The Saints The Saints
This album must be one of the worst sounding albums I have (the title of another Saints album, Prehistoric Sounds, would suit it better), but the music itself always makes me quickly forget that. The band often called the godfathers of Australian punk (even though I think Radio Birdman deserve that title more) have gone pop... or actually Chris Bailey has gone pop, as Bailey is the true Saint. The pictures on the cover of the album make you realize why some people prefer vinyl to CD's... holding a CD booklet is nothing compared to staring at a vinyl sleeve for hours on end. The highlights on this album are the beautiful string and brass arrangments, the acoustic guitars, the contrasts with Bailey's sharp voice, the powerful and strong songs, the dark and melancholic lyrics. Absolute gem on this album is the last song Ghost Ships, a song which builds up beautifully with acoustic guitars, strings, Bailey's soft voice and beautiful lyrics, and then explodes in electric guitars. Other strong moments are opening song Down the Drain, the soft Photograph and Angels.
I was delighted to hear this album sounded much better than A Little Madness to Be Free, and that, even better, the music on the album is of the same quality as the aforementioned album. It's more diverse though, with Bailey going to his roots (Celtic Ballad), a bit more keyboards (Love or Imagination), sometimes a bit more light-footed (Empty Page), sometimes singer-songwriter-ish in a Dylan-esque way (Blues on My Mind) but always very recognizable because of Bailey's characteristic voice. Just like on A Little Madness to Be Free with Ghost Ships, All Fools Day closes off with an absolute stunner of a song, melancholic, beautiful, haunting, poignant... the title track of this album is one of the classics Chris Bailey wrote.
The Scabs Even though I really liked this band when they started out (Matchbox Caaaaaarrr!!) and I saw them live several times, and I still liked them at the time I got this album, I soon had enough of this new direction they took and their music didn't get to me anymore. They went from being 'the Belgian Clash' to a more mainstream rock direction, influenced by the Stones and Neil Young, and their sound became more polished. Somehow I think of Guy Swinnen as a poseur, a guy trying to immitate the great rockers of this world. It's unfair, but it mars my pleasure. There are good songs on this album, the single Hard Times, Medicine Man, Time and Barkeep but overall I hear too many influences and a sound by far too polished.
Scala
The Scene Bought this mainly for the bonus track Rauw, Hees, Teder, the first song by the Scene that I knew, and a song that hardly ever fails to move me. A raw, hoarse and tender song with a strong rhythm track, a beautiful organ, poetic poignant lyrics and a superb chorus with high goose flesh factor. The repetitive title track Rij Rij Rij is another highlight with again a strong rhythm section, a great guitar riff and beautiful lyrics. Borderline has Lau very exceptionally singing in English as it's a Madonna cover, but unfortunately the fun wears off too quickly. Other good tracks are Hartslag and Het werk van god, but Rij Rij Rij doesn't reach the level of Blauw by far. It does show though that this band has a lot of potential.
One of those 'I have to get this' albums, after hearing the single Blauw countless times on Studio Brussel. The warm and granular voice of Thé Lau, the wonderful lyrics (I just watched and saw/How you never get from me what you deserve/As yet another one who always looks ahead and therefore never beside him/Last night a watched and I saw), the warm and full music... this album made The Scene break through in Belgium too, where they are world-famous. The strength of the Scene are their slow songs with Lau's sensitive and heart-felt lyrics, like the aforementioned Blauw, but also Rigoreus. That doesn't mean that they can't unleash all their energy and power, like in Iedereen is van de wereld or Opgejaagd. A very strong and powerful record.
The Screaming Blue Messiahs Ha! The Screaming Blue Messiahs! A garage rock band from London led by American baldhead Bill Carter. Because of the English origins of the band and the input of Carter, they sound like the American Clash (especially in the track I Can Speak American). I got to know this band through the hilarious single I Wanna Be a Flintstone, complete with Fred hollering for his Wilma and the it's yabba yabba doo time chorus. What is great about this song, is that after all these years the fun still hasn't worn off. Never judge a book by its cover, but the song Jesus Chrysler Drives a Dodge is as great as its title. Frantic rhythm track (drums, bass and rhythm guitar playing nicely together), noisy guitars, Bill Carter with his restraint voice, great backing vocals... lovely. The bouncing and somewhat insane Lie Detector (hug me up baby to your liiieeeeee detector) make an absolutely brilliant threesome. The band goes from fun-pop to garage rock to rockabilly (55-the Law) and does it all with fervour. But the strong points of this album are the humorous tone of the lyrics, and the mix of ferocious but low-key sounding music. Oh boy!
The Sex Pistols It's not easy to write something about this album, as I have a clear opinion about it and it isn't always that popular. True, punk was a revolution (and a much needed one, given the state of music at that time - boring prog rock dinosaurs being the keywords), and this album was a very important part of that revolution. But when you listen to Never Mind the Bollocks now, in this new century, it sounds alarmingly plain, flat and ordinary. Not that it sounds dated, and it's far from bad, but together with time, the revolutionary has faded. It's good, simple and powerful rock music. Some songs still jump out of the grooves of the album... and the songs that still are the most powerful are the singles that rocked the world back in 1977: Anarchy in the U.K., God Save the Queen, Pretty Vacant and Holidays in the Sun. The other tracks sound a bit like 'leftovers' sometimes, even though songs like New York and Submission are very powerful, and the other tracks rock like anything from the Ramones/Iggy Pop/New York Dolls et al. A landmark.
Shriekback Album from the band around Dave Allen (ex-Gang of Four), Carl Marsh and Barry Andrews (ex-XTC), featuring Belgian Luc Van Acker on 'carcrash guitar' and 'Belgian guitar swarm'. They mixed rock and funk and thus created their own brand of restraint, complex and very rhythmic music with lots of synthesizers. The singles Hand on My Heart and Mercy Dash are outstanding tracks, mysterious and soft and spooky and warm. Closer Hubris is another highlight, combining a slow but strong rhythm (mainly produced by basslines) with a beautiful and haunting melody and lots of accompanying strange sounds. Sometimes the songs and vocals are not strong enough (as in My Careful Hands), but Jam Science is a good album that did fit in perfectly with the other new wave music at that time.
Silent Running This band and their album suffer from the same vices as their contemporaries (The Alarm, Big Country, and to a lesser extent Simple Minds and U2): resounding production with lots of echo, thundering drumrolls, lingering guitars, sonorous vocals, lyrics with a mission... in two words: too much. But when you take away the bombast, you can hear that this band knows how to write good songs, it's just the packaging that is not right. When I bought this, I really liked the album and spent many an hour singing along to it. Especially the first half of the album is good, with the two openers Home Is Where the Heart Is and Emotional Warfare. That's Life (in the Real World) is too obviously dominated by the message of the lyrics. Closer Go for the Heart is a beautiful ballad and one of the strongest tracks on the album.
Paul Simon Paul Simon's Graceland was a very influential album back in the eighties, controversial even in the time of the apartheid. The collaboration with South-African musicians, the integration of exotic rhythms and sounds was something we hadn't yet heard. At the same time the music sounded familiar because of Simon's voice, and combined with the undeniable catchiness of the songs, the album became a smashing success. For me personally the album doesn't work that well, it is a bit too languid, nothing really stands out, nothing makes me go like 'wow yeah!!'. There's great songs on it, of course (think You Can Call Me All, The Boy in the Bubble, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes), but never do I feel the urge to take it out of the CD-rack and play it.
Simple Minds Not much to say about this one, maxi-single with the Club Mix of Glittering Prize on the A-side, and what I think was the radio-edit on the B-side. Lots of space wasted on this maxi-single.
Funnily enough, even though I was a new waver in heart and soul, I never got any Simple Minds records at that time (this is one of Jan's records). This is the Simple Minds at their peak, and this album features some names that pop up elsewhere in my collection too: produced by Jimmy Iovine and Bob Clearmountain (their lists of references are lengthy), backing vocals by Michael Been (Jim Kerr sings backing vocals on Reconciled of his band The Call). At this time (1985), Simple Minds and U2 were about twin brothers, and their music had a lot of resemblances. Grand sound, very recognizable guitar-playing... even the 'stage act' of their singers. This album combines raw energy and a polished sound, warmth and chilly synth-pop... Alive and Kicking was a major hit ánd a beautiful song, other highlights are Sanctify Yourself (with Robin Clark) and Ghost Dancing.
A compilation released at the time the Simple Minds played at the Night of the Proms in Antwerp, reason why it makes a cultural snob like me shudder in disgust. But of course one pop classic after the other follows on this album: Don't You (Forget about Me), Alive and Kicking, Sanctify Yourself... but I've heard those far too much, my REAL Simple Minds favourites are oldie The American, Someone, Somwhere in Summertime, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), Waterfront and Promised You a Miracle. Later the Simple Minds were wasted on me (I hate songs like Belfast Child or Mandela Day with a passion) and a terrific song like Themes for Great Cities is sadly missing on this compilation. Good, but not good enough.
The Sisters of Mercy My stepfather, with his classical training, really disliked the music of the Sisters, the distortion and sound effects hurt his ears. This EP was released before their first album First and Last and Always came out, and already showed what doom and gloom the Sisters of Mercy had in store for us. The title track and Body Electric are the strongest songs on this EP, the B-side with Train and Afterhours are a bit too much adorned with sound effects, gloomy atmospheres and inertia.
By the time Jan got this album, I didn't feel the need for the overwhelming doom and gloom of the Sisters of Mercy anymore. Still, this is a strong compilation with a good selection of songs and a beautiful title. My favourite Sisters songs are the obvious ones: Alice, Floorshow, Heartland, Body Electric. As so many compilations, this one also has a few flaws: the inclusion of the Extended Version of Temple of Love, the ommission of the haunting and eerie Marianne (a song with the ability to ruin a good mood in less than a minute).
The Smashing Pumpkins By the time I had this album, I put it in the CD-player together with Mellon Collie, Pisces Iscariot and Siamese Dream, and played them for months and months on end, sometimes listening to album after album, most of the time listening to them at random. This album isn't as good as the aforementioned ones, but it does show the potential of the Pumpkins, and there are some excellent songs on it. Corgan still has to refine the art of writing strong lyrics, but he sure knows all about arrangements and there is some fine guitar-playing and drumming on this album. Gish opens on a strong note with the pounding and rocking I Am One, a combination of catchiness and Black Sabbath, if that's possible. Siva is another uptempo rocker, tight and precise and with a grande finale that rocks you off your socks. Rhinoceros is the masterpiece of this album... soft, gentle, psychedelic, dreamy, slightly oriental, but then slowly exploding into restrained rage, yet again very precise and tight. Bury Me sounds a bit more forced, but comes with a massive wall of sound and an incredibly strong and emotional outro. Crush is a beautiful ballad but it misses a certain something (does it need a bit more body?)... even though the lyrics are lovely: love comes in colors I can't deny... Suffer suffers a bit from the same vices, even though it has a little bit more body indeed, beautiful guitar-work, and one of those typical strong Pumpkins-outros. Snail starts very quietly, but soon becomes a strong song with an emotional chorus and once again a wall of guitars. Tristessa immediately goes to war with Billy Corgan's mean snarl and a vicious cooperation between drums and guitars, making it one of the highlights of the album. The transition into the soft and dreamy Window Paine is a bold one, and doesn't work too well as the song seems boring and pale after all the violence of Tristessa. Daydream is a hidden track, one of the few Smashing Pumpkins songs sung by bassist D'Arcy Wretzky.
Lull is sort of the companion of Gish, basically the Rhinoceros single upgraded to an EP by the addition of three extra tracks. Rhinoceros is the same version as on Gish, minus the noise at the end of the song. Blue has later been released on Pisces Iscariot, and is a great song with a terrific bass line and the typical tempo changes. The other two songs are the ones that make this EP worth getting, as they are harder to find. Slunk is an aggressive rocker with a melodic guitar line, Bye June its opposite being an acoustic song with only Billy Corgan and his guitar. This EP is short but good, and definitely worth its money.
The quintessential Smashing Pumpkins album, I guess. It took me no less than one year to go from Mellon Collie over Pisces Iscariot to this Siamese Dream, but by this time the love was profound and deep. Siamese Dream is incredibly tight and consistent, Butch Vig's production work is a terrific wall of sound, the guitar work is layered and pretty much amazing. The drum rolls with which Cherub Rock opens, create a feeling of promise or anticipation, a feeling that won't be disappointed. It explodes right into a wall of guitars and drums, combined with an utterly singable chorus (my now 7-year old daughter has been singing along to this song - her Pumpkin-favourite - for years). And I can't even begin to explain about all the little details that make my heart skip a beat when I listen really closely and concentratedly. Quiet is carried by the most powerful bass line you can imagine and is an all but quiet rocker with excellent guitar-playing and drumming. I've heard Today a bit too much, but it still has an achingly beautiful melody and a deceivingly jolly chorus. Hummer starts with dreamy sounds but then explodes into, again, an achingly beautiful meldody carried by, again, amazing guitar-playing. In this song it's also so clear how everything fits on this album, how all the pieces fit in, how there's not one single unnecessary note there. It sometimes nears perfection. Hummer ends with a soft piece on guitar, and goes right into the loud guitar melody of Rocket. Disarm is a disarmingly beautiful song with excellent string arrangement and orchestral chimes, and the poignancy continues with the tender intro of Soma, the masterpiece of Siamese Dream. Lulled to sleep by the restrained intro and first verses, its explosion of guitars rudely wakes you up to its beauty and makes you gasp for breath. And the circle is full with the soft and gentle outro. The foundations of Geek U.S.A. are a powerful bass line accompanied by incredibly tight guitar-playing. Chamberlin's drumming is breathtaking, it doesn't make part of the base track but is a level higher, just like the guitar-playing. The song is built around contrasts carried by the tight foundation, and seems to be 3 songs in 1. Mayonaise has, just like Soma, a gorgeous and gentle intro and outro, two guitars rubbing each other throughout the song, a staggeringly beautiful melody and strong lyrics. Spaceboy is poignant, with beautiful acoustic guitars and string arrangement. Silverfuck is a controversial song, some people think it saves an otherwise ordinary album, for others it's the one song they can't stand on a brilliant album... it's a long track, rich in contrast, with once again stunning guitar-playing and drumming. Sweet Sweet is a sweet (yes) and fluffy little ditty, a nice introduction to my own personal favourite song on this album: Luna. Soft, sweet, tender, a moonsong to sing for your babies. A beautiful way to end an incredibly good album.
Um yes, why the hell does one get this, as Cherub Rock can be found on Siamese Dream, and Pissant on Pisces Iscariot (and I already had that album when I bought this single). For the odd song French Movie Theme, I guess? And odd it is, a simple melody with acoustic guitar, piano, bass line and a bit of drums, and as only vocals la-la-la-la, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah and a bonjour every now and then. The song ends in a bar, where we can hear someone singing the American national anthem. Odd, but fun.
The second album of the Pumpkins that I got, and a bit of an odd choice since Siamese Dream and Gish were also available. It took me a while before I really listened to this album (it took me until Mellon Collie had sunk in), but now it's one of my favourite Smashing Pumpkins albums. This collection of B-sides and previously unreleased songs contains some true gems, and some of my favourite Smashing Pumpkins-songs ever. It starts softly with Corgan on acoustic guitar in Soothe, a song recorded in his bedroom (and you can hear the buses drive by). One of my favourite Pumpkins songs ever is Frail and Bedazzled... can't really explain why... the vehement rhythm track, Corgan's voice, the great guitar parts, the lyrics (stole my smile from a Cheshire cat), the typical loud-soft-loud-soft-loud grunge pattern taken to the extreme... the song breathes energy. Whir is melancholy and goosebumps all over, and the same goes for James Iha's Blew Away. And it goes back and forth between the extremes of loud and soft with the two explosions of guitars and energy Pissant and Hello Kitty Kat, followed by another pinnacle of melancholy and goosebumps Obscured, and the odd but beautiful cover of Fleetwood Mac's Landslide. Starla is another classical Smashing Pumpkins epos with beautiful guitarwork. There's another great contrast between the cover of the Animals' drug-filled A Girl Named Sandoz and the soft and flowing and melancholy La Dolly Vita. The album ends on a hazy note with Spaced.
Tonight, Tonight was my first (conscious) introduction to the Pumpkins... I still remember Chris Dusauchoit saying on Studio Brussel: 'Don't release a new single yet boys, this is too beautiful'. It took me ages to get into the album, the first few months I listened to the first CD, only after quite a while I started listening to the second CD. But when it had finally dawned on me how amazing it was, I couldn't let go anymore and completely surrendered to the Pumpkins. And now I remember that particular time in my 'Pumpkin-fandom' as one of the most beautiful: lying on the couch with my headphones on, listening to the music, reading the lyrics in the booklet, staring at the picture in the back of the booklet, not knowing who the people behind the faces were, not knowing about egos as big as apartment buildings, frictions within the band, drug abuse... and a bit later starting to discover the internet and the great Smashing Pumpkins sites with a plethora of information, rumours, lyric interpretations etc. It's hard to describe a sonic whirlwind like Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness... going from grand epics (Thru the Eyes of Ruby, Porcelina of the Vast Oceans) to goofy and experimental popsongs (Lily, My One and Only, We Only Come out at Night), from perfect pop (1979) to downright noise (Tales of a Scorched Earth). And between the opening title track, an almost classical instrumental on piano and synths, and closing track Farewell and Goodnight, a part-song of the four group members, there's another wide range of string-laden pop (Tonight, Tonight), rock pose (Here Is No Why), raging teenage angst (Jellybelly, Zero, Bullet with Butterfly Wings), soft melancholy (Galapogos, In the Arms of Sleep, Beautiful), and so much more. A Pumpkin classic.
Exactly the same single as the one in the The Aeroplane Flies High box, so I refer to that review.
Not much to say about this one, as everything that has to be said can be found in my review of the box set The Aeroplane Flies High, which contains a longer version of this single. Maybe I'll just mention that Jupiter's Lament is a beautiful, still, acoustic song; that the same goes for Blank with its beautiful lyrics; and that the artwork of this single is beautiful.
A beautiful box in the shape of a 45 single carrying case from the sixties, containing all 5 Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness singles, 33 songs in all: 28 b-sides from which 12 previously unreleased songs, and 5 cover songs only found in this box. The box also contains a 44-page book with photos, lyrics and complete discography. A must for every Smashing Pumpkins fan... so one day I came home with it as a present for my own mother's day... a gesture not much appreciated by the rest of the family. 
Most of the tracks were recorded during and after the Mellon Collie sessions, and some of the tracks included on this box set can easily stand next to the best material found on Mellon Collie. Disc one (Bullet with Butterfly Wings) is possibly the weakest disc of the set, with covers that show the Pumpkins' love for new wave, but they don't manage to do something interesting with the songs they cover. A Night Like This, one of my favourite Cure songs, has nothing of the emotionality of the original, Destination Unknown is plain boring... Clones (We're All) is the best shot on this disc. Said Sadly is a good James Iha song (if you like his style), but The Boy on second disc 1979 is its superior by far, a beautiful popsong with endearing lyrics. Two of the best tracks of this box (barring the singles, obviously) are on this disc: Cherry and Set the Ray to Jerry, both lush and relaxed and poignant, with excellent guitar-playing. Zero is filled with loud rocking songs, God full of contrasts, Mouths of Babes an instrumental nearing metal, followed suit by another instrumental Tribute to Johnny crammed with heavy but at the same time catchy guitar-riffs. Marquis in Spades is another loud rocker, followed by the only respite on this disc, the tender and melodious Pennies. It's only a bit of breathing space, to get ready for the more than 25 minutes long Pastichio Medley, an edit of jams, parts of songs and riffs, that surprisingly isn't boring at all, and even sounds like a song at times. Tonight, Tonight has the more poppy, often acoustic songs, like the sober Meladori Magpie, the very moving Rotten Apples drenched in a beautiful violin, Billy and his acoustic guitar in Blank (reminding very much of Soothe on Pisces Iscariot) and of course the acoustic version of Tonight, Tonight, Tonite Reprise. The last disc Thirty-Three has some of the most beautiful tracks of this box set: The Last Song with Billy Corgan's father on guitar in the outro, the powerful epic title track with its contrasts and excellent guitar-work, Transformer with its strong intro and riff, James Iha's intangible The Bells and the surprising cover of the 20's song My Blue Heaven. The Aeroplane Flies High is an essential addition to the collection of any Smashing Pumpkins-fan.
A CD-r with a series of originals of covers that the Pumpkins did over the years, either on albums or live. It's a wild variation of songs, going back as far as the 20's with George Whitling's My Blue Heaven performed by Gene Austin. There are some obvious influences on Corgan and the Pumpkins, like Thin Lizzy, Alice Cooper and Joy Division... but also a few less obvious ones like Depeche Mode or The Cure. Some of my favourite songs are songs that I first heard of when I heard the Pumpkin covers, like A Girl Named Sandoz by Eric Burdon & the Animals, and Fleetwood Mac's Landslide with goosebump-factor +20. It's fun to hear the Pumpkins version of The Cure's A Night Like This, but I still prefer this original version (one of my favourite Cure songs), Joy Division's Isolation on the other hand is a song that I enjoy in both versions. I'm not familiar with Vic Chestnutt's work, but this Sad Peter Pan is a beautiful song. A great compilation of very diverse songs, all held together by one pumpkin-coloured ribbon.
This allegedly is one of the best Smashing Pumpkin concerts of the Mellon collie and the Infinite Sadness era, and indeed this show rocks incredibly. The first part is a bit of a (high quality) warming up to that grande finale of The Aeroplane Flies High and the 25 minute long Silverfuck with teases and jams. Tonight, Tonight is closer to the album version, with the keyboards, where most versions I heard tended more towards rock with the guitars replacing the string arrangement of the album version. We get a frantic version of Cherub Rock and Where Boys Fear to Tread works out very well live, I like this more than the album version. Rhinoceros is excellent, and Zero has great guitars. Fuck You (an Ode to No One) is frantic once again, with cool improvisations and contrasts. Porcelina is brilliant, with a quite long tease of Rocket. Thirty-Three is played in a sober version with prominent piano and electronic rhythm track. This next song I wrote when I was twelve years old... It's kinda sad considering it's a really good song and I haven't written much better songs since I was twelve... But nonetheless it's a very good song... of course Billy Corgan is talking about 1979 here, with a beautiful acoustic guitar and keyboards. The funny intro of Bullet With Butterfly Wings gives a nice contrast with the angry vocals of Billy Corgan, in a fast version of the song with a great outro with a beautiful guitar. Next is a very powerful Muzzle, followed by Disarm with a beautiful intro on guitar, but further on a rather 'heavy' version. Thru the Eyes of Ruby gives goosebumps as always, with those staggeringly beautiful guitars. XYU is a steamroller, and then it's great to see one of my favourite Pumpkin songs included in the setlist, By Starlight, with that beautiful guitar in the background, the vocals that always move me... and that goosebumps outro... great version. Old-timer Siva has a scorching beginning and beautiful subtle guitars all the way through, in an 'extended version' with a long break in the middle. The Aeroplane Flies High - another one of my favourite Pumpkins songs - is played as tight as your arse and is mightily impressive. And then words fail for the final blow Silverfuck, a more than 25 minutes long epos in wich we're bombarded with improvisations and teases. If The Aeroplane Flies High was impressive, then what's this? 
And to recapitulate: this is a concert full of enthusiasm, energy and skill. Mind-blowing and mind-boggling.
The title of this CD-r says it all, I guess. And a beautiful CD it is. I'm not an obsessive collector of Pumpkin material by far, but it's great to hear alternative versions from the regular singles (like the excellent version of I Am One), and apart from the songs that can be found on the Smashing Pumpkins albums and the alternative versions, there are some true gems on this collection that I didn't have/hear before. My favourite track of this compilation is the very early My Dahlia, a pop song with a beautiful acoustic guitar and compelling vocals. Sun, from the same Light Into Dark LP, is a much rawer song with soaring guitars and that typical early Pumpkins sound. Another gem is the B-side Not Worth Asking, a song that goes together very well with My Dahlia, soft and tender but with bitter-sweet lyrics. Honeyspider is truly heartbreaking, with scorching guitars and soaring vocals. Terrapin is one of the odd tracks on the album, a cover from the shine on you crazy diamond Syd Barrett song, performed by James Iha, acoustic with Chamberlin on congas, and the band laughing through the song. Fun. The song is paired with that other odd, instrumental track Bullet Train to Osaka, one of those songs you'd never think the Pumpkins would do. Even more fun. And the fun isn't over yet, because we go right into the haunting Daughter, slow, emotional, staggeringly beautiful. Just listen to that guitar. Purr Snickety has that demo-feel with only Billy and his acoustic guitar, beautiful in the same way that Soothe and Blank are beautiful. The title track from Siamese Dream that wasn't actually on the album, is of a powerful simplicity, imperative and inescapable. Never Let Me Down is one of those gems, soft, gentle, restrained and collected. Honeyspider II is a softer and kinder version of the earlier Honeyspider. The collection ends with Infinite Sadness, a song with a very appropriate title, it makes me sad because of its prettiness.
After the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the Pumpkins allegedly were tired of playing rock music, and wanted to change their sound drastically. But it was also virtually impossible to play their grand, layered alt-prog-rock after the dismissal of Jimmy Chamberlin, whose drumming was an important part of their sound. So they shifted towards a more quiet sound, with lots of electronica and only a few strokes of electric guitars and drums. Adore opens with the still, predominantly acoustic and optimistic To Sheila. Ava Adore is the only song on this album that shamelessly reverts to the past, with loud guitars and vicious vocals. In the beginning it was my favourite song on the album, but I quickly grew tired of it. The only thing that now appeals to me in the song is the beautiful guitar solo. Perfect goes right back to the general atmosphere of Adore, with a bouncing electronic beat and echos of that other perfect electronic pop song 1979. Daphne Descends is a melancholy combination of electronics, electric guitars and languishing vocals, and a beautiful organ accompanies Corgan's tender lyrics and vocals in Once Upon a Time. Tear is one of the highlights of the album, with rolling and thundering drums and a gorgeous violin arrangement, and a beautiful contrast between the restraint in the verses and the drive in the choruses, and the on occasion despondent lyrics. Crestfallen leans heavily op a beautiful piano, and is followed suit by another highlight for me, the bouncy Appels + Oranjes, with beautiful what if... lyrics. Pug combines electronica and electric guitars perfectly, and thrives in an optimistic but at the same time melancholic atmophere. No electric guitars to be found in The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete, the tale is told through an electronic beat, an acoustic guitar and a wonderful melodic chorus. The only song on this album that I really don't like is Annie-Dog, because it has the awful combination of a bastardization of my name that I really hate, and a depressing atmosphere with vocals lacking any form of energy. But it is followed by a triad of the most beautiful songs on Adore: Shame, one of the most beautiful songs Corgan has every written, drenched in melancholy; Behold! The Night Mare with its soft verses and soaring chorus; and the mourning For Martha. Final songs are the sad and soft and delicate Blank Page and a 17 seconds long piece on piano, 17. Even though it sounds quite different from the earlier Smashing Pumpkins work (but not as different as a lot of fans claimed), Adore ranks among their best albums. They were slagged off for experimenting and taking risks, but the people slagging them off never took the trouble to listen to this album closely, as the beauty of this album is only revealed after a few listens, and then you realize it doesn't really sound that different from their other albums. The only thing I really miss on this album is Jimmy Chamberlin's drumming, that always added an extra touch to the music of the Smashing Pumpkins.
A recording of the concert in Holland that the Pumpkins did on their short European theatre tour for the promotion of the upcoming album Machina/The Machines of God, broadcast on the Dutch television. So I could hear what I had missed out on in Brussels, where the band quit playing after two songs, because Billy clearly had a troubles with his voice. Other than in Brussels, the concert starts out with the instrumental Pale Scales, and then launches straight into the overwhelming power of The Everlasting Gaze and Heavy Metal Machine. It's obvious that Billy's voice is back, but you can still hear it crack and it hurts the ear when you hear how the voice is being forced every now and then (If I die during this song, we loved you so much). The band plays tight, with an unleashed Jimmy Chamberlin back on drums. Surprisingly it's only during the first part of the concert that the emphasis is on the new material, later on we get a mix of old material and the odd Machina/The Machines of God song thrown in. Crowd pleasers like Zero, Cherub Rock (whoa!), Bullet with Butterfly Wings and 1979 are reviewed, and there is a frantic version of I Am One and a raw cover of Rock On by David Essex, a song that will stay in the Pumpkins' repertoire for quite a while. Quieter moments are when the Pumpkins fall back on Adore with To Sheila and The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete. Even though Corgan finds out his jokes do not translate very well into Dutch, a funny moment is when he messes up the lyrics of Tonight, Tonight and they just start all over again. The concerts ends very powerful with Glass' Theme, Bullet with Butterfly Wings, a ten minute long version of XYU and a final 9 minutes long jam. And oh yeah, there was something about James Iha eating a bad duck.
My feelings about this album are ambivalent. I didn't really like it when it was released, I didn't like the sound, the production, it sounded too harsh. But now, listening to it after I haven't played it for months, it does sound great, sometimes even fantastic. There's still a few songs I really can't stand... primarly the opener The Everlasting Gaze (even though I like parts of that song) and the very heavy Heavy Metal Machine. The most important reason why I really dislike those songs, is because they remind me too much of the ghastly live experience I had in the beautiful Royal Circus in Brussels on January 19th 2000... somehow that night got etched into my brains as one of the most unreal things that ever happened to me. The way the audience slunk off when they realized it was finished before it had really started, was just unreal, there's no other word for it. And now I've seen a few Pumpkins concerts, but there's still a feeling of disappointment about that evening, because the venue was one of the most wonderful theatres I've ever been in (for a rock concert), and it could have been very special. But, back to Machina (and to be honest, the whole symbolism of the artwork and lyrics is completely wasted on me), it starts on a bad note with a guitar sound that I don't like in The Everlasting Gaze, but the song has a good chorus. Raindrops + Sunshowers wouldn't have been out of place on Adore, a lively, upbeat and hopping song with lots of electronics, vaguely reminiscent of Appels + Oranjes. One of my favourite songs is the typical Pumpkins-lovesong Stand Inside Your Love with beautiful guitars, lyrics with a sharp edge and a scorching chorus. Radio/play my favourite song... I of the Mourning is sometimes on the verge of becoming too pathetic, but it's a beautiful and well-crafted song. The Sacred and Profane is another song that would have fit in well on Adore, especially the rhythm track makes me think of the songs on that album. Sometimes the song is a bit too long-winded, but once again it has a beautiful chorus, and a special atmosphere. Try, Try, Try is a soft and gentle song (with a shockingly realistic and revealing video), one of the best on this album, followed suit by the heavy beat and guitars of Heavy Metal Machine, what a contrast. A song I really dislike, not even saved by a beautiful chorus as usual. This Time... For every chemical/you trade a piece of your soul, meaningful lyrics embedded in a flowing song. Even though it's one of the heavier songs on the album, The Imploding Voice starts out sounding rather flat, the guitars having no trace of subtlety, but again the song is saved by its chorus. Glass and the Ghost Children is an epic in the tradition of Thru the Eyes of Ruby and Soma, but misses the qualities of those songs, as it fails to hold the attention until the very end, and doesn't manage to give me goosebumps or make me emotional. The Pumpkins go pop in The Crying Cree of Mercury, but the song sounds forced somewhat, especially Corgan's singing in the verses. With Every Light has a beautiful intro, but it's a bit too slow, a bit too tedious, and I find the guitar noise later on in the song sheer horror. Fortunately it's followed by the open and poppy Blue Skies Bring Tears, a song like a welcome breeze. Closer Age of Innocence is appropriately spacy and free-floating and meandering and dreamy... I really enjoyed listening to this album again, even though that didn't really come across in what I wrote. The album as a whole does work, after you've listened to it closely, put it aside for a while and then listen again. It was great to see Jimmy Chamberlin return to the Pumpkins for this album, his drumming is essential to the sound of the Smashing Pumpkins.
A promo CD released with the preorders of Machina/The Machines of God ('a special 5 track bonus CD from the pumpkins attic'), with previously unreleased tracks (Apathy's Last Kiss previously only available on vinyl). A fun CD with the beautiful, moody instrumental Hope, the electronic/acoustic Blissed and Gone with its open sound and beautiful instrumentation, the spooky Apathy's Last Kiss with a gyrating guitar, an excellent acoustic version of Mayonaise, and the electronic eighties sounds of Eye, a song from the Lost Highway soundtrack.
A 2-track CD-single worth more than its money, because of the little gem Speed Kills with the immortal line Speed kills/but beauty lives forever/Speed kills/but beauty knows your name, free-floating backing vocals, a beautiful melody, a slow and compelling rhythm track, a raw guitar line in the background... The last rose of summer is gone. And of course there's the A-side, the dramatic Machina track Stand Inside Your Love.
This was a terrible disappointment. The audio quality is magnificent (straight off the soundboard), but the performances are only mediocre. If I remember correctly, this sampler was not only put together by Eric Agnew, but also approved of by Billy Corgan, and I cannot understand that from the whole American leg of the Sacred + Profane Tour there weren't any better shows to choose from. What I miss here is vitality, emotions... the band sometimes plays pretty good, but there's no spark, no animation. 'Clean' is not the right word, because Corgan sometimes screams so excruciatingly that it hurts the ears. The absolute low for me is the almost unrecognizable cover of Talking Heads' Once in a Lifetime, I'm always in for a fun cover but this is absolutely no fun. The cover of Rock On (David Essex) on the other hand is always fun, if only for the lyrics Hey kids rock & roll, we gotta rock on... But as soon as The Everlasting Gaze starts, you hear something isn't right, it sounds flat and uninspired. Jimmy Chamberlin drums his socks off, but to no avail. The songs are being rushed through, rattled off. The beautiful Pug from the Adore album gets a heavy metal treatment, Glass and the Ghost Children is quite tolerable actually, as are Age of Innocence and I of the Mourning. Tonight, Tonight is played in the standard rock version. To Sheila is the pinnacle of the lack of animus, and seems to be played on speed. The only highlight of this CD is This Time, with just Billy Corgan on his acoustic guitar, and this time his heart really seems to be in the song. Beautiful. Snail also gets a proper rendition, but then it goes downhill with Fuck You (An Ode to No One) with some terrible vocal parts. That beautiful Raindrops + Sunshowers gets the same treatment as Pug, and its subtlety drowns in noise. I give up on the final trio Heavy Metal Machine, Bullet with Butterfly Wings and Once in a Lifetime, too much noise, too much screaming, too much too much. Shame.
MACHINA II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music is a limited pressing of 25 copies on hand-cut and hand-numbered vinyl, consisting of 3 10" EP's and a double 12" LP with 25 songs. The 25 copies were given to close friends of the band, who were asked to circulate the new material as quickly as possible, as the band planned to play some of the material on their upcoming European tour, and they wanted the fans to know the material. It was also intended as a 'final farewell to the fans, and a middle finger to the label that lost interest and wouldn't give them the support they deserved'. My copy comes from the NSPN tree, and is a remaster of the Q101 rip. The production sounds a bit muddled sometimes, but it doesn't stand in the way of the songs, and overall this album is much better than the official Machina/The Machines of God. Let's start with the bad things: I do detect some stinkers here and there... I hate the James Brown cover Soul Power with a passion, for example. Heavy Metal Machine was one of my least favourite songs on Machina I, and the Version 1 Alternate Mix with a lisp isn't any better. But there are some unwordly beautiful songs on this album. If There Is a God (piano and voice) is one of them, a beautiful simple and sober less-is-more song with Billy Corgan on piano. I prefer Try (version 1) over the Machina I version, because of its simplicity and gentleness, and that nice synth line. Despite the distortion, Real Love has got the most wonderful melody I've heard in ages, the song makes me weak and warm. Let Me Give the World to You sounds gleefully optimistic and heart-warming. The frantic version of Blue Skies Bring Tears (Version Electrique here) is good fun in all its differentness, and the other version of If There Is a God, with full band, is beautiful in its noisiness. The 'feel' of this album reminds me of Pisces Iscariot (both collections of outtakes and alternate versions have the continuity and flow of a regular album), and it seems to span different Pumpkin eras, as some songs refer back to the Pisces Iscariot/Mellon Collie era (especially Real Love, also Home and Innosense), others refer back to the Adore-era (James Iha's Go), and others are full-blown Machina (like White Spider, Cash Car Star and Glass). In a nutshell: Machina II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music was a tremendous final statement and the perfect gift to the fans.
A radio show broadcast on the Dutch radio station KinkFM on September 12th 2000, exactly one week after the release of Machina II/The Friends and Enemies of Music. So it was decided to make time to air that album, in a 'world premiere' in The Netherlands, and much to the approval of Billy Corgan. Other than that, this radio show offers an overview of the career of the Smashing Pumpkins, with a carefully chosen collection of album tracks, B-sides, rarities, tracks from some soundtracks the Pumpkins contributed to, and heaps of interesting live recordings. Lots of them of course recorded in the Netherlands, but also one from allegedly the best Pumpkin concert ever (Vancouver 97), and some very early recordings. And of course it's also fun to hear Sven's heavy Dutch accent (Roel's words, not mine), Jeroen's perfect DJ skills and, last but not least, the KinkFM girl saying 'de Smassin Pumpkins' all of the time. Great stuff.
Pretty decent audience recording of the Dutch show of the final European tour of the Smashing Pumpkins, a show that I also attended. A good concert, but nothing more than that. I had expected a bit more from the Pumpkins for their final shows, a bit more fun, more surprises. But that's not to say it was a bad show as such. The first part of the set was acoustic, not all the fans appreciated that but I liked it, especially the contributions of Mike Garson stick to my mind. After 6 songs they switched to the rock outfit, and crowdpleasers (Disarm, Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Cherub Rock) were alternated with more unfamiliar songs like the ones from Machina II/Friends and Enemies of Modern Music, the album that had been handed over to a few friends and fans, and had been circulated via the internet only. Not surprisingly, the set ended with 1979.
Again a pretty decent audience recording of the second show of the last Pumpkins European show that I attended, in the acoustic hell Flanders Expo in my hometown Gent. All in all a better show than in Rotterdam, with the same pattern: starting with a few acoustic songs, and then the rest of the show with the full band. In the month between Rotterdam and Gent the setlist had undergone a few changes (in the encores), and the version of Porcelina was much better and longer. Corgan rates the Europeans fans (the Belgians are the best of course), reports that his great-grandmother was from Belgium, and apologizes for the show in Brussels (that was cut short owing to illness) and the show ends with 1979.
Like so many Greatest Hits albums, this Smashing Pumpkins compilation has its pros and cons. To get the cons out of the way first: there is always something missing, and there are always unwanted extras. What struck me immediately as a missing item, was I Am One. At the expense of... I don't know? Eye maybe? Or The Everlasting Gaze? And another odd dropped song is The End Is the Beginning Is the End from the Batman & Robin soundtrack. As for the bonus CD, I find it terribly annoying that so much material from the The Aeroplane Flies High box set is included, even though these all are quality songs. And my main issue with it: why was that godawful Rock On included? There must be a wealth of great unknown Smashing Pumpkins material out there, why choose this? Oh well. The pros then, and of course there's plenty of them too. The Greatest Hits offers a great overview of the career of the Pumpkins, and when you listen to all these songs at once, you realize what a diversity of styles they have played, and how it all seamlessly coheres. Killer riff Siva -> slowly climaxing Rhinocerous -> melancholy Drown - > merciless wall of sound Cherub Rock - stimulating Today - poignant Disarm - hard rock Bullet with Butterfly Wings -> retro 1979 - metal Zero - lush orchestral Tonight, Tonight -> dubby Eye -> dance beat Ava Adore - soft and sweet Perfect -> distorted The Everlasting Gaze -> hearbreaking Stand Inside Your Love -> sad Try, Try, Try -> roaring dream pop Real Love -> catchy pop Untitled... it all melds together perfectly. And this compilation has done the impossible for me: it has revived my love for Today, a song I couldn't stand anymore after hearing it everywhere. The bonus B-sides album then, on a CD which looks so much like a CD-r, that it confused a lot of people. Opens with the splitting Lucky 13 from Machina II, to move in the droning and flowing epic Aeroplane Flies High. The melancholic Because You Are is an Adore outtake that sounds nothing like the other material on that album, the muffled Slow Dawn is another track from Machina II, Believe is a James Iha track from the TAFH box. My Mistake is another Adore outtake, a beautiful melodic melancholic piano song. Marquis in Spades is a killer riff from the TAFH box, Here's to the Atom Bomb a track with droning guitars from the Machina II album. Sparrow is an acoustic track that isn't available elsewhere, and the same goes for the electronic and soft Waiting. Saturnine and Rock On are the Beauty and the Beast from Machina II, Set the Ray to Jerry is an excellent choice from the TAFH box. Winterlong and Soot and Stars are two excellent, intimate, introspective songs also not available anywhere else. The B-sides collection ends with Blissed and Gone, another intimate, slow and sad song. Rotten Apples/Judas O. isn't a missed opportunity by far, but it isn't the perfect Smashing Pumpkins compilation either.
Elliott Smith This album was heavily recommended to me, and it should really be my cup of tea, but I just don't get it, can't get into it. Dreamy pop music, soft and sensitive voice, beautiful melodies, melancholy all over the place... things I usually really like, but the music on this album rolls off me like water off a duck's back. And now that I'm listening back to it, it just remains the same. Somtimes it works to put an album aside for a while, but not this time. It just lacks something for me, enthusiasm maybe? Beautiful songs, but a bit background music... not too much that gets my attention. Ballad of Big Nothing is one of the few songs that strikes a chord with me, with its beautiful chorus. Picture of Me is pretty upbeat, No Name No.5 sounds pleasantly Beck-ish in his Mutations days. Angeles is spooky, atmospheric and short. But overall I get easily bored by the conformity on this album, enhanced by Smith's limited whiserping voice.
Patti Smith This album had a tremendous influence on me. My sister bought it when I was a 10 or 11 year old kid, and after a while I knew it like the back of my hand. Not that I really understood what it was all about, but I loved it very much. So now I finally decided it was time to get the CD myself, and to dive back into the album and my childhood. The big hit of Easter is of course Because the Night, but I don't think it's the greatest song on this album. Easter is an attempt of Patti Smith to find a compromise between art, poetry, rock and commerce, a compromise that has turned out amazingly well. The album, partly because that Because the Night, is the best selling album of the Patti Smith Group, and has a few very commercial moments, but on the other hand also dark and sometimes provocative songs. Jimmy Iovine's production is clear and spacious and gives all credit to the dynamics of the band, Jay Dee Daugherty's effective drumming, the addition of new band member Bruce Brody's keyboards, the sometimes eerie and spooky backing vocals and of course Smith's powerful and raw voice. The record opens with the pure energy of Till Victory with its powerful tempo changes, and then the tempo changes drastically into the scary and intense Space Monkey. Because the Night is a bit of an outsider on this album to me, because of its superhit-status. Ghost Dance is an escalating chant, sometimes as scary and certainly as intense as Space Moneky. The rant Babelogue goes straight into the provocative and controversial Rock n Roll Nigger with a beautiful piano and a vicious Lenny Kaye. My favourite song on this album is Privilege (Set Me Free), a song that gives me goosebumps... Because I can't really describe it, i'll quote Dave Marsh from the April 10, 1978 issue of Rolling Stone: "from the movie Privilege. In that film Paul Jones (Manfred Mann's first lead singer) is seen as a caged rock star, manipulated by a totalitarian establishment, the pawn of both church and state. This is a perfect allegory of the current condition of rock & roll as it becomes just another adjunct of show business; if this is how Smith sees the dilemma of the contemporary rock star, she really is the mother of punk rock." And it's followed by yet another gem, the poignant We Three, simple, classic, heart-rending. 25th Floor is pure rock n roll energy, loud and clear and rebellious, going right over in the chaos and nervousness of High on Rebellion. Final track is the title track Easter (or that's what I remember from my childhood, as the bonus track Godspeed wasn't on the vinyl back at that time), yet another haunting track, this time with bells and keyboards in a prominent position, right next to Smith's vocals. I'll conclude with another quote from the review of Dave Marsh from the April 10, 1978 issue of Rolling Stone: "[...] the magic of Easter is undeniable. It is transcendent and fulfilled, and its radiance must be honored. No one else could have made this record--something that can't be said of most LPs--and for a special reason: no one else in rock & roll would have the nerve to connect Lou Reed, the Bible, Rimbaud, the Paiutes, Jim Morrison, Bruce Springsteen and the MC5. I don't suppose Patti Smith can walk on water. But I'd like to see her try."
Patti Smith's last album before her retreat from the music industry doesn't have the overall quality of say Horses or Easter, but it does hold a few highlights that make it worth buying. One of them is one of her most beautiful songs ever, the powerful but subdued Dancing Barefoot, followed immediately by a good cover of the Byrds song So You Want to Be (A Rock 'N' Roll Star). A song that has the power to make me cry is Revenge with its beautiful guitar and organ intro. Title track Wave is a strong closer of the album, but the other material lacks strength (Frederick could have been a beautiful song but lacks something), and the bonus tracks are rather redundant.
Got this for old times' sake, and because I liked People Have the Power. But it's clear that this Patti Smith of the 80's is not the Patti Smith Group of the 70's. The sharp edges are gone, the Group has gone (and has mainly been replaced by her husband Fred 'Sonic' Smith), the fire has gone. All that has been replaced by inner calm, lullabies, a more mainstream and polished sound. People Have the Power still is a powerful and good song (R.E.M. still covers it live), and Patti Smith will always be an icon of American music, but this comeback just wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. And it is really short, 8 songs, which I always find disappointing taking into consideration how much music can fit on a CD (but the tracklist of my CD differs greatly from the one i can find on the All Music Guide). Going Under just murmurs on without much excitement, just like the lullaby for her son The Jackson Song (but of course, it's a lullaby, I can hear you say). Up There Down There sounds alarmingly mainstream with only a vague reminder of the Rock Goddess of Horses, and Looking for You (I Was) suffers from the same vice. The only highlights are the inspired title track, and the tender Paths that Cross with its magnificent intro. But overall this album is quite disappointing.
The Smithereens Got to know The Smithereens by their radio-hits In a Lonely Place and Blood and Roses, and this album was a very good purchase. The combination of Pat DiNizio's warm voice, his great sense for melody, his beautiful melancholic lyrics, the (forgive me the word) Beatle-esque backing vocals, the perfect production work of Don Dixon (the man from the fun radio-hit Praying Mantis, who could be found anywhere at that time), the warm sound of the album, makes it a joy to listen to. Despite its sad lyrics, a song like Listen to Me Girl makes me smile because of its beautiful melody. There are no minus points on this album, even though I tend to find the more upbeat and joyful songs like Groovy Tuesday slightly less good than the others. Cigarette is beautiful and sad and simple and sober with a legato rhythm and a prominent accordeon, a highlight for sure. The influence of Don Dixon and Los Lobos is very clear in Time and Time Again, but The Smithereens keep their own identity. Side 2 of the album starts out with a trio of winners: the powerful and poignant Behind the Wall of Sleep (with excellent drumming), the duet with a young Suzanne Vega In a Lonely Place (is it possible not to cry when you hear this?), and yet another powerful and poignant song, Blood and Roses (with excellent guitar-work). But that certainly doesn't mean that the album ends on a low, the remaining trio is excellent too, with the tender but bouncing Crazy Mixed-up Kid, the rocking Hand of Glory with a lovely Hammond-line, and the melancholy of Alone at Midnight. The Smithereens made a great debut with this album, which doesn't sound outdated after 15 years. I find their later work a bit disappointing, it doesn't sound as crisp and fresh and clear in their quest for success.
The Smiths After seeing Johnny Marr playing together with Neil Finn at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London and the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, and hearing How Soon Is Now and There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, it was high time to expand my Smiths-collection a bit more, and finally getting that superb How Soon Is Now. So I ventured out and came home with this nice price collection of singles, rarities and radio sessions. With old time favourites like How Soon Is Now (yes, of course I mention it again! Those guitars make my heart ache, that's how beautiful they are), What Difference Does It Make (from a BBC Radio 1 John Peel Show, and a good version it is), This Charming Man (also John Peel, different session, it's astonishing how good this band plays live), Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (single version, beautiful intro) and others... There were also songs that were hidden deep in some forgotten room in my brains, like the very very beautiful Reel Around the Fountain, and These Things Take Time. And some gems that I first discovered here, like This Night Has Opened My Eyes, both Hand in Glove (or was this also in a backroom in my head?) and Still Ill with Johnny Marr on mouth organ, a sober Accept Yourself, Girl Afraid with those typical Johnny Marr guitars, and the acoustic Back to the Old House. Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want is a staggeringly beautiful hence appropriate closer of this excellent collection.
Curiously, I somehow managed to buy that one Smiths-album that isn't as good as the others... how do I always manage to do this kind of thing? Later CD-releases have that super-magnificent single How Soon Is Now? (my favourite Smiths-song ever) thrown in somewhere in the middle of the album, but my vinyl-release has to do without it, which makes the album even more bland. True enough, there are some very good songs here: the opener The Headmaster Ritual for example, with beautifully jangling guitars and Morrissey's typical la-la-la-la-la-la-la-y-eh whine, the poppy I Want the One I Can't Have (those guitars! that rhythm!), and of course That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, slow, haunting and sad. But the B-side is enough to make you weep... nothing to be found there to get excited over. I should have gotten The Queen Is Dead instead.
The Sneaky Feelings Hm, very long time ago that I listened to this, stems from that period that I was obsessed with Australian and New Zealand music (which I've still got a crush for). Lovely pop music with beautiful guitars and great lyrics, with clear influences of The Beach Boys and The Beatles. And now that I listen to this again, I can tell that The Mutton Birds also listened closely to the Sneaky Feelings. Title track Husband House is a well-crafted ballad, The Strange and Conflicting Feelings of Separation and Betrayal is poppier and simpler, a straight pop song with a beautiful Hammond organ. Major Barbara is a bit a combination of both previous songs, and has echos of the early Chills songs. The Dunedin sound, yes.
Something Happens The radio-hits Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, (Petrol) and Parachute convinced me to buy this album, which turned out to be one of my favourite singalong-albums. Great pop music, perfect melodies, good voices... what more does a girl want? Remember that great pop song Parachute? Starting with just a piano and vocals, then backing vocals, then an acoustic guitar, then bass, and then the full band jumps in (or off)... take your parachute and go... maybe come back tomorrow... if the winds don't catch you... I will... and this album is filled with beautiful pop songs like this. There's that beautiful, oh so sad, slightly bitter ballad Kill the Roses, that bouncing Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, (Petrol) (the (Petrol) was added to the title because the band realized they were quite influenced by the band That Petrol Emotion), the slow and beautiful and eerie yet powerful I Feel Good, the acoustic and sober Skyrockets... lots of other good songs, but I'll limit myself to my favourite song on this album, the song about a lost love Room 29, built up with a soft tension and with gorgeous vocals. Heart-breaking. It was special yeah... it was great. Oh, and I have to mention The Patience Business with that cute line Sitting on my hands to stop myself exploding (yeh)... yeh indeed! Stuck Together with God's Glue hasn't been in my CD-player for a long time, but that was really unrighteous... it deserves a spin every now and then, just to remember how beautiful it is. Something Great, Something Wonderful, and Something Happening!
Soulwax My favourite band from Gent... but even though their debut album shows that they have a lot of potential, it doesn't always come out. Producer Chris Goss (Queens of the Stone Age, Masters of Reality, Kyuss...) did notice the qualities of this band, and made a start with what would later become their crystal-clear sound, sense of melodies and combination of beautiful pop and energetic rock. There are too many songs on this album that don't leave a long-lasting impression, but still it's worth getting for those few gems that really stand out. Songs in the first category are Soul Simplicity (bland and boring), Spending the Afternoon in a Slowly Revolvin' Door and everything that comes after it. And, on a side-note, I hate those tracks hidden after minutes and minutes and minutes of silence. Songs that float somewhere in-between those two categories are Great Continental Suicide Note, (beautiful intro/boring song), Rooster (good song but too long-winded), Tales of a Dead Scene (nice but not more than that), Hammer & Tongues (great chorus, the rest of the song is trifling). But, the gems are true gems. First of all there's Caramel, a delicate song with sparse instrumentation (drums, bass, acoustic guitar, those beautiful violins, and later on some disturbing synthesizers), one of the best Soulwax-songs ever with beautiful vocals. Next is Kill Your Darlings, a frantic rocker with razor-sharp guitars, a thundering rhytm-section and a mind-blowing chorus. And there's also Reruns (Daisy Duke), another frantic rocker with the same attributes as Kill Your Darlings. With Leave the Story Untold Soulwax isn't there yet, but they clearly show that they have got more in store.
The sons of Zaki on the heels of Soundgarden and Beck, according to the Belgian Pop and Rock Archive. And yes, I agree. I love this album to pieces, have listened to it over and over, and I'm still not tired of it. Dave Sardy (Barmarket, The Dandy Warhols (woohoo!), System of a Down, Marilyn Manson) did an excellent job on this album, it's one of the most terrific sounding albums I have ever heard. Crystal-clear, open, fresh... it blares out of the speakers. The artwork of the album is also wonderful, looking like a 45rpm single, and all the lyrics inside the booklet are printed on different 45rpm singles. Soulwax has moved on enormously since Leave the Story Untold, they make their music more varied and playful by incorporating beats and loops and (more) strings, going back and forth between melancholy and just plain fun. Melancholy all over the place in The Salty Knowledge of Tears, with the lyrics Just shut your mouth and kiss me, just close your eyes, you punish yourself with a handkerchief, I don't reply which always send shivers down my spine. And Wings with more shiver-producing lyrics: If love ever comes barging in like that again... that's it... I'm calling security. Together with More Than This (my motto, there has to be more than this), these three really are the corkers on this album, the triumvirate of melancholy. Beauty, thrice repeated. Next to the utter melancholy of these songs, there's the sense of perspective of the Fucking Dewaele Brothers in Too Many DJ's (I'll keep quoting lyrics: If only I could sell myself/ The way that even I would buy, and You answer "I love you" with "I know") linked with the fun of a human beatbox and a roaring rhythm track. Speaking of roaring, that is an adjective that certainly is applicable for the title track, one of the most rocking songs on the album. And to keep this short, I won't go on about each and every song on the album, I'll just mention there is not one minus point to be found on Much Against Everyone's Advice.
Inconsequent as I am, I put this bonus CD that came with Much Against Everyone's Advice separetely, while I usually don't do this here. But this is a lot of fun... nothing really world-shattering, just good fun. Because it's great to see one of your favourite bands cover your favourite songs from the eighties... I was delighted with the cover of Prince's Starfish & Coffee on this album. And it's fun to hear Soulwax's version of Nik Kershaw's Wouldn't It Be Good here, even though it's not that great a cover. It took me a long time to get used to the cover of the Pretenders' I Go to Sleep, but now I'm at peace with it. The addition of live-staple Cut Some Slack (with the notorious Backstreet boys pastiche) is a great asset, which makes this bonus CD worthwile. Minus point is that I've heard better versions and remixes of some of the songs on this album elsewhere... I'd rather have seen Saturday (Meets Billy Jean) here than Saturday (Morning After Thrill), even though that version ain't that bad either. The live version of Overweight Karate Kid is a bit redundant. Both versions of Conversation Intercom are good (the stripped-down live version with only vocals and piano, and the amusing Vocoder Intermix), and Mike Rule Joe Cream Mix is fun for the pun (hm...), and not too bad a remix.
Soundgarden Whoa. As so many people, it was Black Hole Sun that introduced me to Soundgarden, and that made me buy this album at a certain point. It took me quite a while to get used to the rest of Superunknown, for a long time the sound was too metallic, certain songs way to hard, Cornell's wail too hard-rocky for the liking of this pop-girl. But I persevered, stubborn as I am, and now it's in my list of favourite albums, and after all these years and the demise of grunge it still sounds fresh and up-to-date. And now I'm a tiny bit in love with Cornell's warm voice. If money weren't an issue, I'd get more Soundgarden albums, and certainly some of Cornell's solo stuff. Anyway. This album can be seen as a hard rock magnum opus (did anyone mention Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin?), a grunge magnum opus, a psychedelica magnum opus... whatever. The point is that it radiates something... at the same time warmth and chilliness, the same contrasting way Cornell's voice alternates between a warm bariton and a high-pitched wail. The music and lyrics are dark, but also sometimes heartwarming in a strange way. The album breathes maturity. Matt Cameron's drumming sometimes explodes from your speakers (as in Fell on Black Days), Kim Thayill's guitar-playing is excellent and varied, plays a leading part right next to Chris Cornell's vocals. The singles are an excellent introduction when you're not familiar with the album, Black Hole Sun with its beautiful arrangement and its almost pop-feeling was a well-deserved hit and almost but not completely played to death on the radio, Fell on Black Days (my favourite on this album) is dark but uplifting at the same time because of the perfect drumming, the excellent guitar-playing and Cornell's warm voice, Spoonman goes more toward the hard rock side of the album but has a lot of weird effects, including a spoon solo. And then it's time to discover the other gems on the album... The intro with goosebump factor 10 of The Day I Tried to Live, the spookiness and the perfect hard rock chorus of Limo Wreck, the gloom and tardiness and coercion of 4th of July, the similar emotions of Mailman, the excellent guitars and the drive of the title track, the poppiness and disturbingly beautiful guitars and vocals of Head Down. And last but not least, the chilling Like Suicide. A beautiful, disturbing, confusing, warm, mature album full of contrasts.
Spandau Ballet On the debut of the Spandaus the seeds of what they're to become later are already there, but Journeys to Glory sounds very different than True. Less polished, more daring, it's more dance-pop than the streamlined pop they will play on True. The album isn't of constant quality either, it has a peaks, but also a few low points. Peaks are the energetic To Cut a Long Story Short and of course Muscle Bound, some sort of marching song with a great structure. Other good songs are The Freeze and Toys, but the other material sinks into oblivion.
On their journey to glory, Spandau Ballet refine and improve their formula on Diamond. Opener Chant No. 1 is the outsider here, referring back to Muscle Bound on Journeys to Glory, a nice piece of dance-pop, and immediately the highlight on this album. Diamond has less ups and downs than the debut, but the overall quality of the songs is less, so I'm not sure if that is a good thing. Songs worth mentioning are the lush She Loves Like Diamond, and the fairly strange Pharaoh.
Oh yes, when I was fifteen years old, I fell completely for the New Romantics of Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and the lot... the glamour and glitter, the beautiful clothes, the make-up... and the music I guess. Right now it is hard not to completely run these albums in the ground, it's undeniable that there's some good things to be found here, but I can't say I appreciate this anymore. Especially this album, the most polished and slick and clean of the three Spandau Ballet albums I have. Title track True may be too sugary (and I will always see Tony Hadley singing with his little little finger up in the air), still it's a well-crafted and very effective ballad. From the 8 songs on the album, 4 were released as singles, and all of them were big hits. There was the aforementioned True which was the massive breakthrough of Spandau Ballet, Gold, Communication and Lifeline, three songs that were more upbeat. The other songs on the album are comparable, and almost of the same quality.
Sparklehorse If there is something I find in Sparklehorse's It's a Wonderful Life, then it's solace in my time of need. And if Mark Linkous can live with everything he went through, so can I. The best word I can find for this album is 'endearing'... a weird yet beautiful album about dogs, horses, birds, babies, nails and circus people with hairy little hands. The album opens sleepily with the title track (and mission statement) It's a Beautiful Life, a dreamy and tender song with birds singing in the background. Gold Days wakes up us sleepy birds and children with good morning my child/stay with me a while and the sound of cooing pigeons and a soft and tender Nina Phersson. Now we're wide awake and ready for Piano Fire, featuring Polly Jean Harvey on backing vocals, a rocking and fuzzy, sad yet comforting song. I'm not a PJ fan, but here she goes straight to my heart. Sea of Teeth drowns in uneasy sadness, slow and dragging. Nina Phersson and a warm guitar shine in Apple Bed, in which Mark Linkous gets even with his paralysis. King of Nails is poppy like Piano Fire, with fuzzy guitars, a sluggish rhtythm and a relaxed chorus. Eyepennies is another sad song of comfort, featuring Harvey once more in a heartbreaking chorus. One of the highlights of the album. Dog Door with Tom Waits seems a bit lost here, it could easily fit in on one of his own albums like Rain Dogs or Frank's Wild Years. More Yellow Birds is filled with beautiful guitars, melancholy, ponies and violins; Little Fat Baby has a lovely contrast between melancholy and wryly funny lyrics. Comfort Me has yet another fine contrast between a prominent drummachine and beautiful steel guitars, and is the perfect comfort song alright. Babies in the Sun is a strange, monotonuous, fascinating song with lots of sound effects. All that is left over is a hidden bonus track, another compelling slow song with Nina Phersson on backing vocals. If only Life were as Wonderful as this album.
Split Enz I must have heard different versions of most of the songs on this album first, which may be the reason why I'll probably never get used to this debut of Split Enz. It's a bit of a complicated story (as always, when you're talking about Split Enz), but in short this album was re-recorded later, with Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music) as producer, and that's the sound I'm used to. Not that this is so much worse (I do like Stranger than Fiction and Time for a Change quite a lot here), but it all sounds more muffled, less exciting, more guitar-oriented, less crystal-clear. But Mental Notes features quite a few Split Enz classics: Walking Down a Road, Under the Wheel, Stranger than Fiction/Time for a Change, Titus, Spellbound; quite an impressive list for a debut album. Phil Judd's songwriting was quite dominant on this album, and that is probably why it's one of the most deviant and slightly warped Split Enz albums of all times. For me it's good fun, but it misses that little bit of extra, the goosebump factor.
I probably was a bit confused when I wrote the review for Mental Notes because yes of course, I heard different versions of most songs of that album first... the versions from this album, and from the Chrysalis The Beginning of the Enz. On Second Thoughts you find quite a few songs of Mental Notes, re-recorded in England with Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music). These versions have more body, rock more and louder than the earlier versions, and I like them much more, but that is maybe because I heard them first this way. And when I listen to this album, I am once again blown away by the power of these songs. Underneath the layers of eccentricity and theatricality there are perfect popsongs, with a high singalong and dance factor. The album features some of the early Split Enz classics, like Matinee Idyll, Walking Down a Road and the Siamese twins Stranger Than Fiction and Time for a Change, and a few newer songs (Late Last Night and The Woman Who Loves You - with spoon solo). At this time there still was Phil Judd on vocals on the odd song (Titus, Sweet Dreams), which may be an asset for some, but I prefer the more powerful Tim Finn. Sweet Dreams is a beautiful song though. Second Thoughts is a gem.
Dizrythmia is a big departure from Mental Notes both for the sound as for the songs. Geoff Emerick's production sounds clear and exciting, not as muffled as the sound on Mental Notes. Tim Finn has taken over most of the songwriting duties from Phil Judd, which results in shorter, more straightforward songs, leaving behind the classical influences and arrangements. Sugar and Spice, the only song that Judd wrote on his own, is by far the strangest song on Dizrythmia. But that doesn't mean that all the weirdness has left Split Enz, Bold as Brass and Crosswords are still funnily eccentric, Charlie is beautifully disturbed, Without a Doubt is a beauty of a song without a doubt. Group collaboration Jamboree is a closer in true odd Split Enz style.
This was the second Split Enz album I got, after listening and surrendering to Conflicting Emotions. And, dear god, it was a shock. What a difference... how this band had changed in less than 10 years. Later I heard this wasn't really a good album to get, as it was a combination of two different albums (Mental Notes and Dizrythmia) to be released overseas, still, when I got used to this, I really liked it. And it was a good introduction to the early work of Split Enz. Nothing but good songs here, in all their weirdness, overflowing with energy, sometimes extremely poignant, sometimes very witty, always with a special atmosphere. The high point may be Stranger than Fiction paired perfectly with Time for a Change, a chilling co-operation between Phil Judd and Tim Finn in which they complement each other perfectly. A true classic is Charley, another sad song that sends chills down your spine, which Tim Finn still performs live in this new century. Another Great Divide has a gorgeous melody, and great lyrics... perfect pop with an edge about an unreachable love. My Mistake is a funny song about how things can go wrong in love, and could easily feature on True Colours, a catchy pop song. Crosswords is very poppy too, yet sounds very different, more early Enzish with a fantastic rhythm section. Bold as Brass moves a bit more in the direction of the weird and eccentric Enz, but never moves away from well-crafted pop music.
Writing letters to my friends, telling them all about Split Ends... classic and heartwarming line from the first single Split Ends, when the band was still called Split Ends, and perfect opener for this compilation of songs and demos recorded between 1972 and 1975. The era indicates that Phil Judd's contribution to the songs is significant, in songwriting as well as in singing (and a weird voice he has). The first three songs immediately are the best to be found on the CD, the poppy and sweet Split Ends, the beautiful intro and harmonies and wryness of For You, and the bounciness of 129 (the early version of Matinee Idyll). Home Sweet Home is filled with melancholy, Sweet Talking Spoon Song (eat your heart out, Soundgarden) is a funny little ditty, and the album also features early versions of Lovey Dovey and Spellbound (with spooky intro). Split Enz is a band that regularly dives into their archives to release early/obsure material, and this album is a good example, worth getting.
Split Enz's quintessential new wave album. A huge departure from the earlier Split Enz, that weird band with their funny costumes and strange songs. The first album that lets Neil Finn's skill in songwriting shine, resulting in the hit I Got You, simple, catchy, contagious. Even though he's a bit ashamed of the lyrics now (Look at you/You're a pagean has him wondering what he meant with pagean). True Colours is filled with quirky 3-minute songs with witty and sarcastic lyrics (the funny Neil & Tim duet What's the Matter With You, the amusingly self-depreciatory Nobody Takes Me Seriously), but also offers more contemplative moments in the haunting ballad I Hope I Never or the ironically sour Missing Person. The raging Shark Attack and the more melancholy Poor Boy are peaks in Tim Finn's songwriting, who still is the driving spirit behind Split Enz at this point in time. The album also features two instrumental tracks, Double Happy and The Choral Sea, written by Eddie Rayner. They are energetic, fascinating, not interrupting the feel and sense of melody of True Colours, throbbing and pulsating retro dance music. Even though they have shed their striking costumes, hairdos and make-up, the keyboard-driven new wave/pop/rock of Split Enz still proved a bit too odd for the broad public. But, years later, I Got You is etched in the brains of a good deal of music lovers after all, and it appears that Split Enz was quite influential for a lot of well-known bands.
Definitely worth getting on CD. Got this from an expat in New Zealand. I miss the laser-etched vinyl though, that had a special feel to it. The cover has different colours too, but that doesn't show in my scans as I don't feel like putting lots of effort in scanning vinyl album covers.
Found this for 1 Pound in a second hand shop in London (actually Jen found it for me), in pretty good shape. Waiata is the Maori word for party, and was released in Australia under the title Corroboree, the Australian aboriginal word for party, and was, like its predecessor True Colours, released in different coloured covers. Waiata sounds a bit like True Colours too, but darker and not of the same constant quality. It shows the progression of Neil Finn as a songwriter in One Step Ahead and History Never Repeats, and that Tim also can pen a good tune (Hard Act to Follow and Ghost Girl). But some songs on the album should better be forgotten (Iris tends to get on the nerves, Walking Through Ruins sounds alarmingly like prog-rock sometimes). Just like True Colours, Waiata offers two instrumental tracks written by Eddie Rayner, Wail and Albert of India, the first being a track in the tradition of the instrumentals on True Colours, and the second one more classically inspired.
Split Enz moves towards a more polished sound, and that tends to irritate me. But, the good thing is that there are so many songs on Time and Tide that are truly very good. It starts right away with Dirty Creature, in which Tim Finn drives out his devils and fears. But it's a good example of how this album sounds: too polished, and not adventurous at all. This is one of the songs that sounds way better live. Next are Giant Heartbeat and Hello Sandy Allen, showing how Neil Finn starts to churn out melodious and catchy songs, the first being a dark and slow song, the latter a bit of a novelty about meeting the tallest woman in the world, a rocking song with an extremely catchy chorus. Never Ceases to Amaze Me is one of those songs that irritates me (and sounds quite a lot like Tim's later solo work), it's light and fluffy, but the song is saved by yet another catchy chorus. Lost for Words has a line in the lyrics that describes the song perfectly: Hop, skip and jump like a kangaroo. Same story as for Never Ceases to Amaze Me: the song is too light but is saved by a good chorus. Small World has a bit more body, but still isn't good enough to be a classic song. Take a Walk is another example of how Neil Finn writes catchy songs with a beautiful melody and a strong chorus, a song that stood the test of time. Pioneer is an Eddie Rayner instrumental, always played together with Six Months in a Leaky Boat, that Split Enz classic that marked the beginning of the end of the Enz (it was released at the time of the Falklands war, and BBC banned it because they found it inappropriate, even though the song had nothing whatsoever to do with the Falklands war). Haul Away is the best Tim Finn song on this album, a sober, folkish, autobiographical song. Log Cabin Fever is a very dark Neil Finn song with claustrophobic lyrics, giving us an indication of the direction he would take with Crowded House. Make Sense of It is a great closer of the album, reminding vaguely of the earlier, quirky and eccentric Split Enz. A good album with great songs, sometimes ruined a bit by a sound that is too slick.
Little did I know, as a 16 year old girl back in 1984, that the Finns would have such an impact on my life. The young Studio Brussel introduced me to the achingly beautiful lovesong Message to My Girl, which was, is and will be a classic. And the purchase of this album was the start of a long journey through the music of the Finns and company, and their New Zealand and Australian contemporaries and followers. If there's anything bad to be said about Conflicting Emotions, then it's about the production. Back in 1984 it sounded okay, but now it sounds dated, overdone, cheesy even. A typical eighties sound. But underneath the layers of synthesizers, drum machines and polish, the quality of the songs is undeniable. There's of course Message to My Girl, but there's a few songs that can stand right next to it. There's Neil Finn's The Devil You Know, a song that still lives among the fanbase as much as Message to My Girl does, a strong ballad with a beautiful melody. And Our Day, a song with a beautiful structure about Neil's approaching fatherhood with very touching lyrics (and it's great to see Liam as a 17-year old now playing his own music...). Bon Voyage is a very poignant song by Tim Finn about departing and farewells, which can be seen either about the end of a relationship, but also about his impending departure from his band. The title track Conflicting Emotions, quite strange and beautifully sung, is about the same theme of tensions within the band. The upbeat and uptempo songs (Strait Old Line, Working Up an Appetite, No Mischief) suffer the most from the vices of Hugh Padgham's production, Bullet Brain and Cactus Head is even really over the edge. But, when you remove all the fringes, there still are good songs. And despite the fact that I sometimes cringe while listening to Conflicting Emotions and I tend to skip certain tracks, this still is one of my favourite albums. For sentimental or emotional reasons maybe, but what the heck.
Got this in a trade. Some vinyls are worth being replaced by a CD...
I can't remember what prompted me to buy this compilation, I think it must have had to do with seeing it at the record store and wanting it just to have that beautiful Message to My Girl on CD. But it appeared to be an excellent (further) introduction to the frenz that is the Enz, as at that time I only had a few Split Enz records. The selection of songs on this album is excellent, going from the very early songs like Titus and Matinee Idyll over the new wave songs like I Got You to the song that meant the beginning of the end Six Months in a Leaky Boat and the beautiful ballad Message to My Girl, hence demonstrating the transition of the Enz from art-rock over new wave to pop music. Pointing out highlights on this compilation is a hopeless task, as it just goes from one gem to another. The melancholy mandolin intro of Titus, the brilliant oddness of Late Last Night, Matinee Idyll and Lovey Dovey, the despair of Time for a Change and Charley, the energy of Crosswords, the outright beauty both in melody and lyrics of Another Great Divide, the boldness of Bold as Brass, the wry humour of My Mistake, the vigour of I See Red, the clear poppiness of I Got You, the fluency and melancholy of One Step Ahead and History Never Repeats, the quirkiness of Six Months in a Leaky Boat and the perfect pop of Message to My Girl... all those songs are little gems, and this compilation definitely is highly recommended.
What's bad about this live album? The fact that it's quite obvious that the applause has been added later. What's good about this live album? Everything else. It was recorded in New Zealand during Split Enz's 20th anniversary tour in 1993, and breathes energy and playing pleasure. It has a good selection of songs, with the earlier and sometimes more obscure material like Split Ends and Best Friend, a few songs that work out excellently live like Hermit Mc Dermitt (with a Relax tease thrown in), Dirty Creature, Poor Boy and Shark Attack, the bigger hits like Six Months in a Leaky Boat and Message to My Girl. Must not go by unrecorded: Eddie Rayner's excellent keyboard-playing throughout the album, the fine shape Tim's voice is in, a beautiful Years Go By, the bouncy Split Ends, an at times spooky version of Charley, a heartwarmingly frenzied version of History Never Repeats, a staggeringly beautiful Time for a Change, the verse of the song True Colours before What's the Matter with You (from what Tim calls the cult album True Colours). Shame about that applause though.
Squeeze A nice little album filled with pop music that sometimes nears perfection. Not always, but taking into account that this is only the second album of a very young band, I am absolutely happy to settle for a few songs close to perfection, and a few in the category 'fillers'. The opener Slap and Tickle gives the album a great start with an excellent keyboard arrangement, funny and somewhat suggestive lyrics (something that comes back regularly on this album), fantastic vocals... Unfortunately the album collapses a bit after this song, as Revue is good but not of the same quality, Touching me Touching You is a bit trite, It's Not Cricket lacks persuasion in the vocals, and It's so Dirty misses any form of maturity. But the album picks up by the time we hit The Knack, the song is dark and it's theme is much more mature. Hop, Skip and Jump is a Jools Holland song, an uptempo, upbeat song with a convinced Jools Holland on piano and vocals. The following Up the Junction is one of the better known songs on the album, a song full of melancholy with a beautiful and simple arrangement. The contrast with the following, explicit Hard to Find couldn't be bigger, but at least now the songs remain consistent in quality, the song thrives on a pumping beat and an energetic piano. Then we dive straight back into melancholy with Slightly Drunk, with great drumming, a beautiful melody, Squeeze pop at its best. Goodbye Girl is completely different, more synthesizer oriented, but also with a great melody. Maybe this would work better with a beautiful guitar line instead of the penetrating synth line. And of course there's that closer of the album, the utterly cool Cool for Cats, a Squeeze classic of exceptional stature. There's some true pop gems on this album, and a few lesser moments, but overall Cool for Cats is an album to cherish.
Stereo MC's The Stereo MC's in the making. Good grooves, the sexy (but younger) voice of His Ugliness Rob Birch, but there still is plenty of room for improvement. It all sounds rougher, the songs aren't that good yet, the whole album doesn't sound as mature as Connected or even Supernatural does. Not exactly an album I listen to on a regular basis.
Gosh, it's kinda hard to write anything meaningful about these early Stereo MC's albums. Got them because I really really dug Connected, and when you listen to Supernatural it all sounds quite similar, the only thing you don't hear is a song that you recognize from the radio, as the Stereo MC's only received cirtical acclaim and extensive airplay after releasing single and album Connected. Still, Supernatural sounds as good as Connected, with great beats, loops, samples... the production sounds clear and open, the instrumentation varied. What attracts the attention most though, is Rob Birch's voice: relaxed, smooth, sometimes mean, a great rapper with a cool British accent. I can't really point out any highlights on the album, as for me it's just one chain of good, relaxed and relaxing, catchy rap and dance tunes.
An album with lots of memories, I listened to it a lot when I was expecting my daughter. One memory is etched in my brains: I must have been about 7 or 8 months pregnant, rode home from work on my bike on a very bad day with lots of wind and pouring rain, and came home all wet and angry. Put on Connected and soaked with my big belly in a hot tub with the music very loud... sheer delight. And, now that the daughter in question is no longer in my belly but big 8 year old girl, I still like this album a lot. Relaxed groovy trip-hoppy dance music with a sexy voice and great female backing choirs. The stand-outs are of course the two well-known singles, that lush aaah-aaah-aaah-aaah Connected and Step It Up which is at the same time relaxed and energetic. Other favourites are Creation with that great sample at the end of the song and the funny lyrics, the slow and simple All Night Long, the uplifting Ground Level, and the very relaxed Chicken Shake (the song doesn't sound anything like the title suggests).
Stereophonics Jasper Steverlinck - Steven & Stijn Kolacny Rod StewartOuch. Um. Yes. Well, please forgive me, I got this when i was 14 or so. Hm... that's not really a good excuse. Oh well, back then, Stewart was still tolerable... well at least before Da Ya Think I'm Sexy, and I think that was earlier than 1983, I'm just trying to talk myself out of this. But seriously (hm, isn't that a Phil Collins album title?), there's some good songs on this double live album (just can't think of any right now). And the cover art is awful. Geez. Next.
St. Germain Lounge music to chill to. Great stuff, but nothing that really makes me excited, it's just good background music for me. Tourist is a fun and clever blend of acid jazz, blues, latin rhythms, hip-hop, house, techno, beats, loops, grooves, samples, moods and atmospheres. The best songs are the ones with the most remarkable samples: opener Rose Rouge with that Marlena Shaw vocal sample I want you to get together/Put your hands together one time and a beautiful piano line and rhythm track; and Sure Thing, built around a vocal and guitar sample from John Lee Hooker. Montego Bay Spleen has a little dub touch to it, and a beautiful guitar. The flute in So Flute sounds pleasantly rough and rasping, and the song floats on an irresistible beat. A classy sounding album with a musician who definitely knows how to gather the ideal musicians, samples, moods and grooves and add them up to a consistent and flowing album.
The Stooges A very intense and loud album, that is somtimes too loud for me. In the beginning it's still okay, I like the rock sound of Down on the Street, and in Loose I can even detect a great chorus, but from then on it's downhill for me, too much screaming, too much noise. There are very clear parallels between The Stooges and the Australian godfathers of punk Radio Birdman, but I prefer Radio Birdman, with their incorporation of an element of blues and pop in their music. Deniz Tek's warm voice also gives Radio Birdman that little bit of extra, whereas I don't really like Iggy Pop's voice. But that of course is all very personal.
The Style Council Got this in a second-hand record store in London. As the title indicates, Here's Some That Got Away is a compilation of rarities, B-sides and album tracks. And that may be the reason why the album doesn't grab me at all, there isn't one single song on it that I knew beforehand, and I seem to have no references to get into the album. Good songs, nice stuff, nothing really irritating (even though the slick sound is a bit too much here and there), but it just doesn't click with me. Entirely my fault, though.
Sugar As a big Hüsker Dü fan, this album really was my cup of tea. At the time of Hüsker Dü I had a light preference for Grant Hart's songs (I think mainly because I liked his voice better), but I changed my mind after hearing If I Can't Change Your Mind and this album. There is music that is so good that it cheers you up, that even makes you laugh out loud from sheer pleasure, and If I Can't Change Your Mind is one of those songs that has that power, with its beautiful melody, powerful lyrics, terrific acoustic guitar and Beatle-esque backing vocals. And if it doesn't make me laugh, it makes me cry sort of happily. Another song that has that power, is Hoover Dam, a song with an intro reminding me of Grant Hart, a marvellous vocal part, beautiful synths and acoustic guitars. Fortune Teller is almost in the same league, the beginning isn't as good as those other songs, but it rallies in the magnificent chorus. Another highlight is the ode to the Pixies (or Pixies-pastiche, depends how you look at it), with great guitars and bass-line. Other very good songs are Changes, Helpless, and the very melancholic The Slim. But there isn't one song on this album that isn't good.
The Sugarcubes Got this from a friend. A nice box with 6 early Sugarcubes CD-singles in brightly-coloured sleeves. More a thingummy than something I listen to regularly, even though I'm really happy to have my favourite Sugarcubes-songs on CD: the icy Birthday with beautiful rolling drums and a howling Björk, and most of all Deus, the song that introduced me to the Sugarcubes, back in 1988 on VPRO radio, with a sometimes weirdly chirping Björk and the here restraint but often redundant and irritating Einar Orn Benediktsson. I haven't listened to the rest of this box set enough to really be able to judge, but 4 stars for those songs and the nice packaging.
The Sundays I'm very picky when it comes to female singers, but Harriet Wheeler from the Sundays definitely is in my list of female voices I like (joining Liz Fraser, Kim Deal, Björk, Neneh Cherry and a few others), a warm, ethereal, fragile and vulnerable voice. When I first heard Can't Be Sure on the radio, I was completely sold and just had to get this album. And I wasn't disappointed, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic is full of subdued and senstive songs. Can't Be Sure, a song with beautiful guitars and drums, and most of all a perfect structure, definitely is one of the peaks, but more gems can stand next to that song. You're Not the Only One I Know is one of them, a song with sweet-sour lyrics and the frosty voice of Harriet Wheeler, or the slightly funny but just as much sweet-sour I Kicked a Boy. Or the opener Skin and Bones with its stunning guitars, or that other beautiful single Here's Where the Story Ends. Acutally it's easier to indicate the minus points, because there's only one: Hideous Towns, an uninspired song in which Wheeler clearly forces her voice. A debut of high quality, that the Sundays unfortunately never managed to equal.
Supergrass Glorious debut album of the youngsters of Supergrass, bouncing, energetic, brutal, exuberant, infectious and upbeat. The kids throw in all kinds of influences, very varied yet limited to British music, including David Bowie, Blur, the Buzzcocks, Madness, the Clash, the Beatles and what have you. It starts ebulliently with I'd Like to Know, to go on on the same note with one of the highlights of the album, the jumpy Caught by the Fuzz, and still we're not tired, we rave on with Mansize Rooster. Then the piano of the teenage anthem Alright starts, and you bet we're alright with this pop gem. Lose It has a gritty and distorted vocal, Lenny a gritty and heavy beat. Strange One is strange indeed with a weird intro, but after that the song is the pinnacle of Britpop. Then we seem to slow down with Sitting Up Straight, but that's an illusion, after a quiet intro an energetic song kicks in anyway. She's So Loose features the famous howl of Gaz Coombes, We're Not Supposed to is a funny little ditty with voices on helium. Time gives a bit of breathing space with a more slow and bluesy beat, Sofa (of My Lethargy) leans heavily on the Beatles in their psychedelic period. Time to Go finds Supergrass in a contemplative mood, a beautiful popsong with lovely acoustic guitars. A great debut with not one moment of weakness.
Even though it's more fancy to say that In It for the Money isn't as good as their debut album, I love this one to pieces and it's my favourite Supergrass album. It always gives me a boost of energy, lots of the songs make me smile and dance, I find it an exciting and stimulating album. Got it in a second-hand store in London together with a disgraceful heap of other albums, and this one appeared to be my favourite album of the bunch of CD's I then bought. Supergrass have clearly matured since I Should Coco, which means they've often slowed down the songs, added more instruments (horns, organs, more varied guitar-playing) and their songs are deeper and more introspective. But that doesn't mean that there aren't any raging songs here: listen to Richard III and you think you're listening to I Should Coco. Or Sun Hits the Sky, that energy bomb with thundering drums, great guitars, fantastic backing vocals and terrific instrumental breaks, most notably that insane synth solo. A song I cannot sit still to. Cheapskate is a bit quieter, but also bouncy and energetic, with a fantastic rhythm and a loud chorus. But apart from all this energy, there's some startlingly beautiful songs on In It for the Money... first of all It's Not Me, a song that makes me shiver, with beautiful acoustic guitars and a hammond and a penetrating synth and a poignant chorus. And Hollow Little Reign, a song leaning on a piano and a strong rhythm guitar, prominent vocals and ooooooooh beautiful backing vocals. And the powerful, mantra-ish opener and title track In It for the Money, repetitive and psychedelic and convinced. And Late in the Day, with vague echos of Major Tom in the beginning, a clear and open and sober song, with once again a moving chorus. And then there's also the stomping and humorous closer Sometimes I Make You Mad, which moves us in yet another direction. Supergrass clearly have given up some of their brutality, but they gained maturity instead, and remain as convincing as on I Should Coco.
Swans I can't remember why I got this maxi-single. The Swans definitely were very influential when it came to noise and industrial, and I did listen to Belgian bands like Front 242 and Neon Judgement every now and then, so maybe that was the reason, as those bands seem to have listened to the Swans too. Very repetitive industrial dance music, with violent lyrics and a gritty voice on Time Is Money, a slow piano in the low registers with lots of industrial noises on a droning beat and rhythm track on Sealed in Skin, and the Bastard remix of Time Is Money with slowed down and threatening vocals. And now that I listen back to this after many many years, I clearly hear the influence this band had on, say, Nine Inch Nails and lots of others.
David SylvianBack to homepage; Back to general music page; Go to R; Go to T