William_the_Bloody

Strangeways, Here We Come (Album 1987)

The final album by the Smiths, one that both Morrissey and Johnny Marr have cited as their best work together. I can somewhat concur, as it is apparent that the band was ready to step up to the next level, in terms of their musical compositions, but despite the excellent production quality of Strangeways Here We Come, the album itself is just missing that fantastic song to throw it over the top...though there are some goodies.

Thumbs Up ***1/2 stars.

Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours



Girlfriend In A Coma



Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before



Final Thoughts:

I think it would be pointless for me to write a long monologue on the greatness of this band, because its already been done a thousand times by professional reviewers in the media. So I will just state two things as to why I think the Smiths were important:

1) The Smiths had the guts to express femininity in their music; a quality that earned them the patriarchal scorn of America as being the band for "Art f#gs." As a young male in North America it was okay to listen to everything from AC/DC to Metallica to NWA, but if you listened to The Smiths, the $hit really hit the fan. Makes you wonder where the real rebellion lies.

2) The Smiths made honest pop music that the common person could deeply relate to. In short, it wasn't nonsensical garbage... but its best to let the man of controversy explain it himself...



Table of Contents

Page 1 Sisters of Mercy
Page 2 Blood for Blood
Page 3 Gallows (top)
Page 3 The Smiths (Mid)

William_the_Bloody

Not much freedom for a journal these days, I should have never signed that bloody contract to work for Wolfram & Hart but anyways....

So much American hardcore is bull$hit now a days, so lets do some good stuff.

Ceremony

Hailing from the state of California, Ceremony has been putting the boots to emocore over the years, though their most recent release was a much softer endeavor.

Ruined ep (2005)
Their first release pretty much borders on Thrashcore/power violence, and although its not my favourite genre this is 7 minutes of good noise, here's some of the more straight up hardcore tunes.

*** 1/2 stars

You're All The Same




I Want To Put This To An End

William_the_Bloody

Hmmm, I think I'll cut this review short and take another turn as I'm just not interested in hard music anymore, I think its run its course.

Anyways from the soft femininity of The Smiths to the violent femininity of the Violent Femmes.

Violent Femmes

Ugly/Gimme the Car single

To my knowledge the first official release from this extremely talented band; Brian Ritchie's bass playing was always an inspiration to me during my years as a musician. Inspired by artists like Sun Ra, his musical style came from very different place than the standard rock bassists of the 80's that were pumping out endless quarter beats, but in general all three members of this band were above par either musically or lyrically.

The emotions that the Femmes could capture the best was self loathing and desperation, which is why it is not the A side, but rather the B side that makes this single a 4 star release.

Simply put, Gimme the Car is a classic track **** stars.

William_the_Bloody

Violent Femmes/Violent Femmes 1983

Now it is time for me to review one of my favourite albums of all time, but as I'm not one for writing long reviews I shall just present the music, as in the end my words matter not, it is only the music you have come here to hear....

The album kicks off with the Femmes most notable track Blister in the Sun, a song that has been played to death countless times at nightclubs catering to the "alternative" crowd. However it is Add it Up that is that is most fondly remembered as the banner song on the album

Add it up:



Promise:
A good straight forward song on the album "Do you know what it's like to hate when it's way down deep inside? Oh, God, I hate what's been done to my life. One of the Femmes great love songs... feeling the good vibes yet.



Gone Daddy Gone

I haven't really touched on the music composition itself yet. The whole album is pretty much done in standard 4/4 timing but the layers of melodies they build into their songs to accompany the rhythm is great, as seen with the xylophone percussion solos in Gone Daddy Gone.




There are so many great songs on the album I probably didn't pick all the right ones, but then again music is about discovery and I don't want to give up all the secrets.


**** stars

William_the_Bloody

Hallowed Ground 1984

In many ways this is a really dark album, but it is also the last legendary release from this band before they headed off into a more pop orientated direction.

Never Tell: What can I say, a classic brooding track by the Femmes, it might be a little too dark & depressing for some, but Brian Ritchie's bass playing is on the mark with this one, meanwhile Gordon Gano's lyrics and vocals reek of twisted desperation. Add in some great guitar playing, and you have a classic track.




Black Girls: Gordon Gano expressing his dating preferences in this song, which pushes racial and uhm...gender lines for 84. Its a great jazzy swing song, filled with improve that utilizes a variety of different instruments.



Sweet Misery Blues I was going to go with the Country Death Song, the banner song for this album, but I've already thrown up a really dark track, so I'll go with this tune. I've always liked it because it reminds me of a homeless junkie bothering the upper class professional woman, who would like to flick him away like a pee.



**** stars

One more Femmes album and then I'm off into a different direction.

William_the_Bloody

The Blind Leading the Naked (1986)

This is where I jump off the Femme ship. The band will always be enshrined in greatness for their first two albums and early singles , but after that...they lost what they had.

I haven't listened to this album in years but on a quick review a couple of points. The first is that it has a much more happier tone in comparison to their previous albums, thereby substituting punk angst for a lighter rockabilly sound. This wouldn't be a problem if the vast majority of the songs were written written, but they are not. In fact you could literally just listen to the first three tracks on repeat, because the rest of the album isn't really worth the while. I don't really want to start breaking down musical compositions, so just trust me on this one.

Thus the verdict ** 1/2 stars

Perhaps the last great dark Femmes tune?

No Killing




Faith




Next up some indie rock

Isbjørn

The Smiths, even at their weakest, makes the world a better place.

__________________

Unknown Soldier

Gordon Gano if that is who's singing, sounds like a fusion of Stan Ridgeway and Tom Verlaine. There's a lot of interesting stuff in your journal that I need to get listening to.

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

I haven't listened to all that much Femmes, but I have discovered just how awesome an album Hallowed Ground is. Pretty much the perfect combo of punk/alt rock and country.

__________________

William_the_Bloody

Thanks guys, glad I could turn you onto a new band. Folk punk without the spikey hair & uniform, cheers