Trollheart

Album title: Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
Artiste: David Bowie
Genre: Art rock, New Wave, Post punk
Year: 1980
Label: RCA
Producer: David Bowie and Tony Visconti
Chronological position: Fourteenth album
Notes:
Album chart position: 1 (UK) 12 (US)
Singles: “Ashes to ashes”, “Fashion”, “Scary monsters”, “Up the hill backwards”
Lineup: David Bowie – vocals, keyboards, backing vocals, saxophone
Dennis Davis – percussion
George Murray – bass guitar
Carlos Alomar – guitars
Chuck Hammer – guitar synthesizer on "Ashes to Ashes" and "Teenage Wildlife"
Robert Fripp – guitar on "Fashion", "It's No Game", "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)", "Kingdom Come", "Up the Hill Backwards", and "Teenage Wildlife"
Roy Bittan – piano on "Teenage Wildlife", "Ashes to Ashes" and "Up the Hill Backwards"
Andy Clark – synthesizer on "Fashion", "Scream Like a Baby", "Ashes to Ashes" and "Because You're Young"
Pete Townshend – guitar on "Because You're Young"
Tony Visconti – acoustic guitar on "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)" and "Up the Hill Backwards", backing vocals
Lynn Maitland – backing vocals
Chris Porter – backing vocals
Michi Hirota – voice on "It's No Game (No. 1)"


The album that would, after some definite chart success, return Bowie to the very top of his game, so much so that many people (including me at the time) had all but forgotten him before he burst into the number one spot with his updated “Space Oddity”, telling the tale of what had happened to Major Tom over a decade ago, in “Ashes to ashes”. This would not be the only hit single from the album, which would itself power to the top in the UK and just edge below the top ten in the US, significant improvements on his last two albums.

Review begins

Strangely enough, “It's not a game (Part 1)” has some Japanese bird singing in her native language as the album kicks off, but Bowie soon comes in with his inimitable vocal and the song is a mid-paced hard rocker whose melody owes rather a lot to Robert Palmer's “Addicted to love”, with Robert Fripp racking out the riffs on the guitar. I have of course no idea what the Japanese lady - whose name is, according to Wiki, Michi Horata, but it means about as much to me as it probably does to you - is singing, but it kind of doesn't matter. I think Bowie is singing the translation anyway. The song ends with Bowie shouting angrily “Shut up!” and we're into a song I do know.

I'm not that well-versed in this album at all, but “Up the hill backwards” is one track I have heard, and again oddly it reminds me of Bucks Fizz (yeah) in the sort of slow marching melody of the verses. Bowie's vocal is either multitracked or there are backing vox supporting him all through the song, giving the singing a weird kind of full, echo effect. Strange. It's quite anthemic in a restrained kind of way, then breaks into guitar histrionics from Fripp, which are kind of worth the price of purchase on their own, even if for some mad reason you didn't like Bowie. Good, tight percussion from Dennis Davis, and the song is over too soon, taking us into the title track, which rocks along with a krautrock flavour, a touch of Eastern European in the main guitar riff in the chorus, and Bowie putting on a cockney accent which really adds to the song. Great fun; sort of puts me in mind stylistically of “Suffragette City”, not sure why...

Again, this song features some great rolling percussion from Davis that really drives it, another mad solo from Fripp and some solid acoustic guitar from producer Tony Visconti, who also adds his voice to the backing vocals. The big hit single sees us return to the days of Bowie's beginnings, with Major Tom returning to take him to number one for the first time in years as “Ashes to ashes” lays down the marker and states in no uncertain terms that the Thin White Duke is back. A great idea with some wonderful touches in the song, including a sort of murmured choir that repeat the lines Bowie sings like a bunch of acolytes praying. A very freaky video, if I remember correctly. Great strong vocal from the man, and some nice guitar synthesiser popping all over the track, creating a very otherworldly feel and really making you believe you're standing on the surface of an alien planet. Well, it makes me feel that way.

Another hit then is up with “Fashion”, another stab at krautrock and perhaps a sly dig at himself , trendsetters and sheep maybe, the way people follow whatever's “in” at the time. A drum loop at the beginning perhaps a comment on how things go out of fashion and then come back in again, and the whole stupid cycle repeats itself, like a stuck record (oh, look it up!), as Fripp batters all in sight with his guitar riffs and soundscapes. Speaking of taking digs, the next track up sneers at the new wave kids, the likes of Gary Numan maybe, Fiction Factory and A Flock of Seagulls, as Bowie watches them ape the moves he pioneered in “Teenage wildlife”. For me, the standout on the album, it's based quite heavily on the main melody to “Heroes”, but never sounds like a copy of that classic. Bowie is at his expressive best here singing, with the criminally-ignored-by-me Carlos Alomar making his presence felt in the absence of Fripp, and firing off an emotional and powerful solo, Roy Bittan doing a fine job on the piano, and the whole thing just flows so well that it really should have been a single. Mind you, it would have had to have been cut down considerably from its almost seven-minute running time. Could have been a huge hit though. Sorry, another huge hit. Love this track. Something like tubular bells or the like there near the end, with a kind of funky run on the piano and guitar too. Another superb solo from Alomar, and a fine punching drumbeat from Davis.

Hard to follow that maybe, and “Scream like a baby”, though a good track, doesn't quite cut it for me. There's nothing wrong with it necessarily, it's just that a song would have to be immense to be able to trump “Teenage wildlife”, and this one ain't got the bus fare mate. It's a hard, grinding rocker with a snarly guitar line from Alomar and some pretty frenetic synth from Andy Clark, a dark, dystopian tale of a political prisoner, set in the future. Some very new-wave keys from Clark add a surreal feel to what is already a pretty out-there song, and some sort of baritone singing from Bowie pushes it even further. The only cover on the album then is “Kingdom come”, which sounds to me like it has the melody of Blondie's “Picture this” at the start, a very sixties/psychedelic vocal chorus , also including the line ” won't go breakin' no rocks” which makes me wonder if it was filched by Elton and Bernie for their song? Meh, it's ok but I'm not bowled over.

Pete Townsend puts in a star turn as he guests on “Because you're young”, which has a very rock feel that brings to mind the work of The Edge - yeah well it does to me - a punchy, mid-paced track with some really nice synth work from Clark and a nice rockalong beat from Davis. Sort of a new wave keyboard behind the rocky guitar and Bowie, needless to say, delivers as ever a flawless performance. There's also a faint echo of Bruce Springsteen here in the vocal, I feel. The album then closes as it began, with “It's no game (Part 2)”, a less frenetic rhythm this time, a restrained but firm guitar, and no Japanese singing. More great backing vocals, almost like a choir, and a last bow for Fripp before he departs for his home planet. Calm and reserved but still angry and powerful, and a good end to a really good album.

Track listing and ratings

1. It's no game (Part 1)
2. Up the hill backwards
3. Scary monsters (and super creeps)
4. Ashes to ashes
5. Fashion
6. Teenage wildlife
7. Scream like a baby
8. Kingdom come
9. Because you're young
10. It's no game (Part 2)

Afterword:
From from I have heard of his work through this discography it seems Bowie seldom if ever misses the mark, though I do remember being very disappointed with Never Let Me Down, which is rather ironic I guess. This album kicked off a series of successes for Bowie which I suppose in one way you could see as his comeback, though in truth he had never been away. But with hit singles from this and the next three albums, he would be in the public consciousness and on the radio for the next seven years, after which he would get into some more experimental stuff and kind of vanish off the radar commercially for about, well, another twenty-seven years, when he would burst back onto the scene, giving us one last treat before he left us, and showing us all once again how it was done, at the ripe old age of sixty-six.

As a first shot across the bows from the resurgent Bowie at the time, this album shows a man as ever brimming with creative ideas, energy and purpose, and certainly not content to rest on his laurels and fade into the background, counting his money and polishing his gold discs. After this period of activity, he would have a few more to add to his collection. And quite right too.

Rating:

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Album title: Thin Lizzy
Artiste: Thin Lizzy
Genre: Blues/Folk
Year: 1971
Label: Decca
Producer: Scott English
Chronological position: Debut album
Notes:
Album chart position: n/a
Singles: n/a
Lineup: Phil Lynott: Vocals, Bass, Acoustic guitar
Eric Bell: Guitars
Brian Downey: Drums

Thin Lizzy were an odd band. Most bands do go through certain evolutions and changes as they go, but Lizzy went from being basically a folk/blues band to a sort of Celtic rock hybrid, to hard rock and finally out-and-out heavy metal, and yet managed to have many hit singles. Various factors, not least among them Lynott's well-publicised drug addictions and other problems coupled with a basic insecurity and a failure to properly break the USA led to Lizzy disbanding in 1983, two years prior to Lynott's untimely death, and it is only really in retrospect that their real legacy has appeared.

Review begins

Their debut album opens with something which would characterise Lynott and show him to be first and foremost the principal lyricist in the band, a poem spoken laconically by the young Irishman, backed initially by soft percussion only, with some guitar chords leaking through, before the song gets going properly with Lynott's soon-to-be-instantly-recognisable vocal, some fine understated guitar from Eric Bell, and a sort of almost soul/funk style to later sections. Very laid back - “Jailbreak” this ain't! “Honesty is no excuse” has much more aching passion about it, already something approaching more closely to what would become the more tender moments of later Lizzy. Ivor Raymonde really adds something with his mellotron here, the only time the instrument is played on the album, but the real heart of the song is the soulful Celtic guitar runs from Bell. You can definitely see the beginnings of something great here, though Lizzy would arrive late to the party, only breaking properly with their sixth album, five years from now.

“Diddy Levine” is a tender love song, with Irish traditional overtones, an emotional vocal from Lynott, perhaps a little too long at seven minutes, though there's great passion in it and some fine buildup guitar from Bell. Lynott's bass really comes through here too, and about halfway through the mellowness drops away and the band go on something of a blues rock jam, with a repeating guitar motif running through the whole thing, then “Ray gun” sounds very Hendrixesque, Bell's guitar very much front and centre here, almost overpowering Lynott's vocal. This is the only song on the album written solely by Bell (his other contribution being collaborating with Lynott on the opener, “The friendly ranger at Clontarf Castle”) and it shows: it's as different to anything else on the album that it's almost hard to believe you're listening to the same band. In contrast, one of Lynott's better early songs, presaging his songwriting talent, “Look what the wind blew in” is also a blues rocker but has better teeth and is better balanced, unsurprisingly written for his voice as the principal instrument.

Through most of his life, and through most of Lizzy's career Phil Lynott would have an interest in, even obsession with Irish legends and history, and “Eire” shows this clearly, an acoustic ballad recalling the great mythic heroes of Ireland. It's a much more laidback song than later “Emerald” or “Warriors”, but it certainly points the way towards those songs. It's a short track and leads into the faster, more upbeat “Return of the farmer's son”, which allows Bell to slip his leash somewhat after the more restrained “Eire”, with perhaps paradoxically what seems like an early precursor to the riff from aforementioned “Emerald”, which would not surface for another five years. “Clifton Grange Hotel”, written about the hotel his mother managed in Manchester, is another short song, almost hurried in its way, with a sort of Cream-like guitar from Bell and some fine bass work from Lynott, but really little to write home about, like most of this album.

A song that would, in later years, accurately and sadly describe Lynott himself, “Saga of the ageing orphan” has a very folky feel to it, lovely acoustic guitar and soft bass, gentle percussion, a kind of almost lullaby vocal from Lynott with an aching sense of loss in the lyric between the lines. Really nice little soft guitar solo in the middle, then the album comes to a, I suppose, pretty anti-climactic end on “Remembering”, which is not to say the song is anti-climactic – it's actually a good ballsy blues rocker – but the whole album, from the point of view of someone brought up on the likes of Chinatown, Jailbreak and Live and Dangerous comes across as pretty weak and limp-wristed. Still, ya gotta start somewhere, yeah?

Track listing and ratings

The friendly ranger at Clontarf Castle
Honesty is no excuse
Diddy Levine
Ray-gun
Look what the wind blew in
Eire
Return of the farmer's son
Clifton Grange Hotel
Saga of the ageing orphan
Remembering

Afterword:

Listening to this, you certainly wouldn't be hearing the likes of “Waiting for an alibi”, “Jailbreak”, “Cold sweat” or even “Whiskey in the jar”, but eventually Lynott would drop the blues and folk influences and advance into a harder, tighter, rockier identity, in which he and the band would make their mark. It was by no means overnight success though, as like I've said, although their fourth album, 1975's Fighting would finally give them hit singles (after the let's be honest flash-in-the-pan success of “Whiskey in the jar”) it would really take a monster like Jailbreak to bring this band to the world's notice. Albums like this, and its two followups, were unlikely to do that. Luckily, they persevered and became Ireland's first proper rock group. Though you wouldn't know it here.

Rating:

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Album title: Shades of a Blue Orphanage
Artiste: Thin Lizzy
Genre: Hard rock, blues
Year: 1972
Label: Decca
Producer: Nick Tauber
Chronological position: Second album
Notes:
Album chart position: n/a
Singles: n/a
Lineup: Same as before, with the addition of Clodagh Simonds on keyboard, mellotron and harpsichord

Review begins:

Shades of a Blue Orphanage

Rating: Rating:

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Album title: For You
Artiste:Prince
Genre: Pop/Soul
Year: 1978
Label: Warner Bros
Producer: Prince
Chronological position: Debut album
Notes:
Album chart position: 163/138
Singles: “Soft and wet”, “Just as long as we're together”
Lineup:
Prince: Everything

Hardly the album that set the world on fire and announced a new powerhouse in town, Prince's debut album could not even improve on its initial chart placing after his death, as illustrated above (163 originally, 138 after he passed away) the first perhaps hoarse whisper of the screeching shout that was to emanate from this diminutive popstar, who would redraw the boundaries of pop, rock and soul, redefine attitudes towards sexual promiscuity, both in his lyrics and in his real life, and finally and unequivocally realise the prophecy he wrote on his million-selling Purple Rain album, “Baby I'm a star”. It's probably true to reflect that other than Jimi Hendrix and Michael Jackson, no black artist has ever crossed the divide - musically, racially, culturally and sexually – as did the man we came to know as Prince.

Review begins

The title track, and opener, begins with that crooning, wailing vocal that would become so associated with him, a sort of church organ going as the song develops into a gospel romp, most of it acapella (and remember, these voices were all his, and he makes them sound like a choir) but very short, more an intro to the album as the boppy, uptempo funk of “In love” takes us into the album proper. Again it's amazing that this is one man doing everything; it definitely sounds like there's a band there with him, including backing vocals, but no, it's all him. It's a very decent song, not bad at all, though of course hardly a patch on the killer hits that would just keep coming over the eighties and nineties as his fame and popularity reached its height. It's certainly very catchy though, right from the off, and leads into the first single, and the only song on the album not written solo by him, “Soft and wet”. I have to wonder though: Chris Moon? I know Prince used some odd pseudonyms in his career, Christopher being one, and I ask myself why would be collaborate with another songwriter on just one song, when this is so much his one-man show? Is this just him having fun and pretending he has a co-writer? There's some superb keyboard work here and we hear Prince using for the first time that amazing vocal range he had, from falsetto to baritone, making it seem even more as if there is more than one singer. But there isn't.

“Crazy you” is driven on a really nice lazy guitar line, reminds me of Extreme's “More than words” with its sort of hollow percussion, and a very soul seventies feel to it too. Prince's voice could go to such a falsetto that, like Jackson's, it could be mistaken for a female one, and this works well in the vocals for this song, where at times you think “that's a woman's voice”. But again it isn't. Another thing it isn't – the track, that is – is long, gone after two minutes and change, which is a pity as it seemed more an idea that never quite got the chance to flower into what it could have become. Back rocking with the EWF style of “Just as long as we're together”, the second single, neither of which did any business in the charts, and oddly, the longest track by a long way, clocking in just under six and a half minutes. I can see how easy it was to cut it down though for a single, as the full-length version is basically a remix, with a long instrumental section from about the fourth minute in. It actually doesn't sound overstretched though, which is quite a feat for a song this long on a debut album, but then again, we are talking about Prince here.

The first ballad comes in the shape of the Smokey Robinsonesque “Baby”, another early example of the kind of creative and artistic heights Prince would reach over his stunning career. This kind of reminds me of “The Beautiful ones” (I think; long time since I listened to Purple Rain through) with lovely sprinkly piano and strings synthesiser arrangements, with Prince's voice at the height of his soul crooning style, while “My love is forever”, which sounds like a ballad is in fact a midtempo funk, with again the falsetto vocal, a lot of Stevie Wonder in it I feel. Some really killer guitar there near the end. Kind of lounge music almost for the extremely laidback “So blue”, which mostly rides on acoustic guitar and some maybe fretless bass? God, could be trumpet. Probably synth though. Really nice almost stripped-down tune, like something you might hear late night in some Vegas off-the-beaten-track dive.

Amazngly, “I'm yours” then kicks right into AOR territory, rocking everything up and taking me by surprise after the really cool laidback vibe of the last few tracks, and showing that Prince was never going to be content with being labelled pop, soul, funk, or indeed anything: this was one guy who would just jump out of any box you tried to put him in and smirk “Nice try!” As he rattles off an almost metal guitar solo here, I think it's a clear message to be had: Prince has arrived.

Track listing and ratings

For you
In love
Soft and wet
Crazy you
Just as long as we're together
Baby
My love is forever
So blue
I'm yours

Afterword:

What a revelation! I went into this convinced this would be a lacklustre affair (it even says it on Wiki: “a lackluster (sic) release”) but by His Purpleness it is anything but! This album is not flawless, but there's really very little I can point to about it that I don't like. The closer in particular is a teaser for just how good Prince was going to get, and I can only guess that the reason this didn't sell well on its release was that in 1979 soul and funk were still associated with disco, which many rockers hated. But then, it didn't sell well even after Prince died. What then can be the reason? Oh yeah, of course, that must be it: people are stupid.

Rating:

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Album title: Prince
Artiste: Prince
Genre: R&B/Funk/Pop
Year: 1979
Label: Warner Bros
Producer: Prince
Chronological position: Second album
Notes:
Album chart position: 52 (US)
Singles: “I wanna be your lover”, “Why you wanna treat me so bad”, “Still waiting”, “Sexy dancer”, “Bambi”
Lineup:
Prince: Everything. Again.

Holy good fuck, Warners weren't kidding around here, were they? They wanted a hit single and they made damn sure that they ... didn't get one. But it wasn't for the lack of releasing tracks, as it looks like half the album (more, in fact: five tracks out of nine) were put out as singles. Still no hit though. Interesting that Prince recorded this in a few weeks. Warners said, “We need a better album”, he said “Just leave that with me” and less than a month later he said “There you go.” Amazing. Does it suffer from being rushed though? Was it rushed? Prince seems like the kind of guy who could walk into a studio with nothing and walk out a few weeks later with two albums' worth of material!

Review begins

We're funking off, folks (I said funking!) with the first of five singles, “I wanna be your lover”, which shows no sign, I must say, of being rushed or of him churning out anything in desperation to satisfy the suits at Warners. Again, he's doing everything, and again my mind is blown. I mean, I've heard multi-instrumentalists, but this guy was in a different league! Some serious synth going on here. More of a rock vibe then to “Why you wanna treat me so bad” (another single) with a sense of Bowie in there somewhere and some really cool bass work. The keys in this are immense and the chorus is killer. How was this not a hit? Fucking superb guitar solo at the end. This man was a music god, was he not?

“Sexy dancer” smoulders, both with funk goodness and with the almost effortless sexual energy that would characterise so many of Prince's hits; it's not too much in the way of lyrics, more a kind of raw, animal expression of lust as he pants “I want your body!” Sizzling. Of course, if that's not a girl doing the “ooh-ah”s with him then I guess Prince is indulging in the all-time number one favourite pastime for men! Wonderful peppy piano, first time he's used it on either album and boy can he play! Dancing slower then for the first ballad, “When we're dancing close and slow” - maybe something of a cumbersome title, especially as he already has two tracks with more than five words in them, but whereas “Sexy dancer” smoulders and swaggers, this breathes slow and deep and stretches langorously, again effortless but this time it's more a “come to me” vibe than “here I come”, as in the previous. More lovely piano peppers the tune with some swirling synth work, and taken together these two songs form the perfect seduction: “Sexy dancer” the pursuit and “When we're dancing” the sweet surrender and conquest.

The afterglow comes in the second ballad, the truly gorgeous “With you”. Why, if they were going to release five singles, did those idiots at Warners not release this or the previous? They surely would have been hits. This is just so beautiful, favourite so far, and that's saying something as I love this album up to this, and see no reason why I won't love the rest. Well, I love “Bambi”, which despite its cutesy title is anything but: it's a dirty, lowdown, sleazy rocker where Prince breaks out the guitar and the growl he would often use. This man was so versatile. Speaking of versatile, a semi-country song next? “Still waiting” sounds a little like The Eagles or Bob Seger, with a lovely yearning croon from His Princeness. Is that harmonica? Again displaying stunning lack of foresight, the big W failed to release “I feel for you”, which was of course a massive hit for Chaka Khan five years later. Oh yes, it's easy to be clever with hindsight. Fun, too. Adnittedly his original version is a little less punchy than hers, but hey, at least he won the Grammy for songwriter, even if he didn't score with the single as a musician himself, and he got his voice on her version too. What a difference five years makes, eh?

And a superb smoking ballad to end, though it's not a sugary, digital piano effort but instead has real teeth, with a biting edge and a dark warning in the title. Thick heavy bass and sludgy synth adds to the sense of darkness and brooding about it, then the falsetto vocal at the end amps everything up to ten. Superb ending to another superb album. Just superb. Have I said superb? Well, it is. Superb, that is. Superb.

Track listing and ratings

I wanna be your lover
Why you wanna treat me so bad
Sexy dancer
When we're dancing close and slow
With you (If there was a rating higher I could go, this would earn it!)
Bambi
Still waiting
I feel for you
It's gonna be lonely

Afterword:

For a debut album, For You pretty much blew it out of the water, but this second album blows it out of the stars. Not a single bad song, and some absolute corkers. Again, surprising me (though not that much this time round, as I had already been floored by the debut) with its maturity, musicianship and songwriting, Prince is the second of the holy trinity (or perhaps that should read Unholy trinity!) which led up to what many believe is his best album, even if it wasn't as successful as his later releases.

Rating:

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Album title: Dirty Mind
Artiste: Prince
Genre: Funk/Soul/Pop
Year: 1980
Label: Warner Bros
Producer: Prince
Chronological position: Third album
Notes:
Album chart position: 45 (US) 61 (UK)
Singles: “Uptown”, “Dirty mind”, “Do it all night”
Lineup: Prince: Everything except
Lisa Coleman – Vocals on “Head”
Doctor Fink – Synth on “Head” and “Dirty mind”

The album that suddenly revealed Prince as the steamy, erotic, downright filthy poet of the nation's – the world's – desires, both forbidden and dreamed, and which began to redraw the parameters that had already been assigned to him, stretch and flex and burst right out of that box with a triumphant gasp and the squeal of the sexual release of a thousand young women, spraying talent, dripping sticky music and oozing creamy lyrics down the sides of his .. well, you get the idea. If this had been released five years later it would have been plastered with Parental Advisory stickers, and probably burned in ceremonial denouncements of its filth, lewdness and pornography disguised as pop music. Sound like your scene? Enter, if ye dare...

Review begins

Thumping bass and thrumming synth opens the title track, with a real pop sensibility in the keys, very AOR meets new wave, the vocal sort of buried at first though it rises slowly through the music. Despite the title it's not really that, well, dirty; in fact, it sounds pretty ordinary, and the new wave idea continues in “When you were mine”, with a sort of Springsteen/Mellencamp flavour in the guitar riff. So far I'm not as impressed as I was with the first two albums, I must say. “Do it all night” takes things back to funk, but again I don't see a whole lot to be excited about. A sort of soul half-ballad for “Gotta broken heart again” which, to be completely fair, sounds like something Michael Jackson would even reject. I'm amazed, but this is poor.

A fast uptempo funker then for “Uptown”, but man is it boring! The big one then is “Head”, and this is apparently where Prince starts annoying the Concerned Parents of American or whomever with his slutty, filthy lyrics, and about fucking time too. Lyricwise, yes, I can see it, but musicwise it's just another relatively boring funk/disco tune with a lot of handclaps. Where are those searing guitars that peppered the first two albums? Where's the piano? Yawn. “Sister” has too much rockabilly nonsense in it for my liking. Again, controversial lyric but pretty staid song, real disappointment. At least there are guitars in this. “Partyup” is a kind of okay disco song but nothing like anything on either of the first two albums. Interesting anti-war message at the end. About the only thing about this track that is interesting.

Track listing and ratings

Dirty mind
When you were mine
Do it all night
Gotta broken heart again
Uptown
Head
Sister
Partyup

Afterword:

Considering what I read about it, and that the late great Urban declared this Prince's best album, I'm disappointed to a factor of infinity. I much prefer the two other albums. Maybe Prince was trying too hard to have hit singles and not concentrating enough on writing good songs. I guess I'm a lone voice in the wilderness, as everyone else seems to love this album, and my introductory paragraph is kind of irrelevant now, but I was hugely let down by this. Expectations high, result really really low. Boo.
Rating:

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Album title: Controversy
Artiste: Prince
Genre: Pop/funk/new wave
Year: 1981
Label: Warner Bros
Producer: Prince
Chronological position: Fourth album
Notes:
Album chart position: 21 (US)
Singles: “Controversy”, “Let's work”, “Do me baby”, “Sexuality”
Lineup: Prince: Everything (with assistance on one or two tracks from Lisa Coleman, Doctor Fink and Bobby Z)

After a brief and steamy bromance, I'm now treading much more carefully as the first hot flushes of love fade and cooler heads prevail. With the honeymoon period of the first two albums over, my disappointment with Dirty Mind was total, so I'm hedging my bets much more with this one, though it does lead up to some stellar releases and presages Prince at the height of his power and fame, so maybe it will be a big improvement. We'll see.

Review begins

Continuing the synthesised funk that would somewhat become Prince's trademark, the title track opens and it's, for Prince, a monster seven-minuter kicking off this album, and there is plenty of guitar I'm glad to hear, though the lyric seems a little weak. Mind you, kicking the Catholic Church in the nuts is a move always guaranteed to score points with me, and his intonation of the Lord's Prayer in an deep, almost gravelly voice is good to hear. Other than that, it's a little, well, a lot repetitive. I would say he's running out of ideas but as I outlined in the intro, this is just before he really hit the big time, and we all know how big he got, so let's give him a chance and see what he can show us on this album. “Controversy” is definitely way too long though. Interesting rap there near the end. Not bad. “Sexuality” (getting a little literal with the titles there, O Purple One!) is a faster bass-driven romp, with the falsetto vocal clearly on form. Nice piano work, reminds me of Bowie on Let's Dance. Maybe.Sort of a spoken word piece (not a rap this time) with some fine funky guitar.

Really nice soul ballad then in “Do me, baby” (um) with those great multi-tracked backing vocals he used on the first two albums, nice electric piano, Prince really pushing his vocals to their incredible limit here, again sounding like a whole backing section. Superb, and it's been a while since I said that of a Prince song. Feels good. More a kind of disco meets new wave feel about “Private joy”, very uptempo and bouncy. Great guitar solo; this song is a lot of fun. Speaking of controversy, Prince gets political next, in “Ronnie, talk to Russia”, and it's just a madcap fun romp like something out of a musical or something, with wild frenetic keyboards, searing guitar and the kind of beat that just makes you want to body-pop or headbang. Simple, but simply fun. The faux gunshots are hilarious.

Sounds a bit Kool and the Gang then for “Let's work”, bit of a throwaway track really, while he's back sniping at religion for “Annie Christian”, interesting idea in a sort of low-key musical backing with a sort of shouted vocal, kind of metallic pushed to the foreground. I guess there's a play on words where Annie could be any, so he could be saying “any Christian”. Interesting. Controversial, certainly. Different without a doubt. The handclaps almost recall gospel music, which is kind of ironic, perhaps intentionally so. And we end on “Jack U off”, where Prince goes all rockabilly again with a whistling keyboard leading the line, kind of a play on the likes of Grease. Interesting, but ultimately a little of damp squib as a closer I feel.

Track listing and ratings

Controversy
Sexuality
Do me baby
Private joy
Ronnie, talk to Russia
Let's work
Annie Christian
Jack U off

Afterword:

A whole lot better than the previous album, while this has not exactly rekindled the love affair I began with Prince on the first two albums (and which continued through 1999 and subsequent albums) it has helped me rediscover my faith in the guy, and hope that, again despite what everyone else seems to think about it, Dirty Mind was an unsightly blip on an otherwise spotless career. As was once said by Chris Barrie, “Lovely, my loves: we're back on track!” Mind you, still no big hit singles, but like Prince himself most of the time, they were coming...

Rating:

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Trollheart

Album title: 1999
Artiste: Prince
Genre: Funk/Pop/Rock/New wave
Year: 1999 (nah, kidding: 1982)
Label: Warner Bros
Producer: Prince
Chronological position: Fifth album
Notes:
Album chart position: 9/200 (US) 30/28 (UK) (wtf?? I guess every Prince fan had it by the time he passed)
Singles: “1999”, “Little red Corvette”, “Delirious”, “DMSR”, “Let's pretend we're married”, “Automatic”
Lineup: Prince: Everything (with assistance on vocals from Dez Dickerson, Lisa Coleman, Jill Jones, Vanity and Wendy Malvoin)

Ah, here we go! The one that made Prince, the big breakthrough album which introduced those of us who were saying “Prince who?” to this musical genius. This would kick off a period of about ten years during which Prince would bestride not just the charts but the music scene like a colossus, reinventing himself, and music, setting trends, breaking boundaries, and basically giving the finger to anyone who dared say to him “But you can't do that!” He also managed to have the first video on heavy rotation with MTV, who a few years ago refused to play Michael Jackson's “Billie Jean” because, well, he's black, y'know?

Review begins
Surely everyone knows the title track, and if you don't, to borrow from the Batlord book of wisdom, fuck you, you should. Even I've heard it. Interesting though how it starts with a really slowed down speech sample before it kicks in, and it's also a great example of Prince using his multiple vocal tones, to the point where when I heard this the first time I assumed that was someone else singing the first line. Oh wait: I see they were. First time I see Prince sharing vocals other than that one track with Lisa Coleman. Just as big a hit, “Little red Corvette” is a little more restrained (just a little) but keeps the energy high, and again I can see Warners were falling over themselves to get as many singles off this as they could: six in all. Mind you, it is a double album, but even so, there are only a total of eleven tracks on it, so really only three extra compared to his other efforts. Greedy bastards. Naturally, the album versions of both songs are much longer than the single releases, maybe a little overextended, maybe not. Anyway, yet another single, “Delirious”, kicks back in Prince's love of one of my least favourite genres, rockabilly, but it's decent fun with squeaky keyboards and some nice almost honky-tonk piano.

Amd yet another single. You know guys, sometimes it's a mistake to release too many singles: people may not bother with the album. “Let's pretend we're married” kind of carries on the idea of the melody in the previous track. Not quite as rockabilly, more a new wave edge to it but quite similar I feel. It is very catchy though. Total funk then a la Herbie Hancock with “DMSR”, touches of Janet Jackson in there too, a real party anthem, like much of this album. Let's be honest: even though the title track is ostensibly a warning about nuclear war it's a real dance theme, and most people probably shook their booties down to the ground to it without worrying too much about the political lyric. “Automatic” starts off with the basic beat of “Little red Corvette”, and I don't know if it's something wrong with my Spotify here or what, but the volume seems to drop seriously here. Steamy BDSM lyric for sure, with a funky new-eave melody, and it's actually the longest track on the album at over nine and a half minutes.

Sorry, but by six minutes it's gone on long enough (with not a lot of variation even in that) and we have three more to go? Pointlessly overlong. Can we even get a smokin' guitar solo into that three minutes? No? Boo. Yeah that was quite a trial to get through, I must admit. Bit of Kraftwerkesque whatever-the-fuck-they-play (new wave?) in “Something in the water (does not compute)” and it kind of doesn't, with an Invisible Touch-era Genesis sound (yeah yeah I know this was four years before that album) but at least some powerful vocal histrionics from the Purple One. Doesn't do a lot for me though. At least it's short. Like him. Sorry. Up next is “Free”, which opens with the sound of rain (I think) and footsteps walking quickly, then a simple piano line with a kind of Beatles or even Bread feel to it, possibly a ballad? Well, sort of: more a power anthem for togetherness and equality though. Good song, powerful solo and a great vocal performance from Prince and what sounds like a choir, though none is credited.

More sound effects to open “Lady cab driver”, unsurprisingly the sound of traffic and Prince hailing a cab, then it's a kind of low-key funk but again we're looking at eight minutes, and I must be honest that the longer tracks are beginning to wear on me. I mean, this is eleven tracks totalling seventy minutes. That's a lot. Feels a little jazzy in ways, so no, not one of my favourites, and the sexy noises don't really make me like it anymore. At this point, I feel Prince is in danger of becoming a walking cliche, hence, perhaps, the change of direction for the next album. This, too, could end at the fifth minute easily, but it's dragged gasping and panting on for another three. Seems almost cruel. At least we get a decent guitar solo this time out.

That leaves us with “All the critics love U in New York”, with what I feel is a very Robert Palmer sound to it, again quite low key with spicy keyboards, a spoken vocal for much of it, and pretty boring too for most of it. Ends well though on a great soul ballad for “International lover”, back to the Prince of the first two albums. If only more of it was like this.

Track listing and ratings

1999
Little red Corvette
Delirious
Let's pretend we're married
DMSR
Automatic
Something in the water (does not compute)
Free
Lady cab driver
All the critics love U in New York
International lover


Afterword:

Given how well known this album is, and how successful it was, I'm kind of disappointed. I do find, with the admittedly limited experience I have of Prince to this point, that many of his albums tend to have a lot of filler on them. Even Purple Rain has tracks I don't like, and this, while it has some great stuff on it, suffers from some very weak tracks too. I reckon had he cut it down to a single album and shortened some of the tracks by two or three minutes it could have been a real killer. As it is, it just kind of mugged me but I can make it to the nearest cop shop to report the assault. Shoulda finished me off, Prince!

Rating:

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Trollheart

Album title: Vagabonds of the Western World
Artiste: Thin Lizzy
Genre: Hard rock, blues
Year: 1973
Label: Decca
Producer: Nick Tauber
Chronological position: Third album
Notes: The first to feature cover art by Lynott's friend Jim Fitzpatrick, who would go on to illustrate many of the band's later, better known albums.
Album chart position:
Singles: “The rocker” (also “Whiskey in the jar”, though that wasn't on the original album and was released as a separate single)
Lineup: Same as before. Also features radio DJ David "Kid" Jensen on vocals (spoken vocal only on "Hero and the Madman"), Jan Schelhaas on organ and Fiachra Trench's string arrangements on the closer.

By the time their third album was due, Decca were, understandably, getting impatient. There had been two albums from these guys and not only had there not been a hit single (or even a moderately successful one), the albums themselves had totally bombed. That all changed when during a jam session they started messing around with the arrangement of some traditional Irish songs, one of which was of course “Whiskey in the jar”, and so a legend was born. Originally due to be on the B-side of the single “Black boys on the corner”, the record company and producer, realising the potential of “Whiskey”, demanded it be on the A-side, and it became a hit. Nevertheless, the album still sold poorly, despite a single being released from it, this being “The rocker,” which would become a fan favourite. Perhaps if Decca had thought to have the hit single included on the album, instead of making it widely available to anyone with the price of a 45, the album might have sold better? Either way, this would be Lizzy's last recording for Decca, as they were unhappy with the lack of promotion their albums had received. Both were, at the time, glad to see the back of each other.

Review begins

Much more uptempo and a real rockfest to kick off, “Mama Nature said”, far from being the hippy-dippy lovey-dovey pastoral folk song the title suggests, is a blues-out boogie, getting everything rocking from the off, allowing Bell much more freedom to express himself on the guitar. Ironically, he would leave after this album. Sadly then “The hero and the madman” sounds like a parody when it begins, but falls into a decent little rock groove, funky in its way, but a long way from the quality of the opener. Ah but it does get better. Much better, mostly on the back of Bell's screaming guitar. Sweet. “Slow blues” is actually not that slow, or even bluesy really, with a kind of rolling, introductory drumbeat before it falls into the groove. It's , more again funky in places than bluesy really. Overall though I'd characterise it as a little indulgent and a lot boring.

Not boring though is “The rocker”, the single (at least, from the album) that made people sit up and take notice, and also skewed Lizzy's direction more away from folk and blues and towards hard rock and eventually heavy metal. Possibly the first time I've heard Lynott sound, I don't know, amped up, powerful? Edgy? Angry even, dangerous? Cool to hear. The title track kind of harks back to “Whiskey in the jar”, subject-wise, though of course it's a play on, well, the play. A good hard rockout to be sure with another snarly vocal from Lynott, who seems at this point to be establishing his voice, coming out from hiding behind his bass and low vocals. The “Toora-loora” thing is a little annoying, but then, what ya gonna do, huh?

Not quite sure about “Little girl in bloom”. I guess we're talking about a song to a child here, but Lynott hadn't his first child till 1978, so maybe it's a wish fulfillment? Or maybe he just felt like writing a song about a pregnant woman and the child she carries. Meh, whatever, it's a little boring again I have to say. Interesting that it uses some of the riff from their version of “Whiskey in the jar” though. “Gonna creep up on you” really utilises Lynott's bass to its growling best and has a nice sense of menace about it, kind of like a really slower and less energetic “Killer on the loose” in ways while “A song for while I'm away” has a nice sort of semi-psychedelic feel to it, sort of Beatley, slow but not so much a ballad really. Nice closer, sort of bridges the gap between the sixties and the “new” seventies. Some very nice orchestral string arrangements. Really bookends the album well with the opener, both of which I would consider the standouts on this album.

Track listing and ratings

Mama Nature said
The hero and the madman
Slow blues
The rocker
Vagabonds of the western world
Little girl in bloom
Gonna creep up on you
A song for while I'm away

Afterword:

Without question, you can see Thin Lizzy improving in leaps and bounds here, and whether the move from Decca for their next album was anything to do with their later finding fame or not, it must be pointed out that again there was no overnight success, no magic formula in changing from one label to another. Their next album, though it would contain one of the songs that would go on to become a live classic, was pretty limp and boring too, and Lynott and Lizzy must have begun to wonder if they were ever going to make it.

Rating:

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Frownland

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overblowing

And unfortunately for you, Mirror Man is the extent of Beefheart's psychedelic blues jams. I think you'll like the Tragic Band's country rock albums though.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.