tracks hinted at a new found earnestness, the first signs of his song writing taking a nosedive. (Actually, neither Prince or M.J were great after 1987, abandoning their strong pop song craft in search for hip hop cool.)


04.

The Young Gods - The Young Gods

The debut album by Swiss industrialists the Young Gods is a jet black masterpiece. This abrasive stew of noise is better than any industrial record that followed, thanks mainly to the dexterity and dynamism of the rhythm section. Skull crushing cymbal smashes collide with pummelling polyrhythms at breakneck speed, then there’s the slices of electronic ambiance, strings and horn stabs, special ingredients that make this stew like no other. Crucially The Young Gods don’t take themselves too seriously and this is exemplified by the blackly comic Gary Glitter cover 'Did You Miss Me?', one of two tracks with English spoken lyrics (A sample: “did you miss me when I was gone? Did you hang my picture on your nose?”) and the almost camp chorus to 'Jimmy'. This really is a special kind of rock album, achieving beauty via the unlikely route of sonic assault and dark wizardry.



03.
Rakim is in the running for the greatest MC of all time and if you listen to the opening track ‘I Ain’t No Joke’ you’ll know why. Bouncing his words on and off of the beat with complex syncopation and weaving creative metaphors with his deep, soulful voice, he was the first rapper to make MCing into an art form. Rakim is like the Beatles of hip hop, and the flows and themes of the rappers that followed can be traced right back to Paid In Full. And then there’s Eric B’s beats, which were mutated funk and electronic dance that you couldn’t dance to. Rap was no longer a troublesome novelty and its future foundations had been laid.


02.

Husker Du - Warehouse: Songs And Stories

Slowly leaving their hardcore roots behind, Husker Du were picking up bits of Beatles songcraft and R.E.M. neo-psyhedelia a little more with each LP, until finally baring the fruits of Warehouse, their last and best album. The two leading singer-song writers Bob Mould (gay, depressive) and Grant Hart (heroin addict) sculpt noise as metaphor for inner torment and redemption through frayed jangling guitars. Power pop hooks and a ringing din of classic rock melodies sweep you from your feet until you kiss the skies. The usually reliable Hart has an off day here for whatever reason (dem bad drugs?), with his tracks often being shallow and simplistic. But in ‘Charity, Chastity, Prudence and Hope’ and ‘Back From Somewhere’ he proves he’s still capable of invigorating rock gems. As for Mould, well this is his creative peak; a tour de force that even he’s much loved future project Sugar couldn’t match. It seems 1987 was the year of the miserable rock bastard and Mould was the most dignified of the lot. You sense he's there at the bottom of the barrel, occasionally poking his head up, eager to climb out, bemused and amused by the craziness around him, and as he memorably sings in ‘Turn It Around’, “Now is the only time to decide which side you’re on. Now is the only time. Now it’s time to try to turn it around.” I could talk till I’m blue about Mould’s songs on Warehouse but I’ll leave that for another time.

OOOOHHHH but I just need to sneak in a word or two about “It’s Not Peculiar”, surely one of the very best rock tracks of the 80’s (and I can't even get the fucker on youtube!) It sounds like unpredictable mood swings as expressed with stomach churning chord changes. Then there’s the almighty hook, “It’s not peculiar, there’s nothing to devise at all” in which Mould stutters and stammers with the words “at all a a a a a a”, irresistibly building tension and uncertainty until the euphoric release of “. . . alright!”, and suddenly the stars have realigned and Mould has tumbled out of that barrel.


01.

Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush The Show

And then it came, shattering the earth like a big, black, molten meteorite. You had the barrage of Chuck D’s words melding inner-city gang violence with pro-black politics. You got the sense that Public Enemy inhabited the America that Prince addressed on ‘Sign Of The Times’ (“There are seventeen year old boys and their idea of fun, is being in a gang called the disciples, high on crack and touting their machine guns”), making Prince’s attempts of hip hop and controversy seem laughable by comparison. You got the Bomb Squad production team making avant-art with samplers and machines which made all hip hop around it sound dated overnight. You got the psychotic, crackhead ramblings of Flavor Flav. Sure there had been gangster threats in hip hop before this, but it was Chuck D’s bullish acknowledgement of blacks and blacks only, plus the strangled funk, gnashing white noise, industrial beats, screeching getaway cars and snatches of ghostly guitar and party noise in the music that made this LP more intimidating and potent than and rap album before it. The UK press had a tendency to label any dangerous and exciting rock n’ roll group as “the new Sex Pistols”. Despite not having a guitarist, P.E’s fearless revival of long dead 60’s militant black politics, along with their revolutionary use of machines and production, ensured that they were the only group deserving of the title. All of this and they weren’t even at their best yet.



Coming soon - Pictures Of Me 2010 edition.

I remember finding some interest in the Happy Mondays album which is quite fresh. The Young Gods one I think I went off quite quickly. 87 not really my favourite year. But we probably have different taste as well, I probably like more pop than you.

2010, now that was a good year (at least away from the hyped stuff).

Pictures Of Me 2010

2010 must surely go down as one of the strongest years for LPs in recent memory. But I doubt whether future music scholars will acknowledge this. It seems that as the 00’s progressed we’ve reached a new kind of music landscape. With the influence of music print diminishing, TV offering music channels to cater to specific tastes and, of course, the rise of the internet, music culture has become a fragmented almost invisible thing. With everyone plugged into their particular blog - MTV channel - digital radio station, it’s easy to filter out the guff you don’t want, or at least you think you don’t want. There will never be another Elvis or Jacko, someone we all agree on. I’m sure there a witch house/drag fans that have never heard of Lady Ga Ga. The last LP that seemed to have any kind of critical consensus was Radioheads Kid A, all the way back in 2001. But if this means the disapearence of The Canon , then I’m all for it as I never did like Dark Side Of The Moon anyway.

As if to reflect this musical ghettoization, rock and dance became more insular, shunning the outside world for their own esoteric one. Hence 2010 being a great year.

Dishonerable Mentions
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
I've heard yawns more sonically exciting.

Honerable Mentions
Afrirampo - We Are Uchu No Ko
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Moon Wiring Club - A Tabby At The Cats Wedding
Vampire Weekend - Contra

My Albums Of 2010
(In an order which is top secret)

So she kinda cheated and didn't really deliver three brand new LPs last year, but this culmination sorta thing is still the best pop record since her last. A nice mix of wide eyed teen pop, trendy club beats and 80's futurism. 'Dancing On My Own' has the most anthemic chorus of the year, and is like the femme pop equivalent of 'Mr Brightside'. Except its good. The Scandinavia goes Jamaica patois of 'None Of Dem' is a golden and is a plea to escape small time life, and it's a joy when the reggae synth comes in on the second verse. There is some odd track choice decisions but I forgive.



Kano’s still far from the best on the mic, but this is all about the production. A tour de force of star turns from Boys Noize, Hot Chip, Georgie Dodds and the living legend that is Damon Albarn. Obviously with those producers this isn’t really grime, but that genre’s unfortunately dead and buried anyway (in LP form). From Latin beat, dancehall, to the soft boy electro of Hot Chip, this is pure sonic pleasure. The track ‘Slaves’ is simply beautiful - with its gut wrenching guitar chord, regretful female vocals and synths that sound like their being played from inside a giant tube, over which Kano rants against the music business and consumerism, and ends with the line “before I become a slave to the game bro', I'll be the artist formally known as Kano”. Where some of his contemporary' s are chasing pop stardom Kano is happy to revel in the ‘maadness’, that being the Daily Mail paranoia of hooded youths or the ‘IPod generation’. The song ‘Upside’ features the lyric “Will lose dough before I lose my soul” which I admire.



Time will tell of course, but I'm enjoying this more than any Outkast LP. Big Boi was always my favourite emcee and Andre's forays into Prince territory were never convincing. Sure his lyrics are tiresome, especially on 'Tamberine', but who can resist the ominous guitar lines, rigid millatant beats, sqealchy ambient synths and that silky, dizzying flow. The Harold Melvin bassline on 'Shine Blockas' always gets me smiling from ear to ear. 'You Ain't No Dj' and 'General Patton' are skippable but at least this ain't full of the skits that pad out Outkast LPs.

The self conscious intellectualism that pervades throughout this record is something I can’t usually stand in my music but there’s no getting round it . . . this is the best art rock album I’ve heard in years. It takes a lot to sound original these days but this is like nothing before it. Using march band and electro beats, synth stabs woodwind, delicious Talk Talk style brass, a children's choir, TNPS create their own ancient, battle scarred world. Oddly enough ‘Attack Music’ sounds like ‘Jenga’ from Kano’s album, with added fruity brass, and pretentious nonsense lyrics. I forgive the lyrics though as the vocals on this album mostly serve as another layer to the musical Morse codes of the music. When an indie band experiments with digital/dance sounds they usually fall flat on their face, so I applaud the execution here.

Gonjasufi is Sumach Ecks who is, according to Wiki, a rapper, Dj, and Yoga instructor of Mexican heritage. He first got noticed from a guess spot on a Flying Lotus record. But this is not Flying Lotus or rap or yoga. This is most genre defying album I’ve heard in a long while covering Hip hop, psychedelia, old skool electro, disco and countless more, all with an underbelly of Indian chants and sitar. Sometimes it sounds like Revolver era Beatles getting high on weed, Ravi Shankar and trip hop while at others sounding like a ruff and gruff lo-fi hip hop LP. What makes this so good is that it all sounds natural and coherent. Also 'Advice' is my favourite non-Beach Fossils depression song of the year ("This is your only life, so it’s only right to take your own advice", good advice which I inevitably won't take.)



Ariel Pink has been lurking the indie underground for years, releasing brilliant, drug damaged, loner pop gems usually in debt to 70’s AOR. His first eight albums mainly consist of compiled tracks that Pink recorded to a cassette tape in his basement in the late 90’s. I’m a big fan of these oddball and influential releases, but not everyone can appreciate the sound of Pink using arm pit farts as percussion and production values that make the White Stripes cheapest album sound like Jacko’s Invincible. Before Today is Ariel’s first album with a backing band and it was recorded in a proper studio and everything. Thankfully the music doesn’t suffer from the beefed up sound and Pink (Marcus Rosenberg) retains his individuality and identity. For me, guitar lead song smithery is a pretty archaic thing, and you better be original and interesting enough to pull it off. Pink delivers again, always the most idiosyncratic of songwriters, every track is full of melodic twists and turns, songs inside songs and countless moments where you think to yourself “why haven’t I heard this before? It’s obvious”. At a time when indie’s been lacking in inspiration, Pink is a visionary and he makes the sort of music that won’t register at first, yet he trusts that his listeners ears will adjust to his eccentricities. Indeed it is Pink’s brand of retro futurism that is responsible for the ‘chill wave’ scene. Is this album any good? Well it has some filler but there’s never a dull moment and never a time to question Pink’s wonderful, restless vision. And no apologies for the gushing as, for me, Ariel Pink is the closest thing rock has had to a genius (and I hate that word) in a long time.



Splasz is the second album by London’s Darren J. Cunningham, AKA Actress. It’s full of mesmeric clunky house tracks with ghostly sample snatches in all the deliciously right and wrong places. It’s full of glitch wizardry and house bangers beaten and muffled beyond recognition. It’s one of those LPs that feels complete and just so umm. . . satisfying.




Machines put to task, whether it be gnashing white noise or lush Steve Reich style minimalist soundscapes. Lubbly Jub.

Wow. Time is a great healer ain’t it? I hated this album until litrally 20 minutes ago when I forced myself to listen to it in aid of this here list. What once sounded boring and overproduced now sounds like the return of Rock. And I don’t mean rock and roll (swinging, free wheeling, live for the moment) but ROCK; heavy riffige, stiff percussion and not a single desire to relate to the listener except to take them higher, higher, higher. The fuzz guitars and vocal harmonies are pure late 60’s psych, yet it never sounds like a rerun. And the singer sometimes sounds like Lennon if you tilt at a certain angle, no?

Ahh summer. This is looking like my very favourite LP from last year and I’m not quite sure how. I mean, if there was any rationality and reason in ones adoration of music, Beach Fossils would surely lump with Beast Coast, Wavves and all them other rubbish bands that use poor imagination and lazy songwriting skills to fuel a scene (‘chill wave’). But curses, there’s just something about this album. Maybe it’s because Beach Fossils is performed with such conviction it sounds like a genuine 60s/80s artefact rather than a 2010 retread. Maybe it’s the simple use of reverb on the vocals and jangling guitars that gets me all dewy eyed remembering those early My Bloody Valentine EPS and lost, recent, bittersweet summers spent in a dark pit, arching my head up towards the elusive sun. Or maybe it’s because when Dustin Payseur sings, “lazy today, lazy tonight and later on”, it sounds like a cry for help rather than nihilistic gloating. On ‘Vacation’ he sings “I’m getting on the bus, got to get out of town”, which is the overbearing theme of the record, yet the inevitable procrastination takes its hold, the outside sunshine taunting you, after all;

“It works out so well when you discover that it’s all the same. We get lost sometimes but the reality will keep us sane. I know I think too much, I know I waste my time. . . .but that’s fine”.

Every track is made up of a couple of verses and interlocking R.E.M./Byrds guitars in the middle and it's the kind of music that makes feel wide eyed and triumphant or wanting to wallow in misery, depending on my mood. It won’t work for everyone and even I get bored by about track eight, but the good parts of Beach Fossilshave touched and inspired me that very few albums have.

The English summers just starting to blossom. I’m sure Beach Fossils will be there to make it better, and worse.

Hidden and Before Today were two of my top 2010 albums as well. Been meaning to get to a lot of what else is in your list as well.

Much of the music of this year seems to be passing me by,this being the result of my current obsession with jazz and the various forms of ‘world’ music, as well as my general apathy toward modern music. (Oh dear. It seems as though I’m becoming one of them people.) So I’ve only heard six or seven LPs from this year. Here be my thoughts.

The Antlers – Burst Apart

This is the third (?) album from the New Yorkers following the much loved Hospice. I only heard bits of that Lp and wasn’t bowled over by it but I thought I’d give Burst Apart more of a try. [WARNING; RANT COMENCING] If your gonna use a drumbeat as plodding and wet as the one on opener ‘I Don’t Want Love’ then you better have a dynamic and melodically adventurous song to cover for it. Unfortunetly it contains a lame uninteresting chorus where singer Peter Silberman, who has a nice voice, sings “I don’t want love” over some Coldplay chords. In fact the dire Coldplay could teach The Antlers a thing or two about this stuff because if you’re in the practice of making this over-earnest, ‘deep’ brand of indie music then surely you must go the whole hog and make every song a cry-your-heart-out anthem. The Antlers fail every time. For example, take ‘French Exit’ which has some choral bittersweet vocal harmonies in the verses and some swirling synths which are very pleasant. Then two minutes in there’s a break and the keyboards sound as though they are building up to something and I say to myself “that’s it Antlers, give it to me! Give me that great big chorus!” and I’m about to jump out of my seat and punch the air and then . . . . .nothing. The track just goes back into another verse and I’m left underwhelmed, the song sounding 100x more drab as a result. And that’s the story of Burst Apart. The group are doing their best to communicate inner pain to the listener, but to my ears they just come across as stubborn and self-consciously gloomy. ‘Rolled Together’ could have been a great song if the band invested more time in writing it. The reverbed guitars and the haunting vocals sound like a dreary wet dream, a mash up of Bon Iver and Sigor Ros at their best. But Silberman just sings the same line over and over and over and the band go into an instrumental passage which as musicians they are neither good or inventive enough to pull off.

Blah. What do I know anyway? I gurentee Burst Apart will be topping the end of year polls by Pithfork and the like. Something that irritates me about music journalism is this belief that music that is as formal and deadly serious as The Antlers (and Arcade Fire, Pink Floyd, Fleet Foxes etc.) is somehow more deserving of praise than music that’s unafraid of fun and adventure, despite its quality. [RANT OVER]

All in all Burst Apart isn’t my cup of tea.

Panda Bear – Tomboy

Person Pitch was a was a great release, full of twisted Beach Boys memories and subtle laptop wizardry. With Tomboy, or Person Pitch part 2, part of me feels that Noah Lennox has jumped the shark. On Pitch he often sounded thrilled just to be there, but nothing on Tomboy has the harmonic excitement of ‘Bros’ or ‘Take Pills’ and Lennox sometimes sound like he’s phoning it in, unsure whether he wants his music to continue in this direction. That’s not to say Tomboy is a bad album, in fact some parts are pretty good. My favourite track, the aptly named ‘Drone’, is a song that makes me feel as though I’m on my back gently wading through the shallow waters of a rainforest, reaching through the mist for the fruit on an overhanging branch. There’s not enough of those songs.
Tomboy is just disappointing. Stale even. Yet I don’t know what I was expecting from it. Sorry Panda, we can’t count on you.



Tune Yards – Who Kill

Now an album I can heap unreserved praise upon, although on my first listen of the first few tracks I went from thinking “Eh? I must’ve downloaded a Dirty Projectors album by mistake” to “EUWW I hate this type of unsubtle American faux quirkiness” to “I quite like the horns and African toms though” to “Hold on. THIS IS FUCKING GREAT!” It doesn’t help that Whokill goes against conventional music logic and places all the weak tracks at the albums beginning. I also thought the vocals came from a falsetto-d male, a mark of the extraordinary throat of Merrill Garbus, who manages to sound like Mica Levi, Robert Plant and Prince having a quick threesome shag. On reflection, Whokill (sorry Merrill but I can't be bothered to write your album or stupid band name properly, though I could be bothered to write this apology) isn’t quite “FUCKING GREAT!” but it is daring, fun, diverse and dynamic, globally informed and, well, basically everything the Antlers aren’t.

My Female 100

Whilst wasting more time milling about on Rate Your Music I had a scroll through their official top 100 and was suprised that, with the exception of Portisheads Beth Gibbons, there wasn't a female in sight. As a reaction I've started putting together a alternative 100 female influenced albums I feel are as good as or better than the RYM chart. To be clear, men are allowed but they're playing a background role. It be all bout de wominz.

Random order, ten at a time, brief comments.

http://di1-4.shoppingshadow.com/imag...s_76648857.jpg
The Shangri-Las - Myrmidons Of Melodrama (1994 Comp)
Sweet but tough melodramatic pop classics. Influenced every one from Blondie to bloke rock favourites The Ramones and The Jesus And Mary Chain.



http://static.boomkat.com/images/24137/150.jpg
Judee Sill - Judee Sill (1971)
70s California folk. A sad, beautiful and brilliant record. For those unfamiliar with Judee, she led a troubled life to say the least- death of parents, abusive stepfather, heroin addiction, prostitution, armed robbery, prison. There's a feeling of sins being washed, melodically and thematically on this album. There's also lots of talking to God, but don't let that put you off.

"Once a demon lived in my brow,
I screamed and wailed and I cursed out loud,
And I sailed through the clouds on ten crested
cardinals
To guard my battleground,
But I laughed so hard I cried. . . "

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...160_AA115_.jpg
The Breeders - Pod (1991)
Fragmented, smack woozy classic from the ex vagina Pixie. The bit in 'Oh' when Deal lets out some kinda pained primal shriek with the "your soft belly bossing lows" line is one of the most startling and devastating moments in the history of sound.



http://www.compagniedudisque.com/media/pochs/9695.jpg
Francoise Hardy - La Question (1971)
The few french women I've met were endlessly more beautiful than their english sisters. I haven't met Hardy but I imagine she's the same. Her voice prickles the hair on my neck whilst the acoustic guitar brushes and caresses my balls.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...CMZZZZZZZ_.jpg
Suzanne Vega - Suzanne Vega (1985)
Quintessential folk-pop. A warm blanket for every winter.

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s93350.jpg
Blectum from Blechdom - The Messy Jesse Fiesta (2000)
Epic electro-glitch fun from the New York female duo

http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/8...77x150-0-0.jpg
The Cardigans - First Band On The Moon (1996)
The worst LP art that I own, and probably the weakest album on this list. But the ultra blonde, lounge-funk, pop classic musicianship make this a slick yet thrilling ride.

http://www.soundsoftheuniverse.com/i...bronxstory.jpg
ESG - A South Bronx Story (2000 Comp)
Three sisters (and i mean as in three women, as in three black girls and as in three siblings) who worship at the alter called funk, use their amateurish skill to make post-punk magic. Early hip hoppers ripped their beats and Gang Of Four/Slits/P.I.L kissed their feet.

http://img.mp3mixx.com/images/covers...992879_big.jpg
The Magnetic Fields - The Wayward Bus (1992)
I'm still not convinced 'When You Were My Baby' and 'Candy' aren't covers of Spector girl group classics, so instantly familiar are the songs penned by Stephin Merritt. Merritt is a bloke of course, but if he was singing these tracks i doubt Wayward Bus would be half as good. Susan Anway's voice was made for this stuff, innocent, hurt, vulnerable, bittersweet - the ideal chamber/dream pop poster girl.

Admittedly 'Tokyo A Go-Go' is bloody awful, but the rest of the material here is strong enough to make this one of twee pops premier pin badges.



http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/revie...0_138_3107.jpg
Cocteau Twins - Treasure (1984)
Our Liz is surely the most unique singer of a generation, with her otherwordly speaking in toungues warblin.

One of the few dreampop LPs that I have time for. Sonic cathedrals maaaaan.

Have to admit, most of your music is totally unknown to me, and probably outside the scope of what I tend to listen to, but glad to see you have Suzanne Vega in there, and more importantly, her first album, which I feel is actually quite superior to the more commercial and well-known "Solitude standing".

I particularly like "The queen and the soldier", if for no other reason than it has that totally shock ending; just when you think it's a soppy love-transcends-social-strata-divisions song, it explodes in your face. Nice one.

TH

Yeah, I much prefer her first album too. I find 'Solitude Standing' too patchy. 'Queen and Soldier' is real sad ain't it? 'Small Blue Thing', 'Freezetag', 'Marlina', 'Some Journey' all classics.

And that part at the end of 'Cracking' when she sings "walk through the park in the afternoon, wondering were the hell I have been", gets me every time.

http://lightintheattic.net/system/re...jpg?1300462648
Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different (1974)
Femme funk, which can be as wild and sexy as its scrotum swinging twin. They Say I'm Different is dragged from the same murk as There's A Riot Goin' On, and like that LP its a messy masterpiece with the odd trace of coke.

http://photo.sing365.com/music/pictu...ck+Numbers.jpg
Kathryn Williams - Little Black Numbers (2000)
Bittersweet British folk-pop with fruity upright bass and brass.

"There's not enough time
For one man in one life
Just a flicker and then a breeze
Breeeeeeeeze, breeeeeeeeeeze".

Put on 'Flicker' to see me weep. And yes, I do prefer this to Mr. Drake.



http://s3.cloudspeakers.com/albums/i...64e215fa92.jpg
Micachu - Jewellery (2009)
Effortless mash up of indie, grime, skiffle, riot girrrl, dance and lo-fi noise. All performed with a naive sense of fun and mischief.



http://s3.thisnext.com/media/largest...n/9737EEEC.jpg
M.I.A. - Arular (2005)
The original hipster.

But fuck me, what a bunch of electro fun.


http://musicmp3.spb.ru/images/k/kate...2d36c59973.jpg
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love (1985)
She's never hit the spot for me personally , but I can dig any commercial artist that dips their toes into experimentalism whilst being generous enough to their widestream audience to provide pop with depth.

Your wife's favourite.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/music/sit...ssal-youth.jpg
Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth (1980)
Slightly haunting skeletal indie pop. Twee started round about here.

http://www.boogitybeat.com/images/BB02459.jpg
Madonna - The Immaculate Collection (1990 Comp)
The best of 80's Madge = the best of pop. Did some review here

http://hitparade.ch/cdimg/missy_elli...spect_me_a.jpg
Missy Elliott - Respect M.E.: The Best of Missy Elliott (2006 Comp)
Could have chosen one of her LPs but where else can you get 'Work It', 'Get Ur Freak On' and 'The Rain' in one bouncy, jiggly, sexy package?

http://www.cokemachineglow.com/images/4465.jpg
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country (2006)
Regretfully I can't include Underachievers Please Try Harder, which is the peek of twee IMO, as there's a couple of bloke vocals from the groups resident penises. LGOOTC is no bad substitute though. A gushing tribute to 60's baroque.



http://static.rateyourmusic.com/albu...s/s2251800.jpg
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career (2009)
Scattered throughout My Maudlin Career are worrying signs that this is a band running out of ideas, in the odd rhythm, melody or structural detail that borrows heavily off tracks from albums previous. I also miss Kenny McKeeve's longing, yet beatific spidery guitar that coloured they're first two LPs. But it don't matter diddly cos of Tracyanne innit. She seems to have acquired some country twang and another way to melt my heart.

One day I'm gonna wax epic about this group and how they make me feel but i'll leave it for a day I can express it better.

As she sung herself. . .

The singer in the band made me want to cry.

I love Camera Obscura so much. It's so hard to pick a favourite album from them, at the moment Let's Get Out Of This Country is probably my favourite but My Maudlin Career is excellent and I have plenty of memories attached to it. Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi is a great album as well and has what is probably my favourite Camera Obscura song, 'Eighties Fan'. I wouldn't really say they're running out of ideas just yet, they slowly evolve from album to album and My Maudlin Career was a step in the right direction for the band. My only worry is, and perhaps there were some signs of it on My Maudlin Career, is that they might slide too close to easy-listening on their next album. But hopefully it will be another cracking album from them.

I pretty much know how you feel about them, there's just something about Tracyanne that's just irresistible and makes you hang on to her every word, but I try not to get too obsessed with them in case I burn out on them.

I hope your right about them Zer0.

Yeah, I almost burnt myself out with Underachievers. I only listen on special occasions now.

My Female 100 Pt.3

http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-150-1141441-1217704864.jpeg
Antena - Camino del Sol (1982)

Delicous electro-lounge with chanteuse vocals and odd echos of Young Marble Giants. If you're interested in this, then make sure to get this extended version of the original LP.

http://www.voxmusicweb.com/image_dat...2662-58816.jpg
Astrud Gilberto - The Astrud Gilberto Album (1965)

Side one of this thing is the sweetest sugar bossa-nova 60s pop I can imagine existing.
The gorgeous album sleeve makes up for the occasionally plodding second side.



http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-150-1137138-1195229261.jpeg
Joni Mitchell - Blue (1971)

Of all the records on this list, this is the one I'm most bemused by not making the top RYM 100. Not only is it stupendously great, it's also kinda middlebrow with potential huge appeal.

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/albu...b1/3443785.jpg
Morena y Clara - Morena y Clara (1976)

Spanish flamenco pop babes with acid-fuzz vibes. Oddly trippy, slightly sinister and endlessly funky. The songs are sung in unison and neither singer dares stray into a harmony and all the tracks sound the same and have bits that go "naa na na na na noii na na", and it's definitely better than Bob Dylan.



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...bum_cover).jpg
Cat Power - Moon Pix (1998)

The sound of someone at the very edge of their nerves. It's a beautiful, brittle sound, painted by barely tuned open guitar strings, percussion that comes and goes like a quite storm and a voice too distraught to worry about trivialities like tuning and melody, instead relying on pure gut instinct. That Chan Marshall's voice is so sweet is a bonus.

Bottle in hand, picking at the label, howling at the moon.

http://209.51.155.122/albumImage/d4/...0ebefa.199.jpg
Iris DeMent - Infamous Angel (1992)

At first appearance, a pleasant, conventional country pop album. But then, without warning, DeMent's voice stops you dead in your tracks, innocent, hurt, so pure and removed from the modern country chick diva. Yes, having a duet with Mum is dead cheesy but make no mistake, this is the real deal.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov...51800o0dkv.jpg
Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day (1970)

Magical, heartfelt collection of serene British folk and lost lullabies. Bunyan's voice is a beautiful, ghostly thing that cuts through any pretence of 'twee' or cuteness.

One of a kind.



http://ebid.s3.amazonaws.com/upload_...31-12575-6.jpg
TLC - CrazySexyCool (1994)

The peak of the modern girl group.

http://cover7.cduniverse.com/PhantomArt/24/1486524.jpg
Siouxsie and the Banshees - A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (1982)

How something this colourful, psychedelic, funny and sexually demented gets described as 'goth' I don't know. Must've been the lipstick.

http://img-cdn.officialmp3s.mobi/art...deceptacon.jpg
Le Tigre - Le Tigre -(1999)

I've always taken 'Transformer''s "who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp?" to mean who took the 'roll' from 'rock n' roll'. The answer being blokey of course.

Furious, feminist, garage punk - pop wailing from the ex - Bikini Kill.

http://images.nuttymp3.com/album/e2/e25685e56ou.jpg
Abida Parveen - Chants Soufis du Pakistan (Live) (1995)

I know next to nothing about Parveen but intend to find out much more as this album is glorious. Qawwali is a type of Pakistani folk music. This Lp consists of a fluttering harmonium that seems to weave in and out of the bubbly tabla beats, all majestic like. Then there's the voice, a big, proud, powerful thing. Parveen's vocals might seem impenetrable at first but like Coltrane's sax it's a rewarding thing to follow, through its peaks and troughs, commanding warbles to childlike gargles, heartbreak to heartmake. Brooding then ecstatic in a change of a note.

With a lot of tracks going beyond ten minutes it's a lengthy album. But for me it's a constant joy.

http://files.musicmp3.ru/bcovers/alb25983.jpg
Aretha Franklin - Aretha's Gold (1969) (Comp)
The voice. The songs.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DNwpjlYQwB...8_Devotion.jpg
Beach House -Devotion (2008)

A plodding, generic, indie bore, thought I. But given the right place (night, with headphones) and mood (depressed, natch) Beach House got me crumbling like a polystyrene man. Victoria Legrand's crystalline voice, so majestic, so commanding, reverberates around swirling church organs and sliding guitar whimsy. Devotion speaks to me, baby.

Middle of the road, but I'll still get there.

http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-150-2587825-1291899207.jpeg
Judy Henske - Judy Henske (1963)

Live album. Judy has an extraordinary voice, full of grit and power and she does calm and mellow just as good. The audience laps it up, whether she's performing swing or folk ballads. That her stories and audience banter are so funny and occasionally surreal is a sweet bonus.



http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov...73272uy58r.jpg
Bessie Smith -The Empress of the Blues 1923-1933 (1971) [Compilation]

Just essential really. The harshness of Smith's voice and lyrics juxtaposed with the gleeful swing of the brass and piano captivates me. This stuff may have been recorded when our great grandparents were still about but it's likely to be better than anything that was released last week.



http://images.artistdirect.com/Image...37701of201.jpg
Victoria Williams - Loose (1994)

There's so much going against this record - William's over quirky voice, her lame Tom Waitisms, ultra polished production, dreadful lyrics - yet I really enjoy Loose. I guess this is all down to the fact that Williams knows how to write a tune. Everything here is instantly catchy and memorable and sounds like the comfort of a trusty old friend. The sound is very commercial folk pop fair, but the musics tasteful and tactful and there's enough strings, blowing of horns, washes of harp and harmony and fiddles of fiddle to keep me intrigued. Actually, the only song I don't like here is the cover of 'It's a Wonderful World'.

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/albu...1249/38987.jpg
Rita Lee - Build Up (1970)

Eccentric Brazilian pop from the bird in psych legends Os Mutantes. That groups wackiness is contained in a pop context for Build Up and I like it about 10x more than anything by Os Mutantes, a group I find irritating, frankly.

I'm trying to think of a song that sonically conveys joy as satisfyingly as "Hulla-Hulla", and I'm struggling.



http://static.rateyourmusic.com/albu...s/s3020085.jpg
Robin Roberts - Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies (1959)

Striking, pastoral Celtic folk. Robert's bruised voice is one of the saddest I've heard.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...coatscover.jpg
The Raincoats - The Raincoats (1979)

Scruffy, scatty, bratty punk oddity. I don't no how they manage to make violins sound so fucking beautiful in this context, but they do, outdoing the Velvet Undies in the process.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...x-Ymasumac.jpg
Yma Sumac - Voice of the Xtabay (1950)

It always seemed unlikely to have a human voice that could mimic Louis Armstrong, Marge Simpson and a theremin in the space of a single bar, but here it is, the Voice of the Xtabay, warbling with joy over lush lounge muzak with eastern percussive backbone, production technique being way ahead of its time.