The Paladins The Paladins
Not that I'm that much into blues, but this did very well with the 'alternativo crowd' of VPRO back in the late eighties, together with bands like the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Omar and the Howlers. Completely knocked out by the cover Going Down to Big Mary's, I just had to get this. Swampy blues, rough rockabilly-ish guitars, warm vocals, sleazy production... sounds great. Other highlights are the title track, Good Lovin' and Your New Love.
The Paranoiacs Sometime in the mid-80's, the Paranoiacs (and garage rock, and bands like Ze Noize and the Mudgang) were the next big thing in Belgium, but they never really made it. This is a fun mini-album though, however a bit too much of the same thing. Song for Debbie H. is a nice tribute to you-know-who, and Be My Baby is a good cover of the Mr. Wall of Sound Phil Spector song.
Pearl Jam I resisted buying this album for a very long time, but then finally gave in... and when listening to this, I always think I'd like to get more Pearl Jam albums, but oh well. Even though they've been cuddled to death by the radio stations, I still enjoy listening to the grunge anthem Alive (bonus live track on this album too), Jeremy still gives me goosebumps, and the same goes for Even Flow. Once, Porch and Garden are other great songs that also do very well live. Vedder's warm, distinctive and passionate voice, together with Mike McGready's excellent guitar-playing (with influences from amongst others Led Zep, Hendrix, The Who and a bluesy touch here and there) really stand out on this album. In the end though, I think my favourite song of this album is the melancholic Black.
The best show so far that I downloaded from www.pearljamshn.com, a site that is now unfortunately down. Pre FM-soundboard source, so sounds great. And not only the sound-quality is topnotch, the concert itself is excellent too. Energetic and inspired versions of Once (when doesn't that sound great live?) and Even Flow... quite a few things happening on and off stage ("Is this the stage diving olympics or something?" and a furious "I WARNED YOU" when Ed Ved actually throws someone off the stage during I Alone)... Mike McGready's guitar-playing sounding excellent as ever... A wonderful woohoohoohoohoohoohoo version of Black. Long version of Porch, with Bad Mouth improvisations. Encore is a 11 minutes long cover of the Beatles' I've Got a Feeling.
A concert special for me because it features another version of Throw Your Arms Around Me, a very speedy one this time. Another long SHN-download from now down Pearl Jam SHN site (yes, love my cable connection), the quality (audience recording) isn't as good as for the Melkweg-show by far, but still it's a fun concert to listen to. Starts with two acoustic covers, and then the other members hit the stage and we're off for a rocking concert ("let's just have fun tonight"). A show with lots of improvisations and covers, amongst others Neil Young's Rockin' in a Free World.
Again a SHN-download and not the same sound quality as the Melkweg show, but an interesting show nevertheless. With soundcheck (left out one song because I didn't feel like making a third CD-r because of one song), and quite a few covers (including Sonic Reducer from the Dead Boys and Baba O'Riley from The Who). A hard rocking and intense show.
Thank you Studio Brussel. Sent in my top 3 for the Afrekening (at the time the Pumpkins had their single Ava Adore out), was surprised to hear my name on the radio and to win this single. Only one track, but never look a gift horse in the mouth, right??
A compilation of the almost countless number of shows Pearl Jam released on CD to be ahead of bootleggers. The *absolute* highlight for me on this CD is the stunning version of the Australian classic Throw Your Arms Around Me, the best version I've ever heard Pearl Jam do of one of my all-time favourite songs. Other beautiful moments are the little bit of Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive, already indicating what direction this will go when guitars are concerned. A beautiful cover of the La's Timeless Melody. A more than excellent version of Rear View Mirror. A special moment is Daughter, taken from the first concert after the Roskilde-disaster... you can just hear the emotion in Vedder's voice. Their version of Split Enz's I Got You is pretty good, but in all my frenzy I've managed to hear that song a few times too often. Even though this compilation has been taken from different shows, it sounds very coherent. Great stuff!
A Perfect Circle 3 Libras was my first introduction to A Perfect Circle, it seized me by the throat and that was that, I was lost. It easily is the best song of the year 2000 for me. Got the album on CD-r, and after a while I decided it was well worth the purchase on CD. The sweet song with bitter lyrics 3 Libras is joined by Orestes ('Give me one more medicated peaceful moment/because I don't want to feel this overwhelming hostility'), another restrained song that goes into a grande finale. It is quite clear that the collaboration between Billy Howerdel - who earlier worked with the Pumpkins - as a songwriter and guitarist and Tool's Maynard James Keenan works very well, Howerdel's song structures and guitarwork and Keenan's emotional vocals complement each other very well. Judith is a literal example with the call-and-response vocals. Other highlights are opener The Hollow (whám off we go!!), a very sexy Magdalena, and the very direct lovesong Breña. Bonus CD with live stuff, pictures and videos... but where's that beautiful video of 3 Libras? (on my hard disk, but well).
Martin Phillipps A bit disappointing, but still better than 99% of the stuff that is released these days, as the cliché has it. No, let's say 95% then, that's better. It already starts with the liner notes, Martin Phillipps has added his comments to the songs but you have to wreck your eyes to be able to read them. Not all the songs on this compilation of demos, recorded on Phillipps' Tascam Porta 05 4-track cassette home-studio machine (oomph), have the usual standard of quality, but it's interesting to hear the songs as Phillipps hears them in his head. And the album starts on a strong note with two outstanding tracks, Evadene and February, both songs with the usual warm and gentle Chills-sound, a beautiful organ strolling through February. Another good song, even though it sounds a bit murky (Phillipps' own, funny words on Softbomb), is Residential Green Cell, dedicated to Syd Barrett. My favourite track is Carabela, a song I heard on the internet first and which was the reason I bought this album in the first place, a haunting song. Secret Garden is the only song I have in a 'finished' version on one of Martin's albums (Sunburnt), and despite the inferior audio quality, it's great to hear the embryonic version of this song. Bad Dancer has a wonderful melody and riff, and the repetitive chorus of Witch's Hat has that intangible quality of being at the same time singable and catchy and irritating.
Martin Phillipps & the Chills Initially this album did nothing for me, left me cold. Then half a year later I pulled it out of the CD-rack again, put it on while we had visitors, and the puzzle fell together. The album radiates something, a feeling... warmth, joy, some sort of kindness... the joy of Swimming in the Rain. Though I still think this album misses a certain something I can't put my finger on, maybe a bit of energy? A harder rocking song? And that's why I can't put my finger on it, because there are rockers on the album, like Dreams Are Free... the song rocks, but still is too gentle. Released in 1996, this album predicted the millennium-hype with New Millennium ('as if the gods care how we number our years'). And even though the album sounds joyful and sunny (as is reflected by the cover art), some melancholy and nostalgia does creep in, like in the title track: 'I reached the sun but the sun burnt my hand/I climbed on a mountain then fell on the land/I sang for a time when the songs were not old/I stood in the starlight but the starlight was cold'. All in all, this album gives a good feeling when you listen to it, but doesn't rock your world. But I'm glad Martin still releases his songs, despite the hard times he's having.
The Pilgrims Prize from a music quiz, the name sounded slightly familiar from Studio Brussel so I picked this. Bluesy, swampy, dark and growling voice, but all a bit too forced. Not my cuppa.
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd = very talented. The Wall = very influential. But, I don't like Pink Floyd, nor The Wall. It's blasphemy, I know, but I can't be bothered. I used to really love Another Brick in the Wall as a kid (who didn't?), but I've heard the song too much and I'm sick of it. And my Pink Floyd perception is marred by that whole symphonic prog-rock opera dinosaur megalomania including live-shows with flying pigs. I still like the cover of the album though.
The Pixies
A band I first heard on Dutch radio VPRO on Wednesday afternoon with Lotje IJzermans and Fons Dellen. Was quite impressed by Where Is My Mind? and Gigantic, and was delighted to find this album with the added EP Come On Pilgrim. Even though the sequencing is a little bit odd (shouldn't Come On Pilgrim have come first on the CD?), and there's quite the difference in production work between Surfer Rosa and the EP, it's a challenging listen from the beginning til the end. Opener Bone Machine is powerful and explosive, semi-instrumental Something Against You is equally powerful and rocks your socks off, Broken Face is outright funny and showcases Joey Santiago's guitar-playing, Kim Deal's Gigantic is so good that Black later decided to shove Deal more to the background, Where Is My Mind? is poppy and catchy with eerie backing vocals, Tony's Theme is a steam train going Oh My Golly! in the direction of the reprise of Vamos, another song where Joey Santiago is allowed to shine. Caribou, the first song off Come On Pilgrim, is actually my favourite on this album... beautiful guitar intro, Frank Black with a voice which sounds almost female, in a slow and melancholic song with a terrific chorus backed up by stuttering guitars. The song never fails to seize me by the throat. God, I've been going on long enough about this album, but what follows is a bunch of great songs, sometimes humorous, sometimes sharp, about religion, sex, incest, death... irresistable and inescapable. And after all those years, this album still sounds as crisp, fresh and alive as it did back in 1987.
Produced by Gil Norton, this album sounds far more polished, rubbed down, poppy and accessible than predecessors Come on Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa. Debaser, opener and single, shows a beautiful contrast between Frank Black's demonic shrieks and Kim Deal's angelic singing. It also indicates the place of Kim Deal on this record: in the background. Gigantic on Surfer Rosa was so good that Black seems to be afraid that Deal is going to outshine him, and she's not allowed a place in the sun anymore. And even though this album is more polished than the previous ones, Frank Black still screams his lungs out in Tame. The semi-surf-song Wave of Mutilation ('Drive my car into the ocean') is the next highlight, and the 60's pop tune Here Comes Your Man another one. Monkey Gone to Heaven has some of my favourite lyrics on the album ('...and if man is five ... then the devil is six ... and if the devil is six THEN GOD IS SEVEN!!'). Crackity Jones sounds as catchy as its title, and goes right into one of my favourite songs on this album, David Lovering's mellow and sweet La La Love You. Hey (been trying to meet you!!) is another great song with twisted lyrics, and the album ends with the absolutely fantastic Gouge Away, with its tempo changes and alternating subtle and loud guitar parts and vocals.
As much as I liked Surfer Rosa/Come on Pilgrim and Doolittle, I never managed to get into this album. Frank Black and his little Martians had somehow moved away from the things I was interested in, the interviews he gave at that time made the gap even bigger. Still there are some songs on this album that I really like: the Surftones cover Cecilia Ann, the gorgeous, melodic and somehow spacy single Velouria, the strangely catchy Allison and the absolute stunner of this album, the eerie yet funny Is She Weird. Rock Music is a good example of why I don't like this album: the song starts out with a great guitar riff, but then the vocals lose every sense of melody and I tend to skip to the next song. I'm not usually the kind of person to say things like 'there is no good music anymore these days', but the Pixies are definitely one of those bands that I used to like more in the early stages.
Placebo I miss a killer line like A friend in need is a friend indeed, A friend with weed is better, but I was never loyal, except to my own pleasure zone in Black Eyed comes close. The song may not be as high a peak in Placebo's oeuvre as Pure Morning, but the album is very consisent, and its level of quality is very high. It starts out on a surprising note with a sample of Block Rockin' Beats in Taste in Men, and from there on gives us a guided tour in the perverse and lustful world of Brian Molko. The aforementioned Black Eyed sounds fierce and violent, while Special K (always makes me think of cereals) on the surface sounds more innocent and smooth. That other single and more well-known song Slave to the Wage again is loud and extraverted yet very melodic, but the album also offers more introverted and subdued songs like Blue American and absolute highlight Commercial for Levi. And after a few minutes of silence after Peeping Tom, there's the beautiful hidden track Black Market Blood, another beauty of a song. A very coherent sounding album, with the typical, very recognizable sound of Brian Molko's drawling voice and the sharp guitars. Perfect pop with an edge.
The Police The first LP of my collection. After a summer of singing along to Dave Edmunds' Girls Talk and the Police's Message in a Bottle, I got this album for my 11th birthday. And it's still an album I don't have to be ashamed of, unlike some others in my collection. 
The three beautiful young gods on the album cover sound determined, going into a rocking semi-instrumental (in true Police fashion i-oh i-yeah i-yeah-oh) right after the hit single Message in a Bottle, and they keep on rocking with It's Alright for You, sounding a bit like Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson in their early years. But with Bring on the Night the album goes more into the direction the band will follow on albums like Synchronicity: cool, calm and composed. Very restraint, with a very clear and open sound. Deathwish is another rocker, striking because of its peculiar rhythms. Stewart Copeland gets to sing his own, funny On Any Other Day which sounds a bit different until the chorus hits in. Other outstanding tracks are the bitter The Bed's Too Big Without You, and the beautiful and dark Contact. Listening to this album made you think that, with a little bit of luck, this band could make it big. And so they did.
Plans to re-record their hits failed to materialise because of quarrels between the band members, so there is only a new version of Don't Stand So Close to me on this album. A good thing, because this new version sounds dull and uninspired. Apart from that, this compilation is filled with catchy and infectious hits, from the classic opener Roxanne to the restraint closer Wrapped Around Your Finger, from the happy and nonsensical ditty De Do Do Do De Da Da Da to the bitter and sad King of Pain. It's a shame that the omission of the original version of Don't Stand So Close to Me is a stain on an otherwise splendid album.
Iggy Pop This has to be one of the worst records Iggy Pop ever made. A slick eighties sound (the album hasn't aged well, I'm afraid), very commercial and very poor material, despite the fact that most songs have been co-written with David Bowie. The only good songs are Real Wild Child (which is a cover, that really says it all) and Cry for Love. No fun, my baby, no fun...
The Posies Everybody Is a Fucking Liar got quite a lot of airplay on Studio Brussel, and I slowly fell in love with the song, its drive, the wonderful guitar solo and those gorgeous vocals. And even though everybody keeps telling me that Frosting on the Beater is a much better album, I love this one to pieces (so yes, one day I'm going to fork out the money to get Frosting on the Beater...). Especially the more melodic and melancholic songs, like Please Return It, Precious Moments, World, Throwaway and the bonus track Terrorized... all songs highlighting the beautiful voices and harmonies of Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. The songs tend to invite you to sing along, only to find out that the range of the singers' voices is incredible and the melodies sound deceivingly simple. Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick fame join in on Hate Song for 'screams' respectively 'guitar freakout', and any band that writes a song called Grant Hart deserves a medal. Summary: power pop at its best.
Prefab Sprout Paddy McAloon is a songwriter of the same calibre of songsmiths (excuse me the word) as Elvis Costello, Chris Difford & Glenn Tilbrook, Joe Jackson, Neil Finn... This album (called Two Wheels Good in the U.S. after complaints of the family of the late Steve McQueen) is packed with perfect popsongs, with a little bit of country (Faron Young), jazz (Appetite) and swing (Moving the River and Horsin' Around). Desire As is the infinite sadness, When Love Breaks Down and Goodbye Lucille #1 are controlled, channelled and very beautiful anger. Some songs drown in haziness though (When the Angels, Hallelujah), and Thomas Dolby's production is a tad too slick. Minor complaints about a gorgeous album though.
Prince I've got a lion in my pocket, and baby he is ready to roar... if 'lion' was an allegory for 'music' (*), then Prince's prophecy was certainly fulfilled. 1999 was the kickoff of an outstanding musical track. Contrary to his previous albums, 1999 appealed to a larger audience, even though the album wasn't entirely filled with party songs like the title track, the sublime popsong Little Red Corvette or the bouncing Delirious. The other tracks on the album dive into the computer age, and combine electronics and synthesizers with Prince's notorious funk groove. Outstanding tracks are the lustful Let's Pretend We're Married and All the Critics Love U in New York, an attack on all that's hip and fancy.
(*) I'm not that stupid that I think 'lion' is an allegory for 'music' here. :)
The ambitious soundtrack to the autobiographical movie. The movie wasn't exactly a masterpiece, the music on the other hand very impressive. From the apocalyptic opening notes of Let's Go Crazy to the last notes of violin and piano on the closer Purple Rain, this album offers a mixture of psychedelica, electronics, almighty rock riffs, funk, perfectly crafted popsongs, sex, and of course Prince's ego. And, not to be forgotten, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, who co-wrote the dreamy Take Me with You and I Would Die 4 U and added a touch of melancholy. But they also lended a helping hand on the electronic Computer Blue and the rocking but very catchy nananananana Baby I'm a Star. Darling Nikki is a creepy but funny song, When Doves Cry is another unconventional beauty of a song. And of course the ultimate song for one tile Purple Rain.
From the very first song on this double album it is clear that Prince has evolved to a more sparse sound, following the adage 'less is more'. And on this lengthy album (produced, arranged, composed and performed by Prince) he again covers a lot of ground: lots of (often computerized) funk grooves, but also a bit of hard rock, pop, blues, psychedelica and even gospel. My personal highlights on this album are, first and foremost, the gorgeous popsong Starfish and Coffee with semi-nonsensical lyrics featuring Prince as a schoolchild, of course The Cross (even though I can't find myself in the lyrics, the music is wonderful), and I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, another gorgeous, bittersweet popsong ending with a long, sublime guitar freakout. Runners-up are Play in the Sunshine and Housequake, both groovy in their own way.
An album which, for me, marked the end of Prince music as I liked it. I also liked what he did at the time of Diamonds and Pearls, and some of his stuff under various names that I can't really keep apart, but this soundtrack marked the end of a chapter. There are a few good songs on this album, Batdance is good and a funny parody of dance music, and Vicky Waiting is Prince pop as I like it, but other than that there's not much to mention on this album. Shame.
A single I won at a music quiz. Um, not my favourite Prince stuff.
The Psychedelic Furs The single Heaven was the song that drew my attention to the Psychedelic Furs. Beautiful melodies, Richard Butler's hoarse voice, fine guitars... but the album didn't live up to my expectations. A bit bland, boring, no excitement at all. Streamlined and polished pop music from a band that used to have more than that in store.
Back to homepage; Back to general music page; Go to O; Go to Q